Snapshot 1881: Is it a car, a bike, a train or a trike?

July 17, 2023 by · Leave a Comment 

Is it a car, a bike, a train, or a trike – or something else altogether? Looking back with an effort to place various inventions into current-day buckets is not always easy. However, in this case, there is one thing we know for sure: It is a velocipede: “a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels.” This one appeared in the April 16, 1881 issue of Scientific American.

A New Term For An Old Happening…

July 26, 2021 by · Leave a Comment 

If I asked you what comes to mind when you hear the term “embedded reporter”, most of us would quickly picture some war scene… perhaps Vietnam … perhaps The Gulf War. Few of us would picture a train or “A Canadian Pacific Steamships” and yet, in 1870 an ingenious publisher decided to take a small printing press on board the first Transcontinental Railroad excursion and publish 6 issues westbound and 6 issues eastbound. Printed on a Gordon press in the baggage car, it is considered the very first newspaper composed, printed, & published on a train. Think … 1st embedded reporter. Similarly, in 1939, the PACIFIC EMPRESS was printed and considered “A Newspaper Printed & Published Daily Aboard Canadian Pacific Steamships”. These reporters may not have been dodging bullets behind enemy lines but they did boldly put themselves into harrowing circumstances to give 1st hand accounts covering big events during their lifetime. A fascinating precursor to Geraldo Rivera.

You’ve Come A Long Way Baby…

May 20, 2021 by · 2 Comments 

Oftentimes, when I see a headline or an issue here at Rare Newspapers, some old fashioned turn of phrase or idiom comes to mind and today was no exception. As I leafed through a volume of Harper’s Weekly’s looking for a customer request, I glanced through the issue dated one week earlier. “You’ve come a long way baby” sprang to mind as I paused to pour over the vintage automobile and tire ads in Harper’s Weekly’s “Annual Automobile Number” issue. Ironically, the front color cover had a baby in a 1912 car barely missing 1911, represented by an old man trudging across the road. These new cars must have seemed a tremendous upgrade from Henry Ford’s Model T in 1908 and may have caused a pedestrian on the curb to murmur, “We’ve come a long way baby”, however, I am sure their jaw would drop at the thought of electric and self-driving options 100+ years later.  These are the things Jules Verne dreamed of as he put pen to paper. I like to imagine that someday, a 100+ years from now, another person may very well see a newspaper from today with the headline: “Tesla’s Autopilot Technology Faces Fresh Scrutiny”(NYT) and quip, “We’ve come a long way baby”, as they climb into their hover car.

Snapshot 1858… A French flying machine…

August 13, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 

The following snapshot comes from The National Intelligencer, dated August 7, 1858. It’s a shame those in the article below this snapshot didn’t have access to such an invention.

The Traveler… new wheels to get around…

July 9, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 

Nearly a year ago I journeyed to New York City by the means of the Scientific American, dated August 19, 1868, where I found the “Hanlon’s Patent Improved Velocipede”. “Within a few months the vehicle known as the velocipede has received an unusual degree of attention, especially in Paris, it having become in that city a very fashionable and favorite means of locomotion. To be sure the rider ‘works his passage,’ but the labor is less than that of walking, the time required to traverse a certain distance is not so much, while the exercise of the muscles is an healthful and invigorating. A few years ago, these vehicles were used merely as playthings for children, and it is only lately that their capabilities have been understood and acknowledged. Practice with these machines have been carried so far that offers of competitive trials of speed between them and horses on the race course have been made…”

I’m glad that they don’t make them that way any longer!

~The Traveler

Snapshot 1885… Early flight (?)

June 28, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 

The following snapshot comes from The Scientific American, New York, dated May 9, 1885. Thankfully, the wise saw, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” eventually proved to be true.

 

Early no-smoking cars on trains…

September 26, 2016 by · Leave a Comment 

Blog-9-26-2016-no-smoking-railroad-carWhile the most significant feature of the St. Louis Daily Globe” of February 2, 1875 is a report regarding Frank and Jesse James, the front page has a curious report headed: “A Peculiar Bill” concerning the need to create nonsmoking cars which would: “…afford relief to a great many ladies who are annoyed by cigar smoke, and other evils arising from the use of tobacco by gentlemen…” (see image).

Before there was the Chunnel…

February 22, 2016 by · Leave a Comment 

Blog-2-22-2016-English-Channel-BridgeFor over twenty years now the English Channel Tunnel, of the “Chunnel” has carried passengers, by train, between England and France. Although being the first such connection to come to fruition, it was not the first proposed.

Such a connection between England and the continent has been proposed since 1802 but none, obviously came to reality. The November 30, 1889 issue of “Scientific American reports on a bridge that was conceived as a viable effort, detailed in the article: “The Proposed Bridge Over The English Channel” and illustrated with a caption: “The Proposed Railway Bridge Between England and France.”

It is difficult to imagine the success of an elevated railway stretching over 30 miles, which might explain why this concept never became reality, but in hindsight it is interesting to perceive the vision of engineers over 100 years ago.

One of the first hybrids…

February 8, 2016 by · Leave a Comment 

Blog-2-8-2016-early-carIn today’s world hybrid automobiles are commonly found on the road, a cross between internal combustion and electric engines. But our recent fascination with hybrids is nothing new.

In 1889 a proposal was submitted for what looks like an electric car/cable car hybrid, as detailed in the July 27, 1889 issue of “Scientific American. The electric vehicle would receive its power from the cable lines above it but the vehicle would negotiate the streets without the aid of tracks.

It is interesting how fascination with electric propulsion over 100 years ago has been renewed today as a means of powering automobiles.

The Traveler… the sinking of the Hesperian…

September 7, 2015 by · Leave a Comment 

Blog-9-17-2015-Hesperian-SinkingToday I traveled to New York City by the way of the New York Tribune of September 7, 1915. The headline is of the tragic sink of the Hesperian. “Hesperian Sinks; 26 Dead; No Excuse for Act Found; Disavowal Is Expected”. “With all of the twenty-give missing passengers and crew of the Hesperian, torpedoed Saturday evening, now given up as lost, the total death list… stands at twenty-six… Wesley Frost telegraphed today to the American Embassy that the Admiralty authorities had not been informed officially that the Hesperian had been torpedoed without warning, but that they believed this was the case. Persons so far seen stated that no warning was given…”

~The Traveler

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