Readers Choose Top 10 Posts during February 2014
YorksPast started with a post on July 26, 2012, with about 30 views per day during the initial months. This chart shows the growth of YorksPast readership in recent months; thanks to my ever-growing legion of loyal readers!
At the beginning of every month, I’ve decided to share with my readers the top 10 posts from the previous month. These are your favorites during February 2014:
Eliot Ness cracks the York Safe & Lock Company
Eliot Ness, a former prohibition agent, of The Untouchables fame, had a significant hand in the demise of the York Safe & Lock Company. This popular 2012 post likely returned to top of the list because of the February post: Neat Comment to Eliot Ness cracks the York Safe & Lock Company
Planned Closure of South George Street for Olympians to give Luge Demonstrations
In 1995, everything was in place, to close three blocks of South George Street for several hours, for members of the 1994 U. S. Olympic Luge Team to give sliding demonstrations using wheeled luge sleds.
York International Corporation built USA Luge Team’s Secret Weapon
An issue of Popular Science, focusing on the science of the Olympics, noted “The U. S. Luge team’s secret weapon is its training facility, the York International Luge Training Complex in Lake Placid, New York.”
Bowen & McLaughlin-York 1950s Tank Fording Basin near Kings Mill Road Facility in Spring Garden Township?
BAE Systems in York County began as Bowen & McLaughlin-York; a BMY 50th Anniversary Postcard shows M4 tanks undergoing testing in a makeshift “rough and ready” fording basin in the early 1950s when BMY reconditioned 1,300 M4A3 tanks at their first facility in York County along Kings Mill Road.
Reading the Headlines: A Quick Index to All YorksPast Posts
Reading the Headlines is an always-up-to-date, quick index to all YorksPast Posts that was suggested by a reader.
Susquehanna Trail WWI Memorial Sycamores
In the 1920s about 400 sycamore trees were planted along the Susquehanna Trail, from Jacobus southward to the Maryland Line, as a living memorial to the county’s World War I veterans; only about one-half of the trees remain.
Jacobs “Factory” Mill in Paradise Township gets first S. Morgan Smith Turbine
Grant Voaden wrote that S. Morgan Smith delivered his first Turbine Water Wheel to Amos G. Jacobs’ grist mill near East Berlin in 1877. Jacobs “Factory” Mill was located about a mile southeast of East Berlin, just inside Paradise Township, York County.
S. Morgan Smith Turbine cut up York County eels Ready for the Frying Pan
Birdes Jacobs talked about using “a ladder to descend to the [turbine] wheel to clean our brush, leaves and many times eels. It cut up the inside of the eel into sections ready for the frying pan but the hide of the eel was too tough. Dried eel hide made unmatched belt lacers and was usually used to tie the flail to the staff for threshing rye, for the straw and to tie corn shocks and sheaves of corn fodder. Sometimes the eels were so plentiful they would almost stop the wheel.”
Not Enough Snow & Olympic Pins
York Snow was a division of York International Corporation that produced automated snowmaking systems, sold worldwide, including numerous Olympic Games; many of which York International was a sponsor.
Letters in the Attic, by Cassandra Small; Letter of June 30th, 1863
This second part of Letters in the Attic provides answers inserted between paragraphs of the letter Cassandra Small wrote to Lissie Latimer on June 30th, 1863.
Reading the Headlines: A Quick Index to All YorksPast Posts