A little shop with a breakthrough product.
"1919::Ford Power Attachments at the Norman Hirst Garage in Victoria, British Columbia"
Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1919)
Victoria, British Columbia
This handy little apparatus bolted onto the front end of any Ford automobile as a ready power source. Running directly off the vehicle's engine, it could help pull a car out of a mudhole or chainsaw the winter's wood. It could run homestead machinery like washing machines, concrete mixers, or hay pressers to help fill a barn. The little Ford Power Attachment could do anything an eight or 10-horsepower stationery engine could do. Its sleek, enamelled design took up little space and was a boon to all who bought it.
"1921::From Hand Signals to Turning Signals in British Columbia"
Clip: Victoria Daily Times (1921)
Photographer: Percy Frost
The Norman Hirst Garage on Gordon Street in Victoria provided a battery charging plant for electric vehicles. It offered its customers a full automobile repair service but was only in business for a year.
Hirst had moved on to teach electronics and automobile mechanics to soldiers returning from the Great War. In 1927, he became a distributor for one of the city's first automobile electric turn signals that helped drivers advance from using hand signals.