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A Proposed Solution for Traffic Congestion, Los Angeles, 1939 (Suspended Roadways and Monorails) RARE

A Proposed Solution for Traffic Congestion, Los Angeles, 1939

Suspended Roadways and Monorails

DAVINO, Alphonso (1888-1965?). A Brief analysis of the Traffic Congestion Problem and its Economical Solution. Self-published, Los Angeles, 1939. 11”x 8.5”, 8 leaves, four folding plates (two graphic displays, one map, one display of the suspended thoroughfares, the last two printed on heavy blueprint stock. Rare. No copies located in WorldCat. $4500

Provenance: Library of Congress (with their surplus stamp on title page).

Condition: contemporary store-bought manila document holder with flexible metal pins, title on paper pasted on cover. The blueprints are in excellent condition—there are no breaks at any of the folds, and the paper is quite heavy. The blueprints are also uniformly dark blue (the photo images I made of them make them appear a little variable though they are not—the light catches the various folds and distorts the color, and I just didn't want to force the prints flat to make a better picture. The blueprints are lovely.)

“Suspended rapid transit and elevated highway system for high-speed passenger service” is what Mr. Davino was suggesting here, all of which was of his own design. I can not find very much at all for Mr. Davino, though he is a patent holder for at least three associated designs/ideas dating from 1926 to 1950. [Semirigid Suspended Railway Structures, 1607875, (1923);Aerial Railway Apparatus patent 2234487 (1943); Suspended Rapid Transit System 2781001A (1950), (suspended vehicles with self-propelled vehicles).] I also found a reference to a suspended transportation system of some sort offered by him through his business “Aerial Apparatus” of Los Angeles (in the Mining Journal, vol 110, 6 November 1920, p 910).

Details of the large folding blueprint:

The folding plates:

1. “Graphic Time Schedule”. 17.5”x 24”. Shows difference in travel time car vs bus compared to NYC “rapid transit” for moving over the same distance, and then compared to the proposed Davino system.

2. Graphic Table Outlining Coats of Davino's Train System...” 11”x 15”.

3. Blueprint. Suggestive Tentative Plan of the Davino Suspended Rapid Transit nd Elevated Highway System. Lovely!

4. Blueprint. “Sketch Map of Los Angeles and Vicinity” showing the connections and possible routes of the Davino system. 11”x 15”.

Business Ledger for the "Wichita Advertiser" (Wichita Falls, Texas), 1938-1940

Ledger from the advertising department of the Wichita Advertiser newspaper, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1938-1940. 8”x 10” (x 3” thick), approximately 270pp, much more than half with entries, featuring 75+ business in Wichita Falls. Bound in very heavy corduroy boards with leather edges and cover label, in a heavy spring-loaded metal spine. Very Good condition. $500

This seems to indicate the size of an ad, the date, and the cost, all written in a neat hand. The business name appears on upper right for each entry, virtually all with an address.

Some of the names of businesses include: Texan Theater (Indiana Street), August's Pie Shop, Reiss Radio, Orvel Beauty, Artistic Beauty Shop, Bowen Motor Coach, Cain's Cosy Corner, Health Food Store, Ice Service Co., Brumley Funeral, Ray's Chick Hatchery, Modern Shoe Shop, Muller Furniture (606 Indiana where there is STILL a furniture store), Health Spot Shoe Store, The Famous, Burch Cafe, Brooks Grocery, and many others.

Note: this is a repurposed ledger for the Nicara Mining Company which seems to have been in Nevada—this has nothing to do with the Wichita Advertiser.

 

Cocaine, the Princess of Perdition (1939)

Elmer James Rollings, The Silent Horror. Published in Wichita, Kansas by the Defender Press, 1939. 8.5”x 5.5”, 45pp. Cover art plus four photos. Green wrappers. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus stamp on rear wrapper and a tiny “Pamphlet Collection” on front cover. The wrappers were originally a deep green but have faded around the edges. VG copy. ALSO: includes a carbon copy of the LC card catalog card!  Rare. NO COPIES located in WorldCat. $250

Rollings contributed at least four other narcotics-related works (“Your Girl or My Boy May be Next”. “Marijuana—the Weed of Woe”, “Junk, Junk Peddler and Junkers”, “Perils of the Poppy” and “I Saw Him Die”. There were a few other short works non-drug-related, including something on cowboy songs and also a book on bible prophesy.  

The major chapters deal with the shades of narcotics: Opium, the King of Dope; Crown Prince, Morphine; Cocaine, the Princess of Perdition; Marijuana, the Dutchess of Despair; the Dope Peddlers; and Addicts.
Here's an excerpt:
"An eighteen-year-old boy in a Midwestern city smoked two "reefers" and an hour later choked his sweetheart to death because she refused his shocking, lustful advances, born in a marijuana-crazed brain... A sixteen-year-old boy shot his mother and father to death with his father's shotgun after smoking several "Mary Anns" given to him by a new friend whose acquaintance he made by chance. He could neither explain nor remember the killing when the effects of the drug had worn off and sobbed himself into hysterical grief when told of his crime. And so, on and on, runs the record of thievery, forgery, banditry, kidnapping, brutal murder, degeneracy, and rape, all chargeable to this paralyzer of conscience and inflamer of depravity --- Marijuana! "

Here's a detail of one of the photos--this one has a caption stating that 60 addicts were picked up in 60 minutes, though Mr. Rollings declined to say where this all took place:

A Call to Sabotage and to Arms of French Youth by the Communist Party of France, 1944

FAJON, Etienne and Arthur Giovani, and others Jeunesse, Espoir du Pays. Published meeting of the French Communist “Assemblee Consultative”. Published in Algeria (?), 1944 (?) 6.5”x 4.5”, 36pp. Printed on newsprint. Original wrappers; crude but yet charming cloth repair to the spine.  Provenance: Library of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), via the Library of Congress, each of which has contributed a rubber stamp to the pamphlet. GOOD condition, only. $250  NO Copies located in WorldCat.

Well. Someone at the library of the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) labeled this “COMMUNISM—France-Propaganda”, which it is, though what it is first, I think, is a call to arms. And that clarion call is very directly aimed at the youth of France, which the Communist Party saw as being directly under attack by the Nazis.

The writers here established that “combat over slow death” was the approach to take, there in 1944.

Here's a selection of what they were talking about:

(Section header: Helping Youth to Fight)

“We all want to save the French youth that the enemy is trying to destroy. All that, there is only one way: to help young people in France to defend themselves against the enemy, to strike him, to hasten his defeat.”

“..the rations granted to the French, from January 1943, were equivalent to the death of one in five individuals. No fight could cost our young generation so dear.”

“Helping French youth to fight that means: Replace certain wait-and-see or stupid broadcasts on our radio with specific advice to young workers to organize the sabotage of enemy production and transport with minimum risk and maximum efficiency

“...develop the struggle of prisoners and deportees in Germany who are, in their vast majority, young people doomed to death. Our radio must give directives for escapes, for sabotage, for all forms of struggle • in enemy territory. Above all, to urgently send by all means, to young soldiers without uniform, small arms, ammunition, clothing, instructors.

“We are concerned with restoring, upon liberation, the compromised health of millions of children and adolescents in France. In our opinion, the Government will not be able to solve this problem...”

“We all want to save the French youth that the enemy is trying to destroy. All that, there is only one way: to help young people in France to defend themselves against the enemy, to strike him, to hasten his defeat.”

 

“..the rations granted to the French, from January 1943, were equivalent to the death of one in five individuals. No fight could cost our young generation so dear.”

 

“Helping French youth to fight that means: Replace certain wait-and-see or stupid broadcasts on our radio with specific advice to young workers to organize the sabotage of enemy production and transport with minimum risk and maximum efficiency

 

“...develop the struggle of prisoners and deportees in Germany who are, in their vast majority, young people doomed to death. Our radio must give directives for escapes, for sabotage, for all forms of struggle • in enemy territory. Above all, to urgently send by all means, to young soldiers without uniform, small arms, ammunition, clothing, instructors.

 

“We are concerned with restoring, upon liberation, the compromised health of millions of children and adolescents in France. In our opinion, the Government will not be able to solve this problem...”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rare Mimeographed Item on Japanese Constitutional History (1944)

Notes on the Constitutional Development of Japan.

Unknown publisher. Dated 7 June 1944. 13”x 8”, 7pp (4 leaves). Mimeographed.

Provenance: British Society for International Understanding (the possible publisher?); then received 11 June 1945 by the Library of Congress. Rubber stamps from those two institutions on front, plus a LC surplus rubber stamp on the rear blank.

GOOD copy, only. The staple holding this together is rusted and has degenerated the paper around it (see photo). There is also some edge wear on the leaf leaf.  $250

Scarcity: NO copies located in WorldCat.

Interesting note from page 6: “The Secret Societies and Fascist Bodies.  These are really only carrying on an old tradition, but perhaps the first of importance in modern times was the "Black Dragon"formed from extreme reactionary elements of the Sei yu-kai about 1925. It was probably responsible for the "Death Bands" which carried out a series of political assassinations from 1952 onwards. From them came the "Back-to-Asia-" ideology. They attracted fervent youth by their claim to stand for spiritual regeneration...”

Fantastic Work on IBM Processing Machines 1936

[IBM]   Machine Methods of Accounting. A Manual of the Basic Principles of Operation and Use of International Electric Bookkeeping and Accounting Machines. IBM, 1936-1940.  23 separately paginated sections, approximately 340pp, with illustrations throughout of machines and components, all gathered in a spring-loaded IBM binder of the same name.   A fine illustrated reconnaissance of the IBM company.   Fine condition, all 29 issues: $850

00. Foreword
01. Historical (in later editions, Development of International Business Machines Corporation (revised))
02. Principles of the Electronic Accounting Machine Method 
03. The Tabulating Card   3a. The Electric Accounting Machine Card. 
04. The Design of Tabulating Cards 
05. The Preparation and Use of Codes 
06. Organization and Supervision of the Tabulation Department
07. Selection and Training of Key Punch Operators
08. Accounting Control
09. Punches
10. Alphabetic Printing Punches 
11. Facts to Know about Key Punches 
12. Verifiers 
13. Gang Punches
14. Card Operated Sorting Machines 
15. Electric Tabulating Machines
16. Electric Accounting Machines (Type 285 and Type 297)
17. Alphabetic Direct Subtraction Accounting Machine
18. Interpreters   18a. Electric Punched Card Interpreter Type 552
19. Reproducing Punches (and supplement 19a)  AND Reproducing Punches Type 512.

20. Automatic Summary Punches (Type 285-297; 20a - Type 405)  AND:  Automatic Summary Punches, for Use with the Numerical Accounting Machines Type 285-297. 

21. Multiplying Punches

22. Applications of Machines to Accounting Functions
23. Other International Products

24. The International Automatic Carriage (Type 921)

[IBM]   Machine Methods of Accounting. A Manual of the Basic Principles of Operation and Use of International Electric Bookkeeping and Accounting Machines. IBM, 1936.  10 separately paginated sections, massively illustrated throughout with images of machines and components.   A fine illustrated reconnaissance of the IBM company and its early tabulating machines. Superb!  Fine condition.__+__ Includes 03. the Electric Accounting Machine Card, 20pp; 04, The Design of Tabulating Cards, 16pp; 05. The Preparation and Use of Codes, 28pp; 06. Organization and Supervision of the Tabulation Department, 16pp; 07. Selection and Training of Key Punch Operators, 12pp; 08. Accounting Control, 8pp; 13, Gang Punches, 8pp; 14. Card Operated Sorting Machines, 14pp; 20. Automatic Summary Punches (Type 285-297; 20a - Type 405) , 16pp; 22. Applications of Machines to Accounting Functions, 24pp.$220

The Library of the Future (1960)

IBM Information Retrieval. IBM, NYC, ca. 1959. (No date but the bibliography cites only 1957 and 1958 “recent” works, and the IBM machine quoted here for this particular use is the RAMAC which was sold beginning 1956. I guess it is possible that this was 1960-1962, though I'd also guess there would be more recent entries in the bibliog.) 8.5”x 11”, 16 pp, illustrated. FINE condition.  $125
This is summation of the current state of affairs in info storage and retrieval delivered in a how-to schematic step-by-step presentation, concentrating on library applications, and including a tail piece on “the library of the future”, with that schematic reproduced here.

Rare Work on the Free French, 1941

Pierre de Lanux, Notes by Pierre de Lanux, for his Friends, October 1941. The Free French, their Motives, and the Meaning of their Cause. November, 1941. Received by the Library of Congress November 10, 1941. 11”x 8.5{, 11 leaves. Mimeographed. Includes he following sections: Those Who Walk by Night; A War of Independence; The F.F.F.(Free French Forces);the Invisible Army; In Terms of History.  $200

Provenance: Library of Congress, with a small oval stamp plus three small rubber stamps on front page; LC rubber stamp on rear page. Front page a little dusty but he rest of the ext is near-fine. Stapled, with last leaf detached. Very old and nearly gone horizontal fold at center.

NO copies located in WorldCat.

US Army Transport Shipboard Newspaper, 1929

The Cam-Breeze.

US Transport Cambrai on Voyage from New York Nov.13, 1929 vi Panama Canal to San Francisco, Calif., Nov. 30, 1929. 13”x 8.5”, 29pp. Complete in 14 issues, about 15,000 words. Each issue has a hand-drawn banner, usually a map, This was produced shipboard on the Cambrai.

There seem to be no copies located in WorldCat. $500

Provenance: Library of Congress, with their stamp on the front wrapper.

Condition: Fair. The oversize paper was also fairly cheap to begin with, so there are some rough edges all the way around, but particularly at top (as you can see in the pics). Some of the cracked bits along the top edge have been reinforced with Japanese rice paper adhesive on back. Accpetable copy of an evidently rare document.

The Cambrai was named after the US-involved battle of Cambrai in WWI.

The Cam-breeze reported all manner of shipboard news, where they were in the world, plus “radio news” of national and international interest. Overall, this is somewhat delightful.

A Lovely, Interesting, and Semi-Outsider Piece of Logic

Rare Radio, Wireless, and TV Ciphers, Codes, Language (1936-1937)

No Listings in WorldCat

SPARTARI, Carlo. Three items.

(Spartari Radio Language, Sirela) Spatari Radio Language: A Word-of-mouth Code Easily Understood by Listeners of Many Nationalities Without Need of Memorizing for Use in International Radio Broadcasting. Self-published (?) 1937.

Three items: $500

18”x 12”, 34pp. Bound in a mini spiral metal binding, thick wrapper. The binding is beautiful in its way. The only problem is that the pamphlet had been stored folded in half (horizontally) , and even though I've had this in a book press for months, I cannot reduce the wave in the books structure much beyond what you see in the pics. That said, the binding and text are strong.

Easily the tallest book on radio codes and ciphers that I have seen, Spartari invented a rather clevwer and interesting radio language. It was based upon the seven musical notes of the diatonic scale--DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, and SI—which took no translation to understand, and everyone pronounces the names of the notes in about the same way, a la Italiano. On the one hand it seems to me to be whimsical, and on the other, it seems brilliant.

Provenance: Library of Congress, with their rubber stamp on the title page.

With:

Spatari International and National Criminal Identification Code.

This consists of two folding posters, each 11x17”, folded in thirds.

The code in sheet one is such that a lot of data can be transmitted in a short, alpha-abbreviated message via radio or wireless. There are codes to describe the following characteristics of the person of interst: name, alias, nationality, build (“fat/fat and short/fat and tall”), weight, eye color, hair, scars (and their various forms and locations), moles, tattoos, birthmarks, malformations, teeth, hair/beard. Fingerprints, relatives, g\hat style, shoes, tie, and suit, all of which can be described in some detail in the code.

And with:

Spatari Television Code for Facsimile Transmission.

14”x 32”, 1936. Folded in quarters.

None of these items are found in WorldCat.

“Back in 1905 a young musician was so impressed by the fact that the language of music is universal, that he decided to develop a language based on music. The result is the Spatari Radio Language, an ingenious system of speech based on the notes of the musical scale, capable of being understood by anyone, regardless of his native language, and requiring no study of grammar, vocabulary or syntax. The entire language consists of only the seven notes DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, and SI, and the symbol BO. Capable of being combined into nearly a million different words or groups, these symbols can be pronounced on sight, and easily written down as soon as heard. The "secret" of the language is that each group of symbols represents an entire thought, or sen- tence. It is not intended that anyone memorize the symbols, as they can be written down as heard, and found quickly in the Spatari dictionary later.”--World Radio History online, Radex

Also see On the Short Waves, 1923-1945: Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio

By Jerome S. Berg