I put the thing back together without a cord just to take a look at it. Pretend it works and see what it would be like to use it. Black & Decker is crap in 2016, but had a reputation for making good tools back in the day.
First off, the grip is horrible if you are used to a modern drill. I can get one finger on the trigger, one finger on the handle grip, the third finger is halfway off the grip, and my pinky is just tucked underneath not really doing anything.
There’s a little pin on the bottom that you can push in to lock the trigger in place. This picture really shows how you feel like you are going to drop this drill at any time. There’s nothing to hold on to.
It’s got a tiny keyless chuck. I didn’t know that they had keyless chucks back in the olden days. I guess when it’s so small, it would work just fine. No big drill bits can fit in here, so you won’t be fighting much torque.
So let’s look at the plate to see what it has under the hood.
Only 1.3 amps. And it spins kinda fast at 2250 RPM. Patent 2487011 was issued in Nov. 1949. So this was probably built in 1950.