It looks (at least out my window right now) like the year is going to end with a bit of snow. I’m hoping that it won’t be overpowering so that MDP can make a field trip out to some sites of historic importance.
Monthly Archives: December 2009
30
Dec 09
Windmills
You can probably guess where this windmill without its blades comes from: the national park seminary. Yesterday I thought I had found another cool abandoned site for MDP pictures but it had sadly been torn down. The hunt goes on though.
29
Dec 09
Dorsey Cemetery
The other day I was looking on google maps, as I do almost every day, for a faster way to get out of my office. I noticed on one map that there was a tiny little grey area on the side of a highway offramp called Dorsey cemetery. The Dorsey family was one of the most prominent families in Howard and county during the colonial period. So it didn’t suprise me that they had a family cemetery in what seemed like an awkward place.
What suprised me was the proximity of the cemetery to what I thought was an office complex. I knew they were building nearby and I knew that this cemetery might have been in the way of that building.
So I checked out the scene. It turns out that the cemetery is today surrounded on three sides by parking lots and on one side by an offramp. As you can see above, it is fairly well isolated from most lines of sight to the new construction around it. However, as you can see below, it’s very close to a brand new building
28
Dec 09
Most Delicious Sleigh Ever
Here’s a final Christmas shot from Hampden: a sleigh of crabs made from recycled metal parts and tools.
Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. I’m assuming that a sleigh of crabs didn’t pass over your house sprinking old bay through your chimney, but if it did, I hope you took a picture.
I’m preparing to go to work this morning, which officially marks the end of the season.
23
Dec 09
H2
Switching gears today (becasue it is a snow man made of bike wheel with gears) we’ve got another scene from Hampden.
22
Dec 09
The Next Day
By yesterday morning, the snow had been done falling for about 24 hours. Of course, I had to go to work, but I didn’t have any issues with it since the streets outside my house were fine. The streets on major and minor roads in most places were fine. That is, until I arrived in Howard County. Many of my coworkers coming frome Anne Arundel and from Baltimore Counties also commented that the roads are just terrible in Howard.
I’m not talking about side streets either. How could busy roads not have a final run with the plow after an entire day?
Many appologists claim that the use of the roads compacts the snow and prevents its removal. Which is not an argument, but rather an excuse. More timely removal of snow and proper use of salt would have prevented this compacting. How do these people think it’s done in neighboring counties? It is not magic.
It would also appear as though sand was being used as a substitute for salt. Sand works great for traction on ice, but it won’t melt anything. As a result, many of the busiest roads were just lined with compacted brown snow.
I’ve lived in three counties in this state and worked in another two and this is the worst job of snow removal I’ve encountered anywhere. It’s just poor.
21
Dec 09
Biggest Storm Ever
The snow storm that kept most of the state from doing anything but shoveling this weekend left around mid-day yesterday. As you can see the total accumulation at the Maryland Daily Photquarters was around 18 inches. When it did stop, it seemed as though everyone flew straight outside to clean off their cars and driveways. If I had not been participating in these activities I could have photographed them for you. However, I was unfortunately all too busy cleaning off cars and such. Though, nowhere near as difficult as the task seemed when I was growing up, it was sufficient to remind me that I really don’t think a day of pretty snow is worth the effort to clean it up.
That said, it is fortunate that before the pains of the cleanup, the MDP team was hard at work taking pictures. In fact I ventured out on Saturday in the middle of the worst part of the storm to see what I could find. So why is today’s MDP a picture of the sidewalk that was taken only 10 minutes ago? There will be a processing delay in MDP’s snow coverage. The reason is that I took a film camera into the snow as it is a bit tougher and is better capable of handling the elements than my digital camera. Moreover, despite the fact that it is no longer made, if it should be damaged, it could be replaced for 10% of the replacement value of a comparable digital camera. This means that MDP’s snow coverage will be on a bit of a delay.
18
Dec 09
Benefits MD Stadium Authority
Some time last year, a few coworkers and I had formed a group to pool a few dollars per person into one big lottery wager in a hope to win the ridiculous $160 million (approx) jackpot. We all knew we wouldn’t win but we tried anyway. One coworker tried to make us all feel better by telling us that the money would go to the schools. I was quick to point out that our ticket very clearly stated that our funds would benefit another source, namely the Maryland Stadium Authority.
I didn’t know at that time exactly how much money went to the stadium authority but I had an idea that it must be pretty large since most tickets mention it. A quick trip to this site http://www.mdlottery.com/benefits.html can show you that $20 million of the nearly $500 million in funds benefitting the state went to the stadium authority. If you are up for it, the annual report is a suprisingly “business-like” approach to the financials. I thought it was extremely interesting. http://www.mdlottery.com/resources/MDL_CAFR08.pdf
17
Dec 09
Detrick & Harvey
Thanks for coming back. Sorry MDP was down over the weekend. We appreciate all the thoughts and concerns of everyone who wrote in.
The technical difficulties of the last few days have encouraged me to write today about construction and repairs. What else would fit such a post better than a metalworking machine. When I photographed this tool, I was fascinated by its age and by the obscure company name more than anything else. That fascination has cost me the better part of a Wednesday evening.
After hours of research on the internet I can tell you quite a bit about this company. It turns out that the Detrick & Harvey machine company was at the forefront of the milling and boring market in the late 1800′s. The company also appeared in every major industrial catalog of the early 20th century. It would appear that the company moved from being a mere supplier of machinery to a machiner of parts themselves. This is especially true during World War One and the period just prior, when they machined many parts for the military. The company became so big that it began subcontracting some work out and, in a very 1910 sort of way, began to look like one of today’s large government contractors.
One of the founders was a Harvard graduate, and he appears to have been a very good networker in that I’ve read atricles saying that he had ties to the leaders of many of the biggest contractors of the day. This would include Bethlehem Steel and Fairbanks Morse. Toward the end of the war the company was actually purchased by Bethlehem Steel.
Despite the company’s success, I could find little about their specific location within the city of Baltimore. They usually listed just their name and “Baltimore MD” as apparently almost any company could be contacted in those days without the benefit of a street address. As I learned more about this company, I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t find an address. All I wanted to do was take a picture of the place where this machine was made. Hours of additional research brought me nowhere. Then I finally stumbled upon an invoice, or maybe what some would call a requisition, for goods purchased by the college of Notre Dame (of all places to purchase heavy machinery) that listed the address of the suppliers they were using. The Detrick & Harvey Machinery company was listed at 508 E. Preston St.
This address puts it close to Greenmount ave, just south of North ave. Today, that address is held by a few auto supply shops, but I cannot tell if the original buildings still stand.