Welcome: we provide open source designs for biomass briquetting and wind chime design. Included are parts list, notes, drawings and assembly instructions.

     75 Cincinnati Museums
     50 Historical Societies

Museums and Historical Societies of Greater Cincinnati Directory, PDF

How Cincinnati's shortwave radio station, WLWO, became the American worldwide spy network connection. Using an unbreakable code then and today, the US intelligence agency used Cincinnati to move secret messages around the world.

This test works equally well for AA, AAA, C, D and 9 Volt alkaline batteries.

How Time Balls Worked Featuring The Cincinnati Observatory
Birthplace of American Astronomy, 3.6 MB, PDF
By Leland L. Hite

Video review  for over 200 Worldwide Time Balls
Time Signaling from Balls, Guns and Flaps

Did your great-grandfather drop the ball again? Perhaps he watched it drop!

How was time was decided in the Greater Cincinnati area before radio signals, telegraphy, or other electronic methods. Preserving our global heritage for signaling time, prior to modern electronic methods, were time balls, time guns and time flaps that synchronized with the local astronomical observatory. First dropped in 1829 at Portsmouth, England, they remain today an ornamental and educational attraction in many locations around the world.

The Hieronymus Hoax: Radionics, the Miraculous Pathoclast, and Deception
By Leland L. Hite, 9.5 MB, PDF

Becoming desperate for a solution to a medical condition can cause irrational people to embrace alternate medical solutions that others consider the work of quacksalvers. This investigation into the Pathoclast discovers a surprising answer for why people would endorse treatment from a device that doesn't work for a disease they don't have. Read how the hoax unravels.

For any homeowner ranging from the person who says, "I didn't know I needed to know that to the expert who occasionally wants a reminder."

Why Headstones are Arranged In Circles
By Leland L. Hite, 200 KB, PDF

The traditional configuration of facing the headstone along an east west axis and positioning the body with the head pointing west, thereby allowing the feet to see the rising sun, was not followed with this pattern; instead, the wheel pattern was used, but why?

Dodge's Institute to Valpo Tech 
By: Leland L. Hite, 3.3 MB, PDF

Dodges Institute of Telegraphy (DIT) began in December 1873 and became the largest school of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The institute evolved into wireless telegraphy and courses in radio technology were added to the curriculum.

 In 1944, DIT was renamed Valparaiso Technical Institute (Valpo Tech or VTI). Rated among the top 10 such educational organizations in the world, Valpo Tech became the oldest electronic institute in the country. The school celebrated its final graduation on May 25, 1990, and closed its doors after the January 1991 graduation.

How To Throw A May Basket Northwest Ohio Style
By: Leland L. Hite, 200 KB, PDF

If your goal was to meet that special girl or guy, you would throw a May Basket on the apple of your eye. When you wanted to gather a group of friends for a party, you might throw a May Basket. Often, you wanted to recognize that special person for doing well, and throwing a May Basket was an appropriate recognition.

Used at the Cincinnati Water Works.
Everything to do with lime.
Nothing to do with water.
In public with a female nude.
Thrives on oxygen and hydrogen.

While your chance of being struck by lightning in your lifetime is estimated at 1 in 5,000, it is much better than winning the lottery. Participating in high-risk outdoor activities when lightning approaches can increase your odds of a lightning experience. You can significantly reduce your risk by practicing these guidelines.

These guidelines are from classroom handouts provided during continuing education credit classes for lighting safety, by Electrical Engineer, Leland L. Hite.

YES: it's okay to ask your outdoor event planners about their event safety plan for lightning.

ASK: The Coach, The Referee, The Umpire, The Administrators, The Parents, The Event Planner, or the Sponsor.

Our work breaks new ground on an event that was of tremendous importance to the world: the testing of the first successful reaping machine, which revolutionized agriculture globally in the nineteenth century and started farming down the path toward industrialization. That test, with its far-reaching consequences, took place near Mt. Healthy, Ohio, in 1835. Even though books and articles from the 1800s and early 1900s noted the achievement, it has been largely overlooked in our time, and it has never been fully researched and described. Bob and I made it our mission to investigate the matter thoroughly. Over the past year, we discovered many surprising facts that had been forgotten or that had never been brought to light.

This article was originally published in the October-November 2014 edition of Engineers and. Engines Magazine, and posted here with permission from the publisher.

The First Cable Suspension Bridge Built in Ohio
By Robert T. Rhode and Leland Hite, 5.6 MB, PDF

On the 12th of December (2014), Leland Hite and Robert T. Rhode, acting on behalf of the Mt. Healthy Historical Society, recovered the last remaining component of the first cable suspension bridge built in Ohio. The 167-year-old iron tripod was one of four that had supported the cables of the 42′ bridge crossing the West Branch of Mill Creek near Mt. Healthy. Built in 1847, the footbridge on the Lane family farm was the brainchild of William Lane, brother of Clark Lane, the noted industrialist whose company of Owens, Lane and Dyer manufactured steam engines and sawmills in Hamilton, Ohio. The ingenious bridge was one of the first suspension bridges in the United States.

"A Sharp Tool Is A Safe Tool, has been said many times and I say it again. Not only that but there is joy in using a sharp tool. There is a lot of satisfaction in making smooth clean cuts in a piece of wood, but---this is nearly impossible if the cutting edge is not sharp. So, let's see how we can get and hold a sharp edge. I'll show you one way − the way I do it."

See & Do List - Greater Cincinnati, Ohio
340 KB, PDF
By Leland L. Hite

An exhaustive list for Arts and Theater - Golf Courses - Hobbies - Festivals - Museums - Tours, Music and Sports.

Auman Museum of Radio and Television Dover, Ohio

Antique Wireless Assn.  Bloomfield, NY

Early Television Museum, Hilliard, OH

Museum of Broadcast Communications, Chicago, IL

Modesto Radio Museum, Modesto, CA

Museum of Radio and Technology, Huntington, WV

Museum of Yesterday (mostly communications)

National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting

Phil's Old Radios Listing

Radio Museum

Radio Boulevard, Western Historic Radio Museum Virginia City, NV

Radios Past

Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut

Vintage Technology Assn. Electronics Museum, Dayton, Ohio

Ohio Museums Alphabetically  1.2 MB, PDF

Ohio Museums  by County, 430 KB, PDF

Indiana Museums Alphabetical, 630 KB, PDF

Kentucky Museums by Region, 310 KB, PDF 

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