Modern Mechanix Blog

If you dig cool oddball, fun with science historical photos and trivia , you Must visit the Modern Mechanix Blog!

The Flatiron Building NYC

Designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham in the Beaux-Arts style, the Flatiron Building (or Fuller Building as it was originally named) was one of Ney York’s tallest buildings when it was completed in 1902 and considered to be one of the first skyscrapers.
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Murder At The Greystone Mansion

The largest home ever built in Beverly Hills, Greystone manor, wasn't built by a movie star, even though many movies have been filmed at this spectacular estate.
This fortress-like Tudor mansion was built by famed oil-tycoon Edward Doheny in 1928, as a gift to his son Ned. Despite their incredible wealth (a fortune of over $100 million), the members of the Doheny family had their share of tragedy. Edward Doheny was involved with bribery charges in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal, and his son's life ended in a bizarre murder-suicide.
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Greystone Mansion

Charlie Chaplin-Musician

At least as early as A Woman of Paris (1923), Charlie Chaplin was involving himself closely in the musical accompaniment for his films. The coming of talking pictures found Chaplin understandably reluctant to abandon the universally understood medium of pantomime, but:
“One happy thing about sound was that I could control the music, so I composed my own. I tried to compose elegant and romantic music to frame my comedies in contrast to the tramp character, for elegant music gave my comedies an emotional dimension."
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Out With The Stars

Ava Gardner and Mickey Rooney at Los Angeles Ambassador's Coconut Grove on 7 June 1942.

Angels Flight-Early 1900's

Los Angeles In the 1900's-Angels Flight & 3rd Street

1946 Bowden Spacelander Bicycle

One of the coolest bicycles ever designed, the Bowden Spacelander fetches anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000 these days.
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RCA Victor Havana

Remnants of the RCA Victor Building in Havana,Cuba. Photo by Matt Dillon,1995.

White Rock Beverages

The story of White Rock dates back to 1871 when a pharmacist named H.M. Colver purchased the White Rock natural spring and its surrounding 60 acres in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Local Potawatomi Indians and settlers believed that the spring’s sparkling mineral water, which filtered through 1,400 feet of white magnesian rocks, held some medicinal power or value.
The story of how Psyche came to represent the White Rock Company starts at the World’s Fair in Chicago. White Rock executives were awestruck by the beauty, youth and purity depicted in a painting titled “Psyche at Nature’s Mirror” by German artist Paul Thumann. They purchased the rights to the painting and adopted Psyche as their logo.
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Early Custom Cars:The Wienermobile

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile has evolved from Carl Mayer’s original 1936 vehicle to the current vehicles seen on the road today.
The most recent version of the Wienermobile, built in 2004, has been updated to include a voice activated GPS navigation device, an audio center with a wireless microphone, and a horn that plays the Wiener Jingle in 21 different genres from Cajun to Rap to Bossa Nova, according to American Eats.
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Origins Of Pornography

You may not be surprised to hear that there’s little hard information to be had about the dawn of porn. But while data about 'the first’ porn books, photos and films remains elusive, a fair bit is known about the 'oldest surviving’ examples of these genres. Porn historian Luke Ford has written an extensive history of the early sex film industry which is posted on his highly informative web site. Condensing his work and rephrasing a little gives us this short report on the birth of the porno flick: 'Motion pictures began in 1894. By 1896, actress Louise Willy was disrobing in the French film Le Bain. Other French flicks before the turn of the century offered similar fare while in Germany, producer Oskar Messter revealed women taking off their clothes, exercising, dancing or bathing.
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New Year's Eve 1949

Nina Foch and dress designer Jean Louis sipping champagne at Samuel Spiegel's New Year's Eve party,1949.

1936 Tatra T87

Three years ago, my friend Paul Greenstein sent his 1936 Tatra Tatra T87 to the Czech Republic for ground up restoration. Here’s a couple recent pics of the nearly finished project. This vehicle design was Ferdinand Porsche's original inspiration for the Volkswagen.
Click Here For Tatra 600 Web Page. Super Cool Stuff.

Hollywood Roots

Accounts of the name, Hollywood, coming from imported English Holly then growing in the area are incorrect. The name in fact was coined by Daeida Wilcox. On a train trip to the east, Wilcox met a woman who spoke of her country home in Ohio named after a settlement of Dutch immigrants from Zwolle called "Hollywood". Daeida liked the sound of it and upon returning to Southern California, bestowed the name to the family ranch.
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Man's First Boom Box

GERMAN "MIKIPHONE" POCKET PHONOGRAPH, c. 1925. The nickel plated round brass case with large key winder opens to reveal black painted speaker which attaches to the extended armed needle head above the record platform. The key winder also doubles as the carrying case handle.
Click Here to view Youtube Mikiphone video

The Original Batmobile

1955. The Lincoln Futura was built in Italy for Ford by a body-building company called Ghia. Total cost for designing and building this one vehicle was a cool quarter of a million dollars.
Years later it was sold to George Barris who transformed it into the Batmobile for the television series. I prefer the original car, although the Batmobile ain't too shabby either.
Click Here For Full Futura Article.
Click Here For The Making Of The Batmobile.

The Crocker Mansion-Los Angeles

At the turn of the 20th Century, no building dominated Bunker Hill like the Crocker Mansion. Perched high at the corner of Third and Olive, the imposing 3-story Victorian structure overlooked the emerging metropolis for a mere 22 years. Though its reign over Bunker Hill was short, the Crocker Mansion remains an indelible part of early Los Angeles history.
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The Stroh Violin

This now pretty rare instrument had been developed and patented by Johann Matthias Augustus Stroh at around 1900 for use in the Phono Industry due to its more focused and more voluminous sound compared to normal violins and got more attention during the last years , by being used on recordings by bluesman Tom Waits, amongst others.
This quality instrument comes out of south-east-asian manufacturing with a lot of attention to details.
Strohviolin.com
Inside The Early Recording Studios

Ancient Greek Computer?

In 1901 divers working off the isle of Antikythera found the remains of a clocklike mechanism 2,000 years old. The mechanism now appears to have been a device for calculating the motions of stars and planets by Derek J. de Solla Price.
I saw a great documentary about this, and how it was x-rayed and replicated.
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