An early forerunner of the encyclopedia, De Proprietatibus Rerum dates from the 13th century and is often described as a bestiary although its focus encompasses theology and astrology as well as the natural sciences (as understood in 1240).

Source: www.dantestella.com/technical/retina.html

The Retina IIc can be best thought of as the forerunner to the famouns Retina IIIc - just without the meter and projected framelines. Although the viewfinder/rangefinder stayed the same as the IIa, a lot of other things changed:

Configuration: the biggest change with the IIc is that it went to a bottom-lever wind. This turns out to be a lot easier to use if you are left-eyed. It also allows for a much more reliable top-mounted frame counter and a less-fragile shutter-cocking mechanism. The rewind remained by knob. All camera surfaces are rounded ("streamlined,") and the front door is not latched on the bottom, but rather on the edge that opens. The top and bottom, as well as the sides, are rounded, leading to a more pleasing feel in the hand. One at least cosmetically significant difference is the use of an aluminum lens board that wraps back where you would have seen bellows on the IIa. This is largely superficial, since there are real bellows inside it.

Lens: Big change here. The IIc has a 50/2.8 Schneider Retina-Xenon or Rodenstock Heligon (which I believe to be the same as the 50/2.0 lenses, but with an aperture limiters in them). I have not observed the Schneider Xenon to be as sparkling as the 50/2.0, but this may be due to the interchangeability issue, which I believe adds new tolerances to the mix.

The front elements of these 50mm lenses are held into the shutter with a three-prong bayonet. When you bayonet out the front of the 50, you can interchange it with front parts for a 35/5.6 or an 80/4 (Scheider or Rodenstock, depending on what your camera originally came with). These lenses are huge, and none too easy to use. You focus with the rangefinder, and then you convert the distance. There is a squinty 35/80 Retina accessory finder to match. While these are of interest to collectors, they are hard to find in an un-separated state and not really worth the money or trouble for use (although they are neat).

The problem that interchangeability injects is that you may end up with a IIc (or IIIc for that matter) with the front of one 50mm lens and the rear of another. This is not a huge problem, but you will need to have the lens recollimated. The way you can check for danger is to match the lens serial number on the front lens element to the one on the shutter to the one on the back ring inside. Some people make it out to be the end of the world if all three don't match. It's not. Retina guru George Mrus (RIP) was very good at recollimating these lenses. I would recommend skipping a camera where these rings do not match, unless you can test it. Of course if the front and rear rings of the lens match each other, but not the shutter, it is really only a sign that the shutter was replaced at some point. A good repairman would have recollimated it.

Shutter assembly: The shutter is a Compur Synchro-MX #00 EVS, functionally identical to the one on the IIa, but with both settings visible on the top. One big difference is that it has the LVS system, which locks shutter and aperture together (both rings turn together). LVS is pretty useful for fill flash (see article) but is not that much fun for ambient light photos. The LVS disengages via a little lever on the bottom. Of all the Retina shutters, this seems to be the least problematic and the most jewel-like in its finish.

Accessories: The IIc and IIIc shared a neat line of accessories. The ne plus ultra was a brown bakelite box with 3 low-profile filters, the 50mm bayonet-on hood (rectangular) and the snap-on parts for 35 and 80mm hoods. The bayonet hoods are a boon, and a lot easier to deal with than the hard rubber screw-ins. Filter size remailed 30.5mm, so there is some backward and forward compatibility.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

Source: www.dantestella.com/technical/retina.html

The Retina IIc can be best thought of as the forerunner to the famouns Retina IIIc - just without the meter and projected framelines. Although the viewfinder/rangefinder stayed the same as the IIa, a lot of other things changed:

Configuration: the biggest change with the IIc is that it went to a bottom-lever wind. This turns out to be a lot easier to use if you are left-eyed. It also allows for a much more reliable top-mounted frame counter and a less-fragile shutter-cocking mechanism. The rewind remained by knob. All camera surfaces are rounded ("streamlined,") and the front door is not latched on the bottom, but rather on the edge that opens. The top and bottom, as well as the sides, are rounded, leading to a more pleasing feel in the hand. One at least cosmetically significant difference is the use of an aluminum lens board that wraps back where you would have seen bellows on the IIa. This is largely superficial, since there are real bellows inside it.

Lens: Big change here. The IIc has a 50/2.8 Schneider Retina-Xenon or Rodenstock Heligon (which I believe to be the same as the 50/2.0 lenses, but with an aperture limiters in them). I have not observed the Schneider Xenon to be as sparkling as the 50/2.0, but this may be due to the interchangeability issue, which I believe adds new tolerances to the mix.

The front elements of these 50mm lenses are held into the shutter with a three-prong bayonet. When you bayonet out the front of the 50, you can interchange it with front parts for a 35/5.6 or an 80/4 (Scheider or Rodenstock, depending on what your camera originally came with). These lenses are huge, and none too easy to use. You focus with the rangefinder, and then you convert the distance. There is a squinty 35/80 Retina accessory finder to match. While these are of interest to collectors, they are hard to find in an un-separated state and not really worth the money or trouble for use (although they are neat).

The problem that interchangeability injects is that you may end up with a IIc (or IIIc for that matter) with the front of one 50mm lens and the rear of another. This is not a huge problem, but you will need to have the lens recollimated. The way you can check for danger is to match the lens serial number on the front lens element to the one on the shutter to the one on the back ring inside. Some people make it out to be the end of the world if all three don't match. It's not. Retina guru George Mrus (RIP) was very good at recollimating these lenses. I would recommend skipping a camera where these rings do not match, unless you can test it. Of course if the front and rear rings of the lens match each other, but not the shutter, it is really only a sign that the shutter was replaced at some point. A good repairman would have recollimated it.

Shutter assembly: The shutter is a Compur Synchro-MX #00 EVS, functionally identical to the one on the IIa, but with both settings visible on the top. One big difference is that it has the LVS system, which locks shutter and aperture together (both rings turn together). LVS is pretty useful for fill flash (see article) but is not that much fun for ambient light photos. The LVS disengages via a little lever on the bottom. Of all the Retina shutters, this seems to be the least problematic and the most jewel-like in its finish.

Accessories: The IIc and IIIc shared a neat line of accessories. The ne plus ultra was a brown bakelite box with 3 low-profile filters, the 50mm bayonet-on hood (rectangular) and the snap-on parts for 35 and 80mm hoods. The bayonet hoods are a boon, and a lot easier to deal with than the hard rubber screw-ins. Filter size remailed 30.5mm, so there is some backward and forward compatibility.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Temco Model 63 "Buckskin" trainer was designed by Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO) as a private venture to replace the US Navy's piston-engine, land-based Beech Model B45 'Mentor' primary trainers in the mid 1960ies, but with better performance and more likeliness to modern jet fighters.

The Model 63’s forerunner, the Temco Model 51, had been initially proposed to the US Air Force in response to an Air Force competition for a jet-powered primary trainer, which was eventually won by the Cessna T-37 Tweet. A small number of the Model 51 were built and put into service, powered by a Continental Motors J69-T-9 (a license-built Turbomeca Marboré) jet engine and officially designated TT-1 ‘Pinto, but only saw a limited career.

The US Navy liked the turboprop engine, though, but wanted a less complex aircraft. This eventually materialized in the early Seventies with the T-34C Turbo-Mentor. After a production hiatus of almost 15 years, the Beech Model 45 returned, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25 turboprop engine. Mentor production restarted in 1975 for deliveries of T-34Cs to the USN and of the T-34C-1 armed version for export customers in 1977, this version featuring four underwing hardpoints. Since the late 1970s, T-34Cs have been used by the Naval Air Training Command to train numerous Naval Aviators and Naval Flight Officers for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, and numerous NATO and Allied nations - and the small T2T fleet was phased out by 1979.

General characteristics:

Crew: two

Length: 32 ft 7 in (9.93 m)

Wingspan (incl. tip tanks): 29 ft 10 in (9.09 m)

Height: 8 ft 1 1/2 in (2.48 m)

Wing area: 150 sq ft (13.9 m2)

Empty weight: 2,848 lb (1,292 kg)

Loaded weight: 5,400 lb (2,448 kg)

Powerplant:

2× Turbomeca Bastan IV turboprop engines, rated at 650 shp (485 kW) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 345 mph (300 knots, 556 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

Never exceed speed: 518 mph (450 knots, 834 km/h)

Cruise speed: 247 mph (215 knots, 398 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m)

Stall speed: 69 mph (60 knots, 111 km/hr)

Endurance: 2.5 hr

Service ceiling: 30,000 ft (9,145 m)

Rate of climb: 1,900 ft/min (9.7 m/s)

Armament:

2x underwing hardpoints for a total load of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg)

2x optional wing tip tanks

The kit and its assembly:

The final entry for the 2016 "In the Navy" Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and a close call since I started work on this conversion only 5 days before the GB's deadline!

The original inspiration was the photoshopped picture of a private TT-1 in all-blue USN markings, created by artist "Stéphane Beaumort" in 2010 (check this illustration originally posted at AviaDesign: aviadesign.online.fr/images/temco-buckskin2.jpg).

A slightly bizarre aircraft with the tandem propellers and the twin tail booms, and IMHO with some fishy details in the CG rendition, e.g. including the idea of driving both propellers with a single engine through shafts and gearboxes. But the concept looked overall feasible and Special Hobby offers a very nice TT-1 Pinto kit, which I was able to procure from Poland an short notice. As a bonus, this kit comes with markings for this specific, blue aircraft (“13/S”), actually a re-constructed, privately owned machine.

The Special Hobby kit became the basis for my personal interpretation of the T2T, and it underwent some conversions, being outfitted with a variety of donation parts:

- The front engine once was a cut-away Merlin from a Hobby Boss Hawker Hurricane

- The tail booms and fins come from a Revell Focke Wulf Flitzer

- The stabilizer was created from two Hobby Boss He 162 tail elements

- Propellers come from a vintage, box scale Revell Convair Tradewind

- In order to attach them, styrene tubes were implanted and the props mounted on metal axis’

- The front wheel also belongs to a Hobby Boss He 162, longer than the OOB parts

- The main wheels are bigger, from a Matchbox Folland Gnat

Work started with the central fuselage, the added front engine and conversions for the rear pusher engine. Once the wings were in place and the propeller diameter clear, attachment points for the tail booms were scratched from styrene tube and added to the wings' upper sides (leaving the lower surface free, so that the OOB landing gear could be used). Then the tail booms and the tailored stabilizer were mounted, as well as the wing tip tanks.

The landing gear came next; the main struts and covers were used, but slightly bigger wheels chosen from the scrap box. For the front wheel well, a "hole" had to be dug out of the massive new nose section (consisting of 2C putty and lead beads) - the OOB covers were used, though, and a longer and more massive front wheel was mounted.

Sounds simple and conclusive, but things evolved gradually and the job involved a lot of body work - under dire time pressure. The fact that the kit fell from my workbench after day #2 and hit the floor in a nasty angle, so that the tails suffered severely and needed repair, did not help either...

Another issue became the canopy. I am not certain where the problem lies, but the canopy turned out to be 2mm too short for the fuselage? Could be the result of the massive rhinoplasty with the added front engine, but I am also a bit worried about the position of the cockpit tubs – when I mounted them, the appeared to be in the correct position, but once the fuselage was closed both seat positions appear to be too far to the back – even though the dashboards seem to be correct?

Painting and markings:

I used the CG drawing as benchmark, also because the Special Hobby kit came with the right decal set for an all-blue USN livery, which historically was about to be changed in the late Fifties to brighter schemes.

The interior surfaces, both cockpit and the landing gear, were painted in a very light gray (FS 36495, Humbrol 147), just as on the real world TT-1. All outside surfaces became Sea Blue FS 35042 (ModelMaster). Very simple, and some panel shading with was done for a more dramatic look on the otherwise uniform airframe.

The silver leading edges on wings and stabilizer, as well as the yellow canopy framing, were created from decal strips. The propeller spinners became, as a small highlight, bright red, and some of the OOB sheet’s red trim for “13/S” were used, too. No more weathering was done, and, finally, everything sealed under a coat of gloss acrylic varnish, except for the propeller blades and the black anti-glare panel, which became matt.

An odd creation, and taking into account the four and a half days time frame from sprues to beauty pics (including background research and text), as well as the body work involved in the building process with the new front engine and the tail booms, I am quite happy with the result. Could have been better, sure, but it was finished in time, just as planned/hoped for. ;)

Anyway, the T2T looks interesting; my build slightly differs from the benchmark CG renditions, but remains true to Stéphane Beaumort’s basic idea. Cheers!

“The only motive that a sane man can have for entering Civic public life is a desire to render a real service, and that means constant work and great anxiety.” So said Frederick J. Conboy to city council in January of 1945, at the conclusion of four consecutive one-year terms as mayor of Toronto. Conboy’s time in office marked the apex of a long public-service career with roots in public-health dentistry.

Conboy graduated from the Royal College of Dental Surgeons‘ School of Dentistry (the forerunner of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry) in 1904, and soon established a practice at the northeast corner of Bloor and Westmoreland. Conboy’s instructors included several established dentists who advocated for increased awareness of dental health and public-health education. Paediatric dental health was a particularly celebrated cause; for several decades, activists such as Dr. John G.C. Adams had been calling for the regular inspection of the teeth of local schoolchildren. In A History of Dentistry in Canada, D.W. Gullett writes that “year after year, dental organizations submitted resolutions or briefs to governments, pointing out the existing oral health of Canadian children and emphasizing the need for action.”

In 1909, Conboy won a seat as a school trustee. While also attending to other education business, one of Conboy’s earliest campaigns was for the Board of Education to recognize dentists’ certificates of illness with respect to absent teachers, arguing that a dentist’s certificate should count as much as a physician’s. It was during his time as a trustee that the school board introduced dental inspections; The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association later wrote that Conboy’s advocacy was “largely instrumental” in getting this service implemented. In addition to his dental interests, Conboy soon proved himself a skilled leader and administrator, and in January of 1912 he was elected chairman of the Board of Education, reportedly the youngest person to date to hold this position.

20150425Tely1925Jan29

Following his time as a school trustee, Conboy lectured at the School of Dentistry, and was soon an active member with many professional organizations and committees. During the First World War, he began contributing to the journal Oral Health, in part by editing “Pro Bono Publico,” a regular column that proclaimed to feature “dental information in a form suitable for publication in the public press.” Many of his contributions to Oral Health focussed on paediatric dentistry, and the role he believed that government had in ensuring universal access to dental care.

(Right: Frederick Conboy has been named Drector of Dental Services. The Evening Telegram, January 29, 1925.)

In 1923, Conboy served a term as president of the Ontario Dental Association, after which he assumed the role of the organization’s secretary-treasurer. Among other contributions to the ODA, he initiated and edited a monthly publication called The Booster, which later changed its name to The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association, and, subsequently, Ontario Dentist.

While serving as the Ontario Dental Association’s president, Conboy invited Dr. Forbes Godfrey, newly installed as Ontario’s first-ever Minister of Health, to speak at the ODA’s annual convention. Godfrey spoke of the need to promote oral health and vowed to establish a dental division within his portfolio. This promise came to fruition in 1925, when Godfrey named Conboy as Ontario’s director of dental services. The purpose of this new position, as stated by the Globe, was to apply “the modern science of preventive dentistry to the needs of the public generally, and to children of school age particularly.” Over the next 10 years, Conboy used this role to advance public dental health education throughout Ontario using a variety of methods.

An editorial in the following year’s Public Health Journal identified some of Conboy’s first projects as dental director, and praised his ability to get support from outside groups: “Life insurance companies have distributed pamphlets by thousands. Various clubs and welfare organizations have taken an interest….Advertisers and the press have cooperated in a most friendly way, and last, but not least, the dentists of the province have given a full measure of cooperation.”

In 1926, Conboy established October 20 as “Dental Health Day.” In addition to free dental clinics offered in Toronto, events reported in the Star included “radio talks, addresses to service clubs, and window displays,” as well as a “public dental health concert.” The Province also prepared an educational film that was distributed to Ontario movie theatres.

Group photo of members of the Ontario Dental Association, May 20, 1930. From left to right: Dr. T.F. Campbell of Galt; Dr. A.W. Ellis of Toronto; Dr. F.L. Henry of Oshawa; and Frederick L. Conboy of Toronto. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 20334.

In 1928, Conboy introduced a dental booth at the Canadian National Exhibition, where visitors could receive free dental X-rays that were forwarded to their personal dentists back home. Following the initial success of the booth, it was expanded in subsequent years to include longer hours and free full-dental examinations. Describing the CNE booth in 1929, the Globe reported that Dr. Conboy and his staff were particular proud to discover “two sets of teeth almost perfect” in one day, the Globe adding, “Proudly the dentists pointed out the minute perfections as The Globe representative was permitted a view of the novelty.”

In an effort to encourage continuing education amongst professional dentists, Conboy helped organize a joint convention of the Ontario, Canadian, and British dental associations held in Toronto in 1932. The event—which also featured dentists from Australia and New Zealand—was held at the Royal York Hotel, and represented the first international dental convention for the entire British Empire. In addition to the requisite social activities and lectures, part of the Royal York was transformed into a tiered operating theatre where dentists could observe demonstrations of experts at work. The Evening Telegram described the setup thus:

“Dentists to right of them, dentists to left, back and front of them, dentists climbing all but inside them. This was the fate of the stalwarts who, acting as ‘mannequins’ for surgeons, submitted to operations in droves in the surgery of the Royal York….The hostelry’s $100,000 operating room was a hive of bustling excitement. Arranged in tiers up to the ceiling, was a ‘gallery’ of dentist-spectators, and down in the pit of the anaesthetic-laden chamber, man after man submitted, with smiles on their faces, to their teeth being probed and ground, pulled and twisted, hammered and jerked.”

Coverage of the 1932 joint dental convention. Conboy is in the group photo on the left, front row, far right. The Globe, August 9, 1932.

Conboy’s other activities as dental director were various. In December 1925, he announced a plan to help establish dental clinics in industrial factories, telling the Globe it was “poor policy for a manufacturer to install expensive machinery and neglect the importance of maintaining the efficiency of the machinist.” In 1933, the Star announced that Conboy planned to look at rugby in Ontario, and conduct a survey “to discover how many perfectly good teeth have been left behind by high school players, as well as the university and interprovincial league players.” His advocacy work included urging professional dentists to donate their time for the poor who could not afford their services. “Good health is the right of every boy and girl in the Province, and we must see to it that everything is done to ensure it,” he asserted in a speech reported by the Globe, the reporter adding that “smugly complacent dentists who are content to serve only those who can pay, ignoring unfortunate sufferers who are not in [the] favoured class, were censured by [Conboy].”

After serving as the Ontario dental director, Conboy turned his eye to municipal politics, and landed a seat on city council in 1935. Prior to the 1950s, Toronto held municipal elections on an annual basis; Conboy was reelected to Council the following year, after which he ran for and won a seat on Toronto’s elected executive committee, the Board of Control.

Conboy quickly proved a skilled and popular member of both city council and the board of control, gaining a reputation as a politician who got things done and worked well with his fellow officials. In addition to public-health advocacy, Conboy was noted for his support of the development of the Island airport and for his efforts in slum clearance.

Frederick Conboy at City Hall with visiting U.S. politician Wendell Willkie. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 8109.

When incumbent Ralph Day announced he would not seek reelection in 1941, Conboy declared himself a candidate for mayor, promising improved financial administration and dedication to the war effort. All three major Toronto newspapers endorsed Conboy over fellow board of control member Douglas McNish, and Conboy was duly elected with more than 62 percent of the cast vote.

The Second World War dominated municipal issues during Conboy’s time in the mayor’s office. Conboy headed a delegation that helped secure the Sunnybrook Farm property as the site for a much-needed veterans’ hospital. The war years also saw a rise in venereal disease in Toronto, prompting Conboy to request $10,000 from city council to help contain its spread. Conboy, perhaps helped by being the son of a market gardener, also dedicated himself to the war effort by growing a victory garden that the Telegram described as “the envy of neighbours for blocks around him.”

Conboy’s other actions as mayor included efforts to improve public safety, resulting in increased street lighting and changes to the existing traffic laws. Reflecting on his time in his office, newspapers also noted his capable response to the 1944 snowstorm, and his work to improve the quality of housing in the city, all while managing to lower the City’s debt.

Frederick Conboy showing City Hall to stage and screen actress Anna Neagle. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 3886.

After running unopposed for mayor in 1942 and 1943, and defeating the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation–affiliated Lewis Duncan in 1944, Conboy sought a fifth term in office, challenged by board of control member Robert Hood Saunders. Conboy and Saunders reportedly worked well together in municipal politics, and the Toronto press agreed that both were very similar candidates with good civic records. The Telegram renewed its endorsement of Conboy, but both the Star and the Globe and Mail, while praising Conboy’s work in office and admitting that Saunders and Conboy were very much alike and equally qualified for the post, opted to throw their support behind Saunders.

“The Globe and Mail believes that Dr. Conboy, after holding the office of chief magistrate for four years, might well concede the right of someone else to occupy this honourable—and exacting—post, and considers that Mr. Saunders merits the promotion,” ran one editorial. The Toronto Star went further: “Men who enter Toronto’s public life should be able to look forward to promotion if their abilities and services warrant it. If the path to promotion is blocked by the man ‘at the head of the line’ staying on and on and on and on—and still another ‘on,’ a fifth, if Conboy has his way—those who legitimately seek to move up are blocked. They shouldn’t be. The mayoralty should not be regarded as any man’s private perquisite, if equally good or better men are ready to succeed him.” Although the Telegram rejected these arguments, the public apparently agreed that a change was needed, and Saunders assumed the mayoralty in 1945.

Composite of Mayor Conboy and the Board of Control in 1944, including Robert Hood Saunders. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 41, Item 500.

Conboy remained active as a dental advocate following his electoral defeat, and soon announced plans to become an insurance broker. He re-entered the political arena in 1948, standing as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Bracondale in the provincial election. Although George Drew’s Conservatives retained their majority government, Conboy was defeated by CCF candidate Harry Walters.

In declining health for several months after he was struck by a car, Frederick Conboy was admitted to Wellesley Hospital, where he died on March 29, 1949. Toronto newspapers praised his outstanding years of public service, both to the city and to the profession of dentistry. The Toronto Star wrote that he “took a warm, practical interest in the growing generation. He worked to improve housing conditions. He concerned himself with nearly every aspect of good citizenship….This country needs more citizens of the Conboy type who will not begrudge time and effort in rendering service to the people in the realm of the municipal government.”

The dental community was similarly full of praise for all that Conboy had done over his career. The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association, a publication he had himself established, wrote that “he was proud of his profession and never lost an opportunity to extol it. He often said that Dentistry had been awfully good to him and he could never do enough in return. Through his efforts to advance the cause of Dental Public Health and the credit he brought to Dentistry through the high public offices he held, he well discharged the obligation that he felt he owed his profession.”

An early forerunner of the encyclopedia, De Proprietatibus Rerum dates from the 13th century and is often described as a bestiary although its focus encompasses theology and astrology as well as the natural sciences (as understood in 1240).

Forerunner of the postwar Gatford and Gatso sportscar. Two-seater, with luxurious red Connolly leather interior. Detachable fabric top. Bodywork custom-built to Maurice Gatsonides' requirements by Schutter & Van Bakel, Amsterdam.

Built on the first Ford Mercury chassis imported into Holland, and therefore featured the enlarged, 3.9 litre 95 b.h.p. V8 engine fitted with high-compression aluminium cylinderheads and two double barrel carburettors.

The engine was exclusive to the Mercury line, rather than the regular 3.6 litre 85 b.h.p. Ford V8.

With only the "Kwik" (the Dutch word for "mercury") legend on the body being visible here it is the typical Ford-pattern road wheels which give a clue to the car's mechanical specification.

Making its debut in the Prize of Zandvoort 1939 with number 38, a cylinderhead-gasket problem and engine damage from the resultant overheating caused Gatsonides to pull out of the race before the end.

Contested the Liège-Rome- Liège Rally in 1939 with number 28. Team : Maurice Gatsonides - Lex Beels. Finished in 14th place.

Early 1940 Kwik collided with a truck and a streetcar (tram) in the Dutch village of Lisse.

Repaired, it was sold soon afterwards, and has subsequently disappeared......

At the end of 2003 Tom Gatsonides, the son of Maurice, became the new proud owner of "Kwik".

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the most prolific writer in the history of Polish literature and the seventh most prolific in the world.[citation needed] He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.

The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Vilna between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.[1]

Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.[2]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life and studies

1.2 Adulthood and literary career

1.3 Exile, later life and death

2 Character and style

3 Adaptation

4 Works

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Biography

Early life and studies

Childhood home in Romanów

Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Pruzhany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanów in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocz, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Vilna under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Vilna and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.

Adulthood and literary career

Photograph of Kraszewski taken before 1886

In 1838 he married Zofia Woroniczówna, related to the late primate and poet J. P. Woronicz. He did this against the will of his father, who thought his son wanted to reach too high. Once married, the couple settled in Wołyń. In 1853 – already parents to four children – they moved to Żytomierz. From now on Kraszewski concentrated on his literary work, though he did not avoid other activities (he became the superintendent of a high school, the director of a theatre and the Charity Association). As a result of his dispute with conservative public opinion on his critical assessment of the gentry's attitude towards peasants, in 1859 he accepted the proposal of Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, a wealthy Polish banker of Polish-Jewish origin from Warsaw, to become the editor of the "Gazeta Warszawska" and he moved with his family to Warsaw. Owing to his editorial skills, the number of the "Gazeta" subscribers within half a year rose from 500 to 8000, but at the same time he had to stand the vicious remarks of anti-Semites. Just before the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was politically active and thus, when the military activities began, he was announced persona non grata in Warsaw by the Petersburg-submissive local authorities and was forced to emigrate, leaving his family in Warsaw. He went to Dresden, where he lived till 1884.[3]

Exile, later life and death

In Dresden he became a one-person Polish institution helping the political refugees, and organising literary life and information about Poland. With the death of many great poets of Romanticism, he became the unquestionable literary authority and the favourite of the public. In 1870 as the editor of "Tydzień" he expressed his skepticism about the dogma, approved at the First Vatican Council, that the pope is infallible as far as questions regarding the faith are concerned. That made him unpopular among the national orthodox church authorities, but he did not lose popularity among his readers. In 1879 in Kraków week-long celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his literary career were held. In 1883 he was arrested in Berlin and charged with collaboration with French military intelligence, and a year later he was sentenced by the tribunal in Leipzig to three and a half years of imprisonment in a fortress. He served the sentence in the Magdeburg Fortress. As a result of his illness he was temporarily released on bail and went to Italy to improve his health, and after the earthquake there he sought refuge in Geneva in 1886. There, already suffering from cancer, he contracted pneumonia, which was the direct cause of his death on 19 March 1887. His body was brought to Kraków and placed in the vault where the meritorious were buried in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery.[4]

Character and style

An Ancient Tale by Kraszewski, 1876

In German and Polish: "Józef Ignacy Kraszewski-in this Dresden building, in 1879–1885, lived and wrote the great Polish writer, a man of great industry and a great contributor to Polish culture."

Kraszewski was one of the most prolific Polish writers of all times. His works comprise more than 220 novels (in the nineteenth century published in about 400 volumes), around 150 novellas, short stories and literary pictures, some 20 theatre plays, more than 20 volumes of historical studies (including the 3-volume Historia Wilna ["History of Vilnius"] and the 3-volume Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799 ["Poland during the Three Partitions 1772–1799]), a few volumes on his travels, more than 10 volumes of social, political and literary journalism [including 5 volumes of Rachunki (1866–69)], more than 6 volumes of poetry, including a 3-volume epos on the history of Lithuania, more than 20 volumes of his translations from 5 languages (English, French, German, Latin and Italian), several thousand columns, press articles and reviews, which, when printed as books, would have to be collected in more than 100 volumes. He wrote many letters – their number is estimated to reach tens of thousands; just a little part of them have been published so far. He was an editor and a publisher. He prepared for publication and published over 40 volumes of historic documents and works of other writers. In the years 1841–51 he edited in Wołyń, and published in Wilno the bimonthly "Athenaeum" (66 volumes), in the years 1859–63 after he moved, Kraszewski was the editor of the daily "Gazeta Warszawska" (from 1861 "Gazeta Polska"), and in 1870–71 in Dresden he edited "Tydzień".

Despite all that, he was not a man who would be interested just in covering paper with print or writing. He was deeply interested in drawing landscapes and architecture (he illustrated his reports from his travels himself; more than 1600 of his pictures have survived until the present day), took up amateur oil painting, collected old prints (there were more than 6000 works in his collection). Kraszewski loved music. He considered playing the piano for one hour every day to be an extraordinary pleasure for him, and his reviews of concerts or opera performances are characterised by solid professionalism. He travelled widely: he visited the whole of pre-partition Poland and almost the whole of Europe. Throughout his adult life he took an active part in political activities, which resulted in him being sent to prison twice. He participated in dozens of social events, and more than once he had to stand up against public opinion.

Page from Kraszewski's 1875 novel Brühl

In his novels he would emphasise loyalty to the real world, thus he would use mimesis, but combined it with his fascination with romanticism. Very well-educated in the field of European literature and aesthetics, he regarded highly not only Balzac, Dickens, Gogol, and later Zola, but also Stendhal, even before he came to be appreciated in his own country, but his heart was always with Adam Mickiewicz. His first works would be influenced by English sentimentalism, especially that of L. Sterne and the French frenetic romantics in the style of the young Victor Hugo or German fantasy in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The group of works closest to the ideals of Romanticism were his novels on the conflict of an artist with reality and on the life of folk people. In some of his works he would concentrate on women's matters (Całe życie biedna 1840, Szalona 1880, Sama jedna 1881), and in dozens – the issues regarding the gentry or the magnates (Latarnia czarnoksięska 1843-4, Interesa familijne 1852, Dwa światy 1854, Morituri 1873). He refers to the 1863 Uprising in a series of political novels written under the name of B. Bolesławita (Dziecię Starego Miasta 1863, Moskal 1865, Żyd 1866 and others). Kraszewski would extend the subject matter of his works, diversify the plot conventions (biography, travel, romance, sensation, etc.) and stylistic forms (realistic way of expression, purpose narration, parable, diary, tale, journal).He also appreciated small literary prose forms, such as, for example, pictures, philosophical sketches and novellas. His works would discuss all the major social and moral issues of his times and would include all the literary motifs favoured by the readers.[5]

Until 1863 he would concentrate on topical issues, during his stay in Dresden – on historical ones. Before he left the country he had written 20 historical novels, while in exile – more than 80. Unlike W. Scott he would give priority to the historical truth over fiction, and opted for criticism against the past. In this spirit he wrote Zygmuntowskie czasy (1846) and Diabła (1855), and in Dresden the so-called Saxon series (Hrabina Cosel 1873, Brühl 1874 and others) as well as a group of over 20 other novels on the eighteenth century (including Bezimienna 1869, Sto diabłów 1870 and Bratankowie 1871). He was successful in using tale narration in many of his works. His most famous enterprise within the genre of historical novels, was the series of 29 novels on the history of Poland. He started it with Stara baśń (1876) – which referred to the legendary epoch. From the very beginning the novel enjoyed great popularity, and was later his most often republished work (up to 2000 it was published more than 60 times). Next he wrote about the Piast dynasty (among others Boleszczyce 1877, Król chłopów 1881), the Jagiellonians (Semko 1882, Matka królów 1883 and others) and the oriental rulers (i.e. Boży gniew 1886). The series was completed with the posthumously published Saskie ostatki (1889).

Kraszewski's literary activities were characterised by patriotic intentions, tinged with antipathy toward the aristocracy, affinity with the gentry (whose vices he would castigate, but whom he considered to be the mainstay of national awareness) and a tendency to idealise the peasants. The realist writers of Poland's "Positivist" period, notably including Bolesław Prus, regarded him as their teacher. Single-handedly he created a whole library of novels, which in the second half of the 19th century were appreciated not only in Poland—where he was popular even in the twentieth century—but in the majority of European countries. Over a hundred of his novels have been translated into foreign languages. Before Henryk Sienkiewicz, he was the most often translated Polish author.

Adaptation

In 2003 the first book in the series, Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876), was made into a successful feature film directed by Jerzy Hoffman starring Bohdan Stupka, Michał Żebrowski and Daniel Olbrychski.

Works

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Sceny i charaktery z życia powszedniego (1878)

Barani Kożuszek (1881)

Biografia Sokalskiego organisty Kotlety

Boża czekoladka (1858)

Boża opieka. Powieść osnuta na opowiadaniach XVIII wieku

Bracia rywale

Bratanki

Brühl (1874)

Budnik (1847)

Całe życie biedna

Caprea i Roma (1859)

Cet czy licho?

Chata za wsią (The Cottage outside the Village, 1842)

Czarna Perełka (1871)

Czasy kościuszkowskie

Czercza mogiła

Cześnikówny

Cztery wesela

Diabeł (1855)

Dola i niedola. Powieść z ostatnich lat XVIII wieku (1864)

Dwa światy (1856)

Dziad i baba

Dziadunio (1868)

Dzieci wieku (1857)

Dziecię Starego Miasta (1863)

Dziennik Serafiny (1876)

Dziwadła

Emisariusz

Ewunia

Głupi Maciuś

Grzechy hetmańskie. Obrazy z końca XVIII wieku

Herod baba

Historia kołka w płocie (1860)

Historia o bladej dziewczynie spod Ostrej Bramy

Historia o Janaszu Korczaku i o pięknej miecznikównie: powieść z czasów Jana Sobieskiego (1874)

Historia Sawki (1842)

Hołota

Hrabina Cosel (1873, e-book)

Interesa familijne

Jak się pan Paweł żenił i jak się ożenił

Jaryna (1850)

Jermoła (Iermola, 1857)

Jesienią

Kamienica w Długim Rynku

Kartki z podróży

Kawał literata (1875)

Klasztor

Klin klinem

Komedianci

Kopciuszek

Kordecki

Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie

Król i Bondarywna. Powieść historyczna

Krzyż na rozstajnych drogach

Krzyżacy 1410

Kunigas (1881)

Kwiat paproci

Lalki: sceny przedślubne

Latarnia czarnoksięska (1843–1844)

Listy do rodziny

Lublana

Ładny chłopiec

Ładowa Pieczara (1852)

Macocha

Maleparta

Męczennicy. Marynka

Męczennicy. Na wysokościach

Milion posagu

Mistrz Twardowski (1840)

Mogilna. Obrazek współczesny

Morituri (1874–1875)

Moskal: obrazek współczesny narysowany z natury (1865)

Na bialskim zamku

Na cmentarzu – na wulkanie

Na tułactwie

Na wschodzie. Obrazek współczesny (1866)

Nad modrym Dunajem

Nad Sprewą

Nera

Niebieskie migdały

Noc majowa

Ongi

Orbeka

Ostap Bondarczuk (1847)

Ostatni z Siekierzyńskich (1851)

Ostrożnie z ogniem

Pałac i folwark

Pamiętnik Mroczka (1870)

Pamiętnik panicza

Pamiętniki

Pan i szewc

Pan Karol

Pan Major

Pan na czterech chłopach (1879)

Pan Walery

Panie kochanku: anegdota dramatyczna w trzech aktach

Papiery po Glince

Pod Blachą: powieść z końca XVIII wieku (1881)

Poeta i świat (1839)

Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799

Pomywaczka: obrazek z końca XVIII wieku

Powieść bez tytułu (1854)

Powrót do gniazda (1875)

Półdiablę weneckie

Profesor Milczek

Przed burzą

Przygody pana Marka Hinczy. Rzecz z podań życia staroszlacheckiego

Pułkownikówna

Ramułtowie

Raptularz pana Mateusza Jasienickeigo. Z oryginału przepisany mutatis mutandis

Resurrecturi

Resztki życia

Roboty i prace: sceny i charaktery współczesne

Rzym za Nerona (1865)

Sąsiedzi

Sceny sejmowe. Grodno 1793 (1873)

Sekret pana Czuryły. Historia jednego rezydenta wedle podań współczesnych opowiedziana

Serce i ręka (1875)

Sfinks (1847)

Sieroce dole

Skrypt Fleminga

Sprawa kryminalna

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale)

Stańczykowa kronika od roku 1503 do 1508 (1841)

Stara Panna

Staropolska miłość

Starosta warszawski: obrazy historyczne z XVIII wieku

Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774

Stary sługa

Sto Diabłów

Syn marnotrawny (1879)

Szalona (1880)

Szaławiła

Szpieg (1864)

Śniehotowie

Tomko Prawdzic

Trapezologion

Tryumf wiary. Obrazek historyczny z czasów Mieczysława I-go

Tułacze (1868)

U babuni

Ulana (1842)

W baśń oblekły się dzieje

W pocie czoła. Z dziennika dorobkiewicza (1884)

W starym piecu

Warszawa 1794 (1873)

Wielki nieznajomy

Wielki świat małego miasteczka

Wilczek i wilczkowa

Wspomnienia Odessy, Jedysanu i Budżaku: dziennik przejażki w roku 1843 od 22 czerwca do 11 września

Wspomnienia Wołynia, Polesia i Litwy

Z chłopa król

Z siedmioletniej wojny (1875)

Z życia awanturnika

Zadora

Zaklęta księżniczka

Zemsta Czokołdowa

Złote jabłko

Złoty Jasieńko

Zygmuntowskie czasy. Powieść z roku 1572 (1846)

Zygzaki

Żacy krakowscy w roku 1549 (Kraków Students in 1549)

Żeliga

Żyd: obrazy współczesne (The Jew: Contemporary Pictures, 1866)

Żywot i przygody hrabi Gozdzkiego. Pan starosta Kaniowski

Żywot i sprawy Imć pana Medarda z Gołczwi Pełki z notat familijnych spisane (1876)

Series "Dzieje Polski" ("The History of Poland") — 29 novels about Poland's history, in chronological order (1876–90)

Adama Polanowskiego dworzanina króla Jegomości Jana III notatki

Bajbuza: czasy Zygmunta III

Banita: czasy Stefana Batorego

Biały książę: czasy Ludwika Węgierskiego

Boleszczyce: powieść z czasów Bolesława Szczodrego

Boży gniew: czasy Jana Kazimierza

Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy: powieść z czasów Chrobrego

Dwie królowe

Historia prawdziwa o Petrku Właście palatynie, którego zwano Duninem: opowiadanie historyczne z XII wieku

Infantka

Jaszka Orfanem zwanego żywota i spraw pamiętnik: Jagiełłowie do Zygmunta

Jelita: powieść herbowa z r. 1331

Kraków za Łokietka: powieść historyczna

Król Chłopów: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Wielkiego

Król Piast: (Michał książę Wiśniowiecki)

Królewscy synowie: powieść z czasów Władysława Hermana i Krzywoustego

Lubonie: powieść z X wieku

Masław

Matka królów: czasy Jagiełłowe

Na królewskim dworze: czasy Władysława IV

Pogrobek: powieść z czasów przemysławowskich

Saskie ostatki: August III

Semko: czasy bezkrólewia po Ludwiku

Jagiełło i Jadwiga

Stach z Konar: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Sprawiedliwego

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876)

Strzemieńczyk: czasy Władysława Warneńczyka

Syn Jazdona: powieść historyczna z czasów Bolesława Wstydliwego i Leszka Czarnego

Waligóra: powieść historyczna z czasów Leszka Białego

Za Sasów

FILE MAGAZINE VOL 4 NO 1 (SUMMER 1978) alternative to the Alternative Press, legendary Toronto collaborative General Idea's FILE Megazine – published from 1972 to 1989.

FILE magazine Summer-1978 General Idea

General Idea: FILE megazine, vol 4, issue 1, summer 1978 (the “1984: A Year in Pictures” issue), edition of 3,000 copies.

FILE MAGAZINE VOL 4 NO 1 (SUMMER 1978). Toronto: General Idea, 1978

35 X 27.5cm, 64pp plus pictorial wrappers. A single number from General Idea's art periodical where the trio published conceptual, mail and intermedia art including the GI's own work - often with a homoerotic element. This number has GI's "General Idea flees the burning pavilion in 1984" and several articles on Miss General idea 1984. One slight crease on the back cover and front lower-right corner and spine wear and, as ever, browned internal newsprint pages else VG+. Scarce.

1978

FILE Megazine ("1984: A Year in Pictures," Vol. 4, #1, summer 1978)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1978

Publisher:General Idea, Toronto

Book Condition: VG+

35 X 27.5cm, 64pp plus pictorial wrappers

GENERAL IDEA 1969-1994

An alternative to the Alternative Press, legendary Toronto collaborative General Idea's FILE Megazine --published from 1972 to 1989--

Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson of General Idea lived and worked together for 25 years. Partz and Zontal died in 1994. AA Bronson continues to work under his own name

The General Idea Archive is now on deposit at the National Gallery of Canada. You can access the finding aid here:

national.gallery.ca/english/library/biblio/ngc112.html

In 1974, General Idea founded Art Metropole, an organization devoted to collecting, publishing and distributing artists' books, multiples, audio and video.

Read about FILE Megazine in Artforum here:

www.aabronson.com/art/gi.org/artforum.htm

General Idea, Fluxus, Mail Art, Ray Johnson and the importance of Art Magazines as the forerunners of Social Networking:

The first issues of FILE, the publication launched in April 1972 by the Toronto-based group General Idea (comprising artists AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal), leave a different, less sober impression than previous magazine-based Conceptual art projects. Lifting its name and logo from the most famous (and popular) postwar US glossy, Life, FILE clearly anticipated a strategy that today is an everyday youth-cultural ploy: namely, logo-busting, an ironic game with the powerful markers of consumer culture, a small act of semiotic subversion whereby one borrows power from the public side of capital--and momentarily uses it against itself.

For the better part of a century artists have been using the format of the periodical to create and disseminate their work. Yves Klein’s Leap Into the Void, another iconic work, was published in the artist’s broadsheet publication Dimanche, which was sold at Parisian newsstands in 1960. Artists' magazines were integral to numerous important movements, such as Conceptual Art, Mail Art, Performance Art, Intermedia, Concrete Poetry, Neo-Dadaism and Fluxus.

The name Fluxus was originally coined by George Maciunas for the title of a magazine of experimental notation that he had hoped to produce.

For the uninitiated, a simple distinction suffices: the “artist periodical” is a primary source and an “art magazine” is a secondary one. That is to say, whereas an art magazine features reproductions and documentation of artwork as illustrations, the artist periodical is an alternative site for the realization of art works rather than their review.

Like their cousins, artists’ books and multiples, artists’ periodicals were intended to be easily distributable, affordable and accessible. And now – much like artists’ books and multiples – they can be difficult to track down and often costly. Complete sets of FILE megazine can sell for upwards of $5,000. Depending on the issue, a single copy of Aspen magazine might sell for the same price. Putting together complete collections piecemeal is the artworld equivalent of collecting a complete set of baseball cards. Critical discourse, too, has been hard to come by; apart from a few key articles, very little has been published on the subject of artists’ magazines.

Publications by General Idea:

THIS IS A LIST OF PUBLICATIONS DESIGNED AND EDITED BY GENERAL IDEA

(Note: FILE Megazine was published by Art Official Inc. in varying edition sizes ranging from 1,500 to 3,500 copies)

A Side note about A.A. Bronson: He wrote …

Mail art was expanding exponentially as ….

“The only motive that a sane man can have for entering Civic public life is a desire to render a real service, and that means constant work and great anxiety.” So said Frederick J. Conboy to city council in January of 1945, at the conclusion of four consecutive one-year terms as mayor of Toronto. Conboy’s time in office marked the apex of a long public-service career with roots in public-health dentistry.

Conboy graduated from the Royal College of Dental Surgeons‘ School of Dentistry (the forerunner of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry) in 1904, and soon established a practice at the northeast corner of Bloor and Westmoreland. Conboy’s instructors included several established dentists who advocated for increased awareness of dental health and public-health education. Paediatric dental health was a particularly celebrated cause; for several decades, activists such as Dr. John G.C. Adams had been calling for the regular inspection of the teeth of local schoolchildren. In A History of Dentistry in Canada, D.W. Gullett writes that “year after year, dental organizations submitted resolutions or briefs to governments, pointing out the existing oral health of Canadian children and emphasizing the need for action.”

In 1909, Conboy won a seat as a school trustee. While also attending to other education business, one of Conboy’s earliest campaigns was for the Board of Education to recognize dentists’ certificates of illness with respect to absent teachers, arguing that a dentist’s certificate should count as much as a physician’s. It was during his time as a trustee that the school board introduced dental inspections; The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association later wrote that Conboy’s advocacy was “largely instrumental” in getting this service implemented. In addition to his dental interests, Conboy soon proved himself a skilled leader and administrator, and in January of 1912 he was elected chairman of the Board of Education, reportedly the youngest person to date to hold this position.

20150425Tely1925Jan29

Following his time as a school trustee, Conboy lectured at the School of Dentistry, and was soon an active member with many professional organizations and committees. During the First World War, he began contributing to the journal Oral Health, in part by editing “Pro Bono Publico,” a regular column that proclaimed to feature “dental information in a form suitable for publication in the public press.” Many of his contributions to Oral Health focussed on paediatric dentistry, and the role he believed that government had in ensuring universal access to dental care.

(Right: Frederick Conboy has been named Drector of Dental Services. The Evening Telegram, January 29, 1925.)

In 1923, Conboy served a term as president of the Ontario Dental Association, after which he assumed the role of the organization’s secretary-treasurer. Among other contributions to the ODA, he initiated and edited a monthly publication called The Booster, which later changed its name to The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association, and, subsequently, Ontario Dentist.

While serving as the Ontario Dental Association’s president, Conboy invited Dr. Forbes Godfrey, newly installed as Ontario’s first-ever Minister of Health, to speak at the ODA’s annual convention. Godfrey spoke of the need to promote oral health and vowed to establish a dental division within his portfolio. This promise came to fruition in 1925, when Godfrey named Conboy as Ontario’s director of dental services. The purpose of this new position, as stated by the Globe, was to apply “the modern science of preventive dentistry to the needs of the public generally, and to children of school age particularly.” Over the next 10 years, Conboy used this role to advance public dental health education throughout Ontario using a variety of methods.

An editorial in the following year’s Public Health Journal identified some of Conboy’s first projects as dental director, and praised his ability to get support from outside groups: “Life insurance companies have distributed pamphlets by thousands. Various clubs and welfare organizations have taken an interest….Advertisers and the press have cooperated in a most friendly way, and last, but not least, the dentists of the province have given a full measure of cooperation.”

In 1926, Conboy established October 20 as “Dental Health Day.” In addition to free dental clinics offered in Toronto, events reported in the Star included “radio talks, addresses to service clubs, and window displays,” as well as a “public dental health concert.” The Province also prepared an educational film that was distributed to Ontario movie theatres.

Group photo of members of the Ontario Dental Association, May 20, 1930. From left to right: Dr. T.F. Campbell of Galt; Dr. A.W. Ellis of Toronto; Dr. F.L. Henry of Oshawa; and Frederick L. Conboy of Toronto. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 20334.

In 1928, Conboy introduced a dental booth at the Canadian National Exhibition, where visitors could receive free dental X-rays that were forwarded to their personal dentists back home. Following the initial success of the booth, it was expanded in subsequent years to include longer hours and free full-dental examinations. Describing the CNE booth in 1929, the Globe reported that Dr. Conboy and his staff were particular proud to discover “two sets of teeth almost perfect” in one day, the Globe adding, “Proudly the dentists pointed out the minute perfections as The Globe representative was permitted a view of the novelty.”

In an effort to encourage continuing education amongst professional dentists, Conboy helped organize a joint convention of the Ontario, Canadian, and British dental associations held in Toronto in 1932. The event—which also featured dentists from Australia and New Zealand—was held at the Royal York Hotel, and represented the first international dental convention for the entire British Empire. In addition to the requisite social activities and lectures, part of the Royal York was transformed into a tiered operating theatre where dentists could observe demonstrations of experts at work. The Evening Telegram described the setup thus:

“Dentists to right of them, dentists to left, back and front of them, dentists climbing all but inside them. This was the fate of the stalwarts who, acting as ‘mannequins’ for surgeons, submitted to operations in droves in the surgery of the Royal York….The hostelry’s $100,000 operating room was a hive of bustling excitement. Arranged in tiers up to the ceiling, was a ‘gallery’ of dentist-spectators, and down in the pit of the anaesthetic-laden chamber, man after man submitted, with smiles on their faces, to their teeth being probed and ground, pulled and twisted, hammered and jerked.”

Coverage of the 1932 joint dental convention. Conboy is in the group photo on the left, front row, far right. The Globe, August 9, 1932.

Conboy’s other activities as dental director were various. In December 1925, he announced a plan to help establish dental clinics in industrial factories, telling the Globe it was “poor policy for a manufacturer to install expensive machinery and neglect the importance of maintaining the efficiency of the machinist.” In 1933, the Star announced that Conboy planned to look at rugby in Ontario, and conduct a survey “to discover how many perfectly good teeth have been left behind by high school players, as well as the university and interprovincial league players.” His advocacy work included urging professional dentists to donate their time for the poor who could not afford their services. “Good health is the right of every boy and girl in the Province, and we must see to it that everything is done to ensure it,” he asserted in a speech reported by the Globe, the reporter adding that “smugly complacent dentists who are content to serve only those who can pay, ignoring unfortunate sufferers who are not in [the] favoured class, were censured by [Conboy].”

After serving as the Ontario dental director, Conboy turned his eye to municipal politics, and landed a seat on city council in 1935. Prior to the 1950s, Toronto held municipal elections on an annual basis; Conboy was reelected to Council the following year, after which he ran for and won a seat on Toronto’s elected executive committee, the Board of Control.

Conboy quickly proved a skilled and popular member of both city council and the board of control, gaining a reputation as a politician who got things done and worked well with his fellow officials. In addition to public-health advocacy, Conboy was noted for his support of the development of the Island airport and for his efforts in slum clearance.

Frederick Conboy at City Hall with visiting U.S. politician Wendell Willkie. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 8109.

When incumbent Ralph Day announced he would not seek reelection in 1941, Conboy declared himself a candidate for mayor, promising improved financial administration and dedication to the war effort. All three major Toronto newspapers endorsed Conboy over fellow board of control member Douglas McNish, and Conboy was duly elected with more than 62 percent of the cast vote.

The Second World War dominated municipal issues during Conboy’s time in the mayor’s office. Conboy headed a delegation that helped secure the Sunnybrook Farm property as the site for a much-needed veterans’ hospital. The war years also saw a rise in venereal disease in Toronto, prompting Conboy to request $10,000 from city council to help contain its spread. Conboy, perhaps helped by being the son of a market gardener, also dedicated himself to the war effort by growing a victory garden that the Telegram described as “the envy of neighbours for blocks around him.”

Conboy’s other actions as mayor included efforts to improve public safety, resulting in increased street lighting and changes to the existing traffic laws. Reflecting on his time in his office, newspapers also noted his capable response to the 1944 snowstorm, and his work to improve the quality of housing in the city, all while managing to lower the City’s debt.

Frederick Conboy showing City Hall to stage and screen actress Anna Neagle. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 3886.

After running unopposed for mayor in 1942 and 1943, and defeating the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation–affiliated Lewis Duncan in 1944, Conboy sought a fifth term in office, challenged by board of control member Robert Hood Saunders. Conboy and Saunders reportedly worked well together in municipal politics, and the Toronto press agreed that both were very similar candidates with good civic records. The Telegram renewed its endorsement of Conboy, but both the Star and the Globe and Mail, while praising Conboy’s work in office and admitting that Saunders and Conboy were very much alike and equally qualified for the post, opted to throw their support behind Saunders.

“The Globe and Mail believes that Dr. Conboy, after holding the office of chief magistrate for four years, might well concede the right of someone else to occupy this honourable—and exacting—post, and considers that Mr. Saunders merits the promotion,” ran one editorial. The Toronto Star went further: “Men who enter Toronto’s public life should be able to look forward to promotion if their abilities and services warrant it. If the path to promotion is blocked by the man ‘at the head of the line’ staying on and on and on and on—and still another ‘on,’ a fifth, if Conboy has his way—those who legitimately seek to move up are blocked. They shouldn’t be. The mayoralty should not be regarded as any man’s private perquisite, if equally good or better men are ready to succeed him.” Although the Telegram rejected these arguments, the public apparently agreed that a change was needed, and Saunders assumed the mayoralty in 1945.

Composite of Mayor Conboy and the Board of Control in 1944, including Robert Hood Saunders. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 41, Item 500.

Conboy remained active as a dental advocate following his electoral defeat, and soon announced plans to become an insurance broker. He re-entered the political arena in 1948, standing as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Bracondale in the provincial election. Although George Drew’s Conservatives retained their majority government, Conboy was defeated by CCF candidate Harry Walters.

In declining health for several months after he was struck by a car, Frederick Conboy was admitted to Wellesley Hospital, where he died on March 29, 1949. Toronto newspapers praised his outstanding years of public service, both to the city and to the profession of dentistry. The Toronto Star wrote that he “took a warm, practical interest in the growing generation. He worked to improve housing conditions. He concerned himself with nearly every aspect of good citizenship….This country needs more citizens of the Conboy type who will not begrudge time and effort in rendering service to the people in the realm of the municipal government.”

The dental community was similarly full of praise for all that Conboy had done over his career. The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association, a publication he had himself established, wrote that “he was proud of his profession and never lost an opportunity to extol it. He often said that Dentistry had been awfully good to him and he could never do enough in return. Through his efforts to advance the cause of Dental Public Health and the credit he brought to Dentistry through the high public offices he held, he well discharged the obligation that he felt he owed his profession.”

“The only motive that a sane man can have for entering Civic public life is a desire to render a real service, and that means constant work and great anxiety.” So said Frederick J. Conboy to city council in January of 1945, at the conclusion of four consecutive one-year terms as mayor of Toronto. Conboy’s time in office marked the apex of a long public-service career with roots in public-health dentistry.

Conboy graduated from the Royal College of Dental Surgeons‘ School of Dentistry (the forerunner of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry) in 1904, and soon established a practice at the northeast corner of Bloor and Westmoreland. Conboy’s instructors included several established dentists who advocated for increased awareness of dental health and public-health education. Paediatric dental health was a particularly celebrated cause; for several decades, activists such as Dr. John G.C. Adams had been calling for the regular inspection of the teeth of local schoolchildren. In A History of Dentistry in Canada, D.W. Gullett writes that “year after year, dental organizations submitted resolutions or briefs to governments, pointing out the existing oral health of Canadian children and emphasizing the need for action.”

In 1909, Conboy won a seat as a school trustee. While also attending to other education business, one of Conboy’s earliest campaigns was for the Board of Education to recognize dentists’ certificates of illness with respect to absent teachers, arguing that a dentist’s certificate should count as much as a physician’s. It was during his time as a trustee that the school board introduced dental inspections; The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association later wrote that Conboy’s advocacy was “largely instrumental” in getting this service implemented. In addition to his dental interests, Conboy soon proved himself a skilled leader and administrator, and in January of 1912 he was elected chairman of the Board of Education, reportedly the youngest person to date to hold this position.

20150425Tely1925Jan29

Following his time as a school trustee, Conboy lectured at the School of Dentistry, and was soon an active member with many professional organizations and committees. During the First World War, he began contributing to the journal Oral Health, in part by editing “Pro Bono Publico,” a regular column that proclaimed to feature “dental information in a form suitable for publication in the public press.” Many of his contributions to Oral Health focussed on paediatric dentistry, and the role he believed that government had in ensuring universal access to dental care.

(Right: Frederick Conboy has been named Drector of Dental Services. The Evening Telegram, January 29, 1925.)

In 1923, Conboy served a term as president of the Ontario Dental Association, after which he assumed the role of the organization’s secretary-treasurer. Among other contributions to the ODA, he initiated and edited a monthly publication called The Booster, which later changed its name to The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association, and, subsequently, Ontario Dentist.

While serving as the Ontario Dental Association’s president, Conboy invited Dr. Forbes Godfrey, newly installed as Ontario’s first-ever Minister of Health, to speak at the ODA’s annual convention. Godfrey spoke of the need to promote oral health and vowed to establish a dental division within his portfolio. This promise came to fruition in 1925, when Godfrey named Conboy as Ontario’s director of dental services. The purpose of this new position, as stated by the Globe, was to apply “the modern science of preventive dentistry to the needs of the public generally, and to children of school age particularly.” Over the next 10 years, Conboy used this role to advance public dental health education throughout Ontario using a variety of methods.

An editorial in the following year’s Public Health Journal identified some of Conboy’s first projects as dental director, and praised his ability to get support from outside groups: “Life insurance companies have distributed pamphlets by thousands. Various clubs and welfare organizations have taken an interest….Advertisers and the press have cooperated in a most friendly way, and last, but not least, the dentists of the province have given a full measure of cooperation.”

In 1926, Conboy established October 20 as “Dental Health Day.” In addition to free dental clinics offered in Toronto, events reported in the Star included “radio talks, addresses to service clubs, and window displays,” as well as a “public dental health concert.” The Province also prepared an educational film that was distributed to Ontario movie theatres.

Group photo of members of the Ontario Dental Association, May 20, 1930. From left to right: Dr. T.F. Campbell of Galt; Dr. A.W. Ellis of Toronto; Dr. F.L. Henry of Oshawa; and Frederick L. Conboy of Toronto. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 20334.

In 1928, Conboy introduced a dental booth at the Canadian National Exhibition, where visitors could receive free dental X-rays that were forwarded to their personal dentists back home. Following the initial success of the booth, it was expanded in subsequent years to include longer hours and free full-dental examinations. Describing the CNE booth in 1929, the Globe reported that Dr. Conboy and his staff were particular proud to discover “two sets of teeth almost perfect” in one day, the Globe adding, “Proudly the dentists pointed out the minute perfections as The Globe representative was permitted a view of the novelty.”

In an effort to encourage continuing education amongst professional dentists, Conboy helped organize a joint convention of the Ontario, Canadian, and British dental associations held in Toronto in 1932. The event—which also featured dentists from Australia and New Zealand—was held at the Royal York Hotel, and represented the first international dental convention for the entire British Empire. In addition to the requisite social activities and lectures, part of the Royal York was transformed into a tiered operating theatre where dentists could observe demonstrations of experts at work. The Evening Telegram described the setup thus:

“Dentists to right of them, dentists to left, back and front of them, dentists climbing all but inside them. This was the fate of the stalwarts who, acting as ‘mannequins’ for surgeons, submitted to operations in droves in the surgery of the Royal York….The hostelry’s $100,000 operating room was a hive of bustling excitement. Arranged in tiers up to the ceiling, was a ‘gallery’ of dentist-spectators, and down in the pit of the anaesthetic-laden chamber, man after man submitted, with smiles on their faces, to their teeth being probed and ground, pulled and twisted, hammered and jerked.”

Coverage of the 1932 joint dental convention. Conboy is in the group photo on the left, front row, far right. The Globe, August 9, 1932.

Conboy’s other activities as dental director were various. In December 1925, he announced a plan to help establish dental clinics in industrial factories, telling the Globe it was “poor policy for a manufacturer to install expensive machinery and neglect the importance of maintaining the efficiency of the machinist.” In 1933, the Star announced that Conboy planned to look at rugby in Ontario, and conduct a survey “to discover how many perfectly good teeth have been left behind by high school players, as well as the university and interprovincial league players.” His advocacy work included urging professional dentists to donate their time for the poor who could not afford their services. “Good health is the right of every boy and girl in the Province, and we must see to it that everything is done to ensure it,” he asserted in a speech reported by the Globe, the reporter adding that “smugly complacent dentists who are content to serve only those who can pay, ignoring unfortunate sufferers who are not in [the] favoured class, were censured by [Conboy].”

After serving as the Ontario dental director, Conboy turned his eye to municipal politics, and landed a seat on city council in 1935. Prior to the 1950s, Toronto held municipal elections on an annual basis; Conboy was reelected to Council the following year, after which he ran for and won a seat on Toronto’s elected executive committee, the Board of Control.

Conboy quickly proved a skilled and popular member of both city council and the board of control, gaining a reputation as a politician who got things done and worked well with his fellow officials. In addition to public-health advocacy, Conboy was noted for his support of the development of the Island airport and for his efforts in slum clearance.

Frederick Conboy at City Hall with visiting U.S. politician Wendell Willkie. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 8109.

When incumbent Ralph Day announced he would not seek reelection in 1941, Conboy declared himself a candidate for mayor, promising improved financial administration and dedication to the war effort. All three major Toronto newspapers endorsed Conboy over fellow board of control member Douglas McNish, and Conboy was duly elected with more than 62 percent of the cast vote.

The Second World War dominated municipal issues during Conboy’s time in the mayor’s office. Conboy headed a delegation that helped secure the Sunnybrook Farm property as the site for a much-needed veterans’ hospital. The war years also saw a rise in venereal disease in Toronto, prompting Conboy to request $10,000 from city council to help contain its spread. Conboy, perhaps helped by being the son of a market gardener, also dedicated himself to the war effort by growing a victory garden that the Telegram described as “the envy of neighbours for blocks around him.”

Conboy’s other actions as mayor included efforts to improve public safety, resulting in increased street lighting and changes to the existing traffic laws. Reflecting on his time in his office, newspapers also noted his capable response to the 1944 snowstorm, and his work to improve the quality of housing in the city, all while managing to lower the City’s debt.

Frederick Conboy showing City Hall to stage and screen actress Anna Neagle. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 3886.

After running unopposed for mayor in 1942 and 1943, and defeating the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation–affiliated Lewis Duncan in 1944, Conboy sought a fifth term in office, challenged by board of control member Robert Hood Saunders. Conboy and Saunders reportedly worked well together in municipal politics, and the Toronto press agreed that both were very similar candidates with good civic records. The Telegram renewed its endorsement of Conboy, but both the Star and the Globe and Mail, while praising Conboy’s work in office and admitting that Saunders and Conboy were very much alike and equally qualified for the post, opted to throw their support behind Saunders.

“The Globe and Mail believes that Dr. Conboy, after holding the office of chief magistrate for four years, might well concede the right of someone else to occupy this honourable—and exacting—post, and considers that Mr. Saunders merits the promotion,” ran one editorial. The Toronto Star went further: “Men who enter Toronto’s public life should be able to look forward to promotion if their abilities and services warrant it. If the path to promotion is blocked by the man ‘at the head of the line’ staying on and on and on and on—and still another ‘on,’ a fifth, if Conboy has his way—those who legitimately seek to move up are blocked. They shouldn’t be. The mayoralty should not be regarded as any man’s private perquisite, if equally good or better men are ready to succeed him.” Although the Telegram rejected these arguments, the public apparently agreed that a change was needed, and Saunders assumed the mayoralty in 1945.

Composite of Mayor Conboy and the Board of Control in 1944, including Robert Hood Saunders. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 41, Item 500.

Conboy remained active as a dental advocate following his electoral defeat, and soon announced plans to become an insurance broker. He re-entered the political arena in 1948, standing as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Bracondale in the provincial election. Although George Drew’s Conservatives retained their majority government, Conboy was defeated by CCF candidate Harry Walters.

In declining health for several months after he was struck by a car, Frederick Conboy was admitted to Wellesley Hospital, where he died on March 29, 1949. Toronto newspapers praised his outstanding years of public service, both to the city and to the profession of dentistry. The Toronto Star wrote that he “took a warm, practical interest in the growing generation. He worked to improve housing conditions. He concerned himself with nearly every aspect of good citizenship….This country needs more citizens of the Conboy type who will not begrudge time and effort in rendering service to the people in the realm of the municipal government.”

The dental community was similarly full of praise for all that Conboy had done over his career. The Journal of the Ontario Dental Association, a publication he had himself established, wrote that “he was proud of his profession and never lost an opportunity to extol it. He often said that Dentistry had been awfully good to him and he could never do enough in return. Through his efforts to advance the cause of Dental Public Health and the credit he brought to Dentistry through the high public offices he held, he well discharged the obligation that he felt he owed his profession.”

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the most prolific writer in the history of Polish literature and the seventh most prolific in the world.[citation needed] He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.

The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Vilna between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.[1]

Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.[2]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life and studies

1.2 Adulthood and literary career

1.3 Exile, later life and death

2 Character and style

3 Adaptation

4 Works

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Biography

Early life and studies

Childhood home in Romanów

Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Pruzhany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanów in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocz, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Vilna under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Vilna and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.

Adulthood and literary career

Photograph of Kraszewski taken before 1886

In 1838 he married Zofia Woroniczówna, related to the late primate and poet J. P. Woronicz. He did this against the will of his father, who thought his son wanted to reach too high. Once married, the couple settled in Wołyń. In 1853 – already parents to four children – they moved to Żytomierz. From now on Kraszewski concentrated on his literary work, though he did not avoid other activities (he became the superintendent of a high school, the director of a theatre and the Charity Association). As a result of his dispute with conservative public opinion on his critical assessment of the gentry's attitude towards peasants, in 1859 he accepted the proposal of Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, a wealthy Polish banker of Polish-Jewish origin from Warsaw, to become the editor of the "Gazeta Warszawska" and he moved with his family to Warsaw. Owing to his editorial skills, the number of the "Gazeta" subscribers within half a year rose from 500 to 8000, but at the same time he had to stand the vicious remarks of anti-Semites. Just before the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was politically active and thus, when the military activities began, he was announced persona non grata in Warsaw by the Petersburg-submissive local authorities and was forced to emigrate, leaving his family in Warsaw. He went to Dresden, where he lived till 1884.[3]

Exile, later life and death

In Dresden he became a one-person Polish institution helping the political refugees, and organising literary life and information about Poland. With the death of many great poets of Romanticism, he became the unquestionable literary authority and the favourite of the public. In 1870 as the editor of "Tydzień" he expressed his skepticism about the dogma, approved at the First Vatican Council, that the pope is infallible as far as questions regarding the faith are concerned. That made him unpopular among the national orthodox church authorities, but he did not lose popularity among his readers. In 1879 in Kraków week-long celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his literary career were held. In 1883 he was arrested in Berlin and charged with collaboration with French military intelligence, and a year later he was sentenced by the tribunal in Leipzig to three and a half years of imprisonment in a fortress. He served the sentence in the Magdeburg Fortress. As a result of his illness he was temporarily released on bail and went to Italy to improve his health, and after the earthquake there he sought refuge in Geneva in 1886. There, already suffering from cancer, he contracted pneumonia, which was the direct cause of his death on 19 March 1887. His body was brought to Kraków and placed in the vault where the meritorious were buried in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery.[4]

Character and style

An Ancient Tale by Kraszewski, 1876

In German and Polish: "Józef Ignacy Kraszewski-in this Dresden building, in 1879–1885, lived and wrote the great Polish writer, a man of great industry and a great contributor to Polish culture."

Kraszewski was one of the most prolific Polish writers of all times. His works comprise more than 220 novels (in the nineteenth century published in about 400 volumes), around 150 novellas, short stories and literary pictures, some 20 theatre plays, more than 20 volumes of historical studies (including the 3-volume Historia Wilna ["History of Vilnius"] and the 3-volume Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799 ["Poland during the Three Partitions 1772–1799]), a few volumes on his travels, more than 10 volumes of social, political and literary journalism [including 5 volumes of Rachunki (1866–69)], more than 6 volumes of poetry, including a 3-volume epos on the history of Lithuania, more than 20 volumes of his translations from 5 languages (English, French, German, Latin and Italian), several thousand columns, press articles and reviews, which, when printed as books, would have to be collected in more than 100 volumes. He wrote many letters – their number is estimated to reach tens of thousands; just a little part of them have been published so far. He was an editor and a publisher. He prepared for publication and published over 40 volumes of historic documents and works of other writers. In the years 1841–51 he edited in Wołyń, and published in Wilno the bimonthly "Athenaeum" (66 volumes), in the years 1859–63 after he moved, Kraszewski was the editor of the daily "Gazeta Warszawska" (from 1861 "Gazeta Polska"), and in 1870–71 in Dresden he edited "Tydzień".

Despite all that, he was not a man who would be interested just in covering paper with print or writing. He was deeply interested in drawing landscapes and architecture (he illustrated his reports from his travels himself; more than 1600 of his pictures have survived until the present day), took up amateur oil painting, collected old prints (there were more than 6000 works in his collection). Kraszewski loved music. He considered playing the piano for one hour every day to be an extraordinary pleasure for him, and his reviews of concerts or opera performances are characterised by solid professionalism. He travelled widely: he visited the whole of pre-partition Poland and almost the whole of Europe. Throughout his adult life he took an active part in political activities, which resulted in him being sent to prison twice. He participated in dozens of social events, and more than once he had to stand up against public opinion.

Page from Kraszewski's 1875 novel Brühl

In his novels he would emphasise loyalty to the real world, thus he would use mimesis, but combined it with his fascination with romanticism. Very well-educated in the field of European literature and aesthetics, he regarded highly not only Balzac, Dickens, Gogol, and later Zola, but also Stendhal, even before he came to be appreciated in his own country, but his heart was always with Adam Mickiewicz. His first works would be influenced by English sentimentalism, especially that of L. Sterne and the French frenetic romantics in the style of the young Victor Hugo or German fantasy in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The group of works closest to the ideals of Romanticism were his novels on the conflict of an artist with reality and on the life of folk people. In some of his works he would concentrate on women's matters (Całe życie biedna 1840, Szalona 1880, Sama jedna 1881), and in dozens – the issues regarding the gentry or the magnates (Latarnia czarnoksięska 1843-4, Interesa familijne 1852, Dwa światy 1854, Morituri 1873). He refers to the 1863 Uprising in a series of political novels written under the name of B. Bolesławita (Dziecię Starego Miasta 1863, Moskal 1865, Żyd 1866 and others). Kraszewski would extend the subject matter of his works, diversify the plot conventions (biography, travel, romance, sensation, etc.) and stylistic forms (realistic way of expression, purpose narration, parable, diary, tale, journal).He also appreciated small literary prose forms, such as, for example, pictures, philosophical sketches and novellas. His works would discuss all the major social and moral issues of his times and would include all the literary motifs favoured by the readers.[5]

Until 1863 he would concentrate on topical issues, during his stay in Dresden – on historical ones. Before he left the country he had written 20 historical novels, while in exile – more than 80. Unlike W. Scott he would give priority to the historical truth over fiction, and opted for criticism against the past. In this spirit he wrote Zygmuntowskie czasy (1846) and Diabła (1855), and in Dresden the so-called Saxon series (Hrabina Cosel 1873, Brühl 1874 and others) as well as a group of over 20 other novels on the eighteenth century (including Bezimienna 1869, Sto diabłów 1870 and Bratankowie 1871). He was successful in using tale narration in many of his works. His most famous enterprise within the genre of historical novels, was the series of 29 novels on the history of Poland. He started it with Stara baśń (1876) – which referred to the legendary epoch. From the very beginning the novel enjoyed great popularity, and was later his most often republished work (up to 2000 it was published more than 60 times). Next he wrote about the Piast dynasty (among others Boleszczyce 1877, Król chłopów 1881), the Jagiellonians (Semko 1882, Matka królów 1883 and others) and the oriental rulers (i.e. Boży gniew 1886). The series was completed with the posthumously published Saskie ostatki (1889).

Kraszewski's literary activities were characterised by patriotic intentions, tinged with antipathy toward the aristocracy, affinity with the gentry (whose vices he would castigate, but whom he considered to be the mainstay of national awareness) and a tendency to idealise the peasants. The realist writers of Poland's "Positivist" period, notably including Bolesław Prus, regarded him as their teacher. Single-handedly he created a whole library of novels, which in the second half of the 19th century were appreciated not only in Poland—where he was popular even in the twentieth century—but in the majority of European countries. Over a hundred of his novels have been translated into foreign languages. Before Henryk Sienkiewicz, he was the most often translated Polish author.

Adaptation

In 2003 the first book in the series, Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876), was made into a successful feature film directed by Jerzy Hoffman starring Bohdan Stupka, Michał Żebrowski and Daniel Olbrychski.

Works

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Sceny i charaktery z życia powszedniego (1878)

Barani Kożuszek (1881)

Biografia Sokalskiego organisty Kotlety

Boża czekoladka (1858)

Boża opieka. Powieść osnuta na opowiadaniach XVIII wieku

Bracia rywale

Bratanki

Brühl (1874)

Budnik (1847)

Całe życie biedna

Caprea i Roma (1859)

Cet czy licho?

Chata za wsią (The Cottage outside the Village, 1842)

Czarna Perełka (1871)

Czasy kościuszkowskie

Czercza mogiła

Cześnikówny

Cztery wesela

Diabeł (1855)

Dola i niedola. Powieść z ostatnich lat XVIII wieku (1864)

Dwa światy (1856)

Dziad i baba

Dziadunio (1868)

Dzieci wieku (1857)

Dziecię Starego Miasta (1863)

Dziennik Serafiny (1876)

Dziwadła

Emisariusz

Ewunia

Głupi Maciuś

Grzechy hetmańskie. Obrazy z końca XVIII wieku

Herod baba

Historia kołka w płocie (1860)

Historia o bladej dziewczynie spod Ostrej Bramy

Historia o Janaszu Korczaku i o pięknej miecznikównie: powieść z czasów Jana Sobieskiego (1874)

Historia Sawki (1842)

Hołota

Hrabina Cosel (1873, e-book)

Interesa familijne

Jak się pan Paweł żenił i jak się ożenił

Jaryna (1850)

Jermoła (Iermola, 1857)

Jesienią

Kamienica w Długim Rynku

Kartki z podróży

Kawał literata (1875)

Klasztor

Klin klinem

Komedianci

Kopciuszek

Kordecki

Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie

Król i Bondarywna. Powieść historyczna

Krzyż na rozstajnych drogach

Krzyżacy 1410

Kunigas (1881)

Kwiat paproci

Lalki: sceny przedślubne

Latarnia czarnoksięska (1843–1844)

Listy do rodziny

Lublana

Ładny chłopiec

Ładowa Pieczara (1852)

Macocha

Maleparta

Męczennicy. Marynka

Męczennicy. Na wysokościach

Milion posagu

Mistrz Twardowski (1840)

Mogilna. Obrazek współczesny

Morituri (1874–1875)

Moskal: obrazek współczesny narysowany z natury (1865)

Na bialskim zamku

Na cmentarzu – na wulkanie

Na tułactwie

Na wschodzie. Obrazek współczesny (1866)

Nad modrym Dunajem

Nad Sprewą

Nera

Niebieskie migdały

Noc majowa

Ongi

Orbeka

Ostap Bondarczuk (1847)

Ostatni z Siekierzyńskich (1851)

Ostrożnie z ogniem

Pałac i folwark

Pamiętnik Mroczka (1870)

Pamiętnik panicza

Pamiętniki

Pan i szewc

Pan Karol

Pan Major

Pan na czterech chłopach (1879)

Pan Walery

Panie kochanku: anegdota dramatyczna w trzech aktach

Papiery po Glince

Pod Blachą: powieść z końca XVIII wieku (1881)

Poeta i świat (1839)

Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799

Pomywaczka: obrazek z końca XVIII wieku

Powieść bez tytułu (1854)

Powrót do gniazda (1875)

Półdiablę weneckie

Profesor Milczek

Przed burzą

Przygody pana Marka Hinczy. Rzecz z podań życia staroszlacheckiego

Pułkownikówna

Ramułtowie

Raptularz pana Mateusza Jasienickeigo. Z oryginału przepisany mutatis mutandis

Resurrecturi

Resztki życia

Roboty i prace: sceny i charaktery współczesne

Rzym za Nerona (1865)

Sąsiedzi

Sceny sejmowe. Grodno 1793 (1873)

Sekret pana Czuryły. Historia jednego rezydenta wedle podań współczesnych opowiedziana

Serce i ręka (1875)

Sfinks (1847)

Sieroce dole

Skrypt Fleminga

Sprawa kryminalna

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale)

Stańczykowa kronika od roku 1503 do 1508 (1841)

Stara Panna

Staropolska miłość

Starosta warszawski: obrazy historyczne z XVIII wieku

Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774

Stary sługa

Sto Diabłów

Syn marnotrawny (1879)

Szalona (1880)

Szaławiła

Szpieg (1864)

Śniehotowie

Tomko Prawdzic

Trapezologion

Tryumf wiary. Obrazek historyczny z czasów Mieczysława I-go

Tułacze (1868)

U babuni

Ulana (1842)

W baśń oblekły się dzieje

W pocie czoła. Z dziennika dorobkiewicza (1884)

W starym piecu

Warszawa 1794 (1873)

Wielki nieznajomy

Wielki świat małego miasteczka

Wilczek i wilczkowa

Wspomnienia Odessy, Jedysanu i Budżaku: dziennik przejażki w roku 1843 od 22 czerwca do 11 września

Wspomnienia Wołynia, Polesia i Litwy

Z chłopa król

Z siedmioletniej wojny (1875)

Z życia awanturnika

Zadora

Zaklęta księżniczka

Zemsta Czokołdowa

Złote jabłko

Złoty Jasieńko

Zygmuntowskie czasy. Powieść z roku 1572 (1846)

Zygzaki

Żacy krakowscy w roku 1549 (Kraków Students in 1549)

Żeliga

Żyd: obrazy współczesne (The Jew: Contemporary Pictures, 1866)

Żywot i przygody hrabi Gozdzkiego. Pan starosta Kaniowski

Żywot i sprawy Imć pana Medarda z Gołczwi Pełki z notat familijnych spisane (1876)

Series "Dzieje Polski" ("The History of Poland") — 29 novels about Poland's history, in chronological order (1876–90)

Adama Polanowskiego dworzanina króla Jegomości Jana III notatki

Bajbuza: czasy Zygmunta III

Banita: czasy Stefana Batorego

Biały książę: czasy Ludwika Węgierskiego

Boleszczyce: powieść z czasów Bolesława Szczodrego

Boży gniew: czasy Jana Kazimierza

Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy: powieść z czasów Chrobrego

Dwie królowe

Historia prawdziwa o Petrku Właście palatynie, którego zwano Duninem: opowiadanie historyczne z XII wieku

Infantka

Jaszka Orfanem zwanego żywota i spraw pamiętnik: Jagiełłowie do Zygmunta

Jelita: powieść herbowa z r. 1331

Kraków za Łokietka: powieść historyczna

Król Chłopów: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Wielkiego

Król Piast: (Michał książę Wiśniowiecki)

Królewscy synowie: powieść z czasów Władysława Hermana i Krzywoustego

Lubonie: powieść z X wieku

Masław

Matka królów: czasy Jagiełłowe

Na królewskim dworze: czasy Władysława IV

Pogrobek: powieść z czasów przemysławowskich

Saskie ostatki: August III

Semko: czasy bezkrólewia po Ludwiku

Jagiełło i Jadwiga

Stach z Konar: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Sprawiedliwego

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876)

Strzemieńczyk: czasy Władysława Warneńczyka

Syn Jazdona: powieść historyczna z czasów Bolesława Wstydliwego i Leszka Czarnego

Waligóra: powieść historyczna z czasów Leszka Białego

Za Sasów

20 января 2019, Собор Предтечи и Крестителя Господня Иоанна / 20 January 2019, Synaxis of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John

Turbo windmill, or Jet Wind Mill [JWM] / JWM is nephew, resp. spin off, of Spailboat, the stable sailing Speed Sail Craft.

By now, saving this planet is priority number one, and still all industries and all governments around the world do not see the windsurf formula, which makes it possible to harvest the high winds too.

Windsurfing, forerunner on turbo windmill, same formula, stabilitiy: Even a child can see that windsurfing is sensational. Just look at windsurfing from above. The waves make pipelines, and the only safe course in high winds falls parrallel with them. These pipelines lay, notably per definition, perpendicular on the wind's direction and windsurfing is always done half wind, so that the windsurfers automatically go as fast as possible and have a relatively safe ride between the waves. All in all, the windsurf formula implies that a given sail area is optimally used, that the waves are helping in making speed, that the half wind course is always leading to gliding along with the waves, that windsurfing is therefore relatively safe, that a stable configuration is the condition to make big structures, so that former dangerous windy circumstances at open ocean are just perfect to move a significant amount of mass with high speed. The kinetic energy is measured by the formula: 1/2 times the mass of the composition times the square of the speed. This world is dying for energy. So, please, understand the windsurf formula and please make Spailboats for over water, and turbo wind mills for on land.

The blades -rotors- are at their ends mantled by a ring. The ring is born within wheels in the housing. Because turbo wind mills use high winds, this mantle piece can be placed at/near the ground, so that there is no significant vibrating occurring at the ends of the blades.

In order to use high winds, the blades have to be hold firmly in place, leaving only the opportunity open for the blades to turn, or to move, perpendicular on the winds direction with as a consequence that Pythagoras' law comes in as foundation to calculate the angle of attack in the blades. Further on, one will see that windsurfing is done in the half wind sailing course and waves are swept by the wind, so that wave riding is falling with sailing half wind. Perfect.

High speed, directed perpendicular on the wind, leads also to the fact that a given sail area will be used optimally. And because cavitation, air bubbles around the swords, are restricting the windsurfers' speed, spailboat has wheels for swords. You, as reader, have to take it from here, because I can not force you to swallow dry food. Please, take one step at the time. To get started, you firstly need to understand that when a plate is placed flat -perpendicular- on the wind, there is maximum blockage of the wind by that plate. Next step. We imaginary move this plate with for instance 300 m/s in the direction flat on the wind. Now we'll see that the actual wind speed, S, that hits the blade is to be calculated by Pathagoras' law, S^2 =W^2+V^2, in where, V, is the speed of the blade perpendicular on the winds' direction and W is the wind speed. If now the original wind speed is very low, say, 1 m/s, than we might as well assume that the actual wind speed that hits the blade is still 300 m/s. In other words, when an almost flat on the wind positioned blade is moving with very high speed, perpendicular on the original wind's direction, then the actual wind speed that hits the blades, comes almost from the front. A blade end of a windmill moves faster than that blade does near the center, so that blade ends are almost positioned flat on the wind. The same counts for windsurf sails, although the sails are hold almost flat on the wind, the actual wind flow that hits the sails is coming more or less from the front. This means that we want high speed, in order to get maximum conversion of a given sail area. High speed implies high lift forces, and therefore we need stable and strong configurations that hold the blades.

I worked on stable sailing machines for twenty years now, because the capsizing and the catapulting with my catamaran scared the ........ out off me. Oh, I sailed from six years old, and won in 1988 the second biggest cat race in the world, together with my nephew, Ruud Goudriaan, who still is a class-A cat sailor. I went to college, and later to the technical university in Delft, and therefore I sold my cat, but continued windsurfing on cheap gear. However, windsurfing on old wave boards with old gear is still going much faster than the fastest cat. I kept on wondering why and when I figured it out [in 1994], I started to create a mechanically operated windsurf boat.

Sailing and windsurfing are very much like music, a well written song can be played live on stage over and over again, and every time this song improves itself. I can only ensure you, that the windsurf formula is an outstanding song, in the way to speak. Everything comes together, with as result that the windy circumstances on earth are perfect to use sails, wings, for making axles spin, as well on the oceans, by means of windsurfing -a combination of surfing and sailing stable half wind-, as on land, by means of using turbo windmills.

The only limitations in using the high winds are now caused by preoccupation of the existing economy. For instance, the car industries, the airplane industries, wind turbine industries, sailing boats industries, et cetera, keep our engineers in hostage. If we only could stop the production and the developing of the car making, airplane making et cetera, for just one week, and bring this way all the engineers to one imaginary table then the formula of windsurfing is understood. Once the leading engineers understand the windsurf formula, then the building of the prototypes is a year away. Some floors of the car industries and the airplanes industries can make room for new production lines.

And to make an even bigger example. When the second world war broke out, suddenly all floors of the car industries and airplane industries were making room for the production of tanks, jeeps, fighter planes, bombers et cetera. So, it is just a matter of priorities.

I mean, did you ever see a professor, 60 years old, windsurfing on large waves with 10 bft at open sea? No, that is the problem. These kind of persons rule the world.

Just go on the Internet, and see for yourself that the formula, for calculating the maximum sailing speed, is still only counting for non flying sailing boats. This means that they assume that the hull is still always dragging through water. For the cavitation speed they still assume always that a sword is not moving with respect to the hull. In Spailboats, on the other hand, the water cutting part of a sword does move along with respect to the hull, so that the speed of the hull and the speed of through water dragging sword have two different values. Here in Holland at the university of Delft, a leading professor -who works on his own sailing boat, off course-, once told me in person that no matter what kind of sailing boat, or windsurfer, it could never over top the 100km/hr barrier, because of cavitation around the swords. I came to him, at one of those appointments, to inform him about the new rigging, so that spailboats are almost flying above the water and to inform him about the reason -to overcome cavitation around the water cutting profile of the sword wheels- for using circle shaped spinning swords. So, I walked through his door, showed him my work, and in stead letting me talk about my work, he did not look at my work at all. He talked for half an hour, and by the time he finished, I wanted to reply, but then he said, your time is up, leave, please. I have tried to make another appointment, but in vain. A few months later, he had a full page in one of Holland's main newspapers, the Saturday edition, in where he presented his own sailing boat. The public was misled. This sailing boat was so-called state of the art, but, it did not fly, it did still capsize, it could not operate in high seas, people, it was a worthless piece of ....... . So, I came in, and he asked, what did you study,? I said: civil engineering, and that answer was apparently wrong, because he worked at the aircraft and space department. Pyramids, remember, people, we still build them. The only thing that matters, is that I am a good sailor and windsurfer , and that I made windsurf robot. Even if I did not have any masters degree at the technical university at all, he should have asked me what my work was, and not what my title was. This story goes on, because before I talked to him, the boss so to speak, I had several meetings with his students and they were impressed. But at the moment they found out that I was working outside the university they boycotted me, right away. I had to give earlier given nice 3D pictures of wings back, and also my usb stick with several drawings had to be erased. Since then I am not welcome anymore. My own professor, Marcel Donze, then always brings calm to me, with this: Who would be the worst enemy of the Pope? Jesus Christ. No rank and bare footed, and closer to God as him.

It is therefore that these two new inventions fall under: the environmental revolution.

We, the hard working people, can easily see that windsurfers go faster than the good old sailing boats. And still, billions and billions are spend on sailing boats for the happy few, like the rich men's toys for the Volvo Ocean Race, America's cup, the immense yachts et cetera. The same thing counts for the swallowing up of our best engineers for the car industries, formula 1 racing, jet fighter plane making et cetera.

If only the engineers and the people who rule the world want to save this planet, then the prototypes of the turbo windmills and the spailboats will be operating within a year.

In the past seven years I really tried endlessly to talk with professors around the world. They are just not at home. On the phone it goes like this. Who are you? What did you study, and I say, civil engineering. Oh, that has nothing to do with planes and/or mills, we are not interested.

Off course, I do not talk like them, every error in the conversation means the final cut of the conversation and once such a door is closed, it never opens again.

So, you as reader will never read or hear about windsurf machines and turbo windmills, which can save the planet, other than in this slide show.

I was a good cat sailor and a good windsurfer in the eighties. From childhood on I was at sea. Above that fact, I was born in Zaandam, the place where a cluster of windmills is stacked in an open air museum. I had the kite surfing formula on the drawing board, long before it took off, because the kites are hold just the same as windsurf sails are hold, only now on wires and further away from the board. In fact, I actually kite surfed on a small wooden plank on the beach in the eighties of the past century when I was ten years old. My nephews tried it, but were to heavy, and logically, I had to try. And it worked. Kite surfing is nothing more than using a big kite to move yourself. So, who do you want to believe, me, or the universities?

Get úp, stand up, get up for your right. Bob Marley. He believed that music unites all people one day. Wind sounds like music, doesn't it? No more nuclear power, no more burning fossil fuels.

Turbo windmill, or Jet Wind Mill [JWM] / JWM is a nephew, resp. spin off, of Spailboat, the stable sailing Speed Sail Craft.

Stability: only when stability is firstly established, then a structure might be built tall. A sailing boat might be made endlessly strong, still, it capsizes, so that it is useless to make endlessly strong masts. A Spailboat however is stable, and therefore a Spailboat can be made big, very big, as big oceanliners, with 100 meter long masts. This is part of the windsurf formula. And remember, mass in motion implies the kinetic energy.

We need energy. For making fresh drinking water, for irrigation, for making electricity, making hydrogen, for moving cars, trains, planes and so on.

The windsurf formula is here, for everyone to use in the world, because I dropped my patents. It is free, for you, Africa, Asia, America, Europe, the south pacific continents and islands. Just have a look and run this show a few times. It is like the wheel itself, it is normal, revolutionary and it will change the world. No nuclear power is needed any longer, just usage of high winds and swell on the oceans. And the turbo windmill is spin off, because these blades are in fact circular moving steady in positioned hold windsurf sails.

Enigma Dynamics struck gold when they created the Blitz Mk 1 engine. Such powerful but unpredictable technology had to have a ship built around it, rather than the other way around.

Tesler proposed their Forerunner model featuring a large cooling component that kept the Blitz's heat in the back, where it's put to good use. The Forerunner excels at going straight, and that's about it.

With its flaws the Forerunner had a short production life. Tesler moved on to build the more maneuverable Starpoint cruiser. Folks lucky enough to find this old ship repurpose it for exploration, light cargo, and underground racing.

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the most prolific writer in the history of Polish literature and the seventh most prolific in the world.[citation needed] He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.

The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Vilna between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.[1]

Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.[2]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life and studies

1.2 Adulthood and literary career

1.3 Exile, later life and death

2 Character and style

3 Adaptation

4 Works

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Biography

Early life and studies

Childhood home in Romanów

Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Pruzhany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanów in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocz, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Vilna under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Vilna and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.

Adulthood and literary career

Photograph of Kraszewski taken before 1886

In 1838 he married Zofia Woroniczówna, related to the late primate and poet J. P. Woronicz. He did this against the will of his father, who thought his son wanted to reach too high. Once married, the couple settled in Wołyń. In 1853 – already parents to four children – they moved to Żytomierz. From now on Kraszewski concentrated on his literary work, though he did not avoid other activities (he became the superintendent of a high school, the director of a theatre and the Charity Association). As a result of his dispute with conservative public opinion on his critical assessment of the gentry's attitude towards peasants, in 1859 he accepted the proposal of Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, a wealthy Polish banker of Polish-Jewish origin from Warsaw, to become the editor of the "Gazeta Warszawska" and he moved with his family to Warsaw. Owing to his editorial skills, the number of the "Gazeta" subscribers within half a year rose from 500 to 8000, but at the same time he had to stand the vicious remarks of anti-Semites. Just before the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was politically active and thus, when the military activities began, he was announced persona non grata in Warsaw by the Petersburg-submissive local authorities and was forced to emigrate, leaving his family in Warsaw. He went to Dresden, where he lived till 1884.[3]

Exile, later life and death

In Dresden he became a one-person Polish institution helping the political refugees, and organising literary life and information about Poland. With the death of many great poets of Romanticism, he became the unquestionable literary authority and the favourite of the public. In 1870 as the editor of "Tydzień" he expressed his skepticism about the dogma, approved at the First Vatican Council, that the pope is infallible as far as questions regarding the faith are concerned. That made him unpopular among the national orthodox church authorities, but he did not lose popularity among his readers. In 1879 in Kraków week-long celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his literary career were held. In 1883 he was arrested in Berlin and charged with collaboration with French military intelligence, and a year later he was sentenced by the tribunal in Leipzig to three and a half years of imprisonment in a fortress. He served the sentence in the Magdeburg Fortress. As a result of his illness he was temporarily released on bail and went to Italy to improve his health, and after the earthquake there he sought refuge in Geneva in 1886. There, already suffering from cancer, he contracted pneumonia, which was the direct cause of his death on 19 March 1887. His body was brought to Kraków and placed in the vault where the meritorious were buried in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery.[4]

Character and style

An Ancient Tale by Kraszewski, 1876

In German and Polish: "Józef Ignacy Kraszewski-in this Dresden building, in 1879–1885, lived and wrote the great Polish writer, a man of great industry and a great contributor to Polish culture."

Kraszewski was one of the most prolific Polish writers of all times. His works comprise more than 220 novels (in the nineteenth century published in about 400 volumes), around 150 novellas, short stories and literary pictures, some 20 theatre plays, more than 20 volumes of historical studies (including the 3-volume Historia Wilna ["History of Vilnius"] and the 3-volume Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799 ["Poland during the Three Partitions 1772–1799]), a few volumes on his travels, more than 10 volumes of social, political and literary journalism [including 5 volumes of Rachunki (1866–69)], more than 6 volumes of poetry, including a 3-volume epos on the history of Lithuania, more than 20 volumes of his translations from 5 languages (English, French, German, Latin and Italian), several thousand columns, press articles and reviews, which, when printed as books, would have to be collected in more than 100 volumes. He wrote many letters – their number is estimated to reach tens of thousands; just a little part of them have been published so far. He was an editor and a publisher. He prepared for publication and published over 40 volumes of historic documents and works of other writers. In the years 1841–51 he edited in Wołyń, and published in Wilno the bimonthly "Athenaeum" (66 volumes), in the years 1859–63 after he moved, Kraszewski was the editor of the daily "Gazeta Warszawska" (from 1861 "Gazeta Polska"), and in 1870–71 in Dresden he edited "Tydzień".

Despite all that, he was not a man who would be interested just in covering paper with print or writing. He was deeply interested in drawing landscapes and architecture (he illustrated his reports from his travels himself; more than 1600 of his pictures have survived until the present day), took up amateur oil painting, collected old prints (there were more than 6000 works in his collection). Kraszewski loved music. He considered playing the piano for one hour every day to be an extraordinary pleasure for him, and his reviews of concerts or opera performances are characterised by solid professionalism. He travelled widely: he visited the whole of pre-partition Poland and almost the whole of Europe. Throughout his adult life he took an active part in political activities, which resulted in him being sent to prison twice. He participated in dozens of social events, and more than once he had to stand up against public opinion.

Page from Kraszewski's 1875 novel Brühl

In his novels he would emphasise loyalty to the real world, thus he would use mimesis, but combined it with his fascination with romanticism. Very well-educated in the field of European literature and aesthetics, he regarded highly not only Balzac, Dickens, Gogol, and later Zola, but also Stendhal, even before he came to be appreciated in his own country, but his heart was always with Adam Mickiewicz. His first works would be influenced by English sentimentalism, especially that of L. Sterne and the French frenetic romantics in the style of the young Victor Hugo or German fantasy in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The group of works closest to the ideals of Romanticism were his novels on the conflict of an artist with reality and on the life of folk people. In some of his works he would concentrate on women's matters (Całe życie biedna 1840, Szalona 1880, Sama jedna 1881), and in dozens – the issues regarding the gentry or the magnates (Latarnia czarnoksięska 1843-4, Interesa familijne 1852, Dwa światy 1854, Morituri 1873). He refers to the 1863 Uprising in a series of political novels written under the name of B. Bolesławita (Dziecię Starego Miasta 1863, Moskal 1865, Żyd 1866 and others). Kraszewski would extend the subject matter of his works, diversify the plot conventions (biography, travel, romance, sensation, etc.) and stylistic forms (realistic way of expression, purpose narration, parable, diary, tale, journal).He also appreciated small literary prose forms, such as, for example, pictures, philosophical sketches and novellas. His works would discuss all the major social and moral issues of his times and would include all the literary motifs favoured by the readers.[5]

Until 1863 he would concentrate on topical issues, during his stay in Dresden – on historical ones. Before he left the country he had written 20 historical novels, while in exile – more than 80. Unlike W. Scott he would give priority to the historical truth over fiction, and opted for criticism against the past. In this spirit he wrote Zygmuntowskie czasy (1846) and Diabła (1855), and in Dresden the so-called Saxon series (Hrabina Cosel 1873, Brühl 1874 and others) as well as a group of over 20 other novels on the eighteenth century (including Bezimienna 1869, Sto diabłów 1870 and Bratankowie 1871). He was successful in using tale narration in many of his works. His most famous enterprise within the genre of historical novels, was the series of 29 novels on the history of Poland. He started it with Stara baśń (1876) – which referred to the legendary epoch. From the very beginning the novel enjoyed great popularity, and was later his most often republished work (up to 2000 it was published more than 60 times). Next he wrote about the Piast dynasty (among others Boleszczyce 1877, Król chłopów 1881), the Jagiellonians (Semko 1882, Matka królów 1883 and others) and the oriental rulers (i.e. Boży gniew 1886). The series was completed with the posthumously published Saskie ostatki (1889).

Kraszewski's literary activities were characterised by patriotic intentions, tinged with antipathy toward the aristocracy, affinity with the gentry (whose vices he would castigate, but whom he considered to be the mainstay of national awareness) and a tendency to idealise the peasants. The realist writers of Poland's "Positivist" period, notably including Bolesław Prus, regarded him as their teacher. Single-handedly he created a whole library of novels, which in the second half of the 19th century were appreciated not only in Poland—where he was popular even in the twentieth century—but in the majority of European countries. Over a hundred of his novels have been translated into foreign languages. Before Henryk Sienkiewicz, he was the most often translated Polish author.

Adaptation

In 2003 the first book in the series, Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876), was made into a successful feature film directed by Jerzy Hoffman starring Bohdan Stupka, Michał Żebrowski and Daniel Olbrychski.

Works

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Sceny i charaktery z życia powszedniego (1878)

Barani Kożuszek (1881)

Biografia Sokalskiego organisty Kotlety

Boża czekoladka (1858)

Boża opieka. Powieść osnuta na opowiadaniach XVIII wieku

Bracia rywale

Bratanki

Brühl (1874)

Budnik (1847)

Całe życie biedna

Caprea i Roma (1859)

Cet czy licho?

Chata za wsią (The Cottage outside the Village, 1842)

Czarna Perełka (1871)

Czasy kościuszkowskie

Czercza mogiła

Cześnikówny

Cztery wesela

Diabeł (1855)

Dola i niedola. Powieść z ostatnich lat XVIII wieku (1864)

Dwa światy (1856)

Dziad i baba

Dziadunio (1868)

Dzieci wieku (1857)

Dziecię Starego Miasta (1863)

Dziennik Serafiny (1876)

Dziwadła

Emisariusz

Ewunia

Głupi Maciuś

Grzechy hetmańskie. Obrazy z końca XVIII wieku

Herod baba

Historia kołka w płocie (1860)

Historia o bladej dziewczynie spod Ostrej Bramy

Historia o Janaszu Korczaku i o pięknej miecznikównie: powieść z czasów Jana Sobieskiego (1874)

Historia Sawki (1842)

Hołota

Hrabina Cosel (1873, e-book)

Interesa familijne

Jak się pan Paweł żenił i jak się ożenił

Jaryna (1850)

Jermoła (Iermola, 1857)

Jesienią

Kamienica w Długim Rynku

Kartki z podróży

Kawał literata (1875)

Klasztor

Klin klinem

Komedianci

Kopciuszek

Kordecki

Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie

Król i Bondarywna. Powieść historyczna

Krzyż na rozstajnych drogach

Krzyżacy 1410

Kunigas (1881)

Kwiat paproci

Lalki: sceny przedślubne

Latarnia czarnoksięska (1843–1844)

Listy do rodziny

Lublana

Ładny chłopiec

Ładowa Pieczara (1852)

Macocha

Maleparta

Męczennicy. Marynka

Męczennicy. Na wysokościach

Milion posagu

Mistrz Twardowski (1840)

Mogilna. Obrazek współczesny

Morituri (1874–1875)

Moskal: obrazek współczesny narysowany z natury (1865)

Na bialskim zamku

Na cmentarzu – na wulkanie

Na tułactwie

Na wschodzie. Obrazek współczesny (1866)

Nad modrym Dunajem

Nad Sprewą

Nera

Niebieskie migdały

Noc majowa

Ongi

Orbeka

Ostap Bondarczuk (1847)

Ostatni z Siekierzyńskich (1851)

Ostrożnie z ogniem

Pałac i folwark

Pamiętnik Mroczka (1870)

Pamiętnik panicza

Pamiętniki

Pan i szewc

Pan Karol

Pan Major

Pan na czterech chłopach (1879)

Pan Walery

Panie kochanku: anegdota dramatyczna w trzech aktach

Papiery po Glince

Pod Blachą: powieść z końca XVIII wieku (1881)

Poeta i świat (1839)

Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799

Pomywaczka: obrazek z końca XVIII wieku

Powieść bez tytułu (1854)

Powrót do gniazda (1875)

Półdiablę weneckie

Profesor Milczek

Przed burzą

Przygody pana Marka Hinczy. Rzecz z podań życia staroszlacheckiego

Pułkownikówna

Ramułtowie

Raptularz pana Mateusza Jasienickeigo. Z oryginału przepisany mutatis mutandis

Resurrecturi

Resztki życia

Roboty i prace: sceny i charaktery współczesne

Rzym za Nerona (1865)

Sąsiedzi

Sceny sejmowe. Grodno 1793 (1873)

Sekret pana Czuryły. Historia jednego rezydenta wedle podań współczesnych opowiedziana

Serce i ręka (1875)

Sfinks (1847)

Sieroce dole

Skrypt Fleminga

Sprawa kryminalna

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale)

Stańczykowa kronika od roku 1503 do 1508 (1841)

Stara Panna

Staropolska miłość

Starosta warszawski: obrazy historyczne z XVIII wieku

Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774

Stary sługa

Sto Diabłów

Syn marnotrawny (1879)

Szalona (1880)

Szaławiła

Szpieg (1864)

Śniehotowie

Tomko Prawdzic

Trapezologion

Tryumf wiary. Obrazek historyczny z czasów Mieczysława I-go

Tułacze (1868)

U babuni

Ulana (1842)

W baśń oblekły się dzieje

W pocie czoła. Z dziennika dorobkiewicza (1884)

W starym piecu

Warszawa 1794 (1873)

Wielki nieznajomy

Wielki świat małego miasteczka

Wilczek i wilczkowa

Wspomnienia Odessy, Jedysanu i Budżaku: dziennik przejażki w roku 1843 od 22 czerwca do 11 września

Wspomnienia Wołynia, Polesia i Litwy

Z chłopa król

Z siedmioletniej wojny (1875)

Z życia awanturnika

Zadora

Zaklęta księżniczka

Zemsta Czokołdowa

Złote jabłko

Złoty Jasieńko

Zygmuntowskie czasy. Powieść z roku 1572 (1846)

Zygzaki

Żacy krakowscy w roku 1549 (Kraków Students in 1549)

Żeliga

Żyd: obrazy współczesne (The Jew: Contemporary Pictures, 1866)

Żywot i przygody hrabi Gozdzkiego. Pan starosta Kaniowski

Żywot i sprawy Imć pana Medarda z Gołczwi Pełki z notat familijnych spisane (1876)

Series "Dzieje Polski" ("The History of Poland") — 29 novels about Poland's history, in chronological order (1876–90)

Adama Polanowskiego dworzanina króla Jegomości Jana III notatki

Bajbuza: czasy Zygmunta III

Banita: czasy Stefana Batorego

Biały książę: czasy Ludwika Węgierskiego

Boleszczyce: powieść z czasów Bolesława Szczodrego

Boży gniew: czasy Jana Kazimierza

Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy: powieść z czasów Chrobrego

Dwie królowe

Historia prawdziwa o Petrku Właście palatynie, którego zwano Duninem: opowiadanie historyczne z XII wieku

Infantka

Jaszka Orfanem zwanego żywota i spraw pamiętnik: Jagiełłowie do Zygmunta

Jelita: powieść herbowa z r. 1331

Kraków za Łokietka: powieść historyczna

Król Chłopów: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Wielkiego

Król Piast: (Michał książę Wiśniowiecki)

Królewscy synowie: powieść z czasów Władysława Hermana i Krzywoustego

Lubonie: powieść z X wieku

Masław

Matka królów: czasy Jagiełłowe

Na królewskim dworze: czasy Władysława IV

Pogrobek: powieść z czasów przemysławowskich

Saskie ostatki: August III

Semko: czasy bezkrólewia po Ludwiku

Jagiełło i Jadwiga

Stach z Konar: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Sprawiedliwego

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876)

Strzemieńczyk: czasy Władysława Warneńczyka

Syn Jazdona: powieść historyczna z czasów Bolesława Wstydliwego i Leszka Czarnego

Waligóra: powieść historyczna z czasów Leszka Białego

Za Sasów

(Forerunner of Dump truck)

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the most prolific writer in the history of Polish literature and the seventh most prolific in the world.[citation needed] He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.

The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Vilna between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.[1]

Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.[2]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life and studies

1.2 Adulthood and literary career

1.3 Exile, later life and death

2 Character and style

3 Adaptation

4 Works

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Biography

Early life and studies

Childhood home in Romanów

Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Pruzhany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanów in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocz, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Vilna under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Vilna and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.

Adulthood and literary career

Photograph of Kraszewski taken before 1886

In 1838 he married Zofia Woroniczówna, related to the late primate and poet J. P. Woronicz. He did this against the will of his father, who thought his son wanted to reach too high. Once married, the couple settled in Wołyń. In 1853 – already parents to four children – they moved to Żytomierz. From now on Kraszewski concentrated on his literary work, though he did not avoid other activities (he became the superintendent of a high school, the director of a theatre and the Charity Association). As a result of his dispute with conservative public opinion on his critical assessment of the gentry's attitude towards peasants, in 1859 he accepted the proposal of Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, a wealthy Polish banker of Polish-Jewish origin from Warsaw, to become the editor of the "Gazeta Warszawska" and he moved with his family to Warsaw. Owing to his editorial skills, the number of the "Gazeta" subscribers within half a year rose from 500 to 8000, but at the same time he had to stand the vicious remarks of anti-Semites. Just before the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was politically active and thus, when the military activities began, he was announced persona non grata in Warsaw by the Petersburg-submissive local authorities and was forced to emigrate, leaving his family in Warsaw. He went to Dresden, where he lived till 1884.[3]

Exile, later life and death

In Dresden he became a one-person Polish institution helping the political refugees, and organising literary life and information about Poland. With the death of many great poets of Romanticism, he became the unquestionable literary authority and the favourite of the public. In 1870 as the editor of "Tydzień" he expressed his skepticism about the dogma, approved at the First Vatican Council, that the pope is infallible as far as questions regarding the faith are concerned. That made him unpopular among the national orthodox church authorities, but he did not lose popularity among his readers. In 1879 in Kraków week-long celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his literary career were held. In 1883 he was arrested in Berlin and charged with collaboration with French military intelligence, and a year later he was sentenced by the tribunal in Leipzig to three and a half years of imprisonment in a fortress. He served the sentence in the Magdeburg Fortress. As a result of his illness he was temporarily released on bail and went to Italy to improve his health, and after the earthquake there he sought refuge in Geneva in 1886. There, already suffering from cancer, he contracted pneumonia, which was the direct cause of his death on 19 March 1887. His body was brought to Kraków and placed in the vault where the meritorious were buried in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery.[4]

Character and style

An Ancient Tale by Kraszewski, 1876

In German and Polish: "Józef Ignacy Kraszewski-in this Dresden building, in 1879–1885, lived and wrote the great Polish writer, a man of great industry and a great contributor to Polish culture."

Kraszewski was one of the most prolific Polish writers of all times. His works comprise more than 220 novels (in the nineteenth century published in about 400 volumes), around 150 novellas, short stories and literary pictures, some 20 theatre plays, more than 20 volumes of historical studies (including the 3-volume Historia Wilna ["History of Vilnius"] and the 3-volume Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799 ["Poland during the Three Partitions 1772–1799]), a few volumes on his travels, more than 10 volumes of social, political and literary journalism [including 5 volumes of Rachunki (1866–69)], more than 6 volumes of poetry, including a 3-volume epos on the history of Lithuania, more than 20 volumes of his translations from 5 languages (English, French, German, Latin and Italian), several thousand columns, press articles and reviews, which, when printed as books, would have to be collected in more than 100 volumes. He wrote many letters – their number is estimated to reach tens of thousands; just a little part of them have been published so far. He was an editor and a publisher. He prepared for publication and published over 40 volumes of historic documents and works of other writers. In the years 1841–51 he edited in Wołyń, and published in Wilno the bimonthly "Athenaeum" (66 volumes), in the years 1859–63 after he moved, Kraszewski was the editor of the daily "Gazeta Warszawska" (from 1861 "Gazeta Polska"), and in 1870–71 in Dresden he edited "Tydzień".

Despite all that, he was not a man who would be interested just in covering paper with print or writing. He was deeply interested in drawing landscapes and architecture (he illustrated his reports from his travels himself; more than 1600 of his pictures have survived until the present day), took up amateur oil painting, collected old prints (there were more than 6000 works in his collection). Kraszewski loved music. He considered playing the piano for one hour every day to be an extraordinary pleasure for him, and his reviews of concerts or opera performances are characterised by solid professionalism. He travelled widely: he visited the whole of pre-partition Poland and almost the whole of Europe. Throughout his adult life he took an active part in political activities, which resulted in him being sent to prison twice. He participated in dozens of social events, and more than once he had to stand up against public opinion.

Page from Kraszewski's 1875 novel Brühl

In his novels he would emphasise loyalty to the real world, thus he would use mimesis, but combined it with his fascination with romanticism. Very well-educated in the field of European literature and aesthetics, he regarded highly not only Balzac, Dickens, Gogol, and later Zola, but also Stendhal, even before he came to be appreciated in his own country, but his heart was always with Adam Mickiewicz. His first works would be influenced by English sentimentalism, especially that of L. Sterne and the French frenetic romantics in the style of the young Victor Hugo or German fantasy in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The group of works closest to the ideals of Romanticism were his novels on the conflict of an artist with reality and on the life of folk people. In some of his works he would concentrate on women's matters (Całe życie biedna 1840, Szalona 1880, Sama jedna 1881), and in dozens – the issues regarding the gentry or the magnates (Latarnia czarnoksięska 1843-4, Interesa familijne 1852, Dwa światy 1854, Morituri 1873). He refers to the 1863 Uprising in a series of political novels written under the name of B. Bolesławita (Dziecię Starego Miasta 1863, Moskal 1865, Żyd 1866 and others). Kraszewski would extend the subject matter of his works, diversify the plot conventions (biography, travel, romance, sensation, etc.) and stylistic forms (realistic way of expression, purpose narration, parable, diary, tale, journal).He also appreciated small literary prose forms, such as, for example, pictures, philosophical sketches and novellas. His works would discuss all the major social and moral issues of his times and would include all the literary motifs favoured by the readers.[5]

Until 1863 he would concentrate on topical issues, during his stay in Dresden – on historical ones. Before he left the country he had written 20 historical novels, while in exile – more than 80. Unlike W. Scott he would give priority to the historical truth over fiction, and opted for criticism against the past. In this spirit he wrote Zygmuntowskie czasy (1846) and Diabła (1855), and in Dresden the so-called Saxon series (Hrabina Cosel 1873, Brühl 1874 and others) as well as a group of over 20 other novels on the eighteenth century (including Bezimienna 1869, Sto diabłów 1870 and Bratankowie 1871). He was successful in using tale narration in many of his works. His most famous enterprise within the genre of historical novels, was the series of 29 novels on the history of Poland. He started it with Stara baśń (1876) – which referred to the legendary epoch. From the very beginning the novel enjoyed great popularity, and was later his most often republished work (up to 2000 it was published more than 60 times). Next he wrote about the Piast dynasty (among others Boleszczyce 1877, Król chłopów 1881), the Jagiellonians (Semko 1882, Matka królów 1883 and others) and the oriental rulers (i.e. Boży gniew 1886). The series was completed with the posthumously published Saskie ostatki (1889).

Kraszewski's literary activities were characterised by patriotic intentions, tinged with antipathy toward the aristocracy, affinity with the gentry (whose vices he would castigate, but whom he considered to be the mainstay of national awareness) and a tendency to idealise the peasants. The realist writers of Poland's "Positivist" period, notably including Bolesław Prus, regarded him as their teacher. Single-handedly he created a whole library of novels, which in the second half of the 19th century were appreciated not only in Poland—where he was popular even in the twentieth century—but in the majority of European countries. Over a hundred of his novels have been translated into foreign languages. Before Henryk Sienkiewicz, he was the most often translated Polish author.

Adaptation

In 2003 the first book in the series, Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876), was made into a successful feature film directed by Jerzy Hoffman starring Bohdan Stupka, Michał Żebrowski and Daniel Olbrychski.

Works

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Sceny i charaktery z życia powszedniego (1878)

Barani Kożuszek (1881)

Biografia Sokalskiego organisty Kotlety

Boża czekoladka (1858)

Boża opieka. Powieść osnuta na opowiadaniach XVIII wieku

Bracia rywale

Bratanki

Brühl (1874)

Budnik (1847)

Całe życie biedna

Caprea i Roma (1859)

Cet czy licho?

Chata za wsią (The Cottage outside the Village, 1842)

Czarna Perełka (1871)

Czasy kościuszkowskie

Czercza mogiła

Cześnikówny

Cztery wesela

Diabeł (1855)

Dola i niedola. Powieść z ostatnich lat XVIII wieku (1864)

Dwa światy (1856)

Dziad i baba

Dziadunio (1868)

Dzieci wieku (1857)

Dziecię Starego Miasta (1863)

Dziennik Serafiny (1876)

Dziwadła

Emisariusz

Ewunia

Głupi Maciuś

Grzechy hetmańskie. Obrazy z końca XVIII wieku

Herod baba

Historia kołka w płocie (1860)

Historia o bladej dziewczynie spod Ostrej Bramy

Historia o Janaszu Korczaku i o pięknej miecznikównie: powieść z czasów Jana Sobieskiego (1874)

Historia Sawki (1842)

Hołota

Hrabina Cosel (1873, e-book)

Interesa familijne

Jak się pan Paweł żenił i jak się ożenił

Jaryna (1850)

Jermoła (Iermola, 1857)

Jesienią

Kamienica w Długim Rynku

Kartki z podróży

Kawał literata (1875)

Klasztor

Klin klinem

Komedianci

Kopciuszek

Kordecki

Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie

Król i Bondarywna. Powieść historyczna

Krzyż na rozstajnych drogach

Krzyżacy 1410

Kunigas (1881)

Kwiat paproci

Lalki: sceny przedślubne

Latarnia czarnoksięska (1843–1844)

Listy do rodziny

Lublana

Ładny chłopiec

Ładowa Pieczara (1852)

Macocha

Maleparta

Męczennicy. Marynka

Męczennicy. Na wysokościach

Milion posagu

Mistrz Twardowski (1840)

Mogilna. Obrazek współczesny

Morituri (1874–1875)

Moskal: obrazek współczesny narysowany z natury (1865)

Na bialskim zamku

Na cmentarzu – na wulkanie

Na tułactwie

Na wschodzie. Obrazek współczesny (1866)

Nad modrym Dunajem

Nad Sprewą

Nera

Niebieskie migdały

Noc majowa

Ongi

Orbeka

Ostap Bondarczuk (1847)

Ostatni z Siekierzyńskich (1851)

Ostrożnie z ogniem

Pałac i folwark

Pamiętnik Mroczka (1870)

Pamiętnik panicza

Pamiętniki

Pan i szewc

Pan Karol

Pan Major

Pan na czterech chłopach (1879)

Pan Walery

Panie kochanku: anegdota dramatyczna w trzech aktach

Papiery po Glince

Pod Blachą: powieść z końca XVIII wieku (1881)

Poeta i świat (1839)

Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799

Pomywaczka: obrazek z końca XVIII wieku

Powieść bez tytułu (1854)

Powrót do gniazda (1875)

Półdiablę weneckie

Profesor Milczek

Przed burzą

Przygody pana Marka Hinczy. Rzecz z podań życia staroszlacheckiego

Pułkownikówna

Ramułtowie

Raptularz pana Mateusza Jasienickeigo. Z oryginału przepisany mutatis mutandis

Resurrecturi

Resztki życia

Roboty i prace: sceny i charaktery współczesne

Rzym za Nerona (1865)

Sąsiedzi

Sceny sejmowe. Grodno 1793 (1873)

Sekret pana Czuryły. Historia jednego rezydenta wedle podań współczesnych opowiedziana

Serce i ręka (1875)

Sfinks (1847)

Sieroce dole

Skrypt Fleminga

Sprawa kryminalna

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale)

Stańczykowa kronika od roku 1503 do 1508 (1841)

Stara Panna

Staropolska miłość

Starosta warszawski: obrazy historyczne z XVIII wieku

Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774

Stary sługa

Sto Diabłów

Syn marnotrawny (1879)

Szalona (1880)

Szaławiła

Szpieg (1864)

Śniehotowie

Tomko Prawdzic

Trapezologion

Tryumf wiary. Obrazek historyczny z czasów Mieczysława I-go

Tułacze (1868)

U babuni

Ulana (1842)

W baśń oblekły się dzieje

W pocie czoła. Z dziennika dorobkiewicza (1884)

W starym piecu

Warszawa 1794 (1873)

Wielki nieznajomy

Wielki świat małego miasteczka

Wilczek i wilczkowa

Wspomnienia Odessy, Jedysanu i Budżaku: dziennik przejażki w roku 1843 od 22 czerwca do 11 września

Wspomnienia Wołynia, Polesia i Litwy

Z chłopa król

Z siedmioletniej wojny (1875)

Z życia awanturnika

Zadora

Zaklęta księżniczka

Zemsta Czokołdowa

Złote jabłko

Złoty Jasieńko

Zygmuntowskie czasy. Powieść z roku 1572 (1846)

Zygzaki

Żacy krakowscy w roku 1549 (Kraków Students in 1549)

Żeliga

Żyd: obrazy współczesne (The Jew: Contemporary Pictures, 1866)

Żywot i przygody hrabi Gozdzkiego. Pan starosta Kaniowski

Żywot i sprawy Imć pana Medarda z Gołczwi Pełki z notat familijnych spisane (1876)

Series "Dzieje Polski" ("The History of Poland") — 29 novels about Poland's history, in chronological order (1876–90)

Adama Polanowskiego dworzanina króla Jegomości Jana III notatki

Bajbuza: czasy Zygmunta III

Banita: czasy Stefana Batorego

Biały książę: czasy Ludwika Węgierskiego

Boleszczyce: powieść z czasów Bolesława Szczodrego

Boży gniew: czasy Jana Kazimierza

Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy: powieść z czasów Chrobrego

Dwie królowe

Historia prawdziwa o Petrku Właście palatynie, którego zwano Duninem: opowiadanie historyczne z XII wieku

Infantka

Jaszka Orfanem zwanego żywota i spraw pamiętnik: Jagiełłowie do Zygmunta

Jelita: powieść herbowa z r. 1331

Kraków za Łokietka: powieść historyczna

Król Chłopów: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Wielkiego

Król Piast: (Michał książę Wiśniowiecki)

Królewscy synowie: powieść z czasów Władysława Hermana i Krzywoustego

Lubonie: powieść z X wieku

Masław

Matka królów: czasy Jagiełłowe

Na królewskim dworze: czasy Władysława IV

Pogrobek: powieść z czasów przemysławowskich

Saskie ostatki: August III

Semko: czasy bezkrólewia po Ludwiku

Jagiełło i Jadwiga

Stach z Konar: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Sprawiedliwego

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876)

Strzemieńczyk: czasy Władysława Warneńczyka

Syn Jazdona: powieść historyczna z czasów Bolesława Wstydliwego i Leszka Czarnego

Waligóra: powieść historyczna z czasów Leszka Białego

Za Sasów

ANAGLYPH, conversion of original Realist format stereo transparency in my collection. The following is written on the slide: " Seton Rochwite designer of the Stereo Realist camera with his handmade forerunners of the Realist. Photographic Society of America Convention, Denver. by Glen Thrush 44-54"

This image views in 3D when wearing RED/CYAN 3D glasses.

ANAGLYPH, Conversion of Realist Slide of Actor and Stereo Realist enthusiast Harold Lloyd also by Glen Thrush: www.flickr.com/photos/depthandtime/4498599934/

Also by Glen Thrush: www.flickr.com/photos/depthandtime/4500859253/in/set-7215...

Also by Glen Thrush: www.flickr.com/photos/depthandtime/4500763951/in/set-7215...

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the most prolific writer in the history of Polish literature and the seventh most prolific in the world.[citation needed] He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.

The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Vilna between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.[1]

Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.[2]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life and studies

1.2 Adulthood and literary career

1.3 Exile, later life and death

2 Character and style

3 Adaptation

4 Works

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Biography

Early life and studies

Childhood home in Romanów

Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Pruzhany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanów in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocz, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Vilna under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Vilna and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.

Adulthood and literary career

Photograph of Kraszewski taken before 1886

In 1838 he married Zofia Woroniczówna, related to the late primate and poet J. P. Woronicz. He did this against the will of his father, who thought his son wanted to reach too high. Once married, the couple settled in Wołyń. In 1853 – already parents to four children – they moved to Żytomierz. From now on Kraszewski concentrated on his literary work, though he did not avoid other activities (he became the superintendent of a high school, the director of a theatre and the Charity Association). As a result of his dispute with conservative public opinion on his critical assessment of the gentry's attitude towards peasants, in 1859 he accepted the proposal of Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, a wealthy Polish banker of Polish-Jewish origin from Warsaw, to become the editor of the "Gazeta Warszawska" and he moved with his family to Warsaw. Owing to his editorial skills, the number of the "Gazeta" subscribers within half a year rose from 500 to 8000, but at the same time he had to stand the vicious remarks of anti-Semites. Just before the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was politically active and thus, when the military activities began, he was announced persona non grata in Warsaw by the Petersburg-submissive local authorities and was forced to emigrate, leaving his family in Warsaw. He went to Dresden, where he lived till 1884.[3]

Exile, later life and death

In Dresden he became a one-person Polish institution helping the political refugees, and organising literary life and information about Poland. With the death of many great poets of Romanticism, he became the unquestionable literary authority and the favourite of the public. In 1870 as the editor of "Tydzień" he expressed his skepticism about the dogma, approved at the First Vatican Council, that the pope is infallible as far as questions regarding the faith are concerned. That made him unpopular among the national orthodox church authorities, but he did not lose popularity among his readers. In 1879 in Kraków week-long celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his literary career were held. In 1883 he was arrested in Berlin and charged with collaboration with French military intelligence, and a year later he was sentenced by the tribunal in Leipzig to three and a half years of imprisonment in a fortress. He served the sentence in the Magdeburg Fortress. As a result of his illness he was temporarily released on bail and went to Italy to improve his health, and after the earthquake there he sought refuge in Geneva in 1886. There, already suffering from cancer, he contracted pneumonia, which was the direct cause of his death on 19 March 1887. His body was brought to Kraków and placed in the vault where the meritorious were buried in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery.[4]

Character and style

An Ancient Tale by Kraszewski, 1876

In German and Polish: "Józef Ignacy Kraszewski-in this Dresden building, in 1879–1885, lived and wrote the great Polish writer, a man of great industry and a great contributor to Polish culture."

Kraszewski was one of the most prolific Polish writers of all times. His works comprise more than 220 novels (in the nineteenth century published in about 400 volumes), around 150 novellas, short stories and literary pictures, some 20 theatre plays, more than 20 volumes of historical studies (including the 3-volume Historia Wilna ["History of Vilnius"] and the 3-volume Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799 ["Poland during the Three Partitions 1772–1799]), a few volumes on his travels, more than 10 volumes of social, political and literary journalism [including 5 volumes of Rachunki (1866–69)], more than 6 volumes of poetry, including a 3-volume epos on the history of Lithuania, more than 20 volumes of his translations from 5 languages (English, French, German, Latin and Italian), several thousand columns, press articles and reviews, which, when printed as books, would have to be collected in more than 100 volumes. He wrote many letters – their number is estimated to reach tens of thousands; just a little part of them have been published so far. He was an editor and a publisher. He prepared for publication and published over 40 volumes of historic documents and works of other writers. In the years 1841–51 he edited in Wołyń, and published in Wilno the bimonthly "Athenaeum" (66 volumes), in the years 1859–63 after he moved, Kraszewski was the editor of the daily "Gazeta Warszawska" (from 1861 "Gazeta Polska"), and in 1870–71 in Dresden he edited "Tydzień".

Despite all that, he was not a man who would be interested just in covering paper with print or writing. He was deeply interested in drawing landscapes and architecture (he illustrated his reports from his travels himself; more than 1600 of his pictures have survived until the present day), took up amateur oil painting, collected old prints (there were more than 6000 works in his collection). Kraszewski loved music. He considered playing the piano for one hour every day to be an extraordinary pleasure for him, and his reviews of concerts or opera performances are characterised by solid professionalism. He travelled widely: he visited the whole of pre-partition Poland and almost the whole of Europe. Throughout his adult life he took an active part in political activities, which resulted in him being sent to prison twice. He participated in dozens of social events, and more than once he had to stand up against public opinion.

Page from Kraszewski's 1875 novel Brühl

In his novels he would emphasise loyalty to the real world, thus he would use mimesis, but combined it with his fascination with romanticism. Very well-educated in the field of European literature and aesthetics, he regarded highly not only Balzac, Dickens, Gogol, and later Zola, but also Stendhal, even before he came to be appreciated in his own country, but his heart was always with Adam Mickiewicz. His first works would be influenced by English sentimentalism, especially that of L. Sterne and the French frenetic romantics in the style of the young Victor Hugo or German fantasy in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The group of works closest to the ideals of Romanticism were his novels on the conflict of an artist with reality and on the life of folk people. In some of his works he would concentrate on women's matters (Całe życie biedna 1840, Szalona 1880, Sama jedna 1881), and in dozens – the issues regarding the gentry or the magnates (Latarnia czarnoksięska 1843-4, Interesa familijne 1852, Dwa światy 1854, Morituri 1873). He refers to the 1863 Uprising in a series of political novels written under the name of B. Bolesławita (Dziecię Starego Miasta 1863, Moskal 1865, Żyd 1866 and others). Kraszewski would extend the subject matter of his works, diversify the plot conventions (biography, travel, romance, sensation, etc.) and stylistic forms (realistic way of expression, purpose narration, parable, diary, tale, journal).He also appreciated small literary prose forms, such as, for example, pictures, philosophical sketches and novellas. His works would discuss all the major social and moral issues of his times and would include all the literary motifs favoured by the readers.[5]

Until 1863 he would concentrate on topical issues, during his stay in Dresden – on historical ones. Before he left the country he had written 20 historical novels, while in exile – more than 80. Unlike W. Scott he would give priority to the historical truth over fiction, and opted for criticism against the past. In this spirit he wrote Zygmuntowskie czasy (1846) and Diabła (1855), and in Dresden the so-called Saxon series (Hrabina Cosel 1873, Brühl 1874 and others) as well as a group of over 20 other novels on the eighteenth century (including Bezimienna 1869, Sto diabłów 1870 and Bratankowie 1871). He was successful in using tale narration in many of his works. His most famous enterprise within the genre of historical novels, was the series of 29 novels on the history of Poland. He started it with Stara baśń (1876) – which referred to the legendary epoch. From the very beginning the novel enjoyed great popularity, and was later his most often republished work (up to 2000 it was published more than 60 times). Next he wrote about the Piast dynasty (among others Boleszczyce 1877, Król chłopów 1881), the Jagiellonians (Semko 1882, Matka królów 1883 and others) and the oriental rulers (i.e. Boży gniew 1886). The series was completed with the posthumously published Saskie ostatki (1889).

Kraszewski's literary activities were characterised by patriotic intentions, tinged with antipathy toward the aristocracy, affinity with the gentry (whose vices he would castigate, but whom he considered to be the mainstay of national awareness) and a tendency to idealise the peasants. The realist writers of Poland's "Positivist" period, notably including Bolesław Prus, regarded him as their teacher. Single-handedly he created a whole library of novels, which in the second half of the 19th century were appreciated not only in Poland—where he was popular even in the twentieth century—but in the majority of European countries. Over a hundred of his novels have been translated into foreign languages. Before Henryk Sienkiewicz, he was the most often translated Polish author.

Adaptation

In 2003 the first book in the series, Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876), was made into a successful feature film directed by Jerzy Hoffman starring Bohdan Stupka, Michał Żebrowski and Daniel Olbrychski.

Works

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Sceny i charaktery z życia powszedniego (1878)

Barani Kożuszek (1881)

Biografia Sokalskiego organisty Kotlety

Boża czekoladka (1858)

Boża opieka. Powieść osnuta na opowiadaniach XVIII wieku

Bracia rywale

Bratanki

Brühl (1874)

Budnik (1847)

Całe życie biedna

Caprea i Roma (1859)

Cet czy licho?

Chata za wsią (The Cottage outside the Village, 1842)

Czarna Perełka (1871)

Czasy kościuszkowskie

Czercza mogiła

Cześnikówny

Cztery wesela

Diabeł (1855)

Dola i niedola. Powieść z ostatnich lat XVIII wieku (1864)

Dwa światy (1856)

Dziad i baba

Dziadunio (1868)

Dzieci wieku (1857)

Dziecię Starego Miasta (1863)

Dziennik Serafiny (1876)

Dziwadła

Emisariusz

Ewunia

Głupi Maciuś

Grzechy hetmańskie. Obrazy z końca XVIII wieku

Herod baba

Historia kołka w płocie (1860)

Historia o bladej dziewczynie spod Ostrej Bramy

Historia o Janaszu Korczaku i o pięknej miecznikównie: powieść z czasów Jana Sobieskiego (1874)

Historia Sawki (1842)

Hołota

Hrabina Cosel (1873, e-book)

Interesa familijne

Jak się pan Paweł żenił i jak się ożenił

Jaryna (1850)

Jermoła (Iermola, 1857)

Jesienią

Kamienica w Długim Rynku

Kartki z podróży

Kawał literata (1875)

Klasztor

Klin klinem

Komedianci

Kopciuszek

Kordecki

Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie

Król i Bondarywna. Powieść historyczna

Krzyż na rozstajnych drogach

Krzyżacy 1410

Kunigas (1881)

Kwiat paproci

Lalki: sceny przedślubne

Latarnia czarnoksięska (1843–1844)

Listy do rodziny

Lublana

Ładny chłopiec

Ładowa Pieczara (1852)

Macocha

Maleparta

Męczennicy. Marynka

Męczennicy. Na wysokościach

Milion posagu

Mistrz Twardowski (1840)

Mogilna. Obrazek współczesny

Morituri (1874–1875)

Moskal: obrazek współczesny narysowany z natury (1865)

Na bialskim zamku

Na cmentarzu – na wulkanie

Na tułactwie

Na wschodzie. Obrazek współczesny (1866)

Nad modrym Dunajem

Nad Sprewą

Nera

Niebieskie migdały

Noc majowa

Ongi

Orbeka

Ostap Bondarczuk (1847)

Ostatni z Siekierzyńskich (1851)

Ostrożnie z ogniem

Pałac i folwark

Pamiętnik Mroczka (1870)

Pamiętnik panicza

Pamiętniki

Pan i szewc

Pan Karol

Pan Major

Pan na czterech chłopach (1879)

Pan Walery

Panie kochanku: anegdota dramatyczna w trzech aktach

Papiery po Glince

Pod Blachą: powieść z końca XVIII wieku (1881)

Poeta i świat (1839)

Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799

Pomywaczka: obrazek z końca XVIII wieku

Powieść bez tytułu (1854)

Powrót do gniazda (1875)

Półdiablę weneckie

Profesor Milczek

Przed burzą

Przygody pana Marka Hinczy. Rzecz z podań życia staroszlacheckiego

Pułkownikówna

Ramułtowie

Raptularz pana Mateusza Jasienickeigo. Z oryginału przepisany mutatis mutandis

Resurrecturi

Resztki życia

Roboty i prace: sceny i charaktery współczesne

Rzym za Nerona (1865)

Sąsiedzi

Sceny sejmowe. Grodno 1793 (1873)

Sekret pana Czuryły. Historia jednego rezydenta wedle podań współczesnych opowiedziana

Serce i ręka (1875)

Sfinks (1847)

Sieroce dole

Skrypt Fleminga

Sprawa kryminalna

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale)

Stańczykowa kronika od roku 1503 do 1508 (1841)

Stara Panna

Staropolska miłość

Starosta warszawski: obrazy historyczne z XVIII wieku

Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774

Stary sługa

Sto Diabłów

Syn marnotrawny (1879)

Szalona (1880)

Szaławiła

Szpieg (1864)

Śniehotowie

Tomko Prawdzic

Trapezologion

Tryumf wiary. Obrazek historyczny z czasów Mieczysława I-go

Tułacze (1868)

U babuni

Ulana (1842)

W baśń oblekły się dzieje

W pocie czoła. Z dziennika dorobkiewicza (1884)

W starym piecu

Warszawa 1794 (1873)

Wielki nieznajomy

Wielki świat małego miasteczka

Wilczek i wilczkowa

Wspomnienia Odessy, Jedysanu i Budżaku: dziennik przejażki w roku 1843 od 22 czerwca do 11 września

Wspomnienia Wołynia, Polesia i Litwy

Z chłopa król

Z siedmioletniej wojny (1875)

Z życia awanturnika

Zadora

Zaklęta księżniczka

Zemsta Czokołdowa

Złote jabłko

Złoty Jasieńko

Zygmuntowskie czasy. Powieść z roku 1572 (1846)

Zygzaki

Żacy krakowscy w roku 1549 (Kraków Students in 1549)

Żeliga

Żyd: obrazy współczesne (The Jew: Contemporary Pictures, 1866)

Żywot i przygody hrabi Gozdzkiego. Pan starosta Kaniowski

Żywot i sprawy Imć pana Medarda z Gołczwi Pełki z notat familijnych spisane (1876)

Series "Dzieje Polski" ("The History of Poland") — 29 novels about Poland's history, in chronological order (1876–90)

Adama Polanowskiego dworzanina króla Jegomości Jana III notatki

Bajbuza: czasy Zygmunta III

Banita: czasy Stefana Batorego

Biały książę: czasy Ludwika Węgierskiego

Boleszczyce: powieść z czasów Bolesława Szczodrego

Boży gniew: czasy Jana Kazimierza

Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy: powieść z czasów Chrobrego

Dwie królowe

Historia prawdziwa o Petrku Właście palatynie, którego zwano Duninem: opowiadanie historyczne z XII wieku

Infantka

Jaszka Orfanem zwanego żywota i spraw pamiętnik: Jagiełłowie do Zygmunta

Jelita: powieść herbowa z r. 1331

Kraków za Łokietka: powieść historyczna

Król Chłopów: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Wielkiego

Król Piast: (Michał książę Wiśniowiecki)

Królewscy synowie: powieść z czasów Władysława Hermana i Krzywoustego

Lubonie: powieść z X wieku

Masław

Matka królów: czasy Jagiełłowe

Na królewskim dworze: czasy Władysława IV

Pogrobek: powieść z czasów przemysławowskich

Saskie ostatki: August III

Semko: czasy bezkrólewia po Ludwiku

Jagiełło i Jadwiga

Stach z Konar: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Sprawiedliwego

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876)

Strzemieńczyk: czasy Władysława Warneńczyka

Syn Jazdona: powieść historyczna z czasów Bolesława Wstydliwego i Leszka Czarnego

Waligóra: powieść historyczna z czasów Leszka Białego

Za Sasów

Scout Snipers lay in wait as the Forerunners lead the unsuspecting CRF patrol into a trap.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Shortly after the end of World War II, the South Korean Air Construction Association was founded on August 10, 1946, to publicize the importance of air power. Despite the then-scanty status of Korean armed forces, the first air unit was formed on May 5, 1948, under the direction of Dong Wi-bu, the forerunner to the modern South Korean Ministry of National Defense. On September 13, 1949, the United States contributed 10 L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft to the South Korean air unit. An Army Air Academy was founded in January 1949, and the ROKAF was officially founded in October 1949.

Together with Mustangs, the Corsairs continued flying with USAF, USN, USMC and other ROKAF fighter-bomber units on close support and interdiction missions in Korea until July 1953, when the fighting ended and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. By then, most piston engine fighter bombers had been largely replaced by USAF F-84s and by United States Navy (USN) Grumman F9F Panthers. After the war, the ROKAF quickly switched to F-86 Sabre fighters and all ROKAF F4Us were scrapped by late 1953 as they were regarded as outdated and disposable.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)

Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)

Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)

Wing area: 314 sq ft (29.17 m²)

Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,238 kg)

Gross weight: 14,670 lb (6,654 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 14,533 lb (6,592 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine with 2,100 hp (1,600 kW),

temporary 2,450 hp (1,830 kW) output when boosted with water/alcohol injection,

driving a 4-bladed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 446 mph (717 km/h, 385 kn) at sea level

Cruise speed: 215 mph (346 km/h, 187 kn) at sea level

Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h, 77 kn)

Range with internal fuel, clean: 1,005 mi (1,617 km, 873 nmi)

Combat range with max. ordnance: 328 mi (528 km, 285 nmi)

Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)

Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament:

6× 0.5 in (12,7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in the outer wings, 400 RPG

11× hardpoints under the wings and the fuselage for a total ordnance of 4,000 pounds,

including drop tanks, up to 8× 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or bombs or

napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was spawned from a leftover decal sheet from an Academy F-51D kit, which features markings for South Korean aircraft from the Korean War. This made me wonder if there could have been another type supplied to the South Korean forces beyond the Mustang? A fighter bomber would have made sense, and the P/F-47 was an immediate favorite. However, this was quickly discarded since maintenance and supplies for another type in the theatre would have been very complicated, and the potential, small number would also make no sense. So, I looked for alternatives and eventually settled upon the F4U from American sources. The F4U-4 was chosen because it was the oldest type in service at the time, and from there the model unspun almost naturally.

Another selling point for the F4U-4 was that I had a respective Hobby Boss kit in store without a proper plan yet. Since I did not want to change much about the aircraft to represent a former USN/USMC aircraft, I built the simple Hobby Boss kit almost OOB. Purists will certainly look down upon the toylike Hobby Boss offering – and you must not take a close look, esp. at the interior details. But when you only want a “canvas”, the kit is not too bad. You get fine recessed panels, a clear canopy (over a rudimentary cockpit without leg room but with separate gunsight!) in two pieces and a closed single-piece alternative, and the kit’s construction with good fit leaves almost no seam to sand or fill. The fabric-covered outer wing panels are there, but they are IMHO exaggerated and very deep, as if they had been made from corrugated sheet metal?

The weakest point is the kit’s HVAR armament: It comes with eight unguided missiles that are molded onto their launch rails (with separate tail fins, though), and the gap between the two small pylons that hold the rail under the wing in real life are molded into a single massive and deep piece. These pylons are to be mounted into 2mm wide and just as deep “slots” in the lower wing surface – a very crude and toylike solution. Even though I’d have liked to use the HVARs on the model (after all, it’s supposed to be a fighter bomber), I omitted them altogether and filled up the slots. To keep the attack profile visible, I cut the small pylons off from the OOB drop tanks and replaced them with American 750 lb (340 kg) M117 bombs from the spares bin – they look modern, but they were actually introduced during the Korea War.

Painting and markings:

Well, F4Us handed over from American to Korean units would certainly have left them in their typical all-blue paint scheme, with the “Stars and Bars” simply replaced by the South Korean “yin-yang” symbol and former tactical markings painted over. The ex-American F-51s were handled in a similar fashion, just that they came from overstock in bare metal finish.

To provide the ROKAF F4U with an individual touch I decided to strip the original Navy paint off and give it an NMF with colorful markings similar to the Mustangs. And for a weirdo touch the outer foldable wings would become blue donor parts from an American Corsair, together with a single rudder on the stabilizer.

The bare metal fuselage was painted with Revell 99 (Aluminum), post-shaded with Humbrol 27001 (Matt Aluminum MetalCote); the dark blue sections, including the landing gear, were painted with FS 35042 (Modelmaster 1718), the fabric-covered rudders on the tail with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope). The landing gear wells and the cockpit were painted with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) to simulate Zinc Chromate primer. To hide the lack of space inside of the cowling its interior walls were painted in a darker shade of green, with a dark grey engine block.

An olive drab anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen, the red unit markings on cowling, fin and tail tip were painted with Humbrol 19. The yellow ID fuselage band was created with decal sheet.

The ROKAF roundels came from the aforementioned Academy Mustang kit – and, yes, some ROKAF machines had national markings in six places instead of the US-style four. The tagline on the cowling comes from the same sheet, and it might read “I fly with confidence!” (uncertain, though). The tactical codes were created with single USAF 45° numbers from Superscale aftermarket sheets.

Graphite was used to create soot stains around the gun and the exhaust areas, and Tamiya “Smoke” was used to mimic oil spills from the engine around the forward fuselage. Finally, the kit was sealed with acrylic varnish; the bare metal sections became semi-gloss, the blue areas and the fabric-covered tail sections a slightly more matt finish.

An interesting result – an F4U in NMF looks pretty odd, and with the red and blue sections the Corsair somehow looks like a Reno Racer or a Red Bull heritage aircraft? But the ROKAF Corsair appears pretty plausible in its role and in the Korean War’s time frame: a whif nicely shoehorned into a historic framework. The simple Hobby Boss kit is certainly not the best model of the Corsair, but for a simple “livery variant” it was an O.K. basis, and the result is quite presentable. Just do not look into the cockpit or the landing gear wells.

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the most prolific writer in the history of Polish literature and the seventh most prolific in the world.[citation needed] He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.

The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Vilna between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.[1]

Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.[2]

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early life and studies

1.2 Adulthood and literary career

1.3 Exile, later life and death

2 Character and style

3 Adaptation

4 Works

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Biography

Early life and studies

Childhood home in Romanów

Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Pruzhany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanów in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocz, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Vilna under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Vilna and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.

Adulthood and literary career

Photograph of Kraszewski taken before 1886

In 1838 he married Zofia Woroniczówna, related to the late primate and poet J. P. Woronicz. He did this against the will of his father, who thought his son wanted to reach too high. Once married, the couple settled in Wołyń. In 1853 – already parents to four children – they moved to Żytomierz. From now on Kraszewski concentrated on his literary work, though he did not avoid other activities (he became the superintendent of a high school, the director of a theatre and the Charity Association). As a result of his dispute with conservative public opinion on his critical assessment of the gentry's attitude towards peasants, in 1859 he accepted the proposal of Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, a wealthy Polish banker of Polish-Jewish origin from Warsaw, to become the editor of the "Gazeta Warszawska" and he moved with his family to Warsaw. Owing to his editorial skills, the number of the "Gazeta" subscribers within half a year rose from 500 to 8000, but at the same time he had to stand the vicious remarks of anti-Semites. Just before the outbreak of the January Uprising, he was politically active and thus, when the military activities began, he was announced persona non grata in Warsaw by the Petersburg-submissive local authorities and was forced to emigrate, leaving his family in Warsaw. He went to Dresden, where he lived till 1884.[3]

Exile, later life and death

In Dresden he became a one-person Polish institution helping the political refugees, and organising literary life and information about Poland. With the death of many great poets of Romanticism, he became the unquestionable literary authority and the favourite of the public. In 1870 as the editor of "Tydzień" he expressed his skepticism about the dogma, approved at the First Vatican Council, that the pope is infallible as far as questions regarding the faith are concerned. That made him unpopular among the national orthodox church authorities, but he did not lose popularity among his readers. In 1879 in Kraków week-long celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his literary career were held. In 1883 he was arrested in Berlin and charged with collaboration with French military intelligence, and a year later he was sentenced by the tribunal in Leipzig to three and a half years of imprisonment in a fortress. He served the sentence in the Magdeburg Fortress. As a result of his illness he was temporarily released on bail and went to Italy to improve his health, and after the earthquake there he sought refuge in Geneva in 1886. There, already suffering from cancer, he contracted pneumonia, which was the direct cause of his death on 19 March 1887. His body was brought to Kraków and placed in the vault where the meritorious were buried in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery.[4]

Character and style

An Ancient Tale by Kraszewski, 1876

In German and Polish: "Józef Ignacy Kraszewski-in this Dresden building, in 1879–1885, lived and wrote the great Polish writer, a man of great industry and a great contributor to Polish culture."

Kraszewski was one of the most prolific Polish writers of all times. His works comprise more than 220 novels (in the nineteenth century published in about 400 volumes), around 150 novellas, short stories and literary pictures, some 20 theatre plays, more than 20 volumes of historical studies (including the 3-volume Historia Wilna ["History of Vilnius"] and the 3-volume Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799 ["Poland during the Three Partitions 1772–1799]), a few volumes on his travels, more than 10 volumes of social, political and literary journalism [including 5 volumes of Rachunki (1866–69)], more than 6 volumes of poetry, including a 3-volume epos on the history of Lithuania, more than 20 volumes of his translations from 5 languages (English, French, German, Latin and Italian), several thousand columns, press articles and reviews, which, when printed as books, would have to be collected in more than 100 volumes. He wrote many letters – their number is estimated to reach tens of thousands; just a little part of them have been published so far. He was an editor and a publisher. He prepared for publication and published over 40 volumes of historic documents and works of other writers. In the years 1841–51 he edited in Wołyń, and published in Wilno the bimonthly "Athenaeum" (66 volumes), in the years 1859–63 after he moved, Kraszewski was the editor of the daily "Gazeta Warszawska" (from 1861 "Gazeta Polska"), and in 1870–71 in Dresden he edited "Tydzień".

Despite all that, he was not a man who would be interested just in covering paper with print or writing. He was deeply interested in drawing landscapes and architecture (he illustrated his reports from his travels himself; more than 1600 of his pictures have survived until the present day), took up amateur oil painting, collected old prints (there were more than 6000 works in his collection). Kraszewski loved music. He considered playing the piano for one hour every day to be an extraordinary pleasure for him, and his reviews of concerts or opera performances are characterised by solid professionalism. He travelled widely: he visited the whole of pre-partition Poland and almost the whole of Europe. Throughout his adult life he took an active part in political activities, which resulted in him being sent to prison twice. He participated in dozens of social events, and more than once he had to stand up against public opinion.

Page from Kraszewski's 1875 novel Brühl

In his novels he would emphasise loyalty to the real world, thus he would use mimesis, but combined it with his fascination with romanticism. Very well-educated in the field of European literature and aesthetics, he regarded highly not only Balzac, Dickens, Gogol, and later Zola, but also Stendhal, even before he came to be appreciated in his own country, but his heart was always with Adam Mickiewicz. His first works would be influenced by English sentimentalism, especially that of L. Sterne and the French frenetic romantics in the style of the young Victor Hugo or German fantasy in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The group of works closest to the ideals of Romanticism were his novels on the conflict of an artist with reality and on the life of folk people. In some of his works he would concentrate on women's matters (Całe życie biedna 1840, Szalona 1880, Sama jedna 1881), and in dozens – the issues regarding the gentry or the magnates (Latarnia czarnoksięska 1843-4, Interesa familijne 1852, Dwa światy 1854, Morituri 1873). He refers to the 1863 Uprising in a series of political novels written under the name of B. Bolesławita (Dziecię Starego Miasta 1863, Moskal 1865, Żyd 1866 and others). Kraszewski would extend the subject matter of his works, diversify the plot conventions (biography, travel, romance, sensation, etc.) and stylistic forms (realistic way of expression, purpose narration, parable, diary, tale, journal).He also appreciated small literary prose forms, such as, for example, pictures, philosophical sketches and novellas. His works would discuss all the major social and moral issues of his times and would include all the literary motifs favoured by the readers.[5]

Until 1863 he would concentrate on topical issues, during his stay in Dresden – on historical ones. Before he left the country he had written 20 historical novels, while in exile – more than 80. Unlike W. Scott he would give priority to the historical truth over fiction, and opted for criticism against the past. In this spirit he wrote Zygmuntowskie czasy (1846) and Diabła (1855), and in Dresden the so-called Saxon series (Hrabina Cosel 1873, Brühl 1874 and others) as well as a group of over 20 other novels on the eighteenth century (including Bezimienna 1869, Sto diabłów 1870 and Bratankowie 1871). He was successful in using tale narration in many of his works. His most famous enterprise within the genre of historical novels, was the series of 29 novels on the history of Poland. He started it with Stara baśń (1876) – which referred to the legendary epoch. From the very beginning the novel enjoyed great popularity, and was later his most often republished work (up to 2000 it was published more than 60 times). Next he wrote about the Piast dynasty (among others Boleszczyce 1877, Król chłopów 1881), the Jagiellonians (Semko 1882, Matka królów 1883 and others) and the oriental rulers (i.e. Boży gniew 1886). The series was completed with the posthumously published Saskie ostatki (1889).

Kraszewski's literary activities were characterised by patriotic intentions, tinged with antipathy toward the aristocracy, affinity with the gentry (whose vices he would castigate, but whom he considered to be the mainstay of national awareness) and a tendency to idealise the peasants. The realist writers of Poland's "Positivist" period, notably including Bolesław Prus, regarded him as their teacher. Single-handedly he created a whole library of novels, which in the second half of the 19th century were appreciated not only in Poland—where he was popular even in the twentieth century—but in the majority of European countries. Over a hundred of his novels have been translated into foreign languages. Before Henryk Sienkiewicz, he was the most often translated Polish author.

Adaptation

In 2003 the first book in the series, Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876), was made into a successful feature film directed by Jerzy Hoffman starring Bohdan Stupka, Michał Żebrowski and Daniel Olbrychski.

Works

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Sceny i charaktery z życia powszedniego (1878)

Barani Kożuszek (1881)

Biografia Sokalskiego organisty Kotlety

Boża czekoladka (1858)

Boża opieka. Powieść osnuta na opowiadaniach XVIII wieku

Bracia rywale

Bratanki

Brühl (1874)

Budnik (1847)

Całe życie biedna

Caprea i Roma (1859)

Cet czy licho?

Chata za wsią (The Cottage outside the Village, 1842)

Czarna Perełka (1871)

Czasy kościuszkowskie

Czercza mogiła

Cześnikówny

Cztery wesela

Diabeł (1855)

Dola i niedola. Powieść z ostatnich lat XVIII wieku (1864)

Dwa światy (1856)

Dziad i baba

Dziadunio (1868)

Dzieci wieku (1857)

Dziecię Starego Miasta (1863)

Dziennik Serafiny (1876)

Dziwadła

Emisariusz

Ewunia

Głupi Maciuś

Grzechy hetmańskie. Obrazy z końca XVIII wieku

Herod baba

Historia kołka w płocie (1860)

Historia o bladej dziewczynie spod Ostrej Bramy

Historia o Janaszu Korczaku i o pięknej miecznikównie: powieść z czasów Jana Sobieskiego (1874)

Historia Sawki (1842)

Hołota

Hrabina Cosel (1873, e-book)

Interesa familijne

Jak się pan Paweł żenił i jak się ożenił

Jaryna (1850)

Jermoła (Iermola, 1857)

Jesienią

Kamienica w Długim Rynku

Kartki z podróży

Kawał literata (1875)

Klasztor

Klin klinem

Komedianci

Kopciuszek

Kordecki

Kościół Świętomichalski w Wilnie

Król i Bondarywna. Powieść historyczna

Krzyż na rozstajnych drogach

Krzyżacy 1410

Kunigas (1881)

Kwiat paproci

Lalki: sceny przedślubne

Latarnia czarnoksięska (1843–1844)

Listy do rodziny

Lublana

Ładny chłopiec

Ładowa Pieczara (1852)

Macocha

Maleparta

Męczennicy. Marynka

Męczennicy. Na wysokościach

Milion posagu

Mistrz Twardowski (1840)

Mogilna. Obrazek współczesny

Morituri (1874–1875)

Moskal: obrazek współczesny narysowany z natury (1865)

Na bialskim zamku

Na cmentarzu – na wulkanie

Na tułactwie

Na wschodzie. Obrazek współczesny (1866)

Nad modrym Dunajem

Nad Sprewą

Nera

Niebieskie migdały

Noc majowa

Ongi

Orbeka

Ostap Bondarczuk (1847)

Ostatni z Siekierzyńskich (1851)

Ostrożnie z ogniem

Pałac i folwark

Pamiętnik Mroczka (1870)

Pamiętnik panicza

Pamiętniki

Pan i szewc

Pan Karol

Pan Major

Pan na czterech chłopach (1879)

Pan Walery

Panie kochanku: anegdota dramatyczna w trzech aktach

Papiery po Glince

Pod Blachą: powieść z końca XVIII wieku (1881)

Poeta i świat (1839)

Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów 1772–1799

Pomywaczka: obrazek z końca XVIII wieku

Powieść bez tytułu (1854)

Powrót do gniazda (1875)

Półdiablę weneckie

Profesor Milczek

Przed burzą

Przygody pana Marka Hinczy. Rzecz z podań życia staroszlacheckiego

Pułkownikówna

Ramułtowie

Raptularz pana Mateusza Jasienickeigo. Z oryginału przepisany mutatis mutandis

Resurrecturi

Resztki życia

Roboty i prace: sceny i charaktery współczesne

Rzym za Nerona (1865)

Sąsiedzi

Sceny sejmowe. Grodno 1793 (1873)

Sekret pana Czuryły. Historia jednego rezydenta wedle podań współczesnych opowiedziana

Serce i ręka (1875)

Sfinks (1847)

Sieroce dole

Skrypt Fleminga

Sprawa kryminalna

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale)

Stańczykowa kronika od roku 1503 do 1508 (1841)

Stara Panna

Staropolska miłość

Starosta warszawski: obrazy historyczne z XVIII wieku

Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774

Stary sługa

Sto Diabłów

Syn marnotrawny (1879)

Szalona (1880)

Szaławiła

Szpieg (1864)

Śniehotowie

Tomko Prawdzic

Trapezologion

Tryumf wiary. Obrazek historyczny z czasów Mieczysława I-go

Tułacze (1868)

U babuni

Ulana (1842)

W baśń oblekły się dzieje

W pocie czoła. Z dziennika dorobkiewicza (1884)

W starym piecu

Warszawa 1794 (1873)

Wielki nieznajomy

Wielki świat małego miasteczka

Wilczek i wilczkowa

Wspomnienia Odessy, Jedysanu i Budżaku: dziennik przejażki w roku 1843 od 22 czerwca do 11 września

Wspomnienia Wołynia, Polesia i Litwy

Z chłopa król

Z siedmioletniej wojny (1875)

Z życia awanturnika

Zadora

Zaklęta księżniczka

Zemsta Czokołdowa

Złote jabłko

Złoty Jasieńko

Zygmuntowskie czasy. Powieść z roku 1572 (1846)

Zygzaki

Żacy krakowscy w roku 1549 (Kraków Students in 1549)

Żeliga

Żyd: obrazy współczesne (The Jew: Contemporary Pictures, 1866)

Żywot i przygody hrabi Gozdzkiego. Pan starosta Kaniowski

Żywot i sprawy Imć pana Medarda z Gołczwi Pełki z notat familijnych spisane (1876)

Series "Dzieje Polski" ("The History of Poland") — 29 novels about Poland's history, in chronological order (1876–90)

Adama Polanowskiego dworzanina króla Jegomości Jana III notatki

Bajbuza: czasy Zygmunta III

Banita: czasy Stefana Batorego

Biały książę: czasy Ludwika Węgierskiego

Boleszczyce: powieść z czasów Bolesława Szczodrego

Boży gniew: czasy Jana Kazimierza

Bracia Zmartwychwstańcy: powieść z czasów Chrobrego

Dwie królowe

Historia prawdziwa o Petrku Właście palatynie, którego zwano Duninem: opowiadanie historyczne z XII wieku

Infantka

Jaszka Orfanem zwanego żywota i spraw pamiętnik: Jagiełłowie do Zygmunta

Jelita: powieść herbowa z r. 1331

Kraków za Łokietka: powieść historyczna

Król Chłopów: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Wielkiego

Król Piast: (Michał książę Wiśniowiecki)

Królewscy synowie: powieść z czasów Władysława Hermana i Krzywoustego

Lubonie: powieść z X wieku

Masław

Matka królów: czasy Jagiełłowe

Na królewskim dworze: czasy Władysława IV

Pogrobek: powieść z czasów przemysławowskich

Saskie ostatki: August III

Semko: czasy bezkrólewia po Ludwiku

Jagiełło i Jadwiga

Stach z Konar: powieść historyczna z czasów Kazimierza Sprawiedliwego

Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876)

Strzemieńczyk: czasy Władysława Warneńczyka

Syn Jazdona: powieść historyczna z czasów Bolesława Wstydliwego i Leszka Czarnego

Waligóra: powieść historyczna z czasów Leszka Białego

Za Sasów

The Eastern Illinois Railroad was a forerunner of the Decatur & Eastern Illinois. It was based in Charleston, Illinois, and used 53 miles of former Nickel Plate Road track between Neoga and Metcalf. This image was made in Charleston. The D&EI took over ERIC in late 2019.

Gaydon, British Motor Museum

The Swallow Coachbuilding Company of Blackpool (forerunner of Jaguar) began as a motorcycle sidecar manufacturer and moved into motorcars during the 1920s. The key to expansion was an order for 500 Austin Seven based Swallows, placed by London dealers Henlys Ltd in 1927.

Compared to the utilitarian Austin the Swallow coachwork was dignified, distinctive and up-to-the-minute. The success of this order led to expansion in 1928 and a move nearer the heart of the Britain's motor industry, in Coventry.

By the time this example of the Austin Seven Swallow was bodied, Swallow itself was moving towards building its first complete car, the SS1, which was launched in 1931.

The Halifax Gibbet was the forerunner of the guillotine. In fact, the guillotine was inspired by the Halifax Gibbet with the former working on the same principal as the latter. The principal of the guillotine – a sharp-bladed instrument being held above and then dropped some distance from a condemned person’s neck – was first used in Medieval England. It is believed that this method of execution was first used in Halifax – hence its name – in the C13th. A law known as the Gibbet Law gave the Lord of the Manor for Halifax the power to condemn someone to death by the Halifax Gibbet if they were found guilty of stealing something that was worth more than 13p. The first recorded use of the Halifax Gibbet was in 1286 when John of Dalton was executed – though no records survive to explain what he was guilty of.

The Halifax Gibbet was a wooden structure that was 15 feet high with an axe shaped blade at the top. This was held up by a rope. Once the condemned prisoner had been securely fastened, the executioner would cut the rope. In theory, the weight of the blade and the speed at which it fell would decapitate the condemned. The Halifax Gibbet was used on markets days. This would ensure many people were in the town to witness the execution and the hope was that the fearsome sight of the Gibbet would act as a deterrent to those who might have considered a life of crime. If a condemned prisoner escaped on the day of his/her execution and crossed outside of the town’s boundary, he/she was safe as long as the condemned never returned to Halifax. John Lacey, in the reign of James I, did escape on the day of his execution. He returned to the town in 1623, a full seven years after the year he should have been executed. Lacey was recognised, arrested and executed on the Gibbet. The Halifax Gibbet was last used in 1650. The first recorded use of what was known as the guillotine was in 1789.

www.historylearningsite.co.uk/halifax_gibbet.htm

Source: www.dantestella.com/technical/retina.html

The Retina IIc can be best thought of as the forerunner to the famouns Retina IIIc - just without the meter and projected framelines. Although the viewfinder/rangefinder stayed the same as the IIa, a lot of other things changed:

Configuration: the biggest change with the IIc is that it went to a bottom-lever wind. This turns out to be a lot easier to use if you are left-eyed. It also allows for a much more reliable top-mounted frame counter and a less-fragile shutter-cocking mechanism. The rewind remained by knob. All camera surfaces are rounded ("streamlined,") and the front door is not latched on the bottom, but rather on the edge that opens. The top and bottom, as well as the sides, are rounded, leading to a more pleasing feel in the hand. One at least cosmetically significant difference is the use of an aluminum lens board that wraps back where you would have seen bellows on the IIa. This is largely superficial, since there are real bellows inside it.

Lens: Big change here. The IIc has a 50/2.8 Schneider Retina-Xenon or Rodenstock Heligon (which I believe to be the same as the 50/2.0 lenses, but with an aperture limiters in them). I have not observed the Schneider Xenon to be as sparkling as the 50/2.0, but this may be due to the interchangeability issue, which I believe adds new tolerances to the mix.

The front elements of these 50mm lenses are held into the shutter with a three-prong bayonet. When you bayonet out the front of the 50, you can interchange it with front parts for a 35/5.6 or an 80/4 (Scheider or Rodenstock, depending on what your camera originally came with). These lenses are huge, and none too easy to use. You focus with the rangefinder, and then you convert the distance. There is a squinty 35/80 Retina accessory finder to match. While these are of interest to collectors, they are hard to find in an un-separated state and not really worth the money or trouble for use (although they are neat).

The problem that interchangeability injects is that you may end up with a IIc (or IIIc for that matter) with the front of one 50mm lens and the rear of another. This is not a huge problem, but you will need to have the lens recollimated. The way you can check for danger is to match the lens serial number on the front lens element to the one on the shutter to the one on the back ring inside. Some people make it out to be the end of the world if all three don't match. It's not. Retina guru George Mrus (RIP) was very good at recollimating these lenses. I would recommend skipping a camera where these rings do not match, unless you can test it. Of course if the front and rear rings of the lens match each other, but not the shutter, it is really only a sign that the shutter was replaced at some point. A good repairman would have recollimated it.

Shutter assembly: The shutter is a Compur Synchro-MX #00 EVS, functionally identical to the one on the IIa, but with both settings visible on the top. One big difference is that it has the LVS system, which locks shutter and aperture together (both rings turn together). LVS is pretty useful for fill flash (see article) but is not that much fun for ambient light photos. The LVS disengages via a little lever on the bottom. Of all the Retina shutters, this seems to be the least problematic and the most jewel-like in its finish.

Accessories: The IIc and IIIc shared a neat line of accessories. The ne plus ultra was a brown bakelite box with 3 low-profile filters, the 50mm bayonet-on hood (rectangular) and the snap-on parts for 35 and 80mm hoods. The bayonet hoods are a boon, and a lot easier to deal with than the hard rubber screw-ins. Filter size remailed 30.5mm, so there is some backward and forward compatibility.

Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a Norman castle overlooking the mouth of the River Anker into the Tame in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. Before boundary changes in 1889, however, the castle was within the edge of Warwickshire while most of the town belonged to Staffordshire.

The site served as a residence of the Mercian kings in Anglo Saxon times, but fell into disuse during the Viking invasions. Refortified by the Normans and later enlarged, the building is today one of the best preserved motte-and-bailey castles in England.

When Tamworth became the chief residence of Offa, ruler of the expanding Mercian kingdom, he built a palace there from which various charters were issued sedens in palatio regali in Tamoworthige, the first dating from 781. Little trace of its former glory survived the Viking attack in 874 that left the town "for nearly forty years a mass of blackened ruins". Then in 913 Tamworth was rebuilt by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who newly fortified the town with an earthen burh. This, however, did little to defend the place when it was again sacked by the Danes in 943.

Over the following centuries there is no more mention of Tamworth as a royal residence, although a mint there struck coins for later Anglo-Saxon kings and eventually for the new Norman monarch, William the Conqueror. The place was then granted to William's steward, Robert Despenser, who built a wooden castle during the 1080s in the typical Norman motte and bailey fashion. Occupying the south western part of the earlier burh, this was the forerunner of the present building.

When Robert died childless, the castle passed to his nieces, one of whom, Matilida, married Robert Marmion. The Marmion family, hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy and then of the new Kings of England, held the castle for six generations from c.1100 to 1294. It was during their occupancy that the castle began to be remodelled in stone, although on one occasion it was also in danger of being demolished altogether. Robert Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, deserted King John in 1215 during the turmoil of his reign. As a consequence, the king ordered Robert's son Geoffrey to be imprisoned, all of Robert's lands to be confiscated and Tamworth Castle to be demolished. But the fabric had only been partially destroyed by the time of John's death the following year, when Robert's sons were able to regain their father's lands.

Early Norman herringbone masonry on the castle causeway

The last male of the family to own the castle was Philip Marmion. Since he had no legitimate sons, the castle passed on his death (c.1291) to his daughter and, after she died without an heir in 1294, to her niece Joan. As she was the wife of Sir Alexander Freville, Joan's descendants initiated the next dynasty of owners who held the castle until 1423. The male line then came to an end with Baldwin de Freville, whose son died a minor, and the castle passed to the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Thomas Ferrers of Groby.

Numerous additions were made to the castle over the centuries, especially in the Jacobean period, from which time the arms of the Ferrers family and those with whom they intermarried came to dominate the interior. The shell keep contains a 12th-century gate tower and later residential accommodation in an H plan comprising a 13th-century three-storey north range, and a 17th-century Jacobean three-storey south range linked by an oak timbered Great Hall of the 15th century. A notable exterior feature surviving from early times is the herring-bone pattern of masonry laid diagonally at the base of the causeway up to the gate tower.

Originally entry to the castle grounds was by a gateway (little of which now remains) fronting onto the town's market-place. In his itinerary of Britain (1539/43), John Leland found the outworks “cleane decayed and the Wall fallen downe”, although on the mound there remained “a great round Tower of Stone, wherein Mr [Humphrey] Ferrers dwelleth, and now repaireth it.”

However adapted as a residence, the castle's defences had been built with the conditions of mediaeval warfare in mind. During the English Civil War, it was captured by Parliamentary forces on 25 June 1643 after only a two-day siege and was garrisoned by them. In July 1645 the garrison comprised ten officers and 77 soldiers under the command of the military governor, Waldyve Willington. Owing to this use, the castle therefore escaped the slighting ordered for so many others at that period.

After 1668 the castle passed to the relatives of the Ferrers, initially the Shirleys of Chartley and then in 1715 to the Comptons when Elizabeth Ferrers married the 5th Earl of Northampton. During their period of ownership, the castle again fell into disrepair but after the Ferrers grandniece, Charlotte Compton, had married George Townshend of Raynham, it was again refurbished. Following his death in 1811, the castle was acquired by an auctioneer, John Robbins in 1814, although he did not move in until 1821: ownership reverted to the Townshend family on his death.

The moat on the town side had fallen into disuse and from the 15th century onwards parts of it were leased to the houses on that side of Market Street. In 1810 a new gatehouse was built at the foot of the Holloway, where the road ran south along the Lady Bridge. From it a carriageway wound up through the grounds to the castle's entrance. The castle mill was sited further along the Anker, where it was depicted in J. M. W. Turner’s panoramic watercolour of the castle from the south-east (1832). Also included there is the Lady Bridge to the left and the square tower of St Editha’s Church on the right.

The castle had earlier made a brief appearance in Walter Scott’s narrative poem Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1808). Set in Tudor times, its anachronistic anti-hero is proclaimed at the banquet in the first canto as “Lord of Fontenaye…Of Tamworth tower and town”, although the barony of Marmion had by then been extinct for more than two centuries.

Finally in 1891 the Marquess Townshend put the castle up for sale by auction and it was purchased by its present owners, Tamworth Corporation (now Tamworth Borough Council), for £3,000 in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. It was then opened to the public by the Earl of Dartmouth as a museum in 1899.

Royal visitors after the Norman Conquest:

King Henry I, sometime between 1109 and 1115

King Henry II, 1158, accompanied by Thomas Becket

King Henry III, 1257

King Edward II, 1325

King Edward III, 1330

King James I, 1619, accompanied by his son Prince Charles.

Tamworth is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, 14 miles (23 km) north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through it. The population of Tamworth borough (2021) was 78,838. The wider urban area had a population of 81,964.

Tamworth was the principal centre of royal power of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia during the 8th and 9th centuries. It hosts a simple but elevated 12th century castle, a well-preserved medieval church (the Church of St Editha) and a Moat House. Tamworth was historically divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire until 1889, when the town was placed entirely in Staffordshire.

The town's industries include logistics, engineering, clothing, brick, tile and paper manufacture. Until 2001 one of its factories was Reliant, which produced the Reliant Robin three-wheeler car and the Reliant Scimitar sports car.

The Snowdome, a prototype real-snow indoor ski slope is in Tamworth and 1.7 miles (2.7 km) south is Drayton Manor Theme Park and one of the many marinas serving the Coventry Canal and Birmingham and Fazeley Canal which combine south of the town.

Staffordshire is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south-east, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the county town is Stafford.

The county has an area of 1,713 square kilometres (661 sq mi) and a population of 1,131,052. After Stoke-on-Trent (258,366), the largest settlements are Tamworth (78,646), Newcastle-under-Lyme (75,082) and Burton upon Trent (72,299); the city of Lichfield has a population of 33,816. For local government purposes Staffordshire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with nine districts, and the unitary authority area of Stoke-on-Trent. The county historically included the north-west of the West Midlands county, including Walsall, West Bromwich, and Wolverhampton.

Staffordshire is hilly to the north and south. The southern end of the Pennines is in the north, containing part of the Peak District National Park, while the Cannock Chase AONB and part of the National Forest are in the south. The River Trent and its tributaries drain most of the county. From its source, near Biddulph, the river flows through Staffordshire in a southwesterly direction, meeting the Sow just east of Stafford; it then meets the River Tame and turns north-east, exiting into Derbyshire immediately downstream of Burton upon Trent.

Staffordshire contains a number of Iron Age tumuli and Roman camps, and was settled by the Angles in the sixth century; the oldest Stafford knot, the county's symbol, can be seen on an Anglian cross in the churchyard of Stoke Minster. The county was formed in the early tenth century, when Stafford became the capital of Mercia. The county was relatively settled in the following centuries, and rapidly industrialised during the Industrial Revolution, when the North Staffordshire coalfield was exploited and fuelled the iron and automobilie industries in the south of the county. Pottery is the county's most famous export; a limited amount is still produced in Stoke-on-Trent.

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It adjoins Cheshire to the north west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south east, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The historic county of Staffordshire includes Wolverhampton, Walsall, and West Bromwich, these three being removed for administrative purposes in 1974 to the new West Midlands authority. The resulting administrative area of Staffordshire has a narrow southwards protrusion that runs west of West Midlands to the border of Worcestershire. The city of Stoke-on-Trent was removed from the admin area in the 1990s to form a unitary authority, but is still part of Staffordshire for ceremonial and traditional purposes.

The historic county has an area of 781,000 acres (1,250 sq. miles) and at the first census in 1801 had a population of 239,153.

Early British remains exist in various parts of the county; and a large number of barrows have been opened in which human bones, urns, fibulae, stone hammers, armlets, pins, pottery and other articles have been found. In the neighbourhood of Wetton, near Dovedale, on the site called Borough Holes, no fewer than twenty-three barrows were opened, and British ornaments have been found in Needwood Forest, the district between the lower Dove and the angle of the Trent to the south. Several Roman camps also remain, as at Knave's Castle on Watling Street, near Brownhills.

The county symbol, the Staffordshire Knot, is seen on an Anglian stone cross that dates from around the year 805. The cross still stands in Stoke churchyard. Thus the Knot is either i) an ancient Mercian symbol or ii) a symbol adopted from the Irish Christianity, Christianity having been brought to Staffordshire by Irish monks from Lindisfarne about AD 650.

The district which is now Staffordshire was invaded in the 6th century by a tribe of Angles who settled about Tamworth, afterwards famous as a residence of the Mercian kings, and later made their way beyond Cannock Chase, through the passages afforded by the Sow valley in the north and Watling Street in the south. The district was frequently overrun by the Danes, who in 910 were defeated at Tettenhall, and again at Wednesfield, and it was after Edward the Elder had finally expelled the Northmen from Mercia that the land of the south Mercians was formed into a shire around the fortified burgh which he had made in 914 at Stafford.

The county probably first came into being in the decade after the year 913; that being the date at which Stafford – the strategic military fording-point for an army to cross the Trent – became a secure fortified stronghold and the new capital of Mercia under Queen Æthelflæd.

The county is first mentioned by name in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1016 when it was harried by Canute.

The resistance which Staffordshire opposed William the Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying and confiscation, and the Domesday Survey supplies evidence of the depopulated and impoverished condition of the county, which at this period contained but 64 mills, whereas Dorset, a smaller county, contained 272. No Englishman was allowed to retain estates of any importance after the Conquest, and the chief lay proprietors at the time of the survey were Earl Roger of Montgomery; Earl Hugh of Chester; Henry de Ferrers, who held Burton and Tutbury Castles; Robert de Stafford; William Fitz-Ansculf, afterwards created first Baron Dudley; Richard Forester; Rainald Bailgiol; Ralph Fitz Hubert and Nigel de Stafford. The Ferrers and Staffords long continued to play a leading part in Staffordshire history, and Turstin, who held Drayton under William Fitz Ansculf, was the ancestor of the Bassets of Drayton. At the time of the survey Burton was the only monastery in Staffordshire, but foundations of canons existed at Stafford, Wolverhampton, Tettenhall, Lichfield, Penkridge and Tamworth, while others at Hanbury, Stone, Strensall and Trentham had been either destroyed or absorbed before the Conquest.

In the 13th century Staffordshire formed the archdeaconry of Stafford, including the deaneries of Stafford, Newcastle, Alton and Leek, Tamworth and Tutbury, Lapley and Creigull. In 1535 the deanery of Newcastle was combined with that of Stone, the deaneries remaining otherwise unaltered until 1866, when they were increased to twenty. The archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent was formed in 1878, and in 1896 the deaneries were brought to their present number; the archdeaconry of Stafford comprising Handsworth, Himley, Lichfield, Penkridge, Rugeley, Stafford, Tamworth, Trysull, Tutbury, Walsall, Wednesbury, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton; the archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent comprising Alstonfield, Cheadle, Eccleshall, Hanley, Leek, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on- Trent, Trentham and Uttoxeter. In the wars of the reign of Henry III. most of the great families of Staffordshire, including the Bassets and the Ferrers, supported Simon de Montfort, and in 1263 Prince Edward ravaged all the lands of Earl Robert Ferrers in this county and destroyed Tutbury Castle. During the Wars of the Roses, Eccleshall was for a time the headquarters of Queen Margaret, and in 1459 the Lancastrians were defeated at Blore Heath.

The five hundreds of Staffordshire existed since the Domesday Survey, and the boundaries have remained practically unchanged until the twentieth century. Edingale, however, was then included under Derbyshire, and Tyrley under Shropshire, while Cheswardine, Chipnall and part of Bobbington, now in Shropshire, were assessed under Staffordshire. The hundreds of Offlow and Totmonslow had their names from sepulchral monuments of Saxon commanders. The shire court for Staffordshire was held at Stafford, and the assizes at Wolverhampton, Stafford and Lichfield, until by act of parliament of 1558 the assizes and sessions were fixed at Stafford, where they are still held.

The origin of the hundred dates from the division of his kingdom by King Alfred the Great into counties, hundreds and tithings. From the beginning, Staffordshire was divided into the hundreds of Totmonslow, Pirehill, Offlow, Cuttleston and Seisdon.

The hundredal division of Staffordshire differs markedly from that of the counties to the south and west in showing far greater stability. All the Domesday hundreds are kept practically unchanged down to modern times. Also in the size of the hundreds. The Staffordshire hundreds, five in number, are on the whole far larger than any in the adjacent counties; more especially as regards northern Staffordshire. The two hundreds in the south-west are of more normal extent. It seems to be due chiefly to the nature of the county. Northern Staffordshire is to a large extent moorland, which must have been unattractive to early settlers. It is noteworthy, as showing where the centres of these hundreds lay, that the meeting-places of the two northern hundreds (Pirehill and Totmonslow) are in the extreme south of the respective hundreds. Southern Staffordshire was largely a forest-district. The southern part of Seisdon hundred was covered by Kinver Forest, and large parts of the two hundreds in the central part of the county, those of Cuttleston and Offlow, must have been occupied by Cannock Forest. The cultivated areas of these hundreds must in early days have been considerably smaller than at present.

In the English Civil War of the 17th century Staffordshire supported the parliamentary cause and was placed under Lord Brooke. Tamworth, Lichfield and Stafford, however, were garrisoned for King Charles, and Lichfield Cathedral withstood a siege in 1643, in which year the Royalists were victorious at Hopton Heath, but lost their leader, the Earl of Northampton. In 1745 the Young Pretender advanced as far as Leek in this county.

A large proportion of Staffordshire in Norman times was waste and uncultivated ground, but the moorlands of the north afforded excellent pasturage for sheep, and in the 14th century Wolverhampton was a staple town for wool. In the 13th century mines of coal and iron are mentioned at Walsall, and ironstone was procured at Sedgley and Eccleshall. In the 15th century both coal and iron were extensively worked. Thus in the 17th century the north of the county yielded coal, lead, copper, marble and millstones, while the rich meadows maintained great dairies; the woodlands of the south supplied timber, salt, black marble and alabaster; the clothing trade flourished about Tamworth, Burton, and Newcastle-under-Lyme; and hemp and flax were grown all over the county. The potteries are of remote origin, but were improved in the 17th century by two brothers, the Elers, from Amsterdam, who introduced the method of salt glazing, and in the 18th century they were rendered famous by the achievements of Josiah Wedgwood.

Staffordshire was represented by two members in the parliament of 1290, and in 1295 the borough of Stafford also returned two members. Lichfield was represented by two members in 1304, and Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1355. Tamworth returned two members in 1562. Under the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned four members in four divisions, and the boroughs of Stoke-upon-Trent and Wolverhampton were represented by two members each, and Walsall by one member. Under the Act of 1867 the county returned six members in three divisions and Wednesbury returned one member.

The most noteworthy churches in the county are found in the large towns, and are described under their respective headings. Such are the beautiful cathedral of Lichfield, and the churches of Eccleshall, Leek, Penkridge St Mary's at Stafford, Tamworth, Tutbury, and St Peter's at Wolverhampton. Checkley, 4 miles south of Cheadle, shows good Norman and Early English details, and there are carved stones of pre-Norman date in the churchyard. Armitage, south-east of Rugeley, has a church showing good Norman work. Brewood church, 4 miles south-west of Penkridge, is Early English. This village gives name to an ancient forest. Audley church, north-west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, is a good example of Early Decorated work. Remains of ecclesiastical foundations are generally slight, but those of the Cistercian abbey of Croxden, north-west of Uttoxeter, are fine Early English, and at Ranton, west of Stafford, the Perpendicular tower and other portions of an Augustinian foundation remain. Among medieval domestic remains may be mentioned the castles of Stafford, Tamworth and Tutbury, with that of Chartley, north-east of Stafford, which dates from the 13th century. Here is also a timbered hall, in the park of which a breed of wild cattle is maintained. Beaudesert, south of Rugeley, is a fine Elizabethan mansion in a beautiful undulating demesne. In the south-west, near Stourbridge, are Enville, a Tudor mansion with grounds laid out by the poet Shenstone, and Stourton Castle, embodying portions of the 15th century, where Reginald, Cardinal Pole, was born in 1500. Among numerous modern seats may be named Ingestre, Ilam Hall, Alton Towers, Shugborough, Patteshull, Keele Hall, and Trentham.

(1949) (NC93059) Forerunner to the Martin 404, they only made 47 of this type. This type had a wing structural problem that eventually resulted in the pressurized Martin 404. Also, note the absence of the TWA hangars. They were four years away.

FILE MAGAZINE VOL 4 NO 1 (SUMMER 1978) alternative to the Alternative Press, legendary Toronto collaborative General Idea's FILE Megazine – published from 1972 to 1989.

FILE magazine Summer-1978 General Idea

General Idea: FILE megazine, vol 4, issue 1, summer 1978 (the “1984: A Year in Pictures” issue), edition of 3,000 copies.

FILE MAGAZINE VOL 4 NO 1 (SUMMER 1978). Toronto: General Idea, 1978

35 X 27.5cm, 64pp plus pictorial wrappers. A single number from General Idea's art periodical where the trio published conceptual, mail and intermedia art including the GI's own work - often with a homoerotic element. This number has GI's "General Idea flees the burning pavilion in 1984" and several articles on Miss General idea 1984. One slight crease on the back cover and front lower-right corner and spine wear and, as ever, browned internal newsprint pages else VG+. Scarce.

1978

FILE Megazine ("1984: A Year in Pictures," Vol. 4, #1, summer 1978)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1978

Publisher:General Idea, Toronto

Book Condition: VG+

35 X 27.5cm, 64pp plus pictorial wrappers

GENERAL IDEA 1969-1994

An alternative to the Alternative Press, legendary Toronto collaborative General Idea's FILE Megazine --published from 1972 to 1989--

Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson of General Idea lived and worked together for 25 years. Partz and Zontal died in 1994. AA Bronson continues to work under his own name

The General Idea Archive is now on deposit at the National Gallery of Canada. You can access the finding aid here:

national.gallery.ca/english/library/biblio/ngc112.html

In 1974, General Idea founded Art Metropole, an organization devoted to collecting, publishing and distributing artists' books, multiples, audio and video.

Read about FILE Megazine in Artforum here:

www.aabronson.com/art/gi.org/artforum.htm

General Idea, Fluxus, Mail Art, Ray Johnson and the importance of Art Magazines as the forerunners of Social Networking:

The first issues of FILE, the publication launched in April 1972 by the Toronto-based group General Idea (comprising artists AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal), leave a different, less sober impression than previous magazine-based Conceptual art projects. Lifting its name and logo from the most famous (and popular) postwar US glossy, Life, FILE clearly anticipated a strategy that today is an everyday youth-cultural ploy: namely, logo-busting, an ironic game with the powerful markers of consumer culture, a small act of semiotic subversion whereby one borrows power from the public side of capital--and momentarily uses it against itself.

For the better part of a century artists have been using the format of the periodical to create and disseminate their work. Yves Klein’s Leap Into the Void, another iconic work, was published in the artist’s broadsheet publication Dimanche, which was sold at Parisian newsstands in 1960. Artists' magazines were integral to numerous important movements, such as Conceptual Art, Mail Art, Performance Art, Intermedia, Concrete Poetry, Neo-Dadaism and Fluxus.

The name Fluxus was originally coined by George Maciunas for the title of a magazine of experimental notation that he had hoped to produce.

For the uninitiated, a simple distinction suffices: the “artist periodical” is a primary source and an “art magazine” is a secondary one. That is to say, whereas an art magazine features reproductions and documentation of artwork as illustrations, the artist periodical is an alternative site for the realization of art works rather than their review.

Like their cousins, artists’ books and multiples, artists’ periodicals were intended to be easily distributable, affordable and accessible. And now – much like artists’ books and multiples – they can be difficult to track down and often costly. Complete sets of FILE megazine can sell for upwards of $5,000. Depending on the issue, a single copy of Aspen magazine might sell for the same price. Putting together complete collections piecemeal is the artworld equivalent of collecting a complete set of baseball cards. Critical discourse, too, has been hard to come by; apart from a few key articles, very little has been published on the subject of artists’ magazines.

Publications by General Idea:

THIS IS A LIST OF PUBLICATIONS DESIGNED AND EDITED BY GENERAL IDEA

(Note: FILE Megazine was published by Art Official Inc. in varying edition sizes ranging from 1,500 to 3,500 copies)

A Side note about A.A. Bronson: He wrote …

Mail art was expanding exponentially as ….

Stena Forerunner Ro-Ro cargo ferry on her maiden call to Liverpool/Birkenhead inbound for Twelve Quays North from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She had a few issues with the starboard shaft and had to be assisted by Svitzer Sussex when berthing

IMO: 9227259

MMSI: 244030593

Call Sign: PCPG

Flag: Netherlands

AIS Vessel Type: Cargo - Hazard A (Major)

Gross Tonnage: 24688

Deadweight: 12300 t

Length Overall x Breadth Extreme: 195.3m × 26.8m

Year Built: 2003

Status: Active

Registered owner: STENA RORO NAVIGATION LTD

Ship manager: STENA LINE BV

Shipyard: Dalian Shipyard, China

Hull number: RO123-3

Contract date: 1999-11-25

Keel laid: 2000-12-27

Launch: 2001-04-24

Date of build: 2003-08-29

Info on the ICA Favorit (forerunner of the Zeiss Ikon Favorit) from a German 1913 catalogue - thanks to Manfred Mornhinweg who provided me with this copy.

After ICA merged with ZEISS IKON in 1927, the type numbers of the cameras changed a little. From the different catalogues I made up the following:

ICA Favorit:

nr. 265 for 9 x 12

nr. 335 for 10 x 15

nr. 425 for 13 x 18

ICA Favorit Tropen:

nr. 266 for 9 x 12

ZEISS IKON Favorit:

nr. 265/7 for 9 x 12

nr. 265/9 for 10 x 15

nr. 265/11 for 13 x 18

ZEISS IKON Favorit Tropen:

nr. 266/7 for 9 x 12

Please note that there are ICA cameras with Zeiss type numbers around. Probably these were made during the year of the merger and shortly thereafter.

Also note that the Favorit Tropen is a different camera than the famous Tropica - they had of course different type numbers.

Source: www.dantestella.com/technical/retina.html

The Retina IIc can be best thought of as the forerunner to the famouns Retina IIIc - just without the meter and projected framelines. Although the viewfinder/rangefinder stayed the same as the IIa, a lot of other things changed:

Configuration: the biggest change with the IIc is that it went to a bottom-lever wind. This turns out to be a lot easier to use if you are left-eyed. It also allows for a much more reliable top-mounted frame counter and a less-fragile shutter-cocking mechanism. The rewind remained by knob. All camera surfaces are rounded ("streamlined,") and the front door is not latched on the bottom, but rather on the edge that opens. The top and bottom, as well as the sides, are rounded, leading to a more pleasing feel in the hand. One at least cosmetically significant difference is the use of an aluminum lens board that wraps back where you would have seen bellows on the IIa. This is largely superficial, since there are real bellows inside it.

Lens: Big change here. The IIc has a 50/2.8 Schneider Retina-Xenon or Rodenstock Heligon (which I believe to be the same as the 50/2.0 lenses, but with an aperture limiters in them). I have not observed the Schneider Xenon to be as sparkling as the 50/2.0, but this may be due to the interchangeability issue, which I believe adds new tolerances to the mix.

The front elements of these 50mm lenses are held into the shutter with a three-prong bayonet. When you bayonet out the front of the 50, you can interchange it with front parts for a 35/5.6 or an 80/4 (Scheider or Rodenstock, depending on what your camera originally came with). These lenses are huge, and none too easy to use. You focus with the rangefinder, and then you convert the distance. There is a squinty 35/80 Retina accessory finder to match. While these are of interest to collectors, they are hard to find in an un-separated state and not really worth the money or trouble for use (although they are neat).

The problem that interchangeability injects is that you may end up with a IIc (or IIIc for that matter) with the front of one 50mm lens and the rear of another. This is not a huge problem, but you will need to have the lens recollimated. The way you can check for danger is to match the lens serial number on the front lens element to the one on the shutter to the one on the back ring inside. Some people make it out to be the end of the world if all three don't match. It's not. Retina guru George Mrus (RIP) was very good at recollimating these lenses. I would recommend skipping a camera where these rings do not match, unless you can test it. Of course if the front and rear rings of the lens match each other, but not the shutter, it is really only a sign that the shutter was replaced at some point. A good repairman would have recollimated it.

Shutter assembly: The shutter is a Compur Synchro-MX #00 EVS, functionally identical to the one on the IIa, but with both settings visible on the top. One big difference is that it has the LVS system, which locks shutter and aperture together (both rings turn together). LVS is pretty useful for fill flash (see article) but is not that much fun for ambient light photos. The LVS disengages via a little lever on the bottom. Of all the Retina shutters, this seems to be the least problematic and the most jewel-like in its finish.

Accessories: The IIc and IIIc shared a neat line of accessories. The ne plus ultra was a brown bakelite box with 3 low-profile filters, the 50mm bayonet-on hood (rectangular) and the snap-on parts for 35 and 80mm hoods. The bayonet hoods are a boon, and a lot easier to deal with than the hard rubber screw-ins. Filter size remailed 30.5mm, so there is some backward and forward compatibility.

6-7 июня 2023, Третье обретение главы Предтечи и Крестителя Господня Иоанна / 6-7 June 2023, The third finding of the head of the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John

10-11 сентября 2019, Усекновение главы Пророка, Предтечи и Крестителя Господня Иоанна / 10-11 September 2019, The Beheading of the Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John.

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The Schooner Aleda was built in 1897 for Allen Taylor at the shipyards of Lane and Brown in Whangaroa, New Zealand; she was registered in Sydney in July 1897. In late 1899 she was purchased by John Breckenridge of Failford. The purchase followed Breckenridge’s acquisition of the Failford from Lane and Brown in 1898. The purchase of these two vessels was to be the forerunner of the development of a strong relationship between the Great Lakes and Whangaroa. John Breckenridge’s son, Henry Miles Breckenridge served his apprenticeship as a shipwright with Lane and Brown. While serving his apprenticeship at Whangaroa he met and married Hannah Mary Lane; they settled at Failford in 1902.

Details

Name: Aleda

Builder: Lane and Brown shipyards, Whangaroa New Zealand

Registration: 106145 – Registered Sydney No. 31 - 13th July 1897

Length: 94.5 ft

Breadth: 24.0 ft

Depth: 4.4 ft

Register Tonnage: (1 shipping ton = 100 cubic feet)

-Gross 83.12

-Net 79.01

Type: Scow with shallow draft – designed for river work

Owners:

1897 Purchase from Lane and Brown, Whangaroa facilitated by agents Nelson and Robertson acting on behalf of Allen Taylor

1897 – 1899 Allen Taylor

1899 – 1911 John Breckenridge, Failford

1911 – 1914 John Breckenridge and Sons Ltd, Drummoyne

John Breckenridge moved to Drummoyne in 1909 and set up John Breckenridge and Sons, Ltd. in 1911; John and his two sons, John Wylie Breckenridge and Henry Miles Breckenridge, were directors. John died on 8th July 1917 and is buried in the Failford cemetery.

Operation

Her initial voyage was from Whangaroa to Sydney – arriving 10th July 1897 carrying 74,570 ft kauri pine timber.

She was then used to transport timber from sawmills along the NSW Coast to Sydney.

In late 1899 she was sold to John Breckenridge of Failford and regularly carried sawn timber and poles/piles between Failford (Cape Hawke area) and Sydney or Newcastle with one voyage from Cape Hawke to New Zealand.

Lucky Escape in 1907

The event occurred when the Aleda was almost wrecked at the Gap outside South Head in Sydney; the event was described in the press as follows:

“The schooner Aleda, a coastal trader outward bound from Sydney to Cape Hawke to load timber, had a narrow escape to-day. After she crossed the Heads her rudder was deranged, with the result that she became unmanageable. The wind was from the north-east, with a nasty swell, and the craft rapidly drifted into great danger. The pilot steamer Captain Cook went at full speed to the rescue, and the craft was within 100 yards of the Gap, when the Aleda was taken in tow.”

Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW) Tue 11 Jun 1907.

1914 - Aleda Wrecked off Point Plomer north of Port Macquarie 17th June

The Aleda left Sydney on Monday 15th or Tuesday 16th just before a strong gale swept along the coast. She was bound for the Nambucca River, and was to load a full cargo of timber there for Sydney on account of the John Breckenridge and Sons. The vessel had evidently got off Nambucca, but was unable to enter owing to the gale, and when the cyclone burst she was driven helplessly ashore. The spot where the vessel struck is one of the most rugged parts of the north coast, and Point Plomer is surrounded by many hidden dangers. Her crew of six were reported as missing, believed drowned.

On Sunday 21st it was reported that “Mr. Ted Noonan, of Big Hill, three miles north of Point Plomer, brought news to town that a mass of wreckage floating at the headland there indicated that a ketch or vessel of that description had met disaster on Wednesday night while last week's furious storm was at its height in that vicinity. The wreckage comprised parts of decking, portions of a green painted hull, two portions of masts with sail attached, manila hawsers, wire ropes, pieces of smoke stained galley iron, a blanket, and heaps of timber shattered to match wood all churning in the surf, and in which at intervals could be seen the stern board of a little boat with the words "Aleda, Sydney" in yellow letters on a green ground.

Mr. Noonan made the unpleasant discovery late on Friday evening (19th), but the sea was too rough to investigate, though the sight of a spar bobbing out from the cauldron at the bluff, and a freshly fallen shower of newly splint-red timber fully fifty feet up the cliff were sufficiently convincing that some coaster had been rudely cast away.”

The Macleay Chronicle (Kempsey, NSW) Wed 24 Jun 1914.

The following newspaper report sums up the tragic loss

SMASHED TO SPLINTERS.

Mr. H. M. Breckenridge [Henry Miles Breckenridge], of the firm of John Breckenridge and Sons, Ltd., owners of the schooner Aleda, returned to Sydney yesterday after a visit to the scene of the wreck.

"There is not the slightest doubt about the wreckage found having come from the Aleda," said Mr. Breckenridge yesterday. "I carefully examined everything that had been found, and there is no doubt that the Aleda has been smashed to splinters. I am certain that none of the wreckage there came from the Alfred Fenning.

"The Aleda was apparently driven ashore by the gale near Big Hill, as it is called locally. It is the next headland to Point Plomer, and is a very rugged spot. The little vessel would have no chance at all there. There is no possible hope of anyone getting ashore at the spot. There is only one place where one can get up the cliff from the sea, and it takes a strong man to climb up even there." The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW) Saturday 27 June 1914

The lost crew were:

Captain H Siblet (Master),

John Merchant (A.B.),

Hans Nelson (A.B.),

A. Anderson, (A.B),

Alec Kestila (A.B.), and

O Petersen (cook).

Image Source Extract from Register of Australian and New Zealand Shipping 1902-03

Acknowledgements. The assistance of Mori Flapan (Mori Flapan boatregister) by providing access to his extensive database is greatly appreciated.

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Tamworth Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a Norman castle overlooking the mouth of the River Anker into the Tame in the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. Before boundary changes in 1889, however, the castle was within the edge of Warwickshire while most of the town belonged to Staffordshire.

The site served as a residence of the Mercian kings in Anglo Saxon times, but fell into disuse during the Viking invasions. Refortified by the Normans and later enlarged, the building is today one of the best preserved motte-and-bailey castles in England.

When Tamworth became the chief residence of Offa, ruler of the expanding Mercian kingdom, he built a palace there from which various charters were issued sedens in palatio regali in Tamoworthige, the first dating from 781. Little trace of its former glory survived the Viking attack in 874 that left the town "for nearly forty years a mass of blackened ruins". Then in 913 Tamworth was rebuilt by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who newly fortified the town with an earthen burh. This, however, did little to defend the place when it was again sacked by the Danes in 943.

Over the following centuries there is no more mention of Tamworth as a royal residence, although a mint there struck coins for later Anglo-Saxon kings and eventually for the new Norman monarch, William the Conqueror. The place was then granted to William's steward, Robert Despenser, who built a wooden castle during the 1080s in the typical Norman motte and bailey fashion. Occupying the south western part of the earlier burh, this was the forerunner of the present building.

When Robert died childless, the castle passed to his nieces, one of whom, Matilida, married Robert Marmion. The Marmion family, hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy and then of the new Kings of England, held the castle for six generations from c.1100 to 1294. It was during their occupancy that the castle began to be remodelled in stone, although on one occasion it was also in danger of being demolished altogether. Robert Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, deserted King John in 1215 during the turmoil of his reign. As a consequence, the king ordered Robert's son Geoffrey to be imprisoned, all of Robert's lands to be confiscated and Tamworth Castle to be demolished. But the fabric had only been partially destroyed by the time of John's death the following year, when Robert's sons were able to regain their father's lands.

Early Norman herringbone masonry on the castle causeway

The last male of the family to own the castle was Philip Marmion. Since he had no legitimate sons, the castle passed on his death (c.1291) to his daughter and, after she died without an heir in 1294, to her niece Joan. As she was the wife of Sir Alexander Freville, Joan's descendants initiated the next dynasty of owners who held the castle until 1423. The male line then came to an end with Baldwin de Freville, whose son died a minor, and the castle passed to the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Thomas Ferrers of Groby.

Numerous additions were made to the castle over the centuries, especially in the Jacobean period, from which time the arms of the Ferrers family and those with whom they intermarried came to dominate the interior. The shell keep contains a 12th-century gate tower and later residential accommodation in an H plan comprising a 13th-century three-storey north range, and a 17th-century Jacobean three-storey south range linked by an oak timbered Great Hall of the 15th century. A notable exterior feature surviving from early times is the herring-bone pattern of masonry laid diagonally at the base of the causeway up to the gate tower.

Originally entry to the castle grounds was by a gateway (little of which now remains) fronting onto the town's market-place. In his itinerary of Britain (1539/43), John Leland found the outworks “cleane decayed and the Wall fallen downe”, although on the mound there remained “a great round Tower of Stone, wherein Mr [Humphrey] Ferrers dwelleth, and now repaireth it.”

However adapted as a residence, the castle's defences had been built with the conditions of mediaeval warfare in mind. During the English Civil War, it was captured by Parliamentary forces on 25 June 1643 after only a two-day siege and was garrisoned by them. In July 1645 the garrison comprised ten officers and 77 soldiers under the command of the military governor, Waldyve Willington. Owing to this use, the castle therefore escaped the slighting ordered for so many others at that period.

After 1668 the castle passed to the relatives of the Ferrers, initially the Shirleys of Chartley and then in 1715 to the Comptons when Elizabeth Ferrers married the 5th Earl of Northampton. During their period of ownership, the castle again fell into disrepair but after the Ferrers grandniece, Charlotte Compton, had married George Townshend of Raynham, it was again refurbished. Following his death in 1811, the castle was acquired by an auctioneer, John Robbins in 1814, although he did not move in until 1821: ownership reverted to the Townshend family on his death.

The moat on the town side had fallen into disuse and from the 15th century onwards parts of it were leased to the houses on that side of Market Street. In 1810 a new gatehouse was built at the foot of the Holloway, where the road ran south along the Lady Bridge. From it a carriageway wound up through the grounds to the castle's entrance. The castle mill was sited further along the Anker, where it was depicted in J. M. W. Turner’s panoramic watercolour of the castle from the south-east (1832). Also included there is the Lady Bridge to the left and the square tower of St Editha’s Church on the right.

The castle had earlier made a brief appearance in Walter Scott’s narrative poem Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1808). Set in Tudor times, its anachronistic anti-hero is proclaimed at the banquet in the first canto as “Lord of Fontenaye…Of Tamworth tower and town”, although the barony of Marmion had by then been extinct for more than two centuries.

Finally in 1891 the Marquess Townshend put the castle up for sale by auction and it was purchased by its present owners, Tamworth Corporation (now Tamworth Borough Council), for £3,000 in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. It was then opened to the public by the Earl of Dartmouth as a museum in 1899.

Royal visitors after the Norman Conquest:

King Henry I, sometime between 1109 and 1115

King Henry II, 1158, accompanied by Thomas Becket

King Henry III, 1257

King Edward II, 1325

King Edward III, 1330

King James I, 1619, accompanied by his son Prince Charles.

Tamworth is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, 14 miles (23 km) north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through it. The population of Tamworth borough (2021) was 78,838. The wider urban area had a population of 81,964.

Tamworth was the principal centre of royal power of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia during the 8th and 9th centuries. It hosts a simple but elevated 12th century castle, a well-preserved medieval church (the Church of St Editha) and a Moat House. Tamworth was historically divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire until 1889, when the town was placed entirely in Staffordshire.

The town's industries include logistics, engineering, clothing, brick, tile and paper manufacture. Until 2001 one of its factories was Reliant, which produced the Reliant Robin three-wheeler car and the Reliant Scimitar sports car.

The Snowdome, a prototype real-snow indoor ski slope is in Tamworth and 1.7 miles (2.7 km) south is Drayton Manor Theme Park and one of the many marinas serving the Coventry Canal and Birmingham and Fazeley Canal which combine south of the town.

Staffordshire is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south-east, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the county town is Stafford.

The county has an area of 1,713 square kilometres (661 sq mi) and a population of 1,131,052. After Stoke-on-Trent (258,366), the largest settlements are Tamworth (78,646), Newcastle-under-Lyme (75,082) and Burton upon Trent (72,299); the city of Lichfield has a population of 33,816. For local government purposes Staffordshire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with nine districts, and the unitary authority area of Stoke-on-Trent. The county historically included the north-west of the West Midlands county, including Walsall, West Bromwich, and Wolverhampton.

Staffordshire is hilly to the north and south. The southern end of the Pennines is in the north, containing part of the Peak District National Park, while the Cannock Chase AONB and part of the National Forest are in the south. The River Trent and its tributaries drain most of the county. From its source, near Biddulph, the river flows through Staffordshire in a southwesterly direction, meeting the Sow just east of Stafford; it then meets the River Tame and turns north-east, exiting into Derbyshire immediately downstream of Burton upon Trent.

Staffordshire contains a number of Iron Age tumuli and Roman camps, and was settled by the Angles in the sixth century; the oldest Stafford knot, the county's symbol, can be seen on an Anglian cross in the churchyard of Stoke Minster. The county was formed in the early tenth century, when Stafford became the capital of Mercia. The county was relatively settled in the following centuries, and rapidly industrialised during the Industrial Revolution, when the North Staffordshire coalfield was exploited and fuelled the iron and automobilie industries in the south of the county. Pottery is the county's most famous export; a limited amount is still produced in Stoke-on-Trent.

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It adjoins Cheshire to the north west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south east, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The historic county of Staffordshire includes Wolverhampton, Walsall, and West Bromwich, these three being removed for administrative purposes in 1974 to the new West Midlands authority. The resulting administrative area of Staffordshire has a narrow southwards protrusion that runs west of West Midlands to the border of Worcestershire. The city of Stoke-on-Trent was removed from the admin area in the 1990s to form a unitary authority, but is still part of Staffordshire for ceremonial and traditional purposes.

The historic county has an area of 781,000 acres (1,250 sq. miles) and at the first census in 1801 had a population of 239,153.

Early British remains exist in various parts of the county; and a large number of barrows have been opened in which human bones, urns, fibulae, stone hammers, armlets, pins, pottery and other articles have been found. In the neighbourhood of Wetton, near Dovedale, on the site called Borough Holes, no fewer than twenty-three barrows were opened, and British ornaments have been found in Needwood Forest, the district between the lower Dove and the angle of the Trent to the south. Several Roman camps also remain, as at Knave's Castle on Watling Street, near Brownhills.

The county symbol, the Staffordshire Knot, is seen on an Anglian stone cross that dates from around the year 805. The cross still stands in Stoke churchyard. Thus the Knot is either i) an ancient Mercian symbol or ii) a symbol adopted from the Irish Christianity, Christianity having been brought to Staffordshire by Irish monks from Lindisfarne about AD 650.

The district which is now Staffordshire was invaded in the 6th century by a tribe of Angles who settled about Tamworth, afterwards famous as a residence of the Mercian kings, and later made their way beyond Cannock Chase, through the passages afforded by the Sow valley in the north and Watling Street in the south. The district was frequently overrun by the Danes, who in 910 were defeated at Tettenhall, and again at Wednesfield, and it was after Edward the Elder had finally expelled the Northmen from Mercia that the land of the south Mercians was formed into a shire around the fortified burgh which he had made in 914 at Stafford.

The county probably first came into being in the decade after the year 913; that being the date at which Stafford – the strategic military fording-point for an army to cross the Trent – became a secure fortified stronghold and the new capital of Mercia under Queen Æthelflæd.

The county is first mentioned by name in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1016 when it was harried by Canute.

The resistance which Staffordshire opposed William the Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying and confiscation, and the Domesday Survey supplies evidence of the depopulated and impoverished condition of the county, which at this period contained but 64 mills, whereas Dorset, a smaller county, contained 272. No Englishman was allowed to retain estates of any importance after the Conquest, and the chief lay proprietors at the time of the survey were Earl Roger of Montgomery; Earl Hugh of Chester; Henry de Ferrers, who held Burton and Tutbury Castles; Robert de Stafford; William Fitz-Ansculf, afterwards created first Baron Dudley; Richard Forester; Rainald Bailgiol; Ralph Fitz Hubert and Nigel de Stafford. The Ferrers and Staffords long continued to play a leading part in Staffordshire history, and Turstin, who held Drayton under William Fitz Ansculf, was the ancestor of the Bassets of Drayton. At the time of the survey Burton was the only monastery in Staffordshire, but foundations of canons existed at Stafford, Wolverhampton, Tettenhall, Lichfield, Penkridge and Tamworth, while others at Hanbury, Stone, Strensall and Trentham had been either destroyed or absorbed before the Conquest.

In the 13th century Staffordshire formed the archdeaconry of Stafford, including the deaneries of Stafford, Newcastle, Alton and Leek, Tamworth and Tutbury, Lapley and Creigull. In 1535 the deanery of Newcastle was combined with that of Stone, the deaneries remaining otherwise unaltered until 1866, when they were increased to twenty. The archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent was formed in 1878, and in 1896 the deaneries were brought to their present number; the archdeaconry of Stafford comprising Handsworth, Himley, Lichfield, Penkridge, Rugeley, Stafford, Tamworth, Trysull, Tutbury, Walsall, Wednesbury, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton; the archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent comprising Alstonfield, Cheadle, Eccleshall, Hanley, Leek, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on- Trent, Trentham and Uttoxeter. In the wars of the reign of Henry III. most of the great families of Staffordshire, including the Bassets and the Ferrers, supported Simon de Montfort, and in 1263 Prince Edward ravaged all the lands of Earl Robert Ferrers in this county and destroyed Tutbury Castle. During the Wars of the Roses, Eccleshall was for a time the headquarters of Queen Margaret, and in 1459 the Lancastrians were defeated at Blore Heath.

The five hundreds of Staffordshire existed since the Domesday Survey, and the boundaries have remained practically unchanged until the twentieth century. Edingale, however, was then included under Derbyshire, and Tyrley under Shropshire, while Cheswardine, Chipnall and part of Bobbington, now in Shropshire, were assessed under Staffordshire. The hundreds of Offlow and Totmonslow had their names from sepulchral monuments of Saxon commanders. The shire court for Staffordshire was held at Stafford, and the assizes at Wolverhampton, Stafford and Lichfield, until by act of parliament of 1558 the assizes and sessions were fixed at Stafford, where they are still held.

The origin of the hundred dates from the division of his kingdom by King Alfred the Great into counties, hundreds and tithings. From the beginning, Staffordshire was divided into the hundreds of Totmonslow, Pirehill, Offlow, Cuttleston and Seisdon.

The hundredal division of Staffordshire differs markedly from that of the counties to the south and west in showing far greater stability. All the Domesday hundreds are kept practically unchanged down to modern times. Also in the size of the hundreds. The Staffordshire hundreds, five in number, are on the whole far larger than any in the adjacent counties; more especially as regards northern Staffordshire. The two hundreds in the south-west are of more normal extent. It seems to be due chiefly to the nature of the county. Northern Staffordshire is to a large extent moorland, which must have been unattractive to early settlers. It is noteworthy, as showing where the centres of these hundreds lay, that the meeting-places of the two northern hundreds (Pirehill and Totmonslow) are in the extreme south of the respective hundreds. Southern Staffordshire was largely a forest-district. The southern part of Seisdon hundred was covered by Kinver Forest, and large parts of the two hundreds in the central part of the county, those of Cuttleston and Offlow, must have been occupied by Cannock Forest. The cultivated areas of these hundreds must in early days have been considerably smaller than at present.

In the English Civil War of the 17th century Staffordshire supported the parliamentary cause and was placed under Lord Brooke. Tamworth, Lichfield and Stafford, however, were garrisoned for King Charles, and Lichfield Cathedral withstood a siege in 1643, in which year the Royalists were victorious at Hopton Heath, but lost their leader, the Earl of Northampton. In 1745 the Young Pretender advanced as far as Leek in this county.

A large proportion of Staffordshire in Norman times was waste and uncultivated ground, but the moorlands of the north afforded excellent pasturage for sheep, and in the 14th century Wolverhampton was a staple town for wool. In the 13th century mines of coal and iron are mentioned at Walsall, and ironstone was procured at Sedgley and Eccleshall. In the 15th century both coal and iron were extensively worked. Thus in the 17th century the north of the county yielded coal, lead, copper, marble and millstones, while the rich meadows maintained great dairies; the woodlands of the south supplied timber, salt, black marble and alabaster; the clothing trade flourished about Tamworth, Burton, and Newcastle-under-Lyme; and hemp and flax were grown all over the county. The potteries are of remote origin, but were improved in the 17th century by two brothers, the Elers, from Amsterdam, who introduced the method of salt glazing, and in the 18th century they were rendered famous by the achievements of Josiah Wedgwood.

Staffordshire was represented by two members in the parliament of 1290, and in 1295 the borough of Stafford also returned two members. Lichfield was represented by two members in 1304, and Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1355. Tamworth returned two members in 1562. Under the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned four members in four divisions, and the boroughs of Stoke-upon-Trent and Wolverhampton were represented by two members each, and Walsall by one member. Under the Act of 1867 the county returned six members in three divisions and Wednesbury returned one member.

The most noteworthy churches in the county are found in the large towns, and are described under their respective headings. Such are the beautiful cathedral of Lichfield, and the churches of Eccleshall, Leek, Penkridge St Mary's at Stafford, Tamworth, Tutbury, and St Peter's at Wolverhampton. Checkley, 4 miles south of Cheadle, shows good Norman and Early English details, and there are carved stones of pre-Norman date in the churchyard. Armitage, south-east of Rugeley, has a church showing good Norman work. Brewood church, 4 miles south-west of Penkridge, is Early English. This village gives name to an ancient forest. Audley church, north-west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, is a good example of Early Decorated work. Remains of ecclesiastical foundations are generally slight, but those of the Cistercian abbey of Croxden, north-west of Uttoxeter, are fine Early English, and at Ranton, west of Stafford, the Perpendicular tower and other portions of an Augustinian foundation remain. Among medieval domestic remains may be mentioned the castles of Stafford, Tamworth and Tutbury, with that of Chartley, north-east of Stafford, which dates from the 13th century. Here is also a timbered hall, in the park of which a breed of wild cattle is maintained. Beaudesert, south of Rugeley, is a fine Elizabethan mansion in a beautiful undulating demesne. In the south-west, near Stourbridge, are Enville, a Tudor mansion with grounds laid out by the poet Shenstone, and Stourton Castle, embodying portions of the 15th century, where Reginald, Cardinal Pole, was born in 1500. Among numerous modern seats may be named Ingestre, Ilam Hall, Alton Towers, Shugborough, Patteshull, Keele Hall, and Trentham.

Source: www.dantestella.com/technical/retina.html

The Retina IIc can be best thought of as the forerunner to the famouns Retina IIIc - just without the meter and projected framelines. Although the viewfinder/rangefinder stayed the same as the IIa, a lot of other things changed:

Configuration: the biggest change with the IIc is that it went to a bottom-lever wind. This turns out to be a lot easier to use if you are left-eyed. It also allows for a much more reliable top-mounted frame counter and a less-fragile shutter-cocking mechanism. The rewind remained by knob. All camera surfaces are rounded ("streamlined,") and the front door is not latched on the bottom, but rather on the edge that opens. The top and bottom, as well as the sides, are rounded, leading to a more pleasing feel in the hand. One at least cosmetically significant difference is the use of an aluminum lens board that wraps back where you would have seen bellows on the IIa. This is largely superficial, since there are real bellows inside it.

Lens: Big change here. The IIc has a 50/2.8 Schneider Retina-Xenon or Rodenstock Heligon (which I believe to be the same as the 50/2.0 lenses, but with an aperture limiters in them). I have not observed the Schneider Xenon to be as sparkling as the 50/2.0, but this may be due to the interchangeability issue, which I believe adds new tolerances to the mix.

The front elements of these 50mm lenses are held into the shutter with a three-prong bayonet. When you bayonet out the front of the 50, you can interchange it with front parts for a 35/5.6 or an 80/4 (Scheider or Rodenstock, depending on what your camera originally came with). These lenses are huge, and none too easy to use. You focus with the rangefinder, and then you convert the distance. There is a squinty 35/80 Retina accessory finder to match. While these are of interest to collectors, they are hard to find in an un-separated state and not really worth the money or trouble for use (although they are neat).

The problem that interchangeability injects is that you may end up with a IIc (or IIIc for that matter) with the front of one 50mm lens and the rear of another. This is not a huge problem, but you will need to have the lens recollimated. The way you can check for danger is to match the lens serial number on the front lens element to the one on the shutter to the one on the back ring inside. Some people make it out to be the end of the world if all three don't match. It's not. Retina guru George Mrus (RIP) was very good at recollimating these lenses. I would recommend skipping a camera where these rings do not match, unless you can test it. Of course if the front and rear rings of the lens match each other, but not the shutter, it is really only a sign that the shutter was replaced at some point. A good repairman would have recollimated it.

Shutter assembly: The shutter is a Compur Synchro-MX #00 EVS, functionally identical to the one on the IIa, but with both settings visible on the top. One big difference is that it has the LVS system, which locks shutter and aperture together (both rings turn together). LVS is pretty useful for fill flash (see article) but is not that much fun for ambient light photos. The LVS disengages via a little lever on the bottom. Of all the Retina shutters, this seems to be the least problematic and the most jewel-like in its finish.

Accessories: The IIc and IIIc shared a neat line of accessories. The ne plus ultra was a brown bakelite box with 3 low-profile filters, the 50mm bayonet-on hood (rectangular) and the snap-on parts for 35 and 80mm hoods. The bayonet hoods are a boon, and a lot easier to deal with than the hard rubber screw-ins. Filter size remailed 30.5mm, so there is some backward and forward compatibility.

The New York City Fire Museum

278 Spring Street, NYC

by navema

www.navemastudios.com

The “gratacap,” developed by NYC volunteer firefighter Mr. Gratacap in the early 1830s, is a forerunner of the present fire hat. The chief characteristics of this type of hat are its large back brim that allows water to run away from the body, and a leather shield (or hat front) at the anterior, held on by an eagles or other animal holder. The use of shield shaped hat fronts has been traced to Hessian helmets worn during the American Revolution. Fancy decorative helmets were used in parades.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM:

The New York City Fire Museum opened as the Fire College Museum on Long Island City in 1934. In 1959 the Museum moved to a firehouse at 100 Duane Street in Manhattan, where it remained until the Home Insurance Company presented its collection of fire memorabilia to the city in 1981, making a move to larger quarters imperative. The Friends raised funds to renovate a 1904 Beaux-Arts firehouse on Spring Street in Soho, which is now the Museum's home.

Displays illustrate the evolution of firefighting from the bucket brigades of Peter Stuyvesant's New Amsterdam through the colorful history of volunteer firefighters to modern firefighting techniques and equipment. The building also houses a special memorial to the 343 firefighters who died on 9/11. A video room and a miniature apartment with an artificial smoke machine and black-lighted fire hazards are used in the museum's fire education program for school children ages k through 12.

The Museum attracts over 30,000 visitors a year, many of them foreign tourists, and, using light-duty and retired firefighter volunteers, conducts an active tour program for visitors in addition to self-guided visits.

The New York City Fire Museum houses one of the nation's most important collections of fire related art and artifacts from the late 18th Century to the present. Among its holdings are painted leather buckets, helmets, parade hats and belts, lanterns and tools, pre Civil War hand pumped fire engines, horse drawn vehicles and early motorized apparatus.

The history of an organized firefighting force began with the Rattle Watch, men who would prowl the streets at night, keeping a watchful eye for fires. If fire was spotted they would spin their rattles and the racket would alert the residents to grab their buckets and run to the fire.

One of the earliest fire engines in the collection is the "Farnam" style engine, which was built in New York around 1790, and is one of the oldest fire engines in North America. Many other engines are housed at the museum, like the four-wheeled hose reels (the Steinway Hose No. 7 and Astoria Hose No. 8), a horse drawn 1901 LaFrance steam engine, a 1912 steamer with a gas powered Van Blerck tractor, a horse-drawn ladder wagon, as well as early rescue gear and breathing equipment, alarm boxes from various eras, and motorized vehicles (such as a 1921 American La France engine).

Besides apparatus, the Museum exhibits an astonishing number of other fire service accouterments from New York City's early years. Rare painted parade hats, speaking trumpets, leather fire buckets, uniform parts and insignia, tools and lanterns, and decorative elements from equipment are on view in quantity. It has a collection of over 2,000 fire marks, the fire insurance company advertising emblems. Also on display are the modern tools and clothing of the modern firefighters. The transition from turnout coats to all encompassing bunker gear can be seen on a series of mannequins. Tools such as the Halligan forcible entry tool and the Jaws of Life are on view.

For more info, visit: www.nycfiremuseum.org/