How did they turn the corner?



Turning the corner

  Over in Western Maine, well from the other side of the state really, wind tower projects are on the move.  A new group of turbines are being pieced together in the Roxbury area, enough to generate 122 million kilowatt hours per year.
  The concrete bases have been put in, next come the towers, in 240 foot sections.  The parts arrive in Maine by ship from Denmark, in this case, and loaded on to special "trailers".  Each trailers is supported with hydraulic jacks to help when crossing bridges, or where there are wires - the trailers can be lowered or lifted as an assist.  Another person follows the rig in a pickup to help when someone needs to steer just the back wheels.  That's how the truck turned this corner.  There will be one load every 3 days, then the blades, which are hauled the same way, and the turbines which are transported by train to a closer location.

Made it around the corner

A staging area for the parts (this one is in Germany)

Blades for the turbines, ready to roll

Help is on the way!

Wildfire in Texas

  Texas authorities have ordered in more airborne fire fighting help, aircraft designed for just that purpose.  When I first saw the photos I thought these planes were recycled Grumman Goose(s)(Geese), but that was not the case, despite the appearance.
  Specially built by Canadair, now Bombardier, these planes look like the old ((Goose(s)Geese), still powered by two R2800 engines, proudly built by Pratt and Whitney - but there is a conversion kit to outfit the aircraft with Turboprop engines.  The first and only conversion kit for aircraft, by the way.
  The planes are operated in about 30 countries, in the USA they are mostly flown by a company in Arizona that specializes in airborne firefighting.

Three CL215 planes waiting to battle a fire.
(Look familiar to you Wilbur?)

Dropping water, the interior tanks empty through a special "door" in the belly

The CL215's instrument panel and flight controls.

Gooey...

What a mess!

  On January 15, 1919 in Boston Massachusetts there was a flood, the result of an industrial accident and facility collapse.
  Purity Distilling Company owned a holding tank for molasses, the tank burst and two million, three hundred thousand gallons of molasses ran down hill.  The molasses was used as a sweetener, to make rum and even in munitions at that time.
  It was said the bursting tank sounded like a machine gun with all the rivets breaking loose, and there was a loud rumble as the molasses escaped.  Twenty-one people were killed and over seventy were injured as a result.  A section of the elevated railroad was destroyed along with a score of buildings in a wave of molasses 8 to 15 feet high.
  I can't even imagine how all of this was cleaned up.

The remains of the holding tank

The story in the paper

This plaque is at the site of the accident.