Streamline Moderne

I was wasting some time doing research on a chain guard for my old Elgin and came across this. Wow! That's neat-o, mosquito. It was on a Pinterest page along with a bunch of other cool bikes. I might have to sign up for an account. Like I need that. However, most of the bikes I found that are similar to mine are all missing their chain guards as well. I think I'll just wing it and see what I can come up with. A lot of them had fender mounted headlights. That might make for an interesting project. Maybe more running light than headlight. And this is where it always starts to snowball. With 100 unfinished projects, let's start another one.

The Missus sent me this one. Maybe I should make some wheel pants for my old push mower  - be a good way to improve my metal shaping skills. Just kidding on that one. 

I'm currently reading Streamliners: Locomotives and Trains in the Age of Speed and Style by Brian Solomon. I've just gotten started on the book but have leafed through it a bit. Lots of photographs of the great streamlined locomotives primarily from the 1930's, which, I would assume, was the same time frame the bike and mower were manufactured. This was the heyday of Streamline Moderne. The streamline design principles were applied to everything from buildings to toasters, and, of course, the cool trucks and vans I occasionally post a photo of. It's remarkable that so many futuristic designs came out of the Depression era and how they were enabled with the development of improved manufacturing techniques. I'm fairly well versed in the Industrial Revolution but I'd like to know more about the period between the great wars. How was it possible to suffer through the Great Depression but still ramp up production literally overnight after the attack on Pearl Harbor? Just might have to read another book or two.

On an unrelated note, I received an e-mail from my old high school the other day. Seems the boys in the Weld Shoppe participated in a welding contest and had eight of the top ten finishers. That's talent that goes pretty deep. Congratulations to Dave and the boys on their outstanding performance.