Tall Ship's Challenge 2012

We are on Tybee Island, GA (May 7 2012), waiting for the Tall Ships  Challenge 2012 to pass by our 3rd floor condo.  They should come into view at about 1:15 PM EDT today.  There are 12 ships in total.

We have an excellent view!  I will posting some pictures today as they pass by!

Banjo - Researching Stagecoach Technology

A Concord Stagecoach ca 1865

Stagecoach Technology!  Is that an oxymoron?

My background as an engineer has certainly led me in some unusual, but interesting, directions!

A wooden hub where spokes attach

Recently, I came across a big wooden barrel-type thing, complete with rectangular holes  wrapped in iron bands, as an interior decoration at Nordstrom's Dept store.  The ladies were shopping for boots, so I was looking around at other stuff and spotted several of these things.  After considerable thought, I came to the conclusion that these might be hubs for wooden wheels.  Some later research convinced me that this is indeed what they are.  The rectangular slots are where the spokes connected into the hub - a lot of stress would have been concentrated in this area, and thus the need for iron reinforcement.

Hub is in the center

Well, that led me in a completely new direction.  I'm certainly not a historian, so I am somewhat reluctant to acknowledge that I had no idea when things like iron hoops could have been available for making objects like wheel hubs.   But I recognized that the iron hoops certainly would improve the longevity of the hubs.  I'm not at all sure they could even be constructed without iron, but so far, I can't say for sure.

From Wells Fargo History site

The horses pull forward, exerting a forward force onto the stagecoach.  These horses had to be connected to the front wheels in order to both pull the carriage forward while also pulling it left or right when needing to make a turn.  This meant all of the forward forces are connected to the front wheel/axle combination, but for the whole carriage to move forward, obviously the front wheels/axle needed to be firmly attached to the carriage; in addition, this connection point needed to be capable of swiveling left and right in order to steer the carriage.  This mean there had to be some sort of pin that the wheel/axle could swivel on, which was also strong enough to transfer the pulling force from the horse via the wheel/axle to the carriage.

So this pin had to be very strong.  I couldn't imagine that wood would have been strong enough to support these stresses, so I expected it to be made of iron, but again, my lack of historical knowledge meant I didn't know for sure if they had iron or not; if not iron, then how did they solve this problem?

In addition, I couldn't imagine that a carriage would just be directly connected to the front and rear axles, as this would have transferred all of the road bumps and bangs directly into the cabin compartment, tossing the occupants around in a rather violent manner.  So there had to be some method for isolating the under carriage from the riding carriage.  How did they do this?  If they had iron, then I was expecting to see leaf springs, but if not, then I expected to find leather somehow employed.

And the front wheel/axle.  How did they turn left and right?  Were they smaller than the real wheels so they could swing under the front without banging into the side of the carriage?

Brake is block of wood
on left of wheel
when driver pushes
handle with his foot
it pushes this piece
of wood against wheel
slowing it down
via friction

And brakes - how did they slow these things down?  It's obvious that on level ground friction from the wheels on the road would have brought everything to a stop, but going downhill on a steep road - how would you slow the carriage down?  So how did the brakes work?  Probably applying friction to the wheels, but how were they activated?  No brake-peddle hydraulics back then!

So a trip was in order to have a look at a real-live stagecoach.

Google to the rescue: lo and behold, there is a real-live stagecoach on display in a museum just an hours drive from me!  Not just one, but two of them!  The Booth Museum of Western Art.

So a trip was in order, to Cartersville GA, just off of I-75 NW of Atlanta - about an hours drive for me!  We checked the website, and they are closed on Mondays, so we planned our trip for Tuesday, August 30, 2011.

My wife researched the town, and came up with a great place to have lunch prior to taking in the museum: The Appalachian Grill.  We enjoyed our lunch there very much (future blog entry to follow).

Lunch finished, on to the museum.  It was $10 each for us to visit today (they say the 1st Thursday in each month is free, but double check their website - we thought about delaying our trip to Thursday to save the $20, but we figured it would be much more busy on that day, so we preferred to go on Tuesday when I assumed it was much less busy).

We found two magnificent stagecoaches!  I was permitted (as is everyone) to take photos; however their policy does not allow me to share them with you, which is a real shame.  Their website does have one photo, but their website says I can't share that here either.  So, I've done the next best thing: I've pulled a picture of a stagecoach (not either of the ones at the museum) from the site of the company that refurbished one of their stagecoaches - the 1865 Concord Stagecoach: Hansen Wheel and Wagon Shop.

So, back to my questions:

• Swivel Pin: Iron.  
• Front wheels smaller than back? Yes
• Front wheels swing under front of carriage?  Yes
• Iron Leaf Springs? No; leather braces instead.  I don't really understand this, as they obviously had iron, and it would have been both more durable as well as provide more comfort.
• Brakes?  Yes, foot lever, directly connected via wooden push rods to wooden block that directly applies pressure to iron rim of wheel.  It also has a metal spring for return and holding off of the wheel.
• Iron bracing at all stress points: Yes.

So there you have it!  Of course, this just brings up more questions, like how did those small leather harnesses that went over the horses stand up to the strain of pulling the carriage?  Since no real or model horses were available, all I had to look at where the paintings - none of which looked capable of taking that stress to me, so still searching....

The art:  The art (paintings, sculptures, exhibits) was the most enjoyable I've ever experienced at any museum anywhere.  It was just stunning.

We'll be back!

A modern stagecoach?  Not!

Links

• Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, GA
• A picture of a representative stagecoach from the Hansen Wheel and Wagon Shop
• Wells Fargo History.

Banjo's - Experiencing Charleston SC

Summary Page of Links to my posts about Charleston SC

• Banjo's Insight - Dining In Charleston SC 

• Banjo's Travels - Edisto Beach, SC

  
  

Banjo's Travels - Edisto Beach, SC

Summary Page for my posts on Edisto Beach SC

• Botany Bay Plantation - Edisto, SC  
• McConkey's Jungle Shack - Edisto Beach, SC
• SeaCow Eatery - Edisto Beach, SC

• Whaley's Bar - Edisto Beach SC

• Edisto Beach - Dock Side Restaurant

• PO BBQ at Edisto Beach, SC

• Golfers with Business to Conduct - Wyndham Resort Golf Course, Edisto Beach SC

• Dramatic Rescue of Overturned Kayakers as they are Swept to Sea!

• A Month at the Beach

Banjo's Travel - Links Page

Page that contains links to my posts about travel

• World's Longest Yard Sale
• Charleston SC
• Edisto Beach SC
• Wilmington NC

World's Longest Yard Sale

I've updated the page "Banjo Does World's Longest Yard Sale" with trip information and pictures.  I will be deleting this page in a few days that you are on right now seeing this sentence, so if you link, please link to the page with the pictures.

Banjo does World's Longest Yard Sale 2011

Updated 8/26/11

TRIP RESULTS (images at bottom)
For some odd reason, I woke up about 4 AM on Friday, the weekend of the event.  So, after banging around quietly but enough to ensure the wife was awake, we got ready and left, ate some breakfast along the way, and arrived in Chattanooga TN around 8 AM for the start...only it wasn't because we forgot about the time change - it was really 7:00 AM local time!  We didn't discover our time shift until lunch, when we showed up early, just after the cafe opened along the route.

So we were early, but most places were already open.

After a while, we settled into a pattern that was right for us.

• We only went to places that had multiple vendors ( a loose term - anyone selling is a vendor).  That meant we skipped all of the 'mom and pop' people in their own yards.  As the day wore on, and we got more and more tired, this was a big win for us.
• We wanted places with fairly good parking, however, we did pull off to the side of the road a couple of times.
• There are some sites that have a hundred or more vendors.  Those are pretty convenient, and we liked stopping at those. 
• We went from Chattanooga north on hwy 127 until we got to I-40, where we left the WLYS at Crosseville and headed west to stay in Cookeville.  We did this because the hotels in Crosseville that normally charged $100 per night had jacked up their prices to $200!  So, by driving about 25 miles or so west, we saved $100.  Plus we had a bigger choice of places to stay as well as eat.
• We covered about the entire state of TN, from south to north.
• It's an exhausting but interesting time.
• We shopped all day Friday; we had intended to do some more on Saturday, but bad weather made us change our mind and drive home.
• We had a great time, and will probably do it again next year.

So, what did we see, what did we buy?  

There is no limit to what you are going to see.  There's everything imaginable - from commodes to sinks, from doorknobs to hats, from bottles to stills.  If it's ever been made, by anyone, somewhere on this route, it will show up.  The prices are all over the place.  I didn't buy a single thing!  That's very unusual for me.  Some things that I wanted to buy, I didn't want to pay the price.  However, as the day wore on, I began to see that the prices for these things were fairly consistent, so I don't think they were overpriced, just I didn't want to part with my money at that price.  I hoped to pick some up on Saturday, but weather made us cut our trip short....so next year.  My sweet wife Pat bought a few small things - one being a dainty hand fan (the type you wave with your hand) to help stay a little cooler.  I wish they would move this to mid-late September; it was too dang hot!

Recommendations

• Some vendors will try to take advantage of you.  For instance, we saw many, many cast iron skillets, most for $30-$40 for a 10" skillet.  However, we saw some that had been shined up to look glossy black that were selling for $180!  That vendor travels from show to show, has a complete tent setup, sits back in a rocking chair and waits for suckers to come by.  Everything he had had been shined up, and was 10X what it should have been.  When I see that, I'm not willing to negotiate with a thief or someone trying to take advantage of someone.
• Shop around a little before buying, seeing other vendors' wares.  There are very few things that only appear at a single vendor.  After a while, you'll begin to notice that things have approached their own value, as you'll see fairly consistent prices from site to site.
• Friday's aren't the best day to negotiate, but you have the biggest choice.  As the weekend advances, some things will have sold and thus be removed from the sell, but the vendors will be more willing to negotiate on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. For some vendors, this is their best and only chance to sell; keeping it will mean retaining it for another year, or dumping it at a loss, so the closer you get to the end day and time, the more willing they are to negotiate.
• Common items, where you will see at every site, are the easiest to negotiate.  Don't be quick to buy these.
• A lot of vendors will pack up and leave by noon Sunday.

BACKGROUND
We've never been on the World's Longest Yard Sale.  This is an annual event that starts on the first Thursday of August, and runs through the following Sunday, and takes place along hwy US127.  This year, 2011, that means the event will start on Thursday August 4 and run through Sunday August 7.  Here's a Google link for more insight.

We plan on starting our trip in Chattanooga TN, and possibly (but not probably) going to Frankfort KY.

Here's a link to my personal map.  It shows places where we may bail out to head back to Atlanta along I-75.

This is the first time we are actually planning on going; we've missed it every year since hearing about it 5 years ago.

Images
I didn't take a lot of pictures because there was so much, and from a general standpoint, it was all the same....just different stuff.  I took these two pictures at the start, at the same place, just north of Chattanooga.  This will give you some idea of what it was like, but repeated hundreds of times.