Fwd: The Little Skeoch…picture of 1920 factory



Begin forwarded message:


From: SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Subject: The Little Skeoch…picture of 1920 factory
Date: November 28, 2018 at 12:09:49 PM EST
To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>

THE  SKEOCH CYCLE CAR PRODUCTION LINE IN 1920

(Dalbeattie, Scotland)

alan skeoch
Nov. 28, 2018

Seems to be quite an  interest in my last email concerning the Little Skeoch so  here  is  another picture of the production line as  it appeared
in 1920.  Lots of  things to see including the typical line shafting along the ceiling of the factory.   Wheels on the line shafts drove the industrial
machines…lathes, grinders, etc.    If you are really perceptive you might see the convertible top unfurled  and ready for assembly.  If you can 
read, and some  of you can no doubt, you will see a sign mentioning Wolseley Oil  Engines…whatever that means.   And  those if you who
are socially aware  and critical of the grim atmospheres of factories might note that sunshine floods  this  factory floor.

My dad,  Arnold (Red) Skeoch became a  tire builder in Canada around this time and I will always remember his stories  about the
dangers  of the big line shafts which had a drive pulley beside a stationary pulley.  If you wanted a machine to shut down all that
was required was  a slight push on the whirling drive belt to put on ‘idle’.  That way the whole  assembly line was not affected.
 I assume the movement was normally done by some kind
of lever.  But Dad, working in Guelph and later in Toronto, described how a worker decided to move the belt with his  hand.   His arm got 
caught and he was converted to pulp as his  body was drawn up and around the drive pulley.  Pulp is the wrong word.  But Dad
did say the man died.  I had  visions of the poor guy being whirled around the drive pulley like his body was a windmill.  Until his 
arm was  torn from its  socket and  his  blooded body fell to the floor.  That is my image…might be true .
 The pulleys  in this factory below are quite small but I do not see any idling pulleys which means all at the production line
has to be shut down to change a belt or service a machine.

Dad had another industrial  story he told occasionally.   Rubber tires  were made with flat slabs of  reinforced rubber.  To make the rubber
uniformly flat a large rolling machine was  used.  Very dangerous.  One worker got caught in the  roller and  came out flat.  Dead flat.
Was this  true?  Well dad told the story as if it was true.  Accidents in factories…even factories like this Burnside Motor Works factory…were
quite common.  And that still seems to be the case as a  few workers each year in Ontario meet their maker in such  accidents even
though machines are now shielded and line shafts are a  thing of the past.

The really bright readers among you will know what that machine on the far left actually did.   It may be the drive engine for the whole line shaft.  
The machine that powered the whole factory.  See
the drive belt dead centre…seems  to connect to that machine dead left.  Now why in hell’s half acre did  I  use the t erm  ‘dead’.

When Dad retired from the Dunlop Tire Corporation around  1970,  Eric and I asked if we could  tour the factory and see what he did
for his  whole working life.  That was  quite an experience.  Dad was  busy manhandling slaps of rubber … big slabs …onto some spinning
machine on which he carved bug truck tires.  A job only for the strong.  Dad  was  strong and proud of his work.  He grinned  at Eric  and I
as  the plant foreman took us around the factory.   Dad wore a simple sweatshirt and his  hands were blackened by the constant contact
with rubber.   Dad seemed to like his  job as he turned down the foreman’s job when it was offered.  “I can make more money making the 
tires than supervising.”

Dad liked working for Dunlop’s because for many years the factory was  very close to the Woodbine Racetrack where he spent all or 
nearly all of his idle time.   He  loved the horses  yet ye spent his life making car and truck tires for machines that rendered  horses
obsolete. Eric and I spent a  lot of time at racetracks along with Dad and occasionally mom.  But only once did  we ever visit the
rubber tire factory.  Glad we  did.


alan skeoch
Nov. 28,2018



Photograph taken in 1920 when the LITTLE SKEOCH CYCLE CAR WAS IN FULL PRODUCTION….three car assembly line.
In 1921 the factory burned to the ground  and the Little Skeoch became a blip in the the history
of the car industry.


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