http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1906
Here are some one liners...
The Big One: The 'Frisco Quake -- I talk about the quake, the fire, and the basics on surviving an earthquake.
Welcome to the Jungle: Muckraking Finds its Voice -- Upton Sinclair publishes his novel about the meatpacking industry.
Notable Births -- Leonid Brezhnev, Adolf Eichmann and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
In Other News -- The Earth has a molten core, the Pentecostal Movement, and Mahatma Gandhi gets non-violent.
The Big One: The 'Frisco Quake
It is two hours before dawn in San Francisco. There is a deep rumble like a heavy truck going by except that in 1906 there are no heavy trucks. 20 seconds later the ground sways and in less than a minute the world comes apart. It is a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. There is a sudden change in ground elevation. Then everything moves over 20 feet... well.. almost everything. The water lines from the reservoir are gone. GONE! Gas lines rupture. Oil lamps tip over. The fire alarm is dead, but the fire department already knows. Over 50 fires erupt simultaneously. (There are only 40 fire stations.) All Hell is breaking loose. Two days later, the fire chief is dead and they are still fighting the fire. The hydrant at 20th and Church is working! (They paint it gold later on.) After 3 days, the fire is contained. 500 city blocks have been wiped out. To avoid panic, the government lies about the number of dead, but we are well past panic. 3,000 to 6,000 are dead. Maybe 300,000 are homeless, but frankly, a tent is preferred these days. Thank you very much. The rubble is pushed into the bay creating an artificial peninsula. The insurance payoffs will hit investment hard and a world-wide economic downturn will ensue. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
During the 1989 World Series, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit the city. Since the 1906 peninsula was never engineered, the most spectacular earthquake damage occurred there. The entire first floor of a building sank below ground due to liquefaction of the soil. This occurs when ground water pumps to the surface due to vibration caused by an earthquake, or the traffic of heavy earth-moving equipment. ("Heavy" is defined as "heavier than D6 bulldozer" which is about 18 tons.) In Irvine, California, I've seen a Caterpillar® scraper buried to its axles in the mud it created with the vibration of its passing. [8]
During the 1989 World Series, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit the city. Since the 1906 peninsula was never engineered, the most spectacular earthquake damage occurred there. The entire first floor of a building sank below ground due to liquefaction of the soil. This occurs when ground water pumps to the surface due to vibration caused by an earthquake, or the traffic of heavy earth-moving equipment. ("Heavy" is defined as "heavier than D6 bulldozer" which is about 18 tons.) In Irvine, California, I've seen a Caterpillar® scraper buried to its axles in the mud it created with the vibration of its passing. [8]
- Question: How can I survive a large earthquake?
- Answer: Don't let stuff fall on your head. All the rest is commentary. Briefly, DO NOT RUN OUTSIDE! Pieces of the building are falling off! Inside your house, stand in a doorway or crawl under a desk. Chain bookcases to the wall studs and give it room to rock a little. Otherwise, the chain will pull out of the wall. Store your supplies to survive a heavy pounding. If your phone works, call your Aunt Lucy in Santa Fe. Local lines get jammed, but out-of-state lines are usually open. If everyone knows to call Aunt Lucy, you can pass messages to the rest of your family. Don't call home. The line is dead.
Welcome to the Jungle: Muckraking Finds its Voice
The Armour meatpacking plant has turned Chicago into meat-packing central. Occupational safety is a personal choice and worker's compensation consists of the right to sue one's employer for negligence, but exactly what "negligence" means is up for grabs. Modern unions are needed, but the current unions are still finding their way. The Industrial Workers of the World known as "The Wobblies", is established this year in Chicago: "One Big Union!" (Yes. They have connections to socialism.) Upton Sinclair is also a socialist. He is a prolific writer, but he will make his name this year publishing the novel, "The Jungle". His purpose is to point out the exploitation of the workers and the terrible work conditions, but the public is disgusted by the unsanitary conditions of a meatpacking plant. Sinclair's novel leads to rumors that clumsy workers are falling into vats of lard to be rendered into breakfast spread for your toast. (Yuck!) This is total BS, but the term "muckraking" is born. The public uproar leads to the passing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act, a requirement for a list of ingredients on the label, and what looks like the beginning of a general truth-in-advertising requirement. [9] [10] [11]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Meat inspection existed prior to this time, but it was easy to circumvent. What was actually happening was that the Federal government wanted to make meat inspection a real inspection. To do that they needed to change the law, but the bill had stalled in Congress. Then came Sinclair's novel. The bill's sponsors leveraged the public outrage and a report from a special investigation on the meatpacking industry to get the bill passed. Oddly enough, Congress found Sinclair's charges to be TOTALLY TRUE! (I saw it on Facebook so it MUST be true!) Look, we needed better meat inspection. No question. There was a serious problem, but this "muckraking" is like lying to get things done. If I have to lie to get things done then I'm doing something wrong. Certainly Sinclair regretted his novel. He failed to win over the public to the virtues of socialism. When I look at it that way, improved meat inspection is a winner. [12] [13] [14]
Meat inspection existed prior to this time, but it was easy to circumvent. What was actually happening was that the Federal government wanted to make meat inspection a real inspection. To do that they needed to change the law, but the bill had stalled in Congress. Then came Sinclair's novel. The bill's sponsors leveraged the public outrage and a report from a special investigation on the meatpacking industry to get the bill passed. Oddly enough, Congress found Sinclair's charges to be TOTALLY TRUE! (I saw it on Facebook so it MUST be true!) Look, we needed better meat inspection. No question. There was a serious problem, but this "muckraking" is like lying to get things done. If I have to lie to get things done then I'm doing something wrong. Certainly Sinclair regretted his novel. He failed to win over the public to the virtues of socialism. When I look at it that way, improved meat inspection is a winner. [12] [13] [14]
Notable Births
- Leonid Brezhnev (Born in Ukraine, he will lead of the Soviet Union after Khrushchev.) [15]
- Adolf Eichmann (IKE-man) (Nazi mass murderer: "I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction".) [16]
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (BON-hoff-er) (Lutheran pastor executed for his part in Operation Valkyrie, the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.) [17]
In Other News
- The Azusa (ah-ZOO-zah) Revival Meeting Kicks off the Pentecostal Movement. It is characterized by a dramatic worship service, speaking in tongues and the like. [20]
- Mahatma Gandhi organizes his first nonviolent protest. He is in South Africa right now, and his passive resistance philosophy is in its infancy. [21]
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