Happy 2009! Okay so it's nearly March already.

As the subject line suggests, I haven't posted here for a while. The day job (which is designing and developing online courses for the USPS' training center in Norman, OK) has been extremely busy so my blogging, along with quite a few other aspects of my life outside work, has been somewhat... spotty.

However, with spring nearly in the air (although this morning was a bit chilly in the mid-20's), that energy is moving again and I'm ready to hit the ground running.

Well, I will be after I get a few more latte's in my system.

What's new with Rosie? Well... She has a huge stack of items to photograph and list on Bonanzle and eBay, and those include:

• Quite a few linear feet of industrial technical manuals from the early 1900s to the sixties...
• Some "garage sale" style stuff, including a Yamaha electronic keyboard with low mileage (not a full keyboard but one that has some pretty nice samples... would be a great gift for the budding soundtrack composer in your life)...
• A Sony Mavica "vintage" camera that is a bit long in the tooth but still perfectly good for those online auction photos...
  
• Another Pentax (less long in the tooth) digital camera that doesn't want to work well but would be great for parts...
• More slightly off the beaten path books from Rosie's own collection of somewhat metaphysical items of exploration-past
• Maybe just maybe a print from Art Spiegelman (if Rosie can figure out how to list it, as it's a limited MAUS serigraph that's just frankly not for everyone... remember the MAUS graphic novel covers?)
• And a bunch more industrial ephemera...
• And some interesting hand stamps (metalworking supplies) from the 40's or thereabouts.

So, as you can see, My Alter-Ego Rosie has her work cut out for her. (or would have, if she had a CNC plasma cutter! *kidding.)

As the title says, happy 2009, hope yours is going as well as mine, keeping busy and out of trouble!

And a great program for those who want a kick in the seat of the pants to reach their goals:

Vintage Whimsy - The Mystic Bubble Maker

Once upon a time, probably in the early 1940's, a company called the Secaucus Machine Works (of Secaucus, NJ), using a little blower fan from the HEINZE Co, manufactured a little machine called the Mystic Bubble Maker.

This is the predecessor of the modern bubble makers used by DJs, clowns and other party entertainment folks. Imagine this scenario: Walking into a movie theater in the 1940's...
in the middle of World War II... getting seated and watching the newsreels, the serials, and relaxing in the fantastic atmosphere while bubbles float out over the audience and the music from the Mighty Wurlitzer Theater Organ sets the mood. Pure escapism.

Our Rosie does not remember that scene, but her grandparents probably do, and her mother might.

So, when Rust brought by the little Mystic, with its eye bolts on top that secured it to the ceiling in the theater, and its round bubble making wheel, oiled the fan motor and mixed up a nice little solution of dish soap and water, plugged the Mystic in, for a little while Rosie could indeed imagine herself back in one of those dark, cool theaters.

Proof that while not all of the industry produced in America during the great industrial era of the 30's and 40's was serious, it was indeed worthwhile.

Watching those iridescent bubbles rise on the air is magic, and Mystic, indeed.

Wishing a wonderful weekend. It's a lovely day in Norman, Oklahoma and Rosie's gonna make the most of it.

US Industry after World War II

This particular blog article is not a comprehensive history of post-WWII industry; it's Rosie's opinion, based on what she has gleaned from the industrial ephemera, advertising brochures, data sheets, etcetera from that period of time.

After the war, our focus was back on progress and building. The forces were back from the war, many of the women went back to their previous roles as homemakers and men returned to their factory jobs. The baby boom was about to happen, the United States was prosperous, and people had money to spend on things they both needed and wanted.

Technology was changing the way machines worked. Precision was ... well ... getting more precise. The designs of machinery began to get less ornate, less curvy, and more purely functional. The use of sheet metal to enclose machines instead of using huge cast iron made the industrial machines look more modern, less decorative.

The first image is the 6x18 from the 40's... note the curvy lines and robust frame.

The second image is from the 50's... It's essentially the same machine, but look at the difference in design.

The world of business for manufacturers was changing (in some ways paralleling the changes in design): Of course, companies had always merged with other companies, been bought out, or otherwise changed their focus of business. In the 1950's, however, the rise of huge multinational corporations began, with smaller manufacturers being bought and sold... mergers and acquisitions changed the face of industry.

And the market changed, as well. As time went on, many companies were no longer manufacturing their machines in the US at all... it had become economically attractive to manufacture the machine overseas, sell it to a middleman in another country that had attractively low taxes; and finally resell the machine here. As a result, those workers who once had secure jobs could no longer count on staying in the same company until they retired.

So... the smaller shops, just like a tool and die making facility that much of Rosie's industrial ephemera came from, finally closed their doors for good, sold off what they could of their machinery and scrapped the rest (or left it sitting - as many of the machines were enormous and could not be removed easily).

Rosie would argue that this kind of progress might have even killed off much of America's innovation... had it not been for the huge leaps made in technology. It did indeed nearly kill off the kind of industrial manufacturing that was so important during the second World War, and as a result today there are a mere fraction of the manufacturers that once thrived. The world of US industry is quite a different place than it was a mere 40 or 50 years ago.

So, it is encouraging to see the kind of industry that is still thriving. Next blog post will be a little about a few of the companies that still exist, their histories, and what they're doing now. Behind this link is a look by Tom Murphy at one of those companies.

Ephemera - Rosie's smiling about this article.

A brief midweek post:

Last week, a new online friend, Tom Murphy, wrote a guest blog article (about none other than about yours truly) for this site: ephemera: exploring the world of old paper. This article is just wonderful, and the ephemera blog has a wealth of information.

Thanks Tom...

--Rosie

Rosie Riveter - A little background

First, a note: My use of Rosie as both an alter-ego and an icon are in no way connected with the vice presidential campaign (for me, that particular use of the image just doesn't work...) and I've been using Rosie as an icon for some time. My use of the image in no way is to be taken as an endorsement of any candidate. My political views aren't going to be expressed in this post, other than to say I don't want my blog to be associated with that particular campaign in any way.)

That disclaimer aside: The topic of this particular blog is American industry during World War II.
During the second world war, industry across the world did some remarkable things: Not only did the American wartime industry work together, sharing technology, in order to create what was needed for the war effort; industry worldwide also called upon women, who up to this time had been expected to be mothers and homemakers, to step in and do the work that had been done by men, before those men entered the armed services and the war.

In the US, that was where the image of Rosie the Riveter began: A government campaign urged women to take up these industrial production jobs and the posters that were circulated contained various images of a character, and that character was Rosie. (There is a wealth of information out there about this fictional character, who was apparently based on a real factory worker. I won't go into the story here, but instead provide a link to the history of Rosie.)

The first part, how US industry worked together and shared technology, is probably the most remarkable thing of all. Imagine, say, Apple and Microsoft freely sharing their code, their product design, and their engineering, in an effort to make products... you'll get a feeling for why this sharing of technology was special.

Of course, industrialists are always interested in making money from what they manufacture, and many of the big industries at the time were making lots of money... and not all industrialists of the day were heroic figures, but they did pull together for the war effort. That's something that we can be pretty proud of. And a lot of the industrial ephemera of the time reflects that mood of cooperation, of working together for a common goal.

Here are a couple examples of Wartime literature that this Rosie found interesting:

These are Hoof Governor brochures from WWII. Governors were installed on vehicles during this time in an effort to conserve gasoline (they governed the top speed at which a vehicle would operate). It's an interesting example of how rationing and government-enacted regulations actually created a market for a product that would help companies and individuals conserve resources. (click on the image for a larger view).

Next blog: What happened to US industry after the war.

Why do people collect paper?

This blog contains a good explanation of why.

I'm sometimes staggered by the amount a certain old machine catalog fetches. Like the recent sale of the DeVlieg Jigmil catalog on my eBay site. Mind you, this looks like it was a bidding war... but why do folks bid items up... this is like things "used to be"...

Well... If you read yesterday's blog post here, you know that there are old machines out there, in small shops or owned by individuals. The manufacturers have long-since discontinued printing the manuals and paper information about these machines, and in most cases the machines are simply no longer being produced... so the owners of these machines must look for resources of information elsewhere.

Fortunately for these owners, a few packrats (this is not used in a pejorative sense) ... like me & my buddy Rust ... have salvaged the paper.

So, when the owner goes looking for something that might help him or her to identify parts, accessories, and generally figure out how the heck these things work, an original resource like the catalog above can be a godsend.

Pretty neat deal for everyone concerned. (and Rosie's certainly not going to complain, if she can make some machine owner, shop owner, or collector happy!)

Now... back to the business of getting these items out where those folks can find 'em!

Have a wonderful Autumn Sunday!

South Bend. Yowza!

The South Bend lathe toolpost sets went at prices beyond my wildest dreams. The reason for the frenzy? Well... as Rosie's pal Rust sees it, there are quite a few folks out there who own South Bend lathes and, due to the sad fact that there are pretty much no more machine factories out there in our wide United States, parts and pieces and accessories like these toolposts are hard to come by.

This is kind of alarming to Rosie, as she envisions a country full of small independent machine shops who have to scan the internet and junk dealers for parts. Shades of Atlas Shrugged? She hopes not.

And while she finds this thought unsettling, she appreciates the fact that she can supply even a little bit of the tooling and parts and accessories that folks who have so conscientiously and conservation-mindedly kept their vintage machines in good order and running. This may indeed be the saving grace for the future, particularly if the US economy keeps bleeding out.

That's why Rosie always smiles when she sees another small company that is preserving some of the industrial manufacturing heritage that was built up during WWII... companies like Versamil, Inc., that have kept in production many older machines.

Keep up the good work!

(oh, and if her South Bend customers simply wanted those toolpost sets for their collection, that's terrific too)

A thought for the day (also courtesy of Rust):
When we consider things from the past as being better - made better, more sturdy, of higher quality and workmanship - than most things seem to be made today, is not because things from the past were actually made better. Consider how much of what was made in the past has rotted in landfills... and how much of what is left is the creme de la creme. Kind of changes a person's perception, huh?

Having a wonderful autumn weekend in Oklahoma... with wishes of the same to all!

--"Rosie"