Time Capsule - Binoculars and a Story

My 95 year old father in law is sharp of mind but his eyesight is not good.  When we were out to visit him in June he offered me a pair of binoculars.  "I can't see a thing with 'em any more".  He did not know much about them, but thought they had been made by Zeiss, a famous German optical company.  He got them at a car wreck on the Indiana turnpike, I assume back in his days as a reserve sheriff's deputy.  

Let's have a look and see if any more of their story can be puzzled out.

The binoculars have seen a bit of use and wear, but are actually in good working order. Clearly this was a quality built bit of equipment.

The internet is really quite helpful on this kind of question, so these markings on the binoculars proper, helped a lot.  "Dienstglas" translates literally to "Service Glass" meaning a shatter resistant, high quality lens for military use.  The numbers relate to the magnification factor.  The designation blc was the code for the Carl Zeiss factory in Jena.  Zeiss then and now were among the world's leaders in optical lenses. 

Although the above strongly suggests military binoculars the confirmation was actually on the leather case.

Note the date, 1942.  The Eagle and swastika logo has beneath it another code. Unfortunately part of it is worn off as that is where the clasp rests.  WaA stands for "WaffenAmt".  This was the organization responsible for weapons procurement.  Stamps of this sort were placed on items during their manufacture.  They indicated that the item had been made to correct specifications.  Very tentatively I think the numbers that follow "might" be 14, which would mean the case was made at the Curt Vogel leather works factory in Cottbus.

To make things just a little more confusing the metal clasp has another code on it.  This looks to be frn42.  frn indicated the Federn-Draht und Metallwarenfabrik in Havel.  

What is probably going on here is an assembly of parts from various suppliers.

So, we have a pair of German military binoculars made in 1942.  But how did they get to Indiana?  One must assume that an American serviceman acquired them overseas and brought them back.  This is a good example of how provenance - the documented history of an item - is everything.  Were these taken from a captured officer on D-Day? Or bought at a flea market twenty years later?  The glasses and case show signs of considerable use.  But was it with the Afrika Korps or on the outskirts of Stalingrad?  Or was this a brand new pair when some farm boy from Indiana grabbed them out of a warehouse, then faithfully took them duck hunting for many seasons?

Don't know.  

As a side note German binoculars are a pretty common thing to find be it on ebay or perhaps at a modern day flea market.  They were the sort of thing that was avidly sought after and the US military's restrictions on taking home items such as firearms did not impede the spiriting off of this kind of souvenir.

Forgotten Brewery Caves - By the Book.

I sometimes pass myself off as an expert on 19th century brewery caves.  But a more accurate appraisal would be that I am a serious student of them.

Once in a while I am asked if I am going to write a book on the subject.  The short answer is: no.  It is not a subject that would interest a wide audience and the general state of print publishing is such that my prior magnum opus will probably remain a one off.

But there are a couple of books that a fellow serious student of the subject might seek out.

The Classic is this:

Although it is an overview of small, early Wisconsin breweries it does devote a fair amount of attention to brewery caves.  Mr. Kroll was out there looking for them a generation ago, back when they were far more accessable than they are today.  Here is a bit more information on the book, although I must add that writing to the author to get a copy is not an option, he no longer has any and it is long out of print.

For a newer book and one devoted to an indepth study of one site, I suggest Robbers Cave, Truth, Legends and Recollections by Joel Green.  This looks at the history of the Pioneer Brewery cave in Lincoln Nebraska.  Joel has done yeoman's service with the complicated story.

Helping out Facebook

Your friend and mine, Facebook, got itself in a bit of trouble last year when it turned out that political hacks associated with the Trump campaign had laid greasy paws on a bunch of unauthorized information on Facebook users.  Unauthorized means they did not go through the usual channels of paying Facebook for those big ol' slabs of data.  Chastened and contrite, Facebook has promised to do better.  Of course it is not clear if their contrition is a generic concern for the privacy of their users, a specific gripe that the data breach lost them money, or just general regret at being associated at all with Donald Trump.

Well, constant vigilance shall be the watchword.  And I'm here to help.

Recently an odd "ad" popped up in my feed.  Probably everyone else's too.  It was simple.  The text was:

WISCONSIN PRIMARY ELECTIONS ARE COMING UP

The deadline to register online to vote in the 2018 primary elections is 25 July. Share a voters registration link to help your friends register.

There were two buttons, one to indicate you had registered and another to Register to Vote.  There was also a little statistics bar indicating that 6,423,793 others had shared that they've registered. 

Several things about this struck me as peculiar.  It references the Wisconsin Primary elections but, you know, 6,423,793 considerably exceeds the entire population of the state.  One could of course make jokes about how one or another political party may in the past have registered the moribund inhabitants of local cemeteries, but it still seems a stretch.  The ad had no line on which to comment and no information on its source.  It also had a whiff of being written by a non American.  I mean, I write 25 July instead of July 25th, but I'm just odd.*

I figured it was a nation wide drag net trying to contact likely voters of a certain political persuasion, but the bare bones of it did not say anthing more.

Ah.  But on the very same day this appeared there were a batch of press releases announcing the launch of When We All Vote.   This is an onstensibly non partisan voting registration group that happens to be headlined by Michelle Obama and mostly staffed by former Obama administration officials.  Heavy on celebraties, they are a bunch of the usual Progressive suspects although props for getting Tom Hanks on board, he at least seems to say rational things when he ventures into politics.

I did not click on either button.  

Facebook collects a frightening amount of information these days.  This could easily be a campaign aimed only at potential Democratic voters.  Did a search on Subaru Outbacks recently? Confirmed Democrat!

On the face of things, and really no pun intended, this is all above board.  I actually am a strong advocate of increasing voter participation.  And I'm sure the Obama team bought this campaign fair and square.  I did not realize by the way that fully 20 percent of all online advertising dollars go to our Facebook pals.  I am also pretty sure that clicking either button would open up new spigots of political ads, social causes, and suggestions on how I should vote.  

Its really hard to learn any more.  Visiting the When We All Vote website there is reference to partnering with Rock the Vote, a longstanding Progressive group that also claimed - most unconvincingly - to be non partisan.  And as to who is bank rolling the effort, good luck figuring that out.

I seldom use the topic label "Just Politics" because such commentary is rather a glut on the market right now.  But this ad bugged me.  I have no serious issue with the philosophies of either political party.  The people running them are another matter.  You might say I like the principles of the Democratic and Republican parties much more than I like their principals.  But they can and should be out in the world making the case for their candidates and goals.  I just wish they would be open about it.  I mean, if they are being deceptive in small things that don't matter much what is stopping them from being deceptive in the big stuff they really don't want to make public?

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* I suppose the UK/European version of the date might have appeared because I have my Facebook preferences set to UK English.  I also have entered "interests" in Sanskrit, scrimshaw, and orchestral directing; and have liked several tailor's shops in Copenhagen.  

Saving Merlin

On the 4th of July we were enjoying our morning cup of coffee and looking off of the screened in deck at our cabin.  I saw something fuzzy and white moving about.  It did not have the sort of motion that would fit with a bunny rabbit.  In fact it was this guy:

He did not look happy.  This is a baby Merlin, a small sort of hawk.  We knew a couple of them had a nest somewhere in the trees above.  Noisy little buggers they are.  So anyway this little chick was sitting unhappily on the ground.  Not a viable long term strategy, the parents would not dare come down to feed it and it would in turn be a meal for the next fox that wandered past.  

We called the local nature center and spoke with their bird person.  They were not in a position to offer to collect and care for it. After some discussion it was suggested that we might as well put it back up in the tree.  After all down there on the ground he had zero chance.

Gloves to avoid imparting any human scent.  And to avoid being "beaked".

Up into a crook in the tree with a box full of leaves and grass.  It's a beer box so he'll be happy in it.

Long term, who knows?  But later that day he was sitting up there imperiously calling out to his nearby parents.

Crop Marks - Summer of 2018

My archaeology friends back in England have been enjoying their blistering hot weather.  Well, on one level anyway.  Drought years always make the ghosts of ancient walls and structures more visible to aerial photography.

You would not think that my front lawn back in Wisconsin would be showing the same sort of patterns!

Yes, evidence of Saxon field boundaries for sure!  Hmmm. Looks more like the wheel marks from my lawn mower.  I did a quick trim just before it got hellishly hot and the pressure of the wheels on the grass was just a little too much stress on my less than impressive lawn.

Real crop marks look more like this:

Somebody's lawn at least is a little dryer than mine.

In Darkest Footsteps

I had to delay this post a while.  Because there are some bad people in the world.

I think I met one of the lesser ones during my dig at Hill 80.  It was lunch break and I strolled over to the fence.  A shifty looking guy with long grey hair stood there.  He had lots of questions.  Where were the German trenches?  Were we finding casualties?  German or British?

I assumed he was a "night hawk" one of those horrid people who sneak into archeological sites in search of things they can add to their collections or to sell on the black market.  They literally rob the dead, thinking nothing of disturbing graves for trinkets.  (Note: there was both video and human on site security)  

I gestured vaguely towards a section of the site that was under three feet of water and told him nothing specific.

The Hill 80 dig is complete now, so the tempting, vulnerable target of mass graves being excavated is now secured.  That makes it safe to discuss a sensitive matter.  Because at one time true evil walked here.

In the confused fighting of 1914 the Bavarian 6th Reserve Division featured prominently.  Many of the dead we could identify as their uniforms had buttons with the Bavarian Lion.  

One of those Bavarians was Adolf Hitler.

Did Hitler walk across the field I worked on?  Plausibly.  Details of the confused 1914 fighting are incomplete but it appears he was at a location called "Bayernwald" about a mile north, then was treated for wounds in the cellar of the church at Mesen, about a mile south of the site.  Hill 80 is on a straight line between them and along what at that point would have been still intact roads.

Perhaps the ultimate Alternate History scenario is that of a Time Traveler killing Hitler.  Looking at his fallen Bavarian comrades you realize that a time machine would not even have been necessary.  

Skeletons laid out in rows.  No longer in militant straight lines, time has caused them to lean and shift into ragged formations that would make their sergeants livid were they not likely lying with them in the same shallow grave.  Buttons once polished bright for uncompromising inspection are now green with tarnish and lie scattered up and down stark spinal columns.  Sightless eyes stare at a blue sky for the first time in a century.

Did any of them know this peculiar Austrian who ranted so much?  Perhaps.  The more corpses you uncover the more likely you are to find the remains of a man who shared a fox hole or a cigarette or a joke with Adolf Hitler.  

If only, if only.  Would the world be a less dark place if just a few less British shells were the inert duds we walked over daily?  Did any of the fallen Bavarians dislike Hitler enough to aim a rifle at his back during an intense bombardment, only to be thwarted when death came to them instead?

You don't know and you can't know.  The path Hitler walked, the dark path that ends in Auschwitz and in the ruins of Berlin, had many twists and turns, many troubled places other than Hill 80.  

And what of all those others whose paths did end here?  Especially in the 1914 fighting you had Europe's best and brightest, the most passionate, those most ardent to change the world.  Could one of those stark corpses staring at the sky have become a German Churchill?  A French Mussolini?  Or even a British Lenin?

Idle, idle questions, asked by the living who will never know; asked of the dead who will never answer....

Digging Hill 80 - It's a Wrap

The Hill 80 project was a rescue dig.  This means they had a limited time window to study the site and preserve what they could before it was developed for housing. Time ran out last Friday.

After this point there will of course still be some attention paid but the opportunity to properly study anything that comes up during construction will be gone.

But the project went well, in fact it seems to have far surpassed the expectations of its organizers.

Here's a well done BBC spot on the project.  The site looks much changed since my stint there but many of the faces are the same.