A Sky-Boat Parked Outside Your Front Door

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#Iraq A girl who fled the fighting in Mosul, waits to be relocated while sitting in the city's western industrial district. Photo Fadel Senna #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 July 2017

#Iraq A medic tends to injured children who fled the fighting in Mosul, while they lie in a clinic during #MosulOffensive. Photo Fadel Senna #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 July 2017

 
#Iraq Members of Counter Terrorism Services help a wounded boy whose family was killed during #MosulOffensive trying to flee Mosul. #AFP Photo Ahmad Al-Rubaye: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 July 2017

#Iraq Tougher fighting, more suicide attacks as IS hits back in #Mosul #AFP Photo Ahmad Al-Rubaye: image via Aurelia BAILLY @ AureliaBAILLY, 4 July 2017

 
#Iraq An Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services (CTS) member prays in the Old City of Mosul during #MosulOffensive. Photo Fadel Senna #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 July 2017

#Syria US-backed forces in Syria breach wall surrounding Old City of Raqa. #AFP Photo @AbazidMohamad: image via Aurelia BAILLY @ AureliaBAILLY, 4 July 2017


U.S.-backed forces breach the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria: image via Bloomberg Politics @bpolitics, 4 July 2017



MAP: Location of SDF breach into Raqqa's old city - @CivilWarMap: image via Conflict News @Conflicts, 4 July 2017



SYRIA: SDF forces entered the heavily fortified old city in central #Raqqa overnight - @CJTFOIR: image via Conflict News @Conflicts, 4 July 2017



Members of the US Forces in the town of #Taqba, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of #Raqa city, on June 29, 2017 DELIL SOULEIMAN / #AFP: image via Delil souleiman @Delilsouleman, 30 June 2017

 

Members of the US Forces in the town of #Taqba, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of #Raqa city, on June 29, 2017 DELIL SOULEIMAN / #AFP: image via Delil souleiman @Delilsouleman, 30 June 2017 



Members of the US Forces in the town of #Taqba, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of #Raqa city, on June 29, 2017 DELIL SOULEIMAN / #AFP: image via Delil souleiman @Delilsouleman, 30 June 2017 

'Trump: We'll fight for you in Raqqa if you fight for us in Geneva' Graffiti seen in Raqqa signed MSF (Syriac Military Council, part of SDF): image via Airwars @airwars, 4 July 2017
 

Iranians hold "Trumpism" cartoon contest to mock the U.S. president: image via Bloomberg Politics @bpolitics, 4 July 2017
 

#Libya A coast guard off. stands on a boat during the rescue of 147 immigrants trying to reach EU off the coast of Zawiyah. By @tahajawashi: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 4 July 2017

 

#USA #sunrise over the Brooklyn Bridge as the Cunard cruise liner RMS #queenmary2 arrives  in #NewYork Photo @LoicVenance: image via Aurelia BAILLY @Aurelia BAILLY, 4 July 2017

 

North Korea says it successfully tested an ICBM, which flew a trajectory experts say could allow it to hit Alaska: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 July 2017

 North Korea releases images of today's missile launch. - @BNODesk: image via Conflict News @Conflicts, 4 July 2017

 North Korea releases images of today's missile launch. - @BNODesk: image via Conflict News @Conflicts, 4 July 2017

 

 North Korea releases images of today's missile launch. - @BNODesk: image via Conflict News @Conflicts, 4 July 2017

 North Korea releases images of today's missile launch. - @BNODesk: image via Conflict News @Conflicts, 4 July 2017

 

Thomas Jefferson's “Original Rough Draught" of Declaration of Independence (with revisions by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin): image via Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC, 3 July 2017

Philadelphia house where Jefferson drafted Declaration of Independence was demolished in 1883 #NPS: image via Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC, 3 July 2017

 

Thomas Jefferson drafted Declaration of Independence on this mahogany lap desk, of his own design #LOC: image via Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC, 3 July 2017

@realDonaldTrump departs New Jersey for Washington: image via Jeff Mason @jeffmason1, 3 July 2017


#Lebanon People visit the old Lebanese port of Byblos at sunset.: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 July 2017

Marion Post Wolcott: A Fourth of July Celebration, St. Helena Island, South Carolina, 1941

 

A Fourth of July celebration, St. Helena Island, South Carolina: photos by Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990), July 1939 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Administration Collection, Library of Congress)

John Vachon: Like driving from a sunny day into the middle of night 

Movie theatre, Elkins, West Virginia, June 1939

Grand Forks, North Dakota, October 1940

 Sign in beer parlor window, Sisseton, South Dakota, September 1939

Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940



National Association of Manufacturers signboard, Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940

National Association of Manufacturers signboard, Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940

We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable.
Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quail
Whistle about us their spontaneous cries;
Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness;
And, in the isolation of the sky,
At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): from Sunday Morning (1915) in Harmonium, 1923

 Under the Elevated tracks, Chicago, July 1940

Under the El tracks, Chicago, July 1941

 

Under the El tracks, Chicago, July 1941

Downtown street scene, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941

Gas station, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 1942

Gas station, Washington, D.C., July 1937

Gas station and gospel mission, Cleveland, Ohio, August 1937

Gas station at night, Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940

Chicago, Illinois, July 1941

Chicago, Illinois, July 1941

[Somewhere in the Upper Midwest], late summer 1941

[Somewhere in the Upper Midwest], late summer 1941

[Somewhere in the Upper Midwest], October 1940

Fargo, North Dakota, October 1940

Boy hopping freight train, Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940

Railroad depot, Grand Island, Nebraska, November 1938

Unemployed man, Omaha, Nebraska, November 1938

Farm wife waiting in the car while her husband attends auction, Oskaloosa, Kansas, October 1938

Boys playing with bows and arrows near railroad yards, Dubuque, Iowa, April 1940

Car belonging to "white spot" enthusiast ("...the white spot of the nation, no luxury tax, no bonded debt, highways all paid for..."), Omaha, Nebraska, November 1938

Fox chained to automobile, Moorehead, Minnesota, October 1940

Boy with family belongings in automobile, Yates Center, Kansas, October 1938

Hartford, Wisconsin, Fourth of July, 1941

Hartford, Wisconsin, Fourth of July, 1941

 

 Oil tanks, Lincoln, Nebraska, October 1938

 

Gas plant, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Grain elevators belonging to General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Tattered billboard, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Interior of cafe, Minneapolis, Minnesota: photo by John Vachon, September 1939

Bidding on futures, Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Bidding on futures, Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Open grain market, Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Grain elevator, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939 

Grain elevator, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 


Empty freight car, truck, grain elevator, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Freight car loaded with sacks of flour, Pillsbury Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Grocery store, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Slum housing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Boardinghouse, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Second Street Boardinghouse, Minneapolis, Minnesota September 1939



Boardinghouse, St. Paul, Minnesota, September 1939



Religious sign, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Gospel Tabernacle, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Religious signs, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Religious signs, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Hotel lobby, Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Old building being razed, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Health Institute, Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Liquor store, Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Man leaving saloon in Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Pawnshop in Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Pawnshops and secondhand stores in Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Pawnshop in Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Secondhand dress shop, Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Newstand, Gateway District, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Man in hobo jungle killing turtle to make soup, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939
 


Man in hobo jungle, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939



Man in hobo jungle, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

 

Unemployed men in Gateway District, Minneapolis, September 1939



Child who lives on the other side of the tracks, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Farm boy on Minnesota cut-over land, Lake of the Woods, Minnesota, September 1939

Farm woman waiting for her husband. Auction near Tenstrike, Minnesota, September 1939

 Farmers at auction near Tenstrike, Minnesota, September 1939

John Vachon: Like driving from a sunny day into the middle of night (Sunray, Texas, November 1942)

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

This afternoon I worked in a carbon black plant.  Do you know what a carbon black plant is?  It's where they burn natural gas with insufficient oxygen and make carbon which is powdery black stuff in big bags worth 3 cents a pound, used in making tires, paints, and numerous other places. 

The [Texas] panhandle is the seat of the carbon black industry, and on any given day in any given spot you can look all around you and in 6 or 7 corners 40 miles away, no fooling, you see little black places above the horizon. These are the C.B. plants. Then as you get nearer, naturally, the little black place gets bigger and bigger. From 5 or 10 miles it's a huge black cloud out there ahead of you. Then you drive right up to it and it's just exactly like driving from a sunny day into the middle of night. 

They make wonderful backgrounds for pictures for quite some distance, and look exactly like dust storms I've seen pictures of, and I'll bet that's just what they were mistaken for by some dumb FSA photographers I could mention. 

The one I worked in today had 300 what they call hot houses.  Each hot house has several hundred gas jets burning.  I went in one that was off, then they turned it on for me and I got a picture before it got very hot and got out.  It's a beautiful weird sight inside.  High mass.

Anyway, in working there, I got dirtier, that is blacker, than I have ever been in my life. Really black all over. Right through the clothes it goes. I washed carefully my face and hands, but I'm leaving the rest for a while, it's really kind of beautiful. It gets very shiny when you rub it. 

About the best pictures I got this year, I think, will prove to be the portraits of some of the black faced workers there. I got so excited about these guys that I shot up all the film I had with me, and didn't get pix of the buildings, and various operations.  So I'll have to go back again.  And I'll sure make some more of those portraits.

John Vachon (1914-1975), letter to his wife Penny, 11 November 1942, from John Vachon’s America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II: John Vachon, ed. Miles Orvell, 2003

 

 Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Workers at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 

Sacking carbon black in plant, Sunray, Texas; carbon black is worth 3 1/2 cents a pound, November 1942

 

 

Worker at carbon black plant with cream spread on his face to protect it from black dust, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 

 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Employee at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Workers at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Foreman of carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Carbon black plant worker getting a drink of water, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Turning on the gas in carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Carbon black plant workers washing up at the end of the day, Sunray, Texas, November 1942
 

 

Carbon black plant worker taking a shower at the end of the day, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 

 

Separator tanks through which natural gas from the Panhandle fields enters the carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas: gas is burned in 350 of these long low buildings called "doghouses", November 1942

 

 

Carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas: gas is burned in 350 of these long low buildings called "doghouses", November 1942

 

 

Carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Drying at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Bags of carbon black at plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 
 

Bags of carbon black at plant, Sunray, Texas, November 1942

 

 

Well on the pump, vicinity of Sunray, Texas, November 1942

Carbon black is a form of amorphous carbon produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, ethylene cracking tar, etc. It is employed as a model compound for diesel soot in diesel oxidation experiments and as a pigment and reinforcement in rubber and plastic products, most commonly as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. In tire production it is used to conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, thus reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined carbon black to be possibly carcinogenic to humans. Short-term exposure causes mechanical irritation to the human upper respiratory tract, producing local discomfort.

Carbon black, aka Acetylene black, Channel black, Furnace black, Lamp black, Thermal black. TWA 3.5 mg/m³ Ca TWA 0.1 mg PAHs/m³ [Carbon black in presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Black, odorless solid, insoluble. Combustible Solid that may contain flammable hydrocarbons. Incompatibilities & Reactivities: strong oxidizers such as chlorates, bromates & nitrates. Exposure routes: inhalation, skin and/or eye contact. Symptoms: cough; irritation eyes; in presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: potential occupational carcinogen. Target organs: respiratory system, eyes. Cancer site: lymphatic cancer (in presence of PAHs). Recommendations: prevent eye contact; wash skin daily.

from Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)

House, Houston, Texas, May 1943 
 

Virgin redwood, 864 years old, 1942
 

Southland Paper mill, Kraft (chemical) pulp used in making newsprint, Lufkin, Texas, April 1943 

Southland Paper mill, Kraft (chemical) pulp used in making newsprint, Lufkin, Texas, April 1943
 

Kraft pulp mill under construction, Southland Paper mill, Lufkin, Texas, April 1943
 

Sulphur vat 60 feet high, Freeport Sulphur Company, Hoskins Mound, Texas, May 1943

Photos by John Vachon (1914-1975) from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress
 
Downward to darkness, on extended wings...
 

DSCF0334: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

DSCF0334: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

DSCF0334: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

Sky-Boat glyph: Edward Sanders, 3 July 2017

DPZM4371pe: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

DPZM4371pe: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

DPZM4371pe: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016