Bringing You All the Updated News of Buffalo's Past. Time Travel Through Buffalo History as Old News Becomes New Again. (2nd edition)
Saturday, August 28, 2010
TESLA, Power to the People
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The "AERO-AMPHIBIOUS VOYAGE" of Mr. WISE - (part two)
THE BALLOON ASCENSION
Professor Wise, The Aeronaut |
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
19th CENTURY AERONAUTICS IN BUFFALO - JOHN WISE - Part one
John Wise |
Monsieur Eugene Godard Balloon in Buffalo Main and Clinton Streets - July 1858 |
The Ascension was made under disadvantage circumstances, but so perfect and so beautiful was it, as to settle in the minds of the people of Buffalo, a large concourse of whom honored the occasion with their presence on the outer side of the Garden----the fact that this aeronaut never fails. After remaining mid-air about 25 minutes, he made the earth again and landed at the pleasant Village of Williamsville.
John Wise Balloon Lafayette Indiana - 1859 |
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Mark Twain Begins New Job Today at the Buffalo Express!
Mark Twain |
Olivia Langdon Clemens |
Mark Twain Lecturing |
He spreads this all out with oppressive solemnity over a column and a half of large print, and feels that the country is saved. His satisfaction over it is quite enormous. He then settles down to his miracles and inflicts profound platitudes and impenetrable wisdom upon a helpless public as long as they can stand it, and then they send him off Consul to some savage island in the Pacific in the vague hope that cannibals will like him well enough to eat him. And with an inhumanity which is but a fitting climax to his career of persecution, instead of packing his trunk at once he lingers to inflict upon his benefactors a "Valedictory".
Twain's Buffalo Home |
"I have resigned my place--I have departed this life--I am journalistically dead, ain't I?
"Yes"
"Wouldn't you consider it disgraceful in a corpse to sit up and comment on the funeral?"
I record here, and preserve it from oblivion, as the briefest and best "Valedictory" that has yet come under my notice.----Mark Twain
P.S. --- I am grateful for the kindly way in which the press of the land have taken notice of my irruption into regular journalistic life, telegraphically or editorially, and am happy in this place to express the feeling.
A Young Mark Twain |
Friday, August 20, 2010
ERIE COUNTY FAIR 1873
The annual Exhibition and Fair of the Erie County Agricultural Society will be held on the grounds of the Society at Hamburgh on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Commencing September 30th. A liberal and comprehensive premium list is offered which cannot fail to draw out a good exhibition.
The grounds of the Society which are among the most beautiful and picturesque in the State, have been put in capital order. The half mile track will be in first rate condition. In addition to the liberal Society premiums for speed, a special purse of $100 is offered by C.J. Hamlin, Esq., to be trotted for by horses six years old or under, raised in the county, and whose sires are kept in the county for stock purposes.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Historic Buffalo River Tour - 2017
don't miss the boat!
GIVE ME A BRAKE!!
George Westinghouse |
The Old Style Brakeman had to set brakes on each individual car by hand |
was a great improvement over the straight air brake, in an emergency the system still applied the brakes to the last cars in a train later than to the first cars in a train. To remedy that condition, George Westinghouse invented the quick action triple valve in 1887. It automatically vents air from the brake pipe locally on each car, which applies the brakes more quickly. During competitive trials in 1887 - 1888, the Westinghouse design proved so superior that it was made the universal standard. The air brake was perhaps the most important single railroad invention of the period.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Fire Department "Shorts"
AMOSKEAG HORSELESS FIRE ENGINE |
Amoskeag Horseless Engine |
The membership of the Fire Department in 1889 was 275 men. The equipment included, twenty one engines(including fire boat), 20 hose wagons, four chemicals, and six hook and ladder trucks, with two steamers and one chemical in reserve.
In October, 1837, in accordance with a prayer of petition long before presented to the common council by Millard Fillmore and others, a bell was bought and placed on the terrace market, to be used for fire alarms and other emergencies. This is all that was used until the telegraph fire alarm system was put into use in 1865.
September 10, 1895, Edward Gardner was the first person in Buffalo to be convicted of turning in a false fire alarm. Fined $50 by Justice King. In November of 1816 a special meeting of trustees was held. The meeting directed the trustees to adopt measures for securing a supply of water for fire purposes, "by means of water courses, aqueducts, reservoirs or otherwise." At the same meeting they were directed to "obtain twenty ladders and two fire hooks;" and every occupant of a house was required to "provide himself with a good leathern fire bucket, and all chimneys were required to be cleaned every two weeks."
Fire Boat in Action on Buffalo Waterfront |
Like a swan the fire boat W.S. Grattan, September 1, 1900 sped on it's initial trip from it's cradle at Nixons Ship yard, Elizabethport NJ. The fireboat was christened the W.S. Grattan, in honor of the Fire Commissioner, as little Miss Lucia Grattan stood at the bow and smashed a bottle of wine on the nose of the boat as it slid down the ways amid the cheering of 1,000 people, and the blowing of many whistles in the Harbor. The Fire Commissioners were all present on the stand, as was also Chief McConnel. The boat is 118 feet long and is built entirely of steel. She is able to make over fourteen knots, and will crush ice twenty inches thick.
Driver John H. Downing of Engine 13 Answers an Alarm |
Be sure to visit my other fire fighting links: FIRE FIGHTING IN THE HORSE DRAWN ERA post, and the the fire fighting in the horse drawn era special Video Page in the EXTRA EXTRA SECTION in the right hand column.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Look Ma, No Horses!
The Commercial Advertiser March 4, 1888
The accompanying picture shows the electrical locomotive which it is proposed to test soon off the tracks of the Buffalo Street Railroad Company. This car is a reproduction of a photograph showing a locomotive which was-and is believed still is-at work on the lines of the North Metropolitan Tramway Co., London. It was built under the patents of the Elieson Electric Company Limited, of No. 31 Liverpool Street, London. A locomotive like the one in the picture has arrived in New York from London, destined for Buffalo. In use an ordinary street car is hitched to it. It is understood that the motor will reach Buffalo in a few days, when the test will be made, and the public, no doubt, be given a chance to judge of its suitability for Buffalo Streets.
It is not claimed that the new motor is cheaper than steam, but it is noiseless, and can therefore be used in the streets. It is claimed to be cheaper than horses, and both cheaper and more trustworthy than the cable system. The motor was shipped to this country at the expense of the Elieson Electric Co., of London, England, who have had their system in successful operation at home for several months.
Main Street Buffalo |
Electrician Robison stood in the front door of the motor cab with his right hand upon the speed regulator, while with the other he grasped the cord of the warning bell. While rounding curves and crossing switches, as well as at the intersections of the principal streets, the speed was brought down to a snail's pace as a precautionary measure; but while traversing the long blocks where the track is in excellent condition, the Motor was permitted to bowl along at the rate of eight or nine miles per hour for short distances, to show what it was capable of doing in actual service. Up and down the grades it moved at about the same rate of speed, the power being shut off wherever gravity would give the requisite propulsion. The motion of the car was pleasanter and less jerky than where horse power is used, particularly in starting and stopping, while the noise was reduced sufficiently to permit of easy conversation without raising the voice.