Talk:Joseph McLain

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SL93 (talk) 21:02, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

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Joseph McLain in 1951

• ... that Joseph McLain (pictured) helped write the safety standards for fireworks? Source: After earning his doctorate in chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University, Conkling returned to Washington College, his undergraduate alma mater, to work with Professor Joseph McLain. The two scientists began looking at how materials burned. They soon became involved with the American Pyrotechnics Association, which wanted to develop an industry standard for safe weights and storage of fireworks. The two colleagues submitted their recommendations to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. They became part of the first set of fireworks standards. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2004-07-03-0407030176-story.html
  • ALT1:... that Joseph McLain (pictured) is the only alumnus to serve as the president of Washington College?
  • ALT2:... that Joseph McLain (pictured) held 30 patents for smoke grenades, underwater torches, and flares? Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34054824/the-star-democrat/

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Master of Delft

Created by Guerillero (talk). Self-nominated at 19:40, 3 January 2021 (UTC).

• Guerillero, review follows: article is new enough, long enough, reasonably well written, free of copyvio ([1]). qpq has been done. Image seems appropriately licenced and displays fine at a small size. When looking at the sourcing for ALT2 I'm not seeing that the patents were just for "for smoke grenades, underwater torches, and flares", so could you consider rephrasing along the lines of "30 patents, including "? For ALT2, I really don't think you can use a source from 1981 to cite 'only alumnus' to date-- and besides, all I see in the sourcing is 'first'. ALT0 seems to imply that he wrote the only standards, but could you maybe rephrase that along the lines of "helped write early safety standards for fireworks"? There's also an uncited bit in 'personal life' and I'd suggest considering removing the names of his kids per WP:BLPNAME. Looking good, some minor things. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 20:30, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
  • @Eddie891: I wouldn't be oppose to adding an including to ALT2 the hook. That is an OK change to ALT0. RE: ALT1 I'm trying not to use college sources, but I can tell you that there hasn't been another alumnus as president since this was published in 2000. [2] Would you be Okay with using this source? I removed the kids names. --Guerillero ^{Parlez Moi} 21:04, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
  • ALT2a:... that Joseph McLain (pictured) held 30 patents, including smoke grenades, underwater torches, and flares?
  • ALT0a:... that Joseph McLain (pictured) helped write early safety standards for fireworks?
    • Guerillero I'm ok with that as a source, but if it were me in your shoes I would be opt to use that book and then add a college source or this 2014 obit to further back up the claim towards the present day-- I can't see a great reason not to use a college's source to say that only one president has been an alumnus. Let me know how you decide to handle it -- Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 21:14, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
      • @Eddie891: I added both sources --Guerillero ^{Parlez Moi} 21:47, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
        • All unstruck alts are GTG, but I think ALT1 is the least interesting, personally. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 22:11, 5 January 2021 (UTC)