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HISTORY: unwrapped – October 2006

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October 31, 2006 – The Fight Against Evil

After World War II, Christians and the Church were criticized for remaining passive about the Nazis and the Holocaust. It is true that many Christians chose not to oppose the Nazis in spite of Hitler’s hostility to Christianity and his racist attitude toward the Jews. Catholic and Protestant groups that openly opposed the Hitler regime were severely repressed or worse. Some Protestant groups supported Hitler believing that their priority was to be German not Christian. But Protestants Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others strongly opposed this viewpoint and rejected Nazism. As a consequence, many were executed. There were those who remained passive in public but quietly and discreetly opposed Hitler behind the scenes. Pope Pius XII did not publicly denounce the Nazis, but 5,000 Jews were rescued and sheltered at the Vatican at different times during the war. Across Europe, Protestant and Catholic churches were devastated by the war. Churches and monasteries in Nazis-occupied territories were closed down. Church leaders were imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Realizing that they might have to pay with their lives, many risked helping the Jews. Corrie Ten Boom and her family became active in the underground movement in Holland hiding Jewish neighbors above their clock shop. Betrayed by an informant, they were sent to a concentration camp where only Corrie survived. Countless Protestants and Catholics were willing to become martyrs for their stand against the evil Hitler and his regime.

October 30, 2006 – Pioneer of Surgical Anesthesia

After receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839, William Crawford Long returned to Georgia to take over a rural medical practice. Long had some experience with the recreational use of ether in medical school. He noticed at laughing gas parties and "ether frolics” (recreational use of ether) that participants did not feel pain when they fell or bumped into things. He believed that an anesthetic could be developed to lessen or remove the extreme pain that surgical patients endured. Experimenting with sulphuric ether, Long discovered that his patients felt no pain at all during surgery. Over the next four years, Long conducted experiments involving ether but did not keep official records. Word of his successful experiments spread. A dentist, William Morton, claimed to be the first to successfully use sulphuric ether in surgery. It is true that Morton gave the first public demonstration of the anesthesia, but Long was recognized as its true pioneer. We can all be grateful for Dr. Long’s efforts in providing pain free surgery for patients.

October 27, 2006 – Genocide in Armenia

In an attempt to persuade his staff that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated, Adolf Hitler asked, “Who remembers today the extermination of the Armenians?” Hitler was referring to the genocide of nearly 1.5 million Armenian Christians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks beginning in 1915. Turkish authorities deny that the atrocities ever occurred, but the bloodbath has been one of the well-documented tragedies of our time. Prior to the genocide, the second class Armenians and Turks lived in harmony and conflict was rare. But Nationalism came on the scene and made ethnic groupings self-conscious. The Armenians became more isolated and the only major Christian minority. The extreme Turkish nationalists took complete dictatorial control and planned to eradicate the Armenian race. The leaders were murdered and the Armenians “relocated for their own good,” and weapons were confiscated. Able-bodied men were “drafted” and immediately killed or worked to death. Once the towns were emptied of men, the women, children, and elderly were sent on death marches to the Syrian Desert. They were denied food and water and many were brutalized and killed. Those who survived were killed upon arrival. Thousands of children were left orphaned by the holocaust. Unfortunately, genocide has not disappeared and continues in parts of the world today.

October 26, 2006 – Mind Control and the CIA

The book The Search for the Manchurian Candidate and the subsequent 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate is based on U.S. government mind-control research. Author John Marks had access to government documents, and the CIA admitted there were more files relating to behavioral research. The CIA claims that their program of hypnotically programming someone like the assassin in the film was a failure. LSD was synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann in 1938. Its psychedelic properties were discovered five years later when Dr. Hofmann accidentally absorbed a tiny amount through his skin. The CIA was onto acid long before the flower children of the sixties. Some psychedelic pioneers took their first trips thanks to the CIA and its research studies. The CIA used LSD to reprogram the human personality. But the agency and the military couldn’t figure out how to harness the drug’s power to control people. The CIA’s mind-control program ran from 1953-1964, and U.S. intelligence and military operations had similar programs running since World War II. Experiments often had dangerous and unpredictable outcomes for the people taking the drug. Some suffered brain damage and other debilitating conditions, and a few died. Despite a Senate committee’s findings that the CIA was a huge failure in its mind-control research, many refuse to believe that a secret government program to control the thoughts of its citizens does not exist.

October 25, 2006 – Surviving Surgery

By the middle of the nineteenth century, sepsis infection after surgery caused the death of nearly half of surgical patients. Surgeons would declare that the operation was successful but the patient died. Some believed that bad air caused infection, so surgeons would attempt to keep air away from wounds. Joseph Lister did not believe this explanation. Lister, the son of a physicist, studied to become a physician. He was appointed surgeon at the Glasglow Royal Infirmary and put in charge of its new surgical building. The hope was that infection in patients would decrease in the brand new building. That was not the case. Lister reported that half of his amputee patients died from infection. In 1865, Louis Pasteur suggested that decay was caused by living organisms in the air entering a wound and causing it to ferment. Lister made the connection with wound sepsis. When he began cleaning and treating wounds with a solution of carbolic acid, his patients remained free of infection. Lister’s methods were met with indifference and hostility, but gradually doctors began to support his antiseptic techniques. He was a deeply religious man who had joined the Scottish Episcopal Church as a young man. Lister was not interested in success or financial reward. He believed his life was directed by God and remained firm in his purpose. We all benefit from this humble man who remained steadfast in his search to improve surgical procedures so many years ago.

October 24, 2006 – Trouble in Tokyo

Progress can be a good thing, but progress can also bring problems as the city of Tokyo has experienced. Tokyo is one of the wealthiest cities in the world with its land so expensive that in 1987, it was reported that it would cost more to purchase the city’s metropolitan area than to buy all the land in the United States. Tokyo is one of the world’s most overcrowded cities causing property values to skyrocket. It suffers some of the worst pollution, and the commuter problem is a nightmare. “Pushers” in white gloves are hired to cram people into the trains. Enjoying leisure time in Tokyo is difficult. The Japanese love golf, but there are few courses and club membership is expensive. The Japanese have developed a cheaper alternative with the multistory practice ranges. This is often the closest a Tokyo resident gets to a round of golf. Japan has one of the richest economies, but its population density causes the typical Japanese to live in very cramped quarters. Ninety percent of the houses have 1000 square feet or less. The majority of the homes in Tokyo never receive any direct sunlight and the sanitation is primitive by Western standards. Capsule hotels have sprung up in Tokyo and other Japanese cities which can accommodate four times as many customers as the conventional hotel. The capsules are air conditioned with television, radio, a folding desk, and a telephone and just enough space to stretch out and sleep. Even with little land, few natural resources, and crowded conditions, the Japanese people are still able to compete with the world’s economic super powers.

October 23, 2006 – Franklin and the French Spy

Benjamin Franklin spent ten years in England trying to reconcile the breach between Great Britain and the American colonies. Franklin slowly became committed to independence after realizing the futility of repairing the ever-widening chasm between the two countries. The day after Franklin returned home to Philadelphia, he was chosen to be one of Pennsylvania’s representatives to the Second Continental Congress. A Committee of Secret Correspondence was formed with the mission of corresponding with other countries for support against England. With his many European connections, Franklin became the committee’s most prominent member. By taking up the pen, he entered the world of espionage. France had been humiliated with its defeat in the Seven Year’s War and was interested in supporting the colonies against England, but it didn’t want to waste money on a loser. The French selected a young Frenchman to live in America and serve as their eyes and ears. The young man did not speak English nor did he have espionage experience, but he was cheap. Archard de Bonvouloir was to provide the French with information about the Americans’ preparedness for war with England. Franklin and fellow Committee member John Jay met with de Bonvouloir and an interpreter in Carpenter’s Hall on several occasions. The skilled propagandist Franklin filled the French agent’s head with exaggerated facts and figures suggesting that America was in a better position than it truly was. The agent in turn exaggerated his reports to the French. While maintaining neutrality, France became fully committed to providing aid to the American cause.

October 20, 2006 – The Battle of the Electrical Currents

In 1875, Nikola Tesla, a student at the Austrian Polytechnic Institute, suggested to one of his professors that electric motors would run better on Alternating Current. His professor wondered how such a bright student could come up with such nonsense since there was no way to make an Alternating Current motor. Nine years later, Tesla went to work for Thomas Edison in the United States, who worked with Direct Current power, which was more inefficient and expensive to transport than AC. Tesla and Edison soon parted company, because Edison was not interested in AC, claiming the whole idea was un-American! Tesla convinced George Westinghouse to invest in AC power. Edison launched a campaign to discredit Westinghouse and Tesla, calling AC much too dangerous to use. He held demonstrations where cats and dogs were placed on metal sheets and electrocuted with AC. With the help of an employee, Harold Brown, Edison built an electric chair. Brown’s design was based on Alternating Current which Edison hoped would show that it was more lethal than DC. New York State had decided that electrocution would be the new official method of execution, but a committee had to choose which form of power would be used. The rivalry between Edison General Electric Company and the Westinghouse Corporation continued with Edison campaigning for the Westinghouse electric chair, hoping consumers would not want to use the same type of electrical service in their homes that was used for execution. Edison’s efforts were effective; the AC electric chair was adopted by New York in 1889.

Born in 1907 in New Hampshire, Earl Silas Tupper’s creativity was exhibited as a young boy. He built devices that made work around the family farm easier. He earned a patent for a frame used to dress chickens for sale. He also had salesmanship skills and increased the family’s income by selling poultry and produce door to door. After high school, Tupper used his agricultural experience to start a tree surgery and landscaping business called Tupper Tree Doctors. The company was quite successful until the Great Depression forced it into bankruptcy. Tupper first came into contact with plastic at his job with the DuPont Chemical Company. Tupper purchased left-over plastic and used it to make light-weight containers. He also designed air-tight lids by duplicating the lid of a paint can. Tupper founded Tupperware Plastics Company in 1938 and introduced Tupperware to stores in 1946. But Tupperware was not well-received. Customers didn’t know how to operate the lids and sales lagged. Home demonstrations of the products were much more successful. Tupper realized the potential of direct demonstrations and by 1951 he had all merchandise pulled off store shelves. He hired a single mother, one of his first home demonstrators, to design the direct selling system. The concept proved to be a phenomenon and the Tupperware Party was born. The Tupperware Company continues to grow with a Tupperware demonstration beginning every two seconds some place in the world.

Alfred Nobel is a study in contrasts. He probably brought more destruction to the world than any other individual, but he was also dedicated to world peace. Swedish-born Nobel began to experiment with nitroglycerin in 1863. It was an extremely unstable liquid and after his laboratory blew up, killing his brother and four workers, Nobel tried to find a safe way to handle the dangerous substance. He discovered that nitroglycerin could be absorbed into silica and molded into sticks. His invention of dynamite became a huge commercial success with factories throughout the world manufacturing the product. Nobel was concerned with the problems of maintaining peace throughout the world. In his will, he designated that a large part of his fortune should be used to provide an income to be given as a prize to those who had done the most to benefit mankind during the preceding year. The Nobel Foundation initially awarded five prizes each year: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. Economics was added in 1969. Nobel would be disappointed if he knew how his intention to promote peace has caused bitterness, envy, and competition. The public seems to take more interest in the controversy surrounding the awards than the actual awards. It is also questionable how much the achievements that are awarded have actually done for the promotion of peace. It just goes to show that some of man’s best intentions oftentimes blow up in his face.

His long beard and piercing gaze made people think of an Old Testament prophet. But John Brown’s radical behavior caused fear and terror in the hearts of many. Brown was a debt-ridden Ohio farmer who had become associated with the Secret Six, a group of abolitionists who raised funds to buy guns for him and to purchase a house for his family. Brown had terrorized the Kansas territory where he and his violent anti-slavery forces brutally murdered five settlers, some of them being torn from their beds in the middle of the night and murdered in front of their families. Brown took advantage of those who supported the anti-slavery movement by using their money to finance his bloody expeditions. Harpers Ferry was a small Southern town that produced guns for the federal government, which were stored in the local U.S. arsenal. Brown’s plan to attack Harpers Ferry was an action he hoped would rally many to his cause. He then would have a force large enough to terrorize his way through Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama. But things went terribly wrong, and Brown was eventually taken prisoner. He was charged with treason, conspiracy, and murder and was convicted and sentenced to die by hanging. As one writer wrote, “Harpers Ferry was one of the flash points that turned a virulent social debate into a civil war.”

Two decades of complete indifference toward military preparedness had eliminated the United States as a factor of any military consequence in the world. The Ordnance Department of the U.S. Army provided scientific and logistic support. The department was responsible for the design, development, procurement, storage, and issue of all combat material and munitions for the Army. Experiments with weapons were carried out at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and the experimental data was kept by a small handful of civilian employees of the Ordnance Department. On the eve of World War II, a calculating device was required that would handle computational tasks of much larger magnitude than in the past. The Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania was awarded a contract to design a calculator to handle the work. The electronic numerical integrator and computer, known as ENIAC was a grotesque monster by today’s standards. It had 30 separate units, a power supply and forced-air cooling. The monster weighed over 30 tons and consumed 200 kilowatts of electricity. ENIAC led the computer field from 1949 through 1952 when it served as the main computation workhorse for the solution of the scientific problems of the country. It was the major instrument for the computation of all ballistic tables for the U.S. Army and Air Force. As ENIAC became too expensive to operate, the workload was shifted to other machines and in 1955, the plug was pulled on the old monster.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were two of the four sons of Bishop Milton Wright and his wife Susan. As a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Bishop Wright and his family moved frequently, but the house in Dayton, Ohio, remained in the family’s possession. The Wright home was a stimulating place for children to be raised and caused Orville later to write, “We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity.” The children had two libraries to use: Books on theology were in their father’s study, and the downstairs library included a large and varied collection. Discipline was firm but loving and the family was close. In this nurturing environment, the two self-taught engineers, Orville and Wilbur, would help make the world a smaller place. Their bicycle shop was the only one in America where wings were being constructed as well as bicycle wheels. The memory of a fragile flying toy stayed with them, and Wilbur read every book and paper on the still earthbound science of human flight. The bicycle business paid the bills, but it was the dream of a flying machine that inspired their work. That obsession of flight led the Wright brothers to invent the technologies needed to make their dream of flight a reality. On December 17, 1903, with Orville at the controls, the dream came true. That 12-second flight changed the world forever, giving Orville and Wilbur Wright their place in history.

While still a teenager, the son of former slaves left Kentucky to search for opportunity in Ohio. Garrett Morgan’s proficiency for fixing things led to many job offers. In 1907, Morgan opened a sewing equipment and repair store and in just a few years, he expanded and added 32 employees. The new company used equipment that Morgan had made to produce coats, suits, and dresses. Morgan went into the newspaper business, and his success provided him a comfortable life. While driving along the streets of Cleveland, he came up with an improvement to traffic signals. With so many different kinds of vehicles including bicycles, wagons, and automobiles sharing the roads, accidents were frequent. Morgan designed a traffic signal that was a T-shaped pole featuring three positions: Stop, Go, and an all-directional stop position that permitted pedestrians to cross streets safely. But it was Morgan’s invention several years earlier that made him a hero. He had invented a breathing device for use in smoke-filled areas. It was a canvas hood placed over the head with a double tube from the hood merging into a single tube at the back. The open end held a water-soaked sponge to filter out smoke and cool incoming air. An explosion at the Cleveland Waterworks ripped through a tunnel, trapping workers and killing eleven. Deadly gases and smoke filled the tunnel making rescue difficult. Morgan, his brother, and two others successfully reached the survivors. But when it was discovered that Morgan was black, sales of the hood declined. The gas masks used during World War II were derived from Morgan’s safety hood. Garrett Morgan’s creative energies have given him a lasting legacy and us a safer world.

The father of Dr. Ludwig Roselius had been a coffee taster for a coffee company. Dr. Roselius believed that his father’s death was due to all of the caffeine he drank on the job. Roselius decided to find a way to create decaffeinated coffee. He searched for years to remove caffeine without ruining the taste and aroma of the coffee. In 1903, Dr. Roselius and his research team used a new technique of roasting brine-soaked coffee beans. They originally used beans that had been dumped into the sea during a storm. They discovered that the brine-soaked beans reacted differently to roasting. In a short time they developed a way to remove 97% of the caffeine without changing the flavor. The process was patented in 1903 in Germany.

Dr. Roselius started a coffee company called Kaffee Hag and decaf coffee was introduced to the rest of Europe. In France his product was named Café Sanka, a contraction of the French phrase “sans caffeine,” meaning without caffeine. Dr. Roselius brought his product to the U.S. in 1923, calling it “Sanka.,” and founded the Sanka Coffee Corporation in New York. So for all those coffee lovers, who prefer their java sans caffeine, you have Dr. Ludwig Roselius to thank for finding a way to eliminate the caffeine without destroying the coffee flavor.

It took Wells Fargo coaches twenty days to make the trip from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento. Merchants and bankers of the West Coast needed faster service, so the Pony Express was created in 1860. Six hundred ponies chosen for quickness, toughness, and endurance were purchased. The men selected as riders, 75 in all, had to exhibit bravery, horsemanship, shooting ability, and knowledge of Indians. Only men weighing one hundred and ten pounds or less were considered. The rider carried the mail in his mochilla (Mexican saddlebags) racing 60 miles at top speed to his relief rider who would carry the mochilla another 60 miles. Each rider rode six ponies, stopping at way stations to obtain a fresh mount. Each rider was given 6 hours to cover his 60 miles. The Pony Express riders delivered the mail over a 2,000 mile trail to Sacramento in 10 days. Cutting the delivery time in half was a tremendous success for the merchants and bankers. For almost two years the service was maintained through good weather and bad with riders working every day but Sunday. But the money-losing Pony Express was destined for a short career. In 1862 the telegraph reached California and the Pony Express was dead.

Bavarian immigrant Loeb Strauss moved to New York City in 1847 with his mother and two sisters to join his two brothers in the dry goods business. He adopted the name Levi and opened his own dry goods wholesale business in San Francisco in 1850. His company was called Levi Strauss & Co. and sold to small stores. Strauss noticed that the miners’ clothes did not hold up to the rigorous work inside the mines. He realized that the miners needed sturdier work clothes, so he used his stock of canvas to make trousers and other garments for his customers. The stiff canvas pants were durable but very uncomfortable. Strauss shifted from using canvas to denim which was canvas dyed blue to hide stains. Dying the canvas created a softer more comfortable fabric. A tailor from Nevada, Jacob Davis, came up with the idea of using copper rivets to strengthen the jeans. Davis and Strauss patented a method of fastening the corners of pockets to keep them from tearing. When Strauss died in 1902, he was a millionaire. He never could have imagined that his heavy-duty work clothes would become a fashion hit worn by people from all walks of life.

Reverend James Caldwell of Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, was an ordained Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the Patriot army during the American War for Independence. His reputation reached the British ranks as a fierce patriot who fought hard and inspired his men, causing them to nickname Caldwell “The Rebel Priest.” Caldwell preached on Sunday with his pistols on the pulpit and led his men into battle during the week. When the war intensified, he opened the First Presbyterian Church for the sick and wounded soldiers. When word reached Elizabeth Town that the British were approaching, Caldwell raced to headquarters with the news. While he was gone, his wife was shot and killed at home as she held their infant child and their home torched. Hearing the awful news, Rev. Caldwell raced back home to make sure that his grieving children would be taken care of then joined the battle in Springfield. When the Americans ran out of paper wadding that was used to measure and contain gun powder for the muskets, Rev. Caldwell ordered the company to retreat to the local Presbyterian Church. He ran inside, grabbed all of the Isaac Watts hymn books, and admonished the soldiers to “fill the British with doctrine from the hymnals.”

The most infamous of the prison ships was the Jersey, an old converted sixty-four-gun man-of-war, stripped of all its fittings. Rations were distributed every three days. On certain days when the prisoners were not allowed to cook with fires, they had to consume their meat raw. Without fresh fruit or vegetables, scurvy afflicted the prisoners. The Jersey held anywhere from 400 to 1200 prisoners. The British never bothered to clean the ship, which sat imbedded in mud in Wallabout Bay. Summer was the worst with yellow fever, smallpox and dysentery multiplied. The prisoners were roused in the mornings with the cry, "Rebels, turn out your dead." The Jersey was responsible for the destruction of more Americans than any other ship in the British navy. It is estimated that over 11,000 died on board the floating concentration camp from 1780-1783, nearly triple those who died in all the battles of the war.

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s mill in California’s Sacramento Valley set off the greatest gold rush in history. Tens of thousands from around the world set out for California. Many traveled by wagon train over mountains or across deserts risking death from disease or thirst. Some crowded into leaky vessels offering passage around Cape Horn. Some of the first miners did strike it rich but many barely earned enough for supplies which were sold at inflated prices. An egg went for $1.00. Many fortunes were made by the businessmen who charged these outrageous prices. The lure of making one’s fortune was as enticing as ever as gold rushes popped up all over North America. Boom towns sprung up overnight where gambling, drinking, and fighting was common and usually immune from the law. Boom towns often became ghost towns in a matter of weeks when the gold ran out. Gold rush fever helped to open up inhospitable areas around the world, including Australia and South Africa. The cities of Denver and Johannesburg were established due to gold. The call of gold and the dream of a quick fortune generally resulted in disappointment by the many who followed that call.

January 15, 1919 was an unseasonably warm winter day in Boston that brought many people outdoors. At the nearby distilling company a huge molasses tank, 50 feet high, 90 feet wide, and filled to the brim, was about to come apart. Basic safety tests were neglected in the construction of the tank, such as filling the tank first with water to check for leaks. When filled with molasses, the tank leaked so badly that it was painted brown to hide the leaks. On this particular day, the molasses began to sweat through the tank’s loose rivets. They popped out of their holes with a sound like machine-gun fire. With a roar, the seams split and tons of molasses spewed out. The first wave was nearly 30 feet high and reduced buildings to rubble. People and animals were helpless against the wall of thick syrup. Flying shards of metal from the tank acted like shrapnel slicing through whatever they hit. Molasses clogged the streets and 21 were left dead and 150 injured. It took months for the city to get rid of the sticky goo. People claim that the molasses left from this disaster still seeps up from some of the streets on a hot day.

On September 2001, the SPAM Museum opened in Austin, Minnesota, celebrating the image, history and long-standing tradition of the world’s most famous luncheon meat. SPAM was developed by the Hormel Company in 1926. After the hams were cut up, thousands of pounds of worthless pork shoulder were left over. Jay Hormel, son of the company’s founder, developed the idea of grinding up the pork shoulder for an all-pork product packed with spices and cooked in a can. The name “SPAM” was the winner in a contest held to choose a name for the processed ham. The letters are an acronym for “Shoulder Pork Ham.” During World War II, sales soared when SPAM became a standard B-ration for U.S. soldiers. It was perfect for the military, because it required no refrigeration. The museum exhibits a letter from President Eisenhower stating that he ate his share of SPAM during the war and confessed to “a few unkind remarks about it—uttered during the strain of battle.” Former Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev wrote, “Without SPAM we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army.” Americans purchase 3.6 cans of SPAM every second proving that the product is still as popular as ever. Then there are the millions of cans sold every day around the world. SPAM is probably more popular in Hawaii than anywhere else. The Hawaiians truly have a love affair with the canned meat that they consider a delicacy. Hormel introduced a limited edition “Hawaii” can in 2003. For a pink processed canned luncheon meat surrounded by gelatinous goo, SPAM has created its own place in history.