Private Anthony J. Theobald, 1894-1919

During the centennial of World War 1, this page periodically remembers American servicemen who gave their lives in that war.

Anthony J. Theobald was born on January 17, 1894, in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. He was the son of Mathias J. and Maria (nee Stiff) Theobald. He served as a Private in the U.S. Army during World War I and survived until after Armistice Day. However, he died of disease in Germany on March 4, 1919.

According to Martin County in the World War, he was a resident of Jay Township, Martin County, at the time of his induction into the Army as an infantry private at Fairmont, Minnesota, on July 26, 1918. He was assigned to the Headquarters Company, 54th Pioneer Infantry, at Camp Wadsworth, S.C. On August 29, 1918, his unit embarked from Newport News, Virginia, aboard one of the transports Duca d’Aosta or Caserta and arrived at Brest, France, on September 12, 1918, where he was engaged in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive from September 27 until the Armistice on November 11.

Thereafter, his unit was garrisoned in German towns in the vicinity of Wittlich and later Coblenz, and he continued service with the Army of Occupation in Germany, where he contracted pneumonia.

The unit’s history is available online.

Private Theobald died on March 4, 1919, at Neuendorf, Germany. His death was announced in the War Department’s casualty list of March 21, 1919. His body was returned to the United States and he was buried in St. Luke’s cemetery, Sherburn, Minnesota, in July 1920.

The photo here is from Soldiers of the Great War, Volume 2, Page 111.

Book Review: The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell

WikiReader.

My website contains a review of the WikiReader. This little device set me back about $20. It’s apparently no longer available on Amazon, but there do seem to be examples available on eBay and elsewhere. It’s a small battery-operated device that contains in its internal memory (with some limitations) the full contents of the English language Wikipedia.

In other words, it contains what its manufacturer called “the Internet without the Internet.” If you’re transported back in time, if you get stranded on another planet or on Gilligan’s Island, or if the world suffers TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It), you’ll no longer have access to the Internet, but you’ll have a pretty good summary of just about any subject. The batteries of the WikiReader will eventually go dead, but before that happens, all you need to do is find the Wikipedia article on the history of the battery, take some good notes, and you’ll be able to whip yourself up a new one when the time comes. Once you’re settled in in your new era, you find an interesting article such as the one on the electrical telegraph, put together a prototype, and then make arrangements to demonstrate it to Julius Caesar or Louis XIV.

The WikiReader has a number of practical limitations, and I rarely use it. But it’s carefully put away just in case I’m involved in inadvertent time travel. In my pocket, I have the important knowledge of the 21st century. If I accidentally get stuck in a time warp, I’m going to make the best of the situation.

It appears that I’m not the only one who thinks that way. I recently got an e-mail from Amazon stating that customers who bought the WikiReader also bought a book with the intriguing title The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm by Lewis Dartnell. The book is available in the usual places, such as Amazon, amazon.ca in Canada, or your local library.

As the title suggests, the book is written for the benefit of some future inhabitant of Earth who needs to reconstruct (or “reboot” as author Dartnell calls it) civilization after some sort of cataclysm. The first chapter suggests some possible sources of the disaster, and the second chapter discusses the “grace period.” After some types of disasters, such as a pandemic (such as happened in Earth Abides by George Stewart or in my own novel Caretaker), the survivors of the disaster have at their disposal the spoils of the earlier civilization. It’s a relatively simple matter to eat canned food, set up generators, and take advantage of what was left behind. In some cases, such as pandemic, that grace period might extend for generations. In other cases, such as nuclear war, there will be fewer benefits available from the earlier civilization, and survivors will need to get to work right away tending to their immediate needs.

Dartnell doesn’t dwell a great deal on the grace period, since he correctly notes that numerous other survival manuals have been written. What he spends most of his time talking about is rebuilding a technological civilization after the grace period has ended. With a few exceptions (such as how to make soap), he doesn’t provide enough detail about any given technology in order to show exactly how they’re done. But Dartnell does give enough clues in order to point survivors in the right direction.

For example, in the section on radio communication, he describes how to build a crystal radio, and he gives enough detail to allow the future archaeologist to recreate one. He gives some of the theory, but no unnecessary theory. In our current timeline, for example, it probably would have been impossible for society to come up with radio without first having an understanding of Maxwell’s Equations. Instead, Dartnell gives only enough theory to make the thing work. After building a few radios, the post-apocalyptic society would eventually come up with Maxwell’s Equations on its own. So future history would follow the same general course, but in the opposite order from ours in some instances.

In addition to the plans for the receiver, Dartnell also gives enough detail so that someone could probably come up with a workable spark-gap transmitter. I think the stumbling block for the future inventor would be coming up with an earphone sensitive enough to work with the receiver described. Armed with theory in our own civilization, the telephone was created first, which gave the required prior technology. Dartnell does qualitatively describe both a magnetic and piezoelectric earphone, but either one would require a great deal of trial and error. In our own history, a skilled inventor would know enough theory to realize that sound would come out of a telephone receiver if hooked up properly. If it didn’t work the first time, he would eventually figure out that he needed to make it more sensitive by adding more windings to the coil. The post-apocalyptic inventor would have more trial and error. But if he or she had enough faith in the book (perhaps because he knew that the soapmaking description was correct), that might provide the incentive to keep experimenting. (Dartnell does provide the future inventor with Edison’s admonition that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.)

Similarly, Dartnell gives enough clues to invent the triode tube. There isn’t nearly enough detail to make one, but he tells just enough about the Edison effect so that a gifted future scientist could verify it, and some hints as to how this effect could be harnessed to provide amplification. Dartnell mentions in passing that oscillation is possible, although I hope the future scientist figures out that feedback is necessary in order to get the thing to produce radio signals.

In order to jump-start science, Dartnell provides a few simple experiments to prove non-intuitive concepts, such as the Earth spinning on its axis (Foucault’s Pendulum) and revolving around the sun (stars rising four minutes earlier each night). In case the surviving society has lost track of time, he shows how to establish the year, either by the proper motion of Barnard’s Star or changes in the night sky due to the Earth’s axial precession. The book contains convenient charts showing the reader the year (as well as a map and picture to locate the Svalbard Global Seed Vault).

In short, the future reader will get a lot of useful information from this book. In most cases, the ideas contained in the book will need additional details, but Dartnell points the future inventor on the right path for either experimentation, or at least a clue as to which ancient texts he or she should try to recover. (The book contains an extensive bibliography to help the future inventor in that quest.)

Chances are, nobody would read a book entitled, “The History of Science and Technology.” But when you get to the end, you realize that’s exactly what you read. In detailing the easiest course for future civilization, he necessarily recreates our own. There will, of course, be some differences. For example, most readily accessible deposits of fossil fuels will be gone for the next civilization. But he offers a number of workarounds. And since the current nitrate supplies of our early civilization (see The Guano Islands Act for an interesting discussion of a seemingly mundane commodity) are also depleted, he goes into more detail regarding the relatively simple chemistry required to fix nitrogen from the air. On the other hand, aluminum requires a great deal of industry to refine. But in the case of a future society, even hundreds of thousands of years in the future, our dumps will provide ample mines of high-grade ore that will need little more than melting down and re-casting.

In short, if you bought a WikiReader after reading my review, then, yes, Amazon was right. You’ll want a copy of Dardnell’s book as well.

More information, including a discussion forum, is at the book’s website: the-knowledge.org

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USA: Canada:

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KGEI, GE’s Shortwave Station

Photo courtesy of John Schneider and Bay Area Radio Museum. Used with permission.

Seventy five years ago, this date’s issue of Radio Guide magazine concluded a two-part feature on GE’s short wave station KGEI. Part 1 appeared in the August 31, 1940 issue, and part two appeared on September 7.

The station was owned and operated by General Electric and went on the air in San Francisco in March 1939. Short wave broadcasting was not new to GE. It first put a short wave signal on the air with station W2XAF in Schenectady, New York. That station later became WGEO. The next year, another transmitter was installed at the same site with call letters W2XAD, later WGEA. By 1940, WGEO was transmitting with 100,000 watts and was the world’s most powerful station. The two stations were popular with listeners in Europe and Latin America.

Golden Gate International Exposition, 1929-40. Wikipedia image.

Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939-40. Wikipedia image.

By 1940, KGEI was running 20,000 watts, but there were plans to increase it to 50,000. The Schenectady stations operated on 9.53, 15.33, and 21.5 MHz. KGEI broadcast on 9.67 and 15.33 MHz, and provided an additional signal to Latin America as well as Asia and Oceania. The station, both studio and transmitter, was part of GE’s exhibit at the Golden Gate International Exposition, and was located on Treasure Island, between San Francisco and Oakland. The Island was also to serve as a terminus for Pan American‘s Clipper ships, and the station was used to promote Pan American as well as GE. According to the article, “one of the most interesting and colorful programs is ‘Clipper Departure.’ This program is a dockside complementary describing the actual departure of the China Clipper for Hawaii, Guam and points westward. The captain and various members of the crew of the Clipper are interviewed, each contributing some bit about the interesting aerial journeys to and fro across the Pacific. Passengers ready to embark give their reactions as they prepare to set forth on their fascinating trip. The program concludes with the roar of the Clipper’s motors as it moves down the ramp and into the bay off to Hawaii on the first leg of its voyage to Manila and Hong Kong.”

THe station had a studio on the Exposition grounds, and it also carried network programming, such as Burns and Allen, Bing Crosby, and the Don Ameche Show.

Photo courtesy of xxxxx. Used with permission.

Photo courtesy of John Schneider and Bay Area Radio Museum. Used with permission.

The picture at the top of the page was taken in late 1939, and bears the KGEI call letters. The picture of the transmitter and enclosed studio at the left was taken earlier in the year and shows the W6XBE call sign. The public was allowed to be in the same room as the 50 kW transmitter, separated only by a flimsy guardrail.

After the Exposition, the station continued operation. During the War, it remained under GE’s control, but at the request of the Government, did carry programming that was recommended.

The station was widely listened to, especially in the Phillipines. Many resistance fighters listened to the station,, which included broadcast in Tagalog. In 1954-55, the station carried broadcasts from Stanford University, billed as “The International University of the Air.” During that period, the University received 12,000 letters from listeners in Latin America.

In 1960, the station was acquired by the Far East Broadcasting Company, a religious broadcaster. Even though FEBC operated other stations in Asia and the Pacific, KGEI was directed mostly to Latin America, billing itself as La Voz de la Amistad (The Voice of Friendship). During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the station once again put under Government control. In fact, a Cuban listener wrote to the station in 1962, and his letter included the exact positions and descriptions of Russian missile sites. This hadn’t been publicized in the world press yet, but KGEI decided to reproduce this interesting letter in one of its fundraising letters. Unbenknownst to KGEI, that mailing list included the CIA, which hastily arranged a meeting and asked that such letters be made available to them prior to making them public.

A few months later, presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger called and informed the station that the President was requesting use of the station to rebroadcast the VOA. The station was reluctant, since it valued its voice as being independent of the U.S. Government. But FEBC was eventually convinced of the need to “volunteer” the station, and it carried VOA programming during the crisis.

KGEI remained on the air until 1994. The original 50 kW GE transmitter was donated to another Christian organization organization for use in Liberia. However, it was destroyed by rebels prior to going on the air. The station’s then main transmitter, capable of 250 kW, was donated to another organization for use in broadcasting to Russia from Alaska.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank John Schneider and the Bay Area Radio Museum for allowing me to use the photos shown on this page, and for providing much of the information for this post. More information about KGEI can be found on the Museum’s website.

References

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The Tank Turns 100

1915 “Little Willie” prototype. Wikipedia photo.

A hundred years ago today, a new era in warfare began as the first tank rolled off the assembly line. The prototype, nicknamed Little Willie, weighed 14 tons, had a speed of only two miles per hour, and frequently got stuck in trenches. But as the bugs were worked out, the tank transformed warfare.

The vehicle was the brainchild of British Col. Ernest Swinton and Maurice Hankey, the secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence. They pitched the idea to Navy Minister Winston Churchill, who organized a committee to beging making a prototype “land boat.”

The project was veiled in secrecy, and workers were told that the vehicles were to be used to carry water to the battlefield. In keeping with the deception, they were shipped in crates marked “tank,” and the name stuck.

British tank in action, Sept. 1916. Wikipedia photo.

Work continued to work out the bugs, and a more refined version was first used on September 15, 1916, at the First Battle of the Somme. It wasn’t an immediate success, but further refinements were made, and at the first Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, the British fielded 400, capturing 8000 enemy troops.

References

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Hurricane Betsy, 1965

Hurricane Betsy satellite image, 4 Sept 1965. Wikipedia photo.

Fifty years ago today, Hurricane Betsy started bearing down on the United States. On August 27, 1965, the storm formed as a tropical depression off the coast of French Guiana and started moving northwesterly. It caused only minimal damage to the Leeward Islands before heading over open waters for several days. It achieved hurricane intensity on August 30. On September 5, 1965, the hurricane stalled over the Bahamas, where it inflicted the worst damage since 1929, before resuming a westward track. It made its initial landfall in Key Largo, Florida, before reemerging in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it continued to gain strength.

Flooding in New Orleans. Wikipedia photo.

On early September 10, it made landfall again near Houma and Grand Isle, Louisiana, with winds of 155 mph. The eyewall was in the New Orleans area for over eight hours, with winds in the range of 120 mph. It caused a strom surge into Lake Pontchartrain and considerable flooding and levee breaches in New Orleans, lasting ten days. Near Baton Rouge, the storm caused the sinking of a barge loaded with enough chlorine to kill 40,000 people, necessitating mass evacuations in the harbor area. In New Orleans, most antennas were down, and 90% of the city was without power.

The November, 1965, issue of QST reported on how Radio Amateurs responded to the storm. K5AOE set up on the 8th floor of City Hall, where considerable traffic was handled on 75 meters. This included health and welfare traffic, and also a dedicated medical net. Fifteen mobile stations, each assigned to a doctor, were set up at shelters, and there was constant traffic as conditions were reported and medical supplies requested. The FCC declared a communications emergency for the duration.

The Hurricane Watch Net was formed informally during Hurricane Betsy as stations came on the air to provide communications to and from affected areas. Since then, the net has continued to operate with a more formal structure any time a hurricane is within 300 miles of projecte landfall or otherwise threatening any populated area.

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Don Wallace, W6AM, and WCCO Radio

I always knew that reknowned Amateur Radio operator Don Wallace, W6AM, had a background in Minnesota radio history. For example, I knew that he was involved with the University of Minnesota Amateur Radio Club, and I knew that he was involved with the Minnesota Wireless Association, whose antenna was a prominent feature on Minneapolis City Hall in 1915.

But I never knew the role that he played in the founding of WCCO radio. His role is detailed in a profile of WCCO which appeared in the September 1925 issue of Radio in the Home.

An earlier post recounts how WCCO first came on the air in October 1924. Its predecessor, WLAG, first came on the air in 1922. One of the problems encountered by WLAG before its demise was the transmitter location. The 500 watt transmitter was located in the city. When it was on the air, it made listening to more distant stations impossible. But when it was off the air, the listeners with crystal sets weren’t able to get anything. When a major investor in WLAG pulled its support, the station was off the air.

A group called the “Northwest Radio Trade Association” took the lead in getting a new station on the air. Obviously, the lack of a radio station put a dent in radio sales. In particular, without a local station, crystal set owners were left with nothing to listen to.

By this time, Wallace was employed by General Electric. As he recounted in a 1984 interview, when offered a position right out of college, he was offered a salary of $100 per month. He noted that his wife made more than that as a teacher, and that he could make more working as a telegrapher. GE was unwilling to budge very much, but they upped the offer to $125, and also offered him 1% of his department’s sales. Within a few months, he was making more than the company’s president.

Wallace was also the president of the Northwest Radio Trade Association in 1924, and took the lead in organizing a new station for the Twin Cities. Along with the group’s secretary, H.H. Cory, he proposed a more powerful 5000 watt station about 20 miles away from the Twin Cities. This would result in a signal powerful enough for the crystal set owners, but far enough away so as to allow owners of more powerful sets to pick up distant stations.

The plan met with some initial skepticism, as local businessmen noted that the area couldn’t support 500 watt WLAG, and they were hesitant about investing in a 5000 watt station. But eventually, Washburn-Crosby pledged to buy the station, provided that additional subscriptions of $50,000 per year from both Minneapolis and St. Paul could be secured.

WCCO transmitter site in about 1930.

As proposed by Wallace, the transmitter was located away from both Minneapolis and St. Paul, at its current site in Anoka. Studios were located in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and to avoid any rivalries, announcers alternated announcing the location as “Minneapolis-St. Paul” and “St. Paul-Minneapolis.”

WCCO Minneapolis studio, Nicollet Hotel, 1925.

Wallace graduated from high school in 1912. He first became involved in amateur radio in 1910, prior to licensing, and got his first license in about 1912. He is listed in the 1913 call book as 6OC at 1431 Linden Avenue, Long Beach, California.

He served as a radio operator during World War I, and after the war, was assigned to serve as the radio operator for President Wilson at Versailles. He came to Minnesota after the war to attend the University of Minnesota. In Minnesota, he was licensed as 9XAX and 9ZT. In the 1922 call book, he is also listed as 9DR at 1830 Stevens Avenue in Minneapolis.

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1945 “Tom Thumb” Crystal Set

Seventy years ago, the September 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics carried the plans for this “Tom Thumb” crystal set, about the size of a match box. The circuit was very basic, with no variable condenser, instead using a simple slider across the coil to tune. The coil was flattened, and wound on a 5/8 by 1-9/16 by 2-5/8 inch block of wood. It notes that this block is recessed at one end to take a small fixed detector. For a modern replication, a diode could easily be used, with many sources for obtaining it noted on my crystal set parts page.

The article notes that the block should be baked in a moderate oven before winding the coil, presumably to drive out moisture. The slider is made of a partially flattened Fahnestock clip, and the “cabinet” is constructed of cardboard. The outside contains four more Fahnestock clips for the antenna, ground, and headphones. The article notes that in areas with a strong station, about 20 feet of wire tossed on the floor should give adequate reception, with a spring clip attached to a convenient ground.

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WOI, Ames, Iowa, 1925

WOI operating room, 1925.

Ninety years ago, the September 1925 issue of Radio Age carried a profile of radio station WOI, at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) in Ames, Iowa. In 1925, the station’s focus was clearly on the farmer, and the article notes that the station was “maintained for the farmer by men who have practical farm experience.” The station began operating as WOI in May 1922. Programming included market reports, seasonal lectures of interest to farmers, and weather reports. Entertainment programs included both classical and popular music.

Even prior to the station being licensed as WOI, Iowa State College was a hotbed of radio activity. Even before World War I, weather reports had been broadcast by station 9YI, the predecessor of W0YI, the University’s Amateur Radio club station.

The article notes that the college offered an annual course in radio construction “which has enabled the farmer and especially the boys and girls on the farm to build their own sets.” At one such course, held annually in April, more than 500, from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Nebraska, descended on the campus to take part in the free course. In addition to the construction of broadcast sets, there was instruction in Amateur Radio, offered by students connected with Amateur station 9LC.

The station then operated on 270 meters (1111 kHz) with a power of 500 watts. The antenna consisted of wire aerials connected to a water tank and massive smoke stack 150 yards apart.

WOI is currently the flagship station of the Iowa Public Radio network. It’s 640 kHz signal (5000 watts daytime, 1000 watts nighttime) covers most of the state of Iowa during daylight hours, as well as good portions of adjoining states.

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Minnesota State Fair

Welcome to OneTubeRadio.com. This blog covers a variety of subjects, including radio history , Minnesota history , World War I , World War II, and scouting.

Minnesota State Fair, 1915.

Jump to 1922 Aeronautical Wedding
Jump to Ye Old Mill at 100 Years
Jump to Radio at the Minnesota State Fair

Today, we offer these images of the Minnesota State Fair as it appeared a hundred years ago in 1915. The scene above is the bandstand. Visible in the background is the dome of the Agriculture Building. A closer images of this building is also shown here, from the fair’s 1915 annual report.

1922 Aeronautical Wedding

Bride, groom, and pilot at 1922 aeronautical wedding at grandstand.

The grandstand, in the 1915 postcard shown below, is immediately recognizable to a modern visitor. As previously reported here, in 1922, the grandstand served as the wedding venue of Edwin Moline and Zelma Olson, who were married aboard an airplane flying above the grandstand. The presiding minister, Rev. E.A. Jordan, at 220 pounds, was too heavy to fit inside the airplane along with the pilot, bride, and groom. Therefore, he officiated from a pagoda within the grandstand, receiving the couple’s vows by a radio which was carried aboard the plane.

Ye Old Mill at 100 Years

Ye Old Mill, 2008. Photo, placeography.org, Licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike License v. 3.0.

This year, the “Ye Old Mill” attraction at the Minnesota State Fair celebrates its 100th Anniversary. Many visitors are surprised to learn the nearly identical attractions with the same name at the Iowa State Fair (dating to 1921) and Kansas State Fair (also dating to 1915).

Radio at the Minnesota State Fair

Radio has a long tradition at the Minnesota State Fair. Indeed, the photo of the grandstand shows on the field what certainly appears to be a wireless antenna of some sort, although I don’t have any details of the old image. In 1914, the fair’s governing board considered a proposition made by one Philip Edelman of St. Paul for the installation of a wireless station at an esimated cost of $200. The board decided to continue discussions with Edelman as to whether such an exhibit could be made in a future year at less cost.

The Minneapolis sign of Sterling Electric Company, 1920 state fair exhibitor. Google books.

One of the earliest references I could find to radio at the State Fair was the December 1920 issue of Electrical Contractor Dealer, which detailed the experiences of the Sterling Electric Company of Minneapolis. At the 1920 Fair, the company had a large booth in the Electrical Building which included a wireless station that sent and received messages daily. The company followed up with a Saturday morning class in wireless telegraphy, in which there was considerable interest.

Shortly thereafter, the company, along with the Journal Printing Company, was the licensee of one of the area’s first broadcast stations, WBAD. That license was issued on April 25, 1922, according to the May 1922 issue of Radio World. It is likely, therefore, that the honors for being the first radio station at the fair go to WBAD. Since then, of course, local broadcasters have a long history of broadcasting from the fair. The image below from a WCCO promotional item shows the station’s then location in the Agriculture-Horticulture building.

Aero Spacelines Super Guppy, 1965

Wikipedia photo.

The unusual aircraft shown here first flew 50 years ago today, August 31, 1965.

It is tail number N940NS (formerly N1038V), the first of seven Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft. It was built from the fuselage of a C-97J Turbo Stratocruiser, the military version of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. The fuselage had a length of 141 feet, with a maximum load of 52,500 pounds.

Today, six of the seven planes are mothballed or in static displays. A single one is still in service, with tail number N941NA. It is used by NASA as a transport aircraft and is based in El Paso, Texas. It was acquired by NASA from the European Space Agency, where it bore tail number F-GEAI.

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