8 Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Greater Houston+

The Science at the Solstice Lecture Series
Presents Engines of Our Ingenuity’s John Lienhard speaking on
Aeroplanes In & Out of World War I:
Looking for the TRUE Mother of Invention

Free Admission
12:30 p.m., Sunday, December 14, 2008
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, 5200 Fannin, Houston, TX

Dr. John H. Lienhard, author and KUHF radio personality, will present Aeroplanes In & Out of World War I: Looking for the TRUE Mother of Invention, the 2008 talk in The Joseph Priestley Lecture Series: Science at the Solstice at 12:30 p.m., Sunday, December 14, 2008, in the Sanctuary of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, 5200 Fannin. Dr. Lienhard, Anderson Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University of Houston, is probably best known as the host of the popular syndicated public radio series, The Engines of Our Ingenuity. The lecture is free, open to the public and appropriate for the whole family. A reception and book signing will follow the lecture.

Dr. Lienhard will focus his presentation on the early days of flight when creative imaginations and invention turned the “aeroplane” from a novelty into the airplane that helped win World War I.

First Church member Dr. Loyd Swenson, a retired University of Houston professor, says the Joseph Priestley Lecture Series follows the venerable English tradition of the ongoing Christmas Lectures given at the Royal Institution of London that began in 1825 led by Michael Faraday. Swenson says the Series complements the celebration of the holiday season by “giving a gift of true reverence: a chance to glimpse the insight into the vanguard of human creativity and to celebrate ingenuity and discovery.”

The Series, an annual part of the holiday season at First Unitarian Universalist Church, is named for Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), an experimental chemist who was the codiscoverer of oxygen. Priestley championed liberty in both his native England and the United States. He immigrated to Philadelphia in 1791 at the invitation of Benjamin Franklin and lived out the remainder of his life in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, teaching experimental science and preaching rational religion.