Bad time to be an inventor

[lynxreign]

Every month in Scientific American there's a column called 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago. They summarize some of the articles that appeared in Scientific American that month 50, 100 and 150 years ago. April 1906 seemed an especially bad time to be an inventor. Why? They summarised 4 stories in that issue
1) Wright Brothers claims of mechanical flight confirmed for the first time by outside source.
2) Mt. Vesuvius has most powerful explosion in modern times
3) Most terrible earthquake to hit a modern city levels San Francisco
4) Man invents motorized roller skates.

What a month to announce your motorized roller skates. A month earlier or later and he might have been a big story.

Comments

[juniperblue.livejournal.com]

Poor guy. That was some definite cosmic bad timing for the unveiling of motorized roller skates! While it may not have amounted to anything even if it had been the only news item in April 1906, I wonder what might have happened if it had caught on. Since the automobile industry was still in its infancy, people might have liked the roller skates better and a whole industry could have formed making it a popular means of transportation (second only to horses and ahead of bicycles!).

[wizardru.livejournal.com]

1) Smithsonian vows to find new way to fuck those Wright boys over, renews campaign fo evil for another 20 years.

2) You know...to God-Fearing White People, at least.

3) See #2.

4) I'm thinking that motorized roller skates, via 1906, were not exactly user-friendly. :)

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

1) Buh? The Wright Bros problems were mostly of their own making because they were paranoid.

2) Well, I don't know who else would be affected by Mt. Vesuvius erupting. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my post, but they were referring to the most powerful eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in modern times.

3) Name a bigger one by 1906

4) They had a picture of the guy wearing them, they Rocked!

[wizardru.livejournal.com]

1) Not according to Smithsonian magazine, among others. Apparently one of the guys at the Smithsonian at the time had a mad-on for listing someone else as the first recorded flight, despite all evidence to the contrary. It took two decades of legal battles to resolve the issue, if the article was to be believed.

2) It wasn't clear, hence the statement.

3) I guess if you use the criteria of 'modern city', then there probably wasn't one. The New Madrid Earthquake was estimated to be more powerful in 1814 (pre-richter scale), and the Damghan, Iran earthquake of 1854 killed an estimated 200,000 people. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 killed between 60,000-100,000 people and 85% of it's structures were destroyed. Tokyo wouldn't suffer it's horrible earthquake for another 17 years, though.

4) I cannot refute this.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Well, there's still the guy in New Zealand who flew first, but crashed. And I think the key phrase is "first recorded flight." The Wrights wouldn't let people watch them fly after their first flight unless specifically invited and few showed up to the first one.

2) Whala. The Statement, she is corrected.

3) That was indeed part of the critera

4) Damn stright!

[wizardru.livejournal.com]

1) I don't know about someone from New Zealand, but the wikipedia write-up discusses it at length concerning a point of contention with a guy from Brazil who made a plan in 1906 (three years after the Wright's flight in 1903). You can also see a really brief mention of the Smithsonian thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Brothers#The_Smithsonian_issue

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

It was Richard Pearse (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html) I recommend listening to Mildred Pierce by Sonic Youth while reading the article and substituting his name in there.

[juniperblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think any earthquake that can make the Mississippi flow backwards for a couple of days is pretty darn big! Spent formative years near to Reelfoot Lake in TN, which was created by the New Madrid quake.

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

I just want to know how well they worked. It seems like it would be hard to stay balanced in them. And it reminds me of the "Rocket Skates" bit from the Jackass movie.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I don't know, the guy seemed fairly relaxed in them. And the article mentioned they'd be used in a race soon by "sportswomen".

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Nice. Now I'm imagining the "sportswomen" and their huge skirts.

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

No, no, by 1906 they wore bloomers for sports! Gotta move with the times!

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course, how silly of me! I bet there was still enough fabric in one outfit to clothe my entire household for a week. :)

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

Yes, heaven forbid any flesh (or stocking) showing....

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Heavens!

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

It might give one the Vapors....

[dasmarzipan.livejournal.com]

Oy the ankles!!!

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Probably not, it was in France I believe.

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

I see "motorized roller skates" and I think the guy with said skates in the "She Blinded Me With Science" video.

As for earthquakes in SF, since it was 100 years ago, a lot of area newspapers are repeating their mantra about it happening again: "It's not a matter of if, but when..."

Also: Damn you, Lynxie. I got "Brand New Key" stuck in my head now. GRRR! X( Maybe if I think of the Rasputina version...

"It's not a matter of if, but when..."

[head58.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'll be fine. They've been saying that about New Orleans and hurricanes for YEARS!

[dasmarzipan.livejournal.com]

What a hilarious icon...

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

My brother got a copy of that off the intarweb and the idiot that labeled it said it was by Jannis Joplin.