Dennis Hopper

Legends never die.

Jones & Laughlins Pocket Steel Guide

Picked up a curious little book at the SOWA vintage market. The guide describes itself as useful information for business men, mechanics and engineers. The original version was published in 1898 but the copy I have was revised in 1901. The first half of the book is dedicated to engineering problems related to iron work. It has charts that cover all the sizes and tolerances of the available steel stock. It then goes on to a short section on power transmission, covering bearings, pulleys, belts, and ropes. It contains guides for building with concrete and wood and even earthen structures. There are full tables of sines, cosines and other trigonometry.

The most interesting things I found are at the end of the guide and are not directly engineering related. Because the guide is so old is has information on forms of measure that are specific to every country. For example a Belgian foot or "elle" is 39.371 inches. There is a guide to measure based on Bible values. A chart for calculating the area of a circle, and a chart for calculating interest are included. A standard army ration is outlined and there is a section dedicated to treating common injuries. The amount of information is amazing for such a tiny little book. For size reference the book is 3.5" by 2.25" and clocks in at 498 pages.

U.S. population as of 1890 census

Standard ration for the Army

How to splint an leg

Little history of the U.S. flag

Bible weights and measures

Corona Lighter

Picked up this handy little guy a couple of weeks back at what I consider Bostons best vintage store and arguably one of the countries best vintage stores, Bobby From Boston. The lighter is made by the IM Corona corporation who according to most sites I've found has been around since 1933 and makes very popular cigar lighters. Unfortunately couldn't find much more information on the company other than that. I also could find no information on the lighter I purchased.

The lighter I bought appears to be a pretty standard imitation of the Zippo windproof lighter, it however has a trick up its sleeve. Instead of having an empty bottom shell, a small tailors measuring tape has been installed, making this lighter very useful.

Budington Press

Back home from the sailing trip. Had a great time and great weather the entire time. I'll get into the trip more in another post.

Before I left I visited the opening day of South End Open Market here in Boston. The start of the market was even better this year than last. It was nice too see it moved to a street that really puts in in the center of all of the galleries. Got to get some fresh baked bread and other delicious local foods. The vintage market is always my favorite parts and there was lot more large furniture this year than compared to last. Definitley cool to see.

One of the vendors that caught my eye while I was there was Budington Press. The company is run by Elizabeth Budington, who collects turn of the century plate glass negatives. The booth they had set up was selling a number of prints from her amazing collection of negatives. Check out their site to see more of the collection.