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During the height of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt turned to the innovative engineers of the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation to build powerful short wave radio transmitters capable of delivering broadcasts overseas. On farm fields near Crosley’s WLW facility, six 200 kilowatt transmitters and 24 directional reentrant rhombic antennas were built and on September 23, 1944, the Voice of America Bethany Station was dedicated. The first broadcast was directed at Nazi Germany and began with, “We shall speak to you about America and the war. The news may be good or it may be bad, but we will tell you the truth.” For more than fifty years, the Voice of America Bethany Station delivered “truthful news” to the people of Europe, Africa, South America, and parts of Asia, despite some like Adolf Hitler who referred to the VOA as those “Cincinnati Liars.” New technology and budget cuts resulted in the silencing of the Bethany Station in 1994.
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The innovations of Dr. Karl Arnstein (1887-1974), an aerospace industry pioneer, form the foundation for lighter-than-air technology in use today. His mathematical proof and application of modern stress analysis allowed the construction of larger, stronger rigid airships. Born in Prague, he led airship design at the Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin Company in Germany. Dr. Arnstein immigrated to Akron, Ohio, in 1924 to serve as vice-president of engineering at Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. With his team of twelve German immigrant engineers, Arnstein oversaw development of the Navy’s dirigibles Akron and Macon. He received 35 U.S. aviation related patents, from designs for hollow metal girders to an aerodynamic airship hanger, the Airdock in Akron. From 1940 until retirement in 1957, Dr. Arnstein headed engineering at Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, a leading aerospace contractor, which produced more than 200 Navy blimps, 4,000 Corsair fighter planes, plus airplane and missile parts.
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Ohio’s oldest surviving municipal market house, Findlay Market was designed under the direction of City Civil Engineer Alfred West Gilbert (1816-1900). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The structure was among the first market houses in the United States to use iron frame construction technology. Originally an open pavilion, much of the market was erected in 1852, but disputes with contractors delayed its opening until 1855. The center masonry tower was built in 1902. Soon after, public health concerns prompted enclosure of the market stalls and the addition of plumbing and refrigeration. Until then, vendors found cool storage in deep cellars beneath nearby breweries. The tower bell was brought from Cincinnati’s Pearl Street Market in 1934. Findlay Market was renovated in 1973-74 and again in 2002-03.
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Clark Lane (1823-1907), industrialist and philanthropist, was a son of John Lane (1793-1880) and Rosanah Crum (1795-1877). John came with his family to the Ohio Country when it was still part of the Northwest Territory. As a young man, Clark worked in his family’s blacksmith shop, and eventually helped found Owens, Lane & Dyer Machine Company in 1854. It built agricultural machinery, sawmills, papermaking machines, and other products, initiating Hamilton’s prominence in metals manufacturing. Lane funded the Butler County Children’s Home, an orphanage for over a century, and constructed an octagon house as his residence on Third Street. He built this library in 1866, also as an octagon, and donated it to the people of Hamilton. A 19th century admirer wrote, “The name and generous deeds of Clark Lane will never fade from the memories of a grateful people who have been recipients of his favor.”
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Streams are both a principal economic resource and a natural hazard in Ohio. Accurate and systematic streamflow records are crucial in protecting lives and property and ensuring an adequate water supply. At this site in 1892 and 1893, engineering students from The Ohio State University (OSU) made the first streamflow measurements in Ohio with a current meter – a technology still in use at the beginning of the 21st century. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), an agency that cooperated with OSU in stream-data collection until the early 1900s, furnished the current meters.
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A team of Battelle researchers played a major role in developing one of the 20th century’s most innovative and commercially successful ideas–xerography. In 1944, Battelle recognized the merits of a crude experiment in electrophotography demonstrated by an independent inventor. A licensing agreement with Haloid, later renamed Xerox, moved this basic technology to the marketplace in a fully automated office copier machine. Xerography forged a new way to manage information and improve global communication and, at the same time created a multi-billion dollar industry.
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The Ahola Corporation is the world’s longest continuously operating family-focused payroll service provider. It was founded in 1967 by computer programmer Chet Ahola, known at the time as a “computer” (not a machine, but a person who computes) and his data analyst wife, Rheta, a “debugger” (the person who removed the moths that were attracted to the heat of the mainframe computers). Initially Keypunch Services and later the Ahola Corporation, the company represented the first exposure to the power of the computer to its many small and mid-sized business clients.
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