A photograph tells a thousand words

This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

A. Provenance of the photograph

1. Shutter speeds in 1893 were not fast enough to freeze these five
young ladies riding over the rise even if they were the German
Synchronized Cycling Team practising for the first Olympics... So how
the devil were they held up for as many seconds at it took to expose
the film?

2. There is a difference in sharpness between the ladies and the
background. I think the ladies were photographed in a studio, the
forest was photographed in the forest, and the print made by
composition in the enlarger, which is what people did in the days
before Photoshop.

B. Wheels and tyres

1. Can we tell which of those tyres are pneumatic and which solid?

2. Are the tyres under Albt Minor balloons, i.e. fat pmeumatics like
modern-day Big Apples, or are they really fat solid rubber tyres?

3. Several, possibly all, of those rims seem to be of different
diameters. Don't tell me wheels and tyres were an even more irrational
mess back then than now.

We can also make some observations:

C. Some observations

1. Cyclists were as conformist in the beginning as now. The ladies
wearing the same dress, belt and pickelhaube.

2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).

3. Cyclists were as exclusionary then as now. The uniform of their
club, the Grazer Damen-Bicycle-Club was specifically designed to
exclude fat girls merely wanting some exercise; it was a club for
smart people who wanted to look fashionable on their velos. (Reminds
me of a bike shop owner I heard brag that he belongs to six different
expensive gymnasia. When some customer asked him if he should join, he
was told, "You'd better lose some weight first, or they won't let you
in.")

4. Lookalike cyclists aren't an invention of the lycra age. The
photograph is dated very specifically 26 March 1893.

5. Look at their faces. They're not only as uniformly grim as modern
roadies, they look as much alike as hillbilly women from the most
incestuous valley in the Appalachians. They're all from the same class
and background. There was a time when cyclists were all thin-faced
whippets from the underfed working classes. Now they're almost always
soggy-soft types from the lower middle through the professional middle
classes (office workers to engineers).

6. All the same, and this is surprising, it appears even to my
untutored eye, and Carl can confirm or contradict this, that their
bikes are more varied than in any peloton I can meet on the roads
hereabouts.

7. There is nothing new under the sun. Our contemporary greens think
they invented the worship of nature. That's at best ignorance and at
worst stupid arrogance. Those Germans ladies are posed "in the
Nature" (note the definitive article, directly translated from the
German phrase still in use for being outdoors) as a policy statement.
They were in the vanguard of two whole generations of nature-
worshippers.

What a wonderfully rich photograph. Thanks to Carl Fogel for providing
the reference.

Andre Jute
Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html

On May 6, 12:00*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

A. Provenance of the photograph

1. Shutter speeds in 1893 were not fast enough to freeze these five
young ladies riding over the rise even if they were the German
Synchronized Cycling Team practising for the first Olympics... So how
the devil were they held up for as many seconds at it took to expose
the film?

2. There is a difference in sharpness between the ladies and the
background. I think the ladies were photographed in a studio, the
forest was photographed in the forest, and the print made by
composition in the enlarger, which is what people did in the days
before Photoshop.

B. Wheels and tyres

1. Can we tell which of those tyres are pneumatic and which solid?

2. Are the tyres under Albt Minor balloons, i.e. fat pmeumatics like
modern-day Big Apples, or are they really fat solid rubber tyres?

3. Several, possibly all, of those rims seem to be of different
diameters. Don't tell me wheels and tyres were an even more irrational
mess back then than now.

We can also make some observations:

C. Some observations

1. Cyclists were as conformist in the beginning as now. The ladies
wearing the same dress, belt and pickelhaube.

2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).

3. Cyclists were as exclusionary then as now. *The uniform of their
club, the Grazer Damen-Bicycle-Club was specifically designed to
exclude fat girls merely wanting some exercise; it was a club for
smart people who wanted to look fashionable on their velos. (Reminds
me of a bike shop owner I heard brag that he belongs to six different
expensive gymnasia. When some customer asked him if he should join, he
was told, "You'd better lose some weight first, or they won't let you
in.")

4. Lookalike cyclists aren't an invention of the lycra age. The
photograph is dated very specifically 26 March 1893.

5. Look at their faces. They're not only as uniformly grim as modern
roadies, they look as much alike as hillbilly women from the most
incestuous valley in the Appalachians. They're all from the same class
and background. There was a time when cyclists were all thin-faced
whippets from the underfed working classes. Now they're almost always
soggy-soft types from the lower middle through the professional middle
classes (office workers to engineers).

6. All the same, and this is surprising, it appears even to my
untutored eye, and Carl can confirm or contradict this, that their
bikes are more varied than in any peloton I can meet on the roads
hereabouts.

7. There is nothing new under the sun. Our contemporary greens think
they invented the worship of nature. That's at best ignorance and at
worst stupid arrogance. Those Germans ladies are posed "in the
Nature" (note the definitive article, directly translated from the
German phrase still in use for being outdoors) as a policy statement.
They were in the vanguard of two whole generations of nature-
worshippers.

What a wonderfully rich photograph. Thanks to Carl Fogel for providing
the reference.

Andre Jute
*Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html

Which photograph? There's nothing linked nor attached to this message.

On May 7, 12:01*am, Hank Wirtz wrote:
On May 6, 12:00*pm, Andre Jute wrote:



This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

A. Provenance of the photograph

1. Shutter speeds in 1893 were not fast enough to freeze these five
young ladies riding over the rise even if they were the German
Synchronized Cycling Team practising for the first Olympics... So how
the devil were they held up for as many seconds at it took to expose
the film?

2. There is a difference in sharpness between the ladies and the
background. I think the ladies were photographed in a studio, the
forest was photographed in the forest, and the print made by
composition in the enlarger, which is what people did in the days
before Photoshop.

B. Wheels and tyres

1. Can we tell which of those tyres are pneumatic and which solid?

2. Are the tyres under Albt Minor balloons, i.e. fat pmeumatics like
modern-day Big Apples, or are they really fat solid rubber tyres?

3. Several, possibly all, of those rims seem to be of different
diameters. Don't tell me wheels and tyres were an even more irrational
mess back then than now.

We can also make some observations:

C. Some observations

1. Cyclists were as conformist in the beginning as now. The ladies
wearing the same dress, belt and pickelhaube.

2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).

3. Cyclists were as exclusionary then as now. *The uniform of their
club, the Grazer Damen-Bicycle-Club was specifically designed to
exclude fat girls merely wanting some exercise; it was a club for
smart people who wanted to look fashionable on their velos. (Reminds
me of a bike shop owner I heard brag that he belongs to six different
expensive gymnasia. When some customer asked him if he should join, he
was told, "You'd better lose some weight first, or they won't let you
in.")

4. Lookalike cyclists aren't an invention of the lycra age. The
photograph is dated very specifically 26 March 1893.

5. Look at their faces. They're not only as uniformly grim as modern
roadies, they look as much alike as hillbilly women from the most
incestuous valley in the Appalachians. They're all from the same class
and background. There was a time when cyclists were all thin-faced
whippets from the underfed working classes. Now they're almost always
soggy-soft types from the lower middle through the professional middle
classes (office workers to engineers).

6. All the same, and this is surprising, it appears even to my
untutored eye, and Carl can confirm or contradict this, that their
bikes are more varied than in any peloton I can meet on the roads
hereabouts.

7. There is nothing new under the sun. Our contemporary greens think
they invented the worship of nature. That's at best ignorance and at
worst stupid arrogance. Those Germans ladies are posed "in the
Nature" (note the definitive article, directly translated from the
German phrase still in use for being outdoors) as a policy statement.
They were in the vanguard of two whole generations of nature-
worshippers.

What a wonderfully rich photograph. Thanks to Carl Fogel for providing
the reference.

Andre Jute
*Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html

Which photograph? There's nothing linked nor attached to this message.

Sorreee!

http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

On May 6, 8:00*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

A. Provenance of the photograph

1. Shutter speeds in 1893 were not fast enough to freeze these five
young ladies riding over the rise even if they were the German
Synchronized Cycling Team practising for the first Olympics... So how
the devil were they held up for as many seconds at it took to expose
the film?

2. There is a difference in sharpness between the ladies and the
background. I think the ladies were photographed in a studio, the
forest was photographed in the forest, and the print made by
composition in the enlarger, which is what people did in the days
before Photoshop.

B. Wheels and tyres

1. Can we tell which of those tyres are pneumatic and which solid?

2. Are the tyres under Albt Minor balloons, i.e. fat pmeumatics like
modern-day Big Apples, or are they really fat solid rubber tyres?

3. Several, possibly all, of those rims seem to be of different
diameters. Don't tell me wheels and tyres were an even more irrational
mess back then than now.

We can also make some observations:

C. Some observations

1. Cyclists were as conformist in the beginning as now. The ladies
wearing the same dress, belt and pickelhaube.

2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).

3. Cyclists were as exclusionary then as now. *The uniform of their
club, the Grazer Damen-Bicycle-Club was specifically designed to
exclude fat girls merely wanting some exercise; it was a club for
smart people who wanted to look fashionable on their velos. (Reminds
me of a bike shop owner I heard brag that he belongs to six different
expensive gymnasia. When some customer asked him if he should join, he
was told, "You'd better lose some weight first, or they won't let you
in.")

4. Lookalike cyclists aren't an invention of the lycra age. The
photograph is dated very specifically 26 March 1893.

5. Look at their faces. They're not only as uniformly grim as modern
roadies, they look as much alike as hillbilly women from the most
incestuous valley in the Appalachians. They're all from the same class
and background. There was a time when cyclists were all thin-faced
whippets from the underfed working classes. Now they're almost always
soggy-soft types from the lower middle through the professional middle
classes (office workers to engineers).

6. All the same, and this is surprising, it appears even to my
untutored eye, and Carl can confirm or contradict this, that their
bikes are more varied than in any peloton I can meet on the roads
hereabouts.

7. There is nothing new under the sun. Our contemporary greens think
they invented the worship of nature. That's at best ignorance and at
worst stupid arrogance. Those Germans ladies are posed "in the
Nature" (note the definitive article, directly translated from the
German phrase still in use for being outdoors) as a policy statement.
They were in the vanguard of two whole generations of nature-
worshippers.

What a wonderfully rich photograph. Thanks to Carl Fogel for providing
the reference.

Andre Jute
*Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html

The photograph referred to, unfortunately missing from the OP, is at:
http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

What I notice in the photograph is that all the riders have contact with
each other at the handlebars. I suspect that they are supporting each
other. The one who isn't getting support from the rider on her right haqsw
her left hand at the edge of the picture--she could be getting support from
outside the shot.

On Wed, 6 May 2009 16:26:59 -0700 (PDT), Andre Jute wrote:

On May 6, 8:00*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

A. Provenance of the photograph

1. Shutter speeds in 1893 were not fast enough to freeze these five
young ladies riding over the rise even if they were the German
Synchronized Cycling Team practising for the first Olympics... So how
the devil were they held up for as many seconds at it took to expose
the film?

2. There is a difference in sharpness between the ladies and the
background. I think the ladies were photographed in a studio, the
forest was photographed in the forest, and the print made by
composition in the enlarger, which is what people did in the days
before Photoshop.

B. Wheels and tyres

1. Can we tell which of those tyres are pneumatic and which solid?

2. Are the tyres under Albt Minor balloons, i.e. fat pmeumatics like
modern-day Big Apples, or are they really fat solid rubber tyres?

3. Several, possibly all, of those rims seem to be of different
diameters. Don't tell me wheels and tyres were an even more irrational
mess back then than now.

We can also make some observations:

C. Some observations

1. Cyclists were as conformist in the beginning as now. The ladies
wearing the same dress, belt and pickelhaube.

2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).

3. Cyclists were as exclusionary then as now. *The uniform of their
club, the Grazer Damen-Bicycle-Club was specifically designed to
exclude fat girls merely wanting some exercise; it was a club for
smart people who wanted to look fashionable on their velos. (Reminds
me of a bike shop owner I heard brag that he belongs to six different
expensive gymnasia. When some customer asked him if he should join, he
was told, "You'd better lose some weight first, or they won't let you
in.")

4. Lookalike cyclists aren't an invention of the lycra age. The
photograph is dated very specifically 26 March 1893.

5. Look at their faces. They're not only as uniformly grim as modern
roadies, they look as much alike as hillbilly women from the most
incestuous valley in the Appalachians. They're all from the same class
and background. There was a time when cyclists were all thin-faced
whippets from the underfed working classes. Now they're almost always
soggy-soft types from the lower middle through the professional middle
classes (office workers to engineers).

6. All the same, and this is surprising, it appears even to my
untutored eye, and Carl can confirm or contradict this, that their
bikes are more varied than in any peloton I can meet on the roads
hereabouts.

7. There is nothing new under the sun. Our contemporary greens think
they invented the worship of nature. That's at best ignorance and at
worst stupid arrogance. Those Germans ladies are posed "in the
Nature" (note the definitive article, directly translated from the
German phrase still in use for being outdoors) as a policy statement.
They were in the vanguard of two whole generations of nature-
worshippers.

What a wonderfully rich photograph. Thanks to Carl Fogel for providing
the reference.

Andre Jute
*Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html

The photograph referred to, unfortunately missing from the OP, is at:
http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

Check out the knobs on that saucy wench second from the right.

Andre Jute wrote:
This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

...
2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).
...
Andre Jute
Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html



Uh Graz is in Austria, where of course the situation is hopeless but not
serious.

Mike

On May 7, 3:03*am, Mike McGuire wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
This photograph raises more questions than it answers.

...
2. Germany really was a milaristic state. The pickehaube was Kaiser
Willie's fave hat, and those dresses and belts are styled to resemble
military wear (and looks better on the women than it did on men!).
...
Andre Jute
*Visit Andre's Gazelle Toulouse at
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Bauhaus.html

Uh Graz is in Austria, where of course the situation is hopeless but not
serious.

That too. -- AJ

On May 7, 1:29*am, "Leo Lichtman" wrote:
What I notice in the photograph is that all the riders have contact with
each other at the handlebars. *I suspect that they are supporting each
other. *The one who isn't getting support from the rider on her right haqsw
her left hand at the edge of the picture--she could be getting support from
outside the shot.

No wonder they're not smiling. They're concentrating on staying
upright. I wonder if anyone knows how long a studio exposure was in
1893. Thirty seconds, perhaps, a long time to hold a pose even if
you're not trying to do something else at the same time. -- Andre Jute

On May 6, 9:12*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
On May 7, 1:29*am, "Leo Lichtman" wrote:

What I notice in the photograph is that all the riders have contact with
each other at the handlebars. *I suspect that they are supporting each
other. *The one who isn't getting support from the rider on her right haqsw
her left hand at the edge of the picture--she could be getting support from
outside the shot.

No wonder they're not smiling. They're concentrating on staying
upright. I wonder if anyone knows how long a studio exposure was in
1893. Thirty seconds, perhaps, a long time to hold a pose even if
you're not trying to do something else at the same time. -- Andre Jute

My photo history is pretty sketchy these days but I don't think anyone
was using thirty second exposures for this kind of studio shot in the
late 1800s. I seem to think Brady's Civil War era work (1865) might
have needed thirty seconds in daylight but I don't know why I think
that. Photography advanced pretty fast. I can't imagine thirty years
later one still needed on the order of thirty seconds for an exposure.
Didn't they have flash powder by then? Post first, then google.

tf