Peyton Place Essays - 20th Century Fox Films, Peyton Place

Peyton Place Peyton Place by Grace Metalious In 1956, a woman from middle class Manchester, New Hampshire wrote a book that shocked the nation. At 32 years old, Grace Metalious wrote the blockbuster novel Peyton Place. It transformed the publishing industry and made the author one of the most talked about people in the nation. Metalious wrote about incest, abortion, sex, rape, adultery, repression, lust, and the secrets of small town New England, things that were never discussed before in conservative America. She interpreted incest, wife beating, and poverty as social failures instead of individual flops. When Metalious published Peyton Place, the country was in the grasp of a new wave of sexual panic. The book turned the ?private? into the ?political.? The avant-garde disturbed the country and critics called the book ?wicked,? ?sordid,? and ?cheap.? Canada declared it indecent and made the importation of the book illegal. Parts of Rhode Island, Indiana, and Nebraska followed suit arguing that the book would corrupt young mind s. Wealthy communities banished Peyton Place. To read Peyton Place was to read it in secret and were sometimes discussed only among the closest of friends. Everyone was reading it ? college and high school students, college graduates, mothers, wives, and even husbands and fathers. In 1956, a sexual act such as sodomy, oral sex, and intercourse with another married person in most states was illegal. Also, abortion was illegal, and birth control was unreliable and in many cases, difficult to find. To many critics, Metalious' book was not scandalous because of its case in point, but because of the sexual pleasures that were received and given by the female characters. Peyton Place begins with Indian summer in 1939. It takes place in a very descriptive, postcardesque New England town. The main story focuses on three women characters and their underlying search for their identities as sexual women in small town America. Allison Mackenzie is the bastard daughter of Constance Mackenzie who had an affair with a married man. She illegally changed Allison's birth certificate and lied to the Peyton Place locals that her husband died. Connie didn't want any of the town folk to find out the truth that the father of her child was a married man because she would become the town gossip of ridicule. She kept this secret to herself, and only to herself until an argument between her and Allison occurred when Connie thought Allison was having sex with one of her friends, and so she lashed out the truth to Allison. As a child, Allison was always teased about being childish, and not interested in boys, and always into books. But as she grew up she was full of confli cting sexual emotions, and after graduating high school, she left Peyton Place to pursue a writing career in New York. Connie Mackenzie, to her neighbors, was a beautiful, young, widow that owned her own thrift store. Many eligible bachelors Everyone had a desire for her and wished to have her, until Thomas Makris, a teacher from New York City arrives into town to take the job of headmaster at the Peyton Place grade school. Thomas pursues Connie and terrified that he knows her secret, she avoids him. He shows up at her house one night and persuades her to a date, which leads to him raping her. They stay together and end up in marriage. As the third main female character, Selena Cross is probably the most significant. She was the same age as Allison. She lived in a shack with her little brother Joey, deranged mother and alcoholic stepfather, Lucas Cross. She lived an abusive life with Lucas drinking, beating her mother, beating her, and sexually violating her. He gets Selena pregnant and she secretly gets an illegal abortion from the town doctor, who forces Lucas to disappear from Peyton Place and never come back or everyone will know what he did to his daughter. Selena works at Connie's store and becomes manager when her mother, stricken with cancer, commits suicide. In 1944, during a snowstorm, Lucas Cross, now part of the U.S. Navy, shows up at Selena's house drunk and coming on to her. One thing leads to another and she kills

History and Timeline of the Battery

History and Timeline of the Battery A battery, which is actually an electric cell, is a device that produces electricity from a chemical reaction. In a one cell battery, you would find a negative electrode; an electrolyte, which conducts ions; a separator, also an ion conductor; and a positive electrode. Timeline of Battery History 1748- Benjamin Franklin first coined the term battery to describe an array of charged glass plates.1780 to 1786- Luigi Galvani demonstrated what we now understand to be the electrical basis of nerve impulses and provided the cornerstone of research for later inventors like Volta to create batteries.1800 Voltaic Pile- Alessandro Volta invented the Voltaic Pile and discovered the first practical method of generating electricity. Constructed of alternating discs of zinc and copper with pieces of cardboard soaked in brine between the metals, the Voltaic Pile produced electrical current. The metallic conducting arc was used to carry the electricity over a greater distance. Alessandro Voltas voltaic pile was the first wet cell battery that produced a reliable, steady current of electricity.1836 Daniell Cell- The Voltaic Pile could not deliver an electrical current for a long period of time. Englishman, John F. Daniell invented the Daniell Cell that used two electrolytes: copper sulfate and zinc sulfate. The Daniel Cell lasted longer than the Volta cell or pile. This battery, which produced about 1.1 volts, was used to power objects such as telegraphs, telephones, and doorbells, remained popular in homes for over 100 years. 1839 Fuel Cell- William Robert Grove developed the first fuel cell, which produced electrical by combining hydrogen and oxygen.1839 to 1842- Inventors created improvements to batteries that used liquid electrodes to produce electricity. Bunsen (1842) and Grove (1839) invented the most successful.1859 Rechargeable- French inventor, Gaston Plante developed the first practical storage lead-acid battery that could be recharged (secondary battery). This type of battery is primarily used in cars today.1866 Leclanche Carbon-Zinc Cell- French engineer, Georges Leclanche patented the carbon-zinc wet cell battery called the Leclanche cell. According to The History of Batteries: George Leclanches original cell was assembled in a porous pot. The positive electrode consisted of crushed manganese dioxide with a little carbon mixed in. The negative pole was a zinc rod. The cathode was packed into the pot, and a carbon rod was inserted to act as a current collector. The anode or zinc rod and the pot were then immersed in an ammonium chloride solution. The liquid acted as the electrolyte, readily seeping through the porous cup and making contact with the cathode material. The liquid acted as the electrolyte, readily seeping through the porous cup and making contact with the cathode material. Georges Leclanche then further improved his design by substituting the ammonium chloride paste for liquid electrolyte and invented a method of sealing the battery, inventing the first dry cell, an improved design that was now transportable. 1881- J.A. Thiebaut patented the first battery with both the negative electrode and porous pot placed in a zinc cup.1881- Carl Gassner invented the first commercially successful dry cell battery (zinc-carbon cell).1899- Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium rechargeable battery.1901 Alkaline Storage- Thomas Alva Edison invented the alkaline storage battery. Thomas Edisons alkaline cell had iron as the anode material (-) and nickelic oxide as the cathode material ().1949 Alkaline-Manganese Battery- Lew Urry developed the small alkaline battery in 1949. The inventor was working for the Eveready Battery Co. at their research laboratory in Parma, Ohio. Alkaline batteries last five to eight times as long as zinc-carbon cells, their predecessors.1954 Solar Cells- Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chapin invented the first solar battery. A solar battery converts the suns energy into electricity. In 1954, Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chapin invented the first s olar battery. The inventors created an array of several strips of silicon (each about the size of a razor blade), placed them in sunlight, captured the free electrons and turned them into ​​electrical current. Bell Laboratories in New York announced the prototype manufacture of a new solar battery. Bell had funded the research. The first public service trial of the Bell Solar Battery began with a telephone carrier system (Americus, Georgia) on October 4, 1955. 1964- Duracell was incorporated.