So I have in my collection of antiques (someone recently said I collect crap, fuck that guy) an owner's manual for National Motor's Highway Sixes and Highway Twelves. First of all, if you haven't heard of National Motor Vehicle Company that's okay, I didn't even know they existed until I got my hands on this booklet. According to Wikipedia, they were one of the many small car companies from the early 1900s that seem to have come and gone. It's a bit of a shame because apparently they were quite successful in motorsports which, if you ask me, shows they had some talented engineers working for them. It's enough to make me wonder what the company would have become if it had just a little more luck on its side. But I digress. Let me show you this book.
See? There it is. For being around 100 years old it's actually in great shape, especially for a soft cover manual. The paper has held up very well, with pretty much zero yellowing, fading, or creasing. The only real glaring flaws are the mouse chewed pages on the top right and some stains on the last few pages in the back. But as soon as I open this book, the damage is totally forgettable.
Let me tell you, I love everything about this manual. It's one of those items that makes antiques feel so special, that let's you know you're holding a piece of the past and helps you feel connected to it. For instance, if you open up, right on the inside of the front cover is a postcard for you to fill out so you can register your car with National Motors. Even back then companies were asking for owners to register their products, and just like today, many owners didn't feel bothered to do so. I guess some things never change.
The inside first page is also a bit interesting as well. Take a look at the contact information for the company at the bottom of the page. There's no building number for the address and of course no ZIP Code, since the system wasn't invented until the 1960s. What's really cool though, is that the very last line on the bottom of the page lists the cable code to reach the company by wire through Western Union. Small details like that always make antiques just that much more fascinating.
Check out the table of contents to see what's all inside of this thing. The book itself covers almost everything about this car from operating it to repairing it to ordering any replacement parts you might need straight from the manufacturer. It covers almost everything you can think of too, from engine timing and ignition sequence to the wiring for the starter and headlights. If car manufacturers still made their manuals like this today, Haynes would be out of business. Just check out some of these pages . . .
The text itself is just as detailed and helpful. For example, on the “Troubles and Their Remedies” section, they cover issues such as water in the gas tank:
“In cold weather it will freeze in the carburetor, preventing operation of the same. The most annoying symptom of this trouble, and which can be caused by an almost imperceptible amount of water, is popping in the carburetor and the cutting down of power of the engine very perceptibly, and acts in every way as if the needle valve of the carburetor were set for too little gasoline. When there is considerable water in the gasoline it will stop the engine entirely. This can be remedied at the moment by opening the cock bottom of the carburetor, and as the water is heavier it will drain out first. The plug (570C or D) directly under [the] gasoline tank should also be opened for a few seconds. This plug should be removed at least once every 30 days and the strainer taken out and cleaned. The only complete remedy, however, is a new supply of gasoline, which should be poured through a chamois skin.”
Granted, cars back then were much simpler than cars today, but they were still something new and completely foreign for a lot of people. With a manual as well written as this, almost any owner would feel more than confident to work on their own cars. This is definitely one of the cooler antiques that I own and while it's the most recent addition to my collection, I don't think my excitement for it will wear off any time soon.
Your grandfather's patents look very much like the predecessor to Keihin slide-valve carburetors, which still power half the motorcycles on the road. Here's how ubiquitous they are: when I needed parts for my Kawasaki KLR-650 carb, I'd buy them from the Harley dealer because they had less markup. Same carb, a Keihin 38. https://www.jetsrus.com/photos/photo_keihin_FCR_single_exploded_view.JPG hey hubski - seems to me that ".jpg" shouldn't have to be case-sensitive to embed.
For a while, I would get my dad machinist manuals from this awesome old bookshop in Bellingham. They had things like "motorist's repair manuals" from 1902 and at one point I think I got him a small engine repair manual from 1905. It talked about the "interesting developments in internal combustion from Dr. Diesel in Germany" and shit. He put them on a shelf and never looked at them. I may have to reclaim them at some point.
My best used bookstore find was a copy of John Playfair's Elements of Geometry, of Playfair's Axiom fame, sitting on a metal shelf outside fading in the sun with all the other books they didn't think they could sell. I assume they thought "just an old textbook" and didn't bother to look it up. I gave it to the university library, because I was no collector and didn't have a clue what to do with a book like that. They gave me a receipt for around $3,000. I kind of wish I'd held on to it now, because there isn't much math history you can hold in your hands, but the tax refund did pay most of my tuition for a semester. If I ever decide to start collecting something, old Euclids will probably be it.
Mine doesn't really count, because it was Amazon. For reasons related to writing, I needed a copy of this book, which is esoteric to say the least, but hey - if you need to know about all the designs that didn't get made into the SR-71, it's the book to have (especially as two are still classified 60 years later). It's basically a paean to Kelly Johnson and his merry band of Skunkworkers with a lot of cool drawings in it that you don't see anywhere else. It is not a cheap book, nor one that exists in many copies, but I lucked out - across town, in Burbank, Amazon had a "used, some markings" edition for $7. I had it shipped because Prime even though I coulda picked it up with a one-hour drive. It showed up two days later. With the author's signature. In a dedication. To Kelly Johnson's widow. Thanks, Amazon, for the generous offer of $8.42 to buy it back... but cold dead hands.
Very cool! I like antique things like this. My mid-'60s preamp came with the schematic, and I've debated framing it. I also have 1940s reprints of some turn of the century topographic maps of areas I've hiked. The maps are great because there are some known inaccuracies, obsolete names and some now-abandoned trails (including one Vice President Roosevelt hiked the day President McKinley died). I do plan to frame those. I think they, like your manual, just look fantastic.
I would love to see both your maps and steve's patent drawings. Don't get me wrong, CAD designs are awesome in their own way, but there's something about stuff drawn the old fashioned way that makes them so cool. Especially, something as intricate as a topographic map.
I left steve a note on it. See below for loads of online maps.
There are some high quality scans online! The Mount Marcy quadrangle covers Mount Marcy, the highest point in New York. The 1953 map shows a trail in the bottom left of the southwest corner that goes up Twin Brook. This is the trail Roosevelt took, and it has since been abandoned. Online reports say Hurricane Irene wiped out any remaining signs of the trail. Also of interest in the SW corner in the 1895 map is McIntyre Mountain. The primary summit is now called Algonquin with McIntyre describing the range. Again in the SW corner just west of the Twin Brook is Cliff Mountain, and the map shows it over 4000'. Modern surveys have it under 4000' now. There's a peak bagging list of summits here to hike all 4000+ foot summits, and Cliff (and a couple others) are included because they were over 4000' on these old maps when two hikers and their guide first hiked the full set.
They don't! I picked up a mint one for $25 and a couple used ones for $12/each. The frames will be the real investment. I have four that are an inverted T shape, so I might get the two corners to make a 2x3 shape. I think the cost depends on rarity, and these were sort of mass produced.
Yeah, framing can be expensive. When I had my car ads professionally framed it cost about 10 times more to frame than the ads themselves cost and we're talking about magazine pages. To be fair, I did choose acid free matting, UV protective glass, the whole nine yards. But damn, framing is expensive. Anything you can do to save money on something as big as maps could really help put a dent in that.
Very cool! I like antique things like this. My mid-'60s preamp came with the schematic, and I've debated framing it. I also have 1940s reprints of some turn of the century topographic maps of areas I've hiked. kissmanga https://kissmangalist.com