Photo of newspaper article: B. Stone (Founder of the internet's telegraph, Twitter!!!!)

Some are saying airships are the future!

[ ARTICLE AT IHT.COM ]

[ AIRSHIPWORLD BLOG ]

In his biography, My Life & Work, Henry Ford, he who gave us the assembly-line automobile, says: “If we live in smaller communities where the tension of living is not so high, and where the products of fields and gardens can be had without the interference of so many profiteers, there will be little poverty or unrest” [p.88]

Even so! He who is revered as a sort of god by the citizens of Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World goes on to note that:

“If a man is in constant fear of the industrial situation, he ought to change his life so as not to be dependent upon it. There is always the land, and fewer people are on the land now than ever before. If a man lives in fear of an employer’s favour changing towards him, he ought to extricate himself from dependence on any employer. He can become his own boss”. [p.320]

These excerpts from Ford were quoted in the 22 Jan 1927 issue of G.K.’s Weekly, the premiere periodical for folk of discerning taste, apart from our own, of course. They were quoted under the heading of “Saul Among the Prophets.” A fitting title indeed, good sirs, a fitting title indeed!

Two more Arlington/DC independent stores are closing its doors. The amazing Orpheus records in Arlington and Candida's World Of Books, which is an international book-store. We are saddened by this as our hometown of Arlington will just bring another CVS in its wake and more of the same. Fortunately, some independent stores still strive but how long will it last and will people ever champion the independent store in favor of the big chain? We are not sure.. but in our minds the american dream was a family run business and not a big chain of sameness.



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[ Candida's World Of Books Website ]

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The history of the Magic Lantern goes very much further back than the Victorians. Recent research has indicated that a form of ‘Magic Lantern’ may have existed in the time of Solomon. Aristotle developed the theoretical basis of the science of optics. With Friar Roger Bacon, born in 1214, the art-science of light and shadow reached a point at which magic shadow entertainment devices could be built. Leonardo da Vinci invented the ‘bulls-eye’ lens, a primitive but effective condenser. In the second quarter of the seventeenth century a Jesuit priest, Athanasius Kircher, was credited with the invention of the ‘Magic Lantern’. The chief problem in Kircher’s day was to provide sufficient light. Early illuminants included the sun, candles and oil lamps. Much later limelight and carbon-arc illuminants were introduced, but the final solution arrived several centuries after Kircher with the invention of electric light.

The earliest dated printed book known is the “Diamond Sutra”, printed in China in 868 CE. However, it is suspected that book printing may have occurred long before this date. In 1041, movable clay type was first invented in China. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with replaceable wooden or metal letters in 1436 (completed by 1440).

The Gutenberg press with its wooden and later metal movable type printing brought down the price of printed materials and made such materials available for the masses. It remained the standard until the 20th century. During the centuries, many newer printing technologies were developed based on Gutenberg’s printing machine e.g. offset printing.

Says famed lecturer, writer and former M.P. Hillaire Belloc: “The only economic difference between a herd of subservient Russians and a mob of free Englishmen pouring into a factory of a morning is that the latter are exploited by private profit, the former by the State in communal fashion. The motive of the Russian masters is to establish a comfortable bureaucracy for themselves and their friends out of the proletariat labour.”

Sail-making may in some Measure be called Tayloring, the Difference being only this; the Taylor fits Garments for Men, Women and Children, and the like, and the Sail-maker fits Sails as Powers of Wings, to drive of draw all sorts of Ships, Boats or Barks.

Bishop Wilkins speaking concerning Flying, tells us, that is a Person ever so heavy had Wings proportionable to his Weight, he might very probably fly as well as the smallest Bird; that is, if the Wings fitted to any Person’s Body would cover a Body of Air Equiponderate to the Weight of the Person to whom they belong’d to, then such Wings would as well bear such a Person in the Air, as Bladders of Cork would bear up a Person in the Water, and keep him from sinking.

It must be observed, that Air to Water is as 1 to 800, of thereabouts, so that 800 Foot of Air is but equal to 1 Foot of Water. The Weight of a Square Foot of Water is near 63 Pound, but a Foot of Air is not much above one Ounce and a Quarter.

The Weight of a Man, that is one with another, is near equal to 2 Foot and a half of Water, or 2000 Foot of Air; so that each Wing of such a Man ought to be 1000 Foot, of 31 Foot 7/10 Square; but the chiefest Difficulty would be to perswade a man to use such Wings, and also to be brought to know how.