Thank you everyone for submitting to the site – and for the positive feedback. With a promotional push this week the entries have risen to 611 records. There are a huge number of emails from those that have contacted us, some complete with amazing detail and even photographs that we’ll add on too in due course. Thank you all!
Comptometers Part 1
Within minutes of each other we received two submission to the database for Comptometer operators, intrigued by this ‘new’ word we thought we’d investigate further.
Firstly the two submissions. The first from Eileen Butterly nee Mohan. Eileen worked as a comptometer operator in the wages department from 1956 until 1963. Married in 1962 with the name changed to Butterly and left to have a baby October 1963.
Minutes later Peter Lewis emailed through with details of his mother Irene Parsons – a Comptometer operator. Irene was at the company far earlier Peter thinks from around 1937 to 1937. He says she was involved with a trial to update the system but she beat the new fangled technology of the day. She managed to short out the electric supply to a large portion of the factory when a metal chair got earthed out in the office due to a flying lead to her machine got exposed!
Peter also sent a photo:
Irene is seen here sat rear right, in the middle of the photo.
The comptometer was the first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator, patented in the USA by Dorr E. Felt in 1887.
A key-driven calculator is extremely fast because each key adds or subtracts its value to the accumulator as soon as it is pressed and a skilled operator can enter all of the digits of a number simultaneously, using as many fingers as required, making them sometimes faster to use than electronic calculators. Consequently, in specialized applications, comptometers remained in use in limited numbers into the early 1990s, but with the exception of museum pieces, they have all now been superseded by electronic calculators and computers.
Sheila Morris
Sheila Morris, who as secretary to Mr L F Taylor, Final Finish superintendent, for four years, has left the Company and will be experiencing spending Christmas in Brazil. Continue reading “Sheila Morris”
Factory Photos (and a TR4) from 1967
Canadian Jack Blair recalls his brand new TR4 and a trip to Standard Triumph to collect it.
In December of 1967, I had travelled from my UK home in Manchester to London in order to join a group of friends on a ski trip to the Tyrol in Kitzbuhel, Austria. When I arrived I found that my good friend Art had bought a new MGB. He said he had been looking at the TRs as well, but decided on the MGB. He added that he heard a rumour that the TR4As were going to have their price reduced to make way for a new model. That was all the motivation I needed. With about four hours to go until our train left, I rushed to the dealer, negotiated a deal, phoned Calgary to get the money on a loan from my old, friendly, bank manager and bought my new TR4A for $2700. I barely made it back in time to catch the train to Kitzbuhel.
Continue reading “Factory Photos (and a TR4) from 1967”
Arthur Sherratt – Works Engineer
Awarded the M.B.E. (Civil Division) in the New Year’s Honours List was Mr. Arthur Harold Sherratt, Works Engineer, Canley, of The Standard Motor Co. Ltd. Continue reading “Arthur Sherratt – Works Engineer”
William James Langford
I was an apprentice from 1952 to 1957, when I emigrated to Canada with another ex-apprentice, Melvyn Lloyd.
My Dad, William Thomas Langford (also ‘Bill’ of course!), worked at Canley for many years, retiring (I think) in 1966. Mel and I bought a 1956 TR3 between us in May of 1958, which we drove from Toronto to Mexico City and back in two weeks in 1958, and to San Francisco and back in two weeks in 1959. The car never gave us any trouble.
In 1960 we traded it in on two brand-new TR3As (one each), picking them up in England when I returned that July to get married: Mel was my best man. I sold that car when I went to university in 1962, but bought a used 1967 TR4A and a (very) used 1960 TR3A in 1980. By then, though, they needed more upkeep than I was prepared to give them! Still love sports cars, and (dare I say it) I’m now on my second Mazda MX-5…- beautiful cars! My wife and I now live in Victoria, British Columbia, while Mel still lives in Toronto. Good luck with this project!