Giants of the Utility Industry

I'll bet you have never heard of Samuel Insull and Nikola Tesla (well, maybe you have heard the word "Tesla" if you have taken physics). These two men had huge impacts in the early days of the U.S. electric utility industry. Wikipedia discusses both in detail. Our modern electric power infrastructure and utility industry are directly descended from the creativity of these two men.

Everyone knows of Thomas Edison, but Edison promoted DC electric power. DC power was generated and distributed locally, because of the physical limitations of DC power transmission. Tesla invented the AC motor and generator, allowing the much more efficient AC power to defeat Edison's DC power. Using AC power allowed the development of long-distance high-voltage transmission lines.

Samual Insull worked with Edison as a young man, but split with him to develop central power plants generating AC electric power. This allowed him to create a huge new monopolistic electric utility in Chicago (now Commonwealth Edison). He also invented holding companies, under which he owned electric interurban railroad lines, natural gas distribution companies, and electric utilities. Congress wrote laws regarding monopolies and public utility commissions because of him.

Happy Birthday

To my grandfather, Grandpa Speed. He was born 111 years ago yesterday. I presume he got the nickname because he was not speedy on a basketball court as a high school kid in Thorp, Washington. I remember him having long conversations with his friend, Porter, sitting under a tree, alternately puffing on a pipe and stoking the pipe. Long conversations of few words, that is. "Bit windy today." 30 second pause. "A-yup." He is on the far right in this old photo. He died at age 81, a few months after this photo was taken.

China

My father, my son, and I were all born in the U.S.A., but...

My father married a woman (my mother) who was born in China.
My son married a woman (my daughter-in-law) who was born in China.
And they were born only about 300 miles apart.
Pretty strange, huh?

Weight Loss

Today's Yahoo headline is "Don't be a scale watcher."

Hah! I weigh myself twice a day, record it once a day, enter it into a database, and plot it. My "bathroom" scales gives both my weight and my percent body fat. The spreadsheet converts these numbers to lean body mass and fat mass. It says I have lost eight (8) pounds of body fat and only one (1) pound of lean body mass since the middle of February. I am now only 9 pounds above my goal weight. :)

Update

This is summer time, and summer time in Seattle means getting outdoors before it starts raining again. I spent four days in the mountains with wildflower experts in late July, and three days in the mountains with boy scouts in early August. I have stories to tell and photos to post, but no time between working and preparing for the next trip. But here are a couple of photos:

Vicenti Lake from high above


A steel bridge was washed out last fall. The remains are in the background, on the right side of the river.

A Remarkable Man

A friend and I went to a small Thai restaurant for lunch today in Bellevue. Apparently it had changed hands, as it had a slightly different name, and there was a new cook and a new waitress. After taking our order, the new waitress said, "You look familiar, have you ever eaten at Racha's in Queen Anne?" Now, Racha's is a very large Thai restaurant with seating for hundreds. I said, "Yes, a few times." She said she still works there but was helping her brother (presumably the new cook) for a week. But how did she remember me from the thousands she served at Racha's? I must be a truly remarkable man! :)