McHenry County Blog

Tyler Natoli

University of Chicago doctoral student Tyler Natoli spoke to the United Methodist Men of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake Saturday morning about his stay in Antarctica.

He has just returned.

He is part of the team that built and is operating the microwave telescope at the South Pole.

Helping interpret the captured data as well, I would assume.

10,000 feet above see level set on about two miles of ice, the telescope measures waves from within 300,000 years of the 13,7 billion year-old universe.

Tyler Natoli points to our location in the universe.

Take a look at the telescope specifications:

The telescope is built on packed snow, bed rock being almost two miles below.

The telescope was custom-built by University of Chicago personnel in cooperation with Argon Laboratory in suburban Chicago.

Natoli explained the path of the microwaves into the telescope. There are two mirrors, two bounces to the receptors.

The telescope focuses the microwaves and then captures them.  Note that the building rests upon stilts, which will fill in with drifted snow over time.

The receptors are gold plated and work like a digital camera.

The receptors are custom-made of copper and aluminum coated with gold.

The targeted microwave part of the spectrum is highlighted in this illustration.

The astrophysics lecture was about the Big Bang Theory.

Tyler Natoli posed the question, “Where did the Big Bang happen?”

Part travel log and part science lecture, physicist Natoli introduced a new concept to this science-impaired listener:

There were multiple, simultaneous Big Bangs.

Using his arms Tyler Natoli explained how the universe is expanding.

“In every direction, we see the Big Bang happened.  We can see that it happened in every point in space,”Natoli explained.

The first slide in this series was a series of blue dots representing the simultaneous Big Bangs. Tyler Natoli explains they moved away from each other and continue to do so.

He said that the space between the points are moving away from each other as the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate.

The Big Bang is seen in every direction from earth.

Why’s the telescope at the South Pole?

First, because the atmosphere is thinnest there and, second, because it is a desert without water in the air.

He explained how a microwave oven heats up and agitates the molecules of water in the food being cooked.  The relative lack of water in the atmosphere above the South Pole allows the least interference with the microwaves coming from space.

Why not put the telescope in space?

It takes ten years to test what is sent up in space so a telescope sent there is ten years behind cutting edge technology.

And it can’t be repaired.

The South Pole

Those two problems do not exist at the South Pole.

Today we conclude the memories of John Kinsley’s boyhood in London during World War II.

He told them to the United Methodist Men at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.

John Kinsley

Down London Memory Lane with John Kinsley

In March 1945 Allied forces overran the launch sites and rounded up the scientists who developed it, most notably Werner von Braun.

Germany’s forces surrendered in bits and pieces and complete and total surrender occurred on May 6.

Spontaneous celebration all over Britain knew no bounds and I joined the crowds until late in the evening.

A few weeks after my 16th birthday I started work as an apprentice toolmaker, and as National Service was still in force I soon became eligible to be called up.

To my annoyance I found that due to the nature of my employment I was deferred from National Service as being essential for the country’s economic recovery.

From time to time I had been sent to look for

• sky hooks,
• glass hammers and
• long stands

and I failed to see how that could be regarded as an essential occupation.

However I found out that one could circumvent the Essential Works Order as it was called, by volunteering.

This I did, and aged 20 I became a soldier, and therein lies another tale.

Looking back over those formative years of my life I can honestly say I never knew fear.

The true horror of war was brought home to me in France when I visited the cemeteries of soldiers who lost their lives.

There were thousands of grave markers in neat rows of those who died, the vast majority young men, who had their lives ahead of them.

On Aug 6 and 9th atomic bombs were dropped on Japan and on the 12th Japan surrendered and WW II was over.

Some years later I visited Germany on business and in my conversations I found their focal point of understanding was that Germany had lost the war, not that they were responsible for it, and also the loss of millions of lives.

It made me sad.

On a service call to a company to which we had supplied machinery I met a German engineer.

I told him I had visited Germany and I asked him if he had visited England. He replied,

“Ja, London, many times I bombed it.”

We didn’t have much to talk about after that.

We continue sharing the memories of Crystal Laker John Kinsley about his growing up in London during World War II. He was ten when the war started and sixteen when it ended.

Kingsley spoke to the Methodist Men at last Saturday’s Methodist Men at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake.

John Kinsley

Down London Memory Lane with John Kinsley

The King and Queen often visited bombed areas and frequently appeared on the news, the king always wearing his Fleet Admirals uniform.

Their own house, Buckingham Palace suffered bomb damage, but they resisted the governments’ plea that they should leave London.

Radar at that time was in its infancy but soon our night fighters were equipped with airborne radar, leading to a marked increase in the destruction of German bombers.

To explain the pilots’ extraordinary night vision capability the government put it about that it was because they were eating lots of carrots.

As a child I believed it and also started eating a lot of carrots too.

I don’t know, perhaps the Germans did too.

Powerful search lights probed the sky during an air raid and sometimes one could see a plane in its beam.

Of course I couldn’t go outside and what I could see from my bedroom window was quite limited so I only saw a little of what was going on but usually I saw a red glow in the sky.

To help guide their bombers the Germans used two intersecting radio beams along which the aircraft would fly.

It was not long before we found out how to deflect and widen the beams making them far less effective.

There was also some success with the use of subterfuge to encourage the Germans to bomb open fields.

They also used the Thames estuary for navigation checks and concrete towers were built in the middle of the estuary as a platform for anti-aircraft guns.

The London Underground that in many places is hundreds of feet below ground provided excellent protection, and often one could hear the woomph of an exploding bomb.

Generally though it was also a lot quieter and that made sleep possible.

People were admitted to the stations in the afternoon to stake out a place to sleep and the trains stopped running at about 10pm, at which time electricity to the live rail would be turned off.

I spent several nights sleeping on a blanket on the concrete floor.

In the morning air raid wardens made sure that platforms and corridors were cleared in order to start the trains running again.

“I’m glad I wasn’t on that bus,” John Kingsley said as this slide was shown.

In the center of London enormous fires were started by incendiary bombs and in many cases raged unchecked as the water mains had been ruptured and were unable to provide water for the Fire Brigade.

Bombs that failed to explode and also bombs with a delayed action fuse became a major problem.

Teams were formed to defuse them and as you can imagine it was a very risky job.

All were volunteers, and many recruited from the Royal Engineers, a branch of the service that I was to join later on in life.

Most of the time, though not always, they were successful, even after the Germans installed devices to resist tampering with the fuses.

It was suggested that slave labor in munitions plants were sometimes able to sabotage the detonators.

Even today bombs that did not go off during the war are still being found.

= = = = =
More tomorrow.

Today is the fourth installment of what Crystal Lake resident John Kinsley remembers from growing up in London during World War II.

Born in 1928, Kingsley was aged 10-16 during the war.

John Kinsley read his text. I asked if I could have a copy and he emailed it to me shortly after coming home Saturday morning.

Down London Memory Lane with John Kinsley

In those days farming was labor intensive and as most of the farm laborers were called up and were replaced by young women in what was called the Land Army. I was in a train one day and in the next compartment there was a bunch of Land Army girls singing what I later realized was a ribald song. At the time I did not get the meaning of the words but they came to me later in life.

We were told that Hitler was going to invade us as he had so many other countries and we were told to prepare for it.

There was a case of a woman who put poison in all her jars of jam, as a present for the invaders when they arrived.

I watched air battles, later called the Battle of Britain, not knowing which planes were ours as they were all dots in the sky, but in the end we prevailed prompting Winston Churchill to declare, “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed to so many by so few”.

We lost a lot of planes and pilots too but so did the Germans.

The Luftwaffe had honed its skills during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 by sending ‘volunteers’ to help Franco.

Several hundred pilots spent weeks at a time in the combat zone learning to fly their planes on a war footing.

Churchill rallied the nation with rousing speeches, and we all enjoyed listening to his broadcasts.

I still remember,

“We will fight on the beaches, in the fields, and in the hills and never surrender.”

Radar towers, primitive by today’s standards, had been erected along the coast and gave ample warning that the Luftwaffe was on its way, making it possible for the RAF to be in the air to meet them.

The overall system was quite sophisticated and very effective.  It was known as RDF, Radio Direction Finding.

The Home Guard was formed, made up mostly of those unfit for military service, old soldiers and retired men.

My father was one of them.

They were poorly equipped; some had rifles others did not.

They were employed to

• guard buildings,
• check identity cards, and
• man antiaircraft guns

amongst other duties.

In September 1940 the Luftwaffe began to bomb London.

I was in the garden one afternoon and I watched as the first formations of planes flew over, surrounded by black puffs of smoke from antiaircraft shells.

One could hear the sound of shrapnel falling on the surrounding roofs as the planes continued to fly on.

There must have been 30 or 40 of them.

It was not long before the Germans switched from daylight to night time bombing against which in the beginning we had little defense.

Damage was extensive and during the 3 months of the Blitz thousands of civilians was killed and many more made homeless.

Like most children I had a collection of bits of shrapnel and bits of bombs, and we used to trade them amongst ourselves.

You had to be very careful picking them up as they were often hot and had sharp edges.

I also had some airplane parts but I am not sure how I got them.

= = = = =
More tomorrow.

Crystal Lake’s John Kinsley shared his memories of growing in London during World War II with the Methodist Men of the First Methodist Church of Crystal Lake last Saturday morning.

This is the third installment of what he said.

John Kinsley

Down London Memory Lane with John Kinsley

It was not long before we found out that in every country they occupied, anti-Jewish laws were implemented.

Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing, were not allowed to work in any of the professions, had their property confiscated and their bank accounts frozen.

Millions ended up being murdered or sent to concentration camps and when this began to filter back to us in England, we despised those who were responsible.

England became a shelter for many who escaped from the occupied countries and those able to joined various branches of the armed forces.

I remember that in the RAF there was a whole squadron of Polish fighter pilots.

Preparations for war were everywhere.

Almost immediately a nighttime blackout all over England was enforced.

Air raid sirens were installed in all the big cities.

An oscillating wail indicated that you take cover and a constant pitch was the all clear.

London family air raid shelter. People wore boots when it rained.

Personal air raid shelters were built.

They were called Anderson Shelters named after the fellow who thought of it.

Curved sheets of corrugated steel bolted at the top with matching ends formed the shelter and were usually placed in a hole which had been dug out about 2ft down.

It was about 6ft by 4ft and most people put benches inside that would accommodate four people.

At night candles would provide light and in the event of heavy rain it was wise to wear rubber boots.

In some areas where it was considered possible that aircraft or gliders might try to land, wires were strung out across the fields.

There was darkness everywhere.

Cars and trucks were difficult to see during the blackout so bumpers, fenders and running boards were painted with white stripes, and headlights were covered except for a small slit.

The ARP was formed, thousands of men and women were trained in air raid precautions and went around houses making sure no lights were showing through cracks in the curtains and the shout of “put that light out” was often to be heard.

Thousands of sandbags were used to protect the entrances to public buildings, all road signs were taken down, and pill boxes were built at critical road junctions.

Some are still there.

Barrage balloons were sent up, presumably in the belief that enemy aircraft would fly into the cables that hung from them.

We could no longer go swimming in the sea as barbed wire was installed along the beaches that were likely landing sites and at low tide mines were laid.

After the war many of these mines were not found as they had moved due to the action of the sea and after the war we watched as bulldozers swept up and down the beaches until eventually they were declared safe.

= = = = =
More tomorrow.

Crystal Lake resident John Kinsley, born in London in 1928, shared his memories of World War II with the United Methodist Men of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake on Saturday morning.

He was aged 10-16 during the war.

John Kinsley

 Down London Memory Lane with John Kinsley

Rationing was started; first it was gasoline, didn’t bother us as we did not have a car and any way it was only available to essential services.

Next came food, I got a jar of jam once a month, one egg each week and other essentials which I don’t remember.

I do remember seeing pictures of a banana but did not actually get to eat one until after the war.

Finally clothing. I learned to darn holes in my socks using an electric light bulb in the heel as I could not get a new pair. Also soap was rationed, not that I cared much about that!

Everyone had a Ration Book containing coupons which were stamped when they were used. In keeping with other families a gardening allotment was provided to my father so we could grow food, and I quickly learned not to like cabbage. As we were all became aware, a black market flourished and for a price almost all produce could be had.

In March 1938 German troops marched into Austria to enforce the “Anschluss’ (in German ‘link up’) in reality annexation, and its government was incorporated into the Third Reich. Czechoslovakia had also been occupied, and soon after hostilities ended in Poland, Norway, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium, and Holland were all overrun. German armed forces amounted to 7 ½ million men and included 3,528 generals.

In the summer of 1938 an au pair girl from Germany came to live with us, and with the declaration of war was classed as an enemy alien. My father went to bat for her and she was allowed to stay with us. She was a great companion and I still remember the German songs she taught us. Sometime later she was hired by the US Army as an interpreter.

We had sent an expeditionary force over to France to help the French but through the tide of battle were forced to evacuate through Dunkirk. It was a near miracle that over 300,000 English and French troops were evacuated by the Royal Navy and all manner of small craft. However all their equipment was left behind; some men did not even have rifles. While we were all very pleased that so many had been saved, Churchill made a speech pointing out that wars were not won by evacuations.

France was beaten in 6 weeks, providing the Germans with airfields much closer to England as well as ports along the French coast from which U boats could now sail out into the Atlantic.

= = = = =

More tomorrow.

John Kinsley

Saturday morning a well-attended breakfast of the United Methodist Men heard Crystal Lake resident John Kinsley talk about his memories of World War II.

Kingsley was born in 1928.  He was 10 in 1939, when the war started, and 16 in 1945, when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.

Kingsley has been kind enough to share his talk with us. It’s long, so I shall cut it into separate posts.
It’s too bad you can’t enjoy the British accent he still has.

Down London Memory Lane with John Kinsley

I was born halfway between WW I and WW II. In 1928 to be precise.

My father was a professional soldier and fought in the war to end all wars and was now a poultry farmer.

Life was a little different then; no TV, it had yet to be invented, but unlike many living in the country, we had electricity for our house. It came from a generator in a shed and when it was shut down light slowly faded away and it was best to be in bed before that happened.

I saw my first airplane when I was 8 and I thought that was the most exciting thing ever.

In March 1938, Neville Chamberlain, The British Prime Minister, and other European leaders fought hard for peace at a conference in Munich at which Hitler declared his intention of annexing the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia that was populated with people of German ancestry.

In return for a promise that this was his last territorial demand, the participants gave in.

Czechoslovakia was not represented at the conference as it was well known they would never agree and would probably fight.

Chamberlain returned home and on landing waved the document he had signed saying, “We have peace in our time, peace with honor”.

Such was not to be as a year later on September 1, Germany invaded Poland and British and French guarantees of military aid in the event of being attacked came into force as Germany refused to withdraw her troops.

When WW II started we were living in central London and I remember the day well.

It was Sunday, September 3, 1939, and the Prime Minister’s speech to the nation telling us we were now at war with Germany.

As a child of 10 I was out of touch with reality as at the time I thought that it was going to be exciting and I waited until after lunch to go out and watch the fighting.

My father rejoined his regiment but within a few months was sent home with a medical discharge.

Britain could do nothing to help Poland as she was woefully unprepared for war. Her army was a garrison force stationed all over the Empire as it was then known, with few of the weapons required to fight a modern war.

In May 1940 Chamberlain, who was soon to die, was replaced by Winston Churchill.

Churchill had been amongst the first to warn of the danger posed by Hitler, and had been largely ignored by the government.

He had informants in Europe who supplied him with detailed information of the military build-up in Germany, and he spoke of it often in the House of Commons.

Whilst not famous at that time he was well known in the world, as an adventurer, author and politician.

He became famous of course as a result of his leadership in WW II and in 1953 he won a Nobel Prize, not the Peace Prize, it was for literature.

The months following the declaration of war were known to us as the Phony War, because, except in Poland of course, and at sea, not much happened.

The government thought that the Germans would use poison gas and everyone was issued with a gas mask and required to carry it always.

Adults were issued with Identity Cards without which you could not travel or use your Ration Book.

Later during the war to be stopped without it made you liable to arrest.

Children, me included had to go to the train station to be evacuated, and I remember I had a label attached to the button of my coat and a post card in my pocket that I was to send home giving my new address.

I have no idea where my brothers went.

I was billeted with a very nice family in Cornwall but after several months I was shipped back to London.

Apart from small bombing raids not much had happened.

I remember a question being asked in the House of Commons as to why we had not bombed German ammunition dumps, and the answer given was that it was because they were stored on private property.

Our ineptitude for war was clearly demonstrated by an incident in St. Andrews Bay in Scotland, when an aircraft from a nearby RAF station found a submarine on the surface and dropped a bomb on it.

It hit the deck bounced back up into the air, exploded and brought down the plane.

It was a British submarine.

= = = = =
More tomorrow.

Driving to the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake’s Methodist Men’s breakfast, I saw a sight I have seen before.

Sunlight shining through the haze on Lake Avenue in Lakewood.

Maybe you would call it fog.

In any event, the interplay of the sunlight and shadow is quite striking.

The United Methodist Men the Saturday before last were blessed with not one, but two speakers on Habitat for Humanity.

The first was retired First Congregational Church of Huntley Pastor Ronald Woodruff. He talked about the organization’s efforts in McHenry County.

Donna Burkett was the second. Her topic was Habitat for Humanity’s recreational vehicle ministry.

It’s called Care-A-Vanners.

She explained that Habitat for Humanity partner families provide 200-500 hours of sweat equity, pointing out that it could be family and friends.

And that they have to work it in between their day jobs.

“By the time they get their house, they’re really a part of it,” she said.

“The ‘builds’ last two weeks” but they have weekends off.

Usually there 8-20 people that gather from all over the country at a given site.

“No experience is necessary. You’ll get it on the site,” Burkett explained.

“All you need is a willing heart and a desire to get involved.”

The RV owners are provided a place to park.

And, “they really take care of you,” she continued, referring to food.

Participants need a tool belt, a square, a hammer and maybe a couple of other items I didn’t catch, but the web site will fill in the details.

What do you get out of the experience?

“You gain an experience to express God’s love.

“You learn about poverty.

“You help people.

“You change their lives for generations.”

Denny Butson told of a plane survey of Dade County after Hurricane Andrew. The plane flew over a subdivision where only two houses were left.

It turns out those two houses were built by Habitat for Humanity.

“That’s because when the specs say put in four nails per shingle, the volunteers hammer in four nails per shingle,” he explained, adding that when four nails will do, volunteers often put in six to make sure.

“Thank you for letting us talk about our passion, which is Habitat for Humanity,” Burkett concluded her talk at the First United Church of Crystal Lake.

The United Methodist Men the Saturday before last were blessed with not one, but two speakers on Habitat for Humanity.

The first was retired First Congregational Church of Huntley Pastor Ronald Woodruff. He talked about the organization’s efforts in McHenry County.

Donna Burkett was the second. Her topic was Habitat for Humanity’s recreational vehicle ministry.

It’s called Care-A-Vanners.

She explained that Habitat for Humanity partner families provide 200-500 hours of sweat equity, pointing out that it could be family and friends.

And that they have to work it in between their day jobs.

“By the time they get their house, they’re really a part of it,” she said.

“The ‘builds’ last two weeks” but they have weekends off.

Usually there 8-20 people that gather from all over the country at a given site.

“No experience is necessary. You’ll get it on the site,” Burkett explained.

“All you need is a willing heart and a desire to get involved.”

The RV owners are provided a place to park.

And, “they really take care of you,” she continued, referring to food.

Participants need a tool belt, a square, a hammer and maybe a couple of other items I didn’t catch, but the web site will fill in the details.

What do you get out of the experience?

“You gain an experience to express God’s love.

“You learn about poverty.

“You help people.

“You change their lives for generations.”

Denny Butson told of a plane survey of Dade County after Hurricane Andrew. The plane flew over a subdivision where only two houses were left.

It turns out those two houses were built by Habitat for Humanity.

“That’s because when the specs say put in four nails per shingle, the volunteers hammer in four nails per shingle,” he explained, adding that when four nails will do, volunteers often put in six to make sure.

“Thank you for letting us talk about our passion, which is Habitat for Humanity,” Burkett concluded her talk at the First United Church of Crystal Lake.