[CR]Kudos to Jamie Swan!

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot:PY-10)

Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:45:33 -0400
From: "Harvey Sachs" <hmsachs@verizon.net>
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, jswan@optonline.net
Subject: [CR]Kudos to Jamie Swan!

Well, it isn't the front page of the NY Times, but here's a bit of well-deserved recognition of important work that KOF builder and great fried Jamie Swan does: Couple of days ago, I opened the current issue of "Tools and Technology," the quarterly of the American Precision Museum (www.amercaprecision.org), and found the description of an early Jones, Lamson & Co "Profiler" that the museum acquired for its permanent collection with Jamie's help: "The discovery of this important machine was made by Jamie Swan, a long-time friend of the museum. Swan, a hobby machinist from Northport, NY, makes custom bicycle frames, which he says helps to satisfy his love for metal working and machine tools."

Profilers were a very important class of machine tools, allowing manufacture of irregular metal parts (as for guns and bikes). The museum itself, in Windsor, VT, is well worth serious time if you're in the area when it is open (seasonal).

If you're interested in the topic, I also recommend David Hounshell's book, "From the American System to Mass Production," which has a fine chapter on the role of bicycle manufacturing in the transition from gun-making to sewing machines, to farm equipment, to bicycles, to true mass production on assembly lines.

harvey sachs
mcLean va.