... roger's seriously suffered medically advised hiatus from motorcycling ended sunday, we celebrated by taking a little ride over to the owls head transportation museum ... we arrived to the beginning of an excellent demonstration of a perfect reproduction of karl benz's "patent motorwagon," considered to be the world's first true function designed/built automobile (although, just to throw a bit of gum in the works, i'm not sure the credit shouldn't go to george sheldon, who, as near as i can determine, was denied the historical distinction for political/economic reasons) ...
... the modern fabrication is a machinist's dream, except for the internal workings of the coil and spark plugs a 100% accurate recreation of the original ...
... my favorite detail of the original design is the curved spokes of the flywheel, cleverly cast so that any heat expansion will be absorbed by the spokes rather than alter the curve of the weighted rim ...
... a curator let me walk into the hanger to examine up close the old aircraft engines ... my single-cylinder ('thumper") 650cc bmw rotex motorcycle engine produces almost as much horsepower as both of these 4-cylinder engines, yet is only one-half the weight of one of them ... on the other hand, a mechanic didn't need fancy tools and a computer to work on these machines ...
... there was an antique car show taking place at the museum ... i owned one of these ... mine was hard-topped and, from the size of the marker lamps, this one is a few years older than my 1972 model ... in my opinion, the classic vw is a vehicle at the same time both seriously under and over rated ...
... okay, simply, "be still, my heart" ... if i were rich i'd be tempted ...
... a replica of a world war i spad XIIIc.i ...
Courage is doing what you are afraid to do.
There can be no courage unless you are scared.
EDDIE RIKENBAKER
... a 1948 crossly station wagon, which was designed to be small enough that it could be displayed in furniture stores and then driven out the front doors after purchase ... with wartime rationing of gasoline the earlier versions of this car were quite popular because they could get over 50mpg ...
... i always enjoy the owls head transportation museum, and sharing a nice motorcycle ride in september is top of my list, too ...
... sunday evening john and i drove down to east boothbay to witness and photograph the lunar eclipse ... we arrived to a relatively balmy breeze and wonderfully clear skies over the peninsula ...
... sunday evening john and i drove down to east boothbay to witness and photograph the lunar eclipse ... we arrived to a relatively balmy breeze and wonderfully clear skies over the peninsula ...
... for photographing the moon john let me use his "classic" [well over twenty-five years old] tamron 500mm sp catadioptric [mirror] telephoto ...
... taken as the eclipse was beginning, first exposure was typical for a full moon, iso 200 at 1/500th second ... as the moon had almost fully entered the earth's shadow, however, things became much more difficult ... the was so little illumination that this exposure was 1/10th second at iso 1,600 ... where's the hubble telescope when you need it ... ??? ...
... the darkness, however, inspired me to move down to the edge of the sea for a better vantage of the milky way ...
... after the shared experience, of course, but much more than the picture taking, my favorite part of the evening was watching john invite others to come over to view the heavens through his giant telescope ... to my teacher ears the "oohs" and "ahhs" were sheer music ...
The intellect of the wise is like glass;
it admits the light of heaven and reflects it.
AUGUSTUS HARE