Sunday, November 08, 2020

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND: Bog Off! by Wiggia

Monty Don has thrown his cap in the ring regarding climate change, I have to be honest before I go on, I don’t like MD he depresses me and I haven’t watched Gardeners World for years, not just because of him and his Crufts show that seems to be the basis for every shot and his fake trademark garden wear, no different from many others but I find it wearing, but also because so many of these outdoor types of program have become vehicles for the activists in the climate change movement, so I declare there is bias in what I write, though he was a different presenter when he did his Italian Garden series which was excellent and at the beginning of his TV career, which begs the question, why the difference?

Gardening programs have changed anyway from the days of Geoffrey Smith, who I thought was the best of all and their programs set in gardens all could relate to, this on the other hand……

In the next episode we will show you how to become self sufficient: first buy five acres of...

And MD has now decided no one should buy cheap flowers from garden centres or anywhere else if the pots contain peat in the compost. He accuses garden centres of 'actively choosing to do harm' by selling compost made from peat. Oh please, they are trying to earn a living like everyone else. He is another at an age where he can afford to say what he likes with little chance of any backlash that will harm him, though backlash there certainly was.

The article is here - where else other than the Grauniad, every eco-loon's safe space:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/mar/17/gardens

Now I admit that the use unremittingly of peat over the years has reduced our reserves to bugger all and that is wrong, but as with all basics in all industry that was never a factor when peat was first starting to be used. What you are looking at is a reliable structure for plant growth, one that can be easily altered by the type of shredder it is put through for different uses and with the addition of fertilisers to this inert product you can manufacture exactly what is required for any given use.

No other compost comes close at this moment in time. Where it is wasted is the rubbish supermarket peat composts that resemble those cheap tea leaves you used to be able to get that looked like floor sweepings and often with the minimum of fertiliser added so the plants need feeding after six weeks or so, that is a waste of a good product.

I had a job some years back where the client wanted rhododendrons that require ericaceous soil. The garden did not have a suitable soil but the client insisted. In a perfect world you would decline, but few can afford to say no and large amounts of Levingtons compost that is no longer available were brought in. Levingtons sadly no longer exists as a stand alone company.

Many would say what I did in the light of today's knowledge was wrong, yet gardens have been created, (and they are a false landscape) for millennia using outside techniques and materials; stone is used from all over the country, most of the wood used in gardens is not indigenous and the plants themselves are a mirror of the world and not native.

The go-to word is sustainability and it has merit in many areas peat being one, yet the bulk of peat used in this country comes from abroad. Blaming the Irish and northern peat extractors for impoverishing the countryside is a little late, they have been burning the stuff for centuries in the same areas; jumping up and down now on a climate change ticket will not change that.

The surveys done on peat bogs world wide show a marked difference in the replacement time for the removed peat. This detailed analysis shows that the differences between the formation of peat bogs, and the climate they evolve in makes a huge difference, the tropical bogs are formed very much faster, and some other more recent surveys have shown that in some areas peat can be extracted if there are controls in place without affecting the biodiversity, which itself has been proven to change over time anyway.

http://www.fao.org/3/x5872e/x5872e05.htm

The claim that “Peat: 90,000 years to form but can be gone in 50” is for the vast majority of peat bogs a downright lie as can be seen in the link above.

As with all these cries to shut something down the hypocrisy has no boundaries. MD has been on this hobby horse of his for awhile, which is fine, yet how many plants in the thousands planted in his BBC sponsored or taxpayer sponsored garden were not grown in peat? He may well show the believers how you can make your own, I do now for some uses as the range available has been much reduced, but who in their suburban garden is going to do all that? Virtually no one.

It took decades to formulate peat based composts for use in horticulture, they are not going to be replaced overnight and this RHS article explains why and the shortcomings of alternatives.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/gardening-in-a-changing-world/peat-use-in-gardens/peat-alternatives

The truth is the alternatives have up to now been mainly rubbish. No trade grower is going to go that route until the problems with alternatives are solved: bark based composts have a tendency to leach nutrients from plants and soil and are a stopgap solution; going back to John Innes composts has many problems as well - most available today are poor quality. Again, the weight factor comes in among other problems, the poor quality can be laid at the feet of the few firms who now dominate the market, what the grower really wants is an alternative to peat that is close in performance across the board, at this moment in time it does not exist.

I did try one of the alternatives this year for the first time in ages and it was half decent even if very claggy, so still not there.

What MD is doing, as so many in their comfortable sinecures like his, is to want a change immediately that would not benefit the growers and would cost many jobs if his diktat was followed. Comparing our peat bogs with the Amazon rainforest is ludicrous, it has the same effect as shutting down all our coal fired power stations, as we close one the rest of world builds ten. Forget climate change: it will happen as it has repeatedly over the millennia: signs of tundra and tropics abound on our little island from long before peat bogs were raided or coal was burnt.

Am I a Luddite? Not at all, but there has to be some pragmatism on the way forward. Today all we get is soundbites from those in a position to make them, never any concern for jobs lost or the inevitable rise in prices or the loss of products, but they will feel warm and cosy in their funded bubbles or in their private jets going to world-wide forums where they can spout more of the same; there is a saying about coming to court with clean hands, and none of them do.

This recent statement from the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) lets the mask slip somewhat. So much of the drive from the climate change agenda groups has disguised the underlying thrust of what they want, it is not just to ameliorate items they believe are harmful to our planet but to significantly change our way of life, an evening-up of aspirations, a deliberate dampening of demand, a way of life with little to enhance it, to re-set - yes, they use the phrase at the end - our way of earning a living, though naturally this is one area they have no alternative answer to.

https://easac.eu/media-room/press-releases/details/resistance-and-challenges-to-green-deals-should-not-be-underestimated/

We are already seeing moves by governments to go with the green agenda despite those who would actually vote for such a future being extremely few; it is not being done on our behalf, and nothing they set out will change the way the planet behaves, nothing ever has.

As I have said before, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but something is going on when so many nations are going down the same path. Nothing is for the people whatever leaders' protestations when challenged (which itself is a rare event); when people like Soros and Gates have the ability to affect political direction in so many countries we have a problem.

So I say to Monty Don, however much you believe in your objectives, it will only affect the little people - so Bog Off!

Friday, November 06, 2020

FRIDAY MUSIC: Britblues, by JD

Still looking over my shoulder and not quite drowning in nostalgia but looking to see how it came about that British teenagers fell in love with American 'blues' and 'rhythm and blues' music and how British groups adopted the style and successfully re-introduced it to the USA.

In the post war period traditional jazz became one of the popular music styles of the time and among the well known names, via radio and TV, were Chris Barber and Humphrey Lyttelton. Jazz, imported from the USA, had its roots in blues and ragtime; blues being the music of the African Americans and ragtime was so called for its 'ragged' rhythms. Both Barber and Lyttelton would include blues style music in their repertoire. In 1955 Chris Barber and his guitar player Lonnie Donegan had a hit with 'Harmonic Blues' and in 1956 Lyttelton had success with 'Bad Penny Blues' which was transformed about ten years later by Paul McCartney into 'Lady Madonna' But the main impetus came, I think, from Lonnie Donegan who would lead a skiffle group during the intervals of Barber's shows, and sing Leadbelly songs. Most of the British 'beat' groups would cite Donegan as an influence on their own development.

So I have been digging into my own collection of records as well as digging into my memories of a mis-spent youth visiting the local jazz and beat clubs. Nostalgia is wonderful and thanks to the 'time machine' known as YouTube we can re-live our youth, although dancing as in the old days is not so easy now!


















Sunday, November 01, 2020

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND: The Coachbuilders, by Wiggia

A random post from JD about a rather special car... brought about this piece.

When most people buy a car there is no doubt that the aesthetics are as important as the practicality. Even with today’s computer-generated automobiles that have very generic shapes because of the demands of aerodynamics, some still manage to stand out from the crowd and sales are boosted by that look. In the early days it was no different, except that there were fewer constraints on design and cost was less of an issue; hence these amazing vehicles.

A Daimler Double Six 50 Sport Corsica Drophead Coupe 1931 with originally a body by Thrupp and Maberley but later altered by Martin Walter and then again after an accident by the firm of Corsica; and very nice too.

The car here won the Concours at the world famous Concours event at Peeble Beach in California in 2006 which for motor-heads is a drool day as so many exotic and rare automobiles are on show at what many people believe to be the premier show of its kind anywhere.

What the show also highlights is the preponderance of coach-built cars that the rich and famous sponsored in the pre war years. Almost every prestige car, and there were a lot of them pre war, had coach-built versions on the road; the standard models were simply not enough for many people who had the money to create something different, and some indeed ended up improving on the original factory designs.

As I related to JD I have a very close old friend whose father worked for Park Ward, known mainly for their coach-built Rolls Royces. This was after the war when this type of business was struggling for obvious reasons but the same man showed us kids how to coach line a car body freehand, something that today is a lost art.

Park Ward themselves merged with another coach builder H J Mulliner in 1961 and all was owned by Rolls Royce Motors anyway, which in 1971 became Rolls Royce Motors Ltd.

Captain Cuthbert W. Foster, heir to the Birds Custard fortune, commissioned Park Ward to build a body on a rare (one of only six) Bugatti Royale - a design not dissimilar to a Rolls Royce he had Park Ward build earlier for him. Sunsequently acquired by the reclusive Schlumpf brothers, it is now  in the museum in Molsheim, France, a place no self-respecting car buff should miss, where it sits alongside Ettore Bugatti's personal Royale known as the coupe Napoleon.

The Bird's-Eye Bugatti !

Other French cars that received the coach-builders loving touch included many Delage and Delahaye  and Talbot top-of-the tree automobiles pre-war. The Delahaye below is a 135 convertible by lesser known coach builders Franay but what a wonderful job they did with this model:

The list for inclusion in this short piece would fill a library book so I have attempted to give just a representation across the board; those who know about these things will scream 'why was so and so not included?' But the reason is simply space.

Another Delahaye below is the 1949 175 Saoutchik Roadster. Saoutchik was originally a cabinet maker and moved from the Ukraine to Paris in 1900; he then spent the next fifty years involved in designing some of the most desirable cars on earth.

'Saoutchik was commissioned to produce the spectacular work-of-art by flamboyant English collector, Sir John Gaul. The design was based on the first post-war Delahaye chassis from a 175 S Roadster (chassis number 815023) producing 165 bhp from an engine much larger than the pre-war Delahayes ran – a 4,455 cc naturally aspirated overhead valve inline six cylinder engine with four-speed electro-mechanically actuated Cotal Preselector gearbox, Dubonnet coil spring front suspension, De Dion rear axle with semi-elliptic springs, and four-wheel hydraulic finned alloy drum brakes. The wheelbase was a whopping 116 inches.'

Saoutchik could be said to have been the leader of the French car designers/ coach builders in the Art Deco period.

This particular Delahaye was once voted the most beautiful car in the world; difficult to argue with that.

Pourtout were the firm responsible for this magnificent Delage:

Delage D8 120S Aero Coupe 1937

In the UK, apart from the above mentioned we had Barker, Hooper James Young, Gurney Nutting and many more specialist coach builders mainly working with Bentley and Rolls Royce chassis.

This beautiful and restrained version of a Rolls Royce Phantom 11 Continental Sport Coupe 1933 is by Hooper & Co.


The Italians have a very diverse body of coach builders. Many have been involved with versions of cars like Ferrari Alfa Romeo and Maserati as well as saloons. It is very difficult to select a few as there are so many; my favourite Alfa I have shown before, so a link will do for that one:
https://www.citedelautomobile.com/en/collections/alfa-romeo-type-8c-2-31

Alfa probably had more coach built versions of their cars during the pre- and immediate post-war period than anyone else so just one or two here will have to suffice: Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta 1939 by Carrozzeria...

... and a more modern Alfa:

There were many different versions of Alfa’s TZ. Many were racing-only versions as well as the road models. This one by Zagato, a TZ3 Stradale, is not strictly an Alfa, one of nine built in 2010 as a celebration of the anniversary of the TZ. The first of these was a one-off built for a German enthusiast with an Alfa 4.2 V8 engine from the Alfa 8C but the others all had Dodge Viper engines of 8.4 litres in V 10 configuration pumping out 640hp-  a modern coach-builder's classic.

Elsewhere Ferrari has had many one-offs built on their chassis. The Drogo-bodied Ferrari here is extremely rare and is built on a Cooper Climax grand prix chassis from 1957; really, the description in the text is best.

As an aside, it was interesting to see who had survived from that golden age; amazingly, quite a few but of the better-known names most are Italian: Bertone, Castagna, Fantuzzi, Guigiaro-Ital Design (who should be forever damned as having anything to do with the redesign of the awful Marina and its reincarnation as the ITAL, no doubt a decision they still regret and indeed it doesn’t exist in their list of works on their Wiki page - shame), Pourtout in France, Pininfarina, Touring, and Zagato... but then design has always been a big part of Italian production of anything.

https://www.coachbuild.com/2/index.php/encyclopedia/coachbuilders-models/item/drogo-ferrari-250-p4-thomassima-ii-1967

This below is a Ferrari! Bodied by Ghia in 1952, the 212 Inter Coupe is really is a one-off, sold in ‘53 to the President of Argentina, one Juan Domingo Peron; I am sure his wife Evita would have loved it but she was dead by then.

In the USA before the war, they were spoiled for choice of material to work on: Duesenbergs, Packards and others were world-class automobiles. Many like Packard were leaders in new technology, which is difficult to believe seeing the post-war cars that were based on lumbering V8s and basic suspension.

This is the only surviving example of three built by Murphy &Co of Pasedena California: a Packard 343 from 1927. I would have this one for the colours alone - they are original Packard colours; note the matching central hinged doors.

Now the Cord, a brand named after the owner one Errett Lobban Cord, an automotive entrepreneur who produced this luxury car at the Auburn Automobile Company in Indiana, who were known for innovation as for example producing the first American car with front wheel drive and hidden headlamps; they also had a form of electro-mechanical gear shifting.

All Cords had a very distinctive front end as seen here; the ribbed exhaust was a feature used in Duesenbergs and Mercedes in Europe.


Though innovative, Cord suffered from reliability problems; the initial enthusiasm cooled, the dealer base shrank and the company was sold. E L Cord moved on to Nevada where he made millions in real estate.

With Duesenberg you're spoilt for choice, so many are good and what wonderful cars they were.

Rollston Duesenberg SJ Arlington Torpedo Sedan 'Twenty Grand' 1933

'Rollston's most famous car was the 1933 Duesenberg Model SJ Arlington Torpedo Sedan "Twenty Grand.

'Designed by Gordon Buehrig, the Twenty Grand was built as a show car for the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, and the finished car's price tag was $20,000, an astronomical amount at the time.'

Another Duesenberg will not go amiss here - a Murphy Duesenberg Model J Convertible Coupe: 

Murphy was considered to be the best of the Duesenberg coach builders and you can see why: when this 1929 model was announced it halted trading on the NY stock exchange, another over-$20,000 car that was only for the few (in today's money over $1 million.)

Back in Europe others were challenging Rolls Royce for recognition as the ultimate luxury car. The two that got nearest were Hispano Suiza and Isotta Fraschini.

Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A from 1927

Hispano Suiza K6 Cabriolet by Brandone; a lovely car, just oozes class

As I said earlier you could go on and on with these magnificent vehicles of a bygone age, but is it bygone? Not really; although the ravages of war meant an end to most of what you see here, it revived later and is making more headway today; in the USA it could rightly be said the early hot-rodders were the coach builders of their time, and of the future as many have morphed into companies that custom build for customers and very successfully too.

Back in Europe firms like Mercedes are branching out with their versions of ‘dream’ cars. This stunning concept car is due to appear soon (or not, as the world ditches big automobiles in favour of mobility scooters); a nod to the past, it is a big step up for Mercedes who have not exactly rocked the boat design-wise for years.

I include another Alfa, I lied earlier! Before the company disappeared into a state-owned rust bucket it was still pushing the frontiers of design. This car had an amazing drag coefficient of 0.19, not beaten I believe in any road-going car since.

Bertone Alfa Romeo B.A.T. 7 1954  “Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica”

And this with a young Jeremy Clarkson driving the BAT:

Packard were at the top of the luxury car market in the thirties with V12 engines, hydraulic brakes, independent front suspension and small-production customised coach-built bodies for discerning and wealthy customers. They became the car of choice for the Hollywood stars and influential politicians. This video gives Packard's history, and if you want to skip that part from 15.00 on there are some stunning auto mobiles to view:

And the very last Packard concept car and the end of the Packard line in 1956: the Predictor. This car had push-button adjustable suspension (Packard had introduced adjustable suspension that could be changed from within the cabin before); an early ‘39 form of overdrive, the Econo-shift; and were among the first to use plastics in body detail.


Any article on coach builders cannot ignore the custom car concept that started in the USA in the Thirties. A very good history of the whole custom car movement and why is here:
 https://www.customcarchronicle.com/custom-history/history-of-the-early-custom-car/

It is a movement that is as active today as then and deserves a piece on its own but I will just include some examples.

The difference between coach building in a general sense and customising is that the coach builder designs and creates a body on an existing chassis, whereas a customiser alters an existing body. There are nuances to it but that is basically the difference though the skills are the same. The custom car has also branched out into hot rods and a whole new world in the use of paint finishes.

As explained in the link many of the custom car ‘tricks’ came from the early factory concept cars.

I have taken just one photo from the link because it was such an important car in the custom car movement.                                                                                                                                            


                                                                                                                                                      

This is a typical! customised hot rod version of probably the most popular of all cars that came from the custom car movement: a 1927 model T Ford Coupe.


                                                                                                                                                               

Few of these custom cars are what we would call practical, but that is not really the point of them.

At the other end of the custom car spectrum are the cut-and-shut versions of everyday saloons, though by the time the body shops have finished with them it is hard to tell what the original car was apart from the badge.

Several sub-divisions came from the custom car genre: the hot rods, even drag racing cars, lowriders that emanated from Los Angeles in the mid-Forties, highrisers that came from the South, monster trucks and several others including those with ‘trick’ adjustable suspension.

What is interesting in all this time in which coach building/ custom cars have looked for new avenues of expression is how the custom car today in many aspects reflects those wonderful designs by the likes of Delahaye all those years ago; back to the future indeed. The Cadillac below is an example, not the best, but decent enough to show that nothing is new in the world of design whether it is cars or clothes or whatever.

A Cadillac, I would imagine a Fifties model beneath the distinctive paint job

Custom car paint jobs can be incredible. It is an art form on its own; the use of flaking metal and other techniques in their multi-layered finishes is a large part of the custom car and renovation final presentation.

As with the old hand-painted and beautifully-finished coach jobs of the past it is just a modern extension of that art and is an integral part to all coach building in whatever form.


Another I am going to guess at - a late-Forties Mercury?

And to finish, the Batmobile from the original Sixties TV series.

The car was based on Ford’s luxury sub-division Lincoln concept car, the Futura, that was purchased by legendary custom car builder George Barris who created the Batmobile around it. The Futura itself was built by the Ghia firm in Turin Italy in 1954 at the enormous cost of over $2 million dollars in today's money and appeared in the film 'It Started with a Kiss' starring Debbie Reynolds.

Barris purchased the car for a nominal $1 and it languished in his workshop for some years. It was completed for the TV series in just three weeks and retained by Barris who leased it to the makers of TV series.

The car had problems during the filming and numerous changes were made including replacing the engine as the original overheated.

In 2012 Barris put the car up for sale and the following year at auction it fetched $4.2 million dollars.

Some more interesting facts here:
http://1966batmobile.com/

A real-life Batmobile was the Phantom Corsair, a concept car designed by Rust Heinz of H J Heinz family and Maurice Schwartz of the Bohman and Schwartz coach building company of Pasadena, California.

Apart from the futuristic aerodynamic shape it had electronic interior and exterior push-button door openers and various electronic indicator lights on the dashboard, the first of its kind in that area.

It was based on a Cord chassis with front wheel drive and the electrically-operated four-speed pre-selector gearbox plus fully independent suspension and adjustable shock absorbers; the engine was a Lycoming V8.

The passenger layout was unusual with four across the front and two in the rear; the rear layout was compromised by drinks cabinets! Heinz was killed in a car accident and the car never made production as planned, so the prototype is the only one that ran.

And to finish, a Bugatti TYPE 57SC Aerolithe, painstakingly and at tremendous cost restored to its former glory as seen here in this Youtube video. No problem getting your money back on one of these as alongside its stable-mate the Royale they are the most expensive cars in the world should one ever come up for sale.

The Elecktron panels used for the bodywork made it extremely difficult to build as it cannot be welded owing to combustion at low temperatures so the riveting seen on the body work is not there for effect as often thought - though it does have an effect - but it was the only way to join the panels.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

SATURDAY ART: WFH in lockdown, by JD

Yes, I am one of those engaged in the newly fashionable WFH - working from home! But only because I am retired and no longer have a proper job. Working from home is not really working because I am not compelled to do it, I am painting pictures and it is better than working! So here are a few recent 'lockdown specials' (...not that lockdown has made a noticeable difference to my daily routine)

These were painted on canvas boards and are all postcard sized. And at £2 for a pack of six I could not resist buying lots of them from The Works who seem to have a permanent 'closing down sale' - https://www.theworks.co.uk/search?q=canvas+boards&search-button=&lang=en_GB





Friday, October 30, 2020

FRIDAY MUSIC: Claude Debussy, revisited - by JD

 Claude Debussy has featured already in this series but he deserves another outing. We are currently surrounded by hysteria and panic so we deserve a tranquil interlude.


'The composer Claude Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, a few miles outside Paris, in 1862. While a pupil at the Conservatoire, he composed music that did not conform to the theory of the times. He contradicted his teachers by claiming that pleasure was the only valid rule of music, and that music could not be learned. Debussy was to become one of the greatest French composers, creating works which threw open entirely new musical horizons. This fascinating documentary gives deep insights into the life and work of Claude Debussy based on reports by those who encountered the great composer.'