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Author Topic: FOR HISTORY BUFFS  (Read 118503 times)

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Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #200 on: December 08, 2019, 05:50:03 PM »
STREET...WHENCE?

One of the few words in use in England continuously from Roman times: Old English stret (Mercian, Kentish), West Saxon stræt.

An early and widespread Germanic borrowing: (Old Frisian strete, Old Saxon strata, Middle Dutch strate, Dutch straat, Old High German straza, German Strasse, Swedish stråt, Danish sträde.

Also Italian strada, Spanish estrada, Old French estrée.
(http://www.etymonline.com/word/street)

This almost universal name for road/street was adapted from Latin via strata, a popular term for the Roman via munita with its several strata (layers), used in the construction of roads


Road layers - A Pompeii street and Via Appia Antica with basolatum surface

The general structure of such a metalled road and foot way is shown in an existing street of Pompeii.

A. Native earth, levelled and, if necessary, tamped tight.
B. Statumen: hand-sized stones.
C. Audits: rubble or concrete of broken stones and lime.
D. Nucleus: kernel or bedding of fine cement made of pounded potshards and lime.
E. Dorsum or agger viae: the elliptical upper surface or crown of the road (media stratae eminentia) made of polygonal blocks of silex (basaltic lava, basolatum) or rectangular blocks of saxum quadratum (travertine, peperino or other suitable stone of the area). This upper surface was designed to cast off rain or water like the shell of a tortoise. The lower surfaces of the separate stones, here shown as flat, were sometimes cut to a point or edge in order to grasp the nucleus (the next layer below) more firmly.
F. Crepido, margo or semita: raised foot way or sidewalk on each side of the via.
G. Umbones: edge-stones.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads)

The same technique was used for the network of 50,000+ miles of Consular Ways throughout the Roman dominions:


The Consular Ways were built initially for military use by the foot-marching legions. Recruits were first required to complete 20 Roman miles (29.6 km) loaded with 20.5 kg in 5 hours at the "regular step" or "military pace", then they progressed to the "faster step" or "full pace" marching 24 Roman miles (35.5 km) in the same time and with the same load, to ensure the rapid deployment of Roman troops when needed.

Then the Consular Ways were used mostly by carriage traffic for trade, horse-riding messengers in relays to carry dispatches and mail, etc.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #201 on: December 08, 2019, 06:02:15 PM »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #202 on: December 09, 2019, 05:10:01 AM »
Pompeii is a constant source of surprises ;D.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #203 on: December 09, 2019, 04:23:49 PM »
A REAL INDIANA JONES


Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823)

Belzoni was born in Padua, near Venice. His father was a barber who sired 14 children. His family was from Rome and at 16 he went to work there, saying that he studied hydraulics. He intended on taking monastic vows, but in 1798 the occupation of the city by French troops drove him from Rome and changed his proposed career. In 1800 he moved to the Netherlands where he earned a living as a barber.

In 1803 he fled to England to avoid being sent to jail. There he married an Englishwoman, Sarah Bane. Belzoni was a tall man at 6' 7" (2.01 m) and they both joined a travelling circus. He was for some time compelled to subsist by performing exhibitions of feats of strength and agility as a strongman at fairs and on the streets of London - his special act was supporting a pyramid of 11 other performers without any aids bar a plank.


Circus poster advertising Belzoni's feat

In 1812 he left England and after a tour of performances in Spain, Portugal and Sicily, he went to Malta in 1815 where he met Ismael Gibraltar, an emissary of Muhammad Ali, who at the time was undertaking a programme of agrarian land reclamation and important irrigation works. Belzoni wanted to show Muhammad Ali a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was successful, the project was not approved by the Pasha.

Now without a job, was resolved to continue his travels. On the recommendation of the orientalist J. L. Burckhardt he was sent by Henry Salt, the British consul to Egypt, to the Ramesseum at Thebes, from where he removed with great skill the colossal bust of Ramesses II. Shipped by Belzoni to England, this piece is still on prominent display at the British Museum.

He also expanded his investigations to the great temple of Edfu, visited Elephantine and Philae, cleared the great temple at Abu Simbel of sand (1817), made excavations at Karnak, and opened up the sepulchre of Seti I. He was the first to penetrate into the second pyramid of Giza, on whose wall he left his mark.


In 1819 he returned to England and published an account of his travels and discoveries entitled Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia, etc. the following year. During 1820 and 1821 he also exhibited facsimiles of the tomb of Seti I.

In 1823 he set out for West Africa, intending to travel to Timbuktu. Having been refused permission to pass through Morocco, he chose the Guinea Coast route. He reached the Kingdom of Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a village called Gwato, and died there at 45.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Belzoni
« Last Edit: December 09, 2019, 04:39:21 PM by SANDRO43 »
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SW DEVELOPMENT AT IBM IN 1969
« Reply #204 on: December 10, 2019, 06:54:08 PM »
SW DEVELOPMENT AT IBM IN 1969

Since SW is discussed elsewhere here, I thought it might be interesting to relate how it was developed at IBM 50 years ago when I joined the company - other details on my website at http://www.floriani.it/15-eng.htm.

The process was guided by the contents of the Orange Book, a thick binder with orange covers which subdivided it into 8 phases, perversely numbered 0-7 ;D:

0. Nomination: somebody in some IBM thought that something was worth developing.
1. Approval: development of the something was approved if the crucial question "Will it earn IBM at least 30% net when marketed?" was answered affirmatively, which would then cause funds to be allotted and a location chosen for its development.
2. Documentation Development: writing all the 4-5 supporting manuals, the phase in which I was involved.
3. Alpha Test: testing the congruence of documentation and stated objectives, conducted by an entirely independent unit - in our case, the Lab at Böblingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Sindelfingen.
4. SW Development: writing the actual SW.
5. Beta Test: checking if the SW worked as designed, again by an entirely independent unit.
6. Announcement and Release: public announcement of the product and its expected availability date.
7. Maintenance: period during which requests for changes (RPQs, Requests for Price Quotation) could be accepted.     

We failed our Alpha Test owing to PASS,  a gigantic program in Assembler which was supposed to "sew" together the bits of RPGII code representing the customers' customisation choices for their accounting applications on the IBM System/3.   


AFAIK, a similarly ambitious and difficult project was never attempted again. Maybe it will with the aid of Artificial Intelligence ::)
 
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Online krimster2

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #205 on: December 10, 2019, 07:28:11 PM »
I worked at IBM in San Jose, CA and in Poughkeepsie NY doing VLSI development back in the early 90s...
we still did those things...
I still have my original "THINK" sign from back then!!!!
by this time attire was transitioning out of ties!!!
we even had Hawaiian Fridays, I have boxes in the attic with 100 silk Hawaiian shirts from back then
the good old days...
SECOND best employee cafeteria in Silicon valley!!  Xerox PARC was #1!!!


Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #206 on: December 10, 2019, 08:23:03 PM »
I worked at IBM in San Jose, CA
Two years after joining, my Center was "put in deep freeze" for a year, awaiting a new mission. All my foreign colleagues were sent back home as well as most of the Italians except for a minority, myself included, who were sent abroad for an international experience.

My assignment was to be 6 months in London and 6 in San Jose ;), a 1-year assignment a rarity in those days when they were usually for 2-3 years. Unfortunately, after 1 month in London they told me that San Jose was off :(, so I remained in London for the rest of the year.   
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Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #207 on: December 12, 2019, 08:39:12 PM »
IL CORPO DEGLI ALPINI

Italy's northern borders are determined by the chain of the Alps mountains.


In the mid 1800 these borders were undefended, except for some occasional forts, the prevailing theory being that any invaders should be stopped in the lowlands of the Po Valley.

In 1872, Captain Giuseppe Perrucchetti published a study in the Military Review, proposing that the defence of our mountain borders of the recently established Kingdom of Italy should be assigned to soldiers recruited locally since, given their knowledge of the surroundings and personal attachment to the area, they would be highly capable and better motivated defenders.

This led to the establishment of our Alpine Corps in the October of the same year, before similar units in France (Chasseurs Alpins, 1888), Austrian Empire (Gebirgsjäger, 1907), German Empire (Alpenkorps, 1914).


Felt hat with plume - Hat insignia - Monument of the Alpino and his friend the mule

In fact, for a long time our Alpini were recruited locally from their high valleys, where they led a hard life subsisting on polenta (boiled cornmeal), milk of mountain cows or goats and the occasional meat of hunted wild fowls.

Their typical felt hat has a crow plume for soldiers, an eagle plume for officers, and a white goose plume for higher officers.


Gen. Eisenhower with Alpino hat, WWII - Green uniform insignia

The Corps was organised into 62 battalions and 8 regiments in WWI, and 6 divisions of 2 regiments with 3 battalions after that. The divisions saw combat in France, Africa, Italy, Albania, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Greece and East Africa.

In 1942 63,000 ill-equipped Alpini were included in the 8th Army that Mussolini offered to help Hitler's Russian campaign on the Don front. The Alpini held the front until January 1943, when, due to the collapse of the Axis front, they were encircled by the advancing Soviet Army. The Alpini were able to break the encirclement in Battle of Nikolayevka and fight their way towards the new line of the front established after the Axis retreat. Only about one third of the Tridentina division (4250 survivors of 15,000 troops deployed) and one tenth of the Julia (1,200/15,000) were able to survive this odyssey. The Cuneense division was annihilated.

The Alpini were among the few units that managed to maintain some cohesion during their foot-slogging retreat of 100 Km with sub 0°C temperatures, with little or no help from their German allies. This led the majority of those who managed to return to Italy to join the Partisans in the mountains after Italy's surrender in September 1943.

With the exception of 1941-1947 and 1950, since 1920 new and former Alpini hold their yearly national Adunata (muster, parade) in one Italian town.


The May, 2019 "Adunata" in Milan - Emblem of ANA (Associazione Nazionale Alpini)

Our mountain people are famous for their typical choirs, as in this sample song, La Montanara (The mountain girl):

« Last Edit: December 12, 2019, 09:13:54 PM by SANDRO43 »
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Ferrari's Prancing Horse
« Reply #208 on: December 18, 2019, 07:46:29 PM »
Ferrari's Prancing Horse


Ferrari cars show the distinctive logo of a Cavallino rampante, a prancing black horse.

Not all know that this emblem was first adopted by Count Francesco Baracca (9 May 1888 – 19 June 1918), Italy's top fighter ace of World War I credited with 34 aerial victories.

The son of a wealthy landowner, he entered the Military Academy of Modena in October 1907 and became a passionate equestrian, then a cavalryman with the prestigious Piemonte Reale Cavalleria Regiment upon his commissioning in 1910. He was ordered to a small town in central Italy, then became interested in aviation and learned to fly at Reims, France, receiving his pilot's license on 9 July 1912. He then served with the Battaglione Aviatori and in 1914 with the 5th and 6th Squadriglie.

On a Nieuport 11 single-seat fighter with Lewis guns, which entered service in April 1916, Lt. Baracca scored his first victory, also Italy's first aerial victory in WWI.


In the summer of 1917 Captain Baracca adopted as a personal emblem a black prancing horse on his Nieuport 17, in tribute to his former cavalry regiment. With 9 victories, he was transferred as Commanding Officer to the newly formed 91st Squadriglia, known as the "Squadron of the Aces" on 1 May 1917.


Major Baracca standing by his SPAD XIII in 1918

On 24th October, 1917 the Austrian and German Armies launched an attack which broke the Italian front and caused a disastrous retreat to the western shores on the river Piave (red line in the map below).


Some enemy troops had managed to ford the Piave and gain footholds across it. The 91st Squadriglia was tasked with strafing their positions, and Baracca never returned from such a mission on 19 June, 1918. His pilots later managed to find his body and the wreck of his SPAD XIII. He is thought to have been severely wounded and brought down to crash by an Austrian infantrymen's lucky rifle shot.

In the early 1920s Enzo Ferrari was a successful competition driver and car builder, and in 1923 met Baracca's mother who told him: "Ferrari, put my son's prancing horse on you cars, it will bring you luck." He did that a few years later.


Francesco Baracca and Enzo Ferrari

Prancing/Reariing Horses
The war horses of Medieval knights were taught to adopt this posture as a form of defence from enemy foot soldiers, who would thus be afraid of being struck by hooves or trampled down.

Nowadays the posture is used by the Lipizzaner stallions of Vienna's Spanische Hofreitschule in their dressage exhibitions.

« Last Edit: December 19, 2019, 06:09:03 PM by SANDRO43 »
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Offline Grumpy

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Re: SW DEVELOPMENT AT IBM IN 1969
« Reply #209 on: December 18, 2019, 08:27:20 PM »
SW DEVELOPMENT AT IBM IN 1969

Since SW is discussed elsewhere here, I thought it might be interesting to relate how it was developed at IBM 50 years ago when I joined the company - other details on my website at http://www.floriani.it/15-eng.htm.

The process was guided by the contents of the Orange Book, a thick binder with orange covers which subdivided it into 8 phases, perversely numbered 0-7 ;D:

0. Nomination: somebody in some IBM thought that something was worth developing.
1. Approval: development of the something was approved if the crucial question "Will it earn IBM at least 30% net when marketed?" was answered affirmatively, which would then cause funds to be allotted and a location chosen for its development.
2. Documentation Development: writing all the 4-5 supporting manuals, the phase in which I was involved.
3. Alpha Test: testing the congruence of documentation and stated objectives, conducted by an entirely independent unit - in our case, the Lab at Böblingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Sindelfingen.
4. SW Development: writing the actual SW.
5. Beta Test: checking if the SW worked as designed, again by an entirely independent unit.
6. Announcement and Release: public announcement of the product and its expected availability date.
7. Maintenance: period during which requests for changes (RPQs, Requests for Price Quotation) could be accepted.     

We failed our Alpha Test owing to PASS,  a gigantic program in Assembler which was supposed to "sew" together the bits of RPGII code representing the customers' customisation choices for their accounting applications on the IBM System/3.   


AFAIK, a similarly ambitious and difficult project was never attempted again. Maybe it will with the aid of Artificial Intelligence ::)?

 I hope you did not have to crank, as in Charles Babbage's Differential Engine  ;D



Maybe you got the steam-powered Analytical Engine......




Or got to work with Ada Lovelace....

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Offline SANDRO43

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Re: SW DEVELOPMENT AT IBM IN 1969
« Reply #210 on: December 18, 2019, 08:35:24 PM »
I hope you did not have to crank, as in Charles Babbage's Differential Engine  ;D
Fortunately not, in 1969 and in my eyes the System/3 was a marvel of modern technology :D.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #211 on: December 24, 2019, 03:52:00 AM »
CAN AN MTB SINK A BATTLESHIP?

It can, and actually did twice in December 1917 sinking the Austrian coastguard battleship SMS Wien of 5,500 tons in the roadsted of Trieste's harbour and in June 1918 the Austrian battleship SMS Szent István of 20,000 tons off the Adriatic island of Premuda.


SMS Vienna - SMS St. Stephen

In May 1917 a barrage had been laid in the Otranto Channel between Italy and the Greek island of Corfu, effectively bottling up the Imperial Austrian-Hungarian fleet in the Adriatic Sea.


It was feared that major units of the Austrian fleet might attempt to smash the barrage and enter the Mediterranean to cooperate with their Turkish allies, as indeed had been decided in Febuary by the fleet commander Admiral Miklós Horthy, later to become Hungary's regent/dictator util 1944.


Miklós Horthy

On the night of June 10, 1918 two MAS (Motoscafo Armato Silurante, Armed Torpedo Boat) at anchor near the island of Premuda noticed a large column of smoke in the north and approached stealthily at reduced speed. At 03.30 the Szent István, proceeding at 14 knots, was attacked by MAS 15 commanded by Captain Luigi Rizzo and hit by his 2 torpedoes after successfully dodging the escorting destroyers.

 
Captain Luigi Rizzo (standing) and crew - Luigi Rizzo and crew on board MAS 96

On a neighbouring Austrian ship a ciné operator was able to film the dramatic death throes of the sinking battleship.

« Last Edit: December 24, 2019, 04:56:32 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #212 on: December 30, 2019, 07:38:52 PM »
THE BIBLE THAT LED TO AN ENCYCLOPEDIA

The Bible of Borso d'Este Duke of Ferrara is a two-volume illuminated manuscript produced over a 6-year period by a team of artists directed by Taddeo Crivelli between 1455 and 1461. It is one of the most notable works of its type in that its every page is decorated with an elegant frame of scrolls and other ornaments, surrounding the two columns of texts.


A page of the Bible - Duke Borso d'Este (1413-1471)

Fast forward to the early 1920s. Senator Giovanni Gentile, a philosopher and historian who was also Minister of Public Education, was informed in 1923 that the precious Bible would  shortly be sold at an auction in Paris. He contacted the wealthy businessman Giovanni Treccani and convinced him to acquire it - for the then enormous sum of 5 million lire - and then to donate it to the Kingdom of Italy.


Treccani - Gentile
Gentile then involved Treccani in a pet project of his, that meant founding and directing the Istituto per l'Enciclopedia Italiana aimed at producing an Italian Encyclopedia of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

The Encyclopedia first published its 35 volumes in 1925-1936, Treccani was made Senator and his creature still lives nowadays, simply called "La Treccani".


I still remember the impressive sight of its leather-bound volumes in my grandfather's library. Sadly, it was sold for a substantial sum after his death :(.
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FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #213 on: January 01, 2020, 01:15:18 PM »
For those who didn't know about the famous tower in Pisa


NOTE: This joke was created by Scott Hilburn and is owned by him
« Last Edit: January 01, 2020, 01:18:23 PM by 2tallbill »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #214 on: January 04, 2020, 08:18:41 PM »
Roma Regina Aquarum

According to the legend, Rome was founded by Romulus on 21 April, 753 BC on the left bank of the river Tiber, which sufficed to satisfy the needs of water of the village and then small town.

However, it later became evident that its water was no longer enough for the ever-increasing population of the city, and in 312 BC the Romans started building aqueducts to quell the thirst of citizens, feed the public baths (thermae) and the needs of artisans.

Fresh, clean water was collected from nearby hill and mountain springs by 11 aqueducts over a network of about 800 Km, 47 Km in masonry structures, delivering a daily total of 1 million cubic metres to the city.

Their tunnels had a downhill gradient of 2% max. to avoid turbulence, and were made waterproof with coccio pesto (pounded pottery shards) still effective nowadays after 2,500+ years.


A part of the Claudian aqueduct near Rome

As the Roman Empire acquired more territory, roads and aqueducts followed.

 
Roman aqueduct at Segovia, Spain - Roman aqueduct of Pont du Gard, southern France

With the fall of the Roman Empire, and the loss of Roman population, aqueducts fell into disrepair for lack of maintenance, until in the late Renaissance the Popes restarted it with a vengeance, adding some 1,000 fountains to the city, the most spectacular being the Fontana di Trevi.   


Humbler devices are the 2,500 nasoni (big noses) for the free use of thirsty passers-by - we have some 400 similar fountains in Milan, but call them vedovelle (young widows) probably because their continuous flow of water reminded somebody of the inconsolable tears shed by a widow ;D:


Roman "nasone" - Milanese "vedovella"

The above justifies the ancient appellation of Rome, Queen of Waters, also celebrated by the Roman composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1919), one of his 3 symphonic poems being entitled Le fontane di Roma.

« Last Edit: January 05, 2020, 07:40:40 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #215 on: January 05, 2020, 10:19:52 AM »


However, it later became evident that its water was no longer enough for the ever-increasing population of the city, and in 312 BC the Romans started building aqueducts to quell the thirst of citizens, feed the public baths (thermae) and the needs of artisans.

Fresh, clean water was collected from nearby hill and mountain springs by 11 aqueducts over a network of about 800 Km, 47 Km in masonry structures, delivering a daily total of 1 million cubic metres to the city.


Maybe the Romans were not he first to develop such a water supply system. 

I nominate the Persian qanat as possibly the first, supplying water to areas more arid than Rome and vastly larger. 




Quote
According to most sources, the qanat technology was developed in ancient Iran by the Persian people sometime in the early 1st millennium BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat

When in Iran in the late 1970s, I saw ancient qanats still operating, delivering  ground water from the mountains to the fertile plains and towns and cities below.   In past centuries,  delivered water was used for home cooling  and ice storage. 

I imagine today the qanats have been replaced by wells, pumps and pipes.

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #216 on: January 05, 2020, 05:20:05 PM »
Maybe the Romans were not he first to develop such a water supply system.  I nominate the Persian qanat as possibly the first, supplying water to areas more arid than Rome and vastly larger.
Probably. However, IINM the qanats were mostly dug for irrigation purposes, and did not have to satisfy the needs of a city that reached 1 million inhabitants ;).
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #217 on: January 07, 2020, 02:36:47 AM »
I nominate the Assyrians to take the awards for the use of water for irrigation, navigation and drinking

http://www.britannica.com/place/Nineveh-ancient-city-Iraq

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #218 on: January 07, 2020, 07:23:57 AM »
I nominate the Assyrians to take the awards for the use of water for irrigation, navigation and drinking
Then the cup winners ;D should be the Egyptians, using the Nile for that much before the Assyrians.
From the same source:
Quote
It was Sennacherib who made Nineveh a truly magnificent city (c. 700 BCE). ...At this time the total area of Nineveh comprised about 1,800 acres (700 hectares), and 15 great gates penetrated its walls. An elaborate system of 18 canals brought water from the hills to Nineveh, and several sections of a magnificently constructed aqueduct erected by the same monarch were discovered at Jerwan, about 25 miles (40 km) distant.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #219 on: January 07, 2020, 08:49:45 AM »
Back with Sandro !

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #220 on: January 07, 2020, 10:19:29 AM »


With the fall of the Roman Empire, and the loss of Roman population, aqueducts fell into disrepair for lack of maintenance, until in the late Renaissance the Popes restarted it with a vengeance, adding some 1,000 fountains to the city, the most spectacular being the Fontana di Trevi.   


For contrast, here is an interesting tiny fountain in Crimea.

Bakhchisaray Fountain.  One courtyard contains a small fountain whose sad story so moved the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin when he visited it that he wrote a long narrative poem titled "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray".

Bakhchisaray Fountain or Fountain of Tears is a real case of life imitating art. The fountain is known as the embodiment of love of one of the last Crimean Khans, Qırım Giray Khan for his young wife, and his grief after her early death. The Khan was said to have fallen in love with this Polish girl Maria in his harem. Maria is presumed to have been slain by the khan's former favourite Georgian wife Zarema, who had been supplanted in his affections by the captive Pole[2]. Despite his battle-hardened harshness, he grieved and wept when she died, astonishing all those who knew him. He commissioned a marble fountain to be made, so that the rock would weep, like him, forever.[3]

Originally placed by the young woman's tomb in a restful garden, the fountain was transferred to its current location in the Ambassadors' courtyard after Catherine II ordered the annexation of the Crimean territory. Pushkin's verses are credited in part for ensuring the survival of the palace itself to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhchisaray_Palace
A beautiful woman is pleasant to look at, but it is easier to live with a pleasant acting one.

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #221 on: January 07, 2020, 06:38:57 PM »
For contrast, here is an interesting tiny fountain in Crimea.
Not quite tiny ;D.


A palatial affair, therefore not for use by common mortals ;).
Milan's "Duomo"

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #222 on: January 14, 2020, 07:29:39 AM »
DRONES FOR HISTORY

Aerial Photogrammetry is a technique for topographical surveying. The use of drones is currently one of the most precise and reliable methods of acquiring data about an area,  cheaper than recurring to airplanes and helicopters, and not impeded by cloud cover as with satellites.


In the last few years archaeologists have started using low-flying drones outfitted with thermal cameras and lasers, discovering a new and affordable way of seeing what’s underground or inside a structure in a non-invasive way while flying above it, then processing the acquired data with computer 3-D imaging.

Among the many projects under way, a Japanese team is mapping the Giza pyramids to study their building technique.

« Last Edit: January 14, 2020, 04:11:51 PM by SANDRO43 »
Milan's "Duomo"

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #223 on: January 17, 2020, 07:55:54 PM »
IS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY AN ORIGINAL DESIGN?

It is well known that a smaller (1/4) version is on the Île aux Cygnes on the Seine, donated by the American community living in Paris.


New York 1884 - Paris 1889

The statue was constructed by Gustave Eiffel and designed by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

It is less known that Bartholdi may have been inspired by similar statues like the Libertà della Poesia (Freedom of Poetry) in Florence's Santa Croce and the La Legge Nuova (The New Law) in Milan's Duomo, both admired by his master Viollet Le Duc.

 
Libertà della Poesia, Florence 1870 - La Legge Nuova (at left on main façade), Milan 1810

Both Italian statues hold torches aloft, and Milan's has the same crown of sun rays signifying the dawn of a new era.

All "liberty" statues may in turn be recollections of the old Roman goddess Libertas Publica, holding a rod - which formed part of the ceremony for manumission, the freeing of a slave - and a pileus, a soft cap that inspired later "Phrygian" caps.


Coin of Trebonianus Gallus and "Libertas Publica"(AD 251–253)
« Last Edit: January 17, 2020, 08:22:58 PM by SANDRO43 »
Milan's "Duomo"

Offline ML

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #224 on: January 17, 2020, 08:40:31 PM »

Among the many projects under way, a Japanese team is mapping the Giza pyramids to study their building technique.


Interesting factoid that I didn't know until I toured around the pyramids:

The largest pyramid was originally covered in a layer of highly polished white limestone.

Those stones were removed by later rulers and used to build other edifices.

Also supposedly the lengths of all the sides are within a few inches of each other.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2020, 06:34:06 AM by ML »
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