Reading Art Molella’s entry on the Museum of American History’s blog, Oh Say Can You See, on Earth Day themes such as sustainable “eco-cities” and souvenirs of Earth Days in the past (from the exhibit Science in American Life) reminded me that the book he mentions, Inventing for the Environment, published by MIT Press in association with the Lemelson Center, included an essay that used the Trade Literature Collection at Smithsonian Libraries.

The book discusses how technology, sometimes considered the villain in the quest for a “greener” world, can be used appropriately and innovatively, potentially enhancing sustainable environments. Kathryn Henderson, Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Texas A&M University, wrote an essay entitled, “Straw-Bale Building: Using an Old Technology to Preserve the Environment,” which focused on the renewed interest in a technology—constructing buildings with hay or straw bales—that began in the 19th century.

Straw (or hay) bale building is an example of adapting and reusing technology in an environmentally friendly way: one that employs some 20th century technological innovations to help meet today’s more stringent building codes, while embracing the spirit of yesterday's ecologically sound technique. Straw bale houses started in Nebraska in the mid-1800’s as an inexpensive but surprisingly durable method of dwelling construction that has emerged recently as a “green” alternative for shelter construction. Dr. Henderson used some of the library trade catalogs to trace the history of straw-baling equipment. Once the hay balers could produce uniform brick-like bales, the homesteaders and farmers could effectively use the bales to build houses.

One of the catalogs she used is from the Dederick Agricultural and Machine Works (P.K. Dederick’s Sons) in Albany, New York. P.K. Dederick was in inventor and patented several improvements in hay-baling equipment (see image above, left). Another company making hay presses (or hay balers) was Kansas City Hay Press Company in Kansas City, Missouri (see image above, right). Virtually all of the early straw-bale-built homes were constructed in the Midwest and the popular Lightning Press was likely used in Nebraska by straw bale builders, according to Henderson. Though the process is now mechanized, the straw bales themselves are basically still the same. Contemporary straw bale home builders must now comply with building codes that require fire-testing and load-bearing refinements that Nebraska pioneers did not have to contend with. But, as a glance at a search of Google Books for “straw bale building” will show, this seemingly old-fashioned method has been embraced by those who like the tradition and simplicity of the style with its thick walls while the favorable insulation values also attract those looking for more sustainable and energy-saving construction methods.—Jim Roan   

The National Museum of American History Branch Library houses the Trade Literature Collection, an extraordinary collection of over 430, 000 pieces of manufacturing and product catalogs comprising a broad range of American industrial output, from 1875 to 1950. Today's featured item is fairly typical of the collection as a whole: a straightforward catalog sent to the company's jobbers, distributors, and retailers: the " trade." But within its pages are some hidden nuggets that reveal an unusual path to a practical innovation.

The catalog is entitled “Lamson Wire Line Carriers”, from the Lamson Company, based in Syracuse, New York. Lamson was a pioneer in the development and manufacture of pneumatic tube systems of document delivery, used in offices, factories, and even libraries. This conveying system was devised by William Stickney Lamson, who was based in Lowell, Massachusetts. Lamson became impatient with the time-consuming process of clerks having to walk paperwork and money back from cash registers and front offices to the payroll or purchasing or other back office locations. He devised the “Ball system,” which consisted of a hollow ball that rolled on tracks. Money and paperwork were put in the ball.

According to the company history of one of Lamson’s subsidiaries, Lamson experimented with several ideas, some of which were more successful than others: “The first test, which involved wrapping notes and coins into a handkerchief and throwing it across the shop to the cashier, unfortunately failed.” The Lamson Company took this basic idea of office conveyance and greatly expanded it to include the pneumatic tube system, which, though not their original idea, they were able to manufacture and market successfully. They also devised the wire line carrier system which brings us to the catalog at hand. This conveying system included pulleys and hoists, tubes and baskets, and other related components to shuttle documents and cash from the cash register clerks to the back offices. It also encompassed larger containers for delivering parcels from the stock room to the cash register. Lamson’s system arose during the period when time and motion studies and efficiency experts such as Frederick Winslow Taylor were very influential in advocating what has been termed “scientific management.
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Privacy was an issue back then as well: "In a store using telephones to connect the clerks and [credit] authorizers, the clerks often have to call out the customer’s name, with the amount of the sales check, so that other customers in that part of store can hear it. Put yourself in the place of the customer whose names is being called—you can not blame her for not liking to have it advertised about that her credit is doubtful, and you can not wonder if she does not like to have other people who may be nearby learn that she has an account in the store. It would be too easy for them to obtain merchandise by simply using her name. How much quieter and more dignified is the system of Lamson Carriers where the sales-slip is sent to the central desk, and returned authorized without the customer even knowing that her credit is being investigated!"

Later in the company’s history, it installed the pneumatic tube system in the original Headquarters building of the CIA during its construction. According to the CIA web site: “The system had more than 30 miles of 4-inch steel tubing. At that time, this system was one of the world’s largest.” From rolled up handkerchief, to hollow ball on tracks, to baskets with pulleys to 30 miles of pneumatic tube, Lamson conveyed the industrial ambition of efficiency. —Jim Roan