|
---|
Saturday, August 13, 2011
some photos from the 1910 Salon de l'automobile in the Paris Grand Palace
0 comments Posted by st at 4:15 PMLabels: 1910 Salon De l'Auto mobile, brass era, french, historical, vintage
Friday, August 12, 2011
1908 New York to Paris great race entry, the Protos finally shows up online to show me wth that car was
0 comments Posted by st at 8:19 PMLabels: Factory race car, Great Race, historical, New York to Paris race, Protos
Friday, August 5, 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)
0 comments Posted by st at 12:24 PMLabels: historical, history, photography
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
A moment of time changing the history of employment, the horsedrawn fire engine in route to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire
0 comments Posted by st at 9:42 PMLabels: fire engine, historical, history, horse carriage, informative
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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/
Labels: brass era, Factory race car, Great Race, historical, Paris to Peking race, race, race cars, rare, Spyker, unusual
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
1934, the all the west coast longshoremen, teamsters, and seamen unions went on strike and the national guard was called in
0 comments Posted by st at 7:36 PM 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/
Labels: historical, history, informative, Military, tank
Sunday, May 29, 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
0 comments Posted by st at 9:41 PMTWO 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
Labels: historical, history, informative, law enforcement, scam
Sunday, August 29, 2010

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
Labels: brass era, Great Race, historical, Italian, race
Thursday, July 29, 2010
A movie was made in 1953 about the London to Brighton historic race, Genevieve
0 comments Posted by st at 9:27 AM
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
Labels: historical, Hollywood, London to Brighton, movie, race
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Labels: Dodge, Harley, historical, Hupmobile, Pixdaus, schooner, Shorpy, towtruck, wagon train