engineering

Philadelphia Lazaretto

Philadelphia Lazaretto is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Philadelphia Lazaretto rather than just read about it. In short: The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the second quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers.

Key takeaways

Philadelphia Lazaretto belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Philadelphia Lazaretto to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Philadelphia Lazaretto from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the second quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers. Nearby Province Island was the site of the confinement of the Christian Moravian Indians who were brought there under protective custody from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1763 when their lives were threatened by the Paxton Boys. The facility predates similar national landmarks such as Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital and Angel Island and is considered both the oldest surviving quarantine hospital and the last surviving example of its type in the U.S.

History

The first quarantine station in Philadelphia was erected in 1743 just southwest of where the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers meet on present-day Penrose Ferry Road. A building was erected for use by sick people arriving at the port of Philadelphia and was known as the Pest House or the Old Lazaretto. The building was sold in 1802, with the proceeds used to help pay for the newly built Lazaretto, located about six miles west. Efforts to control disease epidemics in the City of Philadelphia did not begin in earnest until after the devastating Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, which killed between 4,000 and 5,000 inhabitants—about one-tenth of the city's population at the time—and led the national government, which was then located there, to temporarily move out of the city. Following that epidemic, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1798 created a Board of Health, controlled by the city, with the power to levy taxes for public health measures. The following year, the city Board of Health erected the Lazaretto on a 10-acre (40,000 m2) site ten miles (16 km) south of the city on the banks of the Delaware in Tinicum Township. In 1864, the municipal hospital of Philadelphia burned down and the board of health relocated it to the Lazaretto. Dr. J.L. Forwood managed the hospital at the Lazaretto until the new building were completed. The new quarantine station included a hospital, offices, and residences. All passenger and cargo vessels bound for the port of Philadelphia were required to dock at the Lazaretto for inspection. Passengers suspected of contagion were quarantined in the hospital, and all suspect cargo was stored in the public warehouse. The Board of Health of the City of Philadelphia operated the facility and enforced the local quarantine regulations until the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania assumed authority for enforcing quarantine regulations in 1893. After it was closed as a hospital, it was used as an aviation base. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In the early 21st century, the site was threatened with development, but the work of local preservationists saved it from leveling. Tinicum Township purchased the building in 2005 and subsequently refurbished the building to serve as township offices.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Philadelphia Lazaretto

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Philadelphia Lazaretto claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Philadelphia Lazaretto before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Philadelphia Lazaretto ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Philadelphia Lazaretto

In research: Philadelphia Lazaretto appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Philadelphia Lazaretto in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Philadelphia Lazaretto is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1799 establishments in Pennsylvania, Buildings and structures completed in 1799, Buildings and structures in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Philadelphia Lazaretto outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Philadelphia Lazaretto in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Philadelphia Lazaretto means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Philadelphia Lazaretto out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Philadelphia Lazaretto in simple terms?

Why does Philadelphia Lazaretto matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Philadelphia Lazaretto?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Philadelphia Lazaretto.