Stirling City, California

Diamond Match Sawmill, Stirling City, California, 1912

Stirling City, California, is a place in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. There was a loop (which terminates a winding spur line) of the Southern Pacific Railroad there, built to collect lumber from the Lassen National Forest. It came into being when the Diamond Match Company built a sawmill there back in 1903. It got its name from the boiler used at the company's Barber plant, made by the Stirling Boiler Company. Stirling Boiler is now a division of Babcock-Wilcox. The sawmill closed in the early 1970s. The land surrounding Stirling City is still harvested for timber. Barber, a suburb of Chico, was named for the founder of Diamond Match. - Extracted from Wikipedia

The Stirling City Museum has a collection of photos of early lumbering operations, including the Shay locomotives that were used on the 'winding spur line'. Click on FS in the lower right corner of the gray frame to see the pictures at full size.

10,000 board feet per day does not sound like enough to justify building a railroad line and a sawmill. Ten good sized logs would be sufficient for that. But lumber is always in demand, so perhaps Barber was branching out and this branching out just happened to ensure him with a supply of wood for his match factories.

Inspired by an email from Posthip Scott, who is "in the wilds of Magalia, out of  Paradise, out of Chico.  Not really near anything except Stirling City, onetime home to the Diamond Match Company. . . The internet connection up here is a slow version of dial-up, which is another impediment."

I've heard rumors of dial-up connections, but I didn't think anyone really had one.

Update January 2021 replaced missing picture

The Z Blog

The Z Blog

Bayou Renaissance Man points to an a story on The Z Blog. It's pretty good. There are a couple of others there that are pretty good as well. I might have to start spending some time there.

Car Design Peaked in 1967

Road & Track has a story about 4-door Ferrari's. I am still a sucker for a good looking car and I thought this one was the best of the lot. I like to think that I am still flexible enough to appreciate a good, new design, but if that's the case, why do I think all the newer ones are repellent?

For the 1967 365 GT 2+2, Ferrari took everything about its predecessor and made it bigger. The engine grew to 4.4-liters and the wheelbase and passenger compartment grew, making this a true four-seater. This was also the first Ferrari to offer power steering as standard and interestingly, a self-leveling hydropneumatic rear suspension.
With 320-bhp routed through a five-speed gearbox, the 365 GT 2+2 could hit 60 mph in 7.0 seconds. Around 800 were sold in its relatively short production run. - Chris Perkins for R & T

3 Steps Away From Reality

Model of the I Love Lucy set

I Love Lucy was a very popular television series that ran for umpteen years. So it's television, it's not real life. It was a comedy, so it wasn't even pretending to be real life. It was shot on sound stage, not in someone's home and business. Then someone made a model of the set, and then someone took a picture of it. So maybe this photo is more like 4 or 5 steps removed from reality, not just 3.

Via Posthip Scott

Update June 2018 replaced missing picture.

Cable Management Part 2

All lines lead to the box, though some of them pause on the way to make a snarl.

Power strip and wall warts go in the box. Via Iaman.

Good looking box. Not the way I would have done it. I prefer ratty looking looking cardboard and duck tape.

Fedorov Avtomat

Fedorov Avtomat. Click to embiggenate.

Very cool cutaway illustration of the Russian Fedorov Avtomat semi-automatic assault rifle from 1916. Poking around uncovered this disassembly video. There sure are a lot of parts to this gun.


Автомат Федорова обр. 1916 г.
Update March 2020 replaced remote image with local copy, added link to caption, added title to video.

Russia

 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, left, and his cousin George V in Berlin, 1913. 

Nothing like a family portrait to clarify the situation. Not that it helps me much, I still have only the foggiest idea of what was going on back then.