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2017. Guemes Channel. Dakota Creek Industries.
"US flagged Amendment 80 replacement vessel designed for Fishermen’s Finest by Skipsteknisk AS (ST-116XL) specifically for catching and producing frozen at sea white fish products, groundfish, including yellowfin sole and rock sole species. Operations will be in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. The ship will be built to class DNV GL rules for fishing vessels including clean class, and have hull notation +1A1, Ice 1B. Powered by MAN 8L32/44CR diesel engine, utilizing the latest Common Rail technology. This will be the first ST-116XL design to operate in the United States."
Sixty-Five Roses Oil Barge
Santa Barbara Channel, California
General
Vessel Name : SIXTY FIVE ROSES
Operator : OLYMPIC TUG & BARGE (Harley Marine Services)
Ships Type (ICST) : Liquid Tank Barge (Double Hull)
Vessel Type : Liquid Cargo Barge (Double Hull)
Construction : Steel
Capacity
Net Tonnage : 4034
Full Load Capacity : 6699 Short ton
Size
Register length : 403.9 Feet
Regular Breadth : 76.7 Feet
Overall Length : 403.9 Feet
Overall Breadt : 76.7 Feet
Load draft : 15 Feet
Other
Year : 2010
EQUIP2 : COILS
EQUIP1 : 2 PUMPS DIESEL/
Coast Guard Number : 1223665
The Sixty-Five Roses double hull oil barge was christened on March 15, 2010 in Seattle, WA and entered service on the U.S. West Coast and Canada market the following day. She is owned and operated by Harley Marine Services.
She measures 422’ long by 76’ wide, is OPA 90 compliant as well as ABS Classed Maltese A-1 and Loadline Un-Manned Ocean Services. The barge is equipped with the latest technology including an electronic cargo tank monitoring and radar gauging system. In addition, she was built with the option to add Harley Marine’s patented vapor processing unit onboard. The twelve cargo tanks are coiled and onboard cargo is heated by a 12 million BTU Vapor Heater that is capable of maintaining cargo at the optimal temperature according to the viscosity and voyage length.
Harley Marine Services decided on the name 65 ROSES as a symbol for their continued fight to find a cure for cystic fibrosis. The term “65 Roses” is used by many children with cystic fibrosis to describe their disease since it is much easier for them to pronounce. Mary G. Weiss became a volunteer for Cystic Fibrosis in 1965 after learning that her three little boys had the devastating disease. Her duty as a volunteer was to call local organizations seeking financial support for CF research. Mary’s son Richard listened closely to his mother as she made each call. After several calls, Richard spoke up and said that he knew who his mother was working for, “65 Roses”. Since then, the term “65 Roses” has been used by children of all ages to describe their disease. But, making it easier to say does not make CF any easier to live with. The barge will be another addition to the Harley Marine fleet as they continue to “Cruise for a Cure”.
camera: Olympus 35SP rangefinder
lens: G.Zuiko 42mm f/1.7
film: Fujicolor Pro 160S (expired)
filter: Heliopan UV
strobe: none
support: hand held
scan: NCPS
software: ACDSee Ultimate 10 (64 bit)
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My most popular-interesting photos on Fluidr
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©2017 Chris Grossman, all rights reserved
Summerlee is the museum of Scottish industrial life and is based around the site of a 19th century ironworks
The local production of steel in the early 19th Century was on a very small scale. Henry Bessemer unveiled his steel converter in 1856 but it was the Siemens-Martin process that came to dominate early steel manufacture in Lanarkshire.
To produce steel in an open-hearth furnace, pig iron, scrap steel and lime was melted to form a pool of molten metal in the hearth. A large flame was fired across the hearth to burn out any impurities in the metal such as carbon.
The molten steel would be cast into ladles and transported to the ingot casting pit. The ingot once solidified was then ready to be rolled or forgedinto a wide variety of products.
The last steel produced in Scotland was at Ravenscraig in 1992 - a modern integrated steelworks and used the latest technology to produce a number of specialised steels.
So Nikon has finally announced it’s D4 and D800 cameras. I have roughly 140,000 shots with my D700 and it’s certainly paid for itself. Nothing wrong with it. So that begs the question… do I need to upgrade? Mind you there is a HUGE difference between need and want. But since my camera is well-used, I owe it to my clients to have a camera which is still fresh enough not to break anytime soon. And to stay at the top of the game, I need something with the latest technology in order to at least match my competition
Roughly:
36mp
ISO 6400 (same as D700, on paper)
4fps (great for capturing turtle races)
HD video
16mp
ISO 12,500
11fps (great for catching a bouquet toss)
HD video
So if I was a 100% Landscape photographer making millions on photos like this one, then the D800 is absolutely the right choice. Large photos which I can crop and still blow up to billboard size. Same if I was a strictly studio/product photographer. Now while I do all these things, what generates the most income is weddings. And to me the perfect wedding camera would be:
20mp
ISO 100,000
8fps
No video
I don’t want 36mp which would generate 50meg RAW files. If I shot 1000 photos at a wedding, that would be like 50gig worth of data, and then putting that into Lightroom, it would just choke going from photo to photo. So that would be overkill.
So both of Nikon’s new cameras are in the middle of what I want most. I’m tempted to get a used D3s because then I’d have the FPS speed, the much better ISO than the D700. But I also heard the D800 has this new face-recognition feature which helps meter on someone’s face when it recognizes it. That might be pretty cool too since I typically shoot in Aperture-priority at weddings. No, not Manual. Don’t make me go off on you for explaining why you shouldn’t do that.
Thoughts?
Unfortunately, I unwittingly closed the comment box of my previous post. Thanks for the faves you left behind.
PS I have now attached two of those images to this image in this account of our day of travel.
.
Edmonton International Airport’s new eight-story Central Tower [is] the Capital Region’s newest landmark. [...].
With its wave-like ribbon exterior, the building is not just visually appealing. The tower uses many design elements that are environmentally friendly; so much so that EIA is seeking Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) silver certification for the tower. [...].
NAV CANADA air traffic controllers sit high atop the tower, with a clear view of the airspace, runways and taxiways. Controllers are also using the latest technology. [...].
EIA is Canada’s fifth busiest airport in passenger numbers, serving 6.7 million passengers in 2012.
globalnews.ca/news/550447/new-air-traffic-control-tower-o...
Disneyland, California
Experience how incredible your family's life can be with the latest technologies in Disneyland's unique Tomorrowland interactive exhibits.
* The Innoventions Dream Home, where the Elias family invites you to enjoy their digital lifestyle, with exciting innovations from Microsoft, HP, Lifeware and Taylor Morrison Homes
* Project Tomorrow, a hands-on experience featuring the digital wizardry of Body Builder, Power City and more presented by Siemens
* An ASIMO running robot, the world's most advanced humanoid robot, showing off its remarkable abilities in a 20-minute show
* Five interactive areas, including the Xbox Experience and other multimedia games as well as St. Joseph's Healthy University
* Tom Morrow, one of the wittiest Audio-Animatronic® hosts ever imagineered
(credit)
disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/parks/attractio...
Go North East's Riverside-based "Green Arrow" branded ADL Dart SLF 5/ADL Enviro 200MMC 5495 (NK69 FBG) is pictured here on Parkway, Whickham, whilst working "Green Arrow" service 97 to Newcastle. 27/10/19
The region’s largest bus company, Go North East, has invested £1.8 million in 11 brand-new, state of the art, environmentally friendly buses for its popular Green Arrow services.
The buses build on the operator’s existing investment, which has already seen 170 low-emission buses join the fleet in recent years, and a total of £12 million set to be invested in further better buses over the next 12 months.
The new Green Arrow buses, which were built in the north at the Scarborough factory of Alexander Dennis, will be rolled out over the next fortnight onto the company’s 97 route which serves Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Whickham, Swalwell and intu Metrocentre with buses running up to every 15 minutes.
With a striking green livery, the buses are packed full of creature comforts and the latest technology including comfortable luxury seating with mobile phone holders, free Wi-Fi, media tables featuring wireless charging pads and at-seat USB charging points. There is also no need to worry about missing your stop, as the buses are fitted with next stop audio and visual passenger information systems.
Guemes Channel.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Story Number: NNS160225-13Release Date: 2/25/2016 3:05:00 PM
ANACORTES, Wash. (NNS) -- The Navy's Auxiliary General Purpose Oceanographic Research Vessel (AGOR), R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28), successfully completed Builder's Trials, Feb. 21, off the coast of Anacortes.
Builder's Trials for Sally Ride tested various shipboard systems and ensured readiness prior to conducting Acceptance Trials with the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey.
The propulsion system, mission-over-the-side handling equipment, anchor handling system, and work/rescue boat launch system were among the systems successfully demonstrated.
"R/V Sally Ride performed remarkably well during Builder's Trials these past few weeks," said Mike Kosar, program manager for Support Ships, Boats, and Craft. "Our entire Navy and shipbuilder team have done an outstanding job in preparing the vessel for upcoming acceptance trials."
Based on a single-hull commercial design, R/V Sally Ride is approximately 238 feet long and incorporates the latest technologies, including high-efficiency diesel engines, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with the world. Oceanographic Research Vessels provide scientists with the tools and capabilities to support ongoing research, including in the Atlantic, Western Pacific and Indian Ocean regions across a wide variety of missions.
Upon delivery, the ship will be operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography under a charter party agreement with Office of Naval Research. The vessel has accommodations for 24 scientists and will operate with a crew of 20.
This is the second ship of its class built by Dakota Creek Industries. The shipbuilder also constructed R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27), which delivered to the Navy in September 2015.As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and boats and craft.
The Neil Armstrong-class of research vessels are modern research vessels based on a commercial design, capable of integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas. The Neil Armstrong-class will feature a modern suite of oceanographic equipment, state of the art acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, advanced over-the-side handling gear to deploy and retrieve scientific instruments, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with land-based sites worldwide. Enhanced modular onboard laboratories and extensive science payload capacity will provide the ships with the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges in the coming decades.
U.S. Navy research vessels being built at Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes will be named after Neil Armstrong & Sally Ride
Mission: Integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas.Oceanographic sampling and data collection of surface, midwater, sea floor, and sub-bottom parameters.
Quantity: Two (2)
User: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (AGOR 27),
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (AGOR 28)
Ship Names: R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27)
R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28)
Builder: Dakota Creek Industries, Inc.
Contract: FFP (Firm Fixed Price)
Contract Value: $177.4M
ROM Unit Cost: $74.1 M (lead), $71.0M (follow)
Key Characteristics:
• Hull Material Steel; Aluminum pilothouse
• Length 238 ft
• Beam (Max) 50 ft
• Draft 15 ft
• Displacement 3043 LT (Full Load)
• Sustained Speed 12 kts
• Range 10,545 nm
• Endurance 40 days
• Propulsion 4 x 1044 kW Diesels, 2 x 879 kW Electric
Propulsion Motors, 2 x Controllable Pitch
Propellers, Bow & Stern Thrusters
• Accommodations 20 crew, 24 science berths
Go North East's unallocated ADL Dart SLF 5/ADL Enviro 200MMC 5496 (NK69 FBJ), which carries a two-tone green base livery prior to receiving "Green Arrow" branding, is pictured here in the yard at Saltmeadows Road Depot, Gateshead, prior to entering service. 01/10/19
The region’s largest bus company, Go North East, has invested £1.8 million in 11 brand-new, state of the art, environmentally friendly buses for its popular Green Arrow services.
The buses build on the operator’s existing investment, which has already seen 170 low-emission buses join the fleet in recent years, and a total of £12 million set to be invested in further better buses over the next 12 months.
The new Green Arrow buses, which were built in the north at the Scarborough factory of Alexander Dennis, will be rolled out over the next fortnight onto the company’s 97 route which serves Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Whickham, Swalwell and intu Metrocentre with buses running up to every 15 minutes.
With a striking green livery, the buses are packed full of creature comforts and the latest technology including comfortable luxury seating with mobile phone holders, free Wi-Fi, media tables featuring wireless charging pads and at-seat USB charging points. There is also no need to worry about missing your stop, as the buses are fitted with next stop audio and visual passenger information systems.
The seats and interior colourscheme have been re-designed by design agency Creating Desire.
The Auckland utility cover tour continues with 2 entries today.
First up a Telecom NZ offering.
New Zealand Post Office had been operating for nearly a century and was struggling to service a growing nation thirsty for the latest technology and connectivity when Telecom (now called Spark) was born.
31 March, 1987, the Post Office was replaced by three state-owned enterprises, one of which was Telecom. That year, Telecom launched New Zealand's first mobile phone network.
Two years later, New Zealand got its first internet connection, the telecommunications market was deregulated and in 1990, Telecom was sold for NZ$4.2b in what was then New Zealand's biggest deal.
Soon after, it listed on the New Zealand, Australian and New York stock exchanges.
In 2011, following changes to New Zealand’s telecommunications industry legislation, Telecom was separated into two distinct companies - Telecom as a retailer of fixed and mobile voice services (and operator of a mobile network), and Chorus as a wholesale-focused operator of fixed-line networks (copper and fibre), selling access to its networks to any retailer (including Spark).
08 August 2014, evolution into a provider of digital services including broadband, entertainment media and cloud computing took another leap forward with the company’s rebranding as Spark New Zealand.
LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Polytechnic University’s iconic Innovation, Science and Technology (IST) Building in Lakeland now ranks as one of the 16 “most breathtaking” buildings in the world, according to a survey of architects, placing it alongside iconic structures such as the Parthenon in Greece, the Empire State Building and Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” residence.
Business Insider’s “Tech Insider” magazine surveyed 16 prominent architects, asking each to pick just one structure they fondly think of as “breathtaking.” Architect Marica McKeel of Studio MM worked on the IST Building design and said, “Not only do I love the design of the Innovation, Science and Technology Building, but I feel a real connection to this project and to the Lakeland community as my father grew up in Lakeland and I still frequently visit family there.”
Designed by internationally-renowned architect Dr. Santiago Calatrava, the IST Building is the cornerstone of Florida Poly’s campus and the University’s main classroom and laboratory building. The 162,000-square-foot, white-domed building is a moveable and functional work of art, with a louvered roof system that adjusts with the sun’s angle, surrounded by a ring of curved metal pergolas that shade its outer terrace and walkways.
Calatrava repeatedly breaks new ground in architecture, with soaring designs for a new transit station at the rebuilt World Trade Center, a spiraling “Turning Torso” skyscraper in Sweden and the Peace Bridge in Calgary. Among the numerous awards associated with the IST Building is the distinguished Engineering News Record’s (ENR) Global Project of the Year award.
“The IST Building was created to provide an inspiring, modern atmosphere for learning, collaboration and innovation,” said Florida Poly President Dr. Randy K. Avent. “It’s invigorating to walk into this building each day and work alongside faculty, students and staff in one of the world’s most advanced structures.”
The IST Building houses 26 classrooms, the Aula Magna auditorium, faculty and administrative offices, an 11,000-square-foot Commons area and 11 innovation labs – including a 3D printing lab, cyber security lab and heath informatics lab – where students are able to get hands-on experience with the latest technology. Skanska USA was the lead contractor.
Other top accolades earned by the IST Building include:
2014 Engineering News Record Global Best Project by Engineering News Record
Best Projects: 2014 Project of the Year – Southeast Region, Best Higher Education/Research by Engineering News Record
2014 Metal Construction News Design Award in Metal Building Systems
2014 Best Innovative Structural Steel Project of the Year by the American Institute of Steel Construction
2015 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS2) Award
2015 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture
Data above originated from the following website:
floridapolytechnic.org/news-item/florida-polys-ist-buildi...
To mark the 50th anniversary of the album's release , the previous version of the planetarium show has been reimagined as a visual reinterpretation: Featuring state-of-the-art full-dome technology, surround sound, and a dynamic laser show, it creates an immersive experience that seems to transcend reality. Each song on the album has its own theme, offering a futuristic look forward or a retrospective on Pink Floyd's visual history. A unique experience of time and space, utilizing the latest technology that only a planetarium can offer.
To see in planetarium Berlin
F/V Neptune which happens to be a side trawler located in Stonington, CT. Below is an article about the history of the vessel...
STONINGTON — Neptune lumbers into port a bit late, her hold not quite as full of fish as some other days, her winches and outriggers a bit arthritic with rust. But cut her a break: she’s the oldest boat in the Stonington fleet.
“She was built in 1967 by Luther Blount of Blount Marine,” says her captain, Alan Chaplaski.
To the seasoned mariner, the name Blount summons the same nods of respect that “Ford” or “Chevy” once did among car owners back in the post-World War II days, when Luther Blount founded his shipyard in Warren, R.I. Even greenhorned landlubbers whose most ambitious nautical excursions have been catching a ferry to Block Island or from Battery Park to the Statue of Liberty have likely done so on the steel decks of a Blount vessel, a popular choice for commuter and excursion ferry companies for decades.
Blount designed and built America’s first commercial stern trawler, the Narragansett, in 1962. The steel-hulled Neptune, at close to 80 feet, is of the same vintage and class, though she’s what’s known as a side trawler because her nets are cast over her starboard rail.
“What you do is you stop with the wind on the starboard side,” explained Chaplaski. “You then put the net in the water and the wind blows the boat away from the net. It doesn’t always work, but that’s the way they’ve done it since they started towing with nets going back to the early 1900s.”
Chaplaski is a man who is used to the vagaries of the sea. Born in 1950 on Fishers Island, he has been around boats since he was just “a couple of days old,” as he put it. He began lobstering in high school, went off to college, but couldn’t quite wring the salt water from his veins and has been fishing nearly all of his life.
“Not yet,” he jokes, crediting that standard, Yankee one-liner to his cryptic Down East brethren in Maine.
Neptune was built for the Bucolo commercial seafood company in Newport, then later moved to New Bedford, Mass., which is where Chaplaski bought her in the early 1990s. With a crew of three or four on board and powered by a 400 hp diesel Caterpillar engine, she chugs out to sea every week on trips lasting three to four days.
Her normal fishing grounds are about 100 miles off Montauk, an area known as Hudson’s Canyon, at 270 miles long and more 3,600 feet deep one of the largest known ocean canyons in the world. The trawler’s catch is not only determined by fate, but by seasonal regulations. Fluke and squid season just ended; now she drags her voluminous nets for whiting, monkfish, and royal red shrimp (locally known as Stonington red shrimp, though this is a misnomer). Never an easy profession, commercial fishing is as tough these days as it ever was, says Chaplaski. Draconian regulations, the price of fuel, the tooth-pulling exercise of getting fish buyers to cut a check for your catch — these and other challenges often conspire against the average working fisherman.
“We have to get in a trip a week, just to pay the bills,” Chaplaski says, with good-natured resignation.
Then there have been the challenges of keeping an older boat updated with the latest technologies.
This has meant installing computer navigation systems, replacing the asbestos decking (which held up better than modern material, Chaplaski observed), swapping out the old oil stove in the galley for an electric model, and refitting some of the ship’s exposed mechanics with stainless steel after the original steel’s time had come.
“You get an eye for how long it can go. I mean there’s rust, and then there’s rust,” he said, smiling.
But even in the face of rust, and regulations, and the admitted insanity of one man trying to coax a living from the sea, Neptune is a vessel whose integrity remains intact.
“Luther Blount designed a good hull,” said Chaplaski. “She may throw you around a bit at times, but she’s a strong boat and will always get you home.”
Could any skipper ask for more?
www.thewesterlysun.com/news/latestnews/4801754-129/stonin...
Now that the election is done and everyone is happy (not that you have a choice), we can get back to TV without political ads, Facebook status’ that doesn’t make you want to unfriend people and talk about the other major topics in the news…. … uh… well, is there any? Sandy destroyed NY. Obama is president again. What else is there?
Well, help me out then. I haven’t been a new-dad for 8 years and I know technology has changed. I hear there’s an update to the Diaper Genie. Cloth diapers are the new rage. And strollers have gone high tech. Any new parents out there want to enlighten me on the latest technology/fads? We’re due in late May 2013.
I could read all the baby blogs, but it’s so heavily geared towards women that probably end up watching Little Black Book later that night.
So…
Prenatal yoga?
Sushi okay while pregnant now?
Free dinner for kids under 2 at Denny’s on Wed/Fri?
Cloth Diapers?
(further information and pictures are available by clicking on the link at the end of section and of page!)
Synagogue St. Pölten
Exterior of the former St. Pölten Synagogue
The St. Pölten Synagogue was up to the November pogroms in 1938 the main synagogue of the Jewish Community of St. Pölten. The In the years 1912 to 1913 by the architects Theodor Schreier and Viktor Postelberg built Art Nouveau synagogue is located in the Dr. Karl Renner Promenade in St. Pölten and is now the headquarters of the Institute for Jewish History in Austria.
History
The old synagogue, which was demolished in favor of the new one
The first prayer rooms of in 1863 founded Jewish Community of St. Pölten were located in the premises of the former Kattunmanufaktur (cotton manufactory), the later Gasser factory at school ring. A building of this factory was adapted between 1885 and 1890 as a synagogue. This adaptation was associated with considerable effort, which is why the members of the Jewish community already since 1888 endeavoured to get a new building, until 1903 but this was rejected by the township. At this time, a redesign of the promenade was planned, which was only possible by demolition of the in the street course standing synagogue. After lengthy preparations, a preparatory committee was elected in April 1907, which in addition to building site and plans the necessary financing should provide.
1911, a building committee was chosen and agreed with the community a real estate exchange. At the architectural competition, which was tendered in the same year, participated among others Jacob Modern, Jacob Gartner, Ignaz Reiser and Theodor Schreier. The latter was together with his partner Viktor Postelberg by the Committee commissioned another project for a temple with room for 220 men and 150 women to submitt, which was then realized. The conditions for the planning work developed Rudolf Frass. The necessary funds were raised through collections and appeals for donations throughout the country, so that could be started with the construction in June 1912. The gilding works were carried out by Ferdinand Andri. After little more than a year of construction and 141 390 crowns total investment, the synagoge on 17 August 1913 was solemnly consecrated.
Destruction
On the night of 9th to the 10th November 1938 invaded several SS and SA members the rooms of the synagogue, smashed windows and set fire. The that night caused damage was limited, as the fire could be extinguished relatively quickly. On the following morning 300 to 400 people gathered, some in civilian clothes, in front of the building. They moved with the singing of political songs in the sacred spaces and destroyed them completely. The windows were broken, Torah scrolls, Torah shrine, benches and images burned. Even water pipes and door posts were torn from the walls. The books of the extensive library were largely thrown on the road and burned. Some people climbed the dome and tore the Star of David of the roof .
Almost all of the movable property of the Jewish community was destroyed or stolen . A limited set of books were placed in the city archives, the City Museum there's still a donation box and a painting of Emperor Franz Josef, which hung in the entrance area. A single prayer book is since 1998 owned again by the Jewish Community.
In the following years the side rooms of the building of the SA were used as an office, the interior was used among other things as furniture warehouse. 1942, the synagogue became the property of the city of St. Pölten, which used it as a detention center for Russian forced laborers. In last fightings and bombings in 1945 the building was further damaged.
1945
The Red Army used the former synagogue as a grain storage until it was in 1947 returned to the city. The application of restitution was recognized in 1952 by the city council, which then returned the synagogue to the Jewish Community Vienna. In the following years, the former house of God continued to decay as after the Holocaust no Jewish community in St. Pölten could establish. The domed roof showed severe damage, individual components were threatening to collapse completely and through the boarded windows came rain and snow into the by dovecotes populated house.
In 1975, the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG - Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien) offered the city of St. Pölten to purchase the synagogue, which did not accept the offer due to lack of uses. Then the Jewish Community Vienna wanted to initiate the demolition, but this was prevented by the fact that the Federal Monuments Office the building put under monument protection. Then it was renovated from 1980 to 1984. Here, for example, many wall paintings were recovered, on the other hand, some structural changes were made (especially removal of water basins for the ritual washing of the hands), since it was clear from the beginning that the building would not be used as a synagogue, but as an event center.
Since 1988 in the premises of the former synagogue the Institute for Jewish History of Austria is located, further regular events are realized. The original function the synagoge never could fulfill again, as too few Jews returned after the Holocaust to St. Pölten.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the synagogue the City Museum in St. Pölten 2013/14 the building dedicates its own special exhibition. In doing so there is also shown a recently found photo of the interior before the destruction. It is also pointed out that the synagogue due to lack of funding already again is abandoned to a certain decay.
The St. Pölten rabbi
Interior of the synagogue with part of the dome ceiling, in the center of the former shrine
Name Period of office
Moritz Tintner 1863-1869
Adolf Kurrein 1873-1876
Samuel Marcus 1876-1878
Adolf Hahn 1878-1882
Jacob Reiss 1882-1889
Bernhard Zimmels 1889-1891
Leopold Weinsberg 1891-1897
Adolf Schächter 1897-1934
Arnold Frankfurt 1934-1936
Manfred Papo 1936-1938
Building description
Outside
The dominant element of the synagogue is the octagonal, completed by a large dome main building, to which the eastern and western side wings are attached. Connected to the synagogue is the former school building in Lederergasse 12.
Main tract
The main tract houses the former sanctuary. The facade is divided into a low ground floor, high upper floor and the dome. At the facade facing the street can be found in the two storeys each three windows, that are executed on the ground floor as low segmental arch windows with above running continuously cordon cornice. The windows on the upper floor, however, are high, rectangular windows, the space between them is divided by pilasters. The original stained glass windows were destroyed from 1938, today, clear glass can be found in the windows. Directly under the dome there is a large segment gable with representations of the Tablets of the Law, set in floral vines. Beneath it is written in Hebrew the text of Psalm 118, verse 19.
" פתחו לי שערי צדק אבא בם אודה יה "
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter and give thanks to God".
- Inscription under the law boards.
On the short, lateral oblique walls of the main building on the ground floor there are side entrances, in the transition to the dome there are embedded large oval windows.
Side wings
To the eastern side wing, which in comparison to the western tract is designed very narrowly, connects the former school building and was once home to the shrine. At the by segment gable and barrel roof completed tract can be found on the northern front in the upper floor a tall, rectangular window of the same type as that of the main wing. At the eastern side a round window is embedded, in the ground floor begins a connecting room to the school building.
The western side wing is identical to the east in the basic form, but it is significantly wider. In addition, in front of it there are entrance buildings. Both at the road side and on the opposite side between the main wing and the western annex are wide projecting semi-circular staircases, next to it can be found till half the height of the first upper floor each a buttress with two low windows. Road side, this buttress is preceded by a walk-in porch, which on three sides is open round-arched. The with triangular gable completed building ends in a concave enclosure, where a commemorative plaque is attached today. The west facade repeats the design of the main building, it can be found on the ground floor low segmental arch windows with above running continuously, jagged cordon cornice. On the first floor the windows are, however, significantly lower than in the main wing.
Former school building
The former school building has its main facade towards Lederergasse and there has the number 12. The road-side main facade of the two-storey building is divided into four axes. The window on the ground floor are round-arched disigned, the ones on the upper floor rectangularly. Between side wing of the synagogue and the main wing of the school building there is a tower-like, curved stairwell risalit up to the attic.
Gallery
Wall lamp
Wall ornament
Wall ornament
Wall ornament
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_(St._P%C3%B6lten)
(further information is available by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
History of the City St. Pölten
In order to present concise history of the Lower Austrian capital is in the shop of the city museum a richly illustrated full version on CD-ROM.
Tip
On the occasion of the commemoration of the pogroms of November 1938, the Institute for Jewish History of Austria its virtual Memorbuch (Memory book) for the destroyed St. Pölten Jewish community since 10th November 2012 is putting online.
Prehistory
The time from which there is no written record is named after the main materials used for tools and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Using the latest technologies, archaeologists from archaeological finds and aerial photographs can trace a fairly detailed picture of life at that time. Especially for the time from the settling down of the People (New Stone Age), now practicing agriculture and animal husbandry, in the territory of St. Pölten lively settlement activity can be proved. In particular, cemeteries are important for the research, because the dead were laid in the grave everyday objects and jewelry, the forms of burial changing over time - which in turn gives the archeology valuable clues for the temporal determination. At the same time, prehistory of Sankt Pölten would not be half as good documented without the construction of the expressway S33 and other large buildings, where millions of cubic meters of earth were moved - under the watchful eyes of the Federal Monuments Office!
A final primeval chapter characterized the Celts, who settled about 450 BC our area and in addition to a new culture and religion also brought with them the potter's wheel. The kingdom of Noricum influenced till the penetration of the Romans the development in our area.
Roman period, migrations
The Romans conquered in 15 BC the Celtic Empire and established hereinafter the Roman province of Noricum. Borders were protected by military camp (forts), in the hinterland emerged civilian cities, almost all systematically laid out according to the same plan. The civil and commercial city Aelium Cetium, as St. Pölten was called (city law 121/122), consisted in the 4th Century already of heated stone houses, trade and craft originated thriving urban life, before the Romans in the first third of the 5th Century retreated to Italy.
The subsequent period went down as the Migration Period in official historiography, for which the settlement of the Sankt Pöltner downtown can not be proved. Cemeteries witness the residence of the Lombards in our area, later it was the Avars, extending their empire to the Enns.
The recent archaeological excavations on the Cathedral Square 2010/2011, in fact, the previous knowledge of St.Pölten colonization not have turned upside down but enriched by many details, whose full analysis and publication are expected in the near future.
Middle Ages
With the submission of the Avars by Charlemagne around 800 AD Christianity was gaining a foothold, the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Tegernsee establishing a daughter house here - as founder are mentioned the brothers Adalbert and Ottokar - equipped with the relics of St. Hippolytus. The name St. Ypolit over the centuries should turn into Sankt Pölten. After the Hungarian wars and the resettlement of the monastery as Canons Regular of St. Augustine under the influence of Passau St. Pölten received mid-11th Century market rights.
In the second half of the 20th century historians stated that records in which the rights of citizens were held were to be qualified as Town Charters. Vienna is indeed already in 1137 as a city ("civitas") mentioned in a document, but the oldest Viennese city charter dates only from the year 1221, while the Bishop of Passau, Konrad, already in 1159 the St. Pöltnern secured:
A St. Pöltner citizen who has to answer to the court, has the right to make use of an "advocate".
He must not be forced to rid himself of the accusation by a judgment of God.
A St. Pöltner citizen may be convicted only by statements of fellow citizens, not by strangers.
From the 13th Century exercised a city judge appointed by the lord of the city the high and low jurisdiction as chairman of the council meetings and the Municipal Court, Inner and Outer Council supported him during the finding of justice. Venue for the public verdict was the in the 13th Century created new marketplace, the "Broad Market", now the town hall square. Originally square-shaped, it was only later to a rectangle reduced. Around it arose the market district, which together with the monastery district, the wood district and the Ledererviertel (quarter of the leather goods manufacturer) was protected by a double city wall.
The dependence of St. Pölten of the bishop of Passau is shown in the municipal coat of arms and the city seal. Based on the emblem of the heraldic animal of the Lord of the city, so the Bishop of Passau, it shows an upright standing wolf holding a crosier in its paw.
Modern Times
In the course of the armed conflict between the Emperor Frederick III . and King Matthias of Hungary pledged the Bishop of Passau the town on the Hungarian king. From 1485 stood Lower Austria as a whole under Hungarian rule. The most important document of this period is the awarding of the city coat of arms by King Matthias Corvinus in the year 1487. After the death of the opponents 1490 and 1493 could Frederick's son Maximilian reconquer Lower Austria. He considered St. Pölten as spoils of war and had no intention of returning it to the diocese of Passau. The city government has often been leased subsequently, for instance, to the family Wellenstein, and later to the families Trautson and Auersperg.
That St. Pölten now was a princely city, found its expression in the coat of arms letter of the King Ferdinand I. from 1538: From now on, the wolf had no crosier anymore, and the from the viewer's point of view left half showed the reverse Austrian shield, so silver-red-silver.
To the 16th Century also goes back the construction of St. Pöltner City Hall. The 1503 by judge and council acquired house was subsequently expanded, rebuilt, extended and provided with a tower.
A for the urban history research important picture, painted in 1623, has captured scenes of the peasant uprising of 1597, but also allows a view to the city and lets the viewer read some of the details of the then state of construction. The economic inconveniences of that time were only exacerbated by the Thirty Years War, at the end of which a fifth of the houses were uninhabited and the citizenry was impoverished.
Baroque
After the successful defense against the Turks in 1683, the economy started to recover and a significant building boom began. Lower Austria turned into the land of the baroque abbeys and monasteries, as it is familiar to us today.
In St. Pölten, the change of the cityscape is closely connected to the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer. In addition to the Baroquisation of the interior of the cathedral, a number of buildings in St. Pölten go to his account, so the reconstruction of the castle Ochsenburg, the erection of the Schwaighof and of the core building of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Englische Fräuleins - English Maidens) - from 1706 the seat of the first school order of St.Pölten - as well as of several bourgeois houses.
Joseph Munggenast, nephew and co-worker of Prandtauer, completed the Baroquisation of the cathedral, he baroquised the facade of the town hall (1727) and numerous bourgeois houses and designed a bridge over the Traisen which existed until 1907. In the decoration of the church buildings were throughout Tyroleans collaborating, which Jakob Prandtauer had brought along from his homeland (Tyrol) to St. Pölten, for example, Paul Troger and Peter Widerin.
Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II: Their reforms in the city of the 18th Century also left a significant mark. School foundings as a result of compulsory education, the dissolution of the monasteries and hereinafter - from 1785 - the new role of St. Pölten as a bishop's seat are consequences of their policies.
1785 was also the year of a fundamental alteration of the old Council Constitution: The city judge was replaced by one magistrate consisting of five persons, at the head was a mayor. For the first mayor the painter Josef Hackl was chosen.
The 19th century
Despite the Napoleonic Wars - St. Pölten in 1805 and 1809 was occupied by the French - and despite the state bankruptcy of 1811, increased the number of businesses constantly, although the economic importance of the city for the time being did not go beyond the near vicinity.
Against the background of monitoring by the state secret police, which prevented any political commitment between the Congress of Vienna and the 1848 revolution, the citizens withdrew into private life. Sense of family, fostering of domestic music, prominent salon societies in which even a Franz Schubert socialized, or the construction of the city theater were visible signs of this attitude.
The economic upswing of the city did not begin until after the revolution of the year 1848. A prerequisite for this was the construction of the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway, moving Vienna, Linz, soon Salzburg, too, in a reachable distance. The city walls were pulled down, St. Pölten could unfold. The convenient traffic situation favored factory start-ups, and so arose a lace factory, a revolver factory, a soap factory or, for example, as a precursor of a future large-scale enterprise, the braid, ribbon and Strickgarnerzeugung (knitting yarn production) of Matthias Salcher in Harland.
In other areas, too, the Gründerzeit (years of rapid industrial expansion in Germany - and Austria) in Sankt Pölten was honouring its name: The city got schools, a hospital, gas lanterns, canalization, hot springs and summer bath.
The 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th Century the city experienced another burst of development, initiated by the construction of the power station in 1903, because electricity was the prerequisite for the settlement of large companies. In particular, the companies Voith and Glanzstoff and the main workshop of the Federal Railways attracted many workers. New Traisen bridge, tram, Mariazell Railway and other infrastructure buildings were erected; St. Pölten obtained a synagogue. The Art Nouveau made it repeatedly into the urban architecture - just think of the Olbrich House - and inspired also the painting, as exponents worth to be mentioned are Ernst Stöhr or Ferdinand Andri.
What the outbreak of the First World War in broad outlines meant for the monarchy, on a smaller scale also St. Pölten has felt. The city was heavily impacted by the deployment of army units, a POW camp, a military hospital and a sick bay. Industrial enterprises were partly converted into war production, partly closed. Unemployment, housing emergency and food shortages long after the war still were felt painfully.
The 1919 to mayor elected Social Democrat Hubert Schnofl after the war tried to raise the standard of living of the people by improving the social welfare and health care. The founding of a housing cooperative (Wohnungsgenossenschaft), the construction of the water line and the establishment of new factories were further attempts to stimulate the stiffening economy whose descent could not be stopped until 1932.
After the National Socialist regime had stirred false hopes and plunged the world into war, St. Pölten was no longer the city as it has been before. Not only the ten devastating bombings of the last year of the war had left its marks, also the restrictive persecution of Jews and political dissidents had torn holes in the structure of the population. Ten years of Russian occupation subsequently did the rest to traumatize the population, but at this time arose from the ruins a more modern St. Pölten, with the new Traisen bridge, district heating, schools.
This trend continued, an era of recovery and modernization made the economic miracle palpable. Already in 1972 was - even if largely as a result of incorporations - exceeded the 50.000-inhabitant-limit.
Elevation to capital status (capital of Lower Austria), 10 July 1986: No other event in this dimension could have become the booster detonation of an up to now ongoing development thrust. Since then in a big way new residential and commercial areas were opened up, built infrastructure constructions, schools and universities brought into being to enrich the educational landscape. East of the Old Town arose the governmental and cultural district, and the list of architects wears sonorous names such as Ernst Hoffmann (NÖ (Lower Austria) Landhaus; Klangturm), Klaus Kada (Festspielhaus), Hans Hollein (Shedhalle and Lower Austrian Provincial Museum), Karin Bily, Paul Katzberger and Michael Loudon ( NÖ State Library and NÖ State Archive).
European Diploma, European flag, badge of honor, Europe Price: Between 1996 and 2001, received St. Pölten numerous appreciations of its EU commitment - as a sort of recognition of the Council of Europe for the dissemination of the EU-idea through international town twinnings, a major Europe exhibition or, for example, the establishment and chair of the "Network of European medium-sized cities".
On the way into the 21st century
Just now happened and already history: What the St. Pöltnern as just experienced sticks in their minds, travelers and newcomers within a short time should be told. The theater and the hospital handing over to the province of Lower Austria, a new mayor always on the go, who was able to earn since 2004 already numerous laurels (Tags: polytechnic, downtown enhancement, building lease scheme, bus concept) - all the recent changes are just now condensed into spoken and written language in order to make, from now on, the history of the young provincial capital in the 3rd millennium nachlesbar (checkable).
www.st-poelten.gv.at/Content.Node/freizeit-kultur/kultur/...
When received it back from processing this shot nearly ended up in the bin as it was so dark, however, the wonders of modern technology have now made this interesting shot acceptable for posting.
Taken at the Brighton Coach Rally in May 1980 is this Brewers of Byfleet Dodge demonstrating their ability to rescue stricken coaches. You will note that the tractor unit is running on trade plates as allowed for recovery purposes as that time.
It is also interesting to note that Brewers employed the latest technology with this particular Dodge being “Radio Controlled”
Unfortunately I don’t know the details of the Unicar bodied vehicle on the trailer, accept to say that, Brewers had four Bedford YMT’s with Unicar coachwork delivered in April and May 1979, DFP58/59T and DFP184/5T so I would guess that the load is one of them.
Interestingly there is another Unicar bodied coach creeping in to the background
Guemes Channel.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Story Number: NNS160225-13Release Date: 2/25/2016 3:05:00 PM
ANACORTES, Wash. (NNS) -- The Navy's Auxiliary General Purpose Oceanographic Research Vessel (AGOR), R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28), successfully completed Builder's Trials, Feb. 21, off the coast of Anacortes.
Builder's Trials for Sally Ride tested various shipboard systems and ensured readiness prior to conducting Acceptance Trials with the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey.
The propulsion system, mission-over-the-side handling equipment, anchor handling system, and work/rescue boat launch system were among the systems successfully demonstrated.
"R/V Sally Ride performed remarkably well during Builder's Trials these past few weeks," said Mike Kosar, program manager for Support Ships, Boats, and Craft. "Our entire Navy and shipbuilder team have done an outstanding job in preparing the vessel for upcoming acceptance trials."
Based on a single-hull commercial design, R/V Sally Ride is approximately 238 feet long and incorporates the latest technologies, including high-efficiency diesel engines, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with the world. Oceanographic Research Vessels provide scientists with the tools and capabilities to support ongoing research, including in the Atlantic, Western Pacific and Indian Ocean regions across a wide variety of missions.
Upon delivery, the ship will be operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography under a charter party agreement with Office of Naval Research. The vessel has accommodations for 24 scientists and will operate with a crew of 20.
This is the second ship of its class built by Dakota Creek Industries. The shipbuilder also constructed R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27), which delivered to the Navy in September 2015.As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and boats and craft.
The Neil Armstrong-class of research vessels are modern research vessels based on a commercial design, capable of integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas. The Neil Armstrong-class will feature a modern suite of oceanographic equipment, state of the art acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, advanced over-the-side handling gear to deploy and retrieve scientific instruments, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with land-based sites worldwide. Enhanced modular onboard laboratories and extensive science payload capacity will provide the ships with the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges in the coming decades.
U.S. Navy research vessels being built at Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes will be named after Neil Armstrong & Sally Ride
Mission: Integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas.Oceanographic sampling and data collection of surface, midwater, sea floor, and sub-bottom parameters.
Quantity: Two (2)
User: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (AGOR 27),
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (AGOR 28)
Ship Names: R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27)
R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28)
Builder: Dakota Creek Industries, Inc.
Contract: FFP (Firm Fixed Price)
Contract Value: $177.4M
ROM Unit Cost: $74.1 M (lead), $71.0M (follow)
Key Characteristics:
• Hull Material Steel; Aluminum pilothouse
• Length 238 ft
• Beam (Max) 50 ft
• Draft 15 ft
• Displacement 3043 LT (Full Load)
• Sustained Speed 12 kts
• Range 10,545 nm
• Endurance 40 days
• Propulsion 4 x 1044 kW Diesels, 2 x 879 kW Electric
Propulsion Motors, 2 x Controllable Pitch
Propellers, Bow & Stern Thrusters
• Accommodations 20 crew, 24 science berths
• ABS Classed/ABS Designed to ABS !A1 Circle E, !AMS
Meet two of Wigan’s newest recruits. James Booth and Stacey Whitehouse will become PCs next month.
The first recruits to join GMP in five years are finishing their training by visiting their new patches.
In a few weeks’ time 100 new officers will be attested at a ceremony in Salford before becoming fully operational officers within neighbourhood policing teams across Greater Manchester.
The new recruits are being officially introduced to the areas that they will be policing, getting to know the local area, meeting community groups and attending briefings to learn from officers who already work there.
The 100 are all former GMP employees having previously been either Police Community Support Officers (PCSO), Special Constables, apprentices or police staff.
Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling, said: “The introduction of these 100 new officers is part of our commitment to neighbourhood policing across Greater Manchester.
“Many of these recruits will be building upon their experience as former PCSOs or Special Constables and will therefore already have established the skills necessary to succeed in neighbourhood policing.
“The recruits join GMP as we make full use of the latest technology, including smartphones and tablets, which will allow frontline officers to spend more time out policing in the community.
“Through the ongoing recruitment we continue with our commitment to make sure that Greater Manchester Police is representative of the people and communities in which we serve.”
Greater Manchester Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “For the first time in five years we will see a significant number of new police officers patrolling our streets, which is good news for the communities of Greater Manchester.
“Local people have told me that they want a strong and sustainable police service keeping them and their homes safe. Despite ongoing government cuts to policing, I am determined to deliver that, working with the Chief Constable to drive forward new recruitment to bolster local policing.“
500 new officers will join the Force this year but the total number of overall officers will be maintained at current levels.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
This software and these cool onOne tools are amazing and fun. I really dig them! I've been tinkering and experimenting for quite a while, and I finally decided to get my act together and write a full review.
People that joined the Facebook Fan Page got a sneak preview of this review, and now I can open it up to the rest of the world - I hope you enjoy it!
The onOne Plugin Review holds all the secrets and more inside. If you enjoy seeing what the latest technology can do to your photos, well, then, you'll love all unexpected surprises that will open themselves in your computer!
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The CAC Sabre, sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CA-27, was an Australian variant of the North American Aviation F-86F Sabre fighter aircraft. In 1951, Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation obtained a license agreement to build the F-86F Sabre. In a major departure from the North American blueprint, it was decided that the CA-27 would be powered by a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon R.A.7, rather than the General Electric J47. In theory, the Avon was capable of more than double the maximum thrust and double the thrust-to-weight ratio of the US engine. This necessitated a re-design of the fuselage, as the Avon was shorter, wider and lighter than the J47.
To accommodate the Avon, over 60 percent of the fuselage was altered and there was a 25 percent increase in the size of the air intake. Another major revision was in replacing the F-86F's six machine guns with two 30mm ADEN cannon, while other changes were also made to the cockpit and to provide an increased fuel capacity.
The prototype aircraft first flew on 3 August 1953. The production aircrafts' first deliveries to the Royal Australian Air Force began in 1954. The first batch of aircraft were powered by the Avon 20 engine and were designated the Sabre Mk 30. Between 1957 and 1958 this batch had the wing slats removed and were re-designated Sabre Mk 31. These Sabres were supplemented by 20 new-built aircraft. The last batch of aircraft were designated Sabre Mk 32 and used the Avon 26 engine, of which 69 were built up to 1961.
Beyond these land-based versions, an indigenous version for carrier operations had been developed and built in small numbers, too, the Sea Sabre Mk 40 and 41. The roots of this aircraft, which was rather a prestigious idea than a sensible project, could be traced back to the immediate post WWII era. A review by the Australian Government's Defence Committee recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. Initial plans were for three carriers, with two active and a third in reserve, although funding cuts led to the purchase of only two carriers in June 1947: Majestic and sister ship HMS Terrible, for the combined cost of AU£2.75 million, plus stores, fuel, and ammunition. As Terrible was the closer of the two ships to completion, she was finished without modification, and was commissioned into the RAN on 16 December 1948 as HMAS Sydney. Work progressed on Majestic at a slower rate, as she was upgraded with the latest technology and equipment. To cover Majestic's absence, the Colossus-class carrier HMS Vengeance was loaned to the RAN from 13 November 1952 until 12 August 1955.
Labour difficulties, late delivery of equipment, additional requirements for Australian operations, and the prioritization of merchant ships over naval construction delayed the completion of Majestic. Incorporation of new systems and enhancements caused the cost of the RAN carrier acquisition program to increase to AU£8.3 million. Construction and fitting out did not finish until October 1955. As the carrier neared completion, a commissioning crew was formed in Australia and first used to return Vengeance to the United Kingdom.
The completed carrier was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Majestic on 26 October 1955, but only two days later, the ship was renamed Melbourne and recommissioned.
In the meantime, the rather political decision had been made to equip Melbourne with an indigenous jet-powered aircraft, replacing the piston-driven Hawker Fury that had been successfully operated from HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vengeance, so that the "new jet age" was even more recognizable. The choice fell on the CAC Sabre, certainly inspired by North American's successful contemporary development of the navalized FJ-2 Fury from the land-based F-86 Sabre. The CAC 27 was already a proven design, and with its more powerful Avon engine it even offered a better suitability for carrier operations than the FJ-2 with its rather weak J47 engine.
Work on this project, which was initially simply designated Sabre Mk 40, started in 1954, just when the first CAC 27's were delivered to operative RAAF units. While the navalized Avon Sabre differed outwardly only little from its land-based brethren, many details were changed and locally developed. Therefore, there was also, beyond the general outlines, little in common with the North American FJ-2 an -3 Fury.
Externally, a completely new wing with a folding mechanism was fitted. It was based on the F-86's so-called "6-3" wing, with a leading edge that was extended 6 inches at the root and 3 inches at the tip. This modification enhanced maneuverability at the expense of a small increase in landing speed due to deletion of the leading edge slats, a detail that was later introduced on the Sabre Mk 31, too. As a side benefit, the new wing leading edges without the slat mechanisms held extra fuel. However, the Mk 40's wing was different as camber was applied to the underside of the leading edge to improve low-speed handling for carrier operations. The wings were provided with four stations outboard of the landing gear wells for up to 1000 lb external loads on the inboard stations and 500 lb on the outboard stations.
Slightly larger stabilizers were fitted and the landing gear was strengthened, including a longer front wheel strut. The latter necessitated an enlarged front wheel well, so that the front leg’s attachment point had to be moved forward. A ventral launch cable hook was added under the wing roots and an external massive arrester hook under the rear fuselage.
Internally, systems were protected against salt and humidity and a Rolls-Royce Avon 211 turbojet was fitted, a downrated variant of the already navalized Avon 208 from the British DH Sea Vixen, but adapted to the different CAC 27 airframe and delivering 8.000 lbf (35.5 kN) thrust – slightly more than the engines of the land-based CAC Sabres, but also without an afterburner.
A single Mk 40 prototype was built from a new CAC 27 airframe taken directly from the production line in early 1955 and made its maiden flight on August 20th of the same year. In order to reflect its naval nature and its ancestry, this new CAC 27 variant was officially christened “Sea Sabre”.
Even though the modified machine handled well, and the new, cambered wing proved to be effective, many minor technical flaws were discovered and delayed the aircraft's development until 1957. These included the wing folding mechanism and the respective fuel plumbing connections, the landing gear, which had to be beefed up even more for hard carrier landings and the airframe’s structural strength for catapult launches, esp. around the ventral launch hook.
In the meantime, work on the land-based CAC 27 progressed in parallel, too, and innovations that led to the Mk 31 and 32 were also incorporated into the naval Mk 40, leading to the Sea Sabre Mk 41, which became the effective production aircraft. These updates included, among others, a detachable (but fixed) refueling probe under the starboard wing, two more pylons for light loads located under the wing roots and the capability to carry and deploy IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, what significantly increased the Mk 41's efficiency as day fighter. With all these constant changes it took until April 1958 that the Sabre Mk 41, after a second prototype had been directly built to the new standard, was finally approved and cleared for production. Upon delivery, the RAN Sea Sabres carried a standard NATO paint scheme with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces and Sky undersides.
In the meantime, the political enthusiasm concerning the Australian carrier fleet had waned, so that only twenty-two aircraft were ordered. The reason behind this decision was that Australia’s carrier fleet and its capacity had become severely reduced: Following the first decommissioning of HMAS Sydney in 1958, Melbourne became the only aircraft carrier in Australian service, and she was unavailable to provide air cover for the RAN for up to four months in every year; this time was required for refits, refueling, personnel leave, and non-carrier duties, such as the transportation of troops or aircraft. Although one of the largest ships to serve in the RAN, Melbourne was one of the smallest carriers to operate in the post-World War II period, so that its contribution to military actions was rather limited. To make matters worse, a decision was made in 1959 to restrict Melbourne's role to helicopter operations only, rendering any carrier-based aircraft in Australian service obsolete. However, this decision was reversed shortly before its planned 1963 implementation, but Australia’s fleet of carrier-borne fixed-wing aircraft would not grow to proportions envisioned 10 years ago.
Nevertheless, on 10 November 1964, an AU£212 million increase in defense spending included the purchase of new aircraft for Melbourne. The RAN planned to acquire 14 Grumman S-2E Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and to modernize Melbourne to operate these. The acquisition of 18 new fighter-bombers was suggested (either Sea Sabre Mk 41s or the American Douglas A-4 Skyhawk), too, but these were dropped from the initial plan. A separate proposal to order 10 A-4G Skyhawks, a variant of the Skyhawk designed specifically for the RAN and optimized for air defense, was approved in 1965, but the new aircraft did not fly from Melbourne until the conclusion of her refit in 1969. This move, however, precluded the production of any new and further Sea Sabre.
At that time, the RAN Sea Sabres received a new livery in US Navy style, with upper surfaces in Light Gull Gray with white undersides. The CAC Sea Sabres remained the main day fighter and attack aircraft for the RAN, after the vintage Sea Furies had been retired in 1962. The other contemporary RAN fighter type in service, the Sea Venom FAW.53 all-weather fighter that had replaced the Furies, already showed its obsolescence.
In 1969, the RAN purchased another ten A-4G Skyhawks, primarily in order to replace the Sea Venoms on the carriers, instead of the proposed seventh and eighth Oberon-class submarines. These were operated together with the Sea Sabres in mixed units on board of Melbourne and from land bases, e.g. from NAS Nowra in New South Wales, where a number of Sea Sabres were also allocated to 724 Squadron for operational training.
Around 1970, Melbourne operated a standard air group of four jet aircraft, six Trackers, and ten Wessex helicopters until 1972, when the Wessexes were replaced with ten Westland Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters and the number of jet fighters doubled. Even though the A-4G’s more and more took over the operational duties on board of Melbourne, the Sea Sabres were still frequently deployed on the carrier, too, until the early Eighties, when both the Skyhawks and the Sea Sabres received once more a new camouflage, this time a wraparound scheme in two shades of grey, reflecting their primary airspace defense mission.
The CAC 27 Mk 41s’ last carrier operations took place in 1981 in the course of Melbourne’s involvements in two major exercises, Sea Hawk and Kangaroo 81, the ship’s final missions at sea. After Melbourne was decommissioned in 1984, the Fleet Air Arm ceased fixed-wing combat aircraft operation. This was the operational end of the Sabre Mk 41, which had reached the end of their airframe lifetime, and the Sea Sabre fleet had, during its career, severely suffered from accidents and losses: upon retirement, only eight of the original twenty-two aircraft still existed in flightworthy condition, so that the aircraft were all scrapped. The younger RAN A-4Gs were eventually sold to New Zealand, where they were kept in service until 2002.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 1 in (11.3 m)
Height: 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m)
Wing area: 302.3 sq ft (28.1 m²)
Empty weight: 12,000 lb (5,443 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,000 lb (7,256 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 21,210 lb (9,621 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Avon 208A turbojet engine with 8,200 lbf (36.44 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 700 mph (1,100 km/h) (605 knots)
Range: 1,153 mi, (1,000 NM, 1,850 km)
Service ceiling: 52,000 ft (15,850 m)
Rate of climb: 12,000 ft/min at sea level (61 m/s)
Armament:
2× 30 mm ADEN cannons with 150 rounds per gun
5,300 lb (2,400 kg) of payload on six external hardpoints;
Bombs were usually mounted on outer two pylons as the mid pair were wet-plumbed pylons for
2× 200 gallons drop tanks, while the inner pair was usually occupied by a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder
AAMs
A wide variety of bombs could be carried with maximum standard loadout being 2x 1,000 lb bombs
or 2x Matra pods with unguided SURA missiles plus 2 drop tanks for ground attacks, or 2x AIM-9 plus
two drop tanks as day fighter
The kit and its assembly:
This project was initially inspired by a set of decals from an ESCI A-4G which I had bought in a lot – I wondered if I could use it for a submission to the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2020. I considered an FJ-3M in Australian colors on this basis and had stashed away a Sword kit of that aircraft for this purpose. However, I had already built an FJ variant for the GB (a kitbashed mix of an F-86D and an FJ-4B in USMC colors), and was reluctant to add another Fury.
This spontaneously changed after (thanks to Corona virus quarantine…) I cleaned up one of my kit hoards and found a conversion set for a 1:72 CAC 27 from JAYS Model Kits which I had bought eons ago without a concrete plan. That was the eventual trigger to spin the RAN Fury idea further – why not a navalized version of the Avon Sabre for HMAS Melbourne?
The result is either another kitbash or a highly modified FJ-3M from Sword. The JAYS Model Kits set comes with a THICK sprue that carries two fuselage halves and an air intake, and it also offers a vacu canopy as a thin fallback option because the set is actually intended to be used together with a Hobby Craft F-86F.
While the parts, molded in a somewhat waxy and brittle styrene, look crude on the massive sprue, the fuselage halves come with very fine recessed engravings. And once you have cleaned the parts (NOTHING for people faint at heart, a mini drill with a saw blade is highly recommended), their fit is surprisingly good. The air intake was so exact that no putty was needed to blend it with the rest of the fuselage.
The rest came from the Sword kit and integrating the parts into the CAC 27 fuselage went more smoothly than expected. For instance, the FJ-3M comes with a nice cockpit tub that also holds a full air intake duct. Thanks to the slightly wider fuselage of the CAC 27, it could be mounted into the new fuselage halves without problems and the intake duct almost perfectly matches the intake frame from the conversion set. The tailpipe could be easily integrated without any mods, too. The fins had to be glued directly to the fuselage – but this is the way how the Sword kit is actually constructed! Even the FJ-3M’s wings match the different fuselage perfectly. The only modifications I had to make is a slight enlargement of the ventral wing opening at the front and at the read in order to take the deeper wing element from the Sword kit, but that was an easy task. Once in place, the parts blend almost perfectly into each other, just minor PSR was necessary to hide the seams!
Other mods include an extended front wheel well for the longer leg from the FJ-3M and a scratched arrester hook installation, made from wire, which is on purpose different from the Y-shaped hook of the Furies.
For the canopy I relied on the vacu piece that came with the JAYS set. Fitting it was not easy, though, it took some PSR to blend the windscreen into the rest of the fuselage. Not perfect, but O.K. for such a solution from a conversion set.
The underwing pylons were taken from the Sword kit, including the early Sidewinders. I just replaced the drop tanks – the OOB tanks are very wide, and even though they might be authentic for the FJ-3, I was skeptical if they fit at all under the wings with the landing gear extended? In order to avoid trouble and for a more modern look, I replaced them outright with more slender tanks, which were to mimic A-4 tanks (USN FJ-4s frequently carried Skyhawk tanks). They actually come from a Revell F-16 kit, with modified fins. The refueling probe comes from the Sword kit.
A last word about the Sword kit: much light, but also much shadow. While I appreciate the fine surface engravings, the recognizably cambered wings, a detailed cockpit with a two-piece resin seat and a pretty landing gear as well as the long air intake, I wonder why the creators totally failed to provide ANY detail of the arrester hook (there is literally nothing, as if this was a land-based Sabre variant!?) or went for doubtful solutions like a front landing gear that consists of five(!) single, tiny parts? Sadism? The resin seat was also broken (despite being packed in a seperate bag), and it did not fit into the cockpit tub at all. Meh!
Painting and markings:
From the start I planned to give the model the late RAN A-4Gs’ unique air superiority paint scheme, which was AFAIK introduced in the late Seventies: a two-tone wraparound scheme consisting of “Light Admiralty Grey” (BS381C 697) and “Aircraft Grey” (BS 381C 693). Quite simple, but finding suitable paints was not an easy task, and I based my choice on pictures of the real aircraft (esp. from "buzz" number 880 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, you find pics of it with very good light condition) rather than rely on (pretty doubtful if not contradictive) recommendations in various painting instructions from models or decal sets.
I wanted to keep things simple and settled upon Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231) and Light Blue (FS 35414), both enamel colors from Modelmaster, since both are rather dull interpretations of these tones. Esp. the Light Blue comes quite close to Light Admiralty Grey, even though it should be lighter for more contrast to the darker grey tone. But it has that subtle greenish touch of the original BS tone, and I did not want to mix the colors.
The pattern was adapted from the late A-4Gs’ scheme, and the colors were dulled down even more through a light black ink wash. Some post-shading with lighter tones emphasized the contrast between the two colors again. And while it is not an exact representation of the unique RAN air superiority scheme, I think that the overall impression is there.
The cockpit interior was painted in very dark grey, while the landing gear, its wells and the inside of the air intake became white. A red rim was painted around the front opening, and the landing gear covers received a red outline, too. The white drop tanks are a detail I took from real world RAN A-4Gs - in the early days of the air superiority scheme, the tanks were frequently still finished in the old USN style livery, hence the white body but fins and tail section already in the updated colors.
The decals became a fight, though. As mentioned above, the came from an ESCI kit – and, as expected, the were brittle. All decals with a clear carrier film disintegrated while soaking in water, only those with a fully printed carrier film were more or less usable. One roundel broke and had to be repaired, and the checkered fin flash was a very delicate affair that broke several times, even though I tried to save and repair it with paint. But you can unfortunately see the damage.
Most stencils and some replacements (e. g. the “Navy” tag) come from the Sword FJ-3. While these decals are crisply printed, their carrier film is utterly thin, so thin that applying esp. the larger decals turned out to be hazardous and complicated. Another point that did not really convince me about the Sword kit.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and some soot stains were added around the exhaust and the gun ports with graphite.
In the end, this build looks, despite the troubles and the rather exotic ingredients like a relatively simple Sabre with Australian markings, just with a different Navy livery. You neither immediately recognize the FJ-3 behind it, nor the Avon Sabre’s bigger fuselage, unless you take a close and probably educated look. Very subtle, though.
The RAN air superiority scheme from the late Skyhawks suits the Sabre/Fury-thing well – I like the fact that it is a modern fighter scheme, but, thanks to the tones and the colorful other markings, not as dull and boring like many others, e. g. the contemporary USN "Ghost" scheme. Made me wonder about an early RAAF F-18 in this livery - should look very pretty, too?
A postally unused postcard published by Ogden Foods Service Corp., Box 6, San Simeon, Calif. 93452. The Plastichrome photograph was taken by Colourpicture of Boston, Mass.
On the back of the card the publishers have printed:
'Hearst San Simeon
State Historical Monument.
San Simeon, California, on
Scenic Highway 1, between
Monterey and San Luis Obispo.
Interior of the Roman Pool
gleams with hand-set mosaic
tiles.
Alabaster lights give a
moonlight effect and sparkle
on tiles of 18 carat gold, fused
in glass'.
The indoor pool was in fact never popular amongst Hearst's guests, and tended to be used mainly by the mansion's domestic staff.
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada ("The Enchanted Hill"), is an estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947.
George Bernard Shaw described Hearst Castle as:
"What God would have built
if he had had the money."
Today, Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.
George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father, had purchased the original 40,000-acre (162 km2) estate in 1865 and Camp Hill, the site for the future Hearst Castle, was used for family camping vacations during Hearst's youth.
In 1919 William inherited $11,000,000 (equivalent to $172,000,000 in 2021) and estates, including the land at San Simeon. He used his fortune to further develop his media empire of newspapers, magazines and radio stations, the profits from which supported a lifetime of building and collecting.
Within a few months of Phoebe Hearst's death, he had commissioned Morgan to:
"Build something a little more
comfortable up on the hill."
This was the genesis of the present castle. Morgan was an architectural pioneer:
"America's first truly independent
female architect."
She was the first woman to study architecture at the School of Beaux-Arts in Paris, the first to have her own architectural practice in California, and the first female winner of the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal.
Julia worked in close collaboration with Hearst for over twenty years, and the castle at San Simeon is her best-known creation.
In the Roaring Twenties and into the 1930's, Hearst Castle reached its social peak. Originally intended as a family home for Hearst, his wife Millicent and their five sons, by 1925 he and Millicent had effectively separated and he held court at San Simeon with his mistress, the actress Marion Davies.
Their guest list comprised most of the Hollywood stars of the period; Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable all visited, some on multiple occasions.
Political luminaries encompassed Calvin Coolidge and Winston Churchill, while other notables included Charles Lindbergh, P. G. Wodehouse and George Bernard Shaw.
Visitors gathered each evening at Casa Grande for drinks in the Assembly Room, dined in the Refectory and watched the latest movie in the theater before retiring to the luxurious accommodation provided by the guest houses of Casa del Mar, Casa del Monte and Casa del Sol.
During the days, they admired the views, rode, played tennis, bowls or golf and swam in "the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth".
While Hearst entertained, Morgan built; the castle was under almost continual construction from 1920 until 1939, with work resuming after the end of World War II until Hearst's final departure in 1947.
Hearst, his castle and his lifestyle were satirized by Orson Welles in his 1941 film Citizen Kane. In the film, which Hearst sought to suppress, Charles Foster Kane's palace Xanadu is said to contain:
"Paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones
of many another palace – a collection of
everything so big it can never be cataloged
or appraised; enough for ten museums; the
loot of the world".
Welles's was referring to Hearst's mania for collecting; the dealer Joseph Duveen called him the "Great Accumulator".
With a passion for acquisition almost from childhood, he bought architectural elements, art, antiques, statuary, silverware and textiles on an epic scale. Shortly after starting San Simeon, he began to conceive of making the castle:
"A museum of the best
things that I can secure".
Foremost among his purchases were architectural elements from Western Europe, particularly Spain. Over thirty ceilings, doorcases, fireplaces and mantels, entire monasteries, paneling and a medieval tithe barn were purchased, shipped to Hearst's Brooklyn warehouses and transported on to California.
Much was then incorporated into the fabric of Hearst Castle. In addition, he built up collections of more conventional art and antiques of high quality; his assemblage of ancient Greek vases was one of the world's largest.
In May 1947, Hearst's health compelled him and Marion Davies to leave the castle for the last time. He died in Los Angeles in 1951, and Morgan died in 1957. The following year, the Hearst family gave the castle and much of its contents to the State of California, and the mansion was opened to the public on the 17th. May 17, 1958.
It has since operated as the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, and attracts about 750,000 visitors annually.
The Hearst family retains ownership of the majority of the 82,000 acres (332 km2) wider estate and, under a land conservation agreement reached in 2005, has worked with the California State Parks Department and American Land Conservancy to preserve the undeveloped character of the area.
Early History to 1864
The coastal range of Southern California has been occupied since prehistoric times. The indigenous inhabitants were the Salinans and the Chumash. In the late 18th. century, Spanish missions were established in the area in order to convert the Native American population.
The Mission San Miguel Arcángel, one of the largest, opened in what is now San Luis Obispo county in 1797. By the 1840's, the mission had declined and the priests departed. In that decade, the governors of Mexican California distributed the mission lands in a series of grants.
Three of these were Rancho Piedra Blanca, Rancho Santa Rosa and Rancho San Simeon. The Mexican–American War of 1846–1848 saw the area pass into the control of the United States under the terms of the Mexican Cession. The California Gold Rush of the next decade brought an influx of American settlers, among whom was the 30-year old George Hearst.
Buying the land: 1865–1919
Born in Missouri in 1820, George Hearst made his fortune as a miner of gold and silver, notably at the Comstock Lode and the Homestake Mine. He then undertook a political career, becoming a senator in 1886, and bought The San Francisco Examiner.
Investing in land, he bought the Piedra Blanca property in 1865, and subsequently extended his holdings with the acquisition of most of the Santa Rosa estate, and much of the San Simeon lands.
In the 1870's George Hearst built a ranch house on his estate, which remains a private property maintained by the Hearst Corporation. The San Simeon area became a site for family camping expeditions, including his young son, William. A particularly favored spot was named Camp Hill, the site of the future Hearst Castle.
Years later Hearst recalled his early memories of the place:
"My father brought me to San Simeon
as a boy. I had to come up the slope
hanging on to the tail of a pony.
We lived in a cabin on this spot and I
could see forever. That's the West –
forever."
George Hearst developed the estate somewhat, introducing beef and dairy cattle, planting extensive fruit orchards, and expanding the wharf facilities at San Simeon Bay. He also bred racehorses.
While his father developed the ranch, Hearst and his mother traveled, including an eighteen-month tour of Europe in 1873, where Hearst's life-long obsession with art collecting began.
When George Hearst died in 1891, he left an estate of $18 million to his widow including the California ranch. Phoebe Hearst shared the cultural and artistic interests of her son, collecting art and patronizing architects.
She was also a considerable philanthropist, founding schools and libraries, supporting the fledgling University of California, Berkeley, including the funding of the Hearst Mining Building in memory of her husband, and making major donations to a range of women's organizations, including the YWCA.
During the late 1890's, Mrs Hearst encountered Julia Morgan, a young architecture student at Berkeley. On Phoebe Hearst's death in 1919, William Hearst inherited the ranch, which had grown to 250,000 acres and 14 miles (23 km) of coastline, as well as $11 million.
250,000 acres is a huge area for an estate - to accommodate that area in a square, it would need sides of over 19.8 miles (32 km).
Within days of his mother's death, William was at Morgan's San Francisco office.
Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan, who was born in 1872, was 47 when Hearst entered her office in 1919. Her biographer Mark A. Wilson has described her subsequent career as that of:
"America's first independent
full-time woman architect".
After studying at Berkeley, where she worked with Bernard Maybeck, and in 1898 she became the first woman to win entry to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Passing out from the École in 1902, Morgan returned to San Francisco and took up a post at the architectural practice of John Galen Howard.
Howard recognized Morgan's talents, but also exploited them:
"The best thing about this person
is, I pay her almost nothing, as it is
a woman."
In 1904, Julia passed the California architects' licensing examination, the first woman to do so, establishing her own office in 1906 at 456 Montgomery Street in San Francisco.
During her time with Howard, Morgan was commissioned by Phoebe Hearst to undertake work at her Hacienda del Pozo de Verona estate at Pleasanton. This led to work at Wyntoon and to a number of commissions from Hearst himself; an unexecuted design for a mansion at Sausalito, north of San Francisco, a cottage at the Grand Canyon, and the Los Angeles Examiner Building.
In 1919, when he turned up at Morgan's office, Hearst was fifty-six years old, and the owner of a publishing empire that included twenty-eight newspapers, thirteen magazines, eight radio stations, four film studios, extensive real-estate holdings and thirty-one thousand employees.
He was also a significant public figure: although his political endeavors had proved largely unsuccessful, the influence he exerted through his direct control of his media empire attracted fame and opprobrium in equal measure.
In 1917, one biographer described him as:
"The most hated man
in the country".
The actor Ralph Bellamy, a guest at San Simeon in the mid-1930's, recorded Hearst's working methods in a description of a party in the Assembly Room:
"The party was quite gay. And in the midst of it,
Mr Hearst came in. There was a teletype machine
just inside, and he stopped and he read it.
He went to a table and picked up a phone.
He asked for the editor of his San Francisco
newspaper and he said, 'Put this in a two-column
box of the front pages of all the newspapers
tomorrow morning.'
And without notes he dictated an editorial."
Morgan and Hearst's partnership at San Simeon lasted from 1919 until his final departure from the castle in 1947. Their correspondence, preserved in the Julia Morgan archive in the Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, runs to some 3,700 letters and telegrams.
Victoria Kastner, Hearst Castle's in-house custodian, has described the partnership as "a rare, true collaboration," and there are many contemporary accounts of the closeness of the relationship. Walter Steilberg, a draughtsman in Morgan's office, once observed them at dinner:
"The rest of us could have been a
hundred miles away; they didn't pay
any attention to anybody ... these
two very different people just clicked".
Thomas Aidala, in his 1984 history of the castle, made a similar observation:
"Seated opposite each other, they
would discuss and review work,
consider design changes, pass
drawings back and forth ... seemingly
oblivious of the rest of the guests."
Having a Ball: 1925–1938
Hearst and his family occupied Casa Grande for the first time at Christmas, 1925. Thereafter, Hearst's wife, Millicent, went back to New York, and from 1926 until they left for the last time in 1947, Hearst's mistress Marion Davies acted as his chatelaine at the castle.
The Hollywood and political elite often visited in the 1920's and 1930's. Among Hearst's guests were Calvin Coolidge, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, and Clark Gable.
Churchill described his host, and Millicent Hearst and Davies, in a letter to his own wife:
"A grave simple child – with no doubt a
nasty temper – playing with the most
costly toys.
Two magnificent establishments, two
charming wives, complete indifference
to public opinion, oriental hospitalities."
Weekend guests were either brought by private train from Glendale Station north of Los Angeles, and then by car to the castle, or flew into Hearst's airstrip, generally arriving late on Friday evening or on Saturday. Cecil Beaton wrote of his impressions during his first visit for New Year's Eve in 1931:
"We caught sight of a vast, sparkling white
castle in Spain. It was out of a fairy story.
The sun poured down with theatrical
brilliance on tons of white marble and white
stone.
There seemed to be a thousand statues,
pedestals, urns. The flowers were unreal in
their ordered profusion.
Hearst stood smiling at the top of one of
the many flights of garden steps".
Guests were generally left to their own devices during the day. Horseback riding, shooting, swimming, golf, croquet and tennis were all available, while Hearst would lead mounted parties for picnics on the estate. The only absolute deadline was for cocktails in the assembly room at 7.30 on Saturday night.
Alcohol was rationed; guests were not permitted to have liquor in their rooms, and were limited to one cocktail each before dinner. This was due not to meanness on Hearst's part, but to his concerns over Davies's alcoholism, though the rule was frequently flouted.
The actor David Niven later reflected on his supplying illicit alcohol to Davies:
"It seemed fun at the time to stoke up
her fire of outrageous fun and I got a
kick out of feeling I had outwitted one
of the most powerful and best informed
men on earth, but what a disloyal and
crummy betrayal of him, and what a
nasty potential nail to put in her coffin."
Dinner was served at 9.00 in the refectory. Wine came from Hearst's 7,000-bottle cellar. Charlie Chaplin commented on the fare:
"Dinners were elaborate -- pheasant, wild
duck, partridge and venison -- but were
also informal: amidst the opulence, we
were served paper napkins, it was only
when Mrs Hearst was in residence that
the guests were given linen ones."
The informality extended to the ketchup bottles and condiments in jars which were remarked on by many guests.
Dinner was invariably followed by a movie; initially outside, and then in the theater. The actress Ilka Chase recorded a showing in the early 1930's:
"The theater was not yet complete – the plaster
was still wet – so an immense pile of fur coats
was heaped at the door, and each guest picked
one up and enveloped himself before entering...
Hearst and Marion, close together in the gloom
and bundled in their fur coats, looked for all the
world like the big and baby bears".
Movies were generally films from Hearst's own studio, Cosmopolitan Productions, and often featured Marion Davies. Sherman Eubanks, whose father worked as an electrician at the castle, recorded in an oral history:
"Mr Hearst would push a button and call up to
the projectionist and say 'Put on Marion's Peg
o' My Heart'.
So I've seen Peg o' My Heart about fifty times.
This is not being critical. I'm simply saying that's
the way it was. This repetition tended to put a
slight strain on the guests' gratitude."
In 1937, Patricia Van Cleeve married at the castle, the grandest social occasion there since the visit of President and Mrs Coolidge in February 1930. Ken Murray records these two events as the only occasions when formal attire was required of guests to the castle.
Van Cleeve, who married the actor Arthur Lake, was always introduced as Marion Davies' favorite niece. It was frequently rumored that she was in fact Davies and Hearst's daughter, something she herself acknowledged just before her death in 1993.
In February 1938, a plane crash at the San Simeon airstrip led to the deaths of Lord and Lady Plunket, who were traveling to the castle as Hearst's guests, and the pilot Tex Phillips. The only other passenger, the bobsledding champion, James Lawrence, survived.
The Specter at the Feast: Hearst, Welles and Xanadu
Hearst Castle was the inspiration for Xanadu, and Hearst himself the main model for Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane.
Having made his name with the Mercury Theatre production of The War of the Worlds in 1938, Welles arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to make a film version of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness for RKO Pictures.
The film was not made, and Welles began a collaboration with the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz on a screenplay originally entitled American. The film tells the stories of Kane, a media magnate and aspiring politician, and of his second wife Susan Alexander, a failed opera singer driven to drink, who inhabit a castle in Florida.
Filming began in June 1940, and the movie premiered on the 1st. June 1941. Although at the time Orson Welles and RKO denied that the film was based on Hearst, his long-time friend and collaborator, John Houseman was clear:
"The truth is simple: for the basic concept
of Charles Foster Kane and for the main
lines and significant events of his public life,
Mankiewicz used as his model the figure of
William Randolph Hearst".
Told of the film's content before its release – his friends, the gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons having attended early screenings – Hearst made strenuous efforts to stop the premiere. When these failed, he sought to damage the film's circulation by alternately forbidding all mention of it in his media outlets, or by using them to attack both the movie and Welles.
Hearst's assault damaged the film at the box office, and harmed Welles' subsequent career.
Since its inception in 1952 through to 2012, the Sight and Sound Critics' Poll voted Citizen Kane the greatest film of all time in every decade of polling. On the 9th. March 2012 the film was screened in the movie theater at Hearst Castle for the first time as part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.
Depression, Death and After: 1939–Present
By the late 1930's, the Great Depression and Hearst's profligacy had brought him to the brink of financial ruin. Debts totaled $126 million, and he was compelled to cede financial control of the Hearst Corporation. Newspapers and radio stations were sold, and much of his art collection was dispersed in a series of sales, often for much less than he had paid.
Hearst railed against his losses, and the perceived incompetence of the sales agents, Parish-Watson & Co:
"They greatly cheapened them and us,
he advertises like a bargain basement
sale. I am heartbroken".
Construction at Hearst Castle virtually ceased. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the castle was closed up and Hearst and Davies moved to Wyntoon, which was perceived to be less vulnerable to enemy attack.
They returned in 1945, and construction on a limited scale recommenced, finally ending in 1947. In early May of that year, with his health declining, Hearst and Davies left the castle for the last time. The pair settled in at 1007 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills.
William Randolph Hearst died in 1951, his death abruptly severing him from Davies, who was excluded from the funeral by Hearst's family:
"For thirty-two years I had him,
and they leave me with his
empty room".
In 1950 Julia Morgan closed her San Francisco office after a career of forty-two years. Ill health marred her retirement and she died, a virtual recluse, in early 1957.
In 1958 the Hearst Corporation donated Hearst Castle, its gardens, and many of its contents, to the state of California. A plaque at the castle reads:
"La Cuesta Encantada presented to
the State of California in 1958 by the
Hearst Corporation in memory of
William Randolph Hearst who created
this Enchanted Hill, and of his mother,
Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who
inspired it".
The castle was opened to the public for the first time in June 1958. Hearst Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places on the 22nd. June.
Hearst was always keen to protect the mystique of his castle. In 1926, he wrote to Morgan to congratulate her after a successful party was held on the hill:
"Those wild movie people said it was
wonderful and that the most extravagant
dream of a movie picture fell far short of
this reality. They all wanted to make a
picture there but they are NOT going to
be allowed to do this."
Commercial filming at the castle is still rarely allowed. Since 1957 only two projects have been granted permission:
-- Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus used the castle to stand in as the villa of Marcus Licinius Crassus, played by Lawrence Olivier.
-- In 2014, Lady Gaga's music video for "G.U.Y." was filmed at the Neptune and Roman Pools.
On the 12th. February 1976, the Casa del Sol guesthouse was damaged by a bomb. The device was placed by allies of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), in retaliation for Patty Hearst, Hearst's granddaughter, testifying in court at her trial for armed robbery, following her kidnapping by the SLA in 1974.
On the 22nd. December 2003, an earthquake occurred with its epicenter some three miles north of the castle. With a magnitude of 6.5, it was the largest earthquake recorded at San Simeon. The very limited structural damage which resulted was a testament to the quality of the castle's construction.
Since its opening, the castle has become a major California tourist attraction, attracting over 850,000 visitors in 2018. Recent changes to the tour arrangements now allow visitors time to explore the grounds independently at the conclusion of the conducted tours.
The Hearst family maintains a connection with the castle, which was closed for a day in early August 2019 for the wedding of Amanda Hearst, Hearst's great-granddaughter.
The castle closed in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 2 years of closure and repairs to the access road due to rainstorm damage, the castle reopened on the 11th. May 2022.
Architecture of Hearst Castle
Hearst's original idea was to build a bungalow, according to Walter Steilberg, one of Morgan's draftsmen who recalled Hearst's words from the initial meeting:
"I would like to build something up on
the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of
going up there and camping in tents.
I'm getting a little too old for that.
I'd like to get something that would
be a little more comfortable".
However within a month, Hearst's original ideas for a modest dwelling had greatly expanded. Discussion on the style began with consideration of "Jappo-Swisso" themes. Then the Spanish Colonial Revival style was favored. Morgan had used this style when she worked on Hearst's Los Angeles Herald Examiner headquarters in 1915.
Hearst appreciated the Spanish Revival but was dissatisfied with the crudeness of the colonial structures in California. Mexican colonial architecture had more sophistication, but he objected to its abundance of ornamentation.
Thomas Aidala, in his 1984 study of the castle, notes the Churrigueresque influence on the design of the main block:
"Flat and unembellished exterior surfaces;
decorative urges are particularized and
isolated, focused mainly on doorways,
windows and towers".
The Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego held the closest approximations in California to the approach Hearst desired. But William's European tours, and specifically the inspiration of the Iberian Peninsula, led him to Renaissance and Baroque examples in southern Spain that more exactly suited his tastes. He particularly admired a church in Ronda, Spain and asked Morgan to model the Casa Grande towers after it.
In a letter to Morgan dated 31st. December 1919, Hearst wrote:
"The San Diego Exposition is the best source
of Spanish in California. The alternative is to
build in the Renaissance style of southern Spain.
We picked out the towers of the church at Ronda...
a Renaissance decoration, particularly that of the
very southern part of Spain, could harmonize well
with them.
I would very much like to have your views on what
style of architecture we should select."
This blend of Southern Spanish Renaissance, Revival and Mediterranean examples became San Simeon's defining style:
"Something a little different than other
people are doing out in California".
The architectural writers Arrol Gellner and Douglas Keister describe Casa Grande as
"A palatial fusion of Classicism and Mediterranean
architecture that transcended the Mission Revival
era and instead belonged to the more archaeological
Period Revival styles that gained favor after the
Panama-California Exposition of 1915".
Hearst Castle has a total of 42 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres (half a square kilometer) of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield and, during Hearst's lifetime, the world's largest private zoo.
Hearst was an inveterate rethinker who would frequently order the redesign of previously agreed, and often built, structures: the Neptune Pool was rebuilt three times before he was satisfied.
He was aware of his propensity for changing his mind; in a letter dated the 18th. March 1920, he wrote to Morgan:
"All little houses stunning. Please complete
before I can think up any more changes".
As a consequence of Hearst's persistent design changes, and financial difficulties in the early and later 1930's, the complex was never finished.
By the late summer of 1919, Morgan had surveyed the site, analyzed its geology, and drawn initial plans for Casa Grande. Construction began in 1919 and continued through 1947 when Hearst left the estate for the last time.
During the early years of construction, until Hearst's stays at San Simeon became longer and more frequent, his approval for the ongoing design was obtained by Morgan sending him models of planned developments.
By the late 1920's the main model, designed by another female architect Julian C. Mesic, had become too large to ship, and Mesic and Morgan would photograph it, hand-color the images, and send these to Hearst.
Construction of Hearst Castle
The castle's location presented major challenges for construction. It was remote; when Morgan began coming to the estate for site visits in 1919, she would leave her San Francisco office on Friday afternoon and take an eight-hour, 200-mile train journey to San Luis Obispo, followed by a fifty-mile drive to San Simeon.
The relative isolation made recruiting and retaining a workforce a constant difficulty. In the early years, the estate lacked water, its limited supplies coming from three natural springs on Pine Mountain, a 3,500-foot-high (1,100 m) peak seven miles (11 km) east of Hearst Castle.
The issue was addressed by the construction of three reservoirs, and Morgan devised a gravity-based water delivery system that transported water from the nearby mountain springs to the reservoirs, including the main one on Rocky Butte, a 2,000-foot (610 m) knoll less than a mile southeast of Hearst Castle.
Water was of particular importance; as well as feeding the pools and fountains Hearst desired, it provided electricity, by way of a private hydroelectric plant, until the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation began service to the castle in 1924.
The climate presented a further challenge. The proximity to the coast brought strong winds in from the Pacific Ocean, and the site's elevation meant that winter storms were frequent and severe.
After a period of severe storms in February 1927, Hearst wrote a letter:
"We are all leaving the hill. We are drowned,
blown and frozen out. Before we build anything
more, let's make what we have practical,
comfortable and beautiful.
If we can't do that we might just as well change
the names of the houses to Pneumonia House,
Diphtheria House and Influenza Bungalow.
The main house we can call the Clinic."
Water was also essential for the production of concrete, the main structural component of the houses and their ancillary buildings.
Morgan had substantial experience of building in steel-reinforced concrete and, together with the firm of consulting engineers Earl and Wright, experimented in finding suitable stone, eventually settling on that quarried from the mountain top on which the foundation platform for the castle was built.
Combining this with desalinated sand from San Simeon Bay produced concrete of exceptionally high quality. Later, white sand was brought in from Carmel. Material for construction was transported either by train and truck, or by sea into a wharf built in San Simeon Bay below the site. In time, a light railway was constructed from the wharf to the castle, and Morgan built a compound of warehouses for storage and accommodation for workers by the bay.
Brick and tile works were also developed on site, as brick was used extensively, and tiling was an important element of the decoration of the castle. Morgan used several tile companies to produce her designs, including Grueby Faience, Batchelder, California Faience and Solon & Schemmel.
Albert Solon and Frank Schemmel came to Hearst Castle to undertake tiling work, and Solon's brother, Camille, was responsible for the design of the mosaics of blue-and-gold Venetian glass tile used in the Roman pool and the murals in Hearst's Gothic library.
Morgan worked with a series of construction managers; Henry Washburn from 1919 to 1922, then Camille Rossi from 1922, until his firing by Hearst in 1932, and finally George Loorz until 1940. From 1920 to 1939, there were between 25 and 150 workmen employed in construction at the castle.
Costs of Hearst Castle
The exact cost of the entire San Simeon complex is unknown. Kastner makes an estimate of expenditure on construction and furnishing the complex between 1919 and 1947 as "under $10,000,000".
Thomas Aidala suggests a slightly more precise figure for the overall cost at between $7.2 and $8.2 million. Hearst's relaxed approach to using the funds of his companies, and sometimes the companies themselves, to make personal purchases made clear accounting for expenditure almost impossible.
In 1927 one of his lawyers wrote:
"The entire history of your corporation
shows an informal method of withdrawal
of funds".
In 1945, when the Hearst Corporation was closing the Hearst Castle account for the final time, Morgan gave a breakdown of construction costs, which did not include expenditure on antiques and furnishings.
Casa Grande's build cost is given as $2,987,000, and that for the guest houses, $500,000. Other works, including nearly half a million dollars on the Neptune pool, brought the total to $4,717,000.
Morgan's fees for twenty-odd years of almost continuous work came to $70,755. Her initial fee was a 6% commission on total costs. This was later increased to 8.5%. Many additional expenses, and challenges in getting prompt payment, led her to receive rather less than this.
Kastner suggests that Morgan made an overall profit of $100,000 on the entire, twenty-year, project. Her modest remuneration was unimportant to her. At the height of Hearst's financial travails in the late 1930's, when his debts stood at over $87 million, Morgan wrote to him,
"I wish you would use me in any way
that relieves your mind as to the care
of your belongings. There never has
been, nor will there be, any charge in
this connection, it is an honor and a
pleasure".
Casa del Mar
Casa del Mar, the largest of the three guest houses, provided accommodation for Hearst himself until Casa Grande was ready in 1925. He stayed in the house again in 1947, during his last visit to the estate.
Casa del Mar contains 5,350 square feet (546 square meters) of floor space. Although luxuriously designed and furnished, none of the guest houses had kitchen facilities, a lack that sometimes irritated Hearst's guests. Adela Rogers St. Johns recounted her first visit:
"I rang and asked the maid for coffee.
With a smile, she said I would have to
go up to the castle for that.
I asked Marion Davies about this. She
said W. R. Hearst did not approve of
breakfast in bed."
Adjacent to Casa del Mar is the wellhead from Phoebe Hearst's Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, which Hearst moved to San Simeon when he sold his mother's estate after her death in 1919.
Casa del Monte
Casa del Monte was the first of the guest houses, originally entitled simply Houses A (del Mar), B (del Monte) and C (del Sol). It was built by Morgan on the slopes below the site of Casa Grande during 1920–1924.
Hearst had initially wanted to commence work with the construction of the main house, but Morgan persuaded him to begin with the guest cottages because the smaller structures could be completed more quickly.
Each guest house faces the Esplanade, and appears as a single story at its front entrance. Additional stories descend rearward down the terraced mountain side. Casa del Monte has 2,550 sq ft (237 sq. meters) of living space.
Casa del Sol
The decorative style of the Casa del Sol is Moorish, accentuated by the use of antique Persian tiles. A bronze copy of Donatello's David stands atop a copy of an original Spanish fountain.
The inspiration for the fountain came from an illustration in a book, The Minor Ecclesiastical, Domestic and Garden Architecture of Southern Spain, written by Austin Whittlesey and published in 1919.
Hearst sent a copy to Morgan, while retaining another for himself, and it proved a fertile source of ideas. The size of the house is 3,620 square feet (242 sq. meters).
Morgan's staff were responsible for the cataloguing of those parts of Hearst's art collection which were shipped to California, and an oral record made in the 1980's indicates the methodology used for furnishing the buildings at San Simeon:
"We would set the object up, and then I would
stand with a yardstick to give it scale. Sam Crow
would take a picture. Then we would give it a
number and I would write a description.
These were made into albums.
When Mr Hearst would write and say 'I want a
Florentine mantel in Cottage C in Room B, and
four yards of tiles,' then we would look it up in
the books and find something that would fit."
Casa Grande
Construction of Casa Grande began in April 1922. Work continued almost until Hearst's final departure on the 2nd. May 1947, and even then the house was unfinished. The size of Casa Grande is 68,500 square feet (5,634 sq. meters).
The main western façade is four stories. The entrance front, inspired by a gateway in Seville, is flanked by twin bell towers modeled on the tower of the church of Santa Maria la Mayor.
The layout of the main house was originally to a T-plan, with the assembly room to the front, and the refectory at a right angle to its center. The subsequent extensions of the North and South wings modified the original design.
As elsewhere, the core construction material is concrete, though the façade is faced in stone. In October 1927 Morgan wrote to Arthur Byne:
"We finally took the bull by the horns
and are facing the entire main building
with a Manti stone from Utah."
Morgan assured Hearst that it would be "the making of the building".
A cast-stone balcony fronts the second floor, and another in cast-iron the third. Above this is a large wooden overhang or gable. This was constructed in Siamese teak, originally intended to outfit a ship, which Morgan located in San Francisco.
The carving was undertaken by her senior carver Jules Suppo. Sara Holmes Boutelle suggests Morgan may have been inspired by a somewhat similar example at the Mission San Xavier del Bac in Arizona. The façade terminates with the bell towers, comprising the Celestial suites, the carillon towers and two cupolas.
The curator Victoria Kastner notes a particular feature of Casa Grande, the absence of any grand staircases. Access to the upper floors is either by elevators or stairwells in the corner turrets of the building. Many of the stairwells are undecorated and the plain, poured concrete contrasts with the richness of the decoration elsewhere.
The terrace in front of the entrance, named Central Plaza, has a quatrefoil pond at its center, with a statue of Galatea on a Dolphin. The statue was inherited, having been bought by Phoebe Hearst when her son was temporarily short of money.
The doorway from the Central Plaza into Casa Grande illustrates Morgan and Hearst's relaxed approach to combining genuine antiques with modern reproductions to achieve the effects they both desired. A 16th.-century iron gate from Spain is topped by a fanlight grille, constructed in a matching style in the 1920's by Ed Trinkeller, the castle's main ironmonger.
The castle made use of the latest technology. Casa Grande was wired with an early sound system, allowing guests to make music selections which were played from a Capehart phonograph located in the basement, and piped into rooms in the house through a system of speakers. Alternatively, six radio stations were available.
The entire estate was also equipped with 80 telephones, operated through a PBX switchboard, which was staffed 24 hours a day, and ran under the exclusive exchange 'Hacienda'.
Fortune recorded an example of Hearst's delighting in the ubiquitous access the system provided:
"A guest) fell to wondering about the result
of a ball game while seated by a campfire
with Mr Hearst, a day's ride from the castle.
'I'll tell you' volunteers Mr Hearst and,
fumbling with the rock against which he was
leaning, pulls from there a telephone, asks
for New York, and relieves his guest's curiosity".
The Assembly Room
The assembly room is the main reception room of the castle, described in 1985 by Taylor Coffman as:
"One of San Simeon's most
magnificent interiors".
The fireplace, originally from a Burgundian chateau in Jours-lès-Baigneux, is named the Great Barney Mantel, after a previous owner, Charles T. Barney, from whose estate Hearst bought it after Barney's suicide.
The ceiling is from an Italian palazzo. A concealed door in the paneling next to the fireplace allowed Hearst to surprise his guests by entering unannounced. The door opened off an elevator which connected with his Gothic suite on the third floor.
The assembly room, completed in 1926, is nearly 2,500 square feet in extent, and was described by the writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans as:
"Looking like half of Grand
Central Station".
The room held some of Hearst's best tapestries. These include four from a set celebrating the Roman general Scipio Africanus, designed by Giulio Romano, and two copied from drawings by Peter Paul Rubens depicting The Triumph of Religion.
The need to fit the tapestries above the paneling and below the roof required the installation of the unusually low windows.
The room has the only piece of Victorian decorative art in the castle, the Orchid Vase lamp, made by Tiffany for the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1889. It was bought by Phoebe Hearst, who had the original vase converted to a lamp. William placed it in the assembly room in tribute to his mother.
The Refectory
The refectory was the only dining room in the castle, and was built between 1926 and 1927. The choir stalls which line the walls are from the La Seu d'Urgell Cathedral in Catalonia, and the silk flags mounted on the walls are Palio banners from Siena.
Hearst originally intended a "vaulted Moorish ceiling" for the room but, finding nothing suitable, he and Morgan settled on the Italian Renaissance example, dating from around 1600, which Hearst purchased from a dealer in Rome in 1924.
Victoria Kastner considered that the flat roof, with life-size carvings of saints:
"Strikes a discordant note of
horizontality among the vertical
lines of the room".
The style of the whole is Gothic, in contrast to the Renaissance approach adopted in the preceding assembly room. The refectory is said to have been Morgan's favorite interior within the castle.
The design of both the refectory and the assembly room was greatly influenced by the monumental architectural elements, especially the fireplaces and the choir stalls used as wainscoting, and works of art, particularly the tapestries, which Hearst determined would be incorporated into the rooms.
The central table provided seating for 22 in its usual arrangement of two tables, which could be extended to three or four, on the occasion of larger gatherings. The tables were sourced from an Italian monastery, and were the setting for some of the best pieces from Hearst's collection of silverware. One of the finest is a wine cooler dating from the early 18th. century and weighing 14.2 kg by the Anglo-French silversmith David Willaume.
The Library
The library is on the second floor, directly above the assembly room. The ceiling is 16th. century Spanish, and a remnant is used in the library's lobby. It comprises three separate ceilings, from different rooms in the same Spanish house, which Morgan combined into one.
The fireplace is the largest Italian example in the castle. Carved from limestone, it is attributed to the medieval sculptor and architect Benedetto da Maiano.
The library contains a collection of over 5,000 books, with another 3,700 in Hearst's study above. The majority of the library collections, including Hearst's choicest pieces from his sets of, often signed, first editions by Charles Dickens, his favorite author, were sold at sales at Parke-Bernet at 1939 and Gimbels in 1941. The library is also the location for much of Hearst's important holding of antique Greek vases.
The Cloisters and the Doge's Suite
The Cloisters form a grouping of four bedrooms above the refectory and, along with the Doge's Suite above the breakfast room, were completed in 1926. The Doge's Suite was occupied by Millicent Hearst on her rare visits to the castle.
The room is lined with blue silk, and has a Dutch painted ceiling, in addition to two more of Spanish origin, which was once the property of architect Stanford White.
Morgan also incorporated an original Venetian loggia in the suite, refashioned as a balcony. The suite leads on to Morgan's inventive North and South Duplex apartments, with sitting areas and bathrooms at entry level and bedrooms on mezzanine floors above.
The Gothic Suite
The Gothic suite was Hearst's private apartment on the third floor. He moved there in 1927. It comprises the Gothic study or library and Hearst's own South Gothic bedroom and private sitting room.
The ceiling of the bedroom is one of the best Hearst bought; Spanish, of the 14th. century, it was discovered by his Iberian agent Arthur Byne who also located the original frieze panels which had been detached and sold some time before.
The whole was installed at the castle in 1924. The space originally allocated for the study was too low to create the impression desired by Morgan and Hearst, a difficulty Morgan surmounted by raising the roof and supporting the ceiling with concrete trusses.
These, and the walls, were painted with frescoes by Camille Solon. Light was provided by two ranges of clerestory windows. The necessity of raising the roof to incorporate the study occasioned one of the few instances where Hearst hesitated:
"I telegraphed you my fear of the cost...
I imagine it would be ghastly."
Nevertheless Morgan urged further changes and expense. The result vindicated Morgan. The study, completed in 1931, is dominated by a portrait of Hearst at age 31, painted by his life-long friend, Orrin Peck.
The Celestial Suites
The Celestial bedrooms, with a connecting, shared, sitting room, were created between 1924 and 1926. The bell towers were raised to improve the proportions of the building, and the suites constructed in the spaces created below.
The relatively cramped spaces allowed no room for storage, and en-suite bathrooms were "awkwardly squeezed" into lower landings. Ludwig Bemelmans, a guest in the 1930's, recalled:
"There was no place to hang your
clothes, so I hung mine on wire
coat hangers that a former tenant
had left hanging on the arms of
two six-armed gold candelabra,
the rest I put on the floor".
The sitting room contains one of the most important paintings in Hearst's collection, Bonaparte Before the Sphinx (1868) by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The suites are linked externally by a walkway, the Celestial Bridge, which is decorated with elaborate tiling.
The North and South Wings
The North, or Billiard, and the South, or Service, wings complete the castle, and were begun in 1929.
The North wing houses the billiard room on the first floor, which was converted from the original breakfast room. It has a Spanish antique ceiling and a French fireplace, and contains the oldest tapestry in the castle, a Millefleur hunting scene woven in Flanders in the 15th. century.
The spandrel over the doorcase is decorated with a frieze of 16th. century Persian tiles depicting a battle. The 34 tiles originate from Isfahan and were purchased by Hearst at the Kevorkian sale in New York in 1922.
The theater, which leads off the billiard room, was used both for amateur theatricals and the showing of movies from Hearst's Cosmopolitan Studios. The theater accommodated fifty guests and had an electric keyboard that enabled the bells in the carillon towers to be played. The walls are decorated in red damask, which originally hung in the Assembly room, and feature gilded caryatids.
The upper stories of the North Wing were the last to be worked upon, and were never completed. Activity recommenced in 1945 and Morgan delegated the work to her assistant, Warren McClure. Many of the rooms are unfinished, but Aidala considers that the bathrooms in the wing represent first-rate examples of streamline design.
The Service Wing contains the kitchen. The hotel-scale units and worktops are constructed in Monel Metal, an expensive form of nickel alloy invented in 1901. The wing contains further bedroom suites, a staff dining room, and gives entry to the 9,000 square foot basement which contained a wine cellar, pantries, the boiler plant which heated the main house, and a barber shop, for the use of Hearst's guests.
Planned but Uncompleted Elements
Hearst and Morgan intended a large ballroom or cloister to connect the North and South wings at the rear of Casa Grande and unify the whole composition, but it was never undertaken.
In 1932, Hearst contemplated incorporating the reja (grille) he had acquired from Valladolid Cathedral in 1929 into this room. He described his vision in a letter to Morgan dated that year:
"A great ballroom and banqueting hall,
that is the scheme! Isn't it a pippin."
The letter was signed "Sincerely, Your Assistant Architect".
Other structures that did not develop beyond drawings and plans included two more guest houses, in English and Chinese architectural styles.
Collections
After a visit to Ansiglioni's workshop in 1889, William wrote the following in a letter to his mother:
"Why didn't you buy Ansiglioni's Galatea. It is
superb...I have a great notion to buy it myself,
the one thing that prevents me is a scarcity of
funds.
The man wants eight thousand dollars for the
blooming thing. I have the art fever terribly.
Queer, isn't it?
I never miss a gallery and I go and nosey about
the pictures and statuary and wish they were mine."
Hearst was a voracious collector of art, with the stated intention of making the castle "a museum of the best things that I can secure."
The dealer Joseph Duveen, from whom Hearst bought despite their mutual dislike, called him the "Great Accumulator." His robust approach to buying, particularly the purchase and removal of entire historic structures, generated considerable ill-feeling, and sometimes outright opposition.
William's deconstruction and removal of the 14th. century Bradenstoke Priory in England led the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to organize a campaign which used language so violent that its posters had to be pasted over for fear of a libel suit.
Hearst sometimes encountered similar opposition elsewhere. In 1919 he was writing to Morgan about:
"The patio from Bergos (sic) which, by the
way, I own but cannot get out of Spain".
The dismantling of a monastery in Sacramenia, which Hearst bought in its entirety in the 1920's, saw his workmen attacked by enraged villagers.
Hearst's tardiness in paying his bills was another less attractive feature of his purchasing approach; in 1925 Morgan was obliged to write to Arthur Byne:
"Mr. Hearst accepts your
dictum – cash or nothing".
Some of the finest pieces from the collections of books and manuscripts, tapestries, paintings, antiquities and sculpture, amounting to about half of Hearst's total art holdings, were sold in sales in the late 1930's and early 1940's, when Hearst's publishing empire was facing financial collapse, but a great deal remains.
William's art buying had started when he was young and, in his tested fashion, he established a company, the International Studio Arts Corporation, as a vehicle for purchasing works and as a means of dealing with their export and import.
In 1975, the Hearst Corporation donated the archive of Hearst's Brooklyn warehouses, the gathering point for almost all of his European acquisitions before their dispersal to his many homes, to Long Island University.
As of 2015, the university has embarked on a digitization project which will ultimately see the 125 albums of records, and sundry other materials, made available online.
Antiquities
The ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities are the oldest works in Hearst's collection. The oldest of all are the stone figures of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet which stand on the South Esplanade below Casa Grande. They date from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, approximately 1550 to 1189 BC.
Morgan designed the pool setting for the pieces, with tiling inspired by ancient Egyptian motifs. In the courtyard of Casa del Monte is one of a total of nine Roman sarcophagi collected by Hearst, dated to 230 AD, and previously held at the Palazzo Barberini, which was acquired at the Charles T. Yerkes sale in 1910.
The most important element of the antiquities collection is the holding of Greek vases, on display in the second-floor library. Although 65 vases were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after Hearst's death, those which remain at the castle still form one of the world's largest private groups. Hearst began collecting vases in 1901, and his collection was moved from his New York homes to the castle in 1935.
At its peak, the collection numbered over 400 pieces. The vases were placed on the tops of the bookshelves in the library, each carefully wired in place to guard against vibrations from earthquakes. At the time of Hearst's collecting, many of the vases were believed to be of Etruscan manufacture, but later scholars ascribe all of them to Greece.
Sculptures
Hearst often bought multiple lots from sales of major collections; in 1930 he purchased five antique Roman statues from the Lansdowne sale in London. Four are now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and one in the Metropolitan.
William collected bronzes as well as marble figures; a cast of a stone original of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini, dating from around 1617, stands in the Doge's suite.
In addition to his classical sculptures, Hearst was content to acquire 19th. century versions, or contemporary copies of ancient works:
"If we cannot find the right thing
in a classic statue, we can find a
modern one".
He was a particular patron of Charles Cassou, and also favored the early 19th. century Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen whose Venus Victorious remains at the castle.
Both this, and the genuinely classical Athena from the collection of Thomas Hope, were displayed in the Assembly room, along with the Venus Italica by Antonio Canova. Other works by Thorvaldsen include the four large marble medallions in the Assembly room depicting society's virtues.
Two 19th. century marbles are in the anteroom to the Assembly room, Bacchante, by Frederick William MacMonnies, a copy of his bronze original, and Pygmalion and Galatea by Gérôme.
A monumental statue of Galatea, attributed to Leopoldo Ansiglioni and dating from around 1882, stands in the center of the pool on the Main terrace in front of Casa Grande.
Textiles
Tapestries include the Scipio set by Romano in the Assembly room, two from a set telling the Biblical story of Daniel in the Morning room, and the millefleur hunting scene in the Billiard room. The hunting scene is particularly rare, one of only "a handful from this period in the world".
Hearst also assembled and displayed an important collection of Navajo textiles at San Simeon, including blankets, rugs and serapes. Most were purchased from Herman Schweizer, who ran the Indian Department of the Fred Harvey Company.
Originally gathered at Hearst's hacienda at Jolon, they were moved to Wyntoon in 1940 before being brought to San Simeon. They were finally donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1942.
Hearst was always interested in pieces that had historical and cultural connections to the history of California and Central and Latin America. The North Wing contains two Peruvian armorial banners. Dating from the 1580's, they show the shields of Don Luis Jerónimo Fernández Cabrera y Bobadilla, Count of Chinchón and viceroy of Peru.
Nathaniel Burt, the composer and critic evaluated the collections at San Simeon thus:
"Far from being the mere kitsch that
most easterners have been led to
believe, San Simeon is full of real
beauties and treasures".
Paintings
The art collection includes works by Tintoretto, whose portrait of Alvisius Vendramin hangs in the Doge's suite, Franz Xaver Winterhalter who carried out the double portraits of Maximilian I of Mexico and his empress Carlota, located in Casa del Mar, and two portraits of Napoléon by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
Hearst's earliest painting, a Madonna and Child from the school of Duccio di Buoninsegna, dates from the early 14th. century. A gift from his friend, the editor Cissy Patterson, the painting hangs in Hearst's bedroom.
Portrait of a Woman, by Giulio Campi, hangs in a bedroom in the North Wing. In 1928 Hearst acquired the Madonna and Child with Two Angels, by Adriaen Isenbrandt.
The curator Taylor Coffman describes this work, which hangs in the Casa del Mar sitting room, as perhaps "San Simeon's finest painting". In 2018, a previously unattributed Annunciation in the Assembly room was identified as a work of 1690 by Bartolomé Pérez.
The Gardens and Grounds of Hearst Castle
The Esplanade, a curving, paved walkway, connects the main house with the guest cottages; Hearst described it as:
"Giving a finished touch to the big
house, to frame it in, as it were."
Morgan designed the pedestrianized pavement with great care, to create a coup de théâtre for guests, desiring:
"A strikingly noble and saississant effect
be impressed upon everyone on arrival."
Hearst concurred:
"Heartily approve. I certainly want that
saississant effect. I don't know what it
is, but I think we ought to have at least
one such on the premises".
A feature of the gardens are the lampposts topped with alabaster globes; modeled on "janiform hermae", the concept was Hearst's. The Swan lamps, remodeled with alabaster globe lights to match the hermae, were designed by Morgan's chief draftsman, Thaddeus Joy.
Others who influenced Hearst and Morgan in their landscaping include Charles Adams Platt, an artist and gardener who had made a particular study of the layout and planting of Italian villas. Also Nigel Keep, Hearst's orchardman, who worked at San Simeon from 1922 to 1947, and Albert Webb, Hearst's English head gardener who was at the hill from 1922 to 1948.
The Neptune Pool
The Neptune Pool, "the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth", is located near the edge of the hilltop. It is enclosed by a retaining wall and underpinned by a framework of concrete struts to allow for movement in the event of earthquakes.
The pool is often cited as an example of Hearst's changeability; it was reconstructed three times before he was finally satisfied. Originally begun as an ornamental pond, it was first expanded in 1924 as Millicent Hearst desired a swimming pool.
It was enlarged again during 1926–1928 to accommodate Cassou's statuary. Finally, in 1934, it was extended again to act as a setting for a Roman temple, in part original and in part comprising elements from other structures which Hearst transported from Europe and had reconstructed at the site.
The pool holds 345,000 gallons of water, and is equipped with seventeen shower and changing rooms. It was heated by oil-fired burners. In early 2014, the pool was drained due to drought conditions and leakage.
After a long-term restoration project to fix the leaking, the pool was refilled in August 2018. The restoration of the pool was recognized with a Preservation Design Award for Craftsmanship from the California Preservation Foundation in 2019.
The pool is well-supplied with sculpture, particularly works by Charles Cassou. His centerpiece, opposite the Roman temple, is The Birth of Venus. An even larger sculptural grouping, depicting Neptune in a chariot drawn by four horses, was commissioned to fill the empty basin above the Venus. Although carved, it was never installed.
Roman Pool
The Roman Pool, constructed under the tennis courts, provided an indoor alternative to the Neptune pool. Originally mooted by Hearst in 1927, construction did not begin until 1930, and the pool was not completed until 1935.
Hearst initially wanted the pool to be fed by salt-water, but the design challenges proved to be insuperable. A disastrous attempt to fulfill Hearst's desires by pouring 20 tons of washed rock salt into the pool saw the disintegration of the cast-iron heat exchanger and pump.
Inspiration for the mosaic decoration came from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna. The tiles are of Murano glass, with gold-leaf, and were designed by Solon and manufactured in San Francisco.
Although a pool of "spectacular beauty", it was little used as it was located in a less-visited part of the complex.
The Pergola and Zoo
Two other major features of the grounds were the pergola and the zoo. The pergola, an ornamental bridleway, runs to the west of Casa Grande. Comprising concrete columns, covered in espaliered fruit trees, Morgan ensured that it was built to a height sufficient to allow Hearst, "a tall man with a tall hat on a tall horse", to ride unimpeded down its mile-long length.
Plans for a zoo, to house Hearst's large collection of wild animals, were drawn up by Morgan, and included an elephant house and separate enclosures for antelopes, camels, zebras and bears. The zoo was never constructed, but a range of shelters and pits were built, sited on Orchard Hill.
The Estate
At the height of Hearst's ownership, the estate totaled more than 250,000 acres. W. C. Fields commented on the extent of the estate while on a visit:
"Wonderful place to bring up children.
You can send them out to play. They
won't come back till they're grown."
23 miles to the north of the castle, Morgan constructed the Milpitas Hacienda, a ranch-house that acted as a trianon to the main estate, and as a focus for riding expeditions.
Appraisals of Hearst Castle
As with Hearst himself, Hearst Castle and its collections have been the subject of considerable criticism. From the 1940's the view of Hearst and Morgan's most important joint creation as the phantasmagorical Xanadu of Orson Welles's imagination has been commonplace.
Some literary depictions were gently mocking; P. G. Wodehouse's novel of 1953, The Return of Jeeves has a character describe her stay:
"I remember visiting San Simeon once,
and there was a whole French Abbey
lying on the grass."
John Steinbeck's unnamed description was certainly of Hearst:
"They's a fella, newspaper fella near the
coast, got a million acres. Fat, sof' fella
with little mean eyes an' a mouth like a
ass-hole".
The writer John Dos Passos went further, explicitly referencing Hearst in the third volume of his 1938 U.S.A trilogy:
"The emperor of newsprint retired to his
fief of San Simeon where he built an
Andalusian palace and there spends his
last years amid the relaxing adulations
of screen stars, admen, screenwriters,
publicity-men, columnists.
Until he dies, a spent Caesar grown old
with spending."
The English architectural writer Clive Aslet was little more complimentary about the castle. Disliking its "unsympathetic texture of poured concrete", he described it as "best seen from a distance".
The unfinished, and unresolved, rear façade of Casa Grande has been the subject of particular negative comment; Carleton Winslow and Nicola Frye, in their history from 1980, suggest:
"The flanking North and South wings
compete rather disastrously with the
central doge's suite block."
Others questioned the castle's very existence; the architect Witold Rybczynski asked:
"What is this Italian villa doing on the
Californian Coastal Range? A costly
piece of theatrical décor that ignores
its context and lacks meaning."
Hearst's collections were similarly disparaged. The art historian William George Constable echoed Joseph Duveen when he assessed Hearst as:
"Not a collector but a gigantic
and voracious magpie."
Later decades after Hearst's death have seen a more sympathetic and appreciative evaluation of his collections, and the estate he and Morgan created to house them.
The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Hoving, although listing Hearst only at number 83 in his evaluation of America's top 101 art collectors, wrote:
"Hearst is being reevaluated. He may
have been much more of a collector
than was thought at the time of his
death."
The curator Mary Levkoff, in her 2008 study, Hearst the Collector, contends that he was indeed a collector, describing the four separate "staggeringly important" collections of antique vases, tapestries, armor and silver which Hearst had brought together.
She wrote of the challenge of bringing their artistic merit to light from under the shadow of his own reputation.
Of Morgan's building, its stock has risen with the re-evaluation of her standing and accomplishments, which saw her inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008. She became the first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2014, and to have an obituary in The New York Times as recently as 2019.
The writer John Julius Norwich recorded his recantation after a visit to the castle:
"I went prepared to mock; I remained
to marvel. Hearst Castle is a palace in
every sense of the word."
Final Thoughts From William Randolph Hearst
"News is something somebody doesn't
want printed; all else is advertising.”
"Don't be afraid to make a mistake,
your readers might like it."
Kroon Hall was completed in 2009, and is the home of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University . The building was designed by Centerbrook Architects and Planners, Hopkins Architects, and others. This is one of the greenest buildings in America, using the latest technologies and materials available. Established in 1900, the Yale School of Forestry was the first such school in the U.S.. The two men who started the school were Gifford Pinchot, and Henry S. Graves. Graves served as Dean from 1900-1911, and Pinchot served under Teddy Roosevelt, starting the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and served as the first head of the service.
(further pictures and information you can get by going to the end of page and clicking two times on the link!)
Voith Villa
Garden of the Manor House
The former Voith Villa in St. Pölten was the home of industrialist Walther Voith and is now, along with the gatehouse, enclosure and gazebo, a listed building. The neo-baroque manor house complex emerged in the years 1910 to 1917 and was extended in 1922 and 1929. Today the villa is owned by the city of St. Pölten, in it the Culture Home South is housed, the park is open to the public and is called South Park.
History
Outline of the garden (1913)
The company Voith from Heidenheim opened in 1903 in St. Pölten a subsidiary factory. Walther Voith, one of the sons of Friedrich Voith, took over the management of the factory. He commissioned a few years later Rudolf Frass with the planning of a mansion. The gatehouse and the enclosure arose from 1910 to 1911 as the first building step, from 1913 followed the villa. It and the park-like garden were completed in 1917. The gatehouse was enlarged in 1922 and 1931, the villa was in 1922 extended to the north-facing domestic wing and received in 1929 the east-side veranda. Architect of the rebuilding of the mansion was Alfred Keller.
The Voith in 1945 was put under USIA management *), the villa was used as a nursery. After the occupation the Voith continued the Kindergarten before the whole complex in 1960 the city of St. Pölten was given. The city of Sankt Pölten brought the former mansion to a predominantly cultural use, now the Music School is located in it. Moreover, different events in the now called Culture Home South building take place, by the magistrate also civil weddings in the ceremonial hall of the villa are offered.
*) Administration for Soviet Property in Austria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see USIA (disambiguation).
Trattnerhof in Graben, Vienna, former headquarters of the USIA.
The Administration for Soviet Property in Austria, or the USIA (Russian: Управление советским имуществом в Австрии) was formed in the Soviet zone of Allied-occupied Austria in June 1946 and operated until the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1955. USIA operated as a de facto state corporation and controlled over four hundred expropriated Austrian factories, transportation and trading companies. USIA assets included formerly independent Austrian companies (ÖAF), factories once owned by German corporations (AEG) and former SS enterprises (DEST). At its peak in 1951 the conglomerate employed around 60 thousand people,[1] or 10% of Austrian industrial labor.[2] USIA was exempt from Austrian tariffs, disregarded Austrian taxation, and could easily trade with Eastern Europe despite the Iron Curtain and Western trade embargoes. The extraterritorial corporation attempted to be self-sufficient and was very weakly integrated with the rest of Austrian economy.
Map of today's complex
Building description
Mansion
The former manor house lies at the northern edge of the property the south side facing the park-like garden.
The mansard roof of the to 1913 built main wing is staggered and reaches at the side wings beyond the first floor. The north façade is dominated by a centrally disposed risalit, before that is located under a large canopy supported by four columns the main portal. On the risalit is a fenced lookout point. The garden facade has on both sides of the balcony on the first floor each an octagonal risalit with own roof helmet. Under the semi-circular balcony there is a terrace which is connected by two curved staircase arms with the forecourt of the park. The white windows are preserved in their original and are surrounded by turquoise shutters.
Gatehouse
The gatehouse was the first building of the ensemble in 1910. The first building was extended in 1922 according to plans by Rudolf Jäger (Vienna), 1931 followed another conversion.
The single-storey, provided with mansard roof house still possesses the original wooden doorway, in the front building is a two-coloured terrazzo and a small groin vault.
Park
The park is dominated by the two lateral pergolas and the water basin in the southern area. In the northern area of the park there is a small pavilion with turned supports. In the park there are numerous sculptures representing the casts of several baroque statues. The draft versions are standing, among others, before the Schwaighof and the castle Wasserburg.
Gallery
The portal of the north side of the mansion
The gatehouse seen from the street
The grounds from the mansion
The pavilion in the park
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voithvilla
(further information is available by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
History of the City St. Pölten
In order to present concise history of the Lower Austrian capital is in the shop of the city museum a richly illustrated full version on CD-ROM.
Tip
On the occasion of the commemoration of the pogroms of November 1938, the Institute for Jewish History of Austria its virtual Memorbuch (Memory book) for the destroyed St. Pölten Jewish community since 10th November 2012 is putting online.
Prehistory
The time from which there is no written record is named after the main materials used for tools and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Using the latest technologies, archaeologists from archaeological finds and aerial photographs can trace a fairly detailed picture of life at that time. Especially for the time from the settling down of the People (New Stone Age), now practicing agriculture and animal husbandry, in the territory of St. Pölten lively settlement activity can be proved. In particular, cemeteries are important for the research, because the dead were laid in the grave everyday objects and jewelry, the forms of burial changing over time - which in turn gives the archeology valuable clues for the temporal determination. At the same time, prehistory of Sankt Pölten would not be half as good documented without the construction of the expressway S33 and other large buildings, where millions of cubic meters of earth were moved - under the watchful eyes of the Federal Monuments Office!
A final primeval chapter characterized the Celts, who settled about 450 BC our area and in addition to a new culture and religion also brought with them the potter's wheel. The kingdom of Noricum influenced till the penetration of the Romans the development in our area.
Roman period, migrations
The Romans conquered in 15 BC the Celtic Empire and established hereinafter the Roman province of Noricum. Borders were protected by military camp (forts), in the hinterland emerged civilian cities, almost all systematically laid out according to the same plan. The civil and commercial city Aelium Cetium, as St. Pölten was called (city law 121/122), consisted in the 4th Century already of heated stone houses, trade and craft originated thriving urban life, before the Romans in the first third of the 5th Century retreated to Italy.
The subsequent period went down as the Migration Period in official historiography, for which the settlement of the Sankt Pöltner downtown can not be proved. Cemeteries witness the residence of the Lombards in our area, later it was the Avars, extending their empire to the Enns.
The recent archaeological excavations on the Cathedral Square 2010/2011, in fact, the previous knowledge of St.Pölten colonization not have turned upside down but enriched by many details, whose full analysis and publication are expected in the near future.
Middle Ages
With the submission of the Avars by Charlemagne around 800 AD Christianity was gaining a foothold, the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Tegernsee establishing a daughter house here - as founder are mentioned the brothers Adalbert and Ottokar - equipped with the relics of St. Hippolytus. The name St. Ypolit over the centuries should turn into Sankt Pölten. After the Hungarian wars and the resettlement of the monastery as Canons Regular of St. Augustine under the influence of Passau St. Pölten received mid-11th Century market rights.
In the second half of the 20th century historians stated that records in which the rights of citizens were held were to be qualified as Town Charters. Vienna is indeed already in 1137 as a city ("civitas") mentioned in a document, but the oldest Viennese city charter dates only from the year 1221, while the Bishop of Passau, Konrad, already in 1159 the St. Pöltnern secured:
A St. Pöltner citizen who has to answer to the court, has the right to make use of an "advocate".
He must not be forced to rid himself of the accusation by a judgment of God.
A St. Pöltner citizen may be convicted only by statements of fellow citizens, not by strangers.
From the 13th Century exercised a city judge appointed by the lord of the city the high and low jurisdiction as chairman of the council meetings and the Municipal Court, Inner and Outer Council supported him during the finding of justice. Venue for the public verdict was the in the 13th Century created new marketplace, the "Broad Market", now the town hall square. Originally square-shaped, it was only later to a rectangle reduced. Around it arose the market district, which together with the monastery district, the wood district and the Ledererviertel (quarter of the leather goods manufacturer) was protected by a double city wall.
The dependence of St. Pölten of the bishop of Passau is shown in the municipal coat of arms and the city seal. Based on the emblem of the heraldic animal of the Lord of the city, so the Bishop of Passau, it shows an upright standing wolf holding a crosier in its paw.
Modern Times
In the course of the armed conflict between the Emperor Frederick III . and King Matthias of Hungary pledged the Bishop of Passau the town on the Hungarian king. From 1485 stood Lower Austria as a whole under Hungarian rule. The most important document of this period is the awarding of the city coat of arms by King Matthias Corvinus in the year 1487. After the death of the opponents 1490 and 1493 could Frederick's son Maximilian reconquer Lower Austria. He considered St. Pölten as spoils of war and had no intention of returning it to the diocese of Passau. The city government has often been leased subsequently, for instance, to the family Wellenstein, and later to the families Trautson and Auersperg.
That St. Pölten now was a princely city, found its expression in the coat of arms letter of the King Ferdinand I. from 1538: From now on, the wolf had no crosier anymore, and the from the viewer's point of view left half showed the reverse Austrian shield, so silver-red-silver.
To the 16th Century also goes back the construction of St. Pöltner City Hall. The 1503 by judge and council acquired house was subsequently expanded, rebuilt, extended and provided with a tower.
A for the urban history research important picture, painted in 1623, has captured scenes of the peasant uprising of 1597, but also allows a view to the city and lets the viewer read some of the details of the then state of construction. The economic inconveniences of that time were only exacerbated by the Thirty Years War, at the end of which a fifth of the houses were uninhabited and the citizenry was impoverished.
Baroque
After the successful defense against the Turks in 1683, the economy started to recover and a significant building boom began. Lower Austria turned into the land of the baroque abbeys and monasteries, as it is familiar to us today.
In St. Pölten, the change of the cityscape is closely connected to the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer. In addition to the Baroquisation of the interior of the cathedral, a number of buildings in St. Pölten go to his account, so the reconstruction of the castle Ochsenburg, the erection of the Schwaighof and of the core building of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Englische Fräuleins - English Maidens) - from 1706 the seat of the first school order of St.Pölten - as well as of several bourgeois houses.
Joseph Munggenast, nephew and co-worker of Prandtauer, completed the Baroquisation of the cathedral, he baroquised the facade of the town hall (1727) and numerous bourgeois houses and designed a bridge over the Traisen which existed until 1907. In the decoration of the church buildings were throughout Tyroleans collaborating, which Jakob Prandtauer had brought along from his homeland (Tyrol) to St. Pölten, for example, Paul Troger and Peter Widerin.
Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II: Their reforms in the city of the 18th Century also left a significant mark. School foundings as a result of compulsory education, the dissolution of the monasteries and hereinafter - from 1785 - the new role of St. Pölten as a bishop's seat are consequences of their policies.
1785 was also the year of a fundamental alteration of the old Council Constitution: The city judge was replaced by one magistrate consisting of five persons, at the head was a mayor. For the first mayor the painter Josef Hackl was chosen.
The 19th century
Despite the Napoleonic Wars - St. Pölten in 1805 and 1809 was occupied by the French - and despite the state bankruptcy of 1811, increased the number of businesses constantly, although the economic importance of the city for the time being did not go beyond the near vicinity.
Against the background of monitoring by the state secret police, which prevented any political commitment between the Congress of Vienna and the 1848 revolution, the citizens withdrew into private life. Sense of family, fostering of domestic music, prominent salon societies in which even a Franz Schubert socialized, or the construction of the city theater were visible signs of this attitude.
The economic upswing of the city did not begin until after the revolution of the year 1848. A prerequisite for this was the construction of the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway, moving Vienna, Linz, soon Salzburg, too, in a reachable distance. The city walls were pulled down, St. Pölten could unfold. The convenient traffic situation favored factory start-ups, and so arose a lace factory, a revolver factory, a soap factory or, for example, as a precursor of a future large-scale enterprise, the braid, ribbon and Strickgarnerzeugung (knitting yarn production) of Matthias Salcher in Harland.
In other areas, too, the Gründerzeit (years of rapid industrial expansion in Germany - and Austria) in Sankt Pölten was honouring its name: The city got schools, a hospital, gas lanterns, canalization, hot springs and summer bath.
The 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th Century the city experienced another burst of development, initiated by the construction of the power station in 1903, because electricity was the prerequisite for the settlement of large companies. In particular, the companies Voith and Glanzstoff and the main workshop of the Federal Railways attracted many workers. New Traisen bridge, tram, Mariazell Railway and other infrastructure buildings were erected; St. Pölten obtained a synagogue. The Art Nouveau made it repeatedly into the urban architecture - just think of the Olbrich House - and inspired also the painting, as exponents worth to be mentioned are Ernst Stöhr or Ferdinand Andri.
What the outbreak of the First World War in broad outlines meant for the monarchy, on a smaller scale also St. Pölten has felt. The city was heavily impacted by the deployment of army units, a POW camp, a military hospital and a sick bay. Industrial enterprises were partly converted into war production, partly closed. Unemployment, housing emergency and food shortages long after the war still were felt painfully.
The 1919 to mayor elected Social Democrat Hubert Schnofl after the war tried to raise the standard of living of the people by improving the social welfare and health care. The founding of a housing cooperative (Wohnungsgenossenschaft), the construction of the water line and the establishment of new factories were further attempts to stimulate the stiffening economy whose descent could not be stopped until 1932.
After the National Socialist regime had stirred false hopes and plunged the world into war, St. Pölten was no longer the city as it has been before. Not only the ten devastating bombings of the last year of the war had left its marks, also the restrictive persecution of Jews and political dissidents had torn holes in the structure of the population. Ten years of Russian occupation subsequently did the rest to traumatize the population, but at this time arose from the ruins a more modern St. Pölten, with the new Traisen bridge, district heating, schools.
This trend continued, an era of recovery and modernization made the economic miracle palpable. Already in 1972 was - even if largely as a result of incorporations - exceeded the 50.000-inhabitant-limit.
Elevation to capital status (capital of Lower Austria), 10 July 1986: No other event in this dimension could have become the booster detonation of an up to now ongoing development thrust. Since then in a big way new residential and commercial areas were opened up, built infrastructure constructions, schools and universities brought into being to enrich the educational landscape. East of the Old Town arose the governmental and cultural district, and the list of architects wears sonorous names such as Ernst Hoffmann (NÖ (Lower Austria) Landhaus; Klangturm), Klaus Kada (Festspielhaus), Hans Hollein (Shedhalle and Lower Austrian Provincial Museum), Karin Bily, Paul Katzberger and Michael Loudon ( NÖ State Library and NÖ State Archive).
European Diploma, European flag, badge of honor, Europe Price: Between 1996 and 2001, received St. Pölten numerous appreciations of its EU commitment - as a sort of recognition of the Council of Europe for the dissemination of the EU-idea through international town twinnings, a major Europe exhibition or, for example, the establishment and chair of the "Network of European medium-sized cities".
On the way into the 21st century
Just now happened and already history: What the St. Pöltnern as just experienced sticks in their minds, travelers and newcomers within a short time should be told. The theater and the hospital handing over to the province of Lower Austria, a new mayor always on the go, who was able to earn since 2004 already numerous laurels (Tags: polytechnic, downtown enhancement, building lease scheme, bus concept) - all the recent changes are just now condensed into spoken and written language in order to make, from now on, the history of the young provincial capital in the 3rd millennium nachlesbar (checkable).
www.st-poelten.gv.at/Content.Node/freizeit-kultur/kultur/...
Scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are continuing to work with a range of industry partners to develop the Army’s Future Soldier Vision (FSV), showcasing the personal equipment that soldiers could be using by the mid-2020s.
As well as the design of advanced combat clothing, which includes new materials like four-way stretch fabric and silent hook and loop pockets, new body armour will be lighter, and a new high-tech helmet will have state-of-the- art built-in communication systems.
The Vision is part of the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) plan to ensure that British Soldiers have high-quality equipment utilising the latest technologies, as part of an integrated system. Future Soldier Vision (FSV) gives companies an aim point – an example of an integrated soldier system that balances military need with technology that delivers distributed power to data, scaleable and integrated protection, augmented surveillance and target acquisition, and a range of functional fabrics incorporated into the clothing.
Partners include The Royal College of Art (RCA) who provided professional designers, who – when they weren’t working in London on high-end jewellery – spent months working on the clothing to ensure prototypes were fitted to the body, were easy to run in and comfortable to wear.
-------------------------------------------------------
© Crown Copyright 2014
Photographer: DSTL Porton Down Photographer
Image 45163924.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk
This image is available for high resolution download at www.defenceimagery.mod.uk subject to the terms and conditions of the Open Government License at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/. Search for image number 45163924.jpg
For latest news visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence
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Guemes Channel. Dakota Creek Industries. (DCI)
Delivery: November 2017
"This US flagged Amendment 80 replacement vessel designed for Fishermen’s Finest by Skipsteknisk AS (ST-116XL) specifically for catching and producing frozen at sea white fish products, groundfish, including yellow and rock sole species. Operations will be the North Pacific Gulf of Alaska, Chukchi Sea and Bering Sea."
dakotacreek.com/project/fishermens-finest-trawler/
"The Vessel joins 6 other ST-116 design trawler (ST116 Class), operating around the world and will be the first ST-116XL, and first to operate in the United States. The Vessel will be powered by a MAN 8L32/44CR diesel engine, utilizing the latest Common Rail technology."
(further information and pictures are available by clicking on the link at the end of section and of page!)
Synagogue St. Pölten
Exterior of the former St. Pölten Synagogue
The St. Pölten Synagogue was up to the November pogroms in 1938 the main synagogue of the Jewish Community of St. Pölten. The In the years 1912 to 1913 by the architects Theodor Schreier and Viktor Postelberg built Art Nouveau synagogue is located in the Dr. Karl Renner Promenade in St. Pölten and is now the headquarters of the Institute for Jewish History in Austria.
History
The old synagogue, which was demolished in favor of the new one
The first prayer rooms of in 1863 founded Jewish Community of St. Pölten were located in the premises of the former Kattunmanufaktur (cotton manufactory), the later Gasser factory at school ring. A building of this factory was adapted between 1885 and 1890 as a synagogue. This adaptation was associated with considerable effort, which is why the members of the Jewish community already since 1888 endeavoured to get a new building, until 1903 but this was rejected by the township. At this time, a redesign of the promenade was planned, which was only possible by demolition of the in the street course standing synagogue. After lengthy preparations, a preparatory committee was elected in April 1907, which in addition to building site and plans the necessary financing should provide.
1911, a building committee was chosen and agreed with the community a real estate exchange. At the architectural competition, which was tendered in the same year, participated among others Jacob Modern, Jacob Gartner, Ignaz Reiser and Theodor Schreier. The latter was together with his partner Viktor Postelberg by the Committee commissioned another project for a temple with room for 220 men and 150 women to submitt, which was then realized. The conditions for the planning work developed Rudolf Frass. The necessary funds were raised through collections and appeals for donations throughout the country, so that could be started with the construction in June 1912. The gilding works were carried out by Ferdinand Andri. After little more than a year of construction and 141 390 crowns total investment, the synagoge on 17 August 1913 was solemnly consecrated.
Destruction
On the night of 9th to the 10th November 1938 invaded several SS and SA members the rooms of the synagogue, smashed windows and set fire. The that night caused damage was limited, as the fire could be extinguished relatively quickly. On the following morning 300 to 400 people gathered, some in civilian clothes, in front of the building. They moved with the singing of political songs in the sacred spaces and destroyed them completely. The windows were broken, Torah scrolls, Torah shrine, benches and images burned. Even water pipes and door posts were torn from the walls. The books of the extensive library were largely thrown on the road and burned. Some people climbed the dome and tore the Star of David of the roof .
Almost all of the movable property of the Jewish community was destroyed or stolen . A limited set of books were placed in the city archives, the City Museum there's still a donation box and a painting of Emperor Franz Josef, which hung in the entrance area. A single prayer book is since 1998 owned again by the Jewish Community.
In the following years the side rooms of the building of the SA were used as an office, the interior was used among other things as furniture warehouse. 1942, the synagogue became the property of the city of St. Pölten, which used it as a detention center for Russian forced laborers. In last fightings and bombings in 1945 the building was further damaged.
1945
The Red Army used the former synagogue as a grain storage until it was in 1947 returned to the city. The application of restitution was recognized in 1952 by the city council, which then returned the synagogue to the Jewish Community Vienna. In the following years, the former house of God continued to decay as after the Holocaust no Jewish community in St. Pölten could establish. The domed roof showed severe damage, individual components were threatening to collapse completely and through the boarded windows came rain and snow into the by dovecotes populated house.
In 1975, the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG - Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien) offered the city of St. Pölten to purchase the synagogue, which did not accept the offer due to lack of uses. Then the Jewish Community Vienna wanted to initiate the demolition, but this was prevented by the fact that the Federal Monuments Office the building put under monument protection. Then it was renovated from 1980 to 1984. Here, for example, many wall paintings were recovered, on the other hand, some structural changes were made (especially removal of water basins for the ritual washing of the hands), since it was clear from the beginning that the building would not be used as a synagogue, but as an event center.
Since 1988 in the premises of the former synagogue the Institute for Jewish History of Austria is located, further regular events are realized. The original function the synagoge never could fulfill again, as too few Jews returned after the Holocaust to St. Pölten.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the synagogue the City Museum in St. Pölten 2013/14 the building dedicates its own special exhibition. In doing so there is also shown a recently found photo of the interior before the destruction. It is also pointed out that the synagogue due to lack of funding already again is abandoned to a certain decay.
The St. Pölten rabbi
Interior of the synagogue with part of the dome ceiling, in the center of the former shrine
Name Period of office
Moritz Tintner 1863-1869
Adolf Kurrein 1873-1876
Samuel Marcus 1876-1878
Adolf Hahn 1878-1882
Jacob Reiss 1882-1889
Bernhard Zimmels 1889-1891
Leopold Weinsberg 1891-1897
Adolf Schächter 1897-1934
Arnold Frankfurt 1934-1936
Manfred Papo 1936-1938
Building description
Outside
The dominant element of the synagogue is the octagonal, completed by a large dome main building, to which the eastern and western side wings are attached. Connected to the synagogue is the former school building in Lederergasse 12.
Main tract
The main tract houses the former sanctuary. The facade is divided into a low ground floor, high upper floor and the dome. At the facade facing the street can be found in the two storeys each three windows, that are executed on the ground floor as low segmental arch windows with above running continuously cordon cornice. The windows on the upper floor, however, are high, rectangular windows, the space between them is divided by pilasters. The original stained glass windows were destroyed from 1938, today, clear glass can be found in the windows. Directly under the dome there is a large segment gable with representations of the Tablets of the Law, set in floral vines. Beneath it is written in Hebrew the text of Psalm 118, verse 19.
" פתחו לי שערי צדק אבא בם אודה יה "
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter and give thanks to God".
- Inscription under the law boards.
On the short, lateral oblique walls of the main building on the ground floor there are side entrances, in the transition to the dome there are embedded large oval windows.
Side wings
To the eastern side wing, which in comparison to the western tract is designed very narrowly, connects the former school building and was once home to the shrine. At the by segment gable and barrel roof completed tract can be found on the northern front in the upper floor a tall, rectangular window of the same type as that of the main wing. At the eastern side a round window is embedded, in the ground floor begins a connecting room to the school building.
The western side wing is identical to the east in the basic form, but it is significantly wider. In addition, in front of it there are entrance buildings. Both at the road side and on the opposite side between the main wing and the western annex are wide projecting semi-circular staircases, next to it can be found till half the height of the first upper floor each a buttress with two low windows. Road side, this buttress is preceded by a walk-in porch, which on three sides is open round-arched. The with triangular gable completed building ends in a concave enclosure, where a commemorative plaque is attached today. The west facade repeats the design of the main building, it can be found on the ground floor low segmental arch windows with above running continuously, jagged cordon cornice. On the first floor the windows are, however, significantly lower than in the main wing.
Former school building
The former school building has its main facade towards Lederergasse and there has the number 12. The road-side main facade of the two-storey building is divided into four axes. The window on the ground floor are round-arched disigned, the ones on the upper floor rectangularly. Between side wing of the synagogue and the main wing of the school building there is a tower-like, curved stairwell risalit up to the attic.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_St._P%C3%B6lten
(further information is available by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
History of the City St. Pölten
In order to present concise history of the Lower Austrian capital is in the shop of the city museum a richly illustrated full version on CD-ROM.
Tip
On the occasion of the commemoration of the pogroms of November 1938, the Institute for Jewish History of Austria its virtual Memorbuch (Memory book) for the destroyed St. Pölten Jewish community since 10th November 2012 is putting online.
Prehistory
The time from which there is no written record is named after the main materials used for tools and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Using the latest technologies, archaeologists from archaeological finds and aerial photographs can trace a fairly detailed picture of life at that time. Especially for the time from the settling down of the People (New Stone Age), now practicing agriculture and animal husbandry, in the territory of St. Pölten lively settlement activity can be proved. In particular, cemeteries are important for the research, because the dead were laid in the grave everyday objects and jewelry, the forms of burial changing over time - which in turn gives the archeology valuable clues for the temporal determination. At the same time, prehistory of Sankt Pölten would not be half as good documented without the construction of the expressway S33 and other large buildings, where millions of cubic meters of earth were moved - under the watchful eyes of the Federal Monuments Office!
A final primeval chapter characterized the Celts, who settled about 450 BC our area and in addition to a new culture and religion also brought with them the potter's wheel. The kingdom of Noricum influenced till the penetration of the Romans the development in our area.
Roman period, migrations
The Romans conquered in 15 BC the Celtic Empire and established hereinafter the Roman province of Noricum. Borders were protected by military camp (forts), in the hinterland emerged civilian cities, almost all systematically laid out according to the same plan. The civil and commercial city Aelium Cetium, as St. Pölten was called (city law 121/122), consisted in the 4th Century already of heated stone houses, trade and craft originated thriving urban life, before the Romans in the first third of the 5th Century retreated to Italy.
The subsequent period went down as the Migration Period in official historiography, for which the settlement of the Sankt Pöltner downtown can not be proved. Cemeteries witness the residence of the Lombards in our area, later it was the Avars, extending their empire to the Enns.
The recent archaeological excavations on the Cathedral Square 2010/2011, in fact, the previous knowledge of St.Pölten colonization not have turned upside down but enriched by many details, whose full analysis and publication are expected in the near future.
Middle Ages
With the submission of the Avars by Charlemagne around 800 AD Christianity was gaining a foothold, the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Tegernsee establishing a daughter house here - as founder are mentioned the brothers Adalbert and Ottokar - equipped with the relics of St. Hippolytus. The name St. Ypolit over the centuries should turn into Sankt Pölten. After the Hungarian wars and the resettlement of the monastery as Canons Regular of St. Augustine under the influence of Passau St. Pölten received mid-11th Century market rights.
In the second half of the 20th century historians stated that records in which the rights of citizens were held were to be qualified as Town Charters. Vienna is indeed already in 1137 as a city ("civitas") mentioned in a document, but the oldest Viennese city charter dates only from the year 1221, while the Bishop of Passau, Konrad, already in 1159 the St. Pöltnern secured:
A St. Pöltner citizen who has to answer to the court, has the right to make use of an "advocate".
He must not be forced to rid himself of the accusation by a judgment of God.
A St. Pöltner citizen may be convicted only by statements of fellow citizens, not by strangers.
From the 13th Century exercised a city judge appointed by the lord of the city the high and low jurisdiction as chairman of the council meetings and the Municipal Court, Inner and Outer Council supported him during the finding of justice. Venue for the public verdict was the in the 13th Century created new marketplace, the "Broad Market", now the town hall square. Originally square-shaped, it was only later to a rectangle reduced. Around it arose the market district, which together with the monastery district, the wood district and the Ledererviertel (quarter of the leather goods manufacturer) was protected by a double city wall.
The dependence of St. Pölten of the bishop of Passau is shown in the municipal coat of arms and the city seal. Based on the emblem of the heraldic animal of the Lord of the city, so the Bishop of Passau, it shows an upright standing wolf holding a crosier in its paw.
Modern Times
In the course of the armed conflict between the Emperor Frederick III . and King Matthias of Hungary pledged the Bishop of Passau the town on the Hungarian king. From 1485 stood Lower Austria as a whole under Hungarian rule. The most important document of this period is the awarding of the city coat of arms by King Matthias Corvinus in the year 1487. After the death of the opponents 1490 and 1493 could Frederick's son Maximilian reconquer Lower Austria. He considered St. Pölten as spoils of war and had no intention of returning it to the diocese of Passau. The city government has often been leased subsequently, for instance, to the family Wellenstein, and later to the families Trautson and Auersperg.
That St. Pölten now was a princely city, found its expression in the coat of arms letter of the King Ferdinand I. from 1538: From now on, the wolf had no crosier anymore, and the from the viewer's point of view left half showed the reverse Austrian shield, so silver-red-silver.
To the 16th Century also goes back the construction of St. Pöltner City Hall. The 1503 by judge and council acquired house was subsequently expanded, rebuilt, extended and provided with a tower.
A for the urban history research important picture, painted in 1623, has captured scenes of the peasant uprising of 1597, but also allows a view to the city and lets the viewer read some of the details of the then state of construction. The economic inconveniences of that time were only exacerbated by the Thirty Years War, at the end of which a fifth of the houses were uninhabited and the citizenry was impoverished.
Baroque
After the successful defense against the Turks in 1683, the economy started to recover and a significant building boom began. Lower Austria turned into the land of the baroque abbeys and monasteries, as it is familiar to us today.
In St. Pölten, the change of the cityscape is closely connected to the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer. In addition to the Baroquisation of the interior of the cathedral, a number of buildings in St. Pölten go to his account, so the reconstruction of the castle Ochsenburg, the erection of the Schwaighof and of the core building of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Englische Fräuleins - English Maidens) - from 1706 the seat of the first school order of St.Pölten - as well as of several bourgeois houses.
Joseph Munggenast, nephew and co-worker of Prandtauer, completed the Baroquisation of the cathedral, he baroquised the facade of the town hall (1727) and numerous bourgeois houses and designed a bridge over the Traisen which existed until 1907. In the decoration of the church buildings were throughout Tyroleans collaborating, which Jakob Prandtauer had brought along from his homeland (Tyrol) to St. Pölten, for example, Paul Troger and Peter Widerin.
Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II: Their reforms in the city of the 18th Century also left a significant mark. School foundings as a result of compulsory education, the dissolution of the monasteries and hereinafter - from 1785 - the new role of St. Pölten as a bishop's seat are consequences of their policies.
1785 was also the year of a fundamental alteration of the old Council Constitution: The city judge was replaced by one magistrate consisting of five persons, at the head was a mayor. For the first mayor the painter Josef Hackl was chosen.
The 19th century
Despite the Napoleonic Wars - St. Pölten in 1805 and 1809 was occupied by the French - and despite the state bankruptcy of 1811, increased the number of businesses constantly, although the economic importance of the city for the time being did not go beyond the near vicinity.
Against the background of monitoring by the state secret police, which prevented any political commitment between the Congress of Vienna and the 1848 revolution, the citizens withdrew into private life. Sense of family, fostering of domestic music, prominent salon societies in which even a Franz Schubert socialized, or the construction of the city theater were visible signs of this attitude.
The economic upswing of the city did not begin until after the revolution of the year 1848. A prerequisite for this was the construction of the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway, moving Vienna, Linz, soon Salzburg, too, in a reachable distance. The city walls were pulled down, St. Pölten could unfold. The convenient traffic situation favored factory start-ups, and so arose a lace factory, a revolver factory, a soap factory or, for example, as a precursor of a future large-scale enterprise, the braid, ribbon and Strickgarnerzeugung (knitting yarn production) of Matthias Salcher in Harland.
In other areas, too, the Gründerzeit (years of rapid industrial expansion in Germany - and Austria) in Sankt Pölten was honouring its name: The city got schools, a hospital, gas lanterns, canalization, hot springs and summer bath.
The 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th Century the city experienced another burst of development, initiated by the construction of the power station in 1903, because electricity was the prerequisite for the settlement of large companies. In particular, the companies Voith and Glanzstoff and the main workshop of the Federal Railways attracted many workers. New Traisen bridge, tram, Mariazell Railway and other infrastructure buildings were erected; St. Pölten obtained a synagogue. The Art Nouveau made it repeatedly into the urban architecture - just think of the Olbrich House - and inspired also the painting, as exponents worth to be mentioned are Ernst Stöhr or Ferdinand Andri.
What the outbreak of the First World War in broad outlines meant for the monarchy, on a smaller scale also St. Pölten has felt. The city was heavily impacted by the deployment of army units, a POW camp, a military hospital and a sick bay. Industrial enterprises were partly converted into war production, partly closed. Unemployment, housing emergency and food shortages long after the war still were felt painfully.
The 1919 to mayor elected Social Democrat Hubert Schnofl after the war tried to raise the standard of living of the people by improving the social welfare and health care. The founding of a housing cooperative (Wohnungsgenossenschaft), the construction of the water line and the establishment of new factories were further attempts to stimulate the stiffening economy whose descent could not be stopped until 1932.
After the National Socialist regime had stirred false hopes and plunged the world into war, St. Pölten was no longer the city as it has been before. Not only the ten devastating bombings of the last year of the war had left its marks, also the restrictive persecution of Jews and political dissidents had torn holes in the structure of the population. Ten years of Russian occupation subsequently did the rest to traumatize the population, but at this time arose from the ruins a more modern St. Pölten, with the new Traisen bridge, district heating, schools.
This trend continued, an era of recovery and modernization made the economic miracle palpable. Already in 1972 was - even if largely as a result of incorporations - exceeded the 50.000-inhabitant-limit.
Elevation to capital status (capital of Lower Austria), 10 July 1986: No other event in this dimension could have become the booster detonation of an up to now ongoing development thrust. Since then in a big way new residential and commercial areas were opened up, built infrastructure constructions, schools and universities brought into being to enrich the educational landscape. East of the Old Town arose the governmental and cultural district, and the list of architects wears sonorous names such as Ernst Hoffmann (NÖ (Lower Austria) Landhaus; Klangturm), Klaus Kada (Festspielhaus), Hans Hollein (Shedhalle and Lower Austrian Provincial Museum), Karin Bily, Paul Katzberger and Michael Loudon ( NÖ State Library and NÖ State Archive).
European Diploma, European flag, badge of honor, Europe Price: Between 1996 and 2001, received St. Pölten numerous appreciations of its EU commitment - as a sort of recognition of the Council of Europe for the dissemination of the EU-idea through international town twinnings, a major Europe exhibition or, for example, the establishment and chair of the "Network of European medium-sized cities".
On the way into the 21st century
Just now happened and already history: What the St. Pöltnern as just experienced sticks in their minds, travelers and newcomers within a short time should be told. The theater and the hospital handing over to the province of Lower Austria, a new mayor always on the go, who was able to earn since 2004 already numerous laurels (Tags: polytechnic, downtown enhancement, building lease scheme, bus concept) - all the recent changes are just now condensed into spoken and written language in order to make, from now on, the history of the young provincial capital in the 3rd millennium nachlesbar (checkable).
www.st-poelten.gv.at/Content.Node/freizeit-kultur/kultur/...
(further information and pictures are available by clicking on the link at the end of section and of page!)
Synagogue St. Pölten
Exterior of the former St. Pölten Synagogue
The St. Pölten Synagogue was up to the November pogroms in 1938 the main synagogue of the Jewish Community of St. Pölten. The In the years 1912 to 1913 by the architects Theodor Schreier and Viktor Postelberg built Art Nouveau synagogue is located in the Dr. Karl Renner Promenade in St. Pölten and is now the headquarters of the Institute for Jewish History in Austria.
History
The old synagogue, which was demolished in favor of the new one
The first prayer rooms of in 1863 founded Jewish Community of St. Pölten were located in the premises of the former Kattunmanufaktur (cotton manufactory), the later Gasser factory at school ring. A building of this factory was adapted between 1885 and 1890 as a synagogue. This adaptation was associated with considerable effort, which is why the members of the Jewish community already since 1888 endeavoured to get a new building, until 1903 but this was rejected by the township. At this time, a redesign of the promenade was planned, which was only possible by demolition of the in the street course standing synagogue. After lengthy preparations, a preparatory committee was elected in April 1907, which in addition to building site and plans the necessary financing should provide.
1911, a building committee was chosen and agreed with the community a real estate exchange. At the architectural competition, which was tendered in the same year, participated among others Jacob Modern, Jacob Gartner, Ignaz Reiser and Theodor Schreier. The latter was together with his partner Viktor Postelberg by the Committee commissioned another project for a temple with room for 220 men and 150 women to submitt, which was then realized. The conditions for the planning work developed Rudolf Frass. The necessary funds were raised through collections and appeals for donations throughout the country, so that could be started with the construction in June 1912. The gilding works were carried out by Ferdinand Andri. After little more than a year of construction and 141 390 crowns total investment, the synagoge on 17 August 1913 was solemnly consecrated.
Destruction
On the night of 9th to the 10th November 1938 invaded several SS and SA members the rooms of the synagogue, smashed windows and set fire. The that night caused damage was limited, as the fire could be extinguished relatively quickly. On the following morning 300 to 400 people gathered, some in civilian clothes, in front of the building. They moved with the singing of political songs in the sacred spaces and destroyed them completely. The windows were broken, Torah scrolls, Torah shrine, benches and images burned. Even water pipes and door posts were torn from the walls. The books of the extensive library were largely thrown on the road and burned. Some people climbed the dome and tore the Star of David of the roof .
Almost all of the movable property of the Jewish community was destroyed or stolen . A limited set of books were placed in the city archives, the City Museum there's still a donation box and a painting of Emperor Franz Josef, which hung in the entrance area. A single prayer book is since 1998 owned again by the Jewish Community.
In the following years the side rooms of the building of the SA were used as an office, the interior was used among other things as furniture warehouse. 1942, the synagogue became the property of the city of St. Pölten, which used it as a detention center for Russian forced laborers. In last fightings and bombings in 1945 the building was further damaged.
1945
The Red Army used the former synagogue as a grain storage until it was in 1947 returned to the city. The application of restitution was recognized in 1952 by the city council, which then returned the synagogue to the Jewish Community Vienna. In the following years, the former house of God continued to decay as after the Holocaust no Jewish community in St. Pölten could establish. The domed roof showed severe damage, individual components were threatening to collapse completely and through the boarded windows came rain and snow into the by dovecotes populated house.
In 1975, the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG - Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien) offered the city of St. Pölten to purchase the synagogue, which did not accept the offer due to lack of uses. Then the Jewish Community Vienna wanted to initiate the demolition, but this was prevented by the fact that the Federal Monuments Office the building put under monument protection. Then it was renovated from 1980 to 1984. Here, for example, many wall paintings were recovered, on the other hand, some structural changes were made (especially removal of water basins for the ritual washing of the hands), since it was clear from the beginning that the building would not be used as a synagogue, but as an event center.
Since 1988 in the premises of the former synagogue the Institute for Jewish History of Austria is located, further regular events are realized. The original function the synagoge never could fulfill again, as too few Jews returned after the Holocaust to St. Pölten.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the synagogue the City Museum in St. Pölten 2013/14 the building dedicates its own special exhibition. In doing so there is also shown a recently found photo of the interior before the destruction. It is also pointed out that the synagogue due to lack of funding already again is abandoned to a certain decay.
The St. Pölten rabbi
Interior of the synagogue with part of the dome ceiling, in the center of the former shrine
Name Period of office
Moritz Tintner 1863-1869
Adolf Kurrein 1873-1876
Samuel Marcus 1876-1878
Adolf Hahn 1878-1882
Jacob Reiss 1882-1889
Bernhard Zimmels 1889-1891
Leopold Weinsberg 1891-1897
Adolf Schächter 1897-1934
Arnold Frankfurt 1934-1936
Manfred Papo 1936-1938
Building description
Outside
The dominant element of the synagogue is the octagonal, completed by a large dome main building, to which the eastern and western side wings are attached. Connected to the synagogue is the former school building in Lederergasse 12.
Main tract
The main tract houses the former sanctuary. The facade is divided into a low ground floor, high upper floor and the dome. At the facade facing the street can be found in the two storeys each three windows, that are executed on the ground floor as low segmental arch windows with above running continuously cordon cornice. The windows on the upper floor, however, are high, rectangular windows, the space between them is divided by pilasters. The original stained glass windows were destroyed from 1938, today, clear glass can be found in the windows. Directly under the dome there is a large segment gable with representations of the Tablets of the Law, set in floral vines. Beneath it is written in Hebrew the text of Psalm 118, verse 19.
" פתחו לי שערי צדק אבא בם אודה יה "
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter and give thanks to God".
- Inscription under the law boards.
On the short, lateral oblique walls of the main building on the ground floor there are side entrances, in the transition to the dome there are embedded large oval windows.
Side wings
To the eastern side wing, which in comparison to the western tract is designed very narrowly, connects the former school building and was once home to the shrine. At the by segment gable and barrel roof completed tract can be found on the northern front in the upper floor a tall, rectangular window of the same type as that of the main wing. At the eastern side a round window is embedded, in the ground floor begins a connecting room to the school building.
The western side wing is identical to the east in the basic form, but it is significantly wider. In addition, in front of it there are entrance buildings. Both at the road side and on the opposite side between the main wing and the western annex are wide projecting semi-circular staircases, next to it can be found till half the height of the first upper floor each a buttress with two low windows. Road side, this buttress is preceded by a walk-in porch, which on three sides is open round-arched. The with triangular gable completed building ends in a concave enclosure, where a commemorative plaque is attached today. The west facade repeats the design of the main building, it can be found on the ground floor low segmental arch windows with above running continuously, jagged cordon cornice. On the first floor the windows are, however, significantly lower than in the main wing.
Former school building
The former school building has its main facade towards Lederergasse and there has the number 12. The road-side main facade of the two-storey building is divided into four axes. The window on the ground floor are round-arched disigned, the ones on the upper floor rectangularly. Between side wing of the synagogue and the main wing of the school building there is a tower-like, curved stairwell risalit up to the attic.
Gallery
Wall lamp
Wall ornament
Wall ornament
Wall ornament
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_St._P%C3%B6lten
(further information is available by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
History of the City St. Pölten
In order to present concise history of the Lower Austrian capital is in the shop of the city museum a richly illustrated full version on CD-ROM.
Tip
On the occasion of the commemoration of the pogroms of November 1938, the Institute for Jewish History of Austria its virtual Memorbuch (Memory book) for the destroyed St. Pölten Jewish community since 10th November 2012 is putting online.
Prehistory
The time from which there is no written record is named after the main materials used for tools and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Using the latest technologies, archaeologists from archaeological finds and aerial photographs can trace a fairly detailed picture of life at that time. Especially for the time from the settling down of the People (New Stone Age), now practicing agriculture and animal husbandry, in the territory of St. Pölten lively settlement activity can be proved. In particular, cemeteries are important for the research, because the dead were laid in the grave everyday objects and jewelry, the forms of burial changing over time - which in turn gives the archeology valuable clues for the temporal determination. At the same time, prehistory of Sankt Pölten would not be half as good documented without the construction of the expressway S33 and other large buildings, where millions of cubic meters of earth were moved - under the watchful eyes of the Federal Monuments Office!
A final primeval chapter characterized the Celts, who settled about 450 BC our area and in addition to a new culture and religion also brought with them the potter's wheel. The kingdom of Noricum influenced till the penetration of the Romans the development in our area.
Roman period, migrations
The Romans conquered in 15 BC the Celtic Empire and established hereinafter the Roman province of Noricum. Borders were protected by military camp (forts), in the hinterland emerged civilian cities, almost all systematically laid out according to the same plan. The civil and commercial city Aelium Cetium, as St. Pölten was called (city law 121/122), consisted in the 4th Century already of heated stone houses, trade and craft originated thriving urban life, before the Romans in the first third of the 5th Century retreated to Italy.
The subsequent period went down as the Migration Period in official historiography, for which the settlement of the Sankt Pöltner downtown can not be proved. Cemeteries witness the residence of the Lombards in our area, later it was the Avars, extending their empire to the Enns.
The recent archaeological excavations on the Cathedral Square 2010/2011, in fact, the previous knowledge of St.Pölten colonization not have turned upside down but enriched by many details, whose full analysis and publication are expected in the near future.
Middle Ages
With the submission of the Avars by Charlemagne around 800 AD Christianity was gaining a foothold, the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Tegernsee establishing a daughter house here - as founder are mentioned the brothers Adalbert and Ottokar - equipped with the relics of St. Hippolytus. The name St. Ypolit over the centuries should turn into Sankt Pölten. After the Hungarian wars and the resettlement of the monastery as Canons Regular of St. Augustine under the influence of Passau St. Pölten received mid-11th Century market rights.
In the second half of the 20th century historians stated that records in which the rights of citizens were held were to be qualified as Town Charters. Vienna is indeed already in 1137 as a city ("civitas") mentioned in a document, but the oldest Viennese city charter dates only from the year 1221, while the Bishop of Passau, Konrad, already in 1159 the St. Pöltnern secured:
A St. Pöltner citizen who has to answer to the court, has the right to make use of an "advocate".
He must not be forced to rid himself of the accusation by a judgment of God.
A St. Pöltner citizen may be convicted only by statements of fellow citizens, not by strangers.
From the 13th Century exercised a city judge appointed by the lord of the city the high and low jurisdiction as chairman of the council meetings and the Municipal Court, Inner and Outer Council supported him during the finding of justice. Venue for the public verdict was the in the 13th Century created new marketplace, the "Broad Market", now the town hall square. Originally square-shaped, it was only later to a rectangle reduced. Around it arose the market district, which together with the monastery district, the wood district and the Ledererviertel (quarter of the leather goods manufacturer) was protected by a double city wall.
The dependence of St. Pölten of the bishop of Passau is shown in the municipal coat of arms and the city seal. Based on the emblem of the heraldic animal of the Lord of the city, so the Bishop of Passau, it shows an upright standing wolf holding a crosier in its paw.
Modern Times
In the course of the armed conflict between the Emperor Frederick III . and King Matthias of Hungary pledged the Bishop of Passau the town on the Hungarian king. From 1485 stood Lower Austria as a whole under Hungarian rule. The most important document of this period is the awarding of the city coat of arms by King Matthias Corvinus in the year 1487. After the death of the opponents 1490 and 1493 could Frederick's son Maximilian reconquer Lower Austria. He considered St. Pölten as spoils of war and had no intention of returning it to the diocese of Passau. The city government has often been leased subsequently, for instance, to the family Wellenstein, and later to the families Trautson and Auersperg.
That St. Pölten now was a princely city, found its expression in the coat of arms letter of the King Ferdinand I. from 1538: From now on, the wolf had no crosier anymore, and the from the viewer's point of view left half showed the reverse Austrian shield, so silver-red-silver.
To the 16th Century also goes back the construction of St. Pöltner City Hall. The 1503 by judge and council acquired house was subsequently expanded, rebuilt, extended and provided with a tower.
A for the urban history research important picture, painted in 1623, has captured scenes of the peasant uprising of 1597, but also allows a view to the city and lets the viewer read some of the details of the then state of construction. The economic inconveniences of that time were only exacerbated by the Thirty Years War, at the end of which a fifth of the houses were uninhabited and the citizenry was impoverished.
Baroque
After the successful defense against the Turks in 1683, the economy started to recover and a significant building boom began. Lower Austria turned into the land of the baroque abbeys and monasteries, as it is familiar to us today.
In St. Pölten, the change of the cityscape is closely connected to the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer. In addition to the Baroquisation of the interior of the cathedral, a number of buildings in St. Pölten go to his account, so the reconstruction of the castle Ochsenburg, the erection of the Schwaighof and of the core building of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Englische Fräuleins - English Maidens) - from 1706 the seat of the first school order of St.Pölten - as well as of several bourgeois houses.
Joseph Munggenast, nephew and co-worker of Prandtauer, completed the Baroquisation of the cathedral, he baroquised the facade of the town hall (1727) and numerous bourgeois houses and designed a bridge over the Traisen which existed until 1907. In the decoration of the church buildings were throughout Tyroleans collaborating, which Jakob Prandtauer had brought along from his homeland (Tyrol) to St. Pölten, for example, Paul Troger and Peter Widerin.
Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II: Their reforms in the city of the 18th Century also left a significant mark. School foundings as a result of compulsory education, the dissolution of the monasteries and hereinafter - from 1785 - the new role of St. Pölten as a bishop's seat are consequences of their policies.
1785 was also the year of a fundamental alteration of the old Council Constitution: The city judge was replaced by one magistrate consisting of five persons, at the head was a mayor. For the first mayor the painter Josef Hackl was chosen.
The 19th century
Despite the Napoleonic Wars - St. Pölten in 1805 and 1809 was occupied by the French - and despite the state bankruptcy of 1811, increased the number of businesses constantly, although the economic importance of the city for the time being did not go beyond the near vicinity.
Against the background of monitoring by the state secret police, which prevented any political commitment between the Congress of Vienna and the 1848 revolution, the citizens withdrew into private life. Sense of family, fostering of domestic music, prominent salon societies in which even a Franz Schubert socialized, or the construction of the city theater were visible signs of this attitude.
The economic upswing of the city did not begin until after the revolution of the year 1848. A prerequisite for this was the construction of the Empress Elisabeth Western Railway, moving Vienna, Linz, soon Salzburg, too, in a reachable distance. The city walls were pulled down, St. Pölten could unfold. The convenient traffic situation favored factory start-ups, and so arose a lace factory, a revolver factory, a soap factory or, for example, as a precursor of a future large-scale enterprise, the braid, ribbon and Strickgarnerzeugung (knitting yarn production) of Matthias Salcher in Harland.
In other areas, too, the Gründerzeit (years of rapid industrial expansion in Germany - and Austria) in Sankt Pölten was honouring its name: The city got schools, a hospital, gas lanterns, canalization, hot springs and summer bath.
The 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th Century the city experienced another burst of development, initiated by the construction of the power station in 1903, because electricity was the prerequisite for the settlement of large companies. In particular, the companies Voith and Glanzstoff and the main workshop of the Federal Railways attracted many workers. New Traisen bridge, tram, Mariazell Railway and other infrastructure buildings were erected; St. Pölten obtained a synagogue. The Art Nouveau made it repeatedly into the urban architecture - just think of the Olbrich House - and inspired also the painting, as exponents worth to be mentioned are Ernst Stöhr or Ferdinand Andri.
What the outbreak of the First World War in broad outlines meant for the monarchy, on a smaller scale also St. Pölten has felt. The city was heavily impacted by the deployment of army units, a POW camp, a military hospital and a sick bay. Industrial enterprises were partly converted into war production, partly closed. Unemployment, housing emergency and food shortages long after the war still were felt painfully.
The 1919 to mayor elected Social Democrat Hubert Schnofl after the war tried to raise the standard of living of the people by improving the social welfare and health care. The founding of a housing cooperative (Wohnungsgenossenschaft), the construction of the water line and the establishment of new factories were further attempts to stimulate the stiffening economy whose descent could not be stopped until 1932.
After the National Socialist regime had stirred false hopes and plunged the world into war, St. Pölten was no longer the city as it has been before. Not only the ten devastating bombings of the last year of the war had left its marks, also the restrictive persecution of Jews and political dissidents had torn holes in the structure of the population. Ten years of Russian occupation subsequently did the rest to traumatize the population, but at this time arose from the ruins a more modern St. Pölten, with the new Traisen bridge, district heating, schools.
This trend continued, an era of recovery and modernization made the economic miracle palpable. Already in 1972 was - even if largely as a result of incorporations - exceeded the 50.000-inhabitant-limit.
Elevation to capital status (capital of Lower Austria), 10 July 1986: No other event in this dimension could have become the booster detonation of an up to now ongoing development thrust. Since then in a big way new residential and commercial areas were opened up, built infrastructure constructions, schools and universities brought into being to enrich the educational landscape. East of the Old Town arose the governmental and cultural district, and the list of architects wears sonorous names such as Ernst Hoffmann (NÖ (Lower Austria) Landhaus; Klangturm), Klaus Kada (Festspielhaus), Hans Hollein (Shedhalle and Lower Austrian Provincial Museum), Karin Bily, Paul Katzberger and Michael Loudon ( NÖ State Library and NÖ State Archive).
European Diploma, European flag, badge of honor, Europe Price: Between 1996 and 2001, received St. Pölten numerous appreciations of its EU commitment - as a sort of recognition of the Council of Europe for the dissemination of the EU-idea through international town twinnings, a major Europe exhibition or, for example, the establishment and chair of the "Network of European medium-sized cities".
On the way into the 21st century
Just now happened and already history: What the St. Pöltnern as just experienced sticks in their minds, travelers and newcomers within a short time should be told. The theater and the hospital handing over to the province of Lower Austria, a new mayor always on the go, who was able to earn since 2004 already numerous laurels (Tags: polytechnic, downtown enhancement, building lease scheme, bus concept) - all the recent changes are just now condensed into spoken and written language in order to make, from now on, the history of the young provincial capital in the 3rd millennium nachlesbar (checkable).
www.st-poelten.gv.at/Content.Node/freizeit-kultur/kultur/...
Go North East's Riverside-based "Green Arrow" branded ADL Dart SLF 5/ADL Enviro 200MMC 5489 (NK69 FBA) is pictured here on Scotswood View, Gateshead, whilst working "Green Arrow" service 97 to Newcastle. 27/10/19
The region’s largest bus company, Go North East, has invested £1.8 million in 11 brand-new, state of the art, environmentally friendly buses for its popular Green Arrow services.
The buses build on the operator’s existing investment, which has already seen 170 low-emission buses join the fleet in recent years, and a total of £12 million set to be invested in further better buses over the next 12 months.
The new Green Arrow buses, which were built in the north at the Scarborough factory of Alexander Dennis, will be rolled out over the next fortnight onto the company’s 97 route which serves Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Whickham, Swalwell and intu Metrocentre with buses running up to every 15 minutes.
With a striking green livery, the buses are packed full of creature comforts and the latest technology including comfortable luxury seating with mobile phone holders, free Wi-Fi, media tables featuring wireless charging pads and at-seat USB charging points. There is also no need to worry about missing your stop, as the buses are fitted with next stop audio and visual passenger information systems.
Go North East's Riverside-based "Green Arrow" branded ADL Dart SLF 5/ADL Enviro 200MMC 5497 (NK69 FBL) is pictured here on Parkway, Whickham, whilst working "Green Arrow" service 97 to Newcastle. 27/10/19
The region’s largest bus company, Go North East, has invested £1.8 million in 11 brand-new, state of the art, environmentally friendly buses for its popular Green Arrow services.
The buses build on the operator’s existing investment, which has already seen 170 low-emission buses join the fleet in recent years, and a total of £12 million set to be invested in further better buses over the next 12 months.
The new Green Arrow buses, which were built in the north at the Scarborough factory of Alexander Dennis, will be rolled out over the next fortnight onto the company’s 97 route which serves Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Whickham, Swalwell and intu Metrocentre with buses running up to every 15 minutes.
With a striking green livery, the buses are packed full of creature comforts and the latest technology including comfortable luxury seating with mobile phone holders, free Wi-Fi, media tables featuring wireless charging pads and at-seat USB charging points. There is also no need to worry about missing your stop, as the buses are fitted with next stop audio and visual passenger information systems.
Pangaea-X is a test campaign that brings together geology, high-tech survey equipment and space exploration. Astronauts, scientists, operations experts and instrumentation engineers work side-by-side to advance European know-how of integrated human and robotics mission operations.
An extension of ESA’s Pangaea geology training, the training involves working with the latest technologies in instrumentation, navigation, remote sensing, 3D imaging and geoscience equipment.
The Pangaea-X crew explores the barren and dry landscape of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain, to prepare for the day when we set foot on other worlds. Known as the island of a thousand volcanoes, Lanzarote was chosen because of its geological similarity with Mars, such as a volcanic origin, mild sedimentary processes owing to a dry climate, hardly any vegetation and a well-preserved landscape.
Credits: ESA–A. Romeo
I've splashed out on a new mobile mainly because the old one was getting very tired. Whilst this is not the latest technology the Samsung S6 does seem to be stable and proven technology including being able to take DNG photos, a phone doing raw! I'm impressed. However all these are taken using the camera's jpeg engine and have been sharpened slightly after resizing but little else done to them. These declarations of love are on the footbridge over the River Wye in Bakewell.
US Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-15A Eagle 77-0081/CR with the 32nd FG/32nd FS, Soesterberg AB, Netherlands landing after displaying at the 1979 IAT held at RAF Greenham Common.
With over 40 years of operations, the F-15 Eagle has proved it's worth as a highly successful Fighter/Aggressor.
Current USAF F-15E models and those exported to Japan (F-15J) , Singapore (F-15SG) and Saudi Arabia (F-15S) continue to be upgraded with the latest technology.
Even with 'new kids on the block' such as the F-22 Raptor - an expensive luxury in today's modern US Air Force, conformal fuel tanks and other mods and refinements have so far kept the Eagle at the forefront of the game .
Scanned 35mm Transparency
120 006
The Rutter Center at UCSF Mission Bay stands as an architectural marvel and a central hub for students and faculty. Designed by renowned architect Ricardo Legorreta, the center's distinctive red façade and towering structure exemplify contemporary Mexican architecture, with a blend of vibrant colors and geometric forms. The Rutter Center houses state-of-the-art fitness facilities, meeting spaces, and community areas, making it an integral part of the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Its design not only fosters a sense of community but also encourages wellness and collaboration among its users. The center's strategic location within the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood places it at the heart of San Francisco's innovation and research district. The building's eco-friendly design incorporates sustainable materials and energy-efficient systems, reflecting UCSF's commitment to sustainability. Visitors to the Rutter Center can enjoy a range of amenities, from modern fitness equipment and indoor swimming pools to conference rooms equipped with the latest technology. The center's vibrant exterior and thoughtful design make it a landmark in the Mission Bay area, attracting both locals and visitors. Whether you're a student, faculty member, or visitor, the Rutter Center offers a dynamic and inspiring environment for work, exercise, and community engagement.
British postcard by Arcard Cards promoting Toshiba's Qosmio AV Notebook PC, no. 684 Image: Disney / Pixar. Edna 'E' Mode in The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004). Caption: Edna Mode. Ht: 1.12 m. Wt: Not telling, Dahling! Powers: Fashion Genious, Dahling! Though she first gained notoriety as the world's leading superhero costume designer, Edna Mode (known as E) remains a leading figure in international fashion. Still at the top of her game, E is bored with vapid, "brainless" supermodels, finding it particularly galling as she "used to design for Gods." She longs for the return of the Supers, for a real design challenge, for one more chance to fuse the latest technology with her impeccable fashion sense.
The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) is an American computer-animated superhero film, and the sixth feature-length animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Set in a fictitious version of the 1960s, the film follows Bob and Helen Parr, a couple of superheroes, known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, who hide their powers in accordance with a government mandate and attempt to live a quiet suburban life with their three children. Bob's desire to help people draws the entire family into a confrontation with a vengeful fan-turned-foe. Although the film was not as successful as its predecessor Finding Nemo, it still received 27 awards and the film's DVD was the best-selling DVD of 2005, selling 17.4 million copies.
The story of The Incredibles begins with a still young Mr. Incredible a.k.a. Bob Parr who, like any superhero, performs his daily heroic deeds. He is unexpectedly visited by Buddy, a young fan eager to become his helper. Buddy turns out to be more of a nuisance than a help, despite his self-invented gadgets, and Mr. Incredible sends him away. Later that day, he marries the superheroine Elastigirl (Helen). Then, suddenly, things go wrong. After Mr. Incredible saves a man who was about to commit suicide, the man sues him. This leads to a chain reaction of lawsuits against superheroes. The government decides to help the superheroes by setting up a special programme that will pay for all their lawsuits and provide them with new identities, on the condition that they never do heroic work again. 15 years later, Bob and Helen have settled into a quiet little town. They now have three children: teenage Violet, 10-year-old Dashiell ("Dash"), and baby Jack-Jack. Violet and Dash each have superpowers, but Jack-Jack is apparently normal. Bob, who now works at an insurance company, is frustrated that he can't help anyone anymore. He still tries to be a "hero" by pointing out loopholes in the law to his clients so they can get their benefits. He also regularly goes out at night with his old friend Lucius (also an ex-superhero called Frozone) to help people. He is unknowingly shadowed by Mirage, a mysterious woman. After Bob loses his job, Mirage contacts him. She offers him a large sum of money if Bob will take out a runaway robot, the Omnidroid 9000, on an island. Bob accepts the job and defeats the Omnidroid. After this, Bob gets more and more assignments. He starts training again to get in shape and has the fashion designer Edna Mode make him a new suit. Two months later, Mirage calls Bob again. When Bob arrives on the same island again, he is attacked by an enhanced version of the Omnidroid. He is captured by the mastermind behind the Omnidroid, a man called Syndrome. This Syndrome is none other than his old fan Buddy. He has made a fortune over the past 15 years inventing and selling weapons. He has kept the best weapons in order to become a hero, despite his lack of superpowers. Later, when Mr. Incredible escapes and looks into Syndrome's computer, he is horrified to discover that Syndrome has already killed dozens of superheroes to prepare his Omnidroid for battle with Mr. Incredible. At home, Helen discovers Bob's absence. When she sees that his old superhero suit has been repaired, she immediately goes to Edna. Edna shows the superhero costumes that she has made for all the members of the family. From Edna, she hears that Bob was fired months ago and has started working as a superhero again. Thanks to a transmitter Edna fitted into Bob's suit, Helen discovers Bob's location and immediately jets off to the island. Dash and Violet come along as stowaways. Unfortunately for Mr. Incredible, the transmitter also gives his location away to Syndrome and he is captured again.
Brad Bird originally conceived the screenplay for The Incredibles for a traditional, animated film for Warner Bros. According to his own account, he got the idea from a drawing he had made in 1993. He developed the film as an extension of the 1960s comic books and spy films from his boyhood and personal family life. After the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action became a flop, Warner Bros. closed its animated film division, and the project for The Incredibles was cancelled. When Bird later talked to his friend John Lasseter about the film, Lasseter convinced him to give Pixar a try. Bird and Lasseter knew each other from their college years at CalArts in the 1970s. Pixar accepted Bird's script but changed the animation to computer animation. This made it the first Pixar film to feature only human characters. At his request, Bird was allowed to put together his own crew. He approached people he had worked with on The Iron Giant (1999), among others. Bird's idea contained many scenes that were difficult for the computer animation to do. Among other things, new techniques were needed to realistically depict human anatomy, clothing, and skin. Among other things, Violet's long hair was technically difficult to draw. The film was largely treated as if it were a live-action production. John Barry was the first choice for the composer because of his music for the trailer of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, Barry did not want to recreate his old soundtracks for the film, so Michael Giacchino was approached. The music in the film is entirely instrumental. Critics' reactions were very positive. Critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and wrote: "The Pixar Studios, which cannot seem to take a wrong step, steps right again with "The Incredibles," a superhero spoof that alternates breakneck action with satire of suburban sitcom life. After the "Toy Story" movies, "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo," here's another example of Pixar's mastery of popular animation." The film is generally regarded as one of the best Pixar films. One point that many critics noticed was that the film had a much more serious and mature undertone than previous Pixar films. However, this was also a point of negative criticism. The film clearly contained more and more realistic violence than previous Pixar films. The film won the Academy Award in 2005 for the best animated film (the second Pixar film to win this award) and the award for best sound effects. The film was also nominated for the award for best screenplay and best sound. The Incredibles made $70,467,623 in its opening week, more than any Pixar film has ever made in its opening week. The film even (just) beat Finding Nemo's revenue of $70,251,710. The film brought in a total of $261,441,092, making it the second most successful Pixar film ever, and the fifth most successful film of 2004. Worldwide revenue was $631,436,092. A sequel, Incredibles 2, was released in 2018.
Sources: Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert.com), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
December will be Pixar month at EFSP! In the coming weeks, Bob, Truus & Jan Too! will share our collection of Pixar postcards with you at Flickr.
NordArt 2024
Artist: David Moješčík
At the heart of David Moješčík's (MojDa) work is the human body, particularly the female form. Taking advantage of the full range of sculptural materials,
he adeptly explores a variety of different positions, poses and postures. While embracing the latest technologies, he remains true to the classical principles of
creation and grants his sculptures the touch of the human hand. Hi s fascination
with compact and polished forms is inspired by Egyptian, ancient and classical sculpture as well as the symbolism of 19th-century art.
From the philosophy of yoga, he draws particular inspiration from the principles of non-violence and the emphasis on the human being. When creating public art, MojDa likes to include hidden symbols or a certain degree of irony and exaggeration
The APLH Arabian Horse Avatar
complete bento & bakes on mesh (BOM) enabled horse
In development for over a year, this brand new Arabian horse avatar is a completely new design from the ground up. Utilizing the latest technology available to Second Life, this bento enabled horse uses Bakes on Mesh (BOM) to make changing your horse's colors and markings easier with almost unlimited possibilities. A wide range of spunky and realistic animations round this horse out, achieving as close to lifelike realism as I could attain, with a bit of Second Life sass thrown in for good measure.
This beautiful Arabian horse was carefully sculpted from scratch by me, Jess, with a careful eye for detail and realism. It comes with five base coat colors to get you started - Black, Bay, Sorrel, Red Chestnut, and Grey. It also includes many kinds of face and leg markings, including black legs which many people have requested over the years, so you can make ANY base color into a "bay" if you like. In addition, it includes a pinto and appaloosa layer. To help with RP'ing, it even includes layers for body scars, dust'n'dirt, and a foamy mouth. The coats of course include the detail that I am known for, with just enough veining. Yes, it does come with PG gender bits as well for a mare, gelding or stallion. The mane is also rigged so that it flows in the wind! The AO has a variety of idle animations that also allow the head to move freely with the mouse if you desire. The simple yet diverse Animaton HUD gives you a variety of pre-set animations as well as individual animations that can be combined and played at the same time. Facial expressions, horsie behaviour, and some cool new dance moves - all in a very handy HUD - make this horse fun and easy to play with.
Being that BOM allows for about 62 layers, that leaves a LOT of room for customizing creativity! (Best of all, NO alpha halo!!!) There is a Devkit included with this horse so that you can utilize the UV maps to make your own custom wearables. Whether it be your own coats, markings, tattoos/brands...the limit is your imagination! It also includes instructions for how to make your own layers.
I trust that you will enjoy this new horse of mine and I look forward to seeing all the wonderful add-on creations that our talented horse lover community comes up with!
Buy it inworld here at a group discount price:
I haven't had a good relationship with photography for several months. It is a period that almost nauseated me, it is not a question of "photographic inspiration". It is probably the fault of the photographic pollution of social media and photo groups where it is always worth spending a few minutes, to have evidence of the cause of this disorder. Discussions on the latest technologies, methods of correction of portraits with separation of frequencies, women (and always only women) half-naked with porcelain skin, surreal HDR, post-push production, tricks to get more likes, comments from "scientists", insults ... a true bazaar. The result of these few minutes spent is the thought "ok, I have enough".
I am astonished to see photos taken in the mid-1900s in black and white ... I love reading books and articles that talk about photo journalism, looking for real photos of a past period that I didn't experience ... no, the current photographic world is not for me.
However, there are situations in which the real passion for photography starts in a fraction of a second. This spark is for me called reportage, and it is that occasion when I can tell a story. Or at least I try, I try to share an interesting story, at least for me.
I've always loved photographing people, not because they are photogenic or not, but because they definitely have something to tell. I like to talk to people before the photos, I like to establish a small bond to make them feel at ease so that they show themselves for what they are. If I had to choose between photographing a world-famous supermodel or an elder person, my choice would surely fall on the latter. They are above all those that intrigue me. Also, most likely, seniors are pleased to have someone to talk to for a few minutes.
I accidentally met an elderly gentleman who has an optic where he makes crafted frames for eyeglasses. He represents the fourth generation of this family activity. One evening, although he had already closed up shop, I asked him when I could have gone through to have my new eyeglasses shaped, given that they had caused me an annoying wound on my ear. Without thinking about it for a minute, he reopened the store and spent a good half hour shaping a pair of glasses not purchased by him. The result was fabulous: I have a pair of glasses whose frame follows exactly the shape of my skull. The glasses no longer slip from my nose, I have no problems, and it almost seems to me to see better. I tried to pay it, but it was categorical "No need, don't worry".
Craftsmen first use the heart, and then the hands. We chatted for a few minutes and asked him if he would like to have some pictures taken in his small shop, as a sign of gratitude for what he did. I told him that I would also do a craft job, taking analog photos and printing them in my darkroom. Unexpectedly. he was more than happy to accept my proposal. Appointment for the following Saturday at 16:00.
For me this story speaks of kindness, speaks of the artisan world that the modern consumer world does not value in favor of mass distribution, talks about my father who entered the world of work in an optical company. He speaks of the imperfections of artisanal creations, but also of those of analogical photography: without automatisms, without margins of error. Everything must be done with no hurry, with due time. Maybe the magic is all there.
Kodak TX400
Hasselblad 500 c/m
Zeiss 80mm f/2.8
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The CAC Sabre, sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CA-27, was an Australian variant of the North American Aviation F-86F Sabre fighter aircraft. In 1951, Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation obtained a license agreement to build the F-86F Sabre. In a major departure from the North American blueprint, it was decided that the CA-27 would be powered by a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon R.A.7, rather than the General Electric J47. In theory, the Avon was capable of more than double the maximum thrust and double the thrust-to-weight ratio of the US engine. This necessitated a re-design of the fuselage, as the Avon was shorter, wider and lighter than the J47.
To accommodate the Avon, over 60 percent of the fuselage was altered and there was a 25 percent increase in the size of the air intake. Another major revision was in replacing the F-86F's six machine guns with two 30mm ADEN cannon, while other changes were also made to the cockpit and to provide an increased fuel capacity.
The prototype aircraft first flew on 3 August 1953. The production aircrafts' first deliveries to the Royal Australian Air Force began in 1954. The first batch of aircraft were powered by the Avon 20 engine and were designated the Sabre Mk 30. Between 1957 and 1958 this batch had the wing slats removed and were re-designated Sabre Mk 31. These Sabres were supplemented by 20 new-built aircraft. The last batch of aircraft were designated Sabre Mk 32 and used the Avon 26 engine, of which 69 were built up to 1961.
Beyond these land-based versions, an indigenous version for carrier operations had been developed and built in small numbers, too, the Sea Sabre Mk 40 and 41. The roots of this aircraft, which was rather a prestigious idea than a sensible project, could be traced back to the immediate post WWII era. A review by the Australian Government's Defence Committee recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. Initial plans were for three carriers, with two active and a third in reserve, although funding cuts led to the purchase of only two carriers in June 1947: Majestic and sister ship HMS Terrible, for the combined cost of AU£2.75 million, plus stores, fuel, and ammunition. As Terrible was the closer of the two ships to completion, she was finished without modification, and was commissioned into the RAN on 16 December 1948 as HMAS Sydney. Work progressed on Majestic at a slower rate, as she was upgraded with the latest technology and equipment. To cover Majestic's absence, the Colossus-class carrier HMS Vengeance was loaned to the RAN from 13 November 1952 until 12 August 1955.
Labour difficulties, late delivery of equipment, additional requirements for Australian operations, and the prioritization of merchant ships over naval construction delayed the completion of Majestic. Incorporation of new systems and enhancements caused the cost of the RAN carrier acquisition program to increase to AU£8.3 million. Construction and fitting out did not finish until October 1955. As the carrier neared completion, a commissioning crew was formed in Australia and first used to return Vengeance to the United Kingdom.
The completed carrier was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Majestic on 26 October 1955, but only two days later, the ship was renamed Melbourne and recommissioned.
In the meantime, the rather political decision had been made to equip Melbourne with an indigenous jet-powered aircraft, replacing the piston-driven Hawker Fury that had been successfully operated from HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vengeance, so that the "new jet age" was even more recognizable. The choice fell on the CAC Sabre, certainly inspired by North American's successful contemporary development of the navalized FJ-2 Fury from the land-based F-86 Sabre. The CAC 27 was already a proven design, and with its more powerful Avon engine it even offered a better suitability for carrier operations than the FJ-2 with its rather weak J47 engine.
Work on this project, which was initially simply designated Sabre Mk 40, started in 1954, just when the first CAC 27's were delivered to operative RAAF units. While the navalized Avon Sabre differed outwardly only little from its land-based brethren, many details were changed and locally developed. Therefore, there was also, beyond the general outlines, little in common with the North American FJ-2 an -3 Fury.
Externally, a completely new wing with a folding mechanism was fitted. It was based on the F-86's so-called "6-3" wing, with a leading edge that was extended 6 inches at the root and 3 inches at the tip. This modification enhanced maneuverability at the expense of a small increase in landing speed due to deletion of the leading edge slats, a detail that was later introduced on the Sabre Mk 31, too. As a side benefit, the new wing leading edges without the slat mechanisms held extra fuel. However, the Mk 40's wing was different as camber was applied to the underside of the leading edge to improve low-speed handling for carrier operations. The wings were provided with four stations outboard of the landing gear wells for up to 1000 lb external loads on the inboard stations and 500 lb on the outboard stations.
Slightly larger stabilizers were fitted and the landing gear was strengthened, including a longer front wheel strut. The latter necessitated an enlarged front wheel well, so that the front leg’s attachment point had to be moved forward. A ventral launch cable hook was added under the wing roots and an external massive arrester hook under the rear fuselage.
Internally, systems were protected against salt and humidity and a Rolls-Royce Avon 211 turbojet was fitted, a downrated variant of the already navalized Avon 208 from the British DH Sea Vixen, but adapted to the different CAC 27 airframe and delivering 8.000 lbf (35.5 kN) thrust – slightly more than the engines of the land-based CAC Sabres, but also without an afterburner.
A single Mk 40 prototype was built from a new CAC 27 airframe taken directly from the production line in early 1955 and made its maiden flight on August 20th of the same year. In order to reflect its naval nature and its ancestry, this new CAC 27 variant was officially christened “Sea Sabre”.
Even though the modified machine handled well, and the new, cambered wing proved to be effective, many minor technical flaws were discovered and delayed the aircraft's development until 1957. These included the wing folding mechanism and the respective fuel plumbing connections, the landing gear, which had to be beefed up even more for hard carrier landings and the airframe’s structural strength for catapult launches, esp. around the ventral launch hook.
In the meantime, work on the land-based CAC 27 progressed in parallel, too, and innovations that led to the Mk 31 and 32 were also incorporated into the naval Mk 40, leading to the Sea Sabre Mk 41, which became the effective production aircraft. These updates included, among others, a detachable (but fixed) refueling probe under the starboard wing, two more pylons for light loads located under the wing roots and the capability to carry and deploy IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, what significantly increased the Mk 41's efficiency as day fighter. With all these constant changes it took until April 1958 that the Sabre Mk 41, after a second prototype had been directly built to the new standard, was finally approved and cleared for production. Upon delivery, the RAN Sea Sabres carried a standard NATO paint scheme with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces and Sky undersides.
In the meantime, the political enthusiasm concerning the Australian carrier fleet had waned, so that only twenty-two aircraft were ordered. The reason behind this decision was that Australia’s carrier fleet and its capacity had become severely reduced: Following the first decommissioning of HMAS Sydney in 1958, Melbourne became the only aircraft carrier in Australian service, and she was unavailable to provide air cover for the RAN for up to four months in every year; this time was required for refits, refueling, personnel leave, and non-carrier duties, such as the transportation of troops or aircraft. Although one of the largest ships to serve in the RAN, Melbourne was one of the smallest carriers to operate in the post-World War II period, so that its contribution to military actions was rather limited. To make matters worse, a decision was made in 1959 to restrict Melbourne's role to helicopter operations only, rendering any carrier-based aircraft in Australian service obsolete. However, this decision was reversed shortly before its planned 1963 implementation, but Australia’s fleet of carrier-borne fixed-wing aircraft would not grow to proportions envisioned 10 years ago.
Nevertheless, on 10 November 1964, an AU£212 million increase in defense spending included the purchase of new aircraft for Melbourne. The RAN planned to acquire 14 Grumman S-2E Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and to modernize Melbourne to operate these. The acquisition of 18 new fighter-bombers was suggested (either Sea Sabre Mk 41s or the American Douglas A-4 Skyhawk), too, but these were dropped from the initial plan. A separate proposal to order 10 A-4G Skyhawks, a variant of the Skyhawk designed specifically for the RAN and optimized for air defense, was approved in 1965, but the new aircraft did not fly from Melbourne until the conclusion of her refit in 1969. This move, however, precluded the production of any new and further Sea Sabre.
At that time, the RAN Sea Sabres received a new livery in US Navy style, with upper surfaces in Light Gull Gray with white undersides. The CAC Sea Sabres remained the main day fighter and attack aircraft for the RAN, after the vintage Sea Furies had been retired in 1962. The other contemporary RAN fighter type in service, the Sea Venom FAW.53 all-weather fighter that had replaced the Furies, already showed its obsolescence.
In 1969, the RAN purchased another ten A-4G Skyhawks, primarily in order to replace the Sea Venoms on the carriers, instead of the proposed seventh and eighth Oberon-class submarines. These were operated together with the Sea Sabres in mixed units on board of Melbourne and from land bases, e.g. from NAS Nowra in New South Wales, where a number of Sea Sabres were also allocated to 724 Squadron for operational training.
Around 1970, Melbourne operated a standard air group of four jet aircraft, six Trackers, and ten Wessex helicopters until 1972, when the Wessexes were replaced with ten Westland Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters and the number of jet fighters doubled. Even though the A-4G’s more and more took over the operational duties on board of Melbourne, the Sea Sabres were still frequently deployed on the carrier, too, until the early Eighties, when both the Skyhawks and the Sea Sabres received once more a new camouflage, this time a wraparound scheme in two shades of grey, reflecting their primary airspace defense mission.
The CAC 27 Mk 41s’ last carrier operations took place in 1981 in the course of Melbourne’s involvements in two major exercises, Sea Hawk and Kangaroo 81, the ship’s final missions at sea. After Melbourne was decommissioned in 1984, the Fleet Air Arm ceased fixed-wing combat aircraft operation. This was the operational end of the Sabre Mk 41, which had reached the end of their airframe lifetime, and the Sea Sabre fleet had, during its career, severely suffered from accidents and losses: upon retirement, only eight of the original twenty-two aircraft still existed in flightworthy condition, so that the aircraft were all scrapped. The younger RAN A-4Gs were eventually sold to New Zealand, where they were kept in service until 2002.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 1 in (11.3 m)
Height: 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m)
Wing area: 302.3 sq ft (28.1 m²)
Empty weight: 12,000 lb (5,443 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,000 lb (7,256 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 21,210 lb (9,621 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Avon 208A turbojet engine with 8,200 lbf (36.44 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 700 mph (1,100 km/h) (605 knots)
Range: 1,153 mi, (1,000 NM, 1,850 km)
Service ceiling: 52,000 ft (15,850 m)
Rate of climb: 12,000 ft/min at sea level (61 m/s)
Armament:
2× 30 mm ADEN cannons with 150 rounds per gun
5,300 lb (2,400 kg) of payload on six external hardpoints;
Bombs were usually mounted on outer two pylons as the mid pair were wet-plumbed pylons for
2× 200 gallons drop tanks, while the inner pair was usually occupied by a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder
AAMs
A wide variety of bombs could be carried with maximum standard loadout being 2x 1,000 lb bombs
or 2x Matra pods with unguided SURA missiles plus 2 drop tanks for ground attacks, or 2x AIM-9 plus
two drop tanks as day fighter
The kit and its assembly:
This project was initially inspired by a set of decals from an ESCI A-4G which I had bought in a lot – I wondered if I could use it for a submission to the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2020. I considered an FJ-3M in Australian colors on this basis and had stashed away a Sword kit of that aircraft for this purpose. However, I had already built an FJ variant for the GB (a kitbashed mix of an F-86D and an FJ-4B in USMC colors), and was reluctant to add another Fury.
This spontaneously changed after (thanks to Corona virus quarantine…) I cleaned up one of my kit hoards and found a conversion set for a 1:72 CAC 27 from JAYS Model Kits which I had bought eons ago without a concrete plan. That was the eventual trigger to spin the RAN Fury idea further – why not a navalized version of the Avon Sabre for HMAS Melbourne?
The result is either another kitbash or a highly modified FJ-3M from Sword. The JAYS Model Kits set comes with a THICK sprue that carries two fuselage halves and an air intake, and it also offers a vacu canopy as a thin fallback option because the set is actually intended to be used together with a Hobby Craft F-86F.
While the parts, molded in a somewhat waxy and brittle styrene, look crude on the massive sprue, the fuselage halves come with very fine recessed engravings. And once you have cleaned the parts (NOTHING for people faint at heart, a mini drill with a saw blade is highly recommended), their fit is surprisingly good. The air intake was so exact that no putty was needed to blend it with the rest of the fuselage.
The rest came from the Sword kit and integrating the parts into the CAC 27 fuselage went more smoothly than expected. For instance, the FJ-3M comes with a nice cockpit tub that also holds a full air intake duct. Thanks to the slightly wider fuselage of the CAC 27, it could be mounted into the new fuselage halves without problems and the intake duct almost perfectly matches the intake frame from the conversion set. The tailpipe could be easily integrated without any mods, too. The fins had to be glued directly to the fuselage – but this is the way how the Sword kit is actually constructed! Even the FJ-3M’s wings match the different fuselage perfectly. The only modifications I had to make is a slight enlargement of the ventral wing opening at the front and at the read in order to take the deeper wing element from the Sword kit, but that was an easy task. Once in place, the parts blend almost perfectly into each other, just minor PSR was necessary to hide the seams!
Other mods include an extended front wheel well for the longer leg from the FJ-3M and a scratched arrester hook installation, made from wire, which is on purpose different from the Y-shaped hook of the Furies.
For the canopy I relied on the vacu piece that came with the JAYS set. Fitting it was not easy, though, it took some PSR to blend the windscreen into the rest of the fuselage. Not perfect, but O.K. for such a solution from a conversion set.
The underwing pylons were taken from the Sword kit, including the early Sidewinders. I just replaced the drop tanks – the OOB tanks are very wide, and even though they might be authentic for the FJ-3, I was skeptical if they fit at all under the wings with the landing gear extended? In order to avoid trouble and for a more modern look, I replaced them outright with more slender tanks, which were to mimic A-4 tanks (USN FJ-4s frequently carried Skyhawk tanks). They actually come from a Revell F-16 kit, with modified fins. The refueling probe comes from the Sword kit.
A last word about the Sword kit: much light, but also much shadow. While I appreciate the fine surface engravings, the recognizably cambered wings, a detailed cockpit with a two-piece resin seat and a pretty landing gear as well as the long air intake, I wonder why the creators totally failed to provide ANY detail of the arrester hook (there is literally nothing, as if this was a land-based Sabre variant!?) or went for doubtful solutions like a front landing gear that consists of five(!) single, tiny parts? Sadism? The resin seat was also broken (despite being packed in a seperate bag), and it did not fit into the cockpit tub at all. Meh!
Painting and markings:
From the start I planned to give the model the late RAN A-4Gs’ unique air superiority paint scheme, which was AFAIK introduced in the late Seventies: a two-tone wraparound scheme consisting of “Light Admiralty Grey” (BS381C 697) and “Aircraft Grey” (BS 381C 693). Quite simple, but finding suitable paints was not an easy task, and I based my choice on pictures of the real aircraft (esp. from "buzz" number 880 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, you find pics of it with very good light condition) rather than rely on (pretty doubtful if not contradictive) recommendations in various painting instructions from models or decal sets.
I wanted to keep things simple and settled upon Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231) and Light Blue (FS 35414), both enamel colors from Modelmaster, since both are rather dull interpretations of these tones. Esp. the Light Blue comes quite close to Light Admiralty Grey, even though it should be lighter for more contrast to the darker grey tone. But it has that subtle greenish touch of the original BS tone, and I did not want to mix the colors.
The pattern was adapted from the late A-4Gs’ scheme, and the colors were dulled down even more through a light black ink wash. Some post-shading with lighter tones emphasized the contrast between the two colors again. And while it is not an exact representation of the unique RAN air superiority scheme, I think that the overall impression is there.
The cockpit interior was painted in very dark grey, while the landing gear, its wells and the inside of the air intake became white. A red rim was painted around the front opening, and the landing gear covers received a red outline, too. The white drop tanks are a detail I took from real world RAN A-4Gs - in the early days of the air superiority scheme, the tanks were frequently still finished in the old USN style livery, hence the white body but fins and tail section already in the updated colors.
The decals became a fight, though. As mentioned above, the came from an ESCI kit – and, as expected, the were brittle. All decals with a clear carrier film disintegrated while soaking in water, only those with a fully printed carrier film were more or less usable. One roundel broke and had to be repaired, and the checkered fin flash was a very delicate affair that broke several times, even though I tried to save and repair it with paint. But you can unfortunately see the damage.
Most stencils and some replacements (e. g. the “Navy” tag) come from the Sword FJ-3. While these decals are crisply printed, their carrier film is utterly thin, so thin that applying esp. the larger decals turned out to be hazardous and complicated. Another point that did not really convince me about the Sword kit.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and some soot stains were added around the exhaust and the gun ports with graphite.
In the end, this build looks, despite the troubles and the rather exotic ingredients like a relatively simple Sabre with Australian markings, just with a different Navy livery. You neither immediately recognize the FJ-3 behind it, nor the Avon Sabre’s bigger fuselage, unless you take a close and probably educated look. Very subtle, though.
The RAN air superiority scheme from the late Skyhawks suits the Sabre/Fury-thing well – I like the fact that it is a modern fighter scheme, but, thanks to the tones and the colorful other markings, not as dull and boring like many others, e. g. the contemporary USN "Ghost" scheme. Made me wonder about an early RAAF F-18 in this livery - should look very pretty, too?
A rover makes a fine addition to Europe’s lightsabre collection as it navigates the reddish terrain of a quarry on its own. This is the latest technology demonstration of a wheeled robot for precise sample collection without human intervention.
The sample tubes are a replica of the hermetically sealed samples that NASA’s Perseverance rover is leaving on Mars with precious martian soil inside. To most people on Earth, they resemble lightsabres.
This is the second time engineers from ESA and Airbus come together in Stevenage, UK, to conduct a field trial. “We have made some upgrades and now the rover is complete enough to autonomously navigate unknown terrain, detect and collect samples,” explains Pantelis Poulakis, project manager of ESA’s Sample Transfer Arm for the Mars Sample Return campaign.
This year’s rover trial introduced a novel feature: a robotic arm that faced the challenge of picking up the thin, 15-cm long sample tubes dropped around a simulated depot.
The rover mapped the terrain and located a tube, autonomously navigated towards it until it reached a parking position. At every stop, the rover used stereo cameras to build up a 180-degree map of the surroundings and plan its next maneouvres.
Once parked, the camera on top of the mast detected the tube and estimated its position with respect to the rover. The robotic arm initiated a complex choreography to move closer to the sample, fetch it and store it.
The tests lasted two weeks and involved the rover traveling 300 metres across several obstacles – from flat and straight-line traverses to rocky, zig-zagging setups. The engineers wanted the rover to learn how to scout another planet, dodging boulders and getting close to interesting samples. The rover and its new arm showed they could do their job autonomously.
“We are running these tests to bring together all the technologies we have developed individually,” says Pantelis. “This is essential to gain confidence in demanding scientific and exploration missions on Mars.”
“Each new field trial is an opportunity to boost the European capability to run large scale tests for complex rover systems,” says Geoffray Doignon, Airbus Stevenage technical lead for rover breadboarding activities. “It helps us understand the limitations of the design and validate rover operations in realistic conditions.”
Teams from industry and ESA will push the rover again next year to keep improving its performance. “Progress comes iteratively in small steps and not in one giant leap,” concedes Pantelis.
Follow the latest news about Europe’s martian adventures on the blog To Mars and Back.
Credits: Airbus
Saint Petersburg is filled with many outstanding examples of Art Nouveau. Some of the most iconic buildings of the city were designed in this architecture style.
Among the key principles of Art Nouveau, an art movement that emerged in the end of the 19th century in Europe and quickly spread across the world, was to create young art, inspired by nature, and make the life for the people of the next century more convenient and surrounded by beautiful objects. It is defined by flowing forms, asymmetry and curves, mysterious allegorical images from legends and fairy tales, and the abundant use of modern materials - steel, glass, ceramics and concrete.
At that time, Russian merchants were the main force that supported the empire's economy and introduced latest technologies, and no wonder that they were the first to bring the new architecture style to the major Russian cities. They started to commission their mansions and commercial buildings to be built or redecorated in the Art Nouveau Style and the leading Russian architects quickly mastered the new style and enriched it with local details.
Latest technology to inspect, repair, maintain and secure systems and structures throughout the world today.- www.socialactions.com/underwater-commercial-diving/
Germany, Hamburg, Airport Days 2015, Boeing E-3A AWACS, built 1972-1982, by Boeing,
The E-3A AWACS, Airborne Warning & Control System, has been developed based on the long-haul airliner Boeing 707-320 & is used for airborne airspace surveillance, management & communications tasks. A characteristic feature of it is, that it is equipped with the latest technology monitoring Jets is enthroned above the fuselage radar disc. This so-called "rotodome" houses the antenna of the main radar & rotates during use flights around its own axis. The AWACS aircraft are used since 1982 by its main operating base is Geilenkirchen, Germany, & other European airports. The normal operating altitude is approximately 9,500 meters. From this height a single aircraft can monitor the airspace within a radius of more than 400 kilometres & exchange via digital data links information with commands on the ground & at sea.
company, Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington, USA
built from1979-1982
engine, four Pratt & Whitney TF-33-PW-100A jet engines with a push capacity of 9523.5 kg / 20,500 lb per engine
spear 44,45 mtr
length 46,68 mtr
height 12,70 mtr
👉 One World one Dream,
...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
9 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
Happiness can be very simple. You don't need the latest technology to have fun. You don't need expensive toys to be happy. A simple outdoor activity with friends and family is more than enough.
A simple chase of the kite can be a lot of fun too. Let's find our happiness from simple things :)
Location: Garry Point Park, Canada
Scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are continuing to work with a range of industry partners to develop the Army’s Future Soldier Vision (FSV), showcasing the personal equipment that soldiers could be using by the mid-2020s.
As well as the design of advanced combat clothing, which includes new materials like four-way stretch fabric and silent hook and loop pockets, new body armour will be lighter, and a new high-tech helmet will have state-of-the- art built-in communication systems.
The Vision is part of the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) plan to ensure that British Soldiers have high-quality equipment utilising the latest technologies, as part of an integrated system. Future Soldier Vision (FSV) gives companies an aim point – an example of an integrated soldier system that balances military need with technology that delivers distributed power to data, scaleable and integrated protection, augmented surveillance and target acquisition, and a range of functional fabrics incorporated into the clothing.
Partners include The Royal College of Art (RCA) who provided professional designers, who – when they weren’t working in London on high-end jewellery – spent months working on the clothing to ensure prototypes were fitted to the body, were easy to run in and comfortable to wear.
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© Crown Copyright 2014
Photographer: DSTL Porton Down Photographer
Image 45163929.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk
This image is available for high resolution download at www.defenceimagery.mod.uk subject to the terms and conditions of the Open Government License at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/. Search for image number 45163929.jpg
For latest news visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence
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Prompted by the bounty of genomic data and the latest technologies for data generation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a new Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) policy that safeguards research participants and facilitates biomedical discovery. The new policy, issued on August 27, 2014, is aimed at maximizing the public benefit of federally-funded research.
Credit: Darryl Leja, NHGRI.
The Postcard
A Real Photographic Series postcard that was published by the Davidson Brothers of London and New York. The image is a glossy real photograph, and the card was printed in England.
The card was posted in London using a ½d. stamp on Saturday the 8th. August 1908. It was sent to:
Mrs. Allen,
'Arundel Villa',
Alton Park Road,
Clacton-on-Sea,
Essex.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Mother,
Just a card - will write at
the beginning of next week.
How do you like this? I will
send some other views
later on.
Love to all,
From Sid."
The Franco-British Exhibition
In 1900 the Prince of Wales, who would later become King Edward VII, went to the Paris Exhibition, and when he became King, suggested to his government that Great Britain should hold an exhibition with France which would help to promote the Entente Cordiale between the two countries which was signed in 1904.
The King's suggestion resulted in the Franco-British Exhibition, which was a large public fair held in 1908.
A site was found on farmland near Shepherds Bush, with work starting in early 1907. Over a hundred buildings were erected. At the height of construction 4,000 men by day and 2,000 men by night worked to get the Exhibition ready for the 14th. May 1908.
In 1906 Italy was due to host the Olympics, but had to cancel after Mount Vesuvius erupted and caused widespread damage around Naples.
Great Britain was then asked to stage the Games, and a Stadium was built into the exhibition site. The cost of building the Stadium was £75,000, and it stood until 1985. The Games were a great success, and Great Britain won 56 gold medals, with the US winning 23.
The area is still called White City, having acquired its name from the exhibition buildings which were all faced with white marble or painted white.
During the Exhibition members of the British Empire came and showed their countries produce and machinery. Visitors could visit Pavilions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Ceylon, with France, Algeria and its other colonies.
Great Britain and France had a pavilion showing Arts and Women's Work. There was a complete Irish Village, which had Irish Colleens working in it, and visitors could kiss the Blarney Stone.
The Exhibition covered an area of 140 acres (0.57 sq. km), including an artificial lake, surrounded by an immense network of white buildings in elaborate (often Oriental) styles. Over eight million visitors each paid one shilling (5p) to see the Exhibition.
One of the main attractions was the Flip Flap. It had two arms 150ft long with a carriage at the end which could carry up to 40 people at a time. It took three minutes and 20 seconds for the journey from one side to the other, and cost six pence.
Three songs were composed about the Flip Flap and could be heard in the London Music Halls. There was also a Scenic Mountain Railway, a Canadian Toboggan Run and a Spiral Ride, along with many other attractions.
The Exhibition was open from 11am until 11pm, Monday to Saturday from the 14th. May 1908 until the 31st. October 1908. In the bandstands around the exhibition, regimental bands played throughout the day.
Other exhibitions were held on the site in 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, and 1914. In 1909 the exhibition site hosted the Imperial International Exhibition, and in 1910, the Japan-British Exhibition.
The Coronation Exhibition of 1911 was held in order to celebrate the coronation of King George V and Mary of Teck on the 22nd. June 1911.
The final two exhibitions to be held there were the Latin-British Exhibition (1912) and the Anglo-American Exhibition (1914), which was brought to a premature end by the outbreak of the Great War.
The stadium was used for greyhound racing from 1927 until 1984.
The Exhibition site is now occupied by the BBC Television Centre, opened in 1960, and the Westfield Shopping Centre, which opened in 2008. The BBC Television Centre was built on the site of the Stadium and the Court of Honour.
The last remaining buildings of the 1908 exhibition were demolished to make way for the Westfield development.
W. E. W. Petter
So what else happened on the day that Sid posted the card?
Well, the 8th. August 1908 marked the birth in Highgate, North London of William "Teddy" Petter.
William Edward Willoughby Petter CBE was a British aircraft designer. He is noted for Westland's wartime aeroplanes, the Canberra, the early design of the Lightning, and his last plane, the Folland Gnat.
William Edward Petter - The Early Years
Edward 'Teddy' Petter was the eldest of the three sons and one daughter of Sir Ernest Petter (co-founder of Westland Aircraft Works) and his wife, Angela Emma. Because his father spent much time in London, Teddy's early childhood was spent mostly with his mother, from whom he inherited a strong religious conviction and firm ethical principles.
Edward was educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire and then Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. During his first two years at Cambridge he focused his studies on subjects relevant to oil engines, the traditional product of Petters Limited, but in his third year he concentrated on aerodynamics and aircraft engineering.
In 1929 he was awarded a first class in the mechanical sciences tripos and shared the John Bernard Seely prize in aeronautics.
William Edward Petter's Career
Westland
Petter joined Westland Aircraft Works as a graduate apprentice in 1929, and for the next 2½ years he worked in every department, not seeking any favour despite being the chairman's son.
In the drawing office it was noted that he was a very poor draughtsman, but had good ideas. Years later he said:
"I looked on this as sheer drudgery
at the time, but knew afterwards that
without workshop knowledge I would
never have become a designer".
In May 1932 Edward was appointed personal assistant to the managing director, Robert Bruce, a position previously held by Petter's friend and colleague Harald Penrose. Bruce did not welcome the appointment and ignored him, leaving Petter spare time to modify and compete an Austin 7.
Despite his interest in sports cars, Petter had no interest in learning to fly. Penrose gave him a flying lesson at this time, but later commented that:
"Petter had a lack of the requisite
sensitivity, coupled with hopeless
judgment of speed and distance."
Edward's father appointed him to the board in May 1934, making him technical director (at the age of 26) in preference to more experienced engineers such as Arthur Davenport and Geoffrey Hill.
This was not welcomed by the older members of management, ultimately prompting Bruce and Hill to resign, and placing the older and more experienced Davenport in an intolerable position as his subordinate.
One of his first actions as technical director was to terminate development of Hill's Pterodactyl, a pioneering tailless swept-wing aircraft.
However, other business decisions by Sir Ernest Petter infuriated Teddy. In July 1935 Ernest Petter convened a shareholders meeting to propose a merger with British Marine Aircraft for the purpose of expanding Westland's workshops.
This proposal was thwarted by Teddy and Peter Acland who threatened to resign. But in July 1938 Ernest Petter sold the controlling shares in Westlands to John Brown Ltd, forming Westland Aircraft Limited as a separate company, with Eric Mensforth brought in to share the managing directorship with Peter Acland.
Teddy saw the loss of family control of the company as the loss of his birthright, and this dispute would divide the Petter family for years, not being resolved until shortly before Ernest Petter's death in 1954.
The Westland Lysander
The Air Ministry was initially reluctant to award Westland contracts due to Petter's inexperience, but his reputation as a successful designer was strengthened after it was demonstrated that the automatic slats on the PV 7 were both effective and reliable.
As a result, and after internal discussion, the Air Ministry added Westland to the list of bidders for the replacement for the Hawker Hector Army Co-operation aircraft.
Petter started the design by interviewing the Army Cooperation pilots and ground crew. Based on this information, he placed pilot visibility, the ability to take off and land in small spaces, and ease of ground maintenance as the prime requirements.
The resulting design, the Westland P8 (later named the Lysander), was clearly an evolution of Westland's high-winged monoplane designs, but Petter incorporated a number of innovative features, including extensive use of extruded sections throughout the airframe, something that was a feature in his future designs.
Early flight testing revealed attitude control problems that the wind tunnel tests had not predicted. Petter instructed Penrose to conceal these problems from Sir Ernest. Later, when these problems had been addressed by a larger, variable-incidence tailplane, it was realised that if a landing was aborted and the throttle opened up fully, the Lysander could rear up and stall.
While Penrose and RAF test pilots lobbied for modifications, Petter refused, because redesign would affect production. Also, in his zeal to reduce weight, Petter had used glider fabric instead of specification Irish linen to cover the wings on the second prototype. This nearly caused a disaster when an RAF pilot dived it to the limit, causing the fabric on the top surface to tear off.
The Westland Whirlwind
Petter's next fixed-wing aircraft design was a radical departure from the Westland's typical high-wing fabric-covered airframe. The Westland P9 was a low winged twin-engined aircraft employing the latest technology.
It was designed to meet Air Ministry specification F.37/35, which called for a single-seat cannon-armed fighter, at least 40 mph faster than a contemporary bomber, and not less than 330 mph at 15,000 ft.
To obtain this performance Petter and Davenport chose to minimise drag; the two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines were fitted in closely streamlined nacelles, and their radiators were fitted inside the wing inboard sections. In the two prototypes the engine exhaust was routed through the fuel tanks in the wings to reduce drag. The Air Ministry thought that this was dangerous, and insisted that conventional exhaust stacks be fitted.
The airframe was of thin-walled stressed skin construction, with the rear fuselage skinned in magnesium alloy. Like the Lysander, it made extensive use of extrusions in the airframe.
The prototype first flew in September 1938, and while it was one of the fastest and most heavily armed fighters of its era, faster than the Spitfire Mk 1, its development was problematic and protracted. The engines overheated, the hydraulic engine controls were imprecise, the slats slammed open, and production was slow.
Petter was frustrated by its lack of operational status in the RAF. In November 1940, he wrote a memo to Sholto Douglas stating:
"The Whirlwind is probably the most radically
new aeroplane which has ever gone into service...
New ideas I am afraid, even with the greatest care,
always mean a certain amount of teething trouble.
I really do not think these troubles have been any
worse than they were on, say, the Spitfire."
In reply Sholto Douglas wrote:
"It seems to me that your firm is concentrating
on producing large numbers of Lysanders, which
nobody wants, instead of concentrating on
producing Whirlwinds which are wanted badly."
Shortly after this exchange 263 squadron became operational, but Petter always regretted that the Whirlwind was not available for the Battle of Britain, and blamed Eric Mensforth for the delay in production.
Spitfire Development
By 1942 Westland was building mostly Spitfires under contract. One of the problems with the early marks of Spitfire was variability of longitudinal stability, leading to aircraft getting dangerously out of control and contributing to the risk of structural failure.
Petter made a significant contribution to improving the longitudinal stability of the Spitfire because he was the first to appreciate that aerodynamic modification to the elevator could provide additional stability.
On his own initiative he had Penrose collect flight test stick force data and trim curves on a Spitfire at various centre of gravity loadings, then produced a prototype elevator with a bulged aerodynamic section, which produced a 'remarkable' improvement in stability, later being known as the 'Westland Elevator'.
The Westland Welkin
In 1940, the Air Ministry was motivated by the threat of high altitude bombers such as the Junkers Ju 86P, to issue a specification for a high altitude interceptor, F4/40. Petter submitted two designs. His first was an innovative low-drag aircraft (P13), which featured a pair of staggered Merlins in the fuselage, one behind and slightly above the other, driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers.
His second submission was a conventional design (P14), describing it as "a logical development of the successful Whirlwind." This was selected and became the Welkin.
The Air Ministry required a minimum speed to 415 mph (668 km/h) at 33,000 ft (10,000 m) with a maximum ceiling of 42,000 ft (13,000 m). They also wanted low altitude manoeuvrability and a +9G ultimate load factor.
The speed was equivalent to a Mach number of 0.62 while the loading condition caused Petter to select a thick wing section which would later be demonstrated to have a critical Mach number of 0.6. The significance of the thick wing section may not have been understood by Petter because compressibility effects had only recently started to be encountered by aircraft designers.
During test flying the effect of compressibility was experienced by Penrose who wrote:
"In speed runs at the ceiling the wings
and fuselage sometimes shook as though
the machine was bumping over
cobblestones."
Petter was however reluctant to believe Penrose, or accept that the wing would not be acceptable for high speed at altitude.
While the cabin pressurisation was innovative and worked well, the heat from the compressor "was like sitting in an oven". Petter was however unconcerned and reluctant to modify the system. Penrose thought that:
"It was the machine's performance
which interested him, not that of
the pilot".
Petter devised a better method for cooling the cabin only after Penrose developed pneumonia attributed to this problem.
Penrose later remarked:
"At this time Petter's intellect put him
ahead of most contemporary designers
as shown by his introduction of
pressurization and extensive use of
remote electrical controls which
subsequently became standard
practice.
By the time of the Welkin he had learnt
the lesson that it takes as long to develop
an aeroplane as to design it."
Petter was an outstanding organiser, and could envisage construction time-scales with greater knowledge than Fearn and Wheeldon. It was noted:
"It was his lack of understanding people
and their motives that became his major
failure."
The B1/44 Proposal
Westland's successful manufacture of Spitfires meant that Petter was well thought of by Sir Wilfrid Freeman, chief executive officer at the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) and by N. E. Rowe, its director of technical development.
Discussions between all three led to Specification B1/44 for a jet-powered replacement for the de Havilland Mosquito bomber. Petter developed his proposal for B1/44 as a private venture. This was a 56 ft span medium bomber powered by two Metrovick "Beryl" engines located within the fuselage, and he persuaded the Westland board to put up capital to manufacture a mock-up of the fuselage. This was Edward's fifteenth wartime design study, and his final design for Westland.
Throughout his career when under stress, Petter would leave work without warning for periods of up to six weeks. In April 1944 he suddenly left work, and it was rumoured that he had travelled to Switzerland, possibly to a monastery or a religious commune.
In his absence Mensford switched the design effort from the B1/44 bomber to work on specification N11/44 for a Naval single-seat fighter that would eventually become the Wyvern.
When Petter returned he was furious with Mensford. He knew Westland would not have the resources to develop and build both the fighter and the bomber. Also, to avoid the delays in production of the bomber he wanted Mensforth to give him full powers of a chief engineer responsible for every department concerned with its construction.
Edward believed that in his absence the management had conspired to eliminate his project. As a result of this conflict he resigned in June, leaving the company in September 1944, taking with him the B1/44 design proposal and his large database of extrusions with their load capacities.
English Electric
The Canberra
By 1944 English Electric was established as a leading manufacturer of modern aircraft, both in terms of quantity and quality. This success was certainly due in part to the drive of the Preston site general manager, Arthur Sheffield.
However, the company did not have engineers capable of original aircraft design, and to address this deficiency Sir George Nelson, English Electric's chairman, was introduced to Petter. With Petter on board, English Electric was put on the MAP short list to develop Britain's first jet bombers.
Petter started work for English Electric in July 1944. As he was unencumbered by an existing design office, he had the opportunity to personally recruit a team of ambitious young engineers. His first recruit was Frederick Page, who was then a senior aerodynamicist at Hawker Aircraft. Petter first discussed the B1/44 proposal with Page in October 1944, and appointed him as his chief stress man the following April.
In 1945, Petter proposed a study contract to the MAP for a high-speed, high-altitude bomber to an updated specification (B3/45). This was granted in June, allowing Petter and Page to establish the basic B3/45 configuration.
While the original Westland B1/44 design had incorporated engines inside the fuselage, they realised this was incompatible with the internal fuel and bomb load.
Instead they chose engines mounted in nacelles in the wings. Petter later explained that the technical solution was found to lie in the right choice of wing. Swept wings had been considered, but were found to be unnecessary at the Mach numbers attainable when carrying a useful military load with the thrust available from two contemporary turbojets.
The problems that the Welkin had encountered at altitude were avoided by choosing a wing with a low aspect-ratio allowing a modest thickness/chord ratio, together with a light wing-loading. The modest curvature of the wings meant that the intersection with the fuselage and nacelles required no fillets to smooth the flow.
By late 1945 the design was sufficiently developed for a brochure to be submitted to the Ministry of Supply (MoS) which awarded a contract for four prototypes in January 1946.
The study contract in June 1945 enabled Petter to recruit and expand his team. He recruited Dai Ellis and Ray Creasey in 1946 as his aerodynamicists. He recruited Roland Beamont in May 1947 as his chief experimental test pilot; doing this as a means of bypassing Arthur Sheffield's control of the production test pilots and also because both he and Page wanted close integration of the test pilot within the design team.
Members of the team Petter put together to develop the Canberra would go on to lead military aircraft development in the UK for the next four decades.
Of this time at Warton, Beamont said:
"Although Petter was generally thought to be
difficult, I found him logical and 'ahead of the
game,' and totally oriented on making an
enormous success of the Canberra.
That it achieved this was due to his personal
ability to recognise the technical argument
and act on it correctly."
The aircraft stayed in operation in the RAF for 57 years until June 2006. In the United States, the Martin Company built the design under licence from 1953, as the Martin B-57, which was operated by the United States Air Force (USAF), NASA, the Pakistan Air Force and Taiwan Air Force. While the type was retired by the USAF in 1983, NASA still operates three.
The English Electric Lightning
Despite the lack of enthusiasm for manned supersonic flight in postwar Britain, Petter made provisional sketches for a supersonic fighter in 1946. To achieve a small frontal area and reduce wave drag it had two Rolls-Royce Derwent engines mounted one above the other in the fuselage, echoing his earlier Westland P13 proposal.
Petter lobbied Whitehall on the matter of supersonic flight, and in 1948 Handel Davis and a party from the MoS visited Petter in Warton to discuss experimental supersonic development work. This meeting resulted in Petter initiating a design proposal with Page leading the design and Ray Creasey responsible for the aerodynamics. By July 1948 their proposal incorporated the stacked engine configuration and a high-mounted tailplane but was designed for Mach 1.5.
As a consequence it had a conventional 40° degree swept wing. This proposal was submitted in the November, and in January 1949 the project was designated P.1 by English Electric.
On the 29th. March 1949 the MoS granted approval for English Electric to start the detailed design, develop wind tunnel models and build a full-size mock-up. To achieve Mach 2 the wing sweep was increased to 60° with the ailerons moved to the wingtips.
In late 1949 low-speed wind tunnel tests showed that a vortex was generated by the wing which caused a large downwash on the tailplane; this issue was solved by lowering its height below the wing. Hence, by late 1949 the basic configuration of the P.1A Lightning was fixed.
By late 1949 the relationship between Sheffield's Preston Strand Road engineering works and Petter's design team at Warton had deteriorated. Modifications to the Canberra to incorporate a bomb aimer, camera bays and dual seat for the navigation trainer required a redesign of the front fuselage, which caused disruption in the design office and the workshops.
In addition, with the P.1A Lightning design programme ramping up, Petter demanded a separate administration for Warton and an experimental workshop under his control as a condition of his continued service with English Electric.
Sir George Nelson was unable to reach a compromise acceptable to both Petter and Sheffield. Page tried to persuade Petter to stay by promising to help in dealing with Sheffield.
From December 1949 Petter ceased to take an active part in running Warton, he visited Warton once again to speak to a few people and clear his office. Page took over the day-to-day management until in February 1950, Petter resigned and Page was appointed his successor.
The Lightning remains the only all-British Mach 2 aircraft.
Folland Aircraft
In the late 1940's, Folland Aircraft Ltd. in Hamble, Hampshire was manufacturing sub-assemblies for other aircraft manufacturers. Henry Folland planned to retire, and recruited Petter as chief engineer and deputy managing director.
Petter joined Folland in September 1950, succeeding Henry Folland as managing director in July 1951. Although Petter had entered into an anti-poaching agreement with English Electric, a number of his ex-colleagues joined Folland when positions were openly advertised.
With a strong team, led by a designer of Petter's pedigree, Folland was now able to win MoS design contracts, such as that for the development of the Red Dean air-to-air missile in mid-1951.
On the 11th. July 1951 a delegation from the RAF visited Petter to discuss the requirements for a lightweight interceptor to counter the threat of escorted Russian Tupolev Tu-4 bombers. To address this, Petter developed a number of concepts.
His early designs used jettisonable engines, but by late 1951 he had focussed on more conventional designs; the Fo 139 and Fo 140 (which would eventually be developed into the Midge and Gnat respectively).
With concept design work on the light fighter ramping up, Petter decided not to proceed with the Red Dean and the MoS cancelled the contract in November 1951.
Petter sent a brochure describing the Fo.140 to the Air Staff in January 1952, but beyond this, further development of the light fighters was hindered by the lack of engines with a high thrust-to-weight ratio.
The Bristol Saturn was cancelled, the Armstrong Siddeley Viper had insufficient thrust, and Rolls-Royce had neither a suitable engine nor the inclination to develop one. To address this problem Petter approached Stanley Hooker at Bristol in late 1952 to discuss the design of a suitable engine. This meeting led to the development of the Orpheus.
By 1952 Government interest in a light fighter had waned. Despite this, Petter began the design and construction of the prototype as a private venture. The Fo 139 design was revised, adopting a shoulder-mounted wing and a low-set tailplane.
In common with his previous designs, Petter made use of magnesium alloys in the structure, using material surplus from the RTV2 Missile programme in the construction of the Midge prototype.
In June 1953 Petter presented his manifesto on light fighter design at the AFITA congress at the Paris Air show. In this paper, titled "Design for Production", Petter compared a 2500 kg light fighter with a 7500 kg standard fighter, and concluded that although the weight ratio was 3:1, four times as many light fighters could be manufactured for the same cost. To achieve this he explained how the fuselage, wing structure, engine and services could all be simplified.
Colonel Johnnie Driscoll, head of the NATO Mutual Weapons Development Program noted Petter's light fighter concept. NATO was interested in ground-attack aircraft that could be operated from improvised airfields and could be manufactured by postwar European industry.
Driscoll formalised a NATO requirement in August 1954 that would become the NATO light fighter competition. It was based on Petter's concept, but included the requirement to use low-pressure tyres. However, the Gnat was designed to operate from concrete runways and used high-pressure tyres.
Petter refused to modify the undercarriage because this would mean bulging the undercarriage doors and spoiling the Gnat's clean aerodynamic lines. Stanley Hooker urged him to 'Just say that you will try to do it', but Petter's moral code would not let him make false claims.
As a result, the Gnat was eliminated from the competition in June 1955. Ironically, the Gnat trainer design showed that the wider tyres could be used without increasing drag.
Production of the Midge progressed on schedule, and it was rolled out of the workshop on the 31st. July 1954, making its maiden flight on the 11th. August 1954. The Gnat first flew on the 18th. July 1955, and while it was demonstrated to be a capable aircraft, there was little interest in it in Europe.
In November 1955 the Indian government showed an interest in both purchasing and in licensed manufacture. Petter made several visits to India, and he and his design team were highly regarded.
An approach was made to him to set up a design team in India. However, his relationship with Indian government officials was antagonistic due to arguments over variations in contract costs.
In the late 1950's Petter rationalised his senior staff, dismissing those he thought had failed to meet his standards. However at the same time the Macmillan government was rationalising the aircraft industry and made the order for Gnat Trainers conditional on Folland merging with the Hawker Siddeley group.
Such a merger would have effectively made Petter subordinate to Sir Sidney Camm, with whom Petter had a good relationship (Camm had provided Petter with the Hawker Hunter wind tunnel data during the development of the Gnat) but the working relationship would be intolerable.
At the same period his wife Claude was showing early signs of Parkinson's disease. These two factors prompted Petter to announce his resignation to the Hawker Siddeley board on the 11th. November 1959, leaving Folland in the December.
Edward Petter's Personal Life and Retirement
Throughout his education at Marlborough and Cambridge Petter seems to have led a reclusive life. At Cambridge he had one close friend, John McCowan, with whom he shared an interest in motor cars.
It was during a stay at the McCowan family farm that Petter met his future wife Claude, the daughter of Louis Munier, a Swiss official at the League of Nations in Geneva.
Teddy and Claude were married in August 1933, in her home town near Geneva, with McCowan as their best man. The Petters had three daughters, Camile in 1936, Francoise in 1938 and Jenni in 1945.
While living in Dorset in the 1930's he designed his own house, a modern wooden chalet, with oil heating, double glazing and an automatic garage door.
When he left Folland he had intended to continue as a consultant engineer, with a limited interest in the Gnat. However, in January 1960 Petter left the aircraft industry completely, stating:
"I have finished with aviation completely.
I have strong religious interests to which
I am now going to give a lot of my time."
Five years earlier, Claude had been introduced to a 'Father Forget', a former minister of the Reformed Church of France who claimed to be able to cure her Parkinson's disease through communal prayer.
With Claude and daughter Jenni, Teddy Petter joined Father Forget's commune in 1960 and moved to Switzerland. There he lived the simple life of a holy man until he died at the young age of 59 on the 1st. May 1968.
Edward died in Béruges, Poitu-Charentes, France of bleeding from a chronic stomach ulcer. He was laid to rest in Béruges.
To commemorate him a road named Petter Court has been created in BAE Systems' Enterprise Zone at the site of the old Samlesbury Aerodrome in Lancashire.
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