Moon Tower

moontower

Party at the moon tower. Everyone’s invited.

Austin, Texas is the only city in the world known to still operate a system. The towers are 150 feet tall and have a fifteen foot foundation. This type of tower was manufactured in Indiana and assembled onsite. In 1894, the City of Austin purchased 31 used lighting towers from Detroit. A single tower cast light from six carbon arc lamps, illuminating a 1500 foot (460 metres) radius circle brightly enough to read a watch. In 1993 the city of Austin dismantled the towers and restored every bolt, turnbuckle and guy wire. The 17 remaining towers were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and are therefore protected from demolition. (read more…)

Cicada Hot

After one of the wettest years since the civil war, it looks like the real summer has finally settled in over the newly sprouted jungle in Central Texas. It’s gotten to be cicada hot – when you walk outside at three in the afternoon, the sun slaps you in the head, your vision blurs (god help you if you left your sunglasses in the car) and all you can hear is the sound of a thousand cicada’s singing in the 110-degree-heat-index. This sound always confused me when i was younger – at one point I thought it was rattlesnakes – but as it turns out the brand of cicada we associate with in North America is known as the Tibicen genus – the annual or dog-day cicadas (named after the “Dog Days” because they emerge in late July and August). Apparently they have a built in noisemaker in their abdomens that can hit over 160db – Read more useless info about noisy bugs…