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Nov. 11: The Great Lakes Huricane

By John Merrill

The year 1913 was a really bad year weather-wise. Earlier in March Ohioans experienced the worst flood in Ohio’s recorded history. That event cost the lives of over 400 people and cost more than $1,000,000, 000 in 1913 dollars. On this day in November, an immense storm struck the Great Lakes and became known as the Great Lakes Hurricane.

detroit-frontpage1913

The Big Blow as it was known around the Great Lakes became one of the greatest winter storms in Cleveland’s history. All communication between Cleveland and eastern Ohio was gone. Food shortages became rampant. People died.

A massive low pressure system formed along the Appalachian Mountains. The counter-clockwise spin of the system pulled massive amounts of  arctic gales into the eastern Great Lakes region.

The storm began as two separate systems that tracked across the southern U.S. This system combined with a low pressure area in the Arctic and was pulled out of Canada dropping temperatures quickly into the single digits and wind gusts around 90 mph. Waves cresting more than 35 feet, and snow squalls that visibility to just a few feet. The storm system straddling the mountains began a slow, but stead move northwest towards Lake Erie. As it did, the two system merged. Barometric pressure dropped to 28.50 inches.

Frozen Cleveland streetcar after the Hurricane of 1913.
Frozen Cleveland streetcar after the Hurricane of 1913.

Because the Lake Erie had not yet frozen, the arctic gales picked up large amounts of moisture that was then dropped as several feet of snow along Ohio’s north coast. The high winds created massive snow drifts, knocked out power everywhere.  The hurricane force storms lasted for 16 hours before it began to ease.

More than 230 people lost their lives in the storm mostly from lost ships on the lake. Days later bodies would turn up along the shore often in clusters of bodies frozen in each others arms. So many bodies came a shore that looting of the corpses became a problem requiring additional police to protect the grotesque site until the bodies could be removed.

As a result of this storm system, the USDA Weather Bureau began a major effort at making more accurate forecasts. The large Great Lakes ship designs were changed to make them more stable in unstable weather conditions. And in Cleveland, as a result of this storm, all utility cables were buried underground.

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Filed Under: November, Ohio History

November 25: Ohio Inventor Charles Kettering is DEAD!

By John Merrill

1912 Cadillac Advertising Piece
1912 Cadillac Advertising Piece

Anyone that has a driver’s license has probably used a key to start their car. For those that don’t know what happens when they turn that key, in its most basic concept, allows a jolt of electricity to run from the battery to a motor that actually turns or cranks the engine. Sparks are then ignited in the piston chambers that cause a mixture of air and vaporized gasoline to explode. Once all of the cylinders start revolving, the starter motor quickly disengages from the engine and it continues on its own.

Sure, everyone knows that you say. But if you ever see any of those old movies where the guy has to stand in front of the car and turn a crank to get the engine started can appreciate what it was link before the self-starter was invented.

When Kettering was 39 year old, a man born in Loudonville, Ohio, a man that had notoriously bad eyesight and had to have a fellow student read out loud his reading assignments, got his patent for the electric automobile starter. Kettering’s electric starter had been first installed on the 1912 Cadillac. By the early 1920s Kettering’s self-starting motor would be installed on just about every car made. That refinement in automobile ownership made the automobile more attractive, especially women. It was the beginning of the automobile culture that continues to this day.

Charles F. Kettering
Charles F. Kettering

Kettering and his company, DELCO (Dayton ELectronics COrporation), went on to create a number of improvements to the automobile including shock absorbers, the automatic transmission, quick-drying automotive paint, and safety glass.

Although he was most famous for his contributions to the auto industry, Charles Kettering also known for developing several medical innovations such as an incubator for premature infants, venereal disease treatments and a number of magnetic diagnostic devices. During his time at DELCO and later at General Motors (GM), Mr. Kettering accumulated a great fortune. In 1945 he and Alfred Sloan, another GM vice president, established the Sloan-Kettering Institute for cancer research.

On this day in 1958 at the age of 82, Charles Kettering died of a stroke at his home in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, named for the inventor.

Read more about Charles F. Kettering >>

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Filed Under: Business, Death, Event, November

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