Harry Granick
Autor von Underneath New York
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Born in 1898 in Russia, Harry Granick immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1905. A self-taught writer and playwright, he also wrote for radio and television, winning a Peabody Award in 1944 for his work on the radio show, Great Adventure Series. Along with numerous plays, including mehr anzeigen The Witch's Sabbath (1951) and The Bright and Golden Land (1978), Granick is known for his book Underneath New York (1947, reprinted 1991) which shows the busy world under the streets in the tunnels and sewers of New York City. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen
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Just Graniok’s history of how New York has provided clean water to its citizens is worth the price of the book. In early American society, clean water was a precious commodity. Virginia once had a $30 tax on bathtubs to discourage bathing. In Boston a doctor’s prescription was needed to take a bath, as clean water was so precious. Aaron Burr designed the first reservoir in New York. It was made out of hollowed-out tree trunks, some of which were still in place and functional in 1947. The Romans were not the only experts on aqueduots. Graníok tells us about the Aztecs, who had dug a tunnel 100 feet below the surface and 1/2 mile long to a source of spring water. The first subway was built in 1862-3 in London. It consisted of pneumatic tubes with little carts on narrow tracks which were blown down the tunnel by huge 21-foot diameter fans. In 1871, the editor of Scientific American built a similar pneumatic passenger subway under the most congested part of Manhattan. It consisted of one luxuriously appointed wagon and never caught on. The process of building and excavating for a subway line is described with unconcealed admiration. And the process is truly astonishing: natural gas, water, and electrical lines have to be relocated, sometimes above the street, until the tunnel is finished. Granick is obviously enamored of technology, and it’s hard not to be cynically amused at his descriptions of roller-skate-equipped girls speeding arjound the Western Union offices delivering messages to the appropriate sending desk. His childish boosterism when he reports how little crime New York has because of the new technology of radio, telephone, and telegraph seems silly in light of New York’s current problems. Still, it's a fascinating book.
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