...A CONCRETE TRUTH?...
...This video gives us a glimpse of the history of concrete lamposts courtesy of the
Concrete Utilities Lamp Post Museum.
At around the 3-minute mark, you will see a concrete lamp post, which is dated in the clip as being from the 1930s...
At around the 3-minute mark, you will see a concrete lamp post, which is dated in the clip as being from the 1930s...
Below is a photograph shown on Pete Bowes' tomsbytwo blog. Pete had asked the question regarding the name of the street shown on the street sign which was attached to what appears to be a street lamp post, you can see it in the left background of the image below:
Now let's take a close look at the lamp post and street sign:
The post itself is a concrete one. Concrete lamp posts were invented in 1921, they were constructed of concrete with a steel tube down the middle. The tube acted as reinforcement and it also carried either gas or cables for gas lights or electric lights. They were gradually adopted worldwide and as per the video (Liverpool UK) at the head of this article, they were installed in the UK in the 1930s. I am as sure as I can be that Australia would have adopted them soon after, If someone cares to chase the information down and either confirm it or otherwise, you'll probably find the records in the Victorian State Library.
That dates the image as being the mid-1930s and not much earlier which makes young Charlie, born in 1905 I think, in his mid to late 20s when the pic was taken. This in turn would make him around 43 in 1948. As for the man next to him, you would need to adjust his age upwards based on his date of birth being 1895. In other words, he would be 53 in 1948 and too old to be the Somerton Man.
As for the name of the street, not known as yet but will see if the pic can be enhanced further.