EISPIRATEN

Don't be Phillip Carpenter!

Are you saying we should blow off our fingers then?

Elwood wrote: ↑A few years ago, the observatory had its hundredth anniversary of 'first light' on the beautiful 100-inch Hooker telescope.

Very cool that you made the event. In 1917 the poet Alfred Noyes attended the first trial of the telescope. In the prologue of "Watchers of the Sky" he describes the experience. It's many pages long, so I won't copy the whole thing, but here's the bit where they look through the eyepiece and see a moon of Jupiter.

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑

Don't be Phillip Carpenter!

Are you saying we should blow off our fingers then?

Back in 1917, young Robert McCain couldn't wait until the Fourth to blow off his fingers. He did it a full two weeks beforehand.


(Los Angeles Herald, June 20, 1917)

Of course if I had had a toy cannon, my fingers would be history too.

On July 12, 1899, Theodore Kretschmar experienced the biggest shock of his life. While walking around the mountains above Altadena, he grabbed a low-hanging wire. Unfortunately it was a live wire and he suffered a terrible electric burn. He survived but both of his arms had to be amputated.



(Los Angeles Herald, Sep. 19, 1899)

Kretschmar sued the Mt. Lowe Railway for damages. He ultimately won a jury trial in May 1901.


(San Diego Union, May 3, 1901)

Something happened to Fannie McKenzie on July 13, 1915. She was found in a dire state on the Wilson Trail above Sierra Madre. She ended up dying from a possible poisoning. I couldn't find a follow-up article after the coroner's report. You know what that means.

Death by speculation.


(Los Angeles Herald, July 13, 1915)

The title of this thread sounds like what happens to me every August with my wife. ?

On July 19, 1907, a special truck tried to haul structural iron up the newly widened Wilson toll road. It carried the first load of material for constructing the 60-inch telescope, and the road had been widened specially for this special truck. Unfortunately the special truck got stuck in the soft sand of the special road. Did it get unstuck? Inquiring minds want to know, but they'll have to wait and see--or cheat and look it up.


(Los Angeles Herald, July 21, 1907)

When I wandered around the buildings I wondered how they got everything up the hill, now I know. That was quite the power plant for that time, the Model T (introduced the next year) only had 20 horsepower.

You guessed it, the special truck ultimately got unstuck, and on July 21, 1907, the first load for the 60-inch telescope reached Mt. Wilson.




(Los Angeles Herald, July 22, 1907)

The special truck contained four engines, one in each wheel, and the front and rear wheels could be turned separately to allow for very tight turns. For more detail and illustrations of this automobile, check out this article.



Unfortunately the special truck proved to be inefficient. It later required the assistance of mules to keep it from getting stuck. Here is a photo of the mules and truck climbing with a different load in 1908, courtesy of the Huntington Library.

This is great! It also finally explains why we don't have to climb over the remnants of the truck, Mule skeletons, and the 60-inch telescope tube when we hike up to Mt. Wilson (and visit the 60-inch Hale Telescope).

On this day, August 10th, in 1901, Horace Seaver rode up the Mt. Wilson Trail on a burro. After a few miles he found himself above the canyon precipice, and a fearful idea entered his mind. He became obsessed with the thought of flinging himself into the abyss. Clinging to his burro, the animal safely brought him to Martin's Camp. But it would take several days for Mr. Seaver to gather his wits and concoct perhaps the strangest plan ever for descending the trail.

(Los Angeles Herald, August 19, 1901)

On August 19, 1913, Asa Lund of Pomona rode his motorcycle to San Gabriel Canyon. He parked at Parker's Camp and said he would be back in a few hours. He grabbed his rifle and a few provisions and vanished into the wilderness, failing to return as promised.



(Los Angeles Herald, August 22, 1913)

Sean wrote: ↑On August 19, 1913, Asa Lund of Pomona rode his motorcycle to San Gabriel Canyon. He parked at Parker's Camp and said he would be back in a few hours. He grabbed his rifle and a few provisions and vanished into the wilderness, failing to return as promised.

After vanishing for several days and being feared dead, Asa Lund reappeared on August 22, 1913. He had enjoyed hunting so much that he, on a whim, decided to extend his trip from a few hours to a few days without telling anybody.


(Los Angeles Herald, August 23, 1913)

Back in 1919, Nell Shipman and Marjorie Cole starred in a silent film called "Trail of the Arrow." It had a curious plot, involving these two women proving that they could drive an Essex Arrow through the Mojave Desert to the Devil's Punch Bowl. I don't know the exact date(s) of filming, but the earliest newspaper stories I could find were published on August 23, 1919, and they indicate that this event occurred sometime in mid-August. The movie worked both as a promotional campaign for the automobile company, and as a thrilling action feature for the general public. It appears that the film itself was not preserved, but a few photos survived from the production, one of which appears in this article from the San Pedro Daily News.