Variations on Lifeforms

I was walking around my yard today and ran into a few plants that I thought have never seen before. I used my google image finder to discover what they were.  The first one (shown above) is called claytonia perfoliata, or more commonly known as miner's lettuce or winter purslane  It is a flowering plant in the family of Morntiaceae.  I have now read up all about it, and it does have green leaves, and it was the green leaf variety that I have seen before, but those leaves and stems will turn this strange pinkish yellow color if there is too much sun and a lack of water.  They are edible, but I will pass on tasting it this time.  It is an annual plant native to the western mountain and coastal regions of North America.

Below, another plant, only a few feet away, is shown below.  It is called pterospora andromedea, also commonly known as woodland pinedrops or giant pinedrops.  They appear as a tall redish-purple plant

that often resembles emerging asparagus spears.  It produces a cluster of small, nodding, bell-shaped flowers that can range in color from white to creamy-yellow or reddish. The stems are noticeably sticky to the touch due to glandular hairs that excrete a sticky substance.  Pinedrops lack chlorophyll and therefore cannot perform photosynthesis. This gives them their non-green, "ghostly" appearance. 

Pinedrops are mycoheterotrophic plants. Instead of making their own food from sunlight, they derive nutrients through a parasitic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. These fungi are themselves connected to the roots of nearby coniferous trees, typically pine trees

Pinedrops are found in moist to dry shaded coniferous or mixed forests across North America.  They are often found in small clusters and may not appear above ground every year, only emerging when environmental conditions are ideal. 

The world is almost infinite in the variations of its life forms.  All we have to do is open our eyes and look around to see this.

Killing Two Birds With One Stone

We decided to install a water fountain in the patio/deck area behind our house.  The reason we made the decision to place the fountain there was because we were being disturbed by a low level din from a highway about a mile away that we could hear, albeit ever so slightly, when we were out on the deck, especially in the evenings. We found the low level highway din very disturbing, to say the least.  The new fountain masked the noise of the highway fairly well.

Shortly after we installed the fountain it started being visited by many varieties of birds: robins, finches, jays, humming birds, crows, etc. and the honey bees from the hives that we also have in the back yard.  We enjoyed all of these visitors, at first.   However, the crows kept coming to the fountain to wash their food, primarily chicken parts, and leaving the bones in the fountain after they were done eating all the meat off them, and they would also scare away the other birds that wanted to share the water.  There was one family of crows that lived in the oak tree about 50 feet from the fountain. That particular crow family was part of a murder of crows that lives in the neighborhood. (Yes, if you didn't already know, a flock of crows is called a murder!)  Together, the crows were taking over the fountain and scaring away the other birds and the bees.

So, in order to keep the crows from coming to the fountain, I installed a small scarecrow immediately above the fountain, attached to a railing.  This didn't seem to phase the crows.  They were still coming on a regular basis to use the fountain as their dinner table, leaving the bones behind.  I escalated, by putting an orange colored college pennant I had into one of the hands of the scarecrow.  This combination of either the orange in the pennant, or possibly the wind making the pennant flap in the wind was too much for the crows to take and they have now departed permenently.  Fortunately, the other birds and the bees could care less about the scarecrow and the pennant and they still come to visit the fountain on a regular basis.

We then noticed that we could still hear a very faint sound of the highway over the sound of the bubbling water in the fountain.  I next purchased a small white noise machine and plugged it in and left it sitting right behind the base of the fountain.  I selected the sound of  a gentle babbling brook from the various choices available and turned up the volume.  It sounds just like the original fountain, but more intense.

So, now it has been almost a month without the crows and I have deemed the scarecrow with the orange pennant waving in the breeze an unqualified success.  I have now looked up why scarecrows behave this way, and have discovered that the moving parts seem to be necessary since the crows are very smart, but not smart enough to understand the moving parts.

US Frigate Constitution Enters San Francisco Bay -- 1933

 

I last posted about "Old Ironsides" on this blog back on Dec. 12, 2013. If you are interested, you may want to look at that blog post by clicking here.  I was going through some old photographs that I have and came across an additional photo that I had inadvertently omitted from that blog.  I thought is was such an interesting photo that I would include it here, at the almost 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.  It is somewhat of a miracle that this ship, originally constructed over 225 years ago, is still afloat today.  

Of course, this has not been without extensive reconstruction of the ship many times through the years. 

The picture, of course, is of both the USF Constitution and the Golden Gate Bridge while being constructed in 1933.  The occasion of the ship being in San Francisco Bay in 1933, which I might add was over 90 years ago, was part of a tour following the 1927-1931 reconstruction of the ship at the Boston Navy Shipyard.  For the next three years after its reconstruction the ship toured the ports of the coastal states from Boston to Washington and back.  Don't forget that at that time Hawaii and Alaska were not states, and consequently did not get included on the tour.

The ship passed through the Panama Canal in order to get from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, both going to the West Coast and upon it's return.  I just happen to have an image of the ship as it passed through the Panama Canal, but I don't know if this was going West in 1932 or returning East in 1934.

Celebrating Joseph Priestley's Birthday - March 24, 1733

This coming March 24th, we will celebrate the 293rd year since the birth of this magnificent person, known by the name of Joseph Priestley, who has contributed so much to our civilization.  He was born to a family of rather ordinary means in Birstall, West Yorkshire, England, in 1733.

Actually, at the time he was born, the Julian calendar was in use in England, and he was born on March 13, 1732. But when England switched to the Gregorian calendar and also started of the new year to January 1st, his birth date was changed to reflect the date we celebrate now.

He would go on to make significant contributions in many diverse fields.  He is viewed by some today as the conscience of our modern way of thinking.  We have extolled his many contributions to humanity in the pages of this blog; should you wish to learn more about him, feel free to browse the many entries about him that we have posted. 

Yet, today, for most, he is a relatively unknown figure of history, or perhaps, only known as the person who first isolated the gas we now know as oxygen.

The Ross Precision Computer

The Ross Precision Computer

I have been looking to acquire a Ross Precision Computer for many decades now. The Ross was conceived and manufactured in San Francisco, CA, starting in about 1915 by Louis Ross, a Ukrainian immigrant to the US.  These are considered very rare, as the company was only in business for a limited number of years, they were relatively expensive when they were originally offered for sale, and not many have survived.  On the plus side, they were very accurate (5 places of accuracy), and is less bulky, and could be carried easier (length, 11.5") than some of the other long scale slide rules like the Thacher, or the Fuller. 

I have recently purchased the Ross pictured above and added it to my collection.  For a more descriptive article on the details of this device, please see this link by Nathan Zeldes.

The Day the Sky Turned Dark in New York City -- January 24, 1925

                          

It was the third decade of the 20th century, about the middle of the

roaring 20s.  Technology and industrialization, along with the

Great World War of the prior decade, had helped to transform the

United States into a major world power, and with that

transformation New York City became the world's powerhouse.  

Calvin Coolidge, who had been the Vice President of the United

States under Warren G. Harding, was now the President since

Harding had suddenly died in office on August 2, 1923. At that

time there was no way, unlike today after the passage of the 25th

amendment to the Constitution in 1967, to nominate and confirm

a Vice Presidential candidate to fill the vacancy created by

Coolidge’s ascendancy to the Presidency.

During 1924, Coolidge ran for President on the Republican ticket,

with Charles G. Dawes as his running mate against John W. Davis

and Charles W. Bryan on the Democratic ticket.  In the November

1924 election Coolidge and Dawes won the election, but in those

days, since inauguration day was still March 4, of the following

year, Coolidge would have no sitting Vice President until after the

inauguration in March.

In New York City, John F. Hylan was the Mayor. New York City

had just become the most populous city in the world, having

overtaken London.

January, 1925, arrived and departed like a polar bear and New York

City was the unwelcome recipient of almost 27 1/2 inches of snow,

the most ever recorded for any January up to that time (this record

was finally eclipsed in January, 2011, when the city recorded 36

inches of snow).  On January 20, 1925, New York City got hit with

two blizzards in one day. On January 27 more snow fell and then

the coup de grace; another giant storm on January 30 that affected

the entire metropolitan area.

But, on January 24th of that year, on that cold and wintry Saturday

morning the temperature was hovering around zero degrees, and

David Franklyn Yerex, a professional photographer who had worked

for a number of years for Underwood and Underwood, the world’s

largest producer of stereoscopic cards, arose early and took his

photographic equipment to Highbridge Park just north of the High

Bridge on the Manhattan side before dawn and set up his camera to

get a good view of the High Bridge and the Harlem River. David

grew up with cold weather. He had been born in a small town in

Ontario, Canada, in 1876.  But, despite all the adverse weather

conditions, at precisely 9:11 am he took a picture that made him

somewhat of a celebrity. He had taken a very rare picture of a total

eclipse of the Sun at precisely the right time.

It was known for quite some time prior to the actual eclipse that this

eclipse was going to come on January 24th, but in order for a viewer

in New York City to get a view of the total eclipse the viewer had to

be in the very narrow path where the eclipse was total.  In fact, had

Mr. Yerex been south of approximately 96th St. he would have only

seen a partial eclipse. Below is the map prepared by Consolidated

Edison Companies based upon actual observations of where this

particular eclipse was total and where it was only partial. You will

note the somewhat diagonal dotted line (actually it is going almost

directly east/west) through the northern part of Central Park, starting

at about 95th St. at Riverside Drive and ending at about 106th St at

the East River. Points south of this line were in partial eclipse for the

event and points north of this line were in the path of the total eclipse.

Below is a local news article on the anticipated path of the area

where the total eclipse would occur on that day.

You can see that New York City is on the southern fringe of the

area covered by the total eclipse.  

The following beautiful and rare art photo of the Total Eclipse of

the Sun was taken by David Yerex from Highbridge Park on

Washington Heights, overlooking the Harlem River and the Bronx,

New York City, January 24th, 1925 at about 9 A.M.

Image copyright 2016, Friends of the High Bridge, LTD.

It shows the historic High Bridge before the steel span over the

Harlem River would be installed a few years later. Also, the

street lights were turned on during the eclipse; and you can see

the small tug going up the river; and smoke from a passing train

still visible; also shown is the reflection of the eclipse in the water.  

This is the only photograph of the “Great Event” which shows the

marvelous streamers of the Corona that resemble an arrow

shooting through the disk of the Moon.

A beautiful hand colored enlargement of this picture was hung in

The American Museum of Natural History and has been highly

endorsed by astronomers, artists, photographers and other

capable critics who have proclaimed it to be a stunning picture of

the eclipse.

To get an idea of how infrequently a celestial phenomenon such

as this happens, the last previous total eclipse in New York City

was in 1838, just as the Croton Aqueduct was starting to be

constructed, and that eclipse was not a total solar eclipse, it was

an annular solar eclipse. You would have to go back to the year

1478, before Columbus even discovered the New World, to find

the last total solar eclipse to pass over what is now called New

York City. And, if you are interested to know, the next total solar

eclipse to pass over New York City will be in the year 2079.

David Yerex, would go on to take pictures of other future eclipses

including the total solar eclipse of August 31, 1932 in New

Hampshire, and the total solar eclipse of April 7, 1940 in Florida;

and was honored by Life Magazine in 1940 with Life Magazine's

Picture of the Week Award for the picture of the total eclipse of

April 7, 1940, taken by him in Green Cove Springs, FL, just south

of Jacksonville.

David Yerex led a colorful life. He lived in Providence, RI upon

immigrating to the US in about 1893 and then met and married

Annie McGregor Belmore after she immigrated from Nova Scotia

to Boston in 1898. They moved to Boston where he was with the

firm of E. Chickering. He was noted for his critically important

photographs during this period of time. He divorced Annie and

moved to New York City in the early 1910s, where he was

employed by Underwood & Underwood. Underwood & Underwood

was the world's largest producer of stereoview cards. It was during

the 20s that the stereoview cards were losing market share and

the firm was moving into photo images for the press, much like AP

and UPI. He became naturalized as a citizen in 1917 and married

a local girl named Helen of Irish descent. In 1920 he had moved

to Washington Heights on 160th St. By the mid 1920s he had his

own studio in the Bronx, not far from the High Bridge. Perhaps he

walked the High Bridge from the Bronx with his equipment that

cold wintry day to shoot the picture of the eclipse. During the

1930s he operated a photo studio providing portraits and other

photographic services for the general public while he pursued his

interest on the artistic side of the field.

Around 1940 he moved back to Boston and lived there until his

death. Very few of his known works still survive.