Babbitt By Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) Essays - Babbitt, Winnemac

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) Type of Work: Social commentary Setting Zenith, a mythical Midwestern American city; 1920s Principal Characters George F. Babbitt, a middle-aged real estate agent Myra, his wife Ted, their teenage son Paul Reisling, George's buddy from college Zilla, Paul's nagging wife Tanis Judique, George's mistress Seneca Doane, a radical lawyer and George's former college friend Story Overveiw As another day began in Zenith, sleeping George Babbitt fought to ignore the morning sounds - the milk truck, the furnace-man, a dog barking - so that he could cling to the dream he was having. He had the same dream often. It involved a "fairy child" who discerned"gallant youth" where "others saw but George Babbitt." But now the day beckoned. George pulled himself from bed, bathed, shaved, dressed, and then trudged downstairs to eat. As usual, Babbitt was a grumpy breakfast partner; a foul mood was expected of a respectable businessman. He grumbled at his nearly adult children, Verona and Ted, and argued with Myra, his wife. No one in the house appreciated all he did for them. Babbitt gulped down his food, "laid unmoving lips against [Myra's] unblushing cheek," and left for work. Driving toward his office in down town Zenith, he admired the "bigness" of the city. In fact, "Babbitt respected bigness in anything: in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth, or words... " At the Reeves Building where the Babbitt-Thompson Realty Company had its offices, he wrote an advertisement designed to entice buyers to purchase the company's cemetery plots, then phoned his old school friend Paul Reisling and made arrangements for lunch. Babbitt always ate in the Zenith Athletic Club, and today was no exception. He normally sat with "the Roughnecks," an intimate group of big businessmen, but today he and Paul sat by themselves. Paul was more than a little depressed with his shrewish wife Zilla, who constantly badgered him, embarrassed him in public, and treated him like a little boy. While the two friends complained about their colorless lives, they struck on the idea of getting away to Maine by themselves that next summer to "just loaf ... and smoke and cuss and be natural." Babbitt assured Paul that he would arrange everything with their wives. The day ended with Babbitt firing a salesman for being too honest. At home, as usual, Babbitt ate dinner, the kids left the house, and he plunked himself on the sofa for some lazy reading. But a seed of dissatisfaction swelled up in him; he vowed that the following year would bring changes in his life. The next year began well for Babbitt. Money poured in as he secretly bought real estate options in a Zenith suburb, Linton, in anticipation of "the public announcement that the Linton Avenue Car Line would be extended." Babbitt told Myra about his plan to run up to Maine with Paul early that spring and bullied Zilla into letting Paul go, too. Paul and Babbitt arrived in Maine's north woods, and both found the climate, surroundings, fishing, hiking and camaraderie, soothing. Paul started looking at his distant wife with a more forgiving eye. He began to feel that his marriage would somehow be different - better; maybe he could "go back and start over again." Babbitt, on the other band, "sank into irritability," as though he had "uncovered layer upon layer of hidden weariness." But he still promised himself that his life would be, from then on, less hurried and hectic. After his return from Maine, Babbitt was given the opportunity to address the State Association of Real Estate Boards at their annual convention. He tried for days to come up with a speech to express his new-found relaxation; to somehow convince businessmen that they needed to see life from a deeper perspective. But just before the convention he trashed his notes, and, instead, parrotted the ideas he knew his peers wanted to hear. Enthusiastically, he proclaimed the real estate profession, Zenith, and every good thing about the city, as "God's gift to earth." Babbitt's speech was a success. One of Zenith's newspapers even printed his picture. After that, things really took off. That November, Harding won the Presidential election, but in Zenith the mayoral race was the fight that really counted. Seneca Doane, a radical lawyer and Babbitt's former college acquaintance - was running on a liberal labor ticket, while his opponent, Lucas Prout, had the support of "the banks, the Chamber of Commerce, all the decent newspapers, and George F. Babbitt." "Prout represented honest industry, Seneca Doane represented whining laziness," Babbitt told campaign audiences. In the end, Prout - and by extension, Babbitt - won. Soon thereafter, Babbitt was picked to serve on a church committee

The History of Aluminum and Charles Martin Hall

The History of Aluminum and Charles Martin Hall Aluminum is the most abundant metal element in the earths crust, but it is always found in a compound rather than an easily-refined ore. Alum is one such compound. Scientists tried to tease the metal out of alum, but the process was costly until Charles Martin Hall patented an inexpensive method to produce aluminum in 1889. History of Aluminum Production Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish chemist, was the first to produce tiny amounts of aluminum in 1825, German chemist Friedrich Wà ¶hler developed a method that produced enough to study the metals basic properties in 1845. French chemist  Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville finally developed a process that allowed commercial production of aluminum. However, the resulting metal still sold for $40 per kilogram in 1859. Pure aluminum was so rare at that time it was considered a precious metal.   Charles Martin Hall Discovers the Secret of Cheap Aluminum Production On April 2, 1889, Charles Martin Hall patented an inexpensive method for the production of aluminum, which brought the metal into wide commercial use. Charles Martin Hall had just graduated from Oberlin College (located in Oberlin, Ohio) in 1885 with a bachelors degree in chemistry  when he invented his method of manufacturing pure aluminum. Charles Martin Halls method of processing the metal ore was to pass an electric current through a non-metallic conductor (molten sodium fluoride compound was used) to separate the very conductive aluminum. In 1889, Charles Martin Hull was awarded U.S. patent number 400,666 for his process. His patent conflicted with that of Paul L.T. Heroult who arrived at the same process independently at practically the same time. Hall had enough evidence of the date of his discovery that the United States patent was award to him rather than Heroult. In 1888, together with financier Alfred E. Hunt, Charles Martin Hall founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company now known as the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). By 1914, Charles Martin Hall had brought the cost of aluminum down to 18 cents a pound, and it was no longer considered a precious metal. His discovery made him a wealthy man. Hall obtained several more patents to improve the production of aluminum. He received the Perkin Medal in 1911 for outstanding achievement in applied chemistry. He was on the Board of Trustees for Oberlin College and left them $10 million for their endowment when he died in 1914. Aluminum from Bauxite Ore One other inventor needs to be noted, Karl Joseph Bayer, an Austrian chemist, developed a new process in 1888 that could cheaply obtain aluminum oxide from bauxite. Bauxite is an ore that contains a large amount of aluminum hydroxide (Al2O3 ·3H2O), along with other compounds. The Hall-Hà ©roult and Bayer methods are still used today to produce nearly all of the worlds aluminum. Aluminum Foil Metal foil has been around for centuries. Foil is solid metal that has been reduced to leaf-like thinness by beating or rolling. The first mass-produced and widely used foil was made from tin. Tin was later replaced by aluminum in 1910, when the first aluminum foil rolling plant â€Å"Dr. Lauber, Neher Cie., Emmishofen.† was opened in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. The plant, owned by J.G. Neher Sons (aluminum manufacturers) started in 1886 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, at the foot of the Rhine Falls - capturing the falls’ energy to produce aluminum. Nehers sons together with Dr. Lauber discovered the endless rolling process and the use of aluminum foil as a protective barrier. From there began the wide use of aluminum foil in the packaging of chocolate bars and tobacco products. Processes evolved to include the use of print, color, lacquer, laminate and the embossing of the aluminum.