View allAll Photos Tagged braap
Not only does it have Halloween colors, but it usually scrapes around under bushes and scrub, where you can hear, but can't see it. You're walking in the forest, and you hear noises ....it it the Blair Witch Project? The raspy BRAAP it makes is not comforting to anyone who hasn't heard it before. No, you're not being followed by a ghostly creature. It's a Spotted Towhee.
The summer sun beat down on my heavy eyelids as the three adventurers braaped their way through winding Tennessee dirt roads. I snapped a photo here and there before passing out in the back of a 1980s toyota pickup that I had become acquainted with only that afternoon.
It was a good day.
Yet another WWI aero engine. The rotary was one of the dominant types during the Great War for its light weight, high power output and the ability to cool itself on the ground and at low airspeeds by virtue of spinning the cylinders around the stationary crankshaft.
Because the cylinders wouldn't hold still, it was a challenge to feed fuel to the heads, so the gasoline/castor oil blend was fed into the crankcase, much like a two-stroke engine.
The Gnome has only one pushrod and one mechanically operated valve, for exhaust, on each cylinder (#8 here), but there is an intake valve (#4) set in the head of each piston. These opened by pressure differential as the piston came down toward the center, and closed as the piston began to rise again without needing a cam to operate them.
A later version, called the Monosoupape (one-valve), eliminated the intake valve in the piston and drew in fuel at the bottom of the stroke through ports in the cylinder wall... even more like a two-stroke. In the Monosoupape, the exhaust valve stayed open for more than 360 degrees of engine rotation, opening early in the down stroke to relieve pressure and prevent backfiring when the intake ports opened, and staying open for half of the intake stroke to draw in air to mix with the fuel that wouldn't be admitted until the piston reached the bottom of the cylinder.... the one valve effectively functioning as both the intake and the exhaust valve. Confused yet? Ignition is by spark plugs, not shown in this drawing, but with the engine spinning there's no way to connect a battery and coil, so there's a magneto inside that spins with the engine.
There is also no throttle... the engine runs wide open, with only slight RPM control by a fuel valve that adjusts the mixture. For landing, the pilot had a cutoff switch to cut the spark and briefly kill the engine to slow down. Repeated operation of this switch controlled speed and resulted in the stuttering braap-braap-braap sound that these aircraft made when landing.
The other big name in rotary engines was Rhône. They had a more conventional design with separate overhead intake and exhaust valves operated by pushrods.
The rotary engine's advantages decreased rapidly as power and size increased, since the gyroscopic forces of the spinning mass could overwhelm the controllability of a lightweight aircraft, and the benefit of low-speed air cooling became less important as airplane speeds increased; so they were obsolete by the end of the war, replaced by liquid cooled inline engines for the most part. The similar-looking, air-cooled radial engine, which became and remained a dominant type right up until the introduction of jets and turboprops, did not develop until the 1920s.
[This drawing appears to be not quite correct: Early Gnome engines had a poppet inlet valve in the head of each piston, while the later "Monosoupape" models had inlet ports near the lower end of the cylinder walls. This drawing shows the poppet valve of the Gnome Omega and also the slotted inlet ports of the Model N Monosoupape .... an engine should have one or the other, but not both. Likewise, it shows the double rocker arms of the early Omega and also a roller valve lifter which is incompatible with the double rockers and comes from a later engine. The artist in this case was not clear on just how the engine he was drawing was designed and worked.]
A couple of years after posting this, I got a chance to work on a Gnome Omega. You can see it in the album at www.flickr.com/photos/rick_oleson/albums/72177720311702036/
(more info: thevintageaviator.co.nz/projects/engines/gnome-9b-2-engin...
We Spotted Towhees say BRAAP to you sissy Eastern Towhees' calls! Do you keep your little claw in the air when you say it? Here in the Pacific Northwest we drink COFFEE! Braap!
Spotted Towhee, obviously having had his coffee: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytAC6KKlyow
Eastern Towhee, telling us to "drink your tea-ea-ea-ea!!" :
Hasselblad 500C/M
Zeiss Prontor CF T* 80mm ƒ/2.8
Kodak Portra 400
Development notes:
First attempt at developing C-41 at home. Unicolor Powder C-41 kit. Used a sous vide cooker to maintain constant 102°F. 3.5 minutes with four inversions every four seconds.
OK, this woman had a thong tattoo. She also had a wristband and ticket to see Prince at First Avenue.
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He played three shows tonight - Macy's, Target Center, but the best is saved for First Avenue, the club that made him famous and where Purple Rain was filmed. Three of us tried to get in, security was tight - nobody was getting in without a wristband, ticket, and an ID - we only had one of these.
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The Associated Press
Sunday, July 8, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS: Prince thrilled his hometown fans with three shows over 12 hours, stopping only when police shut him down.
The Minneapolis native first performed Saturday at a department store to promote his new cologne, cramming nine songs into a 45-minute set. He then played that night at the Target Center arena. He capped the night across the street with a return to First Avenue, the club he made famous in the movie "Purple Rain."
"Minneapolis, I am home," the Purple One declared after the first song at Macy's department store.
Minnesota's governor and the Minneapolis mayor issued proclamations honoring Prince, and fans flew in from all over the country to see him.
After the Target Center, Prince waited until nearly 2:45 a.m. Sunday before starting the First Avenue show, the first time he had played at the club since 1987.
He was 15 songs and 70 minutes into a 24-song set when he announced from the stage: "The authorities say we gotta go. We always listen to the authorities. I promise I'll be back."
The club is allowed to stay open till 3 a.m. as long as liquor isn't served after 2 a.m.
Police Sgt. E.T. Nelson, watching from across the street as fans left the club, pointed to the many officers working overtime because of the event. More than 20 officers had worked to block off the streets surrounding the club and Target Center.
"I think it's very arrogant of him to think he can hold us here like this," said Nelson. "The law is the law for anybody."
First Avenue owner Byron Frank said the police talked with Prince's crew and did give the rocker a little extra time to wind it down.
"It's very sad they had to do it, because everybody was having such a wonderful time," Frank said.
Oddly enough, his handlebar snapped in half right after this photo was taken. Luckily, nobody was injured.
H&M, a clothing retailer, recently completed a renovation and expansion of their store in the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. When it was revealed to the public a couple of weeks ago, it featured a wall of frosted white glass, illuminating the sidewalk from behind the glass, much like the light boxes doctors use to review x-rays. Today, after class, I stopped to ponder how this new downtown feature might be used in a street portrait. Convinced it could work, I proceeded to have the first two potential subjects I approached decline. I was about to take this as a message that it was not to be when this young man came along and I thought his dark hat and sweatshirt, combined with his friendly face, could work well against the backlit glass. He said he could spare a few minutes on his way to the gym and suddenly my luck had changed. Meet Matheus.
Matheus followed my minimal instructions and once I had him in position and looking into my lens, the photos were soon taken. Matheus is 20 and is working as a fitness instructor and professional calisthenics athlete. He works for a gym which his sweatshirt advertises: bodybychosen.com. He explained that calisthenics are exercised done without equipment other than the body itself. Interestingly, he was born and raised in Brazil and came to Canada on his own to pursue his athletic career. Soon he was sponsored and had a job and things are going well for him. He came to Canada 2 years ago with hardly any English and took ESL classes (English as a Second Language) and with hard work and some luck, things have fallen into place for him. I thought his English was remarkable for someone who has only been here two years and we talked a bit about the courage it takes to leave homeland, family, and friends and create a new life in a foreign land and culture. I’m constantly amazed at the many Torontonians who have managed this. He does miss his old life but annual visits by his parents have helped and he feels the move was a good idea.
I didn’t think to ask Matheus what the logo on his cap means. I googled it and found out Braap is a “"Term created by dirtbike riders, and motocross riders. Often said when everyone would go riding...when riding bicycles, lifting something up, pushing carts...even walking or running. The term grew on and moved to snowmobilers too. BRAAP comes from the noise the two stroke engine produces. Quad riders can use the saying too." I assume that for Matheus it is a reference to his hard exercise routines.
When I asked about his greatest challenge in life he quickly said “That would be the death of my grandmother. She was really my second mother and she died when I was 13. That was very difficult to accept.” When I asked what helped him overcome that loss he said it was the love and support of family and friends. The importance of friendships and family relationships is a common theme of the strangers I meet. How would his friends describe him? “I think they would say I’m a funny and outgoing guy. I’m usually very positive and I like to hang out with my friends.” His advice to his younger self? “I should have studied harder in school. My parents told me that since I was young, but I didn’t listen and now I wish I had.”
In my brief conversation with Matheus I was impressed by his friendliness and his openness. He seems a motivated young man. I have a feeling his positive attitude, motivation, and discipline will serve him well in his career and in life.
Thank you Matheus for taking a few minutes to meet and participate in The Human Family project.
This is my 188th submission to The Human Family Group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.