FROM ASHRAE JOURNAL A Centennial History: Joseph H. Lazar, P. E.,( 1 895- ) Towards the close of the nineteenth century on a large farm about 18 versts (12 miles ) from the village of Genichesk, near the Sea of Azov, a child was bom a steam engine operator during the reign of Czar Nicholas 11, son of Alexander 111. 1 n those days, communications and transportation in Russia were primitive. The engineer, wishing to inform his anxious relations in Genichesk of the new arrival, tied a note readi ng. "lt's a Boy!"to his dog's collar, slapped the beast on the rump, and commanded him, "Go home!" The dog, sensing the importance of his mission, galloped off through the woods, and arrived in the village about one hour later to the joy of everyone. The boy was Joseph Lazar, the year was 1895. A precocious lad, he was admitted at a very early age to the Russian Academy tor youths where he studied history, mathematics, and drafting. He was one of five percent of Jews accepted under the Russia quotasystem. i n 1904, Theyearof the first meeting of the American Society of Refrigerating Engi neers, he settled, with his family, i n Chicago. Chicago, in 1904, was known the world over as the city of skyscrapers. For it was here that the architectural and technical achievement of the "Chicago School" market the establishmentof a new architecture. the buildi ng designed and built in Chicago between 1885-1925 by such architects as Bumham, Root, Holabird, Roche, Adler, Sullivan and Wright are, as Cari W. Condit declared i n his classic book, The Chicago School of Architecture, " a constituent part of man's history and a revelation of truth itself." For a small immigrant boy, whose father was working as a laborer i n a South Chicago steel mili, life was not easy. After completing eighth grade, Lazar went to work to help support the family and began his lifelong process of combi ning theoretical with practical knowledge. He enrolled at the armour l nstitute (now the l llinois l nstitute ofTechnology) night school where he studied mechanical and electrical engi neeri ng. i n his never ending quest tor knowledge, Lazar continued attending night school tor most of his worki ng life -even after he had eamed his professional engineering license in 1946. Possessor of a quick mi nd and unquenchable thirstfor knowledge, Joe Lazar was already a skilled tool and die maker by the time he reached age seventeen; one year later he received his Certificate of Master Electrician. With the outbreak of World War 1, he wentto workfor Superior Ship Building i n superior Wisconsin wiring telemotors for war service vessels and at the i nsistence of his employer was deferred from the draft. Post World War I America was- an unsettled time. The War had cost America $41.755.000.000. and 130.000 dead. More than 200.000 were wounded. The nation, caught 17 byjohn Cladstone Fellow ASHRAE Miami Chapter Historian up i n a war psychology, but without a war, by 1920 tumed its rabid energies i nward and succumbed to a period of unprecedented repression led by Attomey General A. Mitchell Palmer, who without warrants or reasonable excuses, carried out nighttime raids on private homes -particularly those of foreign bom i nhabitants, especially Russian and ltalians - and labor headquarters, and whipped up a hysteria which the Nation had never before witnessed and would not see agai n until the Mc Carthy era following World War il. The shameful Palmer Raids, combined with a post- war deteriorating economy, a rise in general violence, a revitalized Ku Klax Klan and a totally i ncompetent President (Hardi ng) i n the White House, cast a dark shadow over the country that would prevail for half a decade. Joe Lazar, however, maintained his equilibrium duri ng those difficult times.At the end of the war he went to work for the Dayton Electric Light Company (now Delco, Division of General Motors) where he pioneered work on the auta ignition system. The following year he opened his own radio manufacturi ng busi ness. Already thinking of television - thirty years ahead of his time- he named his busi ness "Radio Vision" Duri ng the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, Lazar i nstalled the first "recorded barker" though a PA system. This was only one of his many first. He was the fi rst to broadcast baseball
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcyMTY=