Lord_k's Article – November 2009 Archive (27)

International Style. White City

Following Tome's overview of interwar architecture, it's quite natural to mention a Mediterranean city with the highest concentration of the International style artifacts.

The locals use to call this style 'Bauhaus', ignoring the fact that a vast majority of architects who worked there in the 1920s-1950s hadn't come from Dessau. In fact, this concentration is a result of joint effort of a very different architects, most of them with an Eastern… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 29, 2009 at 7:00am — 2 Comments

Night and Day

Sanuel H. Gottscho's (1875-1971) photographs of New York are rational - and romantic. His vision brings us right to Gotham, through the twilight and night to the sunny morning revealing all the city's power and grandeur.

It shows us how different the cityscape may look in different hours and seasons:

Samuel Gottscho acquired his first camera in 1896. From 1896 to 1920 he photographed part… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 28, 2009 at 6:30am — 1 Comment

Lord K's Garage - 13th Issue. BRITISH CARS, PART I

It's easy to get lost in the multitude of makes and models. But it's even easier to spot a British automobile among others. They have something in common - all of them, modest and luxurious, primitive and complex.

1929 Lagonda 14/50 Two-Litre

Today, just a brief overview of these wonderful cars. 1920s and early 1930s.

Enjoy the slideshow:

Find… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 27, 2009 at 7:30am — 2 Comments

Share Your Love

It's about six months since I came here. Six months - quite a sufficient amount of time for summing up. So I took the liberty of analyzing our development, and the picture below is just an eye-stopper.

This network is a success, so far so good. Not a 'fantastic success story', but an indisputable success, thanks to Tome. He succeeded in creating a friendly,… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 26, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

London Transport, 1920s-1930s

Toys? State-of-art models? No, real red doubledeckers under one roof with the green ones, as well as trams, trolleybuses, taxicabs and subway trains.

London Transport Museum in Covent Garden is a proud owner of great vehicles and also possesses a vast image archive, available online.

Let us see some pictures from the interwar era:…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 25, 2009 at 7:00am — 2 Comments

Arthur Radebaugh: The Bright Future

Arthur Radebaugh (1906-1974) was a top-notch commercial illustrator who worked for companies as diverse as Chrysler and Coca-Cola.

He was based in Detroit from the 1930s to 1960s, and much of his work anticipated design revolutions in the automotive and other industries. He once described his work as "halfway between science fiction and designs for modern living."

Radebaugh settled long-term roots in Detroit. He drew ads for major…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 24, 2009 at 7:00am — 3 Comments

Monday Camera #3: Hasselblad

It's not easy to recognize the make. It looks so military... hell, it is military! But the shape seems familiar. Box-like body. Detachable back. Big bad lens.

Yes, this is the first brainchild of Victor Hasselblad, made in the 1940s for the Swedish Air Force. It took only a few steps to transform this spartan device into a camera that will conquer the Moon.

During World War II, the Swedish military captured a fully functioning… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 23, 2009 at 6:30am — No Comments

Aircraft Carriers

One of the Diesel Era symbols is the aircraft carrier, born during the Great War to become the most important warship class of the next war.

This is USS Langley, CV-1, the first aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Converted from the collier Jupiter in 1922, she entered service just when the British rapidly expanded their carrier fleet. The very first carrier, HMS Ark Royal, was converted from a merchant ship in 1914. She…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 22, 2009 at 7:00am — 3 Comments

Artzybasheff's Covers

Here is something like an epilogue to the 'Almost Human Machines' series. From 1940s, Boris Artzybasheff created about 200 covers for Time magazine.

Some of them are formal, but the artist's unique manner is easily recognizable - especially when he makes a switch from portraits to machinery or manages to merge different subjects into one powerful piece. Let us begin with the wartime cover with Admiral Doenitz (notice the… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 21, 2009 at 7:00am — 3 Comments

Lord K's Garage - 12th Issue. BIOPUNK VEHICLES

To Hayen Mill,

who knows to ask the proper questions

Gasification was an important and familiar 19th and early 20th century technology, and its potential and practical applicability to internal combustion engines were well-understood from the earliest days of their development. Town gas was produced from coal as a local business, mainly for lighting… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 20, 2009 at 6:30am — 4 Comments

Through the Time: Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter (1920-2004) was a German-Australian fashion photographer who achieved international recognition in the 1950s.

He settled in Paris in 1961 and continued work as a fashion photographer. His works appeared in magazines including, most significantly, French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylised scenes. A heart attack in 1970 slowed his output… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 19, 2009 at 7:00am — No Comments

Rail Zeppelin

The Schienenzeppelin or rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar which resembles a zeppelin airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929.

Propulsion was by means of an airplane propeller located at the rear, and only a single example was ever built.

The train was built at the beginning of 1930…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 18, 2009 at 6:00am — 2 Comments

Boris and his Almost Human Machines, Part III

Industry and science can be as creepy as war. Civil machines sometimes make much more impression than military gear. Peacetime tools carry a lot of human spirit - so why can't they be anthropomorphic?

Postwar commercial illustrations of Boris Artzybasheff together with his pictures from As I See serve a proof not only of the author's skills but also of our feelings towards the machines. We tend to see them as 'beings' - almost… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 17, 2009 at 7:00am — No Comments

Monday Camera #2: Rolleiflex

This camera is often considered an old-school Steam Age artifact. Actually it is younger than Leica: the first Rolleiflex appeared in 1928.

The most famous camera ever manufactured by Franke & Heidecke (Braunschweig, Germany) introduced the innovative twin-lens reflex scheme: its bright upper lens was used for viewing/focusing and the coupled lower one for… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 16, 2009 at 7:30am — No Comments

Bugatti Autorails

In 1932 Ettore Bugatti started his most successful project - the Autorail. He designed a railcar capable of doing 200 km/h on standard gauge.

The 'heart' of the design was 12,5 liter 8-cylinders twin-carburetor 200 h.p. petrol engine. The same engine that moved the magnificent Type…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 15, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Brough Superior SS100

Purchased at the fortieth anniversary of company founding by Dunlop Rubber in 1928 for tyre test and publicity purposes. Originally furnished with sidecar and pictured in 'The Dunlop Story' by James McMillan.

Having seen war service, the machine survives sans sidecar and with replacement frame, however…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 14, 2009 at 7:30am — 3 Comments

Lord K's Garage - 11th Issue. GUESS WHERE

Today, the first car at the exhibition is gorgeous, streamlined and... anonymous. Try to guess where it was built. Not when - beyond any doubt, it's 1930s, - but where?

And there are some other cars, too. Can you name their country of origin?

United States? Negative.

Probably, Germany? Nein.

Could it be Italy? No, signori e signore,… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 13, 2009 at 7:30am — 6 Comments

Boris & His Almost Human Machines (Part II)

Tome called antropomorphic machines 'just plain creepy'. And what can be creepier than machines of war? Today, just a few Artzybasheff's pictures related to war and its unheroes.

And don't forget that Boris Artzybasheff was an expert advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Psychological Warfare Branch during WWII. So let's take a look:…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 12, 2009 at 7:30am — No Comments

Sky Cruise: A flight on the Hindenburg

The Sky’s our ocean. If you doubt it, take a transatlantic dirigible ride. You’ll be reminded of an ocean voyage - with the rolling and pitching left out and the time cut in half. It’s punctual and methodical, but don’t think it’s not exciting - and it’s a foretaste of the future as well.

This article was published in the May 8th issue of Collier’s Magazine. Let's listen to the author, W. B. Courtney, who crossed the Atlantic on board of… Continue

Added by lord_k on November 11, 2009 at 8:00am — 5 Comments

One and Only

The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) introduced a number of railcars to service between 1933 and 1939. They were mainly single units but one was a three-car articulated set.

This was a three-car articulated railcar which was outshopped from Derby Carriage and Wagon Works in 1939. The cars were numbered 80000, 80001 and 80002. The streamlined three-car train was a single articulated unit; the two outer coaches were each 64ft long and rested on a centre coach that…

Continue

Added by lord_k on November 10, 2009 at 7:30am — 8 Comments