Petes-Pix: Duxford Hurricanes Behind the Wire

My Books

"Pinotage: Behind the Legends of South Africa's own wine" is available on the ibookstore

Learn more about my new book telling all about Pinotage and read sample pages at
pinotagebook.weebly.com

A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages

A Year in Paarl
with
A I Perold

Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.

03 February 2023

Duxford Hurricanes Behind the Wire

To Duxford IWM with Peter Chasney for behind the wire access to the Hurricane exhibition and an expert talk of an hour which actually took 90 minutes.

The talk was informative and enthralling and it was great to get to stand right next to so many Hurricanes. The exhibition also included three other planes designed by Sydney Camm - the pre-war biplanes Hawker Hart and Hind and the post-war jet Hawker Nimrod.

Getting up close we were able to see Camm's fuselage construction method of bolted metal tubes with tensioning wires covered with wood shapers to hold doped linen. Strong, cheap, robust and easily repairable. Bullets would go straight through needing ground crew just the task of covering holes with patches, whereas the metal Spitfire would need a workshop repair.