View allAll Photos Tagged bituminous
The old Northern Pacific across North Dakota is a conveyor for sub bituminous coal from the Powder River Basin to power plants in the midwest and east.
Die Grube Messel in Messel (Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hessen) ist ein stillgelegter Tagebau. Bekannt wurde die Grube Messel durch die dort gefundenen und hervorragend erhaltenen Fossilien von Säugetieren, Vögeln, Reptilien, Fischen, Insekten und Pflanzen aus dem Eozän. Besonders die Weichteilerhaltung bei Säugetieren macht die dort gefundenen Fossilien einzigartig. Am bekanntesten ist die frühe Pferdeart Propalaeotherium, von der über 70 Individuen gefunden wurden. Weitere bedeutende Funde sind Messelornis cristata, ein Kranichvogel, dem ungefähr die Hälfte aller in der Grube Messel gefunden Vogelfossilien zugeordnet werden, sowie Darwinius masillae („Ida“), ein ausgestorbener Primat.
Die Grube Messel ist die erste der drei UNESCO-Weltnaturerbestätten Deutschlands.
The Messel Pit (German: Grube Messel) is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, (Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg, Hesse) about 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of fossils, it has significant geological and scientific importance. After almost becoming a landfill, strong local resistance eventually stopped these plans, and the Messel Pit was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site on 9 December 1995. Significant scientific discoveries are still being made, and the site has increasingly become a tourism site as well.
Wikipedia
Granted, #844 was mostly never laboring like this tea kettle over at the Colorado Railroad Museam's Christmas steam up. Another difference is that #346 was climbing the hill to the tank and burning coal unlike the oil (of any kind) that #844 uses. Even Eddie kept out of the way for this shot of Delay Junction! I have been collecting Clouds & Skies for ages but this is a Colorado December day that is far from unusual. It even kind of foretold of the coming of a very short spring and glaring summer. Are you ready for some steam? The early excursion was not quite full but is grande for an early Sunday morning run by.I did a significant amount of editing to try to keep the remaining white snow and the black engine shadows in range, hoping to make a bold enough statement from the original that I found unretouched in my awaiting work directory. Still, I am amazed by the realistic shots that can still be snapped of the run bys of steam up days at the Colorado Railroad Museum.
Nice light here for the bold steam, IMHO. I found a great venue and you might finally realize why we picked the Christmas steam up on Sunday fully knowing it might not be terribly busy. Steam is a winner in winter even if most of it can be explained, The cylinder cocks were open on this first run. They are open to help bring the pistons and cylinders up to an equalizing temperature for extending the operating life. Who knows, it might help loosen up the piston lubricator. In any case the engineer didn't do many displays like this when up to operating temperatures and pressures. I kind of expected the blow down valve could be opened along here too even though once a run would probably do for us photographers. They also may have sanded the flues slightly to clean them and make a more impressive exhaust show what with extra coal and lubricants. There is steam trailing from the electric generator situated boiler top just in front of the cab. More would mean that the relief (pop off) valve was open too. I think they must only be running the headlight. Show-offs? Fine by me, but someone forgot to open the blow-down valve under the cab! The usually spiffed engine is already sooty from Saturday's run. I suppose a wash and wax in in store for #346 when done with the show of runs and rides.
I did the best that I could with this very small segment of a much larger negative in order to show what the Superior side of St. Louis Bay looked like circa 1905. This shot was taken from the bluffs above Duluth on a remarkably clear day so that we can see the newest concrete elevator at Superior East end (all the way to the left) to the coal docks adjacent to Great Northern Elevators S and X and the Great Northern's Merchandise Dock (all the way to the right). Click on the image to enlarge it slightly. Then pan left and right to see how much work is going on in this view. Connor's Point is barely larger than it was to begin with. Only a pair of early coal docks front the Point at this time.
At left, if you look closely you'll spot Superior's Gasometer that sits slightly inland and roughly mid-point between the two coal docks while much work is being done to create more land and many more docks in between them.
Towards the center of the picture are the Great Northern's Interstate Draw Bridge and the Northern Pacific's St. Louis River Drawbridge. The former was used mostly by the Soo Line after this time because GN began using the NP's bridges to access Duluth. While the latter was actually made up of two (2) draw bridges; the Minnesota Draw and the Wisconsin Draw. If you follow the timber trestle work across the bay left to right you'll find the Wisconsin Draw in the open position with a train bound for Duluth waiting just behind it. These are the NP's original wooden draw bridges that were replaced with much larger steel versions in just a few year's time. Read more about that here: zenithcity.com/northern-pacific-pt2/
Just above the Minnesota Draw are the original flour mills once located in West Superior. Nearer to the Wisconsin Draw are the anthracite coal wig wams and the Globe Elevator complex. A large package freighter is unloading at the GN merchandise dock adjacent to Elevators S and X.
Coal was king during this era. Virtually every railroad locomotive and every steam ship was powered by coal. Most businesses had coal fired boilers that provided steam for powering machinery of every kind. Homes were rapidly converting from burning wood to burning coal in order to take advantage of this ready fuel source. The harbor front docks of Duluth and Superior were the primary storage facilities for millions of tons of anthracite and bituminous coals brought into the Twin Ports from Ohio and Pennsylvania via the Great Lakes.
While the limitations of photography allow me only so much wiggle room to squeeze extra resolution to show these kinds of details that are hiding within old negatives and photographic prints, I believe we are fortunate to be able to see as much as we do in this picture, especially given the fact that virtually every mechanized industrial contraption put in place here, and every ship, every locomotive, every business entity both large and small, and every home in the vicinity is actively burning coal. But the day this picture was taken the skies were relatively clear of the smoke that must have made the skies black with soot on many occasions. While millions of tons of coal were burned in the Twin Ports over the decades to fuel livelihoods and to provide comfort, many hundreds of millions more of those tons were trans-shipped west to the northern plains States and to Canada, to help grow those settlements and economies too. At the Head of the Lakes area, no commodity had a bigger impact than coal, on people's lives and the rapid growth of business throughout the northern States.
Clifton Drive, Fairhaven, Lancashire FY8 1AX The faience is by the Middleton Fireclay offshoot of the Leeds Fireclay Company, not the normal Burmantofts branch.
Fairhaven United Reformed Church
Also known as "the White Church". Congregational church, now
united Reformed church. 1904 and 1911, by Briggs, Wolstenholme
and Thornley; with stained glass by Luke S. Walmesley of St
Annes and Charles Elliott of London.
Mostly white faience, but hall to rear of red brick with buff
terracotta dressings; slate and bituminous asphalt roofs.
Free Byzantine style. The principal element is a square vessel
with a domed roof, a tall octagonal minaret tower at the
north-east corner and octagonal turrets with domed lanterns at
the south-east and north-west corners.
Each of these 3 corners has an extruded 3-sided porch with
pilasters, dentilled cornice and geometrical panelled parapet,
and a round-headed doorway in the centre bay; the roof of the
main porch, at the north-east corner, has swept and scrolled
brackets to the corners of the tower, which has tall
round-headed panels in the sides, a dentilled cornice, and a
3-stage lantern or belfry, the 1st stage open-arcaded, the 2nd
with latticed windows, and the top with a domed roof
surmounted by a cross.
The 2 principal sides are filled with wide projected gabled
bays which have large segmental-headed tripartite windows, and
parapets; and attached to the west side of the north-west
porch is an octagonal parlour with round-headed windows and a
domed roof.
Attached at the rear is a hall of red brick, on a parallel
axis, the east gable having a Diocletian window with run-out
vousoirs of buff terracotta.
INTERIOR: square main vessel with chamfered corners (porches
in 2 corners, choir vestry and organ chamber in the others)
and in each side a wide segmental-arched alcove illuminated by
stained glass windows illustrating biblical scenes, a large
number of historical religious figures, and events such as the
departure of the Pilgrim fathers and the Great Ejection of
Nonconformist clergy.
The item is an unusual design and forms a very conspicuous and
well-known landmark between Lytham and St Annes.
Listing NGR: SD3474527358
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright
LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.
Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.
Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.
Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?
To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.
There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.
The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.
In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.
Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!
When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.
Original Caption: Bud Redding is one of the Sarpy Basin ranchers who is resisting the Westmoreland Coal Company's attempts to buy their land for strip mining. Sarpy Basin is part of some 25,000 square miles in Montana and Wyoming with rich seams of sub-bituminous coal, 06/1973
U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-6636
Photographer: Norton, Boyd
Subjects:
Environmental protection
Natural resources
Pollution
Billings (Montana, United States) inhabited place
Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/549122
Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.
For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html
Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
The tea kettle made it up the hill and is headed onto the sweeping curve at the Colorado Railroad Museum's Christmas steam up. #346 was past the hill to the tank and was burning coal unlike the oil burner #40 on our 2013 outing. They may have been sanding the flues for the smoke effect. Even Eddie was out of the way for this shot toward Delay Junction down the track! The scene is still rather void of the crush of onlookers this morning. Nobody his cheated the fence yet; not even Eddie! I rather like this shot because of the lines and the train had already turned into the early morning sun on the curve. There would still be shade on #346 this early in the stark lighting. It seems the engineer is on the throttle a bit late considering it is now heading for the downhill drift. In any case, this looks pretty real to me.
This is a Colorado December day that is far from unusual. It even kind of foretold of the coming of a very short spring and glaring summer. Are you ready for some steam? The early excursion was not quite full but is grande for an early Sunday morning runby. I did a significant amount of editing to try to keep the remaining white snow and the black engine shadows in range, hoping to make a bold enough statement from the original that I found unretouched in my awaiting work directory.
Proud Miner
A coal miner bares his tattoo while working underground in the Central Appalachian Mine (CAM) in Cadiz, Ohio. CAM Ohio is the largest single employer in Cadiz, a town of 3000 people and Ohio’s leading producer of bituminous coal. CAM Ohio re-opened the Cadiz mine in 1990 after it closed in 1981 under Wino Mine Company. Of the current 172 employees, 80% work underground to produce about 1000 tons of coal per day. Due to the boom in demand, in the past two years CAM Ohio has invested $14 million for new equipment and expects to work the mines in the Cadiz area for about 15 years, or until the coal runs out.
Editorial Relevance: This image speaks to the current state of the coal industry in Ohio.
The Cumberland Valley Railroad Depot (CVRR) announced in 1867 its intention to construct a new railroad line extending from Hagerstown, MD to the C&O Canal at Williamsport, MD. The Hagerstown to Williamsport line was to provide a connection at the Potomac River with the C&O Canal, thus allowing in theory, the CVRR to be used to interchange westbound iron ore and anthracite for eastbound pine, hardwood, and bituminous coal. Just as construction started on the extension in 1868, the CVRR announced further plans to push the line across the Potomac River and continue the next 12 miles to Martinsburg.
Located on the west side of town, the new line was constructed by the Martinsburg and Potomac Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the CVRR. Construction of this extension began in August 1869. Completion of the line in 1873 prompted a wave of newly established businesses to take root in the city.
The Williamsport to Martinsburg extension, owned by the Cumberland Valley and Martinsburg Railroad Company, was extended 22 miles southward in 1889 to Winchester, VA. This extension completed the link to the south, thus allowing passenger and freight traffic to proceed from Winchester through Hagerstown, and on to all destinations on the northeast coast. Shortly, thereafter, in 1890, the Martinsburg and Potomac Railroad Company of Virginia merged with the Cumberland Valley and Martinsburg Railroad Company. By 1910, the CVRR had obtained all of the Cumberland Valley and Martinsburg stock. Railroad ownership changed once again, when in 1913 the CVRR became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system.
The Cumberland Valley Railroad’s depot and freight station were originally located on Raleigh Street in Martinsburg. In 1889, with the opening of the Winchester extension, the decision was made to construct a new depot on West King Street. The freight station remained at its Raleigh Street location. Utilized until the fazing out of passenger service by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the two-story brick and shingle depot is still regarded as one of the city’s architectural treasures. The rail line today is owned by the Winchester and Western Railroad, and operated strictly for freight service.
Larger species, especially those with short spires, cannot be held by plasticine. Instead, they can be gripped in plastic clothes pegs. To prevent the peg from floating and the snail from moving it, place a piece of lead on it. For photography, paint coloured pegs with black bituminous paint to avoid colour reflections. As individuals of the same species often vary in their willingness to extend, it is advisable to restrain several simultaneously to increase the chance of seeing an example of each sex.
Equipment Source
Ecoforce clothes pegs; use search on Ebay www.ebay.co.uk/
Full article of Anatomy of marine gastropods without dissection. below image 2 flic.kr/p/P7dYNq
Sub-bituminous coal in the Tertiary of Wyoming, USA. (photo stitch by Mary Ellen St. John)
This is the thickest economic coal unit in America - the Wyodak Coal. It's a 70 to 90 feet thick sub-bituminous coal interval in the early Tertiary-aged Fort Union Formation. As the name suggests, sub-bituminous coal is a rank of coal that has characteristics of both lignite coal and bituminous coal. Sub-bituminous has a higher carbon content than lignite and lower carbon content than bituminous. Western American coal is highly desirable as it lacks much pyrite, which is moderately common in eastern American coal. If air pollution treatment measures are not in place, burning pyritic coal produces acid rain.
A coal-burning power plant is present across the road (behind the photographer). Much coal from this mine is also shipped east via railroad.
Stratigraphy: Wyodak Coal, Fort Union Formation, Upper Paleocene
Locality: Wyodak Coal Mine, northern side of Interstate 90, 5 to 6 miles east of the town of Gillette, central Campbell County, Powder River Basin, northern Wyoming, USA (44° 18' 01.44" North latitude, 105° 23' 08.79" West longitude)
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See info. at:
On our trip down south, February 24, 2018. We stopped at Shag Point/Matakaea as I had never been there before. Matakaea is the name of the pa (fortified village). We have left Dunedin and going to stay in Timaru for a night before heading back to Christchurch.
Shag Point/Matakaea has a rich history, from early Ngai Tahu settlement to historic coalmining. The area has diverse marine life. It has interesting flora, is great for wildlife viewing, and is geologically fascinating.
Flat rock platforms provide an easy haul-out site for New Zealand fur seals, and cliff-top viewing areas allow you to observe seal behaviour without disturbing their rest.
Whalers discovered the first bituminous coal in New Zealand here in the 1830s. By 1862 the exposed coal seams were found to be commercially viable and were successfully mined until 1972, when flooding eventually closed shafts that extended under the coast. Evidence of coal mining is still obvious throughout the reserve.
Matakaea is jointly managed by DOC and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. Matakaea has Topuni status. The mana (authority) and rangatiratanga (chieftainship) of Ngai Tahu over the area is recognised publicly by this status. Ngai Tahu takes an active role in managing the natural and cultural values of the area.
For More Info: www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/p...
Skyline Drive Historic District
by Reed Engle, Cultural Resource Specialist
Whose Idea Was The Drive?
The first recorded mention of the construction of a Skyline Drive (not the phrase then mentioned) was by William C. Gregg, a member of the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee who suggested the idea of a ridge road to L. Ferdinand Zerkel, a member of the Board of Shenandoah Valley, Inc., during his five-day visit to Skyland. The idea ended up incorporated into the recommendations of the Committee.
Length: 105.5 miles from Front Royal to Rockfish Gap
Dates/Costs of Construction:
Official ground breaking was July 18, 1931, although the actual field survey began in January of that year.
First section of construction initially was to be from Rapidan Camp to the Skyland Resort, some twenty miles, but evolved into the 34 miles from Swift Run Gap (U.S. 33) to Thornton Gap (U.S. 211). Original funds were allocated by the Federal Drought Relief Administration to employ Virginia farmers and apple pickers suffering from the severe drought impacts on the apple and produce harvests in 1930.
Congress appropriated $1,000,000 the fall of 1932 to continue construction of the Drive and the Department of the Interior announced that the Drive would extend from Swift Run Gap to Front Royal.
Roosevelt forms Civilian Conservation Corps and first two companies in the National Park Service are formed at Skyland (NP-1) and Big Meadows (NP-2). Shenandoah National Park would eventually benefit from ten CCC camps. May, 1933.
Skyline Drive from Thornton Gap to Swift Run Gap was completed in the summer of 1934 and opened to the public on September 15, 1934. This section cost $1,570,479 or approximately $39,000/mile.
Skyline Drive from Thornton Gap to Front Royal (32 miles) was opened to the public on October 1, 1936 and cost $ 1,235,177 or, approximately $42,000/mile.
Skyline Drive from Swift Run Gap to Jarman Gap (32.4 miles) was opened to the public on August 29,1939 and cost $1,666,528 or, approximately $51,500/mile.
Skyline Drive (then Blue Ridge Parkway) from Jarman Gap to Rockfish Gap (8.5 miles) was completed on August 11, 1939 and cost $358,636 or, approximately, $40,000/mile. [The southernmost section of the Drive from Jarman Gap to Rockfish Gap was originally constructed in 1938-1939 as a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and was deeded to Shenandoah National Park in 1961.
Contractors for the Drive:
Thornton Gap to Big Meadows: Ralph E. Mills Construction Company, Frankfort, Kentucky
Big Meadows to Swift Run Gap: Keeley Construction Company, Clarksburg, West Virginia
Front Royal to Compton Gap (9.76 miles): Waugh Brothers, Fayetteville, West Virginia
Compton Gap to Hogback Mountain (10.4 miles): Sammons-Robertson Company, Huntington, West Virginia
Hogback Mountain to Thornton Gap (10.3 miles): Albert Brothers, Salem, Virginia
Swift Run Gap to Simmons Gap (8.04 miles): M.E. Gilioz Company, Monett, Missouri
Simmons Gap to Browns Gap (IO. 18 miles): M.E. Gillioz Company, Monett, Missouri
Browns Gap to Black Rock Gap (4.80 miles): Chandler Brothers, Inc., Virgilina, Virginia
Black Rock Gap to Jarmans Gap (9.39 miles): Albert Brothers Construction, Inc., Salem, Virginia
Jarmans Gap to Rockfish Gap (8.5 miles): Ralph E. Mills Company, Frankfort, Kentucky
Bituminous surfacing of the roadway was separately contracted and was awarded to either Corson and Gruman Company, Washington, D.C., Southern Asphalt Company, Richmond, Virginia, or Barrett Paving Company, Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Marys Rock Tunnel
The tunnel, 670 feet long, was bored through the solid granite of Marys Rock in 1932. Although justified as avoiding the necessity of creating an expensive cut on the existing slope and filling the down slope areas, thus creating a massive man-made, visual feature, it has been suggested that the tunnel was built as a challenge to Bureau of Public Roads and National Park Service landscape architects. The tunnel was partially lined with concrete in 1958 to alleviate the formation of icicles in winter and water seepage in summer-a partially successful effort.
Guard Walls and Guard Rails
The CCC built many of the stone walls along the Drive, particularly those in the South District and those at overlooks. Beginning in 1983 many of the original walls have been rebuilt by the Federal Highways Administration with cores of concrete, reusing the original stone as a veneer. When built the Skyline Drive had miles of chestnut log guardrails, particularly in areas of open fields and meadows. The guardrails rotted and all were removed in the 1950s, not to be replaced.
Civilian Conservation Corps
The CCC "boys" did not construct the roadbed of the Drive as has at times been suggested. But there would be no Skyline Drive without the efforts of the CCC. They graded the slopes on either side of the roadway, built the guardrails and guard walls, constructed overlooks, planted hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs and acres of grass to landscape both sides of the roadbed, built the picnic areas and campgrounds, comfort stations, visitor contact and maintenance buildings, and made the signs that guided visitors on their way. Many served as the first park interpreters.
Source: www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/skylinedrive.htm
An eastbound loaded PPLX (Pennsylvania Power & Light) unit coal train passes through West Park on a sunny and mild winter afternoon. This train, consisting of about 120 cars, each with 100 tons of coal, is likely headed for one of PPL’s three 1500+ megawatt coal fired power plants east of Pittsburgh—Conemaugh, Keystone or Montour.
It’s interesting to see both loaded and empty unit coal trains going both east and west through the Pittsburgh area. The reason is simple: coal-fired power plants are designed specifically to burn specific types of coal. The technical requirements for coal-fired power plants differ dramatically depending upon the type of coal they are designed to burn. It would be cost-prohibitive to build a power plant that could burn all types of coal.
Appalachian bituminous coal produces about 50 percent more energy than Powder River Basin coal; however, it also produces much higher sulfur dioxide emissions.
Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal produces less sulfur dioxide and it costs about one sixth as much (at the mine). Unfortunately for coal-fired power plants east of the Mississippi, the Powder River Basin is in northeastern Wyoming. So, PRB coal, which is cheap at the mine, costs a lot more when transportation is figured into the business equation.
In the eastern US, particularly, power companies must decide, when building new plants, whether to use PRB coal that produces less energy per ton, but also emits less sulfur dioxide; or, to use Appalachian coal that yields higher energy output but requires significant investment in sulfur dioxide emission control equipment (e.g., scrubbers).
So, this is why it’s common to see unit coal trains from Wyoming, often with BNSF or UP run-through power, east of the Mississippi, and as far east as major Atlantic seaboard cities.
(Updated May 14, 2024)
As I write this, the Chicago region is blanketed by a pinkish-yellow haze (official Air Quality Index = 194, rated "Unhealthy" and close to "Very Unhealthy" for all ages). That's the result of the much-publicized Canadian-wildfire plume descending on this part of the Midwest. However concerning this nasty air pollution is, it's a temporary condition, albeit one that heralds more disturbing changes yet to come in the climate system.
But imagine living and working in Chicago where this sort of toxic brew had to be breathed in on a daily basis. In the late nineteenth century and earliest twentieth, when bituminous coal mined in the Illinois Basin powered this city, unfiltered soot and acidic compounds found their way onto every exposed surface, and into everyone's lungs. I discuss this meaner, grittier version of the Windy City at greater length, and even quote one contemporary visitor, H. G. Wells, in my Chicago in Stone in Clay (see link at bottom).
If this is indeed plain soot rather than biofilm, I suspect much of it on the Lower-Jurassic Portland Sandstone of the Chicago Club's northeastern corner actually dates either to the Age of Bituminous Coal. Either that, or at least to the days of abundant automotive exhaust before the activation of the Clean Air Act (various provisions beginning in 1970).
Because this cladding was apparently face-bedded (tilted up 90 degrees from its original horizontal bedding plane), it's especially susceptible to a lot of peeling and spalling as it weathers. The much brighter-toned patches of stone represent fresher surfaces exposed by that spalling. They seem to be very recently exposed, but I'm sure darkening proceeds at least somewhat more slowly than it did, for reasons discussed in the previous paragraph.
To see the other photos and descriptions of this series, visit
The Brownstone Chronicles album. And for more on this specific site, see my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i...
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Note
Sorry for the lack of uploads on Friday and Monday - Other commitments took me away from my computer, so wasn't able to get a photo up on Flickr. Hopefully shall return to normal now! :)
About the Photo
Taken on a road outside of Adaminaby, on the way to Mt Selwyn, NSW. This photo caught the full force of the glorious morning light. The way that landscapes change and evolve during the so-called 'golden hour', before and after sunrise and sunset, never ceases to amaze me. Enjoy :)
Technical
Nikon D90 | Sigma 10-20mm
1/8 sec | f/20 | ISO100 | 10mm
About Bitumen
Bitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Naturally occurring or crude bitumen is a sticky, tar-like form of petroleum that is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow. At room temperature, it has a consistency much like cold molasses. Refined bitumen is the residual (bottom) fraction obtained by fractional distillation of crude oil. It is the heaviest fraction and the one with the highest boiling point, boiling at 525 °C (977 °F).
The use of bitumen for waterproofing and as an adhesive dates at least to the third millennium BCE in the early Indus community of Mehrgarh where it was used to line the baskets in which they gathered crops. The Sumerians also used it as early as the third millennium BCE in statuary, mortaring brick walls, waterproofing baths and drains, in stair treads, and for shipbuilding. Other cultures such as Babylon, India, Persia, Egypt, and ancient Greece and Rome continued these uses, and in several cases the bitumen has continued to hold components securely together to this day. In some versions of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, the name of the substance used to bind the bricks of the Tower of Babel is translated as bitumen (see Gen 11:3). A one-kilometre tunnel beneath the river Euphrates at Babylon in the time of Queen Semiramis (ca. 800 B.C.) was reportedly constructed of burnt bricks covered with bitumen as a waterproofing agent. This must be regarded as legendary but indicative that the concept was known.
The term bitumen comes from Latin. The Greek name for the substance was άσφαλτος (asphaltos). Approximately 40 A.D. Dioscorides described production of asphaltos (as distinguished from pissasphalt and naphtha): (1655 Goodyer translation). The terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance.
Bitumen (or asphalt) is primarily used, when mixed with mineral aggregates, to produce paving materials. Its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs.
Most natural bitumens contain sulfur and several heavy metals such as nickel, vanadium, lead, chromium, mercury and also arsenic, selenium, and other toxic elements. Bitumens can provide good preservation of plants and animal fossils.
Heavily rusted remains of the "SS LAWRENCE"
The "LAWRENCE" was a 160ft.two-masted twin-screw iron steamer. She was built in 1884 by Kish, Boolds & Co. of Sunderland, England, and launched originally as "BORTONIUS".
The following year, coal was discovered in the tiny West Coast hamlet of Mokihinui (the first high-grade bituminous coal to be mined in New Zealand), and the Mokihinui Coal Company was established. A second coal seam was soon found, even larger than the first, and in 1889 the flourishing business purchased the LAWRENCE [victoriancollections.net.au/items/555577b3998fc21654210829].
Good fortune continued to smile on the young company, and in early 1891 it won a contract to supply coal to the NZ Railways.
But the good fortune ran out on April 28, 1891. From the up-river wharf where the Mokihinui Coal Co.’s one-mile tramway delivered the coal from the mines, the LAWRENCE set sail at about noon. She became lodged in the sandbar at the river mouth, managed to break free but, owing to her damaged propeller blades, she then drifted onto the beach. The next day she broke her back in heavy weather and was declared a total loss [paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18910430.2.22].
As the LAWRENCE was its only ship, the Mokihinui Coal Co. was subsequently forced to hand over its newly-acquired rail contract to the Grey Valley Coal Company...
==========
In 1935 a ship’s bell was found near Westport, about 40km south of the Mokihinui River. It caused considerable local speculation because, at first, no-one recognised the name inscribed on the bell: BORTONIUS.
CASS WV: CASS SCENIC RAILROAD STATE PARK: Shay #2, a Pacific Coast Shay, was constructed in July of 1928 for the Mayo Lumber Company of Paldi, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. A Pacific Coast Shay is a souped-up model of the class C-70 3 truck Shay. The Pacific Coast features superheat, a firebox that is 13 inches longer, lower gear ratio, steel cab, cast steel trucks, and steel girder frame (seen below). A feature of the steel girder frame is the large opening for exposing staybolts.
Also, the cylinders were designed so they attached only to the locomotive frame, rather than to the boiler shell as in other Shays. This allowed for easier access and maintenance. #2 is the only Shay of it's kind in the east. Shay #2, originally a wood burner, spent its working commercial life with four companies in British Columbia including Lake Logging Company, Cowichan Lake B.C. and Western Forest Industries, Honeymoon Bay, B.C. Later converted to burn oil then rebuilt to burn bituminous coal at Cass, #2 is the only known Shay to have used all three types of fuel. The locomotive ended its career switching cars on Vancouver docks in 1970, making it one of the last commercially-used Shays, and came to Cass in that same year.
Today, Shay #2 spends its time "relaxing" at Cass Scenic Railroad.
Original Caption: Calf-feeding time at the Bud Redding ranch. The ranch is threatened by plans for massive strip-mining of the area, 06/1973.
U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-6714
Photographer: Norton, Boyd
Subjects:
Environmental protection
Natural resources
Pollution
Billings (Montana, United States) inhabited place
Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/549200
Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.
For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html
Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
With a plentiful and gracious heads up from my inside source, I was alerted to this coming through on the H-TEAAMY 1-18A. As stated to me “a “weird looking color schemed engine” departing Teague third in consist at 16:00 which would put it through Flynn at approximately 17:15.
Now, it’s been blisteringly hot and dry here for the last 2½ months, so no railfanning for me. Of course this comes through and we’ve got a major thunderstorm line bearing down from the west. Trust me, we need the rain desperately, but the timing?
What was going to get here first: the locomotive or the storm line? Well, the locomotive made it by about 5 minutes before the rain. No sooner does the EOT pass me does the first line of downpours hit.
I was fortunate enough to catch the logo.
Cerrajón
carbón para el mundo
Progreso para Columbia.
Which translates to”
Coal for the world,
Progress for Columbia
Cerrajón Mining located in La Guajira, Columbia is an open pit low sulfur low ash bituminous coal mine.
Photos on the internet show Cerrajón had a fleet of GE B36-7 units and is in the progress of upgrading to ES44ACs.
BNSF
Red River Division
Houston Subdivision
MP168.46 – FM 977gc
Flynn, Texas, USA
18 August 2020 – 17:22 CDT
BNSF H-TEAAMY 1-18A (sb manifest, Teague, TX to PTRA American Yard; Houston, TX)
BNSF 5497 [GE C44-9W]
BNSF 6701 [GE ES44C4]
Cerrajon 1026 [GE ES44AC]
all images: © 2022 ~ Phantastic Pherroequinology / Philip M. Goldstein
Original Caption: Sub-bituminous coal like the piece John Redding is holding lies under the surface of some 25,000 square miles of Montana and Wyoming. Much of that land is now used for farming and ranching the Westmoreland Coal Company wants to strip mine. Redding and other Sarpy Basin ranchers are refusing to sell their land, 06/1973
U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-6635
Photographer: Norton, Boyd
Subjects:
Environmental protection
Natural resources
Pollution
Billings (Montana, United States) inhabited place
Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/549121
Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.
For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html
Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
The "LAWRENCE" was a 160ft.two-masted twin-screw iron steamer. She was built in 1884 by Kish, Boolds & Co. of Sunderland, England, and launched originally as "BORTONIUS".
The following year, coal was discovered in the tiny West Coast hamlet of Mokihinui (the first high-grade bituminous coal to be mined in New Zealand), and the Mokihinui Coal Company was established. A second coal seam was soon found, even larger than the first, and in 1889 the flourishing business purchased the LAWRENCE [victoriancollections.net.au/items/555577b3998fc21654210829].
Good fortune continued to smile on the young company, and in early 1891 it won a contract to supply coal to the NZ Railways.
But the good fortune ran out on April 28, 1891. From the up-river wharf where the Mokihinui Coal Co.’s one-mile tramway delivered the coal from the mines, the LAWRENCE set sail at about noon. She became lodged in the sandbar at the river mouth, managed to break free but, owing to her damaged propeller blades, she then drifted onto the beach. The next day she broke her back in heavy weather and was declared a total loss [paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18910430.2.22].
As the LAWRENCE was its only ship, the Mokihinui Coal Co. was subsequently forced to hand over its newly-acquired rail contract to the Grey Valley Coal Company...
==========
In 1935 a ship’s bell was found near Westport, about 40km south of the Mokihinui River. It caused considerable local speculation because, at first, no-one recognised the name inscribed on the bell: BORTONIUS.
(Updated May 14, 2024)
At the beginning of the twentieth century, it took some moxy to build a white skyscraper in Chicago. The city derived much of its energy from the burning of soft, sulfur-rich bituminous coal mined in the Illinois Basin. By modern standards the air was unspeakably foul, as noted by such contemporary visitors as H. G. Wells. Coal soot and grime coated surfaces everywhere, and the cost of removing these unsightly substances, when they could be removed, was staggering.
But this building, which darkened like practically every other, was every year easily returned to its original gleaming state, and at modest expense. This because it's clad not in granite or marble, but in glazed terra-cotta crafted by Chicago's famous Northwestern works. One of the many virtues of this less expensive and lighter stand-in for stone is that it's easily washed. Not surprisingly, many other Chicago buildings of this era were clad in terra-cotta as well.
Ironically, though, the Illinois Basin was also the source for much of Northwestern's terra-cotta-forming clay. Associated with the seams of coal found there were marine shales and underclays (paleosols or ancient soils in which the coal-swamp vegetation had grown). These were mined, too, and shipped up to Northwestern's works on the bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River.
For more on this site, see my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i...
And to see the other photos and descriptions of this series, visit my Terra-Cottology album.
"Lower Stoddard Range is a historic range of buildings in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located in Savannah's Historic District, the addresses of some of the properties are East Bay Street, above Factors Walk, while others solely utilize the former King Cotton warehouses on River Street. As of February 2022, the businesses occupying the ground floor of the River Street elevation are: Boar's Head Grill & Tavern, Savannah's Candy Kitchen, Gallery 209 and Christmas on the River.
The building stands adjacent to Archibald Smith Stores, the two separated only by steps leading to and from River Street and Factors Walk.
The building was constructed by 1858 by John Stoddard (1809–1879), on foundations that were previously the three lower tiers of the early-19th-century Harden (western portion of the range) and Howard Stores (eastern portion). Harden's property was known colloquially as Coffee House Wharf.
Factors Edgar L. Guerard and Edward L. Holcombe (1840–1875), formerly a major for the Confederates in the Civil War, were operating their general commission and shipping merchants enterprise from "5 Stoddard's Lower Range, Bay Street" in 1869. At number 7, meanwhile, Grantham Israel Taggart (1828–1905) was providing a similar service, under the name Taggart & Company, in addition to offering anthracite and bituminous coal.
In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the signal corps had their command headquarters in the range.
The buildings that comprise Upper Stoddard Range are at 12–42 East Bay Street, to the west of the lower range.
River Street is a commercial street and promenade in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It runs along the southern edge of the Savannah River for 2 miles (3.2 km), from the merging of North and East Lathrop Avenues in the west to East Bay Street in the east. Its most well-known section runs from the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, then below City Hall and Yamacraw Bluff, to its eastern terminus. It is West River Street up to where the Hyatt Regency Savannah spans it. It is here, around 40 feet (12 m) below Bay Street, that it becomes East River Street. The street is one-way (westbound) from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Today, East River Street consists largely of restaurants, cafés and craft shops, and is one of the city's major tourist attractions. Its half-mile-long pedestrian promenade, the John P. Rousakis Riverfront Plaza, is named for Savannah's longest-serving mayor (1970–1992).
At its downtown stretch, the street's southern side is populated by terraces of former King Cotton warehouses, the industrial rear portions of the more fashionable Bay Street frontages. Factors Row, a bluffside row of red-brick buildings where cotton brokers bargained during the product's heyday, helps preserve this industry in its name. Factors Walk is "built on the middle level of a sloping bluff with warehouses beneath and Bay Street above." The warehouses were also used as holding cells for African slaves.
Savannah (/səˈvænə/ sə-VAN-ə) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War, Savannah is today an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport. It is Georgia's fifth-largest city, with a 2020 U.S. Census population of 147,780. The Savannah metropolitan area, Georgia's third-largest, had a 2020 population of 404,798.
Each year, Savannah attracts millions of visitors to its cobblestone streets, parks, and notable historic buildings. These buildings include the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA), the Georgia Historical Society (the oldest continually operating historical society in the South), the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African-American Baptist congregations in the United States), Temple Mickve Israel (the third-oldest synagogue in the U.S.), and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex (the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in the U.S.).
Savannah's downtown area, which includes the Savannah Historic District, its 22 parklike squares, and the Savannah Victorian Historic District, is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States (designated by the U.S. government in 1966). Downtown Savannah largely retains the original town plan prescribed by founder James Oglethorpe (a design now known as the Oglethorpe Plan). During the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted by Atlanta, Savannah held sailing competitions in the nearby Wassaw Sound." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
Suggestions for the collection, examination and
photography of rock dwelling Patella species.
Ian F. Smith, April 2020
Casual photographs of the shell exterior of Patella species are unreliable evidence for differentiation and are likely to be declined as records by verifiers on iRecord, especially when they would alter the established distribution patterns. In north-west Europe, if a lateral view shows that a shell has a height 50%, or more, of its length, it can usually be accepted as Patella vulgata (but it often has a lower shell). Otherwise, the interior of a fresh shell may suffice but, often, a view of the foot and peripheral pallial tentacles is needed. This requires removal, without damage, of a live limpet from the substrate.
Collecting equipment
Dining knife with a strong, broadly rounded tip (sharp point risks damage).
Plastic box, lined with polythene, part-filled with seawater.
Collecting method
Please be sparing in how many you take, especially if limpets are not locally common.
Carefully approach a limpet in a pool or on damp rock; its shell will probably not be applied with full force to the substrate. Sudden movement or shadow may cause it to clamp down. When close enough, quickly force the knife, angled into the rock under the shell and foot. A horizontal thrust risks lethal damage. If the rock is soft, try to push the knife tip into its surface. Complete the removal by striking the handle of the knife with your free hand, as if hitting a chisel. If your first thrust fails to go under the limpet, abandon the effort as it will have clamped down and be impossible to move without damage. Try another one.
Place the removed limpet, sole down, in the lined box in water sufficiently deep to cover the shell; there should be air left in the box. Leave the box undisturbed for the limpet to settle and grip the polythene before transporting it. Upturned limpets are likely to die, so check as soon as home is reached that it is still upright. If collecting more than one, place each in a separate box as if one dies it will foul the water and kill its companions. If processing is delayed, keep in a refrigerator at about 7°C.
If you decide to examine/photograph the limpet on the beach you can dispense with the box. If replacing a limpet, it should be at the spot where found.
Examination equipment.
1. Container about 4 cm deep with base painted with black bituminous paint (or clear base on top of black polythene).
2. Piece of glass that will fit inside container.
3. Four identical flat supports about 15 mm thick (e.g. dissection blocks).
4. Sea water.
5. Spirit-levelled work surface. e.g. an aquarium stand with top of toughened glass such as door off old audio system cabinet. On the shore do your best to level the container.
Examination method.
Take the polythene with limpet out of its box and slide the limpet off it onto the glass.
Place the glass on the supports in the container with seawater deep enough to just cover the glass.
When limpet has gripped the glass, turn glass over and replace on supports. If the limpet moves to the edge you can usually slide it to the centre without it detaching.
The expanded foot will now be visible. When the limpet has settled down it will likely extend its head and you may see the mouth open, and the radula make feeding strokes. Eventually, the mantle will expand to the shell’s rim, and the peripheral pallial tentacles will extend and be visible against the black base of the container.
Compare what you see with images in the accounts at flic.kr/s/aHskokisge and flic.kr/s/aHskqnXPqt ; both contain comparative images of P. vulgata. Magnification and good lighting will help.
Photography
If the shell height is 50%, or more, of the shell length, an untilted side-image showing its profile is usually sufficient evidence for P. vulgata in north-west Europe. Otherwise, a clear photograph of the vacant shell interior may be enough. If foot and pallial tentacles are used for positive identification, a clear record photograph is needed for acceptance as personal judgement about what is opaque white or translucent is subjective, especially until the different species have been experienced. (From this cause I initially made mistaken records which had to be removed from NBN maps.)
Cameras vary widely in what they can do. A digital SLR with manual focus, rack and pinion tripod and two side flashes, as in the image above, is ideal but expensive. A separate sheet is available for Nikon 300s which may be of use with other DSLRs. This article is to guide you to general principles that I hope you will find useful with automatic compact cameras, mobile phone cameras etc, as well as DSLRs.
If about to buy a compact camera, one that is put to very good use by many is the Olympus Tough TG series shop.olympus.eu/en_GB/cameras/tough/tg-6 . It can withstand being dropped and can even be used submerged in a pool. It can be used by divers to moderate depths, but may have a short life if used without a camera housing. It has a 12 megapixel image sensor. Cameras with fewer pixels will take poorer images, those with more should do better.
Camera Handbook It is essential to read the handbook to learn how to use different features on your camera. Keep a note of what you find useful. Use the camera for general photography before attempting close ups.
Focusing
For zoomed-in close ups the depth of field of focus is tiny. If the subject and lens surface are not parallel, one part may be in focus and the rest blurred.
1) Avoid tilting the camera or the subject/base of container (unless both tilted at same angle) if possible. The most reliable method is with camera facing vertically down mounted on a rack and pinion tripod with both work surface and back of camera levelled horizontal with a spirit level.
2) Avoid the slightest movement of the camera as the automatic focus is unlikely to adjust quickly enough to minor movement. Use tripod as in 1; otherwise use whatever is available to steady the camera with lens surface parallel to subject/container base. One impromptu shore technique used by A. Rowat when photographing with an Olympus TG, is to hold it in two hands and project his little fingers to rest against the substrate. If the telescopic legs are withdrawn to their minimum, a tripod is very stable and can be stood on a table with the subject raised for closer focusing on a rigid box on the table.
3) Zoom in (closeness possible varies with camera) to fill as much of the frame as is possible with the subject so the automatic focus adjusts to the subject rather than a larger expanse of background.
4) Keep the subject as close as possible to the background which is likely to be what it focuses on when it is not possible to fill the frame with the subject. Holding the subject in one hand and the camera in the other while standing on the shore is likely to give a focused image of the shore and a blurred image of the subject and hand, added to by unavoidable small movement.
5) Use flash, as with it the lens aperture will close to the minimum for the bright light it provides. Small apertures give sharper images than large ones. Images taken in weak light will cause the aperture to open wide and the result is likely to be blurred, or very dark if it doesn’t open.
Glare and reflection
In the open, a horizontal water surface reflects the sky, including clouds. This hinders what can be seen in the water and gives photos a milky appearance. Ask a companion to block the sky by holding a black umbrella, or similar, high above the container or pool containing the subject.
Indoors, a flash located on the top of a camera pointing vertically down emits light at 90° to the water surface, and the light reflects directly back on the same track into the lens causing glare. If the camera can be operated with flash units off the camera, two should be placed, one at either side, at c. 45° tilt to the surface. Flash units can be free standing or mounted on a lens bracket protruding right and left. The light then is reflected away at 45° in the opposite direction, not into the camera. If a single side flash is used, one side will be brilliant and the other in black shadow. To avoid this if only one is available, put a reflector of crumpled aluminium foil close to the subject on the side away from the flash. But many cameras only have the option of single top-mounted flash. In this case, deviate slightly from focusing item ‘1’ (above) by tilting the camera and flash up a little. Experiment to find the minimum tilt that will get rid of reflection; you may find that when zoomed in very close that the small distance between lens and flash is sufficient for the reflection to miss the lens, even when the camera is untilted.
Damp/wet shells have a curved surface that reflects at an infinite number of different angles. However you position the camera or light source, some light will enter the lens and cause glare. To avoid this, either dry the shell or submerge it completely and photograph it as above. If part protrudes from the water, the curved meniscus at point of emergence will cause glare.
Exposure
The automatic exposure of a camera sets itself according to brightness of what it senses in the frame. If a small dark subject is surrounded by a large white background the aperture reduces to avoid what it senses, mainly the white background, from being too bright. This results in a correctly exposed background and an underexposed dull dark image of the subject. To avoid this, try photographing with a black smooth background, such as a base painted with black bituminous paint or a clear base resting on black polythene. Avoid textured surfaces as they catch and reflect light. Different camera models vary, so you may need to experiment.
Editing
An editing suite can vastly improve images. Photoshop is the best known, but is expensive and complicated to use. A simpler, cheaper one may be easier to master.
There may already be some editing facilities on your pc; it is worth having a look. I use PhotoStudio 6, but it is no longer available for official sale. Features I find most useful are crop, rotate, auto enhance, sharpen, brightness, saturation, contrast, fill, clone, brush, text, and stitch. Practice is required to get the best from editing.
Chip sealing preserves the integrity and life of deteriorating roadway by applying a Bituminous Surface Treatment (BST) seal coat of oil and gravel (chips) to the existing pavement. Restoration is necessary before the underlying road structure is damaged, requiring a much more expensive rebuild.
Website info:
It was all the way back in 1931 when Elizabeth saw her first light of day, being created at the Sentinel Waggon Works in Shrewsbury. She is very special for a number of reasons and here are some of them.
Being a DG6P enrolled her into a quite exclusive club. DG for double geared, 6 for six wheeler and P for pneumatic, a reference to her revolutionary ‘pump up’ tyres. The drive from Elizabeth’s engine, to her wheels is via huge chains and she was one of the last to be built like this, as later models were much more modern, sporting the newfangled shaft drive.
Being one of the first vehicles turned out with modern inflatable tyres made her revolutionary at the time. Believe it or not, only six DG6s survive and of those, only two are of the pneumatic tyre type. By some strange quirk, Elizabeth’s only true sister lives no more than 60 miles from her! However, that is where the similarity ends.
While Elizabeth is seen by untold numbers of people every single year, her counterpart has not been out of her shed for nearly 30 years. In 1931, Elizabeth began her working life with the Cement Marketing Company, performing sterling service for them until the late 1940s.
Facing redundancy, Elizabeth was rescued to start a new life as a tar sprayer in the north east, at Bituminous Road Products of Middlesbrough. Following a very useful, but relatively short tenure, she again found a new owner, in the well known road contractor, Glossops. Here, she ended her first working life, going on to pass through the hands of many enthusiast owners in what was to be a life in preservation spanning over 40 years.
When she became available in 2002, our offer was accepted and the rest, as they say is history. Her bus, or charabanc, body was lovingly constructed using the time honoured coach building method, along with traditional materials. Some 60 cubic feet of beautiful white ash and mahogany went into producing what you now see.
Sentinel produced these vehicles with the intent that they would be multi-purpose and Elizabeth fits that criteria perfectly. When you take a ride, you will hear the incredible story of how officialdom had to be fought to allow Elizabeth to take to the road as a Bus.
Marvel at how the government were lobbied to change the Road Traffic Act and no less than the Secretary of State for Transport agreed to issue a special licence for Elizabeth to legally carry passengers.
For more info: www.whitbysteambus.co.uk/index.html
Asphalt (US Listeni/ˈæsfɔːlt/ or UK /ˈæsfælt/,[1][2] occasionally /ˈæʃfɔːlt/), also known as bitumen (US /bɪˈtjuːmən, baɪ-/,[3][4] UK /ˈbɪtjᵿmən/[5]) is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product; it is a substance classed as a pitch. Until the 20th century, the term asphaltum was also used.[6] The word is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος ásphaltos.[7]
The primary use (70%) of asphalt/bitumen is in road construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs.[8]
source: wikipedia
Epandeur bitumineux. Région de Montréal, Québec, 1948. Photo: Murray Markanen.
Bituminous sprayer. Greater Montreal region, Québec. 1948. Photo: Murray Markanen.
On our trip down south, February 24, 2018. We stopped at Shag Point/Matakaea as I had never been there before. Matakaea is the name of the pa (fortified village). We have left Dunedin and going to stay in Timaru for a night before heading back to Christchurch.
Shag Point/Matakaea has a rich history, from early Ngai Tahu settlement to historic coalmining. The area has diverse marine life. It has interesting flora, is great for wildlife viewing, and is geologically fascinating.
Flat rock platforms provide an easy haul-out site for New Zealand fur seals, and cliff-top viewing areas allow you to observe seal behaviour without disturbing their rest.
Whalers discovered the first bituminous coal in New Zealand here in the 1830s. By 1862 the exposed coal seams were found to be commercially viable and were successfully mined until 1972, when flooding eventually closed shafts that extended under the coast. Evidence of coal mining is still obvious throughout the reserve.
Matakaea is jointly managed by DOC and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. Matakaea has Topuni status. The mana (authority) and rangatiratanga (chieftainship) of Ngai Tahu over the area is recognised publicly by this status. Ngai Tahu takes an active role in managing the natural and cultural values of the area.
For More Info: www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/p...
"Lower Stoddard Range is a historic range of buildings in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located in Savannah's Historic District, the addresses of some of the properties are East Bay Street, above Factors Walk, while others solely utilize the former King Cotton warehouses on River Street. As of February 2022, the businesses occupying the ground floor of the River Street elevation are: Boar's Head Grill & Tavern, Savannah's Candy Kitchen, Gallery 209 and Christmas on the River.
The building stands adjacent to Archibald Smith Stores, the two separated only by steps leading to and from River Street and Factors Walk.
The building was constructed by 1858 by John Stoddard (1809–1879), on foundations that were previously the three lower tiers of the early-19th-century Harden (western portion of the range) and Howard Stores (eastern portion). Harden's property was known colloquially as Coffee House Wharf.
Factors Edgar L. Guerard and Edward L. Holcombe (1840–1875), formerly a major for the Confederates in the Civil War, were operating their general commission and shipping merchants enterprise from "5 Stoddard's Lower Range, Bay Street" in 1869. At number 7, meanwhile, Grantham Israel Taggart (1828–1905) was providing a similar service, under the name Taggart & Company, in addition to offering anthracite and bituminous coal.
In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the signal corps had their command headquarters in the range.
The buildings that comprise Upper Stoddard Range are at 12–42 East Bay Street, to the west of the lower range.
River Street is a commercial street and promenade in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It runs along the southern edge of the Savannah River for 2 miles (3.2 km), from the merging of North and East Lathrop Avenues in the west to East Bay Street in the east. Its most well-known section runs from the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, then below City Hall and Yamacraw Bluff, to its eastern terminus. It is West River Street up to where the Hyatt Regency Savannah spans it. It is here, around 40 feet (12 m) below Bay Street, that it becomes East River Street. The street is one-way (westbound) from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Today, East River Street consists largely of restaurants, cafés and craft shops, and is one of the city's major tourist attractions. Its half-mile-long pedestrian promenade, the John P. Rousakis Riverfront Plaza, is named for Savannah's longest-serving mayor (1970–1992).
At its downtown stretch, the street's southern side is populated by terraces of former King Cotton warehouses, the industrial rear portions of the more fashionable Bay Street frontages. Factors Row, a bluffside row of red-brick buildings where cotton brokers bargained during the product's heyday, helps preserve this industry in its name. Factors Walk is "built on the middle level of a sloping bluff with warehouses beneath and Bay Street above." The warehouses were also used as holding cells for African slaves.
Savannah (/səˈvænə/ sə-VAN-ə) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War, Savannah is today an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport. It is Georgia's fifth-largest city, with a 2020 U.S. Census population of 147,780. The Savannah metropolitan area, Georgia's third-largest, had a 2020 population of 404,798.
Each year, Savannah attracts millions of visitors to its cobblestone streets, parks, and notable historic buildings. These buildings include the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA), the Georgia Historical Society (the oldest continually operating historical society in the South), the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African-American Baptist congregations in the United States), Temple Mickve Israel (the third-oldest synagogue in the U.S.), and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex (the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in the U.S.).
Savannah's downtown area, which includes the Savannah Historic District, its 22 parklike squares, and the Savannah Victorian Historic District, is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States (designated by the U.S. government in 1966). Downtown Savannah largely retains the original town plan prescribed by founder James Oglethorpe (a design now known as the Oglethorpe Plan). During the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted by Atlanta, Savannah held sailing competitions in the nearby Wassaw Sound." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
BigBoy had a centipede type tender, developed by the Union Pacific Railroad and used with all BigBoys. It had 14 wheels (4 leading and 10 trailing). The tender was 39' 1 3/4" long, 9' 7" high and 10' 10" wide. Fully loaded, it weighed in at 82 tons (164,000lbs). It had a capacity of 28 tons of semi-bituminous coal and 25,000 gallons of water.
Original picture taken February 1994 on slide. Digital captured from paper print.
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BACKGROUND OF THIS MUMMY
This is the mummy of Mr. Wimitok Mabel. He was the head of the warriors and head of the tribes in Kurulu, Wasi and Wandaku Area. All Communities of these area obeyed him and followed him with commitment, specifically about warrior, culture ceremony such as wedding ceremony, pig ceremony, dance and the other daily activities such as garden work and house building and so on. Mr. Wimitok Mabel had 9 wives and each wife had 2 children, so in total 18 children. Before he died, he made an agreement that he wanted to be preserved not to be burned or buried. Therefore after he died all families followed his agreement.
THE METHOD OF THE PRESERVATION
Not all people can do the preservation. For the preservation you need four people - two boys and two ladies. The two boys do the preperation and the two ladies cook for them and serve the food. As food only sweet potatoes and sugarcane is allowed - no water, coffee or tea. To preserve a dead body it is hung over a fire for three month.
During this activity no other people are allowed inside the house - only the four. After three month they bring the mummy to the big Mans House. This mummy is about 360 years old.
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A mummy is a deceased human or an animal whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 AD (See the section Etymology and meaning).
Mummies of humans and other animals have been found on every continent, both as a result of natural preservation through unusual conditions, and as cultural artifacts. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats.
In addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy is a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BCE. The oldest known naturally mummified human corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old, found in 1936 CE at the site named Inca Cueva No. 4 in South America.
ETYMOLOGY AND MEANING
The English word mummy is derived from medieval Latin mumia, a borrowing of the medieval Arabic word mūmiya (مومياء) and from a Persian word mūm (wax), which meant an embalmed corpse, and as well as the bituminous embalming substance, and also meant "bitumen". The Medieval English term "mummy" was defined as "medical preparation of the substance of mummies", rather than the entire corpse, with Richard Hakluyt in 1599 CE complaining that "these dead bodies are the Mummy which the Phisistians and Apothecaries doe against our willes make us to swallow".
THESE SUBSTANCES WERE DEFINED AS MUMMIES
The OED defines a mummy as "the body of a human being or animal embalmed (according to the ancient Egyptian or some analogous method) as a preparation for burial", citing sources from 1615 CE onward. However, Chamber's Cyclopædia and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows: "A human or animal body desiccated by exposure to sun or air. Also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow".
Wasps of the genus Aleiodes are known as "mummy wasps" because they wrap their caterpillar prey as "mummies".
HISTORY OF MUMMY STUDIES
While interest in the study of mummies dates as far back as Ptolemaic Greece, most structured scientific study began at the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to this, many rediscovered mummies were sold as curiosities or for use in pseudoscientific novelties such as mummia. The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, conducted by professors at the English-language Government School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt. The first X-ray of a mummy came in 1903, when professors Grafton Elliot Smith and Howard Carter used the only X-ray machine in Cairo at the time to examine the mummified body of Thutmose IV. British chemist Alfred Lucas applied chemical analyses to Egyptian mummies during this same period, which returned many results about the types of substances used in embalming. Lucas also made significant contributions to the analysis of Tutankhamun in 1922.
Pathological study of mummies saw varying levels of popularity throughout the 20th century. In 1992, the First World Congress on Mummy Studies was held in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. More than 300 scientists attended the Congress to share nearly 100 years of collected data on mummies. The information presented at the meeting triggered a new surge of interest in the subject, with one of the major results being integration of biomedical and bioarchaeological information on mummies with existing databases. This was not possible prior to the Congress due to the unique and highly specialized techniques required to gather such data.
In more recent years, CT scanning has become an invaluable tool in the study of mummification by allowing researchers to digitally "unwrap" mummies without risking damage to the body. The level of detail in such scans is so intricate that small linens used in tiny areas such as the nostrils can be digitally reconstructed in 3-D. Such modelling has been utilized to perform digital autopsies on mummies to determine cause of death and lifestyle, such as in the case of Tutankhamun.
TYPES
Mummies are typically divided into one of two distinct categories: anthropogenic or spontaneous. Anthropogenic mummies were deliberately created by the living for any number of reasons, the most common being for religious purposes. Spontaneous mummies, such as Ötzi, were created unintentionally due to natural conditions such as extremely dry heat or cold, or anaerobic conditions such as those found in bogs. While most individual mummies exclusively belong to one category or the other, there are examples of both types being connected to a single culture, such as those from the ancient Egyptian culture.
EGYPTIAN MUMMIES
The earliest ancient Egyptian mummies were created naturally due to the environment in which they were buried. In the era prior to 3500 BCE, Egyptians buried the dead in pit graves, without regard to social status. Pit graves were often shallow. This characteristic allowed for the hot, dry sand of the desert to dehydrate the bodies, leading to natural mummification.
The natural preservation of the dead had a profound effect on ancient Egyptian religion. Deliberate mummification became an integral part of the rituals for the dead beginning as early as the 2nd dynasty (about 3400 BCE). New research of an 11-year study by University of York, Macquarie University and University of Oxford suggests mummification occurred 1,500 years earlier than first thought. Egyptians saw the preservation of the body after death as an important step to living well in the afterlife. As Egypt gained more prosperity, burial practices became a status symbol for the wealthy as well. This cultural hierarchy lead to the creation of elaborate tombs, and more sophisticated methods of embalming.
By the 4th dynasty (about 2600 BCE) Egyptian embalmers began to achieve "true mummification" through a process of evisceration, followed by preserving the body in various minerals and oils. Much of this early experimentation with mummification in Egypt is unknown.
The few documents that directly describe the mummification process date to the Greco-Roman period. The majority of the papyri that have survived only describe the ceremonial rituals involved in embalming, not the actual surgical processes involved. A text known as The Ritual of Embalming does describe some of the practical logistics of embalming, however, there are only two known copies and each is incomplete. With regards to mummification shown in images, there are apparently also very few. The tomb of Tjay designated TT23, is one of only two known which show the wrapping of a mummy (Riggs 2014).
Another text that describes the processes being used in latter periods is Herodotus' Histories. Written in Book 2 of the Histories is one of the most detailed descriptions of the Egyptian mummification process, including the mention of using natron in order to dehydrate corpses for preservation. However, these descriptions are short and fairly vague, leaving scholars to infer the majority of the techniques that were used by studying mummies that have been unearthed.
By utilizing current advancements in technology, scientists have been able to uncover a plethora of new information about the techniques used in mummification. A series of CT scans performed on a 2,400-year-old mummy in 2008 revealed a tool that was left inside the cranial cavity of the skull. The tool was a rod, made of an organic material, that was used to break apart the brain to allow it to drain out of the nose. This discovery helped to dispel the claim within Herodotus' works that the rod had been a hook made of iron. Earlier experimentation in 1994 by researchers Bob Brier and Ronald Wade supported these findings. While attempting to replicate Egyptian mummification, Brier and Wade discovered that removal of the brain was much easier when the brain was liquefied and allowed to drain with the help of gravity, as opposed to trying to pull the organ out piece-by-piece with a hook.
Through various methods of study over many decades, modern Egyptologists now have an accurate understanding of how mummification was achieved in ancient Egypt. The first and most important step was to halt the process of decomposition, by removing the internal organs and washing out the body with a mix of spices and palm wine. The only organ left behind was the heart, as tradition held the heart was the seat of thought and feeling and would therefore still be needed in the afterlife. After cleansing, the body was then dried out with natron inside the empty body cavity as well as outside on the skin. The internal organs were also dried and either sealed in individual jars, or wrapped to be replaced within the body. This process typically took forty days.
After dehydration, the mummy was wrapped in many layers of linen cloth. Within the layers, Egyptian priests placed small amulets to guard the decedent from evil. Once the mummy was completely wrapped, it was coated in a resin in order to keep the threat of moist air away. Resin was also applied to the coffin in order to seal it. The mummy was then sealed within its tomb, alongside the worldly goods that were believed to help aid it in the afterlife.
Aspergillus niger has been found in the mummies of ancient Egyptian tombs and can be inhaled when they are disturbed.
MUMMIFICATION AND RANK
Mummification is one of the defining customs in ancient Egyptian society for people today. The practice of preserving the human body is believed to be a quintessential feature of Egyptian life. Yet even mummification has a history of development and was accessible to different ranks of society in different ways during different periods. There were at least three different processes of mummification according to Herodotus. They range from "the most perfect" to the method employed by the "poorer classes".
"MOST PERFECT" METHOD
The most expensive process was to preserve the body by dehydration and protect against pests, such as insects. Almost all the actions Herodotus described serve one of these two functions.
First, the brain was removed by passing an iron hook through the nose into the cranium and retracting it by the same pathway; the gray matter was discarded. Modern mummy excavations have shown that instead of an iron hook inserted through the nose as Herodotus claims, a rod was used to liquefy the brain via the cranium, which then drained out the nose by gravity. The embalmers then rinsed the skull with certain drugs that mostly cleared any residue of brain tissue and also had the effect of killing bacteria. Next, the embalmers made an incision along the flank with a sharp blade fashioned from an Ethiopian stone and removed the contents of the abdomen. Herodotus does not discuss the separate preservation of these organs and their placement either in special jars or back in the cavity, a process that was part of the most expensive embalming, according to archaeological evidence.
The abdominal cavity was then rinsed with palm wine and an infusion of crushed, fragrant herbs and spices; the cavity was then filled with spices including myrrh, cassia, and, Herodotus notes, "every other sort of spice except frankincense," also to preserve the person.
The body was further dehydrated by placing it in natron, a naturally occurring salt, for seventy days. Herodotus insists that the body did not stay in the natron longer than seventy days. Any shorter time and the body is not completely dehydrated; any longer, and the body is too stiff to move into position for wrapping. The embalmers then wash the body again and wrapped it with linen bandages. The bandages were covered with a gum that modern research has shown is both waterproofing agent and an antimicrobial agent.
At this point, the body was given back to the family. These "perfect" mummies were then placed in wooden cases that were human-shaped. Richer people placed these wooden cases in stone sarcophagi that provided further protection. The family placed the sarcophagus in the tomb upright against the wall, according to Herodotus.
AVOIDING EXPENSE
The second process that Herodotus describes was used by middle-class people or people who "wish to avoid expense". In this method, an oil derived from cedar trees was injected with a syringe into the abdomen. A rectal plug prevented the oil from escaping. This oil probably had the dual purpose of liquefying the internal organs, but also of disinfecting the abdominal cavity. (By liquefying the organs, the family avoided the expense of canopic jars and separate preservation). The body was then placed in natron for seventy days. At the end of this time, the body was removed and the cedar oil, now containing the liquefied organs, was drained through the rectum. With the body dehydrated, it could be returned to the family. Herodotus does not describe the process of burial of such mummies, but they were perhaps placed in a shaft tomb. Poorer people used coffins fashioned from terracotta.
INEXPENSIVE METHOD
The third and least-expensive method the embalmers offered was to clear the intestines with an unnamed liquid, injected as an enema. The body was then placed in natron for seventy days and returned to the family. Herodotus gives no further details.
CHRISTIAN MUMMIES
In Christian tradition some bodies of Saints are naturally conserved, and venerated.
MUMMIFICATION IN OTHER CULTURES
AFRICA
In addition to the mummies of Egypt, there have been instances of mummies being discovered in other areas of the African continent. The bodies show a mix of anthropogenic and spontaneous mummification, with some being thousands of years old.
SOUTH AFRICA
The first mummy to be discovered in South Africa was found in the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area by Dr. Johan Binneman in 1999. Nicknamed Moses, the mummy was estimated to be around 2,000 years old. After being linked to the indigenous Khoi culture of the region, the National Council of Khoi Chiefs of South Africa began to make legal demands that the mummy be returned shortly after the body was moved to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.
ASIA
The mummies of Asia are usually considered to be accidental. The decedents were buried in just the right place where the environment could act as an agent for preservation. This is particularly common in the desert areas of the Tarim Basin and Iran. Mummies have been discovered in more humid Asian climates, however these are subject to rapid decay after being removed from the grave.
CHINA
Mummies from various dynasties throughout China's history have been discovered in several locations across the country. They are almost exclusively considered to be unintentional mummifications. Many areas in which mummies have been uncovered are difficult for preservation, due to their warm, moist climates. This makes the recovery of mummies a challenge, as exposure to the outside world can cause the bodies to decay in a matter of hours.
An example of a Chinese mummy that was preserved despite being buried in an environment not conducive to mummification is Xin Zhui. Also known as Lady Dai, she was discovered in the early 1970s at the Mawangdui archaeological site in Changsha. She was the wife of the marquis of Dai during the Han dynasty, who was also buried with her alongside another young man often considered to be a very close relative. However, Xin Zhui's body was the only one of the three to be mummified. Her corpse was so well-preserved that surgeons from the Hunan Provincial Medical Institute were able to perform an autopsy. The exact reason why her body was so completely preserved has yet to be determined.
Some of the more infamous mummies to be discovered in China are those termed Tarim mummies because of their discovery in the Tarim Basin. The dry desert climate of the basin proved to be an excellent agent for desiccation. For this reason, over 200 Tarim mummies, which are over 4,000 years old, were excavated from a cemetery in the present-day Xinjiang region. The mummies were found buried in upside-down boats with hundreds of 13-foot long wooden poles in the place of tombstones. DNA sequence data shows that the mummies had Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) characteristic of western Eurasia in the area of East-Central Europe, Central Asia and Indus Valley. This has created a stir in the Turkic-speaking Uighur population of the region, who claim the area has always belonged to their culture, while it was not until the 10th century when the Uighurs are said by scholars to have moved to the region from Central Asia. American Sinologist Victor H. Mair claims that "the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid" with "east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago", while Mair also notes that it was not until 842 that the Uighur peoples settled in the area. Other mummified remains have been recovered from around the Tarim Basin at sites including Qäwrighul, Yanghai, Shengjindian, Shanpula, Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa.
IRAN
As of 2012, at least eight mummified human remains have been recovered from the Douzlakh Salt Mine at Chehr Abad in northwestern Iran. Due to their salt preservation, these bodies are collectively known as Saltmen. Carbon-14 testing conducted in 2008 dated three of the bodies to around 400 BCE. Later isotopic research on the other mummies returned similar dates, however, many of these individuals were found to be from a region that is not closely associated with the mine. It was during this time that researchers determined the mine suffered a major collapse, which likely caused the death of the miners. Since there is significant archaeological data that indicates the area was not actively inhabited during this time period, current consensus holds that the accident occurred during a brief period of temporary mining activity
SIBERIA
In 1993, a team of Russian archaeologists led by Dr. Natalia Polosmak discovered the Siberian Ice Maiden, a Scytho-Siberian woman, on the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Mountains near the Mongolian border. The mummy was naturally frozen due to the severe climatic conditions of the Siberian steppe. Also known as Princess Ukok, the mummy was dressed in finely detailed clothing and wore an elaborate headdress and jewelry. Alongside her body were buried six decorated horses and a symbolic meal for her last journey. Her left arm and hand were tattooed with animal style figures, including a highly stylized deer.
The Ice Maiden has been a source of some recent controversy. The mummy's skin has suffered some slight decay, and the tattoos have faded since the excavation. Some residents of the Altai Republic, formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union, have requested the return of the Ice Maiden, who is currently stored in Novosibirsk in Siberia.
Another Siberian mummy, a man, was discovered much earlier in 1929. His skin was also marked with tattoos of two monsters resembling griffins, which decorated his chest, and three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a mountain goat on his left arm.
PHILIPPINES
Philippine mummies are called Kabayan Mummies.They are common in Igorot culture and their heritage.The mummies are found in some areas named Kabayan, Sagada and among others. The mummies are dated between the 14th and 19th centuries.
EUROPE
The European continent is home to a diverse spectrum of spontaneous and anthropogenic mummies. Some of the best-preserved mummies have come from bogs located across the region. The Capuchin monks that inhabited the area left behind hundreds of intentionally-preserved bodies that have provided insight into the customs and cultures of people from various eras. One of the oldest, and most infamous, mummies (nicknamed Ötzi) was discovered on this continent. New mummies continue to be uncovered in Europe well into the 21st Century.
BOG BODIES
The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark have produced a number of bog bodies, mummies of people deposited in sphagnum bogs, apparently as a result of murder or ritual sacrifices. In such cases, the acidity of the water, low temperature and lack of oxygen combined to tan the body's skin and soft tissues. The skeleton typically disintegrates over time. Such mummies are remarkably well preserved on emerging from the bog, with skin and internal organs intact; it is even possible to determine the decedent's last meal by examining stomach contents. A famous case is that of the Haraldskær Woman, who was discovered by labourers in a bog in Jutland in 1835. She was erroneously identified as an early medieval Danish queen, and for that reason was placed in a royal sarcophagus at the Saint Nicolai Church, Vejle, where she currently remains. Another famous bog body, also from Denmark, known as the Tollund Man was discovered in 1950. The corpse was noted for its excellent preservation of the face and feet, which appeared as if the man had recently died. To this day, only the head of Tollund Man remains, due to the decomposition of the rest of his body, which was not preserved along with the head.
CZECH REPUBLIC
The majority of mummies recovered in the Czech Republic come from underground crypts. While there is some evidence of deliberate mummification, most sources state that desiccation occurred naturally due to unique conditions within the crypts.
The Capuchin Crypt in Brno contains three hundred years of mummified remains directly below the main altar. Beginning in the 18th Century when the crypt was opened, and continuing until the practice was discontinued in 1787, the Capuchin monks of the monastery would lay the deceased on a pillow of bricks on the ground. The unique air quality and topsoil within the crypt naturally preserved the bodies over time.
Approximately fifty mummies were discovered in an abandoned crypt beneath the Church of St. Procopius of Sázava in Vamberk in the mid-1980s. Workers digging a trench accidentally broke into the crypt, which began to fill with waste water. The mummies quickly began to deteriorate, though thirty-four were able to be rescued and stored temporarily at the District Museum of the Orlické Mountains until they could be returned to the monastery in 2000. The mummies range in age and social status at time of death, with at least two children and one priest. The majority of the Vamberk mummies date from the 18th century.
The Klatovy catacombs currently house an exhibition of Jesuit mummies, alongside some aristocrats, that were originally interred between 1674–1783. In the early 1930s, the mummies were accidentally damaged during repairs, resulting in the loss of 140 bodies. The newly updated airing system preserves the thirty-eight bodies that are currently on display.
DENMARK
Apart from several bog bodies, Denmark has also yielded several other mummies, such as the three Borum Eshøj mummies, the Skrydstrup Woman and the Egtved Girl, who were all found inside burial mounds, or tumulus.
In 1875, the Borum Eshøj grave mound was uncovered, which had been built around three coffins, which belonged to a middle aged man and woman as well as a man in his early twenties. Through examination, the woman was discovered to be around 50–60 years old. She was found with several artifacts made of bronze, consisting of buttons, a belt plate, and rings, showing she was of higher class. All of the hair had been removed from the skull later when farmers had dug through the casket. Her original hairstyle is unknown. The two men wore kilts, and the younger man wore a sheath of which contained a bronze dagger. All three mummies were dated to 1351–1345 BCE.
The Skrydstrup Woman was unearthed from a tumulus in Southern Jutland, in 1935. Carbon-14 dating showed that she had died around 1300 BCE; examination also revealed that she was around 18–19 years old at the time of death, and that she had been buried in the summertime. Her hair had been drawn up in an elaborate hairstyle, which was then covered by a horse hair hairnet made by sprang technique. She was wearing a blouse and a necklace as well as two golden earrings, showing she was of higher class.
The Egtved Girl, dated to 1370 BCE, was found also inside a sealed coffin inside of a tumulus, in 1921. She was wearing a bodice and a skirt, including a belt and bronze bracelets. Also found with the girl were the cremated remains of a child at her feet, and by her head a box containing some bronze pins, a hairnet, and an awl.
HUNGARY
In 1994, 265 mummified bodies were found in the crypt of a Dominican church in Vác, Hungary from the 1729–1838 period. The discovery proved to be scientifically important, and by 2006 an exhibition was established in the Museum of Natural History in Budapest. Unique to the Hungarian mummies are their elaborately decorated coffins, with no two being exactly alike.
ITALY
The varied geography and climatology of Italy has led to many cases of spontaneous mummification. Italian mummies display the same diversity, with a conglomeration of natural and intentional mummification spread across many centuries and cultures.
The oldest natural mummy in Europe was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border. Nicknamed Ötzi, the mummy is a 5,300-year-old male believed to be a member of the Tamins-Carasso-Isera cultural group of South Tyrol. Despite his age, a recent DNA study conducted by Walther Parson of Innsbruck Medical University revealed Ötzi has 19 living genetic relatives.
The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo were built in to the 16th century by the monks of Palermo’s Capuchin monastery. Originally intended to hold the deliberately mummified remains of dead friars, interment in the catacombs became a status symbol for the local population in the following centuries. Burials continued until the 1920s, with one of the most famous final burials being that of Rosalia Lombardo. In all, the catacombs host nearly 8000 mummies.
The most recent discovery of mummies in Italy came in 2010, when sixty mummified human remains were found in the crypt of the Conversion of St Paul church in Roccapelago di Pievepelago, Italy. Built in the 15th Century as a cannon hold and later converted in the 16th Century, the crypt had been sealed once it had reached capacity, leaving the bodies to be protected and preserved. The crypt was reopened during restoration work on the church, revealing the diverse array of mummies inside. The bodies were quickly moved to a museum for further study.
NORTH AMERICA
The mummies of North America are often steeped in controversy, as many of these bodies have been linked to still-existing native cultures. While the mummies provide a wealth of historically-significant data, native cultures and tradition often demands the remains be returned to their original resting places. This has led to many legal actions by Native American councils, leading to most museums keeping mummified remains out of the public eye.
CANADA
Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi ("Long ago person found" in the Southern Tutchone language of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations), was found in August 1999 by three First Nations hunters at the edge of a glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. According to the Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Project, the remains are the oldest well preserved mummy discovered in North America. (It should be noted that the Spirit Cave mummy although not well preserved, is much older.) Initial radiocarbon tests date the mummy to around 550 years-old.
GREENLAND
In 1972, eight remarkably preserved mummies were discovered at an abandoned Inuit settlement called Qilakitsoq, in Greenland. The "Greenland Mummies" consisted of a six-month-old baby, a four-year-old boy, and six women of various ages, who died around 500 years ago. Their bodies were naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry winds in the cave in which they were found.
MEXICO
Intentional mummification in pre-Columbian Mexico was practiced by the Aztec culture. These bodies are collectively known as Aztec mummies. Genuine Aztec mummies were "bundled" in a woven wrap and often had their faces covered by a ceremonial mask. Public knowledge of Aztec mummies increased due to traveling exhibits and museums in the 19th and 20th centuries, though these bodies were typically naturally desiccated remains and not actually the mummies associated with Aztec culture. (See: Aztec mummy)
Natural mummification has been known to occur in several places in Mexico, though the most famous are the mummies of Guanajuato. A collection of these mummies, most of which date to the late 19th century, have been on display at El Museo de las Momias in the city of Guanajuato since 1970. The museum claims to have the smallest mummy in the world on display (a mummified fetus). It was thought that minerals in the soil had the preserving effect, however it may rather be due to the warm, arid climate. Mexican mummies are also on display in the small town of Encarnación de Díaz, Jalisco.
UNITED STATES
Spirit Cave Man was discovered in 1940 during salvage work prior to guano mining activity that was scheduled to begin in the area. The mummy is a middle-aged male, found completely dressed and lying on a blanket made of animal skin. Radiocarbon tests in the 1990s dated the mummy to being nearly 9,000 years old. The remains are currently held at the Nevada State Museum. There has been some controversy within the local Native American community, who began petitioning to have the remains returned and reburied in 1995.
AUSTRALIA
The aboriginal mummification traditions found in Australia are thought be related to those found in the Torres Strait islands, the inhabitants of which achieved a high level of sophisticated mummification techniques (See:Torres Strait). Australian mummies lack some of the technical ability of the Torres Strait mummies, however much of the ritual aspects of the mummification process are similar. Full-body mummification was achieved by these cultures, but not the level of artistic preservation as found on smaller islands. The reason for this seems to be for easier transport of bodies by more nomadic tribes.
NEW ZEALAND
Some Māori tribes from New Zealand would keep mummified heads as trophies from tribal warfare. They are also known as Mokomokai. In the 19th Century, many of the trophies were acquired by Europeans who found the tattooed skin to be a phenomenal curiosity. Westerners began to offer valuable commodities in exchange for the uniquely tattooed mummified heads. The heads were later put on display in museums, 16 of which being housed across France alone. In 2010, the Rouen City Hall of France returned one of the heads to New Zealand, despite earlier protests by the Culture Ministry of France.
There is also evidence that some Maori tribes may have practiced full-body mummification, though the practice is not thought to have been widespread. The discussion of Maori mummification has been historically controversial, with some experts in past decades claiming that such mummies have never existed. Contemporary science does now acknowledge the existence of full-body mummification in the culture. There is still controversy, however, as to the nature of the mummification process. Some bodies appear to be spontaneously created by the natural environment, while others exhibit signs of deliberate practices. General modern consensus tends to agree that there could be a mixture of both types of mummification, similar to that of the ancient Egyptian mummies.
SOUTH AMERICA
The South American continent contains some of the oldest mummies in the world, both deliberate and accidental. The bodies were preserved by the best agent for mummification: the environment. Rather than developing elaborate processes such as later-dynasty ancient Egyptians, the early South Americans often left their dead in naturally dry or frozen areas, though some did perform surgical preparation when mummification was intentional. Some of the reasons for intentional mummification in South America include memorialization, immortalization, and religious offerings.
INCA MUMMIES
Several naturally-preserved, unintentional mummies dating from the Incan period have been found in the colder regions of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. These are collectively known as "ice mummies". The first Incan ice mummy was discovered in 1954 atop El Plomo Peak in Chile, after an eruption of the nearby volcano Sabancaya melted away ice that covered the body. The Mummy of El Plomo was a male child who was presumed to be wealthy due to his well-fed bodily characteristics. He was considered to be the most well-preserved ice mummy in the world until the discovery of Mummy Juanita in 1995.
Mummy Juanita was discovered near the summit of Ampato in the Peruvian section of the Andes mountains by archaeologist Johan Reinhard. Her body had been so thoroughly frozen that it had not been desiccated; much of her skin, muscle tissue, and internal organs retained their original structure. She is believed to be a ritual sacrifice, due to the close proximity of her body to the Incan capital of Cusco, as well as the fact she was wearing highly intricate clothing to indicate her special social status. Several Incan ceremonial artifacts and temporary shelters uncovered in the surrounding area seem to support this theory.
More evidence that the Inca left sacrificial victims to die in the elements, and later be unintentionally preserved, came in 1999 with the discovery of the Llullaillaco mummies on the border of Argentina and Peru. The three mummies are children, two girls and one boy, who are thought to be sacrifices associated with the ancient ritual of qhapaq hucha. Recent biochemical analysis of the mummies has revealed that the victims had consumed increasing quantities of alcohol and coca, possibly in the form of chicha, in the months leading up to sacrifice. The dominant theory for the drugging reasons that, alongside ritual uses, the substances probably made the children more docile. Chewed coca leaves found inside the eldest child's mouth upon her discovery in 1999 supports this theory.
SELF-MUMMIFICATION
Monks whose bodies remain incorrupt without any traces of deliberate mummification are venerated by some Buddhists who believe they successfully were able to mortify their flesh to death. Self-mummification was practiced until the late 1800s in Japan and has been outlawed since the early 1900s.
Many Mahayana Buddhist monks were reported to know their time of death and left their last testaments and their students accordingly buried them sitting in lotus position, put into a vessel with drying agents (such as wood, paper, or lime) and surrounded by bricks, to be exhumed later, usually after three years. The preserved bodies would then be decorated with paint and adorned with gold.
Bodies purported to be those of self-mummified monks are exhibited in several Japanese shrines, and it has been claimed that the monks, prior to their death, stuck to a sparse diet made up of salt, nuts, seeds, roots, pine bark, and urushi tea.
PLASTINATION
Plastination is a technique used in anatomy to conserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most microscopic properties of the original sample.
The technique was invented by Gunther von Hagens when working at the anatomical institute of the Heidelberg University in 1978. Von Hagens has patented the technique in several countries and is heavily involved in its promotion, especially as the creator and director of the Body Worlds traveling exhibitions, exhibiting plastinated human bodies internationally. He also founded and directs the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg.
More than 40 institutions worldwide have facilities for plastination, mainly for medical research and study, and most affiliated to the International Society for Plastination.
Treatment of ancient mummies in modern times
In the Middle Ages, based on a mistranslation from the Arabic term for bitumen, it was thought that mummies possessed healing properties. As a result, it became common practice to grind Egyptian mummies into a powder to be sold and used as medicine. When actual mummies became unavailable, the sun-desiccated corpses of criminals, slaves and suicidal people were substituted by mendacious merchants. The practice developed into a wide-scale business that flourished until the late 16th century. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties to stop bleeding, and were sold as pharmaceuticals in powdered form as in mellified man. Artists also made use of Egyptian mummies; a brownish pigment known as mummy brown, based on mummia (sometimes called alternatively caput mortuum, Latin for death's head), which was originally obtained by grounding human and animal Egyptian mummies. It was most popular in the 17th century, but was discontinued in the early 19th century when its composition became generally known to artists who replaced the said pigment by a totally different blend -but keeping the original name, mummia or mummy brown-yielding a similar tint and based on ground minerals (oxides and fired earths) and or blends of powdered gums and oleoresins (such as myrrh and frankincense) as well as ground bitumen. These blends appeared on the market as forgeries of powdered mummy pigment but were ultimately considered as acceptable replacements, once antique mummies were no longer permitted to be destroyed. Many thousands of mummified cats were also sent from Egypt to England to be processed for use in fertilizer.
During the 19th century, following the discovery of the first tombs and artifacts in Egypt, Egyptology was a huge fad in Europe, especially in Victorian England. European aristocrats would occasionally entertain themselves by purchasing mummies, having them unwrapped, and holding observation sessions. These sessions destroyed hundreds of mummies, because the exposure to the air caused them to disintegrate.
WIKIPEDIA
When the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad built their new station in Scranton they commissioned 36 tile murals from the Grueby Faience Company of Revere, Massachusetts. The murals depict scenes along the DL&W's Phoebe Snow route from Hoboken to Buffalo, which was the railroad's most scenic route.
A depot somewhere along the DL&W's Phoebe Snow line. Singer Phoebe Snow took her stage name after the DL&W's early 1900s fictional character, a woman who dressed all in white to demonstrate how the DL&W's anthracite coal-burning trains were cleaner than their competitors who used bituminous coal.
23 November 2021: I found the pamphlet that describes the murals! This is the "Station at Marathon, NY, built in 1906. It was one of the few concrete stations on the DL&W."
Hasta el momento en que Fortuny recibió el encargo, en 1860, de la Diputación de Barcelona para ir a Marruecos a retratar las hazañas de los ejércitos españoles, y especialmente de los destacamentos catalanes al mando del general Prim, sobre la contienda norteafricana, había sido un aprendiz formado en primer lugar en Reus con el pintor Domènec Soberano (1825-1909) y, más tarde, a partir de 1852, en la Escuela de Llotja de Barcelona, donde se introdujo en la órbita del nazarenismo al convertirse en discípulo de Claudio Lorenzale (1815-1889).
Al margen de estas circunstancias, la estancia en Tetuán le descubrió el mundo islámico, que le llevaría al cultivo de la pintura de género orientalista. Además, como le sucedió a Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), a Eugène Fromentin (1820-1876) y a muchos otros artistas, la luz meridional afectó a su estilo, hasta aquel momento aún un tanto académico y de tonalidades neutras, algo bituminosas. A partir de entonces se transformó gradualmente en un lenguaje más vigoroso y expresivo, de colores más luminosos y de claroscuros acentuados. Ayudó al cambio, sin duda, el continuado y perseverante ejercicio diario de captar la realidad in situ para poder trasladarla posteriormente al cuadro, en su estudio. Los apuntes tomados del natural le obligaban a adentrarse, mediante la observación atenta, en los matices y las peculiaridades visuales de aquellas tierras y lo conducirían a dejar de lado muchas fórmulas de taller.
En realidad, la obra se convirtió en un reto fallido para su autor, en un desengaño que no llegó nunca a finalizar. En todo caso, resulta una obra embriagadora por su movimiento, colorido y la manera de introducir al espectador en una batalla de la que se vuelve casi partícipe; por no hablar de la economía de medios, ya que con simples “brochazos”, casi esbozos, y una pincelada esponjosa es capaz de transmitir un realismo inmediato.
______________
Until the moment when Fortuny received the commission, in 1860, from the Diputación de Barcelona to go to Morocco to portray the exploits of the Spanish armies, and especially of the Catalan detachments under the command of General Prim, on the North African conflict, had been an apprentice trained first in Reus with the painter Domènec Soberano (1825-1909) and later, from 1852, at the Llotja School in Barcelona, where he was introduced to the orbit of Nazareneism by becoming a disciple of Claudio Lorenzale (1815-1889).
Apart from these circumstances, his stay in Tetouan discovered for him the Islamic world, which would lead him to the cultivation of orientalist painting. Moreover, as happened to Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Eugène Fromentin (1820-1876) and many other artists, the southern light affected his style, which up to that time was still somewhat academic and of neutral, somewhat bituminous tones. From then on it gradually became a more vigorous and expressive language, with brighter colours and accentuated chiaroscuro. The continuous and persevering daily exercise of capturing reality in situ in order to be able to transfer it later to the painting, in his studio, helped the change. The notes taken from nature forced him to enter, through careful observation, the nuances and visual peculiarities of those lands and would lead him to leave aside many workshop formulas.
In reality, the work became a failed challenge for its author, a disappointment that never came to an end. In any case, it is an intoxicating work because of its movement, colour and the way it introduces the spectator into a battle in which he becomes almost a participant; not to mention the economy of means, since with simple "brushstrokes", almost sketches, and a spongy brushstroke he is capable of transmitting an immediate realism.
In preparation for the Kiewa Hydro-Electric Scheme of the 1930s, this hut was built for the SEC in the summer of 1932-3 to accommodate the snow research program manager, the resident engineer for the scheme{ Lawrence: 25,32 states 1933-4 and 1932-3 as const. date?}. The cottage was sited next to a hydro-meteorological station, set on stilts above the snow in the same year{ Carlyon}. This was not a refuge hut but a permanent residence for all of the year. The hut was designed by WE Gower (later SEC Chief Architect) and built by Joe Holston and C Jassund{ Carlyon, other sources say builder was Bill Spargo and designer, GT Dyson}. The materials for the hut were carted on a sled or pack horse by High Plains cattleman, Wally Ryder, and his brother-in-law, George Hobbs, along what is now the Alpine Walking Track from Mt Hotham{ ibid.; Holth & Holth: 110; VOM: 25; Carlyon says only Hobbs}. They had successfully tendered for the job in 1932{ VOM}. The frame was of Oregon, the weatherboards stained, the roof clad with bituminous felt layers placed over timber T&G decking, the interior lined with `Caniete' or a similar composite board, and the timber casement windows were double-glazed{ ibid.}. A photograph by Weston taken in December 1932 shows the hut in construction with the stud frame visible, the chimney built and the felt going in over the roof with purlins placed on top appearing ready to receive corrugated iron{ copy held at hut; compare with above roof cladding description}. A large shed with a thatch and canvas roof was built about 20m from the hut, housing wood, stores and an earth-drying stove (reputedly done during the Trimble occupation, c1942-6){ ibid.}. The work was sanctioned in 1932 after pioneering SEC weatherman, Joe Holston, had been operating from Wallace's Hut and later, the Pretty Valley Hut, from c1928{ Napier: 36}. Federal money and Bureau of Meteorology assistance was won and these two early huts were a base for construction of this building. Snow pole lines were established from Pretty Valley to Mt Cope and from Wallace's down Fall's Creek to allow weather station construction. The work carried out there included operation of a meteorological station at the cottage, measuring the snow depth and density along two pole lines, and operating stream gauging stations in the area{ Lawrence: 33}. The engineers included TO Olsen (1933-4), a Swiss engineer Adrian Rufenacht (1934-6), a Norwegian Martin Romuld (1936-42) and Stan Trimble until the program ceased in 1946{ ibid.; Napier: 37}. Olsen was reputedly a `brilliant engineer', the co-builder of this hut and the instigator of the research programme{ see Napier: 37}. He was credited as being the one of the masterminds behind the Snowy Mountains hydro-electricity scheme{ Holth & Holth: 110-}. Romuld, on the other hand, was a champion skier, constructing a ski-jump and a grass tennis court near the hut during his residency{ ibid.; Carlyon states that the court is still apparent by the collapsed wire mesh and posts}. The tennis court was reputedly the venue for a tournament which attracted some 39 entrants, drawn from the SEC camps in the area{ Lawrence: 33}. SEC worker, Warrand Begg, described life at the weather station under Olsen in the 1930s, himself resident at Cope Hut: `A very comfortable, if somewhat compact house has been built in which lived the engineer, Mr Olsen, Mrs Olsen and their son, Lasse{ Napier: 38}…I had to ski to work each morning (1 mile). The scope of the work carried out at the station is very wide; in addition to standard meteorological work… it also covers a detailed study of the behaviour of the water (including snow) both on and in the ground and to take samples of the soil every foot. These samples were taken to the station where the moisture content was determined..'{ ibid.}. Begg would go with Olsen or alone to inspect the weather stations on the pole line, going down to Roper's Hut or Pretty Valley{ ibid.}. The pioneering alpine ecological research done by Maisie Fawcett was undertaken from this (staying with the Trimbles) and the Rover Scout hut in the early 1940s{ Gillbank: 224}. Special radio broadcasts (both in English and coded) from 3UZ to the battery powered wireless at the cottage were a feature of each night 6.45-7.00 pm{ Carlyon}. During Trimble's occupation, in 1946, the hut was covered by a snow drift and the family trapped. Only the chimney tops of the hut were visible but the arrival of Rover Scouts meant the family's rescue although it took some 5 days to dig them out, with cracked rafters and a leaning hut as one result{ Holth, COTHC: 116}. The drift was thought to be caused by the lack of trees on the hill near the hut, allowing drifts to build up{ Carlyon}. The store which had been erected at the Cottage, reputedly during Trimble's time, was to become a storeroom for the Rover Scouts{ ibid.}. Access to stores for the building's occupiers was made a little easier when the Fitzgeralds cut a pack track for the SEC from Shannonvale{ Carlyon}. In the Trimble era, the porch was removed and in its place a bunk room was built, with a long entry passage: this was connected via a covered way to the shed{ Carlyon}. Regarded as luxurious by the local cattlemen, the hut had an attic level and had hot and cold running water{ ibid.}. Nevertheless it was pictured in `The Alps at the Crossroads' as a typical gabled weatherboarded hut form (now clad with metal sheet), albeit with an attic window, and a skillion entry annexe in the place of the typical verandah. The corrugated iron cladding of the skillion vestibule has however remained. Two metal chimneys were visible; the one at the south end since replaced by the kitchen alcove{ Johnson: 118}. The south kitchen window shown has also been replaced. The hut was sold in 1948 to the Victorian Ski Club and renamed Wilkinson Lodge, Wilkinson Robert Wood Wilkinson, best known as 'Wilkie, was indisputably the 'Father figure' of Victorian skiing. He first visited the snow at Mount Buffalo in 1909, at the age of thirty-five years, and was fifty when he joined the Ski Club of Victoria as one of its earliest members, in 1924. He had an immense influence on the Club in its formative years and played a prominent part in some of the earliest trips of exploration "Robert Wood Wilkinson was born at Talbot (Victoria) in 1874, and was at the age of sixteen apprenticed to his father, who was at that time a chemist at Maryborough. Mr Wilkinson led the first party across the Bogong High Plains in the winter of 1926, pioneering Mt Nelse on the same trip. In 1927, with Jack Docherty, he was the first to climb Mt Fainter on ski. Again, in 1929, Mr Wilkinson, with a party from the Club, were the first to climb Mt McKay on ski. As a photographer, he was known far and wide. Cope Hut, on the Bogong High Plains, as well as the lines of snow poles were the outcome of his untiring efforts. As long as people ski in Victoria the name of Robert Wilkinson should be remembered, because of his devotion to the sport, and his untiring efforts to assist the Ski Club of Victoria in its growth and activities." Robert Wood Wilkinson died on May 22, 1939. The hut was resold some 12 years later to the Melbourne Bushwalkers club{ Lawrence: 25 says 1948; Lloyd: 294 says 1949 but shows cheque dated 1948}. Johnson, in `The Alps at the Crossroads' gives the purchase date as 1959, noting that club member Darrel Sullivan (and later Doug Pocock) organised and `..carried out extensive renovations' to the hut{ Johnson: 118}. Sullivan and Art Terry led club work parties who maintained the Long Hill-Crinoline and Gillio's Tracks{ ibid.}. In 1983, the National Parks Service described the building as an old SEC hut which had been purchased and, afterwards, maintained and occupied solely by the Melbourne Bushwalking Club (locked). It was in good condition but offered no public refuge: they recommended that some space in the hut be provided for refuge after negotiations with the club{ NPS (1983): 47}. The detailed description noted that many modifications had been made since the hut was built by the SEC: once weatherboard it was then clad with steel deck. It had kitchen (2.5x3.5m), stores (6x1.85m), shower, toilet, lounge (5x3.65m) with large fireplace (south end, 1.9x1m) and attic (3.3m wide) sleeping accommodation{ Boadle (1983): 53}. The hut yard had been fenced to repel stock from the hut and spring and firewood was gathered from outside of the Park such that the snowgums around the hut were not depleted{ ibid.}. The hut was cited in 1990 as `..a reminder of early SEC scientific investigations and as such is worthy of preservation'{ ibid.}. It was being extended and modified in the late 1980s for better use as a refuge{ National Trust of Australia (Vic) 6018- Lennon (DCF&L) letter 8.4.88}. Wilkinson relatives flew out from New Zealand to meet with other relatives to visit the hut in 2002. During this visit the family spread the ashes of Wilkie around the hut. `…Wilkinson Lodge, in Alpine National Park, licensed hut to Melbourne University Bushwalking Club, …was destroyed on Saturday night (January 2004) when a gas cylinder caught fire. The chimney is standing but the rest is gone. ... It was reported by CFA to DSE about 10:50 p.m. on Saturday night. …. Rob Chalwell at Bright DSE (Fire Duty Officer) knows more than most about the details. (email from Ted Stabb, DSE 19/1/2004)
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Coal_Mine
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Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX
_DSC1121 Anx2 1400h Q90
View of damaged asbestos sheet flooring showing grey paper-like backing and wooden sub-floor beneath. Homeowner attempted removal by ripping, then using sharp-edged scraper, resulting in damaged, friable asbestos debris.
Although types and composition of older sheet flooring can vary (some with asphalted or bituminous felt layers, or burlap backing, etc.), the general appearance of a common asbestos sheet floor material typically looks like grey backing layer adhered to the top vinyl pattern layer. However, the only conclusive way of determining if a material contains asbestos is to have a sample of it tested.
Many do-it-yourself (DIY) residential renovation projects that involve removal of vintage flooring materials could possibly encounter such a scenario: older layered sheet flooring (often referred to as "linoleum") which may contain asbestos. If planning a home remodel, it is best recommended to have building materials evaluated by a qualified, licensed asbestos inspector before impacting the materials.
If not taken up in a completely intact manner, removal of asbestos-containing sheet flooring will inevitably damage the soft, susceptible asbestos paper backing and can potentially contaminate the surroundings causing an airborne exposure hazard, particularly if trying to remove it by mechanical or manual scraping methods.
Another consideration for asbestos when dealing with older flooring materials is that the adhesive or mastic could also contain asbestos as well. Sometimes, there are situations where the flooring was tested and found not to contain asbestos, but the associated adhesive did contain asbestos. Consequently, dry-scraping or scarifying an asbestos-containing floor adhesive could further create an asbestos exposure hazard.
With a plentiful and gracious heads up from my inside source, I was alerted to this coming through on the H-TEAAMY 1-18A. As stated to me “a “weird looking color schemed engine” departing Teague third in consist at 16:00 which would put it through Flynn at approximately 17:15.
Now, it’s been blisteringly hot and dry here for the last 2½ months, so no railfanning for me. Of course this comes through and we’ve got a major thunderstorm line bearing down from the west. Trust me, we need the rain desperately, but the timing?
What was going to get here first: the locomotive or the storm line? Well, the locomotive made it by about 5 minutes before the rain. No sooner does the EOT pass me does the first line of downpours hit.
I was fortunate enough to catch the logo.
Cerrajón
carbón para el mundo
Progreso para Columbia.
Which translates to”
Coal for the world,
Progress for Columbia
Cerrajón Mining located in La Guajira, Columbia is an open pit low sulfur low ash bituminous coal mine.
Photos on the internet show Cerrajón had a fleet of GE B36-7 units and is in the progress of upgrading to ES44ACs.
BNSF
Red River Division
Houston Subdivision
MP168.46 – FM 977gc
Flynn, Texas, USA
18 August 2020 – 17:22 CDT
BNSF H-TEAAMY 1-18A (sb manifest, Teague, TX to PTRA American Yard; Houston, TX)
BNSF 5497 [GE C44-9W]
BNSF 6701 [GE ES44C4]
Cerrajon 1026 [GE ES44AC]
all images: © 2022 ~ Phantastic Pherroequinology / Philip M. Goldstein
I don't know much about this building in particular but I believe there once used to be a town of 1,000 people or something like that in Michel. All the buildings except the Michel Hotel were bulldozed or moved to Sparwood to quote "Beautify Beautiful British Columbia". Maybe someone could clarify this for me.
Here is some history taken from Crowsnest Hwy.
www.crowsnest-highway.ca/cgi-bin/citypage.pl?city=SPARWOOD
Michel
Farthest east was the oldest of the valley’s settlements; Michel.
The CPR laid the rails of the B.C. Southern down this valley in the spring of 1898, and at the behest of CNP Coal, emplaced a siding and a little “Plan F-2-20-1” depôt which it named “Michel.” Within a year the mining company had crews hacking into the seams of coal at the foot of the Sparwood Ridge on the south side of the valley. Called “cannel coal,” its nugget-grade size, resistance to dusting and low ash content made it excellent locomotive fuel. It was classified as bituminous due to 68% of its weight being in fixed carbon. It ran to 23% in volatiles—methane, hydrogen, tar and ammonia—and averaged 7% ash. This meant that it should coke easily, and that that coke would, due to its low ash content, command top dollar from refineries and smelters. During its first few months of operation in 1899, the Michel mine output less than 500 tons of coal, but with the CPR’s encouragement, CNP Coal invested heavily in development and in 1900 the mine delivered more than 11,000 tons, about a tenth of the company’s entire output.
By 1900, writes W.J Cousins in A History of the Crow’s Nest Pass, the community of Michel consisted of 12 identical cottages, the Michel Hotel and a little store. The settlement mushroomed, consuming the valley’s thick growth of trees. The 1901 census enumerated 476 residents in the town, many having lost everything they owned after a fire wiped 23 houses and many other buildings on June 10th of that year. Likely helping to battle the blaze was August Baldauf and his crew, who had been hard at work since the spring of the year constructing a battery of 212 beehive coke ovens. Reports M.A. Kennedy in her 1979 thesis, Coke Ovens of the Crowsnest Pass, Baldauf and his men completed their contract by the end of the year at a cost of $705 per oven.
According to Michael Saad in “Mining Disasters and Rescue Operations at Michel Before World War Two” (The Forgotten Side of the Border, op. cit.), fire mauled Michel again in 1902 and 1903. In August of 1904, as CNP Coal’s 475 local workers were labouring towards the year’s production of over 235,250 tons of coal from Michel’s three mines, a two room school opened, though classes were presumably conducted before that, probably in the hotel or someone’s house. As well as a Post Office and a Trites-Wood Company store, Michel also hosted a branch of the Imperial Bank. In 1904, too, the construction of the 252 additional beehive ovens which CNP Coal had contracted the year before were completed, parading with the original battery in a double row beside the B.C. Southern’s trackage. From the coke plant workers output 95,000 tons that year.
Come 1907, report the authors of Photo Companion - Crowsnest and its people (Crowsnest Pass Historical Society, Coleman, Alberta, 1990), the population of Michel had swollen to some 1200 served by three churches. Electricity was supplied from the company’s powerhouse and a water system had been installed. The Michel Hotel was adjudged “first-class” under the proprietorship of Thomas Crahan, formerly of Wardner, B.C., and Morrissey. Because most structures were of wooden construction and all were becoming coated with coal dust, a Sisby fire engine was kept steaming at all times. Perhaps the one facility that made Michel an attractive place for miners to live and work was the brand new 6,000 square-foot wash-house which CNP Coal had built for its workers. With tubs and shower baths, hot water and ventilated lockers in which to hang wet and dirty work clothes, it was a luxury much appreciated by the men and their families. In one end of the building was an ambulance room where-in the community’s wound’s were treated.
Probably the most frightening event to befall the entire valley was the Great Fire of August, 1908. It began outside of Fernie, 35 kilometres away, and raged up the Elk’s valley and into the Michel’s. Such an awesome spectre was it that the women and children of the valley were ushered into boxcars and hauled over the Divide to Coleman for the duration of the battle. Despite the setback, CNP Coal added 22 more coke ovens to bring the total at Michel to 486, smoking 24 hours-per-day, each one capable of accepting an eight-ton charge of slack coal, but more commonly loaded with six-tons which took but 36 hours to reduce, rather than 56.
The treasured wash-house notwithstanding, in the new century workers were no longer prepared to meekly slave their lives away to improve their bosses standard of living. As the demand for Pass coal reached toward the 3.5 million ton mark that it would achieve in 1903, CNP Coal pressed its workers to increase production. The disputes between miner and manger that so frequently halted production at Coal Creek and made CP eager to develop its property at Hosmer also bedevilled labour relations at Michel. When miners at Coal Creek had walked out in June of 1901, their brothers at Michel were quick to follow. So it went through the years; the demands of capitalists fomenting resentment among the men in the mine, at the sharp end of the business. The peak of discontent was reached in 1911, when a Pass-wide walkout of unionized workers between March 31st and November 20th saw tensions explode into violence as company policemen supported by officers of the Provincial Police escorted “scabs” through lines of picketers. From Michel’s six mines 1020 workers had output 457,600 tons of coal and produced 78,500 tons of coke in 1910. Figures supplied by CNP Coal to the B.C. Department of Mines for 1912 reveal that many fewer than half of the 1910 workforce, 465 men, dug more than half of the 1910 tonnage—254,000 tons—and with 70,000 tons from the ovens nearly equalled the pre-strike coke production. There appears to have been a clear winner in the dispute.
The Michel Colliery worked steadily through the Great War, of course, and went through the same troubles that convulsed the rest of the Pass when the One Big Union led the miners’ fight for fair wages from the Western [Coal Operators Association.4 In 1922, the year that the mines were struck from April 1st to August 24th, Michel’s 613 workers output nearly 217,000 tons of coal and made 41,400 tons of coke. By 1924 the workforce had been pared to 470, and in the 118 days that the colliery was open, 148,000 and 30,600 tons of coal and coke were produced. That year was the low point of the decade, and come 1929, when 584 men in mines No.3, No.B, No.3 East and No.8 dug 342,000 tons.
Though the valley’s communities were separate entities politically, emotionally they were united. On Tuesday the 8th of August, 1916, lightning struck the New No.3 East mine’s haul rails and triggered three jolting explosions underground, blowing out the shafts, destroying surface plant. Twelve died, and although it was called by newspapers country-wide “the disaster at Michel,” through-out the valley families comforted grieving neighbours. Sudden death being ever a part of life in a coal town—the same mine had blown out on January 4th, 1904, killing seven miners and burning down half of Michel—the dead were quickly buried and the mine put back into production. Sadly, valley families were all too practised in funereal ritual. Records indicate that from 1902 to 1917 about 30 men and boys each year lost their lives in CNP Coal operations.
On the Friday of July 8th, 1938, lightning-struck rails touched off an explosion of coal dust suspended in the airways of the “B” Seam mine and three more died. By then, though, valley residents finally had a proper facility in which the injured could be treated. A bone of contention which had long strained labour relations had been the lack of a dedicated hospital in the valley. From early on medical facilities were maintained in various buildings in Michel and, later, in Natal, but it wasn’t until March of 1937 that the first permanent hospital was opened in a large three-storey’d house which CNP Coal had renovated for the purpose. Deductions from workers’ pay cheques maintained the service, buying supplies and paying staff. In October of 1963 a maternity unit was finally added.
The building of the hospital was not the only project CNP Coal was willing to undertake during the ‘30s. Demonstrating faith, if not foresight, in the market for coal, in 1932, in the depth of the Depression, the company constructed a new tipple at Michel. Though it was of the less expensive “dry sort” type, it was still a significant investment, and when it burned on October 25th and 26th of 1937, it was rebuilt. In 1939 one row of coke ovens—236 units—was levelled to make room for a battery of ten big Curran-Knowles by-product ovens which efficiently used the gases expelled during coking to sustain the process. These ovens, 40 feet long and tunnel-like with steel doors at either end and could accept an eight-ton charge. Unlike the beehives whose charge had to be levelled and then cleared by hand, the Curran-Knowles were served by a mechanical leveller/unloading ram which travelled along a wide quay on one side of the battery and shoved the finished coke out onto the loading quay on the other end of the ovens.
Perhaps desperate to keep workers as the Second World War sopped up men, in 1940 the company built a new washhouse.
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Pismo Beach History, Visitor Center Information
The history of people at Pismo Beach starts at least 9,000 years ago with the Chumash Indians, who referred to the area as a place to find pismu, or tar. The Pismo Beach region has an interesting history going back in time to 1769, when Don Gaspar de Portola and parties camped in the area. According to the diary of Costanso, a member of the Portola party, “The party continued over the sand dunes and then descended to the beach, along which they walked for several miles before camping for the night. Near their camping place was an Indian village of some forty people.” Undoubtedly, the beach walked upon by the Portola party was that known today as Pismo Beach. We invite you to take a look at our rich history.
The First Pismo Beach
The City is part of the original 8,838-acre Rancho Pismo. Rancho Pismo was granted to Jose Ortega by Manuel Rinemo Goriod on November 18, 1840. Ortega is thought to have built a small adobe that later became part of the Price Adobe. The rancho was later acquired by Issac Sparks. Some folktales relate that Sparks won the land from Ortega in a game of monte, but it appears from records kept by John M. Price that the ranch was purchased for 477 head of cattle. Sparks, in 1850, appears to have given John Price El Pizmo Rancho instead of paying him wages in gold, as the deed shows a cost of $1 for the property. Upon Spark’s death, John Michael Price and Captain David Mallagh received a share of the land. Price lived and worked on the rancho until his death in 1902. Price built up sizeable horse and cattle herds, which he moved onto the rancho. Mallagh owned a section of Rancho Pismo around the cave landing area (now Pirate’s Cove), where he established a wharf business. Price purchased some of the property in 1854. A portion of the southern part, which is now Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande, was sold to Francisco Branch. This left him with Shell Beach, Pismo Beach area and a large section running back into Price Canyon. In 1875, Price took the first step toward funding the community of Pismo Beach when he built a hotel on the road from Arroyo Grande to the People’s Wharf in Avila Beach. The hotel was not a success and Price had the hotel moved to the beach in 1884. In 1881, Price leased oceanfront land to the Meherin brothers to build a wharf and a warehouse. This wharf at the end of Main Street was successful and the hotel’s new location was next to this operation. The school district was founded in 1888, and the Post Office was also established then.
Parceling Pismo Beach
In February 1886, Price hired R.R. Harris to survey and design a map of the subdivisions of part of the Ranchos El Pismo and San Miguelito, and to also map out and draw a plan for a town to be called “El Pismo.” This was initiated in April 1886. A year later, the Pismo Beach Company again subdivided part of the community and recorded a map of the “Town El Pizmo.” It is interesting to note that the Pismo Beach Company is given credit by some for the founding of the present City of Pismo Beach.
Pismo’s Pier
Back in 1881, Pismo’s original wharf opened for business. Taking off from a point below the present Main Street, remnants of the pilings may still be seen at very low tides.
It was not planned for recreation as such — it was a commercial venture designed in part to save freight fees for South County products. Lumber was received as well as other commodities. Stock was issued to farmers and landowners for $20 a share and the wharf was built for $14,613. The Meherin brothers, Arroyo Grande merchants, started the venture. Most credit is given to D.J. Meherin for its inception, construction and maintenance. In 1882, a year after its completion, Meherin figured the wharf had saved the people of the county $35,000 in decreased freight rates compared with those of the steamer line they would have patronized. Thirty-eight vessels were loaded at the wharf in 1882. Two warehouses were built near the entrance where teams could move cargo in and out. A small hand car track led out to the end of the pier. The wharf was still active in 1890, but a few years later it gave way during a heavy storm. Probably contributing to the disaster was a load of heavy “bituminous rock” that had been dug in Edna and was waiting in sacks for shipment to San Francisco to be used as paving material. The new pier that replaced the original was built in 1924 and was much longer than it is today. Some can remember driving cars along its length, then backing out, or using the tight turn around at the end. It is said that it extended out far enough that Navy ships could tie up and the men could come ashore. The pier has sustained damage several times, but a major storm tore up the south side of the sea wall and about 500 feet off the end of the pier early in its existence. It was never put back. After a 1983 storm washed out most of the wharf, it was rebuilt in its present configuration in 1985-86. The state, county and city all have an interest in the pier. The pier at Pismo Beach continues to be one of the community’s major attractions.
Tourism
John Price realized the potential Pismo had for tourism when he built the Pismo Beach Hotel. The Pismo Beach Hotel was sold to A.E. Pomeroy and Charles Stimson in 1887. They enlarged the hotel and renamed it the El Pizmo Inn. The hotel was sold and resold many times. In early times, the area was thought of as a place to spend several months, relaxing and enjoying the surroundings. Early advertisements for the El Pizmo Inn encouraged visitors to come and enjoy the “fine duck hunting and the pleasant surroundings.” The 1900s were wild times in Pismo Beach. Pismo was noted for having many saloons, along with several notorious brothels. Other amusement type businesses at the time, besides the hotels, offered a variety of entertainment, including a skating rink, a bowling alley, and a dance hall. The property directly south of Shell Beach now known as Dinosaur Caves, was the site of an amusement park, with a giant cement dinosaur to gather attention. H. Douglas Brown started building the dinosaur in 1948 and was stopped by local opposition. The headless dinosaur remained a local landmark until it was torn down in the late 1950s. Pismo Beach was also known to be a place to find booze during the Prohibition Era. The second El Pizmo Inn was built about the turn of the century and became so popular that a “Tent City” was erected for the overflow of tourists. They were clean, well-organized 18′ x 14′ tents that could be rented for $8 a week. Resting on wooden planks, the tents were located where the Clam Digger stands today. Eventually, the Tent City was expanded to where the theater now stands. “Tent City” lasted into the late 1920s. The Southern Pacific Railroad also helped tourism in Pismo Beach. It brought people from the San Francisco Bay area to Pismo Beach in one of the first “timeshare” operations. The people paid $30 for a ride down to Pismo Beach and then stayed in the Tent City. If the tourists liked the tents, the railroad would use their fare as a down payment on a tent for the people. If the people didn’t like the tent, their money was refunded and they returned to San Francisco free of charge. It was rumored that more people stayed than asked for refunds. In 1912, Highway 2, today’s Highway 101, was routed through Pismo Beach, giving automobile travelers an easy route to the beach. Highway 101 was not expanded to four lanes until the late 1950s.
Shell Beach And Sunset Palisades
Shell Beach was quite different years ago, when it was nothing but pea fields. The area was the site of a Chumsh village. Floyd Calvert bought and developed much of the land in 1926. He paid $45,OOO for 41 acres between the ocean and the highways. When Calvert first visited Shell Beach, there were approximately 50 residents in the area. Calvert sold lots in the area for as little as $195. A resident of Hollywood, Calvert was told about the area by a friend in 1925. When he first visited Shell Beach, there was only one street, Boeker Avenue, with a few cottages on it. Calvert was struck by the beauty of Shell Beach and bought a portion of it. In January 1926, he opened offices in the area, hired seven salesmen and began selling land to people seeking summer retreats from the hot valley. When the summer selling season was over that first year, Calvert had to close his offices. The depression, which was to hit hard in 1929, was beginning to be felt. Then Calvert had to devise a new way to sell his land. He offered it for $5 a month. Even then it was hard to sell. During the Depression, Calvert, who had been a builder in Hollywood, lost all his property except for Shell Beach. He had such faith in this area he thought if he could hold on to this land, someday people would realize its worth. It took Calvert 20 years to sell the first 456 lots on the Shell Beach land he owned. But shortly before and after World War II, Calvert began to have more success selling lots. During World War II, many soldiers had trained in California. They liked the climate and wanted to live in the area. It was then that Shell Beach changed from a resort area for residents of the San Joaquin Valley to a residential community. When Calvert began to break ground for building houses, he found skeletons of Indians who had died and were buried in the area. He also found copper bracelets, arrowheads, spearheads, and stone bowls, which had been used for grinding meal. Most of the Indian artifacts were found near the ocean between Placentia and Palomar Streets. Major archaeological sites have been noted in this area and that of Sunset Palisades. It was known as Oilport and was opened in August of 1907, quite different from today’s residential Sunset Palisades area. Built with investor funds, it operated for only one month. The plant, built by California Petroleum Refineries Ltd., was to be the most modern on the West Coast. Nearly 2.25 million bricks went into the construction of the facilities. Financed primarily by investors, it cost over $2 million to build. It was to be the most complete refinery on the coast. It was set up to produce kerosene, gasoline, lubricating oil, and oil byproducts. The refinery existed until just after World War II, when it was finally torn down. The land was sold, subdivided and replaced with housing.
Incorporation
1926 saw the first incorporation attempt in Pismo Beach. Though it failed, attempts to incorporate the city were finally successful in 1939, when Pismo Beach became a sixth-class city by a majority of seven votes. In 1940, worries over increased taxes led the citizens to vote to disincorporate the city. The majority was eight votes in the election. The present city government dates from 1946. Pismo Beach is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2021
(public display, Geology Department, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, USA)
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Coal is a carbon-rich, biogenic sedimentary rock. It forms by the burial and alteration of organic matter from fossil land plants that lived in ancient swamps. Coal starts out as peat (see elsewhere in this photo album). With increasing burial and diagenetic alteration, peat becomes lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and then bituminous coal (see above). Bituminous coals tend to break and weather in a blocky fashion, are relatively sooty to the touch, and are harder & heavier than lignite coal (but still relatively soft & lightweight). Slightly discernible plant fossil fragments may be present on bituminous coal bedding planes - sometimes in abundance. Bituminous coals commonly have irregular patches of shiny, glassy-textured organic matter (vitrain).
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From exhibit signage:
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Bituminous
Bituminous coal is a dense, dark, brittle, banded coal that is well jointed and breaks into cubical or prismatic blocks and does not disintegrate upon exposure to air. Dull and bright bands and smooth and hackly layers are evident. It ignites easily, burns with a smoky yellow flame, has low moisture contnet, medium volatile content, and fixed carbon and heating content is high. It is the most used and most desired coal in the world for industrial uses.
In the United States, the Northern Appalachian fields lead in production, followed by the interior fields of the Midwest.
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