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The company moved its headquarters to Thomasville in 2000. The building was constructed in 2013 and directed by company co-founder Dale R. Powell, Sr.
THOMASVILLE- Senior Life Insurance Company, a leading provider of final expense life insurance, has been recognized as the 7th fastest-growing life insurance company in America for Q3, 2024. This ranking places Senior Life ahead of major industry players such as Chubb and Nationwide, among more than 700 life insurance companies operating in the United States. The company’s remarkable growth trajectory has continued into 2025, with a 20% increase in business volume compared to the previous year. This milestone reinforces Senior Life’s position as the fastest-growing final expense insurance provider in the country, reflecting a rising demand for financial planning solutions tailored for end-of-life expenses. “Our commitment to helping families plan for final expenses has driven our success,” said Ron Powell, CEO and President at Senior Life Insurance Company. “As the demand for final expense insurance continues to grow, we remain dedicated to expanding our reach and offering policies that provide financial security for individuals and their loved ones.”
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
seniorlifeinsurancecompany.com/
www.google.com/search?q=how+many+floors+does+1+senior+lif...
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Another walk along the shore tonight as the weather was just glorious. None of the birds would come near us because, so I just took some photos of my husband throwing stones into the water!
Description Springtime brings increased sunlight, bursts of nutrients, and changing water conditions to the Gulf of Alaska. The combination promotes massive blooms of phytoplankton—microscopic, plant-like organisms that turn sunlight into food and then become fodder for some of the richest fisheries on the planet.
The image shows the southern Alaska coast and the Gulf of Alaska on May 2, 2014. It is a composite knitted together from several orbits of the Aqua satellite and its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Two comma-shaped cloud formations (image center and far left) dominate the skies over the North Pacific Ocean. These clouds were likely moving around and ahead of a low-pressure system, showing some cyclonic circulation. Dark green traces of a phytoplankton bloom are just visible off of the Alaska coast at top center.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=83754
Credit: NASA
Image Number: GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001088
Date: May 2, 2014
www.trinityhouse.co.uk/lighthouses/lighthouse_list/portla...
Portland Bill
50° 30'.82 N 02° 27'.30 W
History
Portland Bill and Chesil Beach are the graveyards of many vessels that failed to reach Weymouth or Portland Roads. The Portland Race is caused by the meeting of the tides between the Bill and the Shambles sandbank about 3 miles SE. Strong currents break the sea so fiercely that from the shore a continuous disturbance can be seen. Portland Bill Lighthouse guides vessels heading for Portland and Weymouth through these hazardous waters as well as acting as a waymark for ships navigating the English Channel. The Shambles sandbank is marked by a red sector light.
As early as 1669 Sir John Clayton was granted a patent to erect a lighthouse, but his scheme fell through and it was not until early in the eighteenth century that Captain William Holman, supported by the shipowners and Corporation of Weymouth, put a petition to Trinity House for the building of a lighthouse at Portland Bill. Trinity House opposed it suggesting that lights at this point were needless and shipowners could not bear the burden of their upkeep. The people of Weymouth continued their petition and on 26th May, 1716 Trinity House obtained a patent from George I. They in turn issued a lease for 61 years to a private consortium who built two lighthouses with enclosed lanterns and coal fires. The lights were badly kept, sometimes not lit at all, and in 1752 an inspection was made by two members of the Board of Trinity House who approached by sea to find "it was nigh two hours after sunset before any light appeared in either of the lighthouses". With the termination of the lease the lights reverted to Trinity House. In 1789 William Johns, a builder of Weymouth under contract to Trinity House, took down one of the towers and erected a new one at a cost of £2,000. It was sited so that it served as a mark by day or night to direct ships moving up and down Channel or into Portland Roads clear of the Race and Shambles. Over the doorway on a marble tablet was the following inscription:-
Anno 1789.
In August 1788 Argand lamps were installed, Portland being the first lighthouse in England to be fitted with them. In the upper or old house there were two rows, seven in each row, lighted with oil and furnished with highly-polished reflectors. Low light tests were made by Thomas Rogers with his new lens light, and six Argand lamps were installed, their lights increased by lenses.
In 1798, when Napoleon threatened invasion, two 18lb cannons were installed at the lighthouse.
A 7 metre tall white stone obelisk was built in 1844 at the Southern tip of Portland Bill as a warning of a low shelf of rock extending 30 metres South into the sea, which still stands near the current lighthouse.
New high and low lighthouses were built in 1869, but early last century Trinity House announced its intention of replacing them with a single tower - the present lighthouse. The old towers can still be seen from the outside - the low light, which is now a bird observatory and field centre, has retained its original appearance but the high light lantern has been removed.
The present optic at Portland Bill is very unusual as due to the arrangement of the panels the character gradually changes from one flash to four flashes between the bearings 221°and 224° and from four flashes to one flash between bearings 117° and 141°.
Portland Bill Lighthouse was demanned on 18th March 1996 when monitoring and control of the station was transferred to the Trinity House Operations & Planning Centre at Harwich.
Specifications
Established1716
Height Of Tower41 Metres
Height Of Light Above Mean High Water43 Metres
Automated1996
Lamp1 Kw Mbi
Optic4 Panel 1St Order Catadioptric Fixed Lens
CharacterWhite Group Flashing 4 Times Every 20 Seconds
Intensity635,000 Candela
Range Of Light25 nautical miles
Fog Signal Character3.5 Second Blast Every 30 Seconds
Fog Signal Range2 nautical miles
Location
Portland Bill Lighthouse is located on the Southerly tip of the Isle of Portland, 1.2 miles south of the village of Easton.
Parking
There are a number of car parks very close to the lighthouse.
Public Transport
Frequent bus service from Weymouth - Route 1A
Visitor Centre
For nearly 300 years a lighthouse has stood on Portland Bill to guide vessels heading for Portland and Weymouth and acting as a waymark for vessels navigating in the English Channel. A red sector light warns mariners of the hazardous Shambles Bank lying three miles offshore.
The ‘Lighthouse Visitor centre’ at Portland Bill is owned and operated independently from the actual tower lighthouse therefore there are occasions that the tower lighthouse would be closed to the public, whereas the ‘Lighthouse Visitor Centre’ would remain open. Further details on the 'Lighthouse Visitor Centre' opening times can be found here.
Tours of Portland Bill Lighthouse are organised by The Crown Estate under licence from the Corporation of Trinity House.
Last Tour at 16.30. Tour lasts approximately 45 minutes.
Opening subject to weather conditions and Trinity House's operational requirements.
"Lord Jesus, increase my hunger for you and show me the way that leads to everlasting peace and happiness. May I desire you above all else and find perfect joy in doing your will."
Copyright© 2010 Kamoteus/RonMiguel RN
This image is protected under the United States and International Copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without written permission.
To Increase the speed of the Overnight Newspaper Trains a Number of BGs were modified for use on these Trains . They were Dual-Braked and Re-Bogied to allow for 75 mph running ,also they were fitted with ''electric heating '' as more and more locomotives had their boilers removed etc.
E95203 , a modified example sits in the sidings at Ipswich station during the day 15th April-1988 . Later that afternoon it will be attached into the Norwich to Thornton's Field up News empties prior to its visit to East Anglia again the next day !
The Commonwealth Bogies show up well in this shot of E95206 . Which before its modifications was E80561
An rare sight: a man on a bicycle. Today, Saigon is a motorbike city with an increasing number of cars added to the mix.
Common Blackbird, male
When I got my first binoculars in the late fifties we had a population under 20 000 pairs of Blackbirds in Finland. In those days more or less whole population migrated. Today their number is over 600 000 pairs and we have thousands of them in winter too. Quite a change due to climate change and increasing feeding of winterbirds.
Mustarastas
Helsinki
USCGC Kimball is the 7th multi-mission National Security Cutter with a unique advantage for worldwide deployment due to our homeport in Honolulu, Hawaii. With a range of 13,000 nautical miles, the advanced technologies of our cutter are designed to support the national objectives to maintain the security of America’s maritime boundaries, engage in critical Law Enforcement operations, and provide long range search and rescue capabilities.
“Lead, Train, Save”
This cutter's namesake, Sumner Increase Kimball, was born September 2, 1834 in Lebanon, Maine. After his graduation from Bowdoin College in 1855, Kimball was admitted to the bar in 1858 and elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1859. Kimball was appointed as the chief of the U.S. Treasury Department's Revenue Marine in 1871. He proceeded to completely overhaul the service and the assortment of lifesaving stations along the nation's coast. After the Civil War, the Revenue Marine came under intense congressional scrutiny and funding constraints. In order to address the ongoing scrutiny, Kimball championed efforts to reduce expenses and sought efficiencies by modernizing acquisitions and personnel practices that formed the backbone of the modern day Coast Guard. Kimball also put into effect a merit system to determine promotions. Kimball improved the quality of the Revenue Marine by establishing, in 1877, a school of instruction, to train new officers. It developed into today's Coast Guard Academy, which still trains the majority of the Coast Guard's officers. Since 1848, Congress only funded strictly volunteer lifesaving stations, paying for the station and its equipment but relying on the local community to provide unpaid crews when needed. Kimball convinced Congress to increase the funding of the service to provide for full-time, paid crews. New stations constructed around the coast were equipped with the finest lifesaving equipment available. In 1878, this growing network of stations was organized as a separate agency of the Treasury Department and named the U.S. Life-Saving Service. Kimball was chosen as the general superintendent of the new service. He served in that capacity until it was merged with the former Revenue Marine, now named Revenue Cutter Service, in 1915 to form the new U.S. Coast Guard. After a life of public service, Kimball passed away in Washington, D.C., on June 20, 1923.
www.pacificarea.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Pacific-Area-Cu...
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/
The giant panda is a so-called conservation reliant vulnerable species. For many years the panda was considered endangered, but in March 2015, the wild giant panda population increased by 268, or 16.8%, totalling to 1,864 individuals. In 2016, the IUCN reclassified the species from "endangered" to "vulnerable”. That’s good news, but the giant panda population is still far from healthy.
Habitat loss and extremely poor reproductive skills are the main reasons the panda is struggling. A fortune is being spent every year to save the panda, and it’s only because of the incredible cuteness factor of this charismatic animal that the conservation efforts have been succesful.
It was a real joy to watch these funny creatures in real life, and it reminded me of this important piece of oriental wisdom:
Always be yourself.
Unless you can be a panda,
then be a panda.
- - -
If you would like to photograph giant pandas yourself, then check out our China’s Endangered Wildlife photo tour: www.squiver.com/tours-workshops/china-wildlife-2017/
Not only will we photograph these über cute animals, we will also photograph the endangered Golden snub-nosed monkeys and Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in their beautiful forest habitat. These monkeys are incredibly photogenic and funny looking, and this is the first and only tour in the world that offers you this opportunity.
So if you’re done photographing elephants, lions, bears, foxes and eagles, and you’re in for something truly unique, then this will get you the shots very few other people have.
Marsel
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
©2016 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.
The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy increases. In layman's terms, things fall apart. Friction acts on the world. Things stop. From the moment we're born, we start to die, getting closer to our end with every passing second, and noone escapes. We all die. The energy required to prevent things from falling apart is greater than the energy lost when things disintegrate. And so with this we come full circle, so to speak, from the beginning with patterns, into shapes, then how shapes form scenes, and now finally we revert to shapes and patterns and fall apart.
The end.
Doi Suthep-Pui NP, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Family : Lycaenidae
Sub-Family : Theclinae
Species : Hypolycaena amasa amasa
Found in much of southeast Asia, India, and southern China. This species occurs on the edge of rainforest habitats up to about 800m above sea level. They are usually seen singly and in dappled sunlight will bask with wings open. From above the sexes are very different. Whilst the female has brown forewings the male is a very dark blue, almost black. The colour extends to the hindwing in both sexes before turning white towards the abdomen and the tail area. The underside is very different but similar in both sexes.
This is only a small butterfly (wingspan of 21-28mm) and its most remarkable feature is its beautiful tails. It has two pairs of tails, the bottom pair being very long and the upper pair a little shorter. It is a busy butterfly with a fast and elegant flight and is a delight to see with its tails streaming out behind it. The individual above was not easy to capture with his wings open. It kept returning to the same place but that was on the edge of a drop into the stream below. Luckily I didn't fall into the water although I had a few near misses. Ideally I would have liked to get closer but that just wasn't possible without increasing the risk of getting wet or maybe even causing damage to some of my old bones.
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Increasing shade from our hardwood trees has caused the Bermuda grass to resign. Lots of bare spots.
If you look carefully there is a little clover mixed in. That's really what I'm encouraging to grow.
This is referred to as Bacon. The Ranger was shining his flashlight through the speleothem which distorted the lighting but highlighted the color of the bacon.
This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024. This is stage 8 of 9.
I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. Except for one trip per month for 12 to 15 photographers currently $125. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.
I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month.
I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I almost wish I had brought a ND filter or tried a handheld GND filter.
I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it.
www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/speleothems.htm#:~:text=The%20...)%20when%20needed.
The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks. In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration. As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin.
The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineral—i.e., its morphology or how it looks—in a cave, not its composition (Hill, 1997). For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.
Classifying speleothems is tricky because no two speleothems are exactly alike. Nevertheless, speleologists have taken three basic approaches: classification by morphology, classification by origin, and classification by crystallography. All three of these approaches have their problems (Hill, 1997), so cavers often take a more practical approach that primarily uses morphology (e.g., cave pearls) but includes whatever is known about origin (e.g., geysermites) and crystallography (e.g., spar) when needed.
nocache.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/southern/articles/20...
The Kartchner Caverns, rated one of the world's 10 most beautiful caves, is an eerie wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites still growing beneath the Whetstone Mountains 40 miles southeast of Tucson.
The limestone cave has 13,000 feet of passages and hundreds of formations built over the past 200,000 years, including some that are unique and world-renowned. It's a "living cave," with intricate formations that continue to grow as water seeps, drips and flows from the walls and slowly deposits the mineral calcium carbonate.
The caverns were discovered by amateur spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974 on land owned by the Kartchner family. They kept the cave a secret until 1988, when the Kartchners sold it to the state to become a state park.
The highlights of the Big Room tour are a stretch of strawberry flowstone, which has been colored red by iron oxide (rust) in the water, and a maternity ward for 1,800 female cave myotis bats, with black grime on the ceiling where the bats hang and piles of guano on the floor. Visitors who look closely will see a bat's body embedded in one of the cave's formations.
Though not all are available on the tours, the caverns' unique features include a 21-foot, 2-inch soda straw that's one the world's largest (Throne Room), the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room), the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room), the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations (Big Room) and the remains of a Shasta ground sloth from the Pleistocene Age (Big Room).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages.[1] The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains.
The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance, initially established by founder Dr. Bruce Randall "Randy" Tufts, geologist, were designed to protect and preserve the cave system throughout the park's development, and for perpetuity.[3]
The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m))[5] soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.[8]
Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.[9]
Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others.[12] Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.[13]
Haiku thoughts:
Beneath earth's cool veil,
Stalactites in silence grow,
Whispers of stone deep.
Kartchner
Southern Arizona Adventures 2024
MG MGT Mk.II (chrome bumpers) (1967-74) Engine 1798cc S4 OHV Production (GT's approx) 112500
Registration Number BPX 895 L (West Sussex)
MG ALBUM
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623797586658...
Launched in 1962, originally only as a Roadster, with the GT arriving in 1965, the B was constructed as a modern monocoque, as opposed to the body on frame construction of its predecessor the MG A., though components such as brakes and suspension were developments of the earlier 1955 MGA with its BMC B Series engine increased in capacity from the 1622cc of the final MGAs to 1798cc. The lightweight design reduced manufacturing costs while adding to overall vehicle strength. and the MGB was one of the first cars to feature controlled crumple zones designed to protect the driver and passenger in a 30 mph (48 km/h) impact with an immovable barrier.
The Mk.II was introduced in 1967 with the Roadster now having the GT type rear axle, sycromesh was included as standard on all ratios and an Automatic Borg-Warner option was available, in addition to overdrive and Rostyle wheels
All Mark II cars have syncromesh on all gears and there was an Borg Warner Automatic transmission option. Rostyle wheels though the popular option was for wire wheel
From mid-1974 the chrome bumper was phased out, replaced to meet US impact regulations, instead of redesigning the cars nose, the bumpers were replaced by new, steel-reinforced black rubber front bumpers incorporating the grille area as well, giving a major restyling to the B's nose, and a matching rear bumper completed the change. The US regulations also meant that headlamps were now to low, so BMC took the cheap option of raising the cars suspension, this along with the heavier bumper, adversely affected handling. For the 1975 model year only, the front anti-roll bar was deleted as a cost-saving measure (though still available as an option). The damage done by the British Leyland response to US legislation was partially alleviated by revisions to the suspension geometry in 1977, when a rear anti-roll bar was made standard equipment on all models. US emissions regulations also reduced horsepower. .
In March 1979 British Leyland started the production of black painted limited edition MGB roadsters for the US market, meant for a total of 500 examples. Due to a high demand for the limited edition model, production ended with 6,682 examples. The UK received bronze-painted roadsters and a silver GT model limited edition. The production run of home market limited edition MGBs was split between 421 roadsters and 579 GTs.
Diolch am 92,812,045 o olygfeydd anhygoel, mae pob un yn cael ei werthfawrogi'n fawr.
Thanks for 92,812,045 amazing views, every one is greatly appreciated.
Shot 23.04.2022 at the Bicester Spring Scramble, Bicester, Oxfordshire 158-302
Good morning everyone! Rise and shine and let this #sunrise reflection over #Raleigh brighten your day and increase your good weekend vibes! .
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#MorningReflection #MorningReflections #SunriseReflection #SunriseReflections #RiseAndShine #Reflection #NC #NorthCarolina #TravelBlog #WorldTravel #WorldTraveler #TravelBlogger #TravelPhotography #TravelPics #TravelPhotos #GlobeTrotter #PassportStamps #TravelTheWorld #TourThePlanet #BestPlacesToGo #TheGlobeWanderer #DiscoverEarth #FantasticEarth #TravelGram #FollowMeFarAway #Wanderlust #GuysWhoTravel #GayTraveler
The Mount Elliott Mining Complex is an aggregation of the remnants of copper mining and smelting operations from the early 20th century and the associated former mining township of Selwyn. The earliest copper mining at Mount Elliott was in 1906 with smelting operations commencing shortly after. Significant upgrades to the mining and smelting operations occurred under the management of W.R. Corbould during 1909 - 1910. Following these upgrades and increases in production, the Selwyn Township grew quickly and had 1500 residents by 1918. The Mount Elliott Company took over other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s, including the Mount Cuthbert and Kuridala smelters. Mount Elliott operations were taken over by Mount Isa Mines in 1943 to ensure the supply of copper during World War Two. The Mount Elliott Company was eventually liquidated in 1953.
The Mount Elliott Smelter:
The existence of copper in the Leichhardt River area of north western Queensland had been known since Ernest Henry discovered the Great Australia Mine in 1867 at Cloncurry. In 1899 James Elliott discovered copper on the conical hill that became Mount Elliott, but having no capital to develop the mine, he sold an interest to James Morphett, a pastoralist of Fort Constantine station near Cloncurry. Morphett, being drought stricken, in turn sold out to John Moffat of Irvinebank, the most successful mining promoter in Queensland at the time.
Plentiful capital and cheap transport were prerequisites for developing the Cloncurry field, which had stagnated for forty years. Without capital it was impossible to explore and prove ore-bodies; without proof of large reserves of wealth it was futile to build a railway; and without a railway it was hazardous to invest capital in finding large reserves of ore. The mining investor or the railway builder had to break the impasse.
In 1906 - 1907 copper averaged £87 a ton on the London market, the highest price for thirty years, and the Cloncurry field grew. The railway was extended west of Richmond in 1905 - 1906 by the Government and mines were floated on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. At Mount Elliott a prospecting shaft had been sunk and on the 1st of August 1906 a Cornish boiler and winding plant were installed on the site.
Mount Elliott Limited was floated in Melbourne on the 13th of July 1906. In 1907 it was taken over by British and French interests and restructured. Combining with its competitor, Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited, Mount Elliott formed a special company to finance and construct the railway from Cloncurry to Malbon, Kuridala (then Friezeland) and Mount Elliott (later Selwyn). This new company then entered into an agreement with the Queensland Railways Department in July 1908.
The railway, which was known as the 'Syndicate Railway', aroused opposition in 1908 from the trade unions and Labor movement generally, who contended that railways should be State-owned. However, the Hampden-Mount Elliott Railway Bill was passed by the Queensland Parliament and assented to on the 21st of April 1908; construction finished in December 1910. The railway terminated at the Mount Elliott smelter.
By 1907 the main underlie shaft had been sunk and construction of the smelters was underway using a second-hand water-jacket blast furnace and converters. At this time, W.H. Corbould was appointed general manager of Mount Elliott Limited.
The second-hand blast furnace and converters were commissioned or 'blown in' in May 1909, but were problematic causing hold-ups. Corbould referred to the equipment in use as being the 'worst collection of worn-out junk he had ever come across'. Corbould soon convinced his directors to scrap the plant and let him design new works.
Corbould was a metallurgist and geologist as well as mine/smelter manager. He foresaw a need to obtain control and thereby ensure a reliable supply of ore from a cross-section of mines in the region. He also saw a need to implement an effective strategy to manage the economies of smelting low-grade ore. Smelting operations in the region were made difficult by the technical and economic problems posed by the deterioration in the grade of ore. Corbould resolved the issue by a process of blending ores with different chemical properties, increasing the throughput capacity of the smelter and by championing the unification of smelting operations in the region. In 1912, Corbould acquired Hampden Consols Mine at Kuridala for Mount Elliott Limited, followed with the purchases of other small mines in the district.
Walkers Limited of Maryborough was commissioned to manufacture a new 200 ton water jacket furnace for the smelters. An air compressor and blower for the smelters were constructed in the powerhouse and an electric motor and dynamo provided power for the crane and lighting for the smelter and mine.
The new smelter was blown in September 1910, a month after the first train arrived, and it ran well, producing 2040 tons of blister copper by the end of the year. The new smelting plant made it possible to cope with low-grade sulphide ores at Mount Elliott. The use of 1000 tons of low-grade sulphide ores bought from the Hampden Consols Mine in 1911 made it clear that if a supply of higher sulphur ore could be obtained and blended, performance, and economy would improve. Accordingly, the company bought a number of smaller mines in the district in 1912.
Corbould mined with cut and fill stoping but a young Mines Inspector condemned the system, ordered it dismantled and replaced with square set timbering. In 1911, after gradual movement in stopes on the No. 3 level, the smelter was closed for two months. Nevertheless, 5447 tons of blister copper was produced in 1911, rising to 6690 tons in 1912 - the company's best year. Many of the surviving structures at the site were built at this time.
Troubles for Mount Elliott started in 1913. In February, a fire at the Consols Mine closed it for months. In June, a thirteen week strike closed the whole operation, severely depleting the workforce. The year 1913 was also bad for industrial accidents in the area, possibly due to inexperienced people replacing the strikers. Nevertheless, the company paid generous dividends that year.
At the end of 1914 smelting ceased for more than a year due to shortage of ore. Although 3200 tons of blister copper was produced in 1913, production fell to 1840 tons in 1914 and the workforce dwindled to only 40 men. For the second half of 1915 and early 1916 the smelter treated ore railed south from Mount Cuthbert. At the end of July 1916 the smelting plant at Selwyn was dismantled except for the flue chambers and stacks. A new furnace with a capacity of 500 tons per day was built, a large amount of second-hand equipment was obtained and the converters were increased in size.
After the enlarged furnace was commissioned in June 1917, continuing industrial unrest retarded production which amounted to only 1000 tons of copper that year. The point of contention was the efficiency of the new smelter which processed twice as much ore while employing fewer men. The company decided to close down the smelter in October and reduce the size of the furnace, the largest in Australia, from 6.5m to 5.5m. In the meantime the price of copper had almost doubled from 1916 due to wartime consumption of munitions.
The new furnace commenced on the 16th of January 1918 and 77,482 tons of ore were smelted yielding 3580 tons of blister copper which were sent to the Bowen refinery before export to Britain. Local coal and coke supply was a problem and materials were being sourced from the distant Bowen Colliery. The smelter had a good run for almost a year except for a strike in July and another in December, which caused Corbould to close down the plant until New Year. In 1919, following relaxation of wartime controls by the British Metal Corporation, the copper price plunged from about £110 per ton at the start of the year to £75 per ton in April, dashing the company's optimism regarding treatment of low grade ores. The smelter finally closed after two months operation and most employees were laid off.
For much of the period 1919 to 1922, Corbould was in England trying to raise capital to reorganise the company's operations but he failed and resigned from the company in 1922. The Mount Elliott Company took over the assets of the other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s - Mount Cuthbert in 1925 and Kuridala in 1926. Mount Isa Mines bought the Mount Elliott plant and machinery, including the three smelters, in 1943 for £2,300, enabling them to start copper production in the middle of the Second World War. The Mount Elliott Company was finally liquidated in 1953.
In 1950 A.E. Powell took up the Mount Elliott Reward Claim at Selwyn and worked close to the old smelter buildings. An open cut mine commenced at Starra, south of Mount Elliott and Selwyn, in 1988 and is Australia's third largest copper producer producing copper-gold concentrates from flotation and gold bullion from carbon-in-leach processing.
Profitable copper-gold ore bodies were recently proved at depth beneath the Mount Elliott smelter and old underground workings by Cyprus Gold Australia Pty Ltd. These deposits were subsequently acquired by Arimco Mining Pty Ltd for underground development which commenced in July 1993. A decline tunnel portal, ore and overburden dumps now occupy a large area of the Maggie Creek valley south-west of the smelter which was formerly the site of early miner's camps.
The Old Selwyn Township:
In 1907, the first hotel, run by H. Williams, was opened at the site. The township was surveyed later, around 1910, by the Mines Department. The town was to be situated north of the mine and smelter operations adjacent the railway, about 1.5km distant. It took its name from the nearby Selwyn Ranges which were named, during Burke's expedition, after the Victorian Government Geologist, A.R. Selwyn. The town has also been known by the name of Mount Elliott, after the nearby mines and smelter.
Many of the residents either worked at the Mount Elliott Mine and Smelter or worked in the service industries which grew around the mining and smelting operations. Little documentation exists about the everyday life of the town's residents. Surrounding sheep and cattle stations, however, meant that meat was available cheaply and vegetables grown in the area were delivered to the township by horse and cart. Imported commodities were, however, expensive.
By 1910 the town had four hotels. There was also an aerated water manufacturer, three stores, four fruiterers, a butcher, baker, saddler, garage, police, hospital, banks, post office (officially from 1906 to 1928, then unofficially until 1975) and a railway station. There was even an orchestra of ten players in 1912. The population of Selwyn rose from 1000 in 1911 to 1500 in 1918, before gradually declining.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
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About | HDR Cookbook | Before-and-After | Making-of | Pics to play with
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(Hit 'f' to fave this image)
The story of this photo:
Tunis was the first stop on our cruise through the Mediterranean Sea. The tour took us to the Bardo National Museum were this was shot. This place was originally a 13th century Hafsid palace. Today, it contains a major collection of Roman mosaics (which you can see all over the walls in this shot) and other antiquities of interest from Ancient Greece, Tunisia, and from the Arab period. [Wikipedia]
I was fascinated by the ceiling in this room. However, it was stuffed with tourists all the time. I came back multiple times (trying not to loose sight of our group). On my last visit, I found the room empty except for that one guy. Obviously his task was to make sure that nobody stole the ceiling. So I took the chance and took a series of 4x3 autobracketed shots.
Stitching the vertorama lead to the usual warping effect. But this did not seem to bother that guy. He kept calm and continued reading his book. ;-)
Enjoy!
Take a look at my "HDR Cookbook"! It contains some more information on my techniques.
How it was shot:
> Taken handheld [details]
> 4x3 autobracketed shots (three exposures each with 0, -2, +2 ev)
> Camera: Nikon D90
> Lens: Sigma 10-20mm F3,5 EX DC HSM
> Details can be found here
How it was stitched and tonemapped:
> Preparation: developed the raw files with ACR mainly in order to reduce the CA [details]
> Created 4 HDRs (32 bit) using Photomatix version 3.1
> Stitched the 4 HDRs using Photoshop saved in OpenEXR format
> Tonemapped resulting panorama HDR using Photomatix version 3.1 (Detail Enhancer)
> Saved as 16bit TIF
> Take a look here for a more detailed description.
How it was post-processed:
> Post-processing was done in Photoshop
> Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
> Topaz Denoise [details]
> Saturation layer on the white walls to desaturate them a bit
> Saturation layer on the floor (increased master)
> Saturation layer on the greens in the ceiling (increased yellows)
> Saturation layer in the yellows in the ceiling (increased yellows)
> Levels layer on the guy with the book (increased gamma to brighten)
> Global vibrance layer to even out the saturation
> Global saturation layer to fine-tune the saturation
> Global levels layer to fine-tune the contrast and brightness
> Sharpening using the high-pass filter [details]
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Learn these techniques at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
- Thanks for viewing!
Increased exposure +1 full stop in Lightroom from what you see in the EXIF. Nothing to really see other than a reference to the photo of the same thing in totality.
Plasma anchors increase firing stability by digging into any material - concrete, ferrous asteroids, starship hulls...
References:
I got the idea from Armored Core V.
The 650cc model 6T or Thunderbird was Triumph’s answer to an increasing demand for faster and more powerful motorcycles for the important American export market. This 1949 bike JAC769, at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, was one of a team of three machines used to cover 500 miles at over 90mph during pre-launch demonstrations at the famous French Montlhéry circuit during September 1949.
Based on the popular 500cc Speed Twin model, the Thunderbird was developed by Triumph Chief Designer Edward Turner as a true 100mph machine. The bike was the first to include a headlamp built into a distinctive housing or nacelle that also incorporated the instruments and switches; a Triumph feature used during the 1950s and 60s. The Thunderbird remained in production until 1966 and was a popular choice with Police forces.
The history of exhibition on the site of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds dates to August 1876, with the staging of the first Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition. None of the buildings extant in 1876 have survived, but the grounds have increased substantially from an original 12 acres, and contain a variety of structures and facilities associated with the annual August Exhibition, which date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the present. The site has been the venue for Queensland's principal agricultural, pastoral and industrial exhibitions for over 125 years. It remains the home of the annual Royal Queensland Show and is Queensland's premier showground. Since 1876 only two annual exhibitions on this site have been cancelled: the 1919 Exhibition due to the influenza epidemic, and in 1942 when the grounds were occupied by military personnel.
Prior to the establishment of the Exhibition Grounds in 1876, the site was part of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's grounds. In July 1863 this Society, established in 1862 to promote the introduction, acclimatization, propagation and distribution in Queensland of economically useful plants and animals, was granted 33 acres of land bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, O'Connell Terrace, Brookes Street and Gregory Terrace. At the northwestern corner of the site, fronting Bowen Bridge Road and O'Connell Terrace, the Society established a public exhibition garden [Bowen Park]. The remainder of the site was used for experimentation purposes, growing and propagating plants and seeds sent from other parts of Queensland, other colonies, and around the world, and raising various introduced animals. The Society played an important role in the beginnings of commercial agriculture in Queensland, introducing or trialling crops and plants such as mango trees, ginger plants, sugar cane, olive trees and choko vines.
Queensland's 1876 Intercolonial Exhibition was not the first competitive demonstration of agricultural and industrial progress in the colony. In 1854 squatters from the Darling Downs and Moreton Bay districts of New South Wales established the Northern Districts' Agricultural and Pastoral Association, modelled on the Scottish Highland Agricultural Societies. They planned to hold exhibitions [mainly of pastoral produce] at Brisbane, Ipswich, Warwick, Drayton and Gayndah, in rotation, and some shows were held before the Association became immersed in more political activities. Nurseryman AJ Hockings was instrumental in holding horticultural shows in Brisbane from 1855. In the 1860s other regional agricultural and pastoral associations were formed, among the earliest being the Darling Downs Agricultural Society [based at Toowoomba] in 1860, the Drayton and Toowoomba Agricultural and Horticultural Society in 1864, the East Moreton Farmers Association [based at Ipswich] in 1866 and the Eastern Downs Horticultural and Agricultural Association [based at Warwick] in 1867. These Associations conducted annual exhibitions of agricultural, horticultural, and pastoral produce and farm machinery. Prizes were awarded for best exhibits. The object was to encourage the exchange of knowledge and to foster better farm practice. Associations such as these proliferated in Queensland during the second half of the 19th century, and each held an annual 'show'.
In 1874 moves were initiated by Queensland's Chief Inspector of Stock, Patrick Robertson Gordon, to form a national agricultural society, to plan Brisbane's first intercolonial exhibition. He was supported by Gresley Lukin, editor of the Brisbane Courier and the Queenslander, and agricultural agent John Fenwick. In May 1875 an inaugural meeting, presided over by the Governor, Sir William Wellington Cairns, was held to form the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland. A constitution drafted by the headmaster of the Brisbane Grammar School, Thomas Harlin, was adopted in July, and the first meeting of the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland was held at the Brisbane Town Hall on 13 August 1875. Arthur Hunter Palmer, later premier of Queensland, was elected to the chair and other founding members included Joshua Peter Bell, George Harris, George Gromes, Thomas Harlin, Charles Stewart Mein and William Hemmant. At this meeting use of part of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's grounds was discussed, and subsequently a lease of about 12 acres from the Society was arranged.
The alliance with the Acclimatisation Society was considered to be a sensible arrangement. There were common interests, the site was well supplied with water and convenient to the city, and it was thought at the time that many women and townspeople, who might have hesitated in visiting a purely utilitarian exhibition of produce, animals and farm machinery, may have been induced by the additional attraction of the Acclimatisation Society Gardens.
The Intercolonial Exhibition was intended to promote and showcase the agricultural, pastoral and industrial resources of the whole of Queensland. Whether it could be sustained beyond a single exhibition remained to be seen. The National Association did not wish to supplant regional agricultural societies and associations, but wished to encourage their organisation, and foster a spirit of friendly rivalry amongst them by holding a grand central exhibition for the competition of winners at minor shows [BC 25 October 1875]. To avoid clashing with local shows, and in order to hold the exhibition during fine weather, before the shearing season, and when good feed would be found along the roads, it was decided to stage the Exhibition in August 1876.
The first exhibition building was a large timber hall with side aisles and a central clerestory. It was erected in 1876 along Gregory Terrace near the corner of Bowen Bridge Road, at a cost of £1254, and was a modification of a design prepared by Queensland Colonial Architect FDG Stanley. Sydney exhibitor Jules Joubert added a rectangular wing to the northern side to increase the extent of his exhibition. Cattle, sheep and horse stalls of hardwood framing with corrugated iron roofing were erected in the grounds, and a small showring was established north of the Exhibition Building.
The first Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition was declared open by Governor Cairns on Tuesday 22 August 1876, and ran until 28 August. It proved immensely popular, with a total of £1045 taken at the gate. Thereafter, the Exhibition became an annual event.
In the period 1876-1888, the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland expended an estimated £7000 on the grounds. The main exhibition building was doubled in size for the 1877 exhibition, and another annexe was provided for horticultural exhibits.
In 1879, the National Association was awarded a lease of 23 acres of the 32 acre Acclimatisation Society grounds for a period of 50 years, for use as an exhibition ground. In 1881 the railway to Sandgate was constructed through the National Association and Acclimatisation Society grounds. [The line was later re-routed via Central Station, Brunswick Street and Bowen Hills, but the Exhibition Line still opens each year during the August show.] By 1882, the Exhibition Grounds comprised all the land south, southeast and east of the railway line and bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, Gregory Terrace, Brookes Street and O'Connell Terrace. A 1000 seat capacity grandstand, designed by Stanley, was erected in 1885 [not the first grandstand on the site]. In 1887 a timber residence designed by GHM Addison was constructed at the corner of O'Connell Terrace and Brookes Street for the Secretary of the National Association.
In 1887 the first exhibition building was destroyed by fire. The public called for it to be replaced with a masonry building, but the National Association was reluctant to commit to the necessary expenditure without more secure land tenure, against which they could borrow money for permanent exhibition buildings. In 1888 a temporary timber exhibition building was constructed for approximately £500, while the National Association called for competitive designs for a permanent exhibition building. Under the provisions of the National Association and Acclimatisation Society Act 1890, the land leased from the Queensland Acclimatisation Society for an exhibition ground was resumed and granted to the National Association as Trustees, who were also empowered under this act to borrow money from the Queensland Government to erect the new exhibition building.
The design competition was won by GHM Addison, the Brisbane partner of the Melbourne-based firm Oakden Addison and Kemp. In 1890 Addison amended his original design to a T-shape, incorporating a southern wing with a concert hall which could be rented out to offset repayments on the government loan. The new building was erected closer to the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace than the original building. The foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1891 and the builder, John Quinn, was required to have a section of the building completed for the August 1891 exhibition, with the whole of the building to be completed within 12 months.
A plan of the Exhibition Grounds published in The Queenslander on 15 August 1891 shows the new exhibition building, several smaller pavilions, a show ring in the position of the present main show ring, the 1885 grandstand [where the Ernest Baynes Stand is now located], animal shelters along the boundaries, and the secretary's residence near Brookes Street.
The new exhibition building was completed in 1892 and a public holiday was declared for 10 August 1982 to mark the official opening of the Exhibition. Despite the economic depression, 32,000 people attended on the holiday and more than 66,000 over the four-day course of the Exhibition. However, the National Association did not escape the effects of the 1890s depression, struggling to repay the government loan on the exhibition building. In 1897 the colonial government resumed the building and liquidated the Association's debts. The Exhibition Concert Hall continued to serve as a concert venue but the remainder of the Exhibition Building was refurbished for the Queensland Museum, which moved to the building from William Street in 1899. At this time the museum grounds were resumed from the National Association's land as a separate reserve. The National Association struggled to maintain the viability of the remaining Exhibition Grounds until 1902-03, when the Queensland government took control of the Association's assets, leasing the Exhibition Grounds back to the Association at an annual rental.
In the early 1900s the Queensland economy revived, and the National Association's financial position firmed. Substantial improvements and re-arrangements of the Exhibition Grounds were made in 1906 in time for the August show. A fine new grandstand, designed by Brisbane architect Claude William Chambers, was erected at a cost of £6248. [In 1923, this stand was re-named the John MacDonald Stand in honour of a long-serving National Association councillor]. The side show booths which had been located on the hill to the north of the main ring, were moved to the valley on the northwest side of the railway, their place being taken by machinery exhibits. The hill has since been known as Machinery Hill, and the valley as Sideshow Alley.
In 1909, the year of the Jubilee Exhibition [celebrating 50 years since the separation of Queensland from New South Wales], the Exhibition Grounds were extended with the acquisition of Petty's Paddock, an adjacent 6 acres bounded by Gregory Terrace and Alexandria, Science and Water streets, purchased for £4500. About 1910 a two-storeyed timber building with pressed metal ceilings and a prominent roof flêche, was erected along the northern side of Gregory Terrace near the main entrance. A section of this building was utilized as a Post Office by August 1933.
During the First World War [1914-18], a military recruiting and training camp, completed with rifle range, was established at the Exhibition Grounds, but this did not prevent the annual Exhibition from proceeding.
In the 1910s Brisbane architects Richard Gailey snr and Richard Gailey jnr established a relationship with the National Association which was to last through the 1920s and 1930s. In May 1914 they called tenders for the construction of a sheep, pig and poultry pavilion, and fencing along Gregory Terrace, and in 1917 for timber dog and horse pavilions.
In 1917, Toowoomba's Austral Hall [designed by architect William Hodgen and erected in 1904] was purchased for £1500 and re-erected at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds. It was the largest building of its type in Queensland. Reflecting the growing popularity of the motor car, the pavilion was occupied by representatives of the local automobile trade. It was the first Brisbane Exhibition pavilion to be dedicated solely to motor vehicle displays, automobile exhibits previously being located on Machinery Hill. In 1919 Austral Hall was renamed the John Reid Pavilion following the death that year of Brisbane merchant John Reid, a long-time supporter of the National Association.
Affleck House was completed by August 1918 for the showtime use of Stock Breeders' Association delegates. It was named after National Association councillor WL Affleck, who raised the finance for the construction.
During the influenza epidemic which swept Australia in 1919, following the return of service personnel from overseas at the end of the First World War, army huts were erected at the exhibition grounds as isolation wards for the nearby Brisbane General Hospital, and dining rooms were set up to feed and house the expected influx of seriously ill patients. Due to the threat of crowd contagion, and to save disturbing patients in the isolation wards, the Exhibition was cancelled that year.
In 1920 the Prince of Wales [later Edward VIII] visited the Exhibition, following which the Association moved to incorporate the word 'Royal' into its name as the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, which over the years has been reduced, unofficially, to the Royal National Association [RNA]. In recent years the RNA has registered as its trademark the word 'Ekka' [a long-standing colloquial shortening of the work 'Exhibition'].
During the interwar years many improvements were made to the exhibition grounds, with various buildings erected or extended during this period. A timber show hall was erected c1921 between Gregory Terrace and Water Street, and a brick exhibition building, designed by architects Atkinson & Conrad, was constructed in 1923 for Lever Bros of Sydney.
In 1922-23 the Ernest Baynes Stand was erected on the site of the 1885 grandstand. Designed by architect Richard Gailey Jnr and constructed by John Hutchinson, the building had two tiers with a seating capacity of 5000 and a total capacity of 7000. It was constructed with a steel frame faced with brick, the larger steel sections being imported from Britain and the smaller sections made in Australia. The foundation stone of the new grandstand was laid by Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, in November 1922, and the stand was completed in time for the August 1923 Exhibition, at a cost of £26,884. The sub-floor contained a dining room which could accommodate 600 persons at a sitting, and a row of ten shops facing the lane at the rear of the structure.
A second show ring, intended principally for exhibiting dairy cattle, was established to the north of the railway line which transects the Exhibition Grounds, and was ready for the show of 1924. Its construction reflected the growing importance of the dairy industry to Queensland where, with Government encouragement, it became the State's second largest primary industry and sustained rural Queensland during the depression of the 1930s.
By 1925 the RNA Council Stand, located adjacent to the Ernest Baynes Stand overlooking the show ring, had been constructed. The Stand was originally two storeys. At some early period the northern end of the building was extended to incorporate an entrance to the seating in front of the stand. By 1938 a third storey had been added to the building, and later a two-storeyed extension facing Executive Street was constructed.
In 1927 legislation was enacted to grant the National Association perpetual lease of the grounds, at that time comprising just under 20 acres. There followed a burst of ground improvements, mostly designed by architect Richard Gailey jnr, including a dog pavilion, meat exhibition pavilion, more turnstiles, and a new lavatory block in 1927; and new horse and cattle stalls, and turnstiles at the corner of Costin Street and Gregory Terrace, in 1928. Also erected in 1928 were show pavilions for General Motors Pty Ltd, Brisbane Cars & Tractors Ltd, the Vacuum Oil Co. [concrete structure], and the Kodak Company Ltd, and a demonstration fibrous cement cottage designed by architect EP Trewern for James Hardie & Co.
At this period the RNA sought to make the grounds a first-class venue for cricket, football and other sports, but had limited success in attracting the big matches. The year 1928 was a high point for the Association's sporting ambitions, with the showground the venue for the first England versus Australia cricket test in Queensland, and the first in the 1928-29 series. Legendary Australian cricketer Donald Bradman made his Test debut at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds in 1928. More successful than cricket or football was Exhibition Speedway, established in 1926.
A new Lady Forster Creche was opened in Costin Street, near the main entrance to the Exhibition Grounds, in time for the 1928 show. [Previously the creche was located on the main showgrounds north of Gregory Terrace.] The centre was operated by the Creche and Kindergarten Association and provided baby care while parents were enjoying the rounds of the show. In 1939 the Creche was removed to a new location near the Anglican dining hall, north of Gregory Terrace.
In 1929 the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which since 1923 had been conducting a bank at the Exhibition Grounds during the annual show, constructed a purpose-designed bank building in the grounds, just to the south of the Council Stand. Although it was not uncommon for banks to establish agencies at showgrounds around Australia, this building is believed to be the only 'exhibition' bank building specifically constructed for the Commonwealth Bank. The northeast end of the building was extended in 1947.
Despite the severe economic depression of the early 1930s, the Exhibition continued to attract its strong annual August attendance. More land was acquired, including a further 2 acres 23 perches excised from Bowen Park in 1932, bringing the total Exhibition Grounds to about 40 acres. Improvements to the grounds at this period included more cattle stalls along O'Connell Terrace [architect Richard Gailey jnr] and a new show pavilion for Foggitt Jones Pty Ltd [architects Addison & MacDonald] in 1932; and a new dairy produce hall [architect Richard Gailey jnr] for the RNA in 1933.
As the economy recovered during the second half of the 1930s a number of substantial improvements were made to the RNA's exhibition facilities. In 1936 Gailey called tenders for a Wool Hall, additions to the pig and horse pavilions, new Stock & Station Agents' Offices and Dining Hall, and a new yearling sale ring. New concrete roads and additional seating accommodation were provided. The old Industrial Pavilion was demolished in 1938 and its replacement, designed by Richard Gailey jnr and covering an area of 3.5 acres, was completed along Gregory Terrace in June 1939 at a cost of £40,000. A new electricity hall at the corner of Gregory Terrace and Costin Street was also completed for the 1939 show - reputedly the first show pavilion in Australia dedicated entirely to electricity exhibits. [The Hall of Science, as it was later known, was demolished in 1986 to make way for a new Exhibition Building].
During the Second World War, the Exhibition Grounds were occupied from late 1939 to 1944 by military authorities as a venue for training, accommodation and embarkation of troops. [Showgrounds and racecourses with their ovals and existing toilet facilities were favoured places to temporarily accommodate service personnel.] Troops at the exhibition grounds slept in pig and cattle pens; the bars beneath the John MacDonald Stand became wet canteens; and troop trains departed from the railway platforms normally used by show patrons. In 1940 and again in 1941, the military vacated the grounds temporarily for the August Exhibition. Following the entry of Japan into the war in December 1941, American troops were stationed at the showgrounds and the Exhibition of 1942 was cancelled, but was renewed in a limited fashion in 1943 and 1944. Following the war the RNA purchased a number of buildings from the military, for use on the site.
The 1950s saw further improvements and works to the grounds with the construction of a Beef Cattle Pavilion in 1950, the work being carried out by MR Hornibrook Builders at a cost of £206,000, and the addition of seating around the main oval near Machinery Hill. Also constructed in the 1950s was a new Dairy Industry Hall, adjacent to the John Reid Pavilion, on the site of the 1933 dairy hall. By the late 1950s, the grounds comprised approximately 50 acres.
A number of new buildings were erected in the 1960s. In 1962 the RNA moved its offices from the Queensland Primary Producers Association building in Adelaide Street to the Exhibition Grounds, and in 1970 a purpose-built RNA Administration Building costing $111,584 was opened. In 1963, on land acquired along Constance Street, a double pavilion known as the Agricultural Hall and Douglas Wadley Pavilion was constructed. The Agricultural Hall housed district and junior farmer exhibits. The Douglas Wadley Pavilion, extended in 1968 and again in 1977, housed dogs, and is used regularly for exhibitions in addition to the annual August show. In 1968 the Ring Control and Broadcast building was enlarged. By 1970, the grounds comprised approximately 55 acres.
The first animal nursery was established by RNA councillor Frank Robertson at the 1964 show. It has proved one of the must popular and enduring of the show traditions, and has been copied by show societies throughout Australia. At the 1972 Exhibition a purpose-built facility for the animal nursery was opened, named in honour of Mr Robertson.
In the late 1960s the face of Sideshow Alley, traditionally home to the weird and wonderful, began to change. The tents and booths largely disappeared, to be replaced with high technology rides, tests of skill, and popular music entertainment.
Controversy was generated in 1971 when the Queensland Government declared a state of emergency from 13 July to 2 August, during the South African Springbok Rubgy team tour, when demonstrations against apartheid were held in Brisbane and throughout Australia. The main show ring at the Exhibition Ground was commandeered to host the matches, as a safe distance could be maintained between spectators and would-be protesters. A two metre high chain wire fence was erected to separate spectators from players.
A new two-storeyed brick building for use by the police during the annual show was completed for the 1971 Exhibition. It was located inside the main entrance from Gregory Terrace, and replaced an earlier timber building. A new Members Stand was constructed in the 1970s.
Improvements and new buildings in the 1980s included: the refurbishment of the John MacDonald Stand in 1985; the construction of a new Exhibition Building in 1986 on the site of the Hall of Science building, at a cost of $2.5 million [with State Government assistance]; removal of the top seating tier of the Ernest Baynes Stand in 1986, following the Bradford Stadium collapse in London that year; and the opening on 28 November 1988 of the Walter Burnett Building, designed by architects Hulme and Webster, adjacent to the Frank Nicklin Pavilion which accommodates fine arts exhibitions. The auditorium of the Walter Burnett Building seats 1000 people and is equipped with a stage and dance floor. Besides its importance to the annual Exhibition, the building is in constant use for all sorts of activities, including expositions, balls and conferences. It was also the venue for the first public airing of the Fitzgerald Inquiry Report on corruption in Queensland, on 3 July 1989.
In 2008, Bowen Hills – including the area of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds – was declared an Urban Development Area under the Urban Land Development Act 2007 (replaced by the Economic Development Act 2012, with the term Priority Development Area superseding the term Urban Development Area).
The RNA launched a project to redevelop the showgrounds and in 2009, property and infrastructure company, Lend Lease, was selected as the RNA’s redevelopment partner. In 2010 the RNA and Lend Lease unveiled plans for the ‘Brisbane Showgrounds Regeneration Project’, a redevelopment of 5.5ha of the 22ha site; comprising an upgrade to the showgrounds’ facilities and the inclusion of new office, retail and residential spaces. This involved the demolition and clearing of various buildings and areas – mostly concentrated in the southeastern portion of the site (bounded by Alexandria Street, St Pauls Terrace, Costin Street, Constance Street and Gregory Terrace). Buildings and areas demolished or removed by 2015 included: the Frank Nicklin Pavilion, Walter Burnett Building and Auditorium, Agricultural Hall and Douglas Wadley Pavilion, Frank Roberston Pavilion, Building No.4, Main Parade Food Stall and Show Time Snack Bar, Agricultural Street Bar, Machinery Street Fish Place, Agricultural Open Area, Industrial Open Area, Police Exhibit, and chairlift. The plans for the project were approved in 2010 and construction began in April 2011. The project is expected to take 15 years to complete, at a projected cost of $2.9 billion.
The association with regional Queensland and the rural tradition has been and will remain central to the character of the Brisbane Exhibition and the grounds in which it is held, but the RNA has incorporated new ideas and technology to meet the expectations of today's show patrons. In recent years new attractions at the Exhibition Grounds have included communications technology displays.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
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52/52 - Lessons learned
Through this challenge, I increased my photographic vocabulary, experimented with all sorts of new techniques, and discovered that including a "challenge within the challenge" resulted in some frustrating moments! Trying to get the shot I wanted with a chair or seat in it sometimes meant posting a photo that wasn't my favourite for the week. Thanks to Jeremy for the weekly topics and for the words of support and encouragement.
This image incorporates: rule of thirds, leading lines, depth of field, black & white, diagonal lines and has an element of high key.
Please note: no models were hit by trains during the photo session!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Career
Name: RMS Olympic
Owner: White Star flag NEW.svg White Star Line 1911–1934
Cunard White Star Line Logo.JPG Cunard White Star Line 1934–1935
Port of registry: United Kingdom Liverpool, United Kingdom
Route: Southampton to New York
Ordered: 1906
Builder: Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number: 400
Laid down: 16 December 1908
Launched: 20 October 1910
Completed: May 1911
Maiden voyage: 14 June 1911
In service: 1911
Out of service: 1935
Identification: Official Number 131346
Code Letters HSRP
ICS Hotel.svgICS Sierra.svgICS Romeo.svgICS Papa.svg
Radio callsign "MKC"
Fate: Retired at Southampton after 24 years service & scrapped. Superstructure dismantled at Jarrow, England, and the hull at Inverkeithing, Scotland.
Status: scrapped (besides the Second Class Lounge)
General characteristics
Class & type: Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage: 45,324 gross register tons; 46,358 after 1913; 46,439 after 1920
Displacement: 52,067 tons
Length: 882 ft 6 in (269.0 m)
Beam: 92 ft 6 in (28.2 m)
Height: 175 ft (53.3 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught: 34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Decks: 10 decks (1 crew deck)
Installed power: 24 double-ended (six furnace) and 5 single-ended (three furnace) Scotch boilers. Two four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engines each producing 15,000 hp for the two outboard wing propellers at 75 revolutions per minute. One low-pressure turbine producing 16,000 h. 59,000 hp produced at maximum revolutions.[1]
Propulsion: Two bronze triple-blade wing propellers. One bronze quadruple-blade centre propeller.
Speed:
21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) (maximum)
Capacity: 2,435 passengers
Crew: 950
RMS Olympic was a transatlantic ocean liner, the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Unlike her younger sister ships, the Olympic enjoyed a long and illustrious career, spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935. This included service as a troopship during World War I, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable". Olympic returned to civilian service after the war and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable.
She was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1911–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic (which had the same dimensions but higher gross tonnage due to revised interior configurations), and then outsized by the SS Imperator. Olympic also retained the title of the largest British-built liner until the RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of her slightly larger sister ships.[2][3]
By contrast with Olympic, the other ships in the class, Titanic and Britannic, did not have long service lives. On the night of 14/15 April 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, claiming 1,500 lives; Britannic struck a mine and sank in the Kea Channel in the Mediterranean on 21 November 1916, killing 30 people.
Background
Built in Belfast, Ireland, the RMS Olympic was the first of the three Olympic-class ocean liners – the others were the RMS Titanic and the HMHS Britannic.[4] They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912.[5] The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. The White Star Line faced a growing challenge from its main rivals Cunard, which had just launched Lusitania and Mauretania – the fastest passenger ships then in service – and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be bigger than anything that had gone before as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury.[6] The company sought an upgrade in their fleet primarily in response to the Cunard giants but also to replace their largest and now outclassed ships from 1890, the SS Teutonic and SS Majestic. The former was replaced by Olympic while Majestic was replaced by Titanic. Majestic would be brought back into her old spot on White Star's New York service after Titanic's loss.
The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, who had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867.[7] Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for the latter to sketch out a general concept which the former would take away and turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin.[7] In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to contract" and the usual five percent fee.[8]
The launch of Olympic on 20 October 1910
Harland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing the Olympic-class vessels. It was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews' deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager.[9] Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.[10]
On 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later authorising the start of construction.[11] At this point the first ship – which was later to become Olympic – had no name, but was referred to simply as "Number 400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four hundredth hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.[12] Bruce Ismay's father Thomas Henry Ismay had previously planned to build a ship named Olympic as a sister ship to the Oceanic. The senior Ismay died in 1899 and the order for the ship was cancelled.[13]
Construction of the Olympic began three months before Titanic to ease pressures on the shipyard. Several years would pass before Britannic would be launched. In order to accommodate the construction of the class, Harland and Wolff upgraded their facility in Belfast; the most dramatic change was the combining of three slipways into two larger ones. Olympic's keel was laid in December 1908 and she was launched on 20 October 1910.[4] For her launch, the hull was painted in a light grey colour for photographic purposes; a common practice of the day for the first ship in a new class, as it made the lines of the ship clearer in the black and white photographs. Her hull was repainted black following the launch.[3]
Features
The Grand Staircase of Olympic.
The Olympic was designed as a luxury ship; her passenger facilities, fittings, deck plans and technical facilities were largely identical to those of her more famous sister Titanic, although with some small variations.[14] The first-class passengers enjoyed luxurious cabins, and some were equipped with private bathrooms. First-class passengers could have meals in the ship's large and luxurious dining room or in the more intimate A La Carte Restaurant. There was a lavish Grand Staircase, built only for the Olympic-class ships, along with three elevators that ran behind the staircase down to E deck,[15] a Georgian-style smoking room, a Veranda Café decorated with palm trees,[16] a swimming pool, Turkish bath,[17] gymnasium,[18] and several other places for meals and entertainment.
The second-class facilities included a smoking room, a library, a spacious dining room, and an elevator.[3][19]
Finally, the third-class passengers enjoyed reasonable accommodation compared to other ships, if not up to the second and first classes. Instead of large dormitories offered by most ships of the time, the third-class passengers of the Olympic travelled in cabins containing two to ten bunks. Facilities for the third class included a smoking room, a common area, and a dining room.[3][19]
Olympic had a cleaner, sleeker look than other ships of the day: rather than fitting her with bulky exterior air vents, Harland and Wolff used smaller air vents with electric fans, with a "dummy" fourth funnel used for additional ventilation. For the power plant Harland and Wolff employed a combination of reciprocating engines with a centre low-pressure turbine, as opposed to the steam turbines used on Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania.[20] White Star had successfully tested this engine set up on an earlier liner SS Laurentic, where it was found to be more economical than expansion engines or turbines alone. Olympic consumed 650 tons of coal per 24 hours with an average speed of 21.7 knots on her maiden voyage, compared to 1000 tons of coal per 24 hours for both the Lusitania and Mauretania.[21]
Although Olympic and Titanic were nearly identical, and were based on the same design, a few alterations were made to Titanic (and later on Britannic) based on experience gained from Olympic's first year in service. The most noticeable of these was that the forward half of the Titanic's A Deck promenade was enclosed by a steel screen with sliding windows, to provide additional shelter, whereas the Olympic's promenade deck remained open along its whole length. Also the promenades on the Titanic's B Deck were reduced in size, and the space used for additional cabins and public rooms, including two luxury suites with private promenades. A number of other variations existed between the two ships layouts and fittings. These differences meant that Titanic had a slightly higher gross tonnage of 46,328 tons, compared to Olympic's 45,324 tons.[22]
Olympic on her sea trials in Belfast in 1911
Career
Following completion, Olympic started her sea trials on 29 May 1911, which she successfully completed; Olympic then left Belfast bound for Liverpool, her port of registration, on 31 May 1911. As a publicity stunt the White Star Line deliberately timed the start of this first voyage to coincide with the launch of Titanic. After spending a day in Liverpool, open to the public, Olympic sailed to Southampton, where she arrived on 3 June, to be made ready for her maiden voyage.[23] The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the "White Star Dock" had been specially constructed to accommodate the new Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911.[24]
Her maiden voyage commenced on 14 June 1911 from Southampton, calling at Cherbourg and Queenstown, reaching New York on 21 June.[25] The maiden voyage was captained by Edward Smith who would lose his life the following year in the Titanic disaster.[26] Designer Thomas Andrews was present for the passage to New York and return, along with a number of engineers, as part of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot any problems or areas for improvement. Andrews would also lose his life in the Titanic disaster.[27]
As the largest ship in the world, and the first in a new class of superliners. Olympic's maiden voyage attracted considerable worldwide attention from the press and public. Following her arrival in New York, Olympic was opened up to the public and received over 8,000 visitors. More than 10,000 spectators watched her depart from New York harbour, for her first return trip.[28]
Hawke collision
Photographs documenting the damage to the Olympic (left) and the Hawke (right) following their collision (alternate view)
Olympic's first major mishap occurred on her fifth voyage on 20 September 1911, when she collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight. The collision took place as Olympic and Hawke were running parallel to each other through the Solent. As Olympic turned to starboard, the wide radius of her turn took the commander of the Hawke by surprise, and he was unable to take sufficient avoiding action.[29] The Hawke's bow, which had been designed to sink ships by ramming them, collided with Olympic's starboard side near the stern, tearing two large holes in Olympic's hull, below and above the waterline respectively, resulting in the flooding of two of her watertight compartments and a twisted propeller shaft. HMS Hawke suffered severe damage to her bow and nearly capsized. Despite this, Olympic was able to return to Southampton under her own power, and no-one was seriously injured or killed.[14][30]
Captain Edward Smith was still in command of Olympic at the time of the incident. One crew member, Violet Jessop, survived not only the collision with the Hawke but also the later sinking of Titanic and the 1916 sinking of Britannic, the third ship of the class.[31]
At the subsequent inquiry the Royal Navy blamed Olympic for the incident, alleging that her large displacement generated a suction that pulled Hawke into her side.[32][33] The Hawke incident was a financial disaster for Olympic's operator. A legal argument ensued which decided that the blame for the incident lay with Olympic, and although the ship was technically under the control of the pilot, the White Star Line was faced with large legal bills and the cost of repairing the ship, and keeping her out of revenue service made matters worse.[29] However, the fact that Olympic endured such a serious collision and stayed afloat, appeared to vindicate the design of the Olympic-class liners and reinforced their "unsinkable" reputation.[29]
Olympic (left) returning to Belfast for repairs in March 1912, and Titanic (right) This was the last time the two sister ships would be seen together
It took two weeks for the damage to Olympic to be patched up sufficiently to allow her to return to Belfast for permanent repairs, which took just over six weeks to complete. To speed up the repairs, Harland and Wolff was forced to delay Titanic's completion in order to use her propeller shaft for Olympic. By 29 November she was back in service, however in February 1912, Olympic suffered another setback when she lost a propeller blade on an eastbound voyage from New York, and once again returned to her builder for repairs. To get her back to service as soon as possible, Harland & Wolff again had to pull resources from Titanic, delaying her maiden voyage from 20 March 1912 to 10 April 1912.[34]
Titanic disaster
Main article: Sinking of the RMS Titanic
On 14 April 1912, Olympic, now under the command of Herbert James Haddock, was on a return trip from New York. Wireless operator Ernest James Moore[35] received the distress call from her sister Titanic, when she was approximately 500 nautical miles (930 km; 580 mi) west by south of Titanic's location.[36] Haddock calculated a new course, ordered the ship's engines to be set to full power and headed to assist in the rescue.[37]
When Olympic was about 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) away from Titanic's last known position, she received a message from Captain Rostron captain of Cunard Liner RMS Carpathia, explaining that continuing on course to Titanic would gain nothing, as "All boats accounted for. About 675 souls saved [...] Titanic foundered about 2.20 am."[36] Rostron requested that the message be forwarded to White Star and Cunard. He said that he was returning to harbour in New York.[36] Subsequently, the wireless room aboard the Olympic operated as a clearing room for radio messages.[36]
When Olympic offered to take on the survivors, she was heatedly turned down by an appalled Rostron, who was concerned that it would cause panic amongst the survivors of the disaster to see a virtual mirror-image of the Titanic appear and ask them to board. Olympic then resumed her voyage to Southampton, with all concerts cancelled as a mark of respect, arriving on 21 April.[3]
Over the next few months, Olympic assisted with both the American and British inquiries into the disaster. Deputations from both inquiries inspected Olympic's lifeboats, watertight doors and bulkheads and other equipment which were identical to those on Titanic.[38] Sea tests were performed for the British enquiry in May 1912, to establish how quickly the ship could turn two points at various speeds, to approximate how long it would have taken the Titanic to turn when it sighted the iceberg.[39]
1912 "mutiny"
Olympic, like Titanic, did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board, and was hurriedly equipped with additional, second-hand collapsible lifeboats following her return to Britain. Toward the end of April 1912, as she was about to sail from Southampton to New York, 284 of the ship's firemen went on strike because of fears that the ship's new collapsible lifeboats were not seaworthy. 100 non-union crew were hastily hired from Southampton as replacements, with more being hired from Liverpool.[40]
The 40 collapsible lifeboats were secondhand, having been transferred from troopships, and many were rotten and could not open. The crewmen instead sent a request to the Southampton manager of the White Star Line that the collapsible boats be replaced by wooden lifeboats; the manager replied that this was impossible and that the collapsible boats had been passed as seaworthy by a Board of Trade inspector. The men were not satisfied and ceased work in protest.[41]
On 25 April a deputation of strikers witnessed a test of four of the collapsible boats. Only one was unseaworthy and they said that they were prepared to recommend the men return to work if it was replaced. However the strikers now objected to the non-union strikebreaker crew which had come on board, and demanded that they be dismissed, which the White Star Line refused. 54 sailors then left the ship, objecting to the non-union crew who they claimed were unqualified and therefore dangerous, and refused to sail with them. This led to the scheduled sailing being cancelled.[40][42]
All 54 sailors were arrested on a charge of mutiny when they went ashore. On 4 May 1912 Portsmouth magistrates found the charges against the mutineers were proven, but discharged them without imprisonment or fine due to the special circumstances of the case.[43] Fearing that public opinion would be on the side of the strikers, the White Star Line let them return to work and the Olympic sailed on 15 May.[39]
Refit
Olympic as she appeared after her refit following the Titanic disaster, with a full complement of lifeboats
On 9 October 1912 White Star withdrew Olympic from service and returned her to her builders at Belfast to be refitted to incorporate lessons learned from the Titanic disaster 6 months prior, and improve safety.[44] The number of lifeboats carried by Olympic was increased from twenty to sixty four (per Carlisle's original number), and extra davits were installed along the boat deck to accommodate them. Also, an inner watertight skin was constructed in the boiler and engine rooms, to create a double hull. Five of the watertight bulkheads were extended up to B-Deck, extending to the entire height of the hull. This corrected a flaw in the original design, in which the bulkheads only rose up as far as E or D-Deck, a short distance above the waterline. This flaw had been exposed during Titanic's sinking, where water spilled over the top of the bulkheads as the ship sank and flooded subsequent compartments. In addition, an extra bulkhead was added to subdivide the electrical dynamo room, bringing the total number of watertight compartments to seventeen. Improvements were also made to the ship's pumping apparatus. These modifications meant that Olympic could survive a collision similar to that of Titanic, in that her first six compartments could be breached and the ship could remain afloat.[45][46]
At the same time, Olympic's B-Deck underwent a refit, which necessitated eliminating her B-Deck promenades – one of the few features that separated her from her sister ship. The refit included extra cabins (the parlour suites which proved popular on the Titanic were added to the Olympic), more cabins were fitted with private bathing facilities, and a Cafe Parisian (another addition that had proved popular on the Titanic) was added, offering another dining option to first class passengers. With these changes, Olympic's gross tonnage rose to 46,359 tons, 31 tons more than Titanic's.[47]
In March 1913, Olympic returned to service and briefly regained the title of largest ocean liner in the world, until the German liner SS Imperator entered passenger service in June 1913. Following her refit, Olympic was marketed as the "new" Olympic and her improved safety features were featured prominently in advertisements. [48][3]
World War I
In August 1914 World War I began. Olympic initially remained in commercial service under Captain Herbert James Haddock. As a wartime measure, Olympic was painted in a grey colour scheme, portholes were blocked, and lights on deck were turned off to make the ship less visible. The schedule was hastily altered to terminate at Liverpool rather than Southampton, and this was later altered again to Glasgow.[3][49]
The first few wartime voyages were packed with Americans trapped in Europe, eager to return home, although the eastbound journeys carried few passengers. By mid-October, bookings had fallen sharply as the threat from German U-boats became increasingly serious, and White Star Line decided to withdraw Olympic from commercial service. On 21 October 1914, she left New York for Glasgow on her last commercial voyage of the war, though carrying only 153 passengers.[50][49]
Audacious incident
On the sixth day of her voyage, 27 October, as the Olympic passed near Lough Swilly off the north coast of Ireland, she received distress signals from the battleship HMS Audacious, which had struck a mine off Tory Island and was taking on water.[51]
The crew of the stricken Audacious take to lifeboats to be rescued by Olympic
The Olympic took off 250 of the Audacious' crew, then the destroyer HMS Fury managed to attach a tow cable between Audacious and Olympic and they headed west for Lough Swilly. However, the cable parted after the Audacious' steering gear failed. A second attempt was made to tow the warship, but the cable became tangled in HMS Liverpool's propellers and was severed. A third attempt was tried but also failed when the cable gave way. By 17:00 the Audacious' quarterdeck was awash and it was decided to evacuate the remaining crew members to Olympic and Liverpool, and at 20:55 there was an explosion aboard the Audacious and she sank.[52]
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander of the Home Fleet, was anxious to suppress the news of the sinking of Audacious, for fear of the demoralising effect it could have on the British public, so ordered Olympic to be held in custody at Lough Swilly. No communications were permitted and passengers were not allowed to leave the ship. The only people departing her were the crew of the Audacious and Chief Surgeon John Beaumont, who was transferring to RMS Celtic. Steel tycoon Charles M. Schwab, who was travelling aboard the liner, sent word to Jellicoe that he had urgent business in London with the Admiralty, and Jellicoe agreed to release Schwab if he remained silent about the fate of Audacious. Finally, on 2 November, Olympic was allowed to go to Belfast where the passengers disembarked.[53]
HMT Olympic in dazzle camouflage while in service as a troopship during World War I
Naval service
Following Olympic's return to Britain, the White Star Line intended to lay her up in Belfast until the war was over, but in May 1915 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty, to be used as a troop transport, along with the Cunard liners Mauretania and Aquitania. The Admiralty had initially been reluctant to use large ocean liners as troop transports because of their vulnerability to enemy attack, however a shortage of ships gave them little choice. At the same time, Olympic's other sister ship Britannic, which had not yet been completed, was requisitioned as a hospital ship. In that role she would strike a mine and sink the following year.[54]
Stripped of her peacetime fittings, and armed with 12-pounders and 4.7-inch guns, Olympic was converted to a troopship, with the capacity to transport up to 6,000 troops. On 24 September 1915 the newly designated HMT (Hired Military Transport) 2810, now under the command of Bertram Fox Hayes left Liverpool carrying 6,000 soldiers to Mudros, Greece for the Gallipoli Campaign. On 1 October she sighted lifeboats from the French ship Provincia which had been sunk by a U-boat that morning off Cape Matapan and picked up 34 survivors. Hayes was heavily criticised for this action by the British Admiralty, who accused him of putting the ship in danger by stopping it in waters where enemy U-boats were active. The ship's speed was considered to be its best defence against U-boat attack, and such a large ship stopped would have made an unmissable target. However the French Vice-Admiral Louis Dartige du Fournet took a different view, and awarded Hayes with the Gold Medal of Honour. Olympic made several more trooping journeys to the Mediterranean until early 1916, when the Gallipoli Campaign was abandoned.[55]
Olympic in dazzle at Halifax, Nova Scotia painted by Arthur Lismer
In 1916, considerations were made to use Olympic to transport troops to India via the Cape of Good Hope. However on investigation it turned out she was unsuitable for this role, because her coal bunkers, which had been designed for transatlantic runs, lacked the capacity for such a long journey at a reasonable speed.[56] Instead, from 1916 to 1917, Olympic was chartered by the Canadian Government to transport troops from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Britain.[57] In 1917 she gained 6-inch guns and was painted with a "dazzle" camouflage scheme to make it more difficult for observers to estimate her speed and heading. Her dazzle colours were brown, dark blue, light blue, and white. Her many visits to Halifax Harbour carrying Canadian troops safely overseas, and back home after the war, made her a favourite symbol in the City of Halifax. Noted Group of Seven artist Arthur Lismer made several paintings of her in Halifax. A large dance hall, "Olympic Gardens" was also named in her honour. After the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Olympic also transported thousands of U.S. troops to Britain.[58]
In the early hours of 12 May 1918, while en route for France with US troops under the command of Captain Hayes, Olympic sighted a surfaced U-boat 500 m (1,600 ft) ahead.[59] Her gunners opened fire at once, and she turned to ram the submarine, which immediately crash dived to 30 m (98 ft) and turned to a parallel course. Almost immediately afterwards Olympic struck the submarine just aft of her conning tower and her port propeller sliced through U-103's pressure hull. The crew of U-103 blew her ballast tanks, scuttled and abandoned the submarine. Olympic returned to Southampton with at least two hull plates dented and her prow twisted to one side, but not breached.[60]
Olympic did not stop to pick up survivors, but continued on to Cherbourg. The USS Davis sighted a distress flare and picked up 31 survivors from U-103. It was discovered that U-103 had been preparing to torpedo the Olympic when she was sighted, but the crew could not flood the two stern torpedo tubes.[61] For this service, Captain Hayes was awarded the DSO.[62] Some American soldiers on board paid for a plaque to be placed in one of Olympic's lounges to commemorate the event, it read:
This tablet presented by the 59th Regiment United States Infantry commemorates the sinking of the German submarine U103 by the Olympic on May 12th 1918 in latitude 49 degrees 16 minutes north longitude 4 degrees 51 minutes west on the voyage from New York to Southampton with American troops...[63]
During the war, Olympic is reported to have carried up to 201,000 troops and other personnel, burning 347,000 tons of coal and travelling about 184,000 miles.[64] Her impressive World War I service earned her the nickname Old Reliable.[65] Her captain was knighted in 1919 for "valuable services in connection with the transport of troops".[66]
Post-war
In August 1919 Olympic returned to Belfast for restoration to civilian service. Her interior was modernised and her boilers were converted to burn oil rather than coal. Oil was cheaper than coal, it lowered the refuelling time from days to hours, and allowed the engine room personnel to be reduced from 350 to 60 people.[67] During the conversion work and drydocking, a dent with a crack at the centre was discovered below her waterline which was later concluded to have been caused by a torpedo that had failed to detonate.[68]
Olympic at Southampton in 1929
Olympic emerged from her refit with an increased tonnage of 46,439, allowing her to retain her claim to the title of largest British built liner afloat, although the Cunard Line's Aquitania was slightly longer. In 1920 she returned to passenger service, on one voyage that year carrying 2,249 passengers.[69] Olympic transported a record 38,000 passengers during 1921, which proved to be the peak year of her career. From 1922 she was joined for an express service by Majestic and Homeric; two former German liners which had been ceded to Britain as war reparations, operating successfully until the Great Depression reduced demand after 1930.[70]
During the 1920s, Olympic remained a popular and fashionable ship, and often attracted the rich and famous of the day; Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, and Prince Edward, then Prince of Wales, were among the celebrities that she carried.[71] Prince Edward and Captain Howarth were filmed on the bridge of the Olympic for Pathé News.[72] One of the attractions of the Olympic was the fact that she was nearly identical to the Titanic, and many passengers sailed on the Olympic as a way of vicariously experiencing the voyage of the Olympic's ill-fated sister ship.[73]
On 22 March 1924, Olympic was involved in another collision with a ship, this time at New York. As Olympic was reversing from her berth at New York harbour, her stern collided with the smaller liner Fort St George, which had crossed into her path. The collision caused extensive damage to the smaller ship. At first it appeared that Olympic had sustained only minor damage, but it was later revealed that her sternpost had been fractured, necessitating the replacement of her entire stern frame.[74]
Changes in immigration laws in the United States in the 1920s greatly restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter. This led to a major reduction in the immigrant trade for the shipping lines, forcing them to cater to the tourist trade to survive.[3] At the turn of 1927–28, Olympic was converted to carry tourist third cabin passengers as well as first, second and third class.[75] Tourist third cabin was an attempt to attract travellers who desired comfort without the accompanying high ticket price. New public rooms were constructed for this class, although tourist third cabin and second class would merge to become 'tourist' by late 1931.
A year later, Olympic's first class cabins were again improved by adding more bathrooms, a dance floor was fitted in the enlarged first class dining saloon, and a number of new suites with private facilities were installed forward on B-deck.[76] More improvements would follow in a later refit, but 1929 saw Olympic's best average passenger lists since 1925.
On 18 November 1929, as the Olympic was travelling westbound near to Titanic's last known position, the ship suddenly started to vibrate violently, and the vibrations continued for two minutes. It was later determined that this had been caused by the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake.[77]
Last years
The shipping trade was badly affected by the Great Depression. Until 1930 there had generally been around one million passengers a year on the transatlantic route, but by 1934 this had dropped by more than half. Furthermore, by the early 1930s, increased competition emerged, in the form of a new generation of larger and faster liners such as Germany's SS Bremen and SS Europa, Italy's SS Rex and France's SS Île de France, and the remaining passengers tended to prefer the more up to date ships. Olympic had averaged around 1,000 passengers per journey until 1930, but this declined by more than half by 1932.[78]
Olympic's running mate Homeric was withdrawn from the transatlantic route as early as 1932, leaving only Olympic and Majestic maintaining White Star Line's Southampton-New York service, although this was occasionally augmented during the summer months by either the MV Britannic or MV Georgic. [79]
At the end of 1932, with passenger traffic in decline, Olympic went for an overhaul and refit that took four months. She returned to service in March 1933 described by her owners as "looking like new." Her engines were performing at their best and she repeatedly recorded speeds in excess of 23 knots, despite averaging less than that in regular transatlantic service. Passenger capacities were given as 618 first class, 447 tourist class and only 382 third class after the decline of the immigrant trade.[80]
Despite this, during 1933 and 1934, Olympic ran at a net operating loss for the first time. 1933 was Olympic's worst year of business – carrying just over 9,000 passengers in total.[81] Passenger numbers rose slightly in 1934, but many crossings still lost money.[79]
Olympic in 1934, passing the lightvessel she struck and sank a few months later
Lightship collision
In 1934, Olympic again struck a ship. The approaches to New York were marked by lightships and Olympic, like other liners, had been known to pass close by these vessels. On 15 May 1934, Olympic, inbound in heavy fog, was homing in on the radio beacon of Nantucket Lightship LV-117.[82] Now under the command of Captain John Binks, the ship failed to turn in time and sliced through the smaller vessel, which broke apart and sank.[83] Four of the lightship's crew went down with the vessel and seven were rescued, of whom three died of their injuries – thus there were seven fatalities out of a crew of eleven.[84] The lightship's surviving crew and the Olympic's captain were interviewed soon after reaching shore. One crewman said it all happened so quickly that they didn't know how it happened. The captain was very sorry it happened but said the Olympic reacted very quickly lowering boats to rescue the crew, which was confirmed by an injured crewman.[85]
Retirement
Olympic (left) and Mauretania laid up in Southampton prior to their scrapping.
In 1934, the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line at the instigation of the British government, to form Cunard White Star.[86] This merger allowed funds to be granted for the completion of the future RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth. When completed, these two new ships would handle Cunard White Star's transatlantic business, and so their fleet of older liners became redundant and were gradually retired.
Olympic was withdrawn from the transatlantic service, and left New York for the last time on 5 April 1935, returning to Britain to be laid up.[when?] Her new owners considered using her for summer cruises for a short while, but this idea was abandoned and she was put up for sale. Among the potential buyers was a syndicate who proposed to turn her into a floating hotel off the south coast of France, but this came to nothing.[87] After being laid up for five months alongside her former rival Mauretania, she was sold to Sir John Jarvis – Member of Parliament for £97,500, to be partially demolished at Jarrow to provide work for the depressed region.[88] Her superstructure was demolished in 1936, and in 1937, Olympic's hull was towed to Inverkeithing to T.W. Ward's yard for final demolition.[89]
By the time of her retirement, Olympic had completed 257 round trips across the Atlantic, transporting 430,000 passengers on her commercial voyages, travelling 1.8 million miles.[87][90]
Olympic artefacts
Fittings from the ship installed in the Olympic Suite at the White Swan Hotel, Alnwick
The marble fireplace from the Olympic now at the White Swan, Alnwick
The Olympic's fittings were auctioned off immediately before she was scrapped; some of her fittings, namely those of the first-class lounge and part of the aft grand staircase, can be found in the White Swan Hotel, in Alnwick, Northumberland, England. The rest of her fittings found homes in scattered places throughout Great Britain.[91]
In 2000, Celebrity Cruises purchased some of Olympic's original wooden panels to create the RMS Olympic restaurant on board their new cruise ship, Millennium. According to Celebrity Cruise Line, this wood panelling once lined Olympic's à la carte restaurant.[91]
The clock depicting "Honour and Glory Crowning Time" from Olympic's grand staircase is on display at Southampton's SeaCity Museum.[92][93]
The strongest of all the African flag-carriers, Ethiopian Airlines is currently undergoing major international expansion at present. Compared to South African Airways which is downsizing and trying to cut down their losses; Ethiopian operates a modern fleet of airliners, but also doesn't suffer from the hot-and-high altitude of Johannesburg, instead at a lower terrain at Addis Ababa.
Currently, Ethiopian operates a daily flight between Addis Ababa and London Heathrow utilising Airbus A350-900s (although Boeing 777-200LRs and Boeing 787-8s occasionally appear). ET700 operates 6 times weekly except Monday whereby the flight arrives in the early morning, whilst ET710 operates Mondays only but arrives in the mid-afternoon. ET701 is the evening return flight and operates daily.
From 2nd June 2018, Ethiopian Airlines is increasing the number of flights from daily to 10 times a week. ET718/719 will operate Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday only, and will arrive into London Heathrow in the early evening before flying back out in the morning (it is likely that the ET700 will work the ET719 leg back to Addis Ababa on certain days). The flights will be operated by Airbus A350-900s.
Currently, Ethiopian Airlines operates 7 Airbus A350-900s, with 17 more on-order.
Alpha Uniform Bravo is one of 7 Airbus A350-900s in service with Ethiopian Airlines, delivered new to the flag-carrier in June 2017 on lease from PAAL and she is powered by 2 Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engines. She is named after the Gheralta Mountains located in the Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia.
Airbus A350-941 ET-AUB 'Gheralta Mountains' on final approach into Runway 27L at London Heathrow (LHR) on ET710 from Addis Ababa-Bole (ADD).
Österreich / Vorarlberg - Bregenzerwald
Alberschwende
The Bregenz Forest (German: Bregenzerwald, pronounced [ˈbʁeːɡɛnt͡sɐˌvalt]) is one of the main regions in the state of Vorarlberg (Austria). It overlaps, but is not coterminous with, the Bregenz Forest Mountains, which belong to a range of the Northern Limestone Alps, specifically the northern flysch zone. It is the drainage basin of the Bregenzer Ach river.
The regional inhabitants often divide the Bregenz Forest into two main areas, the Vorderwald ("anterior forest") and Hinterwald ("hinterforest"). The Vorderwald, with its hills and low mountains, is closest to the Rhine valley. The Hinterwald has the higher mountains, with altitudes of up to 2,000 metres. Each of the two regions has its own distinctive dialect variations.
Until 1814, parts of the Allgäu in the north and north-west belonged to Vorarlberg. Since the entire region was settled by the Alemanni, the Lake Constance Alemannic dialect became predominant beginning in the 5th and 6th centuries. Over the centuries there was a brisk trading of goods which, with the increased extension of marriages and family networks, led to a linguistic intermingling. Especially in the "Vorderwald" the influence of the Allgäu dialect is particularly noticeable. By contrast, in the Mittelwald and Hinterwald regions the predominant language forms show a stronger connection with the Hofsteig region and Dornbirn. Speakers outside of the Bregenzer Wald region perceive (Wälderisch) as an idiom of its own. It must be noted, however, that there is no uniform Vorarlbergisch dialect - there are considerable local and regional variations. The official language in Vorarlberg is, of course, High German (Hochdeutsch).
Traditional costumes ("Tracht") have a long history in Vorarlberg. Many valleys and villages have their own kind of garb, each with special characteristics from certain style periods. The Bregenzerwälder garb is the oldest of its kind. It originated in the 15/16th century. The Bregenzerwälder tracht for women is called "d'Juppô" (Bavarian: "Juppe"). One of the last places that still manufacture the Juppe in the traditional way is the Juppenwerkstatt Riefensberg.
In 2014, the project BUS:STOP Krumbach was completed. When the municipality of Krumbach decided to rebuild seven bus stops in 2010, they hired seven international architects to design bus shelters. Local craftsmen executed their designs. While each stop differs in design, the bus stops are all meant to uniquely integrate architecture into the natural surroundings.
The Werkraum Bregenzerwald is an association of craftsmen in the Bregenz Forest founded in 1999. It aims at networking and supporting craft, design and technology businesses in the area. The publicly accessible place is used to present the craftsmanship, to promote building culture in cooperation with architects and to increase design competence and quality of craftsmanship with the preferred involvement of young people.
Residents of the Bregenz Forest earn their living primarily from tourism, agriculture and especially the wood processing industry. Many locals also commute to work in the Rhine Valley, Vorarlberg's economic center.
Alpine transhumance denotes the three-tier agricultural structure of the Bregenz Forest. It is the seasonal movement of livestock between mountain and lowland pastures, usually under the care of herders. In spring 2011, it was declared as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. It was recognised that the Bregenz Forest is "an impressive landscape on the north side of the Alps" that has "largely maintained its traditional farming structure." This includes linear or nucleated villages, with farmsteads dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, there are many small craft workshops within the farming communities. Singled out for particular mention were the villages of Thal, Schwarzenberg, and Schoppernau, with their outstanding examples of original Bregenz Forest houses ("Wälderhäuser").
The Bregenz Forest is known also as a skiing region, but other attractions include the "Käsestraße" and the "Schubertiade" festival of classical music, in Schwarzenberg. The Bregenz Forest is cherished for its unspoiled nature, old traditions, and genuine hospitality. It is also particularly well-known amongst gourmets for its "KäseStrasse Bregenzerwald", an association of farmers, restaurateurs, craftspeople and traders promoting the Bregenz Forest agriculture and its local products, especially cheese. In particular, Bregenz Forest Mountain Cheese ("Bregenzerwälder Bergkäse") and the Alpkäse are internationally renowned specialities.
The Bregenz Forest Railway ("Bregenzerwaldbahn" or, colloquially, "’s Wälderbähnle") is a favorite attraction of the region. It is a museum railway that operates on a surviving section of a narrow gauge railway. From 1902 to 1983, the "Wälderbähnle" worked a line stretching 35.5 kilometres (22 mi) from Bregenz to Bezau. In October 2004, a section of 5 km (3.1 mi) was opened up for tourists again.
In 2000, the Women's Museum opened in Hittisau, the only one of its kind in Austria. The museum is devoted to the display and documentation of the cultural works and (her) stories of women, which deal with a broad variety of topics, including questions of female identity and gender roles.
Another cultural attraction in the Bregenz Forest is the Angelika Kauffmann Museum in Schwarzenberg. The museum is dedicated to the Classicist artist Angelica Kauffman, and has an Austrian museum seal of quality.
The region is also popular because of its hiking and cycling trails.
(Wikipedia)
Bregenzerwald ist die Bezeichnung für eine Region im österreichischen Bundesland Vorarlberg. Diese umfasst im Wesentlichen das Einzugsgebiet der Bregenzer Ach südöstlich von Bregenz, in der Nähe des Bodensees, bis an den Hochtannbergpass.
Der Bregenzerwald ist vor allem für seine Architektur, die Landschaftspflege durch die 3-Stufen Landwirtschaft (Maiensäss), die zugehörigen Sennereiprodukte sowie für den Wintersport bekannt.
„Bregenzerwald“ ist die in Vorarlberg und meistens auch im übrigen Österreich gängige Schreibweise. In Deutschland wird zum Teil auch die Schreibweise „Bregenzer Wald“ verwendet. Dieter Seibert, der Autor der Alpenvereinsführer der Region, weist darauf hin, dass die Gegend heute kein reines Waldgebiet mehr ist, sondern eine Kulturlandschaft mit Almen/Alpen, man daher nicht mehr von einem Bregenzer „Wald“ sprechen kann, sondern einen Regionsbegriff vorliegen hat, die getrennte Schreibweise also veraltet wäre.[2]
Der Name Bregenzerwaldgebirge wird dagegen im Zusammenhang mit der Einteilung der Alpen in Untergruppen verwendet. Beide Begriffe sind nicht deckungsgleich. Der Bregenzerwald umfasst auch Teile der Allgäuer Alpen und des Lechquellengebirges. Umgekehrt greift das Bregenzerwaldgebirge auch in die Landschaften des Rheintals, des Walgaus und des Großen Walsertals aus.
Der Bregenzerwald grenzt im Westen an die im Rheintal befindliche Bodenseeregion, im Norden an Deutschland bzw. Bayern (Landkreise Lindau und Oberallgäu), im Nordosten an das Kleinwalsertal, im Osten am Tannberg an das Arlberggebiet und im Süden an das Große Walsertal.
Um das Jahr 1000 wurde der damals noch ganz bewaldete Bregenzerwald von Bregenz aus besiedelt und kultiviert. Die höchstgelegenen Gebiete hingegen wurden im Spätmittelalter von Walsern besiedelt, die aus dem Graubünden beziehungsweise ursprünglich aus dem Wallis stammten.
Während die nördlichen Teile des Bregenzerwaldes (die Gerichte Alberschwende, Lingenau und Sulzberg) zur Herrschaft Bregenz gehörten, waren die Gerichte Damüls und Innerbregenzerwald Teil der Herrschaft Feldkirch. Diese 1338 vollzogene Teilung ist die Grundlage für die heute noch gängige Unterscheidung von vorderem und hinterem Bregenzerwald.
1390 fielen mit dem Verkauf der Grafschaft Feldkirch der Innerbregenzerwald und Damüls an Österreich, die Gerichte Lingenau und Alberschwende folgten 1451. Der Tannberg mit den Bregenzerwäldergemeinden Schröcken und Warth wurde 1453 österreichisch, und 1523 erwarben die Habsburger schließlich auch noch das Gericht Sulzberg.
Nach 1380 bildete sich insbesondere im Innerbregenzerwald eine Selbstverwaltung der Bauernschaft des Waldes heraus (sogenannte Bauernrepublik), mit eigener freier Landgemeinde, eigener Verfassung (Landsbrauch) und Hoch- und Blutgerichtsbarkeit. Als Vorsteher wurde ein Landammann gewählt, meist aus den angesehensten Familien des Bregenzerwaldes. Auf der noch erhaltenen Landammännertafel finden sich viele der bekannten Namen, die ursprünglich aus dem Bregenzerwald stammen, z. B. Feurstein, Meusburger, Metzler, mit ihren Wappen abgebildet.
Der Landammann wurde in freier Wahl bestellt, sein Rathaus stand auf der Bezegg zwischen Bezau und Andelsbuch. Heute erinnert dort die Bezegg-Sul, eine steinerne Säule an das frühere Rathaus.
Bestätigt wird die Existenz der Bauernrepublik in der Überlieferung zum Kapuzinerpater Stanislaus Saurbeck (1595–1647): Der Bregenzer Wald sei noch zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts „eine lange unerschlossene Wildnis“ gewesen, die „bereits in den Chroniken des 16. Jahrhunderts einen schlechten Ruf“ besessen habe.
Die Chronisten erklären die „(tiefe) Stufe des sittlich-religiösen Lebens“ der Bewohner, „obgleich sie von katholischen Eltern abstammten“ mit Gebräuchen und Sitten von „heidnischen Voreltern“, die sie wie einen „krassen Aberglauben beibehalten hatten. So roh, wild und sittenlos sie in ihrem Betragen waren, ebenso schamlos und ärgerlich sollen vorzüglich die Weibsbilder gekleidet gewesen sein.“
„Eine gründliche Erneuerung und sittliche Umgestaltung im ganzen Bregenzerwalde“ erfolgte erst auf Initiative von Pater Stanislaus: Die Kapuziner „eilten in ihrem unersättlichen Durste nach Seelen von Hütte zu Hütte, von Dorf zu Dorf, belehrten das Volk durch Gespräche, Christenlehren und Predigten, ruhten und rasteten nicht eher, bevor die Eisdecke einbrach und die rauhen und kalten Gemüter warm wurden.“
In der weiteren Folge der Missionisierung kam es in der Talschaft „zur Gründung eines kleinen Kapuzinerklosters. Am 12. Juli 1655 legte der Abt von Mehrerau, Heinrich Amberg, den Grundstein zum Klosterbau [in Bezau], am 22. Oktober 1656 wurde die Klosterkirche vom Fürstbischof Johann von Praßberg konsekrisiert.“
Bereits 1658 wurde die letzte Untertänigkeit, die zum Kloster Mehrerau, aufgelöst – also 190 Jahre vor der Bauernbefreiung von 1848.
So war es den Bregenzerwäldern, im Gegensatz zu den meisten Bauern der damaligen Zeit, möglich, sich als Freie überall niederzulassen. Man findet vor allem im Schwäbischen zahlreiche Namen, die auf den Bregenzerwald zurückgehen.
Die bäuerliche Verfassung wurde während der Franzosenkriege abgeschafft und danach nicht mehr eingeführt.
Noch zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts gab es unzählige Alpen und Höfe, auf denen die Land- und Viehwirtschaft sowie die Herstellung von Käse betrieben wurden. Auch heute sind noch zahlreiche Alpen bewirtschaftet, doch wird dies zunehmend von weniger Bauern betrieben.
Bis etwa zum Jahr 1900 mussten viele Bregenzerwälder Kinder von Mai bis Oktober ins baden-württembergische Schwaben (Deutschland) gehen, um dort auf Bauernhöfen zu arbeiten. So gab es in der Sommerzeit für ihre Eltern ein Kind weniger zu füttern. Diese Kinder wurden unter dem Namen Schwabenkinder bekannt.
Ein Bregenzerwaldhaus ist auf der Rückseite der 100-Schilling-Banknote von 1970 zu sehen.
Im Bregenzerwald herrscht das Bodenseealemannische vor. Vor allem im nordwestlichen Teil des Bregenzerwaldes (= Vorderwald) ist der Einfluss des Allgäuerischen hörbar, dabei ähnelt die Mundart stark dem westallgäuerischen Dialekt. Dagegen dominieren im Mittel- und Hinterwald Sprachformen, die eine stärkere Verbindung mit der Region Hofsteig und Dornbirn belegen. Von außen wird aber der Wälderdialekt trotz dieser Mehrschichtigkeit und beachtlicher lokaler bis kleinregionaler Eigenheiten als ein Idiom („Wälderisch“) wahrgenommen, das sich von den anderen Vorarlberger Dialekten (ein einheitliches Vorarlbergisch gibt es nicht) deutlich hörbar abhebt.
Während alle bisher genannten Mundarten mittelalemannisch sind, wird in den hoch gelegenen Dörfern Damüls, Schröcken und Warth ein höchstalemannischer Dialekt gesprochen. Dies rührt daher, dass diese Orte im Hochmittelalter von Walsern besiedelt wurden, die aus dem Kanton Graubünden in das Gebiet des heutigen Vorarlbergs eingewandert sind.
Dokumentiert werden die Mundarten des Bregenzerwalds unter anderem im fünfbändigen Vorarlberger Sprachatlas mit Einschluss des Fürstentums Liechtenstein, Westtirols und des Allgäus (VALTS).
Die Bregenzerwaldbahn („’s Wälderbähnle“) ist eine weitere Attraktion des Bregenzerwaldes. Dabei handelt es sich um eine Museumsbahn, die auf einem noch erhaltenen Reststück der Schmalspurbahn verkehrt. Von 1902 bis 1983 befuhr das „Wälderbähnle“ die 35,5 km lange Strecke von Bregenz nach Bezau. Bis Oktober 2004 konnte man 6,1 km Strecke befahren, jedoch musste ein Teilstück dem Straßenausbau weichen, womit nur mehr eine Strecke von 5 km zur Verfügung steht.
Seit 2000 befindet sich in Hittisau im Bregenzerwald das bisher einzige Frauenmuseum Österreichs. Es widmet sich dem Kulturschaffen und dem Lebensumfeld von Frauen.
Ein weiteres Museum im Bregenzerwald ist das Angelika Kauffmann Museum in Schwarzenberg. Es widmet sich der Malerin Angelika Kauffmann und ist mit dem Österreichischen Museumsgütesiegel ausgezeichnet.
Ein beliebtes Ausflugsziel ist der Bregenzerwald auch wegen seiner Wander- und Radwege und der zahlreichen Skigebiete.
Die angeschlossenen Gemeindeämter geben von Mai bis Oktober eine für Gäste kostenlose Bregenzerwaldcard aus, um den öffentlichen Verkehr zu stärken und gleichzeitig den Individual- und Freizeitverkehr zu reduzieren.
(Wikipedia)
Scotswood Bridge is one of the main bridges crossing the River Tyne in North East England. It links the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank of the river with the MetroCentre and Blaydon in Gateshead on the south bank. It is situated 5.2 km (3.2 mi) upstream of the better-known city centre bridges.
The Chain Bridge
Scotswood Bridge over River Tyne Act 1829
The first bridge across the river at this location was the Old Scotswood Bridge, or "The Chain Bridge" as it was known locally. It was a suspension bridge with two stone towers, from which the road deck was suspended by chains. An act to authorise the building of the bridge was passed by Parliament in 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. x) and designed by John Green, with construction beginning that year. It was opened on 16 April 1831.
The toll to cross the bridge was abolished on 18 March 1907. In 1931 the bridge needed to be strengthened and widened. The width was increased from 17 ft (5.2 m) to 19.5 ft (5.9 m) with two 6 ft (1.8 m) footpaths. The suspension cables and decking were also strengthened, allowing the weight limit to be raised to 10 tonnes (9.842 long tons; 11.02 short tons). The bridge eventually proved too narrow for the traffic it needed to carry and its increasing repair costs proved too much. After standing for 136 years, it was closed and demolished in 1967 after its replacement had been completed.
Current bridge
Scotswood Bridge Act 1962
A replacement for the Chain Bridge had been proposed as early as 1941. Permission was finally granted in 1960, and authorised by an act of Parliament, the Scotswood Bridge Act 1962. A new bridge was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson and built by Mitchell Construction and Dorman Long. Construction commenced on 18 September 1964. It was built 43 m upstream of the Chain Bridge, which continued operating during the new bridge's construction. The bridge was opened on 20 March 1967. It is a box girder bridge, supported by two piers in the river and carries a dual carriageway road. Combined costs for demolition of the old bridge and construction of the new one were £2.5 million.
Scotswood Bridge carried the traffic of the Gateshead A69 western by-pass from 1970 up until the construction of Blaydon Bridge and the new A1 in 1990. Between June 1971 and January 1974 traffic on the bridge was limited to single file to enable strengthening work to take place, which was needed to address design concerns. It has required further strengthening and repairs a number of times since; between 1979 and 1980, in 1983 and in 1990.
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.
2 Cackling Goose subspecies
"Ridgway" Cackling Goose CACG* (Branta hutchinsii minima)
&
Taverner’s (Cackling) Goose CACG* (Branta hutchinsii taverneri)
Fields Near McIntyre Reservoir
Martindale Flats
Saanich, British Columbia, Canada
3L0A0166 - Copy
Field Mark Cues ^i^
CACG stubbier bill than regular Canada Goose types
Between Minima and Taverner's ::
Minima Shorter necks and smaller head size not much different than thickness of neck
Body size is obviously larger in Tavern, breast plumage usually paler and never should have shiny/gloss effect as in many Minima
Smaller = "Ridgway" Cackling Goose CACG* (Branta hutchinsii minima)
aka "Minima" subspecies
Larger = = Taverner’s (Cackling) Goose
CACG* (Branta hutchinsii taverneri )
Part of an ongoing self induced White Cheek Goose Study / Review
"Minima" subspecies
is usually our most common overwint'ring cackler
but
this in recent Years it seems that the numbers of
Taverner’s
are Increasing
Fall River, Massachusetts
December 2024
Background
*Jewish settlement of Fall River began in 1875, and increased during the 1880’s and ‘90’s during a period of high emigration rates of Jews from Eastern Europe to the U.S.
*Between 1884 and 1926, seven synagogues emerged across Fall River, including Temple Beth El, which was formed as “Congregation Beth El” in 1924, with the current building being built between 1928 and 1929.
*The first gatherings of Congregation Beth El met for services in a music hall on Franklin St. in 1926. In 1927, a wooden church was purchased and converted into a synagogue; after only 5 months, this building was burned to the ground in the “Great Fire” of 1928. Some members rushed into the burning building and managed to salvage a number of the Torah scrolls and the magnificent menorahs that grace either side of our present bima.
Current Building on High Street
*In March 1928, a house and lot were purchased by Congregation Beth El on the corner of High and Locust Streets (our current location) from Mr. Abraham Zais. The house was razed, and a young architect, Samuel Dubitsky, was engaged to design and oversee the construction of a new temple.
*The cornerstone was laid on October 28, 1928, and the building, named Temple Beth El, was dedicated on Sept. 22, 1029.
*Shortly after this, land was purchased for the Temple Beth El Cemetery.
*Temple Beth El reached its zenith during the 1950’s, under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Samuel S. Ruderman when its membership swelled to over 600 families, with 450 students in the Hebrew school. During these years a large school building and auditorium were built. Also during this period there was a celebrated series of adult educational forums, called the “Adult Education Series,” featuring internationally-recognized scholars and public speakers. This forum was open to subscription by the wider Fall River public. Both Jews and non-Jews packed the hall for these lectures, enjoying this unique opportunity in Fall River to widen their horizons and enrich their minds.
*With the decline of the textile industry and related businesses in Fall River, the Jewish population of Fall River has, sadly, also declined. During the 60’s and 70’s, the sons and daughters of the Jewish families who had prospered in Fall River went off to the best colleges and universities, and had the chance to experience life in larger metropolitan areas. Most did not return to settle and raise their families here. Like synagogues and churches all across the United States, we are wrestling with how to meet the unique challenges of contemporary society’s approach to spirituality and religious and institutional affiliation. However, we still have a wonderful core of warm, down-to-earth communally- and spiritually-engaged members, and we have recently had a small upswing in Temple membership, largely due to our new spiritual leaders, Rabbi Mark Elber and Cantor Shoshana Brown (see below under “Spiritual Leadership”), who have revived the Temple Hebrew School after many years of dormancy.
*Temple Beth El has always had a vibrant Sisterhood (and in the past had a Brotherhood as well). The Sisterhood continues to support the Temple in many ways, with a special emphasis on sponsoring such events as the annual Chanukah party and the 2nd Night of Passover Community Seder, and maintaining the Temple Judaica gift shop.
*Temple Beth El houses an excellent Jewish library, holding thousands of books, and is still adding new selections. Members have full borrowing privileges.
Ruth 3:18
Then she said, "Sit still my daughter, until you know the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest ".until he has concluded the matter this day."
The Lake Placid Tower in Lake Placid, Florida, formerly named Placid Tower, Tower of Peace or Happiness Tower, is a closed observation tower 240 feet (73.2 m) tall according to early sources (before 1982) or 270 feet (82.3 m) tall according to late sources (after 1986). However, no physical modification of the tower occurred in the interim that would explain a 30-foot increase in height. It rests on ground 142 feet (43 m) above sea level (NAVD 88). As a warning to aircraft, the top of the tower, including antennae, is stated to be 392 feet (119.5 m) above sea level by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Thus, the height of the tower above ground, including antennae, is 250 feet (76.2 m) (392–142=250), which excludes a 270-foot architectural height, allowing only a 240-foot architectural height. Counting the tower's 8-inch (20.3 cm) courses yields a height above ground of 235–236 feet (71.6–71.9 m), so the lowest few feet of the 240-foot height, those resting on the foundation, are underground, providing space for an elevator pit.
According to early sources the tower has three observation levels, at 192 feet (58.5 m) behind windows, at 200 feet (61.0 m) on an open air balcony, and at 225 feet (68.6 m) in the open air crow's nest, Eagle's Nest, or Birds eye vantage point on top of the elevator shaft but below roof tracery. The apex of the tower is a flashing red aircraft warning light. The tower is 360 feet (110 m) above sea level according to two late sources, the latter stating that that elevation applies to the eagle's nest, which is consistent with the crow's nest elevation of early sources (142+225=367≈360). The tower offered a 40-mile (65 km) panoramic view.
Earnest Oakley Hunt dreamed of building an observation tower when he moved to Orlando in 1938, then moved to Sebring in 1947 and found the perfect location in nearby Lake Placid. He and Robert Gray formed Air View Corporation to build the tower. The tower was designed by architect A. Wynn Howell of Lakeland, built by Ridge Builders of Sebring in 1960 for $350,000 (equivalent to $2,300,000 in 2018), and opened January 1, 1961. Most sources state that it was the tallest concrete block structure in the world when it opened, with 90,000 concrete blocks, but the magazine Florida Architect states that it was built of reinforced concrete. One source states that the tower included 100,000 limestone blocks from Ocala while another states that it was faced with ceramic tile, implying that the tower has a facade of limestone tile.
The tower below the balcony is 25 feet 4 inches (7.72 m) square, with its four vertical corners replaced by grooves (each 8 inches (20 cm) per side). The section above the balcony is 21 feet (6.40 m) square, also with corner grooves. Each wall is divided into vertical thirds. The outer thirds are composed of reinforced concrete blocks with a facade of limestone tile.
The middle thirds are composed of decorative breeze or fence concrete blocks. The tower has a foundation made from 520 cubic yards (400 m3) of concrete reinforced with 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg) of steel. The tracery atop the tower is made of gold anodized aluminum.
Because of low ticket sales, the tower closed in 1982 when the owner would not pay their Internal Revenue Service taxes, but it was re-opened in 1986. The small group of owners still faced sluggish sales, and the tower and its restaurant continued to struggle, despite features such as a petting zoo in its plaza, and a pay phone at the top billed as the "highest pay phone in Florida."The last owner who operated the tower as a tourist attraction was Lake Placid Tower Group owned by Mark Cambell since 1992. He sold it to CHL Tower Group on November 6, 2003 which has operated it as a cell phone tower ever since. Even though the tower closed about 2003, it still has two red "OPEN" signs at its top, facing north and south
Originally, the tower above the balcony had the same basic design scheme as that below it. But after the tower closed, the portion of the tower from the balcony up was redesigned with a white and cyan (blue-green) color scheme. The limestone tile of the outer thirds of the walls was covered with white stucco, and the middle thirds were covered with thin cyan-colored panels which blocked the bird's eye view. These panels covered the two opposing triangular openings in the middle third of each wall and the breeze or fence blocks between them. The roof tracery above and the balcony below them were also painted cyan.
The Tower View restaurant at the base of the tower closed in 2015. The tower is among 35 designated Lake Placid historic structures. It is one of three towers in Central Florida, including the Citrus Tower, built in 1956, 100 miles (160 km) to the north in Clermont, and Bok Tower, built in 1929, 50 miles (80 km) to the north in Lake Wales.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Placid_Tower
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
I was able to make completely dark flames!! This definitely increases the supernatual level of Shadowmere. I also disabled the ENB and moved him to a brighter room, so we can better check the effects.
A maiko (apprentice geisha) from Osaka showing her obi (sash) tied in the traditional musubi (knot), called “ya giccha” (やぎっちゃ) in the Osaka-ben dialect or “ya kichiya” (矢吉弥) in standard Japanese, which loosely translates as “increasing good-luck arrow” knot. Her hair is dressed in the “mata kamigata” (また髪型) or forked-branch hairstyle.
Increased saturation and contrast on an old posting. Interesting technique in Photoshop (with the right start image).
Conservation Status
There have been documented increases in American white pelican populations in recent years, resulting from conservation efforts. Historically populations declined in response to destruction of breeding and foraging habitats and continued destruction of wetland habitats remains one of the most important influences on current populations. American white pelicans are especially sensitive to human disturbance at nesting sites, where human presence can result in temporary or permanent nest abandonment, increasing the likelihood of mortality associated with exposure and gull predation. Common human disturbances at nesting colonies are low-flying airplanes or motorboats. Pesticide use throughout their range has resulted in egg-shell thinning and poisoning. They are considered least concern by the IUCN because of their large population sizes and broad range. (Knopf and Evans, 2004)
Info: animaldiversity.org
The Brown-headed Cowbird is one of two species of cowbirds found in North America. Formerly occurring in the central grasslands of North America, wholesale clearing of forested land has allowed the Brown-headed Cowbird to extend its range across most of North America, and to increase its population dramatically. They are permanent residents in the southern parts of their range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April.
Brown-headed Cowbirds are smallish blackbirds, with a shorter tail and thicker head than most other blackbirds. The bill has a distinctive shape: it’s much shorter and thicker-based than other blackbirds, almost finch-like at first glance. Males have glossy black plumage and a rich dark brown head that often looks black in poor light or at distance. Females are plain brownish birds, lightest on the head and underparts, with fine streaking on the belly and a dark eye. Total length varies from 6.3 - 8.7 inches (16 - 22 cm ) with an the average wingspan of 14 inches (36 cm ).
Brown-headed Cowbirds occur in grasslands with low and scattered trees as well as woodland edges, brushy thickets, prairies, fields, pastures, orchards, and residential areas, but they generally avoid forests. Development and fragmentation of forests in the eastern United States have allowed Brown-headed Cowbirds to greatly expand their range eastward. In winter, Brown-headed Cowbirds roost along with several species of blackbirds in flocks numbering more than 100,000 birds.
Brown-headed Cowbirds feed on the ground and often in mixed-species groups of blackbirds and starlings. They feed mostly on seeds from grasses and weeds, with some crop grains. Insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, often caught as cows and horses stir them into movement, make up about a quarter of a cowbird’s diet. When not displaying or feeding on the ground, they often perch high on prominent tree branches.
The Brown-headed Cowbird is North America’s most common “brood parasite.” Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks. As you might imagine, female cowbirds have a large calcium requirement from laying so many eggs. To satisfy it, they eat snail shells and sometimes eggs taken from nests they’ve visited.
ISO1600, aperture f/8, exposure .003 seconds (1/400) focal length 630mm
Copper was discovered at Kuridala in 1884 and the Hampden Mine commenced during the 1890s. A Melbourne syndicate took over operations in 1897 and with increasing development of the mine in 1905 - 1906 the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company was formed. The township was surveyed as Hampden in 1910 (later called Friezland, and finally Kuridala in 1916). The Hampden Smelter operated from 1911 to 1920 with World War I being a particularly prosperous time for the company. After the war, the operations and the township declined and the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company ceased to exist in 1928. Tribute mining and further exploration and testing of the ore body has continued from 1932 through to the present day.
The Kuridala Township and Hampden Smelter are located approximately 65km south of Cloncurry and 345m above sea level, on an open plain against a background of rugged but picturesque hills.
The Cloncurry copper fields were discovered by Ernest Henry in 1867 but lack of capital and transport combined with low base metal prices precluded any major development. However, rising prices, new discoveries in the region and the promise of a railway combined with an inflow of British capital stimulated development. Additionally, Melbourne based promoters eager to develop another base metal bonanza like Broken Hill led to a resurgence of interest, especially in the Hampden mines.
The copper deposits at Kuridala (initially named Hampden) were discovered by William McPhail and Robert Johnson on their pastoral lease, Eureka, in January 1884. The Hampden mine was held by Fred Gibson in the 1890s and acquired in 1897 by a Melbourne syndicate comprising the 'Broken Hillionaires' - William Orr, William Knox, and Herman Schlapp. They floated the Hampden Copper Mines N. L. with a capital of £100,000 in £100 shares of which 200 were fully paid up. With this capital, they commenced a prospecting and stockpiling program sending specimens to Dapto and Wallaroo for testing. Government Geologist, W.E. Cameron's report on the district in 1900 discouraged investors as he reported that few of the lodes, other than the Hampden Company's main lode at Kuridala, were worth working.
A world price rise in copper in 1905, combined with a government decision in 1906 to extend the Townsville railway from Richmond to Cloncurry, stimulated further development. The Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited was registered in Victoria in March 1906 to acquire the old company's mines. However, the company only had a working capital of £35,000 after distributing vendor's shares and buying the Duchess mines. During this period there were over 20 companies investing similarly on the Cloncurry field.
The township was surveyed by the Mines Department around 1910 and was first known as Hampden after the mines discovered in the 1880s. By 1912 it was called Friezland, however was officially renamed Kuridala in October 1916 to minimise confusion with another settlement in Queensland. The reason for this change was considered to be linked to German names being unpopular at the outbreak of World War I.
Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited and its competitor, Mount Elliott, formed a special company in 1908 to finance and construct the railway extension from Cloncurry through Malbon, to Kuridala, and Mount Elliott. The company reconstructed in July 1909 by increasing its capitalisation, and concluding arrangements for a debenture issue to be secured against its proposed smelters. Its smelters were not fired until March 1911 and over the next three years 85,266 tons of ore were treated with an initial dividend of £140,000 being declared in 1913. In one month in 1915 the Hampden Smelter produced 813 tons of copper, an Australian record at that time.
Concern over the dwindling reserves of high grade ore led to William Corbould, the general manager of Mount Elliott mines, negotiating an amalgamation with Hampden Cloncurry to halt the fierce rivalry. But the latter was uninterested having consolidated its prospects in 1911 by acquiring many promising mines in the region, and enlarging its smelters and erecting new converters. In 1913, following a fire in the Hampden Consol's mine, Corbould convinced his London directors to reopen negotiations for a joint venture in the northern section of the field which still awaited a railway. Although Corbould and Huntley, the Hampden Cloncurry general manager, inspected many properties, the proposal lapsed.
The railway reached the township by 1910. A sanitary system was installed in 1911, after a four month typhoid epidemic, and a hospital erected by 1913, run by Dr. Old. It was described as the best and most modern hospital in the northwest. At its height, the town supported six hotels, five stores, four billiard saloons, three dance halls, and a cinema, two ice works, and one aerated waters factory, and Chinese gardens along the creek. There were also drapers, fruiterer, butcher, baker, timber merchant, garage, four churches, police station, court house, post office, banks, and a school with up to 280 pupils. A cyclone in December 1918 damaged the town and wrecked part of the powerhouse and smelter.
A comprehensive description of the plant and operations of the Kuridala Hampden mines and smelters was given by the Cloncurry mining warden in the Queensland Government Mining Journal of the 14th of September 1912. Ore from other company-owned mines (Duchess, Happy Salmon, MacGregor, and Trekelano) was railed in via a 1.2km branch line to the reduction plant bins, while the heavy pyrites ore from the Hampden mines was separated at the main shaft into coarse and fine products and conveyed to separate 1,500 ton capacity bins over a standard gauge railway to the plant.
A central power plant was installed with three separate Dowson pressure gas plants powered by three tandem type Kynoch gas engines of 320hp and two duplex type Hornsby gas engines of 200hp. Two Swedish General Electric Company generators of 1,250kw and 56kw running at 460 volts, supplied electricity to the machines in the works, fitting shops and mine pumps. Electric light for the mine and works was supplied by a British Thompson-Houston generator of 42kw, running at 420 volts. The fuel used in the gas producers was bituminous coal, coke or charcoal, made locally in the retorts.
The reduction plant consisted of two water-jacket furnaces, 2.1m by 1m and 4.2m by 1m, with dust chambers and a 52m high steel stack. There were two electrically driven converter vessels, each 3.2m by 2.3m. The molten product ran into a 3.7m diameter forehearth, while the slag was drawn off into double ton slag pots, run to the dump over 3 foot gauge, 42lb steel rail tracks. The copper was delivered from the forehearth to the converters. A 1.06m gauge track ran under the converters and carried the copper mould cars to the cleaning and shipping shed, at the end of which was the siding for railing out the cakes of blister copper.
The war conferred four years of prosperity on the Cloncurry district despite marketing, transport, and labour difficulties. The Hampden Cloncurry Company declared liberal dividends during 1915 - 1918: £40,000, £140,000, £52,500 and £35,000 making a total disbursement since commencing operations of £437,500. Its smelters treated over a quarter of a million tons of ore in this period, averaging over 70,000 tons annually. The company built light railways to its mines (e.g. Wee MacGregor and Trekelano) to ensure regular ore supplies and to reduce transport costs. In order to improve its ore treatment, Hampden Cloncurry installed a concentration plant in 1917. In 1918 an Edwards furnace was erected to pre-roast fine sulphide concentrates from the mill before smelting.
The dropping of the copper price control by the British government in 1918 forced the company into difficulties. Smelting was postponed until September 1919 and the company lost heavily during the next season and had to rely on ores from the Trekelano mine. Its smelter treated 69,598 tons of ore in 1920, but the company was forced to halt all operations after the Commonwealth Bank withdrew funds on copper awaiting export.
Companies and mines turned to the Theodore Labor Government for assistance but they were unsympathetic to the companies, even though they alone had the capacity to revive the Cloncurry field. More negotiations for amalgamation occurred in 1925 but failed, and in 1926 Hampden Cloncurry offered its assets for sale by tender and Mount Elliott acquired them all except for the Trekelano mine. The company was de-listed in 1928.
The rise and decline of the township reflected the company's fortunes. In 1913 there were 1,500 people increasing to 2,000 by 1920, but by 1924 this had declined to 800. With the rise of Mount Isa, Kaiser's bakehouse, the hospital, courthouse, one ice works, and a picture theatre, moved there in 1923 followed by Boyds' Hampden Hotel (renamed the Argent) in 1924. Other buildings including the police residence and Clerk of Petty Sessions house were moved to Cloncurry.
In its nine years of smelting Hampden Cloncurry had been one of Australia's largest mining companies producing 50,800 tons of copper (compared with Mount Elliott's 27,000), 21,000 ounces of gold and 381,000 ounces of silver. A more permanent achievement was its part in creating the metal fabricating company, Metal Manufacturers Limited, of which it was one of the four founders in 1916. Much of the money which built their Port Kembla works into one of the country's largest manufacturers came from the now derelict smelters in north-west Queensland.
In 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Kuridala Smelters for £800 and used parts to construct a copper furnace which commenced operating in April 1943 in response to wartime demands. The Tunny family continued to live at Kuridala as tributers on the Hampden and Consol mines from 1932 until 1969 and worked the mines down to 15.25m. A post office operated until 1975 and the last inhabitant, Lizzy Belch, moved into Cloncurry about 1982.
Further exploration and testing of the Kuridala ore body has occurred from 1948 up until the present with activities being undertaking by Mount Isa Mines, Broken Hill South, Enterprise Exploration, Marshall and James Boyd, Australian Selection, Kennecott Exploration, Carpentaria Exploration, Metana Minerals, A.M. Metcalfe, Dampier Mining Co Ltd, Newmont Pty Ltd, Australian Anglo American, Era South Pacific Pty Ltd, CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, BHP Minerals Ltd, Metana Minerals and Matrix Metals Ltd.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
HAIR: Adore TRUTH
BODY: Reborn eBODY
OUTFIT: May NEW!! SWEET KAJIRA in KAWAII SECRETS
(For Maitreya, Legacy and Reborn. Fatpack included dress, sleeves,
boots, leg warmers and Huds with 8 colors)
Decor:
SKY: Ethereal Nights NEW!! SPECTER SKIES EEP in TOKYO ZERO
(Pack included 6 styles)
BRIDGE: Winter Bridge NEW!! GOOSE in COSMOPOLITAN EVENT
I decided to take advantage of B724 rolling north through Berlin a few hours earlier than normal. Today's train consisted of 22 cars with 3 debris hoppers on the head pin bound for United Material Management in Leominster. UMM is a new customer which will export recycling and scrap loads.
I'm sorry I've not had time to update for a couple days. Pamela was finally released from the hospital yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, with a hopeful bill of health.
She came to school and packed and went home to Florida to recuperate and finish the semester quietly via the intertubes.
We miss you already Pambla. Hope your strength increases!