As I peel back early Magna (Shopsmith) History

[everettdavis]

I received the missing eBay shipment containing several Magna Employee Newsletters titled “The Magpie” from the 1952 – 1957 time period that Russ Chapman first advised me to bid on.

I was fortunate to win that bid, and it is a really interesting look into the People of Magna back in the day.

It truly is focused on the employees themselves, and the events described just punctuate the stories within them.

There are some facts that I have gleaned from a first glance and I will provide one I noticed on skimming through it.

The confirmed release date of the Mark 5 was verified: March 20, 1954.

You may reference a photo I posted from the extraction from eBay advertisement alone, at a time the shipment was lost and that photo of Bob Chambers, Frank Grand and Norville Wehrhelm were unveiling the Mark 5 to the press in New York. See https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/view ... 47#p250647

I am also providing a sample excerpt below from one issue that chronicles events at the 1954 Magna Christmas Party in Menlo Park, California that you may find interesting. I snapped a photo of that story, cropped it on my phone and present it below.

I hope you enjoy it.

Everett

1954 Christmas Party Retouched.jpg (177.04 KiB) Viewed 8759 times

‘Twas The Night Before Shopsmith

Written and performed by:
Paul Murphy and Jim Johnson at the 1954 Menlo Park Christmas Party for Magna

‘Twas the night before Christmas
And in every room
The walls were all tattered
And covered with gloom.

The furniture wobbled
The staircase did sag
While Mother to Father
Did nothing but nag.

With problems too many
Dad Stomped off to bed
With visions of projects
A filling his head.

While drowsing and dreaming
There arose such a clatter
He jumped from his bed
As mad as a hatter.

And what to his wondrous
Eyes should appear
But a Shopsmith Mark 5
And eight tiny reindeer.

Dad stammered and stuttered
And shouted with glee
“I see Mr. Claus
Has a Mark 5 for me.”

“I’ll saw and I’ll sand
And I’ll work through the night
So come Christmas morn
All will be bright.”

With the coming of dawn
And filled with delight
The family rejoiced
At the beautiful sight.

The furniture mended
The rooms looked like new –
It just goes to show
What a Shopsmith can do.

[jsburger]

WOW!!! Everett, you and your endeavor are absolutely priceless.

[everettdavis]

Magpie Title.jpg (84.62 KiB) Viewed 8664 times

Below is a list of the versions of the MagPie Employee Newsletter contained in the recent documents acquired on eBay. They advertised 1952-1957. As I completed the scanning last evening, I found Nov Dec 1958 was among the documents included.

The acquisition did not contain all the sequential issues, nor did all the issues contained have all the pages of the issue as pages 3 & 4 (in red) in the 6 page issues were all missing.

Those would have been single page inserts between folded 11 x 17 documents containing pages 1, 2, 5, & 6. Pages 3 & 4 may well have been intended to be removed for some purpose by the employee, perhaps a form to fill out etc.

One other notation was MagPie Vol 3 No 1 which appeared twice – the October 1954 issue should have been MagPie Vol 3 No 2 but was printed mis-numbered as No 1.

The point is there are issues that are missing in the collection, and within those missing issues there well could be pertinent information on The People of Shopsmith and Events of the Period documented that we do not yet have to review.

We need to be on the look-out for more MagPie Employee Newsletters that could be out there and someday become available.

One tidbit of information speaks to the Australian availability of the Shopsmith in Nov 1952 issue which announced that now there was a Manufacturing Agreement allowing the Shopsmiths to be actually manufactured in Australia, meaning castings and machining was now done on the continent as Shopsmith had provided the molds themselves to an Australian foundry. These would have been 10ER vintage machines as Mark 5 will not be introduced until 1954

Nov – Dec 1956 issue (a full four years later) shows a photo of 6 of the 60 Shopsmith Mark 5’s being hoisted onto the ship ‘Powell River’ at the Port of Oakland’s Outer Harbor Terminal headed for Western Canada.

They noted that all shipments of Magna’s products to Canada and the Hawaiian Islands are made by Magna Western Sales Corporation. Hawaii would become a state August 21, 1959 for historical context.

Here is what I have:

MagPie Vol 1 No 3 - Nov 1952 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 1 No 4 - Dec 1952 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 2 No 7 - Mar 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 2 No 8 - Apr 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 2 No 11 - Jul Aug 1954 Pages 123456

MagPie Vol 3 No 1 - Sep 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 1 - Oct 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 4 - Jan 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 5 - Feb Mar 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 6 - Apr May 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 8 - Aug Sep 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 4 No 1 - Jan Feb 1956 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 4 No 2 - Mar April 1956 Pages 123456

MagPie Vol 4 No 4 - Jul Aug 1956 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 4 No 6 - Nov Dec 1956 Pages 123456

MagPie Vol 5 No 1 - Jan Feb 1957 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 5 No 3 - May June 1957 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 5 No 6 - Nov Dec 1958 Pages 1234

There is a lot to read through as I try to extract any important release dates or other items we may find of interest.

The people themselves are interesting, and I plan to do something with that info.

With all the newsletter issues that were not present in the collection, I am certain there will be people that were there that are not yet mentioned, that we might find interesting to know about.

I will try to put together something for genealogical research types as there is a lot of family history contained in various biological information in the newsletters.

Needless to say, if other MagPie collections are found, we need to preserve them.

Everett

[everettdavis]

A member asked me by email what the notation MECO / PECO in the MagPie logo refered to:

MECO Magna Engineering Corporation was the design engineering group

PECO Production Engineering Company was the manufacturing plant itself

Also:

Magna Power Tool Corporation was the marketing entity

- There were several additional corporations formed for various functions in international distribution. The Magna Western Sales Corporation mentioned above is but one.

Everett

[drGeek]

Thanks again Everett for sharing your adventure into the history of the Shopsmith with all of us. I have to admit that I feel like a little kid asking "are we there yet", as I anticipate your book! Each tidbit is more enticing than the last. Your preservation efforts are appreciated by us all.

Thanks again for letting me go back in time to the 1950's of my parents!!!!

jeff

[jsburger]

Magpie Title.jpg

Below is a list of the versions of the MagPie Employee Newsletter contained in the recent documents acquired on eBay. They advertised 1952-1957. As I completed the scanning last evening, I found Nov Dec 1958 was among the documents included.

The acquisition did not contain all the sequential issues, nor did all the issues contained have all the pages of the issue as pages 3 & 4 (in red) in the 6 page issues were all missing.

Those would have been single page inserts between folded 11 x 17 documents containing pages 1, 2, 5, & 6. Pages 3 & 4 may well have been intended to be removed for some purpose by the employee, perhaps a form to fill out etc.

One other notation was MagPie Vol 3 No 1 which appeared twice – the October 1954 issue should have been MagPie Vol 3 No 2 but was printed mis-numbered as No 1.

The point is there are issues that are missing in the collection, and within those missing issues there well could be pertinent information on The People of Shopsmith and Events of the Period documented that we do not yet have to review.

We need to be on the look-out for more MagPie Employee Newsletters that could be out there and someday become available.

One tidbit of information speaks to the Australian availability of the Shopsmith in Nov 1952 issue which announced that now there was a Manufacturing Agreement allowing the Shopsmiths to be actually manufactured in Australia, meaning castings and machining was now done on the continent as Shopsmith had provided the molds themselves to an Australian foundry. These would have been 10ER vintage machines as Mark 5 will not be introduced until 1954

Nov – Dec 1956 issue (a full four years later) shows a photo of 6 of the 60 Shopsmith Mark 5’s being hoisted onto the ship ‘Powell River’ at the Port of Oakland’s Outer Harbor Terminal headed for Western Canada.

They noted that all shipments of Magna’s products to Canada and the Hawaiian Islands are made by Magna Western Sales Corporation. Hawaii would become a state August 21, 1959 for historical context.

Here is what I have:

MagPie Vol 1 No 3 - Nov 1952 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 1 No 4 - Dec 1952 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 2 No 7 - Mar 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 2 No 8 - Apr 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 2 No 11 - Jul Aug 1954 Pages 123456

MagPie Vol 3 No 1 - Sep 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 1 - Oct 1954 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 4 - Jan 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 5 - Feb Mar 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 6 - Apr May 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 3 No 8 - Aug Sep 1955 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 4 No 1 - Jan Feb 1956 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 4 No 2 - Mar April 1956 Pages 123456

MagPie Vol 4 No 4 - Jul Aug 1956 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 4 No 6 - Nov Dec 1956 Pages 123456

MagPie Vol 5 No 1 - Jan Feb 1957 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 5 No 3 - May June 1957 Pages 1234

MagPie Vol 5 No 6 - Nov Dec 1958 Pages 1234

There is a lot to read through as I try to extract any important release dates or other items we may find of interest.

The people themselves are interesting, and I plan to do something with that info.

With all the newsletter issues that were not present in the collection, I am certain there will be people that were there that are not yet mentioned, that we might find interesting to know about.

I will try to put together something for genealogical research types as there is a lot of family history contained in various biological information in the newsletters.

Needless to say, if other MagPie collections are found, we need to preserve them.

Everett

The MagPie. Interesting title. Another tie to Utah? Magna---MagPie. One would think it has something to do with the company name Magna. Well, I think it does in a somewhat obscure way. I think we all know the Chambers brothers were born in Salt Lake City and lived in Magna, UT. That is why the company was called Magna Engineering.

The logo on the company news letter shows a power line with a bird on it. In Utah one of the most prolific birds is the Magpie. They are everywhere. Hence the Chambers from Utah naming the news letter The Magpie which fits in nicely with Magna Engineering.

As an aside, I feed the magpies here. They are scavengers and are carnivorous. I buy cheap stew meat and cut it up in 1/4" cubes and put 10 pieces out on the deck railing every morning. It is fun to watch them.

[everettdavis]

Thanks again Everett for sharing your adventure into the history of the Shopsmith with all of us. I have to admit that I feel like a little kid asking "are we there yet", as I anticipate your book! Each tidbit is more enticing than the last. Your preservation efforts are appreciated by us all.

Thanks again for letting me go back in time to the 1950's of my parents!!!!

jeff

Jeff you won’t have to wait for the book on The MagPie Newsletters as I am working to clean them up, remove the 3 holes, build a single PDF from them and give everyone access to that resource now. They need preservation and getting them into your hands is my first priority.

Yes some of this will be a topic in the book but as a background to what I documented in the week I was there in May.

Everett

[everettdavis]

It is complete and now posted on My Google Drive main page. 75 Pages

Everett

[chapmanruss]

Everett'
I am extremely happy these were found and you received them. I am envious you got them but as I said I was on vacation when the auction was to end. You having them and making them available to all of us is better than me having them. Right now they would be sitting waiting to be copied. I haven't had the time to do much other than my honey do's and just finished the new floors in the bathroom, bedroom and laundry room. They look great and my Mark V was a great help in cutting flooring. Now I have to move it out of the bedroom back to the garage/shop. I had brought it in to have it closer to the work.