TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 3/25/2024

[953 nut 51,736]

Tillex

 

Pasadena California is known for the “Tournament of Roses” parade the takes place on New Years Day. The marching bands and gorgeous floats covered in flowers and other natural materials is something we look forward to each year.  Also, there is a sporting event called the “Rose Bowl. Pasadena’s other claim to fame is being home to the Tillex garden tiller.

Henry Marshall Bray headed up the Bay Corporation of Pasadena which made the Tillex rototiller following World War Two. During the war Bray had been treasurer and sales manager of Vard Mechanical Inc. which made precision drafting equipment and precision instruments for the SoCal aircraft industry.  The company’s wartime campus grew to include a number of buildings in Pasadena. The firm listed the following products made:  drafting machines and scales, navigational plotters, aircraft hydraulic units, optical instruments, and consulting engineers.

At the end of World War Two the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was put in charge of converting America’s military-industrial complex into peacetime uses. Bray obtained the former Vard Mechanical site and began work on lawn and garden equipment as well as other things.

 The first newspaper appearance for the Tillex was a dealer ad published in September 20, 1946 edition of the Chula Vista Star by a firm also selling Gard’n Mast’r,  Airens, and Speedex tractors.  An ad in the Modesto Bee (November 11, 1946) has the lone image of a Tillex with swooping dual handles and the aircraft-grade aluminum components, made by Vard, Inc. The Model ‘31’ appears in a number of publications, including the June 1947 issue of Popular Science magazine.

The Tillex 31 was powered by a four horsepower Wisconsin AK engine with a disc clutch and chain drive to the driven axle.  15.5” x 4.5” lug type driving wheels, eight precision forged plow-steel blades rotate on a precision-cast chrome molybdenum steel sleeve hubs.  Power to blades is transmitted from gears, sprockets and chain to blade shaft, encased in cast aluminum transmission case. Weight: 340 pounds.

I couldn’t find any information about the company’s founding or termination.

[ri702bill 7,341]

Gotta love the fabricated wheels...

[JoeM 7,643]

I see a lot of that American ingenuity in all these articles. Top notch products like Wisconsin engines.

  

Wondering how tractor trivia and other stuff is going to read in 50 years.

"Mostly made of less expensive offshore products, the company was sold only after 5 years in business. The company was added to the conglomerate of online equipment sales believed to be regarded as casual." 

 

Back in the day it was clear the effort was toward making a robust product that worked. Now it is about money. 

The newer stuff I fix will work but the minute someone puts a little strain on it, well, it falls apart. 

[Handy Don 10,613]

2 hours ago, 953 nut said:

eight precision forged plow-steel blades rotate on a precision-cast chrome molybdenum steel sleeve hubs.  Power to blades is transmitted from gears, sprockets and chain to blade shaft, encased in cast aluminum transmission case.

And we joke that our tractors are not race cars or rocket ships. Clearly the engineers and designers went wild with this thing. They probably had the accountants bound and gagged in the back office.

[WHX?? 46,805]

Back in the 40's they were used to making things for the war effort which meant things have to withstand the heat of battle. I believe this carried on to the later 40's maybe even early 50's.

Somewhere along it was figured that things could be made cheaper.

Hence the nowadays think of make it to last a few years since no more Uncle Sam's deep pockets to dig into. Let's manufacture to sell more boxes. 

 

[oliver2-44 8,852]

2 minutes ago, WHX?? said:

Let's manufacture to sell more boxes. 

 

Paper was forecast to be a dying industry 20/30 years ago. With the desktop and hand held computer revolution who needed paper. 
Fast forward to today and my recycle bin is overflowing with paper cardboard boxes from online buying. 

[WHX?? 46,805]

1 hour ago, oliver2-44 said:

who needed paper

My wife... she's gotta print everything. Then have five copies. 

Trees have been known to pull roots and run for the hills she's around. 

[Handy Don 10,613]

1 hour ago, oliver2-44 said:

Paper was forecast to be a dying industry 20/30 years ago. With the desktop and hand held computer revolution who needed paper. 
Fast forward to today and my recycle bin is overflowing with paper cardboard boxes from online buying. 

I hear you.

At one point in my working life, my company changed its stationery--logo and paper style.. We were instructed NOT to use up the reams and reams of letterhead and boxes of envelopes we had “in stock” but to switch immediately to the new stationery.

With young children at home, I got permission to take the “obsolete” stock and use it for scrap paper and for personal stuff (we used labels to cover the return addresses on the envelopes). We even gave away some to friends with young children. The supply lasted us for at least 25 years.

[SylvanLakeWH 24,155]

 

Same thing here multiple times... also, old business cards are great for simple notes... log sized rolls of old blue prints were ideal for kids art and as wrapping paper...

[oliver2-44 8,852]

1 hour ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

 log sized rolls of old blue prints were ideal as wrapping paper...

I always wondered if I was the only one that did that 😆

[8ntruck 6,376]

Back in the days when we were using IBM mainframe computers, 9 track tapes, punch cards and fan fold high speed printer paper, I used to chuckle about how were were going to soon go paperless.  What particularly got me were the 20 feet or so of IBM manual racks needed for reference to start up and keep the main frame in tune - kind of like the old parts reference book racks in the NAPA store.  At the time it was said that IBM was the larger st producer of printed material in the world.

[sergeant 282]

11 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Tillex

 

Pasadena California is known for the “Tournament of Roses” parade the takes place on New Years Day. The marching bands and gorgeous floats covered in flowers and other natural materials is something we look forward to each year.  Also, there is a sporting event called the “Rose Bowl. Pasadena’s other claim to fame is being home to the Tillex garden tiller.

Henry Marshall Bray headed up the Bay Corporation of Pasadena which made the Tillex rototiller following World War Two. During the war Bray had been treasurer and sales manager of Vard Mechanical Inc. which made precision drafting equipment and precision instruments for the SoCal aircraft industry.  The company’s wartime campus grew to include a number of buildings in Pasadena. The firm listed the following products made:  drafting machines and scales, navigational plotters, aircraft hydraulic units, optical instruments, and consulting engineers.

At the end of World War Two the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was put in charge of converting America’s military-industrial complex into peacetime uses. Bray obtained the former Vard Mechanical site and began work on lawn and garden equipment as well as other things.

 The first newspaper appearance for the Tillex was a dealer ad published in September 20, 1946 edition of the Chula Vista Star by a firm also selling Gard’n Mast’r,  Airens, and Speedex tractors.  An ad in the Modesto Bee (November 11, 1946) has the lone image of a Tillex with swooping dual handles and the aircraft-grade aluminum components, made by Vard, Inc. The Model ‘31’ appears in a number of publications, including the June 1947 issue of Popular Science magazine.

The Tillex 31 was powered by a four horsepower Wisconsin AK engine with a disc clutch and chain drive to the driven axle.  15.5” x 4.5” lug type driving wheels, eight precision forged plow-steel blades rotate on a precision-cast chrome molybdenum steel sleeve hubs.  Power to blades is transmitted from gears, sprockets and chain to blade shaft, encased in cast aluminum transmission case. Weight: 340 pounds.

I couldn’t find any information about the company’s founding or termination.

Bray Corporation was at “3571 E. Colorado Street, Pasadena 8, California and before that 2981 E. Colorado Street

 Bray Co., was an affiliate of Vard company The Tillex 31 was designed in the Vard Facilities  which Bray eventually purchased

There was also a Tillex Model 40  as well

Tillex’ trademark  was cancelled in 1955

Henry Marshall Bray died April 10, 1956 at the age of 47 in Altadena, California

So My guess is the Bray Corporation was defunct  by His death in 1956

 

There is a beauty salon, a massage parlor, and a foot doctor at 3571 E. Colorado Street, Pasadena 8, California, today .

Edited March 25 by sergeant