In the late 1940’s, Detroit based Fruehauf Trailer Company’s Chief Engineer Keith Tantlinger developed a new semi-trailer design that has since been copied by every trailer manufacturer throughout the world. Prior to this, the semi-trailer van body was basically a covered box mounted on a heavy chassis that took the weight. Fruehauf introduced an Read More
The Caterpillar Track Story We have all read that the caterpillar track came from Holt who later merged with Best to form the Caterpillar Co. of Peoria. Holt had been experimenting with a chain track design in the first decade of the 1900’s. What is not so well known is that in Grantham, England, the Read More
Logos before Political Correctness The city of Brantford sits just across the River Grand in Southern Ontario from the extensive Six Nations Iroquois reserve, one of the largest first nations reserve in Canada. One of the major manufacturers in the city was the Brantford Coach and Body Ltd, one of Canada’s largest semi trailer manufacturers. Read More
Last week, I drove to Kippen, some 40 miles north of London, Ontario where the Sad Iron Engine Show was having its annual get together. Turning into the driveway of this lovely farm, its location marked by an old engine at the entrance, I drove through into a grassed parking area. As I climbed out Read More
The Koehring Waterous Co. of Brantford, (formerly Waterous Engine Works. Ltd.), had been a major manufacturer of sawmill and wood processing equipment since the mid 1800’s, with such products as de-barkers, shredders and grinders for wood pulping, From the mid 1960’s, they remade the company into a manufacturer of large self-propelled wood harvesters, introducing the Read More
As a boy growing up during World War Two in the east of England, we saw many things that at the time we did not consider important, but looking back to that time, we now realise would never be repeated. The British government, during the first years of the war, saw the need for bomber Read More
Canadian Plowing Engines As the far western part of Canada began to be settled by immigrant farmers, the task of opening up the land to arable condition was a huge challenge. The smallest property sold for this purpose consisted of a quarter section, about one half mile square, approximately 160 acres. The hard ground, Read More
Like many, I love to wander around the steam shows looking over the frequent displays of venerable old Ruston and Hornsby horizontal diesel engines, many thousands of which were built and shipped to all corners of the world in the first half of the twentieth century. I ‘m always fascinated by the smoothness with which they Read More
Over the last century, great steps forward have been made in the working conditions in factories. In the latter part of the 1800’s, safety concerns were virtually non existent with hazards like high speed belts and pulleys all over the place, no ear, hand or eye protection and poor heating in winter. In one of Read More
As a kid growing up on a farm in England in the early 1940’s, one of our chores before leaving for school each morning was to fill a 100 gallon tank with water using a hand pump that drew water from a well. You know how many pumps that took? My father would then Read More
