Transcripts For CSPAN3 American History TV In Worcester Mass

American history tv. Of our Charter Communications partners, we will explore the history of this city of about 180,000 residents. Located in the central part of massachusetts, it grew into an Industrial Center with the creation of the Blackstone Canal in the early 19th century. Coming up, we will against at some of the citys early industrial contributions as we visit the historical museum. The story of worcester is a great economic engine in the early 19th and 20th century. Its the story of the Industrial Heritage that starts at the time of the Blackstone Canal. 1828, it opens and while there was a small industry in worcester before that, we focus on the beginnings and go to the 21st century. I explained her, we will hear about the history of Mechanics Hall, the cultural cornerstone of the city and today, and internationally regarded music meeting place. We begin the hour with the trip to the campus of Clark University and their special collection to learn about robert of the, the inventor liquid fuel rocket and a pioneer in space exploration. March 17, 1926, the first flight with a rocket using liquid propellant was made yesterday. Today was clear and comparatively quiet. Theand him and her on physics lab was turning leisurely when we left in the morning and turning as leisurely when we returned at 5 30 p. M. , even though the release was full, the rocket did not rise at first. But the flame came out and there was a steady roar. After a number of seconds, it rose until it cleared the frame and then, at express train speed, curving over to the left and striking the ice and snow, still going at a rapid rate. It looked almost magical as it rose without any appreciable greater amount of flame, as if it says id been here long enough, i think i will be going somewhere else if you dont mind. Robert goddard was a gentleman who was born in 1882. He was born here in the worcester at his grandmothers house two miles from here. He was famous for his rocketry work. He was the first person to successfully launch a liquid fueled rocket in 1926. Faster from 1914 to 1943. He met his wife here at clark, who was the secretary of the president when he met her. So they had very much of a clark connection. After he died, his wife cap working on his material and the library was built and named after Robert Hutchings goddard and she donated the papers and space was created in the library by the architect. It was created in the planning of the building to have the exhibit space for his artifacts and have Storage Space for all of his papers that we have here. With Robert Goddards papers, we have diaries and note looks of his. He kept diaries from when he was 16 until his death, except for two particular times, he did not write anything in his diary for a month after he got married, which i found sweet and when he was in the hospital, he did not. Diariesan that, he kept full time. He would tend to put in what his activities for the day was and books he was reading. In later diet later diaries, you would see that he went out for ice cream or went to the movies. He would say who is working on what rocketry work. This one i brought out because october 19, 1899, which was the day he climbed the cherry tree. Attributes his first interest in space travel and his first interest in a to a day inience 1899, when he was 17 years old. At that point, he and his family were living with his grandmother here in worcester. It was october 19 and he went outside with a saw and hatchet and he was meant to trim the dead branches off a cherry tree. He climbed the tree. I think he made himself a little inter and while he was up the tree, he looked down on the fields around him and thought how wonderful it would be to build some kind of a device that can leave the years and maybe even travel to mars. He felt that day was a turning point in his life. He felt when he came down from the cherry tree that his life saidurpose and he, himself later in his life that that was the beginning of his interest in space travel and the beginning of his scientific career. Bert downtown for four books and tried to measure and trimmed a flag large cherry tree in the afternoon. Thats all he said about a day that affected the rest of his life. 1903, before he graduated from high school, keeping notebooks of his ideas. This. F them look like he has written an idea this one is about a safety valve. Drawnften have hand diagrams in them. He would go to a notary public and have this document notarized to prove he had this idea on this date. Alot of these pages have notary stamp on them and signature. He felt very strongly about keeping track of his own Creative Ideas and rocketry experiment ideas. Papers, we have a lot of his correspondence. Letterst a couple of between him and hg wells. Inhad read war of the worlds 1898 when it came out. To wells in 1932 and you might think this is quite a bit after he read it. He said dear mr. Wells, because iseel expressing opinion better than thinking it, im writing this letter. I read your war of the worlds. A new viewpoint entering the department in 1914 where i have been head of the Department Since 1923. My work on the theory of the in 1919oblem q related with a paper in the Smithsonian Institution miscellaneous collection. I have the greatest admiration for your later work, which you no doubt feel is more important than your work of the 90s, but what i find most inspiring is your optimism. It is the best antidote i know for the feeling of depression that comes at times when one contemplates the remarkable man and nature. Respectfully yours, robert goddard. Response was very short, but he did send a card back saying dear mr. Gothard, thanks we are friendly letter. It is the sort of greeting we appreciate from people like you. Yours, hg wells. I also brought out letters between goddard and Charles Lindbergh. Ofy had a great deal correspondence between when they met in 1929 and it is interesting that in one of these letters, Charles Lindbergh asks gothards advice on an experiment hes doing. Says im building a tank which will contain oxygen. I would like to use mineral oil and send them up with the instruments. Do you believe theres any danger due to combustion . Have you any idea an explosion or rapid combustion would take place . The it is sort of fun hes asking for advice. Saying ifote him back it was grounded, there would not be a serious danger from static electricity. There are often letters between for thinking goddard reports about his experiment. The correspondence continued until gothards death. Clippingsve newspaper that were kept. Esther kept them until the end of her life. The clippings here or from after reaching extreme altitudes appeared in january of 1920. That hehem describes has devised a rocket that could hit the moon and after that, things often got little more extreme. You started having pictures of what the rockets might look like. Tothis one, there is a flyer go along with the rocket. I think the only condition was he had Life Insurance before he went. The other two clippings ive wrought out were from 1929 after the rocket exploded in july and people thought a plane had crashed. Paper, son the boston it wasnt even just the worcester paper. Like the earlier clippings, they have clippings from all across the country published in newspapers all across the country. These are two of his gyroscopes he would have worked with as a teenager doing experiments. Is a particularly nice one. This is a little more simplistic. You can turn it and it can balance in either way. Those are ones that we have. This is a nose cone from a rocket. Im not sure what youre a of rocket it was. Framework around rockets in 1929, but i have a feeling this may have come from after 1929. This photograph is what he used to prove that you could have thrust in a vacuum. Where he wasjar able to pull the air out to make a vacuum and you can see the pistol on a pivot that would spin when they fired blanks and that is how he proved you could have thrust in a vacuum. This is a plaque we received from buzz aldrin we did not receive it from buzz aldrin, esther gothard was given to get given it by buzz. It has in it the book that flew to the moon. Entitled Robert Hutchings got her Robert Hutchings goddard, father of the space age. It shows a blueprint by goddard and it says flown to the moon onboard apollo 11. Thes unique in that it is first book that went to the moon, which is kind of amazing. It boggles my mind that this took went to the moon. Those are all the artifacts i have brought out. The letters, diaries and clippings are available from our website and you can go and do a search and find all of them there. All weekend, American History tv features worcester, massachusetts, where the First National Womens Rights Convention was held. Staffs city tours visited many sites showcasing the citys history. Learn more all weekend here on American History tv. W bpi was founded 160 years ago and was founded on the idea of bringing theory and practice together. A Technological University that is not just about what you learned in the classroom, but broader do in the world. Robert goddard is the father of modern rocketry. It says that when you come into worcester home of Robert Gothard. He invented the liquid fueled rocket and proved such rocket travel was possible. Truly a visionary and innovator. Much today about visionaries and innovators and he was a visionary and innovator over 100 years ago. Of experiments in his life. He came out of the laboratory and went into the field to test his rockets and did some of that here in central massachusetts. There is even a roof rumored to be patched somewhere because of one of his experiments maybe not going as planned. Of experiments in new mexico and got a grant from the smithsonian to test his technology in the new mexico desert. He did a lot of tests and have a lot of successes but did not the trueee implementation of his technology for broader use and died before he knew what he had enabled with frankly all of the work that he did. I think he is widely viewed as someone whose work was not appreciated during his lifetime. As scientists or engineers, that is something we all fear to not be recognized for what we do while we are living. The greatest example of this was when Robert Gothards work was first published, the New York Times said this is crazy, this will never work, a rocket cannot push against the vacuum of space. Actually printed a retraction during the apollo program, saying he was right. That is a great example of someone who stuck to their guns and believed in what they were doing, even when they were not seeing a ton of public acceptance. Role model for going after something you believe in. Ofert gothard is wpi class 1908 and one of our most distinguished alums. I love aboutings going to wpi is everyone knows who Robert Gothard is. Everybody involved in Space Science knows robert got her he knows Robert Gothard. Knows who Robert Gothard is. We have lost the knowledge of this kind of pioneer and im sure that is true in other fields as well. There are other pioneers whose names we do not know, so it is history look back on and learn about these pioneers and understand what drove them. In his case, it was an absolute passion to get the on the earth. He was fascinated by what is out there. These kind of looks back and neck does through time and it is fascinating. Robert gothard was an innovator of his time. Today, we are trying to encourage and educate the next generation of innovators. Program inve a great error not space but we also have fabulous programs in robotics engineering. We have programs in health and biotechnology pushing the edge in data science. That is what Robert Gothard did, so we are proud to follow in his legacy. We are still very connected to space exploration. We are the only university in the country to host a nasa challenge event. The centennial challenge our prizes were people from all over the world compete to advance a technology and if they advance it far enough, they win a prize. Teams toasked on these work on these next generation rovers to drive around and retrieve examples. We are the only university to host one of these events. Called have a huge event touch tomorrow associated with the sample return robot challenge. The latesterience and greatest in nasa technology. Anybody out there, we welcome them to come to our campus and experience what it is like. All weekend long, American History tv is joining our Charter Communication Cable Partners to showcase the history of worcester, massachusetts. To learn more about the cities on the 2015 tour, visit cspan. Org cities tour. We continue now with our look at the city of worcester. Most americans think the American Revolution started at lexington and concord in april of 1775. Most have a sense that paul revere rode through the countryside alarming a sleeping countryside to the threat of the british. But in fact, the countryside is wide awake. I think we get most of that history from a poem by Henry Wadsworth longfellow called the Midnight Ride of all revere. But that palm was written in longfellowe conflict is talking about is the civil war and the threat from the south to the north at that time of that conflict. Fact, in 1774, the countryside, particularly in massachusetts is wide awake and is in open revolt by the time of april of 1775. The commanding military presence and royal governor is in many ways trying to recapture a countryside that is already lost to him in his efforts to seize the arms and armaments in concord. We areppens in what terming the worcester revolution of 1774 is how the country people rebelled against British Authority and shut down Royal Authority outside of boston from the time of the tea party through early 1775. Enraged by the intolerable acts that take place. Andnow these intolerable co. Versus acts as being for primary acts. We tend to think about the one that closed the port of boston is being the major one. Thatin fact, the one impacted most people in rural massachusetts was the massachusetts governing act. Completely changed the government that had been in place in massachusetts when we are given a Royal Charter to establish the colonies government. Massachusetts Government Act in 1774 eliminates that charter and essentially puts a military government in place. A number of things, including stopping or eliminating the way local people all can elect and get representation, principally through the governors council, which is the Upper Legislature in those days. That is no longer elected. It is appointed by the royal governor. The act empowers them to make a lot of changes, including jurors selected by the people. That no longer happens. The government is solidifying one of the most egregious things it does is limit town meetings to once a year and all towns have to submit their agenda so we are outraged by the fact that we have lost our power to do that and people in the towns they had militias but the militias get more and more militarized. On september 6 of 1774, nearly 5000 militiamen from 37 different communities to send upon wister, which is the shire town and literally close the courthouse and bar the door and take all the Court Officials from the sheriffs to the clerks ,o the judges and force them they create a resignation they ask them to read. Are sending 37 Militia Companies that lineup on main street on both sides and force them to renounce this commission, taking their hats this over and over again so all of those Militia Companies can hear it. Point on, the court is never open again. With any powerng or say overrule massachusetts. Is happeningsing all over the colony. The first is in berkshire, the second is in worcester. Wister is the most spectacular. 4622 come and close the courts. None have that large a number and it is very peaceful. They are prepared for armed confrontation. Minute, gauged is not send troops, so they leave their guns outside of town. Most of this takes place around mainourthouse, which is on street in worcester and main street will run north to south. A number of taverns and on the southern and is the meeting house, which is the congregational church. Much of the environment does not exist. The courthouse itself does. A private home which was moved originalimes from its location but is now in a residential section in wister and is a private home. Looks like a federal style building. It clearly has its markings from that time. This is the single most important piece of evidence we have about the worcester revolution 1774 story. This is the diary of a long time minister in westborough, massachusetts, and he kept a diary for decades. This entry, he describes the number of militiamen who come to fromr on september 6, 1774 37 towns. He eliminates the towns they came from and the number of militiamen that come from each town and further details where they stood on main street so hear the company could recantation of the Court Officials as they are forced to resign their commissions. The legacy is one of self empowerment and selfregulation. These people, although they were