When I bought the pair of calipers on the left, I knew I had another set somewhere in my collection. I had a quick look in 1 of my boxes and there it was.

The Glasgow is an uncommon type of reciprocating drill that uses a spring-loaded pull chain for the turning motion. The chain is pulled by an elegant rosewood handle and when allowed to recoil, the chain is picked up on a rosewood spindle. This one is labeled The Glasgow with a British patent date and is made of sheet metal with a lid on the breastplate for bit storage. The manufacturer is McG.S. ltd and sold under the name Gyro which is also stamped on the drill

 

Shortly after posting this blog, I was contacted by Gordon Mcgregor, the grandson of the inventor of the “Gyro” Alexander Mcgregor.  Here is the information provided by Gordon.

A wee bit of background – my grandfather died in 1929 I think it was, long before I was born. He was also Alexander, hence my middle name. My grandmother was Louisa Smith (‘McG S’ stands for McGregor Smith – my grandmother’s maiden name) from Stroma in the Pentland Firth. They lived in Osborne Street where I think my Dad was born, and later lived in Jail Square, now called Jocelyn Square. I have no idea where his workshop was, but I suppose it must have been somewhere in the East End. I’m afraid I don’t have any photographs of either of them, but one of my sisters, still in Scotland may, though we have no idea who is who in those old pictures.

I have never tried to look up the patent(PAT 12691-07), but I presume the ‘07’ is the year it was filed, He also had a patent on a record turntable which was driven by a strange looking figure-of eight mechanism, for which I have the drawing somewhere, and apparently he did build one, but I only know of its existence from my Dad’s stories of long ago.

Anyhow, the photos with this email show the three drills, the heavy one with the chain, the lighter one which used to have a blind cord – I’ll replace the light string with some decent cord – and the prototype, which was handmade in white metal and has a brass spindle.

 

I did see a photo of a chunkier Gyro for sale, with a cylindrical body, rather than the flat steel he used for yours and mine. I think that was a better idea, or he might have put a handle on to make it more attractive and user-friendly. Again according to my Dad, it came out about the same time as the ‘eggbeater’ style of drill, which had money backing it, so although he did sell some (no idea how many), old Alex McGregor’s idea just couldn’t get off the ground.

That’s about all I can think of, I hope the photos are of some pleasure to you, and I hope your ‘Glasgow’ still flourishes after more than 100 years.

A footnote from Gordon:

I called my sister last night, and she provided a couple of further bits of information, which may be of interest. The ‘Glasgow’ may not refer to the name of the drill, as my Grandad was trading as ‘The Glasgow Tool and Bit Company’ so it may be more accurate to call the drill the ‘Gyro’.

Rose Ann also reminded me that Grandad had worked on, or created, the model ships which are (or were) on display at Kelvingrove Museum. So next time you are in there, see if you can get a look at them. She added off-the-cuff that he had worked on the Milngavie Monorail – I had never heard of it – but I looked it up and it was a prototype monorail built in the 1920s between Bearsden and Milngavie, by a George Bennie. I think Grandad just worked on the construction, but again, I don’t know.

I would like to thank Gordon and his family for supplying this information, enabling the story of this piece of working history being recorded for posterity.  Alex

Up for sale on the online auction, a 043 and 050, nice condition although I always understate their condition so that nobody is disappointed.

Went to my favourite hardware store at the weekend and bought a brand new Luban No.1 plane. The good thing it only cost £85, which is a bargain for a quality piece of equipment. I was pleasantly surprised at just how well these planes are made. Having had a look at the Wood River and Lie Nielsen’s I think it is a no-brainer to go for one of these planes made by Quangsheng.

2 baby blue whales out for a swim.

 

13 as new Marples brace bits:-

1 1/4″, 1 1/8″, 1″, 15/16″, 7/8″, 13/16″, 3/4″, 11/16″, 5/8″, 1/2″, 3/8″, 5/16″,1/4″.

 

 

 

 

A nice “Scotch” brace with a good collection of bits by Mathieson including a dowelling bit and a bit for flat saw screws. 

When I first became involved in tool collecting, one of the guys I regularly got interesting items from invited me to his storage unit to have a look round. When I arrived and he opened up the unit I could hardly believe my eyes. There in the centre of  room was a 1 1/2 ton Mathieson mortising machine from the Saracen Head Tool Works in nearby Glasgow. He smiled when he saw the expression on my face and said “I think you’ll need a bigger car.” We had a laugh and then I had a look round the rest of the unit. When I was about to leave I noticed a box of tooling sitting beside the machine, I asked what would happen to the machine and he said it would got for scrap. I asked if he would sell me the tooling and he agreed. Although I was unable to save the machine I did manage to save the tooling.

As Mick Dundee would say “That’s not a screwdriver” , “THAT’S A SCREWDRIVER”.

2 London Pattern screw drivers, 4 1/2″ and 23″ in length. The smaller is unnamed the larger by Mathieson of Glasgow.