The Niagara Suspension Bridge Shell

I found this interesting shell about 25 years ago in Burtonsville, Md. while working as an assistant to a surveyor. I would compute the formulas in the field in order to get a quick “traverse” of the properties we surveyed. This was before the computer stuff took over. I was good at it due to my experience as a Quartermaster in the Navy and later as a Navigators Assistant while serving as Third Mate in the Merchant Marine.

Anyway, there was an old mobile home on one property and I went in to look around; maybe see what treasures might have been left behind; expecting nothing. I found this in the kitchen area and it evoked in me the scene from “Grapes of Wrath” where Jane Darwell is going through her old memory chest and finds the pin from the St. Louis Exposition of 1903. It must have meant a great deal to someone a long time ago.

At the time internet was still in its infancy and I couldn't find out too much about this bridge, which of course was long gone. While reading a book today I came across an item mentioning that James Roebling had built a suspension bridge over the Niagara in 1855. I Googled it and came up with a wonderful Wikipedia article on it. I wondered where the shell was and happily found it in our china closet, way in the rear where it could not be seen.

 

The bridge was taken down in 1897 which finally gives me an age for the shell. It is from the 1890’s or older. And the illustration is so much like the one etched in the shell that I wanted to share it. For more on this brige and it’s remarkable history hit the link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls_Suspension_Bridge

Meantime the shell is now out of the closet so to speak, and occupies a prominent place on the piano.

The Old Clock - 1927 Seth Thomas

This is the 1927 Seth Thomas S 86 mantle clock which Sue picked up a few weeks ago at a yard sale. She paid 50 cents for it. One main spring is over wound; or sprung; and the pendulum disc is missing. The two items will cost about $150 to repair/replace. However, there is the remote possibility that it will need a complete overhaul, which would bring the cost to $400. That probably won’t happen; as in “I’m not willing to spend that much.”

No matter, the clock is a Westminster type; which means it strikes on the quarter hour; or every 15 minutes. Twice at 15 minutes past; 4 times at half past; and 6 times at a quarter to the hour. On the hour it strikes the appropriate amount of times for the time indicated. It’s a wonderfully soothing sound.

Each of the people I called about repairing the clock mentioned that it may “not be worth fixing”. The funny thing is that they each then offered to “take it off my hands” for a small amount of cash. No way. This is a keeper.

My great Aunt Katherine had several of these clocks; only older; in her brownstone in Park Slope when I was growing up. I took 2 of them home when she passed away in 1965. My father refinished one and we both tinkered with the “works.” We actually had that clock running for many years. Decades later, after it had stopped working, I foolishly sold it. Not so with this one.

Time has a funny way of restoring to you all the things which you have lost. And when you can recover something which was once so dear to you, it becomes twice as dear for the time lost. So it is with this clock. This clock will never be sold; we will be spending the rest of our respective time together.

The Big Gun - Rock Hill, S.C.

Sue and I have passed by an old abandoned American Legion Post in Rock Hill several times now. Each time we do I always mean to get out and have a closer look at the Vickers 6551-A anti-aircraft gun that sits outside of the old brick building. There are literally hundreds of such guns, cannons and the like displayed at the thousands of VFW’s and American Legions across the country. And I have always been fascinated with each and every one.

This one was most likely assembled from an original pre-war Vickers, and then outfitted with an automatic fuse igniter at a later date. The nameplates; or nomenclature; on the gun bear me out as far as the dates are concerned. The gun was manufactured in the opening years of the war, and then refitted in 1943. The latest plate affixed to the weapon bears the year 1943.

Most likely this gun came from duty on the Carolina coast after the War had ended. It probably did see some action, as the U-boats were only 10 miles off shore and sinking ships off Cape Hatteras on a regular basis at the time. These guns could fire at surface vessels as well as aircraft. 

When the war ended and the government found itself with a surfeit of weaponry, much of it found its way to the local VFW’s and Legion halls which dot the land. They make impressive markers. Actually, I would love to have this baby in the back yard. I know just where I’d put it, right off the brick patio on the lawn. Man, that would be something!

Here's picture of a fully manned and ready Vickers in the early days of World War Two;

And for more information about this weapon, which played such a large part in the war, go to;

http://www.wwiiequipment.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:37q-anti-aircraft&catid=41:anti-aircraft&Itemid=58