It’s April 16, and I’ll just give brief historical overviews: one incident in each of the three categories. On this day in 1916, Lenin returned to St. Petersburg from Switzerland (via Sweden) in the famous “closed carriage,” a train journey that ultimately resulted in the establishment of a Bolshevik government. The locomotive that pulled Lenin’s train is still preserved at the St. Petersburg railroad station; I visited and photographed it in 2011 (see pictures here). Anatole France was born on April 16, 1844, and Rosalind Franklin died of cancer on this day in 1958.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is messing with Andrzej:
Hili: Do you hear how the grass is growing?
A: No.
Hili: Neither do I.
In Polish:
Hili: Słyszysz jak trawa rośnie?
Ja: Nie.
Hili: Ja też nie.
And out in Winnipeg, Gus’s chewed-up box has become a cardboard mattress. I think he’s on strike for a new Ikea box that he can nom. As his godfather, I think he should have one.
Very interesting, that linked pic of 293 (Lenin’s engine). It obviously has a very ‘American’ spark-arresting balloon stack on it. A bit of googling shows that it was actually a Finnish engine, not a Russian one, and Finland Station was in fact the terminus of a Finnish-owned railway (later swapped to Russia). A bit more Googling shows 293 was in fact built by Richmond Locomotive Works – hence the typically American lines.
The cylinders on that loco are very curious though. The valve chests are flat-topped (as one would expect with slide valves of the time) but the cylindrical boss on the end suggests piston valves. But it’s the third small cylinder between the main cylinder and the valve and outboard of both that puzzles me. I just can’t imagine what function it might have.
cr
Over my head too. Though I clearly haven’t spent as much time worrying about steam locos, I did do the loco thing for a few years in my early teens. I can’t recall anything like it either. I think some of the maritime triple – expansion steam engines incorporated surge cylinders between stages …. No, I can’t see how that could work. Stroke lengths would be wrong.
Love the photo of beautiful Hili!
I can’t decide if Gus looks content and that a cardboard mat is what he was styling all along, or if he is perturbed that his house is now flattened & forelorn.
I suspect that the Ikea boxes are Swedish meatball-flavored. Never underestimate the chemosensory capabilities of your fellow terrestrial mammals.
That’s what I think too – cardboard infused with aromas from the store kitchens.
However, I think another box with lots of escape routes would tide Gus over. He might have been a bit traumatized by that awful trap where he lost his ear to frostbit, and probably prefers boxes with at least two large openings (as most cats do).
” . . . Rosalind Franklin died of cancer on this day in 1958.”
There ought to be some Nobelesque reward for those who through no bloody fault of their own die before it is convenient for the Nobel folks to acknowledge them. Why not at least say that they would otherwise have received the prize?
Or, from the point of view of the Kaiser’s government, it was a tiny investment in political espionage with a gigantic pay-off in their favour.
Not sure ‘espionage’ is quite the right word. I’m not aware that Lenin was feeding the Germans information.
Possibly ‘political sabotage’ might be more apt?
cr
Hmmm, yes, “sabotage” would be putting the clog in the right place.