HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play songs by Norah Jones …
Answer a listener’s question about the Library of Congress …
And report about the one-hundredth anniversary of an importantinvention.
Air Conditioning Anniversary
HOST:
The weather this summer has been extremely hot in many areas ofthe United States. This has led most Americans to use airconditioning equipment to cool the air inside their homes andbusinesses. They are happy to observe the one-hundredth anniversaryof the invention of air conditioning. Shep O’Neal has more.
ANNCR:
The birth date of the air conditioner is July seventeenth,nineteen-oh-two. That was when the first air conditioning system wasplaced in a printing factory in Brooklyn, New York. Its purpose wasto help reduce the amount of heat and wetness in the air that wasdamaging the ink and paper used in printing.
A young engineer named WillisCarrier invented that first air conditioner. He and six friendsstarted their own air conditioning company in Syracuse, New York.Today, the Carrier company earns about nine-thousand-million dollarsa year. It does business in more than one-hundred-seventy countries.
The Carrier system was the first that cooled, cleaned and driedthe air. The company put air conditioning equipment into a movietheater in New York City in nineteen-twenty-five. It alsoair-conditioned the United States Capitol Building in Washington,D.C. in nineteen-twenty-eight. The White House got air conditioningin nineteen-thirty.
But air conditioning did not become popular in American homesuntil after World War Two. Today, eighty percent of Americans havesome kind of air conditioning in their homes. Ninety-six percent ofall the houses in the American South are air-conditioned.
Experts say air conditioning has changed more than the airtemperature. It has changed the way people live and work. Theiractivities are not linked to the weather. People can cook hot foodsin the summer months, attend a movie or go shopping during hotweather. Air conditioning has improved the production of foodproducts, medical supplies and drugs. It has made possible thegrowth of southern cities.
Officials of the Carrier company say air conditioning technologycontinues to improve. They say future air conditioning systems willbe able to change the temperature based on the number of people inthe room or even the kind of clothes a person is wearing.
Library of Congress
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. KhachonesackDouangphoutha asks about the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The Library of Congress isAmerica’s national library. It has more thanone-hundred-twenty-million books and other objects. It hasnewspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest.It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordingsand musical instruments.
The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday throughSaturday, except for government holidays. Anyone may go there andread anything in the collection. But no one is permitted to takebooks out of the building.
The Library of Congress wasestablished in eighteen-hundred. It started with eleven boxes ofbooks in one room of the Capitol Building. By eighteen-fourteen, thecollection had increased to about three-thousand books. They weredestroyed that year when the Capitol was burned during America’s warwith Britain.
To help re-build the library, Congress bought the books ofPresident Thomas Jefferson. Mister Jefferson’s collection includedseven-thousand books in seven languages.
In eighteen-ninety-seven, the Library moved to its own buildingacross the street from the Capitol. Today, three buildings hold thelibrary’s collection.
The Library of Congress provides books and materials to theUnited States Congress. It also lends books to other Americanlibraries, government agencies and foreign libraries. It buys someof its books and gets others as gifts. It also gets materialsthrough its copyright office. Anyone who wants copyright protectionfor a publication must send two copies to the library. This meansthe Library of Congress receives almost everything published in theUnited States.
Computer users can learn more about the Library of Congress andits collection on the Internet. The address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dotg-o-v. Again, the Library of Congress web address is w-w-w dot l-o-cdot g-o-v.
Norah Jones
HOST:
Singer and piano player Norah Jones won three Down Beat MagazineStudent Music Awards when she was in high school. Two were for BestJazz Vocalist. The other was for Best Original Composition. MaryTillitson tells us more about her.
ANNCR:
Norah Jones has been playing thepiano since she was seven years old. She worked as a singer andpiano player at a local coffeehouse when she was sixteen. Shecontinued to perform at similar places. Norah Jones is twenty-threeyears old now. She is enjoying the success of her first album,called “Come Away with Me.” Listen as Norah Jones sings “Don’t KnowWhy.”
((CUT ONE – “DON’T KNOW WHY”))
Norah Jones says her mother was her greatest musical influence.Norah’s mother had a large record collection. It included songs bysuch great singers as Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, and ArethaFranklin. Norah listened to the songs again and again. She says sheloves the music of the past. She learned this next song by listeningto a recording by Nina Simone. Here is Norah Jones singing “Turn MeOn.”
((CUT TWO – “TURN ME ON”))
Norah Jones’s music is a mix of pop, country, soul, and jazz.Music critics have praised her music. We leave you with another songfrom the album “Come Away with Me.” Norah Jones sings “Shoot theMoon.”
((CUT THREE – “SHOOT THE MOON”))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC-VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and NancySteinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producerwas Paul Thompson.