Bob Wilhelm’s Q&A

By the start of the 1890s a number of inventors were seeking to replace the horse and wagon with what at the time was termed a “motor carriage”. The power of liquid water, long used to turn waterwheels for powering mills, when heated to its gaseous state where it’s power could be increased more than one hundred-fold, was harnessed in the 18^th century with the steam engine. By the late 19^th century, the steam engine’s well understood technology was a natural choice to serve as a mobile power source for motor carriage propulsion. Unfortunately steam engines and their associated boiler were massively heavy and not easily utilized for mobile power applications as evidenced by the steam traction engines in use at the time.

The properties of electricity and magnetism were beginning to become well understood in the middle of the 19^th century. Masses of moving electrons had been harnessed to generate power within the electric motor and when electron movement was restricted in a controlled manner with a thread of vulcanized and carbonized cotton, the kerosene lamp was replaced by the incandescent lamp.

Roughly in parallel with understanding electricity and magnetism, the steam engine had been mechanically modified with a different valve arrangement and the addition of an electrically generated spark to create power from a combustible liquid fuel that could be vaporized. These hit-and-miss internal combustion engines became popular in the late 19^th century replacing waterwheels and steam engines as power sources as these internal combustion engines harnessed the power of a liquid fuel directly without conversion to steam or relying on gravity.

With continued improvement of steam engines and the development of electric motors and internal combustion engines, the replacement of a horse team moving a vehicle became an interesting problem to solve. Applying a more economical and powerful mechanical power source to a moving wagon might lead to the retirement of horses as power sources. While Nicolas Joseph Cugnot built a prototype steam powered vehicle in 1769, it was not a vehicle for practical use. Oliver Evans of Newport, DE developed the high-pressure steam engine and used it to power an amphibious vehicle in Philadelphia by 1805 demonstrating a more useful harnessing of steam power.

Both Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, working independently in the early 1880s, applied internal combustion engine designs to wagons and are credited as inventing what we term the automobile. As both the hit-and-miss internal combustion engine and the steam engine and boiler came with severe weight penalties in their application, ‘accumulators’ (what batteries were initially called) and electric motors were lighter weight power sources becoming the most practical and logical solution to power a vehicle.

The first electric cars were publicly demonstrated in the early 1880s in Paris, France. William Morrison of Des Moines, IA demonstrated a six-passenger electrically propelled wagon in 1891. In 1895 Andrew L. Riker’s Riker Motor Vehicle Company of Elizabeth NJ introduced the first electric powered tricycles in the U.S. At the very beginning of the 20^th century, in 1901, Ferdinand Porsche combined the idea of an internal combustion hit-and-miss engine with batteries, and electric motors powering each of the vehicle’s wheels, to invent the first hybrid powered car.

The electric car reigned as the #1 technology choice for the first decade of the 1900s. The first car rental businesses in the U.S. were electric car rentals where drivers could rent an electric car for a few hours, by the week or month, or by the mile driven. Taxi services in cities such as Boston, New York, Trenton Philadelphia, and Washington DC operated fleets of vehicles within city limits where company depots could swap out a tray of discharged lead-acid batteries; replacing them with a freshly charged tray in a few minutes. Charging stations were abundant at hotels, and other locations around a large city. Maps, similar to the 1923 Edison Electric map pictured, indicated locations for public charging station locations and were prominently available.

In the U.S. in 1900 there were 4,192 vehicles registered. Steam powered Locomobiles accounted for a majority of the 1,681 steam vehicles registered. In second place were mostly Columbia electric vehicles with 1,575 registered according to the U.S. Census. There were 936 internal-combustion engine powered vehicles, mostly Wintons, registered. While the registration of steam vehicles would maintain steam power as the top automotive technology in use, by 1903 fleets of electric vehicles were being sold to taxi companies and Stanley designed steam cars (Locomobile, Mobile, & Stanley) no longer boasted being the top selling vehicle design. Both increasing electric vehicle registrations, and a few years later, increasing Ford internal combustion engine vehicle registrations, slowly chipped away at steam’s supremacy as the premier automotive power source.

By 1912 the U.S. had the most electric cars in operation of any country with 33,842 registered across the country. In that same year steam vehicles accounted for 40% (13,535) of the registered vehicles in the U.S. Electric vehicles were the second most popular technology with 38% (12,860) of registered U.S. automobiles electric motor propelled. The remaining 22% (7,447) were internal combustion engine powered and fueled with either gasoline or kerosene. With the start of World War I, the internal combustion engine established itself as the preferred automotive power technology. By 1935 both steam and electric vehicles were relegated to storage as a former novelty forms of transportation or had long since been scrapped.

These turn-of-the-century vehicles often had colloquial names. Stanley steamers were often called “Flying Teapots” due to their steam vapor trails and speed. Vehicles powered by a hit-and-miss or internal combustion engine were often called “2-bangers”, “3-bangers”, or equivalent number of ‘bangers’ depending on the number of cylinders the engine possessed. What was the colloquial name for an early electrically propelled carriage?

Answer
The commutating of carbon brushes against copper armature bars within a DC motor gave the devices, and hence the vehicle, an idiosyncratic combination of humming and whining sounds that was unique to hear as the vehicle passed by. Electric cars flying past pedestrians on city streets were soon referred to as “Hummingbirds” due to the quiet hummingbird-like sound they produced.

With the advent of brushless polyphase alternating-current electric motor technologies used in today’s hybrid and electric cars, most electric vehicles manufactured before 2019 are absolutely quiet; even quieter than the world speed recording holding flying teapot! This resulted in people stepping in front of moving hybrid and electric cars at intersections and in parking lots because they literally didn’t perceive the vehicle moving towards them. As electric vehicles became more prominent in the 21^st century pedestrians stuck by a vehicle accident rates increased dramatically.

In 2010 Congress passed a law requiring the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to define sounds to be emitted by a vehicle anytime it was in motion. People heard an internal combustion powered vehicles and knew they were running and might move at any time. A similar auditory signal would be required of electric vehicles. In 2016 the Obama Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation finalized “Quiet Car” rules requiring all new electric or hybrid cars to emit distinctive sound(s) whenever the vehicle was moving at speeds less than 18.6 miles per hour. This year, 2021, all manufactured cars sold in the U.S. are required to emit cautionary sound(s) when moving slowly, forward or in reverse.

While no automobile manufacturer has chosen to replicate the early 20^th century DC motor hummingbird sound, the Quiet Car Rules do allow manufacturers freedom to tailor the sound or sounds they wish to use. The following link provides examples of the various sounds some current manufacturers have chosen.

https://tekdeeps.com/this-is-the-sound-chosen-by-the-manufacturers-in-their-acoustic-warning-for-pedestrians/

Throughout much of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, approximately 375 acres of rich New Castle County farmland, enclosed by Ashland-Clinton, Center Mill, Snuff Mill, and Creek roads, was owned by generations of Chandler, Green, Kane, Sharpless, and Springer families, among others. As these families divided their farms into smaller parcels for descendants and others wishing to settle in the area, at least two dozen smaller parcels had been created by the early 20^th century. In 1927 Urey W. Conway began purchasing various land parcels. By 1939 Conway had purchased 14 adjoining properties totaling approximately 175-acres. Four additional parcels were added over the years, bringing Conway’s total ownership to more than 200 acres.

Conway passed away on July 1, 1951. His will decreed the collection of contiguous Yorklyn properties go to his cousin, Adele Conway Mills of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the former Wilmington Trust Company serving as executor. Eleanor Annette Marshall (1924-1999) was well acquainted with Urey’s property as it was located on the opposite bank of the Red Clay Creek that served as a border for J. Warren Marshall’s Woodcrest property, her father’s home where she grew up. Preferring the name Bonnie, Marshall bought the 206.48-acre property at auction for $80,000 on May 29, 1952, with financial assistance from her mother, Bertha T. Lamborn Marshall. Bonnie’s intent was to see the untouched stretches of forest, freshwater marshes, open fields, and scenic views of Red Clay Creek preserved for future generations’ enjoyment. Bonnie moved into the former Greene family stone farmhouse that Conway occupied. Bonnie named the property Oversee Farm, pictured below in 1937.

On April 18, 1953, Bonnie sold to developer John Alexander 56.67 acres where the land was flat to lightly rolling along either side of a tributary of the Red Clay Creek. The conditions of sale specified in the deed permitted Alexander to construct up to 10 private dwellings with free-standing garages and storage buildings on subdivision lots of 2.5 acres or more. On December 16, 1953, Konstanty Olewnik, an adjoining property owner to Bonnie, purchased 0.522 acres to “square off” his property. Bonnie lived at Oversee from 1952 until shortly after her marriage.

Bonnie met Benjamin Joseph Reynolds (1927 – 1976), a West Grove, PA, native, whom she married on January 2, 1960. Having moved from Oversee Farm to the Reynolds family farm in New Garden Township after their marriage, Bonnie leased her Oversee farmhouse to various tenants. The Reynolds family occasionally harvested Oversee’s meadows of lush grasses for feeding their dairy livestock during the winter. In addition to operating the Reynolds family’s Green Valley Dairy Farm, Ben, a republican, was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1964 and served until 1972. Bonnie’s father, J. Warren Marshall, was involved in Delaware politics and served as Chairman of the Republican State Committee alongside being President of National Fiber & Insulation and National Vulcanized Fiber Company.

In 1966 Reynolds began developing two large tracts of land west of the Delaware-Pennsylvania state line, one owned by Andrew McIntire and an adjoining parcel owned by John and Isaac Jackson. Broad Run Creek and its valley stretched across the properties. The rich in Kaolin and limestone deposits found in the valley during the later 1800s had been mined out by the early 1900s, leaving open pits and tailing hills strewn about. Reynolds thought it an ideal place to build a self-contained private resort community of more than 480 acres.

What is the present-day name of the community that Reynolds initially named “Shangri-La”? For extra credit, what was the name of the lake Reynolds constructed on the property?

Answer
After purchase of the former property, Reynolds set to work laying out his community. Broad Run Creek’s valley made an ideal formation for creating a lake. By forming a lake, Reynolds could eliminate the many open mining pits to either side of the creek. Reynolds created an earthen dam from tailings material across Broad Run valley between 1969-’70. He named the new lake that took several years to form Shangri-La Reservoir, today known as Somerset Lake. Reynolds’ self-contained community included cottages, recreation facilities, and shops. Unfortunately, Reynolds died in 1976 and with construction plans incomplete, and the 28-acre manmade lake nearly full, the project ground to a halt. Photos of the area in 1961, in 1968 with Shangri-La Reservoir under construction, and today as Somerset Lake in 1992 and 2020 are below.

Ten years after Ben’s passing, Bonnie sold 350 acres of the Shangri-La property surrounding what was then called Shangri-La Reservoir to Ernest DiSabatino & Sons (now EDiS Company) and Bellevue Holding Company (now Bellevue Companies) for the development of 477 homes. Additional property (~130 acres) was sold to St. Anthony’s Church in Wilmington for development of a summer retreat. From 1987 to 1994, Broad Run Valley was transformed at cost of $115 million into today’s Somerset Lake community of housing developments, with the St. Anthony’s parcel purchased by New Garden Township in 2018 to developed into a public park complex.

Bonnie was a birthright Quaker and maintained a dedication to Quakerism having served on numerous Quaker organizations and committees throughout her life. She received diplomas from Oberlin College, University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Reynolds dedicated her life to social service work, world peace, and environmental preservation and protection. Her love of travel included her first cruise at age 13 and climbing the Himalayas at age 73, while her love of photography won her awards in various national and international competitions. She cultivated gardens at Green Valley and Oversee farms and was active in numerous non-profit organizations.

Upon Eleanor’s death in 1999, Oversee Farm was held by Wilmington Trust Company while the former banking institution settled the Marshall-Reynolds Trust. Today the Marshall-Reynolds Foundation gifts millions of dollars annually, supporting local environmental and preservation efforts. To settle Eleanor’s estate, the 121.8 acre Oversee Farm was gifted to the Nature Conservancy on December 1, 2003. Subsequently on December 1, 2006, the land was transferred to the State of Delaware, Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control (DNREC) and added to the administration of Auburn Heights Preserve, now Auburn Valley State Park.

Oversee Farm is approximately 74% forested and 20% grass pasture land. The hilly forested property rises from the creek’s elevation of 155-feet above sea level to a pair of flat-topped hills near Snuff Mill Road, peaking 210-feet higher than the creek. Underground springs feed a 1-3/4-acre pond shaped similar to reading glasses. The Oversee Pond is part of a Red Clay Creek tributary and includes several small waterfalls. An 1800s stone bank barn and matching stone farm house remain on the property. Delaware State Parks maintains the property and has routed a 1.2-mile, figure eight, paved trail, named Oversee Farm Trail, through the lush piedmont meadows and wooded areas. As funds allow, State Parks envisions Oversee Farm Trail connected to Yorklyn Bridge Trail by additional trails and an iron truss bridge spanning the Red Clay Creek1 and Creek Roads (Rt. 82).

On May 20, Behind the Steam will examine the pair of Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company wooden box wall telephones that were once in the Marshall Brothers Mill office (now the State Parks office) and Auburn Heights mansion. Both telephones were found to be functional, and as part of museum renovations, wiring and space was designated for their installation and use. Subsequently, both telephones were restored and now are functional in the museum (but ONLY between EACH OTHER since they won’t work on today’s modern digital telephone systems). A museum visitor can experience the poor sound volume and quality of an early telephone call, unlike today’s modern devices with reliability and quality similar to having a person thousands of miles away sound as if they were right next to you.

The first telephone exchange for the Hockessin area was established December 30, 1899, by the Delaware & Atlantic Telegraph & Telephone Company. Located in Dr. Ball’s Drug Store, the switchboard initially served six subscribers when made operational. Within a couple months the switchboard served a dozen Hockessin area subscribers, including the Marshall family and Marshall Brothers Company.

Quarterly payments, starting in April 1900, made by Marshall Brothers Company to Delaware & Atlantic Telegraph & Telephone Company vary each quarter as posted to the general ledger. This is no doubt the result of toll calls being made. While the Marshalls had a private line between the mansion and mill office, a call to “central” in Hockessin allowed the family to communicate with any other subscribers connected to the Hockessin switchboard. When Israel needed to call one of the vulcanized fibre companies in Wilmington, it required making a toll call.

Any call from Hockessin to Wilmington or Newark, Delaware, or to Kaolin or Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, would have been a toll call during the first years of 1900. There was a device used by telephone operators to document the duration of the long-distance call that determined the cost of that call. What was the device called, and how did it function? Hint: the device was originally designed and patented for use in billiards halls!

Answer
For the earliest long-distance phone calls, an operator would simply look at a clock hanging above the operator’s station and note the time on a toll-call card along with an identification for the person placing the long-distance call. When the call was over, parties were to “ring off” with the operator to let the operator know the call was over. The operator then noted the end time on the toll-call card and handed to the supervising operator for calculation of the time spent on the call and logging against the customer’s account for the current billing period. This process suffered from math errors in time calculation, rate calculations, and even logging a long-distance call against a different account than it should have been. If the callers forgot to ring off with the operator at the end of their long-distance call, time accrued until the operator checked the line to find no one talking and would then log out the call.

Henry Abbott was a watch-smith in New York City. Abbott realized that “elapsed time” had value and that many businesses bought and sold “elapsed time” as a commodity. Abbott had nearly three dozen patents, his first in 1876 detailing a means for a watch stem to both wind a watch as well as move the hands to set the time! Billiard halls of the late 1800s covered their operating expenses by charging to use their tables. It was playing billiards that Abbott realized “time is money.”

Recognizing the issues with hand-tallied time tickets, Henry invented an “Apparatus for Recording Measurements of Time, Space, or Quantity” in 1891 (patent 449192). In 1894 the first Calculagraph was installed by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company to time long-distances calls between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Six years later he received a patent for the Calculagraph (patent 583320), which quickly found use in telephone exchanges across the country as this device actually printed the time on a standard payroll ticket inserted into the device.

Henry, in 1904, improved on his earlier patent by designing a Calculagraph specifically for telephone use where the device was electrically connected to long-distance telephone lines between city pairs of telephone exchanges. While early Calculagraphs relied on a Seth Thomas #10 eight-day, double-spring balance, mechanical clock movement, later Calculagraphs had synchronous electric motor clock movements. The Calculagraph Company of East Hanover, NJ (today named Control Products, Incorporated) estimates there were more than 100,000 Calculagraphs in operation before rotary dialed long-distance technology replaced the need for long-distance operators and the Calculagraph.

Ben Franklin wrote in his Advice to Young Persons Intended for Trade — “Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day at his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expence; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides,” perhaps the first time the phrase “time is money” may have been used. It is the Calculagraph’s long-distance telephone call use that historians cite for introducing the phrase “time is money” into our mainstream vernacular as the device measured time in terms of money.

Inside Calculagraph in addition to the clock mechanism, are three circular printing wheels powered by the clock mechanism. The left wheel is a clock face with a perimeter rotating arrow indicating the hour and a central rotating hour indicating the minute the call began. The center wheel indicates minutes and the right wheel indicates seconds both with rotating arrows in the center. At the start of the call the operator inserts a toll ticket with the ID of the long-distance line being used and pushes the right handle on the Calculagraph forward to print the starting time (left dial) followed by pulling the right handle back to print just the hollow dial faces for minutes and seconds (no central arrows). The toll ticket is then removed and placed in a holder. At the completion of the call, the toll ticket is returned to the Calculagraph where the left handle is pulled. The arrows for the minutes and seconds dials now print to show the elapsed time in minutes and seconds for the call.