New Douglas engine website

Good luck in this new enterprise but note that the history of Douglas stationary engines goes back a long way before the SV singles were introduced post WWII.

During WWI variants of the 2 3/4 hp motorcycle engine were used for numerous purposes such as powering wireless equipment and trench pumps. WWII brought the FT350 which again drove a variety of equipment, mostly generators.

The FT350 has many similarities with the post war T350 series of motorcycle engines which begs the question - was the new range of motorcycles already on the drawing board and the engine pressed into military service for the duration, or was the motorcycle unit adapted from a stationary design?

NHH

There are many more knowledgable than I on the subject - Eric Brockway's articles in Stationary Engine magazine some years ago would be a good place to start - but feel free to add it if you like.

NHH

It is nice and simple and should be a useful resource once more content and images are added. I prefer the logo on the resources page which looks smoother than the other version.

Naming the initial page 'home' is not ideal for those who wish to bookmark the site. Douglas Stationary engine resource would be more user friendly, it would also be advantageous in regard to search engines.

The (rather large) logo on all the top menu items other than Resources is not an image it is text within a few div's. You probably don't see it as different as the class specifies a font:

Douglas

.Heading-1-C { font-family:"Boulevard Heavy SF", sans-serif; font-weight:700; font-size:133.0px; line-height:1.21em; color:#ff0000; }

But on systems without that font available the browser uses what it has been configured to use for a sans-serif font.

Why not have a the global style sheet as a single file that you include via each pages header:

It appears that you have it as code in each page ATM (though that might not be the case). Having the same data stored in many places makes maintenance a nightmare.

The menu bars are not consistent, the home page one mouses over with a green blob, the resources has a tiddly white mark and completly different look. The content also changes, I can see why for the resources page but I think I'd prefer those options to be a second menu line rather than replacing the main one. There is no indication as to which menu page you are currently viewing either.

Try a break up some of the large blocks of text with paragraph breaks or section headings. That first para on the homepage is massive and not easy to follow. Get that editors red pen out and sub it down. B-)

On the resources page the logo is a image named: wp66823835.png on all the other pages the logo is set as text text using a font (Boulevard) which is not universally supported displayed a yellow background. IMHO the logo png looks much better.

I notice that in another of your responses you mention that you are more interested in content than design. As the text content of your home page is an image named wp82704551.png I wonder how you will ever get any sort of decent search engine ranking without giving some thought to "the niceities of the website design!"

Posting you response below the previous message is the recognised Usenet convention, it also makes following a thread easy for those who might have reason to search archived messages.

But a logo that you have no real control over as Richard and I have explained. B-) The image based logo looks far better in my browser as I do not have the font specified. As for resolution a pixel is a pixel, if you don't make the browser scale the image what you see won't be any better or worse than a browser rendered font for the same character height.

But for a site to look good, be easy to navigate and not confuse readers one needs to pay reasonable attention to website design.

Having spent the afternoon playing with an FT35 genset I'm reminded just what a stinking starter that engine is! All being well its leaving me on Sunday - praise be :-)

ttfn

Not the blue one that we collected for you all those years ago?

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

That was a Norman

Ah, Norman, I knew him well.... :-))

Thanks for the correction.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

recommissioning a 2 3/4 1914 engine, which is in remarkably good condition, for a friend of mine so I'd like to get as much information about it as possible. If you'd like to come and see it, in SW Wiltshire, you would be welcome

recommissioning a 2 3/4 1914 engine, which is in remarkably good condition, for a friend of mine so I'd like to get as much information about it as possible. If you'd like to come and see it, in SW Wiltshire, you would be welcome