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Me, my daughter (Daini)
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www.magd.ox.ac.uk/discover-magdalen/
To celebrate its 550th anniversary Magdalen College, Oxford has commissioned the Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger to create his first-ever dedicated permanent artwork.
Two years in development, the sculpture Y was unveiled on St Mary Magdalen Day 2008. William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester founded Magdalen College in 1458. It is one of the best-known colleges in the University of Oxford and is known internationally for its high academic standing.
The College has many fine buildings. The Cloisters, Chapel, Founder’s Tower and Hall were built in the Gothic style in the later part of the 15th century. The Great Tower, a pictorial symbol of Oxford, is famous for the May Day event when the College choir sings an ancient hymn at dawn. The Georgian New Buildings, which blend into the College Gardens and grounds, were completed in 1733. The buildings sit amid a hundred acres of lawns, woodlands and riverside walks, which are publicly accessible, and there is a deer herd that has been in existence for over 300 years.
Addison’s Walk, named after the great essayist of the 18th century and father of English journalism, is about a mile in length and goes by the River Cherwell around a great water meadow. Beyond the end of Addison’s Walk is a tranquil field known as Bat Willow Meadow, which is where the new commission is sited. Maps of the grounds of Magdalen College are available from the Porters’ Lodge or they can be downloaded from the Magdalen website.
Over the past twenty years Mark Wallinger has established an international reputation with major solo exhibitions in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Val-de-Marne, Frankfurt, Aarau, Basel, Milan, New York and Chicago.
His work encompasses a wide range of media, including painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation, and it takes art history, mythology, religion, politics, national identity and popular culture as its subject matter. Wallinger studied at Chelsea School of Art in 2001, and in Goldsmiths' College. He exhibited in Young British Artists II at the Saatchi Collection in 1993 and at the Royal Academy of Art's Sensation exhibition in 1997.
His Time and relative dimensions in space derived from a residency and was shown at Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 2001 and in the same year he represented Britain in the 49th Venice Biennale. The artist is best known for Ecce Homo, a life-size sculpture of Jesus Christ which inaugurated the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 1999, and State Britain, his 2007 re-creation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He was a Turner Prize nominee in 1995 and won the award in 2007, and he is one of five internationally acclaimed artists who have been commissioned to produce proposals for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project, which will be one of the biggest artworks in the United Kingdom.
XM655 is an Avro Vulcan B Mk2, and the youngest Vulcan in existence (the third to last produced; XM656 and XM657 have both been scrapped). Delivered to 9 squadron at RAF Cottesmore in November 1964, she tranferred to the Waddington Wing in January 1968. She then served with 101 and 44 squadrons, and was with 50 squadron when she was put up for disposal in late 1983. She was bought by businessman Roy Jacobsen who had hopes to fly her on the airshow circuit.
She was the first Vulcan “civilianised” and was flown in to Wellesbourne Mountford about a week after a Cat 3 Check, on the 11th of February 1984. Hundreds of people were there to watch her arrive. She had flown only 5,744 hours, making her a very viable proposition for taking to the air once more. However, the Civil Aviation Authority made it clear that the aircraft would not be flying again without stringent conditions being satisfied. While efforts at funding the work necessary were begun and the aircraft was put on the civil register as G-VULC, little real progress was made. A plan to fly the aircraft in America got as far as registering the aircraft on the American civil register as N655AV but no further. After two years Roy Jacobsen lost interest in XM655 and bought another Vulcan (XL426) which was delivered to Southend. Parking fees were mounting at Wellesbourne and after a number of years the airfield owners took Jacobsen to court to recover them. The result was that the ownership of the aircraft passed to Wellesbourne Airfield.
XM655 had stood without attention for so long that she was in quite poor condition. Ten years of neglect had finally put paid to any lingering hopes of her ever flying again. At one stage she had been broken into, the cockpit instrumentation vandalised and the co-pilot’s control column removed with a hacksaw. The wingtip panels were also damaged at some point. With the transfer of ownership however, the future began looking brighter.
The Delta Engineering Association was formed to look after XM655 and they made it clear from the outset that their intention was to get her into ground running condition only. The aircraft was gradually brought back to life – all the hydraulics were overhauled, the damage to the cockpit was repaired and a number of engine runs undertaken.
Delta moved from Wellesbourne to Kemble in March 1996, and after the brief and unhappy existence and demise of the XM655 Association, the volunteers remaining at Wellesbourne decided that the best way forward would be a properly constituted membership organisation to look after XM655. As a result the 655 Maintenance and Preservation Society (655MaPS) was formed in late 1998.
Thanks to the generosity of Wellesbourne Airfield and with funds provided by the society’s members and other donors, 655MaPS have been able to assemble an impressive collection of workshops, storage units and ground equipment to support and service XM655.
The rear spar has been inspected and found to be in excellent condition. XM655 now has fuel in her tanks at all times to keep the system and the seals ‘wet’. All the aircraft systems are powered up and exercised regularly.
The aircraft has been repainted several times to keep the inevitable corrosion of the more than 50 year old structure under control, the flying control surfaces (elevons and rudder) have been reskinned, the jet pipe end caps have been replaced and the three engines with the longest running hours have been removed, opened, inspected and re-installed.
Engine ground runs (EGRs) are carried out approximately every three months, together with slow taxi runs to ensure the steering and braking systems are functional. Once each year, usually in June, XM655 takes part in Wellesbourne Wings and Wheels, which is our major public event of the year. Reports of past events can be found on the Taxi Runs page, and details of the next event are on the Events page.
XM655 is virtually complete in terms of installed equipment, with the H2S Radar, the Terrain Following Radar (TFR) and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems all still in-place, as well as the complete suite of Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) equipment. The only notable item missing when XM655 left RAF service was the in-flight refuelling probe; not surprising considering the world-wide hunt for serviceable probes which had occurred during the Falklands conflict a couple of years earlier. Eventually, a replacement probe was obtained and installed, and XM655 regained her familiar profile.
Sakharibazar, Old Dhaka, 2011
Normal people with extraordinary lifestyles
Along with smile and the gloomy, here life has its own rhyme, has its own colour.
Time passed by, humanity changed along with its history...
But these people remained here tolerating the hardest truth of existences
..........its their story of extraordinary existences.
Sakharibazar, Old Dhaka. A very interesting place for all of us to visit. Culture and customs of old Dhaka are the tribute to the ancient history of Bangladesh. Peoples still living in 100 years old building from generations after generations. With the reflection of their religious beauty Old Dhaka attracts peoples from here and abroad.
Shakhari Bazaar is one of the oldest mohallas (a traditional neighbourhood) in Puran Dhaka (Old Dhaka), located near the intersection of Islampur Road and Nawabpur Road;the two main arteries of the old city and only a block away from the Buriganga River. Shakhari Bazaar stretches along a narrow lane, lined with thin slices of richly decorated brick buildings, built during the late Mughal or Colonial period. Despite rampant modifications, accretion, extension over time, even redevelopment, many still bear the testimony of a rich tradition.
Shakhari Bazaar is the manifestation of the irrational policies, lack of adequate development control rules and distorted legal framework, all of which have left their indelible mark on this precious little mohalla that shares a long history of more than 400 years with Dhaka city itself.The history of Shakhari Bazaar goes back to the pre-Mughal days if not earlier. The first mention of Puran Dhaka can be found in the writings of Mirza Nathan, the general turned historian, who traveled with Subahdar Islam Khan. He mentioned Puran Dhaka, as the area between Dholai Khal and Buriganga river covering Shakhari Bazaar, Tanti Bazaar, Bangla Bazaar, Lakhsmi Bazaar, Bangla Bazaar, Kamar Nagar, Sutar Nagar, Goala Nagar, etc. Each mohalla belonged to separate communities depending on their craft and trade. The influences of the Mughal vocabulary in the planning of the spaces are literally evident in the use of Persian names to identify different spaces..
存在革命同人活動 - 台南一中 / 江戶時代冷面紅娘 - 日出女神東方不敗
The Closplay of the Existence Revolution - Tainan First Senior High School / The grim red woman of the Edo - The sunrise goddess East does not defeat
El Closplay de la Revolución Existencia - Tainan Primera Senior High School / La mujer roja severa del Edo - El este de la diosa de la salida del sol no derrota
革命の人の活動が存在しますと - 台南の一中 / 江戸時代の厳しい赤の女の子 - 日の出の女神の東方は敗けません
Die Closplay der Existenz Revolution - Tainan First Senior High School / Die grimmige rote Frau des Edo - Der Sonnenaufganggöttin Osten besiegt nicht zu schneiden
Le Closplay de la Révolution Existence - Tainan Première Senior High School / La femme rouge sinistre d'Edo - L'est de déesse de lever de soleil ne défait pas
Tainan Taiwan / Tainan Taiwán / 台灣台南
只記今朝笑 / 笑傲江湖-東方不敗
{ Only records smiles in the today / レコードだけが今日の笑顔 }
{My Blog / The Never Ending Times - Japanese Times}
{Mi blog / Los tiempos interminables - épocas japonesas}
{Mein Blog / Die immer währenden Zeiten - japanische Zeiten}
{My BLOG/管樂雅集台南孔廟精彩演出-2010楊老大生日快樂}
{管楽の風雅に集う台南孔子廟のすばらしい公演-2010楊は非常に誕生日おめでとうございます}
{My Blog/台南府城的日本時代-Swing Girl}
{My Blog/The Japanese times of the Tainan city-Swing Girl}
{Mi blog/los tiempos japoneses de la ciudad de Tainan - haga pivotar a la muchacha}
{Mein Blog/die japanischen Zeiten der Tainan-Stadt - schwingen Sie Mädchen}
書中風起雲動 劍下虎嘯龍吟
The book stroke have the clouds to move under the sword the tiger's roar and dragon to recite
誰知成敗早已天定
Who knows the success or failure already to decide for GOD
回首江山依舊 入眼夕陽正紅
Who looks back on the landscape as before pleasant setting sun is red now
但願人長久情長在
Hopes the persons long-time sentiment exist
熱蘭劍士無悔無憾
The Zeelandia's swordsman regretless not regrets
Williamina Park // Wilhemina Park:
Wilhemina Park was acquired by the South Brisbane Council in 1888 as a public reserve. Unnamed for most of its existence, in 1997 the park was named in honour of Williamina Mowbray, a prominent landowner and early resident of East Brisbane. The park hosted tennis courts from 1928-1950, used primarily by Saint Benedict’s Convent School. In 1996 the park was revitalised with public facilities and landscaping.
Saint Benedict's Catholic Church:
Archbishop Duhig opened Saint Benedict’s Catholic Church, also known as the Father Breen Memorial Church, on 12 August 1917. It was the second in a series of Catholic churches designed by G.H.M. Addison. Other churches designed by Addison were St Columba's, Wilston (1915), Sacred Heart Church, Rosalie (1918), and the Church of the Little Flower at Kedron (1923 - now demolished). The church was named to honour Saint Benedict, but was also a memorial to Father James Benedict Breen who served as parish priest at Kangaroo Point for many years.
Saint Benedict's is situated on the outskirts of what was formerly Mowbraytown Estate. Originally owned by the Reverend Thomas Mowbray, a Presbyterian minister who emigrated to Moreton Bay in 1847, this estate was subdivided into unusually small allotments of 14 perches in the 1880s, after the death of Mowbray's wife, Williamina. While the economic depression and devastating floods of the 1890s caused serious setbacks to the growth of the area, development began once more in the early twentieth century with the opening of more residential estates, spurred by the extension of the electric tramway in 1903. Until 1917, the Catholic community in the area was part of the parish of St Joseph's at Kangaroo Point and usually attended church there.
The site of Saint Benedict's Church was selected and purchased by Archbishop Duhig from Mr T. Gillam for £575. The land was presented to the newly created parish as a gift in memory of "their beloved priest", Father Breen, who died in 1916 after serving as parish priest at St Joseph's from 1880 to 1915. The contract for the construction of the church was awarded to J.G. Hobbs for £2,278. The total cost of the church including the sanctuary, seating, fences and architectural fees was almost £3,060. Over £1,100 was collected from the parish towards the cost of the church, with another £1,000 expected to be raised from a church fete.
Duhig laid the foundation stone of Saint Benedict’s on 18 March 1917. The church was built at the beginning of a period of intensive building by Duhig in his drive to provide places of worship for Brisbane's growing Catholic population. The archbishop also purchased a house to the rear of the site to be used as a school when the need arose. When Duhig returned to open and bless the church in August, he noted that "this side of Brisbane of late years had become very populous and the walk from where they were to St Joseph's on an early Sunday morning, when no trams were running, was very trying indeed".
Several additions have been made to the parish of Saint Benedict's in the decades since the construction of the church. A primary school, run by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan was opened by the Apostolic Delegate, Dr Cattaneo, on 29 January 1929. A convent and presbytery had also been built by this date. The need for more land was eased by the bequest of Mr W. Naughton who left his entire estate to the church. As Duhig noted when he blessed additions to the school in 1939, "other parishes had property to give away but in East Brisbane the district had been very settled before their arrival".
The church was painted and altered in 1974, when a "colonnade" was added to the eastern side of the church. Other changes included rewiring, a new public address system and a new glazed screen. In 1980, due to the scarcity of priests and the need to staff the new parishes of Brisbane's developing suburbs, the parish of Saint Benedict was reamalgamated with St Joseph's Parish at Kangaroo Point.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
Nikon FM2
Nikkor 28mm F2.8 AIS
Ilford XP2 SUPER
2024-08-10
The only story with this one is the intuition to release the shutter at this particular moment, from this particular perspective. There is a lot happening in the outer fringes of the photo, but I should like to think, and hope that the building has as much of a strong presence on whoever you are as it does on myself.
I took this by framing the shot, and then held it overhead to take it. The 28mm really adds a level of depth sometimes that the 35mm can not get across, and without the distortion of the 24mm.
Entropy, as expressed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, is an all pervasive natural force, similar in importance to gravity or electro- magnetism. Its attributes involve the flow of what we call "time". It shows why time travel is impossible and why water only runs downhill. Entropy permeates all aspects of human existence. Entropy explains why it is easy to lose money and difficult to make money. Entropy is the force behind Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, must go wrong. Is time-travel impossible? Why does water only run downhill? Why is it easy to lose money but difficult to acquire it? The answer to these and many other puzzling questions rests in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in Entropy. The so-called Second Law relates closely to the term Entropy. An understanding of this fundamental law of nature and its ramification provides great insights in the way the world really works. Entropy, as expressed by the Second Law, is the ultimate Natural Law because it determines the flow of what we call "time". Thus, entropy deals with the very existence of the universe. The term entropy describes phenomena that have the most profound effect on all events in human existence, including our ability to achieve happiness by aligning ourselves with Objective Reality.
The Second Law holds a unique position in science because it has never evolved from a theory such as the Theory of Relativity or the Theory of Quantum Mechanics. The Second Law is empirical. There is no fully satisfactory theoretical proof for the Second Law, although there are some connections to Quantum Mechanics, Probability and Relativity. Once a Unified Field Theory, the Theory of Everything, is developed, it will and must account for Entropy. Many scientists, who claimed that this Law is paradoxical in nature, have tried to attack it. However, in all instances the alleged paradoxes were due to faulty reasoning. The Second Law has prevailed and has established itself as the most fundamental of all Natural Laws.
The profound nature of the Second Law manifests itself in every aspect of human existence. It covers questions pertaining to the obscure beginnings of the universe to the way we pour milk in our coffee. I remember my high school teacher posing the question: You have a cup of very hot coffee that you would like to drink as soon as possible, let us say, within 5 minutes. Should you first add the desired quantity of cold milk to the coffee and then let the coffee sit for 5 minutes? Alternatively, do you let the coffee sit for 5 minutes and then add the same quantity of milk?
The answer is not intuitive but it is simple, if we are familiar with the Second Law: The rate of heat exchange between the hot coffee and the ambient air depends on their temperature differential. The higher the temperature differential, the faster will be the rate of exchange. Within the 5-minute waiting period, heat transfers to the air at a higher rate if we do not add the cold milk initially to the coffee. If we add the milk at the beginning, instead of at the end of the 5 minutes, the energy transfer will slow down and the coffee will be markedly hotter at the end of 5 minutes.
This revelation does not appear to be a momentous event. It was only intended to indicate the pervasiveness of the Second Law, especially in view of the fact that most people are seemingly ignorant of it. The point is, the Second Law is not intuitive. We have to acquire the relevant knowledge by a rational thought process in order to take advantage of it. The cup of coffee is not important but the principle behind the cup permeates all of our existence: In order to optimize the effectiveness of our actions it is helpful to understand the implications of Entropy.
Entropy describes the degradation of energy to perform work. What is energy? On the high school level, we simply defined energy as the capacity to do work. However, the real question is, What factor, precisely, is doing this work? Why does energy have the capacity to perform work? The HOWs in life are easy, the WHYs are the tough ones.
Energy is the raw material of the universe. At the time of the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago, there was nothing but raw energy. There was no mass with a physical attribute. It was only much later in the nascent universe that this primal energy transformed itself into physical mass, stars, nebula and black holes. Stars, and particularly supernovas, are the factories of the elements, such as iron, from which human beings are formed.
As we know from Einstein's famous formula E = m c^2, mass and energy are freely convertible into each other. The Hydrogen Bomb demonstrates this conversion in a spectacular fashion. Most of the energy it generates is due to the conversion of matter into energy. Such conversion of matter into energy, and vice-versa, is also a less spectacular event in everyday phenomena although it is usually so minuscule as to escape our attention: When we exercise vigorously, we convert chemical energy into radiated heat energy. All this radiated energy that leaves our body has mass, just as light has energy and weight, although it will not register on our bathroom scale.
In cognizance of these basic facts, we can stipulate that energy is the basic raw material that makes up the universe and all that is contained within it, including human beings. The essence of the universe is the unity of energy, time and space.
Energy is essentially a heat phenomenon. Heat and work are mechanisms by which systems exchange energy with one another. The mechanical equivalent of heat is called a Joule. 4.2 joules are the equivalent of one calorie, the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
In order for energy to perform work, a difference must exist between energy at a high potential and energy at a more randomized, diluted, potential. The term entropy is a measure of the degree to which energy has lost the capacity to perform useful work. Entropy signifies the dilution, the randomization of energy. We may look at water in two lakes, connected by a canal. Unless the lakes are at a different level, unless they are at a different energy potential, there is plenty of water, but all this water has no potential energy and cannot perform any useful work because it cannot change levels. This ability or inability to perform useful work is an analogy to and is at the heart of the term entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Let us back up a little: This whole subject of Thermodynamics sounds like a very complicated affair. Indeed, it is both very simple and extremely complex. There are three Laws of Thermodynamics, but we need to concern ourselves only with the first two laws because they are closely interwoven and can actually be expressed in one sentence: The total energy content of the universe is constant and the total entropy, the non-usable energy, is constantly increasing. There you have it: The combination of the first and second law of thermodynamics.
Very interesting, but what does it mean? It means that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can be transformed into mass, chemical energy, heat energy, latent energy and work, but it cannot be created and it cannot disappear. Energy is also in a constant, inevitable and irreversible process of becoming increasingly randomized. Salt crystals may be dissolved in a beaker of water without losing its identity as salt. The salt became more randomized when it dissolved in the water. The Law of Entropy decrees that it cannot reconvert itself to the less randomized, crystalline version. The salt cannot reconstitute itself as crystals, unless we introduce external energy to evaporate the water.
The amount of energy in the universe was established at the time of the Big Bang. At that point, energy was extremely concentrated and ordered. Since then, the universe has expanded vastly and energy has become more diluted and randomized. It is inherent in the nature of the universe that this process must and will continue. If it were to stop, the universe would cease to exist.
This increasing randomization of energy, entropy, is part of the structure of the universe. The energy dilemma does not involve the amount of energy that is available; it involves the form in which the energy is available. The universe is involved in a constant process of converting one form of energy into another form and in doing so, it inevitably must convert part of the original energy into more randomized, less usable, heat energy. Potential energy is organized energy whereas heat represents randomized, disorganized energy. Heat energy is irretrievable energy. Although the energy contained in heat is not destroyed, it has become unavailable for producing work. All forms of energy are degraded incessantly and irreversibly to an inferior, lower-quality, more-randomized form of energy: Heat.
By the same principle, the solar energy that pours out of the furnace of the sun travels on and on until it eventually becomes scattered throughout the universe: It becomes so randomized that it becomes unusable for the performance of work. Therefore, we must stipulate that entropy, as a measure of the randomness of energy in the universe, is always increasing.
The question arises, what will happen when all the usable energy in the universe is converted into randomized heat energy and is no longer capable of performing such work as expanding the universe. We refer to this condition as the Heat Death of the Universe: Once all the energy in the universe is converted to and randomized as heat, then the universe will be in a state of energy equilibrium, everything will be of the same temperature and entropy will remain constant. This is where science gets more complicated and involves the microwave background radiation consisting of photons near, but not quite at, absolute Zero. Scientists have recently detected this microwave background radiation and have thus confirmed the connectivity between Thermodynamics and Quantum Mechanics.
Before we go on to some practical manifestations of entropy, we need to be aware of a very important characteristic of entropy: The Laws of Thermodynamics pertain only to a system that we refer to as a closed system: An entity that does not exchange energy, information or mass with anything outside the system. The universe in its totality is a closed system because no new energy is injected into it. Therefore, all laws of Thermodynamics apply to the universe. Earth is not a closed system because our sun constantly injects it with new energy. This infusion of energy into the non-closed system of the earth makes it possible to comply with the Second Law while achieving an increase in the complexity of life forms, as necessitated by the process of evolution.
The laws of thermodynamics are among the very few laws of nature that describe phenomena that are an integral part of the origin of the universe, of the Big Bang. The other laws in this category are gravity, relativity, nuclear binding forces and electromagnetism. Human beings need not concern themselves with the effects of relativity or quantum mechanics. However, the phenomena of thermodynamics constantly and profoundly affect all human beings.
If there are any laws that have truly universal applicability and that also affect ordinary human affairs, they are the Laws of Thermodynamics. The following statement contains the essence of Entropy: In any transformation of energy from one form to another, useful energy is lost irreversibly. The German physicist Clausius first used the term Entropy in 1865 to describe the nature of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Even great physicists of that period, like James Maxwell, had trouble with a concept involving only negatives and dealing with the idea of measuring a state of disorder. Today we can condense the statement of Entropy by stating: Entropy in a closed system can never decrease. There are no exceptions to this statement.
The Second Law decrees that water can only flow downhill. Objects do not run uphill by themselves. If we wish to have water run uphill, we must supply outside energy to pump it up the hill.
A clock gradually runs down because the latent energy in its spring is used to run the clock and part of this energy is converted to irretrievable heat. Because the heat cannot be reconstituted into usable energy, this energy is lost irretrievably and the clock cannot rewind itself.
Even in the most complex energy transformations, there is a forward direction to the process because only an outside energy source can reverse a heat-process within a closed system. The burning of gasoline in a car creates mechanical energy and heat. However, no process in the universe will allow the exhaust gases to re-combine with the heat energy and reconstitute the original gasoline: The heat energy of the burning gasoline has achieved a higher and irreversible state of randomization: The entropy of the system, and the universe, is irreversibly increased, as required by the Second Law.
The close relationship of entropy to the statistical laws of probability becomes clear when we hold a stack of five coins in a hand and throw them on a flat surface. Instead of retaining their previous order and proximity, they scatter and increase their randomness. The fall of the coins generated and dissipated the tiniest little bit of heat and the lack of this heat prevented the coins from reforming in the same stack as before. Entropy always drives all transformation of energy in such a way as to increase irreversible randomness.
Ice must have a tendency to melt because H2O molecules in ice crystals are more orderly than in the form of water. Ice crystals tend to become randomized by changing from orderly ice crystals to a more disorderly state as a liquid.
Water must evaporate: A gaseous structure is more randomized than a liquid state.
Time can only flow in one direction: The arrow of time can only move from the dead past to the non-existing future. The Second Law is closely interwoven with the laws of probability. Therefore, the laws of entropy are statistical laws. If we apply statistical laws applicable to entropy to future events, they provide meaningful results; if we apply them to past events, they are meaningless. Therefore, time can flow only from the dead past toward the future, which does not yet exist. Time travel will always remain impossible: It is inherently impossible to move from one state of non-existence to other states of non-existence. The Second Law decrees that the universe would have to cease to exist in order to allow for time-travel.
The laws of thermodynamics are the descriptors of the universe and do not permit perpetual motion machines. We would only waste our time and money if we were to attempt building a machine that not only can run forever, but that could even produce excess energy while doing so.
Heat flows from a hot object to a cold object, never the other way around. When we drop a hot peace of metal in a container of cold water, the metal cools and the water heats up until their temperatures have equalized. During this process the entropy, the randomness of the system consisting of the water and the metal, increases and no further useful work can be performed because there is no longer a temperature differential between the water and the metal: The system has become randomized.
This manifestation of the Second Law can be stated quite simply: Heat energy will not flow from a cooler to a warmer body. It would be foolish to try to warm our hands on a block of ice although there is considerable heat in the ice. If we compare the heat of ice with the heat of liquid hydrogen, ice would appear to be very hot, indeed. It would be easy to build a machine that runs on the heat differential between the cold block of ice and the much colder liquid hydrogen. However, since the heat in the ice is at a much lower level than the heat in our body, heat cannot flow from the ice to our hands. We cannot warm our hands by immersing them in ice. We have always known this fact. Now we know why we cannot warm our hand by touching a block of ice.
Bridges and buildings will inevitably collapse, unless entropy is counteracted by the addition of new energy, such as money, energy, power or labor, to the system. If we do not paint the bridge, it will eventually, but inevitably, collapse.
Money is not energy but it represents energy. Therefore, money becomes randomized automatically, in compliance with the Second Law. As we only know too well, money has a distinct tendency to dissipate, to randomize. On the other hand, the creation of wealth requires an infusion of energy from a source outside the system, such as a competent strategy or the contribution of additional capital or labor.
We know empirically, that things do not organize themselves into artifacts that are more complex unless new energy is inserted from outside the system. This fact is obvious because a broken window will not repair itself. Without competent management, without the energy to organize and structure transactions, a business will fail, a victim of entropy.
Without new software, without the infusion of new energy from outside the computer system, a computer will never acquire new capabilities, but its hard-drive will fill up with defects and clutter due to the degeneration of the data it holds. A well known fact.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics is closely interwoven with the future of the universe and with all life on earth. Sometimes people say that the existence of life on earth violates or contradicts the Second Law. However, this is not the case; we know of nothing in the universe that violates the Second Law.
The definition of life revolves around three prerequisites: The organism must be able to replicate itself, the organism must be capable of energy conversion and the organism must be subject to evolution. The essence of evolution is an increase in complexity, as is obvious when we consider the evolution of living organisms over eons of time.
An increase in complexity entails an increase in the orderliness of the organizational character of the organism: Life represents a decrease of entropy, a decrease of randomness. Such a decrease in randomization can only come about as a result of an infusion of energy from the outside of the closed system, from the outside of the organism. Therefore, the ability to utilize energy by converting it to a usable form, is the essence of all things that we call alive or living. In the case of life on earth, the outside energy is derived from the sun. No sunlight, no life on earth.
This is the chain of life on earth: No energy, no evolution. -- No evolution, no life -- No energy, no life
The discussion of energy is significant, because nothing happens in the universe without energy. The whole universe is a cauldron of energy conversions. As far as human beings are concerned, we need to remember that the standard of living of a person or a nation is determined primarily by the availability of usable energy sources, such as oil or nuclear energy. Without sources of energy to turn our wheels and to compensate for entropy, humanity would revert to the primeval existence of hunters and gatherers.
Many people have trouble understanding the principle of entropy because it is a concept of negatives, because it is a measure of the disorder, of the randomness of a closed system. Every biochemical function requires a decrease in entropy, which can only be achieved by the infusion of energy into a life-sustaining system.
Many people erroneously believe that everything that we use up can be recycled and reused if we only develop the appropriate technology. However, the Second Law makes it inherently impossible to achieve complete reconstitution or recycling. In order to recycle a used product, we must insert additional energy in the collecting, transportation and reprocessing of used materials and this energy expenditure contributes to the overall entropy, the randomness, of the environment. Thus, discards can be recycled only by the expenditure of additional energy and at the expense of increasing the entropy of the universe as a whole. On a light note: Every time someone lights a cigarette, he increases the entropy of the universe and contributes to the energy death of the universe.
Why is this discussion of entropy and the Second Law so important to us, to ordinary human beings? After all, most of us are more concerned with living a happy life, than the heat death of the universe. The problem is that the Second Law has a tendency to interfere with our happiness because it has a pervasive, pernicious effect on our lives. It is imperative that we are aware of the impairments caused by entropy in order to counteract them effectively.
If we encounter a problem in life, it is most important to be fully cognizant of the precise nature and cause of the problem. In trying to resolve the problem, it would be counter-productive to invoke the help of imagined superior beings, instead of dealing with the problem in a realistic, purposeful manner. Unless we understand the nature of entropy, we cannot resolve the deleterious effects that make it difficult to achieve desired results. Therefore, a profound knowledge of the Second Law is extremely important to our quest for happiness.
"Murphy's Law" is well known. After allowing for many humorous embellishments and variations on the basic theme, Mr. Murphy’s proposition states: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." A corollary version claims: "Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse".
We laugh about this aspect of life because we have all experienced the effect of Mr. Murphy's Law on many occasions. Rather than recognize Murphy's Law as a humorous version of a basic law of nature, we usually look upon it as a quirk of nature. Nothing could be further from the truth: When we look at the Second Law of Thermodynamics, we realize that Mr. Murphy's law is an inescapable consequence of the principle of Entropy.
Unless we constantly insert new energy into a house by maintaining it, painting it, repairing it, the structure will eventually but inevitably be leveled to the ground. Its molecules will move from a lower level of randomization, from structure, to a higher level of randomization, towards unstructured debris.
Entropy is the reason why paint peels, why hot coffee turns cold. Furthermore, entropy is the reason why investments have a preordained inclination to go sour -- unless we enhance success by inserting into the investment system additional energy in the form of strategy, work, calculated risk or other forms of energy. Entropy ensures that sugar, which becomes more randomized when it is dissolved in water, will not reconstitute itself in the crystalline form -- unless we apply heat energy from outside the system and evaporate the water.
Wherever we look, whatever we do, we must be acutely aware of the immutable laws of thermodynamics, especially the easily overlooked Second Law: Entropy. This fundamental law of physics ranks with other fundamental manifestations of the universe such as gravity, time and electromagnetism.
Anything that can go wrong not only will go wrong, it must go wrong, as decreed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics
A cute little butterfly (can I call it flutterby ?) and an ant share space in a small plant. While the butterfly takes up the full bloom for a feast of nectar the ant is comfortable with a bud !!
The previous day the plant was home to a very small spider which shifted to some other place. You can see the remains of the web at the top of the plant !!! (If you couldn't see the web see your ophthalmologist immediately !!)
Have a great weekend, my dear friends !!
நீயேநான் என்று நினைப்பும் மறப்புமறத்
தாயே அனையஅருள் தந்தாய் பராபரமே !!!
தாயுமானவர் பராபரக்கண்ணி
Bravery is clearly a trait that Brittany McGinley possesses. I wouldn't even try getting that close to the edge, especially when there's about a 30 foot drop beneath.
Modern cars can do over 100,000 miles without pausing for breath. If you really pile on the miles, you might have 200,000 or even 300,000 miles on the clock. If the car Gods are really shining on you, you might have managed more than half a million.
Prepare to feel insignificant. Irv Gordon from East Patchogue, New York, together with his Volvo P1800, a 1966 1800S, has completed over three million miles--a new world record for the highest number of miles driven by a single person in the same car. If you're after an arbitrary comparison to offer some perspective, that's around six round-trips to the moon, or 120 circumnavigations of Earth.
Gordon hit the three million miles mark on September 18 while driving near the village of Girdwood, on the Seward Highway, south of Anchorage, Alaska; one of the two remaining states where Irv and his famous car had not been together until now.
”It was all rather undramatic,” said Irv. ”We just cruised along and I kept an eye on the odometer in order not to miss the great moment”.
Gordon first bought his 1800S on a Friday back in 1966 and immediately fell in love. He simply couldn't stop driving the car and over the course of the weekend he had already covered 1,500 miles, causing him to return to the dealership he bought it the following Monday in order for its first service.
With a 125-mile round-trip daily commute, a fanatical dedication to vehicle maintenance and a passion for driving, Gordon logged 500,000 miles in 10 years. In 1987, he celebrated his one-millionth mile by driving a loop around the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, and in 2002 he drove the car's two-millionth mile down Times Square. Since then, Gordon has broken his record every time he gets behind the wheel of his beloved Volvo.
[Text from MotorAuthority]
www.motorauthority.com/news/1087353_irv-gordon-reaches-3-...
History
The project was started in 1957 because Volvo wanted a sports car, despite the fact that their previous attempt, the P1900, had been a disaster, with only 68 cars sold. The man behind the project was an engineering consultant to Volvo, Helmer Petterson, who in the 1940s was responsible for the Volvo PV444. The design work was done by Helmer's son Pelle Petterson, who worked at Pietro Frua at that time. Volvo insisted it was an Italian design by Frua and only officially recognized that Pelle Petterson designed it in 2009. The Italian Carrozzeria Pietro Frua design firm (then a recently acquired subsidiary of Ghia) built the first three prototypes between September 1957 and early 1958, later designated by Volvo in September 1958: P958-X1, P958-X2 and P958-X3 (P:Project 9:September 58:Year 1958 = P958).
In December 1957 Helmer Petterson drove X1, (the first hand-built P1800 prototype) to Osnabrück, West Germany, headquarters of Karmann. Petterson hoped that Karmann would be able to take on the tooling and building of the P1800. Karmann's engineers had already been preparing working drawings from the wooden styling buck at Frua. Petterson and Volvo chief engineer Thor Berthelius met there, tested the car and discussed the construction with Karmann. They were ready to build it and this meant that the first cars could hit the market as early as December 1958. But in February, Karmann's most important customer, Volkswagen VAG, forbade Karmann to take on the job.[citation needed] They feared that the P1800 would compete with the sales of their own cars, and threatened to cancel all their contracts with Karmann if they took on this car. This setback almost caused the project to be abandoned.
Other German firms, NSU, Drautz and Hanomag, were contacted but none was chosen because Volvo did not believe they met Volvo's manufacturing quality-control standards.
It began to appear that Volvo might never produce the P1800. This motivated Helmer Petterson to obtain financial backing from two financial firms with the intention of buying the components directly from Volvo and marketing the car himself. At this point Volvo had made no mention of the P1800 and the factory would not comment. Then a press release surfaced with a photo of the car, putting Volvo in a position where they had to acknowledge its existence. These events influenced the company to renew its efforts: the car was presented to the public for the first time at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1960 and Volvo turned to Jensen Motors, whose production lines were under-utilised, and they agreed a contract for 10,000 cars. The Linwood, Scotland, body plant of manufacturer Pressed Steel was in turn sub-contracted by Jensen to create the unibody shells, which were then taken by rail to be assembled at Jensen in West Bromwich, England. In September 1960, the first production P1800 (for the 1961 model year) left Jensen for an eager public.
P1800
The engine was the B18 (B for the Swedish word for gasoline: Bensin; 18 for 1800 cc displacement) with dual SU carburettors, producing 100 hp (75 kW). This variant (named B18B) had a higher compression ratio than the slightly less powerful twin-carb B18D used in the contemporary Amazon 122S, as well as a different camshaft. The 'new' B18 was actually developed from the existing B36 V8 engine used in Volvo trucks at the time. This cut production costs, as well as furnishing the P1800 with a strong engine boasting five main crankshaft bearings. The B18 was matched with the new and more robust M40 manual gearbox through 1963. From 1963 to 1972 the M41 gearbox with electrically actuated overdrive was a popular option. Two overdrive types were used, the D-Type through 1969, and the J-type through 1973. The J-type had a slightly shorter ratio of 0.797:1 as opposed to 0.756:1 for the D-type. The overdrive effectively gave the 1800 series a fifth gear, for improved fuel efficiency and decreased drivetrain wear. Cars without overdrive had a numerically lower-ratio differential, which had the interesting effect of giving them a somewhat higher top speed (just under 120 mph (193 km/h)) than the more popular overdrive models. This was because the non-overdrive cars could reach the engine's redline in top gear, while the overdrive-equipped cars could not, giving them a top speed of roughly 110 mph (177 km/h).
1800S
As time progressed, Jensen had problems with quality control, so the contract was ended early at 6,000 cars. In 1963 production was moved to Volvo's Lundby Plant in Gothenburg and the car's name was changed to 1800S (S standing for Sverige, or in English : Sweden). The engine was improved with an additional 8 hp (6 kW). In 1966 the four-cylinder engine was updated to 115 hp (86 kW). Top speed was 175 km/h (109 mph).[3] In 1969 the B18 engine was replaced with the 2-litre B20B variant of the B20 giving 118 bhp (89 kW), though it kept the designation 1800S.
[Text from Wikipedia]
This Lego miniland-scale Volvo P1800 Coupe has been created for Flickr LUGNut's 88th Build Challenge, - "Let's Break Some Records", - a challenge focused on creating vehicles that set some benchmark for biggness, fastness or other extreme of some specification. The Volvo model shown here claim, by far, the farthermost distance ever traveled by an automobile, at over 3,000,000 miles (4,800,00 kilometres).
The images you will see are my free and personal photographic reinterpretation of a fantastic phenomenon that fascinated me and whose existence I learned about some time ago, during my research on the various uses of X-ray plates.
In Cold War Russia, during the 1950s, the Communist regime had everything in hand, deciding the lifestyle, what to allow or not to allow the population, including what music should be listened to. The advent of jazz and rock'n'roll music in the United States, considered a symbol of contamination of capitalism, was immediately boycotted by any means; listening was forbidden and also punished with arrest.
A group of young rebels, the "stilyagi" (stylish), devised an absolutely original method to circulate Western music by smuggling: using rudimentary recording machines, with instruments made from old phonographs, they thought of reproducing very original records: the grooves were engraved on thin X-ray films in disuse rather than on the plastic material (vinyl, rigid and in any case too expensive); the central hole was made rudimentary by burning the plate with a cigarette. X-ray plates lent themselves very well to the purpose, being made of cheap material and easily available in all hospitals that had to dispose of them as they are flammable and potentially dangerous. In addition, the radiographs also had another characteristic, that of being flexible: the discs, which still had a rather low sound definition, were hidden in the sleeves of the coats, so that they could circulate rather easily. The price at which they were sold was modest, one ruble against five vinyl records of music authorized by the regime; so it could happen that on painful images (shins, ribs, skulls, vertebrae, etc. ..), one would secretly dance in the cellars with songs by Elvis Presley or Duke Ellington before, or on the Liverpool beat after. The phenomenon that lasted until the end of the '70s with the advent of the first cassette tapes, was called "The ribs of rock" and also "The music of the bone", then causing prices to skyrocket in the collecting market of the now unobtainable engraved radiographic supports.
The images I produced are the result of the digital union between real X-ray plates and original vinyls, using the covers, or details of them, as labels for the discs. However, I have reserved and added my personal interpretation which consists in having created a correspondence between the parts of the body imprinted on the plates and the images detected in the covers.
This photo is of an adult white-tailed Eagle. Unfortunately it is so far away and I only have a 200mm lens with 2x extender so this is a severe crop. A record shot that is all. These birds have chosen to breed in the River Weser valley, this year there are three young birds. This is the fourth year that they have successfully reared offspring. Unfortunately the map here is not accurate although the nature reserve area is an old gravel working that have been existence for many years and are no longer worked. The area has been purchased by the NABU (Nature protection organisation Germany) and has been reinstated along with nesting help for Common Tern, That after 100 years of absence have now reared young for the last four years.
Postmarked July 1954.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. Called a "packet" for the mail packets carried on government mail contracts, the term in the 19th century came to mean a steamer line operating on a regular, fixed daily schedule between two or more cities. When it closed in 1962 after 122 years of existence, it was the last surviving overnight steamship passenger service in the United States.[1][2]
In addition to regularly calling on Baltimore and Norfolk, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company at various times provided freight, passenger and vehicle transport to Washington, D.C., Old Point Comfort, and Richmond, Virginia. The Old Bay Line, as it came to be known by the 1860s, was acclaimed for its genteel service and fine dining, serving Chesapeake Bay specialties. Walter Lord, famed author of A Night to Remember (and whose grandfather had been the packet line's president from 1893 to 1899), mused that its reputation for excellent service was attributable to "some magical blending of the best in the North and the South, made possible by the Company's unique role in 'bridging' the two sections ... the North contributed its tradition of mechanical proficiency, making the ships so reliable; while the South contributed its gracious ease".[2]
One of the Old Bay Line's steamers, the former President Warfield, later became famous as the Exodus ship of book and movie fame, when Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe sailed aboard her in 1947 in an unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to Palestine.
Old Bay Line 1950s timetable
History
Just seven years after Robert Fulton proved the commercial viability of steam-powered ships with his North River Steamboat (more commonly known today as Clermont) in 1807, small wood-burning steamers began to ply the Chesapeake Bay. Before the arrival of railroads and river steamboats in the early 19th century, overland travel was exceedingly slow and tedious.[2] Rivers were the main means of transportation and most cities were founded on them. This was especially so in North America, where journeys over vast distances of hundreds or even thousands of miles required months of hazardous, uncomfortable travel by stagecoach or wagon on rutted, unpaved trails. In the 1830s, railroads were being built, but the technology was crude and average passenger train speed was only 12 miles per hour (19 km/h).[3] Perhaps more importantly, most early railroads did not connect. It would be many years before the various lines were knitted together to make intercity rail travel in the U.S. a reality. Not until 1863, for example, was it possible to travel between New York City and Washington, D. C., without changing trains en route.[4]
In this period, steamships on rivers such as the Ohio and Mississippi or large inland bodies of water such as the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay offered a comfortable and relatively fast mode of transportation. The first steamboat to serve Baltimore was the locally built Chesapeake, constructed in 1813 to link Baltimore with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operated by the Union Line, the boat connected with a stagecoach for the overland portion of the journey.[5] Two years later, the Briscoe-Partridge Line's Eagle was the first steamboat to sail the length of Chesapeake Bay.[3]
The direct ancestor of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company was the Maryland & Virginia Steam Boat Company formed in 1828 to link Baltimore, Richmond, and Norfolk, traversing the Chesapeake Bay and the James River. By 1839, the Maryland & Virginia was heavily in debt from the purchase of two new, large ships the year before: the 210-foot (64 m) long Alabama and the 173-foot (53 m) Jewess. The Alabama was expensive to operate and proved impractical for Chesapeake Bay operations, causing the bankruptcy of the Maryland & Virginia later that year.[5]
1840s–1850s
When the Maryland & Virginia collapsed in late 1839, the Maryland legislature convened to grant a charter to the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, organized in Baltimore to provide overnight steamship service on the Chesapeake Bay. The company's incorporators were Benjamin Bush, Andrew F. Henderson (who became the line's first president), John B. Howell, Thomas Kelso (who would become a director of the line), John S. McKim, Samuel McDonald, Gen. William McDonald, Robert A. Taylor, and Joel Vickers, all of Baltimore.[6]
The company was granted a 20-year charter on March 18, 1840, by the Maryland legislature and then acquired three of the former Maryland & Virginia's steamboats: Pocahontas, Georgia, and Jewess.[5][Note 1] The company began overnight paddlewheel steamship passenger and freight service daily except Sundays between Baltimore and Norfolk. By 1848, the company's steamship Herald was making the trip in less than 12 hours, a time which the line would maintain until the end in 1962.[8] An affiliate, the Powhatan Line, started service between Norfolk and Richmond in 1845, interchanging freight and passengers with the Old Bay Line.[8]
By the 1850s, competition was keen as steamships grew in size and efficiency to serve the fast-growing nation. The Old Bay Line, in particular, served as a link between the antebellum South and northern markets, hauling large quantities of cotton north and manufactured goods south, along with a thriving passenger business between Baltimore and Norfolk. Railroads also began acquiring steamship lines in the 1850s, and the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad, a predecessor of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P), acquired a controlling interest in the Baltimore Steam Packet Company in 1851.[8] As competitors entered the field, each line vied to outdo its competitors in the luxurious appointments of their ships' staterooms and dining service. The company acquired newer and larger ships in the 1850s, such as the North Carolina in 1852 and the Louisiana in 1854, the latter at 266 feet (81 m) in length being the largest wooden vessel the company would own.[8] A passenger on the Baltimore Steam Packet Company's Georgia, carried away by delight over his travel experience in 1853, was effusive in his description of an overnight trip:
I know of no more delightful trip from Baltimore down the Chesapeake ... upon the broad blue waters with an exquisite breeze, which came up with invigorating freshness from the silver waves. Night came on, and her azure curtain gemmed with myriad stars was drawn over the expanse above.
— W.S. Forrest, Historical Sketches of Norfolk, 1853[9]
The North Carolina similarly impressed a Baltimore Patriot reporter in 1852, who described the ship's dining saloon as "having imported Belgian carpets, velvet chairs with marble-topped tables, and white panelling with gilded mouldings".[8]
On February 20, 1858, the northbound steamer Louisiana collided with a sailing vessel, the William K. Perrin, causing the sailboat to founder near the mouth of the Rappahannock River.[10] In a case that reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Haney et al. v Baltimore Steam Packet Company, the Louisiana was found to be at fault. The high court considered the rules of the sea pertaining to steamers and sailing ships approaching one another and concluded (with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney dissenting) that "entire disregard of these rules of navigation by the steamer" caused the collision, reversing a Circuit Court ruling.[10]
The North Carolina burned on January 29, 1859, when a fire started in a passenger stateroom. She sank the following day with the loss of two lives.[11] The following month, the line acquired the Adelaide to replace the lost steamer.[12]
1860s–1910s
The outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 immediately affected the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. On April 19, two days after Virginia's secession, a violently pro-Southern mob in Baltimore attacked Union soldiers en route to Washington, D.C. as the troops marched through the city's streets between railroad stations. Thereafter known as the Baltimore riot of 1861, the resulting loss of life and local unrest also threatened the USS Allegheny, a U.S. Navy ship in Baltimore at the time. Later that same day, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company declined to transport Union forces from Baltimore to the beleaguered Union naval yard facility at Portsmouth, Virginia.[13]
Two weeks later, on May 7, the Adelaide was chartered by the U.S. Navy and attached to the Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In that role, she was used to transport Federal troops in support of operations in North Carolina's Outer Banks, directed against the Confederate-held forts guarding Hatteras Inlet.[12] Later that year, the Adelaide was returned to the Baltimore Steam Packet Company.
As a steamship line connecting northern cities and the south, the Old Bay Line hauled a considerable volume of freight between the two regions and their ships' cargo holds were filled with bales of cotton, produce, and other goods. When hostilities commenced, Southern ports were blockaded by the Federal Navy and the Old Bay Line was unable to serve Norfolk for the duration of the war, going no further south than Old Point Comfort. Passenger traffic as well as cargo shipping declined significantly. The Powhatan Line discontinued operations altogether between Norfolk and Richmond until the war's end.[14]
The Old Bay Line's Eolus in 1869
As soon as the war ended in 1865, the Leary Line of New York briefly challenged the Baltimore Steam Packet Company on the Chesapeake, starting its own Baltimore-Norfolk steamship service. A fare war ensued, with one-way prices reduced to $3.00 (equivalent to $24.34 in 2019). Emphasizing the longevity of its service compared to their upstart rival, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company began referring to itself as the "Old Established Bay Line" in advertising, a moniker that would soon become simply the Old Bay Line for the next century.[14]
The Leary Line withdrew in January 1867, selling its George Leary to the Old Bay Line. Two years later, the Norfolk Journal of August 2, 1869, described the vessel as having a "gorgeous style of furniture and elegant fittings ... magnificently furnished with upholstered sofas and lounges of rich red velvet ...".[15] Another competitor, the Chesapeake Steamship Company, began directly competing on the Baltimore-Norfolk route in 1874. Controlled by the Southern Railway, a rival of the RF&P, it would be a formidable competitor until 1941, when the two steamship lines merged. Cargo traffic was also booming in the 1870s as the South recovered from the Civil War, resulting in the Old Bay Line's freight revenue surpassing passenger revenue by the end of the decade.
By the time of John Moncure Robinson's retirement as president of the company in 1893, the Old Bay Line had upgraded its fleet with propeller-driven, steel-hulled steamers equipped with modern conveniences such as electric lighting and staterooms with private baths. The Georgia introduced in 1887 was the first Old Bay Line boat to have a modern screw propeller instead of old-fashioned side paddlewheels and the Alabama launched in 1893 was the company's first steel-hulled vessel. Robinson served the Old Bay Line as president for 26 years (1867–1893), longer than any other person in the company's history.[16]
The halcyon days of the 1890s were the company's heyday, under president Richard Curzon Hoffman (the grandfather of noted author Walter Lord), when the prosperous line's gleaming steamships were heavily patronized by passengers enjoying the well-appointed staterooms and Chesapeake Bay culinary delights while dining to the accompaniment of live music. The nightly menu on board included oyster fritters, diamondback terrapin, duck, and turkey.[16]
The company built a new terminal and headquarters in Baltimore on Light Street in 1898 to accommodate the increasing traffic. Rebuilt after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, the building with its four-sided clocktower would be a landmark for decades on Baltimore's Inner Harbor waterfront.[16] (The location of the now-demolished terminal is between the present Harborplace and Maryland Science Center.)
The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, which had first acquired a controlling interest in the Baltimore Steam Packet Company in 1851, gained total control of the company's stock on September 5, 1901. The Old Bay Line continued to be managed separately from the RF&P, however.[16]
World War I and aftermath
The Old Bay Line's Baltimore terminal (1898–1950)
In contrast to the Civil War, when hostilities sharply curtailed business on the Old Bay Line, World War I doubled freight and passenger business on the line to the busy ports of Norfolk and the Hampton Roads area, with 107,664 passengers using the line in 1917. As a result of congestion on the nation's railroads and ports when the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, the Federal government established the wartime U.S. Railroad Administration (USRA) to take charge of railroads and steamship companies, including the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. The USRA directed the operations of the Old Bay Line and the rival Chesapeake line for the duration of the war and more than a year thereafter, until March 1, 1920.[17]
Baltimore-native John Roberts Sherwood, who had joined the Old Bay Line as a 22-year-old engineer in 1868 and became president in 1907, retired in October 1918 after 49 years with the company. The Baltimore Sun extolled Sherwood's distinguished half-century of service to the steamer line when he retired, noting approvingly that his oft-expressed philosophy was, "Stand up for your home city wherever you may go."[18] (His son, John W. Sherwood, founded Baltimore's celebrated Sherwood Gardens in the mid-1920s.) Sherwood was succeeded by S. Davies Warfield as president (1918–1927).
Catastrophe struck the Old Bay Line on May 24, 1919, when the Virginia II caught fire shortly after midnight in the middle of Chesapeake Bay with 156 passengers and a crew of 82 on board. The ship burned completely as many passengers jumped overboard and a lifeboat capsized. The Chesapeake Line's City of Norfolk and other vessels came to the rescue and pulled people from the water to safety. The Virginia's captain, Walter Lane, remained with his ship to the end and suffered burns.[19]
1920s–1930s
The corporate ownership of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company changed again in 1922, when the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) formed the Seaboard–Bay Line Company, which owned all of the outstanding shares of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, making the steamship company a wholly owned subsidiary of the SAL on February 6, 1922. In addition to the infusion of capital from the SAL, the Old Bay Line also obtained a $4.4 million federal loan (equivalent to $67.2 million in 2019) to build two new steamers for the Old Bay Line: the State of Maryland and the State of Virginia.[17] The Old Bay Line's president, S. Davies Warfield, was named president of SAL railroad as well as the Old Bay Line in 1922.
A late 1920s advertisement of an Old Bay Line ship's interior
In 1928, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company took delivery of two more new ships – the President Warfield and the Yorktown. The President Warfield, built by Pusey and Jones Corp. in Wilmington, Delaware, was named for the Old Bay Line's president of the time, S. Davies Warfield. She would be the last new ship built for the Old Bay Line.[20]
As the new-fangled Ford Model Ts and other early automobiles increasingly took to the roads in the 1920s, inland steamship lines in the U.S. initially resisted carrying automobiles on their boats.[2] By the Depression-ravaged 1930s, however, the Old Bay Line became one of the first inland steamship companies to promote the carriage of automobiles as a means of filling its ships' empty cargo holds. The Depression and loss of business to improved highways took an increasing toll of many U.S. steamship lines in the 1930s, as historic companies such as the Fall River Line ceased operation in 1937, preceded by the Lake Champlain company, which was the oldest steamboat line in the U.S. at its demise in 1932.
Fortunately for the Old Bay Line, its freight and passenger traffic remained relatively strong in the 1930s and the company embarked on a modernization program for its main boats of the line. The President Warfield and State of Maryland were converted from coal to oil burning in 1933 and had sprinkler systems installed in 1938. In 1939, the State of Virginia was converted to oil burning and all three ships were equipped with radio direction finders and ship-to-shore telephones.[20]
1940s
As the Old Bay Line celebrated its centennial in 1940 with parades and other events in Baltimore, the company's future seemed bright. Business was steady and the company's facilities were in sound condition. Commemorative dinner plates in blue and pink decorated with a map of the Chesapeake Bay were introduced.
On June 14, 1941, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company's owner, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, entered into an agreement with a consortium of railroads and steamship companies to merge the Chesapeake Steamship Company into the Old Bay Line. The railroad group, consisting of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Southern Railway, and the SAL, together controlled the Baltimore Steam Packet Company and the Chesapeake Steamship Company. As a result, the Old Bay Line took over the Chesapeake Line's business and assets and became the sole operator of passenger and freight steamship transportation between the important ports of Baltimore and Norfolk. As part of this agreement, half of the outstanding shares of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company were assigned to Chesapeake Steamship Company, which was one-third owned by Southern Railway and two-thirds owned by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.[20] With the amalgamation, two of the Chesapeake Line's steamboats, the City of Norfolk and City of Richmond, were transferred to the Old Bay Line. As it turned out, these would be the last two vessels operated by the Old Bay Line when it went out of business in 1962.[21] Robert E. Dunn was named president of the Old Bay Line in 1941, remaining at the helm of the company to the end of service in 1962.[1][20]
World War II
After the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, the Federal government set up the War Shipping Administration to manage the vitally important maritime shipping and Naval support needs of the U.S. and its Allies, including the power to expropriate civilian-owned boats. On April 1, 1942, the government acquired the Old Bay Line's State of Virginia and State of Maryland. On July 13, the President Warfield and Yorktown were also taken over. Thus, by mid-1942, four of the Old Bay Line's six ships had become government property, leaving the company only the two oldest and smallest ships in its fleet for the duration of the war, the City of Norfolk and City of Richmond.[20]
Postwar and the Exodus
After World War II, the line promoted its automobile service to Florida-bound motorists, advertising the elimination of 230 miles (370 km) of driving by taking the family car on an overnight cruise down the Chesapeake to Virginia, while enjoying a sumptuous dinner and relaxing stateroom aboard an Old Bay Line steamer instead of a roadside motel. In March 1946, the Old Bay Line installed radar on the City of Richmond and City of Norfolk, the first commercial passenger ships to be equipped with radar.[21]
After the President Warfield was expropriated in 1942 by the War Shipping Administration for national defense as a transport during World War II, it was transferred to the United Kingdom on September 21, 1942. Later in the war, it was returned to the U.S. Navy and commissioned as the USS President Warfield (IX-169) on May 21, 1944. Following the end of World War II, the President Warfield was decommissioned and returned to the War Shipping Administration for disposal as surplus.[22] After inspecting the President Warfield, Old Bay Line officials decided that the expense for reconditioning the badly deteriorated ship was excessive, and accepted a cash settlement from the War Shipping Administration instead of taking back the war surplus vessel.[20]
The old President Warfield was eventually acquired in early 1947 by Mossad Le'aliyah Bet, a Jewish organization helping Holocaust survivors illegally reach Palestine, then under British mandate. The former Baltimore Steam Packet and U.S. Navy steamship was renamed Exodus when she embarked from France for Palestine on July 11, 1947, carrying 4,515 passengers. Two Royal Navy destroyers rammed the Exodus as she entered Palestinian waters near Haifa on July 18. British forces boarded the damaged ship and eventually deported the passengers. The Exodus remained in Haifa harbor until 1952, when the derelict caught fire and burned completely.[23] The 1960 film Exodus depicted the refugees' odyssey aboard the former President Warfield.
1950s and demise
The Bay Line's Light Street terminal and headquarters building in Baltimore, where it had been located since 1898, were sold to the city in October 1950 for the widening of Light Street and later development as the acclaimed Inner Harbor waterfront festival marketplace. The company relocated to a pier on Pratt Street at the foot of Gay Street, where it remained until it went out of business in 1962.[23]
City of Richmond
Various travel writers in the 1950s extolled the pleasures of the nightly cruises and meals on the Old Bay Line's antique steamers. By the mid-1950s, however, improved highways and the increase in air travel meant that the Old Bay Line's 12-hour transit time between Baltimore and Norfolk was a comparatively slow means of transportation. Old Bay Line officials hoped that the steamship line's unique service might continue to appeal to travellers seeking the pleasures of a cruise on the scenic Chesapeake with fine dining en route and a well-furnished, private stateroom. The Sunday travel section of The New York Times in 1954 featured the "long established, more leisurely water route across Chesapeake Bay", as the writer described the Old Bay Line, recommending "the boat trip can be made comfortably and comparatively inexpensively every night between Baltimore, Old Point Comfort and Norfolk, and on alternate nights between Washington, D. C., and the Virginia communities".[24]
In the end too few people opted for this leisurely form of travel and passenger volume steadily declined. As deficits rose during the 1950s, the Old Bay Line began cutting back. On September 30, 1957, it abandoned service to Washington, D.C., discontinuing its Washington–Norfolk overnight service on the Potomac River. By 1960, the Old Bay Line reduced operation of its mainstay Baltimore–Norfolk route to freight service only during the lightly travelled winter months of October–April, eliminating all passenger service on the Chesapeake Bay during those months. In October 1961, the company announced that its passenger service was "temporarily suspended until further notice", indicating that resumption of passenger service was expected the following summer season beginning in April 1962.[25] Finally, on April 14, 1962, the venerable Old Bay Line discontinued all operations entirely, ending one of the very last remaining overnight steamship passenger services in the United States (The Georgian Bay Line still operated out of Georgian Bay along with Canadian Pacific and Canada Steamship Lines but those companies engaged in purely cruising and all were out of service by 1967).[1] The following month, the stockholders of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company formally voted on May 25, 1962 to liquidate the 122-year-old corporation, ending forever the melodious whistles of Old Bay Line steamboats on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.[7]
The company owned 54 ships during its 122 years of existence, many being small cargo vessels. Originally, all of the line's steamboats were of wooden construction with side paddlewheels and used wood logs for fuel. The first boat with an iron hull acquired by the Old Bay Line was the Georgeanna, in 1860. By the late 1870s, the company had acquired its last paddlewheel steamers: Florida, Carolina, and Virginia. Later, ships would use coal for fuel until the 1930s, when oil began to be used. Beginning with the Georgia built in 1887, their ships used the more modern propeller or "screw" design. The Georgia also was the first Old Bay Line vessel to be equipped with electric lighting and steam heating. Passenger ships of the line provided large, lavishly furnished staterooms to accommodate passengers on the overnight trip. The Alabama built in 1892 represented the inception of modern shipbuilding and design for the Old Bay Line: the first vessel to have a steel hull instead of iron or wood and propelled by a four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engine, the same type engine that all of the line's later steamers would have. Notable Old Bay Line passenger vessels used in scheduled overnight service, with dates acquired and gross tonnages, were:
At the time of the Old Bay Line's dissolution in April 1962, three ships remained docked at the Pratt Street pier: the District of Columbia, which had been kept as a spare since the Washington–Norfolk service ended in 1957, was scrapped soon afterwards. The City of Richmond was sold for use as a floating restaurant in the Virgin Islands, but sank in the Atlantic Ocean off Georgetown, South Carolina, while under tow to her new home.[26] The City of Norfolk was idled in Norfolk until 1966, when it was towed to Fieldsboro, New Jersey on the Delaware River and scrapped.[21]
Bridgenorth motive power shed, and Tornado simmers at the coaling area.
LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LNER Class A1 Peppercorn 60163 Tornado
60163 Tornado is a mainline steam locomotive built in Darlington, England. Completed in 2008, Tornado was the first such locomotive built in the United Kingdom since Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built by British Railways in 1960. It is the only example of an LNER Peppercorn Class A1 locomotive in existence, the entirety of the original production batch having been scrapped without preservation. The locomotive's namesake is the Panavia Tornado, a combat aircraft flown by the Royal Air Force.
Construction of Tornado began in 1994, and was based at Darlington Works for most of the project, while numerous components such as the boiler were manufactured elsewhere. The project was financed through fundraising initiatives such as public donations and sponsorship deals; further funding came from hiring out Tornado itself for special rail services. Construction was completed in 2008, and full certification of the locomotive was achieved in January 2009. Having been designed with compliance to modern safety and certification standards, Tornado has been conducting passenger services on the UK rail network and on mainline-connected heritage railways since 2008.
A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, a charitable trust founded in 1990 to build Tornado and possibly further locomotives. Tornado was conceived as an evolution of the LNER Peppercorn Class A1, incorporating improvements that would have been likely had steam continued, and changes for cost, safety, manufacturing and operational benefits, while replicating the original design's sound and appearance. Tornado, completely new-built, is considered the 50th Peppercorn A1, numbered next in the class after 60162, Saint Johnstoun, built in 1949.
The 49 original Peppercorn A1s were built in Doncaster and Darlington for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Tornado was built in the trust's Darlington works. The original 49 locomotives were scrapped by 1966 after an average service of 15 years. None survived into preservation, and Tornado fills a gap in the classes of restored steam locomotives that used to operate on the East Coast Main Line.
Tornado moved under her own power for the first time on 29 July 2008 at Darlington, and then spent two months at the preserved Great Central Railway double-track tourist railway in Loughborough, where she was tested up to 60 mph (97 km/h) and operated her first passenger train. Tornado then moved to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York for three test runs on the main line up to 75 mph (121 km/h). After repainting from works grey into LNER Apple Green, Tornado was approved for mainline passenger operation. On 31 January 2009 she hauled her first passenger trip on the main line, The Peppercorn Pioneer, from York to Newcastle and back. By hauling various A1 Trust railtours, charters and other activities, Tornado will begin to recoup the estimated £800,000 debt from the project, which cost around £3 million.
With a shorter rake of eleven coaches compared with the original Peppercorn A1's usage, Tornado is expected to achieve contemporary mainline speeds. Theoretically capable of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), Tornado may in the future gain permission to run at 90 miles per hour (140 km/h),[3] making her the fastest steam locomotive on the British main line. Tornado is expected to see mainline use until its ten-year fire-tube boiler re-certification in late 2018.
On 21 June 2009, Tornado featured in the Top Gear Race to the North, coming second to a car in a three-way race from London to Edinburgh, against a 1949 Jaguar XK120 sports car and a 1949 Vincent Black Shadow motorbike.
(Photo: © Zippo Zimmermann, www.designladen.com – unauthorized use prohibited)
Built 1748 by Friedrich Joachim Stengel
Steel pavilion 1989 by Gottfried Böhm
Saarbrücken Castle
Saarbrücken Castle is a Baroque Château in Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland. It is located in the district of Alt-Saarbrücken on the left bank of the Saar. Earlier, a medieval castle and a Renaissance castle stood on the same site.
History
Middle ages
Historical sources from the year 999 report the existence of an imperial Castell Sarabruca.[1] In 1009, it is named as Veste Sarebrugka.[1] A document from 1065 mentions that Duke Frederick of Lower Lorraine received the castle as a fief from the King. Later, Emperor Henry IV gave the castle to Frederick's brother, Count Adalbero III of Luxembourg, who was Bishop of Metz.
In 1168, the castle was destroyed by Count Symon, on the orders of Emperor Frederick I. Later archives mention a Castel and Bourg on 2 July 1277.[1]
A deed from 1485 reports that Count John II .... in 1459, because of the war, began to fortify and guard the two cities.[2] In 1463, John added a bulwark and a drawbridge across the moat that separated the castle from the city.[3]
16th century
Johann Andreae, the chronicler of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken, reports that Count Philip IV built a summer residence in Saarbrücken and provides a sketch of appearance of the medieval castle. It had a trapezoid-shaped inner court, surrounded by buildings of different widths. There was a tower on the western side. The bailey on the Saar side was enclosed on the northwest and southeast by buildings.[4] The summer house had been designed by architect Christmann Stromeyer from the Electorate of the Palatinate and stood on the southeastern edge of the cliffSommerhaus, stand auf dem südöstlichen Vorsprung des Saarfelsens .[5] The castle was surrounded in the north-east by the Saar Rocks and the river Saar, on the east by a ditch and on the south and southwest by the bulwark and a moat. The entrance was the drawbridge opposite the large tower. At the southern end of the garden was a red tower[6] and at the northern corner a small round tower.[4]
17th century
Drawings by Hienrich Höers provide a reliable and authentic image of the topography of the palace complex in the 17th century.[7] It shows a four-winged structure inside a curtain wall with differently shaped bastions. Defensive structures including towers, walls, gatehouses and trenches followed the topography of the Saar rock. The rampart was strengthened with triangular corner bastions. In October 1983, excavations next to the road in the valley, performed while preparing the foundations of a technical annex, unearthed a part of these extensive fortifications in several different layers. A bastion and parts of the southwestern rampart were included in the design of the new annex, and can be visited today.
The trapezoidal main courtyard was surrounded by four wings. Three of these were joined at right angles. The main square was surrounded by buildings of equal width. The three-storey building could be accessed from spiral staircases in the stair towers at the corners of the inner courtyard. The framework was completed at the south side by four superimposed arcades. The forecourt on the Saar side was bounded on the northwest by the Botzheim building, named after the chief forester who resided there in 1728.[8] To the northeast, it was bounded by a small single-storey cross-wing, and to then north by the castle wall. In front of the summer house on the southeastern rock was a garden house.
Transition to the 18th century
The castle was destroyed by imperial troops on 16 May 1677.[9] It was restored around 1696 by architect Josef C. Motte, nicknamed la Bonté, on the orders of Countess Eleonore Clara of Hohenlohe-Gleichen, the widow of Count Gustav Adolph and her son Louis Crato. The wing adjacent to the road to St. Arnual Rauschen Thal (today's Talstraße) was, according to reconstruction plans that have been preserved, carried out à la mode.[10] The courtyard was opened to the garden on the south side and bordered by a single-storey arcade hallway. The garden was extended beyond the castle wall and far into the valley as a terraced French formal garden. A sepia drawing, made after 1710, probably by Anton Kohl, shows the castle and the market square.[11] It shows the ground plan of the restored castle. A low arcade tract replaces the earlier east wing. The west wing was a Bergfried, which had been built during the reign of the Hohenstaufens.
During sewer repairs in August 1977, a three-metre thick wall was discovered that had been part of the main tower of the Renaissance castle. In March 1989, during the redevelopment of the Palace Square, the staircase was removed and the foundations of the tower were fully excavated. This rectangular, five-storey clock tower — the fifth storey had been added in 1613 — towered over the castle's four wings and was topped with a dome with dormer windows and a roof lantern. The octagonal stair towers at the four corners of the courtyard were also covered with domes.
18th century
After Frederick Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken died without issue in 1728, Nassau-Saarbrücken fell back to the Nassau-Usingen branch of the House of Nassau. In 1735, Princess Charlotte Amalie, née Countess of Nassau-Dillenburg, the widow of Prince William Henry divided the possessions of the Walram line of Nassau among her sons. Charles, the elder son, was given the territories on the right bank of the Rhine; his younger brother William Henry received the territories on the left bank. When William Henry came of age in 1741, he commissioned[12] the architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel from Zerbst to write a report on the structural condition of the Saarbrücken Castle. Stengel had studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1708 to 1712 and had been appointed court architect in Usingen in 1733. On 26 January 1739, he proposed a design for the reconstruction of the castle. The new design did away with any defensive functions and reflected recent changes in the accepted princely lifestyle and provided a more open attitude, free access to outer courtyards and garden and a more comfortable, more splendid and refined interior. He expanded this to a comprehensive plan for central Saarbrücken, with individual buildings and groups of buildings, including a spacious square in front of the castle, a city hall, a palace for the hereditary prince Louis and the Ludwigsplatz ("Louis square"), a square connecting the Protestant Ludwigskirche ("Louis Church"), the Peace Church, and yet another palace. The city plan followed the principles of geometry and symmetry from a references axis (point de vue). The new princely palace was planned on the site of the old castle on the Saar, with residential and administrative buildings dominating the cityscape. Space for the new palace was created by slighting the old castle walls, filling in the moat and diverting the river Saar. The staggered terraces on the slope towards the Saar were expanded to create space for the new, larger Baroque garden. The new palace, a three-wing structure open to the city, with residential, representative and administrative functions, was completed in 1748. Many architects, engineers and construction workers had been hired for this project.
The palace complex was based on a square floor plan. The corps de logis dominated the complex by its roof, which towered above the other buildings. Two equally long wings were attached to the corps de logis and the central pavillon, surrounding the cour d'honneur and thereby creating an additional living space. The four corners of this horseshoe shape were emphasized with pavilions reminiscent of the defensive towers of the earlier castle. The main courtyard and the central pavilion sat on the axis of symmetry of the complex. In the earlier castle, the main courtyard had been separated from the city by a mihgty donjon. In the 18th-century castle, however, the fourth side of the square was open to the city. A balustrade with busts delineated this side of the courtyard and provided an entrance on the axis of symmetry. On the other side of the main building, the axis of symmetry formed the axis of symmetrical garden, with symmetrical stairs descending to the valley. The forecourt was separated from the city by a wrought-iron fence with two octagonal guard houses. The entrance to the forecourt was through a gate that stood on the same axis as the main entrance of the corps de logis.
The basic plan of the three wings was a rectangle of 65.45 x 61.34 metres. The Corps de Logis had a length of 65.45 metres with 15 window bays: three in the central pavilion and three in each of the reserves and the corner pavilions. It was 18.26 metres deep and in this direction, it was divided by four windows.
The length of the wings was 43.08 metres. Each had ten axes: seven in the reserves and three in the pavilions at the end. In accordance with 18th-century customs, the wings were named from the point of view of the corps de logis: the wing nearest the Saar was called the right wing; the wing next to the Talstraße was called the left wing. The four pavilions were named after their compass points: northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast pavilion. The northwest and southwest pavilion each had three windows on their 14.98 metre long sides, and four windows on the 15.84 metre long sides. This geometric arrangement was supported by the symmetrical arrangement of the two main stairwells on the inner walls of the reserves in the corps de logis. The wings could also be accessed from two auxiliary staircases on the inner wall between the reserves in the wings and the northwest and southwest pavilions.
Access to the interior of the castle was from the courtyard through three main portals on the central pavilion. Another four entrances were located in the first window axis of the reserves of the wings. The corps de logis were accessed via two representative main stairs on the left and right of the central courtyard pavilion. These were in the reserves and were designed symmetrically. From the courtyard one entered the Grand Vestibule via a three-level stairs. Between the stairs and the garden was the Sala terrena. A ceremonial path led from the portal across the courtyard to the Corps de Logis. From the entrance hall, the main staircase (French: Escalier d'Honneur) led to the audience chambers of the princely family in the piano nobile, and from there to the mezzanine to the sumptuously furnished Grand Salon. The suite of the prince was in the piano nobile of the right wing of the palace, the princess's suite was of the left.
The civil administration and government archives were housed in the Rez-de-Chaussee of the right wing; the left wing housed the administration of the regiment William Henry maintained on behalf of the King of France. The storage rooms were in the basement and could be accessed from the courtyard via a door in front of the stables and a side staircase.
The palace remained the cultural and administrative centre of the principality for almost 50 years.
19th century
After the baroque palace was partially destroyed by fire in 1793 in the turmoil of the French Revolution. In 1810, the palace was reconstructed to house eight middle-class families. Architect Johann Adam Knipper rebuilt the heavily damaged north wing on top of the preserved baroque vaults. He demolished the central pavilion in the Corps de Logis and the mezzanine floor. A lithograph of 1812 shows the free passage where the central pavilion had been. The ground and first floors of the castle were divided into three floors and equipped with a new roof. In 1872, the owner of the adjacent part of the castle, the iron works magnate Karl Ferdinand Stumm, commissioned architect Hugo Dihm to build a new hall to fill the gap left by the demolition of the central pavilion. The new hall, however, was rather smaller than the baroque central pavilion.
20th century
Between 1908 and 1920, the district of Saarbrücken gradually acquired the apartments, in order to use the building as the seat of district government. In 1938, a Neo-Baroque façade and a grand open-air staircase to the Cour d'honneur were added to the central building. The western wing was partially destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1947 and 1948.
By 1969, the structural condition of the castle had deteriorated massively. Safety regulations mandated that the south wing be locked up immediately. Several plans were proposed for the reconstruction of the castle. Ideas ranged from reconstructing Stengel's baroque palace to completely demolishing the building. In 1981, the district of Saarbrücken decided to renovate the building and replace the central pavilion. Construction lasted from 1982 to 1989. The hall built by Dihm was torn down and replaced by a steel skeleton pavilion designed by the architect Gottfried Böhm, of the same size as the former baroque pavilion.[13][14] Dihm's neo-baroque façade was retained, and the space between this façade and the new building was converted into a grand entrance hall. The hip roofs of the corner pavilions were replaced by gable roofs, similar to those on the baroque palace.
Current use
The Saarbrücken castle now serves as the administrative headquarters of the District of Saarbrücken.
The exhibition rooms of the Historical Museum Saar are housed in the vaulted cellar and a new annex. Casemates were uncovered during extensive excavations between 2003 and 2007. These can now be visited as part of the museum.
From Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarbrücken_Castle
I go to look for you, I inadvertently discovered the existence of your heart .
Today is the birthday cousin, I love you to the heart ~
我四处地寻找着你,给我无意中发现了你的存在----心
今天是表妹的生日,送给你我最爱的心~
Existence and Inexistence
2013.7.12
在這裡
同時也不在這裡
人的溫度與稀薄
在溺斃之前還有機會水母漂嗎？
2013.7.14
Existence and Inexistence
2013.7.12
快快結束腦袋
快快去水母漂。(合十)
其實我已經忘了我一開始是要說什麼了。
(常常這樣不意外)
2013.7.15
The buses of Scotland - Bright Bus Tours
Bright Bus Tours, a trading name of First Scotland East, is a tour operator running sightseeing tours in Edinburgh. But it owes its existence to Lothian Buses and that company’s decision to move into West Lothian. Following First’s decision to sell its operations in East Lothian and in the Scottish Borders to Lothian Buses and West Coast Motors, this left what was left of First Scotland East’s (FSE) focusing on its operations in Livingston - a new town just west of Edinburgh - and the rest of West Lothian.
Now what then in turn prompted Lothian Buses to decide to go into West Lothian and compete with FSE is up for debate. Some say a change in management and the desire to extend Lothian Buses award-winning standards to the surrounding areas. After all, it should be recalled that although Lothian Buses is majority owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian Councils have a stake in it too. Others say that they spotted an opportunity with a weakened company with First going through their own troubles. Whatever the case Lothian decided it was going into West Lothian. And going in hard.
Lothian’s first steps into West Lothian proper - it did run a few services that could technically be counted as running into West Lothian at the extreme city limits - were tentative. It transplanted it’s Lothian Country business and trading name from East Lothian to West Lothian following the formation of East Coast Buses.
Lothian took on services to South Queensferry on the banks of the River Forth, west of Edinburgh. These had been services originally run by FSE but had in turn been given up by them when it closed its Linlithgow depot but in turn then struggled to run them from the Livingston depot they’d been moved to. Stagecoach in Fife then ran them for a while but even they struggled to make the numbers add up, suggesting they weren’t the most profitable services. Lothian Country began running them and this seems to be the catalyst for its expansion into West Lothian.
In early 2018, services began in West Lothian and they grew and grew. A depot in Livingston was then opened so it was clear for all to see that Lothian was in for the long haul here. It was then left to see what FSE would do. Initially it seemed very little would happen. FSE made some service changes to consolidate its position and began plans to speed up the repainting of the fleet into the newer First Urban blue-based livery. Various Streetlites began to arrive from First Bristol to modernise the fleet. But on top of that behind the scenes at FSE, plans were afoot....
In a bold move, FSE decided to hit back at Lothian by hitting one of its most profitable aspects, its city tours business. To do this it scoured the country to secure decent open-top vehicles such as 35013 (MXZ3386) seen here, which was new to Arriva London North as a closed top-bus as its DLP13 (T213XBV). Some of the vehicles FSE acquired to run its tours were actually new to Lothian Buses but then sold off by them.
The livery selected was a bright orange livery and is marketed as Bright Bus Tours. It uses a bright colour scheme - the orange colour is actually Strathclyde’s Buses orange - or Strathclyde Red to be strictly accurate. It also features pictures of Edinburgh land marks and tour prices but no mention of First on the branding. That’s a deliberate policy as it’s was felt the First brand wasn’t the right one to use. The only clue to them being FSE buses are the fleetnumbers and legal lettering. The buses run into Edinburgh from FSE’s Livingston depot and run daily. They compete with Lothian’s more established tours but offer a slightly cheaper tour covering all the major sights.
It’s an interesting move here by First. The tour itself will probably not make much money - if any - but it will impact Lothian and cause it to lose money it would have expected to receive. Whether First will extend the Bright Bus concept to other cities is questionable. But with Lothian’s incursions into West Lothian apparently proving not to be as lucrative as it expected, whether it’ll agree to withdraw from parts of West Lothian in return for FSE removing Bright Bus may be the preferred option to suit both parties. But it explains why an offshoot of FSE runs tours in Edinburgh but owes its existence to Lothian Buses.