Forgive the hiatus. Partial knee replacement surgery put me on the back burner for a couple of weeks. Greetings to all. I’m certainly glad they have spare parts!
Hetty
It takes a lot to wade through the “hype” of the news these days, yet every once in a while a bolt of common sense lightning strikes and you shake your head in disbelief.
Twenty-seven years ago I was an adult student at Franklin College and had a marvelous science professor. The class of note was environmental science and it was launched in fact and void of the fervor of the naysayers who constantly push us toward a nineteenth century lifestyle
I wish I had kept my notes, because I made detailed drawings of a nuclear facility as we discussed the pros and cons of viable energy sources. Are there risks? Undoubtedly. You take risks when you get out of bed in the morning, if you open the door to walk outdoors, if you drive your car, ride your bicycle or shuffle off to the kitchen to get that all important morning cup of coffee.
It seems that no matter what you want to do to take advantage of modern technology, there is a shadowy figure in the picture that shouts gloom and doom. Given this as a premise sets the stage for an intriguing scenario.
We are so accustomed to our everyday conveniences that we take them completely for granted. Should we value them? Sure, but just for argument’s sake, let’s take this subject and, as Emeril Legasse would say, “kick it up a notch”.
What if Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Charles Goodyear, Henry Firestone, Samuel Morse, Michael Faraday, Elisha Otis and Nikola Tesla had lived in our time? What a scene that would be! Imagine the fight they would wage just to be able to launch their inventions!
Alas, poor Edison. Picture this — a brilliant scientist tries to persuade governmental panels to apply electricity to both the public and private sectors. After all, electricity is dangerous. Critics cite dozens of ways that a person could be electrocuted either in the workplace or at home.
Extrapolate that a bit further and envision what a challenge faced Nikola Tesla when he tried to explain alternating current (AC).
If you think it’s hard to get anything past a water authority, consider what Westinghouse would face today in order to build the hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls. Yes, his project would be stopped in its tracks. The environmentalists would find some poor little creature that is threatened. No dam — dammit!
Samuel Morse struggles again and again to explain why he needs poles to hold his wires aloft to insure good communication using Morse Code.
Separated by an ocean, Michael Faraday of England and American Joseph Henry built the first laboratory models of electric generator in 1832. Frenchman Hippolyte Pixii built a hand-driven model of an electric generator in 1833, and American, Nikola Tesla built the first alternating-current generator in 1892.
How far do you think those men would get before a panel bent on denying innovation because of “environmental concerns”.
Goodyear would be frustrated when critics denied his work because he was tapping trees for their sap in order to make what would be called rubber. The name itself roots in the fact that early pencil erasers were made from his product and the name stuck as the name of the material overall.
Yes, all these men would be beside themselves at the ignorance of those in power to grant permission for applying new technology. I use these comparisons to highlight the shortsightedness of the environmentalists today.
The widespread bias against anything that could possibly harm a living organism had applied in their time, the United States would never have boomed to greatness in such a short time. Heavy manufacturing would never be approved. The smallest element of danger would doom a new invention.
Edison’s electricity in a home would pose highly hazardous. After all, in addition to electrocution perils, electricity could cause a fire. Happily, our heavy industries occurred when the population’s mindset meshed with those elected to positions of power. Everyone wanted growth and progress. If a few trees bit the dust, a few animals changed their migration patterns, or if people died while attempting to catapult an agrarian society into the future, the risks were worth the price.
In reality, of the top four causes of house fires, electrical places last. First is cooking, second is smoking and fourth is heating. All these causes are assumed to be accidental.
I find the statistics on accidental death fascinating, and so I pass them along.
The various causes of death are combined with the person’s odds of dying from a particular cause to determine the least likely way a person may die during his or her lifetime.
The list is arranged in descending order starting with the least likely way of dying followed by the next least likely and so on increasing the odds of dying.
This data on the least likely ways of dying is from the National Safety Council’s Odds of Dying statistics.
1. Fireworks Discharge
2. Flood
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 144,156
3. Earthquake
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 117,127
4. Lightning
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 79,746
5. Legal Execution
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 62,468
6. Hornet, Wasp, or Bee Sting
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 56,789
7. Hot Weather
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 13,729
8. Alcohol Poisoning
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 10,048
9. Accidental Electrocution
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 9,968
10. Accidental Firearm Discharge
Lifetime Odds: 1 in 5,134
Life is full of accidents. From spilling your milk to elbowing your loved one in the night. These particular accidents however result is something much worse than a black eye. These are the top 10 accidents that could land you 6 feet under.
10. Electrocution
~500 Deaths / Year
There is about a 1 in 10,000 chance you’ll inadvertently join the some 4,500 inmates who have died by electrocution. Better be careful next time you’re changing the light bulb.
Yes, electricity does pose risk in our lives, but its benefits far outweigh its risks. Think what our society would have been without the discovery of oil fields in the West. According to the Texas State Almanac, the oil discovery that jump-started Texas’ transformation into a major petroleum producer and industrial power was Spindletop.
Exploration in the area of the upper Gulf Coast near Beaumont had begun in 1892. After drilling several dry holes, Louisiana mining engineer and oil prospector Capt. Anthony F. Lucas drilled the discovery well of the Spindletop field. Initially, the Lucas No. 1 produced more than an estimated 75,000 barrels of oil a day. Peak annual production was 17.5 million barrels in 1902.
Spindletop, which was also the first salt-dome oil discovery, triggered a flood of speculation in the area, resulting in several other significant discoveries. The boom included an influx of hundreds of eager wildcatters – including former Governor James Stephen Hogg – lusting after a piece of the action, as well as thousands of workers looking for jobs. Right behind them came a tidal wave of related service, supply and manufacturing firms, such as refineries, pipelines and oil-field equipment manufacturers and dealers. It was California’s fabled Gold Rush of 50 years earlier repeated on the Texas Gulf Coast with rotary drill bits and derricks instead of pick axes and gold pans.
The boom turned into a feeding frenzy of human sharks: scores of speculators sniffing out a quick buck; scam artists peddling worthless leases; and prostitutes, gamblers and liquor dealers, all looking for a chunk of the workers’ paychecks.
Within three years, several additional major fields were developed within a 150-mile radius of Spindletop; Sour Lake, Batson and Humble were among them.
Today, great reserves of oil and natural gas lie beneath the United States and off its shores, yet the federal government has pledged $2 billion to Brazil to drill off her shores and scores of idle wells dot the waters in the Gulf of Mexico and off both Florida and California. Evidently, federal charity does not begin at home.
Along with common sense, government decisions backing American entrepreneurship are dead in Washington, D.C.
Be glad that you live in the twenty-first century. Had the nineteenth century’s major inventors petitioned for approval today, we’d all be having candlelight dinners. Ponder that one! Oh, and while you’re at it, contact your senator and representative and tell them to push for opening oil and gas leases. It’s time they did. Think about it.