Russian retro space matchbox

 « In space, nobody can hear you scream. Nor can they give you a light if you need one, so Russian cosmonauts always had their matches with them, just in case they met a papierosy-puffing alien.»
– Nick Sweeney

2 January 1959: USSR launches Mechta (Luna 1) for 1st lunar fly-by, 1st solar orbit

3 November 1957: USSR launch Laika the dog into space aboard Sputnik II

4 October 1957: launch of Sputnik 1

4 October 1957: launch of Sputnik 1

Source: Jane McDevitt’s search (flickr)

Jane McDevitt’s albums (flickr)

Matchbox vintage Google images

Belle époque on the ocean

Edwardian era lady

Launched during the Edwardian era (1901-1910s), RMS Lusitania and Mauretania were British oceanliners. They both have been briefly the world's biggest ship.

First class promenade on the boat deck (Lusitania)

Machinery space (Lusitania)

Deck equipment and navigation bridge (Lusitania)

Kitchen (Lusitania)

Officer standing on the navigation bridge, looking aft (Lusitania)

Purser's bureau on the promenade deck (Lusitania)

Stateroom, second class (Lusitania)

Third class dining saloon (Lusitania)

Crew of Mauretania

Edwardian photomanipulation?

Deck machinery and curved bridge front (Mauretania)

Engine control room (Mauretania)

First class smoking room (Mauretania)

General view of upper and lower dining saloon (Mauretania)

Kitchen (Mauretania)

Third class general activity room (Mauretania)

Verandah café (Mauretania)

Mauretania under construction

The gentleman in uniform is Mauretania’s first chief engineer, John Currie

If interest, Historic ships & shipping @ flickr

Dissimilar destiny for RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania:

RMS Mauretania


RMS Lusitania

Train rose

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, Ted Rose (1940-2002) developed a life-long passion for railroads after a family trip to the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949.

He completed over 1000 watercolors. Both his photographs and his paintings demonstrate his disciplined eye and expressive tendencies – all are evocative interpretations of an industrial era now rapidly vanishing.

Ted Rose captured not just trains, but the very culture of railroads; how machinery and industry intersect with humans and their communities.

Source: RRDC

I'm still fascinated about my own fascination about watercolor painting. Have a great warm spring day.

Sky writing

Nick Naethuijs knows how to draw a plane.

For more, if you click Nick Naethuijs' deviantart album called Aviation Drawings, the first artwork you will see is a kingfisher..! Well, it is true that birds are masterpieces of aviation.





FSX Bird Experiments by Almost Aviation

Modern space art

Chesley Bonestell (1888 – 1986) was an American painter, designer and illustrator. His paintings were a major influence on science fiction art and illustration. He helped inspire the American space program. Author of photo-realistic images of distant worlds and spacecraft, Chesley Bonestell was dubbed the "Father of Modern Space Art".

 Assembling the Mars Ships

 Colony on Mars under Plastic Domes

 Crashing the Unknown (1950)

 From The Conquest of Space (1953)

 Fueling Rocket for Blast-off (1956)

 On Mars (1954)

 [Rockets]

 Satellite Orbiting Earth (1956)

 Ships Orbiting Mars (1956)

When Worlds Collide (circa 1964)

In 1932 Chesley Bonestell went to work for Joseph Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge. He made perspective drawings of the inner-workings of the bridge and made number of contributions to the final appearance of the structure.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Tapestry, a young Captain Picard is involved in a fight with aliens at the Bonestell Recreation Facility, a spaceport named after the artist.

 Beverages

The Bonestell Recreation Facility is a gaming and food establishment located near Federation Starbase Earhart in the 24th century. The facility features various beverages and other services, including games such as dom-jot. It attracts a wide range of clientele.

 Dom-jot

I often watched Star Trek but not The Next Generation and the Bonestell Recreation Facility was unknown to me. On the web, all the pictures I saw were full of vapor. Did the Bonestell Recreation Facility's consumers smoke cigarettes?