Time Machine: The Earth moved in Cedar Rapids … several times

A large crate covered in 'this side up” signs arrived at the new Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport building in June 1953. Inside was an aluminum globe six feet in diameter and weighing 200 pounds.

Its mounting, however, weighed 1,039 pounds.

The globe, manufactured by Dyna-Graphic Displays Inc., of Brooklyn, N.Y., was installed in the waiting room lobby. It was surrounded by 24 clocks for each of the 24 time zones around the world. Each clock was accompanied by a listing of the major cities in that time zone.

A five-foot mirror under the globe made various parts of it easier to view.

Fluorescent lights circled the globe inside a 12-foot protective bronze railing festooned with signs of the Zodiac that was crafted by Cedar Rapids blacksmith Harvey Nelson.

The city's Airport Commission said the globe, appraised at $18,000, was a gift to the city from an anonymous citizen who later was revealed to be Cedar Rapids industrialist Howard Hall. While globes in other locations were encased in glass, Hall wanted this one in the open because he said he wanted soldiers returning home to be able to point out to their family and friends the countries in which they had served.

The globe sat on the same angle as the Earth's axis, the three-phase electric motor rotating it one revolution every four minutes.

After 20 years and an estimated 10 million airport visitors passing by, its maps needed updating. In 1974, it was packed up and shipped back to Brooklyn for restoration. Dyna-Graphic agreed to upgrade it for $4,262, which included transportation and storage, if needed.

Then-Commission Chairman Don Hines said the commission could consider changing the globe's location while it was gone. Its old space was included in airport security renovations installed in the wake of hijackings.

When it hadn't been returned in November 1975, Airport Manager Roy Jamesen revealed he asked Dyna-Graphic to hold up on delivery until a permanent location could be found for the globe at the airport.

In 1977, the airport commission decided to try to 'unload” it by offering to loan it to whomever wanted it.

The geographic updating had been completed three years before and already was out of date. To complicate matters, the company that made the modifications had gone out of business.

The commission was paying $350 to have the globe stored in a New York garage, with another $150 allotted for insurance.

A suggestion was made to have the globe displayed outside the terminal. A report on that plan said that the globe would need to be in an enclosure furnished with heat and air conditioning and space for the apparatus that turned it.

In 1978, Airport Manager Roy Jamesen was again dealing with the sphere. The commission had decided that it might want to put it on display again if the terminal was expanded, but Jamesen wasn't happy that it took up 625 square feet of the terminal for display.

Besides, he believed that conditions around the world made the globe almost constantly out of date. Another update in 1978 was paid for by a Hall family donation.

Something needed to be done because the man in Brooklyn who kept the globe in his garage was moving to California.

The Greater Downtown Association stepped in with plans to display it in the anticipated downtown mall. Airport commissioners thought it needed to be at the airport and expansion plans should be able to accommodate it. Jamesen estimated cost of space for displaying the globe would amount to $50,000.

'Commissioner Dr. John Huey commented that $50,000 is a lot to pay for an essentially non-transportation project,” The Gazette reported. 'But he added that he's not much for aesthetics anyway, and deferred to the wishes of Blythe.”

When the globe finally came home, it was exiled to the Kingston Supply Co. warehouse in 1979.

Five more years passed before the globe finally found a new home. In October 1983, it came out of storage, was cleaned, reassembled and installed in the northeast corner of Cedar Rapids's new Ground Transportation Center. A small pit contained the motor and gears, and windows made the orb visible to passers-by as well as patrons.

But the globe was a victim of the 2008 flood. Observers said it came loose from its base and floated in the floodwaters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for its restoration and was installed in the remodeled lobby of Linn Hall on the Kirkwood Community College campus in 2013.

Viewed as a historic artifact, it no longer will be updated.