16 Nikola Tesla 20 Paris 26 A Great Sea Change 34 Darling Dimples Father of the Modern Age City of Light is a The construction of the The beginning of the golf ball walker’s delight Suez Canal The Amazing CONNECTINGTOINDUSTRY Vanishing Act Controlled implosion reduces a building to less than the sum of its parts FALL 2009/WINTER 2010 asia/pacific – spring 2009/summer 2010 “ L OTSOFSUPPLIERSSAYTHEY’RERELIABLE. B UTONECOMPANY PROVES ITTOMEEVERYDAY:DIXON.” dixonvalve.com features FALL 2009/WINTER 2010 ASIA/PACIFIC – SPRING 2009/SUMMER 2010 departments 5 BUILDING CHARACTER A tribute to Lincoln 6 PROFILE OF COURAGE Former prisoner of war Capt. Gerald Coffee 15 FACTS & FIGURES Building implosion records 26 MILESTONES IN HISTORY The construction of the Suez Canal 30 KEEPING IT SAFE It’s not my problem 32 HEALTH & FITNESS Running for your life 8THE AMAZING VANISHING ACT 34 INVENTIONS Controlled implosion manipulates the laws of physics to reduce How the dimpled golf ball a building to less than the sum of its parts got its start 16 FATHER OF 20 PARIS THE MODERN AGE City of Light is a walker’s delight filled with art, Prolific inventor magnificent architecture and delectable treats Nikola Tesla’s influence on the world is incalculable, yet often overlooked FALL 2009/WINTER 2010 In my opinion ... ASIA/PACIFIC – SPRING 2009/SUMMER 2010 Publisher Dixon Valve & Coupling Company Editor IF HISTORY REPEATS as it has a tendency to do, the Yvonne Lyons difficult economic times we find ourselves in will pass. The question is, however, will our companies Editorial Board and the business environment that they operate in Richard L. Goodall, CEO Louis F. Farina, Senior Vice President, be the same coming out of this challenge as they DVCC, President, Dixon were going in? We should be concerned that some Douglas K. Goodall, President, DVCC of our government’s efforts to minimize the effect of Richard F. Flaherty, Senior Vice President, DVCC this downturn will dictate a new reality of bigger Scott Jones, Vice President, Sales & and bigger government. Marketing, Dixon Mark Vansant, Vice President, Dixon In the past, capitalism and the free-market system Bob Grace, Executive Vice President, Dixon righted the ship when it needed it and promoted growth. In this case, government Joseph Dawson, Vice President, Dixon intervention seems to have gotten in the way of an orderly recovery by selectively Specialty Hose deciding who should receive assistance and who shouldn’t. The problem is that Karen R. Hurless, Advertising & Communications Manager when government interferes the delicate equilibrium of the market force is disrupted. This causes the small and medium sized businesses that create most of the jobs to be overlooked, except when it comes to increased regulation and taxes, to pay Editorial & Design Alter Custom Media for the bailout of the select few. www.altercustommedia.com Art Director Dixon has been in business since 1916 and has weathered the inevitable ups and Kimberley Jackson downs by following solid business fundamentals and listening to our customers. It is of concern that many companies now receiving government support have not followed Copy Editor Chris Zang these sound principles, and yet have been permitted to survive not based on the results of their balance sheets but on other questionable criteria. No longer can we sit Please submit address changes to: on the sidelines while government bureaucrats dismantle a system that has proven to Alter Custom Media be so successful. We believe that government needs to support free enterprise and Attn: Jessica Krznaric allow the capitalist market to operate. Consider contacting your representatives and 1040 Park Ave., Suite 200 Baltimore, MD 21201 let them know how you feel! 443-451-0736 Fax: 443-451-6025 Thanks for reading. BOSS is produced three times a year by Dixon Valve & Coupling Company and Alter Custom Media. The acceptance of advertising does not constitute endorsement of the products or services by Dixon Valve & Coupling Company. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertisement that is not in keeping with the standing or policies of Dixon Valve & Coupling Company. Copyright 2009, all rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of BOSS without written permission is prohibited. Dixon Valve & Coupling Company 800 High St. Chestertown, MD 21620 877-963-4966 Fax: 800-283-4966 www.dixonvalve.com E-mail questions or comments about BOSS to: [email protected] 4 BOSS ᔢ FALL 2 0 0 9 / WINTER 2 0 1 0 BUILDINGCHARACTER A Tribute to Lincoln BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSON OK, I’m an Abraham Lincoln groupie. But what a man! Self-educated, self- any club that would have me.” But the He is by every measure my biggest hero. made, he was a skillful lawyer and effec- original source for this classic line was My daughter Abrielle was named after tive politician whose character made his none other than a young, self-effacing him and our dog is named Lincoln. By name almost synonymous with integrity. Abraham Lincoln, who quite seriously sheer good fortune, my son Justin was He was an inspirational leader who wrote to a woman who rejected his born on Lincoln’s birthday. I often visit really believed in democracy—a govern- marriage proposal: “I can never be satis- the Lincoln Memorial and stand in awe ment of the people, by the people, for fied with anyone who would be block- of his magnificent eloquence and his the people. Empathy and compassion head enough to have me.”It’s interesting, legacy of honor, courage, compassion, were in his blood. He felt the pain of in a world that places such a high value humility and humor. others as deeply as any man could, yet on self-esteem, that one of America’s Yet in his own time he was more duty made him a leader of our nation’s truest and greatest heroes was genuinely, often ridiculed than revered. He was bloodiest war. perhaps excessively, humble. unmercifully belittled in the papers that Now one of the most esteemed men in Reprinted from You Don’t Have to be Sick to often called him unrefined, simple, a all history, Lincoln was often depressed Get Better, Josephson Institute of Ethics. ©2004 bumpkin. He was ungainly, to some by feelings of inadequacy. Groucho Marx www.josephsoninstitute.com. Permission given downright ugly. once joked, “I wouldn’t want to be in by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. WWW . DIXONVALVE . COM FALL 2 0 0 9 / WINTER 2 0 1 0 ᔢ BOSS 5 PROFILE OF COURAGE PHOTOSCOURTESYCOFFEEENTERPRISES,INC. Capt. Gerald Coffee joined the Navy in 1957 and spent a total of 25 years in the service. A Life with Purpose Determination and focus helped Capt. Gerald Coffee survive seven years as a prisoner of war to the United Nations that Cuba was BY SARAH ACHENBACH stockpiling Soviet nuclear missiles, and he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. For the next three years, Coffee was a flight and reconnaissance training instructor assigned to Heavy Reconn- “Eject! Eject!” Capt. Gerald Coffee and plummeted into the Gulf of Tonkin aissance Attack Squadron Three in screamed to Lt. Robert T. Hanson, the off the coast of the North Vietnamese Sanford, Fla., before being deployed to navigator of the RA-5C Vigilante aircraft. Nghe An Province. As Coffee and Vietnam in 1966. The Navy plane, piloted by Coffee, had Hanson’s parachutes hit the water, enemy For seven years and nine days after just been hit by enemy fire during a boats raced to pick them up. Coffee he was plucked from the water by his Feb. 3, 1966, reconnaissance mission off was captured immediately, and though captors, Coffee was held as a prisoner the USS Kitty Hawk. Coffee and Hanson he reported seeing Hanson nearby when had been gathering intelligence against a they landed in the water, Coffee never of war and was tortured by the North heavily defended area of North Vietnam. saw him again. (In November 1988, Vietnamese. Much of his time was spent Not hearing a response from Hanson, Vietnam returned Hanson’s remains to in solitary confinement. Coffee’s first Coffee immediately pulled the face cur- the U.S. government.) prison cell—a dank, squalid cubicle 6 ½ tain on his own ejection seat. Both men Though only 32, Coffee, who joined feet long and barely wider than his were automatically released from the the Navy in 1957 after graduating from body—had a tiny, double-barred window aircraft, which was still speeding across UCLA with a degree in commercial art, with a view of the prison wall. When he the sky at 680 miles per hour. had seen his share of danger. He was moved, the heavy wooden shackles The crewmen managed to send a one of the first reconnaissance pilots to around his ankles knocked into the small, signal on an emergency survival radio fly low-level missions over Cuba during lidless bucket that served as his bath- beeper before ejecting safely from their the Bay of Pigs Crisis in October 1962. room. The tiny space did not prevent him burning plane. The aircraft then exploded The photos from his mission proved from moving. To pass the hours, Coffee 6 BOSS ᔢ FALL 2 0 0 9 / WINTER 2 0 1 0 “walked” several miles each day by taking scratched on the wall the words: ‘Smile. Coffee earned a master’s degree in three steps around the perimeter of his You’re on Candid Camera’.” political science from Cal-Berkeley after cell, turning with each step. In 1970, the North Vietnamese trans- his release, and the California native, Any communication with another ferred Coffee to the “Hanoi Hilton,” the who now lives in Hawaii (a dream he prisoner meant severe punishment.