Sunbeam TT, 1914

This 3.2 litre Sunbeam is one of three cars entered by Sunbeam in the 1914 Tourist Trophy race on the Isle of Man. The photographs show it at the 2009 Vintage Sports Car Club meeting at Mallory Park, Leicestershire. Unfortunately I missed the meeting last year but i'll be there this year, and hopefully will see the car again. Photos copyright myself

The Invincible Talbot, 1914

Ford Model T Speedster

Spotted on a trailer northbound on the M1 Motorway two months ago was this fantastic Ford Model T Speedster, dating between 1908 and 1916. Apologies I didn't get the whole car in the shot, my thumb is in the way in the original photograph, and it was taken on my mobile phone (I was the passenger, not driving!)

Festival of History, Kelmarsh, Northamptonshire, UK

This weekend is English Heritage's Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire. There will be thousands of years of history shown through living historians on display. Edwardian era wise, there will be a Boer War Battle including a genuine British Boer War Steam Traction Engine, Antarctic Explorers, Suffragettes, and WW1 Soldiers from Britain, France, Germany and other countries and a large WW1 Trench. Come along if you can, it'll be a great weekend. I'll be there with the Great War Society, and you may see some Suffragettes practising Edwardian martial arts on me over the weekend!

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/events/foh-2011/

Missing the most important restaurant opening of my life today...

...the opening of the Edwardian Coal Fired Fish and Chip Shop at Beamish!

http://www.beamish.org.uk/coal-fired-fish-and-chip-shop-to-open!/

'An Interesting Story', 1905

Produced by James Williamson, a prolific early British film producer based in Hove, Sussex. In 1905 he released this comedy titled 'An Interesting Story', in which a young man is so engrossed in the book he is reading that he gets into a number of mishaps. The film starts with him at breakfast, and whilst reading the book pours his coffee and milk into his hat, and shoves a fork into a loaf of bread. Leaving the house he bumps into people, animals and a skipping rope, before walking down the road with a Steamroller coming the other way. What happens next is illustrated below - if it's not too clear in the photos, after he is flattened two cyclists come along, and un-flatten him with their bicycle pumps. Shaking their hands, and picking up his hat and book again, he continues on his way as if nothing had happened, much to the amusement of the cyclists!

1903 Petrol Electric Autocar

Petrol Electric Autocar in York Station, photograph copyright by the Ken Hoole Study Centre

In the early 20th century, many Railway companies were experimenting and using electric traction for locomotives and urban passenger trains, where the fast acceleration was perfect for lines with lots of stops within a short distance. The North Eastern Railway in particular was a wide user of electric traction - in 1904, following competition from the newly opened Electric Tramway which took a lot of passenger traffic away, they introduced electric passenger trains on the thirty mile long 'Tyneside loop' railway operating between Newcastle and Tynemouth. In 1905 two electric locomotives were used on a 3/4 quarter mile long railway in the Tyneside docks area and were in use for just under sixty years. Ten more powerful electric locomotives were built betwen 1914 and 1919 to haul coal trains from Shildon to Middlesbrough, and a single large electric express locomotive was built in 1922 to operated main line passenger expresses, although the amalgamation of the North Eastern Railway with other companies brought an end to this idea.

Autocar at Scarborough Station, photograph copyright the Ken Hoole Study Centre

Although these were all highly advanced when steam locomotives were still to be in mainline use in the UK until 1968, the main reason they didn't catch on until after the Second World War was due to the expensive infrastructure which had to be built for them all, either using overhead catenary lines, or a 'third rail', an electrified rail which the locomotives or trains picked up electricity from with using a metal 'shoe' (as is used on some UK lines, such as the London Underground). As an experiment to utilise electric traction but avoid expensive infrastructure costs, in 1903 the North Eastern Railway built two Petrol Electric Autocars - a carriage, powered by a petrol and electricity. A petrol engine drove a dynamo which produced the electricity to power the motors which drove the Autocar. They were used in various parts of North East England, but in the 1920's they were little used, and one was withdrawn in 1930 and the other in 1931.

Autocar 3170 at the start of restoration, photograph courtesy of 1903 NER Autocar Trust

The body of Autocar 3170 was sold to a landowner in North Yorkshire and used a holiday home, as many old carriages were, and fortunately was bought by Stephen Middleton a carriage restorer when it fell into disrepair. This unique survivor, the forerunner of the trains of today, is now being restored to running condition by the NER Petrol Electric Autocar Trust. It will be restored into original condition and will be a fantastic Electric Edwardian railway vehicle for the public to ride on. For more information on the trust, and the chance to join as a member and support them in this very interesting restoration project, please visit http://www.electricautocar.co.uk

Edwardian traffic jam

Replica motor buses and original trams at the Beamish Open Air Museum. Photograph copyright myself

'The Great White Silence'

On Monday evening I was lucky enough to watch 'The Great White Silence' on one of the few cinema screenings in my city, where it was on for just four days. Originally released in 1924, the film has been digitally restored and given a new soundtrack by the British Film Institute and is being shown in cinemas around the UK, as well as a DVD release at the same time. Despite being released in the 1920's, all the footage in the film was taken in 1911 and 1912, and is the official record of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica and race to the South Pole.

The footage was taken by Herbert Ponting, a famous early photograph and film maker, and as well as covering the expedition the film also contains lots of wildlife shots, especially of penguins and seals - understandably considering that he was paid large amounts of money to take the footage and it would have been of immense interest to the British public - although in the modern day we are well aware of what a penguin and a seal look like, and have most likely seen them for ourselves, the Edwardian public hadn't. That said, watching the footage through modern eyes is still fascinating, and funny, especially when Herbert Ponting is filmed (presumably by an assistant) being attacked by penguins whilst walking amongst them taking photographs, and also one scene cut short when a seal starts heading toward him, intent on attack! One scene is devoted to how the Adelie Penguins 'court' - the female penguins keeping together while male penguins give 'the eye' to their chosen female.

Another particularly memorable scene is where Ponting is filming killer whales from the deck of 'Terra Nova', the ship used in the expedition. As Ponting is filming, the killer whales are moving in on a baby seal in the water close to the ice. The seal's mother repeatedly enters the war and attempts to get her baby on her back to get it out of the water and hopefully out of harms way, but fails, with the seals on one side of the screen and the killer whales getting closer to closer. It seems as if there is no hope for the baby seal, and possibly it's mother, until a trail of smoke bursts from the left side of the screen as a harpoon is fired from the 'Terra Nova' by the crew, hitting one whale which then dives beneath the water, followed by the rest of the pack, saving the seals lives. It's a fantastic scene and it shows a lot of compassion from the crew of the 'Terra Nova', who weren't going to standby and watch a baby seal be eaten, which is rather ironic as earlier in the film Ponting describes how the Expedition crew had been eating seals for sustenance.

One of the three Wolseley motor sledges built for the Terra Nova Expedition

The footage of the Terra Nova Expedition was for me the most interesting part - including showing the hut built for the landing party, which is still at Cape Evans untouched, with original food, clothing etc and was the subject of a superb documentary hosted by Ben Fogle earlier this year.

I am very interested in Antarctic exploration, which, coupled with my interest in early film made this a great experience, but I can highly reccomend the film to anyone with an interest in anything 'vintage'. The new soundtrack is very fitting and deals with what is a very emotional subject very well. I look forward to buying the film on DVD and enjoying it again.

For more information on the film, visit the BFI's page here - http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1398645/index.html

To buy the film, you can do so via the BFI filmstore, which also sells other early films, here - http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_19662.html

'Pimple's Battle of Waterloo', 1913

Thanks to the British Film Institute I saw this 1913 comedy film today. Fred Evans, a music hall performer before his days as a film star, plays 'Pimple', a hapless character who appears in various guises in the Pimple series produced by Fred Evans and his brother Joe. The idea for 'Pimple's Battle of Waterloo' came after Fred walked past a cinema showing 'The Battle of Waterloo', an early epic. A month later, the latest 'Pimple' was released. Pimple is Napoleon, starting off crossing the Alps, and then surviving an assassination attempt on his way to 'Parree-e-e' - not from a British spy, but by a Suffragette, who Napoleon and his entourage then flee from! Napoleon and his army then get the train to Waterloo, including his horse, which is actually a very funny one-man pantomime horse. As you'll already know, Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo, after an advance from the 'Old Guard' (played by Boy Scouts!), and then surrenders and has to leave France forever.

Unfortunately i'm not aware of this film having ever been released on VHS or DVD, but I viewed it at my local BFI Mediatheque for free. For more information on the film, here is the BFI's page on it - http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/533804/