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As my expertise in fern ID is limited, I am not sure of this species. My best guess would be ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
As seen along the Butternut Lake Trail, Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin
All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
Decades of expertise in cooking traditional dishes and preparing freeze-dried food for expeditions in Earth’s most remote locations are coming together in a Polish kitchen for a first in space cuisine.
These expert cooks are piercing pierogi, the traditional Polish dumplings, for consumption on humankind’s outpost in orbit – the International Space Station.
Pierogi, a staple of Polish home cooking, were the top choice of ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski for his upcoming Axiom Mission 4. For the first time, pierogi will travel to space.
“I wanted a truly Polish menu that I could share with my fellow astronauts. Food brings psychological comfort, and I instantly thought it would be worth taking some Polish delicacies into orbit,” says Sławosz.
Although he likes to makes pierogi himself, this time he needed help. The Polish astronaut, who will be conducting over a dozen technological and scientific experiments during the Ignis mission, met an unexpected challenge with his beloved pierogi.
Renowned Polish chef Mateusz Gessler took charge of crafting the menu. “At first, I thought I could pack prepared food in cans and jars, but the strict baggage allowance for astronauts made that impossible. Then I learned about the advantages of freeze-drying,” admits Mateusz.
The freeze-drying process completely removes any water from food while preserving food’s properties and structure for years. However, the first pierogi batches kept bursting. Working alongside Polish family business LYOFOOD, the team eventually mastered the technique and to stop pierogi from exploding, they made small holes in them, one by one.
Check the whole Ignis menu and learn more about the dos and don’ts for space food in the article Pierogi in space.
Credits: LYOFOOD
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The roots of the GDR's air forces laid in the time even before the founding of the National People's Army. The aim was to provide a structural basis and a basis for building the expertise needed to deploy and operate air forces. For this purpose, in 1951, initially under the lead of the Ministry of the Interior and under the influence of Soviet advisors, the so-called Kasernierte Volkspolizei (People's Police (Air) Quartered in Barracks (= on constant duty), KVP) with staff from the People's Police Air (VP-Luft) was set up in Berlin-Johannisthal. It was not a true air force, but rather a training unit that prepared the foundation of a true military power.
However, the KVP led to the GDR's 1st Air Division with three regiments. Training was carried out from 1953 onwards on various Soviet types, including the An-2, MiG-15, La-9 (only for training on the ground), Yak-18 and Yak-11 aircraft. All equipment was provided by the Soviet Union. However, from the beginning of 1952, the training of the future ground crew and the pilots in the so-called X course began secretly, and at the same time the GDR tried to build and test aeronautic engineering competences.
For this purpose, a military unit was established at the VEB Flugzeugwerke Dresden (FWD), an institution which was also the workplace of Brunolf Baade, the designer of the Baade 152 airliner which was built and tested between 1956 and 1961. The GDR's newly formed Air Division was keen on an ingenious fighter aircraft, despite the modern MiG-15 having become available from the USSR. The primary subject was a re-build of the WWII Messerschmitt Me 262, but the lack of plans and especially of suitable engines soon led to an end of this project, even though contacts with Avia in Czechoslovakia were made where a small number of Me 262 had been produced as S-92 fighters and trainers.
Since many senior pilots in GDR service had experience with the WWII Bf 109, and there had been a considerable number of more or less finished airframes after the Soviet occupation of Eastern Germany, FWD proposed a modernization program for the still existing material, much like the Avia S-199 program in Czechoslovakia.
The project received the code number "53" (for the year of its initiation) and structural basis for the not-so-new fighter for the GDR's nascent air force were primarily late Bf 109G and some Bf 109K airframes, reflected by an "A" and "B" suffix. Unlike the Czechoslovakian Avia S-199, which was re-engined with a rather sluggish Junkers Jumo 211 F, the FWD-53 fighter from Dresden was to be powered by a supercharged Mikulin AM-35 engine. This was a considerable reduction in output, since the late Bf 109 engines produced up to 2.000 hp, while the AM-35 just provided 1.400 hp. With some tuning and local modifications, however, the engine for the service aircraft was pushed to yield 1.100 kW (1,500 hp), and the fact that it was smaller and lighter than the original engine somewhat compensated for the lack of power.
Another feature that differed from the S-199 was the radiator system: the original Bf 109 underwing coolers were retained, even though the internal systems were replaced with new and more efficient heat exchangers and a new plumbing.
In order to save weight, the FWD-53's armament was relatively light. It consisted of a pair of heavy 12.7 mm Berezin UBS machine guns and a single 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon. These three weapons were mounted above the engine, synchronized to fire through the propeller disc. This standard armament could be augmented with a further pair of NS-23 cannon, carried in pods under the outer wings (instead of a pair of bombs of up to 250 kg caliber). Alternatively, a ventral hardpoint allowed the carriage of a single 500 kg (1.100 lb) bomb or a 300l drop tank.
In the course of 1952 and 1953, a total of 39 Bf 109 airframes from GDR and also Czech and Polish origin were converted or re-built from existing components at Dresden. At the end of November 1953, the KVP's reorganization was carried out as a staff of the administration of the units initially called Aero clubs in Cottbus and the change of subordination by the MoI directly under the Deputy Minister and head of the Kasernierten People's Police. The air regiments were restructured into Aeroklubs 1 (Cottbus), 2 (Drewitz) and 3 (Bautzen), which in turn were divided into two sections. From 1954 onwards, the FWD-53 fleet joined these training units and were primarily tasked with advanced weapons training and dissimilar aerial combat.
On March 1, 1956, the GDR's air forces were officially formed as part of the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA, National People's Army). First of all the management of the aeroclubs, according to the Soviet model, gave rise to the Administrations Air Force (LSK) in Cottbus and Air Defense (LV) in Strausberg (Eggersdorf). The initial plans were to found three Jagdfliegerdivisionen (fighter squadrons), a Schlachtfliegerdivision (attack squadron) and a Flak (AA gunnery) division, but only the 1st and 3rd Air Division and the 1st Flak Division were eventually set up. On June 1, 1957, a merger of both administrations in Strausberg (Eggersdorf) resulted in another renaming, and the Air Force/Air Defense Command (detachment LSK/LV) was born.
From this point on, almost all operational front line units were equipped with the Soviet MiG-15. The FWD-53s were quickly, together with other piston engine types, relegated to second line units and used in training and liaison roles. The last FWD-53 was retired in 1959.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 9.07 m (29 ft 8 1/2 in)
Wingspan: 9.925 m (32 ft 6 in)
Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 2 in)
Wing area: 16.05 m² (173.3 ft²)
Empty weight: 2,247 kg (5,893 lb)
Loaded weight: 3,148 kg (6,940 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 3,400 kg (7,495 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Mikulin AM-35A(D) liquid-cooled V12 engine with 1,080 kW (1,500 hp),
driving a three-bladed light-alloy propeller with 3.2m (10 ft 4 ½ in) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 640 km/h (398 mph) at 6,300 m (20,669 ft)
Cruise speed: 590 km/h (365 mph) at 6,000 m (19,680 ft)
Range: 850 km (528 mi) 1,000 km (621 mi) with drop tank
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft)
Rate of climb: 17.0 m/s (3,345 ft/min)
Wing loading: 196 kg/m² (40 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 344 W/kg (0.21 hp/lb)
Armament:
1× 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon with 75 rounds
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Berezin UBS machine guns with 300 RPG
all mounted above the engine and synchronized to fire through the propeller arc
A total external ordnance of 500 kg (1.100 lb), including 1× 250 kg (551 lb) bomb or 1 × 300-litre (79
US gal) drop tank on a centerline hardpoint, or 2x 250 kg bombs or 2x 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov
NS-23 cannon with 60 rounds in pods under the outer wings
The kit and its assembly:
This build was actually a kind of kit recycling, since I had a Heller Bf 109K kit in my kit stash that had donated its engine section to a converted Fw 190D. Otherwise, the kit was still complete, and it took some time until I had an idea for it: I had never so far built an East German whif, and with the complicated political and economic situation after WWII I wondered how a nascent aircraft industry could build experience and an air force? A re-engined/revamped late Bf 109 could have been the answer, so I took this idea to the hardware stage.
The Heller Bf 109K is a simple and pleasant build, but it took some time to find a suitable new engine of Soviet origin. I eventually settled for a Mikulin AM-35, taken from a Revell MiG-3 kit. The transplant was rather straightforward, and the Bf 109K’s “cheek” fairings at the cowling’s rear section actually matched the round diameter of the AM-35 well – even though the Soviet engine was much smaller and very sleek.
The rhinoplasty went very well, though, there’s just a little, ventral “step” at the wings’ leading edge.
The MiG-3 propeller could not be used, though, because the diameter and the blades themselves were just too small for the Bf 109. So I scratched a completely new propeller from a Spitfire Mk. IX spinner (reduced in length, though) and single blades from the scrap box – not certain which aircraft they actually belong to. The new prop was mounted onto a metal axis and a matching plastic tube adapter was implanted into the fuselage.
The only other modification of the kit are the main wheels – Heller’s OOB parts are quite bleak, so I replaced them with visually better parts from the scrap box.
Painting and markings:
This was not easy, because LSK/LV aircraft either carried Soviet camouflage of that era (typically a uniform green/blue camouflage) or were, more often, simply left in bare metal, like the MiG-15s. However, I wanted a more interesting camouflage scheme, but nothing that would remind of the Bf 109’s WWII origins, and it was still supposed to show some Eastern Bloc heritage. After a long search I found a suitable option, in the form of a LSK/LV MiG-15UTI trainer (actually a museum piece at the military history museum Gatow, near Berlin): the machine carried a relatively light green/brown camouflage and light blue undersides. Pretty simple, but the tones were quite unique – even though there’s no guarantee that this livery is/was authentic!
However, I adapted the concept for the FWD-53. Search in the paint bank yielded Humbrol 86 (Light Olive Green) and 62 (Leather Brown) as suitable tones for the upper surfaces, while I went for a garish Humbrol 89 (Middle Blue) underneath. Quite a bright result! The spinner became red and the interior was painted in RLM02.
The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including suitable early LSK/LV roundels. Most stencils were taken from the Heller kit’s OOB sheet. After light panel shading and some soot stains with grinded graphite, the kit was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish.
A very quick project, realized just in three days (plus some time for the beauty shots, though) as a distraction from a very busy time at work. However, for a model created from leftover parts the FWD-53 looks surprisingly good and sleek. The pointed MiG-3 nose section subtly changes the profile – and somehow, from certain angles, the FWD-53 even reminds of the much bigger Il-2?
I saw her twirling on the rink as I walked through campus today. You don’t have to be a genius to spot expertise. I paused to marvel at her fluid movement as she glided across the rink and twirled with amazing grace. I took a few photos, playing around with my camera settings. We made eye contact and I told her that her skating was a beautiful sight. She skated to me and a friendly chat began. I asked if she had a few minutes and would participate in my Human Family photo project. She felt in support of the project as I described it and said she would be glad to be part of it. She was between classes and was waiting to meet up with her friends so I said I would work quickly, hopefully before her friends arrived. Meet Netta.
There was a need to work quickly since her friends were expected any minute. I photographed her against one of the boulders decorating the public skating rink. As we chatted, Netta’s grace on the ice began to make perfect sense. She is a world-class figure skater! 19 years old and a first-year student in the university’s Creative Industries program, Netta was born in Tel Aviv, Israel but lived for several years in New York with her family before moving to Toronto to attend university. A member of the Israeli figure skating team, she has participated in two World Championships and in the European Championships. She was too young to participate in the most recent Olympics and was expected to be a member of the Israeli figure skating team in PyeongChang, South Korea in February of 2018. A serious injury, however, changed all that as Netta faced a future without competitive skating.
She told me how excited she was when she discovered there was a skating rink on the campus where she has begun her studies in downtown Toronto. She has taken to carrying her skates with her to class so she can skate for pleasure between classes as she was doing today. I couldn’t help but feel a lot of sympathy for Netta, given the way her career ended and I wondered how she was dealing with the loss of a dream. “It wasn’t easy” she said “but in the end I had to realize there is more to life than skating.” I was impressed by her mature attitude about life’s unanticipated twists and turns. I felt no bitterness in her as the talked about life.
Her message to her younger self was “Get beyond perfectionism. Place your belief in the process and not in the product.” As I tried to digest this message, I commented that it was unexpected, coming from a world-class athlete. “I would think that perfectionism has been your life” I said as I pondered the life of a world-class figure skater. She smiled and said “But your assumption is not really correct. There is a Zen involved in athletics. I had an Olympic skater who trained me and his most important teaching was to stay grounded, give thanks every day, and the rest will follow.”
Netta was very interested in my project and said she admired my ability to reach out to strangers and approach them for portraits and stories. “I could never do that” she smiled. With that, her friends arrived and it was time to thank her and wish her well with her studies. As she twirled her way across the rink to meet them, I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of her doing some graceful turns on the ice. I noticed that several people walking by had stopped (as I had) to absorb the unexpected sight of this slight young woman moving over the ice like a puff of wind. You can see a video of her here as she takes the ice in Shanghai in 2015 at the World Championships: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlSVu4gXkXU
I found Netta lacking in arrogance, yet quietly self-confident. Despite her protestation that she could never approach strangers to photograph them, I thought about the confidence she must have to have performed under competitive pressure in front of large crowds. Meeting her was one more example of how often we walk past strangers every day, unaware of their many talents and their fascinating stories.
This is my 570th submission to The Human Family Group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.
Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.
Jan Toorop was a 19-century Dutch-Javanese painter who extensively experimented with different artistic styles ranging from Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau to Pointillism. He was famous for using highly stylized slim figures and dynamic lines that were influenced by Indonesian motifs and curvilinear lines. His most famous poster artwork “Delft Salad Oil”, commissioned by The Dutch Oil Company, became so iconic that the Dutch Art Nouveau painting style is given the nickname "the salad oil style". Despite the fact that Toorop's expertise was in producing designs for marketing and advertisements, he also produced a number of fine art pieces that dealt with darker subjects including the human physche and emotions. In this collection, we've curated some of his best printable high quality public domain illustrations and drawings for you to download for free under a Creative Commons 0 license.
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: https://www.rawpixel.com/board/1292626/jan-toorops-retro-art-nouveau-public-domain-posters-paintings-drawings-cc0?sort=curated&mode=shop&page=1
Just low light expertise - SM-G930F - S7
CITROEN
PPC
By Aviary
Mode Black and White
Concorde filter
●
Full AUTO
ISO 400
1/10
○
SELFTIMER 2 S
TRANSFORMED
Jahrzehnte Erfahrung & Erfolg mit Qualität aus Österreich, Deutschland, Ungarn, China, Thailand, Malaysia, USA
Under German legislation (Road Traffic Licensing Regulation or StVZO), winter tyres must be marked with the M+S symbol. Individuals looking for additional safety with regard to the good driving and braking properties of winter tyres should only purchase models with the snowflake symbol. "Snow tyre" means a tyre whose tread pattern, tread compound or structure are primarily designed to achieve in snow conditions a performance better than that of a normal tyre with regard to its ability to initiate or maintain vehicle motion. Germany does not stipulate a specific time at which winter tyres must be used. Instead, drivers have a duty to switch to winter tyres if driving conditions call for it. In wintry conditions (i.e. black ice, packed snow, snow slush or icy roads), only vehicles with M+S tyres are permitted on the roads. Individuals who do not drive in snow and ice can, in theory, continue using summer tyres even in wintertime. However, as summer tyres have material compounds specially developed for hot conditions, their use during winter is extremely dangerous and not recommended!
Semperit. A brand of Continental.
All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
by Gina Stocco
Urbex Benelux -
Leisure centres in Canada are staffed by leisure centre attendants employed by the local council. They carry out a range of tasks to help and supervise people using leisure centre facilities and act as swimming pool lifeguards, gym instructors and coaches, offering advice, motivation, and expertise to users. Many of its functions may overlap with that of a community centre.
Leisure centres are also popular in Australia, where they are mostly privately operated but government-funded. They are often also called recreation centres, or most commonly aquatic centres due to the swimming facilities being the most popular facility that is available.
The world class boanical collections in Waimea Valley owe there existence to Mir. Keith Woolliams, a dedicated botanical horticulturist who was trained at the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, on the outskirts of London.
Keith led a rich life traveling around the globe studying botanical collections in England, Japan, Papua New Guinea and Bermuda. He brought to Hawaii his expertise and knowledge of uncommon horticultural treasures, and he acquired seeds, plants, and cuttings from remote places and botanical gardens all over the world. In pre-internet days dozens of letters and packages were dispatched and received daily.
His theme of "Conservation Through Cultivation" resulted in a balance of rare and useful native and Polynesian-introduced plants among exotic horticultural specimens.
What was once an ungroomed valley, filled with koa haole and ravaged by feral cattle was transformed into what you see today by Keith and the many dedicated people he inspired. They oversaw the design, landscaping and construction of the pathways, stone walls and stairs that frame the gardens. Keith's high standards for record keeping and signage persist to this day. He left us in 1998 with a library full of his propagation knowledge, cultivation practices and plant lore which survives to ensure that the precious life forms brought to this valley will thrive here long into the future.
Keith was an inspiring advocate for Hawatian plant conservation and he influenced many young people across the state. He connected Waimea with state, federal and international agencies such as the Center for Plant Conservation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the Botanical Gardens Conservation International - partnerships that Waimea Valley continues to uphold today.
Keith was instrumental in bringing in critically endangered plants from Japan's Ogasawara Islands, hibiscus relatives from all over the world, and with international colleagues he tried to assemble wild-source collections of every species of Erythrina in the world. In the periodical, "Notes from Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden" published twice a year until 1992 he stated "Waimea is a labeled and documented collection of plants for educational and scientific purposes, a living gene pool for future generations".
It is with great honor and gratitude that we remember Mr. Keith Woolliams and his dedication to Waimea Valley.
She now at 14 months is enjoying her new found walking expertise.
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Bengal, the hub of creative talents, is known all over the world for its expertise in art and craft and West Bengal serves as home to many talented artisans in India. The State has a distinctive specialization in many forms of craft and the unique rustic and mystic charm of Bengal crafts is universally admired by art lovers.
You have to visit the rural areas of West Bengal to get a glimpse of authentic handicraft works which are still not influenced by the western ways. There are places in Bengal that are famous for one of kind of art form. Most of these handicraft produce are cottage industry, provide the much needed economic support for rural areas, and has been backbone of the rural economy of the State. Today, the time has come to revive some lost forms of art that once brought fame and recognition to Bengal.
The artworks for sale at West Bengal State Handicrafts Expo (Paschim Banga Hastashilpa Mela) at Milan Mela, Kolkata, India
India’s largest handicraft’s fair, an annual event displays the workmanship of the artisans of West Bengal, the neglected frontrunners of traditional art of the state.
Around 3000 participants from almost every districts of West Bengal display their arts and crafts of jute, cane furnitures and baskets, handloom products, Totem poles made of bamboo shoots, 'Chhau' masks, wood carvings, wooden, dokra, jute and clay dolls, Madhubani and other traditional hand paintings, sawdust art, terracotta, wooden, sea shell and coconut shell artifacts and other home decors. Beside carpets, handbags and wall hangings, Kantha stitch and Batik from Bolpur, Baluchari from Bisnupur, Tant from Shantipur, Phoolia and Dhoniakhali, Silk from Murshidabad, Woolens of Darjeeling are also very popular.
The traditional origins based on culture and mythology, the workmanships, the richness of ideas, the brilliant combination of pure simplicity and glamour bring an amazing experience to truly understand their talent.
The Expo spreads over an area of 82,000 sq ft and has incurred an estimated total sales of Rs.1500.00 lakh (£1.5 million pound). It is the initiative of the Department of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and Textiles, Government of West Bengal, organized every year with the aim to provide the artisans an exposure to the urban markets, know their taste and interact with the buyers or exporters directly, so that they can get orders for their products all throughout the year.
Beautiful Bengal, India
This stunning wood-fired pizza oven is the heart of an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria, radiating warmth and tradition. The oven’s rounded, tiled exterior, adorned with golden mosaic lettering, is a signature of a handcrafted, high-temperature pizza oven designed for baking perfection. Inside, the glowing embers and roaring flames ensure that each pizza is cooked in seconds, achieving the ideal balance of crispy, charred crust and a soft, airy interior.
A pizzaiolo in a brown cap and mask works diligently, showcasing the art of traditional pizza-making, where skill, precision, and high-quality ingredients come together. The open-flame cooking method allows for the unmistakable leopard spotting on the dough—an essential feature of true Neapolitan-style pizza. The scene is alive with heat, craftsmanship, and culinary passion, making it a visual and sensory delight for pizza lovers.
In the foreground, a stack of white plates and a red-handled pizza tool sit atop a wooden counter, ready for service. A notebook filled with handwritten notes suggests menu planning, recipe adjustments, or even a chef’s journal, adding a personal, behind-the-scenes touch to the setting.
This inviting pizzeria environment reflects the deep-rooted Italian tradition of wood-fired cooking, where every pizza tells a story. Whether in Naples, Tokyo, or New York, a true forno a legna (wood-fired oven) remains the gold standard for pizza authenticity.
For those in search of the perfect slice, this image embodies the essence of old-world craftsmanship, modern culinary expertise, and the simple magic of a fire-kissed pizza.
Peacekeepers from Mongolia serving with UNMISS used their engineering expertise to renovate the Abienmom Hospital which was in disrepair after years of war. They repaired and painted walls, fixed the electricity supply and extended the cabling system so that it reaches all the hospital’s main rooms. The engineers created a special isolation room for COVID-19 patients, installed new water tanks, hand washing facilities, and handed over a wide variety of medical supplies.
Original Video of Authentication, analysis and expertise The Painting by Mykola Hlushchenko "Still life with a Glass Jar and a Bottle" by Art Expert Dmytro Omelyanovich Gorbachev
08/08/2018 20:30:44 at his apartment
Art critic Dmytro Gorbachev: "Eye is a computer"
The Exclusive of the Library of the Ukrainian Art
en.uartlib.org/exclusive/mystetstvoznavets-dmytro-gorbach...
May 4, 2018 Text by Kateryna Lebedieva
The name of Dmytro Omelyanovich Gorbachev is familiar to everyone who is at least a bit interested in the Ukrainian culture. An art critic who popularizes the term “Ukrainian avant-garde” not only in Ukraine but also in the West; author of books and scripts, researcher, charismatic lecturer and a man with a brilliant sense of humor. We talked with Dmytro Omelyanovich about the brightest episodes of his work as an expert.
Some time ago I happened to read an article about Malevich and the avant-garde. My name was mentioned in it, though, without much respect. The article dealt with the fact that on the art market of the Russian avant-garde there is more forgery than real art works. They also wrote that I introduced into the market the works that had never been exhibited, and which had been never written about. The principle of an archivist is to find traces. But in a large number of avant-garde works the provenance had never been ascertained. So should we refuse to do the work? No, I do not think so. Not an archivist, but an expert whose eyes have been estimating hundreds of works, almost immediately is able to state whether this is a real thing or not. At the energetics level. The work can be well done, but “dead”. There are such art critics who label “falshak” to everything. There are cock and bull stories about me; they say anything you bring him, Gorbachev calls “Malevich”…
What do you think about the scandal with the exhibition of Igor Toporovsky’s collection in Belgium?
There are some originals there, for example, the works by Alexander Rodchenko. The rest is rubbish. 90% of the fakes immediately fall out, but 10% must be studied carefully. In general, any work must being watched for a long time in order to understand how the eye reacts, and only after that the conclusion can be made. The eye of the expert is a computer. It captures a bunch of circumstances which even are difficult to be formulated. Long time ago I asked a tailor about a cloth if it was cheviot or drape. He ansewered sheviot. I asked why? He answered that he could see it! I thought that he was a real expert, he could see it, without revising any documents, although this is important too. Any expert must develope visual perception; intuition is gained with long practice. In fact, there are a lot of fakes, not just in avant-garde: everything you want can be forged to earn money. Nowadays even prominent artists sometimes do it, they seem to be embodied into the artist whose works are being forged. I know one alike who strikingly falsifies the manner of Bogomazov in drawing. But only in drawing, his painting turns pale and unexpressive.
What other interesting stories can you tell us about art forgery?
Fictions at the highest level in the history of art are few. But there were also such cases when the artist himself recognized his work. For example, the French artist Maurice Utrillo even sued with one of his imitators but when he was shown the picture, he said: ”It may be my work”. There was a Spanish painter who falsificated Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and he always remained above suspicion, but when he died,a lot of half finished canvases were found in his studio. If a copy is made at the level of the artist, there is no reason to worry. This does not compromise the artist. But there are, on the contrary, such originals, to which the artist did not even touch. Tetyana Yablonska‘s picture “Bread” is now exibited in the National Art Museum. Tetyana Nilivna was asked to copy her own picture. The original of “Bread” belongs to Tretyakov Gallery. She did not want to do it so she hired an artist Ivan Yukhno, a good copyist. He made an impeccable copy. Yablonska only marked a year, 1950, while in the original is 1949, and signed the picture. In this way she authorized it. So if a brilliant copyist remakes a picture at the level of the artist, it is impossible to prove anything.
How many art expertises did you do in your life and when did you start?
I have been doing them verbally since 1965. I started with Alexandra Exter‘s “Bridge Sevr”. It was not difficult, because in the book by Tugendhold published in 1922 this work was reproduced. Then some guys brought “Pimonenko”, and it was rubbish. How did they produce fakes in the 1960s? They took any appropriate sketch, put a sign “Repin”, “Pimonenko” even hardly trying to imitate the signature. The art market looked like that. In 1990s I first went abroad and met with a collector, a friend of Marcade. She also brought the work of Exter to be examined. After that the Russian experts reproached me with not taking money for that, saying that it was their bread so I had to be paid too. First I took as much as I was offered and later I began to give a written certificate. Sometimes I was asked for more information about the object and it turned to become a kind of art recearch. One of the collectors once told me that my report on the picture was so interesting that he started exhibiting it. At that time Iwas paid 100 dollars until once in America a collector said that $100 was a tip. And he gave $200. After arriving home I began to take $200 for an examination. In the 1980s in the Tretyakov Gallery, young art historians took 5 rubles for an examination. They took 5 rubles and asked the collectors: “Whose name do you want me to write?”
Were styles and methods of falsificating art items different before the 1990s and after that period?
Before ”perestroika” painting practically had no value, there were no auctions, museums and collectors were not robbed. In the National Art Museum of Ukraine the windows were constantly open, the latches did not work, because they were still of the pre-revolutionary times of Nicholas Bilyashivsky and Fedir Ernst. But the moment came when art works started being sold and bought and the first robberies began. Chudnovsky from Leningrad, who had Chagall and Malevich, was robbed in his apartment. Dozens of people used to come to his place, and one day the people from the Caucases came, according to the recommendation. They attacked him, tied his hands and feet, put him on the floor and began to cut out the paintings from the frames according to the plan: they knew where were the pictures they wanted. But on the eve of this event he changed the order and Malevich and Chagal were in other places. The next day the collector went to the Hermitage and located those masterpieces into deposit… In Poltava Art Museum in the 1990s the still life of the 17th century disappeared. Everyone was surprised because there was no alarm. It turned out that the robbers had an agreement with the police. Two years later the still-life was found in Manchester!
Have you ever been mistaken while examinating pictures?
Yes, I have. Thieves often take psychological moments into account. Once a beautiful girl in tears came to my place. He said that her grandfather from Zhytomyr died, there was his collection in the attic. The pictures were not outstanding, but in the style of some artist (I do not remember who exactly). I thought that he had a kind of creative failure and determined the work as an original. Two months later another beauty comes in, cries and says “grandfather died, the attic is full of of pictures”. I asked her: ”in Zhytomyr?” ”No, in Vinnitsa”. I drew her away and turned back to the previous one to reconsider my decision… Once a collection of works by Malevich’s pupils appeared. I invited Igor Dychenko to have a look at it and he bought the best of those works. A year later, we began to see and realized that that was Kazimir Severinovich himself: the forms have no weight, only Malevich could paint like that. Not a masterpiece, not the best work; It is evident that a person had been experimenting. Up to now, Jean-Claude Marcade has confirmed that this is Malevich of 1916. The work is kept in the Art Arsenal in Kyiv.
What painters, by the way, are more often falsificated?
All those who are expensive: Anatol Petrytsky, Oleksandr Khvostenko-Khvostov. In the 1990s, Vasyl Yermylov “Portrait of the artist Olexiy Pochtenniy” (1924) was sold at Sotheby’s. A German collector bought it. I could see clearly that it was a fake.The collector sais: ”Do not tell me that, I bought it because it costs $50 thousand, not $500 thousand, and the expert assured me that the work was real”. At that moment I realized that not everyone wants to know the truth… But there is an inaccurate attribution too. A collector writes from America: Exter has been found, could you confirm? But even from the photo I can see that it is a work of Katria Vasilieva, the student of Exter. The owner of the picture asks: ”Could you not tell anyone about it?” Yes I can. Obviously, he wanted to sell this work as an Exter’s one, and this is not my business. Once an agent brought a picture of Olexandr Murashko, in my opinion, of 1905. At the restoration workshop, it was originally said that it was the second third of the 20th century, and six months later the same restorers decided that it was the last third of the twentieth century. They found the paints, the mass production of which was launched in 1916. But before 1916, these paints had been produced by handicraftsmen. And they were found in the pictures of Yavlensky, a friend of Kandinsky. As we know. Murashko visited Munich in 1905 and had a nice time with Yavlensky there! So the main thing is an expert eye. Devices can also make mistakes. Do you know an anecdote about Picasso? Furtseva, the Minister of Culture of the USSR, arrived in Paris for a conference. She is asked for her identity card. She forgot it at home. “Do not worry, you can prove that you are really Furtseva. Recently, we had Picasso here, he also forgot his papers, but he quickly drew a picture in his original manner. Everybody could see that it was Picasso. “And who is Picasso?”, she asks, “Oh, you are welcome, you have proved that you are the Minister of Culture of the Soviet Union.”
This situation can also be applicable to our realities?
Completely.
Copyright © Library Of Ukrainian Art
From the book “Olena Chekan: I'll rise again to say the sun is shining!”
Crown of Interviews – The Garland of Memories:
ukrainianweek.com/Columns/50/154401
ukrainianweek.com/Culture/163918
Olena was one of the best Ukrainian journalists I knew
What can I say about Olena Chekan? She impressed me a lot in many aspects. First of all, by her mere appearance. She was an actress with the artistic appearance. She could find something funny in different situations, but at the same time she very seriously treated such issue as Ukrainian issue. She impressed me when we collaborated in Tyzhden magazine by her Ukrainian patriotism, even though she was from Moscow, she was from the city. And Ukrainian cities were always Russified, for many centuries. But, all the same, she became the great sympathizer of Ukraine, particularly because she saw that Ukraine has the big cultural potential. By the way, she was among those who discovered exactly the Ukrainian culture in its highest manifestation for the readers of the magazine.
For example, she prepared an article about the artist Aleksandra Ekster, and its title was sensational and paradoxical - “Cubofuturism as Presentiment.”
We have recently discovered the word cubofuturism – and suddenly as a presentiment. So, Kyiv artist Ekster was an abstractionist, but not as Malevich or Kandinsky – she created her own kind of abstractionism. She influenced the art of theater around the world, partially through her students. So, it was really cubofuturism as presentiment, the presentiment of new architecture, new design. And when Olena started writing about Ekster, for example, she knew about her as much as the experts knew. She read everything, but not as an art critic, but as a journalist. She had to find some sensational aspects.
So, she wrote that the archivists have found that Ekster was born not when she stated (1884), but on 1882. And the archivists were hesitating if they have to reveal this woman's secret. Olena decided to publish this information and commented this situation as “the academic heartlessness”. All your articles were special. In the article about Ekster she discussed who is a Ukrainian artist. I told her once that a famous film director and artist Yudkevych was Ekster's student (he told me that he did it in Kyiv). So, I say: “Is Ekster a Ukrainian artist” - “No! She's European”.
For many European is opposite to Ukrainian, but Olena told me that it is wrong. For example, Ekster worked in rural areas, she gave the rebirth to folk crafts and supported Hanna Sobachko, the folk futurist and village artist. But, on the other hand, in Paris she had such friends as Picasso, Braque, Leger. So, she combined Ukrainian heartland which gave her a lot in understanding the tonality and the modern Parisian trends. Then, as Olena noted, there were a director Tairov (whio collaborated with Ekster) and his wife Koonen. In their memoirs they wrote that even in everyday life there was a combination of Ukrainian and French. It is told that among the painting of Braque and Picasso which were presented to her you could find Ukrainian embroidery, carpets, ceramics. Even her kitchen was predominantly Ukrainian, as Ekster took with her her maid Nastia, Ukrainian villager. So Olen wrote, and I liked it, that this Nastia taught Picasso or Leger to cook Ukrainian varenyky. She didn't know French, but she thought that people on French markets knew Ukrainian. Nastia told that she just pointed to things and asked for “se, se and se” in Ukrainian. And everyone understood her.
As you see, that is the example of the journalist text created according to academic standards. It is a rare combination of academic precision and journalist approach, because usually journalists are more shallow, and it is even normal – you cannot demand from the journalist to know everything. Factual mistakes happen often in such articles, but I don't see it as a problem. But Olena managed not to make any mistakes in any detail. So, I think that she was an outstanding journalist and art critic.
I remember one more of her articles - “The Era of Pan-Ukrainianism.”
Is was like an interview with me, but she worked on it, corrected some of my mistakes, made the subtitles. She also liked my idea very much. She realized that Ukrainian did a lot for the world culture. Now we know it, and the world recognizes it not only in art or literature (Malevich and Arkhipenko), but also in technology (Sikorsky).
She realized it all, that is why she also became the patriot of Ukraine. I understand her, because it is the great culture, and when you get to now it, you become the sympathizer of this nation which created this unique intellectual society. So, thanks to her subtitles, my text got the volume. For example, there was a fact about the Ukrainian origins of Chekhov, but not everybody can treat this fact without some bias.
For example, take one German Ukrainist that I know. So, he recognizes Ukrainian priorities in many areas. He understands that Gogol is not only Russian, but also a Ukrainian author. Maybe, even more Ukrainian. But when I told him about Chekhov, he replied that he is not ready psychologically to add Chekhov to Ukrainian areal. But Olena was ready for it. Even more, she mentioned the fact that in 1897 in some questionnaire Chekhov wrote Malorossianin as his natiionality.
There are many such facts, and his language is Ukrainianized, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. He even jokingly signed as “Yours Karpenko-Kary” (Ukrainian playwright) from time to time. But not everyone is ready to adopt this reality. Olena knew and felt it, this Ukrainianness attracted her.
I also remember one of her articles about the artist Ackerman (Parisian artist from Uzhgorod). She titled it “Hutsul supremacist”, and it was the great title, because Ackerman was a huge fan of Malevich, and he was from Hutsul land. The great title for an article about Samuel Ackerman.
ukrainianweek.com/Culture/34075
I was always impressed by everything Olena did.
You know, we were also close during Maidan, where she was very active. I am also a former Russian who became a Ukrainian nationalist, even though many if my Russian acquaintances are very skeptical about everything Ukrainian. But Olena was always very different from those Russians.
As you see, my impressions are more connected with journalism, I cannot tell much about the everyday situations. I just don't know them as we communicated mostly in media dimension. But I may say directly that Olena was one of the best Ukrainian journalists I knew. That was a rare combination of art knowledge and taste and education and journalism skills.
I was very sorrowful when I knew that she passed away, because I was her sympathizer. I still respect her very much.
I remember her irony, it was something very attractive in her. You could see this irony in all her articles and even in talking with her. She could ridicule something or talk about something humorously, it was her very attractive feature. We had this creative connection, but I never visited her house. But she visited me to take an interview. Her appearance was very attractive and artistic. Olena told that she is an actress, and you could instantly realize it, her behaviour was artistic, and I liked it.
I remember her articles, how bitingly she ridiculed the Ukrainophobes. I remember her as a very attractive, intellectually open person who liked her job and who was absolutely free in journalism. It was a person who didn't pay attention to conjuncture. Maybe, she could write about something which could bring her more money, but I don't remember such cases.
But I remember her small texts in Tyzhden, small bright miniature stories on the last page of the magazine. That is all I remember about Olena Chekan.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olena_Chekan
October 24, 2015
Prof. Dmytro Horbachov – Ukrainian art critic, historian of Ukrainian art, curator and international art expert. Specialist in Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde
Translated by © Dmytro Hubenko
Copyright © Publishing House of Dmitry Burago.
All rights reserved.
Peacekeepers from Mongolia serving with UNMISS used their engineering expertise to renovate the Abienmom Hospital which was in disrepair after years of war. They repaired and painted walls, fixed the electricity supply and extended the cabling system so that it reaches all the hospital’s main rooms. The engineers created a special isolation room for COVID-19 patients, installed new water tanks, hand washing facilities, and handed over a wide variety of medical supplies.
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - Bringing together the operational expertise of Army noncommissioned officers and the scientific expertise of civilian engineers is key for better capabilities to get to the field faster said the Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey during a visit to Fort Belvoir, Virginia Dec. 14.
Dailey was joined by the U.S. Army Materiel Command’s Command Sgt. Maj. James K. Sims and the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's Command Sgt. Maj. James P. Snyder during a visit to the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Command, or CERDEC, which is the Defense Department lead for the development of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, or C4ISR, technologies.
Here, Dailey looks through a rapid target acquisition prototype inside CERDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate's indoor firing tunnel, which simulates a moonless night sky. The prototype aims to help Soldiers identify secondary targets quickly.
(U.S. Army RDECOM Photo/Conrad Johnson)
In the past, Engineers and Architects relied heavily on the skills and expertise that we as Draftsman provide. When everything was being drawn on the "boards", Draftsman were called upon to produce clear easy to follow plans that the contractor could build from. There is an art to producing these type of drawings, regardless of whether or not they were drawn by hand or using a CAD program. Understanding the use of line weights, layout, text placement, scale, etc. all play a crucial role in a finished product that is informative and easy to look at. This is our job and it takes a certain vision to produce this quality of work.I'm not taking anything away from Engineers and Architects, they have the more important job, at least in my opinion. They are accepting the risk for calculations and designs that will literally impact peoples' lives. One simple mistake could result in a catastrophic failure. This is were we as Draftsmen come in, and why our position is important as well. We take the design ideas and put them on paper to determine if the theory can be turned into reality. I see it as kind of a sounding board of sorts. We can find conflicts and issues that weren't thought of during initial design, and work with the A/E's to resolve the problems. Our job as Draftsmen is to call out the A/E's for design flaws and issues that may impact the overall project. We are a critical cog in the overall machine of our industry. Without our input, issues that used to be caught during the drawing process slip through the cracks only to be discovered during construction costing the client more money, time, and problems with change orders and revisions. I am seeing this problem first hand as the A/E - Draftsman line is blurring. Colleges don't teach the concepts of drawing layout, line weights, scales, etc. They plop people down in front of their computers and show them how to draw lines. Pretty little pictures and pretty little colors on the computer screen, no direction as to why one line is thicker than another, and why this line is dashed and that one is not, why one drawing is 1/8"= 1'-0" and another is 1"=20'. This creates a disconnect on how to produce quality finished plans. Young people come out of college thinking they have the skills necessary to do this, but the truth is they don't. Companies have the A/E's run with the plans from concept to finished plans, opening the door to mistakes and conflicts that someone "building" the finished model could have caught during the layout process.The gradual change from basic drawing to BIM (Building Information Modeling) has made a significant shift is this as well. Producing plans is easier than ever before with real-time modeling, section cuts, elevations, etc. That being said, you still have to have the skills to produce a good set of drawings. I fear that I am part of a dying breed in our industry. I enjoy producing high quality plans that are both easy to read and understand. Making the decision of when to create an enlarged detail and when it's not necessary. This skill is imperative to doing this job, however we as an industry continue to produce plans that are difficult to follow, understand, read, etc. I chalk this up to A/E's doing the job that once was the responsibility of the Draftsman, people that know how to do their job, but not necessarily mine. Companies need to take stock in what they are producing these days. With society being connected 24/7 and the instantaneous transfer of information, clients in today's world expect the impossible. Phasing out a crucial part of the team will only hurt the end result.
I'm sure that we're not all gone yet, but I'm afraid that the position of Draftsman will cease to exist in the next 10 years, and that's a sad thought.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The roots of the GDR's air forces laid in the time even before the founding of the National People's Army. The aim was to provide a structural basis and a basis for building the expertise needed to deploy and operate air forces. For this purpose, in 1951, initially under the lead of the Ministry of the Interior and under the influence of Soviet advisors, the so-called Kasernierte Volkspolizei (People's Police (Air) Quartered in Barracks (= on constant duty), KVP) with staff from the People's Police Air (VP-Luft) was set up in Berlin-Johannisthal. It was not a true air force, but rather a training unit that prepared the foundation of a true military power.
However, the KVP led to the GDR's 1st Air Division with three regiments. Training was carried out from 1953 onwards on various Soviet types, including the An-2, MiG-15, La-9 (only for training on the ground), Yak-18 and Yak-11 aircraft. All equipment was provided by the Soviet Union. However, from the beginning of 1952, the training of the future ground crew and the pilots in the so-called X course began secretly, and at the same time the GDR tried to build and test aeronautic engineering competences.
For this purpose, a military unit was established at the VEB Flugzeugwerke Dresden (FWD), an institution which was also the workplace of Brunolf Baade, the designer of the Baade 152 airliner which was built and tested between 1956 and 1961. The GDR's newly formed Air Division was keen on an ingenious fighter aircraft, despite the modern MiG-15 having become available from the USSR. The primary subject was a re-build of the WWII Messerschmitt Me 262, but the lack of plans and especially of suitable engines soon led to an end of this project, even though contacts with Avia in Czechoslovakia were made where a small number of Me 262 had been produced as S-92 fighters and trainers.
Since many senior pilots in GDR service had experience with the WWII Bf 109, and there had been a considerable number of more or less finished airframes after the Soviet occupation of Eastern Germany, FWD proposed a modernization program for the still existing material, much like the Avia S-199 program in Czechoslovakia.
The project received the code number "53" (for the year of its initiation) and structural basis for the not-so-new fighter for the GDR's nascent air force were primarily late Bf 109G and some Bf 109K airframes, reflected by an "A" and "B" suffix. Unlike the Czechoslovakian Avia S-199, which was re-engined with a rather sluggish Junkers Jumo 211 F, the FWD-53 fighter from Dresden was to be powered by a supercharged Mikulin AM-35 engine. This was a considerable reduction in output, since the late Bf 109 engines produced up to 2.000 hp, while the AM-35 just provided 1.400 hp. With some tuning and local modifications, however, the engine for the service aircraft was pushed to yield 1.100 kW (1,500 hp), and the fact that it was smaller and lighter than the original engine somewhat compensated for the lack of power.
Another feature that differed from the S-199 was the radiator system: the original Bf 109 underwing coolers were retained, even though the internal systems were replaced with new and more efficient heat exchangers and a new plumbing.
In order to save weight, the FWD-53's armament was relatively light. It consisted of a pair of heavy 12.7 mm Berezin UBS machine guns and a single 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon. These three weapons were mounted above the engine, synchronized to fire through the propeller disc. This standard armament could be augmented with a further pair of NS-23 cannon, carried in pods under the outer wings (instead of a pair of bombs of up to 250 kg caliber). Alternatively, a ventral hardpoint allowed the carriage of a single 500 kg (1.100 lb) bomb or a 300l drop tank.
In the course of 1952 and 1953, a total of 39 Bf 109 airframes from GDR and also Czech and Polish origin were converted or re-built from existing components at Dresden. At the end of November 1953, the KVP's reorganization was carried out as a staff of the administration of the units initially called Aero clubs in Cottbus and the change of subordination by the MoI directly under the Deputy Minister and head of the Kasernierten People's Police. The air regiments were restructured into Aeroklubs 1 (Cottbus), 2 (Drewitz) and 3 (Bautzen), which in turn were divided into two sections. From 1954 onwards, the FWD-53 fleet joined these training units and were primarily tasked with advanced weapons training and dissimilar aerial combat.
On March 1, 1956, the GDR's air forces were officially formed as part of the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA, National People's Army). First of all the management of the aeroclubs, according to the Soviet model, gave rise to the Administrations Air Force (LSK) in Cottbus and Air Defense (LV) in Strausberg (Eggersdorf). The initial plans were to found three Jagdfliegerdivisionen (fighter squadrons), a Schlachtfliegerdivision (attack squadron) and a Flak (AA gunnery) division, but only the 1st and 3rd Air Division and the 1st Flak Division were eventually set up. On June 1, 1957, a merger of both administrations in Strausberg (Eggersdorf) resulted in another renaming, and the Air Force/Air Defense Command (detachment LSK/LV) was born.
From this point on, almost all operational front line units were equipped with the Soviet MiG-15. The FWD-53s were quickly, together with other piston engine types, relegated to second line units and used in training and liaison roles. The last FWD-53 was retired in 1959.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 9.07 m (29 ft 8 1/2 in)
Wingspan: 9.925 m (32 ft 6 in)
Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 2 in)
Wing area: 16.05 m² (173.3 ft²)
Empty weight: 2,247 kg (5,893 lb)
Loaded weight: 3,148 kg (6,940 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 3,400 kg (7,495 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Mikulin AM-35A(D) liquid-cooled V12 engine with 1,080 kW (1,500 hp),
driving a three-bladed light-alloy propeller with 3.2m (10 ft 4 ½ in) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 640 km/h (398 mph) at 6,300 m (20,669 ft)
Cruise speed: 590 km/h (365 mph) at 6,000 m (19,680 ft)
Range: 850 km (528 mi) 1,000 km (621 mi) with drop tank
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft)
Rate of climb: 17.0 m/s (3,345 ft/min)
Wing loading: 196 kg/m² (40 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 344 W/kg (0.21 hp/lb)
Armament:
1× 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 cannon with 75 rounds
2× 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Berezin UBS machine guns with 300 RPG
all mounted above the engine and synchronized to fire through the propeller arc
A total external ordnance of 500 kg (1.100 lb), including 1× 250 kg (551 lb) bomb or 1 × 300-litre (79
US gal) drop tank on a centerline hardpoint, or 2x 250 kg bombs or 2x 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov
NS-23 cannon with 60 rounds in pods under the outer wings
The kit and its assembly:
This build was actually a kind of kit recycling, since I had a Heller Bf 109K kit in my kit stash that had donated its engine section to a converted Fw 190D. Otherwise, the kit was still complete, and it took some time until I had an idea for it: I had never so far built an East German whif, and with the complicated political and economic situation after WWII I wondered how a nascent aircraft industry could build experience and an air force? A re-engined/revamped late Bf 109 could have been the answer, so I took this idea to the hardware stage.
The Heller Bf 109K is a simple and pleasant build, but it took some time to find a suitable new engine of Soviet origin. I eventually settled for a Mikulin AM-35, taken from a Revell MiG-3 kit. The transplant was rather straightforward, and the Bf 109K’s “cheek” fairings at the cowling’s rear section actually matched the round diameter of the AM-35 well – even though the Soviet engine was much smaller and very sleek.
The rhinoplasty went very well, though, there’s just a little, ventral “step” at the wings’ leading edge.
The MiG-3 propeller could not be used, though, because the diameter and the blades themselves were just too small for the Bf 109. So I scratched a completely new propeller from a Spitfire Mk. IX spinner (reduced in length, though) and single blades from the scrap box – not certain which aircraft they actually belong to. The new prop was mounted onto a metal axis and a matching plastic tube adapter was implanted into the fuselage.
The only other modification of the kit are the main wheels – Heller’s OOB parts are quite bleak, so I replaced them with visually better parts from the scrap box.
Painting and markings:
This was not easy, because LSK/LV aircraft either carried Soviet camouflage of that era (typically a uniform green/blue camouflage) or were, more often, simply left in bare metal, like the MiG-15s. However, I wanted a more interesting camouflage scheme, but nothing that would remind of the Bf 109’s WWII origins, and it was still supposed to show some Eastern Bloc heritage. After a long search I found a suitable option, in the form of a LSK/LV MiG-15UTI trainer (actually a museum piece at the military history museum Gatow, near Berlin): the machine carried a relatively light green/brown camouflage and light blue undersides. Pretty simple, but the tones were quite unique – even though there’s no guarantee that this livery is/was authentic!
However, I adapted the concept for the FWD-53. Search in the paint bank yielded Humbrol 86 (Light Olive Green) and 62 (Leather Brown) as suitable tones for the upper surfaces, while I went for a garish Humbrol 89 (Middle Blue) underneath. Quite a bright result! The spinner became red and the interior was painted in RLM02.
The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including suitable early LSK/LV roundels. Most stencils were taken from the Heller kit’s OOB sheet. After light panel shading and some soot stains with grinded graphite, the kit was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish.
A very quick project, realized just in three days (plus some time for the beauty shots, though) as a distraction from a very busy time at work. However, for a model created from leftover parts the FWD-53 looks surprisingly good and sleek. The pointed MiG-3 nose section subtly changes the profile – and somehow, from certain angles, the FWD-53 even reminds of the much bigger Il-2?
The level of his analytical skills had seriously decreased, he probably did not have the expertise to perform this function and the most terrible thing for me at the time was that I realized that after only a year and a half of experience, I had acquired more experience than him to handle the files under management.
I experienced this misfortune as a great injustice because not only on the subjects I did not master, he was of no help to me and I was not reassured because he showed no common sense. That's when I made several mistakes. My anger became visible. I must admit that I had a lot of difficulty respecting this person and following his recommendations. Finally, I tried to implicitly demonstrate to him that our team did not give him any credit.
"Hubris syndrome: the disease of power. Loss of sense of reality, intolerance to contradiction, piecemeal actions, obsession with one's own image and abuse of power: these are some of the symptoms of a newly identified mental illness that is reported to develop during the exercise of power. It's hubris syndrome. "dixit dictionary
I had to paint a quick picture of the evolution of the "millennium" to return very quickly to the virtues due to spiritual coaching. It seems essential to replace the old workings of an entrepreneurial world that is in trouble, with a new cure in the bud of the new incubators? Technology prevails over conventional workplaces to increase workers' incomes without any major leverage affecting revenues, creating a loss of organizational spirituality in many workplaces. Over the years in the research field, spirituality in the workplace has acquired a vital importance that would inspire employee confidence. The gap in university research is still present since this topic is still in the development stage and many empirical research studies have demonstrated a significant interaction between workplace spirituality and positive task results and job satisfaction. Peers who felt that the meaning of their work exists and who have a sense of connection and interaction in the work environment provided better performance and even added value through their dedication to improving the work environment.
I can imagine a spiritual coach on the trays of the new incubators, just as I imagine a crèche for the many couples who will come to work here, there is already an organic canteen and all that is missing is the spiritual coach. The psychologist with his antidepressants has become obsolete, like the treadmill or the fitness room replaced by yoga.
We must measure the effects of the revolution due to artificial intelligence and the arrival of robots, we have not yet understood that this is a tsunami that will sweep away an entire part of the old economy with its vertical enterprises and its systematizations that have become almost insolent, as they do not evaluate the change in mentalities?
I will voluntarily use a mystical vocabulary in such a way as to replace its meaning in the entrepreneurial world and would like to briefly recall its definition for sceptical or resistant minds to spiritual matter.
"doxa: All opinions received without discussion, as obvious, in a given civilization. "The spiritual doxa currently finds the obsolescence of its meaning in old catechism books, it precedes the episteme "All the regulated knowledge (world view, sciences, philosophies...) specific to a social group, at a time " the new century that is opening up to us, is perhaps placed in a form of episteme of the spiritual fact? The company would be the vase that would contain this alchemy specific to the development of the modern individual?
The awareness of this issue leads us directly to an antagonism, so it will be necessary to believe that such a heterogeneous assembly will immediately inspire a cloud of prejudices incompatible with this presentation. I would especially like to warn agnostic readers that this presentation does not wish to change their secular nature, nor does it wish to be a backdoor form of proselytism. The question asked may be worth a detour outside the contours of the moralizing doxa and religiously diverted from its initial message.
"In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Thought to be the most powerful hunter, with leadership and resourcefulness traits, the mountain lion is the guardian of the northern direction. He is associated with the color yellow and appears in both hunting and healing directional sets. Today, mountain lion fetishes are carved with great realism and detail and also in the more ancient, primitive style. Before the introduction of power tools, most mountain lions were represented with their tails up and over the back. Now carvers are able to carve long, flowing tails that extend behind the back or even curl in delicate swirls. The mountain lion can remind us to persevere, clarify our goals and move forward to achieving our dreams.
Many startups run in cult mode, it is clear that employees will do more for a guru, the vertical and elitist leader may have some worries to deal with within the coming decade. It is interesting to understand the so-called "millennium" generation, i. e. those born around the year 2000, to see with their eyes, to rub our eyes of the last century and remove the contours of our appearance, to look without make-up, appearance is not a criteria anymore, we can buy unknown brands and buy organic baskets without even going through a sign, we can even do our market in the company's hall and find everything in a box supplied by delivery people.
The generation that drives its shopping cart is dying with their old leaders and counterproductive authoritarianism. I find many values classified as religious, rarely as spiritual, the word is probably too positive to evoke the different churches, so I find all its new values very spiritual, they come from the spirit, the pure spirit and leave the price on the side, it seeks ethics, is the fabric of the clothing made with animals that have not suffered? Does the toy wood come from a forest which is well managed?
We are witnessing a revolution in mentalities and production methods between artificial intelligence and robots, it is an even more important revolution than the industrial revolution of the 19th century and perhaps even more so than the revolution of the nomadic man who became a farmer! The man-machine will forget all executive tasks and the subordinates will disappear in favour of more docile machines. There will therefore be a lot of exclusion and certainly major divisions, we are living off the premises in the riots in the suburbs. The company is becoming a temporary place, Nokia has flooded the planet with its phones and then disappeared, the brands no longer have a status of eternity and the management of the near future is already in the process of setting up in startups. I am not saying that the startup is a new paradise, I even think that the startup is somewhere a negation of the social progress made between 1920 and 1990. Why 1990? Because in 1990 the Anglo-Saxons and Germans changed their management methods. The British scuttled their industry to build a financial empire, a kind of tax haven at the gates of Europe and the Germans invented mini-jobs for 300 euros, a Mercedes is the price of a Ford to build!
My presentation would like to draw a line between spirituality and religious principles. I also wish to leave behind the traditional divisions between excessive secularism, fearing with stupor the supernatural fact and firmly committed to an old logic and perhaps already overtaken by recent societal developments. The business world is constantly changing. A company is a living social organism. It is the interaction of human beings who manufacture a product, i.e. who produce a good or provide a service. Like humans, living beings or nature in general, we can never fully understand such a social organism. It is not just a simple machine or a complicated device, but something living that follows an evolution.
I suggest introducing the concept of spirituality as part of a business, in the sense of undertaking together and perhaps under the aegis of an egregore, not religious but mental and respectful of the general harmony.
"A egregore (or eggregore) is, in esotericism, a concept designating a group spirit influenced by the common desires of several individuals united for a well-defined purpose. This force would need to be constantly nurtured by its members through established and defined rituals. »
The notion of egregore can be applied to the business world, in the definition taken from Wikipedia, I try to extract: "common group spirit of several individuals" it seems to resemble the definition of a company, not necessarily with vertical management and perhaps soon archaic?
The dogmas of the academic business elite are sinking into the void of psychoanalysis. We are at a turning point with our society, which also attracts ever wider circles in business life.
People's consciousness is growing rapidly. More and more people who are integrated into the work process feel overwhelmed or have the inner feeling that things cannot continue like this.
Older workers cannot cope with new digital developments, and young workers have no desire for a meaningless activity.
It is impossible to say that they prefer to live hidden under lazy skin. Quite the contrary! They are perfectly aware of the daily reality, but only if it makes sense to them. There are many employees, workers, executives who feel the same frustration with a hierarchy inherited from the old school of a previous century!
Spirituality could change outdated practices in the workplace. It would create interconnections that foster greater trust between a company's employees. Desktops are part of a particular work process that can lead to feelings of cooperation and sometimes lead to an overall organizational culture based on motivation. It is illustrated by a scientific response to human problems and depends essentially on the competence of psychologists. Psychologists often do not have answers to the problems of differentiation. They are the source of a deep sense of loneliness and this pathology usually leads employees to become depressed. Psychologists practice a levelling to promote a societal norm that reflects scientific projections. Practitioners generally use antidepressant medications to enslave individuals who experience this loneliness of mind. They are unanimously very close to Freudian psychoanalysis, rather agnostic. They generally lack a magical or symbolic part that is the basis of all civilizations. Ours feeds on Harry Potter or Halloween to compensate for this lack of symbolism in social relationships.
Hughes Songe
On Nov. 15, 2018 at 11:04, Hughes wrote:
Yes, it is a point of view that can be applied to a coach, spiritual or agnostic, he remains a coach.
It is interesting to develop why in 2018/28 we are in the midst of a revolution (artificial intelligence, robots) and how humanity finds itself in spirituality and why another coaching will be imposed! The spiritual coach is the future! As an architect, I imagine a kind of "chapel" that would be placed on the open Space and that we would leave our intimate "confessions" there. I am visionary and not formatted by an education that imposes a strict vision of spirituality on me, for me spirituality is in the subway and consists in getting up to let the other sit down, it consists in saying hello in a stairwell or smiling in the morning and distributing positive impressions to others and especially to myself. The negative, the doubt is the demon? The angel lives with hope and love for himself and others?
On Nov. 14, 2018 at 14:59, Priscilla wrote:
I'm reading what you wrote.
For me, a good coach is inspired by spirituality, that is to say, he would have a method that consists precisely in helping the consultant to find the balance between his daily life and his deep aspirations.
we're okay with that?
On Nov 13, 2018 at 14:45, Hughes wrote:
I just finished the work the day before yesterday Monday evening, I spent two hours between the break and one hour in the subway and then at Claire's from 8am until now. It's a little short to smooth everything out. As you have seen, I am rewriting the information received on German and American books. I add a spiritual and a little French touch to it. It is a long work to make these ten pages edible by agnostic minds and very formatted by Hautes Études Commerciales. I am also thinking of Hugues Couratier, my grandfather who graduated from this school in 1929...
Have a good reading
(Your comments can help me a lot to finalize tomorrow)
"AM I know he prefer Blue but seeing the hotness of Red Saber body in a wrestling match with only a loincloth with a bra is really intriguing tbh? With Red Saber personality, her boldness is enough to K.O. any men.Gilgamesh lost because of her hot body. TBH, any guy would die happily in a wrestling match with her. Hey, for all we know, Gil prefers blue Saber's... lesser endowments.flatlands fetish lol :D On the one hand Saber wrestled a lion.On the other hand Gilgamesh wrestled a divine bull sent from the heavens. On a mysterious third hand skills are still active, so Imperial Privelage would likely allow Saber to perform well enough to overcome him, assuming wrestling is included in the "other" aspect of the description. If that's what you mean by "no abilities" though, then Gil wins for having slightly superior strength and a lot more luck unless Saber performs a clever distraction with her performing abilities. Bane even prayed for Dick when he became Batman. Are they both contracted to Rin at the same time, or are there two distinct individual iterations of Rin and each one happens to be the master of one of them? Also, is/are Rin/the Rins watching? Is one of the Rins evil? Does Evil Rin have a different hairstyle? Abilities are not allowed so Red Saber can not use Imperial Privilege.Red Saber's master is black haired Rin and Gilgamesh's master is blonde haired Rin."We have 55 characters, I'd really like an even number."
it, just put Wolverine in again and see if they notice." Then Extra Saber should win, since FSN Rin is far and away the superior magus, since the concept of magecraft is way different in the Extra universe (where Blonde Rin is from). Though if you just want to ignore the Masters altogether, Gilgamesh would still win. You begin to suspect that your bowl is a portal to the Meat Dimension. More than likely they'd just make out anyway, but yeah, I figured that was the point of the question's imagery? Bane even prayed for Dick when he became Batman. -- Frostbite_Zero I just want to note...Gilgamesh becomes a zombie at an assertive woman. Look at Carnival Phantasm Just for laugh, watch the whole episode!
Red Saber wins with her personality. This show how bold she is. Red Saber is truly a bold woman indeed.yeah. it's a privilege to us to see that part. ahahaanyway thanks for the link. i tend to repeat that part when i'm bored lol.Official Praetor of Saber in the Fate/Extra Boards www.facebook.com/pages/Saber-FateExtra/286251641405745 HERCULES. Easily identified by a lion skin and a club, his favorite weapon, the ... MERCURY ... also sometimes holds the caduceus, a herald's staff with two...The Club of Hercules : Studies in the classical background of ...
www.amazon.fr/The-Club-Hercules-classical.../dp/B0014VL50...
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Invincible Armada or the Enterprise of England, Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, lit. 'Great and Most Fortunate Navy') was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval experience appointed by Philip II of Spain. His orders were to sail up the English Channel, join with the Duke of Parma in Flanders, and escort an invasion force that would land in England and overthrow Elizabeth I. Its purpose was to reinstate Catholicism in England, end support for the Dutch Republic, and prevent attacks by English and Dutch privateers against Spanish interests in the Americas.
The Spanish were opposed by an English fleet based in Plymouth. Faster and more manoeuvrable than the larger Spanish galleons, they were able to attack the Armada as it sailed up the Channel. Several subordinates advised Medina Sidonia to anchor in The Solent and occupy the Isle of Wight, but he refused to deviate from his instructions to join with Parma. Although the Armada reached Calais largely intact, while awaiting communication from Parma, it was attacked at night by English fire ships and forced to scatter. The Armada suffered further losses in the ensuing Battle of Gravelines, and was in danger of running aground on the Dutch coast when the wind changed, allowing it to escape into the North Sea. Pursued by the English, the Spanish ships returned home via Scotland and Ireland. Up to 24 ships were wrecked along the way before the rest managed to get home. Among the factors contributing to the defeat and withdrawal of the Armada were bad weather conditions and the better employment of naval guns and battle tactics by the English.
The expedition was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. The following year, England organized a similar large-scale campaign against Spain, known as the "English Armada", and sometimes called the "counter-Armada of 1589", which failed. Three further Spanish armadas were sent against England and Ireland in 1596, 1597, and 1601, but these likewise ended in failure.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House is a private corporation in Newcastle upon Tyne which emerged in the 16th century as a guild formed by the City's seafarers. For the past 500 years it has occupied premises in Broad Chare on the Newcastle's Quayside, from which it continues to provide a combination of professional and charitable maritime services. It remains one of only three bodies in England authorized for the examination and licensing of deep-sea pilots.
Origins
The 'Guild of the Blessed Trinity of Newcastle upon Tyne' emerged in the late 15th century, and was formally constituted on 4 January 1505 when it obtained an area of land close to the river on which to build a chapel, meeting room and lodgings for mariners (it was secured by the quit-rent of one red rose, payable annually to a Mr Ralph Hebborn on Midsummer's Day.) Early in its history, the corporation (as it came to be known) was given responsibility for improving the Tyne as a navigable river. For example, the first Royal Charter (received from Henry VIII in 1536) stipulated the building and fortification of a pair of towers at a certain point on the north bank, and the maintenance of lights thereon for the purposes of navigation. (These were precursors of the High and Low Lights which still stand today at North Shields).
Premises
'Trinity House' is the name of the corporation's headquarters buildings by the Quayside, a site which it has occupied since the day of its foundation in 1505. Though there have been several rebuildings, some sixteenth-century (and older) fabric remains, and later 18th and 19th-century additions and restorations were sympathetic to the Tudor style of the original. A chapel, some offices, the banqueting hall and boardroom, along with the former school and several almshouse buildings, are arranged around three courtyards, described as 'the most pleasant exterior spaces' in the City. Entry is via a gateway on Broad Chare. The warehouses to the south of the gatehouse are currently leased to Live Theatre; they formerly housed the Trinity Maritime Museum, which closed in 2002.
Later developments
Before long, the corporation was responsible for the licensing of mariners and pilots and for 'keeping the sea lanes' between Whitby and Berwick-upon-Tweed. At the same time, the corporation was (and had been since its early years) active in charitable work, including the provision of almshouses for aged mariners and the establishment of a school on its premises. The corporation was a high profile organisation in the city, for example hosting a visit by Archduke Frederick of Austria in 1841, and presenting him with a commemorative gold snuff box.
All these activities were financed principally through the levying of duties on every ship entering the Tyne to trade – a practice which only ceased in 1861. Following the passing of the Harbour and Passing Tolls Act in that year, the corporation began to devolve some responsibilities to other bodies; in particular, a new board took on responsibility for pilotage on the Tyne, and a new commission took on maintenance of the river's channels and buoyage, together with the corporation's lights at North and South Shields. Newcastle Trinity House continued though to be responsible for buoys, marks and lights along parts of the coast until the mid-1990s.
In the latter part of the 20th century the corporation's Trinity Maritime Museum occupied a pair of early Victorian warehouses on Broad Chare, adjacent to the main site.[6] The museum closed in 2002 and the buildings are now leased by the Live Theatre Company.
Present-day activities and governance
Today, the corporation remains active in the provision of professional and charitable maritime services. In addition to its work as a deep-sea pilot authority, it also offers a broader professional maritime consultancy service. It furthermore continues to provide charitable support for 'aged mariners and their widows', as well as varied educational programmes (raising an awareness of maritime history and practice among younger generations, including in schools). It is also committed to the upkeep of its historic buildings (which are nowadays regularly used for corporate and other events) and its extensive archives.
Trinity House has been a registered charity since 1966 and is governed by a royal charter of 1667. Its operation is overseen by an annually elected board; principal officers include the master, deputy master and several wardens with responsibility for different areas of activity. All are master mariners, except the Secretary to the Board. Mariners who are full members of the corporation are styled 'brethren'. Others wishing to support the work of the charity may join as 'associate members'. On formal occasions, the brethren wear a naval-style uniform (similar to that worn by their counterparts in Trinity House, London). The arms of the corporation are worn as a cap-badge and are also prominent on and in the buildings of Trinity House (not just those on Broad Chare, but also structures built and owned by the corporation in former years such as North Shields High Light).
Despite several similarities of nomenclature, structure and activity, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House is and always has been entirely independent of its namesake Trinity House in London. Trinity House, Kingston-Upon-Hull is similarly an independent body with past and continuing maritime responsibilities in and around the Humber, and there are also similar institutions in Scotland.
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.
Roman settlement
The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.
The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.
Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.
Anglo-Saxon development
The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.
Norman period
After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.
In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.
Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.
The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.
Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.
In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.
In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.
Religious houses
During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.
The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.
The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.
The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.
The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.
The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.
All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.
An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.
Tudor period
The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.
During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).
With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.
Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.
The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.
In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.
Stuart period
In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.
In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.
In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.
In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.
In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.
A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.
Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.
In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.
In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.
In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.
In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.
Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.
The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.
In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.
A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.
Victorian period
Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.
In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.
In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.
In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.
In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.
Industrialisation
In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.
Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:
George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.
George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.
Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.
William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.
The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:
Glassmaking
A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Locomotive manufacture
In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.
Shipbuilding
In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.
Armaments
In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.
Steam turbines
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.
Pottery
In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.
Expansion of the city
Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.
Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.
Twentieth century
In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.
During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.
In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.
Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.
As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.
In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.
As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.
Recent developments
Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.
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All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
* Brightside
A quick discussion with the local expertise, saw a rapid(ish) move to the next location, to photograph the set coming out of Sheffield Midland and today passing though its correct namesake 'Bright'side Station on the northbound move to Hull. With the Brightside ex-Station 'Station Hotel' in the background, its outside having been recently re-furbished, making it stand out more prominently in the background but unfortunately in the angle of this shot, sans-ladder, that damned tree is in the way. No matter, the scene looks colourful and now, with class 37, 37419 at the head of the departing South Yorks RHTT, the area is enhanced with colour from the InterCity livery of 'Carl Haviland 1954-2012' on the 3S14, Sheffield via Selby to Hull RHTT working. As this is a passenger line, the Sandite units should be in full spray but I see no evidence for this, nor in the departing shots showing the other side, as the set prepares to pass though Meadowhall Interchange? On the old metal footbridge, a small band of enthusiasts has gathered, and are enjoying the view over the old station site, its 'beginning' to look in need of some TLC though I guess there would be no reason for this 'ex-parrot' to have a face lift, given that the then new, Meadowhall Interchange, replaced this station in the mid-1990s, the former being more convenient for main-line and Blackburn Valley services when the area took on the mantle of being a bus, car and train interchange, surrounded by shops instead of steelworks of course. Fortunately, in the grand new schemes, the Brightside 'back line' has been retained and recently re-railed and re-ballasted and finds often use for diversions and moves directly along the Blackburn Valley line, as required, this line looking new, but rusty, in the right corner of the picture.
All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
by Gina Stocco
On any given day East Cobbers will spot the fun pink Brazilian Wax VW Beetles zipping down the road. Have you
ever stopped to ask who was driving that car? Or what on earth a “Brazilian Wax” is?
Andreia Guilmet wants you to be curious. A native of Goiania, Brazil, she was introduced to the aes...
www.eastcobber.com/brazilian-wax-by-andreia-brings-specia...
Andover's first mention in history is in 950 when King Edred is recorded as having built a royal hunting lodge there. In 962 King Edgar called a meeting of the Saxon 'parliament' (the Witenagemot) at his hunting lodge near Andover.[3]
Of more importance was the baptism, in 994 of a Viking king named Olaf (allied with Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard). The identity of that man was either Olav Trygvason or Olof Skötkonung. The baptism was part of a deal with King Ethelred II of England (“The Unready”) whereby he stopped ravaging England and returned home. Olav Tryggvason became king of Norway in 995 and tried to convert his country to Christianity before his death in battle in 1000. Olof Skötkonung was already king of Sweden and became its first Christian king and began c. 995 to mint Sweden's first coins with the help of English expertise.
At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) Andover had 107 male inhabitants and probably had a total population of about 500. It was quite a large settlement by the standards of the time. (Most villages had only 100 to 150 people). Andover also had 6 watermills which ground grain to flour.
In 1175 King Richard I sold Andover a charter granting the townspeople certain rights, forming a merchant guild which took over the government of the town. The members elected two officials called bailiffs who ran the town. In 1201 King John gave the merchants the right to collect royal taxes in Andover themselves. In 1256 Henry III gave the townspeople the right to hold a court and try criminals for offences committed in Andover. Andover also sent MPs to the parliaments of 1295 and 1302-1307. The town was ravaged by two serious fires, one in 1141 and another in 1435.
Andover remained a small market town. Processing wool appears to have been the main industry and street names in the area of the town known as “Sheep Fair” commemorate this. A weekly market, and an annual fair were held.
As well as the Church of St Mary the town had a priory and a hospital run by monks, dedicated to St John the Baptist, and also a lepers hostel to St Mary Magdalene. In 1538 during the Reformation Henry VIII closed the priory and the hospital. In 1571 a free school for the boys of Andover was established. This in time became Andover Grammar School, and is now John Hanson Community School. (Which has since been demolished and rebuilt not far from two primary schools in the town. The site which was once John Hanson, now acts as a housing district.)
In 1599 the town received a new charter from Elizabeth I. The merchants guild was made a corporation and the number of annual fairs was increased from one to three. Like other towns Andover suffered from outbreaks of plague. There were outbreaks in 1603-5, 1625-6 and 1636.
[edit] 18th and 19th century
During the 18th century, being situated on the main Exeter – Salisbury – London road Andover became a major stopping point on the stagecoach routes, more than 30 stagecoaches passing through the town each day. In 1789 a canal to Southampton was opened, though this was never a commercial success and closed in 1859. Andover was linked to Basingstoke and thus to London by railway when the Andover junction station was opened on 3 July 1854; this railway also linking the town to Salisbury. The town was also linked by railway to Southampton, built on the bed of the canal, but this was closed down in 1964. The land, together with the adjacent gasworks and P. M. Coombes woodyards, was then sold to the TSB Trust Company who later built their headquarters there.
During the 19th century the town acquired all the usual additions, a theatre in 1803, gas street lighting in 1838, a fire station and cottage hospital in 1877, a swimming pool opened in 1885 and a recreation ground opened in 1887. A water company was formed in 1875 to provide piped water to the town and a system of sewers and drains was built in 1899-1902. The public library opened in 1897. Despite this burgeoning of the amenities of the town in 1845 a notorious scandal involving the hardships endured by the inmates of the workhouse led indirectly to reform of the Poor Law Act. The town was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835.
In 1846, the town came to public attention after an enquiry exposed the conditions in its workhouse. The Andover workhouse scandal brought to light evidence of beatings, sexual abuse and general mistreatment of workhouse inmates by the overseers.
The woollen industry had declined but new industries took its place. "Taskers Iron Works" opened at Anna Valley in 1809 and flourished. Many examples of the machinery produced by Taskers can be seen at the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.
[edit] Modern history
The town's largest employer is the Ministry of Defence. RAF Andover was opened on Andover Airfield, to the south of the town, during the First World War and became the site of the RAF Staff College. During the Second World War it was the headquarters of RAF Maintenance Command, and gained a unique place in British history, as the first British military helicopter unit, the Helicopter Training School, was formed in January 1945 at RAF Andover. The airfield is no longer in use although the RAF retains a link to the area through the presence of 1213 (Andover) Squadron, Air Training Corps. On the departure of the RAF, the Logistics Executive (Army) moved in; this later became the headquarters of the Quartermaster General who was responsible for Army Logistics. In 2001, the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) was formed and Andover became one of its major sites. Plans have recently been published for the bulk of the DLO staff to leave Andover; the site becoming the new home for a single Army Headquarters, replacing those currently at Wilton and Upavon. The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre is based locally at Amport House, as is the Army Air Corps Centre and the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop.
In 1932 Andover gained a new industry when the printers for Kelly's Directory moved to the town. Slowly the town grew from about 11,000 and by 1960 had a population of about 17,000. Due to the fact that already the some of Londoners were being housed in the first of the council houses / flats being constructed.
In 1951 the Town Council decided it would be a good idea to add fluoride to the drinking water to improve dental health. This provoked a furious public response, and a strong anti-fluoridation campaign started. In the 1958 local elections anti-fluoridation candidates swept the board, turning out many established members, and the idea was dropped.
In 1950s the Borough Council was approached by the Greater London Council to become an overspill town, to build houses and take people and industry relocated from the overcrowded capital. Some contend that had the old Borough Council still been in charge this would never have been agreed. But it was, and in 1961 the plan was drawn up to expand to a population of some 47,000 by 1982, with 9,000 new homes to be built.
The first new council houses were ready by 1954 and by 1981 the population had risen to 51,000. A bypass, industrial estates and a new shopping centre in the town centre, called the Chantry Centre, were all built and the town’s character changed completely. The new council houses proved to be very badly built. It seemed that the local council would have to foot the enormous bill for reconstruction, but after starting legal action against the Greater London Council a settlement was achieved, in which the GLC paid a large sum of money to the local council, which started a programme of refurbishment that finished in 1995.
Major industries include Twinings the tea and coffee firm, Ducal Pine Furniture (until they closed in 2003), Thompson International Publishers, who produce the Pitkin Guides to be found in many churches and other notable buildings, financial institutions such as Simply Health (formerly the HSA) and Scottish Widows Lloyds TSB, and The Stannah Group, whose HQ is also in the town. Unemployment is very low at 1% of the working population and among the proposals in the councils Borough Local Plan 2006 are plans to develop the former site of RAF Andover to Class B1, B2 and B8 uses.[4]
The Borough Council and Andover Rural District Council were abolished in the local government reorganisation of 1974, and replaced by Test Valley Borough Council, which included the land down to the edge of Southampton in the south, quite a rural area apart from Andover. Light industry is still the main employer.[citation needed] Situated about 1 hour 20 minutes from London by train there are also quite a few who commute to the capital to work. The tensions between town and country and the “old” and “new” still exist in some measure, and in the future more expansion is planned. Today the population of Andover is over 52,000 and it is one of four Major Development Areas in Hampshire, identified for large housing growth. Plans are in place to build 2,500 homes to the northeast of the town. Andover became an unparished area in Test Valley. After a considerable local campaign, and despite resistance from Test Valley Borough Council, a parish council of 19 members was elected in May 2010.
The Town Museum, based in the old grammar school, had a Museum of the Iron Age added in 1986 which houses the finds from excavations at nearby Danebury Hill Fort. In 2002 Andover received the first cango bus network. Leisure facilities are improving. The council has recently refurbished the local College auditorium as "Lights", a new live entertainment centre. A new four screen cinema above the recently built Asda supermarket has opened in the town centre.
In May 2008 a brand new radio station was launch in the town called Andover Sound. It broadcasts across North West Hampshire on 106.4FM and online at www.andoversound.com from studios based in East Street in the town. The radio station has picked up a number of awards since launching including a New York Festivals Radio Award and the Radio Academy South Station of the Year award.[5] In April 2010 the radio station was nominated for two prestigious Sony Radio Academy Awards for Station of the Year (300,000) and News Journalist of the Year.[6]
[edit] Mills and milling
Rooksbury Mill & Mill House
Watermills have played an important part in Andover's history. The Domesday Book of 1086 provides the earliest record of watermills in Andover, which identifies six mills.[7]
Rooksbury Mill is one of the few surviving mill buildings in Andover. The existence of Rooksbury Mill is first recorded by name in the 17th century. Functioning as a flour mill, it has passed through a succession of owners. Milling ceased in the early 20th century, after which the mill building went through a series of uses including being used as a small theatre. Test Valley Borough Council sold the building in 2002, shortly after it had been devastated following an arson attack. The new owners, Anthony and Sarah de Sigley, restored the building in 2003, rebuilding much of the original structure.
[edit] Notable people
At | domiciles, spots and skills | spots, place, location, site, position, point, locale, locality, venue, skill, expertise, adeptness, adroitness, deftness, dexterity, ability, prowess, mastery
Submitted by: Chalamala Jangaiah
Caption: Skilled surgical expertise
Sub-theme:
Professional, Children, Eye care professionals, , Workplace
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Peacekeepers from Mongolia serving with UNMISS used their engineering expertise to renovate the Abienmom Hospital which was in disrepair after years of war. They repaired and painted walls, fixed the electricity supply and extended the cabling system so that it reaches all the hospital’s main rooms. The engineers created a special isolation room for COVID-19 patients, installed new water tanks, hand washing facilities, and handed over a wide variety of medical supplies.
A Wee bit Wicked Tale.
Baiting the Hook at Wicksford
Prologue
15 years ago.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
One moonless cloudy evening, at a secluded, hedged private garden located at an equally private club in Wales.
A lass of around 16, looking like the escapee from a formal dress event she was, cheerfully was exploring the otherwise deserted, but appealing, formal gardens she had discovered.
The sweet 16-year-old was surprisingly, very amorously dressed in a long flowing silk high-necked dress the colour of horse chestnut with a gold taffeta half-sleeve jacket. Her jewels were simple. A gold diamond set pendant and matching earrings(£9000 for the set). Her wrists held thin diamond bracelets (£1000 each) and on her left pinkie, she wore a small diamond chipped ring(£2000).
She was alone out here. Once she made that discovery, the sixteen-year-old went to a secluded area where a wrought iron neck was set in a small cove off hedges. She sat down, listening. Hearing nothing, she settled back and let her mind wander.
She placed her hand inside her jacket’s pocket as she looked back towards the private club.
^^^^^^^^^*
Back Inside the venue where formal dress dance had been going on, she had observed a lass of 17 whisking her way in and out of the various groups of dressed-up guests.
This charming lass appeared to be unsupervised, which was surprising considering how richly she was attired. The girl was wearing a soft blue satin gown that swirled along her figure with a satisfying fluidity. She was carrying a purse that matched her gown.
Her jewellery was also quite beautiful. A thin silver necklace set with a matched set of seven real diamonds that formed a half circle. Earrings set with a three-drop diamond stone, smaller to larger. A thin diamond bracelet and two diamond set rings.
Mesmerized, the 16-year-old wearing the long silk dress the colour of horse chestnut had begun to follow the 17-year-old around, careful not to be drawing notice.
In a secluded corner of the venue, the 17-year-old was literally waylaid, caught by two muscular suits and tie-wearing 18-year-old males. The pair of prigs had the poor rich girl between them, holding and teasing as she squirmed to get away.
Afraid that they were after her purse, the 16-year-old got involved and sent them off. She then fawned over the 17-year-old who though older, only came up to her chin. Lovingly straightened her luscious gown, stroking the girl’s long hair back in place.
With a grateful hug, the 17-year-old left the kindhearted 16-year-old and went back off to her business.
^^^^
With a sigh, the sixteen-year-old ended her reminiscing.
Looking around one last time to make sure she was still alone while reaching inside an inner pocket of her gold taffeta half-sleeve jacket, she pulled out a thin silver necklace set with a matched set of seven real diamonds that formed a half circle. She let the necklace dangle, admiring the glistening precious gemstones that were set into it. She reached in again and pulled out a pair of 3 diamond drop earrings and salivated over their beautiful stormy glitter.
It had been too easy to acquire the necklace and earrings from the young girl wearing the delicious blue satin gown.
All it took was a simple hug and lovingly running my fingers through her curly locks of hair
And the beauty of it would be that the suspicions raised over the disappearance of the girl’s diamonds would be centered around the two young miscreant lads.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Acte One
A Gambling streak.
Present day
I was 34 when I attended what would have then been my 13th Wicksford Ball.
This was an annual autumn affair that at the time had been well into its second century(it is still being held to this day. And I still do attend it.)
It was an ultra-formal event traditionally attended to by many of society’s wealthiest families, some even holding actual titles of the realm.
It had been 5 years since the last time I attended. I figured my antics from the last time I was a guest here would have cooled down by now. Thank the lord for short attention spans.
That evening I was attending alone, for I was there on my own business and pleasures of my own making.
If I dare say myself, I was dressed up rather prettily that night in my specially fitted deep v-neck-lined plum-coloured satin gown. I was also wearing my lucky jewels. A thin silver necklace set with a matched set of seven real diamonds that formed a half circle(£10,000). Along with the necklace’s matching pair of 3 diamond drop earrings. The stones dangling went from smaller to larger(£8000)
Fitting right in with a good portion of my fellow guests. Meaning I was underdressed and underjeweled compared with the remaining ones.
I entered the party as it was well underway.
I intend to give the older female guests, who were to be my main targets, plenty of time to imbibe in drinking and dancing.
This would help ensure the likelihood of their guard being lowered.
Upon my arrival, the first item on my agenda was to reconnoiter the premises.
Which I did with methodical expertise. Through the ballroom up to the veranda and lastly the back gardens.
So many memories of being in that hedgerow-circled (12000 square meters) proper garden.
Perhaps more memories to be made out here this evening?
If not, it still was a good place to have a smoke and a good think while alone making plans.
But I knew for certain the ballroom proper could be counted on for being a memorable occasion.
I then swirled happily around and headed back inside.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
I headed up the backstairs to visit the powder room, where I had planned on beginning the evening's hunt.
Why not? One had to start somewhere.
As I made my way down the corridor the lady's powder room door opened and 3 delightfully clad ladies began walking out.
My fingers tingled as I saw one was an easy mark. I quickly rushed past to get just ahead of the trio before they started downstairs.
As I passed the first of the trio of ladies I found myself nose to eye with a startling beautifully attired, young miss of around 18 years of age.
She was adorably resplendent in a long slinking silken gown of pale blue. Her long silken hair was held up by a narrow ribbon that matched her gown. She was also wearing dark blue elbow-length satin gloves.
Sapphires and diamonds swung from her ears(£12,000) And flowed from the necklace(£26,000) hanging loosely from around her throat. A pair of sapphire and diamond cuff bracelets fit snugly around her gloved wrists(£15,000 each), and she wore two cocktail rings on her index fingers, one set with diamonds (£21,000), the other with sapphires (£14,000).
She didn’t notice me eyeing her jewels, she was looking back listening to the two older ladies talking behind her as the trio was leaving the room. Her mum and aunt I could easily ascertain.
They were both wearing fitted velvet gowns, one of ivory and the other plum, with matching satin gloves. The mum was wearing a brilliant set of pearled jewels (£88,000 worth) and the Auntie in plum was wearing gold chains set with diamonds(£65,000 worth) and a diminutive but real diamond tiara(£18,000)
Now to take profitable advantage of such a rare richly golden opportunity I needed to be ahead of them on the stairs, and I timed it perfectly.
My mark was on my heels as we entered. She was still looking back at her mum and Auntie. Her hand held the rail, her other held up her gown off the steps.
I turned like I had heard something. And I called out
“Here I am”
I started to go back upstairs, plowing into the young lady. We grasped hold of each other, my hand grasping the wrist of the hand holding her gown.
Her mum at the same time wrapped her arm around her daughter’s chest to catch her. Rings flashing with magnificence.
I quickly relieved the girl of a cuff bracelet and pocketed it.
We both apologized and the mum was asking her daughter if she was alright. All three were concerned with themselves. No one paying me any heed.
I place my hand on the mother’s fingers still holding her daughter up. I apologized for being so rude, as I slipped off one of Mum’s gemmed cocktail rings(£8800) from a gloved finger.
They then, with glaring looks, parted to let me pass through them before they continued on their merry way.
.^^^^^^
That was just the beginning… for over the next 90 minutes I had an unbroken streak of “gambler's luck”:
A well-placed bump netted me a gemmed starburst-shaped pendant(£18,000) swinging down from the neck of satin satin-dressed up young lady re-adjusting a spiked heel, a nice jostle netting me a sparkling diamond broach(£33,000) from a lady in too soft green satin as she was bringing helped into a long black mink coat,
Then an extremely well-positioned squeeze rewarded me with a dazzling jewelled-up bracelet(£20,000)from a taffeta-clad lady’s wrist, whose cigarette I had lit with my lighter as she sat at the bar.
Then I planned on calling it quits after a tricky slipping off of a bright white diamond pinkie ring(£13,000) from the bare sweaty finger of a young lass wrapped in tight silk as she exited the dance floor with an older male in tow.
I figured that I had by now played out my run of luck:
But I was never more wrong, for my streak was far from over.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I was still on the edge of the ballroom’s massive dance floor when the lights suddenly dimmed and dance music started right back up, not slow, but with a beat.
The dance floor at this venue is a whopping 2000 square meters, making it a very seductive patch for me to work over.
Fingers tingling, I dived in, squeezed, and squozed in and out of dancing couples looking for fresh prey.
Suddenly I was bumped rather hard from behind.
A female voice merrily chided her husband as I turned.
“Gary, careful luv, you’re using me as a battering ram.”
“I looked over Gary’s gorgeously attired wife, caught her eye, and nodded.
Then I studied “her” Gary, a handsome bearded chap in a black tux, white silk shirt, with a midnight blue silk vest and matching bow tie. Wearing a flashy, heavy solid gold Rolex with a black face with diamonds (£18,000), with gold diamond set cuff links (£6,000) and a gold pinky ring set with a flashy diamond(£12,000).
I eagerly accepted his profound apologies, sensing new opportunities at play.
Raising my wrist he took it, kissing it as he cemented his words of regret.
“Apologies, Robin’s correct, I get a bit over-enthusiastic when dancing.”
Meanwhile, I was studying his enchanting wife.
Gary’s wife Robin, was wearing an absolutely adorable midnight blue silk dress, off-shoulder with a ruffled flare just above the calf. She had her silky hair done up upon her head, Held up by a fiery sapphire-encrusted headband(£45,000). This exposed her round 1 1/2 centimeter diamond hinged earrings(£23,000). A 2-layered diamond and sapphire necklace(£28,000)lay around her throat and a stunning 2-strand diamond and sapphire bracelet(£15,000) around her left wrist.
I looked at his wife. Taking her left hand up in my right, my left hand covertly covering her wrist(and her valuable bracelet)
I squeezed her wrist as I said to her while nodding at Gary,
“I think he should be punished by having a dance with me.”
His wife smiled winningly and stepped off to the side as I released her hand, palming her bracelet as I did so.
Gary took me into his arms and led me around the dance floor. I saw that his wife was not left alone as two lads pounced on her solitary figure and asked her to dance. She soon disappeared into the crowded dance floor with one of them.
Gary and I swished and swayed in and out of the crowded floor. His right arm was around my waist, mine was around his. Our other hands were held up. I allowed myself to be twirled about several times during the music's course.
The music then ended and Gary again nobly kissed my hand, before taking off to pry his wife away from the second male dancer(a gigolo if I ever saw one)!
But as he did, my left hand rubbed against his other wrist, relieving it of his fancy, thicke gold Rolex.
Smiling to myself as I pocketed the Rolex, turned to leave the dance floor.
Then did a double take…
For an advantageously spied a young teenaged couple stumbling off from the dance floor.
Apparently, the girl had twisted an ankle on the high heel she was wearing.
I quickly went to their aid having her place an arm around my shoulder, her other arm on her male dance partner's shoulder.
As we stumbled to her table I was squealing over how unfortunate she was to have injured herself, especially considering how adorabley delicious they both looked this evening. As I gushed high praise, My eyes were glued onto the sheer front of her glossy, mock-necked satin blouse. For upon that pretty backdrop, shimmering just a tad over her snug gown-covered breasts, was a long diamond set gold chain with a dazzling pendant in the shape of a gold owl with ruby eyes, a yellow diamond-filled body, and folding wings, perched with ruby tipped claws on a white diamond embedded solid gold branch. (£42,000), just hanging so very temptingly down, delicious.
We got her seated at the table, where the couple had their belongings, allowing her to take the burden off her swelling ankle. I had also relieved her neck from being burdened by her drippy diamond pendant necklace.
As I did I told her…
“Here you go, hope this helps ease the pain.”
I scurried off, Figuring that was my jackpot for the night. I took a quick Look around as I walked off from the table, my eyes going along the wall that lined the sitting area.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That was when I spotted “Me old mucker”, a nimble-fingered gent by the name of Sean, whom I knew from the village green pub, near where I was living for a spell.
I don’t look at him as competition, for he believes picking pockets and purses of wallets to be the addicting thrill, unlike myself who is more into the lifting of jewellery to achieve that type of euphoria.
He was working a corner table, chatting up the happily liquored occupants.
He had picked a winner. For at that table were seated men and ladies that were of the class I would call “servant rich” by the manner they carried themselves, the way they were dressed, and certainly by the jewels they were flaunting.
Keeping an Eye out on Sean I moved to a side alcove and took a quick inventory of the occupants of the table where he was hovering.
I quickly realized there were two tables occupied by that class.
They say a Picture is worth a thousand words), at those two tables seated was a picture that was worth more like a million!
Now some may ask why I hadn’t noticed these guests myself beforehand. Truth is I may have. But these ladies were not the only fish of their class in the pond. There were so many that fit this mold, and from experience, though very lucrative, usually are too hard a nut to crack, that I usually only give the guests like these a cursory look over.
But seeing that Sean was targeting them, told me that there was something he saw about this group that made them game for a bit of trimming.
So consider myself now interested in finding out what that “something “ was.
I positioned myself for a better look, finding a spot where I would not be noticed.
Three ladies and two gents were seated at what I considered the “adults” table.
The three late thirty females were dressed up royally, which for all I knew they may have been wives of nobles.
The lady I liked most had her long brown hair up in an elegant bun, held by a thin ruby gemmed tiara(£53,000)
She was wearing a solid emerald green taffeta dress that shone with a tight sleekness along her still beautifully svelte figure.
The gown’s skirt I could see was higher in front(below knees) than in the back where it was just above her ankles. The neckline of the dress was an open low scoop with the straight sleeves coming down to her elbows.
Three-quarter-length velvet gloves of deep green elegantly completed her attire.
Her jewels ( including the tiara) were of the type that makes some people ask: “They cannot be real, right?”
But my practiced eyes saw they indeed, were…
The silver diamond set consisted of pierced earrings, set with a string of five 4-carat round stones with a full 8-carat pear-shaped larger stone dangling at the end((£28,00)The necklace was three silver chains with at least 13 round 5-carat diamonds in v pattern per chain. Hanging from the bottom chain, from each of the 13 diamonds were 8-carat pear-shaped diamonds, the same size as the ones swinging from her earrings(£60,000). Around her right wrist dangled a wide emerald and diamond bracelet(£40,000)There was also large, very large, pear shaped diamond ring on her right pinky(£50,000)She also was wearing an extraordinary set of diamond engagement and wedding bands(£75,000)
The Second Lady was wearing a slick silver silk gown with a cowl lick top, tantalizing rolling just above her still full plump breasts. The sleek gown fell to her feet In a sheet of material that shone vividly.
Her diamonds were breathtaking.
Her soft long blonde hair was up, holding in a real diamond tiara(£90,000). Extra long diamond earrings with 3 strands of diamonds each.- the outer two shorter than the longer middle strand(£65,000), a wide old style “princess” shaped necklace set with a brilliant collection of large diamonds(105,000).
On her right white satin glove, her wrist was encased in a diamond bracelet with 10 sparkling rows(£58,000). A large cocktail ring was on that hand's index finger(£38,000). Her left wrist was bare, but two fingers had rings with quite large diamond stones(£45,000, £25,000).
The 3rd lady is wearing a thin blood-red satin A-line gown. Her brown hair was short. From her ears dangled long wide ruby and diamond encrusted earrings (£38,000). Her ruby and diamond necklace that matched her earrings sparkled with so many stones that one really needed sunglasses to watch as they hit the light(77,500). A diamond broach was set on the right side of her gown’s ribbed waistline(£85,000). She wore elbow-length red satin gloves. A matched set of wide bracelets set with rubies and diamonds(£29,000 apiece) wrapped tightly around each wrist. She also wore matching cocktail rings on each little finger, (£15,000 each)…
The two distinguished-looking males sported neatly trimmed beards and were wearing formal tuxes with fancy vests. Old-fashioned Gold watch chains hung at their waists. They both were lacking the top hats that would have made them look like they had stepped out of parliament. But I doubt either of them would lower themselves to work at that level.
Gentlemen of the private clubs and leisure sort I suspected.
Now, next to the adult's table, to the right of the alcove, I was hovering in.
, was the table occupied by their gorgeously attired whelps.
One fortunate lone male sat with 3 young deliciously attired and jewelled-up girls of privilege. All appear to be between 18 to 20. I quickly, if not inappropriately, coined this as the “children’s “ table
The lone male was very dapper in a solid black tux, black satin vest, and crisp white silk shirt. He had the beginnings of a beard, as red as his hair. A chrome Rolex watch (£16,000) was worn on his tight wrist. A school ring from Cardiff College was proudly displayed on a finger, while on a little finger was displayed a solid gold signet ring.
All of the females surrounding him were wearing heavy eye makeup and glossy lipstick and blush that added a movie actress aire to their presence. The silk and satin gowns the three were wearing were elegantly pouring over their youthful figures, forming out their fetching bumps and curves nicely
Their jewels sparkled with the type of enticing enthusiasm only the best-cut ones can achieve.
Immediately to the lad’s right was a long red-haired girl adorably clad in a sleekly long midnight black spaghetti strap thin silk gown with a rather plunging neckline. Her dazzling jewels were all diamonds. Long dazzling earrings(£33,000) that played a fine game of peek-a-boo in and out of her recently washed hair. Her heavily jewelled necklace poured down her throat like cascading diamond icicles. (£65,000). She was wearing black satin elbow-length gloves. From her left wrist dangled a bracelet that should have been under glass In a museum(£44,000). On her left index finger sparkled a huge diamond cocktail ring that was just mesmerizing(£55,000)
On the black satin beauty’s right side was a girl in a thin emerald green satin A-line gown that perfectly matched the red gown worn by the lady at the “Adult’s” table. She was also wearing jewels set with both rubies and diamonds.
I wondered if both were born in July.
Like the one in red, this young chick’s jewellery almost matched the older one’s in abundance and brilliance.
From her ears dangled long ruby and diamond encrusted earrings(£25,000). Her ruby and diamond necklace that matched her earrings sparkled with blinding vibrance (55,000). A ruby broach was set on the right side of her gown’s ribbed waistline(£45,000). She wore elbow-length green velvet gloves. A wide bracelet set with rubies and diamonds(£20,000 ) wrapped tightly around her right wrist. She also wore matching ruby cocktail rings on each little finger, (£15,000 each)…but stealing the show was her ruby-tipped tiara(£66,000)with diamonds that were sparking from her head
Directly across from black satin beauty sat a pretty raven-haired lass encased in a sleek silk gown the colour of deep rich chocolate. Like the other two girls, the gown hugged her figure with a tight shaping hold. Hers was adorned with rhinestone trimmings around the perky breast-holding bodice and thin waistline.
She was devilishly pretty this one, wearing a sinful amount of diamonds.
Her long raven hair was up. With a small tiara of sparkling diamonds(£23,000) keeping the bun in place. A long very wide necklace of diamonds(£24,000)hung in a v down her bare neck flowing down like a sparkling mountain rivulet. Matching diamond-filled earrings(£44,000)dangled from exposed earlobes. She wore long brown satin gloves. Both wrists sport thin diamond bracelets)£12,000 and £16,000). Two rings flashed out on the fingers of her left hand, 3 more on her right (£53,000 total) but what stole the show was her diamond broach(£30,000) that glittered from its perch, off to the side of her gown's sash wrapped waistline
My fingers were tingling up a storm as I took careful inventory of all this. My mind raced with delicious ideas.
And as far as that “something “ I mentioned earlier. Well, the darling dazzling occupants of both tables were all “Three sheets to the wind”.
I watched Sean working the “adult“ table. Making merry conversation he placed his hands upon their figures with innocent-appearing accuracy. I saw him lifting a fat wallet from green taffeta’s matching purse, (good choice!) then the thin billfold from the calico vest pocket of one of the males as his head was turned talking to red satin.
Then Sean, on purpose I believe, knocked over the water glass at Red Satin's arm.
She rose as Sean gave her his handkerchief, apologizing profusely. She moved off from the tables to a nearby alcove as she was whipping herself off.
The commotion that ensued gave Sean a chance to do some more lifting. But I never saw if he did, for my fingers were tingling. She was heading to the same alcove where I had moved to watch the tables.
She walked in as I was walking out, my head bent as my fingers were straightening my bra.
We “bumped” into one another and my hands flew to hold her steady, fingers digging into a luscious feeling satin gown. As we giggled while disentangling ourselves, my left hand slipped along her scintillating gown, down to her waist, and carefully pried off the diamond broach she had been showcasing there with my fingers.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I now had her a quite valuable broach In my possession…
At that point, as I was waking away, I continued on my way, out… Feeling my run of luck just may now be finally over.
I went back along the opposite way of the mezzanine and reaching the back stairs went down and out into the outside patio.
I was too excited to just leave. I really needed a victory smoke, and to admire in private, the ample takings I had successfully lifted this evening.
I’ll admit to that being a fallacy of mine, not wanting to wait until I’m safely away to look over my ill-gotten gains.
I went just inside the garden gates and stood off in the shadows of the hedges. I had a clear view through a hole, of the exit door I had just come out of.
No one else was around, which this late in the evening no one should be, even the younger ones who liked to sneak out for a drink or a smoke should have had their fill by now.
I lit my cigarette and let out a few satisfying puffs before lifting the owl-shaped pendant I had lifted from the limping lady with the sprained ankle.
As I admired its sparkle I thought of the two tables I had just left.
Sean is a luv, but I didn’t want a run-in with him this evening. I knew that he would keep the cash from the wallets, but would leave to hand off the rest to his accomplice Emylee, who would be outside lurking in the shadows.
Em would use the info contained in the
wallets to burgle flats or houses… She also may just lay in wait to rob the unlucky victims as they left the venue if Sean told her it was worth it.
I knew those at the tables would be worth it. And I did not want to get caught up with that storm if it ever broke.
^^^^^^
I had let several more satisfying puffs out when I froze. … buggers, someone was coming out the exit door.
I put out the cig, pocketed the necklace, and moved further back into the shadows.
I did a double, no a triple, take….
For emerging out onto the patio, just oozing excessive wealth and privilege, we’re the four wealthy inhabitants of the “children’s” table.
I watched from my secret spot mesmerized, as the girls swished up along the patio, jewels glittering up like a lightning storm creeping up from the darkness.
I see that the male is drinking from a flask, holding a bottle that must have been somehow pilfered from the bar.
Had Sean had his quick fingers in this pie?
He passed the flask off to the girls, his fancy Rolex flashing.
The now giggling young ladies followed as he led them through the garden gates, like some pie-eyed piper.
I was not far behind.
^^^^^^^^
I kept my distance while tailing them. It wasn’t hard, just followed the flashing jewellery.
Also trio of girls and their sole male escort were anything but on their guard.
Even the lad, who should have been watchful escorting outside these heavily jewel-laden ladies, was as oblivious as he was tipsy.
With every step the group took into the secluded reaches of the otherwise deserted gardens, my heart beat a wee bit faster, my fingers tingling grew more intense, my interest that much more wicked.
For I had decided that it was quite possible that once they stopped and took roost, I could “bump” into them with enough finesse that I could relieve the girls of one of their expensively flashy baubles.
^^^^^^^^
They finally stopped at a bench with a high hedge at its back. A tall water fountain gurgles off to one side.
I circled around and from the shadows given off by a patch of crooked-limbed fruit trees, watched the rich young whelps at play.
The 3 girls lit cigarettes, and the lad lit a fat cigar. They all puffed away and drank from the flask and the bottle. They laughed and made merry.
Still unaware that any type of jeopardy would be present, let alone lurking mere meters away.
They appeared to be settling in for a long haul.
I was rather miffed that the girls had brought the boy along. No matter how drunk he was, I felt he would naturally become guarded if a stranger entered the picture.
End Acte One
Brand: Audi
Model: A6 40 TDI quattro Avant
Unit: Dutch police, Landelijke Expertise en Operaties (LX) noord-west.
Call sign: Unknown
Lisence plate: R-989-FL
In service: 24-9-2022
Out of service:
Side notes: VSV (Verkeers Surveillance Voertuig / traffic surveillance vehicle) otherwise known as ''SIV light'' The vehicle is meant for traffic surveillance and has less power than the already know SIV ( Snel Interventie Voertuig)
© Copyright Dutch Emergency Photos - No Unauthorized Use.
The Centre's incubation facilities for innovation and knowledge-based enterprises supports client companies and gives them access to relevant resources and expertise.
work in progress....
Aptitude
Expertise
Presentations, Workshops and Talks
Social Media
Software Skills
Learning Experience
Kind of working on creating a personal infographic as part of my visual cv.
Any ideas or feedback would be very welcome... Still working on adding/tweaking content, I like the overall design but I'm not sure whether I'm going to continue to develop it or head in a different direction...
*update on social media stats: www.flickr.com/photos/krillion/17040913538/
Credits:
Magician Hats via Vecteezy
www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/71171-magician-accessories
Lolipop shapes for social media via Freepik
www.freepik.com/free-vector/internet-marketing-vector-tem...
Education Icons
www.freepik.com/free-vector/education-icons-pack-free-dow...
Globe and rectangular shapes
www.freepik.com/free-vector/global-network-science-infogr...
Internet
www.freepik.com/free-vector/earth-woldwide-network-vector...
Head
www.freepik.com/free-vector/education-infographic-icons_7...
Thought Bubble
www.freepik.com/free-vector/speech-bubbles-collection_762...
1959 Porsche 718 RSK Werks Spyder
$4,300,000 USD | Sold
From Sotheby's:
Once dubbed “The Shining Spyder,” 718-006 represents Porsche’s engineering expertise at the close of the 1950s. A direct evolution of the famed “giant-killer” 550 Spyder series, the 718 RSK, and later the RS 60 and 61, marked the steady improvement of Porsche racing chassis and body design.
Between 1957 and 1959, just 34 examples of the 718 would be constructed, the first 10 of which were prototypes used for development and racing with factory drivers. All 718s used a tubular space frame chassis similar to the one employed in the model’s predecessor, the pinnacle-development 550A, which afforded the 718 incredible rigidity while keeping weight to a minimum. Always intent on creating faster, more stable racing cars capable of winning overall at top-level events like Le Mans, Porsche evolved the 718 throughout its production run and constantly improved individual chassis. Importantly, after experimenting with control arms resembling the letter “K,” 718-006 was the first Porsche chassis to be fitted with double A-arms and coil-overs at the rear, which proved to be tremendously effective and forever changed the development of racing cars.
All 718s were powered by the potent Type 547 “Fuhrmann” four-cam engine, with displacements of both 1.5 and 1.6 liters, allowing Porsche to choose the racing category it wished to enter. With large Weber twin-choke carburetors, these engines produced between 150 and 170 horsepower, and proved extremely reliable. Power was fed through a five-speed ZF gearbox with limited slip, and gave top speeds approaching 160 mph. Brakes were large finned drums, and the 16 x 3.5-inch bolt-on wheels comprised steel centers riveted to aluminum outer rims. The alloy bodywork was a bit longer and much more streamlined than the 550’s, with a taller windscreen to meet the FIA’s Appendix C rules.
Among the items tested on some 718 Werks prototypes was an auxiliary tubular oil radiator attached to the underside of the front hood. This was another development that was used in chassis 718-006, and it has been authentically represented on this chassis’ restoration, complete with the cadmium-style finish both on the top of the hood and the grooves and fittings beneath.
718-006 LIGHTS UP THE COMPETITION
The Porsche 718 RSK broke onto the racing scene victoriously, proving itself at the 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans and earning a huge 1st in class win (and 3rd overall) at the hands of Jean Behra and Hans Herrmann. The model was instantly recognized as a force to be reckoned with on the big stage, but clearly needed improvement to take on the motorsport world’s toughest challenges. In particular, Sebring and the Nürburgring—two of the most notoriously brutal tracks that FIA had to offer, each punishing in its own distinctive way—would prove the ultimate test for the 718.
Sebring, a converted WWII airfield and bomber training base, was known to be especially harsh. Rough and unpredictable, it offered sketchy terrain and constant weather changes, with veteran racers noting that you might well “start in the dry” and “finish in the wet;” attrition rates for Sebring race entrants often exceeded 50%. Formula One champion Phil Hill, commenting to Sports Illustrated on Sebring several years prior, said that “It’s monstrous. I’ve never seen anything like it before, at Le Mans or anywhere else.” The Nürburgring offered an equal challenge; one of the world’s deadliest courses, the lives of many sportsmen were tragically taken by the “Ring’s” fast declines and deceiving corners with quick elevation changes.
Porsche’s answer to these challenges was this car, Werks prototype chassis 718-006. Its double-wishbone suspension and rear coil-overs were the perfect complement to the Spyder’s sprightly 82-inch wheelbase chassis and light weight (just 1,240 pounds). These developmental upgrades improved high-speed handling and stability, allowing the car to tackle both rough terrain and dynamic road courses with confidence and composure—turning a promising racer into and all-around weapon that became nothing short of unstoppable.
Chassis 718-006 first raced for the Porsche factory team at the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring. The weather was, true to Sebring form, unpredictable, with the race starting under an overcast fog, turning into heavy rain at the halfway point and flooding portions of the track. Despite these difficult conditions, chassis 718-006 managed to finish 1st in class and 3rd overall, with drivers Wolfgang von Trips and Jo Bonnier at the wheel. This was an incredible achievement for Porsche, and the new 718 RSK proved its might against much larger-displacement competitors. While Ferraris of nearly twice the displacement took the top two places, Porsche 718s achieved a remarkable 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 10th overall. Porsche would celebrate the event by issuing a famous poster for display at its dealerships around the world.
After its 1st in class finish at Sebring, chassis 718-006 was sent back to Zuffenhausen, where it was refurbished and prepared for the Targa Florio. Legendary drivers Umberto Maglioli and Hans Herrmann raced 718-006 at the Sicilian event, but unfortunately, the car was forced to retire due to gearbox failure. Porsche’s Targa Florio endeavor was not in vain, however, as another Werks 718 would go on to not only win its class but the overall honors as well.
Chassis 718-006 once again found its groove at the ADAC Nürburgring 1000 KM. Co-driven again by Herrmann and Maglioli, the Werks car battled the Green Hell, and a stiff field of competitors, to win a triumphant 1st in class and 4th overall—a victory that, along with Sebring, proved the wisdom and capability of this chassis’ special double-wishbone suspension setup, leading to the basic design’s use in competition cars by both Porsche and its rivals up to the present day.
Just two weeks after its class win at the Nürburgring 1000 KM, 718-006 was raced at the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans with Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel at the wheel. One-hundred and sixty-eight laps into the grueling race, 718-006 was sidelined due to a failed clutch. Just 13 of the 53 entries in Le Mans that year finished the race, and none of the Porsches Werks entries were successful. Barth raced the car after quick repairs a week later at the Mont-Ventoux Hillclimb where he took the best time; that year, he also won the season’s European Hillclimb Championship for Porsche.
A month later, Jo Bonnier would take 718-006 to a 2nd-place finish in the 1500 cc supporting race at the Berlin Grand Prix. A week later, he raced 718-006 again, placing 4th at Sweden's Karlskoga Motorstadion. The season concluded with Porsche achieving a perfect 1–5 finish at Switzerland's Klosters-Davos Hillclimb, with all five spots being made up of 718s.
1960 brought both new FIA rules and a new, improved sports racer from Porsche, the RS60. No longer competitive in Europe, Porsche sent 718-006 to the Nassau Speed Weeks in December 1959 hoping to find an American buyer via a broker, Lloyd Casner. Casner put Jack McAfee into 718-006, and the car finished 4th in a five-lap all-Porsche race and 3rd in the Nassau Trophy race.
Ultimately, chassis 718-006 had podium finishes in more than half of all events entered throughout its Werks career, including two 1st in class finishes at prestigious international endurance races.
THE PRIVATEER YEARS AND BEYOND
The Spyder was then purchased by Chuck Cassel, a Florida Porsche dealer and racer. During 1960, Cassel raced the car extensively in Florida and Georgia, and once in El Salvador before selling it to Felipe Gutierrez, a wealthy Cuban who raced it twice in 1961. Then the Spyder retired from racing competitively for the next 15 years.
It re-surfaced in 1975 at Ben Pon Racing in Holland, from which it was acquired by German orthodontist Dr. Klaus-Otto Räker. Unfortunately, its original engine was reportedly damaged beyond repair in a competition outing; Dr. Räker turned to well-known four-cam supplier Jim Wellington for a new 547/2 case, which was built up by renowned expert Karl Hloch, Sr. using an 80-millimeter crankshaft and 1.6-liter pistons. Dr. Räker commissioned a five-year restoration by Edmund Klinke at Oldtimerrestauration in Verl, Germany; using the original panels and factory blueprints, Klinke fabricated new outer body panels to replace the undamaged, but fatigued, original skin which at the time was determined to be beyond saving.
Rather than having the new body painted, Dr. Räker instructed that the skin be meticulously polished to a mirror finish. A centerpiece of his museum, when the gleaming 718 appeared at the 1985 Old-Timers Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, it was instantly dubbed “The Shining Spyder.” Among the spectators was a young American designer named Grant Larson, who was beginning a brilliant career at Porsche. When Larson was tasked to design the exterior of the new Boxster, the highly polished RSK epitomized what he viewed as the “total it car”, the most “influential and inspirational” Porsche design.
Elements of the 718 would appear on the Boxster show car, and in 1992, Larson created a painting of “The Shining Spyder” as part of a series of factory art posters. Over the years, Dr. Räker continued to drive his RSK in European vintage events, and in 1998 it appeared at the Monterey Historics.
A WELL-DESERVED, WORLD-CLASS RESTORATION
In 2012, an American four-cam collector requested Colorado restoration shop owner Dick Koenig to find a good 718 RSK. That year, Koenig met Dr. Räker at Gaisberg; two years later a sale was consummated. The RSK was shipped to Koenig’s shop near Denver where another full restoration began, consuming four years. The goal was to bring 718-006 back to its original condition to the greatest possible extent. In pursuit of this, Koenig travelled to California, Florida, and the Netherlands to study details of other prototype 718s.
It was ultimately determined that much of the car’s inner body panels needed replacement. The work was carried out by The Metal Surgeon’s Jon Bingham, after which the body shell was refinished and painted by Dave DeMaria at Vintage Car Works, both located in Englewood, Colorado. DeMaria took great pains to authentically replicate the finishes as they looked in period, from the dull silver bodywork to the unique appearance of the hood—which was originally cadmium-plated in an attempt at dispersing the heat from the aforementioned experimental oil radiator system.
The drivetrain had already been serviced by German four-cam expert Karl Hloch, Jr., but Koenig and Pat Moyle overhauled the brakes, suspension, and steering and installed a new wiring harness. New fuel and oil tanks were fabricated using a hard-to-find original material called “Terneplate.” These tanks are secured with metal straps and factory-correct jute insulating material. Though this material is said to be nearly impossible to find, Koenig located a small supply in Europe, just enough to give 718-006 its proper factory-correct appearance.
The original upholstery consisted of a textured material called Acela Bast; Koenig found an un-faded scrap beneath the auxiliary gas tank in the cockpit of a highly original Porsche 550A used as a reference car, managing to locate enough to cover the seats and headrest. The experimental front lid with its integral oil radiator has been perfectly restored, but the tubes have been disconnected; the normal radiators in the rocker panels suffice to keep the little four-cam within an acceptable temperature range. Further, a set of correctly dated 16-inch wheels were sourced.
Since its restoration, this 718 RSK has appeared at Amelia Island and Rennsport VI, and in November 2020 was featured in Excellence magazine. It has been displayed in the current owner’s collection since restoration, where he maintains his extensive collection of high-performance sports and racing cars. In preparation for the sale, RM Sotheby’s enlisted aluminum Porsche expert Urs Gretener of Paso Robles, California to fully inspect 718-006. Gretener closely inspected the tube chassis and found that other than a few repairs (documented in the restoration book on file) the chassis appeared to be original, with all tubes being the proper diameter for this chassis and period gas welding throughout.
Among the most successful examples of its kind, chassis 718-006 is now presented having benefitted from its recent multi-year restoration. It is accompanied by a mirror-polished alloy hood panel autographed by Hans Herrmann, the car’s original dashboard, and other inner body panels replaced by Dick Koenig during its restoration.
A benchmark in Porsche racing history, 718 RSK Werks Spyders are very rarely offered for sale. This Werks car, 718-006, boasts an incredible racing record in the hands of some of the era’s great drivers. It is unquestionably ready to become the crown jewel of any prestigious collection of historic racing cars.
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Kristina and I headed over to RM Sotheby's at the Monterey Conference Center to view some glorious cars at their auction preview.
- - -
Had a blast with our auto-enthusiast friend and neighbor, Fred, at Monterey Car Week 2022.
All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
All of the expertise behind Beleza Revelada did not develop overnight. Professional photographer Gina Stocco was raised in Canada and spent part of her childhood in the U.S.A. She pursued her creative passion by studying Art at Connestoga University where she developed her photography talent and graduated ready for a career with her camera. In 2001, Ms. Stocco was invited to work as a chief photographer for a leading lingerie company, Fruit de la Passion. Ms. Stocco has also worked as a photojournalist associated with Fenaj, Arfoc, International Press, and I.F.J. She has worked at Futura Press, Folha de Sao Paulo, Comercio Jornal and lately works for …….
Brand: Mercedes-Benz
Model: Sprinter 316 CDI
Unit: Dutch national police, Landelijke expertise en operaties
Fleetnumber: Unknown
Lisence plate: 4-VFR-51
In service: 12-11-2009
Out of service:
Side notes: Photographed in Utrecht in front of the central station.
© Copyright Dutch Emergency Photos - No Unauthorized Use.
Controlled Demolition Inc. taps their expertise in building implosions to take down four cooling towers at the Sellafield nuclear facility in England without disturbing the active nuclear plant. Parallax Film Productions follows this daring explosive demolition feat.
Trailer: www.parallaxfilm.com/projects/blowdown
Blog: www.parallaxfilm.com/blog
Twitter: twitter.com/#!/parallaxfilm
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Parallax-Film/122342787784292?ref=ts
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ParallaxFilm
The four Calder Hall cooling towers, located at the world’s first industrial-scale nuclear power plant, are 88 metres tall and will generate more than 20,000 tonnes of debris. It will take 192 kilograms of explosives and shrewd demolition engineering to make this Blowdown a success. Mark Loizeaux and his team hustle to load the towers, major symbols of the United Kingdom’s industrial heritage.
The first reactor at the Calder Hall plant was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956. The plant's four 50 MWe Magnox reactors not only generated electricity, they also produced weapons-grade plutonium. The generators produced for 47 years before ceasing operations in March 2003.