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About 110 years ago, the plastics era (as we understand that term) began with a material called Bakelite named by its creator and inventor Leo Baekeland.
Leo Hendrick Baekeland was born on November 14, 1863, in Ghent, Belgium, to Karel and Rosalia Baekeland. His father was a cobbler while his mother worked as a housemaid. He was a bright young man who, encouraged primarily by his mother, read anything he could get his hands on.
Leo Hendrick Baekeland.
He went to the local elementary school before winning a scholarship to the Royal Athenaeum, a government high school. In addition to his daytime studies, he attended a local technical school at night and found time to learn how to mix chemicals for developing and printing photographs in furtherance of his interest in photography. He graduated at the top of his class and headed off to college at Ghent University at age 17 in 1880 earning his bachelor’s degree two and a half years later in 1882. He continued his education in the study of chemistry and physics, earning his doctorate by the time he was 21.
At age 24, Baekeland became an associate professor and two years later he married Celine Swarts, the daughter of his mentor Professor Theodore Swarts. Shortly thereafter, Baekeland won another scholarship, this one a traveling fellowship which took him to Oxford University and the University of Edinburgh. From there, Baekeland traveled with his bride to New York City. The plan was to do research at Columbia University. Instead, he took a position with E. and H. T. Anthony and Company, a major company in the photography industry and resigned from his professorship at the University of Ghent.
Two years later, though, Baekeland went out on his own as a consulting and research chemist with big plans and visions for a variety of new chemical products and processes. However, this did not go well. He had plenty of ideas and the rudiments of new products but nothing came from it. He could not follow through or finish up on any of his ideas. The result was a debilitating illness most likely caused by exhaustion and stress and which brought him close to death. He was deathly sick for months which gave him much time to think about what had gone wrong and he found the cause. “While I was hovering twixt life and death, with all my cash gone and the uncomfortable sentiment of rapidly growing debts…it dawned upon me that instead of keeping too many irons in the fire, I should concentrate my attention upon one single thing which would give me the best chance of the quickest possible result.”
This brought him back to an old friend, photography, and photographic film methods. Financed by Nepera Chemical and its CEO Leonard Jacobi, Baekeland spent the better part of two years experimenting with hundreds of silver chloride emulsions. From this, he eventually invented a photographic paper that allowed images to be developed by artificial light rather than daylight. The paper was given the name Velox film (velox means “swift” in Latin). This was a type of contact printing that the amateur photographers of the time took to after it hit the market in 1893 as it was a quicker and easier process. Eventually, Kodak bought the rights to the paper for $750,000 in 1899. Baekeland’s share of that sale price amounted to a little over $200,000 and made him a wealthy man.
Kodak Advertisement for Velox paper.
With his new-found wealth, Baekeland “retired” to a large property with a Victorian mansion complete with a turret located in Yonkers, NY, on a bluff above the Hudson River which he named Snug Rock. His “retirement,” however, was also to include continued chemical research, and he outfitted a large building on his property into a state of the art chemistry laboratory for that purpose. As to what to research, he couldn’t profitably continue with photographic research as a clause in the sales agreement with Kodak required that he not compete with Kodak.
He pursued a number of research topics but eventually concentrated on trying to find a substitute for shellac. At the time, the only source for shellac was the excretions of the female Luccifer lacca beetle. Shellac had long been used as varnish for wood, but with the burgeoning electrical industry at the turn of the century another critical use was found for it as an insulator. It took 15,000 female lac beetles six months to produce enough resin for a pound of shellac; the need for a substitute material was obvious and potentially financially remunerative.
Baekeland was not the only chemist working on this product; dozens throughout Europe and the United States were also searching for a shellac substitute. This research brought him into close contact with the organic compounds Phenol and Formaldehyde. Working with Nathaniel Thurlow, his lab assistant, Baekeland produced a shellac alternative they called Novalac.
Baekeland’s chemistry lab at Snug Rock.
After the completion of the work to develop Novalac, Baekeland decided to continue to work with phenol and formaldehyde to see where it might lead. There had been much work by noted chemists with these compounds in the later part of the 19th century which led them (leading chemists) to consider their potential for usefulness to be limited at best.
One such chemist was Adolf von Baeyer, the 1905 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in organic chemistry, who reported the “colorless resin” created by combining phenol and formaldehyde as “worthless” because it would not crystallize and thus its chemical composition was impossible to accurately establish and its value to industrial applications therefore limited. Baekeland was well aware of these previous studies and reports but still believed he might be able to find some useful purpose from these two compounds.
Among these studies were attempts to impregnate wood with phenol-formaldehyde mixtures in various proportions to see if he could come up with a mixture that would harden the wood. Of course, these experiments involved mixing these two organic compounds and various fillers at varying temperatures and pressures at various times in the process for which, in addition to the lab equipment available at the time for these operations, a vessel of his own design which he called a “Baekeliser” was employed. (I wonder if chemists are any more likely than any other group to name their own creations after themselves.)
During these experiments, he found a substance, a “gum,” that had oozed out and was very hard. As he continued these experiments he eventually found four products which had useful possibilities and which he labeled A (the liquid condensate first produced); B (a soluble rubbery product); C (an infusible, insoluble hard gum); and D (insoluble in all solvents and does not soften).
Bakelite chemistry.
It was his Product D which, after further experiments and refinements, he would eventually patent and bring to market as Bakelite. (Again, I wonder if chemists are any more likely than any other group to name their own creations after themselves.) It was the first true synthetic material. The material developed by Baekeland was nonflammable, an electrical insulator, and would hold shape once properly molded. It is the first thermoset plastic. Its fabrication into any finished product generally involved pouring it into a mold as a liquid and molding under pressure for a short time (usually just a minute or two). After removal from the mold, it would retain its shape forever.
Baekeland’s problem now was how to best take advantage of his discovery. In 1908, as his patent was still under consideration, he traveled broadly, meeting with businesses of all sorts and trade associations of all sorts, demonstrating and explaining his product and he offered it to potential manufacturers in liquid form at 25 cents per pound in large lots on condition that the name Bakelite be used and promoted. He also set up a factory to manufacture Bakelite through to a completed product. One of his earliest sales in this regard was for over 100,000 insulator pots to the New York Central Railroad to replace their porcelain units.
Another area in which Bakelite almost immediately usurped an existing material was for billiard balls. Billiard balls had historically been made of ivory; however, in the mid to late 19th century people erroneously believed that ivory was in short supply and so alternatives were sought. What happened is that billiard balls made from celluloid became the standard by the late 19th century. There was a problem with this though; billiard balls made of celluloid had a tendency to “spark” or “explode” when one ball struck another. Billiard balls made of Bakelite were chemically stable and did not have any such problem and quickly became the material of choice for billiard balls.
In fact, the potential uses for Bakelite, with its thermal and electrical properties, and its ability to be rapidly and cheaply molded to just about any desired shape and hold that shape, were almost unlimited. It was used for hundreds of applications in the electrical industry, home appliances, clothing, fountain pens…you name it. The distributor caps and rotors for the Delco ignition system developed about this time by Charles Kettering would be made of Bakelite for decades to come. The cases for home radios were another perfect fit for Bakelite, especially the more futuristic-looking designs and the rotary phones in every home and office were of Bakelite construction.
Distributor Cap for 6 cylinder Packard 1941-47.Ericcson Telephone 1931.Coca Cola Advertisement pocket knife 1930s.Fountain pen assortment.Futuristic radio case.
To meet the demands for the myriad uses for his new material, Baekeland had originally planned to grant licenses and allow manufacturers to make their products using his material. However, this did not go well, at least according to Baekeland. He was highly critical of his licensees’ inability to manufacture his product to his standards. As per Baekeland “The preparation of the new resinoid and its molding compositions, which to me seemed very simple, appeared either very difficult or needlessly complicated to others. Reluctantly I had to start manufacturing the raw materials in a sufficiently advanced stage so that the users had only to complete the operation of molding and polymerization.” Thus, he set up a large plant in New Jersey for both the manufacture of the Bakelite material and for its molding into all the numerous products it would be used for. Hence, the majority of Bakelite manufacturing ended up occurring at the Bakelite Corporation facilities.
The patent for Bakelite lasted until 1926 and throughout those years in which the patent was in force many potential competitors attempted to make and market their own “Bakelite.” Baekeland viewed these individuals as “pirates” and, like Edison before him, kept a small army of lawyers busy defending his hundreds of patents regarding Bakelite. In his case, he was very successful as he apparently won every case. Although it should be noted, he also used diplomacy in these battles. If the infringer looked to be competent or had something of value to offer the Bakelite Corporation, he would readily offer them partnerships or affiliations.
The marketing of Bakelite has several interesting facets. From the very beginning, Baekeland emphasized the versatility of his new substance. This would remain the main focus of the marketing of Bakelite for decades to come. In fact, the Bakelite Corporation logo of a capitol B above the infinity symbol was a reminder of this. The Bakelite Corporation advertised its product not just in trade publications, but even more extensively in the popular media of the day – newspapers and the weekly and monthly periodicals.
Although those ads in the popular media were directed just as much at manufacturers or potential manufacturers as they were at consumers or potential consumers. Finally, Bakelite had an advantage as a product that very few products ever have.
For several decades after its introduction, the word Bakelite was almost synonymous with the word plastic (or at least hard plastic) and the Bakelite Corporation would do nothing to disabuse the public of that perception. Once the Bakelite patent expired in 1926, others brought similar material to market. However, people were very loyal to Bakelite. They somehow considered it the “real deal” as compared with the other similar materials.
1924 Bakelite ad emphasizing its many uses.1947 Bakelite ad featuring women’s products.1950s Bakelite ad aimed at manufacturers.Bakelite Logo.
Bakelite was not the only plastic in the pre-World War II period, it just seemed that way. Another plastic, which came to market around the same time as Bakelite was cellophane. Cellophane, which is derived from cellulose, was a boon to the food industry (and consumers) of the day. Bakers especially took advantage of this new material. Now baked goods of all sorts could be kept fresh longer on the shelf and also at the consumer’s residence. This allowed there to be fewer, but larger, bakeries serving a wider area with the cost savings from these economies of scale being passed along to the consumer.
In 1939, the 76-year-old Baekeland sold the Bakelite Corporation to Union Carbide. Shortly thereafter, Bakelite’s market share in the plastics field would start to diminish. There is no correlation, however, between these two events. Instead, the field of plastics would explode with new and better materials with advantages of their own to expand the use of plastics into new areas in the post-World War II era. Among these materials were polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, Teflon, and neoprene. Many of these had first been developed earlier but it was after the war when this flood of new materials was really felt.
This is a brief attempt to try to explain what took place. All organic solids are composed of long molecules of covalent bonded carbon atoms. These molecules are chains of carbon and hydrogen combined with various radical components (which can be nearly anything). These are commonly called plastics, although the scientific name for these is polymer. These organic solids can be classified as follows;
Thermoplastics – These are characterized by linear carbon chains that are not cross-linked. Asphalt is a natural thermoplastic. However, there are many more manufactured thermoplastics which have an enormously wide range of applications. Included among these are; polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and Teflon.
Thermosets – These are characterized by cross-linked carbon chains. The principal types of thermosets are epoxies, polyesters, and phenol-formaldehydes such as Bakelite.
Elastomers – Rubber is a natural elastomer. These are characterized as liner polymers with limited cross-linking (the cross-linking allows the material to return to its original shape after a load is removed). Synthetics such as polybutadiene and neoprene are examples of the type.
Natural Materials – These are characterized as being grown in all plant matter. Cellophane and celluloid are examples.
What happened to Bakelite is that eventually, materials with superior properties for a large variety of applications would come on the market. These materials, such as polyethylene (PE) and PVC could be re-heated and re-molded and would not fail in a brittle fashion. Bakelite could not be re-heated and re-molded and failed in a brittle fashion. This was due to its cross-linked structure which PE and PVC did not have. Bakelite is still manufactured, however, and is used for pot handles and jewelry.
Below is a video about 7 and a half minutes long by a couple of college chemistry professors about the making of Bakelite.
In looking for a movie with some involvement with plastics the only one I could think of is The Graduate from 1967.
I want to close this out with a song about plastics. Looking online for such a tune didn’t turn up much worth listening to. Online, there appear to be two types of “plastics” songs. The first are songs about credit cards which is a little off-topic. The second are environmentalist screeds about the evils of plastic and our throwaway consumer society. Ugh. I ended selecting “Fantastic Plastic Lover” a 1967 song by Jefferson Airplane.
This year has been a terrible year in many ways for just about everybody. It’s been no exception for baseball fans. This year had so far seen the loss of five Hall of Famers; Al Kaline, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, and Whitey Ford. This Sunday, a sixth has been added to that list, Joe Morgan. Morgan passed away at his California home on Sunday at the age of 77 due to non-specified polyneuropathy.
Joe Leonard Morgan was born on September 19, 1943, in Bonham, TX, the youngest of six children. He moved to Oakland, CA with his family at five when his father found work with the Pacific Tire & Rubber Company. As a boy, Joe played baseball, basketball and ran track. His best sport was baseball, but he was not considered a major league prospect in high school because of his lack of size (he is listed at 5′-7″, 160 lbs during his playing career) and he was, at best, the second-best player on his team behind Rudy May who was highly sought after in high school and would have a fine major league career as a pitcher. He played baseball at a local junior college where he did attract the attention of the scouts and he signed a contract with the Houston Astros for all of $500 per month plus a $3,000 signing bonus. He worked his way through the expansion Astros minor league system rapidly, getting cups of coffee in the bigs in 1963 and 64 becoming the Astros starting second baseman in 1965 at age 21.
With the Astros, “Little Joe” quickly blossomed into a fine player. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1965 and made two All-Star teams while in Houston. However, the combination of the dismal performance of the team (they were always in the second division) and playing his home games in an awful hitter’s park (The Astrodome) helped to hide his light behind a bushel. A blockbuster trade between the Cincinnati Reds and the Astros in the winter of 1971 would change that. The Astros sent Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Denis Menke, Jack Billingham, and Ed Armbrister to the Reds in exchange for slugging 1B Lee May, fellow 2B Tommy Helms, and Jimmy Stewart. Morgan was initially upset with the trade. He’d made a home in Houston, and he and his wife were expecting their second child. However, the trade would kick his career into overdrive. Over the next six seasons, he was probably the best player in baseball. And, playing for manager Sparky Anderson and teaming with all-time greats Johnny Bench and Pete Rose in one of the best eight-man lineups in history, the Reds would average 98 wins per season and win back-to-back World Championships in 1975-76.
On a personal level, over those six seasons (1972-77), Morgan averaged .301/.429/.495 in 149 games with 113 runs, 22 HR, 84 RBI, 60 steals and 9.3 WAR, 38 Win Shares, as he made the All-Star team each year, won five Gold Gloves and back-to-back MVP’s in 1975-76.
Morgan would leave Cincinnati after the 1979 season, but he would continue to find his way onto winning teams. Returning to Houston, he helped them into the postseason in 1980, later helped the 1983 “Wheeze Kids” Phillies into the World Series and dealt the Dodgers a death blow with a Game 162 winning home run for the Giants in 1982. The only negative mark on his playing career is a rather poor batting line in the postseason (.182/.323/.348 in 50 games, 222 PA) although he also got the game-winning and Series-winning single in the ninth inning of the seventh game to top the Red Sox in 1975.
Morgan retired after the 1984 season with 2,517 hits, 1,650 runs scored, and at the time record for a 2B 268 homers and 689 stolen bases. Here is a link to his page at Baseball Reference. His playing career was capped by his election to the Hall of Fame in 1990 in his first year of eligibility.
After his playing career, he did not pursue a managerial career as many imagined he would (he was highly regarded throughout his playing career for his heads up play and knowledge of the game). Instead, he pursued interests in business and broadcasting. He owned several Wendy’s franchises and a Coors Beer Distributorship. He broadcast games over the years for ABC, NBC, and ESPN, and he worked as a “special advisor for baseball operations” for the Reds and had been the vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame for twenty years at the time of his death.
Morgan was married twice, first to his high school sweetheart, Gloria, for twenty years and to his second wife Theresa for thirty years at the time of his passing. He is survived by his four daughters (two from each union).
I was a big fan of Morgan’s throughout his playing career and three distinct bits of his playing style still remain vivid to me. First, he must have used the smallest glove of any player in the modern era. It looked like a little leaguer’s glove. Morgan explained that the small glove allowed him to get the ball out his glove quickly and helped him turn double plays. Second, his “arm flap”. Waiting for the pitch at the plate, Morgan would flap his arm down to his side and back up several times before each pitch. He did this to remind himself to keep his left arm horizontal before the pitch. Finally, Morgan was an outstanding base-stealer (689 steals at an 81% success rate) and so pitchers would regularly pitch-out against him hoping to catch him attempting to steal. The thing is, he never bit on a pitch-out. He always seemed to know when a pitch-out was coming and when he did he’d just stand where he was off first base with his hands on his hips as there wasn’t going to be any play.
Below is a brief video celebrating Morgan’s playing career put together by the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Let’s get superficial here at Ricochet and talk about looks. This is a tw0-part essay.
Coming into the 2020 season, 19,960 people had played at least one game in the major leagues. Among those 19,960 were all sorts, tall guys and short guys, guys as fast as greased lightning and guys slower than molasses, smart cookies and dummies, honest men and crooks, handsome devils, and those who were a little less fortunate in the looks department. Among that latter group was Don Mossi.
Mossi was a pitcher and pretty good one. He pitched 12 years in the majors as both a reliever and a starter and he was good in each role. He pitched in the majors from 1954 to 1965 and posted a career 101-80 won-loss record, a 3.43 ERA and 50 saves in 460 games and 1548 innings pitched. In his best individual season (1959) the left-handed Mossi went 17-9 and he was also a part of the best pitching staff of the 1950s as a rookie– the 1954 Cleveland Indians – the Indians that year won the AL pennant with a 111-43 won-lost record, one of the best regular-season records of all time, powered by a pitching staff which included Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn, and Hal Newhouser. Mossi held his own with a 6-1, 1.94 ERA, 7 save performance.
Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. When they passed out facial features, Mossi missed out on his first choice in every feature. Heck, he also missed out on his second and third choices and had to settle for whatever spare parts they had in store. His ears were grossly out of proportion to his face, both of his eyes were a little out of place, his eyebrows were…well, let’s not talk about his eyebrows, his nose was as crooked as a dog’s hind leg, he always had a bit of stubble here and there because of all the nooks and crannies, and even though he was slender and kept himself in shape it looked like he had about three chins. Most people, even baseball reporters, and announcers, are generally polite and decent enough not to talk openly about those of us who might have a feature or two we might be sensitive about. However, that wasn’t the case with Mossi. His unfortunate appearance was discussed more or less openly by all. For example, Jim Bouton named him to an All Ugly team and the announcers of the day did not hesitate to discuss the flaws in the Mossi countenance, As a life-long baseball fan, I’ve always felt sympathetically towards him; but, the fact is he was not very attractive… Oh OK, let’s be honest, he was downright ugly. After his playing career, Mossi moved to Ukiah, California, close to where he was born (St. Helena, CA) and worked as a superintendent at a masonite plant. Mossi passed away in July 2019 at age 90, the last surviving member of that great 1954 Indians pitching staff, survived by his wife and three adult children. By all accounts, he was a good and decent man.
Tigers manager Jimmy Dykes and Don Mossi 1959. Mossi is the fellow without the cap
OK, I hope I haven’t belabored the point. Let’s move on to part 2.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Part 2
This also involves baseball but takes a different tack from the previous discussion. From almost the beginning, organized baseball has involved statistics. Early on these statistics were rather rudimentary, but by the late nineteenth century, there were about a dozen different statistical categories for batters, about the same number for pitchers and about a half dozen for fielders. Over the years, new statistics were added here and there – first slowly and later starting in the 1980s and continuing to the present more rapidly. These statistics, the original, early ones and the more recent were created and exist for two purposes – first, just as record-keeping – a method and language to tell what happened on the field, and second, for analytical purposes – to try to explain or understand what contributed to each win and loss for each team and the role of each player in these outcomes. This is just a brief way of introduction to this part 2.
I’ve wasted an awful lot of time over the years studying and playing around with baseball statistics in part to try and better understand the game, and in part just for the fun of it. However, what if baseball statistics had not evolved and expanded as they have? What if all that existed were the bare bones – runs and outs for individual players and wins and losses for teams? Would the people interested in the game – the fans, the general managers, the reporters, the players – have the same sense of how the players should rate? Would the same players be selected regularly to the All-Star teams, finish high in the annual MVP voting, get elected to the Hall of Fame? I think in general they would. Some players would rate at least a little bit higher or lower than if more analytical methods or data were available. Players who would tend to rate higher would be those who had good defensive reputations, those who played on winning teams, and those who were considered “clutch” (a concept sabermetric types and more traditional types have argued about for decades). Players who would tend to rate lower would be those with poor defensive reputations, those who played on losing teams, and those considered “chokers” (see “clutch” the same argument exists with this concept also).
This gets me where I can briefly discuss two players who can illustrate my point; one player who looks terrible in just about everything he does on the field but is much better than he looks, and one player who looks great in everything he does on the field, but isn’t quite as good a player as he looks.
Hunter Pence swinging at a pitch
This week the San Francisco Giants let go of veteran outfielder Hunter Pence. The 37-year-old Pence was batting just .096 on the season and although it’s possible another club may pick him up, his career is very near the end. Pence, I think, represents better than just about any other player, my case 1 – a player who looks terrible in carrying out his job but with much better results than appearances would portend. His throwing motion is one no coach would teach. He looks to be heaving or shot-putting the ball rather than throwing it; yet, he played mainly right field throughout his career, a position which requires a strong throwing arm and he led his league in outfield assists five times. He somehow has a strong, accurate throwing arm. At bat, he looks, if anything even worse. He is herky-jerky in his motions and he looks to be lunging toward the pitch. He looks like he couldn’t possibly hit major league pitching, yet he does. He’s a pretty fair hitter with a career .279 average and decent power (244 home runs and a .461 slugging percentage). When he leaves the batter’s box after putting the ball in play, especially on a ground ball, more often than not he appears to be in danger of losing his balance and falling, and his running style is also awkward. Despite this, he has pretty decent speed (120 career stolen bases and he beats the throw to first on his share of ground balls). Heck, he doesn’t even know how to wear his uniform properly. He wears his pants above the knees which just looks silly, but I suppose that’s just in keeping with everything else about him. Pence has been able to parley all this awkwardness into a 14-year, a 1700-game career in which he was selected to four All-Star Games, received MVP votes (all down-ballot) in four different seasons and was the starting right fielder on two World Series Championship teams. Not bad.
Let me include a couple of short videos of Pence to better illustrate my description of his playing style, especially for those who haven’t seen him play. First, a short 25 second or so video of Pence warming up between innings which shows his strange throwing motion.
Next, a one minute video of Hunter Pence in the on-deck circle practicing his swing and the game announcers discussing its strangeness.
Here’s a gif of Pence slipping and falling after putting the ball in play. This isn’t really fair to Pence since I’m sure this happened now and then to every player, including the all-time greats. It’s just that this sort of thing happened to Pence more often than just about any other player.
Here’s another short video of Pence throwing his bat at the pitch for an RBI single which not exactly the way it is taught.
OK, now onto a player who is the exact opposite of Pence. Chris Chambliss was a fine baseball player and it’s possible if you were a baseball fan in the mid-1970s and into the mid-1980’s you’d have seen him play baseball more than just about anyone else. Chambliss was the first baseman for the Yankees during their Bronx Zoo years and he was later the first baseman for the Braves starting in 1980 when TBS began broadcasting every Braves game. Chambliss sure looked like a good ballplayer. In fact, he looked like he should be a great player or at least a great hitter. He was big and strong and he had a nice stance and stroke at the plate. He looked like the prototypical power hitter. Whenever I saw him stride to the plate in a September game I expected to see his triple crown stats (which were shown for each player at the time) with numbers like .315-33-121. Instead, his numbers would always be more like .279-14-79. Decent numbers, but disappointing for such a good looking hitter. The problem was he had a long swing and had trouble getting around on major league fastballs. He was also smooth looking on defense and the advanced defensive stats agree that he was a good defensive first baseman. He was a fine player, but not nearly as good as what he appeared to be. He parlayed his smooth looking skills into a 17-year, 2175-game career in which he hit .279. He was the starting first baseman on two World Series Champions and on another World Series loser. He only made one All-Star Game, but he received MVP votes in three different seasons including a fifth-place finish in 1976. Also not bad.
From Getty Images
Let me include a video of Chambliss homering in game 6 of the 1977 World Series. A home run is a home run is a home run but his looks so much better than Pence.
So which of these two was the better player? I don’t know. I think it’s probably too close to call without closer study. There are two meta-stats which attempt to determine the overall value of everything a player does on the field (Win Shares & WAR). In Win Shares, Chambliss leads 221-218 although looking at each player’s best seasons, Pence does better (26,25 & 24 in his three best seasons versus 21, 21 & 19 for Chambliss). In WAR, Pence is ahead 30.9-27.5 and his best seasons score at 4.0, 4.0 & 3.8 versus 4.1, 3.3 & 3.2 for Chambliss.
Looking at each man’s overall stats shows fairly similar results;
Chambliss 2175 G 8313 PA 2109 H 185 HR 972 RBI .279/.334/.415
Pence ….. 1707 G 7006 PA 1791 H 244 HR 944 RBI .279/.334/.461
Chambliss played over 400 more games in his career, which in and of itself worth something. You pick ’em. One got it done looking ugly as sin, while the other got it done looking smooth as silk.
I think Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover” is a good way to end this post.
Feel free to chime in on a situation you’re aware of where perception and reality don’t necessarily square up. It doesn’t have to be about sports or baseball. I am sure this sort of thing occurs in just about every area of human endeavor.
Today I came upon a tweet by Byron York that startled me. York’s tweet included an attachment from the National Museum of African American History & Culture describing what they call “Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness & White Culture in the United States”. Let me post Mr. York’s tweet below.
The National Museum of African American History & Culture wants to make you aware of certain signs of whiteness: Individualism, hard work, objectivity, the nuclear family, progress, respect for authority, delayed gratification, more. (via @RpwWilliams)https://t.co/k9X3u4Suaspic.twitter.com/gWYOeEh4vu
This is just stunning. This handy little flyer is available at the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) website under a section called Talking About Race. This Talking About Race section is pure toxicity and, in the parlance of the Left: hate speech. It hits all the shibboleths and jargon of the woke mob we’ve been seeing and hearing in the last couple of months of “mostly peaceful protests” which have resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars of property damage and the direct deaths of dozens of people. If one did not know any different one might think the NMAAHC Talking About Race section was from Black Lives Matter – in this section are matter-of-fact definitions and discussions of white supremacy, white fragility, white nationalism, white privilege, systematic racism, and institutional racism as if these were long established and agreed facts, presentations by race hustlers such as Robin DiAngelo and the flyer that started this post, speaking of which let me post a larger copy.
It should be noted that the NMAAHC, which was established in 2003 and opened in Washington, D. C. in 2016, is a part of the Smithsonian Institution. Therefore, it is part of the federal government and financed by our tax dollars.
Taking a gander at the flyer, here are just a few of the attributes and behaviors the NMAAHC ascribes to white culture, and therefore I suppose are bad: 1) the nuclear family, 2) hard work, 3) objective, rational, linear thinking, 4) respect for private property, 5) delayed gratification, and 6) being polite when communicating with others. Well alright, then. Those really are diabolical, aren’t they? And, in fact, they have little or nothing to do with whiteness or white culture; rather, they are attributes of Western Civilization and the bourgeois culture that evolved therefrom. Western Civilization with its Judeo-Christian foundation is open to anyone of any ethnic or racial background who is willing to buy into it. It is these values and behaviors which generations of parents, teachers, and mentors have attempted to inculcate in their charges and any individual or society accepting these values has increased their prospects for success and happiness.
In point of fact Americans who accept these bourgeois values regardless of race or ethnicity are overwhelmingly successful in our country. Per the chart below, non-whites of many stripes are better at “white culture” than are whites at least based on income.
Before moving on I want to briefly mention one thing from the chart. In the last 20 or so years, about 2 million black Africans have immigrated from various African nations to the United States, and by and large, have thrived here.
In the post title, I specifically mentioned the casual bigotry of Elite Blacks in current-day America as evidenced by this NMAAHC exhibit/display. However, in this regard, they are no different than Elite Whites. It is society’s elites, the majority of whom are progressive or liberal, who control education, media, the entertainment industry, silicon valley and increasingly our biggest corporations who are both at the forefront of and the most militant enforcers of this Social Justice Warrior/Cancel Culture which is so toxic to and destructive of the core values of the greatest society the world has yet seen.
Finally, since I took the time to run down the bios of the main directors and curators of the NMAAHC, I might as well briefly list them.
Dr. Spencer Crew, Crew, Interim Director – BA – Brown University, Phd – Rutgers
Joanne Hyppolite, Curator – BA – Univ of Pennsylvania, MA – UCLA, PhD – Univ of Miami
Michelle Wilkinson, Curator – BA – Bryn Mawr College, PhD – Emory University
Mary Elliott, Curator – BA – Howard University, JD – Catholic University of America
William Pretzer, Senior Curator – PhD – Northern Illinois University
Judging by their bios, the leaders of NMAAHC are elites in our society, educated at some of our top colleges and well paid in their chosen field. Yet, they are either fools or bigots, or just maybe, both. There are no other options to explain the idiocy and bigotry of Talking About Race. The idea of a NMAAHC is a fine and noble pursuit, and there is much to document and tell of the black experience in America – slavery, segregation, discrimination, military service in all of our nation’s wars, success in entertainment, sports, business and enrichment of our culture and society in numerous ways. However, if Talking About Race is representative of NMAAHC I question whether it should continue to receive taxpayer funding.
In 1948, the first self-serve gas station was opened in the United States. The station was in Los Angeles, the car capital of the country, on Beverly Boulevard just past Fairfax Avenue and was operated by Gilmore Oil. Gilmore Oil was a large, local oil and gas company well known in southern California. Gilmore called these self-service stations “Gas-a-Teria’s”. The Gas-a-Teria was a massive station for the time featuring eight islands with three pumps per island. The self-serve gas saved the customer five cents per gallon and the attendants at the station were young women.
Gas-a-Teria Attendants
The area bounded by Fairfax, Beverly, and 3rd Street where the Gas-a-Teria was located, was prime real estate. The Gilmore family had owned the land for decades operating it as a dairy farm. In the early 1900s, Arthur Gilmore was drilling a water well when he struck oil Beverly Hillbillies style and he turned the dairy farm into an oil production field. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t too surprising that he struck oil as his property was located only a mile or so north of the La Brea Tar Pits.
When Arthur died in 1918, his son E.B. Gilmore took over the business. E.B. expanded the company into the gas station business building it up to a network of 3,500 stations mostly on the west coast. E.B. was also a born promoter – the company motto was “Roar with Gilmore” and the company logo was a Lion. He sponsored aviator Roscoe Turner and several race drivers including Indy 500 winners Kelly Petillo and Wilbur Shaw.
In the early 1930s, Gilmore began developing this portion of their property and it eventually featured a baseball field (Gilmore Field – home of the Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars), a football stadium (Gilmore Stadium,) a drive-in theater (Gilmore Drive-In), a large Farmers Market open every day of the year, and the Pan-Pacific Auditorium with its distinctive architecture. The ballpark, football stadium, and drive-in were razed in the 1950s to make way for CBS Television City.
From lower to upper photo – Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field & Pan-Pacific Auditorium with Gilmore Drive-In to the right of Gilmore Field
Getting back to the self-serve gas idea, it took quite a while for the idea to catch on. At the time of the Gas-a-Teria, gasoline stations competed on the basis of quality – high-quality gasoline and full service with attendants, usually dressed in a clean, white uniform, who would wash the windows and check the engine oil level and tire air pressure in addition to pumping the gas. In my neck of the woods (Sacramento), the first self-serve gas station was opened in the mid to late 1960s along Fair Oaks Boulevard. My dad started gassing up there after they opened and when I got my license, I also got gas there circa 1970.
The attraction of the self-serve gas was the same as at the Gas-a-Teria – the customer saved money by pumping his own. The way it worked is the customer would buy tokens from the attendant who sat in a small kiosk with the tokens being required to operate the pumps. A funny thing, their gas price wasn’t that much different from the Gas-a-Teria in ’48 (the photos show it was 21 cents at the time) and the Sacramento self-serve which was 27 or 29 cents as I (fuzzily) recall. Later, I worked pumping gas at a Standard station for about a year around 1974 by which time three of the stations 12 pumps were self-serve and the other nine still full-serve. I think that was pretty standard in the mid-1970s.
Gradually over the years, the percentage of self serve pumps at gas stations across the country increased from a quarter to a half and so forth but it took quite some time – 15 years or more – before almost all the pumps were self serve. There are, however, still two states – Oregon and New Jersey – which ban self-service gasoline. If you’re interested, here’s a brief article on the history of self-serve gas.
I was trying to think of a song, any song, about gas stations but the only tune I can think of along those lines is “Too Much Monkey Business” by Chuck Berry.
I should note that I originally posted a bit about the Gilmore Gas-a-Teria several weeks ago at Things I Learned Today group. I decided to expand it a bit and post it here in the Member Posts. These sorts of subjects get posted at Things I Learned Today group regularly so, if you don’t belong, you might consider joining it.
Wednesday was baseball great Willie Mays’ 89th birthday and I thought I’d post a brief appreciation of his career. I’ve been a baseball fan almost all my life, and since I grew up in northern California and started following baseball circa 1960, the Giants were my favorite team and I gravitated quickly to their best player Willie Mays.
Willie Howard Mays was born on May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama. Willie was a precocious athlete. His father was a semi-pro ballplayer, playing for a company team in the local league made up from coal and steel companies in the area. By the time he was a teenager, young Mays was on his father’s team playing against grown men twice his age. And, although he played on his high school football, basketball and baseball teams, he began his professional baseball career in 1947 at age 16 joining the Chattanooga Choo Choos, who were essentially a farm team for the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons, a team he would join within a year. The Black Barons manager, Piper Davis would become a mentor to Willie. He worked with the young ballplayer on his weaknesses as a player and required that he finish high school. Since the Dodgers had broken the color line with Jackie Robinson in 1947, major league scouts from those teams willing to add black ballplayers to their roster began scouring the Negro Leagues for major league talent and it didn’t take them long to stumble across Mays who had helped the Black Barons to the Negro League World Series in 1948 mainly with his great defensive play.
Mays was found and signed by Giants scout Eddie Montague for $4,000. He would tear through the minors hitting .353 at Class B Trenton as a 19-year old in 1950. He was promoted to the Giants top farm team for the 1951 season, the Triple A Minneapolis Millers and after 35 games in which he was batting .477 (yes, that’s not a typo, he was hitting .477, not .377), he was sent up to the big club. It’s a well-known story that Mays did not start his major league career in an auspicious fashion but it’s worth repeating here. He went for 0-12 in his first three games. He hit a towering home run over the left-field roof in the Polo Grounds off of future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in his fourth game; however, that would be his only hit in his first seven major league games and so he was batting a less than stellar .038 after his first week in the majors.
When he first came up, his manager Leo Durocher had batted him third in the lineup, but after his slow start he moved Willie down in the order to the eighth spot to take the pressure off. The young center fielder responded and began hitting. He finished his rookie season hitting .274 with 20 HR and that along with his brilliant defensive play helped the Giants to the NL pennant over the crosstown rival Dodgers in a dramatic three-game playoff capped by Bobby Thomson’s home run. The Giants would lose the World Series in six games to the Yankees (a World Series featuring Mays, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio), but Mays had established himself as a major leaguer. After the season he added the Rookie of the Year award to his trophy case, the first of what would be many awards.
With the Korean War raging, Mays was drafted into the Army early in 1952, and he would spend most of that season and all of the 1953 season in the service. Mays spent most of his time in the Army playing baseball. By his estimate, he played 180 or so games while in the service. When he re-joined the Giants for spring training in 1954 there was talk of the Giants, who had slipped to fifth place 35 games behind the Dodgers in 1953, as the favorite for the 1954 pennant with Mays back in the lineup, which is sort of amazing when you consider that a player with only 155 major league games, a .266 batting average, and a .459 slugging average could make such a difference. But, it would come to pass.
Led by Mays, the Giants would win the pennant by five games over the Dodgers with Mays leading the league in batting (.345) and slugging (.667) on his way to winning his first MVP. In the World Series, the 97-win Giants were underdogs to the 111-win Cleveland Indians. Yet, they swept the Indians in four games with Mays’ extraordinary catch and throw in deep center field of a drive by Indians slugger Vic Wertz in the 8th inning of game 1, a 2-2 game with two Indians on and no outs being the decisive play.
Mays had become a superstar in 1954 and over the next dozen years, he played at an MVP level each and every year, averaging a .318/.392/.615 slash line, 40 homers, 118 runs, 109 RBI, 22 steals and 9.6 WAR and 37 Win Shares (WS) per season. However, he didn’t win another MVP until 1965 when he hit a career-high 52 HR (his second 50-homer season when 50 homer seasons were still special) as his Giants lost out to the Dodgers on the last weekend of the season. His 12-year span between MVPs is the longest in history although the recent advanced meta stats of WAR and WS saw him as the best player in his league many times – 10 times according to WAR and 7 times per WS.
Mays led the league four times each in home runs (1955, 1962, 1964 & 1965) and stolen bases (1956-1959) and there is still only one other player (Chuck Klein) who has led his league in these two disparate categories at any point in his career during the post-1920 lively-ball era. In addition to HR & SB, he led the league in batting average, on-base percentage (twice), slugging average (5 times), hits, triples (thrice), total bases (thrice), walks, and runs scored (twice) at various points in his career. He is also the only player to have both a four-homer game and a three-triple game in his career and he is one of seven players to have a 20-20-20- season (20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 home runs) adding in a fourth 20 (SB – 38) to boot. He is a member of both the 30-30 club (30 HR & 30 SB) and 50-20 club (50 HR 20 SB). He also has one of the best All Star Game records to be found. Playing in 24 ASG in twenty different seasons, he hit .307 and he holds All Star Game records for most hits (23), runs (20), triples (3) and stolen bases (6), while twice being named the games MVP.
Mays was also a brilliant defensive centerfielder, perhaps the best ever but, in any case, among a small handful of the best defensive outfielders of all time. His 12 Gold Gloves are tied with Roberto Clemente as the most ever for an outfielder. Of course, he’s famous for the basket catch and his most famous defensive play (the catch & throw in the ’54 series mentioned above) probably wasn’t his best. As for his best, some mention a one-handed grab of a slicing drive off the bat of Rocky Nelson in Pittsburgh, while others (including Willie) mention a 1952 catch of a drive in Ebbets Field off the bat of Bobby Morgan in which Mays dove horizontally into the wall to make the catch.
Willie Mays signs an autograph Spring Training. Photo courtesy of Gumby Mark
Perhaps the only knock on Mays’ record is his relatively poor showing in his five postseasons (four World Series in 1951, 54, 62 and 73 and the 1971 and 1973 NL playoffs) in which he hit only .247 with 1 home run. However, Mays was an outstanding player in high-pressure situations. His 22 extra-inning home runs are the most ever. One of those extra-inning homers won a famous 1-0 16-inning pitching duel between Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal in which both pitchers pitched a complete game (something we’re unlikely to ever see again). His solo HR in the bottom of the 8th against Houston in game 162 of the 1962 season enabled the Giants to tie the Dodgers for the league lead and in the first game of their three-game playoff, his two homers off of Sandy Koufax propelled the Giants to victory and a 1-0 series lead.
Getting back to a chronological look at Willie’s career, his last great season was at age 35 in 1966. After that, Willie returned to mere mortal as a ballplayer but still a good one. At age 39, he hit 28 homers and at age 40 he led the league in on-base percentage and stole 23 bases in 26 tries as the Giants won the NL West. Early in the 1972 season, the Giants traded Mays to the New York Mets for pitcher Stan Williams and $50,000. It was a homecoming of sorts (recall that the Giants played in New York through 1957 moving to San Francisco in 1958) and Mets fans showed their appreciation for Mays, although the 41-year old was by this point a part-time player. His time with the Mets is probably most remembered by his slipping and falling while chasing a flyball in the 1973 World Series. Mays retired after the 1973 season.
To this day, Mays has some of the most impressive career statistics of all time – 3,283 hits, 660 home runs, 2062 runs scored, 338 stolen bases, 6,066 total bases, a .302 batting average and so forth. His playing career was capped by his selection into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1979. After his playing career, he stayed in the game as a coach for the Mets and later the Giants. In 1983, he and Mickey Mantle took positions with different casinos in Atlantic City as greeters and MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in one of his many bone-headed moves promptly banished both from baseball unless they quit their associations with the casinos. Both declined and it was left to Kuhn’s successor, Peter Ueberroth to reinstate both shortly after he assumed his post. More recently, he has assumed a role as sort of ambassador for the game.
Before ending this appreciation, I suppose I should briefly discuss Mays’ personal life. Early in his career, the Giants set him up in Harlem boarding house of David and Anna Goosby and had veteran Monte Irvin room with him on the road. While in Harlem, Mays did regularly play stickball with neighborhood kids more often than not ending with a trip to a soda shop as per the legend. These ended though when Mays got married in 1956. He and first wife had one adopted child (a son) before divorcing in 1963. Mays remarried in 1971 and that marriage lasted until his wife’s passing in 2013. Although generally outgoing and personable Mays, who was a clubhouse leader during his playing days, has generally kept his personal feelings and beliefs close to the vest. In putting this together, I looked unsuccessfully for a radio interview of Mays during his playing career in Houston and in which he discussed his Christian faith (as best I recall). Sans that, I do have a couple of videos highlighting Mays’ career.
Three Giant Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Juan Marichal & Willie McCovey
In 1955, the Treniers, an R&B group released a single “Hey Willie” (3:15) and the high-pitched voice you hear is indeed that of Willie Mays.
Below is about a five-minute video appreciation of Mays’ career. It features various baseball announcers and reporters discussing Mays along with various highlights of Mays in action. Watching those highlights will make clear why Willie gave such joy to baseball fans friend and foe alike.
Baseball great Al Kaline passed away today April 6, 2020 at his Bloomfield Hills home at age 85. No cause of death has been given although it is known that he suffered a heart attack several months ago. Kaline, who was born and raised in Baltimore, MD, was an early “bonus baby” signing with the Detroit Tigers at age 18 for enough money ($35,000) that the rules of the time required that he stay with the major league club. He would stay with the Tigers from that first day forward in 1953 for the next twenty-two years until his retirement following the 1974 season thus being one of the few major league players never to spend even a day in the minors.
Kaline came into his own as a player in 1955 as the 20-year old led the league in hits (200), total bases (321) and in the process became the youngest batting champion (.340) in history. The following season he would drive in a personal best 128 runs and he would continue to play at an all-star level for the better part of the next two decades. Kaline took as much pride in his defense as he did with his hitting and the right fielder would garner 10 gold gloves to go along with 15 All-Star Game selections. He would not win an MVP but he would finish second in the voting twice and be considered one of the ten most valuable players in the league nine times. For his career, he would join the 3,000 hit club with 3,007 hits but would just miss several other round numbers with 399 home runs, 498 doubles, and a career .297 batting average. The newer advanced metrics also attest Kaline’s greatness – his 92.8 WAR ranks 29th all-time among position players, while his 443 Win Shares is 28th all-time among position players. The highlight of his playing career probably came in 1968 as his Tigers beat the St Louis Cardinals for the World Series Championship as he did his part hitting .379 with 8 RBI. Kaline played his entire career with a deformed left foot due to a childhood bout with osteomyelitis which caused him problems off and on during his playing career. Here is a link to his statistics.
Kaline’s playing career was capped with his selection to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1980. After his playing career, “Mr. Tiger” joined the Tigers as an executive and he would remain employed by them until his death. Kaline, who had been a clubhouse leader during his playing career was universally liked and respected throughout the baseball world. He is survived by Madge, his wife of 66 years, and their two grown children.
Below, is a short video celebration of his career put together by the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Why can’t we be more like Sweden? Boy, I never thought I’d write those words, but I just did. You may ask in what way would I like the US to be more like Sweden? Well, it turns out they are the only country in the western world in which the government has not unilaterally shut down society in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, they are just as interested in the economic, social, and psychological health of their citizens as they are in minimizing death and illness from the coronavirus. They are, therefore, treating their citizens as responsible, rational adults.
So far, Sweden has closed its borders to non-EU nations, has restricted public gatherings to less than 50 people, and, well, that’s about it for enforced prohibitions. Otherwise, the government has issued a number of advisories including asking people to practice social distancing, work from home if possible, students over 16 are asked to study from home, and those 70 and over are urged to self-isolate. Most private businesses remain open, restaurants still offer table service, private meetings and parties continue apace, and elementary schools are open. This does not mean that Sweden has not yet felt any pain from the virus. According to the NBC News article I linked to as of March 31, Sweden had recorded approximately 4,500 cases of coronavirus and 180 deaths therefrom.
I’d be interested in what the people here at Ricochet who have been paying much closer attention to the numbers than have I, such as @rodin and @arizonapatriot have to say about Sweden’s coronavirus policy. I’m also interested in what the numerous Ricochet physicians think about the policy.
Since there is one country in the west that has not followed the shutdown, perhaps we’ll be able to test which method worked the best: the command-and-control model of every other country or the more laissez-faire approach of Sweden. Of course, there are many differences between countries which affect outcomes. For example, Sweden has a much lower population density than many of the hardest-hit areas, each country has a unique population age distribution, and so forth.
This morning, Sean Davis of The Federalist provided the best take I’ve seen on Michael Bloomberg’s failed presidential run.
If only Bloomberg had hired Russians to buy $100,000 in barely literate Facebook ads, instead of spending $700 MILLION, he’d be president now. That’s what the media have told us for 3+ years.
Ricochet’s own Mollie Hemingway made the same point this afternoon on Fox News’ “Special Report With Bret Baier.”
.@MZHemingway: "I think it is interesting that Bloomberg is out. We had years where people were saying a couple hundred thousand dollars and barely literate Facebook ads from Russians caused Donald Trump to win. Here you had a guy spend nearly $1 billion and he went nowhere." pic.twitter.com/jW6Q8Bo5Wp
This post is inspired by a bit of presidential trivia I came upon the other day. When John F. Kennedy was elected president, he became the first to have served in the US Navy. That made me wonder about how many other presidents had served in the military in some capacity prior to their winning the White House, what branches they had served in, and whether or not they’d experienced combat.
In general, I think it’s agreed that prior military service is to the credit of anyone seeking political office, especially so for the presidency and that also having combat experience only enhances that benefit. With that in mind, does the record bear out the assumption that prior military service makes for a better president? Whether that’s been the case for our presidents is, I think, an open question; although I would still prefer, everything else being equal, that the presidential candidate I support have military service on their résumé.
I went through the military records of each president as presented in The Complete Book of U. S. Presidents by William A. Degregoria plus whatever I previously knew about a number of our presidents and their military service. In doing this, I kept track of not only whether or not they had any military service, but also their service branch, years of service, whether they saw combat, and what their military ranks were.
Of our 44 presidents to date (including Trump), 29 had military service of some sort, 15 had no military service at the time they became president, 18 had experienced combat, and 22 had served in the Army (including militia, National Guard, and the like), six had served in the Navy, and one had served in the Air Force.
George Washington – 1st President – Military Service – Yes, Career Soldier, Experienced Combat, Army, General of the Army.
John Adams – 2nd President – Military Service – No, Although he has no military service, he signed the Declaration of Independence thus putting his life in jeopardy.
Thomas Jefferson – 3rd President – Military Service – No, although he also affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence.
James Madison – 4th President – Military Service – Yes, he was commissioned a colonel in the Orange County militia in October 1775 but due to frail health limited his activities to drill, target practice and recruitment.
James Monroe – 5th President – Military Service – Yes. Served in the Continental Army from 1776-1778 rising from lieutenant to major. Experienced Combat.
John Quincy Adams – 6th President – Military Service – No.
Andrew Jackson – 7th President – Military Service – Yes, Career Soldier, American Revolution (at age 13!), War of 1812 and various Indian Wars, Army, Experienced Combat, Highest Rank – Major General.
Martin Van Buren – 8th President – Military Service – No.
William Henry Harrison – 9th President – Military Service – Yes. Professional Soldier, Various Indian Wars and the War of 1812, Experienced Combat, Joined Army in 1791 as ensign Highest Rank – Major General.
John Tyler – 10th President – Military Service – Yes, War of 1812, joined militia as captain, did not see combat.
James Polk – 11th President – Military Service – Yes – in 1821 commissioned a captain of a militia cavalry unit rose to colonel. No combat experience.
Zachary Taylor – 12th President – Military Service – Yes, Career Soldier 1808-1848, War if 1812, Black Hawk War, Second Seminole War, and Mexican War, Experienced Combat, Began as first lieutenant. Highest Rank – major general.
General Zachary Taylor on his white horse at the Battle of Palo Alto.
Millard Fillmore – 13th President – Military Service – None before the presidency. During Civil War, he formed a Buffalo home guard comprised of men 45 and over.
Franklin Pierce – 14th President – Military Service – Yes, Mexican War (1846-48) Enlisted as a private in a volunteer unit in Concord, New Hampshire in May 1846. Commissioned a colonel in February 1847 and promoted to brigadier general in March 1847. Army, Experienced Combat.
James Buchanan – 15th President – Military Service – Yes, War of 1812, volunteered for a company of dragoons after the British burning of Washington. Saw no combat.
Abraham Lincoln – 16th President – Military Service – Yes. Black Hawk War, 1832, local militia elected captain, saw no combat.
Andrew Johnson – 17th President – Military Service – Yes. Appointed military governor of Tennessee by President Lincoln in 1862 with the rank of brigadier general. Saw no combat.
Ulysses S. Grant – 18th President – Military Service – Yes, Career Soldier (1843-54, 1861-69), West Point graduate, Mexican War, Civil War, Experienced combat. Highest Rank – General of the Army.
General Ulysses S. Grant.
Rutherford B. Hayes – 19th President – Military Service – Yes, Civil War – June 1861-June 1865 rising from major to major general. Army, Experienced extensive combat.
James Garfield – 20th President – Military Service – Yes, Civil War August 1861 to December 1863, Army. Commissioned as lieutenant colonel and rose to major general. Experienced combat.
Chester Arthur – 21st President – Military Service – Yes, Civil War, Served in New York state militia 1858 to December 1862 rising from brigade judge general to brigadier general. Saw no combat.
Grover Cleveland – 22nd and 24th President – Military Service – No, during the civil war, Cleveland was drafted and paid $150 for a substitute which was legal at the time.
Benjamin Harrison – 23rd President – Military Service – Yes. Civil War served with the 70th Indiana Infantry Regiment from July 1862 to June 1865 rising from second lieutenant to brigadier general. Experienced combat.
William McKinley – 25th President – Military Service – Yes. Civil War served with 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry from June 1861 to July 1865 rising from private to brevet major. Experienced combat.
Private William McKinley.
Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President – Military Service – Yes. Member of New York state National Guard from 1882-1885, rising from second lieutenant to captain. Served as commander of the First US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (Rough Riders) during the Spanish-American War 1898. Experienced combat.
William Howard Taft – 27th President – Military Service – No.
Woodrow Wilson – 28th President – Military Service – No.
Warren Harding – 29th President – Military Service – No.
Calvin Coolidge – 30th President – Military Service – No.
Herbert Hoover – 31st President – Military Service – No.
Franklin D, Roosevelt – 32nd President – Military Service – No.
Harry Truman – 33rd President – Military Service – Yes. Served in Missouri National Guard 1905-11, rejoined upon U.S. entry into World War I serving with 129th Field Artillery from August 1917-May 1919 rising from lieutenant to major. Experienced combat.
Lieutenant Harry Truman.
Dwight D. Eisenhower – 34th President – Military Service – Yes. Career Soldier 1915-48, 51-52. West Point graduate, Highest Rank 5-Star General, Supreme Allied Commander ETO.
General Eisenhower talking to paratroopers June 5, 1944.
John F. Kennedy – 35th President – Military Service – Yes, World War II Navy September 1941 to April 1945 rising from ensign to lieutenant. Experienced combat.
Lyndon B. Johnson – 36th President – Military Service – Yes, World War II Navy December 1941 to July 1942. Experienced combat, although that’s a bit of a joke.
Richard Nixon – 37th President – Military Service – Yes. World War II, Navy June 1942 to March 1946 rising from lieutenant junior grade to lieutenant commander. Saw no combat but won a lot of money playing poker.
Gerald Ford – 38th President – Military Service – Yes. World War II, Navy April 1942 to February 1946 rising from ensign to lieutenant commander. Experienced combat (10 battle stars) as officer aboard the USS Monterey, a light carrier.
USS Monterey Gunnery Officer Gerald Ford is the man jumping on the left.
Jimmy Carter – 39th President – Military Service – Yes. Annapolis graduate, US Navy 1946 to 1953 engineering officer aboard the USS Sea Wolf and early nuclear submarine. Saw no combat.
Ronald Reagan – 40th President – Military Service – Yes. Army Reserve, served in US Army from April 1942-July 1945 rising from second lieutenant to captain. Barred from combat due to poor eyesight.
George H. W. Bush – 41st President – Military Service – Yes. Navy World War II June 1942 to September 1945 rising from seaman second class to lieutenant (junior grade). Torpedo Bomber pilot. Experienced combat.
Bill Clinton – 42nd President – Military Service – No.
George W. Bush – 43rd President – Military Service – Yes Air National Guard 1968-1974 Fighter pilot. Experienced no combat.
Barack Obama – 44th President – Military Service – No.
Donald Trump – 45th President – Military Service – No.
Looking through the list, I do have a few comments.
I think it’s fair to say that the two biggest wars in our history (Civil War and World War II, ignoring the War of Independence) had long-term impacts on our politics in many ways. An obvious effect was the number of veterans from those wars who later became president. Every president except one (Cleveland) was a Civil War veteran for the rest of the 19th century and that time would’ve been at least a bit longer if not for the 1901 assassination of McKinley. Likewise, every president from 1952-1992 except for one (Carter) was a military veteran of World War II.
We had one very long period of time in which we elected presidents with no military record. Every president from 1908 (Taft) through 1945 (FDR) was a non-veteran. Why that was, I don’t know. Although, I should note that both Taft and Roosevelt had served as civilian leaders of the military; Taft as Secretary of War during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt and FDR as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during Wilson’s two terms, including during World War I. These civilian posts are to the credit of their holders but I don’t think they should be considered the same as military service.
As I mentioned earlier, I’d prefer my presidential candidate to have served in the military. However, there are different types of courage. Grover Cleveland, who paid a substitute to take his place during the Civil War displayed political courage throughout his political career. As Sheriff of Erie County, he ended the routine graft of the department which earned him the wrath of his fellow Democrats and, as president, he regularly vetoed many popular spending bills because he thought them wrong or unconstitutional, including a Civil War veterans pension and private relief bills. I think the same can be said for many of our other presidents who did not serve in the military.
I just remembered one other thing I wanted to mention. After Kennedy, the next four presidents were also Navy vets (Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter), after 170 years without a Navy vet in the White House. Go figure.
Advertisement for Kodak Model No 1 (1888)George Eastman circa 1890
No man did more to bring photography to ordinary people than did George Eastman (1854-1932). Eastman, who had two sisters, was born into a successful family on a small farm in upstate New York. When his father’s health began to fail the family moved to Rochester, NY. His father would die in 1862 when young George was eight and his mother was forced to take in boarders in order to make ends meet.
Among those boarders would be the Henry Strong family. Strong would become and remain a life-long friend and business partner of Eastman (he served as president of Eastman Kodak from its inception until his death in 1919). As for George, he would begin working full time at age 14 as an office boy (his workweek was 10 hours per day, six days per week at $3 per week). Eastman was a smart and diligent young man who was steadily advancing in the work world.
At seventeen, he began work for a Rochester insurance company for a salary of $41 per month plus the $8 per month he earned as a volunteer fireman, and by age 20 he was making $700 per year as a clerk at the Rochester Savings Bank. A year later he received a promotion to a position at a salary of $1,000 per year, which would be fine salary at the time for a middle-aged married man with.a family. It must have seemed a princely sum for the 20-year old bachelor.
In 1877, Eastman bought a camera and took up photography as a hobby. Photography at that time was neither an inexpensive nor a quick and easy hobby to take up. His first photography “kit” was of the collodion or wet plate process and cost $50. The kit included a large, heavy camera, a tripod, a plate holder for photographic plates, a tent which would serve as a darkroom, a nitrate bath, and several bottles of various chemicals. In order to take a photograph with his kit, he needed to be in darkroom tent (closed) and perform the following steps; coat a glass plate with a thin solution of egg white, then lay an emulsion of gun cotton and alcohol mixed with bromide salts, when the emulsion was set but still moist dip the plate in a solution of nitrate of silver and shield it from light as he put it in the camera. Eastman thought there had to be an easier way to prepare to take photographs. He then took it upon himself to find that way.
And pursue it he did. Although he had no training in chemistry, he read photography journals, contacted professional photographers and picked their brains, and experimented endlessly in the lab he set up for that purpose (he worked in the lab from the time he got off work each day until breakfast the following morning on a daily basis). Two years later he had invented an emulsion that enabled exposures to be made with a dry plate and had further designed a machine to coat the plates in quantity and had set up a business selling the plates (the Eastman Dry Plate Company) and obtained patents in both the United States and England (which was the photographic capital of the world at the time). Of course Eastman was far from the only one pursuing better photographic methods. Among the others were two brothers, David and Peter Houston of Cambria, Wisconsin who had developed and patented roll film and a roll film holder which was eventually licensed to Eastman’s company.
Patent Drawings for the Kodak Model No 1 (1888)
Even with the roll film license, the Eastman company continued to experiment and make improvements with roll film and the roll film process. In 1888, Eastman would bring a product to market that would revolutionize photography. That product was a roll film camera Eastman called the Kodak Model No. 1. How he came up with the name Kodak is not entirely clear. He said he liked the letter K, it sounded strong and he also thought that the word would be pronounced the same in every language (whether that’s the case I know not). The small camera fit in a cardboard box(3-1/4″ x 3-3/4″ X 6-1/2″ in length) had an imitation leather finish and nickel fittings. As for the camera itself, the 57 mm lens was centered on one face along the longitudinal axis, there was no viewfinder – a V notched into the case indicated the direction to aim the camera, the lever to rewind and advance the film and a string pull to wind the barrel shutter to tension were located on the top of the box, and the lens was fixed-focus but it had a great depth of field which allowed for focused images from as near as several feet away. The camera came with a pre-loaded 100 exposure roll of film but had no exposure counter for which Kodak provided each camera owner with a Kodak Memorandum which provided a means by which the camera’s owner could keep track of the pictures she’s taken. When the roll was finished the owner would mail in the camera to Kodak and Kodak would develop the film which produced circular photos 2-1/2 inches in diameter, reload the camera with another 100 exposure roll and return the package within 10 days for 10 dollars.
The Kodak Model 1 was a success and can be said to have created the concept of the amateur photographer. In the first year, 13,000 people bought the Kodak; but, at a price of $25 it was still out of reach for many. Within a year or two the camera would be equipped with a viewfinder, transparent nitrocellulose film (a major breakthrough), an exposure counter and a lens that could be adjusted to several pre-set values. This process of continual refinement and improvement of its’ products on an annual basis would become standard operating procedure for the company. Although Eastman had little formal education, he saw the value in having technically trained employees and he hired college-trained chemists and engineers early on both to work on existing products but also to pursue research into technologies that did not yet exist so that Kodak could be the first there. Before discussing the Brownie I should note that the main designer for the Model No. 1 (and the Brownie as well) was Frank Brownell. Brownell, a Canadian by birth, had moved to upstate New York and was working as a cabinet maker when Eastman first contracted with him to make parts for a rollfilm holder.
On Left: Box, carrying case, camera, felt lens plug, manual, memorandum and viewfinder card. On Right: Sample Photo with Kodak Model No 1Kodak Memorandum for recording photos takenPhoto of children wading at the beach with a Kodak Model No 1
In 1900 Eastman introduced the Kodak Brownie. Rarely in history has a product been both such a success (both immediate and long-term) and so impactful. The Brownie was a small, cheap (it sold for $1) box camera with a fixed-focus lens with a depth of field (f/14 aperture) such that pictures were in focus from several feet to infinity. The roll film for the camera, which produced 2-1/4″ square photos, was sold separately in six exposure rolls for a dime, while that six exposure roll would be developed by Kodak for 15 cents. In the first year, 150,000 Brownies were sold and the Brownie camera in one form or another was part of the Kodak product line for the better part of eight decades. Now anyone could afford a camera!
Kodak Brownie Camera with original packagingBrownie Camera with parts clearly labeled
Regarding the Brownie moniker; it referred to the cartoon characters The Browniescreated by Palmer Cox, which were popular at the time. And this gets me to the last item about Eastman Kodak I wanted to touch on – advertising. Although I think both the Kodak Model 1 (1888) and (especially) the Brownie would’ve been commercial successes without the aggressive and innovative marketing by Eastman because of the previously unknown need they satisfied to memorialize events by taking pictures, the Eastman advertising certainly didn’t hurt. The marketing for the 1888 Model 1 emphasized the ease of operation of the camera “You press the button – – – – – We do the rest.” The marketing also reminded people of the three simple steps involved with the Kodak – 1) turn the key (to wind the film), 2) pull the string (to set the shutter, and 3) press the button (to take the picture. Simple, right? With the Brownie that ease of operation aspect was still a part of the tale. However, the Brownie was also specifically advertised as something young children could easily and safely take part in as picture takers. That was part of the reason behind the Brownie name. And, finally from the beginning Eastman advertising featured women as picture takers. Oh, and other thing they attempted to make the work Kodak into a verb as well as a noun as in “Let the Children Kodak.”
Ad for First Brownie CameraKodak Ad circa 1910Let the Children KodakKodak Ad AustraliaKodak Ad OutdoorswomanKodak Ad At the Beach
For those who might be interested, pasted below is a short four and a half minute video showing the workings of the Kodak Brownie.
I think this 1969 song by the Kinks – “People Take Pictures of Each Other” is as good a way as any to end this post.
All of us, regardless of how brave and rugged we may appear to others, have to deal with fears of all sorts throughout our lives. This post is about a fear I experienced. At its core, I think the fear I’ll be describing was about my being able to make it through what is a rite of passage in modern life: obtaining a Driver’s License and becoming a legal car driver.
At the time (late 1960s/early 1970s) and place (California) one could secure a Learner’s Permit at age 15-1/2 and a Driver’s License at age 16. The Learner’s Permit allowed you to drive a car only if you were accompanied by a responsible adult, while the Driver’s License allowed you to drive a car without any such restriction.
I don’t know exactly when, but I think it was about the time I became a teenager, that I started to take an increased interest in cars eventually becoming something of a car nut. Not as big a nut as some guys, but more than many. I read Motor Trend and Car and Driver magazines, paid attention to engine sizes and configurations and horsepower ratings, fantasized about the car I knew I’d eventually own (a Shelby Mustang – never happened), went through endless of pads of paper drawing cars and hot rods, and looked forward to and helped my Dad in the routine maintenance of our two family cars – oil and filter changes every three months, new points, condenser and rotor at about the same interval, and spark plug change-out every four or so months.
As I got closer to the time I’d be able to drive legally, my Dad would occasionally let me drive the car. These instances usually occurred after dark. Dad would pull over and slide over to the passenger seat, and I’d get behind the wheel and drive the last several blocks home. Since we were in a residential area, I doubt I ever drove faster than 20 or 25 miles per hour.
At the same time, however, I began to experience a recurring nightmare (the only one of my life so far – knock on wood). In my dream, I was driving a car – accelerating it – 10 mph, 15, 20, 30, 40, 45, 50…and so forth and as I continued to gain speed the steering wheel would start to vibrate – slowly at first but with increasing frequency and intensity as my speed increased. As the steering wheel vibrations grew, I had a harder and harder time holding onto and controlling the wheel, eventually losing control as the car crashed. At that point, I’d wake up in a cold sweat. I, of course, never mentioned the dream to anyone.
I did get my Learner’s Permit, at which time I occasionally got to drive the family car around town with either my Mom or Dad in tow. In these trips, I don’t think I ever drove faster than maybe 40 mph and my recurring nightmare continued. Six or so months later I got my Driver’s License and so occasionally got to drive the family car without a parent present.
I imagine my progression as a driver was similar to most. At first, I was an extremely cautious and conscientious driver – hands at ten and two, constantly checking the rearview and side mirrors, strictly complying with the speed limit. Within a couple of months though, I was just another driver – steering the car with my wrist and my other arm resting on the door, radio blaring, and the posted speed limit starting to become more of a recommendation unless a cop was nearby. I was able to drive at speed!
A year or so later I was able to buy my first car (a 1967 Ford Mustang with a small-block 289 V-8) and I had even less fear of speed. By this time my recurring nightmare had long since decamped never to return.
And so my recurring nightmare turned out to be nothing more than a silly fear.
This is shocking and depressing news. Chick-Fil-A, which has long been on the receiving end of vitriol and harrasment from the LBGT Mob for operating their business based on the Christian beliefs of owner Dan Cathy (including opposition to same-sex marriage) just announced their surrender to the Mob. Specifically, Chick-Fil-A will no longer donate to the Salvation Army, the Paul Anderson Youth Home, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Over the years, Chick-Fil-A has donated millions of dollars to these and other charities. What these three charities that have been written out of Chick-Fil-A’s charitable giving have in common is that each is overtly Christian in their outlook and behavior and have been victims of the same harrasment by the LBGT Mob as Chick-Fil-A.
Chick-Fil-A is pretty transparent in why they are making this move. They are hopeful this move will prevent the type of opposition to the opening of new restaurants in progressive environs such as that of the San Antonio City Council banning of a proposed Chick-Fil-A at the local airport earlier this year. Chick-Fil-A President and CEO Tim Tassopoulos stated “There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear who we are. When there is a tension we want to be sure we’re being clear. We think this is going to be helpful. It’s just the right thing to do: be clear, caring and supportive and do it in the community.” A Chick-Fil-A spokesman stated that the chain will focus it’s charitable donations on “education, homeless, and hunger.” If so, they’ll have a hard time finding organizations that have done as much good in these areas as has the Salvation Army for over 150 years.
I don’t think this is going to work out the way Chick-Fil-A hopes it will. Chick-Fil-A has now shown that it will cave to the totalitarian LBGT Mob. With this victory in hand, the Mob will continue to push for complete capitulation to the LBGT agenda with the same ferocity they have up to this point, while conservatives (especially social conservatives) will view this as a betrayal and, if so, will frequent Chick-Fil-A a little less often. We shall see.
Grapevine Grade looking north of original Ridge Route. Note this is Tejon Pass, not Tehachapi Pass
Early in my engineering career, I used to drive what was and still is colloquially called “the grapevine” to and from work every day for about five years. In fact, I rarely did drive the actual grapevine. I lived in Castaic , which is located in Los Angeles County at the southern end of the Tejon Pass, and worked on construction projects in the Gorman area and so drove I-5 “up the hill” and “down the hill” between these two points. The grapevine is the name for the grade at the northern portion of the Tejon Pass, which is in Kern County and connects Los Angeles with northern California.
In any event, back then I spent a portion of my free time investigating the history of the area and found out that the I-5 route over the Tehachapi Mountains I drove every day had been preceded by two previous routes, the first of which was considered an engineering marvel of its time. It turned out that I lived “just down the street” from the southern end from that first route – The Ridge Route – and I drove, bicycled and walked it a number of times and found what I could about it in local libraries. It’s been a long time since I lived in the area; but, I recently came across a couple of books which greatly increased my knowledge of the subject. Those books are Highway 99 by Stephen H. Provost and Ridge Route: The Road That United California by Harrison Scott. Scott, a retired engineer, spent years researching, studying and driving the Ridge Route. He also spent years working with federal officials to get that portion of the Ridge Route within the National Forest added to the National Register of Historic Places. Here is his website.
The Ridge Route and its successor routes over the mountains is an interesting story (or at least I think so) and I thought I’d briefly discuss a bit of that history here at Ricochet. The story will proceed in three parts. First, a brief history of the engineering and construction of the various routes over the mountains followed by a brief discussion of a few points of interest along the route and finally end with a short discussion of another important piece of infrastructure which further binds together northern and southern California.
The Ridge Route
LA Times Map of Ridge Route 1915
There are significant geographical barriers between northern and southern California. Namely, a series of east-west mountain ranges called the transverse ranges with few passes, none of them easy, thus preventing easy passage between the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles area. By 1909, the State of California got serious about building a highway network throughout the state to allow for automobile traffic between towns. The state passed a bond measure of $18 million to begin this network including a route to connect the San Joaquin Valley to Los Angeles.
The California State Highway Commission was responsible for the design and construction of these various roads including what would become the Ridge Route. At the time, there were no all-weather roads between northern and southern California. All that existed were two railroad routes – the first the Southern Pacific (SPRR) route over the Tehachapi Pass and it’s unique Tehachapi Loop. The other was a coastal SPRR route between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which was completed in 1901. In planing for the new road, the Commission looked at several different routes. One was to follow the SPRR route over the Tehachapi Pass and continue south to Lancaster and then proceed via either Mint Canyon or Bouquet Canyon. Another was to proceed up the Grapevine and over the Tejon Pass, then turn east to Quail Lake, which is just south of Gorman (the modern-day Highway 138) and then head south via the San Francisquito Canyon. A third potential route also proceeded up the Grapevine and over the Tejon Pass, but rather than proceed east to Lancaster, it would instead continue south through the Piru Gorge to Castaic. The fourth route, and the one eventually chosen, also proceeded up the Grapevine and over the Tejon Pass. However, after passing Gorman it would follow the mountain ridge line until it reached Castaic.
The aptly named W. Lewis Clark, a State Highway Commission engineer, was responsible for the route’s final alignment. The proposed route was broken into three contracts, each approximately equal in length, and put out to bid. State Highway Commission engineer N. D. Darlington oversaw construction. Work started in 1914 and was completed in October 1915.
The completed road was 20 feet in width and originally received a surfacing of oiled gravel. Later, from 1917-1921, the road was paved with a 20′ wide, 4″ thick layer of portland cement concrete which was reinforced transversely with a 3/8″ steel reinforcing bars 18″ on center. The design specifications called for a minimum curve radius of 70′ and, since the route followed the ridge line as much as possible, the road was very curvy. Between Castaic and Grapevine, there are over 700 curves with a total of 39,441 degrees of curve meaning that someone driving the route had to go around in a complete circle 110 times! Wheee, I’ll bet there were more than a few dizzy drivers! The work required about 1,000,000 cubic yards of excavation, the majority of which was performed with horses or mules pulling Fresno scrapers. The largest cut on the job was the 110 foot deep Swede’s Cut which was performed with a steam shovel. The overall cost for the Ridge Route was about one and a half million dollars.
Ridge Route Tour Map
As soon as the road was opened to the public, two things happened: First, the public took immediately to the new road. Trucks began delivering produce, construction materials and just about anything else to and from Los Angeles, and individuals took to the road both to travel to other parts of the state or as a weekend outing. This was not surprising as the new road shortened the trip between Bakersfield and Los Angeles by 45 miles. Bakersfield to Los Angeles could now be traversed in “only” 12 hours (today, it’s about a 2-hour drive depending on traffic). Secondly, a variety of businesses sprang up along the route to cater to the needs of the motoring public. Most of these businesses consisted of a diner and/or a restaurant, a gas pump or two, cabins or rooms for rent, camping spaces, and someone who at least called himself a mechanic available. A cabin or room with running water generally went for $2 dollars, a camping space 50 cents and 75 cents for a meal. The tour map posted above shows most of these enterprises.
Despite its popularity, the narrow, curvy road was very dangerous, and accidents and fatalities were a common occurrence. It did not help that fill slopes either had no protective guard railings or had wooden fences which worked about as well as you’d expect. A speed limit of 15 miles per hour was strictly enforced along the route, while the most numerous vehicle of the time, the Ford Model T, had a hard time making 15 mph going up the numerous grades along the way, but also had trouble keeping below 15 mph going down those same grades. The most dangerous curve was called “Deadman’s Curve” and is still visible from the freeway today (it is just to the east of the southbound lanes and 1/2 mile north of Fort Tejon).
Deadman’s Curve
Traffic counts on the road continued a steady increase – by 1925 more than 2,000 vehicles per day used the road which was beyond its capacity. In addition, car performance was improving, the 20 HP Model T would shortly be replaced with the 40 HP Model A. State Highway Department engineers began planning for an alternate route over the mountains to take the pressure off of the Ridge Route and in 1933 the Ridge Route Alternate was opened to traffic. The alternate was a vast improvement over the Ridge Route. In the Alternate, about 80% of the curves were eliminated, the minimum curve radius was increased to 1,000 feet and the length of the passage was reduced by about nine miles. It was designed for a capacity of 12,000 vehicles per day versus the 1,500 vehicles per day of the original route. The south portion of the Alternate continued south through Piru Gorge rather up along the ridgeline. By this time, the work was performed with modern earthmoving equipment, gasoline or diesel-powered scrapers, dozers, shovels and trucks with a total cost of $3.5 million. As per the it’s name, engineers expected the Ridge Route Alternate to serve that purpose, an alternate to the Ridge Route to be used mainly by truckers, salesman and the like with Sunday drivers still expected to make use of the original Ridge Route. However, that did not happen. Immediately, all used the new Alternate and business on the original route south of Quail Lake quickly dried up with most businesses closing within a year or two of the Alternate’s opening. Because of this, little is left of those establishments on the southern portion of the Ridge Route except for foundations.
Postcard of Ridge Route near Sandberg’s
Swede’s CutTumble Inn Restaurant and Hotel circa 1926
Tumble Inn today
Car hits a “guardrail” on Ridge Route ca 1920
1920’s postcard of Ridge Route
Ridge Route horseshoe bend
Getting back to the Ridge Route Alternate, it was built with 3 lanes, one in each direction and a middle “passing lane”. At least that’s what the engineers called it. It quickly came to be called “the suicide lane”. And, it lived up to that name. Although the road was better engineered than the old route, the suicide lane led to accident and death totals that weren’t much better than that old curvy road. Due to the unacceptable accident rate and the ever-increasing use of the Alternate, the State was in the process of widening the new road to four lanes when World War II would delay that work for the duration.
Ridge Route Alternate in Piru Gorge 1934
Ridge Route Alternate near Grapevine ca 1937
Postcard of Ridge Route Alternate circa 1940
After the war, California passed the Collier-Burns Act of 1947 which provided a long-term funding system for state highway construction and these funds were rapidly put to use in widening the 3-lane Ridge Route Alternate to a four-lane expressway which was completed in 1952. Of course, California’s population continued its post-war boom and the expressway needed to be replaced with an 8-lane interstate freeway to meet the continued demand. That construction occurred between 1960 and 1970 in phases so as to keep the road open to traffic at all times. The alignment for the new interstate closely follows that of the 1952 Golden State Highway except for the need to around the Piru Gorge area which was submerged under the waters of Pyramid Lake, a recently constructed facility of the State Water Project (SWP). A table is provided below which provides some of specifications for each of the four routes discussed above.
Item ………. RR 1915 … ARR 1933 .. GSH99 .. I-5 1970
Compl Date 1915……… 1933……….. 1952…..1970
Lanes ……….2 ……………3 …………….4……… 8
Lane Width .10’ …………10’ ………….12’……. 12’
Pavement ….pcc …………pcc ………….pcc ……pcc
Median ……..No ………….No ………….Yes …..Yes
Shoulder …..No ………….Yes …………Yes …..Yes
Max Grade ..7% ………….6% …………6% …..6%
Summit ……4233’ ……….4183’ ……..4183’ ..4144’
Min Curve R .70’ …………1,000’ …….1,000’ ..3,000’
Length ……49 miles …….40 miles ….40 miles .40 miles
Cost ……..$1.5 M ………$3.5 M …….$13.5 M .$103 M
Notes:
Column 1 refers to original Ridge Route (RR 1915), while column 2 refers to the Ridge Route Alternate (ARR 1933), column 3 refers to the Golden State Highway (GSH99) and column 4 refers to Interstate 5 (I-5 1970).
pcc = portland cement concrete
Min Curve R = minimum curve radius. The shorter the radius, the tighter and more severe the curve, while the longer the radius the shallower and more gentle the curve.
In 2003, Huell Howser dedicated one of his Road Trip programs to the Ridge Route in which he toured the route with Harrison Scott. It’s no longer available on line, but you can watch it (or any other Huell Howser program) at the Chapman University website of Huell Howser’s archives. I’ve linked to it here. It’s about 45 minutes in length. If you have the time and have an interest in the topic, it’s well worth watching.
On the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Ridge Route, the Bakersfield Californian took a tour of the route with Harrison Scott and issued an 11-minute video of that tour. It’s not as good as the Huell Howser video, but it’s still good and worthwhile.
Points of Interest
In this section, I’ll mention a few points of interest along the Tejon Pass from Castaic in the south to Grapevine in the north.
Castaic came into being with the Ridge Route in 1915. It was the southern terminus of the Tejon Pass crossing in 1915 and has remained the southern terminus through each of the new roads over the pass. When I lived there, it was not much more than a large truck stop. Today, it’s a bedroom community for Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. One thing I did not know until recently is that it was the site of a long-standing honest-to-goodness range war. A land dispute between two ranchers, William Jenkins, and William Chormicle, raged and simmered off and on for the better part of two decades with a body count in the double digits. Today, most of the land in dispute is beneath Castaic Lake, also a facility of the State Water Project.
The 5-Mile Grade is somewhat unique among interstate freeways. Five-Mile Grade is the name given to the northbound grade up the hill as I-5 passes Castaic, and this stretch of northbound traffic is to the left of the southbound traffic, which is a very unusual arrangement. Five-Mile Grade shares the alignment of the previous two roads (Ridge Route Alternate and Golden State Highway). The northbound Five-Mile Grade is a bit steeper than the newer southbound descending grade to it’s right (east). Engineers chose this alignment during the design of I-5 as they were more concerned about the dangers associated with potential brake failures for descending eighteen-wheelers than with the additional fuel consumption that would be required for the ascending vehicles. If you ever drive this grade be sure to look for the truck escape route pointing in the wrong direction about half way up the grade which was left as is during construction.
In and of itself, Templin Highway is not of much interest and I imagine most people driving over Interstate 5 ever give it a moments thought. However, for anyone interested in Ridge Route history it is important as a means of access to the earlier roads. Taking the off-ramp to the east leads to an intersection with the original Ridge Route, while taking the off-ramp to the west leads to a preserved portion of the four-lane Golden State Highway which exists up to just south of Pyramid Dam. It should be noted that this stretch of the Golden State Highway also follows the alignment of the Ridge Route Alternate.
Kinsey Mansion
The original Ridge Route followed the alignment of the current Highway 138 starting a mile or so east of Quail Lake and the proceeded towards Gorman via what is called the Gorman Post Road. The lake was long existing at the time of the Ridge Route construction having been created by a cataclysmic movement of the San Andreas Fault ages ago. However, during construction of the State Water Project, a dam was added at the site and the lake was incorporated into the SWP in 1967 as the most cost efficient way to cross the fault. Directly across Highway 138 from Quail Lake is a large, picturesque Georgian Mansion known as the Kinsey Mansion. It looks completely out of place and the scuttlebutt among the locals was (and probably still is) that the mansion was used in the classic movie Gone With the Wind as the mansion Tara. That’s not so though as Mr. Kinsey did not complete his mansion until 1946.
Speaking of the San Andreas Fault, it is a factor that needs to be taken into consideration for any large construction project such as the freeway or the SWP facilities. The fault crosses I-5 several times before heading towards the southeast and Palmdale and Littlerock. This link will take you to several photos of the fault in this area. I’ll have a little more to say about the fault a bit later.
Getting back to the Ridge Route alignment, following the Gorman Post Road takes you into Gorman. Gorman has been a stopover along the Tejon Pass since at least the 1850s. The most interesting thing about Gorman; however, is that the entire town is owned by the Ralphs family, who established and still own the Ralphs Market grocery chain. In 1994, the Ralphs reportedly put the entire town up for sale for $13.6 million, although my understanding is that they still own the town. One thing I should note is that from Gorman north there a number of locations where one or more of the earlier roads still exist. This is the case in and around Gorman, the Frazier Park interchange area, Lebec and Fort Tejon.
Gorman circa 1955
Dec. 16, 1940 hundreds of motor vehicles halted at Gorman by snowstorm
A couple of miles north of Gorman is the Frazier Park off-ramp. Frazier Park and several other small communities are several miles west of I-5 and it is in these communities where the majority of year around residents in these mountains make their home.
Another couple of miles north takes us to Lebec. Lebec was home to the poshest hotel along the original Ridge Route – The Hotel Lebec – although it went by several different names over the years, Lebec Lodge, Hotel Durant (named for its owner at the time Cliff Durant, the son of Will Durant of General Motors notoriety), among others. Over the years the hotel hosted its fair share of the rich and famous including Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Charles Lindbergh and his bride, Anne Morrow, Buster Keaton, Jack Dempsey, Fatty Arbunkle and Bugsy Siegel. The hotel went through a series of owners over the years and after 1940 or thereabouts it began a slow, steady decline which led to its eventual condemnation and demolition in 1968.
Hotel Lebec postcard
Fort Tejon State Historical Park, which is open daily, is the site of Fort Tejon, a U. S. Army outpost that was in existence between 1854 and 1864. The fort was damaged by the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, an earthquake estimated to be a magnitude 7.9. In fact, the epicenter of the quake was about 120 miles to the northeast along the San Andreas Fault near the current town of Parkfield, CA. It was just that this portion of California was lightly populated at the time and Fort Tejon experienced the most damage that it came to be called the Fort Tejon earthquake. Incidentally, Parkfield is the most seismically active locale in California experiencing a 6.0 or greater earthquake once every 22 years on average.
Finally, we’re at the Grapevine, the north end of our journey! There is a general misconception that the Grapevine moniker refers to the twisting nature of the various roads and routes through the canyon and up the hill. That is not so. Grapes have grown naturally in the canyon for quite some time. In fact, it got its name from Don Pedro Fages, the acting governor of Alta California, who noticed the native wild grapes named the place Canada de Las Uvas, or grapevine canyon. At the Grapevine Grade, the north and south bound lanes maintain their proper alignment, as opposed to the south of Five-Mile Grade, discussed earlier. At both grades, though, it is not unusual to catch of whiff of burning brakes. The southbound lane is the older of the two embankments – it was the alignment for the 1933 Alternate route and is steeper than the new grade constructed for the descending northbound lanes. This was done for the same reason as at the 5-Mile Grade; a brake failure to a descending vehicle, especially a large tractor-trailer is less likely on a gentler slope.
Grapevine Canyon 1947
California State Water Project
There are several SWP facilities visible from this section of I-5; but, rather than mentioning them with the other points of interest, I thought it deserved it’s own brief section.
In California, most of the precipitation occurs north of the San Francisco Bay-Delta, but most of the population and irrigated agriculture occurs south of the delta. The main purpose of the SWP is transport some of what would otherwise be excess water to where it is most needed. The most challenging portion of the project was determining a method to get the water over or past the mountain ranges that separate northern and southern California. This was accomplished via a large pumping plant, the A. D. Edmonston Pumping Plant, located several miles to the east of Grapevine. This plant provides the largest water lift in the world. Fourteen, four-stage pumps of 320 cfs & 80,000 hp each (total installed capacity of 4,480 cfs and 1,120,000 hp) lift the water 1,926 feet over the hill and into the Antelope Valley. From there the aqueduct bifurcates into West and East Branches. The East Branch transports up to 2,880 cfs southeast a distance of 125 miles via open-channel canal, pipeline and tunnel to it’s terminus Paris Dam. Along the way are three power plants, one pumping plant and two large reservoirs. The West Branch transports up to 3,200 cfs a total of 31 miles via open-channel canal, pipeline and tunnel to its terminus, Castaic Dam. Along the way are one pumping plant, one power plant one pump/generator facility and two reservoirs.
Unlike the Ridge Route and it’s successors which are critical to both northern and southern California, the same can probably not be said about the SWP, or at least the portion south of the Tehachapi Mountains, which critical to only southern California.
A. D. Edmonston Pumping Plant
I’m sure there are others; but, the only movie I can think of which includes scenes of the Ridge Route area is Psycho. After embezzling $40,000 from her employer, Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) leaves Phoenix heading across the high desert. She pulls over to the side of the road to take a nap. Where she pulled over is along Highway 138 a couple of miles from the Golden State Highway. In this 3-1/2 minute scene, you see the interchange between 138 & 99 and the Gorman area.
Johnny Bond, a country performer in the 1940’s and 1950’s, performed a song about the Ridge Route called unsurprisingly “Ridge Route”.
I just found out that comedian Kip Addotta passed away several days ago on August 13, 2019 at the age of 75. Addotta performed one of the all time great novelty songs – Wet Dream in 1984. The thing is it’s likely I’d never have heard the tune if not for Dr. Demento. Demento, whose real name is Barry Hansen, is a life-long music fan with an advanced degree in folklore and ethnomusicology from UCLA and a taste for the absurd and the different. In the 1970’s he got on the radio in Los Angeles as disc jockey focusing on novelty songs. This eventually lead to a nationally syndicated radio show which aired on Sunday nights for several decades and which is where I discovered Dr. Demento and first heard Wet Dream and many other demented tunes. In honor of Mr. Addotta, I thought I’d post a few of my favorite novelty songs, starting with Wet Dream (it’s about 5 minutes long).
That was fun. Let’s see…what next? How about Spike Jones? This is one of his earliest hits, Der Fuehrer’s Face from 1942 (2:42).
Dr. Demento used an instrumental version of Pico and Sepulveda by Freddy Martin & his Orchestra as his opening theme music. Here’s the original Pico and Sepulveda from 1947 (it’s two and a half minutes in length).
I think this next song would make just about any all time top 10 list of Dr. Demento favorites. It’s another oldie (from 1946) called Shaving Cream written by Benny Bell and sung by Paul Wynn (two minutes and forty-three seconds of verging on bawdiness).
Maybe I should include some more recent tunes. How about You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd by Roger Miller. I remember hearing this song occasionally on the AM radio when I was a kid.
I think this will be my last one. Weird Al Yankovic got his first national exposure on Dr. Demento’s program. One of Weird Al’s first tunes was My Bologna, a parody of My Sharona by The Knack, which he recorded while still a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
That’s more than enough from me. Feel free to post your favorite novelty song(s).
What image comes to mind when you think of or hear the word librarian? For me that image is of a conservative person (and truth be told always a woman). By conservative, I refer not to politics or ideology (I imagine librarians have always come in a variety of ideological flavors) but instead of one with a conservative sensibility or temperament which includes a certain respect for tradition and decorum. And, that makes sense (at least to me) for those who are charged with preserving and providing access to a significant portion of our cultural heritage. In recent years, however, that image is fading fast for me.
Pride Month is celebrated at the Boston Public Library in June 2018 – Image credit Keith J Finks / Shutterstock.com
A couple of weeks ago, the American Library Association (ALA) held its annual conference and it was a cornucopia of leftism and the stupidest aspects of today’s identity politics according to this July 10, 2019 article by Joy Pullmann at The Federalist. The leftist bent of the conference also clearly shows at the ALA’s review of said conference. The ALA seems to be entirely on board and supportive of every aspect of the LGBT agenda including, regrettably, what I call their war on childhood. The conference involved many workshops including “Creating Queer-Inclusive Elementary School Library Programming,” “Telling Stories, Expanding Boundaries: Drag Queen Storytimes in Libraries,” and “A Children’s Room to Choose: Encouraging Gender Identity and Expression in School and Public Libraries.” And, of course, these sort of endeavors are to be encouraged and undertaken by librarians and school teachers regardless of what parents may think as per the workshop “Are You Going to Tell My Parents?: The Minor’s Right to Privacy in the Library.” The conference also had the usual paeans to racialist thinking and behavior such as the workshop “Talking to Kids About Race: A ‘how-to’ workshop” which included the current racial grievance industry charges such as white supremacy is the operating system in the USA, and white fragility is a tool of white supremacy. Oh, and I am happy to report that the conference was able to approve a motion that denounced detention centers for illegal immigrants. How daring of them!
I suppose I should’ve been surprised by Ms. Pullmann’s article, but I really wasn’t. It seems the ALA has been moving to the left for several decades now. I first became aware of this shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the immediate aftermath of those attacks the Congress passed and President Bush signed into law what was called the Patriot Act, the purpose of which was to strengthen national security. Specifically, the ALA opposed Section 215 of that law, which provided for the collection of “business records,” as per this fact sheet prepared by a group in support of the law. To be fair, there were legitimate concerns regarding this provision of the law and the Congress eventually allowed Section 215 to expire in 2015. That said, the ALA’s reaction to the law was hysterical and went beyond criticism to willful disobedience of the law via purposeful destruction of records they thought pertinent to the law.
The main reading room of the New York Public Library – Image credit Keith J Finks / shutterstock.com
Around the same time, librarians were in the news for another issue. At some point twenty or so years ago, libraries began to connect to the internet and provide computer terminals for their patrons. This is all well and good; however, hardcore pornography was and is readily available and accessible on the internet and, although filtering systems exist to deny access to the porn, the ALA and librarians across the country have refused and continue to refuse to provide these filters on first amendment and other spurious grounds, despite the fact that the computers are regularly used for the viewing of hardcore porn. The silliest aspect of this issue is that until the introduction of the internet into the libraries no one ever went to a library to view pornography.
More recently the ALA has eagerly joined in on the current practice of expunging from polite society dead white people for some real or imagined transgression against one the pillars (sex and race) of today’s identity politics. In 1954, the ALA established the Laura Ingalls Wilder award – a lifetime achievement award for authors and illustrators of children’s literature – and named her as the first recipient for her “Little House” books. In 2018, the ALA renamed the award the Children’s Literature Legacy Award because her work does not comport with the ALA’s “…core values of inclusiveness, integrity, and respect” since her books “…reflect dated attitudes towards indigenous people and people of color.” In their announcement stripping Wilder of her honor, the ALA also made sure to congratulate themselves for not removing these horrible works from their library shelves. How generous of them.
With their appetite whetted by the Wilder award renaming, the ALA decided to take down a much bigger fish in the library world in 2019 – that of Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification. And so at this year’s annual conference it was decided to strip Dewey’s name from the American Library Association’s top award – the Melvil Dewey Award- which is awarded annually to an individual who has demonstrated “creative leadership of a high order” in such fields as classification and cataloging, library management, and library training. It seems that Mr. Dewey had a bit of a #metoo problem. According to one biographer, Dewey “…was a serial hugger and kisser,” while another biographer stated that Dewey engaged in “unwelcome hugging, unwelcome touching, and unwelcome kissing” with women subordinates over a period of decades. Sounds a bit like Joe Biden, doesn’t it? He also has another problem in that he discriminated against Jews, Blacks, and others in a club he owned.
Whenever I hear or read of these situations of an organization taking a decidedly progressive turn, I am reminded of Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics, the second of which is “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.” It is remarkable how often this process comes to pass. It is almost as true and immutable as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. I should note, at least in passing that authorship for this law seems to be in dispute. It is also regularly assigned to John O’Sullivan, a former editor of National Review. If anyone can clarify this conflict, please feel free to speak up.
I mentioned earlier my image of a typical librarian. The clip below from the 1940 movie The Philadelphia Story presents a somewhat exaggerated version my typical librarian.
What was the greatest car chase scene of all time? I don’t really know; but, if I had to pick one – I’d pick the chase scene from the 1968 movie Bullitt. There were car chase scenes in the movies long before Bullitt (lots of ’em), and there have been even more car chase scenes in the movies since Bullitt. But, Bullitt is a dividing line — car chase scenes after were and still are measured against the Bullitt chase scene. That full scene (a little over ten minutes in length) is below. I should note that when I started to put this post together it took a while to find the complete scene (at least in a form that could be pasted here on Ricochet), which was a little surprising.
It never gets old watching that 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 and 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 race pell-mell through the streets of San Francisco. If you want to know more about where exactly the Mustang and Charger were racing in San Francisco this web page provides details and photos (from 1968 and more recently) of the physically impossible route traversed during the chase. And if you want to learn more details about the making of the chase scene I’ve posted a nine-minute video below which discusses the making of the movie with an emphasis on the car chase. The driver of the Charger is Bill Hickman, maybe the most famous stunt driver of all time, he also played important roles in the chase scenes in The French Connection and The Seven-Ups, among many others. As for the Mustang, Steve McQueen did some of the driving but the more dangerous scenes were performed by stunt drivers Carey Loftin and Loren Janes while Bud Ekins laid down the motorcycle.
Earlier in the post, I mentioned that there were many car chase scenes in the movies pre-Bullitt. I thought I’d post one. I was looking to post the scene from the end of High Sierra, but I couldn’t find it, so this scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 movie Foreign Correspondent will have to do (it’s about four minutes long).
Foreign Correspondent is a great movie and Hitchcock was a great director. The chase scene was probably better than most at the time but it’s just not that realistic when compared to Bullitt. Of course, this isn’t a fair comparison – the technology had vastly improved a quarter century later and audiences also expected more realism.
Feel free to put your two cents in on either your favorite car chase scene(s) or what you consider the best car chase scene from the movies.
Crosley Field May 24, 1935 First major league night game
On May 24, 1935, almost 84 years ago, the first major league baseball game was played at night under the lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a big enough deal that President Roosevelt got involved in the event pressing a gold telegraph key in the White House which switched on a signal lamp 500 miles away at Crosley Field thus notifying Reds general manager Larry MacPhail to flip a switch to illuminate the playing field with 632 recently installed floodlights. The first night game was on.
A recent book, Let There Be Light A History of Night Baseball 1880-2008 by Robert Payne discusses the history of night baseball. The May 24, 1935 game was not the first baseball game to played under artificial light. It wasn’t even the first professional baseball night game.
The first night baseball game took place in Hull, Massachusetts, a small hamlet of 383 souls, in 1880. The playing field was “illuminated” by three towers, 100 foot in height, containing twelve lamps totaling 30,000 candlepower. The lamps were arc lights, the first type of electrical light. The game was played by amateurs (members of two Boston department stores – Jordan Marsh and R H White) which ended in a 16-16 tie. The players in the that night game considered the light provided by those arc lamps was inadequate and compared its’ intensity to that of reflected moonlight. Another amateur ball game played under lights occurred in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1883. Again, the lighting was by arc lamps and the purpose was publicity for lamp supplier, Jenney Electric Company who was trying to sell an exterior lighting system.
Jumping ahead a bit to the mid-1920’s, we come to probably the most important event in the history of night baseball. By this time, the filament or incandescent lamp had improved dramatically in every measure – light quantity & quality, efficiency & longevity – from its’ humble 1879 origins enough that it should be able provide economical lighting for outdoor athletic activities such as baseball. A General Electric engineer, Robert J Swackhamer, whose job it was to provide lighting systems for railroad marshalling yards and similar industrial applications, was well aware of this. With this in mind, he set about designing and installing a lighting system at an athletic field in Lynn, Massachusetts owned by General Electric and then promoting an exhibition game to be played under those lights by two minor league teams, Lynn and Salem, of the Class B New England League. The game, which was played in May 1927, was well publicized and was played before a crowd estimated at 5,000 including many players and coaches of the American League Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators. The managers of both the Red Sox and the Senators were impressed with the lighting system and star Washington outfielder Goose Goslin expressed his desire to play baseball under the lights.
Fans watching exhibition game under GE lights at Lynn MA May 1927
Shortly thereafter, organized baseball in the form of the minor leagues began to play night baseball. In 1929, E. Lee Keyser president of the Des Moines team in the Class A Western League, announced at the annual National Association meeting, that he planned to play the 1930 season home opener at night. And, the Des Moines Demons did play their 1930 home opener under their newly installed light system involving 144 – 1500-watt GE floodlights on four towers (also designed by GE engineer Robert J Swackhamer) on May 2, 1930 before a crowd of 8,000 including one very special spectator, the commissioner of baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was there to see how well the players performed under the lights. However, the honor of the first minor league night game falls to the Independence Producers of the Class C Western Association who hosted the Muskogee Chiefs before 1,000 fans on April 28, 1930. Minor league owners saw the financial advantages of night baseball (much larger attendance) and by 1934, fifteen of the then nineteen minor leagues had one or more parks equipped with lights.
Before moving on to the major leagues, I should at least mention one other pioneer of night baseball – the Negro Leagues, specifically, the Kansas City Monarchs. The Monarchs, under the ownership of J. L. Wilkinson, made their money by barnstorming playing games against any and all comers anywhere. Wilkinson purchased a portable lighting system in order to be able to play even more games.
Portable Light Plant used by the Kansas City Monarchs
By 1933, the Cincinnati Reds were a failing franchise both financially and on the field. The team was in the process of finishing last in the National League for the third year in a row and club owner Sidney Weil was wiped out by the Great Depression. The Reds went into receivership in 1933 with control of the team transferred to the Central Trust Bank which hired former St. Louis Cardinals employee and the minor league Columbus Redbirds owner Larry MacPhail to run the team. MacPhail was one of the most innovative baseball executives of all time. He played important roles in the following innovations: night baseball, regular radio broadcasts of games, season tickets, televised games, old-timers games, air travel and batting helmets. He was also one of the most self-destructive characters in the game’s history. As Dodgers General Manager, his relationship with manager Leo Durocher, was no less dysfunctional than that which later took place between George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin. Later, as part-owner and president of the New York Yankees from 1945-47, he brought chaos to that organization culminating in bizarre behavior on his part in the immediate aftermath of the Yankees 1947 World Series victory over the Dodgers effectively ending his career as a baseball executive.
Dodgers GM Larry MacPhail inspecting a GE floodlight 1938
MacPhail’s first order of business was to find a new owner for the Reds and he was able to convince his first choice, local businessman Powell Crosley Jr., to purchase the team. Crosley would own the team until his death in March, 1961 (a season in which the Reds would win the NL pennant for the first time since 1940). Crosley was a prolific and very successful entrepreneur. He was an idea man and promoter constantly coming up with new ideas and products, while his brother Lewis, concentrated on running the day-to-day operations of their many endeavors which included radios, appliances such as refrigerators, a legendary radio station (WLW) and automobiles (although most of his cars look like mutant toys to me).
Powel Crosley and his 1-Tube Pup Radio
Crosley Ad 1939 New York World’s Fair
In the 1934 season, the Reds finished in last place again and drew only a hair more than 200,000 fans in the process (only 2,651 per game). In the winter meetings after the season, Crosley and MacPhail requested and received permission from commissioner Landis to install a permanent lighting system at Crosley Field. They were limited to only seven home games a year – one against each of the other seven teams in the league. However, the New York Giants would refuse to play night games and so in 1935, the Reds would play two night games against St. Louis.
With approval in place, there would be less than five months for the permanent lighting system to be planned, designed and installed. With the teams’ still precarious financial situation a budget of $50,000 was set for a lighting system that needed to twice as bright as that of the top minor league park (45 foot-candles). The installed lighting system met the requirements of an overall field lighting of 75 foot-candles both in the infield and the outfield. The Reds entered into a contract with General Electric as the overall project manager for the permanent lighting system. GE (Mr. Swackhamer again) determined the lighting requirements, provided the lamps and hired the construction contractor, while most of the lighting design was performed by the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company (CG&E) engineering staff. The final lighting system consisted of 632 1500-watt floodlights on eight towers 115 feet in height and was in place for the first night game.
Engineer supervising installation of GE Floodlight Banks at Crosley Field
On May 22, two nights before the first night game the Reds ballclub practiced under the lights for the first time in front of 2,000 fans. On May 24, 20,422 spectators witnessed the first night game in major league history. In a crisply played game (one hour and 35 minutes with no errors), the Reds beat the Phillies 2-1 (boxscore) as Paul Derringer pitched a six-hit complete game. The game was also broadcast on WLW Crosley Radio with play-by-play man Red Barber. Thus, the first night game was in the books. On the season, the Reds would win four of the seven night games and more importantly they averaged 18,620 fans in these seven games versus an average attendance of 4,607 for the other day games. The increase in attendance meant that the Reds had more than paid for the new $50,000 lighting system with those seven night games. After the first game, probably the most noteworthy event of those first night games occurred during the July 31 Reds-Cards game when a local nightclub singer, Kitty Burke, took over the game for a minute taking the bat out of the hands of Reds right fielder Babe Herman in the on deck circle and striding to the plate for an (unofficial) at bat.
Phillies leadoff hitter Lou Chiozza fouls back first pitch of the game May 24, 1935
Ebbets Field June 15, 1938 Johnny Vander Meer pitching second consecutive no-hitter
The next team to get lights was the Brooklyn Dodgers under the aegis of Mr. MacPhail who had become the Dodgers GM. The Dodgers first home night game was against the Reds and just might be the most famous night game in baseball history as it was the game in which the Reds Johnny Vander Meer pitched his second consecutive no-hitter, a feat which remains unmatched (boxscore). The Dodgers had the same experience as the Reds with attendance more than tripling during night games (26,069 for the average night game vs 7,102 for the average day game). After the Dodgers, the installation of lights grew rapidly – eleven teams had lights by the time Pearl Harbor would stall further stadium lighting until after the war. The table below provides information regarding the first night game for each of the original 16 franchises.
Stadium …….Team ……Date ……OpponentResultAttendance
Crosley Field Cin Reds 5/24/35. Phil Phillies W 2-1 20,422
Ebbets Field Bro Dodgers 6/15/38 Cin Reds L 0-6 32,574
Shibe Park Phi A’s 5/16/39 Cle Indians L 8-3 15,109
Shibe Park Phi Phillies 6/8/39 Cin Reds L 2-3 16,123
Municipal Sta Cle Indians 6/27/39 Det Tigers W 5-0 55,305
Comisky Park Chi White Sox 8/14/39 StL Browns W 5-2 30,000
Polo Grounds NY Giants 5/24/40 Bos Bees W 8-1 22,260
Sportsmans Park StL Browns 5/24/40 Cle Indians L 2-3 24,827
Forbes Field Pit Pirates 6/4/40 Bos Bees W 14-2 20,310
Sportsman Park StL Cardinals 6/4/40 Bro Dodgers L 1-10 23,500
Griffith Stadium Was Senators 5/28/41 NY Yankees L 5-6 25,000
Braves Field Bos Braves 5/11/46 NY Giants L 1-5 35,945
Yankee Stadium NY Yankees 5/28/46 Was Senators L 1-2 49,917
Fenway Park Bos Red Sox 5/13/47 Chi White Sox W 5-3 34,510
Briggs Field Det Tigers 5/15/48 Chi White Sox W 4-1 54,840
Wrigley Field Chi Cubs 9/9/88 NY Mets W 6-4 36,399
Man, that table is pathetic! Oh well… Let me try another table. This one is a brief list of a few major league night game firsts.
First Batter – – Lou Chiozza Phi Phils May 24, 1935
First Strikeout – Paul Derringer Cin Reds May 24, 1935 (Johnny Moore Phi was the first strikeout victim)
First Hit —— Billy Myers Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First Run Scored – Billy Myers Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First Double – Billy Myers Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First Triple — Pep Young Pit Pirates May 31, 1935
First Home Run – Babe Herman Cin Reds July 10, 1935
First RBI —- Ival Goodman Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First Walk Received – Billy Myers Cin Reds May 24, 1935 (Joe Bowman Phi walked him)
First Putout — Billy Sullivan Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First Assist — Billy Myers Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First Error — Gus Suhr Pit Pirates May 31, 1935
First Stolen Base — Johnny Vergaz PHi Phillies May 24, 1935
First Complete Game – Paul Derringer Cin Reds May 24, 1935
First No-Hitter — Johnny Vander Meer Cin Reds June 15, 1938
OK, that list is a little better than the first one.
Here’s an interesting question. How has playing at night affected the game over time? Does the night game give an advantage to the offense or the defense? Several years ago, a fellow named Shane Tourtellotte explored this subject at The Hardball Times. Let me provide a few graphs from that study below.
This first graph is a way to look at whether the offense or defense has the advantage at night. The statistic OPS (which is the addition of on-base percentage and slugging percentage) is one way to assess offense – the higher the OPS, the more offense. In the graph below league OPS in day games is compared to league OPS in night games. A ratio greater than one indicates that offense is better in day games, while a ratio less than one indicates that offense is better in night games.
The graph indicates that in the early years of night baseball, the pitchers had the advantage and that this advantage decreased over time to the point that since the early 1990’s there is no perceptible advantage to be had. One caution on these graphs, in the early years there were so few night games in relation to day games that the spikes may just be noise.
In the early years of night ball there were only a handful of night games each year. Over time that has gradually increased to the point where today close to 70% of all major league games are played at night. In fact, the number of night games has not changed much since the 1970’s.
I think I’ll only show one more graph from the article – that being a comparison of day and night error rates. For those interested in this subject there is more information at the link provided above.
According to the graph there have generally been more errors during day games than during night games, which seems a little counter-intuitive.
One last thing I want to briefly discuss is the improvement in stadium lighting over time. This has been a continuous process since the 1927 GE lighted field in Lynn, Massachusetts. That lighting system provided 14 foot-candles on the infield surface and 10 foot-candles on the outfield surface. As mentioned earlier the minor league lighting systems that were installed circa 1930 provided 45 foot-candles, while the lights for Crosley Field provided 75 foot-candles for both the infield and outfield surfaces via 632 1500-watt floodlights. The Yankee Stadium lighting system of 1946 used 1245 1500-watt floodlights, twice as many as at Crosley. Of course, Yankee Stadium was bigger than Crosley Field, but not that much bigger. The improvement of stadium lighting systems continues apace to this day. A significant reason for the improved lighting was not related to the needs of the game, but rather to the televising of the game in color which began sometime in the mid-1960’s. Lamps have changed from incandescent to Metal Halide and are currently changing to LED. Current parks, such as PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, have lighting systems that provide 300 foot-candles of light on the infield and 200 foot-candles on the outfield surface.
As I was writing this post, I got to thinking that perhaps major league baseball waited so long to start night baseball because they were afraid something like this would happen.
Finally, if you’re a baseball fan, you might want to join The National Pastime, a Ricochet group that was recently started.
I came across this story the other day at Powerline and I thought I’d write about it here at Ricochet. It’s a now all too familiar story, that of a dead white person being expunged from our culture for some real or perceived transgression against one of the pillars of today’s identity politics (those pillars being race and sex). And that most recent transgressor is singer Kate Smith (1907-1986), most well known for her version of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America“. And what was Ms. Smith’s sin and the punishment therefor? First, the sin. It turns out that way back in 1931 she recorded the song “That’s Why Darkies Were Born”. It was a minor hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard chart. Here’s the song as performed by Ms. Smith;
Of course, the title of the song sounds a bit discordant today. But, the song was neither written nor recorded today and at the time was apparently written and seen as a satirical take on racism as per this article. Lending credence to the idea that the song was anti-racist is that Paul Robeson also recorded a version of the song around the same time.
In fact, when I listen to this song as sung by either Smith or Robeson and read the lyrics I don’t hear a song advocating or celebrating racism or racial discrimination. Rather, I hear a sad, but proud lament, about the condition of black people in America. I’ll discuss Robeson a bit later; but, back to Smith.
Smith’s punishment for her sinful past is that her recording of “God Bless America” will no longer be played during the seventh inning stretch at New York Yankee games as it has been since the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 because as a club spokesman stated “the Yankees take social, racial and cultural sensitivities very seriously”. That is not the only punishment for Ms. Smith. To add insult to injury, the Philadelphia Flyers will not only never again play “God Bless America” before important home games as they have since 1969, they have also seen fit to remove her statue originally installed in 1987 at the Spectrum, the Flyers former home, from Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers current home. Ms. Smith had a long history with the Flyers, singing “God Bless America” at the rink on four occasions including the Stanley Cup-clinching Game 6 in 1974. Over the years, the Flyers compiled an incredible won-loss record of 100-29-5 in games which were preceded by “God Bless America.” Here’s a nice account of Ms. Smith and the Flyers written in 2016 before this kerfuffle. All I can say is I hope they never win another game.
Kate Smith Statue at Wells Fargo Center
Kate Smith Statue in a Burqa shortly before removal
I should also note that Smith is also being criticized for another song she recorded, “Pickaninny’s Heaven” which is much less defensible than “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” and was recorded for her movie debut Hello Everybody released in 1933. As is their wont, YouTube removed the video of this song as soon as this controversy arose so I am unable to post it here.
So these two songs from 90 years ago are all it takes to make Kate Smith a pariah for the zealots who deign to decide what is acceptable for modern consumption. The rest of her life and career, from God Bless America to the $600 million in war bonds she sold during World War II to the fact that Josephine Baker, who was a controversial person at the time, made her American debut on The Kate Smith Evening Hour television show in 1951, and her other good works mean nothing to the Social Justice Warrior crowd and those who live in fear of same.
Josephine Baker
I mentioned earlier that I had a little more to say about Paul Robeson, especially in relation to this current outrageous treatment of Kate Smith. Yes, they both recorded “That’s Why Darkies Were Born”, but that is not the issue. What is striking is how the greatest failing real or perceived of each is treated.
Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was an extremely talented and impressive person succeeding at just about everything he put his mind to – academics, athletics, and the arts as his Wikipedia bio describes. He was the class valedictorian at Rutgers, attained a law degree at Columbia University, was named an All-American collegiate football player and also played in the fledgling National Football League and proceeded on a long and highly regarded career as a singer and actor, all of this despite the very real racial prejudice and discrimination of the time. And that’s the rub. Although he opposed racial discrimination here in the United States and almost every biography describes him as a “civil rights advocate”, his record on human rights is really quite atrocious.
Paul Robeson Rutgers Football
He was a Marxist, a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a devoted and life-long supporter of Joseph Stalin even after he became aware of Stalin’s long list of crimes against humanity. This conservapedia biography of the man is more forthcoming on this aspect of Robeson than is Wikipedia which dances around the issue. Much of this was known about Robeson during his life, and after the end of the Cold War and the opening up of the Soviet archives more was either learned or confirmed. Despite this, his memory continues to receive awards and honors to this day. In a brief internet search, I could find no indication that his communism had led to any posthumous reconsideration of any such honors. Indeed, his most recent honoring just took place this month as his Alma mater, Rutgers, dedicated the Paul Robeson Plaza in his honor on April 15, 2019. The article I linked to and those singing his praises at the dedication were also careful to delicately omit this aspect of Robeson’s life and career.
This discrepancy in the treatment of Ms. Smith and Mr. Robeson for their failings is quite telling. For one of these two, their greatest moral shortcoming was that they either supported, or more likely, accepted and lived within the confines of an unjust racial system many decades ago, while for the other, their greatest moral shortcoming was that they avidly and knowingly supported one of the evilest regimes and ideologies of all time, one responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, the majority of whom were of the poor, hard-working type whose cause they claimed to champion. Only in a country whose moral compass was no longer pointing somewhere towards true north could we so misjudge which of these two was more worthy of praise, or at least acceptance and understanding, and which was more worthy of condemnation and maybe even eternal damnation.
Finally, Ms. Smith’s original introduction of “God Bless America”.
Flyer used by opponents to water fluoridation in Seattle 1952
If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember the fluoridated water controversy of the 1950s and early 1960s. I’m old enough to remember it and the other day I came across a brief discussion of the controversy in the book I was reading which whetted my appetite to see how accurate my memory of the issue was. What I found, I think, is that my memory of the controversy was only partially correct and incomplete. I thought I’d write about here at Ricochet because the actual story is 1) more interesting than the cartoon version I remembered, 2) I believe the story has been somewhat mythologized and distorted, and 3) the fluoridated water wars continued long after the early 1960’s and to a certain extent still exists.
How did the idea of adding fluoride to our drinking water start? The genesis for this started in 1901 when a young dentist, Dr. Frederick McKay (1874-1959) opened his dental practice in Colorado Springs, CO and noticed that many of his patients had permanently stained teeth – a condition known locally as “Colorado Stain.” This began a 30-year search on his part to find the cause for this condition. By 1916, he’d come to the conclusion that “something in the drinking water” was the agent, and he had long ago realized that those with the mottled teeth displayed “a singular absence of decay.” Eventually, his search led him to Bauxite, AR where he found that people born after 1909, when the town had changed its’ water source, had badly mottled or stained teeth while those born earlier did not thus confirming his hypothesis regarding drinking water. He published his findings in 1931, which led H. V Churchill, the chief chemist of ALCOA (which had a large plant in Bauxite) to investigate and test the local water and discover that it contained elevated levels of fluorine (13.7 ppm). H. Trendley Dean, a research scientist with The U. S. Public Health Service (USPHS) would see if he could confirm these findings – he would test drinking water sources across the country and determine that at fluoride levels above 1 ppm (1 mg per liter) the mottling would start and children drinking such water had lower rates of dental caries (tooth decay).
Dentist Frederick McKay and a young patient 1952
At this point, the USPHS decided to have a test program for the addition of sodium fluoride to the drinking water for Grand Rapids, MI using the nearby town of Muskegon as a control all with the blessings of the local officials. The test program began in 1945 in Grand Rapids with additional test cities (each with their own control city) following shortly thereafter in Newbourg, NY, Sheboygan, WI and Marshall, TX. The plan by the USPHS was for the tests to run for 10 to 15 years and, if the results were satisfactory, to pursue a fluoridation project on a nationwide basis. This deliberate wait and see process would be derailed when several Wisconsin dentists became aware of the test program and began touting the benefits of fluoridated drinking water throughout their portion of the country. Thus in the late 1940s and early 1950s a number of cities began adding fluoride to their water supply and shortly thereafter a backlash would ensue.
The Great Fluoridated Water Wars of the 1950s and Early 1960s
By the early 1950s both the USPHS and the American Dental Association endorsed the use of fluoride in water supplies as a safe, effective and inexpensive procedure. In 1951, two councils of the American Medical Association (Pharmacy and Chemistry, and Food and Nutrition) issued a joint statement declaring that there was no evidence of toxicity in adding fluoride to drinking water. A committee of the National Research Council (known today as National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine) came to the same conclusion. Despite this, there was extensive resistance to the idea by the public. This seems unique and incredible to me. These organizations and professions were at the time and are still today given great respect and deference by the public. Yet, that was surely was the not the case with fluoridated water. And, the fact that the chief beneficiaries of this proposed practice were to be children only adds to the uniqueness of the opposition. This would be a red-hot and on-going issue throughout the rest of the 1950’s and into the 1960’s.
Let me start by providing a few statistics. From 1950-1966 there were a total of 994 referenda in American cities and locales with only 41% passing and 59% failing water fluoridation proposals. In the same time span, sixty-six water supply systems for which fluoridation had been approved or passed were subsequently halted although in twenty-six of these, fluoridation was subsequently reinstituted. See the table below.
Local Fluoridation Referenda 1950-1966
YearTotYeaNayPct Y
1950 01. 00.. 01.. 00.0
1951 11. 08.. 03.. 72.7
1952 51. 23.. 28.. 45.1
1953 63. 28.. 35.. 44.4
1954 106. 47.. 59.. 44.3
1955 60. 19.. 41.. 32.7
1956 96. 37.. 59.. 38.5
1957 54. 18.. 36.. 33.3
1958 68. 20.. 48.. 29.4
1959 47. 22 ..25.. 46.8
1960 67. 25.. 42.. 37.3
1961 59. 20.. 39.. 33.9
1962 48. 20.. 28.. 41.7
1963 61. 27.. 34.. 44.3
1964 101. 36.. 65.. 35.6
1965 50. 28.. 20.. 56.0
1966 51. 25.. 26.. 49.0
The question becomes: why? Why was there such resistance for water fluoridation? Well, I don’t really know the answer to that question. Many reasons were presented by opponents to fluoridation, some of which were reasonable or plausible to some extent and others of which were fantastic and downright silly. It is not clear to me that the locales that rejected fluoridation did so for the same or any one issue. Many arguments were made against fluoride. One was just the basic fact that a chemical was being added to the water supply regardless of its’ efficacy. A fact that attracted support for the antis was that sodium fluoride in large doses was employed in rat and insect poison. Many people had a difficult time making sense of how a compound used in such poison could be added to the water supply without posing a health risk. Also the argument was made that adding fluoride to the public water supply was an imposition on personal freedom. After all, it wasn’t required to provide a safe drinking water; rather, it was being added to improve the water beyond that level such that it would aid the consumer’s dental health – shouldn’t this be left to the discretion of each citizen? Especially since there were other ways available to get fluoride to assist in dental health. Another argument against water fluoridation was that it was a wasteful expense since the majority of the treated water will not be ingested by people and again there are other ways available to get fluoride.
Anti-fluoridation flier 1955
One thing the opponents of fluoridation looked to do was add credentialed people to make arguments for their side. And some physicians, dentists, and scientists were opposed to fluoridation. One of those was Dr. Alfred Taylor, a University of Texas biochemist who tested fluoridated water on lab rats and announced in 1950 that the rats who drank the fluoridated water developed cancer earlier than those who had not. When these results were announced USPHS’s Dean went to investigate the study. What he found was the rats had been fed Purina Chow that contained 42 ppm of fluoride (recall that human consumption would be limited to 1 ppm). The test was invalid but the damage had been done. This study and the idea that there was a connection between fluoridated water and cancer would be cited by opponents for the foreseeable future. Another confederate was Dr. George L. Wallbott, a Detroit allergist, who made regular pronouncements tying fluoride to a variety of ailments and allergies. Also, for some reason, chiropractors were some of the most steadfast opponents of fluoridation. The International Chiropractic Association announced their opposition to fluoridation and sent out anti-fluoridation data to any and all wishing it, although what authority they possessed to make any proclamations on the subject is difficult to discern.
The most outlandish of the anti-fluoride arguments may have been that adding it to the public water supplies would somehow lead to radioactive contamination of said water supply. Then again, maybe the most outlandish claim was the fluoridation was a communist plot to kill or weaken Americans. This anti-fluoride argument was most famously parodied in the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove.
I mentioned earlier that my memory of the water fluoridation controversy was that the opponents were cartoonish. I suppose the Dr. Strangelove clip is most in line with that viewpoint, that being that the opponents consisted mainly of country bumpkins of various sorts and mostly right-wing in their political outlook. And while there were anti-communists (especially among the John Birchers) and right-wingers among and prominent in the antis, I don’t think their opposition was why there was so much opposition on this issue, and there simply weren’t enough of them to carry the day in so many elections. No, I think people of all political proclivities and social backgrounds were necessary for the success of the antis. Whether or not this was so, much elite opinion thought so. Scientific American presented an argument in their February 1955 issue by Bernard and Judith Mausner that the difficulties being experienced by fluoridation proponents were due to an increasing anti-intellectualism and a rejection of science. They came to their conclusion based on interviews with the citizens of Northampton, MA who had just rejected water fluoridation by a 2-1 margin. They noted that the citizens of Northampton had made their decision even though the 10-year tests of Grand Rapids and Newbrough had been completed with favorable results.
My memory was also incomplete. Somehow I was under the impression that the issue had resolved itself sometime in the mid 1960s; but, that is not so. Resistance to fluoridation continued although at a greatly reduced temperature.
After the 1960s
Although there was still significant resistance to fluoridation after the 1960s, the public fluoridation process was slowly gaining despite all of the electoral setbacks. In 1951, more than 360 communities had adopted the process; this increased to more than 1,000 with a population of 17.7 million by 1953; more than 2,000 with a population of 41.2 million by 1960; and more than 4,000 with a total population of 74.6 million by 1968. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that approximately 130 million Americans or 60.5% of the population consumed fluoridated water as of 1988. The most recent CDC statistics indicate that approximately 75% of Americans consume fluoridated water. I should also note that the fluoridation statistics understate to some extent the number of people receiving fluoridated water since some source waters have fluoride levels above the required levels and so do not need to add fluoride.
That said there was still opposition to the program and those people and places varied from the 1950s antics. The people now in opposition tend to be left of center – radical environmentalists, health food advocates especially of the more exotic type as well as some of the same types from the earlier era – chiropractors and quack scientists. Take for example Los Angeles. In 1974, the LA City Council voted to fluoridate the water. In 1975, the citizens of Los Angeles were able to get a referendum on the ballot to override the council vote. To aid in their effort they enlisted the new go-to scientist for the anti-fluoride crowd – John Yiamouyiannis, a University of Texas biochemist who was a triple-threat quack ( he was also opposed to polio vaccination and milk pasteurization) who gave speech after speech alleging a link between fluoride and cancer. The anti-people easily repealed the previous year’s City Council vote 213,573 to 166, 549. The city of Los Angeles did not get fluoridated water until over twenty years later in large part to comply with a 1995 California law (AB 733) as per this timeline prepared by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. Well, at least they beat San Diego which did provide water fluoridation until 2011.
Another location that fought a rear-guard action against water fluoridation is that den of right-wingers otherwise known as Santa Cruz. This article from the SF Gate mocks their defeat of a 1999 water fluoridation measure.
In a situation similar to that of LA in the mid-1970s, Portland, OR citizens overrode their city council on the question of water fluoridation in 2013 in a romp 60%-40%. Portlandia and San Jose, CA (another city full of the woke) are the two largest cities still resisting the communist plot to sap our strength with fluoridated water.
Summary
It’s time to wrap this up. Let me first provide two charts and two more links. This first link is to the CDC webpage regarding water fluoridation, while the second link is to a Chemical & Engineering News article reviewing the various scientific controversies associated with the fluoridation of public water supplies. Now, the two charts.
Fluoridation Growth in the United States 1940-2012
Finally, just for the record, I should note that I’m fine with water fluoridation. If it ever came up for a vote in my neck of the woods I’d vote for it without hesitation. That said, after studying this issue, the battles over the issue, especially in the early years but also currently strike me to a certain extent as much ado about nothing. The stakes were and are nowhere near as cataclysmic as the remaining opponents stridently claim and although the CDC and the ADA are right about the benefits (and risks) of water fluoridation, the people living in those places that do not provide public water with sufficient fluoride have not and will not be doomed to a life of dental misery.
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