Jamcleat » travel

Little Ferries

cbcalvin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:42:45 +0000

While surfing for something totally unrelated I came across the end-of-season notice for the Ironton Michigan cable ferry. Plan on going through Charlevoix or East Jordan until next April. Little ferries are so much fun. When we lived in Connecticut the Chester-Hadlyme ferry with picnic at Gillette Castle or a morning of berry picking and a ride on Rocky Hill-Glastonbury ferry were a short drive away for an afternoon of cheap boating.

Veneer Mill

cbcalvin — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:50:00 +0000

Veneer Mill

Steam Mill Engine

Labor Day weekend is a big one in Dacusville, SC. Saturday and Sunday were the Dacusville Farm Days. This event has been going on on Labor Day for quite a number of years. A combination of tractor and engine show, crafts, traders, music, and fun. When Phillip and I went last year, we got there too late and missed the veneer mill. While we did see the sawmill operating, Phillip really wanted to see the veneer mill. I checked the on-line schedule and suggested that we get there by mid morning.

We got to the site on Pace Bridge Road right on schedule. The sawmill start was running late and the veneer was scheduled after that. While we were waiting for the mills to run, we got some pictures of the steam mill engine and it’s boiler, a shingle sawmill run from a tractor PTO belt, and more tractors than you can shake a bundle of sticks at.

Both the sawmill and the veneer mill are in separate sheds, each powered by its own large single cylinder diesel engine. The flywheels on the engines are about 6 feet in diameter. Since we got there early, we got to see the diesels started. First a pot-engine drives an air compressor to fill the receiver to 9.5 kg/cm2 (135psi). While this is going on, the starting team opens the cylinder head valve and moves the piston to top-dead-center by using a long metal bar engaged in holes in the flywheel to pull the flywheel around. Next the compression valve is closed and a plug on the cylinder-head is removed. Starting fluid is poured in and the plug replaced. When the air pressure is as required, a valve is opened and the fly is turned by compressed. Once the flywheel is turning, the engine begins to ignite fuel and white smoke pours out gradually becoming clearer as the engine begins to heat up. Once the engine is warmed up, a clutch is engaged to turn the line-shaft. Belts are checked. Everything is good. The engine is brought to operating speed and everything is now moving.

The saw mill consists of a carriage and circular saw. As the log is sawed, the slabs are take off the back and brought to and edge-saw table that makes a rough plank by trimming both edges as the slab is conveyed through the edge-saw. Lumber is taken of the back and stacked.

The veneer mill has a similar diesel engine. The veneer mill itself consists of a cast-iron frame with the log to be worked suspended by two long screw-jacks with face-plates that support and turn the log. the log is scored so that each turn produces two pieces. The jacks are turned by a large 2 m (6 ft) reduction gear. The horizontal veneer knife is held in a heavy cast-iron frame that is moved by a ratchet a little bit at a time into the log. Two men catch the veneers as they come off, roll them and hand them to spectators.

Threshers and threshing machine

After watching sawing and veneer, we had some lunch. We looked for a friend who restores small engines and shows them at shows like this but he had already packed up by the time we were wandering around. After watching the blacksmith and the Parade of Power, we departed. Near the exit, we realized that we had just missed the threshing of about 25 bushels of wheat. Maybe next year.

Middle

cbcalvin — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:26:39 +0000

Who? What? When? Why? Where? How? Those were the questions I was taught to ask on every doubt. I had the good luck to attend the only college with a basketball court size map of the 48 states of USA. I haven’t been back for years but I understand that the space has been re-purposed. Lacking the balcony view of the curve of earth (Who needs that now with Google Earth). And lights that light up (if they were working) of the selected cities on the switch boxes. At least the Babson Globe has been restored.
I was addicted to maps long before that and still. The INTERNET can provide.
Now (when it may be vital to establish jurisdiction) I discover that my (unnamed) INTERNET provider not only mis-locates me but makes my locus a place which differs from the center determined by measurement.
Potwin, KS may be a rounding error.
Eureka, KS may be a closer center.
If you don’t know what a theodolite is please check your reply a couple of times.

Attention Air Travelers!

cbcalvin — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:27:59 +0000

I do not know about you but twice a year I go to the dentist office for a cleaning. ONCE per year they take an x-ray. The sign on the wall says “If your are pregnant or think you might be…”. I am a guy so the chances are extremely unlikely but I take it to mean that even that small amount of x-ray energy necessary to penetrate my teeth and expose a sensitive film (now an electronic detector) may cause harm to a fetus, even if I were wearing a lead apron. I suspect that the TSA will not provide a lead apron to any individual.
Oh, did I mention that instead of x-rays, you my be subjected to microwave energy. While you may have a microwave oven in your kitchen, it was specifically designed so that if any leakage could expose you to microwave energy, it would fail to operate. In the late ’60′s, an article in Popular Science claimed that allowable microwave dosages in the USA were 100 times those allowed the USSR. I admit: I have not followed up on the current regulations or research.
Or you can take the physical search.
You choose.

Recent Activity

cbcalvin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:47:04 +0000

I went to Florida to visit my dad. I took some pictures while I was there and put them up on www.wunderground.com. I also put some new pictures up on Flickr.
But one of the best things about the trip was a show of textiles and art created by the indigenous people of Mexico, Central America, and Columbia. The show at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, located on the campus of Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, is entitled Fabric of Live: Textiles of Latin America through December 18th. Admission is free but donations are accepted. The gift counter has cards with photographs and a booklet about the show. A half-hour documentary video is available to discuss the issues of changing ways and loss of traditional techniques.

The FIT campus (link opens pdf map) also has a botanical garden with many plants typical of Central and Coastal Florida. An interesting walk.

Limited parking in the lot closest to the Library (North lot off Babcock) for visitors.

Mexican Yarn Painting

Forbidden Fruit II

cbcalvin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:50:25 +0000

I do not claim any understanding of Nelder-Mead or anything like it, also called a downhill method of finding a minimum for a system of equations, which, if you keep up with these things, may be old news. But consider the possibility of the inverse, nearing the summit realizing that whatever your strategy and method, the climb has led you up the wrong peak. Or more to the point, in the valley, you cannot realize or see that the adjacent (or some very distant) valley is lower but not chosen because the initial solution set off in the wrong direction. The desired goal is now distant. Maybe in Step n, there could be a global check for other minima. Or maybe this accomplishes that trick.

Portland Oregon Geologic Field Trip

cbcalvin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:21:51 +0000

While looking for information on “splines”, I stumbled over an interesting article in the Community Resources section of the Resources Tab for the Geology Department of Portland State University. The pdf file is a Self-guided tour of Portland, Oregon’s geology. This field trip provides an introduction to the geology of the Portland, Oregon, area. Five field trip stops, all accessible by public transportation and walks of easy to moderate difficulty, provide opportunities to see outcrops of Columbia River Basalt, Troutdale Formation, Boring volcanic field flow and vents, Portland Hills Silt, and a small landslide. I have never had a chance to visit the Northwest but might like to some day. This paper is an exciting chance to visit the neighborhood of Mt. St. Helens vicariously. And a way to spend a day or two out and about in the Portland area.

Also exciting is the description of the floods in the Portland area on 20-15 thousand years ago. Water levels 150m higher than current sea level! What short memories humans have. Maybe the geologists should buy the climatologists a cup of coffee and fill them in on life on earth.

Tennessee Travel

cbcalvin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:46:23 +0000

A friend at work loaned me the book that I am reading now. A Geologic Trip Across Tennessee by Interstate 40 by Harry L. Moore. This is part of the Outdoor Tennessee Series. This book appears to still be available and if you are a travel, outdoor, hiking, geology, or history buff in the southeast, you might enjoy this book. I happen to like geology and hiking. While I am not fond of driving, I like to know the trerrain I am driving through. If you are travelling through Tennessee and looking out the window, this book will give you a good idea of things to watch for in the landscape and as you look at the ground underneath you.

Seven Chinese Brothers

cbcalvin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:26:49 +0000

Heard this song from REM on World Cafe. Had a flashback to the the library hour when the librarian read Five Chinese Brothers, a similar story, aloud to the gathered children including me. We read it to our kids. Younger folk may have heard the Seven Chinese Brothers with watercolor illustrations. If we recognize the talents of all of our neighbors and brothers, it will help us all to achieve our maximimum,

Honduras

cbcalvin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:45:26 +0000

From various sources that I have seen, there was no coup in Honduras, rather an orderly execution of legal proceedings to enforce existing law. Honduras, having put up with dictators who cannot let go (Samoza family), put a clause in its Constitution that presidents serve 1 term. If the president tries to change the law, he is out. It is in the constitution. Former president Manuel Zelaya tried to have a referendum to change the law. When the referendum was was ruled unconstitutional, he was going to hold the vote anyway as a “non-binding” referendum. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled that the former president was trying to change the law and was therefore to be removed from office. He was removed. Previously scheduled presidential elections to follow.

The Obama administration seems kind of thick here. They lifted the visa of the Honduran Supreme Court Justice that signed the removal warrant along with the visas of a couple of others. President Obama may be on the wrong side of of the rule of law. Perhaps the President is getting bad advice from a poor lawyer on his staff. Perhaps that someone needs to be in private practice instead of messing up the hemisphere.