Stamps of the Day: Classic cars ('Bilar')

A First-Day-Cover (FDC) from the Swedish Postal Service in 1997, featuring stamps with classic car brands.  Here you have SAAB (of course, with Carlsson's Monte Carlo rally car), an E-type Jaguar in classic green, Chevrolet's Bel-Air, a very French Citroen, a Volvo Duett - 'the car that is two', and finally Porsche...  Nice old shapes... Enjoy!

This morning I read in the local newspaper that someone had stolen a $80,000 Porsche in our town.  It was parked in a driveway and the owner was home, but someone drove off with it, without the owner noticing anything...

Old stamps

When I recently was back in Sweden, I picked up my old stamp collection, which also includes stamps collected by my grandfathers and my uncle.  For decades these have been laying in a box, unseen, and now they are back in the light, here in NJ.  Here is just a little preview of some Swedish stamps that were laying loose in one of many envelopes. 

And a closeup, a stamp of J O Wallin - no idea who that was, I have to find out, but it looks like he had something to do with psalms in the church.

Included in the collection are many stamps from the 30s and 40s, such as German stamps with Hitler.  They are not worth much, apparently Hitler swamped the country with images of himself.  But among the thousands of stamps from all over the world that now are in my possession again, I am sure there will be some interesting ones to feature here on the blog.

Stamp of the Day: Franz Marc, painter

I still remember the first time I saw a painting by Franz Marc.  It was at the Chicago Institute of Art. I rounded a corner in a room, and there it was, unassuming, kind of hiding among the other paintings in the modern wing, and it captured me. It was like finding a perfectly polished piece of glass on a sandy beach, you hold it, look at it, and can go into it, mentally, drowning and dreaming and thinking all the way.  I remember just standing there, loving it.  It wasn't this painting, but this one is great too.  Unfortunately he died very young, and this German stamp commemorates his life and art.

Stamp of the day: piston, flywheel, and cylinder

Germany has some really nicely designed stamps, clean and simple.  Here is an engine piston (I think).  Maybe PP can interpret it better?  Looks like a flywheel with gears and a cylinder with a piston inside.  I am not sure if this is from a steam engine, gas engine, or what...

UPDATE: Our friend BV just sent me this, which explains the stamp in detail (thanks!!!!):

If PP hasn't let you know, the engine pictured on the stamp is a Otto
Langen Free Piston Atmospheric Engine, circa 1867.

A small flame, like a pilot light on a stove was at the base of the cylinder.
I do not know the starting procedure, but as the engine was running, if
the wheel started to slow down, a gas, like natural or coal gas, was
admitted into the bottom of the cylinder, and a little trap door would
open next to the base.  The flame would be drawn into the base, igniting
the gas, and drive the piston upward.  This would push the vertical rack
gear attached to the piston and engage the gear on the flywheel shaft,
increasing the speed of the wheel. The inertial energy would be stored in
the rotating wheel, which drove a load attached to it.  As the flywheel
slowed down to a certain speed, a governing mechanism would start the
process over again to keep the engine running until the fuel supply was
removed.

You can see one at the Rough & Tumble Museum at Kinzer, PA.
It is run for exhibition days.

Stamp pf the Day: Prevent forest fires

Nice stamp from Germany about preventing forest fires. I love the black stems against the red sky, and doesn't it remind you of pictures of hell?  The fire risk in NJ is down after some much-needed rain, finally.  Maybe my tomatoes will survive this summer too.  We have probably about 100 Roma tomatoes that are still green, and I need them to get red to make tomato sauce for the fall. 

Stamp of the Day: Antique microscopes

These microscopes would be something to have on your lab bench, desk, or workshop bench! The stamps are from old East Germany (DDR), which I think was home to Leica and other famous optical companies. Three of the pictures microscopes are by Carl Zeiss, from Jena, Germany. The fourth one is French. Can you guess which one is the French one? Just find the one that is not practical to clean, just fancy!

Zeiss is of course still in business, both for fantastic binoculars and microscopes.

Now you can go over and admire the Micropolitan Museum (posted below), and imagining exploring a drop of pond water 200 years ago with these instruments. Imagine the first person that saw something moving in the 'clean' water!