View allAll Photos Tagged flotation
"Begun in 1960, ASSET was originally designed to verify the superalloy heat shield of the X-20 Dyna-Soar prior to full-scale manned flights. The vehicle's biconic shape and low delta wing were intended to represent Dyna-Soar's forward nose section, where the aerodynamic heating would be the most intense; in excess of an estimated 2200 °C (4,000 °F) at the nose cap. Following the X-20 program's cancellation in December 1963, completed ASSET vehicles were used in reentry heating and structural investigations with hopes that data gathered would be useful for the development of future space vehicles, such as the Space Shuttle.
Built by McDonnell, each vehicle was launched on a suborbital trajectory from Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral, attaining speeds of up to 6,000 m/s before making a water landing in the South Atlantic near Ascension Island. Originally, a Scout launch vehicle had been planned for the tests, but this was changed after a large surplus of Thor and Thor-Delta missiles (returned from deployment in the United Kingdom) became available.
Of the six vehicles built, only one was successfully recovered and is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
The photo is of the first ASSET sub-scale re-entry vehicle launched 18 September 1963. Unfortunately, the flotation equipment malfunctioned, preventing planned recovery."
Above per Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASSET_(spacecraft)
Interesting reading here, entertaining the idea of a "shadow/ulterior-motive" program of the USAF...cool...I think. Who knows how much farther we'd be along at this point if true & would have been pursued...either that or the fallout would’ve mutated us into C.H.U.D., or hastened our extinction...hard to tell with the human race:
www.astronautix.com/a/asset.html
5.75" x 9.5".
We tried to take advantage of the last warm weeks of the year by doing some swimming. I had to bring out the underwater case for my camera again. Here Joshua is shown floating on a ring in the pool. I blindly placed the camera underneath him and took a shot looking up at the sky. The colors, bubbles, and waves proved to be very interesting.
For more of my creative projects, visit my short stories website: 500ironicstories.com
(view from mine vehicle, en route from the office to the working floor)
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These facilities are at the Continental Mine (= Continental Pit) in Butte, Montana. The town is known as the “Richest Hill on Earth” and "The Mining City". The Butte Mining District has produced gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, manganese, and other metals.
The area's bedrock consists of the Butte Quartz Monzonite (a.k.a. Butte Pluton), which is part of the Boulder Batholith. The Butte Quartz Monzonite ("BQM") formed 76.3 million years ago, during the mid-Campanian Stage in the Late Cretaceous. BQM rocks have been intruded and altered by hydrothermal veins containing valuable metallic minerals - principally sulfides. The copper mineralization has been dated to 62-66 million years ago, during the latest Maastrichtian Stage (latest Cretaceous) and Danian Stage (Early Paleocene). In the supergene enrichment zone of the area, the original sulfide mineralogy has been altered.
The Continental Mine was started in 1980 by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company - it is currently owned by Montana Resources. The mine targets a low-grade copper and molybdenum deposit on the eastern side of the Continental Fault, a major Basin & Range normal fault in the Butte area with about 3500 feet of offset. The mine's rocks consist of BQM with disseminated copper sulfides, plus copper- and molybdenum-bearing hydrothermal veins that intrude the BQM. Minerals at the site include chalcopyrite, molybdenite, malachite, azurite, tenorite, and cuprite. The latter four minerals are secondary copper minerals, produced by alteration of the primary copper sulfides.
When I visited in 2010, the Continental Mine was making 50,000 to 52,000 tons of ore each day. This mine can operate down to an ore grade of 0.1% copper. Most of the mineralization is disseminated copper, but veins are also present. Two stages of mineralization occurred in the Butte area - a porphyry copper system and a main stage system with large veins. The bottom of the porphyry copper system is ~ less than 12,800 feet below the surface. Veins peter out at 5600 to 5800 feet below the surface. At the Continental Mine, veins are small - they're veinlets less than 6 inches wide.
Mining is done 24 hours a day, 365 to 366 days per year. There's 1 to 2 days of down time at the mill. During those days, mining stops and waste material is moved. The ore:waste ratio is 8:10 (= strip ratio). The alluvial overburden consists of 7 paleosol horizons, including some caliches - the lime content results in an average pH of 8. The caliche material can be used to treat acidic materials.
This mine has 14 shovels and 15 trucks. A large Bucyrus shovel can load a 240-ton truck in three passes. The mine's benches are forty feet tall. Blasting is done with ANFO - ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. 0.65 pounds of explosives are used per ton of rock. The mine uses ~45 megawatts of power per day, which is about the same as the city of Butte itself.
Continental Mine ores are crushed in two stages. The crushed ores are then sent to the mill, where they are ground down to the fineness of talcum powder. Flotation and lime are used in procesing. Sulfides are collected. 1% of the mined material goes to the concentrator. 99% of mined material becomes tailings. The tailings powder is wet (33% solid and the rest is water) and piped uphill to a pond. The tailings pond water has a pH of 10. Water from the pond is recycled to make tailings slurry. 27 million gallons a day enters the pond. An earthen dam around the pond is designed to withstand a powerful earthquake.
Copper and molybdenum concentrates produced at the Continental Mine are not smelted locally - they are not even smelted in America. Concentrates are sold around the world, where material is smelted and the metals are produced. America shipping rocks overseas and buying back the finished product is the behavior of an underdeveloped country - America is not interested in smelting anymore - a sad reality.
"An ore deposit is a mine if it can stand total mismanagement and still make money."
S66-18602 (16 March 1966) --- Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott sit with their spacecraft hatches open while awaiting the arrival of the recovery ship, the USS Leonard F. Mason after the successful completion of their Gemini-8 mission. They are assisted by U.S. Navy divers. The overhead view shows the Gemini-8 spacecraft with the yellow flotation collar attached to stabilize the spacecraft in choppy seas. The green marker dye is highly visible from the air and is used as a locating aid. Photo credit: NASA
Our personal Easter Special Loco-motive (aka The Kinetic Choo Choo)
pedal transport. Conductor alerting at-grade crossing, Jr. getting sun-burned,
Engineer keeping chains oiled, wheels on-track as we skirt a narrow gauge Yellow Brick Rail Road. Toot Toot ! ! (flotation optional..see next photo)
In action on the street
www.youtube.com/watch?v=90qn-ojoow8&feature=related
with a later two wheeled creation..Whymcycle 'Blue" now in the National Korean Bicycle Museum..
This drop-test model of ESA’s IXV Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle will be among the attractions on display at this year’s ESTEC Open Day on 5 October.
IXV’s sleek lifting body design gives a clue to its purpose: the flight version will be launched 420 km into spacE by a Vega rocket before beginning a long glide back through the atmosphere.
In the process, IXV will gather data on reentry conditions to help guide the design of future spaceplanes.
The IXV replica seen here was last year dropped by helicopter into the Mediterranean to demonstrate that the design would endure splashdown – note the flotation balloons.
The flight model, meanwhile, has been put through its paces at ESA’s test centre next door, with everything needed to recreate every aspect of the launch and space environment under one roof.
Credit: ESA/S.Ferreté
The Mount Elliott Mining Complex is an aggregation of the remnants of copper mining and smelting operations from the early 20th century and the associated former mining township of Selwyn. The earliest copper mining at Mount Elliott was in 1906 with smelting operations commencing shortly after. Significant upgrades to the mining and smelting operations occurred under the management of W.R. Corbould during 1909 - 1910. Following these upgrades and increases in production, the Selwyn Township grew quickly and had 1500 residents by 1918. The Mount Elliott Company took over other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s, including the Mount Cuthbert and Kuridala smelters. Mount Elliott operations were taken over by Mount Isa Mines in 1943 to ensure the supply of copper during World War Two. The Mount Elliott Company was eventually liquidated in 1953.
The Mount Elliott Smelter:
The existence of copper in the Leichhardt River area of north western Queensland had been known since Ernest Henry discovered the Great Australia Mine in 1867 at Cloncurry. In 1899 James Elliott discovered copper on the conical hill that became Mount Elliott, but having no capital to develop the mine, he sold an interest to James Morphett, a pastoralist of Fort Constantine station near Cloncurry. Morphett, being drought stricken, in turn sold out to John Moffat of Irvinebank, the most successful mining promoter in Queensland at the time.
Plentiful capital and cheap transport were prerequisites for developing the Cloncurry field, which had stagnated for forty years. Without capital it was impossible to explore and prove ore-bodies; without proof of large reserves of wealth it was futile to build a railway; and without a railway it was hazardous to invest capital in finding large reserves of ore. The mining investor or the railway builder had to break the impasse.
In 1906 - 1907 copper averaged £87 a ton on the London market, the highest price for thirty years, and the Cloncurry field grew. The railway was extended west of Richmond in 1905 - 1906 by the Government and mines were floated on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. At Mount Elliott a prospecting shaft had been sunk and on the 1st of August 1906 a Cornish boiler and winding plant were installed on the site.
Mount Elliott Limited was floated in Melbourne on the 13th of July 1906. In 1907 it was taken over by British and French interests and restructured. Combining with its competitor, Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited, Mount Elliott formed a special company to finance and construct the railway from Cloncurry to Malbon, Kuridala (then Friezeland) and Mount Elliott (later Selwyn). This new company then entered into an agreement with the Queensland Railways Department in July 1908.
The railway, which was known as the 'Syndicate Railway', aroused opposition in 1908 from the trade unions and Labor movement generally, who contended that railways should be State-owned. However, the Hampden-Mount Elliott Railway Bill was passed by the Queensland Parliament and assented to on the 21st of April 1908; construction finished in December 1910. The railway terminated at the Mount Elliott smelter.
By 1907 the main underlie shaft had been sunk and construction of the smelters was underway using a second-hand water-jacket blast furnace and converters. At this time, W.H. Corbould was appointed general manager of Mount Elliott Limited.
The second-hand blast furnace and converters were commissioned or 'blown in' in May 1909, but were problematic causing hold-ups. Corbould referred to the equipment in use as being the 'worst collection of worn-out junk he had ever come across'. Corbould soon convinced his directors to scrap the plant and let him design new works.
Corbould was a metallurgist and geologist as well as mine/smelter manager. He foresaw a need to obtain control and thereby ensure a reliable supply of ore from a cross-section of mines in the region. He also saw a need to implement an effective strategy to manage the economies of smelting low-grade ore. Smelting operations in the region were made difficult by the technical and economic problems posed by the deterioration in the grade of ore. Corbould resolved the issue by a process of blending ores with different chemical properties, increasing the throughput capacity of the smelter and by championing the unification of smelting operations in the region. In 1912, Corbould acquired Hampden Consols Mine at Kuridala for Mount Elliott Limited, followed with the purchases of other small mines in the district.
Walkers Limited of Maryborough was commissioned to manufacture a new 200 ton water jacket furnace for the smelters. An air compressor and blower for the smelters were constructed in the powerhouse and an electric motor and dynamo provided power for the crane and lighting for the smelter and mine.
The new smelter was blown in September 1910, a month after the first train arrived, and it ran well, producing 2040 tons of blister copper by the end of the year. The new smelting plant made it possible to cope with low-grade sulphide ores at Mount Elliott. The use of 1000 tons of low-grade sulphide ores bought from the Hampden Consols Mine in 1911 made it clear that if a supply of higher sulphur ore could be obtained and blended, performance, and economy would improve. Accordingly, the company bought a number of smaller mines in the district in 1912.
Corbould mined with cut and fill stoping but a young Mines Inspector condemned the system, ordered it dismantled and replaced with square set timbering. In 1911, after gradual movement in stopes on the No. 3 level, the smelter was closed for two months. Nevertheless, 5447 tons of blister copper was produced in 1911, rising to 6690 tons in 1912 - the company's best year. Many of the surviving structures at the site were built at this time.
Troubles for Mount Elliott started in 1913. In February, a fire at the Consols Mine closed it for months. In June, a thirteen week strike closed the whole operation, severely depleting the workforce. The year 1913 was also bad for industrial accidents in the area, possibly due to inexperienced people replacing the strikers. Nevertheless, the company paid generous dividends that year.
At the end of 1914 smelting ceased for more than a year due to shortage of ore. Although 3200 tons of blister copper was produced in 1913, production fell to 1840 tons in 1914 and the workforce dwindled to only 40 men. For the second half of 1915 and early 1916 the smelter treated ore railed south from Mount Cuthbert. At the end of July 1916 the smelting plant at Selwyn was dismantled except for the flue chambers and stacks. A new furnace with a capacity of 500 tons per day was built, a large amount of second-hand equipment was obtained and the converters were increased in size.
After the enlarged furnace was commissioned in June 1917, continuing industrial unrest retarded production which amounted to only 1000 tons of copper that year. The point of contention was the efficiency of the new smelter which processed twice as much ore while employing fewer men. The company decided to close down the smelter in October and reduce the size of the furnace, the largest in Australia, from 6.5m to 5.5m. In the meantime the price of copper had almost doubled from 1916 due to wartime consumption of munitions.
The new furnace commenced on the 16th of January 1918 and 77,482 tons of ore were smelted yielding 3580 tons of blister copper which were sent to the Bowen refinery before export to Britain. Local coal and coke supply was a problem and materials were being sourced from the distant Bowen Colliery. The smelter had a good run for almost a year except for a strike in July and another in December, which caused Corbould to close down the plant until New Year. In 1919, following relaxation of wartime controls by the British Metal Corporation, the copper price plunged from about £110 per ton at the start of the year to £75 per ton in April, dashing the company's optimism regarding treatment of low grade ores. The smelter finally closed after two months operation and most employees were laid off.
For much of the period 1919 to 1922, Corbould was in England trying to raise capital to reorganise the company's operations but he failed and resigned from the company in 1922. The Mount Elliott Company took over the assets of the other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s - Mount Cuthbert in 1925 and Kuridala in 1926. Mount Isa Mines bought the Mount Elliott plant and machinery, including the three smelters, in 1943 for £2,300, enabling them to start copper production in the middle of the Second World War. The Mount Elliott Company was finally liquidated in 1953.
In 1950 A.E. Powell took up the Mount Elliott Reward Claim at Selwyn and worked close to the old smelter buildings. An open cut mine commenced at Starra, south of Mount Elliott and Selwyn, in 1988 and is Australia's third largest copper producer producing copper-gold concentrates from flotation and gold bullion from carbon-in-leach processing.
Profitable copper-gold ore bodies were recently proved at depth beneath the Mount Elliott smelter and old underground workings by Cyprus Gold Australia Pty Ltd. These deposits were subsequently acquired by Arimco Mining Pty Ltd for underground development which commenced in July 1993. A decline tunnel portal, ore and overburden dumps now occupy a large area of the Maggie Creek valley south-west of the smelter which was formerly the site of early miner's camps.
The Old Selwyn Township:
In 1907, the first hotel, run by H. Williams, was opened at the site. The township was surveyed later, around 1910, by the Mines Department. The town was to be situated north of the mine and smelter operations adjacent the railway, about 1.5km distant. It took its name from the nearby Selwyn Ranges which were named, during Burke's expedition, after the Victorian Government Geologist, A.R. Selwyn. The town has also been known by the name of Mount Elliott, after the nearby mines and smelter.
Many of the residents either worked at the Mount Elliott Mine and Smelter or worked in the service industries which grew around the mining and smelting operations. Little documentation exists about the everyday life of the town's residents. Surrounding sheep and cattle stations, however, meant that meat was available cheaply and vegetables grown in the area were delivered to the township by horse and cart. Imported commodities were, however, expensive.
By 1910 the town had four hotels. There was also an aerated water manufacturer, three stores, four fruiterers, a butcher, baker, saddler, garage, police, hospital, banks, post office (officially from 1906 to 1928, then unofficially until 1975) and a railway station. There was even an orchestra of ten players in 1912. The population of Selwyn rose from 1000 in 1911 to 1500 in 1918, before gradually declining.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
....I stopped at a bench to take in the view, have a snack and some water when this boat camp speeding by. The warm spring weather has brought out the boaters. Soon Okanagan Lake will be full of speed boats, sail boats, house boats, water skiing, wakeboarding, swimmers, kayaking, canoeing, kids on flotation devices and sun seekers.
I like the colour of the boat. It goes so nicely with the blue water and the white wake from the boat. The dog in the back of the boat was so cute. He was looking up at me as they were speeding by.
Okanagan Lake as seen from Kalamoir Regional Park, West Kelowna, BC
SwimRun athlete, Ronen Erlich, wears a neoprene jammer swimsuit to add lower body flotation and hand paddles to increase propulsion.
Competitors in the SwimRun event participate in teams of two people and perform a series of alternating swim and run legs. Besides their swimsuit, race cap, bib and timing chip, racers are allowed certain optional approved gear items but they must start and finish the race with all their chosen gear.
For more information or to sign up for next year's SwimRun event to be held Saturday, May 2, 2020, click on SwimRun.
JTH_6382_cr
The principle used to simulate weightlessness in a huge tank of water is called 'neutral buoyancy'. A neutrally buoyant object neither floats nor sinks. For an astronaut to be neutrally buoyant in water, the natural tendency to float or sink is counteracted by weights or flotation devices.
Here ESA astronaut André Kuipers is seen during EVA training in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas.
Although it is not exactly the same as being weightless in space, astronauts and cosmonauts practice in neutral buoyancy how to move large objects. You can still feel the pull of gravity while neutrally buoyant, and the drag of moving about through the water slows down your movements – but it is the closest you can get to microgravity on Earth.
The full spacewalk, or Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA), training for the ISS is traditionally done at the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in Russia. With over 18 hours of EVA time in space under his belt, Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang is currently the most experienced spacewalker in the European Astronaut Corps.
For more information:
www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMVVX2MDAF_astronauts_0.html
Credit : ESA/A. Kuipers
As he egresses Command Module 'America', USN Captain Eugene Cernan, Commander, Apollo 17, is welcomed back to Earth by USN Lieutenant Jonathan Smart, Officer In Charge, UDT 11 Recovery Team, 19 December 1972.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
AWESOME
"We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
YET, here we are, FORTY FIVE years later, pretty much with our thumbs up our...along with seemingly ever-dwindling peace and/or hope.
NOT so awesome.
Far right you can see a diver deploying the weight chain.
Bottom right shows how the chain would bwe jettisoned after it goes slack when the descent weight hits the bottom.
Bottom left shows ascent weights being jettisoned to allow the vessel to rise, and flotation bladders to give greater freeboard if the hatch needed to be opened while still in the water at the surface.
Lent by James Cameron.
Kubinka Tank Museum. Танковый музей в Кубинке.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_Ka-Mi
The Special Type 2 Launch Ka-Mi (特二式内火艇 カミ Toku-ni-shiki uchibitei kami?) was the Imperial Japanese Navy's first amphibious tank. The Type 2 Ka-Mi was based on the Imperial Japanese Army's Type 95 Ha-Go light tank with major modifications, and was a capable armoured fighting vehicle on both land and at sea.
History and development
Type 2 Ka-Mi tanks without their flotation devices fitted
As early as 1928, the Japanese Army had been developing and testing amphibious tanks and created several experimental models such as the SR-II, the Type 1 Mi-Sha and the Type 92 A-I-Go which either never made it off the drawing board or were produced only as one-off prototypes for concept testing. In 1940, The Navy took over development of amphibious vehicles and two years later came up with the Type 2 Ka-Mi. The Type 2 Ka-Mi was designed for the Navy's Special Naval Landing Forces for the amphibious invasion of Pacific Islands without adequate port facilities, and for various special operations missions.
Only 184 units of the Type 2 Ka-Mi were built, beginning in 1942, due to the number of complex components and due to the fact that it had to be nearly completely hand-built.
Design
The Type 2 Ka-Mi was based on the Army's Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, but with an all-welded hull with rubber seals in place of the riveted armor. It was intended to be water-tight. Large, hollow pontoons made from steel plates were attached to the front glacis plate and rear decking to give the necessary buoyancy. The front pontoon was internally divided into eight separate compartments to minimize the effects of damage from flooding and shellfire. These flotation devices could be jettisoned from inside the tank once the tank landed and commenced ground combat operations.
The Type 2 Ka-Mi's gun turret with a high-velocity Type 1 37 mm gun and a coaxial Type 97 light machine gun was able to rotate 360°. A second Type 97 light machine gun was located in the tank's bow. Occasionally Type 2 Ka-Mi's were armed with a pair of naval torpedoes; one on either side of the hull. The Type 2 Ka-Mi could also be launched from the deck of a submarine.[3]
The Type 2 Ka-Mi was capable of attaining speeds of 10 km/h in the water with a range of 150 km through two propellers situated at the rear of the hull, powered by the tank's engine. Steering was in the control of the tank commander, who operated a pair of rudders from the turret through cables.
That the crew included an onboard mechanic is an indication of the complexity of the design.
Combat Record
The Type 2 Ka-Mi came into active service after the initial successful campaigns of World War II, and was thus too late to be used in its original design mission of amphibious landings. Many units were assigned to naval garrison detachments in the South Pacific Mandate and in the Netherlands East Indies.
The Type 2 Ka-Mi was encountered by the United States Marine Corps in the Marshall Islands and Mariana Islands, particularly on Guam, where it was dug into the ground and misused in static defense positions.It was also encountered in combat by U.S. Army forces at Aitape and Biak during the New Guinea campaign and during the fighting on the Philipine island of Leyte in late 1944.According to Ralph Zumbro in his book 'Tank Aces',several Ka-Mi were destroyed by Army LVT-1's off the coast of Leyte during history's only Amtank vs. Amtank action. A handful more were captured by Army troops on Luzon in 1945,but had not entered combat.A number of photos exist of these vehicles,as well as several others captured by Australian and Commonwealth troops.In common with most Japanese Armor,it was no match for Allied tanks or anti-armor weapons.
Легкий плавающий танк, созданный с использованием некоторых узлов и агрегатов легкого танка "Ха-го". Один из наиболее удачных образцов японской разработки. Создан фирмой "Мицубиси" в 1941 г. В 1942 – 1945 гг. изготовлено 180 единиц.
КОНСТРУКЦИЯ И МОДИФИКАЦИИ
"Ка-ми" – корпус сварной, герметичный, коробчатой формы. Башня – сварная. конической формы, без командирской башенки. Вооружение: 37-мм пушка Тип 1 и спаренный с ней 7,7-мм пулемет Тип 97. На двух кронштейнах в кормовой части башни мог крепиться вертлюг для зенитного пулемета Тип 97. Над верхним люком-жалюзи моторного отделения устанавливался обтекаемый воздухозабор- ный короб, защищенный от брызг крышкой с отгибами. Для придания танку плавучести спереди и сзади крепились стальные понтоны, которые на берегу легко сбрасывались без выхода экипажа из машины. Движение на плаву – с помощью двух гребных винтов.
ТАКТИКО-ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ПЛАВАЮЩЕГО ТАНКА "Ка-ми" Тип 2
БОЕВАЯ МАССА, т: 12,5 (с понтонами), 9,57 (без понтонов).
ЭКИПАЖ, чел.: 5.
ГАБАРИТНЫЕ РАЗМЕРЫ, мм: длина – 4830 (с понтонами 7420), ширина – 2790, высота – 2340, клиренс – 355.
ВООРУЖЕНИЕ: 1 пушка Тип 1 калибра 37 мм, 2 пулемета Тип 97 калибра 7,7 мм.
БОЕКОМПЛЕКТ: 132 выстрелов, 3500 патронов.
БРОНИРОВАНИЕ, мм: лоб корпуса -14, борт – 8, корма – 6, крыша и днище – 8,5, башня – 6-13,2.
ДВИГАТЕЛЬ: Тип 1, 6-цилиндровый, дизельный, воздушного охлаждения; мощность 120 л.с. (87,6 кВт) при 1800 об/мин.
ТРАНСМИССИЯ: редуктор, коробка передач с понижающей передачей (8 + 2) и отбором мощности на гребные винты, карданный вал, соединенный коническими шестернями с валами бортовых фрикционов, одноступенчатые бортовые редукторы.
ХОДОВАЯ ЧАСТЬ; четыре сдвоенных опорных катка на борт, два поддерживающих катка, ведущее колесо переднего расположения (зацепление цевочное); подвеска – типа Хара; гусеница мелкозвенчатая, с открытым шарниром и одним гребнем, шириной 305 мм, шаг трака 84 мм, число траков – 103.
СКОРОСТЬ МАКС., км/ч; по суше – 37, на плаву -10.
ЗАПАС ХОДА, км: 170.
СРЕДСТВА СВЯЗИ: радиостанция и ТПУ.
Lower section of Waggon Creek, West Coast. Here the limestone walls are about 6m high on either side with no way out except the way you came in.
Waggon Creek develops into a cut that runs for about 3.5km between steep limestone walls covered in moss and ferns. I had to swim the deeper sections using my pack for flotation, quite unnerving as the water was black with tanin and I had thoughts of massive eels playing through my mind! A stunning place though, and one I might not get back to again.
Take a look at my Waggon Creek album which contains this plus many more images taken along the length of the cut that I was able to explore. Unfortunately the water was very cold and the cut acted as a wind tunnel once the morning breeze came up, it wasn't too long before I was chilled to the bone and I had to turn back.
Taken in one of the the more open sections of Waggon Creek, a cut that runs for about 3.5km between steep limestone walls covered in moss and ferns. I had to swim the deeper sections using my pack for flotation, quite unnerving as the water was black with tanin and I had thoughts of massive eels biting my fingers off playing through my mind! A stunning place though, and one I would love to get back to again.
Take a look at my Waggon Creek album which contains this plus many more images taken along the length of the cut that I was able to explore. Unfortunately the water was very cold and the cut acted as a wind tunnel once the morning breeze came up, it wasn't too long before I was chilled to the bone and I had to turn back.
The drop test model of ESA's IXV spaceplane, making a big splash at the Sunday 4 October 2015 ESTEC Open Day. This replica was used to test the splashdown procedure ahead of the real 2014 space mission. A flotation balloon is visible to the right – note also the signatures on the IXV body from its various team members.
Credit: ESA-G. Porter CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
My parents' dog Tinka.
I have more dog shots here: www.flickr.com/photos/ranveig/sets/72157626530530354/
The grayish, terraced wall in the background is the Continental Mine (= Continental Pit) in Butte, Montana, as seen from the Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond. The town is known as the “Richest Hill on Earth” and "The Mining City". The Butte Mining District has produced gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, manganese, and other metals.
The area's bedrock consists of the Butte Quartz Monzonite (a.k.a. Butte Pluton), which is part of the Boulder Batholith. The Butte Quartz Monzonite ("BQM") formed 76.3 million years ago, during the mid-Campanian Stage in the Late Cretaceous. BQM rocks have been intruded and altered by hydrothermal veins containing valuable metallic minerals - principally sulfides. The copper mineralization has been dated to 62-66 million years ago, during the latest Maastrichtian Stage (latest Cretaceous) and Danian Stage (Early Paleocene). In the supergene enrichment zone of the area, the original sulfide mineralogy has been altered.
The Continental Mine was started in 1980 by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company - it is currently owned by Montana Resources. The mine targets a low-grade copper and molybdenum deposit on the eastern side of the Continental Fault, a major Basin & Range normal fault in the Butte area with about 3500 feet of offset. The mine's rocks consist of BQM with disseminated copper sulfides, plus copper- and molybdenum-bearing hydrothermal veins that intrude the BQM. Minerals at the site include chalcopyrite, molybdenite, malachite, azurite, tenorite, and cuprite. The latter four minerals are secondary copper minerals, produced by alteration of the primary copper sulfides.
When I visited in 2010, the Continental Mine was making 50,000 to 52,000 tons of ore each day. This mine can operate down to an ore grade of 0.1% copper. Most of the mineralization is disseminated copper, but veins are also present. Two stages of mineralization occurred in the Butte area - a porphyry copper system and a main stage system with large veins. The bottom of the porphyry copper system is ~ less than 12,800 feet below the surface. Veins peter out at 5600 to 5800 feet below the surface. At the Continental Mine, veins are small - they're veinlets less than 6 inches wide.
Mining is done 24 hours a day, 365 to 366 days per year. There's 1 to 2 days of down time at the mill. During those days, mining stops and waste material is moved. The ore:waste ratio is 8:10 (= strip ratio). The alluvial overburden consists of 7 paleosol horizons, including some caliches - the lime content results in an average pH of 8. The caliche material can be used to treat acidic materials.
This mine has 14 shovels and 15 trucks. A large Bucyrus shovel can load a 240-ton truck in three passes. The mine's benches are forty feet tall. Blasting is done with ANFO - ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. 0.65 pounds of explosives are used per ton of rock. The mine uses ~45 megawatts of power per day, which is about the same as the city of Butte itself.
Continental Mine ores are crushed in two stages. The crushed ores are then sent to the mill, where they are ground down to the fineness of talcum powder. Flotation and lime are used in procesing. Sulfides are collected. 1% of the mined material goes to the concentrator. 99% of mined material becomes tailings. The tailings powder is wet (33% solid and the rest is water) and piped uphill to a pond. The tailings pond water has a pH of 10. Water from the pond is recycled to make tailings slurry. 27 million gallons a day enters the pond. An earthen dam around the pond is designed to withstand a powerful earthquake.
Copper and molybdenum concentrates produced at the Continental Mine are not smelted locally - they are not even smelted in America. Concentrates are sold around the world, where material is smelted and the metals are produced. America shipping rocks overseas and buying back the finished product is the behavior of an underdeveloped country - America is not interested in smelting anymore - a sad reality.
"An ore deposit is a mine if it can stand total mismanagement and still make money."
Bounce For Glory is at last comfy and stable for the Flotation Test Regatta, Day 2
of Port Townsend, Washington's Kinetic Sculpture Race
Parts not intended...red curved rear side rails are satellite dish supports, oarlocks are bike pedals, traction mud cleats are irrigation pipe chunks bolted to bike treads held together by old nylon drapery cord,rear wheel bearings are hand cart/dolly wheels, 4 floats are old water 5 gal. jugs, tires are discarded $300 Hoosier sprint car tires, used for @ an hour each, rear tire mounted to rim @ 1 foot too narrow, front wheel clamped to 2 BMX bike wheels drawn together by garage door opener pull brace welded to agricultural plow wheel supports, brake made from scooter floorboard bolted to Nordic Trac brace bolted to bike seat post w/ chunk of sprint car tire bolted on as brake shoe, plus much, much more! Cost, @ $2.00 in bolts. Kinetic chicken stencils made from cereal box cardboard. Stencils also used for spray paint tattoos...!!
Photo by Druid Labs.
3 years later, water technique fully developed...:38 to 1:06...
www.youtube.com/user/Whymcycle#p/a/f/0/KqmD15rVAcw
Ten racing seasons later, how it gets aquatic, in and out of the brine:
Drassanes Reials - Barcelona (Spain).
ENGLISH
Ictineu I, designed and made by Narcís Monturiol in 1859, had dimensions of 7m x 2.5m x 3.5m (l x b x d) and its intended use was to ease the harvest of coral. The internal water-tight hull was of cïrcular cross-section to resist hydrostatic pressure and had 7 m³ volume, while the outer hull was streamlined (fish-shaped), roughly an ellipsoid of circular section. There is a very remote possibility that it was inspired by the prototype Brandtaucher of Wilhelm Bauer that had already sailed in 1851; Brandtaucher is now in the German Military History Museum in Dresden. The revolutionary idea of the inner pressure-resistant hull and outer hydrodynamic one was brought forth for the first time ever. Between the two hulls there were water ballast tanks, a tank that supplied oxygen for breathing and illumination and an hydrogen tank that supplied an oxyhydric lamp for illuminating the water depths. The Ictineu I employed a flat blade propeller powered by a crew of four men.
Immersion was achieved by means of a horizontal helix that could turn in both senses and water and air pumps for the purposes of ensuring stability and flotation. The prow was equipped with a set of tools suited to the harvest of coral since this was the original purpose of the submersible.
The partial success of this dive brought popular enthusiasm but no support from the government. As a result, Monturiol wrote a letter to the nation and encouraged a popular subscription which raised 300,000 pesetas from citizens of mainland Spain and Cuba.
With the money obtained, the company La Navegación Submarina was formed with the objective of developing the Ictineu II.
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (28 September 1819 – 6 September 1885) was the inventor of the first combustion engine driven submarine and anaerobic engine.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narc%c3%ads_Monturiol_i_Estarriol#I...
---------------------
CASTELLANO
El Ictíneo I, diseñado y construído en 1859 por Narcís Monturiol, media siete metros de largo, 2,5 de ancho y 3,5 de fondo y estaba pensado para facilitar la pesca del coral. El casco interior era esférico y tenía una capacidad de 7 metros cúbicos; el casco exterior tenía forma de pez con una sección elíptica inspirada en el prototipo de Wilhelm Bauer que navegó en 1851. Entre el casco interior y el exterior había unos tanques de flotación, un tanque que suministraba oxígeno para la respiración y la iluminación y un tanque de hidrógeno que alimentaba una lámpara para iluminar las profundidades marinas. El Ictíneo I se propulsaba con un propulsor de aleta accionado por una tripulación de dos hombres.
La inmersión se conseguía mediante una hélice horizontal que podía dar vueltas en ambos sentidos y bombas de densidad y aire con la finalidad de asegurar la estabilidad y la flotación. El Ictíneo I estaba equipado con una serie de herramientas específicas para la pesca del coral.
El fracaso inicial, al no poder sustraerse a las fuerzas de las corrientes marinas, lo que hacía imposible la navegación en inmersión del buque, no desalentaron al esforzado proyectista. Monturiol escribió una carta a la nación, animando a una suscripción popular que llegó a reunir 300.000 pesetas aportadas por ciudadanos anónimos tanto de España como de Cuba.
Con este capital se constituyó la empresa La Navegación Submarina con el objetivo de desarrollar el Ictíneo II.
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (Figueras, Gerona, España, 28 de septiembre de 1819 — San Martín de Provensals, Barcelona, España, 6 de septiembre de 1885) intentó, sin éxito, resolver el problema de la navegación submarina. Construyendo el Ictíneo I, propulsado por la acción de dos personas, no alcanzaba la potencia necesaria para contrarrestar las corrientes marinas (no superaba los dos nudos). A pesar del fracaso, Monturiol no se desalentó y construyó una segunda versión; el Ictíneo II, para el que originalmente amplió la fuerza motriz añadiendo seis personas más. Pero los resultados fueron incluso peores. En un último intento, trató de incorporar una caldera de vapor, para reemplazar a la fuerza humana. Pero en las pruebas realizadas en el dique se observó que las temperaturas alcanzadas en el interior del buque (mayores de 50 grados centígrados), hacían imposible la habitabilidad de la tripulación. Dando por fracasadas definitivamente las experiencias, los acreedores de la sociedad propietaria de la empresa, procedieron al embargo de todas las propiedades, incluido el prototipo Ictíneo II, que fue vendido como chatarra. Sin embargo, sí logró algo. Solventó el problema de crear oxígeno dentro de un compartimento submarino, un proyecto que fue rescatado por los nazis en la II Guerra Mundial y totalmente perfeccionado por el USS Nautilus, el primer submarino nuclear.
Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narciso_Monturiol
Nice example this is: no barnacles, seaweed, or even--even--a fishy smell. Are the emergency flotation devices (life jackets) located under the seats?
And look at that--seat belts! Are they warning people that the car is unsafe? (scoff) ;-)
2017: Classic Motorsports
Magazine Cruise-In: Chryzler 300
BOX DATE: 1994
MANUFACTURER: Mattel
DOLLS IN LINE: Barbie; Ken; Teresa
PERSONAL FUN FACT written by my sister: This is a really awesome outfit! It's pretty well made too. My favorite part is probably the whistle--it's just such a nice touch. The white polo is probably my favorite piece (I think I put it on Kocoum one time when he worked at a fisherman's market) but the jacket is the most versatile. The shorts have a ton of play value too. I'm not really sure what that red thing with the handles is. I suspect it's a flotation device. But, if Ken's a lifeguard, why does he need a flotation device? Can't he swim? And, I see it as more a hindrance than a help if he's swimming as fast as possible to save a drowning lady doll. It's amazing how much these dolls came with though--3 clothing pieces, a large jet ski, and a whole bunch of little stuff. It's impressive. Did we talk about the jet ski? It's a lot nicer than the one I had as a kid. It's a very sturdy plastic. You'd think being a bonus item sold with a studly man doll, it would be made of inferior quality. However, everything seen here is very detailed and well made!
President John F. Kennedy (left) views a mock-up [boilerplate] of an Apollo Command Module, during a tour of spacecraft displays inside a hangar at the Rich Building of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas; Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Dr. Robert Gilruth, stands left of President Kennedy. Also pictured: Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Dr. James E. Webb; Representative Albert Thomas (Texas); chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence of Great Britain, Sir Solly Zuckerman; White House Secret Service agents, Ron Pontius and Rufus Youngblood. The President visited the Center as part of a two-day inspection tour of NASA field installations.
Credit: Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
The decal/sign/placard on the boilerplate capsule reads:
"APOLLO COMMAND MODULE
FULL SIZE MOCKUP FOR
FLOTATION STABILITY TESTS"
See also:
archive.org/details/Aviation_Week_1962-09-24/page/n15/mod...
Credit: Internet Archive website
In fact, the montage of photos President Kennedy is being shown appears to document such flotation stability and towing tests of (most likely) this boilerplate having already been conducted. I wonder which one it is...BP-2, 25, or even 29 maybe?
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-ST-387-19...
archive1.jfklibrary.org/JFKWHP/1962/Month%2009/Day%2012/J...
Priceless:
archive.org/details/1962-09-13_Kennedy_Tour
Interesting reading:
www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/jfk-and-the-moon-180947824/
Credit: Smithsonian Air & Space website
Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries. It is also known as the Canadian Falls. The smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie within the United States. Bridal Veil Falls is separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York.
Formed by the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America that has a vertical drop of more than 50 m (160 ft). During peak daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 m3 (5.9 million cu ft) of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by flow rate. Niagara Falls is famed for its beauty and is a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Balancing recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century.
Niagara Falls is 27 km (17 mi) northwest of Buffalo, New York, and 69 km (43 mi) southeast of Toronto, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path over and through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.
Horseshoe Falls is about 57 m (187 ft) high, while the height of the American Falls varies between 21 and 30 m (69 and 98 ft) because of the presence of giant boulders at its base. The larger Horseshoe Falls is about 790 m (2,590 ft) wide, while the American Falls is 320 m (1,050 ft) wide. The distance between the American extremity of Niagara Falls and the Canadian extremity is 1,039 m (3,409 ft).
The peak flow over Horseshoe Falls was recorded at 6,370 m3 (225,000 cu ft) per second. The average annual flow rate is 2,400 m3 (85,000 cu ft) per second. Since the flow is a direct function of the Lake Erie water elevation, it typically peaks in late spring or early summer. During the summer months, at least 2,800 m3 (99,000 cu ft) per second of water traverse the falls, some 90% of which goes over Horseshoe Falls, while the balance is diverted to hydroelectric facilities and then on to American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. This is accomplished by employing a weir – the International Control Dam – with movable gates upstream from Horseshoe Falls.
The water flow is halved at night and during the low tourist season winter months and only attains a minimum flow of 1,400 cubic metres (49,000 cu ft) per second. Water diversion is regulated by the 1950 Niagara Treaty and is administered by the International Niagara Board of Control. The verdant green color of the water flowing over Niagara Falls is a byproduct of the estimated 60 tonnes/minute of dissolved salts and rock flour (very finely ground rock) generated by the erosive force of the Niagara River.
The Niagara River is an Important Bird Area due to its impact on Bonaparte's gulls, ring-billed gulls, and herring gulls. Several thousand birds migrate and winter in the surrounding area.
The features that became Niagara Falls were created by the Wisconsin glaciation about 10,000 years ago. The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater (see Lake Algonquin, Lake Chicago, Glacial Lake Iroquois, and Champlain Sea) that filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today. Scientists posit there is an old valley, St David's Buried Gorge, buried by glacial drift, at the approximate location of the present Welland Canal.
When the ice melted, the upper Great Lakes emptied into the Niagara River, which followed the rearranged topography across the Niagara Escarpment. In time, the river cut a gorge through the north-facing cliff, or cuesta. Because of the interactions of three major rock formations, the rocky bed did not erode evenly. The caprock formation is composed of hard, erosion-resistant limestone and dolomite of the Lockport Formation (Middle Silurian). That hard layer of stone eroded more slowly than the underlying materials. Immediately below the caprock lies the weaker, softer, sloping Rochester Formation (Lower Silurian). This formation is composed mainly of shale, though it has some thin limestone layers. It also contains ancient fossils. In time, the river eroded the soft layer that supported the hard layers, undercutting the hard caprock, which gave way in great chunks. This process repeated countless times, eventually carving out the falls. Submerged in the river in the lower valley, hidden from view, is the Queenston Formation (Upper Ordovician), which is composed of shales and fine sandstones. All three formations were laid down in an ancient sea, their differences of character deriving from changing conditions within that sea.
About 10,900 years ago, the Niagara Falls was between present-day Queenston, Ontario, and Lewiston, New York, but erosion of the crest caused the falls to retreat approximately 6.8 miles (10.9 km) southward. The shape of Horseshoe Falls has changed through the process of erosion, evolving from a small arch to a horseshoe bend to the present day V-shape. Just upstream from the falls' current location, Goat Island splits the course of the Niagara River, resulting in the separation of Horseshoe Falls to the west from the American and Bridal Veil Falls to the east. Engineering has slowed erosion and recession.
Future of the falls
The current rate of erosion is approximately 30 centimeters (0.98 feet) per year, down from a historical average of 0.91 m (3.0 ft) per year. At this rate, in about 50,000 years Niagara Falls will have eroded the remaining 32 km (20 mi) to Lake Erie, and the falls will cease to exist.
Preservation efforts
In the 1870s, sightseers had limited access to Niagara Falls and often had to pay for a glimpse, and industrialization threatened to carve up Goat Island to further expand commercial development. Other industrial encroachments and lack of public access led to a conservation movement in the U.S. known as Free Niagara, led by such notables as Hudson River School artist Frederic Edwin Church, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted, and architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Church approached Lord Dufferin, governor-general of Canada, with a proposal for international discussions on the establishment of a public park.
Goat Island was one of the inspirations for the American side of the effort. William Dorsheimer, moved by the scene from the island, brought Olmsted to Buffalo in 1868 to design a city park system, which helped promote Olmsted's career. In 1879, the New York state legislature commissioned Olmsted and James T. Gardner to survey the falls and to create the single most important document in the Niagara preservation movement, a "Special Report on the preservation of Niagara Falls". The report advocated for state purchase, restoration and preservation through public ownership of the scenic lands surrounding Niagara Falls. Restoring the former beauty of the falls was described in the report as a "sacred obligation to mankind". In 1883, New York Governor Grover Cleveland drafted legislation authorizing acquisition of lands for a state reservation at Niagara, and the Niagara Falls Association, a private citizens group founded in 1882, mounted a great letter-writing campaign and petition drive in support of the park. Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Olmsted were among the leaders of the public campaign, while New York Governor Alonzo Cornell opposed.
Preservationists' efforts were rewarded on April 30, 1885, when Governor David B. Hill signed legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park. New York State began to purchase land from developers, under the charter of the Niagara Reservation State Park. In the same year, the province of Ontario established the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park for the same purpose. On the Canadian side, the Niagara Parks Commission governs land usage along the entire course of the Niagara River, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
In 1887, Olmsted and Calvert Vaux issued a supplemental report detailing plans to restore the falls. Their intent was "to restore and conserve the natural surroundings of the Falls of Niagara, rather than to attempt to add anything thereto", and the report anticipated fundamental questions, such as how to provide access without destroying the beauty of the falls, and how to restore natural landscapes damaged by man. They planned a park with scenic roadways, paths and a few shelters designed to protect the landscape while allowing large numbers of visitors to enjoy the falls. Commemorative statues, shops, restaurants, and a 1959 glass and metal observation tower were added later. Preservationists continue to strive to strike a balance between Olmsted's idyllic vision and the realities of administering a popular scenic attraction.
Preservation efforts continued well into the 20th century. J. Horace McFarland, the Sierra Club, and the Appalachian Mountain Club persuaded the United States Congress in 1906 to enact legislation to preserve the falls by regulating the waters of the Niagara River. The act sought, in cooperation with the Canadian government, to restrict diversion of water, and a treaty resulted in 1909 that limited the total amount of water diverted from the falls by both nations to approximately 56,000 cubic feet per second (1,600 m3/s). That limitation remained in effect until 1950.
Erosion control efforts have always been of importance. Underwater weirs redirect the most damaging currents, and the top of the falls has been strengthened. In June 1969, the Niagara River was completely diverted from American Falls for several months through construction of a temporary rock and earth dam. During this time, two bodies were removed from under the falls, including a man who had been seen jumping over the falls, and the body of a woman, which was discovered once the falls dried. While Horseshoe Falls absorbed the extra flow, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studied the riverbed and mechanically bolted and strengthened any faults they found; faults that would, if left untreated, have hastened the retreat of American Falls. A plan to remove the huge mound of talus deposited in 1954 was abandoned owing to cost, and in November 1969, the temporary dam was dynamited, restoring flow to American Falls. Even after these undertakings, Luna Island, the small piece of land between the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, remained off limits to the public for years owing to fears that it was unstable and could collapse into the gorge.
Commercial interests have continued to encroach on the land surrounding the state park, including the construction of several tall buildings (most of them hotels) on the Canadian side. The result is a significant alteration and urbanisation of the landscape. One study found that the tall buildings changed the breeze patterns and increased the number of mist days from 29 per year to 68 per year, but another study disputed this idea.
In 2013, New York State began an effort to renovate Three Sisters Islands located south of Goat Island. Funds were used from the re-licensing of the New York Power Authority hydroelectric plant downriver in Lewiston, New York, to rebuild walking paths on the Three Sisters Islands and to plant native vegetation on the islands. The state also renovated the area around Prospect Point at the brink of American Falls in the state park.
Toponymy
Theories differ as to the origin of the name of the falls. The Native American word Ongiara means thundering water; The New York Times used this in 1925. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger, Niagara is derived from the name given to a branch of the local native Neutral Confederacy, who are described as the Niagagarega people on several late-17th-century French maps of the area. According to George R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called Onguiaahra, meaning "point of land cut in two". In 1847, an Iroquois interpreter stated that the name came from Jaonniaka-re, meaning "noisy point or portage". To Mohawks, the name refers to "the neck", pronounced "onyara"; the portage or neck of land between lakes Erie and Ontario onyara.
History
Many figures have been suggested as first circulating a European eyewitness description of Niagara Falls. The Frenchman Samuel de Champlain visited the area as early as 1604 during his exploration of what is now Canada, and members of his party reported to him the spectacular waterfalls, which he described in his journals. The first description of the falls is credited to Belgian missionary, Father Louis Hennepin in 1677, after traveling with the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, thus bringing the falls to the attention of Europeans. French Jesuit missionary Paul Ragueneau likely visited the falls some 35 years before Hennepin's visit while working among the Huron First Nation in Canada. Jean de Brébeuf also may have visited the falls, while spending time with the Neutral Nation. The Finnish-Swedish naturalist Pehr Kalm explored the area in the early 18th century and is credited with the first scientific description of the falls. In 1762, Captain Thomas Davies, a British Army officer and artist, surveyed the area and painted the watercolor, An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara, the first eyewitness painting of the falls.
During the 19th century, tourism became popular, and by the mid-century, it was the area's main industry. Theodosia Burr Alston (daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr) and her husband Joseph Alston were the first recorded couple to honeymoon there in 1801. Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Jérôme visited with his bride in the early 19th century. In 1825, British explorer John Franklin visited the falls while passing through New York en route to Cumberland House as part of his second Arctic expedition, calling them "so justly celebrated as the first in the world for grandeur".
In 1843, Frederick Douglass joined the American Anti-Slavery Society's "One Hundred Conventions" tour throughout New York and the midwest. Sometime on this tour, Douglass visited Niagara Falls and wrote a brief account of the experience: "When I came into its awful presence the power of discription failed me, an irrisistible power closed my lips." Being on the Canadian border, Niagara Falls was on one of the routes of the Underground Railroad. The falls were also a popular tourist attraction for Southern slaveowners, who would bring their enslaved workers on the trip. "Many a time the trusted body-servant, or slave-girl, would leave master or mistress in the discharge of some errand, and never come back." This sometimes led to conflict. Early town father Peter Porter assisted slavecatchers in finding runaway slaves, even leading, in the case of runaway Solomon Moseby, to a riot in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. Much of this history is memorialized in the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center. After the American Civil War, the New York Central Railroad publicized Niagara Falls as a focus of pleasure and honeymoon visits. After World War II, the auto industry, along with local tourism boards, began to promote Niagara honeymoons.
In about 1840, the English industrial chemist Hugh Lee Pattinson traveled to Canada, stopping at Niagara Falls long enough to make the earliest known photograph of the falls, a daguerreotype in the collection of Newcastle University. It was once believed that the small figure standing silhouetted with a top hat was added by an engraver working from imagination as well as the daguerreotype as his source, but the figure is clearly present in the photograph. Because of the very long exposure required, of ten minutes or more, the figure is assumed by Canada's Niagara Parks agency to be Pattinson. The image is left-right inverted and taken from the Canadian side. Pattinson made other photographs of Horseshoe Falls; these were then transferred to engravings to illustrate Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours' Excursions Daguerriennes (Paris, 1841–1864).[55]
On August 6, 1918, an iron scow became stuck on the rocks above the falls. The two men on the scow were rescued, but the vessel remained trapped on rocks in the river, and is still visible there in a deteriorated state, although its position shifted by 50 meters (160 ft) during a storm on October 31, 2019. Daredevil William "Red" Hill Sr. was particularly praised for his role in the rescue.
After the First World War, tourism boomed as automobiles made getting to the falls much easier. The story of Niagara Falls in the 20th century is largely that of efforts to harness the energy of the falls for hydroelectric power, and to control the development on both sides that threaten the area's natural beauty. Before the late 20th century, the northeastern end of Horseshoe Falls was in the United States, flowing around the Terrapin Rocks, which were once connected to Goat Island by a series of bridges. In 1955, the area between the rocks and Goat Island was filled in, creating Terrapin Point. In the early 1980s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filled in more land and built diversion dams and retaining walls to force the water away from Terrapin Point. Altogether, 400 ft (120 m) of Horseshoe Falls were eliminated, including 100 ft (30 m) on the Canadian side. According to author Ginger Strand, the Horseshoe Falls is now entirely in Canada. Other sources say "most of" Horseshoe Falls is in Canada.
The only recorded freeze-up of the river and falls was caused by an ice jam on March 29, 1848. No water (or at best a trickle) fell for as much as 40 hours. Waterwheels stopped, and mills and factories shut down for having no power. In 1912, American Falls was completely frozen, but the other two falls kept flowing. Although the falls commonly ice up most winters, the river and the falls do not freeze completely. The years 1885, 1902, 1906, 1911, 1932, 1936, 2014, 2017 and 2019 are noted for partial freezing of the falls. A so-called ice bridge was common in certain years at the base of the falls and was used by people who wanted to cross the river before bridges had been built. During some winters, the ice sheet was as thick as 40 to 100 feet (12 to 30 m), but that thickness has not occurred since 1954. The ice bridge of 1841 was said to be at least 100 feet thick. On February 12, 1912, the ice bridge which had formed on January 15 began breaking up while people were still on it. Many escaped, but three died during the event, later named the Ice Bridge Tragedy.
Bridge crossings
A number of bridges have spanned the Niagara River in the general vicinity of the falls. The first, not far from the whirlpool, was a suspension bridge above the gorge. It opened for use by the public in July 1848 and remained in use until 1855. A second bridge in the Upper Falls area was commissioned, with two levels or decks, one for use by the Great Western Railway. This Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge opened in 1855. It was used by conductors on the Underground Railroad to escort runaway slaves to Canada. In 1882, the Grand Trunk Railway took over control of the second deck after it absorbed the Great Western company. Significant structural improvements were made in the late 1870s and then in 1886; this bridge remained in use until 1897.
Because of the volume of traffic, the decision was made to construct a new arch bridge nearby, under and around the existing bridge. After it opened in September 1897, a decision was made to remove and scrap the railway suspension bridge. This new bridge was initially known as the Niagara Railway Arch, or Lower Steel Arch Bridge; it had two decks, the lower one used for carriages and the upper for trains. In 1937, it was renamed the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge and remains in use today. All of the structures built up to that time were referred to as Lower Niagara bridges and were some distance from the falls.
The first bridge in the so-called Upper Niagara area (closer to the falls) was a two-level suspension structure that opened in January 1869; it was destroyed during a severe storm in January 1889. The replacement was built quickly and opened in May 1889. In order to handle heavy traffic, a second bridge was commissioned, slightly closer to American Falls. This one was a steel bridge and opened to traffic in June 1897; it was known as the Upper Steel Arch Bridge but was often called the Honeymoon Bridge. The single level included a track for trolleys and space for carriages and pedestrians. The design led to the bridge being very close to the surface of the river and in January 1938, an ice jam twisted the steel frame of the bridge which later collapsed on January 27, 1938.
Another Lower Niagara bridge had been commissioned in 1883 by Cornelius Vanderbilt for use by railways at a location roughly approximately 200 feet south of the Railway Suspension Bridge. This one was of an entirely different design; it was a cantilever bridge to provide greater strength. The Niagara Cantilever Bridge had two cantilevers which were joined by steel sections; it opened officially in December 1883, and improvements were made over the years for a stronger structure. As rail traffic was increasing, the Michigan Central Railroad company decided to build a new bridge in 1923, to be located between the Lower Steel Arch Bridge and the Cantilever Bridge. The Michigan Central Railway Bridge opened in February 1925 and remained in use until the early 21st century. The Cantilever Bridge was removed and scrapped after the new rail bridge opened. Nonetheless, it was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame in 2006.
There was a lengthy dispute as to which agency should build the replacement for the Niagara Railway Arch, or Lower Steel Arch Bridge in the Upper Niagara area. When that was resolved, construction of a steel bridge commenced in February 1940. Named the Rainbow Bridge, and featuring two lanes for traffic separated by a barrier, it opened in November 1941 and remains in use today.
Industry and commerce
The enormous energy of Niagara Falls has long been recognized as a potential source of power. The first known effort to harness the waters was in 1750, when Daniel Joncaire built a small canal above the falls to power his sawmill. Augustus and Peter Porter purchased this area and all of American Falls in 1805 from the New York state government, and enlarged the original canal to provide hydraulic power for their gristmill and tannery. In 1853, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Mining Company was chartered, which eventually constructed the canals that would be used to generate electricity. In 1881, under the leadership of Jacob F. Schoellkopf, the Niagara River's first hydroelectric generating station was built. The water fell 86 feet (26 m) and generated direct current electricity, which ran the machinery of local mills and lit up some of the village streets.
The Niagara Falls Power Company, a descendant of Schoellkopf's firm, formed the Cataract Company headed by Edward Dean Adams, with the intent of expanding Niagara Falls' power capacity. In 1890, a five-member International Niagara Commission headed by Sir William Thomson among other distinguished scientists deliberated on the expansion of Niagara hydroelectric capacity based on seventeen proposals but could not select any as the best combined project for hydraulic development and distribution. In 1893, Westinghouse Electric (which had built the smaller-scale Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant near Ophir, Colorado, two years earlier) was hired to design a system to generate alternating current on Niagara Falls, and three years after that a large-scale AC power system was created (activated on August 26, 1895). The Adams Power Plant Transformer House remains as a landmark of the original system.
By 1896, financing from moguls including J. P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor IV, and the Vanderbilts had fueled the construction of giant underground conduits leading to turbines generating upwards of 100,000 horsepower (75 MW), sent as far as Buffalo, 20 mi (32 km) away. Some of the original designs for the power transmission plants were created by the Swiss firm Faesch & Piccard, which also constructed the original 5,000 hp (3.7 MW) waterwheels. Private companies on the Canadian side also began to harness the energy of the falls. The Government of Ontario eventually brought power transmission operations under public control in 1906, distributing Niagara's energy to various parts of the Canadian province.
Other hydropower plants were being built along the Niagara River. But in 1956, disaster struck when the region's largest hydropower station was partially destroyed in a landslide. This drastically reduced power production and put tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs at stake. In 1957, Congress passed the Niagara Redevelopment Act, which granted the New York Power Authority the right to fully develop the United States' share of the Niagara River's hydroelectric potential.
In 1961, when the Niagara Falls hydroelectric project went online, it was the largest hydropower facility in the Western world. Today, Niagara is still the largest electricity producer in New York state, with a generating capacity of 2.4 GW. Up to 1,420 cubic metres (380,000 US gal) of water per second is diverted from the Niagara River through conduits under the city of Niagara Falls to the Lewiston and Robert Moses power plants. Currently between 50% and 75% of the Niagara River's flow is diverted via four huge tunnels that arise far upstream from the waterfalls. The water then passes through hydroelectric turbines that supply power to nearby areas of Canada and the United States before returning to the river well past the falls. When electrical demand is low, the Lewiston units can operate as pumps to transport water from the lower bay back up to the plant's reservoir, allowing this water to be used again during the daytime when electricity use peaks. During peak electrical demand, the same Lewiston pumps are reversed and become generators.
To preserve Niagara Falls' natural beauty, a 1950 treaty signed by the U.S. and Canada limited water usage by the power plants. The treaty allows higher summertime diversion at night when tourists are fewer and during the winter months when there are even fewer tourists. This treaty, designed to ensure an "unbroken curtain of water" flowing over the falls, states that during daylight time during the tourist season (April 1 to October 31) there must be 100,000 cubic feet per second (2,800 m3/s) of water flowing over the falls, and during the night and off-tourist season there must be 50,000 cubic feet per second (1,400 m3/s) of water flowing over the falls. This treaty is monitored by the International Niagara Board of Control, using a NOAA gauging station above the falls. During winter, the Power Authority of New York works with Ontario Power Generation to prevent ice on the Niagara River from interfering with power production or causing flooding of shoreline property. One of their joint efforts is an 8,800-foot-long (2,700 m) ice boom, which prevents the buildup of ice, yet allows water to continue flowing downstream. In addition to minimum water volume, the crest of Horseshoe falls was reduced to maintain an uninterrupted "curtain of water".
In August 2005, Ontario Power Generation, which is responsible for the Sir Adam Beck stations, started a major civil engineering project, called the Niagara Tunnel Project, to increase power production by building a new 12.7-metre (42 ft) diameter, 10.2-kilometre-long (6.3 mi) water diversion tunnel. It was officially placed into service in March 2013, helping to increase the generating complex's nameplate capacity by 150 megawatts. It did so by tapping water from farther up the Niagara River than was possible with the preexisting arrangement. The tunnel provided new hydroelectricity for approximately 160,000 homes.
Transport
Ships can bypass Niagara Falls by means of the Welland Canal, which was improved and incorporated into the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the mid-1950s. While the seaway diverted water traffic from nearby Buffalo and led to the demise of its steel and grain mills, other industries in the Niagara River valley flourished with the help of the electric power produced by the river. However, since the 1970s the region has declined economically.
The cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York, United States, are connected by two international bridges. The Rainbow Bridge, just downriver from the falls, affords the closest view of the falls and is open to non-commercial vehicle traffic and pedestrians. The Whirlpool Rapids Bridge lies one mile (1.6 km) north of the Rainbow Bridge and is the oldest bridge over the Niagara River. Nearby Niagara Falls International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International Airport were named after the waterfall, as were Niagara University, countless local businesses, and even an asteroid.
Over the falls
The first recorded publicity stunt using the Falls was the wreck of the schooner Michigan in 1827. Local hotel owners acquired a former Lake Erie freighter, loaded it with animals and effigies of people, towed it to a spot above the falls and let it plunge over the brink. Admission of fifty cents was charged.
In October 1829, Sam Patch, who called himself "the Yankee Leapster", jumped from a high tower into the gorge below the falls and survived; this began a long tradition of daredevils trying to go over the falls. Englishman Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, drowned in 1883 trying to swim the rapids downriver from the falls.
On October 24, 1901, 63-year-old Michigan school teacher Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over the falls in a barrel as a publicity stunt; she survived, bleeding, but otherwise unharmed. Soon after exiting the barrel, she said, "No one ought ever do that again." Days before Taylor's attempt, her domestic cat was sent over the falls in her barrel to test its strength. The cat survived the plunge unharmed and later posed with Taylor in photographs. Since Taylor's historic ride, over a dozen people have intentionally gone over the falls in or on a device, despite her advice. Some have survived unharmed, but others have drowned or been severely injured. Survivors face charges and stiff fines, as it is now illegal, on both sides of the border, to attempt to go over the falls. Charles Stephens, a 58-year-old barber from Bristol, England, went over the falls in a wooden barrel in July 1920 and was the first person to die in an endeavor of this type. Bobby Leach went over Horseshoe Falls in a crude steel barrel in 1911 and needed rescuing by William "Red" Hill Sr. Hill again came to the rescue of Leach following his failed attempt to swim the Niagara Gorge in 1920. In 1928, "Smiling Jean" Lussier tried an entirely different concept, going over the falls in a large rubber ball; he was successful and survived the ordeal.
Annie Edson Taylor posing with her wooden barrel (1901)
In the "Miracle at Niagara", on July 9, 1960, Roger Woodward, a seven-year-old American boy, was swept over Horseshoe Falls after the boat in which he was cruising lost power; two tourists pulled his 17-year-old sister Deanne from the river only 20 ft (6.1 m) from the lip of the Horseshoe Falls at Goat Island. Minutes later, Woodward was plucked from the roiling plunge pool beneath Horseshoe Falls after grabbing a life ring thrown to him by the crew of the Maid of the Mist boat. The children's uncle, Jim Honeycutt, who had been steering the boat, was swept over the edge to his death.
On July 2, 1984, Canadian Karel Soucek from Hamilton, Ontario, plunged over Horseshoe Falls in a barrel with only minor injuries. Soucek was fined $500 for performing the stunt without a license. In 1985, he was fatally injured while attempting to re-create the Niagara drop at the Houston Astrodome. His aim was to climb into a barrel hoisted to the rafters of the Astrodome and to drop 180 ft (55 m) into a water tank on the floor. After his barrel released prematurely, it hit the side of the tank, and he died the next day from his injuries.
In August 1985, Steve Trotter, an aspiring stuntman from Rhode Island, became the youngest person ever (age 22) and the first American in 25 years to go over the falls in a barrel. Ten years later, Trotter went over the falls again, becoming the second person to go over the falls twice and survive. It was also the second "duo"; Lori Martin joined Trotter for the barrel ride over the falls. They survived the fall, but their barrel became stuck at the bottom of the falls, requiring a rescue.
On September 28, 1989, Niagara natives Peter DeBernardi and Jeffery James Petkovich became the first "team" to make it over the falls in a two-person barrel. The stunt was conceived by DeBenardi, who wanted to discourage youth from following in his path of addictive drug use. The pair emerged shortly after going over with minor injuries and were charged with performing an illegal stunt under the Niagara Parks Act.
On June 5, 1990, Jesse Sharp, a whitewater canoeist from Tennessee paddled over the falls in a closed deck canoe. He chose not to wear a helmet to make his face more visible for photographs of the event. He also did not wear a life vest because he believed it would hinder his escape from the hydraulics at the base of the falls. His boat flushed out of the falls, but his body was never found. On September 27, 1993, John "David" Munday, of Caistor Centre, Ontario, completed his second journey over the falls. On October 1, 1995, Robert Douglas "Firecracker" Overacker went over the falls on a Jet Ski to raise awareness for the homeless. His rocket-propelled parachute failed to open and he plunged to his death. Overacker's body was recovered before he was pronounced dead at Niagara General Hospital.
Kirk Jones of Canton, Michigan, became the first known person to survive a plunge over Horseshoe Falls without a flotation device on October 20, 2003. According to some reports, Jones had attempted to commit suicide, but he survived the fall with only battered ribs, scrapes, and bruises. Jones tried going over the falls again in 2017, using a large inflatable ball, but died in the process. Later reports revealed that Jones had arranged for a friend to shoot video clips of his stunt.
On March 11, 2009, a man survived an unprotected trip over Horseshoe Falls. When rescued from the river he suffered from severe hypothermia and a large wound to his head. His identity was never released. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the man intentionally enter the water. On May 21, 2012, an unidentified man became the fourth person to survive an unprotected trip over Horseshoe Falls. Eyewitness reports show he "deliberately jumped" into the Niagara River after climbing over a railing. On July 8, 2019, at roughly 4 am, officers responded to a report of a person in crisis at the brink of the Canadian side of the falls. Once officers got to the scene, the man climbed the retaining wall, jumped into the river and went over Horseshoe Falls. Authorities subsequently began to search the lower Niagara River basin, where the man was found alive but injured sitting on the rocks at the water's edge.
Tightrope walkers
Tightrope walkers drew huge crowds to witness their exploits. Their wires ran across the gorge, near the current Rainbow Bridge, not over the waterfall. Jean François "Blondin" Gravelet was the first to cross Niagara Gorge on June 30, 1859, and did so again eight times that year. His most difficult crossing occurred on August 14, when he carried his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back.[114] His final crossing, on September 8, 1860, was witnessed by the Prince of Wales. Author Ginger Strand argues that these performances may have had symbolic meanings at the time relating to slavery and abolition.
Between 1859 and 1896 a wire-walking craze emerged, resulting in frequent feats over the river below the falls. One inexperienced walker slid down his safety rope. Only one man fell to his death, at night and under mysterious circumstances, at the anchoring place for his wire.
Maria Spelterini, a 23-year-old Italian was the first and only woman to cross the Niagara River gorge; she did so on a tightrope on July 8, 1876. She repeated the stunt several times during the same month. During one crossing she was blindfolded and during another, her ankles and wrists were handcuffed.
Among the many competitors was Ontario's William Hunt, who billed himself as "The Great Farini"; his first crossing was in 1860. Farini competed with Blondin in performing outrageous stunts over the gorge. On August 8, 1864, however, an attempt failed and he needed to be rescued.
On June 15, 2012, high wire artist Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk across the falls area in 116 years, after receiving special permission from both governments. The full length of his tightrope was 1,800 feet (550 m). Wallenda crossed near the brink of Horseshoe Falls, unlike walkers who had crossed farther downstream. According to Wallenda, it was the longest unsupported tightrope walk in history. He carried his passport on the trip and was required to present it upon arrival on the Canadian side of the falls.
Tourism
A ring-billed gull flies by a rainbow over the Horseshoe Falls
Peak visitor traffic occurs in the summertime, when Niagara Falls is both a daytime and evening attraction. From the Canadian side, floodlights illuminate both sides of the falls for several hours after dark (until midnight). The number of visitors in 2007 was expected to total 20 million, and by 2009 the annual rate was expected to top 28 million tourists.
The oldest and best known tourist attraction at Niagara Falls is the Maid of the Mist boat cruise, named for an alleged ancient Ongiara Indian mythical character, which has carried passengers into the rapids immediately below the falls since 1846. Cruise boats operate from boat docks on both sides of the falls, with the Maid of the Mist operating from the American side and Hornblower Cruises (originally Maid of the Mist until 2014) from the Canadian side. In 1996, Native American groups threatened to boycott the boat companies if they would not stop playing what they said was a fake story on their boats. The Maid of the Mist dropped the audio.
From the U.S. side, American Falls can be viewed from walkways along Prospect Point Park, which also features the Prospect Point Observation Tower and a boat dock for the Maid of the Mist. Goat Island offers more views of the falls and is accessible by foot and automobile traffic by bridge above American Falls. From Goat Island, the Cave of the Winds is accessible by elevator and leads hikers to a point beneath Bridal Veil Falls. Also on Goat Island are the Three Sisters Islands, the Power Portal where a statue of Nikola Tesla (the inventor whose patents for the AC induction motor and other devices for AC power transmission helped make the harnessing of the falls possible) can be seen, and a walking path that enables views of the rapids, the Niagara River, the gorge, and all of the falls. Most of these attractions lie within the Niagara Falls State Park.
The Niagara Scenic Trolley offers guided trips along American Falls and around Goat Island. Panoramic and aerial views of the falls can also be viewed by helicopter. The Niagara Gorge Discovery Center showcases the natural and local history of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Gorge. A casino and luxury hotel was opened in Niagara Falls, New York, by the Seneca Indian tribe. The Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel occupies the former Niagara Falls Convention Center. The new hotel is the first addition to the city's skyline since completion of the United Office Building in the 1920s.
On the Canadian side, Queen Victoria Park features manicured gardens, platforms offering views of American, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe Falls, and underground walkways leading into observation rooms that yield the illusion of being within the falling waters. Along the Niagara River, the Niagara River Recreational Trail runs 35 mi (56 km) from Fort Erie to Fort George, and includes many historical sites from the War of 1812.
The observation deck of the nearby Skylon Tower offers the highest view of the falls, and in the opposite direction gives views as far as Toronto. Along with the Tower Hotel (built as the Seagrams Tower, later renamed the Heritage Tower, the Royal Inn Tower, the Royal Center Tower, the Panasonic Tower, the Minolta Tower, and most recently the Konica Minolta Tower before receiving its current name in 2010), it is one of two towers in Canada with a view of the falls. The Whirlpool Aero Car, built in 1916 from a design by Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo, is a cable car that takes passengers over the Niagara Whirlpool on the Canadian side. The Journey Behind the Falls consists of an observation platform and series of tunnels near the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. There are two casinos on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara.
Touring by helicopter over the falls, from both the US and the Canadian side, was described by The New York Times as still popular a year after a serious crash. Although The New York Times had long before described attempting to tour the falls as "bent on suicide" and despite a number of fatal crashes, the "as many as 100 eight-minute rides each day" are hard to regulate; two countries and various government agencies would have to coordinate. These flights have been available "since the early 1960s."
This Fox is seen at the Norfolk Tank Museum's Armourfest 2022.
The FV721 Fox Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Wheeled) (CVR(W)) was a 4 x 4 armoured car manufactured by Royal Ordinance Factory Leeds, deployed by the British Army as a replacement for the Ferret scout car and the Saladin armoured car. The Fox was introduced into service with 'B' Squadron, 1st. Royal Tank Regiment at Aliwal Barracks, Tidworth in 1975 and withdrawn from service IN 1993/4.
The Fox has a crew of three. The driver sat at the front and had an integral periscope/hatch cover that lifted and opened to the right. The centre mounted turret held the commander-loader on the left and gunner on the right. They each had a rear-opening hatch cover.
The low profile rotating turret is armed with a 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon, which was manually fed with three-round clips, 99 rounds were carried. A coaxial L37A2 7.62 mm machine gun was mounted with 2,600 rounds. The turret was also equipped with a set of two 4 barrelled smoke dischargers. The all-welded aluminium armour hull and turret protected against small arms fire and artillery splinters but not from .50 calibre heavy machine gun fire. It lacked protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Powered by a Jaguar 4.2-litre, 6 cylinder petrol engine, the Fox was one of the fastest vehicles of its type.
The Fox was fitted with a flotation screen that could be erected in two minutes. Drive when floating was solely from the road wheels, giving poor performance and the screens were removed from most UK vehicles early in their service life. Without preparation, the Fox can ford 39 in. (1m) of water.
The vehicle had a combat weight of 6.64 tons and was designed to be air-portable. Three Foxes can be carried by one Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, two of which can be parachute dropped.
The Fox was principally used by the Royal Yeomanry and the Queen's Own Yeomanry, the brigade reconnaissance regiments in 2 Division, BAOR's rear area formation. Small numbers were also attached to air mobile, armoured and mechanized infantry battalions to form a reconnaissance platoon.
Type: Armoured car
Builder: Royal Ordinance Factory Leeds
Number built: 325
UK use:180
Exported: 145
Crew: 3, commander/loader, gunner, driver
Length: 16 ft. 8 in. (5.08 m)
Width: 7 ft . (2.13 m)
Height: 7 ft. 3 in. (2.2 m)
Weight: 6.64 ton (14873 lb. - 6746.5 kg)
Engine: 1 x Jaguar J.60 No. 1 Mk. 100B, petrol
Engine output: 190 hp (142 kW)
Max speed: 64.5 mph (104 km/h)
Operational range: 270 miles (434 km)
Main armament: 1 x 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon
Rounds: 99
Secondary armament: 1 x Co-axial 7.62 mm L37A2 machine gun
Rounds: 2,6
Armor: Aluminium
Drassanes Reials - Barcelona (Spain).
ENGLISH
Ictineu I, designed and made by Narcís Monturiol in 1859, had dimensions of 7m x 2.5m x 3.5m (l x b x d) and its intended use was to ease the harvest of coral. The internal water-tight hull was of cïrcular cross-section to resist hydrostatic pressure and had 7 m³ volume, while the outer hull was streamlined (fish-shaped), roughly an ellipsoid of circular section. There is a very remote possibility that it was inspired by the prototype Brandtaucher of Wilhelm Bauer that had already sailed in 1851; Brandtaucher is now in the German Military History Museum in Dresden. The revolutionary idea of the inner pressure-resistant hull and outer hydrodynamic one was brought forth for the first time ever. Between the two hulls there were water ballast tanks, a tank that supplied oxygen for breathing and illumination and an hydrogen tank that supplied an oxyhydric lamp for illuminating the water depths. The Ictineu I employed a flat blade propeller powered by a crew of four men.
Immersion was achieved by means of a horizontal helix that could turn in both senses and water and air pumps for the purposes of ensuring stability and flotation. The prow was equipped with a set of tools suited to the harvest of coral since this was the original purpose of the submersible.
The partial success of this dive brought popular enthusiasm but no support from the government. As a result, Monturiol wrote a letter to the nation and encouraged a popular subscription which raised 300,000 pesetas from citizens of mainland Spain and Cuba.
With the money obtained, the company La Navegación Submarina was formed with the objective of developing the Ictineu II.
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (28 September 1819 – 6 September 1885) was the inventor of the first combustion engine driven submarine and anaerobic engine.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narc%c3%ads_Monturiol_i_Estarriol
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CASTELLANO
El Ictíneo I, diseñado y construído en 1859 por Narcís Monturiol, media siete metros de largo, 2,5 de ancho y 3,5 de fondo y estaba pensado para facilitar la pesca del coral. El casco interior era esférico y tenía una capacidad de 7 metros cúbicos; el casco exterior tenía forma de pez con una sección elíptica inspirada en el prototipo de Wilhelm Bauer que navegó en 1851. Entre el casco interior y el exterior había unos tanques de flotación, un tanque que suministraba oxígeno para la respiración y la iluminación y un tanque de hidrógeno que alimentaba una lámpara para iluminar las profundidades marinas. El Ictíneo I se propulsaba con un propulsor de aleta accionado por una tripulación de dos hombres.
La inmersión se conseguía mediante una hélice horizontal que podía dar vueltas en ambos sentidos y bombas de densidad y aire con la finalidad de asegurar la estabilidad y la flotación. El Ictíneo I estaba equipado con una serie de herramientas específicas para la pesca del coral.
El fracaso inicial, al no poder sustraerse a las fuerzas de las corrientes marinas, lo que hacía imposible la navegación en inmersión del buque, no desalentaron al esforzado proyectista. Monturiol escribió una carta a la nación, animando a una suscripción popular que llegó a reunir 300.000 pesetas aportadas por ciudadanos anónimos tanto de España como de Cuba.
Con este capital se constituyó la empresa La Navegación Submarina con el objetivo de desarrollar el Ictíneo II.
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol (Figueras, Gerona, España, 28 de septiembre de 1819 — San Martín de Provensals, Barcelona, España, 6 de septiembre de 1885) intentó, sin éxito, resolver el problema de la navegación submarina. Construyendo el Ictíneo I, propulsado por la acción de dos personas, no alcanzaba la potencia necesaria para contrarrestar las corrientes marinas (no superaba los dos nudos). A pesar del fracaso, Monturiol no se desalentó y construyó una segunda versión; el Ictíneo II, para el que originalmente amplió la fuerza motriz añadiendo seis personas más. Pero los resultados fueron incluso peores. En un último intento, trató de incorporar una caldera de vapor, para reemplazar a la fuerza humana. Pero en las pruebas realizadas en el dique se observó que las temperaturas alcanzadas en el interior del buque (mayores de 50 grados centígrados), hacían imposible la habitabilidad de la tripulación. Dando por fracasadas definitivamente las experiencias, los acreedores de la sociedad propietaria de la empresa, procedieron al embargo de todas las propiedades, incluido el prototipo Ictíneo II, que fue vendido como chatarra. Sin embargo, sí logró algo. Solventó el problema de crear oxígeno dentro de un compartimento submarino, un proyecto que fue rescatado por los nazis en la II Guerra Mundial y totalmente perfeccionado por el USS Nautilus, el primer submarino nuclear.
Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narciso_Monturiol
A few years ago, a friend and I were somehow inspired to take a large dog with us in a canoe. You can imagine what happened. The dog on the water noticed some dogs on a dock and lunged for them, against the side of the boat. We capsized.
Another dumb decision I had made was to wear all denim that day. Denim shirt, denim jeans. Boy, were my clothes heavy! But, the life jacket prevented me from removing any clothing.
The dog had entered the water near me. For a moment, he tried to use me as a flotation device. I pushed him away.
My life jacket prevented me from swimming, using the front crawl. I had to lie on my back and kick instead. By the time I reached shore, I was nauseous and exhausted -- my denim clothes seemed to be dragging half of the lake with me. But, I was alive.
I still think about the compromises involved in wearing a life jacket. Would it have been better to swim normally? I guess the bottom line is that I'm still here to think about it.
As for the dog, he reached the dock long before I reached the shore. And, he made some new friends.
The Block 10 mine, one of the original BHP leases, was floated as the BHP Block 10 Co. Ltd in 1888. A concentration mill was erected at the mine in the 1890s to treat sulphide ore. Underground subsidence seriously affected the mill and, as a result, a new mill was erected on this hill in 1903, about 600 metres from the mine.
An aerial ropeway, the first at Broken Hill, was completed in 1904. This transported broken ore from the mine to a large storage bin above the mill. The mill cost £50 000 and could treat 3500 tons of ore per week.
The mine produced 2.5 million tons of ore and paid £1.5 million in dividends up to 1923 when it and the mill closed and were purchased by BHP. The mine was reworked by Broken Hill South Ltd between 1946 and 1960. Much of the mine site is now covered by overburden dumps from modern open-cut operations.
The concrete foundations on site are the remnants of the Block 10 concentration mill erected in 1903. The mill, designed by Captain John Warren and containing many of his inventions, was the first all electric mill in Broken Hill.
The aerial ropeway delivered broken ore from the mine to a storage bin above the mill. Broken ore was fed to crushing rolls and then passed to cylindrical trommels and hydraulic classifiers for sizing. Subsequent treatment consisted of wet concentration by jigs, Wilfley tables and vanners. These relied on specific gravity to separate the heavier lead and silver minerals from the zinc minerals. The resultant concentrate contained about two-thirds of the lead and one-half of the silver in the original ore, but very little zinc.
Flotation units were added to the mill in 1910 to produce a zinc concentrate from the tailings. Combined gravity-flotation concentration mills were standard at Broken Hill until after 1930 when the first all-flotation plants were installed.
Source: City Of Broken Hill.
Close shot of the rig and gear after landing. The open parachute is bunched, with the lines in a daisy chain over my shoulder. Also in view is the altimeter (wrist), one-way radio (chest pouch), and flotation device (waist).
Man, that was fun!
Aerospatiale SA 342L Gazelle 241 photographed displaying at Casement Aerodrome, on the occasion of the Irish Air Corps 60th Anniversary Commemorations. The aircraft has flotation bags fitted to the landing skid supports, also smoke cannisters mounted on a bar fitted between the landing skids.
Photographed: Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Co. Dublin, Ireland. 4th September 1982.
This sketch further evolves the flotation core design. It has become thicker, stronger and simpler.
Drawn as a section or cut through the sub at the centre of buoyance looking down, it shows the horizontal thrusters used to move across the seafloor clustered at the rear and LED light arrays curving across the leading edge of the vehicle.
Lent by James Cameron.
(1915 - 2001) my tongue-in-cheek sketchbook tribute to one of the most interesting scientists of the 20th Century. He developed the concept of sensory deprivation in a floatation tank to explore the inner workings of his mind. Based on that research, he coupled the floatation tank with psychedelic drugs and took things to a whole other level. Dr. Lilly is perhaps best known for his interspecies communication studies with dolphins.
ift.tt/2fyZ3PK #Tin can used as a flotation device in a 1930s swimming class at the Domain Baths in Sydney, Australia [1400 x 1071] #history #retro #vintage #dh #HistoryPorn ift.tt/2fNtGzG via Histolines
A Marine with 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, uses the blouse-flotation technique at the 53 area training pool aboard Camp Pendleton, Calif., Jan. 9. The Marines completed their basic swim qualification to build confidence and increase survivability in the water.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo Cpl. Kenneth Jaskik)
For more about the swim qualification, visit:
www.dvidshub.net/news/100210/marines-splash-success-swim-...
More than 80 New York Army National Guard Soldiers from C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry conduct their first Zodiac boat training after a long period of preparation on Indian Lake Aug. 10-11, 2014. The New York Naval Militia was also on hand to oversee the training and provide flotation devices and a rescue boat. The realistic training provided a morale boost as well as giving the unit a broader mission capability not only from a military aspect but also a support for humanitarian aid. (Photo by SFC Steven Petibone)