CHINESE IMMIGRANTS and the Iron Road

Chinese Gold Digger- Photo: Wikimedia

On a bright May day in 1869, railroad workers, businessmen, and government officials gathered in Utah for a historic event. Soon the ceremonial driving of a solid gold railroad spike would complete a six-year effort at building a railroad across America. Of course, the pricy $350 spike was quickly replaced for safekeeping. Still, it represented the bridging of 3,500 miles of railroad, and thus also symbolized an enormous amount of human labor. Much of this labor was Chinese.

Americans had contemplated constructing a transcontinental railroad since the 1830s. Without an “iron road”, overland travel from the eastern states to the California Territory entailed four to six months of hardship. A railroad would facilitate westward expansion and help realize America’s “manifest destiny”. 

In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act. This granted a charter to two railroad companies, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, for the building of a railway and telegraph line. The companies would work from opposite directions: the Union Pacific would start construction in Omaha, and the Central Pacific would start in Sacramento. The separate projects would eventually meet and become linked. 

The companies broke ground in 1863, but their projects didn’t gain full speed after the Civil War ended. In 1866 the Union Pacific increased its labor force with mostly Irish immigrants. The Central Pacific hired more than 25,000 Chinese immigrants to move through the Sierra Nevadas. 

Chinese people had ventured to North America as early as 450 A.D. Still, few Chinese resided in North America until the California Gold Rush was publicized. When news of golden soil reached the Chinese mainland, peasants recognized an opportunity to escape poverty. Some men were so destitute that they had sold their children. Earning a few hundred American dollars would allow their families a life of luxury. So, thousands of men boarded tightly packed ships for passage to “the Golden Mountain” of California. 

The Chinese workers were especially valuable to the Central Pacific Company. With their goal of moving east from Sacramento, they needed an estimated 5,000 workers. There weren’t enough Anglo-Americans available in California, and when men were brought from the eastern states, they tended to take off for adventure! The Central Pacific hired as many Chinese immigrants as they could, and then sent agents to Hong Kong for additional recruits. By the time the rails were joined in Utah, about 90% of the Central Pacific workers were Chinese. 

The Chinese immigrants, despite being crucial laborers, were not treated as well as white laborers. White men were paid $35 each month and also received a tent, food, and supplies. The Chinese were usually paid less and did not have the “benefits” of company-provided food, shelter, or supplies.

The Central Pacific workers risked their lives every day when scraping through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Sometimes they wove man-sized baskets to suspend themselves over cliffs, 2,000 feet above the ground. They used dynamite and nitroglycerine, which sometimes exploded prematurely. For many months, some lived entirely beneath the mountain snow, creating labyrinths from home to work and living by lantern light. Entire camps of men were lost to avalanches. 

Once the men reached the desert, they faced another set of hazards. There they could lay rails more quickly, but the temperature reached 120 degrees! Alkali dust made most bleed from the lungs. 

By January of 1869, the work was nearly complete. The federal government calculated where the two railroads should meet, ultimately deciding upon Promontory Summit. Eight Chinese men placed the final section of rail on May 10, 1869. Just five days later, passenger train service began. The overland trip from Omaha to Sacramento would now require only four days of travel!

Californians expected the railroad to bring prosperity. The most immediate effect, however, was that California’s fledgling manufacturing industry was threatened by cheaper items from the Eastern US. Californians were further irritated by the influx of job-seeking immigrants who arrived via train. The ensuing economic depression was blamed upon the Chinese immigrants who had constructed the iron road. California passed numerous anti-Chinese laws. Fortunately for the Chinese American community, however, the railroad employees had earned the immigrants a reputation for being good workers. They were recruited to work elsewhere across the United States. 

Every year in May since 1965, the celebration of completing the nation’s first transcontinental railroad is re-enacted at the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Brigham City, Utah. 

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Looking at Globular Clusters

Globular Clusters in NGC 4490 - Photo: Flickr

Globular clusters are defined as a dense grouping of thousands to millions of stars.  They are comprised of young stars at millions of years old to older stars at billions of years old.  The stars in these clusters are usually very tightly bound together.

They are considered deep sky objects.  They are easily found in the night sky in the hours before midnight in the months of April through September.  They appear in your telescope as concentrated patches of gray mist.  The amazing part is the average distance between any of the given stars is between ¾ to 1 ½ light years.  

The most spectacular of all is the NGC 5139.  You can see it with your naked eye because it is three times the moon's diameter.  There are millions of stars that take up your viewfinder.  It is truly a wondrous sight to behold.  If you live in or around North Carolina close to the latitude of +36 degrees, you will be able to spot it easily in the night sky.

Clusters such as these are very common.  In the Milky Way, there are 150 known clusters.  The Andromeda galaxy could have upwards of 500.  The giant elliptical galaxies, such as M87, have as many as 10,000.  The neat thing is the globular clusters contain some of the first stars that were created when time began.  Their origins are still unclear.  

The major part of these clusters is found near the galactic core.  And another large majority lie on the celestial sky side.  Clusters contain a high density of older stars but they are not great locations for planetary systems.  The orbits of the planets become unstable in the dense clusters. These clusters can be dated by viewing the temperature the coolest white dwarf stars are in the group.  Common results say some of these stars are 12.7 billion years old or older.

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What to Do With Your Stamp Collection

May Stamp Collection - Photo: Wikimedia

Are you an avid stamp collector who would like to move on?  Whether you have increased in age and are looking to make final arrangements for your most prized possessions or if stamp collecting simply isn’t a hobby that you enjoy anymore, you may be looking for guidance.  Many stamp collectors are surprised to hear how many different options they have when looking for part ways with their stamp collections.

One option that stamp collectors have when looking to pass on their stamp collection, is to literally pass it on.  This is most often done with family members.  If your age and what will happen to your prized possessions after your passing is a concern of yours, you may want to select a family member to pass your stamp collection onto.  Whether you do this now or state in your will your wishes, there are a number of benefits to keeping stamp collections in the family, especially those that are twenty years or older.

In keeping with passing your stamp collection on, you may want to examine close friends or family friends.  This approach is a nice option if you do not feel that a relative would be able to properly care for your stamp collection, expand it, or take pride in it.  If you take great pride in your stamp collection and would like to see it reach new heights, it is wise to select a new owner who would do just that.  This individual would be one who has a love of the past or one who personally enjoys stamp collecting as a hobby.

Another option, when looking to pass your stamp collection on to another, is to sell it.  Depending on the stamps in your collection, this approach may prove to be a profitable one.  Should you decide to sell your stamp collection, it is a wise idea to do the proper amount of research.  Examine collection values, ideal stamp collecting conditions, and so forth.  When selling your stamp collection, consider selling it as a whole set or in individual groups.  If you have stamps of value, your best approach may be to arrange a meeting with a stamp collecting dealer.

Donating is also an option if you are looking to pass on your stamp collection.  Depending on your stamp collection, it may be of great value and not just in the monetary sense.  You may have stamps in your collection that would be valuable to a historical organization or another nonprofit organization.  To assist your local community, inquire locally first and then expand your search to a national level if you do not see the results you were hoping for.  When donating your stamp collection, inquire about its intended use.  Will it be auctioned off for the profits or will it be housed on display?

As highlighted above, you have a number of different options.  As for which option is best for you and your stamp collection, it is important to remember it will vary.  Before deciding what you would like to do with your stamp collection, it is important to think about your decision.  Are you looking to pass on your stamp collection because stamp collecting is no longer an interest of yours or are there more important reasons, such as your health?  This important question should have an impact on your final decision.

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Victorian Architecture

The Carson Mansion - is a Queen Anne Victorian mansion at 143 M Street in Eureka, Northern California
Photo: Wikimedia

In Eureka, California sits one of the most beautiful examples of Victorian Architecture. The Carson Mansion, with its 18 rooms and excess of 16,200 square feet was constructed between 1884 and 1886. The cost of this structure was an incredible $80,000.

It is a mix of every major style of Victorian Architecture and is the most written about, most photographed house in California, possibly the U.S.

Victorian Architecture is known by many other names and can be of various styles. The building period of Victorian Architecture overlaps the reign of Queen Victoria, for whom it was named.

These structures are highly decorated and so aptly nicknamed Gingerbread houses for all of their pieces and gingerbread type scrollwork and ornamentation.

Interestingly enough, in the U.S., Toledo, Ohio is recognized as having one of the largest collections of Victorian homes, East of the Mississippi. Boston is noted in the National Register of Historic Places as having the oldest Victorian neighborhood in the U.S.

But of course, the U.S. isn’t the only place where these intricate creations of Victorian Architecture can be found. Notable Victorian-era cities range from London to Glasgow to Melbourne and to New Orleans.

Typical Victorian Architecture is grand in size, containing many functional rooms and passageways throughout the structure. Most throughout the country are not only fancifully decorated with intricate woodwork throughout, but they are usually known for their grand color schemes, both on the exterior and interior. Large inviting rooms welcome guests into their depths.

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Stun Guns

Stun Gun - Photo: Wikimedia

The Stun gun is an effective weapon used to subdue a person by administering an electric shock that disrupts muscle function for a limited amount of time.

While the taser fires projectiles that administer the shock, the stun gun is a handheld weapon that causes a shock in direct contact.

Stun Guns use a temporary high voltage low current electrical charge to stun the body’s muscles and immobilize the recipient.

The recipient feels pain and is momentarily paralyzed. It is also reported that applying the stun gun to more sensitive spots on the body will cause more pain.

Tests show the most effective parts of the body to stun are the upper shoulder, below the rib cage, and the upper hip. The resulting shock causes muscles to twitch uncontrollably, like muscle spasms.

The margin of safety on the use of stun guns depends highly on the overall general health of the person receiving the shock. There is some controversy over the use of the stun guns.

The internal workings are basic and simple, based on either an oscillator, resonant circuit, and set-up transformer or diodecapicator voltage multiplier. This is what causes the continuous, direct, or alternating high-voltage discharge.

They are powered usually on one or two batteries depending on the manufacturer. The power of the output current depends on the recipient resistance, skin type, moisture, clothing, and the battery conditions.

A shock lasting about half a second will cause intense pain and muscle contractions, which startle most people. Two to three seconds will often cause the target to become dazed and drop to the ground, and over three seconds will usually completely disorientate and drop an attacker for several seconds.

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Ashby Castle

A view through the trees of Ashby de la Zouch castle - Photo: Wikimedia

Ashby-de-la-Zouche takes its name from the Zouche family whose line died out in 1399.  In 1464, Ashby was one of the estates granted to William, Lord Hastings, as a reward for his services to Edward IV.  Hastings held the office of Lord Chamberlain and, in 1474, he obtained a license to crenelate his houses at Ashby and Kirby Muxloe.

During the Civil War, Henry Hastings strengthened the castle with earthen redoubts and turned it into the chief center of Royalist resistance in the county.  The garrison endured over a year of siege before surrendering on honorable terms in February 1646.  The Hastings Tower was slighted by order of Parliament, but the rest of the castle remained habitable into the eighteenth century.  It is now all ruined.

Before Lord Hastings, there was only a manor house here, though it was a fine one in keeping with the status of the Zouches.  Hastings made the older buildings the core of his mansion.  They form a range centered upon a late Norman hall, flanked by the solar and a buttery and pantry wing.  In the fourteenth century, the massive kitchen was added to the complex. Lord Hastings modernized these buildings and extended the range with the addition of a fine chapel in the prevailing Perpendicular style.

Following the license to crenelate, he built a curtain around the manor house and raised the mighty square tower, which is named after him.  The curtain cannot have been a very formidable obstacle - only a portion survives-but the Hastings Tower is still impressive.  It is one of the best examples of a late medieval tower house, providing its owner with a dignified but secure residence.  It stands detached from the manorial buildings, facing them across the courtyard.  The tower is built in very fine ashlar masonry.

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Life of Leonardo da Vinci

Nacio:Vinci, Toscana, 1452 Murió: Amboise, Turena, 1519 - Photo: Wikimedia

Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, cartographer, engineer, scientist and inventor in the 15th century. Yet, despite his genius, he referred to himself as "senza lettere" (the illiterate, the man without letters).  For good reason: until late in life, he was unable to read, or write, Latin, the language used by virtually all other Renaissance intellectuals, the lingua franca, akin to English today. Nor was he acquainted with mathematics until he was 30.

Leonardo was born out of wedlock but was raised by his real father, a wealthy Florentine notary. He served at least ten years (1466-1476) as Garzone (apprentice) to Andrea del Verrocchio and painted details in Verrocchio's canvasses. Only in 1478, when he was 26, did he become independent. 

He was not off to an auspicious start. He never executed his first commission (an altarpiece in the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio della Signoria, Florence's town hall). His first large paintings were left unfinished ("The Adoration of the Magi" and "Saint Jerome", both 1481).

Most of the sketches and studies for Leonardo's works of art and engineering are found on his shopping lists, personal notes, and personal expenditure ledgers.

No one was allowed to enter Leonardo's den, where he kept, as Giorgio Vasari in "Lives of the Artists", describes: "a number of green and other kinds of lizards, crickets, serpents, butterflies, locusts, hats, and various strange creatures of this nature". 

Leonardo's clients were often dissatisfied with his glacial pace, lack of professional discipline, and inability to conclude his assignments. He was frequently involved in litigation. The Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception sued him when he failed to produce the Virgin on the Rocks, an altarpiece they commissioned from him in 1483. The court proceedings lasted 10 years. The head of Jesus in "The Last Supper" was left blank because Leonardo did not dare to paint a human model, nor did he trust his imagination sufficiently. Leonardo worked four years on the Mona Lisa but never completed it, either. He carried it with him wherever he went.

Leonardo's terra cotta model for a colossal bronze sculpture of the father of his benefactor and employer, Ludovico Sforza, was used for target practice by invading French soldiers in 1499. The metal which was supposed to go into this work of art was molded into cannon balls.

Leonardo was a member of the commission which deliberated where to place Michelangelo's magnificent statue of David. His cartographic work was so ahead of its time, that the express highway from Florence to the sea - built in the 20th century - follows precisely the route of a canal he envisioned. His scientific investigations - in anatomy, hydraulics, mechanics, ornithology, botany - are considered valuable to this very day. Bill Gates owns some his notebooks containing scientific data and observations (known as the Codex Hammer).

But Leonardo's loyalties were fickle. He switched sides to the conquering French and in 1506 returned to Milan to work for its French governor, Charles D'Amboise. Later, he became court painter for King Louis XII of France who, at the time, resided in Milan. In 1516, he relocated to France, to serve King Francis I and there he died.

Leonardo summed up the lessons of his art in a series of missives to his students, probably in Milan. These were later (1542) collected by his close associate, Francesco Melzi, as "A Treatise on Painting" and published in print (1651, 1817).

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