Zeppelins, inside

Plans of Graf Zeppelin

Interior of gondola

Photos including interiors of Graf Zeppelin & Hindenburg

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(?).