preservation of old woodworking machinery
I guess most of us after old ARN are on the lookout for used old tools. It is a great way of getting high quality tools at a reasonable price. We say: “What a good standard of quality they used to maintain in the old days”. This is a little deceptive since all the bad stuff has been trashed a long time ago leaving many good quality tools to us.
It's sometimes happen that we find tools and machinery that we suspect are very old – say 100 years or older. It might sound a little bit over the top but when we take good care of such a tool we do our bit to preserve a piece of industrial history. I believe we hobby OWWMers have a responsibility here when we get our hands on really old stuff.
Now to my question. How do we take care of these antique or semi-antique tools in he best possible way?
My answer and hopfully your too
Use them!
The absolutely best way to preserve old tools and machines is to use them and keep them in working order.
Interest in and use of old tools does not exclude modern equipment.
The problem arises when you have to repair and recondition the old machines. How do you go about that without destroying historical and monetary value? If you can preserve the value of these old goodies at the same time as you preserve a small piece of industrial history I think this is a good thing. We have a duty plain and simple.
Historical knowledge and artifacts are disappearing before our eyes.
What can YOU do to at least preserve some of the knowledge and recorded information?
What will happen to YOUR knowledge when you suddenly find yourself dead?
Have you ever wished you’d pried more information out of an old timer, and recorded it?
How can we best save, record, and pass on information?
The internet provides an amazing resource and capability for passing on and collating information. Sites like
vintagemachinery
http://vintagemachinery.org/]Vintage....org | Welcome
the Mesta archive,
Plant and product of the Mesta Machine Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A : Mesta Machine Co : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
the Museum of English Rural Life
Not Found - University of Reading ... tions.aspx
, Barrow Museum’s Vickers archives,
Vickers Photographic Archive
lathes.co.uk,
lathes
Grace’s Guide
Main Page
etc., offer remarkable collections of photos and information. Loads of invaluable stuff turns up on forums
However, how secure is anything on the internet? In my opinion, the internet will implode within 10 years. It’s a neighbourhood that’s rapidly being taken over by big business and crooks. Even if it does manage to survive, what happens if the owners of the invaluable sites like Practical Machinist, lathes.co.uk, Grace’s Guide, etc., were to pull the plug one day?
I’m not offering answers here, just hoping to guild people into action.
I think the safest way of preserving information is to use the printed page. Books, journals, magazines. Then there’s a chance that some information will survive for a long time. Even if the information isn’t published, it’s potentially useful in the future. More so if you send copies to others of a like mind, to reduce the chances of it being destroyed.
Photographs: Take pictures of old factories and machines before they’re destroyed. It’s never been easier, with digital cameras. But what do you do with the images, and what’s the chance of anyone ever seeing them? you must post and tell the groups.
For my part, well, guilty as charged, to a large extent. I have gathered a lot of information in the last couple of years, but not much of it is secure. I’m finding it fascinating, for example with digging out stuff which involves finding information in old magazines, online trade directories, the highly detailed old UK maps published by Alan Godfrey Maps,
The Godfrey Edition - Old Ordnance Survey Maps - Index
However, very little of what I've gathered is down on paper, and even if it was, I don’t know anyone who’d be particularly interested in it less a small group OWWMers.
One promising area is Self Publishing. It has no appeal to me personally, but there are several people here who should be encouraged in this direction. If anyone is tempted down this road, I would think of it in terms of you doing a service to like-minded readers, rather than being a route to fame and fortune!
Save as many as you can!
jack AKA tool613
English machines