Articles written by John Crandall
Showing 1-100 of 106 Articles
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Franklin the Printer and More
In Philadelphia he set up his press, and printed pamphlets, paper, and of course his famous Poor Richard's Almanac.
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Indentured Servants
In the early years, Britain's American Colonies were an extension of the British labor markets of the time.
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Land Speculation
The buying of tracts of low priced land, partially developing it and reselling for a profit is an American tradition, and explains a good deal about settlement patterns.
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Lincoln, Liberty, and Power
The way Americans perceive liberty and power was changed forever by the circumstances and decisions made during the Civil War.
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Plymouth, Puritans, Penn, Quakers,
Religious beliefs played a large part in the formation of early colonies in America. Another important belief was representative government.
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The Tobacco Culture
With tobacco as a cash crop the early English colonies in America survived, multiplied, and built a culture based on its cultivation.
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Jamestown, First English Town
Four hundred years ago this year, Jamestown was established as the first permanent English settlement in North America.
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St. Augustine, First American City
The oldest permanent European settlement in North America was not Jamestown, but rather St. Augustine.
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Chesapeake Deadrise Workboats
Becoming something of a scarcity many of these boats have gone out of service, but they are an important part of history.
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The Diolkos, an Ancient Railway
Running wooden cars pulled by animal or human power on a grooved granite road perhaps the ancient Greeks invented a railroad to carry ships overland.
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Suspension Bridges
Suspension Bridges tie road networks together over bodies of water. The longest in the world currently is over 12,000 feet long.
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An Operational Hydrogen Vehicle
There has been a lot of hype about hydrogen fuel cells for years, and now there really is a vehicle that runs on hydrogen. However, it is not a "big" advance.
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George Westinghouse, Inventor
His air brakes and other railroad signal and safety inventions made rail transport faster, safer, and more efficient.
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Ironclads to Steel Hulls
After the first ironclads proved themselves, it wasn't long before iron and then steel replaced wood as the primary material for ship construction.
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Who Invented the Elevator?
Like is so often true, the answer depends upon your point of view. If looking for the first documented device that could do the job the answer is Archimedes, but . . .
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Christopher Columbus Smith
Chis Smith had a natural talent for building boats that were both functional and beautiful, and he built that into a very successful business.
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The First Space Walks, 1965
Called Extra Vehicular Activity or EVA by NASA spacewalks were a second Russian victory in the "Space Race" with America.
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The Birth of Airmail
The Army had been detailed to help the Post Office with an experimental project to inaugurate airmail in America. This was the first regular airmail route in the world.
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Internal Improvements
In the early days of the American Republic, there was a significant need to improve the nation's transportation network.
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Tun Tavern, Birthplace of the USMC
Every Year on November 10th Marines wherever they may be stationed across the world remember Tun Tavern and the birth of the Corps.
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Dan Daly:Legendary Enlisted Marine
Daly fought the Boxers in China, the Cacos in Haiti, served aboard numerous ships, fought in the "Bananna wars", and fought the Germans in WWI at Belleau Woods.
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Robert Goddard, Rocket Pioneer
An American inventor before his time, Robert Goddard invented liquid fueled rockets in 1926.
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Railroads and the Market Economy
Businesses having a large number of customers can dramatically increase profits with small changes to the price. This simple economic fact led to railroad regulation.
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The Phoenicians, Great Sailors
The keeled boat or ship is very likely a Phoenician invention. Both with oars and sials they plied the waters of the Mediterranean and beyond.
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Sputnik I, Artificial Satellite
The original Sputnik was a landmark event in that it was both an important first as a technological achievement, and for what it inspired.
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Who Invented the Traffic Light?
Despite widespread credit to Garret Morgan for a 1923 patent, traffic lights very closely resembling modern lights were in use in Detroit three years earlier.
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Toyota and Henry Ford
In the days when Toyota was first taking a huge share of the global automobile market and becoming the model for "lean" manufacturing, they were following Ford's lead.
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The Invention of the Jet Engine
An Englishman and a German both contemporaniously invented jet engines.
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Transportation and Time
How we measure time became more and more important as transportation technology became faster and more sophisticated.
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Roundhouses
Roundhouses were very important to steam railways. They were both maintainance facilities, and turnaround points.
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From Limousin to Limos
Shepherds in Limousin developed a distinctive and effective cloak for sheltering themselves from the region's rainy weather.
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Cogs, Hulks, and Hogsheads
These medieval cargo ships used wooden barrels to protect their cargo in open holds.
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Werhner von Braun
Von Braun was born in Germany, led a Nazi research team, and later became an American Citizen, and an important force in the American Space Program.
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Grand Old Man of the Marine Corps
Fifty-three years in the Corps and 38 years as Commandant earned him the nickname, and he is a Marine Corps legend.
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The Battle of Belleau Woods
This was a hard fought World War I battle that lasted most of a month as U.S. Marines tenaciously drove the Germans out of a strongly fortified wooded position.
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Brooks Canes Sumner
This act of violence is a very important historical event in that it caused many to definitively choose a side in sectional disputes, and write and speak their attitudes.
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The Tomato: A World Traveler
An interesting aside in transportation history is the capability of transportation technologies to achieve dissemination of various species.
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The Model T Ford
This car had the longest production run of any car ever made, and is generally considered the most important single model of the automobile age.
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Who was William Walker?
Considered an American patriot by many in his own time, his name comes down to us in History texts, if mentioned at all, as a filibuster seeking to expand slavery.
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Nickolaus Otto
Although little known, Nickolaus Otto is an inventor we should remember every time we get into our cars.
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Henry Ford's Assembly Line
The assembly line concept changed not only how cars and other things were made. It changed the way Americans lived as well.
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Henry Ford, an Overview
Born on a farm in Michigan, Ford dreamed of inventing things as a boy. He may not have invented the automobile, per se, but he did make innovations that changed the world
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Trucks, 1970 to present
With the interstate system declared "finished" in the 1970s, and truck technology very well developed, America's roadways became the lifeline of the suburbs.
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Trucks, 1920-1970
In this half-a-century trucks went from small replacements for horse-drawn wagons to large enough to compete with railroads for freight hauling.
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Amelia Earhart (part 2)
She planned it as her "final flight", but probably not quite like it turned out.
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Building a Roman Road
The Romans built more roads than any other pre-modern civilization.
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Mag-lev
First conceived around 1907, Mag-lev did not become a practical reality until 1984. But, the age of the mag-lev rail is coming soon.
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Christening Boats
The Vikings offered human sacrifices upon launching a new longboat. It is very likely that the wine ceremony used today dates back to the original blood ceremony.
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Mules
Mules deserve to be remembered for the important roles they played in the history of transportation.
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Dugout Canoes
Dugouts can range from simple one man canoes to long, slender, and fast outrigger war canoes, and large dual hull dugouts that can carry sail.
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Transcontinental RR and Suez Canal
What do these two seemingly unrelated transportation pipelines have in common?
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GPS Technology
What Is GPS and How Does It Work?
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Amelia Earhart (part 1)
This young lady showed amazing courage, fortitude, and talent. She goes down in history with a long list of avition firsts to her credit.
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Interstate Highways
After WWII the American Federal Government took over road building from the States. An impressive road system resulted, but at what price?
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The Evolution of the Wheel
As I mentioned in a previous article, wheels likely developed from log rollers used to move heavy loads.
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Captain James Cook's Final Voyage
Sandwich, Sandwich Islands, Alaska, and death
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Captain James Cook in Australia
In Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Batavia, sails for home
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Captain James Cook Second Voyage
Antarctica, ice, illness, and Easter Island
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Captain James Cook First Voyage
Sails for Tahiti, Secret Orders, defeats scurvy
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Captain James Cook Early Life
Captain James Cook was an extrordinary man who on three voyages discovered numerous Pacific Islands, and virtually completed the mapping of our world.
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Replaceable Parts
In many ways replaceable parts make modern transportation possible.
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Apollo 13
Only brilliant response to this emergency coupled with an awesome amount of undaunted fortitude and faith on the part of the astronauts saved thier lives.
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Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin were the first humans to walk on the surface of the Moon.
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Sled Dogs in the Yukon
Sled Dogs are an important part of the story of the Yukon and the Klondike.
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The Parachute After Leonardo
After Leonardo's drawings of the parachute nothing was done in that field until about 100 years later, and after one jump the idea was left until the Montgolfier Brothers
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The Sopwith Camel
WWI provided such an intense testing ground for early aviation that the simple wooden planes of just before the war were almost antiques just a few years later.
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SWATH Technology
Small Water-plane Area Twin Hull
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The Inca and Their Roads
The Inca road system is an admirable feat of engineering, and it served several important functions for their Empire.
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The Montgolfier Brothers' Balloon
One hundered and twenty years before the Wright Brothers these two French brothers produced the world's first functional flying machine.
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Flemish Horses & Cydesdales
And more Flemish draft horses and Shire horses, together with native Scottish stock are the forebears of Clydesdales.
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Clipper Ships
Near the peak of commercial sailing technology, clippers are somewhere between an awesome feat of engineering and a work of fine art.
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Leonardo and the Parachute
He was so far ahead of his time that he devised a parachute.
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Leonardo's Flying Machines
When one considers time and place Leonardo's genius begins to be not only impressive, but completely amazing.
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Eric the Red
We know what we know about Eric the Red and his son Lief Ericson because their stories were written down in a saga.
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Leonardo Da Vinci
Although some of his ideas have been proven wrong. During the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci thought seriously about flying machines.
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The Silk Road
What we call the silk road is actually a network of "legs" in a long journey which at its hieght could transmit goods from Northern China to the British Isles.
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Roman Roads
The network of roads built by the Romans played a significant role in the development of Western Civilization.
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The Compass and the Compass Rose
A brief history of the compass and the compass rose
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Building a Viking Longboat
We have archeological evidence of longboat construction methods from which we can guess how they built their ships, but my research has not yet uncovered who did the work
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Magellan's Death
Ferdinand Magellan died fighting on a beach in a war among nieghboring tribes.
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Ferdinand Magellan
Magellan is generally credited as the first man to sail around the world.
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Magellan's Voyage
Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships on September 20, 1519.
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Hugo Junkers and the J 1
Hugo Junkers was something of an aviation visionary, anticipating future develpments in several areas in the early days of aviation, but he came into conflict with Hitler
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Vikings, Longboats, and Navigation
A great knowledge of the ways of the sea was passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation of Vikings. And, perhaps they had some technologies now lost.
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Lief Ericson
There is little doubt that Lief Ericson truly discovered America long before Columbus, although that discovery did not lead to a permanent European presence.
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Louis Bleriot
Louis Bleriot built the first monoplane.
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Charles Lindbergh
Lindbergh devised new high altitude flying to save fuel and crossed the Atlantic in his biplane the Spirit of St. Louis.
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The Wright Brothers
Two Brothers who owned a bycycle factory and were interested in flying machines as a hobby were the first to build a working airplane.
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Otto Lilienthal
The German engineer, Otto Liliental, was the first man to fly sucessfully and repeatably in a machine of his own design.
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Tyres
. . . were invented by John Dunlop
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The Secret of Rubber
We hardly ever think about it, but rubber makes our world a better place.
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Viking Voyages
After being exiled from Iceland Eric the Red and his son Lief Ericson discovered America. The Rus traveled to Kiev and Byzantium.
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Transatlantic Steam
From the Great Western in 1838 to the 1960's steamships crossed the Atlantic with regularity.
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Viking Longboats
Viking longboats were by far the best ships before the age of sail.
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Steamboat and Steamship Firsts
There is a little controversy about what was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic because many did so with a combination of sail and auxiliary steam engines.
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Sir George Cayley
Virtually everyone, of course, knows that Leonardo da Vinci wrote about and drew flying machines in the Renaissance, but . . .
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The Coracle
The use of the coracle was once prevalent throughout the British Isles.
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Super Sonic Travel
From the Wright Brothers and biplanes air transportation really took off. In less than a half century men would be traveling through the air faster than sound.
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Arabian Horses
Arabian Horses were imporoved in speed and endurance over time through breeding.
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West Point Foundry
The West Point Foundry, produced two early locomotives.
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