G. Edward Pendray and the Invention of the Time Capsule

 

GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE, G. EDWARD PENDRAY, & THE INVENTION OF THE TIME CAPSULE

I was touring “The Castle” with inventor and captain of industry George Westinghouse, Jr., who not only invented the Westinghouse Air Brake, still found on all railroads, but also founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company to sell it. He also patented 360 other inventions and launched 60 companies, including the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Union Switch & Signal, and the forerunner of aerospace giant Rockwell International.

Actually, it wasn’t the real George Westinghouse. He died in 1914. It was a Westinghouse impersonator named Charles Ruch, but in his black top hat, Prince Albert coat, and with his white mutton chops, Ruch certainly looked like the real thing.

Meanwhile, “The Castle,” through which Ruch guided me, *was* the real thing. It was built by George Westinghouse in 1890 in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, about a 30-minute drive east of Pittsburgh. For nearly a century The Castle, a massive stone structure designed by noted architect H. H. Richardson, was the corporate headquarters of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, also located in Wilmerding. Intended to look like a medieval robber baron’s castle, some might say it was an entirely appropriate command center for a modern robber baron.

Charlie Ruch would not be among those. Charlie Ruch greatly admired George Westinghouse. That’s why Charlie impersonated Westinghouse when he conducted tours of The Castle and when he made appearances as his hero throughout Western Pennsylvania. Born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, Charlie Ruch graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1936. There he’d been a journalism major and had edited The Pitt News, the student newspaper. He began working at the Westinghouse Castle in 1938 as assistant editor of the company’s employee magazine. In 1942 he became its editor and he subsequently served as communications manager. In the years before his retirement in 1980, he was the Westinghouse director of personnel communications and community relations.

But Charlie Ruch never really retired. He stayed on at Westinghouse as a volunteer historian. In 1984 Charlie began impersonating George Westinghouse in order to raise awareness of the inventor’s achievements. By 1998, when Charlie died, he had impersonated George Westinghouse on 501 occasions.

It was Charlie who was the driving force behind the creation of the George Westinghouse Museum, which opened at The Castle in 1987. When I stepped into the Family Room of the Museum that day, I saw George Westinghouse himself, incarnated by Charlie Ruch, bent over his writing desk. He looked up from his papers, smiled, and welcomed me into “his” home. Then he led me on a tour, proudly pointing out the artifacts and memorabilia of the Westinghouse family, including furniture and Tiffany glassware from Solitude, the Pittsburgh home of George Westinghouse and his wife, Marguerite.

In the Appliance Room “Mr. Westinghouse” introduced me to a complete kitchen outfitted with Westinghouse appliances, including toasters, irons, mangels, coffee percolators, waffle makers, radios, washing machines and driers, and even an early Westinghouse sewing machine.

The Inventions Room held memorabilia relating to the 361 patents and inventions of George Westinghouse, including a model of a pioneering city-wide automatic telephone switching system.

I was most impressed, however, by the “Room of Achievement,” filled with an array of artifacts and photographs of products developed by companies founded by George Westinghouse. On one wall was a spectacular 12-foot-long oil painting of the Electric Company’s far-reaching East Pittsburgh Works in 1920. Displays ranged from a rifle made for the Russian army in World War I to the model car used in introducing a rapid transportation system of automated people-movers.

Of greatest interest to me in this room, however, were exact replicas of the twin time capsules buried by the Westinghouse Corporation at the New York World’s Fairs of 1939 and 1964. Both were 7.5-foot--long cigar-shaped metal cylinders. Unlike the ones in New York, however, these replicas had windows cut into the sides so you could see duplicates of all the objects crammed into the original capsules buried somewhere in New York. An adjacent plaque listed every item inside.

I stared at the time capsules, gleaming like torpedoes ready for launching. With “George Westinghouse” himself beside me, it was almost as if I’d travelled back in time to the 1939 World’s Fair and was standing beside the very first “time capsules.”

Preserving things for the future, of course, wasn’t exactly new in 1939. Cornerstones in buildings date back to antiquity and are often filled with coins and other memorabilia. But in 1922 Howard Carter discovered the millennia-old tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Perhaps the most famous archaeological discovery ever, the artifact-crammed tomb -- an unintended time capsule -- catapulted the obscure “King Tut” into international prominence.

The discovery also inspired Thornwell Jacobs, president of Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University, with the idea of deliberately storing records and items for more than 6,000 years with a scheduled opening date. He eventually constructed a device to do so, which he called the “Crypt of Civilization,” at Oglethorpe University. He also publicized his idea in a notable 1936 Scientific American article.

Shortly thereafter, Westinghouse Electric Corporation was looking for something to promote the company at the 1939 World’s Fair. A Westinghouse publicist proposed that Westinghouse build and bury a similar “Crypt,” meant to be uncovered and opened in 5,000 years, at the Fair. However, the executive, who also coined the word “laundromat” to describe the Westinghouse washing machine, suggested a snappier label. He proposed that the “crypts” be called “time capsules.” The phrase gained currency almost overnight and stuck.

The Westinghouse publicist who proposed the idea of these time chambers, and named them, was G. (George) Edward Pendray, a rocket engineer and, under his own name and the name “Gawain Edwards,” also a science fiction writer. Pendray, who died from Parkinson’s Disease in 1987, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1901 and graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1924. A year later he earned a Master’s from Columbia University. He thereafter authored over 500 technical articles.

The same year he graduated from Columbia, Pendray joined the staff of The New York Herald Tribune as a reporter, later becoming its science editor. He left the paper in 1932 and was an editor at the Milk Research Council until joining the Westinghouse Electric Corp. in 1936 as assistant to the president. There he helped develop and administer the annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search and kept the Westinghouse president from calling the 1939 time capsules “time bombs,” as he reportedly wanted to do. He left Westinghouse in 1945 to open his own industrial public relations firm, Pendray & Co., based in Bronxville, N.Y., where he was a senior partner until his retirement in 1971.

In 1929, New York publisher D. Appleton released Pendray’s only SF novel, "The Earth Tube," published under the Pendray name. It is a “Yellow Peril” future war story in which Asians tunnel under and conquer South America in a drive to invade America. The hero destroys the tunnel, in the process flooding South America (sorry ‘bout that!).

Perhaps it was this novel which brought Pendray to the attention of David Lasser, editor of Hugo Gernsback’s "Science Wonder Stories." In any case, Pendray soon appeared in Lasser’s magazine under the name of “Gawain Edwards.” He quickly published three stories for Lasser, including “A Rescue From Jupiter,” Science Wonder Stories, Feb.-March, 1930; “The Return From Jupiter,” Wonder Stories, March-April, 1931; and “A Mutiny in Space,” Wonder Stories, Sept., 1931.

More importantly, Pendray became the prime mover behind the American Interplanetary Society, responsible for much of its early rocket research.

The society was founded by David Lasser and his writers at an April 4, 1930 meeting in Pendray’s New York apartment. The writers elected Lasser as President and Pendray as Vice-President. When Lasser resigned in April, 1932, Pendray took over as President, serving in the capacity until April, 1934, when the society also changed its name to the American Rocket Society. Pendray continued his association with the society, serving as its Director from 1936-55.

In 1963 the society changed its name to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Pendray continued to serve as its public relations consultant. In 1945 Harper & Bros. published his The Coming Age of Rocket Power and in 1948 he edited the papers of rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, published by Prentice-Hall as Rocket Development: Liquid-Fuel Rocket Research, 1929-1941. He was chosen for the latter task by Goddard’s widow, Esther, as by then Pendray was recognized as one of the leading American experts on rocket research.

Looking down at the shiny time capsules Pendray was responsible for naming, I mentioned some of this history to Charlie. “Oh, yes, I remember Pendray, he was here at the Castle many times.”

I was excited to hear this. “What do you remember about Pendray?”

“His Van Dyke beard. No one wore beards in those days, but he had a very distinguished Van Dyke. We all talked about it. It made him look like a professor or an important scientist.”

I glanced at Charlie Ruch standing next to me. Every inch of him looked like George Westinghouse, important inventor and entrepreneur. But he wasn’t the real thing. He was just pretending. “Charlie,” I said, "Pendray didn't just look like someone important. He was the real thing.

The Forte Gelato Holiday

 

THE FORTE GELATO HOLIDAY

Bruno is Italian and lives across the street from us. Like all of the Italian immigrants in Bloomfield, he comes from the small town of Ateleta, in Italy’s Abruzzi region. When he was young he thought that winter lasted forever in America. That was because of what his grandfather and the other old men said when they came home to Ateleta. “It is when the Americans celebrate one of their biggest holidays,” his grandfather and the other old men told him. They said the Americans called it forte gelato, “the strong frost.”

A strange name for a holiday, Bruno and his young friends thought. Gelato was one of their favorite desserts, like a cold jello. And forte, pronounced “for-tay,” simply meant strong. So forte gelato meant a strong jello. But it could also mean a strong frost, as gelato also means something cold or frosty.

So, the old men told Bruno, the strongest frost in America comes right at the beginning of the summer month, July. And all of America celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of summer with fireworks and parades and picnics with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked outdoors on grills.

Bruno and his boyhood pals wondered why Americans paraded and cooked outdoors during the strongest frost. Americans must be very different from Italians, they thought. And America must be a very strange land, to have winter last so long, and to be so strong, even up until the fourth day of July, which was the day on which Americans always celebrated the strong frost.

Yes, Bruno and his pals agreed, a strange land. They would have to see it for themselves, and marvel at the strong frost, forte gelato, when Americans celebrated the birthday of their country.

MORE SORROWS & DELIGHTS

 

MY NEW COLLECTION OF SHORT FICTION -- "MORE SORROWS & DELIGHTS" -- HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED: 

 

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1105403068/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=more+sorrows+and+delights&link_code=qs&qid=1625290294&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1

QUESTION AUTHORITY: Writings From the Free School Movement, 1971-1975

 

QUESTION AUTHORITY: WRITINGS FROM THE FREE SCHOOL MOVEMENT, 1971-1975.

This is my newest book, a collection my writings in various publications pertaining to my involvement in the early Seventies Free School Movement. That Movement was part of that era's larger movement for peace, social justice, feminism, anti-racism, and economic equality.

The book is available on Amazon and Lulu.com and, at any moment, on Barnes and Noble.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1304700542/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=eric+leif+davin&link_code=qs&qid=1625088003&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1

 

Tarzana, California

 The entire town of Tarzana, California, is built on the former estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs. However, few people there know that, which is a sad commentary on the durability of literary fame, or perhaps any type of fame.

Consider the story about it told by David Morrell, creator of Rambo, from his book, Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing:

"John Whalen wrote an article for The Washington Times in which he described his visit to Tarzana, California. That town, 20 miles north of Los Angeles, got its name because Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, owned a large ranch there. In the 1920s Burroughs began subdividing the property into residential lots until finally the community of Tarzana was created. In a bizarre odyssey, John wandered the streets of the town, trying to find someone who knew where Burroughs had lived. “Edgar who?” and “I don’t read books” were typical of the answers he received. Few people knew that Tarzana had been named after Tarzan, and some didn’t even know who Tarzan was. After repeated efforts, John came to a small low house concealed behind a big tree, crammed between a furniture store and a transmission shop. The house was where Burroughs had written his Tarzan stories. The urn containing the author’s ashes had been buried under the tree, but no one knew exactly where. After taking some photographs, John paused at the gate and peered back at the obscured house. “I felt very strange standing in the middle of a town named after the fictional creation of a man whose name was totally unknown to most of the people living there.”

Sic transit gloria.

How the Rich Avoid Taxes

 

THE RICH DON'T PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES:

ProPublica took the top 25 wealthiest Americans and compared how much their wealth grew with how much they paid in taxes. From 2014 to 2018, they paid taxes equal to 3.4% of their wealth gain. Rest of us pay c. %14. Some pay far less. Warren Buffet pays about 10-cents in taxes on every $100 of his wealth. You pay far more. How come?

Jeff Bezos paid zero taxes for two years. In 2011 he reported earned income so low, the government owed HIM money and paid him over $4,000 in the child benefit. How come?

Elon Musk paid zero taxes also, yet can build his own space fleet to supply the International Space Station. How come?

The report goes on and on, outrageous case after outrageous case.

How come?

None of these ultra-rich did anything illegal. Nor did they have, as commonly assumed, armies of high-paid tax lawyers who knew all the arcane loopholes. You don't need fancy knowledge to do what they do.

This is because our tax structure is built so that the ultra-rich are entirely outside the system. Our tax system taxes wages, which almost all of us must have to survive. The ultra-rich don't have much, or any, wages to tax. Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook, the medium by which you and I are communicating, earns a salary of $1 (ONE DOLLAR) per year. How can he survive doing that?

Because the rich live off their wealth, not their wages or other taxable income. The federal government, the IRS, does not tax their wealth, their homes, their yachts, their Wall Street stocks, no matter how many billions these may amount to. (If they sell their stocks, they pay a capital gains tax..... but only the stupid rich sell their stocks..... and they don't remain ultra-rich for long.)

Instead, the ultra-rich go to banks and use their many gazillions as collateral for loans. Banks are glad to loan to them.... and the interest they pay on the loans are far lower than their fair tax rate would be.

So, now they have many billions to live on.... Jeff Bezos is building a yacht to supply his $500 million much bigger yacht. Or they use the loan to buy and invest. Bezos paid half that yacht amount, $200 million, to buy the Washington Post.

And, guess what? THE IRS DOES NOT TAX LOANS! NO MATTER HOW MANY BILLIONS IT MAY COME TO.

And then you keep on doing things like this, simply rolling over your loans, until you die..... and then you can find other ways to make sure your heirs avoid estate taxes and inherit the bulk of your wealth.

So, the mantra is BUY, BORROW, DIE...... you can't avoid death..... but you can certainly avoid taxes..... and all legally.

You too can follow their lead, especially if you inherit some wealth to begin with. Invest in stocks. Use that as collateral for bank loans. Live off the loans or use them to buy newspapers. And keep on doing it until you die. This is how the rich get rich and stay rich.

Something wrong with our entire tax structure here!

Alternative History

 

Adventures in Alternative History

Eric Leif Davin

 

ericdavin@hotmail.com

 

Winston S. Churchill, yes the British PM, wrote a great piece of alternative history where he speculated on what the United States, and the world, would have looked like, “If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg.” (Yes, that’s correct.)

 

The story appears in If It Had Happened Otherwise, edited by Sir John C. Square, published in the UK in 1972 & by St. Martin’s Press in the USA in 1974. It was perhaps the first, certainly a pioneering, alternative history anthology. Other speculations include: “If the Moors in Spain Had Won,” by Philip Guedalla; “If Don John of Austria Had Married Mary, Queen of Scots,” by G.K. Chesterton; “If Louis XVI Had Had an Atom of Firmness,” by Andre Maurois; “If Drouet’s Cart Had Stuck,” by Hilaire Belloc; “If Napoleon Had Escaped to America,” by H.A.L. Fisher; “If Byron Had Become King of Greece,” by Sir Harold Nicolson; “If Booth Had Missed Lincoln,” by Milton Waldman; “If the Emperor Frederick Had Not Had Cancer,” by Emil Ludwig; “If It Had Been Discovered in 1930 That Bacon Really Did Write Shakespeare,” by Sir John Squire; “If the General Strike Had Succeeded,” by Ronald Knox; “If Napoleon Had Won the Battle of Waterloo,” by Sir George Trevelyan; and “If Archduke Ferdinand Had Not Loved His Wife,” by A.J.P. Taylor. A distinguished roster and fascinating thought experiments.

 

My own contribution to the alternative history genre, “Avenging Angel,” can be found in Far Frontiers, edited by Jerry Pournelle and Jim Baen, Summer, 1985, reprinted in The Fantastic Civil War, edited by Frank McSherry, Jr., Baen Books, 1991. In it, the Confederacy develops a V-2 type rocket which takes out President Lincoln and almost his entire Cabinet at Lincoln’s Second Inaugural in March, 1865.

 

I had no idea Baen Books had reprinted my story until I chanced upon the above mentioned Civil War anthology in the university bookstore. Cool! I thought. Wonder who’s in it? I picked up the book and glanced down the TOC: “For the Love of Barbara Allen,” by Robert E. Howard; “Bring the Jubilee,” by Ward Moore; “The Valley Was Still,” by Manley Wade Wellman; “The Long Drum Roll,” by Harry Turtledove; “Quit Zoomin’ Those Hands Through the Air,” by Jack Finney; “Quarks at Appomattox,” by Charles L. Harness; “Time’s Arrow,” by Jack McDevitt....

 

Oh, yeah, I thought, I gotta get this! Hey? What’s this? “Avenging Angel,” by Eric L. Davin? That’s my story! McSherry never asked to publish my story!  And I never sent it to him! And he certainly didn’t pay me for it!

 

I quickly turned to the copyright page and found this instruction after the notice saying my story had first appeared in Far Frontiers: “The author is asked to contact Baen Books to receive payment which is being held for him.”

 

I sent proof of my identity to Baen Books and Martin H. Greenberg (the power behind the throne) quickly sent me a nice check, along with a contract for me to sign and return. Sweet! But Greenberg didn’t send me a contributor’s copy of the book, darn it!