Alfred Lawson

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Alfred W. Lawson

Alfred William Lawson (born March 24, 1869 in London , † November 29, 1954 in San Antonio ) was an American baseball player and manager, aviation pioneer , author , inventor of a supposedly all-encompassing science and founder of religion. He is considered a scientific eccentric and has been referred to as the " Leonardo da Vinci the nutcase ".

From 1887 to 1908 Lawson was a professional baseball player and operator of several clubs and leagues . Then he was one of the pioneers of commercial aviation and aeronautics - journalism , ultimately failed but economically operated with its 1908-1928 working as an aircraft designer and operator of an airline . Lawson wrote more than 50 books, including the obscure science fiction - novel Born again . In the early 1930s he founded a mass movement called the "Direct Credits Society", albeit without lasting success. Lawson developed a highly idiosyncratic all-encompassing scientific model called "Lawsonomy", which is essentially based on the "suction and pressure" principle. In 1943 he founded the "University of Lawsonomy", in 1948 the "Lawsonian Religion".

Life

Childhood and youth

Alfred W. Lawson (1883)

The ancestors of England-born Lawson had Scottish and Scandinavian roots. He was the sixth of nine surviving children of Robert Henry and Mary Anderson Lawson. According to Lawson, his father had studied at Oxford and was a mechanical engineer, inventor and preacher. In his youth, his father is said to have been a successful Shakespeare actor. However, no independent evidence could be found.

His birth, according to Lawson's first biographer Cy Q. Faunce, "was the most significant event since the birth of mankind." In making this assessment, however, it should be noted that the pseudonym was probably Lawson himself when he was writing his own life story. The name "Cy Q. Faunce" itself is a play on words: "Sycophancy" is the English word for "creeping" or "flattery".

Lawson's parents immigrated to Canada when he was three weeks old. In 1874 the family moved to Detroit , Michigan , USA , where the family settled on a small farm outside of town. There Lawson began, as he himself writes, to study natural law at the age of three by “collecting Colorado beetles from plants.” He made his first physical discovery when he was four years old : when he used his lungs for suction, the dust moved on him to. If, on the other hand, he stirred up the dust in his bedroom with the pressure of his lungs, it moved away from him. This principle, which he called “suction and pressure”, was later to become one of the fundamental elements of “Lawson physics”.

The family later moved to the city of Detroit, where Father Lawson ran a small patchwork business. Lawson helped his father's business, worked as a shoe shine and newspaper seller. He attended elementary school until he was twelve. Then serious problems with the teachers ended his schooling forever. Lawson ran away from home and did not return to his parents until two years later. Later he completed an industrial training course in a coat sewing shop, interrupted by another runaway company. In his forays, Lawson appears to have traveled the country mainly as a hobo on freight trains. A drawing published in several of his books shows him in the wind of a speeding locomotive. The caption reads: "Alfred Lawson studies air resistance on moving bodies."

Baseball years

As a pitcher

Alfred W. Lawson (1890)

By chance, Lawson's talent for baseball was discovered in 1887 and until 1889 he played as a professional baseball player in a total of five teams in independent regional leagues (" farm teams ") in the states of Indiana , Illinois and Wisconsin , each of which had lured the extraordinary pitcher "phenomenon" Lawson . After a brilliant winter season in St. Augustine (Florida) he was hired by the team from Wilmington (Delaware) for the short-lived Minor League Atlantic Association in 1890 , but where he failed. Nevertheless, he was signed by two National League clubs in succession in 1890 : Boston and Pittsburgh . After three defeats within 20 days, his career in the Major League , the top American division, was over again. Until 1894 Lawson played occasionally in various minor leagues .

Tour operator

Lawson worked briefly as a manager in the minor league in 1890 and then formed his own team for the Florida winter season, which included the later baseball legend John McGraw . After the end of the season he went to Cuba with the troupe renamed "Al Lawson's American All-Stars", but where they lost all but one game and returned to Key West without making any profit . From there on they had to earn the onward journey through more games. With a strongly shrunk team, Lawson initially stayed in warm Florida, but contractually could not guarantee the players more than "food, the shaving and washing costs and one cigar per week". After an England tour with a New York amateur team in 1892 had failed and ended with Lawson's flight, he tried to organize a "world tour" in 1892/93, which took him via South Africa , Australia and New Zealand to Honolulu . The baseball federations there, informed of Lawson through a report in Sporting Life magazine , responded negatively, which upset Lawson to the point that he called the Sporting Life writer "a vicious and despicable liar up to his neck, a pitiful dog, one crawling, crawling scoundrels of the most cowardly kind ”. So this company had failed too, so that Lawson, completely burned down, had to earn the return journey as a seaman on a freighter.

In 1895 he organized another tour to Great Britain and France . To do this, he put together a team of alleged amateurs who, according to Lawson, used to play for the universities of Harvard , Yale and Princeton . Also featured on the team line-up is a player named George Anderson , who Lawson said was on the University of Ann Arbor team . Behind it actually hid his brother George H. Lawson (1864-1927), who was also active in the baseball business, later was active as a hypnotist "Professor Lawson Hermann", faith healer and preacher and had to serve countless prison sentences for drunkenness and violence. Another Lawson brother was in the baseball business: Alexander J. Lawson , including president of the short-lived Western Pennsylvania League, who was nicknamed "Runaway Alex".

Lawson's European tour also collapsed within two weeks due to a lack of income. Al Lawson left in a hurry, leaving his players with no hotel money. He then continued to work as a manager in the baseball business. From 1900 Lawson founded several clubs and baseball leagues himself. In 1908 he finally failed when trying to build his own major league with the "Union League" and said goodbye to the baseball business.

Classification in baseball history

Overall, Lawson's influence on American baseball history is considered marginal. Its role in the development of "night baseball" is controversial. He was probably not its inventor, but at least played a significant role in the introduction of portable electrical floodlight systems that began in 1901.

Still, these years were important to Lawson's development. Personally, he benefited from the rising fame of professional baseball players as "American heroes". He also learned to build, run and market larger organizations. In addition, his activities gave him enough time to get to know the world and pursue his private studies. According to his own statements, during this time he founded a "College for Phonography " in Buffalo , where he himself claims to have taught a specially developed shorthand .

Science fiction writer

Born again (1904)

Lawson had not only corrupted the baseball years, but also had bad health. He smoked, drank and suffered from tooth loss. In what he writes, “superhuman exertion”, he freed himself from these vices in his late twenties.

The result of this inner reversal was the publication of the science fiction novel Born again in 1904, which was also published in German and is considered to be “one of the worst fictional works that have ever been printed”. The contents of the book in brief:

After upsetting the rest of the ship's crew, John Convert, the novel's hero, is thrown overboard, but fortunately ends up on an unexplored island where Arletta, the last survivor of the lost Sagemen race, is deeply asleep. Like Sleeping Beauty resurrected by a kiss, she conveys many chapters to Convert the history and culture of her people, who had developed independently of humanity, the "Apemen". Then she dies. Inspired by his new findings, Convert returns to America and begins the " natural law " ( "natural law") to spread the "Sagemen" until his cousin Edward Convert (John Convert like a twin like) John's girlfriend (which the Sagemen -Arletta is like a twin and is also called Arletta) murdered. Instead of Edward, John Convert is charged and convicted of the crime. John's girlfriend Arletta shows up and can prove his innocence. But too late. John has already been executed. So far so good. But what happened? The murdered Arletta was not John's friend at all, but a drifting woman who happened to resemble the Sagemen-Arletta and the friend Arletta like a triplet and, of course, was also called Arletta. But the now ex-girlfriend Arletta can at least state with satisfaction in the final chapter that the “natural law” of the “Sagemen” has been reborn .

Lawson was so proud of his novel, which anticipated some of the principles of Lawsonomy , that he kept republishing the book throughout his life. The work is still available today and can also be accessed online.

The aviation pioneer

First edition of Fly 1908
Lawson Airliner in Washington, DC 1919
Lawson after landing in 1919

In 1908 Lawson was in Philadelphia the founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of Fly , the first American magazine to promote flight with machines that were heavier than air . Lawson did so at a time when only three Americans had even flown such machines. In 1910 he founded Aircraft magazine in New York , which he ran until 1914 and which became the main mouthpiece of early aviation. Lawson did not invent the word "aircraft" on this occasion, but at least introduced it into common usage.

Lawson took his first flight in 1910, learned to fly himself in 1913 and in the same year established New York's first fixed flight connection, which ran from the "North Beach Area" in New Jersey to 75th Street in Manhattan . Its main purpose was to get Lawson from his home to his work in New York on a daily basis. In 1913 he asked the American Congress for $ 10 million to develop American aviation.

Lawson Aircraft Corporation

After attempts had failed to form an American production company together with European partners such as Henri Farman and the German aircraft construction company Schütte-Lanz , Lawson founded his own aircraft company, Lawson, in Green Bay , Wisconsin , in 1917 after the USA entered the First World War Aircraft Corporation that designed military training aircraft. During this time Lawson demanded in several submissions to Congress the production of up to 500,000 aircraft for war purposes and the appointment of a " generalissimo of the skies", with no doubt he was thinking of himself. The war ended before Lawson's aircraft company could go into series production.

Well-known aircraft developer Vincent Burnelli , who worked for Lawson for a few years, later said: "Lawson was perhaps the craziest man I have ever met." For Burnelli, he was "a mixture of weirdo and genius" who didn't need alcohol take off. At the same time, Burnelli considered him "one of the most dynamic figures in the pioneering days of aviation".

Lawson Airline Transportation Company

After the end of the war, Lawson reorganized his financially troubled company in Milwaukee and founded the Lawson Airline Transportation Company, one of the world's first passenger airlines. In 1919 he presented his first self-designed passenger aircraft that offered space for 26 travelers. Lawson was so proud of the event that he had his own “Airline” march composed. With this Lawson Airliner C-2 he made a 2000-mile sightseeing flight through the USA, which also took him to New York and Washington DC. There the airliner was visited by Warren G. Harding and the later initiator of the United States Air Force General William "Billy" Mitchell . Lawson started without the prior knowledge of the participants, who included the then US Secretary of War Newton D. Baker and several senators , on a sightseeing flight, after which Lawson's involuntary passengers fled the plane. Only the seriously overweight Senator Hoke Smith had to be lifted from the aircraft seat by several helpers. Nevertheless, this flight was a publicity success and was used by Lawson to promote his planned national passenger service. Another step in that direction was US Post Airmail contracts for $ 685,000 that Lawson's company received.

A launch disaster on the maiden flight of Lawson's next major aircraft design, the Lawson Midnight Airliner L-4, in 1921 ended his lofty plans. As a result, financiers, already insecure by production delays and the economic depression of the early 1920s , withdrew their financial support for Lawson's companies, which had to file for bankruptcy in 1922 .

Lawson Super Airliner

In 1926 Lawson tried again. This time he planned to build and operate a fleet of huge 12-engine aircraft called the Super Airliner, which would carry more than 100 passengers in a two-story cabin. This time too, a lack of funding and technical difficulties led to constant missed deadlines and ended his plans even before the first aircraft had been completed. Lawson then gave up his aviation activity forever. He only successfully marketed his patent for airplane sleeping cabins to intercity bus and railway companies .

Despite his multiple failures, Lawson's role in American aviation history is largely viewed positively because of his visionary ideas. For the historian Lyell D. Henry he was "the Columbus of the air". And the journalist Herb Hansen wrote in 1955: "Alfred W. Lawson was the Jules Verne of the 20th century, the Wright of commercial aviation, the Edison of aviation ."

Lawsonomy

“Professor Einstein can now step into the background with his theory of relativity and be quiet. Alfred W. Lawson of Milwaukee rules the stage. ”This was the ironic headline of the Berkeley Daily Gazette in its October 1922 report on Lawson's first announcement of“ Lawsonomy ”.

Lawson modestly defines "Lawsonomy" as "the knowledge of life and all that goes with it". He goes on to say, somewhat cryptically, that everything must “be verifiable or appropriate, or it is not Lawsonomy… If it is not real; if it is not truth; if it is not knowledge; if it is not prudence; then it's not Lawsonomy. ”Lawson, who had been showing signs of megalomania since the early 1920s (“ The abundance of his intellectual activities seem to know no limit ”), presented the various stages of this“ science ”on a chart published around 1950 ": Beginning with his birth in 1869 as the" birth of Lawsonomy "through the discovery of the" Sixth Dimension "in 1938, the founding of the" Lawson Religion "in 1948 up to the year 2000, in which" all races adopt the principles of Lawsonomy " become. The editor of Lawson's seminal work Manlife (1923) - Lawson himself - confidently placed him in the history of science:

"Compared to Lawson's law of permeability and zigzag motion, Newton's law of gravity is only a first forerunner, and the teachings of Copernicus and Galileo are only infinitely small fragments of knowledge."

Indeed, one has to forget Newton, Einstein and all of his school knowledge when entering Lawson's physical cosmos, which, however, cannot be denied an inner logic.

"Suction and pressure" principle

Lawsonomy is based on its own revolutionary physics . It was so novel that Lawson had to invent numerous terms to describe it, which in turn had to be explained to the readers of his books in long dictionary-like lists. He confidently stated, "The core principles of physics were unknown until they were introduced by Lawson."

The energy concept has been completely rejected by Lawson. Instead, he imagines a universe in which there is neither energy nor empty space, but only substances of different densities . Substances with a higher density move towards substances with a lower density in this system, whereby it remains open "why" they do this. A principle called “Suction and Pressure” by Lawson comes into effect. He calls the superordinate law "penetrability", which means "permeability". By this Lawson means the "ability to be penetrated ". Eventually the substances with smaller and larger density would reach a state of equilibrium which he calls "Equaeverpois".

Science journalist Martin Gardner points out that Lawson's construct makes perfect sense. However, it was problematic that Lawson applied it comprehensively: light is only a substance that is sucked in by the eye, sound is a substance sucked in by the ears. The force of gravity is a result of earthly suction. The whole earth functions according to the "suction and pressure" principle, whereby substances are mainly sucked in through the north pole and excreted through the south pole , which acts as an anus . As proof of this, Lawson evaluates the gases produced in the form of the aurora borealis . The human body is also subject to this principle. According to Lawson, sex works like this: "The feminine movement is sucking, the masculine movement is pressure ... The attraction of one sex to the other is merely the attraction of sucking on pressure." The same principle applies to magnetism .

"Zigzag vortex"

As if to complicate the whole thing, this process is subject to the so-called "zig-zag-and-swirl" ("zig-zag vortex"). Lawson defines it as

"Movement in which each structure - corresponding to the movements of many increasingly larger structures - moves in a multiple direction, each [structure] in its direction is dependent on the larger structure and is subject to various changes caused by the opposing influences of suction and Pressure in different proportions. "

Elmar Schenkel sums up this confusing description in his essay on Lawson by saying that, according to Lawson, “nothing in this universe moves in a straight line. The varied movement of things creates a zigzag vortex. ”Lawson knew that his science was incomprehensible to established physicists, but he was certain that“ the coming generations of scholars would understand its enormous value ”. "If you study ... Lawsonomy, all problems that theoretically arise in connection with physics will disappear".

"Menorgs" and "Disorgs"

The Neurology redefines Lawson. According to his theory, two types of tiny beings live in the human brain , which he calls "Menorgs" and "Disorgs". The “Menorgs” (“mental organizers”) are “microscopic thinking beings who build up and operate the mental resources within the cells of the thinking apparatus. You are responsible for all that is good and creative. ”Your opponents are the“ Disorgs ”,“ microscopic pests that infect the cells of the mental system and destroy the mental resources operated by the Menorgs. ”According to Lawson, everyone will "Menorg sacrifice themselves for the good of the body, but a disorg would sacrifice the body for its own good." Lawson's followers also praised the healing power of the "Menorgs" in hymn songs:

Menorgs are wonderful builders all,
Builders of the great and small.
All of life they permeate,
all formations they create.
Disorgs tear down eternally
While menorgs build faithfully.

As an economic reformer

Cover of the Benefactor , Journal of the Direct Credits Society

In the early 1930s, Lawson stated that he would spend the rest of his life without possessions or money. Indeed, from that point on, Lawson officially ran out of private income, but in practice financed his lavish lifestyle from the income of his numerous “non-profit” organizations.

In 1931, at the height of the " Great Depression, " Lawson founded a mass movement called the Direct Credits Society. With the slogan “Justice for all does no harm”, the “DCS” quickly became one of the most popular economic and political movements in America. Most local groups were in the state of Michigan, where the "Direct Credits Society" claims to have 1.5 million members in 1936, but there were also some in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri , Ohio , Wisconsin, Iowa , Minnesota and even Canada. In 1933, 16,000 people gathered to hear Lawson at the Olympia Auditorium in Detroit. And in 1935 Lawson spoke to an audience of 12,000 at the International Amphitheater in Chicago . In addition, specially composed songs were sung that glorified Lawson and the “Lawsonomy” (“Yes, Alfred William Lawson is the great eternal gift of God to man”).

From 1934 the movement published the magazine “Benefactor”, which in 1942 is said to have had a circulation of 10 million copies. Critics called Lawson's organization disparagingly the "milkmen movement" because the "Direct Credits Society" was not only organized militarily, but also prescribed its own uniform. This consisted of white trousers and a white shirt as well as a white cap with the name of the organization. Men also wore a red tie, women a red sash.

The basis of the "Direct Credit" movement was its own economic theory, which Lawson presented in 1931 in the book "Direct Credits for Everyone". The theory was quite simple: According to Lawson, the guilt for the misfortune of the world was self-interest and the pursuit of money, the guilty the financiers , who for Lawson were "pig-like madmen". Of the - according to Lawson - three cornerstones of the economy , namely financiers, capital and labor , only the latter two would have to unite against the financiers in order to eliminate self-interest. Interest rates and the gold standard as a currency basis would have to be abolished. That leaves more money for ordinary people. Lawson also advocated a different understanding of money. According to his theory, it had no value in itself, but should, controlled by a democratically legitimized government, be distributed to the population in the form of wages and direct credits as an inherently worthless symbol of exchange. For Lawson, the “direct credit” idea was more than an economic concept, it was an expression of his theory of a fundamental law of nature .

Lawson's “Direct Credits” theory corresponded to a current of the time that was most clearly expressed in the Social Credit movement of Clifford Hugh Douglas and which is described by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1939 novel For Us, the Living . Historically, Lawson's basic ideas go back to Thomas More and his book Utopia (1516), but Lawson did not refer to any of these models in his publications and speeches. Martin Gardner , in his article on Lawson in the late 1950s, stressed the appalling fact that such an apparently pointless theory could generate such a level of public hysteria and mass hypnosis in times of economic hardship.

The end of the Depression and the economic boom during World War II led to the demise of the movement without ever being officially dissolved. Instead, Lawson founded his own religious community, the "Lawsonian Religion", in 1948.

Lawsonian religion

The Lawson religion, founded in 1948, preaches a kind of Christianity without Christ . It is based on "Lawsonomy", the "Knowledge of Life" and Lawson's "fundamental laws of physics, psyche, morality and their spiritual manifestations". The Lawson religion includes a "supreme understanding" of God and the belief in an all-producing "omniparents", the so-called "benefactor" ("benefactor"). She demands pure birth, a decent life, honesty, friendly treatment of all people (especially those of different faiths), verifiable training and continuous further education from her followers. The aim is to bring all people together to worship one God.

Lawson planned the reform of human nature himself. The aim was to create a "new species" of people, which Lawson meant spiritually, intellectually, and physically. Lawson believed that this would eventually create a kind of “super race” that would communicate by telepathy - by which he understood another form of suction and pressure - and would live at least 200 years, if not forever .

Lawson also developed detailed health rules. This included a vegetarian way of life, which should consist primarily of raw fruits, vegetables, grains and "freshly cut grass". One should only drink warm water, wash cold mornings and evenings, sleep naked and change bed linen every day. Kissing was strictly refused by Lawson: "Can you imagine anything more filthy than when a man and a woman put their faces together and spit germs in each other's mouths?"

The religious community still operates under the name of the "Humanity Benefactor Foundation" founded by Lawson in 1931. Lawson originally planned a thousand churches of his own in the American Midwest . That number was never reached. At the end of the 1990s, only the chapel at the "University of Lawsonomy" and parishes in Detroit, Wichita (Kansas) and Murrieta (California) existed.

"University of Lawsonomy"

Building of the later University of Lawsonomy (postcard around 1907)

In 1943 Lawson bought the Des Moines building and grounds of the 1929 closed "Des Moines University" and founded the "University of Lawsonomy" (DMUL), which existed until 1954. Despite a good recruiting basis through the “Direct Credits Society”, there were never more than 100 students enrolled at this “university”. There was no normal curriculum , instead they were encouraged to study Lawson's books on their own. They lived together according to Lawson's health rules, grew their own food on campus and avoided contact with the population. The DMUL soon thought of this as a kind of “prison camp”. After clashes between students and residents in October 1944, a wall was built around the university and citizens of Des Moines were forbidden to enter the facility.

The institution was initially tax-exempt as a non-profit educational institution. This privilege was revoked after investigations by several committees of inquiry. The background to this was that in March 1952 Lawson had to take a position before a US Senate subcommittee on the charge that he had enriched himself by fraudulently buying and selling surplus armaments machine tools. Lawson did not respond to the allegations, but stated that he was too preoccupied with "great philosophical thoughts" to concern himself with such insignificant details as a purchase agreement for $ 120,000. In order to pay the tax debts, the "University of Lawsonomy" was then sold in November 1954 for $ 250,000 to a businessman who had the building demolished and a shopping center built on the site.

1957, three years after Lawson's death, the "University of Lawsonomy" in Racine County , Wisconsin , was re-established by his supporters on the premises of the "University of Lawsonomy Farm".

Last years

When he was over seventy, Lawson eventually married and had a son and daughter. Lawson died on November 29, 1954, leaving his organization in chaos as his written succession plan had been postponed and only found two years later. The urn with his ashes is kept on the premises of the "University of Lawsonomy" in Sturtevant, Wisconsin.

The last Lawsonomy Students Reunion took place in 2002 . A few years ago the word “of” on the banner of the “University of Lawsonomy”, which was visible for miles on Interstate 94 - Highway, was replaced by the Internet address of lawsonomy.org , until a storm in spring 2009 destroyed the fabric. All that is visible to passers-by is the inscription on a building: "Study Natural Law."

Supporters of his teaching are still active today and his umbrella organization “Humanity Benefactor Foundation” exists.

Works (selection)

  • Born again. Wox, Conrad Co., New York 1904.
  • Lawsonpoise and how to grow young. Cosmopower, Detroit 1923.
  • Manlife. Humanity Benefactor Foundation, Detroit 1923.
  • Direct credits for everybody. Arnold & Company, Philadelphia 1931.
  • Creation. Humanity Pub. Co., Detroit 1931.
  • Lawsonomy. 3 volumes. Humanity Benefactor Foundation, Detroit 1935-1938.
  • Children. Humanity Pub. Co., Detroit 1938.
  • Penetrability. Humanity Pub. Co., Detroit 1939.
  • A new species. Humanity Benefactor Foundation, Detroit 1944.
  • 100 great speeches. Humanity Pub. Co., Detroit 1945.
  • Lawsonian religion. Humanity Benefactor Foundation, Detroit 1949.

literature

  • Cy Q. Faunce: The Airliner and Its Inventor. Alfred W. Lawson. Rockcastel Publishing Co., Columbus (OH) 1921.
  • Martin Gardner: Zig-zag-and-swirl. In: Ders .: Fads and fallacies in the name of science. Dover Publications, Mineola NY 1952, revised. Edition: 1957, ISBN 0-486-20394-8 , pp. 69-79.
  • Angus Hall: Strange Cults. Doubleday, Garden City, NY 1976; Aldus Books, London 1976; German: Kultismus - mysterious manners and customs. Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin/Wien 1979, ISBN 3-548-03713-5 .
  • Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 1991, ISBN 0-87745-312-8 .
  • Donna Kossy : Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief. Feral House, Los Angeles 2001, ISBN 0-922915-67-9 .
  • Jerry Kuntz: Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines. The Many Lives and Outrageous Times of George and Alfred Lawson. McFarland, Jefferson NC 2009, ISBN 978-0-7864-4375-8 .
  • Elmar Schenkel: The inexorable law of suction and pressure. Alfred William Lawson. In: Ders .: The electric ladder to heaven. Eccentric in science. C. H. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-51136-8 , pp. 149-152.
  • Carl Sifakis: Lawson, Alfred William (1869-1954). The Greatest. In: Ders .: American Eccentrics. Facts on File, New York 1984, ISBN 0-87196-788-X , pp. 223-226.
  • J. Rodolfo Wilcock : The Temple of Iconoclasts. Mercury House, San Francisco 2000, ISBN 1-56279-119-2 .

Web links

  • Website of lawsonomy.org
  • Website. (No longer available online.) In: humanity-benefactor-foundation.4t.com. Humanity Benefactor Foundation, archived from the original on January 10, 2017 .;

Movies and videos

  • Video from the University of Lawsonomy site in Sturtevant, Wisconsin (1994)
  • Last of the Lawsonomists (long form trailer). Trailer for the documentary Last of the Lawsonomists (2013), directed by Ryan Sarnowski. (No longer available online.) In: vimeo.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013 (English, accompanying text; video no longer available).;

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Carl Sifakis: Lawson, Alfred William (1869-1954). In: Ders .: American Eccentrics. New York 1984, ISBN 0-87196-788-X , pp. 223-226 ( PDF; 26.3 MB ).
  2. ↑ a b Elmar Schenkel: The inexorable law of suction and pressure. Alfred William Lawson. In: Ders .: The electric ladder to heaven. Eccentric in science. Munich 2005, pp. 149–152.
  3. ↑ "Leonardo da Vinci of kooks"; among other things quot. in Charles J. Adams: Tales from Baseballtown. Reading (PA) 2006, p. 22.
  4. ^ Cf. Cy Q. Faunce: The Airliner and Its Inventor. Alfred W. Lawson. Columbus (OH) 1921, p. 133.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991.
  6. ↑ Quotation from Martin Gardner: Fads and fallacies in the name of science. Mineola (NY) 1957, p. 72; German translation by user: Tvwatch .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Martin Gardner: Zig-zag-and-swirl. In: Ders .: Fads and fallacies in the name of science. Mineola (NY) rev. ed. 1957, pp. 69-79.
  8. ↑ Illustration in: Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl: Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991, p. 11 ( image online ).
  9. ↑ See entry on baseball-reference.com .
  10. ↑ Quotation from Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991, p. 30; see also Charles C. Alexander: John McGraw. Viking, New York 1988, pp. 17-19, 28.
  11. ↑ Jerry Kuntz: Al Lawson Down Under - 1892-1893 ( Memento of July 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: morefiends.typepad.com, February 5, 2010, accessed October 25, 2019; German by user: Tvwatch .
  12. ↑ George Lawson. In: baseball-reference.com, accessed October 25, 2019; More Finds: November 2009 ( Memento of July 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: morefiends.typepad.com, November 2009 (Lawson text collection, English).
  13. ↑ a b Jerry Kuntz: George H. Lawson. The Rogue Who Tried to Reform Baseball. In: The Baseball Research Journal. 37 (2008), pp. 42-50.
  14. ↑ A game in London is described in Richard George Knowles, Richard Morton: Baseball. London 1896, p. 36 ff.
  15. ↑ See, for example, the article The Brooklyn Bandits on covehurst.net .
  16. ↑ See also William J. Wagner: DC Had Baseball Times Two; One Spring, 2 Leagues Played With Senators. In: The Washington Post. March 26, 1989.
  17. ↑ David Pietrusza: Lights On! The Wild Century-Long Saga of Night Baseball. Scarecrow Press, Lanham (MD) 1997, 24 f.
  18. ^ Alfred William Lawson: Born again. 1904; German: born again. Lotus-Verlag, Leipzig 1905 (see JC Hinrichs' five-year catalog of books, magazines and maps published in German bookshops. Volume 11: 1901–1905. Leipzig 1906, p. 840).
  19. ↑ Quotation from Martin Gardner: Fads and fallacies in the name of science. Mineola (NY) 1957, p. 73; German translation by user: Tvwatch .
  20. ^ Everett Franklin Bleiler , Richard Bleiler: Science-fiction, the Early Years. Kent (OH): Kent State University Press, 1990, pp. 427 f .; a nice review is Alfred Armstrong: Born again. In: oddbooks.co.uk (2008).
  21. ↑ Online at lawsonomy.org.
  22. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, The Aviation Pioneer section is based on Lyell D. Henry, Jr .: Alfred W. Lawson, Aviation Pioneer. In: Baseball research Journal. 1980, pp. 9-12; Images and texts of Lawson's aircraft designs on the Lawson website . The World's First Jumbo Airliner. ( Memento of May 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (2003).
  23. ↑ s. a. The Lawson Training Tractor Biplane. In: Flight. October 11, 1917, p. 1047 ( flightglobal.com [accessed October 25, 2019]).
  24. ↑ Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991, p. 82.
  25. ↑ Booton Herndon: The Non-sked Adventure of the First Airliner. In: True. Juni 1962, pp. 56-60, 103-107 (German by user: Tvwatch ).
  26. ↑ See also Lawson Airplane Co., S. Milwaukee. In: Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter. Volume 31, No. 2 (2002), p. 17 ( industrialarchaeology.net [PDF; 1.7 MB]).
  27. ^ A b Herb Hansen: World's First Airliner Built Here. In: Milwaukee Sentinel. July 22, 1955, Pt. 3, p. 11.
  28. ^ The Airline March (1919) ( title page , title and notes ( Memento of May 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive )).
  29. ↑ See Alfred Lawson: A Two Thousand Mile Trip in the First Airliner. (first 1919) Reprint Detroit 1980 ( PDF; 30.4 MB; if necessary, click "View with other program" to open the PDF selection ( memento of August 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )); Lawson Air Liner Makes History. In: Aerial Age Weekly. X, No. 2, September 22, 1919, p. 1 ( PDF; 7.0 MB; if necessary, click “View with a different program” to open the PDF selection ( memento of October 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), with further correspondence from Lawson).
  30. ↑ See letter from the Post Office Department. September 13, 1920, as well as newspaper article Lawson's Get Big Contract. In: South Milwaukee Journal. September 18, 1920 ( PDF; 128 kB; if necessary, click "View with other program" to open PDF selection ( Memento from December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from the George Hardie Collection, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee ); Air Service is Aided by Aerial Mail Delivery . In: The Evening Herald . N. E. A. Staff Special. Rock Hill, South Carolina November 1, 1920, p. 1 , col. 4 (English, news.google.com ( memento of July 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on October 27, 2019] Article excerpt ; heraldonline.newsbank.com (with registration)).
  31. ^ Lawson's Giant Plane Crashes to Earth As It "Takes Off" for Its Maiden Voyage. In: The New York Times. May 9, 1921, p. 1; Giant Air Liner Wrecked. In: The Los Angeles Times. May 9, 1921, p. 1; detailed in: Virginia Davidson: End of flight. In: The Milwaukee Journal. February 5, 1981, pp. 1, 6.
  32. ^ The Lawson Midnight Airliner. In: Flight. May 12, 1921, pp. 323-326 ( flightglobal.com ); MIDNIGHT liner. In: Air Classics. August 2006.
  33. ^ Robert Lange: The Future of Aircraft Interior or "Back to the Future". (PDF; 4.6 MB) (No longer available online.) In: aviationtech.co.kr. Aircraft Interiors Expo, Cannes, 2000, p. 7 , archived from the original on March 25, 2003 ; accessed on October 25, 2019 (English, photo). .
  34. ^ Lawson, Alfred W. 1926: Passenger compartment. United States Pat.No. 1568855 ( freepatentsonline.com [PDF; 139 kB; accessed October 25, 2019]).
  35. ↑ Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991, p. 84.
  36. ↑ Einstein surpassed. In: Berkeley Daily Gazette. October 2, 1922, p. 4.
  37. ↑ a b c d e Martin Gardner: Fads and fallacies in the name of science. Mineola (NY) 1957, pp. 70 ff .; all quotations from ibid .; German translation by user: Tvwatch .
  38. ↑ a b quotation from Martin Gardner: Fads and fallacies in the name of science. Mineola (NY) 1957, p. 69; German translation by user: Tvwatch .
  39. ↑ Facsimile on the title by Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991.
  40. ↑ a b s. a. Keep Your Balance and Live 200 Years. In: The New York Times. September 23, 1922 ( PDF ).
  41. ↑ Mighty Menorgs by Margaret Taylor, Sheet Music, 20 October - Chansons de Lawsonomy ( Memento of 25 August 2009 at the Internet Archive ). In: janusmuseum.org; from: Short Speeches as Spoken by Alfred Lawson. Text Book for Orators. Detroit MI 1942; s. a. Margaret C. Taylor, Arlene Osmun: Songs of Lawsonomy. Detroit MI 1961.
  42. ^ Garret Kenneth Jones: The direct credits society. An anthropological study. Thesis (M.A.). Wayne State University, Detroit 1990.
  43. ↑ a b See also Education: Zigzag & Swirl. In: Time Magazine . September 6, 1943.
  44. ↑ Direct Credits to be explained here. In: The Owosso Argus-Press. May 29, 1936, p. 3.
  45. ↑ Quoted from Lyell D. Henry: Zig-zag-and-swirl. Alfred W. Lawson's quest for greatness. Iowa City 1991, p. XIV; German translation by user: Tvwatch .
  46. ↑ a b Jeffrey Felshman: Mission Implausible. In: Chicago Reader. June 18, 1998.
  47. ↑ See Lawson's White-clad Direct Credits Society Holds Grand Rally Here. In: The Milwaukee Journal. September 27, 1937, p. 12; Photo. Direct Credits Society Group at Monument Circle, Indianapolis, August 20, 1939, Indiana Historical Society holdings , accessed September 27, 2013.
  48. ↑ See Joseph T. Major: Born again. In: Alexiad. Volume 5, No. 6 (2006), p. 3 f. ( efanzines.com [PDF; 2.2 MB]).
  49. ^ A b Unclassified Religious Groups: Humanity Benefactor Foundation on novelguide.com. ( Memento from February 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  50. ^ German based on Elmar Schenkel: The electric ladder to heaven. Eccentric in science. Munich 2005, p. 152.
  51. ^ Lawson Group Buys Des Moines School. In: The Milwaukee Journal. August 20, 1943.
  52. ↑ a b See also Old Des Moines University, 1929. (No longer available online.) In: pldminfo.org. Des Moines Public Library, archived from the original on November 1, 2010 ; Retrieved October 27, 2019 (English, source: The Riot That Closed Des Moines U. In: Des Moines Tribune. May 11, 1979, p. 38).
  53. ↑ Timothy Miller: The Quest for Utopia in Twentieth-Century America. Vol. I: 1900-1960. Syracuse UP, Syracuse 1998, p. 193 f .; Robert P. Sutton: Modern American Communes. A Dictionary. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2005, p. 41.
  54. ↑ a b Select Committee on Small Business: Machine-tool shortages, Hearings before a subcommittee of the Select Committee on Small Business, United States Senate, Eighty-second Congress, second session, on the impact of machine-tool shortages on small manufacturers. USGPO, Washington DC 1952, pp. 162 ff., 375 ff .; Senate to Probe Iowa 'University'. In: Reading Eagle. March 10, 1952; Lawson Busy With Thoughts, Senators said. In: The Milwaukee Journal. March 18, 1952.
  55. ^ Tax Exempt Status Is Lost. In: The Milwaukee Journal. May 14, 1952; Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations. Part 1. United States House of Representatives Eighty-Third Congress, Washington DC 1954, p. 458.
  56. ^ Lawsonomy Cult Sells 'University'. In: The New York Times. November 21, 1954, p. 81.
  57. ↑ See also Virginia Davidson: Mystery Revealed. In: The Milwaukee Journal. June 25, 1981, p. 8.
  58. ↑ See David A. Spitzley: Alfred Lawson - Direct Credits, Pressure and Suction. (No longer available online.) In: davidaspitzley.org/MythicDetroit. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010 ; accessed on October 25, 2019 (English, no year).
  59. ↑ Photo on flickr.com
  60. ↑ site of lawsonomy.org; Website ( memento of November 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of the Humanity Benefactor Foundation.
personal data
SURNAME Lawson, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lawson, Alfred William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American baseball player and manager, aviation pioneer, author, inventor of the all-encompassing science "lawsonomy" and founder of religion
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1954
Place of death San Antonio