Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

How much do you know about Soybeans?

How much do you know about SoyBeans?

Information gathered for you by Biggs Cadillac Buick GMC


SoyBeans aren’t just for eating.
Bayer and Ashland have developed soy-resin body panels that currently are being used on John Deere tractors. These panels are dramatically lighter and more durable than the steel units they replace, and they're also more flexible and easier to paint, so we suspect it's only a matter of time before similar pieces find their way onto passenger cars and trucks.

Biodiesel — Fuel for diesel engines can be produced from soybean oil by a simple process called transesterification. This process removes the glycerin from the oil, leaving soy biodiesel.  Soy biodiesel is cleaner burning than petroleum-based diesel oil.  Its use reduces particulate emissions, 
Soy oil produces an environmentally friendly solvent that safely and rapidly removes oil from creeks, streams anand it is non-toxic, renewable and environmentally friendly.

Bio-composites are building materials made from recycled newspaper and soybeans. They replace other products traditionally made from wood, such as furniture, flooring, and countertops.

Particleboard, laminated plywood and finger-jointed lumber are made with soy-based wood adhesives.

Soy products are also found in many popular brands of home and commercial carpet, and in auto upholstery applications.d shorelines without harming people, animals and the environment.

Soy is an ingredient in many industrial lubricants, solvents, cleaners and paints.

Soy-based lubricants are as good as petroleum-based lubricants, but can withstand higher heat. More importantly, they are non-toxic, renewable and environmentally friendly.

Soy-based hydraulic fluid and rail flange lubricants are among the more recent products developed with check-off funds.

Candles made with soybean oil burn longer but with less smoke and soot.

SoyInk is superior to petroleum-based inks because soy ink is not toxic, renewable and environmentally friendly, and it cleans up easily.

Soy crayons made by the Dixon Ticonderoga Company replace the petroleum used in regular crayons with soy oil making them non-toxic and safer for children.

Soybeans in our seats.

Soy based foams are currently being
developed for use in coolers, refrigerators, automotive interiors and even footwear.  Beginning in 2007, vehicles rolled off the production line with soy foam in the seats.  New uses in the automotive and equipment industry followed, including lubricants, body parts, interiors and seating.

North Carolina Historical Highway Marker A-70
      “With the boll weevil taking its toll on North Carolina’s cotton industry, the Elizabeth City Oil and Fertilizer Company, incorporated to manufacture cottonseed oil and other cotton by-products, tried its hand at a new commodity on December 13, 1915. At that time, under the management of William Thomas Culpepper, the company crushed approximately 20,000 bushels of soybeans, generating the first commercially produced domestic soybean oil in the country. The manufacture of the soybean oil was completed without a single alteration in existing equipment. Both the oil and the residual “cake,” usually ground into meal, were highly marketable. Other oil mills, in towns such as Winterville, New Bern, Farmville, and Wilson, began working with soybean oil shortly thereafter. The advent of domestic soybean processing made the easily grown plant popular throughout North Carolina. 

      The soybean was first planted in America in the late 1800s as forage for livestock. In 1904, George Washington Carver discovered that the soybean was a good source of protein and oil. He also learned, in experimenting with crop rotation, that planting soybeans for two years actually helped improve the soil conditions for later cotton crops. Following such research, soybean production increased. The plants flourish in North Carolina’s hot, humid summers, and as of 2002, the state ranks fifteenth in the nation in soybean yields. At the time of the first processing in Elizabeth City, North Carolina was the leading producer of the legume.” 
The oil processing plant was located on property at the corner of Ehringhaus and McMorrine Streets in Elizabeth City. It is no longer standing. 

North Carolina was the first state in America to grow soybeans commercially on a large scale, and the first to crush domestically grown soybeans. North Carolina was America's leading state in soybean seed production and acreage from the
early 1900s until 1924. This early pioneering work proved to both soybean growers and crushers in other states that this new crop had great potential, and thus was a key factor in the growth of the soybean industry in America. 
The Early Years, to 1899. It is not known exactly when the soybean was introduced to North Carolina, but it was probably between 1870 and 1881. Tom Byrd, a journalist, reported in 1965 that C.B. Williams, the state's great soybean pioneer, once said that "The first soybeans coming to North Carolina had been brought to Hyde County about 1870 by an old sea captain who obtained them in the Orient. They later spread to other coastal locations." Hartwig (1981) mentioned this same event, without citation. Yet Williams made no mention of this key incident in his many extensive writings on soybeans in North Carolina.
Frank W. Hollowell Jr. of Elizabeth City reported in 1982 that in about 1880 his grandfather, Christopher Wilson Hollowell, planted soybeans on his "Bay Side" plantation in Pasquotank County, in the northeast corner of North Carolina. These soybeans were obtained from China by a friend. Mr. Hollowell died in 1892. 


http://ncsoy.org/media-resources/uses-of-soybeans/
http://www.edmunds.com/car-technology/renewable-and-recycled-materials-help-make-cars-green. 
http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/north_carolina.phphtml
http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=A-70


 www.biggscadillac.com | 252-338-2131 | 1197 US Hwy 17, Elizabeth City, NC 27909

Friday, May 24, 2013

Memorial Day - A Rememberance of Why

Memorial Day, cartoon, Cost, expense,Soldiers, garyvarvel.com
"...gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime....let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation's gratitude,...the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan." - General John Logan, General Order No. 11, 5 May 1868

Why do we have a Memorial Day?
When should we be celebrating Memorial Day?
How should we honor this Day?

We have been  - as a collective society  - enjoying the 3 or 4 day weekends offered by the Memorial Day Holiday by spending time with our families, going on short vacations, partying and shopping the sales. Memorial Day weekend has been the called "The Official Kick Start of Summer". Do we really understand and remember why we have the pleasure to enjoy this time?
Most of us understand that Memorial Day is when we are to remember all of those who have ultimately sacrificed their lives, so we may live in this Nation of ours. They are the ones who have given everything for us. We should take the time to give thanks to them for all that they have done. 

It all seems to have originated as:
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, it was originally called Decoration Day,
"Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans .. the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) ..established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared Decoration Day should be observed on May 30, and It's believed that date was
chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

There are Protocols, and  Resolutions have been added for proper Memorial Day observance. They are as follows:
  •  visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.
  •  visiting memorials.
  •  flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.
  •  flying the 'POW/MIA Flag' as well (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).
  •  participating in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.
  •  renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.  
How many of us are aware of these, let alone how many of us observe them?

Notice that this year Memorial Day is on May 27th, not May 30th as it was observed originally.
"Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day." 

So, on Monday are you going to fly the Flag at Half-staff until Noon? I will

At 3:00 will you take pause to think about why this day is named as such and play Taps? I will

And how about the others? Visiting graves, memorials, placing flowers, and aiding those of fallen soldiers and disabled veterans? I will

How about you?
Enjoy your holiday weekend. Be safe, Drive safe.

Keep it between the lines,
Happy Motoring

For More Information about the Origins, History, and Observances of Memorial Day. Check out these links:
www.usmemorialday.org/observe.htm
battle-of-the-memorial-day-birthplaces/
www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html