Zig-Zag-and-Swirl: Alfred W. Lawson's Quest for Greatness

by Lyell D. Henry Jr.

Alfred W. Lawson (1869–1954) was a professional baseball player, inventor of the airliner, leader of a movement in the 1930s calling for the abolition of banks and interest, and founder of a utopian community, the so-called Des Moines University of Lawsonomy. This unusual institution, constantly embroiled in controversy in the 1940s and early 1950s, was dedicated not only to teaching Lawson’s novel religious and scientific ideas but also to initiating a reform of human nature.

356 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1991

Reviews

[Christopher Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

First-rate biography of Alfred W. Lawson, a little-known but in his own way important figure in American history--founder of a (to my mind) Scientology-type self-help cult and commune in downtown Des Moines, Iowa; early pioneer in stadium lighting who helped make nighttime baseball games a reality; inventor of the airliner (really); and all-around crackpot. Henry does an admirable job with thin documentation--in many cases because it is hard to break through the wall of silence and protectiveness of the few remaining Lawsonomists, who still revere him as some kind of messiah. The only thing I wish this book had included were some fairly quick refutations of his central ideas. People who don't know much about physics could be inclined to think that there's nothing particularly fallacious about all the "suction vs. pressure," "penetrability," etc. This is especially true of his Direct Credits plan for solving economic inequality, which as far as I can tell includes, as a central feature, the idea that if people need money why don't we just print a whole bunch of it and pass it out to them? This book will not make anyone actually LIKE Lawson, but it will leave you impressed with his story.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. The first thing that I noticed was that Alfred W. Lawson is an egomaniac. He was smart enough to change some of the words from the normal physics terminology into his own for his own purposes. While he was the first person in the aircraft industry build and fly the very first airliner (of which he never really got credit for) he was quite a character.

[Sue Dounim · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is a compromise, because how a person views this book will depend on their interests. A life long hobby of mine has been to study crackpots, weirdos, visionaries, cult leaders, and pseudo-messiahs. Alfred Lawson (d. 1954) was in the front ranks of these. If you're only slightly interested in that subject, you may find the book a solid two stars, for me personally it was 5 stars, because I wondered about Lawson since I first ran across books by him in the 1980s and found them fascinating. But I could find almost nothing about him.
The difference between Lawson and other crackpots is that he actually accomplished things -- the most historical of which was building the first airliner and actually flying it. But Lawson's follow through never followed through: he was too attached to his own theories of science, human behavior, economics and -- well -- everything. Imagine a Henry Ford who built the first successful inexpensive horseless carriage, the Wrights building their first powered flyer, and Marconi demonstrating radio: but then never following up on the invention to perfect and bring it to market. He's roughly comparable to Tesla, who was a great visionary and made important discoveries and inventions in electrical technology. But Tesla's visionary side also got the better of him in later years.
The book is meticulously researched and documented, and it's fascinating to see the wall that the author ran into when attempting to interview early "Lawsonomists" who were still true believers 35 years after Lawson's death. Their paranoia that the author would not sufficiently apotheosize Lawson caused them to withdraw all cooperation in the project.
Lawson earns a 10 page chapter in Martin Gardner's classic "Fads and fallacies in the name of science" (I have the 1957 edition) but Henry's work is far more detailed and thoughtful.