Forum Host- Joined
- Oct 10, 2012
- Location
- Mt. Jackson, Va
From a recent article in the NY Times:
The old saying "You can take the boy out of the country…" was well suited to Abraham Lincoln. His log cabin "rail splitter" provenance is well known, and it helped make him hugely popular with average voters hungry for a new political hero. Despite his lack of family pedigree, fortune or schooling, Lincoln made a career of being underestimated, overcompensating with a brilliant, active intellect. The farmboy turned president especially loved innovations and inventions. He is the only American president to win a patent – No. 6,469, issued in May 1849 for a "Method of Buoying Vessels Over Shoals."
Lincoln's natural interest in things mechanical would come to be tested — and celebrated — in the Civil War. The North's huge advantage in men and technology was only as good as the tools of war that Lincoln's Bureau of Ordnance was able to place into those men's hands. Among other martial innovations, the ironclad the Monitor may never have left John Ericsson's drawing board had Lincoln not personally approved and recommended the design.
To read the rest of the article : http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/target-practice-with-mr-lincoln/?_r=0
The old saying "You can take the boy out of the country…" was well suited to Abraham Lincoln. His log cabin "rail splitter" provenance is well known, and it helped make him hugely popular with average voters hungry for a new political hero. Despite his lack of family pedigree, fortune or schooling, Lincoln made a career of being underestimated, overcompensating with a brilliant, active intellect. The farmboy turned president especially loved innovations and inventions. He is the only American president to win a patent – No. 6,469, issued in May 1849 for a "Method of Buoying Vessels Over Shoals."
Lincoln's natural interest in things mechanical would come to be tested — and celebrated — in the Civil War. The North's huge advantage in men and technology was only as good as the tools of war that Lincoln's Bureau of Ordnance was able to place into those men's hands. Among other martial innovations, the ironclad the Monitor may never have left John Ericsson's drawing board had Lincoln not personally approved and recommended the design.
To read the rest of the article : http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/target-practice-with-mr-lincoln/?_r=0
Bringing the