Ordered to War Office specifications in 1922 The Independent finally appeared in 1926, to a revised design by Vickers-Armstrongs. It took part in the special demonstration for the Dominion Premiers in November 1926. Trials at Farnborough revealed that it was very difficult to steer, due primarily to long ground contact and narrow hull. Rebuilt on the advice of W. G. Wilson in 1928 it did not improve and also consumed an inordinate amount of engine oil. It was abandoned in 1935, by which time it had cost more than £150,000, and sent to Bovington. Reputedly used as part of the defences of Bovington Camp in 1940.

The Independent has a number of unusual features; the nearside rear machine-gun turret is capable of firing in the anti-aircraft role by exrta elevation of the gun. An American design of Inertia starter is incorporated and there is a pointer device, driven off the turret ring, that shows the tank commander which way the main turret is pointing in relation to the direction of the tank.

It is claimed that, in order to improve steering, sections from the barrel of a 16 inch naval gun were used to create exrta strong steering brakes. Walter Wilson's modifications to improve steering resulted in a major rebuild of the rear end, a change of drive sprockets and a strengthening axle between the sprockets.

Precise Name: Tank, Independent

Other Name: A1E1

DESCRIPTION

The Independent was a remarkable machine. Fitted with five turrets, it was considered to be a ‘land battleship’. The concept of a tank with multiple turrets influenced designers overseas, notably in the Soviet Union, where the multi-turreted T28 and T35 saw limited service during the German invasion in 1941.

The Independent originated in 1922 with a War Office specification for a heavy tank. This called for a tank with a low silhouette; a rear mounted engine and the ability to cross a trench 9 feet (2.8 metres) wide. It was to be armed with a three-pounder gun mounted in the nose and two machine guns fitted to side sponsons. This was, essentially, an updated version of the World War I Mark V tank.

Vickers were invited to design a tank to the War Office specification. However they also produced an alternative design with a dome shaped turret for the three-pounder, surrounded by four smaller turrets, each of which was fitted with a machine gun. Both designs were submitted to the War Office in March 1923.

Eventually, in September 1926, the War Office decided to adopt the Vickers design. The new tank was to be used for ‘independent action’ and to ‘work in conjunction with cavalry’. The prototype was delivered in October 1926, so construction work had clearly started well before the order was officially announced. The engine, a 350hp air-cooled Armstrong Siddeley V12, was ordered in August 1926. The drive train used a Swiss Winterthur gearbox. This had oil operated synchromesh which did not need a clutch and drove two compound epicyclic gears inside the track sprocket wheels.

The steering was quite advanced. The epicyclic gears were hydraulically operated and servo assisted. Large radius turns used a steering wheel while tight turns were made with a lever operated clutch and brake mechanism. The Independent was only 9 feet wide to fit within the railways’ loading gauge. It also had a relatively long length of track in contact with the ground, and this combined with the narrow distance between the tracks might have made it difficult to steer. The test reports do not mention any problems with the steering.

The Independent was well armoured by contemporary standards. The armour around the crew compartment was 28mm thick and varied between 13mm and 8mm elsewhere. In its original form the Independent weighed 29 tons and could reach 20 mph (33kph) on roads. Its fuel consumption was about a gallon per mile, although the engine also burnt about 4.5 gallons of oil per hour!

The new tank took part in a fire power demonstration for a conference of the Prime Ministers of British Dominions in November 1926. It was described as Britain’s latest and most secret heavy tank. After extensive trials numerous minor faults were found. The rubber tyred return rollers were changed to steel ones and the brake linings altered to use a new material developed by Ferodo. The new brakes were so effective that the stresses that they set up were found to be causing the suspension to separate from the hull.

There were difficulties with the transmission and W.G. Wilson was called in to revise the design. Following his advice the transmission was rebuilt in 1928. Simple, two speed, epicyclic gears were mounted inboard of the drive sprockets. The gears were connected to the sprockets by flexible couplings. These changes increased the weight to 31.5 tons.

The excessive oil consumption of the engine was never resolved and after much development work the whole project was finally abandoned in 1935. The Independent was then retired to the Royal Tank Corps at Bovington Camp where it allegedly formed part of the Camp’s defences in the summer of 1940. It found its way to the Tank Museum in 1949.

The A1E1 Independent was, in many ways, a ‘white elephant’. Tanks with multiple turrets proved to be a tactical liability as it was impossible for the commander to direct the fire of more than one turret. The Independent compared unfavourably with the Vickers Medium Tank (see E1949.330); the Medium Tank carried a similar armament but weighed 19 tons less. The War Office appeared to be uncertain about its role: was it a prototype of a new heavy tank or merely an experimental programme? In either case it was a very expensive project. The engine cost £27,000 and whole programme swallowed up £150,000.

Summary text by Mike Garth

Other Numbers

NumberType

33149Original Accession

T1020Serial

1010Original Entry

Country of Use

U.K. (1926)

Production

Object Production

RoleAttributionDatePlaceNotes

Manufactured1926Vickers Armstrongs Ltd.United KingdomNewcastle upon Tyne

Era

Inter War

Nationality

British

Location

Current Location

BOVTM - B18B - Inter War Hall

Physical

Features

Part NameDescriptionNotes

Tracks/WheelsFull Tracked

Armament - Main Weapon TypeGun - 3 pounder Gun (47 mm)

Armament - Secondary Weapon Type4* Vickers .303

EngineArmstrong-Siddeley Ltd., V12, air cooled

Transmission4 Forward, 1 Reverse

SuspensionCoil spring

Dimensions

Part NameDimensionValueUnitPrecisionNotes

CrewNumber8

OverallWeight32tons

Speed - RoadMaximum20mph

FuelTypePetrol

RangeMaximum95mi.

Armour ThicknessMaximum25.00mm

Main GunCalibre3pdr

Engine OutputPower370bhp@ 1500 rpm

FuelVolume180gall

RangeRadius95ml

OverallLength7.77m

OverallWidth2.74m

OverallHeight2.74m

Info from www.tankmuseum.org/ixbin/indexplus?_IXSS_=_IXMENU_%3dVehi...

A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

ETYMOLOGY

The word "loom" is derived from the Old English geloma, formed from ge-(perfective prefix) and loma, a root of unknown origin; this meant a utensil, tool, or machine of any kind. In 1404 it was used to mean a machine to enable weaving thread into cloth. By 1838, it had gained the meaning of a machine for interlacing thread.

WEAVING

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across", with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses or shafts (as few as two, four is common, sixteen not unheard of), shuttle, reed and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations. These are the principal motions.

Shedding. Shedding is the raising of part of the warp yarn to form a shed (the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns), through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted, forming the weft. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.

Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn is inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.

Battening. Between the heddles and the takeup roll, the warp threads pass through another frame called the reed (which resembles a comb). The portion of the fabric that has already been formed but not yet rolled up on the takeup roll is called the fell. After the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, the weaver uses the reed to press (or batten) each filling yarn against the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 160 picks per minute.

There are two secondary motions, because with each weaving operation the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a tertiary motion, the filling stop motion. This will brake the loom if the weft thread breaks. An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate.

TYPES OF LOOMS

BACK STRAP LOOM

The back strap loom is a simple loom that has its roots in ancient civilizations. It consists of two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver, usually by means of a strap around the back. The weaver leans back and uses their body weight to tension the loom. On traditional looms, the two main sheds are operated by means of a shed roll over which one set of warps pass, and continuous string heddles which encase each of the warps in the other set. To open the shed controlled by the string heddles, the weaver relaxes tension on the warps and raises the heddles. The other shed is usually opened by simply drawing the shed roll toward the weaver.

Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on this loom. Width is limited to how far the weaver can reach from side to side to pass the shuttle. Warp faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques are woven by indigenous peoples today around the world. They produce such things as belts, ponchos, bags, hatbands and carrying cloths. Supplementary weft patterning and brocading is practiced in many regions. Balanced weaves are also possible on the backstrap loom. Today, commercially produced backstrap loom kits often include a rigid heddle.[

WARP-WEIGHTED LOOM

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that may have originated in the Neolithic period. The earliest evidence of warp-weighted looms comes from sites belonging to the Starčevo culture in modern Serbia and Hungary and from late Neolithic sites in Switzerland. This loom was used in Ancient Greece, and spread north and west throughout Europe thereafter. Its defining characteristic is hanging weights (loom weights) which keep bundles of the warp threads taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of the available warp, the completed section can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraint.

DRAWLOOM

A drawloom is a hand-loom for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness. The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the State of Chu and date c. 400 BC. Most scholars attribute the invention of the drawloom to the ancient Chinese, although some speculate an independent invention from ancient Syria since drawloom fabrics found in Dura-Europas are thought to date before 256 AD The draw loom for patterned weaving was invented in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. Chinese weavers and artisans used foot-powered multi-harness looms and jacquard looms for silk weaving and embroidery; both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops. The Chinese-invented drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and play a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was later introduced to Persia, India, and Europe.

HANDLOOM

A handloom is a simple machine used for weaving. In a wooden vertical-shaft looms, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads — the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. This was a great invention in the 13th century.

FLYING SHUTTLE

Hand weavers could only weave a cloth as wide as their armspan. If cloth needed to be wider, two people would do the task (often this would be an adult with a child). John Kay (1704–1779) patented the flying shuttle in 1733. The weaver held a picking stick that was attached by cords to a device at both ends of the shed. With a flick of the wrist, one cord was pulled and the shuttle was propelled through the shed to the other end with considerable force, speed and efficiency. A flick in the opposite direction and the shuttle was propelled back. A single weaver had control of this motion but the flying shuttle could weave much wider fabric than an arm’s length at much greater speeds than had been achieved with the hand thrown shuttle.

The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. The whole picking motion no longer relied on manual skill and it was just a matter of time before it could be powered.

HAUTE-LISSE AND BASSE-LISSE LOOMS

Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are classified as haute-lisse looms, where the warp is suspended vertically between two rolls. In basse-lisse looms, however, the warp extends horizontally between the two rolls.

RIBBON WEAVING

TRADITIONAL LOOMS

Several other types of hand looms exist, including the simple frame loom, pit loom, free-standing loom, and the pegged loom. Each of these can be constructed, and provide work and income in developing economies.

POWER LOOMS

Edmund Cartwright built and patented a power loom in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. The silk loom made by Jacques Vaucanson in 1745 operated on the same principles but was not developed further. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay was critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom. Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas behind it were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area of England where, by 1818, there were 32 factories containing 5,732 looms.

Horrocks loom was viable, but it was the Roberts Loom in 1830 that marked the turning point. Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up, and a temple to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and Bullough produced the Lancashire Loom which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enables a youngster to run six looms at the same time. Thus, for simple calicos, the power loom became more economical to run than the hand loom – with complex patterning that used a dobby or Jacquard head, jobs were still put out to handloom weavers until the 1870s. Incremental changes were made such as the Dickinson Loom, culminating in the Keighley-born inventor Northrop, who was working for the Draper Corporation in Hopedale producing the fully automatic Northrop Loom. This loom recharged the shuttle when the pirn was empty. The Draper E and X models became the leading products from 1909. They were challenged by synthetic fibres such as rayon. By 1942, faster, more efficient, and shuttleless Sulzer and rapier looms had been introduced. Modern industrial looms can weave at 2,000 weft insertions per minute.

WEFT INSERTION

Different types of looms are most often defined by the way that the weft, or pick, is inserted into the warp. Many advances in weft insertion have been made in order to make manufactured cloth more cost effective. There are five main types of weft insertion and they are as follows:

Shuttle: The first-ever powered looms were shuttle-type looms. Spools of weft are unravelled as the shuttle travels across the shed. This is very similar to projectile methods of weaving, except that the weft spool is stored on the shuttle. These looms are considered obsolete in modern industrial fabric manufacturing because they can only reach a maximum of 300 picks per minute.

Air jet: An air-jet loom uses short quick bursts of compressed air to propel the weft through the shed in order to complete the weave. Air jets are the fastest traditional method of weaving in modern manufacturing and they are able to achieve up to 1,500 picks per minute. However, the amounts of compressed air required to run these looms, as well as the complexity in the way the air jets are positioned, make them more costly than other looms.

Water jet: Water-jet looms use the same principle as air-jet looms, but they take advantage of pressurized water to propel the weft. The advantage of this type of weaving is that water power is cheaper where water is directly available on site. Picks per minute can reach as high as 1,000.

Rapier loom: This type of weaving is very versatile, in that rapier looms can weave using a large variety of threads. There are several types of rapiers, but they all use a hook system attached to a rod or metal band to pass the pick across the shed. These machines regularly reach 700 picks per minute in normal production.

Projectile: Projectile looms utilize an object that is propelled across the shed, usually by spring power, and is guided across the width of the cloth by a series of reeds. The projectile is then removed from the weft fibre and it is returned to the opposite side of the machine so it can get reused. Multiple projectiles are in use in order to increase the pick speed. Maximum speeds on these machines can be as high as 1,050 ppm.

SHEDDING

DOBBY LOOMS

A dobby loom is a type of floor loom that controls the whole warp threads using a dobby head. Dobby is a corruption of "draw boy" which refers to the weaver's helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads. A dobby loom is an alternative to a treadle loom, where multiple heddles (shafts) were controlled by foot treadles – one for each heddle.

JACQUARD LOOMS

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, which simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740) To call it a loom is a misnomer, a Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a hand loom, the head controlling which warp thread was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking. The Jacquard loom is the predecessor to the punch card computers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

CICULAR LOOMS

A circular loom is used to create a seamless tube of fabric for products such as hosiery, sacks, clothing, fabric hose (such as fire hose) and the like. Circular looms can be small jigs used for circular knitting or large high-speed machines for modern garments. Modern circular looms use up to ten shuttles driven from below in a circular motion by electromagnets for the weft yarns, and cams to control the warp threads. The warps rise and fall with each shuttle passage, unlike the common practice of lifting all of them at once.

SYMBOLISM AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The loom is a symbol of cosmic creation and the structure upon which individual destiny is woven. This symbolism is encapsulated in the ancient Greek myth of Arachne who was changed into a spider by the goddess Athene, who was jealous of her skill at the godlike craft of weaving. In Maya Cultures the goddess Ixchel who is symbolized by the moon, taught the first woman how to weave at the beginning of time.

WIKIPEDIA

A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

ETYMOLOGY

The word "loom" is derived from the Old English geloma, formed from ge-(perfective prefix) and loma, a root of unknown origin; this meant a utensil, tool, or machine of any kind. In 1404 it was used to mean a machine to enable weaving thread into cloth. By 1838, it had gained the meaning of a machine for interlacing thread.

WEAVING

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across", with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses or shafts (as few as two, four is common, sixteen not unheard of), shuttle, reed and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations. These are the principal motions.

Shedding. Shedding is the raising of part of the warp yarn to form a shed (the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns), through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted, forming the weft. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.

Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn is inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.

Battening. Between the heddles and the takeup roll, the warp threads pass through another frame called the reed (which resembles a comb). The portion of the fabric that has already been formed but not yet rolled up on the takeup roll is called the fell. After the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, the weaver uses the reed to press (or batten) each filling yarn against the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 160 picks per minute.

There are two secondary motions, because with each weaving operation the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a tertiary motion, the filling stop motion. This will brake the loom if the weft thread breaks. An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate.

TYPES OF LOOMS

BACK STRAP LOOM

The back strap loom is a simple loom that has its roots in ancient civilizations. It consists of two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver, usually by means of a strap around the back. The weaver leans back and uses their body weight to tension the loom. On traditional looms, the two main sheds are operated by means of a shed roll over which one set of warps pass, and continuous string heddles which encase each of the warps in the other set. To open the shed controlled by the string heddles, the weaver relaxes tension on the warps and raises the heddles. The other shed is usually opened by simply drawing the shed roll toward the weaver.

Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on this loom. Width is limited to how far the weaver can reach from side to side to pass the shuttle. Warp faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques are woven by indigenous peoples today around the world. They produce such things as belts, ponchos, bags, hatbands and carrying cloths. Supplementary weft patterning and brocading is practiced in many regions. Balanced weaves are also possible on the backstrap loom. Today, commercially produced backstrap loom kits often include a rigid heddle.[

WARP-WEIGHTED LOOM

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that may have originated in the Neolithic period. The earliest evidence of warp-weighted looms comes from sites belonging to the Starčevo culture in modern Serbia and Hungary and from late Neolithic sites in Switzerland. This loom was used in Ancient Greece, and spread north and west throughout Europe thereafter. Its defining characteristic is hanging weights (loom weights) which keep bundles of the warp threads taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of the available warp, the completed section can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraint.

DRAWLOOM

A drawloom is a hand-loom for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness. The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the State of Chu and date c. 400 BC. Most scholars attribute the invention of the drawloom to the ancient Chinese, although some speculate an independent invention from ancient Syria since drawloom fabrics found in Dura-Europas are thought to date before 256 AD The draw loom for patterned weaving was invented in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. Chinese weavers and artisans used foot-powered multi-harness looms and jacquard looms for silk weaving and embroidery; both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops. The Chinese-invented drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and play a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was later introduced to Persia, India, and Europe.

HANDLOOM

A handloom is a simple machine used for weaving. In a wooden vertical-shaft looms, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads — the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. This was a great invention in the 13th century.

FLYING SHUTTLE

Hand weavers could only weave a cloth as wide as their armspan. If cloth needed to be wider, two people would do the task (often this would be an adult with a child). John Kay (1704–1779) patented the flying shuttle in 1733. The weaver held a picking stick that was attached by cords to a device at both ends of the shed. With a flick of the wrist, one cord was pulled and the shuttle was propelled through the shed to the other end with considerable force, speed and efficiency. A flick in the opposite direction and the shuttle was propelled back. A single weaver had control of this motion but the flying shuttle could weave much wider fabric than an arm’s length at much greater speeds than had been achieved with the hand thrown shuttle.

The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. The whole picking motion no longer relied on manual skill and it was just a matter of time before it could be powered.

HAUTE-LISSE AND BASSE-LISSE LOOMS

Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are classified as haute-lisse looms, where the warp is suspended vertically between two rolls. In basse-lisse looms, however, the warp extends horizontally between the two rolls.

RIBBON WEAVING

TRADITIONAL LOOMS

Several other types of hand looms exist, including the simple frame loom, pit loom, free-standing loom, and the pegged loom. Each of these can be constructed, and provide work and income in developing economies.

POWER LOOMS

Edmund Cartwright built and patented a power loom in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. The silk loom made by Jacques Vaucanson in 1745 operated on the same principles but was not developed further. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay was critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom. Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas behind it were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area of England where, by 1818, there were 32 factories containing 5,732 looms.

Horrocks loom was viable, but it was the Roberts Loom in 1830 that marked the turning point. Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up, and a temple to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and Bullough produced the Lancashire Loom which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enables a youngster to run six looms at the same time. Thus, for simple calicos, the power loom became more economical to run than the hand loom – with complex patterning that used a dobby or Jacquard head, jobs were still put out to handloom weavers until the 1870s. Incremental changes were made such as the Dickinson Loom, culminating in the Keighley-born inventor Northrop, who was working for the Draper Corporation in Hopedale producing the fully automatic Northrop Loom. This loom recharged the shuttle when the pirn was empty. The Draper E and X models became the leading products from 1909. They were challenged by synthetic fibres such as rayon. By 1942, faster, more efficient, and shuttleless Sulzer and rapier looms had been introduced. Modern industrial looms can weave at 2,000 weft insertions per minute.

WEFT INSERTION

Different types of looms are most often defined by the way that the weft, or pick, is inserted into the warp. Many advances in weft insertion have been made in order to make manufactured cloth more cost effective. There are five main types of weft insertion and they are as follows:

Shuttle: The first-ever powered looms were shuttle-type looms. Spools of weft are unravelled as the shuttle travels across the shed. This is very similar to projectile methods of weaving, except that the weft spool is stored on the shuttle. These looms are considered obsolete in modern industrial fabric manufacturing because they can only reach a maximum of 300 picks per minute.

Air jet: An air-jet loom uses short quick bursts of compressed air to propel the weft through the shed in order to complete the weave. Air jets are the fastest traditional method of weaving in modern manufacturing and they are able to achieve up to 1,500 picks per minute. However, the amounts of compressed air required to run these looms, as well as the complexity in the way the air jets are positioned, make them more costly than other looms.

Water jet: Water-jet looms use the same principle as air-jet looms, but they take advantage of pressurized water to propel the weft. The advantage of this type of weaving is that water power is cheaper where water is directly available on site. Picks per minute can reach as high as 1,000.

Rapier loom: This type of weaving is very versatile, in that rapier looms can weave using a large variety of threads. There are several types of rapiers, but they all use a hook system attached to a rod or metal band to pass the pick across the shed. These machines regularly reach 700 picks per minute in normal production.

Projectile: Projectile looms utilize an object that is propelled across the shed, usually by spring power, and is guided across the width of the cloth by a series of reeds. The projectile is then removed from the weft fibre and it is returned to the opposite side of the machine so it can get reused. Multiple projectiles are in use in order to increase the pick speed. Maximum speeds on these machines can be as high as 1,050 ppm.

SHEDDING

DOBBY LOOMS

A dobby loom is a type of floor loom that controls the whole warp threads using a dobby head. Dobby is a corruption of "draw boy" which refers to the weaver's helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads. A dobby loom is an alternative to a treadle loom, where multiple heddles (shafts) were controlled by foot treadles – one for each heddle.

JACQUARD LOOMS

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, which simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740) To call it a loom is a misnomer, a Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a hand loom, the head controlling which warp thread was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking. The Jacquard loom is the predecessor to the punch card computers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

CICULAR LOOMS

A circular loom is used to create a seamless tube of fabric for products such as hosiery, sacks, clothing, fabric hose (such as fire hose) and the like. Circular looms can be small jigs used for circular knitting or large high-speed machines for modern garments. Modern circular looms use up to ten shuttles driven from below in a circular motion by electromagnets for the weft yarns, and cams to control the warp threads. The warps rise and fall with each shuttle passage, unlike the common practice of lifting all of them at once.

SYMBOLISM AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The loom is a symbol of cosmic creation and the structure upon which individual destiny is woven. This symbolism is encapsulated in the ancient Greek myth of Arachne who was changed into a spider by the goddess Athene, who was jealous of her skill at the godlike craft of weaving. In Maya Cultures the goddess Ixchel who is symbolized by the moon, taught the first woman how to weave at the beginning of time.

WIKIPEDIA

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Past recollections of a former railway are only, at best, as good as the time of the visit, or visits.

My early recollections date from the 1960s with trips to Sutton Oak Locomotive Shed, parts of the

railway to Widnes, St Helens Glassworks and the Ravenhead Colliery included. Any indication of

stationary engine worked incline on the railway between St Helens and Widnes were not then

apparent.

Subsequent research since that time has revealed a railway with a complex history that stretches

back to 1829 when proposals for a railway linking the Mersey at Runcorn Gap directly with the

coal mines at St Helens were made. These collieries were already served by the Sankey Navigation,

but the new proposal promised a shorter route and a new wet dock at Widnes.

By November 1829 Charles Blacker Vignoles was preparing plans for the railway and the

application to parliament.1 Vignoles was engineer for both the Wigan Branch Railway and the St

Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway (appointed at salary of £650 per annum for each railway in June

1830)2 and proceeded with both these schemes at the same time arranging construction after

their respective acts were granted in 1830.

Shares were set at £100 each of £120,0003 needed for the railway to be made and a subscription

was arranged. The bill passed through parliament and received royal assent on May 29th, 1830.

The wording was:

1 Manchester Mercury, November 10th

, 1829

2 Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles by Olynthus Vignoles p 142

3 Capital of £170,000 was reported in Edwards Baines Directory of Lancashire 1836

2

An act for making a colliery from Cowley Hill Colliery in the parish of Prescott and county

palatine of Lancaster to Runcorn Gap in same parish (with several branches) and for

constructing a wet dock at termination of said railway at Runcorm Gap.4

There were various clauses to note:

19 lands or works of Liverpool and Manchester railway not to be interfered with without

consent

122 ships of war and vessels etc employed in his majesty’s service in the conveyance of

officers, soldiers, or horses, arms, ammunition or baggage not to be interfered with, or of

and ordnance, barracks or commissariat stores not to be interfered with or vessels in the

service of ordnance, customs or excise, or postmaster general exempted from toll

176 saving the rights of the Duchy of Lancaster

177 saving the rights of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway co, Mersey and Irwell and

Sankey canal companies

178 saving the rights of Liverpool

Corporation and the Dock Trustees

Peter Greenall was appointed chairman of the company with John Witley, as clerk and solicitor,

and many advertisements for the company had the name of Harmood Banner, Treasurer,

Commerce Court, Lord Street, Liverpool. C B Vignoles, provided estimates at his Liverpool office.

An early advert was for rails and pedestals which appeared in several newspapers for June 1830.

Contract for railway iron

Persons desirous of contracting for wrought iron rails and cast iron pedestals which may be

required for the St Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway, may obtain specifications on application

(if by letter post paid) to Mr C Vignoles, engineer at his office No 100 Bold Street, Liverpool,

Sealed tenders must be sent into the treasurer on or before July 6th next

HARMOOD BANNER, Treasurer

17th June 18305

The appointment of directors and determining a line for work to start was arranged and

mentioned at a general meeting of the Company held in July 1830. Work was set to start at Broad

Oak where the junction with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was planned to be made and

at the Widnes end of the line.6 The task of construction of building the railway was let in 3

contracts, at first. But, the precise progress of construction is one that remains unclear, at present.

This was a railway that began at Cowley Hill Colliery, which was placed at Windle, St Helens and

proceeded south east through to Sutton Oak and the branch railway that ran south west from

Broad Oak Colliery Parr, St Helens. Near Sutton Oak was the junction with the link to the Liverpool

& Manchester Railway, the railway then ascended an incline to a summit level, which was worked

by a stationary engine. The railway then proceeded due south towards the top of the Widnes

incline where there was another stationary engine and then the railway descended again towards

Widnes and crossed the Sankey Navigation by a swing bridge to terminate in a wet dock beside

the Mersey where flats and other vessels were loaded with coal, the principal cargo for the line.

4 11th Geo IV Cap LXI May 29th, 1830

5 Aris’s Gazette June 28th, 1830

6 Manchester Courier, July 30th

, 1830

3

Contract No 1 seems to be the work started north of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

towards Cowley Hill and Broad Oak Collieries. Lot 2 was advertised in September 1830 for the

railway from the Liverpool & Manchester line to the brook below the Horns Public House at

Widnes.7 The third contract was from the Horns Public House to Widnes Docks.8

Widnes Dock construction began with the request for building stone to Vignoles specification,

which was followed by offers to tender to build the docks at ‘Widnes Worth’ and the supply of a

24 HP steam engine to pump water from a depth of 25 feet as specified by Vignoles.9

The firm of Lee, Watson & Co, St Helens supplied a stationary engine for working the two incline

planes on the railway. Robert Dalgleish Junior, who then worked for Lee, Watson & Co was

involved in this contract .10 These inclines were called Sutton and Widnes with the Sutton incline

being of an inclination of 1 in 70.11

Priestley’s account of Navigable Canals and Railway, 1831 provided a detailed description of the

railway:

SAINT HELEN'S AND RUNCORN GAP RAILWAY.

11 George IV. Cap. 61

Royal Assent 29th May, 1830

The main line of railway commences from Cowley Hill Colliery, about two miles north of

the town of St. Helen's, from whence its course is southwardly by Gerrard's Bridge Colliery,

crossing the Sankey Brook Navigation near St. Helen's; thence by Peaseley Cross, Barton

Bank Colliery to Toad Leach, where it crosses the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Its

course hence is by Tibbs Cross, Plumpton Mill, to the River Mersey at Widnes Wharf,

directly opposite the Old Quay Docks of the Mersey and Irwell Canal; crossing in its course

the line of the Sankey Brook Extension near its western termination. Adjoining and

communicating with the Mersey, a capacious wet dock, two hundred yards in length with

two openings with tide locks, is to be constructed, where ships and other vessels may

securely lie while waiting for cargoes. The length of this railway, embracing the amended

line from Runcott Lane towards Cowley Hill Colliery, is eight miles and seven furlongs ; and

there are thirteen branches which are together in length six miles, five furlongs and eight

chains, viz. the branch from near Tibbs Cross, in a northwest-wardly direction to the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway, at Elton Head Colliery, is one mile, five furlongs and

four chains in length ; another in a northwest-wardly direction, to join and communicate

with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with greater facility, one furlong and five

chains in length ; and another branch from the same point, communicating with the above

railway to the east ward, two furlongs and five chains in length ; one from the north side of

the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, to communicate with it in a south west-wardly

direction, two furlongs and three chains in length , and another branch to the eastward,

with the same object, one furlong and five chains in length ; from near Barton Bank

Colliery, there is a branch to Broad Oak Colliery, in length seven furlongs and two chains ;

7 Liverpool Albion, September 13th 1830

8 Liverpool Albion, November 1st 1830

9 Liverpool Albion, November 15th, 1830

10 Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles, p144

11 Obituary Robert Dalgleish, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1883 Vol LXXIV p 531

4

and from the last-mentioned branch there proceeds two collateral branches, one

proceeding northwards to the Sankey Brook Colliery, one furlong and five chains in length,

and another from the same point, in an eastwardly direction, to Ashton's Green Colliery,

being in length two furlongs and six chains. The branch to Ravenhead Plate Glass Works

quits the main line a short distance north of Peaseley Cross, and proceeds in a straight line

westwards, across a branch of the Sankey Brook Navigation to the works above-

mentioned, and is in length one mile and six chains; from this last -mentioned branch there

proceeds three collateral branches, viz. one by Sutton and Burton Head Collieries to

Dobson's Wood, which is in length six furlongs; another to the St. Helen's Plate Glass

Works, in length one furlong; and another to Messrs. Clare and Haddock's Colliery, in

length one furlong and one chain. From near the termination of the main line near Cowley

Hill, a branch proceeds in a north -eastwardly direction to Rushy Park Colliery, in length

four furlongs and six chains. The main line, as we have already stated , is eight miles and

seven furlongs in length, viz. from the Wet Dock to the Elton Head Colliery Branch, three

miles, five furlongs and five chains; thence to the two branches, communicating north -

eastwardly and north west-wardly with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, one mile,

five furlongs and four chains; thence to where it crosses the Liverpool and Manchester

Railway, one furlong and four chains ; from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to the

two branches which communicate with it south west-wardly and south eastwardly , one

furlong and one chain ; thence to the Ravenhead Plate Glass Works Branch , one mile and

six furlongs ; from the last-mentioned branch to where the Rushy Park Colliery Branch

leaves the main line, one mile, one furlong and three chains; thence to its termination at

Cowley Hill Colliery, two furlongs and three chains, making the total length eight miles and

seven furlongs. From the wet dock the railway is designed to rise gradually 142 feet in

nearly one equal plane of four miles in length; and the next four furlongs and a half,

terminating at the place called the Clock Face, is level; from this place there is a descent of

70 feet in one mile and five furlongs by a gradual inclination; and from thence to its

termination there is a rise of 18 feet. The Elton Head Branch rises 44 feet in one inclined

plane to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The branch to Dobson's Wood has three

different inclinations, but altogether the rise from the Ravenhead Branch is 34 feet, and

the last-mentioned branch rises 50 feet. The Broad Oak Colliery Branch is nearly level; and

the other remaining branches are of so little moment as scarcely to call for further

description. This work was designed by C. B. Vignoles, Esq. civil engineer, who estimated

the cost at £119,980, which includes the sum of £ 31,620 for the wet dock, and £ 10,900

for contingencies. The act authorizing the execution of the above works received the King's

assent on the 29th May, 1830, and is entitled, ' An Act for making a Railway from the

Cowley Hill Colliery, in the parish of Prescot, to Runcorn Gap, in the same parish, with

several Branches therefrom , all in the county palatine of Lancaster, and ' for constructing a

Wet Dock at the termination of the said Railway at Runcorn Gap aforesaid .' The

subscribers, at the time the bill was in parliament, consisted of forty -one persons, who

were incorporated as ‘The Saint Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway Company’, with power

to raise amongst themselves, the sum of £ 120,000 , (of which, £ 100,200 was subscribed

before the act was obtained ) in twelve hundred shares of £ 100 each ; and the whole is

directed to be subscribed before the work is commenced . If the above be insufficient, they

may raise by mortgage of the undertaking the further sum of £ 30,000. The act further

directs that the inside edges of the rails shall be 4 feet 8 inches apart, and the outside

edges 5 feet 1 inch ; and that the railway shall not cross the Liverpool and Manchester Rail

way on the same level, but either by a tunnel or by a bridge to be constructed under the

5

superintendence of the engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and that there

shall be not less than three passing places in every mile.

During 1832 work on building the railway was proceeding with expectation of completion during

1832. The despatch of the ‘Rushey Park’ coal and what was considered a valuable coal for sale.

Through using sailing vessels the traffic could clear the customs house at Runcorn and pass

directly to Ireland. The coal was intended to be loaded directly from railway waggons into boats

which arrived on the morning tide and left by the evening tide.12

Plans for locomotive power were laid out by Charles Vignoles. He requested specifications which

included that the wheels were to be 54 inches in diameter, axles 5 inch diameter, cylinders 13 in x

20 inch stroke, weight with boiler not to exceed 8 tons, the engine to work with coal and the four

wheels to be moved. Boiler to be guaranteed to generate a power of not less than 2500lbs and

velocity of 10 mph, drawing 150 tons including its own weight and that of a tender at a rate of 5

mph up an inclination of 1 in 400. The Horseley Iron Company of Tipton agreed to supply three

locomotives to these specifications at a cheap price of just under £500 each. Their previous history

in engineering had included steam powered boats. It was a new business for them and they

employed Matthew Loam to design them. These 0-4-0 Tender Engines were called Greenall, St

Helens and third may have been called Runcorn.13

This was also a railway where horses were employed for haulage. Bertram Baxter mentions the

several stone block tramways and railways that linked with the Sankey Navigation, but does not

record any details of the St Helens Railway. Wishaw also fails to mention any details of the railway,

but as Vignoles was engineer his particular design of fastening to sleepers was probably adopted

at first and the sleepers were originally stone blocks.

14

A major structure was the crossing of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway by a stone bridge with

iron railings, which constructed had after an agreement was made between Vignoles and George

Stephenson, engineer for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. This bridge was later replaced by

an iron girder bridge. An early sandstone stone bridge of 5 arches did remain which used to

convey the turnpike from Liverpool to Warrington over the St Helens railway.

12 Gores Liverpool General Advertiser April 12th, 1832

13 A History of Horseley, Tipton two centuries of engineering progress - J S Allen. Landmark Publication 1993

14 Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles, p 145

6

The Bridge over the Liverpool & Manchester Railway near Sutton Oak

Vignole’s Stone Bridge was apparently made to a high standard even if the rest of the railway was not.

Heartland Press Collection 523911

Opening of the railway was gradually accomplished and for the strict chronologist there must be a

question of when and how many times did occur, the published date of February 21st 1833 was

only one of them. The line between St Helens and St Helen Junction was completed by March

1832 and horse drawn passenger service is stated to have commenced from the First Station at St

Helens to St Helens Junction Railway on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in September 1832.

The first coal traffic to Widnes Dock was made before December 1832 following a wager:

St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway

On Wednesday last a train of coal waggons started from Broad Oak Collieries on the

Northern Extremities of St Helen’s and Runcorn Gap Railway and passed along the line to

the docks constructing at Runcorn Gap and were discharged into a vessel, which left the

docks on the following tide. Although the waggons travelled along the extreme length of

the line, it is not considered as a general opening, (which however will very shortly take

place), but resulted in a wager between a colliery proprietor and the engineer of the

Sankey Canal- the former gentleman persisting, that it would be possible to convey a vessel

load of coals to the Mersey by this railway before the 1st of December. It is needless to say

that this was accomplished. The train was accompanied by Peter Greenall, esq, the

chairman of the company, Thomas Kidd of Widnes and several other directors of the line

under the direction of George Thornton, the resident engineer of the railway and docks.

These gentlemen were accompanied by the highly respected contractors for the line messr

Nowell, Thornton & Seed together with an number of workmen and the inhabitants in the

neighbourhood of the railway.15

This useful notice names George Thornton as resident engineer for the railway and docks and also

gives the names of the contractors for the railway as Nowell, Thornton & Seed.

Another ‘opening’ was quoted in early January 1833 when a coal train passed onto the Liverpool &

Manchester Railway. Yet the docks remained uncompleted, and during the month of August 1833

15 Liverpool Albion December 3rd 1832

7

seems to be a date for the practical completion of the railway and docks. It was in August that the

railway was announced as completed along with the branch roads to the collieries. It was reported

that the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway has been silently pursuing its operations for the last

two or a little more years and may be said to be now completed and fairly open for business.

During the last month the transit of coals from the collieries in the neighbourhood of St Helens to

the dock at Widnes Marsh has increased and it is uncommon to send down the line and ship

between 400 to 600 tons per day and it is calculated to ship up to 1200 and 1500 tons per day and

the dock can admit vessels of up to 300 tons burden. The locomotives were powerful are capable

of hauling 150 to 200 tons of coal at a time at a speed of from 8 to 10 mph.

16

The original locomotive stock was confined to only certain parts of the line through the central

inclines enforcing rope haulage which limited their use. However Vignoles had a clear concern

over the working of the original three Horseley locomotives. He thought that they were complete

failures in the mechanical arrangement, but noted they were cheap engines. In the first week or

two of their working on the railway the railway company seldom had more than one out of the

three at work together, the others being laid up for continual repairs. He did not state this as a

reproach against the Horseley Company, but had concerns that cheap engines do no credit either

to makers or to companies!17

Matthew Loam had by that time left the Horseley Company to work for the Vulcan Foundry at

Newton Le Willows and was replaced at Horseley by Isaac Dodds. It was Dodds that superintended

the construction of another locomotive called either Monarch or Mersey. This locomotive was also

a four coupled tender locomotive but had inside cylinders. Dodds also then was responsible for

building the Star, a 2-2-0 tender locomotive for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, but that

engine did not enter service with them. A collision with another locomotive Caledonia had fatal

consequences for the Horseley Company engine man Ralph Thompson and return of the damaged

locomotive to the makers.

The St Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway also chose to purchase three engines made by the London

firm of Braithwaite & Erickson. These were all of the vertical boiler type. The first was the

unsuccessful candidate for the Rainhill Trials, the Novelty, which had been rebuilt by Robert

Dagliesh senior before passing onto the St Helens Railway. The other two were the William IV and

Queen Adelaide who had been also built for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway but were not

taken into stock. The less onerous demands of the St Helens Railway probably ensured their

continued existence and purchase at a cheaper cost assisted the St Helens Railway finances.

Freight traffic continued to increase and remained principally coal, although there was some

return merchandise traffic such as copper ore. In addition to freight traffic also included passenger

coaches attached to freight trains. The passenger traffic was handicapped through the inclines,

however.

16 Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser August 16th, 1833

17 A History of Horseley, Tipton two centuries of engineering progress - J S Allen. Report of letter from Vignoles

November 26th 1833

8

Finance was a clear factor that led to St Helens Railway looking for additional sources of money. In

1834 an act was granted to enable the St Helens Railway to raise additional money (£40,000)

through mortgage.18

Several accidents occurred on both the Widnes and Sutton planes. In 1835 there was a fatal

accident caused through a rope breaking on the Widnes Plane.19

Passengers travelling along the railway, in 1835, was described by Sir George Head in a book

entitled ‘Home Tour Through the Manufacturing Districts of England’ His journey on the line began

with taking the horse drawn carriage from St Helens Junction to the original passenger station at

St Helens where he visited a copper works and a plate glass works:

Being on my way to St. Helens, I was discharged, together with seven or eight other

passengers, from within one of the carriages of the train from Liverpool to Manchester, at

the foot of the Sutton inclined plane, on the railroad, and as the train from Manchester

had not yet made its appearance, we waited here about half an hour. So soon as both

squads of passengers had arrived from either end of the line, we all got into one large

covered vehicle, and were dragged at a foot pace, by a single horse, along the branch

railroad, about a mile in length, that leads to the town. Nothing can afford a more striking

contrast, in point of celerity and convenience to passengers, than these newly - formed

branch railroads with those on a well-established line; neither is this difference a

disparagement to the undertaking but frequently inseparable from an early stage of

proceedings. At all events, the present mode of conveyance was as disagreeable and as

slow as can well be imagined. Large quantities of coal are sent from St. Helens to the banks

of the Mersey by the Sankey Canal, from whose basin, which is of considerable extent, the

vessels enter the river at Runcorn. By the new railroad also numerous coal waggons are

continually despatched in a parallel direction, the proprietors having extensive premises

and a commodious dock- basin adjoining the other, for the convenience of the Liverpool

small craft attending to receive cargoes. A great deal of this coal goes to Ireland.

Sir George Head then gave a graphic description of what it was like to travel as a passenger to

Runcorn on the railway:

BRANCH RAILROAD FROM ST. HELENS TO RUNCORN.

It behoves not those people to whom time is of value, to travel by the railroad from St.

Helens to Runcorn; for it by no means follows, that because arrangements have been made

to convey trains of coal-waggons from one end of a line to the other, accidental passengers

are to be equally favoured in their transit. In fact, the transport of passengers on these

branch railroads seems almost altogether a matter of accommodation, which people are

willing to receive, under any restrictions, rather than be left behind; at the same time, it is

worth considering why any undertaking, be it what it may, if not intended to be done well,

is attempted to be done at all. I started from St. Helens on my way to Runcorn by the

railroad, (fortunately one fine afternoon, as the time expended in travelling the eight miles

was very nearly three hours,) in the same vehicle, drawn by one horse, in which I had

18 4 & 5 William IV Cap iii, Act to enlarge the powers and provisions of the St Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway

Company, March 26th 1834

19 Evening Chronicle February 15th, 1835

9

arrived. Having crossed the Liverpool and Manchester line, we had not proceeded more

than a mile and a half, when the driver suddenly pulled up and demanded six pence, the

expense of my conveyance for the part of the distance already performed; I therefore

ventured to ask by what means I was likely to accomplish the remainder. The man replied

that I must wait on the road, where we then were, while he went back to the Liverpool and

Manchester line to wait for the trains and bring more passengers; adding, in a consolatory

tone, he would not be absent more than an hour. I actually waited an hour, plus one

quarter, at the bottom of an inclined plane, which, being surmounted, the carriages

descend the declivity, on the other side, by their own gravity. At the top is a stationary

engine, which draws them up, by help of an endless rope. As the laden carriages are thus

raised, an iron skid is attached to the last, to prevent accident, in case the rope should

chance to break; and a low small carriage follows the laden ones, in which a man sits,

whose sole business is to attend this skid. Arrived at the top of the inclined plane, the man

removes the skid into his own vehicle, and taking charge, at the same time, of a set of

empty carriages, down they go altogether back again à la montagnes Russes. Therefore,

having nothing to do, I amused myself, while waiting for my conveyance, by accompanying

this man a few trips up and down, though a few experiments were quite sufficient, till I

perceived the carriage, on its return from its expedition, crawling slowly along towards the

bottom of the inclined plane, where it was taken in charge by the dragsman, and being

detached from the horse, was fixed behind a train of laden coal waggons, and drawn to the

top. Not a single passenger had arrived from the Liverpool and Manchester trains, so that

the delay (of some importance at least as far as regarded numerous coal waggons some

time since ready to proceed to Runcorn) was to no purpose. A heavy-looking old man now

took charge, and commenced business by demanding nine pence, the remainder of my

fare to Runcorn. Under this person's guardianship, it was necessary to descend the inclined

plane, which was not altogether agreeable, as some consequence is to be attached to the

management of the brake, the only countervailing power, on the occasion, to the impulse

of gravity; and somehow or other, I had an apprehension that this old man would run us

down too fast. However, as it happened in the result, though fault there was, it was on the

opposite side, for he went down too slow. The engine- man, instead of taking the vehicle,

as is usual, in tow to follow in the rear, proposed instead to place it in front, and so, as it

were , dragging after him a heavy train of laden coal waggons, push it, or rather kick it

along ; and matters being thus disposed, we began to descend the declivity. The carriage

was a sort of hermaphrodite vehicle, one part open and the other closed. I took my station

in the open part, which was behind, so that, as I sat with my back to the direction of our

motion, I had a full view of everything that followed on the line, particularly of our engine

and its train of coal waggons, which had halted at the top, in order to allow the old

gentleman in charge sufficient time to get down. In short, as we descended the declivity,

my face was in the same direction as that of an outside passenger who sits behind with his

back to the stage- coach. The engine-man having given the other what he imagined all

necessary law, and underrating the celerity of his own movement, in the meantime came

trundling along down the hill after us at a winning pace. I immediately saw that collision

was inevitable, and a tremendous thump we got from the huge body, weighing at least

forty tons, that followed in our wake, and impinged upon us with such force that, no

matter what became of the old man, I having miscalculated in a hurry the direction of the

impulse, though not in the least hurt, was thrown violently out of my seat. We were now

taken in tow, for a short distance, by a second engine, after which it became necessary to

walk a mile and a half from the railway station to the Mersey, and, finally, with

10

considerable delay, to cross that river at the established ferry, previously to our arrival at

the town of Runcorn.

At this time the St Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway concentrated on the freight traffic and those

who chose to use the limited passenger accommodation did so with considerable inconvenience.

For this company the next important step was to find a suitable manager for the railway, during

1837 they advertised for a person, or persons, to work the traffic.

To engineers, contractors and others

The directors of the St Helens and Runcorn gap railway are willing to contract for the

proper and efficient working of the road for one two or three years from January 1st 1838

The road is seven miles in extent with several branches to several collieries. It requires six

strong locomotives to be kept in good working condition

Tenders to be sent on or before Saturday October 14th

Harmood Banner, treasurer

Harrington Chambers, New John Street, Liverpool

27th September 1837

20

That position was taken by Robert Dagliesh Junior and John Smith who had this role through to

1848. They also had an engine factory and locomotive establishment at Sutton near the junction

with the branch to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The inherited stock of 6 locomotives, in

1838, were maintained and reconstructed by Dagliesh and probably even after 1848 at the original

Sutton Works. Nine locomotives were reported on the railway at the time of the Gauge

Commissioners reports of 1846.

Engine Manufactory at Sutton

The factory was placed between the main line and branch to St Helens Junction Station

Reproduced from the 6 in Ordnance survey map 108 surveyed in 1846 & 1847

Coal traffic continued to increase, but a strike by colliers did affect trade in 1844. There was also a

determination to improve passenger traffic. In 1844 the directors chose to purchase the Sankey

Brook Navigation. Following the act of 184521 that sanctioned the purchase and merger of

interests. Serious competition for traffic had affected both the prosperity of the railway and the

20 Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser September 29th 1837

21 8

th and 9 Vict, 21st May 1845

11

navigation and the purchase of the navigation proved to be one of mutual benefit and enabled the

railway to gather finance to progress.

The name of the company was changed to the St Helens Railway & Canal Company. Further

railway extensions were planned which were also authorised by parliament. At the same time

authority to reduce the inclines was given. Work began with the Sutton Incline and then the

Widnes Incline was reduced and those changes made through locomotive working between St

Helens and Widnes possible. Passenger traffic increased in consequence.

John Meadow Rendel, engineer, was consulted on improving Widnes docks and the inclines, and

the company then decided to purchase land at Garston to make new docks, build a sea wall and

reclaim part of the river bed.22

There also followed a considerable period of railway expansion. In 1846 preparations were made

for a railway from Runcorn Gap (Widnes) to Garston Docks, 73⁄4 miles long. The application of 1847

was for a railway to Blackrock and Warrington and included the reduction of the inclines led to an

act in July that year:

Act for the St Helens Railway and Canal Company to make branch railways to Warrington

and Blackbrook and to make certain alterations in the railway and also to take lease of

Rainford Branch from the London & North Western Railway.23

Sutton incline reduction was completed at a cost of £12,000.24 By the Annual Meeting of 1849,

Gilbert Greenall had replaced Peter Greenall as Chairman and with profits increasing the

accumulated fund had reached £9513 and an additional calls on shares was made. The contract

for the Blackbrook Branch was let and was expected to be completed by October 1849. The

contract had been let to reduce the Widnes Incline, make a branch railway to Royal Colliery and

for a short extension at St Helens.25

December 1849 marked the completion, and opening, of the ‘Short Extension’ at St Helens which

was in fact the completion of the railway from the original passenger station to a new passenger

terminus. The initial inspection by the Board of Trade found an incomplete railway.

ST HELENS EXTENSION

Railway Commissioners' Office, October 27, 1849

To Capt. Harness, R.E

Sir, I have the honour to report to you, for the information of the Commissioners, that on

Thursday, the 25th instant, I inspected the extension of the St. Helen's Railway into the

town of St. Helen's. The length of this extension is 214 chains. It has been constructed

without any authority from Parliament, on land belonging to the Company. The line crosses

no public road, but there is one private road and a colliery tramway, which it crosses by

22 A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, volume 10, the North West. Geoffrey Holt, David and

Charles 1978 p 62

23 Cap CCLXXI 1847

24 Liverpool Albion March 19th 1849

25 Sun, London ,August 3rd 1849

12

level-crossings, with the consent, as I am informed, of the parties concerned. The whole

extension is on an embankment, formed of ashes and cinders from neighbouring factorie;

the material appears to stand very well. The line crosses the Sutton Brook by a stone arch

of a semi-circular form, 14 feet in span. It also crosses the Sankey Canal, which belongs to

the Railway Company, by a swivel bridge. I believe both these bridges to be sufficiently

strong ; and I do not anticipate any difficulty in the working of the swivel- bridge, for both

railway and canal are under the same direction ; and the Company's regulations are, that

the bridge shall always be set for the trains, and only opened for boats at times when no

trains are expected, and after signals shall have been made to stop any unexpected train

that might arrive. The station arrangements at the new terminus are not yet complete;

neither platform nor signals being ready. At the swivel- bridge, also, the signal is not yet in

place. The permanent way is not properly adjusted. At the junction with the old line, the

plans sent to this department show a curve of 74 chains radius; but on going over the line

it appeared to me that a much sharper curve had in some places been used; and, on taking

measurements to ascertain the true radius, I found that at one place it was under 3 chains.

I attribute this, however, not to any intention of laying out such a sharp curve, but to haste,

or a want of proper attention to preserve the uniformity of the one intended. The rail used

weighs 65 lb. to the yard. This is a light rail, but the traffic will not be heavy, and the speed

will necessarily be slow. It is laid in 16 feet lengths, with cross-sleepers 4 feet apart - a wide

bearing for such a light rail. The fencing of the line is incomplete, one side being wholly

uncovered. The road level crossing only provided with gate one side only

I am of the opinion that before this extension can be opened for safety for public traffic it

will be necessary,

1. To re- adjust the permanent way.

2. To complete the station arrangements at the new terminus.

3. To place signals at the terminus, and at the swivel- bridge.

4. To complete the fencing

5. To put a second gate to the private level -crossing.

I would therefore recommend that the opening of this extension be postponed ; as, in my

opinion, it would at present be attended with danger to the public, by reason of the

incompleteness of the works, and of the permanent way. In conclusion, I beg to inform you

that, in going over the old portion of the St. Helen's Railway, from the junction with the

North Western Railway to the old terminus at St. Helen's, I remarked that the permanent

way was in very bad order, and that some of the junctions with the coal- lines were

effected in a very rough way, by means of shifting rails. I am of opinion that a line for

passenger traffic should not be allowed to remain in such a state, I have, &c,

R. M. LAFFAN , &c . & c. Capt. Royal Engineers.

Such a report led to general improvements and the opening on December 18th 1849, but is a

reflection of how much that was required to be done to the railway on a general basis.

The line to Garston was opened for traffic on July 1st 1852 as far as Garston passenger station and

from there coach transfer was made available to Liverpool. In August 1852 the Board of Trade

authorised the remaining section to be opened to Garston Docks, but the Docks were not finished

until June 1853, when freight traffic commenced. The railway was opened from Runcorn Gap to

13

Warrington (White Cross) 53⁄4 miles on February 1st 1853 and was completed to Warrington Arpley,

2 miles, in 1854. Rendell is stated to be the engineer26 and a Mr Court the resident engineer.

27

Such work was considered important to the Board of Trade as is explained in the following report:

To Captain Galton RE

Manchester, August 30, 1852.

I HAVE the honour to report to you, for the information of the Lords of the Committee of

Privy Council for Trade, that I this day inspected the Garston branch of the St. Helen's

Railway. This branch commences at its junction with the Warrington branch of the same

railway (which is now in the course of construction), a few chains to the eastward of the St.

Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway; it then crosses the latter railway on the level, and also

forms a junction with it, and runs westward to a new dock the St. Helen's Company are

constructing at Garston, about four miles higher up the river than the Liverpool docks. The

length of the branch is 7 miles and 35 chains, of which 20 chains lie to the eastward of the

junction with the St. Helen's and Runcorn Gap line. Captain Wynne, in his report dated

28th June last, stated, that the portion of the branch included between the junction with

the St. Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway and a point eighteen chains eastward of the

Garston terminus was in a fit state to be opened with safety for the conveyance of

passengers , but that the portion to the eastward of the point of junction with the St.

Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway, as also the other portion extending eighteen chains to

the eastward of the Garston terminus, could not, from the incompleteness of the

permanent way, be opened with safety to the public. I have the honour to inform you that

the portion extending eighteen chains to the eastward of the Garston terminus is now

complete in every respect affecting the safety of the public, and can therefore be opened

at once. With reference to that portion which lies to the eastward of the point of junction

with the St. Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway, I have the honour to report to you that it

would be useless to the Company to open it till the Warrington branch, with which it forms

a connecting link, is completed; and I forward herewith a letter from the secretary of the

company withdrawing all notice as to the opening of that portion of the Garston branch.

The secretary informs me that it is the intention of the Company to send fresh notices in

the place of those now withdrawn, at the same time that notices are sent of the intention

to open the Warrington branch. The Garston branch and the Warrington branch of the St.

Helen's Railway are far more important lines of communication than might be supposed

from their designations. Another company, in close alliance with the St. Helen's, are about

to construct that portion of the Lancashire and Cheshire Junction line which lies between

Warrington and Altrincham, and which had been abandoned by the latter company ; and

then the Manchester and Altrincham Railway, the Altrincham and Warrington, and the

Warrington and Garston branches of the St. Helen's Railway will afford an excellent line of

communication between Manchester and the St. Helen's Company's new dock on the

Mersey . The dock covers at present six acres of ground, with a depth of water at the

entrance of from sixteen to twenty feet at high tides; and from the facilities the Company

will have it in their power to afford, in consequence of the unity of management between

26 A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, volume 10, the North West. Geoffrey Holt, David and

Charles 1978 p86

27 Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser August 3rd, 1852

14

the docks and the line, as also from the absence of dock dues, it is probable that this may

become a favourite line of communication between the manufacturing districts and the

shipping of the Mersey. In inspecting the Warrington branch it might be advisable to bear

this in mind, and consider it, not as a mere branch of a secondary line, but as a link in what

will most probably become an important line of communication.

I have, & c..

R. M. LAFFAN Capt. Royal Engineer

Permission to open the line to the joint station at Warrington was given in April 1854

SAINT HELEN'S CANAL AND RAILWAY

Railway Department, Board of Trade,

April 24, 1854.

SIR, I HAVE the honour to acquaint you, for the information of the Lords of the Committee

of Privy Council for Trade, that I have inspected a portion of the St. Helen's Railway

extending from a point near the temporary station at Warrington to the permanent station

at the same place, which is a joint station with the Warrington and Stockport Railway. The

length of the new portion is 45-75 chains. I am of opinion that the double line of rails

above described may be opened without danger to the public using the same.

I am , &c. GEORGE WYNNE, Railway Department, Board of Trade. Captain Royal Engineers.

This was perhaps most successful period of independent operation. Arthur Sinclair was secretary

and superintendent of the St Helens railway and from 1854 James Cross was appointed engineer

and had responsibility for maintaining both canal and railway. He is noted for his role in the

locomotive department. Cross chose to move engine making and repair to a new location at

Sutton with new works there constructed between 1857 and 1858.28 Cross was responsible for the

construction of some innovative and powerful locomotives built the work the railway.

The last extension was through to Rainford, which although powers had been obtained to make

the extension these were allowed to lapse. During 1853 the East Lancashire Railway was

considering making a line from their Ormskirk branch to Rainford and St Helens. The St Helens

Canal & Railway Company chose to apply for branch to Rainford to meet the East Lancashire

Railway. Such work was authorised and proceeded during 1857 with parts from Gerards Bridge to

the East Lancashire Railway ready to receive the permanent way and work on the line from

Gerards Bridge to St Helens proceeding.

29

An application for an act to make a railway from Garston to Liverpool had been planned for the

1858 session of parliament but that bill did not proceed to royal assent instead a gradual working

agreement between the LNWR and St Helens Canal & Railway was contemplated. The act

authorised for a railway between Edge Hill and Garston was for the LNWR to complete and in 1860

there followed the London and North-western and Saint Helen's Railway Companies

(Arrangements) Act, 1860. The Saint Helen's Company were required to grant to the London and

North Western Railway Company a Lease for 21 Years of that portion of their undertaking which

consisted of the Railway between Warrington and Garston, such Lease being renewable and

28 A Merseyside town in the industrial revolution; St Helens, Theodore Caldwell Barker and John Raymond Harris

1993

29 Herepath Journal August 29th, 1857

15

renewed on the same Terms and Conditions as between the Two Companies themselves

indefinitely, subject however to the Sanction of Parliament.

The independent existence of the St Helens Railway & Canal Company finally came to an end from

July 1st 186430 when the St Helens Railway and Canal Co was taken over by the London & North

Western Railway. No complete list of locomotives has been produced for the railway, but the

acquisition of engines second hand with rebuilding and reconstruction an important part of the

operation. Apart from engines made at either Sutton works other locomotives were made by

Fairbarn, and Sharp, Stewart & Co.

For the St Helens company it was a remarkable transformation from being an early public railway

principally used for coal traffic and shares of little value to a profitable and expanding concern that

served the industries around St Helens, Warrington and Widnes. Some historians even have

dismissed the role of the company in early railway development as the line was handicapped

through finance and poor track and locomotive standards, but their dogged determination to

improve and progress is an important fact in their favour. Their decision to purchase and work a

rival navigation was one that proved profitable for both canal and railway operations. It must also

rank as one of the earliest purchases of a canal by a railway company

From an engineering view point the line was made at a cost effective price by Charles Blacker

Vignoles, Robert Dalgliesh Junior had a role in railway and locomotive stock improvement and J M

Rendell apparently used his considerable engineering experience to improve the railway. Then

there was James Cross who also contributed to the railway in the final years of its independent

existence and then went onto to build innovative locomotive engines such as early Fairlie

locomotives at the Sutton Oak Works (1864-1869).

The text is copyright and courtesy of Ray Shill and the RC&HS dated 29 July 2022

Keith Haring used his journals to carefully document his aesthetic discoveries through precise notes and careful illustrations. One of the early artistic experiments that he detailed in his journal was his focused exploration on a set number of geometric forms. The group of twenty-five red gouache works on view here illustrates the diversity of the forms that he developed. The forms range from a simple L shape to more complicated designs. This alphabet of shapes could be assembled in various combinations to create patterns. Haring spent a good deal of time thinking about the spatial layout of the forms and how they could be combined or separated, leaving a negative form in between.

Keith Haring: 1978–1982, on display from March 16 to July 8, 2012 in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing of the Brooklyn Museum, was the first large-scale exhibition to explore the early career of the artist. Curated by Raphaela Platow, the exhibition includes 155 works on paper, numerous experimental videos, and over 150 archival objects, including rarely seen sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings, and documentary photographs.

Keith Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990), a Pennsylvania native, moved to New York in 1978 and with his trademark creations across a variety of media, quickly made his mark in the thriving alternative art community that was developing outside the gallery and museum system. Haring was known for his subway graffiti, but instead of painting subway cars with spraypaint, he mostly drew with white chalk on the black paper pasted on unused advertising spaces. His distinctive style became widely known by those who never knew his identity. In his later years, he took on a more activist role, contributing works to hospitals and charities. In 1989, after being diagnosed with AIDS, he founded the Keith Haring Foundation, which supports organizations involved in AIDS education and outreach.

The Brooklyn Museum, sitting at the border of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights near Prospect Park, is the second largest art museum in New York City. Opened in 1897 under the leadership of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences president John B. Woodward, the 560,000-square foot, Beaux-Arts building houses a permanent collection including more than one-and-a-half million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art.

"Play It By Trust" 1966/1999

by Yoko Ono

White pieces on white board

www.francisnaumann.com/EXHIBITIONS/DuchampChess/index.html

“Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess” is the first exhibition devoted to exploring the influence of Duchamp’s activities as a chess player on his artistic production. It debuted at the St. Louis University Museum of Art (May 6 – August 16, 2009), and the present gallery exhibition is an expanded version of that show. It will open at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art on September 10, 2009 (and run through October 31, 2009).

The exhibition features the magnificent early cubist drawing Study for Portrait of Chess Players (1911), which renders Duchamp’s two brothers—Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Jacques Villon—intently engaged in a game of chess; a large central “X” in the center of the composition represents the precise point where their minds meet, a cerebral focus common to much of Duchamp’s subsequent production. Among the highlights of the show will be an example of the readymade Trébuchet (1917/64), the coat rack that visitors to Duchamp’s studio were expected to trip over (the chess equivalent of a gambit offered in the opening of a game); the Nice chess poster (1925); regular and deluxe examples of his book on endgame strategy (1932); the Pocket Chess Set (1943); and Cupid (1943), a recently discovered original drawing for the announcement of a show at the Julien Levy Gallery (in which Duchamp seems to have embedded a hidden message). A number of photographs of Duchamp either playing chess or seated before a chessboard will also be displayed. A signed, limited edition photograph by Arnold Rosenberg of Marcel Duchamp moving chess pieces behind glass (1958) was issued to commemorate this exhibition.

Also included in the show will be works by a number of Duchamp’s contemporaries—Man Ray, Georges de Zayas, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Leon Kelly, Beatrice Wood, Arman and Sarah Austin—that relate to Duchamp’s involvement with the game of chess, as well as a selection of works by contemporary artists—Charles Juhàsz Alvardo, Mike Bidlo, Donald Bradford, Russell Connor, Ingrid Evans, Mark Kostabi, Sophie Matisse, Daniel Meirom, James Meyer, Trong Gia Nguyen, Yoko Ono, Jennifer Shahade, Diana Thater, Douglas Vogel—some of whom have made works specially for inclusion in this show.

Accompanying the exhibition will be Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, a book featuring essays by Francis M. Naumann and Bradley Bailey, both of which demonstrate that Duchamp’s identity as a chess player is so thoroughly interfused with his work as an artist that the two activities are aesthetically and conceptually inseparable. The book also includes the analyses of fifteen Duchamp games by Jennifer Shahade (two-time American Women’s Chess Champion). These games will be reenacted in the exhibition on a video monitor, on which visitors will be able to view the movement of the pieces, all laid out in the format of Duchamp’s Pocket Chess Set of 1943.

FRANCIS M. NAUMANN FINE ART

24 West 57th Street, Suite 305

New York, NY, 10019

Telephone: 212.582.3201

LHOOQ@FRANCISNAUMANN.COM

www.francisnaumann.com/

A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

ETYMOLOGY

The word "loom" is derived from the Old English geloma, formed from ge-(perfective prefix) and loma, a root of unknown origin; this meant a utensil, tool, or machine of any kind. In 1404 it was used to mean a machine to enable weaving thread into cloth. By 1838, it had gained the meaning of a machine for interlacing thread.

WEAVING

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across", with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses or shafts (as few as two, four is common, sixteen not unheard of), shuttle, reed and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations. These are the principal motions.

Shedding. Shedding is the raising of part of the warp yarn to form a shed (the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns), through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted, forming the weft. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.

Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn is inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.

Battening. Between the heddles and the takeup roll, the warp threads pass through another frame called the reed (which resembles a comb). The portion of the fabric that has already been formed but not yet rolled up on the takeup roll is called the fell. After the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, the weaver uses the reed to press (or batten) each filling yarn against the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 160 picks per minute.

There are two secondary motions, because with each weaving operation the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a tertiary motion, the filling stop motion. This will brake the loom if the weft thread breaks. An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate.

TYPES OF LOOMS

BACK STRAP LOOM

The back strap loom is a simple loom that has its roots in ancient civilizations. It consists of two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver, usually by means of a strap around the back. The weaver leans back and uses their body weight to tension the loom. On traditional looms, the two main sheds are operated by means of a shed roll over which one set of warps pass, and continuous string heddles which encase each of the warps in the other set. To open the shed controlled by the string heddles, the weaver relaxes tension on the warps and raises the heddles. The other shed is usually opened by simply drawing the shed roll toward the weaver.

Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on this loom. Width is limited to how far the weaver can reach from side to side to pass the shuttle. Warp faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques are woven by indigenous peoples today around the world. They produce such things as belts, ponchos, bags, hatbands and carrying cloths. Supplementary weft patterning and brocading is practiced in many regions. Balanced weaves are also possible on the backstrap loom. Today, commercially produced backstrap loom kits often include a rigid heddle.[

WARP-WEIGHTED LOOM

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that may have originated in the Neolithic period. The earliest evidence of warp-weighted looms comes from sites belonging to the Starčevo culture in modern Serbia and Hungary and from late Neolithic sites in Switzerland. This loom was used in Ancient Greece, and spread north and west throughout Europe thereafter. Its defining characteristic is hanging weights (loom weights) which keep bundles of the warp threads taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of the available warp, the completed section can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraint.

DRAWLOOM

A drawloom is a hand-loom for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness. The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the State of Chu and date c. 400 BC. Most scholars attribute the invention of the drawloom to the ancient Chinese, although some speculate an independent invention from ancient Syria since drawloom fabrics found in Dura-Europas are thought to date before 256 AD The draw loom for patterned weaving was invented in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. Chinese weavers and artisans used foot-powered multi-harness looms and jacquard looms for silk weaving and embroidery; both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops. The Chinese-invented drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and play a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was later introduced to Persia, India, and Europe.

HANDLOOM

A handloom is a simple machine used for weaving. In a wooden vertical-shaft looms, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads — the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. This was a great invention in the 13th century.

FLYING SHUTTLE

Hand weavers could only weave a cloth as wide as their armspan. If cloth needed to be wider, two people would do the task (often this would be an adult with a child). John Kay (1704–1779) patented the flying shuttle in 1733. The weaver held a picking stick that was attached by cords to a device at both ends of the shed. With a flick of the wrist, one cord was pulled and the shuttle was propelled through the shed to the other end with considerable force, speed and efficiency. A flick in the opposite direction and the shuttle was propelled back. A single weaver had control of this motion but the flying shuttle could weave much wider fabric than an arm’s length at much greater speeds than had been achieved with the hand thrown shuttle.

The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. The whole picking motion no longer relied on manual skill and it was just a matter of time before it could be powered.

HAUTE-LISSE AND BASSE-LISSE LOOMS

Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are classified as haute-lisse looms, where the warp is suspended vertically between two rolls. In basse-lisse looms, however, the warp extends horizontally between the two rolls.

RIBBON WEAVING

TRADITIONAL LOOMS

Several other types of hand looms exist, including the simple frame loom, pit loom, free-standing loom, and the pegged loom. Each of these can be constructed, and provide work and income in developing economies.

POWER LOOMS

Edmund Cartwright built and patented a power loom in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. The silk loom made by Jacques Vaucanson in 1745 operated on the same principles but was not developed further. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay was critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom. Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas behind it were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area of England where, by 1818, there were 32 factories containing 5,732 looms.

Horrocks loom was viable, but it was the Roberts Loom in 1830 that marked the turning point. Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up, and a temple to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and Bullough produced the Lancashire Loom which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enables a youngster to run six looms at the same time. Thus, for simple calicos, the power loom became more economical to run than the hand loom – with complex patterning that used a dobby or Jacquard head, jobs were still put out to handloom weavers until the 1870s. Incremental changes were made such as the Dickinson Loom, culminating in the Keighley-born inventor Northrop, who was working for the Draper Corporation in Hopedale producing the fully automatic Northrop Loom. This loom recharged the shuttle when the pirn was empty. The Draper E and X models became the leading products from 1909. They were challenged by synthetic fibres such as rayon. By 1942, faster, more efficient, and shuttleless Sulzer and rapier looms had been introduced. Modern industrial looms can weave at 2,000 weft insertions per minute.

WEFT INSERTION

Different types of looms are most often defined by the way that the weft, or pick, is inserted into the warp. Many advances in weft insertion have been made in order to make manufactured cloth more cost effective. There are five main types of weft insertion and they are as follows:

Shuttle: The first-ever powered looms were shuttle-type looms. Spools of weft are unravelled as the shuttle travels across the shed. This is very similar to projectile methods of weaving, except that the weft spool is stored on the shuttle. These looms are considered obsolete in modern industrial fabric manufacturing because they can only reach a maximum of 300 picks per minute.

Air jet: An air-jet loom uses short quick bursts of compressed air to propel the weft through the shed in order to complete the weave. Air jets are the fastest traditional method of weaving in modern manufacturing and they are able to achieve up to 1,500 picks per minute. However, the amounts of compressed air required to run these looms, as well as the complexity in the way the air jets are positioned, make them more costly than other looms.

Water jet: Water-jet looms use the same principle as air-jet looms, but they take advantage of pressurized water to propel the weft. The advantage of this type of weaving is that water power is cheaper where water is directly available on site. Picks per minute can reach as high as 1,000.

Rapier loom: This type of weaving is very versatile, in that rapier looms can weave using a large variety of threads. There are several types of rapiers, but they all use a hook system attached to a rod or metal band to pass the pick across the shed. These machines regularly reach 700 picks per minute in normal production.

Projectile: Projectile looms utilize an object that is propelled across the shed, usually by spring power, and is guided across the width of the cloth by a series of reeds. The projectile is then removed from the weft fibre and it is returned to the opposite side of the machine so it can get reused. Multiple projectiles are in use in order to increase the pick speed. Maximum speeds on these machines can be as high as 1,050 ppm.

SHEDDING

DOBBY LOOMS

A dobby loom is a type of floor loom that controls the whole warp threads using a dobby head. Dobby is a corruption of "draw boy" which refers to the weaver's helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads. A dobby loom is an alternative to a treadle loom, where multiple heddles (shafts) were controlled by foot treadles – one for each heddle.

JACQUARD LOOMS

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, which simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740) To call it a loom is a misnomer, a Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a hand loom, the head controlling which warp thread was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking. The Jacquard loom is the predecessor to the punch card computers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

CICULAR LOOMS

A circular loom is used to create a seamless tube of fabric for products such as hosiery, sacks, clothing, fabric hose (such as fire hose) and the like. Circular looms can be small jigs used for circular knitting or large high-speed machines for modern garments. Modern circular looms use up to ten shuttles driven from below in a circular motion by electromagnets for the weft yarns, and cams to control the warp threads. The warps rise and fall with each shuttle passage, unlike the common practice of lifting all of them at once.

SYMBOLISM AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The loom is a symbol of cosmic creation and the structure upon which individual destiny is woven. This symbolism is encapsulated in the ancient Greek myth of Arachne who was changed into a spider by the goddess Athene, who was jealous of her skill at the godlike craft of weaving. In Maya Cultures the goddess Ixchel who is symbolized by the moon, taught the first woman how to weave at the beginning of time.

WIKIPEDIA

A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

ETYMOLOGY

The word "loom" is derived from the Old English geloma, formed from ge-(perfective prefix) and loma, a root of unknown origin; this meant a utensil, tool, or machine of any kind. In 1404 it was used to mean a machine to enable weaving thread into cloth. By 1838, it had gained the meaning of a machine for interlacing thread.

WEAVING

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across", with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses or shafts (as few as two, four is common, sixteen not unheard of), shuttle, reed and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations. These are the principal motions.

Shedding. Shedding is the raising of part of the warp yarn to form a shed (the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns), through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted, forming the weft. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.

Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn is inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.

Battening. Between the heddles and the takeup roll, the warp threads pass through another frame called the reed (which resembles a comb). The portion of the fabric that has already been formed but not yet rolled up on the takeup roll is called the fell. After the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, the weaver uses the reed to press (or batten) each filling yarn against the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 160 picks per minute.

There are two secondary motions, because with each weaving operation the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a tertiary motion, the filling stop motion. This will brake the loom if the weft thread breaks. An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate.

TYPES OF LOOMS

BACK STRAP LOOM

The back strap loom is a simple loom that has its roots in ancient civilizations. It consists of two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver, usually by means of a strap around the back. The weaver leans back and uses their body weight to tension the loom. On traditional looms, the two main sheds are operated by means of a shed roll over which one set of warps pass, and continuous string heddles which encase each of the warps in the other set. To open the shed controlled by the string heddles, the weaver relaxes tension on the warps and raises the heddles. The other shed is usually opened by simply drawing the shed roll toward the weaver.

Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on this loom. Width is limited to how far the weaver can reach from side to side to pass the shuttle. Warp faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques are woven by indigenous peoples today around the world. They produce such things as belts, ponchos, bags, hatbands and carrying cloths. Supplementary weft patterning and brocading is practiced in many regions. Balanced weaves are also possible on the backstrap loom. Today, commercially produced backstrap loom kits often include a rigid heddle.[

WARP-WEIGHTED LOOM

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that may have originated in the Neolithic period. The earliest evidence of warp-weighted looms comes from sites belonging to the Starčevo culture in modern Serbia and Hungary and from late Neolithic sites in Switzerland. This loom was used in Ancient Greece, and spread north and west throughout Europe thereafter. Its defining characteristic is hanging weights (loom weights) which keep bundles of the warp threads taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of the available warp, the completed section can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraint.

DRAWLOOM

A drawloom is a hand-loom for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness. The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the State of Chu and date c. 400 BC. Most scholars attribute the invention of the drawloom to the ancient Chinese, although some speculate an independent invention from ancient Syria since drawloom fabrics found in Dura-Europas are thought to date before 256 AD The draw loom for patterned weaving was invented in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. Chinese weavers and artisans used foot-powered multi-harness looms and jacquard looms for silk weaving and embroidery; both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops. The Chinese-invented drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and play a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was later introduced to Persia, India, and Europe.

HANDLOOM

A handloom is a simple machine used for weaving. In a wooden vertical-shaft looms, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads — the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. This was a great invention in the 13th century.

FLYING SHUTTLE

Hand weavers could only weave a cloth as wide as their armspan. If cloth needed to be wider, two people would do the task (often this would be an adult with a child). John Kay (1704–1779) patented the flying shuttle in 1733. The weaver held a picking stick that was attached by cords to a device at both ends of the shed. With a flick of the wrist, one cord was pulled and the shuttle was propelled through the shed to the other end with considerable force, speed and efficiency. A flick in the opposite direction and the shuttle was propelled back. A single weaver had control of this motion but the flying shuttle could weave much wider fabric than an arm’s length at much greater speeds than had been achieved with the hand thrown shuttle.

The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. The whole picking motion no longer relied on manual skill and it was just a matter of time before it could be powered.

HAUTE-LISSE AND BASSE-LISSE LOOMS

Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are classified as haute-lisse looms, where the warp is suspended vertically between two rolls. In basse-lisse looms, however, the warp extends horizontally between the two rolls.

RIBBON WEAVING

TRADITIONAL LOOMS

Several other types of hand looms exist, including the simple frame loom, pit loom, free-standing loom, and the pegged loom. Each of these can be constructed, and provide work and income in developing economies.

POWER LOOMS

Edmund Cartwright built and patented a power loom in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. The silk loom made by Jacques Vaucanson in 1745 operated on the same principles but was not developed further. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay was critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom. Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas behind it were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area of England where, by 1818, there were 32 factories containing 5,732 looms.

Horrocks loom was viable, but it was the Roberts Loom in 1830 that marked the turning point. Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up, and a temple to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and Bullough produced the Lancashire Loom which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enables a youngster to run six looms at the same time. Thus, for simple calicos, the power loom became more economical to run than the hand loom – with complex patterning that used a dobby or Jacquard head, jobs were still put out to handloom weavers until the 1870s. Incremental changes were made such as the Dickinson Loom, culminating in the Keighley-born inventor Northrop, who was working for the Draper Corporation in Hopedale producing the fully automatic Northrop Loom. This loom recharged the shuttle when the pirn was empty. The Draper E and X models became the leading products from 1909. They were challenged by synthetic fibres such as rayon. By 1942, faster, more efficient, and shuttleless Sulzer and rapier looms had been introduced. Modern industrial looms can weave at 2,000 weft insertions per minute.

WEFT INSERTION

Different types of looms are most often defined by the way that the weft, or pick, is inserted into the warp. Many advances in weft insertion have been made in order to make manufactured cloth more cost effective. There are five main types of weft insertion and they are as follows:

Shuttle: The first-ever powered looms were shuttle-type looms. Spools of weft are unravelled as the shuttle travels across the shed. This is very similar to projectile methods of weaving, except that the weft spool is stored on the shuttle. These looms are considered obsolete in modern industrial fabric manufacturing because they can only reach a maximum of 300 picks per minute.

Air jet: An air-jet loom uses short quick bursts of compressed air to propel the weft through the shed in order to complete the weave. Air jets are the fastest traditional method of weaving in modern manufacturing and they are able to achieve up to 1,500 picks per minute. However, the amounts of compressed air required to run these looms, as well as the complexity in the way the air jets are positioned, make them more costly than other looms.

Water jet: Water-jet looms use the same principle as air-jet looms, but they take advantage of pressurized water to propel the weft. The advantage of this type of weaving is that water power is cheaper where water is directly available on site. Picks per minute can reach as high as 1,000.

Rapier loom: This type of weaving is very versatile, in that rapier looms can weave using a large variety of threads. There are several types of rapiers, but they all use a hook system attached to a rod or metal band to pass the pick across the shed. These machines regularly reach 700 picks per minute in normal production.

Projectile: Projectile looms utilize an object that is propelled across the shed, usually by spring power, and is guided across the width of the cloth by a series of reeds. The projectile is then removed from the weft fibre and it is returned to the opposite side of the machine so it can get reused. Multiple projectiles are in use in order to increase the pick speed. Maximum speeds on these machines can be as high as 1,050 ppm.

SHEDDING

DOBBY LOOMS

A dobby loom is a type of floor loom that controls the whole warp threads using a dobby head. Dobby is a corruption of "draw boy" which refers to the weaver's helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads. A dobby loom is an alternative to a treadle loom, where multiple heddles (shafts) were controlled by foot treadles – one for each heddle.

JACQUARD LOOMS

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, which simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740) To call it a loom is a misnomer, a Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a hand loom, the head controlling which warp thread was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking. The Jacquard loom is the predecessor to the punch card computers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

CICULAR LOOMS

A circular loom is used to create a seamless tube of fabric for products such as hosiery, sacks, clothing, fabric hose (such as fire hose) and the like. Circular looms can be small jigs used for circular knitting or large high-speed machines for modern garments. Modern circular looms use up to ten shuttles driven from below in a circular motion by electromagnets for the weft yarns, and cams to control the warp threads. The warps rise and fall with each shuttle passage, unlike the common practice of lifting all of them at once.

SYMBOLISM AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The loom is a symbol of cosmic creation and the structure upon which individual destiny is woven. This symbolism is encapsulated in the ancient Greek myth of Arachne who was changed into a spider by the goddess Athene, who was jealous of her skill at the godlike craft of weaving. In Maya Cultures the goddess Ixchel who is symbolized by the moon, taught the first woman how to weave at the beginning of time.

WIKIPEDIA

The first Ford Capri to bear that precise name was introduced in January 1969 at the Brussels Motor Show, with sales starting the following month. The intention was to reproduce in Europe the success Ford had had with the North American Ford Mustang; to produce a European pony car. It was mechanically based on the Cortina and built in Europe at the Dagenham and Halewood plants in the United Kingdom, the Genk plant in Belgium, and the Saarlouis and Cologne plants in Germany. The car was named Colt during development stage, but Ford were unable to use the name, as it was trademarked by Mitsubishi.

(Wikipedia)

- - -

Der Capri wurde im Januar 1969 auf dem Brüsseler Autosalon offiziell präsentiert, der Verkauf begann im Februar. Mit dem Capri wollte Ford den Erfolg, den das Unternehmen mit dem Ford Mustang in den USA erzielt hatte, in Europa wiederholen und eine Art europäisches „Pony Car“ anbieten. Das Fahrwerk wurde vom englischen Ford Cortina übernommen, die Motoren zum Teil vom deutschen Ford Taunus. Hergestellt wurde er in den britischen Werken Dagenham und Halewood, im belgischen Genk und in den deutschen Ford-Fabriken Saarlouis und Köln. Der Entwicklungsname des Capri lautete Colt; da der Name aber rechtlich von Mitsubishi geschützt war, konnte Ford ihn für sein Serienmodell nicht verwenden.

(Wikipedia)

Killer shot by @precise.perspective from our shoot the other weekend! 📷 #slammedsaturday #slammedsaturdays #slammed #slammedcars #bagged #audi #auditt #ttrs #audirs #audittclub #ttclub #audittrs #low #lowered #vossen #vossenwheels #vossens #wheels #teamvossen #camber #cv7 #stance #stanced #ttstance #airlift #airride #airsuspension #airliftperformance #mattered via Instagram ift.tt/2c253xr on September 03, 2016 at 05:30PM

*NEWS FLASH*

right..something bugged me this week..some news to be precise. I never read it, i never watch it..i live ignorantly to the worlds woes only because i have strong emotions and i cant bear seeing bad things happen when theres people out there trying to make the world right and they dont get a look in..its all pretty much negative stuff plastered around us..

I went on a web site and i naively clicked on a link..it was a video from a phone of the Iranian girl who got shot and bled to death, my heart immediately sank, my head stuck in a depressive state for the rest of the day..i went out,took pictures, my chest still aching so much from the sadness of watching something so mortifying, undignified and disrespectful that lasted all but a few seconds.

This is what happens to me, i cant shrug these things off, i cant switch it off, so how can i watch/read these awful things when i deeply think about them-its not that simple, i CANT because i know i am helpless.CALLING ALL transformers, superman,Supergirl, batman, he-man, she-ra,..where the hell are you??

oh and to top it off..*Jon turns telly on*...king of pop..noooooo you cant die!

I wanted to see you at the O2 :(:( R.I.P

Published in 1961 by Kodak. It's filled with hints and notes on how to use the Kodak Retina Camera.

It was 11 months ago, 26th September 2012 to be precise, that I visited the Ashram in Taloja, a couple of hours drive from Mumbai, where 70-75 old men and women were living, left abandoned by families for no reason except that they (the family members) felt these old people were a burden. A very large proportion of them were from upper middle class families with all the modern day comforts and considered amongst the rich even by urban Indian standards, yet these elderly were not supported by families - sometimes because they were ill and their medical expenses were considered a burden but often for no reason except that they were 'expendable' and brought no economic benefit to the families that left them to their fates.

Amongst that lot, there were a few highly educated old men and women who spoke flawless English and were obviously educated in the best of institutions almost half a century ago which meant they were from the creme de la creme of the societies they came from. They as well as some others were the victims of children who first managed to get their parents and grand parents to sign away their properties pleading all kind of dire necessities. The parents (and grand parents) out of sheer love for their progeny and with absolutely no doubt that these children would see them comfortably to their graves or funeral pyres, signed away their own futures and were then abandoned in homes like this one.

Some of those I saw last year were not there this time - snatched away by death. Others who I remembered looked clearly much worse off than before which wasn't great to start with and, of course, there were new ones. Interestingly, most of the new ones were in better health and many of them wore cleaner, newer and better clothes. Probably still wearing the clothes of better times.

Among these new comers was this stunningly attractive old lady. One look from the corridor into the room which she shared with six others and I realised this was a person of some standing in society. Her entire bearing screamed class. She must have been a very very attractive young lady once but even in her old age, 70's I'd guess, she exuded a dignity, charm and grace which was so becoming and completely out of place in her terrible shabby new surroundings.

I went into the room and started talking to her. She was delighted but it soon became apparent that she was a disturbed person inspite of the exuberance, warmth and sunny smiles that radiated from her. My heart went out to her. She was not old enough to be my mother but it is my mother I thought of the moment I started talking to her and experiencing her zest of for life.

I have seen so many mothers (and fathers) devoting their entire lives to the care of children with various physical disabilities and challenges. I have seen grown up men in their thirties, completely unable to manage their bodily functions and hardly able to communicate in a manner you and I would be able to comprehend - I have seen these men being looked after mothers, themselves not very old, who do not even show the slightest sign of being inconvenienced, forget anything stronger, by this life long service in love. Where then do these sons and daughters come from, which wombs to they emanate from, who are able to leave mothers and fathers to fate you and I will not leave a pet with a disease to.

Shame on you - wherever you are and whosoever you may be !!!!

Utricularia minor L.

EN: Lesser Bladderwort, DE: Kleine Wasserschlauch

Slo.: mala mešinka

Dat.: June 10. 2008

Lat.: 45.90000 Long.: 14.10000 (coordinates not precise)

Code: Bot_270/2008_DSC9003

Habitat: nutrients poor, shallow standing water of a small march; next to a local road; flat terrain; mostly sunny; elevation 570 m (1.870 feet); average precipitations 1.800-2.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-9 deg C, borderline between Dinaric and prealpine phytogeographical region.

Substratum: soil, bottom of a shallow standing water.

Place: Žejna dolina valley, next to the local road from village Hotedršica toward the settlement Medvedje Brdo, (about 2 km north from the village Hotedršica), Notranska, Slovenia EC.

Comment: Utricularia minor is a very interesting carnivorous aquatic plant. It grows in standing and very slowly flowing waters. Only its flower stalks with yellow, bizarre looking flowers, resembling gluttonous mouth, rise above water surface. Long stolons and stalks with several times divided leaves having thin final segments live in water. The plant catches and digests small water animals like water fleas, nematodes, small fish fry and mosquito larvae with bladder-like traps situated on their leaves. Hundreds of these traps can be found on a single plant. Each bladder, which was initially thought to be a flotation device before its carnivorous nature was discovered, has a small mouth, 'trap door', surrounded by several branched protuberances looking like some kind of tentacles.

The functioning of these traps is ingenious – many agree the most sophisticated and simple at the same time carnivorous trapping mechanism to be found within plant kingdom. The bladder is a purely mechanical device without any sensory functions. The only active mechanism involved is the constant pumping of water out of the bladder through thin bladder's walls by cellular transportation mechanism. Since the mouth (trap door) is normally tightly closed, this pumping crates negative pressure within the bladder and squeezes it somewhat. The 'tentacles' are stiff and attached to the flexible mouth lip. If an animal touches these 'tentacles' they work simply as mechanical levers and deform the mouth lip a bit. The mouth loses its tightness and, because of the negative pressure inside the bladder, water instantly brakes into the bladder – together with the pray. This happens in about 10 ms only! The mouth closes and the pray is slowly digested by the plant. After the meal is finished the whole process starts again (Ref.: 4). Note: Picture of the bladder taken through a microscope shows similar bladder of Utricularia intermedia and not of Utricularia minor!

Utricularia minor is widely distributed all over the world (except Antarctica). In Slovenia it is rare, highly endangered and protected by law as all other four species of this interesting genus present in the country.

Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroženih rastlinskih in živalskih vrst v rdeči seznam, Uradni list RS, št. 82/2002 (Regulation of enlisting of endangered plant and animal species onto Red List, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, no. 82/2002) (2002). Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "V" representing a vulnerable species.

Ref.:

(1) Personal communication Mr. Branko Dolinar, www.orhideje.si

(2) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 763.

(3) A. Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007), p 583.

(4) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utricularia (accessed Oct.28. 2018)

(5) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 300.

(6) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 946.

Panasonic ES8109 S Vortex Wet/Dry Shaving System

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Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder est le huitième album studio de Cradle of Filth sorti le 27 octobre 2008. Le thème principal de cet album est la vie de Gilles de Rais, et plus précisément les nombreux meurtres et actes de sorcellerie qu'il a perpétré à la fin de sa vie.

Pistes

No Titre Durée

1. In Grandeur and Frankincense Devilment Stirs 2:27

2. Shat Out of Hell 5:03

3. The Death of Love 7:13

4. The 13th Caesar 5:35

5. Tiffauges 2:14

6. Tragic Kingdom 5:59

7. Sweetest Maleficia 5:59

8. Honey and Sulphur 5:37

9. Midnight Shadows Crawl to Darken Counsel with Life 8:58

10. Darkness Incarnate 8:55

11. Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt 4:58

12. Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder 5:36

13. Corpseflower 2:41

Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder (subtitled The Life and Crimes of Gilles de Rais) is the eighth studio album by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. It was released on 27 October 2008, through record label Roadrunner. It is the band's fourth concept album, after Cruelty and the Beast (1998), Midian (2000), and Damnation and a Day (2003), dealing with the life of the 15th Century French character Gilles de Rais.

Cradle of Filth

Dani Filth – vocals

Paul Allender – guitar, recording of demo tracks

Dave Pybus – bass guitar

Martin Škaroupka – drums

Sarah Jezebel Deva – spoken voice, harmonies

Precise brickwork to join two tunnels together seamlessly

Precise use of the caves under the limestone outcrop are not known, but two theories predominate. One being the mummification of the dead - there is a consistent temperature and air flow and the second, sacrifice. Which ever is true, the rock has been carved and smooth out to form a lying out area.

Tank Infantry Mark III, Valentine IX (E2000.577)

The precise identity of this tank is not clear, all identification marks having been removed many years ago. It stood outside the Army Base at Long Kesh in Northern Ireland for many years, subsequently moving to the Maze Prison and Lisanelly Camp, Omagh.

It was subsequently acquired by Vickers Defence Systems and restored to running order in Newcastle using the engine from our Valentine Archer (E1969.43). In due course it was offered to the Tank Museum on loan and ultimately, in March 2002 was gifted to the Museum.

The Valentine Mark IX was upgunned to fit a 57mm (six-pounder) gun into the turret although this did not leave enough room for a co-axial machine gun and in any case, with just a two-man turret crew the tank was very difficult to fight.

Our tank carried the number T123358 on the turret which is correct for the type but not necessarily for this actual vehicle. Mark IX Valentines saw service in North Africa and some may have been suppplied to Russia but by 1943 the Valentine had been replaced in front line service by more modern vehicles and was either being relegated to secondary roles or supplied to other countries such as Portugal.

The Valentine development started without a specification from the War Office (hence the absence of an army designation), as a private design by Sir John Carden, and was submitted on February, 10, 1938, to the authorities. By then, the Matilda II had been chosen for production, but the Valentine was something different.

Vickers engineers basically tried to enhance their A10 Cruiser tank design, with a dramatic increase in protection (up to 60 mm/2.36 in). This choice allowed the use most components and parts of the already produced Cruiser I and II, therefore creating an efficient and cheap solution to the need of new infantry tank models. By then, the Matilda II was found to be far costlier than the Matilda I, and not suitable for mass-production. Comparatively, the Valentine seemed a good compromise. The name itself still is a mystery. It could have originated either from Sir John Carden’s middle name, or the date of its first submission (St. Valentine day), or a composed Vickers factory codename, though most historians agree that Valentine was just a simple codename during development.

The Mark I set the tone for the entire series of eleven main variants, with many sub-variants, and a staggering total of 8300 units. The main armament and turret design, as well as the engine and protection, were continuously improved while keeping roughly the same general appearance until 1945. The Mk.I was recognizable by its original two-man turret and 2-pdr (40 mm/1.575 in) gun. From the start, a coaxial Besa machine-gun constitued the secondary armament. The crew consisted of only three men due to the cramped interior, and the commander was also busy as gun loader, machine-gunner and radio operator. The production was rushed to such point that many problems were later detected and fixed with the next Mk.II. The main engine was the AEG A189 petrol delivering only 135 hp, and the hull was riveted. 350 were delivered in all, most seeing action in Libya, while others stayed at home for training.

Tankfest by World of Tanks - 24.-25.6.2016

The Tank Museum - Bovington, UK

Worlds biggest and best live display of historic armour, living history, and much more at the Home of the Tank - The Tank Museum, Bovington, United Kingdom.

More from Tankfest:

www.flickr.com/photos/jukkaokauppinen2/albums/72157670621...

More from me:

www.flickr.com/photos/jukkaokauppinen

Tankfest videos:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIGRHBJyGQb3PpXwFlOKve2OUJ...

My Imgur galleries:

grendelb.imgur.com/

That's right a year from some time around now last year (not sure the precise date. :/) I joined Flickr!

I have had some very nice friends and some very mean enemies. (Go to my block list pic to see who ;))

Best friends on flickr:

Epac1998

Ghost

Lego ness430

Brickdude1001

KTV

High5

Centurion

Gondabuggan

Brickguy360

NorwegianProductions

[]CilliT[]

Pharoah Matsimela

Deltaforceguy

LegoSWfan

¿ThéSçhmídt?

Quadcustoms.

And so many more! (If I forgot you I am only human so comment if you think you have been a great friend)

Thanks you for bringing me from a noob to what I am now over the past year and thank you all for the support!

As of now I have 15000+ views and I am very happy that people like me enough to view my stuff!

If I add you it's because your a friend or supporter.

I mad the picture!

Because documents were not properly kept and many were destroyed the precise date of the introduction of Odd Fellowship in Canada cannot be given. But it is known that two lodges under the Manchester Unity of Independent Order of Odd Fellows known as Royal Wellington Lodge no.1 and Loyal Bon Accorde Lodge no.2 existed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as early as 1815. The older Order of Odd Fellows in Canada merged with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1843. The IOOF in Canada has 7 Grand Lodges, namely: Grand Lodge of Alberta, Grand Lodge of Atlantic Provinces, Grand Lodge of British Columbia, Grand Lodge of Manitoba, Grand Lodge of Ontario, Grand Lodge of Quebec and Grand Lodge of Saskatchewan

The Postcard

A Military Series postcard that was published by E. F. A. The stamp has been removed along with the precise date of posting, but we do know that the card was posted in Folkestone in 1905 to:

Master P. Harmer,

64, Providence Street,

South Ashford,

Kent.

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

"Dear Percy,

Thank you so much for

your letter. I am pleased

to hear that all were well.

Ask Granny how this style

suits her.

If it is fine on Saturday I

think Mr. H. will bike down,

he has got a photo I think.

Yes, the weather is

wretched.

I began to wonder if you

had all left Ashford as I

did not get a line.

Poor old Schneider's got

into bad disgrace last

night - a turkey and

sausages were put up-

stairs for me to take in

the dining room. When

the dog heard the plates

he nipped down and

made short work of the

sausages and had a good

tuck-in at the turkey before

he was discovered so now

he is chained up tight.

Love to all,

Yours etc.,

M. H."

-- Percy Harmer

There are 20 cards on this photostream addressed to Percy Harmer. Percy must have been a stamp collector, because out of the 20 cards, 13 of them have unusually had their stamp removed.

-- The Death of Percy Harmer

Sadly Percy did not survive the Great War:

Frederick Percy Harmer was born in Ashford, Kent in 1896. He served in the British Army as a private in the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Percy died of wounds in France at the age of 20 on the 19th. October 1916.

Percy's name is recorded along with sixty others on the Great War Memorial in Christ Church, South Ashford, Kent.

Percy's family obviously continued to keep the postcards that had been set to him before the Great War, and they are still all together, in my collection.

The Seaforth Highlanders

The Seaforth Highlanders was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, mainly associated with large areas of the northern Highlands of Scotland. The regiment existed from 1881 to 1961, and saw service in World War I and World War II, along with many smaller conflicts.

In 1961 the regiment was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders to form the Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons), which merged, in 1994, with the Gordon Highlanders to form the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons).

This later joined the Royal Scots Borderers, the Black Watch, the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to create the present Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The Seaforth Highlanders in the Great War

The 1st. Battalion, which had been serving in India, landed at Marseilles in October 1914 for service on the Western Front. It saw action at the Battle of Aubers Ridge in May 1915.

The battalion then moved to Mesopotamia in December 1915, where it took part in the Siege of Kut later that month, and the Fall of Baghdad in March 1917, before moving to Palestine in January 1918.

The 2nd. Battalion, which had been stationed at Shorncliffe Camp, landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer in August 1914. It took part in the retreat from Le Cateau later that month, the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the Battle of the Aisne also in September 1914, and the Battle of Messines in October 1914.

It went on to fight in the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, the Battle of the Somme in Autumn 1916, and the Battle of Arras in April 1917.

The battalion also saw action at the Battle of Passchendaele in Autumn 1917, the Battle of the Lys in April 1918, the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the final advance in Picardy.

Canon EOS 1100D

Angkor Wat or "Capital Temple" is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. It was first a Hindu and later a Buddhist temple. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura, present-day Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.

Breaking from the Shiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early Dravidian architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (नगर). Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds" (Sanskrit: वाट vāṭa ""enclosure").

HISTORY

Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

According to one legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea.

According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect. The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113-C. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.

In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.

In the late 13th century, Angkor Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.

One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."

In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer, Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:

"One of these temples - a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo - might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."

Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States and its neighbor Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. Angkor Wat's aesthetics were also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from C. 1880 to the mid-1920s. The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control since 1351 AD (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, 1431 AD. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time.

ARCHITECTURE

SITE AND PLAN

Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of the temple mountain, the standard design for the empire's state temples and the later plan of concentric galleries. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level. Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple.Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction - prasavya in Hindu terminology - as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services. The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower. It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.

A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above." Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.

STYLE

Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture - the Angkor Wat style - to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested. The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style." Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.

FEATURES

OUTER ENCLOSURE

The outer wall, 1024 by 802 m and 4.5 m high, is surrounded by a 30 m apron of open ground and a moat 190 m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper. Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple's central shrine.Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth. The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres, which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets. Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.

CENTRAL STRUCTURE

The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu.

Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.

The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 m, with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the "Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water.

North and south of the cloister are libraries.

Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 by 115 m, and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru.

Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m to a height of 65 m above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.

DECORATION

Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these, "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving".

From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hindu mythology.

On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice). It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, "The workmanship is at its worst"). and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras. The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna. Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devata; there are more than 1,796 depictions of devata in the present research inventory. Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30–40 cm) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110 cm) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.

CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

The stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that are sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity. The blocks were presumably put in place by a combination of elephants, coir ropes, pulleys and bamboo scaffolding. Henri Mouhot noted that most of the blocks had holes 2.5 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep, with more holes on the larger blocks. Some scholars have suggested that these were used to join them together with iron rods, but others claim they were used to hold temporary pegs to help manoeuvre them into place. The monument was made out of millions of tonnes of sandstone and it has a greater volume as well as mass than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The Angkor Wat Temple consumes about 6 million to 10 million blocks of sandstone with an average weight of 1.5 tons each. In fact, the entire city of Angkor used up far greater amounts of stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined, and occupied an area significantly greater than modern-day Paris. Moreover, unlike the Egyptian pyramids which use limestone quarried barely half a km away all the time, the entire city of Angkor was built with sandstone quarried 40 km (or more) away. This sandstone had to be transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 40 km to the northeast. The route has been suggested to span 35 kilometres along a canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 kilometres crossing the lake, and finally 15 kilometres upstream and against the current along Siem Reap River, making a total journey of 90 kilometres. However, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan have discovered in 2012 a shorter 35-kilometre canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery. The two believe that the Khmer used this route instead.

Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels even roofs are carved. There are miles of reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hair styles. The gallery wall alone is decorated with almost 1000 square metres of bas reliefs. Holes on some of the Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets. These were highly prized in ancient times and were a prime target for robbers. While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a stonemason and sculptor, recreated a stone sculpture under 1.2 m, this took about 60 days to carve. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. The labor force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone must have run into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artifacts that have been dated to the seventh century, before the Khmer came to power.

ANGKOR WAT TODAY

The Archaeological Survey of India carried out restoration work on the temple between 1986 and 1992. Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has seen continued conservation efforts and a massive increase in tourism. The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992, which has provided some funding and has encouraged the Cambodian government to protect the site. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) is working to protect the devatas and other bas-reliefs which decorate the temple from damage. The organisation's survey found that around 20% of the devatas were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone but in part also due to earlier restoration efforts. Other work involves the repair of collapsed sections of the structure, and prevention of further collapse: the west facade of the upper level, for example, has been buttressed by scaffolding since 2002, while a Japanese team completed restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure in 2005. World Monuments Fund began conservation work on the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery in 2008 after several years of conditions studies. The project restored the traditional Khmer roofing system and removed cement used in earlier restoration attempts that had resulted in salts entering the structure behind the bas-relief, discoloring and damaging the sculpted surfaces. The main phase of work ended in 2012, and the final component will be the installation of finials on the roof of the gallery in 2013. Microbial biofilms have been found degrading sandstone at Angkor Wat, Preah Khan, and the Bayon and West Prasat in Angkor. The dehydration and radiation resistant filamentous cyanobacteria can produce organic acids that degrade the stone. A dark filamentous fungus was found in internal and external Preah Khan samples, while the alga Trentepohlia was found only in samples taken from external, pink-stained stone at Preah Khan. Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 2004 and 2005, government figures suggest that, respectively, 561.000 and 677.000 foreign visitors arrived in Siem Reap province, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia for both years. The site has been managed by the private SOKIMEX group since 1990, which rented it from the Cambodian government. The influx of tourists has so far caused relatively little damage, other than some graffiti; ropes and wooden steps have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively. Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance - as of 2000 approximately 28% of ticket revenues across the whole Angkor site was spent on the temples - although most work is carried out by foreign government-sponsored teams rather than by the Cambodian authorities. Since Angkor Wat has seen significant growth in tourism throughout the years UNESCO and its International Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), in association with representatives from the Royal Government and APSARA, organized seminars to discuss the concept of "cultural tourism". Wanting to avoid commercial and mass tourism, the seminars emphasized the importance of providing high quality accommodation and services in order for the Cambodian government to benefit economically, while also incorporating the richness of Cambodian culture. In 2001, this incentive resulted in the concept of the "Angkor Tourist City" which would be developed with regard to traditional Khmer architecture, contain leisure and tourist facilities, and provide luxurious hotels capable of accommodating large amounts of tourists. The prospect of developing such large tourist accommodations has encountered concerns from both APSARA and the ICC, claiming that previous tourism developments in the area have neglected construction regulations and more of these projects have the potential to damage landscape features. Also, the large scale of these projects have begun to threaten the quality of the nearby town's water, sewage, and electricity systems. It has been noted that such high frequency of tourism and growing demand for quality accommodations in the area, such as the development of a large highway, has had a direct effect on the underground water table, subsequently straining the structural stability of the temples at Angkor Wat. Locals of Siem Reap have also voiced concern over the charming nature and atmosphere of their town being compromised in order to entertain tourism. Since this charming local atmosphere is the key component to projects like Angkor Tourist City, local officials continue to discuss how to successfully incorporate future tourism without sacrificing local values and culture. At the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012, both parties have agreed Borobudur and Angkor Wat to become sister sites and the provinces will become sister provinces. Two Indonesian airlines are considering the opportunity to open a direct flight from Yogyakarta, Indonesia to Siem Reap.

WIKIPEDIA

Buddhist teachings contain very precise descriptions on the process of dying, death and the stages between death and rebirth.

During his lecture in New York, Lama Ole explained the foundations of the "Tibetan Book of Death" and the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa). Through the meditation on “conscious dying” you get the opportunity to work intensively with the process of your own death.

Lama Ole Nydahl received the transmission of the Phowa teachings from different Tibetan Lamas and is today the most significant teacher of this practice in the Western world. More than 80,000 people learned the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa) through him.

More about his work: www.lama-ole-nydahl.org/his-work/

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Some individuals have got a technique for breaking down a problem, laying it out in its easiest, most rudimentary sort. Comic and podcaster Adam Carolla did just that recently when he unleashed what a lot of conservatives will hail an acerbic but painfully precise debunking with the Occupy movement and its self-ascribed motivations. The almost 10 moment long lampooning of America’s new “f-king self-entitled monsters“ who ”think the world owes them a living” is peppered with extremely powerful language, nevertheless, Carolla’s observations are worth listening by way of for the finish.

Amongst the various highlights in Carolla’s rant, he asks why the very best “1 percent” of America paying 50 % of all earnings taxes within the country just isn't great adequate for the Occupiers. He also observes how “envy” in no way ahead of existed between Americans the way it does now, and that it, along with “shame” performs a vital part within the Occupiers’ determination and self-justification.

Reflecting on how things used to be “back while in the day,” Carolla states:

“You took men who constructed some thing, and you also mentioned ‘there’s a guy who completed something.‘ You did not say, ‘that guy did not shell out his honest share.’ That man compensated numerous dollars final yr, so you paid shi*t and you are pissed at him?”

You are able to hear Carolla’s podcast underneath. We caution yet again, he employs really sturdy language:

Relating to the “envy” of Occupiers, the media persona notes that men and women accustomed to look up to those who “accomplished” something and constructed corporations.

“It’s this envy and shame, and there’s gonna be a lot far more of it,” he warns. “It accustomed to be back within the day, a father was strolling his son and they’d see a man go by in his Rolls Royce. There goes Mr. Jenkins. Appear around him.’ What do we do now? Oooh, look at him. Does he need that auto? Why does he must generate that vehicle? Let us toss a rock at it.”

“That’s not gonna allow you to get from your Chevette,” Carolla adds sarcastically.

Reflecting on the time when people were rewarded for their actual accomplishments in lieu of for absolutely nothing in any respect, Carolla laments, “We’re coping with the initial wave of participation trophies…everybody’s a winner, there isn't any losers.”

He rhetorically asks why the “slowest, fattest guy on the team” would are worthy of an MVP award. In the approach of gratifying individuals undeserving, Carolla states that “we designed a bunch of f**king self-entitled monsters.”

“We’re coping with the first wave of these f-cking a**holes now,” he blasts in reference towards the Occupy protesters. The variety who think “my personal fecal make a difference doesn’t stink.”

Carolla also strongly suggests the Occupiers should “find a mirror” and discover why they're not “doing better” in daily life as opposed to appear at other folks.

For that most portion, Carolla maintains that even though Capitalism does veer off class at times, it's the “best method.”

Update: This is not the first time Carolla has spoken out versus the Occupy Motion. Beneath, listen to yet another clip for the duration of which the comedian lambastes the protesters:

From The Blaze.com

Hendrick Ter Brugghen (1588-1629), actif à Utrecht

Joueuse de luth, 1626

Personnes en faisant de la musique, individuellement ou en groupes, sont populaires dès les premières représentations du sujet de Caravage, en particulier chez ses successeurs néerlandais. C'est précisément dans la musique néerlandais que musique souvent est pourvu de l'importance emblématique: peut-être le peintre voulait ainsi que son modèle, qui commence tout juste à faire de la musique et se mit à chanter et à jouer quelques notes de musiqe sur son instrument, soit compris comme une allégorie de l'ouïe.

Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629), tätig in Utrecht

Lautenspielerin, um 1626

Musizierende, einzeln oder in Gruppen, sind seit Caravaggios frühen Darstellungen des Themas vor allem bei seinen holländischen Nachfolgern beliebt. Gerade in der niederländischen Malerei wird Musik gerne mit sinnbildhafter Bedeutung versehen: möglicherweise wollte der Maler also sein Modell, das gerade zu musizierend beginnt, sich und die Laute einstimmt, als Allegorie des Gehörsins verstanden wissen.

Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum

Federal Museum

Logo KHM

Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture

Founded 17 October 1891

Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria

Management Sabine Haag

www.khm.at website

Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.

The museum

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.

History

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery

The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building .

Architectural History

The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währingerstraße/ Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the grain market (Getreidemarkt).

From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience with of Joseph Semper at the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.

Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.

Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper moved to Vienna in the sequence. From the beginning, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, built in 1878, the first windows installed in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade from 1880 to 1881 and built the dome and the Tabernacle. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.

The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made ​​the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times .

Kuppelhalle

Entrance (by clicking the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)

Grand staircase

Hall

Empire

The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891 , the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol will need another two years.

189, the farm museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:

Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection

The Egyptian Collection

The Antique Collection

The coins and medals collection

Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects

Weapons collection

Collection of industrial art objects

Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)

Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.

Restoration Office

Library

Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.

1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his " Estonian Forensic Collection " passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d' Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.

The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The farm museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.

Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.

First Republic

The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.

It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.

On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House" , by the Republic. Of 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.

Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.

With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Collection of ancient coins

Collection of modern coins and medals

Weapons collection

Collection of sculptures and crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Picture Gallery

The Museum 1938-1945

Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.

With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the empire.

After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to perform certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. This was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.

The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.

The museum today

Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.

In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.

Management

1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials

1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director

1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director

1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director

1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief in 1941 as first director

1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation

1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation

1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director

1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation

1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director

1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director

1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director

1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director

1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director

1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director

1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director

1990: George Kugler as interim first director

1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director

Since 2009: Sabine Haag as general director

Collections

To the Kunsthistorisches Museum are also belonging the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.

Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)

Picture Gallery

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Vienna Chamber of Art

Numismatic Collection

Library

New Castle

Ephesus Museum

Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Arms and Armour

Archive

Hofburg

The imperial crown in the Treasury

Imperial Treasury of Vienna

Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage

Insignia of imperial Austria

Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire

Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece

Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure

Ecclesiastical Treasury

Schönbrunn Palace

Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna

Armory in Ambras Castle

Ambras Castle

Collections of Ambras Castle

Major exhibits

Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:

Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438

Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80

Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16

Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526

Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24

Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07

Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)

Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75

Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68

Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06

Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508

Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32

The Little Fur, about 1638

Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559

Kids, 1560

Tower of Babel, 1563

Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564

Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565

Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565

Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565

Bauer and bird thief, 1568

Peasant Wedding, 1568/69

Peasant Dance, 1568/69

Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567

Cabinet of Curiosities:

Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543

Egyptian-Oriental Collection:

Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut

Collection of Classical Antiquities:

Gemma Augustea

Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós

Gallery: Major exhibits

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthistorisches_Museum

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Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

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Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

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Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

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By pairing the capabilities of X-ray analysis and extremely precise microscopy, scientists at Argonne have developed a way to simultaneously determine the physical structure and chemical makeup of materials at close to the atomic level.

Above: Postdoctoral researchers Marvin Cummings (at right) and Nozomi Shirato adjust the microscope before an experiment.

Read more »

When planning the precise and delicate procedure to remove a brain tumor, a neurosurgeon needs to know the exact location and dimensions of the invasive growth and the surrounding tissue. Because of the brain’s intricate network of neural pathways, altering one spot can adversely affect a patient’s speech, vision, mobility and cognition.

Nagarajan's lab specializes in detailed, high-fidelity brain imaging using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a quick, noninvasive procedure that measures the brain’s electromagnetic signals to visualize how things work inside.

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This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

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The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

Have you EVER opened a pen on a plane and had "problems" that occurred due to cabin pressure? I mean, I appreciate the helpful hint, but I guess I just never thought about it like this before.

1. Quite a precise message., 2. Message for my friends, 3. Message #3, 4. Message #1, 5. Message, 6. squared circle with a message, 7. Message from London, 8. The Message, 9. Secret message, 10. Message, 11. Text message poster, 12. self explaining addiction, 13. your karma is leaking, 14. good advice, 15. ... and Nice Shoes. I Like You., 16. Message in a bottle?, 17. Crosswalk anti-smoking message, Singapore, 18. Secret Message, 19. Message in a Bottle 1, 20. New Twitter Message?, 21. 9.29.06: Ghost putty., 22. hearts, 23. Message from Paul Graham, 24. Promises, promises, 25. Multimedia message, 26. I miss you., 27. "I just feel to cry.", 28. "Increase The Peace", 29. message of love?, 30. RESPECT, 31. Tweeting on a glassboard, 32. Life question..., 33. Public Service Announcement, 34. flee_from_conformity, 35. Sueña más trabaja menos, 36. I don't take orders

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

By pairing the capabilities of X-ray analysis and extremely precise microscopy, scientists at Argonne have developed a way to simultaneously determine the physical structure and chemical makeup of materials at close to the atomic level.

Above: This insulator-coated “smart tip” for synchrotron X-ray scanning tunneling microscopy confines the signal detection to a tiny region of a sample. The nanofabricated tips have been developed by an Argonne team led by nanoscientist Volker Rose to improve the sensitivity of the SXSTM technique.

Photo courtesy Volker Rose / Argonne National Laboratory

Like a cry for justice from beyond the grave, the mysterious handprint of a man wrongly hanged over a 100 years ago remains on the wall of his cell - even though the original wall was replaced!

Alexander Campbell was convicted of being an accessory to murder in 1877, but proclaimed his innocence to the bitter end.

As he was led out of his jail cell for the final time, he slapped a grimy handprint on the wall and declared it would remain there forever as a reminder of the injustice that took his life.

Over the years, superstitious sheriffs in Carbon County, PA have painted over the ominous wall and even knocked it down. But the cursed handprint ALWAYS reappeared.

"There's no logical explanation for it," says James Starrs, a forensic scientist from George Washington University who's investigating the bizarre mark. "It looks like a child's handprint on a white wall."

For more than a century, Campbell's print has baffled sheriff's and prisoners. Eventually, it attracted curiosity seekers from all over the country. They're fascinated by the eerie image, which authorities have been trying to wipe out.

"In 1930, a sheriff named Biegler wanted to put an end to the legend," says Starrs. "He had the county road gang tear down the wall an put in a new one. Biegler had went to sleep, certain that he had forever removed the so called miracle. But when he woke up the next day, he was shocked to see the handprint had reappeared!"

Thirty years later, Sheriff Charles Neast tried to cover over it with green latex paint. "But it soon became clearly visible." says Neast.

Recently Starrs and Jeff Kercheval, a police chemist from Hagerstown, MD analyzed the strange mark using infrared photography and other high-tech equipment.

"We did everything short of painting over the print or literally taking it off the wall." explains Starrs. "We measured the handprint and its precise location on the wall, so if it's ever painted over and reappears, we'll know if it appeared in the same location or a different one."

The jail is set to close, but there are no plans for a last ditch effort to get rid of the handprint.

"We don't plan to touch the wall before we leave," says the current warden Bill Juracka.

Whatever the owners want to do with it after that is up to them."

But those who know the full story behind the supernatural mark believe the grave reminder will endure for years to come.

Campbell was falsely accused of killing a local mine boss during a bid by the Irish miners to organize labor unions.

"Campbell was a hotel owner and a liquor distributor, so he was viewed as an Irishman who made good." says Starrs. "Prosecutors felt he was the backbone of the murder plot."

The businessman vehemently maintained his innocence throughout his trial. And before being led from his jail cell to his horrible fate, he left his lasting impression. Says Starrs: "When the sheriff came to get him, Campbell declared 'I am innocent, I was nowhere near the scene of the crime.'

"Then he reached up and rubbed the wall with his hand and said: 'There is proof of my words. That mark of mine will NEVER be wiped out. It will remain forever to shame the county for hanging an innocent man.' "

Powis Castle (Welsh: Castell Powys) is a medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys, Wales. The seat of the Herbert family, earls of Powis, the castle is known for its formal gardens and for its interiors, the former having been described as "the most important", and the latter "the most magnificent", in the country. The castle and gardens are under the care of the National Trust. Powis Castle is a Grade I listed building, while its gardens have their own Grade I listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

The present castle was built in the 13th century. Unusually for a castle on the Marches, it was constructed by a Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, rather than by a Norman baron. Gruffydd was prince of the ancient Kingdom of Powys and maintained an alliance with the English king Edward I during the struggles of the later 13th century. He was able to secure the position of his son, Owain, although the kingdom itself was abolished by the Parliament of Shrewsbury in 1283. After his father's death, Owain was raised to the peerage as Owen de la Pole, 1st Lord of Powis. Following his own death c. 1293, and the death of his only son, he was succeeded by his daughter, Hawys Gadarn, "the Lady of Powis". Hawys married Sir John Charlton in 1309.

In the late 16th century the castle was purchased by Sir Edward Herbert, a younger son of William Herbert, 1st earl of Pembroke, beginning a connection between the family and the castle that continues today. The Herberts remained Roman Catholic until the 18th century and, although rising in the peerage to earls, marquesses and Jacobite dukes of Powis, suffered periods of imprisonment and exile. Despite these setbacks, they were able in the late 17th and early 18th centuries to transform Powis from a border fortress into an aristocratic country house, and surround it with one of the very few extant examples of a British Baroque garden.

In 1784 Henrietta Herbert married Edward Clive, eldest son of Clive of India, a match which replenished the much-depleted Herbert family fortune. In the early 20th century, George Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis, redeveloped the castle with the assistance of the architect George Frederick Bodley. Herbert’s wife, Violet, undertook work of equal importance in the garden, seeking to turn it into "one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, in England and Wales". On the 4th Earl's death in 1952, his wife and his sons having predeceased him, the castle passed into the care of the National Trust.

History

First castles at Welshpool: 1111–1286

Unlike the castles at Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and nearby Montgomery, which were built by the English to subdue the Welsh, the castles at Welshpool were built by the Welsh princes of Powys Wenwynwyn as their dynastic seat.[1] In addition to the current site, two motte-and-bailey castles and a set of earthworks are located nearby.[2] The names Trallwg/Tallwm and Pola are used interchangeably in early primary sources, and it is unclear which of these sites is being referred to.[3]

The earliest reference dates from 1111, when Cadwgan ap Bleddyn is mentioned as having planned to construct a castle at Trallwng Llywelyn,[3] the oldest record of a native Welsh castle.[4] Domen Castell, a motte-and-bailey near the modern railway station, is considered the most likely site of Cadwgan's castle, although it is uncertain whether it was completed as he was assassinated the same year.[5] The first documentary account of an extant castle at Welshpool is a description of the successful 1196 siege by an English army, although the castle was retaken by the Welsh within the year.[5][6]

The earliest castle at the current site may have been a timber building constructed by Owain Cyfeiliog or his son, Gwenwynwyn (r. 1197–1216).[7] The present masonry structure contains 13th-century fabric,[8] most likely the work of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn (r. 1241–1287) – although historians are uncertain when this took place.[a][10] In 1274, Gruffydd's "first castle" at Welshpool was destroyed by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as punishment for his involvement in a scheme to assassinate Llywelyn.[b] The castle was documented again in 1286, when it was listed amongst Gruffydd's possessions as "la Pole Castr".[12] A detailed examination of Powis Castle's extant masonry carried out between 1987 and 1989 revealed early stonework incorporated into the later structure, putatively the remains of an early stone shell keep.[13] At the end of Edward I's conquest of Wales in 1282–83, the king permitted Gruffydd to rebuild his castle at Welshpool as a reward for his loyalty.[14]

Early history: 1286–1644

Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury[c]

In 1286, four years after the conquest of Wales, Gruffydd's son, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn became the last hereditary prince of Powys when he renounced his royal title, and was granted the barony of de la Pole, (i.e. "of the Pool", a reference to Welshpool, formerly called just "Pool").[d][16][17] The ancient Kingdom of Powys had once included the counties of Montgomeryshire, much of Denbighshire, parts of Radnorshire and large areas of Shropshire, but by the 13th century had been reduced to two independent principalities – Powys Wenwynwyn and Powys Fadog – roughly equivalent to Montgomeryshire and South Denbighshire (plus Maelor Saesneg), respectively; Welshpool had become the capital of Powys Wenwynwyn, of which Owain had been heir. On the death of Owain, the castle passed to his daughter Hawys, who married Sir John Charlton.[17] The Charltons continued to live at Powis until the fifteenth century when two daughters, Joyce Tiptoft and Joan Grey inherited the castle and estates. Both were equally divided, each daughter and her husband living in a portion of the castle.[18]

In 1578 an illegitimate son of the last Baron Grey of Powis, began leasing the lordship and castle to a distant relative – Sir Edward Herbert (d. 1595), second son of Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Edward eventually bought the castle outright in 1587, beginning the connection between the Herberts and Powis Castle which continues today.[19] Sir Edward's wife was a Roman Catholic and the family's allegiance to Rome and to the Stuart kings was to shape its destiny for over a century.[16] Sir Edward began the transformation of Powis from a border fortress into an Elizabethan country house. The major remaining element of his work is the Long Gallery.[19]

Herbert's descendent William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis (c. 1573–1655), was a supporter of Charles I, and was granted the barony of Powis in 1629.[19] His loyalty during the English Civil War cost him his castle and his estates.[20] On 22 October 1644 Powis Castle was captured by Parliamentary troops and was not returned to the family until the restoration of Charles II in 1660.[21]

The Herberts: 1660–1800

The Hercules statue which stood originally in the Water Garden

On the restoration, the Herberts returned to Powis, and in 1674 William Herbert (c. 1626–1696) was created Earl of Powis (of the first creation). The state bedroom was installed in about 1665 and further improvements, including the construction of the Great Staircase followed in the 1670s. These developments were most probably carried out under the direction of William Winde, who may also have designed the terraced gardens. His employer, although restored to his estates, and raised in the peerage, was barred by his Catholic faith from high office under Charles II. On the accession of the King's brother, James in 1685, Herbert became one of the new king's chief ministers, and was again advanced in the peerage becoming Marquess of Powis in 1687, but fell at the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and followed James into exile in France.[e] William III granted the castle to his nephew, William Nassau de Zuylestein, 1st Earl of Rochford. Herbert died, still in exile, in 1696.[24]

Despite their 30-year exile, the Herberts were able to continue with developments at the castle and even to live there on an irregular basis, the Baroque water garden below the castle being completed at this time.[25] Their fortunes were also materially improved by the discovery of a lucrative lead mine on their Welsh estates.[24] The second Marquess, also William, was reinstated in 1722. On the death of his son, the third Marquess in 1748, the marquessate became extinct, while the castle and estates passed to a relative, Henry Herbert (c. 1703–1772), of Oakly Park in Shropshire, who was made 1st Earl of Powis (of the second creation) by George II.[26] Herbert married Barbara, the fifteen-year-old granddaughter of the 2nd Marquess, in 1751. Their eldest son, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis (1755–1801), died unmarried and the earldom of the second creation became extinct.[f][27] Powis was much neglected during his tenure. John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington, a diarist and traveller who chronicled his journeys into Wales in the 1780s and 1790s, described the castle in 1784, "In the gardens not even the fruit is attended to; the balustrades and terraces are falling down, and the horses graze on the parterres!!!"[28] The castle itself was in no better condition, a visitor in 1774 describing it as "in Neglect and Ruin".[27] Nonetheless, the potential of the site was recognised. George Lyttelton, the politician, poet and essayist, recorded his impressions in 1756, "About £3,000 laid out upon Powis Castle would make it the most august place in the Kingdom."[29]

The Clives and Herberts: 1801–1952

The Outer Courtyard with the Fame statue in the foreground

In 1784, Henry Herbert's daughter, Henrietta, married Edward Clive (1754–1839), the eldest son of Clive of India.[30] Clive had followed his father to India, and served as Governor of Madras. Henrietta's brother died in 1801, whereupon the title lapsed; in 1804, her husband was created first Earl of Powis (of the third creation). The Clive fortune paid for long overdue repairs to the castle, which were carried out by Sir Robert Smirke.[31][32] Their son, Edward (1785–1848), inherited his late uncle's Powis estates on his 21st birthday, taking the surname Herbert in compliance with his uncle's will.[30] Edward Herbert served in a range of administrations as an Anti-Catholic Tory, his speeches in the House of Commons being "cautious and pertinent, although marred by dull delivery". He died in 1848, following a shooting accident at Powis in which he was fatally injured by his second son.[33] No further major changes were made to the Powis estate during his time, or in the long tenure of his eldest son Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis (1818–1891), although the castle was well maintained. In honour of his great-grandfather, the earl was offered the viceroyalty of India by Benjamin Disraeli but declined, writing "Not worth considering. Powis" on the envelope containing the invitation.[34]

The final alterations to Powis Castle were undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century by George Frederick Bodley for George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis (1862–1952). The rooms designed by Bodley remain his only extant decorative scheme; the longevity of the 4th Earl, the deaths of his heirs, and his bequest of the castle to the National Trust saw the early 20th-century remodelling remain largely unaltered.[g][36] The 4th earl's wife, Violet (nee Lane-Fox), undertook the final transformation of the gardens of Powis Castle, which she felt had the potential to be "the most beautiful in England and Wales".[37] The Countess died following a car accident in 1929, and Lord Powis outlived both his sons, who died on active service, Percy from wounds received at the Battle of the Somme in 1916,[38] and Mervyn in a plane crash in 1943.[39] On his own death in 1952, he bequeathed the castle and gardens to the National Trust.[h][42]

The National Trust: 1952–present

The 4th earl was succeeded by his cousin, Edward Herbert, 5th Earl of Powis (1889–1974). Edward's heir was Christian Herbert, 6th Earl of Powis (1904–1988). He was succeeded by his cousin, George Herbert, 7th Earl of Powis (1925–1993),[42] who was in turn succeeded by his son, John, the 8th and current Earl.[43] The Herbert family continue to live in part of the castle, under an arrangement with the National Trust.[44] The Trust has undertaken a number of major works of restoration during its ownership, including the Marquess Gate,[45] the Grand Staircase,[46] and the sculpture of Fame in the Outer Courtyard.[i][47] The castle and its gardens receive around 200,000 visitors annually. Wikipedia

Serge Nsombo follows a precise feeding schedule for his fish. The fish feed is mainly a mixture of maize meal and soya beans.

www.irsn.fr/index.php?position=socatri_tricastin

www.criirad.org/actualites/dossiers-08/tricastin-juil08/s...

Spillage of uranium-bearing effluents into the environment at the SOCATRI nuclear facility (Drôme, France)

During the night of 7 to 8 July, for a so far unknown reason, a tank of the Uranium-bearing Effluent Treatment Station (STEU) of the SOCATRI* company flowed over its retention tank. This retention tank being undergoing works was not tight at that time. These effluents, on one hand, percolated in the soil within the SOCATRI facility boundary and on the other hand, flowed to the “Gaffière” river and then to the “Lauzon” river through rain collectors.

SOCATRI initially evaluated the release to about 30 m3 of uranium-bearing solution with a concentration of about 12 grams of natural uranium per litre. A new evaluation performed by the utility lead to lower estimates.

For the sake of precaution, ASN advised the Prefects of the Drôme and Vaucluse départements to take, not awaiting the results of expertises, restriction measures of nautical and fishing practices and use of water for irrigation and drinking purposes.

SOCATRI performed today, July 9th, a removal of the contaminated soil on its site so as to prevent the underground migration of uranium. ASN requested IRSN to confirm the efficacy of such a countermeasure.

The measurements performed by SOCATRI in the water table, in private wells as well as in the neighbouring ponds of the « Trop Long », the «Baltraces » and the « Girardes » do not exhibit an abnormal increase of the uranium concentration from the natural level. Monitoring by SOCATRI of surface waters of the « Gaffière and Lauzon » show a fast decrease of the uranium concentration. The last measured values in these rivers outside the SOCATRI site boundary are of the order of guide value of the World Heath Organisation (WHO) for drinkable waters.

ASN requested the utility to perform measurements in the riverbeds of the Gaffière and the Lauzon so as to detect a possible uranium deposition.

ASN requested IRSN to proceed to independent measurements from those performed by the utility and to determine the best additional means of surveillance of the radioactivity of the water table.

The precautionary measures will be discontinued depending on the results of the ongoing expertises.

ASN will perform an inspection on July 10th, on the SOCATRI site in order to assess, in particular, the precise causes of the event and examine the provisions taken by the licensee.

ASN has provisionally classified this incident at level 1 on the INES scale.

* The SOCATRI facility is involved in support of the nuclear installations of the TRICASTIN site performing in particular maintenance of equipments contaminated by uranium and treatment of uranium-bearing effluents.

www-news.iaea.org/news/topics/default.asp

not sure of the precise name, correct me if you know it.

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.