Lunch and a Movie

Leaving a little after twelve this past Sunday, Ann Marie and I drove over to the town of Sewickley. A friend had told us about a movie that was playing there, and we had purchased some tickets for it. Our plan was to get some lunch and then stroll around the borough for a bit before the movie started.

    Arriving we saw signs advertising the Library Book Sale. We both had the same thought, another place to visit while we were in town. We found a parking spot close to the theater and started our walk from there. The day was perfect for walking, the sun felt good and lots of others were enjoying the day along with us.

    A few blocks from the car, we stopped at the Mediterra Café. We have been to this establishment before, along with the one located in Lawrenceville and had enjoyed both places. Being a Sunday afternoon, the place was rather crowded but as we ate our lunches the crowd dwindled down, Sunday was the first Steelers game of the season. Once the game started, most of the stores and restaurants in the Pittsburgh area would be empty. The fans will have moved to sports bars and their homes to watch the game. (I find this a great time to do my weekly food shopping; the grocery stores are almost empty! Don’t make the mistake of going before the game, you’ll get stuck in the pregame rush!)

    We sat and talked about books and people watched, both favorite activities of ours. Finishing our coffees and after getting some “to-go” boxes, we returned to the sidewalk. About a block away sits a gazebo where we stopped for a minute or two to look for a geocache hidden near-by. After a short search, it was Ann Marie who found the small container. The library sat about a block away, that would be our next stop.

    We were afraid that it might be closed but luck was with us. This was the third day of their sale, so we were browsing through rather slim pickings. Even so, Ann Marie found a book by an author she liked and I found two for myself.

    The walk continued eventually bringing us back to the car. We put our “to-go” boxes in the car and went across the street to the plaza in front of the Lindsay Theater. There we sat in the sunshine, reading our new books. There were lots of people walking on the sidewalks and biking in the streets.  More than a few dogs were getting their afternoon constitutionals. We shared the patio with another couple. The sunlight felt good on my back.

        The movie we had come to see was called Rebel with a Clause, starring Ellen Jovin who had written a book by the same name. She is a “grammar nerd” and she, along with her husband Brandt Johnson, who filmed the project, visited all fifty states. She sets up a small folding table and then invites people who pass by to ask her grammar questions. The movie is a compilation of the people she met and their questions.

    Now I am far from being an expert on grammar or English. PLEASE, never ask me to diagram a sentence! I tend to speak and write in a way that I feel “sounds” correct. Sadly, my teachers would never accept that reasoning when I explained why I had written something the way I did. Still, the movie sounded like it would be fun to watch and Ann Marie, whose skills at grammar are so much higher than my own, was excited to see it also.

    We watched the movie with 27 other people. (No one came in wearing a Steelers jersey.) I would have to guess that the average age of the audience was probably 60 or 70.

    Wherever Ellen set up her table, she always met a wide variety of people. All ages were represented and along with your "average" people, she was also visited by a few eccentric ones. They added to the humor of the film. All most everyone had a question for her. There were questions about which word is correct, who or whom. Questions included proper use of semicolons, apostrophes and commas. The questions often branched out to other topics such as how words are pronounced in different sections of the country. Ellen is the type of person who is able to turn difficult things into positive experiences, her interactions with the visitors almost always ended with everyone smiling, including the audience. I am pretty sure that everyone enjoyed the movie as much as we did.

    I thought it was interesting that the book I had bought at the library, and that I was reading before the movie was called Lapsing into a Comma. The book was written by Bill Walsh who was the Copy Desk Editor of the Washington Post. It tells about the various mistakes that can occur during writing and printing and how to avoid those, many of which were mentioned in this film!

    Walking out of the movie we were saying how interesting it would be to meet Ellen. Someone mentioned that she had been here at this theater last week. Oh well, you win some and you lose some!

    Returning home, we shared a couple beers and caught up on some late-night TV shows. The day turned into a great afternoon date; lunch and a movie, what a wonderful way to spend a September afternoon.

Weeding out the New (?) Stuff

While organizing my shelves, I came across some books whose time had finally come to be removed. I always find this a difficult thing to do but as more books come in, sadly some have to go. In the collection about machine shops and machining, I realized that some of these books were never going to be used by me again. I realized that some of the newer books could be used by someone still working in the trade. Much as I hated to, I weeded out the newer books and set them aside for resale.

    Some of the books on these shelves I find extremely interesting. Many of them were printed in and around the early 1900’s. I find the subject matter in these books fascinating having worked as a machinist for so many years., A few of the book covers are embossed, with the lettering raised up in nice old-style fonts and a couple books have gilded edges. They knew how to print nice books back then. Some of these books are like artwork!

    One small book, a mere 3 ½” x 5 ½”, printed in 1924 is filled with lots of line drawings, charts and tables. Hard bound, it was made to be kept in a workers tool box for quick referencing. It was distributed by International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania as a text book. In the back are the notes of the man who owned it, George K, they tell the dates when he left from one section of the shop for another, moving up the ladder. He started the course on Dec.3^rd, 1929 and by 1932 had worked his way into the shaper and planer department. Filled full of machinery instructions, the final 10 pages of this book deals with the subject of first aid, you never know what might happen in a machine shop!

    I am infatuated with books such as these. It is always a trip back into history when I read them. The equipment shown in the books, often drawn, is equipment that is never seen in shops anymore.  I find it amazing to think about all the things built with these tools; airplanes, trains, dams and ocean liners, built with equipment run by overhead belt drives. The computers of those days were slide rules. Types of machinery like these are still being used but the machines shown in these books are extremely out dated.

          Back in the day when I was working and was the only machinist in our shop, I purchased some books to be used for reference. They sat on a shelf beside my desk right outside the machine shop. Sadly, even though the books were there for everyone who used the shop, I was the only one that opened them.

    I have always thought that to improve your job performance, knowledge of how your tools and equipment runs is important. Knowing how to calculate feeds and speeds should be more than just guesswork. Keeping track of the directions the industry is going can also help your performance. Machine shop trade magazines were also set on the shelves for people to read. You can guess who the only reader of them was…

    When visiting the cubicles of other employees I almost always scanned their bookshelves. I’d often borrow some of their books and I’d like to think that they were glad to see that someone else was interested in them! It is amazing the various topics you can find on people's shelves.

    Sadly, even back then, people didn’t seem to read that much. Fellow workers would joke about the “library” sitting beside my desk. It didn’t bother me though; I knew where to go to get the answers to the questions they brought me! I would tell them that they could get better answers from the library than on their phones but unfortunately, that didn't always hold true.

    I find that it is good to have the knowledge of how to solve a problem. Finding an answer on-line is fast but knowing the reason why that is the answer is important also. Using your brain to solve a problem is good exercise. Like jogging or weightlifting, mental exercise strengthens you also. It builds up your thought process and the ability to sift through possibilities and scenarios, helping you to find answers quicker.

    Punching some buttons on your phone can quickly find the information you need but does it strengthen your mind? In today's modern world where quick responses are mandatory, our computers and phones can supply these things within seconds. What I wonder is, what is happening to the strength of our minds as we become more and more dependent on this technical wizardry? We need to exercise more, both physically and mentally!

    I am now going to attempt to sell these newer books, hopefully to another person like me, one who enjoys having the answers close at hand…in a book. I've already found a man who is interested in a couple of them.  As for the other older machinery books I have, I'll keep on paging through them, enjoying the machines and reliving the past.

Desert Solitaire

 

Having recently found out that my nephew, a good friend is reading and enjoying a book that I had read and loved decades ago, I pulled my copy off the shelf and started re-reading it. This isn’t just the second time I’ve read it; I can’t even guess at the number times I’ve been transfixed by this book.

    The book is Desert Solitaire, written by Edward Abbey in 1968. It was the first non-fiction book that Abbey wrote, a nature narrative compared by some to Thoreau’s Walden.

    I probably discovered the book in the mid 70’s. Telling about his years as a park ranger, Edward writes about the joys of sitting with his cup of coffee and waiting for the sun to make its appearance in the morning and watching the moon rise in the evening. He writes about the things I wanted to do and things that I still do now!

    As I was reading, I watched as the sunlight crawled up the hillside across from my vantage point. The sun was slowly setting, I couldn’t see it from where I was, but I could see its light. As the sun dropped closer to the horizon its orange light climbed up the hill across from it, leaving the trees below in shadow. Soon it was on just the tips of the trees and then the brightness of the sun disappeared.

    It is a Friday night; the sounds of the traffic on the roads below have quieted down. It is far from silent though, nothing like the quiet and solitude of the desert that Edward had written about.

    The trees and the woods are losing their details, the trees are no longer individuals, they have become a mass, a collection of greens and browns. A few dead trees stand separately, their trunks and branches white, like skeletons. In the sky the clouds are gaining a pinkish tinge.

    I had just read about Edward’s ideas about banning cars and roads from the national parks. Eliminating powered transportation and requiring visitors to hike or ride on mules or horses, making them see the wonders of the land the way they have been seen for centuries, under their own power. He was definitely against “industrial tourism”.  He knew it was coming and there wasn't much he could do other than write about it. (He does mention a couple other things in his book(s)...)

    My reading has only taken me through 60 pages, give or take, yet I understand already what it is about his writing that captured me so long ago. I don’t agree with all his ideas but yet I have always admired this man, his thoughts and his writing.

    I am no longer sitting at a table in my backyard in Western Pennsylvania. I am in Arches National Park in Utah, along with my teacher Edward Abbey. He is explaining about the desert, telling me about the wildlife, the soil and the plants that inhabit this difficult land. He is telling me how important it is that we preserve our world!

    If you’ll excuse me now, I am going to sit down by his campfire again and listen a bit further. This is just like visiting with an old friend!

My Top Books from 2024

What I consider my reading list is far from the Best Seller lists on the Internet or at a local bookstore. Many of the books I read are circumstantial; they are often books that I just happen across. While I do read the best-seller lists, their suggestions don’t always strike me. For one thing, there are so many choices I have to pick from. Looking through Book Pages, there are 30 or 40 books reviewed. I can at least eliminate some of them by their genre. I really don’t want to read any romance books or historical fiction, which is not to say that I never do. They just aren’t my favorites.

    I belong to a book club, and I enjoy most of the books we read. Suggestions from friends and booksellers have often turned into treasures worth keeping. Visiting the library or bookstores always has given me books that I enjoy. There is nothing like walking down a set of shelves and seeing what books might present themselves to me. I also enjoy reading older books, ones that have been out of print for awhile. Libraries and bookstores excel at these books!

    I keep a list of the books I’ve read and rate each book from 1 to 5. “Five” is a book I’d rave about and suggest to others while “one” is a book I don’t want to mention to anyone. These ratings are only my own thoughts, they are based on how the story grabbed me, how well it was written and of course, whether the subject matter excited me or not. It is a numerical version of how I felt after reading the last page.

    My reading preferences this year has been more fiction than non-fiction with a sprinkling of poetry tossed in. There were a couple books I started but put down before finishing, these weren’t included. There are too many books to read and not enough time. I don't want to spend time reading books I don’t enjoy. If they don’t grab me quickly, I pick up something else. I also tend to read a couple books at a time. Should one get tiring, I just go to another and slip right back into that story. The other one can wait awhile, just as this one has.

    These books have been rated at 5 in my records. They are listed as read, not by preference.

1) A Long Way Gone – Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by ishmeal beah. (NF-2007) This tells ishmael’s story, how he fled his village when he was 12 and how at 13 he was taken to become a government soldier in Sierra Leone. It is touching, scary and violent. It shows how some people are forced to live, and how they deal with it.

2) Learning to See, by Elise Hooper. (F-2019) This book is a fictionalized version of Dorothea Lange’s life. Having recently read another book about Dorothea Lange, I was surprised at how closely the book followed the details of her life.

3) The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. (F-2023) Set in Pottstown, a mystery is presented to the community when a skeleton is unearthed. The story tells about how neighbors in a poor section of the town come together, never minding each other’s religion or race, to help each other during difficult times. We find out about the people in this Pennsylvania town and their thoughts and prejudices against each other.

4) All the Broken Places, by John Boyne. (F-2022) This book is about a woman; as a young girl, as a young woman and as a nonagenarian. (a woman in her 90’s) As a child she lived near a Nazi concentration camp that her father was in charge of. The book tells about her feelings of guilt and how it affects the decisions she makes as she goes through her life. It is very well written and has a few surprises in it.

5) One Dog, Two dog, Three Dog, Four…, by Paul Estronza La Violette. (NF-2007) On one of the trips that Ann Marie and I took this year, we passed what we thought was a bookstore. We drove up a long driveway and met Paul, the author of this book. He and his wife lived there and graciously invited us in and told us about their dogs, their hobbies and their history. The book is a collection of stories about the Weimaraners they had when they lived on the Gulf Coast. The stories just made me feel good!

6) The Globemakers, by Peter Bellerby. (NF-2023) This is a beautifully illustrated book about the craft of making world globes. Wanting to get a nice world globe for his father’s birthday, Peter attempted to make one himself. He discovered it was quite difficult. He eventually created a company to continue this art form. The globes this company makes are true art, no doubt about it.

7) The Burnt District, by Gary Link. (F-2003) This book, written by a local author, tells a tale about what the city of Pittsburgh was going through after the Great Fire. (April 10, 1845) As I read the book, I could easily imagine where he was writing about because of my familiarity of the city. The story follows the city’s history rather closely and includes some well know citizens in it.

8) James, by Percival Everett. (F-2024) This was a great book, especially if you've read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It can't help but make you think! I tore through the book, not wanting to put it down! I can't say I enjoyed (?) reading this book but I'm very glad that I did. The story is the same as Mark Twain's story about Huck with a few variations. The biggest one is that the story is told from Jim's (Jame's) viewpoint. A very good story and I'm sure it will become an important novel in the ages to come!

9) The Women, by Kristin Hannah. (F-2024) The book tells the story of "Frankie" who as a twenty-year-old, volunteers to go over to Viet-Nam as a nurse. It tells about the awful things she sees and experiences along with the friends and loves she encounters during her tours of duty. It also tells about all the things she loses while she is there!
    Coming back home she encounters another country than the one she left a couple years before. She isn't respected, her family doesn't know how to relate with her and she can't get any help for the traumas she experienced while helping the men and boys, she helped save. She is constantly told that "No women served in Viet-Nam". Luckily, she has friends that help her through the tough times.
    I read this book with damp eyes. There was so much in it that made me stop and reflect, mostly as to how lucky I was to have "just" missed having to go and experience this war myself. A lot made me think about my brother who experienced it firsthand, along with a good friend of mine who did likewise. Our country did a great disservice to the men and women who served in this war, and it can't help but make me think, is this still going on today?

10) Slow Train to Yesterday, by Archie Robertson. (NF-1945) Archie tells us about short line railroads and their appeal, both standard and small gage lines. He has ridden many of them and tells about the equipment, the scenery and the people who run them and ride them. He also discusses railfans (of which I am one!) and railroad clubs.

11) The Forest of Lost Souls, by Dean Koontz. (F-2024) Basically a good versus evil book. A woman who lives away from society, who is “one with the woods” ends up battling to protect a sacred section of land that an “evil” mastermind wants to develop for financial gain.

12) The Tender Bar: A Memoir, by J.R. Moehringer. (NF-2005) I thought this was a wonderful book. It is the story of a boy growing up, searching for a father figure. The bar his uncle owns provides a variety of father figures that help him through his life into adulthood. The question is, was he searching for his father or himself? I had seen the movie before the book, both are good!

13) The Life Impossible, by Matt Haig. (F-2024) An elderly math teacher inherits a small cottage on a Mediterranean island. It begins with an e-mail from a former student, telling her about her problems. Her reply is, basically the book. The book tells about her search to find out more information about the woman who bequeathed her house to her and the importance of protecting our planet and all the creatures on it. (Matt Haig’s book, The Midnight Library is also a great read!)

    I hope you see something that strikes your fancy and gets you to visit your local library or bookstore. Remember how important it is to continue supporting these valuable resources! If you are a reader, you know how important they are!

Happy New Year, I hope it is filled with lots of good books! Keep on reading!

Phil B

Sitting Out the Rain

 

The day was befitting of a day in fall, dismal with a light rain. It was a day that made you want to sit and do nothing, depressing. It was a good day to leave the house and lift our spirits!

    Ann Marie, Jim and I headed down to the Northside, to a favorite spot to hang out and visit, City Books. There was no doubt that it was autumn, leaves were floating in the puddles, people were wearing jackets and carrying umbrellas and those with shorts on were regretting their choices.

    Inside the store, it was warm and inviting. Boxes of Holiday shipments sat waiting for delivery. The furniture had been rearranged leaving a nice conversation pit surrounding a small round table. There weren’t many walk-ins so we took advantage of this and sat down with Arlan, the store’s owner and started to solve the world’s problems. Books were discussed along with interesting stories and recent travels. It was comfortable sitting in a small circle, watching people rushing by outside in the rain. All it needed was a small fireplace with some crackling logs in it.  

    This made me remember sitting in a small bookstore in Oakland. Sitting off of South Craig Street, Townsend Books was situated in a small house. There were two floors; the owners lived upstairs and the books downstairs. Bookshelves were everywhere.

    One special memory stands out; it was a snowy day, back when a forecast for snow meant more than just a light flurry. The weather was very cold and when I came inside my glasses fogged over. Knocking the snow off my boots the smell of a burning fire hit my senses. After saying good afternoon to the man behind the counter and loosening up my coat and scarf I started browsing the shelves, working my way back to the room that had the fireplace in it. I can remember to this day how I thought that this was exactly what a bookstore should be. A congenial owner behind the counter, lots of exciting books to look through, a couple chairs to sit in while contemplating my purchases and a nice warm fire to sit beside. It didn’t have any animals in it, a dog or a cat would have made it perfect but I’m not going to hold that against them.

    In those days there were three bookstores situated near each other in the Oakland area. I made sure to visit all three whenever I was there. Only a couple blocks separated Townsend Books from Bryn Mawr-Vassar Books and the Caliban Book Shop. Townsend Books lasted 21 years before it shut down in 2012. Bryn Mawr shut down earlier in 2005 after 33 years in business. In this section of Oakland, only Caliban Books survives to this day.

    History is no stranger to City Books. It was first opened as City Books and Antiques in 1984 on Carson Street on Pittsburgh's South Side. One of the interesting things about this store was the spiral staircase in the middle of the shop and the coffee bar on the 2nd floor. It had a cat or two that would sleep in the window, basking in the sunshine. It remained in the South Side until the final day of 2014. Arlan then bought the store and relocated it to the Northside. It is the oldest Independant Bookstore in Pittsburgh!

(The pictures above were taken on Dec.31, 2014)

    Ann Marie and I visited the original store on December 31st, 2014, its last day open. I still have the book I bought that day, The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, written by her daughter Caroline Kennedy. Slipped inside the book is a newspaper article about the store closing. Little did we know that it would soon be re-opened and we would become regular customers and friends with the owner.

    Our world takes us on some strange journeys and we never really know how anything will turn out or where we will end up. The best thing I can suggest is go along with the flow and enjoy the ride!

   After an hour or so, we said our good-byes and let Arlan get back to her work. Stepping out into the wet world outside the comfortable confines of the store, I thought about how good it is to have a local bookstore near-by. I can both feed my literary addiction and spend some time with a friend, or should I say friends? (We can’t forget “the books”!)

My Kind of Bookstore!

 We had hoped to see some of the leaves starting to change in their yearly show but for the most part, we were a bit early. There were lots of leaves on the ground but the colors hadn’t hit their peak yet. While driving we passed through areas with the sweet smell of burning leaves, taking us back to our childhoods. We ended up across the border in West Virginia and so we stopped at a bookstore located not far from Cheat Lake.

    We have tried to visit this store on other occasions but every time we had come down to this area it wasn’t open either because it was too early in the morning or the store wasn’t open on the day we arrived. Today our timing was on and the store was open!

    From the outside, Antiques and Old Books doesn’t look special but walking inside the door, I was taken to another time and place. It was as if we had been invited into the owner’s home. Books filled the shelves and cabinets in all directions. Desks and tables had groupings of books along with antiques nicely placed around them. It wasn’t overcrowded; everything seemed to be right in its proper place. It was as if we had stepped back in time.

    An old brass bell ringer sat beside the cash register with a world globe sitting near-by. Books were lined up in front of the counter and a glass display case held a variety of smaller items above them. Behind the desk was a set of shelves with nicely bound books, giving the shop a look of distinction. But it was all the other bookshelves that grabbed my attention. Where does a person start in a strange bookshop? Where else but with the owner, of course...

    Jo Ann was standing behind the desk right inside the door and after greeting us was happy to show us around and familiarize us with her shelves. She has a lot of West Virginia related books and authors including many signed volumes. Antiques sat amongst the books as if they had been put more for display than to be sold. Pottery, wooden bowls, linens and typewriters sat with small collections of books beside them. Open shelves and cabinets with glass doors held books and there was even a doll house beings used to store some children’s books. While many of the books were old, they were in good condition!

    I went over to the books written by West Virginian authors. It was a tall set of shelves with a chair sitting across from it. Stretching up a bit I squinted to see what was on the top shelf. Running my eyes across the titles I would occasionally pull one down and open it up. I’d look at the paper it was printed on, is it thick paper that has started to disintegrate with time or is it a better quality of paper? Of course the subject matter of the book is important. If I’m not interested in the subject, the book gets replaced. I check the front to see when it was published and to see if by chance the author had signed their name in it. I find looking through a book store much like a game, a search to see what I can find.

    There is a good feeling I get when I’m turning thin nicely printed pages. These books are fragile, they need cared for and a quick glance through the pages show if any drinks have been spilled on them or if any notes have been scribbled in the margins. I want to know that the previous owners cared for their books. I look for any illustrations or maps that might be in them. 

    If it is non-fiction, I check the index for things I’m interested in and if so, check to see what the author has written about it. Are there any water spots, mold or a cracked spine and how does it smell? Old books should have a wonderful smell. These are all part of my process of evaluating a book. Another very important thing I check is of course, the price!

    I worked my way though the shelves and then went over to where the train books were stored. While I browsed I marveled at the various antiques and pictures setting beside the books. I ended up in a small corner cabinet where I found some books dealing with Pennsylvania and its history.

    While Ann Marie was going through sets of linens in the drawer of a near-by dresser I was delving into Pennsylvania’s past. I left the store with a nice copy of The History of Pennsylvania from the 1940’s written for students and also picked up a book titled Living with Books published in 1965, which I think was intended for librarians. Ann Marie purchased a copy of Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katharine S. White, printed in 1979, written by the wife of the author who wrote Charlotte’s Web.

    Visiting a bookshop for the first time, it is nearly impossible to see everything. We will definitely return here again to see what other treasures we might have missed. This bookstore will be added to our list of “favorites”!

    On our trip we visited some iron furnace remains; some waterfalls, another bookstore and we ate dinner in Morgantown before heading back. It was a beautiful day for a memorable drive. We got lots of fresh air and saw three sunrises and two sunsets thanks to the topography of the roads and the mountains in the distance. I’ve said it before, the area around western Pennsylvania has so many nice things in it to explore and discover!

    Another thing that will draw us back to this bookstore again is to visit with Elliott. He was sleeping behind the counter but we could hear him snoring. I don’t know how old this Basset Hound is but he sure enjoyed having his throat rubbed. His long ears felt like silk. He reminded me of my own Basset Hound, Romeo, a cherished pet from my youth. Books and dogs, a couple of the things I’d learned to love at an early age!

What a Wonderful Combination

Sitting on a set of cold hard marble steps, I paged through a 1910 version of Norton’s Star Atlas. The steps were far from comfortable but I wasn’t complaining. I was happy to be where I was.

    It was Friday night and I was helping out as a volunteer for the Allegheny Observatory’s open house. My chore was to direct the various groups of visitors between the 13” Fitz-Clark refractor and the next stop, an explanation by some students of how the new Keeler scope was being used for research. I was positioned at the top of the three-story set of marble steps leading up to the telescope. Beside my perch was a small set of steps which I was using as a seat between tours.

    At the top of these three steps was the entrance to the second balcony of the observatory’s library. Inside the door was a narrow balcony lined with books and journals. A thick pipe railing surrounded the opening. Three stories below was a gentleman describing and showing videos of the April total solar eclipse. Above was a glass ceiling. No light was coming through it but in my mind, the shelves were glowing!

    After directing a group into the dome of the 13” refractor, I had about 20 minutes on my hands before the next group arrived. In those minutes, I talked with other volunteers and walked around a bit, peeking through windows to see what I could see. I also went into the library and explored the bookshelves!

    The books on the third floor were a collection of various subjects. Placed in alphabetical order by author, I was taken for a journey between astronomy, the workings of light waves, the design and manufacturing of optics all the way into machine shop practices. There were also numerous volumes written in languages I couldn’t understand.

    Being a machinist by trade I started out with a book about jigs and gages written in 1901. Books such as this are always fascinating to read. Having line drawings of old machinery and equipment, they are filled with lots of rich information which often isn’t passed on to new machinists these days. It is information which is usually picked up through years of experience. There are mentions and examples of tools and tooling which are no longer used in the modern machine shops because of the advancements of technology. 

    From there I headed into the field of astronomy. Since this library was in an observatory most of the books dealt in some way or another in that subject. I would remove a book from a shelf, being careful not to damage any fragile binding or covers, open it slightly and peruse the pages. If it interested me, I’d mark the spot it came from and go and sit down and read for a bit.

    The Norton’s Star Atlas I mentioned before was one of the ones I had taken down. I have a copy of this book at home, written in 1989. I use it quite often. My copy was bought in 1990 and I had inscribed on the first page that the first observations using it was at 5AM on March 3^rd, 1990.  I was observing in Sagittarius. It also says, “It was a beautiful, warm morning, the way they all should be!” The 1910 version in the library was a lot thinner than my copy and it doesn’t have any of the glossy pictures that mine has but it does have the great sky maps.

 

    I also looked at a book called “Astronomy by Observation” written by Eliza A. Bowen. Written in 1890 it has some photos of plaster reproductions of craters on the moon made by Nasmyth and Carpenter. Listed on its’ back cover are an assortment of scientific books ranging in price from 60¢ to $5. Sadly, the price of books has risen just the same as groceries.

    I went in and listened to some of the talk about astronomy and the history of the 13” telescope. One of the stories told was about the time that the lens for the scope was stolen and held for ransom.

    The telescope was built in 1861 by Henry Fitz and was installed in the original Allegheny Observatory. (It was later moved to its present location in the new observatory in 1906) When it was built it was the third largest telescope in the country! In 1872 the lens was stolen. A note demanded money but the observatory director, Samuel Langley wouldn’t pay. He figured this would only lead to more “lens-nappings”. The glass was eventually recovered in a hotel in Beaver Falls. The lens had a large scratch on it and it was shipped to Alvan Clark to refigure and polish. This ended up making the lens even better than it was before it was stolen! Ever since the lens has been replaced in the scope it has been known as the Fritz-Clark telescope.

    Another book I looked at was called “The Elements of Theoretical and Descriptive Astronomy” written by Charles J. White. It was published in 1872. What makes this book special was that it had been owned by Samuel Langley! His signature was on the first page! To think I was holding a book once owned, signed and read by this important man was extremely exciting.

    I get the same feeling when I think that John Brashear walked in these same corridors and climbed the same steps where I was stationed! This building is living history!

    Once the last group had passed by I started saying my good-byes. I stopped in the basement and saw a glass negative taken using the 30” Thaw refractor. Just barely visible are two faint dots. This is a picture of the planet Pluto. The picture was taken on February 16^th, 1953. This negative was taken 23 years after the planet was discovered. The reason there are two dots on the negative is that they would take a picture and then move the scope a slight bit and then take another shot. This was helpful in determining the exact position of the object they were observing. History, isn’t it exciting?

    Talking with the people who run this facility, the students that do their studies and research here along with the various volunteers who helped pull this event off was a learning experience. There is so much to learn when talking with them; I can only hope that at least a little bit of their knowledge rubbed off on me!

    I left the building without looking through either of the two telescopes that were being used. The clouds were making viewing difficult but most of the visitors saw Saturn and that is always something to remember! Even though I didn’t do any observing, as I headed home I had a feeling that in a small way I had participated in the history of this building and that I had been submerged into history itself. Old books, history and astronomy; what a wonderful combination!

Out and About

It seems as if there is never a lack of things to do. At times, I have to look around a bit, but I never have any trouble finding something worth doing! Here are a few of the places and things that Ann Marie and I have done and gone to in the past couple weeks. I’ve tried to pass over the boring stuff…

    On a Wednesday afternoon, we took a ride up to Brady’s Bend to attend an excellent lecture about the iron furnaces and the local area. We stopped for dinner and then went to the talk. I had just happened to come across a notice about the presentation and put it on my calendar. It was well worth the drive!

    That Friday, the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh, (AAAP) had their monthly meeting at the Alleghany Observatory. I try to never miss a meeting held at this magnificent building.

    Besides the meeting itself, which I always find interesting and informative, there is often a tour of the observatory afterwards. These tours never cease to amaze me with both the architecture and the instruments they use to study the skies above us. 

    The next day, on a rainy Saturday we spent a few hours in the Carnegie Library’s Pennsylvania Room. Ann Marie did some research on her family history while I looked up information on iron furnaces. This is another nice piece of architecture, and they have a great collection well worth visiting!

    I took a ride up to Wagman Observatory to get some pictures of the couple day old moon. I was hoping to try and catch the 14 hour old moon the day before but the clouds of Pittsburgh ruined that attempt. I had much better luck the next evening. Later I spent some time looking for a comet that is in the sky now but it was located in the murk near the horizon, so, no luck there. The sky above was nice and clear so I spent the rest of my time roaming around the stars overhead.

    My library and my favorite bookstore were a couple stops during the ensuing week. I always enjoy roaming through the bookshelves, hunting for those “special” books that are just waiting there for me to pass by, ready to jump out and say, “Here I am, take me home!”

    Pi day (3/14) was on Thursday and of course, we had to celebrate the day! I made a pi(e) and Jim and Ann Marie came over to help eat it. It was another nice warm day so we played some Scrabble out on the back patio. I won’t mention who it was that won that day.

    Yesterday, Saturday, we took a ride to Apollo. The great color of green that occurs only in the spring was popping out all over the hills. The Forsythia bushes were all in bloom, adding their splashes of yellow to the scenery. 

    We took a walk on the Rock Furnace Trail which parallels Roaring Run. The idea was to visit the remains of the Biddle (Rock) Furnace that sit below the trail. The hike was about ¾ of a mile in both directions and of course, it was uphill both ways! The stream added a nice soundtrack to our stroll. The sun came and went, keeping us warm in the cool valley.

    The furnace is now only a pile of stones sitting below the trail. Built in 1825, it produced iron for 30 years before it shut down permanently. Moss and leaves covered the rubble but pieces of the walls can still be found intact, 199 years after they were built.

    So, we are relaxing this Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day. Chances are another Scrabble game will be played or maybe a movie will be watched before dinner. Then, it will be back to my desk to figure out what is on next week’s schedule….