Category: Open Lines

Friday, October 23rd. Everyone is a potential crime victim, and October is when government agencies, civic groups, schools, businesses, and youth organizations join in trying to reduce the threat. This is National Crime Prevention Month, with special awareness and education events planned across the country. During this time, we are all encouraged to help reduce violence, drugs and property crimes with efforts at three levels — family, neighborhood and community. Suggestions include setting up a neighborhood watch program, making sure …

. “10 – 22 – 38 Astoria.” That cryptic sequence indicating date and place was the very first photocopied image, created on this date in 1938 in Astoria, New York. A man named Chester Carlson developed a method of making dry copies of documents on plain paper, known as xerography — which we take for granted in using photocopiers today. Before his invention, copies were made either by using carbon paper when typing or by a mimeograph machine for large …

An invention was demonstrated on this date in 1879 that lit the way for a dramatic change in the rhythm of Americans’ daily lives. At his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory, Thomas Edison set up the first incandescent light bulb, which burned for almost 14 hours. Within a few years, some cities had installed electric streetlights. The number of homes across the U.S. with electricity grew steadily, but even in 1940, more than one-in-five houses was without power. Today, there …

Hotels and motels have long competed for customers on the comfort and amenities of their rooms. Long before cable, Wi-Fi, coffeemakers and hair dryers entered the picture, more basic things were offered as lures. This month in 1829, the 170-room Tremont hotel in Boston became the first in young America to be considered a modern, first-class lodging. It was distinguished by the availability of single rooms, with keys for the guests, and plumbing in the basement bathrooms. Uniquely, the Tremont …

Throughout the decades since the oil embargo of 1973, increasing research and development has gone into renewable sources of energy. Some of the results are seen atop windswept hills and plains across America — large electricity generating windmills. While the concept sounds very modern, the first practical wind turbine generator goes back 74 years. It was on this date in 1941 that Palmer Putnam of Vermont demonstrated his device. His wind turbine had blades 66 feet in length, and in …

Friday, October 16th. Today marks an anniversary that should please America’s power shoppers. On this date in 1868, the first full-line department store in the U.S. was organized in Salt Lake City. Called “Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution,” it opened the next year. The idea of the department store soon spread around the country, hailed for the convenience such retail powerhouses offered consumers and becoming points of civic pride. The era of the classic, high-rise downtown department store has been eclipsed, …

October is National Seafood Month, celebrating a nutrient-rich food that is a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Because it really does turn out to be brain food, government and health organizations recommend eating two seafood meals each week. Seafood used to be mostly confined to the coastal regions, but with advances in frozen food and the speed of distribution, just about every kind of fish and shellfish is available throughout the country. Americans eat an average of nearly …

This is National School Lunch Week — a name that probably conjures up visions of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and other, somewhat mysterious cafeteria substances. But it’s time to note the wholesome lunches being served every day to schoolchildren across the nation, and to thank the many patient people who prepare and serve them. There is a recognized link between having a good meal and the ability of a child to learn. This led to the National School Lunch …

With the national median age being 37 years, a bare majority of the country’s population can remember life in what might strike young people as a bleak, dark and difficult age. Practically unimaginable today, there was a time when the ubiquitous cell phone didn’t exist. In 1969, Amtrak offered a version of cellular technology, using payphones on its Metroliners, but that was about it for years to come. The first modern cell phone was introduced on this date in 1983 …

The first limited access, divided superhighway in America opened this month 75 years ago — the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  The 1940 road ran for 160 miles, and featured seven tunnels, 10 service plazas, and 11 interchanges. Now part of the Interstate Highway System, the turnpike has been improved and extended, and at 514 miles, is more than triple its original length. A passenger vehicle traveling the entire 360 miles of the main line today pays $39.90 in cash upon exit. Pennsylvania …

Friday, October 9th. On this date in 1873, a sturdy and somber-looking building opened its doors to admit 17 long-term residents. Then it promptly closed and locked those doors. With the opening of the Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls in Indianapolis, the country had its first maximum-security penitentiary built for and managed by women. Formerly, female convicts were imprisoned in male facilities where they suffered abuse from male guards and inmates. The reformatory remains locked for business to …

For many generations, weekday mornings have meant a routine of preparation, and then facing an ever-lengthening round-trip commute to work. However, a small but growing number of Americans are not in that situation — and that’s why tomorrow begins National Work From Home Week. Available mostly to so-called white-collar occupations, employers all over the country have found that technology has enabled grateful and motivated employees to perform necessary work without their physical presence in an office setting. There are more …

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” This quote is widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, but whatever the source, many people agree with the sentiment. One advance in such moral progress occurred on this date in 1868, when the first collegiate veterinary department in the U.S. began its instruction at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The country’s first veterinary doctorate was awarded in 1876 to Daniel Salmon, …

October is a special month in the history of handling data. In a month that holds the anniversaries of the first adding machine and the tentative birth of the Internet, October is also when the first all-electronic calculations were performed on an experimental computer. John Vincent Atanasoff was an associate professor in mathematics and physics at Iowa State College. Beginning in September 1939 with a $650 grant from the school, and with the help of a top engineering student, he …

National Hispanic Heritage Month continues, and much media prominence given to this 55 million-strong community centers on the growing heft of the Hispanic vote in elections. Already 17 percent of America’s population, it is projected to number nearly 129 million by the year 2060. In the 2012 election, over 11 million Hispanics, or 48 percent of those eligible, cast ballots. This is a decline from 2008, when just less than 50 percent of eligible Hispanics voted. But the 2012 figure …

Friday, October 2nd. U.S. based manufacturers receive new orders every month worth close to a half-trillion dollars. To underscore the health and prospects of this economic sector, today is the fourth annual Manufacturing Day, with activities staged across the country by American companies. The focus is a series of open houses to show the breadth and vitality of American manufacturing innovation and quality, and illustrate the need for skilled employees. Currently, over 11 million Americans work in this sector. The …

On this date in 1785, the first city directory in the United States was published. Fittingly, it was in the young country’s place of birth — Philadelphia. The directory’s title was the unwieldy “Macpherson’s Directory, for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia, extending to Prime-Street, southward; Maiden-Street, northward; and from the River Delaware to Tenth-Street, westward.” It contained 6,250 resident names. The 1790 Census found Philadelphia’s population to be just over 28,500, making it America’s second largest urban place, behind …

On this date in 1882, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operating on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. Inspired by Thomas Edison, a man named H.F. Rogers built the facility using a water wheel to power the lights in the Appleton Paper and Pulp Company, a nearby building and his home. Soon, hydroelectric power plants were spurring industrial growth in many parts of the country. Today, 407 hydroelectric power establishments across the U.S. produce about 7 percent of …

As September’s National Honey Month ends tomorrow, Wisconsin — the land of milk — hosts the opening of the World Dairy Expo, running through Saturday. The exposition in Madison is expected to draw about 77,000 attendees. Farmers, producers and visitors will see some of the best dairy cattle, learn about genetics, profit margins, and even cow comfort — while mingling with some thousands of dairy men and women from dozens of different countries. America’s dairy product manufacturing employs about 130,000 …

As National Hispanic Heritage Month continues, and another fiscal year draws to a close, much attention is focused on the country’s economic performance. The 54 million strong Hispanic community in the United States inhabits a formidable and expanding place in the nation’s economy. Over 19 percent of Hispanics over the age of 16 work in management, business, science, and arts occupations. When tabulated recently, there were 2.3 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S., an increase of almost 46 percent from …