Niagra Falls Down

Based on this illustration by Saturday Evening Post's James Bingham (1917-1971), including a late Forties nondescript car, automobiles were once able to drive near the edge of Prospect Point at the American Falls of the Niagara River.

"Hey, buddy, you can't park there!"

Approximately where the car is pictured, cracks appeared on July 27, 1954, at the edge of the observation area, leading to the area being cordoned off. During the late afternoon of the next day, a massive rockfall occurred that forever changed the look of the falls. Reports describe motorists on Rainbow Bridge witnessing the collapse of approximately 185,000 tons of rock from the brink of the American Falls. To eliminate remaining hazards, the Niagara Frontier State Parks Commission conducted controlled blasts in August 1954.

The rockslide was the largest since 1931. The debris pile became a tourist attraction until it was removed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1969. Automobiles are no longer allowed to drive onto Prospect Point itself. The parkway section within the state park was largely removed in the early 1980s to restore the landscape, further limiting vehicle access to the immediate brink. The site is a pedestrian observation area accessible via the Niagara Scenic Parkway and local streets, requiring visitors to walk to the viewing areas.

Dial Me Two Copies

American Photocopy Equipment Co. (APECO) has a diverse history spanning various industries. Apeco was incorporated in 1954 after acquiring the name and assets of a limited partnership that had existed since 1939. The company's sales grew quickly in 1952 after adapting the transfer-diffusion process of producing photocopies. Apeco introduced an improved model of its wet photocopying process in 1953, which was similar to the Polaroid Land Camera and became immediately successful. 

Apeco's glory days began to fade when Xerox Corporation revolutionized the photocopy industry with its dry-process, plain-paper 914 model in 1959. Eventually, everyone was making a "Xerox" and not an "Apeco" copy. Though Apeco introduced its own dry-process machine, it faced technical problems. Apeco was infamously known for its Dial-A-Copy and Dial-A-Matic models in the 1960s. It featured a small "telephone-style" rotary dial for selecting the number of copies. This feature provided frustration as some users found it unreliable with frequent malfunctions. Apeco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1976, phasing out its photocopier production. The company emerged from bankruptcy four years later but liquidated its photocopy sales and distribution activities in 1983.

The Sixty-Six Year Old Whopper

In 1953, Keith Kramer and Matthew Burns bought the rights to a special grill machine called the Insta-Broiler and named their restaurant Insta-Burger King. James McLamore and David Edgerton purchased one Insta-Burger in 1954, renamed it Burger King, and opened the first restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida. The duo came up with a gas grill that they called a "flame broiler," and eliminated the problems of the Insta-Broiler. The Burger King mascot was created in 1955 and the driver of that 1957 Oldsmobile (above) may have ordered the new Whopper for the first time. 

A full chronological history here including the origins of Mr. McLamore.

The Last Peacemaker

 

On this day in 1954, the last Convair B-36, B-36J-10-CF 53-2827, a Featherweight III variant, completed assembly at the Convair Division of General Dynamics plant at Fort Worth, Texas. The Convair B-36J was one of 14 Featherweight III high-altitude variants. It was built without the six retractable defensive gun turrets of the standard model, retaining only the two 20 mm autocannons in the tail. All aft bunk beds, kitchen, and sound insulation were also removed. It enabled the bomber to fly well above 50,000' if needed, an astounding height at the time for the largest-ever bomber. 2827 was retired five years later. After renovations in Fort Worth, the plane was eventually sent to Tucson, Arizona for complete restoration. It is now on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Note: The "Peacemaker" name was submitted in a contest to name the plane when it first went into service in 1948. Though often referred to today in publications, the name was never officially adopted by the United States Air Force.

Meteorite Versus Human

 

On this date in 1954, thirty-four-year-old Ann Hodges became the first modern confirmed case of a meteorite striking a human. Asleep under quilts on her sofa in her Sylacauga, Alabama home one afternoon, Hodges was hit by a grapefruit-sized meteorite that crashed through the roof and ceiling of her house, ricocheting off a large wooden radio and impacting her body, causing a large football-shaped bruise on the left side of her abdomen. When her husband returned home from work, there were so many spectators it was difficult to gain entrance to his home.

In a 2018 Wired magazine article, “The Mad Scramble to Claim the World’s Most Coveted Meteorite” they calculated the odds of a meteorite landing in a particular spot as 1 in 182 trillion. Ironically, Hodge’s house was across the road from the Comet drive-in theater.

More images at Sylacauga's meteor

Retirement in Sunny Arizona

 

On this date in 1954, the Strategic Air Command retired its last B-29 Superfortress to the aircraft storage facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona. The B-29  was the most technologically advanced bomber produced during World War II. The Superfortress was manufactured by Boeing at Seattle and Renton, Washington, and Wichita, Kansas by the Glenn L. Martin Company, Omaha, Nebraska, and by Bell Aircraft Corporation, Marietta, Georgia. After a rough teething period, the rapid war effort helped make the aircraft an eventual success. Though modest improvements were made, the Superfortress was underpowered, something its successor, the ten-engined Convair B-36, was not. Even in the late stages of the war, the Enola Gay had to be specially enhanced to be able to lift the first atomic bomb. Of the 3,990 built,  only two B-29s remain airworthy, with the remaining twenty-four displayed at various museums in America, with two displayed in the UK, and South Korea.

The Envy of Your Neighbor

 

On this day in 1954, Texas Instruments announced plans for the Regency TR-1, the first transistor radio to be commercially sold and at a rather hefty price of $50. Texas Instruments of Dallas, and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (I.D.E.A.) of Indianapolis, Indiana, were behind the unveiling of the TR-1. The look and size of the radio were well received, but the reviews of its performance were less glowing. Still, it was a major technology breakthrough that would help propel transistors into the mainstream with competitors getting on board quickly. The mass-market success of the smaller and cheaper Sony TR-63, released in 1957, led to the transistor radio becoming the most popular electronic communication device of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Backus Fortran

This date in 1954 marked the first run of a FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) program. Originally developed by John W. Backus and an IBM team, it quickly became the dominant language for programming used for scientific calculations during the "punch card" era. Backus was working on the IBM 701 for computing missile trajectories when he started work on a system to make it easier to write programs. He wanted a programming language that was closer in appearance to human language, resembling a combination of English shorthand and algebra. FORTRAN (today as Fortran) remains the top language in scientific and industrial programming. The latest version being Fortran 2018.

Stunt Flying a Passenger Jet

 

On this date in 1955, Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test, Alvin “Tex” Johnston, barrel-rolled the Model 367-80, prototype of the KC-135 Stratotanker and 707 Stratoliner, over Lake Washington. Twice.

The "Dash 80" was scheduled to perform a simple flyover for representatives of the aircraft industries. Many jaws dropped, I imagine, when the unthinkable occurred. Johnston got a tongue-lashing for his "salesmanship." Flight test engineer, Bill Whitehead, took the photograph.

Redundancy

 

The Oldsmobile F-88 was a General Motors concept car created by Oldsmobile in 1954 with the final design done under the direction of Art Ross. Also with a fiberglass body, it was based on the Chevrolet Corvette. Legend has it there were three F-88 concepts built over a three-year period, each looking quite different. GM displayed the concept to the public for the first time at their Motorama Auto Show exhibition. The car sold for nearly $3.5 million in 2005 at Barrett-Jackson and today it is on display at the Gateway Colorado Automobile Museum. Fortunately, GM came to their senses and the redundant car was never in direct competition to Chevrolet's Corvette. 

And No, I'm Not Roy Rogers

 

One would probably start laughing hysterically or simply drive away after handing the attendant a ten-dollar bill. Yet, according to the advertisement, that is the amount the American motoring public spent on gas and oil in 1953. Motorists are naturally interested in getting more mileage for their gasoline money. American Cyanamid Company was also interested and did something about it through the development of Aerocat Synthetic Fluid Cracking Catalysts. Sounds bogus. They should have left out the "cracking" part.

Founded by Frank Washburn in 1907, American Cyanamid Company was a leading American conglomerate, one of the nation's top 100 manufacturing companies by the 1970s and 1980s. The same company that made Beetleware kitchen and household items. The company was a pioneering leader in the field of catalyst manufacture. Their research in cooperation with the petroleum industry illustrated how chemistry helped make more miles per gallon and power at a lower cost. With a catalytic merger in 1994, the company ceased operations. The Cyanamid compound in Wayne, New Jersey, later served as the headquarters of Toys R Us, also defunct, as Wayne's cyanide...er...cyanamid curse continued.

A Vaccine With Success

On this day in 1954, the Jonas Salk vaccine mass inoculation took place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh. Dr. Salk performed every shot personally in the school’s gymnasium, a process that took two hours. The boys and girls were in the first through third grades at the school. The children largely took their vaccines without drama, partly due to the variety of distractions presented before them. By 1962, the number of new cases had dropped to fewer than 1,000. And by the time of Salk’s death, polio was virtually extinct in the U.S. and dwindling worldwide.

Impracticality, Thy Name Is Harley Earl

On this day in 1954, General Motors introduced their gas turbine concept called the XP-21 Firebird, later referred to as the Firebird I, at GM's Motorama in conjunction with the New York Auto Show. The design team was headed by Harley Earl, who took inspiration from the innovations in fighter aircraft design at the time. Engineer Emmett Conklin led the development of the Whirlfire Turbo Power gas turbine coupled to a two-speed gearbox. For a time he was the only person qualified to drive the car. GM's feasibility study was simply showcasing their technological dominance of the era and never intended the impractical design or their subsequent gas turbine concept cars for production.