Bruce Fette

Paul,

Great tear down pictures. But since I have never had the chance to operate one, please explain the uses of the two knobs, and the two switches.

Phil,

I look forward to hearing more about the inclines. Thanks, 

Paul Simons

Bruce I'm sure that like mine your head is spinning in a funicular spiral - in both directions - due to Phil's monumental display of possession of the facts, all the facts, and nothing but the facts so I don't know if I can explain much. He has so much information, I'll bet he even knows which toothpastes contain stannous fluoride, best for our teeth, and which contain sodium fluoride, not as good. But to get at your question - do you read schematics?

Dale Gieringer

      I know that Phil is  in fact knowledgable about fluoridated toothpaste.  This was evident from his role in our senior year Walnuts, where he played the part of Sen. Jung (or some similar homonym of Young), running against an inexperienced opponent, a dentist named Dr. Fest.   In his role, Phil sagely proclaimed, "Fest has been shown to be a defective, delay-intentive dentist when used in a sentenitously applied program of moral highness and regulatory presidential care."   

Philip Spiess

I did say that, Dale, as Senator Stephen Yunk [including saying the missing words "who can be of diminuitive valor" following the word "dentist"], and you can see me about to say it in Picture #10 (posted 6-17-2014) on my Profile page on this site (why the pictures have suddenly gotten so small, I don't know.)

As to fluorides, Paul, I'm not about to sink my teeth into that one!

Paul Simons

Thanks fellow GL-7, the psychotropic ingredient that got the management of the Gleem brand thrown into Alcatraz, addicts. By now we all have Braun/Oral B or Philips Sonicare microprocessor controlled oral hygiene maintenance appliances so the dentifrice itself might seem to be less important but NOOOO!!! The dentifrice is still of overriding importance. Why? Because there are so few individuals interested in using it in a conscientiously applied program of regular or even highly irregular oral activities which might or might not be hygienic. Of course present company excepted but in general there has been a gradual coarsening of society, the development of a culture of carelessness, and it is fluoride alone that has saved mankind from domination by Mr. Tooth Decay. 
 

Now we have Mr. Moral Decay and apparently there's no dentifrice, no anti fungal cream, no Covid-19 variant, no M-CAS equipped 737 Max, no transcendental meditation higher consciousness, no meeting with Jesus in a dream vision, nobody  and nothing that can touch Mr. Moral Decay.

Robert Redford knew it. He knew all along that All Is Lost.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Paul had some doubt that I could finish off my little pies. I had the last one last night!!

Bruce Fette

Thanks Ann.  Based on the most recent message, maybe we can get things going again. For everyone that has a puppy, lets see everyone's puppy picture(s)!

"Woof"

Philip Spiess

SEQUEL TO THE CINCINNATI INCLINES:  How the Mount Adams Incline Was Operated

Bruce:  You have asked for more on the Cincinnati inclines, and I will comply; my first post on them was, to be sure, very basic.

And because the Mount Adams Incline was the most famous, as well as the longest serving Cincinnati incline, and because for most readers it might be repetitive to go over the other inclines’ particulars, I will deal with it alone.  I will address its engineering and operational features, as that is what the recent posts seem to be focused on.  [My source is Richard M. Wagner and Roy J. Wright’s series of booklets on Cincinnati Streetcars, in this case No. 2:  The Inclines (1968).]

For seventy-two years the Mount Adams Incline hoisted people, streetcars, automobiles, and finally buses on a moving platform which remained level with the ground; its angular undercarriage had a raised stilted end which fit into a pocket at the foot of the hill, so that rails on the platform met tracks of the car line coming from downtown; eight wheels rode the rails, two pairs of axles in side frames.  At the top a streetcar could roll off from the lift directly onto the tracks in the station, and continue on its way along Ida Street to cross the upper level of the double-deck ornamental entrance gateway to Eden Park (now gone, but across from the D. H. Baldwin Piano Company on Gilbert Avenue); so could an automobile or truck, later in the incline’s career.  The platforms in later years were 54 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 30 feet high (having been lengthened in 1920 to carry double-truck streetcars).  They weighed not less than 20 tons empty and each platform was capable of carrying a live load of 25 tons.  (The incline received new lift platforms in 1936.)  In their heyday of operation, the platforms made about 133 round trips per day.

The Mount Adams Incline was built in 1874-1876 with cabs; it was rebuilt in 1879 with platforms, and the engine house at the top was rebuilt in 1891.  The incline was 976 feet long, with a vertical height of 261 feet, on a 29.47 per cent grade.  It operated 19 hours a day, 6 trips per hour, 2 minutes and 20 seconds a trip.  The costs to ride (these are typical over time) were as follows:  pedestrians, 5 cents; 7-ton truck, 95 cents; automobile with driver, 25 cents (but additional passengers were 5 cents each) – and I’m assuming that if you were on a streetcar, your already-paid-for streetcar ride included going up the incline to wherever your hilltop destination might be.

The driving mechanism for the incline consisted of two Corliss 20” by 36” steam engines at 125 lbs. pressure (plus the counterbalancing of the two moving platforms, i.e., Paul Simons’ “funicular railway,” although the platforms could operate unbalanced -- one platform could be loaded and the other empty); the cable operated at 700 feet per minute.  This operation used a coal consumption of 815 tons of coal per year.  The signals for incline operation were thus:  the top platform ready first, the top rings two bells and the bottom four, then the incline moves; the bottom platform ready first, the bottom rings two bells and the top four, the bottom then answers with four bells, and the incline moves.  If one bell rings, the incline stops.  (When the button for the bell system is pushed, it rings once, either in the engine room at the top or in the cab at the bottom.)

The Mount Adams Incline closed in 1948 and began to be dismantled on March 1, 1952.  The engine house at the top of the incline was demolished in 1954.  The passenger station at the bottom of the incline on Lock Street (which gradually deteriorated into ruins) was demolished about 1976 (if I recall), although the incline’s right-of-way up the hill was still visible circa 2004.

Paul Simons

Thanks Phil. This motivates me to find a photo of the inside of one of the engine houses. These photos aren't that but might add a bit.

More info: https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/16-curious-facts-about-cincinnatis-lost-inclines/

Bruce Fette

If only my parents were still alive. I would ask them to tell me about their experiences on the inclines, and show them the photos to remind them.

Philip Spiess

Paul:  A few additional notes (relative to the interior of the powerhouse):  You can find pictures of the interior in the source I mentioned on pages 63 and 64, and engineering drawings of the interior machinery on page 66.  In sum, the incline cables passed over the (vertical) wheels (the winding drums) just above and under the floor of the powerhouse at the top of the incline, after passing through the (horizontal) wheels of the balance sheaves (also under the floor of the powerhouse), which held the safety brakes.  The pilot's control tower was just inside the powerhouse at the top of the incline, elevated so that he could see the operation each time he pulled the lever that controlled the cable.

Three other things I should mention:  (1) in case it wasn't clear, the vehicles (streetcars, autos, trucks, buses) raised by the incline passed through the engine house at the top to exit onto Mount Adams; (2) over night the platforms were stored opposite each other midway on the incline, thereby balancing the weight and causing the least amount of strain on the cables; and (3) trackwork at the top, as well as at the bottom, of the Mount Adams Incline was arranged so that a streetcar could mount whichever side of the lift was ready, and still choose the proper operating track when dismounting.

[N.B.:  Mount Adams, formerly known as Mount Ida, was named after President John Quincy Adams, who in 1843 dedicated the Cincinnati Astronomical Observatory on Mount Adams and laid its cornerstone; he called it "the Lighthouse of the Sky."  (He had been an advocate of using James Smithson's bequest to the United States to form a "Smithsonian Institution" to found a national astronomical observatory, but he was overruled in Congress.)  It was Adams' last public speech, given at Wesley Chapel on Fifth Street (a magnificent Greek Revival ediface, torn down by Procter & Gamble in the early 1970s).  Adams died in 1848.]

Paul Simons

Thanks Phil and Bruce. Just a quick note- this has reminded me that there's an observatory on the road leading to Ault Park - on Observatory Place. Probably most people in Cincinnati drive right past it, in a sweat to get to the park for one reason or another.

Philip Spiess

Thus Observatory Avenue in Hyde Park also.  The Cincinnati Observatory moved to the location you show from Mount Adams (Mount Adams' Celestial Street notes the Observatory's former presence just east, I believe, of where the incline's headhouse would later be) after the smoke from industries in downtown Cincinnati became too heavy for the Observatory to observe anything.  I believe the Observatory still contains astronomer Ormsby McKnight Mitchel's original telescope, as well as a more modern one.  And I believe the Observatory is now part of the University of Cincinnati.

Paul Simons

Phil with your compendium of intricate details it's a good thing you don't write novels. If you got into the big time along with literary luminaries like Jacqueline Susanne ("Valley of the Dolls") and E.L. James ("50 Shades of Grey") and as God is my witness Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Codes" - that's Anthony Da Vinci from Tony's Pizza, not Leonardo da Vinci from The Renaissance) and eventually your stuff was in high school English class reading assignments somebody would come gunning for you or burn your house down or both, but then if they were historically accurate they wouldn't be allowed in the high school library or class anyway in the states where they ban such books, which are where gun ownership and paranoia are also high, but since they can't read your books you're safe. 

I was in that observatory one time maybe 20 years ago and yes there's a telescope, kinda spindly but impressive and well made. Cincinnati is an amazing town.

Bruce Fette

Paul,

When looking at the motors for the elevators, I hypothesized it to be 20 horsepower. My son informed me today that its probably 40 horsepower, about 24,000 watts.

As for spindly telescopes, perhaps you remember that Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto ( which used to be a planet), using Lowell's telescope, on Lowell's hilltop in Flagstaff (clean air & thin air). I dont know the exact measurements but the tube maybe was 5 inches in Diameter, and maybe 50 feet long, so yes it was pretty spindly too.  As for pluto, it is so cold there that methane gas freezes into frost and snow. Maybe you also remember that Percival Lowell studied the canals on Mars. 

Space travel any one?

And for those who consider the notion of someone traveling to Mars, or setting up a space colony on Mars, please consider that the sunlight is much dimmer, and the high temperature is -14F and the low is -117F.  So not exactly a comfortable place to vist, and it seems like it would not be much fun to spend a long time there. I guess you need to pack about 3 layers of antartic clothing. Probably need a nuclear reactor  to keep the hut warm.

Paul Simons

I am fortified by the way this forum is able to smoothly elide - not spasmodically lurch - from subject to subject. From Ann and Jeff's phenomenal pies including recipes which suspiciously leave out a key ingredient, the one containing cannabis, to the naming and climate of the planets and the horsepower of New York elevator motors.  From the pecan, long associated with Georgia, home of Stuckey's Pecan Pralines, also called The Peach State and now a state unconcerned with the sweet things of life but rather with disqualifying everything from the actual vote count to the outcome of the Civil War to Phil's new historical novel "The Conquest Of Clifton: Kings Or Carpetbaggers?"

But sometimes the tangential reference flies by unnoticed, precluding a visit to a realm that just might be of interest. Today, to me that realm is what you can see - and what you CAN''T see - when those elevator motors get you to the top of The Empire State Building. Specifically where you were, what you did, what happened, in fact WHO you were at those times when you were in The Big Apple. The City. The Capitol Of The World. Last time I was there I was watching flatbed trucks haul twisted tortured steel from ground zero to a site for analysis on Staten Island. This brings up the question of where The Big Apple dumps its garbage, and according to Google the answer is central New York State, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and recently some found its way to Florida.

Philip Spiess

Whenever I'm in New York, I always try to make a visit to the Grand Central Oyster Bar, which has been in the bowels of the present Grand Central Terminal since it opened in 1913.  Although I usually focus on raw oysters on the half-shell, its Oyster Bisque is divine; a close approximation of it is this recipe:

OYSTER BRIE SOUP:

1 stick Butter     1/4 cup Flour     8 oz. Brie Cheese (rind removed)         2 cups Milk     1 cup Oyster Liquid

1 cup Heavy Cream     1 cup dry White Wine     2 tsps. Tabasco Sauce     1/4 tsp. Salt                 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper

18 shucked Oysters     2 Tbls. chopped Scallions     1/4 tsp. Tarragon

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour; add the brie (in small cubes), milk, oyster liquid, cream, and wine.  Stir constantly until the cheese has melted.  Then add the Tabasco sauce, salt, and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then add the oysters, scallions, and tarragon.  Simmer until the oysters curl (4 to 5 minutes) and serve.

On two different visits to New York, I threw a cocktail party in the massive Enid Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, each courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (the New York Botanical Garden was one of twelve flagship museums that the Smithsonian project I was heading up was working with).

And in 1969, on a madcap trip north with friends from the University of Delaware, returning late (and I mean late) from midtown Manhattan to the Battery (where we had parked our car), the subway train on which we were riding made a sudden turn and dipped, stopped, and the lights went out -- it had parked for the night under the East River!

Jeff Daum

Thanks Paul.  For the record I can not confirm or deny 

Paul Simons

First I apologize to one and all for occupying if not defacing far more than my share of the blackboard although adding up the column inches I have no doubt that Philipedia  might be outdoing me by a factor of about 1,000. However the information supplied by that contributor is of value commensurate with its volume and I'm sure that the Philipedia research teams will be able to find information that I have been searching for in vain.

There was an oyster house in Cincinnati, probably downtown, maybe near the original Empress Chili, called something like Bocigalupous' Oyster Bay or something like that. I am offering a billion dollars to anyone who comes up with real solid accurate information about this enterprise, upon conviction and incarceration of those responsible for the current situation.

I'm writing this after trying a bowl of that soup two entries back and also a slice of each the pies shown in previous entries and am, thanks to their psychotropic characteristics, someplace else and therefore not responsible for anything. 

Philip Spiess

Oysters have had a long tradition in Cincinnati.  From 1835 on, oysters were transported live in brine and in barrels on ice on a five-day trip (the ice had to be replaced daily) from the Chesapeake Bay to Cincinnati over a stagecoach line (and later by train) that came to be known as "the Oyster Line."  The pre-Civil War Cincinnati newspapers were filled with advertisements for the sales of barrels of oysters and the occasional local oyster bar.

The longest running oyster house in Cincinnati (1893-1974), and the one where I learned to love oysters, was the Central Oyster House, founded near Washington Park by Jake Rosenfeld in 1893, but located during most of its career on the north side of Fifth Street east of Fountain Square and run by Rosenfeld's nephew, Jacob Spicer.  It was in a long building with a narrow frontage, stamped-tin ceilings, and sawdust on the floor, the dour waiters in long white aprons.  For many years the proprietors were the Spicer family, and old Jacob Spicer used to always be in the front window, constantly stirring the pots of oyster stew.  The establishment served oysters many ways; my favorite was the fried oysters, which were coated in a delicious dark-brown breadcrumb kind of batter and served with a small cup of very creamy coleslaw with one small stuffed green olive on top.

O tempora! O mores!  The Central Oyster House was forced to move when its block of Fifth Street was razed.  It moved to a 1960s-style modern restaurant with a faux half-timbered front and nautical decorations inside on Main Street below Fourth Street, across from the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company headquarters (though it had a Fourth Street address).  The change in decor from historic Victorian to "seaside modern" made the restaurant look "cheesy," the food somehow wasn't the same either, and the place closed a few years after it was forced to move..

Bruce Fette

Well Phil,

I guess Paul owes you $1B.

Congratulations. I will be happy to help you spend it!  :)

Paul Simons

Before anyone spends any money there's a problem of definition of terms. And the conviction and incarceration haven't occurred. The definition problem is even more acute than that. "Current situation" means far more than anything that could be contained in a vat of boiling oyster stew. It couldn't be contained in the cooling pond of a nuclear power plant or the caldera of a volcano. And the conviction and incarceration of more than one individual will be required to fully rectify the current situation, although one would go a long way if it was the right one. But alas, as Chuck Berry, in the song "Memphis Tennessee" told the long-distance operator, "More than that I cannot add."

Paul Simons

With apologies to those classmates who are once again having to gnash their teeth in outrage at having to read yet another blanket accusation, another 12 theses nailed to the lunchroom door by Martin Luther Simons, or a free sample from the Encyclopedia Brittanica salesman standing on your porch who in return for the refreshing glass of lemonade you offered will provide you with everything known by man about the subject you want to know about  - with apologies to them it appears that certain elements need to be elucidated.

Now I could just refuse to comply with the law - that's in style these days. Or I could just insist that the law be changed because I don't like it - that's also very popular in the (supposed) best circles these days. Or I could just say sure, ask away, and then plead the 5th, another useful ploy. But no  I plead absolutely guilty. I neglected to address the subject which in the interest of brevity I will call the centrality theorem. In a previous post the Central Oyster House was mentioned. It was probably easy to get to from Central Parkway. Probably so was Central High School. Cincinnati is in the ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic center, if not the geographical and political, center of the country. What does this mean? Nothing. Good day.

And just to further prove the point let me quote from the great songwriter Shel Silverstein as sung by Bobby Bare:

"This broken back is the dyin' act of Handsome Harry Clay

That sticky Cincinnati night I stole his wife away

But that woman she gets uglier and she gets meaner every day

But I got her, boy, and that makes me The Winner!"

I'm

Paul Simons

https://pearl-star.com/

Cincinnati has a NEW OYSTER BAR!!

Paul Simons

It's mighty quiet here, maybe a bit too quiet. True, certain topics are off limits like whether laws apply to everybody or not or whether elections should be decided by voters or by somebody else or do vaccines work but there are other interesting topics like UFOs or in current lingo UAPs - unidentified aerial phenomena. I'm sure Mr. Spiess knows a thing or two about them and they are the only possible way certain class members who shall remain nameless got here. Personally every time I apply math to the issue, the answer to the problem "If Dave Buchholz left a hypothetical planet orbiting our nearest astral neighbor Alpha Centauri which is 25 trillion miles away going 40 times the speed of our fastest manned vehicle or 1,000,000 miles per hour - that's about 278 miles per second - how long would it take him to get to a red brick schoolhouse on Victory Parkway?" is "Wait, what?" But thanks to Google it's about 2,854 years. At a million miles an hour. He doesn't look that old. I might look that old but Dave doesn't look a day over 500 years old. If anyone managed to go that fast they wind up like peanut butter, extra creamy, not chunky at all. Or worse. And yet some are sure they've encountered aliens either in their spacecraft doing entertaining stunt flying or in line at the 7-11 by the trailer park trying not to look like the being pictured on the National Enquirer in the rack next to the checkout lane. It's an impulse buy item like a certain  "news"  network -  something meant to be consumed by those with empty lives who crave the sensational, and whether it's true or not is irrelevant. It sells.