Dutchess Park Circa 1936

At the turn of the century, farms completely covered the Hudson Valley in a way that is hard to believe.   These farms were packed in tight, separated only by stone walls a few feet tall that criss-crossed the landscape.  A network of rail lines throughout Dutchess County transported the dairy and agricultural products to the residents of nearby New York City.

I recently found aerial photography of Dutchess County from 1936.  These old photographic images are remarkably detailed and show the size and extent that farming covered the landscape in the past.  The survey photos were taken in the Spring of 1936 and were captured in black and white on fabric medium roughly 2 feet x 3 feet in size!

Fiskill NY - 1936 (Click to enlarge)

Can you find:

Fishkill Creek

Dutchess Park Lake (Not shown on 1936 photo)

Brinkerhoff House

Rt 52 ,  Rt 82, Rt 9, Old Hopewell Road  

Here's an overlay I made by combining the old 1936 photo with a modern Google street map to show how an area in Fishkill NY called as Dutchess Park looked back then.  I used the major streets to align the two photos since they hadn't changed much.  The modern streets are convenient references on the old photo.  (As is the Dutchess Park Lake :-) )

Dutchess Park 1936 (Click to Enlarge)

The web site with all the Dutchess County images is:  http://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=1155.  Be forewarned... The files are a pain to work with because the encoded in TIFF format and are very large. I used Linux because the Windows couldn't handle the large file size.

Over time, these farms have been replaced by housing developments to the point that only subtle clues to the previous agricultural past can be found.... Such as the stone walls or remains of the rail lines.

Here's the same Google areal view from today.

Dutchess Park Today

The Fishkill rail spur along the Fishkill creek.  This was once one of the many active rail routes in this area. Many are now being converted to "rail trails"...

Tracks Along Fishkill Creek

Chicago's World's Fair 1933

Welcome to the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago's south side, site of the 1933 world's fair...    

The theme of the 1933 fair was technological innovation

It's motto was: "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Adapts".

Later fairs took on very utopian sounding theme's: "Building The World of Tomorrow" (New York, 1939–40), "Peace Through Understanding" (New York, 1964–65) and "Man and His World" (Montreal, 1967)  

Here's what's interesting about the 1933 fair...

The fair was to open with great excitement when rays of light from the star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes reached a photoelectric sensor that sent an electrical signal to automatically light up the the entire fair grounds!

Photoelectric sensors were big news in the 1930s.  Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the photo electric effect in 1921.  Contrary to popular belief, Albert Einstein did not receive any Nobel prizes for his work on relativity or his more famous E=MC Squared equation..  :-(

The star Arcturus was chosen because scientists estimated the light detected had left the star 40 years earlier, about the last time Chicago hosted the world's fair in 1893.
 

When a reporter asked someone what he thought about using the light from the star Arcturus to open the fair, his response was, "Wow, That's incredible, but how did the scientist know the name of that star?"  :-)

During a World's Fair or World Expo's a majority of the structures are temporary and dismantled at the end of the end of the Expo. Towers from several of these fairs are notable exceptions... By far the most famous of these is the Eiffel Tower, built for the Exposition Universelle (1889), which is now the most recognized symbol of its host city Paris.

Albany Post Road

Here's something leftover from the early colonial era in the Hudson Valley that many people drive past every day, but I suspect have no idea what it is.  It's located on "Route 9" across from what used to be the IBM County Club in the town of Poughkeepsie. If you look carefully, carved in the red sandstone is the number 77, below that, the word Miles, then New, and then York.  Yes, at this point, you are standing 77 miles North of City Hall in lower Manhattan!

Mile Marker 77

It turns out, these markers have been left behind by the Post Office. The very first post office.  Specifically, by Benjamin Franklin, the first United States Post Master General.  He marked this path from Manhattan to Albany as a postal route.  Mile marker 0 is located in City Hall in Manhattan.

Remember his famous Kite flying during an electrical storm?

Franklin led a remarkable life.

Franklin was a noted polymath.

He study ocean currents and was the first to observe and name the Gulf stream.

He was one of the few proponents of  Huygan's wave theory of light in the 1700's.

He was prolific inventor: the lighting rod, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, the urinary catheter.

He is considered the first American to play chess.

So today, if you travel along US9 from New York City to Albany, you are traveling on what was once called the Albany Post Road.  Franklin had these markers installed so the fee for mailing letters could be based on how far the carrier traveled to make the delivery.

First US postage Stamp

Before the Post Road was used for Mail, it was called the Queens road after Queen Anne, and the later the Kings highway during the reign of King Goerge I & II..  During the early period native Indians (The Wappingers & The Wicopee) travel by foot simply referred it as "The Path".  Because that's what it was.  A dirt path through the wilderness.    

Fortunately for us, when Franklin Roosevelt was Governor of New York in the early 1930s, he passed a law that gave maintenance of these markers to the State Highway Department.  When he became president, he commissioned the Dutches County historical society to construct the stone structures around them to further protect the markers.  (To prevent them from becoming decorations on peoples patios)

This postcard is a pastoral view of the Albany Post Road looking south from Fishkill, NY.  Up until the late1950's, Dutchess county was still mostly farmland.  It has since been developed for other purposes.

Albany Post Road in Fishkill 1906

Is that the Gap Factory, Toll Brothers, Walmart and Dutchess Mall I see in the distance?

This section of the Albany post road is probably more traveled then BF ever could have imagined.   

Next up, Mason-Dixon Line.... JK :-)

Desktop Publishing circa 1963

You are never going to believe this, but this typewriter works!  It's an original, IBM Selectric typewriter Model 70 from the early sixties, 1960's...  Yes, its that old, and still intriguing, captivating, and typing!

Why the fascination?  Many machines can type, but the Selectric typewriter can publish.   

And in publishing, its all about the typography.

Are you aware that the IBM Selectric introduced a font, that would become probably the most recognized typeface of the 20th century?   

Does this help jog your memory? It's the Courier font.

Courier was the name given to the monospaced serif font that designed by Howard Kettler in 1955 for IBM. It was new streamlined, rational, and efficient.  It was one of the many available on the Selectric typewriter.

Kettler said, the font was nearly released with the name "Messenger." After giving it some thought, Kettler said, "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.

By the mid 60's the Courier had become the typeface of "Officialdom".  If it was official, it was typed in Courier.  Manuscripts for book, plays, or any production had to be type in Courier 12 to be accepted.  This is still true today.  

Although Courier was originally commissioned by IBM, no legal exclusivity to the typeface was secured and it soon became a standard font used throughout the typewriter industry.  It showed up everywhere .. Its the font you see on many computers.  It's the generic font family in MS Windows (since Windows 3.1) and is commonly used as the font for email messages.

Anyone remember Orator typeface?

The Orator typeface consisted of capital letters and and smaller capitol letters only!

The idea behind the orator font was that capitals and small capitals are clearer than upper and lowercase letters, thus making it useful for speech notes.

Orator Typeface

Before Powerpoint and LCD projectors, information at corporate meetings was primarily displayed using an overhead projector and set of clear transparencies.

Anyone remember making or presenting "Foils"
   
This was a great process.

Type up the information you want to get across in the highly readable Orator font. 

Make a copy of it and send it through with a clear transparency into a machine that seemed like a laminiator, but in fact heated the paper so that the black carbon from the paper would transfer to the clear transparency, a foil is born.  

Oh, and don't mess with the setting or you could get a unreadable mess out.  If everything went well, you were now ready to throw them on the overhead projector and begin explaining to the audience the importance of what they were looking at.  


Of course you can type in script on the Selectric typewriter...

The script type ball was used to produce the personal touch of a hand written note, with the mechanical precision of the IBM typewriter.  Here's a sample from my typewriter...

Charles E. Weller

The famous Weller phrase was typed using a Script-12 type ball.   

Here's another.

Famous Anagram

That's the sentence new typists learn.  I used it when tuning this typewriter up.  That sentence is an anagram containing all the letters of the alphabet.  So it checks all your fingers or in my case, that the typewriter can type all the letters.


The end of Courier in Government documents.

Courier was the official font of the US government until February 1, 2004.  It has since been retired and replaced with a more modern Time New Roman 14 font. Which ironically was developed many years earlier by the  British typographer Stanley Morison for the Times of London in 1932.


Final quiz.... Raise your hand if you know what is often cited as the longest English word that can be typed using only 1 row of keys of a QUERTY keyboard.  Typewriter.... of course. 

Happy typing!

Progress

For those of you who think there is no progress in life.

From IBM.... Punch cards get a new look. Most significant style change in 73 years!

Announcement: White Plains, NY, November 4th, 1963

The 73 year old punch card, foundation of the counties automated recording keeping is getting a new look. IBM announced today that the rectangular general purpose punch cards will now be available with .. . . . round corners....... as well the beloved traditional square corners.

Excelsior (Ever Higher)

Poetry for a rainy Friday night.  Not a soft rain, but a wildly windy rain.  And a sky with light and dark gray in odd places..  Anyway, this poem is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  (The same Longfellow that wrote about the Paul's Revere's Midnight Ride)

THE SHADES of night were falling fast,   

As through an Alpine village passed   

A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,   

A banner with the strange device,   

        Excelsior!           

 

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,   

Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,   

And like a silver clarion rung   

The accents of that unknown tongue,   

        Excelsior!     

 

In happy homes he saw the light   

Of household fires gleam warm and bright;   

Above, the spectral glaciers shone,   

And from his lips escaped a groan,   

        Excelsior!     

 

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;   

"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,   

The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"   

And loud that clarion voice replied,   

        Excelsior!     

 

"Oh, stay," the maiden said, "and rest   

Thy weary head upon this breast!"   

A tear stood in his bright blue eye,   

But still he answered, with a sigh,   

        Excelsior!     

 

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!   

Beware the awful avalanche!"   

This was the peasant's last Good-night,   

A voice replied, far up the height,   

        Excelsior!     

 

At break of day, as heavenward   

The pious monks of Saint Bernard   

Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,   

A voice cried through the startled air,   

        Excelsior!     

 

A traveller, by the faithful hound,   

Half-buried in the snow was found,   

Still grasping in his hand of ice   

That banner with the strange device,   

        Excelsior!     

 

There, in the twilight cold and gray,   

Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,   

And from the sky, serene and far,   

A voice fell, like a falling star,   

        Excelsior!     

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1807–1882

So now... Get up and go do something! :-)

High voltage sparks from dripping water

This home made machine, also know as Lord Kelvins Thunderstorm generates amazingly high voltage with dripping water!  In fact, the voltage becomes high enough to make sparks that discharge through a fairly large air gap. Once it gets started, it'll crackle with electricity every 30 seconds while the water is falling through it.

The construction is simple, 2 paint cans (Collectors), 2 pineapple cans (Inducers), Romex wire, a soda bottle, and some tinker toys to support a 2 liter soda bottle.  The two smaller pineapple cans (above) are the "inducers" which the water falls through on its way into the larger collecting paint can below.  The inducers and collectors are cross connected via the Romex wire as shown.  The Romex wire also holds the inducers in position above the collecting cans.

Unfortunately, all of today's paint cans are manufactured with a protective coating on their inner surface that must be scraped off so the charged water can be conducted to the can.  A wire wheel brush can be used to clean the inside of the cans if an insulating coating is present.    

Cross Connected Cans

As part of the setup, water is passed from above, through the inducers on the top and into the collecting cans below.  A two liter soda bottle is used as the water source.  Two holes are drilled in the bottom that provides the water streams.

A tinker toy structure can be used to suspend the water bottle above the cans.

Water bottle above cans

In preparation, fill the bottle about 1/4 way with tap water, and suspend it in the tinker toys.   To start the sparks, turn the two liter bottle 90 degrees so the holes face downward and the water drains into the cans below.

What makes it work?  Opposites attract!  Like most water, the water in the bottle contains both positive and negative ions.  As the charge builds up,  the positive inducer will attract the negatively charged water and collect it in the can below.  The negative inducer will attract positively charged water and collect it in the can below it.  This process will reinforce itself until the voltage is high enough to generate a spark.

The first attempt didn't work because the cans were sitting on the wood floor.  After putting them on top of a block of styrofoam, things started happening...    To mine and my kids amazement, sparks flew !!!

Seeing is believing...

Electricity!

Fire and Ice

Warm Morning Sky

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost  (From Harper’s Magazine, December 1920.)







We know, sounds made by a moving objects will sound lower if the object is moving away from us and the same sound will sound higher if the object is moving towards us.  We've all experienced the distinctive change in frequency as something making noise rapidly gets closer and then passes by.   The change in frequency based on whether an object is moving toward or away from you is called Doppler shift.  Amazingly, a similar shifting happens with light.  Objects traveling towards us appear bluer, and objects moving away appear redder.  From astronomy, we know stars within our galaxy are both shifted red and blue.  Meaning some are stars are getting closer while others are moving further away.  But.... from the study of light from other galaxies in the universe, they are all red shifted, meaning all other galaxies are moving away from each other.  Probably since the "Big Bang".  If this process continues, eventually everything in our universe will spread out, stars will burn out and we be left with a cold, dark and boring place.

    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.

    The Hollow Men (1925) a poem by T. S. Eliot 

Not emotionally appealing: frozen, dark, and lifeless. Yuck...

Frozen Back Yard

However, it is also the possibility the universe's expansion will eventually come halt, (red shift become blue shifts) and the universe will begin to contract and eventually collapse into a single point.  It will be hot and there will be fireworks.  In "The Big Crunch", the universe will end fire, followed by perhaps, another "Big Bang",

This is a more reassuring ending, because, it is conceivable, this could result in an exact carbon copy of the universe being reborn.  And, if that were the case, we could meet again and you could be reading this again a couple billion years from now!

The Road Not Taken

Journey

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost, published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval.

October Seeds

Milk Weeds

These are some of the pods that open in the fall and release their seeds into the air.

Dramatic Sunset

Sunset

It was the most amazing sunset tonight. The sun broke through the upper cloud layer above then set beneath the horizon below.

Have you ever wondered why sunsets are red?

It's the same reason the sky is blue: Rayleigh scattering.

In 1871, Lord Rayleigh derived the relationship between the percentage of light scattered, its wavelength and the saize of the particle the light dumps into.  He observed when light strikes small partials,  the percentage of scattering is inversely proportional to the 4th power of its wavelength.  This means shorter 400 nm  blue light is 10 times more likely to 'scatter' then longer 700 nm red light.

The color of the daylight sky is a result of incoming sunlight bouncing off Oxygen and Nitrogen molecules many times before it reaches our eyes.  Resulting in our azure sky.

So what happens at sunset?  White light containing all colors leaves the sun and goes through the earths atmosphere, the shorter blue wave lengths are scattered allowing mostly the longer red wave lengths to reach our retinas.  This in conjunction with larger dust particles creates the beautiful colors of the sunset.

Now, you can create this similar effect by shinning light through a glass of diluted milk!  Diluted white milk particles will give off blueish reflected light, but when same light is projected through the diluted milk, it will result in red color.  Not a brilliant sunset, but still an amazing thing: white light going into translucent white milk and producing color...

Pot of gold in your own backyard?

On hot summer days when severe storm or sudden rain passes thru, we've all looked up afterwards at rainbows in the sky.  But have you ever taken the time to "see" the rainbow?

Here's a few questions about rainbows:

Where are the red and blue colors located?

Are colors always in the same sequence?

What time of day do you see rainbows?

Is it brighter inside or outside the rainbow?

Have you have seen a double rainbow?

Are the colors of the double rainbow in the same sequence as the first?

Does wearing polarized sunglasses effect your view of the rainbow?
 
Issac Newton did.  Yes the same Issac Newton that discovered gravity.  Although the colors of the rainbow are continuous, the neural processing of our photoreceptor cause us to perceive individual bands of color.  In  1672, Newton assign these bands of color the following names: Red, Yellow, Green Blue, and Violet.  He later added orange and indigo for a total of 7 colors.  The same number of notes in a musical active.

Backyard Rainbow

After a severe storm this summer, a beautiful rainbow appeared in our backyard. It was the most amazing sight. The threat of lighting kept me indoors. The soaking wet screen and window blur the image a small amount. We haven't found the gold yet, but we know it's out there someplace.

The order of colors

The order of the colors is always the same, blue on the inside and red on the outside.  This is a result of the dispersion of light inside the water droplet.

White light is reflected back by the blue light and no light is reflected back past the read color.



The double rainbow

When the light bounces 2 times in a water droplet instead of once sides the water droplet, a secondary rainbow is produced.

Brighter inside or outside the rainbow?   Inside.... The white light (All Colors) is reflected back in the center while not light is reflected back above the rainbow.

The light from rainbow is highly polarized.  This means if you polarized sunglasses and you twist the lens you can make the rainbow completely disappear from the sky!