Damage ControlDamage Control

28Surprise UpsetHow tiny Japantrounced mighty Russia

38 Flush with SuccessThe history of the toilet

6 Believe It or NotThe man who putRipley’s on the map

22 Cape TownBeacon of hope, beautyand adventure

Hurricanes bring punishing winds and deadlysurges—but there are steps you can take

to protect life, limb and property.

Hurricanes bring punishing winds and deadlysurges—but there are steps you can take

to protect life, limb and property.S UMM E R 2 0 1 2

asia/pacific – winter 2012

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DEPARTMENTS5 BUILDING CHARACTER

Achieving Happiness

6 PROFILENorbert Pearlroth

15 FACTS & FIGURESMeasuring Intensity

21 THE DIXON DRILLER

32 DIXON SPOTLIGHTInnovation Center Opens

34 KEEPING IT SAFEThe Dangers of Dust

36 HEALTH & FITNESSEasy Burn

38 INVENTIONSFlush with Success

FEATURES8 DAMAGE CONTROL

With fearsome fury, hurricanes bring punishing windsand deadly storm surges—but there are relatively easysteps you can take to protect life, limb and property.By Maria Blackburn

16 ONE-OF-A-KIND HENRY FORDBy perfecting the assembly line, he made carsavailable to allBy Lauren Glenn

22 CAPTIVATING CAPE TOWNAdventure awaits in this breathtakingly beautifulseaside cityBy Maggie Messitt

28 JAPAN THE VICTORIn a surprise upset of Russia in ‘the first great war of the20th century,’ Japan established itself a world powerBy Eugene Finerman

ON THE COVER A sailboat lies on its side near the Miami waterfrontas 90-mile-per-hour winds pass through during Hurricane Donna.

SUMMER 2012ASIA/PACIFIC – WINTER 2012/

8 16 22

Our cover story this issue, “Damage Control,” looks at the

widespread destruction that hurricanes can wreak—while

also describing important steps you can take to mitigate

such damage, saving lives and money. Such preparation involves careful planning.

It also requires follow through. Perhaps we could all take a lesson from this story.

Many individuals and businesses do very little planning for the future, for a

variety of reasons. For one thing, it’s no fun to contemplate the idea that “bad”

things—such as sickness or disaster—could be waiting just around the corner.

Also, it’s very easy to get caught up in just getting through what needs to be

accomplished today. As a result, many who do make plans fail to follow through.

Business owners think about and some even plan to open a new location,

hire that needed sales person, give that key person a raise, but…

Individuals think about or plan to lose weight, go back to school, spend more

time with family, or coach a Little League team but…

The result? Your competition hires away your key employee, or is marketing

an idea you were thinking about, or a co-worker snags the job you wanted since

he was better prepared. Or you develop health problems, lose your job, or watch

helplessly as your children start hanging out with the wrong group of kids.

Don’t run out of tomorrows.

Plan, then execute. It is how winners operate.

Thanks for reading,

4 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

DON’T RUN OUT OF TOMORROWS

SUMMER 2012ASIA/PACIFIC – WINTER 2012

PublisherDixon Valve & Coupling Company

EditorSue De Pasquale

Editorial BoardRichard L. Goodall, CEOBob Grace, President, DixonTaylor Goodall, Vice President,

Distribution, DixonScott Jones, Vice President, Sales &

Marketing, DixonHazen Arnold, Vice President, DixonMark Vansant, Vice President, DixonJoseph Dawson, Marketing ManagerBill Harr, Global Marketing DirectorKaren R. Hurless, Advertising &

Communications Manager

Editorial & DesignClipper City Custom Media

Director of Custom MediaJeni Mann

Art DirectorKim Van Dyke

Copy EditorChris Zang

Please submit address changes andrequests for new subscriptions to:Clipper City Custom MediaAttn: Adrienne Gieszl11459 Cronhill Drive, Suite A-BOwings Mills, MD 21117888-257-8558

BOSS is produced three times a year by Dixon Valve &

Coupling Company and Clipper City Custom Media. The

acceptance of advertising does not constitute endorse-

ment of the products or services by Dixon Valve &

Coupling Company. The publisher reserves the right to

reject any advertisement that is not in keeping with the

standing or policies of Dixon Valve & Coupling Company.

Copyright 2012, all rights reserved. Reproduction of any

part of BOSS without written permission is prohibited.

Dixon Valve & Coupling Company800 High St.Chestertown, MD 21620877-963-4966Fax: 800-283-4966www.dixonvalve.com

Email questions or comments about BOSSto: boss@dixonvalve.com

WWW. D I X O N V A LV E . C O M S U MM E R 2 0 1 2 � BOSS 5

Achieving Happiness> Ask struggling adolescents why theyget high on drugs or alcohol or seeksex without intimacy or commitmentand they’re likely to tell you they justwant to be happy. Ask young profes-sionals why they’re so driven to makemoney and they’ll talk about all thethings they’d get if they were rich—things that will make them happy.Ask adults why they had affairs orleft their families and you’ll hear itagain: “I just want to be happy.” Sowhy aren’t more people happy?

One problem is unrealisticexpectations. Some people think ofhappiness as an unbroken series of

pleasurable emotions; they hope to feelgood all the time. Others expect amuch more intense or lasting feeling ofjoy when they achieve a desired goal.As a result, when getting what theywant doesn’t produce the feelings theyexpected, they fall into the kind ofdespondency conveyed in the famousPeggy Lee song: “Is That All There Is?”

There’s great danger in confusinga sustainable state of happinesswith fleeting sensations of pleasureand fun. Those who make pleasure-seeking the focus of their lives soonfind themselves needing new anddifferent sources of pleasure. It’s

like a drug addict who needscontinually higher doses to get high.

Happiness is a less intense butmore durable feeling of well-being.It’s not a continuous state. No one ishappy all the time. Though we mayexperience extraordinary momentsof joy or despair, happiness is a kindof emotional resting place of quietsatisfaction with one’s life. The artof living a happy life is a balancebetween getting what you want andlearning to want what you get.

Reprinted from You Don’t Have to Be Sick to Get Better. JosephsonInstitute of Ethics. ©2001 www.josephsoninstitute.com. Permissiongiven by the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSONBUILDING CHARACTER/

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> If ghosts exist, Norbert Pearlroth’smight likely haunt the reading room ofthe New York Public Library. It is therethat he spent 52 years digging for oddfacts and bizarre trivia to publish inRipley’s Believe it or Not!, the popularnewspaper panel series syndicated inpublications around the world.

Born in Austria on May 7, 1893,Pearlroth originally intended to becomea lawyer. But his studies in Poland were

interrupted by the outbreak of WorldWar I. And so in 1920 he moved toAmerica, where he settled in Brooklyn,N.Y., and took a job working in a bank.Then, in 1923, he learned from a friendthat Robert LeRoy Ripley—who wasalready having success as a cartoonistand travel journalist—was lookingfor a linguist who could read foreignnewspapers and compile informationfor his syndicated Believe it or Not!

cartoon series in the now-defunctNew York Globe.

Pearlroth, who spoke 14 languages,got the job.

BY LAUREN GLENN

For 52 years, an obscure researcher tirelessly dug upthe bizarre facts that put ‘Ripley’s’ on the map

Believe it or Not!

PROFILE/

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For 10 hours a day, six days a week,for 52 consecutive years, Pearlrothpored over books, constantly on aquest for the kinds of oddities that con-tributed to Ripley’s success as a collec-tor and exhibitor of all things bizarre.“He would spend a great deal of timewith the card catalog and then sit inthe reading room with these books forwhat seemed like days,” CatherineMarquard, a supervising librarian atthe New York City Library, told TheNew York Times.

Much of Ripley’s brand—includinghis famous insistence that he could pro-vide evidence for all of his far-fetchedfacts and unlikely exhibits—was tied upin Pearlroth’s indefatigable research. Staffat the library estimated that Pearlrothexamined 7,000 books each year—andmore than 350,000 during his career. Hisefforts more than paid off, with Ripley’spublication garnering some 80 million

readers around the world.“Everyone has always believed that

all of this information was found [by]wandering the world,” Pearlroth’s sonArthur told The New York Times, in hisfather’s obituary. “But it was reallyfound on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenueat the Main Library.”

But even as the Ripley brand grewinto a multimillion-dollar industry—with books, museums and radio andtelevision features—Pearlroth remainedcomparatively low-key. Married formore than 50 years, Pearlroth took thesubway every day from Brooklyn to hisManhattan office, where he workeduntil noon answering the thousands ofletters that arrived weekly. After a quick30-minute lunch, it was off to the NewYork Public Library, where he oftenworked until close to 10 p.m. He nevermissed his Friday deadline and notori-ously worked weeks ahead of schedule.

After Ripley’s death from a heartattack in 1949, Believe it or Not! waspurchased by King Features Syndicate,whose editors required that Pearlrothsubmit 24 items every week. On theside, he also wrote a weekly newspapercolumn, “Your Name,” about the originsof Jewish names, for the Jewish Post ofNew York.

Although Pearlroth never missed adeadline, King Features replaced him in1975. He continued to contribute as afreelancer, despite receiving no pension orroyalties from the many Ripley collectionsand reprints that sold in the millions.(Ripley himself left Pearlroth a bequest of$5,000 and paid for his son’s schooling.)

On April 25, 1983, the man whohimself could have been the subject ofa “Believe it or Not!” for his unflaggingwork ethic and tireless pursuit ofthe bizarre, died of heart and kidneydisease. He was 90 years old.

DamageControl

BY MARIA BLACKBURN

In the Irish Bayou of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

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HEN THE STORM FORMEDsomewhere off the coast of the Bahamas, it was justanother tropical depression—one of 100 or so cre-ated around the world each year as a mass of thun-derstorms with a cyclonic wind circulation at itscore. Many of these depressions never develop intosignificant tropical storms.

This one was different.Fueled by warm ocean water, its winds

increased and it gained power quickly. By the timeHurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast onAug. 29, 2005, it was a force to be reckoned with.Among the communities in its path was the smalltown of Diamondhead, Miss. Here, tornadoes andwinds of 135 miles per hour howled through thestreets, uprooting trees and sending some morethan 20 feet in the air. The gusts tore off roofs andexposed homes and businesses to hours of soaking,devastating rain. On the south side of

Diamondhead, an unprecedented 26-foot stormsurge pushed the waters of Bay St. Louis over itsbanks, flooding streets, destroying more than 350homes and leaving survivors clinging to rooftopsand praying for rescue.

When the rain and wind ceased and the flood-

With fearsome fury,hurricanes bring punishingwinds and deadly stormsurges—but there arerelatively easy steps youcan take to protect life,limb and property.

w

waters receded, the damage was colos-sal. Katrina killed some 1,836 peopleand caused an estimated $81 billion inproperty damage, making it the costli-est disaster in U.S. history. InDiamondhead, half of the town’s 5,000homes were destroyed, leaving thou-sands homeless. The tidy, planned com-munity with its quaint Hawaiian streetnames looked as if it had been whirledthrough a blender.

Raymond Sheehy was one of thelucky ones. The 82-year-old not onlysurvived the hurricane, but his home,located only seven miles from the GulfCoast, was virtually untouched.However, he would be the first to saythat luck didn’t protect him from theravages of Hurricane Katrina.

Careful planning did.Hurricane protection figured into

nearly every aspect of the 3,000-square-foot single-story house that Sheehybuilt in 1995. To avoid flooding causedby a storm surge, the U.S. Air Forceretiree situated the house on a hill 70feet above sea level. Aware that hurri-cane winds usually blew from thesoutheast, he placed few windows onthat side of the house and flanked allof the windows with manual wooden“hurricane” shutters that could beclosed and latched before a storm.Sheehy cleared all of the pine trees fromhis land because of their tendency to

uproot during a storm. And to ensurethat his roof would protect him and hiswife, Pat, from the elements, he exceed-ed standard mitigation practices byusing extra trussing to tie the roof andthe walls together; he also covered theroof surface underneath the shingleswith extra-thick plywood.

When Hurricane Katrina sweptthrough town, the house didn’t movean inch. In fact, the only damage toSheehy’s home occurred when a neigh-bor’s pine tree toppled over onto hisroof and damaged a small section ofan aluminum ridge vent.

“When you walk around disasterslike I’ve done, you don’t want to live it,”says Sheehy, who witnessed Atlantichurricanes during his childhood inNew Orleans, and South Pacifictyphoons while working as a communi-cations officer for the FederalEmergency Management Agency(FEMA). “People who have undergonehurricanes and typhoons have a ten-dency to be more cautious. The newerpeople who move here don’t tend tothink about it. I see them buildinghouses, especially friends of mine, andI say, ‘Why don’t you do this to protectyour home in a hurricane?’ They tellme, ‘I’m not worried about it.’”

Sheehy’s response is always thesame. “When the time comes,” he says,“you’re going to worry about it.”

PEOPLE WHO LIVE ON THENorth Atlantic Ocean and EasternPacific Ocean call them hurricanes.Those on the Western Pacific Oceancoasts call the storms “typhoons.” Andin the Southwest Indian Ocean, theselow-pressure systems are known as“cyclones.” Whatever one calls them,the fact remains that these intenselydestructive storms have been devastat-ing coasts worldwide for centuries.

More than 20,000 people died whenthe Great Hurricane of 1780, the dead-liest Atlantic hurricane on record,plowed through the Lesser Antilles inOctober 1780. Specifics on the hurri-cane’s strength are not known, but thehighest winds on Barbados during thestorm are estimated to have exceeded200 mph; the furious gales stripped thebark from trees before downing everytree and destroying every house onthe island. A 25-foot storm surge onMartinique caused 9,000 deaths. Justoffshore, about 4,000 French soldiersdrowned when their fleet of 40 shipsfrom the American RevolutionaryWar capsized. Other areas affected bythe hurricane included Puerto Rico,Hispaniola (the Dominican Republicand Haiti) and Bermuda.

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900was a Category 4 storm (see sidebar)that devastated nearly all of the build-ings and bridges of the Texas city,

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In the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, Raymond Sheehy’s storm-resistant house escaped virtually unscathed.

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Here’s a brief look at the 10worst hurricanes, typhoonsand cyclones recorded world-wide over the last 300 years:

1. 1922 Swatow Typhoon, ChinaSix days after the typhoonwas spotted near the CarolineIslands in the Pacific Ocean, ithit the Chinese city of Swatowon Aug. 2, 1922, with winds of100 miles per hour and a tidalwave that swept over 50,000people. One of the deadliesttyphoons ever to hit the north-ern Pacific, it killed some60,000 people.

2. 1882 Bombay Cyclone, IndiaThis deadly storm, whichbegan over the Arabian Seaas a result of a hurricane inprogress, hit near Bombay,India, on June 6, 1882, andkilled more than 100,000people

3. The 1991 BangladeshCyclone, Bangladesh On April29, 1991, this power-ful tropical cyclone struckthe Chittagong district ofsoutheastern Bangladeshwith winds of around 155 mph.The storm forced a 20-footstorm surge inland, killingsome 138,000 people andleaving as many as 10 millionpeople homeless.

4. The Great BackerganjCyclone of 1876, BangladeshFormed over the Bay of Bengal

on Oct. 27, 1876, this cyclonehad a maximum wind speedof 136 mph and a surge of 45feet. It killed about 200,000people, half of whom died inthe storm surge; the remain-der succumbed to famine anddisease following the storm.

5. Super Typhoon Nina, 1975,China One of the largestrecorded typhoons in historyand the second deadliesthurricane in the Pacific, thisAugust 1975 storm made land-fall in Taiwan with winds ofup to 155 mph. The stormweakened as it made its wayto China and missed most ofthe major cities, but its heavyrainfall caused the collapseof 62 dams, killed more than100,000 people and caused$1.2 billion in damage.

6. 2008 Cyclone Nargis,Myanmar The worst naturaldisaster in the recorded histo-ry of Burma, Cyclone Nargisdeveloped over the Bay ofBengal and gathered strengthto attain peak winds of 135mph. The storm made landfallon May 2, 2008, killed morethan 138,000 people andcaused damages estimatedat more than $10 billion.

7. Calcutta Cyclone of 1737,India On Oct. 7, 1737, thiscyclone destroyed nearly allof the thatched buildings inthis city and killed 3,000 of

the city’s inhabitants, accord-ing to one report. Otherreports from merchant shipsindicate that the disaster wasin fact an earthquake and tidalsurge, which destroyed 20,000boats in the harbor and killed300,000 people.

8. 1881 Haiphong Typhoon,Vietnam The most powerfulstorm of the Pacific, thiscyclone struck on Sept. 15,1881, and killed 300,000people in Vietnam andsurrounding areas.

9. 1839 Coringa Cyclone, IndiaThis storm made landfallwith a 40-foot storm surge

that killed 300,000 people,destroyed more than 20,000boats and flattened the city.

10. 1970 Bhola Cyclone,Bangladesh The deadliesttropical cyclone ever recorded,Bhola struck Bangladeshand India’s West Bengal inNovember 1970. A Category3 hurricane with peak windsof 115 mph, it wiped outvillages, destroyed cropsand caused some 500,000deaths, the majority fromthe 33-foot storm surge thatflooded many of the islandsof the Ganges River Delta.

10OF THE WORSTHURRICANES

IN WORLD HISTORY

Cyclone Nargis at landfall.

SOURCES: Scienceray, Weather Underground

Above left, a special construction technique called“continuous load path”uses hangers and hurricane straps to stabilize a structure insevere weather, like that caused by Hurricane Katrina,which brought members of the U.S. Coast Guard out into the flooded streets forsearch and rescue operations.

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which is located only 8.7 feet abovesea level. Winds of more than 120mph and a 15-foot storm surgeknocked buildings off their founda-tions and pounded them to bits.Some 8,000 people—20 percent ofthe island’s population—died in thestorm, and more than 4,000 moresuccumbed when they were trappedunder wreckage and could not bereached by rescuers.

In November 1970, the worst tropi-cal storm in history, the Great BholaCyclone, struck the Ganges River Deltaregion of Bengal and East Pakistan andkilled an estimated 500,000 people. It isbelieved that 90 percent of the popula-tion was aware of the cyclone before itmade landfall—but only 1 percentsought refuge in fortified structures.

Each year an average of 11 tropi-cal storms develop over the AtlanticOcean. Lately that tally has beengrowing. The busiest hurricane sea-son on record in the U.S. came in2005, with 28 named storms andseven major hurricanes.

The resulting damages can be costlyas well as destructive. In addition topunishing wind and rain, hurricanesalso have tornadoes embedded inthem; moreover, storm surges, whichoccur when winds push the sea into the

land, can cause devastating floods.The average annual damage fromtornadoes, hurricanes and floods inthe United States is $11.4 billion,according to the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration.

During the last two decades, scien-tists have gained greater understandingabout how hurricanes behave and thatknowledge has drastically improvedour ability to predict these acts ofnature and fortify the property in theirpath. “We know more about the furyof hurricanes and how to protectourselves from them,” says Sheehy.

For homeowners, preparing forsurges is largely about building homesat high enough elevations to remainsafe. But there are lots of other stepspeople can take to make their homesresistant to hurricane winds and rain.Such efforts can be as extensive as aspecially constructed foundation or asminor as the type of nail used to attacha roof shingle, says Mike Rimoldi, aconstruction specialist with the non-profit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes.“Your house is only as strong as itsweakest link,” he says.

FOR SHEEHY, THE SPECIFICSon his hurricane-resistant home camefrom a book published by FEMA called

Home Builder’s Guide to CoastalConstruction. He had seen 750 housesbuilt to the book’s mitigation specifica-tions when he was deployed toAmerican Samoa in the South Pacificby FEMA. He recalls being impressedwhen only one of these houses wasdamaged after a 1991 storm, with225-mph winds, slammed the island.

When Sheehy handed the book tohis contractor in Diamondhead at thestart of the project, the builder glancedat it and told him, “We already do this.”Sheehy replied, “Not like this, you don’t.”

Sheehy’s home has three reinforcedlaminated beams along the ceilingto enhance structural integrity andthe roof ’s anchoring capacity.Traditionally, half-inch plywood is usedto construct roofs, but Sheehy’s roof isbuilt with three-quarter-inch plywoodattached to trusses that are 16 inchesapart, rather than the usual 20 inches.In addition, he built a reinforced saferoom in the center of the house thathe and his wife refer to as a “scaredyhole.” They use it as a place to storefood and water, but in case of disasterthe room has enough space for 12people to safely wait out a storm.

When Katrina hit, residents in thearea lost power for 21 days. Sheehykept his diesel generator running and

COURT

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never even had to turn off the air con-ditioning. In the days following thestorm, his home sheltered not only afew neighbors, but several membersof the state highway patrol. “Therewere some reports of looters so wewere happy to have their patrol carsparked out front,” he says.

For Sheehy, the extra safety meas-ures added $5,000 to the cost of build-ing his $128,000 home—a prudentinvestment, he says. “The biggest thingwe have to do is to get people to under-stand that anything they can do willhelp,” he says.

HOMEOWNERS HAVE LONGtaken steps to protect their homesfrom hurricanes, but “best practices”have changed over time.

As a child growing up in Floridain the 1970s, Rimoldi remembersracing through his home during ahurricane, opening and closing win-dows at his mother’s direction as partof an ill-conceived effort to equalizethe pressure inside and outside of thehouse and prevent structural damagefrom wind gusts. The builder, whoteaches hurricane mitigation classes tocontractors, shudders when he thinksof it now. “We were placing ourselvesat so much risk by opening thosewindows during a hurricane,” saysRimoldi. His counsel today: Close allwindows and doors, cover them withshutters, and stay away from themduring a storm.

Statewide building codes—like theone that became effective in Floridain 2002 in response to the devastationwrought by Hurricane Andrew, andin North Carolina, South Carolinaand Louisiana in recent years—havehelped bring to the fore the bestpractices for building new structures.And new and improved buildingmaterials featuring the latest technolo-gy are constantly becoming availableto builders. That’s a good thing,Rimoldi says, because the stakes arehigh. “You don’t have to have yourhouse totally blown away to suffer alot of damage,” he says.

Consider this scenario: Take a typi-cal ranch-style home located just in

from the coast, and expose it to aCategory 1 hurricane with 74- to 95-mph winds. The wind pulls a few shin-gles off the roof or takes out a window,thereby causing a breech in the buildingenvelope, the boundary separating theinside from the outside. For the nextday or two, rain pours through the hole,drenching the insulation and walls,destroying furnishings and creating apotential mold problem that couldrequire the homeowner to seek tempo-rary housing for several months untilthe damage is repaired.

“It doesn’t take a big hole in the roofor a lot of water to cause a lot of dam-age,” Rimoldi explains. “If you’ve everhad a plumbing leak in your house, youknow that one of those lines only has torun for a couple of hours and you havesoaked furniture, flooring and drywall,and then you have to worry about mold.”

To retrofit a home in preparationfor a hurricane, Rimoldi suggestsstrengthening the building envelope.First, if you are in need of a new roof,make sure that you install an enhancedroof covering material that’s tested andapproved for your location, as well asthe wind speed and pressure it will beexposed to. “It doesn’t matter whetherit’s shingles or tile,” he says, as long asit’s code approved.

Next, it’s important to strengthenthe connection where the roof eavesmeet the top of your walls by usingspecially made metal connectors thatare much stronger than nails. Thewind uplift in a roof can easily be twoto three times the force of gravity.“Testing and field studies show thathaving that little piece of metal inthere as an enhancement makes a big

difference,” Rimoldi says.Finally, cover all openings in the

house—windows, doors, garage doors—to protect glass from breaking and doorsfrom blowing in. “For windows, we stressthat people use permanent shutters, thekind specifically made for windows,because when people put plywood upthey don’t always do it properly,” he says.“If it gets blown off by wind, then youhave a big sheet of plywood blowingthrough the neighborhood.”

FOR YEARS, SCIENTISTS USEDwhat they learned from surveyingstorm damage in the field to inform thebest methods and products for hurri-cane protection. Now they can findmore precise answers in the lab—thanks to full-scale testing of structures.

Seven years ago, Stephen P.Leatherman, professor and co-directorof the Laboratory for Coastal Researchat the International Hurricane ResearchCenter, helped develop and build astorm simulator in Miami known as“The Wall of Wind”—the world’s firstfull-strength hurricane machine. Usingsix 500-horsepower engines, the lab canproduce winds of up to 120 mph. It hasbeen used to test a variety of productsand technologies and has generatedsome compelling data. “In a nutshell,we are gaining better understanding ofhow to keep a roof on,” Leathermansays. “That’s important because if youdon’t keep your roof on, everything isgoing to be lost.”

Experiments using the simulatorhave shown that ring shank nails, whichscrew into wood, are more effectivethan smooth nails at keeping plywoodsecured to roofs. In addition,researchers have discovered that soffits,the area underneath the edge of a roof,need to be strengthened so they don’tlet in water during a storm. “Before wedid our tests, a lot of people justthought soffits needed to be coveredfor cosmetic reasons,” says Leatherman.“Instead of being covered, they needto act as more of a shield.”

In October 2010, the InsuranceInstitute for Business & Home Safety(IBHS) opened a $40 million state-of-the-art research center in Richburg,

The averageannual damagefrom tornadoes,hurricanes andfloods in theUnited Statesis $11.4 billion.

S.C., that takes the technologyLeatherman helped develop to newheights. Funded entirely by the insur-ance industry, the center features a105-fan wind tunnel capable of generat-ing Category 3 winds of 130 mph—and a 21,000-square-foot chamber,large enough to test one- and two-storystructures, with rain capacity equal to8 inches per hour.

“We’ve never had the ability totake full-sized structures with all ofthe real materials—shingles, sidingand so forth—in their full-sizedconfiguration and test them underrealistic wind conditions,” says theIBHS’ Timothy Reinhold, senior vicepresident and chief engineer. “Whatwe are trying to create in the lab arereal-life settings.”

For the next few years, IBHS isfocusing on roofing and will be testingsuch products as roof covers, roof equip-ment for commercial buildings, second-ary water barriers and flashing.

However, because all of the structuresthey will be testing will have walls, win-dows and doors, researchers also willhave an opportunity to observe howthese behave in hurricane conditions.

Already the scientists in the IBHSlab have made some interesting discov-eries. While preparing a video to showthe difference in how a hurricane-resistant structure and a non-mitigated

structure performed in high winds,Reinhold’s builders used current designspecifications to strap together thesecond-story exterior walls with thesecond floor of the fortified structure.However, when both structures wereexposed to 100-mph winds and their

front doors were opened, the fortifiedstructure’s walls began expanding outlike a balloon from the pressure, and itnearly blew away.

“We found that it only took an extra$20 in strapping materials to secure thestructure, but it made a big difference,”Reinhold says. This was a modificationthat wasn’t in any of the current designguides or building codes—somethingthey never would have discovered with-out the lab.

“Looking at some of these systemsissues is what we see as a real power ofthis facility,” he says. “What we want to

do is help people analyze homes so thatwe can put the right amount of strengthin the right places.”

SEVEN YEARS AFTER HURRICANEKatrina came through Diamondhead,the small Gulf Coast town has mostlyreturned to normal. The debris hasbeen cleared, trees have been replant-ed, and residents have rebuilt lost anddamaged homes with stronger struc-tures better suited to surviving wind,rains and flooding. People seem tohave gotten the message that hurri-cane mitigation is important, Sheehysays. “If you go around Diamondheadnow, I’d say 40 percent of us now havegenerators,” he says.

But despite the fact that the mostdestructive storm in U.S. history isnow behind him, Sheehy isn’t about tolet his guard down. Not long ago hereplaced the original windows in hishouse with impact-resistant windowsthat can withstand the force of a 2-by-4 hurtling into them at a speed of 230mph. And every other Sunday, he andhis wife take turns running the gener-ator for two hours just to make surethat it’s working.

There are hurricanes coming, andSheehy just wants to be prepared. “Weskated this year, but after a big stormyou usually have a lull,” he says. “I thinknext year we are going to get hit.”

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A member of the Institute for Business & Home Safety stands before one of 105 test fans that generated winds of about 100 mph.Above right:While the house without fortification collapsed after high winds, the fortified home remained intact.

COURT

ESYIBHS

What we wantto do is help

analyze homes sothat we can putthe right amountof strength in theright places.

—Timothy Reinhold, IBHS chief engineer

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CATEGORY

1- Minimal

2 - Moderate

3 - Extensive

4 - Extreme

5 - Catastrophic

SUSTAINED WINDS

74 to 95 mph

96 to 110 mph

111 to 130 mph

131 to 155 mph

Greater than155 mph

POTENTIAL DAMAGE

Damage primarily to shrubbery, trees, foliage and mobile homes. No real wind damageto other structures. Some damage to poorly constructed signs. Low-lying coastal roadsinundated, minor pier damage, some small craft in exposed anchorage torn from moorings.

Considerable damage to shrubbery and tree foliage; some trees blown down. Majordamage to exposed mobile homes. Extensive damage to poorly constructed signs.Some damage to roofing materials of buildings; some window and door damage. Nomajor wind damage to buildings. Considerable damage could occur to piers. Marinasflooded. Small craft may be torn from moorings.

Foliage torn from trees; large trees blown down. Practically all poorly constructedsigns blown down. Some damage to roofing materials of buildings; some window anddoor damage. Some structural damage to small buildings. Mobile homes destroyed.Serious flooding at coast and many smaller structures near coast destroyed; largerstructures near coast damaged by battering waves and floating debris.

Many shrubs and trees blown down and most street signs damaged. Extensive dam-age to roofing materials, windows and doors. Complete failure of roofs on many smallresidences. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Major damage to lower floors ofstructures near shore, due to flooding and battering by waves and floating debris.Major erosion of beaches.

Shrubs and trees blown down; considerable damage to roofs of buildings and allsigns damaged or destroyed. Very severe and extensive damage to windows anddoors. Complete failure of roofs on many residences and industrial buildings.Extensive shattering of glass in windows and doors. Some complete building failures.Small buildings overturned or blown away. Complete destruction of mobile homes.

Looking southeast in theeye of Hurricane Emmy.

COURT

ESYNOAA

SOURCES: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center

Measuring Intensity

FACTS & FIGURES/

16 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

One-of-a-Kind

Henry Ford

David Gray and Henry Ford seated in the1905 Ford Model N runabout at the backentrance of the Ford plant on Piquette Ave.

BY LAUREN GLENN

By perfecting the assembly line, he made cars available to all

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of economic downturn, much has been made of thosecompanies and individuals who make millions, evenbillions, of dollars, but produce no tangible productor results. Then there are the issues of fair trade andoutsourcing, with politicians and average citizensalike concerned with the loss of manufacturing jobsthat were once the foundation of America’s blue-collarmiddle class—many of which have been transferredoverseas, where workers are willing to do the sameamount of labor for considerably less money.

Indeed, today’s industrial reality is a far cry fromwhen Henry Ford first ventured into the world ofengineering and manufacturing more than a centuryago. From his early beginnings as a machinist andengineer, Ford envisioned a world where internationaltrade, industry and manufactur-ing, if carefully developed andcultivated, could benefit thewhole of society through high-quality goods produced by well-paid workers.

“Ford redefined the relation-ship between skill and compen-sation,” says Bob Casey, curatorof transportation for the HenryFord Museum in Detroit.“The assembly line spread toall sorts of manufacturingoperations, and they wound uppaying higher wages to lowerskilled people.”

The influence of Ford—pos-sibly the nation’s most importantindustrialist—still permeates theindustrial world today, 65 yearsafter his death. Whether as afarmer, machinist, engineer, orfinally as founder of Ford Motor Co., Ford, by allaccounts, was dedicated to a belief that high-qualityproducts could be affordable to all by being produceden masse.

A TinkererFrom the beginning, Henry Ford was a tinkerer, inter-ested not only in making things, but in understandinghow things—machines in particular—worked.

Born to William and Mary Ford on a farm justoutside of Detroit, on July 30, 1863, Henry was theeldest of five children. Even as a young boy heenjoyed taking things apart and reassemblingthem—a fascination that continued into his teenageyears, when he dismantled and reassembled a watchgiven to him by his father. Soon he was repairingthe watches of his friends and family, which earnedhim a reputation as a watch repairman, and perhapssparked his interest in manufacturing and his earlycareer as a machinist.

In 1879, with little more than a grammar schooleducation, Ford left his parents’ home to work as anapprentice machinist in Detroit. Equipped with newknowledge, he returned home to the farm and

became a skilled operator ofthe family’s Westinghouseportable steam engine. Fordwas so skilled, in fact, thatWestinghouse Electric andManufacturing Corp. hired himto demonstrate and operate theengine on farms. On April 11,1888, Ford married Clara JaneBryant and started a family(the two had one child, Edsel),which he supported by farmingand running a sawmill.Meanwhile, he also studied

bookkeeping at a business college in Detroit.Although he disliked farming, Ford was fasci-

nated by electricity and believed that machinerycould eventually replace farm animals for labor.Armed with that conviction, he spent much of hisfree time tinkering and trying to build a better,lighter steam engine. “One man with a machine,which perhaps he himself has helped to build, willdo in a day as much as five men now do with their

In this time

“A businessthat makes nothing but moneyis a poor business.”

teams of horses,” Ford once said.“Horses on a farm are wasteful.”

Edison, Cadillac, FordIf, as many say, Henry Ford was thefather of modern mass production,then Thomas Edison might perhaps beconsidered its favorite uncle. Indeed,if there was anyone who inspired Ford,it was Edison, whose career Ford hadfollowed for years, well before he washired as an engineer by EdisonIlluminating Co. in 1891. Two yearslater, despite little formal training in thefield, Ford was promoted to chief engi-neer. The promotion brought with it anincrease in income and free time, whichFord devoted to experimenting withgasoline engines.

In 1896, those experiments resultedin the successful creation of the FordQuadricycle, a self-propelled vehiclethat, after some improvements, he hadthe opportunity to demonstrate forEdison himself. Edison not onlyapproved of Ford’s experimentation, heencouraged it. Three years later, backedby money from local lumber baronWilliam H. Murphy, Detroit Mayor

William Maybury and U.S. SenatorThomas Palmer, Ford left Edison andstarted Detroit Automobile Co. It didn’ttake long for disillusionment to set in.Believing the company to be driven byprofit rather than innovation, Ford feltthat the cars being produced were toopricey and of low quality. Two yearslater, in 1901, the company folded.

That same year, Ford and an associ-ate, Childe Harold Wills, designed, builtand raced a 26-horsepower automobile.Its success encouraged former DetroitAutomobile stockholders to back Fordonce more, and the Henry Ford Co.was formed, with Ford as chief engi-neer. When Ford left amid tension in1902, the company was renamedCadillac Automobile Co.

But Ford kept pushing. In additionto working with other automotiveenthusiasts to build better cars, he alsobegan racing them, hoping that wouldattract investors to support him in

building another automotive company.In 1903, his efforts paid off, when, inpartnership with a Detroit coal dealerand John and Horace Dodge (of Dodgeautomotive fame) he established theFord Motor Co.

Many people know what came next:the Model T, the Model A and, in gen-eral, the transformation of the automo-bile from a rich man’s plaything to arelative necessity—which remains adefining aspect of Ford’s legacy. In his

biography, My Life and Work, Fordwrote: “I will build a car for the greatmultitude. It will be large enough forthe family, but small enough for theindividual to run and care for. It will beconstructed of the best materials, by thebest men to be hired, after the simplestdesigns that modern engineering candevise. But it will be so low in price thatno man making a good salary will beunable to own one—and enjoy with hisfamily the blessings of hours of pleasurein God’s great open spaces.”

While his automotive achievementsare, perhaps, the most well-known andenduring aspect of Ford’s legacy, whatmade that success possible was his ded-ication to overhauling the manufactur-ing process—an achievement thatallowed Ford Motor Co. to develop andproduce cars with such speed and atsuch a low cost that Ford was soonturning them out at a record pace.

Most notably, Ford worked to per-

fect, or at least improve, the assemblyline process—an innovation that helpedlead to the then-revolutionary “$5workday.” Those efforts culminated in1913, when Ford married interchange-able parts with standard work and mov-ing conveyance to launch the first mov-ing assembly line ever used in large-scaleproduction. The development allowedlabor to be divided into smaller portionsand essentially brought perfectly fittingcomponents to workers as they stood in

place, allowing them to save time andproduce more, by eliminating the tinker-ing that had previously been required tomake parts fit. “Nothing,” Ford wouldsay, “is particularly hard if you divide itinto small jobs.”

But this particular innovation cameat a cost: high turnover.

“In developing the assembly line,”explains Ford Museum curator Casey,“Ford discovered that people didn’twant to work on it. It was boring andarduous. If it’d been easy, that wouldhave been different. But it was hardwork, and people wouldn’t stay. Heultimately came to the conclusion thatif you pay people enough, they’ll doalmost anything. Effectively, [Ford]more than doubled the wage. Now,unskilled workers could make so muchmoney that they stayed and put up withthe problems.”

In addition to increasing output,the assembly line also decreased cost,

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“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”

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allowing Ford to sell cars at a historical-ly low price, which placed automobilesin the hands of average consumers—including his own employees, who withtheir new higher wages were able toenjoy a higher quality of life than hadever been available to unskilled labor-ers. “He transformed the car from adevice that was essentially a toy forupper-middle-class and wealthy peopleinto something that could be owned byalmost everyone,” Casey says. “For mostpeople now, life without a car is highlyinconvenient. That was not the casebefore he introduced the Model T.”

What ultimately emerged was massproduction on a grander scale than theworld had ever known. By 1914, the priceof a Model T had dropped from $850 (thecost of the first model sold in 1908) to$290 ($6,544 today), and it took only 93minutes to assemble. Ford built 15 mil-lion Model T’s between 1908 and 1927.

Sales began to wane as customersclamored for more customized automo-biles with additional options. ThoughFord was initially resistant to meetingthose demands—famously saying, “Anycustomer can have a car painted anycolor that he wants so long as it isblack”—he eventually relented underpressure from stakeholders, includinghis son, Edsel, with whom he ran thecompany. In 1927, the Ford Motor Co.introduced the Model A, which offeredmultiple models, safety options andother features.

Ford’s impact on the industry wasfar-reaching, says Casey, includingnot only the assembly line but also theconcept of a highly organized factorywhere production is carefully orches-trated and choreographed. Other auto-mobile manufacturers followed suit,turning Detroit into a Mecca for allthings automotive.

The Ford LegacyDespite its success, Ford Motor Co.’syears under Ford were not withoutproblems. In the late 1930s, Henry Fordexperienced a series of strokes that com-promised his health. He graduallybecame more of a figurehead, as otherexecutives began making decisions inhis name—including Edsel, with whomhe ran the company until Edsel’s deathfrom stomach cancer in 1943. UponEdsel’s death, Henry Ford resumedcontrol of the company, but his mentalstrength was fading fast, and, as thecompany began to falter, bankruptcybecame a serious risk. In 1945, twoyears before Henry Ford’s death, Edsel’swidow led his ouster; his grandson,Henry Ford II, was installed as president.

Over time, the industrial productionmodel that made Ford so successful—including the idea of high wages forunskilled workers—declined as well.

Clockwise: A Ford hits the beach. Henry Ford whispers to longtimefriend Thomas Edison. The Highland Park Plant, where the movingassembly line became operational in 1913. A 1932 Ford Roadster.Assembling a car at the Ford factory in 1903.

20 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

“It turns out that the relationship Fordestablished wouldn’t last forever,” Caseysays. “The days when you could go intothe auto plant with a high school educa-tion or less, stay for 30 years, and windup with a house, two cars, a boat andtwo kids is no longer.”

But while the paradigm that Fordestablished is perhaps less influentialtoday, Ford himself remains a symbol ofmodern manufacturing and mass pro-duction. “We still use assembly lines andmass production,” Casey says. “But wehave also modified those processes inways that allow a lot more variation in aproduct. At his peak, Ford made nearly2 million Model T’s per year. Today, noone makes anywhere near that numberof just one model in a year.

“Instead, we’ve taken those processesand techniques he developed, whichwere designed to make millions of thesame thing, and modified them to bemuch more flexible,” Casey says. “Youstill get the economies of assembly line,but no longer in only one color.”

Ford PhilanthropySome 65 years after Henry Ford’s death, his legacy lives on in the form of the FordFoundation, a philanthropic organization first established with an initial gift fromhis son, Edsel Ford, in 1936. Unlike most other such organizations of the day, whichfunneled funds toward solving challenges within a particular field, the Ford Foundationcast a much broader net, aiming to address humankind’s most pressing problems.

The foundation, initially based in Detroit,moved to its permanent headquarters in NewYork City in 1953, when, under the direction ofHenry Ford II (Edsel’s oldest son), its trusteesbroadened the organization’s scope to take ona national and global mission: promotingpeace, freedom and education throughout theworld. Over the ensuing decades, FordFoundation grants have launched and supported a broad array of far-reaching ven-tures. Among them: the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); the Grameen Bank(which offers small loans to the rural poor of Bangladesh); anti-AIDS initiativesaround the world; and the International Fellowships Program, which brings stu-dents from marginalized countries to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies.

Today, the Ford Foundation, with 10 regional offices around the world, supportsprograms in more than 50 countries. In 2011, the foundation reported some $10.3billion in assets, ranking it second (to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) amongUnited States grant-making foundations.

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S U MM E R 20 1 2 � BOSS 21

Dates inHistory

TRIVIA

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

Did you know that...

The first outdoor sign advertising“Coca-Cola” still exists. It was origi-nally painted in 1894 and is locatedin Cartersville, Ga.The top five oil exporting nationsin the world are Saudi Arabia,Russia, Norway, United ArabEmirates and Iran.The average life span of a majorleague baseball is seven pitches.An ostrich’s eye is bigger thanits brain.The liquid inside young coconutscan be used as a substitute forblood plasma.

In Colombia, an individual can befined up to $90,000 for gossiping.Hummingbirds can't walk.A tortoise can live up to 140years.It is against the law to purchaseor consume Jack Daniels Whiskeyin the city where it is produced,Lynchburg, Tenn.In 2005, Canada was the single-largest trading partner with theUnited States. China was secondand Mexico was third.There are only four words in thecommon English language that end

in “-dous”: tremendous, horren-dous, stupendous and hazardous.The United States spends moremoney on its military than the next13 countries on the list combined!2 and 5 are the only prime num-bers that end in 2 or 5.The only letter not appearing onthe Periodic Table is the letter “J.”In 2010, IKEA printed 198 millioncopies of its catalog.The largest man-made lake in theU.S. is Lake Mead, created byHoover Dam.

At school one morning the teacherasked little Johnny what he had forbreakfast. Little Johnny said, “Well,on my way to school I came acrossthis apple tree, so I climbed up thereand started eating apples. I guess Ieat about six,” said little Johnny.“No,” said the teacher, “It’s ate!”Little Johnny said, “Well, it could'vebeen eight, I don't remember.”A college student challenged asenior citizen, saying it was impos-sible for the elder’s generation tounderstand his. “You grew up in adifferent world,” the student said.“Today we have television, jetplanes, space travel, nuclear ener-gy, computers…” Taking advantageof a pause in the student’s litany,

the geezer said, “You’re right. Wedidn’t have those things when wewere young; so we invented them!What are you doing for the nextgeneration?”Doctor: “I’m sorry to have to tellyou that you may have rabies,and it could prove fatal.”Patient: “Well, doctor, pleasegive me pencil and paper.”Doctor: “To make your will?”Patient: “No, to make a list ofpeople I want to bite.”A scratch golfer hits his ball 300yards straight down the fairway,and it hits a sprinkler and careensoff into the woods. He finds theball, but trees surround it. He’sangry, grabs his 9-iron, and hits the

ball as hard as he can. It bouncesoff a tree and back at the golfer’shead and kills him.The golferarrives in heaven, and God himselfis at the Pearly Gates to greet him.Looking up his records, God seesthat the guy golfs and asks, “Areyou any good?”The golfer looks at God and says,“I got here in two, didn’t I?”Alfie had been listening to hissister practicing her singing.“Sis,” he said, “I wish you'd singChristmas carols.”“That’s nice of you, Alfie,” she said.“Why?”“Then I'd only have to hear youonce a year!”Ajokeaday.com

1863 - On July 1, the largest militaryconflict in North American historybegins when Union and Confederateforces collide at Gettysburg, Pa. Theepic battle, which resulted in morethan 46,000 casualties, lasted threedays and resulted in a retreat toVirginia by Robert E. Lee's Army ofNorthern Virginia.

1865 - On July 5, in the East End ofLondon, preacher William Booth andhis wife, Catherine, establish theChristian Mission, later known as theSalvation Army. Determined to wagewar against the evils of poverty andreligious indifference with militaryefficiency, Booth modeled hisMethodist sect after the British army,labeling uniformed ministers as “offi-cers” and new members as “recruits.”

1933 - On July 6, Major LeagueBaseball’s first All-Star Game takesplace at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Thebrainchild of a determined sports edi-tor, the event was designed to bolsterthe sport and improve its reputationduring the darkest years of the GreatDepression. Originally billed as a one-time “Game of the Century,” it has nowbecome a permanent and much-lovedfixture of the baseball season.

1974 - On July 3, Los Angeles DodgerMike Marshall set a Major Leaguerecord for most games pitched inconsecutively when he relieves start-ing pitcher Tommy John to pitch inhis 13th consecutive game. Marshallwas remarkable for his ability to pitchevery day without experiencing thesoreness and injury that plaguedother pitchers.

1997 - At midnight on July 1, HongKong reverts back to Chinese rule ina ceremony attended by British PrimeMinister Tony Blair, Prince Charles ofWales, Chinese President Jiang Zeminand U.S. Secretary of State MadeleineAlbright. A few thousand Hong Kongresidents protested the turnover,which was otherwise celebratory andpeaceful.www.history.com

www.randomtriviagenerator.com

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

22 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

CaptivatingCape TownBY MAGGIE MESSITT

T

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THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE STORY OF CAPE TOWN,South Africa, stands prominently for everyone to see.Early navigators used to search the horizon eagerly untilspotting the flat silhouette of the impressive “Tafelberg,”the mountain with a tabletop shape. The first man ondeck to spy her was usually awarded 10 guilders and sixbottles of wine. This rugged majestic block of sedimen-tary sandstone has been a signal, for centuries, of adven-ture, hope and respite for many.

The first climbing route up Table Mountain was via ahuge cleft on its western face, Platteklip Gorge. For cen-turies, this ravine with unreliable rock remained theonly route. The first recorded climb took place in 1503and many adventurers and sea explorers followed. At thetime, the route could take more than 24 hours, andpaths were often blocked by impenetrable thorny bushor occupied by the now-extinct, black-maned CapeLion. Some adventurers went up but never came down.

Today, there are 350 recognized paths to the top ofTable Mountain, ranging from those for professionalmountaineers to leisurely tourists. Ironically, the danger-ous Platteklip Gorge is now one of the easiest routesavailable, ascended in just three hours. (For a less taxing

ascent, try taking the cable car, which offers a 360-degree view of Cape Town—and, if you’re lucky,glimpses of the various animals, from porcupines tobaboons, who call the mountain home.)

Tourists and locals alike agree that the mountainoffers a welcome respite for reflection. “I have climbed[Table Mountain] from two to six times a week for thepast few years,” says Steven Otter, South African authorand political media coordinator. “The sweeping vistaspunctuated by towering cliffs and soaring eagles relaxesme before or after a long day’s work and helps me putmy life into perspective.”

Panoramically enfolding the harbor of Cape Townand providing a magnificent backdrop for this seasidecity are the massif ’s three peaks: Devil’s Peak, The Tableand Lion’s Head. The flat top (The Table) on which par-ties and concerts have been held is just over 2 kilometerslong. It is from here that you can best map out yourCape Town adventure. North. South. East. West. You cansee it all.

If you turn north, you’ll spy the road out of towntoward Namaqualand, which famously becomes a kalei-doscope of color in spring with the arrival of “daisy sea-

“This cape is the most stately thing and the fairest capewe saw in the whole circumference of the earth.”

– From the journal of Sir Francis Drake, on seeing the cape for the first time, 1580

son.” The road leads to private gamereserves (which offer Big Five safaris,referring to the African lion, leopard,rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo),and West Coast National Park.

To the south sits Cape Point andThe Cape of Good Hope, a beaconfor sailors over centuries. In 1488,Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diasoriginally called the peninsula Cabodas Tormentas (The Cape of Storms),aptly named for the treacherous waves,wind and rain he pushed through toreach what is now Cape Town. Later,explorers renamed it to represent theoptimism that a sea route to India andthe east had opened.

The land between Table Mountain’splateau to Cape Point encompassesTable Mountain National Park. Thepark lies in the heart of the Cape FloralRegion, a botanist hotspot. The park,with its afro-temperate forests, makesthe area home to 250 bird species and

2,000 species of flora (more than what’sfound in the United Kingdom). Severalare endangered and endemic only toCape Town.

The peninsula’s unparalleled bio-diversity plays no small role in CapeTown’s unusual eco-urban beauty. Novisitor should leave Cape Town withouta road trip through the southern sec-tion of the national park and a hike toCape Point—an area rich with tidal

pools, isolated beaches, bike and foot-paths and numerous picnic spots. Thepark’s 34-kilometer circular route is aperfect day adventure for bikers.

Gaze east and you can see some ofthe city’s best surfing beaches and theroad leading to the Boulder Beach

colony of African penguins and someof Cape Town’s quaint and colorfulsuburbs (with meandering streets, stun-ning seaside cottages and pedestrian-friendly shopping districts): Simonstown,Haut Bay and Muizenberg. You canalso get inspired for the extremes:paragliding off Lion’s Head, bungeejumping, standup paddle lessons, kitesurfing school, snorkeling with DuikerIsland seals, kayaking with penguins

and diving face-to-face with sharks.The eastern region also offers ampleopportunities to relax, with highwaysinto the wine lands and KirstenboschNational Botanical Gardens (namedone of the world’s best picnic spots byNational Geographic Traveler).

24 BOSS � S U MM E R 2 0 1 2

Left to right: Namaqualand flowers, Muizenberg beach, Cape Point aerial, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens.

Table Mountain National Park is home to 250 birdspecies and 2,000 species of flora.

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TRAVEL BASICSSouth Africa’s tourism continues to rise despite the world’slagging economy; more than 8 million foreign tourists visitedin 2011, up 7.4 percent from 2010. The lack of time change fortravelers from the United Kingdom and only a minor shift formost Europeans means a long flight minus jet lag. Flights fromLondon, New York, Amsterdam, Dubai, Istanbul and BuenosAires are frequent and often direct.CURRENCY South Africa’s currency is the rand. Named afterWitwatersrand, where most of South Africa's gold deposits werefound, its history has been less than stable. Worth $1.40 when itwas first introduced in 1961, it is currently worth 13 U.S. cents orjust shy of 8 rand to the U.S. dollar. Your U.S. dollar or euro willtake you far these days, so it’s an ideal time to check off thisAfrican city from your bucket list!ACCOMMODATIONS For a long time, accommodations in CapeTown and other regions in the country catered to five-star travel-ers or one-star backpackers and nothing in between. In thelast decade, however, the gap has been filled by a wonderfulcollection of bed-and-breakfasts, guesthouses and smallerhotels offering the personal homegrown touch that makesSouth Africa so appealing.

Cape Town’s exquisite side, often equated with the opulenceof its colonial past, has much to offer. If you’re seeking luxury,

look to Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Royale, Cape Grace or theVilla Zest Boutique Hotel, recognized as the best hotel in theworld by Trip Advisor voters. If you’re looking for local and home-grown, stay in a guesthouse in the historic Bo-Kaap Quarter orlook to Long Street’s Grand Daddy Hotel and its rooftop airstreamtrailer park, with surprisingly stunning views of the city. Butwhatever you do, don’t discount the smallest B&Bs that dot thecity—many visitors insist this is the best way to experience CapeTown’s personality and its residents.TRANSPORTATION Cape Town has recently made its mark as oneof the world’s most bike-friendly cities, with comparisons toBerlin, Paris, Chicago and Barcelona. The city’s recent creationof cycle lanes, secure bike parking stations and bike-friendlybuses is paying off for both locals and tourists. As a result, biketours and rental shops are opening up around the city. If youplan to storm the cape by bike, purchasing a city bicycle map(40 rand) beforehand is a must.

While public transportation certainly improved in preparationfor the 2010 World Cup, Cape Town tourism definitely requires arental car. If you’re not eager to drive on the left side of the road,navigate the Dutch-influenced thoroughfares or deal with citytraffic, there are plenty of private drivers with whom you can con-nect—just talk to your hotel ahead of time for recommendations.

Greenmarket Square

26 BOSS � S U MM E R 2 0 1 2

To the west, you’ll get an amazingview of the city where the Dutch EastIndia Tea Co. first settled (see historysidebar). Centuries later, the urbancenter of Cape Town has settled intoeach nook and ridge and valley. As highup the mountain as possible. Reachingto the sea and bay.

There are too many “must visits”to count: St. George’s Cathedral (SouthAfrica’s oldest building, opened in1834); Rhodes Memorial (modeledafter a Greek temple); township tours

by foot or bike; the Victoria & AlfredWaterfront (the historic heart of CapeTown’s working harbor and SouthAfrica’s most visited destination); theferry to Robben Island; Long Street’smusic, dining and shopping district;

a string of national museums; history-rich neighborhoods like Bo-Kaap; andlocal markets at the Old Biscuit Mill,Green Market Square and the PorterEstate Produce Market in Tokai. And,just out of view but south along thewestern coast of the peninsula you’llfind the beaches of Clifton and CampsBay, filled with beach chairs andumbrellas and cafes.

Robben Island—originally home toseals, birds and penguins–is located 7kilometers from Cape Town’s western

coastline. First used by Europeans dur-ing the Khoikhoi-Dutch War, the islandserved as a political prison, isolating adiverse list of people: indigenous Africanleaders, Muslim leaders from the EastIndies, soldiers and civilians, women

and anti-apartheid activists. Mostfamously, South Africa's first democraticpresident, Nelson Mandela, and thefounding leader of the Pan AfricanistCongress, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe,were imprisoned on the island.

“During the many years of incar-ceration on Robben Island, we oftenlooked across Table Mountain at itsmagnificent silhouette,” Mandela hassaid. “To us on Robben Island, TableMountain was a beacon of hope. Itrepresented the mainland to which weknew we would one day return.”

The prison closed in 1996 andreopened as a museum in 1997. Themuseum runs educational programsand conducts ongoing research relatedto the island. Today, several men whowere once prisoners on the islandreturn each day to guide touriststhrough history.

Table Mountain stands in the pathof one of the strongest regular winds toblow on the African continent—the

Left to right: Bo-Kaap Quarter, South African penguin, Table Mountain in background, Rhodes Memorial.

“To us on Robben Island, Table Mountain was abeacon of hope. It represented the mainland to whichwe knew we would one day return.”—Nelson Mandela

A RICH HISTORYFor thousands of years, Cape Town was inhabited by the Khoikhoi, ancestors ofKalahari Bushmen. For an unknown period of time, the Khoikhoi traded freshmeat with sailors for tobacco, copper and iron.

Cape Town's European history began in 1652 when the Dutch East India TeaCo. decided to establish a port for its ships and eventually a trading post forother passing fleets. The first European settlers were mainly Dutch, with a smallpopulation of French Huguenots who fled France for the Netherlands for religiousfreedom and were then directed south to satisfy the Cape Colony’s skilled laborneeds. The first settlers soon explored the adjacent hinterland and founded thecities of Stellenbosch and Paarl, both located in today’s wine lands. Cape Townwas also the starting point for European pioneers, called Voortrekkers, to exploreand settle the rest of South Africa.

The British invaded the Dutch Cape Colony in 1795 at the same time theFrench occupied the Dutch Republic. The British relinquished control in 1803 onlyto reoccupy in 1805 and establish an official British Colony via the Anglo-DutchTreaty of 1814. The British de-colonized just shy of a decade later and the Unionof South Africa was established in 1910. It was during this time that apartheid—the segregation of races—and its internationally controversial policies wereestablished and enforced. Apartheid ended in 1994, after which the newly democ-ratized Republic of South Africa was formed and its first democratically electedpresident was named.—MM

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infamous South Easter. Gusts canreach 120 kilometers (75 miles) perhour, pushing moisture-laden air overthe table, forming a sun-kissed whitetablecloth, perpetually sliding downthe front and disappearing, while con-tinuously forming from behind.

The mountain’s weather is unpre-dictable. It can change in an instant.And for that reason, locals will tell you:Get up Table Mountain on your firstday, if you can. If you can’t, keep an eyeon her. When she’s cloudless or thewinds are calm, start your trek or boardthe cable car. Don’t miss your opportu-nity. Many have traveled to stand onher back and gone home disappointed.

Table Mountain, recently namedone of the world’s “new seven wondersof nature,” is the first reason peoplecite for visiting South Africa’s MotherCity. To residents and tourists alike,this mountain helps define the placeand its people: strong, diverse, shapedby time and weather, indescribablystunning, resilient and welcoming.

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In 1837, an American ship sailedto Japan with the intent to returnhome seven shipwrecked Japanesesailors. Japanese imperial officialsresponded with cannon fire—warn-ing shots but sufficient to drive theunarmed ship away. Japan wantedno contact with the outside worldand would not even accept its ownsubjects once they had been “conta-minated” by foreigners.

For more than two cen-turies, Japan had imposedupon itself a strict isolation.However, a medieval Japancould not keep the modernworld at bay forever. In1854, more American shipsarrived, an armed squadroncommanded byCommodore MatthewPerry. His “Pacific overture”was in fact a threat; Japancould either open its doorto the West or see it blasted

open. If the Japanese were humbledby superior force, they also mar-veled at it—and then set out tomaster the industry, technologyand weaponry of the foreigners.Scarcely 50 years after Perry rouseda feudal society from stagnation,Japan would go on to emerge aworld power.

Japan transformed itself,through a chain of events that

would come to be known as theMeiji Restoration. Quaint, charm-ing Kyoto had been the old capital,but this new Japan needed a capitalthat reflected the dynamic spirit ofthe times. The government and theimperial court would relocate toJapan’s largest city, Edo. It would berenamed Tokyo—meaning easterncapital. Japan was eager to have allthe West had to offer: the

Gregorian calendar, rail-roads, telegraphs, heavyindustry, a modern armymodeled upon Germany’s,a modern navy modeledupon Britain’s, a system ofpublic schools with com-pulsory education. Thecountry sponsored stu-dents to study abroad.Even clothing was toreflect Japan’s ambitions;the old styles would beleft to Shinto priests and

JAPANTHEVICTOR

In a surprise upset of Russia in ‘the first great war of the20th century,’ Japan established itself a world power

BY EUGENE FINERMAN

Left: Published in 1904, a colorful woodcut by artist Kiyochika Kobayashi depicts a large Japanese hand crushing Port Arthur.Japanese soldiers prepare for battle in their war against the Russians.

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geishas, but the rest of the populationshould dress like the West.

Yet, even as Japan seemed to beassimilating, it also was forging an iden-tity in the minds of its people. For cen-turies, the Japanese had maintained astronger bond with their region or localaristocratic family than with a distantemperor. Now, through public worksand education, they felt part of a nation.

By 1890, Japan could apply one morelesson it had learned from the West:imperialism. With a modern army andnavy, led by Western-trained officers andmanned by educated conscripts, withindustries that supplied its weaponsand munitions, Japan was ready for war.Its object was the conquest of Korea.Separated from Japan by only a narrowstrait, the Kingdom of Korea had coaland iron that Japan needed. Korea wasmilitarily weak but it was a vassal ofChina, and Japanese aggression wouldlikely lead to war with China. But theJapanese welcomed the prospect.

Indeed, the Sino-Japanese War,fought between 1894-1895, was oneJapanese victory after another. TheChinese Empire also had attempted tomodernize its armed forces but hadfailed abysmally. Its officers were ineptor corrupt, its troops untrained. TheChinese navy had purchased new ships,but had no one to operate them. Japansoon had control of Korea and theninvaded Manchuria, a region of north-

eastern China. The Japanese seized thestrategic Liaotung Peninsula with itsdeepwater harbor of Port Arthur. Withcontrol of Liaotung, the Japanese armyhad an open road to the Chinese capitalof Peking. China had no choice but tosue for peace. Korea would now be thevassal of Japan. China also acknowl-edged the new overlords of theLiaotung Peninsula, and the defeatedempire was forced to cede the islandof Taiwan. The Japanese Empirenow would extend south, toward thePhilippines. Furthermore, China wasobliged to pay Japan an indemnity of15 million pounds of silver.

But Japan could not relish its victo-ry for long. Six days after the signing ofthe peace treaty, an alliance of Russia,France and Germany demanded Japan’sreturn of the Liaotung Peninsula toChina. As consolation, Japan wasoffered another ton of silver. TheJapanese were furious but in no posi-tion to fight three European powers.

It seems that the world did not yetrespect Japan; the war was simplyregarded as evidence of China’s weak-

ness. In 1898, Russia extorted fromChina the control of Port Arthur and theLiaotung Peninsula. With that southernexpansion, Czarist Russia now loomedas a prospective threat to Korea. Japan’sresponse was to triple its military expen-ditures, doubling the size of its navy.Shipyards in Britain were constructingbattleships named Asashi and Mikasa.(The British government appreciatedboth the business and a prospective allyagainst Russian expansion.)

But war was not inevitable. In 1903,Japanese diplomacy repeatedly soughtan understanding with Russia: Japan’sunchallenged control of Korea in return

for Russia’s acknowledged hegemonyin Manchuria. However, the Russianswere not interested. They already hadManchuria and did not need Japan’spermission. Furthermore, the Russianshad an obvious contempt for theJapanese; the czar himself referred tothem as “monkey men.” As for a war—tiny Japan against their great empire—the Russians could not imagine theidea. But the Japanese were meticulous-ly plotting it.

A print published in 1904 shows a Japanese official reading a document in front of captured Russian soldiers at Chemulpo, Korea.Japanese soldiers near Chemulpo, Korea, in the summer of 1904. The battleshipMikasa, preserved today at Yokosuka, played a key role inthe conflict, reportedly surviving some 20 direct hits.

As for a war—tiny Japan againsttheir great empire—the Russianscould not imagine the idea.

Japan had a population of 46 millionand a standing army of 270,000 men.Russia’s population was approximately130 million and the czar’s army num-bered 1 million men. Yet the actuallogistics were in Japan’s favor. Its fullforce could quickly be brought to bearagainst Manchuria. Only 80,000 Russiansoldiers were in eastern Asia, and half ofthem were garrisoned at Vladivostokand Port Arthur. Most of the czar’s armywas 5,700 miles away in Europe. TheTrans-Siberian Railroad, a single line oftrain track linking Moscow to thePacific, was not yet completed; and itsservice would be sporadic during thelong Siberian winters. So the Russianarmy would be outnumbered and withonly a tenuous link to supplies and rein-forcements. Russia’s Pacific fleet wasalso at a disadvantage; half was sta-tioned at Vladivostok and icebound athird of the year. So, if war were merelya matter of numbers and meteorology,then Japan made a logical decision.

On Feb. 8, 1904, the Japanese navylaunched a surprise attack on PortArthur. The harbor was mined and theport blockaded, trapping the Russianships there. The Japanese had com-mand of the sea. A Japanese army dis-embarked in Northern Korea for theinvasion of Manchuria. Another armylanded in the Liaotung Peninsula tobesiege and take Port Arthur; theRussians rushed what troops they hadto hold it. Elsewhere the Russian strate-gy was to avoid battle, slowly retreatand wait for reinforcements. The last

hundred miles of theTrans-SiberianRailroad now washurriedly being con-structed. Yet, eventhen, the single trackcould only transportat most 40,000 troopsin a month. It wouldtake a year before theRussian army hadnumerical paritywith its enemy. TheJapanese were notlikely to wait.

To challenge theJapanese naval

supremacy, Russia decided upon adramatic strategy. Its Baltic fleet wouldsail 18,000 miles to break the Japaneseblockade of Port Arthur. Unfortunately,the fleet was not as impressive as theplan. Many of its ships were outmod-ed—cruisers with sailing masts. Themore modern ships had to travel at thesame speed as the old ones. Leaving theBaltic in October 1904, the Russianships sailed around Africa and reachedMadagascar in January 1905; there theylearned that Port Arthur had fallen tothe Japanese. The fleet now had no mis-sion but was ordered to sail anyway toVladivostok. However, there was noneed to rush; Vladivostok would beicebound until the end of April. Whilethe Russian fleet cruised to Asia theJapanese had captured Mukden, thecapital of Manchuria. The Russians hadnothing left to defend but they stillweren’t ready to negotiate with theJapanese, so the Baltic fleet sailed on.

Sailing north along the coast ofChina, the most direct route toVladivostok was through the Straitsof Tshushima that separate Japan andKorea. The Russian fleet entered it onMay 27, 1905—and found the Japanesefleet waiting. Of Russia’s 45 ships, only12 avoided being sunk or captured:some 4,000 sailors were dead and5,000—including the admiral—weretaken prisoner. The Japanese lost threetorpedo boats and 117 men. NowRussia had to sue for peace; the newsof the consequent defeats had incitedprotests and demonstrations through-

out the czar’s empire. The Russian peo-ple were demanding reforms, and theimperial government was unsure ofthe loyalty of the army. Japan also wasready for peace; however victorious,the war was bankrupting the economy.

At the invitation of PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, Japanese andRussian diplomats met in August atPortsmouth, N.H., to negotiate a peacetreaty, which returned the sovereigntyof Manchuria to China (while accedingsome key port and rail resources toJapan), and shifted ownership of thesouthern half of the Island of Sakhalinfrom Russia to Japan.

The treaty was signed in September1905. For his successful arbitration,President Roosevelt won the NobelPeace Prize in 1906. The treaty did notgo over well with the Japanese publichowever, which had expected all ofSakhalin and a monetary indemnity.

Japan had won an empire—Koreaand Southern Manchuria—and earnedthe status of being a world power, anAsian nation equal to any Western one.Such pride was justified, but it encour-aged an arrogant and dangerous ambi-tion. Japan saw itself as the master ofEastern Asia and the Pacific … andwithin just a few decades, that wouldlead to disaster: World War II.

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Map during Russo-Japanese War(1904-1905)

> With the grand opening in Marchof a 12,000-square-foot InnovationCenter, Dixon is building significantlyon its mission to develop couplingproduct solutions that improveprocesses, productivity and safety.

“To the best of our knowledge,other hose coupling manufacturershaven’t made this degree of commit-ment to continuing [such] innovation,”said Bill Harr, Dixon’s global marketingdirector. “We’re providing expertise,training, information and answers.For many of our customers, the Centereffectively serves as an extension oftheir own technical area.”

Activities at the Innovation Center,located in Chestertown, Md., encom-pass a wide variety of technologies andproducts, all aimed at developing newproducts and finding solutions per-taining to Dixon’s industrial andspecialty market segments includingpetrochemicals, construction, mining,fire prevention and suppression, foodand beverage processing and pharma-ceutical processing.

Center director Jim Shifrin leadsthe staff of product developmentengineers and technical support per-sonnel. Research, development andtesting functions include prototypeproduct design and manufacturing,application-specific testing and com-petitor product benchmarking. To sup-port these functions, the Center houses

technologically advanced machinetools, testing equipment, plus comput-er-aided design using SolidWorksmodeling and simulation.

In addition, the Innovation Centerconducts training sessions for Dixondistributors and end-users in a large,

interactive training facility suitablefor serving groups up to 75 people.Wide-ranging training topics includesessions on fluid and dry materialtransfer applications, industrial hosecoupling workshops and specificmarket segment training. Programsdesigned for small and large groups—including general and custom

courses—are part of the trainingoptions offered.

According to Scott Jones, vice pres-ident of sales and marketing, one keymission of the Innovation Center is tobe a resource wherein customers cancollaborate with Dixon engineers onproprietary projects. “We’ve alwaysencouraged customers to share thechallenges they face pertaining to spe-cific application needs. We’re now tak-ing this to a new level of support byworking side by side with customerpersonnel here at the Center to comeup with strong solutions,” he said.

Jones said that another goal of theCenter is to support companiesthroughout the world, not merelythose in North America.

The Dixon Innovation Center isdedicated to Howard W. Goodall,founder of Dixon, and his son Richard

The spirit of innovation lives on at Dixon

Center for Solutions

“WE’VE ALWAYS ENCOURAGED CUSTOMERS TO SHARETHE CHALLENGES THEY FACE PERTAINING TO SPECIFICAPPLICATION NEEDS.” —Scott Jones, vice president of sales and marketing

Dixon customers can find training, information and answers at the new center.

32 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

DIXON SPOTLIGHT/

Dixon flourished under thecompany’s founder, HowardW. Goodall, and his son RichardB. Goodall, who combined ledthe company from 1916 to1994. The new InnovationCenter is dedicated to them.“Both men were great innova-tors and motivators,” saysCEO Dick Goodall.

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B. Goodall, who combined led thecompany from 1916 to 1994.

Bob Grace, president of Dixon,explained the significance of namingthe Center after these men. “We arestructuring the activities of the newInnovation Center around the needsof our customers. And this customer-centric focus is a hallmark of ourcompany that goes right back to ourearly leaders,” Grace said.

Dick Goodall, CEO of Dixon,provided a personal perspective onthe company’s culture of listening tocustomers. “Howard Goodall, my

grandfather, was more than an astuteinventor and engineer. He was aperson who recognized the impor-tance of asking consumers in variousindustries what they needed to dotheir jobs better,” he said.

“This was no easy feat to do inthe early days of Dixon. But he criss-crossed the country, visiting construc-tion sites, mining operations, oildrilling companies and railroads.From these visits, he was able to builda solid product line that solved manyof those challenges,” Goodall noted.

Under the leadership of Howard

Goodall’s successor, Richard B.Goodall, the company continued togrow and prosper largely due to R.B.’slong-range thinking and understand-ing of the industrial hose and fittingbusiness. “My grandfather and fatherset the foundation for the company.Both men were great innovators andmotivators,” said Dick Goodall.

To learn more about the resourcesof the Dixon Innovation Center,including training course topics, visitwww.dixonvalve.com/innovation, call800-520-0947 or email your requestto bharr@dixonvalve.com.

Equipped with technologically advanced machine tools, testing equipment and computer-aided design, the Innovation Center offersopportunities for prototype product design and manufacturing, application-specific testing and competitor product benchmarking.

> The process of making sugar fromsugar cane has been around sincebefore the birth of Jesus Christ. Inmany countries, sugar is still made thesame way: The stalks are cut, the juiceis extracted by ox-drawn crushers andthen boiled to remove impurities, andfinally it is evaporated to producesugar crystals. Sugar was once a luxu-ry item for the rich or presented onlyat special occasions. In the 1700s,

sugar had another moniker: “whitegold.” In today’s sugar processingplant, moving from sugar cane juice tothe white crystals we see in the bowlon our kitchen table is done on amuch grander scale. The equipmentused in extraction, evaporation, boil-ing, centrifugal and, finally, packagingmake this an amazingly quick journey.However, dangers are inherent tothis automation, one in a most incon-

spicuous form: dust.One old plant had been cranking

out sugar in roughly the same quanti-ties for decades with very little changein its equipment. After the plant’s sale,the new management team apparentlyhad a simple strategy for profitability:Increase production while reducingexpenses. Increasing production wasrelatively easy—just speed up theequipment. Reducing costs was not sosimple. One cost-saving measure wasreducing the maintenance depart-ment’s staffing by one-third. Theresult: reduced maintenance intervalson aging, now overworked equipment,especially in the packaging department.

Sugar is transported via conveyorbelt to the packaging equipment. Thismodern marvel takes the sack andproceeds to fill it, fold it and then sealit. All of this takes place in the blink

34 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

BY PHIL KIMBLEKEEPING IT SAFE/

Checking industrial hose assemblies for electricalcontinuity is crucial when organic dust is present

The Dangers of Dust

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of an eye. Around this equipment arevacuums that collect the dust fromthis process. Even then, sugar dustcollects on everything and is every-where. The conveyor in this plant,because of its increased workloadand sporadic maintenance, was on acollision course with disaster. One ofthe bearings that had not been greasedin some time began to fail. The fric-tion created enough heat to ignite thenearby dust. The ensuing explosion

rocked the entire plant. The preva-lence of the sugar dust allowed the fireto spread quickly throughout the rest

of the plant. Several employees wereinjured from the initial explosion andseveral more were burned from theraging fire.

Organic dust such as that foundin grain elevators, flour processingplants and sugar refineries is extreme-ly volatile. All it takes is a heatsource or spark to trigger an explo-sion. Any equipment, includingindustrial hose assemblies that trans-port these products, needs regular

inspection and maintenance.Industrial hose assembliesnot only need to be inspected for

wear, they need to be checked forelectrical continuity. During normaluse of a hose assembly, the built-instatic wire or the helical wire that isused to complete the electrical circuitfor static grounding can get damaged.If the hose assembly is crushed orkinked, it must be checked for electri-cal continuity before further use.

All equipment used in dry bulktransfer of products such as sugar,flour and grain must be properlymaintained and inspected. Hoseassemblies used for these productsmust be static grounded and periodi-cally checked for electrical continuity.We generally think of fireworks as thekind that produce oohs and aahs.Improperly maintained equipmentused in the presence of organic dustcan result in fireworks that can pro-duce screams of pain and injuries.

ORGANIC DUST SUCH AS THAT FOUND IN GRAIN ELEVATORS,FLOUR PROCESSING PLANTS AND SUGAR REFINERIES ISEXTREMELY VOLATILE. ALL IT TAKES IS A HEAT SOURCE ORSPARK TO TRIGGER AN EXPLOSION.

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> It’s no secret that Americans aregetting heavier. Need proof? Lookno further than the U.S. Coast Guard.In late 2011, the venerable institutionchanged its weight restrictions onseagoing vessels from 160 pounds perperson to 185 pounds (72.5 to 84 kg.),due to its new Assumed AverageWeight per Person index—news that isunsettling enough to make many of usrethink our eating and exercise habits.

Two of the biggest factors at play in

our struggle to exercise and lose ormaintain weight are a lack of time andaversion to the traditional activities wenormally consider as exercise—a visitto the gym, a spin class, running. Whilegym memberships and Zumba aregreat, they aren’t the only way to get inshape. Working physical activity intoyour day is easy—and free.

Carrie McFadden, an exercise physi-ologist at Towson University in Maryland,advises “asking yourself what you can

do at home a little differently.”“Maybe mow your own lawn instead

of paying someone to do it,” she sug-gests. “Or get out and walk your dog.”

You also can find ways to exercise atyour workplace, notes registered dieti-tian Jessica Crandall. She suggests easyactivities like doing push-ups or squatsagainst an office wall or jumping jacks,if space and privacy allows.

Here, find five tips for activities thatwill burn an estimated 300 calories.

Easy Burn

BY MARY K. ZAJACHEALTH & FITNESS/

Five fun (and inexpensive) ways to buildexercise into your daily routine

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Combined with cutting just 250 caloriesfrom your daily intake (just one 20-ounce soda), this small burn will putyou on a path to losing slightly morethan a pound per week. Estimates arebased on an average weight of 160pounds (72.5 kg.) and are calculatedvia the American Council on Exercise’sPhysical Activity Calorie Calculator.

Have Some FunPlaying games with your kids, yourfriends or your pet can be an enjoyableway to be active. Forty minutesof kickball, soccer or touch footballburns nearly 350 calories, while an hourof shooting baskets burns just over 300.And don’t feel like you have to play aregulation game. “Kicking a soccer ballto an active puppy can be a great work-out,” says McFadden.

Get Out the BroomMost people don’t realize it (at least

until their muscles ache the nextday), but over time, work done aroundthe house can build muscle andheart strength in the same way agym workout can. One hour ofmoderate yardwork will burn 290calories. More intense activities—saydigging vegetable beds, shovelingsnow or pushing a mower for anhour—will consume closer to 400calories. And don’t overlook vacuum-ing and other housework. Ninety min-utes of picking up around the houseburns 327 calories.

Grab and GoYou don’t need a bench press to benefitfrom weight training. Crandall suggestsusing hand weights at home, particularlyduring sedentary time, say when you’rewatching television. You need 90 min-utes of activity to reach the 300-caloriegoal, so consider breaking your workoutinto shorter segments (like grabbing the

weights each time there’s a commercialbreak during a big football game).

Put One Foot in Front of the OtherWalking is one of the easiest, conven-ient and most affordable ways to exer-cise. If you’re a multi-tasker, considerlistening to books on your MP3 playerwhile taking a brisk 50-minute walk. Ifyou need a walking buddy to get youmoving, what about forming alunchtime walking club at work?

Stand and StretchStanding burns more calories than sit-ting and it’s better for your back. If yourwork is sedentary, consider changingyour traditional desk to a standing deskwhere you may burn slightly more than300 calories in two hours. Stretching isalso crucial to maintaining a healthyback. Stretching or gentle yoga done insmall intervals throughout the day canprovide comfort—and burn calories.

S U MM E R 20 1 2 � BOSS 37

38 BOSS � S U MM E R 20 1 2

> The thing to do when discussingthe history of one of the greatestinventions of all time is to flush awaywhat you may have heard aboutThomas Crapper. Because, althoughthe London plumber did make andpatent significant improvements to theinvention in the late 1800s, he did notinvent the flush toilet.

That honor goes to a gentleman(another fastidious and ingeniousEnglishman) named Sir ThomasHarrington, who, in 1596, came upwith the idea for the so-called “watercloset”—a seat perched atop a cisternof water that handily swished awaywhatever waste was deposited into it.The godson of none other than QueenElizabeth I, Harrington designed it forher (leading many to speculate that’swhere the term, “He’s on the throne,”comes from).

But we’re getting ahead of our-selves here. Long before there wasindoor plumbing fit for royalty, therewas the natural human desire to ridourselves of the unpleasantness ofwhat the Chinese euphemistically call“the big necessity.” Since the beginningof time, people have needed a sanitary(and, in most cultures, a relatively pri-vate) place to dispose of their bodily

waste, and they have put theiringenuity to work in avariety of ways.

Probably mostpopular across mostcultures in earlyhistory was theuse of a simplebowl or pot usedday and night asneeded and emptiedoutside in a field ornearby body of water.The English called thisa “chamber pot.”

Ancient Romans builtouthouses or latrinesdirectly over an elaborate system ofsewers that emptied into the TiberRiver, flushing away waste immediate-ly. Famous for their community bath-houses, the Romans also had commu-

nal lavatories where people couldcome in and, well, deposit their wastein giant toilets with long, bench-likeseats while sharing gossip and thenews of the day. Usually, though, ordi-nary Romans found it easiest just totoss their waste from chamber potsinto the streets.

One of the more disgusting itera-tions of the toilet appeared during the

MiddleAges with

the inventionof the castle garder-obe: a small roomjutting out of thecastle wall whereroyalty would go todeposit their waste.The waste would be

dropped into thestagnant moat water

below, adding yetanother impediment to

any enemy foolish enoughto consider storming the

reeking ramparts.Many in England breathed a sigh

of relief (and a whiff of fresh air)when Harrington came along with hisidea. The queen installed Harrington’sinvention—a raised bowl with a smallpipe in which water ran down whenreleased by a valve—in her RichmondPalace. It would be another three cen-turies until the appropriately namedThomas Crapper improved on thedesign and it began to catch on.

Today, we think of the flush toiletas a necessity and can hardly imagineour lives without it. But in truth, only60 percent of the world has access to“proper sanitation”—that is, indoortoilets. There are many in the worldusing, if not garderobes and Romancommunal bench toilets, their ownversions of the chamber pot—some-thing to keep in mind the next timeyou get up for your “big necessity”on a cold, dark night.

The advent of the indoor toilet made lifesweeter for all

Flush with Success

THE WASTE WOULD BE DROPPED INTO THE STAGNANT MOATWATER BELOW, ADDING YET ANOTHER IMPEDIMENT TO ANYENEMY FOOLISH ENOUGH TO CONSIDER STORMING THEREEKING RAMPARTS.

BY LISA DeNIKE ERCOLANOINVENTIONS/

Have you heard about Tribute?Listen to what Tribute's customers are saying:

Tribute's knowledge of the hose andaccessories industry ensures that theirproduct development focus will continueto help optimize our business

TrulinX from Tribute more than paidfor itself in the first year alone byhelping us reduce our operating costsand grow top line revenue

We love that when we call Tribute that thesupport reps know us and our business; andthat goes a long way toward helping us grow

Tribute's support staff is quick to respond,knowledgeable and fun to work with andthe counter sales feature allows us to betterserve our customers

Tribute's relationship with Dixonhelps us streamline our supplychain and saves us money

Discover what others already know.Tribute’s distribution management software

increases your profitability.

Call 800-TRIBUTE or visit www.tribute.com.Call 800-TRIBUTE or visit www.tribute.com.

Logistics helps your business go anywhere. You need a steady flow of components and products on the front end of your supply chain and the flexibility to meet your customers’ delivery needs on the back end. With UPS, your supply chain can fire on all cylinders. Our logistics experts can help you take days and dollars out of your supply chain by eliminating bottlenecks, minimizing delays, and providing easy-to-use UPS technology for a smoother operation. Put the power of logistics to work for you. Learn more at thenewlogisticscom.

© 2011 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. UPS, the UPS brandmark, and the color brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved.

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arcel Service of America, Inc© 2011 United P , and the color brown are trademarks of United P, the UPS brandmark. UPSof America, Inc e. All rights reservarcel Service of America, Incrademarks of United P ed.