[lesmore49]

They were particularly good in those conditions with the tractor conversion installed. ?Doodlebug? 1923 Ford Model T farm tractor conversion
They have one of these in the collection at Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska. It's one of my favorite places in the country to visit. It was started as a collection by the guy who patented Plexiglass and grew to one of the largest collections of memorabilia there is. I swear, if this isn't true it should be; they have one of everything ever made.

Looked at the Pioneer Village link and it made me think how much the world has changed in such a short time.

My grandmother was born in 1897 in western Canada , in a very small country town. At the time, no cars, just trains, and horse and wagon/buggy...etc. She lived till 1990 and still remembered a remembered when she was 3 years old (1900) a fire engine wagon, pulled by a team of horses racing down her front street.

There were no planes, just a couple of guys experimenting with lighter than air contraptions. Medicine/ dentistry was relatively primitive back then. WW1 and WW2 were a long way off on the horizon. No guided missiles, no commercial airplanes.

We have come a long way, in some ways, at least.

As far as modified Model T's...the Model T snowmobile has always impressed me.

The Model T Ford Snowmobile Club Home Page

[StiffLegged]

Indeed...

(x2/a2) + (y2/b2) = 1

Though it's often easy to confuse with a hyperbola...

(x2/a2) - (y2/b2) = 1

Just as well you didn't opt for accountancy, then!

Something that I've always wondered is: Is the Ford "Oval" logo really an oval, or is it an ellipse?

The red outline was added in Photoshop using the Ellipse tool. If the tool draws accurately then it seems the current Ford oval is, indeed, an ellipse.

[MarkJerling]

Bless him for that, it gave birth to Kingsford charcoal.
Originally called Ford charcoal.

I did not know that!

[MarkJerling]

I remember the hinged license plate hiding the gas cap, but on American cars. When I was a very young man, a couple of buddies worked as gas station attendants and part of their job , apart from fixing flats and changing oil was to fill up gas tanks for customer's. This was in the late '60's , when a lot of American cars had hidden gas tank filler nozzles. Hiding the gas tank filler seemed to be a common design feature on cars made in the '50's and '60's.

As far as I know they were never stumped, probably due to helpful owners.

I had three VW Beetles (old, air cooled engine jobs) and my '61 had a well hidden gas tank filler. You had to pop the front hood to get to the filler and gas up. Also the engine was in the rear....but V-Dubs were so common back then the old line about popping the front hood to see no engine there, and then sound the alarm that the engine has been stolen ....didn't fool many, if any.

How did you fond the Mercedes 230, inline six ? Pretty good, reliable car ?

What killed the hidden gas filler cap was safety: Most '40's and '50s cars had the gas cap behind the number plate or behind one of the two tail lights. This proved to be a bad idea in rear-end collisions as the filler neck could shear off and dump a lot of flammable liquid on the road and near a hot exhaust. Hence, gas caps were moved to the rear fender side.

[MarkJerling]

Indeed...

(x2/a2) + (y2/b2) = 1

Though it's often easy to confuse with a hyperbola...

(x2/a2) - (y2/b2) = 1

Is it not wonderful how, in this thread, we can in the space of a few posts cover the maths around ellipses, the location of gas tank filler caps, the cunning ways of Henry Ford, the origins of charcoal briquets, denim work clothes, and a few other topics!

[lesmore49]

Is it not wonderful how, in this thread, we can in the space of a few posts cover the maths around ellipses, the location of gas tank filler caps, the cunning ways of Henry Ford, the origins of charcoal briquets, denim work clothes, and a few other topics!

And I might add...my reminisces of my Grandmother !

[lesmore49]

What killed the hidden gas filler cap was safety: Most '40's and '50s cars had the gas cap behind the number plate or behind one of the two tail lights. This proved to be a bad idea in rear-end collisions as the filler neck could shear off and dump a lot of flammable liquid on the road and near a hot exhaust. Hence, gas caps were moved to the rear fender side.

Quite true. Safety changes are good things. I still remember the accident that convinced me to use my seat/ shoulder belts, all the time, rather than just occasionally.

I was at a gas station waiting for my car to have it's oil changed. There was a crosswalk on the main street, in front of the gas station. A very large Mack concrete truck was driving and came to a rapid stop when someone darted out on the crosswalk. A car, following too closely behind the Mack, hit the brakes too late and the car slid hard, into the rear tires of the truck.

The driver and passenger hit the inside of the windshield, you could see the broken windshield. A couple of ambulances took them away to a hospital, I never did find out if they recovered.

That scene, back around 1970, convinced me to buckle up, every time I got into a vehicle. At the time seat belt usage was not mandatory, nor in frequent practice. It became mandatory for me, at that moment.

[robtcorl]

I had three VW Beetles

My recollection of the first Beetle in our small town is that it was not well received by many of the town folks.
We're talking 1950's and to see The People's Car tooling around town was upsetting to veterans and their families.

Lots of jokes back then.
A gal is broke down in a VW, She is approached by another woman driving one.
The gal said her car just stopped running and upon opening the hood found out she has no engine.
The other gal said, that's ok, I have a spare one in my trunk.

[robtcorl]

Speaking of the small town where we lived, until I was 14, we had a WWII war hero for a mayor.
Mr Gainer and my dad were good friends, but I didn't know about his military service until years later.
It always seemed to me the more a soldier did in a war, the less you heard about it from him.
Mr Gainer was the same age as dad, and passed a year before dad.
https://gyaanipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Melvin_Gainer,_Jr.

[bertwert]

Is it not wonderful how, in this thread, we can in the space of a few posts cover the maths around ellipses, the location of gas tank filler caps, the cunning ways of Henry Ford, the origins of charcoal briquets, denim work clothes, and a few other topics!

Certainly!

If one was to invest in threads in the same way they do in the market, that is good diversification, then this would be the thread to invest in!

[eddie1960]

Did the Mountain Dew driver 'hook' you and your buddies into becoming life long Dew drinkers ?

Think I was an older teenage when Mountain Dew came here, by that time I was a confirmed Coca Cola guy.

dont lnow about rhe others but not me..i tried some for nostalgia but the completely chsngrd rhe recipe and it was pretry awful

[lesmore49]

My recollection of the first Beetle in our small town is that it was not well received by many of the town folks.
We're talking 1950's and to see The People's Car tooling around town was upsetting to veterans and their families.

Lots of jokes back then.
A gal is broke down in a VW, She is approached by another woman driving one.
The gal said her car just stopped running and upon opening the hood found out she has no engine.
The other gal said, that's ok, I have a spare one in my trunk.

Good joke. Hadn't heard that one and as you know, I will use and claim it as mine !

Same here. There was some resentment in my town too, about VW's , Mercedes, etc.

My older neighbour , a really great guy and a WW2 vet asked me about it and why did I choose the VW. It was 1967, my first car, I was 18. I said, I bought it as it was reasonable in price, I didn't have much money and the VW was supposed to be very reliable and had low running costs,,,great MPG, etc.

He pondered what I had said and then replied, ...." that makes sense and in his day, when he was my age young guys , him included bought used Model T Fords for the same reasons, and the VW Beetle sounds like it's the modern Model T Ford. "

He was a man who had known me since I was a kid, and we used to have conversations from the time I was a kid. I had a lot of respect for him. A good guy.

[Serkevan]

Indeed...

(x2/a2) + (y2/b2) = 1

Though it's often easy to confuse with a hyperbola...

(x2/a2) - (y2/b2) = 1

Neglecting to mention what "a" and "b" stand for?
That's 30% off of the final score. Tsk tsk...

[lesmore49]

dont lnow about rhe others but not me..i tried some for nostalgia but the completely chsngrd rhe recipe and it was pretry awful

When I was going to U., to pay my way through, I worked for a company for about 5 years, as a driver/salesman...all year round.

I learned an awful lot from the owner who was very wise in the ways of people. I recall some things he said about making it in the food biz:

-If you have a good product that people like, don't change it because ingredient costs go up. People will understand that costs do go up, so make sure your costs to them are fair and reasonable, but don't ever try to keep the same prices by using cheaper ingredients. People will notice right away and you'll lose customers if you change the taste, the recipe, or the ingredients of the product.

-You can't sell from an empty wagon. In other words always make sure you have stock.

-It's easy to lose a customer, but hard to get a customer.

Good things to remember .

[Serkevan]

In other news, my research group has received a grant for an R&D project - large scale production of energy storage devices.

That means I don't have to freak out about the impending unemployment before finishing the [expletives] degree... and that I'll have a job working on something more practical for a year and spare change. Should be good for the CV. Terrible for LBA, though .