The countdown continues: 4 more reasons Bucks County has enduring fame
The January countdown of my 16 reasons Bucks County is famous continues with a castle, first weather satellites, a furnace and boats that helped win the Revolutionary War plus an historic kite.
No. 12: The Mercer Mile
World famous anthropologist Henry Chapman Mercer left us in Doylestown one of the most amazing creations in America. Spaced over a mile in the heart of town are three wondrous structures he built that are top tourist attractions.
The buildings constructed between 1904 and 1916 are fashioned entirely from reinforced concrete to preserve them indefinitely and make them fireproof as museums of Americana and European history. Here’s a synopsis:
Mercer Museum: This 7-story colossus holds 50,000 artifacts collected by Mercer in his lifetime and representing early American trades that were fast disappearing. A whale boat, stagecoach and Conestoga wagon suspended from the ceiling of the vast central atrium are stunning to behold.
More:Sixteen reasons Bucks County has enduring fame
Fonthill Castle: Mercer’s vision of a European castle was his home prior to his death in 1930. With 44 rooms, it’s decorated in thousands of handcrafted ceramic tiles. As a National Historic Landmark, Fonthill contains 32 stairwells, 18 fireplaces, 21 chimneys and built-in bookcases for Henry’s collection of 6,000 books.
Moravian Pottery and Tile Works: Mercer produced his colorful tiles at a factory near the castle. It resembles an early Spanish mission and monastery. The tiles were much sought after for public and private buildings throughout the country including Pennsylvania’s state capitol. Today the Works are owned by county government and continue to produce tiles in the Old World fashion of Moravian crafters idealized by Mercer. Visitors are invited to watch the process and purchase tiles.
No. 11: Newtown’s weather satellite
When’s the last time your local weather forecast was right? I know, I know. It’s Pennsylvania. Always guesswork here. Thanks to a Newtown company it’s become more accurate.
In the 1950s, military dreamers fantasized weather could be controlled from space – a potent weapon. To that end, RCA designed TV cameras to monitor weather from 450 miles above the earth. The TIROS satellite to carry them aloft would be built at Newtown’s Lavelle Aircraft Corporation in a building known today as the Stocking Works.
TIROS I rocketed into space from Cape Canaveral on April 1, 1960. The satellite sent back 22,942 clear images of weather systems around the globe. Lavelle followed up TIROS I with five more. Together they made weather forecasting a science more than a guess.
Lavelle also built lithium hydroxide canisters to purify air in space suits. The canisters saved the lives of those aboard Apollo 13 in 1970.
No. 10: Durham’s forge and boats
In the tiny village of Durham in Upper Bucks, investors in 1727 built one of America’s first blast furnaces to produce iron plating for stoves. The forge also turned out cannon balls and ammunition for George Washington’s Continental Army plus heavy iron chains draped across the Hudson River below West Point Military Academy to prevent British ships from driving a wedge in rebel forces.
Village namesake Robert Durham conceived river boats to carry iron from the furnace to markets downstream on the Delaware River. At 66 feet long and pointed at both ends, the famed Durham Boat was flat-bottomed. When fully loaded with 17 tons of cargo, it could float in water only 20 inches deep – perfect for navigating river shoals.
A fleet of 1,000 dominated river commerce. So many by 1776 that Washington commandeered 20 to move his army across the river on Christmas night to achieve his epic capture of Trenton to reinvigorate the Revolution.
No. 9: Ben’s kite flown in Bensalem
Legend has it that Benjamin Franklin flew his famous kite in a farm field near the Growden Mansion in Trevose. It proved lightning could be harnessed.
Ben and son William, 21, on June 10, 1752 launched their kite into an approaching thunderstorm. Attached to the high flier was a wire to attract lightning. A hemp line descended to a dangling iron key and a grounded Leydon jar, a Dutch invention designed to store static electricity. The Franklins took shelter in a barn where they controlled the flight with a separate, lightning-proof silk ribbon tied to the kite.
Lightning flashed, striking the kite. The jolt surged down the hemp line to the key. Franklin put his knuckle against it moments later, confirming its warmth. Eureka! “Franklin lightning rods” soon sprouted on houses, church steeples, businesses, barns and ship masts as they do today.
Some historians believe Ben flew the kite from the spire of Philadelphia’s Christ Church. But his description of a field near a barn most matches the grounds of Bensalem’s Growden Mansion. He frequently visited, stayed over, even wrote his autobiography there. So it’s likely the kite took flight there.
More:Hidden Harry Potter nook, cheap reads and more at these 10 independent Bucks bookshops
The countdown resumes next Friday.
Information on the Pearl S. Buck estate is on the Web at www.pearlsbuck.org;“History of the Durham Boat” by the Durham Historical Society on the web at www.durhamhistoricalsociety.org, and Ben Franklin’s story of the kite flying experiment published by the Pennsylvania Gazette and available online at www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/kite-experiment
Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: The countdown continues: 4 more reasons Bucks County has enduring fame
