May 3, 1941: Art Society Has Meeting

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on May 3, 1941.

Art Society Has Meeting

The Porter County Art Association held a May-Day meeting with Miss Edna Agar at 501 North Locust street Thursday evening. Miss Agar was the recipient of congratulations on having received recognition by the Hoosier Salon at Indianapolis for her painting “Our House” which painting has been sold through the Hoosier Salon. The evening was profitably spent in the exchange of different ideas, supported by actual experiences with the various media used by artists to portray abstract concepts or record prosaic realties. The principal points under discussion were the relative values of papers for water colors, canvas, masonite boards, etc., for oils.

Exchange Views

Many interesting experiences were exchanged in the handling of oil colors, cleaning of palettes, brushes, etc. Mr. J.H. Euston of Chesterton has contributed a worth while expedient for cleaning brushes which is a moderate size covered tin can that a short distance above the bottom has a piece of wire screen fastened to the sides below the level of either turpentine or coal oil. The screen served admirably, as the brushes are rubbed over it, to remove the paint. Mr. Amstutz had a rock-group water color. Mrs. Euston presented the members with pretty bon bon baskets in vari-colored paper trimmings.

Mrs. Ponader showed a delicate textile, with linoleum block impressions in blue color. Mrs. Hannell showed a water color study, Miss Agar a letter press study, “Life Begins at Forty”, Mr. Hannell had miniature animal figurines.

Plan Garden Party

A report was received by the committee on the formation of a Business Men’s Amateur Art Club which stated that a meeting of interested persons is to be held on Monday evening, May 5. Arrangements were made for a pot luck garden party meeting at the home of Mr. Amstutz on Chicago Road, June 5 with opportunities for outdoor sketching. The hostess, assisted by Lillian Sayers served delicious strawberry shortcake.

April 11, 1941: Art Association Meets At V. M. Hannell Home; Inspect Members’ Work

Art Association Meets At V. M. Hannell Home; Inspect Members’ Work

The regular April meeting of the Porter County Art Association was held at the interesting studio home of Mr. and Mrs. V. M. S. Hannell at Furnessville. Owing to the inclement weather the attendance was not as large as usual, but the enthusiasm left nothing to be desired.

A general pamphlet put out by the Associated Art clubs, relative to the forming of a Business Men’s Sketch club, was passed around for inspection. A general discussion followed and the matter of forming a similar organization in Valparaiso was left with Mr. Euston and Mrs. Amstutz to work out.

As announced, the members present made charcoal and other sketches of Mrs. Ponader, who posed for the group. The results were varied as the different angles of observation brought into being a number of sketches other than profiles.

The sylvan retreat of the Hannell’s has become quite a mecca for art lovers. They exhibited many specimens of pottery production, carvings and paintings which show a wide versatility.

The pottery itself, at a distance down a sharp incline back of the studio-proper, was open for inspection. Here the Hannells have a large kiln now supplied with an automatic oil burner.

A replica of an historic potter’s wheel has been made by Hannell. It comprises a vertical shaft passing through an operator’s scat. A very heavy stone table is on the upper end of the shaft and near its lower end a similar diameter and heavy stone is on the shaft. This stove is rotated by the feet of the operator. The great weight of the stone maintains steadiness of rotation.

Euston showed three points of drypoint etchings he has made since the last meeting of the club. These are exquisite specimens of his charming style.

Miss Agar displayed a most interesting watercolor sketch of an old lady.

At the close of the evening’s work Mrs. Hannell served delicious tea and cookies, made doubly interesting because they were served from tea pots and cups made by the hostess herself, which gave added charm to the occasion.

The May meeting will be with Miss Edna Agar.

Dec. 20, 1945: TELEVISION, SUPERHIGHWAYS AND MR. AMSTUTZ

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on December 20, 1945.

TELEVISION, SUPERHIGHWAYS AND MR. AMSTUTZ

A man, the book says, is as young as he feels. If the vigor of an individual’s creative imagination and persistence of his faith in the future are criteria our nomination goes to Noah S. Amstutz as the youngest man in town.

Recently Casper W. Ooms, U.S. commissioner of patents, made a speech in New York from which we want to quote. “Recently,” Ooms, “an elderly gentleman, vigorous in his eighties, came to see me and announced himself as Noah Amstutz of Valparaiso, Ind., patent attorney. ‘Valparaiso,’ I said to him, ‘brings two things to mind. When I was a boy my father drove a single-cylinder Cadillac. We frequently drove to Valparaiso for lunch. We could just make it from the south end of Chicago in half a day, what with changing two tires on the way, eating luncheon, and returning in the afternoon.’ Then, I added, ‘There is a set of telegraph instruments in the Smithsonian Institution, but a man in Valparaiso sent a picture thirty miles by telegraph in 1891. Do you happen to know anything about that?”

“Amstutz beamed. ‘Those are my instruments,’ he said. ‘I gave them to the Smithsonian. Did you ever hear of my two-way television in 1895?’

“I admitted that I hadn’t and he offered to bring me the documents. A few days later I went through the voluminous scrapbook of this inventor, working on a facsimile transmission and television in the early 1890’s. His instruments were marvels of workmanship. His television circuit, I am convinced, with more delicate photoelectric pickups than were available to him, and some means of synchronizing his sending with his receiving instruments, would have worked. Here were years of labor spent a generation before these concepts were recognized by commercial development.”

The patent commissioner was using the example of the local inventor simply to illustrate the value of patents.

We would like to point out, however, that Noah Amstutz, who experimented with television a generation before the public had heard the word, now has another project. He is laboring diligently on behalf of the construction of six superhighways across the nation, east to west, north to south. It sounds like a gigantic, hopeless dream. But it is not nearly so sounded to the average man in 1895.

It is fortunate for the nation that America does have men of vision who at the same time possess the fortitude to persist in the face of opposition or worse, apathy. They are this country’s “young” men.