Beehive History, Volume 10, 1984

'BEEHIVE HISTORY

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Changing Technology

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LIKE J A Z AND THE FAST-FOOD HAMBURGER, THE SKYSCRAPER IS AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL THAT HAS SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD..

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Melvin T. Smith

Director Stanford J. Layton Coodimlor of Publkations Miriam B. Murphy Beehive History Editor @Copyright 1984 Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City, Utah 84101-1182

-BEEHIVE HISTORY

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Contents Skyscrapers. . . . . . .Phillip W. Neuberg 2 My Experiences in Printing . . . . . . .Alfred T. Hestmark 7 The Printed Word In Utah. . . . . . . . . .Miriam B. Murphy 8 The Strugg te to Make Paper InUtah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 .

Mining and Technology at Mercur, Utah . . Newell G.Bringhurst 13 The Lehi Beet Sugar Factory . . . . . . . Leonard J. Arrington 16 Wash Day as I Remember It . . . . . . .Alta J, Howad 22 Radio in Utah . . . . . . . .Linda Thatcher 24 Eureka's Strange "Gallows" Tell astory . . . . .Philip F. Nofarianni28

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Cover photwraph by Gary 0. Peterson, Photqeographics, of'downtown Salt Lake City in 1971, near the -inning of a major wave of skyscraper building that has dramatically changed the skyline.

This publication has bssn funded wlth the assistance of a matching grant-in-aid from the Department of the Interior, Natlonal Park Service, under provisions of the National Historic Presewatlon Act of 1966 as amended.

This program receives financial assistance for identification and preservation of historic propertlea under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabllltation Act of 1973. The U S Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, or handlcap In Its federally assisted programs. If yrxl believe you have been discriminated against in any program, actlvlty, or facility as described ahwe, or If you desire further information p l m e write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.

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BY PHILLIP W. NEUBERG

A wonderfully clear June morning greets us as we arise to begin the new day. A few minutes later from the balcony we view the early morning light sculpting each building and object in the valley below us. Then, after locking the front door, we ride the elevator down 10 floors to the commissary. We are running late and there is not time to stop at therestaurant Instead, breakfast consists of two donuts and a container of juice consumed while we hurriedly read the morning paper at the stand-up snack counter.

After a glance at the clock we run out to the corridor, take the elevator up two levels, and arrive at the office with two minutes to spare. At noon we join some colleagues for lunch at the restaurant on the first floor. After lunch we browse through magazines in the shop next to the elevators. Once or twice in the afternoon we glance out the window and notice the heavy traffic in the street below us. We leave the office a little late today, after concluding a long distance telephone call. We ride the elevator up to the 16th floor. Having changed in the locker room, we dive into the pool and leave our cares behind. During the whole day we have not left the building at all.

People perform countless activities related to work,relaxation, or both in skyscrapers. But just what are they - really? We wouldn't expect to see any in rural Wayne County. But we know they dominate the skylines of urban places like Salt Lake City and Ogden. We think of skyscrapers as tall buildings of many floors.

Traditionally, skyscrapers have been defined as buildings having an elevator and a steel frame. While the elevator and -today -banks of tiered elevators remain a component of that definition, the steel frame is more appropriately substituted with the term skeletal frame. The skeletal frame from which the walls ace hung not unlike our own anatomy of flesh and bones - is made today of either steel or concrete or both. Concrete is inherently fire resistant, but the choice between concrete and steel for a building's structural system is primarily one of cost.

P wraph of the Kennecott Bulldlng, early -1 with Osrnyn Deuel's 1847 cabin in foreground, depicts the vast change in architectural scale made possible by the skyscraper. The regularity of the openings and the predictability of the form were characteristic of post-WorldWar !I skyscrapers. USHS collections.

Skyscrapers are designed in every possible f o m and style. Look at Salt Lake City. There are quiet, reserved ones like the Kennecott Building. There are swank, showy ones like the new First Interstate Bank Building. Skyscrapers house every conceivable use. The First Security

Bank Tower at Fourth South and Main s h e t is an office building. The Trevi Tower is a residential skyscraper on Salt Lake's Capitol Hill. The Behavioral Science high-rise at the University of Utah houses educational activities. And skyscrapers today in Utah and the world also house

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Any general understanding of today's sky-

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In tlla uecades folluwug h e Civil War, however, cast iron was used less and less as steel came into wider US@. Steel is stronger and its paint of fdure during a fire ismore predictable.

Fire protection became a major concern in the development: of commercial architectur~ because of the significant ~ 0 ~ ~esdting 6 s froa the 1871 Chicago fie. Rising like a Phoenix from the a s h , Chicago became home to the newest developments in achitmhm. With the use of the s~~ and then the hydrauljc elevator thestage was set for the development of skyscrapers such as the Home Insurance Building (1883-84) and the Rookery Building [1886j.These were transitional structures not wholly af cast Hon, nor wholly of steel, hut both had elevators and both employed fireproofing of the structural frame. A favorite method of achieving fireproofing was by the use of hollow clay tiles around columns and beems and even as interlocking arched flooring units.

Visually, as well as technically, h e skyscraper posed challenges ta architects. The unprecedented Kits d facades were not emphasized Instead, architects treated several floors as om by the use of recessed window bays extending m r several floors and with decorative bands or belt courses at just a few of the several stdw. Lo* Sullivan, a nineteenth century architect prominent in BI aesthetic development of the skyscraper, said ever? building should haw a base, shaft, and capital

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The M y Block, whlch s t c d on the comer of West Temple and Second South, was deslgned by the renowned architatural firm of Adler and Sullivan that contributed signifiantly to the development of skyscrapm. Grouping of tap four floors' winin the same arch decreased visually the massivenegs of the building. USHS collections.

floors were united at the base, the next few storisgmupedtogetherastheshaft,andthetop story rmrmounted by a b m d conice serving as the capital. The McCornick Block in downtown Salt Lake City is a good of this, although its overhanging cornice has been removed.

With a six-fold population increase in Salt Lake City between 1880 and 1920 came a fremendous building boom. Utahns were quick to seize upon the new developmentsin high-rise construction The earlier techolo@caltradition of cast-iron facades, exemplifid by the Z C M

Main S-t store, was quickly supplanted by the nswer tm@wlogy of sWl-framed constru~ tion. Salt Lake hoked to some of the nation's leading archi'tects for its new building designs.

LwisSullivan and his partner, Dankmar Adler, designed the old Dody Hock, a steel-hame, stone-clad structure of six stories, in 1890. For years it s t d opposite h e presentday Salt Palace an Second South. Henry lves Cobb, another prominent American architect, was commnissionedby Samuel Newhouse to design the Newhwse and Baston buildings completed in 1910.Liberally faced with stone ornament, these buildings also employed steel frames that made possible their 11-story heights, Building movers were unheard of, t b excavation for foundations and footings was an a r d u task. ~ ~ Utah arcbite&, of course, were! also involved in contributing their designs for the new buildisg form. One of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings in Utah is the old Utah Savings and Trust Company Building (1906-7) in downtown Salt Lake,d s i g d by Ware and Treganza. The brick infill panels between the concrete frame and the metal window sash and trim were a thoughtful approach to fireproof construction of this seven-stoty buildmg. Apparently the architects were familiar with the principles of reinforced concrete design employed by E.L.Ransome, then the country's leading d-er of Nineteenthcentury techniques were employed in the 1907 excavation of the Newhouse Building site. USHS collections.

The Boston and Newhouse buildrngs under consiruction on Main Str%eLNote how Lhs stone wails concaal the steel frame. USHS collections.

concrete structures. The Mcin@re Building (1909) further north on Main Street is another example of a concrete frame high-risestructure.

In designing the Mclntyre Buildng, Utah architect Richard Kletting was influenced by Louis Sullivan's aesthetic, derived from natural and geometric forms.The narrowness of both these buildmgs serves to increase their monumentality. And the McIntyre clearly emphasizeswhat was for so long repressed:the vertical nature of the skyscraper, what Sullivan called "a proud and soaring thing."

Salt Lake rjtv has seen renewed activity in the cons~ctionof skyscrapers in the 1980s.

The new American Telephone and Telegraph building on Seoond South, the new First Interstate Bank, and the Commercial Security Bank Tower represent different styles and forms but all employ a similar kchtmlogy fmtmade pop d a r over 100 years ago.

Mr.Neuberg is the architectural comervator in the preservation offiw of the Utah State Historicel Sodety.

Architect Rlchard Kletting, center, Inspecting the fm work fw pouring the concrete frame of the Mctntyre Building he designed, 1909. USHS collectim

My Experiences in Printing HAND m AND FOOT-OPERATEDPRESSES WERE TYPlCAL OF SMALL PRINTING SHOPS IN OGDEN IN THE 1880s.

BY ALFRED T. HESTMARK

Kearns Bulldlng, 1810. Rlchard Klettlng's deslgn called for a whlteglazed terncottadad skyscraper of stwlframe structure. Note the very heavy cornice, rather regular rhythm of the upper floors, and bulky, heavy flrst floor. This arrangement followed Louis Sullivan's dictum that a skyscraper, like a Classical column, should have a clearly definable base, shaft, and capital. USHS collections.

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Night photograph of the Walker Bank Building, Main Street and Second South, clearly shows the advertising advantage tall buildings offered their owners.USHS collections.

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I worked as a prinhr's apprentice for Major E. A. ~ittlefieldin the job office of the Pilot, a little paper that was printed in Ogden in the early 1880s. Frank Cook was foreman of the job office, and Lew Littlefield was the foreman of the composing room. I worked in the job office kicking an old Gordon press that was operated by foot power. I got the wage of $1.25 per week.

Later, we operated a W a s w o n hand press.

I also worked for a time as printsr an the old Ogden Junction,forerunner af the Ogden Standard-Examiner. That was when the plant was located in the Sidney Stevens building. The composing room was on the third floor, and the press room was in the basement. We used to xt the type and fasten it in the forms in the composing room and then lower the forms to the basement by a little elevator operated with a rope. One day we had just completed setting the type by hand - for we had no Linotype machines in those days - and bad placed the forms on the elevator and started them for the basement. En route the rope broke and the forms hit the bottom of the shaft and burst.

There was pied type scattered all over Hail Columbia. I never saw such a mess. I tell you, we didn't get a paper out that day.

Some years after this Junction experience I worked on a paper called the Argus, operated by attorney Percival J. Batrett. That was the only printing office I ever worked in that had a carpet on the floor. It was printd in Barrett's home.

It was a real soft snap job. The paper was printed as a weekly. Often, if we were busy, Mrs. Barrett would operate the hand press, which was a Waslungton hand p r w . It had to h do- just sa or it w d d slip and the press w d d fall apart, I had told her to be careful about this and u s d y she was, but one day the lever dipped and the press fell apart, much to her constemtioa I told her that we wuuldu't be able to get a paper out that week, and she a d and felt so bad 1then told her not to worry, and in about fifteen minutes I 'had it back together againand therewasno hmdane.

Next I worked for A. IZ Emerson who had a p r i n h g shop. Later on, A. Moroni Wilcox and X bought the shop from Emerson. We established a book and jab office called Hestmark and Wilcox, Book and Job Printing. ft w a located ~ cm the second floor above the old Citizen's Bank. Wilcox was an excellent bookbinder and a good allaround workman. Later, I bought WPcox out and then ran the business as A. T. Hesbnark, Printer a d Bookbder, 1 was in busbum abmt 25 years and then sold out to Earl Peterson.

Some of the books I baund are stiu in the county recorder's &ice. This was before they had h looseleaf system they use today 119373 and new sets of journals and ledgers were printed each year. I have some of the books I bound in my home no&. One d which I amparticdarly proud is a book of Stars of the Stage.

We printed all ttre programs for- the theabs. We always had passes to attend the shows, and often there m e two or thee a week came through. We never missed any of thin, T h y had some mighty fine plays here then,given in the old Opera House where the O r p b Theater is now, Some of the earlier plays weN given in the old Woodmmsee Theaim.

E was employed for a time as assistant fore man on the Ogden Standard when David R. Gill was the foreman. Frank J. Cannon was the editor and John Q Cannon was the telegraph editor. Later, Leo Aaefeli was telegraph editor.

Fred C k b e r s was a printer and Tom Bmwn ing, former chief of police, was also the foreman

Type was hand set by men and women until the late nineteenth centurj. USHS cotlections.

BY MIRIAM B. MURPHY

A clay disc found on the island of Crete in 1908 may be evidence of printing from movable type as early as 1500 B.C. But credit for the first

movable type is usually given to Pi-Sheng, a Chinese who made type characters from hardened clay in AD. 1041.Clay type was not very prat; tical, but Oriental peoples knew how to cast metal and before long Koreans began casting metal type that was used in Japan and China as well as in Korea. By the mid-1200s type was b e at one b e . ing cast in bronze. The oldest known text was No matter how busy I was in my work, printed from bronze type in 1397 in Korea. A thou& I always had tiTee for any spart: activihalf-century later Johann Gutenkg invented ties - fisbg, hunfing, wresthng, biUiards, boxmovable type for the European world. ing, and most of all for baseball. I have played Before Gutenberg, books were hand written. the game ever since I was six- or seventeen Scribes spent their days hand copying texts so years old and E'm not ready to quit yet. When I that more than one copy of a work would be get ready to quit sports I want sameone to bury available for use. Hand setting type and hand me. printing a single page at a time may seem laboriously slow today, but it produced books much faster than a scribe with a quill pea From Gutenberg's press at Mainz, Germany, printing technolw spread thruugh Europe.

Printing from movable type is easily under1865hS&L&.Citybhrdshhd@at1fpre&, &a stood. It requires only five basic ingredients.

Wi&n and Caroline W i j h e b - J e m h k h i m m k 1872 ther f& m o d tp m.

In 1&8(l he mamk$hum First, many caslings of each letter or symbol to hbelkJost, k asdehi spdmian, dame h&,nr& be printed must be made. From this large supply Ed mwd f r b l d mgalw2io&, 4andwationist rn mark d i d ~ p r i l l $l, ~ 7 ~ h k p p i n f u l g ~ w e r g s x - of letters and symbols complete sentences may 'tractd ed a a d d WM Bm+t inwith bim in be composed. Second, the type is placed into a lW7 c o n d u d by V M MduL d form the same size as the page to be printed.

W m ~ % ~ ~ i n ~ i s o n b i s * u ~ The type is locked into the form so it will not St& kMx&Smiety libw Wor&tmiaI h e move and produce a blurred image when it is ~ ~ i t l t l 3 j S ~ ~ I

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The Printed Word in Utah THE FIRST PRESS IN UTAH SHOWED LITTLE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT OVER GUTENBERG'S 400-YEAR-OLD MODEL, BUT SUDDENLY THINGS BEGAN TO CHANGE!

printed. Third,the surface of the type is inked.

Printing inks are relatively thick or viscous. The ink must remain on the surface of the type and transfer cleanly to the paper without smudging or bleeding. Fwrth, paper or some other suitable surface to be printed must be available. Finally, t h type and the paper are brought together under pressure, usually in some kind of printing press. When enough copies of a pdrruIar page have been made, the type is cleaned, the form unlocked, and the individual letters returned to their bins to be used over and over again to make the many pages of a book. This basic method of printing from movable type m n a i m d virtually unchanged until the nineteenth cen-

tury.

The first printing in the western hemisphere o c m d -in Mexico City about 1539 when Giovanni Paoli brought printing equipment there at

First Deseret News printing press was

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the request of the archbishop. The first printing press in the American colonies arrived in 1039 and was set up in Cambridge,Massachusetts, by its owner, Mrs. Jose Glover, and operated by Stephen Daye and his son Matthew. The Bay Psalm Book was printed on it in 1640.

Printing in Utah began in January 1849 when Brigham H. Young and Thomas Bullock set type for paper money. The certificates were printed on a very simple press made by carpenter Truman 0.Angell. The first real press together with an assortment of type, ink,and printing paper - arrived in Salt Lake City in August 1849with the Howard &an wagon b i n .

In January 1850 type was set for a proposed constitution for the State of Deseret, and in February a bonding form for government officials was printed. Finally, Utah's first newspaper, dated June 15, 1850, issued from the press. The infant Deseret News consisted of eight pages 7 % by 9% inches. JohnM.Kay and Horace K. Whiset the type,Thomas Bullock read proof, and Brigham H. Young ran the press. That first press, a Ramage, produced about two impressions a minute.

One small press, printing only two impressions a minute, could not begin to meet the needs of a growing territory. The Deseret News added a new press and more type to its shop in 1851 and the following year bought a press and job and body type from Almon W. Babbitt who had intended to go into the publishing business.

A newspaper's p r i n w plant of ten filled the printing needs of the entire community, espe cially in small towns. This kept both workers and machines busy when the newspaper was not in production. Printing work of this kind is still called, appropriately, job printing. A job prinling ledger of the Deseret News for the years 1853 to 1867 shows the variety of printing work done for the community and tells us something about life on the frontier: tickets stamped for the Deseret Dramatic Association, law books bound for the United States, muster roll sheets ruled for the Nauvoo Legion, printed instructions in dressmaking folded and cut for Miss Tufts, music books bound for William Pitt, and chess boards made for Hiram B. Clawson and several other individuals. By the 1870s the Deseret

News Steam Rinthg and Publishing Office was printing and binding books such as George W. Hill's Vocabulary of the Shoshone Language; newspapers like the Woman's Exponent and the Danish-language Utah Posten; and the Contributor, an early Utah magazine.

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Martha Hug& (Cannon) for t h News for flve years to send herself to medical school. USHS collections.

All of this printing required a constant updating of equipment. By 1875 the News sixpresses.Threewemcyljnderpressesoperated steam engine that also FB mated e h l r k i t y for some hghts in Salt Lake

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City, The shop had several hundred type fonts and the latest devices for binding, ruling, and embossing.

Steam was first wed in 1810 to power a cyL inderpresshtdbyPri*Koenig.btead of a platen to press the paper against the type, Koenig's press featured a rotating cylinder that pressed the paper against a stationary flat bed of type. The first presses had used m d e power to twist a screw-type device or operate a hand

Abow: Whittier School children with Vem Miller watch Viggo Johnson set type for Salt Lake Tribune on Linotype machine; type was then assembled in pagesize forms In composing room.

Left An 1890s cylinder press. USHS collections.

lmer that exerted enough pressure to transfer ink from the type to the paper. The steamdriven cylinder press could produce 1,000 impressions an hour -almmt 10 times as many as a hand-operated press like the Ramage. Inventors took to the idea of using rotating cylinders to print and over the years made rnmy improvements in the design of cylinder presses.

In 1890 the Deseret News bought a Bullock press from the Omaha Republican. It gave the newspaper a major boast in production capacity because it printed both sides of the paper at the same time.A type of web press, the Bullock fed paper from a continuous roll to the press on a web. Instead of printing from the actual type, the Bullock printed from stereotype plates m e d sheets of cast metal containing the type impmsions -attachedto the rotating cylinders.

With all the technological improvements made in priniing the setting of type lagged

Students o n plant tour sea two pages of type for Salt Lake Tribune. USHS collections.

behind. Typesetting machines were not invented until the nineteenth century. The first commercially successful machine, the Linotype, was invented in 1884 in Baltimore by Ottmar Mergenthaler. Using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, the Linotype brings brass matrices of letters and symbols together in the line, casts them into a single slug of solid metal, and refiles each matrix. Another machine, the Intertype, =bk the Emtype. The Monotype, patented in 1887, produces a punched roll of paper like a player piano roll that is fed into a type-casting

A mold of a flat page of type was made and cast in metal to form a curved stmutype printing plate for a rotary USHS - press. . collections.

machine.

The Bullock press and its predecessors printed from a relief surfam of type and engravings. This kind of printing is called letterpress

Ute ch~~aren rrom wnmrocKs vlslra rmune planr In 7continuous roll of paper. USHS collections.

wnere rney saw ntgn-spew web press prlnang from a 11

and is still in use. However, the computerized photocomposition of.. type and the excellent

quality of modern offset presses have revolutionized the printing industry in the last few decades. Letterpresses and linotype machines have almost become museum relics, although some small publishing houses specialize in m&ing books using fine craft methods that date from Gutenberg's time. From its frontier roots the printing industry in Utah has developed into a major regional center employing many skilled men and women and producing books and other printed materials for local customers and for publishers in distant cities.

Mrs. Murphy is the editor of Beehive History. Inf ormation for this article w a s derived primarily from Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook, IMh ed. (NewYork: International Paper Co., 1973): and Wendell I. Ashton, Voice in !he ~ e s i ~ i o of ~ mpioneer ~ h ~~ewsphperp e w York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1050].

The Granite Paper Mill, which b u r n 4 in 1893, was Ufah's last largMcale attempt to Produrn WPer locallv. USHS collections.

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The Struggle to Make Paper in Utah Paper was invented in A.D. 105 by a Chinese, Ts'ai L u n By the year 1200 the Spanish were producing paper, and during the next 200 years knowledge of papermaking spread throughout Europe. A paper mill was built in England in 1494, and American colonists pr* duced the first commercial paper at a mill near Philadelphia in 1690.

The earliest papers were usually made from rags. Wherever printing on a large scale began, the need for rags to convert into paper was continuous. Mary Goddard, owner of the Maryland Journal, offered cash in exchange for rags to be used at a paper mill near Baltimore in 1775.

In Utah the Deseret News constantly advertised for rags, and Brigham Young sent George Goddard to gather rags throughout the territory.

Sometimes the Deseret News cwld not be printed at all because there was no paper.

A crude papermaking facility on Temple Square supplied some of the first paper used in Utah. Then in 1860 new papermaking equip ment was purchased in Philadelphia and hauled by ox team from the Missouri River to Utah.

Papermaker Thomas Howard installed the machinery in the old Sugar House sugar mill building on Parley's Creek.

On July 24, 1861,the fmt paper - a brown sheet suitable for wrapping paper - was p m duced at the mill. Not until September 5 did the new plant produce printing paper. The first sheets were rather thick, but they allowed the

Deseret News to remme publication. Paper from the Sugar House mill sometimes was as thin as tissue paper and often varied in color from blue to pink to a light purple instead of the creamy white preferred for printing.

By 1880 the Sugar House mill could not supply enough paper to meet local needs. During the next few years the large Granite Paper Mill was built near the mouth of B ig Cottonwood Canyon The mill eventually employed 50 workers and produced five tons of paper a day.

Even in the new mill quality remained a problem. Papermalung is an exacting craft, and experienced workers were hard to find. At times paper from the Granite d "jolted the printing presses because of its varying thickness."

In the spring of 1893 the mill produced its best run of paper. In celebration employees received an extra day off for Arbor Day. The celebration was very brief, however. In the early hours of April 1, 1893, the was completely gutted by fire, and large-scale papermaking in Utah ended.

Nowadays most printing papers used in Utah are manufactured from wood pulp at large mills in the Pacific Northwest, the South, and the East. No one collects rags for papermaking doortdoor any more, but many U t a h bundle their old newspapers and magazines and set them on the curb each week for collection and recycling into new paper products.

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Mining and Technology at Mercur, Utah ADVANCES IN MINING AND MILLING SPREAD FROM MERCUR AROUND THEWORLO AND MADE TWO UTAH MEN FAMOUS.

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The giant Golden Gate Mill dominated the town of Mercur, Utah, on the west side of the Oquirrh Mwntains. USHS Collectl0~

The popular view of mining in the Old West conjures up images of the bearded sourdough miner panning out numertrus nuggets of placer gold in a rippling streambed or tramping through some remote foothill with pick in hand, poised to make that lucky shike on a jutting lode deposit heavily laden with solid gold or silver.

One also visualizes the subsequent emergence of a bustling mining mmmdty complete with settlers, saloons, and h u r d y m y girls. Mercur, Utah, at the turn of t h ~ century might seem,at first ghnce, to fit this image. Located fifty-five miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Mercur during its prime at the turn of the century boaskd muneruus mines, mills, and a d m popul* tion of over 3,000. It was dubbed by some con temporary obsewew, "the Johannesburg of America."

Mercur, however, did not produce the wealth of its South African counterpart. More important, technology and not the presence of rich placer or lode deposits provided the key to Mercur's success as a mining region. The discovery of gold there came in the form of low-grade ore W t s requiring chemical treatment. The first mill daslgned to do this was financed through the inveshnent of a number of wealthy Utah businessmen. The mill, as originally constructed, utilized h e amalgamation prmss in which the ore was crushed and heated with a mercury solution to draw out the gold. However, the amalgamation process did not work on the stubbornMercur ores and all appeared to be lost But at this critical juncture the investors beardof anewdhgprocess- tbeMacATZhur cyanide process which involved treating the ore

first d-steel facility of any size built anywhere in the world for the trealment of nonferrous ores. It was, moreover, the first metallurgical plant to use bansmitted elecbical energy as a source of motive power. Toward this end, Jackh g supmid the building of an electrical iraf14 mission system from the Provo River to M e r m , a distance of fortythree miles. Electrical energy in commercial quantities had never before been transmitted over such long distances. The miU, which emend operations in 1898, could process 500 tons of ore a day. It dominated milling operations in Mercur over the next two decades. As for Daniel C Jading, he soon moved from Mercur but active in Utah mirr ing, supervising developments at Bjngham C a yon where he pioneerd the open pit method which revolutionizedthe p r o m of mining noferrous minerals throughout the wmH At Merm, itself, further technological inn* vations centered aruund George H.D m ,general manager of the Consolidated Mercur Gold Mining and Milling Company. Like Jackling, Dern was a native of the Midwest Born in Nebraska and educated at the University of Nebraska, Dern was unlilce Jackhg in one important respect. He did not receive any formal training in mining engineering. Dern's chosen course of study was English and writing. His classmates included the likes of Willa Cather and Dorothy Canfield who went on t~ become well-known authors. Dern, however, was not destined for a similar literary career and left the university before graduating. At his father's urgisg he migrated to Utah in 18W. The elder Dem, who had arrived there some years earIier, was heavily involved in Mercrur mining operations and wanted his son's assistance in managing his

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Oanlel C. Jackling was probably the most Important rnlning man In Utah history. USHS collections.

with a special cyanide solutioa This leached the gold from the ore and deposited it as gold cyanide or gold dust. Tried on an experimental carload of ore, this process proved a complete succass. The exisling Mercur millwas remodeled to accommodate the new process, rnit the first cyanide h a b e n t facility in the United States. In time, the cyanide process was used in various gold mining diskids in the Mountain West d, indeed, throughout the world.

Besides the cyanide process, mining activity at M e m spawned other technological innovations. The key individual promoting several of these was Daniel C. Jackling,a prominent m b ing e w e r . Born into poverty,Jacldingworked his way thraugh school, graduating from the Missouri School of Mines in 1892. Following gfaduation, he gained employment at Cripple Creek, Colorado, as an aasayer and metallurgist He arrived in M m during the lab 18908, with him a reputation as a trained, expwhced professional. He proceeded to design and supervise construction of Mercurls largest mill, the Golden Gate, Built on a side hill overlooking the town, the Golden Gate was a model of advanced mining technology. This facilitywasbuiltonan~inordertotake advantage of gravity in its actual operation. The crude ore was durn* in the top of the mill and as it worked its way down to the lower levels the gold was separated from the m, with the waste product w g iis way onto the evergrowing slag dumps just oukide the mill.

Iackhg's Golden Gate Mill contained a number of engineering innwations. It was the

interests.

Despite his lack of formal baining as a minDem demonstrated his ability to learn quickly and soon developed a reputation as an efficient manager and ~ M P vator. M e m u proved to be a tough challeqge because after 1900 the region's gold ore pm sented new and unexpected problems. For one f b g , the value of the ore talcen out of the p u d drastically declined, going from $20 a ton in 1893 to $6 by the early l900s, severely narrowing the margin of pmfit Also, the ore became more Micult to treat due to its soft clay or talcy nature. Although this s o h ma& the ore easy to mine, this same quality made it difficult to m i l It tended to "slimB" or "cake together'' when the cyanide solution was added, and a ing engineer, George

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h~sroricA m e t ~ c wEngineering ~ Record drawing of the Tlntic Stanaaru lvllll at uoshen, Utrri, eriowv Holt-Dem roasters In typlcal mill layout.

large percentage of the gold values was last in the tailings. In attempting to solve this problem, Dern worked with George Moore, manager of the Sunshine Gold Mining Company, another Mercur operation experiencing the same prob lem. Over the next two years Dern and Moore worked at developing a satisfactory procm to treat the soft, talcy ore. Out of their efforts came a vacuum s h e filter process in which the slimy ore was agitated and filtered while a cyanide solution passed over it, thus saving values that would otherwise be lost In time, this vacuum slime process was used successfully in keating ore not just in Mercur but in other westem mining regions.

D m ' s efforts to efficiently wring gold values from the stubborn Mercur ores led to a second technological innovation, a rding roasting process in which the ore was treated with a chloridking solution and then roasted to minimize the loss through volatilization and dust. However, development of this process was still in its formativestages when Mercur's profitable ore deposits gave out, and George Dern was forced to discontinue mining operations in the spring of 1913.

Although perfection of what ultimately became known as the Holt-Dem roasting proccame too late to save rnining operations at Mercur,it represented an important development in mining technology. Dern worked with Niel C. W b n s o n and Theodore P. Holt, both professors in the School of Mines at the University of Utah, in perfecting it. The process was then sucaessfully installed in rnining and milling opera-

TAW5

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tions at Park City and later in the Tintic Mining District near Eumka, Utah Word of its success spread to various mining regions throughout the Unikd States. In time the Holt-Dern roasting process gained international recognition through its installation in mills in the Cobalt w o n of Canada and in the Sociedad Minas de Plato de Caylloma in Santiago,<Chile.

George D m ' s achievements in mining technology, along with his reputation as an efficient mine manager, helped to propel him into the political arena, He served in the Utah State Leg islature where he promoted various Progressive reform measures, including Workman's Compensation. In 1924 he was elected governor of Utah, serving in that post for two terms. In 1933 he was chosen secretary of war by Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the first Utahn to serve in a presidential Cabinet.

Thus Mercur, despite its relatively short life as an active mining community,had a long-lasting influence in several important respects. This oncebustling rnining community helped to make the reputations of Daniel C. Jackling and George H. Dern as innovative mining engineers, enabhg both to go on and achieve not just national but international reputations. The inn* vations of these two men, including new ideas in mill construction, more efficient use of the cyanide milling process, the vacuum slime process, and the Holt-Dern roasting process, had an impact on rnining technology not just in the American West but throughout the world.

Dr. Bxznghurst teaches history at h CoUege of the Sequoias in Visalia, California.

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hours. The facilities also included a boarding house to accommodate 50 people.

Faced with serious financial problems, factory officials, stockholders, creditors, growers, and others anxiously awaited the opening of the plant, Would it actually produce sugar? In an earlier attempt by the Mormons to make sugar the only product had been a syrup so sharp that "it would take the end of your tongue off." The big moment came on October 15,1891: The first strike of sugar was watched with great interest and considembIe concern. Such o crowd of citizens were present in the pan room while the boiling wus going on that it was difficult to get around.. ..Fred Trane was the "doubting Thomas" who repeatedly stated that he wouldn't be convinced that white sugar could be made from the black syrup until he saw the sugar right in his hand.

It was after midnight when the strike was dropped, but they all waited for that importunt event. Then everyone rushed to the centrifugal m d when the first machine had spun off the molasses, h.zr, Dyer could h d y get room enough to perform the washing. However, he soon passed out the clear white sugar, giving euch one of his audience some of It "lrght in his hand." Immediately "hurrahs" and "'hosannas" filled the air - even Fred b e cried out, "I'm now convinced fhat sugar can be made from

beets!"

General manager Thomas R. Cutler telephoned the Salt Lake H e d d : "We have just made the first pound of sugar. By morning we will have 20 tons ready." That morning 20,000 pounds of sugar were sacked and sent by Union Pacific Railroad to Salt Lake City. The sugar was transferred to large, low wagons called drays. Led by a yoke of oxen to dramatize the pioneering nature of the enterprise, the procession made its way to leading Salt Lake City retailers under the sign 'That Carload of Granulated Sugar Made by the Utah Sugar Company."

At the stores "there was almost a riot of people taking the sugar." Soon the city's confectioners were displaying signs that read "First Candy Made from Utah Sugar."

During its first production season of 58 days, the Lehi factory processed some 10,000 tons of beets to produce 12,500 100-bags of sugar. All of the sugar was sold in Utah. Depsite high d e mand for the product, revenue was hardly enough to pay operating costs. Not until 1897 did the company show a profit. The company's persistence in working out technical and prae

tical solutions to the many problems involved in growing beets and manufacturing sugar illustrates the innovative contributions of this enterprise.

Sugar beet test fleld shows sparse crop in center grown from commercial seed. USHS collections.

The only available sugar beet seed in commercial quantities came from France and Germany. These countries tended to keep the k t seed for their own use. As a result, much of the seed planted at Lehi during the early years was of inferior quality and fell far blow the requisite percentage of sugar content and purity. Company officials spent several weeks in Europe visiting beet seed farms and factories and were able to contract for better seed. H m v e r , the uncertain supply, price, and quality led the company to consider growing its own seed.

In 1895 Henry Vallez selected the best beet fields in the Lehi area and saw that they were given good care. Thirty tons of the best beets were selected for size, shape, and sugar content.

The following spring2 these "mother beets'' were planted by hand in the first attempt to grow beet seed in a semiarid, irrigated region. Although the plants bloomed in profusion, the seed on the outside branches ripened first and had to be cut by hand, When the seed was threshed there was a crop of nine to ten tons of s d shrnving hgh gemhation. When Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson visited the Lehi sugar works in 1897 he "expressed astonishment" at the magnitude of Utah Sugar's seed planting activity, which he said was "the only one of the kind in America."

In 1899 the company produced more than 70,000 pounds of beet seed and sold some to other companies. When other companies took up seed growing on a large scale in 1901, Utah Sugar's seed prduction became less important.

Experiments continued, however, to produce a

monogerm beet seed to replace the multigerm seed that caused several plants to come up in one spot. Not until two Russiamborn scientists, V. F. and Helen Savitsky, came to Utah in the late 1940s was research completed that p r e duced genetically bred monogerm seeds.

Sugar beets are a relatively temperamental crop. They require special care and i n w i v e cultivation. The g r m d must be well prepared.

Good stands depend upon proper planting, irrigation, and cultivation. Until the mechanization of recent years, the heavy labor required at thinning, weeding, and harvest times discouraged all but the W e s t farmers.

When George Austin planted the first sugar beet seed on the farm of George Comer in Lehi in 1891,virtually nothing wap known about the culture of sugar beets in this area. Based on experiments conductd elsewhere, farmem were instructed not to irrigate the beets more than once or twice a year and not to fertilize.

During tho first season the company contracted with 556 farmers to grow 1,800acres of beets. Under company direction growers used hand plantms, hand-push hoes as cultivators, and pull hoes to make d i b . Since the rate of

germination of beet seed was not high, seed was planted in almost a continuous stream to insure a good stand. With multigerm seed many plants often sprouted from a particular cluster. But beets would not mature if they did not have sufficientroom, and so the plants had to be blocked and thinned. When the plants were two or three inches hlgh - about the time school let out in May - brigades of b o p from Lehi and other villages would congregate at the w o u s e at 6 am. and ride horses or wagons out to the fields. T. F. Kirkham and A1 Yates recalled their experience thinning beets in their early teem.

We aimed to be in the fields to begin work at xven in the morning took an hour out for noon, und quit at six in the evening. For that day of ten hours we received 50 cents - 5 cents per hour -and were very glad for the job. The beet gang consisted of a group of men and boys. Older boys with longhanded 4-inch hoes would block the beets, that is, chop the cornpad row of plants into bunches, The younger boys crawled behind on their hands and knees, with a shorthanded hoe, thinning euch block to a single good plant. To save wear and tear most of the boys wore knee pads - sack-like cushions tied with strings above and below the knee. Every thinner had for his hghest ambition the time when he would have a crawler following him on hands and knees. Twenty rows of 40 rods long was o good day's work and parents had no trouble getting boys to bed by suppertime. One person could thin from a fourth to a half of an acre per day.

Horse-drawn beet lifter Iwsened beets so t o p p k could easily pull them from ground.

Boys were also used for hoeing out ditches down each row for irrigation and hoeing weeds in midsummer. Many hoeings were regarded as indispensable, and it was not uncommon to hear a farmer urge on the boys by repeating the German admonition, "The sugar must be hoed into the beets."

The beet harvest approached in late Septem ber and early Octobr. The original technique of digging was to use a horsedriven s u b o i l plow with mold board and share removed. It would dig into the ground and loosen the beets without bruising them. Older boys, let out of school for a tweweek "beet vacation," followed the plow with large butcher knivm or machetes. Reaching down and grabbing the leaves with one hand, they whacked off the crown of the beet with one blow. The tops would be dropped to the pound to be plowed under or eaten by sheep, and the beet would be tossed into a pile.

Others would throw the beets into horsedrawn wagon boxes that were hauled by team to the factory and unloaded by hand. After the first few years local blacksmiths fashioned beet

forks for unloading.

The average yield for the 1891 seasons was a cash value of a p proximately $24.00 per acre. It was a great disappohhnent to both farmers and the factory men. Much of the problem lay in the company's insistence on only one or two waterings and its refusal to accept beets that weighed more than three and a half pounds. New contracts issued to farmem omitted some of the ill-advised ins ~ c t i o mof the first two years. However, the company would not accept beets under 12 percent sugar and 80 percent purity. With better seed, greater knowledge of beet growing, more care in thinningd more frequent waterings, and better implemenb for planting, cultivating, and only 5.3 tons per acre for

hamesling, the 1893 crop totaled 26,800 tons an average of 9.7 tons per acre.

Farmer enthusiasm over beet growing led to the consmction of satellite factories called cutting stations - the only such system in American experience. Built at a cost of about $150,000 each, these slicing plants cut the beets, p r o d u d the juice, and pumped it through a pipeline to the parent factory. The first cutting station was erected at Springville in 1899 and was conn e d to the Lehi factory by means of a five inch pipeline - the first such facility in the United States. Additional slicing plants and connecting pipelines were W t in 1900 at Bingham Junction(West Jordan) and in 1901 at Provo. A fourth plant at Spanish Fork was connected with Lehi by a 22-mile pipe, the longest beet pipeline in the world. The four auxiliary slicers, each with a capacity of 350 tons of beets per day, expanded the territory of the Lehi plant Beets from as far north as the Bear River Valley and from as far south as the Sevier River Basin were ultimately bansformed into sugar at Lehi.

Field workers sample and give flrst test to "mother" beets. USHS collections.

During the early years at Leu the factory recommended that fanners plant their crops on land that had been planted to sugar beets the preceding year. They reasoned that this land was already "worked up" -leveled,harrowed, and prepared for the intensive cultivation sugar beets require. Thus, the importance of crop rotation in maintaining soil fertility was overlooked. In addition, a parasite - the beet nematode - began to infest fields where beets were grown year after year. Yields declined and eventually whole fmlds wem not worh digging.

Years passed before factory officials became aware of these problems and began advocating crop rotation.

Beets stored in sheds at Lehi were conveyed into the factory for processing by means of a

Conveyor lifts beets from truck to huge pile, probably in northern Utah. Once a major cash crop for Utah farmers, the sugar beet has steadily declined in importance for the state. USHS col\ectlons.

wooden flume. Thrown by hand into the flume the beets were carried on a current of warm water to the washer. bater, in 1900, a V-shaped wooden floor was put in the sheds and sloped so that the beets would naturally roll toward the flume. This saved the labor of five men.) The beets were raised from the flume to the washer by a large 16-foot "beet wheel," designed by chief engineer Merrill Ingalls especially for the Lehi factory and later standard equipment in all factories. From the washer the beets were conveyed by a bucket elevator to a cutter where special triangular knives cut the beets into long slender slices ("cossettes"]that looked something like shoesiring potatms.

A revolving chute dropped the cossettes into 12 wrought-iron diffusers with a capacity of two and one-half tons each These cooked the "noodles"to extract the sugar. The dark colored sweet juice was sent to carbonators and the pulp dumped from the diffuser so another batch of beets could be cooked. In the carbonators, &of lime and carbon dioxide gas were added to the juice. They combined with impurities which were then filtered out through canvas cloth. The lime cake was then washed out of the

factory as a useless waste. The thin juice was now ready for the evaporator where excess water was removed to thicken the juice.

Relying upon European mformation, E. H. Dyer had installed 2 0 large bone black filters in the Lehi plant After two years the company learned that these expensive filters were not necessary to make good white sugar if the juice was in good condition.The filters were removed and not used again in American factories. This production of superior white sugar directly from the juice was "a triumph of American indusbial chemistry over the long experience of Europe."

After being treated with sulphur gas to clarify the juice and improve the crystallization, the "thick liquor" was pumped to the %-ton capao ity vacuum pan. After each strike the centrifugals spun out the molassas, and the wet sugar went through a drier and out where it was sacked in a white cotton bag placed inside a ,burlap bag. The molasses was later made into brown sugar,Approximately 36 hours elapsed between

the time the beets left the shed and the moment that glistening sugar was ready to sweeten Lehi's economy.

Lehi mechanics made important changes in

the cenwugals or spinners. Although these machines ran at 1,200revolutions per minute, they were unloaded by hand with a wooden paddle - a hot, sticky, dangerous job. Eugene

Roberts. a young Lehi mechanic, developed mechanical doaders and other improvements and eventually spent his life instalhg new machinery in sugar factories in many parts of theworld.

Work at the factory went on mght and day during each prduction campaign. Two 12-hour shifts operated in the 1890s. Many of the workers were farmers who had raised beets during t h summer. Factory work was exa* but there was something fascinating if not miraculous about the making of sugar. Thase who worked in the plant were regarded with a certain awe. 'The whole process of beet sugar making," wrote W a l k Webb, "was considered e mystery. The boiling of the syrup was the greatest mystery of all. The sugar boiler was almost a superman."

Beghing with the 1897 =ason, the Lehi plant was doing well emugh to be regarded as a technical and financial success. A large cattle-

prduct, and improved agricultural and indw bial practices improved efficiency. Faced with many difficult problems, Lehi technicians had acquired a special capacity to find imaginative solutions.

In the 20 years after Lehi's suams, 116 sugar factories were built in the United States, includmg 17 in Utah and 10 in Idaho. Factories fnrm New York to Oregon employed Lehi "alumni" to pass on the benefit of their experiences.While its "graduates"were distinguishing themselves, the Lehi factory was gradually bemrning the little old red school house of the indushy. Larger and more modern factories were erected. The Utah-Idaho Sugar Company built a new plant at West Jordanin 1916.After the 1924 season the Lehi fadity oeased prciduo tion, and its fbal dismantling took place in 1939. Nev&less, as late as the 1960s in Top

penish, Washington, some of the Lehi machinery contiwed to produce h a sparwhite crystals.

This article was e x h a d fmm a complete acwunt of the Lehi sugar factory published in the spring 1966 Issue of Utah Hisforid Quarterly. Dr. A n i q t o n is the author of numerow historical works and a Fellow of the Utah State

The Lehl factory after its fourfold expanslon in IQOO.Photograph courtesy of the author and Utatkldaho Sugar Company.

Wash Day as I Remember It

BY ALTA J. HOWARD

When I was a girl in Richfield in 1908 1 lived in om of the better homes. We were considered affluent because Papa built Mama a Wash House. This was no simple task. It required c a r e ful planning.

The building was about 10 feet by 12 feet in size,of frame construction with a shingled roof, one window, one door, and a wide front step, It was painted white so it would match the house.

The building stood about 10 feet from the back kitchen door and was equipped with the latest conveniences - a wood stove, a wooden washer with a wringer attached, a bench with two tubs, one for rinsing and one with a washboard for scrubbing, and a table on which to sort clothes. The water was just a few steps outside, which was so convenient.

From the doorstep, Papa had erected two pulley lines. Each line was extended about 50 feet away into the trees. We could stand at the door and hang the clothes on the line and pull them up into the air to dry. They looked beautiful hanging there; but if the wind happened to be blowing, we were unable to use it because the line would break and the clothes would land on the ground.I remember that happened once, and it was necessary to rewash some of the clothes.

Now, this entire operation was very advanced for 1908, and we were the envy of the neigh borhood. Papa always bied to make Iife better for Mama. The Wash House made wasMay so much easier because it kept the mess out of the kitchen, kept the house cooler, and was really a great convenience for Mama.

We were a large family - six girls, one boy, two grandmothers, one uncle, and Mama and Papa - which meant that washings were large and required family cooperation. The two older girls helped Mama with the wash, and the younger ones dressed and cared for the small children and prepared breakfast.

There were certain rules rigidly followed at our house. WasMay was always on Monday. A neighbor who failed to wash then was judged accordingly. One could always tell the good housekeepers by the Monday washday arid how the clothes were arranged on the clothesline.

4

1

A Fulton American washer advertised In the lW2 Sears catalog. The washer remembered by the author was a dlfferent model and had a wringer attached.

People in little towns have various ways to classify their neighbors. Those who failed to wash on Monday were poor housekeepers.

Monday morning was well pIanned. Mama and the two girls were up at 5:00 a.m. and busy.

First a fire was started in the Wash House stove.

Then it was necessary to fill the two boilers with water from the nearby well and place them on the stove to heat.

The boilers were large containers designed to fit over two holes on the stove and to fit side by side so both could heat at the same time.

That was a real convenience.

Heating the water was a slow process,and it was necessary to keep feeding the fire. This time was used for breakfast and for sorting clothes to prepare them for the washer. Sorting was very important If any colored clothes were mixed with the whites, they would fade and ruin the others. There were no colorfast dyes then.

While the water was heating, lye was added to soften the water and to keep the clothes white. A lye can was in every home. We were always warned to be very careful because it was poison and very caustic. There were many chddmn d i s f d for life, and some died because they f d the lye can.

After the water was heated, it was emptied into the washer. Soap, which Mama had made, was shredded and put into the water. Then a batch of clothes was added and the machine was ready to be turned.

Papa was proud of our new washer. It was it 'the very latest d* and Woman Saver." It was made of wood with a wringer attached. The dasher for agitating the d o h was attached to the lid on tlw underside with a handle on the top. When the washer was closed, the handle could be pushed back and forth to agitate the clothes. We would take turn operating the nn*.

It required about 20 minutes for each load and took patience and washer g o u until everyprodding to keep thing was washed. ~ f t e ra load was finished, if it was white, it was put in the boiler, which had been refilled and treated with lye. Mama said this was necessary to keep the clothes white. dothes w m boiling, we would While stir them with a long round stitick. When the boiling was finished, which took about 20 minutes, they were M i d into a tub of cold water and thoroughly rinsed, put through the wringer, which was operated by hand, and placed in a tub of blueing water, which kept the whites from yellowing.

Now the blueing wabr had to be just right. If not, the clothm would be spotted or too blue.

That wodd never do. If that the clothes would have to be rewashed. Afbr the were put bough the rinse*the wringer again separated into two piles one ready for the line and the other to be,

starchd Much of the Of the wash depended on starching. MFima would with cold water until it was dissolved and then add hot water and boil it until it was dear and thick.

Afteritwascooked,itwas~dtojustthe right s h n g t k If it was '0' heavy, cloth's would be sl3f and would stick to the iron. When the starching was just rightI it gave MYto garments and they stayed dean much longer. ltanh the were put w a h , they were wnsng by hand and were ready to be put on the line to dry.

-

The authors home in Richfield, behind which was the by neighm.

Wash Hwse

What a thrill it was to stand on the step and fasten clothes on the line and see them floating in the brseze. of come, thm was a sp& way to fasten clothes on the h e , or the neighbors w w l d know you were sloppy. Sheets must be hung together and towels, etc., and they must be even and straight, each with the eJlds securely fBStened.You had to be an artist to hang clothes

on M~~~ line.

When the line was full and clothes were gently fanning in the breeze, they were white a d beautiful. The neighbors would h o w that ,y good hou~mpers. ~fyou were the on the E ~ you ~ , first to get your

-

,dY proud.

It took a day to do the family wash With a sigh of satisfaction and pride we would prepare supper and sit down to eat and plan for ironing all day Tuesday.

When supper was finished, it was time to ga&f th, clothes from the line and prepare them for ironing. The clothes were separated into two p k - one to be folded and put away and the other to be sprinkled and ,d, ready for ironing day, Sprmkhg was done by spreading a garment on tha table and sprinkling a small mount of water over it. Then it was mued up and covered and dowed to stand ov-i&t so the be evenly dis~hted. It reqM just the of mo*v If thegarmentwas tM3 wetitdidn'iimn.isht,andifitwastmdryit

didn't iron at all. was a]so impO-t after dothes were spaed not to let Ulem too long or theyd d dhW and be After the sprinkling was done, it was time to go to bed and be rested for Tuesday's ironing.

Mrs. Howard is a &dent of Richfield,Utah.

cast from Utah in 1922. Few people owned radios in 1922 to listen to this broadcast, but tw day there are two radios available for each person in the United States. More than 166 million adults listen to the radio each week, compared with an estimated 114 million in 1952. Each day the average listener spends about three and onehalf hours listening to the radio, a half-hour longer than an entire household spent listening 25 years ago and 15 minutes less than the current average for TV.Today radio is an important and popular communication medium.

Radio broadcasting is a product of the twentieth century. Mahlon Loomis, a Washington, D.C., dentist, sent the first message through the air in 1866, Heinrich Hertz also produced electromagnetic waves in 1888. Guglielmo Marconi perfected the technology further, so that by 1901 wireless messages could be sent across the Atlantic Ocean. Radio broadcasting as we know it began in 1907, and by the 1920s people inthe eastern states were regularly listening to radio broadcasts.

KDYL's Kangaroo Club catered to young children wlth programming now largely taken over by televlsian.

Photograph courtesy of station KDYL

Radio in Utah STATIONS THAT ONCE OWNED ONLY ONE MICROPHONE NOW BROADCAST OVER SOPHISTICATED ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT 24 HOURS A DAY.

BY LINDA THATCHER

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is KZN, K Z N , the Deseret News, Salt Lake City, caIIing, KZN calling. Greetings! The I3eseret News sends greetings to all of you far and wide! By means of this radio station, the Deseret News proposes to serve you doily with news bulletins, music, weather reports and other data of interest, Because of the opportunity of rendeing further public service, the Deseret News has constructed this big radio station..

These were the first words spoken by Harman Carter Wilson, KZN (changed to KSL in 1925) radio editor, during the first radio broad-

..

LDS President Hebr J. Grant at opming day broad cast of station KZN in 1922. Wlth hlm were Nathan 0.

Fullrner, George Albert Smlth, Mrs. Heber J. Grant, and on tefl in doorway Anthony W. Ivins. USHS collectIons.

Sound truck allowed station KALL to broadcast from remote locations like the Bonnwille Salt Flats. USHS collections.

In 1921 Elias S , Woodruff and Nathan 0.

Fullmer, I3eseretNews staff members, discussed the possibility of erecting a radio transmitter in Utah. TheDeseret News was interested in building Utah's first radio station -following the example of many eastem newspapers -but radio bansmittem cost $25,000 and could only be o b tained from the American Telephone and Tele graph Company. When the navspaper officials wudd not appmve spendmg $25,000 to purchase a lmmmitter, Woodruff and Fullmer decided to obtain the parb needed from other sources and b d d the transmitterthemselves.

The station was built on the roof of the Deseret News kildmg and could only be reached by climbing three flights of narrow iron stairs and then crossing a narrow boardwalk. The station consist~dof three smallmoms: a studio, an operations room,and a generator room. At the ahtion's dedication on May 8,1922, the speakers -besides Wilson - included Heber J. Grant, president of the LDS church (who was heard to say during his speech, "turnoff the heat" when an e W c heater was placed too close to him), Mayor C. Clarence Neslen, Anthony W. Ivim, Mrs. Heber J. Grant, and George Albert Smith.

Programming at the first radio stations was different from what is b a r d in the 1980s.

Broadcasters expexhmted a great deal with the new medium to find out what the audiences

liked.At first, radio stations were on the air only a few hours each day. They slowly increased the length of the broadcast day - a real challenge because almost all of the programs were live.

The equipment was primitive compared with today's. Microphones made out of telephone mouthpieces were placed inside a Vicbola horn in order to broadcast records. Heavy curtains provided the only soundproofing and were often used as hiding places by children who did not want to leave the station after the children's programs were over. In the early days KSL had only one microphone. The radio station had to leave the air in order to change the place of broadcast. While the station was off the air the microphone could be moved to a new location for the next broadcast. Early programming often included news bulletins, weather reports, and recorded and live musical programs.

F a 1 J. Glade started working for KSL shortly after the station went on the air. He was the announcer and also produced the programs, told stories, and sang. His wife, who used the name Beverly Snow, played the piano for the programs. KSL had so few employees that both Glade and Snow doubled as janitors for the station.

Utah's second radio station, KDYL, was started by another newspaper, the Salt Lake

Llve broadcasts, once a staple on radio, are primarily limited to sports events and same news coverage nowadays.

Photograph courtesy of station KOYL.

Telegram, and began broadcasting on May 8, 1922 -just two days after KSL.Stations soon appeared all over the state: KLO in Ogden in 1924; KOAL in Price in 1936; KSUB in Cedar City in 1937; KUTA in Salt Lake City and KVNU in Lwan in 1938; KOVO in Provo in 1939;

Election night coverage, 1944 style, on station KSL. Candidates began using radio in thelr campalgns in Utah in 1928. USHS callections.

KALL and KNAK in Salt Lake City in 1945; KJAM in Vernal, KSVC in Richfield, KCSU in Provo, and KOPP in Ogden in 1947; KBUH in Brigham City, KVOG in Ogden,and KMUR in Murray in 1948; and KNEU in Provo in 1949.

KSL did not start airing commercial advertisements until 1923. ~ a businesses n ~ con-

sidered radio advertising to be a wild dream.

But as business began to see the possibilities of radio adverking, staffs grew and the programming broadened. The stations began to affiliate with national broadcasting organizations such as the National Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Broadcasting Network in order to bring the residents of Utah national news and programs.

The S d t Lake Tribune would often cooperate with KSL in broadcasting programs over a public address system in front of the Tribune Building. Radios were scarce in Utah and p e e ple would eagerly gather in front of & Tribune Building to he& special programs. Twenty thousand people gathered on Main S b e t to listen to the JackDempsey-Luis Angel Firpo and the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier fights in 1923 over loudspeakers mounted on the Tribune Building.

Ten thousand people crowded into the Salt Lake Tabernacle to hear the return of Charles A. Lindberg's flight from France in 1827.

The national broadcasting of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir began in 1929 and continues t d a y as Utah's enduring contribution to radio listeners nationwide. Popular local programs included the KSL Players, one of the first dramatic groups on radio in the West. The Players produced 30-minute dramas each week from 1932 to 1947.

KUTA, an early Salt Lake City radio station, w a s the first in Utah to broadcast forums and sporting events. KVNU in Logan had a program entitled the "Sidewalk Interview." Reed Bullen, manager of the station, conducted live interviews in front of a sponsor's business, and local residents also appeared on the program to announce club happenings, parties, and other community activities.

KSVC in Richfield, Utah, sponsored a program entitled "Melodies You Love" that gresented musical recordings of local school groups and townspeople. On the "Birthday Request Program" special musical requestswere played for people on their birthdays. KSVC also broadcasted a weekly "Kiddie's Carnival" on which childrenwhose birthdays occurred within that week performed in a talent constest.

KOPP in Ogden broadcasted twice a month from the State Industrial School and introduced an imaginative propam with the school that allowed the boys to work at the radio station. In 1945 KUTA in Salt Lhke City sponsored a program on which Bill Agee read the Salt Lake Tribune funnies to the children each Sunday morning. and KDYL sponsored a children's program called the 'Kangaroo Club" that attracted 30,000 members.

In its infancy, radio broadcasting did not always function as smoothly as it usually does today. One of the most embarrassing moments in the 1920s occurredwhen Earl J. Glade of KSL was announcing the World Series. The sports event and the LDS church's annual October conference were takxng place at the same time.

Church members listening to Heber J. Grant were startled when the engineer accidently channeled the baseball broadcast into the Tabernacle, cutting off the church president's talk Over the years radio equipment and stations have become more sophisticated. No longer do broadcasters string wire from the site of the broadcast to the studio as Earl J. Glade often did. The nwnber of program formats has inmased from t h e or four to dozens. Now one can listen to stations specialking in couuhy d

western music, jazz, classical music, 'progmssive" rock, and songs from the P950s, '60s, or '70s. There are all-news stations and "talk shows.

Competing for the advertisers'dollars,the programming of a radio station is now determined by surveys designed to find out what people in various age brackets and income groups want to hear. With this information stations can predict a profitable number of listeners for various types of programming.

The number of radio stations in Utah has i n creased from 18 in 1950 to 69 in 1980, a figure that includes both commercial and noncommercial broadcasters and 34 AM and 35 FM radio stations.

Aiming for larger audiences, radio stations are improving the quality of their programs, developingnew technologies for better listening, and asking the Federal Communications Commission to increase the number of frequencies in crowded markets to create opportunities for new radio stations. Undoubtedly radio will continue in sbong competition with television for audiences and advertising dollars.

M3.Thatcher is a librarian at the Utah State Historical Society.

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quick to tie in with radio publicity glmmicks. Phot* graph courtesy of station KDYL.

Three of the "Blg Four" mines that made Ewela a giani rrtlnemls producer. From the tap, CanknnP81 Eureka (Blue Rock) mine, Eureka

Htll, and-Bullion Beck and Chmnpion mi* All phofugrrrphs courtesy @ G a y B. Peterson, Phgtogewraphlcs.

Eureka's Strange "G Tell a Story WHEN MINING WENT UNDERGROUND, COMPANIES HAD TO FIND A WAY TO LOWER AND RAISE MEN AND EQUIPMENTAND HAUL OUT ORE.

BY PHILIP F. NOTARLANNI

Driving through Eureka, Utah, some 70 miles southwest of Salt Lake City on Utah Highway 6, one is s b c k by the sight of massive wooden structures that resemble hanging gallows. Some peer out over conical-shaped mounds of parched eroded dirt, partially overgrown with brush.

Such remnants of Utah's mining past offer glimpses into the role played by developing technology in the hard-sock mining indusky.

These s ~ perched ~over deep, mine shafts, are headframes, used to bansport men, animals, supplies, ore, and overburden (waste material) in and w t of underground workings. They illustrate the development of mining from the small

individual prospect or claim to the largeaale operations of the minisg corporations and the technology needed to accomplish this change. when early prospectors roamed the Utah mountaim and hills, especially in the 1860s and 18709, they looked for outcroppings where veins aâ&#x201A;Źgold and silver had come to the surface.

They were able to mine those with pick and shovel without much effort, but once the surface depdts ran out, the miner had to dig deeper. To haul crut the ore and overburden, a windlass was used. hoking like an old water well with a hand mank, b l , roll, and bucket this apparatus sat over the excavation, with om

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~ and e a cross piece. Horses would be tied to

and its load in and aut of f k shaft.

"8 d Some mines were worked out (depleted of :2 ,:,* L5 ore) at this stage. Others awaited further devel- ,> >: apment that is, tRstEng to see if ore veins were , ::,:;. hidden deeper in lhe earth and determine where 2,::,R ,< :>> ~ 7 , they went. Usually, thb type type work called far I , , x lafge a m w t s af money that only mining c m - .- :I N.pi,I, panies could afford. With dseper wdcings, new : :: :': 'i and heavier machinery was needed.

8 less 11o0t p, > The headfram~enabled miners to mine d!-:, I:"': :*,,y ,' : I , , , I j ;J from deptbs of 300 to over 3,000 feet below the ' ,- 5 surface. This mechanism, mads first of wood ~ ~ r $ on and w d y a n o m ha* the ;[: then steel, consisted mast often of a bavily $ ij I,?;;~ braced right triangle, placed directly over the >> . t want deeper, ar nniners shaft. ~n top of frame sat shaves, large the veins ran, a hand- $ 'f wheels over which ran the hoisting rope. This powered windlaas proved inadequate, /$,: rope, which cuuld have been a wire cabb o n@, a whim m a t be a d 4 A whim,$ :; braided belt, ran from a hois was usually operabed by harse power and con- b:" ' dLtEtnce from the hea&ame.

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or a cage, that traveled in and out of the s The bucket functioned primarily ducing developmental stage of work. Once a min began Eull production, the bucket by a cage of sirngle or doubb deck This cage had sections of tr floor where: ore cars could be loaded. S cages would hold up to a dozen men lbprocess of getting men, equipment, ore in and rrut of the mine was called ho Therefore, the headframe served as part o histing plant (or works). Basically, the process

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Ore buckets lowered men into the shafl of the South Swansea mine, Silver City, Utah.

included those sitting over inclind shafts shafts not vertical or directly under the headframe but inclined away from one of the posts of the m&ed A-type shcture. Four-or 6-post types became necessary when the shaft compartments, or openings, were excessively large. Mining engineers' handbooks contain stress sheets and diagrams for headframe designs.Each component was placed at angles and positions d+ signed to hold the mount of weight and stress d d to do the job. Sizes of frames depended on load weight, shaft size and depth, special equipment requirements, and weather conditions. The angle of the supporting braces had to be such as to keep the headframe from being toppled over by the wind.

involved a threeman team - hoist operator, cage tender, and top lander. The hoist operator ran the hoisting engine according to a set system of bell signals. Removing loaded ore cars and sending down empty cars or supplies was the job of the top lander, while the cage tender deposited the loads to the different levels of the mine and loaded cars of ore or overburden to be wnt to the surface.

Headframes are of various types. The A-type, or modifications of it, exists in greater numbers in Utah than do those of the 4 or &post type.

A-type headframes were also called 2-post and

The Centennial Eureka surface plant during the I-.

A double-deck cage carded shlft of miners Into the Centennial Eureka mine.

Utah's best collection of headframes is found in the Tintic Mining District,of which Eureka City is a part In fact, Tintic's array of extant headframes is among the finest in the entire West. There one can see the different types of headframes mentioned, both w d e n and skel, dating from the late nineteenth century through 1982. Some shaft houses remain as well wood or metal buildings that covered the headframes and supporting machinery. The lonely Grand Central mine,near Mammoth in the T b tic district, remaim complete with an A-type steel headframe tucked into iron-clad hoist house and surface plmt (the complete surface workmgs of the mine). The 1897-98 Grand Cantral headframe was considered a novelty for its time in Utah. Stml headframes represented an evolution in mining technology.

Cornish miners, experienced in rock work, came to Utah from England, bringing with them

rich mining folk traditions. Lore of the sbange sounds heard underground abound, as do slang words used by the Cornish to describe miring d c l e s and processes. Headframes were called "gallows," as they appeared like the shctures used for hangings. On at least one occasion the name held b e in Eureka, when in 1886 one Joe Fisher was lynched by a mob at the Norway mine gallows.

Western mining historian Otis E.Young,Jr., stated,"The headframe with its giant sheaves is the most prominent feature in almost any representation of the ordinary mine of the frontier period." As such, it represents both the technology developed to mine the earth and a stark reminder of the mining landscape.

Dr. Notarianni dhcts the Utah State History Museum Program.

The Showers mine used an Inclined headframe in its operation.

>ost, rlght triangle. Left The t tat the Bullion Beck and Cha :ture. RighP A four-post t the F~awkaI ilv m i h i~h F