Getting Your Bearings

The above 1940s Timken promotional advertisement showcases a futuristic design for the truck of the future, a concept created by NYC industrial designer Lurelle Guild (1898-1985). He was quite optimistic about manufacturers bringing his truck concept to reality. Only with Timken axles, of course. Among his designs displayed in art museums was his iconic cylindrical design of the 1937 Electrolux vacuum cleaner. A modified model even became a laser weapon prop in the movie, Superman and the Mole Men (1951).

 
The German-born Henry Timken (1831-1909) could not possibly have imagined such fantastic transportation in 1888. But one cannot move a wheel without bearings. He obtained a patent for an improved tapered roller bearing, and in 1899, incorporated The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company in St. Louis. The company moved to Canton, Ohio, in 1901 as the automobile industry began to overtake the carriage industry. 

Timken entered international markets in the early 1900s, initially in Great Britain, France, and Germany. The performance of Timken bearings in the First World War made an impression on the European bearing market. Timken production increased dramatically during the Second World War to keep up with wartime demand. Every U.S. Jeep was built using 24 Timken bearings. It resulted in delivering more than 15.8 million bearings for those vehicles over the course of the war.

Starting in the 1960s, Timken saw greater worldwide expansion. With the purchase of a major competitor, the company doubled in size in the early twenty-first century. Today, the Timken Company is a global manufacturer of bearings and power transmission products operating in forty-two countries. Apparently, Guild's "future truck" is yet to come.

Supermarket Drive-In

Fred McNabb illustrated an idealistic series of futuristic concepts for the New Departure Manufacturing Company, founded in Bristol, Connecticut by innovators Albert and Edward Rockwell in 1901. By the way, Albert was also the founder of the Yellow Taxicab Company of New York. New Departure later became a division of General Motors. 

The above 1956 illustration seems to have numerous details that are mystifying, at the very least, like the conveyor belt for sending out groceries on a rainy day. I cannot imagine this concept succeeding east of the Rocky Mountains in the winter. Plus loading the preferred brands one is there to purchase. They did seem to envision the drivers' ability to open the trunk from inside the 1959 models, however. Not being able to comprehend there will be more than seven shoppers at a time is a huge oversight. Let alone the idling cars behind as if at a McDonald's drive-up window. Optimistically, perhaps these were the "express lanes" when shopping for no more than twenty items. One had to shop inside the store for a full shopping experience. Without ever knowing it, it seems the bazaar illustration was heading in the right direction regarding "remote" buying. What McNabb and New Departure could not have possibly envisioned was the Internet. Or shutting down the economy in 2020. Shopping without ever meeting any live person has become common for those who experience "life" via a Smartphone.

See McNabb's full-page ads here.

House in a Utopian Future

If you spotted the flat screen television and the countertop "notebook" then congratulations are in order. Dad looking trendy in his "cargoless" shorts and over-the-calf stockings is a bonus. The 1956 futurism illustration was by Fred McNabb for Disneyland. McNabb did a series of similar illustrations for New Departures Ball Bearings under the headline, "New Departures of Tomorrow." Most of his illustrations included at least one accurate prediction.