The Muskegon Streetcar Riot of 1919

The Muskegon Traction Company raised the ride fare by 1 cent in August of 1919, it began a riot that lasted through the night, destroying streetcars and causing chaos in the city.

Workers refused to pay more than 6 cents per fare ($1.06 in 2023 dollars).

[More here. h/t Pam M.]

1965 NASA PDAD Robot

The ‘Power Driven Articulated Dummy’ project was under Contract No. NAS 9-1370 and ran from May 22, 1963 through July 31, 1965. It was originally built for Nasa’s Manned Spacecraft Center by the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The reason for a test dummy was officials hoped to use it during design and testing of a spacesuits, which might otherwise be painful, tedious or even dangerous for human beings.

The 1965 robot was able to simulate 35 basic human motions and used sensors to gather data on how the human body acted in a pressurized suit – but it never made it off the ground due to its tendency to leak oil.

Only two of these robots were created, the one selling for $80,000 and another that is owned by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

[Found here; story with video here. More robot stuff here.]

WWI U.S. Tank “America”

Original caption:
American-built tank “America”, designed by Professor E.F. Miller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Photographed in July of 1918.

[Un-colorized image found in this collection.]

Not Forgotten.

D-DAY 6 JUNE 1944

May 4 1970 – Kent State University

Top: Steel plate sculpture in front of Taylor Hall, purported bullet hole visible.
Bottom:  Taylor Hall, colorized via https://palette.fm/ . Sculpture was on opposite side of building, now demolished.

[Previous Kent State posts here.]

 

The Bloonship

The Blimp, Captain Beefheart (1969)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (15 January 1929 – 4 April 1968)

“And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence. And I am still convinced that it is the most potent weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for justice in this country. And the other thing is that I am concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice. I’m concerned about brotherhood. I’m concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about these, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer but you can’t murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Atlanta, Georgia
16 August 1967

[Image source: Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story (1958). Excerpted quote found here.]

Veterans Day – An Interview with a Vietnam Green Beret

Green Beret David Christian was unquestionably a war hero in the Vietnam war and as he says, fought valiantly on behalf of the USA. My team and I conducted more than 200 interviews in 1989 from people who had lived through the 1960s and had strong feelings about what they had witnessed and lived through, not only during the war, but in the 1950s growing up and in the time since that war has ended. David Christian was wounded 7 times receiving 7 purple hearts as well as the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism. When he returned from the war, he worked as he does today, to help Vietnam veterans. Bill Ehrhardt, who presents his story in my very popular video clip, “Magnificent Storyteller Soldier” shared his personal experience. Many of my subscribers have reacted to it. I feel that David Christian is an equally powerful storyteller whose war perceptions and experiences were quite different. In this video he reflects on his early upbringing in the 1950s, his Catholicism, his powerful relationship with his mother, his experiences with college protesters in the antiwar movement, his return to America and his battles to help his fellow veterans deal with PTSD, job opportunities and other issues that they have confronted. His story evolves during the interview as he expresses more and more deeply, how he felt and what he saw and how he dealt with it. – Filmmaker David Hoffman

Update: David Christian’s Distinguished Service Cross citation is here.
[h/t Dan Patterson.]

Sound Mirror

Sound mirror, Abbott’s Cliff, England, 1928

Sound or acoustic mirrors were one of the first early warning detection systems invented to give advanced notice of an approaching enemy aircraft. These worked by focusing the sound from the plane’s engine so it could be heard before it was visible.

Sound mirrors worked using a curved surface to concentrate sound waves into a central point, which were picked up by a sound collector and later by microphones. An operator using a stethoscope would be stationed near the sound mirror, and would need specialist training in identifying different sounds. Distinguishing the complexity of sound was so difficult that the operators could only listen for around 40 minutes.

[Image found here. Caption and more here.]

La Historia del Juego de Golf

 

GOLF

The origin of this sport is from India where it was played with hollow balls that were thrown by some players at others by means of wooden clubs. This game was adopted in England, which introduced many modifications, and has been played since the end of the 19th century in almost the entire world.The French claim that it originates from a similar game that was played in France in the fourteenth century, with the Italians, Dutch and us Spaniards also claiming its paternity.

______________________

“TERMOSAN PENCIL”
Against Pain, Shock and Congestion
Modern solid embrocation. Does not take up space. Not stain. Decongests without irritating. No bad smell, it is not fragile and it is applied as it is presented.
Large tube, 4.45 ptas. Small tube, 3 ptas.
J. BARGUÑO ~ BARCELONA


Cha toil leis na h-Albannaich an dreach sin de dh’eachdraidh.

[1920s Spanish trading card found in here.]