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A marvelous development in engineering (?)…
August 8, 2011 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Sometimes the simple reports we find in newspapers lead to a much more fascinating back story than was anticipated. Such was the case with an interesting report in “The Cleveland Leader” of May 17, 1875, which contained a very lengthy & detailed article headed: “A Wonderful Discovery!” “A New Motor!” “The Days of Steam Probably Numbered”. Not knowing of any new motor created in the 1870’s I did some exploring and learned much about Mr. John Keely and the great hoax he perpetrated on the public.
See the hyperlink on Mr. Keely for the full story along with the following:
The end of the world… false alarm…
August 6, 2011 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
A few years ago several collectors contacted us wondering if the end of the Rare & Early Newspapers collectible was at hand. They had just received news about Google’s newspaper digitizing project and wondered if this would lead to an end in people wanting to collect historic newspapers. “Might this be the end of the old newspaper’s collectible world?” We tried to reassure them them that collecting the actual newspaper from the day it was 1st printed/read as compared to reading digitized versions is akin to eating an ice-cream sundae rather than looking at a picture of one. No matter how perfect the picture of the sundae reproduces the look of an actual one, it can never compare to the real deal. Apparently, time has proven this to be so. 2011 brought news from Google announcing the end of the digitizing project. The date of the announcement is rather ironic. Please read:
Google Announces End Of Newspaper Digitizing Project
🙂 🙂 🙂
The Civil War… 150 years ago today… August 3, 1861
August 3, 2011 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
We continue our weekly feature of reflecting upon the appropriate 150 year old issue of “Harper’s Weekly” from the perspective of a subscriber in 1861:
Women prisoners? I was astounded to see the front page print (of my August 3, 1861 issue) of two women in a cart, surrounded by guards, captioned: “Bringing in the Misses Scott as Prisoners to Fall’s Church, Va.” But the interesting article relates the fascinating circumstances which lead to their arrest. The front page also has a nice battle scene captioned: “the Death of the Rebel General Garnett at the Battle of Laurel Hill”.
Inside pages include a nice print of General McClellan, a scene of an ax wielding African-American about to: “…Attack Of The Second Mate”, and a nice full page print of: “The Battle of Carthage, Missouri”. the latter shows both the Yankees & Confederates on either side of a stream.
There is also a print of the “Camp of the First Brigade of the Confederate Army…”. I wonder how they get those prints from the other side of the battle lines? One of the most dramatic prints I have ever seen in “Harper’s Weekly” is the centerfold in this issue, captioned; “Colonel Hunter’s Attack at the Battle of Bull’s Run”. The print shows hundreds & hundreds of soldiers, in very close ranks, charging towards the Confederates in the distance. Their are bombs bursting in the air, and soldiers falling from wounds, and officers on horseback as well. It’s a very dramatic scene! There are a few other prints relating to Bull’s Run as well.
The Traveler… Standard Oil’s dissolution… “perfectly logical”…
August 1, 2011 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I found myself in the The Christian Science Monitor dated August 1, 1911 where two front page articles caught my attention. The first is a bit of a continuation from a few weeks back,which was Standard Oil’s plan of dissolution being announced. The reorganization would involve the distribution of approximately 220,000 certificates representing 35 companies.
The other article was of Chicago’s aviation event which would have the largest purse ever offered, the prizes having a total value of $80,000. A stadium (the largest at that time) would be built that would hold 60,000 persons. Some notables to be in attendances were: Glenn H. Curtiss, Tom Sopwith, J.A. D. McCurdy, John J Frisbie, Harry N Atwood, Charles Willard and others.
I also found a cute little story entitled “perfectly logical” which just says it all…
~The Traveler