View allAll Photos Tagged practical_knowledge
Human Spaceflight image of the week:
ESA astronauts Pedro Duque (right) and Matthias Maurer (left) are in Edinburgh, UK, for the third session of the Pangaea geology course for astronauts.
The course provides astronauts with practical knowledge of Earth and planetary geology to prepare them to become effective partners of planetary scientists and engineers in designing the next exploration missions.
After classroom lessons on planetary geology in Bressanone, Italy, and field work in the Canary Islands’ Lanzarote, the third and final session sees the astronauts in Edinburgh to learn about microorganisms and where best to look for signs of life.
Together with Charles Cockell, head of the UK centre of Astrobiology, they are studying colonies of Chroococcidiopsis from the Negev desert in Israel. The bacteria were flown into space and attached to the exterior of the International Space Station in ESA’s Expose facility. After spending over a year orbiting Earth in the harsh vacuum of space, they were returned for analysis.
Knowing how life survives and adapts to harsh environments will help astronauts to communicate with geologists on the ground and better manage their time exploring planets on future missions.
Follow the Pangaea course on Twitter via ESA_CAVES and hashtag Pangaea, or on the blog blogs. Background information is available here .
Credit:ESA-S.Sechi
#ABFAV_WINTER_ ❄️
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, double, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda indigo
This hat belonged to Dr. Walter Soboleff.
=======================================================
University of Alaska
Walter Soboleff
This profile of Walter Soboleff appeared in the March 27, 1998 issue of the UAS student paper, Whalesong. By Eileen Wagner
Walter Soboleff was an associate pastor of the Northern Lights Presbyterian Church in Juneau. Tlingit scholar, a recognized elder and a translator, specializing in traditional oratory and story telling.
Walter Soboleff was an associate pastor of the Northern Lights Presbyterian Church in Juneau. Tlingit scholar, a recognized elder and a translator, specializing in traditional oratory and story telling.
Walter Soboleff was born in Killisnoo, Alaska in 1908. His grandfather was a Russian Orthodox priest serving in Southeast Alaska. His mother, Anna Hunter, was a Tlingit born in Sitka. His father, Alexander (Sasha) Soboleff, who died when Walter was 12 years old, was the mechanic or engineer of the family. His uncle, Vincent Soboleff, was an accomplished photographer who left hundreds of photos of Tlingit cultural events, Russian Orthodox church events, and the fishing industry.
Walter Soboleff grew up in a rich multicultural atmosphere. He remembers hearing his grandmother speaking German to him, Russian hymns from his time at the mission school in Sitka, and most of all, the Tlingit language and oral tradition of his mother.
His memories of childhood reveal a close-knit and serene picture of loving adults watching over happy, playful children. He remembers how physically close the homes were, the constant interaction of children and adults, the feeling of security and mutual respect. The good memories extended to his school years.
"I had a very happy school experience. My teachers were very good. The U.S. Government School at Killisnoo was a genuine red schoolhouse with a bell, and we each had a little slate to write on."
In the fifth grade, he began to board at the Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka, and continued there through high school.
He doesn't recall being prohibited from speaking Tlingit, although the Sheldon Jackson School expressly forbid the use of Native languages. Possibly, since Soboleff was already bilingual, he didn't suffer the trauma that many Native people did in school. English was just the language of school.
After working at Cold Storage in Sitka and fishing for five years, he enrolled at Dubuque University in Iowa. He said that it was not his first choice, that he really wanted to become a medical doctor, but that's where the scholarship money was. He received his B.A. in education from there in 1937, and his Divinity degree in 1940, and began to serve as minister of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau.
The church, which later merged with the Northern Light United Church, was just two years old when Soboleff became pastor.
The church grew from one Sunday school classroom to nine classrooms and a large chapel. Under his leadership, the church, originally built to serve the Tlingit people, extended such a warm welcome to people of all races, that it came to serve Haidas, Tsimshians, Caucasians, Blacks, and Filipinos, as well as Tlingits.
Soboleff's return to Juneau in 1940 coincided with a revival of interest in their heritage among Native people.
"In 1940, an interest in Tlingit culture started to awaken. People wanted to raise money to build an ANB [Alaska Native Brotherhood] hall. We had a performance of some of our traditional dances and songs. We rented the Gross-Alaska Theater and I was the emcee. People came from Angoon, Hoonah, and Haines to help. I think that's when people started to appreciate their culture again," he said.
Soboleff served seven terms as president of the ANB, and for years was chairman of its scholarship committee. He also was appointed to the state Board of Education and served as its chairman. For several years he did radio broadcasts of the news in Tlingit, and also broadcast his church service over the radio.
From about 1962 to 1970, Soboleff began to serve as minister-at-large on the Princeton Hall and other mission boats which served villages that had no resident pastor.
In 1970, he retired from the ministry to start and direct an Alaska Native Studies Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
He taught Tlingit history, language, and literature until his retirement in 1974. Soboleff spoke of this part of his life as a very exciting time. "There were 500 Native students, from Barrow to Metlakatla, hungry to know their language and the history of their villages. I was given a generous budget to bring people from villages all over the state to Fairbanks as resource people. The students were so eager, they never missed a class."
Soboleff said he felt fortunate to have lived in such a time of transition for Native people. He is very aware of living in a time that will never be experienced again. "Culture is always changing. People are always in transition. Some manage it gracefully, and some struggle. Right now, everyone wants to claim a subsistence lifestyle. One of the first things you change, when a culture changes, is the language. The last thing to go is the food."
The remarkable thing about Soboleff is that even though he spent years and years of his life in Western schooling, he speaks as if he spent his life outdoors. He once surprised someone in Nome, saying it must be herring season there because the gulls were making a peculiar sound. Sure enough, when they came in sight of the shore, it was "like milk" - full of gulls feeding on herring.
"I used to hear them every day when I walked along the shore in Sitka," he said, but his years in Sitka were school years. He must have learned these things as a young child, and never lost them. "We Natives were the first Audubon Society members," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "we were the first conservationists."
Education is a subject close to Soboleff's heart. "We need to rethink the native cycle of education in Alaska. Children need practical knowledge—how to hunt, how to put up fish —they need to know how to adapt to village life when they come back. When they experience what their parents had to go through, they gain a new respect."
A look of deep sadness crossed his face as he said that the recent school board allocation of a small amount of money for Tlingit language instruction in Juneau schools was just "a beginning." The loss of their Native language has had the most devastating impact on Alaska Natives of all the changes they have lived through.
Soboleff has said, "In the Native culture, your older people are the Native libraries." Walter Soboleff is a library himself. He has been both a participant and an observer of a changing culture. He has lived in two worlds, and continues to help each one understand the other.
Dr. Walter Soboleff died on May 22, 2011 at his home in Southeast Alaska. He was 102.
www.alaska.edu/uajourney/notable-people/juneau/walter-sob...
This week ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is refreshing his rock classification, as well as acting as test subject during dry runs for a new session of Pangaea geology field training, that is preparing space farers for lunar exploration.
The team, consisting of planetary geologists and training experts, is in Lofoten, Norway, scouting for a new traverses to be added to the Pangaea analogue complement.
Lofoten shares many geological features with lunar highlands, such as the Apollo 16 landing site, making it a perfect site to train astronauts on lunar geology.
Pangaea instructors Matteo Massironi, Riccardo Pozzobon, and Fransceco Sauro, as well as petrology professor and local expert Kåre Kullerud are guiding Matthias Maurer through interesting geological sites in the Nusfjord, an area containing primitive crust rock formations, including anorthosites, which are known to be typical lunar highland rocks.
The Pangaea course is designed to provide European astronauts with introductory and practical knowledge of Earth and planetary geology to prepare them to become effective partners of planetary scientists and engineers in designing the next exploration missions. The course also aims to give astronauts a solid knowledge in the geology of the Solar System from leading European scientists.
Credits: ESA–S. Sechi
Geoff Parcell, formerly at BP and author of the best seller "Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations Organizations" taught me a lot about knowledge management. I think the process I've learnt about and implemented in the field of HIV/AIDS and Malaria perfectly applies to innovation management as well...
Read more thoughts about the Innovation Competence Process on my blog at:
business-model-design.blogspot.com/2006/08/innovation-com...
Galanthus nivalis plenus
These double Snowdrops have all the charm and grace of their single counterparts, but their multiple white petals make the flowers somewhat showier.
Each flower is a masterpiece! The inside shows a double center with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
-sense and sensibility...
THANX for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
Why not view the set as a slide-show?
Also I often upload more than one image at the same time, I see a tendency to only view the last uploaded...
Today is a bad-weather day, so have time, to test and try with textures on my pics... have no practical knowledge so far, do it just for fun...
wish you all a great sunday - for the christians - a blessed first advent!
#AbFav_MY_THEMES_ 💖 EYES
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
For years I have been working on a project, mostly for a book, it also became, at some stage, a Wall of Fame in a city...
Eyes are our soul mirrors in my view. People had to guess who it was from the clue in front of their lower face. FY,
The trial, done on the technical camera and developed and printed in the 'wet' darkroom.
I'll upload some now and then...
as they are not easy to scan.
AAhh well, when I have some time, FUN!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
Paul and my Hasselblad, his doesn't have the pentaprism, mine does because I'm not fond of the 'normal' Hasselblad reversed mirror view, LOL
I wish you all the best and THANK you, M, (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
SOUL-MIRRORS, eyes, close-up, hand, phone, man, portrait, colour, horizontal, emotion, mono, B&W, film, Nikon F4, "Magda indigo"
On this hot day in Frankfurt, I met two plus two cheerful people, I could inspire for the Project "The Human Family". They did not stare at their smartphones, were relaxed and open to the project.
One of them was Jennifer, who I photographed first. Her story and her picture can be found here:
After the little photo shoot with Jennifer was completed, I asked Jennifer's friend, Matthias, to come in front of my camera. Relaxed we tried some settings. Matthias thoughts went to the shirt he wore. The text on the shirt does not quite fit into the idea of The Human Family project. It is remarkable that Matthias is concerned about it and show me what a reflected man Matthias is. The text also has no significance for Matthias, he was doing that night only a loose, casual, the heat matched, leisure look.
Matthias is 26 years old, comes from Alsbach (in the south of Frankfurt) and now lives in Frankfurt. Matthias is employed in an tax advisor office as a consultant. In the past Matthias had shown his portfolio on the Internet, with the result that his current employer approached him. Now he is on the staff. The time as a consultant is marked by the "on the job training" - that is, the switching and testing practical knowledge and skills. It is the professional preparation for tax advisors.
I asked Matthias what his biggest dream is. This is a beach bar in the Caribbean with a connected open-air gym, Matthias replied. When I asked Matthias about his hobbies, he answered: my girlfriend Jennifer, sports, socializing and meeting friends.
Matthias also likes to travel, this year is planned a trip to South America and next year to Asia.
How got you know Jennifer? We met in the internet. We were both logged on a Christian platform for young adults. I have Jennifer written. What followed from the mails is what now we have.
During our small interviews we sat (Matthias, Jennifer and I) on the steps of city hall. So I could ask Jennifer ,how she would describe Matthias: She was a little surprised by the question and could not say so specifically what it is exactly at the moment. "In any case, Matthias is a cheerful person, always laughing and attractive".
Meanwhile, I am in e-mail contact with Jennifer; the following characterization of Matthias Jennifer had send to me. With her permission I quote this little declaration of love. (When I read her mail and this passage, it conjured me a smile on the face.)
"Matthias is really the best cheerful, dearest, most selfless person I know. He's just the perfect complement of me. With many incredibly similarities, but also a few opposites that fit each other perfectly. In addition Matthias is a selfless nature. He would repeatedly backtrack himself, just to help other people. And he always smiles, everyone likes him because he has such a sympathic way. Matthias is very empathetic."
I can only agree with Jennifer. In our little photo session Matthias was beaming calm, friendliness and fun. In the "Couple Photo", which I made at the end of both, I could feel the warmth and love that exists between Jennifer and Matthias.
Jennifer wrote me that Matthias and Jennifer have otherwise "only" selfies or smartphone images from each other. These photos here are so exceptional. I hope that Matthias and Jennifer still can see the photos in 50 years and then say, “do you remember that time at Frankfurt Römerberg”!
Thanks for the time have you given me and the project. I wish you well. I hope your future professional goals will be reached. But especially I wish you a long common time together full of love and harmony.
This is my 28th post to the group "The Human Family". Visit "The Human Family" here and have a look on the photos of the other photographers:
www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/
Last but not least, Melanie will follow. I'm writing the text. So be patient.
--------------------
An diesem heißen Tag in Frankfurt traf ich zwei plus zwei gutgelaunte Menschen, die ich für das Project „The Human Family“ begeistern konnte. Sie starrten nicht auf ihr Smartphone, waren entspannt und offen für das Projekt.
Eine von Ihnen war Jennifer, die ich zuerst fotografierte.
Ihre Geschichte und ihr Foto findet ihr hier:
Nachdem das kleine Foto Shooting mit Jennifer abgeschlossen war, bat ich Jennifers Freund, Matthias, vor die Kamera. Locker und entspannt probierten wir einige Einstellungen aus. Gedanken machte sich Matthias zu dem T-Shirt, das er trug. Der Text auf dem Shirt passt nicht so ganz zu dem Gedanken, der hinter meinem Projekt steht. Ich finde es bemerkenswert, dass Matthias sich darüber Gedanken macht und zeigt mir welch ein reflektierter Mensch Matthias ist. Der Text hat auch keinerlei Aussagekraft für Matthias, es ging ihm an diesem Abend nur um einen lockeren, lässigen, der Hitze angepassten, Freizeit- Look
Matthias ist 26 Jahre alt, kommt aus Alsbach (südlich von Darmstadt) und lebt jetzt in Frankfurt. Matthias ist in einem Steuerberatungsbüro als Consultant beschäftigt (hoffentlich gibt es dafür eine englische Übersetzung). Seinerzeit stellte Matthias sein Portfolio ins Internet, mit dem Ergebnis, dass die sein jetziger Arbeitgeber auf ihn zugekommen ist. Jetzt ist er fest angestellt. Die Zeit als Consultant ist geprägt durch das „Training on the Job“ – also die Vermittlung und Erprobung praktischer Kenntnisse und Fertigkeiten. Es ist die Berufsvorbereitung zum Steuerberater.
Ich fragte Matthias nach seinem Wunschtraum. Das ist eine Strandbar in der Karibik mit angeschlossenem Open-Air-Fitness-Studio, antwortete Matthias. Gefragt nach seinen Hobbies antwortete Matthias: meine Freundin Jennifer, Sport, Kontakte pflegen und sich mit Freunden treffen.
Matthias reist auch gerne, dieses Jahr ist eine Reise nach Südamerika geplant und nächstes Jahr nach Asien.
Wie hast Du Jennifer kennen gelernt? Wir haben uns über das Internet kennen gelernt. Wir waren beide auf einer christlichen Plattform angemeldet. Die ist für junge Erwachsene. Ich habe Jennifer angeschrieben und aus den Gesprächen folgte dann was wir jetzt haben.
Während unseres kleinen Interviews saßen wir (Matthias, Jennifer und ich) auf den Stufen zum Rathaus. So konnte ich Jennifer fragen, wie sie Matthias beschreiben würde: Sie war etwas überrascht von der Frage und konnte in dem Moment gar nicht so konkret sagen, was es genau ist. „Auf jeden Fall ist Matthias eine Frohnatur, immer lachend und attraktiv“.
Inzwischen stehe ich in E-Mail-Kontakt mit Jennifer; die nachfolgende Charakterisierung von Matthias hatte Jennifer mir per Mail zukommen lassen. Mit ihrer Erlaubnis darf ich diese kleine Liebeserklärung hier zitieren. Als ich ihre Mail und diese Passage las, zauberte es mir ein Lächeln auf das Gesicht.
„Matthias ist wirklich der best gelaunteste, liebste , selbstloseste Mensch den ich kenne. Er ist einfach die perfekte Ergänzung von mir. Mit unheimlich vielen Gemeinsamkeiten, aber auch mit wenigen Gegensätzen, die uns perfekt ergänzen. Dazu kommt seine selbstlose Art. Er würde so oft zurück stecken, nur um seinen Mitmenschen zu helfen. Und er grinst immer, jeder mag ihn, weil er so eine sympathische Art hat. Er ist sehr empathisch.“
Ich kann Jennifer nur zustimmen. Bei unsere kleinen Fotosession strahlte Matthias Ruhe, Freundlichkeit und Spaß an unserem Tue aus. Bei dem „Pärchenfoto“, welches ich zum Schluss von den beide machte, konnte ich die Wärme und Liebe spüren, die zwischen Jennifer und Matthias besteht.
Jennifer schrieb mir, dass Matthias und sie sonst "nur" Selfies oder Smartphone-Bilder voneinander haben. Solche Fotos sind somit etwas Besonderes. Ich hoffe, dass Matthias und Jennifer sich noch in 50 Jahren die Fotos anschauen können und dann sagen, weißt du noch, damals am Frankfurter Römerberg!
Danke für die Zeit, die Ihr mir und dem Projekt geschenkt habt. Ich wünsche Euch alles Gute und dass ihr eure beruflichen Ziele erreichen werdet. Besonders aber wünsche ich euch eine lange gemeinsame Zeit miteinander voller Liebe und Harmonie.
Dies ist mein 28. Beitrag zu der Gruppe "The Human Family". Mehr Fotos von anderen Fotografen der Gruppe findest Du hier:
www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/
Es folgt noch die Charakterisierung von Melanie. Ich schreibe gerade am Text. Bitte habt noch etwas Geduld.
#ABFAV_WINTER_ ❄️
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, double, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda indigo
Ted Forbes featured my Zine on his YouTube Channel “The Art of Photography.” youtu.be/sj_VJ4evDvs?si=tUWG2WjmtQIRE52y
You can purchase my Zine for only $10 (free shipping in the USA). See my website for more details: edovephotos.myportfolio.com/for-sale
Designing and printing a Zine of my photos has been a deeply meaningful and rewarding growth experience. It was my first attempt at something like this, and I’ll admit there were moments when I doubted whether I could pull it off. Looking back now, I can see how valuable each stage of the process was, and how much I’ve grown through it.
Attending Ted’s Zine workshop was exactly the catalyst I needed. I’m so glad I took the plunge. The workshop not only provided me with practical knowledge (how to curate and sequence photos, design a layout, and think through printing) but it also gave me perspective on what makes a Zine truly compelling and personal.
I began my Flea Market project with two self-imposed constraints: to always shoot within the same timeframe and in the same location. At first, it felt restrictive, and I worried there wouldn’t be enough variety to keep things interesting. But the opposite happened. The boundaries sharpened my attention, making me notice details I might have overlooked. They pushed me to be more creative with what was in front of me, to search harder for moments, and to stay present. What started as a limitation turned into a pathway to unexpected discoveries.
#ABFAV_WINTER_ ❄️
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera.
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda-indigo
This man is a great picture of peace and calm, in the early light of dawn.
Varanasi,
India.
------------------------------------------------------------
Dhyana
Dhyana is the stage of meditative trainings that leads one to Samadhi.
Meditation is work of the consciousness aimed at consciousness development on the path to Perfection, to Mergence with the Creator. Meditation is practiced at three stages of the Patanjali’s scheme.
At the dharana stage, students learn, among other things, to expand the consciousness in the subtlest and the most beautiful that exists in the world of matter. By means of such attunement they establish themselves in the sattva guna.
And through working with Yidam they can immediately come in contact with a Manifestation of the Divine Consciousness and experience Samadhi.
At the dhyana stage, students work on increasing the “mass” of the consciousness and obtaining power in subtlety.
At the next stage, the stage of Samadhi, their efforts are focused on interaction of the individual consciousness with the Consciousness of the Creator and on merging with Him in His Infinity.
At the dhyana stage, meditative work is especially effective if it is performed at special places of power — areas on the Earth’s surface that have a special energy impact on human beings. Among the variety of them only those should be chosen that make for expanding of the consciousness in the subtlest eons. A correctly selected sequence of such places ensures that the most complex tasks of correct crystallization (i.e. quantitative growth) of the consciousness will be solved easily and with little effort.
For the same purpose, one can meditate during athletic exercises, as well as practice winter swimming and meditative running.
The structure of the human organism responsible for meditation is the lower bubble of perception (this term was introduced by Juan Matus; see [6] for details) the principal part of which is the anahata chakra supplied with energy by the lower dantian (a complex of the three lower chakras).
From the very beginning of meditative training until the ultimate victory of Merging with the Primordial Consciousness, one must always remember that man’s main merit is measured by the level of the development of the spiritual heart. This is by what man can merge initially with God. This is why it is the spiritual heart that man should develop and keep pure in every possible way. Everything said above allows us to take it not as a nice figure of speech or a metaphor, but as a quite practical knowledge and instruction.
The steps of one’s spiritual ascent that we are discussing now are meant for teaching one how to position the consciousness, first, in cleansed anahata, then to ensure the growth of anahata within the body and then beyond it — within the cocoon, then within the Earth and beyond the planet in the highest eons.
In this way we can grow as Love. God is Love; this is why one can merge with Him only after becoming Great Love, a Great Soul consisting of Love (Mahatma)!
And there are no other ways of developing Divinity, except for these fundamental steps that we are describing here.
#AbFav_The_COLOUR_GREEN_🍀
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
Galanthus nivalis plenus
These double Snowdrops have all the charm and grace of their single counterparts, but their multiple white petals make the flowers somewhat showier.
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double center with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
-sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
double, snowdrops, Winter, flowers, green, petals, "Galanthus nivalis plenus", Galanthus, Perce-neige, Sneeuwklokje, white, colour, square, love, conceptual, "art”, design, studio, black-background, magda indigo
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda-indigo
Galanthus nivalis plenus
These double Snowdrops have all the charm and grace of their single counterparts, but their multiple white petals make the flowers somewhat showier.
Each flower is a masterpiece! The inside shows a double center with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
-sense and sensibility...
Thank you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
As we approached Chumathang we spot a flying mist of very hot sulphur water just metres away from chilling indus river. Karma tells us that Amchis (Trans-Himalayan Auyurveda Medicine Practioners) visit here during specific period and advise bath in a particular hot spring.
The meaning of "amchi" in the Buddhist language is ‘superior to all’. The amchis have practical knowledge on various ethno-medicines (known as "Amchi medical system").
One of the emanations of Lord Buddha is 'the Medicine Buddha', who is believed to have taught the roots of this tradition. The right hand of "the Medicine Buddha" holds a fruit of arura (a medicinal plant) and the left hand holds a begging bowl. Arura is considered the best medicine in the Tibetan medical system. The position of his right hand and the arura which he holds, represent the eradication of sufferings.
There are hot springs in the valleys of Ladakh such as Chumathang, Panamik, Markha, Serchan and Pugga, with a large amount of sulphur and minerals. According to Amchi medical system, bathing in sulphur springs is recommended for persons suffering from rheumatism. There are a few mineral springs, which flow for a certain period of the year and control medicinal properties for a limited period. Specific hot-water springs were recommended by amchis for curing particular diseases. For instance, Chumathang hot spring is recommended for curing backache, Markha for itching etc.
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Summary Data
State or Country of birth: New Hampshire
Home prior to enlistment: Newport, New Hampshire
Occupation prior to enlistment: druggist
Service:
1st N H Heavy Artillery - 1864 - 1865
Rank at enlistment: private
Highest rank attained: hospital steward
Principal combat experience: none
Casualties: none
Photograph by: C. C. Rowell, Newport, N.H., with orange two-cent Internal Revenue tax stamp on back hand cancelled in ink with
"C C R Nov 27".
Inscription in pencil on back: "Sam Nims"
*******
[Sold]
Samuel Nims was a native of Keene, New Hampshire, but sometime before the autumn of 1864 he had moved a few miles north to Newport where he was associated with Dr. William Leverett in a drug business.
Far to the south the contending armies of the Civil War were hammering away at one another. In late 1863 two unattached companies of heavy artillery were recruited in New Hampshire. At first they garrisoned points along the New Hampshire coast, then, in the spring of 1864 when the army began sending the heavy artillery garrisons at Washington to the front lines, the two New Hampshire companies were sent to the capital to relieve them. One of these companies saw action against the Confederate army under General Jubal Early during his raid on Washington in July 1864.
In the fall of 1864 additional companies were recruited in New Hampshire to bring the number of men up to the full total authorized for a regiment of heavy artillery. One of these new companies was recruited at Newport where Sam Nims enlisted on September 4. Nims was described as 5' 7" in height, with blue eyes, brown hair, and a fair complexion.
As soon as the companies were organized they were sent forward to the defenses of Washington. From then until the muster-out of the regiment the men garrisoned a line of works some ten miles in extent and performed picket duty in front of this long line of fortifications. When his company departed for Washington in September, private Nims was held back on detached service at General Rendezvous Camp Gilmore at Concord.
On November 9, 1864 Sam Nims was promoted from the rank of private in Company H and transferred to the noncommissioned staff of the regiment as its hospital steward. By 1864 a system had been established in which candidates for appointment as hospital stewards had to appear before a board of three medical officers. Prior to that time there was no prescribed system for appointment. Many men who, like Sam Nims, were druggists by trade were appointed as hospital stewards under this system. Others who made the grade were medical students and would-be medical students in civil life. Shortly after his promotion, Sam Nims was sent on to Washington.
After nearly three years of war the medical department had taken on, from necessity, a certain bureaucratic efficiency. The demands of caring for hundreds of sick or wounded men at a time forced the medical department to initiate a fairly rigid routine for dispensing medical care. In the larger hospitals, common later in the war, the ward physician would typically visit the patients in his ward twice a day; examining wounds, changing bandages and dressings, proscribing medicines and changes in diet for the sick, etc. Once a week the surgeon-in-charge would make his inspection tour. Other than the doctors, the hospital steward was the most important member of the hospital staff.
As a warrant officer, a hospital steward ranked above the first sergeant of a company but below commissioned officers. His badge of rank was a caduceus (composed of two serpents entwining a winged staff) embroidered in yellow thread on an emerald green cloth patch. The badge was worn diagonally on the sleeve above the elbow. The hospital steward was the only man permanently assigned to the surgeon and was required to have some knowledge of his work before appointment.
Most hospital nurses, on the other hand, were convalescent invalids, assigned temporarily to hospital duty with little or no practical knowledge of what was expected from them. Getting work out of these "nurses by accident" was the responsibility of the hospital steward. According to George W. Adams in his book "Doctors in Blue," the hospital steward was also expected to "take exclusive charge of the dispensary, must be practically acquainted with such points of minor surgery as the application of bandages and dressings, the extraction of teeth, and the application of cups and leeches, and must have such knowledge of cooking as will enable him to superintend efficiently this important branch of hospital service."
The regimental history of the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery notes that, "Although the duty of the Regiment was confined principally to garrisons, it was nevertheless arduous and disagreeable... The history of this regiment is necessarily short and not of striking interest. It is but justice, however, to the officers and men, to say that they came forward at a time when their services seemed to be most urgently required."
Following his discharge from the army on June 15, 1865, Sam Nims returned to Newport, New Hampshire where he bought out the drug business from Dr. Leverett. While operating his store in Newport the 28-year-old druggist was introduced to a 20-year-old seamstress named Maria Chase who was the daughter of a local tailor. The couple was married on March 7, 1866. In October 1867, Sam Nims took his young wife and moved back to his home town of Keene, New Hampshire. He died there from heart disease 19 years later, passing away on August 18, 1886.
#ABFAV_WINTER_ ❄️
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, double, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda indigo
This photograph is mainly allowing me to experiment with different photographing techniques by bringing night objects of various types of characature into close focus so that we get to experience a different tone of feelings with effects. This also helps me to practice night photographing techniques by applying various methods of shooting and to put practical knowledge into work.
After the Liberation the Lieut-Governor presented to the Museum a photostat of Hitler's secret Orders for the fortification of the Channel Islands. Two members, Father Burdo and Kate Nowlan, made a translation of them.
In the top right-hand corner is scribbled in ink a rather illegible word, which Father Burdo thinks is Versengen (to be burnt), but which Miss Nowlan reads as Weisungen (Instruction). The document is stamped with a rubber stamp "CHEF SACHE" (Top Secret). To be delivered solely by the hand of an Officer.
It runs: The Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the Forces. Fuhrer's Headquarters. 20.1O.41.
Fortification and defence of the English Channel Islands
1 English operations on a large scale against the territories occupied by us in the west are, now as before, unlikely. But under pressure of the situation in the east, and for reasons of politics and propaganda, small scale operations must at any moment be reckoned with, particularly an attempt to regain possession of the Channel Islands, which are important to us for the protection of our sea communications.
2 Counter-measures in the Channel Islands must ensure that any English attack fails before a landing is effected, whether it be attempted by sea or air or by both simultaneously. The possibility of the enemy taking advantage of bad visibility to make a surprise landing must be borne in mind. Emergency measures for strengthening the defences have already been ordered. All branches of the forces stationed in the Islands are placed under the orders of the Commandant of the Islands, except the air forces.
3 With regard to the permanent fortifying of the Islands to convert them into an impregnable fortress (which must be pressed forward at maximum speed) I give the following orders:
(a) The High Command of the Army is responsible for the fortifications as a whole and will incorporate in the overall programme the constructions needed for the Navy and Air Force. The strength of the fortifications and the order in which they are built will be based on the principles and practical knowledge derived from the building of the Western Wall.
(b) For the Army it is urgent to provide a close network of emplacements, as far as possible with flanking fire, which must be well-concealed (sufficient for guns of the size required to pierce 100 mm armour plate) for defence against tanks which may be landed from flat-bottomed boats ; accommodation for mobile diversion parties and armoured cars; accommodation for ample stores of ammunition, including that for the Navy and Air Force; incorporation of minefields into the defence system. The total number of buildings estimated as necessary must be reported.
(c) The Navy has for the safeguarding of the sea-approaches 3 batteries of the heaviest type, one in Guernsey and two on the French coast ; and furthermore it will eventually have with the help of the Army light and medium coastal batteries on the islands themselves and on the French coast suitable for firing on targets at sea, so that the whole Bay may be protected.
(d) For the Air Force strong points must be created with searchlights sufficient to accommodate such anti-aircraft units as are needed for the protection of all important constructions.
(e) Foreign labour, especially Russian and Spanish but also French, may be used for the building operations.
4 Another order will follow for the deportation to the Continent of all Englishmen who are not native islanders, ie who were not born in the Islands.
5 The progress of the fortification must be reported to me on the 1st of each month through the Com-in-Chf, Army, directed to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Staff of the Fuhrer. Division L.
(Signed) A H (ie Adolf Hitler).
Deportation decision
One interesting point is revealed by the above document. When the big deportation of British-born residents took place, considerable scepticism was felt about the regret expressed by the local German authorities and their assurance that it was only carried out by direct orders from Headquarters. We see now that Hitler had decided on it as early as 20 October 1941, though it was not begun till 15 September 1942.
The uselessness of these vast building operations was revealed when the end came. Miss Nowlan has kindly added to our library a book published in Germany in 1949, Invasion, by General Hans Speidel, Chief of Staff to Rommel, when he was Commander in Chief in the West. He writes:
"The group of British islands before St Malo were to be transformed on an eight-year plan into an impregnable fortress. This was Hitler's will. In the Spring of 1944 there were on this group of small islands 11 heavy batteries with 38 strong-points ready for use, whereas at the same period the whole front from Dieppe to St Nazaire, a stretch of coast over 1,ooo kilometres long, possessed only the same number of batteries and 37 strongpoints. The strength of the garrison of the Islands, it had been decided, was to be one whole division supported by an anti-aircraft regiment and a tank regiment. Rommel was a sharp opponent of the fortifying of the Channel Islands and recommended the withdrawal of the useless, stalemated garrison. After the Allies first landing Rommel made frantic appeals that these troops might be withdrawn to reinforce him; but he was told, according to Intelligence Reports from higher authorities, an attack on the Channel Islands by 40 to 50 Commando groups, approximating in strength to a Division, is daily expected. As the situation worsened Rommel again recommended the withdrawal of the troops from the Islands for the reinforcement of the Normandy front. In the Islands was the whole of the 319th Division, about 35,000 men in all who, in May 1945, had to surrender without having struck a blow. Already in 1944 the ordinary soldier with his unerring instinct for the bald truth and in humorous recognition of its probable fate had dubbed the 319th the 'Canada Division'."
A night-time view of the "center main" building at South Carolina State Hospital's Babcock Building. The main building was designed by Samuel Sloan, the patient wings which flank the main building (and from which this shot was taken) were designed by George E Walker.
The building was constructed in phases, the male wing was built first, completed in 1870, and actually used for patients before any of the other sections were built. Sloan's center main was completed last.
During the planning of this building (which was conceived as a solution to overcrowding in the original asylum building designed by Robert Mills), there was much debate about whether the Kirkbride Plan was suitable. Although by far the most popular and evangelized plan for asylums of this time, it was not without its critics. Among these critics was South Carolina State Hospital's own head physician, Dr. D.H. Trezevant. He argued to the hospital's Board of Regents:
"With every respect to Dr. Kirkbride's opinion, on matters connected with the insane, I differ with him in toto, as to the building he selected; and I think that in Alabama's [in reference to the Alabama Insane Asylum, designed explicitly to Kirkbride's vision in collaboration with Sloan] adopting the double range system, she has entailed a curse upon the insane, which will be daily and hourly felt by all in connection with them… The Asylum in Tuscaloosa will be another monument, to prove that a building may be admirable in itself, and yet utterly improper for the purpose to which is is applied."
(My words in brackets)
The argument being made is that, by having rooms on both sides of the corridors of the hospital (which was part of Kirkbride's plan) instead of only one side, both light and ventilation (which many believed were necessary to cure insanity) would be compromised along with patient health.
However, the superintendent of South Carolina State Hospital, J.W. Parker argued against his own lead physician when he stated to the same Board:
"Having previously examined, by your instructions, all the best eastern and northern hospitals and asylums, and canvassed the merits of each, aided by the enlarged experience of competent gentlemen, together with such practical knowledge as has been derived during nineteen years as chief resident officer in our own Asylum, I feel justified in saying, that for convenience, economy, comfort and good ventilation, the arrangement with a double row of rooms with wide passages, as in the plan mentioned, is incomparably superior to any other plan suggested."
Parker won the argument, and while the Kirkbride Plan was not followed precisely, it was followed in spirit with the use of multiple short wards, offset from each other to attempt to maximize light, ventilation and views of the surrounding countryside (all critical features of the Kirkbride plan). Against the Kirkbride Plan, the Babcock building (as it was later renamed) did not expand directly outward from the center main building, with each ward set slightly rearward from the previous, to create an "echelon" of wards. Babcock's wards would also expand at 90-degree angles (presumably to create a smaller overall footprint for the structure).
(all quotes here taken from the Nomination for for the National Register of Historic Places: www.nationalregister.sc.gov/richland/S10817740064/S108177...)
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera.
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda-indigo
#AbFav_MY_THEMES_ 💖 EYES
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
For years I have been working on a project, mostly for a book, it also became, at some stage, a Wall of Fame in a city...
Eyes are our soul mirrors in my view. People had to guess who it was from the clue in front of their lower face. FY,
The trial, done on the technical camera and developed and printed in the 'wet' darkroom.
I'll upload some now and then...
as they are not easy to scan.
AAhh well, when I have some time, FUN!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
Paul and my Hasselblad, his doesn't have the pentaprism, mine does because I'm not fond of the 'normal' Hasselblad reversed mirror view, LOL
I wish you all the best and THANK you, M, (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
SOUL-MIRRORS, eyes, close-up, hand, phone, man, portrait, colour, horizontal, emotion, mono, B&W, film, Nikon F4, "Magda indigo"
#AbFav_MY_THEMES_ 💖 EYES
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
For years I have been working on a project, mostly for a book, it also became, at some stage, a Wall of Fame in a city...
Eyes are our soul mirrors in my view. People had to guess who it was from the clue in front of their lower face. FY,
The trial, done on the technical camera and developed and printed in the 'wet' darkroom.
I'll upload some now and then...
as they are not easy to scan.
AAhh well, when I have some time, FUN!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
Paul and my Hasselblad, his doesn't have the pentaprism, mine does because I'm not fond of the 'normal' Hasselblad reversed mirror view, LOL
I wish you all the best and THANK you, M, (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
SOUL-MIRRORS, eyes, close-up, hand, phone, man, portrait, colour, horizontal, emotion, mono, B&W, film, Nikon F4, "Magda indigo"
Britannia Bridge (Welsh: Pont Britannia) is a bridge in Wales that crosses the Menai Strait between the Isle of Anglesey and city of Bangor. It was originally designed and built by the noted railway engineer Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans for carrying rail traffic. Its importance was to form a critical link of the Chester and Holyhead Railway's route, enabling trains to directly travel between London and the port of Holyhead, thus facilitating a sea link to Dublin, Ireland.
Decades before the building of the Britannia Bridge, the Menai Suspension Bridge had been completed, but this structure carried a road rather than track; there was no rail connection to Anglesey before its construction. After many years of deliberation and proposals, on 30 June 1845, a Parliamentary Bill covering the construction of the Britannia Bridge received royal assent. At the Admiralty's insistence, the bridge elements were required to be relatively high in order to permit the passage of a fully rigged man-of-war. In order to meet the diverse requirements, Stephenson, the project's chief engineer, performed in-depth studies on the concept of tubular bridges. For the detailed design of the structure's girders, Stephenson gained the assistance of distinguished engineer William Fairbairn. On 10 April 1846, the foundation stone for the Britannia Bridge was laid. The construction method used for the riveted wrought iron tubes was derived from contemporary shipbuilding practices; the same technique as used for the Britannia Bridge was also used on the smaller Conwy Railway Bridge. On 5 March 1850, Stephenson himself fitted the last rivet of the structure, marking the bridge's official completion.
On 3 March 1966, the Britannia Bridge received Grade II listed status.
A fire in May 1970 caused extensive damage to the Britannia Bridge. Subsequent investigation determined that the damage to the tubes was so extensive that they were not realistically repairable. The bridge was rebuilt in a quite different configuration, reusing the piers while employing new arches to support not one but two decks, as the new Britannia Bridge was to function as a combined road-and-rail bridge. The bridge was rebuilt in phases, initially reopening in 1972 as a single-tier steel truss arch bridge, carrying only rail traffic. Over the next eight years more of the structure was replaced, allowing for more trains to run and a second tier to be completed. The second tier was opened to accommodate road traffic in 1980. The bridge was subject to a £4 million four-month in-depth maintenance programme during 2011. Since the 1990s, there has been talk of increasing road capacity over the Menai Strait, either by extending the road deck of the existing bridge or via the construction of a third bridge.
The opening of the Menai Bridge in 1826, one mile (1.6 km) to the east of where Britannia Bridge was later built, provided the first fixed road link between Anglesey and the mainland. The increasing popularity of rail travel shortly necessitated a second bridge to provide a direct rail link between London and the port of Holyhead, the Chester and Holyhead Railway.
Other railway schemes were proposed, including one in 1838 to cross Thomas Telford's existing Menai Bridge. Railway pioneer George Stephenson was invited to comment on this proposal but stated his concern about re-using a single carriageway of the suspension bridge, as bridges of this type were unsuited to locomotive use. By 1840, a Treasury committee decided broadly in favour of Stephenson's proposals, however, final consent to the route, including Britannia Bridge, would not be granted until 30 June 1845, the date on which the corresponding Parliamentary Bill received royal assent. Around the same time, Stephenson's son, Robert Stephenson, was appointed as chief engineer for the project.
At the Admiralty's insistence, any bridge would have to permit passage of the strait by a fully rigged man-of-war. Stephenson therefore intended to cross the strait at a high level, over 100 ft (30 m), by a bridge with two main spans of 460-foot-long (140 m), rectangular iron tubes, each weighing 1,500 long tons (1,500 tonnes; 1,700 short tons),[6] supported by masonry piers, the centre one of which was to be built on the Britannia Rock. Two additional spans of 230 ft (70 m) length would complete the bridge, making a 1,511-foot-long (461 m) continuous girder. The trains were to run inside the tubes (inside the box girders). Up until then, the longest wrought iron span had been 31 feet 6 inches (9.60 m), barely one fifteenth of the bridge's spans of 460 ft (140 m). As originally envisaged by Stephenson, the tubular construction would give a structure sufficiently stiff to support the heavy loading associated with trains, but the tubes would not be fully self-supporting, some of their weight having to be taken by suspension chains.
For the detailed design of the girders, Stephenson secured the assistance of the distinguished engineer William Fairbairn, an old friend of his father and described by Stephenson as "well known for his thorough practical knowledge in such matters". Fairbairn began a series of practical experiments on various tube shapes and enlisted the help of Eaton Hodgkinson "distinguished as the first scientific authority on the strength of iron beams" It became apparent from Fairbairn's experiments that- without special precautions - the failure mode for the tube under load would be buckling of the top plate in compression, the theoretical analysis of which gave Hodgkinson some difficulty. When Stephenson reported to the directors of the railway in February 1846, he attached reports by both Hodgkinson and Fairbairn. From his analysis of the resistance to buckling of tubes with single top plates, Hodgkinson believed that it would require an impracticably thick (and therefore heavy) top plate to make the tubes stiff enough to support their own weight, and advised auxiliary suspension from link chains.
However, Fairbairn's experiments had moved on from those covered by Hodgkinson's theory to include designs in which the top plate was stiffened by 'corrugation' (the incorporation of cylindrical tubes). The results of these later experiments he found very encouraging; whilst it was still to be determined what the optimum form of the tubular girder should be "I would venture to state that a Tubular Bridge can be constructed of such powers and dimensions as will meet, with perfect security, the requirements of railway traffic across the Straits" although it might require more materials than originally envisaged and the utmost care would be needed in its construction. He believed it would be 'highly improper' to rely upon chains as the principal support of the bridge.
Under every circumstance, I am of opinion that the tubes should be made sufficiently strong to sustain not only their own weight, but in addition to that load 2000 tons equally distributed over the surface of the platform, a load ten times greater than they will ever be called upon to support. In fact, it should be a huge sheet-iron hollow girder, of sufficient strength and stiffness to sustain those weights; and, provided that the parts are well-proportioned and the plates properly riveted, you may strip off the chains and have it as a useful monument of the enterprise and energy of the age in which it was constructed.
Stephenson's report drew attention to the difference of opinion between his experts, but reassured the directors that the design of the masonry piers allowed for the tubes to be given suspension support, and no view need yet be taken as to the need for it, which would be resolved by further experiments. A 75-foot (23 m) span model was constructed and tested at Fairbairn's Millwall shipyard, and used as a basis for the final design. Stephenson, who had not previously attended any of Fairbairn's experiments, was present at one involving this 'model tube', and consequently was persuaded that auxiliary chains were unnecessary. No chains were fitted. As the only purpose of the piers (above the level of the present road deck) was to support the chains, these piers have never had any practical use. Although Stephenson had pressed for the tubes to be elliptical in section, Fairbairn's preferred rectangular section was adopted. Fairbairn was responsible both for the cellular construction of the top part of the tubes, and for developing the stiffening of the side panels. Each main span weighed roughly 1,830 tonnes.
On 10 April 1846, the foundation stone for the Britannia Bridge was laid, marking the official commencement of construction work at the site. The resident engineer for the structure's construction was civil engineer Edwin Clark, who had previously aided Stephenson in performing the complex structural stress calculations involved in its design process. The first major elements of the structure to be built were the side tubes, this work was performed in situ, using wooden platforms to support it. The construction method used for the iron tubes was derived from contemporary shipbuilding practices, being composed of riveted wrought iron plates 5⁄8 inch (16 mm) thick, complete with sheeted sides and cellular roofs and bases. The same technique as used for the Britannia Bridge was also used on the smaller Conwy Railway Bridge, which was built around the same time. On 10 August 1847, the first rivet was driven.
Working in parallel to the onsite construction process, the two central tube sections, which weighed 1,800 long tons (1,830 tonnes) apiece, were separately built on the nearby Caernarfon shoreline. Once they had been fully assembled, each of the central tubes was floated, one at a time, into the causeway and directly below the structure. The in-place sections were gradually raised into place using powerful hydraulic cylinders; they were only raised by a few inches at a time, after which supports would be built underneath the section to keep it in place. This aspect of the bridge's construction was novel at the time. Reportedly, the innovative process had been responsible for costing Stephenson several nights of sleep at one stage of the project. The work did not go smoothly; at one point, one of the tubes allegedly came close to being swept out to sea before being recaptured and finally pushed back into place. The tubes were manoeuvred into place between June 1849 and February 1850.
Once in place, the separate lengths of tube were joined to form parallel prestressed continuous structures, each one possessing a length of 1,511 feet (460.6 m) and weighing 5,270 long tons (5,350 tonnes). The pre-stressing process had increased the structure's loadbearing capacity and reduced deflection. The tubes had a width of 15 feet (4.5 m) and differed between 23 feet (7 m) and 30 feet (9.1 m) in overall depth, while also having a 10 foot (3 m) gap between them; they were supported on a series of 15-foot-long (4.6 m) cast iron beams that were embedded in the stonework of the towers. To better protect the iron from the weather, an arched timber roof was constructed to cover both tubes; it was roughly 39 feet (12 m) wide, continuous over their whole length, and covered with tarred hessian. A 12 foot (3.7 m) wide central walkway was present above the roof for the purpose of producing maintenance access.
On 5 March 1850, Stephenson himself fitted the last rivet of the structure, marking the bridge's official completion. Altogether, the bridge had taken over three years to complete. On 18 March 1850, a single tube was opened to rail traffic. By 21 October of that year, both tubes had been opened to traffic.
For its time, the Britannia Bridge was a structure of "magnitude and singular novelty", far surpassing in length both contemporary cast beam or plate girder iron bridges. The noted engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a professional rival and personal friend of Stephenson's, was claimed to have remarked to him: "If your bridge succeeds, then mine have all been magnificent failures". On 20 June 1849, Brunel and Stephenson had both looked on as the first of the bridge's tubes was floated out on its pontoons. The construction techniques employed on the Britannia Bridge had obviously influenced Brunel as he later made use of the same method of floating bridge sections during the construction of the Royal Albert Bridge across the River Tamar at Saltash.
There was originally a railway station located on the east side of the bridge at the entrance to the tunnel, run by the Chester and Holyhead Railway company, which served local rail traffic in both directions. However, this station was closed after only 8+1⁄2 years in operation owing to low passenger volumes. In the present day, little remains of this station, other than the remnants of the lower-level station building. A new station named Menai Bridge was opened shortly afterwards.
The bridge was decorated by four large lions sculpted in limestone by John Thomas, two at either end. Each was constructed from 11 pieces of limestone. They are 25 ft (7.6 m) long, 12 ft (3.7 m) tall, and weigh 30 tons.
These were immortalised in the following Welsh rhyme by the bard John Evans (1826–1888), who was born in nearby Menai Bridge:
Pedwar llew tew
Heb ddim blew
Dau 'ochr yma
A dau 'ochr drew
Four fat lions
Without any hair
Two on this side
And two over there
The lions cannot be seen from the A55, which crosses the modern bridge on the same site, although they can be seen from trains on the North Wales Coast Line below. The idea of raising them to road level has been suggested by local campaigners from time to time.
During the evening of 23 May 1970, the bridge was heavily damaged when boys playing inside the structure dropped a burning torch, setting alight the tar-coated wooden roof of the tubes. Despite the best efforts of the Caernarfonshire and Anglesey fire brigades, the bridge's height, construction, and the lack of an adequate water supply meant they were unable to control the fire, which spread all the way across from the mainland to the Anglesey side. After the fire had burned itself out, the bridge was still standing. However, the structural integrity of the iron tubes had been critically compromised by the intense heat; they had visibly split open at the three towers and had begun to sag. It was recognised that there was still danger of the structure collapsing. As a consequence, the bridge was rendered unusable without the enactment of major restorative work.
In light of events, the chief civil engineer of British Railways' London Midland region, W.F. Beatty, sought structural advice from consulting engineering company Husband & Co. Following an in-depth investigation of the site performed by the company, it was determined that the cast iron beams inside the towers had suffered substantial cracking and tilting, meaning that the tubes required immediate support at all three towers. The Royal Engineers were quickly brought in to save the bridge, rapidly deploying vertical Bailey bridge units to fill the original jacking slots in the masonry towers. By the end of July 1970, a total of eight Bailey bridge steel towers had been erected, each being capable of bearing a vertical load of around 200 tonnes.
Further analysis showed that the wrought iron tubes had been too badly damaged to be retained. In light of this discovery, it was decided to dismantle the tubes in favour of replacing them with a new deck at the same level as the original tracks. With the exception of the original stone substructure, the structure was completely rebuilt by Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company. The superstructure of the new bridge was to include two decks: a lower rail deck supported by steel arches and an upper deck constructed out of reinforced concrete, to carry a new road crossing over the strait. Concrete supports were built under the approach spans and steel archways constructed under the long spans on either side of the central Britannia Tower. The two long spans are supported by arches, which had not been an option for the original structure as a result of the clearance needed for tall-masted vessels; modern navigational requirements require much less headroom.
The bridge was rebuilt in stages. The first stage was to erect the new steel arches under the two original wrought-iron tubes. The arches were completed, and single-line working was restored to the railway on 30 January 1972 by reusing one of the tubes. The next stage was to dismantle and remove the other tube and replace it with a concrete deck for the other rail track. Then the single-line working was transferred to the new track (on the west side); this allowed the other tube to be removed and replaced with a concrete deck (which is used only for service access) by 1974. Finally the upper road deck was installed and by July 1980, over 10 years after the fire, the new road crossing was completed, and formally opened by the Prince of Wales, carrying a single-carriageway section of the A5 road (now the A55).
During 2011, national railway infrastructure owner Network Rail, the Welsh Assembly Government and the English Highways Agency undertook a £4 million joint programme to strengthen the 160-year-old structure and improve its reliability. The work involved the replacement of eroded steelwork, repairs to the drainage system, restoration of the parapets and stonework, and the painting of the steel approach portals of the bridge. The programme included a detailed inspection of the internal chambers of the three towers and the construction of a special walkway to enable easier and safer access to the structure for future inspections of the masonry piers; special protective efforts adopted for the work included the use of special pollution-minimising paint and the decontamination of all equipment before being brought onsite.
In November 2007, a public consultation exercise into the ‘A55 Britannia Bridge Improvement’ commenced. The perceived problems stated include:
It is the only non-dual-carriageway section along the A55
Congestion during morning and afternoon peak periods
Congestion from seasonal and ferry traffic from Holyhead
Queuing at the junctions at either end
Traffic is expected to significantly increase over the next ten years or so
In the document, four options are presented, each with their own pros and cons:
Do nothing. Congestion will increase as traffic levels increase.
Widen existing bridge. To do this, the towers would have to be removed to make room for the extra lanes. This is an issue as the bridge is a Grade 2 listed structure and is owned by Network Rail. The extra lanes would have to be of reduced width as the existing structure is not capable of supporting four full-width lanes.
New multi-span concrete box bridge alongside. Building a separate bridge would allow the existing bridge to be used as normal during construction. The bridge would require support pillar(s) in the Menai Strait, which is an environmental issue as the strait is a Special Area of Conservation. Visual impact would be low as the pillars and road surface would be aligned with the current bridge.
New single span cable-stayed bridge. This would eliminate the need for pillars in the Strait, but the bridge would have a large impact on the landscape due to the height of the cable support pillars. This is also the most costly option.
Respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of seeing some improvements, with 70 per cent favouring the solution of building another bridge.
Very few other tubular iron bridges were ever built since more economical bridge designs were soon developed. The most notable of the other tubular bridges were Stephenson's Conwy railway bridge between Llandudno Junction and Conwy, the first Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue (Québec) Grand Trunk Railway bridge, which was the prototype of the Victoria Bridge across the Saint Lawrence River at Montreal.
The Conwy railway bridge remains in use, and is the only remaining tubular bridge; however, intermediate piers have been added to strengthen it. The bridge can be seen at close quarters from Thomas Telford's adjacent 1826 Conwy Suspension Bridge.
The Victoria Bridge was the first bridge to cross the St. Lawrence River, and was the longest bridge in the world when it was completed in 1859. It was rebuilt as a truss bridge in 1898.
The Menai Strait (Welsh: Afon Menai, lit. 'River Menai') is a strait which separates the island of Anglesey from Gwynedd, on the mainland of Wales. It is situated between Caernarfon Bay in the south-west and Conwy Bay in the north-east, which are both inlets of the Irish Sea. The strait is about 25 km (16 mi) long and varies in width from 400 metres (1,300 ft) between Fort Belan and Abermenai Point to 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) between Puffin Island (Ynys Seiriol) and Penmaenmawr. It contains several islands, including Church Island (Ynys Tysilio), on which is located St Tysilio's Church.
The strait is bridged by the Menai Suspension Bridge (Pont Grog y Borth), which was completed in 1826 to a design by Thomas Telford and carries the A5 road, and the Britannia Bridge (Pont Britannia) a truss arch bridge which carries the North Wales Main Line and the A55 road; it is an adaptation of a tubular railway bridge completed in 1850 to a design by Robert Stephenson, which was severely damaged by a fire in 1970.
The differential tides at the two ends of the strait cause very strong currents which create dangerous conditions. One of the most hazardous areas is the Swellies (Pwll Ceris), between the two bridges, where rocks near the surface cause over-falls and local whirlpools. This was the site of the loss of the training ship HMS Conway in 1953. Entering the strait at the Caernarfon end is also hazardous because of the frequently shifting sand banks that make up Caernarfon bar.
The present day channel is a result of glacial erosion of the bedrock along a line of weakness associated with the Menai Strait Fault System. During a series of Pleistocene glaciations a succession of ice-sheets moved from northeast to southwest across Anglesey and neighbouring Gwynedd scouring the underlying rock; the grain of which also runs in the same direction. The result was a series of linear bedrock hollows across the region, the deepest of which was flooded by the sea as world ocean levels rose at the end of the last ice age (c. 10,000 BC).
The name Menai comes from Welsh main-aw or main-wy, meaning "narrow water."
According to Heimskringla, the 11th century Norse-Gael ruler Echmarcach mac Ragnaill plundered in Wales with his friend, the Viking Guttorm Gunnhildsson. However they started quarreling over the plunder and fought a battle at the Menai Strait. Guttorm won the battle by praying to Saint Olaf and Echmarcach was killed.
In the 12th century, a later Viking raid and battle in the Menai Strait are recounted in the Orkneyinga Saga as playing an important role in the life of Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney – the future Saint Magnus. He had a reputation for piety and gentleness. Refusing to fight in the raid on Anglesey, he stayed on board his ship, singing psalms. This incident is recounted at length in the 1973 novel Magnus by Orcadian author George Mackay Brown, and in the 1977 opera, The Martyrdom of St Magnus by Peter Maxwell Davies. The first of the opera's nine parts is called "The Battle of Menai Strait".
From the 1890s until 1963, the pleasure steamers of the Liverpool and North Wales Steamship Company would ply their main route from Liverpool and Llandudno along the Menai Strait, and around Anglesey. After the company's voluntary liquidation in 1962, P and A Campbell took over the services for a while. Now, every year for two weeks in the summer, the MV Balmoral undertakes a similar service. The most recent service appears to have been Feb-2021, since when the vessel has been taken to dry dock for essential repair work
The tidal effects observed along the banks of the strait can be confusing. A rising tide approaches from the south-west, causing the water in the strait to flow north-eastwards as the level rises. The tide also flows around Anglesey until, after a few hours, it starts to flow into the strait in a south-westerly direction from Beaumaris. By this time, the tidal flow from the Caernarfon end is weakening and the tide continues to rise in height but the direction of tidal flow is reversed. A similar sequence is seen in reverse on a falling tide. This means that slack water between the bridges tends to occur approximately one hour before high tide or low tide.
Theoretically it is possible to ford the strait in the Swellies at low water, spring tides when the depth may fall to less than 0.5 metres (1.6 ft). However, at these times a strong current of around 4.8 knots (8.9 km/h) is running, making the passage extremely difficult. Elsewhere in the strait the minimum depth is never less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) until the great sand flats at Lavan Sands are reached beyond Bangor.
The tides carry large quantities of fish, and the construction of fish weirs on both banks and on several of the islands, helped make the Strait an important source of fish for many centuries. Eight of the numerous Menai Strait fish weirs are now scheduled monuments.
Because the strait has such unusual tidal conditions, coupled with very low wave heights because of its sheltered position, it presents a unique and diverse benthic ecology.
The depth of the channel reaches 15 metres (49 ft) in places, and the current can exceed 7 knots (13 km/h). It is very rich in sponges.
The existence of this unique ecology was a major factor in the establishment of Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences at Menai Bridge, as well as its status as a special area of conservation with marine components. The waters are also a proposed Marine Nature Reserve.
The same unique ecology and geomorphology has let to a number of designations of SSSIs along the strait including Glannau Porthaethwy, the ivy–oak–ash woodland on the southern shore (Coedydd Afon Menai) and Lavan Sands (Welsh: Traeth Lafan). The banks of the Menai Straits are home to the critically endangered Menai Whitebeam. The plant is an extremely rare species of Sorbus only found in this part of North Wales. The population contains about 30 plants, and most of these are thought to be mature.
Much of the land on Anglesey at the eastern end of the strait is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Opened in 1826, the Menai Bridge is a 417 metre long, 30 metre tall suspension bridge, and the first bridge to cross the Menai Strait. The bridge, designed by Thomas Telford, carries the A5, a road which connects the capital London to Holyhead on Holy Island. The bridge itself is grade one listed and a candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Opened in 1850, the Britannia Bridge was built as a rail bridge connecting Anglesey to the mainland. The bridge, 461 metres long and 40 metres tall, carries the North Wales Coast Line connecting Holyhead to Crewe. Between 1970 and 1972, the bridge underwent a redesign in order to accommodate what would later become the A55, a dual carriageway connecting Chester to Holyhead. The bridge is grade two listed and is the more common crossing point out of the two bridges.
Since 2007, a Third Menai Crossing had been proposed by government to tackle congestion on the other two crossings. However, on 14 February 2023, the Welsh Government announced that the project would not go ahead, citing efforts to reduce car usage, its environmental impact and it being a "blot" on the landscape. Issues with financing the project was later stated by the government as another reason why the project could not proceed. Lee Waters, deputy minister for climate change, later stated the crossing could be considered again as part of a wider review into the infrastructure of North Wales, rather than individually.
The Isle of Anglesey is a county off the north-west coast of Wales. It is named after the island of Anglesey, which makes up 94% of its area, but also includes Holy Island (Ynys Gybi) and some islets and skerries. The county borders Gwynedd across the Menai Strait to the southeast, and is otherwise surrounded by the Irish Sea. Holyhead is the largest town, and the administrative centre is Llangefni. The county is part of the preserved county of Gwynedd.
The Isle of Anglesey is sparsely populated, with an area of 276 square miles (710 km2) and a population of 68,900. After Holyhead (12,103), the largest settlements are Llangefni (5,500) and Amlwch (3,967). The economy of the county is mostly based on agriculture, energy, and tourism, the latter especially on the coast. Holyhead is also a major ferry port for Dublin, Ireland. The county has the second-highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 57.2%, and is considered a heartland of the language.
The island of Anglesey, at 676 square kilometres (261 sq mi), is the largest in Wales and the Irish Sea, and the seventh largest in Britain. The northern and eastern coasts of the island are rugged, and the southern and western coasts are generally gentler; the interior is gently undulating. In the north of the island is Llyn Alaw, a reservoir with an area of 1.4 square miles (4 km2). Holy Island has a similar landscape, with a rugged north and west coast and beaches to the east and south. The county is surrounded by smaller islands; several, including South Stack and Puffin Island, are home to seabird colonies. Large parts of the county's coastline have been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The county has many prehistoric monuments, such as Bryn Celli Ddu burial chamber. In the Middle Ages the area was part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and native Principality of Wales, and the ruling House of Aberffraw maintained courts (Welsh: llysoedd) at Aberffraw and Rhosyr. After Edward I's conquest of Gwynedd he built the castle at Beaumaris, which forms part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. The Menai Strait to the mainland is spanned by the Menai Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford in 1826, and the Britannia Bridge, originally designed by Robert Stephenson in 1850.
The history of the settlement of the local people of Anglesey starts in the Mesolithic period. Anglesey and the UK were uninhabitable until after the previous ice age. It was not until 12,000 years ago that the island of Great Britain became hospitable. The oldest excavated sites on Anglesey include Trwyn Du (Welsh: Black nose) at Aberffraw. The Mesolithic site located at Aberffraw Bay (Porth Terfyn) was buried underneath a Bronze Age 'kerb cairn' which was constructed c. 2,000 BC. The bowl barrow (kerb cairn) covered a material deposited from the early Mesolithic period; the archeological find dates to 7,000 BC. After millennia of hunter-gather civilisation in the British Isles, the first villages were constructed from 4000 BC. Neolithic settlements were built in the form of long houses, on Anglesey is one of the first villages in Wales, it was built at Llanfaethlu. Also an example permanent settlement on Anglesey is of a Bronze Age built burial mound, Bryn Celli Ddu (English: Dark Grove Hill). The mound started as a henge enclosure around 3000 BC and was adapted several times over a millennium.
There are numerous megalithic monuments and menhirs in the county, testifying to the presence of humans in prehistory. Plas Newydd is near one of 28 cromlechs that remain on uplands overlooking the sea. The Welsh Triads claim that the island of Anglesey was once part of the mainland.
After the Neolithic age, the Bronze Age began (c. 2200 BC – 800 BC). Some sites were continually used for thousands of years from original henge enclosures, then during the Iron Age, and also some of these sites were later adapted by Celts into hillforts and finally were in use during the Roman period (c. 100 AD) as roundhouses. Castell Bryn Gwyn (English: White hill castle, also called Bryn Beddau, or the "hill of graves") near Llanidan, Anglesey is an example of a Neolithic site that became a hillfort that was used until the Roman period by the Ordovices, the local tribe who were defeated in battle by a Roman legion (c. 78 AD). Bronze Age monuments were also built throughout the British Isles. During this period, the Mynydd Bach cairn in South-west Anglesey was being used. It is a Beaker period prehistoric funerary monument.
During the Iron Age the Celts built dwellings huts, also known as roundhouses. These were established near the previous settlements. Some huts with walled enclosures were discovered on the banks of the river (Welsh: afon) Gwna near. An example of a well-preserved hut circle is over the Cymyran Strait on Holy Island. The Holyhead Mountain Hut Circles (Welsh: Tŷ Mawr / Cytiau'r Gwyddelod, Big house / "Irishmen's Huts") were inhabited by ancient Celts and were first occupied before the Iron Age, c. 1000 BC. The Anglesey Iron Age began after 500 BC. Archeological research discovered limpet shells which were found from 200 BC on a wall at Tŷ Mawr and Roman-era pottery from the 3rd to 4th centuries AD. Some of these huts were still being used for agricultural purposes as late as the 6th century. The first excavation of Ty Mawr was conducted by William Owen Stanley of Penrhos, Anglesey (son of Baron Stanley of Alderley).
Historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the druids. The Roman conquest of Anglesey began in 60 CE when the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, determined to break the power of the druids, attacked the island using his amphibious Batavian contingent as a surprise vanguard assault and then destroyed the shrine and the nemeta (sacred groves). News of Boudica's revolt reached him just after his victory, causing him to withdraw his army before consolidating his conquest. The island was finally brought into the Roman Empire by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain, in AD 78. During the Roman occupation, the area was notable for the mining of copper. The foundations of Caer Gybi, a fort in Holyhead, are Roman, and the present road from Holyhead to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll was originally a Roman road. The island was grouped by Ptolemy with Ireland ("Hibernia") rather than with Britain ("Albion").
After the Roman departure from Britain in the early 5th century, pirates from Ireland (Picts) colonised Anglesey and the nearby Llŷn Peninsula. In response to this, Cunedda ap Edern, a Gododdin warlord from Scotland, came to the area and began to drive the Irish out. This was continued by his son Einion Yrth ap Cunedda and grandson Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion; the last Irish invaders were finally defeated in battle in 470.
During the 9th century, King Rhodri Mawr unified Wales and separated the country into at least 3 provinces between his sons. He gave Gwynedd to his son, Anarawd ap Rhodri, who founded the medieval Welsh dynasty, The House of Aberffraw on Anglesey, also his other son Cadell founded House of Dinefwr in Deheubarth, and another son, Merfyn ruled Powys (where the House of Mathrafal emerged). The island had a good defensive position, and so Aberffraw became the site of the royal court (Welsh: Llys) of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Apart from devastating Danish raids in 853 and 968 in Aberffraw, it remained the capital until the 13th, after Rhodri Mawr had moved his family seat from Caernarfon and built a royal palace at Aberffraw in 873. This is when improvements to the English navy made the location indefensible. Anglesey was also briefly the most southerly possession of the Norwegian Empire.[citation needed]
After the Irish, the island was invaded by Vikings — some raids were noted in famous sagas (see Menai Strait History) such as the Jómsvíkinga— and by Saxons, and Normans, before falling to Edward I of England in the 13th century. The connection with the Vikings can be seen in the name of the island. In ancient times it was called "Maenige" and received the name "Ongulsey" or Angelsoen, from where the current name originates.
Anglesey (with Holy Island) is one of the 13 historic counties of Wales. In medieval times, before the conquest of Wales in 1283, Môn often had periods of temporary independence, when frequently bequeathed to the heirs of kings as a sub-kingdom of Gwynedd, an example of this was Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn I, the Great c. 1200s) who was styled the Prince of Aberffraw. After the Norman invasion of Wales was one of the last times this occurred a few years after 1171, after the death of Owain Gwynedd, when the island was inherited by Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd, and between 1246 and about 1255 when it was granted to Owain Goch as his share of the kingdom. After the conquest of Wales by Edward I, Anglesey became a county under the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284. Hitherto it had been divided into the cantrefi of Aberffraw, Rhosyr and Cemaes.
During 1294 as a rebellion of the former house of Aberffraw, Prince Madog ap Llywelyn had attacked King Edward I's castles in North Wales. As a direct response, Beaumaris Castle was constructed to control Edward's interests in Anglesey, however, by the 1320s the build was abandoned and never complete. The castle was besieged by Owain Glyndŵr in the early 15th century. It was ruinous by 1609, however, the 6th Viscount Bulkeley had purchased the castle from Crown the in 1807 and it has been open to the public under the guardianship of the Crown ever since 1925.
The Shire Hall in Llangefni was completed in 1899. During the First World War, the Presbyterian minister and celebrity preacher John Williams toured the island as part of an effort to recruit young men as volunteers. The island's location made it ideal for monitoring German U-Boats in the Irish Sea, with half a dozen airships based at Mona. German POWs were kept on the island. By the end of the war, some 1,000 of the island's men had died on active service.
In 1936 the NSPCC opened its first branch on Anglesey.
During the Second World War, Anglesey received Italian POWs. The island was designated a reception zone, and was home to evacuee children from Liverpool and Manchester.
In 1971, a 100,000 ton per annum aluminum smelter was opened by Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation and British Insulated Callender's Cables with Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation as a 30 per cent partner.
In 1974, Anglesey became a district of the new county of Gwynedd. The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county and the five districts on 1 April 1996, and Anglesey became a separate unitary authority. In 2011, the Welsh Government appointed a panel of commissioners to administer the council, which meant the elected members were not in control. The commissioners remained until an election was held in May 2013, restoring an elected Council. Before the period of direct administration, there had been a majority of independent councillors. Though members did not generally divide along party lines, these were organised into five non-partisan groups on the council, containing a mix of party and independent candidates. The position has been similar since the election, although the Labour Party has formed a governing coalition with the independents.
Brand new council offices were built at Llangefni in the 1990s for the new Isle of Anglesey County Council.
Anglesey is a low-lying island with low hills spaced evenly over the north. The highest six are Holyhead Mountain, 220 metres (720 ft); Mynydd Bodafon, 178 metres (584 ft); Mynydd Llaneilian, 177 metres (581 ft); Mynydd y Garn, 170 metres (560 ft); Bwrdd Arthur, 164 metres (538 ft); and Mynydd Llwydiarth, 158 metres (518 ft). To the south and south-east, the island is divided from the Welsh mainland by the Menai Strait, which at its narrowest point is about 250 metres (270 yd) wide. In all other directions the island is surrounded by the Irish Sea. At 676 km2 (261 sq mi), it is the 52nd largest island of Europe and just five km2 (1.9 sq mi) smaller than the main island of Singapore.
There are a few natural lakes, mostly in the west, such as Llyn Llywenan, the largest on the island, Llyn Coron, and Cors Cerrig y Daran, but rivers are few and small. There are two large water supply reservoirs operated by Welsh Water. These are Llyn Alaw to the north of the island and Llyn Cefni in the centre of the island, which is fed by the headwaters of the Afon Cefni.
The climate is humid (though less so than neighbouring mountainous Gwynedd) and generally equable thanks to the Gulf Stream. The land is of variable quality and has probably lost some fertility. Anglesey has the northernmost olive grove in Europe and presumably in the world.
The coast of the Isle of Anglesey is more populous than the interior. The largest community is Holyhead, which is located on Holy Island and had a population of 12,103 at the 2021 United Kingdom census. It is followed by Amlwch (3,697), Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf (3,085), and Menai Bridge (3,046), all located on the coast of the island of Anglesey. The largest community in the interior of Anglesey is Llangefni (5,500), the county town; the next-largest is Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog (1,711).
Beaumaris (Welsh: Biwmares) in the east features Beaumaris Castle, built by Edward I during his Bastide campaign in North Wales. Beaumaris is a yachting centre, with boats moored in the bay or off Gallows Point. The village of Newborough (Welsh: Niwbwrch), in the south, created when townsfolk of Llanfaes were relocated for the building of Beaumaris Castle, includes the site of Llys Rhosyr, another court of medieval Welsh princes featuring one of the United Kingdom's oldest courtrooms. The centrally localted Llangefni is the island's administrative centre. The town of Menai Bridge (Welsh: Porthaethwy) in the south-east, expanded to accommodate workers and construction when the first bridge to the mainland was being built. Hitherto Porthaethwy had been one of the main ferry ports for the mainland. A short distance from the town lies Bryn Celli Ddu, a Stone Age burial mound.
Nearby is the village with the longest name in Europe, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, and Plas Newydd, ancestral home of the Marquesses of Anglesey. The town of Amlwch lies in the north-east of the island and was once largely industrialised, having grown in the 18th century to support a major copper-mining industry at Parys Mountain.
Other settlements include Cemaes, Pentraeth, Gaerwen, Dwyran, Bodedern, Malltraeth and Rhosneigr. The Anglesey Sea Zoo is a local attraction offering looks at local marine wildlife from common lobsters to congers. All fish and crustaceans on display are caught round the island and placed in habitat reconstructions. The zoo also breeds lobsters commercially for food and oysters for pearls, both from local stocks. Sea salt (Halen Môn, from local sea water) is produced in a facility nearby, having formerly been made at the Sea Zoo site.
Landmarks
Anglesey Motor Racing Circuit
Anglesey Sea Zoo near Dwyran
Bays and beaches – Benllech, Cemlyn, Red Wharf, and Rhosneigr
Beaumaris Castle and Gaol
Cribinau – tidal island with 13th-century church
Elin's Tower (Twr Elin) – RSPB reserve and the lighthouse at South Stack (Ynys Lawd) near Holyhead
King Arthur's seat – near Beaumaris
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, one of the longest place names in the world
Malltraeth – centre for bird life and home of wildlife artist Charles Tunnicliffe
Moelfre – fishing village
Parys Mountain – copper mine dating to the early Bronze Age
Penmon – priory and dovecote
Skerries Lighthouse – at the end of a low piece of submerged land, north-east of Holyhead
Stone Science Museum – privately run fossil museum near Pentraeth
Swtan longhouse and museum – owned by the National Trust and managed by the local community
Working windmill – Llanddeusant
Ynys Llanddwyn (Llanddwyn Island) – tidal island
St Cybi's Church Historic church in Holyhead
Born in Anglesey
Tony Adams – actor (Anglesey, 1940)
Stu Allan – radio and club DJ
John C. Clarke – U.S. state politician (Anglesey, 1831)
Grace Coddington – creative director for US Vogue (Anglesey, 1941)
Charles Allen Duval – artist and writer (Beaumaris, 1810)
Dawn French – actress, writer, comedian (Holyhead, 1957)
Huw Garmon – actor (Anglesey, 1966)
Hugh Griffith – Oscar-winning actor (Marianglas, 1912)
Elen Gwdman – poet (fl. 1609)
Meinir Gwilym – singer and songwriter (Llangristiolus, 1983)
Owain Gwynedd – royal prince (Anglesey, c. 1100)
Hywel Gwynfryn – radio and TV personality (Llangefni, 1942)
Aled Jones – singer and television presenter (Llandegfan, 1970)
John Jones – amateur astronomer (Bryngwyn Bach, Dwyran 1818 – Bangor 1898); a.k.a. Ioan Bryngwyn Bach and Y Seryddwr
William Jones – mathematician (Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd, 1675)
Julian Lewis Jones – actor, known for his portrayal of Karl Morris on the Sky 1 comedy Stella (Anglesey, 1968)
John Morris-Jones – grammarian and poet (Llandrygarn, 1864)
Edward Owen – 18th-century artist, notable for letters documenting life in London's art scene
Goronwy Owen – 18th-century poet (Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf, 1723)
Osian Roberts – association football player and manager (Bodffordd)
Tecwyn Roberts – NASA aerospace engineer and Director of Networks at Goddard Space Flight Center (Llanddaniel Fab, 1925)
Hugh Owen Thomas – pioneering orthopaedic surgeon (Anglesey, 1836)
Ifor Owen Thomas – operatic tenor, photographer and artist (Red Wharf Bay, 1892)
Sefnyn – medieval court poet
Owen Tudor – grandfather of Henry Tudor, married the widow of Henry V, which gave the Tudor family a claim on the English throne (Anglesey, c. 1400).
Kyffin Williams – landscape painter (Llangefni, 1918)
William Williams – recipient of the Victoria Cross (Amlwch, 1890)
Andy Whitfield – actor (Amlwch, 1971)
Gareth Williams – employee of Britain's GCHQ signals intelligence agency (Anglesey, 1978)
Dining room. The painting is of Sturt’s sons.
First red brick house built 1840, with nursery wing added a year later, located on 390 acres taken up by Charles Sturt in the area known as Reedbeds. The home was surrounded by a large garden and an orchard of grapes, pear, plum & apple trees. The family returned to England 1853 for sons’ education and because of Sturt’s ill-health. The property was leased until sold Nov 1877 when the estate was subdivided for a township named “Grange”. Since 1908 there were calls for the house to be saved from demolition but it was not until 1956 that it was purchased by Henley & Grange Council. After restoration, Sturt’s grandchildren donated furniture, artworks, documents & artefacts and the Museum opened 1966. A detached cottage, the nursery wing, demolished by the last private owner, was rebuilt when house restored and is now used as exhibition gallery.
Charles Sturt was born 28 Apr 1795 in Bengal, India to British parents, schooled in England, enlisted in 39th Regiment, served in Pyrenees, Canada, France & Ireland. He arrived Sydney 1827 escorting convicts on “Mariner”. In Nov 1928 with Hamilton Hume, Sturt explored & named Darling River. A year later he led another expedition down the Murrumbidgee, discovering the Murray and, with 7 men in a small boat, travelled to its mouth, on their return rowing against the current. He was appointed Commandant of Norfolk Island garrison, revisiting England he published accounts of his journeys and married Charlotte Greene 1834. Returning to Sydney 1835, he settled at Mittagong. In 1838 he overlanded cattle to South Australia and decided to settle in that colony on land at the Reedbeds. Appointed Assistant Commissioner of Lands 1839, Registrar General 1841, set out on what was his final expedition north to the centre of the continent 1844.
“Captain Sturt, accompanied by Mr. Giles Strangways, may be expected overland in about ten days with a herd of fine cattle.” [SA Gazette & Colonial Register 16 Jun 1838]
“Captain Sturt left Adelaide on Sunday morning for Encounter Bay, to join the barque Hope for Sydney. We believe it is the Captain's intention to settle in our colony.” [Southern Australian 20 Oct 1838]
“the safe arrival of Capt. Sturt in our colony. . . He has brought overland from the Hume River between 400 and 500 head of cattle, and he performed the journey in little more than three months. Capt. Sturt is accompanied by Capt. Finniss, Mr M'Leod, Mr G. Strangways, and eleven men.” [South Australian Record 13 Feb 1839]
“We have great pleasure in announcing the arrival last night in the John Pirie of Captain Sturt, the new Surveyor-general, with his lady and family.” [SA Gazette & Colonial Register 30 Mar 1839]
“His Excellency the Resident Commissioner has appointed Charles Sturt, Esq., late Surveyor-General, to be Assistant Commissioner.” [Register 5 Oct 1839]
“the Governor has been pleased to appoint the Hon. Charles Sturt, Assistant Commissioner, to the office of Registrar General.” [South Australian 5 Nov 1841]
“Hunting.— The hounds meet to-morrow (Saturday), by appointment, at Grange, the residence of Captain Sturt.” [Southern Australian 27 May 1842]
“Hon. Charles Sturt, Registrar General, to be Colonial Treasurer of the Province of South Australia.” [South Australian 6 Mar 1846]
“His Excellency has accepted the resignation of Capt. Sturt as Colonial Secretary.” [Register 5 Jan 1852]
“On December 7, 1852, Sturt wrote to his son at Rugby:— ‘The Grange garden looks tolerably well, and there is a great show of grapes, pears, and apples. Apples this year have failed in consequence of a small fly getting into the blossom. Our dairy now consists of 14 quiet cows, which yield a good deal of butter, but really the annoyance of the servants may drive us to give up the pleasure of looking after these animals. We have 60 goslings and 23 young turkeys and a lot of young guinea fowls, as wild as partridges, but I have been unsuccessful with the ducks. Our bees get on famously. I am very fond of them. The boys have taken lots of fish in the creek this season.’" [Register 13 Apr 1912]
“The Henry Tanner cleared out for England yesterday, March 17th, with the Hon. Captain Sturt, our late Colonial Secretary, his family, and many other cabin passengers on board.” [Adelaide Times 18 Mar 1853]
“Death of. . . Captain Charles Sturt, one of the earliest and most distinguished of Australian explorers. . . on the 16th June, at the deceased gentleman's residence, Clarence-square, Cheltenham. . . nearly blind from ophthalmia — a malady which he had the misfortune to contract during his last exploring expedition. . . belonged to a very old Dorsetshire family, arrived in the colony of New South Wales in about the year 1825 as a captain in H.M.'s 39th Foot.” [Evening Journal 10 Aug 1869]
“Tenders are invited . . . for the Purchase of the Grange Estate, Reedbeds, adjoining Henley Beach, containing about 389 Acres.” [Evening Journal 28 Sep 1877 advert]
“the Grange. This is an estate of 380 acres, which was selected by Captain Sturt after his return from his exploring expedition in 1845 [sic]. Captain Sturt having as extensive a practical knowledge as most men of the land around Adelaide, and this estate having been selected by him for his own personal residence. . . The soil appears to be of fair quality, capable of growing lucern, fruit trees, and vegetables. . . There are fine gum-trees on the estate, and a perennial stream winds its way through the grounds, with quantities of teatree growing on its banks.” [Express & Telegraph 22 Mar 1878]
“The Grange Township. The 380 acres comprising the Grange Estate, and situated between the Semaphore and Henley Beach, is, under the direction of three enterprising Adelaide gentlemen, being rapidly transformed into what must ere long become an attractive seaside watering-place. . . The land was formerly occupied by Captain Sturt, the explorer, who selected it as a preliminary section under the land order to which he was entitled. The house occupied by the gallant explorer still remains, and is being renovated and extended by the new proprietors with a view to rendering it suitable for a temporary hotel.” [Register 14 Sep 1878]
“Mrs. M. Howard, of the Grange, gave a private continental at her residence on Saturday evening. Over 200 guests were present. The Old Grange House which was originally built for Governor [sic] Sturt and occupied for many years by David Murray, is surrounded by lovely lawns, and the grounds being decorated with hundreds of Japanese lanterns, presented a scene suggestive of fairyland. . . For the night the mosquitoes held off.” [Critic, Adelaide 14 Feb 1906]
“Sturt's home. . . The residence of the famous explorer is one of the few remaining Australian historical relics. The recent owner has done much to beautify its surroundings. . . I would suggest to the Government that they should at once purchase this interesting property to prevent its demolition, and convert it into a teahouse and gardens for the public use. Or it might be possible to find a generous spirited patriot willing to make the freehold a gift to the community under certain conditions.” [Register 20 Jun 1908 Letter to Editor]
“the Grange, the homestead owned by Capt. Sturt. . . which is now occupied by Mr. J. A. Hardy, is a short distance from the Grange Jetty. The late Capt. Dashwood, the father of the present Crown Solicitor (Mr. C. J. Dashwood, K.C.), and the late Sir Richard Chaffey Baker lived in the historic home. Capt. Dashwood was Collector of Customs at the time.” [Observer 20 Apr 1912]
“The recent demolition of the cottage at Thebarton occupied by Colonel William Light, founder of Adelaide and first Surveyor-General, created dismay among students of early South Australian history. . . thoughts have now turned to the historic home of Capt. Charles Sturt (discoverer of the River Murray), at Grange, one of Adelaide's most favored seaside resorts. That house has been in respectable occupation ever since its erection by Sturt. . . Charles Sturt resided at the Grange until March 17, 1853, when he went to England on a life pension of £600 a year, granted by the South Australian Government.” [The Mail 22 Jan 1927]
“The necessity of preserving the historic home of Captain Sturt at the Grange, known as ‘Grange House’, was brought before the Henley and Grange Town Council. . . The property consists of the large house and 7½ acres of land. The alderman stated that the property could be bought on terms for £3,000.” [Advertiser 9 Apr 1929]
“the historic home of Capt Sturt at Grange. . . The home is vacant, and vandals have made their unwelcome appearance on the property. When Mr. Mitton visited it recently he found that some of the windows had been broken. . . It has been suggested that the Tourist Bureau could advertise trips by charabanc through delightful scenery to the spot. Morning and afternoon tea could be provided.” [News 28 May 1930]
“Captain Sturt's house at the Grange was one of the first built in SA, erected about 1840. The building, which faces Mount Lofty, had an attractive rose garden in front. The explorer had a penchant for flowers and animals. . . North of Sturt's house is a cottage of three rooms. It is said that Sturt had the cottage built first and moved into the more commodious premises later, using the former as a storeroom. A number of horses that he used on expeditions ended their days on the homestead at the Grange. Particularly attracted was he to a roan horse, on which he used to ride to and from the city.” [Chronicle 31 Aug 1944]
“When the old Grange Railway Company decided to manage its own train service [c1883]. . . it was faced with the problem of finding house room for its staff. Only vacant house in the district happened to be Sturt's, known as the 'old Grange mansion', which was delapidated [sic] and a shelter for swagmen. There being no option, the two enginedrivers — the late Tom Fanning and John Chapman — reluctantly decided to make the best of a bad job by taking over the old home, and .sharing it. . . The Sturt bedrooms included a dressing room of equal size which modem owners must have regarded as so much waste space, as when I visited the place 30 years later they had been converted into separate compartments by bricking up the doorways.” [Advertiser 11 Nov 1948]
“Mr. Anthony Sturt visited the old home of his famous great grandfather, explorer Charles Sturt, at Grange today.” [News 1 Mar 1951]
“Mr. Justice Cooper lived in Capt. Sturt's home at the Grange after the family went to England. Judge Cooper had planted the palms in front of the house. Mr. Berry's father, who was Capt. Sturt's gardener, used to play with the Sturt children at a small stream on the west side of the house. . . Mr. Berry saw the Sturts leave the old home in a bullock dray over the sandhills to Port Adelaide.” [Chronicle 2 Jul 1953]
“Capt. Sturt's former home Grange, which, because of its location, condition and surrounding land, the committee did not recommend should be preserved. . . The surrounding land was lowlying and possibly liable to flooding.” [Advertiser 13 Aug 1953]
As an aerospace engineer, I am on a team that is developing algorithms for the flight control system on the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's new heavy-lift launch vehicle that will allow future explorers to travel farther into our solar system than ever before. That system is the "brain" of the vehicle, designed to steer it along the path to its destination in orbit. Our team has spent months working with engineers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to turn their F-18 fighter jet into a working test bed for those algorithms.
We have 18 test cases for the F-18 test series, each simulating some off-nominal conditions, like higher thrust than anticipated or the presence of wind gusts, to see if the flight control algorithm responds as we designed it to do. The tests might reveal something we hadn't thought about in our algorithm, which we can go back and modify as necessary.
I've always had in interest in NASA, and working on a fast-paced project like this that will actually fly and that will benefit SLS in the future is really cool. I'm really lucky to be a part of it and to work with some of the most talented engineers in the NASA community.
My advice to students is to find an activity outside of your classes that allows you to apply what you’re learning to real things -- be it research, a club or a hobby. The practical knowledge will enable you to learn more effectively in lectures, will help you decide whether you’re going into the right field and will prepare you for the work you’ll be doing after you graduate.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC
Original image:
www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/i-am-building-sls-gi...
More "I Am Building SLS" profiles:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157644513255476/
More about SLS:
www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html
Space Launch System Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157627559536895/
_______________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
In the late 1800s, when lumber baron and millionaire David Whitney Jr. took a break from business and looked out the window of his office in his Woodward Avenue mansion, he surveyed a sight that warmed his heart – the playing fields of the original Detroit Athletic Club.
The location of the Whitney mansion near the grounds of the DAC was no accident.
Whitney and his son, David C. Whitney, were both members of the original DAC, whose grounds are now a part of Wayne State University. “Its bleachers ran along the southern edge of Whitney's property line, affording the family a bird's-eye view of track and field events from the second-story balcony,” according to a 1978 article in the Detroit Free Press, including baseball games and polo matches in the summer, and hockey and skating in the winter.
Today, the building has been transformed into one of Detroit's finest restaurants, "The Whitney – An American restaurant in an American Palace."
Around the turn of the century, that part of Woodward Avenue was millionaire's row lined with beautiful mansions. The Whitney is the last real piece of that kind of architecture in the city. Its magnificent architecture shows a real understanding of the era in which it was built.
Both the house and the man represent a significant level of success and achievement in pre-automotive Detroit.
David Whitney Jr. was one of the most prominent persons in the city of Detroit. And he was very much involved in both the development and industry of the city as well as the social scene of the day.
Besides lending money to J.L. Hudson to build the first department store in Detroit, Whitney contributed to medical and educational institutions in Detroit and was a leading philanthropist of his day.
"The Whitneys represent that element of Detroit families who have made substantial fortunes in the lumber industry invested in Detroit and supported all sorts of social and philanthropic causes," said Arthur Woodford, author of several books on Detroit history.
Whitney built the opulent family home that still stands on Woodward and Canfield between 1890 and 1894, at a cost of $400,000.
Designed by architect Gordon W. Lloyd, who built many residences and churches in and around Detroit, the 22,000 square-foot Romanesque Revival mansion originally had 52 rooms, including 10 bathrooms, 218 windows, 20 fireplaces and a hydraulic elevator.
The structure is built of South Dakota jasper, a rare variety of pink granite, and many of the rooms are decorated with marble, onyx and elaborate hand-carved woodwork. Polished japer columns support multiple arches, and Tiffany stained-glass windows illuminate the interior.
The Whitney's spent an additional $250,000 on decorating and furnishing their majestic Victorian home and another $300,000 on art treasures displayed throughout the mansion.
For years it was one of Detroit's show places, with streams of carriages driving up to its porte cochere for receptions, teas and musicales.
When he died in 1900, Whitney was the wealthiest man in Detroit, with a fortune estimated at $15 million. His wife, Sara, continued to live in the house until the 1920s.
As a tribute to their beloved patriarch, his family – including three daughters and son David C. – erected the David Whitney Building, empty now, but still standing at the corner of Woodward and Washington.
David C. Whitney, a member of the original Detroit Athletic Club and a lifelong member of the new club until his death in 1942, established the headquarters of the Whitney Realty Company in the Whitney Building and built his own home, Ridgemont, in Grosse Pointe.
Daughter Grace (Mrs. John Jacob Hoff) was instrumental in creating the Detroit YWCA. Katherine, with her husband, Tracy W. McGregor, a lifelong DAC member until his death in 1936, established the McGregor Fund, sponsoring care for the sick and poor and supporting higher education.
The philanthropic sprit and the interest in the DAC carried on into the third generation – the Whitney Fund, named for David Marshall Whitney, grandson of the lumber baron and a lifelong member of the DAC from 1915 until his death in 1965, has awarded millions in grants to area nonprofit organizations.
Many members of the Whitney family still live in the Grosse Pointe area.
In 1941, the Whitney family gave the house to the Wayne County Medical Society. According to Dr. Alpheus F. Jennings, then chairman of the board of the medical society, the "million-dollar gift was one of the most notable ever made in the country to any medical society."
In 1957 the medical society sold the house to the Visiting Nurses Association. As a sign of the family's continuing interest in maintaining the house, the buildings was rehabilitated for the VNA with a grant of $75,000 from the McGregor Fund.
The massive and multi-gabled mansion was still owned and occupied by the Visiting Nurses Association when antique collector and entrepreneur Richard Kughn dropped by in 1978.
The VNA had been good stewards of the property, maintaining it well and making few alterations, and Kughn was impressed by the magnificent architecture, the rich woodwork, and the beautiful Tiffany-glass windows and marble fireplaces. By the time he finished touring the building, he had learned of the VNA's plans to sell the house when they moved to larger quarters.
"As I reached the bottom step, my friend Chuck Hagler said, 'You're going to buy it, or else they're going to tear it down,'" said Kughn.
Within a few months, Kughn was the new owner of the Whitney House. [Note: Richard Kughn sold the Whitney home to Arthur “Bud” Liebler in 2007. Liebler continues to operate The Whitney restaurant.]
"The Whitney House speaks to all of the architecture and opulence and magnificence of that era," said Kughn. "No building is better able to tell that story, and it should be preserved, not for personal use but so that the public can see and enjoy it."
The greatest challenge in restoring the house and creating a restaurant was meeting the city codes. The new owners installed a fire-suppression system and installed thirty-two furnaces and air-conditioning systems, all operated separately. Electric fixtures, original to the house, had to be rewired; although electricity was not uncommon when David Whitney installed it in his mansion, it wasn't entirely trustworthy, and Whitney, like many other homeowners at the time, kept and used gas fixtures, which can still be seen in the restaurant. The new owners gutted the servants' wing and built a “building within a building" to support three state-of-the-art kitchens.
Once codes were met and structural modifications complete, each room in the restaurant was decorated with period furnishings, with everything from regency to Queen Anne to French Empire represented, keyed to the original colors in the fireplaces.
Many rooms are named as they were when the Whitney family lived in the house: the Study, the Music Room, the Reception Room and the Drawing Room, for example.
David Whitney's monogram can still be seen, carved into the limestone above the door and repeated in the silver-leaf plaster above the massive fireplace in the Great Hall; the swirling, intertwined D and W have been reproduced on the creamy china used in the restaurant.
"The house is 95 percent the way it looked on the day it was built," said Fox. "All of its owners maintained it well and treated it like a grand old lady."
As host to celebrities and entertainers, for weddings or for lunch or dinner, the Whitney is open to Detroit residents and visitors almost any day of the week – in sharp contrast to so many of the beautiful homes that lined Woodward when David Whitney Jr. lived there, 100 years ago.
The Detroit Free Press ran a lengthy article about the house in 1894 when the building was completed, and its words have proved prophetic: "The Whitney House will last as long as is given to houses made by man to endure."
History of Michigan
David Whitney Jr Profile
David Whitney Jr. - When David Whitney Jr., died in Detroit November 28, 1900, it was said of him: "He coveted success, but scorned to attain it except through industry and honest means. He acquired wealth without fraud or deceit, and the results of his life are full of inspiration to the rising generation." His was one of the productive careers in the citizenship of Michigan during the last half of the nineteenth century. In the various departments of the lumber industry lay his chief activities, and his success in that field was sufficient to place his name alongside that of the great lumber kings of the state. His business was for many years conducted from Detroit, and the greater share of his investments was placed by that city.
David Whitney, Jr., was born at Westford Middlesex County, Massachusetts, August 13, 1830. He always wrote his name David Whitney Jr., perhaps partly from early usage and partly from respect for his honored father. David Whitney, Sr., was of the true New England type of energy, resourcefulness and rectitude of character, was the owner of a good farm, and also did lumbering and brick making on a small scale. The activities of the farm and the common school were the chief sources of training for David Whitney, Jr., in his boyhood. Throughout his life he acknowledged a close fellowship with honest toil, and it was hard work as much as endowment of masterful ability which brought him success.
On coming of age he left the farm and for three years was a clerk in a lumber firm, which also operated a box factory. That experience proved of great value to him and his subsequent career. He proved his worth with the firm, and when he left he was superintendent of the plant. In 1857, at the age of 27, David Whitney, Jr. came to Detroit. He was a western representative and a member of the firm of S&D Whitney Jr. and of Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes Lumber Company, which corporation is in existence today and is ne of the oldest corporations in the United States. His brother Charles was interested with him in those two firms, whose headquarters were in the east. Mr. Whitney had the immediate management of all the western business, which was principally the buying and shipping of lumber and the purchase of pine lands and logs. The two firms mentioned were for some years among the largest lumber dealers in the United States, and the work of David Whitney, Jr. covered the states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania while the eastern partner had supervision over the business in the northeastern states and Canada.
The partnership of C&D Whitney Jr. was dissolved in the late 70s, and from that time forward David Whitney, Jr. operated independently and invested heavily in the pine lands of Michigan and Wisconsin, but he still retains his interest in the Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes Lumber Company. He possessed a practical knowledge of lumbering conditions which made him almost an authority and with characteristic foresight he realized that the great forests of Michigan and Wisconsin before the close of the century would be calling upon to supply a large portion of the lumber consumed in the United States and his investments were carefully laid to take advantage of such development. As the owner of magnificent tracts of uncut timber and as a manufacturer his operations were among the most extensive in the lumber regions of those two states and eventually made him a millionaire.
Naturally his relations with lumbering led him into many commercial related fields and into banking. He owned and had in commission a large fleet of steam barges and other vessels on the Great Lakes, utilizing chiefly for the transportation of lumber, but subsequently also used for shipping iron ore from the Lake Superior ports to the manufacturing and distributing centers on the lower lakes. The proceeds of lumbering operation were invested chiefly in Detroit real estate. He was a stockholder and director in many banking institutions, and was officially and financially identified with several industrial and manufacturing plants, chiefly in the production of lumber material.
The late Mr. Whitney was a Republican in politics, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a liberal though unostentatious contributor to the benevolent work of his home city. While an aggressive and forceful business man, perhaps his most noteworthy characteristic was his extreme reticence and his avoidance of all public notice. He knew and estimated the dispositions and character of men almost as unerringly as he understood the lumber business, and had many close friends among his business associates. Personally he was straightforward and frank in all his relations with a proper sense of the responsibilities imposed by success and wealth he used his influence and resources for the substantial improvement and betterment of his home city and state, and would never deserved any other tribute to his memory than an exact measure of what he accomplished in a business way.
Mr. Whitney left four children as follows: Grace, now Mrs. John J. Hoff, of Paris, France; David C. of Detroit; Flora, wife of R.A. Demme, of Detroit; and Katherine, wife of Tracy W. McGregor, of Detroit.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
Galanthus nivalis plenus with dew drops...
Each flower is a masterpiece!
The inside shows a double centre with a pattern of fresh green stripes.
Comp in camera.
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and the respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
- sense and sensibility...
THANK you for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission.
Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Snowdrops, Galanthus, leaves, emotion, white, green, colour, studio, black-background, conceptual, "art”, design, square, Nikon D7000, Magda-indigo
Sri Ganapathi Astro center an astrologer in Bangalore provides solutions to various astro related problems which have been bothering you from long time, Pandit Sri. Damodhar Rao, his expertise is not limited to particular aspects of astro fields, he assists everyone with practical knowledge derived from Vedic astrology.
The Winter School for Audiovisual Archiving is a four-day training that gives participants the practical knowledge to design and implement a preservation plan for their audiovisual collections. The fourth edition of the Winter School took place at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision from Tuesday 15 until Friday 18 January 2019.
My son is a very busy businessman, every day he's got to plan ahead and deal with unforeseen emergencies.
The phone is his main tool.
This was taken awhile back, he now has the latest... of course!
I joined him in Amsterdam after my commissioned photography was done and sat there, across from him for nearly 2 hours.
I enjoyed watching him, reminiscing, looking at that man, remembering the boy, the ups and downs, the joy and laughter, the tears...
He sensed my reflective mood, being the sensitive guy that he is, asked if I was fine, yes, well nearly done, just a few more calls, some materials to order and I'm done...
That's when I took this shot, he looked in my direction, busy but aware of me.
For years I have been working on a project, mostly for a book, but it also became, at some stage, a wall of fame in a city...
Eyes are our soul mirrors in my view.
This was one of the earlier ones I did, for people to 'guess', recognise, you could ONLY see part of the face, mostly the eyes, the rest was different for different people, mostly something to do with their line of work...
The original trial was done in the studio, on the technical camera (first on Polaroids)4x5" and then developed from negative and printed in the 'wet' darkroom.
I might upload some now and then... as they are not so easy to scan.
AAhh well, when I have some time, FUN!
Comp in camera!
As a photographer, your main tools are:
- you, as a person with a creative mind.
- your eyes, using the visual literacy.
- your camera, keep it in shipshape, handle it with the care and respect it deserves (even as a pro!!!).
- the technical and practical knowledge you have acquired over the years!
THANX for ALL your comments and visits, so appreciated, too many to be returned (sadly, however I DO try!...), M, (*_*)
Please do not use or COPY any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. Many are with Getty© All rights reserved
Why not view the set as a slide-show?
Also I often upload more than one image at the same time, I see a tendency to only view the last uploaded...
The Province is providing over $628,000 to support a two-year pilot project for the viticulture technician diploma program at Okanagan College, developed in partnership with the BC Wine Grape Council.
The diploma is designed to provide hands-on, theoretical and practical knowledge that will allow students to eventually work as part of a vineyard management team. The program is structured around the viticulture growing season, providing opportunities to develop and apply skills like: canopy management, pest control, pruning, training vines and sensory evaluation.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017JTST0128-001045
Photo: Fred R. Conrad
By MICHAEL WEINREB
Published: May 20, 2007
PATRICK O’NEIL, tall and broad-shouldered, towers over many of his classmates at the New York City College of Technology in Downtown Brooklyn, and at age 31 he is older than many of them. But there is also a less apparent gulf between Mr. O’Neil and his fellow students.
“I watch these people moving through their lives, and it’s so odd,” he said one afternoon a few weeks ago in a vaguely industrial-looking lounge in Namm Hall as other students studied, stared vacantly out the windows or rushed past on their way elsewhere. “After I got back, I had an epiphany: If you think the next week you could go on a convoy and get blown to bits, the ‘right now’ is more valuable. I realized there were no guarantees.”
Mr. O’Neil is a veteran. He is one of about 200 former servicemen and servicewomen who are enrolled this semester at City Tech, a college with more than 28,000 students that is housed largely in a labyrinth of interconnected buildings amid the courthouses and office buildings of Downtown Brooklyn.
The contingent of veterans at City Tech is not small, and it is likely to grow, as is the veterans’ presence at the 22 other institutions of the sprawling City University system. As war in the Middle East continues and American troops rotate into and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, greater numbers of veterans are returning to the city. CUNY’s affordability — tuition is $4,000 a year at City Tech, for example — appeals to many of them.
Perhaps most important, CUNY officials, who oversee about 450,000 students, are actively seeking to make their schools more attractive to former soldiers. Among other things, they are appointing a specialist in veterans’ issues on every campus, setting up a Web site on veterans’ affairs, lobbying the State Legislature for more money for veterans’ services, and allowing veterans to take classes before they receive their federal tuition money.
The bottom line is that the CUNY system, which now has about 2,500 veterans enrolled, hopes to have many more. “We’re expecting an influx of new veterans in the next two years,” said Garrie Moore, the CUNY vice chancellor for student development. “We know the need is there.”
For people like Mr. O’Neil, going back to school after military service offers many of the hallmarks of college, from its intellectual demands to its social opportunities to the career aspirations it nurtures. But in many respects, the veterans are not typical students. They are set apart not just by age and experience, but also by the challenge of re-entering civilian society and by the fact that they stand in the crosshairs of the widespread antipathy toward the Iraq war, a dislike that is especially strong in a liberal city like New York.
“I’m starting to realize more and more how odd it is to adjust,” said Mr. O’Neil, who dresses like other students but whose dark hair is shorter than most. “There are a lot of subtle things in your life that shift.”
Does he feel like an outsider? “I guess you could say that,” he replied.
Uneasy Naps
In the traditionally liberal climate of a college campus, Philip Chiu, a soft-spoken former infantryman who is in his third semester at City Tech, is taking a bit of a risk in saying that he liked being in Iraq.
Mr. Chiu, a slight and introspective man who loves photography, also knows that it is difficult to explain this feeling to those who have not experienced what he did, who cannot comprehend how the rush of adrenaline somehow serves to remind a human being that he is alive.
But fellow veterans understand. “Strangely,” said Mr. O’Neil, “I can see what he’s saying.”
The craving for adrenaline is not the only distinction between veterans and other collegians. So is a very different desire — sleep. It is not that veterans don’t enjoy the collegiate habit of sleeping in; Mr. Chiu sleeps in whenever he gets a chance. But he does so almost to make up for all those years when uninterrupted rest was at a premium. And even as he slumbers like countless other college students, he says, he feels strange, as if the world around him had shifted into a slower gear.
“I can do whatever I want, and no one will bother me,” Mr. Chiu said. “College has been easy so far. But I still miss the military.”
In countless ways, the return to civilian life can be hard. “I think things were not as difficult for Vietnam veterans as they are today,” said Dr. Moore, the CUNY vice chancellor, himself a Vietnam veteran. “Vets now have a lot of pressures on them. Things are more expensive. They’ve got to find health care. They’ve got to find child care. A major difficulty is access to information and access to resources to help them get into educational institutions.”
The veterans’ go-to person at City Tech is John Byrnes, an Iraq veteran and a graduate of CUNY’s Hunter College. He works with a full-time student counselor, Paul Schwartz, and an assistant registrar, Monique Blake, who estimates that she spends nearly half her time handling veterans’ paperwork and logistical questions. The three handle the normal college issues, such as getting credits transferred, but they also frequently encounter matters particular to former soldiers, from post-traumatic stress disorder to the demands of juggling jobs, work and children.
One of the biggest topics is getting what they’re owed under the G.I. Bill, which pays CUNY’s tuition in full for nearly all veterans. “Most of them come into my office asking, ‘Where’s my money?’ ” Ms. Blake said.
When Mr. Byrnes returned home in 2005, not long after witnessing the death of Specialist Segun Frederick Akintade, the lone City Tech student killed in Iraq, he confronted a variety of bureaucratic obstacles to completing his own college classes. But he says that more recent returning veterans have an easier time. “Now, there’s enough of a focus in the media on veterans that we’re making progress,” Mr. Byrnes said.
No Welcome Mat
Still, the most difficult adjustment for returning veterans, accepting the notion that their lives are now their own, is a chore they must face essentially alone.
“You’re treated like babies in the military,” said Binod Gurung, a 27-year-old son of Nepalese immigrants who was stationed on the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard in the Persian Gulf in 2004. “Now, you have to build up your own discipline.”
Mr. Gurung, an engineering major, was referring to more than just strict military schedules. The high stakes in the armed forces — troops work in the field, on several million dollars’ worth of heavy equipment, at jobs in which strategies and sometimes lives depend upon their ability to get things done — mean that servicemen have little leeway in performing their duties. But they also have strong support, surrounded round the clock by people who empathize with the unusual pressures they face and the emotions they feel.
At college, military life is turned upside down. These veterans are now free to do as they wish, and they can do it largely alone.
This is why Mr. Schwartz, the student counselor, encourages City Tech’s veterans to join clubs, dig into student life and forge new relationships. That’s not always easy. Like nearly all CUNY schools, City Tech is a commuter campus. Many students show up simply to attend classes; they don’t hang around, and they don’t have time for extracurricular activities.
And because the veterans are typically older and often have families, jobs and other pressing obligations, they may not mesh well with their classmates, many of them teenagers who have barely traveled beyond their own borough.
The widespread opposition on campus to the war doesn’t help foster social relations. “Rarely have I ever heard a student express support for the war,” said K. A. Cuordileone, an associate professor of history at City Tech. “I’d say 95 percent of my students were against it from the very beginning.”
And although many Americans separate the politics of the war from support for the troops, emotions on this issue often run high, and the gap in understanding can be wide.
“I try to avoid those kinds of conversations,” said Mr. Gurung, the Nepalese veteran. “Even with my parents.”
Given this desire for a low profile, membership in the year-old City Tech veterans club is small. Weekly meetings draw only four or five people out of the 200 veterans enrolled at the school. “Not that many people want to be identified as veterans,” said Moises Murillo, who retired from the Navy in 2004 and is a former president of the club. “You ask some people if they’re a military veteran and they say, ‘What do you care?’ ”
Such suspiciousness grows from incidents like one in April, when City Tech dental hygiene students, some of whom have friends and relatives serving overseas, held a fund-raiser to send mouthwash, toothpaste and other toiletries to soldiers in Iraq. A table was set up in a second-floor hallway of Namm Hall. Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Byrnes, from the veterans’ aid office, were there, along with several student veterans and one soldier in uniform, who attended as a representative of the military, beneficiary of the event.
At various points, according to Mr. Byrnes, a faculty member and a City Tech staff person argued that a man in uniform should not be allowed on the school’s grounds, momentarily casting a shadow over the proceedings.
“There are definitely a lot of people who have hidden here their whole lives,” said Mr. Byrnes,. “They’ve never really been challenged in their beliefs.”
Bees and Broken Bones
By their own accounts, not all of City Tech’s veterans were originally capable of doing college work, which led many of them to join the military in the first place. Mr. Chiu admits that he was a subpar student at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in Bensonhurst — a victim, he said, of his own laziness. Joshua Tsihlis, 24, who is the acting president of City Tech’s student veterans club, said he was a solid student at Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge but didn’t see himself as “college material.”
On the other side of the ledger, many veterans have far richer backgrounds than their younger classmates.
Mr. O’Neil, for example, after graduating from high school in Newburgh, N.Y., moved in with his father in southeastern Arizona, where he clerked at a general store, took classes at a local community college and spent 14 months working as a beekeeper. “Beekeeping is a harder job than you might think,” Mr. O’Neil said.
Eventually, Mr. O’Neil moved back to the Newburgh area, where his mother lives, and got a job at a Wal-Mart, where he spent nearly two years. One day in 1999, Mr. O’Neil gave two weeks’ notice, marched into a recruitment office and signed on with the Army. He eventually made two trips to Iraq, where he helped maintain satellite systems.
Such life experiences can be an advantage in the classroom. Mr. Tsihlis, for example, often winds up teaching his fellow students in his architecture classes. Because of his practical knowledge, he tends to pick up things up more quickly, and if he notices that someone can’t quite figure how to draw a particular angle, he’ll show how it’s done.
And despite the frequent desire of veterans not to bring up their military service, at times the past pops up. Mr. Tsihlis’s classmates, for example, often learn that he served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where he maintained generators and other equipment.
The first reaction is usually shock, followed by innocent questions: Did you drive a tank? Did you shoot somebody? When Mr. O’Neil found himself discussing his Army service with students in the school’s cafeteria, one of them asked eagerly if he’d ever fired a machine gun. (His answer was yes, but only in training.)
On less frequent occasions, antiwar tension flares. “It came up the other day with a girl,” Mr. Tsihlis said. “She asked me, ‘How did you feel, killing innocent people?’ I pretty much stopped the conversation right there.”
Sometimes, a veteran carries his past with him physically. On Oct. 24, 2004, Mr. Chiu tried to leap over a ditch when he was on patrol in Iraq’s Anbar Province and fell, fracturing a bone in his leg. He spent a year hoping the bones would knit so he could continue to serve, but they never did. He was honorably discharged, and his dreams of joining the Rangers, the Special Forces or perhaps the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. no longer seemed feasible.
So he applied to City Tech in pursuit of an associate’s degree in radiology and medical imaging, and soon he was immersed in school life — including waiting weeks for his G.I. Bill benefits to show up. After earning his associate’s degree, Mr. Chiu hopes to apply to a bachelor’s degree program, and then, perhaps, to medical school.
His day-to-day life looks like that of any city student. Since his parents have moved to Wisconsin, he lives with his grandmother in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He often studies at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He says he has a 3.69 grade-point average.
But if the veterans seem in many respects indistinguishable from their peers, they know the differences are deep, as are the misunderstandings that often go with them.
Since Mr. O’Neil arrived at City Tech, for instance, several people have reminded him that counseling for post-traumatic stress is available. But Mr. O’Neil insists that post-traumatic stress disorder is not what sets him apart.
What sets him apart, he says, is that he is privy to a simple piece of information about the human condition that many others at City Tech have not yet discovered.
“It became very clear to me that there’s a chance I could step out on the wrong road and get hit by a bus, and that’s it,” he said. “So I see things differently than a lot of the people that go to school here.”
The Province is providing over $628,000 to support a two-year pilot project for the viticulture technician diploma program at Okanagan College, developed in partnership with the BC Wine Grape Council.
The diploma is designed to provide hands-on, theoretical and practical knowledge that will allow students to eventually work as part of a vineyard management team. The program is structured around the viticulture growing season, providing opportunities to develop and apply skills like: canopy management, pest control, pruning, training vines and sensory evaluation.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017JTST0128-001045
The Province is providing over $628,000 to support a two-year pilot project for the viticulture technician diploma program at Okanagan College, developed in partnership with the BC Wine Grape Council.
The diploma is designed to provide hands-on, theoretical and practical knowledge that will allow students to eventually work as part of a vineyard management team. The program is structured around the viticulture growing season, providing opportunities to develop and apply skills like: canopy management, pest control, pruning, training vines and sensory evaluation.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017JTST0128-001045
The Province is providing over $628,000 to support a two-year pilot project for the viticulture technician diploma program at Okanagan College, developed in partnership with the BC Wine Grape Council.
The diploma is designed to provide hands-on, theoretical and practical knowledge that will allow students to eventually work as part of a vineyard management team. The program is structured around the viticulture growing season, providing opportunities to develop and apply skills like: canopy management, pest control, pruning, training vines and sensory evaluation.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017JTST0128-001045
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
Masonic Tracing Boards: youtu.be/m-dc96wCxWs
Elmvale Masonic Temple 77 Queen Street West Elmvale Ontario.
Masonic Tracing Board Decoded & Explained: youtu.be/9exPJ6LAjA8
www.niagaramasons.com/Info%20Stuff/The%20Winding%20Stairc...
Museum of Freemasonry - Masonic Library
Lecture: The Legend Of The Winding Stairs
In an investigation of the symbolism of the winding stairs, we shall be directed to the true explanation by a reference to there origin, there number, the objects which they recall, and there termination, but above all by a consideration of the great design which an assent upon them was intended to accomplish.
The steps of this winding staircase commenced we are informed, at the porch of the Temple; that is to say, at its very entrance. But nothing is more undoubted in the science of Masonic symbolism than that the Temple was the representative of the world purified by the Divine Presence. The world of the profane is without the Temple; the world of the initiated is within its sacred walls. Hence to enter the Temple, to pass within the porch, to be made a mason, and to be born into the world of Masonic light, are all synonymous terms. Here, then, the symbolism of the winding stairs begins.
The Apprentice having entered within the porch of the temple, has begun his Masonic life. But the first degree in masonry, is only a preparation and purification for something higher. The Entered Apprentice is the child in Masonry. the lessons which he receives are simply intended to cleanse the heart and prepare the recipient for that mental illumination which is to be given in the succeeding degrees.
As a Fellow Craft, he has advanced another step, and as the degree is emblematic of youth, so it is here that the intellectual education of the candidate begins. And therefore, here, at the very spot which separates the porch from the sanctuary, where childhood ends and manhood begins, he finds stretching out before him a winding stair which invites him, as it were, to ascend, and which, as the symbol of discipline and instruction, teaches him that here must commence his Masonic labour here he must enter upon those glorious though difficult researches the end of which is to be in the possession of divine truth. The winding stairs begin after the candidate has passed within the porch and between the pillars of strength and establishment, as a significant symbol to teach him that as soon as he has passed beyond the years of irrational childhood, and commenced his entrance upon manly life, the laborious task of self-improvement is the first duty placed before him. He cannot stand still; his destiny requires him to ascend, step by step, until he has reached the summit, where the treasures of knowledge await him
The numbers of these steps in all the systems is odd. The coincidence is at least curious that the ancient temples were always ascended by an odd number of steps; so that commencing with the right foot at the bottom, the worshipper would find the same foot foremost when he entered the temple, which was considered as a fortunate omen. But the fact is, that the symbolism of numbers was borrowed by the masons from Pythagoras, in whose system of philosophy it plays an important part, and in which odd numbers were considered as more perfect than even ones. Hence, throughout the Masonic system we find a predominance of odd numbers, and while three, five, seven, and nine, are all-important symbols, we seldom find a reference to two, four, six, or eight. The odd number of stairs was therefore intended to symbolise the idea of perfection, to which it was the object of the aspirant to attain.
As to the particular number of the stairs, this has varied at different periods. The Tracing-boards of the nineteenth century have been found, in which only five steps are delineated, and others in which they amount to seven. The prestonian lectures, used at the beginning of the century gave the whole number of thirty-eight. the error of making an even number, which was a violation of the Pythagorean principle of odd numbers as the symbol of perfection, was later corrected. At the union of the two Grand Lodges of England the number was reduced to fifteen, divided into three series of three, five, and seven.
At the first pause which he makes he is instructed in the peculiar organisation of the order of which he has become a member. But the information here given, is barren, and unworthy of his labour. The rank of the officers, and the required number can give no knowledge which he has not before possessed. We must look therefore to the symbolic meaning of these allusions for any value which may be attached to this part of the ceremony.
The reference to the organisation of the Masonic institution is intended to remind us of the union of men in society, and the development of the social state out of the state of nature. He is thus reminded, in the very outset of his journey, of the blessings which arise from civilisation, and of the fruits of virtue and knowledge which are derived from that condition. Masonry itself is the result of civilisation; while, in grateful return, it has been one of the most important means of extending that condition to mankind.
All the monuments of antiquity prove that as man emerged from the savage to the social state then came the invention of architecture. As architecture developed as a means of providing convenient dwellings and necessary shelter from the harshness of the seasons, with the mechanical arts connected with it, for as we began to erect solid and more stately edifices of stone, they imitated the parts which necessity had introduced into the primitive huts. and adapted them to there temples, which, although at first simple and rude, were in the course of time, and by the ingenuity of succeeding architects, wrought and improved to such a degree of perfection on different models, that each was by way of eminence, denominated an order of architecture.
Advancing in his progress the candidate is invited to contemplate another series of instructions. The human senses, as the appropriate channels through which we receive al our ideas of perception, and which, therefore, constitute the most important sources of our knowledge, are here referred to as a symbol of intellectual cultivation. Architecture, as the most important of the arts which conduce to comfort of mankind, is also alluded to here, not simply because it is closely connected with operative instruction of Masonry, but also as the type of all the other useful arts. In his second pause, in the ascent of the winding stairs, the aspirant is therefore reminded of the necessity of cultivating practical knowledge
So far, then the instructions he has received relate to his own condition in society as a member of the great social compact, and to his means of becoming, by a knowledge of the arts of practical life, a necessarry and useful member of society. Still must he go onward and forward. the stair is still before him; its summit is not yet reached, and further wisdoms are to be sought for, or the reward will not be gained, nor the middle chamber the abiding-place of truth, be reached.
In his third pause, he therefore arrives at that point in which the whole circle of human science is to be explained. Symbols, we know, are in themselves arbitrary and of conventional signification, and the complete circle of human science might have been as well symbolesed by any other sign or series of doctrines as by the seven liberal arts and sciences. But Masony is an institution of olden time; and this selection of the liberal arts and sciences as a symbol of the completion of human learningis one of the most pregnant evidences that we have of its antiquity.
In the seventh century, and for a long time afterwards, the circle of instruction to which all the learning of the most eminent schools and most distinguished philosophers was confined, was limited to what were then called the liberal arts and sciences, and consisted of two branches, the trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium included grammar, rhetoric, and logic; the quadrivium comprehended arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These seven arts were supposed to include universal knowledge. He who was master of these was thought to have no need of a preceptor to explain any books or to solve any question which lay within the compass of human reason, the knowledge of the trivium having furnished him with the key to all language, and that of the quadrivium having opened to him the secret laws of nature.
But we are not yet done. It will be remembered that a reward was promised for all this toilsome ascent of the winding stairs. Now, what are the wages of a Speculative Mason? Not money, nor corn, nor wine, nor oil. All these are but symbols. His wages are truth, or the approximation to which it will be most appropriate to the degree into which he has been initiated. It is one of the most beautiful, but at the same time most abstruse, doctrines of the science of Masonic symbolism that the Mason is ever to be in search of truth, but is never to find it. This divine truth, the object of all his labours, is symbolised by the Word, for which we all know he can only obtain a substitute; and this is intended to teach the humiliating but necessary lesson that the knowledge of nature, of God, and of man's relation to them, which knowledge constitutes divine truth, can never be acquired in this life. Only at the end of this life shall he know the origin of life.
The middle chamber is therefore symbolic of this life, where the symbol only of the Word can be given, where the truth is to be reached by approximation only, and yet where we are to learn that truth will consist in a perfect knowledge of the G.G.O.T.U. This is the reward of the inquiring Mason; in this consist the wages of a Fellow Craft; he is directed to the truth, but he must travel farther and ascend still higher to attain it.
It is then, as a symbol, and as a symbol only, that we must study this beautiful legend of the winding stairs. if we attempt to adopt it as a historical fact, the absurdity of its details stares us in the face, and wise men will wonder at our credulity. Its inventors had no desire to thus impose upon our folly; but offering it to us as a great philosophical myth, they did not for a moment suppose that we would pass over its sublime moral teachings to accept the allegory as a historical narrative without meaning, and wholly irreconcilable with the records of Scripture, and opposed by all the principles of probability. To suppose that eighty thousand craftsman were weekly paid in the narrow precincts of the Temple chambers, is simply to suppose an absurdity. But to believe that all this pictorial representation of an ascent by a winding staircase to the place where the wages of labour were received, was an allegory to teach us the ascent of the mind from ignorance, through all the toils of study and the difficulties of obtaining knowledge, receiving here a little and there a little, adding something to the stock of our ideas at each step, until, in the middle chamber of life, in the full fruition of manhood, the reward is attained, and the purified and elevated intellect is invested with the reward in the direction how to seek truth and knowledge; to believe this, is to believe and to know the true design of Speculative Masonry, the only design which makes it worthy of a good and wise man's study.
2nd degree fellowcraft tracing board illustration.
On our way to the Sanctum Sanctorum, the newly made Mason undertakes a passage through what is commonly called the Middle Chamber. The reference into the middle way is through the temple of Solomon, and the pathway to the Holy of Holies, the adytum in which the Holy Ark of the covenant resides at the the Kodesh Hakodashim, or the place in which deity dwells. In that journey through the middle space, the Second degree brother is introduced to some of the more seemingly secular influenced aspects of the fraternity that begin to take on a double, or symbolic, meaning. On their surface, the basic notions of these things are obvious, but not until you start to look at them closely, at their deeper meanings, that we start to see their relationships to other more esoteric ideas. This is similar to religious traditions where withing one religious text there can be multiple layers of meaning, and multiple ways of interpretation which can lead to an allegorical, a moral, or a mystical meaning.
Indeed, as the degree is symbolically in King Solomon’s Temple, so to can it be seen as a symbolic metaphor to our own internal path, what Joseph Campbell calls the hero quest, and where you “leave the world that you you’re in and go into a depth or into a distance or up to a height.”[1]
This is not to assume that the Masonic degrees have a similar relevancy to sacred or Masonic symbols, tracing board, second degree, 2 degreespiritual texts, though some could argue that their significance is almost as powerful to some observants. It is a system of morality that strives to make good men better, which runs nearly in parallel with the many Volumes of the Sacred Law which seeks similar outcomes to achieve as it outlines and instructs its path to elevation. Whether its salvation or spiritual awakening the holy books seek to instruct its adherents to live better lives through their faith, the same that Freemasonry strives to through its practice – to make those good men better. In that process of making the good man a candidate for the degrees is made an entered apprentice, symbolically as he ascends Jacob’s ladder. Once at the top, he is presented a series of three groups of symbols which are set before him to become a Second Degree mason so as they may observe and contemplate them in their path of progression, their hero’s quest, to the third degree.
The story of the degree, from Duncan’s Masonic Ritual and Monitor*, picks up after the passage between the twin pillars of the degree with the conductor delivering this instruction:
Brother, we will pursue our journey. The next thing that attracts our attention is the winding stairs which lead to the Middle Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple, consisting of three, five, and seven steps.
The first three allude to the three principal stages of human life, namely, youth, manhood, and old age. In youth, as Entered Apprentices, we ought industriously to occupy our minds in the attainment of useful knowledge; in manhood, as Fellow Crafts, we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbors, and ourselves; so that in old age, as Master Masons, we may enjoy the happy reflections consequent on a well-spent life, and die in the hope of a glorious immortality.
They also allude to the three principal supports in Masonry, namely, Wisdom, Strength. and Beauty; for it is necessary that there should be wisdom to contrive, strength to support, and beauty to adorn all great and important undertakings.
They further allude to the three principal officers of the Lodge, viz.: Master, and Senior and Junior Wardens.
Let’s pause here and consider what some of the deeper meanings of these first steps infer. The first segment is fairly straight forward; with narrative telling us that the three steps allude to the three stages of human life – Youth, Manhood, and Old Age.
Youth is defined as:
Young persons, collectively.
A young person; especially, a young man.
The quality or state of being young; youthfulness; juvenility.
The part of life that succeeds to childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or age; the whole early part of life, from childhood, or, sometimes, from infancy, to manhood.
from ThinkExist.com
This is a pretty straight forward idea, especially as it says to us that “we ought industriously to occupy our minds in the attainment of useful knowledge”, but how does this apply to an older initiate, someone who is no longer in his youth. Is it a wistful thought to what was achieved when younger and in still in school? Taken on a deeper level, it could allude to the idea of the degree itself, the First degree being synonymous to mean that in the first, the candidate comes to the lodge as a youth (despite his chronological or physical age) with a clean slate of perception and a clean pallet of interpretation. In a sense, he comes as blank slate to its teachings or to the ideas before him. The degree being his introduction from exterior life to interior life which ushers him both into the fraternity and into the concept of the undertaking. Pike, in the first degree lecture in Morals and Dogma, calls this the focusing of the aspirants “unregulated force” – the channel by which they constrain their previously raw, infantile state, into that of a focused and youthful aspirant no matter their age.
Next, the candidate enters into his Manhood, more literally the 2nd degree, of which the ceremony says of it “we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbors, and ourselves” which is a really active process to live by. We, in essence, are to achieve much by way of our doing, essentially, the work of our daily life towards our deity in worship and practice, our community in which we live and reside, but more specifically as we apply it to ourselves in continuing to apply what we’ve learned in our youth to this state of existence.
The Free Dictionary defines Manhood as:
1. The state or time of being an adult male human.
2. The composite of qualities, such as courage, determination, and vigor, often thought to be appropriate to a man.
3. Adult males considered as a group; men.
4. The state of being human.
In the third entry, we can take much from it beyond it simply being our middle state of being. It is in fact our ability to BE in the first place, our SELF in daily practice. Interesting as this is, the second degree in which our further education takes place is not only about the practice of our youth but also our ability to learn and apply that education to our life.
Campbell says of the age progression that “As a child, you are brought up in a world of discipline, of obedience, and you are dependant on others. All this has to be transcended when you come to maturity, so that you can live not in dependency but with self-responsible authority.”[2] This is, in essence, the heart of the three degree progression and the fundamental of the three steps – he becoming a man (or woman, respecting your discipline)!
Old age is a bit more of a troubling and complex issue. So often in modern society we look at old age as a point of retirement where work and physical activity dramatically changes or diminishes. In this description, the idea of old age holds true in that the degree says of old age that in it “we may enjoy the happy reflections consequent on a well-spent life, and die in the hope of a glorious immortality”
There are several interesting meanings we can take from this especially that it is in the degrees that these physical changes are metaphorically said to take place which can become a literal interpretation, and that once attained the Master Mason can live through them – literally to reflect on the life well spent. What’s troubling here is that the major portion of the work of the lodge is spent in the third degree and a caution must be considered so as to not see the work of the Master Mason as just one of reflection and of casual rest lest no work, as described in Manhood, be completed.
Old Age is essentially defined as ones age nearing or passing the average life span of human beings, and thus at the end of the human life cycle. In the U.S. this is considered to be 78 years old giving a distinct impression as to when one should then become a True Master. It really is at a twilight of life period, one of great age and maturity where little change and much reflection takes place. This gives us an interesting perspective on the meaning as it implies a near end of physical life period of time which squares with the degrees lesson as the period of reflection of a life well spent. We become the Master of our all, ready to pass our knowledge on to the next generation.
With this vantage, we can take pause to deeply consider that our daily working of the degrees, intrinsically, could (or should) be conducted in the 2nd state, our manhood in which we conversely learn and grow.
Cirlot, in his Dictionary of Symbols, makes an interesting point in that the idea of progression in the stages of age is not unique to Masonry. Besides the stages themselves, the number three (3) is a representation of synthesis and unites the “solution of conflict posed by dualism.” In other words, the third object brings about balance for the first two opposing states. Think of the balance of three dots, one stacked above two.
From this point, the degree breaks off to correlate these first steps with the three principal pillars of the lodge as Wisdom, Strength and Beauty which also has an interesting Kabalistic point of reference in the three pillars that make up the structure of the tree of life. Keep in mind, the orientation assumes the viewer reverse the structure to mirror ones own standing rather than simply reflect the observer.
Wisdom, the left hand pillar of mercy, is an active pillar and representativeof alchemical fire, which is the principal of spirituality, often called the pillar of Jachin. It is a masculine pillar, and relates to our mental energy, our loving kindness, and our creative inspiration as we traverse it up the Kabbalaistic tree through the Sephirot.
Strength is the right hand pillar and takes the form of severity, shaped into the alchemical symbol of water. It can represent darkness, but it is a passive symbol that is feminine in nature and called the pillar of Boaz. Upon it we find the points of our thoughts and ideas, our feelings and emotions, and the physicality of our physical experience, our sensations, each an aspect of its Cabalistic progression.
Beauty, then, takes on the role of synthesis of the two, the pillar of mildness; it is upon this pillar that the novitiate is transformed through his progressive states as he progresses. The central pillar of Beauty is representative of Jehovah, the Tetragrammaton which represents deity itself"mercurial transformation" upon which our crown of being resides balanced through feeling and emotion from our foundation of justice and mercy, all of which springs from our link to the everyday world.
These aspects of the Kabbalah are not specific attributes of the study in the blue lodge, rather elements of deeper esoteric study, found more specifically in the degrees of the Scottish Rite. Because of the pillars, and their deeper symbolic meaning, it does, however, necessitate looking at them deeper to see the relationship between them as the blue lodge degrees seem to have parallels in the study of the Kabbalah – a happy accident at some time past or with purpose to link the ideas together. Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty are specific aspects of the lower three degrees and emphasized here in the first three steps into the middle chamber, necessitating their deeper esoteric study to fully grasp their broader importance.
As the degree instructs – Wisdom is to contrive, Strength is to support, and Beauty is to adorn all great and important undertakings – which are the fundamentals of the three pillars in the Kabbalaistic study.
Conversely, as the degree states, these three pillars “allude to the three principal officers of the Lodge, viz.: Master, and Senior and Junior Wardens.” and can be interpreted as such in both a micro (in lodge) fashion and in a broader macro tradition of Masonry itself – in this Kabbalaistic formulation. When the alchemical aspects of wisdom and strength are combined we can see the 6 pointed star appears, the symbol of transformation, often depicted in the conjoining of the square and compass in which Masons are instructed to square their actions and circumscribe their passions, which also corresponds to the link between the Saints Johns – the Baptist as the principal of alchemical water, and the Evangelist as the symbol of alchemical fire, both of whom have much deeper esoteric connections in Masonry. Also, the figures of the lodge leadership have a deeper connection as you begin to look at their alchemical connections too, when you look at their relationship to the Sun and moon, and the aspirant candidate as the solution of conflict, as Cirlot described, and as defined in the first degree – the three sphere aspect to balance the two of conflict.
From these short first few tentative steps, we can see that there is a wealth of Masonic symbols at hand, but we are only one third into our progression. Our next step takes us deeper into the middle chamber to its central position where we encounter an interesting juxtaposition of the physical world to our very human aspect of being through our senses.
For now, reflect a time on these first three steps and consider what comes next upon the path.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
In the late 1800s, when lumber baron and millionaire David Whitney Jr. took a break from business and looked out the window of his office in his Woodward Avenue mansion, he surveyed a sight that warmed his heart – the playing fields of the original Detroit Athletic Club.
The location of the Whitney mansion near the grounds of the DAC was no accident.
Whitney and his son, David C. Whitney, were both members of the original DAC, whose grounds are now a part of Wayne State University. “Its bleachers ran along the southern edge of Whitney's property line, affording the family a bird's-eye view of track and field events from the second-story balcony,” according to a 1978 article in the Detroit Free Press, including baseball games and polo matches in the summer, and hockey and skating in the winter.
Today, the building has been transformed into one of Detroit's finest restaurants, "The Whitney – An American restaurant in an American Palace."
Around the turn of the century, that part of Woodward Avenue was millionaire's row lined with beautiful mansions. The Whitney is the last real piece of that kind of architecture in the city. Its magnificent architecture shows a real understanding of the era in which it was built.
Both the house and the man represent a significant level of success and achievement in pre-automotive Detroit.
David Whitney Jr. was one of the most prominent persons in the city of Detroit. And he was very much involved in both the development and industry of the city as well as the social scene of the day.
Besides lending money to J.L. Hudson to build the first department store in Detroit, Whitney contributed to medical and educational institutions in Detroit and was a leading philanthropist of his day.
"The Whitneys represent that element of Detroit families who have made substantial fortunes in the lumber industry invested in Detroit and supported all sorts of social and philanthropic causes," said Arthur Woodford, author of several books on Detroit history.
Whitney built the opulent family home that still stands on Woodward and Canfield between 1890 and 1894, at a cost of $400,000.
Designed by architect Gordon W. Lloyd, who built many residences and churches in and around Detroit, the 22,000 square-foot Romanesque Revival mansion originally had 52 rooms, including 10 bathrooms, 218 windows, 20 fireplaces and a hydraulic elevator.
The structure is built of South Dakota jasper, a rare variety of pink granite, and many of the rooms are decorated with marble, onyx and elaborate hand-carved woodwork. Polished japer columns support multiple arches, and Tiffany stained-glass windows illuminate the interior.
The Whitney's spent an additional $250,000 on decorating and furnishing their majestic Victorian home and another $300,000 on art treasures displayed throughout the mansion.
For years it was one of Detroit's show places, with streams of carriages driving up to its porte cochere for receptions, teas and musicales.
When he died in 1900, Whitney was the wealthiest man in Detroit, with a fortune estimated at $15 million. His wife, Sara, continued to live in the house until the 1920s.
As a tribute to their beloved patriarch, his family – including three daughters and son David C. – erected the David Whitney Building, empty now, but still standing at the corner of Woodward and Washington.
David C. Whitney, a member of the original Detroit Athletic Club and a lifelong member of the new club until his death in 1942, established the headquarters of the Whitney Realty Company in the Whitney Building and built his own home, Ridgemont, in Grosse Pointe.
Daughter Grace (Mrs. John Jacob Hoff) was instrumental in creating the Detroit YWCA. Katherine, with her husband, Tracy W. McGregor, a lifelong DAC member until his death in 1936, established the McGregor Fund, sponsoring care for the sick and poor and supporting higher education.
The philanthropic sprit and the interest in the DAC carried on into the third generation – the Whitney Fund, named for David Marshall Whitney, grandson of the lumber baron and a lifelong member of the DAC from 1915 until his death in 1965, has awarded millions in grants to area nonprofit organizations.
Many members of the Whitney family still live in the Grosse Pointe area.
In 1941, the Whitney family gave the house to the Wayne County Medical Society. According to Dr. Alpheus F. Jennings, then chairman of the board of the medical society, the "million-dollar gift was one of the most notable ever made in the country to any medical society."
In 1957 the medical society sold the house to the Visiting Nurses Association. As a sign of the family's continuing interest in maintaining the house, the buildings was rehabilitated for the VNA with a grant of $75,000 from the McGregor Fund.
The massive and multi-gabled mansion was still owned and occupied by the Visiting Nurses Association when antique collector and entrepreneur Richard Kughn dropped by in 1978.
The VNA had been good stewards of the property, maintaining it well and making few alterations, and Kughn was impressed by the magnificent architecture, the rich woodwork, and the beautiful Tiffany-glass windows and marble fireplaces. By the time he finished touring the building, he had learned of the VNA's plans to sell the house when they moved to larger quarters.
"As I reached the bottom step, my friend Chuck Hagler said, 'You're going to buy it, or else they're going to tear it down,'" said Kughn.
Within a few months, Kughn was the new owner of the Whitney House. [Note: Richard Kughn sold the Whitney home to Arthur “Bud” Liebler in 2007. Liebler continues to operate The Whitney restaurant.]
"The Whitney House speaks to all of the architecture and opulence and magnificence of that era," said Kughn. "No building is better able to tell that story, and it should be preserved, not for personal use but so that the public can see and enjoy it."
The greatest challenge in restoring the house and creating a restaurant was meeting the city codes. The new owners installed a fire-suppression system and installed thirty-two furnaces and air-conditioning systems, all operated separately. Electric fixtures, original to the house, had to be rewired; although electricity was not uncommon when David Whitney installed it in his mansion, it wasn't entirely trustworthy, and Whitney, like many other homeowners at the time, kept and used gas fixtures, which can still be seen in the restaurant. The new owners gutted the servants' wing and built a “building within a building" to support three state-of-the-art kitchens.
Once codes were met and structural modifications complete, each room in the restaurant was decorated with period furnishings, with everything from regency to Queen Anne to French Empire represented, keyed to the original colors in the fireplaces.
Many rooms are named as they were when the Whitney family lived in the house: the Study, the Music Room, the Reception Room and the Drawing Room, for example.
David Whitney's monogram can still be seen, carved into the limestone above the door and repeated in the silver-leaf plaster above the massive fireplace in the Great Hall; the swirling, intertwined D and W have been reproduced on the creamy china used in the restaurant.
"The house is 95 percent the way it looked on the day it was built," said Fox. "All of its owners maintained it well and treated it like a grand old lady."
As host to celebrities and entertainers, for weddings or for lunch or dinner, the Whitney is open to Detroit residents and visitors almost any day of the week – in sharp contrast to so many of the beautiful homes that lined Woodward when David Whitney Jr. lived there, 100 years ago.
The Detroit Free Press ran a lengthy article about the house in 1894 when the building was completed, and its words have proved prophetic: "The Whitney House will last as long as is given to houses made by man to endure."
History of Michigan
David Whitney Jr Profile
David Whitney Jr. - When David Whitney Jr., died in Detroit November 28, 1900, it was said of him: "He coveted success, but scorned to attain it except through industry and honest means. He acquired wealth without fraud or deceit, and the results of his life are full of inspiration to the rising generation." His was one of the productive careers in the citizenship of Michigan during the last half of the nineteenth century. In the various departments of the lumber industry lay his chief activities, and his success in that field was sufficient to place his name alongside that of the great lumber kings of the state. His business was for many years conducted from Detroit, and the greater share of his investments was placed by that city.
David Whitney, Jr., was born at Westford Middlesex County, Massachusetts, August 13, 1830. He always wrote his name David Whitney Jr., perhaps partly from early usage and partly from respect for his honored father. David Whitney, Sr., was of the true New England type of energy, resourcefulness and rectitude of character, was the owner of a good farm, and also did lumbering and brick making on a small scale. The activities of the farm and the common school were the chief sources of training for David Whitney, Jr., in his boyhood. Throughout his life he acknowledged a close fellowship with honest toil, and it was hard work as much as endowment of masterful ability which brought him success.
On coming of age he left the farm and for three years was a clerk in a lumber firm, which also operated a box factory. That experience proved of great value to him and his subsequent career. He proved his worth with the firm, and when he left he was superintendent of the plant. In 1857, at the age of 27, David Whitney, Jr. came to Detroit. He was a western representative and a member of the firm of S&D Whitney Jr. and of Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes Lumber Company, which corporation is in existence today and is ne of the oldest corporations in the United States. His brother Charles was interested with him in those two firms, whose headquarters were in the east. Mr. Whitney had the immediate management of all the western business, which was principally the buying and shipping of lumber and the purchase of pine lands and logs. The two firms mentioned were for some years among the largest lumber dealers in the United States, and the work of David Whitney, Jr. covered the states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania while the eastern partner had supervision over the business in the northeastern states and Canada.
The partnership of C&D Whitney Jr. was dissolved in the late 70s, and from that time forward David Whitney, Jr. operated independently and invested heavily in the pine lands of Michigan and Wisconsin, but he still retains his interest in the Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes Lumber Company. He possessed a practical knowledge of lumbering conditions which made him almost an authority and with characteristic foresight he realized that the great forests of Michigan and Wisconsin before the close of the century would be calling upon to supply a large portion of the lumber consumed in the United States and his investments were carefully laid to take advantage of such development. As the owner of magnificent tracts of uncut timber and as a manufacturer his operations were among the most extensive in the lumber regions of those two states and eventually made him a millionaire.
Naturally his relations with lumbering led him into many commercial related fields and into banking. He owned and had in commission a large fleet of steam barges and other vessels on the Great Lakes, utilizing chiefly for the transportation of lumber, but subsequently also used for shipping iron ore from the Lake Superior ports to the manufacturing and distributing centers on the lower lakes. The proceeds of lumbering operation were invested chiefly in Detroit real estate. He was a stockholder and director in many banking institutions, and was officially and financially identified with several industrial and manufacturing plants, chiefly in the production of lumber material.
The late Mr. Whitney was a Republican in politics, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a liberal though unostentatious contributor to the benevolent work of his home city. While an aggressive and forceful business man, perhaps his most noteworthy characteristic was his extreme reticence and his avoidance of all public notice. He knew and estimated the dispositions and character of men almost as unerringly as he understood the lumber business, and had many close friends among his business associates. Personally he was straightforward and frank in all his relations with a proper sense of the responsibilities imposed by success and wealth he used his influence and resources for the substantial improvement and betterment of his home city and state, and would never deserved any other tribute to his memory than an exact measure of what he accomplished in a business way.
Mr. Whitney left four children as follows: Grace, now Mrs. John J. Hoff, of Paris, France; David C. of Detroit; Flora, wife of R.A. Demme, of Detroit; and Katherine, wife of Tracy W. McGregor, of Detroit.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
V Sattui Winery, St. Helena, California, USA
History of the V Sattui Winery:
Dario Sattui remembers visiting Vittorio, his great-grandfather, who continued to live upstairs at the long dormant Bryant Street winery until his death at age 94. "As a small child, my first recollection was the aroma of wine emanating from the old building as soon as I entered," he says. He played among the barrels and ovals in the cellars, stories of the old family wine business ringing in his ears. It was then, Dario believes, that the dream of reopening the winery began.
In 1972, after two years in Europe beyond college, Dario began his apprenticeship at various Napa Valley wineries. He still had his dream, the same dream he'd had as a child. Dario pledged he "would reestablish V. Sattui Winery to its former glory."
But just how to do this was the problem. Dario had almost no capital and little practical knowledge of the wine industry. So he dedicated himself to developing the tools and skills he'd need to make the dream become a reality. Soon Dario had developed a business plan and began looking for prospective investors. Later, he found a parcel of land for sale that had a small walnut orchard with an old house on it. Dario remembers bringing prospective investors to the property telling them, "'Here is where we will build our winery,' all the while afraid that the people living on the property would throw me off for trespassing." Since he couldn't afford to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease-option for $500 a month. "The house was in such bad condition we lived in my VW bus for more than a month while making it suitable enough to live in."
Time passed as Dario continued to look for investors, but there were no takers. With his last $500, he paid for one more month on the property. Dario had only raised half the capital he needed to begin the winery, but he managed during that "last" month to talk a Napa real estate broker into buying the property, building a small winery on it, and then leasing it to Dario with an option to purchase it back sometime in the future. Still short of funds, Dario enlisted investors without money, but with the skills needed to help him create the winery building. That summer, July of 1975, they began construction, and it was finished in early 1976.
Renting the winemaking equipment he needed, using his great-grandfather's hand-corking machine and Vittorio's original design for the wine labels, the winery was open for business.
When Dario had lived in Europe, he'd remembered seeing small, family-run neighborhood delis filled with freshly made foods and wonderful selections of cheese. He was able to convert this memory into what was to become the perfect match for great wine, V. Sattui's famous Cheese Shop and Deli. Years passed and the struggle continued. Slowly, the winemaking process improved and success came. However, in those first few years, times were hard and Dario lived frugally, sometimes spending his nights sleeping on the floor of the winery so he could put what money he had into the new business. The original winery building is now the Tasting Room, Cheese Shop and Deli and Gift Shop.
As business grew, Dario began to be able to accumulate the best equipment available.
By 1985, V. Sattui Winery was able to build a beautiful stone winery amid the venerable 250 year-old oaks, reminiscent of the late 19th century wineries in Italy and France. With its two stories, tower, wine caves and underground aging cellars, its completion was a fitting tribute to help celebrate the centennial of Vittorio's dream. That same year, the 34-acre vineyard adjacent to the winery became available.
Renamed Suzanne's Vineyard, after his wife, it was soon joined by Carsi Vineyard in Yountville, followed in 1993 by the 556-acre Henry Ranch property in the Carneros grape-growing region, and then in 1998, a 128-acre ranch in Solano County. These, along with other acquisitions, will in the near future allow V. Sattui Winery to supply over 85% of its grape needs from five very distinct microclimates.
From the very beginning, Dario refused to compromise on the quality of the wine. The production and retailing concept offers insight into the reasons for V. Sattui Winery's success. Dario's vision has always been to fully integrate the process of winemaking from the grape to the consumer. This vertical control over all aspects of viticulture, winemaking, and sales is the future for V. Sattui Winery. It is because of Dario Sattui's dream that it has been able to provide the finest wines possible while continuing to sell them at a fair price directly to its customers.
The fifth person to receive the Freedom of the County Borough of Middlesbrough was Sir Lowthian Bell Bart who was awarded freedom on 2 November 1894. A portrait of Sir Lowthian Bell Bart FRS 1826-1904 is hung in the Civic Suite in the Town Hall. It was painted by Henry Tamworth Wells RA and was presented in 1894 by Joseph Whitwell Pease MP on Tuesday 13 November in the Council Chamber at 3.00pm. Joseph Pease was Chairman of the Sir Lowthian Bell presentation committee.
It was presented to the Corporation of Middlesbrough by friends in Great Britain, Europe and America as a record of their high esteem and to commemorate his many public services and those researches in physical science by which he has contributed to the development of the staple industries of his own country and the world.
ISAAC LOWTHIAN BELL - from "Pioneers of The Cleveland Irontrade" by J. S. Jeans
THE name of Mr. Isaac Lowthian Bell is familiar as a " household word " throughout the whole North of England. As a man of science he is known more or less wherever the manufacture of iron is carried on. It is to metallurgical chemistry that his attention has been chiefly directed; but so far from confining his researches and attainments to this department alone, he has made incursions into other domains of practical and applied chemistry. No man has done more to stimulate the growth of the iron trade of the North of England. Baron Liebig has defined civilisation as economy of power, and viewed in this light civilisation is under deep obligations to Mr. Bell for the invaluable aid he has rendered in expounding the natural laws that are called into operation in the smelting process. The immense power now wielded by the ironmasters of the North of England is greatly due to their study and application of the most economical conditions under which the manufacture of iron can be carried on. But for their achievements in this direction, they could not have made headway so readily against rival manufacturers in Wales, Scotland, and South Staffordshire, who enjoyed a well-established reputation. But Mr. Bell and his colleagues felt that they must do something to compensate for the advantages possessed by the older iron- producing districts, and as we shall have occasion to show, were fully equal to the emergency, Mr. Isaac Lowthian Bell is a son of the late Mr. Thomas Bell, of the well-known firm of Messrs. Losh, Wilson, and Bell, who owned the Walker Ironworks, near Newcastle. His mother was a daughter of Mr. Isaac Lowthian, of Newbiggen, near Carlisle. He had the benefit of a good education, concluded at the Edinburgh University, and at the University of Sorbonne, in Paris. From an early age he exhibited an aptitude for the study of science. Having completed his studies, and travelled a good deal on the Continent, in order to acquire the necessary experience, he was introduced to the works at Walker, in which his father was a partner. He continued there until the year 1850, when he retired in favour of his brother, Mr. Thomas Bell. In the course of the same year, he joined his father-in-law, Mr. Pattinson, and Mr. R. B. Bowman, in the establishment of Chemical Works, at Washington. This venture was eminently successful. Subsequently it was joined by Mr. W. Swan, and on the death of Mr. Pattinson by Mr. R. S. Newall. The works at Washington, designed by Mr. Bell, are among the most extensive of their kind in the North of England, and have a wide reputation. During 1872 his connection with this undertaking terminated by his retirement from the firm. Besides the chemical establishment at Washington, Mr. Bell commenced, with his brothers, the manufacture of aluminium at the same place this being, if we are rightly informed, the first attempt to establish works of that kind in England. But what we have more particularly to deal with here is the establishment, in 1852, of the Clarence Ironworks, by Mr. I. L. Bell and his two brothers, Thomas and John. This was within two years of the discovery by Mr. Vaughan, of the main seam of the Cleveland ironstone. Port Clarence is situated on the north bank of the river Tees, and the site fixed upon for the new works was immediately opposite the Middlesbrough works of Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan. There were then no works of the kind erected on that side of the river, and Port Clarence was literally a " waste howling wilderness." The ground on which the Clarence works are built where flooded with water, which stretched away as far as Billingham on the one hand, and Seaton Carew on the other. Thirty years ago, the old channel of the Tees flowed over the exact spot on which the Clarence furnaces are now built. To one of less penetration than Mr. Bell, the site selected would have seemed anything but congenial for such an enterprise. But the new firm were alive to advantages that did not altogether appear on the surface. They concluded negotiations with the West Hartlepool Railway Company, to whom the estate belonged, for the purchase of about thirty acres of ground, upon which they commenced to erect four blast furnaces of the size and shape then common in Cleveland. From this beginning they have gradually enlarged the works until the site now extends to 200 acres of land (a great deal of which is submerged, although it may easily be reclaimed), and there are eight furnaces regularly in blast. With such an extensive site, the firm will be able to command an unlimited "tip" for their slag, and extend the capacity of the works at pleasure. At the present time, Messrs.. Bell Brothers are building three new furnaces. The furnace lifts are worked by Sir William Armstrong's hydraulic accumulator, and the general plan of the works is carried out on the most modern and economical principles. As soon as they observed that higher furnaces, with a greater cubical capacity, were a source of economy, Messrs. Bell Brothers lost no time in reconstructing their old furnaces, which were only 50 feet in height ; and they were among the first in Cleveland to adopt the Welsh plan of utilising the waste furnace gases, by which another great economy is effected. With a considerable frontage to the Tees, and a connection joining the Clarence branch of the North-Eastern Railway, Messrs. Bell Brothers possess ample facilities of transit. They raise all their own ironstone and coal, having mines at Saltburn, Normanby, and Skelton, and collieries in South Durham. A chemical laboratory is maintained in connection with their Clarence Works, and the results thereby obtained are regarded in the trade as of standard and unimpeachable exactitude. Mr. I. L. Bell owns, conjointly with his two brothers, the iron -works at Washington. At these and the Clarence Works the firms produce about 3,000 tons of pig iron weekly. They raise from 500,000 to 600,000 tons of coal per annum, the greater portion of which is converted into coke. Their output of ironstone is so extensive that they not only supply about 10,000 tons a- week to their own furnaces, but they are under contract to supply large quantities to other works on Tees-side. Besides this, their Quarries near Stanhope will produce about 100,000 tons of limestone, applicable as a flux at the iron works. Last year, Mr. Bell informed the Coal Commission that his firm paid 100,000 a year in railway dues. Upwards of 5,000 workmen are in the employment of the firm at their different works and mines. But there is another, and perhaps a more important sense than any yet indicated, in which Mr. Bell is entitled to claim a prominent place among the " Pioneers of the Cleveland Iron Trade." Mr. Joseph Bewick says, in his geological treatise on the Cleveland district, that " to Bell Brothers, more than to any other firm, is due the merit of having fully and effectually developed at this period (1843) the ironstone fields of Cleveland. It was no doubt owing to the examinations and surveys which a younger member of that firm (Mr. John Bell) caused to be made in different localities of the district, that the extent and position of the ironstone beds became better known to the public." Of late years the subject of this sketch has come to be regarded as one of the greatest living authorities on the statistical and scientific aspects of the Cleveland ironstone and the North of England iron trade as a whole. With the Northumberland and Durham coal fields he is scarcely less familiar, and in dealing with these and cognate matters he has earned for himself no small fame as a historiographer. Leoni Levi himself could not discourse with more facility on the possible extent and duration of our coal supplies. When the British Association visited Newcastle in 1863, Mr. Bell read a deeply interesting paper " On the Manufacture of Iron in connection with the Northumberland and Durham Coal Field," in which he conveyed a great deal of valuable information. According to Bewick, he said the area of the main bed of Cleveland ironstone was 420 miles, and estimating the yield of ironstone as 20,000 tons per acre, it resulted that close on 5,000,000,000 tons are contained in the main seam. Mr. Bell added that he had calculated the quantity of coal in the Northern coal field at 6,000,000,000 tons, so that there was just about enough fuel in the one district, reserving it for that purpose exclusively, to smelt the ironstone contained in the main seam of the other. When the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes visited Darlington in the spring of 1872, they spent a day in Cleveland under the ciceroneship of Mr. Bell, who read a paper, which he might have entitled "The Romance of Trade," on the rise and progress of Cleveland in relation to her iron manufactures; and before the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, when they visited Saltburn in 1866, he read another paper dealing with the geological features of the Cleveland district. Although not strictly germane to our subject, we may add here that when, in 1870, the Social Science Congress visited Newcastle, Mr. Bell took an active and intelligent part in the proceedings, and read a lengthy paper, bristling with facts and figures, on the sanitary condition of the town. Owing to his varied scientific knowledge, Mr. Bell has been selected to give evidence on several important Parliamentary Committees, including that appointed to inquire into the probable extent and duration of the coal-fields of the United Kingdom. The report of this Commission is now before us, and Mr. Bell's evidence shows most conclusively the vast amount of practical knowledge that he has accumulated, not only as to the phenomena of mineralogy and metallurgy in Great Britain, but also in foreign countries. Mr. Bell was again required to give evidence before the Parliamentary Committee appointed in 1873, to inquire into the causes of the scarcity and dearness of coal. In July, 1854, Mr. Bell was elected a member of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. He was a member of the Council of the Institute from 1865 to 1866, when he was elected one of the vice-presidents. He is a vice-president of the Society of Mechanical Engineers, and last year was an associate member of the Council of Civil Engineers. He is also a fellow of the Chemical Society of London. To most of these societies he has contributed papers on matters connected with the manufacture of iron. When a Commission was appointed by Parliament to inquire into the constitution and management of Durham University, the institute presented a memorial to the Home Secretary, praying that a practical Mining College might be incorporated with the University, and Mr. Bell, Mr. G. Elliot, and Mr. Woodhouse, were appointed to give evidence in support of the memorial. He was one of the most important witnesses at the inquest held in connection with the disastrous explosion at Hetton Colliery in 1860, when twenty-one miners, nine horses, and fifty-six ponies were killed; and in 1867 he was a witness for the institute before the Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire into the subject of technical education, his evidence, from his familiarity with the state of science on the Continent, being esteemed of importance. Some years ago, Mr. Bell brought under the notice of the Mining Institute an aluminium safety lamp. He pointed out that the specific heat of aluminum was very high, so that it might be long exposed to the action of fire before becoming red-hot, while it did not abstract the rays of light so readily as iron, which had a tendency to become black much sooner. Mr. Bell was during the course of last year elected an honorary member of a learned Society in the United States, his being only the second instance in which this distinction had been accorded. Upon that occasion, Mr. Abram Hewitt, the United States Commissioner to the Exhibition of 1862, remarked that Mr. Bell had by his researches made the iron makers of two continents his debtors. Mr Bell is one of the founders of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, and has all along taken a prominent part in its deliberations. No other technical society, whether at home or abroad, has so rapidly taken a position of marked and confirmed practical usefulness. The proposal to form such an institute was first made at a meeting of the North of England Iron Trade, held in Newcastle, in September, 1868, and Mr. Bell was elected one of the first vice-presidents, and a member of the council. At the end of the year 1869 the Institute had 292 members; at the end of 1870 the number had increased to 348; and in August 1872, there were over 500 names on the roll of membership. These figures are surely a sufficient attestation of its utility. Mr. Bell's paper " On the development of heat, and its appropriation in blast furnaces of different dimensions," is considered the most valuable contribution yet made through the medium of the Iron and Steel Institute to the science and practice of iron metallurgy. Since it was submitted to the Middlesbrough meeting of the Institute in 1869, this paper has been widely discussed by scientific and practical men at home and abroad, and the author has from time to time added new matter, until it has now swollen into a volume embracing between 400 and 500 pages, and bearing the title of the " Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting." As a proof of the high scientific value placed upon this work, we may mention that many portions have been translated into German by Professor Tunner, who is, perhaps, the most distinguished scientific metallurgist on the Continent of Europe. The same distinction has been conferred upon Mr. Bell's work by Professor Gruner, of the School of Mines in Paris, who has communicated its contents to the French iron trade, and by M. Akerman, of Stockholm, who has performed the same office for the benefit of the manufacturers of iron in Sweden. The first president of the Iron and Steel Institute was the Duke of Devonshire, the second Mr. H. Bessemer, and for the two years commencing 1873, Mr. Bell has enjoyed the highest honour the iron trade of the British empire can confer. As president of the Iron and Steel Institute, Mr. Bell presided over the deliberations of that body on their visit to Belgium in the autumn of 1873. The reception accorded to the Institute by their Belgian rivals and friends was of the most hearty and enthusiastic description. The event, indeed, was regarded as one of international importance, and every opportunity, both public and private, was taken by our Belgian neighbours to honour England in the persons of those who formed her foremost scientific society. Mr. Bell delivered in the French language, a presidential address of singular ability, directed mainly to an exposition of the relative industrial conditions and prospects of the two greatest iron producing countries in Europe. As president of the Institute, Mr. Bell had to discharge the duty of presenting to the King of the Belgians, at a reception held by His Majesty at the Royal Palace in Brussels, all the members who had taken a part in the Belgium meeting, and the occasion will long be remembered as one of the most interesting and pleasant in the experience of those who were privileged to be present. We will only deal with one more of Mr. Bell's relations to the iron trade. He was, we need scarcely say, one of the chief promoters of what is now known as the North of England Ironmasters' Association, and he has always been in the front of the deliberations and movements of that body. Before a meeting of this Association, held in 1867, he read a paper on the " Foreign Relations of the Iron Trade," in the course of which he showed that the attainments of foreign iron manufacturers in physical science were frequently much greater than our own, and deprecated the tendency of English artizans to obstruct the introduction of new inventions and processes. He has displayed an eager anxiety in the testing and elucidation of new discoveries, and no amount of labour or cost was grudged that seemed likely, in his view, to lead to mechanical improvements. He has investigated for himself every new appliance or process that claimed to possess advantages over those already in use, and he has thus rendered yeoman service to the interest of science, by discriminating between the chaff and the wheat. For a period nearly approaching twenty- four years, Mr. Bell has been a member of the Newcastle Town Council, and one of the most prominent citizens of the town. Upon this phase of his career it is not our business to dwell at any length, but we cannot refrain from adding, that he has twice filled the chief magistrate's chair, that he served the statutory period as Sheriff of the town, that he is a director of the North-Eastern Railway, and that he was the first president of the Newcastle Chemical Society. In the general election of 1868, Mr. Bell came forward as a candidate for the Northern Division of the county of Durham, in opposition to Mr. George Elliot, but the personal influence of the latter was too much for him, and he sustained a defeat. In the general election of 1874, Mr. Bell again stood for North Durham, in conjunction with Mr. C. M. Palmer, of Jarrow. Mr. Elliott again contested the Division in the Conservative interest. After a hard struggle, Mr. Bell was returned at the head of the poll. Shortly after the General Election, Mr. Elliott received a baronetcy from Mr, Disraeli. A short time only had elapsed, however, when the Liberal members were unseated on petition, because of general intimidation at Hetton-le-Hole, Seaham, and other places no blame being, however, attributed to the two members and the result of afresh election in June following was the placing of Mr. Bell at the bottom of the poll, although he was only a short distance behind his Conservative opponent Sir George Elliott."
"Isaac Lowthian Bell, 1st Baronet FRS (1816-1904), of Bell Brothers, was a Victorian ironmaster and Liberal Party politician from Washington, Co. Durham.
1816 February 15th. Born the son of Thomas Bell and his wife Katherine Lowthian.
Attended the Academy run by John Bruce in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh University and the Sorbonne.
Practical experience in alkali manufacture at Marseilles.
1835 Joined the Walker Ironworks; studied the the operation of the blast furnaces and rolling mills.
A desire to master thoroughly the technology of any manufacturing process was to be one of the hallmarks of Bell's career.
1842 Married Margaret Elizabeth Pattinson
In 1844 Lowthian Bell and his brothers Thomas Bell and John Bell formed a new company, Bell Brothers, to operate the Wylam ironworks. These works, based at Port Clarence on the Tees, began pig-iron production with three blast furnaces in 1854 and became one of the leading plants in the north-east iron industry. The firm's output had reached 200,000 tons by 1878 and the firm employed about 6,000 men.
1850 Bell started his own chemical factory at Washington in Gateshead, established a process for the manufacture of an oxychloride of lead, and operated the new French Deville patent, used in the manufacture of aluminium. Bell expanded these chemical interests in the mid-1860s, when he developed with his brother John a large salt working near the ironworks.
In 1854 he built Washington Hall, now called Dame Margaret's Hall.
He was twice Lord Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Member of Parliament for North Durham from February to June 1874, and for Hartlepool from 1875 to 1880.
1884 President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
In 1895 he was awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, 'in recognition of the services he has rendered to Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, by his metallurgical researches and the resulting development of the iron and steel industries'.
A founder of the Iron and Steel Institute, he was its president from 1873 to 1875, and in 1874 became the first recipient of the gold medal instituted by Sir Henry Bessemer. He was president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1884.
1842 He married Margaret Pattison. Their children were Mary Katherine Bell, who married Edward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley and Sir Thomas Hugh Bell, 2nd Baronet.
1904 December 20th. Lowthian Bell died at his home, Rounton Grange, Rounton, Northallerton, North Riding of Yorkshire
1904 Obituary [1]
"Sir ISAAC LOWTHIAN BELL, Bart., was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 15th February 1816, being the son of Mr. Thomas Bell, an alderman of the town, and partner in the firm of Messrs. Losh, Wilson and Bell, of Walker Iron Works, near Newcastle; his mother was the daughter of Mr. Isaac Lowthian, of Newbiggin, Northumberland.
After studying at Edinburgh University, he went to the Sorbonne, Paris, and there laid the foundation of the chemical and metallurgical knowledge which he applied so extensively in later years.
He travelled extensively, and in the years 1839-40 he covered a distance of over 12,000 miles, examining the most important seats of iron manufacture on the Continent. He studied practical iron-making at his father's works, where lie remained until 1850, when he joined in establishing chemical works at Washington, eight miles from Newcastle. Here it was also that his subsequent firm of Messrs. Bell Brothers started the first works in England for the manufacture of aluminium.
In 1852, in conjunction with his brothers Thomas and John, he founded the Clarence Iron Works, near the mouth of the Tees, opposite Middlesbrough. The three blast-furnaces erected there in 1853 were at that time the largest in the kingdom, each being 47.5 feet high, with a capacity of 6,012 cubic feet; the escaping gases were utilized for heating the blast. In 1873 the capacity of these furnaces was much increased.
In the next year the firm sank a bore-hole to the rock salt, which had been discovered some years earlier by Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan and Co. in boring for water. The discovery remained in abeyance till 1882, when they began making salt, being the pioneers of the salt industry in that district. They were also among the largest colliery proprietors in South Durham, and owned extensive ironstone mines in Cleveland, and limestone quarries in Weardale.
His literary career may be said to have begun in 1863, when, during his second mayoralty, the British Association visited Newcastle, on which occasion he presented a report on the manufacture of iron in connection with the Northumberland and Durham coal-fields. At the same visit he read two papers on " The Manufacture of Aluminium," and on "Thallium." The majority of his Papers were read before the Iron and Steel Institute, of which Society he was one of the founders; and several were translated into French and German.
On the occasion of the first Meeting of this Institution at Middlesbrough in 1871, he read a Paper on Blast-Furnace Materials, and also one on the "Tyne as Connected with the History of Engineering," at the Newcastle Meeting in 1881. For his Presidential Address delivered at the Cardiff Meeting in 1884, he dealt with the subject of "Iron."
He joined this Institution in 1858, and was elected a Member of Council in 1870. In 1872 he became a Vice-President, and retained that position until his election as President in 1884. Although the Papers he contributed were not numerous, he frequently took part in the discussions on Papers connected with the Iron Industry and kindred subjects.
He was a member of a number of other learned societies — The Royal Society, The Institution of Civil Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, of which he was President from 1873 to 1875, the Society of Chemical Industry, the Royal Society of Sweden, and the Institution of Mining Engineers, of which he was elected President in 1904.
He had also received honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, the Durham College of Science, and the University of Leeds. In 1885 a baronetcy was conferred upon him in recognition of his distinguished services to science and industry. In 1876 he served as a Commissioner to tile International Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, where he occupied the position of president of the metallurgical judges, and presented to the Government in 1877 a report upon the iron manufacture of the United States. In 1878 he undertook similar duties at the Paris Exhibition.
He was Mayor of Newcastle in 1854-55, and again in 1862-3. In 1874 he was elected Member of Parliament for Durham, but was unseated; he sat for the Hartlepools from 1875 to 1880, and then retired from parliamentary life. For the County of Durham he was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant, and High Sheriff in 1884. For many years he was a director of the North Eastern Railway, and Chairman of the Locomotive Committee.
His death took place at his residence, Rounton Grange, Northallerton, on 20th December 1904, in his eighty-ninth year.
1904 Obituary [2]
SIR LOWTHIAN BELL, Bart., Past-President, died on December 21, 1904, at his residence, Rounton Grange, Northallerton, in his eighty-ninth year. In his person the Iron and Steel Institute has to deplore the loss of its most distinguished and most valuable member. From the time when the Institute was founded as the outcome of an informal meeting at his house, until his death, he was a most active member, and regularly attended the general meetings, the meetings of Council, and the meetings of the various committees on which he served.
Sir Lowthian Bell was the son of Mr. Thomas Bell (of Messrs. Losh, Wilson, & Bell, iron manufacturers, Walker-on-Tyne), and of Catherine, daughter of Mr. Isaac Lowthian, of Newbiggin, near Carlisle. He was born in Newcastle on February 15, 1816, and educated, first at Bruce's Academy, in Newcastle, and afterwards in Germany, in Denmark, at Edinburgh University, and at the Sorbonne, Paris. His mother's family had been tenants of a well-known Cumberland family, the Loshes of Woodside, near Carlisle, one of whom, in association with Lord Dundonald, was one of the first persons in this country to engage in the manufacture of soda by the Leblanc process. In this business Sir Lowthian's father became a partner on Tyneside. Mr. Bell had the insight to perceive that physical science, and especially chemistry, was bound to play a great part in the future of industry, and this lesson• he impressed upon his ions. The consequence was that they devoted their time largely to chemical studies.
On the completion of his studies, Lowthian Bell joined his father at the Walker Iron Works. Mr. John Vaughan, who was with the firm, left about the year 1840, and in conjunction with Mr. Bolckow began their great iron manufacturing enterprise at Middlesbrough. Mr. Bell then became manager at Walker, and blast-furnaces were erected under his direction. He became greatly interested in the ironstone district of Cleveland, and as early as 1843 made experiments with the ironstone. He met with discouragements at first, but was rewarded with success later, and to Messrs. Bell Brothers largely belongs the credit of developing the ironstone field of Cleveland. Mr. Bell's father died in 1845, and the son became managing partner. In 1852, two years after the discovery of the Cleveland ironstone, the firm acquired ironstone royalties first at Normanby and then at Skelton in Cleveland, and started the Clarence Iron Works, opposite Middlesbrough. The three blast-furnaces here erected in 1853 were at that time the largest in the kingdom, each being 47.5 feet high, with a capacity of 6012 cubic feet. Later furnaces were successively increased up to a height of. 80 feet in 1873, with 17 feet to 25 feet in diameter at the bosh, 8 feet at the hearth, and about 25,500 cubic feet capacity. On the discovery of a bed of rock salt at 1127 feet depth at Middlesbrough, the method of salt manufacture in vogue in Germany was introduced at the instance of Mr. Thomas Bell, and the firm of Bell Brothers had thus the distinction of being pioneers in this important industry in the district. They were also among the largest colliery proprietors in South Durham, and owned likewise extensive ironstone mines in Cleveland, and limestone quarries in Weardale. At the same time Mr. Bell was connected with the Washington Aluminium Works, the Wear blast-furnaces, and the Felling blast-furnaces.
Although Sir Lowthian Bell was an earnest municipal reformer and member of Parliament, he will best be remembered as a man of science. He was mayor of Newcastle in 1863, when the British Association visited that town, and the success of the gathering was largely due to his arrangements. As one of the vice-presidents of the chemical section, he contributed papers upon thallium and the manufacture of aluminium; and, jointly with the late Lord Armstrong, edited the souvenir volume entitled " The Industrial Resources of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees." In 1873, when the Iron and Steel Institute visited Belgium, Mr. Bell presided, and delivered in French an address on the relative industrial conditions of Great Britain and Belgium. Presiding at the Institute's meeting in Vienna in 1882, he delivered his address partly in English and partly in German, and expressed the hope that the ties between England and Austria should be drawn more closely.
On taking up his residence permanently at Rounton Grange, near Northallerton, Sir Lowthian made a present to the city council, on which he had formerly served for so many years, of Washington Hall and grounds, and the place is now used as a home for the waifs and strays of the city. It is known as Dame Margaret's Home, in memory of Lady Bell, who died in 1886. This lady, to whom he was married in 1842, was a daughter of Mr. Hugh Lee Pattinson, F.R.S., the eminent chemist and metallurgist.
Sir Lowthian earned great repute as an author. He was a prolific writer on both technical and commercial questions relating to the iron and steel industries. His first important book was published in 1872, and was entitled " Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting : An Experimental :and Practical Examination of the Circumstances which Determine the Capacity of the Blast-Furnace, the Temperature of the Air, and the Proper Condition of the Materials to be Operated upon." This book, which contained nearly 500 pages, with many diagrams, was the direct outcome of a controversy with the late Mr. Charles Cochrane, and gave details of nearly 900 experiments carried out over a series of years with a view to finding out the laws which regulate the process of iron smelting, and the nature of the reactions which take place among the substances dealt with in the manufacture of pig iron. The behaviour of furnaces under varying conditions was detailed. The book was a monument of patient research, which all practical men could appreciate. His other large work—covering 750 pages—was entitled " The Principles of the Manufacture of Iron and Steel." It was issued in 1884, and in it the author compared the resources existing in different localities in Europe and America as iron-making centres. His further investigations into the manufacture of pig iron were detailed, as well as those relating to the manufacture of finished iron and steel.
In 1886, at the instance of the British Iron Trade Association, of which he was then President, he prepared and published a book entitled " The Iron Trade of the United Kingdom compared with other Chief Ironmaking Nations." Besides these books and numerous papers contributed to scientific societies, Sir Lowthian wrote more than one pamphlet relating to the history and development of the industries of Cleveland.
In 1876 Sir Lowthian was appointed a Royal Commissioner to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, and wrote the official report relating to the iron and steel industries. -This was issued in the form of a bulky Blue-book.
As a director of the North-Eastern Railway Company Si Lowthian prepared an important volume of statistics for the use of his colleagues, and conducted exhaustive investigations into the life of a steel rail.
The majority of his papers were read before the Iron and Steel Institute, but of those contributed to other societies the following may be mentioned :— Report and two papers to the second Newcastle meeting of the British Association in 1863, already mentioned. " Notes on the Manufacture of Iron in the Austrian Empire," 1865. " Present State of the Manufacture of Iron in Great Britain," 1867. " Method of Recovering Sulphur and Oxide of Manganese, as Practised at Dieuze, near Nancy," 1867. " Our Foreign Competitors in the Iron Trade," 1868; this was promptly translated into French by Mr. G. Rocour, and published in Liege. " Chemistry of the Blast-Furnace," 1869. " Preliminary Treatment of the Materials Used in the Manufacture of Pig Iron in the Cleveland District" (Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1871). " Conditions which Favour, and those which Limit, the Economy of Fuel in the Blast-Furnace for Smelting Iron " (Institution of Civil Engineers, 1872). "Some supposed Changes Basaltic Veins have Suffered during their Passage through and Contact with Stratified Rocks, and the Manner in which these Rocks have been Affected by the Heated Basalt " : a communication to the Royal Society on May 27, 1875. " Report to Government on the Iron Manufacture of the United States of America, and a Comparison of it with that of Great Britain," 1877. "British Industrial Supremacy," 1878. " Notes on the Progress of the Iron Trade of Cleveland," 1878. " Expansion of Iron," 1880. " The Tyne as connected with the History of Engineering " (Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1881). " Occlusion of Gaseous Matter by Fused Silicates and its possible connection with Volcanic Agency : " a paper to the third York meeting of the British Association, in, 1881, but printed in the Journal of the Iron and Steel• Institute. Presidential Address on Iron (Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1884). " Principles of the Manufacture of Iron and Steel, with Notes on the Economic Conditions of their Production," 1884. " Iron Trade of the United Kingdom," 1886. " Manufacture of Salt near Middlesbrough" (Institution of Civil Engineers, 1887). " Smelting of Iron Ores Chemically Considered," 1890. " Development of the Manufacture and Use of Rails in Great Britain " (Institution of Civil Engineers, 1900). Presidential Address to the Institution of Junior Engineers, 1900.
To him came in due course honours of all kinds. When the Bessemer Gold Medal was instituted in 1874, Sir Lowthian was the first recipient. In 1895 he received at the hands of the King, then. Prince of Wales, the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts, in recognition of the services he had rendered to arts, manufactures, and commerce by his metallurgical researches. From the French government he received the cross of the Legion of Honour. From the Institution of Civil Engineers he received the George Stephenson Medal, in 1900, and, in 1891, the Howard Quinquennial Prize which is awarded periodically to the author of a treatise on Iron.
For his scientific work Sir Lowthian was honoured by many of the learned societies of Europe and America. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1875. He was an Hon. D.C.L. of Durham University; an LL.D. of the Universities of Edinburgh and Dublin; and a D.Sc. of Leeds University. He was one of the most active promoters of the Durham College of Science by speech as well as by purse; his last contribution was made only a short time ago, and was £3000, for the purpose of building a tower. He had. held the presidency of the North of England Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, and was the first president of the Newcastle Chemical Society.
Sir Lowthian was a director of the North-Eastern Railway Company since 1865. For a number of years he was vice-chairman, and at the time of his death was the oldest railway director in the kingdom. In 1874 he was elected M.P. for the Borough of the Hartlepools, and continued to represent the borough till 1880. In 1885, on the advice of Mr. Gladstone, a baronetcy was conferred upon him in recognition of his great services to the State. Among other labours he served on the Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade, and formed one of the Commission which proceeded to Vienna to negotiate Free Trade in Austria-Hungary in 1866. For the County of Durham he was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant, and High Sheriff in 1884. He was also a Justice of the Peace for the North Riding of Yorkshire and for the city of Newcastle. He served as Royal Commissioner at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. He also served as Juror at the Inventions Exhibition in London, in 1885, and at several other great British and foreign Exhibitions.
Of the Society of Arts he was a member from 1859. He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1867, and the Chemical Society in 1863. He was a past-president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and of the Society of Chemical Industry; and at the date of his death he was president of the Institution of Mining Engineers. He was an honorary member of the American Philosophical Institution, of the Liege Association of Engineers, and of other foreign societies. In 1882 he was made an honorary member of the Leoben School of Mines.
In the Iron and Steel Institute he took special interest. One of its original founders in 1869, he filled the office of president from 1873 to 1875, and was, as already noted, the first recipient of the gold medal instituted by Sir Henry Bessemer. He contributed the following papers to the Journal of the Institute in addition to Presidential Addresses in 1873 and 1874: (1) " The Development of Heat, and its Appropriation in Blast-furnaces of Different Dimensions" (1869). (2) " Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting : an experimental and practical examination of the circumstances which determine the capacity of the blast-furnace, the temperature of the air, and the proper conditions of the materials to be operated upon " (No. I. 1871; No. II. 1871; No. I. 1872). (3) " Ferrie's Covered Self-coking Furnace" (1871). (4) "Notes on a Visit to Coal and Iron Mines and Ironworks in the United States " (1875). (5) " Price's Patent Retort Furnace " (1875). (6) " The Sum of Heat utilised in Smelting Cleveland Ironstone" (1875). (7) "The Use of Caustic Lime in the Blast-furnace" (1875). (8) "The Separation of Carbon, Silicon, Sulphur, and Phosphorus in the Refining and Puddling Furnace, and in the Bessemer Converter " (1877). (9) " The Separation of Carbon, Silicon, Sulphur, and Phosphorus in the Refining and Puddling Furnaces, in the Bessemer Converter, with some Remarks on the Manufacture and Durability of Railway Bars" (Part II. 1877). (10) " The Separation of Phosphorus from Pig Iron" (1878). (11) " The Occlusion or Absorption of Gaseous Matter by fused Silicates at High Temperatures, and its possible Connection with Volcanic Agency" (1881). (12) " On Comparative Blast-furnace Practice" (1882). (13) "On the Value of Successive Additions to the Temperature of the Air used in Smelting Iron " (1883). (14) "On the Use of Raw Coal in the Blast-furnace" (1884). (15) "On the Blast-furnace value of Coke, from which the Products of Distillation from the Coal, used in its Manufacture, have been Collected" (1885). (16) "Notes on the Reduction of Iron Ore in the Blast-furnace" (1887). (17) "On Gaseous Fuel" (1889). (18) " On. the Probable Future of the Manufacture of Iron " (Pittsburg International Meeting, 1890). (19) " On the American Iron Trade and its Progress during Sixteen Years" (Special American Volume, 1890). (20) " On the Manufacture of Iron in its Relations with Agriculture " (1892). (21) " On the Waste of Heat, Past, Present, and Future, in Smelting Ores of Iron " (1893). (22) " On the Use of Caustic Lime in the Blast-furnace" (1894).
Sir Lowthian Bell took part in the first meeting of the Institute in 1869, and was present at nearly all the meetings up to May last, when he took part in the discussion on pyrometers, and on the synthesis of Bessemer steel. The state of his health would not, however, permit him to attend the American meeting, and he wrote to Sir James Kitson, Bart., Past-President, a letter expressing his regret. The letter, which was read at the dinner given by Mr. Burden to the Council in New York, was as follows :— ROUNTON GRANGE, NORTHALLERTON, 12th October 1904.
MY DEAR SIR JAMES KITSON,-Four days ago I was under the knife of an occulist for the removal of a cataract on my right eye. Of course, at my advanced age, in deference to the convenience of others, as well as my own, I never entertained a hope of being able to accompany the members of the Iron and Steel Institute in their approaching visit to the United States.
You who knew the regard, indeed, I may, without any exaggeration, say the affection I entertain for my friends on the other side of the Atlantic, will fully appreciate the nature of my regrets in being compelled to abstain from enjoying an opportunity of once more greeting them.
Their number, alas, has been sadly curtailed since I first met them about thirty years ago, but this curtailment has only rendered me the more anxious again to press the hands of the few who still remain.
Reference to the records of the Iron and Steel Institute will show that I was one of its earliest promoters, and in that capacity I was anxious to extend its labours, and consequently its usefulness, to every part of the world where iron was made or even used; with this view, the Council of that body have always taken care to have members on the Board of Management from other nations, whenever they could secure their services. Necessarily the claims upon the time of the gentlemen filling the office of President are too urgent to hope of its being filled by any one not a resident in the United Kingdom. Fortunately, we have a gentleman, himself a born subject of the United Kingdom, who spends enough of his time in the land of his birth to undertake the duties of the position of Chief Officer of the Institute.
It is quite unnecessary for me to dwell at any length upon the admirable way in which Mr. Andrew Carnegie has up to this time discharged the duties of his office, and I think I may take upon me to declare in the name of the Institute that the prosperity of the body runs no chance of suffering by his tenure of the Office of President.— Yours faithfully, (Signed) LOWTHIAN BELL.
The funeral of Sir Lowthian Bell took place on December 23, at Rounton, in the presence of the members of his family, and of Sir James Kitson, Bart., M.P., past-president, and Sir David Dale, Bart., past-president. A memorial service was held simultaneously at the Parish Church, Middlesbrough, and was attended by large numbers from the North of England. A dense fog prevailed, but this did not prevent all classes from being represented. The Iron and Steel Institute was represented by Mr. W. Whitwell, past-president, Mr. J Riley, vice-president, Mr. A. Cooper and Mr. Illtyd Williams, members of council, Mr. H. Bauerman, hon. member, and the Secretary. The Dean of Durham delivered an address, in which he said that Sir Lowthian's life had been one of the strenuous exertion of great powers, full of bright activity, and he enjoyed such blessings as go with faithful, loyal work and intelligent grappling with difficult problems. From his birth at Newcastle, in 1816, to the present day, the world of labour, industry, and mechanical skill had been in constant flow and change. Never before had there been such a marvellous succession of advances, and in keeping pace with these changes Sir Lowthian might be described as the best scientific ironmaster in the world. He gave a lifelong denial to the statement that Englishmen can always " muddle through," for he based all his action and success on clearly ascertained knowledge.
The King conveyed to the family of the late Sir Lowthian Bell the expression of his sincere sympathy on the great loss which they have sustained. His Majesty was pleased to say that he had a great respect for Sir Lowthian Bell, and always looked upon him as a very distinguished man.
Immediately before the funeral an extraordinary meeting of council was held at the offices of Bell Brothers, Limited, Middlesbrough, when the following resolution was unanimously adopted :— " The council of the Iron and Steel Institute desire to place on record their appreciation of the loss which the Institute has sustained by the death of Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart., a past-president and one of the founders of the Institute. The council feel that it would be difficult to overrate the services that Sir Lowthian rendered to the Institute in the promotion of the objects for which it was formed, and his constant readiness to devote his time and energies to the advancement of these objects. His colleagues on the council also desire to assure his family of their most sincere sympathy in the loss that has befallen them." Find a Grave.
Isaac Lowthian Bell was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 16th of February 1816. He was the son of Thomas Bell, a member of the firm of Losh, Wilson and Bell Ironworks at Walker. Bell was educated at Dr Bruce’s Academy (Newcastle upon Tyne), Edinburgh University, and the University of the Sorbonne (Paris).
In 1850 Bell was appointed manager of Walker Ironworks. In the same year he established a chemical works at Washington with Mr Hugh Lee Pattinson and Mr R. B. Bowman (the partnership was severed in 1872). In 1852 Bell set up Clarence Ironworks at Port Clarence, Middlesbrough, with his brothers Thomas and John which produced basic steel rails for the North Eastern Railway (From 1865 to 1904, Bell was a director of North Eastern Railway Company). They opened ironstone mines at Saltburn by the Sea (Normanby) and Skelton (Cleveland). Bell Brothers employed around 6,000 workmen. They employed up to the minute practises (for example, utilizing waste gases which escaped from the furnaces) and were always keen to trial improvements in the manufacture of iron. In 1882 Bell Brothers had a boring made at Port Clarence to the north of the Tees and found a stratum of salt, which was then worked. This was sold to Salt Union Ltd in 1888.
Bell’s professional expertise was used after an explosion at Hetton Colliery in 1860. He ascertained that the cause of the explosion was due to the presence of underground boilers.
In 1861 Bell was appointed to give evidence to the Commission to incorporate a Mining College within Durham University. Durham College of Science was set up 1871 in Newcastle with Bell as a Governor. He donated £4,500 for the building of Bell Tower. Large collection of books were donated from his library by his son to the College.
Bell served on the Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade. He was a Justice of Peace for County of Durham, Newcastle and North Riding of Yorkshire, and was Deputy-lieutenant and High Sheriff for Durham in 1884. In 1879 Bell accepted arbitration in the difficulty with the miners during the General Strike of County Durham miners
Between 1850 and 1880 Bell sat on the Town Council of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1851 he became sheriff, was elected mayor in 1854, and Alderman in 1859. In 1874 Bell was the Liberal Member of Parliament for North Durham, but was unseated on the ground of general intimidation by agents. Between 1875 and 1880 he was the Member of Parliament for the Hartlepools.
Bell was an authority on mineralogy and metallurgy. In 1863 at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Newcastle, he read a paper ‘On the Manufacture of Iron in connection with the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield’ (Report of the 33rd meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Newcastle upon Tyne, 1863, p730).
In 1871 Bell read a paper at a meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, Middlesbrough on ‘Chemical Phenomena of Iron smelting’. (The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1871 Vol I pp85-277, Vol II pp67-277, and 1872 Vol I p1). This was published with additions as a book which became an established text in the iron trade. He also contributed to ‘The Industrial Resources of the Tyne, Wear and Tees (1863)’.
In 1854 Bell became a member of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers and was elected president in 1886. Bell devoted much time to the welfare and success of the Institute in its early days.
During his life Bell was a founder member of the Iron and Steel Institute (elected President in 1874); a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Chemical Society of London; a member of the Society of Arts, a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers; President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; President of the Society of Chemical Industry; and a founder member of the Institution of Mining Engineers (elected President in 1904)
Bell was the recipient of Bessemer Gold Medal, from Iron and Steel Institute in 1874 and in 1885 recieved a baronetcy for services to the State. In 1890 he received the George Stephenson Medal from The Institute of Civil Engineers and in 1895 received the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts for services through his metallurgical researches.
Bell was a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) of Durham University, a Doctor of Laws (LLD) of Edinburgh University and Dublin University, and a Doctor of Science (DSc) of Leeds University.
Bell married the daughter of Hugh Lee Pattinson in 1842 and together they had two sons and three daughters. The family resided in Newcastle upon Tyne, Washington Hall, and Rounton Grange near Northallerton.
Lowthian Bell died on the 21st of December 1904. The Council of The Institution of Mining Engineers passed the following resolution:
“The Council have received with the deepest regret intimation of the death of their esteemed President and colleague, Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart, on of the founders of the Institution, who presided at the initial meeting held in London on June 6 th 1888, and they have conveyed to Sir Hugh Bell, Bart, and the family of Sir Lowthian Bell an expression of sincere sympathy with them in their bereavement. It is impossible to estimate the value of the services that Sir Lowthian Bell rendered to the Institution of Mining Engineers in promoting its objects, and in devoting his time and energies to the advancement of the Institution.”
Information taken from: - Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions, Vol XXXIII 1906-07