Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

While trolling the net, found these two pics. Don't know if they have been posted before!
From the McCord Museum in Montreal
Yonge Street looking north, Toronto, ON, about 1890 and King Street looking west, Toronto, ON, about 1890

railmus said:

While trolling the net, found these two pics. Don't know if they have been posted before!
From the McCord Museum in Montreal
Yonge Street looking north, Toronto, ON, about 1890 and King Street looking west, Toronto, ON, about 1890

View attachment 42691View attachment 42692

Click to expand...

Wonderful records of the past.
Most obvious changes between 'Then & Now'
-men all wearing suits and hats
-women in long dresses and hats
-only horses for transportation

railmus said:

While trolling the net, found these two pics. Don't know if they have been posted before!
From the McCord Museum in Montreal
Yonge Street looking north, Toronto, ON, about 1890 and King Street looking west, Toronto, ON, about 1890

View attachment 42691View attachment 42692

Click to expand...

railmus.. in the left picture one could almost miss that arc lamp while looking at the scenery in spite of its being in the middle of the picture. Nice writeup here about arc lamps and early electricity in Toronto:

http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/09/a_brief_history_of_the_first_electricity_company_in_toronto/



All you wanted to know about arc lamps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_lamp

That arc lamp scares the crap out of me!

"That arc lamp scares the crap out of me! "
wwwebster.

SUPER TROUPER anyone?


Regards,
J T

Here's another one of those arc-lamps -- at King/Church

And one of the power plants that supplied the electricity (before the availability of Niagara power).

Goldie said:

Here's another one of those arc-lamps -- at King/Church

And one of the power plants that supplied the electricity (before the availability of Niagara power).

View attachment 42723


View attachment 42724

Click to expand...

An arc lamp demo. As only the Germans could do it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8e_u_xqN30

wwwebster said:

That arc lamp scares the crap out of me!

Click to expand...

Go ahead. Touch it. It's not hot.

I miss the wonderment & awe of the WW II carbon arc searchlights that were employed by the William F White Co at opening galas.

That old SUPER TROUPER type tech was replaced by the advent of the General Electric High Intensity Arc Projection Lamp - EZT MARC 350/16T,

retail cost $350.00, with a run/burn-time of 50 hours. (Just happen to have one - brand new, never fired.)

For regular stage lighting, the band Genesis teamed-up with SHOWCO during the mid 1970s to bring us

the concert lighting we have today. These lighting systems were controlled, colour and pan, from a console.

(Herns & Co became Heroes in their own right!)


Regards,
J T

J T CUNNINGHAM said:

I miss the wonderment & awe of the WW II carbon arc searchlights that were employed by the William F White Co at opening galas.

That old SUPER TROUPER type tech was replaced by the advent of the General Electric High Intensity Arc Projection Lamp - EZT MARC 350/16T,

retail cost $350.00, with a run/burn-time of 50 hours. (Just happen to have one - brand new, never fired.)

For regular stage lighting, the band Genesis teamed-up with SHOWCO during the mid 1970s to bring us

the concert lighting we have today. These lighting systems were controlled, colour and pan, from a console.

(Herns & Co became Heroes in their own right!)


Regards,
J T

Click to expand...

J T,

On the home lighting front; I have noticed the disappearance of 100W incandescent bulbs from most store shelves. I only see 40W and 60W. Horribly inefficient the 100W may be (and short of lifespan) but the warm colour (yellow) they give off is perfect for living spaces with traditional decor, and that filament is nice to look at. 100W-ers are perfect for lighting up a corner of a room. The 40W and 60W are only suitable for bedside reading lamps, IMHO.

Canadian Tire presently has 150W clear glass incandescents available with the usual common E26 medium base and I have one here in a lamp beside me - said lamp is rated for 60W but I never leave the thing on when I'm not in the room. Also, the bulb is pointed UP so I figure that I'm ok since the heat is rising up away from the lamp base.

On the personal carry lighting front; I noticed that the MEC store on King Street W. now has a dream selection of flashlights. Their somewhat pricey lights, ostensibly for the mountaineering/nature/camping set, are very suitable for city dwellers. I personally carry an earlier version of:

http://www.mec.ca/product/5039-008/fenix-ld02-flashlight/?q=fenix

and have passed this flashlight carry philosophy onto all my grown children. Certain smaller models of these Fenix lights means anyone can easily (and everyone should) carry in a pocket or purse. Several models throw enough light to swap out a car engine yet have a low mode dim enough to read in bed by.

Practically speaking, anyone who has needed to:

- search for lost keys or a wallet in a movie theatre after the show - even with the house lights up,

- find something that rolled under a car in the dark,

- look for stuff in a unfamiliar basement,

- or chase down a centipede in a grandchild's bedroom,

will never feel inadequate again.

And don't fire up your EZT MARC 350/16T at home. I know you have knob and tube in that old place of yours.

"Gusky began his explorations above ground, photographing the abundant remains of WWI on the surface—bunkers, trenches, field hospitals and more—that remain scattered from Champagne to the Swiss border. Over time, Gusky developed close working relationships with local WWI enthusiasts, land-owners and village mayors in the traditionally closed-off communities of northern France. Once he had earned their trust, Gusky was granted access to many WWI-era sites that were on (or beneath) private land and thus out of the public eye. The most thrilling of these secrets were the underground cities—fascinating discoveries whose existence had been all but unknown to the outside world.


https://www.lensculture.com/articles/jeff-gusky-the-hidden-worlds-of-wwi




"Viewed as a series of mundane-looking sites—a stretch of brick wall, parts of fields, a water-filled dyke, a bunker—there is little on the face of it that is remarkable about Chloe Dewe Mathews's photographs in Shot At Dawn. What invests them with meaning is our knowledge that at these exact locations, by this gate into that field, on this stretch of paving stone up against that wall, a young British, French or Belgian man was executed by his fellow soldiers."


https://www.lensculture.com/article...t-dawn-100-years-after-wwi-executions#slide-2

Seeing that the place was built during 1884, I tend to look upon knob & tube wiring as an upgrade from either candles, kerosene, or even gas.

LOL.


Regards,
J T

BTW, The St Lawrence (North) Farmer's/Antique Market will be moving from their present site,

to that of one being south of the fabled South Market; that property once of a parking lot, now

to be enclosed within a "bubble building"; this occurring at the end of this month.

J T CUNNINGHAM said:

BTW, The St Lawrence (North) Farmer's/Antique Market will be moving from their present site,

to that of one being south of the fabled South Market; that property once of a parking lot, now

to be enclosed within a "bubble building"; this occurring at the end of this month.

Click to expand...

I think not until mid-April (after Easter). The new bubble building is not yet inflated and the cold weather has delayed the concrete floor pouring activities.

Mustapha said:

...I have noticed the disappearance of 100W incandescent bulbs from most store shelves.

Click to expand...

Yup. Our FedGov, lagging the US by one year, banned the production and importation of 100W and 75W incandescents at the beginning of 2014, and then 60W and 40W on the last day of 2014. There are, however, a number of specialty bulbs exempted, including “rough service†bulbs, which tend to be clear rather than frosted.

As it happens, my job involves purchasing these bulbs for resale to movie and TV productions, though generally they’re not meant for illumination so much as props for period pieces. Can’t have CFLs appearing onscreen if the show is set in the ‘60s or ‘70s.