Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realized a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others.

In collections of manufactured items, the objects may be antique or simply collectable. Antiques are collectable items at least 100 years old, while other collectables are arbitrarily recent. The word vintage describes relatively old collectables that are not yet antiques.

Collecting is a childhood hobby for some people, but for others a lifelong pursuit or something started in adulthood. Collectors who begin early in life often modify their aims when they get older. Some novice collectors start purchasing items that appeal to them then slowly work at learning how to build a collection, while others prefer to develop some background in the field before starting to buy items. The emergence of the internet as a global forum for different collectors has resulted in many isolated enthusiasts finding each other.

Types of collections

The most obvious way to categorize collections is by the type of objects collected. Most collections are of manufactured commercial items, but natural objects such as birds' eggs, butterflies, rocks, and seashells can also be the subject of a collection. For some collectors, the criterion for inclusion might not be the type of object but some incidental property such as the identity of its original owner.

Value of collected items

After a collectable has been purchased, its retail price no longer applies and its value is linked to what is called the secondary market. There is no secondary market for an item unless someone is willing to buy it, and an object's value is whatever the buyer is willing to pay. Depending on age, condition, supply, demand, and other factors, individuals, auctioneers, and secondary retailers may sell a collectable for either more or less than what they originally paid for it. Special or limited-edition collectables are created with the goal of increasing demand and value of an item due to its rarity. A price guide is a resource such as a book or website that lists typical selling prices.

Products often become more valuable with age. The term antique generally refers to manufactured items made over 100 years ago, although in some fields, such as antique cars, the time frame is less stringent. For antique furniture, the limit has traditionally been set in the 1830s. Collectors and dealers may use the word vintage to describe older collectables that are too young to be called antiques, including Art Deco and Art Nouveau items, Carnival and Depression glass, etc. Items which were once everyday objects but may now be collectable, as almost all examples produced have been destroyed or discarded, are called ephemera.

Psychological aspects

Psychological factors can play a role in both the motivation for keeping a collection and the impact it has on the collector's life. These factors can be positive or negative.

The hobby of collecting often goes hand-in-hand with an interest in the objects collected and what they represent, for example collecting postcards may reflect an interest in different places and cultures. For this reason, collecting can have educational benefits, and some collectors even become experts in their field.

Maintaining a collection can be a relaxing activity that counteracts the stress of life, while providing a purposeful pursuit which prevents boredom. The hobby can lead to social connections between people with similar interests and the development of new friendships. It has also been shown to be particularly common among academics.

Collecting for most people is a choice, but for some it can be a compulsion, sharing characteristics with obsessive hoarding. When collecting is passed between generations, it might sometimes be that children have inherited symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder. Collecting can sometimes reflect a fear of scarcity, or of discarding something and then later regretting it.

Carl Jung speculated that the widespread appeal of collecting is connected to the hunting and gathering that was once necessary for human survival.  Collecting is also associated with memory by association and the need for the human brain to catalogue and organize information and give meaning to ones actions.

George Pullman

George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. This ultimately led to the Pullman Strike due to the high rent prices charged for company housing and low wages paid by the Pullman Company. His Pullman Company also hired African American men to staff the Pullman cars, known as Pullman porters, who provided elite service and were compensated only in tips.

Struggling to maintain profitability during an 1894 downturn in manufacturing demand, he halved wages and required workers to spend long hours at the plant but did not lower prices of rents and goods in his company town. He gained presidential support by Grover Cleveland for the use of federal military troops which left 30 strikers dead in the violent suppression of workers there to end the Pullman Strike of 1894. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessment of operations of the company town. In 1898, the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town, which became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago.

Pullman sleeping car

Pullman developed a railroad sleeping car, the Pullman sleeper or "palace car". These were designed after the packet boats that travelled the Erie Canal of his youth in Albion. The first one was finished in 1864.

After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Pullman arranged to have his body carried from Washington, D.C. to Springfield on a sleeper, for which he gained national attention, as hundreds of thousands of people lined the route in homage.  Lincoln's body was carried on the Presidential train car that Lincoln himself had commissioned that year. Pullman had cars in the train, notably for the President's surviving family. Orders for his new car began to pour into his company. The sleeping cars proved successful although each cost more than five times the price of a regular railway car. They were marketed as "luxury for the middle class".

In 1867, Pullman introduced his first "hotel on wheels," the President, a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day, and the service was impeccable. A year later in 1868, he launched the Delmonico, the world's first sleeping car devoted to fine cuisine. The Delmonico menu was prepared by chefs from New York's famed Delmonico's Restaurant.

Both the President and the Delmonico and subsequent Pullman sleeping cars offered first-rate service. The company hired African American freedmen as Pullman porters. Many of the men had been former domestic slaves in the South. Their new roles required them to act as porters, waiters, valets, and entertainers, all rolled into one person.  As they were paid relatively well and got to travel the country, the position became considered prestigious, and Pullman porters were respected in the black communities.

Pullman believed that if his sleeper cars were to be successful, he needed to provide a wide variety of services to travelers: collecting tickets, selling berths, dispatching wires, fetching sandwiches, mending torn trousers, converting day coaches into sleepers, etc. Pullman believed that former house slaves of the plantation South had the right combination of training to serve the businessmen who would patronize his "Palace Cars". Pullman became the biggest single employer of African Americans in post-Civil War America.

In 1869, Pullman bought out the Detroit Car and Manufacturing Company. Pullman bought the patents and business of his eastern competitor, the Central Transportation Company in 1870. In the spring of 1871, Pullman, Andrew Carnegie, and others bailed out the financially troubled Union Pacific; they took positions on its board of directors. By 1875, the Pullman firm owned $100,000 worth of patents, had 700 cars in operation, and had several hundred thousand dollars in the bank.

The Pullman Company merged in 1930 with Standard Steel Car Company to become Pullman-Standard, which built its last car for Amtrak in 1982. After delivery the Pullman-Standard plant stayed in limbo, and eventually shut down. In 1987, its remaining assets were absorbed by Bombardier.

NET DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Are you a collector?

What do you collect?

Have you ever traveled overnight on a train?

Did you have a sleeper compartment?

Near Fest Fall 2022

What is The New England Amateur Radio Festival (NEAR-Fest)?

The NEAR-Fest is an international event run by and for all radio hobbyists and enthusiasts, including “hams”, short-wave listeners, scanner buffs, vintage/antique radio fans, etc. NEAR-Fest is held twice annually, spring and fall, rain, or shine, at the Deerfield Fairgrounds, Deerfield NH beginning on Friday at 0900 and ending Saturday at 1500 hours.

Admission is $15. Persons under 18 and over 80 are admitted free of charge upon presentation of government-issued ID. Inside parking is available for $10 and includes a “reasonable amount of flea market selling space” for PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS selling their own personal property. Commercial vendors must register and pay applicable fees.

The program of activities and events at NEAR-Fest is extensive; a huge outdoor electronic flea market, three buildings full of commercial vendors, forums, technical seminars and symposia, demonstrations, exhibits, displays, licensing examinations, special events radio stations, a “jam session”, good food, fellowship, and and fun . NEAR-Fest is the largest event of its kind in the Northeast and has once been described as the “Woodstock of Amateur Radio”.

Fall NearFest schedule:

FRIDAY

12:00

ARRL FORUM

Fred Kemmerer AB1OC, ARRL New England Division Director

1:00

THE CHIP AND DALE 10 GHZ MICROWAVE ADVENTURE

Dale Clement AF1T and Chip Taylor W1AIM

2:00

POWER LINE RFI

Tom Murphy W6TOM

3:00

INSIDE GERMAN AND RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN ENIGMA MACHINES

Tom Perera W1TP

5:00

FRIDAY PRIZE DRAWING (in the Relaxation Grove by the Stage)

7:00

NEAR-FEST JAM SESSION

SATURDAY

10:00

VE SESSION (in the basement of the Arts & Crafts Building)

2:00

CLOSING CEREMONIES (in the Relaxation Grove by the Stage)

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Net Discussion Questions:

NearFest

·         Is it fading or going strong?

·         Are you going to attend this fall?

·         If you go, what aspects of the event do you enjoy?

JetPacks

·         All things being equal – good health, etc., would you try this technology?

·         Where could this device bring the most benefits?

Personal Jet Packs

In the most general terms, a jet pack is a wearable device which allows the user to fly by providing thrust. With the exception of use in a microgravity environment, this thrust must be upwards so as to overcome the force of gravity, and must be enough to overcome the weight of the user, the jet pack itself and its fuel. This necessarily requires the jet pack to continually push mass in a downwards direction.

While some designs have power and/or mass supplied from an external, ground-based source, untethered flight requires all of a flight's fuel to be carried within the pack. This results in problems relating to the overall mass ratio, which limits the maximum flight time to a few minutes, rather than the sustained flight envisaged in science fiction.

JetPack Aviation: Wingless Jet Pack

On 3 November 2015, Jetpack Aviation demonstrated the JB-9 in Upper New York Bay in front of the Statue of Liberty. The JB-9 carries 4.5 kilograms (10 lb.) of kerosene fuel that burns through two vectored thrust AMT Nike jet engines at a rate of 3.8 liters (1 US gallon) per minute for up to ten minutes of flying time, depending on pilot weight. Weight of fuel is a consideration, but it is reported to start with 150 m (500 ft) per minute climb rate that doubles as the fuel burns off. While this model has been limited to 102 km/h (55 knots), the prototype of the JB-10 is reported to fly at over 200 km/h (110 kn).

This is a true jet pack: a backpack that provides jet-powered flight. Most of the volume is the fuel tank, with twin turbine jet engines gimbal-mounted on each side. The control system is identical to the Bell Rocket Belt: tilting the handgrips vectors the thrust – left-right & forward-back – by moving the engines; twisting left hand moves two nozzle skirts for yaw; twisting the right hand counterclockwise increases throttle. Jetpack Aviation was started by Australian businessman David Mayman with the technical knowhow coming from Nelson Tyler, prolific inventor of helicopter-mounted camera stabilizers and one of the engineers that worked on the Bell Rocketbelt that was used in the 1984 Olympics.

The company now makes two Jetpack models, the JB-10 and the JB-11. They are similar to the JB-9, with upgraded electronics. They both use kerosene/diesel turbojet engines. The JB-10 is designed with two large 200 lb. thrust engines and is described as having an 8-minute flight time, while the slightly-longer duration JB-11 has a 10 minute flight time and uses eight smaller 90 lb. thrust engines. Jetpack Aviation

Flyboard Air

Flyboard Air, invented by Franky Zapata, allows flight up to 3,000 meters (10,000 ft) and can reach 150 km/h (93 mph). It also has 10 minutes autonomy.  Zapata participated with his invention during the 2019 Bastille Day military parade. Three weeks later, he crossed the English Channel with his device in 22 minutes, including a shipboard refueling midway.

Daedalus Flight Pack

This innovation saw two jets attached to the back of an exoskeleton, worn by the operator. At the same time, two additional jets were added to the arms, and could be moved with the arms to control movement. It was devised by Richard Browning of Gravity Industries.  In September 2020 it was reported that the Great North Air Ambulance (GNAA) service was considering using this jet suit to enable paramedics to reach casualties in the mountainous Lake District, and by March 2022 the operational director of the GNAA, Andy Mawson, had been trained to fly and the service hoped to start using jet suits in summer 2022.

First Flight Around the World

On April 6, 1924, eight U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics in four airplanes left Seattle, Washington, to carry out the first circumnavigation of the globe by air. They completed the journey 175 days later on September 28, 1924, after making 74 stops and covering about 27,550 miles.

The airplanes were named for American cities and carried a flight number: Seattle (1), Chicago (2), Boston (3), and New Orleans (4). They flew over the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans and encountered climatic extremes from arctic to tropical. Only the Chicago, flown by Lts. Lowell Smith and Leslie Arnold, and the New Orleans, flown by Lts. Erik Nelson and John Harding Jr. completed the entire journey.

The World Flight’s goal was to evaluate the airplane as a global technology.  Operating the World Cruisers in extreme environments would test the airplane’s practicality and showcase America’s aeronautical industry. Connecting the world by air routes would foster better international relations and encourage commerce. And it would create popular support for the Army Air Service and its goal of expanding its role within the U.S. military.

The flight of the Douglas World Cruisers was a massive undertaking. The U.S. Army Air Service, Navy, Coast Guard, and Bureau of Fisheries shared the critical task of establishing remote supply and repair depots and providing assistance on the open seas. Thousands of gallons of fuel and oil, 35 replacement engines, and numerous spare parts had to be distributed throughout the world, including places where airplanes had never before flown.  To keep their airplanes light enough to get aloft, the fliers could only take 300 pounds of supplies in each plane. They had to make tough decisions about what to include. They did not take parachutes or life preservers.

The World Flight officially began on April 6, 1924, in Seattle, Washington. The flyers flew up the coast of Canada to Alaska, where they faced freezing temperatures, thick and unpredictable fog, and sudden violent storms. The crossing from the Aleutian Islands to the Soviet Union’s Komandorski Islands on May 15 was the first flight across the Pacific Ocean.  In Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, the fliers encountered williwaws, or “woolies”—sudden, strong, destructive winds up to 75 miles per hour that rushed down from the mountains. Typhoons, disease, extreme heat and humidity, and the sometimes guarded hospitality of their foreign hosts stressed both the fliers and their airplanes as they ventured further into Asia in May and June.

Japan, excited about aviation but suspicious of the American military presence, dictated a serpentine route that protected its military secrets. The rivers and harbors of China and Burma proved to be crowded, chaotic havens for the World Flight. The jungles of French Indochina tested the flyers as they raced to make repairs to the Chicago and stay on schedule.

In Saigon, Indochina, the fliers could not get service at a restaurant because they were not wearing jackets. They tried to explain their situation—they could borrow their Navy friends’ shirts and trousers but not their uniform coats. Still, the waiter refused service.

The World Flight’s journey through the Far and Middle East in June and July spanned the tropical jungles of India and the blowing sands of modern-day Iraq and Jordan. They allowed Associated Press reporter Linton Wells, to join them for part of the flight.  As the World Flight crossed into Europe, ever-larger enthusiastic crowds greeted the fliers.

The World Cruiser crews faced their longest over-water flights while crossing the North Atlantic in August. The Navy stationed a series of ships along the route to rescue the fliers if they had to land in the open ocean. Dense fog and sudden storms proved to be a continual problem.  The flight from Iceland to Greenland tested the pilots’ skill and courage. They encountered heavy fog and had to fly very low and close to the waves. Flying at 90 miles per hour with little visibility, they barely avoided hitting towering icebergs. One of the pilots later admitted he was terrified.

From Ivigtut, Greenland, the Chicago and New Orleans crews made the 560-mile flight across the Atlantic to Icy Tickle, on Indian Harbor in Labrador, Canada, on August 31. Boston pilots Wade and Ogden rejoined the flight three days later at Nova Scotia in the Douglas World Cruiser prototype, newly christened the Boston II.  After reaching the United States, the pilots soon became exhausted by the parades, receptions, speeches, and banquets given in their honor. Everyone wanted to see them, including President Calvin Coolidge.

Once in the United States, the World Flight faced adoring crowds eager to see America’s latest aviation heroes. The fliers flew down the East Coast to Washington, D.C., west across the Alleghenies to Dayton and Chicago, and south to Dallas. From there, they crossed the desert southwest to San Diego. Their triumphant journey up the West Coast culminated in the official conclusion of the World Flight at Seattle on September 28, 1924.