Lion Monument

Löwendenkmal -- a memorial to the Swiss Guards who were killed during the French Revolution

I'd forgotten the story that went with the Lion Monument at Lucerne.

One page with photo and short blurb.

Close up photo

Lots of good photos. Not much information. Too many aimed at tourist sites.

From Wikipedia

The most famous episode in the history of the Swiss Guards of the Royal household was their defense of the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution. Of the nine hundred "Gardes Suisse" defending the Palace on August 10, 1792 more than six hundred were killed during the fighting or massacred after surrender. An estimated two hundred more died in prison of their wounds or during the September Massacres that followed. Apart from a few Swiss who were helped to escape from the Tuileries by sympathetic Parisians the only survivors were a 300 strong detachment which had been sent to Normandy to escort grain convoys a few days before August 10. The heroic but futile stand of the Swiss is commemorated by Bertel Thorvaldsen's monument in Lucerne dedicated in 1821 and showing a dying lion collapsed across symbols of the French Monarchy.

Link from above article The Attack on the Tuileries

From http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=71663

(They) were given no orders as to what they should do when the murderous revolutionary mob approached. They did not know that the King and Queen had escaped the palace, and faced with overwhelming odds, laid down their arms in the face of annihilation by the irate peasants. Having searched the palace and finding the king gone, the crowd sated their blood-lust by turning on the Swiss guards who were overwhelmed by the 30,000 strong mob.

Catalpa & Rescue of Fenians

Wikipedia

Irish Australia - has song

Trinity College links

Signal Stations

One of those topics that I can never find anything about when I need it (on web, too many photos, too many aimed at tourist sites, that sounds famiiar).

Mt Nelson Semaphore from State Library collection

Signals were sent from (Tasman Peninsula to) Mt Nelson to the signal station at Battery Point (doesn't seem possible these days, too many trees) e.g. notification of arriving ships

Three rows of arms. To represent a number, top row is digits, midde is tens, bottom is hundreds.

Each sets of arms can be in one of nine positions.



Can't remember the numbers which go with each postions, so for now I'll go

123
456
789

Using that, this would be 0 9 1. Then one looks up 91 in the book to see the corresponding message: Out of tea, send more.

The Tamar Valley network.

Stone carving

How to carve marble, limestone, soapstone and alabaster sculptures

Soapstone

Marble

Tools of the trade

WWI veteran

From the front page of the Australian, 26 April, 2005

"Though he marches once in an ex-servicemen's parade as a young man, he did not join the RSL. Nor did he take part in an Anzac parade until last year."

His views "had not changed but he was now more accepting of society's recognition and praise. 'He's at a stage now where he can relax and enjoy the attention.'"

(Then) 107 year old Peter Casserly, oldest WWI veteran.

Osmiridium

Naturally occurring alloy of iridium & osmium, as is iridiosmium

Osmium, high durability & heaviest known element, used as part of an alloy, for fountain pen nibs, eletrical contacts, phonograph needles. Iridium, most corrosive-resistant metal known & second heaviest known element, used in an alloy for pen nibs, electrical conductors; in platinum alloys as a hardener.

When encountered by gold miners was considered a problem. Later thought, it was valuable in its own right.

Osmiridium mining started at Adamsfield in 1925, when a small town developed, until middle of the century(?).

Bagha chal

Also Bagh Chal, Bagha Chall (Moving Tigers, Change of Tigers, Goats & Tigers)
Board game from Nepal

Board: five rows of five points, made up of intersecting lines.

One player has 4 tigers, the other has 20 goats.

Game starts with the tigers being put on the corners. The player with the goats puts down one goat on a intersection point each turn. They can't move the goats until all 20 goats are down. Then they can be moved from one point to another along the lines.


On each turn, the tigers are moved along the lines, from one point to another, or they can jump a goat (same as in checkers/draughts). A goat that is jumped is removed from the board.

Objective for goat player is to block all the tigers; for the tiger player, to remove all the goat by jumping them (often games ends once five goats are removed because it is effectively impossible for goats to win from that point).

Additional rules could be: no reversing moves (i.e. move from A to B on one turn & then B to A on next turn) to prevents a player just moving a piece back and forth; tiger can't jump backwards

Rules
Wikipedia Entry

Torches

Developed in 1890s. Obviously after electric lights became practical, and batteries.

The Energizer/Eveready websites credit their invention to Conrad Hubert, a Russian immigrant who in 1898 found the American Electrical Novelty & Mfg Co to market " market battery powered novelties". He apparently filed two patents for an "electric hand torch" in 1899.

His 1903 patent (no. 737,107 issued August 26)

The company later changed its name to American Eveready, concentrating on selling torches & batteries. As they obviously still do.

There is a story: Hubert used originally came from the CEO of the company that he worked for (Joshua Lionel Cowen). Cowen came up with a decorative light fixture for flower pots, that used a light bulb and a dry cell battery that could power the bulb for 30 days. He gave the idea & the company to a sales rep (Hubert) and went off to do more interesting things, like developing battery powered model trains (Lionel trains).

Don't know how true that is. One site gives Cowen as the "original owner of the American Eveready Battery Company", whereas others, withh more details/references, have Hubert founding the company that became American Eveready (as above)

Flashlight Museum

War on Television

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/warontelevi/warontelevi.htm

"The first noteworthy war to occur in the television age was the Korean War (1950-53). Television was, of course, in its infancy as a mass medium at the time and, as a consequence, the Korean conflict is not widely thought of as a televised war. Not only did relatively few viewers have access to television sets, but, because satellite technology was unavailable, television film had to be transported by air to broadcasters. By the time such film arrived its immediacy was much diminished; often, therefore, newspapers and radio remained the media of choice. Nonetheless, in August 1950, a CBS television news announcer reported an infantry landing as it was in-progress, and the controversy caused by this possible security breach reflects conflicts that would long continue between military authorities waging war and television reporters covering that warfare."

Transporting Remains

Examiner, 10th February, 1847

FUNERAL Remains of the late Sir Eardley Wilmot

We have learnt that his remains we be interred in the colony, and after decomposition has taken place, the body will be exhumed and sent to England, there to be Transporting remains in the family vault of his ancestors. A public funeral will take place on Wednesday next, the 10th inst.

-------------

Note - monument in St David's park "in the colony" states the remains are deposited underneath

Bang, Bang

Mongols using bombs against Japanese, late 13th C (1281 or 1293)


Earliest picture of a European cannon, 1326,
from Walter de Mile's De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum


Chinese cannon, from a 14th C military treatise of the Huolongjing

Haast's Eagle

Giant eagle from New Zealand, preyed on other birds (no terrestial mammals), including the tall, flightless moas.

Extinct about 15th Century

Weight: 10-14 kg (22-30 pounds)
Wingspan: up to 2.6 m (8.5 feet), maybe more

Wingspan short for it's size.

For comparison

Wedgetailed Eagle: Females average 4.2 kg, up to 5.3 kg; wing span up to 2.3 m
Bald Eagle: weight 10 - 14 pounds (4.5 - 6.5 kgZ); wingspan up to 2.3 m
Golden Eagle: 15 pounds (7 kg) wing span 7 feet/2 m
Harpy Eagle: up to 8 kg/18 pounds; wing span 2 m
Philipine Eagle: up to 7 kg; wingspan up to 2.4 m

Lammergeier/Bearded Vulture: 5-7.5 kg, (11-17 pounds), wingspan 2.5-2.8m

(extinct)Teratornis incredibilis/Aiornisornis incredibilis: wingspan 16 or 17 feet/ 5 m - largest flying North American bird

Eucalyptus Oil

"Australian production is from E. polybractea and E. radiata var. `Australiana', while almost all the cineole-type oil produced in other countries is from E. globulus ... The most commonly traded eucalyptus oil is that obtained from E. globulus. This oil is readily available because of large-scale planting of E. globulus primarily for wood. These trees now also produce oil in commercial quantities. Oil of more character is obtained from E. polybractea, which also gives better yields and is suitable for mechanical harvesting. The strong lignotuber developed by this species allows coppice growth to be harvested frequently—at about 18-month intervals. This growth can be harvested at ground level."

http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/eucalyptoil.html

Corrugated iron

"The first iron sheets made in Britain were rolled at the end of the 18th century for the recently introduced tinplate industry."

The corrugation of sheet iron increases the strength of the material significantly. It is claimed in Loudon’s (Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm
and Villa Architecture 1833) that “Walker of Rotherhithe” was the inventor of corrugated iron. However the first patent connected with corrugated iron was granted to Henry R Palmer of the London Docks, a London civil engineer, in 1829. Palmer did not claim as his invention the mode of forming sheets “the means of producing such forms being well known”. But he claimed originality for its application to roofs and walls.

http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/44/Corriron_dir/Corriron_s.htm

"The common term 'corrugated galvanised iron' is used to describe two different materials, galvanised wrought iron and galvanised mild steel. Until very late in the nineteenth century, all corrugated galvanised iron was made from wrought iron, but from 1890 to 1910 improved methods of steel making and processing led to the complete replacement of wrought iron by mild steel. "

"The strengthening effects of corrugating or crimping flat sheets have been known for centuries, but a successful technique for corrugating did not appear until the early 1840s. At first the grooves were produced by pressing and this method continued in use throughout the nineteenth century. Grooved rolls were in use by 1845, although the method of achieving uniformly corrugated sheets was not developed until much later."

http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/pages/pdfs/Roofing.pdf

Tylecote 1976 'A history of metallurgy' p133 states that 'The idea of stiffening iron sheet had been introduced by R. Walter of Rotherham in 1828, and hot
zinc dipping was patented in 1836. But does not give a date for the combination of the two to produce 'corrugated iron'.

http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9905&L=histarch&T=0&F=&S=&P=8240

"the now rare zinc coated wrought iron of the nineteenth century ... was replaced by mild steel from the 1890s. The ‘gal iron’ that became such an important part of the Australian vernacular is in fact galvanised corrugated steel."

"Today, however, the most popular and best-promoted corrugated roofing is Zincalume® ( (55% aluminium, 43% zinc and 1.6% silicon) or the factory coated version of Zincalume®, Colorbond®. These materials look and behave quite differently from traditional galvanised sheet. Galvanised sheet is still available today but is a rather different product from the hot dipped sheet produced up to the 1960s."

http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/page.asp?ID=183

Lycorine & Lillies, or Deadly Daffodils

aka Narciissine

Toxic crystalline alkaloid found in bulbs of family Amaryllidaceae including

Amaryllis belladona Naked Lady, Belladona Lily
Clivia miniata cCivia, Kaffir lily
Galanthus nivalis Snowdrops
Narcissus spp Daffodils & Jonquils,

Causes nausea vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, and sometimes death in humans and other animals.

From entry for Narcissus on www.botanical.com:

The bulbs of the Daffodil, as well as every other part of the plant are powerfully emetic, and the flowers are considered slightly poisonous, and have been known to have produced dangerous effects upon children who have swallowed portions of them.

The influence of Daffodil on the nervous system has led to giving its flowers and its bulb for hysterical affections and even epilepsy, with benefit.

A decoction of the dried flowers acts as an emetic, and has been considered useful for relieving the congestive bronchial catarrh of children, and also useful for epidemic dysentery.

In France, Narcissus flowers have been used as an antispasmodic.

The Arabians commended the oil to be applied for curing baldness and as an aphrodisiac.

An alkaloid was first isolated from the bulbs of N. pseudo-narcissus by Gerard in 1578, and obtained in a pure state as Narcissine by Guérin in 1910. The resting bulbs contain about 0.2 per cent and the flowering bulbs about 0.1 per cent. With cats, Narcissine causes nausea and purgation.

A case of poisoning by Daffodil bulbs, cooked by mistake in the place of leeks, was reported from Toulouse in 1923. The symptoms were acute abdominal pains and nausea, which yielded to an emetic.

The bulbs of N. poeticus (Linn.), the POET'S NARCISSUS, are more dangerous than those of the Daffodil, being powerfully emetic and irritant. The scent of the flowers is deleterious, if they are present in any quantity in a closed room, producing in some persons headache and even vomiting.

First Aid

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Portable Town

A portable town for Australia erected at Hemming's Patent Portable House Manufactory, Clift House, Bristol, showing the church and parsonage houses ordered to be sent out to the Bishop of Melbourne