In 1950, Popular Science issued a cutaway drawing of the most exciting object to grace the skies to that point: Convair’s B-36 Bomber. At that time, it was the world’s biggest bomber. Its 13 man crew could ride at altitudes as high as 50,000 feet, the magazine noted. Here is a closeup of the cockpit… Continue reading Convair B-36 Bomber Cutaway Drawing, 1950
Month: February 2013
The William Boyes Wooden Monorail
I saw this picture yesterday at Seattle’s MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry). The caption said that the monorail was constructed in 1911 of wood and ran through the “tidal flats” of Seattle. Not much is known of it, though Lyle Zapato dredges up a bit in “Carpetbagging Monorailists: A Cascadian Tradition.”
Obliterating Time: The 1922 Kodachrome Color Test Girl
The past always seems to be so…old. Previous styles, mores, customs seem to have vanished, replaced wholesale with an entirely new set of styles, mores, and customs. That’s why we can snicker at ridiculous stuff like men with handlebar mustaches riding crazy bicycles and corpulent women vamping it up as if they were sex goddesses.… Continue reading Obliterating Time: The 1922 Kodachrome Color Test Girl
Memory Scraps That Matter: Coffee, Peckers, and Bernstein
This isn’t about coffee or penises, but of course that’s what all you dirty-minded people care about. It’s about: stray advice from the ancient past that lingers in your mind, for no apparent reason. Why do we remember things? Why do we forget? We accept the forgetting part with age; it’s commonplace. The remembering part… Continue reading Memory Scraps That Matter: Coffee, Peckers, and Bernstein
Decadent Monacracy: White House Secret Service Uniforms During Nixon’s Administration
In 1970, President Richard Nixon changed the White House Secret Service’s uniforms most dramatically. According to Richard Reeves’ President Nixon: Alone in the White House, Nixon felt that the present uniforms were “too slovenly.” An upcoming visit by Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Great Britain was a good excuse to upgrade the uniforms. The uniforms,… Continue reading Decadent Monacracy: White House Secret Service Uniforms During Nixon’s Administration