Old Tech thread

[Dave]

Clarkes sold shoes (well, children's shoes anyway) in different widths (expressed by a letter) as well as lengths (expressed by the usual number) but I'm not sure if they still do. So, that machine might have actually worked. When I buy shoes, it isn't just the size (length) that matters but the width and shape of the shoe. I find that even if there is plenty of toe room, they can often be tight at the sides.

Measuring never helped me much and still doesn't; I have always had a full size difference between my feet.

It isn't uncommon to have one foot bigger than the other, but they don't allow you to buy odd sizes. You would need to buy both sets.

 

[Pyan]

At least it was safer than the now-notorious child's shoe-fitting x-ray machine...

Shoe-fitting fluoroscope - Wikipedia

 

[Pyan]

1927 Shelvoke & Drewry Freighter Refuse Collection Vehicle:

 

[Pyan]

Indoor chemical toilet, 1917.

 

[Pyan]

Or how about a 1957 General Electric fridge-freezer?

 

[farntfar]

You can have it in any colour you like, as long as it's pink.

 

[Pyan]

1950s Citroen U55 Currus Cityrama tour bus...

 

[Pyan]

Building the Paris Metro - c1900.

​

 

[dask]

 

[Pyan]

The first pocket camera?

 

[Pyan]

 

[dask]

 

[Pyan]

Gyroscopically balanced monorail, Brennan and Scherl, 1907.

 

[Pyan]

The New York Central Streamliner ‘Mercury’ passes Syracuse City Hall (New York), 1936.

 

[dask]

 

[Ursa major]

The New York Central Streamliner ‘Mercury’ passes Syracuse City Hall (New York), 1936.

View attachment 114792​

The three Mercury trains (and a fourth one that was a Mercury train in all but name) did not serve any city in New York State, so this is a picture of the first of them on its 1936 publicity tour of the New York Central (NYC) system. The ceremony to name the train was in Indianapolis, from where it then headed for New York City.

Given the evidence in the photograph (Syracuse City Hall had a square tower at its southwest corner, and much shorter round "towers" at the other three corners), the train is travelling west (on tracks that are no longer there**), so it's likely returning from New York City (where it was displayed at Grand Central Station for two days).


** - If one goes to the NYC railroad's Wikipedia article, there's a map of the system. One can zoom in to, say, Syracuse, NY and see that one or more people have gone to the bother of mapping the former railroad onto the (current day) map of the city, showing that the NYC tracks ran east-west along East Washington Street, with the town call to its north (between Montgomery Street and Market Street).

 

[Ursa major]

View attachment 114793

That looks as if it might be a little bit unhealthy for the smokers... but presumably, once the cigarettes are lit, that problem would be solved....

 

[dask]

There must be a better way.

 

[Pyan]

 

[dask]

Where’s the screen? That little disc?