Castle Aching

[St Enodoc]

... well, yes, but not a Frenchman. I really hoped not to have to provide this link, and do so now only in the interests of informed debate. Cycles Sirius - Henri Gray, 1899.

A forerunner of Elon Musk sending a Tesla into space?

[sem34090]

And I stand by it! But then I'm very laid back, so laid back I'm lying down (not quite sat on a Steampunk... Thing in a red corset I'm afraid!)

Yes... we know...

 

I was trying to be kind and not reveal you as being the culprit!

 

"We've had quite enough of that sort of thing for tonight, come back tomorrow..."

 

Missenden returned to his seat... (Yet again)

[Hroth]

... well, yes, but not a Frenchman. I really hoped not to have to provide this link, and do so now only in the interests of informed debate. Cycles Sirius - Henri Gray, 1899.

'tis Boxing Day, our Hunting Members are allowed a certain degree of latitude!   Yes, though displaying her assets, as it were, she's also rather fuzzy around the edges, unlike the wing'ed  cycliste.  As for the clothing, you can tell its steampunk as it certainly would be on the outside, if she were wearing any other clothing.

 

Phew.....

[Hroth]

Yes... we know...

 

I was trying to be kind and not reveal you as being the culprit!

 

"We've had quite enough of that sort of thing for tonight, come back tomorrow..."

 

Missenden returned to his seat... (Yet again)

 

I feel that the Honourable Member for an obscure East Anglian seat should retain his seat and dwell on the delectable JA a little while longer...

[Compound2632]

'tis Boxing Day, our Hunting Members are allowed a certain degree of latitude!   Yes, though displaying her assets, as it were, she's also rather fuzzy around the edges, unlike the wing'ed  cycliste.  As for the clothing, you can tell its steampunk as it certainly would be on the outside, if she were wearing any other clothing.

 

Phew.....

 

All I can say is, it's a good thing for all concerned that she's riding side-saddle.

[sem34090]

I feel that the Honourable Member for an obscure East Anglian seat should retain his seat and dwell on the delectable JA a little while longer...

Mr Hroth, I'm not into elderly women...

 

[nick_bastable]

 

 

 

Tomorrow, after I've cleared up, maybe some modelling?!?

So long as it's male clothing, preferably pre-grouping, then that's fine. Just don't listen to what one member of this parish once told me that everyone, of any gender, looks good in stockings and suspenders...

 

a Gentleman's attire

 

 

Nick

[sem34090]

Forgot about those...

[Nearholmer]

Anyway ......... if you want a bicycle advert which seems to have everything to do with the female form and absolutely nothing at all to do with bikes, try this one, which is probably best linked-to, rather than reproduced. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b90159148.r=Jules-Alexandre+Grün+.langFR

 

And, this one, which, despite trying very hard fails miserably, being British. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/15/e8/b0/15e8b0f8605182112f59c31be52c5f0d.jpg

Edited December 26, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

At least in the Cycles Sirius advert, one's eye is ineluctably drawn to the product itself.

[nick_bastable]

and finally to merge the topics

 

Nick

[Annie]

What has to be remembered with those late 19th century and early 20th century bicycle advertisements is that at that time bicycles, - especially the safety bicycle, - were cutting edge technology and very much the latest and greatest best thing.  Sales competition was intense, - new bicycle manufacturers were springing up everywhere and they all wanted to persuade John and Jane Public to buy their bicycle.  The best graphic artists of the day were commissioned to create posters which is why there's such a rich legacy of old bicycle posters and artwork now available for us to Oooooo and Ahhhhhh over.

For women in particular the bicycle gave them transport freedom in a way that simply hadn't been available before and there is a considerable amount of learned literature written by historians and sociologists on this subject if you want to go looking for it.

 

And yes I'm a bit of an old bicycle nut and I really do miss not being able to ride my vintage bicycles anymore.

[runs as required]

I can't understand why anyone would go out and blue their money on a Raleigh all steel bike after perusing that lady in the ad .

 

Mention of Rockingham and Harringworth  above reminds me that my preference was for a flashy new drophandled BSA  when I first went youth hostelling to Kingscliffe YHA; this  was all spectacularly deep ironstone mining quarries back in 1953.

It got me dreaming through Christmas of a favourite part of the railway map of mine through Rutland – especially the former LNW Rugby to Peterborough via the other Seaton junction (not forgetting the unexpected LNW & GN Joint running north via John O'Gaunt to Newark with a branch off to Leicester’s folorn GN Belgrave Road terminus).  I found my pre-grouping Bradshaw very difficult to comprehend about these trains (360 and 437), maybe it was the drink!

 

Did anyone here ever ride any of the above lines before they closed ? I’d love to hear of such journeys.

.

Years later I rode across the MR Nene viaduct (with my two grandsons who were at Seaton nursery school) from Oakham to the newly opened Corby station. We were all rather disappointed at how low it appeared from the train..

dh

Edited December 27, 2018 by runs as required

[Martin S-C]

So, anyway...

[Annie]

Ooooooo that's very nice Martin.  I like Pecketts, - good useful little engines.   

[sem34090]

Indeed - What the good Lady said!

[Compound2632]

For women in particular the bicycle gave them transport freedom in a way that simply hadn't been available before 

 

... but not in quite the way Henri Gray envisioned. I've been worrying all night about what happens when her garment gets trapped in the chain.

[RedGemAlchemist]

So, anyway...

 

Peckett_W4_0-4-0ST_No501_'WILF'_Built 1885-1906.jpg

Forgive me for sounding like a moron but what does DSC mean? Edited December 27, 2018 by RedGemAlchemist

[phil_sutters]

My family knew how to dress appropriately - especially as they had a high quality tailoring business in Hereford. They do seem to have chain cases or guards on the ladies' bikes. I do hope that the older man in this photo didn't expect the rest of the group to keep up with his motorized bike. Dated to circa 1912, by the age of the twins, two of my mother's aunts.

Edited December 27, 2018 by phil_sutters

[Annie]

What wonderful old bicycles Phil.  Thank you for posting this photo.  Plainly it's been in the wars though and ended up being crumpled, but still a great photo despite that.

[Nearholmer]

Annie

 

All that you say is true, but I have to say that this sentence struck gloom into me:

 

“considerable amount of learned literature written by historians and sociologists”

 

I’m afraid that a lot of ‘social impact of technology history’ written by recent authors that I’ve seen seemed to at least mildly overstate things (too much reliance on individual quotations, not enough statistics) and, very definitely, over-analyses things. Worst case is a history of ‘first wave’ electric road vehicles, that I’ve got; a giant soufflé of verbiage, going on for hundreds of pages, when the author could have got the facts across, and made a sound analysis, in a quarter the space.

 

I blame PhD dissertation/thesis word-count targets, and lazy publishers who simply publish the dissertation/thesis, rather than employing editors to knock things into shape.

 

Rant temporarily suspended due to jobs to do, Kevin

Edited December 27, 2018 by Nearholmer

[runs as required]

Annie

 

All that you say is true, but I have to say that this sentence struck gloom into me:

 

“considerable amount of learned literature written by historians and sociologists”

 

I blame PhD dissertation/thesis word-count targets, and lazy publishers who simply publish the dissertation/thesis, rather than employing editors to knock things into shape.

 

Rant temporarily suspended due to jobs to do, Kevin

I don't understand the highlighted comment.

Bernard Shaw famously apologised "sorry I don't have time to shorten this" [text]

 

Though not possessing a PhD myself, I was obliged to supervise them. It was an endless battle getting less able graduate students to prune boring repetitious writing..

They also wished me to set up the most prestigious in their field as examiners.

 

I developed a technique of getting prospective Ph.D. examiners (who were always busy people) to refuse to agree - unless the candidate accepted word count limits that limited to 120 or so double sided A4 in 12 point Arial pages.

 

I've also never encountered publishers who simply accept without an awful lot of pruning and re-writing; indeed they very rarely ever agree to publish PhD theses.

dh

[Martin S-C]

Forgive me for sounding like a moron but what does DSC mean?

Not a moronic sounding question at all as you cannot know the answer since its a fictional industry - my Dean Sollers Colliery. There will eventually be 3 Pecketts and an ex-L&Y Pug owned by the company. Digital sound has been put into No.501 and I need to get around to putting sound decoders into the other two Pecketts. The Dapol Pug I am still thinking about; is a sound chip and speaker even possible? I may have to fit a freelance small coal/water/tool wagon behind it and put the digital gubbins in that.

[Annie]

Annie

 

All that you say is true, but I have to say that this sentence struck gloom into me:

 

“considerable amount of learned literature written by historians and sociologists”

 

I’m afraid that a lot of ‘social impact of technology history’ written by recent authors that I’ve seen seemed to at least mildly overstate things (too much reliance on individual quotations, not enough statistics) and, very definitely, over-analyses things. Worst case is a history of ‘first wave’ electric road vehicles, that I’ve got; a giant soufflé of verbiage, going on for hundreds of pages, when the author could have got the facts across, and made a sound analysis, in a quarter the space.

 

I blame PhD dissertation/thesis word-count targets, and lazy publishers who simply publish the dissertation/thesis, rather than employing editors to knock things into shape.

 

Rant temporarily suspended due to jobs to do, Kevin

Oh I completely agree Kevin.  I have read some of the stuff written about the impact of the bicycle on women's lives and some of those writers don't half go on.  Seriously most of it could be cut back to about the quarter of the page length in my opinion.  Anyway it doesn't take much intelligence to realise that women who previously could never have a hope of buying a horse could buy a bicycle instead which didn't need stabling or feeding & etc and then suddenly they could go wherever they pleased.

[corneliuslundie]

I am reminded of when we used to assess university courses for acceptance as a qualification for the professional society I worked for. We had to limit the submissions to 30 A4 pages, as otherwise they simply delivered every document they had ever produced and expected us to read the lot.

As a journalist, i was used to being told - Here is the press release. You have 31 lines plus a two line headline of not more than 15 characters each. One quickly gets to sort out the essentials.

And on bicycles, I still have one and fully intend to do a little touring in the coming year. I hoped to this year but various things conspired. One advantage of living in mid Wales is that there are still a lot of quiet lanes, even if most of them are rather vertical. For years I rode a Freddy Grubb until it got so worn that the bottom bracket was too worn to hold the bearing. That was a semi-hand made bike, very nice especially as i got it second hand for a knock down price, paid for with paper round earnings.

Anyway, as I shall be away from my computer over the holiday, Happy New Year/Blwydddyn Newydd Dda to all the parishioners.

Jonathan