Aptonym

An aptonym is the term used for “people whose names and occupations or situations have a close correspondence.”


This aptonym was seen last Sunday on a country drive.

The Golfer's Gun.

Here is an interesting story of a recent acquisition. Found in a set of golf clubs at an estate sale was this club head sock, and inside was a .38 revolver. A little cleaning and some research left me with questions. A post to the Firearms Forum provided answers. (The Firearms Forum post has been edited a little to shorten it, the full post can be seen here: http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=88178 .)

The photos referred to at picasa web, are included in this blog post.

CapBuster Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1

H&R Hammerless .38 with low serial number. I am looking for help in identifying the model and manufacture date of an H&R hammerless 5 shot top break in 38 S&W caliber. Markings on top of the barrel rib are difficult to read through the nickel plating, but appear to be "HARRINGTON & RICHARDSON ARMS COMPANY WORCESTER MASS. USA". The second line reads "PAT. OCT. 4, '87 MAY 14 & AUG. 6 '89, APRIL 2, '95, APRIL 7, 1896". This revolver has a two digit serial number and no letter code. There is nothing on the left side of the barrel so I am assuming it was made prior to 1904. Good rifling, mother of pearl grips, very good condition mechanically. The nickel plate finish is in in fair condition with rusted areas with no plating left. There is an album of photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1030431...son38Topbreak# Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me.

H&R Hammerless .38 topbreak revolver. This handgun was found in a golf club sock in a golf bag at an estate sale. Other indications at the sale showed a pretty talented golfer who gave up the game in the early '60's. Pretty good condition for having been 'lost' for 50 years.

The mother-of-pearl grip on this side has a natural flaw where the shell was a tiny bit shy of the dimension required. The nickel plate is in better condition than most of my other old revolvers.

This is where the serial number should be. This is the first two digit number I have seen, especially considering a production run in the hundreds of thousands. Usually H&R serial numbers included letters.

I have read that this location under the top strap should have the entire serial number also. Again, just the two digits.

The same two digit number is prominent on the extractor 'star', and can be seen on the cylinder also at about the 4 o'clock position.

The button ahead of the sight screw is the cylinder release for removing the cylinder for cleaning.

Re: H&R Hammerless .38 with low serial number. CapBuster, Welcome to the forum. Very interesting story about that golfer and his bag. Anyway... From your description and the excellent pictures (which show everything we need for IDing a firearm, BTW): You have an H&R "HAMMERLESS - Large Frame", 1st Model, made 1899-1904. It is the first variation of this model and made to handle black powder loadings. It is chambered for the .38 S&W cartridge (not .38 S&W SPECIAL.) With a 2 digit serial number (21 under top strap is "official" s/n location), I would GUESS probably 1st week of production in 1899. It appears to have had a Nickel plated finish. Current condition appears to be around 50 to 60% which puts it in the GOOD- to FAIR+ range: this would put it's RETAIL value at around $95 to $110, assuming mechanically it does everything it is supposed to do. Mother-of-Pearl grips were factory optional - if you carefully remove the grip panels and find the serial number written on the back sides (usually in pencil), it confirms factory hand fitting. Hope this helps and nice FIND. Jim Hauff ~ H&R Collector In Memory of Bill Goforth

So, there it is. A nice condition old H&R with an interesting story associated with it, and the 21st one off the production line in 1899. A not very valuable, but a very rewarding addition to my modest collection.

Things I Won't Work With!

An interesting article from a chemist with a very amusing writing style:
Link to the complete article here;
Things I Won't Work With!

Things I Won't Work With: Nitrotetrazole Oxides
Posted by Derek
Tetrazole derivatives have featured several times here in "Things I Won't Work With", which might give you the impression that they're invariably explosive. Not so - most of them are perfectly reasonable things. A tetrazole-for-carboxyl switch is one of the standard med-chem tricks, standard enough to have appeared in several marketed drugs. And that should be recommendation enough, since the FDA takes a dim view of exploding pharmaceuticals (nitroglycerine notwithstanding; that one was grandfathered in). No, tetrazoles are good citizens. Most of the time.

It's when they get put in with the wrong sort of company that they turn delinquent. What with four nitrogens in the ring and only one carbon, they do have a family history of possible trouble - several sections of this blog category could just as accurately be called Things That Suddenly Want To Turn Back Into Elemental Nitrogen. And thermodynamically, there aren't many gently sloping paths down to nitrogen gas, unfortunately. Both enthalpy and entropy tilt things pretty sharply. A molecule may be tamed because it just can't find a way down the big slide, but if it can, well, it's time to put on the armor, insert the earplugs, and get ready to watch the free energy equation do its thing right in front of your eyes. Your heavily shielded eyes, that is, if you have any sense at all.

Nitro groups are just the kind of bad company I mean, since they both bring their own oxygens to the party and pull electrons around in delightfully destabilizing ways. So nitrotetrazole is already not something I'd feel good about handling (its metal salts are primary explosives), but today's paper goes a step further and makes an N-oxide out of a nitrogen on a nitrotetrazole ring. This both adds more oxygen and tends to make the crystal packing tighter, which raises the all-important kapow/gram ratio. (There is, of course, little reason to do this unless you feel that life is empty without sudden loud noises). The paper mentions that "Introducing N-oxides onto the tetrazole ring may . . . push the limits of well-explored tetrazole chemistry into a new, unexplored, dimension.", but (of more immediate importance) it may also push pieces of your lab equipment into unexplored parts of the far wall.

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BT13, Post WW2 surplus aircraft buy.

Some guys go to Luke Field, Arizona, to buy some BT13's in 1946. These negatives were in an envelope bought at an estate sale. Some have a date written on the end of the negative.
More photos here: More BT13 Photos

Panoramic of Crater Lake

Panorama of 4 photos combined with PSE8, taken June 29th, 2010.