Maggie's Farm

Reposted from July 27, 2005

The young Cornell engineer Willis Haviland Carrier patented his "Apparatus for Treating Air" in 1906, for industrial purposes, and it was quickly taken up by the paper industry. By 1926, Hudson's Department Store in Detroit had A/C, which was a huge draw. His technique came to him in an instant of inspiration at a train station. By 1928, residential machines first became available, and after the war they became common in new housing developments. But their appearance in movie theaters in the 40s was maybe the most dramatic event - even more important than the magical moment of color in the Wizard of Oz. The A/C alone was worth the price of the 25-cent ticket. The first air-conditioned car was the 1940 Packard.

While we must be grateful to Mr. Carrier on days like today, the downside is that his machines eliminated the traditional months-long July and August vacations to places like New Hampshire, Cape Cod, Maine, and the Berkshires, where at least nights are cool and breezy. And it eliminated the wonderful screened "sleeping porch" which late 1800s houses often located on the second floor, in the back, of course. My Great Aunt Buffie had one, and her bed got moved out there for the summer. Camping out, in town. And I suppose it made the old front porch redundant too, where you rocked and sipped beer or lemonade in your undershirt to the tune of the crickets and katydids, smoked a Lucky or two, watched the young folks promenading past, flirting and courting, and could hear, in the distance, the muted, murmering conversations of the neighbors on their porches. A/C pulled people indoors, and isolated them, I suppose, from both neighbor and nature. Not to mention its effect on high-rise buildings - A/C is right up there with Mr. Elisha Graves Otis and his elevator.

Many traditionalist Yankees continue to eschew air conditioning at home, but they don't sleep very well in the summer. And they drip sweat on their paperwork. They view A/C as a weenie pantywaist luxury, unnatural and indulgent. Which it is, for sure. But what a fine and inexpensive luxury. Surely it's not a sin? Call me ambivalent about it - but I could not work without it.

A major effect in the US was that it permitted the huge business growth, and population growth, of the South and the Southwest. I guess you could blame Carrier for the Red State phenomenon, in a way. You can read about the the A/C compressor and refrigerant works here, and more about Mr. Carrier here.

A repost from Feb, 2005:

From a piece by Gelertner in Daily Standard:

Benjamin Disraeli--twice prime minister of Great Britain, romantic novelist, inventor of modern conservatism--was a neocon in the plain sense of the word, a "new conservative" who began his career on the left. Conservative thinking dates to the dawn of organized society, but modern conservatism--a mass movement, a philosophy not for aristocrats and the rich but for everybody--was Disraeli's creation. That modern conservatism should have been invented by a 19th-century neocon is thought provoking. More surprising: His redefinition of conservatism is still fresh, and his political philosophy has never been more apt.

Conservatism is the most powerful and electric force in the American intellectual landscape. Young people no longer discover the left and get excited; they are far more likely to get their intellectual kicks discovering and experimenting with conservatism. But what exactly do conservatives believe? How do they resolve the seeming paradox that so many conservatives revere the past yet are also progressives, determined to move this nation forward and let it grow, stretch, and inhabit more and more of its own best self? Disraeli produced a definition of conservatism that resolves the problem. It is so terse and compelling, it ranks as a milestone of political thought.

He was a statesman who remodeled Europe and a thinker who examined some of the hardest of all political, social, and philosophical questions: How should democratic government work, what does party politics mean, where do the Jews fit in? I too "would lift up my voice to heaven, and ask," says the hero of his novel Tancred, "What is DUTY, and what is FAITH? What ought I to DO, and what ought I to BELIEVE?" On these and related questions, Disraeli said fantastically improbable things that would be easy to dismiss except that many of them are true.

Read the whole thing.

Kirsh at the New York Sun reviews a new book on Agincourt, A Victory Owed to God, by Barker. Sounds good. Where do they find writers as good and knowledgeable as Kirsh? Anyway, had to include this quote:

This story shall the good man teach his son:
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers:
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother: be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen in England, now abed,
Shall think themselves accurst they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks,
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

(Here's the whole speech.)

Roger Sandall became curious about the domestication of the horse, but he found out that modern prehistorians have no interest in such grand topics, but instead are interested in guinea pigs and mammoth droppings.

A wonderful piece, including rodeos and Vergil.

Image: Alexander on Bucephalus, from the piece.

Francis Fukayama takes a fresh look at his 1992 book. He remains a neo-Hegelian.

Just one quote:

The question is, therefore, whether the principles of liberty and equality that we see as the foundation of liberal democracy have a similar universal significance. I believe that this is the case, and I think that there is an overall logic to historical evolution that explains why there should be increasing democracy around the world as our societies evolve. It is not a rigid form of historical determinism like Marxism, but a set of underlying forces that drive human social evolution in a way that tells us that there should be more democracy at the end of this evolutionary process than at the beginning.

Take a few minutes, and read the whole thing.

With all of the new talk about obtaining jet fuel from coal (h/t, Classical Values), it's a good time to review the subject of Town Gas.

At the turn of the century, every town in America had a Gas Works, generally adjacent to, but on the wrong side of, the train tracks.

As the local Gas Works, coal was heated under low-oxygen conditions, producing a synthetic gas which lit town lamps since around 1800, and later stoves and heat. This gas - "synthetic gas" or "coal gas" - was mainly CH4 (methane).

"Town Gas" lit the streetlights and indoor lamps of America until electrification.

The chemist Bergius received a Nobel Prize in 1931 for creating a high-pressure efficient method of coal gasification and the production of liquid fuels from coal. There was worry, at that time, about the imminent depletion of petroleum resources.

"Natural" gas, from petroleum wells, did not become available in the US until after WW2, when the gas pipelines began construction. Prior to that time, the gas was burned off at the wellhead. Natural gas is a mix of varying-length carbon-hydrogen compounds. Today, the longer carbon chain compounds are extracted (eg propane) and sold as pressurized liquid gas, leaving the smaller chain compounds to the pipelines - mainly methane and ethane.

A neat little history of the gas business in a Connecticut town here. Basic chemistry of these compounds and prcesses here.

Image: circa 1920 gas ranges. Gas ranges began to appear at the turn of the century, replacing cooking with wood, coal and charcoal. Hence the expression "Now we're cooking with gas."

"Citizens assemble with the sole goal of declaring that they disapprove of the course of government. To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows...An American does not know how to converse, but he discusses; he does not discourse, but he holds forth. He always speaks to you as to an assembly."

Democracy in America, 1831

The first time that this day hath been yet observed: and Mr. Mills made a most excellent sermon, upon “Lord forgive us our former iniquities;” speaking excellently of the justice of God in punishing men for the sins of their ancestors. Home, and John Goods comes, and after dinner I did pay him 30l. for my Lady, and after that Sir W. Pen and I into Moorfields and had a brave talk, it being a most pleasant day, and besides much discourse did please ourselves to see young Davis and Whitton, two of our clerks, going by us in the field, who we observe to take much pleasure together, and I did most often see them at play together. Back to the Old James in Bishopsgate Street, where Sir W. Batten and Sir Wm. Rider met him about business of the Trinity House. So I went home, and there understand that my mother is come home well from Brampton, and had a letter from my brother John, a very ingenious one, and he therein begs to have leave to come to town at the Coronacion. Then to my Lady Batten’s; where my wife and she are lately come back again from being abroad, and seeing of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw hanged and buried at Tyburn. Then I home.

The London Blitz

Scroll down this page and check the "Bomb Damage" section, which they offer in three levels of map resolution. The preservation of St. Paul's is as remarkable as the extent of the devastation of the bombing and the V1 and V2 rockets.

Afghanistan's Railroads

A Brit railroad buff named Grantham has written an interesting history of Afghanistan's railroads, which ends up being a history of Afghanistan itself. Afghanistan has been a part of "The Great Game" of international politics for a long time. At present, the country is basically a railroad-free zone.

Thanks, Chris, for forwarding this piece which, without the web, almost no-one would ever read.

Savonarola, Erasmus, and the pre-Reformation

I found a piece (actually, part of a lecture series by Kreis) which nicely and succinctly addresses what was going on in Italy, and in Europe, during the 1400s and early 1500s. Specifically, the differences in trends between northern and southern Europe; the power of Savonarola and his Bonfires of the Vanities; and the poor reputation of the Church at that time leading up to Luther.

To view Savonarola as a "bad guy" is to make the error of viewing history through our present point of view. He was a reformer, an evangelist, and a true believer with many intellectuals and artists as followers (including Lorenzo the Magnificent and Botticelli), and it was the Church's fear and distrust of him which led to his execution at the spot below, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where I took this photo 12 days ago.

Tomb of Machiavelli

In Santa Croce, ten paces from Michelangelo's, and twenty paces from Galileo's. Lousy photo - they don't allow flash.

As Maggie's Farm readers know, Nick Machiavelli (1469-1527), the father of modern political science, was no dark, cynical, sinister thinker, just a hard-headed realist about human nature and the handling of political power. Practical, and a good writer, too.

A few of my favorite sound bites:

"Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society."

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous." 

"The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love." 

Xenophon's Anabasis, and the March of the Ten Thousand

VDH has a nice piece on Xenophon's report of the adventures and misadventures of the Greek mercenaries who were hired by Cyrus in 401 BC to remove his brother, Artaxerxes, from power in Persia.

Also, because of our appreciation of VDH, a free ad for his new book on the Peloponnesian War, which shortly preceded the Persian adventure of the tough, battle-hardened Greek hoplites.

Choooo chooo

Good timeline of railroad history. And the Central Pacific Railroad photo history website.

Admiral Nelson's t-shirt

and other personal items to be auctioned. His undershirt expected to bring $500,000. Says Sotheby's re the Admiral:

"He was remarkably brave in battle, but he also wanted recognition for this, and was remarkably weak in his personal life," Grist said. "He'd face the French and Spanish fleet much easier than he would face his first wife."

Who wouldn't? Piece here.

A Comment on War, Peace, Freedom, and Bombs

It isn't every day that we at Maggie's are honored by a lengthy comment from a Sgt., USMC WW2 and Korea vet. This from Jim Baxter from Choicemaker:

Every September, I recall that is more than half a
century since I landed at Nagasaki with the 2nd Marine Division in the original occupation of Japan following World War II. This time every year, I have watched and listened to the light- hearted "peaceniks" and their light-headed symbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floating candles, and sonorous chanting and I recall again that "Peace is not a cause - it is an effect."

In July, 1945, my fellow 8th RCT Marines [I was a BARman] and I returned to Saipan following the successful conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa. We were issued new equipment and replacements joined each outfit in preparation for our coming amphibious assault on the home islands of Japan.

B-29 bombing had leveled the major cities of Japan, including Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo.

We were informed we would land three Marine divisions and six Army divisions, perhaps abreast, with large reserves following us in. It was estimated that it would cost half a million casualties to subdue the Japanese homeland.

Read his whole comment on Maggie's, here. And thanks, Jim