Bright Idea – TVA

Published on June 12, 2013 in The Colorado River and Hoover Dam: United States, The Tennesee Valley Authority: United States and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

http://www.publicdomainfiles.com/images_view/51/13525742419998.png

Did the United States become a society driven by electricity because of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)? Tesla proved water could produce electricity;  the Hoover Dam, followed closely by the Tennessee Valley Authority, supplied it. But it took Norris town to show people how to use this new energy. Designed as housing for the women, men and families who came to the Knoxville area to work on the TVA, Norris was a showcase for electricity. At a time when few homes had wired power, the town offered refrigerators in every kitchen, and overhead lights on the porches of every house (porches were a hallmark of Tennessee life and remain popular today, evidenced by Porch Rocker and Parton songs). Well-lighted public schools invited new environments for learning. Peak/off-peak and low rate/high use policies were another innovation, encouraging development of all things electric. Can Norris and the TVA reveal ways to demonstrate products and power from new energy sources, such as solar? What is the next bright idea?

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Agua – Colorado River

Published on June 6, 2013 in The Colorado River and Hoover Dam: United States and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Colorado River in Mexico. Library of Congress, United States, LC-DIG-stereo-1s00953.

Minute 319 might not solve the problem. Some say Mexico and the United States need to take a radically different approach. The November 10, 2012 decision of the International Boundary and Water Commission of the United States and Mexico tried to address effects of the 2010 earthquake in the Mexicali Valley, Baja California, on the Colorado River Basin (www.ibcw.gov/Files/Minutes/Minute_319.pdf). In 1922, the Colorado River was parceled among the Upper Basin United States of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico (9.25 billion cubic meters per annum) and the Lower Basin Arizona, California, Nevada (10.45 billion cubic meters. By 1944, Mexico claimed their, previously unspecified, water rights (1.85 billion cubic meters per annum). Rights of Native Americans, including the Navaho, would follow, determined decades later, perhaps advantageously in this age of water valuation. In 1922, it was not easy to estimate water needs; original allocation of the Colorado River was set above projected needs. Add to that the fact that in the 1920′s the river’s flow was above-normal (http://www.forbes.com/sites/stratfor/2013/05/14/u-s-mexico-the-decline-of-the-colorado-river/). Organizational structure and management of the river lacks basin-wide coordination. Many might agree with Professor of Law Gabriel Eckstein’s recommendation that Mexican and United States “subnational entities at the regional and local level pursue cooperation in the form of locally-specific, cross-border arrangements” (www.internationalwaterlaw.org). For example, Nogales, Sonora businesses have cooperated with the public water authority of Nogales, Arizona, for more than 40 years. Deciding sustainable use policies of transboundary water resources might be part of the future of Tratado de Libre Comercio de America del Norte (TLCAN) or also known as NAFTA, upon its 20th anniversary on January 1, 2014. What is the future of water rights in North America? Other regions? What is the destiny of water? Agua de mayo, pan para todo el año.

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US Interstate: Horses to Horsepower

Published on May 29, 2013 in The Federal Highway System: United States. 0 Comments

Wild Horses, U.S. Bureau of Land Management

More than 17 million horses shared American roads with 23,000 cars in 1903. Five years later, Henry Ford rolled the Model T off the production line in Detroit, Michigan. Soon, the phrase “horseless carriage” was in vogue (following Scottish engineer James Watt’s coining of the term “horsepower” as that unit of energy needed to lift 550 lbs 1 foot in 1 second). Inspired by Germany’s Autobahn, Dwight Eisenhower authorized the Federal Highway System on June 29, 1956. Soon, the interstate system stretched 160,093 miles (275,645 kilometers) from Maine to California, accounting for 43% of all American travel and transit. But traffic and accidents endanger roads. For these and other reasons, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched the DARPA Grand Challenge, a prize contest for driverless cars. In 2004, no entrant succeeded. But in 2005, Sebastian Thrun, co-inventor of Google Street View, headed a team that won by modifying a Prius with Google Driverless Technology. In 2012, Nevada became the first state to legalize driverless cars, with Florida and California racing just behind. What factors will drive the future of cars and highways?

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Public Health — Panama Canal

Published on May 24, 2013 in The Panama Canal: Panama. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Panama Canal public health programs reduced malaria, spread by mosquitoes. Image: World Health Organization

Do you know how malaria got its name and how the Panama Canal helped to reduce the dreaded disease? Originally thought to be caused by “bad (mal) air (aria),” the term was coined in Italy’s marshlands. Frenchman Alphonse Laveran pioneered health science on malaria. But the breakthrough came when British scientist Sir Ronald Ross, inspired by Laveran’s work, on August 20, 1897, in Secunderabad, India, determined the role of mosquitoes in transmitting the condition. Sir Ronald was so excited he wrote both a scientific article and a poem about the discovery, perhaps one of the first instances of poetry composed by a pioneering scientist. Ross’ work was followed by Americans in Havana, Cuba, to combat malaria and yellow fever; the effort was lead by Surgeon Major W.C. Gorgas, United States Army. In 1904, the Isthmian Canal Commission invited Gorgas to visit the construction site for the Panama Canal, an area prone to malaria, with a rainy season lasting nine months in a tropical environment. Gorgas reduced the percentage of malaria-infected canal workers from 9% in 1905 t0 5% in 1906, and finally to 1.6% in 1909. Working with Gorgas, Joseph Augustin LePrince, developed a larvacide mixture; Samel T. Darling introduced a daytime tent inspection program that was simple yet highly effective. The Panama Canal did not, unfortunately, eliminate malaria, but its integrated mosquito control program set a new model for public health. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org) and Partners in Health (www.pih.org/) are among today’s leaders in conquering malaria. How can public health be improved through large-scale efforts such as public works?

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Shortcuts in History: Panama Canal

Published on May 22, 2013 in The Panama Canal: Panama and The Suez Canal: Egypt. 0 Comments

The Panama Canal from Hofstra University at hofstra.edu.

 

The Panama Canal saved 7,872 miles in transit for cargo, and people, when it opened to applause from shippers around the world. No longer was it necessary to sail around South America. Difficult to build, the Panama Canal’s story is a drama involving changes in leadership, tragedies and victories in public health, and perhaps one of the greatest achievements in public relations. The Panama Canal caused a new era in shipbuilding. The new and improved version, technically known as the Third Set of Locks Project ,doubles capacity with new locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides, as well as raising Lake Gatun. The reason for the expansion? Accommodation of “Post-Panamax” megaships carrying ever-bigger loads of cargo and ever-more decks of tourists for transit of one of the world’s most famous cruise itineraries. Expansion of the Panama Canal caused ports to enlarge their capacity: Baltimore, Norfolk, and Miami are among United States ports accommodating post-panamax ships in a post-2015 world. Where will the world’s next cut-through be? Cuba? Or will Ernst Frankel’s design for the Bering Strait, delivered in the Annual Frank P. Davidson Lecture in Paris, 2012, be next short-cut to transform world transport?

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International Railway Corps

Published on May 16, 2013 in The Trans-Siberian Railway: Russia. 0 Comments

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/BalticRailTerminal008.jpg

What is the destiny of train transport? The Trans-Siberian Railway set a model not only for rail, but also social, engineering. When the Russian line, completed in 1904, needed upgrading in 1917, Russia and the United States entered into a cooperative agreement. George Emerson, an executive in the American rail industry, was called to Washington with an urgent mission: recruit a corps of 300 Americans from leading U.S.  railway companies to join the Russian Railway Service Corps. Executives left Chicago and New York, moving to Russia for eight years to work side-by-side with their engineering colleagues. One might imagine there was toasting, as well as technology transfer. For more on the Russian Railway Service Corps, visit http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/warren-f-hockaday-collection-ca-1899-ca-1934.pdf. Should today’s transport engineers found an International Railway Corps to design regional and global systems? Will Mead Treadwell’s proposal for rail across the Bering Strait be built via Nafta/Alena/Tlcan? Might Svetlana Kuzmichenko’s report on extending the Trans-Siberian to Japan for a Tokyo-Moscow-London line or to South Korea via North Korea for a Seoul-Moscow-London line become reality, perhaps studied at a station/university like the venerable Baltic Rail Terminal?

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Golden Spike Driven Today

Published on May 10, 2013 in The Transcontinental Railroad: United States. 0 Comments

The driving of the final spike, from Golden Spike National Historic Site, at nationalparks.org.

Today is the anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The last spike was driven into the ground on May 10, 1869, the news of which was telegraphed around the nation near simultaneously! It is a little known, but important, fact that telegraph lines were placed beneath the rail tracks, creating one of the first large communications networks. The United States previously held the world record in rail tracks, but now China is deemed the leader as that nation builds a rail network uniting major cities with high speed rail including maglev. When the United States Transcontinental Railroad opened for business, cross country travel formerly taking six months by covered wagon could now be accomplished in 10 days. Commerce increased rapidly; by 1880, $50 million in cargo traveled across the 1800 miles of rail. In the future, will the United States join Canada and Mexico in a vision of high speed rail, perhaps as a celebration of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? Could the PanAmerican highway become the route of a new transportation corridor combining state-of-the-art rail, road, and bikeway?

To read the original New York Times report, please see:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0510.html#article

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Eiffel Tower — Iconic Cities (and Campuses)

Published on May 8, 2013 in The Eiffel Tower: France. 0 Comments

Eiffel Tower, from Wikimedia Commons at wikimedia.org.

Iconic public art — what value does it bring to a city? Originally intended to be on display for just 20 years, Paris’ famed tower was built by civil engineer, Gustave Eiffel, after winning a competition for public art to celebrate the centennial of the French revolution for the International Exposition of 1889. The Eiffel Tower was an instant success; two million people paid admission in the first year, spending more than 5.9 million gold francs. An enterprising Eiffel convinced the government his sculpture should remain permanently because its height made it an ideal choice for new communications technology. Antennae were added, allowing the first European pubic radio broadcast to be beamed from the tower in 1921. Today, a webcam (http://www.abcparislive.com) is in place. How can today’s cities (or university campuses) celebrate their unique culture with art that is at once engaging, financially successful, and useful?

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Singin’ in the Train

Published on April 30, 2013 in Shinkansen - National High-Speed Railways: Japan, The Canadian Pacific Railway: Canada, The Trans-Siberian Railway: Russia and The Transcontinental Railroad: United States. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

 

SFOT Red Train 4 by James Murray from Wikimedia Commons, at wikimedia.org.

Haunting whistle in the night, hypnotic rhythm of wheels on rail, panting acceleration of uphill runs breathed heavily by a 2860 engine, sigh of brakes — these were sounds quite new in the landscapes of the world until rather recently. The business of constructing rails was introduced in England in the seventeenth century. British mapmaker and engineer Captain John Montressor built the first American railway in Lewiston, New York in 1764. Nearly a century later, the Golden Spike was driven, completing the Transcontinental Railroad; it was now possible to traverse the country in 10 days instead of six months. The Transcontinental Railroad (1869), Canadian Pacific Railway (1885) and the Trans-Siberian Railway (1904) introduced soundscape to the landscape — the train whistle. Japan’s Shinkansen(1964) added a new note: each commuter station is announced by an electronic tune, composed to reflect the culture of the district. For a train soundscape, enjoy a listen (and look) via YouTube “Sound of Royal Hudson steam engine with O Canada horn ‘Good Times Express’” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQNQbuXjF2M). Finding music in the midst of urban sound, George Gershwin who included in “American in Paris” the blare of French taxi horns, might agree with Mozart: “Music is continuous, listening is intermittent.” As new trains, and cars, are developed, should musicians be on the team to create the ideal soundscape?

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Bridge of Honor

Published on April 22, 2013 in The Brooklyn Bridge: The United States. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Walking Brooklyn Bridge, public domain image for use in United States.

Brooklyn Bridge has inspired more poetry than any other bridge in history. Hart Crane, Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman are among those who spake thus:

O Sleepless as the river under thee,

Vaulting the sea, the prairies’ dreaming sod,

Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend

And of the curveship lend a myth to God.

- To Brooklyn Bridge, by Hart Crane

Artists continue to be inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge. Joseph Stella painted Roebling’s cabled masterwork in deconstructed cubism. Actor Bill Murray quoted Wallace Stevens and Galway Kinnell intoned Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” at Poets House in New York City on June 13, 2012 for the 25th Annual Poetry Walk Across Brooklyn Bridge. “Poems give you what you need for life’s journey,” stated Lee Briccetti, Executive Director. Should Boston initiate an annual poetry marathon, honoring victims and heroes of the April 2013 Boston Marathon, on the Zakim Bridge or perhaps in Boston’s Copley Square?

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