Slow in Transition

Monday, January 25, 2015
Partly sunny and warmer

Slow in Transition 

(Slow to Change)

   My current car, a 2008 Toyota Corolla 25th anniversary car is a nice car and works well. However it does;t have any gadgets. It doesn't have GPS, cell phone capability, ABS, 4-wheel drive, left sand right car proximity sensors, and of course a rear-view camera. It simply takes me from point A to point B, and in the summer I use the air-conditioning. Basically, for an 8 year old car, it is old and almost "obsolete"!

  For toys, at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, it was the same story. In New York alone, it was said that there were a million horses in 1910, while at the  same time , motor-driven wagons (trucks) and cars were just starting to appear.

  Toy companies were still producing horse-driven carts and wagons, but fire trucks and coal trucks were just starting to appear. Interestingly, the term "transition" is used to describe the change when a horse-drawn wagon is replaced with a motor-driven front cab. 

  I selected one of my catalogues, which doesn't have a date, but I would presume to have been published about 1905-1910. If someone has one and knows the date, please e-mail me tso I may correct my dates.

Stacey

Bindman

(Toysearcher)

 Below:

Pages 8 & 9 with horse-drawn movement from pairs of horse. As you scroll down, you ail start to see a front cab/engine with a driver. The rear steam engine our ladder truck is the same one that was drawn by horses!

If you look carefully at the written descriptions and photos, you can become a bit of an historian. 

First of all, there is still a massive inventory and selection of toys for a similar model. There are 2-3 horses,different lengths of wagons, and of course the weights.

It's hard to imagine how such a large inventory and variation in toy sizers and weights could be purchased by the public at the time  and yet t the market (people) did in fact guide Hubley's great production of diversity and variety.

What's also interesting, form an historical perspective is the sheer weight and numbers for shipping!

1-2 dozen toys in a wooden case weighting anywhere from 140-250 pounds. 

One has to remember that the US government was keen to open up the railway system from west to east, and in 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. 

But the railroad would do more than that. It would allow goods and merchandise to be shipped east to west, wets to eat, north to south, and south to north. New cities would be created and incorporated, and vast hoards of immigrants to the USA would be welcome by the Statue of Liberty - a gift from France that would finally be inaugurated in 1886 by President Grover S. Cleveland. 

The American Government gave the railroads vast tracks of land and resources (e.g. timber) in return for building the railroad. In return there were lower rates established (with of course railroad monopolies) to transport goods and merchandise all over the New American Frontiers.

Below:

If you compare the horse-drawn pumpers or ladder wagons to the machine drawn engines, you'll clearly see that the rear parts are almost exactly the same.

Below:

THese toys are more integrated. THe engine and rear part of the vehicle are more in harmony with the intent of a motor-driven vehicle. There no longer are the pivotal portions like the horse-drawn carts or wagons. The entire structure is one piece!

Below:

Horse drawn wagons. Notice the coal wagon.

Remember that horses were still numerous, and less costly than a motorized vehicle. However, with a mere 20 years, the vast numbers of horses would slowly disappear, to be replaced by the motor!

Below:

Motorized engines and horse-driven carts.

Below:

Past meets the future on 2 pages of the catalogue

I'm sure that my next car will be like the transition of the horse to motor-driven carts.

I'll however have just one priority and that I won't budge from.

I want to be able to drive the car and not have it drive me!

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

hasve a great part of the day  or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Determining a Toy's Age from its' Design and Characteristics - Part II

Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Partly sunny, then overcast with minor drizzle

Determining a Toy's Age 

from its' Design and Characteristics - 

Part II

   I've already started the conversation about trying to determine a toy's age from it's design and characteristics. Below is the first part of the series:

Please click here to go to part I of this topic

  I had started with horse-drawn trolleys. As we shall see, there is an evolution to this type of passenger vehicle as time progresses from the horse, to electricity, and finally to the gas-powered motor.  In part I, I introduced the lithographed paper on wood toy. These type of toys were made from the 1880's-1910's.However, during the same period, there were alternative material that were used.  These were painted tin and cast iron wheels, with stencilling for any lettering that was needed to identify the route of the trolley or the name of the trolley.

One has to realize that at the time, there was no electricity. The major system of electricity for city lighting and transportation would come in the early 1910's.  However, the first electric street car in North America was put into service on Michigan Street in South Bend, Indiana in 1882. By then electricity was well-enough and safely developed to produce on a mass scale, mostly from hydro-electric peer, although the USA had plenty of coal for  steam-powered generators.

Tin was a common-enough metal, and it receives paint quite easily. If you look closely, you can see the hand-painted reins that  were painted on the horses.  It was also very easy to form and cut either with "tinner's snips"or for faster and cleaner cuts (like the windows) through die cast cutting.

What I also learned through writing this post is that

soldering was used to join the hitches from the trolley to the horse or horses.

For those who don't know the English word "soldering", that is a process whereby a soft metal (lead at the time) was melted on to the parts needing to be jointed. Of course today, the main use for solder and the process is in plumbing for jointing pipes and elbows together. However today's solder is a different alloy (mixture of metals) that are much safer to people and the environment.

It's also important to read the condition or any alternations that auctioneers or sellers provide in the description of a listing.In the example below,  Bertoia Auctions that the "horses re-soldered to a replacement hitch". That is how I learned that some of the parts of these toys were soldered.

I didn't search for a "real" horse-drawn trolley, but I'm sure of you did a search for the "real" item

you'd find a photo of one that would have been in operation.  Also,since photography was well-establihed by the 1880's it wouldn' t be too hard to find an authentic photo of an authentic trolley way back then.

Think of this as "homework" for this post.

Of course, as a teacher, I did a search to see if I would find one. I did!
Press the link below that is a Bing Search and you'll find the first entry the one to redirect to.
wikipedia 1880's horse trolley

Thanks for dropping by to visit, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com