James Ritty was an inventor who owned several saloons, including one in Dayton,
Ohio. In 1878, while traveling on a
steamboat trip to Europe, Ritty was fascinated by an apparatus that counted how
many times the ship's propeller went around.
He began to contemplate whether or not a similar mechanism could be made
to record the cash transactions made at his saloons. Five years later, Ritty and John Birch
received a patent for inventing
the cash register. Ritty then
invented what was nicknamed the "Incorruptible Cashier" or the first
working mechanical cash register.
His invention also featured that familiar bell sound referred to in
advertising as "The Bell Heard Round the World." While working
as a saloonkeeper, Ritty also opened a small factory in Dayton to manufacture
his cash registers. The company did not
prosper and by 1881, Ritty became overwhelmed with the responsibilities of
running two businesses and decided to sell all his interests in the cash
register business. After reading a
description of the cash register designed by Ritty and sold by the National
Manufacturing Company, John H. Patterson decided to buy both the company and
the patent. He renamed the company the
National Cash Register Company in 1884. Patterson
improved the cash register by adding a paper roll to record sales
transactions. Later on, there were other
improvements. Inventor and
businessman Charles
F. Kettering designed a cash register with an electric motor in 1906
while working at the National Cash Register Company. He later worked at General Motors and
invented an electric self-starter (ignition) for a Cadillac. Mary Bellis
https://www.thoughtco.com/cash-register-james-ritty-4070920
Carillon
Historical Park celebrates how Dayton, Ohio, changed the
world. The Gem City is home to the
airplane, the automobile self-starter, the cash register, the first
internationally acclaimed African American poet, the National Football League’s
inaugural game, and so much more. By the
turn of the 20th century, Dayton had more patents, per capita, than any U.S.
city, and one-sixth of the nation’s corporate executives had spent a portion of
their career at legendary Dayton company National Cash Register (NCR). In 2005, Carillon Historical Park
merged with the Montgomery County Historical Society to create a new umbrella
organization known as Dayton History.
The private non-profit (501c3) organization was established to preserve,
share, and celebrate our region’s history.
Carillon Historical Park is home to over 30 historic structures and
cares for over three million artifacts. https://www.daytonhistory.org/about-us/ See map of Carillon Park showing that
Building 3, Heritage Center of Dayton Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship,
features an
NCR cash register room with 90 Dayton-made machines; the 4-D Build For Tomorrow
animatronic theater; the original Deeds Barn, the birthplace of the automobile
self-starter; dozens of exhibits highlighting Dayton companies; and the
Carousel of Dayton Innovation, a hand-carved carousel made up of one-of-a-kind Dayton
characters. https://www.daytonhistory.org/p
Henry Clay (1777-1852)
was born near Richmond, Virginia. At age
14, Clay began work at a local store, where he copied legal documents and did
other general writing as needed. He was
soon hired by George Wythe—a powerful lawyer whose friends and students
included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Marshall—as a personal
assistant. Clay served him ably for
several years before a brief stint with the state attorney general. By age 20, Clay was admitted to the Virginia
bar as a practicing lawyer, having taught himself everything he needed to know
through reading and work experience.
Shortly thereafter, Clay moved to Lexington, Kentucky, which would remain his
home until his death in 1852. For
several years, Clay maintained a respectable, if modest, legal practice. His clients included Aaron Burr, who
was accused of treason for conspiring to establish an
independent country in the western United States. As early as 1798, Clay spoke out against the
Alien and Sedition Acts and advocated for amending the Kentucky state
constitution to abolish slavery, indicating a strong interest in public
affairs. Nicandro Iannacci
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/henry-clay-the-great-compromiser
Nicknames for Henry Clay are The
Great Compromiser, Henry of the
West and The Western Star.
Tom Lehrer at 90: a life
of scientific satire In 1959, the
mathematician and satirist Tom Lehrer, turning 90 on April 4, 2019, performed what he characteristically
called a “completely pointless” scientific song at Harvard University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. (He was a PhD
student there at the time.) ‘The
Elements’, now one of his most cherished works, sets the names of all the
chemical elements then known to the tune of the ‘Major-General’s Song’
from The Pirates of Penzance, the comic opera by W. S. Gilbert and
Arthur Sullivan. Lehrer’s heroically precise, rapid-fire enunciation of 102
elements (reordered to allow flawless end-rhymes), ends with the much-quoted
crack, “These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard/And there
may be many others but they haven’t been discarvard.” Fans might be surprised to learn that he had
crunched numbers for the National Security Agency as an army draftee in the
mid-1950s. Much of Lehrer’s oeuvre—some
50 songs (or 37, by his own ruthless reckoning) composed over nearly three
decades—played with tensions at the nexus of science and society. His biggest hit, That Was The Year
That Was, covered a gamut of them. This
1965 album gathered together songs Lehrer had written for That Was The
Week That Was, the US satirical television show spawned by the BBC
original. ‘Who’s Next?’ exposes the dangers of nuclear proliferation. His musical
career began at university, with the spoof sports song ‘Fight Fiercely,
Harvard’. In the early 1950s, Lehrer put
on a satirical show in the physics department, The Physical Revue (a pun on the name of the US journal then named Physical Review). With co-performers including Norman Ramsey
(later a Nobel laureate in physics) and Lewis Branscomb (who would become a
presidential science-policy advisor), he performed ditties such as
‘Relativity’, ‘Fugue for Scientists’ and ‘The Slide Rule Song’. It was a training ground for later triumphs. Andrew Robinson https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03922-x
Is Chinese passion for French wine a threat to its
future? by Jan van der Made Some 160 Chinese investors have already
bought their own wine-producing chateaux. Should French wine-makers be
concerned? “French wine has been very
important in China from the beginning, because of Bordeaux,” says Chinese wine
aficionado Eric Xu, who says he is a tourist.
He came to France to discover French wines. He went on a trip to the Languedoc region
where he visited two chateaux, and now comes to the French capital for Wine
Paris. China and France established
diplomatic relations in 1974. In 1979,
China started its capitalist revolution. Four years later, state-owned food giant COFCO
started to produce its Great Wall wine that was meant to compete on
international markets. Soon it was
joined by the Dynasty brand, a joint venture between Tianjin City Grape Garden
and Rémy Martin. It was one of the first ever Chinese-foreign joint
ventures. Today, Chinese investors own
168 chateaux in France, aiming to export their produce to the Chinese mainland. http://en.rfi.fr/france/20190212-does-chinese-love-affair-french-wine-threaten-one-frances-symbols
The Chinese owner of four vineyards in the French
winemaking region of Bordeaux has caused a stir by giving the historic chateaus
new names with a distinctly Chinese flavour. Chateau Senilhac, once the
largest wine producer in the Medoc area of Bordeaux, had been in the Grassin
family for eight decades when it was sold to Chinese entrepreneur Chi Tong in
2017. According to one employee, staff
at the chateau were instructed from Hong Kong to rebrand the vineyard as
Chateau Antilope Tibetaine, or Chateau
Tibetan Antelope in English. Three
other vineyards in Bordeaux, all owned by Mr Chi, have undergone similar
rebranding. After three centuries
without change, the signs around Chateau Larteau now read Chateau Lapin
Imperial (Chateau Imperial Rabbit). Chateau La Tour Saint-Pierre, a vineyard in
the Saint-Emilion area of Bordeaux, is changing its name to Chateau Lapin d'Or
(Chateau Golden Rabbit). And Chateau Clos
Bel-Air, an estate in Pomerol that dates back to the late 1800s, will soon
operate under the name Chateau Grande Antilope (Chateau Great Antelope)
Libraries=Strong Communities: Celebrate National Library Week April 7-13,
2019 http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek
On April 7, 2019, the American Library Association
(ALA) released its State of America’s Libraries 2019 report, an annual summary of library trends released during
National Library Week, April 7-13, that outlines statistics and issues
affecting all types of libraries.
Traditionally the ALA releases a Top Ten List within the State of
America’s Libraries Report. This year 11
books were selected, since two titles were tied for the final position on the
list, and both books were burned by a religious activist to protest a Pride
event. Overall,
483 books were challenged or banned in 2018, with the top 11 most frequently
challenged listed at
Happy National Library Week from the Toledo-Lucas
County Public Library In honor of this special week, one of our incredible
team members, David Bush, created a poem using inspiration from the Library Love stories that customers like you have shared on
our website. We're so thankful to serve
our community and love being part of your life!
Visit one or more of our 19 locations Borrow cool gadgets like telescopes, DSLR cameras and tablets
for kids Make something unique using our 3D printers, recording studios
and more Find new and in-demand books and movies to check out Join us for exciting and free programs for all ages
On April
8, 2019 in Minneapolis, the Virginia
Cavaliers took home the NCAA tournament championship title in a dramatic
85-77 overtime defeat of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. https://www.npr.org/2019/04/09/711302804/this-is-a-great-story-says-virginia-cavaliers-coach-on-team-s-ncaa-comeback Watch Johnny Holliday play the national
anthem (in duple meter rather than triple) before the game at https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/college/article229001514.html An accomplished jazz musician, Holliday’s
instrument of choice is the trumpet, followed closely by the saxophone. The Texas native’s penchant for music was
evident at a young age. He originally
wanted to play the drums but was drawn to the trumpet after hearing his older
brother play it. https://www.twincities.com/2019/04/05/minneapolis-air-force-sergeant-to-perform-national-anthem-at-final-four-championship-game/
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2076
April 9, 2019
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