Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe
Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe
Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe
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advanced algebra, plane <strong>and</strong> solid geometry, trigonometry,<br />
logarithms <strong>and</strong> calculus.” After discovering imprecision<br />
in a slide rule, “they perfected a higher form of<br />
mathematics which they found to be foolproof <strong>and</strong><br />
which they used in all subsequent engineering design<br />
<strong>and</strong> building.” 7 Marvin also noted, “This form of mathematics<br />
has no known name, but all future work carrying<br />
the Hungerford name was based on it.” 8 Daniel<br />
Hungerford in a h<strong>and</strong>bill promoting his election to the<br />
state assembly in 1948 said he had “studied mechanical<br />
engineering, electricity, <strong>and</strong> social science by correspondence.”<br />
9<br />
In January 1903, William M. Hungerford was “killed<br />
instantly by falling lean [-] to roof—load of snow” 10<br />
leading to the eventual Hungerford family’s move back<br />
to Elmira. Years later Daniel Hungerford after learning<br />
of a roof collapse on a shelter in a city park wrote to a<br />
newspaper editor, probably of the Elmira Star-Gazette,<br />
Perhaps the writer is over-sensitive to this sort of<br />
thing. In the winter of 1903 he <strong>and</strong> four others were<br />
called to look at a lean-to cowshed roof that had<br />
split one of its supporting posts under a moderate<br />
load of snow. The group walked under the roof to<br />
get a view of the split post. Father, a brother <strong>and</strong><br />
cousin were under the roof when the farmer<br />
shouted a warning. The roof fell <strong>and</strong> father was<br />
killed outright <strong>and</strong> brothers [sic] <strong>and</strong> cousin seriously<br />
injured. 11<br />
Brothers Daniel <strong>and</strong> Floyd first appear in the Elmira<br />
city directories in 1907 residing with their widowed<br />
mother Mary <strong>and</strong> their sister. 12 Daniel’s profession was<br />
listed as machinist <strong>and</strong> Floyd as a “shoe operator”; by<br />
1909 both Hungerfords were listed as machinists with<br />
Daniel employed by John T. Young on Railroad Avenue<br />
in Elmira. Although the 1910 federal census identified<br />
Floyd as a laborer in the masonry trade, the directory<br />
again listed both brothers as machinists. A surviving<br />
photograph shows the two in working clothes, posing<br />
with two other men, one likely John Young himself, in<br />
front of the Young machine shop. Daniel Hungerford in<br />
the Who’s Who in American Aeronautics reported, in the<br />
mid-1920s, that he had worked in the “General Machine<br />
Repair Shop of John T. Young” until 1911 when he<br />
became “inventor, designer <strong>and</strong> foreman, American<br />
Thermostat Co., Newark, N.J., to 1914”. 13<br />
The American Thermostat Company with directory<br />
listings from 1909 through 1914 actually was located in<br />
Elmira. In the years Hungerford was employed by<br />
American Thermostat, the offices were first on East<br />
Water Street, then on East Church Street, <strong>and</strong> finally in<br />
the Robinson Building, a multi-story structure largely<br />
housing lawyers, insurance agents, <strong>and</strong> similar offices.<br />
In 1909, Burchard Johnson, previously associated<br />
with the Queen City Electric Company, was American<br />
Thermostat president <strong>and</strong> proprietor. For the 1910 <strong>and</strong><br />
1911 directory years, Harry M. Swartz, previously<br />
Figure 2. Posing in front of Young’s Machine Shop located on Railroad Avenue in Elmira ca. 1910. Left to right, are likely, J. Philip<br />
Young, (John Young’s son), Floyd Hungerford, John Young (proprietor), <strong>and</strong> Daniel Hungerford.<br />
2 Daniel <strong>and</strong> Floyd Hungerford: <strong>Rocket</strong> Power, Interstellar Travel <strong>and</strong> Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein