Thanks,
Steve
Alloy transom clamps.
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Alloy transom clamps.
This is a transom bracket that came with one of my 102 motors (AC).It seems a little unusual in that the C clamps are solid alloy and have brass L shaped screws.Does anyone know why these were produced instead of the bronze version and when?
Thanks,
Steve
Thanks,
Steve
I have never handled one of these alloy brackets, but I've seen photos of two examples before this one. From the dates of the other couple I'm sure they were produced for a very short time after the war. I am fairly convinved that this was the bracket known as the 'B' type bracket in British Seagull.
This was the forerunner of the ubiqitous 102 & Century component that lasted for decades. The aluminium ones (such as yours) superceded the skeletal bronze bracket of the SD and D models. The next ones were the hollow bronze clamps, then the perforated ones.
As to exact dates - I don't know. It has been my plan for some time to work through whatever documentation - especially adverts - and try to pin down the bracket dates as best I can, but it's complicated by the use of photos in advertising that are obviously old stock. It's also complicated by a complete lack - more a 100 per cent blackout - of any reliable wartime information.
As a rough (and maybe wildly inaccurate) guide; the 'B type bracket' appears in BS documents from the AC in 1946/47. I have not until recently realised that this aluminium one is indeed a 'B' type, but it certainly predates the first bronze clamped one. So that puts it's introduction at about 1946. We know that the 'Hollow Bronze' clamps continued (with bent thumbscrews) until the very early fifties (later ones have conventional later type thumbscrews) and then it was the classic 'perforated' style for ages.
102 brackets are a bit of a current 'thing' with me. There are so many designs that one wonders just what was going through people's minds when each improvement was introduced. Starting with the late thirties 'Marston' alloy affairs, going through strange angle iron devices that would look home made if there was only one still in existence, and then the succession of alloy and bronze models - all over a few years.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
This was the forerunner of the ubiqitous 102 & Century component that lasted for decades. The aluminium ones (such as yours) superceded the skeletal bronze bracket of the SD and D models. The next ones were the hollow bronze clamps, then the perforated ones.
As to exact dates - I don't know. It has been my plan for some time to work through whatever documentation - especially adverts - and try to pin down the bracket dates as best I can, but it's complicated by the use of photos in advertising that are obviously old stock. It's also complicated by a complete lack - more a 100 per cent blackout - of any reliable wartime information.
As a rough (and maybe wildly inaccurate) guide; the 'B type bracket' appears in BS documents from the AC in 1946/47. I have not until recently realised that this aluminium one is indeed a 'B' type, but it certainly predates the first bronze clamped one. So that puts it's introduction at about 1946. We know that the 'Hollow Bronze' clamps continued (with bent thumbscrews) until the very early fifties (later ones have conventional later type thumbscrews) and then it was the classic 'perforated' style for ages.
102 brackets are a bit of a current 'thing' with me. There are so many designs that one wonders just what was going through people's minds when each improvement was introduced. Starting with the late thirties 'Marston' alloy affairs, going through strange angle iron devices that would look home made if there was only one still in existence, and then the succession of alloy and bronze models - all over a few years.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
-
bob cordon champ
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There was a shortage post-war of both steel and bronze in any of their variants. There seems not to have been the same problem with aluminium, particularly sheet, which lead to, for instance, Hunting Percival making modernist bedroom suites and Marstons making traditionally-styled 1940's 'brown' furniture, both from sheet alloy. Examples of both survive, so owners of Marston Seagulls might find a really appropriate workshop chair or cupboard.
Any small enterprise could get alloy castings done, given a supply of alloy scrap, though results could be variable - as witness the infamous 'Pistominium' from which some pre-war MG castings were made.
Marston Seagull spares are made from another material altogether, namely 'Unobtanium'.
Any small enterprise could get alloy castings done, given a supply of alloy scrap, though results could be variable - as witness the infamous 'Pistominium' from which some pre-war MG castings were made.
Marston Seagull spares are made from another material altogether, namely 'Unobtanium'.
