It Happened Here- Not Hadrian's Wall,                                                                but Clinton's Ditch.

Part I: "Romancing (the clay &) the stone "

Both the heart of the British Empire, Great Britain, and the "Empire State" of New York are  homes to two singular archeological features, (viz. ruins). They run east to west, virtually across the whole of their respective territories.

In a few areas they are (with the help of some reconstruction) almost intact, their stones rising nearly perfectly aligned, as they were built, to a height of more than twelve feet; or plunging nearly 4-10 feet to form a forty foot wide channel--each with its accompanying six foot deep vallum (defensive ditch), for the wall; or the raised four foot wide graded tow path, for the canal.  In some places, especially through urban areas, both have been leveled, or filled in, robbed of their stones for use in nearby buildings and farmers' walls, graded and even paved over.  But in many areas traces of their structures can still be seen, as can the ruins of extensive support facilities that accompanied them as well. The wall had its mile castles, support roads, forts, granaries, soldiers barracks and even Roman baths.  The canal had its bridges, aqueducts, basins, dry docks, canal stores, boat yards and of course, locks.

 Hadrian's Wall took six years to build; Clinton's Ditch took eight years.  Hadrians wall spanned  73  miles;  Clinton's Ditch flowed  363 miles.  Hadrian's Wall ultimately failed; the barbarians were not kept out and Rome eventually decided to abandon Roman Britain.  The Erie Canal succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its promoters and builders, opening the Great Lakes and the interior of the United States to markets on the east coast, and the world beyond.  Within a few years this canal would spawn nearly a dozen other canals in New York, including  numerous feeder canals which would connect  much of New York State to the Erie Canal.  Within two decades a wider version of the canal with double locks to ease congestion on the canal would be necessary. By the twentieth century new dam/lock technology would enable a newer, larger version of the canal that would use the Mohawk River, itself, as part of the canal.

 

Over the course of the remainder of this year, interspersed with my regular posts I hope to do several posts about the Erie Canal.  Though still in a formative state, I expect they will center around several different  topics:

             I.   The Politics of the canal's creation,  Or-- How could the idea of a canal spanning the entire width of New York State, first fleshed out by some guy serving time in a local jail be sold to a government and a people still grappling with the notion that it was the government 's (and taxpayer's) responsibility to build and maintain,  even, public roads!

             II. The Engineering and Construction of the canal, Or--How could a group of engineers and practical men, (most of whom had never even seen a canal) and whose work experience was no more than constructing a few small bridges and laying out a few millponds with dams and sluices and  water raceways, construct the longest canal at the time, one heralded at the time as the 8th wonder-of-the-world!

           III.  The Consequences, Or- How did New York State end up with so many "port" town and cities, most of which are miles from any major river or ocean!  (Think--Brockport, Port Byron,  Lockport, Weedsport, Middleport, Bridgeport, Spencerport, Port Crane and Port Dickerson).  Or how did grain produced near Watkins Glen end up being shipped (literally) to New York City?

Marker of the Week  Fortnight (!)    Plastics!

Delaware Avenue, corner with Southern Bvd., Albany

Pool/Billiard type games had been around since the 16th century when the northern European leisure  classes brought popular croquet-like lawn games indoors to be played on green fabric covered tables played with wooden  or ceramic balls. But wooden balls could warp and dent and ceramic balls  could chip and even shatter. By the beginning of the 17th century Elephant ivory became the preferred material for billiard balls.  Smooth, hard, and heavy, ivory was perfect for conveying energy from ball to ball for  a fast and exciting game. Billiards/pool became increasingly popular in the early Victorian period but by then Elephant ivory had become very expensive. (Only 4 or 5 balls could be turned from the thickest part of an elephant's tusk.) 

In 1865 Phelan and Collender, a NewYork manufacturer of pool tables and supplier of billiard balls offered a $10,000 prize for anyone who could discover an acceptable substitute for ivory.  A young 

inventor, and former apprentice printer John Wesley Hyatt from Starkey, New York was intrigued.

As a printer, he had learned some printers coated their fingers with  a collodion, a solution of nitrocellulose dissolved in alcohol which formed a clear shell over the finger to keep out the printer's ink.  It was also commonly used as a covering for small wounds to keep out dirt (and, though not known, then, germs.) He had previously experimented with concoctions of pressed fibers to produce checkers and dominoes.

After several years of experimenting with different solutions of alcohols, ethers and finally camphor on nitrocellulose under heat and pressure he produced a substance he called Celluloid in  1868.  Casting his new material around a core of fiber reinforced shellac he made the first synthetic billiard ball [1], going into business as the Albany Billiard Ball Company.  (He apparently did not pursue the prize money.) 

 Looking for new markets to pursue he opened the Celluloid Manufacturing Company that would manufacture dental plates for dentures, replacing the hard rubber dental plates that had been used. He would develop injection molding and extrusion technologies and sell his new plastic material to companies  for all kinds of plastic uses from combs and ball point pen bodies, to shirt collars and cuffs, to toys and knife handles and synthetic piano keys.  In 1882  a chemist working for him would  develop a solvent that turned celluloid into a tough clear film that would replace the glass plates used in photography and enable the motion picture industry.   

Like one of it major components, however,  celluoid had a major drawback.  Like the nitrocellulose (also known as "gun cotton") it was made from, celluloid was unstable  and could burn easily and violently, and under some conditions cause a small explosion when struck--sometimes happening with billiard balls!

In the early 20th century Bakelite plastic replaced celluloid as the material of choice for billiard balls, later to be replaced by phenolic resins. 

[1] In 20223 the Smithsonian Institution allowed a mico-sample of an original Hyatt billiard ball to be chemically analyzed   They found in addition to its known ingredients powdered beef bone had been added to give it extra structure and resilience.