Tuesday, December 27, 2011

My contribution to creating an IPP in every home on the North Shore of Vancouver.

Date: December 23, 2011

Location: Riverway Golf Course (owned and operated by Municipality of Burnaby)

Reason:  Company Year end Dinner


Why not talk shop, why not brainstorm, on the very last day of the year before we meet again for the daily grind on January 2nd, 2012.  Christy will be doing the same thing, Thinking, and being paid handsomely for her efforts.  Whereas we six, will be paid on our own dime.

I put it to the plumber in the crowd "What's the water pressure going into a house?"  "Depends" he said "on where you live."   "North Shore"   "80 lbs."

Google Search Criteria    Water pressure to houses on the north shore of burrard inlet
Its one thing to ask a simple question like water pressure going into a house without realizing where OUR water comes from in the first place.  "A TAP".... good guess, try again.   "The north shore?"  Partially right.  There's a bit of geography involved here, like why is Stanley Park's Prospect Point still there, after an IceAge has flowed off from a continent to finally settle a small portion of itself into English Bay and Georgia Strait....

Why oh Why is Prospect Point still there, after the Ice Age?   Why doesn't every harbour have a Prospect Point?

The year is 1889, the date is March 26:  The data that follows was prepared by Researcher: Roy J.V. Pallant
Surveys for the tunnel were simplified by the fact that the
centre of each shaft was visible from the other. - Page 9
· Ground level at the south shaft in Stanley Park some
distance back from the foreshore was twenty-three feet
above sea-level and conditions for open excavation were
most favourable. For the first sixty-five feet, the shaft was
in clay hardpan, the balance of the 400 feet in sandstone.
The shaft was timbered to a depth of twenty-five feet, after
which a concrete lining was used. After excavation of the
shaft and after the tunnel was driven several hundred feet,
a pump to lift 200 gallons per minute was installed and a
weir built which in fact sufficed until the tunnel was
completed.
Pearson Scott Foreman

















 

A plug of concrete, twelve feet thick, was placed at the bottom of the Caisson, to stop it from moving and sealing it to the bedrock.  The miners then drilled a hole through the concrete, and another 400 feet down through the bedrock

With the site fixed by the point where underlying sandstone
was at the least depth below sea level sinking of the north
shaft presented problems. To begin with, several feet of
water at average tides covered the location. That
necessitated a caisson within which sinking would be done.

 Driving the tunnel was quite as routine as an ordinary
mining tunnel, the only essential difference being that the
bore was located 400 feet below sea level. While miners
pegged away with drill and jackhammer, great ocean liners
and noisy tugs steamed back and forth through the
Narrows entrance of one of the world's busiest harbours.
Three shifts of eight hours were worked continuously and
every round of holes fired marked an advance of seven or
eight feet. Use of extra powder broke up the muck so that it
was easily handled by hand labour loading small cars and a
locomotive hauling them to the south shaft where the spoil
was raised.  (Page 11)
 From the earliest days of the development of Vancouver
and district water supply, the submerged mains, now
superseded
, have been considered a rather precarious link.
Years ago the Vancouver City Council instructed the later
Col. T.H. Tracy, first city engineer, to report on the
feasibility of a tunnel. Proposals were even put forward for
a bridge to carry the supply mains. (Page 13 of 14)

Homeowner operated  IPP suggestion?    Why not hook up a micro water driven hydro generator to the incoming water line to every household?  Why not have larger users of water eg. Hospitals and Rec Centres, use the incoming pressure of water to supplement their electricity needs?

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Re-cycling the 35mm Film Canon F1 2.8 100mm lens and SpeedFinder. Don't do this in the District of North Vancouver!

Long before Digital cameras came along (twenty-two years ago), film cameras were the in-thing to photograph with.  These photos were taken, late afternoon, at the North Vancouver District Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.

The "two" riders, closet to the camera, are the same person, the one at top of the image made it across, and NOT by swinging his leg off of the bike at the end of his run.  There's a method to their madness it seems, if I tell you how they do it I would be charged by Christy Clark's law enforcement officers for aiding and abetting 24 year old "juveniles".

It was the cyclist at the top of the image that gave me the idea of capturing the second cyclist.... both cyclists, in my humble opinion, were totally out of their minds.

The second cyclist pushed past me, on the east side of the bridge, I snapped the first picture, then 3.5 seconds later (or as quickly as I could advance the film and compose the field of vision) I snapped the second photo.

I had the two images merged in a photo lab, took a day to have it done, plus one day shipping it out, another day to return.  THREE DAYS!

Today I used two "pieces" of modern technology, one an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo Flatbed Scanner to convert the colour negatives to positive images, to then using another software bundled with Nikon's PictureProject I merged the two photos via ArcSoft Panorama Maker.   Done in under five minutes for the two processes and then up to the BBC for more editing.


There's only been one pedestrian who has survived a fall from this bridge, and she was totally intoxicated, too drunk to know what she was doing, where she was doing it, with her two friends, at three o'clock in the morning.  I suppose that if you don't know the hazard that could befall you, you  can sort of relax.  Totally, and she did....... and she had the additional luck of the afternoon's being HOT, melted the mountain snow which then created high water in the canyon far, below.


Cyclists who do this sort of activity during any hour, and call it "fun", are out of their minds.



Digital Cameras are in, now, but back then it was this that caught the action!   A Canon F1, with a 2.8 100mm lens.  The F1, made of brass, had all the capabilities that no one could afford except for this:  The Speed Finder.

The conventional prism viewfinder on the F1 was designed to be REMOVED, then replaced with the SpeedFinder.  The benefit of this feature allows the cameraman to take the camera right down to the ground, and then looking straight down through the "top" viewfinder, as though it were a Hasselblad, the most unique photographs can be taken.  Optionally, the camera could be hoisted overhead of a crowd, then aimed down, to see the 'target' beyond the ring of rioters.

Changing from straight down to conventional is just a push of a button, then a twist either clock-wise or counter clock-wise.

Most photographs are done from eye-level, the Speed Finder allows for a different level of a photograph to be attained with a minimum of fuss.


Hopefully, what with all the speed bumps in North Vancouver to calm the traffic, the same holds true for the North Vancouver Suspension Bridge to STOP cyclists from speeding, when they should be walking, across the bridge.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Vancouver Landscape Resources 41 Trees

 Vancouver Landscape Resources   41    Trees  Pages 35 and 36 (Updated Link May 25/13) & September 12, 2013




And here I thought that the only thing outdoorsy magical, in Vancouver, was MEC.

Street addresses   101 to 199 West 10th, is Three Minutes away from MEC, its well worth the "hike" to see these towering, magnificent Horse Chestnut Trees, and the houses, equally towering above the street, with their Vancouver City Heritage signs aplenty.   Don't worry about taking refreshments, there's a "store", mid-block, south side.

Mountain Equipment Co-op
130 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5Y 1P3
1. Head east on BC-7 E toward Manitoba St

130 m
2. Take the 1st right onto Manitoba St

100 m
3. Turn right onto W 10 Ave
Destination will be on the right

200 m

199 W 10th Ave
Vancouver, BC V5Y 3L1


Aesculus Hippocastanum - Horse Chestnut


Almey Crabapple
Arbutus or Madrone
Beech
Black Walnut
Blue Atlas Cedar
Butternut
Cappadocian Maple
Caucasian Wing-Nut
China Fir
Cucumber Tree
Dove Tree- Handkerchief Tree
English Elm
English Oak
Fernleaf Beech
Garry Oak
Giant Sequoia
Giant Sequoia
Japanese Maple (Variety Unknown)
London Plane
Maple (Various Species)
Northern Red Oak
Northern Red Oak
Oriental Plane Tree
Pacific Dogwood
Pin Oak
Pin Oak
Purple Beech
Redwood
Royal Paulownia
Saucer Magnolia
Southern Magnolia
Spanish Chestnut
Swamp Cypress
Tree of Heaven
Tulip Tree
Turner's Oak
Weeping Beech
Weeping Willow
Weeping Willow
Western Catalpa

Friday, December 9, 2011

October 31, 1926.....Boxer May Be Shot to Moon * * * Many Ask for Reservations

 1926



The following.text, all of it, except of course for the Minutes from the City of North Vancouver (CNV), is from the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, where this newspaper is held in safe keeping.

"The Review" - J.M. Bryan Publisher.
    Mr. Bryan decided that it was time for the North Shore to have its own newspaper.


 ******************
The (CNV) Clerk reported that formal complaint had been made by Mr. J. M. Bryan of the Review Publishing Co. that they were not getting a fair share of the City’s advertising business.

The Clerk reviewed a former understanding whereby the North Shore Press was to get the publishing of the City by-laws and the Review the publishing of the District by-laws.
Moved by Alderman Anderson, seconded by Alderman White and resolved that both newspapers be asked to furnish a sworn statement of their paid circulation within the City limits together with the cost of advertising space.
****************************
 The Review

Sam McFee, former champion welter-weight boxer of the British navy and now a resident of Victoria, has come forward as a volunteer passenger for the rocket-to-the-moon flight which Herr Professor  Franz Vallier will be invited to stage from Victoria, Vancouver Island.


Mr. McFee, after a life crowded with adventure as a British tar, a prize fighter and survey gang boss in charge of timber cruising parties, looks upon the moon flight as the crowning incident in a life full or color.


He is keenly interested in the giant rocket loaded with sixteen tons of nitrocellulose (aka guncotton) with which it is proposed to send the passenger on his inter-planetary call.


"I have been pretty nearly all over the world," Mr. McPhee (sic) said, "I have met people of every color and every race, I have fought on the sea and in the ring in a few score places.  I have fought Indians.  I have been bitten by land sharks.  I would like to meet these moon men and see what they look like.  Maybe I could start a boxing school up there."


"What is there in it?" was Mr. McFee's parting word.  "I don't  see how the passenger gets back from the moon to the earth.  That seems a little point that is overlooked, so if I make the trip I want a guarantee (an indemnity???) to be left  with the wife before the flight starts."


Following Mr. McFee's offer, Olaf Peterson, the East Sooke inventor of the passenger carrying aerial torpedo, announced that he has received mail applications from persons to make the trial trip across the Pacific.  Two of these applications are from VAncouver, one from Calgary, Winnepeg 2, Brandon 1, Seattle 4, Portland 5, San Francisco 8, Los Angeles 3, Denver 1, Chicago 1, Nelson 3, Port Angeles 3, Toronto 3, New Westminister 10, Edmonton 2, Regina 1.


Mr. Peterson said that he was limiting his trial-trip passenger list to 12, including only local celebrities and a movie news reels man who has applied from Hollywood.


***************************

DRAYCOT LECTURES ON SEYMOUR CREEK

"The Ancient Water Course of Seymour Creek and Geology of the North Shore" were subjects of a lecture delivered by W.M. L. Draycot, Lynn Valley, last Friday in Vancouver, to members of the Burrard Field Naturalists' Club.   Maps, plans, panoramic sketches and photographs executed by the lecturer made the subject intensely interesting as did also the display of various mineral specimens found in the locality.
*******************************

SACRED HEART CONCERT TO AID CHRISTMAS FUND

Next Sunday afternoon at 3' o'clock the North Vancouver Choral Society will give a scared concert at the Lonsdale Theatre in aid of the Elks' Christmas Cheer  fund.  An attractive programme has been arranged.  The complete programme will be found in the music column.                                                                                                                       (City of North Vancouver Minutes: From the Elks with respect to Christmas Cheer, making application for an increased grant, owing to the large number of hampers that are being distributed under present arrangement.
  Referred to Estimates.) 
City of North Vancouver Index to Archive Minutes starting June 12, 1907
******************************

England might try prohibition.  That would provide enough extra jobs to take care of the unemployed.
1926