History of television

Erik Barnouw writes a very entertaining book about the history of television in the book, Tube of Plenty (384.554 BAR). He begins with a quick history of the radio.

U.S. companies wanted a monopoly on the field of radio technology, so an American company was formed, called RCA. RCA was a partnership between GE, AT&T, United Fruit, and Westinghouse.

With the quick, incredible success with radio stations, the pressure was on to invent a way of transmitting picture as well as sound.

By 1927, Herbert Hoover appeared in an experimental AT&T telecast. It's also the same year that a new magazine called "Television" was first published. The experimental sets only had a screen 4 inches wide and 3 inches high - what the author calls a "flickering snapshot."

There are all sorts of legal entanglements with GE, Westinghouse, RCA, and AT&T. In 1926, GE, Westinghouse, and RCA form NBC. In 1928,RKO (the movie company was formed by GE, Westinghouse, RCA, and other film interest. All of these joint ventures creates a legal mess later on.

This book continues with new developments and the cultural influences of the television through the mid 1970s.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

The last wild horses

Throughout the history of mankind, there have always been horses, it's even on ancient cave paintings. Plus, archaeologists have uncovered bones detailing the evolution of horses, showing that horses have been around even longer than humans.

The Last Wild Horse by Morris Weeks (599.6655 PRZ) details the history of of the horse from prehistoric Mongolia to the present.

"The last wild horse" refers to the Prhevalsky horse, a wild horse very seldom seen in the wild in central Asia. Nicolai Prhevalsky was a Russian explorer who discovered this breed in the late 1800s. The horses he found had a large head for the body. It had short, stocky legs and a very muscular body. To survive the harsh winters, it grew a shaggy coat and was so impervious to the cold that he noticed them standing around - even during a blizzard. It molted its hair twice a year.

Now zoos are trying to preserve the animals, and the author discusses how the animals are responding to confinement.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

"A little TLC? I'm thinking more like CPR."

Lawrence LaRose had some problems after he and his wife bought their very first house in Sag Harbor. It wasn't that old - built in the 1950s - but the previous owners just did hodgepodge work on the house. When Lawrence and his wife saw it for sale, it was called a "fixer-upper."

Lawrence is a free-lance writer, and just as the house was purchased, he became unemployed - really bad timing. But, hey, he could use that free time to fix up the house now (that is if he knew how to do any construction work). To gain experience and money to do repairs, he gets hired for a construction company.

As with many communities, there were restrictions as to the types of remodeling that could be done. Oops, first mistake, ripping into walls before getting the proper permits and having the plans approved by the association.

Even though the poor guy details all of his troubles, he's very good at realizing the humor in his mistakes making Gutted (643.7 LAR) a joy to read - and be thankful he's not you.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Ever hear of getting a pet for your pet?

To me, it seems weird that anyone would want to get a pet for a pet. But that's what Philip Gonzalez discusses in his book The Dog Who Rescues Cats ( 818.5403 GON).

Gonzalez is one of those guys who has a kind heart toward animals. He even fed a rat that had babies and made his construction crew remove trash from its home. You don't know of many people who would go that far to save an animal.

After Gonzalez became disabled from a work-related injury, he began to mope around the apartment, losing all desire to see friends or do activities he used to do. Living by himself, of course, only worsened his depression. One of his good friends, Sheilah, said that what he needed was a dog. Reluctantly he did go with Sheilah to the dog pound. Much to his surprise, he fell for an injured female dog, which he names Ginny.

Ginny seems to be able to find cats that have physical disabilities or have been abused. Before Gonzalez knows it, Ginny has "adopted" an abused, homeless cat, a deaf cat, and a cat blind in one eye.

This touching book will warm the hearts of all animal lovers on these chilly Fall nights.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Warped world history

Don't check out The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 ( 792.7 BRO) if you want the history of the world. And...you'll know why once you see who wrote it - Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. After all, Mel Brooks made of mess of history when he made the movie, "History of the World: Part I." For those of you who live in a cave, you probably remember Carl Reiner from the "Dick Van Dyke Show."

This is a very funny, simple book that can be read very quickly. Believe me, it's just mindless fun.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

The history of libraries

In just the last 10 years or so, visitors to libraries have seen a huge change. You'll see less space for books; more space is devoted to movies, audio books, and (of course) computers for the public to use.

Libraries have always been evolving ever since they were organized. That's where Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson ( 027.09 CAS) is so fascinating. This slim book begins with the Near East where clay tablets were found. The fragments contained law decrees, myths, and bookkeeping records. Archaeologists are finding several of these since clay becomes more durable after a fire, which destroyed many of the buildings where they found the tablets written by Sumerians, Akkadians and other cultures that lived in Mesopotamia.

After a while papyrus became the material of choice for books, which moves the story to Egypt, the best location for growing usable papyrus. A chapter is devoted to the famous library of Alexandria. From there, the author takes us to Rome.

This slim book isn't just about the beginnings of the library - it's also about book making and understanding the importance the written language has on society.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Carnegie Libraries

Anyone who knows a little Waterloo history knows that this community was lucky to get two Carnegie libraries in this town. Because of the conflict between the West and East sides, Andrew Carnegie agreed to give money to build two libraries.

This is only one of the 99 stories in The Carnegie Libraries of Iowa by John M. Witt (027.473 WIT). Between 1892 and 1917, Andrew Carnegie gave away an incredible $1,565,616.00 to build libraries in Iowa. Before the first Carnegie library was constructed in Iowa at Fairfield, Andrew Carnegie had only donated funds for three libraries - all located in Pennsylvania as gifts to his steel factory employees.

The book is full of photographs to compliment the few pages devoted to each library. This will be of big interest to history buffs.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007