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From Air Trails Pictorial dated Jan. 1949

A full page ad from K&B for the Infant Torpedo.
For the time they called it "the world's smallest production made glow ignition engine"
According to the text, You could fly this indoors or out and came with a sturdy, stamped aluminum prop (OUCH!!!).

Most of us should be familiar with the new product announcements in magazines.
Check out the first page in the January 1949 Air Trails Pictorial I have.
Note under the Single blade prop are a couple of really sharp jackets Note also the jacket on the left, the "Stormy Petrel" Is lined with Fiber glass! [] And you thought wool can make you itch! They called it "Spun Sun". That same jacket wouldn't fly today I don't think.

Robert

MJD

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And the model for it!

MJD

SGC

I gotta say that no one would ever wear that jacket out, as they would never wear it a second time LOL

rainedave

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Cool. I love old ads. But, according to the consumer price index calculator $7.95 in 1949 equals $70.88 today. Maybe those NIB Norvels aren't really all that expensive:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

David

combatpigg

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I wondered what the comparative value was, $7.98 sounded like a pretty steep price. My parents talked about feeding our family of 4 for $20 a week in the late 50s.

sir crashallot

i dont no if americas the same, but that spun spun is the stuff we now use to line our lofts and atticks out as insulatrion in the uk, it is insulation and it is fiber glass and i can say im saving buckets of cash a year on heating with that stuff installed, to say it was invented back then i wonder if they really new what they had, but yeah i can imagine the itchiness of them coats, especialy after rolling about in my attick looking to see if i could convert it for the models, but yeah i too love these old adds sort of takes you back to the time it is talking about, and with the prices that are stated you think oh il order one of them and then ya relise its years old 50 maybee more makes a good read though,

Scar

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My senior design instructor told a story about creating artificial limbs. First thing they tried was fiberglas structure. I believe he said "We did good on the engineering, but not so good on the dermatology." As others have indicated, fiberglas & skin are not compatible!

Dave Olson

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Yes the Old ads are a hoot!

The fiber glass is not as dangerous as asbestos and that ad showed that they knew then of the insulating properties and some enterprising company was trying to take advantage of this. I wonder though, did the CEO wear one?

How about this one? A half A jet engine? I know that the term refers to the displavement but this thing is tiny.

The M.E.W. (Minnisota Engine Works) 601 is Quoted here as:
"Less than six inches long, 601 operates so quietly it can be run indoors."

This I would like to have witnessed myself. Maybe you could run it inside a paper mill and it would not be noticed much. Still Running on 75% white gas and 25% kerosene I would love to give it a shot. Err, not indoors.

How about the tip in Sketchbook on soldering at the field? just use a couple of wires with alligator clips and the graphite core of a pencil! Hook it to the car battery and there you go!
Note the battery is of couse 6 volts which was the norm back then.

Robert

Half-A-Hec

Robert,

Good stuff! Keep it coming. BTW where do you come up with this stuff? Are these out of old books or mags that you may have in your collection?

Hec

dbacque

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Hey, I saw one of those "jet engines" run way back when I was in high school. I really expected something impressive. What a let down. That thing couldn't be used to power anything except for making the test stand go round and round, and not very fast at that.

It was one of those items that the ads had me believing that I couldn't live without but when my friend brought one in and ran it in the gym for the science classes, I was glad that I had my Cox engines.

It was anemic at best and yes it was quiet.

Dave

gcb

Dave, how did it work (other than poorly )?

Looks like a CO2 cartridge you would fill with something, and a gasoline tray under it like the old blow torches.

I remember seeing the ads in some old model airplane mags a friend gave me in the mid fifties.

George

Oops! Forgot to add pics. Each side of K&B infant. Last pic is Infant and OK CO2, also popular at the time.

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Yes Hec, I have a few old ones. This one is my oldest I think. It almost isin't worth saving for the condition. Although I have them, the front and back covers are no longer attached and every time I thumb through it little pieces of the page edges flake off.
It does have the full size pull out plans for two planes!

Quote by Dave:
"It was anemic at best and yes it was quiet."

That is a shame but at least you got to see one fired up. It sure turned your desire for one down but it still is a memory to cling to. I wish I had been there to share your dissappointment! We all need a laugh.

Goes to show you that not all that glitters is gold. I suppose if it really were a little powerhouse, it would have made some real noise!

How about a Harley Davidson? They advertised there on the same page as Stanzel.

And a deal on a Deisel? Or should I say a DEEZIL for $2.95!

And a very racy, attractive ad for Air Blaze fuel. If I was 14 years old and saw that ad I would believe my planes could go fassst! Great artwork in such a small space.

Robert

flyinrog

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Wow, Dave and CP are right in 1949 $7.95 mighta been a car payment!....20 years later when I was ten they were selling Cox .010's as novelty tie clips for $5.....and that jet engine looks like you fill an empty co2 bottle with gas and light it!...The Harley in the last ad was actually made in Italy...I believe by Gillera or Aeromecchi,,cant recall.....they badged several models from 125 to 250 bikes with the Harley name up into the early 80's....Rog

Oh yeah old trivea, a few years back I went to the folks to get down the xmas tree, in the bottom of the box was an old paper from 1967, in the want ads there was a 1965 E-Type Jaguar (commonly but mistakenly known as an XKE) on sale for $1500....man if I could only travel back in time[&o]...but I have a Miata and someone does make an E-type front end for it,, if I could only find out who...Rog

Live Wire

I bought one of the little Deezel's way back when , and thought they were pritty expensive at the time Never did get it started and can't remember what I did with it[:@] I got $.25 a week some times for allowence, took me a while to save for it.
Those were the GOOD OLD DAY's

vicman

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George,
You sir are amazing with your collection!

Please adopt me.

gcb

Had one of those old DEEZILs. It was given to me by a fellow modeler. He never got it to run and I never tried. I used it (disassembled) in a Junior High School science fair. Can't remember whatever happened to that one either.

I learned much later that the originals ran pretty much like a Mills. By the time they were $2.95, they werejust a bunch of assembled parts. Ones that had good fits ran, most did not. I have a replica that runs well.

Vicman, sorry... I already have a bunch of engines to support. [&o]

My collection is not that large. One fellow who used to frequent here has ~400 in just the .09 range, plus others.

George

vicman

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Aww cmon man. I build my own planes and even pay for my own fuel... I'm very low maintenance, ask Raymond.

Shoot I even do my own machining. That's gotta be worth something.[sm=bananahead.gif]

on pipe

Don't believe George when he says his collection is not that big... He is a modest man, I've seen quite a number of his engines in the short (relatively) time I've frequented this forum! Ross

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I also noticed that the model distributors used drawings of curvaceous women to draw your attention to their ads.

Robert

dbacque

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Fuzzy memory time.

I think the way it worked was the CO2 cartridge looking thing was the fuel tank.

The tray below the fuel tank was a fuel preheater. Once the engine was fueled with white gas and kerosene and hung on the stand, the heater was placed underneath it with some sort of fuel that was then lit to heat the fuel tank. Sounds kinda like a bomb waiting to happen.

Then you wait for what at the time seemed an eternity.

I guess when it got warm enough it would pressurize and start spraying fuel into the combustion chamber. I remember him having a heck of a time getting it lit. Once it's lit and running the tray below the tank was removed.

When I heard that he was going to run his "jet engine" at the school science assembly I was so excited. What a dissapointment. I learned a little something about advertising that day.

Dave

Tee Bee

Did someone mention Deezils? I've got this one on display in my living room(Very understanding wife). I scored it from a neighbor about a year ago since he knew I was into model airplanes and engines. He said as a child he remembers his father running it on several occasions on a wooden test stand back in the 50s but he doesn't think it was ever used on an airplane. I disassembled it and it looks to be in good condition but I've never attempted to run it. Found the old magazine add on the big auction site. I may have posted these pics before.

vicman

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Very understanding indeed.
My wife wouldn't let me keep my leather wrapped Gerstner tool box in plain sight much less an engine. [&o]

Tee Bee

My wife adopted one of my old refinished Gerstner tool boxes for use as a jewelry box after I took over one of her wooden chests to store Cox engines and parts. I have 2 TD .010-powered RC planes and a Guillow's DRI hanging in the bedroom as well. That way, airplanes are the 1st and last thing I see when waking up and going to bed. If something ever happens to me, I'm sure she'll waste no time getting rid of all my "junk".

proptop

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Didn't Gotham Hobby later become AHC (America's Hobby Center )?

MJD

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I will try to get a copy of a couple of minutes of film footage, which involves me and a coop engineering student test firing a back of the magazine little B&W ad rocket engine - the "System Solaire" liquid fuel rocket engine which promised all sorts of earth shattering things. He paid something like $1000 for it (he better not have been getting any student grants come to think of it... hmm) and got the most cockamamie piece of crap I ever did see. The literature was just as bad, the builder couldn't tell one bloody unit of measurement from another it seemed. It looked lke something conjured up by Jethro Bodine in shop class and had a Beverly Hills price tag to go with it. It was designed to use 50% hydrogen peroxide and gasoline IIRC. We felt sorry for him (only a tiny bit) and also wanted to see it blow to bits (dearly) so agreed to help him fire it on our test stand. The film is sad, a bit steamy purple fart that would barely have moved the thing sideways on glare ice. I'm sure I've created more thrust.

MJD