Franklin TV: Franklin, 1932

Here’s a Last Look – in 3D.

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 02/15/2026

Through much of December and January our Historical Museum displayed three dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932. The exhibits are the patient painstaking work of Scott Mason – as detailed examples of miniature settings created by HO scale railroad enthusiasts. Scott raises it to a high art form.

dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932

Before the dioramas were retired (until the next time) I was compelled to get to the Museum and, working with Scott and Chris Leverone, we stereographed Scott’s liliputian landscapes from several teeny viewpoints, producing another historical form of art – Holmes 3D stereograms.

3D images were first introduced in 1850 England by Prince Albert at the first International Exposition in London’s Crystal Palace. The stereogram cards often depicted landscapes, events and dignitaries, You inserted the cards into a stereopticon to see them as if you were actually there.

dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932 - 2

dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932 - 3

Later examples of stereography came to broad popularity as Viewmaster disks that many of us collected as kids. Disney continues to produce Viewmaster disks depicting its many characters in 3D antics. Today’s 3D movies and virtual reality games are based on the same optical principles that produced these images.

 

You can actually see these images in 3D right off the page by staring far beyond them in order to fuse the Left and Right image into one 3D view.

And – as always –

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Math can explain Franklin

I had heard that the walking speed of people in cities varies according to the size of the city. The larger the size of the city, the faster the walking speed. Think about it and you can see from your own travels that this is true. Walk around Franklin. Go to Boston. Go to New York. You do need to walk much faster in New York to keep up with the flow on the sidewalk don't you?

The walking speed is one aspect of the theory that is coming together now about how cities and companies grow. Why does this matter? What has Franklin done? The population has tripled since the 1960's.

The problems Franklin faced when it was 10,000 people are different that it is now 30,000 people. The ideas that worked for 10,000 won't necessarily work for 30,000 people. Why? A multitude of reasons but there is one basic and fundamental reason that is now explained by Geoffrey West with this new theory.

Watch the video (18 minutes). More than once to get the information and begin to digest it.






Fascinating stuff. Follow the links to the TED Talk page and find additional information on the studies that have brought this theory to light.

I happen to think that Franklin tends to behave like a teenager. We are in that middle stage of growth trying to remain a kid yet forced to recognize that we have an adult-like body. We still want to play but are being forced to work, and not just 'to work' but 'to work' differently than our parents. It is a new and changing world.

How do you think this applies to Franklin?

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