Tuesday - January 10, 2012
Southampton. Some photos and some history
Oh damn oh damn!
Everything you will see below was lost because I was careless and had many tabs open and hit that red ‘X’ in the upper right one more time then I needed to.
I was hitting save as I went but to no avail. Good thing in part I had some saved in Word. But I’ve now been at this for hours so this is it for me for today.
Chrome doesn’t ask if you want to restore previous closed tab. Does it? I haven’t seen it if it does. Rats!
Happy to report I’ve shaken, at long last, the miserable bug I’d caught.
Unhappy to report that now my wife has some sort of bug, not quite the very same but does have a bad cough. So it’s been my turn to play nurse. Which is frustrating cos there’s nothing worse then having someone ill, you know what they’re feeling because you’ve had it, and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it. You wanna help but ......
I have some items to share in the way of photos and history. And I’m now over two years behind in posting one set. Back around Oct. of 2008 I made one of our trips into Southampton. Every few months a friend and I go there and haunt the electronic stores but most especially Maplin’s. I don’t think I’ve ever been there but that I haven’t spent money. There’s always something they have that I can’t live without.
So on the trip in ‘08 I brought my camera and took a bunch of snaps. The ancient Bargate is in fact right outside Maplin’s door. You can’t turn in any direction without bumping into some serious history over here . Then last month we went back again. But I didn’t have a camera with me, and I found myself in a different part of town I had not seen before. It was just before Christmas, and we parked a long way from where we had to go. And there was this wall, and another, and a tower. Wow. Turns out it was all once connected to the ancient main gate about a mile from where we were. A lot had been lost in the war after German bombing, Southampton being a major port. And there was also a Spitfire factory there. So I borrowed my friend’s phone/camera and got off a few shots. But as he was leaving for Italy within days to spend Christmas there with his married daughter and grandkids, I didn’t get the pix until today. And I figured I’d stalled long enuff and so am sharing now. Hope you enjoy and heck. It’s a welcome change from my usual mad man rants. Gimme a minute. I have to grab the coffee from the kitchen.
I look at things here from the past and the people who put things together in ages when nobody had heard of health and safety. You know, something needed doing and they just did it. And they didn’t apologize all the time either. So here’s what I’ve been up to most of today. I’ve been editing and cropping all this stuff.
It doesn’t look like a lot but darn if it isn’t all time consuming.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND
http://www.localhistories.org/southampton.html
ROMAN SOUTHAMPTON
About 70 AD the Romans built a town on a bend in the River Itchen. The Roman town was called Clausentum. The streets were laid out in a grid pattern and they were gravelled. All the buildings in the Roman town were, at first, built of wood but in the 2nd century wealthy people rebuilt their houses in stone. They had panes of glass in the windows, painted murals on the walls and mosaic floors. Of course, poor people could afford none of these things. They lived in wood and plaster huts.
BARGATE
The main entrance to the walled town of Southampton was through the Bargate at the northern end of the town. Since the time of Henry II, many of the Kings and Queens of England have passed through the Bargate. By 1175, a simple square stone tower had been built, and the arch completed. There was a ditch in front of the gate with a bridge over it and ramparts on either side. Between 1260 and 1290, the ramparts were replaced by a stone wall. Round drum-towers were built on either side of the gateway and a hall was constructed on the first floor. The façade between the towers was added by 1420, with battlements and machicolations6. The ditch was filled in 1771, when the road through the bargate was paved. The shields were added in the 17th and 18th Centuries, showing crests of the families who ruled Southampton at the time; the shields of St George and St Andrew were also added at this time.
A penny postcard, 1920.
Guarding the Bargate are two lions, reflecting the local legend of Sir Bevis of Hampton, the mythical founder of Southampton. The first lions were put up in 1522, when the Bargate was decorated for the visit of King Charles V of Spain. The original wooden lions were replaced by the current lead lions in 1743. There were also two painted panels hung on either side of the gateway showing Sir Bevis and Ascupart, which are now preserved inside.
The Southampton Blitz
Southampton suffered badly from large-scale air raids during World War II. As a large port city on the south coast, it was an important strategic target for the German Luftwaffe. According to A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions Department) reports over 2,300 bombs were dropped amounting to over 470 tonnes of high explosives. Over 30,000 incendiary devices were dropped on the city. Nearly 45,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, with most of the city’s High Street being hit. There were reports that the glow of the firestorm of Southampton burning could be seen from as far away as Cherbourg on the coast of France. Nazi publicity declared in propaganda that the city had been left a smoking ruin.
By far the worst were on 23 and 30 November and 1 December 1940 and these attacks are generally referred to as “Southampton’s Blitz”. During this three day period, much of the town centre was destroyed.
More than 3.5 million members of the Allied Forces including over two million United States Troops embarked from Southampton in 1944 - 45 for the Invasion of Occupied Europe.
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A80859054
illustration late 1880s
There have been settlements in the area of modern day Southampton since at least Roman times. After the Romans left the region, the Saxonsbuilt a sizeable town known as Hamtun. Despite being initially a successful settlement, it suffered badly at the hands of Viking raiders during the 9th and 10th centuries. The town was probably a victim of its own success; exporting wool and housing a Royal Mint at the time.
There is a tour of sorts here and you can follow what’s left of the old wall around the city. At one time I was informed, Southampton had more ancient walls and things still standing then any other city of it’s size. I have no idea about now however. So much was lost in the war.
I mentioned earlier that I found us in a part of the city I had not seen before. WOW. It wasn’t spectacular in the sense of size or anything ornate. But the idea that any of this was still standing. The next pix were taken between the black iron bars that made up a fence. Like this shot.
And just around the corner I saw this.
I wanted to see what was on the other side of that and through that opening. And the only way to do that was walk down the ally and climb the fire escape on the building opposite. Now let tell ya that was a small trick because the railing was coming away from the wall and had movement. Yeah. It swayed and so I took it fairly slow, but got off these next shots.
Titanic departs Southampton on her first, and only, passenger-carrying voyage. She is pulled by a tug, belching black smoke.
Well, our trip’s at an end. Finally. Oh yeah. See that red square over there on the right? The sign it surrounds was obscured so I thought you’d be happy to know it’s .... a Burger King.
Posted by peiper
on 01/10/2012 at 02:41 PM
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Permalink • Friday - December 23, 2011
The music of Steve Mcdonald
Dedicated to peiper, who might appreciate the music and historical background.
My most recent music discovery: The works of Steve McDonald. Here’s a sample from YouTube:
I have four of his albums:
Highland Farewell
Legend
Sons of Somerled
Stone of Destiny
They are all good.
Posted by Christopher
on 12/23/2011 at 11:37 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - December 17, 2011
Up In The Air, Junior Birdmen
Q: If it takes 2 wrongs to make a right, what does it take 2 rights to make?
A: An airplane.
On December 14, 1903, they felt ready for their first attempt at powered flight. With the help of men from the nearby government life-saving station, the Wrights moved the Flyer and its launching rail to the incline of a nearby sand dune, Big Kill Devil Hill, intending to make a gravity-assisted takeoff. The brothers tossed a coin to decide who would get the first chance at piloting and Wilbur won. The airplane left the rail, but Wilbur pulled up too sharply, stalled, and came down in about three seconds with minor damage.
Repairs after the abortive first flight took three days. When they were ready again on December 17, the wind was averaging more than 20 mph, so the brothers laid the launching rail on level ground, pointed into the wind, near their camp. This time the wind, instead of an inclined launch, helped provide the necessary airspeed for takeoff. Because Wilbur already had the first chance, Orville took his turn at the controls. His first flight lasted 12 seconds for a total distance of 120 ft (36.5 m) – shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 707, as noted by observers in the 2003 commemoration of the first flight.[3]
Taking turns, the Wrights made four brief, low-altitude flights that day. The flight paths were all essentially straight; turns were not attempted. [ which just goes to show that two Wrights can’t make a left ] Each flight ended in a bumpy and unintended “landing”. The last flight, by Wilbur, was 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds, much longer than each of the three previous flights of 120, 175 and 200 feet. The landing broke the front elevator supports, which the Wrights hoped to repair for a possible four-mile (6 km) flight to Kitty Hawk village. Soon after, a heavy gust picked up the Flyer and tumbled it end over end, damaging it beyond any hope of quick repair. It was never flown again.
Pity that today’s anniversary isn’t also the anniversary of the government’s recognition of that triumph. That took until 1942, because of some favoritism in the old Old Boys Network ...
The Smithsonian Institution, and primarily its then-secretary Charles Walcott, refused to give credit to the Wright Brothers for the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft. Instead, they honored the former Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley, whose 1903 tests of his own Aerodrome on the Potomac were not successful. Walcott was a friend of Langley and wanted to see Langley’s place in aviation history restored. In 1914, Glenn Curtiss flew a heavily modified Aerodrome from Keuka Lake, N.Y., providing the Smithsonian a basis for its claim that the aircraft was the first powered, heavier than air flying machine “capable” of manned flight. Due to the legal patent battles then taking place, recognition of the ‘first’ aircraft became a political as well as an academic issue.
In 1925, Orville attempted to persuade the Smithsonian to recognize his and Wilbur’s accomplishment by offering to send the Flyer to the Science Museum in London. This action did not have its intended effect, and the Flyer went on display in the London museum in 1928. During World War II, it was moved to an underground vault 100 miles (160 km) from London where Britain’s other treasures were kept safe from the conflict.
In 1942 the Smithsonian Institution, under a new secretary, Charles Abbot (Walcott had died in 1927), published a list of the Curtiss modifications to the Aerodrome and a retraction of its long-held claims for the craft. The next year, Orville, after exchanging several letters with Abbott, agreed to return the Flyer to the United States.
The Wright brothers hailed from Dayton Ohio, so my guess is that Christopher is at the parade today. Dayton does have an annual Wright brothers parade, don’t they Chris?
Please note that the Wrights were the first to actually fly a manned, self-propelled, sustained, heavier than air vehicle that they could (at least in theory) control. Other folks had been gadding about in other vehicles that managed short hops, bounces, or fairly long glides for about 78 years before them, in various things with wings on that didn’t meet the full definition; “powered flight” had been around since 1783, with the Montgolfier brothers and there hot air balloons. 1783 was also a great year for brandy, right Brenda?
Oh, and of course jizzlam claims credit 1100 years earlier, because back in the year 800 or something some loonie muzzie got tarred and feathered, then leaped off a tall building, managing a sustained but uncontrolled flight. Straight down.
Here’s a neat video of a modern copy of the Wright Flyer showing that it can still get the job done:
It was not until 1908 that Louis Blériot figured out that the control surfaces really belonged on the back end of an airplane. The Wrights and several others of the early era (Curtis etc) put the elevators in front.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/17/2011 at 04:30 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - November 01, 2011
Digging In To Local History
Drew drives around the corner to a window job and discovers a bit of history. It started with bridges but ended with improved artillery.
I took my favorite back road to a customer’s house the other day to give them a window bid. I didn’t get the job, but only because they wanted the work done right now and I’m going on vacation. So I hang a left in Cherryville and go down Hogback Road across the farm fields, into the trees and under the railway bridge that runs along the ridge, and come out in a little trout park in a sudden “middle of nowhere”. My county is like that; you’re on a major highway, you get off onto a main local road, you take two side streets and go half a mile and it’s like you’ve suddenly jumped to the Ozarks and gone back 50 years in time.
So I come through the underpass and there’s one of those “one lane bridge ahead” signs, and I find myself on yet another Victorian fairy bridge that I never knew was there. I call them fairy bridges, because as bridges go, these seem to be hardly more than iron versions of a few jungle vines. Another bridge that hardly deserves the name, compared to the fairly massive contstructs of reinforced structural concrete and massive steel I-beams that modern short bridges are. I couldn’t stop then, but after I did the estimate I parked there and gave the place a good look. I wish I had my camera with me, but hey, the internet provides:
I thought at first that this was another one of Lowthorp’s wonders like the one here in Clinton, one of those combination cast iron and wrought iron creations from the 1870s that dot our landscape; I wrote about them a couple weeks ago. But a minute’s examination told me different. Sure, it was another one of those pinned Pratt truss creatures, a through truss this time instead of a pony truss, but the pieces were seriously different. This bridge was made out of round sections like Lowthorp’s creations, but they were flanged and covered with rivets. The eyebars were square sectioned and had a hand hammered look, and I didn’t see the famous adjusting mechanisms where the chords and uprights came together. Ok, the builder’s plaque was different too, but that didn’t mean much as little bridges were often jobbed out to subcontractors. Time for some internet research.
The skewed 5-panel pin-connected 1885 Pratt thru truss bridge is supported on random ashlar abutments and has Phoenix columns for the compression members. The Phoenix section members are joined by compression fittings into cast iron nodes at the panel points. Shop marks and numbers are cast into all parts. The well-preserved bridge, one of the earliest known examples of Dean & Westbrook of NYC, is historically and technologically significant. It is the only skewed Phoenix section span in NJ.
...
A peculiar feature of this bridge is the manner in which the skew of the abutments was accommodated within the truss framing. All floor beams are perpendicular to the bridge centerline with the unequal panel length due to the skew taken up in the end panels. On this bridge the incline of the portals were kept parallel and the end panel of the top chords are of unequal length. This arrangement causes the top chord pins at the end panel points only to be offset from the bottom chord pins so that the end panel hangers are inclined.
...
What distinguishes this cast- and wrought-iron example is the use of Phoenix section columns and cast nodes for connection of the Phoenix-section elements and the way the skew of the abutments was accommodated within the truss framing. Its historical significance is increased by the fact that it is a documented example of the work of New York City-based fabricator Dean & Westbrook, a firm that took over the erection of highway bridges through a contractual arrangement with the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville, PA. Dean & Westbrook built highway bridges with Phoenix columns until 1896. The Lower Lansdowne Road bridge is one of about ten bridges in New Jersey that are built with Phoenix sections between 1878 and 1895.
...
Correspondence in the Phoenix Iron Company records preserved at the Hagley Museum and Library reveals that when this bridge was ordered, the wrong skew connecting pieces were shipped to the site. The error was not discovered until the bridge was being erected. The correct connecting pieces had to be ordered from Phoenixville.
Score! HistoricBridges.org is a fantastic web site. But what the heck are Phoenix columns? I’m thinking some kind of odd construction method that pulled the iron up from the fire and ashes, or used recycled metal and gave it a rebirth or something, but as usual my fanciful conjectures are far too romantic. This is a Phoenix column:
It’s a wrought iron column made from 4, 6, or 8 pieces, heavily flanged, and tightly riveted together. They were invented by Samuel Reeves in 1862 and were made by the Phoenix Iron Company that he was a co-owner of. A phoenix column is at least as strong as a cast iron column of the full flange diameter, considerably stiffer, and much easier and less expensive to produce. Back in the day when the steel I-beam wasn’t yet available, and the iron I-beam wasn’t quite yet universal, Phoenix columns were used to make tall buildings, towers, and bridges. The Phoenix Iron Company in Phoenixville PA (28 mile NW of Philly) made a fortune making these things, and even had their own bridge building subsidiary company for a number of years. Eventually the Phoenix Column was bypassed by history, due both to the emergence of good steel and by the difficulty other builders had integrating the things with standard iron works. You had to use the cast iron end cap that was only made by the Phoenix Iron Company, and that added too much cost. I-beams were easier.
So almost all the upper parts of this little bridge were made from Phoenix Columns, and they are quite tiny. I doubt if any of them is more than 8” across, and about a third of that span is taken up by the flanges. Like I said, fairy bridges. They’re so thin and light they’re almost difficult to see. Neato!
Even more neato: Looking a bit into the Phoenix Bridge Company and the Phoenix Iron Company, I found that these bridges were built out of common pieces, boxed up, and sold by mail order. Bridge in a Box, some assembly required. That explains the “wrong skew connecting pieces” line in the quote above. You could order your bridge plain or fancy and in various lengths. The one in this picture, near the old factory in Phoenixville PA, is nearly identical to the bridge I saw on Landsdowne Road. It’s just a little longer and made from the next size up 4 part columns, and you can see how the through sections across the top were later replaced with plain square or L section metal. Another one is here, a fancy model with all the trimmings, but it’s still right out of the catalog. The IKEA solution to infrastructure development.
So how did the Phoenix Iron Company get so good at cranking out curved bits of iron, when everyone else was making T, H, and I section beams (and railroad track)? They had lots and lots of experience at bending sheet iron into curves. It turns out that the PIC had another aspect to their company. Sure, they made train tracks and railroad spikes too, but they were also a part of the early military industrial complex. Prior to the Civil War they made Dahlgreen guns for the Navy, lumbering fat assed cannons made in moulds from cast iron. Casting cannons is a difficult task, and even if you do it properly they take a week to cool off and often have weak spots in them. Enter John Griffen, an engineer working for the company. He came up with the bright idea that the guns could be made in layers, almost like Damascus steel. Griffen patented the idea of making cannons by hammer welding criss-crossed iron straps together over a mandrel, and then carving and boring the guns to shape with a lathe. He modestly called it the Griffen Gun, but the Army knew it as the 10 pound Ordnance Rifle. And they bought at least 1000 of them, at $350 each. And those were 1862 dollars, thank you.
The Griffen Gun weighed about 100 pounds less than the Parrot Rifle, making it easier to maneuver. Both could use a full pound of coarse blackpowder to shoot a 10 pound shell over a mile with accuracy in a flat arc. Visit just about any Civil War battlefield and you’ll see them: the short cannons with the ridges, belled muzzles, and fancy embellishments are 12 pounder Napoleons, either in iron (Union) or bronze (CSA); the smooth sided, industrial looking guns are Griffens, and the long barreled guns with the extra sheet of iron wrapped around the breech end are Parrots. Parrot guns were made from cast iron, and had the wrought iron sleeve added later. They needed it, because it kept the gun from exploding. Cast iron is the wrong stuff for guns. The Griffen did not explode, period. It was much stronger than the Parrot, and preferred by artillerymen on both side of that conflict. You can spot the Griffens easily, even though the South had their own copy cat version. All of them have PIC engraved on the bang end.
So there you go. I dig into local bridge history and come up with robust artillery. Love it.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/01/2011 at 07:36 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - October 15, 2011
Today in History (Saturday, Oct 15, 2011}
Events
533 – Having kicked Vandal @ss, Byzantine general Belisarius enters Carthage.
1764 – Edward Gibbon begins writing ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’.
1917 – Mata Hari executed by firing squad for spying for the Germans.
1946 – Nuremberg Trials: Hermann Göring poisons himself the night before his execution.
1970 – Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt.
Births
70 BC – Virgil (Roman poet)
1844 – Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher)
1858 – John L. Sullivan (American boxer)
1881 – P. G. Wodehouse (British novelist) Cheeves.
1924 – Mark Lenard (American actor. Spock’s father)
1946 – Richard Carpenter (American musician, Karen Carpenter’s brother)
1959 – Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York)
Deaths
1389 – Pope Urban VI
1917 – Mata Hari (Dutch dancer and spy)
1946 – Hermann Göring (German Luftwaffe commander)
1964 – Cole Porter (American composer)
Posted by Christopher
on 10/15/2011 at 01:46 AM
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Permalink • Friday - October 14, 2011
Today in History
Events
1066 – Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror defeats and kills King Harold II.
1322 – Battle of Old Byland: Robert the Bruce defeats King Edward II. Scotland is Free!
1789 – President George Washington proclaims the first Thanksgiving Day.
1884 – George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
1912 – While campaigning in Milwaukee, WI, former president Teddy Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank. With a fresh wound and the bullet still in him, Teddy still delivers his scheduled speech. Tougher than Chuck Norris he is.
1926 – Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A, Milne, is first published. Oh bother.
1947 – Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in a Bell X-1.
1962 – Let the Cuban Missile Crisis begin!
Births
Must be a problem with my app. Either that or everybody took two days to be born. Same results as yesterday.
Deaths
1066 – Harold II Godwinson (King of England)
1318 – Edward Bruce (High King of Ireland, younger brother of Robert the Bruce.)
1944 – Erwin Rommel (German field marshall)
1959 – Errol Flynn (Australian actor)
1977 – Bing Crosby (American singer/actor)
Posted by Christopher
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Permalink • Thursday - October 13, 2011
Today in History
Events
54 – Obama Nero becomes Roman Emperor
1307 - End of the Knights Templar. Obama Phillip the Fair tortures them into admitting ‘heresy’.
1773 – The Whirlpool Galaxy discovered by Charles Messier.
1775 – Happy Birthday US Navy! Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy. (As a NavVet, I like this)
1792 – Cornerstone of the White House is laid
1845 – Republic of Texas approves a measure that, if accepted by the US Congress, will make Texas a US state.
1884 – Greenwich meridian is established.
Births
1244 – Jaques de Molay (Grandmaster of the Knights Templar)
1853 – Lilliie Langtry (British actress)
1925 – Margaret Thatcher (British Prime Minister)
1925 – Lenny Bruce (American @sshole)
1941 – Paul Simon (American singer)
1947 – Sammy Hagar (American singer, hope he learned how to drive 55!)
1948 – John Ford Coley (American musician)
1959 – Marie Osmond (American entertainer, I’ve a personal story about her…)
Deaths
54 – Claudius (Roman Emperor)
1974 – Ed Sullivan (American TV personality)
Posted by Christopher
on 10/13/2011 at 08:22 PM
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Permalink • Monday - October 10, 2011
Today in History
Events
680 – Battle of Karbala: Imam Husayn bin Ali, grandson of pedophile prophet Muhammad, is decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I.
732 – Battle of Tours: Charles Martel defeats a large army of Moors, thus saving the rest of Europe from ‘the peaceful religion’ of Islam.
1938 – Munich Agreement: Sudetenland ceded to Nazi Germany. Peace in our time.
1971 – London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
1973 – Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with tax evasion.
Births
1813 – Giuseppe Verdi (Italian composer)
1895 – Wolfram von Richthofen (German field marshall)
1900 – Helen Hayes (American actress)
1917 – Thelonious Monk (American jazz pianist)
1946 – Ben Vereen (American actor)
1955 – David Lee Roth (American singer)
1958 – Tanya Tucker (American singer)
1969 – Brett Favre (American football player)
1974 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (NASCAR driver)
Deaths
19 – Germanicus (Roman general)
1837 – Charles Fourier (French philosopher)
1901 – Lorenzo Snow (5th President of the LDS Church)
1913 – Adolphus Busch (American brewer)
1939 – Eleanor Rigby (seriously, she’s a real person)
1985 – Yul Brynner (Russian-born actor)
1985 – Orson Welles (American actor/director)
2004 – Christopher Reeve (American actor)
Posted by Christopher
on 10/10/2011 at 01:13 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - October 09, 2011
Today in History
Events
1003 – Leif Erikson discovers the New World at L’Anse aux Meadows.
1604 – Supernova 1604, most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
1854 – Crimean War: Siege of Sebastopol begins.
1871 – Great Chicago Fire is brought under control. (after 24 hrs, nothing left to burn?)
1888 – The Washington Monument opens.
1919 – Black Sox scandal: Cincinnati Reds ‘win’ the World Series.
1940 – Battle of Britain: St. Paul’s Cathedral hit by a bomb.
1967 – Che Guevara executed for inciting revolution in Bolivia. Democrats still in mourning.
1999 – Last flight of the SR-71.
Births
1835 – Camille Saint-Saëns (French composer)
1859 – Alfred Dreyfus (French military officer)
1873 – Charles Walgreen (American entrepreneur)
1918 – E. Howard Hunt (of ‘Watergate’ infamy)
1940 – John Lennon (yeah, that John Lennon)
1944 – John Entwistle (The Who)
1975 – Sean Lennon (Son of John. Kinda weird having the same birthday as your dad.)
Deaths
1967 – Che Guevara (Commie terrorist @sshole)
1987 – Clare Boothe Luce (American diplomat)
And a whole bunch of other people I never heard of.
Posted by Christopher
on 10/09/2011 at 09:57 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - October 08, 2011
Today in History
Events
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Perryville. Union forces under Gen. Don Carlos Buell defeat Confederate troops led by Gen. Braxton Bragg thus halting the South’s invasion of Kentucky.
1871 – Great Chicago Fire.
1879 – War of the Pacific: Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos. In other news, Chile and Peru had navies.
1918 – World War I: Corporal Alvin York kills 25 Germans and captures 132 in the Argonne Forest.
1967 – Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia.
1973 – Yom Kippur War: Israel loses 150 tanks in a failed attack on Egyptians dug in on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal. Ouch!
Births
1890 – Eddie Rickenbacker (American WWI ace pilot)
1895 – Juan Perón (President of Argentina)
1895 – Zog I (President of Albania. I love that name.)
1920 – Frank Herbert (author of Dune and many other great novels)
1939 – Paul Hogan (aka Crocodile Dundee)
1941 – Jesse Jackson (professional racist)
1943 – Chevy Chase (American comedian)
1946 – Dennis Kucinich (American comedian politician)
Deaths
1754 – Henry Fielding (English author)
1793 – John Hancock (American revolutionary, signer of the Declaration of Independence)
1869 – Franklin Pierce (14th US President)
1967 – Clement Attlee (British Prime Minister)
Posted by Christopher
on 10/08/2011 at 05:50 AM
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Permalink • Friday - October 07, 2011
Today in History
Events
3761 BC – Origin of the modern Hebrew calendar.
1571 AD – Battle of Lepanto: The Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet, thus saving Europe from ‘the peaceful religion’ of Islam.
1777 AD – American Revolution: Americans defeat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga.
1916 AD – Football: Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland 222-0.
1944 AD – World War II: Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp. Jews burn down the crematoria.
1985 AD – The Achille Lauro is hijacked by the PLO.
2001 AD – US invasion of Afghanistan starts with air assault and covert ground operations.
Births
1849 – James Whitcomb Riley (American poet)
1885 – Niels Bohr (Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate)
1900 – Heinrich Himmler (German Nazi official)
1943 – Oliver North (American former military officer)
1951 – John Mellencamp (American singer)
1952 – Vladimir Putin (Russian Prime Minister and former President)
Deaths
929 – Charles the Simple (King of France, but I’m being redundant)
1792 – George Mason (American statesman and a Founding Father)
1849 – Edgar Allen Poe (American writer and poet)
1894 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (American writer)
1992 – Allan Bloom (American philosopher and educator)
Posted by Christopher
on 10/07/2011 at 09:05 AM
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Permalink • Friday - September 23, 2011
All That Is Old Is New Again
I have Doc Jeff to thank in part for this one. Thanks for the link Doc!
Ever since TinEye and Google Image Search came on the scene, it’s been pretty much impossible to do a WhatsIt. No matter what picture I put up, unless it’s one I photograph myself, you can find it in a second. Grrr. But if you’d like to play along and can resist the temptation to use an image search tool, here’s a really neat thing.
It’s a hexagon pyramid of glass that measures about 4” across. This one is green, but most of them were clear. The pyramid could have 4, 6, 8, or more sides, but 6 was fairly common. Some of them were as small as 2” across, but almost none of them was larger than 6” across because that would make the pyramid too tall.
As a very small child, I stood on several of these without injury. Heck, I probably jumped up and down on them, since I was that kind of boy.
These have been around ever since mankind had the ability to make fairly clear glass and understood it’s properties. Some of the later ones are not pyramids at all but fluted, which utilizes the same property but in a different way. Some of them also had a rim around the edge, but most didn’t. Wiki thinks they’ve only been around since the 1840s, but Wiki is wrong about lots of things. I think they might date back almost to Roman times.
They make dandy paperweights. They make decent palm maces; if ever there was a small blunt object to use as a weapon, here it is. They probably also excel at juicing oranges and grapefruit. None of these is what the things were designed to do.
Have at it. And then check below the fold for the answer, and for Doc’s link to a modern zero-cost implementation that is about as “green” a solution to an age old problem as can be found.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/23/2011 at 11:44 AM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • History • Science-Technology •
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Permalink • Monday - September 19, 2011
Teach Your Children Well
We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids Book of Freedom is a coloring book about the tragic events of 9/11 2001, featuring pictures of the burning World Trade Center towers and the execution of Osama bin Laden.
Although Wayne Bell, publisher of Really Big Coloring Books Inc., in Saint Louis, says the book was never meant to be controversial, and that it’s simply based on market research, on what people are looking for, the fact that it contains scenes like Osama bin Laden being shot by a Navy SEAL has sparked some controversy. Bell goes on to describe the coloring book as “a simplistic honest tool” to “educate children on events on 9/11″, but do kids who still like to color need to see scenes of mourning, burning buildings, and the execution of a Muslim man portrayed as hiding behind his veiled wife?
The entire first printing run has sold out, but more copies are on the way. At least I hope so.. I see that a pack of 10 of them is for sale on eBay.
The original book We Shall Never Forget 9/11 - The Kids Book of Freedom, will completely sell out soon and is no longer available at wholesale pricing. We Shall Never Forget is the fastest selling book in our company history; traveling to 157 countries, YES, 157 countries, via email, download or regular mail in less than three weeks. Once these last few original copies sell out, this book will no longer be available from the Publisher, Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. Thank you to all.
To the American people and all others who may read this child’s coloring book, We Shall Never Forget is designed (8.5” x 11”, 36 pages.) to be a tool that parents can use to help teach children about the facts surrounding 9/11. This book also describes basic freedoms in America. We suggest parental guidance. As the 9/11 events are shown countless times on national media, this book will help children understand the meaning of these events. The book was created with honesty, integrity, reverence, respect and does not shy away from the truth.In this book you will see what happens to a terrorist who orders others to bomb our peace loving wonderful nation.
The September 11, 2001 attacks on America are now commonly referred to as 9/11. It was a series of coordinated attacks by a radical Islamic Muslim extremist terrorist group who call themselves Al Qaeda. They were self-proclaimed Jihadists; many American people refer to them as homicide bombers. Their leader was a Saudi national named Osama Bin Laden. He and his men used hijacked U.S. airplanes as weapons.
OTOH ...
Believing that the upcoming 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 is best memorialized in crayon, Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. is publishing a new coloring book entitled “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom.” In offering kids the option of coloring the Twin Towers burning, mourning survivors, or the Navy SEALs shooting Osama Bin Laden, publisher Wayne Bell insists that “the doodles represent patriotism,” a “simplistic, honest tool” to “help educate children on events on 9/11.” But many Muslims describe it as, in a word, “disgusting.”
Fun With Killing Bin Laden: Coloring books are meant to inspire children’s creativity, but the new “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom” channels that impulse in a shocking direction. Published by Really Big Coloring Book Inc. and intended as a “learning tool” to help teachers explain the terrorist attacks, the book features a page showing a SEAL firing a bullet straight at Bin Laden, who is shown (inaccurately, as it turns out) using a woman as a human shield — more or less challenging tot artists to fill in their own splatter and gore. Publisher Wayne Bell defends the page as being “mild compared to the graphic video games children play,” but since when is a coloring book judged by those standards? [Chicago Tribune]
Not really mentioned in the few reviews and news stories that covered this is that the author added a fair amount of text to the book. So it isn’t just for those kids too young to read, unless the text is there for the parents to help tell the story?
Posted by Drew458
on 09/19/2011 at 08:17 AM
Filed Under: • History • RoPMA • War On Terror •
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Permalink • Saturday - June 18, 2011
3 bits of history at once
I spent a couple hours this afternoon reading about a highly inventive Edwardian civil engineer with the marvelous name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He built the Great Western railway in England in the 1830s, and 24 other rail lines. He and his father built a tunnel under the Thames in 1833 that is still in use today. (Peiper wrote on it a year ago). He built more than 100 viaducts and bridges, including the fantastic Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon in Bristol. He built 9 pier and dock systems. He made a pneumatic subway that would have worked if decent gaskets had been available. When the Crimean War broke out, he built a prefabricated portable hygienic hospital, put it on a ship, and sent it to the front, where Florence Nightingale put it to good use.
He was a genius far ahead of his time, and he made a fortune. He was also a grand philanthropist and founded a number of schools and hospitals.
He also built ships.
His first ship, the Great Western, was the first transatlantic steamship, built in 1838. Built mostly from wood, driven by enormous paddle wheels, and an impressive 232 feet long from stem to stern, it was the largest ship in the world when it was launched. Great Western made 64 passages between Great Britain and New York between 1838 and 1846.
Brunel’s next ship was bigger yet. But it couldn’t be made from wood. It turns out that no matter how strongly you build a wooden ship, they tend to “hog” - flex in the middle - when they get longer than about 275 feet. So in 1842 Brunel built the Great Britain from iron. This was the first modern ship; it had a metal hull, metal decks, watertight compartments, a gigantic 2 cylinder steam engine that generated 1000hp, and a propeller. At 322 feet, Great Britain was the largest ship ever built at the time of her launch as well. And here she is:
What you are looking at is 3 bits of history all at once. This is a photograph taken of the Great Britain while it was still under construction. The photograph was taken by William Fox Talbot. In 1844. The photograph was of a type called the calotype, a very early kind of film similar to the daguerreotype but backwards. The daguerreotype created a “positive” which made making copies of the print quite difficult. The calotype made an actual negative, so making multiple prints from it was much easier. Either way, cameras that used something we might recognize today as film were only 4 to 8 years old when this picture was taken. The 3rd bit of history is rather minor: this seems to be the first picture ever taken of a ship.
All this was 16 years before Matthew Brady, whom we Americans tend to think of as the father of photography. Father of photojournalism perhaps, but Talbot had him beat by many years. And 19 years before that iconic meeting in the waters of Hampton Roads that we tend to think of as the birth of iron ships ...
was merely the modern birth of floating armored warfare. Brunels’ ships had been chugging back and forth to Australia for ages by that point. Today the Great Britain has been fully restored and is on display in Bristol, UK.
Brunel lead a fascinating life, and I’m just scratching the surface here. In 2002 he was voted the 2nd greatest Briton ever, behind only Churchill. But I found myself quite impressed by a photographic print from way way way back when, and it all sprung from there. Perhaps someday Peiper will do a good long post on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, including pictures taken while driving across it as the bridge bounces up and down under the weight of his car. Or a post on Brunel’s ill-fated final ship, the Great Eastern, which in it’s day was the largest thing that ever floated, and kept that record for a whole generation. Or you can just read about him and his fantastic projects online.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/18/2011 at 11:03 PM
Filed Under: • History • UK •
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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