Gota Canal

1979: Göta Canal (Engraver - Czeslaw Slania)

Lets take a trip down Sweden's Göta Canal

in the Juno launched in 1874 and  still going strong - the 'world's oldest registered ship with overnight accommodation'.  Sail serenely through Sweden for 120 miles, take a leisurely view of the world while passing through the 58 locks.  The view on the stamp is of the Borenshult five flight lock and the boat coming down is the Wilhelm Tham another vintage ship built in 1912 and still carrying passengers on the canal.

I love canals with their winning combination of engineering, history and wildlife.  The top left stamp shows the old roller bridge at Hajstorp which was originally hand drawn, top right is the Lock guard and Ricksberg locks. If you enjoy messing around on boats then above is a sailing boat at Godhogen and a canoeist in the oldest lock (1813) on the canal, Forsvik lock.  The stamps are engraved by Czeslaw Slania from photographs and I think this photograph is a set up to show the scale of the lock gates for I have never seen canoeists use locks.  It is quicker to take the canoe out and walk up past the locks, not to mention sitting in a tiny canoe and having tons of water pouring down as the lock fills up but it does make a great picture.

If you have taken the 6 day cruise on the Juno stopping off at various points on the way then at the end it traverses Lake Vanern, the biggest lake in Western Europe.  The journey route can be seen here

The construction of the canal was started in 1810 with the Swedish admiral Count Baltzar von Platen commissioned to build this shortcut between Stockholm and Gothenburg.  (His grave is on the side of the Göta Canal in Motala, the postmark on the FDC).  He had the advice of one of my engineering heroes, Thomas Telford, the son of a Scottish shepherd, apprenticed as a stonemason who became one of the greatest engineers of the 19th Century.  The unsung heroes are of course the workers or navies who actually constructed these marvels but in the case of the Gota Canal this was 60,000 conscripted soldiers (16 regiments), a company of Russian deserters and a number of skilled civilian workers with some British foremen and craftsmen thrown into the mix.  The canal was completed in 1832.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Commemorative - 150 years from the death of Baltzar von Platen who never saw the canal completed - See It On A Postcard

Red

1979: Airmail - "Planet Exploration"

The Mars 3 robotic space probe flies above the red planet.  The descent module would eventually land but unfortunately in the middle of a Martian dust storm which was probably the reason it only managed to transmit for 20 seconds.

1973: Exploration of Venus

Another day another planet this time the more hostile Venus. I think this stamp set celebrates the Russian Venera programme, the most extensive exploration of one planet which took place from 1961-1985 and consisted of 3 atmospheric probes, 10 landings, 4 orbiters, 11 flybys and even 2 balloon probes into the clouds. Did someone say balloons?

1982: 200th Anniversary of Manned Flight - Balloons

The Royal Vauxhall Balloon which in 1836 Charles Green and crew of two set off from the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens across the channel and eighteen hours and 480 miles later landed in Germany.  This set a new record which lasted until 1907.

1990: Butterflies "Polygonia c-album"

Of course if you are a Comma butterfly then flying comes easy and it always amazes me the distances these tiny creatures can cover

1982: Roses (Design - Heinz Schillinger)

Perhaps they will be attracted to the scent of a Bourbon rose in a garden but

2001: Carnivorous Plants (Design - Steve Buchanan)

not be lured by a Venus Flytrap. Yikes -

1984: Traditional Dance Masks

Zamindi, a 'dreadful god' with ripper teeth and five skulls but on the good side she does have the eye of wisdom in the middle of her forehead.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is - Red - See It On A Postcard 

Water

The Lost Sword (front of stamp booklet)

It was a stormy day in the flood season and a man from the state of Chu

The Lost Sword (frontispiece of booklet)

wanted to cross a river

1981: The Lost Sword (Design - Pan Keming)

but the water was a raging torrent.

As he crossed the river

the boat was tossed on the waves and his sword slipped from his hand.  He loved the sword.

Then he had a brainwave and made a mark on the side (gunwale) where he had dropped the sword. He said to his puzzled companion "I have made a mark here to remind  me where my sword fell in the water. Later I will be able to retrieve my sword by the location of the mark"

reverse of  stamp booklet

This ancient fable gives rise to the Chinese idiom of  'Finding a Lost Sword'. The moral of the fable is one must take into consideration changes in circumstances and adapt to change. Don't isolate yourself from reality or adhere to fixed rules and patterns.  The story is sometimes called Marking the Gunwale. The artist is Pam Keming (b1940) who has said that she enjoys making art from philosophical ideas.

My local river in winter - the Duddon,

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is - Water - join the flow at See It on A Postcard.

  

Summer Sun

2015: "Summer Feeling" (Design - Pietari Posti)

The sun is out so lets spin those wheels of summer time and head for the beach

1996: Holidays

and cool off in the sea. 

1963: Summer Festival, Budapest (Design - Nagy Zoltán; Engraver - Málynyomat)

In the evening be entertained by the summer music and drama festival in Budapest.

1970: Europa - 'Flaming Sun'

The crops growing under the warmth of the sun. The interlaced sun perfect for the cover which is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the International Union of Food and Allied Workers whose headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.  Today they consist of 430 member organisations in 130 countries representing more than 12 million workers.

1963: Conference of Postal Ministers of Socialist Countries

Don't fly too close to the sun. Two stamps for the price of one, the Albanian one featured is from their 1962 Cosmic Flights set.

The Sun Inn sign, Dedham, Essex

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - summer, sun, hot -  enjoy the summer at See It On A Postcard

Zeniths of Switzerland

1993: Definitive (Design - H Schelbert; Engraveer - M Muller)

The stamp shows the dark blue waters of a mountain lake in Switzerland called Lac de Tanay which is described as a miniature paradise and was declared a national heritage site in the 1960s. The twin peaks rising up behind are the Jumelles (Grammont and the Col de Tanay).  Located on the Haute-Savoie border the stamp

has been co-opted on to a FDC from central Switzerland celebrating a mountain that is almost surrounded by lakes - Rigi.  As the postmark says it is known as the 'Queen of Mountains'.  Summer is recommended as a beautiful time to visit and it has 120k of hiking trails with enticing names like - the floral trail, panorama path and the nature trail.  It does not end there for there is also a scenic railway ride and summer is when the steam train runs, for Rigi also has Europe's oldest mountain railway which opened in May 1871.

1983: Europa - Human Genius (Design - A Hartmann)

This rack and pinion railway was the work of the Niklau Riggenbach, engineer and locomotive builder, inventor of the Riggenbach rack system and counter-pressure brakes.   Ah yes brakes, always a good thing to have on a mountain. The maximum card celebrates his invention and

I found a picture on the web of him testing the system in 1870 running from Vitznau on Lake Lucerne (the postmark) to a point near to the summit. 

The zenith of engineering.  Riggenbach would also drive the first train upon the opening of the railway in 1871. The locomotive is still with us and is the oldest Swiss loco and the only remaining standard gauge rack fitted vertical boiler in the world.

1941-1955: Airmail Definitive - Landscapes (Design - Albert Yersin)

Lastly we have one of the iconic Swiss Mountains, the Jungfrau, which is also the location of one of the great railway journeys, tunnels and viewpoints, with not only the highest railway station in Europe but also the highest post office.  The man in seat 61 takes us on the journey with travel tips.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter Z - here for SwitZerland and zenith - See It On A Postcard.

Yesteryear Yugoslavia

1987: PTT (Posta, Telegrafa i Telefona) Museum Card

An Ericson phone but not one which would happily sit in a pocket. As much a desk ornament as an object to communicate. I would love to wind the handle.  The card says on the back "Desk phone Ericson system from 1900. These devices date from the first period of telephony development and are characterised by a local power source, an inductor and electric bell are used to establish connection. The first installations of telephone sets began in our country Zagreb (1881) and in Belgrade (1883)

Paddle Steamer towed by steam locomotive on Sip Canal

Here we are on the Sip Canal constructed to make navigation through the notorious Iron Gates gorge with its riverbed boulders, whirlpools and rapids easier.  The project was run by the Austro-Hungarian government and opened in 1896 but they miscalculated the fast river flow which meant that ships had to be navigated upstream by a steam powered tugboat and winding cable. Enter the Germans and their occupation of Serbia in WW1 and whose forces built a railway on the canal embankment and locomotives began towing boats instead of the tugboats. After the war the railway was reconstructed and  extended with 11 locomotives in service pulling boats.

1981: 125th Anniversary of European Danube Commission

You cannot see this scene today because of the Iron Gate Hydroelectric Power Station joint venture between Romania and Yugoslavia and the creation of the largest dam on the Danube meant it was flooded by the Derlap Lake in 1969.  Unfortunately this happened six month before it was projected with the waters rushing in flooding everything - the entire railway system and locomotives are now on the bottom of the lake. There was a scheme to try to raise the locomotives in recent times because these JZ Class 30 'Berliners' are the last remaining types but it came to nought.  The stamp was designed by the prolific artist Dušan Lučić(b1937) and the engraver Dušan Matić (b1939) who also collaborated on other Yugoslav stamps.

1951: Iron Gates, Danube

The Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter Y - here for Yugoslavia - See it on a Postcard 

On the Road

I'm away on the highways and byways of England passing postboxes on the way south so there will be a slight pause of posts here.  I leave you with a mail van waiting to cross the Scourer or Fisherman's Bridge over the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.