Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 10: Automated Conveyor (Dis)Assembly Lines

1. AUTOMATED CONVEYOR (DIS)ASSEMBLY LINES-- Chicago's Union Stockyards became huge because of the development of refrigerated train cars that enabled meat processed here to be transported elsewhere quickly with minimum spoilage. //// Another major factor was that owners figured out how to maximaize output to those train cars by speeding up the processing of cattle and hogs through automated conveyors. //// This process was reduced to 13 steps with workers doing the same action, such as hanging the carcasses on hooks. //// Among those impressed with this process at the Union Stockyards was a Henry Ford and we know what he did with it. //// Definitely a Lot of Innovations Out of Chicago. --Cooter

Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 9: McDonald's

Ray Kroc didn't invent fast food. He didn't even invent the McDonald's hamburger. He was a salesman of milk shake mixers who saw what the McDonald brothers were doing in California and saw the potential to make it work on a broader scale through rigorous consistency, marketing and franchising. The McDonald's story is almost as well known as the global brand. //// And, the first Ray Kroc McDonald's was in Des Plaines, Illinois, and a rebuilt store from that era is still at the site, but you have to buy your McDonald's across the street. //// --DaCoot

Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 8: Soap Operas

SOAP OPERAS: Chicago Tribune broadcast cousin WGN-AM's sales manager wanted a program that could sell products to women homemakers in the 1930s. //// So, Irna Phillips created the first soap opera, "Painted Dreams." Dubbed the Queen of Soaps, she would go on to develop radio and TV daytime dramas that defined the genre: "Guiding Light," "The Road of Life, "Young Dr. Malone," "As the World Turns" and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing." //// --Cooter

Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 7: Playboy

4. PLAYBOY was funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hugh heffner's mother and the magazine launched in 1953, catching the front edge of the sexual revolution, bringing nudity and adult content to mainstream pop culture. In the tradition of predecessor magazines like Esquire, it introduced readers to many of the 20th century's best writers. //// Grew into a multi-media empire, including those Playboy Clubs. //// Just Read It For the Articles and Funnies, You Know. --Cooter

Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 6: Shopping Centers

SHAOPPING CENTERS: Chicago was at the forefront of the City Beautiful movement that made setting aside land for public use a priority. But, another land use became even more influential: the mall. //// Other cities claim to have the first urban shopping center, but the NRHP deemed it to be Lake Forest's Market Square, which opened in 1916. //// An early version of what became the typical indoor mall, the Lake View Store, opened in the U.S. Steel company town of Morgan Park, Minnesota. But, this mall was designed by the Chicago architectural firm Dean & Dean. //// Of course, one of the very early modern indoor malls, Randhurst. opened in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, in Chicago's Northwest Suburbs in the mid-1960s. That was a big hangout for all the local high schoolers, including those of us from dear old Palatine High School. //// Jus' Hangin' Out at the Mall. --Cooter

Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 5: Portable Radios

#6. PORTABLE RADIOS: Broadcasting became the dominant mass media of the 20th century and helping to set the stage was Chicago area's Zenith which introduced what is considered to be the first modern potable radio in 1924. (Remember those huge old radios that cameout first?) //// Later Zenith introduced the first pay-TV service in 1947, FM stereo broadcasting (authorized by the FCC in 1961) and the first wireless TV remore control in 1955. //// Thank You Zenith, Especially for the REMOTE!! --Cooter

Some More of Chicago's Innovations-- Part 4: Improvisational Theater and Mimeograph Machine

#8. IMPROVISATIONAL THEATER: Chicago-born Viola Spolin developed what she called theater games. Her son, Paul Sills started Compass Players, the nation's first improvisational theater troupe and forerunner of today's Second City. // Chicago became a hotbed for improv acting and comedy and a magnet for talent. Lots of really funny Second City alums. //// #7. A.B. DICK MIMEOGRAPH MACHINE: Thomas Edison invented the stencil duplicator, a device that enabled a person to print a number of copies of a document. // Chicago's A.B. Dick is responsible for popularizing the mimeograph machine in the pre-Xerox era. In schools, many, many, many tests and study guides were run off on these, with theirspecific look, feel, SMELL and occasional stain. // (I sure ruined the occasional shirt and tie on these when I taught in the 70s to early 80s. And then, there was that smell, especially when fresh run, but continuing in diminished form for years. //// I Can Smell It All Now. --Cooter

Some More of Chicago's Innovations-- Part 3

9. MODERN OPTIONS TRADING. The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus is said to have bet on future olive harvests around 300 BC. and there have been various forms of options investment ever after. //// Its modern form began with the 1973 launch of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. //// Chicago through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicao Board of Trade (CBOT) have long played a big role in the trading of commodities and futures trading. The CBOT even rauised and equipped a battery of cannons that saw service during the Civil War. (Everytime I drive through Central illinois, I listen to the Whip in Farmer City and get to hear those hog and etc. futures. Of course, in these days of prices going up and down so fast, I'm not sure futures trading is a good thing for us. //// --DaCoot

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 8: Nuclear Reactor

7. First Gay Rights Group in U.S. (1924). Henry Gerber established the Society for Human Rights. //// 6. Mass-producing the McCormick Reaper (1848) //// 5. Ballon Frame Construction (1833) Augustine Taylor using boards and nails for construction. //// 4. Open-Heart Surgery (1893). Patient was James Cornish. Doctor was Daniel Hale Williams. //// 3. The Cell Phone (1973) Martin Cooper from IIT, innovator at Motorola. //// 2. Skyscraper (1884) The Home Insurance Building. //// 1. The Nuclear Reactor (1942). //// Some Big Stuff. Some Stretches. --Cooter

Fred Hatch's Farm Silo: Brother Bob's Missile Silos

Spring Grove, Illinois' claim to fame other than a huge fish hatchery. The Tribune article had a video about Fred Hatch's innovation. The Hatch farm is still there on Main Street just east of Spring Grove's downtown. There is an eight-sided barn and silo, but not the original one. His grave is on Wilmot Road (going from US-12 to Wilmot, in Wisconsin and founded by the Hatch family in the 1830s) in a small cemetery. //// There is also a plaque to him in a small park by the Nippersink Creek near downtown. //// When we first moved to Illinois back in the early 1960s, my brother Bob had heard about missiles in the Chicago area and thought the silos out on the farms were missiles. //// Easy Mistake to Make. -- DaCoot

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 8: Fred Hatch's Farm Silo

11. THE FARM SILO (1873). I'll go into detail on this one as I live in Spring Grove and the name. Until 1973, grain was stored for the winter in pits instead of a tower as you see all over the place today. //// Fred Hatch, of Spring Grove, Illinois, had just graduated from the Illinois Industrial University which eventually became the University of Illinois. With his knowledge, he and his father, Lewis Hatch, built the very first tower silo (but not one you'd recognize today). //// Back at the school, Fred Hatch found agricultural textbooks to be scarce and some had to be translated from French and German by Professor Willard H. Bliss. According to the European books, silage storage meant burying the entire corn plant in pits. He took the idea and expanded on it by extending the hole upward above the ground. //// The Hatches lined a 6-foot-deep pit in their barn with rocks and mortar and over the years kept building higher. Eventually their new silo reached the height of 16 feet inside their barn. They built a floor in their pit of double ply floorboard lined with tar paper. //// This new design (and inside a barn) reduced rain spoilage and made it faster to fill, pack and empty than the pits. //// Eventually, they moved it outside and put a roof on it and you had today's silos. //// Thanks, Fred. --Cooter

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 7: Pizza, Ferris Wheel, Silo, FermiLinus, TV Debates and Reversing Chicago River

I'll be mostly just listing them the rest of the way. You can see pictures and much more information at the Jan. 12-14, 2014, Chicago Tribune "Chicago Innovations That Changed the World" by James Janega. //// #13. Deep Dish Pizza ( 1947) // #12. The Ferris Wheel (1893) at the World's Columbian Exposition //// #11. THE FARM SILO (1973) I'll write more about this in my next post. It is right here in my town. //// 10. FermiLinus (1998) An alternative to Microsoft. I'd never heard of it before. Sorry, Bill. //// 9. Televised Political Debate (1960) Of course, the famous Kennedy vs, Nixon one. //// 8. Reversing the Chicago River (1900) Great for Chicago. Not so great for those downriver. //// Claims to Fame. --DaCoot

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 5: The Mechanical Dishwasher (1886)

15. The mechanical dishwasher came about because of Josephine Cochran(e) in Central Illinois' Shelbyville who was tired of having servants break her dishes after fancy dinner parties. So at first she did the dishes herself, but got tired of this and wanted a machine to do it without chipping the dishes. //// Joel Houghton had an 1850 patent for this but it was not practical and not adopted. Josephine didn't know of it anyway. //// Supposedly she said, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." And, she did in 1886. //// She measured her dishes, built wire compartments and placed them in a wheel inside a cooper boiler. It worked and she received Patent No. 355,139. //// After her death, Hobart Manufacturing bought her company and began making dishwashers under the KitchenAid brand, now owned by Whirlpool. //// Now If Someone Would Invent a Way to Get the Dishes From the Machine to the Cupboard (Without Me). --Cooter

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 4: Pullman Sleeper Car

16. THE PULLMAN SLEEPER CAR (1864) George Pullman was one of Chicago's greatest industrialists, rememebered for his luxurious rail cars and opportunistic--often demeaning-- labor practices toward blacks. His sleepinfg cars brought luxury to the middle class and his black workers into the middle class and President Lincoln's body home to the Springfield cemetery. //// He showed that luxury was a service and that came from his black Pullman Porters Railroads outsourced their luxury appointments to Pullman. Former house slaves from the South swarmed north and this was their ticket to the middle class. //// Pasengers crossed the United States, paying many times the price of a train ticket. Along with them came the Pullman Porters who also brough with them copies of the pro-equality Chicago Defender and helped start the Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North. //// --Cooter

Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 3: Softball

17. THE SOFTBALL GAME (1887) The sport was first played indoors in Chicago in 1887 at the Farragut Boat Club and got its name "softball" in 1926. Interest in the sport exploded after a tournament at Chicago's Century of Progress Fair in 1933. //// The first softball was a boxing glove tied up in its laces. A stick was the bat. //// It was started at Farragut Boat Club by bored Yale and Harvard alumni awaiting the results of the football game between their schools. Final score was 41-40, but no mention who won. //// Eventually, there came to be two different versions of the game. One is played with a 12-inch ball, requiring gloves. The other continues as the 16-inch style. //// Not Sure Why They Call It "Soft" Ball. You Get Hit In the Face and Believe Me, It's Not So Soft. --DaCoot