Professor Walter's History Lessons

The Ford Model T - A Hill Challenged Vehicle

Introduced in 1908, the Ford Model T was the car that changed the world. Quickly the affordable car spread through the United States and then abroad. As the first major success of the burgeoning auto industry the Model T became the test bed for design ideas that would later become standard or disappear completely. One of these areas where the Model T suffered was the gas tank.

The 10 gallon tank was mounted beneath the front seat feeding the carburetor via gravity. This placement worked well except with the tank ran low. When that occurred the car would lose its fuel supply when going up a hill. The solution, that was employed, was to back up the hills rather than go forward. This technique negated the design flaw. This technique had to be employed until 1926, 18 years after the first unit rolled off the assembly line,  when the fuel tank was moved on most models. The Model T would continue being produced until 1927 when the Model A replaced it.

-Professor Walter

16 2/3 RPM at 55 MPH

Peter Goldmark was an early pioneer in the field of communications, developing things such as a color television, the 33 1/3 record and a video cassette. As with all inventors some of his creations were more successful than others. The color television he developed was not compatible with the black and white sets of the day and as such was never adopted (although the camera technology was used for the moon landings) and his video cassette proved too expensive and was quickly replaced by Sony's video cassette. His 33 1/3 record was a smash hit and remains the record standard to this day.  One of his inventions did receive quick adoption before failure.

Derived from his 33 1/3 record success Goldmark created the "Highway Hi-Fi" a dashboard mounted record player for cars. The Hi-Fi units were only available as factory options in Chrysler's with Columbia the only distributor of the 7" 16 2/3 RPM disc, which were custom created for this application to reduce skipping at highway speeds along with a counter weighted arm. This new innovation hit the market in 1956 but support soon waned.

The player had some critical problems. There were only 40 records available and the system was prone to failures and skipping. The high cost of warranty repair combined with the limited interest caused Chrysler to re-think it's investment in the system and it began to disappear from their vehicles. In 1960 they reintroduced the Highway HiFi, this time made by RCA, with the ability to play standard 45 RPM records, but the skipping issue persisted and public interest never fully materialized. 1961 was the last year for this stage in auto audio technology. It would be seven more years before a driver could bring their music with them in the car, that was the year the 8-track made its debut appearance.

-Professor Walter

With special thanks from the #2 Pencil Association

Reynold B. Johnson was a Michigan physics teacher in the 1930s and he was tired. After another late night of grading tests by hand, he decided that there had to be a better way. Working nights in his basement he developed a machine that could read the answers selected by filling in circles. After testing the conductivity of the paper, he found that, when the circle was filled in by pencil, the graphite changed the readings. The machine could recognize which answer was selected, allowing the answer to be read as either correct or incorrect based on an answer key. In 1934 IBM learned of Johnson's invention and hired him on the spot. The real breakthrough came in 1939 when the SATs switched to the automated system and standardized tests would never be the same.

Johnson stayed with IBM, eventually becoming manager of the Advanced Systems Development Division laboratory in San Jose, CA. In the course of his work he helped develop the prototype for the half-inch videocassette tape that Sony used, as well as leading the team that created the world's first disk drive. In 1965 he was named an IBM fellow, the first of many personal achievements. He obtained more than 90 patents, received the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan in 1986, the IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems Award was established in 1991, and in 1996 he was awarded the Franklin Institute's Certificate of Merit. Even after retirement he continued to invent, creating the microphonograph used in Fisher Price Talk to Me books.

Johnson died of melanoma on September 15, 1998 at the age of 92.

-Professor Walter

If at first you don't succeed, fail, fail, again.

We've all been taught about the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, and their famous December 17, 1903 achievement of the first powered flight. The potential for sustainable flight was there, but their initial flight lasted less than a minute and achieved heights of roughly ten feet. While even this was ground breaking, it was not a viable machine for commercial or government use. It would not be until October 5, 1905, when Wilbur Wright flew the Flyer III 24 miles in 39 minutes and 23 seconds, that the full potential of powered flight was finally in sight. That single flight was longer than all flights in 1903 and 1904 combined. The Wright Brothers wrote to the US Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, offering to sell aircraft to the U.S. Military.

While the first flight rocked the world, it didn't really change anything other than proving powered flight was, in fact, possible. It would take two more years before practical flight was realistic. Over the next few years the Wright Brothers would travel the world, contracting with local firms to build their Flyers. On June 29, 1909, they finally demonstrated the first U.S. Military plane, the Military Flyer. That day Orville took the new plane up. And into a tree. After repairs the first successful demonstration occurred on July 27. And the rest, as they say, is history.

-Professor Walter

The man who single-handedly launched the United States into a depression

Jay Cooke was possibly the most important banker during the Civil War and post-war period. His clever advertising helped increase the sale of war bonds which, in turn, helped to fund the Union. After the war he founded the famous banking house "Jay Cooke and Company." Then, abruptly, on September 18, 1873, he closed the doors of his bank forever. A panic ensued and thirty seven other banking houses and brokerages shut their doors that same day. The Stock Exchange followed, and by the end of the year over five thousand business had failed.

What Cooke did is not too far removed from the shady banking exploits we hear of today. Beginning in 1869, he invested heavily in the Northern Pacific Railway. The railway was considered a high risk venture. Not only were new trains being constructed across the west at unexpectedly high costs, but the model itself was flawed: linking together small towns in the wilderness is not particularly profitable. Railroad Baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, who understood the industry well, pinpointed the problem with the investment strategy:

"Building railroads from nowhere to nowhere is not a legitimate business."

Not unexpectedly, Cooke's get-rich-quick endeavour failed, leading to the ruin of thousands of others in the process. After the collapse of his banking house, the Northern Pacific Railway slipped into bankruptcy in 1875. When the depression he sparked finally ended in 1879, Cooke was able to recover enough to pay his debts, but he never rose to prominence again.

Ironically the Northern Pacific Railway persevered through many difficult economic times, and on March 2, 1970 it was consolidated with other railways into the Burlington Northern Railroad. This nearly 100 years after it played a pivotal role in the financial collapse of the United States.

-Professor Walter

Almost late for its own party

The Jaguar E-Style is a vehicle that is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful and glamorous cars ever made. It was ranked first in the Daily Telegraph's list of the "100 most beautiful cars" and first in Sports Car International magazine's Top Sport Cars of the 1960s. Even today one is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of its permanent design collection. Unveiled at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, it caused a sensation for its looks and its ability to reach 150 miles per hour. Unfortunately the sporty coupe almost didn't make it in time.

Last minute tweaks and refinements delayed the delivery. The car was finally ready the day before the show, but it was in the British Midlands, about 700 miles from Geneva. In a mad race, the E-Style averaged 70 miles per hour on the 12 hour trip, arriving at the convention with only twenty minutes to spare. The car didn't get any rest as it was presented at the Restaurant du Parc des Eaux Vives where journalists were given rides on a hill-climb course to substantiate the engine's power claims. There was so much excitement generated that another Jaguar completed the rapid race to Geneva in order to give additional rides alongside the original.

Manufactured until 1975, the E-Style, which Enzo Ferrari would call "the most beautiful car in the world," would earn a place in the hearts of auto enthusiasts for over fifty years. But for some lead on the pedal, it almost didn't make it.

-Professor Walter

 

This baby's primed and ready to fire! Now let's have some breakfast!

In 1901, Alexander P. Anderson became the Curator of the Herbarium at Columbia University, a position which allowed him time to pursue a hobby: scientific experimentation. One of his goals was to increase the digestibility of starches. Furthering that goal, he traveled to Munich, Germany to witness a new cooking technique, where they were heating rice in a test tube until the grains cooked. The scientists warned Anderson to be careful when experimenting with the technique, because sealing the tube would cause intense pressure and the contents would explode. It's unclear whether Anderson simply forgot their guidance, but the end result was that, sure enough, the tube exploded. What he found would change the world -- or at least how the world ate breakfast.

Among the shards of glass, he discovered puffed rice. The high pressure heat and sudden release caused the rice to expand to ten times its original size. It turns out a tiny amount of water was flashed into steam causing the "puffed" effect. He patented the approach immediately and set about perfecting the process. Through a series of dangerous experiments, he worked to perfect a way to make the puffed rice, without the inclusion of broken glass. At one point an explosion damaged the floor of his workshop and workers refused to enter it again while he was working on the problem. The solution came in an unusual form: a surplus Spanish-American War cannon.

Anderson found that when he fired rice from the canon, the sudden pressure and release would puff it properly. After some tweaking, he partnered with Quaker Oats to develop puffed rice and wheat products through the Anderson Puffed Rice Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quaker Oats. At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 puffed rice made its debut. Eight bronze cannons exploded puffed rice over the heads of the crowd and breakfast was never the same again.

-Professor Walter

Legal Assassination by Proxy

In 1875, a teenaged James Bonsack saw an ad from the Allen and Ginter Tobacco Company, offering $75,000 to anyone who could invent a machine to roll cigarettes. At the time, cigarettes were an expensive novelty, and each were hand rolled. Bonsack was convinced that he could produce just such a device, and through persistence convinced several friends to pool their resources to purchase the raw materials. Unfortunately, progress was slow and Bonsack's friends lost interest. Before the machine was completed they sold their shares in the project to him.

Though his efforts were delayed when he went off to college in 1878, upon his return, his father, Jacob, set up a space in his woolen mill so that Bonsack could continue the project. With help from his brother, he was finally able to complete the machine. When they went to patent the device, pride in their accomplishment turned to dismay when they learned that they'd been beaten to the punch by a man named Albert Hook. However Hook's machine was not a great success, and while the $18,000 the Bonsacks spent to buy Hook out was rather high for an untried device, Jacob had faith in James's invention. With patent in hand, the Bonsacks were ready to make a presentation to Allan and Ginter.

While in transit, the boxcar carrying the unit caught fire and the device was destroyed. In a stroke of strange luck, the loss of the prototype provided them with an insurance payout large enough to let them build a newer, better machine. The new prototype was so solid that they were convinced that they were sitting on a gold mine. Rather than follow through with their original plan, father and son formed the Bonsack Machine Company to build and lease the devices themselves. Allen and Ginter was their first customer, and by 1884 they had seven units, each capable of producing 120,000 cigarettes in ten hours. One machine could do the work of 48 people. High speed production led to more reasonable prices, bringing cigarettes to the masses.

Devotion to an idea and the drive to follow through would lead the Bonsacks to fortune.  And lead millions of people to a life of addiction.

-Professor Walter

How chocolate changed the world

In 1945 Percy Spencer was building magnatrons for radar sets at Raytheon. One fateful day he left a chocolate bar in his pocket while testing the magnetron and was surprised to discover the bar had melted. Further testing found that the microwaves had melted the bar. Next came popcorn kernels, which popped. And then an egg, which exploded in the face of the tester.  It was clear they had stumbled upon a new cooking method, and on October 8, 1945 Raytheon applied for a patent.

In 1947 the first commercial microwave was built, known as the Radarange, and the cooking world would never be the same. Unfortunately, the high voltage needed to run the device, and the impractical water cooling system  made them unrealistic for home use.

By the 1950s the technology had improved and the Tappan Stove Company licensed the technology so that they could sell a home microwave oven. The Tappan oven was designed as an in-wall oven with a 220 volt fixed power source. Introduced at the price of $1,250, they did not sell well and the first home microwave was declared a failure. It was more than a decade before it was given another try.

In 1967, Amana, which had been acquired by Raytheon in 1965, would change the world with the first practical residential microwave oven. The Radarange sold for a mere $495 and promised flameless electronic cooking in the home. By 1970, 40,000 units a year were sold. That number ballooned to one million by 1975, actually out-selling standard gas ranges, driven by higher efficiency models and a falling price point. In terms of percentages, 1% of all homes in America had a microwave in 1970. By 1976 the number was about 60%, or approximately 52 million US residences. Today those numbers are closer to 90%, and a home is not complete without one.

All because Percy Spencer left a chocolate bar in his pocket.

-Professor Walter

From an uninspired ad account to one of the the greatest advertising icons in history

In 1954 Phillip Morris took a weak product's advertising account and moved it to Leo Burnett in Chicago.  At the time Marlboro cigarettes had red paper to hide lipstick marks and was marketed with the slogan, "Mild As May."  As one would expect, it was marketed to women and held only one quarter of one percent of the market. 

Burnett decided they would take the brand in a whole new direction with a new campaign.  First they redesigned the box into flip-top style with bold red and white.  Then they picked a cowboy to be the new spokesman, whom they would call the "Marlboro Man."  The success was unprecedented and in some cultures the now familiar pack and spokesman was once better known than Mickey Mouse.  No matter how rugged the various Marlboro Men looked, most of them weren't even cowboys.  They were actually pilots.  The original photographer, Constantin Joffe, explained, "the most successful Marlboro men were pilots, and do you know why?  Because pilots seem to have a little wrinkle around the eyes."

Take a look at a pre-Burnett mother targeted ad and a Burnett "manly man" targeted ad and make your own decision as to which is best:

-Professor Walter