Holy Moly, is this real?

[Marco B]

Someone who knows more of the history of Sud Tirol (South Tyrol) should chime in here. There was/is something of a separatist movement in the area. My grandmother had an early 6x9 Durst enlarger that said "Durst, Bolzen, Tirol" on the nameplate and all the control markings were German only.Tim

Go to the Durst website, and you will notice there is German language as well. It is just a minority language group in Italy, concentrated in the far north (like Chinese or Spanish in US maybe?, although that is not so much regionally dispersed maybe). Often, border regions tend to be "diffuse", in the sense of mixed language...

And borders in Europe tended to be far more fluid than most people think nowadays looking at a modern map, and not just because of wars. Huge chunks of land swapped on a decades or even years basis, as strategic marriages and treaties between, and death among!, members of the nobility, monarchies, and republics were made.

The "The Hague municipal historic museum" runs an animation of the "Dutch" borders from something like the period of 1000 to 1900. I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw it. And I think the historians that had to make up this animation ended up with a severe headache even thinking about, and having to determine, what should be considered as a part of the Netherlands at a certain point in time...

The concept of a "state" with (more or less!) fixed borders is just a modern invention...

So it may well be some historical artefact, like part of the Habsburg monarchy.

Marco

[nicefor88]

That's a nice piece of equipment. I want the same in my bathroooom

[ic-racer]

Italian engineering quality can be superb. Roman civil engineering still stands as some of the finest.



Not too bad in modern times:



Unfortunately, at the low end of the scale it has acquired a reputation for being neither reliable nor beautiful. It does seem mad that the company that made this is seen as the salvation of the US automobile industry:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_engineering

I just saw this now. That top one (the black one) is a Chevy.

[Marco B]

Durst brief history PDF seems to have been moved. It can now be found using the link below for anyone interested:

http://www.durst.it/fileadmin/user_u...ry-2010-EN.pdf

Marco

[MDR]

History until 1919 South Tyrol was part of Austria, after the peace treaty of St. Germain it became part of Italy. The language used in ST was 100% Austrian German. In 1939 the population of ST was offered by Hitler to return to the Reich quiet a lot declined. The Tyrolians were actually hoping to return South Tyrol to Austria but Hitler and Mussolini had other plans. Only after WWII did South Tyrol have a larger italian speaking population. Even tough the majority of todays STyrolians speaks italian there is still a large separatist movement. And most of the South Tyroleans are bilingual.

[Jeff Kubach]

That is a hell of a enlarger!

Jeff

[bblhed]

Italian engineering quality can be superb. Roman civil engineering still stands as some of the finest.



Not too bad in modern times:



Unfortunately, at the low end of the scale it has acquired a reputation for being neither reliable nor beautiful. It does seem mad that the company that made this is seen as the salvation of the US automobile industry:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_engineering

You know that Fiat made Ferrari street cars for years right? Quality can be had for a price, there are just not enough people that can afford to pay the price so you get companies that lower their standards to broaden their customer base.

The cycle goes like this, spend years building a reputation for quality, lower prices to gain market share, lower quality to increase profit, repeat the cycle until product warranty claims reduce profits in a significant way. Once the company name is trashed, sell the company or just the name and run off with the money. The company that emerges either makes a different product, and or spends years rebuilding the name then the cycle starts again.

[Nicholas Lindan]

I just saw this now. That top one (the black one) is a Chevy.

Ah, the new Chevy Daytona. Made in Lordstown. 1.1l/4AA NiMH hybrid power.

And then there was the Dodge Daytona for a demonstration of Chrysler's styling prowess, makes the Fiat takeover look like a very good thing indeed:

credit: Dave Kanofsky / 440magnum.com

Saw a 599 driving down Mayfield road the other day.

[bdial]

Aside from Durst enlargers, my favorite Italian technology comes from Campagnolo.

I've never owned one, but Fiat's don't seem to be any better or worse than the multitude of other inexpensive smallish cars.
As with all the others, there are people who swear by the models that are supposed to be not so good, and people who swear at the models that are supposed to be the very best.

[DREW WILEY]

Heck, I have one enlarger way bigger than that thing. I load the negative stage from a rolling platform ladder, and if the colorhead has to be removed for service, I have a block and tackle arrangement. I can
stand on the easel if needed - it will easily support me.