This week, The 495 goes cosmic! We’re joined by Noureddine Melikechi, a member of the Mars Science Laboratory, NASA’s Mars space probe mission. He’s also a physicist, an inventor, an educator, and even an amateur chef. We’ll talk everything from the Mars rover to the folk music of Maghreb. Listen in on your favorite streaming platform! Click here to listen!
Yesterday we presented Part 1 of ‘A History of Innovation in the Valley.’ You can read it here. >>>
Hiram Mills, Lawrence Experiment Station and a Clean Water Supply – Lawrence, Mass.
During the 1880s, the people of Lawrence and Lowell drank untreated water from the Merrimack River, the destination of raw sewage from cities and towns all along its banks. More mill jobs meant more people adding to already overburdened sewer systems. Improvements to sanitary living standards had not kept pace with the technological advancements in textile manufacturing. Repeated outbreaks of typhoid fever would begin in Manchester, N.H., and wind their way downstream to Lowell and Lawrence. Germ theory was still relatively new, and some still believed in miasma, the notion that bad smells were the root cause of these epidemics. Luckily for Lawrence, engineer Hiram Mills would change the world of sanitation history by creating new ways to test and treat drinking water.
Mills was chief engineer of the Essex Company when the state asked him to lead the newly reorganized Massachusetts State Board of Health in 1887. He took an existing Essex-owned testing facility on the Merrimack River and turned it into the Lawrence Experiment Station. The team of scientific pioneers Mills assembled came from new areas of study including bacteriology and chemistry. As a board member of MIT, he had access to some of the brightest minds of the day and created an environment that encouraged discourse across the different disciplines. Men such as biologist William Sedgwick and chemical engineer William Hazen used the Merrimack River as one big petri dish, and within a few years the scientists were able to demonstrate that a slow sand filtration system removed both dangerous bacteria and unpleasant impurities from the water supply. Their findings convinced the city of Lawrence to spend $67,000 on a 2.5-acre filtration system that sharply reduced the outbreaks of deadly typhoid fever. Lowell eventually followed suit.
Raytheon, Radar Defense – Andover, Mass.
Raytheon, the biggest innovation engine in our area today, is a company that maintains a low profile. Established in 1922 by three engineers in Cambridge, Raytheon expanded operations in 1956 with an Andover facility in what is now known as Brickstone Square on Haverhill Street. A total of about 7,000 people are employed at facilities in Tewksbury and Andover. Though most of us know someone who works at Raytheon, we know very little else. Andover’s location, the Integrated Air Defense Center, is best known for producing the world’s top missile defense systems, but many civilian applications evolved from Raytheon’s initial radar defense research. Our daily lives have been improved with trickle-down applications such as microwave ovens, GPS systems, electronic tolls and a safe, sophisticated air traffic control system. Raytheon’s Patriot Air and Missile Defense System gained fame during the first Iraq war in 1991, when it was able to stop Iraqi Scud missile attacks on U.S. troops and Israel with what often was described as “the ability to hit an incoming bullet with another bullet.” The Merrimack Valley became a media hot spot when then President George H.W. Bush paid a congratulatory visit to workers at the Andover facility. Journalists from around the world descended on Raytheon’s local watering hole, the Ninety Nine restaurant in Tewksbury, hoping for a few quotes from tight-lipped employees. In addition to keeping us safe from things we don’t want to think about, Raytheon is deeply involved in the community through its efforts to advance science and math education in local schools, hoping to ignite an innovative spark with another generation of technological pioneers.
Social Innovations – Lowell, America’s Industrial Venice
In 1978, Lowell saved itself from becoming a post-industrial ghost town by turning remaining historic structures into a national park. The canals that once provided an inexpensive form of energy became the central defining characteristic of Lowell National Historic Park. The journey to national park status wasn’t easy for Lowell, a city without a single distinguishing event or building that could cement its historical status in people’s minds. The long process began in the late 1960s, when a diverse crew of politicians, urban planners, historians, teachers and community activists joined forces and worked together toward a common goal. Lowell City Councilman Brendan Fleming proposed the first historic district, the “Mill and Canal District,” which was approved in 1972. Urban planner Gordon Marker made palatable the concept of an urban park by basing the design on equal parts historic preservation and economic revitalization. Patrick Mogan, then superintendent of schools, was a visible and vocal advocate for a park that would help preserve and share the city’s history of multicultural experiences.
The Lowell Heritage State Park was created in 1974. Thirty-six acres of downtown property were included in this new “dispersed state park.” This helped Lowell present a more viable plan to a reluctant National Park Service, which tended to view the city’s efforts as a Trojan horse for urban renewal. Though other cities had national historic sites, the Lowell urban park was revolutionary in that it combined federal money with other funding sources, including state, local and private entities. Once approved, the National Park Service covered traditional operations, and the Department of Interior funded historic preservation, the rehabilitation of buildings not owned by the park and various community and cultural activities.
Paul Tsongas, a college intern at the time, is said to have worked on the initial park legislation for Congressman F. Brad Morse, a Lowell Republican in the 1960s. The legislation was carried forward by subsequent Congressmen Paul Cronin, a Republican from Andover, and finally passed in June 1978 with the firm guidance of Tsongas, by then a Democratic congressman from Lowell.
Malden Mills/Polartec, Man-made Fleece – Lawrence, Mass.
Do you remember New England winters without Polartec? Lawrence-based Malden Mills introduced the lightweight, quick drying wonder fabric in 1979 and helped make cold weather more bearable. Third generation owner Aaron Feuerstein bet his company’s future on technological advancements in textile production while most other textile companies were heading south or overseas. Feuerstein’s gamble on innovation paid off and allowed the company to survive a devastating fire, emerge from bankruptcy twice and continue to produce the fleecy fabric in Lawrence. Polartec is so ubiquitous in our lives that the trademarked name is often used generically to describe any brand of synthetic fleecy fabric, much like we use the words Band-Aid, Kleenex and Xerox. After the fire in 1995, Feuerstein became a national hero for choosing to rebuild in Lawrence and keep idled employees on the payroll. Sustained by his belief in the Torah and a daily midmorning snack of an orange and a banana, Feuerstein stated simply, “It was the right thing to do.” In 2007, the company successfully emerged from bankruptcy for a second time. Malden Mills officially changed it’s corporate name to Polartec LLC, and Feuerstein retired, bringing in new management to continue guiding the company into new markets and products. Under the leadership of President Andy Vecchione, Polartec had its best year in 2010, hired 80 new workers and remains one of the biggest employers in Lawrence with more than 1,000 employees. The company continues Feuerstein’s tradition of innovative textile research by constantly finding ways to increase the use of recyclables.
We are fortunate to have a network of well-established history centers in our area. Special thanks go to the following for their advice and assistance: Martha Mayo, UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History; Barbara Brown, Lawrence History Center; Jim Beauchesne, Lawrence Heritage State Park; Joe Bella, Methuen Historical Society; Jay Williamson, Historical Society of Old Newbury; Louise Sandberg, Lawrence Public Library; and Jan Williams and the mighty network of the Haverhill Historical Society.
For every Steve Jobs or Dean Kamen there are countless others whose creations have made our lives safer, easier or more fun. Pop culture barely celebrates innovators and inventors, but they are the heroes in our midst. Perhaps it is because the act of creation often occurs inside the inventor’s head and we can’t share the experience; or because the complexities involved are beyond our comprehension and make appreciation difficult.
Advancements are so rapidly absorbed into our daily lives that we quickly lose our memory of what living was like before such things as sanitary drinking water, flood safety, warm fleece jackets or protection from missile attacks.
The Merrimack Valley has a proud history as an incubator for innovation, starting with the mills. Attracted by the water power of the Merrimack River, the textile business brought some of the world’s best minds to this area. These days, a constellation of world-class universities nearby provides the raw brainpower that innovation needs most to survive.
The ability to create something that wasn’t there before is a great gift, one that combines courage, determination and a touch of madness.
Here are just a few life-changing inventions and innovations that originated here in the Merrimack Valley.
Francis Cabot Lowell, Integrated Textile Production – Lowell, Mass.
The Merrimack Valley became central to America’s Industrial Revolution thanks to the vision and near-photographic memory of Francis Cabot Lowell. Born to a wealthy Newburyport family in 1775, Lowell injected his prodigious nervous energy into the development of modern business practices. Our young country was dependent on expensive imported textiles from the British Empire, and our relationship with England wasn’t always reliable. In 1810, Lowell visited England and committed to memory the design and function of the then-superior British power looms. Back home and working alongside a talented mechanic, Lowell made significant improvements to the British loom that helped propel America toward industrial independence. In 1814, Lowell’s mill on the Charles River in Waltham became the world’s first completely integrated textile factory. Raw cotton came in, and finished cloth went out, a concept that became the model for the modern American factory system. Lowell and others (later referred to by historians as the Boston Associates) formed the Boston Manufacturing Company and worked with the federal government to ensure that the fledgling business was protected by tariffs on imported goods. Lowell contracted pneumonia and died in 1817 at the age of 42, but he had helped to create a well-run business engine that was able to survive and flourish without him. The Charles River was underpowered for large-scale textile production, so the Boston Manufacturing Company looked north toward the more vigorous water power of the Merrimack River in what was known then as East Chelmsford. A planned industrial community named Lowell was dedicated to his memory in 1822, and within a few years was producing extraordinary amounts of homegrown cotton cloth, just as he had envisioned.
James B. Francis and the Francis Gate – Lowell, Mass.
James B. Francis spent much of his career masterfully moving around large amounts of water. His many inventions included the world’s first sprinkler system, and the Francis turbine, a water turbine that’s still in use today at the Hoover Dam. Locally, he’s best known for saving Lowell from disaster by building a life-saving floodgate called the Francis Gate. The thick wooden guillotine gate sat open over part of the Pawtucket Canal and could be shut by knocking away restraints with a sledgehammer. In 1845, the mills needed more water power, so as chief engineer of the locks and canals in the city, Francis retooled the canal network to take advantage of the raw power of the mighty Merrimack River. Though water power was a wonderful source of energy, Francis understood that it also had the potential to be a naturally devastating force. Critics of the gate, completed in 1850, referred to it as “Francis’ Folly” and ridiculed him for thinking this expensive flood-protection was necessary. But within two years the Francis Gate proved critics wrong when it saved much of Lowell from the flood of 1852. The wooden gate was dropped again and saved the city during flooding in 1936. A modern steel replica has since replaced the function of the still-visible wooden gate, and the entire structure continues to provide flood protection. Francis’ engineering feat is remarkable in both its concept and its execution, and Lowell certainly wouldn’t have survived the elements without this marvel.
Roller Toboggan – Haverhill, Mass.
Many historians believe the term “roller coaster” was first used to describe a ride built in Haverhill in 1887. The world’s first figure-eight roller coaster debuted that year on Sept. 7, when inventors Stephen Jackman and Byron Floyd opened the Haverhill Roller Toboggan Chute on Locust Street. Fifteen-hundred feet of track ran around the walls of the Globe Skating Rink in a descending figure-eight pattern, using the force of gravity to pull the car along the tracks. Visitors could roller-skate on the rink floor or hitch a toboggan ride by taking an elevator-platform up to the top of the room. Several hundred tiny wheels, or rollers, were built into the tracks, and the toboggan would literally glide over the rollers. Safety standards were not what they are today, and several accidents led to a decline in the coaster’s popularity. Fractious business relations ended the partnership, and by early 1890 the building that housed the skating rink was torn down.
Click here for Part 2 of ‘A History of Innovation in the Valley.’ ( available 4/28/20) >>>
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