On oil, the issue had an Autocar Truck advertisement advertising gas and electric trucks. . . the latter being something that locals now insist just can't happen.
Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Friday, February 23, 2024
Saturday, February 23, 1924. Electric Trucks.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Soap Blindness. Being careful about what you are wishing for.
Independent truck drivers, whom share nothing in common with Donald Trump whatsoever, are claiming they'll boycott New York State today due to the judgment against the serially indicted former President.
In the Gene Shepherd classic A Christmas Story, Ralphie imagines that he'll get "soap blindness" and live on the streets, to the regret of his parents, for having his mouth washed out with soap. No such thing exists, of course, but in reality, if it did, it'd be worse than the remorse the parents would feel for the person enduring it.
In other words, a person needs to be careful for what they wish for.
Truck drivers, or at least American independent truck drivers, are heavily invested in the belief that "America needs us". They're also heavily invested in a myth of manly, rugged independence. The reality of the situation is quite different, however.
The United States went to a semi tractor supply distribution system through the short sightedness of Dwight Eisenhower, who backed the massive Federally funded expansion of the US highway system during his administration. Eisenhower, impressed with the Autobahn, which he'd seen while the Supreme Commander of Allied Expedition Force in Europe, wanted them here. It was really an example of the American System at work, and while I'm generally a proponent of the American System, it shouldn't have happened in this example.
Coming right at the same time that the American love of automobiles really took off, it caused a massive ongoing subsidy of the highway system, and by extension, the expansion of over the road trucking, at the detriment of the railroads. I've posted on that here before, stating:
It's doing that fairly inefficiently compared to rail. Rail is incredibly cheap on a cost per mile basis, and it's actually incredibly "green" as well. It's efficient. Trucks are nowhere near as efficient in any fashion. Not even in employment of human resources. Trains have, anymore, one or two men crews, the same as semi trucks, but they're hauling a lot more per mile than trucks are with just two men.
And, as we also stated:
One semi truck does as much damage to the highways as 2,000 passenger cars, or some I'm told. I was told that by the owner of a company that has semi trucks.
On top of it, truck driving isn't something Americans want to do anymore, something the independents who are protesting seem to be missing. As we earlier noted:
And laborers are also demanding better wages and benefits in order to do the work they're doing.
I can blame the nation for putting itself in this situation, however.
Drivers can make a lot of money, for sure, but their paychecks often go towards paying for their trucks and the like. Modern trucks are automatic transmission vehicles and the days of really highly skilled teamsters who knew how to double clutch and shift two gear shifts at once (which I've seen done), are long gone. The job has become one where temporary immigrants and immigrants from the Third World are incredibly common.
So sure, while there are Trump loving independent teamsters out there, there are a lot of drivers from India, Somalia, Russia or Mexico who no doubt have little Trump love.
And motorists have little truck love. That's part of the reason that teamsters feel compelled to attempt to remind people that things move by truck. The problem is, they don't have to.
Had the Defense Highway System not been built, things would move by rail, except locally. There's no reason that couldn't happen again, and if the Federal Government suddenly decided, for whatever reason (and expense would be a good one) to end the funding system, the result would be just like what happened when it quite subsidizing housing the mentally ill back in Reagan's day. States wouldn't pick it back up. It'd take awhile, but not as long as supposed, before rail picked its old role back up, but it could and would.
Beyond that, rail transportation is already very "green", as noted above, compared to truck transportation. It could be made much more so by electrifying the system, which is a proven system. Trains engines are also more capable of readily being made in alternative fuels than semi trucks are. Short haul trucks, from rail to consumer, are also relatively easy to make the conversion to electricity.
Up until after World War Two, most things moved by rail, and trucking was local. The highway system, while the Federal Government was already in it, was much more local.
So, want to show how valuable you are to the economy? Going on strike or into a boycott may do it. Perhaps you are like the railroader of World War One and World War Two and can't be ignored. Perhaps you are an economic Lysistrata and people won't want to ignore you.
Or perhaps people figure they're better off without you and they don't want to be taxed to support your industry anymore and they'll look forward to not seeing trucks in their rear view mirror.
Related Threads:
Supply Chain Disruption and Other Economic Problems
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Thursday, February 10, 1944. Victory at Saidor
The landing at Saidor concluded on January 2, Operation Michaelmas, resulted in an Allied victory on this date. The Australians and the Americans had linked up, and the Huon Peninsula was mostly occupied.
The Minekaze was sunk off of Formosa by the USS Pogy.
Sarah Sundin notes:
Today in World War II History—February 10, 1944: Japanese surround Indian 7th Division on the Arakan peninsula in Burma; Allies keep the 7th Division supplied through air drops.
The Red Army took Shepetovka, Ukraine.
The U-545 was scuttled after being crippled west of the Hebrides by a Vickers Wellington. T he U-666 disappeared in the North Atlantic.
On the same day, American Airlines Flight 2 crashed into the Mississippi River. All twenty-four passengers and crew were killed. The cause of the crash was never determined.
Air travel between Miami and Key West was initiated.
Friday, January 19, 2024
Spurs
The spur strap here is a classic Western style that you can find examples of going way back.
Here's another set. These are a more typical Western set of spurs with a couple of small chimes that ring. Everyone has probably heard the song "I've got spurs that jingle jangle jingle". Well, these do.
I bought the Colorado Saddlery spurs as I wanted to replace the gumball spurs for regular use, but I wasn't very happy with them. So I went to these:
These spurs below are U.S. Army Model 1911 Spurs, the last model used by the Army. These spurs are quite plain as a rule.
Friday, January 12, 2024
Blog Mirror: 6 Must Have Winter Car Accessories to Stay Safe and Comfy
6 Must Have Winter Car Accessories to Stay Safe and Comfy
All good advice.
I'd add, here in Wyoming, a winter coat for sure.
And a blanket that will suffice for cold weather without electricity, as you might not have your car electricity all that long.
And some food for a few days is a good idea, also.
I'd also add, for at least off roady and over the road vehicles, a two-way radio. I have GMRS radios in both of my regular 4x4s, which are also my regular daily drivers. Personally, I much prefer GMRS over CB, which has a more limited range.
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Friday, December 29, 2023
Wednesday, December 29, 1943. Rationing Bicycles
Today In Wyoming's History: December 29: 1943 Wartime quotas of new adult bicycles for January cut in half, with 40 being allotted to Wyoming.Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
This was no small matter. Bicycles had increased enormously in importance due to the war. The National Park Service notes:
Leo Pasvolsky of the State Department finished the draft for the United Nations Charter.
Gen. Eisenhower ordered Allied Commanders to avoid attacking historic Italian monuments to the extent that this was possible; stating:
We are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows. If we have to choose between destroying a famous building and sacrificing our own men, then our men's lives count infinitely more and the buildings must go. But the choice is not always so clear-cut as that. In many cases the monuments can be spared without any detriment to operational needs.
The Royal Air Force resumed bombing Berlin, its Christmas hiatus having ended.
The Red Army took Korosten in Ukraine.
The Italian submarine Axum was scuttled after running aground off of Morea, Greece. The boat had a very successful war record.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Monday, December 17, 1923. Closing in on Mexico City.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Monday, December 10, 1923. Mexican rebels and cheese empires advance.
The Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, which has not been ratified, was first introduced in Congress.
At the time, many suffragettes opposed it out of fear that it would eliminate statutory protection of female laborers, which it likely would have.
Rebels were advancing on Mexico City.
Coolidge was encouraging commercial aviation, and running for reelection.
The National Dairy Products Corporation was founded by a merger of Thomas H. McInerney's Hydrox Corporation and Edward E. Rieck's Rieck—McJunkin Dairy Company. In 1930, it would acquire Kraft-Phenix Cheese Company, and then rebrand itself in 1969 as Kraftco Corporation and then Kraft, Inc.
It is now Kraft Heinz as of this very year.
Kraft cheese is, in my opinion, hideous.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co. that only it, in appropriate Federal questions, could review state supreme court decisions.
The Italian parliament was prorogued, i.e., dissolved, by King Victor Emmanuel III at the request of Benito Mussolini.
Turkey and Albania signed a treat of friendship.
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Lex Anteinternet: Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry. A Timely Rerun
Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry
Me, third from right, when I thought I had a career in geology, and probably in coal.
My main employer, right after receiving my bachelor's degree.
- "No household was wired for electricity"
- "Flickering light came from candles and whale oil,"
It really started with navies in some ways, although some might argue that it started with hydroelectric. We'll start with navies.
Navies had been powered by sail up until the mid 19th Century but already by the time of the American Civil War that was changing. The U.S. Navy may have had its grandest ships under sail during that war, but coal fired wheels were being introduced even then. And the scary smoke belching squat "monitors" that signaled the end of the age of sail were coal (and perhaps wood) burning beasts. Slow, hardly seaworthy, but iron clad. It was pretty clear by 1865 that the age of militarized wind was ending.
And indeed the Naval reformation that occurred after the American Civil War is incredibly stunning. Everything about navies soon changed. By the 1890s every major navy in the world was building ships that look odd to our eyes, but which still look familiar . Big guns on big ships powered by coal replaced sailing vessels, and the general purpose yeoman sailor was replaced by the specialist. At about this time, in fact, the U.S. Navy started to switching from a navy drawing its recruits mostly from port towns, and which was in fact an integrated navy, to one which was segregated which drew its recruits from the interior of the country. A wood and sail navy required men who had grown up near, or even on ships, and who knew the ins and outs of sail. That was a multi ethnic, polyglot group of men who in some way resembled the men in every port town around the world more than they did the men in the interior of their own countries. It's no accident that the first Congressional Medal of Honor to go to a foreign born serviceman went to a sailor, in action during the American Civil War fighting a naval battle in. . . . .Japan.
Smoke and spontaneous ignition.
Let's talk about smoke first, the disadvantage that was always there.
This is something that people who are more familiar with ships of the World War Two era don't instantly recall about earlier steel ships, but coal fires smoke and hence coal fired boilers likewise smoke, or rather the coal fires smoke
Coal has a well known propensity to self heat and to make it worse, the better the coal grade the bigger the problem. Exposed to air and moisture coal begins to engage in an exothermic reaction and can relatively easily self heat to the point where it ignites. Moreover, as it self heats and heads towards ignition it drives off highly flammable hydrocarbon gases. Indeed, heating coal intentionally in a controlled environment is a means of producing those gases and has sometimes been thought of as a method of producing them, although its never proven to be an efficient means of doing so.
Coal is so prone to spontaneous combustion that coal self ignition is a natural phenomenon. It simply happens where coal gets exposed to sufficient oxygen and moisture. Anyone who has ever spent any time in an open pit coal mine has seen coal simply burning on its own, as I have.
There are ways to combat this, of course, but the problem is uniquely acute for ships. Ships must store coal in large bunkers and must taken on a lot of coal at certain points. Ships are wet by their very nature. So any coal burning ship has, at some point, a lot of coal with just enough oxygen and moisture to create a problem.
This proved to be a real problem for ships and of course there were extreme catastrophic occurrences, the most famous of which is the explosion of the USS Maine. The Maine is an extreme example of what could occur, but any coal burning ship could experience what the Maine did. Basically, in the case of the USS Maine, the coal self ignited and the coal bunkers had sufficient liberated gas to create a massive explosion. Not quite as dangerous, but still a huge problem, a simple self ignition of the coal without an explosion was a disaster, quite obviously, of the first rate requiring sailors to put the coal fire out under extreme danger.
By the turn of the century naval designers were aware that oil could be used to heat boilers just as coal could, and they began to study it in earnest. Indeed, not only could it be used, but it had numerous advantages.
Unlike coal, petroleum oil for ships fuel did not result in much smoke. It resulted in some, but not anything like that which coal put out. The smoke from a single ship was much less visible and suffice it to say the smoke from a fleet of ships was greatly reduced. Again, there was smoke, but not smoke like that put out by coal fired boilers. Indeed, it was so much reduced that to a large degree detection of ships over the horizon by the naked eye was approaching becoming a think of the past.
And petroleum does not spontaneously self ignite. A big vat of petroleum can sit around forever and never touch itself off. This does not mean, of course, that its free from danger. It isn't. But some of the dangers it poses were already posed by coal, but in lesser degrees. Petroleum burns more freely than coal by quite some measure and once it ignites putting it out is extremely difficult. Sparks, other fires, etc., all pose increased dangers for petroleum over bunkered coal, but they existed to some degree for bunkered coal already.
And petroleum is more efficient and easier to use for ships. Coal was basically stoked by hand, a dirty laborious job. But petroleum wasn't. Petroleum burning boilers were fueled by what amounts to a plumbing system involving a greater level of technical know how but less physical labor. And oil had double the thermal content of coal making it a far more efficient fuel which required less refueling. And on refueling, ships fueled with oil can be refueled at sea. Ships fueled with coal cannot be. Indeed, the maintenance of coaling stations in the remote parts of the globe was a critical factor in naval planning prior to the introduction of oil.
Which isn't to say that there weren't some unique problems associated with petroleum for ship.
For one thing, the fact that it spreads out when leaked and can more easily ignite meant that petroleum added a unique and added horror for a stricken ship. Coal fired ships that were simply damaged and sinking were unlikely to cause a horrific sea top fire. Petroleum ships are very likely to do that. And the risk of a munitions caused explosion is increased with petroleum fueled ships. A torpedo into a coal bunker might blow a coal fired ship to bits with an explosion or might just sink it. With a petroleum fueled ship the risk of an explosion in such a situation is increased as is the risk that oil on the water will catch on fire or otherwise kill survivors.
A huge factor, however, was supply.
By odd coincidence all of the major naval powers, save for Japan, had more than adequate domestic supplies of coal. Some had very good supplies of coal, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Imperial Germany, within their own borders. Japan nearly did in that it obtained it from territories it controlled on the Asian mainland, although that did make its supply more tenuous. At any rate all of the big naval powers of the pre World War One world had coal supplies that htey controlled. That's a big war fighting consideration. Of the naval powers of that era, in contrast, only the United States and Imperial Russia had proven petroleum sources they controlled, and Imperial Russia had proven it self to be a second rate naval power during the Russo Japanese War.
Switching from coal to oil did not occur in the Royal Navy, or any navy, all at once. The decision was made somewhat haltingly and it was an expensive proposition to convert an entire navy to oil. Britain started to convert prior to World War One but it didn't complete the process until after the war. Still, its decision to start constructing capitol ships as oil burners in 1912 was a huge step for a nation that had the world's largest navy but which had no domestic oil production at all. The United States followed suit almost immediately, with its first large ship to be converted to oil, the USS Cheyenne, undergoing that process in 1913.
Diesels in that application show that industrial diesel engines had arrived.
By World War Two every navy in the world was an oil burning, not a coal burning, navy. And it wasn't just navies. Merchant ships had followed in the navies' wakes. They were now oil burning too for the most part. Coal at sea had died.
Still, the trend line had been set.
And it would next show itself with transportation.
At least according to one source written in 1912 coal fueled 9/10s of all locomotive engines at that time. The other 1/10th would have been fired by wood or, yes, oil.