Showing posts with label historical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Saturday, 13 August 2011
some photos from the 1910 Salon de l'automobile in the Paris Grand Palace
found in http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?ArianeWireIndex=index&p=1&lang=EN&q=1910+Salon+de+l%27automobile where some photographer went car to car and took photos of the engines of the cars also
Friday, 12 August 2011
1908 New York to Paris great race entry, the Protos finally shows up online to show me wth that car was
Found on http://www.autopuzzles.com/
Original photos of this Protos at the start of the race: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-york-to-paris-race-of-1908-great.html
the other entries were the Züst representing Italy, three cars (De Dion-Bouton, Motobloc, and Sizaire-Naudin) representing France, and Thomas Flyer competing for the United States
If the rally race cars of the Paris to Peking, and the New York to Paris races interest you too, here are the Spyker http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/1907-spyker-charles-godard-and-jean-du.html
Update Aug 16th: I just found the OldMotor.com has posted a photo taken during the race while they came through Ogden Utah: http://theoldmotor.com/?p=9927
read about the passenger, he was hired by each of the great race entrants to guide them from Ogden Utah to Nevada, as he had been a surveyor for the railway
Friday, 5 August 2011
Major road photography collection saved from the city dump, right out of the dumpster, and will now be scanned and available online to the public (includes first mile of concrete road, first snowmobile, first modern traffic light)
Thanks to Nancy Darga, Managing Director of MotorCities National Heritage Area; these photographs and documents were rescued from a dumpster during the turmoil days of reorganizing Wayne County in the 1980's. They were turned over to the State to be protected in a climate control facility with appropriate archival treatment. Mark Harvey, the Director of Collections and Education of the Historical Museum, said " We are happy to be able to preserve these valuable photos and documents and make them available to the public for the first time".
Nancy Darga, stated that "saving these artifacts is just the first step in preserving our heritage. We are working with the Michigan Historical Museum to scan these documents for public viewing. It is time to bring attention to Wayne County's innovations that led to the first mile of concrete, the first modern traffic light, the first snow plow, the first depressed limited access freeway and the painted white line that delineates lanes that saves lives daily".
A big hug of gratitude to Nancy for saving photos from oblivion, and kick starting a program to scan and make them available to the online public!
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
A moment of time changing the history of employment, the horsedrawn fire engine in route to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire
Sunday, 10 July 2011
the 1907 Spyker that competed in the Peking to Paris great race
the Italia that won the race is here: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/winner-of-1907-paris-to-peking.html
The challenge to drive from Peking, China (modern day Beijing) to Paris, France in 1907, using totally untested automobiles, was taken up by five men:
- Prince Scipione Borghese, accompanied by his mechanic Ettore Guizzardi. They were further accompanied by Italian journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr.
- Charles Goddard, accompanied by journalist Jean du Taillis.
- Auguste Pons and Octave Foucault, his mechanic.
- Georges Cormier.
- Victor Collignon.
On the 30th of August, twenty days later, the Spyker, followed by the two De Dions, arrived in Paris. Charles Goddard wasn’t behind the wheel of the Spyker; due to money-troubles, he wasn’t able to finish the race! But his car won second place and that was probably good enoughfound on http://scheong.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/peking-to-paris-the-original-amazing-race/
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
1934, the all the west coast longshoremen, teamsters, and seamen unions went on strike and the national guard was called in
The nationwide labor upsurge of 1934 reached its peak in San Francisco. On May 9, 1934, leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) called a strike of all West Coast dockworkers, demanding a wage scale of the 6-day, 30-hour week at a minimum rate of $1 per hour, a “closed shop” (union membership as a requirement of employment), and union-administered hiring halls.
On May 15 teamsters, boilermakers and machinists voted a sympathy strike along with sailors and marine firemen’s union, involving 4,000 men, and 700 marine cooks and stewards took similar action the next day. Ferry boatmen, masters, mates and pilots, and marine engineers first struck against several companies for higher wages and a closed-shop contract, and subsequently the entire local was called out in a body. Not a single freighter left a Pacific coast port “for the first time in history.”
Enraged employers, backed by a sympathetic mayor and police chief, used every means available to open the waterfront and protect strikebreakers, whom they imported in large numbers. Working closely with local politicians and the press, the employers set out to convince the public that the strike was controlled by “Reds” intent on overthrowing the government.
These scare tactics led to an investigation of employer actions by a Senate subcommittee. The flagrant destruction of many of the records of the Industrial Association, described in this report, effectively prevented the Committee from obtaining full documentary evidence on the activities of the association. Violations of Free Speech and Rights of Labor, the subcommittee’s 1942 report, described the concerted efforts of the Industrial Association, the newspapers, and the San Francisco police to discredit the strike.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5134/ for the entire report
Didn't see that in your American History book did you. Just one case in a long history of corporate greed versus workers and unions, and just one example of the people with the money fdoing anything at all to make more money and the people with power abusing it. Both the money and the power calling the shots and forcing the cops and national guard to shoot the strikers. No kidding.
Photos from http://www.johngutmann.org/
Sunday, 29 May 2011
A deep south speedtrap so bad, it was national news, and the state govenor had warning signs installed on the town limits, Ludowici Georgia
TWO large roadside billboards just inside the county lines north and south of town used to guard the approach to Ludowici. Placed there by Governor Lester Maddox, they warned approaching motorists of "speed traps" and "clip joints" in large black letters on a white background
The county seat, and location of all three of the county's newspapers. It was also one of the best-known little nowheres in the country. Sitting astride the junction of federal highways 301, 25 and 82, Ludowici commanded the traditional north-south highway to Florida; 1,000,000 motorists drive through town each year. But in 1975 the Interstate 95 diverted traffic around it.
During the '50s it became known as the site of a treacherous stop light that trapped motorists by changing from green to red without warning, after which the travelers were ticketed by a waiting policeman. Since 1960 when the light was replaced, Ludowici's speed traps have bilked motorists of a rumored $100,000 annually. Said Governor Maddox: "The place is lousy, rotten, corrupt, nasty and no good."
Ludowici has nevertheless defied the efforts of three Governors to shut down the speed traps. For years some of the local gas stations also conducted a profitable con game. When an unsuspecting motorist stopped to have his oil checked, the attendant would disable the car by tinkering with the generator or pouring water in the crankcase oil, then suggest that the customer move his crippled vehicle to a nearby garage for repair. Fittingly enough, the repair shop was called "Billy Swindel's."
The man behind the speed trap, and behind everything else in Ludowici, was the county's colorful political boss, Ralph Dawson, a back-country lawyer who ran Long County since 1932, he headed a political machine that never lost an election at the county or city level.
from a Time magazine article in 1970
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909123,00.html
Sunday, 29 August 2010
The winner of the 1907 Paris to Peking endurance race
The 1907 ITALA mod. 35/45 HP won the prize of a magnum of Mumm champagne. The race went without any assistance through country where there were no roads or road-maps. For the race, camels carrying fuel left Peking and set up at stations along the route to give fuel to the racers. The race followed a telegraph route so that the race was well covered in newspapers at the time. Each car had one journalist as a passenger, with the journalists sending stories from the telegraph stations regularly through the race.
The 9,300 mile race was kicked off by a challenge by a newspaper "What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?"
It was held during a time when cars were fairly new, and went through remote areas of Asia where people were not familiar with motor travel. The route between Peking and Lake Baikal had only previously been attempted on horseback. The race was won by Italian Prince Scipione Borghese of the Borghese family, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr. He was confident and had even taken a detour from Moscow to St Petersburg for a dinner which was held for the team, and afterwards headed back to Moscow and rejoined the race. The event was not intended to be a race or competition, but quickly became one due to its pioneering nature and the technical superiority of the Italians' car driven by Count Scipione Borghese, winning by three weeks. These sporting successes helped sales dramatically, the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable stroke, sleeve valve, and "Avalve" rotary types
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_to_Paris and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itala
Thursday, 29 July 2010
A movie was made in 1953 about the London to Brighton historic race, Genevieve
from http://tukker.blogspot.com/ which is NSFW (not safe for work) for dissapointingly little info on the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045808
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Photos from Shorpy, the historical photo website extra-ordinary
Prairie schooner near Great Falls - Montana 1898
1907 Franklin Model D roadster
1910
Early AAA towtruck made from a car
1921 Hupmobile in Washington DC
1922 Fed Fretwell on a Harley with a trophy for the 10 mile race
1926 Dodge screen side for chicken delivery
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