Archive for October 2010
scenes familiar, and loved
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exhausted, determined to return to my lonely paths and isolated experiences, the only solace possible for an Outsider such as myself is amongst the tomb legions. Exertion and social obligation has brought me, repeatedly within the last few months, amongst the vivacious and brightly lit corridors of the human infestation and forced me into uncomfortable and uncontrolled interaction with those who thrive in such circumstance. Gaunt yet flabby, the squamous shadow of your humble narrator is cast comfortably in only one place- the fossilized heart of this Newtown Pentacle.
Welcome back, to Calvary.
from wikipedia
Calvary Cemetery is located at 49-02 Laurel Hill Blvd. in Woodside in the New York City borough of Queens, New York. The cemetery is managed by the Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York. It is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the United States. In 1847, faced with cholera epidemics and a shortage of burial grounds in Manhattan, the New York State Legislature passed the Rural Cemetery Act authorizing nonprofit corporations to operate commercial cemeteries. Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral trustees had purchased land in Maspeth in 1846, and the first burial in Calvary Cemetery there was in 1848. By 1852 there were 50 burials a day, half of them the Irish poor under seven years of age
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the center of Calvary Cemetery, First Calvary that is, is a concrete temple which functions as a mortuary chapel in addition to maintaining an abbreviated schedule of Mass. The noted Catholic architect Raymond F. Almirall, responding to the request of Archbishop Farley in 1903, designed this beaux arts masterpiece to be constructed for the then princely sum of $200,000. Farley conceived of this place, and the subterranean structure beneath it, after a trip to the Holy See in Rome.
for more on Archbishop Farley, from google books
In 1884 Pope Leo XIII made him private chamberlain with the title monsignor, and Cardinal McCloskey appointed him permanent rector of the church of Saint Gabriel, New York, where he remained until he was made archbishop. In 1891 he was madevicar-general of the archdiocese of New York. In 1892 he was made domestic prelate to Leo XIII, and in 1895 prothonotary apostolic, all of which positions gave him special privileges. In December 1895 he was consecrated titular bishop of Zeugma, and became assistant to the archbishop of New York. When the see of New York became vacant by the death of Archbishop Corrigan (1902), the lists of names sent to Rome by the suffragan bishops and permanent rectors each had at the head the name of Bishop Farley as first choice for archbishop. He received his appointment from Leo XIII, but the pallium was conferred under Pius X, on 15 Sept. 1902. He was the fourth archbishop of New York and governed one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the world. He was the metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of New York, which is composed of eight dioceses outside the archdiocese which includes also the Bahama Islands; six in the State of New York and two in New Jersey. The author of the ‘Life of Cardinal McCloskey,’ Archbishop Farley was also a contributor to various magazines, and took great interest in movements for the social welfare of the city. He was created cardinal by Pope Pius X, 27 Nov. 1911. At the time of his death (1918) the archdiocese of New York comprised a Catholic population estimated at 1,350,000; 1,117 priests; 388 churches; parochial schools attended by 91,140 children; 25 orphanages; 27 hospitals, and other institutions, benevolent and educational.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Beneath the chapel, as it was designed, there is meant to be a two square acre catacomb whose only connection to the surface world is a shaft which rises some fifty feet to the surface. The Chapel itself utilizes the normal cruciform plan favored by the Roman Catholics since antiquity, and is some 60×120 feet, and a cupola rises some 90 feet above level ground and is crowned by a statue of the “Risen Christ”.
The cavern beneath the chapel is similarly in a the shape of a cross and designed as a mausoleum for the fallen priests of the city.
from google books, a popular mechanics article about the place
From the architect’s point of view, the most unusual feature is the method of construction of the dome and the groined vault on which it rests, both of which are regarded by experts as feats in reinforced concrete construction. The dome is 40 ft. across and the height from the floor to the lantern is 38 ft. It rises 50 ft. higher from that point and its total weight is 360 tons. The vault has eight penetrations, four large and four small, and both the lining of golden yellow brick and the pink Minnesota sandstone trimmings are held in place simply by adhesion to the concrete. In order to build this dome, it was necessary to build a falsework with all the accuracy of a mould, so that the brick could be laid against the forms, and the concrete with its steel reinforcement placed in the moulds. When the concrete had set, the falsework was removed, and the great dome stood as an imposing architectural crown to the structure, as well as a feat in construction.
The crypts or catacombs are for the burial of the priests of the diocese of New York, under the charge of which the cemetery is maintained. At present, but one section of the catacombs has been completed with accommodations for twenty-four bodies in the concrete niches. But the section can be extended underground in four directions, and at any time an addition for seventy-two more bodies can be made. For a cryptal burial there is a lift set into the floor of the chapel to lower the body to the level of the crypts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite my mongrel familiarity with this place, your humble narrator has always avoided entering the chapel due mainly to a combination of cowardice and empathy.
Imagine the reaction of some wholesome priest or grieving parishioner when seeing this scuttling alien shamble into their sanctum sanctorum. They might look up and see an odd creature in a dirty black raincoat, with its widely separated glassy eyes and tightly stretched fish belly white skin betraying the presence of yellowing bone and rotting organ beneath, and question the faith that keeps them here. How could a merciful god allow an abomination such as myself to exist- a furtive fuligin clad thing stinking of the Newtown Creek’s corruptions- let alone enter the most hallowed ground in the Archdiocese while the thermonuclear eye of god still shines down from on high? Certainly at night such manifestations of the macabre can be expected, but during the day?
It’s usually best for all that I remain at the side of the room, the rear of the bus, and near the end of the line- lest lightning strike another in error.
from wikipedia
The Rural Cemetery Act led to Queens being a borough of cemeteries. Queens is home to 29 cemeteries holding more than five million graves and entombments, so that the “dead population” of the borough is more than twice the size of its live population. The large concentration of cemeteries on the border of Brooklyn and Queens is another effect of the law. Under the Act, each individual cemetery organization was limited to no more than 250 acres (1 km²) in one county, but some organizations circumvented that limit by purchasing larger parcels straddling the boundaries of two counties. As result, 17 cemeteries straddle the border between Queens and Brooklyn. As with Queens, the “dead population” of Brooklyn is estimated to exceed its living population. In 1917 a state legislator from Queens complained that the law and the concentration of cemeteries that it had produced resulted in more than one-fifth of Queens’ land being exempt from property tax. As of 1918 more than 22,000 acres (89 km2) of land in Queens were owned by private tax-exempt cemeteries. Under current New York law, all cemetery property is exempt from property taxation, but current law allows the governments of Brooklyn, Queens, and certain other New York counties to limit the establishment of new cemeteries within their boundaries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nevertheless, this day, I mustered the tiny sparks of manhood within me and drawing a sharp breath- entered the chapel. Which was… disappointing. “Rather mundane, and shabbily maintained given the pristine groundskeeping and manicured care given the monuments outside” was my initial reaction. Also, it was rather dark within, and I was forced to use the camera flash in addition to setting my camera to a high ISO setting. Notice, if you would, the lack of dust in the air of the place- which would be catching and reflecting the flash back at the lens- backscatter as its called.
This is a rather important point, as we’ll discuss later on in the post.
from wikipedia
The term backscatter in photography refers to light from a flash or strobe reflecting back from particles in the lens’s field of view causing specks of light to appear in the photo. This gives rise to what are sometimes referred to as orb artifacts. Photographic backscatter can result from snowflakes, rain or mist, or airborne dust. Due to the size limitations of the modern compact and ultra-compact cameras, especially digital cameras, the distance between the lens and the built-in flash has decreased, thereby decreasing the angle of light reflection to the lens and increasing the likelihood of light reflection off normally sub-visible particles. Hence, the orb artifact is commonplace with small digital or film camera photographs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My main concern was finding the possible location of the fifty foot shaft mentioned in the paragraph above, which is meant to be at the center of the building. The mosaic floor has obviously suffered the effects of use and a century of weathering, but there was this metal edged structure in it that was roughly the size and shape of a standard coffin. Unless I’m missing my guess, this is the hatch to that shaft.
I have been wrong before, so don’t take my word for it, but according to my researches, this is where it SHOULD be- and it fits the description as put forward in the Popular Mechanics article linked to above.
from wikipedia
The first place to be referred to as catacombs were the underground tombs between the 2nd and 3rd milestones of the Appian Way in Rome, where the bodies of the apostles Peter and Paul, among others, were said to have been buried. The name of that place in late Latin was catacumbae, a word of obscure origin, possibly deriving from a proper name, or else a corruption of the Latin phrase cata tumbas, “among the tombs”. The word referred originally only to the Roman catacombs, but was extended by 1836 to refer to any subterranean receptacle of the dead, as in the 18th-century Paris catacombs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The cavern below is meant to house individually cemented cells for the dead clerics, and these individual resting places- as well as the ossuary that eventually houses their more enduring remains in the Italian and French manner- is lined with stone quarried from the domed hills of Vermont- a nearby northern state of sylvan wildernesses which produce and maintains a vast mythology even in this age of reason and ration.
One wonders why the alluvial deposits of the Green Mountain state were called upon to line and ornament this unseen chamber, and if it might have relation to the odd occurrences in and around Townshend Vermont in 1927 and 1928.
from wikisource.org
The whole matter began, so far as I am concerned, with the historic and unprecedented Vermont floods of November 3, 1927. I was then, as now, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts, and an enthusiastic amateur student of New England folklore. Shortly after the flood, amidst the varied reports of hardship, suffering, and organized relief which filled the press, there appeared certain odd stories of things found floating in some of the swollen rivers; so that many of my friends embarked on curious discussions and appealed to me to shed what light I could on the subject. I felt flattered at having my folklore study taken so seriously, and did what I could to belittle the wild, vague tales which seemed so clearly an outgrowth of old rustic superstitions. It amused me to find several persons of education who insisted that some stratum of obscure, distorted fact might underlie the rumors.
The tales thus brought to my notice came mostly through newspaper cuttings; though one yarn had an oral source and was repeated to a friend of mine in a letter from his mother in Hardwick, Vermont. The type of thing described was essentially the same in all cases, though there seemed to be three separate instances involved – one connected with the Winooski River near Montpelier, another attached to the West River in Windham County beyond Newfane, and a third centering in the Passumpsic in Caledonia County above Lyndonville. Of course many of the stray items mentioned other instances, but on analysis they all seemed to boil down to these three. In each case country folk reported seeing one or more very bizarre and disturbing objects in the surging waters that poured down from the unfrequented hills, and there was a widespread tendency to connect these sights with a primitive, half-forgotten cycle of whispered legend which old people resurrected for the occasion.
What people thought they saw were organic shapes not quite like any they had ever seen before. Naturally, there were many human bodies washed along by the streams in that tragic period; but those who described these strange shapes felt quite sure that they were not human, despite some superficial resemblances in size and general outline. Nor, said the witnesses, could they have been any kind of animal known to Vermont. They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be. It was really remarkable how closely the reports from different sources tended to coincide; though the wonder was lessened by the fact that the old legends, shared at one time throughout the hill country, furnished a morbidly vivid picture which might well have coloured the imaginations of all the witnesses concerned. It was my conclusion that such witnesses – in every case naive and simple backwoods folk – had glimpsed the battered and bloated bodies of human beings or farm animals in the whirling currents; and had allowed the half-remembered folklore to invest these pitiful objects with fantastic attributes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mission accomplished, and thankful that I happened into the place when it was deserted, your humble narrator decided to crack out a few more shots. Again, I messed around a little with exposure settings, hoping to combat the limited amount of available light within the structure. I emphatically state that beyond brightness and contrast, basic sharpening and color temperature adjustments- these shots are unaltered. The camera raw files are available for examination, and upon request, will be made downloadable.
from wikipedia
A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor. Normally, the image is processed by a raw converter in a wide-gamut internal colorspace where precise adjustments can be made before conversion to a “positive” file format such as TIFF or JPEG for storage, printing, or further manipulation, which often encodes the image in a device-dependent colorspace. These images are often described as “RAW image files”, although there is not actually one single raw file format. In fact there are dozens if not hundreds of such formats in use by different models of digital equipment (like cameras or film scanners).
Raw image files are sometimes called digital negatives, as they fulfill the same role as negatives in film photography: that is, the negative is not directly usable as an image, but has all of the information needed to create an image. Likewise, the process of converting a raw image file into a viewable format is sometimes called developing a raw image, by analogy with the film development process used to convert photographic film into viewable prints. The selection of the final choice of image rendering is part of the process of white balancing and color grading.
Like a photographic negative, a raw digital image may have a wider dynamic range or color gamut than the eventual final image format, and it preserves most of the information of the captured image. The purpose of raw image formats is to save, with minimum loss of information, data obtained from the sensor, and the conditions surrounding the capturing of the image (the metadata).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Palpable and real, visits to First Calvary are draining experiences, from a psychic point of view. You are surrounded by rich imagery and the text screeds that adorn the monuments, which means that whether you want to or not, the names of those who are interred here are being read subconsciously and forcing themselves into your mind. The territory surrounding the place is the tautologically fabulous properties which comprise the Queens bank of that maligned font of inspiration which is the Newtown Creek (The Creeklands, as I call them), and the intricate steel lacing of bridge and rail that confines and contains whatever might be lurking beneath it. The experience is overwhelming, from a sensory point of view, and drains the experiencer of both cognitive alertness and physical energy. In short, after a 75-90 minute interval spent here, you want nothing more than to just lie down on the soft grass and sleep.
from wikipedia
Orb artifacts are captured during low-light instances where the camera’s flash is implemented, such as at night or underwater. The artifacts are especially common with compact or ultra-compact cameras, where the short distance between the lens and the built-in flash decreases the angle of light reflection to the lens, directly illuminating the aspect of the particles facing the lens and increasing the camera’s ability to capture the light reflected off normally sub-visible particles. The orb artifact can result from retroreflection of light off solid particles (e.g., dust, pollen), liquid particles (water droplets, especially rain) or other foreign material within the camera lens. The image artifacts usually appear as either white or semi-transparent circles, though may also occur with whole or partial color spectrums, purple fringing or other chromatic aberration. With rain droplets, an image may capture light passing through the droplet creating a small rainbow effect.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, here you are.
By the standards set by pop culture, the little white shape you see in the above shot at the “11 o’clock” position is a ghost orb, in a photograph shot at the Calvary Cemetery Chapel at 11:03 am on October 8th, 2010. Or dust.
What do you think? Click through to the larger size of the shot above at flickr and check it out at higher resolution.
Sewer Berries
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another of the vast inadequacies that Our Lady of the Pentacle must endure is the vast ignorance of vegetable taxonomy exhibited by your humble narrator. Seldom can I distinguish common supermarket species from each other, bay from basil leaves for instance, let alone the multitude of indigenous and untamed forms which are routinely observed as they erupt from the cemented loam of this- your Newtown Pentacle.
One day, recently, my path brought me to Provost Street, a two lane artery which adjoins the Temple of Cloacina in storied Greenpoint.
from nyc-architecture.com
The Praa’s and Volchertsen’s, together, with the Mesorole’s, Calyer’s, Provoost’s, and Bennet’s formed the core of settler farmer families that lived and flourished on the land consisting of Green Point. They and their ancestors would do so for almost 200 years. The fertile land provided enough to supply the needs of the families that toiled on the land, and an abundant excess to trade at nearby markets. Each family kept a large row boat on the river to transport their harvest to the markets downstream in the emerging cities of Williamsburg and Brooklyn, and across the river in New York. Thus, Green Point became a major agricultural center and breadbasket for the area. It’s grains, cereals, fruits, vegetables and livestock made it possible for others to take up other trades in the New World, and contributed to the overall success of the pioneer efforts of that era.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fiercely industrial, the Whale Creek side of Greenpoint is remarkable for many things, but mention of the place often omits the tenacity of lifeforms which colonize and find an anchor here in the tiny ribbons of soil that form around depressions and cracks in the otherwise concrete veneer.
Ever wonder why this tributary of the Newtown Creek is known as “Whale Creek”?
Think Kingsland Avenue, from wikipedia
Ambrose Cornelius Kingsland (May 24, 1804 – October 13, 1878)[1] was a wealthy sperm oil merchant who served as mayor of New York from 1851 to 1853. In 1851 he initiated the legislation that eventually led to the building of Central Park.Kingsland’s home was at 114 Fifth Avenue (southwest corner at 17th Street), now the site of a Banana Republic store.In 1864, Kingsland purchased Hunter Island, now in Pelham Bay Park, Bronx for $127,501.00. He later purchased a sizeable country home north of the city along the Hudson River, in present day Sleepy Hollow, New York. His sale of this land to the early steam-engine automotive company, Stanley Steamer, helped pave the way for Sleepy Hollow’s awakening as a major automotive production hub for much of the 20th century. A waterfront park in the Westchester County suburb still bears Kingsland’s name, as does Kingsland Avenue in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, which he helped survey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These berries, growing around a utility pole, were unfamiliar to me. Perhaps they are a speciation of grape, thought your humble narrator, although they really resembled a blueberry more than anything else. The curious side of my nature was impressed by their implacable attempt at germination, however, and an attempt was made at photographing them despite a condition of high wind which caused them to whip about in the manner of some tentacled beast.
from wikipedia
Spermaceti (from Greek sperma, seed, and Latin cetus, whale) sometimes erroneously called parmaceti is a wax present in the head cavities of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Spermaceti is extracted from sperm oil by crystallisation at 6 °C, when treated by pressure and a chemical solution of caustic alkali. Spermaceti forms brilliant white crystals that are hard but oily to the touch, and are devoid of taste or smell, making it very useful as an ingredient in cosmetics, leatherworking, and lubricants. The substance was also used in making candles of a standard photometric value, in the dressing of fabrics, and as a pharmaceutical excipient, especially in cerates and ointments. Originally mistaken for the whales’ sperm (hence the name), spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale’s head and connected to its nasal passage, among other functions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They certainly clung to their stems in the manner of a grape, although color and hue suggested otherwise. Having a near total ignorance of wild plants however, I decided not to hazard a taste- which was probably wise given that the water table in this area is defined and nourished by that nearby extinction of hope known as the Newtown Creek.
To avoid potentially poisonous plants, stay away from any wild or unknown plants that have–
- Milky or discolored sap.
- Beans, bulbs, or seeds inside pods.
- Bitter or soapy taste.
- Spines, fine hairs, or thorns.
- Dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsleylike foliage.
- “Almond” scent in woody parts and leaves.
- Grain heads with pink, purplish, or black spurs.
- Three-leaved growth pattern.
Using the above criteria as eliminators when choosing plants for the Universal Edibility Test will cause you to avoid some edible plants. More important, these criteria will often help you avoid plants that are potentially toxic to eat or touch.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The small ring of dendritic structures on the underside of the fruit would most likely assist a botanist with identification, and some effort was made to achieve a clear shot of them.
Incidentally, this image actually contains a hint of that otherworldly “colour” which is oft mentioned in postings here, an otherworldly iridescence that seems like something “from out of space”.
from dec.ny.gov
The northeast area of Greenpoint, between North Henry Street, Norman Avenue, and Newtown Creek, has been heavily industrialized and the site of various petroleum industries for over 140 years. Oil refining operations date back to 1834 with the refining of whale oil. Petroleum refining operations began in approximately 1860, with kerosene the major product of interest, as naptha and gasoline were considered by-products of the refining process. By 1870 over 50 refineries were located along the banks of Newtown Creek and by 1892, the majority of the area refineries were purchased and consolidated into the Standard Oil Trust.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Can any of you, Lords and Ladies, identify these enigmatic Sewer Berries? If so, please contact a humble narrator here. I’m leaning toward Pokeweed.
from wikipedia
Since pioneer times, pokeweed has been used as a folk remedy to treat many ailments. It can be applied topically or taken internally. Topical treatments have been used for acne and other ailments. Internal treatments include tonsillitis, swollen glands and weight loss. Grated pokeroot was used by Native Americans as a poultice to treat inflammations and rashes of the breast. Independent researchers are investigating phytolacca’s use in treating AIDS and cancer patients. Especially to those who have not been properly trained in its use, pokeweed should be considered dangerous and possibly deadly.
Ingestion of poisonous parts of the plant may cause severe stomach cramping, nausea with persistent diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes bloody, slow and difficult breathing, weakness, spasms, hypertension, severe convulsions, and death. However, consuming fewer than 10 uncooked berries is generally harmless to adults. Several investigators have reported deaths in children following the ingestion of uncooked berries or pokeberry juice. Severe poisonings have been reported in adults who ingested mature pokeweed leaves and following the ingestion of tea brewed from one-half teaspoonful of powdered pokeroot.
Pokeweed berries yield a red ink or dye, which was once used by aboriginal Americans to decorate their horses. Many letters written home during the American Civil War were written in pokeberry ink; the writing in these surviving letters appears brown. The red juice has also been used to symbolize blood, as in the anti-slavery protest of Benjamin Lay. A rich brown dye can be made by soaking fabrics in fermenting berries in a hollowed-out pumpkin.
blurred outlines
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As always, Lords and Ladies of Newtown, your humble narrator finds himself overwhelmed by obligation and social fealty. To be seen by so many diminishes me.
The recent uprooting of Newtown Pentacle HQ from its Matthews Model Flat environ and consequent move to new digs here in ruby lipped Astoria has been arduous, and has resulted in the quite uneven schedule of postings you’ve no doubt noticed. Unfortunately, such is life when well lived, but the apogee of exertion has been met and the routine returns to normal.
As normal as it gets, here in the Newtown Pentacle, that is.
from the New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1895
Fires in the home of Adam Colwell, 84 Guernsey Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — that, in 20 hours, preceding noon, Jan. 5th, when Colwell’s frame house burned down, there had been many fires.(6) Policemen had been sent to investigate. They had seen furniture burst into flames. Policemen and firemen had reported that the fires were of unknown origin. The Fire Marshal said: “It might be thought that the child Rhoda started two of the fires, but she can not be considered guilty of the others, as she was being questioned, when some of them began. I do not want to be quoted as a believer in the supernatural, but I have no explanation to offer, as to the cause of the fires, or of the throwing around of the furniture.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the agonizing series of efforts and appointments which moving one’s domicile requires, and a concurrent and badly timed series of familial and fraternal obligations, once I heard about the pyrokinetic history of 84 Guernsey Street in Greenpoint- I made the time to go get some shots of the place. This era of rapid real estate development that we are experiencing has taught me to strike when the iron is hot- for the subject you desire to explore very well might be gone the next day.
also from the New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1895
Colwell’s story was that, upon the afternoon of Jan. 4th, in the presence of his wife and his step-daughter Rhoda, aged 16, a crash was heard. A large, empty, parlor stove had fallen to the floor. Four pictures fell from walls. Colwell had been out. Upon his return, while hearing an account of what had occurred, he smelled smoke. A bed was afire. He called a policeman, Roundsman Daly, who put out the fire, and then, because of unaccountable circumstances, remained in the house. It was said that the Roundsman saw wall paper, near the shoulder of Colwell’s son Willie start to burn. Detective Sergeant Dunn arrived. There was another fire, and a heavy lamp fell from a hook. The house burned down, and the Colwells, who were in poor circumstances, lost everything but their clothes. They were taken to the police station.
Captain Rhoades, of the Greenpoint Precinct, said: “The people we arrested had nothing to do with the strange fires. The more I look into it, the deeper the mystery. So far I can attribute it to no other cause than a supernatural agency. Why, the fires broke out under the very noses of the men I sent to investigate.”
Sergeant Dunn — “There were things that happened before my eyes that I did not believe were possible.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pyrokinesis is actually a term coined by the novelist Stephen king for his novel “Firestarter”, although tales of the psychic ability to ignite fires abound in popular mythology and historical records. One is reminded of Mr. A.W. Underwood- a fellow known as the “Human Blowtorch” who was a phenomenon in the 19th century.
from the New York Herald, Jan. 7, 1895
Policemen and firemen artfully tricked by a pretty, young girl.” Mr. J.L. Hope, of Flushing, L.I., had called upon Captain Rhoades, telling him that Rhoda had been a housemaid in his home, where, between Nov. 19 and Dec. 19, four mysterious fires had occurred. “Now the Captain was sure of Rhoda’s guilt, and he told her so.” “She was frightened, and was advised to tell the truth.”
And Rhoda told what she was “advised” to tell. She “sobbed” that she had started the fires, because she did not like the neighborhood in which she lived, and wanted to move away: that she had knocked pictures from the walls, while her mother was in another part of the house, and had dropped burning matches into beds, continuing her trickeries after policemen, detectives, and firemen had arrived.
The Colwells were poor people, and occupied only the top floor of the house that burned down. Colwell, a carpenter, had been out of work two years, and the family was living on the small wages of his son. Insurance was not mentioned.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Greenpoint is a very, very strange place- apparently.
also from the New York Herald, Jan. 7, 1895
The police captain’s conclusion was that the fires that had seemed “supernatural” to him, were naturally accounted for, because, if when Rhoda was in Flushing, she set things afire, fires in her own home could be so explained. Rather than to start a long investigation into the origin of the fires in Flushing, the police captain gave the girl what was considered sound and wholesome advice.
And — though it seems quaint, today — the girl listened to advice. “Pretty young girls” have tricked more than policemen and firemen. Possibly a dozen male susceptibles could have looked right at this pretty, young girl, and not have seen her strike a match, and flip it into furniture; but no flip of a match could set wall paper afire.
The case is like the case of Emma Piggott. Only to one person’s motives could fires be attributed: but by no known means could she have started some of these fires.
What, exactly, is inside a modern traffic light?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst wandering about the Newtown Pentacle one fine summer day, your humble narrator encountered a maintenance crew from Weisbach performing some sort of upkeep on a traffic signal light. This is one of the newer ones, the kind which have two switch boxes attached, of the sort that has populating Northern Blvd. for the last few years.
from hoovers.com
Specialty contractor Welsbach Electric provides outdoor electrical construction, installation, and maintenance services for utilities and public and private clients in New York City and Long Island. The company builds and installs roadway traffic signals, power stations, stadium lighting systems, underground transmission circuits, and other specialized systems. It maintains a fleet of more than 300 aerial and handling vehicles. Welsbach Electric was founded more than a century ago; it was acquired by construction group EMCOR in 1971.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally hidden within the steel enclosure, the intricate works and electronica were exposed for the technician’s egress, and I took the opportunity to crack out a few shots of its innards. Byzantine, complex, and strangely advanced machinery seems to govern the actions of the traffic signal- a 4 way device which handles the busy corner of 44th street and Northern Blvd. near Major Auto World.
from nyc.gov
(a) Traffic control signals. Whenever traffic is controlled by traffic control signalsexhibiting different colored lights successively, the following colors shall indicate andapply to operators of vehicles and to pedestrians, except as superseded by pedestriancontrol signals, as follows:
(1) Green alone.
- (i) Vehicular traffic facing such signals may proceed straight through orturn right or left unless a sign at such place prohibits any such movement.But vehicular traffic, including vehicles turning right or left, shall yield theright of way to other vehicles and to pedestrians lawfully within theintersection or an adjacent crosswalk at the time such signal is exhibited.
- (ii) Pedestrians facing such signal may proceed across the roadwaywithin any crosswalk.
(2) Steady yellow alone, dark period, or red-green combined when shownfollowing the green signal:
- (i) Vehicular traffic facing such signal is thereby warned that the redsignal will be exhibited immediately thereafter and such vehicular trafficshall not enter the intersection when the red signal is exhibited.
- (ii) Pedestrians facing such signal are thereby warned that there isinsufficient time to cross the roadway, and shall not enter or cross theroadway. Pedestrians already in the roadway shall proceed to the nearestsafety island or sidewalk.
(3) Steady red alone:
- (i) Vehicular traffic facing such signal shall stop before entering thecrosswalk on the near side of the intersection or, if none, then beforeentering the intersection and shall remain standing until an indication toproceed is shown.
- (ii) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subdivision (a), or any provisions of state law, an operator approaching an intersection where asign authorizes right or left turns on red signal may make such turn aftercoming to a complete stop, but shall yield the right of way to all vehiclesand pedestrians lawfully within the intersection.
- (iii) Pedestrians facing such signal shall not enter or cross the roadway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Holy Moley! What’s going on inside this thing? This looks like the extensive rack of electronic doodads used here at Newtown Pentacle HQ for photo retouching!
also from nyc.gov
Citywide Congested Corridors Study
Northern Boulevard from Queens Plaza to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (2.2 miles)This corridor runs east-west route in northern Queens and provides a major connection to the Queensboro Bridge. The corridor has direct access to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the east, a location that has undergone a massive reconstruction, and to the Manhattan CBD by way of the Queensboro Bridge in the west. The reconstruction of the BQE has resulted in a change in traffic patterns at the intersection, especially for motorists wishing to access the expressway toward Brooklyn.
Northern Boulevard is a wide corridor with significant auto-related and large, stand-alone commercial retail stores. There are light pedestrian volumes and some residential land uses. The corridor is also a through truck route. There are three subway stops along this portion of Northern Boulevard where the R, V and G trains can be accessed and an N/W station one block away on 39th Ave. The Q101 and Q66 bus routes operate along a portion of the study corridor.
Project Firebox 14
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This specimen is found at the corner of North 10th and Union Avenue, on the edge of a construction site. Interestingly enough, the recent vogue enjoyed by the construction contracting community for the usage of shiny metal fencing offers many ill lit spots around the old town a perspicuous reflectivity.
walkinginbrooklyn.blogspot.com has a fairly in depth survey of the immediate environs, which can be accessed here.
The Newtown Pentacle 