American Bungalow Essays - Bungalow, The Aladdin Company

American Bungalow Essays - Bungalow, The Aladdin Company American Bungalow The article Manufacturing and Marketing the American Bungalow by Scott Erbes discusses the effects that The Aladdin Company had on the American Bungalow. The Aladdin Company was a main manufacturer of these mail order homes. By intense marketing and propaganda the Aladdin Company, along with several others, was able to promote and sell these precut homes by mail. The Aladdin Company was founded in 1906 in Bay City, Michigan by William and Otto Sovereign. William and Otto started their firm having had no architectural experience at all. They were inspired by a friend who was in the business of selling precut boats by mail so they decided to venture into selling precut homes by mail. In order for William and Otto to get their company started and up to the level that they wanted, it became necessary to use mass-marketing as a ploy to draw people into the idea of homes through the mail. Their way of enticing people to buy these homes was through their catalogue. They portrayed the homes by mail, bungalows, as an escape from lifes worries: A place where one could commune with nature. By taking the promotional aspect to such a high level the bungalow became very prominent in the America in the early 1900s. By 1917, William and Otto were selling more than three thousand homes per year. They had homes spread all over the United States and included in that array of owners were several large- scale companies such as the Dupont Company. Their success continued for the next two decades and William and Otto were able to broaden their product line from not only the houses but also the furnishings in the houses. However, the companies momentum was nearly depleted during the Great Depression. Aladdins output dropped drastically during the Great Depression but in the decades following the Depression, it was able to regain some of their profit but they never reached the level that they were at before the Depression. Finally, in the 1980s the company had to shut down because of the lack of profit. The author, Scott Erbes, focuses heavily on the different types of the bungalow and on their origin. The word bungalow comes from the work Bangla, which is a hut-like dwelling from the region of Bengal, India. This origin design was greatly altered by the time it reached the United States. The interpretation of the Bangla into what Aladdins designers felt it needed to look like was drastically different. The design went from something portable to something that was permanent and used for seasonal outings. People used their bungalows as their vacation homes and eventually the bungalows became the year round residents for some of the lower middle class people. It becomes very obvious that a creation as largely accepted as this one, would attract a large amount of attention from the media. The bungalow received both good and bad reviews depending on the person. Some were crazy about the idea while others were very critical of the use of these dwellings for permanent use. They claimed that the structure had no architectural creativity at all and that they were boring. It is very intriguing that something as petty as a mail order home could be as popular as it was for the time period that it was. For William and Otto to think of this idea and to actually be able to make a profit off of it is very praiseworthy. They took a risk when they ventured into the business but it paid of when they were able to promote an ideas that spawned so many other companies to do the same thing. Also, to be able to overcome the overwhelming disapproval of some critics is admirable. Aladdins idea for the bungalow was very versatile and therefore it appealed to the middle class. The middle class would be able to buy a home like this and be able to change it around as they saw fit for what they needed. The way that the author compares the bungalow to the log cabin becomes very intriguing. He says that the bungalow is the modern day log cabin. The way that the author relates these two allows you

The Stock Market Crash of 1929

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 Free Online Research Papers The stock market has been around and well-known for many years and has been dated back into colonial times. However, in 1929, the stock market unfortunately took a drastic turn for the worst. In just a matter of days, the market underwent a cascading decline, and took everything down with it. To many, the stock market may seem very complicated and esoteric. However, after some research some come to find its actually very simple, because someone else basically does the work for you. This ‘someone else’ is a stock broker. In simpler terms, a stock broker is like an auctioneer. The job of an auctioneer is to pair a buyer with a seller, much like the job of a stock broker. They also determine adequate pricing of whatever it is being sold (Gerlach). In the stock market, shares of companies are what is being sold. If you buy a share of a stock, you own a part of that company. Generally, if the company did well, you would earn a profit, and if it didnt do so well, you could potentially lose money. Investors soon purchased stock on margin. Margin is the borrowing of stock for the purpose of getting more leverage. For every dollar invested, a margin user would borrow 9 dollars worth of stock. Because of this leverage, if a stock went up 1%, the investor would make 10%! If a stock drops too much, a margin holder could lose all of their money AND owe their broker money as well (Stock Market Crash). Investing money in the stock market was a very risky act. Some lucky investors end up acquiring huge profits and simultaneously become millionaires over night. However a lot of patience is necessary as not to panic and sell your share as soon as the prices drop in the slightest bit. Keeping calm through a downfall could ultimately be your saving grace in the end. Because more and more Americans were purchasing stocks, the value of the marked drastically increased (Ohio History Center). There was a peak in prices in September 1929, and after this, the priced dropped. Some brokers were on the brink of panic and quickly called in there loans, which would have been a wise decision. On the other hand, many brokers carried on, continuing to loan money, and looked at the decline as just a bad day in the market. On Wednesday October, 23rd, the Dow Jones had descended 24 points in a mere half hour, causing a slight panic across the nation. The next day, Thursday the 24th, all brokers called in their loans causing all prices on the market to face a gargantuan downfall. Many at this point figured the stock market just need a few days to bounce back. To keep a lid on the hysteria, brokers began to merge their funds to buy enough stocks to even out the market. This briefly balanced the priced. However, by the following Monday, prices had fallen again. Tuesday October 29th, 1929, ‘Black Tuesday,’ was the day all hell had broken loose. This was the very day of the stock market crash. Because of the rapidly declining prices, the once reliable ticker tape had trouble keeping up and ended up causing mass confusion and chaos. On account of the dwindling prices, many people vacated the market and withdrew all their funds while their debts were still meager. With everyone pulling out at once, mass mayhem had occurred and the market had crashed. After the crash, the suicide rate skyrocketed. Many people leapt to their demise out of tall buildings because being dead was easier than facing financial debt. The most abundant time of suicides came in 1930, the year following the crash. In 1925 the number of suicides in New York was 14.4 per 100,000 of the population. In 1934, that number had escalated to 17.0 per 100,000 of the population (Galbraith). Also, the stock brokers who decided suicide was not the answer, lost their jobs. American across the nation were in debt. However, it was the Americans who has invested all they had who were hit the hardest and has lost everything as a result of the crash. Eventually the crash of the stock market has negatively effected everyone. Research Papers on The Stock Market Crash of 1929Analysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaTwilight of the UAWQuebec and CanadaThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationDefinition of Export QuotasMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Open Architechture a white paperHip-Hop is ArtBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of Self