Cool Precision Machining Business images

Some cool precision machining organization images:

Image from page 525 of “Industrial history of the United States, from the earliest settlements to the present time: becoming a complete survey of American industries, embracing agriculture and horticulture including the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, wheat

Image by World wide web Archive Book Pictures
Identifier: industrialhistor00boll
Title: Industrial history of the United States, from the earliest settlements to the present time: becoming a total survey of American industries, embracing agriculture and horticulture including the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, wheat the raising of horses, neat-cattle, and so forth. all the critical manufactures, shipping and fisheries, railroads, mines and mining, and oil also a history of the coal-miners and the Molly Maguires banks, insurance, and commerce trade-unions, strikes, and eight-hour movement collectively with a description of Canadian industries
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Bolles, Albert Sidney, 1846-1939
Subjects: Industries Industries
Publisher: Norwich, Conn. : The Henry Bill pub. Firm
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Prior to Image:
INDUSTRIAL HISTORY joints of all kinds. The operate is generally done in these machines by meansof chisels and saws. This class of machines has multiplied extremely Machineryfor makingsashes,blinds, anddoors. fast considering that 1861, and has concentrated in factories a large amount of operate which was formerly carried on by hand, and scattered farand wide among little shops. It has also tremendously lessened theart of production. The machines are all very basic, thoughfrequently very ingenious, and work with excellent precision. The framing, shap-ing, and panelling ofwindows, doors, andblinds, is now doneentirely by machine-ry and the applica-tion of mechanical la-bor in this industryhas gone so far, thateven the wire stapleswhich fasten the rodof the window – blindto the slats are alldriven by machine,and with incrediblespeed. If a machinewere invented tobrush on the greenpaint to the window-do in the constructionThat a device of that

Text Appearing After Image:
TWENTY-FOlR-INCH PLANER. blind, sash, or door, there would be nothing more toof these objects which could be completed by machine,character could be created is apparent each by the aid of the unassisted reasonand from the fact that England ex-hibited a painting-machine at Phila-delphia in 1876. It was, in fact, heronly wood-working machine shown. One of the comparatively current in-ventions is a set of machines for making Barrel- tne different parts Of bar- creating- rels. In these the stavesmachines. are sawed out, bent, jointed,and ready for the barrel, with scarce-ly the help of any hand-tool what ever. The heads of the barrels and the wooden hoops are also shaped by appro-Carving and priate inventions. There are also now in use machines for carving,engraving. engraving and portrait engines, lathes for cutting and boringspools, box-mortising-machines, stair-jointers, hub-boxing-machines, cork-

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Image from page 677 of “Railway mechanical engineer” (1916)

Image by Web Archive Book Photos
Identifier: railwaymechanica95newy
Title: Railway mechanical engineer
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Railroad engineering Engineering Railroads Railroad cars
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Simmons-Boardman Pub. Co
Contributing Library: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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Text Appearing Just before Image:
Fig. 1—Cross Section of a Set of V Pilot Packing slotted, the slots getting staggered to stop the escape ofsteam down the rod. The slots serve an additional useful purposeby retaining oil for the lubrication of the rod. A hasty glanceat Fig. 1 may give the impression that there are two pieces of metal instead of one particular, but on closer examination the V-shapeof the strong, white metal bar is apparent. V Pilot Packing has a resilient, pliable back, fitting itfor several makes use of for which purely metallic packing is not

Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 2—View Showing Flexibility of New Packing adapted. Its intense flexibility, as shown in Fig. two, per-mits its use on tiny rods and gives simple and rapid ad-justment. This packing has successfully passed the experi-mental stage and demonstrated its worth by extended testsunder actual functioning situations, obtaining shown unusuallylong life and resultant economy. It has a wide variety of ap-plication and is utilized by railroads for air pumps, boiler feedpumps (steam and water ends), valve stems, throttle stems,energy reverse gear rods, stationary air compressors, steamengines, hot and cold water pumps, ammonia pumps, round-house washout pumps, energy plant feed water pumps, pump-ing station (steam or water glands), steam hammers.andmany other purposes. V Pilot Packing is supplied boxedand ready for quick service and is applied in the samemanner as ordinary fibrous packing. A New Precision Machine Alining Level THE Universal Boring Machine Organization, Hudson,Mass., has just placed on the m

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Please note that these pictures are extracted from scanned web page pictures that may have been digitally enhanced for readability – coloration and appearance of these illustrations could not completely resemble the original operate.

a979

Image by Providence Public Library
wc 556 factories and companies – Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Organization – North Kingstown 1964 –
Machine tools, precision tools and guaging gear and hydraulic pumps are manufactured at this place

Good Precision Turning pictures

Good Precision Turning pictures

Some cool precision turning photos:

Jantar Mantar observatory, sundial, built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur in 1724 – buses, automobiles, individuals, palms, trees, photo from hotel, atmospheric distance steamy hot morning, downtown New Delhi, on pilgrimage, 1993, India

Image by Wonderlane
The Jantar Mantar is situated in the modern day city of New Delhi. It consists of 13 architectural astronomy instruments. The site is one particular of five built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur, from 1724 onwards, as he was provided by Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah the process of revising the calendar and astronomical tables.

The primary goal of the observatory was to compile astronomical tables, and to predict the instances and movements of the sun, moon and planets. Some of these purposes today would be classified as astronomy.

Completed in 1724, the Delhi Jantar Mantar had decayed considerably by 1867.

There are three instruments inside the observatory of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi: the Samrat Yantra, the Jayaprakash, and the Misra Yantra.

Samrat Yantra: The Samrat Yantra, or Supreme Instrument, is a giant triangle that is essentially an equal hour sundial. It is 70 feet higher, 114 feet long at the base, and 10 feet thick. It has a 128-foot-lengthy (39 m) hypotenuse that is parallel to the Earth’s axis and points toward the North Pole. On either side of the triangle is a quadrant with graduations indicating hours, minutes, and seconds.

At the time of the Samrat Yantra’s building, sundials already existed, but the Samrat Yantra turned the standard sundial into a precision tool for measuring declination and other associated coordinates of numerous heavenly bodies.

Jayaprakash Yantra: The Jayaprakash consists of hollowed out hemispheres with markings on their concave surfaces. Crosswires have been stretched amongst points on their rim. From inside the Ram, an observer could align the position of a star with different markings or a window’s edge.

Misra Yantra: The Misra Yantra was developed as a tool to decide the shortest and longest days of the year. It could also be utilised to indicate the precise moment of noon in different cities and places regardless of their distance from Delhi – very remarkable!

The Mishra yantras have been in a position to indicate when it was noon in a variety of cities all over the planet and was the only structure in the observatory not invented by Jai Singh II.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar,_Delhi

Their view #hotwinterlight #essay #lastintheset

Image by ocDeluxe
Exhaustion. Fibrillation, noise, competing frequencies. My rhythm is off and I need to find my personal heartbeat once again. It is been foggy right here all week–I typically really like fog–but the final few months have left me feeling like a zombie, all hollow and empty and inhuman, and I haven’t been capable to take pleasure in it. I wake up every morning and go about my routine, which is about all I can say. I shared this with my wife and she suggested that I take the entire day off from what I normally do. (Thanks for the viewpoint and help, honey!) This morning I opened to exactly where I left off in the Bible and read Lev. 23, the Lord is establishing rules for days of rest. Huh, interesting… so possibly I make myself a guarantee to rest today, which ironically is even a Saturday, the classic Sabbath day. And by rest I mean avoiding all factors that really feel like work, like photography in most instances. I couldn’t think about wanting to perform anyway, feeling like a zombie and all, so mostly, I’d just concentrate on becoming and paying attention–but should the temptation arise I promised myself I would not work.

Friendship drew me out of the home this morning, got my proverbial feet moving, with the guarantee of a uncommon art show downtown. A myriad of booths promoting old prints from woodcuts, etchings, monotypes, linocuts, and some I’ve heard of, like mezzotints. Input. The 1 I liked most was 00. Pass, for now.

But I also necessary space, to be in space, by myself for a whilst. Someplace a handful of blocks away, on a library hold shelf, a Philippe Halsman retrospective sat with my name on it. So I let my pal Mike know I was going to duck out for a few minutes to fetch it. The hot winter light, living, alive, impossible to ignore caught my eye. It shaped, defined, every thing about me brick and stone brought to life. I created a handful of snaps on my phone as I walked, reflex, which didn’t feel like operate and I didn’t have to perform at it, although it did little to ease my weary spirit.

Sustenance. Mike and I headed northeast for lunch, to that one hundred-year-old schoolhouse turned restaurant that serves regional microbrews. Burger and a beer and, ahh, the bliss of unhurried conversation. My burger was overcooked, like me, but the copper ale, delicious. It is often wonderful to connect with buddies more than a great meal, and the conversation welcome and prompting of reflection.

The a single aspect I really feel is at the moment missing in my life: Solitude. There’s a vacancy in time to wander and stare. And now that I truly have the day cost-free I needed to figure out exactly where to devote the rest of it. Soon after I mentioned goodbye to Mike I drove to Cathedral Park. Despite the fact that I’ve spent most of my life in Portland and in no way observed it. Pity. It’s a lengthy drive, but seemed as good of location as any and so there I went. I wavered when although crossing the Freemont Bridge, seeing how beautifully hazy the extended views have been, but expertise tells me that if I changed my mind now I’d end up nowhere. The female GPS with a foot fetish (in 1000 feet, turn left…) guided me with disturbing precision into the parking lot. Craving simplicity I slung my manual film camera more than my shoulder and left the DSLR in the vehicle.

Temptation. A crowd had formed on the primary lawn, about a group of performers with soap buckets and roped sticks. Giant morphing bubbles emerging like dragons out of thin air. The halos and reflections… stunning against the textured sky. Youngsters were running and jumping, giggling, as they popped the bubbles. Photographers everywhere, I counted at least fifty if you consist of camera phones, and excellent photographs could have/would have come easy, though it would have felt like operate to me. My shoulders drooping, held back, I moved along to wander and stare and discover: following that intuitive thread beyond my comprehension. I wandered on the dock, along the bank, by way of the trees, back to the auto, back to the park, up along the bridge pillars, down and around. I was fairly thorough in my wandering. I hurried only once, when mud disguised as grass tried to swallow my shoes.

Withdrawal. I made my way to the prime of the park in line with the bridge pillars with the hope of sitting quietly by myself for a while. A number of photographers showed shortly right after and setup tripods around me–apparently I had picked a excellent photo spot–and went about their company quietly. I listened to the sound of clacking shutters for a while and then fled back toward the river in silence.

Train tracks cut through the park I guess I had seen them on my way in, but they never really registered. Had I been a tiny more quickly I may have beaten the train, but as it had been I was cutoff. I waited patiently and then not so patiently as every freight auto lumbered passed, eventually realizing I would be there for the longer I had patience for. So I walked along the graveled tracks toward the opposite finish of the park, often reaching out with my fingers and tracing the corrugated ribs on the passing automobiles, iron fence boards. How curious to be so close to such a massive moving object with out any sense of worry or awe. And I listened, deeply, to the higher-pitch groans and screams of the metal on metal as the tracks traveled up and down like slow-moving pistons flexing around every wheel. I believed about cutting amongst the vehicles, maybe using the access stairs, or possibly hopping on a vehicle, but knew it was a bad concept for a lot of motives, and, besides, I was here to be patient and stare. By way of the gaps I noticed other folks waiting on the other side. Apparently none of us were happy with exactly where we have been. Waiting was mandatory.

We uncover our own beat in silence. Stillness and quiet are essential to sound, or rather music. It is the rests in among that support shape the rest of time. And often, maybe, we can locate stillness amongst the noise.

Right after the train passed I settled into a bench for a whilst, close to the major activity. Three guys in blue jeans, black tees, baseball caps, circling a pull wagon overloaded with buckets and bags and discarded coats. A single of the guys handed his bubble sticks more than to young woman who was carrying out a great job. A father with blond curly hair, I’m guessing German by his speech, chassed a giggling small boy with matching features. The boy about my own’s age, produced me miss my family members. A performer with a video camera bolted firmly to a helmet steadily floated by means of the action as if balancing water. Shortly following, he launched an RC helicopter, a huge one, like 650 class, and dispatched some of the bubbles with the rotor blades before moving on to far more sophisticated maneuvers. And there I sat till the last of the sun crept more than the tops of the hills, just before moving down toward the bank to explore further.

I felt a tinge of jealousy for the boulders sitting along the bank, year soon after year and watching the river flow by, the sun rising and setting, the altering light on the beautifully gothic spires of the St. John’s Bridge. But there was also ugliness here too. In another context I may well have thought this river bank a crime scene: scattered discarded clothing, crunchy and brittle, bleached from the sun the purse, riffled and cast aside the empty liquor bottle the lone shoe bobbing face down among the rotting twigs and effluvium. I’m not sure why, but I finally felt compelled to pull out my Pentax and make a couple exposures of the bridge. Practically nothing I will want to keep, likely, but the making was enjoyable nonetheless–and it didn’t really feel like perform. And that prompted me to make a couple of snaps on my telephone, to complete the set from earlier, except my telephone flashed low battery and shut down unexpectedly soon after a couple of–a casualty of the casual GPS use earlier. Or maybe a sign.

In the distance the bubble guys now wielded a smoke machine. Really unusual–the blobs of trapped smoke looked specifically like anything from a lava lamp. They even managed to trap a smoke-filled bubble inside a bigger typical one. Impressive. Still no compulsion to photograph and I moved on.

I sat in the auto for really a whilst and watched the final of the light fade away. This day would never occur once again. I guess the time was excellent for the soul, I needed time to fill the vacancy, even if the encounter wasn’t wholly successful. The essential in the ignition eventually turned, I never bear in mind selecting to do this, the transmission engaged, I backed up, unconsciously headed in a familiar path. When I passed downtown I regarded dropping by operate for a couple hours to address one thing on my backlog I’ve been avoiding for weeks and then remembered my Lev. 23 promise. Near residence I pulled more than into a grocery retailer parking lot, exactly where I am now, and started performing this, journaling. I’m extremely thankful to God for providing me the present of a day like this. My head is nevertheless foggy, but I’m still grateful even if I could not clear my head. And fog requirements time to dissipate, correct? But fog can be great as well. It can support reveal depth to shape what we may otherwise take for granted. It’s the in-between that shapes the light and it’s the in-between that shapes us, which assists us locate our rhythm. And fog increases that in-between. If it tends to make focusing challenging, then perhaps I require to concentrate on what’s close to. My loved ones is near, so I guess it really is time to go home.

Not A Day Goes By

A couple of good turning parts photos I located:

Not A Day Goes By

Image by Cate Storymoon
&quotNot a day goes by,
Not a single day,
But you happen to be someplace a portion of my life, and it appears
like you will remain.
As the days go by
I keep pondering when
does it finish?
Where’s the day I’ll have
started forgetting?
But I just go on thinking,
and sweating,
And cursing, and crying,
And turning, and reaching,
And waking and dying…

And no, not a day goes by,
Not a blessed day.
But you are still somehow
component of my life,
And you will not go away…
So there’s hell to pay,
And till I die I will die
day following day following day
soon after day right after day right after day
right after day…
‘Til the days go by…
‘Til the days go by…
‘Til the days go by.&quot

Stephen Sondheim
Sung by inimitable Bernadette:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMlQgyz834&ampfeature=kp

Few information, I’ve reworked an older photo:
Dress by Donna Flora
Hair by Wasabi Tablets

Place: the Tulip sim

as dark turns to light

Image by Singing With Light
Yet another shot from Exchange spot searching over the east river at NYC as the sun rises
Better on B l a c k M a g i c

Concorde!

Concorde!

Some cool turning parts manufacturer images:

Concorde!

Image by Chris Devers
Posted by way of email to ☛ HoloChromaCinePhotoRamaScope‽: cdevers.posterous.com/concorde. See the full gallery on Posterous …

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Concorde, Fox Alpha, Air France:

The first supersonic airliner to enter service, the Concorde flew thousands of passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound for more than 25 years. Designed and constructed by Aérospatiale of France and the British Aviation Corporation, the graceful Concorde was a beautiful technological achievement that could not overcome severe economic issues.

In 1976 Air France and British Airways jointly inaugurated Concorde service to destinations about the globe. Carrying up to 100 passengers in excellent comfort, the Concorde catered to initial class passengers for whom speed was essential. It could cross the Atlantic in fewer than 4 hours – half the time of a traditional jet airliner. Nonetheless its high operating fees resulted in extremely high fares that limited the quantity of passengers who could afford to fly it. These issues and a shrinking market ultimately forced the reduction of service till all Concordes had been retired in 2003.

In 1989, Air France signed a letter of agreement to donate a Concorde to the National Air and Space Museum upon the aircraft’s retirement. On June 12, 2003, Air France honored that agreement, donating Concorde F-BVFA to the Museum upon the completion of its last flight. This aircraft was the initial Air France Concorde to open service to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and New York and had flown 17,824 hours.

Gift of Air France.

Manufacturer:
Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale
British Aircraft Corporation

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 25.56 m (83 ft ten in)
Length: 61.66 m (202 ft 3 in)
Height: 11.three m (37 ft 1 in)
Weight, empty: 79,265 kg (174,750 lb)
Weight, gross: 181,435 kg (400,000 lb)
Best speed: 2,179 km/h (1350 mph)
Engine: Four Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 602, 17,259 kg (38,050 lb) thrust each and every
Manufacturer: Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale, Paris, France, and British Aircraft Corporation, London, United Kingdom

Physical Description:
Aircaft Serial Number: 205. Like four (4) engines, bearing respectively the serial quantity: CBE066, CBE062, CBE086 and CBE085.
Also integrated, aircraft plaque: &quotAIR FRANCE Lorsque viendra le jour d’exposer Concorde dans un musee, la Smithsonian Institution a dores et deja choisi, pour le Musee de l’Air et de l’Espace de Washington, un appariel portant le couleurs d’Air France.&quot

1966 Bizzarrini GT Strada 5300 (02)

Image by Georg Sander
Bizzarrini S.p.A. was an automotive manufacturer in the 1960s. Founded by former Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and ISO engineer, Giotto Bizzarrini, the business built a modest number of highly created and advanced sport and racing automobiles prior to failing in 1969.

In 1966 Bizzarrini S.p.A. released a beautiful street legal Grifo A3C as the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada (or Bizzarrini 5300 GT America, based on the market). The physique shape and mechanical parts have been the a lot the same as the Iso A3Cs, resulting in a power-packed but sensuous coupe below 40&quot in height.[1]

At least three 5300s had been turned out as gorgeous Style Italia designed spyder/targa versions, all of which survive.v

(Wikipedia)

Der Bizzarrini GT 5300 war ein in geringen Stückzahlen produzierter Sportwagen des italienischen Automobilherstellers Automobili Bizzarrini, der historisch und technisch eng mit dem Iso Grifo des Mailänder Sportwagenherstellers Iso Rivolta verwandt ist. Das Auto war als Rennsportversion des Grifo konzipiert und wurde anfänglich als Iso A3/C vermarktet. Nach dem Ende der geschäftlichen Beziehungen zwischen Bizzarrini und Iso Rivolta wurde es 1965 zu einem eigenständigen Modell. Bizzarrini bot den nun GT 5300 genannten Wagen in einer straßentauglichen Version und in einer überarbeiteten, für Motorsporteinsätze geeigneten Ausführung an. Der Produktionsumfang beider Versionen blieb hinter Bizzarrinis Erwartungen zurück. Auch im Motorsport konnte der GT 5300 nicht an die Erfolge anknüpfen, die 1964 und 1965 mit dem weitgehend baugleichen Iso A3/C erzielt worden waren.

(Wikipedia)

Cool Cnc Cutting Machine photos

Cool Cnc Cutting Machine photos

Some cool cnc cutting machine images:

Lazerian: Light Modulator

Image by Liverpool Design Festival
A pc-generated kind was converted into modular sections, which have been reduce from 3mm birch plywood making use of a CNC routing machine. Emphasis was placed on limiting the quantity of special module shapes in order to simplify building twenty six distinctive units are utilized in total, repeated through the symmetry of the kind. Design Liam Hopkins and Richard Sweeney

Hardy Star Survives Supernova Blast (NASA, Chandra, 03/20/14)

Hardy Star Survives Supernova Blast (NASA, Chandra, 03/20/14)

Check out these grinding surface photos:

Hardy Star Survives Supernova Blast (NASA, Chandra, 03/20/14)

Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
When a huge star runs out fuel, it collapses and explodes as a supernova. Despite the fact that these explosions are extremely strong, it is attainable for a companion star to endure the blast. A team of astronomers employing NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes has discovered evidence for one particular of these survivors.

This hardy star is in a stellar explosion’s debris field – also named its supernova remnant – located in an HII region referred to as DEM L241. An HII (pronounced &quotH-two&quot) area is developed when the radiation from hot, young stars strips away the electrons from neutral hydrogen atoms (HI) to form clouds of ionized hydrogen (HII). This HII area is situated in the Massive Magellanic Cloud, a tiny companion galaxy to the Milky Way.

A new composite image of DEM L241 contains Chandra data (purple) that outlines the supernova remnant. The remnant remains hot and for that reason X-ray vibrant for thousands of years soon after the original explosion occurred. Also incorporated in this image are optical data from the Magellanic Cloud Emission Line Survey (MCELS) taken from ground-primarily based telescopes in Chile (yellow and cyan), which trace the HII emission produced by DEM L241. Extra optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey (white) are also included, showing stars in the field.

R. Davies, K. Elliott, and J. Meaburn, whose last initials were combined to give the object the very first half of its name, first mapped DEM L241 in 1976. The recent data from Chandra revealed the presence of a point-like X-ray supply at the exact same location as a young enormous star within DEM L241’s supernova remnant.

Astronomers can appear at the particulars of the Chandra data to glean critical clues about the nature of X-ray sources. For example, how vibrant the X-rays are, how they adjust more than time, and how they are distributed across the variety of power that Chandra observes.

In this case, the information recommend that the point-like source is one particular component of a binary star technique. In such a celestial pair, either a neutron star or black hole (formed when the star went supernova) is in orbit with a star significantly larger than our Sun. As they orbit 1 another, the dense neutron star or black hole pulls material away its companion star by way of the wind of particles that flows away from its surface. If this outcome is confirmed, DEM L241 would be only the third binary containing each a huge star and a neutron star or black hole ever located in the aftermath of a supernova.

Chandra’s X-ray information also show that the inside of the supernova remnant is enriched in oxygen, neon and magnesium. This enrichment and the presence of the enormous star imply that the star that exploded had a mass higher than 25 instances, to perhaps up to 40 times, that of the Sun.

Optical observations with the South African Astronomical Observatory’s 1.9-meter telescope show the velocity of the huge star is altering and that it orbits about the neutron star or black hole with a period of tens of days. A detailed measurement of the velocity variation of the enormous companion star must give a definitive test of no matter whether or not the binary consists of a black hole.

Indirect proof currently exists that other supernova remnants had been formed by the collapse of a star to kind a black hole. Nevertheless, if the collapsed star in DEM L241 turns out to be a black hole, it would supply the strongest proof however for such a catastrophic occasion.

What does the future hold for this program? If the most current thinking is correct, the surviving massive star will be destroyed in a supernova explosion some millions of years from now. When it does, it may possibly type a binary program containing two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole, or even a method with two black holes.

A paper describing these benefits is offered on-line and was published in the November 10, 2012 concern of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors are Fred Seward of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA P. Charles from University of Southampton, UK D. Foster from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa J. Dickel and P. Romero from University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM Z. Edwards, M. Perry and R. Williams from Columbus State University in Columbus, GA.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra system for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., controls Chandra’s science and flight operations.

Original caption/more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/deml241/

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward et al Optical: NOAO/CTIO/MCELS, DSS

Study far more about Chandra:
www.nasa.gov/chandra

p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We’d adore to have you as a member!

_______________________________
These official NASA photographs are being created accessible for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the topic(s) of the photographs. The photographs might not be used in supplies, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images employed have to be credited. For details on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/characteristics/MP_Photo_Guidelin…

Upsala Glacier Retreat, Patagonia Icefield (NASA, International Space Station, ten/02/13)

Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
Upsala Glacier Retreat and Patagonia Icefield are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 37 crew member on the International Space Station. This photograph highlights the snout of the Upsala Glacier (49.88S 73.3W) on the Argentine side of the North Patagonian Icefield. Ice flow in this glacier (white mass, left) is from the north (left). Dark lines of rocky moraine inside the ice give a sense of the slow ice flow from left to correct. A smaller sized side glacier joins Upsala at the present-day ice front — the wall from which masses of ice periodically collapse into Lake Argentino. In this image the two.75-kilometer-lengthy wall casts a thin, dark shadow. The surface of Lake Argentino is whitened by a mass of ice debris from a current collapse of the ice wall. Larger icebergs that have calved seem as white dots on the lake surface at appropriate.

Remotely sensed data, like detailed astronaut photos such as this, have recorded the position of the ice front over the years. Even although the ice actually flows slowly southward, comparison of this October 2013 image with older data (not shown) indicates that the ice wall of the glacier has moved backwards — upstream — an average of three.six kilometers given that early 2002. This so-called &quotretreat&quot is believed by scientists to indicate local climatic warming in this element of South America. The warming not only causes the ice front to retreat but more importantly, causes all round thinning of the glacier ice mass, as a study of 63 glaciers in Patagonia has shown is now a general trend (Rignot et al. 2003). Ice-front retreat is now identified to be connected to volumetric loss due to melting. Water colour is related to glacier flow. Lake Argentino receives most of the ice from the glacier and hence also receives most of the &quotrock flour&quot (rocks ground to white powder by the ice scraping against the rock floor of the valley) from underneath the glacier. Glacial flour turns the lake water a gray-green hue in this image. The darker blue of the smaller sized lakes (best) indicates that they are getting significantly much less rock flour.

Image credit: NASA

Original image:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/photos/station/crew-37/html/…

More about space station analysis:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

View much more pictures like this in the &quotNASA Earth Pictures&quot Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photographs/28634332@N05

________________________________
These official NASA photographs are getting made obtainable for publication by news organizations and/or for private use printing by the topic(s) of the photographs. The photographs could not be employed in components, ads, merchandise, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Photos utilised must be credited. For details on usage rights please check out: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/attributes/MP_Photo_Guidelin…

Lengthy Island Sound, New Jersey Coast (NASA, International Space Station Science, 11/ten/06)

Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
Editor’s Note: This is an archive image from 2006.

This image featuring a southeast-hunting view of the Long Island Sound and New Jersey coast, with the reduce Hudson River and New York Bay in the region of brightest sunglint was photographed by an Expedition 14 crewmember on the International Space Station. On the far correct a gray haze can be observed streaming out to sea offshore of New Jersey, exactly where it becomes harder to see. In fact haze covers most of the visible region offshore, partly obscuring the sea surface. By contrast, clouds appear fairly different from haze according to scientists. Clouds usually have sharp margins and are pure white, as clouds at the bottom show. Industrial haze is grayer and more diffuse, and is common of the air more than the Northeast. Flow lines show that winds are transporting the haze in clockwise fashion–i.e. bending south–which in turn signifies that a high stress system was operating on that day, centered roughly more than the coast. High stress systems are notorious for advertising smog events because they bring clear skies, and sunlight promotes smog formation. Highs also concentrate polluted surface layers near the ground.

Image/caption credit: NASA

View original image/caption:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-14/html/…

Much more about space station science:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/index.html

There’s a Flickr group about Space Station Science. Please really feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)

A few nice turning parts manufacturer images I found:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)

Image by Chris Devers
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time during 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson

Date:
1964

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Materials:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft; airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys; vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to reduce radar cross-section; Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature large inlet shock cones.

Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a full-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately needed accurate assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, particularly near the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-2 (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an able platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this relatively slow aircraft was already vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the rapid development of surface-to-air missile systems could put U-2 pilots at grave risk. The danger proved reality when a U-2 was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Lockheed’s first proposal for a new high speed, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable because of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the design for conventional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted design engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson) designed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly well above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these challenging requirements, Lockheed engineers overcame many daunting technical challenges. Flying more than three times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are enough to melt conventional aluminum airframes. The design team chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but very powerful, afterburning turbine engines propelled this remarkable aircraft. These power plants had to operate across a huge speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to more than 3,540 kph (2,200 mph). To prevent supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s team had to design a complex air intake and bypass system for the engines.

Skunk Works engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to achieve this by carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as little transmitted radar energy (radio waves) as possible, and by application of special paint designed to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This treatment became one of the first applications of stealth technology, but it never completely met the design goals.

Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, after he became airborne accidentally during high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed great promise but it needed considerable technical refinement before the CIA could fly the first operational sortie on May 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as part of the Air Force’s 1129th Special Activities Squadron under the "Oxcart" program. While Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, however, proposed a "specific mission" version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This system evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.

Lockheed built fifteen A-12s, including a special two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s were modified to carry a special reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s were redesignated M-21s. These were designed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon between the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high enough to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also built three YF-12As but this type never went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed during testing. Only one survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of one of the "written off" YF-12As which was later used along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. One SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Including the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The first SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Because of extreme operational costs, military strategists decided that the more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA’s A-12s. These were retired in 1968 after only one year of operational missions, mostly over southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (part of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.

After the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the special black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at high altitudes.

Experience gained from the A-12 program convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely required two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) system that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was designed to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to wear pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts. These suits were required to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin pressure loss while at operating altitudes.

To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines were designed to operate continuously in afterburner. While this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird actually achieved its best "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach 3+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require several aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, usually about 6,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling effect caused the aircraft’s skin panels to shrink considerably, and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so much that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As soon as the tanks were filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to high altitude.

Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, too. The 9th SRW occasionally deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other locations to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions were flown directly from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe until 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.

When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had already replaced manned aircraft to gather intelligence from sites deep within Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover every geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for global intelligence gathering. On many occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 provided information that proved vital in formulating successful U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews provided important intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-based SR-71 crews flew a number of missions over the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.

As the performance of space-based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-based air defense networks, the Air Force started to lose enthusiasm for the expensive program and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, however, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the one SR-71B for high-speed research projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.

On March 6, 1990, the service career of one Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial number 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, more than that of any other crewman.

This particular SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-four years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.

Wingspan: 55’7"
Length: 107’5"
Height: 18’6"
Weight: 170,000 Lbs

Reference and Further Reading:

Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.

Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.

Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.

DAD, 11-11-01

One of the Seven Sister houses built by Captain Arnold in Mannum in 1911. They are all identical and made of pressed tin.

Image by denisbin
The historic port township of Mannum is located in one of the very scenic regions of the Murray where high cliffs of Tertiary limestone have been exposed by the meandering river. This limestone is laid down over clay layers and the stone was the obvious building material for buildings in Mannum from its origins. The town name came from the local Aboriginal word for place of many ducks. The first white people to see this area were Captain Charles Sturt and his party of explorers who came down the Murray to its mouth in 1830. In 1839 when the government was offering Special Surveys for the huge sum of £4,000 the so called Thirty Nine Sections survey was taken out along the Murray River where Mannum now stands. A consortium of investors took out this Special survey including John Cocks, Osmond Gilles (the Colonial Treasurer), Edward John Eyre (the explorer), and William Leigh (a Staffordshire benefactor of both the Anglican and Catholic churches in SA). Gilles and Leigh held the largest parcels of the 4,000 acres granted with Gilles’ land on the Adelaide side west of the Murray and Leigh’s on the eastern side. Their land covered the areas from Mannum to where Reedy Creek enters the Murray at Caloote. Both were primarily speculators and no real development happened in the area at this time around 1839. The economic activity of the district occurred on the pastoral lease land of John Baker who held most of the land from the Tungkillo area down to Mannum and the Murray from 1843 onwards. A decade (1853) later William Randell of Gumeracha took out pastoral leases on land between Mannum and the Mt Lofty Ranges to the north of Baker’s leases. His run was called Mannum!

Randell’s interest in the Murray and Mannum began back in 1850 when he would have heard that the Governor, Sir Henry Young, his wife, and a party of others cruised up the Murray from Wellington SA to Wentworth in NSW. Governor Young saw the potential of the river for navigation. A committee was established to investigate this and it included William Younghusband, a friend of Captain Cadell of Goolwa, George Fife Angas and John Baker of Tungkillo. The governor offered a reward for the first paddle steamer to venture up the Murray from Goolwa to Wentworth in NSW and Swan Hill in Victoria to prove its navigability. Younghusband worked with Captain Cadell to get this prize money. Cadell named his boat after the wife of the Governor, Lady Augusta. Meantime, without “entering” the race to navigate up to Wentworth, Captain Randell of Mannum readied his paddle steamer to navigate up to Wentworth and beyond. He had taken out his pastoral lease on the Mannum station in 1853. Randell named his boat after his mother, Mary Ann. Randell set out first for Wentworth (and Echuca beyond) but both boats arrived in Wentworth about the same time in August 1853. Because of his connections to Younghusband and the Governor, who had travelled on Cadell’s boat, Captain Cadell received the prize money of £4,000. Because this smacked of favouritism with almost a touch of official corruption the newspapers in Adelaide complained. Randell asked for nothing but was given a “small financial “reward (£300) by the government. The important outcome of the “race” was the beginnings of the River Murray steamer or paddle boat trade.

In turn this river trade led to the establishment of a small settlement at Mannum but it growth was very slow. Randell built a wool store shed on the banks of the Murray at his wharf on his sheep property at Mannum. This was 1854 and the shed was the first structure in what was to become Mannum. Two years later (1856) Randell built a house at Mannum and opened a store here for passing trade. Around that time the government began selling freehold blocks of 50 to 80 acres along the Murray. Consequently the first “settlers” arrived in Mannum, William Baseby and Carl Polack. The first hotel was opened, the Old Bogan, in 1860. The government could see a town emerging privately so they surveyed a government town and port in 1864 downstream from Randell’s wharf area, just beyond what is now the Mary Ann Reserve. Randell had the best spot and the government town did not develop so Randell had a private town surveyed in 1869. This prospered and constitutes the central part of Mannum today. Settlers took up town blocks; Randell donated land for a school in 1871, a flour mill operated by another family opened in 1876, and Mrs. Randell had opened the Bogan store in 1863. More stores followed. The government ferry service began in 1875 and Mannum Council was formed in 1877. Ironically this mid 1870s boom also saw the death of William Randell’s father in Gumeracha. He died at the family estate Kenton Park at Gumeracha in 1876 and is buried in the Baptist church cemetery there. But the town of Mannum was still developing with the churches opening: the Methodist Church in 1880 – replaced 1896; St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in 1882; the Zion Lutheran in 1893; the Presbyterian Church in 1886; the Anglican Church in 1910; and finally the Catholic Church in 1913. The town Institute opened in 1882 and the private school of 1871 was taken over by the state government in 1885. This real boom in the town’s growth came after the settlement of the Murray Flats for wheat farming from 1872 onwards. The founder of Mannum, William Randell died in 1911 but after his father had died in 1876, William Randell had left Mannum and retired to Kenton Park in Gumeracha. His son Murray Randell took over the family river boat business in Mannum from 1899 onwards and had full control of it from 1911. Flour from the family mills in Gumeracha was carted to Mannum and then shipped to the gold mining centres around Bendigo in the 1860s and 1870s. Apart from Mannum, the Randells also had shipping offices in Wentworth.

Among the many stores and businesses in Mannum was the Eudunda Farmers store number 32 which opened in 1926. Like a number of Eudunda Farmers Stores it is still operating in the same location in the Main Street but under the Foodland banner these days.

Industry in Mannum.
1. Walker & Sons Flour Mill. Benjamin Walker had managed a flour mill in Mt Torrens for some time. He moved to Mannum and laid the foundation stone of a new flour mill in 1874 opening it two years later just as the farming boom began on the Murray Flats. It was updated with rollers in 1888 and the steam boiler was replaced with a gas one in 1910. Flour milled here often ended up in Bourke or Wentworth or even parts of southern Queensland near Cunnamulla. It was transported upstream by paddle steamers. When Benjamin died in 1884 his son John took over the mill. Amazingly the mill remained in the Walker family and operated for over 100 years, probably a record for SA. It closed in 1978 after 102 years of operation. Today only four flour mills are left in SA – Cummins, Strathalbyn, Port Adelaide and Mile End compared with 65 at the time of federation in 1901. No SA flour is exported today.

2. Dry Dock. William Randell formed ‘The River Murray Dry Dock Company’ around 1874 to finance the dock which he purchased from Landseer Shipping agents in Milang. The dry dock was floated up to Mannum and located into the river bank so that it was no longer a floating dock. A cutting was made into the bank to accommodate the 144 feet long dry dock. It took over a year to complete the work for the dock to open for business in 1876. With so many steamers plying the river the dry dock was always busy repairing barges and steamers and it created employment for a number of local men but it never made any significant financial returns for William Randell. After William Randell died in 1911 the dry dock was sold to a Swedish resident of Mannum, Johan Arnold, a riverboat man. Arnold had settled in Mannum in 1889. He worked the dry dock and built ships in Mannum including the Renmark, J.G. Arnold, Wilcannia, Nellie, Mundoo, Goldsborough and Murrumbidgee and some other barges. He then established his own shipping company called River Steamers Limited. They traded up to Hay, Wentworth and beyond. He later built the largest steamer ever built in SA, the Mannum. It was 150 feet long. Arnold soon had 80 men on his payroll between the dry dock and his shipping company, spread across all the major river ports where he had shipping offices. Disaster struck in 1921 when the Mannum caught fire whilst docked in Mannum. It was destroyed. Arnold’s house was called Esmeralda. He donated nearby land for the Mannum Hospital and the Anglican Church and he subdivided the rest of his land for town blocks. Captain Arnold died in 1949.

3. Shearers. John and David Shearer arrived in SA from Scotland in 1852. John followed in his father’s footsteps and learnt to be a blacksmith opening his first business in Mt Torrens in 1871 the year he married his 15 year old bride. Five years later in 1876 he opened a blacksmithing works in Mannum. It grew slowly. Brother David had joined the business in 1877 and he helped with the expansion of the business. John invented and patented throughout Australia wrought iron plough shears in 1888 that were a quarter of the price of most others. They were also not brittle like the cast iron plough shears and they lasted longer. The business now expanded greatly with an Australia wide market. They also produced stump jump ploughs and mechanical parts for river steamers. By 1919 Shearers employed over 100 people making agricultural implements, most of which were transported interstate although many of these products were produced in their Kilkenny plant in Adelaide which they had opened in 1904. They made strippers, wagons, harrows, ploughs, harvesters etc. In 1910 the partnership dissolved with David and sons keeping the Mannum plant and and John and sons keeping the Kilkenny plant. At that time David moved the Mannum Shearer factory from Anna Street out to Adelaide Road.

During World War One David’s Mannum plant made ammunition wagons, stirrups etc. In 1952 Shearers became a public company and consequently in 1972 it was taken over by another Adelaide agricultural machinery manufacturer Horwood Bagshaws. They then sold up the Adelaide works and continued production in Mannum. At its peak Horwood Bagshaws employed around 380 people in Mannum. After going into receivership in 1990 the struggling manufacturer was purchased in 1998 by Sweeney Investments from Adelaide. This company still markets implements as Horwood Bagshaws but it also does engineering work for mining companies, defence organisations, and other industries located all over Australia. It employs around 50 people and numerous contractors.
But David Shearer the founder is known for more than being an agricultural implement maker. He was a self educated scientists and “dreamer.” In 1907 he joined the NSW Branch of the British Astronomical Association. He went on to build his own telescope and observatory, the first private one in SA. The simple limestone building, now rendered with cement, had a typical domed roof with sliding panels on a steel track. The telescope is gone and the roof would have to be altered again for the building to be used as an observatory. The adjoining David Shearer House has also been altered especially Shearer’s octagonal lookout tower for night sky observations. Both buildings are on the Register of the National Estate. David Shearer’s other claim to fame is the invention of the first motor car in Australia. In the early 1890s he designed and then built in 1897 a steam powered and propelled vehicle which travelled at 15 miles per hour. He based his design on the transfer of power from engine to wheels that had been used for steam powered tractors. The first car to appear in England was in 1899 and Henry Ford developed his first car in the USA in 1908. David Shearer was ahead of his time but his invention was based on steam power and the future for cars was on the petrol based vehicles invented in Germany in 1885. (Benz began manufacturing petrol driven cars in Germany in 1888 and Bernardi invented the first petrol driven motorcycle in 1882 in Italy.) Shearer’s car however, managed trips of up to 100 kms and he drove it from Mannum to Adelaide in 1900. David then turned his inventing attentions to a mechanical harvester. The Shearer car is now in the Birdwood Mill Museum.

4. Butter factory. The old butter factory which has more recently been an antiques and collectibles shop was established in 1924. It opened as the Producers Supply and Butter Company. It competed with Farmers Union which had opened a butter factory in Murray Bridge in 1922. The Mannum butter factory was located by the river as most milk arrived at the factory by milk barge. (Farmers’ Union in Murray Bridge owned four river barges for carting fresh milk to its factory there). Archie Schofield purchased the Mannum butter factory and took control in 1932. After a fire it was rebuilt in 1935. The Schofields operated the butter factory until it was sold to Farmers’ Union in 1955. It was then submerged by the 1956 Murray flood and appears not to have re-opened as a butter factory.

Paddle Steamer Marion and Mannum Dock Museum.
The Museum entrance fee is .50 or for a concession. It includes the Randell Dry Dock, the Paddle Steamer Marion, the Keys Beam engine and displays on Murray River floods, the life cycle of the Murray, the Ngarrindjeri dreaming, and the history of white settlement in Mannum. But from the outside you can still see the restored Paddle Steamer Marion provided it is not cruising the Murray. Its history goes back to 1897 when it was built by Landseers at Milang. At over 100 feet long it was one of the bigger river steamers. After a long history of river trading her transportation days ended when her owners went into liquidation in 1952. She was sold on to several owners before she ended up being a floating boarding house. In 1963 the National Trust purchased her as a monument to the riverboat trade. She was sailed down to Mannum to be the centre piece of the NT Museum there. For over thirty years she languished in a dilapidated state in the Museum. In 1989 she was restored so that she could be used as a working river vessel with her being recommissioned in 1994. She occasionally does river trips for paying passengers. Some of her most interesting journeys were promotional trips paid for by the SA government. One was in 1910 for the Scottish Agricultural Commission when members visited SA. They travelled down from Mildura in the PS Marion. Another was in 1915 when the SA government paid for a trip by Australian parliamentarians, both Federal and state parliamentarians. Politicians from all states except Western Australian participated including the Premier of NSW, the Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, and the Attorney General, Billy Hughes who became the next Prime Minster. The promotional journey was to familiarise the politicians with the construction of Weir Number One across the Murray at Blanchetown which was then nearing completion.

Some Mannum Buildings.

1. The Anglican Church of St. Andrew was opened in 1910. Before that time the Anglicans attended services when the paddle steamer Etona visited the town.

2. The Mannum hospital was built in 1921 on land donated by Captain Arnold. The grounds incorporated his former home, Esmeralda which he purchased in 1905. Captain Arnold had settled in Mannum in 1889.

3. The Baptist Church. It began life as the Presbyterian Church in 1886 but was sold just three years later to the Baptists. The Randell family were Baptists and worshipped there.

4. Shearer Business Complex dating from 1876. The site of the original Shearer factory is now a car park but with fine memorial gates. Along one side is a fine old stone building which was once the Shearer company offices but it is now a Laundromat. Above the factory site is the Shearer House which is actually in Anna Street. A fine set of steps leads up from the Main Street to Anna Street. It is an imposing house overlooking the Main Street with a central part and two added wings. Originally one wing had a tower for astronomical observations. Adjacent to the house is the ruins of the Shearer Observatory. It is a round structure and once had a domed roof with sliding panels for the telescope to be used for observation. It is on the Register of the National Estate but urgently needs restoration.

5. The Institute was opened in 1882 and extended in 1911 with a Classical style façade with a triangular pediment above the entrance.

6. The Pretoria Hotel in the Main Street. It opened in 1900 when the Boer War was at its height hence the name.

7. The Mannum Hotel. The first hotel was erected on this site in 1866 for Randell. It was rebuilt as the Bogan Hotel in 1869. The upper floor was added in the 1870s. It was also the site for the first Council meetings of Mannum.

8. The Old Woolshed was built by Captain Randell in 1854 as the first structure in his Port of Mannum.

9. St. Martin’s Lutheran Church opened in 1882. A Lutheran school operated here from 1884-1917 when the Government closed all Lutheran schools. For many years (43) the congregation as led by Pastor Ey. A second congregation opened a second Lutheran church in Mannum called the Zion Lutheran in 1893. Its parent church was in Palmer.

10. Bleak House. The four roomed house built by Captain Randell in 1856 is up the hill from his wharf. It was the first stone structure in the town. This structure would be the rear part of the current building. The front part dates from the 1860s, probably 1869 when Randell subdivided part of his land to create the township of Mannum.

11. The Catholic Church of Mount Carmel. This was opened in 1913.

12. The Methodist Church, now the Uniting. The first church was built in 1880. But the construction was poor and the church was pulled down a few years later. In 1896 the second Methodist church opened on the same site. The current church was built in 1954 and replaced the earlier one.