- Joined
- Apr 13, 2022
- Messages
- 22
Hi all, I posted this in the VN Facebook group, but for those who aren't on Facebook:
Incoming VN historical documents!
I visited the Smithsonian a few weeks ago, one of their libraries has some un-catalogued VN literature. I looked through it all, and they have some things that I've never seen before. I took some scans while I was there, not everything (yet), but things that were particularly interesting.
I'm still going through my scans and cleaning them up, but I'll be sharing some of what I have soon. I've got some brochures/catalogs for early VN, in the No. 0 era, some things for the No. 1/2, Nos. 10, 11, 21, etc. They also have (and I have scans of) a handful of blueprints.
For quality reasons, what I'll be sharing for now will be access-controlled, just view-only links to Google Drive that won't allow downloading. I'm planning to go back in the new year and get better scans, and I don't want the iffy scans I have now to propagate across the internet.
I'm also in the process of creating a website documenting all this and the historical research I've been doing, inspired by/updating from John Kasunich's back in the day.
As a preview, two things from close to either end of VN's milling machine production existence: No. 0 brochure, No. 2G Auto-Scan brochure
Also also, I picked up a copy of the serial number book (5th edition, published 1974), and I have a maybe-unprovable hypothesis in answer to the questions some (Wheels74, jamie76x, probably others) have had about 5-digit serial numbers for VN 12s. The book lists the No. 22 (no L, just 22) and No. 32 as starting in 1935/6 (respectively) with 13xxx serial numbers, before switching over to 5000-series numbers in 1937. It stands to reason that the No. 6, 12, 22, 32 all launched at approximately the same time, and if so, that would explain the handful of No. 12s in the wild with early features but a 5-digit serial number; they just date to sometime between 1935 and whatever date in 1937 VN switched to the 5000 numbering system.
Incoming VN historical documents!
I visited the Smithsonian a few weeks ago, one of their libraries has some un-catalogued VN literature. I looked through it all, and they have some things that I've never seen before. I took some scans while I was there, not everything (yet), but things that were particularly interesting.
I'm still going through my scans and cleaning them up, but I'll be sharing some of what I have soon. I've got some brochures/catalogs for early VN, in the No. 0 era, some things for the No. 1/2, Nos. 10, 11, 21, etc. They also have (and I have scans of) a handful of blueprints.
For quality reasons, what I'll be sharing for now will be access-controlled, just view-only links to Google Drive that won't allow downloading. I'm planning to go back in the new year and get better scans, and I don't want the iffy scans I have now to propagate across the internet.
I'm also in the process of creating a website documenting all this and the historical research I've been doing, inspired by/updating from John Kasunich's back in the day.
As a preview, two things from close to either end of VN's milling machine production existence: No. 0 brochure, No. 2G Auto-Scan brochure
Also also, I picked up a copy of the serial number book (5th edition, published 1974), and I have a maybe-unprovable hypothesis in answer to the questions some (Wheels74, jamie76x, probably others) have had about 5-digit serial numbers for VN 12s. The book lists the No. 22 (no L, just 22) and No. 32 as starting in 1935/6 (respectively) with 13xxx serial numbers, before switching over to 5000-series numbers in 1937. It stands to reason that the No. 6, 12, 22, 32 all launched at approximately the same time, and if so, that would explain the handful of No. 12s in the wild with early features but a 5-digit serial number; they just date to sometime between 1935 and whatever date in 1937 VN switched to the 5000 numbering system.
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