History Commons^™

A New Science, And A New Profession: Sugar Chemistry In Louisiana, 1885-1895, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Between 1885 and 1895 the Louisiana sugar industry experienced a scientific and technological revolution in methods, process apparatus, and scale of operations. The animal-powered mills and open kettles characteristic of the antebellum period were supplanted by large, technically designed, and scientifically controlled central factories . In 1880 there were approximately 1,000 sugar houses in Louisiana with an average annual production of 110 long tons of sugar per house. By 1900 fewer than 300 factories constituted the state's sugar industry, but yearly production averaged over 980 long tons for each sugar house. One commentator of the period, Mark Twain, described a …

The Modernization Of The Louisiana Sugar Industry, 1830-1910, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

This volume relays the history and modernization of the sugar industry in the U.S. state of Louisiana from 1830 to 1910.

The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century Sugar Industry In The Lafourche Country, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

The Lafourche Country's narrow highways, characteristic swamplands, and ever present tidal pools convey to the unfamiliar visitor the feeling of being in a strange and rather mysterious land far removed from modern technology and culture. Yet, this land's navigable waterways, favorable climate, and rich soil has long favored a productive sugar cane industry that has been neglected by scholars. A careful examination of the past reveals that the Lafourche Country sugar industry ranked as an equal in terms of innovation and productivity to that of the well-studied plantations along the Mississippi River and Bayou Teche. Indeed, both in the past …

Friedrich Wöhler, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Friedrich Wöhler synthesized urea in 1828 and thus first demonstrated that organic materials, heretofore believed to possess a vital force, need not be made exclusively within living organisms. He also isolated aluminum metal in 1827 and discovered the elements beryllium and yttrium.

Automobiles And Auto Manufacturing, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

In several important respects the automobile and automobile manufacturing proved to be at the heart of North American life during the 1950s. The decade was one characterized as the age of tail fins and chrome, and the automobile was recognized as something far more than ordinary transportation.

Ford Thunderbird, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Ford, with its introduction of the Thunderbird, became the first car manufacturer to create the market segment for personal luxury cars. The car became the trend-setting automobile of the 1950s and defined personal status during the decade of consumer excess.

Rolls Royce Declares Bankruptcy, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Despite more than sixty years of engineering excellence, Rolls-Royce failed in its attempt to design and manufacture a radically new jet engine to meet contractual obligations with the Lockheed Corp. Consequently, both British and U.S. governments had to step in to avoid an unprecedented economic catastrophe.

Civilizing The Civil Engineer: How A History Course Can Serve As A Curriculum Capstone, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Beginning in 1989 and then every other year thereafter, a unique course dealing specifically with the history of civil engineering has been taught to all civil engineering majors at the University of Dayton. What has evolved over time -- in response to student feedback, ongoing reform in the curriculum, and a maturing of faculty expertise -- is a course in the history of civilization that has as its major focus the discipline of civil engineering. In reality, what happens in the classroom is a far broader learning experience than either the disciplines of history or civil engineering could provide standing …

Review: 'Essays On The History Of Organic Chemistry In The United States, 1875-1955', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

While scholars perhaps will never agree on what makes our modern civilization different from those that preceded it, it is most certain that the rise of organic chemistry and the new synthetic world that was created by this discipline was integral to this transformation. Organic chemists, working within the theoretical framework of structural and physical concepts, have provided mankind with a dazzling array of products. These new substances and materials have formed the basis of chemical and pharmaceutical industries that not only improved the quality of life but also contributed to the unprecedented prosperity of our present-day world.

Review: 'Alexander Von Humboldt Und Die Pharmazie', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when generalists rather than specialists and individuals rather than organizations dominated the course of scientific development, German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) stood out as a leading figure in such diverse yet interrelated fields as geography, geology, botany, medicine, and pharmacy. And despite the massive body of historical writings on Humboldt, little is known concerning his contributions to pharmacy and his relationship to the discipline's practitioners. Wolfgang-Hagen Hein ably fills this void in scholarship with his well-researched Alexander von Humboldt und die Pharmazie. The significance of this topic to the history of …

Review: 'Portraits In Steel: An Illustrated History Of Jones & Laughlin Corporation', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Recent developments at the time of this review (2001) call for the addition of one final chapter to Portraits in Steel: An Illustrated History of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. Jones & Laughlin's (J&L's) successor firm, LTV Steel, is currently declaring bankruptcy. Consequently, numerous questions concerning the fate of its workers, the future of a once-vibrant industrial region, and the role of the federal government in industrial planning are subjects of intense private and public concern. This work, therefore, is most timely, as it places the controversial current event in historical context, and it does so in a most elegant …

Review: 'Rohm And Haas: History Of A Chemical Company', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

A company history like Sheldon Hochheiser's Rohm and Haas -- written by an employee of the firm for the express purpose of celebrating the organization's 75th anniversary -- is almost invariably viewed with suspicion by the scholarly community. How can a study possess integrity if management has the last word on publication? Is this book nothing more than vanity press disguised beneath a university press book jacket?

Rest assured that in the case of Rohm and Haas these frequently invoked criticisms have no real merit. The author has produced a most remarkable study, for which both Hochheiser and the company …

Review: 'The Rise Of The American Electrochemicals Industry, 1880-1910: Studies In The American Technological Environment', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Historians of science and technology have recently recognized that the spectacular advances made during the 1920s in the manufacture of synthetic chemicals can best be understood within the context of industrial and educational developments prior to World War I. In The Rise of the American Electrochemicals Industry, 1880-1910, Martha Moore Trescott contends that the electrochemical industry provided the essential bridge between mechanical and metallurgical knowledge of the nineteenth century and chemical technology of the twentieth century.

Auto Racing, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

As a consequence of new sponsors, personalities, race tracks, and television exposure, automobile racing — and in particular NASCAR — reached unprecedented popularity during the 1990s. Indeed, NASCAR became a "way of life" for many Americans.

Drive-By Shootings, John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Although often associated with Southern California and young gang behavior, the drive-by shooting became commonplace during the 1990s across America.

Review: 'Brush With Death: A Social History Of Lead Poisoning', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Christian Warren's Brush with Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning is an ambitious attempt to trace the twentieth-century history of lead poisoning in America. As such, it focuses on a timely and important topic. Yet, despite Warren's claim that he offers a comprehensive social and cultural approach integrating discussions of three different yet interrelated modes of lead exposure -- occupational, pediatric, and environmental (universal) -- this work is uneven, at times superficial, and in several instances interpretively incorrect.

Review: 'Fighting Traffic: The Dawn Of The Motor Age In The American City', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

During the early 1960s, as the Golden Age of the automobile in America began to wane, several commentators, including Lewis Mumford, raised the critical question of whether the automobile existed for the modern city or the city for the automobile. How and when the automobile became central to urban life is deftly addressed in Peter Norton’s Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. This study is certainly one of the most important monographs focusing on the place of the automobile in American society within a historical context to appear in recent times; it interestingly supplements …

Review: 'Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson, And American Motors', John Alfred Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Nash, Hudson, and now even American Motors are automobile brands that have largely disappeared from the American memory. Yet, despite riding the twentieth-century economic roller coaster and operating in the shadow of the Big Three, these firms made sustained, significant technological and economic contributions. Charles K. Hyde’s Storied Independent Automakers is the author’s latest foray into the area of automotive business history, following work on the Chrysler Corporation and the Dodge brothers. A professor of History at Wayne State University, Hyde has written a needed critical business history on an important topic that complements the vast amount of “buff” and …

Review: 'Atlantic Automobilism: Emergence And Persistence Of The Car, 1895-1940', John Heitmann

John A. Heitmann

Gijs Mom particularly wants to answer the question of Why? Why the car (and not, say, the bicycle) Why in the North-Atlantic realm, and not elsewhere initially? During the course of seven intense and lengthy chapters that are further divided into two parts (1895-1918 and 1918-1940) Mom goes deep into motives as to why the internal combustion engine car has come to dominate our lives. These include masculinity and adventure; tourism; male violence and aggression; pleasure and consumption; encapsulation in closed vehicles and the cyborg relationship between driver and the machine; thrills and risks; gender and family structures; tinkering and …