Vickers -From church bells to Sewing Machines

Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. The company began life making steel castings and quickly became famous for casting church bells. 

 In 1867 the company went public and gradually branched out into making hints like marine shafts, propellers and armour plate. In 1890 they made their first artillery piece and soon manufactured everything from torpedos to machine guns.

Japan's biggest heist - The 300 million yen robbery, Tokyo 1968

On December 10, 1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.

ON A rainy morning in December 1968, what seemed to be a police motor cycle screeched to a halt in front of a Tokoyo Bank car, just outside Japan's biggest prison.  The rider of the Yamaha motorbike wearing a police uniform, told the men there had been an explosion at a branch manager's

Wishing for a New Washer

My washing machine has died. Well almost. It's carrying on a bit, dancing around the laundry with each load, refusing to spin properly, and generally just being annoying. Mr handyman had done his best (he pulled it apart, cleaned it and used cable ties to try and fix it), but to no avail. After only eight years, the old top-loading washer is done. A replacement is needed.

What I'd really like is one of these.

via

This is a Bendix front loading washing machine. From 1951!

The small company of Bendix Home Appliances was founded by Judson Sayre in 1936 and first made an automatic washing machine in 1937,and applied for a patent in the same year. Although it looks like the front loading automatic washers seen today, and included many of the same basic features, the machine lacked any drum suspension and therefore had to be anchored to the floor to prevent "walking" - maybe that's what I need to do to my machine. The machines were being advertised for sale in Australia from at least 1949. This 1952 ad shows 'new improved Bendix automatic washer.' 

Bendix also developed one of the first combination washer and driers in 1952/  In 1954 Australian newspaper display advertisements described the machine as a 'miracle of modern times' and boasted that it ' takes the entire business of washing completely out of your hands'.

In this 1958 ad the machine costs from 198 guinea - I believe 1 guinea is 21 shillings, which means it cost around 4, 158 shillings, or around $5,800 today.  Not cheap! But then again my husband did tell me the other day that I should "treat myself" to a new washing machine.  How thoughtful of him - I really feel like I'm living in the 1950s now!

Bendix Home Appliances was sold to Avco Manufacturing Corporation, who liquidated the company in 1956, before selling the brand to Phillco.  the Australian James N. Kirby group then made the machines (and Crosley fridges) under licence from Philco.  I think the company was then taken over by General Electric in about 1961.  The machines are no longer manufactured, although spare parts are available for the existing machines, which can sometimes be found secondhand.

I think I'll have to make do with a Samsung - unless you know anyone with an old Bendix for sale?!  Just think, this could be me in the picture....

1947 Bendix ad, American

Deb xx

Mid-Century in Mackay - The Ambulance Building

We do have a few mid-century buildings in Mackay.  Just a few.  Here in Queensland we like to tear down and rebuild bigger and better (or the cyclones do it for us), so there are not as many old buildings as there could be.  I thought it would be a good idea to record some, just in case.  A thought brought home to me this morning when I saw that a favorite mid-century house that I pass every day on the way to work has been cement rendered. I mean really - over those lovely, smooth toffee-colored bricks that have stood the test of time for 50 years. What were they thinking?!

Anyway, the other day I had time to take some photos of this mid-century building at the corner of Sydney and Alfred Streets in Mackay.

Foggitts Foods & Turtle Soup

I found this ad the other day - from the Australian Women's Weekly 30 September 1950.

1953

A brand of baked beans other than Heinz - and made in Brisbane!

Vintage Sandals & Healthy Heels

I am in love.

With these shoes from 1950.....

Another great reason to buy vintage!

If I am going to sew a dress, I always pre-wash the fabric, just to make sure it's pre-shrunk.  When you buy a new (non-thrifted or non-vintage) dress (or shirt or jeans), it's not always the way, and things do often shrink in the wash.  Why?

They haven't been pre-shrunk of course!

Mechanical shrinking (also known as sanforizing ) is a process whereby the fabric is forced to shrink width and/or lengthwise, creating a fabric in which is basically preshrunk. Sanforizing was patented in the USA in 1930 by - wait for it - Sanford Lockwood Cluett.  Chuett eventually joined the family firm of detachable collar manufacturers, but he was also an inventor with around 200 patents in his name.

It appears that anti-shrink fabrics, both cottons and rayons, first arrived in Australia in 1939, judging from the ads I have found in various editions of the Australian Women's Weekly.  The ads also seem to disappear by the late 1950s.

1939

King of the Ring - Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson (born Walker Smith Jr. May 3, 1921) was an American boxer.  He turned professional in 1940 at the age of 19 and from 1943 to 1951 had a 91 fight unbeaten streak, the third longest in professional boxing history.

Sugar Ray Robinson sightseeing in Milan, 1951

Pelaco and it's Neon Sign, Aussie Icons

 James Pearson and James Law created the PE-LA-CO name in 1906, and it’s now an Australian icon 

1950s ad for Pelaco shirts.

San Francisco Peace Treaty 1951

The New Yorker Cover - September 8, 1951

On 8 September 1951 The Treaty of Peace with Japan (commonly known as the Treaty of San Francisco, Peace Treaty of San Francisco, or San Francisco Peace Treaty), between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations (including Australia) at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

Sydney and David Jones 175 years anniversay

I have just got back from a weekend in Sydney. What a blast!  My feet and legs don't know what's hit them - walking all day up and down hills is a little unusual for me - but it was worth it.  I hadn't been to Sydney in over 20 years, but I well definitely be going back sooner than that next time!

One of the highlights was the 175th birthday exhibit at David Jones, one of the world's oldest department stores.  There were fashions from every era, including a 1930s wedding dress, original advertising posters, original sales ledgers, display dresses made of paper and even the cutlery that was used for the Queen's dinner visit in 1954.  Here's a little glimpse.

 

 

 

When I went to David Jones in Sydney as a seventeen year old many years ago, I had been living in Melbourne and been to David Jones there many times.  The Sydney store was different though - grander somehow.  The main thing I remembered was the pianist as you walked in the front door - a memory that has stayed with me always.  And guess what - he's still there! OK, probably not the same guy, but a classical piano player none the less.

The 175th exhibition finishes soon, but if you get to Sydney, don't forget to visit David Jones!

Deb xx

Australia 1932 - Unemployment hits 30%

In a previous post I looked at the beginning of the Great Depression, and Australia's jobless rate in 1930 - 20%.  In 1932 the unemployment rate rose to 30%. The worst in our  history.

Many other workers not listed as unemployed were only semi-employed.  Many farmers were destitute, because of the collapse of world agricultural prices, and reverted to subsistence farming - growing what they could eat.

Two men digging potatoes on farm, West Gippsland, 1930.

Obviously fuel was expensive, and so were horses it seems.

Boys plowing a field near Albury 1930s

Some men on sustenance payments, or "susso", were employed in public works programs, with many having to stay in labour camps away from their families.

Workers constructing the Yarra Boulevard, Melbourne, 1930s  (nicknamed Susso Drive)

In the cities people turned to begging and hawking, and evictions  bankruptcy and the sale of family valuable became common. Business such as retailers and manufacturers folded as the customers disappeared.  People began living in shanty towns in parks, on racecourses and in the bush, and even in the shallow sandstone caves in Sydney's Domain gardens.

Temporary Home Being Dismantled In Tent City, Red Cliffs, Victoria, c. 1932

To obtain the 'susso' payment you had to prove that you had been unemployed for at least two weeks, and be registered with the State labour exchange for at least seven days.  You could own a house and get the benefit, but no other property, such as a car.

Soup kitchen queue in Sydney in the 1930s.

As the unemployed people could not even afford to buy newspapers, the day's classifieds, with jobs available, were posted on boards outside the newspaper offices.  This lead to huge crowds outside newspaper offices each morning before dawn, with hundreds of people arriving for each position available.

Things could only get better.

Deb xx

Australia 1931 - Wages Cut & Holden merges with GM

Today another look at Australian history in the 1930s, and a bit about General Motors, who took over Australia's Holden Company in 1931.


General Motors was founded in Michigan in 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick who sold his company to  the Durant-Dort Carriage Company.  Established in business in 1886, by 1900 Durant-Dort was producing over 100,000 carriages a year in factories located in Michigan and Canada.  Durant already owned several Ford dealerships, and soon acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Cartercar, Elmore, Ewing, and Oakland (later known as Pontiac), as well as several truck companies.

Durant lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers trust when a deal to buy Ford fell through, so he left the firm and co-found the Chevrolet Motor Company in 1911 with Louis Chevrolet.  In 1916  Chevrolet bought 54.5% of GM with the backing of Pierre S. du Pont, and later that year the GM Company became incorporated as General Motors Corporation.

GM's headquarters were located in Michigin until the mid-1920s when it was moved to Detroit in 1923, when "the Durant Building" was completed in 1923. New president Alfred P. Sloan renamed the building 'Cadillac Place', and it remained their headquarters until 1996.

General Motors Building (Cadillac Place)

GM surpassed Ford Motor Company in sales in the late 1920s thanks to the leadership of  Sloan, who invented new ways of managing a complex worldwide organization, while paying special attention to consumer demands such as style, power, and prestige.  Safety wasn't a huge concern though it seems - when it was proposed Chevrolet should introduce safety glass, he opposed it because it threatened profits.  GM also introduced monthly payment plans that allowed more people to buy GM cars - Henry Ford was opposed to credit on moral principles.

In 1925, GM bought Vauxhall of England, and then in 1929 went on to acquire an 80% stake in German automobile manufacturer Opel. Two years later this was increased to 100%. In 1931, due to financial difficulties, Australia's most successful company of the 1920s, Holden's Motor Bodies Ltd was forced to merge with GM, who were able to acquire the Holden company at a 36% discount - a total sum of 1,750,000 pounds. What a great buy!  GM company directors stated that with a fall in national income of 140 million pounds, it would be some years before the automobile business in Australia recovered and shareholders saw a profit.

1930 Willys Model 98B Touring (Holden Bodied) - Australia

In January 2012 Australian headlines read:

"The closure of Holden's Australian operations is one option being considered by US parent company General Motors"
and indeed they did close some factories and have proposed more closures.  Times haven't really changed, have they?

Because of the huge fall in national income, in January 1931, the Commonwealth Arbitration Court reduced all wages within it's jurisdiction -  that is basically the whole of Australia's workforce.  The idea was that a reduction in wages would increase employment.  Because of the severe economic contraction, and the reduction of purchasing goods, employers still couldn't afford to keep excessive workers. A five-year unemployment average for 1930-34 was 23.4%, with a peak of approximately 30% of the nation being unemployed in 1932. This was one of the most severe unemployment rates in the industrialised world, exceeded only by Germany.  The majority of the people of Australia lived very well during the 1920s, so they felt the effects of the depression strongly.

1930s dole queue Australia

The basic wage was restored in April 1934, although it was based on a lower wage that before, and the trade unions were not happy.


In 1934 Larry Hartnett (later Sir Laurence Hartnett) was sent to Australia by GM as Managing Director of the Australian company with a directive to either make it profitable or close it down.  By 1935 the world economy had strengthened and Hartnett lifted production to 23,129 bodies and a profit of 650,000 pounds. The company also introduced the "Sloper" to the world which was the fore runner of the hatchback and led the rest of the world in producing the first all steel bodies. In 1936 the company moved to new headquarters, at Fishermens Bend, Melbourne.

Art deco GMH building, Fishermans Bend, Melbourne. 

In 1936 Hartnett began planning the complete production of a "wholly Australian car", however another World War intervened, with the (Menzies) government of the time putting these plans on hold. Instead they were the first Australian company to mass-produce internal combustion engines including Gypsy Major aeroplane, Gray Marine, and a 4-cylinder radial torpedo. After the war the, Holden returned to producing vehicle bodies, this time for Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Vauxhall. The Government also asked for proposals from any local company for production of a complete car - and General Motors Holdens were the only company to reply.  In 1948, after many difficulties, including GM wanting the design done in America, the 48-215 Holden (or FX Holden, as it soon became known) was born.

An Australian-made car so captured the imagination that 18,000 people ordered one without knowing any details about it - the waiting list was two years long.  The car weighed about 1000 kilograms, could cruise at 100km/h and would do about 130km/h flat out. It could travel 48 kilometres on a gallon (4.55 litres) of fuel (about 9.5 litres per 100 kilometres) and seat six people. And it was powered by a straight-six engine and could out-accelerate anything.

Jack Rawnsley, one of the engineers who made the prototype FX Holden in 1946. It has now been restored and bought by the National Museum of Australia for $650,000 via

GMH also released the coupe-utility, now Australia's iconic car (although it was said to be invented back in the early 1930s by a young Ford Australia designer named Lew Bandt). You can read more about the ute here.

During the 1950s, Holden dominated the Australian car market. Ford Falcons went on to become some of the best-selling models ever and gave the Holden opposition terrible grief in the 1970s and '80s, as did Crysler. Large family cars are now being phased out - SUVs and small cars are more popular (we have one of each in our family, and not a Holden in sight.)  Both Ford and GM have made it clear that any future large cars will be global vehicles, not made-for-Australia specials.  Sadly, the end of the all-Australian car has come.

Deb xx

Australia 1930 - Jobless Rate Exceeds 20 Per Cent

Although I love a lot about the 1930s, there are some things that I am glad I missed. However, I think it's good to look at history to remind us of the mistakes made, so that we can hopefully learn from them - like the Great Depression.

1930s Oxymoron

Throughout the 1920s, the stock market had grown on speculation by people who bought on margin and, in fact, owned only a small portion of their stocks. Many could not meet margin calls - demands to put up the money to cover their loans. The result was panic selling. On October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday) alone, stock values fell $14 billion on Wall Street. The great Depression had begun, and rapidly spread worldwide.  Queensland had already been pushed into a recession in 1926 by falling wool and mineral prices.  Dependent on exports to England, wartime inflation had upset the United Kingdom's terms of trade and their sluggish economy naturally reduced the demand for imports from Australia.  By 1930 international commodity prices collapsed, triggering a fall in export earnings and increasing overseas debt. Basically there was no money circulating within the population and therefore no one could buy anything, which meant no businesses made money and therefore no jobs were available in a catastrophic cycle.

$100 will buy this car must have cash lost all on the stock market

In August 1930 the visiting Bank of England representative, Sir Otto Niemeyer, insisted the Australian state, territory and federal governments balance their budgets, cut all overseas borrowing and lower all award wages by 10 per cent.the state. The State Premiers agreed to balance their budgets and not seek any more overeseas loans, and to finance only 'reproductive' public works. Many infrastructure projects, which had begun in the 1920's under the previous 'men, money and markets' policy, were stopped immediately, except perhaps the building of The Sydney Harbour Bridge which had begun in 1923 and kept many men employed during the depression.

Sydney Harbour Bridge c. 1929

The cut in public expenditure happened at the same time that private businesses were putting thousands of people out of work.  In November 1930 figures showed that 20.5 %, or 90,379 union members of a pool of 439,971, were unemployed.  A year later it would reach 28%. Those still employed had their hours lengthened and their wages cut, and set off to work each morning knowing there was every chance they could finish the day on the dole queue.

Men ordered to present food relief tickets for inspection because of fraud allegations, at the dole queues at No.7 Wharf, Circular Quay, Sydney. 11 June 1931.

For the majority of people, there was little government assistance, especially at the beginning of the crisis. Private charities were often the only source of support outside of families and neighborhood communities.

Unemployed men receiving food handouts

Protest marches and demonstrations by the unemployed in all states and territories demanded increased sustenance pay and rent subsidies. In April 1930 a mass meeting of the unemployed in Melbourne led to the establishment of the 'Anti-starvation Crusade' which planned to go directly to the State Government and ask that better remedies be put into action before winter, including banning unscrupulous landlords seizing furniture and turning tenants out into the streets. In 1931 over 1000 unemployed men marched from the Esplanade to the Treasury Buildings in Perth, Western Australia, to see Premier Sir James Mitchell.

 Perth 1931

Many people lost their homes and were forced to live in makeshift dwellings with poor heating and sanitation.   City and urban people planted gardens to produce fruit and vegetables. In some urban areas co-operatives were formed based on barter systems to share what was available.People set up camps int he domain in Sydney  and unemployment camps sprang up at various locations  including Happy Valley at La Perouse,  behind Congwong Beach. People often arrived with only the possessions they could carry, pick a spot and erect a hut with scrounged corrugated iron roofing, white washed hessian walls and earthen floors. They scrounged food from local Chinese market gardeners and local fishermen and the government provided one pint of milk per family per day. By 1932 Happy Valley had a stable population of at least 330.

Happy Valley, 1932

Labor Prime Minister James Scullin came to power on 22 October 1929, just a week before the stock market crash. in 1930 Mr Harris, the deputy leader of the Liberal opposition, somehow voiced his views that there was 'no one on the breadline' in Melbourne, and that there was no need of Unemployment Insurance in Victoria.

Breadline in New York City during the Great Depression.

By late 1930 the States started providing 'sustenance' or 'susso' for the unemployed in the form of ration vouchers, but this was worth only a tiny amount of the basic wage. Many people, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, turned to begging or 'door knocking', trying to sell small trinkets, fruit, shoelaces, soap, moth balls, artificial flowers or stockings to earn a few coins.

An unemployed man selling apples 1930s.

Others played instruments sang,and others feeling they had no choice turned to theft to provide themselves and their families with food. Sometimes children failed to thrive on food issued with the government rations, and would end up in hospital with malnutrition. Deaths from malnutrition, disease and suicide increased, and parents often went hungry to give what food they had to their children, and other parents choose to give their children to people that could care for them.

Children of migrant fruit worker in Berrien County, Michigan

David Potts in his 2006 book 'The Myth of the Great Depression' explains that dripping had to be substituted for butter, which apparently could be quite tasty. Unfortunately he then goes on to say that "going without food intermittently for two or three days, or five or ten, or even a degree of persistent hunger, does not damage the body or health". I's like to see him try it.

Schoolchildren line up for free issue of soup and a slice of bread

Not only was malnutrition an immediate effect of poverty, but also emotional and psychological distress - just imagine being forced out of your home as you could no longer pay the rent/mortgage, and had to take your family to live on the streets.  The majority of the people of Australia lived very well prior to the fall, so they felt the effects of the depression strongly.  

William Roberts, an original Anzac, and his family evicted from their Sydney home into the street 

Apparently today even many two-income families today are a paycheck away from losing their homes  because they are living beyond their means. So the lesson from this - minimize the amount of debt that you take on. Easier said than done sometimes. Oh, and don't have too many children. Like I did!

Back to something cheery tomorrow, although there are more Depression images on tumblr if you want to see them.

Deb xxx

A Brief history of Rain wear

People have been trying to make items of clothing waterproof for hundreds of years. Here in Mackay where its hot and humid when it rains, we don't really bother - we just use umbrellas. I imagine the original land owners, the aborigines, used large strips of paperbark stripped from  the local Melalucca trees.  In Asian countries woven hats or baskets were used to keep the rain off.

Women going out in the rain in Korea, 1904

Indigenous peoples of other areas, such as the Amazon, used a milky substance extracted from rubber trees for this purpose. When European explorers came to the Americas in the sixteenth century, they observed the indigenous people using a crude procedure and rubber to waterproof items like footwear and capes, and these ideas were copied.

Sweeping the street in Heavy rain, Japan, c. 1930

Meanwhile in Europe, where rubber trees did not grow, rain-wear was often made of wool, a natural insulator.  G. Fox of London experimented with mixing twill and mohair and devised a rain coat called the ' Fox's Aquatic' in about 1820. Also used for water repellent clothing was Oilcloth, a close-woven cotton duck or linen cloth with a coating of boiled linseed oil. this was popular with early Australian Stockmen (known as a Driza bone), and sailors. Driza-Bone, originating from the phrase "dry as a bone", is a trade name for the company making full-length waterproof riding coats and apparel. The company was established in 1898, the trademark Driz-bone was registered in 1933 and is currently Australian owned and manufactures its products in Australia.

The APEC leaders pose for the official portrait in front of the Sydney Opera House, 2007

ilskins were also popular with sailors and fishermen, and referred to as a sou'wester.

Sou'Wester

By the 1880's rubber had arrived in Europe.  Used extensively in foundation garments (and for pneumatic tyres for bicycles and motor cars), people also began with ways of waterproofing fabrics with rubber. Brazil and surrounding areas experienced a 'rubber boom', which was not great for the indigenous populations, but did result in further exploration of South America until the outbreak of WWI and subsequent rubber plantations in Asia.  The rubber boom and the associated need for a large workforce saw plantation owners, or 'rubber barons' round up Indians and force them to tap rubber out of the trees. Slavery and gross human rights abuses were widespread, and in some areas 90% of the Indian population was wiped out.

A photo of enslaved Amazon Indians from the 1912 book "The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise"

In Europe's cold, wet winters, the rubberised clothing became hard and inflexible. In the early nineteenth century by Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh patented a process for making rubberised fabric by dissolving rubber in coal-tar naphtha, a by product of petroleum. The resultants liquid was brushed on fabric making it waterproof.  The first Mackintosh coats were made in the family's textile factory, Charles Macintosh and Co. of Glasgow. 

Mackintosh Store,104 Mount St, Mayfair, London.

Thomas Hancock of Manchester had also been experimenting with rubber coated fabrics since 1819, and in 1830 his company merged with that of Macintosh. Production of rubberised coats soon spread all over the UK, with  the British Army, Railways and police forces all using rubberised coats.

March 1933 McCalls cover

These early coats still had problems with stiffness in the cold, and a tendency to melt and smell in hot weather.  In 1843 Hancock patented a method for vulcanising rubber by cross-linking natural rubber with sulphur, which solved many of the problems. Charles Goodyear (1800–1860), generally credited as the first to come up with the basic concept of vulcanization, apparantly never fully understood the process as well as Hancock, and was awarded a patent in the United States three weeks after Hancock's British patent.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Macintosh (also called Mackintosh) company continued to make waterproof clothing. In 1925 the company was taken over by Dunlop Rubber.

1918

In 1849 the Americans developed a calendering process in which Macintosh's cloth was passed between heated rollers to make it more pliable and waterproof. In 1851, Box & Company introduced Aquascutum, a woolen fabric that was chemically treated to shed water, and designed a shower proof coat tailored with some style - The Prince of Wales, Edward VII soon had a range of informal and formal sporting clothes made by Aquascutum.

Burberry Ad, 1918

In the First World War soldiers in the trenches wore ankle length Aquascutum coats that had military design features with epaulets and pocket sand likewise Thomas Burberry created an all-weather trench coat (for soldiers in WWI - hence 'trench' coat) from treated twill cotton gabardine.  After the war ended the coats spread in popularity, as they were much cooler than those made of Macintosh's fabric, and the trench coat remains a classic today.

Raincoats for women, England, 1918

In the 1920's Oil-skins again became popular, but using silk of fine cotton fabric instead of the heavier linen previously used. Here is Joan Crawford in an oilskin slicker in the 1927 silent film 'Twelve Miles Out' (with John Gilbert and Ernest Torrence), possibly the first rain coat in a movie.

Twelve Miles Out, 1927

Duro Gloss Rubber Raincoats Color (1927)

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was first created by German chemist Eugen Baumann in 1872, but it  wasn't patented until 1913 when German, Friedrich Klatte invented a new method of the polymerization of vinyl chloride using sunlight.  By the end of the 1920s plasticized polyvinyl chloride had been invented by Waldo Semon , and it was being used for shoe heels and golf balls.   Soon it became popular for rain wear.

Sears and Roebuck ad, 1937

, 

The Hollywood Revue of 1929A “Singin’ in the Rain” featuring one of the earliest appearances of plastic macs in the cinema

Vinylite Plastic Rainwear (1945)

For some reason this makes me think of the 1970s and going to school in a see-through plastic rain coast.  To me, this is the ultimate rainy day look.

A Burberry trenchcoat from the 1930s.

As usual, more images on tumblr.

Deb xxx