Monday, 4 May 2009
The Eighth Day -Hazel O'Connor
From the 1980 movie, Breaking Glass
In the beginning was the word,
man said: Let there be more light
Electric scenes and maser beams,
neon brights the light
abhorring nights
On the second day he said:
Let's have a gas
Hydrogen and cholera and pest
Let's make some germs, we'll poison the worms
Man will never be suppressed
And he said: Behold what I have done
I've made a better world for everyone
Nobody laugh, nobody cry
World without end, forever and ever
Amen, amen, amen
On the third we get green and blue for pie
On the fourth we send rockets to the sky
On the fifth make the beasts and submarines
On the sixth man prepares his final dream:
In our image, let's make robots for our slaves
Imagine all the time that we can save
Computers, machines, the silicon dream
Seventh he retired from the scene
And he said: Behold what I have done
I've made a better world for everyone
Nobody laugh, nobody cry
World without end, forever and ever
Amen (amen), amen (amen), amen (amen)
On the eighth day machine just got upset
A problem man had never seen as yet
No time for flight, a blinding light
And nothing but a void, forever night
He said: Behold what man has done
There's not a world for anyone
Nobody laughed, nobody cried
World's at an end, everyone has died
Forever amen (amen), amen (amen), amen (amen)
He said: Behold what man has done
There's not a world for anyone
Nobody laughed, nobody cried
World's at an end, everyone has died
Forever amen (amen), amen (amen), amen (amen)
Amen
Thursday, 30 April 2009
More Tractors....
"Dave Mows Grass said... Just show me an old 8N Ford. I've never been into all that kinky stuff."
Well, Dave, the above pic is a Ford 8N.
The below pic is a Ferguson.
Well, Dave, the above pic is a Ford 8N.
The below pic is a Ferguson.
Spot the difference.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Tractor Porn
Following from a comment made under my Found in the Hedge post, here's some tractor porn on open display in the little North Yorkshire town of Helmsley. A polite enough place in most seasons, but under that civilised surface surges swollen throbbing diesel lust, if this newsagent's window is to be believed.
More porn below:-
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Found in the Hedge
The tractor is a Massey Ferguson Te 35, with the four cylinder Standard petrol (gasoline) engine.
Harry Ferguson was born in 1884, in Ireland, he was always interested in things mechanical, in 1909, when he was seventeen years old, he persuaded his brother to join him in building an aeroplane. Only six years after the Wright brothers made their first flight in an ungainly biplane, Harry Ferguson made his first flight in a monoplane he designed and built.
In 1911, he opened his garage, May Street Motors, amongst the things he sold were tractors, he designed a new plough...
In a few years he was hard at work on another problem. Ploughs which hit rocks in the earth tended to cause the tractor to rear-up, and tip, injuries and deaths were a common result. Harry figured out a new way of attaching implements, which meant that an obstacle would no longer result in the front wheels lifting, rather, they would press down. The Ferguson three-point linkage gradually became a standard on all agricultural equipment, it still is the concept behind modern machinery.
Harry designed his own tractor, which he manufactured in north America in Dearborn, in partnership with Ford. The partnership ended in acrimony, when Henry Ford II abruptly reneged on his father's handshake gentleman's agreement with Harry. Harry sued Ford for $251 million, and won. The court settlement left Harry in a position to build another factory in Detroit, and compete with Ford, and at the Standard works in Coventry, England, he built the "Little Grey Fergie", which was so popular across the world that ford called it "The Grey Menace". Slightly modified Fergies transported Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition to the south pole.
The company bought Massey, a competitor, and the grey Fergie mutated into the Massey Ferguson 35.
This one will be from about 1962. I remember the old chap who had the farm driving it up the village street. In the mid eighties, I used to buy milk from him, there was a sigh by the roadside, and I had my pottery a hundred yards away, so I'd go buy a pint of milk fresh from the farm. Sometime in the early nineties, he was taken ill, had to cease farming, and his tractor has been there, where he left it on his last night, ever since.
I'd be tempted to try find his sons and buy it, but I have enough toys already. The plough is still on it... I bet it would not take too much effort to get it going again.
As an aside, it was Harry who inadvertently created plastic model kits, of the sort that I spent so many years as a kid, glueing and painting.
"In the late 1940s Airfix was approached by Harry Ferguson (the tractor manufacturer) to make a cheap model of one of his tractors that could be used by his sales team as a promotional tool. At first there were problems making the model, so it was decided to make it in a series of parts then to be assembled by a team of skilled workers.
This ready-built tractor proved to be popular and Ferguson allowed Airfix to produce them as toys and sell them under the Airfix name. It soon became obvious that more tractors could be sold if they were cheaper, and to achieve this they sold the kits unmade with instructions. This proved to be successful and shortly after Woolworths approached Airfix suggesting that by using a more stable polystyrene plastic and poly bags with a card header, it would meet the Woolworths retail price of 2 shillings. The small scale Golden Hind was launched in 1952. Woolworths buyers than began to ask for more subjects, then soon after Airfix began to produced a wider range of polybagged model kits – the all famous Spitfire model appearing from 1953." From the Airfix Kits website.
More info from Wikipedia.
In 1911, he opened his garage, May Street Motors, amongst the things he sold were tractors, he designed a new plough...
In a few years he was hard at work on another problem. Ploughs which hit rocks in the earth tended to cause the tractor to rear-up, and tip, injuries and deaths were a common result. Harry figured out a new way of attaching implements, which meant that an obstacle would no longer result in the front wheels lifting, rather, they would press down. The Ferguson three-point linkage gradually became a standard on all agricultural equipment, it still is the concept behind modern machinery.
Harry designed his own tractor, which he manufactured in north America in Dearborn, in partnership with Ford. The partnership ended in acrimony, when Henry Ford II abruptly reneged on his father's handshake gentleman's agreement with Harry. Harry sued Ford for $251 million, and won. The court settlement left Harry in a position to build another factory in Detroit, and compete with Ford, and at the Standard works in Coventry, England, he built the "Little Grey Fergie", which was so popular across the world that ford called it "The Grey Menace". Slightly modified Fergies transported Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition to the south pole.
The company bought Massey, a competitor, and the grey Fergie mutated into the Massey Ferguson 35.
This one will be from about 1962. I remember the old chap who had the farm driving it up the village street. In the mid eighties, I used to buy milk from him, there was a sigh by the roadside, and I had my pottery a hundred yards away, so I'd go buy a pint of milk fresh from the farm. Sometime in the early nineties, he was taken ill, had to cease farming, and his tractor has been there, where he left it on his last night, ever since.
I'd be tempted to try find his sons and buy it, but I have enough toys already. The plough is still on it... I bet it would not take too much effort to get it going again.
As an aside, it was Harry who inadvertently created plastic model kits, of the sort that I spent so many years as a kid, glueing and painting.
"In the late 1940s Airfix was approached by Harry Ferguson (the tractor manufacturer) to make a cheap model of one of his tractors that could be used by his sales team as a promotional tool. At first there were problems making the model, so it was decided to make it in a series of parts then to be assembled by a team of skilled workers.
This ready-built tractor proved to be popular and Ferguson allowed Airfix to produce them as toys and sell them under the Airfix name. It soon became obvious that more tractors could be sold if they were cheaper, and to achieve this they sold the kits unmade with instructions. This proved to be successful and shortly after Woolworths approached Airfix suggesting that by using a more stable polystyrene plastic and poly bags with a card header, it would meet the Woolworths retail price of 2 shillings. The small scale Golden Hind was launched in 1952. Woolworths buyers than began to ask for more subjects, then soon after Airfix began to produced a wider range of polybagged model kits – the all famous Spitfire model appearing from 1953." From the Airfix Kits website.
More info from Wikipedia.
Where Have I been Recently?
My ancestors came from these dales. I feel at home up there, some people say it's bleak, but I'd say it's glorious, to watch sun and shadow pass over the hillsides, see the grouse fly up from the heather at your feet,
Cajun Squirrel Flavour, Anybody?
Or Chili and Chocolate, or, or...
Crisps, people, potato CRISPS.
You Americans call them "chips".
They are not chips. Chips are long and square in cross section. You call them French fries. They are not french. And they are not the pathetic thin sticks Macdonalds serve.
I've tried the Duck and Hoi-sin sauce ones, meh. Likewise the Onion Bhaji. I might try the builders breakfast ones. I'm not exactly yearning to sample Cajun Squirrel. Might as well label it "Roadkill Crisps"... Note however the word "flavour" (yes, by the way, there is a "u" in flavour).. It does not claim to actually contain cajun squirrel, just its flavour.
My favourite crisps are potato flavoured.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Michelin's Tweel
Michelin. the company which first made pneumatic tyres for automobiles in 1896, is working on the next generation of tyres/wheels. They are making a combined device called a "Tweel". Tweels are non-pneumatic, and puncture proof. They have no sidewalls, just an integral, bonded-in rubber spoke-like structure, which can deform on impact.
They're not quite ready for sustained highway speeds yet, but are apparently fully functional as earthmover and forklift tyres. More significant kudos for the company came when Nasa announced tweels would be used on the new lunar rover.
They're not the only company doing this. Resilient Technologies are working on a similar concept for military use.
Also Crocodile Tyres in Australia make airless tyres for mining, demolition, and building equipment.
Crocodile Tyres
Now this is more my style.....
They're not quite ready for sustained highway speeds yet, but are apparently fully functional as earthmover and forklift tyres. More significant kudos for the company came when Nasa announced tweels would be used on the new lunar rover.
They're not the only company doing this. Resilient Technologies are working on a similar concept for military use.
Also Crocodile Tyres in Australia make airless tyres for mining, demolition, and building equipment.
Crocodile Tyres
How new is the idea? Here's a picture from the long-gone past.
(between 1910 and 1920)
(between 1910 and 1920)
Now this is more my style.....
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