A little boy had been pawing over the stock of greeting cards at a stationery store.
After a few minutes the clerk became curious and asked, "Just what is it you're looking for, sonny? Birthday greeting? Message to a sick friend? Anniversary congratulations to your mom and dad?"
The boy shook his head, "No."
"Then what kind of card is it that you want?" asked the clerk.
The boy answered wistfully, "Got anything in the line of blank report cards?"
Thomas L. WillsonDied 20 Dec 1915 at age 55 (born 14 Mar 1860).Thomas Leopold Willson was a Canadian-American chemist and inventor who discovered a commercial production method for calcium carbide using an electric arc furnace. In 1893, he started a company with John Motley Morehead III in Spray, North Carolina, to try his ideas to obtain aluminium metal from its oxide. On 2 May 1892, he was using an electric arc furnace with coal tar and burnt chalk (lime). An unexpected dark, solid mass was formed. On cooling with water, a gas was given off. This burned with a bright yellow, smoky flame. Analysis showed these were calcium carbide and acetylene. Unlike the earlier method of Wöhler that made calcium carbide in an amorphous form, Willson had a hard, aggregated chrystalline form. He obtained (and defended) patents on his process. He assigned them to the Electro Gas Co. (which became Union Carbide Corp.) His other inventions included gas navigational buoys and electric arc lighting. He established calcium carbide manufacturing in Canada.« |
){kind=link}