This page simply reformats the Flickr public Atom feed for purposes of finding inspiration through random exploration. These images are not being copied or stored in any way by this website, nor are any links to them or any metadata about them. All images are © their owners unless otherwise specified.
This site is a busybee project and is supported by the generosity of viewers like you.
The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Putney, London S.W. using a ½d. stamp on Wednesday the 18th. August 1909. It was sent to:
Monsieur et Madame Léon Dufour,
Chez Monsieur Richaud,
Rue Saint Savournin 15,
Marseille,
Bouches du Rhône,
France.
The Embossing of Postcards
Features of London surrounding the colourised image have been embossed so that they are slightly higher than the rest of the card.
Most embossed postcards were created by the process of pressing moulded die forms into a flat sheet of card in order to create a design in relief.
Two die forms were usually employed in embossing; a bas-relief die (male) which is placed on the press bed to push the design upwards, while the mould-like die (female) applies pressure to the paper from above. The female die is sometimes heated to help recast the card around the male die.
Since it is more difficult to align paper over an irregular die, pins were often used for precise registration, but they left small holes behind in the image.
Printing always preceded embossing, as a flat surface was needed for the proper transfer of ink from plate to paper, and the pressure from printing would most likely flatten any embossing.
Embossing was used on novelty postcards, and was also a common ingredient on illustrated greeting cards as well. While rare, there are some photo-based view-cards that were also embossed.
When embossing created a very uneven surface that made it difficult to write on, another sheet of pre-printed paper was sometimes glued to their backs.
Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra's Needle is the popular name for each of a pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks re-erected in London and New York City in 1877 and 1881 respectively. The removal of the obelisks from Egypt was presided over by Isma'il Pasha, who had greatly indebted the Khedivate of Egypt during its rapid modernisation.
The London and New York needles were originally made in Heliopolis (modern Cairo) during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III.
More than 1,000 years later they were moved to the new Caesareum of Alexandria, which had been conceived by Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. They stood in Alexandria for almost two millennia.
On the 4th. September 1917, during the Great War, a bomb from a German air raid landed near the needle. In commemoration of this event, the damage remains unrepaired to this day, and is clearly visible in the form of shrapnel holes and gouges on the right-hand of the two sphinxes guarding the needle.
-- More on Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra's Needle was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan, Muhammad Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.
Although the British government welcomed the gesture, it declined to pay to move the obelisk to London.
-- -- Transportation of the London Needle
The obelisk remained in Alexandria for 58 years until 1877, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished anatomist and dermatologist, sponsored its transportation to London from Alexandria at a cost of some £10,000 (equivalent to over £1,000,000 in 2020).
It was dug out of the sand in which it had been buried for nearly 2,000 years, and was encased in a great iron cylinder, 92 feet (28 metres) long and 16 feet (4.9 metres) in diameter. It was built at the Thames Iron Works, shipped to Alexandria in separate pieces, and built around the obelisk.
The cylinder, named the Cleopatra, had a vertical stem and stern, a rudder, two bilge keels, a mast for balancing sails, and a deck house. It acted as a floating pontoon which was to be towed to London by the ship Olga.
The effort almost met with disaster on the 14th. October 1877, in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, when Cleopatra began wildly rolling, and became uncontrollable. The Olga sent out a rescue boat with six volunteers, but the boat capsized, and all six crew were lost – they are named on a bronze plaque attached to the foot of the needle's mounting stone.
Captain Booth of the Olga eventually managed to get his ship next to Cleopatra and rescued the six men on board it. Booth reported the Cleopatra "abandoned and sinking", but she stayed afloat, drifting in the Bay, until found four days later by Spanish trawler boats.
Cleopatra was then rescued by the Glasgow steamer Fitzmaurice and taken to Ferrol in Spain for repairs. The Master of the Fitzmaurice lodged a salvage claim of £5,000 which had to be settled before departure from Ferrol, but it was negotiated down and settled for £2,000.
The paddle tug Anglia, under the command of Captain David Glue, was then commissioned to tow the Cleopatra back to the Thames. Upon their arrival in the estuary on the 21st. January 1878, the school children of Gravesend were given the day off.
In the same year, Elbert E. Farman, the then-United States Consul General in Cairo secured the other needle for the United States – the needle was transported by Henry Honychurch Gorringe. It was placed in Central Park just outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Both Wilson and Gorringe published books commemorating the transportation of the Needles: Wilson wrote 'Cleopatra's Needle: With Brief Notes on Egypt and Egyptian Obelisks' (1877), and Gorringe wrote 'Egyptian Obelisks' (1885).
-- -- The Location of the London Needle
A wooden model of the obelisk had previously been placed outside the Houses of Parliament, but the location had been rejected, so the London needle was finally erected on the Victoria Embankment, which had been built a few years earlier in 1870, on the 12th. September 1878.
A Patent Infringement
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 18th. August 1909, inventors Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright sued Glenn Curtiss and the Herring-Curtiss Company.
They alleged that Curtiss's aileron system infringed their patent for warping airplane wings to control the plane.
The court ruled in favor of the Wrights in December. One historian has observed that:
"The Wrights did almost as much
to set aviation back as they had
done to bring it forward".
Arlie Latham
Also on that day, Arlie Latham, 49, became the oldest major league baseball player to steal a base, a record that still stands more than 100 years later. Latham's Giants beat the Phillies 14–1.
The most extraordinary arrival, and an operator I had never seen here before, even in the good days, was TS Lewis from deepest west Wales, just inland from Cardigan Bay. Unusually, he went into the drop-off zone, rather than the main parking area, so I ran over to check that it wasn't actually a new arrival with someone local - it wasn't, but he was dropping off his party of brightly-dressed ladies, and going straight back home !
The driver told me that they were being picked up again on Monday, but as none of them were carrying any overnight bags or the like, he must have dropped them at a nearby hotel first, got them checked in, then brought them round here - they can't have been winging it for two days in Haydock !
So he put it in the sun as best he could before setting off for home again. Underneath the Plaxton Leopard 57-seat body is a Volvo B8R, new in 2019 as YX19 MKP, and it is still in the basic livery of first owner Brodyr James of Llangeitho, from whom Lewis acquired it when they had their licence revoked in 2023.
Haydock Park racecourse, 23/5/26
Music: One too many mornings, Chemical Brothers: youtu.be/wA-FVMPg49I?si=iqRbRR8ejGoQJt1P
5/19/26 Two brothers hugging at DUMBO. Nikon Zf. Nikkor Z 40mm 1:2.
www.instagram.com/dtanist/
The Postcard
A postcard that was published by the Lansdowne Publishing Co. Ltd. of London. The image is a glossy real photograph.
The card was posted in Torquay using a 2d. stamp on Tuesday the 21st. June 1960. It was sent to:
Mr. & Mrs. Vine,
Bridge House,
Holloway Road,
Heybridge,
Nr. Maldon,
Essex.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear P & C,
Having a lovely time -
have just arrived at
Torquay for lunch and
then we have 4 hours
to look around.
The weather is
wonderful.
Love from
Ruby & Mark."
A Major Oil Discovery
So what else happened on the day that Ruby and Mark posted the card?
Well, on the 21st. June 1960, a major oil discovery was made in the Tyumen Oblast of the Soviet Union, heralding the beginning of western Siberian production on a large scale.
Starting in 1964, petroleum from the Shaim Oil Field was shipped on the Irtysh River to a refinery in Omsk.
A New Athletics Record
Also on that day, Armin Hary of West Germany became the first man to run 100 meters in 10.0 seconds.
He was competing in an event in Zürich, Switzerland.
The judges were so shocked, they said it must have been a false start. Hary was allowed a repeat run, and 35 minutes later ran another 10.0 seconds.
Hary was the first non-American to win the event since Percy Williams of Canada took the gold medal in 1928. He was the only German to ever win the event in the history of the Olympics, and the last white man to establish a world record in the 100 meters dash.
That same year, at the 1960 Olympics, Hary achieved his greatest moment of fame. After a nerve-wracking number of near-starts, the six men finally came off the mark together, but within two strides Hary had accelerated to a half-meter lead.
By the 50-meter mark, Hary had opened up a two-meter gap. Towards the finish, Duke’s Dave Sime started closing in, but Hary sprinted to the gold medal in the 100 m dash with a time of 10.2 seconds, completing the finest exhibition of sprinting in Olympic history.
-- The Thief of Starts
Due to his reaction time and quick acceleration out of the blocks, Hary was often accused of jumping or anticipating the gun. Considered the fastest starter in the world, Hary was tested for his quick reaction time, and it was discovered that he had extraordinary reflexes.
With the help of high-speed photography, Armin Hary’s quick start sequence has been well documented and studied.
Long believed to be physiologically impossible, Hary’s reaction time was recorded at 0.04 seconds compared to the average of 0.132 seconds.
The new IAAF false start rule of 0.100 is based on the fact that no human besides Hary has ever been able to react faster to the sound of the gun.
His iconic starts have earned him the nickname “Thief of Starts” from the term “Thief of Hearts”.
-- Rival Sponsors
Armin was also the first track star to be affected by the rivalry between Adidas and Puma; each of the two then-fledgling companies wanted the "world's fastest man" to wear its shoes at the 1960 Olympics, putting him right in the middle of the Dassler brothers feud.
During the companies' expensive bidding war for the most famous athlete in the world, Hary realised that neither company had an exclusivity clause in their contract, so without telling the other, he signed with both.
Armin wore Puma spikes on the track in his 100 meter final and Adidas shoes on the victory stand when receiving his gold medal.
-- Armin Hary's Personal Life
In 1966 Armin married Christina Diana H. Bagusat, heiress to the Bagusat fortune, with whom he has two children, a son Armin jr. and a daughter Diana.
Hary also has a daughter with acclaimed actress Helga Charlotte Tolle.
In the early 1960's Hary was forced to retire from sprinting after suffering serious injuries in a car accident.
London, Ontario
December - unknown year (between 1985 - 1999)
Journal:
This is from my Dad's collection of photos.
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
Photo by the late great Alan Wood
G-MLLR
Please click HERE for more images from the event . All Rights Reserved © Paul Beale Photography
Please Contact Me if you wish to use any of the photographs.
