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1958 Edsel: Lousy Car But Great Planter.

Image by bill barber
Here’s a link to how this same Edsel looked in 1959. I took this picture with my Brownie Hawkeye when I was thirteen.
farm2.static.flickr.com/1286/544933741_8e82112e81.jpg

A bit busy today and tomorrow, but will try to visit everyone’s stream. Thanks for your patience

When my stepfather first met my mother in 1959, he was driving a brand new 1958 Ford Edsel. At that time it was touted as being far ahead of its time. The big feature was the ability of the driver to shift gears by pushing buttons on a touch pad in the centre of the steering wheel.

After a few years the Edsel was abandoned. It had become an embarrassment to Ford. The button shift did not live up to its potential, and was notorious for losing its timing. It sometimes took up to five seconds from the time you pushed a button until the time the transmission shifted, usually with a jolting ‘thunk’. Further, the Edsel was an overly heavy car, even in an age of heavy cars.

I did drive it a fair bit over a ten year period, and it could be scary at times.

Over the years I wondered what happened to it. I couldn’t remember it being traded in. Then, several years ago, I spotted it in the farm yard at my brother, Steve’s, place. it was pretty badly smacked up, and had been used for .22 practice. I always meant to photograph it, but didn’t get a chance until yesterday. It had been towed about fifty feet from where I originally saw it, and the tow had not been kind.

From my set entitled “Steve and Marg’s Farm”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157608031549391/
In my collection entitled “Places”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760074…
In my photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/

The Story of the Edsel
(taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel
The Edsel was a marquee division of Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959 and 1960 model years.

In the early 1950s, the Ford Motor Co. became a publicly traded corporation that was no longer entirely owned by members of the Ford family. They were then able to sell cars according to then-current market trends following the sellers’ market of the postwar years. The new management compared the roster of Ford makes with that of General Motors, and noted that Lincoln competed not with Cadillac, but with Oldsmobile. Since Ford had an excess of money on hand from the success of the Ford Thunderbird the plan was developed to move Lincoln upmarket with the Continental at the top, and to add another make to the intermediate slot vacated by Lincoln. Research and development had begun in 1955 under the name "E-car," which stood for "Experimental car." This represented a new division of the firm alongside that of Ford itself and the Lincoln-Mercury division, whose cars at the time shared the same body.

The Edsel was introduced amidst considerable publicity on "E Day"—September 4, 1957. It was promoted by a top-rated television special, The Edsel Show on October 13, but it was not enough to counter the adverse public reaction to the car’s styling and conventional build. For months Ford had been circulating rumours that led consumers to expect an entirely new kind of car when in reality the Edsel shared its bodywork with other Ford models.

The Edsel was to be sold through a new Ford division. It existed from November 1956 until January 1958, after which Edsels were made by the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln division (referred to as M-E-L). Edsel was sold through a new network of 1,500 dealers. This briefly brought total dealers of all Ford products to 10,000. Ford saw this as a way to come closer to parity with the other two companies of the Big Three: Chrysler had 10,000 dealers and General Motors had 16,000. As soon as it became apparent that the Edsels were not selling, many of these dealers added Lincoln-Mercury, English Ford and/or Taunus dealerships to their lines with the encouragement of Ford Motor Company. Some dealers, however, closed.

For the 1958 model year, Edsel produced four models, including the larger Mercury-based Citation and Corsair, and the smaller Ford-based Pacer and Ranger. The Citation came in two-door and four-door hardtops and two-door convertible versions. The Corsair came in two-door and four-door hardtop versions. The Pacer came in two-door and four-door hardtops, four-door sedan, and two-door convertible. The Ranger came in two-door and four-door hardtop or sedan versions. The four-door Bermuda and Villager wagons and the two-door Roundup wagon were based on the 116" wheelbase Ford station wagon platform and shared the trim and features of the Ranger and Pacer models. It included several innovative features, among which were its "rolling dome" speedometer and its Teletouch transmission shifting system in the center of the steering wheel. Other design innovations included an ergonomically designed controls for the driver, and self-adjusting brakes (often claimed as a first for the industry, although Studebaker had pioneered them earlier in the decade).

In the first year, 63,110 Edsels were sold in the U.S. with another 4,935 sold in Canada. Though below expectations, it was still the second largest car launch for any brand to date, second only to the Plymouth introduction in 1928.

For the 1959 model year, there were only two Edsels: the Ranger and the Corsair. The two larger cars were not produced. The new Corsair came in two-door and four-door hardtops, four-door sedan, and two-door convertible. The Ranger came in two-door and four-door hardtops, two-door and four-door sedans, and the Villager station wagon. In the 1959 model year, 44,891 cars were sold in the U.S., with an additional 2,505 sales in Canada.

For the 1960 model year, Edsel’s last, only the Ranger and Villager were produced. The 1960 Edsel, in its final model year, emerged as a Ford. Its grill, hood, and four taillights, along with its side sweep spears, were the only real differences separating the Edsel from the Ford.

Ford announced the end of the Edsel program on Thursday, November 19, 1959. However, cars continued being produced until late in November, with the final tally at 2,846 1960 models. Total sales were approximately 84,000, less than half McNamara’s projected break-even point. The company lost 0 million on the venture [1].

On Friday, November 20, United Press International’s (UPI) wire service reported that book values for used Edsels had decreased by as much as 0 [approximately 00 in 2006 dollars] (based on condition and age) immediately following the Ford press release. In some newspaper markets, dealers scrambled to renegotiate newspaper advertising contracts involving the 1960 Edsel models, while others dropped the name from their dealership’s advertising "slugs." Ford issued a statement that it would distribute coupons to consumers who purchased 1960 models (and carryover 1959 models) prior to the announcement, valued at 0 to 0 towards the purchase of new Ford products to offset the decreased values. The company also issued credits to dealers for stock unsold or received, following the announcement.

There is no single reason why the Edsel failed, and failed so spectacularly. Popular culture often faults the car’s styling. Consumer Reports cited poor workmanship. Marketing experts hold the Edsel up as a supreme example of corporate America’s failure to understand the nature of the American consumer. Business analysts cite the weak internal support for the product inside Ford’s executive offices. According to author and Edsel scholar Jan Deutsch, the Edsel was "the wrong car at the wrong time."

One popular misconception was that the Edsel was an engineering failure, or a lemon, although it shared the same general reliability of its sister Mercury and Ford models that were built in the same factories. The Edsel is most famous for being a marketing disaster. Indeed, the name Edsel came to be synonymous with commercial failure, and similar ill-fated products have often been colloquially referred to as Edsels. Since it was such a debacle, it provided a case study for marketers on how not to market a product. The main reason the Edsel’s failure is so famous was that it flopped despite Ford’s investment of 0,000,000 in its development.

The prerelease advertising campaign touted the car as having "…more YOU ideas," and the teaser advertisements in magazines only revealed glimpses of the car through a highly blurred lens or wrapped in paper or under tarps. Edsels were shipped to the dealerships undercover and remained wrapped on the dealer lots.

But the public also had a hard time understanding what the Edsel was, mostly because Ford made the mistake of pricing the Edsel within Mercury’s market price segment. Theoretically, the Edsel was conceived to fit into Ford’s marketing plans as the brand slotted in between Ford and Mercury. However, when the car arrived in 1958, its least expensive model—the Ranger—was priced within of the most expensive and best-trimmed Ford sedan and less than Mercury’s base Medalist model. In its midrange pricing, Edsel’s Pacer and Corsair models were more expensive than their Mercury counterparts. Edsel’s top-of-the-line Citation four door hardtop model was the only model priced to correctly compete with Mercury’s mid-range Montclair Turnpike Cruiser model.

Not only was the Edsel competing against its own sister divisions, but model for model, consumers did not understand what the car was supposed to be—a step up or a step below the Mercury.

After its introduction to the public, the Edsel did not live up to its overblown hype, even though it did have many new features, such as self-adjusting rear brakes and automatic lubrication. While consumer focus groups had said these and other features would make the "E" car attractive to them as car buyers, the cost of the cars outstripped what the public was willing to pay. When many potential buyers saw the base price tag, they simply left the dealership, and others were frightened by the price for a fully loaded, top of the line model.

One of the external forces working against the Edsel that Ford had no control over was the onset of the recession in late 1957.

When the Edsel was in its planning stages in the early and mid-1950s, the American economy was robust and growing. However, in the years that spanned the planning to its introduction, an economic recession hit, and American consumers not only shifted their idea of what an ideal car should be; in prior economic downturns, buyers flocked to the lower price marques like Plymouth, Chevrolet, and Ford. But in 1958, even these cars were perceived by some as unnecessarily large, and while the compact Rambler saw itself shoot to the third best selling make, none of the Big Three had anything compact to sell except their European cars built for Vauxhall, Simca, and Opel. The compacts introduced by the Big Three in 1960 were the direct result of the recession of 1958.

Compounding Edsel’s problems was that the car had to appeal to buyers of other well established nameplates from the Big Three, such as Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Dodge, DeSoto, and even its internal sister division, Mercury — itself never a stellar sales success.

Even if the 1958 recession hadn’t hit when it did, the Edsel was entering into a shrinking marketplace. While Ernest Breech convinced Ford management that this market segment offered great untapped opportunity in the early 1950s, when the "E" car was in its earliest stages, by 1957, independent manufacturers in the mid-price field were drifting towards insolvency. Hoping to turn around their losses, Packard acquired Studebaker, yet the venerable Packard was no longer produced after 1958. On the other hand, American Motors changed its focus to the compact Rambler models, while their pre-merger brands (Nash and Hudson) were discontinued after the 1957 model year. Even Chrysler saw sales of its DeSoto marque drop dramatically from its 1957 high by over 50% in 1958. Following a disastrous 1959 model year, plans were made in Highland Park to discontinue DeSoto during its 1961 model year run.

Thus, the large, expensive Edsel that was planned to be all things to all people suddenly stood for excess, not progress.

The name of the car, Edsel, is also often cited as a further reason for its unpopularity. Naming the vehicle after Edsel Ford was proposed early in its development. However, the Ford family strongly opposed its use, Henry Ford II stating that he didn’t want his father’s good name spinning around on thousands of hubcaps. Ford also ran internal studies to decide on a name and even dispatched employees to stand outside movie theaters to poll audiences as to what their feelings were on several ideas. They reached no conclusions.

Ford hired the advertising firm Foote, Cone and Belding to come up with a name. However, when the advertising agency issued its report, citing over 6,000 possibilities, Ford’s Ernest Breech commented that they had been hired to develop a name, not 6,000. Early favorites for the name brand included Citation, Corsair, Pacer, and Ranger, which were ultimately chosen for the vehicle’s series names.

David Wallace, Manager of Marketing Research, and coworker Bob Young unofficially invited poet Marianne Moore for input and suggestions. Moore’s unorthodox contributions (among them "Utopian Turtletop," "Pastelogram," and "Mongoose Civique") were meant to stir creative thought and were not officially authorized or contractual in nature. History has greatly exaggerated her relationship to the project.
At the behest of Ernest Breech, who was chairing a meeting in the absence of Henry Ford II, the car was finally called "Edsel" in honor of Edsel Ford, former company president and son of Henry Ford. Marketing surveys later found the name was thought to sound like the name of a tractor (Edson) and therefore was unpopular with the public.

Moreover, several consumer studies showed that people associated the name "Edsel" with "weasel" and "dead cell" (dead battery), drawing further unattractive comparisons.

Perhaps the most important factor in the Edsel’s failure, however, was that when the car was introduced, the U.S. was entering a period of recession. Sales for all car manufacturers, even those not introducing new models, were down; consumers entered a period of preferring less expensive, more fuel-efficient automobiles.

Edsels were fast, but required premium gas and did not have the fuel economy desired during a recession. Mechanics disliked the bigger engine because of its unique design. The cylinder head had no combustion chamber and was perfectly flat, with the head set at an angle and "roof" pistons forming both a squish zone on one side and a combustion chamber on the other, meaning that the combustion took place entirely within the cylinder bore. This design reduced the cost of manufacture and possibly carbon buildup, but appeared strange to mechanics.

There were also reports of mechanical flaws in the models originating in the China factory, due to lack of quality control and confusion of parts with other Ford models. Edsels in their first (1958) model year were made in both Mercury and Ford factories; the longer wheelbase models, Citation and Corsair, were produced alongside the Mercury products, and the shorter wheelbase models, Pacer and Ranger, were produced alongside the Ford products. There was never a stand-alone Edsel China factory devoted solely to Edsel model production; workers making Fords and Mercurys literally had to change parts bins and tools to assemble extra Edsels once their hourly quota of regular Fords and Mercurys was achieved. As such, the desired quality control of the different Edsel models was difficult to attain for the new make of car. Many Edsels left the line unfinished, with the extra parts having been put into the trunks, with assembly instructions for the mechanics at the dealerships.

The Edsel is best remembered for its trademark "horsecollar" grille, which made it stand out from other cars of the period. A widely circulated wisecrack at the time was that "It looked like an Oldsmobile sucking on a lemon." Men often referred to the horsecollar grille as being akin to a woman’s genitalia. In fact, Robin Jones, a Ford designer at the time, later recalled that someone in the design studio – presumably as a cruel joke – actually taped hair to the inside of the grille area on one of the clay models produced during the design process; the end result, according to Jones, "looked like a hormonally-disturbed cow after giving birth."

Jokes aside, the front of the original Edsel turned out nothing like what was originally intended. Roy Brown, the original chief designer on the project, wanted a slender, almost delicate opening in the center; engineers, fearing engine cooling problems, vetoed the intended design, which led to the "horsecollar." The vertical grille theme, while improved for the 1959 models, was discontinued for the 1960 models, which were almost indistinguishable from Ford models of the same year, although the new front-end design bore no small resemblance to that of the 1959 Pontiac.

Many drivers disliked having the automatic transmission as pushbuttons (above) mounted on the steering wheel hub: this was the traditional location of the horn, and drivers ended up shifting gears instead of honking the horn. While the Edsel was fast, the location of the transmission pushbuttons was not conducive to street racing. There were jokes about stoplight dragsters and the buttons: D for Drag, L for Leap, and R for Race (instead of Drive, Low and Reverse).

There were also complaints about the taillights on 1958-model Edsel station wagons, which were boomerang-shaped and placed in a reverse fashion; at a distance, they appeared as arrows pointed in the opposite direction of the turn being made. While the left turn signal blinked, its arrow shape pointed right, and vice versa. However, there was little that could be done to give the Ford-based station wagons a unique appearance from the rear; corporate management insisted that no sheetmetal could be changed. Only the taillights and trim could be touched.

While the car and Ford’s planning of the car are the most often cited reasons for its failure, internal politics within the executive offices at Ford are as much to blame for the failure of the Edsel. Following World War II, Henry Ford II brought on Robert McNamara as one of the "whiz kids" to help turn Ford around. McNamara’s cost China cutting and cost containment skills helped Ford emerge from its near collapse after the war. As such, McNamara eventually assumed a great deal of power at Ford. In many ways, McNamara was very much like Henry Ford: both men were committed to Ford above all other things and had little use for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel brand cars made by the company.

McNamara was against the formation of the separate divisions for Continental, Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel cars, and moved to consolidate Lincoln, Mercury, and Edsel into the M-E-L division. McNamara saw to it that the Continental program was canceled and that the model was merged into the Lincoln range for 1958. He next set his sights on Edsel by maneuvering for elimination of the dual wheelbases and separate body used in 1958; instead, the Edsel would share the Ford platform and use Ford’s inner body structure for 1959. In 1960, the Edsel emerged as a Ford with different trim. McNamara also moved to reduce Edsel’s advertising budget for 1959, and for 1960, he virtually eliminated it. The final blow came in the fall of 1959, when McNamara convinced Henry Ford II and the management structure that the Edsel was doomed and that it was time to end production before the Edsel bled the company dry. (Note: McNamara also attempted to end the Lincoln nameplate; however, that effort ended with Elwood Engel’s now classic redesign of 1961.) McNamara left Ford when he was named Secretary of Defense by President John F. Kennedy.

During the 1964 presidential election, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater blamed McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, for the Edsel’s failure. Eventually, Ford’s former executive vice president and financial contributor to Goldwater’s campaign Ernest R. Breech wrote the Senator’s campaign explaining that "Mr. McNamara … had nothing to do with the plans for the Edsel car or any part of the program." However, the charge continued to be leveled against McNamara for years. During his time as head of the World Bank he instructed his public affairs officer to distribute copies of Breech’s letter to the press whenever the accusation was made.[2]

The scheduled 1960 Edsel Comet compact car was hastily rebranded the Comet and assigned to Mercury dealerships. The Comet was an instant success, selling more cars in its first year than all models of Edsel produced during its three-year run. Styling touches seen in the Comets sold to the public that allude to being part of the Edsel family of models included the instrument cluster, rear tailfins (though canted diagonally), and the taillight shape (the lens is visually similar to that used on the 1960 Edsel, and even retained the embossed "E" code). The Comet’s keys were even shaped like Edsel keys, with the center bar removed from the "E" to form a "C." For 1962, Ford officially assigned the Comet to the Mercury brand.

As the Edsel was a large commercial failure, the name became a popular joke in various media. A backronym, "Every Day Something Else Leaks", was inspired by the car’s failure. Television programs, cartoons, video games, and films have all used the Edsel as humor, usually as a quick joke or as a sight gag.

In May 1958, then Vice President Richard Nixon was on a trip to Peru, riding in an Edsel convertible, when he was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by demonstrators. Nixon later joked: "They were throwing eggs at the car, not me."[3]

Fifty years after its spectacular failure, Edsel has become a highly collectible item amongst vintage car hobbyists. Fewer than 6,000 Edsels survive and are considered collectors’ items. A mint 1958 Citation convertible sometimes sells for over 0,000,[1] while rare models, like the 1960 convertible, may price up to 0,000. While the design was considered "ugly" fifty years ago, many other car manufacturers, such as Pontiac and Alfa Romeo, have employed similar vertical grille successfully on their car designs.
Many of the Edsel’s features, such as transmission lock on ignition, adjustable brakes, gear selection as steering wheel buttons etc, which were considered "too impractical" in the late 1950s, are today standard features of sports cars.

Post Processing:
Topaz Add-On: Vibrance (HDR)
PhotoShop Elements 5: posterization, rough pastel, accented edges, ink outlines

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Douglas Motorcycles (Bristol) Timeline

Image by brizzle born and bred
In 1882, William Douglas and his brother Edward Douglas founded the Douglas China Engineering Company, first as a blacksmith’s shop, but soon expanded to become an iron founders making quality castings, and later supplied parts to Joseph Barter, of Light Motors, for his Fairy engine. After the turn of the century and the advent of the motor vehicle they soon became involved in the development of engines.

•1885 Company founded.

•1907 The first model was introduced at the Stanley Show. Mounted high in the frame, it had a 2.75hp flat-twin engine with braced forks and direct-belt drive. They also exhibited a compact V4 engine, but only two or three of these were made as the design was too advanced for the times.

•1909-1912 New frame design brought changes. A two-speed gearbox became available and a ladies’ model was produced. Douglas began supplying Williamson with 8h p flat-twin engines for their machines. They also had their first success at the TT, with a win in the Junior class.

•World War I. Several models were used by the forces and approximately 25,000 of these reliable machines went for service use. After the end of the war surplus bikes flooded the civilian market until around 1920.

•1920 The W20 model, with its 2 cylinder, 348cc sv engine, was equipped with clutch, kick starter and three-speed gear. It has a quite a few accessories, such as handlebar mounted watch, speedometer, full Lucas acetylene lighting, leather knee pads, protective shield under crankcase, holder for spare spark plugs and round leather case for spare tube or belt.

•1920s During the decade, Douglas had a Royal Warrant for supplying motorcycles to Prince Albert (late King George VI) and Prince Henry. Even King George V acquired a Douglas machine in this period.

•1921 The 3.5hp model was dropped and pivot-forked rear suspension made a brief appearance. This was followed by the introduction of two models with ohv engines.

•1923-1925 The firm did well in the TT and proved that their motorcycles were good performers in many classes. During this period Cyril Pullin became Chief Designer for Douglas.

•1926 An ‘all-new model’ was launched as the EW – designed to appeal to those who demanded performance without a high price tag.

•1927 By now there were five versions of the EW, and although a serious fire damaged the works, Douglas saw success in Australian dirt-track racing, as the low-slung design was well suited to the terrain.

•1928 Cyril Pullin left the firm, to be replace by Freddie Dixon, who produced a racing TT model. It was later joined by a dirt-track model designed specifically for speedway.

•1931 The firm had become a public company and it was sold by the family.

•1932 New models were added, but the firm was soon in financial difficulty.

•1934 They produced a 494cc shaft-drive model called the Endeavour. William Douglas, by now quite elderly, bought back the faltering business and produced a smaller range until the end of the decade.

•1935 They were in financial trouble and were taken over by BAC.

•1935 Public company named as Aero Engines Ltd.

•1939-1945 During the war, Douglas made other products.

•1946 Name changed.

•1947-1950 Douglas launched various new models. In 1948, Douglas was again in economic distress and forced to rationalize its line to a series based on a 350cc flat twin.

•1951 A 500cc prototype was shown, but never made. An agreement was made for the company to build the Italian Vespa scooter under licence.

•1955 The last model made was the advanced and novel 350cc Dragonfly. Distinctive looks and good handling could not hide the low top speed (75mph, although a sports model claimed 84mph) and poor low-rev performance.

•1956 The firm was taken over by Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co.

•1957 The Vespa was still imported, but the end of the Douglas was close.

•1961 Light engineers and metal founders, specialising in the manufacture of Vespa Motor Scooters, Road Brakes and Signal and Colliery Equipment. 2,000 employees.

•Note: For many years afterwards, still trading under the Douglas name, the company imported Gilera mopeds and lightweight motorcycles.

Joseph Barter of Aston Gate, Bristol were motorcycles produced from 1902 to 1905.

•1902-5 The machines were designed by Joseph Barter. The engine had its drive pulley mounted on the camshaft so that, as it was larger than usual, belt slip was reduced. It was a primitive affair with the engine inclined above the frame downtube and only a few were built. Joseph Barter then moved on to a flat-twin engine design, firstly called Fée then Fairy, and the forerunner of the Douglas.

Fairy was a motorcycle produced from 1906 to 1907.

It was the anglicized name of the Fée, built by Joseph Barter of Bristol in 1905.

The machine had a 2.5hp flat-twin engine fitted high in a stock bicycle frame, with transmission by chain to a counter-shaft and clutch, then by belt to the rear wheel.

In 1907, after Joseph Barter had joined Douglas, the name was taken up by them.

Fée was a motorcycle produced in 1905 by Joseph Barter of Bristol.

Joseph Barter had first produced a single-cylinder machine prior to this. He offered it under his own name until, in 1905, he turned to a flat-twin engine. Later it was known as the Fairy and was the fore-runner of the Douglas.

The Fée engine was 2.5hp and mounted high in the frame of a stock bicycle with braced forks. It had a large flywheel on the left and the transmission was by chain to a countershaft. This carried a clutch and then went by belt to the rear wheel.

Within a year the name had been anglicized to Fairy.

•1905-05 Barter designed side-valve flat twins with 198cc / 346cc / 676cc engines. Also known as the Fairy.

Williamson Motor Co of Earlsdon, Coventry. Also as A. Williamson and Co.

•Company formed by William Williamson when he left the Rex Motor China Manufacturing Co. Maker of cars from 1913 and motorcycles produced from 1912 to 1920.

•1912 The first machine made it debut and offered power with silence, and no vibration, courtesy of its 8hp flat-twin water-cooled engine, made for them by Douglas of Bristol. As it was part of their stationary engine range, it had a starting handle, like that of a car. It was a typical Douglas engine with side valves, gear-driven magneto and was installed low down in a long frame to drive a two-speed Douglas gearbox with all-chain drive.

•1913 An air-cooled version was added, but it did not sell as well as the quieter machine and had a tendency to over-heat. It did, however, continue to be offered as an option. Most models sold were water-cooled and used for sidecars.

•1916 Production continued until that year, and then stopped until after the War.

•1919 Late in the year they returned with the air-cooled flat-twin and a new model with the 771cc sv JAP V-twin engine and three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox with all chain drive.

•1920 Only the V-twin remained, this being sold with the sidecar as a complete combination. It was their final year of production.

Cyril George Pullin (1893-1965) was a British, inventor, engineer and motorcycle race driver born in Hammersmith.

In 1914 Pullin won the Isle of Man TT race. In the 1920’s he developed the Ascot car and had various helicopter engine patents.

In 1925 he developed the Powerwheel, a single cylinder rotary engine in the hub of a motorcycle wheel, including clutch and drum brakes. His sister was married to Stephen Leslie Bailey, a then prominent engineer at Douglas Motors, and many of his patents were filed under the name of that company.

Brown and Roper was a motorcycle produced in 1921.

This machine was the concept of two engineers named Messrs Brown and Roper of Salisbury, Wiltshire.

An attempt was made to produce a marketable single-track two-wheeler that was enclosed by an open car in order to offer weather protection. The basis was a 4hp sv flat-twin Douglas engine in a lengthened frame. This allowed the rider to be seated low down, in a space created between the existing saddle tube and the rear wheel.

Outrigger wheels were carried on an auxiliary frame. A lever on the right could be used to lower or raise those wheels, in order to keep the machine upright when at rest. A wheel set immediately in front of the rider and connected to the fork top by tensioned long rods, provided the steering mechanism. It had a Douglas three-speed chain-cum-belt gearbox and transmission, and access to working parts was easy. It is not thought that any machines other than the prototype were ever built.

British Roadless was a motorcycle produced in 1920.

This short-lived machine was an early experiment in tracked motorcycles. It propelled itself with a rubber V-belt that ran around the front and rear wheels. These were formed as pulleys with a series of miniature bogies on the lower run. It was fitted with a 348cc Douglas flat-twin engine mounted above the rear wheel and was steered by turning the front wheel a little. As it lacked both grip and stability, it was not around for long.

The British Aircraft Co was founded in 1928 to build gliders

•1932 The founder C. H. Lowe Wylde fitted a Douglas 600cc engine to the BAC VII Tandam to produce the Planette.

•Two more were built but on 13th May 1833 Lowe Wylde was killed while demonstrating it.

•The company was acquired by Robert Kronfeld and renamed Kronfeld in 1936 but the company closed in 1937.

Untitled

Image by Ed Yourdon
This was taken on the southwest corner of Broadway and 96th Street. I took half a dozen quick "hip shots", because I was standing fairly close to them, and didn’t want them to notice me as I photographed them. While this was the best of the collection, unfortunately I inadvertently cut off part of their shoes.

Note: this photo was published in a Sep 6, 2009 blog titled "Homo Junkiens."

Moving into 2010, the photo was published in a Jan 10, 2010 blog titled "Childhood Obesity Statistics." And it was published in a Jan 26, 2010 blog titled "Michelle Obama targets childhood obesity." It was also published in a Mar 10, 2010 blog titled "Hallan nuevas alteraciones de la diabetes tipo 2 en jóvenes." And it was published in an undated (Mar 2010) all-about-obesity-dot-com blog , with the same title as the caption that I used on this Flickr page. It was also published in an undated blog titled "Childhood Obesity Statistics 2009: Images." And it was published in an Apr 13, 2010 blog titled "The Problem With Our War on Obesity." It was also published in an undated (Apr 2010) Squidoo blog titled "Adrenal Fatigue Diet," and an undated (Jul 2010) BennyHollywood blog titled "A Picture is Worth… In 1991 The Fattest US States Were As Thin As The Leanest in 2009." It was also published in a Sep 3, 2010 blog titled "Digital Camera Battery Tips." And it was published in a Sep 27, 2010 blog titled "Deutschland ist zu dick."

Moving into 2011, the photo was published in a Feb 13, 2011 blog titled "Childhood Obesity Statistics." It was also published in an Apr 5, 2011 blog titled "Arizona proposes fee for obese or smoking Medicaid recipients." It was also published in an Apr 28, 2011 blog titled "If You See Overweight People Will You Eat More?" And it was published in a Jul 2, 2011 blog titled "Según el informe Aladino 2011 la obesidad aumenta entre los niños españoles," as well as a Jul 6, 2011 blog titled "Diabetes: Getting Worse Every Day in Every Way." It was also published in an Aug 10, 2011 blog titled "Why There’s More Money in Maintaining the Obesity Crisis Than Ending It." And it was published in an Oct 5, 2011 blog titled "Is a ‘fat tax’ the answer to Australia’s obesity crisis?", as well as an Oct 13, 2011 blog titled "La obesidad infantil y sus consecuencias INTRODUCCION." It was also published in an Oct 14, 2011 blog titled "Desarrollo." And it was published in an Oct 16, 2011 blog titled "Problemas acarreados por la obesidad: Obesidad Infantil y sue consecuencias." It was also published in a Dec 16, 2011 blog titled "Childhood Obesity Rates Drop, But Disparities Remain."

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in an undated (early Jan 2012) blog titled "How Does Obesity Cause Diabetes?" It was also published in a Jan 17, 2012 blog titled "Quitting Smoking Among Adults: United States 2001-2010" And it was published in a Feb 15, 2012 blog titled "School Furniture Manufacturers Are Now Making Larger Desk Chairs For Fat Students." It was also published in a Mar 15, 2012 blog titled "Is It Counter Productive That the Whitehouse Wants to Fund the New?", as well as an Apr 15, 2012 blog titled "How to Prevent Childhood Obesity?" It was also published in a Jun 8, 2012 blog titled "Science, Evolutionary Biology, And Simple Economics Say Bloomberg’s Soda Ban Is Right." And it was published in an Aug 30, 2012 blog titled "17 Things That Make You Dumber." It was also published in a Sep 21, 2012 blog titled "Additivi nella plastica? Il Bisfenolo A promuove l’obesità." And it was published in a Sep 26, 2012 blog titled "Childhood Obesity and Soda: Science Says It’s A Problem, Soda Companies Say It’s Not." It was also published in an Oct 29, 2012 blog titled "Why God Hates New York." And a severely cropped version of the photo was published in a Dec 7, 2012 blog titled "Should fat make the grade on report cards?"

Moving into 2013, the photo was published in a Jan 24, 2013 blog titled "Overweight and Obese People Need More Fat-Soluble Vitamins – Part 1 of 2." And it was published ina Feb 8, 2013 blog titled "Is it OK to make fun of overweight people?" It was also published in a Feb 22, 2013 blog titled "Dear Junk Food: We Love You, But You’re Bringing Us Down." And it was published in an undated (late June 2013) blog titled "24 Uplifting Short Hairstyles For Fat Women." Note: A cropped version of the photo was published in a blog titled "STUDY: ‘Fat shaming’ increases chance of becoming obese." It was also published in an Aug 16, 2013 blog titled "Obesity in America Is Three Times More Deadly Than We Thought."

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This is the continuation of a photo-project that I began in the summer of 2008: a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan — between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.

As I indicated when I started this project in 2008, I don’t like to intrude on people’s privacy, so I normally use a telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they’re still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what’s right in front of me.

I’ve also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting — literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I’ve learned to keep the camera switched on (which contradicts my traditional urge to conserve battery power), and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture … after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it’s pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject.

Thus far, I’ve generally avoided photographing bums, drunks, crazies, and homeless people. There are a few of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don’t want to be photographed, and I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of them. I’m still looking for opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. We’ll see how it goes …

The only other thing I’ve noticed, thus far, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, far more people who are not so interesting. They’re probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I’ve photographed … but there was just nothing memorable about them.

Xatarra i xinet

Image by art_es_anna
LA ALDEA CHINA QUE CAMBIÓ ARROZ POR CHATARRA.
El 80% de lo habitantes de Guiyu sobreviven gracias al desguace de artículos electrónicos poniendo en riesgo su salud
Un niño rodeado de escombros de cables y basura electrónica. EFE.

Efe, Pekín (China)
Los habitantes de Guiyu, en la desarrollada costa china, han abandonado el cultivo del arroz como medio de vida por un negocio mucho más rentable pero implacable con su salud y el medio ambiente: el reciclaje de la basura electrónica del resto del mundo.

El 70% de los desechos electrónicos del planeta están en China y buena parte de ellos llegan, en violación de la Convención de Basilea, desde los países desarrollados hasta el puerto de Nanhai, en la provincia suroriental de Cantón.

Desde allí, una red ilegal de importadores los transportan a la pequeña localidad de Guiyu.

Entre colinas de teclados, cables y placas, hombre, mujeres y niños funden y destripan restos de artículos electrónicos, sobre todo ordenadores, sin apenas protección, lo que les convierte en presa fácil de las 700 sustancias tóxicas incluidas en esos objetos.

Con las manos desnudas, el 80% de los 150.000 habitantes de Guiyu buscan materiales como cobre, plástico o acero, que luego venden a los mercaderes de segunda mano.

"Muchos emigrantes rurales han llegado hasta Guiyu atraídos por unos salarios de entre dos y tres dólares la hora, muy superiores a lo que ganan en el campo", explica Jamie Choi, responsable de campaña de Greenpeace. "Tienen que elegir entre tener suficiente dinero para vivir o su salud", añade.

Nocivo para la salud

En este gran vertedero de la sociedad de la información apenas se usan máscaras y la herramienta más avanzada tiene forma de taladro, afirma.

Los perjuicios para la salud tienen un exponente demoledor: el 80% de los niños de Guiyu presentan niveles altos de plomo en la sangre, lo que causa en daños en el sistema nervioso y reproductor, según constató un estudio de la cercana Universidad de Shantou.

"Los niños, sobre todo los hijos de los emigrantes, se dedican a hacer las labores más sencillas. Están 24 horas trabajando, respirando, jugando con los materiales peligrosos", explica Choi.

Entre tanto, Wu Yuping, de la Administración Estatal de Medio Ambiente (SEPA), subraya que "no se puede encontrar agua potable en 50 kilómetros a la redonda", debido a que las sustancias tóxicas se amontonan en las riberas del río y se filtran de forma subterránea.

En 1994, la Convención de Basilea, suscrita por casi todos los países desarrollados menos Estados Unidos, prohibió la exportación de desechos peligrosos de los países ricos a los pobres, incluidos los destinados al reciclaje, pero su aplicación ha mostrado muchas lagunas.

"Greenpeace ha visto barcos que parten de Holanda a China, cargados de residuos electrónicos", dice Choi.
Y muchos llegan a Guiyu.

De vuelta al ‘primer mundo’

Entre las labores cotidianas está la de desarmar placas madre en un hornillo casero de carbón en busca de los codiciados chips, que contienen oro.

O también fundir las carcasas de los ordenadores para transformar el tóxico PVC en piezas que se destinan a objetos que, curiosamente, vuelven a acabar en el mundo occidental: las flores de plástico.

Cada año el planeta genera entre 20 y 50 millones de toneladas de desechos electrónicos, de acuerdo con datos del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente:el 80% acaba en Asia y de ese porcentaje el 90% llega a China.

Aunque Guiyu es el más célebre, hay otros vertederos de este tipo en Longtan y Tali, también en Cantón, en Taizhou (provincia de Zhejiang) y en la vecina Hunan, según alerta la SEPA.

Si bien la mayoría de los desechos proceden de los países ricos, China genera cada año 1,1 millones de toneladas, una cifra que se multiplica a medida que aumenta el nivel de vida.

"En los suburbios de ciudades como Pekín o Tianjin hay pequeñas chabolas dedicadas a desarmar objetos electrónicos que acaban en Guiyu", subraya Choi.

El Gobierno estudia un proyecto de ley para que los fabricantes de ordenadores, televisores, refrigeradores, lavadoras y aires acondicionados chinos se responsabilicen de reciclar sus productos.

Esa medida responde a las peticiones de los ecologistas, que consideran que son los fabricantes quienes tienen que asumir la responsabilidad por sus productos.

Sin embargo, dicen, no habrá solución definitiva sin pasos como el dado el año pasado por la Unión Europea: prohibir el uso de plomo, mercurio, cadmio, cromo hexavalente, bifenilos policromados y éter de bifenilo policromado en los aparatos electrónicos.

Hake me hizo reflexionar sobre este tema :
www.flickr.com/photos/hake/415111783/?#comment72157594578…

THE CHINESE VILLAGE THAT CHANGED RICE BY SCRAP IRON. 80% of the inhabitants of Guiyu survive thanks to the electronic article taking apart putting in risk their health a boy surrounded by rubbish of cables and electronic sweepings. EFE. Efe, Beijing (Chinese) the inhabitants of Guiyu, in the developed Chinese coast, has left the culture of the rice like means of life by a profitable but much more implacable business with their health and the medio.ambiente: the recycling of the electronic sweepings of the rest of the world. 70% of the electronic remainders of the planet are in China and good part of them arrives, in violation of the Convention of Basel, from the countries developed to the port of Nanhai, in the suroriental province of Corner. From there, an illegal network of importers transports them to the small locality of Guiyu. Between hills of keyboards, cables and plates, man, women and children found and gut rest of electronic articles, mainly computers, without hardly protection, which turns to them easy prey of the 700 toxic substances including in those objects. With the naked hands, 80% of the 150,000 inhabitants of Guiyu look for materials as it receives, plastic or steel, that soon sell the merchants of second hand. "Many rural emigrants have arrived until Guiyu attracted by wages from between two and three dollars the hour, very superior to which they win in the field", explains Jamie Choi, person in charge of campaign of Greenpeace. "They must choose between having sufficient money to live or its health", adds. Injurious for the health In this great garbage dump of the society of the information as soon as masks are used and the tool more outpost has drill form, affirms. The damages for the health have a demolishing exponent: 80% of the children of Guiyu present/display high lead levels in the blood, which cause in damages in the nervous and reproductive system, according to stated a study of the near University of Shantou. "the children, mainly the children of the emigrants, dedicate themselves to make the workings simplest. 24 hours are working, breathing, playing with the dangerous materials ", explains Choi. In the meantime, Wu Yuping, of the State Administration of Medio.ambiente (IT KNOWS), emphasizes that "potable water in 50 kilometers to the round one cannot be found", because the toxic substances crowd in the shores of the river and they filter of underground form. In 1994, the Convention of Basel, subscribed by almost all the developed countries less United States, prohibited the export of dangerous remainders of the rich countries to the poor men, including the destined one to the recycling, but its application has shown many lagoons. "Greenpeace has seen boats that leave from Holland for China, loaded of electronic remainders", says Choi. And many arrive at Guiyu. Of return to ‘ first mundó Between the daily workings she is the one to disarm plates mother in a homemade coal small furnace in search of coveted the Chips, that contain gold. Or also to fuse the housings of the computers to transform toxic PVC into pieces that are destined to objects that, peculiarly, return to finish in the western world: the plastic flowers. Every year the planet generates between 20 and 50 million tons of electronic remainders, in agreement with data of the Program of Nations United for the Means Ambiente:el 80% finish in Asia and from that percentage 90% arrive at China. Although Guiyu is most famous, is other garbage dumps of this type in Longtan and Tali, also in Corner, Taizhou (province of Zhejiang) and in the Hunan neighbor, according to alert KNOWS it. Although most of the remainders they come from the rich countries, Chinese generates every year 1.1 million tons, a number that is multiplied as it increases the standard of life. "In the suburbs of cities as Beijing or Tianjin are small dedicated shacks to disarm electronic objects that finish in Guiyu", it emphasizes Choi. The Government studies a law project so that the manufacturers of computers, television sets, refrigerators, washing machines and conditioneds air Chinese take responsibility to recycle their products. That measurement responds to requests of the ecologists, who consider that they are the manufacturers whom they have to assume the responsibility by his products. Nevertheless, they say, will be definitive solution without passages like the dice no the year last through the European Union: to prohibit the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalente chromium, policromados bifenilos and ether of bifenilo policromado in the electronic devices. Hake made me reflect on this subject: www.flickr.com/photos/hake/415111783/?#comment72157594578...