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Exoto XS 1:18 Scale
1958 Ferrari Tipo 246 F1
No. 4, driven by Mike Hawthorn, Winner
French Grand Prix, Reims-Gueux, July 6, 1958
The Tipo 246 F1 was introduced in the 1958 Formula One season and was the last front engine car to win the Formula One Grand Prix with Mike Hawthorn taking home the title of World Driver’s Champion. The Tipo 246 F1 used a 2,417 cc Dino V6 engine. It was named the Dino name in memory of Enzo Ferrari’s son, Alfredo “Dino” Ferrari. Alfredo had discussed the design of the unique engine with engineer Vittorio Jano while in the hospital.
This release is the third release from Exoto's XS line of precision-engineered models after the 1961 Tipo 156 and 1951 Alfa Romeo Tipo 159 and 159M.
This model represents the number 4 car driven by Mike Hawthorn in the French Grand Prix at the Reims-Gueux course in Reims, France on July 6, 1958. Hawthorn, who hadn’t won a race since the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix, held the pole position with 2:21.7 and achieved the fastest lap at Reims at 2:24.9 on the 8.302km (5.159 mile) course. He won the race for Scuderia Ferrari finishing fifty laps in just over two hours and three minutes, gaining nine points. He finished just 24.6 seconds ahead of Stirling Moss in his number 8 Vanwall VW5. Teammates Woflgang von Trips and Peter Colins came in third and fifth. The victory was overshadowed by the death of fellow teammate, Luigi Musso, who crashed on lap nine in a fatal accident. This would also be Hawthorn’s last Formula One victory, having died the following winter in fatal car accident just after retirement.
The number 4 car is a limited edition of 1,958 pieces. Exoto has so far announced or released Luigi Musso’s number 34 car and Phill Hill’s number 4 car from the Grand Prix of Monaco, Wolfgang von Trips number 4 car from the German Grand Prix, Olivier Gendebien’s number 20 yellow car from the Belgium Grand Prix, and a rolling chassis, each limited to 333 pieces. Other releases include the Works Prototpye version in Authentic Red and a Phil Hill Prototype version, both limited to 58 pieces, of which the Hill version is retired. Exoto recently announced 3 new releases, Peter Collin’s number 1 car from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and Mike Hawthorn’s number 14 car and Phill Hill’s number 18 Italian Grand Prix cars, each limited to 333 pieces.
Exoto’s web site indicates the XS line of models are finished in automotive-grade paint used on Porsche automobiles. As with previous XS releases, noble materials are abundant! The Tipo 246 features intricate metal wire wheels that are attached to the axles with directionally specific spinners. The wheels feature miniatures valve stems along with a spring weight on a spoke of each wheel. This release also features directionally specific semi-pneumatic tires with Englebert brand and arrow markings with a period correct tread pattern.
The cockpit is again superbly presented with legible gauges, a removable velour covered seat with leather piping, and functional accelerator, brake, and clutch pedals with spring tensioners. Part of the process of assembling this model includes installation of an intricately engineered metal transaxle cover that you place on the floorboard of the cockpit. The driver’s seat also sits atop this mesh piece and completes the look of the driver’s cockpit. The car is assembled into four main parts. The front is assembled from the body, separate nose, and engine cover. The nose features magnetic attachments to the undercarriage and is also held on when fastened to the removable engine hood. The paper-thin engine hood features a body colored intake as opposed to some that feature the clear intake. This hood is secured in place by four anchors. Under the hood is the furiously detailed fully wired and plumbed V6 engine. The engine even features aluminum machine turned velocity stacks with functional butterfly valves! The rear fuel tank is made from press formed stainless steel. The rear fuel tank cover easily attaches and features miniature magnets to keep it secured. The removable gas tank filter slides neatly into place to help keep the rear fuel tank cover attached to the body. The cover features a hinged door to reveal a machined turned brass oil tank cap.
Exoto’s XS line of models continues to amaze me with what is possible in this scale. The classic Formula One cars are perfect images to showcase all that goes into these models with their removable body pieces and open layout. Exoto has announced their next XS release is the Jaguar D-Type Short Nose, which they’ve stated will be here by December.
Bryan Miranda
Motorcar Miniatures, November 2012
The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engined sports car, designed and developed in Germany by the Volkswagen Group and manufactured in Molsheim, France, by Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
The original version had a top speed of 407.12 km/h (252.97 mph). It was named Car of the Decade and best car award (2000–2009) by the BBC television programme Top Gear. The standard Bugatti Veyron also won Top Gear's Best Car Driven All Year award in 2005.
The current Super Sport version of the Veyron is recognized by Guinness World Records as the fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a top speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph), and the roadster Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse version is the fastest roadster in the world, reaching an averaged top speed of 408.84 km/h (254.04 mph) in a test on 6 April 2013.
Name origin
The Veyron EB 16.4 is named in honour of Pierre Veyron, a Bugatti development engineer, test driver and company race driver who, with co-driver Jean-Pierre Wimille, won the 1939 24 hours of Le Mans while driving a Bugatti. The "EB" refers to Bugatti founder Ettore Bugatti and the "16.4" refers to the engine's 16 cylinders and 4 turbochargers.
World record controversy
A controversy developed in 2013 over the Veyron Super Sport's status as the world’s fastest production car, ultimately resolved in the Veyron's favor.
In early April 2013, driving.co.uk (also known as Sunday Times Driving) began an investigation following claims from US car maker Hennessey that its 928 kW (1,244 bhp) Hennessey Venom GT was entitled to the Guinness World Record. With a recorded speed of 427.6 km/h (265.7 mph) the Hennessey was 3.4 km/h (2.1 mph) slower than the Veyron but Hennessey dismissed Bugatti’s official record saying that the Veyron Super Sport was restricted to 415 km/h (258 mph) in production form and that for it to achieve its record top speed of 431.0 km/h (267.8 mph), the car used was in a state of tune not available to customers. Hennessey said its Venom GT was road-ready and unmodified and was therefore a production car in the strict sense of the term.
Driving.co.uk requested clarification from Guinness World Records, which investigated this claim and found that the modification was against the official guidelines of the record. Upon finding this, Guinness World Records voided the Super Sport's record and announced it was "reviewing this category with expert external consultants to ensure our records fairly reflect achievements in this field."
After further review, Shelby SuperCars, the producers of the Ultimate Aero TT, said that they had reclaimed the record, however Guinness reinstated the Super Sport's record after coming to the conclusion that "a change to the speed limiter does not alter the fundamental design of the car or its engine."
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, World Record Edition (2010–)
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is a faster, more powerful version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Production is limited to thirty units. The Super Sport has increased engine power of 1,200 PS (880 kW; 1,200 bhp), a torque of 1,500 N·m (1,100 lbf·ft), and a revised aerodynamic package. The Super Sport has a 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) top speed, making it the fastest production road car on the market although it is electronically limited to 415 km/h (258 mph) to protect the tyres from disintegrating.
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition is a version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. It is limited to five units. It has an orange body detailing, and a special, black, exposed, carbon, body.
The vehicle was unveiled in 2010 at The Quail, followed by the 2010 Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca, and the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
[Text taken from Wikipedia]
This Lego MotorCity-scale 2010 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 88th Build Challenge, - "Let's go Break Some records", - for vehicles that set the bar (high or low) for any number of vehicles statistics or records. In the case of the Veyron Super Sport, the fastest road car in the world - 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph).
Mack CJs - Reese's - with a packet of the real thing! The models are 1:64 scale Hartoy American Highway Legends trucks from the Hershey's series. They're Peanutritious apparently...
The exploitation rights for this text are the property of the Vienna Tourist Board. This text may be reprinted free of charge until further notice, even partially and in edited form. Forward sample copy to: Vienna Tourist Board, Media Management, Invalidenstraße 6, 1030 Vienna; media.rel@wien.info. All information in this text without guarantee.
Author: Andreas Nierhaus, Curator of Architecture/Wien Museum
Last updated January 2014
Architecture in Vienna
Vienna's 2,000-year history is present in a unique density in the cityscape. The layout of the center dates back to the Roman city and medieval road network. Romanesque and Gothic churches characterize the streets and squares as well as palaces and mansions of the baroque city of residence. The ring road is an expression of the modern city of the 19th century, in the 20th century extensive housing developments set accents in the outer districts. Currently, large-scale urban development measures are implemented; distinctive buildings of international star architects complement the silhouette of the city.
Due to its function as residence of the emperor and European power center, Vienna for centuries stood in the focus of international attention, but it was well aware of that too. As a result, developed an outstanding building culture, and still today on a worldwide scale only a few cities can come up with a comparable density of high-quality architecture. For several years now, Vienna has increased its efforts to connect with its historical highlights and is drawing attention to itself with some spectacular new buildings. The fastest growing city in the German-speaking world today most of all in residential construction is setting standards. Constants of the Viennese architecture are respect for existing structures, the palpability of historical layers and the dialogue between old and new.
Culmination of medieval architecture: the Stephansdom
The oldest architectural landmark of the city is St. Stephen's Cathedral. Under the rule of the Habsburgs, defining the face of the city from the late 13th century until 1918 in a decisive way, the cathedral was upgraded into the sacral monument of the political ambitions of the ruling house. The 1433 completed, 137 meters high southern tower, by the Viennese people affectionately named "Steffl", is a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture in Europe. For decades he was the tallest stone structure in Europe, until today he is the undisputed center of the city.
The baroque residence
Vienna's ascension into the ranks of the great European capitals began in Baroque. Among the most important architects are Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt. Outside the city walls arose a chain of summer palaces, including the garden Palais Schwarzenberg (1697-1704) as well as the Upper and Lower Belvedere of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1714-22). Among the most important city palaces are the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene (1695-1724, now a branch of the Belvedere) and the Palais Daun-Kinsky (auction house in Kinsky 1713-19). The emperor himself the Hofburg had complemented by buildings such as the Imperial Library (1722-26) and the Winter Riding School (1729-34). More important, however, for the Habsburgs was the foundation of churches and monasteries. Thus arose before the city walls Fischer von Erlach's Karlskirche (1714-39), which with its formal and thematic complex show façade belongs to the major works of European Baroque. In colored interior rooms like that of St. Peter's Church (1701-22), the contemporary efforts for the synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture becomes visible.
Upgrading into metropolis: the ring road time (Ringstraßenzeit)
Since the Baroque, reflections on extension of the hopelessly overcrowed city were made, but only Emperor Franz Joseph ordered in 1857 the demolition of the fortifications and the connection of the inner city with the suburbs. 1865, the Ring Road was opened. It is as the most important boulevard of Europe an architectural and in terms of urban development achievement of the highest rank. The original building structure is almost completely preserved and thus conveys the authentic image of a metropolis of the 19th century. The public representational buildings speak, reflecting accurately the historicism, by their style: The Greek Antique forms of Theophil Hansen's Parliament (1871-83) stood for democracy, the Renaissance of the by Heinrich Ferstel built University (1873-84) for the flourishing of humanism, the Gothic of the Town Hall (1872-83) by Friedrich Schmidt for the medieval civic pride.
Dominating remained the buildings of the imperial family: Eduard van der Nüll's and August Sicardsburg's Opera House (1863-69), Gottfried Semper's and Carl Hasenauer's Burgtheater (1874-88), their Museum of Art History and Museum of Natural History (1871-91) and the Neue (New) Hofburg (1881-1918 ). At the same time the ring road was the preferred residential area of mostly Jewish haute bourgeoisie. With luxurious palaces the families Ephrussi, Epstein or Todesco made it clear that they had taken over the cultural leadership role in Viennese society. In the framework of the World Exhibition of 1873, the new Vienna presented itself an international audience. At the ring road many hotels were opened, among them the Hotel Imperial and today's Palais Hansen Kempinski.
Laboratory of modernity: Vienna around 1900
Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1903-06) was one of the last buildings in the Ring road area Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1903-06), which with it façade, liberated of ornament, and only decorated with "functional" aluminum buttons and the glass banking hall now is one of the icons of modern architecture. Like no other stood Otto Wagner for the dawn into the 20th century: His Metropolitan Railway buildings made the public transport of the city a topic of architecture, the church of the Psychiatric hospital at Steinhofgründe (1904-07) is considered the first modern church.
With his consistent focus on the function of a building ("Something impractical can not be beautiful"), Wagner marked a whole generation of architects and made Vienna the laboratory of modernity: in addition to Joseph Maria Olbrich, the builder of the Secession (1897-98) and Josef Hoffmann, the architect of the at the western outskirts located Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904) and founder of the Vienna Workshop (Wiener Werkstätte, 1903) is mainly to mention Adolf Loos, with the Loos House at the square Michaelerplatz (1909-11) making architectural history. The extravagant marble cladding of the business zone stands in maximal contrast, derived from the building function, to the unadorned facade above, whereby its "nudity" became even more obvious - a provocation, as well as his culture-critical texts ("Ornament and Crime"), with which he had greatest impact on the architecture of the 20th century. Public contracts Loos remained denied. His major works therefore include villas, apartment facilities and premises as the still in original state preserved Tailor salon Knize at Graben (1910-13) and the restored Loos Bar (1908-09) near the Kärntner Straße (passageway Kärntner Durchgang).
Between the Wars: International Modern Age and social housing
After the collapse of the monarchy in 1918, Vienna became capital of the newly formed small country of Austria. In the heart of the city, the architects Theiss & Jaksch built 1931-32 the first skyscraper in Vienna as an exclusive residential address (Herrengasse - alley 6-8). To combat the housing shortage for the general population, the social democratic city government in a globally unique building program within a few years 60,000 apartments in hundreds of apartment buildings throughout the city area had built, including the famous Karl Marx-Hof by Karl Ehn (1925-30). An alternative to the multi-storey buildings with the 1932 opened International Werkbundsiedlung was presented, which was attended by 31 architects from Austria, Germany, France, Holland and the USA and showed models for affordable housing in greenfield areas. With buildings of Adolf Loos, André Lurçat, Richard Neutra, Gerrit Rietveld, the Werkbundsiedlung, which currently is being restored at great expense, is one of the most important documents of modern architecture in Austria.
Modernism was also expressed in significant Villa buildings: The House Beer (1929-31) by Josef Frank exemplifies the refined Wiener living culture of the interwar period, while the house Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1926-28, today Bulgarian Cultural Institute), built by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein together with the architect Paul Engelmann for his sister Margarete, by its aesthetic radicalism and mathematical rigor represents a special case within contemporary architecture.
Expulsion, war and reconstruction
After the "Anschluss (Annexation)" to the German Reich in 1938, numerous Jewish builders, architects (female and male ones), who had been largely responsible for the high level of Viennese architecture, have been expelled from Austria. During the Nazi era, Vienna remained largely unaffected by structural transformations, apart from the six flak towers built for air defense of Friedrich Tamms (1942-45), made of solid reinforced concrete which today are present as memorials in the cityscape.
The years after the end of World War II were characterized by the reconstruction of the by bombs heavily damaged city. The architecture of those times was marked by aesthetic pragmatism, but also by the attempt to connect with the period before 1938 and pick up on current international trends. Among the most important buildings of the 1950s are Roland Rainer's City Hall (1952-58), the by Oswald Haerdtl erected Wien Museum at Karlsplatz (1954-59) and the 21er Haus of Karl Schwanzer (1958-62).
The youngsters come
Since the 1960s, a young generation was looking for alternatives to the moderate modernism of the reconstruction years. With visionary designs, conceptual, experimental and above all temporary architectures, interventions and installations, Raimund Abraham, Günther Domenig, Eilfried Huth, Hans Hollein, Walter Pichler and the groups Coop Himmelb(l)au, Haus-Rucker-Co and Missing Link rapidly got international attention. Although for the time being it was more designed than built, was the influence on the postmodern and deconstructivist trends of the 1970s and 1980s also outside Austria great. Hollein's futuristic "Retti" candle shop at Charcoal Market/Kohlmarkt (1964-65) and Domenig's biomorphic building of the Central Savings Bank in Favoriten (10th district of Vienna - 1975-79) are among the earliest examples, later Hollein's Haas-Haus (1985-90), the loft conversion Falkestraße (1987/88) by Coop Himmelb(l)au or Domenig's T Center (2002-04) were added. Especially Domenig, Hollein, Coop Himmelb(l)au and the architects Ortner & Ortner (ancient members of Haus-Rucker-Co) by orders from abroad the new Austrian and Viennese architecture made a fixed international concept.
MuseumQuarter and Gasometer
Since the 1980s, the focus of building in Vienna lies on the compaction of the historic urban fabric that now as urban habitat of high quality no longer is put in question. Among the internationally best known projects is the by Ortner & Ortner planned MuseumsQuartier in the former imperial stables (competition 1987, 1998-2001), which with institutions such as the MUMOK - Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig, the Leopold Museum, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Architecture Center Vienna and the Zoom Children's Museum on a wordwide scale is under the largest cultural complexes. After controversies in the planning phase, here an architectural compromise between old and new has been achieved at the end, whose success as an urban stage with four million visitors (2012) is overwhelming.
The dialogue between old and new, which has to stand on the agenda of building culture of a city that is so strongly influenced by history, also features the reconstruction of the Gasometer in Simmering by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Jean Nouvel and Manfred Wehdorn (1999-2001). Here was not only created new housing, but also a historical industrial monument reinterpreted into a signal in the urban development area.
New Neighborhood
In recent years, the major railway stations and their surroundings moved into the focus of planning. Here not only necessary infrastructural measures were taken, but at the same time opened up spacious inner-city residential areas and business districts. Among the prestigious projects are included the construction of the new Vienna Central Station, started in 2010 with the surrounding office towers of the Quartier Belvedere and the residential and school buildings of the Midsummer quarter (Sonnwendviertel). Europe's largest wooden tower invites here for a spectacular view to the construction site and the entire city. On the site of the former North Station are currently being built 10,000 homes and 20,000 jobs, on that of the Aspangbahn station is being built at Europe's greatest Passive House settlement "Euro Gate", the area of the North Western Railway Station is expected to be developed from 2020 for living and working. The largest currently under construction residential project but can be found in the north-eastern outskirts, where in Seaside Town Aspern till 2028 living and working space for 40,000 people will be created.
In one of the "green lungs" of Vienna, the Prater, 2013, the WU campus was opened for the largest University of Economics of Europe. Around the central square spectacular buildings of an international architect team from Great Britain, Japan, Spain and Austria are gathered that seem to lead a sometimes very loud conversation about the status quo of contemporary architecture (Hitoshi Abe, BUSarchitektur, Peter Cook, Zaha Hadid, NO MAD Arquitectos, Carme Pinós).
Flying high
International is also the number of architects who have inscribed themselves in the last few years with high-rise buildings in the skyline of Vienna and make St. Stephen's a not always unproblematic competition. Visible from afar is Massimiliano Fuksas' 138 and 127 meters high elegant Twin Tower at Wienerberg (1999-2001). The monolithic, 75-meter-high tower of the Hotel Sofitel at the Danube Canal by Jean Nouvel (2007-10), on the other hand, reacts to the particular urban situation and stages in its top floor new perspectives to the historical center on the other side.
Also at the water stands Dominique Perrault's DC Tower (2010-13) in the Danube City - those high-rise city, in which since the start of construction in 1996, the expansion of the city north of the Danube is condensed symbolically. Even in this environment, the slim and at the same time striking vertically folded tower of Perrault is beyond all known dimensions; from its Sky Bar, from spring 2014 on you are able to enjoy the highest view of Vienna. With 250 meters, the tower is the tallest building of Austria and almost twice as high as the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Vienna, thus, has acquired a new architectural landmark which cannot be overlooked - whether it also has the potential to become a landmark of the new Vienna, only time will tell. The architectural history of Vienna, where European history is presence and new buildings enter into an exciting and not always conflict-free dialogue with a great and outstanding architectural heritage, in any case has yet to offer exciting chapters.
Info: The folder "Architecture: From Art Nouveau to the Presence" is available at the Vienna Tourist Board and can be downloaded on www.wien.info/media/files/guide-architecture-in-wien.pdf.
The main reason for visiting Cambridge was to see King's College Chapel.
I must first than two friends, Simon K and Aidan for posting shots from Cambridge and so firing up my desire to visit.
Things fell into place and I found myself on a train last Sunday, and a place on the first tour of the day Monday morning.
I will add more thoughts as I post shots, but this for a start.
Quite the strongest emotional response I have ever had to a building, I had to choke back tears!
All chairs and seating have been removed, so there is just the building.
"Just."
Just a handful of us early visitors had the entire chapel to ourselves.
I followed up, not on purpose, a Japanese lady who was walking round with an i phone of a selfie stick, recording herself walking round the chapel, rather than the chapel itself. Which I know is her choice.
I saw the wonderful glass in the windows of the side chapel, so decided to photograph those too. Took some time.
No restrictions on photography, just don't "use flash on the Rubens" in the chancel. I was told.
In truth, there's more than enough in the Chapel for a whole day, as I'm sure new details would reveal themselves each time you looked.
I walked out into the college grounds, to walk to the bridge over the river. I mean, really, there was no one else out there, and a couple of punts were drifting past, so I wandered round the large square of grass, half of which had been apparently wild flowers, but now cut to look like a rough lawn.
The chapel has a 16th sundial, and marvellous lead drain downpipes. I snap them all.
I had, I thought, photographed what I could, and as I saw the next group coming in, I thought I would leave them to enjoy the chapel as sparsely crowded as I had.
So I walk to the south door, where the roped off path lead round to the west end of the chapel, then around another large grassed area to the banks of the river and a bridge to the meadows beyond.
I paused by the west door to photograph the arch and carvings, and gilded dragons on the ironwork.
On the bridge, I meet up with a volunteer already on a break. She looked at my two cameras and asked if I had good shots.
I had no idea and modest to say I had. But I scroll through some shots taken with the 50mm lens and show her shots of the side chapel glass. She was impressed, hardly anyone goes in there, she says. Even the guides don't take groups in the chapels.
Which I guess I can understand, as the chapel is a heck of a building as a whole, but the parts of it, from the glass panels, the chapels, carvings, rood screen, Rubens and all the other things make for one hell of an experience, but to pause and drink in the details, to be lost in a pair of ancient windmills, of bear witness to some ancient king's coronation, while the world turns without us noticing.
That is something not to miss.
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Begun by Henry VI, completed under the direction of Henry VII, the glass scheme installed under the somewhat-disinterested Henry VIII. 'The heart and soul of early 20th Century Anglicanism' according to M R James, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols begun here during the First World War helped invent the modern Christmas. The fan vaulting is spectacular, the proportions (300ft long, 40ft wide, 90ft high) almost shocking in their single-minded Perpendicular triumphalism. The Chapel vies with Ely and Peterborough Cathedrals as the best single medieval building in Cambridgeshire, but the vast scheme of early 16th Century glass is undoubtedly the biggest and best of its kind anywhere in the British Isles.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/21007385075/in/album...
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King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault.[3] The Chapel was built in phases by a succession of kings of England from 1446 to 1515, a period which spanned the Wars of the Roses and three subsequent decades. The Chapel's large stained glass windows were completed by 1531, and its early Renaissance rood screen was erected in 1532–36. The Chapel is an active house of worship, and home of the King's College Choir. It is a landmark and a commonly used symbol of the city of Cambridge.
Henry VI planned a university counterpart to Eton College (whose Chapel is very similar, but not on the scale intended by Henry). The King decided the dimensions of the Chapel. Reginald Ely was most likely the architect and worked on the site since 1446.[6] Two years earlier Reginald was charged with sourcing craftsmen for the Chapel's construction.[6] He continued to work on the site until building was interrupted in 1461, having probably designed the elevations.[6] The original plans called for lierne vaulting, and the piers of the choir were built to conform with them.[6] Ultimately, a complex fan vault was constructed instead.[6] Reginald probably designed the window tracery at the extreme east of the church's north side: the east window of the easternmost side chapel, which unlike the Perpendicular style of the others is in curvilinear Gothic style.[6] The priest and later bishop Nicholas Close (or Cloos) was recorded as the "surveyor", having been the curate of St John Zachary, a church demolished to make way for the Chapel.[7][8][9]
The first stone of the Chapel was laid, by Henry himself, on the Feast of St James the Apostle, 25 July 1446, the College having been begun in 1441. By the end of the reign of Richard III (1485), despite the Wars of the Roses, five bays had been completed and a timber roof erected. Henry VII visited in 1506, paying for the work to resume and even leaving money so that the work could continue after his death. In 1515, under Henry VIII, the building was complete but the great windows had yet to be made.
The Chapel features the world's largest fan vault, constructed between 1512 and 1515 by master mason John Wastell. It also features fine medieval stained glass and, above the altar, The Adoration of the Magi by Rubens, painted in 1634 for the Convent of the White Nuns at Louvain in Belgium. The painting was installed in the Chapel in 1968; this involved the lowering of the Sanctuary floor leading up to the High Altar. It had been believed that gradations were created in 1774 by James Essex, when Essex had in fact lowered the floor by 5 1/2 inches,[10] but at the demolition of these steps, it was found that the floor instead rested on Tudor brick arches.
During the removal of these Tudor steps, built at the Founder's specific request that the high altar should be 3 ft above the choir floor, human remains in intact lead coffins with brass plaques were discovered, dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, and were disinterred.[12]
The eventual installation of the Rubens was also not without problems: once seen beneath the east window, a conflict was felt between the picture's swirling colours and those of the stained glass.[13][title missing] The Rubens was also a similar shape to the window, which "dwarfed it and made it look rather like a dependent postage stamp".[14] Plain shutters were proposed, one on each side, to give it a triptych shape (although the picture was never part of a triptych) and lend it independence of form, which is how one sees the Rubens today. The installation was designed by architect Sir Martyn Beckett, who was "philosophical about the furore this inevitably occasioned - which quickly became acceptance of a solution to a difficult problem."[15]
During the Civil War the Chapel was used as a training ground by Oliver Cromwell's troops, but escaped major damage, possibly because Cromwell, having been a Cambridge student, gave orders for it to be spared. Graffiti left by these soldiers is still visible on the north and south walls near the altar.[16] During World War II most of the stained glass was removed and the Chapel again escaped damage.[17]
Back home after a wonderful night!
Handcrafted, OOAK, fashion doll furniture in 1:6 scale from Abigail's Joy.
Please visit my website Abigail's Joy
An HO scale model of Conrail's Philadelphia Division Safety On Rails Theater car.
This car was a staple at events in and around NJ in the 90s. I remember as a kid seeing it at the Hoboken Terminal festival along with its companion N21 Operation Lifesaver caboose. The car still exists today, painted and lettered TOYX 1775 for Operation Toy Train. It currently resides at the Port Jervis Transportation History Center. More info can be found here:
The model is built from a Tangent Scale Models undecorated PC version X58 kit. The only major modification was cutting out the door and sanding it to the correct thickness so it could be placed in the open position. The hinges also had to be cut and repositioned to match the open appearance. The car had some body panel repairs done and that was replicated with 0.05 styrene sheet. The former grab iron locations were also modified to match prototype photos. Grab Irons and steps were added by the doors along with matching the roof walk support arrangement to match photos. The AC was kit bashed from a Details West part and the brackets and lines are fabbed from brass. The car was painted with Tru-Color rich oxide brown and lettered with a mix of Microscale, CMR, and custom printed decals.
Replication of the interior was easy since the car still retains its original configuration. Unfortunately the only source I had on how it was originally decorated was from a couple of grainy videos I found on Youtube by user AviationMetalSmith. Where I could, the photos and posters are exact copies otherwise they are just a representation that looks close and conveys the original idea of the photo or sign, as one might imagine finding the exact photos is near impossible. I had no clear photos or video of the display on the wall with the open door so I was able to get a general idea by looking at the reflections in the glass from the other side. Again, the photos are just general images that just looked right. All of the interior artwork was done in Inkspace and printed out. The freebies on the countertop are pictures of actual items I have in my collection. The exterior decoration and signage is a mix of the way the car appeared at an event in Whippany NJ and the way its shown in the video at Hoboken NJ.
This model took many hours of research to even get close to looking right and I'd like to give a huge shoutout to Rudy Garbely and the Conrail Historical Society, Bryan at Eastern Seaboard Models, and the Port Jervis Transportation History Center for all the help. I couldn't have done this without your help, so Thanks!!
We have finished looking at Eureka and step across the aisle and check out the right side of Moline, Kansas on Steve Sandifer's HO scale layout. All his finished structures and scenery are superb. He models a Santa Fe branchline in central Kansas circa 1952. I photographed his layout on the 2014 Fall Layout Tour.
The Howard Branch doesn't have enough people to support full-fledged passenger trains, so Steve uses a gas-electric "doodlebug" and a mixed train (not photographed on this visit) to provide limited passenger service. This is a special inspection train used by officials to inspect the track and general state of the railroad and provide Steve with an excuse to run Warbonnet passenger diesels. The consist is a F-7 cab and booster pair, a sleeper, and a business car. The rear business car has an observation room, a small dining room, a little galley, and a few bedrooms and restrooms for the officials. The full sleeper is for extra staff.
This is a 3,480 part Sebulba s podracer in UCS scale. Some parts are painted, they will be switched when they are produced. Professional instruction for sale at www.techlug.fr or by email at setechnic-at-gmail-dot-com
The dramatic west window is a late work by Morris & Co from 1902, the first large scale commission designed by John Henry Dearle who succeeded Burne Jones as the firm's chief designer following the latter's death several years earlier, though nonetheless owing a huge debt to him stylistically. The window depicts the Last Judgement in glowing hues across a lush landscape populated with deeply Burne-Jonesian figures.
Rugby School Chapel is one of my favourite buildings, a gloriously eccentric piece of Victorian architecture that dominates the centre of my hometown of Rugby, so it has been a familiar landmark throughout my life (my secondary school used the chapel towards Christmas when I got to sing from the choir stalls). It is one of the most ambitious buildings of William Butterfield, an architect renowned for his love of polychrome brickwork whose work is a defining feature of the town, mostly in various parts of the School complex.
The previous chapel was by Henry Hakewill (who designed the older parts of the present school) and finished in 1821 and was a much more modest affair. It was rebuilt by Butterfield in 1872 on a far grander scale and with the distinctive octagonal tower over the chancel that has become such a symbol of the school since. Initially the nave of the old chapel was retained when the new transepts, tower and apse were built, but this was later rebuilt in a style more in keeping with the rest of the building by Thomas Jackson in 1897-8 (with the elderly Butterfield's assistance). The chapel has thus retained a more unified appearance inside and out ever since.
The distinctive forms of the octagonal steeple abruptly perched over the apse followed by double transepts and all executed in Butterfield's hallmark stripes of brick of contrasting colours make this chapel a memorable sight, Victorian architectural confectionery at its best. The interior is equally impressive, the bands of colour from stone and brick added to by the striking black and white of the ceiling. The space is formed of three distinct units, firstly Jackson's nave with its low side aisles, followed by the vast open space of the transepts contrasting sharply with the narrow chancel and apse beyond.
The chapel is an architectural delight, however what makes a visit to it all the more rewarding is the superb collection of stained glass, a surprising mixture encompassing Northern Renaissance to the late Pre-Raphaelite. Four windows contain early 16th century continental glass imported in the early 19th century (and originally installed in the old chapel). The finest is the Flemish glass in the east window, showing the Adoration of the Magi. There is much Victorian glass by several makers, mainly Alexander Gibbs who regularly worked with Butterfield and whose huge windows dominate the transepts. The nave contains more compelling work, predominately late pieces by Morris & Co including the stunning west window by J.H.Dearle.
Frustratingly the chapel is rather difficult to visit, it is a working school and thus camera-wielding visitors aren't generally welcome unless they join one of the tours of the school (usually Saturdays around 2pm) which includes the chapel but gives rather limited time.
I am therefore hugely indebted to Peter (Jacquemart on Flickr) and staff member Anne Haughton for kindly arranging this visit, the first time I've been able to fully enjoy this space for several decades.
Thinking about future projects. I was hoping Pullip-scale and Monster High-scale would be compatible, but there's a bit more of a height difference than I expected. Plus, obviously, the Pullip dolls have oversized heads. I wonder if Monster High figures would appear too small in a setting designed for Pullips? Pullips, particularly with their large heads, would definitely be a bit too big for sets designed specifically for Monster High.
Up until now I've been working in Pinky Street scale on the few model-building projects I've attempted. Scaling up to MH or Pullip size will require making everything almost three times the size. This could prove problematic were I to undertake an appropriately scaled zeppelin model.
WWII German S-Boot. Scaled down and simplified a bit to be a practical minifig size.
Guns from BrickArms and helmets from BrickForge.
Scaled Composites ARES - Model 151 - sn 90001 - N151SC
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AGILE RESPONSIVE EFFECTIVE SUPPORTS (ARES)
The ARES, Scaled Model 151, was designed initially in response to a U.S. Army request for a Low Cost Battlefield Attack Aircraft (LCBAA). A design study was performed by Rutan Aircraft Factory in 1981 for such an aircraft. Its mission goals were low-altitude, close air support, with long endurance, and with adequate field performance to operate from roads.
Scaled followed up with the concept, and ultimately decided to build a demonstrator aircraft with internal funds. The ARES first flew on February 19, 1990. ARES has flown more than 250 hours, and demonstrated all of its design performance and handling qualities goals, including departure-free handling at full aft stick. During November of 1991, tests of the GAU-12/U gun system installed in ARES were performed, with outstanding results.
Movie buffs may also remember the ARES in its role as the secret ME-263 jet in the screen classic Iron Eagle III.
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More info:
www.ares.info/turbofan-killer-bee-rutan-ares-mudfighter-f...
Comments are welcome. I like reading comments more than watching counters increment up.
An ad for Ritter Mek Works. Ritter is the largest Human Alliance frame manufacturer in the new setting I'm writing for the game. The frame doesn't have a proper name yet, but it's built on what I'm calling the Space Marine frame. This isn't just an ad for Ritter. It's an ad for the new setting as well.
Credit to Seattle Finch (aka Pippi Shortstack on the forums) for the inspiration.
Stocks downloaded from FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Stocks used:
"Somewhere Over Siberia" by Matt Banks
"Young Green Rice Field With Blue Sky" by Keerati
"Abstract Motion Blurred Meadow" by twobee
Made for Mobile Frame Zero.
Fast cars are built for speed, it's simple logic. But, as you may know, speed and cops don't go hand and hand. A perfect example is the 911 GT3 Cup getting pulled over by the cops on Fairland St., yesterday.
He was driving along and he barley touched the gas because he reached into the back to grab something, so he didn't notice that his foot pushed on the petal for extra force. In this case... G Force. He explained his situation to the officer, but he didn't buy it.
You can't blame the guy for trying.
This shot shows the crew entry door and crew-chief's jump seat. It also shows one of the two .50 cal Browing machine guns fitted to many Frogs for self defense.
Although his G1 design is classic, Optimus Prime's Peterbilt truck mode is pretty cool too. Here's my version of it in minifig scale. Roll out!
One year ago I had the chance to visit Ole Kirk's house and I fell in love with it. So, during the long drive back from Billund, I started to think about building a MOC of it. My intention was (and still is) to build the whole block, but I had a smaller scale in mind, something like set 4000007; when I actually started building the house, though, I realized it would turn out much bigger, so I had to break it down in steps. Ole Kirk's house (also known as the Lion House) is the first step. The next one (which I hope to be able to complete before Skærbæk this year) will be the System House, opened in 1958 (the one-storey building) and 1961 (the two-storey building).
1961 is also the time of the setting of the MOC. I wanted to show the contrast of the 1924 style of Ole Kirk’s House and the 1961 style of the System House. So I picked the earliest moment in time when I could do that.
This also means that at this time Ole Kirk’s House had a few different details if compared to its current appearance. For example now the chimneys are gone and so are all of the skylights. On the front side, the external windows are now the same, while back then the left ones were taller (and sported a nice LEGO logo); on the back side the top windows were completely different than the front ones, while now they're a perfect replica of them.
Currently Ole Kirk's House is part of the LEGO Idea House, TLG’s private museum about LEGO history and philosophy.
This MOC was first shown at the Paredes de Coura Fan Weekend 2016.
Main references:
- 50 Years of Play, Willy Horn Hansen, 1982, the LEGO Group;
- Explore the LEGO History, www.lego.com/en-us/legohistory/welcome
It's almost the middle of February, and this is the first special event since Holiday for Heroes; that's no way to run a theme restaurant....
Porky's Famous Firehouse BBQ
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II
Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R
For more info about the dioramas, check out the FAQ: 1stPix FAQ
Badbury Clump, near Faringdon, Oxfordshire.
HINGEFINKLE'S LOGBOOK (Seventh Instalment)
The Amazing Advent of Atropa and Amanita
“Oh fiddlesticks!” I said. “Now we are in a pretty pickle. Any suggestions, Agrimony?”
“Not really,” replied Agrimony grimly. “I suppose we could run for it, but I’ve a suspicion we’re surrounded. Besides, quite frankly, I can’t be bothered.”
I turned back towards Spitmucus astride his fire dragon. I should make clear, I suppose, that while Draco diminutivus obnoxiosious is, as its name suggests, only a pygmy fire dragon, it is still roughly five times the size of the average cart-horse, with talons big enough to disembowel an elephant, purplish scales the size of dinner-plates, and rather hypnotic rose-pink eyes. Like all fire dragons (and, as I have told Agrimony a thousand times, like all birds, too), it walks on its hind legs, the front legs being in this species almost vestigial, having a very limited manipulative capacity. Fire dragons are, of course, the only creatures of the genus Draco to possess the unique pectoral girdle which accommodates not only the forelegs, but also a pair of membranous wings. The specimen in question was undoubtedly a monarch among pygmy fire dragons, and as he stretched his wings and yawned a spurt of flame two ells long, almost dislodging his rider, I was reminded how much I coveted the skeletal remains of Draco diminutivus obnoxiosious. However, under the current circumstances, I considered it impertinent to enquire whether he might consider donating his body to science.
Besides, the fellow lodged between his shoulder blades was also a specimen of peculiar interest. You must remember that I had only seen Griswald and Snotgobbler in their full Goblinish glory for the space of a few seconds, before Agrimony turned them into sheep in a fit of impatience. Faced with so splendid a dragon, however, Agrimony seemed less disposed to take offensive action, so that I was able to get a good look at Spitmucus as he prepared to address his captive audience. Being a military sort, and apparently one who had spent some time in the cavalry, Spitmucus wore knee-length riding boots, a pair of white military jodhpurs, and a red jacket festooned with gold braid and medals. But there were holes in the ends of his boots, out of which there protruded a disconcerting array of gnarled, green toes, with hooked claws where the toenails ought to have been. And as the pygmy dragon shifted his weight impatiently from foot to foot, and leaned against the half-ruined wall, sighing smokily to himself, I perceived that there was a wide tear in the back of Spitmucus’s jacket, out of which there protruded a hairy green back with rather prominent vertebral processes. His face was particularly unpleasant, so I tried not to look at it, especially after he cleared his throat and let the slime dribble down his chin.
“Oh, do hurry up and get on with it, Pukeslime, or whatever your name is,” said the dragon impatiently, giving Spitmucus the kind of look that a cat might be expected to give to a flea. “If you’re going to say something, say it, and let me get on with my part of the job.” And then, I am proud to say, he looked at me, groaned audibly, and said, “Why did I have to be the one to carry this pompous old coot? It’s just my luck, I can tell you. On any other occasion, I’d smother him with chestnuts and have him gently toasted, if only for the pleasure of shutting him up.”
“Now don’t you get sassy with me Polygonatum,” snorted Spitmucus indignantly. “Leave the wetorical part of pwoceedings to the experts!”
“Hum,” I could not help interrupting, “What does he mean by wetorical?”
Polygonatum gave another exasperated groan. “He means rhetorical, but he has a speech impediment. Trust me to be landed with a rider who can’t tell his rs from his ws. Curséd, rotten luck!”
Spitmucus ignored this, and, assuming as imperious a posture as possible, he commenced his speech. “Wesistance is futile, you are completely suwwounded,” he began, and as if to confirm it, five other pygmy fire dragons stuck their heads in through the windows and hungrily eyed the occupants of the hall. “We must expwess our gwatitude, Llew Llaw Gyffes, for depwiving us, at one fell swoop, of the twoublesome Pwince Eugene. He weally was becoming wather superfluous. I begin to think that you may make a perfect Pwime-Minister in a puppet government. As for the west of you, I am under orders to fwow you all into pwison.” (Here the pygmy fire dragons exchanged exasperated glances, and Polygonatum drooled steam to think of the tasty meal going to waste.) “No doubt our illustwious leader Scabpicker will wish to qwestion you all, and mete out such punishment as tweachewous cwiminals deserve. But I wather suspect he will leave you to languish with the wats and mice for a while, before he gets awound to intewwogating you -”
“Oh cripes,” interrupted Polygonatum. “I’ve had a bellyful of this prattle. Let’s just eat up and go.”
“Stop gwumbling, you widiculous dwagon,” replied Spitmucus. “I intend to welish my victorwy speech.”
“Yes,” said Polygonatum, “and I intend to relish a hominid or two before the day is out, starting with the most talkative ones.” He stared intently at me, and then craned his neck around and gave Spitmucus a similar look.
It is hardly necessary for me to relate the seemingly interminable argument which followed, in the course of which Spitmucus told Polygonatum repeatedly that he was incowwigible, and Polygonatum recited recipes for jacket-baked Goblin, roasted Bard and deep-fried Druid. Suffice it to say that Spitmucus fobbed Polygonatum off with some story about the people in Llanbrunchforth being fatter and juicier still, and we found ourselves being jostled into the village stables and clapped in irons. To our dismay, we found Gladys there too, looking decidedly shaken, with singed hair and deprived of all her beloved inventions, even her pocket-watch. The mayor sat grimly in one corner, and Agrimony slumped exhausted and defeated against the wall. The conditions were miserable; the rats ate better than we did, and the Goblin guards delighted in oscillating between enlightened civility and compassion on the one hand, and unbridled uncouthness and cruelty on the other. Indeed, it was not unusual for a Goblin guard to be seen commiserating with one prisoner about his sorry plight in the most understanding tones, whilst trampling on the head of another. I entertained a particular dislike for Squelchfart, a monstrous fellow with a snot-encrusted nose ring who delighted in “telling tales” about us to the other Goblin guards, so that they punished us for supposed crimes in a most arbitrary and gratuitous manner. And on Fridays, the only food was black pudding.
*
Oh, my dear little Alias, you will hardly believe me when I tell you that we remained in that horrible place for nine years. The Goblins were very good at keeping us just about alive, but our faces grew gaunt, our skin sagged, and our hair grew thin and grey. And for most of those nine years, we were kept in an agony of suspense, wondering when Scabpicker himself would deign to visit us, interrogate us, and pronounce his sentence upon us. And when he did come, we realised that nothing could possibly have prepared us for that skilful artifice, that calculated duplicity, that snide dissimulation.
Imagine, dear boy, an exquisite violin, made of the very finest seasoned woods in the most sophisticated gnomish workshop. The grain of the wood and the gracefulness of the curves enchant the eye; the touch of the strings fills the fingers with that sensitivity which is the breath and the vibrance of flawless music. You take up the bow; it nestles in your hand as though it had always been there. It possesses perfect balance and poise; a bow which can pronounce the most delicate of arpeggios, and draw out the sublimest of semi-quavers until music is no longer music but spirit transformed into sound, the movements of quicksilver made audible, the magnified tremblings of a butterfly’s wing. You draw the bow across the first string, and the sound resonates inside the instrument like the best wine maturing in the barrel, tuned to perfection. The sound is tranquility in motion, beyond all explanation, beyond all science. And the second string is like the first, and the third compounds the two; the wondrous conjunction of wood, air and a stretched string fills your heart with the purest of joys. You begin to play a tune, and it dances, ephemeral and tantalising, on the flux of time.
And then, in playing the tune, you must needs play the fourth string. It is flat; dreadfully flat. To hear it is the purest agony. Teeth on edge, you turn the screw to bring it into tune, but there is no change - the screw turns and turns and the string never tightens. You whip the bow away from the strings as if stung by an insect, but the fiddle continues to play, three strings tuned to a mellifluous harmony, and one string nothing but a cacophonous discord - discord, tearing at your heart like a pair of disembodied claws. Whenever that string is played, it makes the others sound grotesque - hideous parodies of themselves. Your instinct is to smash the violin to pieces, but you cannot, for it has the mastery of you, and you realise in an instant that you must listen to this abomination for the rest of your life.
That is what Scabpicker was like. I dare not tell you too much of his conversation with us - of how he spoke with such compassion and such plausible weeping about the awful deaths of so many of our friends and relations beneath the breath of Polygonatum and his brood, and how he then broke into paroxysms of hilarity because of the mournful expressions on our faces. I dare not tell you of the ways he manipulated us until we were ready to tear one-another’s throats out, or of the sincere and tender-hearted tones in which he read out the death sentence for each one of us. I dare not tell you - for although Scabpicker is now dead, I can hear the screeching of that untunable string to this very day.
Oh, yes. Did I forget to tell you? Scabpicker is dead - most assuredly dead. Why, if he were still alive, I am sure we would still be in prison waiting for our sentences to be carried out. That was Scabpicker’s way.
But in point of fact, he died the very night he left our cells. We all felt it, when he died; it was as though the violin had suddenly been plunged under water: we could still hear it playing, but there was at last room in our minds for our own thoughts as well. The Goblin guards had kept Agrimony drugged and almost insensible for all of those nine years, but on the night that Scabpicker died, he awoke and was as lucid - and as rude - as ever. It was then that the ground began to shake, and a sulphurous, burning smell drifted through the cracks of the cell wall.
“Oh, capital!” said Agrimony sarcastically, looking at the village tinker, who was chained back-to-back with Gladys Sparkbright. “I should say that we’re out of the frying pan and into the -”
He never finished his sentence, for at that very moment, the roof was torn from above us, and we all gazed up at the serrated, silver scaled muzzle of the largest species of land animal in existence. The creature lurched above us, and fixed us with an eye filled with the purest malignancy. Fire licked about his lips, and as it did so, the head of Scabpicker dropped to the cell floor, the hair burnt away, the eyes sightless, the green skin taut and spattered with black, rancorous blood. The great beast hiccoughed, and a sheet of flame shot across where the ceiling used to be.
“Draco terribilis pyromanicus!” I cried in awe, aware, despite my fear, that this was the opportunity of a lifetime. Oddly enough, no one had ever managed to make a first-hand report of an encounter with Draco terribilis pyromanicus, and I aimed to be the first.
“Quite so,” said the dragon. “But I’m not so enamoured of these newfangled triple-barrelled Latin names. How would you like it if I called you Homo sapiens stultissimus? My name is Atropa, and I find it singularly appropriate.”
“Absolutely fascinating!” I whispered. “He seems much more intelligent than the Hydra.”
“Fascinating schmascinating,” grumbled Agrimony. “Why don’t you shut up, Hingefinkle? I have no desire to be turned into crackling to the accompaniment of a final recital of your usual pseudo-scientific claptrap.”
“That just shows how mentally deficient you humans really are,” snorted Atropa. “Crackling requires the presence of subcutaneous fat. But you lot are so scrawny that all of you put together would yield less crackling than the average house-mouse. Miserable fare indeed, after an entree of seventy Goblins, a hundred and fifty human slaves and six pygmy dragons. A pox on the lot of you.” To prove his point, he grabbed me by the ball and chain, dangled me upside down so that I had a wonderful view of his olfactory orifices, and pinched my skin between a clawed thumb and forefinger. Then, he gave such a snort of disgust that my chain melted clean through and I landed in a heap on top of Agrimony.
“Atropa? Atropa?” The voice came, I judged, from across the village square. It was unmistakably the voice of another fire-dragon, and from the tone of voice and the imperiousness of the demand, I deduced that this was Atropa’s mate.
“Oh, hamstrung halflings! It’s the wife! What does she want now?” grumbled Atropa, and then, louder, “I’m over here, dearest!”
“Well, what are you doing over there?” came the reply.
“Nothing of consequence,” said Atropa, disappearing from view.
“Did you find anything to eat?”
“Nothing particularly edible.” Atropa’s voice was receding rapidly into the distance.
“Well, come on then. I’m hungry,” came the reply, and after that, there was nothing but the whistling of the wind above our heads, and the soulless, hollow chattering of the teeth in Scabpicker’s disembodied head.
*
Over the horrible days that followed, Atropa and his paramour Amanita devoured the slowest part of the Goblin army (the faster part of it scattered this way and that, some, Spitmucus included, hiding beyond the Marches of the Elf-Lords; others fleeing east, where they no doubt drowned themselves in the ocean, preferring water to fire when compelled to make a choice). By the end of it, the streets were awash with Goblin blood, and the rivers ran rank and black for three weeks. But Atropa and Amanita were still not satisfied, and it was not until they had eaten all the inhabitants of Llanbrunchforth, Dinnerwy and Supperdarn (scrawny as they were after nine years of Goblin hegemony), that Amanita consented to return to her bower in the mountains beyond the Rancid Swamp. We watched the awesome spectacle of her return to hibernation from a hill near Gladys’s workshop, and then made our way back to rummage through her scattered belongings, salvaging whatever was not bent or broken beyond repair. And there, lying on a bench, was Gladys’s prototype of the humane mousetrap, with a mummified piece of cheese still hanging from the wire. The door was closed, but there was no sign of the mouse. Not that there would have been, of course, for Gladys’s explosives were remarkably powerful.
“Hum, Gladys,” I said when the inspiration hit me. “You know that mousetrap -”
My dear little Alias, I fear I have already overstepped the mark by subjecting so young a child as yourself to a description of what happened to Scabpicker. So don’t try to persuade me, for I am firmly resolved not to do it. Why, little Alias, your tender, innocent mind would be corrupted for life, were I to tell you what Agrimony said next.
THE HAZZARD RANGE HERALD
6:32 PM Tuesday 4/24/2018
Hazzard Range county sheriff's office Deputy Dale Alak took a report of vandalism on a vehicle in the 200 block of Depot st in Mars ( central part of the county ) . Reporting party reported to Deputy Alak ,that someone smashed his driver side window and graffiti some nasty comments on it . Scene investigate and cleared
~~~~~
7:29 pm Tuesday 4/24/2018
Hazzard Range county sheriff's office Deputy Dale Alak took report of
vandalism at home in 500 block of Cotton st in Sun ( central part of the county ) . Reporting party reported to Deputy Alak ,that someone had smashed the windows out of her son's camper and graffiti some nasty comments on it . Scene investigate and cleared .
~~~~~~~~~ NOTE NOT REPORTED IN THE PAPER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder since the two cases are link ,by the young male who owns the pickup and camper .He got caught cheating on his girlfriend ( ex ) earlier today .So makes you wonder ,who might behind this . Hmmm
♦ Instructions available at BrickVault ♦
Introducing you to my latest Midi-Scale spaceship, the timeless Y-Wing from Episode IV - A New Hope! At 546 pieces, this compact and intricate model is barely wider than your average smartphone's height, but keeps a dense, detailed look and accurate proportions.
I initially made a first prototype more than a year ago but was unhappy with the half-baked, almost playset-ish scale. I took on the challenge again and recreated it entirely from scratch: it's now smaller, more accurate, and just better in every aspect.
Despite the small size, I did my best to capture the essence of the original ILM prop: tilted cockpit section, engines off-center relative to the thin support struts, asymmetrical greebles from top to bottom, cockpit turret...
Believe it or not, the deceptively simple shape of the body was not easy to capture at this scale: with such a tiny surface to work with, a subtle balance had to be struck between incorporating complex greebling and "drawing" an accurate body outline.
The cockpit section was a whole other beast, but once I figured out how to create the tapering, things clicked pretty fast. I managed to reproduce the slight downwards tilt, the yellow stripes on the fuselage, and the more discreet gray stripes on each side as well. I believe it's about as small as you can go when creating a Y-Wing cockpit without sacrificing crucial features and proportions!
This model comes with a removable stand. Although it being purely a display piece, its swooshability is very good. In addition to being cost-effective, I think it makes a nice desk model for anyone loving that ILM prop look, with a small space footprint.
► Instructions for the Y-Wing are available at BrickVault!
London Transport's Hornchurch garage (RD) was the first to become OMO (one man operated) when the last RTs were replaced by DMSs in the early seventies. In turn these were replaced by Leyland Titans in 198o when routes here and at nearby Romford (North St) were converted.
These views are of EFE 1/76 scale models posed in front of a Kingsway Models card kit of the garage.
U.S. Marines with 3rd Platoon, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, provide security during a tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel while participating in exercise Steel Knight 2014 in Yuma, Ariz., Dec. 9, 2013. Steel Knight is a large scale combined arms, live-fire exercise designed to prepare Marines for a wide variety of military operations. (DoD photo by Sgt. Keonaona C. Paulo, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)
Stan Lee’s Comikaze is Los Angeles’ first and only large-scale, multi-media pop culture convention. Held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Comikaze assembles the most exciting and innovative in comics, video games, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and all things pop-culture. Partnering with comic legend Stan Lee himself and Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Comikaze is the only pop-culture convention owned and operated by true pop-culture icons. After spending much time researching both local and national conventions in the United States, Regina Carpinelli, the co-founder and CEO of Comikaze Entertainment Inc, and the rest of the Comikaze team have crafted an event that will thrill and excite even the most casual comic fan.
Having attracted 55,000 fans from around the country in only our third year, Stan Lee’s Comikaze is quickly growing into one of the most diverse and celebrated geek and pop-culture events in the United States. Our 2013 event housed over 600 diverse artists and vendors, selling exclusive, rare and limited editions of comics, collectibles, art, toys and other hard-to-find merchandise. Our unique panels, autograph sessions and photo-ops give fans once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to truly interact with their favorite creators and major players in the entertainment industry.
The Stan Lee Comikaze team strives to make all your geeky fantasies come true! It is important that we create a cohesive community around our event. We like to think of ourselves as a family, because we are a family. Elvira is our crazy and expressive aunt who is also brilliant, beautiful and comes up with creative ideas. Stan Lee is our wise grandfather, the one who reminds you to stay true to yourself and to always reach for the stars. And as for the rest of the Comikaze team, we are the crazy kids who don’t always follow the rules, but believe that together we can provide an unparalleled and unforgettable experience for all. This truly is an event for the fans, by the fans.
This is the base for my lower (Westbound) staging yard before I re-installed the tracks. I constructed the base from 2 inch (50 mm) Expanded Polystyrene Foam sheets and 2 inch Risers from Woodland Scenic's SubTerrain system. I cut 1/2" holes for the track power cables and control cables for the yard switches. The wires were fairly skinny, but the electrical connectors were big enough to require 1/2" (13 mm) holes. Visible portions of the WB yard are painted tan, and the hidden portions are painted dark green.
If it's not too much trouble, Baynard Police would really appreciate it if these drivers would move out of the way so they can get to the scene.
See the notes for more info:
For more info about the dioramas, check out the FAQ: 1stPix FAQ
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background
A review by the Australian Government's Defense Committee held after World War II recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. Initial plans were for three carriers, with two active and a third in reserve. A Fleet Air Arm was established on 3 July 1947 by the Commonwealth Defense Council to operate aircraft from these. The first, HMAS Sydney, entered service in 1948.
Sydney was the only non-US, non-UK aircraft carrier to be involved in the Korean War. Sydney's maiden voyage saw the delivery of the first two squadrons operated by the Fleet Air Arm: 805 Squadron with Hawker Sea Furies, and 816 Squadron with Fairey Fireflies. The RAN's second aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne, had encountered delays while upgrading to the latest technology, and the British aircraft carrier HMS Vengeance was loaned to the RAN from 1952 until 1955, when Melbourne was commissioned.
At this stage it was clear that the RAN needed some more aerial punch for its new carriers beyond its fast Sea Furies and outdated Fireflies. Hence, search began for a complementary fighter bomber. The Douglas A-1 Skyraider was an initial candidate, but it finally was rejected because it appeared to be too slow and limited to the CAS role. The Westland Wyvern was another candidate, but considered to be too complex and large. Despite the advent of the jet age, a rather simple and robust aircraft with a piston engine was demanded as a ground-attack version for low altitudes. In early 1949, a proven candidate was found: Vought's F4U-5 Corsair, even though in a much modified version.
The Corsair was quickly adopted, since time was pressing. But despite the urgency through the Commonwealth Defense Council, the RAN Corsair would considerably differ from its American counterparts: The RAN decided to replace the original Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine with a Rolls Royce Griffon engine. A major change, but the Griffon offered better fuel efficiency and saved overall weight, despite the prominent water radiator bath under the propeller.
The longer nose section earned the Australian Corsairs the nickname ‘Longneck’, inspired by typical 750ml bottles of beer in South Australia. These aircraft could also be easily identified through a massive, four-bladed contraprop with a long, pointed spinner. Major benefit of the contraprop was a much improved low speed handling through reduced torque effects and enhanced throttle response - a vital feature on the relatively small Australian carriers' flight decks. This new arrangement changed the Corsair's silhouette completely, but also improved aerodynamics, so that, despite a nominal decrease in power, almost all performance features could be kept.
Other obvious external modifications were an enlarged fin with a square shape for better directional stability at low speeds and the introduction of an almost frameless perspex bubble canopy - reminiscent of Goodyear's F2G "Super Corsair" from late WWII and improving both aerodynamics as well as the rearward field of view. Less visible were many British standard equipment pieces, like the Hispano Mk. V cannons, the radio or the electric system. Effectively, almost no part of the Australian Corsairs would be interchangeable with its US cousins!
The aircraft were to be assembled in Australia at the Port Melbourne plant of CAC. Raw airframe kits were imported from the USA via ship, as well as the Australian Corsairs' engines, which came directly from Great Britain. A total of 34 ‘Longnecks’ were built from these imported kits. The new aircraft were ready for service in October 1950 and received the official designation ‘Corsair S.1’, All machines were exclusively allocated to 806 Squadron, which was initially based on HMAS Sydney.
RAN Corsairs quickly saw hot action, when HMAS Sydney was deployed to Korean waters in late 1951, with a wartime CAG of 805, 806, 808, and 817 Squadrons embarked. The CAG conducted its first raids on 5 October 1951 with 32 sorties mounted in the 'Wales' area in the south-west of North Korea. Six days later, Sydney's CAG flew a light fleet carrier record to date of 89 sorties in one day conducting attacking raids and targeting sorties for USS New Jersey. The Fleet Air Arm operated in a strike, ground support, and escort role during the deployment, which saw three RAN pilots killed and a fourth seriously wounded, while a total of fifteen aircraft were lost, including two Corsair S.1.
After just three years of service, starting in 1953 towards the end of the Korea crisis, all RAN Corsairs saw a major equipment update, including an AN/APS-4 radar which was added in a housing under the starboard wing. This simple radar could be used for radar navigation, radar beacon homing and radar bombing, as well as airborne target search, so that the Corsairs could even be employed as night fighters. The modified machines were re-designated SAW.1 ("Strike - All Weather").
All RAN Corsairs served exclusively with 806 Squadron alongside Hawker Sea Furies and later De Havilland See Venom all-weather fighters. After the Korean War the squadron was quickly relocated to HMAS Melbourne when HMAS Sydney was to be decommissioned in the late 50ies. The robust machines were withdrawn from carrier use in 1965 but remained in land-based service at Nowra Air Station until 1968, when the squadron was disbanded and the last machines retired. They were effectively replaced by A-4 Skyhawks.
General characteristics
• Crew: 1 pilot
• Length: 37 ft (11.09 m)
• Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.5 m)
• Height: 17 ft 1 1/2 in (5.11 m)
• Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,174 kg)
• Loaded weight: 14,670 lb (6,653 kg)
Powerplant:
• 1 × water-cooled V12 Rolls Royce Griffon RG.25.SM engine with 2.625 hp (1.955 kW)
Performance
• Maximum speed: 426 mph (350 kn, 688 km/h)
• Range: 900 mi (783 nmi, 1,450 km)
• Service ceiling: 41.500ft (12.649 m)
• Rate of climb: 3,870ft/min (19.7 m/s)
Armament:
4 × 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk V cannons
4.000 pounds (1.800 kg) of external ordnance, including drop tanks, iron bombs of up to 1.000 lbs. calibre or up to 16× 3" (76.2 mm) rockets
The kit and its assembly:
Another whiffy 'science fiction' model. I found the idea of an après-WWII-Corsair in Commonwealth use interesting, since the type had a very long and successful career, and the 2012 “Aussierama” group build at whatifmodelers.com fuelled this project further.
Neither a RAN Corsair ever existed, nor a V12 engine variant, though. My initial idea was a Corsair with a Centaurus engine and a five-bladed propeller. But this is a rather common whif conversion, you find a lot of these – easy to do and it looks great, too. But I wanted "something more".
An early concept element was the bubble canopy with the lowered rear fuselage, but the Griffon entered the scene relatively late, just when I found a resin conversion set from Red Roo Models of Australia with RAAF Avro Lincoln engine nacelles. That engine would make the difference I had been looking for – and it was furthermore a nice ‘excuse’ for fitting a massive contraprop… ;)
The basis kit for this conversion is a French F4U-7 from Italeri. It is a very good kit which is still around in several permutations and re-boxings, e .g. from Revell o. G.. Wings, horizontal stabilizers and landing gear were taken OOB, but the fuselage saw heavy modification:
a) The resin Griffon from Red Roo was implanted just in front of the wing's leading edge. The fuselage was simply cut off and the former exhaust niches filled with putty. Easier than expected, even though tedious and time-consuming!
The Red Roo engines come without any props, so that the propeller is a donation part: it comes from a vintage Plasticart Tu-20/95 bomber in 1:100 scale. The blade tips were clipped for a modern look, matching the diameter of the original F4U propeller. Ground clearance would not be a problem, since the propeller sits higher on the fuselage than with the original radial engine.
b) The original round fin was completely replaced by a new horizontal stabilizer. This piece is the outer section of a vintage 1:100 scale An-12(!), also from Plasticart. As a side note: this donation part is probably 35 years old, but here it finally found a new and good use! It is a simple but very effective change – with the new fin the converted Corsair now looks a little like a Blackburn Firebrand or later Firecrest?
c) The complete upper fuselage was replaced by a lower, scratch-built/hand-welded polystyrene piece. It received a new cockpit opening and a scratch-built fairing for the new bubble canopy. The latter comes from a Hasegawa Vought XF5U-1 (the 'Flying Pancake') and makes the Corsair look pretty fast and streamlined. A pilot (Italeri?) was added to the cockpit, which was otherwise kept OOB since it is nicely detailed, just like the rest of the OOB kit.
I guess that only 50% of the original fuselage survived this major surgery! A wonder that the thing still holds together...
Further minor mods include the radar housing (leftover from another Italeri F4U kit), new guns in the wings and the unguided 3" missiles with launch rails instead of USN HVARs. They add IMHO much to the British look of the aircraft. The RPs come from a Matchbox Bristol Beaufighter, the racks, too, but the original, massive four-missile-pallets were separated into single launch rails, for a more delicate look.
The drop tank comes from the original kit, even though its centerline position is individual. The bomb hardpoints under the wing roots were retained, but left empty. You can IMHO easily ‘kill’ a whif plane with too much and/or too exotic ordnance, and there's already enough extra about this model to discover.
Painting and markings:
To make the plane a bit exotic (and for the aforementioned group build) I decided to build it in Australian Navy colors, with Kangaroo Roundels. Initially I wanted to place the RAN Corsair into the Korean War era, but at that time the Kangaroo roundels had not been in use yet (they were introduced in July 1956, after the war). On the downside of that time window, quick ID "invasion stripes" from the Korean War era would not be plausible anymore - and they'd only go together with RAF-style roundels, which I did not want to use since I wanted a clear identification of the Corsair's (fictional) user. Therefore, the model was placed in the late 50ies.
I kept the Corsair in typical RAN colors of that era, though. Sea Furies and Gannets were benchmarks, not only for the paint scheme but also for the markings/decals. Basic colors are Extra Dark Sea Grey (Humbrol 123) from above and Sky Type S (Testors 2049) from below, with a high waterline and with EDSG wrapped around the leading edges – a detail I copied from RAN Gannets.
As a little design twist I tried to make some areas look as if Korean War ID stripes on wings and fuselage had recently been painted over - and approprtaiet detail for 1957, and just after the RAAF/RAN introduced the Kangaroo Roundels. Therefore, upper sides of wings and fuselage were painted with Testors 2079 (RLM 66) and Humbrol 90 (Beige Green, actually Sky Type S, too, but with a kore yellow-ish hue than the Testors paint). I think it worked well, and makes the simple two-tone livery a bit more attractive?
Cockpit interior was painted in RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78), the landing gear as well as its wells were left in aluminum (Humbrol 56).
The kit was only slightly weathered, with a very thin black ink wash, some dry painting with lighter shades of the basic tones in order to emphasize panel lines, and even less dry painting with silver on leading edges.
Additionally, some light exhaust and gun soot stains were added, simple dry painting with matt black and some dark grey.
The decals were puzzled together from several Xtracedal aftermarket sheets (for Fairey Gannets and Hawker Sea Furys) and the scrap box. In order to add a colorful contrast I decided to add some bold squadron colors on fin and spinner, since I have seen similar markings on RAN Gannets of that time. I went for black and yellow, as complementary colors to the red/white/blue roundels. The checkered rudder was cut from an aftermarket sheet for small-scale tabletop vehicles. The spinner was painted by hand.
Finally, everything was sealed under stain varnish (Tamiya), and a slightly sprayed some matt varnish onto the upper front areas, so that the paint looks a bit dull and worn without sacrificing the sheen look.
All in all, a major conversion with little problems – waiting for the resin parts from Australia to arrive was the biggest challenge. I think that the aircraft looks pretty plausible? A subtle whif. ^^
MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII (Aug. 10, 2021) - A U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion attached to Assault Craft Unit 5 carrying U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, 3d Marine Division, departs towards the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego (LPD-22) during Large Scale Exercise 2021, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Aug. 10, 2021. LSE 2021 is a live, virtual, and constructive exercise employing integrated command and control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and sensors across the joint force to expand battlefield awareness, share targeting data, and conduct long-range precision strikes in support of naval operations in a contested and distributed maritime environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Juan Carpanzano) 210810-M-IA005-1034
** Interested in following U.S. Indo-Pacific Command? Engage and connect with us at www.facebook.com/indopacom | twitter.com/INDOPACOM |
www.instagram.com/indopacom | www.flickr.com/photos/us-pacific-command; | www.youtube.com/user/USPacificCommand | www.pacom.mil/ **
You've got to admit, that Econoline van blends in with the can, and there is nothing but a chintzy padlock on it; maybe it could be the crime of the century.
But, who pulls a caper on Christmas?
Once security is alerted by a shopper hoping to exchange a Peppa Pig Fun Fair Playset with a broken Ferris Wheel, they capture the whole plot on camera and call in the cavalry.
It doesn't fair well for this crook, not only because the intermodal container is stuffed with wrapping paper and Halloween decorations, but also, the Big Box has the only Dunkin Donuts open around, so the fuzz ain't far away.
The captain of Human Resources, and a lieutenant from Support Services Records Division still know how to be cops... with an assist from a Phillips County deputy, and their handcuffs still work.
Baynard Police
Staff on Patrol Program (S.O.P)
Big Box Superstore
Pelican Plaza Shopping Center
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II
Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R
For more info about the dioramas, check out the FAQ: 1stPix FAQ
[There are 5 images in this set on “The Feast of Esther”] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work. This art masterpiece is located at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.
Dutch painter Jan Lievens (1607-1674) during his lifetime had achieved an international (continental) reputation for his art work. Today, he is not well known at all. Versatile in technique and genre, many of his works have been attributed to other painters. More is now known of the man, and credit is now being given where it should have been. The painting, “The Feast of Esther” at the North Carolina Museum of Art once was thought to be a work by Rembrandt; Lievens and Rembrandt knew each other in their home city of Leiden and may have shared a studio in common. Even in the 1630’s their styles were similar as were their subject matter, and contemporaries had difficulty in distinguishing one from the other. Lievens was well-known for portraits as well as religious scenes and landscapes.
“The Feast of Esther” dates from circa 1625; it is oil on canvas (51 1/2 x 64 1/2 inches [130.8 x 163.8 cm]), depicts a scene from the Book of Esther in the Old Testament. It is the confrontation of Ahasuerus (Xerxes) with his minister, Haman, who wished to see the extermination of the Jews. Esther has both her husband, Ahasuerus) and Haman to a banquet and exposes Haman’s plot. Lievens has conveyed much drama by Esther’s pointing finger, her husband’s anger in his clenched hands, the expression of surprise and shock on the face of Haman. The museum placard mentions aspects of Leivens’ craft—“scale, bold colors, dramatic energy”.
For additional works of art by Lievens:
Athenaeum (see under Art tab) with 68 art works
www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?ID=4733
Web Gallery of Art with 15 art works
www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/lievens/
For more complete information:
www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Out-of-Rembrandts-Sha...
artnc.org/works-of-art/feast-esther
www.kunstpedia.com/articles/a-dutch-master-rediscovered.html
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The scale statue of Liberty that has recently been restored on West Seattle's Alki Beach. It's about 8 feet tall. It's my first photo to top 1,000 views.
Walatowa Timber Industries (WTI) mill workers produce wood pellets for heating, that came from trees harvested with the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) and the Pueblo of Jemez working together to implement forest restoration work such as the Southwest Jemez Restoration Project and the proposed Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) that produces timber that the program allows Walatowa Timber Industries (WTI) mill to process and sell, in Jemez Pueblo, NM, Sept 10, 2019. WTI produces wood pellets, poles for utilities, Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, White Fir and Spruce beams and vigas for conventional and traditional home building, ties for railroads, posts for fences, milled lumber, mulch and firewood.
The Southwest Jemez Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project is a long-term forest and watershed restoration strategy to increase the landscape's resilience to severe wildfire and other large-scale disturbances. The landscape area is approximately 210,000 acres in the Southwest Jemez Mountains (SWJM) comprising the entire upper Jemez River watershed and including 110,000 acres on the Santa Fe National Forest, the 86,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve, the Pueblo of Jemez Pueblo, and additional parcels of state, private, and tribal lands. The project area includes ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, aspen and piñon-juniper forests as well as grasslands, meadows, riparian areas and aquatic habitats. The effect of human activities has significantly changed the ecological complexion of the landscape within the Jemez Mountains. Over time, the suppression of natural wildfires has dramatically altered the diversity, age, and productivity of native plant species. The forests have experienced dramatic increases in tree densities, thick understories, and ground litter. Decades of livestock grazing have left river and creek embankments without enough vegetation to hold the soil and shade the waterways to provide optimal temperatures for native trout and other aquatic species. Invasive plants and noxious weeds have encroached across the landscape, diminishing the quality, quantity and diversity of native forage for both wildlife and livestock. The overall goal is to restore the forest to conditions that were common to this geographical area prior to the first European contact.
The SWJM project was designed to meet four primary purposes:
•Restore the forest's resilience to wildfire and other disturbances by using low-intensity fire to return fire to the landscape
•Protect cultural resources
•Improve wildlife habitat, watershed and riparian conditions, vegetation diversity and water quality
•Create local economic development opportunities
The USDA FS Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) have worked with the Pueblo of Jemez on the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) that encourages the collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forest landscapes. This helps to reduce the threat of wildland fire through hazardous fuels removal, promotes forest health through reducing insect infestation and disease, and the harvest of timber will go to the tribe’s nearby Walatowa Timber Industries mill.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung with permission of the Pueblo of Jemez.
For more information please see:
USDA.gov
FS.usda.gov/detail/santafe/landmanagement/projects/?cid=stelprd3826396
FS.fed.us/restoration/CFLRP/
Acadoparadoxides harlani (Green, 1834) - trilobite cranidium from the Cambrian of Massachusetts, USA. (YPM 8237, Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, Connecticut, USA) (centimeter scale)
This species is also known as Paradoxides harlani, Paradoxides (Eoparadoxides) harlani, Paradoxides (Hydrocephalus) harlani, and Paradoxide (Acadoparadoxides) harlani.
Trilobites are extinct marine arthropods. They first appear in Lower Cambrian rocks and the entire group went extinct at the end of the Permian. Trilobites had a calcitic exoskeleton and nonmineralizing parts underneath (legs, gills, gut, etc.). The calcite skeleton is most commonly preserved in the fossil record, although soft-part preservation is known in some trilobites (Examples: Burgess Shale and Hunsruck Slate). Trilobites had a head (cephalon), a body of many segments (thorax), and a tail (pygidium). Molts and carcasses usually fell apart quickly - most trilobite fossils are isolated parts of the head (cranidium and free cheeks), individual thoracic segments, or isolated pygidia. The name "trilobite" was introduced in 1771 by Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch and refers to the tripartite division of the trilobite body - it has a central axial lobe that runs longitudinally from the head to the tail, plus two side lobes (pleural lobes).
Seen here is a paradoxidid trilobite cranidium from Braintree, Massachusetts. Paradoxidids were some of the largest trilobites ever. They are relatively common large trilobites in Middle Cambrian rocks in many parts of the world. About 150 species and subspecies names are available for Paradoxides (sensu lato), which includes some junior synonyms (subjective & objective) and some homonyms. Generic-level taxonomy of paradoxidid trilobites continues to be in a state of confusion, despite the family treatment by Dean & Rushton (1997) (see also, e.g., comments by Fletcher et al., 2005). Several genus-level or subgenus-level names are used by various authors to refer to groups of Paradoxides-like species that may or may not be morphologically distinctive (Examples: Paradoxides Brongniart, 1822, Bucephalites Thompson, 1834, Hydrocephalus Barrande, 1846, Phlysacium Corda in Hawle & Corda, 1847, Phanoptes Corda in Hawle & Corda, 1847, Plutonia, Hicks, 1871, Plutonides Hicks, 1895, Eccaparadoxides Šnajdr, 1957, Acadoparadoxides Šnajdr, 1957, Vinicella Šnajdr, 1957, Eoparadoxides Solovev, 1969, Baltoparadoxides Šnajdr, 1986, Macrocerca Pillet in Courtessole et al., 1988, Rejkocephalus Kordule, 1990; some of these are undisputed junior synonyms of other names on the list).
Classification: Animalia, Arthropoda, Trilobita, Polymerida, Paradoxididae
Stratigraphy: Braintree Formation, lower Middle Cambrian
Locality: Braintree, south of Boston, eastern Massachusetts, USA
----------------
References cited:
Barrande, J. 1846. Notice Préliminaire sur le Système Silurien et les Trilobites de Bohême. Leipzig, Germany. J.B. Hisrschfeld. 97 pp.
Boeck, C. 1828 (not 1827). Notitser til Læren onm Trilobiterne. Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne 8: 11-44, pl. 2.
Brongniart, A. & A.-G. Desmarest. 1822. Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés Fossiles. Paris. F.-G. Levrault, Libraire. 154 pp. 11 pls.
Courtessole, R., J. Pillet & D. Vizcaino. 1988. Stratigraphie et Paleontologie du Cambrien Moyen Greseux de la Montagne Noire (Versant Meridional). Carcassonne, France. 55 pp. 8 pls.
Dean, W.T. & A.W.A. Rushton. 1997. Superfamily Paradoxidoidea. pp. 470-481 in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part O, Arthropoda 1, Trilobita, Revised, volume 1: Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida. Boulder, Colorado & Lawrence, Kansas. Geological Society of America & University of Kansas.
Fletcher, T.P., G. Theokritoff, G.Stinson Lord, & G. Zeoli. 2005. The early paradoxidid harlani trilobite fauna of Massachusetts and its correlatives in Newfoundland, Morocco, and Spain. Journal of Paleontology 79: 312-336.
Green, J. 1834. Descriptions of some new North American trilobites. American Journal of Science, 1st Series 25: 334-337.
Hawle, I. & A.J.C. Corda. 1847. Prodrom einer Monographie der Böhmischen Trilobiten. Prague. J.G. Calve'sche Buchhandlung. 176 pp. 7 pls.
Hicks, H. 1871. Descriptions of new species of fossils from the Longmynd rocks of St. David’s. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 27: 399-402, pls. 15-16.
Hicks, H. 1895. On the genus Plutonides (non Plutonia) from the Cambrian rocks of St. David’s. Geological Magazine, Series 4 2: 230-231.
Kordule, V. 1990. Rejkocephalus, a new paradoxid genus from the Middle Cambrian of Bohemia (Trilobita). Vestník Ústredniho Ústavu Geologického 65: 55-60, 2 pls.
Šnajdr, M. 1957. O novych trilobitech z ceskeho kambria. Vestník Ústredniho Ústavu Geologického 32: 235-244, 2 pls.
Šnajdr, M. 1986. Two new paradoxid trilobites from the Jince Formation (Middle Cambrian, Czechoslovakia). Vestník Ústredniho Ústavu Geologického 61: 169-174, pls. 1-2.
Solovev, I.A. 1969. Novye vidy Paradoxides (Trilobity) iz goryuchikh slantsev amginskogo yarusa severnoy Yakutii. Uchenye Zapiski Paleontologiya i Biostratigrafiya, Nauchno-Issledovatelskiy Insitut Geologii Arktiki 25: 9-20, 5 pls.
Suyata's very nice plastic kit of a futuristic armoured sports car. Painted with Tamiya lacquers, Alclad, and Citadel acrylics.
Built for The Modelling News - you can read my review including the full building and painting process here:
www.themodellingnews.com/2021/05/build-review-ptii-suyata...
Rollston Duesenberg SJ Arlington Torpedo Sedan 'Twenty Grand'
Rollston's most famous car was the 1933 Duesenberg Model SJ Arlington Torpedo Sedan "Twenty Grand".
Designed by Gordon Buehrig, the Twenty Grand was built as a show car for the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, and the finished car's price tag was $20,000, an astronomical amount at the time.
Duesenberg
E. L. Cord, the owner of Auburn Automobile, and other transportation firms, bought the Duesenberg Motor Corporation on October 26, 1926 for the brothers' engineering skills, talent and the brand name in order to produce luxury cars. Cord told Fred Duesenberg to design an automobile that would be the best in the world, the biggest, fastest, and most expensive car ever made. The car was intended to compete with the biggest, most powerful, and most luxurious European cars of the era, including Hispano-Suiza, Isotta-Fraschini, Mercedes-Benz, and Rolls-Royce.
The newly revived Duesenberg company set about to produce the Model J, which debuted December 1 at the New York Car Show of 1928. In Europe, it was launched at the "Salon de l'automobile de Paris" of 1929. The first and — at the time of the New York presentation — only example made of the series, the J-101, was a LeBaron sweep panel dual cowl phaeton, finished in silver and black. By the time the Great Depression hit in October 1929, the Duesenberg Company had only built some 200 cars. An additional 100 orders were filled in 1930. Thus, the Model J fell short of the original goal to sell 500 cars a year.
Specifications:
Overview
ManufacturerDuesenberg
Production1928-1937
Combustion chamber
ConfigurationStraight-eight engine
Displacement420 cu in (6,900 cc)
Cylinder bore3.74 in (95 mm)
Piston stroke4.76 in (121 mm)
Cylinder block alloycast iron
Cylinder head alloycast iron
ValvetrainDOHC, 4 valves per cylinder
Compression ratio5.7:1
Combustion
SuperchargerDuesenberg centrifugal (optional from 1932)
Fuel systemSingle updraft Schleber carburetor
Fuel typegasoline
Cooling systemwater-cooled
Output
Power output
265 hp (198 kW) at 4250 rpm (normal)
320 hp (240 kW) at 4200 rpm (supercharged)
Chronology
PredecessorDuesenberg Model A
Engine
The straight eight model J motor was based on the company's successful racing engines of the 1920s and though designed by Duesenberg they were manufactured by Lycoming, another company owned by Cord. In normally aspirated form, it produced 265 horsepower (198 kW) from dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. It was capable of a top speed of 119 mph (192 km/h), and 94 mph (151 km/h) in 2nd gear. Other cars featured a bigger engine but none of them surpassed its power. It was also both the fastest and most expensive American automobile on the market.
Design and development
As it was custom among the luxury car brands, only the chassis and engine were displayed, as the interior and body of the car would be custom-made by an experienced coachbuilder to the owner's specifications. The chassis on most model J's were the same, as was the styling of such elements as fenders, headlamps, radiator, hood and instrument panel.
Bodywork for these Duesenbergs came from both the US and Europe, and the finished cars were some of the largest, grandest, most beautiful, and most elegant cars ever created.[citation needed] About half the model Js built by Duesenberg had coachworks devised by the company's chief body designer, Gordon Buehrig, the rest were designed and made by independent coachbuilders from the US such as Derham, Holbrook, Judkins, Le Baron, Murphy, Rollston (later renamed Rollson), Walker, Weymann, and Willoughby, to name a few; and from Europe: Fernandez et Darrin, Franay, Gurney Nutting, Saoutchik, etc. However, other coachworks were made by Duesenberg branches in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Florida and Denver, as well as by smaller dealers. For the in-house bodies Duesenberg used the name of La Grande.
The chassis cost $8,500 ($9,500 after 1932); the completed base model cost between $13,000 and $19,000 (two of the American-bodied J's reached $25,000), at a time when the average U.S. physician earned less than $3,000 a year. Figures are not available as to the prices charged by deluxe coachbuilders in Europe, but it is reasonable to assume that the final selling price of the products mounted on the costly imported chassis were considerably higher than their all-American-built counterparts.
The J was available in two versions of chassis with a different wheelbase; a long one (153.54 in (3.90 m))[12] and a short one (about 141.73 in (3.60 m)). There were also other special sizes; like the only two SSJs with a wheelbase shortened to 125 in (3.18 m) and a couple of cars with the wheelbase extended to 4 m (160 in) and over.
The dash included lights that reminded the driver the oil needed changing and the battery should be inspected.
A series of minor modifications were carried out during the production life, but most of the design remained the same up until the factory closed in 1937. First to go was the four-speed gearbox, which proved unable to handle the engine's power. It was replaced by an unsynchronised three-speed gearbox, which was fitted to all subsequent Duesenbergs. Unlike almost all American manufacturers, Duesenberg did not switch to a fully synchronised gearbox in the mid-1930s, which made the Model J difficult to drive and outdated. By 1937 the chassis and gearbox were ancient compared to the competition.
Regarding this model, it is necessary to emphasize that most of them (engine and chassis) were made in 1929 and 1930, but due to the Depression, high price, etc., were sold throughout the next years. To date a certain J it is taken the year a car was bodied, even though the chassis were made in 1929, 1930, etc.
Supercharged version (SJ)
The supercharged version, often referred to as "SJ", was reputed to do 104 miles per hour (167 km/h) in second and have a top speed of 135–140 mph (217–225 km/h) in third gear. Zero-to-60 mph (97 km/h) times of around eight seconds and 0–100 mph (0–161 km/h) in 17 seconds were reported for the SJ in spite of the unsynchronized transmissions, at a time when even the best cars of the era were not likely to reach 100 mph (160 km/h). Duesenbergs generally weighed around two and a half tons; up to three tons was not unusual, considering the wide array of custom coachwork available. The wheelbase was 142.5 in (362 cm).
This rare supercharged Model J version, with 320 hp (239 kW) was also created by Fred Duesenberg. and introduced in May 1932, only 36 units were built. The SJ's supercharger was located beside the engine; to make room for it, the exhaust pipes were creased so they could be bent easily and extended through the side panel of the hood. These supercharged cars can be recognized by these shiny creased tubes, which Cord registered as a trademark and used in his other supercharged cars from Cord and Auburn. However, despite being a characteristic of the supercharged Model Js, these external exhaust pipes were offered as an option on normally aspirated Model Js, and were also offered for retrofitting to earlier Model Js. It was said, "The only car that could pass a Duesenberg was another Duesenberg—and that was with the first owner's consent."
Fred Duesenberg died of pneumonia on July 26, 1932, resulting from injuries sustained in an automobile accident in which he was driving a Murphy SJ convertible. His brother, Augie, took over Fred's duties as chief engineer and Harold T. Ames became president of Duesenberg, Inc.
Citations taken from Wikipedia.
This Lego miniland-scale Rollston bodied Duesenberg SJ Arlington Torpedo Sedan from 1933 has been created for Flickr LUGNuts 83rd build challenge, - 'Only in America', - featuring vehicles created in the USA
HMB Endeavour
A full-scale replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour was docked at Port Adelaide last year until she traveled on to Port Lincoln. She was visiting here after leaving Sydney and stopping off at Geelong along the way.
After Port Lincoln she stopped at Portland in Victoria on her way back to Sydney.
The Australian-built replica of James Cook's HMB Endeavour is one of the world's most accurate maritime replica vessels. When you come on board you may wonder whether James Cook and his crew have just stepped ashore somewhere on their voyage. The table is set, clothes are hung and the cat is slumbering.
On board the beautifully crafted ship, you glimpse a sailor's life during one of history's great maritime adventures, Captain Cook's epic 1768-71 world voyage. Look and you'll see almost 30 kilometres of rigging and 750 wooden blocks or pulleys! The masts and spars carry 28 sails that spread approximately 10,000 sq feet (930 m2) of canvas.
In the galley below is the huge stove, called a firehearth - state of the art in 1768. The Great Cabin is where Cook worked and dined, sharing the space with famous botanist Joseph Banks, as you can see when you glance around.
Construction of the Endeavour replica began in 1988 and the ship was launched 5 years later. Since then, she has sailed over 170,000 nautical miles twice around the world, visited 29 countries and many Pacific islands, and opened as a museum in 116 ports. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have come on board to see how Cook and his men lived.
THE HAZZARD RANGE HERALD
2:55 PM Tuesday Dec 13 ,2016
Hazzard Range county sheriff's office Deputy Deputy Brady Munoz assisted by New Mexico State Police officer Jack Grant in taking a report of robbery at home along Sun Ranch rd ( southern part of the county ) Scene was investigated/cleared.
With its wild wings, futuristic curves, and total lack of practicality, the Ferrari Dino 206 Competizione was the quintessential concept car. A radically designed prototype, the Competizione combined typical Ferrari values of charm, charisma, and technically advanced engineering prowess.
The Dino name in the Competizione's title is in reference to Enzo Ferrari's son, Dino. When Ferrari first developed a V6 engine for the 1957 Formula 2 series, he named it Dino. After that, the name of Enzo's son was used to designate six-cylinder and lower-cost Ferraris. The 206 nomenclature used on Ferrari's 1967 prototype indicates that it was built on a 206 S chassis. The 206 S was a capable racing car, with a body that resembled that of the V12-powered 330 P3. Using 206 S chassis #10523 to underpin the Competizione gave the car racer roots that were rarely seen on concept cars. The Dino 206 Competizione distinguished itself as a concept that was not just functional, but built on a thoroughly race-proven chassis.
That proven chassis was endowed with four wheel disc brakes, front and rear independent suspension, and an advanced steel space frame design that gave high strength in a lightweight package. The total weight of the 206 Competizione was just 1,400lbs, making even its small engine more than enough to create an unquestionably fast car.
The Dino V6 used in the Competizione displaced just 2.0-liters, but was able to generate 218bhp. Peak power was reached at redline, which was 9,000rpm. The lower rotational inertial of the small V6 gave an even higher redline than the V12 mounted in the 330 P series. The V6 was constructed of aluminum and mounted amidships within the space frame of the prototype, as it was in the standard 206 S. A 5-speed transaxle directed the engine's power to the rear wheels.
Despite its racing car foundation, the Dino 206 Competizione was not created to compete. As a dedicated concept car, it was created to showcase excellent design and possible styling cues for Ferrari's future. The Competizione had an advanced appearance that flaunted the talents of a young designer named Paolo Martin. Only 23 when he designed the car, the Competizione came very early in Martin's career. He later would admit he felt 'a very strong emotion' as he watched his project unfold into a true supercar.
Paolo Martin was working under Pininfarina when he developed the Competizione's styling, so the car wears Pininfarina 'f' badges. Pininfarina was also responsible for the construction of the prototype's body. Martin's shape was free of hard edges, with abundant curves and a large glass area with a circular cross-section. Viewed from some angles, the odd shape of the car's glass lends the greenhouse a bubble-like appearance. This is particularly evident from the front, where the vast windshield sweeps up and to the sides like a bulbous take on a jetfighter's canopy.
The Competizione had exaggerated mid-engined proportions, with a short, low nose and a long, high tail. The front lighting fit the shape perfectly, with transparent, aerodynamic coverings over clusters of three lights. The light clusters were angled down towards the center of the car's nose. The lighting's covers blended seamlessly with the unusually round curve at the front of the car, and combined with front vents ahead of the large windshield to create a design that looked organic, but not earthly. From the front, the design had a cartoonish look that was exotic and alien, as if the Competizione was designed on a different planet to resemble some distant species.
Distinctive spoilers added to the effect. Though the strange spoilers didn't seem out of place on the car, they almost looked as if they were tacked on as an afterthought. This was not surprising, as Paolo Martin himself admitted that the spoilers 'were added only at the last minute, since the Management thought the design had to be enriched.' The spoilers used black wings attached to the body by metal arms that looked too much like pieces from an Erector Set to match the rest of the design.
All of the vents and air intakes found on the Dino 206 Competizione—and there were plenty—blended gracefully with the smooth curves on which they were placed. They looked like gills, and they enhanced the car's alien image. A single windshield wiper protruded like a tentacle reaching towards the windshield. Gullwing doors with a huge glass area contributed to the otherworldly effect, as did the jarring, bright yellow paint that covered the prototype's aluminum skin.
James Glickenhaus, a wealthy car collector with a special interest in Ferraris, recently became the first private owner of the Dino 206 Competizione. The car had been kept in Pininfarina's museum for over thirty years until a purchase was agreed upon in 2007 and Glickenhaus bought the stunning vehicle. Since Glickenhaus purchased the car, it has been shown with success and driven regularly.
[Text from Conceptcarz.com]
www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z17222/Ferrari-Dino-206-Compe...
This Lego miniland-scale Ferrari Dino 206 Competizione (s/n 10523 - Carrozzeria Pininfarina - 1967) has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 94th Build Challenge, - "Appease the Elves Summer Automobile Build-off (Part 2)", - a design challenge combining the resources of LUGNuts, TheLegoCarBlog (TLCB) and Head Turnerz.
5 foot long, minifig-scale fully-rigged interior-and-exterior model of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Enterprize, launched in 1774.
For more information see: HMS Enterprize on MOCPages
For highlights see: HMS Enterprize Highlight Album
For even more pictures see: HMS Enterprize Flickr Collection
Coon Lake Park is the largest park in the Village of Frederic. It boasts a 54-acre lake, with undeveloped public shoreline, nestled next to 80 acres of community hardwood forest.
Frederic is a village in Polk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,137 at the 2010 census. It was established as a village in 1901.
Frederic is located at 45°39′32″N 92°28′1″W (45.658797, -92.466921).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.79 square miles (4.64 km2), of which, 1.72 square miles (4.45 km2) of it is land and 0.07 square miles (0.18 km2) is water.
Frederic is along Wisconsin Highways 35 and 48, and Polk County Road W.
The Frederic School District consists of Frederic Elementary School and Frederic 6-12 School, which contains Frederic Middle School and Frederic High School.
Notable people
Robert M. Dueholm, Wisconsin politician, was born in Frederic.
Rodney Erickson, former president of Pennsylvania State University
Nathan Heffernan, member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, was born in Frederic.
Erick H. Johnson, Wisconsin politician, lived in Frederic.
Rita Lee, Playboy's Playmate for the Month of November 1977, was born in Frederic.
Carol Merrill, a model for the original television game show Let's Make A Deal, was born in Frederic.
Erin Gloria Ryan, writer and podcaster, was born in Frederic.
Harvey Stower, Wisconsin politician, was born in Frederic.
Polk County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,977. Its county seat is Balsam Lake. The county was created in 1853 and named for United States President James K. Polk.
Wisconsin is a state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by land area and the 20th-most populous.
The bulk of Wisconsin's population live in areas situated along the shores of Lake Michigan. The largest city, Milwaukee, anchors its largest metropolitan area, followed by Green Bay and Kenosha, the third- and fourth-most-populated Wisconsin cities, respectively. The state capital, Madison, is currently the second-most-populated and fastest-growing city in the state. Wisconsin is divided into 72 counties and as of the 2020 census had a population of nearly 5.9 million.
Wisconsin's geography is diverse, having been greatly impacted by glaciers during the Ice Age with the exception of the Driftless Area. The Northern Highland and Western Upland along with a part of the Central Plain occupy the western part of the state, with lowlands stretching to the shore of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin is third to Ontario and Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline. The northern portion of the state is home to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. At the time of European contact, the area was inhabited by Algonquian and Siouan nations, and today it is home to eleven federally recognized tribes. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many European settlers entered the state, most of whom emigrated from Germany and Scandinavia. Wisconsin remains a center of German American and Scandinavian American culture, particularly in respect to its cuisine, with foods such as bratwurst and kringle. Wisconsin is home to one UNESCO World Heritage Site, comprising two of the most significant buildings designed by Wisconsin-born architect Frank Lloyd Wright: his studio at Taliesin near Spring Green and his Jacobs I House in Madison.
The Republican Party was founded in Wisconsin in 1854. In more recent years, Wisconsin has been a battleground state in presidential elections, notably in 2016 and 2020.
Wisconsin is one of the nation's leading dairy producers and is known as "America's Dairyland"; it is particularly famous for its cheese. The state is also famous for its beer, particularly and historically in Milwaukee, most notably as the headquarters of the Miller Brewing Company. Wisconsin has some of the most permissive alcohol laws in the country and is well known for its drinking culture. Its economy is dominated by manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, and agriculture—specifically dairy, cranberries, and ginseng. Tourism is also a major contributor to the state's economy. The gross domestic product in 2020 was $348 billion.
The history of Wisconsin encompasses the story not only of the people who have lived in Wisconsin since it became a state of the U.S., but also that of the Native American tribes who made their homeland in Wisconsin, the French and British colonists who were the first Europeans to live there, and the American settlers who lived in Wisconsin when it was a territory.
Since its admission to the Union on May 29, 1848, as the 30th state, Wisconsin has been ethnically heterogeneous, with Yankees being among the first to arrive from New York and New England. They dominated the state's heavy industry, finance, politics and education. Large numbers of European immigrants followed them, including German Americans, mostly between 1850 and 1900, Scandinavians (the largest group being Norwegian Americans) and smaller groups of Belgian Americans, Dutch Americans, Swiss Americans, Finnish Americans, Irish Americans and others; in the 20th century, large numbers of Polish Americans and African Americans came, settling mainly in Milwaukee.
Politically the state was predominantly Republican until recent years, when it became more evenly balanced. The state took a national leadership role in the Progressive Movement, under the aegis of Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La Follette and his family, who fought the old guard bitterly at the state and national levels. The "Wisconsin Idea" called for the use of the higher learning in modernizing government, and the state is notable for its strong network of state universities.
The first known inhabitants of what is now Wisconsin were Paleo-Indians, who first arrived in the region in about 10,000 BC at the end of the Ice Age. The retreating glaciers left behind a tundra in Wisconsin inhabited by large animals, such as mammoths, mastodons, bison, giant beaver, and muskox. The Boaz mastodon and the Clovis artifacts discovered in Boaz, Wisconsin show that the Paleo-Indians hunted these large animals. They also gathered plants as conifer forests grew in the glaciers' wake. With the decline and extinction of many large mammals in the Americas, the Paleo-Indian diet shifted toward smaller mammals like deer and bison.
During the Archaic Period, from 6000 to 1000 BC, mixed conifer-hardwood forests as well as mixed prairie-forests replaced Wisconsin's conifer forests. People continued to depend on hunting and gathering. Around 4000 BC they developed spear-throwers and copper tools such as axes, adzes, projectile points, knives, perforators, fishhooks and harpoons. Copper ornaments like beaded necklaces also appeared around 1500 BC. These people gathered copper ore at quarries on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan and on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. They may have crafted copper artifacts by hammering and folding the metal and also by heating it to increase its malleability. However it is not certain if these people reached the level of copper smelting. Regardless, the Copper Culture of the Great Lakes region reached a level of sophistication unprecedented in North America. The Late Archaic Period also saw the emergence of cemeteries and ritual burials, such as the one in Oconto.
The Early Woodland Period began in 1000 BC as plants became an increasingly important part of the people's diet. Small scale agriculture and pottery arrived in southern Wisconsin at this time. The primary crops were maize, beans and squash. Agriculture, however, could not sufficiently support these people, who also had to hunt and gather. Agriculture at this time was more akin to gardening than to farming. Villages emerged along rivers, streams and lakes, and the earliest earthen burial mounds were constructed. The Havana Hopewell culture arrived in Wisconsin in the Middle Woodland Period, settling along the Mississippi River. The Hopewell people connected Wisconsin to their trade practices, which stretched from Ohio to Yellowstone and from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico. They constructed elaborate mounds, made elaborately decorated pottery and brought a wide range of traded minerals to the area. The Hopewell people may have influenced the other inhabitants of Wisconsin, rather than displacing them. The Late Woodland Period began in about 400 AD, following the disappearance of the Hopewell culture from the area. The people of Wisconsin first used the bow and arrow in the final centuries of the Woodland Period, and agriculture continued to be practiced in the southern part of the state. The effigy mound culture dominated Southern Wisconsin during this time, building earthen burial mounds in the shapes of animals. Examples of effigy mounds still exist at High Cliff State Park and at Lizard Mound County Park. In northern Wisconsin people continued to survive on hunting and gathering, and constructed conical mounds.
People of the Mississippian culture expanded into Wisconsin around 1050 AD and established a settlement at Aztalan along the Crawfish River. While begun by the Caddoan people, other cultures began to borrow & adapt the Mississippian cultural structure. This elaborately planned site may have been the northernmost outpost of Cahokia, although it is also now known that some Siouan peoples along the Mississippi River may have taken part in the culture as well. Regardless, the Mississippian site traded with and was clearly influenced in its civic and defensive planning, as well as culturally, by its much larger southern neighbor. A rectangular wood-and-clay stockade surrounded the twenty acre site, which contained two large earthen mounds and a central plaza. One mound may have been used for food storage, as a residence for high-ranking officials, or as a temple, and the other may have been used as a mortuary. The Mississippian culture cultivated maize intensively, and their fields probably stretched far beyond the stockade at Aztalan, although modern agriculture has erased any traces of Mississippian practices in the area. Some rumors also speculate that the people of Aztalan may have experimented slightly with stone architecture in the making of a man-made, stone-line pond, at the very least. While the first settler on the land of what is now the city supposedly reported this, he filled it in and it has yet to be rediscovered.
Both Woodland and Mississippian peoples inhabited Aztalan, which was connected to the extensive Mississippian trade network. Shells from the Gulf of Mexico, copper from Lake Superior and Mill Creek chert have been found at the site. Aztalan was abandoned around 1200 AD. The Oneota people later built agriculturally based villages, similar to those of the Mississippians but without the extensive trade networks, in the state.
By the time the first Europeans arrived in Wisconsin, the Oneota had disappeared. The historically documented inhabitants, as of the first European incursions, were the Siouan speaking Dakota Oyate to the northwest, the Chiwere speaking Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) and the Algonquian Menominee to the northeast, with their lands beginning approximately north of Green Bay. The Chiwere lands were south of Green Bay and followed rivers to the southwest. Over time, other tribes moved to Wisconsin, including the Ojibwe, the Illinois, the Fauk, the Sauk and the Mahican. The Mahican were one of the last groups to arrived, coming from New York after the U.S. congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The first European known to have landed in Wisconsin was Jean Nicolet. In 1634, Samuel de Champlain, governor of New France, sent Nicolet to contact the Ho-Chunk people, make peace between them and the Huron and expand the fur trade, and possibly to also find a water route to Asia. Accompanied by seven Huron guides, Nicolet left New France and canoed through Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and then became the first European known to have entered Lake Michigan. Nicolet proceeded into Green Bay, which he named La Baie des Puants (literally "The Stinking Bay"), and probably came ashore near the Red Banks. He made contact with the Ho-Chunk and Menominee living in the area and established peaceful relations. Nicolet remained with the Ho-Chunk the winter before he returned to Quebec.
The Beaver Wars fought between the Iroquois and the French prevented French explorers from returning to Wisconsin until 1652–1654, when Pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers arrived at La Baie des Puants to trade furs. They returned to Wisconsin in 1659–1660, this time at Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior. On their second voyage they found that the Ojibwe had expanded into northern Wisconsin, as they continued to prosper in the fur trade. They also were the first Europeans to contact the Santee Dakota. They built a trading post and wintered near Ashland, before returning to Montreal.
In 1665 Claude-Jean Allouez, a Jesuit missionary, built a mission on Lake Superior. Five years later he abandoned the mission, and journeyed to La Baie des Puants. Two years later he built St. Francis Xavier Mission near present-day De Pere. In his journeys through Wisconsin, he encountered groups of Native Americans who had been displaced by Iroquois in the Beaver Wars. He evangelized the Algonquin-speaking Potawatomi, who had settled on the Door Peninsula after fleeing Iroquois attacks in Michigan. He also encountered the Algonquin-speaking Sauk, who had been forced into Michigan by the Iroquois, and then had been forced into central Wisconsin by the Ojibwe and the Huron.
The next major expedition into Wisconsin was that of Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673. After hearing rumors from Indians telling of the existence of the Mississippi River, Marquette and Joliet set out from St. Ignace, in what is now Michigan, and entered the Fox River at Green Bay. They canoed up the Fox until they reached the river's westernmost point, and then portaged, or carried their boats, to the nearby Wisconsin River, where they resumed canoeing downstream to the Mississippi River. Marquette and Joliet reached the Mississippi near what is now Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in June, 1673.
Nicolas Perrot, French commander of the west, established Fort St. Nicholas at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in May, 1685, near the southwest end of the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway. Perrot also built a fort on the shores of Lake Pepin called Fort St. Antoine in 1686, and a second fort, called Fort Perrot, on an island on Lake Peppin shortly after. In 1727, Fort Beauharnois was constructed on what is now the Minnesota side of Lake Pepin to replace the two previous forts. A fort and a Jesuit mission were also built on the shores of Lake Superior at La Pointe, in present-day Wisconsin, in 1693 and operated until 1698. A second fort was built on the same site in 1718 and operated until 1759. These were not military posts, but rather small storehouses for furs.
During the French colonial period, the first black people came to Wisconsin. The first record of a black person comes from 1725, when a black slave was killed along with four Frenchmen in a Native American raid on Green Bay. Other French fur traders and military personnel brought slaves with them to Wisconsin later in 1700s.
None of the French posts had permanent settlers; fur traders and missionaries simply visited them from time to time to conduct business.
In the 1720s, the anti-French Fox tribe, led by war chief Kiala, raided French settlements on the Mississippi River and disrupted French trade on Lake Michigan. From 1728 to 1733, the Fox fought against the French-supported Potawatomi, Ojibwa, Huron and Ottawa tribes. In 1733, Kiala was captured and sold into slavery in the West Indies along with other captured Fox.
Before the war, the Fox tribe numbered 1500, but by 1733, only 500 Fox were left. As a result, the Fox joined the Sauk people.
The details are unclear, but this war appears to have been part of the conflict that expelled the Dakota & Illinois peoples out onto the Great Plains, causing further displacement of other Chiwere, Caddoan & Algonquian peoples there—including the ancestors of the Ioway, Osage, Pawnee, Arikara, A'ani, Arapaho, Hidatsa, Cheyenne & Blackfoot.
The British gradually took over Wisconsin during the French and Indian War, taking control of Green Bay in 1761, gaining control of all of Wisconsin in 1763, and annexing the area to the Province of Quebec in 1774. Like the French, the British were interested in little but the fur trade. One notable event in the fur trading industry in Wisconsin occurred in 1791, when two free African Americans set up a fur trading post among the Menominee at present day Marinette. The first permanent settlers, mostly French Canadians, some Anglo-New Englanders and a few African American freedmen, arrived in Wisconsin while it was under British control. Charles Michel de Langlade is generally recognized as the first settler, establishing a trading post at Green Bay in 1745, and moving there permanently in 1764. In 1766 the Royal Governor of the new territory, Robert Rogers, engaged Jonathan Carver to explore and map the newly acquired territories for the Crown, and to search for a possible Northwest Passage. Carver left Fort Michilimackinac that spring and spent the next three years exploring and mapping what is now Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.
Settlement began at Prairie du Chien around 1781. The French residents at the trading post in what is now Green Bay, referred to the town as "La Bey", however British fur traders referred to it as "Green Bay", because the water and the shore assumed green tints in early spring. The old French title was gradually dropped, and the British name of "Green Bay" eventually stuck. The region coming under British rule had virtually no adverse effect on the French residents as the British needed the cooperation of the French fur traders and the French fur traders needed the goodwill of the British. During the French occupation of the region licenses for fur trading had been issued scarcely and only to select groups of traders, whereas the British, in an effort to make as much money as possible from the region, issued licenses for fur trading freely, both to British and French residents. The fur trade in what is now Wisconsin reached its height under British rule, and the first self-sustaining farms in the state were established at this time as well. From 1763 to 1780, Green Bay was a prosperous community which produced its own foodstuff, built graceful cottages and held dances and festivities.
The United States acquired Wisconsin in the Treaty of Paris (1783). Massachusetts claimed the territory east of the Mississippi River between the present-day Wisconsin-Illinois border and present-day La Crosse, Wisconsin. Virginia claimed the territory north of La Crosse to Lake Superior and all of present-day Minnesota east of the Mississippi River. Shortly afterward, in 1787, the Americans made Wisconsin part of the new Northwest Territory. Later, in 1800, Wisconsin became part of Indiana Territory. Despite the fact that Wisconsin belonged to the United States at this time, the British continued to control the local fur trade and maintain military alliances with Wisconsin Indians in an effort to stall American expansion westward by creating a pro-British Indian barrier state.
The United States did not firmly exercise control over Wisconsin until the War of 1812. In 1814, the Americans built Fort Shelby at Prairie du Chien. During the war, the Americans and British fought one battle in Wisconsin, the July, 1814 Siege of Prairie du Chien, which ended as a British victory. The British captured Fort Shelby and renamed it Fort McKay, after Major William McKay, the British commander who led the forces that won the Battle of Prairie du Chien. However, the 1815 Treaty of Ghent reaffirmed American jurisdiction over Wisconsin, which was by then a part of Illinois Territory. Following the treaty, British troops burned Fort McKay, rather than giving it back to the Americans, and departed Wisconsin. To protect Prairie du Chien from future attacks, the United States Army constructed Fort Crawford in 1816, on the same site as Fort Shelby. Fort Howard was also built in 1816 in Green Bay.
Significant American settlement in Wisconsin, a part of Michigan Territory beginning in 1818, was delayed by two Indian wars, the minor Winnebago War of 1827 and the larger Black Hawk War of 1832.
The Winnebago War started when, in 1826, two Winnebago men were detained at Fort Crawford on charges of murder and then transferred to Fort Snelling in present-day Minnesota. The Winnebago in the area believed that both men had been executed. On June 27, 1827, a Winnebago war band led by Chief Red Bird and the prophet White Cloud (Wabokieshiek) attacked a family of settlers outside of Prairie du Chien, killing two. They then went on to attack two keel-boats on the Mississippi River that were heading toward Fort Snelling, killing two settlers and injuring four more. Seven Winnebago warriors were killed in those attacks. The war band also attacked settlers on the lower Wisconsin River and the lead mines at Galena, Illinois. The war band surrendered at Portage, Wisconsin, rather than fighting the United States Army that was pursuing them.
In the Black Hawk War, Sac, Fox, and Kickapoo Native Americans, otherwise known as the British Band, led by Chief Black Hawk, who had been relocated from Illinois to Iowa, attempted to resettle in their Illinois homeland on April 5, 1832, in violation of Treaty. On May 10 Chief Black Hawk decided to go back to Iowa. On May 14, Black Hawk's forces met with a group of militiamen led by Isaiah Stillman. All three members of Black Hawk's parley were shot and one was killed. The Battle of Stillman's Run ensued, leaving twelve militiamen and three to five Sac and Fox warriors dead. Of the fifteen battles of the war, six took place in Wisconsin. The other nine as well as several smaller skirmishes took place in Illinois. The first confrontation to take place in Wisconsin was the first attack on Fort Blue Mounds on June 6, in which one member of the local militia was killed outside of the fort. There was also the Spafford Farm Massacre on June 14, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on June 16, which was a United States victory, the second attack on Fort Blue Mounds on June 20, and the Sinsinawa Mound raid on June 29. The Native Americans were defeated at the Battle of Wisconsin Heights on July 21, with forty to seventy killed and only one killed on the United States side. The Ho Chunk Nation fought on the side of the United States. The Black Hawk War ended with the Battle of Bad Axe on August 1–2, with over 150 of the British Band dead and 75 captured and only five killed in the United States forces. Those crossing the Mississippi were killed by Lakota, American and Ho Chunk Forces. Many of the British Band survivors were handed over to the United States on August 20 by the Lakota Tribe, with the exception of Black Hawk, who had retreated into Vernon County, Wisconsin and White Cloud, who surrendered on August 27, 1832. Black Hawk was captured by Decorah south of Bangor, Wisconsin, south of the headwaters of the La Crosse River. He was then sold to the U.S. military at Prairie du Chien, accepted by future Confederate president, Stephen Davis, who was a soldier at the time. Black Hawk's tribe had killed his daughter. Black Hawk moved back to Iowa in 1833, after being held prisoner by the United States government.
The Francois Vertefeuille House in Prairie du Chien was built in the 1810s by fur traders. A rare example of the pièce-sur-pièce à coulisse technique once common in French-Canadian architecture, it is one of the oldest buildings in the state and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Cornish immigrants who worked in Wisconsin's lead mines build simple stone cabins from limestone. Six cabins are preserved at the Pendarvis Historic Site in Mineral Point.
The resolution of these Indian conflicts opened the way for Wisconsin's settlement. Many of the region's first settlers were drawn by the prospect of lead mining in southwest Wisconsin. This area had traditionally been mined by Native Americans. However, after a series of treaties removed the Indians, the lead mining region was opened to white miners. Thousands rushed in from across the country to dig for the "gray gold". By 1829, 4,253 miners and 52 licensed smelting works were in the region. Expert miners from Cornwall in Britain informed a large part of the wave of immigrants. Boom towns like Mineral Point, Platteville, Shullsburg, Belmont, and New Diggings sprang up around mines. The first two federal land offices in Wisconsin were opened in 1834 at Green Bay and at Mineral Point. By the 1840s, southwest Wisconsin mines were producing more than half of the nation's lead, which was no small amount, as the United States was producing annually some 31 million pounds of lead. Wisconsin was dubbed the "Badger State" because of the lead miners who first settled there in the 1820s and 1830s. Without shelter in the winter, they had to "live like badgers" in tunnels burrowed into hillsides.
Although the lead mining area drew the first major wave of settlers, its population would soon be eclipsed by growth in Milwaukee. Milwaukee, along with Sheboygan, Manitowoc, and Kewaunee, can be traced back to a series of trading posts established by the French trader Jacques Vieau in 1795. Vieau's post at the mouth of the Milwaukee River was purchased in 1820 by Solomon Juneau, who had visited the area as early as 1818. Juneau moved to what is now Milwaukee and took over the trading post's operation in 1825.
When the fur trade began to decline, Juneau focused on developing the land around his trading post. In the 1830s, he formed a partnership with Green Bay lawyer Morgan Martin, and the two men bought 160 acres (0.6 km2) of land between Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River. There they founded the settlement of Juneautown. Meanwhile, an Ohio businessman named Byron Kilbourn began to invest in the land west of the Milwaukee River, forming the settlement of Kilbourntown. South of these two settlements, George H. Walker founded the town of Walker's Point in 1835. Each of these three settlements engaged in a fierce competition to attract the most residents and become the largest of the three towns. In 1840, the Wisconsin State Legislature ordered the construction of a bridge over the Milwaukee River to replace the inadequate ferry system. In 1845, Byron Kilbourn, who had been trying to isolate Juneautown to make it more dependent on Kilbourntown, destroyed a portion of the bridge, which started the Milwaukee Bridge War. For several weeks, skirmishes broke out between the residents of both towns. No one was killed but several people were injured, some seriously. On January 31, 1846, the settlements of Juneautown, Kilbourntown, and Walker's Point merged into the incorporated city of Milwaukee. Solomon Juneau was elected mayor. The new city had a population of about 10,000 people, making it the largest city in the territory. Milwaukee remains the largest city in Wisconsin to this day.
Wisconsin Territory was created by an act of the United States Congress on April 20, 1836. By fall of that year, the best prairie groves of the counties surrounding Milwaukee were occupied by New England farmers. The new territory initially included all of the present day states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, as well as parts of North and South Dakota. At the time the Congress called it the "Wiskonsin Territory".
The first territorial governor of Wisconsin was Henry Dodge. He and other territorial lawmakers were initially busied by organizing the territory's government and selecting a capital city. The selection of a location to build a capitol caused a heated debate among the territorial politicians. At first, Governor Dodge selected Belmont, located in the heavily populated lead mining district, to be capital. Shortly after the new legislature convened there, however, it became obvious that Wisconsin's first capitol was inadequate. Numerous other suggestions for the location of the capital were given representing nearly every city that existed in the territory at the time, and Governor Dodge left the decision up to the other lawmakers. The legislature accepted a proposal by James Duane Doty to build a new city named Madison on an isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona and put the territory's permanent capital there. In 1837, while Madison was being built, the capitol was temporarily moved to Burlington. This city was transferred to Iowa Territory in 1838, along with all the lands of Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River.
Wyman calls Wisconsin a "palimpsest" of layer upon layer of peoples and forces, each imprinting permanent influences. He identified these layers as multiple "frontiers" over three centuries: Native American frontier, French frontier, English frontier, fur-trade frontier, mining frontier, and the logging frontier. Finally the coming of the railroad brought the end of the frontier.
The historian of the frontier, Frederick Jackson Turner, grew up in Wisconsin during its last frontier stage, and in his travels around the state he could see the layers of social and political development. One of Turner's last students, Merle Curti used in-depth analysis of local history in Trempealeau County to test Turner's thesis about democracy. Turner's view was that American democracy, "involved widespread participation in the making of decisions affecting the common life, the development of initiative and self-reliance, and equality of economic and cultural opportunity. It thus also involved Americanization of immigrant." Curti found that from 1840 to 1860 in Wisconsin the poorest groups gained rapidly in land ownership, and often rose to political leadership at the local level. He found that even landless young farm workers were soon able to obtain their own farms. Free land on the frontier therefore created opportunity and democracy, for both European immigrants as well as old stock Yankees.
By the mid-1840s, the population of Wisconsin Territory had exceeded 150,000, more than twice the number of people required for Wisconsin to become a state. In 1846, the territorial legislature voted to apply for statehood. That fall, 124 delegates debated the state constitution. The document produced by this convention was considered extremely progressive for its time. It banned commercial banking, granted married women the right to own property, and left the question of African-American suffrage to a popular vote. Most Wisconsinites considered the first constitution to be too radical, however, and voted it down in an April 1847 referendum.
In December 1847, a second constitutional convention was called. This convention resulted in a new, more moderate state constitution that Wisconsinites approved in a March 1848 referendum, enabling Wisconsin to become the 30th state on May 29, 1848. Wisconsin was the last state entirely east of the Mississippi River (and by extension the last state formed entirely from territory assigned to the U.S. in the 1783 Treaty of Paris) to be admitted to the Union.
With statehood, came the creation of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, which is the state's oldest public university. The creation of this university was set aside in the state charter.
In 1847, the Mineral Point Tribune reported that the town's furnaces were producing 43,800 pounds (19,900 kg) of lead each day. Lead mining in southwest Wisconsin began to decline after 1848 and 1849 when the combination of less easily accessible lead ore and the California Gold Rush made miners leave the area. The lead mining industry in mining communities such as Mineral Point managed to survive into the 1860s, but the industry was never as prosperous as it was before the decline.
By 1850 Wisconsin's population was 305,000. Roughly a third (103,000) were Yankees from New England and western New York state. The second largest group were the Germans, numbering roughly 38,000, followed by 28,000 British immigrants from England, Scotland and Wales. There were roughly 63,000 Wisconsin-born residents of the state. The Yankee migrants would be the dominant political class in Wisconsin for many years.
A railroad frenzy swept Wisconsin shortly after it achieved statehood. The first railroad line in the state was opened between Milwaukee and Waukesha in 1851 by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The railroad pushed on, reaching Milton, Wisconsin in 1852, Stoughton, Wisconsin in 1853, and the capital city of Madison in 1854. The company reached its goal of completing a rail line across the state from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River when the line to Prairie du Chien was completed in 1857. Shortly after this, other railroad companies completed their own tracks, reaching La Crosse in the west and Superior in the north, spurring development in those cities. By the end of the 1850s, railroads crisscrossed the state, enabling the growth of other industries that could now easily ship products to markets across the country.
Nelson Dewey, the first governor of Wisconsin, was a Democrat. Born in Lebanon, Connecticut, Dewey's father's family had lived in New England since 1633, when their ancestor, Thomas Due, had come to America from Kent County, England. Dewey oversaw the transition from the territorial to the new state government. He encouraged the development of the state's infrastructure, particularly the construction of new roads, railroads, canals, and harbors, as well as the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. During his administration, the State Board of Public Works was organized. Dewey was an abolitionist and the first of many Wisconsin governors to advocate against the spread of slavery into new states and territories. The home Dewey built near Cassville is now a state park.
Between 1848 and 1862, Wisconsin had three Democratic governors, all of whom were in office prior to 1856, four Republican governors, all of whom were in office after 1856, and one Whig governor, Leonard J. Farwell, who served from 1852 to 1854. Under Farwell's governorship, Wisconsin became the second state to abolish capital punishment.
In the presidential elections of 1848 and 1852, the Democratic Party won Wisconsin. In the elections of 1856, 1860, and 1864, the Republican Party won the state.
Between the 1840s and 1860s, settlers from New England, New York and Germany arrived in Wisconsin. Some of them brought radical political ideas to the state. In the 1850s, stop-overs on the underground railroad were set up in the state and abolitionist groups were formed. Some abolitionist and free-soil activists left the Whig and Democratic parties, running and in some cases being elected as candidates of the Liberty Party and Free Soil Party. The most successful such group was the Republican Party. On March 20, 1854, the first county meeting of the Republican Party of the United States, consisting of about thirty people, was held in the Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. Ripon claims to be the birthplace of the Republican Party, as does Jackson, Michigan, where the first statewide convention was held. The new party absorbed most of the former Free Soil and Liberty Party members.
A notable instance of abolitionism in Wisconsin was the rescue of Joshua Glover, an escaped slave from St. Louis who sought refuge in Racine, Wisconsin in 1852. He was caught in 1854 by federal marshals and put in a jail at Cathedral Square in Milwaukee, where he waited to be returned to his owner. A mob of 5,000 people led by Milwaukee abolitionist Sherman Booth, himself a "Yankee" transplant from rural New York, sprung Glover from jail and helped him escape to Canada via the underground railroad.
In the 1850s, two-thirds of immigrants to Wisconsin came from the eastern United States, the other one-third being foreign-born. The majority of the foreign born were German immigrants. Many Irish and Norwegian immigrants also came to Wisconsin in the 1850s. Northern Europeans, many of whom were persecuted in their home countries because of their support for the failed bourgeois Revolutions of 1848, often chose Wisconsin because of the liberal constitution of human rights such as the state's unusual recognition of immigrants' right to vote and rights to citizenship.
Yankee settlers from New England started arriving in Wisconsin in the 1830s spread throughout the southern half of the territory. They dominated early politics. Most of them started as farmers, but the larger proportion moved to towns and cities as entrepreneurs, businessmen and professionals.
Historian John Bunker has examined the worldview of the Yankee settlers in the Wisconsin:
Because they arrived first and had a strong sense of community and mission, Yankees were able to transplant New England institutions, values, and mores, altered only by the conditions of frontier life. They established a public culture that emphasized the work ethic, the sanctity of private property, individual responsibility, faith in residential and social mobility, practicality, piety, public order and decorum, reverence for public education, activists, honest, and frugal government, town meeting democracy, and he believed that there was a public interest that transcends particular and stick ambitions. Regarding themselves as the elect and just in a world rife with sin, air, and corruption, they felt a strong moral obligation to define and enforce standards of community and personal behavior....This pietistic worldview was substantially shared by British, Scandinavian, Swiss, English-Canadian and Dutch Reformed immigrants, as well as by German Protestants and many of the "Forty-Niners."
The color guard of the Wisconsin 8th Infantry with Old Abe
Wisconsin enrolled 91,379 soldiers in the Union Army during the American Civil War. 272 of enlisted Wisconsin troops were African American, with the rest being white. Of these, 3,794 were killed in action or mortally wounded, 8,022 died of disease, and 400 were killed in accidents. The total mortality was 12,216 men, about 13.4 percent of total enlistments. Many soldiers trained at Camp Randall currently the site of the University of Wisconsin's athletic stadium.
The draft implemented by President Lincoln in 1862 was unpopular in some Wisconsin communities, particularly among German and Luxembourgish immigrants. In November 1862, draft riots broke out in Milwaukee, Port Washington, and West Bend, which were quelled by deploying U.S. troops in the cities.
Most Wisconsin troops served in the western theater, although several Wisconsin regiments fought in the east, such as the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which formed part of the Iron Brigade. These three regiments fought in the Northern Virginia Campaign, the Maryland Campaign, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Gettysburg Campaign, the Battle of Mine Run, the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox Campaign.
The 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which fought in the western theater of war, is also worthy of mention, having fought at the Battle of Iuka, the Siege of Vicksburg, the Red River Campaign, and the Battle of Nashville. The 8th Wisconsin is also known for its mascot, Old Abe.
Agriculture was a major component of the Wisconsin economy during the 19th century. Wheat was a primary crop on early Wisconsin farms. In fact, during the mid 19th century, Wisconsin produced about one sixth of the wheat grown in the United States. However, wheat rapidly depleted nutrients in the soil, especially nitrogen, and was vulnerable to insects, bad weather, and wheat leaf rust. In the 1860s, chinch bugs arrived in Wisconsin and damaged wheat across the state. As the soil lost its quality and prices dropped, the practice of wheat farming moved west into Iowa and Minnesota. Some Wisconsin farmers responded by experimenting with crop rotation and other methods to restore the soil's fertility, but a larger number turned to alternatives to wheat.
In parts of northern Wisconsin, farmers cultivated cranberries and in a few counties in south central Wisconsin, farmers had success growing tobacco, but the most popular replacement for wheat was dairy farming. As wheat fell out of favor, many Wisconsin farmers started raising dairy cattle and growing feed crops, which were better suited to Wisconsin's climate and soil. One reason for the popularity of dairy farming was that many of Wisconsin's farmers had come to the state from New York, the leading producer of dairy products at the time. In addition, many immigrants from Europe brought an extensive knowledge of cheese making. Dairying was also promoted by the University of Wisconsin–Madison's school of agriculture, which offered education to dairy farmers and researched ways to produce better dairy products. The first test of butterfat content in milk was developed at the university, which allowed for consistency in the quality of butter and cheese. By 1899, over ninety percent of Wisconsin farms raised dairy cows and by 1915, Wisconsin had become the leading producer of dairy products in the United States, a position it held until the 1990s. The term America's Dairyland appeared in newspapers as early as 1913 when the state's butterfat production became first in the nation. In 1939 the state legislature enacted a bill to add the slogan to the state's automobile license plates. It continues to be the nation's largest producer of cheese, no longer focusing on the raw material (milk) but rather the value-added products. Because of this, Wisconsin continues to promote itself as "America's Dairyland", Wisconsinites are referred to as cheeseheads in some parts of the country, including Wisconsin, and foam cheesehead hats are associated with Wisconsin and its NFL team, the Green Bay Packers.
The first brewery in Wisconsin was opened in 1835 in Mineral Point by brewer John Phillips. A year later, he opened a second brewery in Elk Grove. In 1840, the first brewery in Milwaukee was opened by Richard G. Owens, William Pawlett, and John Davis, all Welsh immigrants. By 1860, nearly 200 breweries operated in Wisconsin, more than 40 of them in Milwaukee. The huge growth in the brewing industry can be accredited, in part, to the influx of German immigrants to Wisconsin in the 1840s and 1850s. Milwaukee breweries also grew in volume due to the destruction of Chicago's breweries during the great Chicago fire. In the second half of the 19th century, four of the largest breweries in the United States opened in Milwaukee: Miller Brewing Company, Pabst Brewing Company, Valentin Blatz Brewing Company, and Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. In the 20th century Pabst absorbed Blatz and Schlitz, and moved its brewery and corporate headquarters to California. Miller continues to operate in Milwaukee. The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company opened in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in 1867 and continues to operate there to this day.
Agriculture was not viable in the densely forested northern and central parts of Wisconsin. Settlers came to this region for logging. The timber industry first set up along the Wisconsin River. Rivers were used to transport lumber from where the wood was being cut, to the sawmills. Sawmills in cities like Wausau and Stevens Point sawed the lumber into boards that were used for construction. The Wolf River also saw considerable logging by industrious Menominee. The Black and Chippewa Rivers formed a third major logging region. That area was dominated by one company owned by Frederick Weyerhaeuser. The construction of railroads allowed loggers to log year round, after rivers froze, and go deeper into the forests to cut down previously unshippable wood supplies. Wood products from Wisconsin's forests such as doors, furniture, beams, shipping boxes, and ships were made in industrial cities with connects to the Wisconsin lumber industry such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and Manitowoc. Milwaukee and Manitowoc were centers for commercial ship building in Wisconsin. Many cargo ships built in these communities were used to transport lumber from logging ports to major industrial cities. Later a growing paper industry in the Fox River Valley made use of wood pulp from the state's lumber industry.
Logging was a dangerous trade, with high accident rates. On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire burned 1,875 square miles (4,850 km2) of forest land around the timber industry town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing between 1,200 and 2,500 people. It was the deadliest fire in United States history.
From the 1870s to the 1890s, much of the logging in Wisconsin was done by immigrants from Scandinavia.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, logging in Wisconsin had gone into decline. Many forests had been cleared and never replanted and large corporations in the Pacific Northwest took business away from the Wisconsin industry. The logging companies sold their land to immigrants and out of work lumberjacks who hoped to turn the acres of pine stumps into farms, but few met with success.
Wisconsin is known in the 18th century to have discovered gold deposits in western Wisconsin. Such discoveries occurred around the town of St. Croix Falls where a settler stumbled across a gold nugget valued to be worth lots at the time. It's no surprise Wisconsin's western region was once the site of volcanic eruptions so it makes sense that minerals that weren't commonly found in other parts of the state would be present here.
Wisconsin was a regional and national model for innovation and organization in the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. The direct primary law of 1904 made it possible to mobilize voters against the previously dominant political machines. The first factors involved the La Follette family going back and forth between trying control of the Republican Party and third-party activity. Secondly the Wisconsin idea, of intellectuals and planners based at the University of Wisconsin shaping government policy. LaFollette started as a traditional Republican in the 1890s, where he fought against populism and other radical movements. He broke decisively with the state Republican leadership, and took control of the party by 1900, all the time quarrelling endlessly with ex-allies.
Wisconsin at this time was a de facto one party state, as the Democratic Party was then a minor conservative group in the state. Serious opposition more often than not came from the Socialist Party, with a strong German and union constituency in Milwaukee. The socialists often collaborated with the progressive Republicans in statewide politics. Senator Robert M. La Follette tried to use his national reputation to challenge President Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912. However, as soon as Roosevelt declared his candidacy, most of La Follette's supporters switched to the former president. During the Wilson administration he supported many of Wilson's domestic programs in Congress, however he strongly opposed Wilson's foreign policy, and mobilized the large German and Scandinavian populations in Wisconsin to demand neutrality during World War I. During the final years of his career, he split with the Republican Party and ran an independent campaign for president in 1924. In his bid for the presidency he won 1/6 of the national popular vote, but was only able to win his home state.
Following his death, his two sons assumed control of the Wisconsin Republican Party after a brief period of intraparty factional disputes. Following in their father's footsteps they helped form the Wisconsin Progressive Party, in many ways a spiritual successor to the party La Follette had founded in 1924. The party surged to popularity during the mid-1930s off of the inaction of the moderately conservative Schmedeman administration, and were able to gain the support of then president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Much of the new party's support could be owed to the personalities leading it, and the support of Roosevelt and progressive Democrats. The party saw success across Wisconsin's elected offices in the state and congress. Despite its popularity the party eventually declined as Philip, engulfed in scandal and accusations of authoritarianism and fiscal responsibility, lost re-election for the final time in 1938. Following this defeat Philip left electoral politics and joined World War II in the Pacific Theater. Due to joining the war, the National Progressives of America, an organization the La Follettes had hoped would precede a national realignment, faltered. Both organizations began to tear themselves apart as La Follette's absence led to vicious intraparty fighting which ultimately led to a vote to dissolve itself, which Philip was told to stay away from.
The Wisconsin Idea was the commitment of the University of Wisconsin under President Charles R. Van Hise, with LaFollette support, to use the university's powerful intellectual resources to develop practical progressive reforms for the state and indeed for the nation.
Between 1901 and 1911, Progressive Republicans in Wisconsin created the nation's first comprehensive statewide primary election system, the first effective workplace injury compensation law, and the first state income tax, making taxation proportional to actual earnings. The key leaders were Robert M. La Follette and (in 1910) Governor Francis E. McGovern. However, in 1912 McGovern supported Roosevelt for president and LaFollette was outraged. He made sure the next legislature defeated the governor's programs, and that McGovern was defeated in his bid for the Senate in 1914. The Progressive movement split into hostile factions. Some was based on personalities—especially La Follette's style of violent personal attacks against other Progressives, and some was based on who should pay, with the division between farmers (who paid property taxes) and the urban element (which paid income taxes). This disarray enabled the conservatives (called "Stalwarts") to elect Emanuel Philipp as governor in 1914. The Stalwart counterattack said the Progressives were too haughty, too beholden to experts, too eager to regulate, and too expensive. Economy and budget cutting was their formula.
During World War I, due to the neutrality of Wisconsin and many Wisconsin Republicans, progressives, and German immigrants which made up 30 to 40 percent of the state population, Wisconsin would gain the nickname "Traitor State" which was used by many "hyper patriots".
As the war raged on in Europe, Robert M. La Follette, leader of the anti-war movement in Wisconsin, led a group of progressive senators in blocking a bill by president Woodrow Wilson which would have armed merchant ships with guns. Many Wisconsin politicians such as Governor Phillipp and senator Irvine Lernroot were accused of having divided loyalties. Even with outspoken opponents to the war, at the onset of the war many Wisconsinites would abandon neutrality. Businesses, labor and farms all enjoyed prosperity from the war. With over 118,000 going into military service, Wisconsin was the first state to report for four national drafts conducted by the U.S. military.
The progressive Wisconsin Idea promoted the use of the University of Wisconsin faculty as intellectual resources for state government, and as guides for local government. It promoted expansion of the university through the UW-Extension system to reach all the state's farming communities. University economics professors John R. Commons and Harold Groves enabled Wisconsin to create the first unemployment compensation program in the United States in 1932. Other Wisconsin Idea scholars at the university generated the plan that became the New Deal's Social Security Act of 1935, with Wisconsin expert Arthur J. Altmeyer playing the key role. The Stalwarts counterattacked by arguing if the university became embedded in the state, then its internal affairs became fair game, especially the faculty preference for advanced research over undergraduate teaching. The Stalwarts controlled the Regents, and their interference in academic freedom outraged the faculty. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner, the most famous professor, quit and went to Harvard.
Wisconsin took part in several political extremes in the mid to late 20th century, ranging from the anti-communist crusades of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s to the radical antiwar protests at UW-Madison that culminated in the Sterling Hall bombing in August 1970. The state became a leader in welfare reform under Republican Governor Tommy Thompson during the 1990s. The state's economy also underwent further transformations towards the close of the 20th century, as heavy industry and manufacturing declined in favor of a service economy based on medicine, education, agribusiness, and tourism.
In 2011, Wisconsin became the focus of some controversy when newly elected governor Scott Walker proposed and then successfully passed and enacted 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, which made large changes in the areas of collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of public sector employees, among other changes. A series of major protests by union supporters took place that year in protest to the changes, and Walker survived a recall election held the next year, becoming the first governor in United States history to do so. Walker enacted other bills promoting conservative governance, such as a right-to-work law, abortion restrictions, and legislation removing certain gun controls. Walker's administration also made critical changes to Wisconsin's election process, enacting one of the most aggressive legislative gerrymanders in the country and replacing Wisconsin's nonpartisan state elections board with a commission of political appointees. When Walker lost re-election in 2018, he collaborated with the gerrymandered Republican legislature to strip powers from the incoming Governor and Attorney General. Since 2011, Wisconsin has seen increasing governmental dysfunction and paralysis, as the durable gerrymander insulated the legislature from electoral consequences.
Following the election of Tony Evers as governor in 2018, Wisconsin has seen a string of liberal victories at every level of government which have slowly chipped away at the conservative dominance within the state. This eventually led to the Wisconsin supreme court overturning the Walker-era legislative gerrymander in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission.
"Scale. How small can you make something in the frame and have it still be the photo's primary visual subject?" Blake Andrews
My figure is in the bottom right hand corner...but you can be small in 2 dimensions yet appear big.
Snapped in the Broadgate estate, which seems to have some of the stupidest security in London, in my honest opinion. Thanks to British Land for employing such enemies of self expression.