Since the earliest settlers arrived in the Whitewater area in the 1830s, industry and manufacturing have played important roles in the establishment and continued growth of the area. One of the earliest industries in Whitewater …
Science & Technology
The Rise and Fall of Shoe Fitting Fluoroscopes
Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were invented almost simultaneously in the United States and England. Milwaukee quickly became a center of the new technology.
The Flakall Corporation
In Beloit, Clair Mathews, Earl Baker, Clarence Shwebke, and Harry Adams formed the Flakall Corporation in 1933. Flakall would go on to patent several machine designs used in the production of snack foods – the most famous being the Korn Kurl.
From Cow Feed to Korn Kurl
By the mid-1930s, the Flakall Corporation was trying to build up a customer base for its machine, a version of the feed grinder initially designed and built by Clair Mathews. But, as it turned out, the machine would end up being more useful for snack food manufacturers than farmers.
Wisconsin’s Ancient History in the Kickapoo Valley
If you look closely, the landscapes around us tell stories about the past. Sometimes in the curve of a road, a line of trees, or stretch of prairie careful observers can find evidence of the …
The Evolution of a Swiss Barn
The expansion of Wisconsin’s dairy industry in the 20th century not only altered the economy of the state, but it also influenced the structure of the very barns that housed the bovine champions of the …
The Swiss Roots of America’s “Dairyland”
When the wheat crop failures of the late nineteenth century jeopardized the incomes of many of Wisconsin’s immigrant farmers, the region’s Swiss population transitioned to a trade that they knew from the Old World: dairying …
The Record Production Process
Paramount Record’s parent company, the United Phonographic Corporation, decided to begin recording and pressing records to include with their phonograph cabinets in the early 1920s. Paramount initially recorded in studios throughout the United States. They …
Paramount Records
The Wisconsin Chair Company’s (WCC) decision to enter the record label industry was an economic one. With the United Phonographic Corporation (UPC) picking up steam, management at the WCC began pressing records. The UPC’s first …
Malted Milk and Infant Nutrition
Although known today mostly as a flavoring for milk shakes and chocolate-covered malt balls, malted milk made its first appearance in the 1880s as a substitute for human breast milk. At that time, breastfeeding babies …