This is a component on a railway wagon parked at the Nairobi Railway Museum. The museum houses rolling stock, locomotives and other memorabilia from the old East African Railways.
This railway line was referred to as the "lunatic line" by the British tabloids of the time when it was built between 1896 and 1901. At the time is cost 5 million pounds to complete, but it's cost in human life was enormous, with an average of 4 workers dying for every mile of track! The original line was built from the port of Mombasa on the Indian ocean coast of what is now Kenya to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria. By 1931 the line had been extended to Kampala the capital of Uganda.
Two things attracted me to this rusting component on the railway wagon. Firstly, it is embossed with the words "Made in England", the second thing that caught my eye was the acronym E.A.R, implying that these components were manufactured especially for East African Railways.
We are all too familiar with the "Made in China" label. Take a look at your desk where your computer stands, or your kitchen. A fair chunk of what's before you was made in China.
In 2010, the US was the world's leading manufacturer contributing 19.9% of the world's manufactured goods. Its projected that the US will lose its long standing number 1 position to China in 2011. The US have held the top spot for 110 years, quite a record! Coincidentally, it was about the time that the lunatic line was commissioned that the US surpassed Britain as the leading global manufacturer.
At present England relies on manufacturing for 26% of it's GDP. This manufacturing is concentrated in aerospace, defense, pharmaceuticals and chemicals although the UK has 10 operational railway manufacturers.
Despite it's manufacture site listed as England, the pictured component was probably designed in the US. Timken is an American company founded in 1899 by Henry Timken and his sons. Henry Timken was a German born carriage builder who patented a tapered rolling bearing for freight wagons, which improved their handling during cornering. This patent was the start of then Timken business which still operate's today.The companies slogan "Wherever wheels and shafts turn", describes the widespread use for bearings. Timken bearings have been fitted to trains, aircraft engines and even the space shuttle's landing gear!
This component (probably a bearing of some sort) was manufactured under license in England following a licensing agreement in 1909 which gave the Timken company access to the global markets. I suppose in some respects this is similar to today's manufacturing being outsourced to China?
I have no way of knowing exactly how old this component is but I am sure it contributed to the economies of England and the US at it's manufacture. It contributed to the British East African economy in it's use, even now is contributing in a very small way to the Kenyan economy as part of the museum display!
Showing posts with label Photograph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photograph. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Fork
I captured the image above at the cutlery second-hand "store" down the road from our house in Karen, Nairobi. The store consists of several tables under a tree arrayed with cutlery, pots, pans and other assorted kitchen items.
This kind of shop finds it's roots in another Kenyan (perhaps East African) tradition called Mitumba. This is a Swahili term which literally means "bundles" and refers to bundles or bales of 2nd hand clothes donated in the west and then sold in bales to local merchants who then sell them on.
It's common place here in Kenya for people to go to the Mitumba for their clothes shopping. In Nairobi the largest and most famous Mitumba is Toi Market, located on the outskirts of Kibera slum. It is known as THE place to shop for cheap 2nd hand clothes. Almost all the big western brands are available here at very low prices (a fraction of the cost of the high street boutiques). The only real draw-back is that you won't necessarily find what you want in your size!
The knives and forks on sale down the road from our house have similar origins, the left overs from European and American tables. Finding matching sets is tricky, but if you're looking to outfit your kitchen cheaply, this is a good place to pick-up quality flatware.
Forks have been in use as eating utensils from the 2nd century AD, but only came into common use in Western Europe in the 10th century! I wonder what those early Westerners would have thought of these piles of 2nd hand forks? For an interesting history on forks be sure to read the Wikipedia entry.
The image above is one of the few black and white images I have produced amongst the tens of thousands of photos I have taken over the last 10 years that I have been taking my photography seriously. As an aside, I have always pondered the name "black & white" as its more like "shades of grey", but I suppose there is a sexiness to "black and white"!
One of reasons I take so few black and white images is that I am addicted to color! I usually find my inspiration in nature where color abounds, even at the most minute scale. The flower below is an example of the range of color in nature.
The first computer screens were true monochrome - white, green or amber on black. I remember my family's first PC was an XT with an amber screen. It was 1986 and I was one of the coolest kids on the block! Times have changed.
These early monochrome screens could display shades of grey, or degrees of brightness that emulated grey, but nowhere near as many tones required to display a meaningful black & white image. These days standard computer screens can display 16.7 million colors (or shades of them anyway). I wonder how they measure this? Perhaps a subject for a future blog? Even Apple's Ipad can display over 65,000 colors/shades!
So why so few black & white? Well perhaps it's in celebration of the ability of technology to reproduce the amazing spectrum of God's creation?! Nevertheless, enjoy the rarity of this black & white image - at least on this blog!
This kind of shop finds it's roots in another Kenyan (perhaps East African) tradition called Mitumba. This is a Swahili term which literally means "bundles" and refers to bundles or bales of 2nd hand clothes donated in the west and then sold in bales to local merchants who then sell them on.
It's common place here in Kenya for people to go to the Mitumba for their clothes shopping. In Nairobi the largest and most famous Mitumba is Toi Market, located on the outskirts of Kibera slum. It is known as THE place to shop for cheap 2nd hand clothes. Almost all the big western brands are available here at very low prices (a fraction of the cost of the high street boutiques). The only real draw-back is that you won't necessarily find what you want in your size!
The knives and forks on sale down the road from our house have similar origins, the left overs from European and American tables. Finding matching sets is tricky, but if you're looking to outfit your kitchen cheaply, this is a good place to pick-up quality flatware.
Forks have been in use as eating utensils from the 2nd century AD, but only came into common use in Western Europe in the 10th century! I wonder what those early Westerners would have thought of these piles of 2nd hand forks? For an interesting history on forks be sure to read the Wikipedia entry.
The image above is one of the few black and white images I have produced amongst the tens of thousands of photos I have taken over the last 10 years that I have been taking my photography seriously. As an aside, I have always pondered the name "black & white" as its more like "shades of grey", but I suppose there is a sexiness to "black and white"!
One of reasons I take so few black and white images is that I am addicted to color! I usually find my inspiration in nature where color abounds, even at the most minute scale. The flower below is an example of the range of color in nature.
The first computer screens were true monochrome - white, green or amber on black. I remember my family's first PC was an XT with an amber screen. It was 1986 and I was one of the coolest kids on the block! Times have changed.
These early monochrome screens could display shades of grey, or degrees of brightness that emulated grey, but nowhere near as many tones required to display a meaningful black & white image. These days standard computer screens can display 16.7 million colors (or shades of them anyway). I wonder how they measure this? Perhaps a subject for a future blog? Even Apple's Ipad can display over 65,000 colors/shades!
So why so few black & white? Well perhaps it's in celebration of the ability of technology to reproduce the amazing spectrum of God's creation?! Nevertheless, enjoy the rarity of this black & white image - at least on this blog!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Ghost in the machine
Of late several of my Flickr photos have made it to Flickr's Explore Page. Flickr Explore is a measure of Interestingness - a word coined and copyrighted by Flickr. It's basically a measure of how interesting your photo is in comparison to all the other photos uploaded on Flickr. Each day Explore selects the top 500 interesting Flickr photos for Explore - creating the Top 500 photos for the day.
It's estimated that about 2 million photos are uploaded daily, so making the TOP 500 is quite an achievement. On the useless information front, Flickr currently has over 5.6 billion images in it's database!
To date 33 of my photos have made Explore, and one of the images has made it to the Flickr Explore Front Page. To determine whether any of your Flickr photos have been in Explore, use the Scout tool at BigHugeLabs.com.
I have been looking critically at some of my photos that have made Explore in an attempt to inform future photographs. There are blogs out there that suggest ways to get your photos into Explore, although in reality you have to start with a good image.
The bulk of my Explore'd shots are macros and most include flowers.
Looking at the non-macro shots, like birds or insects, one of the common denominators seems to be an appealing background.
With this in mind I have specifically shot my latest photo (the one at the top of the page) with what I hope is a visually appealing background! Now the work begins of getting this image noticed with the hope and aim of it being selected for Explore!
It's estimated that about 2 million photos are uploaded daily, so making the TOP 500 is quite an achievement. On the useless information front, Flickr currently has over 5.6 billion images in it's database!
To date 33 of my photos have made Explore, and one of the images has made it to the Flickr Explore Front Page. To determine whether any of your Flickr photos have been in Explore, use the Scout tool at BigHugeLabs.com.
I have been looking critically at some of my photos that have made Explore in an attempt to inform future photographs. There are blogs out there that suggest ways to get your photos into Explore, although in reality you have to start with a good image.
The bulk of my Explore'd shots are macros and most include flowers.
Looking at the non-macro shots, like birds or insects, one of the common denominators seems to be an appealing background.
With this in mind I have specifically shot my latest photo (the one at the top of the page) with what I hope is a visually appealing background! Now the work begins of getting this image noticed with the hope and aim of it being selected for Explore!
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