A Cool Connection

I am currently reading Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard – and excellent book that details the election and assassination of President James Garfield. While reading today I came across a part I though my dad would find particularly interesting (as he works in HVAC and Comfort Systems). Quickly, I paraphrased this portion of the book and emailed it to him. In turn, he responded with a historical connection to the industry in which I am employed – printing.

I found the link between our two professions truly fascinating and wanted to share it here.  The paraphrased narrative, and my father’s response, were basically as follows:

During the particularly hot summer of July 1881, the US Navy Core of Engineers and John Wesley Powell set about to create a system to cool the bedroom of the recently shot President James Garfield.

Using three tons of ice, and an elaborate system comprised of a 36” electric fan that forced air through cheese cloth screens that had been soaked in ice water and placed in a  6 foot long iron box, air was conducted to James Garfield’s bedroom through a series of tin pipes.  Although the system worked (the air entered the pipes at miraculously cool 55 degrees) the cheesecloth made the air heavily humid.  Worse still, even though the majority of the cooling contraption was in Garfield’s adjacent office, the contestant whirring and grinding of the fan caused an ear-splitting racket.

Undeterred, the engineers set to fix the problems.

First they set a 134 gallon ice box between the iron box and the pipes in order to dry the air.  Then, realizing that the tin pipes actually amplified the noise, they replaced them with pipes made of canvas covered wire; which absorbed the sounds.

Twenty years later, the first modern electrical air conditioner was invented by Willis Havilland Carrier of Syracuse, NY.

Now, Carrier actually worked for a large printing company (Sackett-Wilhelms Lithography) and high summer humidity in New York was often a problem.  Paper would swell with moisture (unevenly, of course) and would then become misaligned in the huge presses. Also, ink took longer to dry in humid air; causing smears and ink transfer from page to page.

Carrier knew that he could use steam to heat buildings and reasoned that by altering the process he could lower temperature – and therefore lower the amount of humidity that the air could hold.

Instead of forcing air over steam coils, he blew air over coils filled with cold water.

The lower heat and humidity improved the manufacturing process (which was his goal).  Human comfort was just a by-product.

TODAY in History

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – October 14, 1912

A saloonkeeper named John Schrank shot Teddy Roosevelt while he was campaigning for the presidency. The bullet did lodge in Teddy’s chest; but only after it had passed through a steel eyeglass case and a 50-page folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket.

Roosevelt, an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he wasn’t coughing up blood the bullet had not completely penetrated his chest wall into his lung – so he declined suggestions that he go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, “Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

He spoke for 90 minutes.

Afterwards, an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged three inches into in Roosevelt’s chest muscle but did not penetrate the pleura. As it would have been more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life.

Roosevelt was taken off the campaign trail in the final weeks of the race because of the wound; but, out of respect, the other two candidates also stopped their own campaigns while Roosevelt was in the hospital. The bullet lodged in his chest caused his chronic rheumatoid arthritis – which he had suffered from for years – to get worse and it soon prevented him from doing his daily exercise routine.

Roosevelt would soon become obese (but not nearly as large as Taft).

Through the Nose or Teeth: Prepare to Pay

It’s ironic, really.

All of these new charges, which take effect tomorrow, are because of a new rule that limits the fees banks are allowed to charge merchants every time a customer pays using their debit card. This rule, known as the Durbin amendment, is named after its sponsor Senator Richard J. Durbin. The rule has been called “a crucial part of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul”.

In reality, this financial overhaul is aimed not so much at the Banks as it is the consumer. Has it never occurred to Senators Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and/or Dick Durbin that the merchants were already passing the current debit and credit card transaction fees onto the customer?

When you go to Target and buy that shirt that used to be $10 but is now $12… why do you suppose that is? When the price of cotton goes up Target doesn’t eat the cost. If Target has to pay more, so does the consumer. If the Banks are being forced to charge merchants less for debit card swipes the Banks (clearly) aren’t going to just eat that cost. They too will pass the cost onto the consumer.

For the record, Wells Fargo has estimated that the new rule will cost them upwards of $250 million in revenue every quarter.

From another article:

“Chase is now charging customers for a paper statement. It also, like many other banks, scrapped its debit card rewards program. And customers that Chase inherited from Washington Mutual no longer enjoy free checking accounts. The bank is also exploring a number of other fee increases, including for online banking, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”

Are you ready to pay for online banking?

Both Dodd and Frank have promised that this new rule will “end the ‘Too Big to Fail’ era”. My opinion? We should get rid of the FDIC; that governmental crutch that supports bad and risky banking practices. Without the FDIC a bank that attempts a risky loan, and then fails, has to pay the consequences. The bank alone ends up responsible for poor business practices. Maybe they end up bankrupt and a handful of people (dumb enough to keep their money in a bank with questionable practices) lose some of their money. The up-side is that if/when a bank without the FDIC’s “insurance program” fails… the rest of the country wouldn’t be burdened with paying off that bank’s enormous debt.

Harsh reality: that’s where the FDIC’s money comes from folks – you and me. And when the FDIC’s pockets are empty guess how they refill them? And when those pockets are empty AND a major bank has a massive financial failure… well, like usual, the American people will just have to pony up the cash.