Archives for April 2015

Denver Fire Department Museum

April 27, 2015 by Avogadro Mole

Originally published 24 August 2008

While first learning which stops on the 16th Street Mall bus line let me off close to my destination, I found myself serendipitously on the wrong corner. There on the signpost above my head was an arrow pointing to “Denver Fire Department Museum.” Not needing to be any particular place at any particular time, I headed off to find it.

We’re seriously spoiled by our computers and the like. The first two pics in the slideshow below are the older communications gear. According to the sign in front of this display, the first communications system used by the Denver Fire Department was word of mouth. Someone yelled fire, and every able-bodied person would grab a bucket and join in the line to put out the fire. Maybe a hundred years from now, people will look back at our methods and shake their heads at our bravery. I don’t know about you, but standing nose to flames with a fire, armed only with a bucket? And even now, only with a hose spouting water. These guys are nuts, and I’m glad of it.

The second two pics show the fire alarm control panel in use from its invention in the early 1960s thru 1990, when it was replaced by computer aided dispatch. The left side had tape units that recorded conversations, allowing the operator to replay the information if needed. The right side, which doesn’t show in these pictures, was the Register transmitter that identified which alarm was sounding, and the Gong Shunt Control, sending the alarm only to those fire stations that needed to respond.

Some of the wonderful old equipment on display. An 1867 Gleason and Bailey Hand Drawn Pumper, purchased on October 1, 1867, and was only in operation for five years. Hand drawn Pumpers were pulled by twelve to fifteen volunteer firefighters to the fire, who then pumped the water from the source out to the guys at the end of the hose. According to the notes, the Steam Fire Engine with dog is from the New York Fire Museum. Denver had its collection of steamers, and when they were retired, they were sold to greenhouses and cemeteries as irrigation pumps. Following those are a collection of pics of horses, pumpers, dogs, and a hook-and-ladder truck. If you want to read the signs, double-click on the gallery. It will enlarge into a lightbox.

An intrepid young fireman…

Followed by more equipment. A truck with a “horseless carriage” license, and various pics of the truck. The pic of the sign came out blurry, so I don’t know the name of the truck. Those are followed by a “toy” truck, called so because of all the “toys” it carries for the firemen. When I did my CERT refresher, I got to see the latest version. It’s an awesome piece of equipment. The last truck is a 1953 Seagrave Engine. That’s followed by a couple of pictures of the lockers upstairs the firemen used. The pics I took of the inside locker display didn’t come out so well. They had glass doors, and the best image in the picture is of me and the camera.

And some reminders that the job is not an easy one.

Stapleton Tank Farm

Miller Furniture Rescue

Denver’s Fallen Firefighters

But that’s not FAIR!

April 20, 2015 by Avogadro Mole

When confronted with the cry “But that’s not fair!” some reply “who said life has to be fair?” For a comeback to that, try
“Who said unfairness must be tolerated just because it exists?”

As a human being, with the ability to think of “future” and the ability to learn from the past, the concept of “fairness” and my application of that concept is what differentiates me from the bare-bones reactive universe.

—

“The whole point of society is to be less unforgiving than nature.”
~Arthur D. Hlavaty

Democracy?

April 13, 2015 by Avogadro Mole

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
~Isaac Asimov

How do non-natives ever learn all the nuances of English???

April 6, 2015 by Avogadro Mole

When I was in high school, we had a foreign exchange student from Norway. She did pretty well here, having taken five years of book English before attempting Southern California spanglish-speckled English. She got most idioms fairly well, but was forever stumped on uh-Huh (yes) and Uh-uh (no). She couldn’t hear the difference between them. It came to mind when I got the following piece in email. I don’t know who wrote this, but if that someone wants to get in touch, I will be more than happy to give credit.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is “UP.” It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?

At a meeting, why does a topic come “UP ? Why do we speak UP , and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir up trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this up is confusing:

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP . When i t rains, it wets UP the earth.

When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on & on, but I’ll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP , so ….

Time to shut UP …..!

Oh…one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?

U P