New SecondLife blog Nowhere/Now here is one to keep an eye on. Teal Etzel ranges from a whimsical review of a Greenies sim to in-world tutorials, which will take much of the work out of finding good content in SecondLife.
Cheers
Jerry
The Locomobile steam car at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa is described as “circa 1901”. I have a feeling it might be an early 1902 model. It is chassis number 555 and has the Stanhope type two body with the ogee shaped front, rather than the flat upright dashboard.
The Locomobile was designed and built by the Stanley Brothers from 1899-1904. In 1901 they sold the Locomobile company, and bought it back a year later – making a profit both times. They produced the most successful steam car of its day – around 4000 were built in total, before the Stanley company produced cars under its own name until 1927.
The cars were simple and quite fast for their day, winning several hill-climbs. They could take off with enough acceleration to lift the front wheels and were quite popular as runabouts. But they had quite a short range – 20-30 miles between water stops as they had no condenser to recycle the exhaust steam back into the boiler.
The early ones had a two-cylinder Masson engine, but these were not very reliable, being prone to breakdowns. But this was fixed by late 1901 when FE and FO Stanley designed their own engine.
You can read more about Stanly steam cars at the British Steam Car Club of Great Britain (page two of the locomobile specs gives chassis numbers for the type B and C), as well as at the Stanley Museum in the USA.
The car is currently on display in the the main museum building in Ottawa.
Henry Seth Taylor (1833-1887) built Canada’s first self-propelled buggy in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada in 1867. The buggy took seven years to build. The boiler was wood-fired and operated at 60lbs pressure. The four wheeled single seat open carriage had tiller steering and carried the water tank over the front axle.
Here is a view of the engine from the underside
On its second run, inventor and builder Taylor crashed it (he had neglected to install brakes), after which he abandoned automobile production and turned his attention to building a steam yacht. The buggy can be seen today in the Canada Science and Technology museum. Canada’s first car was given recognition in 1993 by being depicted on a Canada Post stamp.
I had read here about the Brooks steam car – made in Canada in the 1920s. The car was underpowered and overpriced, but it was manufactured and more than 100 were built. Only a handful survive. This is a tale of how I got to see one up close and personal.
The article mentioned that there were four in Canadian museums and three in the UK – there may be eight Brooks steam cars left in the world – so it’s a rare item.
Knowing I was to be traveling to Ottawa I emailed the Science and Technology Museum to find out if the car was on display. I received a lovely email in response with apologies that the car was not on display, but I could make an appointment to view the car at their warehouse.
At the appointed time I met with the Assistant Curator for Transportation and was taken to an amazing warehouse with several steam cars – more on those later. The 1926 Brooks Tourer was unmistakable with its fabric body – it looked in amazing condition, as though it was driven in just a week ago.
I was able to take a number of photos that I would not have been able to get if the car were on official display. The first two photos that follow were supplied by the museum and used by permission.
Brooks steam car – photo courtesy of the Ottawa Science and Technology Museum – used by permission
Brooks steam car – photo courtesy of the Ottawa Science and Technology Museum – used by permission
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Final drive to rear axle
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Boiler left hand side
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
Brooks steam car – photo Jerry Everard ©2008
More steam cars from this excellent museum will be added over the next few days
Cheers
Jerry
The wikipedia phenomenon has been with us for a while – but aside from the occasional press article, scholarly treatments of wikis are few and far between.
Here is one exception – a serious look at the evolution and development of a wikipedia entry on heavy metal music – and the introduction and use of the umlaut in the names of heavy metal bands. John Udell’s video examines several aspects of the wiki through this example. One of the more interesting aspects is the ‘wisdom of crowds’ – the self-correction of wiki entries. At one point the wiki entry was vandalised, and within a minute it was restored by someone else. This phenomenon has been observed elsewhere. I recall reading that the ABC TV Australia did a short documentary on wikipedia and deliberately put in wrong information on some prominent entries, and the longest it took before the entry was corrected was four hours. That’s pretty impressive for a global free gafitti wall!
Thanks to Beth Kanter for bringing this to my attention.
Cheers
Jerry
