PUBLISHED BY THE CRM CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF PUBLICATION NATIONAL PARK SERVICE VOLUME 20 NO. 14 1997 To promote and maintain high standards Contents ISSN 1068-4999 for preserving and managing cultural resources
DIRECTOR CRM and the History Robert Stanton of Science and Technology ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR CULTURAL RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP Foreword 3 Nice Towers, eh?—Evaluating a AND PARTNERSHIPS Maryanne Gerbauckas Transmission Line in Arizona 23 Katherine H. Stevenson Leah S. Glaser EDITOR Pierce Mill—A Past With a Future ... .4 Ronald M. Greenberg Richard Steacy To Make the Crooked Ways Straight and the Rough Ways Smooth— PRODUCTION MANAGER Preserving the History of the First Documenting 19th-century Karlota M. Koester Flight—Wright Brothers National Transportation Systems 25 Memorial 5 Billy Joe Peyton GUEST EDITOR Leonard DeGraaf Mary Doll and Jill Hanson Collecting Slime—Cultural Resources in ADVISORS Floyd Bennett Field- the Federal Fish Hatchery System . . .27 David Andrews Gateway of Flight 6 Randi Sue Smith Editor NPS Liam Strain loan Bacharach Interpretive Challenges in a Medical Museum Registrar, NPS Cotton Gins and Presses— Randall J. Biallas History Museum— Historical Architect. NPS Reading Industrial Artifacts at the The Stetten Museum's Susan Buggey Magnolia Plantation 7 First 10 Years 29 Director, Historical Services Branch Richard O'Connor Michele Lyons Parks Canada John A. Bums Architect, NPS What Is HAER? 8 Mystery of the Notched Bar Harry A. Butowsky Eric DeLony at Saugus Iron Works 31 Historian, NPS Curtis McKay White Pratt Cassity Trigger for Atomic Holocaust—Aircraft Executive Director, National Alliance of Preservation Commissions Detection on the DEW Line 10 Resurrecting the Presidio's Historic Muriel Crespi David Neufeld Radio Network 33 Cultural Anthropologist NPS Stephen A. Haller Mark R. Edwards National Historic Landmarks Director. Historic Preservation Division, Bartholomew Lee State Historic Preservation Officer, Georgia Related to the History of Science and Roger E. Kelly Technology 12 Technological History as Green Space— ArcheologiscNPS Joliet Iron Works 35 Antoinette J. Lee Managing RittenhouseTown—A National Jack R. Bergstresser Historian, NPS Historic Landmark 15 John Poppeliers Coxey Toogood International Liaison Officer Notes from the Field—Industrial for Cultural Resources, NPS Preservation in Great Britain 37 Rodman—Last of the Seacoast CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Muzzle-Loaders 16 Phyllis Ellin and Dan Riss Stephen A. Morris Scott S. Sheads Certified Local Governments (CLG) Coordinator, NPS Preserving the History of Mining Anna von Lunz Kay D. Weeks Technology in the NPS 38 Technical Writer-Editor, NPS Bob Higgins Cannon and Conversation— CONSULTANTS Preserving and Interpreting Seashore Teaching Edison History Wm. H. Freeman Technological Change 19 Design. Imaging. Production-Freeman Publishing Services with Traveling Trunks 39 David P. Ogden Janice C. McCoy Beth Aukstikalnis Edrting-Editorial Notes The Japanese Village at the Nevada Test An electronic version of this Site—A Relic of Nuclear War 21 William Gray Johnson Conferences 18 issue of CRM can be accessed Nancy G. Goldenberg through the CRM homepage at Susan R. Edwards
2 CRM N2 14—1997 Foreword am pleased to introduce this special theme issue of CRM on the history of science and technology. Inventions such as the telephone, electric light, and automobile have I dramatically altered our lives. Scientific advancements have not only affected our material conditions, they have changed the way we think about ourselves and our world. The recently revised National Park Service Thematic Framework recognized the significance of these topics by listing "expanding science and technology" as one of its eight interpretive themes. This issue comes at an appropriate time—the end of a year-long celebration of Thomas A. Edison's 150th anniversary. Born on February 11, 1847, Edison was one of this country's more prolific inventors. He continues to hold the record for the highest number of U.S. patents granted to an individual (1,093); and his inventions in telecommunications, sound recording, electric lighting, and motion pictures revolutionized 20th-century life. Perhaps his greatest achievements were his laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange, New Jersey, which pio neered industrial innovation and served as models for the modern research and development facilities. As the steward of his West Orange Laboratory, the NPS plays an important role in preserv ing the Edison story. The Edison sesquicentennial in 1997, which saw a variety of special events and programs, was an excellent opportunity to continue to expand on this role. Among other things, the Edison National Historic Site enlarged its off-site educational program, held a lecture series on innovation by scientists and business leaders, and organized a three-day conference that deepened our understanding of Edison's legacy. Also, park staff continues to manage the extensive collection of Edison artifacts and archives, and the site recently completed restoration of the buildings where Edison worked from 1887 to 1931. Although Edison was a significant figure in the history of invention, he does not present a complete picture of our scientific and technological heritage. Edison did not work alone. Other people—working before, during, and after his life—also contributed to the stream of discoveries that have shaped our society. The NPS, along with its public and private sector partners, manages a variety of resources related to these themes. Some of these resources date to the colonial period, such as the indus trial village at Philadelphia's Historic RittenhouseTown and the iron foundry at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site in Massachusetts. Others are of more recent vintage, like the DEW Line defense system in Canada or the nuclear test facilities in Nevada. The articles in this issue discuss some of the problems historians, interpreters, and other CRM professionals face in identifying, preserving, and interpreting science and technology- related cultural resources. While the articles cover a broad range of topics, from colonial indus trial practices to nuclear weapons research, this issue is not comprehensive. We hope the articles will stimulate further discussion of these important themes.
Maryanne Gerbauckas Superintendent Edison National Historic Site
The guest editor would like to thank Harry Butowsky, Beth Cantarella, Anne Markham, Greg Schmidl, and Ed Wirth for assisting in the preparation of this issue.
CRM N2 14—1997 3 Richard Steacy tate the site. A Historic Resource Study and envi ronmental assessment will be written, fhe goal is to make Pierce Mill operational again, to stage grinding demonstrations, and to enhance the inter Pierce Mill pretation of milling technology. The rehabilitation will eventually include replacement of the water- A Past With a Future wheel, main shaft, and other wood mechanisms. Environmental concerns will require the restora tion of Rock Creek water to power the mill. From ierce Mill, in Washington, DCs 1971, piped municipal water powered Pierce Mill. Rock Creek Park, is a restored The rehabilitation will take about five years and gristmill based on Oliver Evans' cost one million dollars. In an era of tight budgets, pioneering mill system. Evans our partnership with the Friends of Pierce Mill will (1755-1819P) developed an automated flour mill be essential to achieving our goal. by connecting existing machinery with a system Pierce Mill, which might be the unofficial of horizontal and vertical conveyor belts, allow "Oliver Evans' National Historic Site," will incor ing grain to travel more efficiently from one stage porate more information about the inventor's life to another. Evans' system earned him the third and work it into its interpretive program. In the U.S. patent, granted in 1790, and was the basis future, the Mill will include an Evans' site bulletin of factory automation later introduced by Henry and, hopefully, sponsorship of an Oliver Evans Ford and other industrialists. Evans' published Science & Technology Fair. description of his system, The Young Mill-wright Although broken, Pierce Mill is not closed. & Millers Guide, went through 15 printings. Its technology is still "interpretable" and includes Pierce Mill operated commercially until displays, children's activities, films, talks, and 1897. When Congress created Rock Creek Park in group tours. A complete tour of the site called 1890, the Mill was incorporated into the park's "The History & Technology of Pierce Mill" is boundaries. From 1905 to 1934, the Mill served as offered every Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 a.m. a tea house, which saved the structure from the Information about special programs can be found wrecker's ball. When it assumed stewardship of on the Mill's webpage, the park in 1933, the NPS decided to restore
The Harold Cook Professional Library at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
he expeditions of paleontologists in search of Miocene mammal fossils at Agate Springs TRanch exposed Harold J. Cook, son of Nebraska frontiersman James H. Cook, to sci ence at an early age. The site is now Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska. The monument portrays the story of this research in a new diorama and exhibit. Less familiar to visi tors are the papers of three generations of Cooks as well as Harold's professional library. Thousands of letters, manuscripts, clippings, books, and reprints document fossil discovery, western ranching, Indian relations, and early-20th century views of science and religion. Mostly self-taught, but with stints at the University of Nebraska and Columbia, Harold Cook was a player in scientific and museum circles in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. Cook was Curator of Paleontology at the Colorado (now Denver) Museum of Natural History in the 1920s, when important discoveries were made at the Folsom site. He later managed Scotts Bluff National Monument in the 1930s; and, when not publishing or ranching, he was active in exploiting oil and mineral resources of the region. The Cook Collection is partially cataloged and microfilmed and available to researchers by appointment.
4 CRM M2 14—1997 Mary Doll and Jill Hanson Preserving the History of the First Flight Wright Brothers National Memorial
he next several years will be busy at Wright Brothers National Memorial, as park staff and part attracted 36 entries. The winning design, submit Tnership groups plan the 100th ted by the New York architectural firm of Rodgers The Wright anniversary celebration of the first flight made by and Poor, called for an Art Deco-inspired masonry Brothers National Orville Wright on December 17, 1903. While shaft with relief carvings symbolizing wings on the Memorial com conducting initial flight experiments at their sides. Measuring 61' high, the triangular-plan memorates the home in Dayton, Ohio, the Wright brothers shaft rests on a star-shaped terrace. A light beacon first flight at Kill Devil Hills, North sought a testing ground with wide-open spaces at the top of the tower served as a navigational aid Carolina. Photo and steady winds. In the fall of 1900, the Wrights for planes in the area. The monument, dedicated courtesy NPS. began their first round of experiments at Kitty in 1932, and the memorial site became a unit of Hawk, North Carolina, but soon settled on a site the National Park Service in August 1933. The at nearby Kill Devil Hills. They returned in the NPS completed the park's commemorative design fall of each year until they made their first flight by adding formal trails, roads, and plantings that in 1903. defined the commemorative core of the park Commemoration and preservation efforts at between the Rodgers and Poor Monument and the Kill Devil Hills began in 1926 with a congres original granite marker. sional bill establishing the site as a national The NPS recently completed a General memorial. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Management Plan for improvement of the memor legislation on March 2, 1927, and a small granite ial in anticipation of the centennial. The plan calls marker was placed at the site on December 17, for steps to ensure resource protection and visitor 1928. enjoyment of centennial events. The memorial was A commemorative plan developed for the also the subject of a recent publication of the NPS memorial drastically altered the landscape at Kill Southwest Support Office in Atlanta. Written by Orville and Wilbur Devil Hills. To preserve the hill used in the William Chapman and Jill Hanson, The Wright Wright conducted the first flight on Wright's experiments and to prepare a foundation Brothers National Memorial Historic Resource December 17, for a large monument, the War Department stabi Study traces the history of the Wright brothers' 1903. Photo cour lized sand dunes with grass and other vegetation. experiments. The study also established the signif tesy NPS. A juried design competition for the monument icance of the site and identified contributing ele ments of the original commemorative design in the National Register of Historic Places. The First Flight Centennial Foundation, a primary fundraising organization for the 2003 cel ebration, is working with the NPS to improve visi tor facilities at the memorial and to plan a series of celebratory events. Two major foundation pro jects include the rehabilitation of the Wright Monument in 1997 and the construction of a new visitor center by 2001. The foundation will replace the current 7,500 square foot visitor center with a spacious 17,000 square foot design. The new cen ter will feature an interactive exhibit of the first flight. For information about the foundation, please write: The First Flight Centennial
CRM N2 14—1997 5 Foundation, P.O. Box 80337, RDU Airport, North 1992, to commemorate the contribution of the Carolina 27623, or call 919-840-2003. Wrights and the early development of aviation in Aviation and aerospace industries, along the Dayton, Ohio, area. with professional organizations, have expressed strong interest in the celebration and, as 2003 Mary Doll is Superintendent of the Wright Brothers draws near, more groups and organizations will National Memorial. Join the commemoration. Congress is considering legislation for the establishment of a national com Jill Hanson is a historian with the NPS Southeast mission. North Carolina has established the First Support Office in Atlanta. Flight Centennial Commission to develop events honoring the first flight. The Commission has already begun a major NPS Sites Related to Aviation History education effort within the North Carolina Crissy Field at Presidio of San Francisco, Golden Gate National school system. The 2003 Committee, estab Recreation Area lished in the Wright Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, Dayton, Ohio brothers' hometown of Floyd Bennett Field, Gateway National Recreation Area, Brooklyn, Dayton, Ohio, leads the observation in Ohio. New York NPS staff at the Wright Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Porter, Indiana Memorial are working Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina with the staff at Dayton Aviation Heritage —Compiled by Ann Deines, historian National Historical Dayton Aviation Heritage Park, which was estab National Historical Park lished October 16,
Liam Strain flights helped change public perceptions of avia tion, which was still a novel means of travel. Floyd Bennett Field was also the site of sev eral technical innovations. Among the break Floyd Bennett Field throughs associated with the field are the Sperry autopilot used by Wiley Post in his 1933 around- Gateway of Flight the-world flight; Howard Hughes' global communi cations network created for his 1938 around-the-world flight; and a helicopter wench loyd Bennett Field, now part of the developed by Igor Sigorsky. Floyd Bennett also Breezy Point/Jamaica Bay Unit of saw the first rotor-wing aircraft used for police Gateway National Recreation Area, work. F played an important role in New Today, the NPS interprets the contributions York City's aviation history. The field was New of Floyd Bennett Field to aviation history. Gateway York's municipal airport from 1930 to 1941 and NRA has developed the Historic Aircraft the site of many record-breaking flights and tech Restoration Project (H.A.R.P), a Volunteers-In- nological advances during the Golden Age of Parks program dedicated to restoring vintage air Aviation. craft acquired by the park. The park also preserves Floyd Bennett's superior facilities, including eight original hangars, the original Administration steel-reinforced concrete runways, 10 million can- Building (including the control tower), other dlepower lights for night operations, and one of related buildings, and the original runways and the first directional radio beacons, made it an taxiway in its Historic District. Much more will be ideal location for record-breaking transcontinental done to preserve and interpret Floyd Bennett and transatlantic flights. The airfield was also used Fields historic structures to help the public under for the Bendix Cup airplane races. One of the stand its aviation heritage. more colorful pilots who broke records at Floyd Bennett was Roscoe Turner, who flew with a live Liam Strain is a park ranger at Gateway National lion cub. The media attention generated by these Recreation Area.
6 CRM N2 14—1997 Richard O'Connor One of many structures on the site, the gin house contains cotton processing equipment used to clean the lint of seed and trash in preparation for baling and shipping. The construction date and Cotton Gins and Presses original configuration of the gin house are still unknown because no documents about the struc Reading Industrial Artifacts ture exist. An 1850s map depicts a gin house at approximately the same location, but the present at the Magnolia Plantation buildings size suggests a later construction date.2 A large structure, especially in the context of efunct industrial sites present southern agriculture, the building appears to have unique challenges for document been constructed at once rather than added to ing their construction and opera over a period of years. tion. Over time, buildings are Nevertheless, the plantation owners exten D sively modified the gin house. The first-level floor modified for different purposes; and technologies are replaced or adapted. Because records are in the wood screw-press area was a later addition, rarely maintained on outdated equipment and possibly upgrading a dirt floor for hay storage structures, the artifacts become important sources when cotton processing ended in 1939. The use of of information. However, they can also present the area in front of the two-gin stand on the sec hazy and contradictory evidence of how indus ond level is not so clear. Gin position and joist trial sites functioned, as shown by the recent doc pockets suggest the presence of flooring; but exist umentation of the gin house and equipment at ing floor joists are also notched in a way consis Magnolia Plantation near Natchitoches, tent with the presence of yet another Louisiana, by the Historic American Engineering press—perhaps of the transitional metal screw Record (HAER). variety. The floor in front of the hydraulic press During most of the 19th and early-20th cen reveals the likely location of the ramp used to turies, the Magnolia Plantation was among the transport baled cotton from the second to the first largest cotton producers in Natchitoches Parish, level. However, there is evidence of other uses for Louisiana. Founded by Ambrose Lecomte II in the this area that is not easily explained, such as the 1830s, the plantation eventually comprised more difference in height between second levels in the than 7,800 acres and, by 1859, produced over north and south ends of the building. In addition, 1,100 bales of cotton annually. Since a tornado a seed storage area and lint room probably existed damaged the gin house and the steam engine shed somewhere near the buildings center. Finally, a in 1939, Magnolia has sent cotton to a commercial new roof, installed to protect the structure, obliter gin for processing.' ated traces of cotton processing equipment sup ports. The age, origins, and method of operation of the two-and-a half story wood screw-press are mysteries. Style, timber size, hardware and joinery suggest antebellum construction; and the National Register nomination dates it as c. 1830. Mechanical engineer George Lowry suggested in 1898 that this type of press was prevalent from 1810 until the introduction of power screw-presses between 1840 and 1860 and the steam or hydraulic press in 1870. Yet, this technology appears partic ularly durable. According to Karen Gerhardt Britton, a recent authority on cotton gin ning practices, Samuel A. Goodman Jr. purchased a
CRM N2 14—1997 7 nearly-identical press for his Tyler, Texas, farm in were generally housed in separate buildings or, at 1875. The press clearly predates the structure; and Magnolia, in a shed behind the gin house; but the their seamless integration suggests that the press type and size of the steam engine once mounted was built into the gin house when the structure on the footers at the rear of the house are was erected, probably sometime in the late-19th unknown.4 The separator, distributor, gins, and century.3 condenser were likely driven directly by the steam Little remains of the power source for the gin engine, with power transmitted via a system of house equipment, particularly for gins predating shafts and belts.5 The steam engine probably pow existing equipment. Plantations the size of ered a hydraulic pump to run the press. The extant Magnolia could have easily used steam engines; drive system consists of a main shaft, six wood evidence of steam-powered gins exists for planta belt wheels manufactured by the Reeves Pulley tions in other parts of the South. Steam engines Company of Columbus, Indiana, and two metal
have been transmitted to the Library of Congress. Eric DeLony Summer recording teams have been the heart of the HAER program. Since the program's inception 28 years ago, over 1,000 young people have had the opportunity What Is HAER? of a "hands-on" experience documenting the nation's industrial, engineering, and architectural heritage every ast of the programs created as part of the summer. Student hires remain the core of the summer "new preservation" in the late 1960s, the documentation program, and the fundamental day-to Historic American Engineering Record L day philosophy of HAER recording remains the multi- (HAER) was established to expand heritage memory to disciplinary team approach with a site-specific focus on include the achievements of engineers, industrialists, the physical remains of engineering and industrial her and laborers. "New preservation" was begun in the itage. Documentation also is produced through the miti 1960s by a group of historians, architects, and preser gatory documentation program administered by the vationists concerned with the alarming rate at which Service Center Offices of the National Park Service. E. architectural landmarks and the scenic and historic Blaine Cliver serves as Chief, HABS/HAER. Recording quality of American cities were being destroyed by projects for the summer of 1997 included: highways and urban renewal in the name of "progress." One of the results was the National Historic Allegheny Oil Heritage Recording Project, Allegheny Preservation Act of 1966 and creation of the Office of National Forest, Pennsylvania Archeology and Historic Preservation within the Continental Eagle Gin Company, Prattville, Alabama National Park Service, now the Associate Directorship, Hull-Oakes Lumber Company, Monroe, Oregon Cultural Resources Stewardship and Partnerships. John A. Roebling Sons, Wire Rope Manufacturing Since 1969, HAER has worked to ensure that engineer Plant, Roebling, New Jersey ing structures and industrial workplaces are recorded, Kalaupapa Water Collection System, Kalaupapa and when possible, preserved along with historic archi National Historical Park, Molokai, Hawaii tecture and other worthy resources. Magnolia Plantation Cotton Gins & Presses, Preservation through documentation has been the Natchitoches, Louisiana modus operandi of HAER as it has created a national Mariscal Quicksilver Mine & Reduction Works, Big archive of America's industrial, engineering, and techno Bend National Park, Texas logical achievements. Some of the sites recorded serve as National Park Service Roads & Bridges Recording the foundation for subsequent preservation efforts that Program: Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North transform communities and the way people think of the Carolina & Vinton, Virginia industrial workplace. Steel mills, factories, foundries, Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi/Tennessee and the canal, road, and rail infrastructure now are Vicksburg National Military Park, Vicksburg, beginning to be thoughtfully regarded and preserved Mississippi with new insights. Through its federal authority, national Pennsylvania Historic Bridges-I, Harrisburg, standards, summer recording program, and Library of Pennsylvania Congress archives, HAER has helped instill a national Southern Textile Project, Huntsville & Valley, ethic to recognize the oft-forgotten contributions of engi Alabama, LaGrange, Georgia neers, industrialists, and laborers. Steam Tug Hercules, San Francisco Maritime National Since 1969 over 4,900 sites, structures, and objects Historical Park have been recorded with over 53,000 photographs, 500 large-format color transparencies, 42,000 data pages, Eric Delony is chief of the Historic American Engineering and 3,000 sheets of measured and interpretive drawings Record.
8 CRM Nfi 14—1997 wheels. Several other side the first level, various flue ducts randomly wood wheels are distrib distributed about the gin house, and the vacuum uted around the barn. box—presently detached and lying under the con Likewise, the power denser, but originally attached to the distributor source for the wood above the gin stand. The mechanical cotton dis screw-press and earlier tributor, still in place above the gin-stands, was gins is indeterminate. A designed and patented by Munger and manufac similar press at the tured by Continental Gin Company of Prattville, Goodman ranch at Tyler, Alabama.8 Texas, now at Texas Tech The Magnolia Plantation gin house is a com in Lubbock, Texas, was pendium of once state-of-the-art cotton processing mule-powered.6 Other technologies representing vastly different eras of contemporary presses southern history. The Juxtaposition of equipment, used draft animals; and it some still in its original placement but some ran is likely, given the relative domly strewn about, precludes a quick reading of technological sophistica its operation and seemingly defies confident expla tion of the remaining screw-press, that the same nation. The need to study and evaluate this equip was true of Magnolia. Yet, anomalies suggest ment, the search for new sources to explain its another possible scenario. Unlike surviving con nuances and contradictions, and the compelling temporary presses, the Magnolia press has no desire to find it in its many historical contexts sug prominent buzzard wings to which draft animals gest that the richness of the resource lies precisely would have been attached. It would have been in the challenges it presents. possible, if not very unusual, for the press to have been powered by humans. It is in near-perfect bal Notes ance, with a low-friction metal pivot point requir 1 Part of Magnolia, including the gin house, is now in ing minimum power to rotate it and draw down the the Cane River Creole National Heritage Area. platen. Wear marks on the rotating slanted legs 2 The map was furnished by Dr. Ann Malone, who suggest that rope may have been wrapped around generously shared her work on other aspects of the inclined support members, possibly to attach a Magnolia's history. cross brace for a draft animal or a bar for humans. 3 National Register Nomination, continuation sheet 1, Unlike both the gin house and the wood item number 7, page 2; George A. Lowry, Ginning screw-press, the turn-of-the-century cotton ginning and Baling Cotton, from 1798 to 1898, system at Magnolia is described in a series of Transactions, American Society of Mechanical patents in company literature provided by Tommy Engineers, vol. XIX (June, 1898), p. 819; Karen Brown of Continental Eagle Gin Company (succes Gerhardt Britton, Bale o' Cotton, College Station, sor to the Continental Gin Company), still at Texas, 1992, p. 48. Prattville, Alabama, and by Thomas Oliver, who 4 According to Ambrose Hertzog, in an interview with reconstructed a similar system at Old Alabama the author on September 17, 1996, the building Town in Montgomery, Alabama. Beginning in the housing a steam engine was destroyed in 1939, and 1880s, Texan Robert Munger designed a series of the engine was then sold. pneumatic and mechanical processes that com 5 The absence of clutch assemblies and the presence pletely reorganized the hundred-year-old tradition of the drive pulley mounted directly on the line of plantation ginning.7 He sought remedies for the shaft, as on the contemporary gin outfit at Old frequency and size of gin-house fires, the speed Alabama Town, Montgomery, suggest that the with which they spread, the trash still contained in Magnolia outfit was a direct connected gin. Thomas seed cotton as it entered the gin, the impurities Oliver, A Narrative History of Cotton in Alabama, cast into the gin-house air, and the labor and time Montgomery, Ah, Landmarks Foundation of resulting from delays and congestion in moving Montgomery, Inc., 1992, p. 90. seed cotton from delivery wagons to gin. By stabi 6 Britton, Bale o' Cotton, p. 48. lizing the supply of cotton to the gins and dramati 7 Britton, Bale o' Cotton, pp. 58-9. Thomas Oliver cally increasing baling capacity with the describes the operation of the Munger outfit in sub development of the dual-box press, Munger's inno stantial detail in A Narrative History, pp. 65-93. vations transformed ginning from a set of discrete 8 Robert S. Munger, U.S. Patent No. 308,790, steps to a continuous process. December 2, 1884. Most components of Munger's system are present at Magnolia, although the cotton suction Richard O'Connor is a historian with the Historic apparatus is almost completely disassembled. The American Engineering Record. pneumatic elevator includes the fan currently out
CRM Nfi 14—1997 9 David Neufeld Trigger for Atomic Holocaust Aircraft Detection on the DEW Line
he isolated antenna of the Distant Transmitting Early Warning (DEW) Line are and receiving gear enduring images of the Cold War in connected to a set Canada. Stretching across the 70th of 100-meter radio paralleTl from Alaska to Greenland, the DEW Line masts equipped Royal Canadian Air was the northern bastion of a huge air defence each DEW Line Force officer T.H. Collins stands system built in the 1950s. In Canada, the system station. Radio before a doppler included 4 main stations, 18 auxiliary stations, transmissions antennae towering and 20 smaller intermediate sites. Two stations, between stations emitted lobes of electromagnetic over the DEW the BAR-1 Auxiliary radar station and the BAR-B radiation reaching from the ground to 30,000 Line Main Station at the Hall Beach I-Site, operated from locations in what is now meters. Station recording devices detected passing in 1955. Photo Iwavik National Park in the northern Yukon airplanes when they disturbed the energy field. courtesy Dept. of Territory. The cultural resource management of The system provided intrusion warning, tracked National Defence these sites provides an opportunity to evaluate aircraft, supplemented radar sightings, and cov DND-CPU-PCN the aircraft detection technology. ered gaps between radar stations. The system was 1660. This extraordinary arctic military facility an innovative and inexpensive solution to the detected transpolar aircraft activity for continental need for automatic air traffic notification. defence. Designed to alert defending fighters and Although theoretically attractive, the "McGill give six hours warning, the rapid development of Fence" was notoriously unreliable. Field reports on military aircraft soon cut the DEW Line's warning the "Fence" noted that operators were "cancelling time in half. Once ICBMs supplemented Soviet the alarm without even inspecting the scope for bombers in the early 1960s, the warning shrank to target presence." Sam Lightman, a radar techni minutes; and air and civil defence efforts became cian responsible for the doppler in the early 1960s pointless. The DEW Line was limited to confirming reported, "We either got nothing, or we got geese. attacks and triggering massive nuclear retaliation. We never, ever got aircraft. It was a hopeless sys Air traffic monitoring in remote areas offered tem. It was also a tremendously temperamental Radar technician unique challenges to system designers in the early system, it was almost impossible to keep the damn Bob Virgin at the 1950s. Because air traffic was infrequent in north thing running, I don't exactly know why. I think it console of BAR-1, ern areas, console operators spent long, tiresome was because the receivers were hideously sensitive April 1993. Photo 2 courtesy periods without any contact. The extra staff needed and it was just awful." As the need for aircraft Johnson collection, to cover remote areas was expensive. To overcome detection diminished in the early 1960s, the Parks Canada. these difficulties, designers equipped the DEW doppler systems were taken out of operation. All Line with two kinds DEW Line I-sites were closed in 1963. Two years of electronic detec later, the Mid-Canada Line was also abandoned. tion gear, a powerful The large antenna and wire webs used for the gap-filler radar and a "McGill Fence" on the BAR-1 and BAR-B sites doppler radio detec were removed in the mid-1960s. tion system known as Besides the passive notification provided by the "McGill Fence," the "McGill Fence," each DEW Line station was developed under the equipped with powerful long-range search radar. leadership of McGill These units, capable of tracking aircraft to 30,000 University physicist meters and almost 500 kilometers away, provided John S. Foster.' The overlapping radar coverage.3 The rotating antenna fence operated on the was sheltered within the protective white hard DEW Line and the shelled geodesic radome popularly attributed to Mid-Canada Line, Buckminster Fuller. Transmitting and receiving another link in the equipment and the consoles were housed in the air defence system on building train immediately below the antenna the 55th parallel. tower.
10 CRM N2 14—1997 According to Sam alarm, technicians often turned off the sensitive Lightman, technicians equipment.4 had two sets of radars, To preserve information on the aircraft "We had a six-degree detection systems of the DEW Line, Parks Canada radar and a three- has undertaken a significant collection program. degree radar. Inside the Some 1000 kilograms of material were collected big geodesic dome was from the site when it shut down. A drawing set a huge rotating antenna provides details on extant structures. A complete ... And it had twin photographic record of the site was also made. As beams—one aimed at a full DEW Line radar console and associated six degrees and one equipment were previously collected, radar equip aimed at three degrees ment collection at BAR-1 was limited to the actual to the horizontal." The console screen and surrounding panel. This equip six-degree beam, also ment retains the grease pencil markings showing called the high beam, the last aircraft tracking completed before the was designed to detect shutdown. high flyingairplanes . Beyond this console panel, the park obtained Lightman reported that a set of U.S. Air Force Technical Orders and DEW in the year and a half Line Instructions, though restricted volumes were he worked on the DEW Line, the high beam never USAF Captain not available. These cover the installation and detected anything. Lightman and his colleagues Joseph A. Miller maintenance of equipment installed on DEW sta could talk with high altitude U2 planes, but never beside the radar tions. BAR-1 files covering actual maintenance array in the geo saw them. The three-degree radar, or low beam, desic dome, BAR- was more effective. With the three degree beams, schedules and breakdown reports are important I, April 1993. technicians could detect everything from commer complements to these manuals. Perhaps the most Photo courtesy cial jets to police and military aircraft. important element in the program was the oral his Johnson collection, tory research. These limited interviews were made Parks Canada. To meet the "empty skies" problem and keep on-site while the operators were on the job. console operators alert, an auto warning system, Although the line was closed, continuing contact known as a radalarm, was installed. This device with some of these individuals allows their partic sounded an alarm whenever the radar detected an ipation in the project. An interactive report (CD- intrusion and was an important contributor to the ROM) includes 200 images; indices of artifacts, staff reductions. However, it also suffered failings. files, and drawings collected; and a pair of essays Because ground clutter frequently triggered the describing the history and cultural resource man agement process of the site. A more detailed his Section drawing of tory of the site is in preparation. BAR-1 radar tower and antenna. Photo courtesy Notes 1 BAR-1 DEW Line D. Winkler, Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the Collection, Parks United States Cold War Defense Radar Program, Canada. U.S. Air Force, Air Combat Command, June 1997, p. 83. 2 Report noted in Roy J. Fletcher, "Military Radar Defence Lines of Northern North America: an Historical Geography," Polar Record vol. 26, 1990, p. 270 and Sam Lightman interview with the author, June 6, 1995, Whitehorse, Yukon. 3 David Neufeld, BAR-1 field notes, conversation with radician George Bridger, July 18, 1993. 4 Telex of 27 Aug. 1986 in file AN/FPS-19, BAR-1 DEW Line Collection, Parks Canada and David Neufeld, BAR-1 field notes, conversation with Station Chief Ric Stephens, July 18, 1993.
David Neufeld is Yukon and Western Arctic Historian for Parks Canada.
CRM N2 14—1997 11 National Historic Landmarks Related to the History of Science and Technology
ALASKA Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo CONNECTICUT Leffingwell Camp Site, Flaxman Island Armsmear, Hartford ALABAMA Edward W. Morley House, West Hartford Charles H. Norton House, Plainville Redstone Test Stand-Marshall Space Flight Center, Russell Henry Cittenden House, New Haven Huntsville Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Sloss Blast Furnace, Birmingham Haven James Dwight Dana House, New Haven ARIZONA Lafayette B. Mendel House, New Haven U.S.S. Nautilus (submarine), Groton Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff C. Hart Merriam Base Camp Site, Flagstaff DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Desert Laboratory, Tucson Army Medical Museum CALIFORNIA Arts Club of Washington Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory Room 307, Gilman Hall, Univ. of California, Elliott Coues House Berkeley National Portrait Gallery John Muir NHS, Martinez Old Naval Observatory Hale Solar Laboratory, Pasadena Smithsonian Building Edwin Hubble House, San Marino David White House George H. Scripps Memorial Marine Biological Robert Simpson Woodward House Laboratory, La Jolla Rock Magnetics Laboratory, Menlo Park FLORIDA Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, Ames Research Center Moffett Field Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Launch Pads and Mission Control Center, Cocoa Ybor City Historic District, Tampa
GEORGIA
Warm Springs Historic District, Warm Springs
IDAHO
Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1, National Reactor Testing Station, Arco
ILLINOIS
University of Illinois Observatory, Urbana Arthur H. Compton House, Chicago Site of first self-sustaining nuclear reaction, Chicago Kennicotts Grove, Glenview Frank R. Lillie House, Chicago Robert A. Millikan House, Chicago Room 405, George Herbert Jones Laboratory, University of Chicago, Chicago Grote Reber at his telescope, Reber Radio Telescope, Greenbank,WestVirginia. Photo courtesy of National Radio John Deere House and Shop, Grand Detour Astronomy Observatory. Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island
12 CRM N^ 14—1997 INDIANA MISSOURI
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway Sanborn Field and Soil Erosion Plots, University of Madame C.J. Walker Building, Indianapolis Missouri Columbia Joseph Erlanger House, St. Louis LOUISIANA Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis Washington University Hilltop Campus Historic Big Oak-Little Oak Islands, New Orleans District, St. Louis
MAINE NEBRASKA
Bowdoin (schooner), Castine Captain Meriwether Lewis (dredge), Brownville
MARYLAND NEW HAMPSHIRE
Rachel Carson House, Silver Spring USS Albacore, Portsmouth Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory, Gaithersburg Elmer V. McCollum House, Baltimore NEW JERSEY Ira Remsen House, Baltimore Henry August Rowland House, Baltimore Lucy, the Margate Elephant, Margate City William H. Welch House, Baltimore Hadrosaurus Foulkii Leidy Site, Haddonfield Abbott Farm Archeological Site, Trenton MASSACHUSETTS Albert Einstein House, Princeton Joseph Henry House, Princeton Ernestina (schooner), New Bedford Horn Antenna, Holmdel Nathaniel Bowditch House, Salem Speedwell Village, Morristown Elihu Thomson House, Swampscott George D. Birkhoff House, Cambridge NEW MEXICO Boston Manufacturing Company, Waltham Percy Bridgman House, Cambridge Folsom Site, Folsom Reginald A. Daly House, Cambridge Launch Complex 33, White Sands Missile Range William Morris Davis House, Cambridge Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos Reginald A. Fessenden House, Newton Seton Village, Santa Fe Asa Gray House, Cambridge Trinity Site, Bingham Arthur D. Little, Inc. Building, Cambridge Theodore W Richards House, Cambridge NEW YORK Count Rumford Birthplace, Woburn Great Blue Hill Weather Observatory, Milton James Hall Office, Albany George R. Minot House, Brookline New York Botanical Gardens, New York Arnold Arboretum, Boston Jethro Wood House, Poplar Ridge Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie Ether Dome, Massachusetts General Hospital, Vassar College Observatory, Poughkeepsie Boston George Eastman House, Rochester Ellen H. Swallow Richards House, Jamaica Plain Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York Goddard Rocket Launching Site, Auburn Founders Hall, Rockefeller University, New York Matthew Henson Residence, New York MICHIGAN Pupin Physics Laboratories, Columbia University, New York Herbert H. Dow House, Midland General Electric Research Laboratory, Schenectady Fair Lane, Dearborn Irving Langmuir House, Schenectady Parke-Davis Research Laboratory, Detroit John W Draper House, Hastings-on-Hudson
MINNESOTA NEVADA
Mayo Clinic Buildings, Rochester Leonard Rock Shelter, Lovelock
CRM \W 14—1997 L3 RittenhouseTown Historic District, Philadelphia Stenton, Philadelphia Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia Edward G. Acheson House, Monongahela
Zero Gravity RHODE ISLAND Research Facility. NASA Lewis Old Slater Mill, Pawtucket Research Center, SOUTH CAROLINA Cleveland, Ohio. Photo Middleton Place, Summerville courtesy NASA Lewis South Carolina State Hospital, Mills Building, Research Columbia Center. Borough House Plantation, Stateburg
TENNESSEE
Rhea County Courthouse, Dayton X-10 Reactor, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge NORTH CAROLINA TEXAS USS Monitor, Cape Hatteras Lucas Gusher, Spindletop Oil Field, Beaumont OHIO VERMONT Langstroth Cottage, Oxford John B. Tytus House, Middletown Stellafane Observatory, North Springfield Rocket Engine Test Facility, Lewis Research Center, Cleveland VIRGINIA Zero Gravity Research Facility (B-2), Lewis Research Center, Cleveland Benjamin Banneker, SW 9 Intermediate Boundary Thomas Alva Edison Birthplace, Milan Stone, Arlington Huffman Field, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Gen. William Mitchell House, Middleburg Fairborn Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop, Steeles Tavern Kirtland Temple, Kirtland Eight-Foot High Speed Tunnel, Langley Research Hawthorn Hill, Oakwood Center, Hampton Charles F. Kettering House, Kettering Full-Scale Tunnel, Langley Research Center, Hampton Wright Cycle Company and Printing Offices, Dayton Variable Density Tunnel, Langley Research Center, Wright Flyer III, Dayton Hampton
PENNSYLVANIA WEST VIRGINIA
Charles B. Dudley House, Altoona Reber Radio Telescope, National Radio Astronomy Humphry Marshall House, Marshallton Observatory, Green Bank Pulpit Rocks, Huntingdon Robert Fulton Birthplace, Quarryville WISCONSIN Mill Grove, Audobon Gemeinhaus-Lewis David De Schweinitz Residence, University of Wisconsin Science Hall, Madison Bethlehem Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum, Milwaukee Joseph Priestley House, Northumberland Soldiers Home Reef, Milwaukee American Philosophical Society Hall, Philadelphia John Bertram House, Philadelphia Listing from the National Register Database, courtesy John Edward Drinker Cope House, Philadelphia Byrne, National Register Database Manager. Hill-Physick House, Philadelphia
14 CRM N2 14—1997 Coxey Toogood Managing RittenhouseTown A National Historic Landmark
he Friends of RittenhouseTown was Despite these physical losses, the site organized in 1984 to restore the retained enough integrity to be nominated as a site of the nation's first paper mill. National Historic Landmark, based on its signifi TThey took on the management of cance as the birthplace of American papermaking, five stone buildings in Philadelphia's Fairmount as the birthplace of David Rittenhouse, the first Park, remnants of the historic village of director of the U.S. Mint, and as a rural industrial RittenhouseTown. Fourteen years later, after pro village site. Board management decisions have fessional research and archeology, focused on its papermaking history, because only RittenhouseTown is a National Historic one other place in the country tells the papermak Landmark (1992), a site significant for its indus ing story, a museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Historic trial history spanning two centuries. RittenhouseTown, Inc. aims to tell the story of this RittenhouseTown is a charming cluster of important industry and to serve as an interpretive 18th- and 19th-century buildings in a wooded glen model for other paper mill sites. in northwest Philadelphia. Five houses, a barn, a To accomplish these goals, the Board of bake house, and a road along the Monoshone RittenhouseTown, Inc., has considered whether to Creek are all that remain of the industrial village reconstruct the paper mill and fully restore the that, in the mid-19th century, included several surviving buildings. Many members felt recon mills and homes, a stone quarry, a Baptist Church, struction of the mill was essential to understand and a schoolhouse. ing the site. Currently, a vision plan includes a William Rittenhouse, the German-born partial reconstruction based on archeological founder of the paper mill, immigrated to America remains and a photograph of the mill shot before in 1689, after working 10 years as a papermaker its demolition. in Holland. While living in Amsterdam, he mar The second mill stood across the stream ried, started a family, and converted to the from a large stone house built by William's son, Mennonite faith. In 1690 Rittenhouse built the Claus. Known as the Homestead, the house is first paper mill in British North America. When RittenhouseTown's earliest surviving structure this mill washed away in a flood around 1700, he (1707) and the birthplace of David Rittenhouse. constructed a larger mill farther downstream that Until recently, the Board planned to restore the survived into the age of photography. Homestead to its original appearance. A 1996 his The Rittenhouse mill followed the ancient toric structure report on the Homestead, however, practice of making paper by soaking rags in water underscored the scarce documentation available and then pounding them into pulp. The fibrous on the building and the lack of historic fabric. material was then dried into sheets of paper. The Without sufficient record, preservation—rather mill was close to Germantown, Historic an emerging textile center and RittenhouseTown, in Philadelphia's good source of rags. The Fairmount Park, is Rittenhouse family manufactured the site of the paper on the Monoshone until nation's first paper the early-19th century. After the mill. Civil War, they began selling their land. At this time, the city of Philadelphia started purchasing RittenhouseTown village as part of Fairmount Park. The park commissioners demolished the mills and most of the village structures and ran scenic Lincoln Drive through its center.
CRM N2 14—1997 15 than restoration of the Homestead—has become leased to Fairmount Park. Some Board members the preferred alternative. have been impatient with research that has con Research changed the Board's direction on sumed needed dollars for restoration and interpre another occasion. The draft vision statement for tation, but the information obtained in this RittenhouseTown called for all seven buildings to process has allowed the Board to answer critical be restored to recreate a colonial village. An his questions about the site's future. toric structure report in 1997, however, concluded The Board hopes to expand the papermak- one of the houses was built in 1840. Thus, the ing program and interpret the village of colonial emphasis was finally modified by factual RittenhouseTown from the mill's origin to the pre information. The vision statement now calls for sent. Expansion, however, is currently limited by the preservation of the 18th- and 19th-century the site's rural characteristics and its setting. The industrial village. village's septic system restricts the visitor center to The Board has sponsored several other kinds one public toilet. More bathrooms can be added of studies for RittenhouseTown. A professionally when a sewer line is installed, but estimates to run supervised dig exposed a corner of the paper mill's the line in the village top $400,000. Public access massive stone foundation. This archeology led to and parking are limited by the site's hilly contours funding for an interpretive design study on the and its proximity to Lincoln Drive, a fast-moving, mill site. A master plan for RittenhouseTown but scenic commuter road. Public access also must mapped out the village's historical and archeologi- be considered in the light of neighborhood con cal resources. A design firm researched and pre cerns and the Board's effort to keep cars and buses pared an excellent exhibit time line for the visitor from traversing the village. The future of Historic center, and a research historian prepared a hand RittenhouseTown will thus need the continued book on RittenhouseTown's history. A landscape cooperation of many diverse professionals, neigh architect completed a study on the site's access bors, community groups, and volunteers who problems, while a museum grant made recommen together will determine the future of this National dations for collections' management. Historic Landmark. In the future, Historic RittenhouseTown will require additional studies, including a cultural Coxey Toogood is historian at Independence National landscape report for a planned wayside trail and Historical Park and Chairman of the Board, Historic historic structure reports for two houses currently RittenhouseTown, Inc.
Scott S. Sheads and Anna von Lunz Rodman Last of the Seacoast Muzzle-Loaders
ort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine has the largest surviving collection of Rodman guns in the United States. While the In February 1844, Rodman was one of sev namesF Dahlgren, Parrot, and Napoleon are syn eral officers and dignitaries who witnessed the fir The Rodman gun, shown here at Fort onymous with artillery, few come close to the ing of the "Peacemaker," a large gun aboard the McHenry, was the Rodman, the last of the smoothbore muzzle load U.S.S. Princeton in the Potomac River near last smoothbore ers to guard the American coast during the last Washington, DC. The gun exploded upon firing, muzzle loader half of the 19th century. killing the Secretary of War and several others. used in American This experience prompted Rodman to inves coastal defense Thomas Jackson Rodman, an Army ord during the late- nance officer who graduated from West Point in tigate his own theories about gun casting. 19th century. 1837, developed the Rodman gun. Rodman's com Discovering that current manufacturing processes Photo courtesy Ft. mission in the Ordnance Department enabled him produced structurally-weak guns, Rodman thought McHenry NMHS. to study cannon casting methods at the nation's that casting solid guns and then boring them out leading foundries. caused structural stresses. Cooling guns from the outside caused the cannon to develop strata of dif-
10 CRM Nfi 14—1997 ferent densities, making the tube more susceptible coastal forts "fortresses of the past." After the war, to bursting. many Rodmans were converted to muzzle-loading Rodman developed a method of casting the experimental rifles by inserting 8-inch rifled liners. gun barrel around a hollow core or pipe, sealed at Fort McHenry's Rodmans were last fired on July 3, the bottom. The mold stood muzzle-up and a small 1903, nine years before the Army deactivated the pipe was lowered into the core. When a foundry Fort in 1912 and 13 years before it became a worker released molten iron into the mold, water national park. flowed into the smaller pipe. This water filled the With 14 Rodmans in its collection, the inner core and ran off at the gun muzzle, away largest in the U.S., Fort McHenry NMHS faces the from the casting. Hot coals heaped around the challenge of interpreting and preserving these guns exterior insured even cooling. As the iron mammoth guns for the public. The park presents a cooled outward, each successive layer compressed 30-minute program on one of the five mounted 15- down on the top of the layer under it. The result inch Rodmans, which includes a sketch of was a firm, tight casting without any dangerous Rodman's life, a review of his metallurgical cracks or air fissures. Rodman also reduced the achievements, and a discussion of the guns' opera stresses placed on the bore from gunpowder by tion and significance. increasing the diameter of the powder grains. This Fort McHenry has collected copies of pri produced more uniform pressure on the shot, mary and secondary archival materials on the increasing its velocity during its passage through Rodmans from the National Archives and the Rock the bore. Island Arsenal Museum and assembled them as After several unsuccessful attempts to con the Historical and Archeological Research Project. vince the Army to try his process, Rodman applied To preserve the guns, every few years the park for a patent in 1847. In 1849, he signed a produc blasts the guns with walnut shells to remove old tion agreement with Charles Knapp of the Fort Pitt paint and applies a new layer. Because Fort Foundry in Pittsburgh and continued to experi McHenry lies 200 miles inland, salt corrosion is ment on the process for the next several years. less of a problem than at other Rodman sites. After a decade of experimental castings, the War Despite 120 years of exposure to pollution, this Department ordered Rodman to cast a 15-inch fine collection has weathered the elements. smoothbore. Called the "Lincoln Gun," it was the largest gun produced in the U.S. and passed all Scott Sheads is a historian at Fort McHenry NMHS. trials at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The U.S. Army subsequently adopted the Rodman process. Anna von Lunz is a museum specialist at Fort In late 1864, the Army began replacing Fort McHenry. McHenry's former Model 1842 seacoast guns with Rodmans. On June 30, 1866, five 15-inch The authors would like to thank Bob Healy, Rodmans were mounted. In the next decade, sev park ranger at Salinas Pueblo Missions NM and eral 8-inch and 10-inch guns were also mounted. Don Steiner, park ranger, Fort Washington Park In 1865, the Army breveted Rodman with the for their assistance. ranks of lieutenant general, colonel, and brigadier general for his meritorious ser From left fore vice and placed him in com ground to right, mand of the Rock Island, three experimental Illinois Arsenal, where he 10-inch with 8-inch rifled sleeves (fore served until his death in 1871. ground), three 8- Rodman's new process inch, and a 15-Inch revolutionized coastal arma Rodman fire a ments in the U.S. These national salute. The Rodman guns at smoothbore guns lost favor, Fort McHenry were however, as the superiority of last fired on July 4, rifled barrels became evident 1903. Note the against older forts. As Rodman cranes used for perfected his process, rifled hoisting shells. This view is one of only artillery was being cast that four known pho made all smoothbore cannons tographs of the obsolete. A pointed projectile Rodmans being could travel further and with fired. Photo courtesy Ft. McHenry greater accuracy, easily pene NMHS. trating walls and thus making
CRM NU 14— IW7 17 1998 National Aerospace Conference Conferences As a precursor to the celebration of the centennial of powered flight in 2003, the The Information Ecosystem: National Aerospace Conference will occur at Managing the Life Cycle of Information Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, on for Preservation and Access will be held October 1-3, 1998. As the Birthplace of March 8-12, 1998, at the National Archives in Aviation and hometown of Wilbur and Orville College Park, Maryland. Sponsored by the NPS Wright, Dayton is a fitting location for this con Museum Management Program, the National ference. While the Wright brothers conducted Register of Historic Places, the Northeast their experiments in North Carolina, they Document Conservation Center, and the researched, designed, and constructed all of National Archives and Records Administration, their gliders and planes in Dayton. After the the Conference focuses on: first successful flight in Kill Devil Hill, North • understanding who the stakeholders are in Carolina, on December 17, 1903, the Wrights the information ecosystem from creators, returned to Dayton to perfect their airplane. donors, project managers, individuals, and Using the themes of the Evolution of groups as Subjects, to secondary users Flight Technology, Flight and Public Policy, and such as archival, museum, and library Flight, Culture, and Society, the conference will researchers identify and explore the wide variety of factors • comprehending the information life cycle that have shaped the development of flight and the value added at each stage of the technology throughout the last century. A sepa life cycle rate program titled Our Youth/ Our Future, will • evaluating information for potential future provide on-site learning experiences for stu value dents and teachers. The topics developed under • selecting permanent and durable formats the themes will be of interest to historians, for electronic, textual (paper), and audio industry experts, education specialists, and visual information famous aviation/aerospace pioneers. • planning and designing information sys In addition to attending conference tems of long-term value that meet emerging events, attendees will find many aviation- national standards for systems, data con related sites in the Dayton region. Dayton tent, data values, etc. Aviation Heritage National Historical Park • understanding the issues involved in man includes The Wright Cycle Company building, aging information from legal requirements, the Huffman Prairie Flying Field, and the 1905 disposition strategies, and management Wright Flyer III. Other area museums include techniques to performance improvement the United States Air Force Museum, the and problem solving WACO Historical Society Museum, and the • learning how to effectively prepare infor Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum. These mation for secondary access via the World sites and others, totaling 47, are part of the Wide Web and other outreach tools Aviation Trail, a collection of aviation-related • discovering how to search the information sites that illustrate Dayton's unique place in ecosystem aviation history. For course registration, contact the For more information on the Conference, Northeast Document Conservation Center, 100 contact National Aerospace Conference, Brickstone Square, Andover, MA 01810-1494; Conferences and Events, Wright State tel: 508-470-1010; fax: 508-475-6021; email: University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway,
18 CRM N2 14—1997 David P. Ogden Cannon and Conversation Preserving and Interpreting Seashore Technological Change
ulf Islands National Seashore lished 30 years later, America's seacoast forts had does not seem like a place where faded into obscurity. With a few notable excep you would encounter great tech tions, little was known of what had once been the G nological wonders. Yet, amid the core of our coastal defense. Efficient salvaging sparkling white sands of the central Gulf coast lie operations removed most of the material that the scattered remains of an army post affected by made the sites understandable. Often, later fortifi technological change. Fort Pickens, on Santa cations built within original structures added to Rosa Island in the Florida panhandle, was con the confusion. These conditions presented formi structed between 1829 and 1834 as part of the dable challenges for both interpretation and U.S. coastal defense system. Interpreting the resource management. technological significance of Fort Pickens has led For interpreters, little information was avail to close cooperation between interpreters and able on seacoast forts overall, and Fort Pickens in cultural resource managers. particular. Resource managers lacked the informa Cannons remained unchanged from the 15th tion needed to set preservation priorities and com to the 19th century. For more than 300 years, for bat the corrosive effects of the marine tifications were designed in this unchanging envi environment. NPS historians addressed this prob ronment. By the time of the American fortification lem by combing the National Archives to compile program in the early-19th century, forts were only historic structure reports and a map file. These vulnerable to protracted army sieges. They were documents provided information for both interpre the perfect defense against naval enemies. tive and resource management needs. Early plans This changed during the American Civil War. to restore Fort Pickens were abandoned when the By 1865, rifled cannon and ironclad warships had park discovered that most of the damage was due rendered masonry forts obsolete. In the 1880s and to historic activities. Investigations also revealed 1890s the U. S. replaced masonry forts with sim that the Endicott battery in the parade of the old pler reinforced concrete structures. While the fort was a historic structure in its own right. The structures were simplified, the weapons mounted structure was stabilized instead, with restoration on them were vastly more complex than the can efforts directed to nearby Fort Barrancas. non of the pre-Civil War era. The weapons for Explaining this resource management decision to these concrete forts, called Endicott batteries, rep visitors is an excellent way to drive home the idea resented a great technological leap. Weighing as of changing technologies. much as 58 tons, these guns could fire projectiles Massive searchlight that were twice as heavy and towers like this one could go three times farther than at Fort Pickens in 1918 were impor the largest cannon in the pre- tant parts of the Civil War arsenal. Large carriages American coastal raised the guns over walls for fir defense system. ing and lowered them for reload Visitors helped park staff understand ing. The era of seacoast defense the operation of closed at the end of World War these towers. Photo II. The development of aircraft courtesy Gulf and nuclear weapons rendered Islands National large coastal artillery obsolete. Seashore. Most artillery bases were closed in the late 1940s, with the weapons and structures sold for scrap. When Gulf Islands National Seashore was estab
CRM N2 14—1997 19 One interpretive solution added to the erans. The veterans donated hundreds of pho resource management challenges. Nothing makes tographs to the park collection, providing material a fort more interesting than a gun to go with it. for several exhibits, an illustrated talk, and a The park collection contains several cast iron can booklet published by our cooperating association. non, including a six-inch gun on a rare disappear The oral histories put a human face to defense ing carriage. Sea air regularly assaults these technology and solved a critical problem. Few weapons. For the most part, preserving them studies of coastal artillery were written in the 20th requires little more than maintaining a good coat century. As a result, the veterans were the only of paint. It is seldom that simple, however. sources for some information. The six-inch gun was mounted in firing posi My favorite example involved the searchlight tion and held in place by a massive counterweight operations. When one man told of his duty with in a well beneath the mount, hidden from view. the searchlight battery, park staff asked where they Sometime after the installation in 1976, water were. He responded that we had been driving past began seeping into the well. The corrosion went them every time we went to work. The lights were undetected for many years and was extensive on retractable towers, so they could be hidden when discovered. The conservation of this piece from prying eyes during the day and raised at took three years and was done under contract by night. To accomplish this required a steel tower the Florida Research and Conservation Laboratory. and three blocks of concrete. One block was the The 20,000-pound barrel was removed first, base of the tower; one was for the light to rest followed by 47,000 pounds of carriage and 10 tons upon in lowered position; the third block was the of lead counterweight. Barrel and carriage were counterweight. The steel had been scrapped, but shipped to Tallahassee, where they were placed in the blocks remained. an electrolysis tank. Following electrolysis, the We had no idea what the mysterious trio of components were sandblasted and then painted concrete blocks was—and likely would not have with rust inhibitor and industrial coatings. The known for some time to come except for that one gun and carriage were then returned to Battery conversation. The man described the operations, Cooper and remounted, this time in the lowered including the night they accidently reversed the position. light and illuminated the navy base in the harbor However, the guns alone could not tell the instead of the Gulf of Mexico. He also had pho park story. The public is most interested in stories tographs, which he graciously lent for copying. about people. We had plenty of stories from the The cannon collection provides both the Civil War at Fort Pickens, but the real story was hook and tangible evidence of the evolution of the much larger than that. The coast artillery had been weaponry. The oral histories preserve what had at Fort Pickens less than 50 years ago. That means been an intangible resource and add the human that some people who had been there might still element to the story. It is this blending of interpre be living, and they would have stories. tation and resource management that makes it One day an interpreter encountered an possible to preserve and relate the unique tale of a elderly man in the fort who said he had been there technology that ended in our time. during World War II. The interpreter asked him if he would mind giving an interview, and an oral David P. Ogden is an interpretive specialist at Gulf history project was born. Over the next several Islands National Seashore, Florida District. years, park interpreters interviewed dozens of vet
The Western Reserve Historical Society is plan ning an expansion that will include a new museum of ing a new kind of museum complex that moves dramati transportation and industry to open in 2001 at cally away from traditional approaches to display and Cleveland's downtown lake front. This new museum will interpretation. Selection of external design firms, media encompass about 165,000 square feet, including a large producers, and fabrication companies began in the fall of exhibition hall, special effects theater, learning areas, and 1997. public spaces. The core collection for this new museum is A specific site for the museum is still being worked the Society's Crawford Auto and Aviation Museum, out with the City of Cleveland, but it will be close to the though the Society expects to acquire several large-scale Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Burke Lakefront Airport, artifacts, ranging from the World War II era Corsair the city's active downtown airport. For information con fighter-bomber which won the 1946 Cleveland Air Races tact Ed Pershey, Task Force Director, Crawford Museum to a working 1937 Cleveland diner restaurant. of Transportation and Industry, Western Reserve Plans for the museum are just being formulated, but Historical Society, 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH, senior staff on the planning team are committed to build 44106; 216-721-5722, ext 228 or
20 CRM N2 14—1997 William Gray Johnson, Nancy G. Goldenberg, Susan R. Edwards The Japanese Village at the Nevadalest Site A Relic of Nuclear War
old War material culture studies room called a toko, a raised alcove for displaying have focused on military develop hanging scrolls or flower arrangements. These ments representing 20th-century room divisions roughly correspond to modules of C weaponry. This article describes a standard tatami mats, the preferred flooring mater unique group of structures with an entirely differ ial. Nearby features include a concrete foundation ent purpose, the Japanese Village on the Nevada that originally held a skeletal steel tower (subse Test Site. Located on the grounds of the main U.S. quently moved to another part of the Test Site). A nuclear weapons testing facility, an international second 200' x 200' stabilization area, empty of program constructed the village to study radiation structures, lies 750' to the east. effects and, ultimately, to aid the survivors of On July 16, 1945, the U. S. detonated the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Resembling an "eastern first atomic weapon, Trinity, near Alamogordo, version of a western movie set," it stands as a New Mexico. Its successful detonation led to memorial to the only combat use of nuclear immediate plans for combat use; and in less than weapons.1 three weeks, a nuclear weapon was exploded over The Japanese Village stands on a gently slop Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, a second ing rise in an area known as Yucca Flat. The struc nuclear weapon fell on Nagasaki. On August 15, tures are on a stabilization area delineated from 1945, Japan surrendered, ending World War II. the surrounding desert by slight berms on three The death toll has been estimated at more than sides and an excavated revetment on the fourth. 200,000 between the two cities. Additional deaths Two skeletal frame structures and a Hollywood-set within five years added another 130,000, with style wall elevation are all that remain. A third many more victims suffering long-term radiation structure and two additional elevations have col effects.2 lapsed. Constructed primarily of lumber with ply Japanese survey teams immediately began wood floors, their original cement-asbestos board studying the effects of the atomic weapons on their cladding is long gone. Each rests on wooden skids, urban populations. By the end of August, relief intended to permit portability. measures were underway as were efforts to inves The rectangular structures simulate typical tigate all aspects of the bombs effects. In 1947, the Japanese dwellings. The larger of the two originally U.S. established the Atomic Bomb Casualty had two stories, but its second story has since col Commission (ABCC), a permanent medical survey- Recent photo of Japanese Village lapsed. The other has one story with a gable roof. research organization with offices in Hiroshima 3 courtesy U.S. Dept. Original construction drawings identify interior and Nagasaki. The ABCC continues its work as of Energy. spaces as lobby, living room, kitchen, closet, and a the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, a pri vate nonprofit Japanese foundation supported jointly by the U.S. and Japan. It documents and analyzes the effects of nuclear radiation on the bomb survivors and their offspring. Cooperation between the medical sections of these groups was excellent, but the groups working on physical damage did not try to reconcile differ ences between their measurements and calcula tions of the height and location of bomb bursts (i.e., the hypocenters). Such differences resulted in considerable problems for determining the radia tion-dose calculations (dosimetry) of each sur vivor. In particular, the shielding effects of buildings were largely unknown, although records showed that many survivors were in their houses when the bombs fell. Thus, the ABCC determined that a study of the survivors who were in their
CRM N2 14—1997 21 substitute for the traditional Japanese mud and oyster-shell stucco. The Operation BREN concept developed from a need for information on neutron and gamma radiation fields and their ability to pene trate buildings. An open reactor was placed on a hoist car mounted on a tower. Three analog Japanese houses and three wall elevations were placed 2,250' from the base of the tower. Each house contained sophisticated dosimetry devices placed strategically throughout the rooms. These measured radiation rates and allowed researchers to calculate the dosimetry of bomb survivors. The BREN experiments were conducted during the spring and early summer of 1962. Upon comple tion, the tower was moved and used for other experiments; but the wooden structures and other Historic photo of houses and the shielding characteristics of these features remain in their original location. Japanese Village structures could yield substantial information on The tragic loss of life and long-term health courtesy U.S. Dept. survivor dosimetry.4 effects suffered by the survivors of the Hiroshima of Energy. The survey group's recommendations led to and Nagasaki bombings are perhaps the main rea the establishment of a program in 1956 known as son that an all-out nuclear exchange never Ichiban (the Japanese word for "number 1" or occurred during the Cold War. Japanese Village "best"). The program documented survivor location stands as testament to profound tragedy and, con at the instant the bombs exploded, established air- versely, international cooperation for humanitar dose curves, and analyzed shielding factors for ian purposes. Data obtained from the BREN houses. Ichiban included several nuclear weapon studies helped the Japanese survivors of tests, many laboratory experiments, physical sur Hiroshima and Nagasaki by providing information veys in Japan, calculation studies, and a series of to their medical practitioners. This data was also experiments known as Operation BREN (Bare used to determine health effects from radiation Reactor Experiment, Nevada). BREN focused on and, presumably, helped the U.S. to establish determining shielding characteristics of Japanese- safety levels for radiation workers. Given its signif style houses and resulted in what we now call icance, Japanese Village was designated a Japanese Village. National Register-eligible property. Its fragile ABCC studies were used to develop these nature led to Historic American Building Survey Historic photo of "analog" houses. Plans of rooms drawn during BREN tower under (HABS) documentation. Stabilization efforts were construction cour interviews with bomb victims and measurements of enacted, and the site still stands. However, secu tesy U.S. Dept of structures at varying distances from the bomb's rity restrictions have limited access. Energy. hypocenters contributed to their design. Room sizes were based upon Notes the dimensions of tatami 1 Commentary by John Rhys-Davies in Return to mats, as was typical with Ground Zero, New Dominion Pictures, Learning Japanese dwellings. Given Channel Archeology Series. this uniformity, 2 R. Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, New researchers found that York, 1986. three types represented 3 J.A. Auxier, Ichiban, CEX-64.3 Civil Effects Study, 90% of all Japanese resi 1964. dential structures; a large 4 Ibid. two-story, a middle-sized single-story, and a small William Gray Johnson is an Associate Research one-story. Studies com Professor and Susan R. Edwards is a Staff paring radiation-attenua Archeologist at the Desert Research Institute in Las tion characteristics of Vegas, Nevada. Nancy G. Goldenberg is an architect Japanese building materi and architectural historian at Carey and Company, als with U.S. products Inc. in San Francisco, California. The authors thank identified a cement- the U.S. Department of Energy for funding the asbestos board known as research that made this article possible. "transite" as a suitable
22 CRM N2 14—1997 Leah S. Glaser Nice Towers, eh? Evaluating a Transmission Line in Arizona
s tourists meandered down the Section 106 compliance process. Rather than Apache Trail, a historic road with address resources on a case-by-case basis, this beautiful views of Central agreement will allow the review of several SRP AArizona's desert mountains, power facilities on federal land through a single, stan engineer Bill Phillips, photographer James dardized process. The following recounts the Eastwood, and I carefully searched for the perfect research and sources I used for my report. tower to photograph for a HAER report on the When first assigned this report, I had no 115,000 volt (115kV) Eastern Mining Area idea where to begin. What did the towers look (EMA) transmission line. As the visitors stopped like? Where exactly were they? To compound mat and looked past the power lines to enjoy the ters, I knew nothing about electricity beyond a few view, Bill turned to them and playfully remarked, recollections from my eighth-grade science class. "Nice towers, eh?" What did frequency and voltage mean? What is This photograph, In the spring of 1996, I completed a Historic loading? I found ample secondary sources on the taken in March American Engineering Record (HAER) report on a history of electricity and electrical transmission, 1996 by James Eastwood, shows a long-distance transmission line in Arizona. I found but no studies on transmission lines or towers. As Salt River Project Bill's lighthearted comment relevant to cultural I searched through the list of HAER reports in the transmission tower resource management, material culture, and tech Library of Congress, the lack of independent and line crossing nological history. This project taught me that tech reports about power lines and the role of long-dis the Superstition nological structures are more than a blemish on tance transmission dismayed me. Luckily, I had Mountains in Arizona. Remote the landscape. They are valuable cultural access to SRPs water and electricity library and objects like these resources with a crucial story about the impact of archives. I joined the History of Technology list- 2 are significant cul long-distance power.' serve to solicit more references. However, over tural resources, rep The HAER report stemmed from a planned whelmed by conflicting information and the sheer resenting the programmatic agreement between the Salt River number and variety of towers in the desert, I development of 20th-century elec Project (SRP) and the U. S. Forest Service (USFS). found it necessary to combine company records tric power technol Recently, safety questions were raised about the and historic photographs with several site visits. ogy- towers, built under the supervision of the U. S. I drafted Bill Phillips from the power depart Reclamation Service ment for aid. Bill knew about the variety of towers, in 1907. Engineers where they were, how old they might be, and if determined that they they had been modified. I soon discovered that would have to dis other towers dated from the 1920s. Thus, one mantle some of long-distance transmission loop included a variety them. The struc of tower designs reflecting the rapid advances in tures, like many this technology over the years. The oldest, erected SRP facilities, are in in 1909, were adapted from pyramidal shaped the Tonto National windmill towers. Yet in less than 20 years, engi Forest. Before neers altered the tops and added new hanging removing the tow insulators to address lightening problems and to ers, however, SRP deter large desert hawks who used transmission must comply with towers for perches. Towers built in the 1920s were federal regulations rectangular and were varied in design according to requiring a HAER their function and location on the line as interme report for significant diate, angle, or transposition towers. historical resources. When evaluating this transmission line, I The SRP/USFS had a problem addressing it as a single cultural agreement will resource. Not only is it made up of hundreds of involve a standard independent towers, it is miles long, has often ized procedure for been rerouted, and has segments constructed over streamlining the a period of 20 years. The 1996 National
CRM N2 14—1997 23 Conference on Public History (NCPH) in Seattle The energy helped produce two of Arizona's most conducted a valuable session on interpreting lin valuable economic resources, cotton and copper, ear resources. Bureau of Reclamation Historian during the early-20th century. Extant 115 kV tow Christine Pfaff's discussions about boundaries ers serve as a testament to the federal govern were especially valuable to my research decisions. ment's role in bringing electric power to remote It made sense to deal with the line in segments areas. They illustrate the rapid development in and to discuss only representative towers that long distance, high voltage electrical transmission embody the integrity, character, and feeling of the technology and tower design in response to soci line. ety's economic needs. Once I learned how to evaluate this multi- Human use of natural energy resources, such structure resource, my research focused on its ori as water, have interested western historians for gin. The Internet proved valuable in finding some time. Thomas P. Hughes, David Nye, Mark sources. Annual U. S. Reclamation Service reports Rose, and Ronald Tobey have written exhaustive recorded that the U.S. Wind Engine and Pump accounts of electrification; but few have described Company in Batavia, Illinois, manufactured the the industrial and social impact of electrical tech towers. When I entered "Batavia" into the Yahoo! nology outside urban areas. Transmission towers search engine for the World Wide Web, the town's are as important as buildings, dams, or bridges. webpage greeted me with the boast, "Batavia, Long-distance transmission lines may intrude Illinois, Windmill Capital of the World." Between upon our natural landscape, but they are impor the records from their historical society and a ref tant cultural resources. erence from a local windmill expert, I found ample information on the windmill manufacturers, Notes including the Windmill Manufacturers Trade 1 For a review of the impact of culture on tower Literature Collection in Canyon, Texas. Old engi design, see Eugene Levy, "The Aesthetics of Power: neering journals in Arizona State University's sci High-Voltage Transmission Systems and the ence library (i.e., Electrical World) helped explain American Landscape," Technology and Culture 37 this adaptation of technological structures.3 One (April 1996): 575-607. afternoon, I even discovered a 1920s electrical 2 To join the History of Technology listserve, send an supply catalog from Westinghouse in a used book email message to
24 CRM N2 14—1997 Billy Joe Peyton To Make the Crooked Ways Straight and the Rough Ways Smooth Documenting 19th-centuryTransportation Systems
ith increasing public aware touted the development of an integrated network ness of transportation's sig of turnpikes and canals "to make the crooked nificance in American ways straight, and the rough ways smooth," con Whistory, there is a growing necting the eastern seaboard with the "western interest in preserving important aspects of this waters" of the Mississippi basin. Given the limited heritage. Along with pioneering technologies, we capacity of turnpikes, shippers regarded canals as are now studying more recent transportation sys more efficient for moving large amounts of freight. tems associated with the automobile, aircraft, Except for the Erie Canal and a few other water and space travel. As the millennium approaches, ways, however, most canals were unprofitable. the information age will continue to take us Consequently, railroads became the preferred beyond the bounds of distance and time. transportation alternative by the 1830s. The first Preserving this heritage is important in the face trans-Appalachian railroads promised to open the of such rapid technological change. nation's interior and make its abundant mineral Since 1989, the Institute for the History of and timber resources accessible to the world. Technology and Industrial Archaeology (IHTIA) at Of the three transportation routes built West Virginia University has researched America's through the Potomac River Valley in the first half transportation heritage, including bridges, aque of the 19th century, none is more important than Time and the rav ducts, and the engineers who built them. IHTIA's the National Road. This thoroughfare originated ages of flooding have wrecked the industrial archeology program documents, inter with a privately-built route from Baltimore to upstream parapet prets, and—in select cases—preserves sites, struc Cumberland, Maryland, where it connected with of the C&cO Canal's tures, and artifacts. Theme studies of significant the publicly-funded Cumberland Road (built 1811- Conococheague transportation systems are central to IHTIA's work 21), and then wound its way across the Creek Aqueduct, in the history of technology. Appalachian Mountains to Wheeling, West built in 1834 at Williamsport, Transportation systems have greatly influ Virginia. The National Road opened the Upper Maryland. Photo by enced American economic development. Political Ohio Valley to settlement and created important John Nicely, cour leaders recognized the importance of internal trade ties between previously disconnected regions tesy IHTIA. improvements in the early-19th century. They of the country. It was the gateway to the West before the railroad reached the Ohio River. By 1860, it had become a local passage that eventu ally fell into disrepair until its rebirth in the early- 20th century. Today U.S. Route 40, the successor of the National Road, is a popular heritage tourism route. Work on the second pioneering improvement in the Potomac Valley began on July 4, 1828, when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company broke ground on a water route from tidewater to the Ohio River. Built with public and private funds, financial problems plagued the C&O Canal from the beginning. Although it eventually opened in 1850 from Georgetown to Cumberland, the canal never reached the Ohio River. Boats plied the C&O Canal for 75 years, until traffic ceased in 1923. In 1938, the federal government turned the abandoned canal into the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
CRM N2 14—1997 25 Construction began on the third, and most the Little Youghiogheny River in Maryland in revolutionary, of the Potomac Valley transporta 1815, and a triple-arch span Great Crossings tion systems on the same day that the C&O Canal Bridge built in 1816 over the Youghiogheny River broke ground. In 1828, the citizens of Baltimore in Pennsylvania. IHTIA is also preparing a mono decided to build a rail line across the graph on the construction of the National Road Appalachians. It took 25 years for the privately- east of the Ohio River. Future work may entail built Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to reach the recording bridges west of the Ohio River in Ohio, Ohio River. The driving of the last spike in late Indiana, and Illinois. 1852 marked the completion of the nearly 400- The C&O Canal has been the subject of mile-long B&O, America's first trunk line. many independent monographs, articles, and NPS- Engineers regarded this line as the most daring sponsored studies. Unfortunately, this research feat of mountain railroad construction ever under has largely ignored the canal's engineering signifi taken. The B&O operated for over a century before cance. To fill this void, IHTIA is working on a pro it merged with other railroads in the late 1960s to ject with HAER and the C&O Canal National become CSX, one of the nation's largest carriers. Historical Park that places the canal's engineered The National Road, C&O Canal, and B&O structures within their proper historical context. Railroad became training grounds for civil engi Perhaps the most important of these structures are neers who dreamed of crossing the mountain the 11 masonry aqueducts. These "works of art," wilderness described by Benjamin Latrobe Jr. as a as the company engineers called them, are among land of "singularly perplexed topography." Each the finest surviving 19th-century aqueducts in the presented a unique series of civil engineering chal U.S. Conococheague Creek Aqueduct, built in lenges and responses that were both inventive 1834 at Williamsport, Maryland, was selected as and, like the mountains themselves, grand. the pilot project by a joint HAER-IHTIA team. Moreover, they represent three pioneering trans Instead of employing traditional hand-rendered portation systems built during America's first great techniques, a HAER architect used photogramme- This 1931 photo wave of internal improvements. An abundance of try and completed a set of measured drawings of B&O bridges at Harpers Ferry surviving physical evidence provides an opportu using AutoCAD. IHTIA staff members augmented (1868 iron nity to preserve and interpret these examples of the drawings with a narrative report on the con Bollman truss par 19th-century transportation engineering through struction of the aqueduct, along with photographs tially hidden at the techniques of industrial archeology. of the structure just after the devastating floods of right, 1894 steel IHTIA and the Historic American 1996. Pratt truss at cen ter, 1931 steel Engineering Record (HAER) have teamed up to Besides its work on the C&O Canal and deck-girder at left) study and document engineering works associated National Road, IHTIA is also involved in an ongo depicts three dis with the National Road, C&O Canal, and B&O ing effort to research the remains of the B&O tinct eras in U.S. Railroad. The National Road study includes the Railroad between Harpers Ferry and Wheeling, bridge building technology. Photo Little Crossings Bridge, the nation's largest single- West Virginia. This line, requiring 15 tunnels and courtesy NPS. span masonry arch when it was constructed over some 170 bridges to complete, featured the most mountainous terrain ever traversed by a railroad at the time. IHTIA's goal is to augment the B&O documentation done by HAER in the early 1970s by focusing on tunnels and other previously undocumented engineering works and to produce a monograph on B&O bridges titled Bridges Over Time: A Technological Context for the B&O Main Stem at Harpers Ferry. By virtue of its longstanding partnership with the NPS, the IHTIA will continue to document and preserve our transportation heritage in the Potomac Valley and elsewhere.
Billy Joe Peyton is associate director of the Institute for the History of Technology and Industrial Archaeology at West Virginia University.
For more information about IHTIA and its work, contact Billy Joe Peyton at 304-293-3589 or
20 CRM N2 14—1997 Randi Sue Smith ture in the U.S. Fish culture is part science, part technology, and part art. In the early days, art was foremost because no one knew how to spawn, hatch, and grow fish. Trial-and-error methods Collecting Slime eventually gave way to scientific studies of nutri tion, genetics, disease, transportation, and stock Cultural Resources in the ing. The first attempts at increasing fish popula Federal Fish Hatchery System tions involved transferring eggs, fry, or adult fish into depleted waters. By 1810, experimenters had lthough fish culture has had a introduced northern pike to Maine and New major economic and cultural Hampshire and, by 1832, carp to California. At the impact since the 1850s, it has end of 1852, two Cleveland, Ohio, doctors, received little attention. Fish, or Theodatus Garlick and H.A. Ackley, performed the aquacultureA, includes propagation of fish and first successful artificial fertilization of fish eggs in other aquatic species for food, recreation, endan the U.S. gered species restoration, and dam mitigation. Massachusetts created the first of many state Commercial concerns and governments at the fish commissions in 1856 to report on fishery federal, state, and local levels operate hatcheries; resources. The commission, discovering unre but the fish culture story is closely related to the stricted fishing and depleted stocks, advocated pri history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service vate fish propagation. Over the next several years (FWS). 10 other states established commissions. In 1870, Many people do not relate to fish because the nation's oldest operating conservation organi they lack fur and soft brown eyes and have a zation, the American Fish Culturists Association slimy appearance, but fish culture is important. (AFCA) held its first meeting. The AFCA (later the Recreational fishing contributes approximately American Fisheries Society) and the state commis $69 billion to the economy annually and employs sions pressured Congress to establish the U.S. nearly one million people. Taxes on fishing equip Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871, the ment support scientific research, fish restoration, first federal agency devoted to natural resource and habitat improvement. Hatcheries stock many conservation. The commission's primary duty was lakes and streams with fish, and farmed fish is to determine the extent of any diminution in the readily available in grocery stores. About 25% of number of food fishes on the coast and in lakes the shrimp consumed in the world is farm-raised. and to report on remedial measures. Some species currently cultivated include trout, The federal fish hatchery system began in catfish, carp, bass, and porgies. 1872 when Livingston Stone established a Pacific The destruction of the forests in the early- salmon hatchery on the McCloud River in north 19th century resulted in erosion, silting, and ern California to restock the depleted Atlantic flooding. These changes adversely affected fish coast. Although they were miles from the nearest resources, fostering the development of fish cul railroad and worked in 105 degree temperatures, Stone and his assistants con This 190S photo structed the facility in 15 days. In graph of the the first year, they collected Spearfish Fish 50,000 eggs. Out of 30,000 Hatchery, now the D.C. Booth Historic shipped, about 7,000 arrived National Fish safely; and fewer than 300 grew Hatchery, shows the to fingerling size. By the third hatchery buildings season, the hatchery collected 5.7 on the left and the million eggs. superintendent's residence on the More than 280 federal right. The ice house hatcheries, research stations, fish overlooks these health laboratories, and technol buildings on the ogy centers have been established ridge in the center of the photograph. since 1872. The National Marine Photo courtesy D.C. Fisheries Service still operates Booth Historic Woods Hole in Massachusetts, National Fish the first summer research station. Hatchery. The Fish Commission launched the Albatross, a state of the art
CRM N2 14—1997 11 Interior of the the Booth Society. The fifth part Spearfish Hatchery ner is the Fish Culture Section of in 1899. Photo courtesy D.C. the American Fisheries Society, Booth Historic which houses its Hall of Fame in National Fish the replica ice house and con Hatchery. tributes funding. The hatchery has always been open to the public. Approximately 175,000 people (including school groups) visit the site each year, with about 20,000 coming during the summer. Only the grounds are open during the winter, and local residents use them year-round. In the 1990s, Booth added underwater fish viewing windows, accessible side walks, and a new 10,000-square foot building for the preservation marine research vessel, in 1882. Sixty-five hatch and storage of fish cultural eries, five technology centers, and other research resources. Facilities include processing space, a facilities exist today. Of the 65 hatcheries, more conservation lab, and collection storage areas. than 40 are over 50 years old. Many retain old The FWS fish culture collection dates from buildings and structures, including water supplies, the 1870s. The collection traveled from site to site ponds and raceways, and employee housing. before finding a permanent home at Spearfish in The National Register of Historic Places lists 1979. The 1899 hatchery building, restored in more than 20 fish hatcheries. The D.C. Booth 1979, houses a fish culture museum. The D.C. Historic National Fish Hatchery, formerly the Booth collection includes nets, hatching troughs Spearfish Station, is listed as a historic district. and trays, shipping containers, picking tongs, glass Spearfish, in the Northern Black Hills of South hatching jars, laboratory equipment, and a variety Dakota, became a hatchery in the 1890s, in part of other objects. One of the latest additions is a because of its water supply and access to rail 1963 Studebaker dump truck, with original paint roads. The first structures, including the hatchery and only 27,000 miles, donated by the Alchesay- building and raceways, opened in 1899. Extant Williams Creek National Fish Hatchery in structures include the 1899 hatchery building, the Arizona. The collection has grown in part because 1905 superintendent's residence, WPA-constructed of federal budget cuts and program changes that stone garages, ponds, and rock walls. The hatch reduced the number of hatcheries. As hatcheries ery stocked the lakes of the Black Hills with non- are closed or turned over to states, the Booth staff native trout. If the hatchery had not stocked the works to ensure the preservation of potential lakes early this century, tourists might not enjoy museum objects. Caring for cultural resources is a the area's popular trout fishing. new responsibility for the FWS. While most hatch Five partners operate the site. FWS employ eries have only a few museum quality items and ees administer the site and manage the museum the FWS does not require transfer to Booth, hatch collection. The Booth Society, a cooperating asso ery staffs are eager to find a safe home for their ciation, runs the gift shop, sells fish food, hosts historic objects. special events, coordinates volunteers, and main The cultural resources of fish culture exist on tains the superintendent's residence as a house a larger scale than we realize. The challenge lies in museum. Since the 1950s, the nearby McNenny locating and preserving them before they are lost. State Fish Hatchery, part of the South Dakota Increasing awareness within the FWS of these Game, Fish and Parks Department, has raised fish important materials is vital to preserving this her at Booth, a mutually beneficial arrangement. itage. McNenny gets much-needed space; and visitors learn about fish production and feed the stock Randi Sue Smith is museum curator at D.C. Booth food purchased from the Booth Society. This Historic National Fish Hatchery, Spearfish, South reduces McNenny's costs and contributes to the Dakota. preservation of the hatchery. The city of Spearfish provides six campground sites for hatchery volun teers and donates proceeds of a hospitality tax to
28 CRM N2 14—1997 Michele Lyons Interpretive Challenges in a Medical History Museum The Stetten Museum's First 10Years
n 1987, the National Institutes of The biggest hurdle we face in interpretation Health (NIH) established the DeWitt is our collection itself. There are very few "sexy" Stetten, Jr., Museum of Medical items in the collection. Most of our objects are I Research to preserve and interpret instruments with little visual appeal. They are 20th-century biomedical technology. The vision exciting not because of their beauty or prove behind the museum belonged to Hans Stetten, nance, but because of their impact on our health. the senior science advisor to the NIH director, Objects from the collection like spectrometers, cen who lamented the loss of so much medical his trifuges, and mercury purifiers are unfamiliar to tory to the government's surplus dump. In its first most museum visitors. Even many of the more 10 years, the Stetten Museum faced the institu familiar objects need explanation: an early tional challenges common to museums created by heart/lung machine, slide rules, microscopes, bal larger organizations. Yet unique to the Stetten ances, an early CRAY supercomputer, and a Museum are the interpretive problems posed by a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. collection often viewed by the public as intimi Thus, we must "speak" for our objects, informing dating devices used by scientists who speak an the visitors why they are worth attention. Unlike a unintelligible language. painting, which conveys a "thousand words," our The Stetten Museum mounts exhibits in the objects need well-written labels to convey the The Lazarow main-floor hallways of the Clinical Center, the excitement of medical discovery that they repre Micrometer Gasometer, from research hospital on the NIH campus in Bethesda, sent. the collection of the Maryland. The population of this working hospital Health and medicine are relevant to every Stetten Museum, includes scientists, hospital staff, patients and one. Cancer, child development, mental health, extracted compo their families, and visiting dignitaries. Because of aging, infectious diseases, genetic diseases, dental nents of minute blood samples in this mixed audience, we strive to make our and eye diseases, and the mapping of the human the form of gas. exhibits simple, but with enough technical detail genome are only some of the research conducted Photo courtesy to challenge scientists, physicians, nurses, and at NIH. Discoveries made at NIH, like the break Stetten Museum. technicians. ing of the genetic code, will influence our lives. Our challenge is to help the public appreciate the significance of the medical knowledge and practi cal applications generated at NIH. The Stetten Museum tries to answer this question with exhibit development teams compris ing the curator, exhibit designer, and scientific experts—often the actual people who used the objects to be exhibited. The curator's role on the development team is different from what it is in a more general museum because the curator cannot be a subject expert on every medical topic. Instead, the curator serves as the expert on how to create meaning for museum visitors. The team method impacts exhibit interpretation, particularly in the subject matter presented and the language used to present it, because the curator and the sci entific experts must compromise their own voices in the exhibit. This process involves tension between scientists who seek accuracy and curators who strive for comprehensibility.
CRM N2 14—1997 29 The difference between how scientists and mation exhibit or an academic historical exhibit, curators interpret medical history is clearly shown or a little of both? Does it matter? by the language they use. Scientists easily write Usually the scientists and historians reach a articles explaining their work to colleagues. consensus. The scientists realize that importance, Sometimes these explanations are so technical not age, makes something historically valuable. that only scientists in the same field can under They begin to see that history is not a story with a stand them. The curator, on the other hand, want beginning, middle, and end, but an ongoing ing the average tenth-grader to understand the process. The line between history, current events, exhibit, must do two things. First, the curator and future possibilities dissolves. Both scientists diplomatically limits the length of the text. Often and museum staff usually agree that in our med the exhibit team is a great help in this, with the ical history museum, an exhibit without some his designer and other scientists pointing out space torical context is a public information exhibit and attention limitations. Scientists often do not bound by today's understanding and outdated with realize that the visitor may not need or want to the publication of new research. Nevertheless, we know every step in an investigation. Second, the also realize that difficult scientific ideas often take curator must make sure the words are understand much explaining. We have to make the exhibit as able. For example, which do you use to describe a clear and simple as possible so that our general disease-causing agent: "microbe" or "germ"? The audience will understand the importance of the scientist wanted "microbe" for accuracy; the cura scientists' work. tor chose "germ" for comprehensibility. In the end, As in other museums, our exhibits some the meaning of the text was changed and cited times require a delicacy of interpretation. For "germ theory." When Dr. Marshall Nirenberg, the example, our recent exhibit "Revolution in Nobel Prize winner who broke the genetic code, Progress: Human Genetics and Medical Research" was told that the word "oligoneucleotide" should describes some ethical issues raised by genetic not be used in a subtitle because people wouldn't research, particularly genetic testing, job and know how to pronounce it, much less what it insurance discrimination, and genetic engineering meant, he innocently asked, "They wouldn't?" of babies. The most difficult topic was pre-natal This Serval Angle People who have devoted their lives to science genetic testing because of one possible outcome of Centrifuge, now part of the Stetten often forget the rest of the world does not share such testing: abortion. Abortion is perhaps the Museum their technical knowledge. most highly politicized medical issue today. The Collection, was a One key question that arises within almost exhibit team negotiated every word of this text, handy desk top every new exhibit team is "What is history?" Each mindful of three caveats: we did not have security model used for small group comes at the question with different atti to deal with protesters; the exhibit would be seen samples.Photo tudes: the museum staff are historians, but many by school children whose parents might not want courtesy Stetten of the scientists admit to hating history in school them exposed to these issues; and as scientists Museum. because it was "all dates." They liked something and federal employees, the team members did not "more practical." This want to give the appearance of endorsing any par position, of course, ticular moral decision. Instead, we wanted to stim rankles historians— ulate the visitor's own thinking about the what could be more consequences of genetic research. With that in practical than knowing mind, we treated each issue in the ethics segment how the present came by outlining a situation and posing questions for out of the past? So we the visitor to answer. For example, in the question pose questions to the about pre-natal testing of a fetus with a possible scientists: is some genetic disease, the word "abortion" was never thing historical merely mentioned. because it is old? If so, In the past 10 years, the DeWitt Stetten, Jr., what is the cut-off Museum of Medical Research has progressed from date? How should we securing resources to refining its interpretation of think about current NIH objects. During the next several years, NIH endeavors such as the will construct a new Clinical Center with dedicated Human Genome exhibit space in the new building. We look for Project to map our ward to the future with its opportunities for inter genes? If we create an preting 20th-century biomedical research. exhibit based on recent history and cur Michele Lyons is curator at DeWitt Stetten Jr. rent events, does that Museum of Medical Research. make it a public infor Web site:
30 CRM NS3 14—1997 Curtis McKay White Mystery of the Notched Bar at Saugus Iron Works
augus Iron Works National Historic A modern reference from G. Reginald Bashforth's Site is the birthplace of the U.S. The Manufacture of Iron and Steel (1964) hints at iron industry. Called "the forerunner the purpose of the notched bar: "normally, pig iron Sof America's industrial giants," the is graded according to its fracture. The type of iron Works was a center of invention and innovation, produced is dependent on three factors: the raw serving as a training ground for colonial iron materials charged; the temperature at which the workers and influencing the development of other furnace is operated; and the type of slag formed." industries. The site, a reconstruction based on Winthrop's quote suggests that founders the archeological work of Roland W Robbins could control the furnace fire with air, iron ore, between 1948 and 1953, includes a blast fur and gabbro (a fluxing agent used to lower the nace, forge, and slitting mill with seven function melting temperature of the iron), producing vary ing water wheels. The site also has an ing grades of cast iron. Each grade of iron had its archeological collection containing tools, hard own application. Gray cast iron, which is soft and ware, and scrap iron left by colonial iron work suitable for castings, results from the fusion of ers. small graphite flakes with the iron. Gray iron cast Because illiterate This view of Saugus workers practiced iron mak Iron Works NHS, the birthplace of ing in the 17th century, the American iron there are few contemporary industry, was taken references to the craft. To in 1995 by Richard understand the complexity Merrill. Photo cour of iron making at Saugus, tesy Saugus NHS. interpreters are dependent on the evidence uncovered by Robbins and other arche- ologists. One piece of evidence was an iron bar uncovered by Robbins in April 1949. As he noted in his diary, "found three sections of metal that originally was one piece. It is (altogether) three feet long, pointed on one end, larger and half cir cular at the other end and one side is notched." Over a dozen of these broken pieces were found, but their purpose was ings made at Saugus included pots, kettles, skil unknown. For years, the museum displayed the lets, firebacks (large iron plates behind fireplaces), only complete notched bar in a museum case with and salt pans, which fishermen used to extract salt a label reading "use of the notched bar in the case from seawater. Because large amounts of salt were floor remains a mystery." This was the case until used to preserve fish, these pans contributed to recent research uncovered an answer. the development of New England's fishing indus While constructing the Works in 1643, com try. pany agent John Winthrop Jr. described a type of White cast iron is lower in carbon and sili Irish bog ore that "yielded great store of Iron and cates, harder, and more difficult to work with hand wrought very well and gently, in the furnasse, and tools. It was made into pig bars and later refined would make both gray motly or white sowe Iron." and forged into wrought iron bars. In mottled iron,
CRM N2 14—1997 31 This photograph tied, and that which has the greatest volume compares historic is gray. and modern The iron was perhaps tested with a notched notched bars.The two top bars were bar. The notched bar mold was made by pressing a found near the wooden pattern into the open sand of the cast Saugus blast fur shed floor. The mold was then filled with molten nace during orche- iron. The notches tested the fluidity of the iron ological and its ability to take detail in a casting. They also excavations. The two bottom bars created a weak point, making the bar easier to are from a modern break. The tapered bar gave the founder variations blast furnace.Photo in thickness. When the bar cooled, it was broken courtesy Saugus at a notch similar to the desired thickness of the NHS. proposed casting, thus indicating the grade of iron. Workers at Saugus may have been unlet tered, but their tools and products give us useful clues to their craft. On a recent trip to a modern blast furnace that produces more than 10,000 tons per day, I observed rooms of computers and other some carbon occurred as Archeological exca vations of the graphite, while the rest 1646 blastfur combined with the iron. An nace. Photo taken 18th-century reference in 1950 by describes its resemblance to Richard Merrill, courtesy Saugus "the spots on a dogfish or NHS. trout." Mottled iron was also refined and forged to make wrought iron. By describing the sur faces of the cast iron as either gray, mottled, or white, Winthrop revealed that iron was tested by frac ture. Due to different cool ing rates, the thickness of a casting at any given point also influenced the way iron retained carbon. A 1775 treatise by Pierre Grignon, reprinted in Sources for the History of the Science of Steel 1532- 1786, outlines the effect of mold thickness on cast test equipment. On the plant manager's desk I iron. noticed two small notched bars. When asked how When cast iron that is by nature gray is they were used, he replied, "The old-timers use received in a cold, humid, compact body, it them. It gives them a quick accurate reference so congeals precipitately and becomes white, they can make adjustments to the furnace." The hard, and brittle, so that if a piece is molded Saugus legacy lives. in such a manner as to make it unequal in its thickness, even though it is cast from the Curtis McKay White is a park ranger at Saugus Iron same drop of gray cast iron, the thinnest part Works National Historic Site, Saugus, is white, that which is a little thicker is mot- Massachusetts.
32 CRM N2 14—1997 Stephen A. Haller and Bartholomew Lee Resurrecting the Presidio's Historic Radio Network
small, unassuming concrete build and greatly ing lies abandoned behind a chain contributed to link fence on a windy hill over the victory in Alooking the Pacific in a remote the Pacific. part of San Francisco's Presidio. The hill was the By 1941, The "penthouse" site of the antenna farm for the Presidio's World the Presidio message center at War II radio transmitters, and the building was the Fourth Army had an official, Headquarters, the the Coast Defense Radio Station. The Perham but secret, Presidio of San Foundation and the California Historical Radio monitoring station. On the eve of World War II, Francisco, just Society are working with the National Park the Army finished a more expansive facility for before World War II. Service to research the history of the Presidio's Radio Station WVY and a dedicated Harbor The men at the typewriters are military radio network and preserve its associ Defense Radio Station. Testimony from the con transcribing Morse ated artifacts and structures. gressional investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack code radio mes As headquarters of the Ninth Corps Area makes it clear that the Presidio was intercepting sages and routing during the inter-war years, the Presidio was an Japanese radio transmissions on the eve of the the hard copy to important link in the Army's radio network from staff departments attack. During the war, the Western Defense through a mechani Washington, DC, to Fort Shafter in Hawaii and on Command, headquartered at the Presidio, commu cal conveyor belt to the Philippines. In 1921, the first dedicated nicated with Washington and units across the vast system known as radio buildings at the Presidio began broadcasting Pacific theater from its "Penthouse" operating the Lamson mes under the call letters WVY. The chief of the Signal room, reached by a set of spiral stairs from the sage conveyor. Photo courtesy Corps Engineering and Development Division, Commanding General's offices. The Coast Defense Golden Gate NRA Major Joseph 0. Mauborgne, approved the plans Radio Station provided signal service to one of the for these standardized structures. A Military most heavily fortified harbors in the United States. Affiliate Radio Station (or "MARS" station), soon All these structures remain extant in the Presidio, joined WVY. Formerly known as the Army which is now a National Historic Landmark dis Amateur Radio Service, MARS trained the military trict and part of Golden Gate National Recreation to set up emergency communications facilities Area. with civilians and was an informal conduit for Recently, technical experts from the messages between far-flung service personnel California Historical Radio Society, with informa operating as late as the Persian Gulf War. tion provided by NPS historians and curators, In the early 1930s, the Army did not have an have produced a better understanding of the oper official program of monitoring radio transmissions ation and significance of the Presidio's radio net from Japan; it labored under Secretary of War work. They have enhanced the collection and Stimson's admonition, "Gentlemen do not read preservation of the post's historic radio artifacts, each others' mail." "Reading the mail" later properly identified photographs of vintage radio became a euphemism for monitoring radio trans equipment from the 1920s, '30s and '40s, and per missions, particularly radio teletype. However formed oral history interviews with veteran radio Mauborgne, a colonel destined to rise to the post operators. These experts have provided a fuller of commanding general of the Signal Corps before assessment of the history, integrity and future World War II, was assigned to the Presidio. He adaptability of the structures associated with the monitored and recorded Japanese radio traffic as Presidio's historic radio operations. early as 1931 and passed the intercepted coded On April 19, 1997, the California Historical messages to the Signal Intelligence Service in Radio Society, the Perham Foundation, the Washington. These intercepts became part of the Military Collectors Radio Net, and the Boy Scouts earliest grist for the code breakers' mill that solved of America worked with NPS personnel to restore the Japanese machine cipher known as "Purple" in native plants on the site of the Coast Defense 1940. These intercepts contributed to the stream Radio Station and antenna farm. After a morning of intelligence, code named "Magic," that allowed of work, members of the Military Collectors Radio the Allies unparalleled access to the enemy's plans Net operated World War II vintage radios for sev-
CRM N2 14—1997 33 The Presidio Trust, a newly chartered gov ernment corporation charged by Congress with seeking tenants to rehabilitate the former military post, will manage much of the Presidio. The California Historical Radio Society, the Perham Foundation, and their allies have been seeking an operating area and public museum facility to house and display their collections of early radio equipment. They are developing a program pro posal to place before the Trust for the rehabilita tion and adaptive re-use of the Coast Artillery Radio Station site. Such a proposal has the poten tial to preserve the built environment, enhance the natural resources of the landscape, bring authentic historical programming to the Presidio, and pro vide an appropriate home for the historic radio collections of these community groups. The site of the eral hours. This activity put the Presidio "back on Presidio's World War the air" as it was during one of its most significant II Coast Defense periods. It also helped develop a sense of steward Stephen A. Haller is park historian at Golden Gate Radio Station has National Recreation Area. recently benefited ship of the site's natural and cultural resources. from collaboration The research, the special events, and the resource in research and site preservation activities illustrate the value of part Bartholomew Lee is a past president of the California rehabilitation nerships between Golden Gate NRA and local Historical Radio Society. between the NPS organizations. and radio histori ans. Photo courtesy Golden Gate NRA.
gram development for the 1998-99 theme, or if you National History Day would like to get your students or school involved with The annual theme for the 1998-99 National History the program, please contact National History Day at Day program and competition will be Science, 0119 Cecil Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, Technology, Invention in History: Impact, Influence, MD 20742, 301-314-9739, email:
34 CRM N2 14—1997 Jack R. Bergstresser Unfortunately, foundation remains do not convey iron production as readily as an intact blast furnace. The tools of the industrial archeolo- gist, including surveying software and instrumen Technological History tation, computer-aided design, and exhaustive historical research can provide help in developing an interpretive plan to overcome this problem. as Green Space Carefully crafted interpretive ideas will con vey the sense that these quiet ruins were once a Joliet IronWorks loud, hot, dangerous workplace and that the site is historically significant. The first Number One and he development of the steel indus Two furnaces were part of an early Bessemer try after the Civil War helped Converter steel mill built by Alexander Holley in launch the most active period of 1873. Joliet was the ninth of a series of prototypi Teconomic growth in American his cal mills designed by Holley that helped launch tory. Improvements in blast furnace design, the American iron and steel revolution. The blast which greatly increased steel productivity, made furnace remains reveal much about the progress of this growth possible. In order to understand this blast furnace design in the late-19th century. One heritage, it is important to preserve the rapidly outstanding feature of this crucial sequence of disappearing physical remains of the steel era. improvements was the dramatic increase in the Nevertheless, preserving fully-intact blast fur furnace size. The contrast in the scale between the naces will be expensive and complex. The only Number One and Two furnaces, originally built in successful example to date is the Sloss Blast 1873, and the Number Three and Four furnaces, Furnace National Historic Landmark in built after 1900, is striking. Birmingham, Alabama, which was saved from To understand the site, visitors must dis demolition in the late 1970s. cover what a blast furnace is, and they must visu Preserving the ruins of important blast fur alize such a structure standing where only ruins naces is a much more achievable goal. These sites remain. For interpretive planners, knowledge of have often survived as overgrown, forgotten nooks the available information is helpful. Because new along the fringes of urban areas. They could easily technology was continually perfected, blast fur be bulldozed, but they could also be saved as naces did not remain static. To remain competi green space with trails allowing visitors to redis tive, iron makers had to upgrade their facilities cover the site. As visitors wander the trails regularly. The company chronicled these improve encountering each new set of foundations that ments in engineering drawings, ground plans, and mark the former base of a blast furnace, they are other documents generated as part of a renovation reminded of a rapidly disappearing industrial her project. Professional trade journals also featured itage. articles and photographs heralding the installation One such model, now under development, is of new machinery and equipment. the blast furnace ruins of the Joliet Iron and Steel The information necessary to interpret the Company at Joliet, Illinois. The remains are in a ruins of a blast furnace plant is abundant, but it wooded tract along the banks of the Illinois and must be organized. At the Heritage Park in Joliet, Michigan Canal, which was designated as a Illinois, this organization process began with the National Heritage Corridor in 1984. The NPS, in production of a base map of the site. Developed in cooperation with local preservation groups, has civil engineering software using measurements identified and is now preserving and interpreting taken with a surveying instrument, this map several sites along the canal from Chicago to Des shows the string of foundation remnants that Plaines. stretch for nearly a quarter mile along the Illinois The Forest Preserve District of Will County, and Michigan Canal. a state agency that manages several historic and An accurate base map based upon readings natural sites in the county, is developing the Joliet gathered during the field work phase is essential blast furnace ruins into a bike and interpretive to the industrial archeologist. Precise drawings of trail integrated into the Corridor. The district faces surviving foundations can often provide informa the challenge of preserving the natural harmony of tion not otherwise available. No matter how this green space while simultaneously revealing exhaustive company records and maps might be, the history of technology told by the industrial they never tell the complete story. At Joliet, for ruins: the foundations of two sets of blast furnaces instance, a substantial structure at the north end representing two successive design generations. of the site was labeled only as the "Gas Engine House." The field measurements of the massive
CRM N2 14—1997 35 foundations inside the ruined walls of the building viewing the map overlays and machine views atop showed that three large Allis Chalmers internal the existing foundation ruins are possible. The combustion engines once chugged away 24 hours a design team can then edit the various layers, par day driving generators that made electricity for the ing away extraneous lines and other information rest of the furnace plant. to create an image highlighting the location of The base map was incorporated into a CAD machines. With a judicious selection of waysides program. Several historical maps of the site, on the hiking trail, the interpretive staff can trace including Sanborn Insurance maps and ground the evolution of the modern blast furnace. plans drawn by the plant engineers, were scanned The work of the Will County Forest Preserve and imported into the program. Drawings of equip District and the Canal Corridor Association in ment used at the site discovered during the interpreting the Joliet blast furnace ruins is impor research process were also scanned into the file. tant. The remains of America's steel industry con With this data, it is feasible to call up on the tinue to rapidly disappear. The chances of computer screen a variety of map overlays depict preserving more than a few examples are slim ing key aspects of the site. Zooming out and show because of the enormous long-term cost involved. ing the overall site with a historical map overlaid Still, preserving ruins found within green space upon the existing ruins is also possible. This depic sites is a cost-efficient alternative. tion helps identify features that otherwise appear as meaningless piles of rubble. It also provides a Jack R. Bergstresser is a research assistant professor map for laying out a hiking trail through the site. in the Department of Anthropology, the University of Once the location for a wayside has been Alabama at Birmingham. selected, zooming in on that particular area and
IEEE Center for the History of industrial archeology component, thus further enhancing Electrical Engineering Milestone Program the Program's role in historical preservation and its con The IEEE Electrical Engineering Milestones tacts with other organizations concerned with research Program honors significant achievements in electrical, ing and disseminating the history of technology. electronic, and computer engineering. The Program is Since its inception in 1983, the Milestones conducted by the IEEE History Committee through the Program has honored 27 achievements. Among these are IEEE History Center at Rutgers University. The Institute the Adams Hydroelectric Generating Plant at Niagara of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an Falls which, when put into service in 1895, demon international organization with more than 300,000 mem strated the practicality of alternating-current power sys bers and the world's largest technical professional soci tems; Westinghouse Radio Station KDKA, which ety. After approval by the IEEE, a bronze plaque pioneered radio broadcasting in 1920; the MIT describing and commemorating the achievement is Radiation Laboratory, where radar was developed during placed at an appropriate site. Honoring these achieve World War II; the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, an experi ments fosters an awareness among electrical engineers of mental electronic computer built during World War II; their professional history, increases public understand and the ENIAC, a large electronic digital computer com ing of electrical engineering, and encourages the preser pleted in 1946. vation of historically important materials and sites. The The Milestone Program, like the IEEE itself, is program also collects and distributes documentation of international; and quite a few Milestones have been significant historical events. dedicated outside the United States. These include the As a grass-roots historical activity, the Milestones landing of the transatlantic cable at Heart's Content, Program functions through the local IEEE Section, which Newfoundland; the Poulsen-arc radio transmitter nominates an achievement and provides documentation invented by the Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen in of its historical significance. After the nomination is 1902; and the directive short-wave antenna (also known approved by the IEEE History Committee and the IEEE as the Yagi-Uda antenna), invented in Miyagi, Japan. On Executive Committee, a plaque is cast and the Section a number of occasions, the IEEE has collaborated with conducts a dedication ceremony. This process increases other engineering societies in promoting recognition and awareness, both by the Section members and the public preservation of historic sites. For example, the Vulcan at large, of local heritage. Also, the documentation of the Street Plant, an 1882 hydroelectric station in Appleton, achievement helps to separate fact from local myth, and Wisconsin, was simultaneously named an IEEE the Milestone process opens up channels of communica Milestone, a National Historic Civil Engineering tion between the Section and other civic organizations, Landmark of the American Society of Civil Engineers, typically a local historical society. In the future, it is and a National Historic Engineering Landmark of the hoped that some Milestone nominations will include an American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
36 CRM N2 14—1997 Phyllis Ellin and Dan Riss Notes from the Field Industrial Preservation in Great Britain
The following are reports submitted by NPS Middlesborough; and Kate Sussams, a landscape historian Phyllis Ellin and conservator Dan Riss archeologist with the Suffolk County Council. about their involvement with industrial preserva Ironbridge Gorge was selected as a case tion in Great Britain. First, Phyllis Ellin relates study because it was in the process of developing her experience as part of Countryside Exchange a management plan for the area, as required for all team, and next Dan Riss discusses a paper he World Heritage Sites. This process is a complex one, requiring participation and cooperation of presented at a conference in Wales. many local governments, community groups, and private property owners. Under the guidance of n October 1996, I was part of a seven- the local Exchange sponsors, John Elvey of the member Countryside Exchange team Wrekin Council regional government and Jim that met at the Ironbridge Gorge in I Waterson of the Severn Gorge Countryside Trust, Shropshire, England. Designated in 1986, the Exchange Team spent a week examining the Ironbridge Gorge was the United Kingdom's first resources of the Gorge and meeting with a variety World Heritage Site and one of the few industrial of the players and interested parties in the area. sites recognized by UNESCO for its role as the Issues considered included sustainable tourism birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The site and visitor management, interpretation of both includes the village of Coalbrookdale, where cultural and natural resources and their interplay, Abraham Darby developed his process to manu forging a working partnership among agencies facture iron on a large scale. Perhaps more developing the management plan, and public par famous is the bridge spanning the Severn River, ticipation in the process. the world's first iron bridge constructed in 1779. The Team's recommendations at the end of The Gorge is also dotted with several small settle the week, presented at a public meeting and in a ments from the early industrial era, including written report, attempted to address all those Coalport, the home of Coalport china. The issues in a holistic way. The wide variety of region's diverse mineral and timber resources, resources scattered throughout the area prompted combined with transportation on the Severn, cre a recommendation that a more focused interpre ated an ideal incubator for early industrial devel tive strategy be developed to emphasize the cen opment. tral story of world significance and to show how The Countryside Exchange originated in a the varied sites in the area contributed to it. Such Memorandum of Understanding between the a story must include the critical role of the area's National Park Service and the United Kingdom's natural resources in the industrial story. We rec Countryside Commission signed in 1986. ommended that the inter-agency group formed to Exchanges have taken place in both countries and develop the management plan also try to integrate in Canada. Local communities are selected volun the land management policies across the World tarily as case studies in various planning and Heritage Site. Finally, we stressed the critical resource management problems, and an interna importance of effective communication with the tional team with skills and interests matched to public and acknowledgment of the Gorge's com each case study is assembled. For Ironbridge munity history as part of the "cultural landscape." Gorge, the Americans on the Exchange Team included myself; JoAnn Dolan, Assistant Director n April 1997, curators, conservators, of the Forest Service's Mono Basin Scenic Area and historians met in Cardiff, Wales, at Visitor Center; and Larry Belli, Deputy a conference titled "Industrial Superintendent of Everglades National Park. The I Collections: Care and Conservation." The confer United Kingdom members were Tony Gould, a ence, which was attended by representatives from planning officer for Surrey County Council; the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Gordon Hewston, an ecologist with English and the United States, discussed problems in pre Nature; John Jewitt, Senior Rural Officer with the serving, restoring, and displaying large objects Cleveland Council for Voluntary Services in such as mining equipment, locomotives, and farm
CRM N2 14—1997 37 machinery. Unlike most museum objects, much of allow changes to original surfaces and parts—if this equipment is maintained in working order to the changes were thoroughly documented. enhance interpretation. A conflict can arise, how The conference papers will be available as a ever, between historians and conservators, on the publication of the United Kingdom Institute of one hand, and mechanics and restorers on the Conservation (6 Whitehorse Mews, Westminster other. One side views objects as technological Bridge Road, London SE1 7QD). Another useful documents, while the other sees them as of little recent publication is Larger & Working Objects, A use unless they are working and moving. Guide for Their Preservation and Care, a publica In my talk, I discussed the issue of documen tion of the Museums and Galleries Commission tation as an area of conflict between restorers and (MGC Publications, 16 Queen Annes Gate, conservators. Conservators want to document London SW1H 9AA, price 11.25 pounds, and everything they can, and if possible leave every postage). thing "original" alone; restorers are anxious to get the machine working—even if parts need to be Phyllis Ellin is a historian at the NPS support office modified—and get documentation after the fact. I in Philadelphia. suggested that the two could move to the center if restorers would learn to document more, and if Dan Riss is a conservator at the Harpers Ferry conservators would occasionally relax enough to Center.
Bob Higgins
The coal mines and structures (e.g., buildings, elec Preserving the History of tric train cars, coke ovens, conveyor systems, etc.) in Mining Technology in the NPS New River Gorge National River, West Virginia, and Big South Fork National River, Tennessee, are reminders of he National Park Service preserves many sites the dominance of coal in the American economy. Many Tand artifacts associated with the history of diggings and structures dotting Colorado plateau parks mining. These cultural resources reveal how mining and the six-story steel headframe on the rim of the shaped American development. The metals and miner Grand Canyon are silent testimony to the role of ura als extracted from mines effect many aspects of our nium mining during the Cold War. lives, whether we use them in the home (glass, nails, The saltpeter (nitrate) works at Mammoth Cave in pipes), in industry (tools, machines), in communica Kentucky supplied the chief ingredient of gunpowder tions (televisions, radio, telephones), or in transporta until the War of 1812. Gold was mined within the C&O tion (automobiles, airplanes). Canal near Washington, DC, from the colonial period to There are many ways to tell the mining story. To the early-20th century. Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS simplify interpretation, we can view mining technology in Pennsylvania transported barges over the mountains in three parts or phases: extraction (or removal of mater with steam hoists and mined coal to fuel the boilers. The ial from the ground), processing (milling, refining), and iron furnace at Hopewell Furnace NHS near transportation. NPS units contain evidence of changing Philadelphia operated from 1771 to 1883. The New technologies in all three phases. Jersey side of Delaware Water Gap NRA is home to the Alibates Flint Quarry National Memorial in the Pahaquarry Copper Mine. Texas Panhandle is an excellent representation of min Mining technology within the NPS spans the conti ing techniques practiced by native Americans before nent in both time and place. Some mining features are European arrival. Southwestern parks, where early the main reason for a park's creation, and others are but Spanish settlers extracted gold and silver, have the a side story of the area's history. Among the tools and remains of mine openings and arastas for grinding. NPS equipment in park collections are hand and mechanical units also contain many western mines from the late- rock drills, conveyor belts, and 300-ton capacity trucks. 19th and early-20th centuries, a period of rapid techno Mining continues to supply the raw material for our logical change. The copper mines of the Kennicott economy, and its technology awaits discovery by park Mining Company in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park visitors. and Preserve, Alaska, and Calumet in the Upper Michigan Peninsula have wonderfully preserved machin Bob Higgins is a branch chief in the Geological Resources ery and structures from this period. Glacier National Division of the NPS Natural Resource Program Center in Park has a massive cast iron jaw-crusher and steam Denver. He is also coordinator of the NPS Abandoned engine at the Cracker Mine. Mineral Lands Program.
38 CRM N2 14—1997 Beth Aukstikalnis Teaching Edison History with Traveling Trunks
homas Edison is a familiar figure to students around the country. In New Jersey, where Edison spent most of his career, the state history curriculuTm includes a science/technology compo Thomas Edison tak ing a meal break at nent for fourth graders. Because educational pro his West Orange grams at Edison National Historic Site (NHS) cal contributions, the committee also wanted to Laboratory in help teachers fulfill this requirement, their popu include other themes, such as cultural diversity, September 1912 larity has soared in recent years. More than women's history, and the impact of the industrial with six of his assis 8,000 students take advantage of site programs revolution. To cover all these topics, the committee tants, or "muckers." Photo courtesy each year, but the site cannot accommodate decided to build the trunk around Edison's work Edison NHS. thousands more. To meet this demand, Edison ers. Students would learn about Edison's life and NHS has developed an outreach traveling trunk work through his employees' eyes. At the end of a for classroom use. traveling trunk session, students could describe Edison opened his West Orange, New one of Edison's work habits, name three Edison Jersey, laboratory in 1887. The laboratory com industries, and identify three types of jobs at the plex contains his research library, chemistry labo laboratory or Glenmont. ratory, machine shops, and a stock room that Committee members chose student activities Edison once boasted included everything from that addressed different skills and fulfilled the "the hide of an elephant to the eyeballs of a learning objectives. The committee drafted a mas United States senator." Edison obtained over half ter list of suggestions and voted for the top five his 1,093 U.S. patents in these buildings. The site choices. Each of the selected activities takes also includes Glenmont, Edison's 29-room Queen approximately an hour to complete. A teacher may Anne style home. Interpretive programs at the lab conduct one activity or any combination of the oratory focus on Edison's invention process, while five. The "Discovery Box" encourages students to programs at Glenmont discuss the role of Mina, experience Edison's era by examining historic Edison's second wife, as "home executive, man objects ranging from men's soft collars to darning ager of a staff of up to 10 servants and hostess to eggs. "Where do we go?" develops map skills by such luminaries as Henry Ford and Herbert asking students to outline the path Edison traveled Hoover." from Glenmont to the laboratory. The "Mental Edison NHS currently offers two on-site Fitness Quiz" challenges students to take the test educational programs with a technology theme. Edison employees had to pass to work in the labo "Idea to Product: the Edison Way," geared to ele ratory. The test questions focus on scientific prob mentary school students, examines Edison's lems and current events of the 1920s. invention process and includes such activities as "Invent-a-Something" borrows Edison's invention model-making and brainstorming. A new program, process from the on-site program and divides stu "Impact and Technology" is designed for high dents into teams to create new inventions with school students. The traveling trunk, "Working for Tinker Toys. In "Biography," students dress up in Edison," which a grant from the National Park replica costumes to impersonate actual Edison Foundation made possible, is for fourth and fifth workers. Biographical flashcards provide pho graders. tographs and information about the workers. In developing the trunk, a committee of park Discussion questions complete each activity. The staff and educators considered using one of the trunk comes with a teachers' manual containing themes from the site's enabling legislation, but lesson plans for the five activities. decided that these themes would not transfer well The trunk helps students grasp Edison's to the classroom because a site visit is necessary work ethic. They learn that Edison affectionately to communicate them effectively. As a result, the nicknamed some of his closest associates the committee had to develop a new theme. Although "insomnia squad" because of the long hours they the program would feature Edison and his techni worked. Students also discover that Edison's con-
CRM N2 14—1997 39 Ed/son employee not work alone. From the 1870s through the Fred Ott, perform 1920s, a diverse workforce helped Edison accom ing in the kineto- scope film, 'The plish his goals in his laboratories and factories. Record of a They completed projects ranging from kitchen Sneeze." Made in appliances to the storage battery and the motion 1894, it is the old picture camera, helping Edison shape 20th-century est surviving copy life. righted motion picture. Photo Traveling trunks like "Working for Edison" courtesy Edison can reach distant audiences unable to take advan NHS. tage of on-site programs. Although the program has received positive responses from teachers, the trunk is a work in progress. Evaluation forms ask teachers to rate class activities and relate the stu dents experiences and reactions. This information will help us revise the trunk to meet the needs of students. The "Working for Edison" trunk is avail able for loan by calling Edison NHS at 973-736-0550, ext. 60.
References Gordon, Robert B., The Interpretation of Artifacts in the History of Technology, in History from Things: Essays on Material Culture, Steven Lubar and W. David Kingery, ed, Washington, DC, 1993, pp. 74- 93. Marcouse, Renee, Using Objects, Visual Learning, and Visual Awareness in the Museum and Classroom, tributions went beyond the incandescent light to New York 1974. include motion pictures, the phonograph, and the "Object-Oriented Learning in Art Museums," Museum fluoroscope, an early X-ray device. Students learn Education Roundtable, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 12-15. about Anna Case, a singer who recorded for Shuh, John Henniger, "Teaching Yourself to Teach with Edison's phonograph company. They see the world Objects," Journal of Education, Vol. 7, No. 4, 1982, through the eyes of Fred Ott, an expert machinist pp. 8-12. who also starred in "The Record of the Sneeze," one of the earliest movies. The servants who main Beth Aukstikalnis is a park ranger at Edison NHS, tained Edison's home also place him in his era. West Orange, New Jersey. The traveling trunk emphasizes that Edison did
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