Scenes from the America of the past

http://hipspics.freewebspace.com/gas/gas.html

Enjoyed the trip back in time Bob, some were before my time but the pics are very cool . . . . . thanks!

knothead wrote:Enjoyed the trip back in time Bob, some were before my time but the pics are very cool . . . . . thanks!

Glad you enjoyed em, knothead. Many are before my time too.

This one's a puzzler to me...



I guess it must be some kind of precursor to parking garages that used an elevator to store the cars on racks.

Bob wrote:

knothead wrote:Enjoyed the trip back in time Bob, some were before my time but the pics are very cool . . . . . thanks!

Glad you enjoyed em, knothead. Many are before my time too.

This one's a puzzler to me...



I guess it must be some kind of precursor to parking garages that used an elevator to store the cars on racks.

How in the hell did they get those cars up there.

Chrissy wrote:

How in the hell did they get those cars up there.

I can only guess that there must be a movable lift situated between the two big racks of cars which is not visible in the photo.
The whole contraption appears to be something akin to how they store boats in a multi level marina.

Bob wrote:

Chrissy wrote:

How in the hell did they get those cars up there.

I can only guess that there must be a movable lift situated between the big racks of cars which is not visible in the photo.
The whole contraption appears to be something akin to how they store boats in a multi level marina.

yes thats what I thought, but it looks like there isnt much room for that. geesh. That top level must have been a booger.

When did they invent parking garages?

Here's an even earlier one.

Chrissy wrote:
When did they invent parking garages?

The earliest known multi-storey car park was built in 1918 for the Hotel La Salle at 215 West Washington Street in the West Loop area of downtown Chicago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-storey_car_park#First_multi-storey_car_park

Bob wrote:http://hipspics.freewebspace.com/gas/gas.html

What a superb collection of pictures. I have never seen anything like the tiered lot that was five cars high. How in hell did they do that?

It appears that the Texaco small office is adjacent to the entrance of the storage facility. If you look carefully you can see on the far storage rack a vertical dual steel column which looks like it rolls on the Ibeam on both faces of the two storage racks. A car would come in the entrance and would line up with the elevator which could be moved on rollers on the Ibeams and allow the operator to fill the empty slot by simply sliding the vehicle forward or backward. My guess is that they use a hydraulic slide which will transfer the car to the storage location, and then let the wheels down on the storage surface while letting the slide return to the elevator. I doubt if they would risk having any drivers starting or moving the cars, and you can tell that the orientation of the cars is forward from the entrance confirms this most likely operation. I have seen something very similar to this in Parking in Vegas or Chicago......but the key is that the elevator moves horizontally off the Ibeams which provide support to the parking structure. The vertical beams look woefully undersized, and there are few lateral supports on these storage units.....what a mess if there was even the slightest horizontal sway.

I enjoyed it also Bob!

Son of a Bitch!!! I knew it!!!!! Damn corm people were at it even back then.

Bob wrote:Here's an even earlier one.

Thats just amazing. I had no idea.

You made our IQ go up.

25.9 LOL

There's a car in Pensacola that looks just like the red one above! It's gorgeous. Anybody else seen it?

The one photo of the 10% ethanol mixture is interesting. The actual link shows the full sign in the background which talks about cornbelt prosperity when using this product. Well farmers are getting almost 7 bucks a bushel for corn, when for 50 years they were getting about 2 bucks.....and productivity from an acre has doubled in the last 30 years.....so this sign was correct.....farmers in the cornbelt are millionaires and our industry and economy are in the crapper, and most of Americans are now driving foreign brand autos many of which are built here, but most are not.

2seaoat wrote:The one photo of the 10% ethanol mixture is interesting. The actual link shows the full sign in the background which talks about cornbelt prosperity when using this product. Well farmers are getting almost 7 bucks a bushel for corn, when for 50 years they were getting about 2 bucks.....and productivity from an acre has doubled in the last 30 years.....so this sign was correct.....farmers in the cornbelt are millionaires and our industry and economy are in the crapper, and most of Americans are now driving foreign brand autos many of which are built here, but most are not.

Im not sure but it almost seems like you are blaming the farmers for our economy being in the crapper?

I went and looked up the history of ethanol, interesting. I did not know all of this.

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

In 1826 Samuel Morey experimented with an internal combustion chemical mixture that used ethanol (combined with turpentine and ambient air then vaporized) as fuel. At the time, his discovery was overlooked, mostly due to the success of steam power. Ethanol fuel received little attention until 1860 when Nicholas Otto began experimenting with internal combustion engines. In 1859, oil was found in Pennsylvania, which decades later provided a new kind of fuel. A popular fuel in the U.S. before petroleum was a blend of alcohol and turpentine called "camphene", also known as "burning fluid."[citation needed] The discovery of a ready supply of oil and unfavorable taxation on burning fluid made kerosene a more popular fuel.

In 1896, Henry Ford designed his first car, the "Quadricycle" to run on pure ethanol.[28] In 1908, the revolutionary Ford Model T was capable of running on gasoline, ethanol or a combination.[28][29][30] Ford continued to advocate for ethanol fuel even during the prohibition, but lower prices caused gasoline to prevail.[28]