Random Picture Thread

Project Tip Tow, the predecessor to Project Tom Tom.

 

The concept goes all the way back to WW1 when scout and fighter planes were attached to dirigibles. The fighter planes were probably useless for defense as it was found that dirigibles were almost immune even using the incendiary and tracer rounds available at the time, and recovering them was difficult even under ideal conditions. I don't know if the idea was ever tried in war conditions.

I recall hearing my grandmother speaking of one that was over Wood Green, a North London suburb where my grandparents lived at the time. That one was later shot down - although how accurate my grandmother's information was is impossible to say. The terror that air bombardment, even of the most ineffective sort, caused was extraordinary, but during WW2 they became almost routine, not for children though. I was a very young child at the time and was evacuated to Wales; looking back I can now remember that it took me years to overcome my intense fear of large fires and flash-bang of thunderstorms presumably gained during air raids.

 

As crazy as it sounds the British military tried every trick in the book to shoot down the German hydrogen filled Zeppelins. Try as they may, equipping the fighters with regular ammo, tracers, a new modified explosive type round, nothing seemed to work until finally in frustration one pilot literally emptied his belts of ammo with direct fire in one concentrated spot. This resulted in success and from then on few Zeppelins reached their target areas.

 

I always said, the two women one man concept would keep a man happy and free of materialistic desires. However by the look of that stick in his hand he's having a problem keeping them in line.

 

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=canal boats&st=grid&co=npco

 

That looks to be a Father, Mother, Daughter thing. It's from Farm Security Administration photos, where during the depression they hired out of work photographers to go around documenting life in the US.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?sp=21&co=fsa&st=grid

 

Still many hands make light work. I figured that was the source of the photos --Although you would not have to travel too many miles in some locations of North America today to find a source for the same photos. Interesting story : The fishermen of the eastern seaboard sent shipments of dried cod out west to help feed the destitute dust bowl victims. Upon receiving the initial shipments of this never before seen high protein food many didn't know what to do with it. Subsequent shipments included cooking instructions.

 

I think its the original version of the mother-in-law floor plan.

 

If you don't have anything to do for long periods of time, this photo gallery has thousands of amazingly detailed historical photos. Many are taken from 8x10 glass negatives and enlarge to huge sizes with little loss of definition.

http://www.shorpy.com/

If you have any time left after shorpy's, you can spend the rest of it here...

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

 

Thanks SamSam, I'm a big fan of old photos, my hobby is photographing old buildings. When I travel south I do long stretches of the old highway #1 and other secondary highways that parallel and were replaced by hwy. 95. Just amazing beautiful vacated old businesses. The old gas stations and motels in particular.

Yes Redtick-- the origional In Law Suites, which due to the present economy are coming back in vogue

 

An old post card that I found.

 

Great photo--Shooting Star fighters --Grew up with these flying out of Harmon Field, Stephenville Newfoundland by the 61st. fighter squad. Also was the sad viewer of seeing two of them crash with loss of life. All total I think 4 crashed within a two week period due to fuel contamination. It was a sad time for us local civilians as well as the base military.

 

That sad memory reminded me of this from my dad who was stationed at MacDill during WW2 and who told me about the phrase "one a day in Tampa Bay":

http://www.323bg454bs.org/Assets/PdfFiles/Thunderbolt 080303.pdf

 

I just noticed there is a B-17 in the background on the left. I have had the post card for years and never saw that before.