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Robert Goddard, Rocket Scientist, Annoys the Neighbors, Celebrates an Anniversary

As a teenager, Worcester’s Robert Goddard climbed a cherry tree on his family farm on Oct. 19, 1899 and dreamed of building a rocket that would fly to Mars. That day, the 17-year-old envisioned the principles of rocket propulsion that would, in fact, take a rocket to space.

“I was a different boy when I descended the tree . . . for existence at last seemed very purposeful,” he said.

For the rest of his life, he considered that day his “Anniversary Day.”

Goddard teaching at Clark University

But the journey from dream to reality was not an easy one. He didn’t receive acknowledgement for his achievements until well after he died. And only after a man landed on the moon did one of his fiercest critics apologize.

Robert Goddard

Robert Goddard was born on a Worcester farm on Oct. 5, 1882, the only son of Nahum Goddard and Fannie Hoyt to survive infancy. As a frail boy prone to illness, he read voraciously about science.

He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1908 and earned his master’s and Ph.D. in physics from Clark University.

Robert Goddard turned his attention to the possibility of fueling a rocket with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. His views on fueling a rocket toward space and then propelling it in the vacuum of space generated controversy.

Robert Goddard and his rocket in Auburn, Mass., in 1926.

Scientists debated the merits of his proposals. And The New York Times sniffed at the theories of a scientist from western Massachusetts:

“That Professor Goddard, with his “chair” in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action and reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react—to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”

The Auburn Rocket

Goddard was undeterred. He did, however, tend to keep his work quiet after the early controversies. He wanted to avoid wasting time defending himself against his less- knowledgeable critics.

On March 16, 1926, he launched his first rocket on a relative’s farm in Auburn, Mass. That first flight, just 41-feet high, inspired him to try more, and he would continue using the Asa Ward farm in Auburn for several more launches.

The noise of the rockets, however, and their tendency to go astray and land with a thud generated more and more police calls. A newspaper headline from the day after a July 17, 1929 launch told the story: “Giant Rocket Alarms Many.”

Another snarky headline announced, “Moon Rocket Misses Target by 238,799 1/2 Miles!”

A rocket is a noisy thing, Robert Goddard explained. But the test caused no damage. Nevertheless, state fire marshal George Neal ordered an end to the tests. Goddard next successfully persuaded the military to let him use the grounds at Camp Devens for his tests, which put him outside the reach of the state authorities. He worked there for roughly a year.

Charles Lindbergh Steps In

Goddard transporting a rocket in New Mexico.

But another party had also taken notice of Goddard’s work. Robert Goddard’s ideas impressed aviator Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh checked him out and then began turning to his wealthy friends to find support. Lindbergh would convince the Harry Guggenheim (of Guggenheim Foundation fame) to support Robert Goddard. With Guggenheim’s funding Goddard found an environment much more practical for his test launches: Roswell, N.M.

Over the next dozen years, Goddard’s research and the work of many other contributors would lead to the creation of rockets capable of traveling into space. Though he would have to sue the U.S. government to collect money for the use of his early patents, Robert Goddard would finally be acknowledged as the father or modern rocketry.

In 1969, long after his death in 1945, Goddard would have been pleased to note the final capitulation of his critics. Forty-nine years after its first editorial criticizing Goddard’s lack of understanding of basic physics, The New York Times wrote a correction in 1969, the day after the Apollo 11 moon launch that used Goddard’s inventions:

“Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th Century and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.”

This story about Robert Goddard was updated in 2022.

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Teddy Roosevelt Humiliates Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss lived much of his life in California and New York, but never really left Springfield, Mass., where he was born on March 2, 1904.

The timeless children’s books of Theodor Seuss Geisel originated from his boyhood in the western Massachusetts city. Themes and images from his 46 imaginative children’s books can be traced to Springfield: Mulberry Street, the McElligot family, his father’s Rube Goldberg inventions, the haunted house next door, colorful Victorian homes, the wild animals in the Springfield Zoo he could hear at night. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas , the town of Whoville is based on Easthampton, Mass., just north of Springfield, and the Grinch’s mountain is based on Mount Tom nearby.

Something happened to him in Springfield, too, that would remain with him for the rest of his life.

Geisel’s family belonged to Springfield’s prosperous German community in Springfield, which became the object of suspicion when World War I broke out. German frankfurters became hot dogs and sauerkraut became liberty cabbage.

Boy Scouts

Dr. Seuss hated making public appearances.

Young Ted Geisel belonged to Boy Scout Troop 13, which undertook a war bond drive. He walked from house to house selling war bonds. His grandfather, a well-to-do brewer, bought $1,000 worth of bonds from his grandson. That made Ted one of the top-selling Scouts in Springfield.

Ted and nine other Scouts were to receive an award from former President Theodore Roosevelt in May 1918. They lined up on the state of Springfield’s Municipal Auditorium awaiting their award. Ted was last.

Roosevelt handed each boy an award – and then he got to Ted. Someone had made a mistake and given the former president only nine awards. It was an embarrassing situation, and Roosevelt made it worse. “What’s this boy doing here?” he said loudly. Ted, mortified, was hustled off the stage.

From then on, fear of appearing before an audience became a phobia with Ted Geisel. His biographer Thomas Fensch suggests he moved to a lonely mountaintop in La Jolla, Calif., to avoid crowds and the possibility of a neighbor asking “What’s he doing here?”

(One also wonders if the incident didn’t inspire his comment, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”)

Dr. Seuss Grows Up

Dr. Seuss would succeed as a commercial illustrator and as a children’s book author. In 1954, Life magazine published a study on childhood illiteracy, concluding that children weren’t learning to read because their books were so boring. A publisher at Houghton Mifflin compiled a list of 348 words it was important for children to recognize. He cut it down to 250 and challenged Geisel to write a book using just those words – a book children couldn’t put down. Dr. Seuss rose to the challenge and wrote The Cat in the Hat. It is still, of course, in print.

Dr. Seuss died on Sept. 24, 1991. His birthday has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day.

With thanks to The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss: The Life and Work of Theodor Geisel by Thomas Fensch. Dr. Seuss cartoon by By Greg Williams – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2265954. This story was updated in 2023. Springfield Public School By Leepaxton at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16996541.

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Two Famous Phrases, One Shipyard

The Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Mass., has a connection to two famous phrases.

“Mr. Watson, Come here, I want to see you,” was the first.

The second: “Kilroy was here.”

One Famous Phrase

Mr. Watson, of course, was Thomas A. Watson, who helped Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone. Watson was born in Salem, Mass., in 1854. A talented young electrical mechanic, Bell hired him to build experimental devices for transmitting voice.

On March 10, 1876, Bell and Watson were working in a boardinghouse attic at 109 Court St. in Boston. Bell uttered the famous phrase into a device that included a liquid transmitter. Watson, in the next room, clearly heard him.

There is some controversy about what Bell actually said. In his lab notes he wrote: “Mr. Watson, Come here, I want to see you.” Fifty-four years later, Watson recalled Bell said, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”

There is also some controversy over who really should get credit for inventing the telephone. The device resulted from work by many individuals. But Bell and Watson developed the first commercially viable telephone.

Thomas Watson

Watson had loaned money to Bell during their telephone experiments. Bell paid him back – and recognized his contribution to the invention. He gave him a 10 percent share in the company that would become the Bell Telephone Company.

Watson then took the money and bought a farm in Braintree, Mass., where he began working on marine engines. That led to the creation of the Fore River Engine Company, which became the Fore River Shipyard. Watson later moved the yard to Quincy, after an initial order for a 50 horsepower engine led to orders from the U.S. Navy for battleships.

The launch of Lady Lex from the Fore River Shipyard

Kilroy and His Famous Phrase

James J. Kilroy was an inspector at the Fore River Shipyard during World War II. He said he used the famous phrase, “Kilroy was here,” to mark rivets he had inspected as ships were being built.

Later, sailors would find the phrase in places like sealed hull spaces. That no graffiti artist could have reached those spaces contributed to the mythical quality of the phrase. GIs began scrawling the famous phrase along with a doodle of a man peering over a wall (or the side of a ship). They were especially fond of leaving “Kilroy was here” doodles in newly captured areas or landings.

On Dec. 23, 1946, the Associated Press reported the elusive Kilroy had been found.

According to the AP, the American Transit Association held a contest to establish the identity of the real Kilroy. A James J. Kilroy, of Halifax, Mass., satisfied the ATA that he was the real deal. He said he worked at the Bethlehem Steel Company’s Fore River Shipyard, inspecting battleship parts during the war. To satisfy his bosses that he was on the job, he wrote “Kilroy was here” after he’d inspected work.

A Streetcar?

The Association then awarded a streetcar to Kilroy for winning the contest. The Kilroys, who had nine children ages six months to 15, intended
to attach the streetcar to their dwelling to make room for their brood, the AP said.

He died in Boston on Nov. 24, 1962, at the age of 60. The New York Times added a further revelation in his obituary the next day. “He said he … grew tired of being asked to descend into tanks he had already inspected,” the Times reported. “Thereafter, he related, every time he inspected a tank he would chalk on the lid, ‘Kilroy was here’.”

The “Kilroy was here” doodle is engraved in the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.

This story was updated in 2023.

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How the Polaroid Camera Was Born at a Connecticut Boys Camp

The Polaroid Corporation, which once employed 21,000 people, got started in a Lebanon, Conn., boys camp in 1922. It happened when a teacher showed a 13-year-old boy how to take the glare off a tabletop.

The teacher was Barney “Cap” Girden, a colorful finagler who would later hold 20 patents for skin-diving inventions.

The summer camp was Mooween, which operated on the shores of Red Cedar Lake from 1921-63. So beloved was Mooween by its campers that they lobbied successfully to revive it as Mooween State Park in 2008.

Din Land and his most successful invention, the instant camera. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Polaroid

The 13-year-old boy was Edwin Herbert Land, who in his lifetime patented 535 inventions, more than any American except Thomas Edison. As an advisor to President Eisenhower, Land spearheaded the development of the U-2 spy plane. He also founded and ran Polaroid, a global corporation that employed 15,000 people in Massachusetts alone. The company churned out polarizers, instant cameras, X-ray film, 3-D movies and military devices for night vision. So popular was Land’s instant photography during the 1970s that people shot a billion Polaroid photos in a year. Ansel Adams, David Hockney and Andy Warhol all took Polaroids.

Andy Warhol with a Polaroid print portrait, by Bernard Gotfryd. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Land was not only a brilliant inventor, but a business pioneer. When he faced stiff competition for scientific talent, he hired women from Smith College’s art department . Then he sent them to science classes. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Land took Polaroid to the forefront of the affirmative action movement. He set the prototype for the successful Silicon Valley startup. Steve Jobs called Land his boyhood hero and inspiration.

Bridgeport Beginnings

Edwin Herbert “Din” Land was born on May 7, 1909 in Bridgeport, Conn. His grandparents, Avram and Ella Solomonovich, had fled the Ukraine to escape anti-Semitism. When they arrived in the United States, they learned they had “landed.” They misunderstood and registered themselves as “Lands.” Otherwise, the Polaroid Land Camera probably would have had a different name – and probably not Solomonovich.

Land’s father Harry, a prosperous businessman, disposed of scrap metal from Electric Boat. In 1919, the Lands moved to 1 Crescent St. in Norwich, Conn.

Two years later, Din went to Camp Mooween in nearby Lebanon. It was a Roaring ‘20s version of nerd camp founded recently by the charismatic Cap Girden. Many years later, the L.A. Weekly would dub Girden a “nutty professor” for his ideas to eliminate smog. The New York Times called him “a minor-league inventor and major-league finagler whose business acumen was as absent as the funds to cover most of his checks.”

Din Land, inset, Lake Mooween.

Girden’s enthusiasm for science and nature profoundly influenced the boys who attended Camp Mooween. He would wake them in the middle of the night to watch a thunderstorm and explain why it was the greatest show on earth. Or he’d point to a single fern and turn it into a fascinating story about history, dinosaurs and the origin of coal.

The camp’s alumnae include Yip Harburg, who wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and Julius Silver, a founder of Brandeis University and lifelong advisor to Land. Many of the camp’s alumni would return year after year for a reunion, well after Camp Mooween had disappeared.

A Growing Fascination With Polarization

Din Land was already intrigued by light when he arrived at Camp Moowen, but it was Girden who inspired his enthusiasm for polarization. One day at the camp, Girden showed him how a Nicol prism – a filter fashioned from a clear calcite crystal – screened light waves to eliminate the glare from a tabletop. Land attributed the entire direction of his career to Girden’s demonstration of polarization.

Girden taught him to use polarizing photometers, which can measure the intensity of a beam of daylight as compared with a beam that has a steady, predetermined intensity. And it was Girden who told Din Land of the need for a synthetic material that would polarize light as it passed through.

That summer, Land was driving at night with a Camp Mooween counselor. Their headlights were so dim they nearly ran into a team of horses hitched to a farm wagon. That led to a discussion back at camp about the need to boost headlights’ intensity – and to reduce glare to make nighttime driving safer.

Land would spend his next decades in an obsessive quest to put synthetic polarizers on automobile headlights. Along the way, he would successfully commercialize his cutting-edge technology in myriad products.

Din Land with a Polaroid instant photo, 1971. By Bernard Gotfryd. Courtesy Library of Congress.

“The Most Exciting Single Event in My Life”

Land’s on-again, off-again relationship with Harvard began when he was 17. He dropped out after his freshman year to try to invent the synthetic polarizer that Cap Girden told him the world needed. With financial support from his father, Land moved to New York City and spent long hours doing research in the New York Public Library, his own small apartment and Columbia University’s physics laboratory.

Finally he hit on a method of dissolving tiny crystals in a sheet of nitrocellulose lacquer and aligning them in a magnetic field. The moment Land turned an electromagnet onto suspended crystals and watched transmitted light turn from white to black was “the most exciting single event in my life.”

That discovery — of a teenaged college dropout — would later take the form of inexpensive polarizers used in hundreds of millions of calculators, watches, camera filters, sunglasses and microscopes. It would also draw Land into the field of instant photography.

Polaroid’s most successful product, the Land instant camera

Land returned to Harvard, but dropped out again to form a start-up company with his physics instructor – first in Cambridge, then in a dairy barn in Waltham, Mass. For decades he would try to sell his synthetic polarizers to the auto industry. He never succeeded.

Land’s fledgling company did get a contract in 1934 from Eastman Kodak to make photographic polarizing filters. American Optical also agreed to buy polarized sunglasses in 1935. In 1939, the company moved to Cambridge, Mass.

During World War II, military contracts kept Polaroid alive. The company, which then had 240 employees, worked with the military to develop night-vision goggles, target finders and heat-seeking missiles.

Polaroid Instant Camera Breakthrough

On a sunny day in 1943, Land took a photograph of his three-year-old daughter Jennifer while the family vacationed in Santa Fe. The toddler asked him why she couldn’t instantly see the photo. Struck by the question, Land took off on a walk around the town – and solved the puzzle.

“Within an hour, the camera, the film and the physical chemistry became so clear to me,” he said.

He later said he solved nearly all the problems of instant photography during that walk – except for a few details that needed to be worked out between 1943 and 1973.

Din Land demonstrating his instant camera, 1971, by Bernard Gotfryd. Courtesy Library of Congress.

The Polaroid Instant Camera

Polaroid launched the instant camera during the 1948 Christmas season. The company made 60 cameras with a price tag of $89.75 and put 56 on the shelves at Jordan Marsh in downtown Boston. They sold out in one day.

From then on, Polaroid expanded rapidly on the strength of its instant camera sales. The company went public in 1957 and was on of the hottest stocks on Wall Street during the 1960s. It built new factories and formed international subsidiaries. By 1970, it had $500 million in annual sales. At its height in the 1970s, Polaroid employed nearly 15,000 people in Massachusetts . Many worked at its huge Waltham campus along Route 128.

Polaroid Founder Edwin Land on Life Magazine Cover

Land went on to win many honors, to become a very wealthy man, to advise presidents. In 1972, he was featured on the cover of Life magazine with the SX-70 camera. The headline: “A genius and his magic camera.”

At the age of 73, he told a friend where it all started:

“I’m here with you,” he said, “because when I was a kid some teacher showed me a Nicol prism taking the reflection off a tabletop.”

Land died in 1991 at 81.

What Happened Next

Digital photography dealt a death blow to Polaroid. In 2000, a real estate firm bought its Cambridge headquarters, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001. A private equity firm bought most of the company and kept the name Polaroid. In 2005, Land’s Brattle Street home in Cambridge burned to the ground. The same year Polaroid decided to send its manufacturing to China. That company declared bankruptcy in 2008. What was left of the original company was renamed Primary PDC. In May 2009, two firms acquired Polaroid and placed under a holding company. The Polaroid brand is licensed to other products.

In 2010, Polaroid named Lady Gaga as its creative director. A wrecking ball took down the last building on the Waltham campus. A solar cell company bought Polaroid’s New Bedford plant, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Note: With thanks to Victor K. McElheny, who wrote “Insisting on the Impossible,” for much of the content in this post. This story was updated in 2022.

Images: Polaroid Land Camera by By Jonathan Mauer – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52307390.

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