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Bill Gruby
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Question --- How can a piece of machinery have been made and nobody knows that it ever existed?????
"Billy G" :whistle:
"Billy G" :whistle:
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Bill Gruby
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At least that is an answer. Think a moment about the context of the question. It ia about no particular type or manufacturer. How many times have we searched in vain only to come up short on info. Happens all the time. If we solve this question wer can find anything. Emphasis on the WE.
"Billy G" :think1:
"Billy G" :think1:
It does not surprise me.
Many, many years ago I went to work for a company that was bought by a very old (then) US company about 60+ miles from your location in Bristol, CT. We build machines that sold all over the world. There were no computers or internet. The machine records were hand written or typed and kept in three ring binders and some were even hand written on engineering transparent materials so blueprint copies could be made. There were file cabinets full of bills-of-materials for the machines as built. The manuals were typed with hand drawn illustrations with mostly three ring type binding and were revised often to match the newer machines as they evolved. Those records were hardcopy and kept by engineering or servcie and not in computers. Through the years the company was bought and sold with all the related name changes. Those records were of little interest to the new owners and the younger employees that came with change. Time and again I saw those records thrown in the trash.
I just Googled the company name and one of the machine model names as it was when we were bought in the early 60's, nothing! Even the best search engine can't find what was in old file cabinets that were long ago thrown away.
It is forums like this that get the old machines (at least the machine tool type) into the searchable internet database.
Sorry, so long winded!
Benny
One key word I noticed in the very first post was "Nobody". If anything was built by a human, than at least Somebody had to know about it???
I think that Benny "hit the nail on the head" about lost records. No one knows about the machines because no one who did know is still alive. Industrial historians themselves are getting fewer and farther between too, most I've met, seen or read of are older people, not many to carry on the research and record keeping. Hard copy gets thrown out because nobody wants to store what's become obsolete, memories fade...............
That's the sad part, people seeing no value in what was invented and developed in the past, so the information is lost and then invariably they have to reinvent the wheel when what they destroyed is found to be needed.
M
That is why, in addition to forum posts, we have a downloads library on here of old manuals and other information for those people who are active to share. It's now about 10GB of stuff in there.
The other day, I bought a Van Norman #12 electrical box just because it came with the blueprints for the electrical system. Odds are I plan to scrap the system and use a VFD, (or 2 VFD's), but for someone who needs it, this kind of info is gold. I taped the blues together and scanned them in and uploaded them.
One day someone will need this info and we will have it among other sources.
:tiphat:Nelson
The other day, I bought a Van Norman #12 electrical box just because it came with the blueprints for the electrical system. Odds are I plan to scrap the system and use a VFD, (or 2 VFD's), but for someone who needs it, this kind of info is gold. I taped the blues together and scanned them in and uploaded them.
One day someone will need this info and we will have it among other sources.
:tiphat:Nelson
