Professor Walter's History Lessons

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 long before. One of the earliest was designed by Leonardo da Vinci around 1495, though it's unknown if he attempted to build one. His designs were documented in a notebook then lost to history.  In the 1950s the notebook was discovered and an effort was made to construct the robot, staying as true to the original design as possible. The robot's design allowed it to perform several human-like motions, including sitting up and 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 its construction.

-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

Burning bright for a short time is better than never suceeding at all

In the 1970's Dan Bricklin watched a professor at Harvard Business School create a financial model on a blackboard.  When the professor made an error he had to erase and re-write a series of sequential numbers.  Bricklin noticed this and thought that it could be automated via a computer.

The idea was refined by Bob Frankston and together they developed a product for their company Software Arts called VisiCalc, the world's first spreadsheet.  In 1979 they released it for the Apple II and the Apple transformed from hobbyist's toy to a useful financial tool for business.  The enormous success of VisiCalc spawned imitators and soon VisiCalc lost favor as newer applications worked better.  At the time there had never been a patent for an application so the VisiCalc team never received royalties from the successes of the VisiCalc's clones.  

Perhaps the greatest impact of VisiCalc was the high probability that it was the motivating factor that moved IBM into the personal computer market.  With IBM's entry came Microsoft's success and the dominant computer platform still in operation today. 

All because a Professor at Harvard made a mistake.

-Professor Walter

If you can't beat them...

Annie Oakley was born in Ohio in 1860.  As she grew she became quite proficient with a rife and her skill was well known in the area.  In 1881, traveling show marksman Francis E. Butler made a bet ($2000 in today's dollars) with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost that Butler, age 31, could beat any local shooter. Into the fray stepped Oakley, age 21, and after Butler missed the 25th shot Oakley won.

Butler's loss became his greatest success as he began courting Oakley.  They were married in 1882 and remained loyal to each other throughout their lives.

-Professor Walter

 
 

Excuse me, but you look a little yellow

In 1964 Doric Foods of Mount Dora, Florida created a new drink called Sunny Delight.  The drink enjoyed much success in the United States and in 1999 was launched in the UK.  Within a year it became the third best selling soft drink behind Pepsi and Coke, based on the claims that it was a healthier alternative.  The Sunny Delight in the UK was very similar to the Sunny Delight in the US, however it used beta carotene for the coloring and additional vitamin A.

Since Sunny Delight was primarily water, high fructose corn syrup, and less than 2% juice, its heath properties were brought into question by the press and authorities.  Just as the negative backlash was reaching a peak something would happen that would cause Sunny Delight change their name and image to try and put the past behind them.

In 1999 Dr Duncan Cameron from Glan Clywd hospital had a patient who was a four year old girl whose hands and face had turned yellow and orange.  Further investigation found the beta carotene to be the cause.  The child had been consuming too much in the form of 1.5 liters of Sunny Delight a day.  Fortunately the condition disappears within a few weeks of not consuming Sunny Delight.  While the same affliction can occur from the consumption of too many carrots, the damage to Sunny Delight's reputation was severe.  By 2001 sales had more than halved.

In 2003 Sunny Delight disappeared from store shelves.  In its place was SunnyD, which contained 5% juice in the US and 70% juice in the UK.  Sales have not recovered to previous levels, but no one has turned yellow.

-Professor Walter