Armstrong Whitworth Tourer, 1906

This is the Armstrong Whitworth Tourer now present in the Beamish Town Motor Showroom, as featured in my previous post. The car, built by the Newcastle-upon-Tyne based engineering company (the same Armstrong Whitworth who made trains, planes, ships and armaments), was made for the Emperor of Japan as part of a trade deal, however never got closer to Japan than Southampton docks when the deal fell through. It instead was sold to an owner and worked in the Edinburgh area. At some point in it's life, it ended up in Essex, where it was photographed here by Robert Hallman, and seems to have then been sold or donated to Beamish where it takes pride of place in the recreated Edwardian Motor Garage.

All photographs copyright Robert Hallman, and the originals, with additional others, can be seen here http://www.rochforddistricthistory.org.uk/page_id__126_path__0p67p.aspx

Edwardian Motor Showroom

The highlight of any trip to the Beamish Open Air Museum for me is the wonderful Motor Garage in the 1913 town, a wonderful recreation of a period garage, complete with showroom with motor cars and motorcycles, and a workshop at the rear to purchase accessories, spare parts, and also for repairs to be undertaken. This set of images shows the showroom, containing a 1906 Armstrong Whitworth Tourer, 1913 Renault Tourer and a 1913 Ford Model T as well as several motorcycles. Unfortunately the glass makes photographs taken from the outside difficult, so no photographs showing the Armstrong Whitworth or the Renault at the moment, so I hope these will suffice for a while

1913 Ford Model T Tourer

Kodak No 2 Autographic Camera, 1913

One of my favourite posessions, this is my 1913 model Kodak No 2 Autographic Camera. Mine was built in 1917 (the interior casing has the patent updated every few months stamped on it, and the latest date is early 1917 so was made in the summer of 1917 at the latest). A flap on the back side and a 'stylus' is a very interesting feature - this was so that after you took a photograph, you would open the flap on the back, write a caption on the film using the stylus (something like 'my brother on his new bicycle'), hold the back of the camera up to the sunlight for a few seconds, and when the film was developed the photograph would have a caption!

Unfortunately modern film doesn't allow for this, however i'm very fortunate that I can actually use modern film in it and so can continue to enjoy it nearly a century after it was made. It takes 120mm film, I personally use Ilford black and white film, and I can take 8 photographs per film. It's not something I use for everyday photography owing to the cost, but I still use it as often as possible for photographs of period subjects, and I share the results on the internet (mainly on my Flickr feed, http://www.flickr.com/photos/roblangham/ ), and will do so on here too. To start off with, here's a taster for the next post - the Edwardian 1913 Motor Garage at Beamish

Antoinette Monoplane, 1910

With a long, graceful, boat like fuselage and a paddle propellor, the Antoinette is a very striking early aircraft, and probably not very surprising to know that it's a French aircraft. Hubert Latham almost beat Louis Bleriot in becoming the first man to cross the English Channel by aeroplane in 1909, and if he had the Antoinette would no doubt be a lot better known today, however unfortunately Latham had to ditch his Antoinette in the water twice owing to engine failure, before Bleriot's succesful attempt.

This early survivor is on display in the Science Museum, London. It's early history is not confirmed, but it is believed to be one bought by Vivian Hewitt, heir to a Sunderland brewing fortune, but never actually flew it. It was bought by Robert Blackburn (of the Blackburn aircraft company) in 1916 from a garage in Colwyn Bay, Wales, for £60, and later presented it to the Science Museum

Cars of War, 1910

This French postcard from 1910 entitled 'Automobiles du Guerre' shows what the artist envisions warfare will be like in the year 2000

Roe I Triplane, 1909

The Science Museum in South Kensington, London, has arguably the most important collection of aeroplanes in the world. There are many famous aircraft here - the first British jet aircraft, the Vickers Vimy that was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic non-stop in 1919, Schneider Trophy winning Schneider S.6 floatplane, and a large collection of original early flying machines (they even had the Wright Brothers Flyer from 1903 until the Smithsonian finally acquired it from the Wright Brothers on the proviso they would admit it was the first flight of a controllable, human piloted heavier than air craft, but that's another story). The smell as you enter the Flight Gallery is the first thing you notice - old wood, linen and dope creates a unique and evocative odour of early flight.

The aircraft are hung from the roof in close proximity to each other in a large, poorly lit room, which is never good for displaying aircraft or for photographing them, but it's still wonderful to see them. This aircraft is a Roe I Triplane, usually referred to as an Avro Triplane, built by Alliott Verdon Roe, the first all-British aircraft to fly (British construction with British engine). On June 5 1909, powered by a 6hp JAP Motorcycle engine, the first Roe I Triplane, nicknamed 'The Blues', made it's first of a series of short hops on Walthamstow Marshes in Essex (now in the London Borough of Waltham Forest), later flying for further and further distances. A further three Roe I Triplanes were built, and it's not known which one this is. Interestingly, the wings of the first Roe I Triplane weren't covered with linen, but paper, owing to AV Roe's financial hardship at the time

Star 10/12 Motor Car, 1912

One of four models exhibited by Star of Wolverhampton, UK, at the 1912 Olympic Motor Exhibition is this Star 10/12hp 'Victoria' 2.4 litre motor car. With room for two on the large leather seating, with an additional 'dickey' seat (a much more simple wooden bench fitted to the rear of the car which can be folded away easily) for two more (folded away in this image, however in more recent photographs I will upload at a later date, the dickey seat is on display and ready for use), this Star 'Victoria' Coupe is now on display at the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, UK. It is a fantastic example of a typical late Edwardian car

Triplex Goggles, 1916

Advert for Triplex Goggles, a famous brand used by many pilots of the Royal Flying Corps, from my November 9 1916 edition of Flight magazine

'The ? Motorist', 1906

One of the most well known early films is this unpronouncable title 'The ? Motorist', made by RW Paul in 1906. It is also one of the earliest films to feature a motor car, in this case a Humberette, being central to the plot.

The film opens with a man and woman in the Humberette, with a policeman trying to wave the motorist down to stop, possibly for speeding. Instead of stopping, or taking any avoiding action, the motorist collides with the policeman, who at first ends up on the car's bonnet, where he is hit by the car's occupants, and then falls off and is run over by the vehicle.

Despite appearing dead or at least seriously injured, the policeman gives chase. The car heads straight towards a building, which instead of crashing into, drives up the vertical side of, before heading through the sky into space, driving around the moon.

After driving around the moon, the car then heads further into space, and lands on the rings of Saturn, which it drives around as if they were a road, before falling off and back onto Planet Earth. It crashes through the roof of a courtroom, where a motorist is in a farcical setting, possibly being caught and innocently blamed for the running over of the policeman. The policeman in the court then chases the car, stopping it, however when he is on the verge of arresting the occupants, the car changes to a horse and cart, and the occupants change from being well dressed in modern clothes to more traditional farm worker style clothing. Stupefied, the policeman doesn't know what to do, while the horse and cart and occupants saunter away - when safely away from the policeman the horse and cart turns back into the Humberette and they get clean away!

The Jubilee Sweetshop and Sweet Factory

Located in the 1913 Town at the Beamish Open Air Museum is the Jubilee Sweetshop and Sweet Factory, recreating a traditional small sweet shop with factory in the rear for making boiled sweets. I can personally testify to the deliciousness of this factory's products!



The sweet factory