Author Archives: clem.law@usa.net

The Destruction of Louvain, 1914

LouvainUnivThis week a hundred years ago, much of the Belgian city of Louvain (also spelled Leuven) was in flames. In part of what was to become known as the Rape of Belgium,

The University of Louvain, founded in 1426, is depicted here in ruins in the September 19, 1914, issue of the New York Sun.  The action in the first days of the war had focused around the town of Liege, and Louvain lay between it and Brussels. After the Belgian army made a sharp attack, the Germans retreated to Louvain, where they later claimed that they had been fired upon by civilians. The Germans embassy in Washington later proclaimed that the German army had destroyed the city to “punish” it.

Before the war ended, the Germans killed some 5521 Belgian civilians. About 300 of those, including the entire police force, were killed in the destruction of Leuven. The destruction of the university library, shown here, resulted in the loss of about 230,000 volumes.

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Private Albert Tony Sturgleski, Killed in Action, 1918.

Sturgleski

Private Albert Tony Sturgleski, Killed in Action, 1918.

On this page, I’ll periodically include some information about some of the forgotten young American men who lost their lives in the First World War. All of them are listed, many with a photograph, in a three-volume set entitled Soldiers of the Great War.

Among them was Private Albert Tony Sturgleski of Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota. His death was noted in the November 21, 1918, issue of the Askov (Minn.) American.

I was unable to locate Private Sturgleski’s grave or next of kin. He is not listed in the databases of the Deparment of Veterans Affairs or the American Battle Monuments Commission.

St. Isidore’s Catholic Cemetery in Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota, is the final resting place of John T. Sturgeleski  (1857-1939) and Mary Sturgeleski (1870-1951). Despite the slightly different spelling of the last name, it seems likely that these were Albert’s relatives, quite likely his parents.

All I know for certain, almost a century later, is that Albert was an American boy, born around the turn of the last century, who answered his country’s call and went to war.  He probably never went to college, never married, never had a trade or profession, and never had children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren.  He was just a young man sent by older men to war started by even older men on another continent.



Radio Foxtrot On The Beach, 1924

wirelessbeachdancersThis image, from the cover of the July 19, 1924 issue of Radio World, shows Martha Breesh and Edna Jameson dancing on the beach at Atlantic City. According to the magazine, the two attractive vacationists are doing a Nymph-like dance on the beach, to the tune of a fox trot coming over the radio. Miss Breesh and Miss Jameson report that health and beauty depend on judicious exercise, and that they rate beach dancing to radio music as the apex of judiciousness.


1934 Metal Detector

1934MetalDetector80 years ago, this was the latest in metal detectors. This unit, shown in the August 1934 issue of Radio Craft magazine, is similar in concept, but larger in size, to inexpensive metal detectors available today. It consisted of a one-tube oscillator along with a five-tube receiver. When the oscillator’s coil came in proximity to metallic objects, the frequency shifted, and the change in frequency could be determined from the receiver. The oscillator is mounted in one cabinet, with the receiver in the other.

The complete plans were in the magazine, which also reported that the unit could be purchased commercially. It was reported as being sufficiently sensitive to detect a piece of metal 16 inches square at a depth of 15 feet.


Elwood Hannsman: Boy Scout, Inventor, Lawyer

WashTimes23Aug1914A hundred years ago today, the Washington Times of August 23, 1914, shows these scouts at Camp Archibald Butt, a camp operated by the Baltimore and Washington councils of the BSA between 1914 and 1916.

The scouts are identified as E.L. Maschmeyer, Mitchell Carroll, King Ridgeway, Paul Grove, George Read, Elwood Hannsman, and Randolph Carroll.

windshieldcleanerThe scout second to the right is presumably the same Elwood Hannsman who went on in 1936 to secure U.S. Patent No. 2031830 for the windshield cleaner shown here. Mr. Hannsman was also issued U.S. Patents 2268072 for a direct reading gauge (1941) and 2100188 (1937) for another windshield cleaner. The assignee of all three patents was the Stewart-Warner Corporation of Chicago, which was presumably Mr. Hannsman’s employer.

And at some point, it would appear that Stewart-Warner sent Mr. Hannsman to law school, since he is listed as one of the attorneys for Stewart-Warner in a number of cases, including
Jiffy Lubricator Co. V. Stewart-Warner Corp., 177 F.2d 360 (4th Cir. 1949).

He was a member of the ABA Section of Patent Trade-Mark and Copyright Law. He was the Chairman of the Patent Sub-Section at the time of his death in 1954.  (ABA Journal, June 1954).


Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, 1939

Seventy-five years ago today, only a quarter century after the start of the First World War, the Second was falling into place. Today, August 22, 1939, the papers were reporting the non-aggression pact between between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, that German guns were moving toward the Polish border, and that the Nazis considered the “dispute over Danzig as won.”


German Pontoon Bridge

Almost a month into the war, photos are now starting to appear in American papers.  Of course, war reporting a hundred years ago was not an instantaneous affair, especially when it came to photojournalism.  Every photo in an American paper had to cross the Atlantic by steamer before publication.

This photo, from an Arizona paper, shows a German pontoon bridge, probably in Belgium.  The caption notes that the destruction of bridges in Belgium and France did little to slow the advancing German troops, since German engineers carried the materials to quickly construct bridges such as this one.



U.S. Sets Wireless Neutrality Rules

German station at Sayville, Long Island, allowed back on the air.

German station at Sayville, Long Island, allowed back on the air.

A hundred years ago today, August 21, 1914, President Wilson resolved the issue of use of wireless stations in U.S. territory by the warring nations. After protests from Germany, whose cable had been cut and had only wireless contact with Germany, it was decided that the warring nations would be permitted to send coded messages from their stations in the U.S.

Largely because of the practical impossibility, there would be no censorship of cable traffic on the remaining transatlantic cables.

As noted here earlier, it was Hiram Percy Maxim who brought to the government’s attention the German’s transmission of coded messages.

Among the newspapers carrying the report was the 22 August 1914 edition of the New York Tribune.

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