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Steam yacht Thelma, photographed in 1904. My colorization of an image in the Library of Congress archive (Detroit Publishin Co. collection).

Three years later Thelma made made history. The world´s first ship-to-shore broadcast was made from the yacht.

Electrical World reported on August 10, 1907:

"The first actual application of radio-telephony to practical work anywhere in the world was made at Put-in-Bay, in Lake Erie, during the week of July 15 to 20, in reporting the regatta of the Interlake Association. The Radio Telephone Company installed the De Forest wireless telephone on board of the cruiser yacht "Thelma," and also equipped a shore station at the Fox Dock at Put-in-Bay.

The "Thelma" followed the competing yachts around the course through most of the races and full and graphic accounts were telephoned into the shore station.

The greatest distance at which the reports from the yachts were heard and recorded was four miles, considered remarkable in view of the height of "Thelma's" spars and the power of the transmitter on board. Her equipment comprised a 220-volt generator of 1 kilowatt capacity, the DeForest oscillator and transmitter, and for the receiving apparatus an audion detector and "pan cake" form of syntonizer or tuner. Her aerial wires led through the roof of the wheelhouse to a small crossarm on top of the foremast and thence to a similar arm on the mainmast. Ground connection was at first made to the propeller shafts of her twin screws, but as this was found insufficient, more area was added by fastening two sheets of zinc to the yacht's hull at the bow.

The telephone dynamo was belted direct to the flywheel of her starboard engines, aft, and the rest of the radio apparatus was mounted on a small table in her main cabin convenient to all.

On shore 110-volt direct-current was available and this was transformed to 220 volts by a motor generator. The current was led through a rheostat and choke coils to the oscillator. Connected to this oscillator is a shunt circuit consisting of a condenser of peculiar construction and a primary coil, the exact number of turns of which could be varied at will to alter the tune or wave length of the electrical waves which were generated. A second coil within this primary had its upper end connected direct with the antennae or aerial wire, while its lower end led first through the microphone transmitter and thence to the earth plate. In this way the changes in resistance in the microphone produced by the modulations of the human voice directly affect the intensity of the high-frequency currents which are continually passing from the air wire to the ground plate. Inasmuch as the receiver instrument is affected exactly in proportion with the strength of the received electric waves, it is evident that every variation in the microphone resistance by the voice will be reproduced to the listening ear at the distant station by the vibration of the telephone diaphragm there. The microphone transmitter and the telephone receiver are exactly the same as used in the wire telephone, with which all are familiar. The "oscillator" and the "responder" are the only new and additional features, and the ether takes the place of the connecting wire.

Upon the finish of the regatta the telephone apparatus from the "Thelma" and the Put-in-Bay shore station was shipped to Toledo, where it is the intention of the Radio Telephone Company to install it permanently, where it can be in communication with other wireless telephone sets to be installed on vessels sailing Lake Erie. The Great Lakes offer, perhaps, the most promising field anywhere in the world for the first general application of this new invention to the needs of a merchant marine, and it is the intention of the company to at once enter this promising field."

Electrical World, August 10, 1907

A Turkana man in Kenya uses his phone to communicate, Turkana's are found on the upper part of Kenya near Lake Turkana which is remote area with no infrastructure such as Roads and Telephony.

Avenue de Flandre 12/05/2023 08h37

Beautiful or awfull? The brutalist apartment buildings along the Avenue de Flandre. The German-born architect Martin Schulz Van Treeck, a student of Jean Ginsberg, designed in the 1970s the “Orgues de Flandre”, a group of social housing buildings in the Villette district in the heart of Paris.

The Orgues de Flandre buildings were built between 1973 and 1980 on the “Riquet block”, a space of about 6 hectares.

Built in reinforced concrete, a large part of their facades were originally covered with white ceramic tiles in order to reflect the light.

For the residential part, the Orgues de Flandre have 1950 apartments in 4 towers of 26 to 40 floors and two buildings of 16 floors.

 

Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era but commonly known for its presence in post-war communist nations. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly monochrome colour palette; other materials, such as steel, timber, and glass, are also featured.

[ Wikipedia - Brutalisme ]

 

Avenue de Flandre

Avenue de Flandre (formely « rue de Flandre ») is one of the main thoroughfares in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, 1,500 m long.

It connects Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad to Avenue Corentin-Cariou and provides access to the Paris ring road via Porte de la Villette.

Traffic is organized around a central parterre lined with trees.

Before 2019, the avenue was composed, in each direction, of 2 traffic lanes (including a lane reserved for public transport and bicycles on only part of the avenue) bordered by 2 parking lanes (one on each side) .

Since 2019, a cycle path has been created in each direction in place of the parking lot on the central side.

The avenue is bordered on most of its length by various shops, practically all services being available: general food, cafes, catering (fast, traditional and foreign), mass distribution (traditional and hard-discount), DIY, services banks, pharmacies, sale and repair of automobiles, bicycles and mopeds, optics, bookstores, telephony, libraries, real estate agencies, etc.

There are 4 métro stations under the Avenue de Flandre:

Corentin Cariou (M) (7)

Crimée (M) (7)

Riquet (M) (7)

Stalingrad (M) (2) (5) (7)

[ Wikipedia - Avenue de Flandre ]

I had no idea that my dad kept a collection of his old cellphones and was surprised to see him bring out his stash. I don't think any of them are in working condition and if they did, there was no way to find out as their original chargers are no longer around. 😊

 

What surprised me was that he also kept my old Ericsson GH 688, which I used between 1997 and 2000. This Ericsson unit traveled with me to Malawi, Africa where I was posted for three months in June 1998. It continued to serve me faithfully until I upgraded to the unreliable Ericsson T28s flip phone in mid 2000.

 

I can however identify the earliest cellphone in this picture - the grey Nokia 101 (ETACS), which my father had back in 1992. It operated exclusively on the local Celcom ART 900 analog network and provided only basic telephony service.

 

That's right, neither the Nokia 101 phone nor the network had SMS texting or Caller ID feature! If you had a missed call, you wouldn't know who called you! The redial button was only meant for redialing the last outgoing call - not for incoming ones.

 

Its monochrome LCD display only showed the network ID, contact names, numbers, remaining battery power and signal strength, that's it.

 

I remember borrowing that Nokia 101 and stashing it in the back of my jeans pocket going to the mall. Since it was fairly long, the top part and the antenna showed above my pocket line in clear view of the public.

 

In 1992 cellphones were expensive, status symbol devices and anyone seen carrying one must be someone important like a businessman or a VIP! People often stared at me whenever I received a call on that brick, lol. 😃

 

BTW, you know you're that old if you've actually used an analog cellphone in your late twenties! 😸

  

Thanks everyone for the views and the faves, much appreciated! 😊

Algarve

Fujifilm X-Pro 1

Building Radio Kootwijk, Veluwe NL - 1922 - architect Julius Maria Luthmann.

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone Company) started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter, a 400 KW high frequency alternator, from the German Telefunken company under the call sign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of short waves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt. Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the telephone company to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphinx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mind Hunters in 2004.

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were invariably referred to as WAAFs /ˈwæfs/, was the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II, established in 1939. At its peak strength, in 1943, WAAF numbers exceeded 180,000, with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.

A Women's Royal Air Force had existed from 1918 to 1920. The WAAF was created on 28 June 1939, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which had been formed since 1938. Conscription of women did not begin until 1941. It only applied to those between 20 and 30 years of age and they had the choice of the auxiliary services or factory work.

WAAFs did not serve as aircrew. The use of women pilots was limited to the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), which was civilian. Although they didn't participate in active combat, they were exposed to the same dangers as any on the "home front" working at military installations. They were active in parachute packing and the crewing of barrage balloons in addition to performing catering, meteorology, radar, aircraft maintenance, transport, communications duties including wireless telephonic and telegraphic operation. They worked with codes and ciphers, analysed reconnaissance photographs, and performed intelligence operations. WAAFs were a vital presence in the control of aircraft, both in radar stations and iconically as plotters in operation rooms, most notably during the Battle of Britain. These operation rooms directed fighter aircraft against the Luftwaffe, mapping both home and enemy aircraft positions.

Air Force nurses belonged to Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service instead. Female medical and dental officers were commissioned into the Royal Air Force and held RAF ranks.

WAAFs were paid two-thirds of the pay of male counterparts in RAF ranks.

By the end of World War II, WAAF enrollment had declined and the effect of demobilisation was to take thousands out of the service. The remainder, now only several hundred strong, was renamed the Women's Royal Air Force on 1 February 1949.

Many governmental organisations in the post-WW2 years published a popular and accessible history of wartime endeavours and service and this, written by Ian Hay, is the story of the Post Office. The Post Office was responsible for a multitude of public services ranging from the operation of Post Offices, the collection and delivery of the mail, the telegram and telephone services. These were all vital infrastructure in wartime conditions where the growth in demand for services was enormous - both at home and, in the theatres of war, abroad. The sacrifice of staff is covered as they often worked in the most trying of circumstances. The record of development and repair, such as of exchanges and cables due to damage, is described and some of the work of the vitally important Research Station at Dollis Hill is described.

 

The cover, that includes this wrapped round letter of thanks from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, is a bold graphic showing the various methods of transport used by the Post Office and is signed 'AMC'. This is, I am sure, the 'Coombs' who signs the two rather fine endpaper illustrations that show Post Office staff going about their varied duties. In pre-war years the Post Office had an often adventurous style of publicity and these illustrations are redolent of that period in their style.

100/365

Considering I managed to do something pertaining to the day number yesterday, 100 could not be that difficult. But I was not really planning on it until Dad said: "So, what are you doing for 100?"

After thinking about it for a couple of hours, asking for ideas from Dad, my best friend and her mum, I tried photographing some coins - 100 Icelandic Kroner, 1 cent, etc. but none of them really worked - I could not get any definition on the coins and they did not work how I wanted them to.

 

And so, you ask, what do two tin cans and a piece of string have to do with anything, let alone 100?

Well, the string is just there to make the two tin cans slightly more relevant to non-chemists, and a slightly more interesting image.

The atomic number of the element tin is 50, ergo, two tins make 100.

"Hello Operator? I'd like to make a call, Enterprise 5-4120 please"

 

In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks.

 

They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated systems, first those allowing direct dialing within a local area, then for long-distance and international direct dialing.

 

In January 1878 George Willard Croy became the world's first telephone operator when he started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company.

 

United States phone operator in 1911. Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, because the attitude and behaviour of the teenage boys previously employed as operators was unacceptable.

 

Emma was hired by Alexander Graham Bell, and reportedly, could remember every number in the telephone directory of the New England Telephone Company.

 

More women began to replace men within this sector of the workforce for several reasons. The companies observed that women were generally more courteous to callers, and women's labor was cheap in comparison to men's.

 

I shot this picture a few years ago with my cell phone from my University's communication museum.

Queensland State Archives Item ID3014596, Aerial photographs

 

Roma Street Railway Station occupies a 0.55ha site within the extensive Roma Street Station transit complex, located on the western side of the Brisbane central business district. The substantial masonry station building (1875) is set back from and faces Roma Street (although partially obscured by later development), and has a prominent centred entrance to the front (south) and a platform along the rear (north). A later platform and awning to the south is associated with the former Country Station development (1939/40).

 

Features of Roma Street Railway Station of state-level cultural heritage significance are:

 

Station building (1875)

Platform (1875)

Country Station platform and awning (1939)

Views

The state-level periods of significance of the place are layered and relate to its origins and use as a passenger station (1875-1940) and railway design, traffic and management offices (1875-1974), and the establishment of the former Country Station (1939/40).

 

A large iron-roofed shelter (c1980) to the east of the station, small buildings to the west, and a lift, stairs and escalators accessing the modern subway below, are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

 

The Roma Street Railway Station was opened in 1875 as the first Brisbane Terminal Station for use on the Brisbane end of the Southern and Western Railway Line from Ipswich. The two-storey station building was designed by Francis Drummond Greville (FDG) Stanley, the Colonial Architect and Superintendent of Public Buildings, in 1873 and built over the next two years by Brisbane builder, John Petrie. The station operated as the Brisbane terminal station until 1889, as a major passenger and administration station until 1940, and Brisbane’s primary railway goods facility until 1991. It served as offices for the Queensland Railway Department (later Queensland Railways, later Queensland Rail) staff for over 100 years, and is the one of the oldest surviving railway buildings in Queensland.

 

In the Australian colonies, governments fostered the development of railways as a means of developing the country and encouraging settlement. It was argued that rail would reduce freight costs and save travel time for passengers.[1] Queensland’s first railway survey was undertaken by the New South Wales Government in 1856, and following separation, Queensland Parliament passed the Railway Act in 1863, enabling railways to be constructed in the colony. The railway network developed along decentralised lines extending from ports to pastoral and mining centres. The first line, between Ipswich and Bigge's Camp, 34km west of Ipswich (later Grandchester, QHR600729), was opened in 1865. This was the first stage of the four-stage Southern and Western Railway project which linked Ipswich to Toowoomba in 1867, Warwick in 1871, and Dalby in 1878. New railways opened west from Rockhampton in 1867 (the Northern Line, later renamed the Central Railway), west from Townsville in 1880 (the Great Northern Line), Cairns in 1887, and south from Normanton in 1891.

 

The Southern and Western Railway served the pastoralists and industrialists of Ipswich and the Darling Downs, and was primarily for goods, rather than passengers. With the railhead at Ipswich, a railway to Brisbane was not initially considered essential, as goods could be shipped from Ipswich to Brisbane’s port for export. However, the Bremer and upper Brisbane rivers could not cope with large shipping, and lobbying began for an extension to Brisbane. A preliminary survey of possible lines was completed in 1865,[4] but concerns over the extension’s financial viability put work on hold. A Royal Commission on Railway Construction was called in the 1870s, and recommended the extension: the business generated by it was likely to be profitable, and the colony’s economy, which had collapsed in the mid-1860s, had been bolstered by the Gympie gold rush and was better able to afford new infrastructure.

 

The extension between Ipswich and Oxley was approved in August 1872,[6] and, the first sod on the extension was turned at Goodna in January 1873. From Oxley, two lines had been surveyed, terminating either at North or South Brisbane. After extensive debate, the route to North Brisbane, via a bridge at Oxley Point (Indooroopilly), was chosen as more cost-effective. The terminus of this route, selected by Railway Department Chief Engineer HC Stanley, was located within the Grammar School reserve at the base of the ‘Green Hills’ (Petrie Terrace). The site was unused by the school and was large enough for a major passenger station and goods yard.

 

The section between Oxley and Brisbane was approved in October 1873,[9] and the Government called for tenders for the construction of the railway terminus station in Brisbane. FDG Stanley, the recently-appointed Colonial Architect and Superintendent of Buildings within the Public Works Department, was the designer of the building. Stanley had commenced with the Public Works Department in 1863, serving as Superintendent of Buildings after Charles Tiffin vacated the Colonial Architect’s position. He was the official Colonial Architect from 1873-1883, when the colony, recovering from the economic collapse of the 1860s, began to invest in public buildings. Stanley’s designs, balancing classical styles and stylistic features with climate-appropriate adaptations and economic restraint, helped define public architecture in Queensland. Extant examples of major works, designed while he was Colonial Architect, include the original State Library (1876-9, QHR600177); Toowoomba Court House (1876-8, QHR600848); Townsville Magistrates Court (1876-7, QHR600929); Townsville Gaol (now part of Townsville Central State School, 1877, QHR601162); Brisbane’s Port Office (1880, QHR600088); Toowoomba Hospital (surviving kitchen wing 1880, QHR601296); post offices at Gympie (1878-80, QHR600534), South Brisbane (1881, QHR600302) and Toowoomba (1880, QHR600847); as well as the Brisbane Supreme Court (no longer extant). As Superintendent of Buildings he designed the Toowoomba Railway Station (1874, QHR600872), Government Printing Office (1873, QHR600114) and Lady Elliott Island Lighthouse (1872-3).

 

The Brisbane Courier provided a detailed description of the proposed Terminus Passenger Station in October 1873:

 

The general style of the building will be that known as the Italian Gothic order of architecture. The material used...will be pressed brick with cut stone facings, this being chosen on account of its durability and as also affording the greatest consonant with economy. The station will consist of a main building, two storeys high, flanked at each end by a single storey wing.

 

The building was designed to house both a passenger station and railway administrative offices. Passengers would access the station from Roma Street via a carriageway, disembarking at the station’s central carriage porch. The porch fronted a 10ft (3m) wide arcade running the length of the main building. From the arcade, passengers would enter either the first-class booking office on the east or the second-class booking office on the west, both served by a semi-circular ticket office on the rear (northern) wall. Female passengers travelling on second-class tickets could wait in a small room located along a western passage, while separate waiting rooms for first-class male and female passengers were east of the first-class booking office. Doorways in the rear wall of the booking offices and waiting rooms led directly onto the 190-foot (58m) long departure platform. Arriving passengers exited the station via a second platform across the rail line. Luggage was loaded onto trains via the luggage passage, on the eastern end of the building. The guards and porters room, staff facilities, a lamp room and stairs to the upper floor were situated in the eastern wing. The western side of the building held public services, including the telegraph office, station master’s office, and parcel and book office, accessible via a public lobby at the end of the arcade. A private staircase to the traffic managers’ office, a staircase to the traffic department, and toilet facilities were located in the western wing. An office or book stall space, in the northwestern side of the building, was accessible from the platform.

 

Upstairs, the offices of the traffic department, clerks, accountant, draughtsmen, Railways Engineer, Resident Engineer and contractors were accessed from a central passageway which ran almost the length of the building; with a small S-bend in the western end. An arch in the centre of the corridor marked the separation of the traffic department from the Chief Engineer’s office. Both wings hosted staircases.

 

The building included adaptations for the climate. The arcade sheltered the ground floor rooms from the sun, while skylights in the ceiling and a ventilated lantern provided light and ventilation to the upper floor. All public rooms and most of the offices were fitted with fireplaces. A platform shade, installed on the northern wall of the building over the platform, sheltered passengers from the weather, and was composed of material from an iron station building imported from England for use at Toowoomba. It was supported by brick buttresses at both ends of the building (extant) and on the arrivals platform (no longer extant).

 

Commensurate with Stanley’s design approach, materials used for the station reflected elegance but economy. Apart from the recycled iron roof trusses and columns, the building was constructed of machine-pressed bricks made from locally-sourced clay, more affordable than stone, and praised as ‘cleaner, sharper [and] finer’ than Brisbane bricks used in earlier buildings. Freestone for the building dressings and columns was sourced from Murphy’s Creek.

 

Construction work took place over two years, after contractor John Petrie’s tender of £11,845 was accepted in December 1873. Progress was slow, with the stonework foundations underway in June 1874, and the building only ten foot above the ground by September. The line from Ipswich to Brisbane was opened without ceremony on 14 June 1875. The platform at Brisbane Terminus Passenger Station was half-paved, the rooms and corridors incomplete, the roofing over the platform in progress and there was no permanent lighting. Nonetheless, an interested crowd gathered to watch the first outbound services leave the station. The building was sufficiently complete by August 1875 for the Brisbane Courier to describe it as ‘in all respects convenient, handsome, and well-designed’. The station’s arcade was later highlighted as one of Brisbane’s valued architectural features.

 

The Brisbane to Ipswich route quickly became the busiest section of line in Queensland. Merchandise and imported goods from the ports were despatched along the line, while produce from the Darling Downs and surrounds – including coal, flour, wool, hay, maize, livestock, vegetable and dairy produce – was brought to Brisbane. A central goods handling facility was opened at the Terminal Station, including a large (64m long) goods shed and two sidings, erected in 1875-6 (no longer extant), while railway produce markets opened outside the station, along George and Roma streets. A maintenance yard also operated at Roma Street, including locomotive and carriage sheds. By 1882 the Terminal Station platforms had been extended to cope with the traffic and trade. Traffic reduced slightly after some export goods were diverted to South Brisbane in 1884,[32] but expanded again.[33] Cattle yards, produce sheds, carriage sheds, gas works, goods sheds, coal stages, cold stores, additional locomotive sheds and siding extensions were all added to Roma Street’s goods yard. None of these structures survive in 2020.

 

Passengers also used the line. Residential occupation of Toowong and Indooroopilly boomed as middle-class city workers took advantage of the four daily train services. In 1882 rail lines were opened from the Terminal Station to Sandgate and the Racecourse, taking day-trippers to the seaside and races, and bringing northern suburbs passengers into Brisbane. In January 1888, the first through-service to Sydney departed from the Terminal Station. However, travellers criticised the lack of direct access from the Terminal Station to the central business district, and in 1889, the Brisbane Central Railway Station was opened. Central Railway Station (QHR 600073) – located closer to the General Post Office and city office buildings – became Brisbane’s main passenger station, and the original Terminal Station was renamed Roma Street Railway Station.

 

Despite its diminished status, Roma Street remained a major centre for passengers and travellers. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, guards of honour lined Roma Street to greet and farewell significant visitors and figures, including premiers Morehead and Griffith, governors Norman and Lamington; Governor-General Munro-Ferguson; the late politician JM Macrossan, who had died in Sydney; singer Nellie Melba; Lord Kitchener; and Salvation Army General Booth. Roma Street continued to operate as the Sydney Mail terminus until 1931, when the service shifted to South Brisbane. Crowds thronged to Roma Street Station as soldiers departed for the South African War and World War I. Travelling circuses performed in the Roma Street yards, and an historic parade in 1936 included a ‘Puffing Billy’ locomotive, which was displayed at the yards until 1959. Roma Street also continued as the city’s primary goods terminus.

 

The station building played an important role as office accommodation for Queensland railway staff. Internal rearrangements were made to the building to accommodate growing staff numbers, and improve their working conditions. It was one of the first buildings in Queensland to feature electric light, installed in 1884.[50] The Chief Engineer vacated the building in 1901 and was replaced by the general traffic manager’s department, with a telephonic system of communication installed the same year. Bunker, lumber and message rooms were added to the wings by 1907; a traffic collector’s office and new strongroom were installed in 1911; and parcels, printing offices and machine rooms replaced the first-class waiting rooms, guards’ room and lamp room by 1920. In 1915, an additional storey was constructed atop the central carriage porch, providing more accommodation for the Traffic Branch on the first floor. A traffic control system, coordinating trains between Brisbane and Gympie, was installed and operated from the additional storey in 1927.

 

Queensland’s railway network extended dramatically in the 20th century. The North Coast line connected Brisbane to Gladstone in 1898, Rockhampton in 1904, and Cairns in 1924, providing a direct rail link between Brisbane and Mackay, Townsville, Winton, Forsayth, Cloncurry and Blackall. Southern and western trains reached Dirranbandi, Surat, Cunnamulla and Quilpie. Central Station initially hosted ‘country’ services, but it lacked room for expansion, and Roma Street’s larger site was earmarked for a new country station. Roma Street’s locomotive, carriage and marshalling yard facilities were transferred to the Mayne Rail Yards between 1911 and 1927, and work began on the new station. A 350ft (106m) reinforced concrete, tiled passenger subway was constructed from Roma Street to the platforms in 1936-7, replacing an overhead walkway. A new steel awning was installed above the southern platform (Platform 3 in 2020), in approximately 1939. It was used in conjunction with two platforms at the new country station (no longer extant) for country and other passenger services.

 

On 30 November 1940 the Country Station was opened at Roma Street Station. This low-lying face brick building and its additional platform sat directly between the 1873-5 building and Roma Street. The new passenger station relieved congestion at Brisbane Central Station and made Roma Street the chief station for long distance travel north. The original station was refurbished, its roof re-clad with corrugated fibrous sheeting; and its brick walls painted red and lined in cream to match the new station building. The southwest pediment was removed and replaced by a new storey on the western end of the building. A covered area was added east of the building where the subway stairs emerged. The original station building was turned over to the General Manager, with offices for clerks, traffic-, livestock-, coach- and wagon staff, maintenance and locomotive staff, telephone and telegraph exchanges, and the train control section.

 

Further plans to upgrade and alter the building were postponed by World War II, during which time troop trains departed from Roma Street, and the pedestrian subway served as an air-raid shelter.[66] In 1945, plans were drawn to alter doors, windows and stairs in the wings, and partitions on the first floor. A second storey was added over the west wing in 1953 (later removed), and the General Manager’s staircase was repositioned in 1961. Externally, the iron carriage shed platform shade over the northern platform was removed in 1959.

 

Extensive change was undertaken at Roma Street around the original station building in the late 20th century. The southern and northern Brisbane railway systems were directly connected in the 1970s, with the opening of the Merivale Bridge in 1978. In 1985, the country railway station (1940 building) was demolished and replaced by a multi-storey centre incorporating new railway and bus facilities, a hotel, offices and function centre. The original station building was left intact, and two new interstate platforms with standard gauge rails were built on its southern side. The pedestrian subway was refurbished in 1986, with a broom finish concrete and expansion joints, and grated drains were laid on the floor, and a ceramic tile finish on the wall faces to match the subway tiles at Central Station. Roma Street’s rail freight facility was moved to Acacia Ridge in 1991. During the mid-1990s the platforms north and south of the early station building were re-arranged and extended. A bricked waiting area and new roof were added east of the station. Underground, a new concourse was constructed to replace the pedestrian subway, and a 19m section of the original subway converted to a storage room.

 

The station building remained the General Manager’s Office until 1974. The station master, staff workers and archive storage occupied the building in the 1990s. By 1993, Roma Street was acknowledged as the oldest surviving railway station building in an Australian capital city, and one of the oldest surviving railway buildings in Queensland. A new office fitout was installed on the ground floor for Queensland Rail and the Queensland Police Rail Squad in 1999. Stabilisation, waterproofing and reconstruction works commenced in 2012, including restoration of the brick, plaster, lead flashings, window joinery and stone works. Replacement bricks were custom made in England; Welsh slate was imported from the UK; replacement stone came from Helidon; and rolled lead from England was installed. In 2015, a new steel beams and suspension system was installed between the two storeys, to lift a 65mm bow in the timber floor beams fit amongst the existing timber structures. The second storey of the west wing was removed and the roofline reconstructed to its original configuration. The restoration received an Australian Institute of Architects Queensland award in 2015.

 

In 2020 the building is vacant, pending further repairs.

 

apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=601208

 

recognize themselves...

 

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comunque...

a me piace molto di piu' in B&W...

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.

 

In een verleden vond je ze langs bijna iedere spoorlijnen: fraaie houten telegraafmasten met de nodige verbindingen voor het blokstelsel en telefonie tussen twee stations. Ondertussen mag je al goed op zoek naar spoorlijnen die nog zijn uitgerust met deze getuigen uit vervlogen tijden. In Slovakije zijn er nog enkele trajecten waar je ze terugvindt, maar ook daar worden ze stelselmatig verwijderd, o.a. vanwege houtrot in de palen.

 

Een spoorlijn die origineel geen deel uitmaakte van mijn planning van de voorbije reis is de lijn van Strážske naar Medzilaborce. Er doken her en der immers foto’s op van de elektrificatie van deze lijn en het was duidelijk dat er daardoor een tijdlang geen treinen reden. Blijkbaar stopt de elektrificatie echter in Humenné en is het treinverkeer ook op dat traject alweer (vooralsnog met dieseltractie) hervat, waardoor ook de bedieningstreinen naar Medzilaborce weer kunnen rijden. Op 16 mei 2025 kon zo’n trein worden achtervolgd. Hoewel de wolken regelmatig roet in het eten strooiden, maakte deze spoorlijn veel indruk op me en zal dit hopelijk niet de laatste keer zijn dat ik er kan gaan fotograferen. De lijn ligt erg fraai en voert dwars door dorpjes in een heuvelachtig landschap. De knappe telegraafmasten maken het helemaal af.

 

Het was wel een zoektocht naar de ideale manier om de lange trajecten met telegraafmasten optimaal in beeld te krijgen. Op deze plek in de buurt van Hrabovec nad Laborcom lijkt dat te zijn gelukt. Je ziet de 751 056-3 met een beladen houttrein van Medzilaborce naar Strážske. Onderweg bedient deze trein ook de stations van Radvaň nad Laborcom en Koškovce, waardoor op den duur een aanzienlijke lengte wordt bereikt. Dat het ook hier weer nipt was met de wolken zie je o.a. aan de kerktoren van Radvaň nad Laborcom op de achtergrond die zich alweer in de schaduw van de zoveelste wolk bevindt.

 

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In a past era, you would find them along almost every railway line: wooden telegraph poles with the necessary connections for the block system and telephony between two stations. Meanwhile, you may already be well on the lookout for railway lines still equipped with these witnesses of days gone by. In Slovakia, there are still some sections where you can find them, but even there they are systematically removed, partly because of wood rot in the poles.

 

One railway line that was not originally part of my planning for the past trip is the line from Strážske to Medzilaborce. Indeed, photos surfaced here and there of the electrification of this line and it was clear that no trains ran there for a while as a result. Apparently, however, the electrification stops in Humenné and train traffic has already resumed on that route too (with diesel traction for the time being), allowing service trains to Medzilaborce to run again as well. On 16 May 2025, such a train could be chased. Although the clouds regularly caused difficulties for decent photography, this railway line impressed me a lot and hopefully this will not be the last time I will be able to photograph there. The line is very nicely situated and passes through villages in a hilly landscape. The telegraph masts complete the scenery.

 

However, it was quite a search for an ideal way to optimally capture a long set of telegraph masts in the picture. At this location near Hrabovec nad Laborcom, this seems to have been achieved. You can see the 751 056-3 with a loaded timber train from Medzilaborce to Strážske. On the way, this train also serves the stations of Radvaň nad Laborcom and Koškovce, which eventually results in a considerable length. That it was close with the clouds here too, can be seen from the church tower of Radvaň nad Laborcom in the background, which is in the shadow of yet another cloud.

 

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This photo is copyrighted. Downloading or use or social media is not allowed except with explicit permission from the creator of this photo.

 

Voronezh is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects western Russia with the Urals and Siberia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and the M4 highway (Moscow–Voronezh–Rostov-on-Don–Novorossiysk). In recent years the city has experienced rapid population growth, rising in 2021 to 1,057,681, up from 889,680 recorded in the 2010 Census, making it the 14th-most populous city in the country.

 

History

The first chronicle references to the word "Voronezh" are dated 1177, when the Ryazan prince Yaropolk, having lost the battle, fled "to Voronozh" and there was moving "from town to town". Modern data of archeology and history interpret Voronezh as a geographical region, which included the Voronezh river (tributary of the Don) and a number of settlements. In the lower reaches of the river, a unique Slavic town-planning complex of the 8th – early 11th century was discovered, which covered the territory of the present city of Voronezh and its environs (about 42 km long, about 13 forts and many unfortified villages). By the 12th – 13th centuries, most of the old towns were desolate, but new settlements appeared upstream, closer to Ryazan.

 

For many years, the hypothesis of the Soviet historian Vladimir Zagorovsky dominated: he produced the toponym "Voronezh" from the hypothetical Slavic personal name Voroneg. This man allegedly gave the name of a small town in the Chernigov Principality (now the village of Voronezh in Ukraine). Later, in the 11th or 12th century, the settlers were able to "transfer" this name to the Don region, where they named the second city Voronezh, and the river got its name from the city. However, now many researchers criticize the hypothesis, since in reality neither the name of Voroneg nor the second city was revealed, and usually the names of Russian cities repeated the names of the rivers, but not vice versa.

 

The linguistic comparative analysis of the name "Voronezh" was carried out by the Khovansky Foundation in 2009. There is an indication of the place names of many countries in Eurasia, which may partly be not only similar in sound, but also united by common Indo-European languages: Varanasi, Varna, Verona, Brno, etc.

 

A comprehensive scientific analysis was conducted in 2015–2016 by the historian Pavel Popov. His conclusion: "Voronezh" is a probable Slavic macrotoponym associated with outstanding signs of nature, has a root voron- (from the proto-Slavic vorn) in the meaning of "black, dark" and the suffix -ezh (-azh, -ozh). It was not “transferred” and in the 8th - 9th centuries it marked a vast territory covered with black forests (oak forests) - from the mouth of the Voronezh river to the Voronozhsky annalistic forests in the middle and upper reaches of the river, and in the west to the Don (many forests were cut down). The historian believes that the main "city" of the early town-planning complex could repeat the name of the region – Voronezh. Now the hillfort is located in the administrative part of the modern city, in the Voronezh upland oak forest. This is one of Europe's largest ancient Slavic hillforts, the area of which – more than 9 hectares – 13 times the area of the main settlement in Kyiv before the baptism of Rus.

 

In it is assumed that the word "Voronezh" means bluing - a technique to increase the corrosion resistance of iron products. This explanation fits well with the proximity to the ancient city of Voronezh of a large iron deposit and the city of Stary Oskol.

 

Folk etymology claims the name comes from combining the Russian words for raven (ворон) and hedgehog (еж) into Воронеж. According to this explanation two Slavic tribes named after the animals used this combination to name the river which later in turn provided the name for a settlement. There is not believed to be any scientific support for this explanation.

 

In the 16th century, the Middle Don basin, including the Voronezh river, was gradually conquered by Muscovy from the Nogai Horde (a successor state of the Golden Horde), and the current city of Voronezh was established in 1585 by Feodor I as a fort protecting the Muravsky Trail trade route against the slave raids of the Nogai and Crimean Tatars. The city was named after the river.

 

17th to 19th centuries

In the 17th century, Voronezh gradually evolved into a sizable town. Weronecz is shown on the Worona river in Resania in Joan Blaeu's map of 1645. Peter the Great built a dockyard in Voronezh where the Azov Flotilla was constructed for the Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696. This fleet, the first ever built in Russia, included the first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia. The Orthodox diocese of Voronezh was instituted in 1682 and its first bishop, Mitrofan of Voronezh, was later proclaimed the town's patron saint.

 

Owing to the Voronezh Admiralty Wharf, for a short time, Voronezh became the largest city of South Russia and the economic center of a large and fertile region. In 1711, it was made the seat of the Azov Governorate, which eventually morphed into the Voronezh Governorate.

 

In the 19th century, Voronezh was a center of the Central Black Earth Region. Manufacturing industry (mills, tallow-melting, butter-making, soap, leather, and other works) as well as bread, cattle, suet, and the hair trade developed in the town. A railway connected Voronezh with Moscow in 1868 and Rostov-on-Don in 1871.

 

20th century

World War II

During World War II, Voronezh was the scene of fierce fighting between Soviet and combined Axis troops. The Germans used it as a staging area for their attack on Stalingrad, and made it a key crossing point on the Don River. In June 1941, two BM-13 (Fighting machine #13 Katyusha) artillery installations were built at the Voronezh excavator factory. In July, the construction of Katyushas was rationalized so that their manufacture became easier and the time of volley repetition was shortened from five minutes to fifteen seconds. More than 300 BM-13 units manufactured in Voronezh were used in a counterattack near Moscow in December 1941. In October 22, 1941, the advance of the German troops prompted the establishment of a defense committee in the city. On November 7, 1941, there was a troop parade, devoted to the anniversary of the October Revolution. Only three such parades were organized that year: in Moscow, Kuybyshev, and Voronezh. In late June 1942, the city was attacked by German and Hungarian forces. In response, Soviet forces formed the Voronezh Front. By July 6, the German army occupied the western river-bank suburbs before being subjected to a fierce Soviet counter-attack. By July 24 the frontline had stabilised along the Voronezh River as the German forces continued southeast into the Great Bend of the Don. The attack on Voronezh represented the first phase of the German Army's 1942 campaign in the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.

 

Until January 25, 1943, parts of the Second German Army and the Second Hungarian Army occupied the western part of Voronezh. During Operation Little Saturn, the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive, and the Voronezhsko-Kastornenskoy Offensive, the Voronezh Front exacted heavy casualties on Axis forces. On January 25, 1943, Voronezh was liberated after ten days of combat. During the war the city was almost completely ruined, with 92% of all buildings destroyed.

 

Post-war

By 1950, Voronezh had been rebuilt. Most buildings and historical monuments were repaired. It was also the location of a prestigious Suvorov Military School, a boarding school for young boys who were considered to be prospective military officers, many of whom had been orphaned by war.

 

In 1950–1960, new factories were established: a tire factory, a machine-tool factory, a factory of heavy mechanical pressing, and others. In 1968, Serial production of the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic plane was established at the Voronezh Aviation factory. In October 1977, the first Soviet domestic wide-body plane, Ilyushin Il-86, was built there.

 

In 1989, TASS published details of an alleged UFO landing in the city's park and purported encounters with extraterrestrial beings reported by a number of children. A Russian scientist that was cited in initial TASS reports later told the Associated Press that he was misquoted, cautioning, "Don't believe all you hear from TASS," and "We never gave them part of what they published", and a TASS correspondent admitted the possibility that some "make-believe" had been added to the TASS story, saying, "I think there is a certain portion of truth, but it is not excluded that there is also fantasizing".

 

21st century

From 10 to 17 September 2011, Voronezh celebrated its 425th anniversary. The anniversary of the city was given the status of a federal scale celebration that helped attract large investments from the federal and regional budgets for development.

 

On December 17, 2012, Voronezh became the fifteenth city in Russia with a population of over one million people.

 

Today Voronezh is the economic, industrial, cultural, and scientific center of the Central Black Earth Region. As part of the annual tradition in the Russian city of Voronezh, every winter the main city square is thematically drawn around a classic literature. In 2020, the city was decorated using the motifs from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. In the year of 2021, the architects drew inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen as well as the animation classic The Snow Queen from the Soviet Union. The fairy tale replica city will feature the houses of Kai and Gerda, the palace of the snow queen, an ice rink, and illumination.

 

In June 2023, during the Wagner Group rebellion, forces of the Wagner Group claimed to have taken control of military facilities in the city. Later they were confirmed to have taken the city itself.

 

Administrative and municipal status

Voronezh is the administrative center of the oblast.[1] Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Voronezh Urban Okrug—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[1] As a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban okrug status.

 

City divisions

The city is divided into six administrative districts:

 

Zheleznodorozhny (183,17 km²)

Tsentralny (63,96 km²)

Kominternovsky (47,41 km²)

Leninsky (18,53 km²)

Sovetsky (156,6 km²)

Levoberezhny (123,89 km²)

 

Economy

The leading sectors of the urban economy in the 20th century were mechanical engineering, metalworking, the electronics industry and the food industry.

 

In the city are such companies as:

Tupolev Tu-144

Voronezhselmash (agricultural engineering)

Sozvezdie[36] (headquarter, JSC Concern “Sozvezdie”, in 1958 the world's first created mobile telephony and wireless telephone Altai

Verofarm (pharmaceutics, owner Abbott Laboratories),

Voronezh Mechanical Plant[37] (production of missile and aircraft engines, oil and gas equipment)

Mining Machinery Holding - RUDGORMASH[38] (production of drilling, mineral processing and mining equipment)

VNiiPM Research Institute of Semiconductor Engineering (equipment for plasma-chemical processes, technical-chemical equipment for liquid operations, water treatment equipment)

KBKhA Chemical Automatics Design Bureau with notable products:.

Pirelli Voronezh.

On the territory of the city district government Maslovka Voronezh region with the support of the Investment Fund of Russia, is implementing a project to create an industrial park, "Maslowski", to accommodate more than 100 new businesses, including the transformer factory of Siemens. On September 7, 2011 in Voronezh there opened a Global network operation center of Nokia Siemens Networks, which was the fifth in the world and the first in Russia.

 

Construction

In 2014, 926,000 square meters of housing was delivered.

 

Clusters of Voronezh

In clusters of tax incentives and different preferences, the full support of the authorities. A cluster of Oil and Gas Equipment, Radio-electronic cluster, Furniture cluster, IT cluster, Cluster aircraft, Cluster Electromechanics, Transport and logistics cluster, Cluster building materials and technologies.

 

Geography

Urban layout

Information about the original urban layout of Voronezh is contained in the "Patrol Book" of 1615. At that time, the city fortress was logged and located on the banks of the Voronezh River. In plan, it was an irregular quadrangle with a perimeter of about 238 meter. inside it, due to lack of space, there was no housing or siege yards, and even the cathedral church was supposed to be taken out. However, at this small fortress there was a large garrison - 666 households of service people. These courtyards were reliably protected by the second line of fortifications by a standing prison on taras with 25 towers covered with earth; behind the prison was a moat, and beyond the moat there were stakes. Voronezh was a typical military settlement (ostrog). In the city prison there were only settlements of military men: Streletskaya, Kazachya, Belomestnaya atamanskaya, Zatinnaya and Pushkarskaya. The posad population received the territory between the ostrog and the river, where the Monastyrskaya settlements (at the Assumption Monastery) was formed. Subsequently, the Yamnaya Sloboda was added to them, and on the other side of the fort, on the Chizhovka Mountain, the Chizhovskaya Sloboda of archers and Cossacks appeared. As a result, the Voronezh settlements surrounded the fortress in a ring. The location of the parish churches emphasized this ring-like and even distribution of settlements: the Ilyinsky Church of the Streletskaya Sloboda, the Pyatnitskaya Cossack and Pokrovskaya Belomestnaya were brought out to the passage towers of the prison. The Nikolskaya Church of the Streletskaya Sloboda was located near the marketplace (and, accordingly, the front facade of the fortress), and the paired ensemble of the Rozhdestvenskaya and Georgievskaya churches of the Cossack Sloboda marked the main street of the city, going from the Cossack Gate to the fortress tower.

 

Climate

Voronezh experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb) with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.

 

Transportation

Air

The city is served by the Voronezh International Airport, which is located north of the city and is home to Polet Airlines. Voronezh is also home to the Pridacha Airport, a part of a major aircraft manufacturing facility VASO (Voronezhskoye Aktsionernoye Samoletostroitelnoye Obshchestvo, Voronezh aircraft production association) where the Tupolev Tu-144 (known in the West as the "Concordski"), was built and the only operational unit is still stored. Voronezh also hosts the Voronezh Malshevo air force base in the southwest of the city, which, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council report, houses nuclear bombers.[citation needed]

 

Rail

Since 1868, there is a railway connection between Voronezh and Moscow. Rail services form a part of the South Eastern Railway of the Russian Railways. Destinations served direct from Voronezh include Moscow, Kyiv, Kursk, Novorossiysk, Sochi, and Tambov. The main train station is called Voronezh-1 railway station and is located in the center of the city.

 

Bus

There are three bus stations in Voronezh that connect the city with destinations including Moscow, Belgorod, Lipetsk, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, and Astrakhan.

 

Education and culture

Aviastroiteley Park

The city has seven theaters, twelve museums, a number of movie theaters, a philharmonic hall, and a circus. It is also a major center of higher education in central Russia. The main educational facilities include:

 

Voronezh State University

Voronezh State Technical University

Voronezh State University of Architecture and Construction

Voronezh State Pedagogical University

Voronezh State Agricultural University

Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies

Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko

Voronezh State Academy of Arts

Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies named after G.F. Morozov

Voronezh State Institute of Physical Training

Voronezh Institute of Russia's Home Affairs Ministry

Voronezh Institute of High Technologies

Military Educational and Scientific Center of the Air Force «N.E. Zhukovsky and Y.A. Gagarin Air Force Academy» (Voronezh)

Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Voronezh branch)

Russian State University of Justice

Admiral Makarov State University of Sea and River Fleet (Voronezh branch)

International Institute of Computer Technologies

Voronezh Institute of Economics and Law

and a number of other affiliate and private-funded institutes and universities. There are 2000 schools within the city.

 

Theaters

Voronezh Chamber Theatre

Koltsov Academic Drama Theater

Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theatre

Shut Puppet Theater

 

Festivals

Platonov International Arts Festival

 

Sports

ClubSportFoundedCurrent LeagueLeague

RankStadium

Fakel VoronezhFootball1947Russian Premier League1stTsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion

Energy VoronezhFootball1989Women's Premier League1stRudgormash Stadium

Buran VoronezhIce Hockey1977Higher Hockey League2ndYubileyny Sports Palace

VC VoronezhVolleyball2006Women's Higher Volleyball League A2ndKristall Sports Complex

 

Religion

Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral in Voronezh

Orthodox Christianity is the predominant religion in Voronezh.[citation needed] There is an Orthodox Jewish community in Voronezh, with a synagogue located on Stankevicha Street.

 

In 1682, the Voronezh diocese was formed to fight the schismatics. Its first head was Bishop Mitrofan (1623-1703) at the age of 58. Under him, the construction began on the new Annunciation Cathedral to replace the old one. In 1832, Mitrofan was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

 

In the 1990s, many Orthodox churches were returned to the diocese. Their restoration was continued. In 2009, instead of the lost one, a new Annunciation Cathedral was built with a monument to St. Mitrofan erected next to it.

 

Cemeteries

There are ten cemeteries in Voronezh:

Levoberezhnoye Cemetery

Lesnoye Cemetery

Jewish Cemetery

Nikolskoye Cemetery

Pravoberezhnoye Cemetery

Budyonnovskoe Cemetery

Yugo-Zapadnoye Cemetery

Podgorenskоye Cemetery

Kominternovskoe Cemetery

Ternovoye Cemetery is а historical site closed to the public.

 

Born in Voronezh

18th century

Yevgeny Bolkhovitinov (1767–1837), Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia

Mikhail Pavlov (1792–1840), Russian academic and professor at Moscow University

19th century

1801–1850

Aleksey Koltsov (1809–1842), Russian poet

Ivan Nikitin (1824–1861), Russian poet

Nikolai Ge (1831–1894), Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs

Vasily Sleptsov (1836–1878), Russian writer and social reformer

Nikolay Kashkin (1839–1920), Russian music critic

1851–1900

Valentin Zhukovski (1858–1918), Russian orientalist

Vasily Goncharov (1861–1915), Russian film director and screenwriter, one of the pioneers of the film industry in the Russian Empire

Anastasiya Verbitskaya (1861–1928), Russian novelist, playwright, screenplay writer, publisher and feminist

Mikhail Olminsky (1863–1933), Russian Communist

Serge Voronoff (1866–1951), French surgeon of Russian extraction

Andrei Shingarev (1869–1918), Russian doctor, publicist and politician

Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

Alexander Ostuzhev (1874–1953), Russian and Soviet drama actor

Valerian Albanov (1881–1919), Russian navigator and polar explorer

Jan Hambourg (1882–1947), Russian violinist, a member of a famous musical family

Volin (1882–1945), anarchist

Boris Hambourg (1885–1954), Russian cellist who made his career in the USA, Canada, England and Europe

Boris Eikhenbaum (1886–1959), Russian and Soviet literary scholar, and historian of Russian literature

Anatoly Durov (1887–1928), Russian animal trainer

Samuil Marshak (1887–1964), Russian and Soviet writer, translator and children's poet

Eduard Shpolsky (1892–1975), Russian and Soviet physicist and educator

George of Syracuse (1893–1981), Eastern Orthodox archbishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Yevgeny Gabrilovich (1899–1993), Soviet screenwriter

Semyon Krivoshein (1899–1978), Soviet tank commander; Lieutenant General

Andrei Platonov (1899–1951), Soviet Russian writer, playwright and poet

Ivan Pravov (1899–1971), Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter

William Dameshek (1900–1969), American hematologist

20th century

1901–1930

Ivan Nikolaev (1901–1979), Soviet architect and educator

Galina Shubina (1902–1980), Russian poster and graphics artist

Pavel Cherenkov (1904–1990), Soviet physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1958 with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934

Yakov Kreizer (1905–1969), Soviet field commander, General of the army and Hero of the Soviet Union

Iosif Rudakovsky (1914–1947), Soviet chess master

Pawel Kassatkin (1915–1987), Russian writer

Alexander Shelepin (1918–1994), Soviet state security officer and party statesman

Grigory Baklanov (1923–2009), Russian writer

Gleb Strizhenov (1923–1985), Soviet actor

Vladimir Zagorovsky (1925–1994), Russian chess grandmaster of correspondence chess and the fourth ICCF World Champion between 1962 and 1965

Konstantin Feoktistov (1926–2009), cosmonaut and engineer

Vitaly Vorotnikov (1926–2012), Soviet statesman

Arkady Davidowitz (1930), writer and aphorist

1931–1950

Grigory Sanakoev (1935), Russian International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, most famous for being the twelfth ICCF World Champion (1984–1991)

Yuri Zhuravlyov (1935), Russian mathematician

Mykola Koltsov (1936–2011), Soviet footballer and Ukrainian football children and youth trainer

Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1936), Russian composer

Iya Savvina (1936–2011), Soviet film actress

Tamara Zamotaylova (1939), Soviet gymnast, who won four Olympic medals at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics

Yury Smolyakov (1941), Soviet Olympic fencer

Yevgeny Lapinsky (1942–1999), Soviet Olympic volleyball player

Galina Bukharina (1945), Soviet athlete

Vladimir Patkin (1945), Soviet Olympic volleyball player

Vladimir Proskurin (1945), Soviet Russian football player and coach

Aleksandr Maleyev (1947), Soviet artistic gymnast

Valeri Nenenko (1950), Russian professional football coach and player

1951–1970

Vladimir Rokhlin, Jr. (1952), Russian-American mathematician and professor of computer science and mathematics at the Yale University

Lyubov Burda (1953), Russian artistic gymnast

Mikhail Khryukin (1955), Russian swimmer

Aleksandr Tkachyov (1957), Russian gymnast and two times Olympic Champion

Nikolai Vasilyev (1957), Russian professional football coach and player

Aleksandr Babanov (1958), Russian professional football coach and player

Sergey Koliukh (1960), Russian political figure; 4th Mayor of Voronezh

Yelena Davydova (1961), Soviet gymnast

Aleksandr Borodyuk (1962), Russian football manager and former international player for USSR and Russia

Aleksandr Chayev (1962), Russian swimmer

Elena Fanailova (1962), Russian poet

Alexander Litvinenko (1962–2006), officer of the Russian FSB and political dissident

Yuri Shishkin (1963), Russian professional football coach and player

Yuri Klinskikh (1964–2000), Russian musician, singer, songwriter, arranger, founder rock band Sektor Gaza

Yelena Ruzina (1964), athlete

Igor Bragin (1965), footballer

Gennadi Remezov (1965), Russian professional footballer

Valeri Shmarov (1965), Russian football player and coach

Konstantin Chernyshov (1967), Russian chess grandmaster

Igor Pyvin (1967), Russian professional football coach and player

Vladimir Bobrezhov (1968), Soviet sprint canoer

1971–1980

Oleg Gorobiy (1971), Russian sprint canoer

Anatoli Kanishchev (1971), Russian professional association footballer

Ruslan Mashchenko (1971), Russian hurdler

Aleksandr Ovsyannikov (1974), Russian professional footballer

Dmitri Sautin (1974), Russian diver who has won more medals than any other Olympic diver

Sergey Verlin (1974), Russian sprint canoer

Maxim Narozhnyy (1975–2011), Paralympian athlete

Aleksandr Cherkes (1976), Russian football coach and player

Andrei Durov (1977), Russian professional footballer

Nikolai Kryukov (1978), Russian artistic gymnast

Kirill Gerstein (1979), Jewish American and Russian pianist

Evgeny Ignatov (1979), Russian sprint canoeist

Aleksey Nikolaev (1979), Russian-Uzbekistan footballer

Aleksandr Palchikov (1979), former Russian professional football player

Konstantin Skrylnikov (1979), Russian professional footballer

Aleksandr Varlamov (1979), Russian diver

Angelina Yushkova (1979), Russian gymnast

Maksim Potapov (1980), professional ice hockey player

1981–1990

Alexander Krysanov (1981), Russian professional ice hockey forward

Yulia Nachalova (1981–2019), Soviet and Russian singer, actress and television presenter

Andrei Ryabykh (1982), Russian football player

Maxim Shchyogolev (1982), Russian theatre and film actor

Eduard Vorganov (1982), Russian professional road bicycle racer

Anton Buslov (1983–2014), Russian astrophysicist, blogger, columnist at The New Times magazine and expert on transportation systems

Dmitri Grachyov (1983), Russian footballer

Aleksandr Kokorev (1984), Russian professional football player

Dmitry Kozonchuk (1984), Russian professional road bicycle racer for Team Katusha

Alexander Khatuntsev (1985), Russian professional road bicycle racer

Egor Vyaltsev (1985), Russian professional basketball player

Samvel Aslanyan (1986), Russian handball player

Maksim Chistyakov (1986), Russian football player

Yevgeniy Dorokhin (1986), Russian sprint canoer

Daniil Gridnev (1986), Russian professional footballer

Vladimir Moskalyov (1986), Russian football referee

Elena Danilova (1987), Russian football forward

Sektor Gaza (1987–2000), punk band

Regina Moroz (1987), Russian female volleyball player

Roman Shishkin (1987), Russian footballer

Viktor Stroyev (1987), Russian footballer

Elena Terekhova (1987), Russian international footballer

Natalia Goncharova (1988), Russian diver

Yelena Yudina (1988), Russian skeleton racer

Dmitry Abakumov (1989), Russian professional association football player

Igor Boev (1989), Russian professional racing cyclist

Ivan Dobronravov (1989), Russian actor

Anna Bogomazova (1990), Russian kickboxer, martial artist, professional wrestler and valet

Yuriy Kunakov (1990), Russian diver

Vitaly Melnikov (1990), Russian backstroke swimmer

Kristina Pravdina (1990), Russian female artistic gymnast

Vladislav Ryzhkov (1990), Russian footballer

1991–2000

Danila Poperechny (1994), Russian stand-up comedian, actor, youtuber, podcaster

Darya Stukalova (1994), Russian Paralympic swimmer

Viktoria Komova (1995), Russian Olympic gymnast

Vitali Lystsov (1995), Russian professional footballer

Marina Nekrasova (1995), Russian-born Azerbaijani artistic gymnast

Vladislav Parshikov (1996), Russian football player

Dmitri Skopintsev (1997), Russian footballer

Alexander Eickholtz (1998) American sportsman

Angelina Melnikova (2000), Russian Olympic gymnast

Lived in Voronezh

Aleksey Khovansky (1814–1899), editor

Ivan Kramskoi (1837–1887), Russian painter and art critic

Mitrofan Pyatnitsky (1864–1927), Russian musician

Mikhail Tsvet (1872–1919), Russian botanist

Alexander Kuprin (1880–1960), Russian painter, a member of the Jack of Diamonds group

Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937), Russian writer, went to school in Voronezh

Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938), Russian poet

Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980), Russian writer

Gavriil Troyepolsky (1905–1995), Soviet writer

Nikolay Basov (1922–2001), Soviet physicist and educator

Vasily Peskov (1930–2013), Russian writer, journalist, photographer, traveller and ecologist

Valentina Popova (1972), Russian weightlifter

Igor Samsonov, painter

Tatyana Zrazhevskaya, Russian boxer

the wire has lasted a long time

 

"SPRINT" is an acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.

Radio Kootwijk is a small town in the Dutch municipality of Apeldoorn, with (in 2006) ca. 120 inhabitants. It is situated in a heather- and forest-rich territory in the Veluwe region, east of the sandhills of the Kootwijkerzand and the town of Kootwijk.

 

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its then colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter (a 400KW high frequency alternator) from the German Telefunken company under the callsign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of shortwaves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt.[1]

 

Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the KPN company (successor to PTT) to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park, designed by Dutch architect Julius Maria Luthmann and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphynx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mindhunters in

No Doubt - Spiderwebs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZktNItwexo

 

You think that we connect

That the chemistry's correct

Your words walk right through my ears

Presuming I like what I hear

And now I'm stuck in the

The web you're spinning

You got me for your prey

Sorry I'm not home right now

I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message and I'll call you back

A likely story, but

Leave a message and I'll call you back

You're intruding on what's mine

Yeah, and you're taking up my time

Don't have the courage inside me

To tell you "Please let me be"

Communication

A telephonic invasion

I'm planning my escape

Sorry, I'm not home right now

I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message and I'll call you back

A likely story, but

Leave a message and I'll call you back

And it's all your fault

I screen my phone calls

No matter who calls

I gotta screen my phone calls

Now it's gone too deep (now it's gone too deep)

You wake me in my sleep (wake me in my sleep)

My dreams become nightmares (my dreams become nightmares)

'Cause you're ringing in my ears

Sorry I'm not home right now

I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message and I'll call you back

A likely story, but

Leave a message and I'll call you back

And it's all your fault

I screen my phone calls

No matter, matter, matter, matter who calls

I gotta screen my phone calls

Ooh, the spiderwebs

Leave a message and I'll call you back

I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message and I'll call you back

It's all your fault

I screen my phone calls

No matter, matter, matter who calls

I gotta screen my phone calls

It's all your fault

It's all your fault

No matter who calls

No matter who calls

Ooh, I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message and I'll call you back

I'm walking into spiderwebs

Leave a message and I'll call you back

Oh, it's all your fault (I'm walking into spiderwebs)

(Leave a message and I'll call you back) no matter who calls

I gotta screen my phone calls (I'm walking into spiderwebs)

(Leave a message and I'll call you back) It's all your fault

No matter, matter, matter who calls (I'm walking into spiderwebs)

(Leave a message and I'll call you back) I screen my phonecalls

I'm walking into spiderwebs

Leave a message and I'll call you back

8675-309 I got your number. I spent a fair amount of my working life in the telephone industry. I was never a repair or maintenance technician but a manager in multiple departments including repair and maintenance. My rural upbringing included party lines where people answered based on distinctive ring patterns. Two longs and a short was the Scott family and 3 shorts was the Johnson’s. Because the party line is shared anyone can listen in or interrupt. Great for gossip. Sometimes you would need to tell the neighbors (grandma or children) to get off the line because the call was yours and not theirs. And sometimes the other parties spoke little English. Before I retired we were building survivable collapsed fiber optic rings. Naturally, when I saw this relic hanging on the wall of a basement stairwell without its shroud (cover) and no receiver, I took a little stroll down memory lane.

Hé les amis vous savez bien que j'en n'ai rien à cirer de l'explore mais ça serait bien si cette publication traduite pouvait y figurer pour qu'un maximum de personnes la voient.

Si ça pouvait avoir un petit impact aussi minime soit il, ce serait bien. J'en appelle à vos favoris donc.

  

J'espère que tout le monde est au courant du fait que starlink envoi des chiées de satellites... même à Nice un des multiples envoi a été observé. Starlink affirme que c'est pour la téléphonie et le nombre de satellites cibles à envoyer est édifiant! Il pensent jusqu'à 42000 satellites en plus en fin de mission...Je trouve que ces envois de satellites sont suffisamment inquiétants de par le budget que ça représente pour que soit juste pour la téléphonie et l'internet.

 

Voilà donc un autre documentaire sur la 5G cette fois (sous titré français). Suivi d'une pétition.

  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiGnE9qXvY&feature=youtu.be&...

 

Pétition: www.leslignesbougent.org/petitions/stop-5g-en-france/?fbc...

 

J'oubliais un autre super documentaire en français sur les ondes leurs effets et l'intimidations des multinationnales. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVd3NXvTH4s&fbclid=IwAR1V3ynY...

 

En ce moment pendant ce confinement on installe des antennes 5G en France voici le lien des textes en vigueur. C'est considéré comme une première nécessité donc www.vie-publique.fr/loi/273988-ordonnance-covid-19-reseau....

 

et pour finir en folie un extrait de c'est dans l'air: www.facebook.com/Cdanslairf5/videos/219840489099559/UzpfS...

 

======================================================

google translate:

 

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

 

Albert einstein

  

I hope everyone is aware of the fact that starlink sends satellite files ... even in Nice one of the multiple sending has been observed. Starlink says it is for telephony and the number of target satellites to send is edifying! They think up to 42,000 more satellites at the end of the mission ... I find that these satellite shipments are sufficiently worrying given the budget it represents to be fair for telephony and the Internet.

 

So this is another documentary on 5G this time (with French subtitles). Followed by a petition.

 

Pétition: www.leslignesbougent.org/petitions/stop-5g-en-france/?fbc...

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVd3NXvTH4s&fbclid=IwAR1V3ynY...

  

At the moment during this confinement, 5G antennas are installed in France here is the link of the texts in force. It is considered a first necessity therefore.

 

www.vie-publique.fr/loi/273988-ordonnance-covid-19-reseau....

  

an extract of a french tv informations show

www.facebook.com/Cdanslairf5/videos/219840489099559/UzpfS...

   

Building Radio Kootwijk, Veluwe NL - 1922 - architect Julius Maria Luthmann.

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone Company) started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter, a 400 KW high frequency alternator, from the German Telefunken company under the call sign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of short waves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt. Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the telephone company to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphinx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mind Hunters in 2004.

The Windmill Tower:

 

The oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland, the windmill tower has accommodated a range of uses. Constructed in 1828 to process the wheat and corn crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, it had a treadmill attached for times when there was no wind but also as a tool for punishing convicts. The mill ceased grinding grain in 1845 and the treadmill was removed sometime before 1849. From 1855 the tower was reused as a signal station to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town. Substantial renovations were made to it in 1861 including the installation of a time ball to assist in regulating clocks and watches. Twenty years later a cottage for the signalman was constructed to the immediate west of the tower, with a detached kitchen erected to the south two years after that. Both were later demolished. The windmill tower was used as a facility for early radio, telephony and television communications research from the 1920s and underwent substantial conservation work in the 1980s and 2009.

 

In May 1825, after eight months of occupation at Redcliffe, the contingent of convicts, soldiers, administrators and their families comprising the Moreton Bay penal settlement relocated to the site of present-day Brisbane's central business district. The growing settlement was to be self-sufficient in feeding its residents by cultivating corn (also known as maize) and wheat crops at the government farm, which were then processed into meal and flour by hand mills.[1] By 1827, with a substantial crop to process, the settlement storekeeper recommended a treadmill be erected to grind the crop into flour. Commandant Logan indicated at this time that such a devise at Brisbane town would be of service and also provide an avenue for the punishment of convicts.[2]

 

There is little evidence confirming details of the windmill tower's planning and construction. In July 1828, Peter Beauclerk Spicer, the Superintendent of Convicts at the time, recorded in his diary that convicts were 'clearing ground for foundations for the Mill' and proceeded to dig a circular trench that reached bedrock and had a circumference of approximately 9 metres.[3] Allan Cunningham noted soon after that construction was in progress. The mill was constructed on the highest point overlooking the settlement on what is now Wickham Terrace. By 31 October 1828 the first grain was being ground at the site by a mill gang; however it is supposed that this was done by a treadmill as the rotating cap and sails associated with the wind-powered operation of the mill were not brought to the site until November.[4] Circumstantial evidence suggests that the wind-powered grinding of grain did not begin until December.

 

There were two pairs of millstones inside the tower, each driven independently by the treadmill and sail mechanisms. The former was located outside the tower, a shaft connecting the treadwheel and the mill cogwheels inside. Two sketches from the early 1830s show the windmill tower and its sail stocks in place,[5] while an 1839 description depicts a tower built from stone and brick, comprising four floors, a treadmill and windmill. From 1829 the windmill tower was said to be continually requiring repair, possibly because its equipment was all made from locally-available timber rather than iron[6].

 

The treadmill was an important component of the mill, for use as punishment without trial, and for times when there was no wind but the amounts of grain sufficient to sustain the settlement still required processing. No plans exist of the Brisbane treadmill, however, the Office of the Colonial Architect produced a standard Design for Tread Mill Adapted for Country Districts Average Estimate £120.[7] Between 25 and 30 men worked at the mill at any one time. Sixteen operated the treadmill, although as there are no plans, it is uncertain whether it comprised a standard 16-place treadmill, or two 8-place sections connected to a common shaft. Each man would climb five steps to get onto the wheel, standing on the 9 inch wide treads and holding on to the rail. The men would then work as though ascending steps to operate the treadmill. Some undertook this task while in leg irons, while the more able used one hand to hold on and the other to draw sketches of people, animals and scenes on the boards of the mill. The men would work from sunrise to sunset with three hours rest in the middle of the day in summer, and two hours in winter.[8] [9] The first casualty of the treadmill, which produced the first official record of its existence, occurred in September 1829 when prisoner Michael Collins lost his life after being entangled in the operating mechanism. Maps of 1840s Brisbane feature a rectangular structure attached to the outside of the tower, Robert Dixon's in particular showing a 6 x 5 metre structure, probably the treadmill, located on ground that was to become Wickham Terrace.

 

In July 1841 the Brisbane tower was reputedly the site of a public execution of two Aboriginal men who had been convicted in Sydney of the murder of Assistant Surveyor Stapylton and one of his party near Mount Lindsay. They were returned to Moreton Bay and hanged with about 100 Aboriginal people present, however it may be that the execution took place elsewhere on what was known as Windmill Hill.[10]

 

Indicative of the prominence of its physical position, the tower served as one of the stations for the trigonometrical survey of the Moreton Bay district conducted by Robert Dixon, Granville Stapylton and James Warner from May 1839 in preparation for the area being opened to free settlement.[11]

 

In February 1836 the windmill tower was struck by lightning, causing severe damage throughout, including to the treadmill. A convict millwright was brought from Sydney in June for the repairs, which amounted to a major rebuild of the structure that was not completed until May 1837.[12] In April 1839, with the closure of the Moreton Bay penal settlement being planned, the windmill tower was one of the buildings recommended for transfer to the colony. This was approved in 1840-41 but it continued to sporadically process grain until 1845, when due to crop failure, a stagnant population and the availability of imported flour, it finally ceased being used. The penal settlement had officially closed in February 1842. The treadmill operated until 1845 and had been removed by October 1849[13].

 

The windmill tower in Brisbane is the oldest of its type left standing in Australia and further distinguished by having been built by convict labour. The earliest standing stone windmill towers extant around the country date from the 1830s and include: one built in 1837 in South Perth, Western Australia[14]; another built in the same year at Oatlands in Tasmania which operated until 1890[15]; and another built at Mount Gilead near Campbelltown in New South Wales in 1836[16]. Most were built to process grains into flour. Other surviving mill towers are the one built in 1842 by FR Nixon at Mount Barker in South Australia; Chapman's mill built around 1850 at Wonnerup in Western Australia[17], and another built at a similar time on an island in the Murray River near Yunderup in Western Australia[18]. None of the nineteen windmill towers that characterised the early settlement at Sydney have survived.[19] Technological developments, most particularly steam power which was more dependable than wind power or that generated by convict labour at a treadmill, rendered wind-driven mills largely redundant.

 

After the cessation of milling operations there were discussions about possible future use of Brisbane's windmill tower. In December 1849 the tower was put up for auction and bought by a government official who promptly sought tenders for removal of it and its machinery (the auction terms required it to be cleared away by three months after the sale).[20] Ownership of the place quickly reverted to the Crown because of a legal problem with the sale, but not before some dismantling had occurred.[21] In a January 1850 article the Moreton Bay Courier continued its appeal for the windmill not to be pulled down and secured by the town, arguing that aside from its landmark and picturesque qualities it was the ‘best fixed point for land measurement in the district'. In this vein the site was the most accessible viewing point for the picturesque landscape of Brisbane and its environs. Despite earlier calls to erase evidence of Brisbane's convict past, 'sentiment and pragmatism combined to override the detrimental taint of convictism' saving the tower from destruction. The sails were still in place in 1854 and appear in a painting of the windmill completed in 1855.[22]

 

By 1855 Brisbane was the leading Queensland port and it became important to establish signal stations to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town, one of which was set up on Windmill Hill. This required modifications to the tower to include a semaphore station connected to the electric telegraph. Information on ships entering the river was converted to semaphore signals using flags hoisted on a mast erected on top of the tower. The renovations were undertaken by John Petrie in October 1861 to plans by colonial architect Charles Tiffin and included the removal of the windmill stocks or arms and wheels; the laying of floors on each storey; new doors and windows; a weatherproof floor on the top of the tower with an iron railing; a new winding staircase from bottom to top; repair of stone, brickwork and plastering; and the installation of a high flagstaff to fly signals.[23] The tower's renovation at this time also fitted it out as a public observatory and it became known by that term.[24] The following year it became the first home of the newly founded Queensland Museum; serving this purpose until 1868 when other accommodation was provided in the old convict barracks or parliamentary building on Queen Street.[25]

 

Petrie also installed a time ball on the tower to provide a reliable authority for regulating clocks and watches. It was dropped at one o'clock each day based on observations relayed by telegraph from Sydney. The time ball was replaced by a time gun in 1866, with an embankment and shed constructed to hold the gun in 1874. After 1882 the gun and shed were moved to the eastern section of the current reserve before the shed was demolished in 1908. The time gun proved useful to people as far away as Logan, Caboolture and Ipswich. The old gun was replaced in 1888 with another before a new electrically-controlled time ball was installed in 1894. This was associated with the legislated implementation of a single time throughout the colony, being designated as ten hours earlier than the mean time at Greenwich. Adjustments were made to the tower at this time to accommodate the new time ball. The roof was lowered and the flagstaff pared down.[26]

 

A cottage for the signalman was constructed in 1883 to the immediate west of the tower to plans prepared by Government Architect FDG Stanley and on part of the Waterworks reserve. Two years later a detached kitchen was also constructed behind it to the south of the tower. Use of the signal station was discontinued in 1921 by the state government, which then sought a new use for the structure and land. [27] Despite this the flagstaff remained in place until 1949. From January 1893 the Fire Brigade implemented a nightly observation post from a specially-constructed platform on top of the tower. This was used until around 1922.

 

The Commonwealth government assumed responsibility for the site in 1901 but control reverted to the state in 1908 when it was designated as an Observatory Reserve. In 1902 it had been connected to the Railway Telegraph Office at Roma Street so that the railways had the correct time for their operations. The evidence of historical photographs suggests that sometime between 1902 and 1912 the cabin at the top was increased in size.[28] The time ball remained in operation until 1930.

 

The site was placed under the trusteeship of the Brisbane City Council in 1922. The site of the cottage remained in the hands of the Waterworks Board and a boundary re-arrangement had to occur to allow its continued use in relation to the observatory. At this time the Queensland Institute of Radio Engineers began wireless radio and telephony research at the tower, and used the signalman's cottage to meet two nights a month. Apparatus to operate a wireless radio station was installed in 1926. The cottage was occupied on a more regular basis in order to reduce the risk of vandalism to the tower, but fell vacant. In 1926 the City Architect, AH Foster, proposed a plan for beautifying the observatory, which included removal of the cottage and adjacent sheds. The tender of Messrs Guyomar and Wright to remove the cottage, shed and outhouse for £60 was accepted.[29] At this time the stone and wrought iron wall along Wickham Terrace was erected. It was intended to add 'dignity to the historical reserve, and harmonise with the massive character of the Tower'.[30]

 

From 1924 Thomas Elliott installed equipment in the tower to undertake cutting-edge television research; he and Allen Campbell giving a demonstration from the site in 1934 which constituted Queensland's first television broadcast. It was considered by many at the time as the most outstanding achievement thus far in the history of television in Australia. They gained a license from the government and continued experimental broadcasting from the tower until about 1944.[31]

 

From 1945 the Brisbane City Council was considering suitable action to preserve the tower, which had become a popular visitor attraction. Some restoration work was carried out in 1950 on the advice of Frank Costello (then Officer in Charge of Planning and Building with the City Council), which included removal of old render and re-rendering the entire structure. It was at this time that the flagstaff was removed in preparation for making the open ground of the reserve 'a real park'. Certainly these conservation efforts considered the heritage value of the place as well as the public's use of it.

 

However by 1962 the windmill tower was again in poor condition. Floodlighting to enhance its appearance for tourists was undertaken for the first time during the Warana Festival five years later. In the early 1970s the Council and the National Trust of Queensland undertook detailed investigations regarding restoration and transfer of trusteeship from the council to the trust (the latter were abandoned in 1976). None of the original plans or any of the original windmill machinery parts could be located at that time. Based on these findings the National Trust formed the opinion that the building should be preserved in its present form and not reconstructed to its windmill form.

 

In 1982 City Council undertook some external maintenance work on the observation house or cabin, including replacement of deteriorated timber to the balcony and sills, and corrugated iron on the roof, and repair of the time ball and its mast (which was shortened by about 300 mm to remove some part affected by dry rot).[32]

 

In 1987 a consortium of companies involved in the construction of the Central Plaza office building offered to assist the Brisbane City Council with the conservation of the Windmill Tower. To inform this work a conservation study was undertaken by Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Architects, which also oversaw conservation work[33]. Preliminary archaeological investigations undertaken at this time identified the remains of the original flagstaff base which was reinstated.[34] The conserved Windmill Tower was opened by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane on 3 November 1988. A further archaeological investigation was carried out at the site in 1989-90 by a University of Queensland team, revealing clear stratigraphic layers datable to each of the key phases of use of the site.[35] In August 1993 further investigations of the fabric of the tower were undertaken to explore the extent of the footings and the nature of construction of the curb and cap frame. More conservation work was carried out in May 1996. [36]

 

In 2009 the Brisbane City Council received considerable funding to carry out restoration work of the windmill tower through the State Government's Q150 Connecting Brisbane project. It was intended that the structure be publically accessible to allow visitors to experience the view from its observation platform, a practice that has been commented on since the 1860s.[37] In 2008 - 2009 the Brisbane CBD Archaeological Plan assessed the area of the observatory reserve and a length of Wickham Terrace associated with it as having exceptional archaeological research potential because of the combination of its association with the penal settlement and the low level of ground disturbance that has occurred there since.[38]

 

The Tower Mill Hotel:

 

Spring Hill is Brisbane’s oldest suburb containing many of Brisbane’s oldest structures. Opposite the site of the Tower Mill Motel is the convict-built windmill tower dating from 1828 and nearby the town’s first purpose-built reservoirs dating from 1866.

 

Being close to the town centre, Spring Hill developed as the town developed with fashionable, more expensive houses on the ridgeline above Brisbane Town and cheaper housing on the lower slopes and gullies. As the town spread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, newer suburbs further out attracted development and Spring Hill was, by the early twentieth century, crowded, a bit run-down and cheap. In the postwar era, as prosperity returned in the 1950s and 1960s, a wave of new development swept the city. Young professionals and artists were attracted to Spring Hill as it was close to the city centre and the suburb experienced somewhat of a revival and the beginnings of gentrification.

 

The increased frequency and affordability of international travel also had an impact as Australia became a destination and new international style hotels were built. In Brisbane, the traditional corner hotels lacked the facilities and accommodation standards required by the growing modern tourist market. In the 1960s a number of new hotels were built, with the Tower Mill Motel being one of the first and an outstanding example of the new modern international style.

 

The site of the motel was previously occupied by a doctor’s surgery in-keeping with the development of Wickham Street over time as the location of private hospitals and specialist clinics. The site was purchased by Chacewater Pty Ltd who applied in November 1964 to build a seventy unit motel designed by architect, Stephen Trotter, estimated to cost £285,000.

 

Stephen Trotter was born in Brisbane in 1930 and trained in the offices of Mervyn Rylance and Fulton and Collin. He gained a Diploma of Architecture (Qld) in 1954 and became a registered architect in 1955. He started in practice as an associate of Fulton and Collin in 1958. His time with Mervyn Rylance, who specialized in Old English designs, instilled in Trotter a desire to design buildings that responded to the sub-tropical climate of Brisbane. In 1962 John Gillmour, Stephen Trotter and Graham Boys became partners in the firm. Influenced by the new international styles being constructed overseas and the new engineering technologies being developed after the war, Stephen Trotter successfully applied for a Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Sisalkraft Scholarship in 1962. His application included the design of the Tower Mill Motel in his portfolio of works as an indication of his desire to study design responses to climatic conditions. Trotter’s whirlwind three-month tour of the world resulted in a study entitled “Cities in the Sun” which identified the elements of design relating to hot, dry; hot wet, warm wet and warm dry climates in the subcontinent, Persia, Oceania, South America, North America and Europe.

 

The Tower Mill Motel features a striking circular form, distinctive concrete sun-shading and a restaurant on the top floor. The circular form and roof detailing mirror the circular form and detailing of the diminutive historic windmill tower across the road. Embracing the new design technologies of the international style, the Tower Mill Motel features expressed concrete floor plates and columns and concrete awnings shading the full height glazed walls. It is completely different from the international style hotels being built in the city at this time which, although featuring curtain walls and full height glazing, generally adhered to a rectangular footprint and identical room layouts.

 

Stephen Trotter remained as a partner of Fulton, Collin, Boys, Gilmour and Trotter until 1999. During this period he taught architecture at the Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT now QUT), instilling an understanding of the importance of the environment and energy efficiency in building design to a generation of architecture students. As well as lecturing at QIT for nineteen years, Trotter was involved in the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects for a number of years. Trotter retired from Fulton Trotter in 1999, however his sons Mark and Paul are now directors. Stephen Trotter also made an outstanding contribution to the University of Queensland residential college, International House, for over sixty years and he was made a Fellow in November 2011. Stephen Trotter passed away on 30 July 2015, aged 84.

 

The Tower Mill Motel was completed in 1964 and went on to become a destination for overseas visitors.

 

The outstanding innovative design of the Tower Mill Motel, not only is a unique example of a 1960s cyclindrical building that is sensitively designed to respond to the site and climate. The hotel was subdivided for 107 strata titled units in December 2002 with some being sold into private ownership and some being retained for use as hotel rooms. A recent change in ownership has seen the purchase of a number of private units to facilitate the return of the whole building to use as a hotel.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register & Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.

This wonderful display was in a shop window on the Public Square in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. History is indeed all around us. I tip my hat to the folks who not only saved these fine bits of history, but shared them in such a fantastic arrangement. Is it terribly ironic that I took the picture with an iPhone? Thanks!

Building Radio Kootwijk, Veluwe NL - 1922 - architect Julius Maria Luthmann.

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone Company) started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter, a 400 KW high frequency alternator, from the German Telefunken company under the call sign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of short waves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt. Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the telephone company to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphinx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mind Hunters in 2004.

Avenue de Flandre | Rue Suzanne Mason 01/10/2022 10h02

A beautiful mural on a wall in a side street of the Rue de Flandre in the 19ème arrondissement of Paris.

 

A photo especially taken and uploaded for the

Wednesday Walls Group.

 

Avenue de Flandre

Avenue de Flandre (formely « rue de Flandre ») is one of the main thoroughfares in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, 1,500 m long.

It connects Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad to Avenue Corentin-Cariou and provides access to the Paris ring road via Porte de la Villette.

Traffic is organized around a central parterre lined with trees.

Before 2019, the avenue was composed, in each direction, of 2 traffic lanes (including a lane reserved for public transport and bicycles on only part of the avenue) bordered by 2 parking lanes (one on each side) .

Since 2019, a cycle path has been created in each direction in place of the parking lot on the central side.

The avenue is bordered on most of its length by various shops, practically all services being available: general food, cafes, catering (fast, traditional and foreign), mass distribution (traditional and hard-discount), DIY, services banks, pharmacies, sale and repair of automobiles, bicycles and mopeds, optics, bookstores, telephony, libraries, real estate agencies, etc.

There are 4 métro stations under the Avenue de Flandre:

Corentin Cariou (M) (7)

Crimée (M) (7)

Riquet (M) (7)

Stalingrad (M) (2) (5) (7)

[ Wikipedia - Avenue de Flandre ]

This view, photographed from near W. Burnside Street and SW 12th Avenue, compresses nearly half a century of Portland commercial architecture into a single composition.

 

Left to right:

 

819 SW Oak Street — Originally constructed in 1949 as the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company's Telephone Toll Building, additional stories were completed in 1953 and 1957.

 

Clad in white stone and designed in a restrained postwar Modern style, the building expressed the Bell System's confidence in the expanding national long-distance telephone network. Its orderly façade of marble panels and carefully proportioned windows reflects an era when public utilities sought to project permanence and institutional dignity.

 

735 SW Harvey Milk Street (formerly 735 SW Stark Street) — The Pacific Northwest Bell Communications Center and Oregon headquarters, completed in 1970. Designed in a refined Brutalist idiom, the complex is characterized by deeply recessed green-tinted windows, monumental precast concrete fins, and a powerful sculptural massing that expresses both permanence and technological confidence. The building housed Pacific Northwest Bell's Oregon headquarters and advanced communications equipment, including electronic switching systems that marked the Bell System's transition from electromechanical to electronic telecommunications. In 1971, the public lobby received Lee Kelly's monumental 30-foot stainless-steel sculpture Urbanscape, commissioned specifically for the building.

 

407 SW Broadway

The former Bank of California Building, completed in 1969. Designed in an elegant late Corporate Modern style, the 15-story tower is distinguished by its soaring white precast concrete fins, deeply recessed green-tinted windows, imported English Elterwater slate, copper roof, landscaped courtyard, and richly appointed interiors of marble and exotic woods.

 

It represents one of the last great expressions of a modernism that treated the office tower as a monumental sculptural object, relying on bold massing, deep shadows, and luxurious materials rather than historical ornament or Brutalist concrete right angles to achieve architectural distinction.

 

Opened as one of Portland's most prestigious business addresses, it housed the Bank of California's Portland headquarters together with leading professional firms including Travelers Insurance and Price Waterhouse. More recently renamed OnPoint Plaza, the building has attracted attention as a potential candidate for conversion to data-center use, reflecting the changing economics of downtown office buildings.

 

917 SW Oak Street (formerly 383 SW Oak)

The Fitzpatrick Building, completed in 1923, occupies the foreground. Its restrained Classical Revival façade, executed in buff brick with terra-cotta ornament, represents the optimism of Portland's final great pre-Depression building boom. Listed by The Oregonian among Portland's "Notable Structures Erected or Commenced During the Past Year," it has continuously adapted to changing tenants for more than a century, from attorneys, consultants, and political campaigns to literary organizations, nonprofit groups, publishers, galleries, and wellness businesses.

 

A century of changing commerce

 

Together these buildings tell parallel stories of Portland's commercial, financial, and technological evolution.

 

The earliest is the Fitzpatrick Building, one of The Oregonian's "Notable Structures Erected or Commenced During the Past Year" for 1922. During the following century it continually adapted to changing tenants, including attorneys, management consultants, advertising agencies, political campaigns, Oregon Legal Services' Native American Program, publishers, arts organizations, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, Write Around Portland, wellness businesses, and numerous nonprofit organizations. It exemplifies the adaptable, human-scaled commercial building that has long sustained Portland's civic and creative life.

 

In 1949, Pacific Telephone & Telegraph established its new Telephone Toll Building at 819 SW Oak, creating one of the city's principal nodes in the Bell System's nationwide long-distance network. As demand for telephone service expanded after World War II, the building grew vertically in 1953 and 1957, mirroring the explosive growth of American telecommunications and the central role of Portland in the Pacific Northwest's communications infrastructure.

 

The optimism of Portland's postwar business community reached another milestone in 1969 with the opening of the new Bank of California Building at Broadway and Washington. Hailed by The Oregonian as "one of the city's handsomest new structures," it became one of downtown's premier business addresses.

 

Beneath its sculptural white precast concrete façade were lavish interiors finished with imported marble, English Elterwater slate, exotic hardwoods, commissioned artworks, landscaped courtyards, executive dining rooms, and sweeping views over the city.

 

The building reflected an era when major financial institutions regarded architecture as an expression of corporate identity and permanence. In addition to the bank's Portland headquarters, it housed prestigious professional tenants including Travelers Insurance and Price Waterhouse, symbolizing the confidence of Portland's legal, financial, and business establishment at the close of the 1960s.

 

More than half a century later, renamed OnPoint Plaza, it is being evaluated for possible conversion to a data center—a striking illustration of downtown Portland's changing economic geography.

 

Just one year later, Pacific Northwest Bell entered the electronic age with its new Communications Center and Oregon headquarters at 735 SW Stark (now Harvey Milk) Street

 

The Brutalist complex housed executive offices together with advanced communications equipment and, in 1971, welcomed visitors with Lee Kelly's monumental stainless-steel sculpture Urbanscape, installed across a cast-concrete lobby wall.

 

The subsequent installation of electronic switching equipment marked the transition from electromechanical telephony to modern electronic communications, making the building one of Oregon's most important telecommunications facilities.

 

Today these buildings remain standing, although their roles have changed dramatically. The Bell facilities continue to serve communications infrastructure behind increasingly secure façades.

 

The former Bank of California Building, once a monument to corporate banking and professional life, may soon house the digital infrastructure of the artificial intelligence era.

 

The Fitzpatrick Building continues its century-long tradition of accommodating small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and creative enterprises.

 

Together they preserve, in stone, concrete, brick, and terra cotta, a remarkably complete record of Portland's commercial ambitions and technological evolution across more than one hundred years.

Park Tower (formerly known as the Lykes Building) is a skyscraper located in downtown Tampa, Florida. It is Tampa's first high-rise tower. At the time of its completion in November 1973, it was the tallest in Florida, and is currently sixth-tallest in Tampa, at 458 feet (36 stories). It was the tallest building in Tampa until One Tampa City Center was built in 1981.

 

Park Tower is located in the heart of downtown Tampa directly across from The Tampa Riverwalk & Hillsborough River; Curtis Hixon and Gaslight Parks; the Glazer Children's Museum and the Tampa Museum of Art. It is within walking distance of the Tampa Convention Center, University of Tampa, and the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

 

In 2016 the tower was purchased by a joint venture consisting of affiliates of NYSE listed City Office REIT (NYSE: CIO), Feldman Equities LLC, and Tower Realty Partners for $79.75 million. The group completed a multi-million-dollar renovation in 2019. The most significant change at Park Tower is the modernization of the office building's façade by painting the exterior a lighter color and upgrading the main entrance. The building's amenities were upgraded with a modern lobby and the addition of Buddy Brew Coffee café. The office tower's updated design was created by internationally renowned architect Gensler.

 

Since acquiring the property, new leases have been signed including the headquarters relocation of CAPTRUST Advisors, LLC, Buddy Brew Coffee and Continuity Logic, LLC. Anchor tenants include BB&T, United States Department of Justice – US Attorney's Office, Level 3 Communications and Lykes Insurance.

 

Park Tower is LEED EB Gold Certified and EPA Energy Star certified.

 

The tower's amenities include FedEx Office, U.S. Post Office, BB&T Bank, Grow Financial Credit Union, Pearl Salon, Nature's Table Café, a fitness center, conference room and a 6th-floor tenant lounge, lobby concierge and Buddy Brew Coffee.

 

Park Tower is the "Telco-Hotel" for the region, with a major telephony and internet presence.

Tenants with a major Point of Presence (POP's) and Central Offices (CO's, AKA Telephone Exchanges)

 

AT&T

Verizon Communications (formerly XO Communications, Frontier Communications, Verizon Business (MCI, UUNET, World Comm))

CenturyLink (formerly Level 3 Communications and Global Crossing)

Charter Spectrum (formerly Bright House Networks)

Crown Castle (formerly FPL FiberNet)

TW Telecom (formerly Time Warner Communications)

Windstream Communications (formerly Earthlink, ITC Deltacom, PAETEC, USLEC, NUVOX, and Florida Digital Networks)

Cogent Communications

FiberLight www.fiberlight.com/

Online Technology Exchange www.otxi.com/

Summit Broadband (formerly US Metropolitan Telecom) summit-broadband.com/

Tampa Internet Exchange tampix.com/ (located within the WOW Business Data Center)

WOW Business Services (Wide Open West, a carrier-neutral colocation data center formerly known as E Solutions Corporation).

 

The building has two underground 13.2kV electrical feeds from the utility power company, one of which is from the high-priority medical grid and multiple diverse entry points for fiber optic and other data cabling. Park Tower is home to a large underground Federal Reserve Vault. The building also features video-enhanced 24x7x365 on-site security.

 

When it was originally built, the tower was the home of The First National Bank of Tampa, later First National Bank of Florida (First Florida Corporation). Park Tower was also the headquarters of the Lykes Brothers Corporation. The tower was purchased by Sterling American Property of New York City for $27.4 million in 2006 and underwent its first restoration including newly renovated elevators, air conditioning, and replacement of much of the electrical distribution system. The building later became the downtown Tampa headquarters of Colonial Bank, now BB&T. BB&T's sign is still featured on the top of the building.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:

www.emporis.com/buildings/128610/park-tower-tampa-fl-usa

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Tower_(Tampa)

www.parktowertampa.com

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

   

You think that we connect

That the chemistry's correct

Your words walk right through my ears

Presuming I like what I hear

  

And now I'm stuck in the web

You're spinning

You've got me for your prey

  

Sorry I'm not home right now

I'm walking into spiderwebs

So leave a message

And I'll call you back

A likely story, but leave a message

And I'll call you back

  

You're intruding on what's mine and

You're taking up my time

Don't have the courage inside me

To tell you please let me be

  

Communication, a telephonic invasion

I'm planning my escape...

 

~ No Doubt

Building Radio Kootwijk, Veluwe NL - 1922 - architect Julius Maria Luthmann.

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone Company) started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter, a 400 KW high frequency alternator, from the German Telefunken company under the call sign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of short waves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt. Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the telephone company to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphinx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mind Hunters in 2004.

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs (/ˈwæfs/), was the female auxiliary of the British Royal Air Force during World War II. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 181,000 at its peak strength in 1943, (15.7% of the RAF)[1] with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.

 

History

A Women's Royal Air Force had existed from 1918 to 1920, but had been disbanded in the wake of the end of the First World War, alongside the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp (1917-1921) and the first iteration of the Women's Royal Naval Service (1917-1919).[1]

 

Second World War

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force was created on 28 June 1939, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the British Auxiliary Territorial Service which had existed since 1938, following the Munich Agreement.[2] Conscription of women did not begin until after December 1941 when the British Government passed the National Service Act (No. 2), which was issued by Royal Proclamation on 10 January 1942. It only applied to those between 20 and 30 years of age and they had the choice of the military auxiliary services, the civilian Women's Land Army or factory work in support of the war effort.[1]

 

Training

 

The first WAAF nursing orderlies selected to fly on air-ambulance duties to France, 1944

Women recruited into the WAAF were given basic training at one of five sites, though not all of the sites ran training simultaneously. The five sites were at West Drayton, Harrogate, Bridgnorth, Innsworth and Wilmslow.[3] All WAAF basic recruit training was located at Wilmslow from 1943.[4]

 

Roles in the WAAF

WAAFs did not serve as aircrew. (The use of women pilots was limited to the Air Transport Auxiliary, which was civilian, but 30 WAAFs did transfer to serve as pilots in the ATA).[1] Although WAAFs did not participate in active combat, they were exposed to the same dangers as any on the "home front" working at military installations. They were active in parachute packing and the crewing of barrage balloons in addition to performing catering, meteorology, radar, aircraft maintenance, transport, communications duties including wireless telephonic and telegraphic operation. They worked with codes and ciphers, analysed reconnaissance photographs, and performed intelligence operations. WAAFs were a vital presence in the control of aircraft, both in radar stations and iconically as plotters in operation rooms, most notably during the Battle of Britain. These operation rooms directed fighter aircraft against the Luftwaffe, mapping both home and enemy aircraft positions.[5]

 

Air Force nurses belonged to Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service instead. Female medical and dental officers were commissioned into the Royal Air Force and held RAF ranks.

 

WAAFs were paid two-thirds of the pay of male counterparts in RAF ranks.

 

By the end of World War II, WAAF enrolment had declined and the effect of demobilisation was to take the vast majority out of the service. The remainder, now only several hundred strong, was renamed the Women's Royal Air Force on 1 February 1949.

The unfulfilled promise of British b&w B films of the 1950's..

De stoptrein Mol-Hasselt vertrekt richting Hasselt. Toen nog met M1 rijtuigen in onregelmatige dienst.Het rechtse telefoniegebouw en het station is alles wat er nog rechtstaat.De lokomotief is wel nog in dienst bij Infrabel als blauwe Infrabel proeflok.(Diascan)

The commuter train Mol-Hasselt leaving in the direction of Hasselt. Then still with M1 carriages in irregular service.The rightmost telephony building and the station is still everything there is rule of law.The locomotive is still in service with Infrabel as blue Infrabel lokomotive.(Diascan)

Many governmental organisations in the post-WW2 years published a popular and accessible history of wartime endeavours and service and this, written by Ian Hay, is the story of the Post Office. The Post Office was responsible for a multitude of public services ranging from the operation of Post Offices, the collection and delivery of the mail, the telegram and telephone services. These were all vital infrastructure in wartime conditions where the growth in demand for services was enormous - both at home and, in the theatres of war, abroad. The sacrifice of staff is covered as they often worked in the most trying of circumstances. The record of development and repair, such as of exchanges and cables due to damage, is described and some of the work of the vitally important Research Station at Dollis Hill is described.

 

The cover, that includes this wrapped round letter of thanks from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, is a bold graphic showing the various methods of transport used by the Post Office and is signed 'AMC'. This is, I am sure, the 'Coombs' who signs the two rather fine endpaper illustrations that show Post Office staff going about their varied duties. In pre-war years the Post Office had an often adventurous style of publicity and these illustrations are redolent of that period in their style.

The oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland, the windmill tower has accommodated a range of uses. Constructed in 1828 to process the wheat and corn crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, it had a treadmill attached for times when there was no wind but also as a tool for punishing convicts. The mill ceased grinding grain in 1845 and the treadmill was removed sometime before 1849. From 1855 the tower was reused as a signal station to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town. Substantial renovations were made to it in 1861 including the installation of a time ball to assist in regulating clocks and watches. Twenty years later a cottage for the signalman was constructed to the immediate west of the tower, with a detached kitchen erected to the south two years after that. Both were later demolished. The windmill tower was used as a facility for early radio, telephony and television communications research from the 1920s and underwent substantial conservation work in the 1980s and 2009.

 

In May 1825, after eight months of occupation at Redcliffe, the contingent of convicts, soldiers, administrators and their families comprising the Moreton Bay penal settlement relocated to the site of present-day Brisbane's central business district. The growing settlement was to be self-sufficient in feeding its residents by cultivating corn (also known as maize) and wheat crops at the government farm, which were then processed into meal and flour by hand mills.[1] By 1827, with a substantial crop to process, the settlement storekeeper recommended a treadmill be erected to grind the crop into flour. Commandant Logan indicated at this time that such a devise at Brisbane town would be of service and also provide an avenue for the punishment of convicts.[2]

 

There is little evidence confirming details of the windmill tower's planning and construction. In July 1828, Peter Beauclerk Spicer, the Superintendent of Convicts at the time, recorded in his diary that convicts were 'clearing ground for foundations for the Mill' and proceeded to dig a circular trench that reached bedrock and had a circumference of approximately 9 metres.[3] Allan Cunningham noted soon after that construction was in progress. The mill was constructed on the highest point overlooking the settlement on what is now Wickham Terrace. By 31 October 1828 the first grain was being ground at the site by a mill gang; however it is supposed that this was done by a treadmill as the rotating cap and sails associated with the wind-powered operation of the mill were not brought to the site until November.[4] Circumstantial evidence suggests that the wind-powered grinding of grain did not begin until December.

 

There were two pairs of millstones inside the tower, each driven independently by the treadmill and sail mechanisms. The former was located outside the tower, a shaft connecting the treadwheel and the mill cogwheels inside. Two sketches from the early 1830s show the windmill tower and its sail stocks in place,[5] while an 1839 description depicts a tower built from stone and brick, comprising four floors, a treadmill and windmill. From 1829 the windmill tower was said to be continually requiring repair, possibly because its equipment was all made from locally-available timber rather than iron[6].

 

The treadmill was an important component of the mill, for use as punishment without trial, and for times when there was no wind but the amounts of grain sufficient to sustain the settlement still required processing. No plans exist of the Brisbane treadmill, however, the Office of the Colonial Architect produced a standard Design for Tread Mill Adapted for Country Districts Average Estimate £120.[7] Between 25 and 30 men worked at the mill at any one time. Sixteen operated the treadmill, although as there are no plans, it is uncertain whether it comprised a standard 16-place treadmill, or two 8-place sections connected to a common shaft. Each man would climb five steps to get onto the wheel, standing on the 9 inch wide treads and holding on to the rail. The men would then work as though ascending steps to operate the treadmill. Some undertook this task while in leg irons, while the more able used one hand to hold on and the other to draw sketches of people, animals and scenes on the boards of the mill. The men would work from sunrise to sunset with three hours rest in the middle of the day in summer, and two hours in winter.[8] [9] The first casualty of the treadmill, which produced the first official record of its existence, occurred in September 1829 when prisoner Michael Collins lost his life after being entangled in the operating mechanism. Maps of 1840s Brisbane feature a rectangular structure attached to the outside of the tower, Robert Dixon's in particular showing a 6 x 5 metre structure, probably the treadmill, located on ground that was to become Wickham Terrace.

 

In July 1841 the Brisbane tower was reputedly the site of a public execution of two Aboriginal men who had been convicted in Sydney of the murder of Assistant Surveyor Stapylton and one of his party near Mount Lindsay. They were returned to Moreton Bay and hanged with about 100 Aboriginal people present, however it may be that the execution took place elsewhere on what was known as Windmill Hill.[10]

 

Indicative of the prominence of its physical position, the tower served as one of the stations for the trigonometrical survey of the Moreton Bay district conducted by Robert Dixon, Granville Stapylton and James Warner from May 1839 in preparation for the area being opened to free settlement.[11]

 

In February 1836 the windmill tower was struck by lightning, causing severe damage throughout, including to the treadmill. A convict millwright was brought from Sydney in June for the repairs, which amounted to a major rebuild of the structure that was not completed until May 1837.[12] In April 1839, with the closure of the Moreton Bay penal settlement being planned, the windmill tower was one of the buildings recommended for transfer to the colony. This was approved in 1840-41 but it continued to sporadically process grain until 1845, when due to crop failure, a stagnant population and the availability of imported flour, it finally ceased being used. The penal settlement had officially closed in February 1842. The treadmill operated until 1845 and had been removed by October 1849[13].

 

The windmill tower in Brisbane is the oldest of its type left standing in Australia and further distinguished by having been built by convict labour. The earliest standing stone windmill towers extant around the country date from the 1830s and include: one built in 1837 in South Perth, Western Australia[14]; another built in the same year at Oatlands in Tasmania which operated until 1890[15]; and another built at Mount Gilead near Campbelltown in New South Wales in 1836[16]. Most were built to process grains into flour. Other surviving mill towers are the one built in 1842 by FR Nixon at Mount Barker in South Australia; Chapman's mill built around 1850 at Wonnerup in Western Australia[17], and another built at a similar time on an island in the Murray River near Yunderup in Western Australia[18]. None of the nineteen windmill towers that characterised the early settlement at Sydney have survived.[19] Technological developments, most particularly steam power which was more dependable than wind power or that generated by convict labour at a treadmill, rendered wind-driven mills largely redundant.

 

After the cessation of milling operations there were discussions about possible future use of Brisbane's windmill tower. In December 1849 the tower was put up for auction and bought by a government official who promptly sought tenders for removal of it and its machinery (the auction terms required it to be cleared away by three months after the sale).[20] Ownership of the place quickly reverted to the Crown because of a legal problem with the sale, but not before some dismantling had occurred.[21] In a January 1850 article the Moreton Bay Courier continued its appeal for the windmill not to be pulled down and secured by the town, arguing that aside from its landmark and picturesque qualities it was the ‘best fixed point for land measurement in the district'. In this vein the site was the most accessible viewing point for the picturesque landscape of Brisbane and its environs. Despite earlier calls to erase evidence of Brisbane's convict past, 'sentiment and pragmatism combined to override the detrimental taint of convictism' saving the tower from destruction. The sails were still in place in 1854 and appear in a painting of the windmill completed in 1855.[22]

 

By 1855 Brisbane was the leading Queensland port and it became important to establish signal stations to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town, one of which was set up on Windmill Hill. This required modifications to the tower to include a semaphore station connected to the electric telegraph. Information on ships entering the river was converted to semaphore signals using flags hoisted on a mast erected on top of the tower. The renovations were undertaken by John Petrie in October 1861 to plans by colonial architect Charles Tiffin and included the removal of the windmill stocks or arms and wheels; the laying of floors on each storey; new doors and windows; a weatherproof floor on the top of the tower with an iron railing; a new winding staircase from bottom to top; repair of stone, brickwork and plastering; and the installation of a high flagstaff to fly signals.[23] The tower's renovation at this time also fitted it out as a public observatory and it became known by that term.[24] The following year it became the first home of the newly founded Queensland Museum; serving this purpose until 1868 when other accommodation was provided in the old convict barracks or parliamentary building on Queen Street.[25]

 

Petrie also installed a time ball on the tower to provide a reliable authority for regulating clocks and watches. It was dropped at one o'clock each day based on observations relayed by telegraph from Sydney. The time ball was replaced by a time gun in 1866, with an embankment and shed constructed to hold the gun in 1874. After 1882 the gun and shed were moved to the eastern section of the current reserve before the shed was demolished in 1908. The time gun proved useful to people as far away as Logan, Caboolture and Ipswich. The old gun was replaced in 1888 with another before a new electrically-controlled time ball was installed in 1894. This was associated with the legislated implementation of a single time throughout the colony, being designated as ten hours earlier than the mean time at Greenwich. Adjustments were made to the tower at this time to accommodate the new time ball. The roof was lowered and the flagstaff pared down.[26]

 

A cottage for the signalman was constructed in 1883 to the immediate west of the tower to plans prepared by Government Architect FDG Stanley and on part of the Waterworks reserve. Two years later a detached kitchen was also constructed behind it to the south of the tower. Use of the signal station was discontinued in 1921 by the state government, which then sought a new use for the structure and land. [27] Despite this the flagstaff remained in place until 1949. From January 1893 the Fire Brigade implemented a nightly observation post from a specially-constructed platform on top of the tower. This was used until around 1922.

 

The Commonwealth government assumed responsibility for the site in 1901 but control reverted to the state in 1908 when it was designated as an Observatory Reserve. In 1902 it had been connected to the Railway Telegraph Office at Roma Street so that the railways had the correct time for their operations. The evidence of historical photographs suggests that sometime between 1902 and 1912 the cabin at the top was increased in size.[28] The time ball remained in operation until 1930.

 

The site was placed under the trusteeship of the Brisbane City Council in 1922. The site of the cottage remained in the hands of the Waterworks Board and a boundary re-arrangement had to occur to allow its continued use in relation to the observatory. At this time the Queensland Institute of Radio Engineers began wireless radio and telephony research at the tower, and used the signalman's cottage to meet two nights a month. Apparatus to operate a wireless radio station was installed in 1926. The cottage was occupied on a more regular basis in order to reduce the risk of vandalism to the tower, but fell vacant. In 1926 the City Architect, AH Foster, proposed a plan for beautifying the observatory, which included removal of the cottage and adjacent sheds. The tender of Messrs Guyomar and Wright to remove the cottage, shed and outhouse for £60 was accepted.[29] At this time the stone and wrought iron wall along Wickham Terrace was erected. It was intended to add 'dignity to the historical reserve, and harmonise with the massive character of the Tower'.[30]

 

From 1924 Thomas Elliott installed equipment in the tower to undertake cutting-edge television research; he and Allen Campbell giving a demonstration from the site in 1934 which constituted Queensland's first television broadcast. It was considered by many at the time as the most outstanding achievement thus far in the history of television in Australia. They gained a license from the government and continued experimental broadcasting from the tower until about 1944.[31]

 

From 1945 the Brisbane City Council was considering suitable action to preserve the tower, which had become a popular visitor attraction. Some restoration work was carried out in 1950 on the advice of Frank Costello (then Officer in Charge of Planning and Building with the City Council), which included removal of old render and re-rendering the entire structure. It was at this time that the flagstaff was removed in preparation for making the open ground of the reserve 'a real park'. Certainly these conservation efforts considered the heritage value of the place as well as the public's use of it.

 

However by 1962 the windmill tower was again in poor condition. Floodlighting to enhance its appearance for tourists was undertaken for the first time during the Warana Festival five years later. In the early 1970s the Council and the National Trust of Queensland undertook detailed investigations regarding restoration and transfer of trusteeship from the council to the trust (the latter were abandoned in 1976). None of the original plans or any of the original windmill machinery parts could be located at that time. Based on these findings the National Trust formed the opinion that the building should be preserved in its present form and not reconstructed to its windmill form.

 

In 1982 City Council undertook some external maintenance work on the observation house or cabin, including replacement of deteriorated timber to the balcony and sills, and corrugated iron on the roof, and repair of the time ball and its mast (which was shortened by about 300 mm to remove some part affected by dry rot).[32]

 

In 1987 a consortium of companies involved in the construction of the Central Plaza office building offered to assist the Brisbane City Council with the conservation of the Windmill Tower. To inform this work a conservation study was undertaken by Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Architects, which also oversaw conservation work[33]. Preliminary archaeological investigations undertaken at this time identified the remains of the original flagstaff base which was reinstated.[34] The conserved Windmill Tower was opened by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane on 3 November 1988. A further archaeological investigation was carried out at the site in 1989-90 by a University of Queensland team, revealing clear stratigraphic layers datable to each of the key phases of use of the site.[35] In August 1993 further investigations of the fabric of the tower were undertaken to explore the extent of the footings and the nature of construction of the curb and cap frame. More conservation work was carried out in May 1996.

 

In 2009 the Brisbane City Council received considerable funding to carry out restoration work of the windmill tower through the State Government's Q150 Connecting Brisbane project. It was intended that the structure be publically accessible to allow visitors to experience the view from its observation platform, a practice that has been commented on since the 1860s. In 2008 - 2009 the Brisbane CBD Archaeological Plan assessed the area of the observatory reserve and a length of Wickham Terrace associated with it as having exceptional archaeological research potential because of the combination of its association with the penal settlement and the low level of ground disturbance that has occurred there since.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

McKean Road, San Jose, CA

Building Radio Kootwijk, Veluwe NL - 1922 - architect Julius Maria Luthmann.

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone Company) started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter, a 400 KW high frequency alternator, from the German Telefunken company under the call sign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of short waves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt. Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the telephone company to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphinx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mind Hunters in 2004.

Well, here we are then. I suppose with shot 365 it is compulsory to give some kind of reflection on the project as a whole, and I warn you - this could get philosophical ;) Skip to the end if you get bored. :)

 

Firstly, I can honestly say that I started the project with little expectation that I would finish it. It has, however, proven to be easier than I expected. I know that Laura spent many frustrating days trying to think of something to snap, but I had a rather easier time of it. She had no mobile phone camera, and a very camera unfriendly job. I'm just the opposite. I'm blessed with a job where I'm often taking photos every day, even if they're ones that I can't post in public places. A school is a place of life though - even though individuals may find their own days boring there's always SOMETHING going on somewhere, and with such a large building there's often things to see if you look closer.

 

I've never kept a journal or a diary, and have now realised how terribly life affirming it all is. 2009 is a year in which I will have some kind of memory of every single day, and it won't be a forgotten year like so many others. I can't remember a damn thing I did in say...1998. I could probably come up with one or two things if I REALLY tried, but not more than one or two.

 

So, what have I hated? Not a lot really. I haven't found it too strenuous and it really hasn't been a chore.

 

What have I loved? Well, getting the camera out more is always a good thing. I'm also looking around a lot more, and being more aware of the wonderful things around me. The things that can make an interesting photograph are often strange and wonderful.

 

I like also that the project gives the tiniest little hint of an insight into the pressures that professional photographers face. It's dead easy to take photos when you're feeling inspired and creative. In a 365 you quickly discover that when you're tired, grouchy, sick, stressed, hung over or a combination of all of them it becomes very difficult to take a shot that's even technically competent - never mind one that has any kind of artistic merit! Spare a thought for that photographer trying to take beautiful photos of two families that he doesn't really care about at the next wedding that you're at!

 

One thing that I've really loved is that my photographs are littering the net all over the place. There are probably three reasons for this:

 

1. My photos are by and large reasonably ok from a technical viewpoint. There's not many with appallingly bad focussing, exposure, etc.

 

2. I give my photos away, and everybody loves free stuff! I generally put all my photos under a creative commons licence that lets people use them for whatever they want. I didn't take them to make money, so I'm happy to put them out there.

 

3. I take lots of very, very generic photos. I think this is largely because lots of people around me aren't comfortable having their photo on the net, and I'd never take a people shot from my workplace. So very few of my shots feature people, and that makes them ideal for illustrating blogs, tutorials and other concept pieces.

 

My Ryanair 737 on approach to Liverpool can be found in many travel blogs. My exam desks illustrate lots of topics about exams and nerves. My crossed fingers end up in the unlikeliest of places. My smiley face biscuit illustrates a spiritual presentation on ignorance. My pebbles on Llandudno beach are probably going to be published at some point in a book. My stuff is all over the place - and I love that!

 

It's interesting to see what people do like, and so how about a quick run down of the top ten photos based on view. Thanks to the Flickr statistics module, here we go!

 

In tenth: #6: A Little Prick with a Needle

 

With 158 views, this one just scraped ahead of the approaching Ryanair 737 to get tenth place. This is a very average shot of some dental equipment taken with a mobile phone. Why it's proved so popular is a mystery to me, even if it has had the longest time to be viewed. I can only put it down to the words 'little prick' in the title. People do look for the funniest things ;)

 

In ninth: #74: The Eyes Have It

 

This one has had 159 views, and is a favourite of three people. It wasn't the easiest shot, and it turned out quite well so I'm rather happy with it. And we won't even start about what colour the eye is - there could be blood on the carpet.

 

In joint seventh: #140: Hell's Kitchen

 

With 164 views, I'm really pleased with this very dramatic shot, and I'm not surprised that it's earned a good few views.

 

In joint seventh: #145b: They Meet At Last

 

I'm delighted that this made the top ten, as it's one of my favourite shots of the whole year. Anything tagged 'Red Arrows' gets lots of views, and something that isn't a plane in the air is always interesting. A lovely moment. This has had 164 views...I'm guessing that 160 of them were by Laura ;)

 

In sixth: #44: A Bit of a Mix Up

 

Do you remember me talking about generic photos? This mixing desk shot fulfils the basic 'lights, knobs and sliders' requirements that have led it to be used in lots of 'techie' type blog posts all over the place. It made sixth with 198 well earned views.

 

In fifth: #4: Crossed Words

 

It's right back to the start again as this perfectly boring photo of a crossword chalked up a whopping 232 views. It's back to generic illustrations again.

 

In fourth: #147: Testing Times Ahead

 

This photo of a very large exam hall has proven really popular with bloggers, and has also been included in a commercial product that someone is putting together. I'm not sure why it does so well, but the geometry is nice and the sheer scale is huge. 251 views.

 

In third: #25: It's Good to Talk!

 

Why, oh why, oh why do 343 people think this is a great photo to use? It's just a phone! Nevertheless it's very popular and has been used to illustrate a lot of articles about VOIP telephony.

 

In second: #237: Fingers Crossed!

 

This is a weird one. It's the newest photo in the top ten, and it has racked up 454 views, and yet it's a not particularly attractive photo of a bloody unattractive hand (mine). Strange, strange, strange. It also has the honour of having been used for one day on the front page of the Yahoo directory. It's a small claim to fame, but one that pleased me very much. :)

 

In first place, the winner is... #133: Lost Luggage?

 

Yes, an unlikely winner, but not without good reason! This five minute bit of fun was a visual gag based on an incident at LAX airport. The reason for the huge popularity is that Laura posted it as a link on one of the aviation forums that she uses and hence it got a whole pile of views from there. About 545 in fact. :)

 

And with that analysis done, it's time to have my Oscar moment and make some very important thank yous.

 

Firstly, to all the wonderful people who have appeared in or helped me create my photos. You know who you are, and you have been a source of inexhaustible patience, tolerance and kindness. I thank you.

 

Secondly to you. Yes you - reading this post! A body of artistic/journalistic/observational/documentary work still has a place without anyone reading it, but an audience - even an audience of one - gives the whole thing validity. Pretty much all of my 365 posts get between ten and twenty views, and it makes me really happy to think that there are ten people out there reading my daily photos - but I don't know who all of you are! If you're reading this then drop me a comment, even if only to say hi. :) Thanks, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. :)

 

Thirdly I give a nod to all the folks on the h.tv board who started this project together - and a very big nod to the handful of us left ;)

 

Now on to two very special thank yous.

 

The first is to Keith, my former colleague and good friend who is now resident in sunny Spain. Keith is living proof that a good teacher may hang up his chalk but he can never, ever retire. Keith's often seemingly throwaway references to great photographers, his dropping of technical terms and his acute observations have allowed me to view my own humble efforts in the context of some of the artistic greats of the twentieth century. Each journey prompted by such a comment has been a learning experience and of more interest than he can possibly know. He also manages to diligently produce a meaningful and cogent comment on even my poorest efforts. Thanks Keith, it's been a joy.

 

And my final special thank you goes out to Laura - my inspiration (let's not forget that she finished a 366 long before I started mine) and constant companion in the journey. I can also tell you that there has been at least one, and probably two, occasions when the absence of Laura's timely reminder to take a photo would have led to failure in this project. Thanks honey!

 

I did give Laura a bit of stick about the huge number of photos of cups of tea in her 366 collection. She sternly warned me that I'd be doing the same thing in mine. And so in a moment of true male pig headedness, having satisfied myself that I actually CAN complete a 365 without taking a photo of a cup of tea/coffee, that's exactly what I'm going to do in tribute to my sweetheart. So here it is - my first cup of the day which is a Christmas coffee from Finland!

 

So there we are, against all odds I did it. I didn't miss a day (which I thought I would) and I didn't - much as I was tempted to - borrow a photo from another day to fill a space.

 

Having completed it, one is left with the dilemma of whether or not to continue. Given that I don't feel the overwhelming sense of relief that many people get on reaching #365, I think I'm going to carry on. I won't beat myself up if I miss a day, and I might even borrow from a different day without feeling bad about it. And as the account is paid for for at least another year, I might as well.

 

A very happy New Year to all of you, and if you read all of that crap then I thank you once again. :)

Building Radio Kootwijk, Veluwe NL - 1922 - architect Julius Maria Luthmann.

The housing accommodations of Radio Kootwijk arose as a result of the building of a shortwave transmitter site with the same name, starting in 1918. The transmitters played an important role in the 20th century as a communication facility between the Netherlands and its colony of Dutch East Indies. In 1923 Dutch PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone Company) started trans-oceanic telegraphy using a longwave transmitter, a 400 KW high frequency alternator, from the German Telefunken company under the call sign PCG, in the 24 kHz and 48 kHz. By 1925 the longwave transmitter was changed by a shortwave tube based, electronic transmitter which had a much better performance due to the better propagation of short waves. With this new technology, in 1928 a radio-telephonic connection was established. At the end of World War II, the German occupying forces blew up the transmitter. Afterward some of the radio towers were rebuilt. Due to the development of new technologies like satellite communication, Radio Kootwijk lost its position as main overseas wireless connection point of the Netherlands. In 1980, the last transmission mast was blown up. In 2004 the park lost its last transmitter functions, and was transferred from the telephone company to the State Forestry Commission, which started attracting new buyers. The main building of the former transmitter park and named 'Building A', 'The Cathedral' or sometimes 'The Sphinx', was officially appointed as a monument. It is used as venue and scenery for several cultural events and productions, including the American film Mind Hunters in 2004.

I started doing my own processing in August 2011. Ebay was the internet sensation of the moment, digital had now been around for ten years and everyone was selling off his unwanted film gear. It was a buyer's market. Having never used anything but 35mm (I include the VP828 film of my first camera, a Coronet Cub, which was 35mm without sprocket holes), I thought I'd broaden my outlook and have a bash at 120. There was no looking back after that and I've seldom used 35mm since ...though I acknowledge its many advantages. Here, early in September, with all the fervour of the convert, I was trying out my first medium format camera, a Zeiss Ikon Nettar. I think it cost me twenty quid.

I believe telephone kiosks of this pattern were of American origin. This one was at Soham, Cambridgeshire. A wipe-over with a damp cloth is all they need by way of cleaning and they neither trap litter nor require painting. They are, of course, totally charmless and without distinction of design. I suppose public kiosks will soon be totally obsolete anyway ...that's if they are not already. In those I have examined in recent years the telephonic apparatus was either defective or absent. It is not unusual to see examples inside which substantial bushes have grown up. In London you used to find every kiosk equipped with the complete four-volume Metropolitan telephone directory (I hate the banausic term "phone book") and the required volume could be rotated into position from its receptacle by pressing on the spine. It was a superb piece of industrial design of a type at which public services such as the General Post Office and London Transport excelled. Those days are gone.

Detail of an old red telephone booth of London street.

According to once source, this wire measuring machine was made around 1900. It is still in use at a hardware store in a town north of here. The take-up reel, which looks like a pair of umbrella frames after a head-on collision, is also in operation.

 

It operates on the following principle:

 

"Basically a wheel pressed against the rope so it will turn as the rope is pulled. The circumference of the wheel is known. Count the revolutions times the circumference and there is your rope length."

 

An ad in the December 30, 1911, issue of Telephony says:

 

Needed by every Jobber, Manufacturer, Contractor and Operator.

 

Measures quickly, conveniently and accurately all wires from No. 0 to 40, inclusively.

 

Winder and reel, when not in use, may be collapsed into a small space. Ideal in economy of time, labor and trouble.

 

Mounted upon your bench and counter will quickly repay its cost many fold.

 

John J. Waldman, Mfr., Department M, 136 Liberty Street, N.Y.

Avenue de Flandre 01/10/2022 09h57

Espace Fleurs on the corner of the Rue du Maroc in the 19ème arrondissement has been closed down forgood in 2020.

 

A photo especially taken and uploaded for the

Wednesday Walls Group.

 

Avenue de Flandre

Avenue de Flandre (formely « rue de Flandre ») is one of the main thoroughfares in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, 1,500 m long.

It connects Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad to Avenue Corentin-Cariou and provides access to the Paris ring road via Porte de la Villette.

Traffic is organized around a central parterre lined with trees.

Before 2019, the avenue was composed, in each direction, of 2 traffic lanes (including a lane reserved for public transport and bicycles on only part of the avenue) bordered by 2 parking lanes (one on each side) .

Since 2019, a cycle path has been created in each direction in place of the parking lot on the central side.

The avenue is bordered on most of its length by various shops, practically all services being available: general food, cafes, catering (fast, traditional and foreign), mass distribution (traditional and hard-discount), DIY, services banks, pharmacies, sale and repair of automobiles, bicycles and mopeds, optics, bookstores, telephony, libraries, real estate agencies, etc.

There are 4 métro stations under the Avenue de Flandre:

Corentin Cariou (M) (7)

Crimée (M) (7)

Riquet (M) (7)

Stalingrad (M) (2) (5) (7)

[ Wikipedia - Avenue de Flandre ]

Interesting test set seen at the telecommunications museum within Scotland's "secret" bunker. Appears to test a rather vintage exchange's ability to interact with payphones and the associated call metering capabilities.

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