Professor Walter's History Lessons

A genius in life, a secret in death

Born on January 2, 1920 as Issac Yudovich Ozimov in Russia, Issac Asimov went on to become one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century.  In his time he wrote or edited over 500 books and was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University.  While his life was well known and his legacy survives in books such as iRobot and the Foundation Series his death was purposefully obscured for a decade.

In 1977 Asimov had a heart attack and in 1983 triple bypass surgery.  During the procedure he required a blood transfusion.  When he died in 1992 his brother had reported that he died of heart and kidney failure.  The truth was that he was one of the millions of victims of AIDS.  At the time Asimov wanted to come forward and let the world know what had happened to him, but his doctors warned him against it  for fear that anti-AIDS prejudice, which was prevalent at the time, would extend to his family.  After Asimov's death, his family considered releasing the information, but the controversy which erupted after USA Today forced tennis player Arthur Ashe to announce his own infection convinced them not to. 

Ten years later, after most of Asimov's doctors had died, it was decided that the truth would be made public.

-Professor Walter

Nikola Tesla, the enabler of the couch potato

According to Wikipedia

"A couch potato is a person who spends most of his or her free time sitting or lying on a couch. This stereotype often refers to a lazy and overweight person who watches a lot of television. Generally speaking, the term refers to a lifestyle in which children or adults don't get enough physical activity."

The tool of the couch potato is the remote control.  With this item a person may change channels without leaving their seat.  Millions of people use remote controls, yet few are aware that they are over 100 years old.

On July 1st 1898, Nikola Tesla applied for a patent for the first remote control.  The US Patent office issued him U.S. Patent 613,809 in November of that year for his invention.  That year he demonstrated it at Madison Square Garden by controlling a small boat he had dubbed a "teleautomaton".  Tesla's invention was enhanced and used to pilot planes in the years that followed and in 1939 the Philco Mystery Control was released as the first powered remote control for a consumer product.  In 1950 the Zenith "Lazy Bones" was the first television remote control, although it was wired.  In 1956 the Zenith Space Command became the first wireless remote control.

Today the remote control is a core component of every home entertainment system opening up a world of programming without ever needing to leave your seat.

-Professor Walter

Bob Hope for President

Bob Hope was a long time Republican donating to various political campaigns.  His popularity was not missed by those in his party and he was approached at one point as a potential presidential candidate.  Hope had to decline.  He was, in fact, a foreign born naturalized US Citizen and was not eligible for the position.  He was born in London, England and was a British citizen.

-Professor Walter

One of the earliest robots was designed in 1495

While the term robot entered the English language in 1923, the concept of a robot existed before that time.  One of the earliest was designed by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495.  His designs were documented in a notebook, and lost to history.  It was never known if he ever built it.  In the 1950s the notebook was discovered and an effort was made to construct the robot as true to the original design as possible.  The robot's design allowed it to to perform several human-like motions including sitting up, moving arms, neck and jaw. 

The reconstructed robot is now on display in Berlin.  Mario Toddei has written a book about the robot, which includes some new information about the construction of the robot.

-Professor Walter

From blood plasma to the breakfast table

The ancient Peruvian Incas from the Andes developed a basic process of freeze-drying with is the removal of water content from frozen food.  The freezing temperatures of the mountains combined with the high altitudes made this possible.  With the advent of World War II this technique was considered as a solution to the problem of storing and preserving blood plasma and penicillin.

In 1940 Richard Stetson Morse founded The National Research Corporation in Boston, MA. to research vacuum packing and freeze-drying.  The US Army had a request for 500,000 lb powdered orange juice.  Under the leadership of John M. Fox NRC's new branch, Florida Foods Corporation won a contract to provide the powder for $750,000.  However, the war ended before the factory could be built.  The company chose to proceed forward despite the end of the contract, but decided against powered orange juice.  Instead they developed a procedure to remove 80% of the water from the orange juice and invented the first concentrate frozen juice product on the market.  From a slow start, going door to door, the product quickly became a hit with the name of Minute Maid.

In 1949 the company changed its name to Minute Maid and in 1960 it was purchased by Coca-Cola.  As of today Coca-Cola is the worlds largest producer of fruit juices.

-Professor Walter

You're going to blow that where?

North American Indians had many traditional remedies, including one to assist with the stimulation of respiration.  In this method tobacco smoke was introduced, via a rectal tube, into the rectum of a drowning victim to revive them.  The first documented case of this method being used in the western world was in 1746 when a woman who appeared to have drowned was resuscitate by a sailor inserting the stem of his pipe into her rectum and air was blown into the bowl through a piece of perforated paper.  This method became well practiced, and by the dawn of the 19th century tobacco smoke enemas were standard practice and considered as beneficial as artificial respiration.

However, in 1811 Benjamin Brodie showed, through animal experimentation, that the nicotine in the tobacco smoke was a poison that had a propensity to stop the circulation of blood.  The practice began to vanish shortly thereafter. 

There were always those who doubted the credibility of the procedure and they purportedly coined the phrase, "Blowing  smoke up my ass."  The phase lives on even though the procedure has long since disappeared.

-Professor Walter

Barbera Fritchie's famous stand that never was

In 1864 John Greenleaf Whittier's wrote a famous poem about Barbara Fritchie's defiant stance against the soldiers of the Confederacy as they passed by her house in Frederick, Maryland.  She waved her flag and Andrew Jackson ordered that no harm come to her.  Whittier wrote the poem based on stories he had heard from multiple sources.  He wrote it in good faith believing it to be completely truthful.  However history tells a slightly different story.

The truth is that Fritchie was sick in bed the day the soldiers passed through, and they did not actually pass by her house.  That day she had ordered her valuables hidden so that they would not be stolen.  Her flag was waving outside and was shot multiple times by Confederate soldiers from a distance.  However Fritchie did have a flag that she waved toward  Union General Burnside's men, not Jackson's six days later.  Fritchie's adoptive daughter's daughter left this account of the occasion.

"Jackson and his men had been in Frederick and bad left a short time before. We were glad that the rebels had gone and that our troops came. My mother and I lived almost opposite aunt's place. She and my mothers cousin. Harriet Yoner, lived together. Mother said I should go and see aunt and tell her not to be frightened. You know that aunt was then almost ninety-six years old. When I reached aunt's place she knew as much as I did about matters, and cousin Harriet was with her. They were on the front porch. and aunt was leaning on the cane she always carried. When the troops marched along aunt waved her hand, and cheer after cheer went up from the men as they saw her. Some even ran into the yard. 'God bless you, old lady.' 'Let me take you by the hand,' 'May you live long, you dear old soul,' cried one after the other, as they rushed into the yard. Aunt being rather feeble, and in order to save her as much as we could, cousin Harriet Yoner said. 'Aunt ought to have a flag to wave.' The flag was hidden in the family Bible, and cousin Harriet got it and gave it to aunt. Then she waved the flag to the men and they cheered her as they went by. She was very patriotic and the troops all knew of her. The day before General Reno was killed he came to see aunt and had a talk with her."

The truth is that Mrs. Mary S. Quantrell, another Frederick woman, had flown the flag in defiance of Jackson's troops, but no on took notice.  It was Whittier's poem the solidified Fritchie's place in history, and provided inspiration for generations to follow, even though the story is not completely true.

-Professor Walter

Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
 

The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
 

Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach trees fruited deep,
 

Fair as the garden of the Lord
to the eyes of the famished rebel horde,
 

On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain-wall;
 

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
 

Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
 

Flapped in the morning wind; the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.
 

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
 

Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;
 

In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.
 

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
 

Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced; the old flag met his sight.
 

"Halt!" the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
"Fire!" out blazed the rifle-blast.
 

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
 

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
 

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
 

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
 

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
 

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;
 

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
 

All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
 

All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
 

Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;
 

And through the hill-gaps sunset light
shone over it with a warm good-night.
 

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
and the Rebel rides on his raids no more.
 

Honor to her! And let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.
 

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!
 

Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;
 

And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!

With each improvement comes greater success

In 1950 Jackie Gleason took over as the host of Cavalcade of Stars on the DuMont Television Network.  The comedy variety show had a collection of shorts, including one about a bus driver named Ralph Kramden called The Honeymooners.  The show was an attempt to capture the life of a married poor couple living in Brooklyn.  The success of the segment led to the creation of a new family sitcom in 1951.  Initial high ratings gave way to competition and the show ended as a stand alone production.  Although it returned as a sketch show until 1957 when Art Carney left.  Many credit this show with being one of the founders of the modern day sitcom. Three years after the end of the Honeymooners a new show would take off using many themes similar to the Honeymooners. 

In 1960 Hanna-Barbera produced a new show called The Flintstones.  The show was a prehistoric Honeymooners and ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC.  In addition it spawned numerous specials and a few spin off shows.  The concept borrowed from The Honeymooners created the first primetime animated show which would hold the title of the only animated prime time show until 1989.

In 1987 The Tracey Ullman show on the Fox Network was looking for content and was pitched a dysfunctional animated family sketch by Matt Groening.  Groening conceived for the concept with James L. Brooks and The Simpsons were born.  Feeding off the same base that was built by The Honeymooners and refined by The Flintstones, The Simpsons was a distorted view of the family structure that existed previously.  Now in its 21st season with 423 episodes under its belt, The Simpsons has become a staple of Sunday night programming across the United States achieving a level of success never dreamed of by its predecessors.

With each iteration of the core concept there were successes and failures.  Each time refining the concept so that each success would be as enduring as possible.

-Professor Walter

The unexpected risk of high efficiency traffic lights

There is a large effort across the United States to replace traditional light bulbs with LED lights.  LED lights last longer, use less power, and are more efficient.  Some of the areas where they have become prevalent include flashlights, vehicle lights, and traffic lights.  Unfortunately, while these new innovations do perform as expected, there are benefits to the traditional lights that are often overlooked.

In 2009 Wisconsin had deployed some of these newer traffic lights.  In December, as the winter came on full, the value of inefficiency became apparent.  Traditional lights draw more power than they release in light.  The remaining power is released as heat.  With the new efficient lights, there is no heat release.  As such, the ice and snow that falls during a storm builds up on the lights obscuring the glow.  Without the heat to melt it the traffic lights vanish in the storm.  City workers have had to resort to climbing up and scraping the ice during the storms to keep the roads safe. 

While the new lights have saved thousands in electricity bills, thee benefit of the inefficiency of the older bulbs was never considered and the lack of heat created it's own problems.  A final solution is still pending.

-Professor Walter

Break me off a piece of that... Hershey bar?

In the early 1930's a worker at a Rowntree's confectionery factory in York they they develop a product that would be a snack that a man could have in hit lunchbox for work.  The resulting product was a chocolate covered biscuit known today as the Kit Kat launched in 1935.  The name is believed to have been derived from the Kit-Cat Club, witch was an eighteenth century political club for artists.

In 1969 the company merged with Mackintosh and became Rowntree Mackintosh.  In 1987, the company went public, and in 1988 was acquired by Nestle.  Throughout the world the Kit Kat remains one of Nestle's most popular products, except in the United States.  Rowntree Mackintosh had an agreement with Hershey, where Hershey would sell the Kit Kat under license.  Despite the fact that Nestle is well established in the US, the agreement is still in place, and as such any Kit Kat purchased in the United States is a Hershey product.

-Professor Walter