Just me, Jim and the sky

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Look at all those book covers!! If you never read Huckleberry Finn as a kid, read it now. Then give it to your kids. It’s of a different era but the wisdoms are universal and still true today. At the top left is a nice caricature of the writer Mark Twain.

Sometimes we forget the wonderful lessons we learned reading novels as children. Today marks the 137th anniversary of the publication of Mark Twain’s masterpiece novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (it can be read online for free HERE. Ernest Hemingway said it was the best novel America has ever produced, and that all great American novels were inspired by it. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn offers us a meaningful view about life in 19th century Missouri, where the author himself spent most of his early years. It is a novel filled with incongruities and great life lessons about honesty, freedom, and friendships.  Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the values of the society in which he lives – often unable consciously to rebut those values even in his thoughts. In the end, he makes a moral choice (TALK ABOUT A PIA (PAIN IN THE @%$) JOB!) based on his own valuation of Jim’s friendship and human worth – a decision in direct opposition to the things he has been taught. Twain, in his lecture notes, proposes that “a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience.” (wow – love it). Below are just some of the “lessons” we should have learned from the novel.  I’m sure you have your own reflections on this classic, so be sure to email me at skowalski@khtheat.com and share.  Many thanks to Youthtime Magazine, Prezi and Wikipedia for the insights.  Enjoy!

Always keep your word.
An honest and warm friendship develops in the novel between Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a slave who lives in the house of the Widow Douglas. She is a woman who takes care of Huck and tries to civilize him. Huck’s father is a local drunk and he is not much support to Huck in that sense.  After the two boys run away from home, their friendship gets stronger and stronger. At one point, Huck teaches us about integrity and loyalty. Even in situations when doing so might be dangerous:

Jim: “But mind, you said you wouldn’ tell—you know you said you wouldn’t tell, Huck.”
Huck: “Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it.”

Sometimes, you just have to accept social courtesies and play along.
At one dinner, Huck observes the people who are sitting at the table. And as he listens to their conversation, he notices that there are some implied agreements that seem like complete nonsense to him. But still – they are a fact of life:

“Mary Jane, she set at the head of the table, with Susan alongside of her. And said how bad the biscuits was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried chickens was—and all that kind of rot. The way women always do for to force out compliments; And the people all knowed everything was tiptop, and said so—said “How DO you get biscuits to brown so nice?” and “Where, for the land’s sake, DID you get these amaz’n pickles?” and all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a supper, you know.  It seems silly, but everybody does it, concludes Huck.”

Being a part of this world requires some lying skills.
Although Huck is, deep down, a good kid – he has come to realize that you have to be wily and play accordingly. If you wish to survive, being completely sincere is not a sign of strength. But a sign of weakness because the world will eat you up.  Some amount of lying can be harmless, but of great use. Research shows that some people lie hundreds of times per day (what a number!) – either to avoid inconvenient situations or to make their lives easier. Here’s what Huck has to say about it, in one piece of dialogue:

“I reckon you ain’t used to lying, it don’t seem to come handy; what you want is practice. You do it pretty awkward.”

Having a get-away place is a good thing.
After Jim and Huck leave their homes, they create a sort of friendship pact that gets tested and ruined a few times through the novel. They build a raft together and start living on the river. It becomes a symbol of their rebellion and their refusal to be a part of their world and how pure values can give you a shelter – a safe place to go when you decide to take a break from all the problems:

“We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy on a raft.”

People may refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
We can interact with many different people. Sometimes, we may think we know someone, but that person can disappoint us or let us down. People can be mean and act awful, but it’s just life. That fact isn’t something you will learn in school – it is something you will experience. Life still goes on! Here’s Huck’s resigned conclusion:

“That’s just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don’t want to take no consequences of it.”

Doing what you feel in your gut is right.
The novel’s period, the 19th century in the state of Missouri. It was a time of horrible racism and black slavery. Jim, Huck’s friend, is a slave of the Widow Douglas, the woman who takes care of Huck.  Huck is being taught by everyone that there are people whose lives don’t matter, he is being overwhelmed with all the propaganda. White children are taught that they will go to hell if they help a slave run away.  The Widow Douglas takes on the obligation of civilizing Huck and teaching him about these values and about good manners. At one point, he writes a letter in which he rats out his friend Jim and practically betrays him. But then comes the moral climax of the story.  Huck concludes that, if that means being civilized, he doesn’t what to be a part of civilized society.

“I took up the letter and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.”

Strive to be more than average and to live truly the life you’ve been given.
Average is such an awful word. To be average means to be safe, somewhere in the middle, not giving a bad or a good impression. To live average means to have a steady heartbeat at all times, it means not getting too involved in the world, not getting too exposed. It means staying quiet. Mark Twain sums it up in one sentence:

“The average man don’t like trouble and danger.”

You’ll have to live with your conscience, no matter what you do.
Doing the right thing is hard, but honorable. Just think about the alternative and whether you could sleep peacefully at night.  As Twain says:

“What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?”

Life gives us a hard time, but it’s a good thing.
If you keep doing the same things over and over again, not only will you get bored, but you’ll be trapped in the status quo. Luckily, life makes sure that you don’t fall into a routine and that nothing ever goes completely according to plan. We go through tests and temptations, but it’s a good thing. As Twain says:

“We all go through a challenge in life because without a challenge there’d be no reason to keep going towards your future.”

 ————

Friendship. Honesty. Hard Work. Trust. Freedom. Faith.  Virtues we often forget in this nutty world.  Thanks Huck and Jim for reminding us what’s really important in life. 

 

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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Now That’s Hedy

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My friends, the incredible beauty of Hedy Lamarr is her brains. In that second photo from the top is Hedy Lamarr on the left, Louis B. Mayer (Metro Goldwin Mayer) who introduced her to America and Rita Hayworth. Below that on the right she’s with Spencer Tracy. Second image from the bottom is her & arranger George Antheil’s patent drawing for frequency hopping. And, not to worry, there are no shortages of t-shirt options for Hedy Lamarr fans. Also check out the terrific video links at the end and a really great podcast made just for kids. 

I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day, and we started to discuss the genius behind great inventions.  Reflection, pondering, trial and error and sometimes just straight-out incredible ideas – it’s usually pretty tough to know where they come from.  Now, combine the mind of a great natural genius inventor with the beauty of a global superstar actress – and you get Hedy Lamarr – considered by some as the greatest looking actress of all times – and one of the greatest natural inventors.  Hats off to all the engineers out there – handsome, beautiful, or just another face in the crowd, I marvel at your ideas and passion.  Here’s a fun little recap of an amazing woman and an incredible life – filled with travel, inventions, movies, drama, marriages and more.  Enjoy!  And be sure to catch one of her great movies. Thanks Wikipedia, PBS and womenshistory.org.

  • Hedy Lamarr (/ˈheɪdi/; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor.
  • Her father was born to a Galician Jewish family in Lemberg (now Lviv in Ukraine) and was a successful bank director.  Trude, her mother, a pianist and Budapest native, had come from an upper-class Hungarian Jewish family. She had converted to Catholicism and was described as a “practicing Christian” who raised her daughter as a Christian.
  • As a child, Lamarr showed an interest in acting and was fascinated by theatre and film. At the age of 12, she won a beauty contest in Vienna.  While taking acting classes in Vienna when one day, she forged a note from her mother and went to Sascha-Film and was able to get herself hired as a script girl. While there, she was able to get a role as an extra in Money on the Street (1930), and then a small speaking part in Storm in a Water Glass (1931). Producer Max Reinhardt then cast her in a play entitled The Weaker Sex, which was performed at the Theater in der Josefstadt. Reinhardt was so impressed with her that he brought her with him back to Berlin.
  • In early 1933, at age 18, Lamarr was given the lead in Gustav Machatý’s film Ecstasy. She played the neglected young wife of an indifferent older man.  The film became both celebrated and notorious for showing Lamarr’s face in the throes of pleasure as well as close-up and brief nude scenes, a result of her being “duped” by the director and producer, who used high-power telephoto lenses. As you can imagine, it caused quite a sensation.
  • Although she was dismayed and now disillusioned about taking other roles, the film gained world recognition after winning an award in Rome. Throughout Europe, it was regarded an artistic work. In America it was considered overly sexual and received negative publicity, especially among women’s groups and was banned there and in Germany.
  • Fredrich Mandl, an Austrian military arms merchant and munitions manufacturer, was reputedly the third-richest man in Austria. He was obsessed to meet her. She fell for his charming and fascinating personality, partly due to his immense financial wealth. Her parents, both of Jewish descent, did not approve, due to Mandl’s ties to Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, and later, German Führer Adolf Hitler, but they could not stop the headstrong Lamarr.  On August 10, 1933, Lamarr married Mandl. She was 18 years old and he was 33.
  • Mandl had close social and business ties to the Italian government, selling munitions to the country, and although like Hedy, his own father was Jewish, had ties to the Nazi regime of Germany, as well. Lamarr wrote that the dictators of both countries attended lavish parties at the Mandl home. Lamarr accompanied Mandl to business meetings, where he conferred with scientists and other professionals involved in military technology. These conferences were her introduction to the field of applied science and nurtured her latent talent in science.
  • Lamarr’s marriage to Mandl eventually became unbearable, and she decided to separate herself from both her husband and country. In her autobiography, she wrote that she disguised herself as her maid and fled to Paris, but by other accounts, she persuaded Mandl to let her wear all of her jewelry for a dinner party, then disappeared afterward.
  • After arriving in London in 1937, she met Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, who was scouting for talent in Europe.  She initially turned down the offer he made her (of $125 a week), but then booked herself onto the same New York bound liner as him and managed to impress him enough to secure a $500 a week contract. Mayer persuaded her to change her name to Hedy Lamarr, choosing the surname in homage to the beautiful silent film star, Barbara La Marr, on the suggestion of his wife, who admired La Marr. He brought her to Hollywood in 1938 and began promoting her as the “world’s most beautiful woman”.
  • Mayer loaned Lamarr to producer Walter Wanger, who was making Algiers (1938), an American version of the French film, Pépé le Moko (1937). Lamarr was cast in the lead opposite Charles Boyer. The film created a “national sensation.”  According to one viewer, when her face first appeared on the screen, “everyone gasped … Lamarr’s beauty literally took one’s breath away.”
  • Her off-screen life and personality during those years was quite different from her screen image. She spent much of her time feeling lonely and homesick. She might swim at her agent’s pool but shunned the beaches and staring crowds. When asked for an autograph, she wondered why anyone would want it.
  • She participated in a war bond-selling campaign with a sailor named Eddie Rhodes. Rhodes was in the crowd at each Lamarr appearance, and she would call him up on stage. She would briefly flirt with him before asking the audience if she should give him a kiss. The crowd would say “yes”, to which Hedy would reply that she would if enough people bought war bonds. After enough bonds were purchased, she would kiss Rhodes and he would head back into the audience. Then they would head off to the next war bond rally.
  • Although Lamarr had no formal training and was primarily self-taught, she worked in her spare time on various hobbies and inventions, which included an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink (think Coca Cola) for the soldiers.
  • Among the few who knew of Lamarr’s inventiveness was aviation tycoon Howard Hughes. She suggested he change the rather square design of his aeroplanes (which she thought looked too slow and boxy) to a more streamlined shape, based on pictures of the fastest birds and fish she could find. He actively supported her “tinkering” hobbies and put his team of scientists and engineers at her disposal, saying they would do or make anything she asked for.
  • During World War II, Lamarr learned that radio-controlled torpedoes, an emerging technology in naval war, could easily be jammed and set off course by the Nazis. She thought of creating a frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked or jammed. She contacted her friend, composer and pianist George Antheil, to help her develop a device for doing that, and he succeeded by synchronizing a miniaturized player-piano roll mechanism with radio signals.  They drafted designs for the frequency-hopping system, which they patented.  Antheil recalled: “Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until later, the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi.”
  • “We began talking about the war, which, in the late summer of 1940, was looking most extremely black. Hedy said that she did not feel very comfortable, sitting there in Hollywood and making lots of money when things were in such a state. She said that she knew a good deal about munitions and various secret weapons … and that she was thinking seriously of quitting MGM and going to Washington, DC, to offer her services to the newly established Inventors’ Council.”
  • In 1997, Lamarr and Antheil received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award and the Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, given to individuals whose creative lifetime achievements in the arts, sciences, business, or invention fields have significantly contributed to society. Lamarr was featured on the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel. In 2014, Lamarr and Antheil were posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
  • During her film career, she was featured in over 30 films. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Lamarr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6247 Hollywood Blvd adjacent to Vine Street where the walk is centered.
  • Lamarr was married and divorced six times and had three children.

 

An interview with Denise Loder-DeLuca, Hedy Lamarr’s daughter.

A very old TV game show called “What’s My Line?”  Go to about 14:56 for the “MYSTERY GUEST: Hedy Lamarr”

And one podcast:
Have you heard of this Podcast: “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls”? If you have kids, listen to it with them. This one is on Hedy Lamarr read by Tatiana Maslany.Gives a lot of great info in kid level writing. Runs 19 minutes.

 

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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9-1-1

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From the first 9-1-1 call placed in Haleyville, Alabama in 1968 to today, a whole lot of people have been helped through life-threatening emergencies. A big THANKS to all those who do the responding!!

 

“Help!”.  Something we hear often at KHT.  Mostly from loyal customers and new prospects unhappy with their distortion sensitive thermal processing results.  Sometimes their materials under-perform, then production slows, impacting costs.  Sometimes they are just trying to keep things on schedule. Often, it’s my favorite – those PIA (Pain In The @%$) Jobs! – the ones that cost you time and money, bringing everything to a screeching halt and just wrecking your day.  About 60 years ago, the President’s Commission understood the importance of HELP, and decided it was time to create a national “single number” people could call. Just like our PIA call to action, people jump right on it – fire, police, and other emergency responders. This weekend marks the anniversary of the first call 9-1-1 – that amazing universal number we often take for granted.  It’s managed by the NENA – 13,000 members and 47 chapters strong – dedicated to saving lives, by providing an effective and accessible 9-1-1 service for North America. Here’s some trivia to learn more 9-1-1, NENA, and how it all got started.  Big high five to those great people, always on the front lines, ready to respond.  Thanks Wikipedia and NENA for the info.

 

  1. The three-digit telephone number “9-1-1” has been designated as the “Universal Emergency Number,” for citizens throughout the United States to request emergency assistance. It is intended as a nationwide telephone number and gives the public fast and easy access to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).
  2. The NENA organization has been connected to 9-1-1 every step of the way.  Serving as a link in the delivery of emergency services, 9-1-1 has, throughout its evolution, become recognized as a great asset throughout the country.
  3. The first catalyst for a nationwide emergency telephone number was in 1957, when the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended use of a single number for reporting fires.
  4. In 1967, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended that a “single number should be established” nationwide for reporting emergency situations. The use of different telephone numbers for each type of emergency was determined to be contrary to the purpose of a single, universal number.
  5. Other Federal Government Agencies and various governmental officials also supported and encouraged the recommendation. As a result of the immense interest in this issue, the President’s Commission on Civil Disorders turned to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a solution.  In November 1967, the FCC met with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) to find a means of establishing a universal emergency number that could be implemented quickly.
  6.  In 1968, AT&T announced that it would establish the digits 9-1-1 (nine-one-one) as the emergency code throughout the United States. The code 9-1-1 was chosen because it best fit the needs of all parties involved. First, and most important, it met public requirements because it is brief, easily remembered, and can be dialed quickly. Second, because it is a unique number, never having been authorized as an office code, area code, or service code, it best met the long-range numbering plans and switching configurations of the telephone industry.
  7. Congress backed AT&T’s proposal and passed legislation allowing use of only the numbers 9-1-1 when creating a single emergency calling service, thereby making 9-1-1 a standard emergency number nationwide.
  8. On February 16, 1968, Senator Rankin Fite completed the first 9-1-1 call made in the United States in Haleyville, Alabama. The serving telephone company was then Alabama Telephone Company. This Haleyville 9-1-1 system is still in operation today.
  9. In March 1973, the White House’s Office of Telecommunications issued a national policy statement which recognized the benefits of 9-1-1, encouraged the nationwide adoption of 9-1-1, and provided for the establishment of a Federal Information Center to assist units of government in planning and implementation.
  10. In the early 1970s, AT&T began the development of sophisticated features for the 9-1-1 with a pilot program in Alameda County, California. The feature was “selective call routing.” This pilot program supported the theory behind the Executive Office of Telecommunication’s Policy.
  11. By the end of 1976, 9-1-1 was serving about 17% of the population. By ‘79, approximately 26% of the population of the United States had 9-1-1 service, and by ‘87, those figures had grown to indicate that 50% had access.  Today, pproximately 96% of the geographic US is covered by some type of 9-1-1.
  12. Over 80% of 911 calls in the United States are placed from wireless phones, and the rate is increasing. About 240 million calls are made each year.
  13. Some Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) report that 15%–20% of incoming 911 calls are non-emergencies. An emergency is a life-threatening situation where every second counts, such as a heart attack, uncontrolled asthma attack, child birth in progress, any event involving large amounts of blood, uncontrolled fire, a life-threatening event such as a knife fight, an armed robbery in progress, or a serious car accident (not a fender bender).
  14. While North America uses 911 as an emergency number, other countries dial 999. For all members of the European Union and several other countries, 112 is an emergency number that can be dialed for free of charge.
  15. The world’s oldest emergency phone number is the U.K’s 999 number that was introduced on June 30, 1937. It was implemented after a call to the fire brigade was held in a queue with the telephone company. The delay cost five women their lives in the fire.
  16. The first arrest due to an emergency call happened on July 8, 1937, at 4:20 a.m. when the wife of John Stanley Beard dialed 999 to report a burglar outside her home in England. The burglar, 24-year-old Thomas Duffys, was arrested.
  17. North America’s first emergency telephone number, 999, was first introduced in Winnipeg, Canada. There were originally eight women Emergency Telephone Operators.
  18. In 1996, a teenager in Sweden hacked into a Southern Bell computer system. He created a computer code that made simultaneous 911 calls to several counties in Florida. He managed to jam several 911 switches.
  19. Known as the “The City Where 911 Began,” Haleyville, Alabama, holds a 911 festival every year that honors all police, fire, and emergency personnel.
  20. The phone used to answer the first 911 call in the United States is in a museum in Haleyville, Alabama. A duplicate is still used at the police station there.
  21. A woman in Deltona, Florida, was arrested after she called 911 four times to complain about a nail technician doing a poor job on her nails. Even with a police deputy sitting next to her, she still called 911 to complain that her nails were too short.

Click here to read other silly calls – thanks People Magazine

(top left) The very first 9-1-1 call was made to this red phone. (top right) floor graphic at Haleyville city hall. (row two) Commemorative plaque at Haleyville, AL. (row three left) Senator Rankin Fite. (row three right) Haleyville, Alabama, holds a 911 festival every year. (bottom) An early 9-1-1 dispatch center and today’s typical look. 

 

I have a solution…

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(row one) rough drawing of the drinking tube, Joseph B. Friedman and his more refined patent drawing; (row two) The Flex-Straw was first marketed to hospitals; In the early 1950’s, Roy Rogers endorsed the Flex-Straw in an ad aimed at kids; (row three) The Flex-Straw infused with strawberry, chocolate and coffee (for mom?); 1940s – 1950s packaging. (other images) These straws were totally made for sharing a beverage with your BFF…or not.

 

Problem solving and ideas – the “backbone and spirit” of Kowalski Heat Treating – it’s what keeps us on “our game” every single day and what our customers expect from us – solving your pesky PIA (Pain In The @#$) Jobs.  As the guy at the top, like most leaders, I get such a charge when my folks come in and say “Steve, we’ve worked on a bunch of different solutions, and we’re pretty sure we got it.”  BAM.  Just like that, problem solved.  And the best part for me is when I get to pick up the phone and call my customers and say – “yep, we figured it out”.

Recently I was reading an article about an inventor who was born in Cleveland back in 1900, and invented, to this day, one of my all-time favorites – the bendy straw.  Like so many inventors, he saw a problem (this one happened to be with his daughter and sitting at a soda shop), experimented, came up with a solution, and then went on to prototyping, a patent and manufacturing.  So, to fully enjoy this post, make yourself a yummy root beer and ice cream float, (oh yea, one of my favorites), put in a flexible straw, sit back and enjoy the read.  I’m not sure about you all, but one of my favorite things is to blow bubbles in the glass – certainly takes me back and Jackie will just shake her head, again!  Special thanks to Smithsonian, Wikipedia and the Atlantic Magazine for confirming the facts for me.  And thanks Joe for your problem-solving solution – KHT salutes you!

  1. Historians don’t know what civilization first came up with the idea of sticking tubes into cups and slurping, but the earliest evidence of straws comes from a seal found in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 B.C. It shows two men using what appear to be straws taking beer from a jar. (BRILLIANT!) In the same tomb, archeologists also found history’s first known straw – a tube made from gold and the precious blue stone lapis lazuli.
  2. In the 1880’s, gentlemen sipped their whiskey through long tubes made of natural rye that lent a grassy flavor to whatever drink they plopped in. For many centuries, it was not uncommon to order a gin and tonic and wind up drinking it infused with natural grass flavors. Marvin Chester Stone didn’t have much patience when it came to non-mint plants floating around in his mint julep, and did something. He reinvented the straw.
  3. In his first try, he wound paper around a pencil to make a thin tube, slid out the pencil from one end, and applied glue between the strips. Voila: paper straw! Also: glue? Stone refined it by building a machine to wind paper into a tube and coat the outside with a paraffin wax to keep it from melting in bourbon. He patented the product in 1888. Today, Marvin Chester Stone is considered the godfather of the paper straw.
  4. Joseph B. Friedman, born October 9, 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio, was a first generation American and the fifth of eight children. An independent American inventor with a broad range of interests and ideas, Friedman is credited with inventing the flexible straw.
  5. By the age of fourteen, Friedman conceptualized his first invention, the lighted pencil, which he deemed the “pencilite,” and was attempting to market his idea. Over the course of his inventing career, he would experiment with ideas ranging from writingimplements to engine improvements, and household products to sound and optic
  6. In the 1920s, Friedman began his education in real estateand optometry. He would use both of these careers at different points in his life to supplement his income while improving his invention concepts. Although he was working as a realtor in San Francisco, California, ]the 1930s proved to be his most prolific patenting period, with six of his nine U.S. patents being issued then.
  7. While sitting in his younger brother Albert’s fountain parlor, the Varsity Sweet Shop in San Francisco, Friedman observed his young daughter Judith at the counter, struggling to drink out of a straight straw. Sitting on the stool, the cool beverage was too high on the counter to reach. Afterwards back home, he took a paper straight straw, inserted a screw and using dental floss, he wrapped the paper into the screw threads, creating corrugations in the straw barrel. After removing the screw, the altered paper straw could now bend conveniently over the edge of the glass, allowing small children to better reach their beverages.
  8. After fine tuning his approach, U.S. patent #2,094,268 was issued for this new invention under the title Drinking Tube. Friedman would later file and be issued two additional U.S. patents and three foreign patents in the 1950s relating to its formation and construction. In his application, he wrote:

“Applicant has met a problem long existing in the art. A view of any soda fountain on a hot day, with the glasses showing innumerable limp and broken straws drooping over the edges thereof, will immediately show that this problem has long existed.  Where we have the conditions where certainly the straw is old, where corrugated tubing is old, and where no inventor, during those years, has seen fit or has been able to solve this problem, whereas applicant did, that situation alone is prima facie evidence of invention.”

–courtesy of the Joseph B. Friedman Papers, 1915 – 2000, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

  1. Friedman attempted to sell his straw patent to several existing straw manufacturers beginning in 1937 without success, so after completing his straw machine, he began to produce the straw himself. Friedman’s younger English relative, Michael Fabricant, would later write that his great uncle’s invention was “arguably the most significant technological achievement of the twentieth century”
  2. On April 24, 1939, The Flexible Straw Corporationwas incorporated. However, World War II interrupted Friedman’s efforts to construct his straw manufacturing machine. During the war, he managed the optometry practice of Arthur Euler, O.D., in Capwells’ Department Store in Oakland, California, and continued to sell real estate and insurance to support his growing family.
  3. Friedman obtained financial backing for his flexible straw machine from two of his brothers-in-law, Harry Zavin and David Light, as well as from Bert Klein, a family associate. With their financial help, and the business advice of his sister Betty, Friedman completed the first flexible straw manufacturing machine in the late 1940s. Although his original concept had come from the observation of his daughter, the flexible straw was initially marketed to hospitals, with the first sale made in 1947.
  4. Betty Friedman played a crucial role in the development of the Flexible Straw Corporation. While still living in Cleveland and working at the Tarbonis Company, she corresponded regularly with her brother and directed all of the sales and distribution of the straw. In 1950 Friedman moved his family and company to Santa Monica, California. Now doing business as the Flex-Straw Co., sales continued to increase and the marketing direction expanded to focus more strongly on the home and child markets. Betty Friedman moved west in 1954 to assume her formal leadership role in the corporation.
  5. On June 20, 1969, the Flexible Straw Corporation sold its United States and foreign patents, United States and Canadiantrademarks, and licensing agreements to the Maryland Cup Corporation, and the Flexible Straw Corporation dissolved in August 1969.

 

 

 

Spoiler Alert: Holiday & Vacation is Over.

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If you’re like most entrepreneurs and business owners, you’re right back at it tackling an overflowing inbox, scheduling production and juggling an already crammed calendar, while trying to mentally check back into the “flow” of work.  Surprising how we can all relate.  For some reason, this holiday break, as wonderful as it was, seems like a blur to me – cookies, parties, family, kids, friends, great food, more great food and still more great food and fun.  I did my best to “go dark” a bit, and try and break away from the business, but probably like you, found myself checking emails, responding to the cell phone and in my home office, just “checking things”, to be sure no “hidden opportunities” has popped out!

In fact, according to a Glance Networks study, most businesses don’t get back to normal productivity levels until about three weeks after New Year’s.  That sounds ok, but just doesn’t work for us, as we’re running 24/7 on your PIA Jobs! TM – product still coming in, and trucks still rolling out.

That said, I came across an article in Forbes magazine I thought I’d share.  The perspective was from Brian Scudamore, the founder and CEO of O2E Brands, best known for 1-800-GOT JUNK fame.  According to Brian, here are three things you can do right now to hit the ground running in 2017 – (thanks for tips! – full article HERE)

1: Paint a Picture for Long-Term Success

Over 45 percent of people make personal resolutions, but few of us make resolutions for our businesses. The new year is a perfect time to set goals for all aspects of your life. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t, and those odds for success increase to 50 percent when you write those goals down.

I personally experienced the power of visualization when I wrote my first “Painted Picture” — a crystal-clear snapshot of the future I wanted for 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. In the early days, it was just a scrappy startup with three trucks and a lot of potential. Since achieving most of the goals in the first Painted Picture, I craft a new one every few years, and share the updated vision with our employees. It’s a powerful way to get your team fired up and working together towards a goal, not just settling into another year of the status quo.

The new year is also an opportunity for our team to look at our Can You Imagine? wall and their 101 Life Goals lists with fresh eyes. These are two ways we ask employees to dream big all year round. And when someone’s in a post-vacation slump, these tools are potent reminders about the exciting things that can happen when you intentionally set goals.

2. Snap a Leadership Selfie

How often do you take an audit of your strengths and weaknesses? A new year is a great time to reflect on what’s going well, and what could use work. Self-awareness is truly one of the greatest skills for success: not only does it make you a better, more empathetic leader, it’s also positively correlated with your company’s bottom line.  So how does a leadership selfie work? For me, it’s as simple as writing down my skills and what needs improvement. I make a list and solicit feedback, both formally and informally, with coffee meetings, chats with coworkers, and more structured surveys. And what better time to break old habits than those first few days when your work routines haven’t yet reformed?

3: Strip Away Productivity Blockers

What was holding you back or frustrating you last year? I’ve found it’s the little things that end up wasting the most time. But the good news is that identifying time-sucks is the first step to eliminating them.  For me, unproductive meetings are a big pet peeve and I’m not alone: 59 percent of people hate meetings that don’t stay on topic. So in 2017, set meetings with one direction, clear outcome goals, and only invite people who need to be there. Another simple trick is to schedule 22-minute meetings instead of half-hour ones. The idea, pioneered by Nicole Steinbok, is to make everyone hyper-conscious of start and end times.

Email is another productivity blocker. In fact, the average office worker spends 28% of their week managing their inbox. I learned long ago to tame this beast. Now, I sort every email into one of three folders (personal, end-of-day, and end-of-week) so I can power through later in one focused, productive chunk.

Ultimately, the best thing you can do for your business is start 2017 with a positive attitude that will set the tone for the rest of the year. Having fun in the workplace, (a MUST here at KHT) is the real key for being engaged, creative, and super productive.

Hope some of these ideas help – feel free to give me a call to discuss – I’m working on my list right now.