Category: agricluture

Some of Henry Ford’s ideas were way ahead of their time. In fact a few ideas were so far out that they went nowhere, but not for lack of merit. For example, Ford was always looking for ways to save money on the costs of materials but without sacrificing quality, design integrity or safety. From his childhood background on a farm, and because many of his customers were farmers, Ford was deeply interested in agriculture. Ford often commented that crops could grow quickly, “as compared with lumber or especially iron ore.” So Ford funded a laboratory to assist farmers to find a way to use crops in industrial applications. Ford hired a highly regarded chemist named Robert Boyer to run the lab, where dozens of workers researched industrial uses for farm crops such as cantaloupes, carrots and beets.
Among other crops, Henry Ford was a great promoter of soybeans. In one marketing effort that Ford intended to impress his farmer-customers, every vehicle that Ford sold came with a bushel of soybeans on the front seat. And during the Great Depression, Ford entertained visitors at luncheons in which every course contained locally grown soybeans. The Ford menu included tomato juice with soybean sauce, soybean cookies and soybean candy for dessert.
But Ford used soybeans to do more than just amuse visitors at lunch. Ford was looking for projects that combined industry with the output of agriculture. Among other things, Ford had an abiding interest in developing soybean-based plastics. Throughout the 1930s Ford pioneered the use of soybeans in plastics that he used in his automobiles. The soybean components included plastic parts (even body panels), seat covers and paint. Ford’s soybean-automobile project culminated in August 1941, when he patented an automobile made almost entirely of soybean plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame.
Ford’s soybean-car weighed 30% less than a car made of steel. Even better, the plastic panels did not rust. And an array of experiments concluded that they were ten times as durable as steel. Ford claimed that plastic panels made the car safer than traditional steel cars because the car could roll over without being crushed. Ford hoped that the new soybean plastic would replace metal, which was in short supply in the years just before World War II as the U.S. government was building up the country’s navy. Furthermore, Ford’s soybean-car ran on grain alcohol — yes, ethanol — instead of gasoline.
Ford’s engineers were building a second soybean-based car when the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. Because of the war, the federal government suspended all U.S. automobile production for the duration of the conflict. Thus Ford’s soybean-based car experiment languished. Almost all of the Ford Company’s resources were directed towards war-related production. Indeed, in one gigantic undertaking Ford converted the massive facility at Willow Run, Michigan to building B-24 bombers. At one point during the war, the Willow Run plant rolled a brand-new B-24 — made of over 140,000 separate parts — off the assembly line every hour. This was a far cry from building automobiles — made of soybeans or otherwise. By the end of the war in September 1945 the idea of a soybean car had simply fallen through the cracks.
Henry Ford died in 1947, aged 84. And we can only speculate about what might have happened if Henry Ford and his company had continued to pursue the idea of a car made out of soybeans, and powered by ethanol

Question asked on 03/14/2008 at 06:36 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Visionary

Joseph Baermann Strauss was born at Cincinnati, Ohio in January in 1870. His mother was a pianist, his father a painter, and young Joseph took up poetry and expected a career in the arts. At the University of Cincinnati the five-foot three-inch Strauss tried out for the football team and ended up recovering at some length in the school infirmary, looking out the window at the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, the first long-span suspension bridge in the US. His subsequent fascination with bridges changed his course, and the engineering firm he founded built several famous ones including the San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

Question asked on 01/31/2008 at 07:05 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Visionary

The BBC reports that a virus has been used as scaffolding to build nanoparticles. The mosaic virus normally attacks black-eyed pea plants. It’s just 30 nanometers in size (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter).

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have successfully added iron-containing molecules to the surface of this virus. The result is electronically active nanoparticles. They believe this will in the future facilitate the manufacture of nanotechnology electrical devices.

The work is yet another example of how scientists are now trying to engineer objects on the scale of atoms and molecules.

Question asked on 04/22/2007 at 04:48 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Visionary

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the remote reservation asked their new chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But, being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, “Is the coming winter going to be cold?”

“It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again.

“Is it going to be a very cold winter?”

“Yes,” the man at the National Weather Service again replied, “It’s definitely going to be a very cold winter.”

The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again.

“Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?”

“Absolutely,” the man replied.

“It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever.”

“How can you be so sure?” the chief asked.

The weatherman replied, “The Red Indians are collecting wood like crazy.”

Continued-

The answer to: "A Tale of Predictions (3/11/07)"

Question asked on 03/11/2007 at 08:39 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Character

What is the seventh wonder of the world?

Compound interest.

If you have very small kids or grandkids, they can benefit from the miracle of compounded interest. Justin Ford, wrote a brilliant book called Seeds of Wealth. It is all about saving just $1 a day for your kids so they have a substantial nest egg by the time they are young adults.
Continued.

The answer to: "Here’s to your own wealth. (9/16/06)"

Question asked on 09/16/2006 at 06:01 AM :: Comments to date: 0

Category: Visionary

Any person that wants to improve themselves must be able to recognize their own character traits and how to deal with and identify other people's traits. We will start with Visionary.

The answer to: "Character - Visionary (6/2/06)"

Question asked on 06/02/2006 at 06:25 AM