Technological Revolution of 21st Century…

 

Technology Then & Now

Date of Issue : 7 February 2012

Hi !

Australia Post issued a beautiful set of four stamps with a miniature sheet featuring technological revolution of 21st century. The remarkable item of this issue is its Gutter strip with old designs of specific items that have developed into high -tech design today . This is a wonderful set for all thematic collectors !!The stamp designs are just wonderful…. To see these  beautiful designs of stamps, MS and Gutter strip I envy  Australia Post ….Why stamps issued by  India Post are not so beautiful ???? There are scores of postage stamps issued by India Post every year but they  are far  behind in the quality of design and themes !! Now we expect some elite stamps from India Post ……Let’s wait when the time comes…This is all for Today…Till Next Post….Have a great Time !

The technological revolution of the 21st century has touched the daily lives of everyone around the world. Mobile phones have revolutionised our daily communication. Unlike fixed-line phones, today's 4G phones can provide a myriad of functions including internet, video and audio, enabling us to be connected globally.

FDC

 

The Gutter Strip with special design of each item in technological revolution – Phone, refrigerator, television, gramophone and road atlas (which we  see on Internet today) !!

Technology Then & Now

  Maximum Cards

Trades of Yesteryears..

 

 

The joiner

 

Date of  Issue : 6 December 2011

Luxembourg Post issued a beautiful set of 4 stamps featuring  trades of yesteryears. The designs of the stamps  are very nice  and appealing.

The joiner

A joiner cuts, planes, knocks, embeds, assembles...

Joinery is an activity somewhere between carpentry and cabinetry. The placement of most flooring, for instance, is carried out sometimes by a carpenter, and other times by a joiner. Cabinetry is generally reserved for the joiners’ most delicate work, in particular the making of furniture. Joiners are building professionals who traditionally work in wood. They manufacture and place doors, windows, and cupboards. They provide measurement services. Their professional discipline is joinery but also the arrangement of insulating materials as well as light ironwork.

The potter

The appearance of pottery was an essential step in the history of civilisation and goes back to the Neolithic era. The fi rst pottery items, baked in the open, were matt and porous, and of a sombre colour. A silicabased coating that made them watertight was also discovered very early on. Earthenware is a pottery item with an opaque white or tinted tin glazing. Earthenware items, intended for a rich clientele and made by renowned manufacturers, reached their pinnacle in the 18th century. They became more common among the wider population when the privileged classes turned to porcelain.

 

The stonemason

A stonemason is an artisan who hews stones used to build or restore buildings.
But they are not just artisans. Their design skills allow them to develop and refine their perception of forms and shapes. Skilful with their hands, a stonemason’s motions are precise and sure. Before beginning work on a historic monument, they study different architectural styles and acquire basic knowledge of the history of art. Another indispensable quality: meticulousness. A tool slipping or an exaggerated groove can lead to a work in the making being irreparably damaged.

The printer

Printing uses a collection of technologies that enable the reproduction of the written word and of illustrations in large quantities, generally on paper, in order to be able to distribute them widely. In 1440, Johannes Gensfleisch, better known by the name of Gutenberg, had the idea of using movable characters in lead, thereby inventing modern typography.
For a long time, printers remained at the level of a small artisan. Nevertheless, even though wages were low, the work was considered prestigious. Since books remained costly objects, typographers were constantly in contact with well read men. A printer also had an important privilege: the right to carry a sword.

The Designer of the stamps :

 Jacques Doppée: painter, designer, water colourist, engraver. Educated in Belgium at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles and at the Ecole des Arts d’Ixelles, he specialised in medieval techniques. Jacques Doppée is inspired by nature and has a fondness for landscapes and beach views. He also creates stylised and floral subjects or insects represented graphically and in great detail. As an author of postage stamps, he has already designed numerous stamps for the Belgian and Luxembourg post services and even for the Faroe Islands.

Source : Luxembourg Post

Stamp Booklets  - Chinar – 2011, issued by CPMG J & K Postal Circle

Booklet No. 9 - 12

 

 

: Hemant Jain, Mandla (MP)

Joint Issue by Malta and Iceland

Date of Issue : 15 September 2011

Iceland and Malta Posts have issued a joint stamp on 15 September 2011.Iceland and Malta are the northernmost and southernmost islands in Europe. Fishing has been the main source of revenue for centuries on these two islands. Iceland Post and Malta Post have collaborated on a joint stamp issue occasioned by this relationship with fishing towns as the motif. The town of Húsavík is the motif of the Icelandic minisheet while the Maltese one depicts the town of Mgarr, Gozo.

Date of Issue : 15 September 2011

The Republic of Malta is a small and densely populated country on an island by the same name and some smaller islands in the Mediterranean. The islands are located between Italy in the north and the northcoast of Africa. The official languages are English and Maltese. Malta joined the European Union in 2004 and is now the smallest EU country both as regards size and population. Only three of the biggest islands are populated: Malta, Gozo and Comino.

This philatelic issue has ‘Fishing Villages’ as its theme which captures an important economic and cultural activity that is common to both countries. The village of Húsavík has been chosen for the Icelandic miniature sheet while the village of Mgarr, Gozo, is depicted on the Maltese sheet. Cedric Galea Pirotta was commissioned by both Iceland Post and Malta Post to paint both fishing villages.

Johann Dzierzon – Father of modern apiculture

 

Date of Issue : 2 September 2011

Polish Post will issue a stamp on September 2, 2011 on ‘ father of modern bee culture John Dzierzon ’ to commemorate his 200th Birth Centenary. He is known for his pioneering work in the study bees and beehives which was later used in bee culture.The FDC design depicts Stacks of Dzierzon hives.

 John Dzierzon (16 January 1811 – 26 October 1906), was a pioneering apiarist who discovered the phenomenon of parthenogenesis in bees, and designed the first successful movable-frame beehive.

Dzierzon came from a Polish family in Silesia. Trained in theology, he combined his theoretical and practical work in apiculture with his duties as a Roman Catholic priest.His discoveries and innovations made him world-famous in scientific and bee-keeping circles, and he has been described as the "father of modern apiculture".

In his apiary, Dzierzon studied the social life of honeybees and constructed several experimental beehives. In 1838 he devised the first practical movable-comb beehive, which allowed manipulation of individual honeycombs without destroying the structure of the hive. The correct distance between combs had been described as 1½ inches from the center of one top bar to the center of the next one. In 1848 Dzierzon introduced grooves into the hive’s side walls, replacing the strips of wood for moving top bars. The grooves were 8 × 8 mm—the exact average between ¼ and ⅜ inch, which is the range called the "bee space." His design quickly gained popularity in Europe and North America. On the basis of the aforementioned measurements, August von Berlepsch (May 1852) in Thuringia and L.L. Langstroth (October 1852) in the United States designed their frame-movable hives.

Special Covers

West Bengal

DEPEX ‘76

: Ashwani Dubey, Gorakhpur

Club News

UPHILEX 2011

A state level exhibition is proposed to be held in Lucknow from 16 to 18 December 2011.

Perfect Pearls on stamps…

 

 

 

Date of Issue : 5 May 2011

The Post of Northern Cook Islands recently issued a wonderful set of stamps and souvenir sheet on pearl industry on 5th May 2011.

Formation of Pearl

A pearl is formed when the mantle tissue is injured by a parasite, an attack of a fish or another event that damages the external fragile rim of the shell of a mollusk shell bivalve or gastropod. In response, the mantle tissue of the mollusk secretes nacre into the pearl sac, a cyst that forms during the healing process. Chemically speaking, this is calcium carbonate and a fibrous protein called conchiolin. As the nacre builds up in layers of minute aragonite tablets, it fills the growing pearl sac and eventually forms a pearl. It is a myth that a grain of sand can cause a pearl to form, as nacre will not adhere to inorganic substances.

Natural pearls are those pearls that are formed in nature, more or less by chance. Cultured pearls, by contrast, are those in which humans take a helping hand. By actually inserting a tissue graft of a donor oyster, a pearl sac forms, and its inner side precipitates calcium carbonate in the form of nacre.

 

Two species of pearl oyster are found in the Cook Islands

• The small pearl oyster or pipi (Pinctada maculata) is widespread throughout the Cook Islands. On Penrhyn the oyster is harvested for its natural golden pipi pearl.

• The black-lipped pearl oyster or parau (Pinctada margaritifera) is abundant in the Manihiki and Penrhyn lagoons. In the wild they are found attached to coral reefs in depths of 5 to 60 metres. In the past, divers collected the pearl oysters, and the shell (mother-of-pearl) were exported to be made into products such as buttons. However, these days, black-lipped oysters are more valuable if kept alive and cultured for their black pearls.

Farming pearl oysters requires drilling the oysters and hanging them on ropes set in the lagoon. The cultured black pearl actually begins as a small bead inserted or ‘seeded’ into the oyster. It takes about two years before the bead is coated as a black pearl. Many factors affect the success rate, but of 100 oysters seeded, typically only five will produce a high-quality round pearl.

There are important environmental factors to consider when pearl farming. Because pearl oysters filter up to 20 litres of water per hour, they must be kept well spaced apart to ensure there is an adequate supply of food in the water. If not, the oysters become starved and growth is poor, which may cause oyster disease.

Presently, there are about 110 pearl farms on Manihiki and 1.5 million adult oysters being cultured. On Penrhyn there are about 100 pearl farms and about 200,000 cultured oysters.

 

From Our Readers….

Mr Sanjiv Jain of Dehradun shares here a private Maxim Card on  recently issued stamp of Dr DS Kothari .

 

Industrial Design stamps from USPS….

 

Date of Issue : 29 June 2011

The U.S. Postal Service  dedicated a new sheet of stamps honoring 12 of America’s most important and influential industrial designers on 29 June 2011.

Frederick Hurten Rhead helped pioneer the design of mass-produced ceramic tableware for the home. He is best remembered for the sleek Fiesta® line (shown on the stamp) introduced by The Homer Laughlin China Company in 1936.

Industrial design emerged as a profession in the United Sates in the 1920s, but really took off during the Great Depression. Faced with decreasing sales, manufacturers turned to industrial designers to give their products a modern look that would appeal to consumers. Characterized by horizontal lines and rounded shapes, the new, streamlined looks differed completely from the decorative extravagance of the 1920s. The designs evoked a sense of speed and efficiency and projected the image of progress and affluence the public desired.

Walter Dorwin Teague, known as the “dean of industrial design,” Walter Dorwin Teague believed that good artistic design fit both form and function into a single aesthetic package. During his career-long collaboration with Eastman Kodak Company, he designed several popular cameras, including the 1934 “Baby Brownie” (shown on the stamp)

Consumer interest in modern design continued to increase after World War II, when machines allowed corporations to mass produce vacuums, hair dryers, toasters and other consumer goods at low cost. Industrial designers helped lower costs further by exploiting inexpensive new materials like plastic, vinyl, chrome, aluminum and plywood, which responded well to advances in manufacturing such as the use of molds and stamping. Affordable prices and growing prosperity nationwide helped drive popular demand.

 

Even as streamlining gave way to new looks in the 1960s, the groundbreaking work of industrial designers continued to transform the look of homes and offices across the country. Today, industrial design remains an integral component of American manufacturing and business, as well as daily life.

 

Each stamp features the name of a designer and a photograph of an object created by the designer, as well as a description of the object and the year or years when the object was created. The selvage features a photograph of the "Airflow" fan designed by Robert Heller around 1937. Derry Noyes, whose father is honored on this sheet of stamps, was the art director.

 

 

Greta von Nessen specialized solely in lighting, and none of her designs is better known than the “Anywhere” lamp (shown on the stamp). Introduced in 1951, the lamp featured a tubular aluminum base and an adjustable shade made of enameled metal.