Elizabeth Ride has sent a further sample of British Army Aid Group reports sent during during the Japanese occupation of HK in WW2. HF: There are many industrial references including companies, factories, transport, utilties… I have given each file Elizabeth sent a new name, dates where known and a brief summary of contents. WIS = Waichow Intelligence Summary KWIZ […]
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HF with thanks to IDJ for the two adverts. The cable used in the Aerial Ropeway constructed to link Takoo Sugar Refinery and its Sanitarium was made by Bullivant & Co. which began as a UK company. William Munton Bullivant was an early innovator in the stranded wire cordage field, invented in the mid-19th century by German mining engineers in the […]
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HF: Malcolm Morris and I took the bus to Shek O for lunch yesterday. Malcolm hadn’t been for many years and as we set off from Shau Kei Wan I mentioned the extraordinary Shek O bus terminus which he didn’t know about and which has both delighted and puzzled me since I first saw it in 1989. The former because […]
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HF: We recently posted the article, Q+A 45 Proposed fixed crossing to Lantau Island, late 1970s. In this I wrote: The Tsing Ma bridge and its neighbour the Kap Shui Mun bridge both opened in 1997 but I have not come across any proposed bridge to Lantau prior to the opening of the new airport. Any information regarding government or private […]
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Kwok Tai Motor & Pump Company was established in 1997. It appears to import and sell a wide range of goods including pumps, generators, gardening equipment, agriculture tools…and village vehicles (VVs) of both wheel and crawler type. The company website shows a few examples: The company’s address is G/F, Tai Fook Centre, 17 Kin Tak Street, Yuen Long with a […]
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HF and IDJ: Up until 1926 steam power was used to drive the Peak Tram. In that year an electricity-powered haulage gear Ward Leonard system was installed incorporated within the double reversible funicular railway. Details of this system are provided below under the basic concept first link. I don’t fully understand this and wonder if anyone can provide an even simpler […]
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Tymon Mellor: At the end of the nineteenth century, the great world powers were all trying to expand their spheres of influence within China. The approach of the British was to use Hong Kong as a marine trading hub, enhanced with the provision of a railway network thus extending the Colony’s commercial reach into the Chinese hinterland and connecting with […]
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Tymon Mellor: At the turn of the 19th century, railways and steam ships were changing the world and demanding new infrastructure to support them. With the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway – British Section in full swing, attention turned to the location of the terminus station in Kowloon. There were many competing requirements for the location; resulting in the site […]
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James Chan: Dragages Hong Kong, is a very familiar company name on signs at major construction projects around Hong Kong. It’s parent company is Bouygues Construction The company was founded in Vietnam in 1902 as Société Française Industrielle D’Extreme-Orient. It undertook its first project, the dredging and maintenance of a 2,000 kilometre canal system in the Mekong Delta. In 1910 […]
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Fung Chi Ming: Right after the British re-occupation of Hong Kong, an interim military administration was set up as a provisional authority until the civil administration took over on 1 May 1946. The Hong Kong Government Gazette dated 29 August 1946 announced that “public passenger tricycles”, as they were called, would have to register and be licensed. A schedule of […]
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