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Mohaka Viaduct
The Mohaka Viaduct is a railway viaduct spanning the Mohaka River in northern Hawke’s Bay, on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, near the small settlement of Raupunga. It was built between 1930 and 1937 by the Public Works Department (PWD) for the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). It is in length, and at , is the tallest viaduct in Australasia. Background Construction of the railway line from Palmerston North to Gisborne line began in 1872, connecting Palmerston North with Napier in 1891. The northern portion from Napier to Wairoa, and then to Gisborne followed much later, being built between 1912 and 1942. The section of line between Napier and Wairoa passed through difficult country, requiring heavy earthworks, five tunnels, five high steel viaducts to cross deep gorges, and numerous other bridges. Progress was slow, with portions of the line being progressively opened as sections were completed and handed over to the Railways Department. Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palmerston North–Gisborne Line
The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where it meets the Wairarapa Line, and then proceeds to Hastings and Napier in Hawke's Bay before following the coast north to Gisborne. Construction began in 1872, but the entire line was not completed until 1942. The line crosses the runway of Gisborne Airport, one of the world's only railways to do so since Pakistan's Khyber Pass Railway closed. In conjunction with the Moutohora Branch that ran north from Gisborne between 1900 and 1959, the line was originally intended to connect to the East Coast Main Trunk, described in 1875 as the North Island trunk line, but the difficult inland section between the Tāneatua Branch in the Bay of Plenty and the Moutohora Branch was never completed. The line has been freight only since October 2001, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gisborne, New Zealand
Gisborne ( mi, Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa "Great standing place of Kiwa") is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District (or Gisborne Region). It has a population of The district council has its headquarters in Whataupoko, in the central city. The settlement was originally known as Turanga and renamed Gisborne in 1870 in honour of New Zealand Colonial Secretary William Gisborne. Early history First arrivals The Gisborne region has been settled for over 700 years. For centuries the region has been inhabited by the tribes of Te Whanau-a-Kai, Ngaariki Kaiputahi, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. Their people descend from the voyagers of the Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru, Horouta and Tākitimu waka. East Coast oral traditions offer differing versions of Gisborne's establishment by Māori. One legend recounts that in the 1300s, the great navigator Kiwa landed at the Turanganui River first on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trestle Support
In structural engineering, a trestle support (or simply trestle) is a structural element with rigid beams forming the equal sides of two parallel isosceles triangles, joined at their apices by a plank or beam. Sometimes additional rungs are stretched between the two beams. A pair of trestle legs can support one or several boards or planks, forming a trestle table or trestle desk. A network of trestle supports can serve as the framework for a trestle bridge, and a trestle of appropriate size to hold wood for sawing is known as a sawhorse. Trestle table A trestle table is a table with trestle legs. In shape and manufacture, it sometimes resembles variations of the antique field desk, which were used by officers close to the battlefield. Trestle legs come in two kinds: *Fixed trestle legs, where the angle between the legs is a fixed joint. *Folding trestle legs, where the angle is hinged, to make them more compact and portable. In the United States, a table or desk su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched or drilled hole, and the tail is ''upset'', or ''bucked'' (i.e., deformed), so that it expands to about 1.5 times the original shaft diameter, holding the rivet in place. In other words, the pounding or pulling creates a new "head" on the tail end by smashing the "tail" material flatter, resulting in a rivet that is roughly a dumbbell shape. To distinguish between the two ends of the rivet, the original head is called the ''factory head'' and the deformed end is called the ''shop head'' or buck-tail. Because there is effectively a head on each end of an installed rivet, it can support tension loads. However, it is much more capable of supporting shear loads (loads perpendicular to the axis of the shaft). Fastenings used in traditional w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tauranga
Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by Europeans in the early 19th century, and was constituted as a city in 1963. The city lies in the north-western corner of the Bay of Plenty, on the south-eastern edge of Tauranga Harbour. The city extends over an area of , and encompasses the communities of Bethlehem, on the south-western outskirts of the city; Greerton, on the southern outskirts of the city; Matua, west of the central city overlooking Tauranga Harbour; Maungatapu; Mount Maunganui, located north of the central city across the harbour facing the Bay of Plenty; Otūmoetai; Papamoa, Tauranga's largest suburb, located on the Bay of Plenty; Tauranga City; Tauranga South; and Welcome Bay. Tauranga is one of New Zealand's main centres for business, international trade, cult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Maunganui
Mount Maunganui (, ) is a major residential, commercial and industrial suburb of the Tauranga metropolitan area, located on a peninsula to the north-east of Tauranga's city centre. It was an independent town from Tauranga until the completion of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge in 1988, which connects Mount Maunganui to Tauranga's central business district. Mount Maunganui is also the name of the large lava dome which was formed by the upwelling of rhyolite lava about two to three million years ago. It is officially known by its Māori name ''Mauao'', but is colloquially known in New Zealand simply as ''The Mount''. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "large mountain" for ''Maunganui''. Geography Mount Maunganui is located atop a sand bar that connects Mauao to the mainland, a geographical formation known as a tombolo. Because of this formation, the residents of Mount Maunganui have both a harbour beach (Pilot Bay) and an ocean beach wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mild Steel
Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, or any other element to be added to obtain a desired alloying effect; * the specified minimum for copper does not exceed 0.40%; * or the maximum content specified for any of the following elements does not exceed the percentages noted: manganese 1.65%; silicon 0.60%; copper 0.60%. The term ''carbon steel'' may also be used in reference to steel which is not stainless steel; in this use carbon steel may include alloy steels. High carbon steel has many different uses such as milling machines, cutting tools (such as chisels) and high strength wires. These applications require a much finer microstructure, which improves the toughness. Carbon steel is a popular metal cho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meccano
Meccano is a brand of model construction system created in 1898 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England. The system consists of reusable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, and plastic parts that are connected using nuts and bolts. It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices. In 1913, a very similar construction set was introduced in the United States under the brand name Erector. In 2000, Meccano bought the Erector brand and unified its presence on all continents. In 2013, the Meccano brand was acquired by the Canadian toy company Spin Master. Meccano maintains a manufacturing facility in Calais, France. History First sets In 1901 Frank Hornby, a clerk from Liverpool, England, invented and patented a new toy called "Mechanics Made Easy" that was based on the principles of mechanical engineering. It was a model construction kit consisting of perforated metal strips, plates and girders, with wheels, pulleys, gears, shaft collars an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Semple
Robert Semple (21 October 1873 – 31 January 1955) was a union leader and later Minister of Public Works for the first Labour Government of New Zealand. He is also known for creating the Bob Semple tank. Early life He was born in Sofala, New South Wales, Australia. He started working at an early age as gold miner in Australia. In 1903 he was involved in a miner's strike in Victoria, Australia. The strike was defeated and Semple ended up being blacklisted. To avoid the blacklist Semple moved to the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. By 1907 he was president of the Runanga Miner's Union and earned himself nickname 'Fighting Bob Semple'. He was jailed in 1913 for supporting the general strike and again in 1916 after fighting conscription for overseas service during World War I. Semple served as the President of the Labour Party from 1926 to 1928. Semple was a member of the Wellington City Council for a decade between 1925 and 1935. In 1935 he unsuccessf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake
Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. * January 25 – Mohandas Gandhi is again released from imprisonment in India. * January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France. February * February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. * February 10 – Offic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion began around September and led to the Wall Street stock market crash of October 24 (Black Thursday). It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. Devastating effects were seen in both rich and poor countries with falling personal income, prices, tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1929 Stock Market Crash
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. It was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its aftereffects. The Great Crash is mostly associated with October 24, 1929, called ''Black Thursday'', the day of the largest sell-off of shares in U.S. history, and October 29, 1929, called ''Black Tuesday'', when investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchange's crash of September, signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. Background The "Roaring Twenties", the decade following World War I that led to the crash, was a time of wealth and excess. Building on post-war optimism, rural Amer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
