Daniel Guggenheim
American magnate and philanthropistWikipedia
14
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
4
PODCASTS
Search complete. 14 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Daniel Guggenheim".
Sep 18, 2026
Tail DraggerHOST
But the work that would define what aviation became, all of aviation, every instrument-equipped aircraft flying today, that work started in 1927 when a man named Harry Guggenheim decided to fund a serious scientific program to crack what they called the fog problem.
Tail DraggerHOST
Harry was the son of mining magnate, Daniel Guggenheim, and he had poured serious money into aviation development throughout the decade, the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics.
Tail DraggerHOST
Now, he wanted to solve the problem that was still killing pilots at a terrible rate, flight and zero visibility.
Tail DraggerHOST
In the 1920s, flying into a cloud was, for many pilots, a death sentence.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
So he was able to strike these insane deals.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
One example of a deal is he talked Daniel Guggenheim into selling 45 million pounds of copper at half the market price, saving $3.7 million in 1916, 1917 dollars, which is an insane deal.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
And The War Industries Board created all these facilities all over the country to coordinate the food, the fuel, the railway administration, the shipping board, the war trade board.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
Every decision of the commodities and the production of the economy in wartime passed by him.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
First California gold found on ranch of John Sutter, German Swiss.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
Eminent mining industrialists include Simon and Daniel Guggenheim, Swiss Jews, and Adolf Lewensohn, German Jew.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
Banking.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
Leading bankers include J. Pierpont Morgan, Welsh, Nathan Strauss, Felix Warburg, Jacob Schiff, Otto Kahn, and James Speyer, German Jews, Charles G. Dawes, English, Amadeo Genini, Italian, and Jesse Jones, Welsh.
19 MINS LATER
Mark SmithNARRATOR
Colgate University founded by William Colgate, English.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
One hundred twenty-two thousand dollars to Fisk University by James Burris, Negro.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
Foundations for opportunities to study abroad and to promote well-being of mankind established by Simon and Daniel Guggenheim, Swiss-Jews.
Mark SmithNARRATOR
Champions of human liberty.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
So he was able to strike these insane deals.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
One example of a deal is he talked Daniel Guggenheim into selling forty-five million pounds of copper at half the market price, saving three point seven million dollars in, uh, nineteen-sixteen, nineteen-seventeen dollars, which is an insane deal.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
And, um, the War Industries Board created all these facilities all over the country to coordinate the food, the fuel, the railway administration, the shipping board, the war trade board.
Philos MiscellanyGUEST
Every decision of the commodities and the production of the economy in wartime passed by him.
Tail DraggerHOST
The problem was that no one had yet given pilots the tools to replace what the eye could no longer see.
Tail DraggerHOST
That is where Daniel Guggenheim came in.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Guggenheims had made their fortune in copper and silver mining.
Tail DraggerHOST
By the 1920s, Daniel Guggenheim and his son Harry had decided to spend a significant portion of that fortune on the future of aviation.
Tail DraggerHOST
Harry Guggenheim had himself been a naval aviator.
Tail DraggerHOST
He had flown in the war.
Tail DraggerHOST
He understood what aviation could become if the basic problems of safety and reliability could be solved.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics was established in 1926 with real money and a real mission – make commercial aviation safe enough for ordinary Americans to trust.
Tail DraggerHOST
And pilots were dying because the instruments to navigate clouds either did not exist or did not work well enough to trust with your life.
Tail DraggerHOST
Enter a man named Daniel Guggenheim.
Tail DraggerHOST
If you know the Guggenheim name, you probably know it from museums.
Tail DraggerHOST
His family made an enormous fortune in the mining and smelting business, and they spent a remarkable portion of that fortune on causes they believed in.
Tail DraggerHOST
Daniel Guggenheim believed aviation was the future of transportation.
Tail DraggerHOST
He also believed that aviation's future depended entirely on making it safe and reliable in all weather.
Tail DraggerHOST
In 1926, he established the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the promotion of aeronautics with $2.5 million of his own money.
Tail DraggerHOST
That would be somewhere north of $45 million today.