A Text, in english, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Paragliding is a recreational and competitive flying sport. A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing, whose shape is formed by the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing.

n 1954, Walter Neumark predicted (in an article in Flight magazine) a time when a glider pilot would be “able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope … whether on a rock-climbing holiday in Skye or ski-ing in the Alps”.[1]

In 1961, the French engineer Pierre Lemoigne produced improved parachute designs which led to the Para-Commander (‘PC’), which had cut-outs at the rear and sides which enabled it to be towed into the air and steered – leading to parasailing/parascending.

Sometimes credited with the greatest development in parachutes since Leonardo da Vinci, the American Domina Jalbert invented in 1964 the Parafoil which had sectioned cells in an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge and a closed trailing edge, inflated by passage through the air – the ram-air design.[2]

Meanwhile, David Barish was developing the Sail Wing for recovery of NASA space capsules – “slope soaring was a way of testing out … the Sail Wing”.[3] After tests on Hunter Mountain, New York in September 1965, he went on to promote ‘slope soaring’ as a summer activity for ski resorts (apparently without great success).[4] NASA originated the term ‘paraglider’ in the early 1960’s, and ‘paragliding’ was first used in the early 1970’s to describe foot-launching of gliding parachutes.

Author Walter Neumark wrote Operating Procedures for Ascending Parachutes, and he and a group of enthusiasts with a passion for tow-launching ‘PCs’ and ram-air parachutes eventually broke away from the British Parachute Association to form the British Association of Parascending Clubs (BAPC) in 1973.

These threads were pulled together in June 1978 by three friends Jean-Claude Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson from Mieussy Haute-Savoie, France. After inspiration from an article on ‘slope soaring’ in the Parachute Manual magazine by parachutist & publisher Dan Poynter,[5] they calculated that on a suitable slope, a ‘square’ ram-air parachute could be inflated by running down the slope; Bétemps launched from Pointe du Pertuiset, Mieussy, and flew 100 m. Bohn followed him and glided down to the football pitch in the valley 1000 metres below.[6] ‘Parapente’ (pente being French for slope) was born.

Through the 1980’s and since, it has been a story of constantly improving equipment and ever greater numbers of paragliding pilots. The first World Championship was held in Kössen, Austria in 1989.

he paraglider wing or canopy is known in aeronautical engineering as a ram-air airfoil, or parafoil. Such wings comprise two layers of fabric which are connected to internal supporting material in such a way as to form a row of cells. By leaving most of the cells open only at the leading edge, incoming air (ram-air pressure) keeps the wing inflated, thus maintaining its shape. When inflated, the wing's cross-section has the typical teardrop aerofoil shape.

The pilot is supported underneath the wing by a network of lines. The lines are gathered into two sets as left and right risers. The risers collect the lines in rows from front to back in either 3 or 4 rows. The risers are connected to the pilot's harness by two carabiners.

Paraglider wings typically have an area of 20-35 m² with a span of 8–12 m, and weigh 3–7 kg. Combined weight of wing, harness, reserve, instruments, helmet, etc. is around 12–18 kg.

The glide ratio of paragliders ranges from 8:1 for recreational wings, to about 11:1 for modern competition models. For comparison, a typical skydiving parachute will achieve about 3:1 glide. A hang glider will achieve about 15:1 glide. An idling (gliding) Cessna 152 will achieve 9:1. Some sailplanes can achieve a glide ratio of up to 60:1.

The speed range of paragliders is typically 20–50 km/h (12-30 mph), from stall speed to maximum speed. Beginner wings will be in the lower part of this range, high-performance wings in the upper part of the range. The range for safe flying will be somewhat smaller.

Modern paraglider wings are made of high-performance non-porous fabrics such as Porcher Sport & Gelvenor, with Dyneema/Spectra or Kevlar/Aramid lines.

For storage and carrying, the wing is usually folded into a rucksack (bag), which can then be stowed in a large backpack along with the harness. For pilots who may not want the added weight or fuss of a backpack, the harness itself can be used to carry the wing, though this is less comfortable, and thus less favorable for longer hikes. In this case the wing (within the rucksack) is buckled into the harness seat, which is then slung over the shoulders. Recent developments in light-weight harness design include the ability to turn the harness inside out such that it becomes the backpack, thus removing the need for a second storage system.

Tandem paragliders, designed to carry the pilot and one passenger, are larger but otherwise similar. They usually fly faster with higher trim speeds, are more resistant to collapse, and have a slightly higher sink rate compared to solo paragliders.

The pilot is loosely and comfortably buckled into a harness which offers support in both the standing and sitting positions. Modern harnesses are designed to be as comfortable as a lounge chair in the sitting position. Many harnesses even have an adjustable 'lumbar support'.

A reserve parachute is also typically connected to a paragliding harness.

Parachutes, including skydiving canopies, are generally used for descending, such as jumping out of an aircraft or for dropping cargo; while paragliders are generally used for ascending. Paragliders are categorized as "ascending parachutes" by canopy manufacturers worldwide, and are designed for "free flying" meaning flight without a tether (for tethered flight amusement, see parasailing). However, in areas without high launch points, paragliders may be towed aloft by a ground vehicle or a stationary winch, after which they are released, creating much the same effect as a mountain launch. Such tethered launches can give a paraglider pilot a higher starting point than many mountains do, offering similar opportunity to catch thermals and to remain airborne by "thermaling" and other forms of lift. As free flight, paragliding requires the significant skill and training required for aircraft control, including aeronautical theory, meteorological knowledge and forecasting, personal/emotional safety considerations, adherence to applicable Federal Aviation Regulations (US), and knowledge of equipment care and maintenance.

Most pilots use varios and radios when flying; some more advanced pilots also use GPS units.

Birds are highly sensitive to atmospheric pressure, and can tell when they are in rising or sinking air. People can sense the acceleration when they first hit a thermal, but cannot detect the difference between constant rising air and constant sinking air, so turn to technology to help.

A variometer indicates climb-rate (or sink-rate) with audio signals (beeps which increase in pitch and tempo as you accelerate upwards and a droning sound which gets deeper as your descent rate increases) and/or a visual display. It also shows altitude: either above takeoff, above sea level, or (at higher altitudes) "flight level".

The main purpose of a variometer is in helping a pilot find and stay in the "core" of a thermal to maximise height gain, and conversely indicating when he or she is in sinking air, and needs to find rising air.

The more advanced variometers have an integrated GPS. This is not only more convenient, but also allows to record the flight in three dimensions. The track of the flight is digitally signed, stored and can be downloaded after the landing. Digitally signed tracks can be used as proof for record claims, replacing the 'old' method of photo documentation.

Control:

Speedbar mechanism.

Brakes: Controls held in each of the pilot’s hands connect to the trailing edge of the left and right sides of the wing. These controls are called 'brakes' and provide the primary and most general means of control in a paraglider. The brakes are used to adjust speed, to steer (in addition to weight-shift), and flare (during landing).

Weight Shift: In addition to manipulating the brakes, a paraglider pilot must also lean in order to steer properly. Such 'weight-shifting' can also be used for more limited steering when brake use is unavailable, such as when under 'big ears' (see below). More advanced control techniques may also involve weight-shifting.

Speed Bar: A kind of foot control called the 'speed bar' (also 'accelerator') attaches to the paragliding harness and connects to the leading edge of the paraglider wing, usually through a system of at least two pulleys (see animation in margin). This control is used to increase speed, and does so by decreasing the wing's angle of attack. This control is necessary because the brakes can only slow the wing from what is called 'trim speed' (no brakes applied). The accelerator is needed to go faster than this.

More advanced means of control can be obtained by manipulating the paraglider's risers or lines directly:

* Most commonly, the lines connecting to the outermost points of the wing's leading edge can be used to induce the wingtips to fold under. The technique, known as 'big ears', is used to increase rate of descent (see picture).

* The risers connecting to the rear of the wing can also be manipulated for steering if the brakes have been severed or are otherwise unavailable.

* In a 'B-line stall', the second set of risers from the leading-edge/front is gently pulled down to put a crease in the upper surface of the wing. This destroys the laminar flow of air over the aerofoil, dramatically reducing the lift produced by the canopy, thus inducing a higher rate of descent.

 

Another text, in english, from the addrees www.alpsurf.com/paraglidinge.htm

Paraglider flies is the simplest type to regard the world from the bird perspective some steps a gently bent slope down and already overcome pilot and passenger the force of gravity and to float of it. Our professional pilots are extremely qualified and possess a special pilot banknote, which permits it to them to offer paraglider of passenger flights.

 

Texto, em português, do site "O radical", que pode ser visto no endereço: oradical.uol.com.br/parapente/ondepraticarparapente.asp

 

O parapente é um esporte que mistura toda a adrenalina com a tranqüilidade, em uma sintonia perfeita. É uma modalidade na qual o piloto e o parapente entram em total sintonia com a natureza.

A principal recomendação do paraglidingé respeitar todas as normas de segurança. Dessa maneira você poderá desfilar pelos ares sem a menor preocupação.

A história do esporte está diretamente relacionada com a conquista do espaço. É que os primeiros modelos de parapente foram confeccionados especialmente para as espaçonaves norte-americanas.

Hoje o esporte é praticado por mais de 100 mil pessoas em todo o mundo. O Brasil ocupa atualmente a 7ª colocação do ranking.

Existem escolas especializadas no parapente que oferecem toda a infra-estrutura necessária para quem quer iniciar no esporte.

Além do curso preparatório que é obrigatório, você terá acesso ao equipamento, entre outros.

Antes de comprar seu equipamento faça um salto em dupla com outro atleta. A partir daí, você vai descobrir se o parapente é seu esporte ou não.

O parapente foi desenvolvido inicialmente para a utilização das espaçonaves do Projeto Apolo, pela Nasa. O sucesso foi tão grande que logo a descoberta tomou conta da cabeça da população.

O equipamento de parapente apresenta algumas características diferentes dos outros esportes, sendo basicamente composto de quatro itens: o velame, o selete, o pára-quedas de emergência e o capacete. O velame constitui a maior parte do equipamento e, é dividido em três partes: a vela, a linha e os tirantes.

A vela é feita de um tipo de nylon especial e funciona como uma asa. Uma de suas características principais é a resistência e a deformação, ou seja, o tecido muda de forma, alterando as características originais do parapente.

O Selete funciona como um casulo e é onde o atleta fica durante o vôo. É importante que seja ajustada a cada piloto, pois seu conforto depende disso.

Para casos de emergência utiliza-se um para-quedas. Ele está acoplado o Selete e só é utilizado caso aconteça algo de muito grave.

Os melhores locais para a prática do parapente são as regiões com climas secos, pois o atleta poderá ter um maior aproveitamento das correntes de ar. As regiões litorâneas com montanhas ao redor também oferecem excelentes condições.

O estado de Minas Gerais, juntamente com São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro são os lugares que apresentam o maior desenvolvimento do esporte. A Serra da Mantiqueira, com sua variedade de picos é o local ideal para todo aventureiro.

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has an area of 1104 km2 and shares its northern border with the Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million Hongkongers of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

 

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

 

In the late 1970s, Hong Kong became a major entrepôt in Asia-Pacific. The territory has developed into a major global trade hub and financial centre. The 44th-largest economy in the world, Hong Kong ranks top 10 in GDP (PPP) per capita, but also has the most severe income inequality among advanced economies. Hong Kong is one of the three most important financial centres alongside New York and London, and the world's number one tourist destination city. The territory has been named the freest market economy. The service economy, characterised by free trade and low taxation, has been regarded as one of the world's most laissez-faire economic policies, and the currency, the Hong Kong dollar, is the 13th most traded currency in the world.

 

The Hong Kong Basic Law empowers the region to develop relations and make agreements directly with foreign states and regions, as well as international organizations, in a broad range of appropriate fields. It is an independent member of APEC, the IMF, WTO, FIFA and International Olympic Committee among others.

 

Limited land created a dense infrastructure and the territory became a centre of modern architecture, and one of the world's most vertical cities. Hong Kong has a highly developed public transportation network covering 90 per cent of the population, the highest in the world, and relies on mass transit by road or rail. Air pollution remains a serious problem. Loose emissions standards have resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates. Nevertheless, Hongkongers enjoy the world's longest or second longest life expectancies.

 

NAME

It is not known who was responsible for the Romanisation of the name "Hong Kong" but it is generally believed to be an early imprecise phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese or Hakka name 香港, meaning "Fragrant Harbour". Before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour (香港仔, Sidney Lau: heung1gong2 jai2, Jyutping: hoeng1gong2 zai2, or Hiong1gong3 zai3 in a form of Hakka, literally means "Little Hong Kong")—between Aberdeen Island and the south side of Hong Kong Island, which was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. As those early contacts are likely to have been with Hong Kong's early inhabitants, the Tankas (水上人), it is equally probable that the early Romanisation was a faithful execution of their speech, i.e. hong1, not heung1. Detailed and accurate Romanisation systems for Cantonese were available and in use at the time.

 

The reference to fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River, or to the incense from factories, lining the coast to the north of Kowloon, which was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before the development of the Victoria Harbour.

 

In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed and the name, Hong Kong, was first recorded on official documents to encompass the entirety of the island.

 

The name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of century-old institutions still retain the single-word form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

 

The full official name, after 1997, is "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China". This is the official title as mentioned in the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Hong Kong Government's website; however, "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" and "Hong Kong" are widely accepted.

 

Hong Kong has carried many nicknames: the most famous among those is the "Pearl of the Orient", which reflected the impressive night-view of the city's light decorations on the skyscrapers along both sides of the Victoria Harbour. The territory is also known as "Asia's World City".

 

HISTORY

PRE-BRITISH

Archaeological studies support human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area (now Hong Kong International Airport) from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago and on Sai Kung Peninsula from 6,000 years ago.

 

Wong Tei Tung and Three Fathoms Cove are the earliest sites of human habitation in Hong Kong during the Paleolithic Period. It is believed that the Three Fathom Cove was a river-valley settlement and Wong Tei Tung was a lithic manufacturing site. Excavated Neolithic artefacts suggested cultural differences from the Longshan culture of northern China and settlement by the Che people, prior to the migration of the Baiyue (Viets) to Hong Kong. Eight petroglyphs, which dated to the Shang dynasty in China, were discovered on the surrounding islands.

 

ANCIENT CHINA

In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, conquered the Baiyue tribes in Jiaozhi (modern Liangguang region and Vietnam) and incorporated the territory into imperial China for the first time. Modern Hong Kong was assigned to the Nanhai commandery (modern Nanhai District), near the commandery's capital city Panyu. In Qin dynasty, the territory was ruled by Panyu County(番禺縣) up till Jin Dynasty.

 

The area of Hong Kong was consolidated under the kingdom of Nanyue (Southern Viet), founded by general Zhao Tuo in 204 BC after the collapse of the short-lived Qin dynasty. When the kingdom of Nanyue was conquered by the Han Dynasty in 111 BC, Hong Kong was assigned to the Jiaozhi commandery. Archaeological evidence indicates that the population increased and early salt production flourished in this time period. Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb on the Kowloon Peninsula is believed to have been built during the Han dynasty.

 

IMPERIAL CHINA

Started from Jin dynasty to early period of Tang dynasty, the territory that now comprises Hong Kong was governed by Bao'an County (寶安縣). In Tang dynasty, the Guangdong region flourished as an international trading center. The Tuen Mun region in what is now Hong Kong's New Territories served as a port, naval base, salt production centre and later, base for the exploitation of pearls. Lantau Island was also a salt production centre, where the salt smugglers riots broke out against the government.

 

Under the Tang dynasty, the Guangdong (Canton) region flourished as a regional trading centre. In 736 AD, the first Emperor of Tang established a military stronghold in Tuen Mun in western Hong Kong to defend the coastal area of the region. The first village school, Li Ying College, was established around 1075 AD in the modern-day New Territories under the Northern Song dynasty. After their defeat by the Mongols, the Southern Song court briefly moved to modern-day Kowloon City (the Sung Wong Toi site), before its final defeat at the Battle of Yamen.

 

From the mid-Tang dynasty to early Ming dynasty, the territory that now comprises Hong Kong was governed by Dongguan County (東莞縣/ 東官縣). In Ming dynasty, the area was governed by Xin'an County (新安縣) before it was colonized by the British government. The indigenous inhabitants of what is now Hong Kong are identified with several ethnicities, including Punti, Hakka, Tanka) and Hoklo.

 

The earliest European visitor on record was Jorge Álvares, a Portuguese explorer who arrived in 1513. Having founded an establishment in Macau by 1557, Portuguese merchants began trading in southern China. However, subsequent military clashes between China and Portugal led to the expulsion of all Portuguese merchants from the rest of China.

 

In the mid-16th century, the Haijin order (closed-door, isolation policy) was enforced and it strictly forbade all maritime activities in order to prevent contact from foreigners by sea. From 1661 to 1669, Hong Kong was directly affected by the Great Clearance of the Kangxi Emperor, who required the evacuation of coastal areas of Guangdong. About 16,000 people from Hong Kong and Bao'an County were forced to emigrate inland; 1,648 of those who evacuated were said to have returned after the evacuation was rescinded in 1669.

 

BRITSH CROWN COLONY 1842–1941

In 1839, the refusal of Qing authorities to support opium imports caused the outbreak of the First Opium War between the British Empire and the Qing Empire. Qing's defeat resulted in the occupation of Hong Kong Island by British forces on 20 January 1841. It was initially ceded under the Convention of Chuenpee, as part of a ceasefire agreement between Captain Charles Elliot and Governor Qishan. While a dispute between high-ranking officials of both countries led to the failure of the treaty's ratification, on 29 August 1842, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded in perpetuity to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Treaty of Nanking. The British officially established a Crown colony and founded the City of Victoria in the following year.

 

The population of Hong Kong Island was 7,450 when the Union Flag raised over Possession Point on 26 January 1841. It mostly consisted of Tanka fishermen and Hakka charcoal burners, whose settlements scattered along several coastal hamlets. In the 1850s, a large number of Chinese immigrants crossed the then-free border to escape from the Taiping Rebellion. Other natural disasters, such as flooding, typhoons and famine in mainland China would play a role in establishing Hong Kong as a place for safe shelter.

 

Further conflicts over the opium trade between Britain and Qing quickly escalated into the Second Opium War. Following the Anglo-French victory, the Crown Colony was expanded to include Kowloon Peninsula (south of Boundary Street) and Stonecutter's Island, both of which were ceded to the British in perpetuity under the Convention of Beijing in 1860.

 

In 1898, Britain obtained a 99-year lease from Qing under the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, in which Hong Kong obtained a 99-year lease of the Lantau Island, the area north of Boundary Street in Kowloon up to Shenzhen River and over 200 other outlying islands.

 

Hong Kong soon became a major entrepôt thanks to its free port status, attracting new immigrants to settle from both China and Europe alike. The society, however, remained racially segregated and polarised under British colonial policies. Despite the rise of a British-educated Chinese upper-class by the late-19th century, race laws such as the Peak Reservation Ordinance prevented ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong from acquiring houses in reserved areas, such as the Victoria Peak. At this time, the majority of the Chinese population in Hong Kong had no political representation in the British colonial government. There were, however, a small number of Chinese elites whom the British governors relied on, such as Sir Kai Ho and Robert Hotung, who served as communicators and mediators between the government and local population.

 

Hong Kong continued to experience modest growth during the first half of the 20th century. The University of Hong Kong was established in 1911 as the territory's oldest higher education institute. While there was an exodus of 60,000 residents for fear of a German attack on the British colony during the First World War, Hong Kong remained peaceful. Its population increased from 530,000 in 1916 to 725,000 in 1925 and reached 1.6 million by 1941.

 

In 1925, Cecil Clementi became the 17th Governor of Hong Kong. Fluent in Cantonese and without a need for translator, Clementi introduced the first ethnic Chinese, Shouson Chow, into the Executive Council as an unofficial member. Under his tenure, Kai Tak Airport entered operation as RAF Kai Tak and several aviation clubs. In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out when the Japanese Empire expanded its territories from northeastern China into the mainland proper. To safeguard Hong Kong as a freeport, Governor Geoffry Northcote declared the Crown Colony as a neutral zone.

 

JAPANESE OCCUPATION 1941–45

As part of its military campaign in Southeast Asia during Second World War, the Japanese army moved south from Guangzhou of mainland China and attacked Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with the British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of Hong Kong to Japan on 25 December 1941 in what was regarded by locals as Black Christmas.

 

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese army committed atrocities against civilians and POWs, such as the St. Stephen's College massacre. Local residents also suffered widespread food shortages, limited rationing and hyper-inflation arising from the forced exchange of currency from Hong Kong Dollars to Japanese military banknotes. The initial ratio of 2:1 was gradually devalued to 4:1 and ownership of Hong Kong Dollars was declared illegal and punishable by harsh torture. Due to starvation and forced deportation for slave labour to mainland China, the population of Hong Kong had dwindled from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945, when Britain resumed control of the colony on 30 August 1945.

 

ECONOMY

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade. The currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the eighth most traded currency in the world as of 2010. Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world's greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism, but has since instituted a regime of regulations including a minimum wage. It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom every year since 1995. It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region, and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.

 

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world and has a market capitalisation of US$2.3 trillion as of December 2009. In that year, Hong Kong raised 22 percent of worldwide initial public offering (IPO) capital, making it the largest centre of IPOs in the world and the easiest place to raise capital. The Hong Kong dollar has been pegged to the US dollar since 1983.

 

The Hong Kong Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Hong Kong is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the Second World War, Hong Kong industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s. Since then, it has grown to become a leading centre for management, financial, IT, business consultation and professional services.

 

Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre in the 1990s, but was greatly affected by the Asian financial crisis in 1998, and again in 2003 by the SARS outbreak. A revival of external and domestic demand has led to a strong recovery, as cost decreases strengthened the competitiveness of Hong Kong exports and a long deflationary period ended. Government intervention, initiated by the later colonial governments and continued since 1997, has steadily increased, with the introduction of export credit guarantees, a compulsory pension scheme, a minimum wage, anti-discrimination laws, and a state mortgage backer.

 

The territory has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Imports account for more than 90% of Hong Kong's food supply, including nearly all of the meat and rice available there. Agricultural activity - relatively unimportant to Hong Kong's economy and contributing just 0.1% of its GDP - primarily consists of growing premium food and flower varieties. Hong Kong is the world's eleventh largest trading entity, with the total value of imports and exports exceeding its gross domestic product. It is the world's largest re-export centre. Much of Hong Kong's exports consist of re-exports, which are products made outside of the territory, especially in mainland China, and distributed via Hong Kong. Its physical location has allowed the city to establish a transportation and logistics infrastructure that includes the world's second busiest container port and the world's busiest airport for international cargo. Even before the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong had established extensive trade and investment ties with the mainland, which now enable it to serve as a point of entry for investment flowing into the mainland. At the end of 2007, there were 3.46 million people employed full-time, with the unemployment rate averaging 4.1% for the fourth straight year of decline. Hong Kong's economy is dominated by the service sector, which accounts for over 90% of its GDP, while industry constitutes 9%. Inflation was at 2.5% in 2007. Hong Kong's largest export markets are mainland China, the United States, and Japan.

 

As of 2010 Hong Kong is the eighth most expensive city for expatriates, falling from fifth position in the previous year. Hong Kong is ranked fourth in terms of the highest percentage of millionaire households, behind Switzerland, Qatar, and Singapore with 8.5 percent of all households owning at least one million US dollars. Hong Kong is also ranked second in the world by the most billionaires per capita (one per 132,075 people), behind Monaco. In 2011, Hong Kong was ranked second in the Ease of Doing Business Index, behind Singapore.

 

Hong Kong is ranked No. 1 in the world in the Crony Capitalism Index by the Economist.

 

In 2014, Hong Kong was the eleventh most popular destination for international tourists among countries and territories worldwide, with a total of 27.8 million visitors contributing a total of US$38,376 million in international tourism receipts. Hong Kong is also the most popular city for tourists, nearly two times of its nearest competitor Macau.

  

DEMOGRAPHICS

The territory's population in mid-2015 is 7.30 million, with an average annual growth rate of 0.8% over the previous 5 years. The current population of Hong Kong comprises 91% ethnic Chinese. A major part of Hong Kong's Cantonese-speaking majority originated from the neighbouring Guangdong province, from where many fled during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the communist rule in China.

 

Residents of the Mainland do not automatically receive the Right of Abode, and many may not enter the territory freely. Like other non-natives, they may apply for the Right of Abode after seven years of continuous residency. Some of the rights may also be acquired by marriage (e.g., the right to work), but these do not include the right to vote or stand for office. However, the influx of immigrants from mainland China, approximating 45,000 per year, is a significant contributor to its population growth – a daily quota of 150 Mainland Chinese with family ties in Hong Kong are granted a "one way permit". Life expectancy in Hong Kong is 81.2 years for males and 86.9 years for females as of 2014, making it the highest life expectancy in the world.

 

About 91% of the people of Hong Kong are of Chinese descent, the majority of whom are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. Hong Kong's Han majority originate mainly from the Guangzhou and Taishan regions in Guangdong province. The remaining 6.9% of the population is composed of non-ethnic Chinese. There is a South Asian population of Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese; some Vietnamese refugees have become permanent residents of Hong Kong. There are also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Japanese, and Koreans working in the city's commercial and financial sector. In 2011, 133,377 foreign domestic helpers from Indonesia and 132,935 from the Philippines were working in Hong Kong.

 

Hong Kong's de facto official language is Cantonese, a variety of Chinese originating from Guangdong province to the north of Hong Kong. English is also an official language, and according to a 1996 by-census is spoken by 3.1 percent of the population as an everyday language and by 34.9 percent of the population as a second language. Signs displaying both Chinese and English are common throughout the territory. Since the 1997 Handover, an increase in immigrants from communist China and greater interaction with the mainland's economy have brought an increasing number of Mandarin speakers to Hong Kong.

 

RELIGION

A majority of residents of Hong Kong have no religious affiliation, professing a form of agnosticism or atheism. According to the US Department of State 43 percent of the population practices some form of religion. Some figures put it higher, according to a Gallup poll, 64% of Hong Kong residents do not believe in any religion, and possibly 80% of Hong Kong claim no religion. In Hong Kong teaching evolution won out in curriculum dispute about whether to teach other explanations, and that creationism and intelligent design will form no part of the senior secondary biology curriculum.

 

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of religious freedom, guaranteed by the Basic Law. Hong Kong's main religions are Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism; a local religious scholar in contact with major denominations estimates there are approximately 1.5 million Buddhists and Taoists. A Christian community of around 833,000 forms about 11.7% of the total population; Protestants forms a larger number than Roman Catholics at a rate of 4:3, although smaller Christian communities exist, including the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches each freely appoint their own bishops, unlike in mainland China. There are also Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Bahá'í communities. The practice of Falun Gong is tolerated.

 

PERSONAL INCOME

Statistically Hong Kong's income gap is the greatest in Asia Pacific. According to a report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2008, Hong Kong's Gini coefficient, at 0.53, was the highest in Asia and "relatively high by international standards". However, the government has stressed that income disparity does not equate to worsening of the poverty situation, and that the Gini coefficient is not strictly comparable between regions. The government has named economic restructuring, changes in household sizes, and the increase of high-income jobs as factors that have skewed the Gini coefficient.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The parish church

Design and construction

Machegg is documented have been founded in 1268 by Bohemian King Ottokar. Only ten years later, he fell in the battle against Rudolf of Habsburg in Dürnkrut. The city was therefore never fully developed. The Gothic parish church, dedicated to the Holy Margaretha, was not completed. To execution came just the choir - and as georradar measurments in 1998 resulted - the foundations of the long house. It was also determined by this deep investigations, that the portapoint (line between the portal) of the planned nave is over 7 meters outside the entrance of today's church (tower). The choir meets in the floor plan to that of the Dome of Wiener Neustadt, a mighty cathedral was Ottokar's plan!

This portalpoint (after DI . Dr. E. Reidinger) is als urban planning point of reference. The church is in the axle geometry of the city involved, and therefore the key to the entire system concept and founding date .

At that time, living and belief are a unit, such as state and church. The planning of the city is closely linked with that of the church. Eastern to Marchegg is the holy day, by which the town was entrusted to the divine protection and blessings.

In 1268 fell the green thursday, standding at the beginning of the passion, death and finally the resurrection of jesus christ on the 5th april. On that day, so reveals the bent axis of our parish, the long house was oriented in the direction of sunrise. 8 april 1268 (Easter Sunday ) was then the orientation of the choir as part of a sacred act.

Reidinger: "The reconstructed construction plan of the city and the orientation of the church with the bent axis give the answer to the date of the founding of the city.

What great importance does this mean to the churchbuilding! in the resurrection liturgy (long time on Easter Sunday early in the morning hours celebrated) shines the rising sun through the middle window into the dark church interior! Christ is risen!

As Rudolf I in the year 1278 achieved the mighty victory over King Ottokar, he gave in grateful remembrance of the fact that God, "not far from the church to marche field (Marchfeld)e", him rescued from the deadly danger, including the space along with bridge in front of the mill. In the donation letter issued by him he takes the church with their possessions under his special protection.

Later, the exact date and reason on which legal situation is unknown, Marchegg figures as vicariate of the parish parish of melk Weikendorf and the abbey of melk was holding the patronage.

From the year 1410 is a legal decision is available that the parish priest of Marchegg, the then called Wernherus, as mother gift to the church of Weikendorf every year for pennies pound as sign of filial dependence has to pay.

In the year 1429 was Johann Ströbein from Grossenzersdorf rector of the filial church santa Margaret of Marchegg.

In the same year figures Marchegg in a directory of the parishes and benefices of the diocese of Passau.

On 23 July 1465 asked the owner of dominion of Marchegg, earl Rüdiger von Starhemberg, the abbot of melk to give the vacant parish church of Marchegg to the Mert Putner (Martinus Pertner).

In the year 1506 came the former parish priest of Stillfried, Johannes Syndel as pastor to Marchegg.

In the Protestant Reformation protestant estate owner salm and landau monopolized the patronage and put in preacher.

The transfer of the reign earl Paul Pálffy took place on 26 May 1621 and in the course of the Counter-Reformation the condition take care of the parish and abolish the preachers in said place. Pallfy vowed further only to allow the Catholic religion in Marchegg.

Probably the parish from the end of the fifteenth century has been administrated by the former P. Paulinern of Mariathal (marianka - Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit) in Slovakia. From there came a priest all months for pastoral work to Marchegg. Because due to the floods often no priest appeared, Pálffy 1632 war looking for a world-priest. However, because of the poor pay and the many damage to the church and the parsonage, he could not get one for some time until Pater Sebastian Kempf finally in the year 1634 here was delegated by by the order of Saint Paul.

Before 1663 the erection of John Chapel next to the church.

1689 the parish was robbed during the kuruc fightings.

On 10 March 1697 received in the local parish church a turkish woman the holy sacrament of baptism. Probably she was left behind from the entourage of the turkish war.

1748 Maria-Lauretta chapel was built next to the parish church on an old tomb.

1776 In the church was erected to the holy Leonhard and Wendelin a new constructed side altar.

1784 The branch site Breiteseen was separtend from the parish of Marchegg and raised to an independent "Lokalkaplay".

1784 The parish of Marchegg was incorporated into the archdiocese of Vienna.

1786 26the march was abandoned cemetery location around the church.

Because of the danger of collapsing bell tower (roof rider) was demolished in 1787 and the roof is covered the same.

1786 - 1789 church annex

1790 worship was once again celebrated in the church and the church bells newly transferred to the new tower.

1850, as the bell tower threatened to collapse, it was removed, the main entrance of the church locked and the ship supported.

1853 Prince Pálffy let begin the construction of the church tower. The tower rests on 170 oak trunks.

In 1855 the cross was placed on the newly constructed tower. The cross made of of iron has been galvanically gildened, was picked up in a solemn procession from the castle and consecrated by Dechant Simon Schwarz.

Renovation of the church interior: a woman from Vienna, Magdalena Schineder, a marcheggerin (born to Marchegg), gave 350 fl, mister notary dionys Klemer 40 fl, for acquisition of new altarpiece for the high altar, which dates from the school of the famous painter Kupelwieser. The remaining contributions came from the community, from Vienna, Prague, Brno, Malacka and Baumgarten.

Termination of the church renovation in 1856.

1878 600 year anniversary of the church.

1890 New stained glass windows. Donors. Prince Palffy, Earl Apponyi, Vicar Rohrwasser (born Marchegger):

1895 Prince Liechtenstein donated two stained glass windows

1897 Flood. Parsonage and church were under water. In the church, the water reached up to the kneeling benches.

1899 17th september round 5:15 early in the morning reached the high water church and main square. Church services took place till 23nd september in the castle chapel.

1899 Princess Palffy donated a white alb, which she had embroidered herself.

1910 12th november inserting of the figural windows was completed. In the night were broken parts and robbed the offertory. The pastor prompted to remove all offertories.

1911 King Ferdinand of Bulgaria visited the parish on the journey through.

1917 The copper and the skirts of the windows of the church tower were removed and replaced by zinc sheet.

In january 1918 the organ pipes were requisitioned for war purposes.

1930 18.9. Laying of the foundation stone of a makeshift church at the railway station.

1931 7.10. Construction of the temporary church and nursery was completed. Financing by pastor Kowanda and the club "Catholic action in Marchegg".

1938 On 15th march came SA-men from Marchegg and took money, cash book and passbook of Catholic young folk. Amount of 45 shillings. Catholic young folk was dissolved.

Since 7th april on the steeple blew the swastika flag.

In 1940 cardinal Innitzer came for visitation to Marchegg. Teenagers rampaged and scolded the cardinal.

1945 Shelling of Marchegg - city church received 7 strikes. Above the presbyterium in the stone window frames, front under the base of the church. 4 shots hit the tower and the roof of the new part of the church. Between church and kindergarten 2 strikes, 5 strikes in the parish garden.

In 1953, the statue of Holy Elisabeth was erected.

In 1954, the statue of Saints Michael, Barbara and Katharina that were destroyed in the bomb hit came back restored. 9th may blessing of the bells.

1958 Completion of the extention of the church Christ the King at Marchegg station.

1960 At the renovation of the ceiling several frescoes were found, two of which were saved.

Consecration the statue of St. Elizabeth, gift of the Federal Monuments Office.

1967 Lightning struck during a funeral in the church tower. Thanks to the lightning protection system, no damage has been produced.

In 1970 the albhon organ was blessed by archbishop Dr. Josef Schoiswohl. Donation of Kommerzialrat Josef Durry.

1989 Consecration of altar and organ of the church of Christ the King by auxiliary bishop DDr. Helmut Krätzl.

1992 Consecration ot the new altar of the city church by Bishop Florian Kuntner.

 

www.pfarremarchegg.at/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Geschich...

Some background:

The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible. After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).

 

The space-capable VF-1's combat debut was on February 7, 2009, during the Battle of South Ataria Island - the first battle of Space War I - and remained the mainstay fighter of the U.N. Spacy for the entire conflict. Introduced in 2008, the VF-1 would be out of frontline service just five years later, though.

 

The VF-1 proved to be an extremely capable craft, successfully combating a variety of Zentraedi mecha even in most sorties, which saw UN Spacy forces significantly outnumbered. The versatility of the Valkyrie design enabled the variable fighter to act as both large-scale infantry and as air/space superiority fighter.

 

The basic VF-1 fighter was deployed in four minor variants (designated A, D, J, and S) and its success was increased by continued development of various enhancements including the GBP-1S "Armored" Valkyrie, FAST Pack "Super" Valkyrie and the additional RÖ-X2 heavy cannon pack weapon system for the VF-1S for additional firepower.

 

From the basic fighter variant and the standard VF-1 airframe, several sub-versions were produced for specialized tasks, one of these being two dedicated reconnaissance variants of the Valkyrie. The respective VR-1A, the first variant to be fielded, was a one-man all-weather electronic warfare and reconnaissance version, more or less a direct conversion of the Standard VF-1A fighter with a defensive electronics suite and the capability to carry reconnaissance equipment in a ventral pod (instead of the GU-11 gun pod). The soon following VR-1D was based on the trainer two-seater, and a much more sophisticated design. Its biggest operational benefit was a dedicated systems operator on the back seat so that the pilot could focus on the task of reaching mission targets, mostly in low-level high speed flight, using terrain contours for a stealthy approach. As a consequence, the VR-1A was only manufactured in small numbers by Northrop during 2009 and 2010, while the more prolific, versatile and efficient VR-1D was manufactured by Rockwell Bell from early 2010 onwards until 2014.

 

In addition to the standard electronic warfare suit carried by all VF-1 Valkyrie fighters both reconnaissance types carried two multi-frequency radar warning receivers on the vertical stabilizers, making this detail the most obvious difference to the fighters. Many VR-1s carried, instead of the fighter's intercept radar, specialized sensor equipment in their noses, including cameras in different configurations, mapping radars or radiation and atmospheric sampling and analysis equipment. Despite the different nose and equipment configurations, the VR-1s normally did not receive a special designation, the crew number and the airframe ancestry being the only nomination factor.

 

Furthermore, a wide range of special equipment could be carried, the most common ordnance being a pair of optional conformal radar jamming pod pallets that could be mounted onto the leg/engine nacelles’ flanks.

 

The VR-1s operated, except for the integral lasers in the standard A or D head units and IR-guided AMM-1 missiles for self-defense, generally unarmed and, if possible, in clean configuration, for maximum low level speed and agility. Instead of the fighter's standard GU-11 gun pod (which could be carried, though), both VR types typically carried various Tactical Aerial Camera System (TACS) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) pods under the fuselage. Furthermore, they could also carry a wide range of special ordnance like ECM and chaff/flare pods under the wings, as well as a pair of drop tanks to increase range and loiter time.

 

In order to retain some limited offensive combat capabilities against aerial and ground targets alike, many reconnaissance Valkyries received during their career and the standard fighters’ MLU program (see below) an infrared search and track (IRST) system, mounted in front of the cockpit. Sometimes an infrared jamming system was added in a fairing to the bottom of the nose, too, when applicable. Alternatively, the same system could be carried externally as a pod on one of the outer pylons.

 

After the end of Space War I, the VF-1 continued to be manufactured both in the Sol system and throughout the UNG space colonies. Although the VF-1 would be replaced in 2020 as the primary Variable Fighter of the U.N. Spacy by the more capable, but also much bigger, VF-4 Lightning III, a long service record and continued production after the war proved the lasting worth of the design.

 

The versatile aircraft also underwent constant upgrade programs, leading to improved versions like the VF-1N and P. For instance, about a third of all VF-1 Valkyries were upgraded with Infrared Search and Track (IRST) systems from 2016 onwards. Many Valkyries also received improved ECM and radar warning systems, with emitters/receivers, depending on the systems, mounted on the wing-tips, on the fins and/or on the LERXs.

 

The VF-1 was without doubt the most recognizable variable fighter of Space War I and was seen as a vibrant symbol of the U.N. Spacy even into the first year of the New Era 0001 in 2013. At the end of 2015 the final rollout of the VF-1 was celebrated at a special ceremony, commemorating this most famous of variable fighters. The VF-1 Valkryie was built from 2006 to 2013 with a total production of 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters in its multitude of variants.

 

However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!

  

General characteristics:

All-environment variable fighter and tactical combat Battroid,

used by U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force and U.N. Spacy Marines

 

Accommodation:

Single pilot in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat

 

Dimensions:

Fighter Mode:

Length 14.23 meters

Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)/8.30 meters (at 70° maximum sweep)

Height 3.84 meters

 

Battroid Mode:

Height 12.68 meters

Width 7.3 meters

Length 4.0 meters

 

Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons

Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons

MTOW: 37.0 metric tons

 

Powerplant:

2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)

 

4x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip)

 

18x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles

  

Performance:

Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h

Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87

g limit: in space +7

Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24

 

Design Features:

3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system

 

Transformation:

Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.

Min. time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.

 

Armament:

2x internal Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute

1x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min

4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including:

- 12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or

- 12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or

- 6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or

- 4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point) each carrying 15 x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,

- or a combination of above load-outs

  

The kit and its assembly:

This build was inspired by a Macross source book find, but the build did not go without a personal twist, and therefore it is not 100% canonical. The VR-1D two seater recce Valkyrie as such is “real”, though, and the basis for the build was a standard 1:100 VF-1D Arii kit. Beyond the standard improvements with extra blade antennae and two pilot figures for in-flight display, I did some other changes in order to get away from the standard VF-1D look.

 

One of these are the radar sensors on top of the fins - carved from 1.5mm styrene sheet and replacing the original fin tips. On the nose flanks I added flat SLAR antennae, which I extended downwards so that the familiar VF-1 nose would appear quite different (inspired by the Grumman F9F-8P’s outlines). The panels are 0.5mm styrene sheet and blended into the fuselage with putty. In front of the cockpit an IRST sensor was added, actually a simple piece of sprue.

 

The conformal ECM fairings on the legs were originally drop tank halves (from a Matchbox Saab 29), reduced in depth so far that only shallow bulges remained.

 

Instead of the GU-11 gun pod under the fuselage I used a camera pod from an 1:72 Luftwaffe Tornado. This is a little massive for the slender 1:100 Valkyrie, but the camera ports and the overall shape and length were just too promising. I cut away the original attachment pylon, reversed the pod, cut off its rounded rear section and added an spherical, clear “eye ball” at the front end (which is actually a ball joint from a vintage Matchbox aircraft display :D).

A vertical styrene tube was used to mount the pod under the Valkyrie, and it is at the same time an adapter for my standard wire display, so that the VR-1D can be presented in flight, with the landing gear tucked up.

  

Painting and markings:

The paint scheme is based on the rather unique (if not surreal, but effective!) low-level camouflage carried by some of the JASDF's RF-4EJs, operated by the 501st Hikotai (beyond a maritime and a Europe One scheme), as well as the F-1. As far as I could find out, the upper tones are FS 34097, 34108 and 30372, and white from below, while the pattern itself is identical to the Phantom II’s USAF SEA scheme.

 

The tones I used are Humbrol 168 (Hemp), a mix of 101 (Mid Green) and a little 76 Uniform Green, for a more bluish hue, and a mix of 108 (WWI Green) with some 252 (RLM 82). Instead of white, I rather used a very light grey (Humbrol 147, FS 36495) for the undersides.

Later, after a black ink washing, these basic colors were lightened through panel post-shading with slightly more pale mixes of these tones.

 

The cockpit was painted in canonical colors, with a medium grey interior, black ejection seats and red brown cushions. The air intakes became dark grey (Revell 77). Since the Valkyrie would be displayed in flight, with the thick and distorting canopy closed, only basic painting was done inside, including the two figures - they just received a basic Macross pilot suit look, but, as a personal twist, the crew received different jumpsuits in red and blue.

 

The markings were mostly taken from the OOB sheet (with full color kite roundels, making this aircraft look even more JASDF-ish, plus some typical stencils), extras are the 501 Hikotai's famous woodpecker emblem from a Hasegawa 1:72 Phantom II kit and the USN style modex. The dielectric fairings on the nose were created with ivory decal sheet, other antenna covers were painted with Humbrol 7. The exhausts/feet were painted with Modelmaster Titanium Metallizer.

Finally, the kit received an overall coat with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

  

Another VF-1 for the collection, this time a kind of JASDF tribute build – and a mix between canonical and personal elements. However, an interesting result - the "real" JASDF paint scheme looks a little odd, but somehow the camouflage suits the VF-1 well?

 

Developing induced breeding techniques for SIS could help to mitigate the destruction of wild spawn. Photo by Francois Rajts. Photo by WorldFish.

Shot on Fuji Velvia with a Mamiya RB 67

Developed with c-41 chemistry

Barnard Castle is a well-documented example of a ringwork which developed into a shell keep. It is one of the largest castles in the north of England and its importance lies not only in the good state of preservation of its standing remains but also in the wide range of ancillary features which survive as buried features within its four wards. Equally important are its associations with the Balliols and the Earls of Warwick, the former being one of the most important families in Scottish medieval history and the latter in later medieval English history.

The monument is situated on a cliff above the River Tees and includes an early 12th century ringwork, a 12th to 14th century shell keep castle with four wards or enclosures, a chapel and a dovecote. Formerly, an outer ditch enclosed the east side of the castle between the curtain wall and the Horse Market. Although the remains of this ditch will survive beneath later urban development, it is not included in the scheduling as the extent of the remains is not sufficiently understood. A series of partial excavations carried out within the later castle walls between 1974 and 1982 has shown that the earliest fortification dates to between c.1109 and 1125. It was constructed overlooking the river where the cliff turned eastwards into the mouth of a gully. A ditch was quarried in an arc from the north cliff to the west cliff, enclosing a roughly circular area with a diameter of c.50m. The upcast from the ditch was used to create a rampart along the inside of the ditch and this, together with the cliff edge, was surmounted by a timber palisade. Within this ringwork the remains of wooden outbuildings and a large timber hall have been found beneath the floors of later stone buildings. Access to the interior was via a bridge across the ditch which led through a timber gatehouse located at the junction of the ditch with the west cliff. This gatehouse was soon afterwards rebuilt in stone and was the earliest stone building of the castle. The main period of reconstruction came in two phases between c.1125 and 1170. During the first phase, 1125-1140, the ringwork was strengthened by the excavation of the Great Ditch, a substantial rock-cut feature along the line of the earlier ditch, and the palisade was replaced by a multi-angular curtain wall with a wall walk and an interval tower along the east side. The original entrance was blocked and a new entrance was built alongside it at the head of a wooden bridge across the Great Ditch. The stone gatehouse became incorporated into the larger Headlam Tower and a small rectangular keep was built at the north east angle of the enclosure. In addition, the rampart was widened to create a site for timber buildings along the inside of the east and south curtain. The resultant shell keep, occupying the site of the original ringwork, formed the Inner Ward of the castle. To the south and east were three more wards which originated at the same time as the ringwork though they were not fortified in stone until the second phase of rebuilding between 1140 and 1170. The smallest of these was the Middle Ward, situated south of the Inner Ward with the Great Ditch forming its north side and walls enclosing it on the south, west and east sides. The walls here have been heavily robbed but it is clear that this enclosure acted as a barbican or fortified entry for the Inner Ward. It controlled access to the Inner Ward by means of a gate beneath the Constable Tower, a three storey gate-tower on the south side of the Middle Ward. Little of the Constable Tower remains standing, but its foundations and those of other buildings, located by excavation in the south east corner of the ward, survive as buried remains. The approach to the gate was from the Outer Ward which lay to the south and was the largest of the four wards with an area of c.1.5ha. It was enclosed by a curtain wall on the south, west and east sides, and also by the outer ditch which lay outside the east curtain. On the north side another ditch ran from west to east, below the cross-curtain wall that separated the Outer Ward from the Middle and Town Wards and effectively divided the castle in two. The main route into the castle ran parallel with this ditch before turning north to pass beneath the Constable Tower. The Outer Ward has not been excavated but documentary evidence indicates that a chapel dedicated to St Margaret had been built on the east side by the mid-12th century and bestowed on St Mary's Abbey, York. The remains of this chapel survive incorporated into a later stable. Further remains which survive as buried features beneath the buildings, paddocks, yards and gardens that now occupy the Outer Ward, are the farm buildings belonging to the castle and the gate-tower in the east curtain which controlled the approach from the town. The fourth ward was the Town Ward, located in the north east quarter of the castle and enclosed on the north side by the outer curtain. On the east side it was bounded by the curtain and the outer ditch, on the south side by a cross-curtain wall and, on the west side, by the Great Ditch. Excavations inside the Town Ward have uncovered a number of buildings set against the curtain wall round at least one cobbled courtyard containing a pond and a well. Other buildings and yards occupied the open interior and also the wide bank extending round the inside of the walls. Incorporated into the curtain wall were at least three towers and also a postern or pedestrian gate, located in the east curtain. The east curtain does not survive well round the Town Ward, having in places been replaced by a modern wall. Towards the north angle, however, it survives sufficiently well to illustrate a typical defensive feature of the castle: arrow loops set inside recessed arches. In addition, it includes the remains of Brackenbury Tower, a large rectangular structure of two storeys which projects slightly beyond the wall. The upper storey contained a fireplace, two garderobes or privies, and a window with seats converted from one of three recessed arrow loops. Beneath was a barrel-vaulted basement which also contained a fireplace, a garderobe and cupboards. The arrangements on both floors indicate that the tower had a domestic or administrative function. The curtain wall round the north side of the Town Ward is unusual in that it is too narrow to have carried the usual wall walk. It also contains many nesting boxes for pigeons or doves. Included within it is the north gate, a two storey tower with a chamber above the gate passage and rooms flanking it. Though both ground floor rooms contain fireplaces, that to the right is less elaborate and would have been the guardroom while that to the left opened onto the ward and probably also had an administrative function. The third tower of the Town Ward is a small square structure in the north curtain, adjacent to the Great Ditch. It is known as the Dovecote Tower because the interior, from top to bottom, consists of tiers of nesting boxes. In construction the tower dates, like the rest of the ward, to the later 12th century but, before it was a dovecote, it may have had another function connected with a doorway which now opens into mid-air. The doorway led into another building set against the curtain wall, but nothing of this structure survives above ground. As yet, its buried remains have not been excavated, and so its function and relationship to the Dovecote Tower cannot yet be determined. Between 1170 and 1185, following the second building phase, there was a third period of reconstruction carried out only in the Inner Ward. The timber hall was rebuilt in stone and was connected to the gate-tower by a wall behind which lay kitchens and other ancillary buildings. The keep in the north east angle was replaced by the three-storey Round Tower which had both a military and a domestic function, and, between the tower and the new hall was built the Great Chamber: a three-storey residence for the lords of Barnard Castle. The wall round the Inner Ward was strengthened by the addition of the Postern Tower and the Prison Tower, the latter replacing the earlier projecting tower. A bakehouse was also constructed against the curtain. Following this, there were no further alterations until the 14th century when the hall and service buildings were rebuilt and enlarged by the addition of the Mortham Tower, and the access into the Inner Ward was changed to make it more secure. This was achieved by relocating the bridge over the Great Ditch, so that it now ran alongside the west curtain, and by building a demi-bastion, or semicircular tower, which extended from the original Headlam Tower to the edge of the ditch. The route from the bridge was then walled off so that the way into the Inner Ward was completely covered by the new defences even before it reached the gate under the demi-bastion. Also at this time, a portcullis was inserted into the curtain wall at the bottom of the Great Ditch so that the bridge over the Tees could be protected from the castle. During this period the Outer Ward went out of use and at least one building in the Town Ward was demolished. A wet moat was dug alongside the east wall of the Middle Ward and a tower was built to overlook the moat and protect the drawbridge across it. In this way, the castle was made smaller and more defensible, cheaper to run and also more comfortable for its residents. For the next hundred years no further changes were made, and then modifications were only of a minor and domestic kind, including the insertion of an oriel window into the Great Chamber and the addition of a turret onto the Mortham Tower. The first castle was built by Guy de Balliol to be the caput or chief centre of his estates in the north of England. At that time the site was defended not only by the cliffs alongside the Tees but by a steep gully to the north. This gully has since been infilled but, in the 12th century, it still carried the old Roman road between Bowes and Binchester, and the castle commanded the point where this road forded the river. Guy was succeeded by his nephew Barnard de Balliol who, together with his second son, also called Barnard, was responsible for the reconstruction of the castle and the creation of the borough which bears their name. Throughout the next hundred years, the Balliols grew in power and importance until, in 1290, John Balliol defeated the claim of Robert de Brus and became King of Scotland. In his bid for the Scottish throne, however, he had been dependent on the support of Edward I and, in the war which followed his subsequent refusal to do homage to the English king, he rapidly lost power, was taken prisoner by the English, and lost all his estates save the family lands in Picardy. Meanwhile, Barnard Castle was seized by Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham, in response to a long-standing claim that the bishops had rights over the estates which included the castle. Edward I tolerated this for a time but, in 1306, confiscated the lordship of Barnard Castle and granted it in 1307 to Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. From being a home and a stronghold, the castle became merely a source of revenue, and, though it was kept on a war-footing due to the ever-present threat from Scotland, the Beauchamps rarely visited it despite the domestic improvement carried out during their period of lordship. In 1445 the Nevilles succeeded to the Earldom of Warwick and, with the death of Richard Neville at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, the castle passed to Richard, Duke of Gloucester who in 1481 became King Richard III. Richard planned to found an ecclesiastical college within the castle, but these plans had not been realised by the time of his death in 1485.

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries the castle gradually fell into disrepair, as illustrated by surveys done at the time. In 1569 it enjoyed a brief period of importance during the so-called Rising of the North when the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, together with the Scropes and Dacres, moved to release Mary, Queen of Scots from Castle Bolton, place her on the throne of England and restore the country to Catholicism. Their rebellion failed, in part due to the time bought by Sir George Bowes, a loyal supporter of Elizabeth I, who moved to Barnard Castle and managed to withstand a ten-day siege before surrendering the castle, thus giving the Earl of Sussex time to muster an army in support of the queen. Following this, the castle and its estate were rented out by the Crown to various tenants, including the Bowes family, until 1603 when James I granted it to Robert Carr, together with the lordship of Raby. By 1630, both Barnard Castle and Raby were in the possession of Sir Henry Vane who proceeded to dismantle the former to provide building material for his improvements to the latter. Since 1952, by a number of Deeds of Gift, the Inner, Middle and Town Wards have been brought into State care. The ruins are also a Grade I Listed Building. (Scheduling Report)

Developed in Microdol-X 1:3 16 MIn. 75 F.

Camera: Pentax K-1000

Lens: SMC Pentax-M 1.4/50

Film: Legacy Pro 100

Scanned from 2" x 5 1/2" lith print. Arista Liquid Lith Developer.

Fomatone MG Warmtone RC 332

 

SEE THE CAMERA AT THE LINK BELOW:

www.flickr.com/photos/vikingphotos/5344850292/

The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport, itself a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress. The Stratocruiser's first flight was on July 8, 1947. Its design was advanced for its day; its innovative features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin. It could carry up to 100 passengers on the main deck plus 14 in the lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five seated passengers.

 

The Stratocruiser was larger than the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation and cost more to buy and operate. Its reliability was poor, chiefly due to problems with the four 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines and structural and control problems with their propellers. Only 55 Model 377s were built for airlines, along with the single prototype. The 377 was also converted into the Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy by John M. Conroy for NASA’s Gemini space program.

  

Design and development-

The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a civil derivative of the Boeing Model 367, the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, which first flew in late 1944. William Allen, who had become president of the Boeing Company in September 1945, sought to introduce a new civilian aircraft to replace reduced military production after World War II. Boeing saw in their large-bodied, fast, and long-ranged military transport potential for a passenger aircraft suited for premium service on long transoceanic routes, expanding on the precedent set by their Boeing 314 Clipper with Pan American World Airways. Despite a recession in late 1945, Allen ordered 50 Stratocruisers, spending capital on the project without an order from an airline customer. His gamble that customers would be interested in Boeing's unique and expensive new airplane turned out to be correct for a brief period.

 

On November 29, 1945 Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) became the launch customer with the largest commercial aircraft order in history, a $24,500,000 order for 20 Stratocruisers. Earlier in 1945 a Boeing C-97 had flown from Seattle to Washington, D.C. nonstop in six hours and four minutes; with this knowledge, and with Pan Am President Juan Trippe's high regard for Boeing after their success with the Boeing 314 Clipper, Pan Am was confident in ordering the expensive plane.

 

The 377 shared the distinctive design of the C-97, with a "double-bubble" fuselage cross-section, resembling an inverted figure-8, with 6,600 ft³ (187 m³) of interior space shared between two passenger decks. Outside diameter of the upper lobe was 132 inches, compared to 125 inches for the DC-6 and other Douglas types (and 148 inches for today's 737). The lower deck served as a lounge, seating 14. The 377 had innovations such as higher cabin pressure and air conditioning; the superchargers on the four Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines increased power at altitude and allowed constant cabin pressure. The wing was the Boeing 117 airfoil, regarded as the "fastest wing of its time". In all, 4,000,000 man-hours went into the engineering of the 377. It was also one of but a few double deck airliners, another being its French contemporary, the Breguet Deux-Ponts, as well as Boeing's own 747 and the Airbus A380. A total of 56 were built, one prototype (later reconditioned) and 55 production aircraft.

 

First flight of the 377 was on July 8, 1947, two years after the first commercial order. The flight test fleet of three 377s underwent 250,000 mi (217,000 nmi; 402,000 km) of flying to test its limits before certification.

 

Adoption of the Stratocruiser got a boost from the US government, with a controversial incentive package offered to Northwest Orient Airlines for its purchase. Its components were unusually generous mail contracts offered to Northwest for opening new routes to Hawaii and points in the western Pacific region that they were invited to apply for, and a Reconstruction Finance Corporation loan earmarked for the purchase of a fleet of Stratocruisers. Pan-Am saw Northwest's mail contract deal and appealed for new terms in their own international mail contracts, which were granted much to the consternation of Trans World Airlines, who were able to provide the same Atlantic mail services as Pan-Am with lower operating costs. The Northwest deal led to allegations of graft and political favoritism towards Boeing. The other carriers who adopted the Stratocruiser were British Overseas Airways Corporation, American Overseas Airlines (merged with Pan Am in 1950) and United Airlines. The last 377 was delivered to BOAC in May 1950. On this delivery flight, Boeing engineer Wellwood Beall accompanied the final 377 to England, and returned with news of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet airliner, and its appeal. The tenure of the Stratocruiser with United ended in 1954, when United had the opportunity to sell them to BOAC after finding them unprofitable without the extra mail subsidies enjoyed by Pan Am and Northwest.

  

Operational history-

As the launch customer, Pan Am was the first to begin scheduled flights, from San Francisco to Honolulu in April 1949. At the end of 1949 Pan Am, BOAC and American Overseas Airlines (AOA) were flying 377s transatlantic, while Northwest Orient Airlines was flying in the United States; in January 1950 United began flights from San Francisco to Honolulu. Stratocruisers were pressed into emergency military service after the onset of the Korean War. In late 1950 Northwest Stratocruisers were serving New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, Spokane, Seattle, and Honolulu. By late 1952 Northwest Stratocruisers replaced DC-4s to Tokyo via Anchorage, Alaska; Northwest replaced the Stratocruiser on the Honolulu run in 1953 and to Tokyo in 1955. For a short time Pan Am 377s flew to Beirut, Lebanon, but after 1954 no 377 was scheduled east of Europe or west of Singapore. In 1954, United Stratocruisers flew Los Angeles to Honolulu and between Seattle and San Francisco; United's B377 flights to Honolulu were all first class. In 1955 BOAC 377s had 50 First Class seats (fare $400 one way New York to London) or 81 Tourist seats (fare $290). In 1956 Pan Am 377s flew from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Sydney with stops at Honolulu, Canton Island and Suva (via Nadi Airport in Fiji). By 1958 Pan Am was operating the Stratocruiser between Seattle, Washington and Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska and between Seattle and Whitehorse, Yukon. Within six years of first delivery, the Stratocruiser had carried 3,199,219 passengers; it had completed 3,597 transcontinental flights, and 27,678 transatlantic crossings, and went between the United States and South America 822 times. In these first six years, the Stratocruiser fleet had flown 169,859,579 miles (273,362,494 km).

 

The 377 was one of the most advanced and capable of the propeller-driven transports, and among the most luxurious, but it was troubled by reliability issues and maintenance costs. Problems included catastrophic failures of propellers, failures of propeller pitch control leading to overspeed incidents, problems related to the poor thermal design of the engine, and aerodynamic problems arising from design constraints imposed by the engine's thermal problems. Its service record was marred by a high incidence of in-flight emergencies and hull-loss accidents related to those issues. The propellers were the subject of Airworthiness Directives in 1955, 1957, and 1958.

 

In 1953 "United's Ray Ireland ...described the Stratocruiser as unbeatable in luxury attraction but is uneconomical. Ireland said PAA's Stratocruiser competition to Hawaii induced United to buy the plane originally." In 1950 United's seven 377s averaged $2.46 "direct operating cost" per plane-mile, and "Indirect costs are generally considered to be equal or greater than the direct costs." Most operators were using Stratocruisers on long-range routes where higher prices could be charged, off-setting the higher operating costs. The exception to this was Northwest Airlines, who managed to keep the aircraft competitive on shorter U.S. domestic routes where the aircraft's higher payload capacity benefited from lower fuel weights. United however could not integrate their six-plane fleet of 377s. By 1954 the lack of spares and the inability to cross-train their Douglas crews with the type relegated their Stratocruisers primarily to their Hawaii route, where they faced stiff competition from Pan American and Northwest. By the end of that year the six United 377s were all sold to BOAC in a deal orchestrated by Douglas Aircraft. BOAC, which was short of aircraft after the grounding of the Comet 1, paid between US$895,000 and US$995,000 per unit and spares for what were essentially five-year-old aircraft. An equivalent brand new Douglas DC-7 cost US$775,000 in 1954.

 

Boeing set never-exceed speed at 351 mph (305 kn; 565 km/h) IAS but in testing, the 377 reached 409 mph (355 kn; 658 km/h) IAS (about 500 mph (430 kn; 800 km/h) TAS) in a 15–20 degree dive at 13,500 ft (4,100 m); another report said it reached 498 mph true air speed while diving from 21000 feet altitude to 12000 feet in 50 seconds using "full rated power". Typical airline cruise was less than 300 mph (260 kn; 480 km/h); in August 1953, Pan Am and United 377s (and United DC-6s) were scheduled between Honolulu and San Francisco (2,398 mi (3,859 km)) in 9 h 45 min each way.

 

The longest (by distance) 377 nonstop flights were made by Pan Am from Tokyo to Honolulu during four winter seasons beginning in 1952–1953. In January 1953, two nonstops a week were scheduled with a flight time of 11 hr 1 min due to tailwinds; the following August all flights took 19 hours, with a stop at Wake Island Airfield. In winter 1953-54 one Tokyo-Honolulu flight took 9 hr 35 min for 3853 great-circle miles.

 

By 1960 Stratocruisers were being superseded by jets: the de Havilland Comet, Boeing 707, and Douglas DC-8. The last flight of the 377 with United was in 1954, the last with BOAC was in 1959, and the last with Northwest was in September 1960. In November 1960 only a weekly Pan Am Honolulu to Singapore flight remained, and the 377 was retired by Pan Am in 1961. High operating costs (notably the fuel consumption and maintenance of the Wasp Major engines) led to rapid abandonment of the 377 with the onset of the jet era. Its contemporaries such as the Douglas DC-6 and the Lockheed Constellation continued longer, on secondary routes or rebuilt as freighters. A few 377s were sold to smaller airlines, used as freighters, or converted by Aero Spacelines into heavily modified enlarged freighters called Guppies. During 1959 and 1960, Transocean Airlines assembled a fleet of fourteen at bargain prices. In 1960 TOA went bankrupt and only four were in operable condition. The hulks were stored at Oakland International Airport through the 1960s and cannibalized for parts, contributing some to the Aero Spacelines Guppies. Five remaining 377s were modified by Bedek Aviation to resemble former U.S. Air Force Model 367 Stratofreighters and pressed into service with the Israeli Defense Force. Two were shot down during the course of their service and the three remaining 377Ms were retired in 1978 and later scrapped. None of the 56 377s built were preserved for display; the IAF Museum in Israel has a C-97 (4X-FPM) on display painted to resemble their most famous 377M, 'Masada'.

  

Accidents and incidents-

This aircraft type suffered 13 hull-loss accidents between 1951 and 1970 with a total of 139 fatalities. The worst single accident occurred on April 29, 1952. The aircraft type also experienced a significantly high rate of in-flight emergencies related to engine and propeller failure, resulting in Airworthiness Directives. Faults included structural failures of neoprene-cored propellers, failures of propeller pitch control resulting in overspeed, and failures related to engine cooling. Six propeller failures between 1950 and 1955 resulted in separation or near-separation of engines from mounts, with two resulting in hull-loss accidents. Directives were issued in 1950, 1955, and 1958 regarding enhanced maintenance and fault detection, in-flight vibration monitoring, and propeller replacement. A Directive concerning the pitch control system was issued after the October 16, 1956 hull-loss accident. A June 1957 overspeed incident occurred on Romance of the Skies, after the compliance date of the Directive and less than six months before its fatal accident of November 8, 1957. No hull-loss accidents after the loss of the Romance have been attributed to an overspeed incident.

There's probably a lot that can be done with scalloped polygons.

 

To do this off of landmarks, make a pentagram off of the midpoints of the pentagon. The center of the pentagram is the base and all the other folds radiate.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=irrrI4uNJm0

 

For Ann (Poupetta;-)

Stratford Square opened on March 9, 1981, and was developed by Illinois-based Urban Investments (now Urban Retail Properties). The mall was built to hold six anchor stores and opened with the very Chicago lineup of Wieboldt's, Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field's, and Carson's. In 1985, Chicago-based MainStreet, a division of Federated Department Stores, opened on the northeast corner as the fifth anchor store, and Wieboldt's would quickly convert to JCPenney in 1988 after declaring bankruptcy. More anchor changes and additions were ahead as Mainstreet was purchased by and rebranded as Kohl's in 1989, and Sears added a store in 1990. Two more anchor changes were to come as Montgomery Ward closed in 2001, became a Burlington Coat Factory in 2002, and Marshall Field's was rebranded as Macy's in 2006.

 

All of the anchor's stores built at the mall were once Chicago-based corporations, but the sale of Carson's to Bergner's, Saks Northern, and then Bon-Ton, Marshall Fields to Dayton-Hudson, May, and then Federated, Mainstreet to Kohl's, the downfall of Wieboldt's, and the liquidation of Ward's, the mall quickly lost its local charm.

All of the anchor's stores built at the mall were once Chicago-based corporations. With the sale of Carson's to Bergner's, Saks Northern, and then Bon-Ton, Marshall Fields to Dayton-Hudson, May, and then Federated, Mainstreet to Kohl's, the downfall of Wieboldt's, and the liquidation of Ward's, the mall quickly lost its local charm.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Hawker Hunter was a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engine and the swept wing and was the first jet-powered aircraft produced by Hawker to be procured by the RAF. On 7 September 1953, the modified first prototype broke the world air speed record for aircraft, achieving a speed of 727.63 mph (1,171.01 km/h; 632.29 kn).

 

The single-seat Hunter was introduced to service in 1954 as a maneuverable day interceptor aircraft, quickly succeeding first-generation jet fighters in RAF service such as the Gloster Meteor and the de Havilland Venom. The all-weather/night fighter role was filled by the Gloster Javelin. Successively improved variants of the type were produced, adopting increasingly more capable engine models, and expanding its fuel capacity amongst other modifications being implemented.

 

The Hunter was exported to many countries all over the world, and one of the first foreign customers was Sweden. In the early 1950s, the Swedish Air Force saw the need for an interceptor that could reach enemy bombers at a higher altitude than the J 29 Tunnan that formed the backbone of the fighter force. A contract for 120 Hawker Hunter Mk 50s (an export version, equivalent to the RAF’s contemporary Mk. 4) was therefore signed on 29 June 1954 and the first aircraft was delivered on 26 August 1955. The model was locally designated J 34 and was assigned to two fighter wings F 8 (Barkaby) and F 18 (Tullinge) near Stockholm to defend the country’s capital as an interim solution before a more modern interceptor in the form of the indigenous Saab J 35 Draken was ready for service.

The J 34 was not fitted with a search radar, it only had a simple ranging radar for the guns and was consequently a pure day fighter aircraft. Its flying characteristics were excellent, though. It was a fast aircraft, with a maximum speed of 1.150 km/h, in spite of the fact that the Rolls-Royce Avon 23 (locally designated RM 5B) engine with a thrust of 4.080 kp lacked an afterburner. The Swedish Hunters’ mission was primarily to intercept enemy bombers, which were expected to attack from high altitudes, and they complemented the Swedish Air Force’s fleet of Saab J 32B, a radar-equipped all-weather/night fighter version of the Saab 32 Lansen fighter-bomber..

 

The J 34 was initially only armed with four 30 mm (1.18 in) cannon but soon retrofitted with launch rails for two AIM-9 Sidewinders (Swedish designation Rb 24) under the outer wings that markedly improved the interceptor’s effectiveness. A project to improve the performance of the J 34 further resulted in one Hunter being fitted with a Swedish-designed afterburner in 1958. While this significantly increased the engine's thrust, there was little improvement in overall performance, so that the project was shelved.

The Hunters’ career as an interceptor in Swedish service did not last long, though: During the 1960s, the J 34s were gradually replaced by supersonic J 35 Draken and reassigned to less prominent air wings, F 9 in Gothenburg and F 10 in Ängelholm.

 

At that time the Swedish Air Force was in a critical transitory phase concerning tactical photo reconnaissance. The current standard type for this mission was the Saab S 29C from the late Forties, complemented by the bigger Saab S 32C, which was a photo reconnaissance version developed from the A 32A attack aircraft. 45 of the latter aircraft had been built between 1958 and 1959 and the machines were equipped with a PS-432/A radar with extended range and with six cameras. Additionally, a photo reconnaissance version of the state-of-the-art supersonic Saab 35 Draken was under development, but when its first prototype flew in 1963, it was uncertain when it would become fully operational - the Draken’s interceptor variants had priority, and technology was advancing so fast at that time that upgrades were already in the making while the first production J 35s were delivered. In the meantime, the S 29C had become outdated and the more modern S 32C was rather optimized for maritime patrol. The relatively young surplus of J 34s fighters offered the opportunity to convert several airframes into tactical photo reconnaissance aircraft for low-level use over land, primarily as a replacement for the S 29Cs and as a stopgap until the S 35E would arrive at frontline reconnaissance units.

 

This led to the S 34B (the J 34s were consequently re-designated J 34A for better differentiation) conversion program. Sixteen airframes with relatively few flying hours were set aside and modified by Saab at Linköping in 1963. The airframe remained at the Hunter Mk. 50/Mk.4s’ standard and retained the type’s original non-afterburner engine and unmodified wings (in the meantime, a dog-toothed wing had been introduced with the Mk.6 that improved handling). The nose section was thoroughly modified to carry a broad array of cameras, and lengthened by about 4'. To compensate for the center of gravity shift through the extra equipment in the nose and create enough space for it, the Hunter’s fuselage-mounted 30 mm guns were completely deleted. The area under the cockpit was widened into a shallow tub with a flat floor, together with an extended, pointed tip which improved low-level flight stability with the now nose but still lacked any radar.

The re-contoured nose/cockpit section contained climatized compartments and windows for a total of six cameras, optimized for low-level reconnaissance and mountable in different angles:

- a long focal-length forward-looking SKA 16b (Vinten F.95) camera in the nose tip

- a sideways-looking wide angle SKA 42-44 camera (facing either to portside or starboard)

- a left oblique/forward infrared camera (various types were used, e.g. an SKA 16a/150 or an SKA 10/92

- a right oblique/forward SKA 16/10

- a vertical SKA 15/15 (F.49 Eagle IX Mk. 2)

- a vertical SKA 16a/150 infrared camera

 

The Hunter’s four underwing hardpoints were retained, though. All were plumbed to accept drop tanks for long-range missions and the capability to carry a pair of Sidewinders on the outer stations for self-defense was retained, too – even though this option was later in service almost never used. Later during their career, the S 34Bs could alternatively carry defensive equipment like chaff dispensers (e.g. the Motmedelskapsel KB a.k.a. BOZ-100) and early ECM devices like the Petrus/Adrian jamming pods from the Saab 32. However, most of the time the S 34Bs were operated in clean configuration to maximize low-level speed and handling, or just with a pair of drop tanks for long-range patrols along the Swedish borders.

 

An initial S 34B prototype was built in 1964 and flown late during the same year. Thorough operational tests with the camera installations lasted until mid-1965 at the Swedish Air Force’s Försökscentralen in Linköping. The full conversion program started in June 1964 and the first S 34B conversions were delivered to the Södermanland Wing (F11) in August 1965, where they were exclusively operated and replaced all S 29Cs of the unit’s first squadron, while the second squadron stuck to the S 29C but received four Sk 35C Draken trainers, a measure to prepare the unit for the eventual complete conversion to the S 35D. A total of seventeen Hawker Hunter Mk.50s were modified until 1966, including the prototype, which was brought to the operational S 34B status, too, and integrated into the active fleet. Unlike the J 34A fighters, the recce Hunters received a disruptive and unique three-tone camouflage in dark blue and two shades of dark green on the upper surfaces, reflecting their low-altitude mission profile. Another odd feature of F11’s J 34Bs were their individual tactical codes in the form of colored (red) numeric characters instead of letters, sharing this practice with F11’s contemporary S 32C Lansens.

 

Overall, the Hunter’s service with the Swedish Air Force was not long, though. The J 34A day fighters were already retired from service in 1969 and partly sold, while the S 34Bs were kept active until 1974, when operations at F11’s home base were expanded: the Swedish Air Force Intelligence School (FV UndS) was relocated to Nyköping and Saab 35 Draken fully replaced the last S 29Cs and the recce Hunters (which both lacked trainer versions). But already a year later, when the Palme government presented its bill 1975:75, a dismantling of two flotilla administrations, Södermanland's air fleet (F 11) and Kalmar air fleet (F 12), was proposed. The background was that the Swedish Defense Forces' peace organization investigation (FFU) in January 1971, tasked with investigating how the air force's peace organization from the mid-1980s could be adapted to the development of the war organization. That the flotilla would be dismantled was a matter of course, as the FFU considered that the reconnaissance divisions should be redistributed to other flotillas, primarily for operational and readiness reasons. Furthermore, the aircraft that the flotilla was armed with, the S 32C Lansen and the S 35D Draken, were to be replaced in the 1980s with the new SH/SF 37 Viggen. This also meant that aerial reconnaissance could then be solved in three aviation divisions, instead of the five reconnaissance aviation divisions that then existed within the Air Force.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 49 ft 0.5 in (14.98 m)

Wingspan: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Height: 13 ft 2 in (4.01 m)

Wing area: 349 sq ft (32.4 m²)

Airfoil: Hawker 8.5% symmetrical

Empty weight: 14,122 lb (6,406 kg)

Gross weight: 17,750 lb (8,051 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 24,600 lb (11,158 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RM5B1 (Avon 23) turbojet engine, 9,000 lbf (40.8 kN) thrust

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 623 mph (1,003 km/h, 541 kn, Mach 0.94) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)

715 mph (621 kn; 1,151 km/h) at sea level

Range: 385 mi (620 km, 335 nmi) with internal fuel only,

1,900 mi (3,100 km, 1,700 nmi) ferry range with maximum external fuel

Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m)

Rate of climb: 17,200 ft/min (87 m/s)

Wing loading: 51.6 lb/sq ft (252 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.56

 

Armament:

No internal guns;

4× underwing hardpoints with a total capacity of 7,400 lb (3,400 kg)

 

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional converted Hawker Hunter is a submission to the 2022 “Lightning, Canberra & Hunter” group build at whatifmodellers.com. The idea for a recce Hunter came when I wondered why there had not been a more dedicated variant than the FR.10, and when the GB came up I decided to build one from a Revell 1:72 kit. Sweden appeared as a good potential and attractive operator, as the Hunter would fit well between the Tunnan and Draken era – and I also had some donor parts from Swedish aircraft that would find their way into the rhinoplasty.

 

The kit is Revell’s 1:72 Hawker Hunter F.6 – initially I wanted to use an FGA.9 variant of this kit, but upon close inspection I found out that the Swedish Hunters were of a much earlier standard that made the FGA.9 an unsuitable starting point. While the Mk.4/50’s dog-teeth-less wings would be realized with a conversion set from Wolfpack, the early variants’ non-afterburner jet exhaust would have had to be scratched. It was eventually easier to procure a suitable variant of the Revell kit that offered this nozzle OOB, #04350, the first boxing from 2007 which was subsequently re-issued several times with slightly modified parts/sprues that depict later Hunter variants.

 

When I started building the kit, however, I found out that the kit was missing two parts – very untypical for Revell?! Apparently, the missing parts had broken off of the sprues during the packaging process, since both box and bag inside were still sealed when I received the kit. One missing piece was one of the separate dog-tooth slat sections for the wings, which could be easily replaced with the parts from the very crisp Wolfpack Hunter F.1/2/4/5 resin conversion set (which also includes a longer metal pitot) that was actually designed for the Revell kit, the other was a main landing gear cover. The latter was replaced by Revell of Germany for free within a couple of days after I had placed a request for a spare part at their service touchpoint. Great service!

 

The Revell Hunter is nice and probably the best contemporary kit of this aircraft in 1:72, even though it needs some PSR, esp. around the wing attachment seams on the fuselage. Beyond the wing modifications to create a Swedish F.4/Mk. 50 export variant I decided to thoroughly change the nose section, more than the FR.10’s small camera nose tip (which is available as a clear resin piece from Quickboost). I used the Saab 29 as a design benchmark and decided to replace the Hunter’s gun bays with camera compartments, using a leftover optional tray from a Heller S 29C to re-shape the area under the cockpit sides. I wanted to retain the original front landing gear well, though, so that only the “edges” from the Tunnan’s camera ports were transplanted under the Hunter’s front fuselage, creating pronounced “cheeks” and a more or less flat bottom.

 

To take the photo recce conversion even further I replaced the Hunter’s stub nose with a pointed alternative, a spare SF 37 nose with a forward-facing camera window from a Heller kit that I had received from a good friend a while ago. The Viggen nose was trimmed down to the same diameter as the Hunter’s, and its pitot was removed since the Hunter would retain the original wing-mounted sensor.

This recontoured nose section was blended into the Hunter’s fuselage with several layers/turns of PSR. My initial hope to retain the clear parts’ transparency for the finished S 34B soon evaporated, though, because the body work became so thorough that everything disappeared under layers of putty. At least the parts’ shape was retained, and they thoroughly changed the Hunter’s profile! At times I thought that the modified aircraft had a Soviet touch, and when I installed the landing gear it struck me that the pointed nose gave the Hunter a very F-105-ish look, like a missing link between the Thunderchief and the earlier RF-84G Thunderflash? Well, an idea for a potential future what-if project…

 

Anything else was taken OOB from the Revell kit, including the cockpit and the short drop tanks on the inner wing pylons.

  

Painting and markings:

This was a challenge. I did not want to give the fictional recce Hunter the J 34’s simple camouflage with dark green upper surfaces (Olive Green 328M) and grey undersides. The contemporary dark blue/olive green paint scheme was an alternative, but I found it to be quite boring and I also already had some Swedish whiffs with this scheme in my collection.

A suitable alternative eventually came from literature, where I found pictures of privately operated J 32E Lansen target tugs (SE-DCM and -DCN) which carried in the early Nineties a three-tone camouflage on their upper sides, consisting of mörk olivgrön (328M), mörkgrön (326M) and mörkblå (438M). I was not able to find pictures that provided detail information about the aircrafts’ concrete camouflage pattern, though, esp. from above, so that I adapted a pattern from an USN aggressor A-4E Skyhawk with adjusted colors to the Hunter airframe. The blue/green pattern on the contemporary J 32 and J 35 could not simply be expanded to a third shade, since the dark blue forms a kind of net pattern over the green background. The lighter green would always have looked like an enforced foreign matter, so that I rather went for an SEA-ish application in which all three colors appear pari passu. The aggressor pattern yet ensured that the dark blue would still form a kind of “river delta” within a murky green landscape.

 

The paints I used were Humbrol 77, 163 and 224 – lighter than the original tones, but for better contrast, scale effect and some weathering it turned out O.K. The undersides were painted in standard Swedish grey (058M), and I used Humbrol 165 (RAF Medium Sea Grey) as a proxy. The drop tanks were painted in standard J 34 colors, as a small contrast, in Humbrol 116 (FS 34079) and 165.

The cockpit interior was painted in anthracite, the ejection seat received bright green cushions (seen on a Swedish Hunter on museum display); the landing gear and the respective wells’ interior became aluminum bronze (Humbrol 56), while the interior of the air intakes became shiny aluminum (Revell 99) except for the splitter plates, which received the external camouflage colors. Copying the real J 34s’ look, the area around the jet efflux was painted in Aluminum (Revell 99) and separated from the rest of the hull with a thin 0.5 mm black line (generic decal material). The camera windows were created with black decal material, which had some light reflexes manually added and received a coat with glossy varnish.

 

The kit received the usual light black ink washing and some post-panel-shading for dramatic effect, and with markedly lightened tones from above to simulate bleached paint.

The decals/marking came mostly from RBD Studio (today Moose Republic, very good stuff!) sheets for Saab 32 Lansen in Swedish service. The unusual tactical code in the form of a number in the squadron’s color (instead of a colored letter or a white or yellow two-digit numeral that came next) was taken over from a real-world F11 S 32C from around 1963 – an exotic option, but it falls into the S 34B’s time frame and was a suitable option for this whiffy model, too. To reflect the 1st squadron’s code color even more and add a small color highlight, I painted the front wheel well cover in red and placed a white “2” on it.

 

Finally, the model was sealed overall with matt acrylic varnish. The Swedish Hunters’ rather glossy finish was only carried during the aircrafts’ early career years, when the machines still carried the factory finish with British colors under a clear protective coat. When the machines were later re-painted with Swedish paints during overhauls, they received a matt finish.

  

This modified photo reconnaissance Hunter looks simple, but the nose modifications were more severe and demanding than expected. The result looks pretty strange, esp. the pointed nose takes away the Hunter’s Fifties look. The Swedish markings and the three-tone camouflage suit the Hunter well, though, the S 34B looks quite convincing.

Tajuste.com

Olympia (Greece).

 

ENGLISH

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the chief of the gods, Zeus. It was the very model of the fully-developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order. The temple, built between 472 and 456 BC, stood in the most famous sanctuary of Greece, which had been dedicated to local and Pan-Hellenic deities and had probably been established towards the end of the Mycenaean period. The Altis, the enclosure with its sacred grove, open-air altars and the tumulus of Pelops, was first formed during the tenth and ninth centuries BCE, when the cult of Zeus was joined the already establish cult here of Hera.

 

It housed the Statue of Zeus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Chryselephantine statue was approximately 13 m (43 ft) high and was made by the sculptor Phidias in his workshop on the site at Olympia. He took about twelve years to complete it. On his head was a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he held a figure of Nike, the goddess of victory, also made from ivory and gold, and in his left hand, a scepter made with many kinds of metal, with an eagle perched on the top. His sandals were made of gold and so was his robe. His garments were carved with animals and with lilies. The throne was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. The statue was the most famous artistic work in Greece.

 

The Roman general Mummius dedicated twenty-one gilded shields after he sacked Corinth in 146 BCE; they were hung upon the columns. In 426 CE, Theodosius II ordered the destruction of the sanctuary, and earthquakes in 522 and 551 devastated the ruins and left the Temple of Zeus partially buried.

 

The site of the ancient sanctuary, long forgotten under landslips and flood siltation, was identified in 1766. In 1829 a French team partially excavated the Temple of Zeus, taking several fragments of the pediments to the Musée du Louvre. Systematic excavation began in 1875, under the direction the German Archaeological Institute, and has continued, with some interruptions, to the present time.

 

More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Zeus

 

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CASTELLANO

El Templo de Zeus Olímpico en Olimpia, construido entre 470 y 456 a. C., fue el modelo de los templos clásicos griegos de orden dórico. El templo se alzó sobre el santuario más famoso de toda Grecia, que había sido dedicado a las deidades panhelénicas locales y probablemente se había establecido hacia fines del período micénico. El Altis, anexo con su arboleda sagrada, los altares al aire libre y el túmulo de Pélope, datan de los siglos X y IX a. C., cuando el culto a Zeus se unió al ya establecido culto a Hera.

 

El templo albergaba la estatua de Zeus que fue una de las siete maravillas del mundo antiguo. La estatua criselefantina tenía aproximadamente 13 metros de alto y había sido esculpida por Fidias en su taller de Olimpia.

 

Luego de saquear Corinto en 146 a. C., el general romano Mummio consagró veintiún escudos bañados en oro que fueron colgados en las columnas. En 426 d. C., el emperador Teodosio II ordenó la destrucción del santuario; además, los terremotos ocurridos en 522 y 551 devastaron las ruinas y enterraron parte del templo.

 

El sitio del antiguo santuario, olvidado hace mucho tiempo bajo derrumbes e inundaciones de légamo, pudo identificarse en 1766. En 1829 un grupo de franceses excavó parte del Templo de Zeus y llevó varios fragmentos de los frontones al Museo del Louvre. Las excavaciones sistemáticas comenzaron en 1875, bajo la dirección del Instituto Arqueológico Alemán; pese a algunas interrupciones, dichas excavaciones continúan en la actualidad.

 

Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templo_de_Zeus_Ol%C3%ADmpico_(Olimpia)

 

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La reflexión: santimbphotos.blogspot.com

Mott Haven East Historic District, Mott Haven, Bronx, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Mott Haven East Historic District consists of a small enclave of rowhouses and tenements on East 139th and East 140th streets, between Willis and Brook avenues, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx. This section is one of the oldest settled areas of the Bronx and the first in the borough to be developed with rowhouses. Though common in Manhattan and Brooklyn, rowhouses from the nineteenth century are relatively rare in the Bronx.

 

Within the area of the district are three groups of single-family rowhouses (one row including a small multiple dwelling) and two groups of tenements. Erected between 1889 and 1903, these buildings serve as a virtual catalogue of speculatively-built housing types common to the South Bronx building boom of the 1880s and '90s. Complementing these residential buildings are the neo-Gothic St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church and Parsonage of 1911-12. As a whole, the buildings in the historic district include fine examples of neo-Grec, Queen Anne, Renaissance-inspired, and Flemish Revival design, illustrating the stylistic trends in residential architecture in New York City in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

 

Mott Haven, located in the historic township of Morrisania, takes its name from the village developed early in the nineteenth century by industrialist Jordan L. Mott, who opened an ironworks on the Bronx side of the Harlem River in 1828 and built his own house near the foundry. Industrial expansion occurred during mid-century, accompanied by sporadic residential construction, but the area remained relatively undeveloped until the opening of rapid transit lines in the early 1880s made it more accessible to Manhattan. Mott Haven was one of the few sections of the Bronx to attract nineteenth- century speculative developers, who sought to capitalize on the demand for new housing brought on by the increasing immigrant population in the metropolitan region. Soon the area became an urban extension of Manhattan and was known in the period as the "North Side," drawing middle-class families to its rowhouses, and working-class families to its numerous tenements and flats buildings.

 

The first two groups of rowhouses built in the Mott Haven East Historic District, one on the south side of East 140th Street (1889) and the other on the north side of East 139th Street (1892), were constructed by local developers William O'Gorman and Hermann Stursberg, who built other similar rows in the immediate area of the historic district. For these rows, O'Gorman acted as his own architect, designing the houses in a style known as neo-Grec. Typical of the style, the uniform brick facades are adorned with incised geometric ornament in stone and topped by bracketed metal cornices. As built, the long handsome rows of forty-nine two-and-one-half-story houses were terminated at each end by a house with an additional story; the eastern twenty-nine buildings of each of these rows were demolished to make way for the construction of P.S. 40 in the 1960s.

 

The third group of rowhouses, on the north side of East 140th Street, was built by O'Gorman in 1897-1900 to the designs of architect William Hornum. The picturesque row includes pairs of two- and-one-half-story houses separated by single three-story houses, and is terminated at the west end by a four-story tenement. The shorter paired houses are somewhat simply designed, with modest stone trim, door enframements, and modillioned cornices; by contrast, the three-story houses have varied window patterns, pedimented lintels, carved details, and stepped and gabled rooflines. O'Gorman's own house, distinguished from the others by its greater width and different face brick, was built as part of this row, at No. 427.

 

Further east on the north side of East 140th Street are two matching groups of "New Law" tenements built in 1902-03, one designed by the firm of Neville & Bagge and the other by George F.

 

Pelham; these architects were active practitioners in the field of multiple dwellings, designing numerous buildings throughout the city at the turn of the century and into the 1920s. Faced in brick with stone trim, each Renaissance-inspired building has an elaborate entranceway with a shallow projecting canopy, round-arched fifth-story windows, and an imposing metal cornice. Between the tenements and Hornum's row to the west stands the attractive, neo-Gothic St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church (1911- 12), designed by Louis A. Allmendinger. Faced with brick and stone trim, it has a central tower which adds to the picturesque character of the streetscape.

 

The buildings of the Mott Haven East Historic District, like those of surrounding areas, were initially inhabited by immigrant or second-generation families of European origin. By the mid-twentieth century, demographics in the area shifted to include African-Americans; the neighborhood now has a predominantly Hispanic-American population. Throughout the twentieth century to the present time, residential redevelopment, increased industrial usage, and demolition have eliminated many of the South Bronx's examples of original nineteenth- and early twentieth-century improvements; however, the blockfronts of the district retain their architectural integrity to a high degree. The Mott Haven East Historic District remains a vibrant residential enclave dating to the region's original phase of urban development.

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL INTRODUCTION

 

The History of Morrisania

 

Prior to its incorporation into New Netherland in the early seventeenth century, the land corresponding to Morrisania was occupied by Native Americans in the Weckquaesgeek and Manhattan branches of the Mohegan tribe, who had named the region Laaphawachking. In 1641, Jonas Bronck, a Danish Lutheran, bought from Native Americans a 500-acre tract at the very southern reaches of what is now the borough named for him, between the Harlem River and the Aquahung (Bronx) River. Bronck constructed a house and outbuildings near the mouth of the Harlem River, southwest of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District. From 1664 to 1673, while the Duke of York had control over New Netherland, the area became the dominion of the English. "Broncksland" was made subject to the government of the city of New York and Harlem.

 

In 1670, the English holding known as "West Farms," located between the Harlem River and Bungay Creek to the west and extending north to about the present 150th Street, was purchased by two brothers: Captain Richard Morris and Colonel Lewis Morris, Englishmen of Welsh descent. The Morrises had served in Cromwell's army, and upon the restoration of the monarchy (1660) in England, they immigrated to Barbados, where they became estate-owners and merchant sugar-planters. After falling from favor with local authorities, Captain Richard Morris moved to New York in 1668. He relocated to West Farms upon its purchase in 1670, and died two years later, leaving a wife and baby son, named Lewis after his uncle. Over the next few years, during a brief return of Dutch rule and ensuing resumption of English control, Colonel Morris secured claims to his holdings as well as adjacent unclaimed parcels, which totaled nearly two thousand acres. (The colonel also purchased at this time thirty-five hundred acres in New Jersey, later known as Morris County.)

 

The county of Westchester, including the Morris land and all of what is now the borough of the Bronx, had been formed in 1683 under an English charter, with the town of Westchester, east of the Morris property, as the county seat. Westchester became a borough-town in 1696, when a mayoral court was established. Colonel Morris's nephew and heir, Lewis, who became known as Lewis Morris, Sr., as well as Lewis Morris, Jr., and Lewis Morris III (who was actually the fourth Lewis Morris), all in turn served as Westchester county representatives to the Provincial Assembly.

 

Lewis Morris, Sr., settled for a time in New Jersey and became its first provincial governor. He returned to New York and secured in 1697 a royal patent for the manor of Morrisania, which he had inherited from his uncle. Judge Morris's second son, Lewis Morris, Jr., inherited the entire Morrisania estate. Lewis Morris, Jr., died in 1762, leaving his son, Lewis Morris III, to become the lord of the Morris manor. At that time, the vast majority of inhabitants of the relatively more-populated Westchester townships to the east of Morrisania, along the Long Island Sound, were conservative Loyalists. In contrast, Morris was a vocal critic of British taxation and control tactics, and he dominated a 1774 borough meeting held to elect delegates to a county convention. He was chosen as a representative, and later became a brigadier-general in the Congressional army; he resigned his army post to become a member of the Continental Congress, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

 

During the first hundred years following the original Morris land purchase, or up until around 1770, the upper sections of Westchester County were fairly uniformly settled with farms and villages, while virtually no development occurred in the lower portions. Only a few houses, barns, and mills, on the banks of Mill Brook, which divided the Morris estate in two, had been extant. In about 1760, General Morris had developed a mill at the western recess of his lands.

 

In 1788, an act of the state legislature caused Westchester County to be divided into twenty-one townships, one of which was called Morrisania, corresponding to the Morris lands and reaching north to what is now East 170th Street. At this time Morrisania was the least populated township in the county, and Lewis Morris HI was one of only thirteen heads of families there. By 1790 there were a total of only 103 free persons and thirty slaves - seventeen of which were owned by the Morrises — in Morrisania.

 

Lewis Morris HI had lobbied for township status and the rights to make other improvements to Morrisania, concurrent with his unsuccessful campaign to have the new nation's capital established there. In 1790, the state legislature granted him permission to construct a stone-piered wooden dam-bridge at the base of present-day Third Avenue, to connect Harlem with the northerly Post Road; these improvements were known as the Coles Bridge and Road. Traffic through the northern Kingsbridge crossing slowed dramatically, as travelers to West Farms, Eastchester and beyond chose the more convenient and shorter route across the Coles Bridge and Morris estate lands. Despite Morris's efforts, however, the township of Morrisania was merged into the older, neighboring town of Westchester in 1791. Nevertheless, a village, known as Morrisania, had been formed on the Westchester side of the Coles Bridge.

 

Port Morris, at the southeast edge of Morrisania and southeast of the present-day Mott Haven East Historic District, was another early Morris manor improvement and a proposed site of the new national capital. The Morris family also hoped that Port Morris would rival the port of New York on Manhattan island, because of adjacent deep water, and for a time the port had its own custom house. However, the community was located in a lowland area which experienced regular tidal flooding. It remained a small anchorage and ferry terminal throughout the nineteenth century and, at the end of the century, was filled in and laid with sewers and streets to accommodate several large factories.

 

Soon after 1791, when it had been merged into the neighboring township of Westchester, Morrisania became part of the contiguous West Farms township. In general, development in what is now the southwest Bronx remained limited throughout the next half-century to the construction of estate structures and scattered frame houses, and the laying of additional private farm roads. When Lewis Morris m died in 1798 at the age of sixty-two, the division and redivision of the Morrisania manor lands, and resulting nineteenth-century urban development, began.

The Early Development of Mott Haven

 

Substantive development began in the southwest corner of Morrisania in 1828 when Gouverneur Morris II sold a large tract to the inventor of the coal-burning stove, Jordan L. Mott, and several co- investors. Mott, the first major industrialist to locate in the Bronx, established the Mott Iron Works on the Harlem River at Third Avenue and 134th Street, west and south of the present-day Mott Haven East Historic District. Mott built a residence near the foundry, and named his pocket of Morrisania "Mott Haven." Questioned about Mott's new designation of land linked historically with the Morris family, Gouverneur Morris II is said to have stated "I don't care what he calls it; while he is about it, he might as well change the name of the Harlem [RiverJ and call it the Jordan. "

 

By 1839, the population of Westchester County as a whole was just over 3,000 people. Evidence of Morrisania's slow development and rural character is provided by the fact that the area's first religious structure was not built until 1840. In a field near the Mill Brook, Gouverneur Morris, Jr., founded St. Ann's Episcopal Church (now a designated New York City Landmark) at the site of his parents' tomb, at what is now St. Ann's Avenue and East 140th Street, just to the east of the present-day Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

Mott Haven proper, in contrast to the rest of Morrisania, began to grow steadily in the mid- nineteenth century. Mott's firm was incorporated and expanded into new buildings constructed throughout the neighborhood. The Mott Ironworks began to manufacture a wider range of goods, including kitchen and bathroom fixtures as well as stable fittings, gates, statuary, and garden furniture, produced in brass, bronze, and nickel-plate, in addition to iron.

 

Though some considered his ventures an unwanted intrusion, in 1850 Mott proceeded with plans for the lower part of the Mott Haven Canal, which followed an underground stream running parallel to Morris Avenue, about halfway between it and the Harlem River. The canal enabled boats to travel inland as far north as 138th Street, about the distance of a dozen blocks, and encouraged local industrial development. New enterprises included other metal works, lumber yards, saw mills, stone yards, enamel works and a notable concentration of impressively-built piano factories. A corresponding residential building boom, resulting from the need for worker housing, occurred in areas immediately north and east of the burgeoning canal zone.

 

Mott Haven's industrial and residential growth was facilitated by the advent of the railroad, and preceded a period of intense development following the introduction of mass transit lines which transformed the farmlands of Morrisania into the urban environment that remains today. The introduction of the railways and additional bridges over the Harlem River in the 1840s linked Morrisania and Westchester county with the city of New York to the south. The New York & Harlem Railroad, incorporated in 1831, had taken over the New York and Albany line in 1838 and received authorization from the state legislature to bridge the Harlem River in 1840. Thus, the first railroad in what is now the borough of the Bronx passed in 1841 through Morrisania along Mill Brook, to West Farms and northward. The industrial community of Mott Haven, with its own rail-line station-stop, was firmly established.

 

In the following decades, a railroad and streetcar boom resulted in a web of crossing lines, many radiating from the Harlem (previously Coles) Bridge. Morris family members and other local landholders pushed for infrastructure improvements which would stimulate interest in speculative land purchases, and began selling off their acreage to builders. Mott Haven's industrial and commercial development and its proximity to Manhattan made it a favorable environment for real estate speculation. The earliest known rowhouses in the area, dating from the early 1860s, are located at 276 to 294 Alexander Avenue between East 139th and East 140th streets, in the Mott Haven Historic District. Though commonplace in Manhattan and Brooklyn, rowhouses were unusual in what is now the Bronx, where homes were customarily freestanding frame structures. Throughout the nineteenth century, Mott Haven contained the only concentration of rowhouses in the borough.

 

The new rail system was responsible for the evolution of a number of other South Bronx villages into well-established towns. By contrast, the area now constituting the Mott Haven East Historic District had yet to be developed by 1860. On a contemporary map, only the street grid plan, devoid of built improvements, characterized this section east of Third Avenue. After 1856, the new township of Morrisania was consolidated, with its town hall located at 160th Street and Third Avenue.

 

By 1858, traffic over the old Harlem Bridge had far surpassed the structure's capacity. The second Harlem (or Third Avenue) Bridge, another drawbridge made of cast iron, was erected in place of the earlier structure in 1860. This bridge was extant until the 1890s, when the much larger, surviving drawbridge of steel and iron was constructed to accommodate the markedly increased traffic, which included trolley cars. The earliest streetcar rail line in the Bronx ran up Third Avenue to Fordham from the Harlem Bridge as of 1863. In 1870, the New York-New Haven freight yards moved to Port Morris and spread along the waterfront in the South Bronx.

The Urbanization of Mott Haven

 

In 1874 the townships of Morrisania, West Farms and Kingsbridge split from Westchester County and became the 23rd and 24th wards of the City of New York, and thus part of New York County. (The southeastern portion of Westchester County was joined to the city in 1895.) New Yorkers referred to the area as "The Annexed District."

 

The severe Financial Panic of 1873 caused a city-wide building hiatus which lasted most of the decade. In the late 1870s, as the depression lifted, construction resumed slowly in what had become known as New York City's "North Side," encompassing Mott Haven. Development began to creep inward from the loose ring of towns in the southwest Bronx toward the open area of the present-day historic district, adjacent to Mill Brook. Directly to the south, along East 136th Street, three adjoining rowhouses were built as early as 1877-78 (located in what is now the Bertine Block Historic District).

 

Large-scale improvements to the infrastructure in the Annexed District advanced the pace of development. Businessmen formed booster organizations such as the North Side Association, active through the 1880s, which pushed for the improvements. As a result, streets were paved, sewers dug, parklands purchased, and perhaps most importantly, rapid transit lines laid. In 1884, the Madison Avenue Bridge was built at East 138th Street to provide a further connection between Manhattan and the North Side. Rows of housing, churches, offices, a school, and a fire station appeared along Alexander Avenue and above 141st Street. Industrial works and manufactories continued to surround the lower Mott Haven Canal west of Lincoln Avenue. Spanning the two blocks between Lincoln and Willis avenues, below 132nd Street, was the vast Harlem River station rail yard of the New York, New Haven & Hartford line. Still, at this time, very little had been developed between Willis Avenue and the newly- formed Brook Avenue just to the east of the Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

The first mass transit line to travel to the Annexed District was the Suburban Rapid Transit Company's Third Avenue El, begun in the early 1880s, which passed two blocks west of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District. In 1886 the SRT began work on an additional North Side transit line, running through the blocks between Alexander and Willis avenues. The line incorporated a stop at 138th Street, just south of the Mott Haven East Historic District. It reached 145th Street in 1887, and then swerved westward to Third Avenue. A network of streetcars leading to and from the transit line stops was soon established. In response to an act of the New York State Legislature which was implemented in 1890 to coordinate the borough's improvements, the Commissioner of Highways of the Bronx Department of Street Improvements ordered a grid-type street layout for remaining unpaved areas and worked quickly to complete the borough's network of roadways and sewers.

 

Seventy-five percent of the area's population in the 1890s lived in close proximity to the El, which first served as a magnet for concentrated tenement construction south and west of the area of the

 

Mott Haven East Historic District. Development, however, soon fanned out from the rail line. Single-family rowhouses, and then more lucrative apartments and tenements, were built in surrounding areas. Examples of these building types exist in both the Mott Haven and the Bertine Block Historic Districts, as well as in this historic district. The South Bronx region at the end of the nineteenth century is described by historian Evelyn Gonzalez as follows:

 

By 1897, just a decade after the el began operation, the once vacant blocks east of Third Avenue were almost completely built over with solid brick buildings. This area held a mixture of building types: single-family town houses built in the late 1880s; multi-story apartment houses, built with increasing frequency in the 1890s; and to complete the picture, various industrial and manufacturing establishments along the neighborhood's southern fringe. This newly built-up area demonstrated the importance of the urban features the North Side had so painstakingly acquired.

 

The Bronx held the record as the fastest growing borough in the city between 1890 and 1940. The population of the North Side was 89,000 in 1890; ten years later it had more than doubled to over 200,000. By 1915, the number had increased threefold, to 616,000.

 

The Mott Haven East Historic District

 

Within the compact, one- and one-half-block area of the Mott Haven East Historic District are three groups of single-family rowhouses and two groups of tenements. Erected between 1889 and 1903, these buildings serve as a virtual catalogue of speculatively-built housing types common to the South Bronx building boom of the 1880s and '90s. Complementing these residential buildings are the St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church and Parsonage of 1911-12.

 

In 1887 and 1888, subsequent to the opening of the new transit line just west of Willis Avenue at the western edge of the historic district, speculative-building veterans William O'Gorman and Hermann Stursberg filed New Building applications for the construction of single-family houses in parallel rows along the entire south side of East 140th Street and north side of East 139th Street, between Willis and Brook avenues. At the time the rows were constructed, there were vast, undeveloped tracts east of the area of the historic district, farther from the rail line and past the grounds of nearby St. Ann's Church, and many blocks neither demarcated by paved streets nor subdivided into lots. The rows were completed in 1889 and 1892, respectively.

 

As built, the long handsome rows of forty-nine two-story-and-basement houses were anchored at each end by a house with an additional story; possibly multiple dwellings, the taller end buildings appear to have been planned in the course of construction. The eastern twenty-nine buildings of each of the rows were demolished to make way for the construction of P.S. 40 in the 1960s. Surviving structures

are Nos. 406 to 450 East 140th Street and Nos. 403 to 445 East 139th Street. No. 447 East 139th Street, once adjacent to the school property, was demolished in 1973 due to unsafe conditions, and is now an empty lot within the boundaries of the district.

 

For these rows, O'Gorman acted as his own architect, designing the houses in a style known as neo-Grec. Typical of the style, the uniform Philadelphia brick facades are adorned with bold, incised geometric ornament in stone and topped by bracketed metal cornices having coved fascias decorated with large spade-shaped leaf motifs. The bold articulation and uniformity impart a strong, repetitive rhythm to the streetscapes. All of the houses in the two rows are sixteen feet, eight inches wide; the three-story houses were designed to project from the facade plane of the two-story houses by means of angled end bays. Each house is fronted by a stone stoop with heavy, ornate, cast-iron newels, balusters, and handrails. Sidewalks appear to have been originally bluestone, as bluestone pavers remain in front of empty lots just to the east of No. 403 East 139th Street.

 

O'Gorman seems to have based his design for the houses in these two rows on that of an earlier group of eight neo-Grec houses he and Stursberg erected in 1885 on the south side of East 139th Street, directly south of the historic district. The lone survivor from that prototype row is in every detail a match to the 1889 and 1892 rows included in the district. Neo-Grec houses with uniform cornice lines, flat facades, and even fenestration patterns, while less expensive to construct, were somewhat outdated by this time. In Manhattan, the style was supplanted in favor of the variegated and irregular forms of the Queen Anne style by 1880.

 

O'Gorman and Stursberg had completed other projects in the neighborhood in addition to the 1885 row across East 139th Street from the historic district. By 1885, they had erected a row of twelve houses along the east side of Willis Avenue between East 138th and 139th streets (demolished). In addition, the partners appear by 1885 to have developed both sides of the block between East 141st and 142nd streets (demolished), also bounded by Willis and Brook Avenues, due north of the Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

Little is known about Hermann Stursberg except that conveyance records show that his family had owned land in the southern block of the Mott Haven East Historic District as early as 1874, and that he formed a South Bronx building partnership with William O'Gorman. He later owned property under the name of Hermann Stursberg Realty Company. The Department of Buildings documentation for the rows on East 139th and 149th streets lists his address as Staten Island.

 

William O'Gorman is known to have immigrated to New York from Ireland in 1863 or '64, at the age of 17. He obtained work with Daniel Crimmins, a builder, and quickly became his superintendent. In 1866 O'Gorman started his own architectural practice in Manhattan's Yorkville. He was the architect of two known rows of Italianate brownstone rowhouses in the same block in the Upper East Side - a row of six at 165 to 175 East 70th Street (1871, two demolished; two altered), and a row of seven at 150 to 162 East 71st Street (one demolished; two altered) ~ both for speculative builders. In 1875, after the annexation of the 23rd and 24th wards, O'Gorman joined Stursberg, transferred his business to the Bronx, and presumably began designing and building the rows of houses he planned with his new partner.

At least as early as 1887, O'Gorman and his family are known to have resided at 252 Willis Avenue just north of East 138th Street, in a house which was part of one of the rows that he had developed with Stursberg. The 1890 New York City Police Department census lists O'Gorman, age 45; his wife Julia, 43; sons William Jr., 22, Joseph, 16, Mort, 11, and Edward A., 5; daughters Lillie, 14, and Gertrude, 6; and Minnie Kane, 30, presumably a servant, as residents of 252 Willis Avenue. According to an 1897 New Building application for the erection of the row on the north side of East 140th Street, O'Gorman appears to have lived at 406 East 140th Street for some time between 1897 and 1900, when he is known to have moved to 427 East 140th Street. The U.S. census of 1900 shows that the developer's son, William J. O'Gorman, a thirty-one-year-old "Builder," lived at 497 East 139th Street. O'Gorman, Jr.'s house was demolished together with others at the east end of the block.

 

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mott Haven was inhabited predominantly by people of either Irish birth or descent, while lower Melrose, to the north, was populated by Italian immigrants and their families. The two rows on East 139th and 140th streets in the Mott Haven East Historic District, which were occupied as rentals when first developed, contained both American-born residents and immigrant populations of European heritages. Turn-of-the-century census records show that occupants of these single-family rentals were typically first or second-generation German or Irish immigrants living with extended families and often a single servant. Head-of-household occupations included draughtsman, clerk, salesman, iron worker, assessor, wool importer, road inspector, tailor, picture framer, examiner, wood worker, adjuster, insurance agent, painter, horse dealer, glue broker and pilot. In addition, there was one fire chief, one newspaper editor, and a physician.

 

Before O'Gorman and Stursberg had finished construction on the neo-Grec style rows, builder Edward D. Bertine had begun erecting three more fashionably-styled rows of houses on East 136th Street, in what is now the Bertine Block Historic District. In contrast to those of O'Gorman and Stursberg, Bertine's first houses, begun in 1891, were designed in the Queen Anne style, and were constructed of light-colored brick with an assortment of eclectic design features, a variety of textured facade materials, and picturesque rooflines including mansards, gables, and chimneys. Bertine's second group, begun in 1892, was designed in the Romanesque Revival style, with molded-brick and stone trim. The third Bertine group, constructed in 1895, exhibits Renaissance Revival design elements.

 

The next group of rowhouses built in the Mott Haven East Historic District exhibits stylistic elements found on the Bertine rows, including Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, and Renaissance Revival design features. This group, located at 407 to 427 East 140th Street toward the Willis Avenue end of the block, was built in 1897-1900. The houses were constructed on land also owned and developed by William O'Gorman, Sr., or perhaps by or with his son William, Jr. Records of the Department of Buildings show a William O'Gorman, of 662 (later 406) East 140th Street, as owner/developer of the row, which seems to refer to the younger O'Gorman. The architect for the row, in any case, was not the elder O'Gorman, as in the earlier rows, but rather Walter H.C. Hornum, who had offices in Harlem.

 

Having begun an architectural practice on lower Broadway in Manhattan in 1886, Walter H.C. Hornum (dates undetermined), apparently moved to East 125th Street to work with his brother, Louis A. Hornum, in 1888. According to New York City directories, the firm of Hornum Brothers seems to have dissolved by the turn of the century, when Walter moved first to midtown and then in about 1907 to West 125th Street, while his brother had set up in midtown as Louis A. Hornum & Co. By 1917 the brothers' addresses were again listed together in midtown. Walter Hornum's known work includes 425 to 451 West 162nd Street, two rows of Romanesque Revival style residences built in 1894-95 (now included in the Jumel Terrace Historic District).

 

Begun in June, 1897, and completed in January, 1900, the row Hornum designed was planned as part of a larger development including eleven buildings to be built on through-the-block sites directly to the north, along the south side of East 141st Street. Construction on this parallel row, however, was suspended in 1899, and officially abandoned the next year. Area maps of 1893 and 1897 show the block divided into lots of equal size for rowhouses. However, the lots along East 141st Street were soon combined and larger, more profitable tenement buildings were constructed instead.

 

The completed row on 140th Street consisted of a varied yet harmonious group of two- and three- story-and-basement single-family dwellings, constructed of brick and stone and set back fifteen feet from the front lot line. The house at No. 409, toward the west end of the row, is only eight feet behind the lot line and adjacent to the end building at No. 407, a four-story brick multiple dwelling set back just five feet from the lot line. This "Old Law" tenement — constructed in accordance with regulations in Tenement House Act of 1879 — was built to house five families, each in one apartment per floor.

 

The two-story houses, grouped in pairs, the three-story residences, and the single multiple dwelling vary in width from about seventeen feet to twenty-two feet; No. 427, the three-story building at the east end of the row, is the widest house and the only structure in the group faced in Roman brick. It is probable that this house was built for William O'Gorman, Sr., for his family's use. The U.S. census of 1900 shows that William O'Gorman, a "Builder," now aged 55, owned and lived in No. 427.M

 

O'Gorman's residence has a rock-faced, rusticated stone basement, and has a red tile mansard roof, with a stone-trimmed pedimented gable. It is embellished with a rock-faced stone stoop having integrated carved newels, a carved stone entrance surround, and decorative stone trim. Windows contained stained glass sash. At the first story is a tripartite window with carved, figural wood mullions. At present, the building is in use as a school and staff residence. The neighboring lot to the east (No. 429), combined with this lot in 1966, remains undeveloped.

 

The projecting four-story tenement at the west end of the row joins the plane of its neighbor to the east by means of a curved corner return. The building, the darkest in color and heaviest in design detail, also contains a short, shallow stoop meeting the sidewalk. No. 409, the three-story-and-basement rowhouse to the east of the tenement, has a projecting bay that steps back to meet the flat plane of the

building's neighbors to the east. All of the rowhouses have stone stoops set back from the sidewalk, which ascend from paved landings within the houses' large, planted areaways. The six paired, two-story- and-basement rowhouses have flat roofs and matching galvanized metal crested cornices (see No. 413). Facades contain slender lateral reveals anchored by carved stone bosses at the second story (see No. 417). Each pair is distinguished from the others by variations in brick color, trim design, and decorative detail. The even cornice lines are level with the bases of the tiled mansards atop the three-story buildings, each of which has a differently-styled stone-trimmed gable.

 

Typical of the fanciful late-nineteenth century fashion in residential design, buildings in this row combine classically-inspired carved, molded, incised and rock-faced detailing and decorative wrought-iron window and door grilles. A variety of window shapes, including shouldered and flat-, segmental-, and round-headed types, are found throughout the row. The three-story buildings generally exhibit decorative motifs that are more elaborate than those of the neighboring paired buildings — these are nonetheless distinctively ornamented. Together, the group comprises a lively ensemble.

 

Upon its completion in 1900, the tenement building contained four rental households. They were composed of Seigmund Levey, a German-born furniture store proprietor, and his New York-born wife and daughter; Eli Partrige, an English real estate manager, and his New York-born wife and two daughters; James Morris, a club custodian from Virginia, his New York-born wife, who had one German-born parent, and his daughter, also born in New York; and the sixty-year old Charles Bates, a dry goods superintendant, and his wife Rachel, both New Yorkers.

 

Besides O'Gorman's own residence, completed houses in the row in 1900 were owned and occupied by an Irish-born undertaker, his wife, four children and a servant; another undertaker, born in New York, his wife, son, a servant, and one roomer; and a linen store manager and his wife and brother- in-law, all German-born, with their four sons, the two eldest employed as a traveling salesman and a clerk, and a servant.

 

In 1898, the entire annexed portion of Westchester County became the Borough of the Bronx within Greater New York City, in keeping with the terms of the city charter of that year. Highly influential in the turn-of-the-century development of the southwest Bronx was an organization called The North Side Board of Trade. Founded in 1894 as a successor to the North Side Association in order to attract manufacturing and other enterprises and a "superior class of residents," its membership included leading business and professional men with interests in borough. The Board lobbied successfully for further improvements in the district, and the development of remaining open lands in the Mott Haven vicinity was soon accomplished with the erection of higher-density tenements and apartment buildings. Many such tenement buildings were constructed throughout the South Bronx at this time.

 

In the Mott Haven East Historic District, examples of such tenement construction appear on the north side of East 140th Street, several lots to the east of the O'Gorman/Hornum row. While an earlier New Building application reveals that three-story buildings, thirty-five feet in width, may have been planned for the row, nine five-story tenements, each over thirty-seven feet in width, were constructed in two groups in 1902-03; each building was planned to house ten families. The first group (Nos. 465 to 481) was designed by Thomas P. Neville of the firm of Neville & Bagge; plans for the second group (Nos. 441 to 461) were filed by architect George F. Pelham.

 

These buildings were erected for Gaines, Roberts & Co.; little is known about the firm's President, Furman V. Gaines, and Vice-President, Hugh L. Roberts. The structures were designed and built in accordance with the provisions of the Tenement Law of 1901, which marked the end of the narrow, rowhouse-sized tenement building and mandated the construction of larger, better ventilated multiple dwellings, complete with hot water, heat, and electricity.

 

After practicing on his own for two years at 47 West 66th Street, architect George A. Bagge (dates undetermined) formed a partnership in 1892 with Thomas P. Neville (dates undetermined) and set up offices at No. 250 and then No. 213-217 West 125th Street. In 1915 the firm moved south to midtown, and then from 1919 to 1930 to Bergen Avenue in the Bronx. After 1923 and until 1936 Bagge headed George A. Bagge & Sons, first located at 299 Madison Avenue and then at 157 and 7 East 44th Street.

 

Neville and Bagge were prolific designers of a number of building types, including stores and lofts, hotels, banks, and churches, but specialized in tenements and apartment houses. Although examples of the firm's work exist throughout Manhattan and the Bronx, most are in the residential neighborhoods of Manhattan's Upper West Side and Harlem. Neville & Bagge's rowhouses and apartment buildings appear in the Chelsea, Hamilton Heights, Jumel Terrace, Mount Morris Park, West End Collegiate, and Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic Districts. Individually designated New York City Landmarks designed by the firm include the freestanding Shuttleworth residence at 1857 Anthony Avenue (1896) in the Bronx and the facade (1907) of St. Cecilia's Convent at 112 East 106th Street, Manhattan.

 

Neville & Bagge's tenements at Nos. 465 to 481 East 140th Street form a unified row of four five-story tan brick buildings with limestone trim, designed in the popular neo-Renaissance style. George F. Pelham, a prolific practitioner in the field of multiple dwellings, was the architect of record for the adjacent five buildings at Nos. 441 to 461, the design of which matches that of the four Neville & Bagge structures to the west. The buildings are topped by metal cornices and feature centered, ground-story entrances having a sequence of harmonious yet slightly varying limestone surrounds, with projecting stone canopies and low stoops. At the time of designation, original entrance doors and window sash had been replaced.

 

Each steam-heated building was planned with two six-room apartments per floor plus a four-room janitor's apartment and storage space in basement. Lots are a standard 100 feet deep, and the buildings extend back about eighty-six feet. Fire escapes were placed on the rear elevations.

Other types of buildings were constructed in the neighborhood to serve the needs of the residents. The Mott Haven East Historic District contains an example of a small, early-twentieth century religious complex, in this case, intended to serve a local congregation of Lutherans of German birth or descent. In the center of the north side of East 140th Street, separating the rowhouses to the west and the tenements to the east, are the church (No. 435) and parsonage (No. 437), designed by Louis A. Allmendinger, and constructed in 1911-12 for the Second St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, previously located at 374 East 141st Street. Today, a Lutheran congregation continues to occupy the church, now known as St. Peter's-in-the-Bronx.

 

The one-story-and-basement neo-Gothic church, punctuated by a tower, is a freestanding gray brick structure set on a stone base course, with a peaked slate roof, terra-cotta and copper cornices, and tile coping. The church's facade is set back from the building line of the adjacent tenements to the east, but forward of the neighboring parsonage to the west. Steel lintels support the low, square tower, originally decorated with a group of attenuated spires. A low stoop leads to a pair of wood entrance doors hung on metal strap hinges. Surmounting the entrance is a stained-glass pointed-arch Gothic window.

 

The church's two-story-and-basement parsonage is also freestanding, and contains Gothic design elements. The gray brick facades are ornamented with brownstone, limestone, and terra-cotta trim. The brownstone stoop is lined with iron railings and posts, and leads to an entrance door surmounted by a round-shouldered transom. Round-shouldered window openings have one-over-one double-hung sash and stained-glass transoms. The galvanized iron cornice is decorated with Gothic arches pressed into the fascia.

 

Little is known about the life and career of Louis Allmendinger, whose address is listed as 926 Broadway, Brooklyn, on Department of Buildings documentation for the St. Peter's Lutheran Church and Parsonage. Allmendinger took over the commission after an initial design by architects Schaefer & Jaeger had been approved and withdrawn in 1911. It is not known how much of the original scheme was used in the Allmendinger design. One other known building attributed to Allmendinger is the Byzantine style Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of our Lord, constructed between 1916 and 1921 on North 12th Street in Brooklyn (a designated New York City Landmark).

Subsequent History

 

During the early twentieth century, the population of the Bronx continued to expand. The United States census of 1900 reports the total borough population at 200,507; the 1910 census shows that number more than doubled, with the population at 430,980. This constituted the greatest percent increase for the decade — 115 percent - of any borough in the city. To contend with escalating road and rail traffic between Manhattan and the South Bronx, the Willis Avenue bridge had been erected in 1901 and the Madison Avenue bridge was replaced in about 1910 with a larger structure. Two additional railroad bridges brought the total number of early twentieth-century crossings to the South Bronx to five.

 

The subway came to the Bronx in 1905, and caused a further real estate boom in the borough. Development spread north, as it had in Manhattan in the previous century. One subway branch reached Morrisania at 149th Street east of Third Avenue. This crossroads, nine blocks north of the historic district, became a major shopping hub. In 1912, historian Stephen Jenkins wrote that the subway was "the most important factor in causing the enormous increase in the population of the borough." Industrial development also increased markedly, and by 1910 the South Bronx contained hundreds of factories of varying types, and was considered the nation's piano manufacturing capital. Industry was concentrated just south and east of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

Although the South Bronx contained a growing African-American population in the 1920s and '30s, the 1940 U.S. census findings for Census Tract 39 (bounded by East 138th and East 141st streets, Third and St. Ann's avenues), indicate that the population in the immediate vicinity of the Mott Haven Historic District was virtually all white, with nearly one-half of the population foreign-born. Of the foreign-born white heads of families in the tract, the largest percentage, nearly half, were from the Irish Free State (Eire), with Germans, Italians, and Russians together comprising another quarter. Latin Americans and other non-Europeans were only a fraction.

 

Recent Trends

 

By the 1970s, a clear change in the population of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District neighborhood was discernible. Spanish-speaking residents comprised well over one-half of the population of the census tract, with those of Puerto Rican birth or parentage about fifty percent. African- Americans now made up forty-three percent of the total population. The 1990 U.S. census reported that the Hispanic population has grown to represent nearly eighty percent of the population of Tract 39.

 

In the 1960s and '70s, when many residential buildings in the South Bronx were abandoned or demolished, the area became synonymous with urban decay. In the midst of the disintegration, the neighborhood of the Mott Haven East Historic District, and its historic structures, endured. The Mott Haven East Historic District remains a vibrant residential enclave. Its century-old rows of solid houses and tenements, representative of the area's first phase of urban development, are important as anchors for current and future renewal.

 

- From the 1994 NYCLPC Historic District Designation Report

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain

13900 North Dove Mountain Boulevard

Marana, Arizona

 

**In the Beginning**

 

In 1926, Missourian Eugene Cayton arrived in Tucson to improve his health. He acquired what was then known as Ruelas Canyon in the Tortolita Mountains and established the T Bench Bar Ranch. "Cush" Cayton built for his wife, Inez, a stone house atop one of the smaller peaks. The stone house is still there on top of the hill overlooking Dove Mountain Boulevard near the eighth and ninth holes of the Gallery Golf Club. The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain was developed by John MacMillan, majority owner of Palo Verde Partners and opened in 2003.

 

The Cayton’s ranched the land until 1984. In 1985 David Mehl’s Cottonwood Properties Inc. Acquired the 1,300 acres of desert land and thus began Mehl's vision of Dove Mountain as an upscale golf community. David Mehl and his late brother George founded Tucson-based Cottonwood Properties in 1972. Its purpose was to invest in and develop quality real estate in the Tucson, Arizona area. David Mehl graduated from the University of Arizona in 1972.

 

In the early 1980’s Cottonwood Properties was the master developer of the 790 acre Westin La Paloma resort community in the foothills of Tucson. The development consisted of the 487 room Westin La Paloma Resort & Hotel and the 27 hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course. Cottonwood owned the hotel until 1988 when it sold the hotel to the Aoki Corp., the Japan-based construction company that owned Westin. Aoki spent $200 million to acquire 3 hotels - the Inter-Continental at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, the Inter-Continental at Buckhead in Atlanta, and an equity interest in the Westin La Paloma.

 

**Pygmy Owl**

 

In March 1997 the Pygmy Owl was added to the list of endangered species under federal law. In 1999 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service dealt a set-back to the development. Environmental protections for the ferruginous pygmy owl forced Cottonwood to scale back plans at Dove Mountain. The numbers of homes were scaled back from 13,000 to 6,500 and the numbers of proposed resorts were reduced to one from 3 or 4. Cottonwood also contributed several million dollars to a conservation fund managed by the federal agency.

 

In 1999 the Tucson Citizen quoted David Mehl ”By making density reductions, we are developing at a density compatible with the pygmy owl.. In areas where it’s not, then we’re offering to pay to make up for it.”

 

**The Development**

 

Cottonwood committed some twenty years of planning into making Dove Mountain a premiere golf resort community.

 

In the late 1990’s Cottonwood Properties partnered with Scottsdale-based Greenbrier Southwest Corp. and began planning a 500-room Hyatt resort hotel for Dove Mountain. The hotel was designed and the developers received a verbal commitment for the financing on Sept. 10, 2001. The next day, September 11, 2001, the world changed and the idea for the Hyatt Resort was shelved.

 

The principals of Greenbrier Southwest Corporation, Tim and Casey Bolinger, previously served with Woodbine Southwest Corporation in Phoenix from 1991-1998. They managed the planning, zoning, financing, development and marketing of the 730-acre Kierland master-planned community, including Kierland Commons and the Westin Kierland Resort.

 

Greenbrier Southwest developed a much smaller project – the Hidden Meadow Ranch in Greer, Arizona. Opened in 2002, the rustic ranch (transformed from a church youth camp) has 12 luxury cabins starting at $500 a night including meals.

 

In August 2007 a building permit was issued for a Ritz-Carlton resort and spa to be built in Dove Mountain in Marana. The building permit cost $309,643.10 and was applied for by Dove Mountain Hotel Co. LLC. Also, Tucson Water approved a water main extension, a 290,000-gallon reservoir and a booster station that would serve the proposed 250-room hotel.

 

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain and The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain were announced as the largest branded resort/residential community managed by the Ritz Carlton hotel company. The $160 million hotel will be the second Ritz-Carlton in Arizona, joining the The Ritz-Carlton, Phoenix.

 

The Ritz Carlton press release announced that HKS Hill Glazier Architects of Palo Alto, California will design the hotel as a low-rise, four story building embracing the feel of the desert southwest. The main building of adobe block, straw-flecked stucco, clay tile and native stone will include 226 guest rooms and suites. Separate buildings nearby will feature 24 individual casita rooms and suites.

 

In addition a $60-million Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course with 27-holes was planned for a late 2008 opening. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain now hosts the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship beginning in February 2009 (The PGA Tour has committed to The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain through the 2013 event). When George and David Mehl hired Nicklaus in 1983 to design the Westin La Polama Golf Course, it was Nicklaus’s 26th golf course on his design resume. With Dove Mountain completed Nicklaus has designed over 200 golf courses around the world.

 

**Grand Opening**

 

The Ritz Carlton’s pre-opening General Manager – Michael McMahon - aims to have the resort become the first in the Tucson area to achieve AAA's highest rating of five diamonds. Previously McMahon was General Manager The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples, Florida.

 

The hotel’s opening general manager was Allan Federer. In March 2011 Federer moved to the Ritz-Carlton Dubai as General Manager. Replacing Federer is Liam Doyle – who previously was general manager at the Sherbourne Dublin, Ireland and Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach.

 

The Ritz-Carlton Grand Opening Press Release reported that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was in attendance at the December 18, 2009 event. Speakers at the event included owner and developer David Mehl of Cottonwood Properties, senior vice president of operations for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., Hank Biddle, and The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain resort general manager, Allan Federer.

 

“This day is a landmark event not only for the town of Marana, but for the State of Arizona,” stated general manager Allan Federer. “Over twenty years ago, David and his brother George Mehl had a vision to build the finest resort in the country. All it took was the right partners and the perfect location. With the help of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. and co-developer Greenbrier Southwest Corporation, it became a reality. Now the world has the opportunity to visit a place like no other, The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.”

 

Following the official ribbon-cutting seventy-two white doves were released symbolizing the property as the 72nd within The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. portfolio.

 

At full operation the hotel has 450 employees. It has 44,000 square feet of meeting space including a 9,000 square foot main ballroom.

 

The hotel’s opening Chef de Cuisine was Joel Harrington. Harrington previously was chef de cuisine of Fearing's at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Harrington graduated from CIA in Hyde Park, NY and worked with Marcus Samuellson at Aquavit in NYC.

 

Replacing Harrington is Chef David Serus who previously served as Executive Sous-Chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay and Executive Chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. Serus’ role encompass all hotel culinary activities, including those at CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar, Cayton’s Restaurant, Ignite Lobby Lounge, Turquesa Latin Grill, To Go, In-Room Dining, banquets, and catering.

 

**Two Landmark 200 Year Old Saguaros**

 

When Wild Burro Canyon was selected for the perfect hotel site, where balcony views of the Tortolita Mountains would be maximized, it was discovered that two majestic Saguaros, each estimated to be close to 200 years old, would have been lost. This was unacceptable to ownership. After three more months of analysis, the final solution was to simply shift the whole facility 25 feet. Today, as hotel guests behold the box canyon views from Ignite or CORE Kitchen and Wine Bar, they enjoy these two landmark cacti, which rise majestically overhead and stand in testament to the preservation of the High Sonoran Desert. “These cacti are sacred and add to our sense of place,” said Allan Federer, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. “Guests gaze in awe and wonder at the desert’s version of a redwood, adding to the memories they will have of this beautiful property.”

 

Photos and text compiled by Dick Johnson

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

March, 2012

 

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has an area of 1104 km2 and shares its northern border with the Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million Hongkongers of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

 

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

 

In the late 1970s, Hong Kong became a major entrepôt in Asia-Pacific. The territory has developed into a major global trade hub and financial centre. The 44th-largest economy in the world, Hong Kong ranks top 10 in GDP (PPP) per capita, but also has the most severe income inequality among advanced economies. Hong Kong is one of the three most important financial centres alongside New York and London, and the world's number one tourist destination city. The territory has been named the freest market economy. The service economy, characterised by free trade and low taxation, has been regarded as one of the world's most laissez-faire economic policies, and the currency, the Hong Kong dollar, is the 13th most traded currency in the world.

 

The Hong Kong Basic Law empowers the region to develop relations and make agreements directly with foreign states and regions, as well as international organizations, in a broad range of appropriate fields. It is an independent member of APEC, the IMF, WTO, FIFA and International Olympic Committee among others.

 

Limited land created a dense infrastructure and the territory became a centre of modern architecture, and one of the world's most vertical cities. Hong Kong has a highly developed public transportation network covering 90 per cent of the population, the highest in the world, and relies on mass transit by road or rail. Air pollution remains a serious problem. Loose emissions standards have resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates. Nevertheless, Hongkongers enjoy the world's longest or second longest life expectancies.

 

NAME

It is not known who was responsible for the Romanisation of the name "Hong Kong" but it is generally believed to be an early imprecise phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese or Hakka name 香港, meaning "Fragrant Harbour". Before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour (香港仔, Sidney Lau: heung1gong2 jai2, Jyutping: hoeng1gong2 zai2, or Hiong1gong3 zai3 in a form of Hakka, literally means "Little Hong Kong")—between Aberdeen Island and the south side of Hong Kong Island, which was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. As those early contacts are likely to have been with Hong Kong's early inhabitants, the Tankas (水上人), it is equally probable that the early Romanisation was a faithful execution of their speech, i.e. hong1, not heung1. Detailed and accurate Romanisation systems for Cantonese were available and in use at the time.

 

The reference to fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River, or to the incense from factories, lining the coast to the north of Kowloon, which was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before the development of the Victoria Harbour.

 

In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed and the name, Hong Kong, was first recorded on official documents to encompass the entirety of the island.

 

The name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of century-old institutions still retain the single-word form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

 

The full official name, after 1997, is "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China". This is the official title as mentioned in the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Hong Kong Government's website; however, "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" and "Hong Kong" are widely accepted.

 

Hong Kong has carried many nicknames: the most famous among those is the "Pearl of the Orient", which reflected the impressive night-view of the city's light decorations on the skyscrapers along both sides of the Victoria Harbour. The territory is also known as "Asia's World City".

 

HISTORY

PRE-BRITISH

Archaeological studies support human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area (now Hong Kong International Airport) from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago and on Sai Kung Peninsula from 6,000 years ago.

 

Wong Tei Tung and Three Fathoms Cove are the earliest sites of human habitation in Hong Kong during the Paleolithic Period. It is believed that the Three Fathom Cove was a river-valley settlement and Wong Tei Tung was a lithic manufacturing site. Excavated Neolithic artefacts suggested cultural differences from the Longshan culture of northern China and settlement by the Che people, prior to the migration of the Baiyue (Viets) to Hong Kong. Eight petroglyphs, which dated to the Shang dynasty in China, were discovered on the surrounding islands.

 

ANCIENT CHINA

In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, conquered the Baiyue tribes in Jiaozhi (modern Liangguang region and Vietnam) and incorporated the territory into imperial China for the first time. Modern Hong Kong was assigned to the Nanhai commandery (modern Nanhai District), near the commandery's capital city Panyu. In Qin dynasty, the territory was ruled by Panyu County(番禺縣) up till Jin Dynasty.

 

The area of Hong Kong was consolidated under the kingdom of Nanyue (Southern Viet), founded by general Zhao Tuo in 204 BC after the collapse of the short-lived Qin dynasty. When the kingdom of Nanyue was conquered by the Han Dynasty in 111 BC, Hong Kong was assigned to the Jiaozhi commandery. Archaeological evidence indicates that the population increased and early salt production flourished in this time period. Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb on the Kowloon Peninsula is believed to have been built during the Han dynasty.

 

IMPERIAL CHINA

Started from Jin dynasty to early period of Tang dynasty, the territory that now comprises Hong Kong was governed by Bao'an County (寶安縣). In Tang dynasty, the Guangdong region flourished as an international trading center. The Tuen Mun region in what is now Hong Kong's New Territories served as a port, naval base, salt production centre and later, base for the exploitation of pearls. Lantau Island was also a salt production centre, where the salt smugglers riots broke out against the government.

 

Under the Tang dynasty, the Guangdong (Canton) region flourished as a regional trading centre. In 736 AD, the first Emperor of Tang established a military stronghold in Tuen Mun in western Hong Kong to defend the coastal area of the region. The first village school, Li Ying College, was established around 1075 AD in the modern-day New Territories under the Northern Song dynasty. After their defeat by the Mongols, the Southern Song court briefly moved to modern-day Kowloon City (the Sung Wong Toi site), before its final defeat at the Battle of Yamen.

 

From the mid-Tang dynasty to early Ming dynasty, the territory that now comprises Hong Kong was governed by Dongguan County (東莞縣/ 東官縣). In Ming dynasty, the area was governed by Xin'an County (新安縣) before it was colonized by the British government. The indigenous inhabitants of what is now Hong Kong are identified with several ethnicities, including Punti, Hakka, Tanka) and Hoklo.

 

The earliest European visitor on record was Jorge Álvares, a Portuguese explorer who arrived in 1513. Having founded an establishment in Macau by 1557, Portuguese merchants began trading in southern China. However, subsequent military clashes between China and Portugal led to the expulsion of all Portuguese merchants from the rest of China.

 

In the mid-16th century, the Haijin order (closed-door, isolation policy) was enforced and it strictly forbade all maritime activities in order to prevent contact from foreigners by sea. From 1661 to 1669, Hong Kong was directly affected by the Great Clearance of the Kangxi Emperor, who required the evacuation of coastal areas of Guangdong. About 16,000 people from Hong Kong and Bao'an County were forced to emigrate inland; 1,648 of those who evacuated were said to have returned after the evacuation was rescinded in 1669.

 

BRITSH CROWN COLONY 1842–1941

In 1839, the refusal of Qing authorities to support opium imports caused the outbreak of the First Opium War between the British Empire and the Qing Empire. Qing's defeat resulted in the occupation of Hong Kong Island by British forces on 20 January 1841. It was initially ceded under the Convention of Chuenpee, as part of a ceasefire agreement between Captain Charles Elliot and Governor Qishan. While a dispute between high-ranking officials of both countries led to the failure of the treaty's ratification, on 29 August 1842, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded in perpetuity to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Treaty of Nanking. The British officially established a Crown colony and founded the City of Victoria in the following year.

 

The population of Hong Kong Island was 7,450 when the Union Flag raised over Possession Point on 26 January 1841. It mostly consisted of Tanka fishermen and Hakka charcoal burners, whose settlements scattered along several coastal hamlets. In the 1850s, a large number of Chinese immigrants crossed the then-free border to escape from the Taiping Rebellion. Other natural disasters, such as flooding, typhoons and famine in mainland China would play a role in establishing Hong Kong as a place for safe shelter.

 

Further conflicts over the opium trade between Britain and Qing quickly escalated into the Second Opium War. Following the Anglo-French victory, the Crown Colony was expanded to include Kowloon Peninsula (south of Boundary Street) and Stonecutter's Island, both of which were ceded to the British in perpetuity under the Convention of Beijing in 1860.

 

In 1898, Britain obtained a 99-year lease from Qing under the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, in which Hong Kong obtained a 99-year lease of the Lantau Island, the area north of Boundary Street in Kowloon up to Shenzhen River and over 200 other outlying islands.

 

Hong Kong soon became a major entrepôt thanks to its free port status, attracting new immigrants to settle from both China and Europe alike. The society, however, remained racially segregated and polarised under British colonial policies. Despite the rise of a British-educated Chinese upper-class by the late-19th century, race laws such as the Peak Reservation Ordinance prevented ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong from acquiring houses in reserved areas, such as the Victoria Peak. At this time, the majority of the Chinese population in Hong Kong had no political representation in the British colonial government. There were, however, a small number of Chinese elites whom the British governors relied on, such as Sir Kai Ho and Robert Hotung, who served as communicators and mediators between the government and local population.

 

Hong Kong continued to experience modest growth during the first half of the 20th century. The University of Hong Kong was established in 1911 as the territory's oldest higher education institute. While there was an exodus of 60,000 residents for fear of a German attack on the British colony during the First World War, Hong Kong remained peaceful. Its population increased from 530,000 in 1916 to 725,000 in 1925 and reached 1.6 million by 1941.

 

In 1925, Cecil Clementi became the 17th Governor of Hong Kong. Fluent in Cantonese and without a need for translator, Clementi introduced the first ethnic Chinese, Shouson Chow, into the Executive Council as an unofficial member. Under his tenure, Kai Tak Airport entered operation as RAF Kai Tak and several aviation clubs. In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out when the Japanese Empire expanded its territories from northeastern China into the mainland proper. To safeguard Hong Kong as a freeport, Governor Geoffry Northcote declared the Crown Colony as a neutral zone.

 

JAPANESE OCCUPATION 1941–45

As part of its military campaign in Southeast Asia during Second World War, the Japanese army moved south from Guangzhou of mainland China and attacked Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with the British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of Hong Kong to Japan on 25 December 1941 in what was regarded by locals as Black Christmas.

 

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese army committed atrocities against civilians and POWs, such as the St. Stephen's College massacre. Local residents also suffered widespread food shortages, limited rationing and hyper-inflation arising from the forced exchange of currency from Hong Kong Dollars to Japanese military banknotes. The initial ratio of 2:1 was gradually devalued to 4:1 and ownership of Hong Kong Dollars was declared illegal and punishable by harsh torture. Due to starvation and forced deportation for slave labour to mainland China, the population of Hong Kong had dwindled from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945, when Britain resumed control of the colony on 30 August 1945.

 

ECONOMY

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade. The currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the eighth most traded currency in the world as of 2010. Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world's greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism, but has since instituted a regime of regulations including a minimum wage. It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom every year since 1995. It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region, and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.

 

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world and has a market capitalisation of US$2.3 trillion as of December 2009. In that year, Hong Kong raised 22 percent of worldwide initial public offering (IPO) capital, making it the largest centre of IPOs in the world and the easiest place to raise capital. The Hong Kong dollar has been pegged to the US dollar since 1983.

 

The Hong Kong Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Hong Kong is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the Second World War, Hong Kong industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s. Since then, it has grown to become a leading centre for management, financial, IT, business consultation and professional services.

 

Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre in the 1990s, but was greatly affected by the Asian financial crisis in 1998, and again in 2003 by the SARS outbreak. A revival of external and domestic demand has led to a strong recovery, as cost decreases strengthened the competitiveness of Hong Kong exports and a long deflationary period ended. Government intervention, initiated by the later colonial governments and continued since 1997, has steadily increased, with the introduction of export credit guarantees, a compulsory pension scheme, a minimum wage, anti-discrimination laws, and a state mortgage backer.

 

The territory has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Imports account for more than 90% of Hong Kong's food supply, including nearly all of the meat and rice available there. Agricultural activity - relatively unimportant to Hong Kong's economy and contributing just 0.1% of its GDP - primarily consists of growing premium food and flower varieties. Hong Kong is the world's eleventh largest trading entity, with the total value of imports and exports exceeding its gross domestic product. It is the world's largest re-export centre. Much of Hong Kong's exports consist of re-exports, which are products made outside of the territory, especially in mainland China, and distributed via Hong Kong. Its physical location has allowed the city to establish a transportation and logistics infrastructure that includes the world's second busiest container port and the world's busiest airport for international cargo. Even before the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong had established extensive trade and investment ties with the mainland, which now enable it to serve as a point of entry for investment flowing into the mainland. At the end of 2007, there were 3.46 million people employed full-time, with the unemployment rate averaging 4.1% for the fourth straight year of decline. Hong Kong's economy is dominated by the service sector, which accounts for over 90% of its GDP, while industry constitutes 9%. Inflation was at 2.5% in 2007. Hong Kong's largest export markets are mainland China, the United States, and Japan.

 

As of 2010 Hong Kong is the eighth most expensive city for expatriates, falling from fifth position in the previous year. Hong Kong is ranked fourth in terms of the highest percentage of millionaire households, behind Switzerland, Qatar, and Singapore with 8.5 percent of all households owning at least one million US dollars. Hong Kong is also ranked second in the world by the most billionaires per capita (one per 132,075 people), behind Monaco. In 2011, Hong Kong was ranked second in the Ease of Doing Business Index, behind Singapore.

 

Hong Kong is ranked No. 1 in the world in the Crony Capitalism Index by the Economist.

 

In 2014, Hong Kong was the eleventh most popular destination for international tourists among countries and territories worldwide, with a total of 27.8 million visitors contributing a total of US$38,376 million in international tourism receipts. Hong Kong is also the most popular city for tourists, nearly two times of its nearest competitor Macau.

  

DEMOGRAPHICS

The territory's population in mid-2015 is 7.30 million, with an average annual growth rate of 0.8% over the previous 5 years. The current population of Hong Kong comprises 91% ethnic Chinese. A major part of Hong Kong's Cantonese-speaking majority originated from the neighbouring Guangdong province, from where many fled during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the communist rule in China.

 

Residents of the Mainland do not automatically receive the Right of Abode, and many may not enter the territory freely. Like other non-natives, they may apply for the Right of Abode after seven years of continuous residency. Some of the rights may also be acquired by marriage (e.g., the right to work), but these do not include the right to vote or stand for office. However, the influx of immigrants from mainland China, approximating 45,000 per year, is a significant contributor to its population growth – a daily quota of 150 Mainland Chinese with family ties in Hong Kong are granted a "one way permit". Life expectancy in Hong Kong is 81.2 years for males and 86.9 years for females as of 2014, making it the highest life expectancy in the world.

 

About 91% of the people of Hong Kong are of Chinese descent, the majority of whom are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. Hong Kong's Han majority originate mainly from the Guangzhou and Taishan regions in Guangdong province. The remaining 6.9% of the population is composed of non-ethnic Chinese. There is a South Asian population of Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese; some Vietnamese refugees have become permanent residents of Hong Kong. There are also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Japanese, and Koreans working in the city's commercial and financial sector. In 2011, 133,377 foreign domestic helpers from Indonesia and 132,935 from the Philippines were working in Hong Kong.

 

Hong Kong's de facto official language is Cantonese, a variety of Chinese originating from Guangdong province to the north of Hong Kong. English is also an official language, and according to a 1996 by-census is spoken by 3.1 percent of the population as an everyday language and by 34.9 percent of the population as a second language. Signs displaying both Chinese and English are common throughout the territory. Since the 1997 Handover, an increase in immigrants from communist China and greater interaction with the mainland's economy have brought an increasing number of Mandarin speakers to Hong Kong.

 

RELIGION

A majority of residents of Hong Kong have no religious affiliation, professing a form of agnosticism or atheism. According to the US Department of State 43 percent of the population practices some form of religion. Some figures put it higher, according to a Gallup poll, 64% of Hong Kong residents do not believe in any religion, and possibly 80% of Hong Kong claim no religion. In Hong Kong teaching evolution won out in curriculum dispute about whether to teach other explanations, and that creationism and intelligent design will form no part of the senior secondary biology curriculum.

 

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of religious freedom, guaranteed by the Basic Law. Hong Kong's main religions are Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism; a local religious scholar in contact with major denominations estimates there are approximately 1.5 million Buddhists and Taoists. A Christian community of around 833,000 forms about 11.7% of the total population; Protestants forms a larger number than Roman Catholics at a rate of 4:3, although smaller Christian communities exist, including the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches each freely appoint their own bishops, unlike in mainland China. There are also Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Bahá'í communities. The practice of Falun Gong is tolerated.

 

PERSONAL INCOME

Statistically Hong Kong's income gap is the greatest in Asia Pacific. According to a report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2008, Hong Kong's Gini coefficient, at 0.53, was the highest in Asia and "relatively high by international standards". However, the government has stressed that income disparity does not equate to worsening of the poverty situation, and that the Gini coefficient is not strictly comparable between regions. The government has named economic restructuring, changes in household sizes, and the increase of high-income jobs as factors that have skewed the Gini coefficient.

 

WIKIPEDIA

HPD pupils are developing concept models as part of their Developing Design Proposals Unit. As usual lighting remains a popular choice. Pupils are also developing proposals on themes as diverse as seating, kitchen utensils and sportswear equipment.

 

Good to see evidencs of great strides being made in quich modeling techniques using materials like plasticine, copper wire, plywood and foam. The glue gun gets a lot of use at the moment as does the bandsaw and fretsaw.

 

Fortunately, Cathy, our cleaner has been very understanding. The mess at times you would not believe!

 

Good work everybody. Have a great Christmas break, get some rest. You'll need all your energy for the new year!

Canonet QL17 40/1.7

Kodak ImageLink Technical film

Exposed like ISO32

Developing R09 1:100, 20C, 40min.

KMZ Zorki-3

KMZ JUPITER-9 85mm F2

ILFORD HP5+ 400

Self_developed FX-5_Dev

Sinar f + Schneider G-Claron 305mm/f9 Fuji Acros stand developed for 60 min. in 1/100 Rhodanol at RT in a Jobo 2520 tank + 2509n reel . Printed with an LPL 7453 enlarger +fujinon-EP 135mm/5.6 lens at f11 40 secs and 00-23-49 filter settings. Adox MCP310 8x10 paper and Adox warm tone developer.

I believe I have finally gotten 4x5 stand development to work with the Jobo tank. All 6 sheets came out nicely for the first time. I presoaked longer than usual (3 min) and agitated for 2 min. instead of 1min.. I have also slightly filed down a few of the teeth on the reel.

 

The Bell AH-1 Cobra is a single-engined attack helicopter developed and manufactured by the American rotorcraft manufacturer Bell Helicopter. It was a member of the prolific Huey family, the AH-1 is also referred to as the HueyCobra or Snake.

 

The AH-1 was developed using the engine, transmission and rotor system of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, which had proven itself to be a capable platform during the Vietnam War. It was produced in response to fulfil a need for a dedicated armed escort for transport helicopters to give the latter greater survivability in contested environments. Accordingly, the AH-1 was a dedicated attack helicopter, featuring a tandem cockpit, stub wings for weapons, and a chin-mounted gun turret. The first examples of the type entered service with the United States Army during 1967; other branches of the US military also opted to acquire the type, particularly the United States Marine Corps, while export sales were made to numerous overseas countries, including Israel, Japan, and Turkey.

 

For several decades, the AH-1 formed the core of the US Army's attack helicopter fleet, seeing combat in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, and Iraq. In US Army service, the Cobra was progressively replaced by the newer and more capable Boeing AH-64 Apache during the 1990s, with the final examples being withdrawn during 2001. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) operated the Cobra most prolifically along its land border with Lebanon, using its fleet intensively during the 1982 Lebanon War. Turkish AH-1s have seen regular combat with Kurdish insurgents near Turkey's southern borders. Upgraded versions of the Cobra have been developed, such as the twin engined AH-1 SeaCobra/SuperCobra and the experimental Bell 309 KingCobra. Furthermore, surplus AH-1 helicopters have been reused for other purposes, including civilian ones; numerous examples have been converted to perform aerial firefighting operations.

 

From Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_AH-1_Cobra

  

Photo by Eric Friedebach

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has an area of 1104 km2 and shares its northern border with the Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million Hongkongers of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

 

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

 

In the late 1970s, Hong Kong became a major entrepôt in Asia-Pacific. The territory has developed into a major global trade hub and financial centre. The 44th-largest economy in the world, Hong Kong ranks top 10 in GDP (PPP) per capita, but also has the most severe income inequality among advanced economies. Hong Kong is one of the three most important financial centres alongside New York and London, and the world's number one tourist destination city. The territory has been named the freest market economy. The service economy, characterised by free trade and low taxation, has been regarded as one of the world's most laissez-faire economic policies, and the currency, the Hong Kong dollar, is the 13th most traded currency in the world.

 

The Hong Kong Basic Law empowers the region to develop relations and make agreements directly with foreign states and regions, as well as international organizations, in a broad range of appropriate fields. It is an independent member of APEC, the IMF, WTO, FIFA and International Olympic Committee among others.

 

Limited land created a dense infrastructure and the territory became a centre of modern architecture, and one of the world's most vertical cities. Hong Kong has a highly developed public transportation network covering 90 per cent of the population, the highest in the world, and relies on mass transit by road or rail. Air pollution remains a serious problem. Loose emissions standards have resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates. Nevertheless, Hongkongers enjoy the world's longest or second longest life expectancies.

 

NAME

It is not known who was responsible for the Romanisation of the name "Hong Kong" but it is generally believed to be an early imprecise phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese or Hakka name 香港, meaning "Fragrant Harbour". Before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour (香港仔, Sidney Lau: heung1gong2 jai2, Jyutping: hoeng1gong2 zai2, or Hiong1gong3 zai3 in a form of Hakka, literally means "Little Hong Kong")—between Aberdeen Island and the south side of Hong Kong Island, which was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. As those early contacts are likely to have been with Hong Kong's early inhabitants, the Tankas (水上人), it is equally probable that the early Romanisation was a faithful execution of their speech, i.e. hong1, not heung1. Detailed and accurate Romanisation systems for Cantonese were available and in use at the time.

 

The reference to fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River, or to the incense from factories, lining the coast to the north of Kowloon, which was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before the development of the Victoria Harbour.

 

In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed and the name, Hong Kong, was first recorded on official documents to encompass the entirety of the island.

 

The name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of century-old institutions still retain the single-word form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

 

The full official name, after 1997, is "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China". This is the official title as mentioned in the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Hong Kong Government's website; however, "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" and "Hong Kong" are widely accepted.

 

Hong Kong has carried many nicknames: the most famous among those is the "Pearl of the Orient", which reflected the impressive night-view of the city's light decorations on the skyscrapers along both sides of the Victoria Harbour. The territory is also known as "Asia's World City".

 

HISTORY

PRE-BRITISH

Archaeological studies support human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area (now Hong Kong International Airport) from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago and on Sai Kung Peninsula from 6,000 years ago.

 

Wong Tei Tung and Three Fathoms Cove are the earliest sites of human habitation in Hong Kong during the Paleolithic Period. It is believed that the Three Fathom Cove was a river-valley settlement and Wong Tei Tung was a lithic manufacturing site. Excavated Neolithic artefacts suggested cultural differences from the Longshan culture of northern China and settlement by the Che people, prior to the migration of the Baiyue (Viets) to Hong Kong. Eight petroglyphs, which dated to the Shang dynasty in China, were discovered on the surrounding islands.

 

ANCIENT CHINA

In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, conquered the Baiyue tribes in Jiaozhi (modern Liangguang region and Vietnam) and incorporated the territory into imperial China for the first time. Modern Hong Kong was assigned to the Nanhai commandery (modern Nanhai District), near the commandery's capital city Panyu. In Qin dynasty, the territory was ruled by Panyu County(番禺縣) up till Jin Dynasty.

 

The area of Hong Kong was consolidated under the kingdom of Nanyue (Southern Viet), founded by general Zhao Tuo in 204 BC after the collapse of the short-lived Qin dynasty. When the kingdom of Nanyue was conquered by the Han Dynasty in 111 BC, Hong Kong was assigned to the Jiaozhi commandery. Archaeological evidence indicates that the population increased and early salt production flourished in this time period. Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb on the Kowloon Peninsula is believed to have been built during the Han dynasty.

 

IMPERIAL CHINA

Started from Jin dynasty to early period of Tang dynasty, the territory that now comprises Hong Kong was governed by Bao'an County (寶安縣). In Tang dynasty, the Guangdong region flourished as an international trading center. The Tuen Mun region in what is now Hong Kong's New Territories served as a port, naval base, salt production centre and later, base for the exploitation of pearls. Lantau Island was also a salt production centre, where the salt smugglers riots broke out against the government.

 

Under the Tang dynasty, the Guangdong (Canton) region flourished as a regional trading centre. In 736 AD, the first Emperor of Tang established a military stronghold in Tuen Mun in western Hong Kong to defend the coastal area of the region. The first village school, Li Ying College, was established around 1075 AD in the modern-day New Territories under the Northern Song dynasty. After their defeat by the Mongols, the Southern Song court briefly moved to modern-day Kowloon City (the Sung Wong Toi site), before its final defeat at the Battle of Yamen.

 

From the mid-Tang dynasty to early Ming dynasty, the territory that now comprises Hong Kong was governed by Dongguan County (東莞縣/ 東官縣). In Ming dynasty, the area was governed by Xin'an County (新安縣) before it was colonized by the British government. The indigenous inhabitants of what is now Hong Kong are identified with several ethnicities, including Punti, Hakka, Tanka) and Hoklo.

 

The earliest European visitor on record was Jorge Álvares, a Portuguese explorer who arrived in 1513. Having founded an establishment in Macau by 1557, Portuguese merchants began trading in southern China. However, subsequent military clashes between China and Portugal led to the expulsion of all Portuguese merchants from the rest of China.

 

In the mid-16th century, the Haijin order (closed-door, isolation policy) was enforced and it strictly forbade all maritime activities in order to prevent contact from foreigners by sea. From 1661 to 1669, Hong Kong was directly affected by the Great Clearance of the Kangxi Emperor, who required the evacuation of coastal areas of Guangdong. About 16,000 people from Hong Kong and Bao'an County were forced to emigrate inland; 1,648 of those who evacuated were said to have returned after the evacuation was rescinded in 1669.

 

BRITSH CROWN COLONY 1842–1941

In 1839, the refusal of Qing authorities to support opium imports caused the outbreak of the First Opium War between the British Empire and the Qing Empire. Qing's defeat resulted in the occupation of Hong Kong Island by British forces on 20 January 1841. It was initially ceded under the Convention of Chuenpee, as part of a ceasefire agreement between Captain Charles Elliot and Governor Qishan. While a dispute between high-ranking officials of both countries led to the failure of the treaty's ratification, on 29 August 1842, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded in perpetuity to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Treaty of Nanking. The British officially established a Crown colony and founded the City of Victoria in the following year.

 

The population of Hong Kong Island was 7,450 when the Union Flag raised over Possession Point on 26 January 1841. It mostly consisted of Tanka fishermen and Hakka charcoal burners, whose settlements scattered along several coastal hamlets. In the 1850s, a large number of Chinese immigrants crossed the then-free border to escape from the Taiping Rebellion. Other natural disasters, such as flooding, typhoons and famine in mainland China would play a role in establishing Hong Kong as a place for safe shelter.

 

Further conflicts over the opium trade between Britain and Qing quickly escalated into the Second Opium War. Following the Anglo-French victory, the Crown Colony was expanded to include Kowloon Peninsula (south of Boundary Street) and Stonecutter's Island, both of which were ceded to the British in perpetuity under the Convention of Beijing in 1860.

 

In 1898, Britain obtained a 99-year lease from Qing under the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, in which Hong Kong obtained a 99-year lease of the Lantau Island, the area north of Boundary Street in Kowloon up to Shenzhen River and over 200 other outlying islands.

 

Hong Kong soon became a major entrepôt thanks to its free port status, attracting new immigrants to settle from both China and Europe alike. The society, however, remained racially segregated and polarised under British colonial policies. Despite the rise of a British-educated Chinese upper-class by the late-19th century, race laws such as the Peak Reservation Ordinance prevented ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong from acquiring houses in reserved areas, such as the Victoria Peak. At this time, the majority of the Chinese population in Hong Kong had no political representation in the British colonial government. There were, however, a small number of Chinese elites whom the British governors relied on, such as Sir Kai Ho and Robert Hotung, who served as communicators and mediators between the government and local population.

 

Hong Kong continued to experience modest growth during the first half of the 20th century. The University of Hong Kong was established in 1911 as the territory's oldest higher education institute. While there was an exodus of 60,000 residents for fear of a German attack on the British colony during the First World War, Hong Kong remained peaceful. Its population increased from 530,000 in 1916 to 725,000 in 1925 and reached 1.6 million by 1941.

 

In 1925, Cecil Clementi became the 17th Governor of Hong Kong. Fluent in Cantonese and without a need for translator, Clementi introduced the first ethnic Chinese, Shouson Chow, into the Executive Council as an unofficial member. Under his tenure, Kai Tak Airport entered operation as RAF Kai Tak and several aviation clubs. In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out when the Japanese Empire expanded its territories from northeastern China into the mainland proper. To safeguard Hong Kong as a freeport, Governor Geoffry Northcote declared the Crown Colony as a neutral zone.

 

JAPANESE OCCUPATION 1941–45

As part of its military campaign in Southeast Asia during Second World War, the Japanese army moved south from Guangzhou of mainland China and attacked Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with the British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of Hong Kong to Japan on 25 December 1941 in what was regarded by locals as Black Christmas.

 

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese army committed atrocities against civilians and POWs, such as the St. Stephen's College massacre. Local residents also suffered widespread food shortages, limited rationing and hyper-inflation arising from the forced exchange of currency from Hong Kong Dollars to Japanese military banknotes. The initial ratio of 2:1 was gradually devalued to 4:1 and ownership of Hong Kong Dollars was declared illegal and punishable by harsh torture. Due to starvation and forced deportation for slave labour to mainland China, the population of Hong Kong had dwindled from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945, when Britain resumed control of the colony on 30 August 1945.

 

ECONOMY

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade. The currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the eighth most traded currency in the world as of 2010. Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world's greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism, but has since instituted a regime of regulations including a minimum wage. It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom every year since 1995. It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region, and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.

 

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world and has a market capitalisation of US$2.3 trillion as of December 2009. In that year, Hong Kong raised 22 percent of worldwide initial public offering (IPO) capital, making it the largest centre of IPOs in the world and the easiest place to raise capital. The Hong Kong dollar has been pegged to the US dollar since 1983.

 

The Hong Kong Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Hong Kong is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the Second World War, Hong Kong industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s. Since then, it has grown to become a leading centre for management, financial, IT, business consultation and professional services.

 

Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre in the 1990s, but was greatly affected by the Asian financial crisis in 1998, and again in 2003 by the SARS outbreak. A revival of external and domestic demand has led to a strong recovery, as cost decreases strengthened the competitiveness of Hong Kong exports and a long deflationary period ended. Government intervention, initiated by the later colonial governments and continued since 1997, has steadily increased, with the introduction of export credit guarantees, a compulsory pension scheme, a minimum wage, anti-discrimination laws, and a state mortgage backer.

 

The territory has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Imports account for more than 90% of Hong Kong's food supply, including nearly all of the meat and rice available there. Agricultural activity - relatively unimportant to Hong Kong's economy and contributing just 0.1% of its GDP - primarily consists of growing premium food and flower varieties. Hong Kong is the world's eleventh largest trading entity, with the total value of imports and exports exceeding its gross domestic product. It is the world's largest re-export centre. Much of Hong Kong's exports consist of re-exports, which are products made outside of the territory, especially in mainland China, and distributed via Hong Kong. Its physical location has allowed the city to establish a transportation and logistics infrastructure that includes the world's second busiest container port and the world's busiest airport for international cargo. Even before the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong had established extensive trade and investment ties with the mainland, which now enable it to serve as a point of entry for investment flowing into the mainland. At the end of 2007, there were 3.46 million people employed full-time, with the unemployment rate averaging 4.1% for the fourth straight year of decline. Hong Kong's economy is dominated by the service sector, which accounts for over 90% of its GDP, while industry constitutes 9%. Inflation was at 2.5% in 2007. Hong Kong's largest export markets are mainland China, the United States, and Japan.

 

As of 2010 Hong Kong is the eighth most expensive city for expatriates, falling from fifth position in the previous year. Hong Kong is ranked fourth in terms of the highest percentage of millionaire households, behind Switzerland, Qatar, and Singapore with 8.5 percent of all households owning at least one million US dollars. Hong Kong is also ranked second in the world by the most billionaires per capita (one per 132,075 people), behind Monaco. In 2011, Hong Kong was ranked second in the Ease of Doing Business Index, behind Singapore.

 

Hong Kong is ranked No. 1 in the world in the Crony Capitalism Index by the Economist.

 

In 2014, Hong Kong was the eleventh most popular destination for international tourists among countries and territories worldwide, with a total of 27.8 million visitors contributing a total of US$38,376 million in international tourism receipts. Hong Kong is also the most popular city for tourists, nearly two times of its nearest competitor Macau.

  

DEMOGRAPHICS

The territory's population in mid-2015 is 7.30 million, with an average annual growth rate of 0.8% over the previous 5 years. The current population of Hong Kong comprises 91% ethnic Chinese. A major part of Hong Kong's Cantonese-speaking majority originated from the neighbouring Guangdong province, from where many fled during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the communist rule in China.

 

Residents of the Mainland do not automatically receive the Right of Abode, and many may not enter the territory freely. Like other non-natives, they may apply for the Right of Abode after seven years of continuous residency. Some of the rights may also be acquired by marriage (e.g., the right to work), but these do not include the right to vote or stand for office. However, the influx of immigrants from mainland China, approximating 45,000 per year, is a significant contributor to its population growth – a daily quota of 150 Mainland Chinese with family ties in Hong Kong are granted a "one way permit". Life expectancy in Hong Kong is 81.2 years for males and 86.9 years for females as of 2014, making it the highest life expectancy in the world.

 

About 91% of the people of Hong Kong are of Chinese descent, the majority of whom are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. Hong Kong's Han majority originate mainly from the Guangzhou and Taishan regions in Guangdong province. The remaining 6.9% of the population is composed of non-ethnic Chinese. There is a South Asian population of Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese; some Vietnamese refugees have become permanent residents of Hong Kong. There are also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Japanese, and Koreans working in the city's commercial and financial sector. In 2011, 133,377 foreign domestic helpers from Indonesia and 132,935 from the Philippines were working in Hong Kong.

 

Hong Kong's de facto official language is Cantonese, a variety of Chinese originating from Guangdong province to the north of Hong Kong. English is also an official language, and according to a 1996 by-census is spoken by 3.1 percent of the population as an everyday language and by 34.9 percent of the population as a second language. Signs displaying both Chinese and English are common throughout the territory. Since the 1997 Handover, an increase in immigrants from communist China and greater interaction with the mainland's economy have brought an increasing number of Mandarin speakers to Hong Kong.

 

RELIGION

A majority of residents of Hong Kong have no religious affiliation, professing a form of agnosticism or atheism. According to the US Department of State 43 percent of the population practices some form of religion. Some figures put it higher, according to a Gallup poll, 64% of Hong Kong residents do not believe in any religion, and possibly 80% of Hong Kong claim no religion. In Hong Kong teaching evolution won out in curriculum dispute about whether to teach other explanations, and that creationism and intelligent design will form no part of the senior secondary biology curriculum.

 

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of religious freedom, guaranteed by the Basic Law. Hong Kong's main religions are Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism; a local religious scholar in contact with major denominations estimates there are approximately 1.5 million Buddhists and Taoists. A Christian community of around 833,000 forms about 11.7% of the total population; Protestants forms a larger number than Roman Catholics at a rate of 4:3, although smaller Christian communities exist, including the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches each freely appoint their own bishops, unlike in mainland China. There are also Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Bahá'í communities. The practice of Falun Gong is tolerated.

 

PERSONAL INCOME

Statistically Hong Kong's income gap is the greatest in Asia Pacific. According to a report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2008, Hong Kong's Gini coefficient, at 0.53, was the highest in Asia and "relatively high by international standards". However, the government has stressed that income disparity does not equate to worsening of the poverty situation, and that the Gini coefficient is not strictly comparable between regions. The government has named economic restructuring, changes in household sizes, and the increase of high-income jobs as factors that have skewed the Gini coefficient.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Developing.

[crosseye stereograph, see 3D with your right eye on the left image, and left on right.]

 

CABLE CAR.

One of the famed San Francisco Cable Cars. The first cable car operated in 1873, and was developed by Andrew S. Hallidie. Three foot six inch gauge.

==================.

San Fransisco Municipal Railway #21

[A 55.04.04]

 

Just as it had a subway long ago - Los Angeles of the past boasted cable cars.

The first forms of public transit in Los Angeles were stagecoaches and wagons. Two omnibus-type wagons were set up for operation on a set schedule in 1873, and not too long after that, the first horse-drawn street cars finally made an appearance on the streets of Los Angeles. The next step in the mechanical evolution of mass transit was the cable car. Pulling small railroad cars along with a cable or steel rope had been used in San Francisco for many years before investors tried the technology in Los Angeles. With the most desirable residential subdivisions being laid out atop the rolling hills of the Los Angeles basin, cable car technology was a smart and efficient way to provide commuter access to the hilltops.

Use of cable cars required an up-front investment in the cable and the cars of course, but also in electric power plants that supplied the power to run the cables.

Thereafter, cable cars were cheaper and cleaner to run simply because there were no horses to feed or clean up after. A cable railway could also offer safe group travel up an down steep hills which would have been too hard for horses. Cable cars were limited, however, to the length of a cable (10,000 or 20,000 feet). Even in the short run, this did not work well in the Los Angeles of the 1880s, which kept sprawling out further and further. Cable cars also used a huge amount of the electricity generated in the power plants.

.

This particular car came not from Los Angeles, but from the more famous city known for its cable cars, San Fransisco. In 1952, even before Travel Town formally opened, founder Charley Atkins asked the Mayor of San Francisco for a cable car to display, but was told, with apology, that cable cars could not be sold or given away. Three years later, a solution was found: a cable car was placed on loan as the center piece of the 1955 International Flower Show in Los Angeles. Afterwards, it moved to permanent loan at Travel Town.

.

This car is also a good example of a type of early in-town passenger car called a "California" car, with some interior space. inside a compartment, and other benches open to the weather, this type of exposure was not practical in most areas of the country besides California.

.

BUILT: C. 1880.

LENGTH: 30'.

GAUGE: 3' 6".

PERMANENT LOAN: CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO.

==========.

This car differs from those still in daily service. It has long boards attached to the sides like shelves, for a problem that no longer exists, they are fenders to protect the curved sides of the car from wagon wheels. Wagon wheel fenders are unnecessary today. The bumpers on the end sill are narrow and relatively unprotected, whereas today's Cable Cars are operating in the midst of six and seven thousand pound personal automobiles, as well as much more massive buses and trucks. At the turn of the 20th century, horse drawn carts and carriages were not as likely, in a collision, to reduce a cable car to splinters so there are now tremendous wooden bumpers built up and covered with thick steel straps rolled tight on each end to thicken them. One problem remains from the past, lights. Not only for safety, headlights and tail lights, but lamps inside for general illumination are required, and those are powered by batteries under the seats. Many more batteries were added under the seats for the small fleet of San Francisco Cable Cars that were powered along by electric motors, operated at Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park, California, and many more panels covered them. This cable car has those extra wooden panels that most San Francisco cars do not cover the underside of every seat. There is another indicator told me late one night between parking Cable Cars at the Car Barn in San Fransisco by the turntable operator. The Cable Car conversions that had been at Knott's Berry Farm, which had been used for a short time in San Francisco after the great earthquake, came originally from Oakland and ran on roads that were straight from end to end, the support from the trucks reflected that. The trucks in service today must twist very tight curves, the tightest curves are nearest the powerhouse/yard/museum. The bolsters under the frame are flat iron pads cut in a curve that rest on the trucks supporting the frame, and those curves are cut larger on the cars built for the current system. Also the underside of the cars have many points of interference with the trucks on those tight curves. Because the cars were rejected when Knott's offered them back, primarily because the wheel flanges couldn't clear the frame, and knowing that the cars went SOMEWHERE, (one was put on a truck frame) leads me to believe that the discrepancy of the number on the Travel Town sign (#21) doesn't match the number painted on the end which is a number known to have run at Knott's (#28) leads me to believe that this may be a car I rode as a child through the Knott's parking lot to get to the Henry's Auto Livery and drive Tin Lizzie's, from the barn at the North-West corner of Beach Bl. and Crescent.

 

On the cars in service today, there is a metal plate protecting the front of this truck assembly from debris which could damage running gear and brakes. The hole in the center of that plate must be to access the nut shown here in the center, to tighten the brake bar.

 

dsc00018, 2009:07:19 15:52:24, 3D, R, Los Angeles, Griffith Park, Travel Town, Cable Car, San Francisco Municipal Railway #21

Couple of rolls that needed developing.

 

35mm Film 365 Project - Photo a Day.

 

Photo taken using a dedicated NIkon FM2 for the project on iso 400 Ilford HP5+

 

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet-engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later by McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the U.S. Navy's pre-1962 designation system.

 

Skyhawks played key roles in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War. Sixty years after the aircraft's first flight in 1954, some of the 2,960 produced (through February 1979). The Skyhawk found many users all around the world, and some still remain in service with the Argentine Air Force and the Brazilian Naval Aviation. Operators in Asia included Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

 

Thailand procured the Skyhawk in 1984, for the Royal Thai Navy air arm to be used for naval and air space surveillance, against sea surface targets and for close air support for the Royal Thai Marine Corps. A total of thirty aircraft were purchased from the USA, twenty-four single seaters and six two-seat TA-4J trainers.

 

The single seaters were refurbished A-4Cs from USN overstock, modernized to a standard that came close to the USN’s A-4L, but with some specific differences and unique features that made them suitable for all-weather strike operations. This modified version was re-designated as A-4LT and featured the late Skyhawk versions’ distinct “Camelback” fairing that house the additional avionics as well as a heat exchanger. The most distinctive external difference to any other Skyhawk version was a unique, pointed radome.

 

The update for Thailand included an AN/APQ-126 terrain following radar in the nose, which was integrated into an ILAAS digital navigation system – a very modern system of its era. The radar also fed a navigation and weapons delivery computer which made possible accurate delivery of bombs from a greater stand-off distance, greatly improving survivability.

Further special equipment for the Thai Skyhawks included, among others, a Hughes AN/ASB-19 Angle Rate Bombing System, a Bendix AN/APN-141 Low altitude radar altimeter, an AN/AVQ-7(V) Head Up display (HUD), air refueling capability (with a fixed but detachable refueling probe), a brake parachute housing below the jet pipe, two additional underwing hardpoints (for a total for five, like the A-4E) and an increased payload. Avionics were modernized and expanded, giving the Thai Skyhawks ability to carry modern AIM-9L Sidewinder AAMs and AGM-65 Maverick AGMs. The latter became, beyond standard iron bombs and pods with unguided missiles, the aircrafts’ main armament against naval targets.

However, despite the modernization of the avionics, the A-4LTs retained the A-4Cs’ Wright J65-W-20 engine with 8,200 lbf (36 kN) of takeoff thrust.

 

The first aircraft were delivered in December 1985 to the Royal Thai Navy (RTN / กองทัพเรือไทย / Kong thap ruea thai), carrying a USN grey/white livery. They served in the No.104 RTN Squadron, distributed among two wings based at U-Tapao near Bangkok and at Songkhla in the south of Thailand, close to the Malaysian border. During regular overhauls (executed at Singapore Aircraft Industries, now ST Aerospace), the RTN Skyhawks soon received a new wraparound camouflage with reduced insignia and markings.

 

While in service, the Thai Skyhawks soon suffered from frequent maintenance issues and a low availability rate, since replacement parts for the reliable yet old J65 engine became more and more difficult to obtain. At times, half of the A-4LT fleet had to remain grounded because of engine problems. In consequence, the Thai Skyhawks were in the mid-Nineties supplemented by fourteen Vought A-7E Corsairs (plus four two-seaters) in the coastal defense, sea patrol and anti-shipping role. In 1999, they were retired and replaced by Royal Thai Air Force F-16s.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length: 40 ft 3 in (12.29 m)

Wingspan: 26 ft 6 in (8.38 m)

Height: 15 ft (4.57 m)

Wing area: 259 ft² (24.15 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 0008-1.1-25 root, NACA 0005-0.825-50 tip

Empty weight: 9,146 lb (4,152 kg)

Loaded weight: 18,300 lb (8,318 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 24,500 lb (11,136 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Curtiss-Wright J65-W-20 turbojet with 8,200 lbf (36 kN)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 575 kn (661 mph, 1,064 km/h)

Range: 1,700 nmi (2,000 mi, 3,220 km)

Combat radius: 625 nmi, 1,158 km

Service ceiling: 42,250 ft (12,880 m)

Rate of climb: 8,440 ft/min (43 m/s)

Wing loading: 70.7 lb/ft² (344.4 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.51

g-limit: +8/-3 g

 

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.79 in) Colt Mk. 12 cannons in the wing roots, 100 RPG

Total effective payload of up to 7,700 lb (3,500 kg) on five hardpoints

- 1× Centerline: 3,500 lb capability

- 2× Inboard wing: 2,200 lb capability each

- 2× Outboard wing: 1,000 lb capability each

  

The kit and its assembly:

I originally had this project stashed away for the upcoming "1 Week Group Build" at whatifmodelers.com in June 2020, but since the current "In the Navy" GB had some days to go (and even received a two week extension) I decided to tackle this build on short notice.

 

The original idea was simply to build an A-4L, a modernized A-4C for the USN Reserve units, but similar machines had also been exported to Malaysia. For the naval theme I came across the Royal Thai Navy and its A-7E Corsairs - and from that the idea of a Skyhawk predecessor from the Eighties was born.

 

Instead of an A-4C (Fujimi does one in 1:72, but it's a rare kit) I based my build upon the nice Airfix A-4B/Q kit. Its biggest difference is the shorter nose, so that I decided to modify this "flaw" first and added a pointed radome instead of the usual blunt Skyhawk nose; not certain where it came from – it looks very Sea-Harrier-ish, but it’s actually the tip of a large drop tank (Italeri Tornado?). Nevertheless, this small change created a weird look, even more so with the black paint added to it later.

 

Further additions and mods are a dorsal avionics bulge from an Italeri A-4M, a scratched kinked refueling probe (made from wire and white glue, the early Skyhawks had straight probes but this would certainly interfere with the new radar in the nose), a brake parachute fairing under the tail (scratched, too, from sprue material) and additional antennae under the nose and behind the cockpit. Nothing fancy, rather details from more modern Skyhawk versions.

The AGM-65 Maverick missiles and their respective launch rails came from an Italeri Saab 39 Gripen, the drop tank on the ventral pylon is OOB.

  

Painting and markings:

This was a tough decision. The Thai Corsairs as primary (and historically later) benchmark carried a standard USN grey/white high-viz livery, even though with small roundels. There were also VTOL Harriers (former Spanish Matadors) operated for a short period by the Thai navy on board of the multi-purpose carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet, which wore a darker two-tone grey livery, pretty boring, too. I rather wanted something more exciting (if not exotic), a more modern wraparound scheme, suited for both overwater and high-altitude duties. That brought me to the Thai F-5Ts (a.k.a. Tigris), which carried - among others - a quite unique US export/aggressor scheme in three shades of light grey, including FS 35414, which looked like a pale turquoise on these machines. I furthermore took inspiration by early Indonesian A-4s, which also carried an US export scheme, nicknamed "Grape", which included darker shades of blue, blue-gray and the bright FS 35414, too.

 

I eventually settled upon a compromise between these two liveries and tried to adapt the standard F-5 aggressor camouflage pattern for the A-4, made up from FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey), 35164 (Intermediate Blue) and 35414 (Light Blue). Current Thai L-39 Albatros trainers seem to carry a similar livery, even though I am not certain about the tones that are actually used.

The basic enamel paints I used are Humbrol 129 and 144, and for the greenish Light Blue I used "Fulcrum Grey Green" from Modelmaster (#2134), a tone that is quite greenish but markedly darker and more dull than e.g. Humbrol 65, so that the color would not stand out brightly from the other greys and better fit between them. Worked quite well.

 

The inside of the slats as well as of the air brakes on the flanks were painted in bright red (Humbrol 19), while the landing gear and the interior of the air intake were painted in white (Humbrol 130). The cockpit was painted in a bluish mid grey (Revell 57).

 

After basic overall painting, the model received the usual light black ink washing and some post-panel-shading, for a lightly used/weathered look.

Most decals/markings come from a Thai Harrier (from an Italeri AV-8A kit), some other markings and stencils were puzzled together from the scrap box, e.g. from a USN F-5E aggressor and from a Peruvian Mirage 2000. Some additional details like the black gun soot areas on the wing roots or the fine white lines on the radome were created with generic decal sheet material.

Finally, the kit received an overall coat of matt acrylic varnish, except for the radome, which became semi-gloss.

  

As intended, this build was realized in just a couple of days - and I am positively surprised how good the Skyhawk looks in its unusual, if not exotic colors! This fictional livery certainly looks different from a potential standard USN grey/white outfit, and more exciting than a dull grey-in-grey livery. And it’s so weird that it even adds some credibility to this whiffy aircraft model. 😉

Morecambe and Wise

Bring You Sunshine

Starline SRS 5066

1971

 

Today, in the popular imagination, they are inextricably linked with their block-busting 1970s show which broke records and entertained (nearly almost) an entire nation, but Morecambe and Wise had to work long and hard before they became successful and ubiquitous household names. From their first meeting in a touring troupe way back in 1940, the duo served their apprenticeship in a succession of venues all around the UK, touring, struggling and grafting, all the time striving to perfect their act and develop their unique sense of timing and delivery.

 

Ernie Wise though was an ambitious man, with an eye always firmly set on achieving enduring greatness and he had long coveted a television career. The nascent medium during their early years had appealed to his style of intimate joke telling, a style too subtle to be truly effective on variety stages.

 

As long ago as 1948 he had been writing increasingly insistent letters to the BBC begging for a chance to make a TV show.

 

After a disastrous, critically-panned television debut back in 1954 with the BBC series Running Wild, a sorry chapter that saw them pleading for the show to be taken off air, the duo had been brave enough to return to television a second time and try to establish themselves all over again.

 

Over the years they made numerous supporting appearances on the likes of The Winifred Atwell Show and the popular variety-fest that was Sunday Night at the London Palladium, diligently working away to establishing their reputation anew.

 

Finally in 1961, the hard work of Morecambe and Wise was rewarded by omnipotent showbiz mogul Bernard Delfont, who granted them their own ATV series, The Morecambe and Wise Show.

 

It was a brave decision, but I think it is fair to say that Delfont’s impetuous showbiz gamble was vindicated many, many times over.

 

For the next two decades Morecambe and Wise dominated television like few acts before or since, achieving huge viewing figures never likely to be surpassed, and forging the template for a comedy double act, a template that has been copied many times but never bettered.

 

The material on the album Bring You Sunshine is made up of songs and sketches penned by Morecambe and Wise’s regular scriptwriters Dick Hills and Sid Green.

 

Over six series of The Morecambe and Wise Show, Hills and Green did much to establish the personas and characters of Morecambe and Wise that would last the rest of their career.

 

Ernie Wise, a sensible sort with his ‘short fat hairy legs’ was the butt of many jokes and Eric Morecambe was a wisecracking interfering jester full of witty retorts and mischief.

 

The efforts of Morecambe and Wise and their writers paid off and they duly became bona fide TV stars.

 

By 1968 though their contract with ATV was due for renewal.

 

It was during negotiations over this contract that the particular die was cast which was to change British comedy forever.

 

In an office with Bernard Delfont’s brother Lew Grade, thick with the heady fog of his gargantuan cigars, Eric and Ernie picked a fight with one of the most powerful and obstinate figures in showbiz.

 

And won.

 

Eric and Ernie insisted that more money should be spent on their show and demanded that all their new shows be shown in colour.

 

This outraged the pug-faced cheroot-chomping mogul. It was rare that Lew Grade made mistakes in business but by refusing to accommodate the artistic and professional ambitions of Morecambe and Wise he effectively released them into the clutches of Bill Cotton over at the BBC.

 

Cotton realised immediately the gift he had received and saw to it that Morecambe and Wise would become the huge stars that they always believed they could be.

 

But there was yet more drama in the offing before they could go on to become true legends of the small screen.

 

In November 1968, just after their first BBC series had aired, Eric Morecambe suffered a major heart attack.

 

On doctor’s order he was forced to ease back on performing and the second BBC series was postponed indefinitely.

 

It was six months before Morecambe and Wise would appear in public together again, and before their TV series could return they were stunned by the defection of their tried and trusted writers, the reliable and dependable Green and Hill who had done so much to make them stars.

 

Unsettled by the long period of inactivity and fearful for their own future, Dick Hills and Sid Green were lured away from writing solely for Morecambe and Wise by their arch-nemesis Lew Grade who offered the writers a generous contract to sign exclusively for ATV.

 

They left without informing their former employers in a move which could have easily meant the premature end of Morecambe and Wise as a going concern.

 

Luckily for them though, a former Scouse market trader turned gag-writer named Eddie Braben was free after being ditched by Ken Dodd.

 

By building on the foundations that Green and Hill had established, the surreal wordplay and comic fantasies of Eddie Braben would make Morecambe and Wise undoubtedly the biggest, most popular comedy stars in the UK.

 

Bring You Sunshine captures the essence of Morecambe and Wise at this pivotal point in their long comedy career.

 

It was released in 1971 on EMI’s Starline label and gathered together a selection of much-loved comic routines created by Dick Hills and Sid Green for the 1960s TV series.

 

The sketches are, with a few exceptions, fairly insubstantial.

 

Ton Up Boy seems an obvious inspiration for Dick Emery and Tape Recorder is an enchanting piece of domestic comic whimsy.

 

The remaining sketches such as Indians and Get It Right Corporal are so brief as to almost be one line gags. Harmless filler really but not the meaty chunks that Morecambe and Wise fans were after.

 

The meaty comedy chunks in thick marrowbone stand-up jelly were delivered by the comic songs.

 

As with the sketches, the songs are also written by Dick Hills and Sid Green, with Walter Ridley taking charge of musical duties.

 

They are without exception an absolute joy, full of charm and gentle subtle wit, much like Morecambe and Wise’s TV act.

 

They do not try to force themselves on the audience, instead relying on clever, well rehearsed repartee. Singing the Blues is a faithfully rendered pastiche of white man blues and there is also an early prototype version of Eric’s brilliant mangling of Grieg’s piano concerto to enjoy, a routine which was later resurrected for none other than the great Andre Preview.

 

I’d love to put the entire album up for you to listen, but for the sake of brevity and bandwidth, I have selected just one track.

 

Bring Me Sunshine was perhaps the obvious choice, played as the end credits rolled on their TV shows and very much the signature theme of Morecambe and Wise.

 

As ever though, I prefer to spin the more obscure and unappreciated tracks.

 

So to play us out, here is Song of Youth, a wonderful comic song full of domestic violence, hard drinking, promiscuity and lunacy.

 

Somewhere in here lurk the spirits of John Osborne and Les Dawson, with perhaps just a dash of Violet Carson. Bring us sunshine lads:

 

downstairslounge.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/morecambe-and-w...

Jeron Classic Motors began to develop a series of miniature ¼-scale cars and engines in the mid 1990’s. Only a few of the cars were sold before the company closed its doors forever and all remaining inventory was sold at auction. Twelve engines were built from the inventory parts by Bennie Vreeman in the Netherlands. One engine was a running model that burned methanol on glow ignition, while the remaining eleven were built for display only. This engine was completed as a running model in 2009 for the Miniature Engineering Museum. It burns methanol, on glow ignition and it is equipped with two oil pumps for dry sump lubrication. All six carburetors function and are linked together for smooth operation.

 

See Our Model Engine Collection at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157602933346098/

 

Visit Our Photo Sets at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets

 

Courtesy of Paul and Paula Knapp

Miniature Engineering Museum

www.engine-museum.com

escape velocity.

 

Home developed Kodak Tri-X @400, 6 minutes in 1:4 TMAX developer @ 68F.

The ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs and cheese.[13] The Romans developed placenta cake, a sheet of dough topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves.[citation needed]

 

Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy in the 18th or early 19th century.[14] Prior to that time, flatbread was often topped with ingredients such as garlic, salt, lard, cheese, and basil. It is uncertain when tomatoes were first added and there are many conflicting claims.[14]

 

A popular contemporary legend holds that the archetypal pizza, Pizza Margherita, was invented in 1889, when the Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned the Neapolitan pizzaiolo (pizza maker) Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita. Of the three different pizzas he created, the Queen strongly preferred a pie swathed in the colors of the Italian flag: red (tomato), green (basil), and white (mozzarella). Supposedly, this kind of pizza was then named after the Queen as "Pizza Margherita",[15] although recent research casts doubt on this legend.[16]

 

Pizza was brought to the United States with Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth century;[17] and first appeared in areas where Italian immigrants concentrated. The country's first pizzeria, Lombardi's, opened in 1905.[18] Following World War II, veterans returning from the Italian Campaign after being introduced to Italy's native cuisine proved a ready market for pizza in particular.[19] Since then pizza consumption has exploded in the U.S.[20] pizza chains such as Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's, pies from take and bake pizzerias and chilled and frozen from supermarkets, make pizza readily available nationwide. It is so ubiquitous, thirteen percent of the U.S. population consumes pizza on any given day.

Video Mapping Philipp Geist_Ano da Alemanha no Brasil - Cristo Redentor 2014

 

Photo by Guido Baumann

©2014 Philipp Geist / VG BIldkunst Bonn

 

Rio de Janeiro / Brazil 2014

Christ statue (Cristo Redentor) – May 12

Dona Marta favela – May 15 and 16,2014

 

Light Art-Video-Mapping-Installations Philipp Geist in Rio de Janeiro / Brazil 2014

on the Christ statue (Cristo Redentor) - May 12 and in the Dona Marta favela - May 15 and 16,

2014

 

Installation Philipp Geist Year of Germany in Brazil 2013/2014

Concept Time Drifts May 2014

 

At the end of the Year of Germany in Brazil 2013/2014, the artist Philipp Geist (Berlin, 1976)

develops two light installations in Rio this year; the first one on the world-famous Christ statue

(Cristo Redentor) and the other installation in the Santa Marta favela. For the installation the

artist presents artistic-liberal and poetic German and Brazilian themes and develops a building

and floor light installation of colored words and phrases in Portuguese, German, and in other

international languages. The installation deals with cultural characteristics and achievements of

both countries and visualizes the issues of time and space, volatility and presence in a free

artistic style. The two projects are in fact a double project which is combined. The installation

on the symbol of Rio and Brazil, the Christ statue, is recorded and projected onto the small

buildings and huts of the favela. The Christ statue, which has been built to protect the city and

the sailors, is symbolically projected on the shantytown, the favela, in a protective way. The

installation in the favela will be seen not only on a facade as a large cinema projection or as a

static image, but on several winding buildings, the roofs, the floor and on the steps. Thus, the

visitor becomes a part of the installation and can immerse into the projection and the light and

introduce himself. Chalk crayons are put out on the streets in the favela and the young and old

residents and visitors can write and paint words on the street, the ground, the stairs or even on

the house walls. The residents and several institutions should be addressed to submit words and

associations dealing with Rio, Brazil and Germany.

For the installation, which was shown at the Luminale in 2012, the artist Philipp Geist won the

German Lighting Design Award 2013 (Deutscher Lichtdesign-Preis 2013) in the category Light Art.

The series 'Time Drifts' is characterized by the complex and subtle way of visualizing various

currents and voices in cultural contexts and to provide institutions and visitors with the

opportunity of substantive participation: different personalities, visitors and institutions may be

addressed in advance and then contribute words and associations. Current and historico-cultural

topics are researched in advance by the artist and then integrated in a sensitive and subtle way.

The projection dismisses the use of screens, because concepts and associations are projected on

a large area onto the floor surface on several facades and in theater fog. Over the course of two

days, the installation can be seen on-site in the favela on May 15 and 16 and on the Cristo

Redentor on May 12 for a day.

Short, tall, young and old visitors can interactively participate in the installation by tracing and

adding words with colored chalk crayons available on the streets. Thus, over the period of the

installation, a carpet of words is evolved with terms that are contributed locally by the visitors

by means of the temporary and volatile 'medium' of chalk crayons. Philipp Geist develops in this

way a dialogue between the place, the visitors and his artistic work.

The concrete, tangible projection of the architecture and the static terms on the floor area

represents the facts and visible relics that are responsible for our understanding of history. The

transparent and volatile projection in the fog reminds us that part of the history can not be

preserved and that it is created in our individual imagination in a single moment. Words are

briefly visible as a metaphor for transience and then disappear again. This interplay of the

various text and image layers in the space refers to the location and the history/-ies of Brazil

and Germany and the cultural exchange between the two countries. The visitors themselves are

part of the installation: they dive into the large floor projection. In this way, different

perspectives and experiences of space are unified. Abstract passages which are created, then

overlapped and displaced by each other symbolize the constant changes in history, the passage

of time and the transience of existence. Even the understanding of the past is in the flux. The

modern writings and formations created on the computer establish a connection to the present

and the possibilities of today's technology and show that the perception of history and culture

depends always on the possibilities and constraints of the present.

'Time Drifts - Words of Berlin' is part of a series of installations, which has been shown in recent

years by Philipp Geist, and which are always re-developed site-specifically and adapted to the

local conditions: In October 2012, Philipp Geist showed the installation on the entire Potsdamer

Platz (public square) and the Kolhoff Tower and Renzo Piano Tower skyscrapers. In April 2012

the installation was shown at the Luminale in Frankfurt where it was seen by more than 40,000

visitors and thus the main project of the Luminale 2012. In 2011, Philipp Geist presented the

'Time Drifts' installation in Vancouver at the Jack Poole Plaza, as well as in Montreal on the

Place des Arts in 2010. The 'Timing' installation was shown at the 2009 Glow Festival in

Eindhoven. In the end of 2009, on the occasion of the birthday of the King of Thailand, 2-3

million visitors saw his facade installation at the royal throne in Bangkok. Other projects

include: 'Timelines' at the prestigious Pallazzio delle Esposizioni (Rome, 2007), 'Time Fades'

at the Cultural Forum of Berlin and 'Broken Time Lines' at the old spa Kurhaus Ahrenshoop

(Germany, 2008).

Geist's projects are primarily characterized by their complexity concerning the integration of

space, sound and motion images. His video mapping installations waive screens and transform a

wide range of architectures in moving, picturesque light sculptures which challenge the viewer's

perception of two- and three-dimensionality.

  

www.alemanha-brasil.org/br/node/8542

www.alemanha-brasil.org/Programme/Dia/2014-05-12

www.alemanha-brasil.org/Programme/Dia/2014-05-15

www.alemanha-brasil.org/Programme/Dia/2014-05-16

  

---------------

 

Arte de luz - Instalações de Mapeamento de Vídeo por Philipp Geist no Rio de Janeiro / Brasil

2014 no Cristo Redentor no dia 12 de maio e na favela Santa Marta nos dias 15 e 16 de maio de

2014

 

Instalação Philipp Geist Ano Alemanha + Brasil 2013/2014

Conceito Time Drifts Maio 2014

 

No final do ano Alemnaha + Brasil 2013/2014, o artista Philipp Geist (1976, Berlim) desenvolverá

duas instalações de luz no Rio; uma delas será exibida na mundialmente famosa estátua do

Cristo Redentor, e a outra na favela Santa Marta. Para a instalação, o artista traz temas teutobrasileiros

de maneira liberal-artística e poética desenvolvendo instalações de luz em edifícios e

no solo a partir de palavras e conceitos coloridos em Português, Alemão e em outros idiomas

internacionais. A instalação lida com as peculiaridades e realizações culturais de ambos os países

e visualiza as questões de tempo e espaço e de volatilidade e presença no estilo liberal-artístico.

Os dois projetos em questão representam um projeto duplo que é combinado. A instalação na

estátua do Cristo Redentor, como um símbolo do Rio e do Brasil, será gravada e projetada nos

pequenos prédios e barracos da favela. A estátua do Cristo Redentor, que foi erguida para

proteger a cidade e os marinheiros, será então projetada como um símbolo de proteção em uma

favela. A instalação na favela é visto não apenas em uma fachada como uma projeção grande de

cinema ou como uma imagem estática, mas em vários prédios sinuosos, em telhados, no solo e

nas escadas. Desta maneira, o visitante conseguirá ser parte da instalação e imergir e mergulhar

na projeção e na luz. Na favela, será distribuído giz para pintura de rua, e os moradores e

visitantes, tanto jovens quanto velhos, podem escrever e pintar conceitos na rua, no solo, nas

escadas ou até mesmo nas paredes das casas. Os moradores e diversas instituições serão

convidados a contribuir com conceitos e associações que representam o Rio, o Brasil e a

Alemanha.

Para as instalações apresentadas na Luminal em 2012, o artista Philipp Geist ganhou o

'Deutscher Lichtdesign-Preis 2013” (Prêmio Alemão de Desenho de Luz de 2013) na categoria

Arte de Luz. A série Time Drifts caracteriza-se pela forma complexa e sutil de visualizar várias

correntes e vozes em contextos culturais e de oferecer a instituições e aos visitantes a

oportunidade de participar: diferentes personalidades, visitantes e instituições podem ser

contatados antecipadamente para contribuir com termos e associações. Temas atuais, históricos

e culturais serão previamente pesquisados pelo artista e, depois, integrados de uma forma

sensível e sutil. A projeção é realizada sem o uso de telas porque conceitos e associações são

projetados, em grande estilo, sobre a superfície do solo, em diversas frentes e envolvidos em

fumaça. Ao longo de dois dias, a instalação estará em exibição em 15 e 16 de maio na favela, e

em 12 de maio, por um dia, no Cristo Redentor.

Visitantes jovens e velhos podem envolver-se na instalação e traçar ou adicionar palavras com

giz colorido, que será distribuído, e assim participar interativamente na instalação. Desta

maneira, durante a duração da instalação, será desenvolvido um tapete de palavras. As palavras

serão fornecidas, no próprio local, pelos visitantes usando o giz, um meio temporário e volátil.

Philipp Geist desenvolve assim um diálogo entre o local, os visitantes e seu trabalho artístico.

A área de projeção concreta e tangível da arquitetura e os termos estáticos sobre a superfície do

solo representam os fatos e as relíquias visíveis que compõem a nossa compreensão da história. A

área de projeção transparente e sumindo por dentro da fumaça lembra que parte da história não

pode ser preservada e que ela é criada na nossa imaginação individual momentaneamente.

Conceitos são brevemente visíveis, como uma metáfora para a transitoriedade e, logo mais,

desaparecem. Esta interação entre as várias camadas de texto e de imagens no espaço refere-se

à localização e a(s) história(s) do Brasil e da Alemanha e o intercâmbio cultural entre os dois

países. Os próprios visitantes tornam-se parte da instalação: eles imergem na grande projeção

do solo. Desta forma, diferentes perspectivas e experiências de espaço são unidas. Passagens

abstratas que são formadas, sobrepostas e suprimidas pela próxima simbolizam as mudanças

contínuas na história, a passagem do tempo e a transitoriedade da existência. A compreensão do

passado também está no fluxo. As fontes e formações modernas criadas no computador

estabelecem uma conexão com o presente e com as possibilidades da tecnologia de hoje: a

percepção da história e da cultura sempre dependende das capacidades e limitações do

presente.

'Time Drifts - Words of Berlin' faz parte de uma série de instalações, que foram apresentadas

durante os últimos anos por Philipp Geist e que são sempre redesenvolvidas para as condições

locais específicas: em outubro de 2012, Philipp Geist exibiu a instalação em toda a praça

Potsdamer Platz (Berlim) e nos dois arranha-céus Kolhoff Tower (Berlim) e Renzo Piano Tower

(Londres). Em abril de 2012, a instalação foi apresentada no evento da Luminal em Frankfurt

onde foi vista por mais de 40.000 visitantes sendo o principal projeto da Luminal de 2012. Em

2011, Philipp Geist mostrou a instalação Time Drifts na praça Jack Poole Plaza em Vancouver

bem como em Montreal, Canadá, no centro de arte Place des Arts, em 2010. A instalação Timing

foi exibida no Glow Festival de 2009 in Eindhoven, Holanda. No final de 2009 e por ocasião do

aniversário do rei tailandês, aprox. 2 a 3 milhões de visitantes viram a instalação de fachada do

artista no trono real em Banguecoque. Seus outros projetos incluem: Time Lines, no prestigiado

museu Palazzio delle Esposizioni (Roma, 2007); Time Fades, no Fórum Cultural de Berlim;

Broken Time Lines, no antigo spa Kurhaus Ahrenshoop (Alemanha, 2008).

Os projetos de Geist são principalmente caracterizados por sua complexidade na integração de

espaço, som e imagens de movimento. Suas instalações de mapeamento de vídeo renunciam

telas e transformam uma ampla gama de arquiteturas em esculturas móveis e pitorescas que

desafiam a percepção do espectador de duas e três dimensões.

  

www.alemanha-brasil.org/br/node/8542

www.alemanha-brasil.org/Programme/Dia/2014-05-12

www.alemanha-brasil.org/Programme/Dia/2014-05-15

www.alemanha-brasil.org/Programme/Dia/2014-05-16

  

---------------

 

Lichtkunst-VideoMappingInstallationen Philipp Geist in Rio de Janeiro / Brasilien 2014

an der Christstatue (Cristo Redender) 12.5 und in der Favela Santa Marta 15./16.5.2014

 

Installation Philipp Geist Deutsch-Brasilianisches Jahr 2013/2014

Konzept Time Drifts Mai 2014

 

Zum Abschluss des Deutsch-Brasilianischen-Jahres 2013/2014 entwickelt der Berliner Künstler

Philipp Geist (1976) zwei Lichtinstallation in Rio d.J.; eine an der weltbekannten Christstatue

(Cristo Redender) und in die andere Installation in der Favela Santa Marta. Bei der Installation

greift der Künstler künstlerisch frei und poetisch deutsch brasilianische Themen auf und

entwickelt eine Gebäude- und Boden-Lichtinstallation aus farbigen Wörtern und Begriffen in

portugiesischer, deutscher, und in weiteren internationalen Sprachen. Die Installation thematisiert

kulturelle Besonderheiten und Errungenschaften beider Länder und visualisiert die Themen Zeit

und Raum, Flüchtigkeit und Präsenz in freien künstlerischen Art. Bei den beiden Projekten handelt

es sich um ein Doppelprojekt welches kombiniert wird. Die Installation auf das Wahrzeichen von

Rio und Brasilien die Christstatue, wird aufgenommen und auf die kleinen Gebäude und Hütten

der Favela projiziert. Die Christstatue die errichtet worden ist um die Stadt und Seeleute zu

schützen, wird so symbolisch schützend über ein Armenviertel die Favela projiziert. Dabei ist die

Installation in der Favela nicht nur auf einer Fassade als große Kinoprojektion oder als statisches

Bild zu sehen, sondern auf mehreren verwinkelten Gebäuden, den Dächern, den Boden und auf

den Stufen. Der Besucher wird vielmehr auf diese Weise selbst Teil der Installation und kann in die

Projektion und das Licht eintauchen und sich einbringen. In der Favela werden Strassenmalkreide

ausgelegt und die Bewohner und Besucher ob jung oder alt können Begriffe auf die Strasse, den

Boden, die Treppenstufen oder sogar auf die Hauswände schreiben und malen. Die Bewohner und

verschiedene Institutionen sollen angesprochen werden Assoziationen und Begriffe die für Rio,

Brasilien und Deutschland stehen einzureichen.

Für die 2012 bei der Luminale gezeigten Installation hat der Künstler Philipp Geist den Deutschen

Lichtdesign-Preis 2013 in der der Kategorie Lichtkunst gewonnen. Die Serie 'Time Drifts' zeichnet

sich aus durch die komplexe und die subtile Möglichkeit, verschiedenste Strömungen und

Stimmen in kulturellen Kontexten sichtbar zu machen und Institutionen und Besuchern die

Möglichkeit zur inhaltlichen Partizipation zu geben: Es können verschiedene Persönlichkeiten,

Besucher und Institute im Vorfeld angesprochen werden, die Begriffe und Assoziationen

beisteuern. Aktuelle und kulturhistorische Themen werden im Vorfeld vom Künstler recherchiert

und auf sensible und subtile Weise integriert. Die Projektion verzichtet auf den Einsatz von

Leinwänden, denn Begriffe und Assoziationen werden grossflächig auf die Bodenfläche, auf

mehrere Fassaden und in Theaternebel projiziert. Über den Zeitraum von 2 Tagen wird die

Installation vor Ort in der Favela am 15/16.Mai und die Installation am Cristo Redentor am 12.Mai

für einen Tag zu sehen sein.!

Kleine, große, junge und alte Besucher können sich einbringen in die Installation und mit farbiger

Straßenmalkreide, die ausgelegt wird, Wörter nachzeichnen und hinzufügen und so interaktiv an

der Installation teilnehmen. Über die Installationsdauer entsteht somit ein Wörterteppich aus

Begriffen, die vor Ort von den Besuchern selbst mittels dem temporären und flüchtigen 'Medium'

der Strassenmalkreide beigesteuert werden. Geist entwickelt auf diese Weise einen Dialog

zwischen dem Ort, den Besuchern und seiner künstlerischen Arbeit. ! !

Die konkrete, greifbare Projektionsfläche der Architektur und die statischen Begriffe auf der

Bodenfläche stehen für die Fakten und sichtbaren Relikte, welche unser Geschichtsverständnis

ausmachen. Die transparente, sich verflüchtigende Projektionsfläche im Nebel erinnert daran,

dass ein Teil der Geschichte nicht konserviert werden kann und im Moment in unserer individuellen

Vorstellung entsteht. Begriffe werden als Metapher für die Vergänglichkeit kurzzeitig sichtbar und

verschwinden sofort wieder. Dieses Zusammenspiel der verschiedenen Text- und Bildschichten im

Raum verweist auf den Ort und die Geschichte(n) Brasiliens und Deutschlands und den kulturellen

Austausch beider Länder. Die Besucher selbst werden Teil der Installation: sie tauchen in die

großflächige Bodenprojektion ein. Auf diese Weise vereinen sich unterschiedliche Perspektiven

und Raumerfahrungen. Abstrakte Passagen, die sich aufbauen, überlagern und gegenseitig

verdrängen, symbolisieren die ständigen Veränderungen in der Geschichte, den Lauf der Zeit und

die Flüchtigkeit des Seins. Auch das Verständnis von der Vergangenheit ist im Fluss. Die

modernen Schriften und Formationen, die am Computer entstanden sind, stellen eine Verbindung

zur Gegenwart und den Möglichkeiten der heutigen Technik her und zeigen, dass die Erfahrbarkeit

von Geschichte und Kultur immer von den Möglichkeiten und Rahmenbedingungen der Gegenwart

abhängig ist.

'Time Drifts - Words of Berlin' ist Teil einer Serie von Installationen, die Philipp Geist in den letzten

Jahren gezeigt hat, und die dabei immer wieder neu an die örtlichen Gegebenheiten ortsspezifisch

weiterentwickelt wird: Im Oktober 2012 zeigte Geist die Installation auf dem gesamten Potsdamer

Platz und den beiden Hochhäusern Kolhoff Tower und Renzo Piano Tower. Im April 2012 wurde die

Installation in Frankfurt auf der Luminale gezeigt, wurde von mehr als 40.000 Besuchern gesehen

und war das Hauptprojekt der Luminale 2012. Im Jahr 2011 zeigte Geist die Installation Time Drifts

in Vancouver am Jack-Poole Plaza, ebenso wie in Montreal am Place des Arts in 2010. Die

Installation 'Timing' war 2009 auf dem Glow Festival in Eindhoven zu sehen. Ende 2009 sahen

anlässlich des Geburtstages des thailändischen Königs ca. 2-3 Millionen Besucher seine

Fassadeninstallation am königlichen Thron in Bangkok. Andere Projekte waren u.a.: 'Time Lines'

am renommierten Museum delle Esposizioni (2007), 'Time Fades' am Berliner Kulturforum,

'Broken Time Lines' am alten Kurhaus Ahrenshoop (2008).

Geists Projekte sind in erster Linie gekennzeichnet durch ihre Komplexität in der Integration von

Raum, Ton und Bewegbild. Seine Video-Mapping-Installationen verzichten auf Leinwände und

verwandeln verschiedenste Architekturen in bewegte, malerische Lichtskulpturen, die die

Wahrnehmung der Betrachter von Zwei- und Dreidimensionalität herausfordern.

Mott Haven East Historic District, Mott Haven, Bronx, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Mott Haven East Historic District consists of a small enclave of rowhouses and tenements on East 139th and East 140th streets, between Willis and Brook avenues, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx. This section is one of the oldest settled areas of the Bronx and the first in the borough to be developed with rowhouses. Though common in Manhattan and Brooklyn, rowhouses from the nineteenth century are relatively rare in the Bronx.

 

Within the area of the district are three groups of single-family rowhouses (one row including a small multiple dwelling) and two groups of tenements. Erected between 1889 and 1903, these buildings serve as a virtual catalogue of speculatively-built housing types common to the South Bronx building boom of the 1880s and '90s. Complementing these residential buildings are the neo-Gothic St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church and Parsonage of 1911-12. As a whole, the buildings in the historic district include fine examples of neo-Grec, Queen Anne, Renaissance-inspired, and Flemish Revival design, illustrating the stylistic trends in residential architecture in New York City in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

 

Mott Haven, located in the historic township of Morrisania, takes its name from the village developed early in the nineteenth century by industrialist Jordan L. Mott, who opened an ironworks on the Bronx side of the Harlem River in 1828 and built his own house near the foundry. Industrial expansion occurred during mid-century, accompanied by sporadic residential construction, but the area remained relatively undeveloped until the opening of rapid transit lines in the early 1880s made it more accessible to Manhattan. Mott Haven was one of the few sections of the Bronx to attract nineteenth- century speculative developers, who sought to capitalize on the demand for new housing brought on by the increasing immigrant population in the metropolitan region. Soon the area became an urban extension of Manhattan and was known in the period as the "North Side," drawing middle-class families to its rowhouses, and working-class families to its numerous tenements and flats buildings.

 

The first two groups of rowhouses built in the Mott Haven East Historic District, one on the south side of East 140th Street (1889) and the other on the north side of East 139th Street (1892), were constructed by local developers William O'Gorman and Hermann Stursberg, who built other similar rows in the immediate area of the historic district. For these rows, O'Gorman acted as his own architect, designing the houses in a style known as neo-Grec. Typical of the style, the uniform brick facades are adorned with incised geometric ornament in stone and topped by bracketed metal cornices. As built, the long handsome rows of forty-nine two-and-one-half-story houses were terminated at each end by a house with an additional story; the eastern twenty-nine buildings of each of these rows were demolished to make way for the construction of P.S. 40 in the 1960s.

 

The third group of rowhouses, on the north side of East 140th Street, was built by O'Gorman in 1897-1900 to the designs of architect William Hornum. The picturesque row includes pairs of two- and-one-half-story houses separated by single three-story houses, and is terminated at the west end by a four-story tenement. The shorter paired houses are somewhat simply designed, with modest stone trim, door enframements, and modillioned cornices; by contrast, the three-story houses have varied window patterns, pedimented lintels, carved details, and stepped and gabled rooflines. O'Gorman's own house, distinguished from the others by its greater width and different face brick, was built as part of this row, at No. 427.

 

Further east on the north side of East 140th Street are two matching groups of "New Law" tenements built in 1902-03, one designed by the firm of Neville & Bagge and the other by George F.

 

Pelham; these architects were active practitioners in the field of multiple dwellings, designing numerous buildings throughout the city at the turn of the century and into the 1920s. Faced in brick with stone trim, each Renaissance-inspired building has an elaborate entranceway with a shallow projecting canopy, round-arched fifth-story windows, and an imposing metal cornice. Between the tenements and Hornum's row to the west stands the attractive, neo-Gothic St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church (1911- 12), designed by Louis A. Allmendinger. Faced with brick and stone trim, it has a central tower which adds to the picturesque character of the streetscape.

 

The buildings of the Mott Haven East Historic District, like those of surrounding areas, were initially inhabited by immigrant or second-generation families of European origin. By the mid-twentieth century, demographics in the area shifted to include African-Americans; the neighborhood now has a predominantly Hispanic-American population. Throughout the twentieth century to the present time, residential redevelopment, increased industrial usage, and demolition have eliminated many of the South Bronx's examples of original nineteenth- and early twentieth-century improvements; however, the blockfronts of the district retain their architectural integrity to a high degree. The Mott Haven East Historic District remains a vibrant residential enclave dating to the region's original phase of urban development.

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL INTRODUCTION

 

The History of Morrisania

 

Prior to its incorporation into New Netherland in the early seventeenth century, the land corresponding to Morrisania was occupied by Native Americans in the Weckquaesgeek and Manhattan branches of the Mohegan tribe, who had named the region Laaphawachking. In 1641, Jonas Bronck, a Danish Lutheran, bought from Native Americans a 500-acre tract at the very southern reaches of what is now the borough named for him, between the Harlem River and the Aquahung (Bronx) River. Bronck constructed a house and outbuildings near the mouth of the Harlem River, southwest of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District. From 1664 to 1673, while the Duke of York had control over New Netherland, the area became the dominion of the English. "Broncksland" was made subject to the government of the city of New York and Harlem.

 

In 1670, the English holding known as "West Farms," located between the Harlem River and Bungay Creek to the west and extending north to about the present 150th Street, was purchased by two brothers: Captain Richard Morris and Colonel Lewis Morris, Englishmen of Welsh descent. The Morrises had served in Cromwell's army, and upon the restoration of the monarchy (1660) in England, they immigrated to Barbados, where they became estate-owners and merchant sugar-planters. After falling from favor with local authorities, Captain Richard Morris moved to New York in 1668. He relocated to West Farms upon its purchase in 1670, and died two years later, leaving a wife and baby son, named Lewis after his uncle. Over the next few years, during a brief return of Dutch rule and ensuing resumption of English control, Colonel Morris secured claims to his holdings as well as adjacent unclaimed parcels, which totaled nearly two thousand acres. (The colonel also purchased at this time thirty-five hundred acres in New Jersey, later known as Morris County.)

 

The county of Westchester, including the Morris land and all of what is now the borough of the Bronx, had been formed in 1683 under an English charter, with the town of Westchester, east of the Morris property, as the county seat. Westchester became a borough-town in 1696, when a mayoral court was established. Colonel Morris's nephew and heir, Lewis, who became known as Lewis Morris, Sr., as well as Lewis Morris, Jr., and Lewis Morris III (who was actually the fourth Lewis Morris), all in turn served as Westchester county representatives to the Provincial Assembly.

 

Lewis Morris, Sr., settled for a time in New Jersey and became its first provincial governor. He returned to New York and secured in 1697 a royal patent for the manor of Morrisania, which he had inherited from his uncle. Judge Morris's second son, Lewis Morris, Jr., inherited the entire Morrisania estate. Lewis Morris, Jr., died in 1762, leaving his son, Lewis Morris III, to become the lord of the Morris manor. At that time, the vast majority of inhabitants of the relatively more-populated Westchester townships to the east of Morrisania, along the Long Island Sound, were conservative Loyalists. In contrast, Morris was a vocal critic of British taxation and control tactics, and he dominated a 1774 borough meeting held to elect delegates to a county convention. He was chosen as a representative, and later became a brigadier-general in the Congressional army; he resigned his army post to become a member of the Continental Congress, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

 

During the first hundred years following the original Morris land purchase, or up until around 1770, the upper sections of Westchester County were fairly uniformly settled with farms and villages, while virtually no development occurred in the lower portions. Only a few houses, barns, and mills, on the banks of Mill Brook, which divided the Morris estate in two, had been extant. In about 1760, General Morris had developed a mill at the western recess of his lands.

 

In 1788, an act of the state legislature caused Westchester County to be divided into twenty-one townships, one of which was called Morrisania, corresponding to the Morris lands and reaching north to what is now East 170th Street. At this time Morrisania was the least populated township in the county, and Lewis Morris HI was one of only thirteen heads of families there. By 1790 there were a total of only 103 free persons and thirty slaves - seventeen of which were owned by the Morrises — in Morrisania.

 

Lewis Morris HI had lobbied for township status and the rights to make other improvements to Morrisania, concurrent with his unsuccessful campaign to have the new nation's capital established there. In 1790, the state legislature granted him permission to construct a stone-piered wooden dam-bridge at the base of present-day Third Avenue, to connect Harlem with the northerly Post Road; these improvements were known as the Coles Bridge and Road. Traffic through the northern Kingsbridge crossing slowed dramatically, as travelers to West Farms, Eastchester and beyond chose the more convenient and shorter route across the Coles Bridge and Morris estate lands. Despite Morris's efforts, however, the township of Morrisania was merged into the older, neighboring town of Westchester in 1791. Nevertheless, a village, known as Morrisania, had been formed on the Westchester side of the Coles Bridge.

 

Port Morris, at the southeast edge of Morrisania and southeast of the present-day Mott Haven East Historic District, was another early Morris manor improvement and a proposed site of the new national capital. The Morris family also hoped that Port Morris would rival the port of New York on Manhattan island, because of adjacent deep water, and for a time the port had its own custom house. However, the community was located in a lowland area which experienced regular tidal flooding. It remained a small anchorage and ferry terminal throughout the nineteenth century and, at the end of the century, was filled in and laid with sewers and streets to accommodate several large factories.

 

Soon after 1791, when it had been merged into the neighboring township of Westchester, Morrisania became part of the contiguous West Farms township. In general, development in what is now the southwest Bronx remained limited throughout the next half-century to the construction of estate structures and scattered frame houses, and the laying of additional private farm roads. When Lewis Morris m died in 1798 at the age of sixty-two, the division and redivision of the Morrisania manor lands, and resulting nineteenth-century urban development, began.

The Early Development of Mott Haven

 

Substantive development began in the southwest corner of Morrisania in 1828 when Gouverneur Morris II sold a large tract to the inventor of the coal-burning stove, Jordan L. Mott, and several co- investors. Mott, the first major industrialist to locate in the Bronx, established the Mott Iron Works on the Harlem River at Third Avenue and 134th Street, west and south of the present-day Mott Haven East Historic District. Mott built a residence near the foundry, and named his pocket of Morrisania "Mott Haven." Questioned about Mott's new designation of land linked historically with the Morris family, Gouverneur Morris II is said to have stated "I don't care what he calls it; while he is about it, he might as well change the name of the Harlem [RiverJ and call it the Jordan. "

 

By 1839, the population of Westchester County as a whole was just over 3,000 people. Evidence of Morrisania's slow development and rural character is provided by the fact that the area's first religious structure was not built until 1840. In a field near the Mill Brook, Gouverneur Morris, Jr., founded St. Ann's Episcopal Church (now a designated New York City Landmark) at the site of his parents' tomb, at what is now St. Ann's Avenue and East 140th Street, just to the east of the present-day Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

Mott Haven proper, in contrast to the rest of Morrisania, began to grow steadily in the mid- nineteenth century. Mott's firm was incorporated and expanded into new buildings constructed throughout the neighborhood. The Mott Ironworks began to manufacture a wider range of goods, including kitchen and bathroom fixtures as well as stable fittings, gates, statuary, and garden furniture, produced in brass, bronze, and nickel-plate, in addition to iron.

 

Though some considered his ventures an unwanted intrusion, in 1850 Mott proceeded with plans for the lower part of the Mott Haven Canal, which followed an underground stream running parallel to Morris Avenue, about halfway between it and the Harlem River. The canal enabled boats to travel inland as far north as 138th Street, about the distance of a dozen blocks, and encouraged local industrial development. New enterprises included other metal works, lumber yards, saw mills, stone yards, enamel works and a notable concentration of impressively-built piano factories. A corresponding residential building boom, resulting from the need for worker housing, occurred in areas immediately north and east of the burgeoning canal zone.

 

Mott Haven's industrial and residential growth was facilitated by the advent of the railroad, and preceded a period of intense development following the introduction of mass transit lines which transformed the farmlands of Morrisania into the urban environment that remains today. The introduction of the railways and additional bridges over the Harlem River in the 1840s linked Morrisania and Westchester county with the city of New York to the south. The New York & Harlem Railroad, incorporated in 1831, had taken over the New York and Albany line in 1838 and received authorization from the state legislature to bridge the Harlem River in 1840. Thus, the first railroad in what is now the borough of the Bronx passed in 1841 through Morrisania along Mill Brook, to West Farms and northward. The industrial community of Mott Haven, with its own rail-line station-stop, was firmly established.

 

In the following decades, a railroad and streetcar boom resulted in a web of crossing lines, many radiating from the Harlem (previously Coles) Bridge. Morris family members and other local landholders pushed for infrastructure improvements which would stimulate interest in speculative land purchases, and began selling off their acreage to builders. Mott Haven's industrial and commercial development and its proximity to Manhattan made it a favorable environment for real estate speculation. The earliest known rowhouses in the area, dating from the early 1860s, are located at 276 to 294 Alexander Avenue between East 139th and East 140th streets, in the Mott Haven Historic District. Though commonplace in Manhattan and Brooklyn, rowhouses were unusual in what is now the Bronx, where homes were customarily freestanding frame structures. Throughout the nineteenth century, Mott Haven contained the only concentration of rowhouses in the borough.

 

The new rail system was responsible for the evolution of a number of other South Bronx villages into well-established towns. By contrast, the area now constituting the Mott Haven East Historic District had yet to be developed by 1860. On a contemporary map, only the street grid plan, devoid of built improvements, characterized this section east of Third Avenue. After 1856, the new township of Morrisania was consolidated, with its town hall located at 160th Street and Third Avenue.

 

By 1858, traffic over the old Harlem Bridge had far surpassed the structure's capacity. The second Harlem (or Third Avenue) Bridge, another drawbridge made of cast iron, was erected in place of the earlier structure in 1860. This bridge was extant until the 1890s, when the much larger, surviving drawbridge of steel and iron was constructed to accommodate the markedly increased traffic, which included trolley cars. The earliest streetcar rail line in the Bronx ran up Third Avenue to Fordham from the Harlem Bridge as of 1863. In 1870, the New York-New Haven freight yards moved to Port Morris and spread along the waterfront in the South Bronx.

The Urbanization of Mott Haven

 

In 1874 the townships of Morrisania, West Farms and Kingsbridge split from Westchester County and became the 23rd and 24th wards of the City of New York, and thus part of New York County. (The southeastern portion of Westchester County was joined to the city in 1895.) New Yorkers referred to the area as "The Annexed District."

 

The severe Financial Panic of 1873 caused a city-wide building hiatus which lasted most of the decade. In the late 1870s, as the depression lifted, construction resumed slowly in what had become known as New York City's "North Side," encompassing Mott Haven. Development began to creep inward from the loose ring of towns in the southwest Bronx toward the open area of the present-day historic district, adjacent to Mill Brook. Directly to the south, along East 136th Street, three adjoining rowhouses were built as early as 1877-78 (located in what is now the Bertine Block Historic District).

 

Large-scale improvements to the infrastructure in the Annexed District advanced the pace of development. Businessmen formed booster organizations such as the North Side Association, active through the 1880s, which pushed for the improvements. As a result, streets were paved, sewers dug, parklands purchased, and perhaps most importantly, rapid transit lines laid. In 1884, the Madison Avenue Bridge was built at East 138th Street to provide a further connection between Manhattan and the North Side. Rows of housing, churches, offices, a school, and a fire station appeared along Alexander Avenue and above 141st Street. Industrial works and manufactories continued to surround the lower Mott Haven Canal west of Lincoln Avenue. Spanning the two blocks between Lincoln and Willis avenues, below 132nd Street, was the vast Harlem River station rail yard of the New York, New Haven & Hartford line. Still, at this time, very little had been developed between Willis Avenue and the newly- formed Brook Avenue just to the east of the Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

The first mass transit line to travel to the Annexed District was the Suburban Rapid Transit Company's Third Avenue El, begun in the early 1880s, which passed two blocks west of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District. In 1886 the SRT began work on an additional North Side transit line, running through the blocks between Alexander and Willis avenues. The line incorporated a stop at 138th Street, just south of the Mott Haven East Historic District. It reached 145th Street in 1887, and then swerved westward to Third Avenue. A network of streetcars leading to and from the transit line stops was soon established. In response to an act of the New York State Legislature which was implemented in 1890 to coordinate the borough's improvements, the Commissioner of Highways of the Bronx Department of Street Improvements ordered a grid-type street layout for remaining unpaved areas and worked quickly to complete the borough's network of roadways and sewers.

 

Seventy-five percent of the area's population in the 1890s lived in close proximity to the El, which first served as a magnet for concentrated tenement construction south and west of the area of the

 

Mott Haven East Historic District. Development, however, soon fanned out from the rail line. Single-family rowhouses, and then more lucrative apartments and tenements, were built in surrounding areas. Examples of these building types exist in both the Mott Haven and the Bertine Block Historic Districts, as well as in this historic district. The South Bronx region at the end of the nineteenth century is described by historian Evelyn Gonzalez as follows:

 

By 1897, just a decade after the el began operation, the once vacant blocks east of Third Avenue were almost completely built over with solid brick buildings. This area held a mixture of building types: single-family town houses built in the late 1880s; multi-story apartment houses, built with increasing frequency in the 1890s; and to complete the picture, various industrial and manufacturing establishments along the neighborhood's southern fringe. This newly built-up area demonstrated the importance of the urban features the North Side had so painstakingly acquired.

 

The Bronx held the record as the fastest growing borough in the city between 1890 and 1940. The population of the North Side was 89,000 in 1890; ten years later it had more than doubled to over 200,000. By 1915, the number had increased threefold, to 616,000.

 

The Mott Haven East Historic District

 

Within the compact, one- and one-half-block area of the Mott Haven East Historic District are three groups of single-family rowhouses and two groups of tenements. Erected between 1889 and 1903, these buildings serve as a virtual catalogue of speculatively-built housing types common to the South Bronx building boom of the 1880s and '90s. Complementing these residential buildings are the St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church and Parsonage of 1911-12.

 

In 1887 and 1888, subsequent to the opening of the new transit line just west of Willis Avenue at the western edge of the historic district, speculative-building veterans William O'Gorman and Hermann Stursberg filed New Building applications for the construction of single-family houses in parallel rows along the entire south side of East 140th Street and north side of East 139th Street, between Willis and Brook avenues. At the time the rows were constructed, there were vast, undeveloped tracts east of the area of the historic district, farther from the rail line and past the grounds of nearby St. Ann's Church, and many blocks neither demarcated by paved streets nor subdivided into lots. The rows were completed in 1889 and 1892, respectively.

 

As built, the long handsome rows of forty-nine two-story-and-basement houses were anchored at each end by a house with an additional story; possibly multiple dwellings, the taller end buildings appear to have been planned in the course of construction. The eastern twenty-nine buildings of each of the rows were demolished to make way for the construction of P.S. 40 in the 1960s. Surviving structures

are Nos. 406 to 450 East 140th Street and Nos. 403 to 445 East 139th Street. No. 447 East 139th Street, once adjacent to the school property, was demolished in 1973 due to unsafe conditions, and is now an empty lot within the boundaries of the district.

 

For these rows, O'Gorman acted as his own architect, designing the houses in a style known as neo-Grec. Typical of the style, the uniform Philadelphia brick facades are adorned with bold, incised geometric ornament in stone and topped by bracketed metal cornices having coved fascias decorated with large spade-shaped leaf motifs. The bold articulation and uniformity impart a strong, repetitive rhythm to the streetscapes. All of the houses in the two rows are sixteen feet, eight inches wide; the three-story houses were designed to project from the facade plane of the two-story houses by means of angled end bays. Each house is fronted by a stone stoop with heavy, ornate, cast-iron newels, balusters, and handrails. Sidewalks appear to have been originally bluestone, as bluestone pavers remain in front of empty lots just to the east of No. 403 East 139th Street.

 

O'Gorman seems to have based his design for the houses in these two rows on that of an earlier group of eight neo-Grec houses he and Stursberg erected in 1885 on the south side of East 139th Street, directly south of the historic district. The lone survivor from that prototype row is in every detail a match to the 1889 and 1892 rows included in the district. Neo-Grec houses with uniform cornice lines, flat facades, and even fenestration patterns, while less expensive to construct, were somewhat outdated by this time. In Manhattan, the style was supplanted in favor of the variegated and irregular forms of the Queen Anne style by 1880.

 

O'Gorman and Stursberg had completed other projects in the neighborhood in addition to the 1885 row across East 139th Street from the historic district. By 1885, they had erected a row of twelve houses along the east side of Willis Avenue between East 138th and 139th streets (demolished). In addition, the partners appear by 1885 to have developed both sides of the block between East 141st and 142nd streets (demolished), also bounded by Willis and Brook Avenues, due north of the Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

Little is known about Hermann Stursberg except that conveyance records show that his family had owned land in the southern block of the Mott Haven East Historic District as early as 1874, and that he formed a South Bronx building partnership with William O'Gorman. He later owned property under the name of Hermann Stursberg Realty Company. The Department of Buildings documentation for the rows on East 139th and 149th streets lists his address as Staten Island.

 

William O'Gorman is known to have immigrated to New York from Ireland in 1863 or '64, at the age of 17. He obtained work with Daniel Crimmins, a builder, and quickly became his superintendent. In 1866 O'Gorman started his own architectural practice in Manhattan's Yorkville. He was the architect of two known rows of Italianate brownstone rowhouses in the same block in the Upper East Side - a row of six at 165 to 175 East 70th Street (1871, two demolished; two altered), and a row of seven at 150 to 162 East 71st Street (one demolished; two altered) ~ both for speculative builders. In 1875, after the annexation of the 23rd and 24th wards, O'Gorman joined Stursberg, transferred his business to the Bronx, and presumably began designing and building the rows of houses he planned with his new partner.

At least as early as 1887, O'Gorman and his family are known to have resided at 252 Willis Avenue just north of East 138th Street, in a house which was part of one of the rows that he had developed with Stursberg. The 1890 New York City Police Department census lists O'Gorman, age 45; his wife Julia, 43; sons William Jr., 22, Joseph, 16, Mort, 11, and Edward A., 5; daughters Lillie, 14, and Gertrude, 6; and Minnie Kane, 30, presumably a servant, as residents of 252 Willis Avenue. According to an 1897 New Building application for the erection of the row on the north side of East 140th Street, O'Gorman appears to have lived at 406 East 140th Street for some time between 1897 and 1900, when he is known to have moved to 427 East 140th Street. The U.S. census of 1900 shows that the developer's son, William J. O'Gorman, a thirty-one-year-old "Builder," lived at 497 East 139th Street. O'Gorman, Jr.'s house was demolished together with others at the east end of the block.

 

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mott Haven was inhabited predominantly by people of either Irish birth or descent, while lower Melrose, to the north, was populated by Italian immigrants and their families. The two rows on East 139th and 140th streets in the Mott Haven East Historic District, which were occupied as rentals when first developed, contained both American-born residents and immigrant populations of European heritages. Turn-of-the-century census records show that occupants of these single-family rentals were typically first or second-generation German or Irish immigrants living with extended families and often a single servant. Head-of-household occupations included draughtsman, clerk, salesman, iron worker, assessor, wool importer, road inspector, tailor, picture framer, examiner, wood worker, adjuster, insurance agent, painter, horse dealer, glue broker and pilot. In addition, there was one fire chief, one newspaper editor, and a physician.

 

Before O'Gorman and Stursberg had finished construction on the neo-Grec style rows, builder Edward D. Bertine had begun erecting three more fashionably-styled rows of houses on East 136th Street, in what is now the Bertine Block Historic District. In contrast to those of O'Gorman and Stursberg, Bertine's first houses, begun in 1891, were designed in the Queen Anne style, and were constructed of light-colored brick with an assortment of eclectic design features, a variety of textured facade materials, and picturesque rooflines including mansards, gables, and chimneys. Bertine's second group, begun in 1892, was designed in the Romanesque Revival style, with molded-brick and stone trim. The third Bertine group, constructed in 1895, exhibits Renaissance Revival design elements.

 

The next group of rowhouses built in the Mott Haven East Historic District exhibits stylistic elements found on the Bertine rows, including Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, and Renaissance Revival design features. This group, located at 407 to 427 East 140th Street toward the Willis Avenue end of the block, was built in 1897-1900. The houses were constructed on land also owned and developed by William O'Gorman, Sr., or perhaps by or with his son William, Jr. Records of the Department of Buildings show a William O'Gorman, of 662 (later 406) East 140th Street, as owner/developer of the row, which seems to refer to the younger O'Gorman. The architect for the row, in any case, was not the elder O'Gorman, as in the earlier rows, but rather Walter H.C. Hornum, who had offices in Harlem.

 

Having begun an architectural practice on lower Broadway in Manhattan in 1886, Walter H.C. Hornum (dates undetermined), apparently moved to East 125th Street to work with his brother, Louis A. Hornum, in 1888. According to New York City directories, the firm of Hornum Brothers seems to have dissolved by the turn of the century, when Walter moved first to midtown and then in about 1907 to West 125th Street, while his brother had set up in midtown as Louis A. Hornum & Co. By 1917 the brothers' addresses were again listed together in midtown. Walter Hornum's known work includes 425 to 451 West 162nd Street, two rows of Romanesque Revival style residences built in 1894-95 (now included in the Jumel Terrace Historic District).

 

Begun in June, 1897, and completed in January, 1900, the row Hornum designed was planned as part of a larger development including eleven buildings to be built on through-the-block sites directly to the north, along the south side of East 141st Street. Construction on this parallel row, however, was suspended in 1899, and officially abandoned the next year. Area maps of 1893 and 1897 show the block divided into lots of equal size for rowhouses. However, the lots along East 141st Street were soon combined and larger, more profitable tenement buildings were constructed instead.

 

The completed row on 140th Street consisted of a varied yet harmonious group of two- and three- story-and-basement single-family dwellings, constructed of brick and stone and set back fifteen feet from the front lot line. The house at No. 409, toward the west end of the row, is only eight feet behind the lot line and adjacent to the end building at No. 407, a four-story brick multiple dwelling set back just five feet from the lot line. This "Old Law" tenement — constructed in accordance with regulations in Tenement House Act of 1879 — was built to house five families, each in one apartment per floor.

 

The two-story houses, grouped in pairs, the three-story residences, and the single multiple dwelling vary in width from about seventeen feet to twenty-two feet; No. 427, the three-story building at the east end of the row, is the widest house and the only structure in the group faced in Roman brick. It is probable that this house was built for William O'Gorman, Sr., for his family's use. The U.S. census of 1900 shows that William O'Gorman, a "Builder," now aged 55, owned and lived in No. 427.M

 

O'Gorman's residence has a rock-faced, rusticated stone basement, and has a red tile mansard roof, with a stone-trimmed pedimented gable. It is embellished with a rock-faced stone stoop having integrated carved newels, a carved stone entrance surround, and decorative stone trim. Windows contained stained glass sash. At the first story is a tripartite window with carved, figural wood mullions. At present, the building is in use as a school and staff residence. The neighboring lot to the east (No. 429), combined with this lot in 1966, remains undeveloped.

 

The projecting four-story tenement at the west end of the row joins the plane of its neighbor to the east by means of a curved corner return. The building, the darkest in color and heaviest in design detail, also contains a short, shallow stoop meeting the sidewalk. No. 409, the three-story-and-basement rowhouse to the east of the tenement, has a projecting bay that steps back to meet the flat plane of the

building's neighbors to the east. All of the rowhouses have stone stoops set back from the sidewalk, which ascend from paved landings within the houses' large, planted areaways. The six paired, two-story- and-basement rowhouses have flat roofs and matching galvanized metal crested cornices (see No. 413). Facades contain slender lateral reveals anchored by carved stone bosses at the second story (see No. 417). Each pair is distinguished from the others by variations in brick color, trim design, and decorative detail. The even cornice lines are level with the bases of the tiled mansards atop the three-story buildings, each of which has a differently-styled stone-trimmed gable.

 

Typical of the fanciful late-nineteenth century fashion in residential design, buildings in this row combine classically-inspired carved, molded, incised and rock-faced detailing and decorative wrought-iron window and door grilles. A variety of window shapes, including shouldered and flat-, segmental-, and round-headed types, are found throughout the row. The three-story buildings generally exhibit decorative motifs that are more elaborate than those of the neighboring paired buildings — these are nonetheless distinctively ornamented. Together, the group comprises a lively ensemble.

 

Upon its completion in 1900, the tenement building contained four rental households. They were composed of Seigmund Levey, a German-born furniture store proprietor, and his New York-born wife and daughter; Eli Partrige, an English real estate manager, and his New York-born wife and two daughters; James Morris, a club custodian from Virginia, his New York-born wife, who had one German-born parent, and his daughter, also born in New York; and the sixty-year old Charles Bates, a dry goods superintendant, and his wife Rachel, both New Yorkers.

 

Besides O'Gorman's own residence, completed houses in the row in 1900 were owned and occupied by an Irish-born undertaker, his wife, four children and a servant; another undertaker, born in New York, his wife, son, a servant, and one roomer; and a linen store manager and his wife and brother- in-law, all German-born, with their four sons, the two eldest employed as a traveling salesman and a clerk, and a servant.

 

In 1898, the entire annexed portion of Westchester County became the Borough of the Bronx within Greater New York City, in keeping with the terms of the city charter of that year. Highly influential in the turn-of-the-century development of the southwest Bronx was an organization called The North Side Board of Trade. Founded in 1894 as a successor to the North Side Association in order to attract manufacturing and other enterprises and a "superior class of residents," its membership included leading business and professional men with interests in borough. The Board lobbied successfully for further improvements in the district, and the development of remaining open lands in the Mott Haven vicinity was soon accomplished with the erection of higher-density tenements and apartment buildings. Many such tenement buildings were constructed throughout the South Bronx at this time.

 

In the Mott Haven East Historic District, examples of such tenement construction appear on the north side of East 140th Street, several lots to the east of the O'Gorman/Hornum row. While an earlier New Building application reveals that three-story buildings, thirty-five feet in width, may have been planned for the row, nine five-story tenements, each over thirty-seven feet in width, were constructed in two groups in 1902-03; each building was planned to house ten families. The first group (Nos. 465 to 481) was designed by Thomas P. Neville of the firm of Neville & Bagge; plans for the second group (Nos. 441 to 461) were filed by architect George F. Pelham.

 

These buildings were erected for Gaines, Roberts & Co.; little is known about the firm's President, Furman V. Gaines, and Vice-President, Hugh L. Roberts. The structures were designed and built in accordance with the provisions of the Tenement Law of 1901, which marked the end of the narrow, rowhouse-sized tenement building and mandated the construction of larger, better ventilated multiple dwellings, complete with hot water, heat, and electricity.

 

After practicing on his own for two years at 47 West 66th Street, architect George A. Bagge (dates undetermined) formed a partnership in 1892 with Thomas P. Neville (dates undetermined) and set up offices at No. 250 and then No. 213-217 West 125th Street. In 1915 the firm moved south to midtown, and then from 1919 to 1930 to Bergen Avenue in the Bronx. After 1923 and until 1936 Bagge headed George A. Bagge & Sons, first located at 299 Madison Avenue and then at 157 and 7 East 44th Street.

 

Neville and Bagge were prolific designers of a number of building types, including stores and lofts, hotels, banks, and churches, but specialized in tenements and apartment houses. Although examples of the firm's work exist throughout Manhattan and the Bronx, most are in the residential neighborhoods of Manhattan's Upper West Side and Harlem. Neville & Bagge's rowhouses and apartment buildings appear in the Chelsea, Hamilton Heights, Jumel Terrace, Mount Morris Park, West End Collegiate, and Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic Districts. Individually designated New York City Landmarks designed by the firm include the freestanding Shuttleworth residence at 1857 Anthony Avenue (1896) in the Bronx and the facade (1907) of St. Cecilia's Convent at 112 East 106th Street, Manhattan.

 

Neville & Bagge's tenements at Nos. 465 to 481 East 140th Street form a unified row of four five-story tan brick buildings with limestone trim, designed in the popular neo-Renaissance style. George F. Pelham, a prolific practitioner in the field of multiple dwellings, was the architect of record for the adjacent five buildings at Nos. 441 to 461, the design of which matches that of the four Neville & Bagge structures to the west. The buildings are topped by metal cornices and feature centered, ground-story entrances having a sequence of harmonious yet slightly varying limestone surrounds, with projecting stone canopies and low stoops. At the time of designation, original entrance doors and window sash had been replaced.

 

Each steam-heated building was planned with two six-room apartments per floor plus a four-room janitor's apartment and storage space in basement. Lots are a standard 100 feet deep, and the buildings extend back about eighty-six feet. Fire escapes were placed on the rear elevations.

Other types of buildings were constructed in the neighborhood to serve the needs of the residents. The Mott Haven East Historic District contains an example of a small, early-twentieth century religious complex, in this case, intended to serve a local congregation of Lutherans of German birth or descent. In the center of the north side of East 140th Street, separating the rowhouses to the west and the tenements to the east, are the church (No. 435) and parsonage (No. 437), designed by Louis A. Allmendinger, and constructed in 1911-12 for the Second St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, previously located at 374 East 141st Street. Today, a Lutheran congregation continues to occupy the church, now known as St. Peter's-in-the-Bronx.

 

The one-story-and-basement neo-Gothic church, punctuated by a tower, is a freestanding gray brick structure set on a stone base course, with a peaked slate roof, terra-cotta and copper cornices, and tile coping. The church's facade is set back from the building line of the adjacent tenements to the east, but forward of the neighboring parsonage to the west. Steel lintels support the low, square tower, originally decorated with a group of attenuated spires. A low stoop leads to a pair of wood entrance doors hung on metal strap hinges. Surmounting the entrance is a stained-glass pointed-arch Gothic window.

 

The church's two-story-and-basement parsonage is also freestanding, and contains Gothic design elements. The gray brick facades are ornamented with brownstone, limestone, and terra-cotta trim. The brownstone stoop is lined with iron railings and posts, and leads to an entrance door surmounted by a round-shouldered transom. Round-shouldered window openings have one-over-one double-hung sash and stained-glass transoms. The galvanized iron cornice is decorated with Gothic arches pressed into the fascia.

 

Little is known about the life and career of Louis Allmendinger, whose address is listed as 926 Broadway, Brooklyn, on Department of Buildings documentation for the St. Peter's Lutheran Church and Parsonage. Allmendinger took over the commission after an initial design by architects Schaefer & Jaeger had been approved and withdrawn in 1911. It is not known how much of the original scheme was used in the Allmendinger design. One other known building attributed to Allmendinger is the Byzantine style Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of our Lord, constructed between 1916 and 1921 on North 12th Street in Brooklyn (a designated New York City Landmark).

Subsequent History

 

During the early twentieth century, the population of the Bronx continued to expand. The United States census of 1900 reports the total borough population at 200,507; the 1910 census shows that number more than doubled, with the population at 430,980. This constituted the greatest percent increase for the decade — 115 percent - of any borough in the city. To contend with escalating road and rail traffic between Manhattan and the South Bronx, the Willis Avenue bridge had been erected in 1901 and the Madison Avenue bridge was replaced in about 1910 with a larger structure. Two additional railroad bridges brought the total number of early twentieth-century crossings to the South Bronx to five.

 

The subway came to the Bronx in 1905, and caused a further real estate boom in the borough. Development spread north, as it had in Manhattan in the previous century. One subway branch reached Morrisania at 149th Street east of Third Avenue. This crossroads, nine blocks north of the historic district, became a major shopping hub. In 1912, historian Stephen Jenkins wrote that the subway was "the most important factor in causing the enormous increase in the population of the borough." Industrial development also increased markedly, and by 1910 the South Bronx contained hundreds of factories of varying types, and was considered the nation's piano manufacturing capital. Industry was concentrated just south and east of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District.

 

Although the South Bronx contained a growing African-American population in the 1920s and '30s, the 1940 U.S. census findings for Census Tract 39 (bounded by East 138th and East 141st streets, Third and St. Ann's avenues), indicate that the population in the immediate vicinity of the Mott Haven Historic District was virtually all white, with nearly one-half of the population foreign-born. Of the foreign-born white heads of families in the tract, the largest percentage, nearly half, were from the Irish Free State (Eire), with Germans, Italians, and Russians together comprising another quarter. Latin Americans and other non-Europeans were only a fraction.

 

Recent Trends

 

By the 1970s, a clear change in the population of the area of the Mott Haven East Historic District neighborhood was discernible. Spanish-speaking residents comprised well over one-half of the population of the census tract, with those of Puerto Rican birth or parentage about fifty percent. African- Americans now made up forty-three percent of the total population. The 1990 U.S. census reported that the Hispanic population has grown to represent nearly eighty percent of the population of Tract 39.

 

In the 1960s and '70s, when many residential buildings in the South Bronx were abandoned or demolished, the area became synonymous with urban decay. In the midst of the disintegration, the neighborhood of the Mott Haven East Historic District, and its historic structures, endured. The Mott Haven East Historic District remains a vibrant residential enclave. Its century-old rows of solid houses and tenements, representative of the area's first phase of urban development, are important as anchors for current and future renewal.

 

- From the 1994 NYCLPC Historic District Designation Report

Because the box rests on the table with three tips touching, your food stays hot longer.

Kathakali (Malayalam: കഥകളി, kathakaḷi; Sanskrit: कथाकळिः, kathākaḷiḥ) is a stylized classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion. It originated in the country's present day state of Kerala during the 17th century and has developed over the years with improved looks, refined gestures and added themes besides more ornate singing and precise drumming.

 

HISTORY

Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'.

 

Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called 'Manipravaalam'), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience.

 

As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.

 

Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to Nritham, Nrithyam and Natyam.

 

KATHAKALI PLAYS

Traditionally there are 101 classical Kathakali stories, though the commonly staged among them these days total less than one-third that number. Almost all of them were initially composed to last a whole night. Nowadays, there is increasing popularity for concise, or oftener select, versions of stories so as the performance lasts not more than three to four hours from evening. Thus, many stories find stage presentation in parts rather than totality. And the selection is based on criteria like choreographical beauty, thematic relevance/popularity or their melodramatic elements. Kathakali is a classical art form, but it can be appreciated also by novices—all contributed by the elegant looks of its character, their abstract movement and its synchronisation with the musical notes and rhythmic beats. And, in any case, the folk elements too continue to exist. For better appreciation, perhaps, it is still good to have an idea of the story being enacted.

 

The most popular stories enacted are Nalacharitham (a story from the Mahabharata), Duryodhana Vadham (focusing on the Mahabharata war after profiling the build-up to it), Kalyanasougandhikam, (the story of Bhima going to get flowers for his wife Panchali), Keechakavadham (another story of Bhima and Panchali, but this time during their stint in disguise), Kiratham (Arjuna and Lord Shiva's fight, from the Mahabharata), Karnashapatham (another story from the Mahabharata), Nizhalkuthu and Bhadrakalivijayam authored by Pannisseri Nanu Pillai. Also staged frequently include stories like Kuchelavrittam, Santanagopalam, Balivijayam, Dakshayagam, Rugminiswayamvaram, Kalakeyavadham, Kirmeeravadham, Bakavadham, Poothanamoksham, Subhadraharanam, Balivadham, Rugmangadacharitam, Ravanolbhavam, Narakasuravadham, Uttaraswayamvaram, Harishchandracharitam, Kacha-Devayani and Kamsavadham.

 

Recently, as part of attempts to further popularise the art, stories from other cultures and mythologies, such as those of Mary Magdalene from the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and William Shakespeare's King Lear and Julius Caesar besides Goethe's Faust too have been adapted into Kathakali scripts and on to its stage. Synopsis of 37 kathakali stories are available in kathakalinews.com.

 

MUSIC

The language of the songs used for Kathakali is Manipravalam. Though most of the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone-heavy Carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as the Sopanam style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born.

 

As with the acting style, Kathakali music also has singers from the northern and southern schools. The northern style has largely been groomed by Kerala Kalamandalam in the 20th century. Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, an overarching Kathakali musician of those times, was a product of the institute. His prominent disciples include Kalamandalam Unnikrishna Kurup, Kalamandalam Gangadharan, Kalamandalam P.G. Radhakrishnan, Rama Varrier, Madambi Subramanian Namboodiri, Tirur Nambissan, Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri, Kalamandalam Hyderali, Kalamandalam Haridas, Subramanian, Kalanilayam Unnikrishnan and Kalamandalam Bhavadasan. The other prominent musicians of the north feature Kottakkal Vasu Nedungadi, Kottakkal Parameswaran Namboodiri, Kottakkal P.D. Narayanan Namboodiri, Kottakkal Narayanan, Kalamandalam Anantha NarayananKalamandalam Sreekumar Palanad Divakaran, Kalanilayam Rajendran, Kolathappilli Narayanan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Narayanan Embranthiri, Kottakkal Madhu, Kalamandalam Babu Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Harish and Kalamandalam Vinod. In the south, some of whom are equally popular in the north these days, include Pathiyur Sankarankutty. Southerner musicians of the older generation include Cherthala Thankappa Panikker, Thakazhi Kuttan Pillai, Cherthala Kuttappa Kurup, Thanneermukkam Viswambharan and Mudakkal Gopinathan.

 

PERFORMANCE

Traditionally, a Kathakali performance is usually conducted at night and ends in early morning. Nowadays it isn't difficult to see performances as short as three hours or fewer. Kathakali is usually performed in front of the huge Kalivilakku (kali meaning dance; vilakku meaning lamp) with its thick wick sunk till the neck in coconut oil. Traditionally, this lamp used to provide sole light when the plays used to be performed inside temples, palaces or abodes houses of nobles and aristocrats. Enactment of a play by actors takes place to the accompaniment of music (geetha) and instruments (vadya). The percussion instruments used are chenda, maddalam (both of which underwent revolutionary changes in their aesthetics with the contributions of Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduval and Kalamandalam Appukutty Poduval) and, at times, edakka. In addition, the singers (the lead singer is called “ponnani” and his follower is called “singidi”) use chengila (gong made of bell metal, which can be struck with a wooden stick) and ilathalam (a pair of cymbals). The lead singer in some sense uses the Chengala to conduct the Vadyam and Geetha components, just as a conductor uses his wand in western classical music. A distinguishing characteristic of this art form is that the actors never speak but use hand gestures, expressions and rhythmic dancing instead of dialogue (but for a couple of rare characters).

 

ACTING

A Kathakali actor uses immense concentration, skill and physical stamina, gained from regimented training based on Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial art of Kerala, to prepare for his demanding role. The training can often last for 8–10 years, and is intensive. In Kathakali, the story is enacted purely by the movements of the hands (called mudras or hand gestures) and by facial expressions (rasas) and bodily movements. The expressions are derived from Natyashastra (the tome that deals with the science of expressions) and are classified into nine as in most Indian classical art forms. Dancers also undergo special practice sessions to learn control of their eye movements.

 

There are 24 basic mudras—the permutation and combination of which would add up a chunk of the hand gestures in vogue today. Each can again can be classified into 'Samaana-mudras'(one mudra symbolising two entities) or misra-mudras (both the hands are used to show these mudras). The mudras are a form of sign language used to tell the story.

 

The main facial expressions of a Kathakali artist are the 'navarasams' (Navarasas in anglicised form) (literal translation: Nine Tastes, but more loosely translated as nine feelings or expressions) which are Sringaram (amour), Hasyam (ridicule, humour), Bhayanakam (fear), Karunam (pathos), Roudram (anger, wrath), Veeram (valour), Beebhatsam (disgust), Adbhutam (wonder, amazement), Shantam (tranquility, peace). The link at the end of the page gives more details on Navarasas.

 

One of the most interesting aspects of Kathakali is its elaborate make-up code. Most often, the make-up can be classified into five basic sets namely Pachcha, Kathi, Kari, Thaadi, and Minukku. The differences between these sets lie in the predominant colours that are applied on the face. Pachcha (meaning green) has green as the dominant colour and is used to portray noble male characters who are said to have a mixture of "Satvik" (pious) and "Rajasik" (dark; Rajas = darkness) nature. Rajasik characters having an evil streak ("tamasic"= evil) -- all the same they are anti-heroes in the play (such as the demon king Ravana) -- and portrayed with streaks of red in a green-painted face. Excessively evil characters such as demons (totally tamasic) have a predominantly red make-up and a red beard. They are called Red Beard (Red Beard). Tamasic characters such as uncivilised hunters and woodsmen are represented with a predominantly black make-up base and a black beard and are called black beard (meaning black beard). Women and ascetics have lustrous, yellowish faces and this semi-realistic category forms the fifth class. In addition, there are modifications of the five basic sets described above such as Vella Thadi (white beard) used to depict Hanuman (the Monkey-God) and Pazhuppu, which is majorly used for Lord Shiva and Balabhadra.

 

NOTABLE TRAINING CENTRES & MASTERS

Kathakali artistes need assiduous grooming for almost a decade's time, and most masters are products of accomplished institutions that give a minimum training course of half-a-dozen years. The leading Kathakali schools (some of them started during the pre-Independent era India) are Kerala Kalamandalam (located in Cheruthuruthy near Shoranur), PSV Natya Sangham (located in Kottakal near Kozhikode), Sadanam Kathakali and Classical Arts Academy (or Gandhi Seva Sadan located in Perur near Ottappalam in Palakkad), Unnayi Varier Smaraka Kalanilayam (located in Irinjalakuda south of Thrissur), Margi in Thiruvananthapuram, Muthappan Kaliyogam at Parassinikkadavu in Kannur district and RLV School at Tripunithura off Kochi and Kalabharathi at Pakalkkuri near Kottarakkara in Kollam district, Sandarshan Kathakali Kendram in Ambalapuzha and Vellinazhi Nanu Nair Smaraka Kalakendra in Kuruvattor. Outside Kerala, Kathakali is being taught at the International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi, Santiniketan at Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal, Kalakshetra in Chennai and Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad among others. PadmaSree Guru Chengannur Raman Pillai mostly known as 'Guru Chengannur'was running a traditional Gurukula Style approach to propagate Kathakali.

 

‘Guru Chengannur” is ever renowned as the Sovereign Guru of Kathakali. His precision in using symbols, gestures and steps were highest in the field of Kathakali. Guru Chegannur's kaththi vesham, especially the portrayal of Duryodhana enthralled the audience every time he performed. A master of the art, he found immense happiness and satisfaction in the success and recognition of his disciples.

 

Senior Kathakali exponents of today include Padma Bhushan Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Gopi, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair, Kottakkal Krishnankutty Nair, Mankompu Sivasankara Pillai, Sadanam Krishnankutty, Nelliyode Vasudevan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody, FACT Padmanabhan, Kottakkal Chandrasekharan, Margi Vijayakumar, Kottakkal Nandakumaran Nair, Vazhenkada Vijayan, Inchakkattu Ramachandran Pillai, Kalamandalam Kuttan, Mayyanad Kesavan Namboodiri, Mathur Govindan Kutty, Narippatta Narayanan Namboodiri, Chavara Parukutty, Thonnakkal Peethambaran, Sadanam Balakrishnan, Kalanilayam Gopalakrishnan, Chirakkara Madhavankutty, Sadanam K. Harikumaran, Thalavadi Aravindan, Kalanilayam Balakrishnan, Pariyanampatta Divakaran, Kottakkal Kesavan, Kalanilayam Gopi and Kudamaloor Muralikrishnan. The late titan actor-dancers of Kathakali's modern age (say, since the 1930s) include Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Chandu Panicker, Thakazhi Guru Kunchu Kurup, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Padma Shri Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair, Kavalappara Narayanan Nair, Kurichi Kunhan Panikkar, Thekkinkattil Ramunni Nair, Padma Shri Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair, Mankulam Vishnu Namboodiri, Oyur Kochu Govinda Pillai, Vellinezhi Nanu Nair, Padma Shri Kavungal Chathunni Panikkar, Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair, Kottakkal Sivaraman, Kannan Pattali, Pallippuram Gopalan Nair, Haripad Ramakrishna Pillai, Champakkulam Pachu Pillai, Chennithala Chellappan Pillai, Guru Mampuzha Madhava Panicker, and Vaikkom Karunakaran.

 

Kathakali is still hugely a male domain but, since the 1970s, females too have made entry into the art form on a recognisable scale. The central Kerala temple town of Tripunithura has, in fact, a ladies troupe (with members belonging to several part of the state) that performs Kathakali, by and large in Travancore.

 

KATHAKALI STYLES

Known as Sampradäyaṃ(Malayalam: സമ്പ്രദായം); these are leading Kathakali styles that differ from each other in subtleties like choreographic profile, position of hand gestures and stress on dance than drama and vice versa. Some of the major original kathakali styles included:

 

Vettathu Sampradayam

Kalladikkodan Sampradyam

Kaplingadu Sampradayam

 

Of late, these have narrowed down to the northern (Kalluvazhi) and southern (Thekkan) styles. It was largely developed by the legendary Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon (1881-1949) that is implemented in Kerala Kalamandalam (though it has also a department that teaches the southern style), Sadanam, RLV and Kottakkal. Margi has its training largely based on the Thekkan style, known for its stress on drama and part-realistic techniques. Kalanilayam, effectively, churns out students with a mix of both styles.

 

OTHER FORMS OD DANCE & OFFSHOOTS

Kerala Natanam is a kind of dance form, partly based on Kathakali techniques and aesthetics, developed and stylised by the late dancer Guru Gopinath in the mid-20th century. Kathakali also finds portrayal in Malayalam feature films like Vanaprastham, Parinayam, Marattam, and Rangam. Besides documentary films have also been shot on Kathakali artistes like Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Kalamandalam Gopi and Kottakkal Sivaraman.

 

As for fictional literature, Kathakali finds mention in several Malayalam short stories like Karmen (by N.S. Madhavan) and novels like Keshabharam (by P.V. Sreevalsan). Even the Indo-Anglian work like Arundhati Roy's Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things has a chapter on Kathakali, while, of late, Anita Nair's novel, Mistress, is entirely wrapped in the ethos of Kathakali.

 

Similar musical theater is popular in Kasaragod and the coastal and Malenadu regions of Karnataka, viz. Yakshagana. Though Yakshagana resembles Kathakali in terms of its costume and makeup to an extent, Yakshagana is markedly different from Kathakali as it involves dialogues and method acting also the narration is in Kannada, wherein philosophical debates are also possible within framework of the character. As per records the art form of Yakshagana was already rooted and well established at the time of Sri Manavedan Raja. There is possibilities of its significant influence in formation of Kathakkali as the troupe of performers of "Krishnanattam" designed the basic costume of the art form already established in other parts of south India including Males playing the female roles (until more recently).

 

Kottayam thamburan's way of presenting kathakali was later known as Kalladikkoden sambradayam. Chathu Paniker,the introducer of Kallikkoden Sambrathayam, stayed in Kottayam for five years with Kottayam Thamburan's residence and practiced Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam. Then he returned to his home place. After a short period Chathu Paniker reached Pulapatta as instructed by Kuthiravattath nair. That was around the year ME 865. Many deciples from Kadathanadu, Kurumbra nadu, Vettathu nadu, Palakkadu and Perumpadappu studied kathakali(Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam ) By that time Chathu Paniker was an old man. Some years later he died from Pulapatta.

 

NOTED KATHAKALI VILLAGES & BELTS

There are certain pockets in Kerala that have given birth to many Kathakali artistes over the years. If they can be called Kathakali villages (or some of them, these days, towns), here are some of them: Vellinezhi, Kuruvattoor, Karalmanna, Cherpulassery, Kothachira, peringode, sreekrishnapuram Kongad and Ottapalam in Palakkad district, Vazhenkada in Malappuram district, Thichur or Tichoor, Guruvayur, Thiruvilwamala and Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district, Tripunithura, Edappally, Thekkan Chittoor in Ernakulam district and Kuttanad, Harippad belt in Alappuzha district besides places in and around Thiruvanathapuram in south Travancore and Payyannur in north Malabar.

 

AWARDS FOR KATHAKALI ARTISTS

Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees - Kathakali (1956–2005)

Nambeesan Smaraka Awards—For artistic performances related kathakali{1992-2008}

 

KATHAKALI ATTAMS (ELAKI ATTAMS)

Attams or more specifically "elaki attams" are sequences of acting within a story acted out with the help of mudras without support from vocal music. The actor has the freedom to change the script to suit his own individual preferences. The actor will be supported ably by Chenda, Maddalam, and Elathalam (compulsory), Chengila (not very compulsory).

 

The following are only some examples. 'Kailasa Udharanam' and 'Tapas Attam' are very important attams and these are described at the end. Two of the many references are Kathakali Prakaram, pages 95 to 142 by Pannisheri Nanu Pillai and Kathakaliyile Manodharmangal by Chavara Appukuttan Pillai.

 

VANA VARNANA: BHIMA IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKA

Modern man looks at the forest, indeed the birthplace of primates, with a certain wonder and a certain respect. Kathakali characters are no exception.

 

When Pandavas were living in the forest, one day, a flower, not seen before, wafted by the wind, comes and falls at the feet of Panchali. Exhilarated by its beauty and smell, Panchali asks Bhima to bring her more such flowers. To her pleasure Bhima is ready to go at once. But Panchali asks him what he shall do for food and drink on the way. Bhima thinks and says "Food and Drink! Oh, this side glance (look) of yours. This look of longing. This look of anticipation. The very thought fills me up. I don't need any food and drink at all. Let me go." He takes his mace and off he goes. Ulsaham (enthusiasm) is his Sdhayi Bhavam (permanent feature).

 

"Let me go at once in search of this flower," says Bhima. "The scented wind is blowing from the southern side. Let me go that way." After walking some distance he sees a huge mountain called Gandhamadana and three ways. He decides to take the middle one which goes over the mountain. After going further "The forest is getting thicker. Big trees, big branches in all directions. The forest looks like a huge dark vessel into which even light can not penetrate. This is my (Bhima's) way. Nothing can hinder me." So saying he pulls down many trees. Sometimes he shatters the trees with his mace. Suddenly he sees an elephant. "Oh! Elephant." He describes it. Its trunk. Sharp ears.

 

The itching sensation in the body. It takes some mud and throws on the body. Oh good. Then it sucks water and throws on the body. Somewhat better. Slowly it starts dosing even though alert at times. A very huge python is approaching steadily. Suddenly it catches hold of the elephant's hind leg. The elephant wakes up and tries to disengage the python. The python pulls to one side. The elephant kicks and drags to the other side. This goes on for some time. Bhima looks to the other side where a hungry lion is looking for food. It comes running and strikes the elephants head and eats part of the brain and goes off. The python completes the rest. "Oh my god, how ruthless!" says Bhima and proceeds on his way.

 

UDYANA VARNANA: NALA IN NALACHARITHAM SECOND DAY

Descriptions of gardens are found in most dance forms of India and abroad. These are also common in Kathakali.

 

Newly married Nala and Damayanthi are walking in the garden. When Nala was lovingly looking at Damayanthi a flower falls on her. Nala is overjoyed and thinks that this is a kindness nature has shown on his wife. Nala says "On seeing the arrival of their queen, the trees and climbers are showing happiness by dropping flowers on you." He tells her, "See that tree. When I used to be alone the tree used to hug the climber and seemingly laugh at my condition." Then he looks at the tree and says, "Dear Tree, look at me now. See how fortunate I am with my beautiful wife."

 

Both wander about. A bumblebee flies towards Damayanthi. Immediately Nala protects her face with a kerchief. He looks at the bee and then at Damayanthi. He says, "On seeing your face the bee thought it was a flower and came to drink the nectar." Nala and Damayanthi listen to the sounds coming out of the garden. Damayanti says, "It appears that the whole garden is thrilled. The flowers are blooming and smiling. Cuckoos are singing and the bees are dancing. Gentle winds are blowing and rubbing against our bodies. How beautiful the whole garden looks." Then Nala says that the sun is going down and it is time for them to go back and takes her away.

 

SHABDA VARNANA: HANUMAN IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKAM

While Bhima goes in search of the flower, here Hanuman is sitting doing Tapas with mind concentrated on Sri Rama.

 

When he hears the terrible noises made by Bhima in the forest he feels disturbed in doing his Tapas. He thinks "What is the reason for this?" Then the sounds become bigger. "What is this?" He thinks, "The sounds are getting bigger. Such a terrible noise. Is the sea coming up thinking that the time is ripe for the great deluge (Pralaya). Birds are flying helter-skelter. Trees look shocked. Even Kali Yuga is not here. Then what is it? Are mountains quarreling with each other? No, That can't be it. Indra had cut off the wings of mountains so that they don't quarrel. Is the sea changing its position? No it can't be. The sea has promised it will not change its position again. It can't break the promise." Hanuman starts looking for clues. "I see elephants and lions running in fear of somebody. Oh a huge man is coming this way. Oh, a hero is coming. He is pulling out trees and throwing it here and there. Okay. Let him come near, We will see."

 

THANDEDATTAM: RAVANA IN BALI VADHAM

After his theranottam Ravana is seen sitting on a stool. He says to himself "I am enjoying a lot of happiness. What is the reason for this?" Thinks. "Yes I know it. I did Tapas to Brahma and received all necessary boons. Afterwards I won all ten directions. I also defeated my elder brother Vaishravana. Then I lifted Kailas mountain when Siva and Parvathi were having a misunderstanding. Parvathi got frightened and embraced Siva in fear. Siva was so happy he gave a divine sword called Chandrahasa. Now the whole world is afraid of me. That is why I am enjoying so much happiness." He goes and sits on the stool. He looks far away. "Who is coming from a distance. he is coming fast. Oh, it is Akamba. Okay. Let me find out what news he has for me."

 

ASHRAMA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KIRATHAM

Arjuna wants to do Tapas to Lord Siva and he is looking a suitable place in the Himalayan slopes. He comes to place where there is an ashram. Arjuna looks closely at the place. "Oh. What a beautiful place this is. A small river in which a very pure water is flowing. Some hermits are taking baths in the river. Some hermits are standing in the water and doing Tapsas. Some are facing the Sun. Some are standing in between five fires." Arjuna salutes the hermits from far. He says to himself "Look at this young one of a deer. It is looking for its mother. It seems to be hungry and thirsty. Nearby a female tiger is feeding its young ones. The little deer goes towards the tigress and pushes the young tiger cubs aside and starts drinking milk from the tigress. The tigress looks lovingly at the young deer and even licks its body as if it were its own child. How beautiful. How fulfilling."

 

Again he looks "Here on this side a mongoose and a serpent forgetting their enmity are hugging each other. This place is really strange and made divine by saints and hermits. Let me start my Tapas somewhere nearby."

 

A sloka called "Shikhini Shalabha" can be selected instead of the above if time permits.

 

AN ATTAM BASED ON A SLOKA

Sansrit slokas are sometimes shown in mudras and it has a pleasing and exhilarating effect. Different actors use slokas as per his own taste and liking. However, the slokas are taught to students during their training period. An example is given below.

 

Kusumo Kusumolpatti Shrooyathena Chathushyathe

Bale thava Mukhambuje Pashya Neelolpaladwayam

 

Meaning a flower blooming inside another flower is not known to history. But, my dear, in your lotus like face are seen two blue Neelolpala flowers (eyes).

 

A CONVERSATION BASED ON A SLOKA

Sanskrit slokas can also be used to express an intent. One such example is a sloka used by Arjuna addressed to Mathali the charioteer in Kalakeya Vadham. Sloka:

Pitha: Kushalee Mama hritha Bhujaam

Naatha Sachee Vallabha:

Maatha: kim nu Pralomacha Kushalinee

Soonurjayanthasthayo

Preethim va Kushchate Thadikshnavidhow

Cheta Samutkanuthe

Sutha: tvam Radhamashu Chodaya vayam

Dharmadivam Mathala

 

Meaning: The husband of Indrani and the lord of gods my father - Is he in good health? His son Jayantha - Is he strictly following the commands of his father? Oh, I am impatient to see all of them.

 

SWARGA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KELAKEYA VADHAM

Arjuna goes to heaven on the invitation of his father, Indra. After taking permission from Indrani he goes out to see all the places in Swarga. First he sees a building, his father's palace. It is so huge with four entrances. It is made of materials superior to gold and jewels of the world. Then he goes ahead and sees Iravatha. Here he describes it as a huge elephant with four horns. He is afraid to touch it. Then he thinks that animals in Swarga can't be cruel like in the world and so thinking he goes and touches and salutes Iravatha. He describes the churning of the white sea by gods and demons with many details and how Iravatha also came out of the white sea due to this churning.

 

He walks on and sees his father's (Indra's) horse. It is described as being white and its mane is sizzling like the waves of the white sea from which it came. He touches and salutes the horse also. Then he goes to see the river of the sky (or milky way). He sees many birds by this river and how the birds fly and play is shown.

 

Then he sees the heavenly ladies. Some are collecting flowers, and one of them comes late and asks for some flowers for making garland. The others refuse. She goes to the Kalpa Vriksha and says "please give me some flowers." Immediately a shower of flowers occurs which she collects in her clothes and goes to make garlands chiding the others. "See... I also got flowers." After this he sees the music and dance of the heavenly ladies. First it starts with the adjustments of instruments Thamburu, Mridangam, Veena. Then the actual music starts along with the striking of cymbals. Then two or three types of dances are shown. Then comes juggling of balls. It is described by a sloka thus:

 

Ekopi Thraya Iva Bhathi Kandukoyam

 

Kanthayaa: Karathala Raktharaktha:

Abhrastho Nayanamareechi Neelaneelo

Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'. Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called ), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience. As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.

 

Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to

Bhumau Talcharana Naghamshu Gaurgaura:

 

Meaning One ball looks like three balls. When it is in the hands of the juggler, it takes the redness of the hands, when it goes up it takes the blueness of the eyes, when it strikes the ground it becomes white from the whiteness of the leg nails. Once a juggled ball falls down. Then she, the juggler, somehow manages to proceed and remarks "See.. how I can do it".

 

At one time a garment slips from a lady's body and she adjusts the cloth showing shameful shyness (Lajja). Then the ladies go in for a Kummi dance. As Arjuna was enjoying this dance, suddenly somebody calls him. Arjuna feels scared. "Oh God, where am I?" he says and beats a hasty retreat.

 

TAPAS ATTAM: RAVANA IN RAVANA ULBHAVAM

[Background: Mali, Sumali and Malyavan were three brothers ruling Sri Lanka. During a war between them and Indra, Indra requested help from Lord Vishnu and as a consequence Lord Vishnu killed Mali. Sumali and Malyavan escaped to Patala. Kaikasi was the daughter of Sumali. She wandered in the forest. She belong three boys through a great sage called Vishravassu. (Vishravassu had an earlier son called Vaishravana who became the richest among all people.) The eldest boy of Kaikasi was Ravana followed by Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana.]

 

SCENE 1

When Ravana was a young boy (Kutti Ravana vesham), one day he was sleeping on his mothers lap in a place called madhuvanam. At that time Kaikasi sees Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (mythical aeroplane). She thinks “Oh, that is Vaishravana, technically a brother of my son who is sleeping on my lap. He is rich and strong. My son is so poor and weak. While thinking thus a drop of tear from her eyes drops on Ravana’s face. Ravana suddenly wakes up and sees his mother crying. When he knew the reason he could not bear it. He says he is going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that he will be strong and rich.

 

SCENE 2

(The tapas itself is shown as a part of autobiographical narration of adult ravana)

 

Ravana (adult Ravana, not kutti Ravana) is sitting on a stool. He thinks “Why am I so happy? How did I become so rich and strong? Oh yes. It is because of the tapas I did. What made me do the tapas? When I was a young boy, one day I was sleeping on my mother’s lap in a place called Madhuvanam. A drop of tear from her eyes falls on my face. I asked her why she was crying. She said she saw Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (plane). She told me Vaishravan was a brother of mine now flying in a plane. He is rich and strong. I am so poor and weak. When I heard this comparison between me and my brother, I could not bear it. I am going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that I will be strong and rich.

 

I made five different types of fires (while doing tapas gods are approached through Agni the god of fire). Then I started my tapas. I asked my brothers to stand guard and also keep the fires burning. Then I fully concentrated on tapas. Time passed but Brahma did not appear. I looked. Why is Brahma not appearing? I doubled my concentration. Time passed. Brahma is not appearing. Still not appearing? I cut one of my heads and put it in the fire. Waited, Brahma did not come. One more head rolls. Still no Brahma comes. Heads roll and roll. No Brahma. Only one head is left. First I thought of stopping my tapas. But no! Never! That will be an insult to me and my family. It is better to die than stop. Also when I die Brahma will be judged as being partial. With great determination I swung the sword at my last neck, when, lo and behold, suddenly Brahma appeared and caught my hand. I looked at him with still un-subsided, but gradually subsiding anger. Brahma asked me what boons I wanted. I asked for a boon that I should win all the worlds and have all the wealth and fame and that I should not be killed except by man. I also asked him to give boons for my brothers.

 

In the next scene Ravana asks Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana what boons they got. Unfortunately Kumbhakarna’s tongue got twisted while asking for boon and he got ‘sleep’ instead of becoming the ‘king of gods’. Ravana laughed it off. As for Vibhishana, he being a bhaktha of Vishnu, asked for Vishnu’s blessings and got it. Ravana laughs it off and also decides to conquer all the worlds and starts preparing his grand army for the big conquest of the worlds.

 

[This method of presentation with a peculiar sequence has a tremendous dramatic affect. The main actor redoes a small part of what happened to kutti Ravana vesham, and this gives a view of the high contrast between the boy and the man Ravana. Similarly the presence of Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana in the subsequent scene offers a good smile on the face of the viewer at the end of the play.]

 

KAILASA UDDHARANAM: RAVANA IN BALI VIJAYAM

[Background and Previous scene: After receiving the boons, and widening his kingdom in all directions, Ravana lives in Sri Lanka with great pomp and splendor. One day he sees Saint Narada approaching his palace singing songs in praise of him ‘Jaya jaya Ravana, Lanka Pathe’. Happily he receives Narada and seats him next to him. After telling Narada about the victory of his son Indrajith on Indra, Ravana tells Narada “Now there is nobody on earth or other worlds who can fight with me”. To this Narada replies “ Very true indeed, but there is one huge monkey called Bali who says he can defeat you. He even said that you are just like a blade of grass to him. Well let him say what he wants. You are unbeatable.” Then Narada says ‘let us go there and see him’. Both decide to go. But Ravana takes his famous sword called “Chandrahasam”. Then Narada asks the history of this sword. Ravana’s Attam Starts.]

 

Ravana says “I received this sword from Lord Siva. It happened thus. Once when I was conquering new places and expanding my empire I happened to be going across the Kailasa mountain. The plane got stuck on the mountain unable to move forward. I got down from the plane and looked at the mountain. (Looks from one end to the other first horizontally and then vertically.) So huge it was. Then I decided to lift it with my bare hand and keep it aside and move forward. I started sticking my hands under it one by one. Then I tried to lift it. It doesn’t move. I put more force and more force. It moved just a bit. I pushed harder and harder, slowly it started moving then again and again and it moved easily. Then I lifted it up with my hands and started juggling it (exaggeration evident).

 

“At that particular time Lord Siva was quarreling with his wife Parvathi. Why did they fight? The story is as follows. Parvathi had gone for enjoying swimming and bathing in some beautiful pond. At that time Siva opened his jata (disheveled long hair) and called Ganga for some entertainment after asking Ganapathi and Subramania to go for some errands. Somehow becoming suspicious, right at that time, Parvathi came back in a hurry with wet clothes and saw Siva with Ganga. Siva was wondering what to do and it was at that time that Ravana started lifting the Kailasa. When Kailasa started shaking Parvathi got scared and ran to Siva and hugged him. So the quarrel ended and Siva was happy. “As a reward Siva called me and gave me this famous Chandrahasa sword.”

 

Then Narada and Ravana leave to meet Bali. Ravana wanted to take the sword along with him, but Narada suggested that the sword is not required for teaching a lesson to Bali who is after all an unarmed monkey.

 

WIKIPEDIA

"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." ~ Socrates

 

chiotsrun.com/2010/03/13/sunny-spring-days/

Lasius niger

 

♫♪♫♪♪

 

"A mature ant colony seasonally produces winged virgin queens and males. Unfertilized eggs develop into males. Fertilized eggs usually develop into wingless, sterile workers, but may develop into virgin queens if the larvae receive special attention.

 

Within a few days after they have emerged (eclosed) from the pupa case, males are "quickly converted into single-purpose sexual missiles." Young queens and males stay in their parent colony until conditions are right for the nuptial flight. The flight requires clear weather since rain is disruptive for flying insects. Different colonies of the same species often use environmental cues to synchronize the release of males and queens so that they can mate with individuals from other nests, thus avoiding inbreeding. The actual "take off" from the parent colony is also often synchronized to overwhelm their predators.

 

Typically the virgin queens and males first scatter to ensure outcrossing. The queens then release pheromones to attract males. However, the queens often try to escape the males, allowing only the fastest and the fittest males to mate. Mating takes place during flight.

 

One queen usually mates with several males. The sperm is stored in a special organ, known as a spermatheca, in the queen's abdomen, and lasts throughout her lifetime. This can be as long as 20 years, during which time the sperm can be used to fertilize tens of millions of eggs.

 

The males have evolved for the single purpose of inseminating the queen, and can't even feed themselves for the few days of their lives. During "the quick and violent mating," the male literally explodes his internal genitalia into the genital chamber of the queen and quickly dies.

 

The young mated queens land and, in the case of ants, remove their wings. They then attempt to found a new colony. The details of this vary from species to species, but typically involve the excavation of the colony's first chamber and the subsequent laying of eggs. From this point the queen continuously lays eggs which hatch into larvae, exclusively destined to develop into worker ants. The queen usually nurses the first brood alone. After the first workers appear, the queen's role in the colony typically becomes one of exclusive (and generally continuous) egg-laying.

 

The young queens have an extremely high failure rate. During its lifetime a very large ant colony can send out millions of virgin queens. Assuming that the total number of ant colonies in the area remains constant, on average only one of these queens succeeds. The rest are destroyed by predators (most notably other ants), environmental hazards or failures in raising the first brood at various stages of the process. This strict selection ensures that the queen has to be both extremely fit and extremely lucky to pass on her genes to the next generation."

 

Source: Wikipedia

   

Hotel lobby seating..

 

------------------------

 

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain

13900 North Dove Mountain Boulevard

Marana, Arizona

 

**In the Beginning**

 

In 1926, Missourian Eugene Cayton arrived in Tucson to improve his health. He acquired what was then known as Ruelas Canyon in the Tortolita Mountains and established the T Bench Bar Ranch. "Cush" Cayton built for his wife, Inez, a stone house atop one of the smaller peaks. The stone house is still there on top of the hill overlooking Dove Mountain Boulevard near the eighth and ninth holes of the Gallery Golf Club. The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain was developed by John MacMillan, majority owner of Palo Verde Partners and opened in 2003.

 

The Cayton’s ranched the land until 1984. In 1985 David Mehl’s Cottonwood Properties Inc. Acquired the 1,300 acres of desert land and thus began Mehl's vision of Dove Mountain as an upscale golf community. David Mehl and his late brother George founded Tucson-based Cottonwood Properties in 1972. Its purpose was to invest in and develop quality real estate in the Tucson, Arizona area. David Mehl graduated from the University of Arizona in 1972.

 

In the early 1980’s Cottonwood Properties was the master developer of the 790 acre Westin La Paloma resort community in the foothills of Tucson. The development consisted of the 487 room Westin La Paloma Resort & Hotel and the 27 hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course. Cottonwood owned the hotel until 1988 when it sold the hotel to the Aoki Corp., the Japan-based construction company that owned Westin. Aoki spent $200 million to acquire 3 hotels - the Inter-Continental at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, the Inter-Continental at Buckhead in Atlanta, and an equity interest in the Westin La Paloma.

 

**Pygmy Owl**

 

In March 1997 the Pygmy Owl was added to the list of endangered species under federal law. In 1999 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service dealt a set-back to the development. Environmental protections for the ferruginous pygmy owl forced Cottonwood to scale back plans at Dove Mountain. The numbers of homes were scaled back from 13,000 to 6,500 and the numbers of proposed resorts were reduced to one from 3 or 4. Cottonwood also contributed several million dollars to a conservation fund managed by the federal agency.

 

In 1999 the Tucson Citizen quoted David Mehl ”By making density reductions, we are developing at a density compatible with the pygmy owl.. In areas where it’s not, then we’re offering to pay to make up for it.”

 

**The Development**

 

Cottonwood committed some twenty years of planning into making Dove Mountain a premiere golf resort community.

 

In the late 1990’s Cottonwood Properties partnered with Scottsdale-based Greenbrier Southwest Corp. and began planning a 500-room Hyatt resort hotel for Dove Mountain. The hotel was designed and the developers received a verbal commitment for the financing on Sept. 10, 2001. The next day, September 11, 2001, the world changed and the idea for the Hyatt Resort was shelved.

 

The principals of Greenbrier Southwest Corporation, Tim and Casey Bolinger, previously served with Woodbine Southwest Corporation in Phoenix from 1991-1998. They managed the planning, zoning, financing, development and marketing of the 730-acre Kierland master-planned community, including Kierland Commons and the Westin Kierland Resort.

 

Greenbrier Southwest developed a much smaller project – the Hidden Meadow Ranch in Greer, Arizona. Opened in 2002, the rustic ranch (transformed from a church youth camp) has 12 luxury cabins starting at $500 a night including meals.

 

In August 2007 a building permit was issued for a Ritz-Carlton resort and spa to be built in Dove Mountain in Marana. The building permit cost $309,643.10 and was applied for by Dove Mountain Hotel Co. LLC. Also, Tucson Water approved a water main extension, a 290,000-gallon reservoir and a booster station that would serve the proposed 250-room hotel.

 

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain and The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain were announced as the largest branded resort/residential community managed by the Ritz Carlton hotel company. The $160 million hotel will be the second Ritz-Carlton in Arizona, joining the The Ritz-Carlton, Phoenix.

 

The Ritz Carlton press release announced that HKS Hill Glazier Architects of Palo Alto, California will design the hotel as a low-rise, four story building embracing the feel of the desert southwest. The main building of adobe block, straw-flecked stucco, clay tile and native stone will include 226 guest rooms and suites. Separate buildings nearby will feature 24 individual casita rooms and suites.

 

In addition a $60-million Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course with 27-holes was planned for a late 2008 opening. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain now hosts the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship beginning in February 2009 (The PGA Tour has committed to The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain through the 2013 event). When George and David Mehl hired Nicklaus in 1983 to design the Westin La Polama Golf Course, it was Nicklaus’s 26th golf course on his design resume. With Dove Mountain completed Nicklaus has designed over 200 golf courses around the world.

 

**Grand Opening**

 

The Ritz Carlton’s pre-opening General Manager – Michael McMahon - aims to have the resort become the first in the Tucson area to achieve AAA's highest rating of five diamonds. Previously McMahon was General Manager The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples, Florida.

 

The hotel’s opening general manager was Allan Federer. In March 2011 Federer moved to the Ritz-Carlton Dubai as General Manager. Replacing Federer is Liam Doyle – who previously was general manager at the Sherbourne Dublin, Ireland and Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach.

 

The Ritz-Carlton Grand Opening Press Release reported that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was in attendance at the December 18, 2009 event. Speakers at the event included owner and developer David Mehl of Cottonwood Properties, senior vice president of operations for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., Hank Biddle, and The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain resort general manager, Allan Federer.

 

“This day is a landmark event not only for the town of Marana, but for the State of Arizona,” stated general manager Allan Federer. “Over twenty years ago, David and his brother George Mehl had a vision to build the finest resort in the country. All it took was the right partners and the perfect location. With the help of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. and co-developer Greenbrier Southwest Corporation, it became a reality. Now the world has the opportunity to visit a place like no other, The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.”

 

Following the official ribbon-cutting seventy-two white doves were released symbolizing the property as the 72nd within The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. portfolio.

 

At full operation the hotel has 450 employees. It has 44,000 square feet of meeting space including a 9,000 square foot main ballroom.

 

The hotel’s opening Chef de Cuisine was Joel Harrington. Harrington previously was chef de cuisine of Fearing's at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Harrington graduated from CIA in Hyde Park, NY and worked with Marcus Samuellson at Aquavit in NYC.

 

Replacing Harrington is Chef David Serus who previously served as Executive Sous-Chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay and Executive Chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. Serus’ role encompass all hotel culinary activities, including those at CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar, Cayton’s Restaurant, Ignite Lobby Lounge, Turquesa Latin Grill, To Go, In-Room Dining, banquets, and catering.

 

**Two Landmark 200 Year Old Saguaros**

 

When Wild Burro Canyon was selected for the perfect hotel site, where balcony views of the Tortolita Mountains would be maximized, it was discovered that two majestic Saguaros, each estimated to be close to 200 years old, would have been lost. This was unacceptable to ownership. After three more months of analysis, the final solution was to simply shift the whole facility 25 feet. Today, as hotel guests behold the box canyon views from Ignite or CORE Kitchen and Wine Bar, they enjoy these two landmark cacti, which rise majestically overhead and stand in testament to the preservation of the High Sonoran Desert. “These cacti are sacred and add to our sense of place,” said Allan Federer, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. “Guests gaze in awe and wonder at the desert’s version of a redwood, adding to the memories they will have of this beautiful property.”

 

Photos and text compiled by Dick Johnson

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

March, 2012

 

Nikon Nikkormat FT2; 50mm Nikkor lens; red filter; Kodak Tri-X 400 shot and developed at 200.

Village Square Mall was developed by Effingham native Gene Mayhood and opened in 1971. The malls original anchors, G.C. Murphy, and Spurgeon’s, would open the following year. Additionally, the mall was shadow anchored by an Eisner’s Supermarket that was attached to the mall but lacked mall access. Murphy’s became Rural King, Spurgeon’s became Stage, and Eisner’s became Jubilee Foods. JCPenney was added in 1977 alongside an expansion of the main mall that doubled the size of the property. I believe this was when Zales and GNC opened.

 

The mall soldered on for years as a community destination seeing tenants like Glik’s, Maurice’s, Hallmark, DEB, GNC, Dollar General, and Christopher & Banks come and go. Several stores like Glik’s and Dollar General leaving for greener pastures elsewhere in the city. The city has been fighting with the mall since Mike Kohan acquired it in 2008 after previous owners J. Herzog & Sons Inc. defaulted on the malls loan, but dumped it in 2020.

 

JCPenney closed in 2017 after the stores physical condition deteriorated to such an extent that they could no longer operate. The stores entrance awning and part of the roof have since suffered partial structure failures, and the city has taken the mall to task about not heating the vacant anchors, not offering restrooms, and has forced the demolition of part of the former Rural King store.

04/05/2023. London, United Kingdom. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Lord Ahmad Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia greet Italy's Ambassador to the UK Inigo Lambertini at the Small Island and Developing Nations Coronation Event at Lancaster House. Picture by Lauren Hurley / DHSC

Unusually rapid vertical convection in the lower atmosphere.

At Foto Wiesenhavern, getting my C41s developed and scanned, and stocking up on film. This was the last time I had someone scan my negatives. Scandinavia proves to be way more expensive, unfortunately. Crossposted from blog.danielpietzsch.com/post/146197488113/at-foto-wiesenh....

Hirtenberger began to develop model engines in the 1960s and ceased production in the late 1980s when RJL of MECOA purchased the engine line. The 21 was the smallest of the VT series which included a 49 and 61- all with a shaft-driven rotary sleeve valve. The prototype (foreground) is machined from aluminum and steel bar stock; it is signed "Pesch" on the side of the crankcase, and is believed to be the first HP VT engine built. It is a .20 size glow ignition engine with one notable difference; it has an oil reservoir in the crankcase with a filler cap in back of the engine.

 

See the VT-21 Display at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/21268418258/in/album-7...

 

See More 1-Cylinder Engines at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/albums/72157656174064422

 

See Our Model Engine Collection at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157602933346098/

 

Visit Our Photo Sets at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets

 

Courtesy of Paul and Paula Knapp

Miniature Engineering Museum

www.engine-museum.com

Pieter Aertsen (1508/09 - 1575), active in Antwerp and Amsterdam Vanitas Still Life, 1552

Aertsen developed from the mid-16th century with kitchen items and market images new types of painting. In doing so he integrated in the most cases Christian scenes - here: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary - which always conspicuously reduced are happening in the background of the picture. The in the foreground gathered objects of daily life - bread, various pots and jugs, as the main subject the haunch of venison, a bouquet, carefully folded documents and the moneybag with it form a vanitas still life.

 

Pieter Aertsen (1508/09 - 1575), tätig in Antwerpen und Amsterdam Vanitas-Stilleben, 1552

Aertsen entwickelte ab der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts mit Küchenstücken und Marktbildern neue Bildtypen. Dabei integrierte er in den meisten Fällen christliche Szenen - hier: Christus bei Maria und Martha -, die sich immer auffällig verkleinert im Hintergrund des Bildes abspielen. Die im Vordergrund versammelten Gegenstände des täglichen Lebens - Brot, verschiedene Kannen und Krüge, als Hauptmotiv die Rehkeule, ein Blumenstrauß, sorgfältig gefaltete Dokumente und der Geldbeutel bilden dabei ein Vanitasstillleben.

 

Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum

Federal Museum

Logo KHM

Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture

Founded 17 October 1891

Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria

Management Sabine Haag

www.khm.at website

Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.

The museum

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.

History

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery

The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building.

Architectural History

The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währinger street/Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the Opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the Grain market (Getreidemarkt).

From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience of Joseph Semper with the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.

Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.

Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper subsequently moved to Vienna. From the beginning on, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, in 1878, the first windows installed, in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade finished, and from 1880 to 1881 the dome and the Tabernacle built. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.

The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made ​​the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times.

Dome hall

Entrance (by clicking on the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)

Grand staircase

Hall

Empire

The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891, the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol needs another two years.

1891, the Court museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:

Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection

The Egyptian Collection

The Antique Collection

The coins and medals collection

Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects

Weapons collection

Collection of industrial art objects

Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)

Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.

Restoration Office

Library

Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.

1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his "Estensische Sammlung (Collection)" passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d'Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.

The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The Court museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.

Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.

First Republic

The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.

It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain on 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.

On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House", by the Republic. On 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.

Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.

With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Collection of Ancient Coins

Collection of modern Coins and Medals

Weapons collection

Collection of Sculptures and Crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Picture gallery

The Museum 1938-1945

Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.

With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the German Reich.

After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to bring certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. To this end was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.

The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.

The museum today

Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.

In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.

Management

1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials

1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director

1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director

1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director

1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief, in 1941 as first director

1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections, in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation

1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections, in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation

1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director

1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation

1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director

1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director

1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director

1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director

1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director

1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director

1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director

1990: George Kugler as interim first director

1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director

Since 2009: Sabine Haag as general director

Collections

To the Kunsthistorisches Museum also belon the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.

Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)

Picture Gallery

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Vienna Chamber of Art

Numismatic Collection

Library

New Castle

Ephesus Museum

Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Arms and Armour

Archive

Hofburg

The imperial crown in the Treasury

Imperial Treasury of Vienna

Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage

Insignia of imperial Austria

Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire

Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece

Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure

Ecclesiastical Treasury

Schönbrunn Palace

Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna

Armory in Ambras Castle

Ambras Castle

Collections of Ambras Castle

Major exhibits

Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:

Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438

Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80

Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16

Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526

Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24

Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07

Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)

Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75

Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68

Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06

Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508

Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32

The Little Fur, about 1638

Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559

Kids, 1560

Tower of Babel, 1563

Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564

Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565

Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565

Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565

Bauer and bird thief, 1568

Peasant Wedding, 1568/69

Peasant Dance, 1568/69

Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567

Cabinet of Curiosities:

Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543

Egyptian-Oriental Collection:

Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut

Collection of Classical Antiquities:

Gemma Augustea

Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós

Gallery: Major exhibits

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthistorisches_Museum

BSG training for Countries (SG1) for SG Effectiveness. 19-01-2016

 

©ITU/A.Mhadhbi

I developed some expired kodak 400tx (2010) in Rodinal 1:50 at 20c. I agitated once 3 mins for the first 20 mins and let it stand for further 30 mins. So 50 mins in total. From the negative I can see the exposure and develop time is about right.

HOWEVER, there's a layer of frost on the emulsion side. The scanned images appear all have such brain like pattern which makes me sick.

 

Anyway, is there any reason why it happened? is it caused by the film or my developing or both?

 

Such a shame, I liked a few pictures from this batch.

"Is that what you want?". Wisbech Auctions.

The 50p Camera Project

Olympus XA2 35mm film compact camera

Agfa Gevaert / FirstCall 400S b/w film

Home developed in R09.