Alex Lacey who is a practitioner of the "Jim Clubb" school also uses floor plates for a fast sit up/spin with lions and tigers. But as you see in this photo Radar, when he does a 4 tiger roll over and sit up, he does not use them. As stated, the animals space themselves naturally, and it is easier to space them after a roll over. I don't think any of these folks have "cheated". I think they found a way to keep from sitting them up against the cage, and the creation of the sit up/spin. In America, assistants like yourself stand at the back of the cage where the animals sit, and can utilize a shift pole to keep them in the middle, off their seats. In Europe where the animals sit at the front of the cage, the assistants stand at the back so as not to block the audience. Try to use your shift pole, standing across the cage from the animals, instead of behind them. I think you got set up, Radar. Most of what you are learning now came from this house. LOL
Sunday, September 20, 2009
For Radar--Floor Plates
For Radar--Floor Plates
Martin Lacey Jr. who is a practitioner of the "Dickie Chipperfield" school utilizes floor plates for a fast sit up/spin.
For Radar--Floor Plates
Hagenback's Wonder Circus lions in rehearsal at the Royal Agricultural Hall. London, 1936. Here you can see the uniformity/straightness in a sit up that the floor plates create, with no crowding/crookedness of the animals.
Gates at Franklin Park
Donations of animals and birds to the city of Boston for its new zoo at Franklin Park have been so frequent and so liberal up to date that it begins to look as if Curator John T. Benson of the zoo will have a good-sized collection of beasts to put in their proper places when the time rolls around for the official opening of the animals' and birds' new quarters.
Mr Benson has been much pleased with the immediate recognition which had been given the new institution by prominent collectors and naturalists all over the country. Not only friends of Boston alone, but many others interested in the spread of appreciation of the wonders of natural science have expressed a desire to do their part, no matter how small, and to aid in suggestions for the keeping of the mammals in not in personal donations.
"The fame of the new zoo and reports of our preparations for it," said Mr Benson in speaking of the interest that is being taken, "have already spread far and wide, so much so that I begin to think people in the other parts of the country have heard more about it than have Boston people. I have been receiving letters from prominent persons of different States, some of them in the West, all of whom have congratulated me, as the representative of the city, on the new departure, and have sought information. The immediate success of the enterprise is assured."
Meanwhile Curator Benson is doing what he can to hurry along the work of construction of the future homes of the animals and birds, viz, the bear dens, the flying cage and the service room for the reception of the live stock. No exact date for opening has been set. This will depend largely on the rapidity with which the work progresses from now on. Up to this time the laborers have been hampered often by difficulties imposed by the weather, yet the buildings have already taken definite shape.
While waiting for the completion of their Summer quarters the beasts are being temporarily housed in cages and pens built expressly for the purpose. Great care has been exercised in their keeping during the Winter months and every advantage has been offered them.
Perhaps the largest collection of any kind that has yet been presented to the Zoo and delivered to the keeper is that of water fowl, given by John E. Thayer of Lancaster, the well-known ornithologist and collector. The donation of this collection stands as another of the many public services which Mr Thayer has rendered along the line of natural science.
The group presented comprises a very large number of aquatic birds, many of them rare specimens, a collection the gathering of which undoubtedly required many years of patience. There are not only strange birds from other parts of the United States and Canada, but also several from foreign countries, such as Australia, Japan and China.
Specimens contained in the collection include pairs of comb geese, semipalmated geese, widgeon, tree ducks, shoveler ducks, ruddy sheldrakes, red heads, pintails, Egyptian geese and snow geese. Altogether a fine group of water fowl to start with.
With these are being kept six beautiful white swans which were given to the city by Howard Marston. These handsome birds occupy a prominent place in the whole collection.
A good start has also been made in the animal department. The first donation was that of a fine black bear, made by Newton Newkirk of Boston. The animal has been enjoying himself during the Winter in the recesses of a private dun which is kept in the Franklin Park yard. This present was followed by the gift of a young alligator and another of a Gila monster, a member of the lizard family. The givers of these withheld their names.
Still more recent has been the donation of a rare tortoise by Dr James B. Thornton of the Back Bay. This creature is known as a wood tortoise and its habitat is in the Southern climes, particularly in islands of the West Indies.
It came into the Dr Thornton's possession in a very peculiar way. One day when he was driving through Fenway in an automobile he saw the animal crossing the road at a rapid rate. He captured it and took it home, keeping it there during the Winter in a small cage which he made for it. The animal made a splendid pet, he states. It arose with the rest of the family in the morning, took its meals about the same time and usually went off to bed about 2 in the afternoon. In cold weather it crawled off into the darkness for days at a time.
An addition to the above collection of mammals is expected in a short time from the National Government, which has expressed its intention of taking some of the animals in Yellowstone National Park and transporting them to the Boston Zoo, there to have their habitation. This group will probably include four grizzly bears, two cinnamon bears and two blacks.
Curator Benson has received intimations that donations are to come from several other sources, and the fact has been well manifest that outsiders as well as the people of Boston are deeply interested in the success of the new zoo. 
Franklin Park Zoo Bear Cages
By this time next year the new municipal zoo in Franklin park will be opened. It is expected at present, with the bear dens occupied and the denizens of the great flying cage on view to the public. Work has already started on the bear dens and Monday a large force of men will be employed on this one feature. If plans for the new Boston zoological gardens can be taken as any criterion for the completed zoo, Boston will undoubtedly have one of the finest such exhibits to be found in the world.
A Globe reporter visited the site of the proposed zoo in Franklin park last week to ascertain what had been done. There he found John T. Benson, who has been appointed curator of the zoo by park commissioners, subject to confirmation by Mayor Fitzgerald. His honor has not yet confirmed the selection of the park commissioners.
Mr Benson is well equipped for this great work, as he has been intimately associated with animals, birds and fish from his boyhood. Last winter he passed five months in the great European cities studying the zoos there and securing first-hand information as to the latest and best methods of housing and caring for park animals, birds, etc. During his trip he visited the great zoological gardens at Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp and Hamburg.
Being personally friendly with Hagenbeck, he visited that famous animal man's place at Hamburg, which is the most modern and best equipped in the world, he says. Because of his friendship he was permitted to make a careful study of the quarters, making measurements and plans of the cages, houses, drainage systems, etc, all of which would be invaluable to him here.
He took the Globe representative over the section of Franklin park to be devoted to the zoological garden, and showed him just where the men are engaged in grading and blasting for the bear dens, which is almost opposite Humbolt av, on the Seaver-st side of the park. It is an ideal location for the dens, which are to be made as natural as possible, consistent with proper drainage, etc.
Bids for the construction of the largest flying cage in the world are to be opened May 29 and it is expected that the cage will be completed and it feathered inhabitants in place by next May. This cage will be so large that it will entirely enclose six or eight great towering elms, now growing on the site, and the trees will be left undisturbed within the cage.
Dimensions of the Cage.
An idea of the size of this cage can be had from the fact that the cage in the Bronx park in New York is 132 feet long and 55 feet high, while that to be built at Franklin park will be 190 feet long and 56 feet high, or nearly 10 feet longer than the one in New York.
Plans have just been completed for the bear cages and dens, and the foundation work for these is already in progress. The cages will be completed and the animals installed in them by next year. There will be four of these great bear cages, with opportunity for more if desirable and accommodations will be provided for 23 or more bears. These cages will be built in Long Crough woods, near Seaver st.
The cages will be arranged in a great semicircle, before which is to be an open court, approached by a broad flight of steps. There is to be a fountain in the open court. About 10 feet from the front of the cages will be a barrier to prevent people getting too close to the animals, and between that and the cages will be a mass of low shrubbery. All four cages will have pools of about 20 feet width for the bears to swim in, and natural conditions will be simulated within the cages as much as possible. There will be trees within the cages, but they will be provided with guards to prevent the bears climbing and destroying them.
Each cage will be 90 feet in depth, not including the den portion, which will project from the rear. One cage is to be 130 feet long and the others about 90 feet long. Upon the suggestion of Mr Benson a drainage system will be installed so that the cages can be kept perfectly clean at all times.
Almost in front of the bear cages, under a great natural bowlder(sic) which is to act as a background for the cage, will be built the quarters of the lynx group. As little ironwork as possible will be used, but of necessity some must be visible, in the various cages. Next summer a great bird house is to be erected for winter quarters, and it will be ready to receive them by the time they most be taken in from the flying cage.
Mr Benson has already been in correspondence with a number of persons to secure animals and birds for the new zoo. In fact, at Franklin park there is a small black bear from Main, which has been donated to the new zoo by a Boston newspaper man. This bear was one year old last February. Other offers of bear, buffalo, elk and a wolf have already been made by a person wishing to donate them.
Mr Benson, in the work he has been doing at the park up to this time, has been given quarters in the office of supt Pettigrew, but he expects to change to the Overlook building and to share the rooms of the park police until some permanent offices are assigned the curator of the zoo.
Franklin Park Zoo Bear Cages
Plans have just been completed for the bear cages and dens, and the foundation work for these is already in progress(finished in 1912). The cages will be completed and the animals installed in them by next year. There will be four of these great bear cages, with opportunity for more if desirable and accommodations will be provided for 23 or more bears. These cages will be built in Long Crough woods, near Seaver st.
The cages will be arranged in a great semicircle, before which is to be an open court, approached by a broad flight of steps. There is to be a fountain in the open court. About 10 feet from the front of the cages will be a barrier to prevent people getting too close to the animals, and between that and the cages will be a mass of low shrubbery. All four cages will have pools of about 20 feet width for the bears to swim in, and natural conditions will be simulated within the cages as much as possible. There will be trees within the cages, but they will be provided with guards to prevent the bears climbing and destroying them.
Each cage will be 90 feet in depth, not including the den portion, which will project from the rear. One cage is to be 130 feet long and the others about 90 feet long. Upon the suggestion of Mr Benson a drainage system will be installed so that the cages can be kept perfectly clean at all times.
Almost in front of the bear cages, under a great natural bowlder(sic) which is to act as a background for the cage, will be built the quarters of the lynx group. As little ironwork as possible will be used, but of necessity some must be visible, in the various cages. Next summer a great bird house is to be erected for winter quarters, and it will be ready to receive them by the time they most be taken in from the flying cage.
Mr Benson has already been in correspondence with a number of persons to secure animals and birds for the new zoo. In fact, at Franklin park there is a small black bear from Main, which has been donated to the new zoo by a Boston newspaper man. This bear was one year old last February. Other offers of bear, buffalo, elk and a wolf have already been made by a person wishing to donate them.
Mr Benson, in the work he has been doing at the park up to this time, has been given quarters in the office of supt Pettigrew, but he expects to change to the Overlook building and to share the rooms of the park police until some permanent offices are assigned the curator of the zoo.
Franklin Park Zoo's Original Feline house--Interior.
In January of 1921, the lions, leopards and spotted hyena were moved to the new Lion House. Under the watchful eyes of the monkeys, and with meat tempting them into them each in succession into the travelling crate, each animal yielded and made the short trip. The exception was Sheila, the leopard, who refused the enticement offered and had to be corralled with a noose and drawn into the crate.
Franklin Park Zoo's Original Elephant house--Exterior.
Apparently in 1978, when they elephant house was being demolished, there was an attempt to remove the beautiful carving above(modeled after one of the original elephants at the zoo) but it was dropped and the trunk smashed into hundreds of pieces. Does any one know if it was ever reconstructed or exists today?
Franklin Park Zoo's Original Elephant house--Exterior.
January 1915, saw the opening of the new elephant house, home for Tony, Waddy and Mollie. The facility included an exercise yard and a pool 60 feet by 60 feet across, and sloping to seven feet deep. The elephants had come from a vaudeville show, and there was room to allow for similar performance.
Franklin Park Zoo Animal Inventory--1912
John T. Benson was the first Director of Franklin Park/Boston Zoo. RJR or Jim A., do other of you know if this is the same John T. Benson, or was he related to the Benson's Wild Animal Farm folks?
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