Ever wonder how to make the worlds favourite soda pop Coca Cola? Very few people know the ‘real’ secret recipe… but there are versions out there hand written by the inventor of Coke – John Pemberton.

Our diy Coca Cola recipe follows his 1886 version.

Glen got the idea to do this back in 2011 from an NPR radio show called ‘This American Life’, but getting the ingredients for Coca Cola wasn’t easy… and still isn’t.

Obviously Coca loaf extract is the biggie in the room – but even Neroli Oil Extract is hard to get; in that it’s so expensive!

So if you are going to set out and make Coca Cola at home, or any Cola recipe at home; there will be some comprises. In the end, even with compromises, the flavor profile of the Coke recipes is so complex that minor variations are hard to detect.

Ingredients:

• 7x Flavour [Use 2 oz flavour (below) to 5 gals syrup (I used 15mL per 19L, or 1.3mL / 1L)]
  • 236 mL (8 oz) high proof food grade alcohol
  • 20 drops (0.5g / 1 mL) Orange Oil
  • 30 drops (0.75g / 1.5 mL) Lemon Oil
  • 10 drops (0.25g / .5 mL) Nutmeg Oil
  • 5 drops (0.125g / .25 mL) Coriander Oil
  • 10 drops (0.25g / .5 mL) Neroli Oil (You can sub Bitter Orange Oil)
  • 10 drops (0.25g / .5 mL) Cinnamon (Cassia Or True Cinnamon) Oil

Original Sugar Syrup Recipe:

• FE Coca (Fluid Extract of Coca) 3 drams USP (10.5 mL)
• Citric Acid 3 oz (85g)
• Caffeine 1 oz (30 mL)
• Sugar 30 #
• Water 2.5 gal
• Lime Juice 2 pints (473 mL)
• Vanilla 1 oz (30 mL)
• Caramel 1.5 oz or more to color

I made 1/8 Original and re-ordered the ingredients to order of use: Water 1.18L Sugar 1.7 Kg Caramel 5.5 mL FE Coca 1.3 mL (not used) Vanilla 3.75 mL Caffeine 3.75 mL Lime Juice 59.12 mL Citric Acid 10.6g

Method: Mix together all of the ingredients of the 7X Flavor. Set this aside in a sealed bottle.

Heat the water sugar and caramel in a large pot.

Stirring continuously, just until sugar is dissolved.

Take off the heat and mix in vanilla, caffeine, lime juice and citric acid. Stir to fully combine.

Add a measured amount of 7X flavoring to the sugar syrup.

Mix with carbonated water at a ratio of one part syrup and 5 parts water.

Here are the links to the original This American Life story:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/427/…
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/extr…
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/extr…
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/427/…
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/extr…

(Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton )

While preparing for an episode of This American Life that aired Feb. 11, the radio show’s producers stumbled upon what appears to be the secret recipe for Coca-Cola, printed in a 1979 issue of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. For 125 years, The Coca-Cola Company has tried its best to keep Coke’s formula shrouded in mystery, especially when it comes to the ingredients of what it calls the drink’s “secret 7X flavor.”

A company spokesperson told Life’s Little Mysteries that This American Life did not manage to concoct “the real thing”, and that the secret recipe is still safe. At least one Coke historian says, however, that yes, this is an authentic recipe for Coke just not the one you enjoy today.

[Click here to see the original 1979 document that leaked the recipe]

For one thing, The Coca-Cola Company has used high-fructose corn syrup rather than sugar in the American version of its soft drink since 1985. That was the year it scrapped the “New Coke” formula which spent only a few months on the market after the company was flooded by consumer protests and reverted to a recipe similar to the one it had used up until 1985 (except switching the sweetener to corn syrup).

According to Pendergrast, current Coca-Cola Classic is also made with phosphoric acid instead of citric acid another change not reflected in the leaked recipe. Small tweaks, yes, but they produce a drink that isn’t quite right by today’s standards.

The evolution of Coca-Cola

Pendergrast believes that this new find is real but also says it’s really no big deal. “I think it’s kind of funny that suddenly there’s this big flap over this when I found the formula in Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton’s papers and published it in the first edition of my book in 1993,” Pendergrast told us. “This recipe is very similar to the one I found, so I do think it’s probably authentic.” But that doesn’t mean Coca-Cola’s current manufacturing secrets are out. “It’s not the recipe of the drink they’re selling now. The original formula has been changed.”

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Streisand effect, phenomenon in which an attempt to censor, hide, or otherwise draw attention away from something only serves to attract more attention to it. The name derives from American singer and actress Barbra Streisand’s lawsuit against a photographer in 2003, which drew attention to the photo she was suing to have taken off the Internet.

The Streisand Effect describes a situation in which a person or organization’s attempts to suppress information leads to greater attention to the information than it would have received otherwise. Not surprisingly, the term was named after singer Barbra Streisand. Before it was known as the “Streisand Effect,” however, there was a long and fascinating history of failed cover-ups that provide an interesting glimpse into the human psyche and our need to get to the bottom of things.

Origins of the Streisand Effect

Mike Masnick, founder of the website Techdirt, coined the term “Streisand Effect” in 2005, after the singer and actress sued the photographer Kenneth Adelman in 2003 for $50 million. Adelman had taken thousands of photos for his online database for the California Coastal Records Project, a resource that provided pictures of California’s coastal erosion to scientists and researchers, and one of these photos happened to show her mansion in Malibu.

Before Streisand sued, the image in question had been downloaded only six times; afterward, it received over a million views and was reprinted countless times. Streisand ultimately lost the lawsuit and had to pay Adelman’s legal fees.2 Streisand’s concern for her privacy was not unreasonable—she had been stalked before. But in this case, she would have been better off just leaving things alone. So, what causes this effect to play out as it does? We’ll explore the causes, provide some real-life examples, and even provide some guidance on how to avoid it in your own life.

Streisand’s lawsuit was filed against photographer Kenneth Adelman, the founder of the California Coastal Records Project, for which he photographed the coastline of the state from a helicopter and posted the photos to the Internet. Adelman indicated that the images were free for nonprofit use and had been used by government entities for scientific research. Among more than 12,000 photographs of California’s coast was one photograph in which Streisand’s mansion appeared. Streisand, who had in the past been harassed and stalked by fans, sued for $50 million, claiming that the photo violated her privacy and showed how to access her residence.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, the photograph had been downloaded only six times, including twice by Streisand’s lawyers. The lawsuit was highly publicized, and a flurry of interest and activity followed. In the month after the filing, the photo was viewed more than 400,000 times and reposted on news sites and elsewhere on the Internet. Thus, Streisand’s attempts to have the photo suppressed made it exceptionally more visible than it would otherwise have been. Streisand lost the suit and was ordered to pay Adelman’s legal fees for the case. The photo remains widely published on the Internet.

Understanding the Streisand Effect

With the Streisand Effect, if someone tries to hide, remove, or censor information, it can backfire. In fact, it can have the unintended consequence of drawing more attention to the thing they are trying to suppress.

As Cara R. Stewart, founder and CEO of Altalunas International, says, “It’s a classic example of having a legitimate concern but choosing an ineffective or counterproductive way to address it. Barbra Streisand’s concern about her privacy was understandable… However, the tool she chose to manage this—filing a lawsuit—was not only ineffective but actually worsened the situation.”

Moreover, the effects can be even more insidious. “There is also the risk of the erosion of trust in institutions or authorities responsible for the censorship,” says Carly Dober, psychologist and founder of Enriching Lives Psychology. “When people discover that information is being withheld or manipulated, they may become skeptical of the motives and credibility of the censors. This can foster a culture of distrust and encourage individuals to seek alternative sources of information, which may not always be reliable or accurate.”

Factors Contributing to the Streisand Effect

There are several factors that contribute to the Streisand Effect. First, psychologically, when people discover that someone—especially someone famous or well-known—is trying to hide or censor information, people become curious and rebellious. “This is driven by a fundamental human instinct to seek out forbidden or restricted knowledge, amplifying interest and dissemination,” explains Dober. Second, people are also motivated by psychological reactance, where one asserts their autonomy over the suppression of information by seeking out the restricted information.

“When people perceive that they are being denied access to information, their desire to obtain that information intensifies,” says Dober, “driven by a sense of defiance and a need to restore their freedom of choice.”

While the Streisand Effect existed prior to Barbra Streisand’s lawsuit in 2003, the internet, and more specifically, social media, has exacerbated the effect even more. Online communities and social media platforms encourage the rapid spread of content and enable information to go viral.

“When users encounter attempts to suppress information, they are likely to share it widely as an act of resistance, bolstered by a collective sense of injustice,” says Dober. “The social validation and reinforcement from peers further encourage individuals to participate in spreading the censored content. Additionally, the internet culture of digital activism fosters an environment where combating censorship is seen as a moral or ethical duty.”

This all combines to create a powerful set of factors that contribute to people’s responses, and makes the Streisand Effect a reality.

Real-Life Examples of the Streisand Effect

While the Streisand Effect existed before it was named, it has become increasingly likely to happen as more and more people have taken to social media. Here are some examples:

In addition to the above, similar attempts at censorship have been failing long before the existence of social media. Just ask any teenager if they are more interested in a particular band, movie, or TV show that adults claim is inappropriate for them.

Impact and Implications of the Streisand Effect

The Streisand Effect can have long-lasting consequences for individuals and organizations that attempt to suppress information. For individuals, the attention can lead to increased scrutiny.

“This phenomenon can significantly damage reputations meticulously built over the years,” observes Stewart. Dober concurs, adding, “This damage is not easily undone, as the initial act of suppression can create a lasting impression of dishonesty or untrustworthiness. For individuals, this can affect personal and professional relationships, career prospects, and public perception.”

For organizations, the losses can be great as well. “The Streisand Effect can severely damage brand reputation and erode trust with consumers and stakeholders,” says Dober. “This can lead to a loss of customer loyalty, decreased sales, and a tarnished public image. Additionally, efforts to suppress information can result in increased media scrutiny and regulatory attention.” Dober adds that it can take a long time to recover one’s reputation from this sort of error.

“However, the widespread sharing of censored information can also lead to the dissemination of misinformation if [the censored information is] not properly contextualized,” she says.

Strategies to Mitigate the Streisand Effect

There are many strategies to mitigate or avoid the Streisand Effect. These include:

• Respond quickly: As Stewart says, “A rapid response can prevent the issue from escalating, but it’s equally important to ensure your reactions are thoughtful and well-considered.”
• Practice transparency: Stewart explains that you should be transparent about acknowledging the problem and the steps you will take to address it. “This approach shows that you are not only aware of the issue,” says Stewart, “but are also actively working towards a solution…. This approach doesn’t just mitigate damage; it can enhance a reputation, demonstrating a commitment to ethical practices and responsiveness….”
• Be polite and professional: “It’s easy to become defensive when under fire,” claims Stewart, “but the goal is to acknowledge concerns and focus on resolving the issue constructively.”
• Refrain from litigiousness: Suppressing information via a lawsuit can attract media attention, and by extension, curiosity from the public. “Instead of resorting to lawsuits,” Dober says, “individuals should consider alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation or negotiation, to resolve issues privately. By avoiding high-profile legal battles, individuals can prevent drawing additional attention to the information they wish to remain private.”
• Practice emotional regulation: Developing coping mechanisms, like emotional regulation, can prevent people from reacting impulsively when information they’d like suppressed comes out. “Therapy can help individuals develop coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and anxiety related to potential public exposure,” says Dober.
• Develop a strong support network: Your support network should include friends, family, and even professional advisors who can offer emotional support, advice, and practical assistance if a crisis strikes. “This network can help individuals navigate complex situations without resorting to actions that might trigger the Streisand Effect,” Dober observes.

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If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

success is the target unrelenting success! 

Analysis

A new book investigating the maths in The Simpsons has revealed something ridiculously awesome and completely unexpected – in the 1998 episode “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace”, Homer comes up with a mathematical equation that predicts the mass of the Higgs boson more than a decade before physicists at CERN discovered it.

“If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of [what] a Higgs boson actually is,” Singh told Nick Clark at The Independent. “It’s kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered.”

Turns out a lot of the writers on The Simpsons are mathematicians, Singh telling The Independent that it’s “the most mathematical TV show on prime-time television in history.” The mathematician who happened to write that formula for Homer is David X. Cohen, who went on to be the head writer and executive producer of Futurama. According to Richard Gray at The Daily Mail, Cohen contacted one of his high school friends, David Schiminovich, who is an astronomer at Columbia University, and worked with him on the equation.

“The equation is a playful combination of various fundamental parameters, namely the Planck constant, the gravitational constant, and the speed of light,” Singh told him.

The Simpsons has ended up being a real treasure trove of fascinating little tidbits for scientists to mull over. Just last month, astronomer Phil Plait made the rather unsettling discovery that Springfield might just be set in the Southern Hemisphere, thanks to THIS MOON. And late last year, the most mathematical show on prime-time television, plus someone called ‘Kim Jong Fun’, helped prove the very important point that some journals will publish literally anything. How lucky are we to have had Homer and co. in our lives for almost 30 years?

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Unearthed 1997 Wired Article Predicted The 21st Century With Insane Accuracy

In 1997, predictions for the future ranged from technological optimism for a “Long Boom” to concerns about increasing economic inequality and cyberwarfare. The internet was a dominant theme, though it was still in its early days, with most users on dial-up connections. 

• The continued acceleration of Moore’s law and its impact on technological progress.
• The growth of handheld computing devices and mobile internet access.
• The expansion of the World Wide Web past 1 million websites.
• The eventual obsolescence of traditional advertising due to adaptation and dominance of new digital media.
• A miscalculation on how long it would take for computers to beat humans at the game of Go; one expert predicted it would take a century. 

Key Predictions That Came True:

• Digital Currencies: The authors anticipated the rise of private, decentralized forms of money that would bypass governments — remarkably similar to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
• Decline of Nation-States: They predicted that as wealth and information moved online, traditional governments would lose control over money, taxation, and citizens who could operate globally through digital systems.
• Cybercrime & Cyber Warfare: They foresaw new forms of conflict in cyberspace, where power would shift from physical to digital battlegrounds.
• Remote Work & Digital Nomadism: The authors envisioned a future where highly skilled individuals could live and work anywhere, leveraging technology to achieve independence from centralized systems.
• Wealth Disparity & Political Polarization: They warned that technology would create new elites — “sovereign individuals” — while destabilizing traditional economic and political structures.
• Another 1997 warning came from Wired magazine’s July 1997 cover story, which predicted enormous technological progress but also flagged potential crises that could derail it — including pandemics, climate change, and soaring energy costs.
• Together, these 1997 insights painted a surprisingly accurate picture of the 21st century — an age of digital power, decentralization, and disruption that defines our world today.

Predictions from Wired magazine

• Widespread economic expansion for 25 years.
• Increased prosperity and unprecedented opportunity.
• An improved environment.
• Opportunities for social justice. 

• A new Cold War between the U.S. and China.
• Technological busts that fail to deliver on promises.
• Russia’s descent into a kleptocracy or threatening nationalism.
• The breakdown of European integration.
• A major ecological crisis leading to climate change and food supply disruptions.
• A major rise in crime and terrorism causing society to retract.
• The overwhelming of health systems by dramatic increases in cancer due to pollution.
• Soaring energy prices.
• An uncontrollable plague that kills millions.
• A cultural backlash that halts progress. 

In 1997, Wired Magazine Predicts 10 Things That Could Go Wrong in the 21st Century: “An Uncontrollable Plague,” Climate Crisis, Russia Becomes a Kleptocracy & More

in the same year A BOOK DID THE SAME!

The Sovereign Future: How a 1997 Book Accurately Predicted 2025

Predictions from The Sovereign Individual

• The decline of the nation-state: Governments were predicted to lose control as individuals and businesses adopted decentralized, digital systems.
• The rise of digital currencies: The authors foresaw private, decentralized money, an idea that aligns with modern cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
• The online economy and cybercrime: The book accurately predicted the growth of the online economy as well as the increase in cybercrime and cyber warfare.
• Social stratification: The authors predicted the internet would widen the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots”.
• The emergence of remote work and a “digital nomad” lifestyle.
• Disruption of traditional jobs: The book predicted that automation, AI, and global competition would make many traditional jobs obsolete.
• Changes in education: Digital content and online education were predicted to transform how learning is delivered. 

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Proverbs 30:3-4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down?

5th Ave Store Opening (CNBC) 18 May 2006

Some forgettable CNBC reporter who managed at least one interesting question of Steve Jobs concerning AMD. Jobs, looking thin and pixelated, and dressed in a black, long-sleeved shirt of indeterminate neck variety, was speaking from the within the new store on Fifth Avenue, in New York.

Most of the interview was about the new store and the retail initiative, which Jobs described as being a “success beyond our wildest dreams.” When queried over the expense of flagship stores, such as the SOHO store in New York, Jobs responded that Apple has “never believed in the philosophy that flagship stores don’t make money,” and they do. To that end, he suggested Apple’s first response to the idea of a store underneath the plaza outside the GM building was, “subterranean, are you crazy?” However, Apple responded with a “crazy” idea of their own, the now famous 32 foot glass cube and brand beacon to generate traffic. Jobs mentioned that of the 300 employees at the store, half will be available for tech support, even at 2:00 AM, and who wouldn’t want to stroll the plaza at that hour with a couple of thousands dollars worth of hardware? The CNBC reporter also asked about the iPhone and was correctly snubbed, but more interesting was the response to a question about AMD chips, one that is well-suited for Da Vinci Code type analysis by Mac nerds on the Internet guessing Apple’s next move. I transcribed as best I could, of course.

You know AMD’s got some interesting products at the very high end of the server space, but the part of the market we concentrate on the most is notebooks and consumer desktops, and for that Intel’s got the best chips. This Yonah chip, the Core Duo that they have right now, is the best chip in the world for notebooks and consumer desktops, so right now Intel’s road map looks very, very strong for the kinds of products—processors—we need for the products we build.

Many will note the “right now” phrase, but I am more intrigued by the tacit admission of the shift away from the tower as the flagship product of Apple Computer. Of course, the fact that Apple has yet to make the transition to Intel for the pro desktops says as much, but it’s still strange to hear from the CEO’s mouth.

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God Bless You Paul may you be in Heaven with God, You had amazing grit and mental strength, something unimaginable happened to you and you took it well sir, may your memory of your life inspire anyone who facdes challenges to keep on trucking!

Since 1952, Paul Alexander has lived inside an iron lung, unable to breathe on his own after polio left him paralyzed at age six. Yet his life is anything but confined. He mastered breathing techniques, became a lawyer, wrote a memoir, and typed with a pen in his mouth. His story is a testament to pure resilience, a living example of human willpower.

Paul Alexander, who was paralyzed at age 6 by polio and confined for decades to an iron lung—a mechanical respirator enclosing the entire body from the neck down—but nonetheless earned his undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1978 and his Juris Doctor from Texas Law in 1984, died on March 11 in Dallas. No cause of death was given, but Alexander had recently battled Covid.

Alexander’s life story was already well-known around the globe when he published his memoir in 2020. That book, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” described his life of setbacks and triumphs and his quest for normalcy in situations that were anything but normal. The title referred to a challenge issued to him as a boy: If he could learn to hold his breath for three minutes, he could have a puppy.

Alexander got his puppy, and much more, by teaching himself methods of breathing and breath control. It was only by doing so that he was eventually able to spend hours outside his respiration chamber so that he could attend school, first as salutatorian from Dallas’s W.W. Samuell High School, then as a college student and, later, a law student.

Breathing was one challenge, but far from the only obstacle. Paralyzed, Alexander could only write using a pen or other implement clenched in his mouth. It took Alexander five years to write his autobiography, using “an improvised stick to type the words.”

Alexander practiced family law and handled bankruptcy cases for nearly three decades.

For more about the extraordinary life of Paul Alexander:

• Marissa Charpentier’s 2022 profile in The Alcalde.
• A deeply-reported feature on Alexander’s unusual life journey in The Guardian.
• Alexander’s obituary in The New York Times.
• The autobiography, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung.

Paul Alexander, One of the Last People to Live in an Iron Lung Is a Longhorn (died March 11, 2024)

Paul Alexander still remembers the sound of the screen door slamming on that rainy July day in 1952.

The then-6-year-old had just run inside after playing in the field behind his Dallas home. He was feverish and his neck ached. He walked in barefoot, dragging mud onto the kitchen floor. The door sprang shut behind him. He knew his mom would be mad when she saw the mess, but he was taken aback by the fear in her voice.

“God, please, no,” she said. She knew then polio had come for her son.

1952 was riddled with fear for many parents. It was the worst year for polio in the U.S., with nearly 60,000 cases reported across the country. Some cities shut down popular gathering places—movie theaters, swimming pools, bars, bowling alleys. The virus most commonly affects children, entering the body through the mouth via tiny particles of contaminated feces or, more rarely, droplets from a sneeze or cough. It can lead to flu-like symptoms and has the potential to invade a person’s spinal cord or brain, causing paralysis and potentially death.

For Alexander, the infection started as body aches and a high fever, but not long after, he lost his ability to walk, swallow, and breathe. Doctors performed a tracheotomy and put him in an iron lung—a sealed tank used to treat polio patients who had trouble breathing on their own. During the epidemic, hospital wards were lined with these respirators. They stimulate breathing by varying air pressure to compress and depress the chest. Children typically spent a couple weeks in one while recovering from the disease, lying on their backs, unable to do much. But Alexander didn’t get out of his.

Eighteen months after he was admitted, doctors said he could go home, thinking he wouldn’t live much longer. His body was nearly completely paralyzed from the neck down, and he couldn’t breathe outside the iron lung. His family brought him—and the lung—home and had what they thought would be their last Christmas together.

But Alexander is still alive today. He’s 74 and resides in Dallas—and for the second time in his life, living through the outbreak of a virus that he is at a high risk of suffering from. Unlike the polio virus, the coronavirus hasn’t been disproportionately impacting children. Those most at risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19 are adults over 65 and those with underlying medical conditions. Alexander checks both boxes.

As the world awaits a vaccine, Alexander and his caretakers are limiting contact with others. He still relies on an iron lung to keep him alive. In fact, he’s one of the last people in the world still using the machine.

“It’s like a big tin can,” he tells me over Skype one morning in June. His head sticks out of the yellow tube, and I can hear the machinery expanding and compressing in the background. Between the noise and the fuzzy screen, it’s sometimes hard to make out what he’s saying. I find myself asking him to repeat himself. Alexander is patient with me and starts his sentences over. It’s not the most efficient way to conduct an interview, but we’re making do, given the circumstances.

Though more modern ventilators have been invented over the years, Alexander stuck with his iron lung. As a boy he learned how to breathe without it for extended periods of time—a skill that opened doors for him. When he was 8, a physical therapist taught him how to “frog breathe,” or use muscles in his mouth and throat to gulp air into his lungs.

Alexander was wary of health care professionals, scarred from the times in the hospital when they’d forced him to try to breathe outside the lung, causing him to pass out. But the therapist convinced him to keep trying by making a deal with him: if he could learn to breathe outside the lung for three minutes, she would give him one of her boxer puppies.

“It was difficult, but I worked at it,” Alexander says.

After working at it for a year, the puppy was his. Breathing on his own meant he could spend hours outside the iron lung. He adapted in other ways as well. His father fashioned a stick that he could put in his mouth to play with his toys. (Today, he uses a similar instrument to dial the phone and type on a keyboard.) He learned how to paint and write with a paintbrush or pencil in his mouth, too.

As he grew older, he realized that if he wanted to be successful at something, it would have to be something of the mind. “I had to go to school,” he says. “There was no other way.”

One of the first students to attend the homebound program in his school district, Alexander ended up graduating at the top of his class. He then attended Southern Methodist University before transferring to UT to study economics and finance. “I needed something bigger,” he says. For the first time in his life, he was away from home.

When he got to Austin, though, his hired caretaker never showed up. He refused to call his parents for help, fearing they’d take him home. “I was so determined to do this,” he says. “I thought, I’m going to die or I’m going to go to school.”

His first month at UT, students in his residence hall took care of him. They fed him and took him to class in his wheelchair. He says a lot of his professors were “angels” and believed in him. It took him seven years, but he graduated in 1978. And he wasn’t done with school yet. He attended UT Law, but this time around, the professors weren’t as encouraging. Alexander remembers one who brought him into his office and told him, “You don’t look like a lawyer,” and, “You’re not going to pass my class.” But he did.

He graduated in 1984 and passed the bar two years later. He spent decades as a lawyer in Dallas, practicing family law and taking on bankruptcy cases, representing clients in court from his wheelchair. When new clients came into his office, they’d see the iron lung and often ask, “What is that?”

It’s a moment Kathy Gaines, his caretaker of over 30 years, knows well. At the start of his career, he put an ad in the newspaper for a caretaker and Gaines responded. Before she met him, she’d never seen an iron lung before. “I walked in, and there was this big, yellow, monster machine, and I was like, ‘Woah, what the hell is this?’” she says. “Paul likes that—it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s a cool car,’ you know?”

She started taking on tasks: cooking his meals, shaving his beard, brushing his teeth, tying his tie—“You have to know how to tie a tie to help a lawyer,” she says—and eventually began working for him full time. Over the years, she’s learned everything about him. She can tell if he’s not getting enough oxygen, or when he’s dehydrated. “I know his body language so well, better than him,” she says. “He gets mad at me. I say, ‘Paul, drink.’ He says, ‘I’m not thirsty.’ I say, ‘Paul, you are thirsty, drink.’”

As Alexander aged, it became more difficult to breathe on his own. Now, he’s completely confined to his iron lung. He stopped practicing law in the last few years and set a new goal: telling his life’s story. Lying on his back in the iron lung, he wrote using a pen attached to a plastic stick. A mirror above his head reflected his notes back to him. He self-published his memoir, Three Minutes for a Dog, in April. It took eight years to complete. Gaines calls it “his big victory.”

One of the reasons Alexander wants to share his story is so people understand the severity of polio. After American virologist Jonas Salk developed a successful polio vaccine in 1955, countries began spearheading immunization campaigns. Since 1979, no cases of polio have originated in the U.S., meaning many Americans don’t understand how prevalent polio once was. Children in the U.S. are vaccinated against the disease by the time they’re 6. But vaccine-preventable diseases, like polio or measles or mumps, haven’t disappeared. Though it’s close to being eliminated, polio is still endemic in three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. And “if we let ourselves become vulnerable by not vaccinating,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns, “a case that could touch off an outbreak of some disease that is currently under control is just a plane ride away.”

“Polio could come back,” Alexander tells me. Now that we’re living through a pandemic, his words, and the CDC’s, don’t sound alarmist at all. As I talk with Alexander, a living reminder of how an invisible virus can alter one’s life forever, it’s easy to draw parallels between the polio outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic. The calls to avoid gatherings of people. The fears. The anticipation of a cure. I find myself reading the pages of his memoir, in which he implores the world not to forget about the destructive consequences of polio, with a new sense of urgency. “It is extremely important,” he writes, “that you know what this is and what I have had to live with.” source

From top: Courtesy of Paul Alexander; Alamy Stock Photo; courtesy of Paul Alexander 

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The man in the iron lung: How Paul Alexander lived life to the full

Paul Alexander was six years old when he woke, terrified, to find himself inside a large metal tube, with only his head sticking out.

He couldn’t move to feel what was trapping him, and when he tried to call for help, he discovered he couldn’t make a sound.

Paul had survived a serious bout of polio, but had been left quadriplegic. After an emergency tracheostomy operation, he was unable to breathe without the iron lung machine that now encased his small body.

When he died recently at the age of 78, Paul had spent more than seven decades using his iron lung, longer than anyone else in history.

GoFundMe

But what was it that marked him out from so many of his peers, and kept him going?

Polio ran riot in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, killing and maiming scores of children.

In hospital in Texas in 1952, Paul was surrounded by other children in similar predicaments. According to the World Health Organization, one in 200 polio infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralysed, 5-10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.

Uncertain future

After two years in hospital, doctors began to cast doubt on Paul’s future.

That led his parents to make the brave decision to take him and his iron lung home, to live out his days in peace. But instead of dying, Paul went from strength to strength, once he was home in his parents’ care.

The iron lung uses a negative pressure system. Powered by a motor, its bellows suck air out of the cylinder, creating a vacuum around the patient’s body and forcing the lungs to expand and take in air. When the air is let back in, the same process in reverse makes the lungs deflate. The device needs a source of energy to function.

During power cuts, the bellows had to be pumped by hand; neighbours would come to help with the job. Paul’s father designed an alarm bell that Paul could ring using his mouth if he needed urgent attention.

Over time Paul learnt to consciously breathe by gulping down air, using his throat muscles to force air into his lungs. He called it frog-breathing.

His younger brother, Philip, explained to the BBC that the promise of a puppy gave Paul the incentive to be brave, and attempt to spend time out of his iron lung to learn the complicated glossopharyngeal breathing technique, the medical term for frog-breathing.

“He was scared of course of choking to death,” says Philip. “They told him if you last three minutes, you’ll get the dog that you want.” And he did.

Rotary Club of Park Cities Dallas

As his confidence and strength grew, he was able to spend increasingly longer periods out of the iron lung. This allowed him to begin to experience a bit more of life. He was allowed to venture into the neighbourhood in his wheelchair with childhood friends, returning to the iron lung when he was tired.

“He was just a normal brother to me. We fought, we played, we loved, we partied, we went to concerts together – he was just a normal brother,” says Philip.

Paul finished school at home and went on to earn a college degree before setting his sights on law school.

University of Texas

Philip recalls Paul’s time at the University of Texas in Austin as being “incredible”. His parents helped Paul move in with his iron lung, and then he was on his own – with limited help at first, after the carer he had hired failed to show up.

“He didn’t really have any caregivers. He was in the dorm and different people just took care of him accidentally. They pushed him around campus [in his wheelchair],” says Philip.

Paul went on to practise law in downtown Dallas. He had to deal with the surprise of clients on entering his office and seeing him in his iron lung.

“It’s not an easy thing to see, just a head sticking out,” says Philip. “People immediately go into shock. I saw that happen a lot.”

Paul lived alone for much of his adult life, no mean feat for someone unable to take care of his basic human needs like using the toilet or getting a drink on his own.

: Philip Alexander remembers his brother, ‘the man in the iron lung’

Philip says he became the master of his own domain, helping people to help him.

“He needed a unique type of care. Not even professionals are trained to take care of a quadriplegic in an iron lung,” says Philip of the huge responsibility that came with supporting his brother.

“Most of the care was basic – shaving and feeding for example. But to move him you needed to be careful not to jam his finger and so on.”

There was no instruction manual for those who answered Paul’s adverts for caregivers.

“They learned as they went,” says Philip. “And many left after a day or two. I remember going around once and asking a couple of assisted living centres if they could care for him, and the looks on their faces were priceless.”

Paul had one carer who was in his life for decades. When Kathy Gaines died, her passing left Paul bereft.

Philip says he always saw himself as the back-up carer for his brother, but he admired the support system Paul built: “He had a lot of wonderful friends, some really beautiful people in his life.”

Help needed

One of those people came into Paul’s life in a moment of dire need.

In 2015, his iron lung began to leak. As the machines were by then extremely rare, it was a race against time to find someone able to carry out the vital repair job to make it airtight once more.

After a plea was posted on social media, responses came in from around the world. But the solution turned out to be much closer to home.

Ten miles down the road from Paul’s apartment in Dallas, was the mechanical durability business Environmental Testing Laboratory, owned by Brady Richards.

Mr Richards had come into possession of two iron lung machines at a building clearance and he recalls how one day a paramedic walked in asking: “Is this the place I can find iron lungs?”

The medic had been transporting Paul to and from hospital, as carers fought to keep him alive in the failing iron lung. As the situation became more desperate, word of mouth had brought her to Mr Richards.

Brady Richards

“I did not have any idea about Paul Alexander at that time,” says Mr Richards. On learning about the emergency, he immediately set about rebuilding one of the broken machines he had in his warehouse.

He built some parts from scratch and scavenged others from other devices, learning as he went along: “Iron lungs are very robust machines. They are built to last.

“It’s a simple machine so I managed to work it out. You can increase and decrease the breathing rate and the pressure. Paul always liked the settings up high.”

Once the refurbished machine was ready, Mr Richards swapped it for the damaged one at Paul’s apartment. He wouldn’t accept any money for his work.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. Later that night Mr Richards received a call from Paul’s carer to say the machine wasn’t working.

Mr Richards returned to Paul’s apartment and quickly realised the neck collar wasn’t on properly and had come loose.

“Paul was saying ‘I’m fine, I’m OK’ as we worked to correct the problem,” recalls Mr Richards. “The truth was, he was turning blue.”

In moments of desperation like these, Paul had access to more portable breathing devices, which used a different sort of technology to the iron lung.

“Positive pressure respirators can make the patient feel like they have their head stuck out of the car window. Not everyone likes that sensation” explains Dr Patrick Murphy, the clinical lead consultant at the Lane Fox respiratory unit at St Thomas’ Hospital, in London.

Paul never moved full-time to these mask-based devices.

Another polio survivor, living in York, in northern England, did make the switch.

James Porteous

James Porteous, 78, was infected with polio in the same year as Paul. He was initially placed in an iron lung.

He recovered to a point where he could live his life without significant breathing support, but as is often the case for polio survivors, as he aged he began to need more help.

He now uses a respirator mask for about 17 hours a day: “I don’t remember much about being in the iron lung. I was also placed in a head-to-toe plaster cast initially as the thought was that this would prevent my limbs from becoming deformed,” says Mr Porteous, who is the regional president of the British Polio Fellowship.

Mr Porteous had a long career, first in stockbroking and then in various senior roles for Rowntree’s, which became part of Nestlé. He married and has four daughters. He travelled the world and in 2001 he was awarded an MBE for services to the community.

James Porteous

“I could have sat all my life with a rug over my knees, but I decided to just get on with it. I’m tired these days and I don’t get out much any more, but life is good. I have a nice family and good friends. One thing I’d still like to see achieved in my lifetime is the complete eradication of polio around the world,” he says.

Ending polio globally was also Paul’s ambition. He wrote about it in his 2020 memoir, which he typed himself, using a pencil attached to a stick gripped in his mouth to reach the computer keyboard.

Philip says it was after the book was published that he fully realised what an inspiration his brother was to people around the world: “His personality had a lot to do with how much he was admired. He had that great big smile and he was such a welcoming, warm person. He made people comfortable.”

Brady Richards remained involved in Paul’s life over the years. He helped Paul move apartments when needed, and serviced the iron lung regularly: “It was always a pleasure to be around Paul – he had a very upbeat and positive attitude.”

NHS

Dr Murphy is full of admiration for the people who cared for Paul.

“His parents took their son home in a machine that was at the time relatively high-end technology. He also had a tracheostomy, which calls for special care. They will have needed to be engineers, nurses and doctors.

“If you speak to lots of trained doctors or nurses they won’t be confident in managing a patient with complex respiratory failure, and yet patients like Paul and their families do it at home on their own. The bravery cannot be underestimated,” says Dr Murphy.

World record

Last year Paul was recognised by Guinness World Records as the person who had lived the longest in an iron lung.

Philip’s admiration for his brother runs deep: “I saw him go through a lot of struggles in his life. I’m going to miss him. I called him when I needed to talk to someone about any kind of problem I had.”

He says that while the rest of the world might be amazed by how long his brother survived in his iron lung, his parents would not have been: “They believed in him. They gave him so much strength and love. They wouldn’t have been shocked.” source