History | The Arts Mechanical

Did slavery “build” the US?

One claim made in certain circles is that because America was “built” on the backs of slaves, people of African descent are owed “reparations” for the way that African Americans were treated in the Antebellum South. For a variety of reasons, the demand for “reparations” is ridiculous and the people demanding same are nothing more than extortionists.

Choosing The Monster

Posted on January 22 by jccarlton

I have felt myself to be a member of the Conservative movement for most of my life. Yet now, I have never been more ashamed of some of the members of that movement. For whatever reason, members of that movement have decided to take the side of the Russian government in the conflict in Ukraine. I may be that they remain willfully ignorant of the goings on in Ukraine, or it may be that they have taken Putin’s coin. What ever the reason, the entire thing disgusts me.

Why The Germans Lost The War On The Eastern Front

Posted on May 19, 2022 by jccarlton

There have been and will be, scores of articles on why the Germans lost the Eastern front. They will talk about the lack of tanks, not enough Panthers or Tigers, or the crappy roads and rails. I think, though that a key number that just about everybody will overlook is the one I found here:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol6no4/html/v06i4a07p_0001.htm

The number is that the train drawbar load for the German Army is 428 tons. That number is why the Germans lost the Eastern Front.

Captain’s Win Engagements, Generals Win Battle, Logistics Wins Wars.

Posted on May 18, 2022 by jccarlton

That racist bastard General of The Confederacy, Nathan Bedford Forrest once said that winning means getting there the fastest with the mostest. In order to do that, an army on campaign needs to be concerned about the condition of its supply. That is, military professionals talk about logistics. The recent war in Ukraine is a perfect example. It looks as if the Russian Army has lost and that the main reason they have lost is logistics and a lack of these:

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-3445/Pallets/New-Wood-Pallet-36-x-36

Roe v Wade in Context

Posted on May 16, 2022 by jccarlton

The draft opinion for the overturning of Roe vs Wade has hit then new and much screaming has ensued from certain parties who are rather upset that unlimited baby killing may become illlegal again. I thought that I would take a look at the thing and see if I can find some gems in the mud.

A History of The American Diner.

Posted on December 13, 2018 by jccarlton

I was looking for a plan of an old fashioned railroad car diner so that I could make a 3D model for cover art an I found a lot more than I was looking for.
This picture from Flikr shows what I was looking for.

This old diner is in much better shape than the two I found in town.
This is my local diner.
http://oremsdiner.com
There are a lot of diners around and they are great way to get a nice meal that isn’t too fancy.
https://www.dinerville.info/
Read More

Still More Stuff I found On The Web

Posted on December 11, 2018 by jccarlton

This is still more things that I have found on the web looking for research on the mermaid thing. Today we have some Dime novel pages, a book written in the nineteenth century that takes place in gaslight New York and the usual videos.

Another Post On The Sherman Tank

Posted on September 16, 2018 by jccarlton

Recently the debate started again on the Sherman tank and the ‘Ronson(German)’ or ‘deathtrap(US?)’ smear that has gone on apparently since the war about the deficiencies of the M4 medium tank. When the smear started is a bit of a mystery, but I’ve seen the smear go right back to when American tanks started to appear in combat in 1942. The defining theme about the US Army was that the Ordnance Dept. Army Ground Forces or Armored Force leadership and all the people in American tank development were idiots for not anticipating the big German cats in France in 1944 and that got a lot of American GI’s killed. I discussed some of that in a previous post here.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/was-the-us-army-really-stupid-during-ww2/
Here’s a typical example of the smear.
https://ss.sites.mtu.edu/mhugl/2016/10/18/m4-sherman-tank/
And another same old, same old.
https://ihffilm.com/allied-sherman-tank-pt-1-blunder-or-wonder-weapon-essay-by-blaine-taylor.html
https://ihffilm.com/sherman-tank-pt-2-improvements-d-day-v-e-day-1944-45-essay-by-blaine-taylor.html
Another one.

For the record, most tanks in WW2 were not Diesel powered, because in WW2 Diesel engine technology was not up to producing compact powerful engines that would fit in tanks. See below for videos of German tanks that killed their crews.
In any case the same things keep getting repeated, over and over again, and like the diesel-gasoline engine issue the people that parrot the same crap over and over can’t be bothered to get it right.

Perhaps the most notorious book about the incompetence of the US Army is Death Traps by Belton Cooper.

Art Of The Week: Tom Lea

Posted on April 21, 2018 by jccarlton

A few weeks ago I saw the Darkest Hour, the film about Winston Churchill and just how easy it would have been for Britain to just give up. One of the books that I have in my library is an abridged history of WW2 from Time Life books that has been in the family since the late 1960’s. In addition to Churchill’s text, the book has photo and art sections including some paintings from the Pacific theatre done by a man named Tom Lea. The pictures are stark in their images of the weariness and horrors of war and in showing the determination of the people involved in the war to get the job done regardless of the cost. The cost was high, as this famous picture shows.