Showing posts with label informative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label informative. Show all posts

Quaker State wants to pay you to use their oil for 300,000 miles, but good luck with trying to keep a car that long

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What does the Quaker State Lubrication Limited Warranty cover?

Up to 300,000 miles or 10 years (whichever is first) if you exclusively use Quaker State® motor oil products (i.e. Quaker State® Higher Mileage Engine™, Quaker State® Advanced Durability, Quaker State® Enhanced Durability, Quaker State® Ultimate Durability™). If you ever have a warranty related claim, the value of the claim is limited to $5,000 US, or the actual cash value of the eligible vehicle, whichever is less.

Receive a "Cash Back Bonus" when you reach 300,000 miles!

Use Quaker State® high mileage, synthetic blend, or full synthetic motor oil (“specialty motor oil”) starting no later than when your vehicle reaches 100,000 miles and you may qualify to receive up to $3,000 US. Certain restrictions apply. See terms and conditions for details.
(in a nutshell, you'll get a cash payment equal to the Kelley Blue Book trade-in value of your vehicle, up to $3,000. The oil company will give you the money without taking the car)

How to qualify:

•Register before your engine has 75,000 miles or less when you first used Quaker State® motor oil, and has been manufactured within the last 72 months of your first use of Quaker State® motor oil (“Eligible Vehicle”).

•The Quaker State Lubrication Limited Warranty takes effect 6 months after your first eligible purchase of Quaker State® motor oil. You are eligible to make a claim for a Cash Back Bonus when your eligible vehicle has reached 300,000 miles AND it is no older than 20 years.

•GRANDFATHER CLAUSE. If you are an existing Quaker State® motor oil customer registered for the Quaker State Lubrication Limited Warranty program before June 1, 2011, you have the opportunity to be eligible for the Cash Back Bonus Program disregarding of which type of Quaker State® motor oil you use.

http://www.quakerstatewarranty.com/our_warranty/

(I have the feeling this doesn't apply to many people, and they aren't going to pay out very often... just how few people ever keep a car that long? Really few. How many cars car survive for 300000 miles? Very few. Now of those very very few cars that stay with one owner, and aren't damaged in other ways, how many owners are going to hear about this offer in time to sign up, and then never use any other oil? Yeah, almost none.)

Belgium's part in the car world

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Due to early industrialisation, and location at the very heart of the European Union, it provides easy access to all major European sales markets. The country also boasts an excellent infrastructure and logistics network and a well developed network of suppliers and service providers.

Belgium set out on the adventerous path of automobile production at a very early stage. In 1894, Vincke, the first car to be sold in Belgium was designed in a workshop in Malines, where railway carriages were upholstered.

1900-1914 The Golden Age
Several companies brought out cars and motorcycles of excellent quality at competitive prices. These cars made a hit abroad and three-fourths of the cars designed and manufactured in Belgium therefore were channelised towards export.

The major makes, of which models can be admired in the museum are Minerva, the most well-known Belgian make founded by Sylvain de Jong, F.N., which also specialised in motorcycles, Imperia and Miesse.

The HEMI name comes from the dome-shaped ceiling atop each cylinder inside some engines, since it was introduced by obscure Belgian car maker Pipe in 1905.

The shock of the Great War
In 1914, Belgium ranked first on the international automobile construction scene. But the War gets the better of this rapid development. Curiously, the determining factor was not the looting of factories but the end of "free trade" and the emergence of protectionist tendencies adopted by various countries after the War.

Minerva remained a major make. http://choosingscars.blogspot.com/search/label/Minerva for a couple of different model year examples of Minervas

F.N., Excelsior and Imperia started making more elaborate cars which met with success on the market. Pipe decided to specialise exclusively in lorries.

The thirties: the decline
In most countries, the beginning of the thirties was marked by significant technological advancements. Free wheels, front-wheel drives and steel bodies appeared. But the Belgian industry, hard hit by the economic crisis, found itself short of resources needed to compete with these advancements.

The period from 1930 to 1940 witnessed a gradual transition of an entirely domestic industry into an assembly sector where foreign cars were built. Efforts on the research and development side were absent and production activity alone remained.

Not being able to renew its models, Imperia acquired a licence for an excellent ultra-modern German car with front-wheel drive, the Adler. Its name could therefore figure on beautiful cars until 1940.

F.N. gave up automobile construction in 1935 but continued to successfully produce excellent motorcycles and utility vehicles. In the field of utility vehicles, Belgium had a bit of a margin and continued to make excellent lorries and buses such as Brossel, Miesse and F.N. and Minerva jeeps for some years, up until the post-war period.

Memories of the Belgian automobile
After World War II, the few remaining Belgian car makers could not face the competition from abroad. The Belgian automobile construction left behind but memories of its glorious days.

ADK (automobile)
Alatac
ALP (automobile)
Antoine (automobile)
Astra (1930 automobile)
Auto-Mixte
Compagnie Nationale Excelsior
De Wandre
Delecroix
Imperia (car)
Jeecy-Vea
Juwel
Meeussen
Métallurgique
Minerva (automobile)
Nagant
Pieper
Pipe (car)
Springuel
Vivinus

Buffalo Bill drove a White steamer in 1908

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Buffalo Bill, (1846-1917) one of the few legends of the wild west to have a lot of photos taken of him.

Among other incredible life achievements, he was a Pony Express rider, recieved the Congreessional Medal Of Honor while in the Army as a scout, and got the nickname Buffalo for killing more than his competition when the govt wanted buffalo meet to feed the Army and the Kansas Pacific Railroad
Read more about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill

Maserati went bankrupt in 1975, since then, here is the list of who has owned it

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Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citreon, Ferrari, Fiat, the Italian Govt., and DeTomoso

1919 Harley Davidson registration and cautionary page about stolen Harleys

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a 1917 car insurance pamphlet excerpts

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 the above has some offensive, bizarre, and obsolete info to offer as advice. Put on bumpers? Leave the lights on when parked at night?

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/?facet=Subject=Autos%20and%20Roads

Amazing life story, Robert Fulton Jr (from Steampunkvehicles.tumblr, source of lots of incredible good stuff)

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Born in Manhattan, New York on April 15, 1909 and named for Thomas Edison, who was a friend of his father, Robert Fulton, Sr.

His father was also a president of Mack Trucks. His maternal grandfather, Ezra Johnson Travis, ran stagecoach lines across the old west after the Civil War and his uncle, Elgin Travis, who took them over from his father, eventually converted the stagecoach routes into bus lines, which became Greyhound Bus Line.

As a teenager he was in the elite when he traveled by commercial aircraft from Miami, Florida, to Havana, Cuba, in 1921. And then to Egypt when Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened in 1923.

Then, at age 23, he traveled 25,000 miles (from London to Tokyo through 32 countries in 18 months) on a twin-cylinder Douglas motorcycle, to study architecture around the world. His customized bike contained an extra large fuel tank, a secret hiding place for his .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and enough room to carry his motion picture camera and 40,000 feet of film.

Upon his return he detailed his adventures in a book, One Man Caravan, In 1983 he produced, edited, and released, with his filmmaking sons, a 90 minute film compiled from his home movies, The One Man Caravan of Robert E. Fulton, Jr. An Autofilmography

Following the outbreak of World War II, Fulton taught himself to fly then designed the Gunairstructor, a aerial combat gunnery training simulator that was used to train Navy pilots which increased the kill ratio for ww2 US pilots by a huge factor

In 1946, he invented the flying car. Known as the Airphibian, the vehicle flew over 100,000 miles and received an endorsement from Charles Lindbergh

Fulton then developed the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system, also called the Skyhook for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States Navy, and the United States Air Force. It was a system that was used to pick up people from the ground with an aircraft

Her also owned and flew a P51d Mustang that the govt had sold as surplus for $755, he would fly his P51 from one Air Force base to another as he had clearance resulting from his top secret invention work

In the mid 1970's he was a film teacher at the Chicago Art Institute


ONE MAN CARAVAN, 3 part series, 30 minutes each. The life, travels and inventions of my father, Robert E. Fulton, Jr., who in 1932 rode a Douglas motorcycle around the world, then invented the Gunairstructor (the first-ever fighter pilot fixed aerial gunnery trainer), the Airphibian (the first flying car ever approved as airworthy by the FAA, now in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum) and Skyhook (an air-rescue system to pick up a man with an airplane in flight). Independently produced with Antenne 2, France. Broadcast in France and French territories worldwide. Also available in english. Director, Cinematographer, Editor.


TWICE UPON A CARAVAN, 53 minutes. 1932-33 solo around-the-world motorcycle trip filmed by my father, Robert E. Fulton, Jr. Original 35mm footage taken by him at age 23 has been edited with his reflections about the trip from his perspective as an older man. A rare look at countries, landscapes, monuments and civilizations that no longer exist. It is primary source material for anthropological, cultural and history studies. Music by Steven Schoenberg. Distributed by Whitehorse Press. Winner: Telluride Indie Festival. Producer, Editor.


But the only way I can find the DVD of Twice Upon A Caravan is http://www.whitehorsegear.com/twice-upon-a-caravan-dvd and for the one hour movie, they want 30 dollars. Anyone want to resell their copy at a "Used" price? I don't want to see a one hour movie at 3 hours income price.

Taximeter and taxameter... words no longer in use, just 100 years later

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 notice the above taxi had a meter on the far side of the vehicle, and the below has one on the near side
A taximeter is a mechanical or electronic device installed in taxicabs and auto rickshaws that calculates passenger fares based on a combination of distance travelled and waiting time. It is the shortened form of this word that gives the "taxi" its name.
The modern taximeter was invented by German Wilhelm Bruhn in 1891, and the Daimler Victoria—the world's first meter-equipped (and gasoline-powered) taxicab—was built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1897.

Copyright vs Fair Use Law

Though the images, which I have myself largely scanned from my personal collection of photographs and ephemera, some are subject to © by the artist, syndicate that distributed them or otherwise the individual artists. The use here is regardless covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
1. The image illustrates an educational article; its inclusion in the article adds significantly to understanding the text because it is a historical sample of the art covered in the critical commentary, and shows use of an innovative style. Therefore the image substantially improves the educational value of the article.
2. The image is used as the primary means of visual identification of the article topic, which directly concerns a visual artist, and is indicative of the style for which hethe artists are renowned.
3. Images are of lower resolution than the original. The image is not used here for profit.
4. It is not in any way replaceable with an uncopyrighted or freely copyrighted image pertinent to the work referenced in the article
So there. If you got a problem with my using copyright photos, refer to #3, and that old phrase, "Home of the brave" cause I just don't give a

A moment of time changing the history of employment, the horsedrawn fire engine in route to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire

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A variety of interesting car stuff, on tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com

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Imagine, how crude a car has to be to think that 2 hundred miles is an incredible achievement

Air pump, relevant tools permanently attached, and a rack to hang the bike while working on it. Installed on campus at the University of Virginia.

 A 1920's photo of a sign pointing the way to the Lincoln Highway
 Reason that big wheel is called a Penny Farthing
And the pain in the butt that a rental car can be.
these and more mixed in with an ecclectic and informative collection http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/

the drastic effect of the assembly line technique

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The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. The assembly line style of mass production and interchangeable parts had been pioneered in the U.S. by Thomas Blanchard in 1821, at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914.

As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold (requiring 12.5 man-hours before, 1 hour 33 minutes after), while using less manpower. It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1914, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's apocryphal remark, "any color as long as it's black". In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months' pay.

Ford's complex safety procedures—especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about—dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using "less productive methods". (higher quality work from master mechanics, master carpenters, master craftsmen were forced out of auto manufacturing, replaced by unskilled labor at drastically less per hour) http://choosingscars.blogspot.com/2007/07/changing-times-in-auto-industry.html

In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile

The first bus in America, was built by Mack in 1900

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Jack was 14 when he ran away from home, became a mule driver on the railroads and then went on to be an engineer on heav equipment and ships. Later he went into business with his brothers
Now, the Mack trucking company has a museum and heritage center in the Mack Customer Center in Allentown Pennsylvania http://www.macktrucks.com/assets/mack/Bulldog/BulldogMagazine2011Volume1.pdf page 3

“It gives us a powerful way to immerse customers from North America and around the world in the products, history and culture of the Mack brand.” said Mike Reardon, Mack vice president, marketing.

Created inside the company’s former engineering development and test center, the Mack Customer Center includes a product showroom, an 18,000-square-foot modification center and a two-lane, .73 mile oval track, allowing customers to put their vehicles to the test. The track has multiple grades, on- and off-road durability courses and a skid pad.


Inside, customers can relax, meet and work in a comfortable reception area or at the “Bulldog Café.” The new facility also houses the Mack Museum and Heritage Center, which will open to the public beginning November 1, 2010. http://www.macktrucks.com/default.aspx?pageid=5094  

interesting distinction, tri 5 sedan delivery vs station wagon

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Sedan delivery is classified as a commercial vehicle and therefore a truck, a station wagon is just a car. Which do you think has a better chance of winning against the competition?

B&M bought Flowmaster

Flowmaster was founded in 1983 and really came into their own during the late 1990′s. The company has floundered recently in the face of stiffer competition and though economic times have cut into their market share. B&M Racing hopes that the iconic brand can be restored to its former glory, and sees Flowmaster as a key to expanded beyond their core business of shifters and transmission products.

Ruth Law, first of many record setting barnstormer pilots, bought her first airplane from the Wright Brothers

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photo from http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/  info from http://earlyaviators.com/eoliver.htm and http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/law.html

Ruth Law Oliver, the first woman to loop the loop in an airplane, the first to make a night flight and the one- time holder of the Chicago to New York aerial speed record bought her first airplane in 1912 from Orville Wright when she was 21 years old.  "I purchased a Wright biplane because it seemed to me they had the greatest success"

in 1912 she went to work as a commercial pilot, flying passengers to and from the Sea Breeze Hotel, in Florida.

From that time she proceeded to pile up new records in flying and was the outstanding woman barnstormer of her era. She was so successful that, in 1917, she earned as much as $9,000 a week for exhibition flights.

In 1917, Miss Law was the first woman authorized to wear a military uniform at America's entry into World War I. She applied to the United States Army to fly combat missions, when she was turned down she wrote an article for Air Travel ("Let Women Fly!") that inspired many future women aviators. She was told that she could do a lot of good just by teaching others to fly. (Sexism is such bs)

She was sent to Europe - directly to the battle fronts in order to gain first hand knowledge of the actual fighting. She returned fired with enthusiasm, and enlisted in the U.S. Aviation Corps, as a recruiting officer. Her efforts were responsible for recruiting many of our fighter pilots.

While doing this important war work, Miss Law found time to break a few records on her own. In 1916 she set the world's altitude record of 11,200' at sheepshead Bay, N.Y. In the same year she flew 511 miles non-stop, from Chicago to Hornell, N.Y.. then on to New York City in 8 hr. 55 min. 25 sec. using a Curtis bi-plane.

She carried the first official air mail to the Philippine Islands in 1919

After the war, there came the Ruth Law Flying Circus, a three plane troupe that left crowds at state and county fairs astonished. She flew her old Curtiss plane, with Wright controls, and the two male pilots flew Jennys in close formation with her 25 feet above racing cars on county tracks.

Wilbert Robinson, manager of the Dodgers went down in baseball lore for his attempt to catch a ball dropped from an airplane. In 1908, Gabby Street had caught a ball dropped from the Washington Monument. Robbie scoffed that this was all that difficult a feat and so Ruth Law, a famous aviatrix, was enlisted to fly a plane higher than the Washington Monument and drop a ball for Robbie to catch.

 When Robinson, now 53 years old, caught the object he saw falling from the plane, he was splattered with warm juice from a grapefruit. The impact knocked him to the ground whereupon he exclaimed: "Help me, lads, I'm covered with my own blood."

Law explained that she had forgotten the baseball back in her hotel room and when she discovered the situation it was too late to retrieve the ball. So she took a grapefruit from the lunch of one of the ground crew and dropped it instead

Trivia: Why red is Italy's racing color, and why green is Britain's

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An interesting little story: Prince Scipione’s Itala, painted bright red for the race, fell into the harbour when it was being unloaded for the big event! To prevent rust, the car was repainted battleship grey…the only paint the harbour-workers had on hand at the time. If you’ve ever wondered why Italian race-cars are red today, it’s because after the Prince won the race all the way back in 1907, Italy adopted red as its official racing-colour and red remains that color to this day.
http://scheong.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/peking-to-paris-the-original-amazing-race/

This reminded me of the reason why green is the official racing color or British carshttp://choosingscars.blogspot.com/2006/11/british-racing-green.html
from 1903 when the British wouldn't allow the Gordon Bennett race to be held in Britain. Ireland was asked to hold the race on their roads, as a compliment to the Irish, all the English cars were painted a dark green.

automuseums.info is now available on Kindle

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If you are fortunate to be able to travel in France, and want to get to as many auto museums as possible while you see the country, Automuseums.info has now assembled and organized museum info in a Kindle e-book presentation

65 pages with museum addresses, lat and long, website and phone number, along with a description of the museum's collection and the hours of operation.

Find the Kindle book on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005AK0OFQ

My thanks to Pal, and the blog at http://automuseums.info/node/1168 for sharing this and all museum info they gather!

Some of the cool stuff in timmytimow.tumblr.com

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from timmytimow.tumblr.com but beware, it's NSFW

Steampunk Vehicles Tumblr just clued me in on double front ended inspection railcars

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When it was not easy to turn them around, and they knew that the car would need to return to its original location, they had to build with two engines, so it doesn't overheat from driving backwards long distance.... as the radiator needs the airflow to keep the engine cool. I just learned this from Johnny at Steampunk vehicles!
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