Water Under the Bridge

Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Flannery Brothers October 19, 2017

October 19, 2017

The Flannery Brothers

The Jefferson College Historical Society has a long and distinguished record celebrating the history and heritage of the Canonsburg area. They recently invited me to speak at their Fall meeting. With the subject of the talk left up to me, I decided to discuss the impact of the Flannery Brothers on the Chartiers Valley region, knowing that their involvement with the Standard Chemical Company in Canonsburg was historically significant.

James Flannery began the family’s successful business career by opening a funeral parlor in Homewood. By the time his younger brother, Joseph, graduated from Holy Ghost College (now Duquesne University), there were three Flannery mortuaries in Pittsburgh,

In 1904 the brothers decided to diversify. They acquired rights to a patent for staybolts, a key component in the manufacture of locomotive boilers, and incorporated the Flannery Bolt Company. Their manufacturing facility was constructed in C. P. Mayer’s industrial park, on the Pennsylvania Railroad just north of Bridgeville.

Once they began manufacturing staybolts they realized the advantage of using “vanadium steel”, an extremely strong grade of steel that had a tiny amount of vanadium alloyed into it. The vanadium was also extremely expensive. Joseph Flannery convinced his brother they should enter the vanadium production business.

In 1906 they established the American Vanadium Company and began researching vanadium production in their Bridgeville facility. They were able to acquire a mine in Peru that could produce vanadium ore economically. This ore was shipped to Bridgeville by a transportation system which included llamas, a steamboat on a Peruvian lake, railroads, and ocean-going steamers.

By 1909 the Flannerys were successfully operating both companies, as well as four or five subsidiary firms producing specialty products from vanadium steel. They built a magnificent five story building, the Vanadium Building, at the corner of Meyran and Forbes Streets in Oakland, with a large stained glass window celebrating the vanadium production process.

That year they learned that their sister had been diagnosed with cancer. After researching all the possible cures for it, they concluded that radiation treatment, with radium, had the best chance of helping her. Unfortunately she died; the scarcity of radium had prevented her being treated.

At this point Joseph Flannery resigned his positions with the family firms and decided to find a way to produce radium on a commercial scale in a large enough volume to ensure that future cancer patients would have access to radiation treatment. The two brothers incorporated the Standard Chemical Company.

They found a source of carnotite ore in western Colorado that contained potassium, uranium dioxide, and vanadium tetraoxide. By now it was well known that radium existed in uranium deposits as a product of radioactive decay.

The radium production process was complicated. In an average month they mined 2500 tons of rock containing carnotite. In western Colorado they separated the ore from the rock in a concentrator, producing 500 tons of carnotite. This was then bagged in sixty pound bags and hauled on burros to a Denver and Rio Grande railhead.

The ore was then transported by rail to Canonsburg where a new processing facility had been built. At Standard Chemical the ore was treated by 500 tons of chemicals (probably hydrochloric acid) and reduced to one thousand pounds of salts, mostly barium chloride with a trace of radium chloride.

Once a day a messenger would board a streetcar in Canonsburg with a pail full of glass bottles containing the salts and travel into Pittsburgh, where he would transfer to a Forbes Avenue trolley and ride to Oakland to deliver his valuable cargo to the Vanadium Building.

The final step in the process was the subjecting of the salts to twenty five or thirty cycles of fractional crystallization, eventually producing one gram of radium. By 1920 more than half of the radium produced in the whole world had been produced by Standard Chemical.

Both Flannery brothers had died by 1921 when Madame Marie Curie visited Canonsburg as part of a grand tour of North America honoring her scientific achievements, a tour that culminated in a visit to the White House where President Harding presented her with a gram of radium.

It is reported that the highlight of her tour was the visit to Standard Chemical and the observation of her laboratory techniques being practiced on a commercial scale.

Standard Chemical operated until the early 1930s when it was replaced by a mysterious company, the Vitro Manufacturing Company. Vitro’s business was the reclamation of uranium from the waste piles left by its predecessor.

The motivation for this activity became known years later when it was learned that Vitro’s customer was the Manhattan Project. In 1957 the Atomic Energy Commission took over the site. In 1978 it became a subject for reclamation under the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act.

A large pile of radioactive debris was collected on the site and from neighboring buildings and has been encapsulated in a containment cell that is regularly monitored. Although there certainly were many serious health issues in the Canonsburg area during operation of standard Chemical and Vitro Manufacturing, it appears that long term consequences have been avoided.

Thanks to the Jefferson College Historical Society for entertaining me, and for their continued contribution to preserving local history and heritage.

The Little Saw Mill Run Railroad October 12, 2017

October 12, 2017

The Little Saw Mill Run Railroad

The first program in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society 2017/2018 series was a treat for railfans, a discussion of the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad (LSMRR). This three mile long line ran from a coal mine located where Wentzel Avenue intersects Banksville Road today to a barge loading facility on the Ohio River in what is now Pittsburgh’s West End neighborhood.

The speaker was a retired railroader named David Aitken who possesses a remarkable knowledge of railroading and coal mining in the nineteenth century, especially in the South Hills area. He has researched these topics extensively and was able to illustrate his presentation with many interesting photographs and maps.

The predecessor to the LSMRR was the “Horse Railway”, a two mile long tramway that used horses to haul coal from a coal mine in the Little Saw Mill Run valley to the Ohio River at Temperanceville (now Pittsburgh’s West End). The Horse Railway was the brainchild of Abraham Kirk Lewis, who is also credited with building the first tunnel (one mile long) through Mt. Washington and the region’s first inclined plane on the north face of the mountain.

In 1853, funded by the Harmony Society, the LSMRR was constructed to replace the Horse Railway. Colonel William Espy, a veteran of the Mexican War, was the driving force behind its organization. His farm encompassed much of what today is the Borough of Dormont. He knew it was underlain by a rich seam of coal that could be exploited along the Ohio River.

The standard gauge line ran three miles from a coaling dock in Temperanceville to the mine on Espy’s property in Banksville. The line included five bridges and a 1400 feet long trestle, and operated three 0-6-0 locomotives built at the Pittsburgh Locomotive Works.

An engine-house was located at the Banksville end of the railroad. In the early 1870s the line moved about 150,000 tons of coal each year, some of which was converted to coke in twelve beehive ovens in Temperanceville. Passenger service was provided by a single un-propelled car which coasted downhill from Banksville to Temperanceville, with a brakeman assigned to stop it with hand brakes to take on and discharge passengers. It was returned to Banksville coupled to a coal train. The railroad survived until 1897 when it was merged into the West Side Belt Railroad.

Mr. Aitken was a close friend of Mike Carrozza and consequently was quite familiar with the local Historical Society. He highlighted several LSMRR topics that were of special interest to folks in the Bridgeville area.

Early in the existence of the LSMRR Colonel Espy became aware of the extensive coal deposits in the Painter’s Run valley and initiated plans to extend the railroad far enough south to serve that area. By 1873 permission was granted by the State for that extension. A combination of concern about the intervening terrain and the financial difficulties associated with the Panic of 1873 brought an end to that scheme.

Five years later the Pittsburgh Southern Railroad leased the LSMRR right-of-way and built a line through Mt. Lebanon to Castle Shannon. A branch off it following the current route of Cedar Boulevard would have provided easy access to Painter’s Run. In 1881 the Pittsburgh Chartiers and Youghiogheny Railroad (P C & Y RR) reached that area via the Chartiers Creek valley.

Jacob Henrici was the senior Harmony Society official involved in the LSMRR. One of his ambitions for it was an extension to the coal fields along George’s Run in Scott Township, an ambition was frustrated by the topography. A possible alignment along today’s Beverly Road to Hope Hollow via Cochran and Greentree Roads might have worked. The George’s Run area also was eventually served via the Chartiers Creek valley.

The P C & Y RR acquired the McLaughlin's and Saw Mill Run Rail Way Company in 1881 and apparently seriously considered developing a branch up McLaughlin Run and on to Drake. It would have been interesting to see locomotives running down the middle of Baldwin Street.

It was an interesting evening for railfans and we suspect that the rest of the audience also benefited from this tiny peek into the fascinating world of railroading history.

The October program meeting for the Historical Society will feature Glenn Flickinger, discussing “The Origins of World War II”. The meeting will be held at 7:30 pm, Tuesday, October 24, 2017, in the Chartiers Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department, on Commercial Street. As always, the public is cordially invited.

Bridgeville's Connection to the USS Juneau October 5, 2017

October 5, 2017

Pittsburgh's Connection to the USS Juneau

This week we have a guest columnist – my brother Joe – reporting on a significant event that I was unable to attend. In his words:

On May 16, 2017, students at Chartiers Valley High School under the guidance of Robert[Bob] Rodrigues, a history teacher at the school, honored 32 men from the school district who had perished while serving in the military during World War 2. In an outdoor ceremony held behind the school a plaque bearing each man's name was added to an existing monument. This was the fourth such project carried out by Bob and his students; Korean War, Vietnam War, and another group of WW2 casualties having been similarly honored in previous years. Since I provided support on three of these projects, Bob included me in a new and similar project independent of those carried out by his students.

This project was being led by one of Bob's former students, Father Vincent Kolo, an acquaintance of our daughter Becky who had graduated with him from CVHS in 1986. After high school he became a Roman Catholic priest and is currently a chaplain at Passavant Hosptal. In 2011 The Robert Rodrigues Fund was established to honor Bob who had been a dedicated teacher at CVHS for many years. In the spring of 2017 he retired after 43 years in the classroom. Each year the Fund awards a $1000 scholarship to a deserving CVHS graduate. Father Kolo serves on the board of directors of the fund and because of this has been reconnected with Bob. In recent years Father Kolo, who is a history buff like many of us, corresponded with Kelly Sullivan who resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is the granddaughter of Albert Leo Sullivan. Albert is one of the five famous Sullivan brothers who perished when the USS Juneau was sunk at Guadacanal on November 13, 1942, by a torpedo fired from a Japanese submarine. Now having befriended Kelly Sullivan, Father Kolo asked her to come to the Pittsburgh area and give a talk on the Sullivan family, especially the impact of the disaster on her family. When she agreed to come, Father Kolo and others began working hard to locate and interview descendants of the 33 Pittsburgh area residents who also perished on the Juneau. Since Bridgeville's Alexander Asti lost his life in the incident I was asked to publicize the event in the Bridgeville area.

On September 16^th at Peters Place, Kelly was the guest speaker in an event titled “Pittsburgh's Connection to the USS Juneau and the Five Sullivan Brothers”. A program including biographies of the five Sullivan brothers and the 33 men from the Pittsburgh area was given to each attendee. Prior to Kelly's talk Bob Rodrigues gave a brief talk on American history leading up to WW2, and Father Kolo discussed events in the South Pacific leading up to Guadacanal. After Kelly spoke, a Navy Honor Guard had a memorial service honoring the men who perished. Kelly, a third grade teacher in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is heavily involved with the USS Sullivans destroyer, now a museum in Buffalo, New York, the USS Sullivans guided missile destroyer, which she “launched” in 1995 and is now on active duty, and the Iowa Veteran's Museum named for the Sullivan brothers. She had a heartwarming and informative talk which at times made the attendees chuckle and at times brought a tear to their eyes. She discussed the closeness of the brothers which led to their serving on the same ship, the family's response to the tragedy, and her heavy involvement with the US Navy. Each year she shares the story of the Juneau and her connection to the US Navy with her students. Kelly noted how interested the children are in this history and had some cute anecdotes involving them. After the Sullivan brothers perished, their parents traveled around the country helping to sell War Bonds to support our country's efforts. Other than our government taking care of their expenses there was nothing in it for them financially. The Sullivan family dealt with their huge loss in a manner better than anyone of us might imagine. After meeting and hearing Kelly Sullivan, that is still evident four generations later.

There were 120 attendees at the event, nine of them from the Bridgeville area, including Alexander Asti's nephew, Louis Asti, and his wife Sandi.

…

This certainly sounds like an event that warranted our support. I am pleased that the Bridgeville Area Historical Society went out of its way to advertise it; we need lots more of this sort of cooperation between our sister organizations, especially when it comes to notifying interested parties about worthwhile events like this.

I also am impressed with Kelly Sullivan, Father Kolo, and Bob Rodrigues for their roles in making this event happen; we are fortunate to have people like them, committed to keeping our historical heritage alive.

Bridgeville High School History Part 5 September 28, 2017

September 28, 2017

Bridgeville High School History, part five

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society continued its research into the history of Bridgeville High School at its September “Second Tuesday” workshop. This time we were able to cover four graduating classes – 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938.

The facilitator began the session by reminding the audience of conditions in the middle and late 1930s. The Depression had dragged on and actually got worse following Franklin Roosevelt’s re-election in 1936. Severe weather events were big news. The Dust Bowl Heat Wave brought 109 degree temperatures to Chicago. The worst hurricane ever recorded (185 miles per hour winds) hit the Florida Keys. It is interesting to read about these events and compare them with the hysteria people have today about severe weathe.

Fibber McGee and Molly were the latest rage on the radio. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert starred in the Academy Award winning movie, “It Happened One Night”. Fred Astaire had the number one record of the year – “Cheek to Cheek”. Here in Bridgeville we all were poor (over half the families with incomes below the Poverty Level); nonetheless those of us who were growing up atin the 1930s have happy memories of the those years.

The 1934 football team split even in eight games, but did manage to shut out South Fayette 20 to 0. The soccer team was good enough to beat Carnegie Tech 2 to 0, but eventually lost the WPIAl championship to South Fayette. The basketball team advanced to the WPIAL playoffs before an early elimination. The high school also fielded teams in wrestling and baseball.

In those days the Pittsburgh papers regularly ran features on outstanding high school students. In 1935 Louise Papanek (“a splendid student”) and William Cronemeyer (“always on the Honor Roll”) were among the young people thusly honored. The Junior Play that year, “Mr. Pim Passes By”, starred Miss Papanek and Audley McFarland.

The Class of 1935 was sixty eight strong. It included two Oelschlagers (Betty and Loraine) and two VanGorders (Evalyn and James) and numerous other names familiar to the audience – Elmer Colussy, John Maioli, and Alice Weise, among others.

That Fall the football team salvaged another disappointing season by beating South Fayette 24 to 0. The team photograph featured a very young coach Neil Brown, sporting a brand new diploma from Grove City. The facilitator enlarged part of the photograph and challenged the audience to identify someone in it. Sure enough, my brother Joe, immediately announced, “That’s Jack Wight”. And indeed it was the same Jack Wight who coached the ill-fated 1946 team before going on to an extremely effective career as an administrator in the high school.

Led by Siegal Thurman the Eldorado Dramatic Society of the High School presented a Christmas play, “The Gift of the Magi”. We have no record of whether it was based on the biblical version or on O. Henry’s well-known ironic short story.

The basketball team, known in those days as “the Redshirts”, were again good enough to make the WPIAL playoffs and to be eliminated in their first game. A promising underclassman named “Tay” (Clair) Malarkey had managed to break into the starting lineup early in the season.

Sixty six seniors graduated in 1936, including two neighbors who would die in World War II – Samuel Allender and Wayne Carson. Victoria Berton, who became our school nurse and then went off to serve in the War, was in this class, as was Agnes Shadish, who eventually became a very effective elementary school teacher at Washington School. Other familiar names included Edward David, Origin (Gus) Ferree, and Mike Toney.

Two more BHS students were featured in the Pittsburgh paper that year – Angelo Pennetti (“remarkable executive ability”) and Andrew Van Gorder ( “one of the Student Council’s most active members).

Coach Brown’s team went one and seven in the Fall of ’36, including an embarrassing 33 to 7 loss to South Fayette. The basketball team upset Peters Township in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs before being eliminated. In addition to Malarkey, Johnny Randolph and Frank Weise sparked the winners.

The graduating class of 1937 had sixty eight members. Jimmy Patton, whose intellectual curiosity and remarkable attention to detail has provided us with much of the local history that we possess today, was a proud member of this class.

A win over Montour and a tie with Cecil were the only bright spots of the 1937 football season. The High School did field a cross country team that Fall. In the Spring the BHS golf team, composed of students who had learned the game caddying at St. Clair Country Club, captured the WPIAL championship.

The BHS students honored in the Pittsburgh paper in 1938 were Gloria Lutz (“a charm all her own”) and Dorothy Clarke (President of the National Honor Society). Miss Lutz is fondly remembered by all of us who were her students at BHS a decade later.

Betty Crawford had the title role in the Junior Play ”The Patsy”, the cast of which included Clyde Carson, Glen Colton, and Bob Weise.

There were fifty eight seniors in the Class of 1938. We know a little bit more about them than the other classes of that era thanks to Dana Spriggs. His parents, Leonard Spriggs and Eva Mouret, were members of the class. Like most Depression Era classes the 1938 group could not afford a glossy Yearbook. They settled on an informative hand typed and duplicated document.

Leonard Spriggs was Editor of this Yearbook. At one of the Reunions of the Class of 1938 he and his wife produced facsimile copies of it and presented them to all of their classmates. Dana, thoughtfully, has provided copies to the Historical Society, providing us with a valuable resource.

In 1938 (not yet Dr.) Harold Colton was Supervising Principal and Mr. Fowler the Principal. Joseph Ferree taught Latin and Mathematics. John Graham taught Biology and Physical Education. In addition to coaching, Neil Brown taught Commercial courses. Alma Weise had begun her career teaching Music.

William Cronemeyer was the Class President; William McCool, June Thomas, Elmer Phillips, and Mary Moore, the other Class Officers. Despite the lack of photographs the Yearbook did a good job of reporting on all the class members, utilizing a Who’s Who section, a Prophecy section, a two line poem, and a Donors section.

The portion devoted to activities and organizations was particularly interesting. Although women did not compete formally in athletics, the Girls Athletic Association provided the opportunity for them to participate in sports internally as well as with similar organizations at other schools. One of the members of the audience, Nancy Stanson Buszinski, brought a set of ribbons her mother, Mildred Meyers, had won in athletic competition. She was pleased to see her mother mentioned in this Yearbook as a member of the GAA basketball team.

Another member of that basketball team was Sanntina Filippi. Her son, John Shipe, was also in the audience. He had brought autograph books that his mother kept while she was in school; they were passed around for perusal by the audience, as were Class rings from 1934 and 1936 which Larry Godwin brought in.

Another interesting organization was the Minor Sports Club. Mr. Graham was its sponsor; Joe Rizak its president. It is not clear what its function was. The Band consisted of forty pieces in 1938 and entertained at football games. All of us associated with the Historical Society were pleased to see Lena Carrozza listed as one of the members of the National Honor Society. Based on the impact she had on our Society we are sure she was a major factor in that organization.

We obviously are indebted to several generations of the Spriggs family for providing this document. It certainly gives us considerable insight into life at Bridgeville High School in the late 1930s.

The next “Second Tuesday” workshop will be held at 7:00 pm on October 10, 2017, at the History Center. In response to a special request the BHS History series will be interrupted so we can discuss the James Franks murder close to its 102^nd anniversary.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

President Monroe in the Chartiers Valley September 21, 2017

September 21, 2017

President Monroe in the Chartiers Valley

It has been our opinion that the only visit of a sitting President to the Chartiers Valley was the trip President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife took to Washington, Pa. to visit relatives of Mrs. Grant. Recently I learned that I was grossly mistaken and that President James Monroe had indeed visited Canonsburg on September 5, 1817 and then gone on to Pittsburgh.

It turns out there is a monograph by a gentleman named S. Putnam Waldo, entitled “The Tour of James Monroe, President of the United States, through the Northern and Eastern States”, which describes a remarkable trip Monroe took during the first year of his incumbency. He left Washington early in June 1817, travelled up the East Coast through New England then through upstate New York to Buffalo.

At that point he boarded a sailing vessel and traversed Lake Erie to Detroit. He then came back through Ohio, visiting Lancaster, Delaware, Columbus, Pickaway County, Circleville, and Chillicothe before arriving at Zanesville on Friday, August 29. A week later he arrived in Canonsburg where he was met by a company of mounted militia and escorted to Emory’s Tavern for refreshments.

Following the repast a reception was held where he met the President of Jefferson College, students of that institution, and other local citizens. At that time Jefferson was by far the largest college in the state and one of the largest in the young nation. Monroe praised it as the center of literature in the West. The militia then accompanied him on the Black Horse Trail to the Allegheny County Line where he was met by Allegheny County officials who went with him on to Pittsburgh.

During this long trip the President travelled on horseback and by coach. We presume he came to Canonsburg from Washington, Pa. although the monograph is silent regarding his activities during the previous week. It appears that the author relied heavily on direct quotations from local newspapers; apparently none were available between Zanesville and Canonsburg.

It is intriguing to imagine Monroe’s trip down the Black Horse Trail from Canonsburg into Pittsburgh. He certainly would have been curious about Morganza, Colonel George Morgan’s plantation. The Colonel had died in 1810, but Monroe would have been well informed about Aaron Burr’s visit to Morganza in 1805 and his attempt to recruit Morgan for his scheme to set up an empire in Louisiana. Morgan reported this incident to President Jefferson and testified as a witness in Burr’s treason trial.

If the President inquired about local residents when they reached the county line, one presumes the Boyces, Fawctts, and Lesnetts would have been mentioned. As the trail descended from the ridge toward Chartiers Creek, someone would have pointed out the Wingfield Mills complex and the small Hastings community. Assuming he was travelling by coach, they would have stopped at Harriotts’ Inn briefly before continuing on to “the Bridge” over Chartiers Creek and Colonel Noble’s storehouse there. His escorts would have pointed out Noble’s Trace leading west to Noblestown and east to the Youghiogheny River.

The next landmark would have been Woodville Plantation, by now the estate of Christopher Cowan. Monroe would have been quite familiar with the Whiskey Rebellion although he was in France as our Ambassador when it occurred. I am sure he would have asked to have someone point out to him the location of Bower Hill, before the rebels burned it down.

After passing St. Luke’s Church the Trail slowly climbs Greentree Hill before winding its way down to what we now call the Old Stone Tavern. In 1817 it might have been Elliot’s Tavern or Coates’ Inn; at any rate it was a major watering hole for travellers heading into Pittsburgh on the Black Horse Trail. It too had already seen a lot of history by the time President Monroe passed by.

The more I read about Monroe, the more obvious it becomes that he is the most under-appreciated of the Founding Fathers. The fact that he chose to visit the West during his first year in office and get a feel for his constituency is especially impressive. One wonders where he went during the week between Zanesville and Canonsburg – probably Cambridge, Ohio, Wheeling, and Washington.

The Log home Tour September 14, 2017

September 14, 2017

The Log Home Tour

I received a message recently from the Pioneers West Historical Society regarding their Annual Historical Log Homes Tour on Saturday, September 16, 2017, from 10 am – 2 pm. They thanked me for attending the event last year and devoting a column to the Walker-Ewing Log House, and invited me to come back this year. Unfortunately that event conflicts with another commitment for me; nonetheless the tour merits mention.

Pioneers West is a wonderful organization of dedicated people committed to the preservation of the Walker-Ewing Log House, which is located at 1355 Noblestown Road in Collier Township. The house was constructed late in the eighteenth century and has been well maintained ever since. It is a remarkable example of the way people lived over two centuries ago and well warrants a visit.

Pioneers West sponsors a tour of their property and of four other nearby log houses each year. Festivities at Walker-Ewing this year include a performance by a folk music club, craft whiskey sampling, a demonstration of a metal detector, and a display of vintage clothing.

One of the other houses on the tour is Killbuck Lodge in Oakdale, a rebuilt structure that is maintained by the Friends of Killbuck Lodge and is used by Boy Scout Troop 248. The McAdow-McAdams Wilson Log House, at 100 Bruno Lane in Imperial is now owned by West Allegheny School District and used as an historic learning center by Wilson Elementary School.

The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, 799 Pinkerton Run Road in North Fayette, owns the restored Walker-Ewing-Glass Log House and uses it as the centerpiece of its Heritage Homestead project. The Moon Township Parks and Recreation Department owns and maintains Coventry Log Cabin in Robin Hill Park, 949 Thorn Run Road. It is used as a resource by the Moon Township Historical Society.

The variety of organizations involved in these five properties is impressive; their common denominator is their passion for preserving our history and heritage. Somehow we need to find a way to support the efforts of such organizations. At the very least we need a bulletin board that keeps track of all the relevant events of all the local historical groups. Sounds like a good project for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society website.

One group of such organizations are those, like Pioneers West, that are focused on a specific facility – Woodville Plantation, Old St. Luke’s Church, the Oliver Miller Homestead, the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, Gilfillan Farm, the Thomas Espy Post (Civil War Room), the (Arden) Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, etc. Each of these facilities offers programs and open houses throughout the year, including many attractive events that history buffs miss merely because they aren’t aware of them.

By the same token the various local historical societies offer a broad spectrum of programs focused on history in general rather than on a specific facility or event. Our Bridgeville Society has an excellent series of monthly programs each year, bringing in knowledgeable outside speakers who cover subjects as varied as “The Great Castle Shannon Bank Robbery” and “Origins of World War II”. In addition they sponsor a monthly workshop focused on Bridgeville history; the current topic is the history of Bridgeville High School.

Nearly every neighboring community – South Fayette, Collier Township, Carnegie, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, etc. – has a historical society with some level of activity. Add to that the historical programs that are sponsored by and presented at the various libraries and you realize that the history buff has access to far more events than he or she could possibly attend. It would indeed be beneficial if all of them were advertised in one clearinghouse, so the history buff could take advantage of all the opportunities available.

We history buffs who live in the Chartiers Valley have access to a remarkable variety of relevant historical sites and events. It is unfortunate when we fail to take advantage of them.

The Eclipse September 7, 2017

September 7, 2017

The Eclipse

I thoroughly enjoyed the eclipse. However before I get into that I must apologize for an error in my column on the last “Second Tuesday” workshop. The correct date for the next workshop is September 12, not 19 as reported.

I initially made myself a small pinhole projector from a cracker box, but was disappointed in the size of the image. Consequently I fabricated one about forty inches long from a box that originally contained a vacuum cleaner. This was much more successful and I was pleased with the photographs I was able to take of the images.

The children next door had an abundance of special glasses which they shared with me, so I was also able to see the eclipse first hand. It was quite cloudy but the sun kept coming out briefly, just enough for us to keep track of the progress of the eclipse. Coupled with the excellent television coverage of the total eclipse it was a very interesting experience.

I was initially impressed with the fact that some people are smart enough to be able to predict the timing of eclipses precisely until I learned that people have been doing that for several millennia. So then I began to wonder if that is something I could do. After all, civil engineers of my era were automatically surveyors and surveyors of my era were automatically astronomers.

I have concluded that a capable surveyor with an accurate timepiece, a surveyor’s transit (theodolite), a clear view of the east and west horizons, and a lot of time could develop enough information to predict the occurrence of eclipses. The first task is to determine the direction of true north. This we do by observing Polaris (the North Star) sufficiently to average out the variance from its small orbit about the true North Pole. This is something we did at Surveying Camp at Penn State sixty five years ago.

Our next step is to determine the latitude of our observation station. This can be done on either the vernal or autumnal equinox, when the tilt of the earth’s axis relative to its orbit about the sun is negated. It is accomplished by taking a sun shot with the transit, another skill we mastered at Surveying Camp. The angle between the sun’s position and the zenith is the latitude of the observation station.

Now we must observe and record the passage of the sun and the moon through the sky for many days, probably several years. If we didn’t already know the magnitude of the tilt of the earth’s axis (about 23.5 degrees) we would soon discover it, as the sun’s position at Noon varies from our latitude plus or minus 23.5 degrees between the summer and winter solstices. This gives us the ability of predicting the position of the sun at any time in the future.

The moon is more complicated because its orbit about the earth is tilted a little more than five degrees relative to the ecliptic (earth’s orbit). Consequently its path through the sky varies plus or minus five degrees throughout a lunar month (one orbit about the earth), which is about twenty seven and a quarter days. By taking enough observations at night, shortly after sunrise, and shortly before sunset we can learn enough to predict the position of the moon at any time in the future.

For a solar eclipse to occur the moon must pass between the earth and the sun. This requires the moon to be in a vertical plane containing the earth and sun, perpendicular to the ecliptic; and in a horizontal plane containing the earth and sun (the ecliptic). The moon automatically satisfies the first requirement once each lunar month and the second twice a lunar month. The frequency of their occurring simultaneously is miniscule.

The factor that allows eclipses to occur relatively frequently is the fact that the earth is so much bigger than the shadow the moon puts on it during an eclipse. For this summer’s eclipse the umbra had a diameter of seventy miles passing over a disc with a diameter of eight thousand miles. Even if the moon is as much as a degree out of the ecliptic, its shadow can still hit the earth, dramatically increasing the probability that an eclipse will occur, and making it much easier for the amateur to predict its occurrence.

Unfortunately a search on the Internet for “How to Predict an eclipse” sends you to a website with a “fill-in-the-blanks” screen that provides that information for any location on the earth. This highlights my concern that future generations will trade the ability to derive something for the ability to look it up.