Month: January 2020

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Thomas Edison Builds a Better Telegraph

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Thomas EdisonDisheveled as he was when he showed up on the doorstep of the venerable Western Union Company, Edison was confident that management would see through the rough exterior into his insightful mind. The company had made a name for itself even before the Civil War, but the rampant use of telegraphy during the conflict enabled Western Union to grow immensely, swallowing up its nearest competitors and becoming a force in the industry. This was just the opportunity Edison was looking for. During his initial interview, office manager George Milliken was so impressed with the 21-year-old that he hired him immediately. Milliken asked how soon Edison would be ready to work, to which Edison replied “Now.” He was put to work on the shift that day at 5:30 p.m.

The more professionally attired and traditionally educated eastern men thought the ill-dressed “westerner” was somewhat of a rube, so they devised a way to put him to the test. Edison recalls:

I was given a pen and assigned to the New York No. 1 wire. After waiting an hour, I was told to come over to a special table and take a special report for the Boston Herald, the conspirators having arranged to have one of the faster senders in New York send the despatch and “salt” the new man. I sat down unsuspiciously at the table, and the New York man started slowly. Soon he increased his speed, to which I easily adapted my pace. This put my rival on his mettle, and he put on his best powers, which, however, were soon reached. At this point I happened to look up, and saw the operators all looking over my shoulder, with their faces shining with fun and excitement. I knew then that they were trying to put up a job on me, but I kept my own counsel. The New York man commenced to slur over his words, running them together and sticking the signals; but I had been used to this style of telegraphy in taking report, and was not in the least discomfited. Finally, when I thought the fun had gone far enough, and having about completed the special, I quietly opened the key and remarked, telegraphically, to my New York friend: “Say, young man, change off and send with your other foot.” This broke the New York man all up and he turned the job over to another man to finish.

And just like that, he had won over the new office.

Edison earned $125 per month at Western Union, but more important, the job gave him considerable flexibility and many opportunities to access equipment to continue his independent research. While in Boston he bought copies of the works of Michael Faraday, then considered one of the foremost experimenters in electricity and the father of electromagnetic induction. At the time, “the only people who did anything with electricity were the telegraphers and the opticians making simple school apparatus to demonstrate the principles.” Edison experimented with telegraphy equipment and electricity and “had an unflagging desire and belief in his own ability to improve the apparatus he handled daily.” He worked all day long in his own makeshift laboratory before heading into Western Union for his night shift duties.

After a year on the job, Edison found it increasingly difficult to juggle his telegraph operator responsibilities with his more interesting extracurricular activities. On January 30, 1869, he published a notice in The Telegrapher: Mr. T.A. Edison has resigned his situation at the Western Union office, Boston, Mass., and will devote his time to bringing out his inventions. He was only 22 years old.

[Adapted from my book, Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World. I thought of this incident while working on an upcoming presentation in which the telegraph becomes an important communication – and military strategy – tool during the Civil War.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln in Scotland – Wiegers Calendar January

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Wiegers calendar JanuaryDavid Wiegers is a photographer. He is also an Abraham Lincoln fan. He has combined those two interests into a calendar featuring photos of Lincoln statues from around the world. January is the statue in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This particular statue represents one of those “argh” moments for me. I was in Edinburgh and yet didn’t see the statue. And when I say I was “in” Edinburgh, I don’t just mean for a few days on vacation – I actually lived there for three months in the summer of 2005. The company I worked for at the time had an office in Edinburgh. As manager of the Washington DC office I had the opportunity to work out of the Edinburgh office for that summer (which I’m told was the sunniest summer they had had in a decade, and that’s all I’m going to say about that). I lived in an apartment about a mile or two away from the center of town, so although the actual work facility was a drive in the opposite direction, I did hike downtown fairly often.

On one such foray I walked up to the top of Calton Hill, one of seven in the city. What I didn’t know at the time was that right across the street was Old Calton Burial Ground. And that is where the Lincoln statue stands.

Old Calton Burial Ground

 

When I found out years later I had missed the statue I was, let’s say, more than a little disappointed. I had literally been steps from it without noticing. Worse, that was the first summer I had finally ditched my old 35-mm film SLR and purchased a digital SLR, only to have most of my photos lost in a once-in-a-lifetime comedy-of-errors involving my computer and all of my layered backup options. [A story for another time]

Which means I need to get back to Edinburgh.

Luckily, David Wiegers has been there and has photographed the statue. Seeing it in the very first photo of his calendar brings back both good and bad memories of my brief life in Edinburgh.

Wiegers Calendar January

So why is there a Lincoln statue in Scotland? Because of the six Scottish men who fought on behalf of the Union during the American Civil War. The names of those men are etched into the large dual-figure monument erected in 1893. The lower figure represents an enslaved man being released from shackles at the feet of Lincoln. A bronze shield bears the flag of the time, with thistles to the left and cotton to the right. Two regimental flags complete the grouping.

As I flip through the calendar I see many places that I’ve visited and realize that I missed Lincoln in a few of them. Each month I’ll write one of these posts featuring David’s calendar photo and my own story associated with the statue and/or location. One thing is sure – I’m getting many more ideas for future Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Photo credits: Two calendar photos are my photos of David Wiegers calendar photo; Old Calton Burial Ground photo by Kim Traynor – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17821287.

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Abraham Lincoln and the Forces of Nature

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Lincoln Quote BustSeveral times in 1858 Lincoln delivered a lecture he called “Discoveries and Inventions.” Not a particularly successful lecture – the fragments we have remaining suggest it was a bit rambling and lacking in his later eloquence – it presented what was essentially the “American System” of economics based on continuing intellectual and technological improvements.

In his lecture he notes that man has figured out to substitute for his own brawn other “forces of nature” such as “the power of the wind” and of “running streams.” Lincoln strongly highlights the power of the wind:

“Of all the forces of nature, I should think the wind contains the largest amount of motive power—that is, power to move things. Take any given space of the earth’s surface—for instance, Illinois—- and all the power exerted by all the men, and beasts, and running-water, and steam, over and upon it, shall not equal the one hundredth part of what is exerted by the blowing of the wind over and upon the same space. And yet it has not, so far in the world’s history, become proportionably valuable as a motive power. It is applied extensively, and advantageously, to sail-vessels in navigation. Add to this a few wind-mills, and pumps, and you have about all. That, as yet, no very successful mode of controlling, and directing the wind, has been discovered; and that, naturally, it moves by fits and starts—now so gently as to scarcely stir a leaf, and now so roughly as to level a forest—doubtless have been the insurmountable difficulties. As yet, the wind is an untamed, and unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made, will be the taming, and harnessing of the wind. That the difficulties of controlling this power are very great is quite evident by the fact that they have already been perceived, and struggled with more than three thousand years; for that power was applied to sail-vessels, at least as early as the time of the prophet Isaiah.”

Here is Lincoln fifty years before Nikola Tesla, using much of the same language, referring to motive power and the taming of the power of the wind. He also advocated for the power of running streams as “a motive power,” in particular its “application to mills and other machinery by means of the “water wheel” – a thing now well known, and extensively used.” In fact, Lincoln supposedly invented a water wheel as early as the spring of 1834, long before his lecture on Discoveries and Inventions.

Of course, Lincoln’s water wheel provided mechanical power. We would have to wait a few more decades before Nikola Tesla invented a means for large-scale use of the motion of water to create hydroelectric power, but Lincoln was already anticipating the idea. A few years later in the Civil War Lincoln worked closely with Joseph Henry, who prior to becoming the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution had developed the precursors to the induction motor.

Ah, but this wasn’t the first foray into science for Abraham Lincoln. More to come.

[The above is adapted from my e-book, Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate, available for download on Amazon.com.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Abraham Lincoln and DC Emancipation

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Lincoln and slaveryAbraham Lincoln signed the Compensated DC Emancipation bill into law about five months before he released his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. But that wasn’t the first time he tried to free enslaved people in the Washington, D.C.

On January 10, 1849 Lincoln proposed a bill (as an amendment to a resolution) that would have provided a mechanism for the freedom of slaves within the District of Columbia. The amendment and the bill went nowhere, and three days later Lincoln gave notice that he intended to introduce a bill himself to accomplish this goal. That never happened either. In 1861, Lincoln explained that upon “finding that I was abandoned by my former backers and having little personal influence, I dropped the matter knowing that is was useless to prosecute the business at that time.”

It would be April 16, 1862 before, as President, he was able to sign a law that freed enslaved people in the District.

There were significant differences between the 1849 effort and the final 1862 law, most notably that the emancipation would occur immediately whereas the earlier bill would have had some form of gradual emancipation. This was a function of the timing more than any particular ideology. In both cases there would be compensation for the owners as an incentive to provide freedom.

On April 4, 2020 I will be giving an expanded version of my “Lincoln’s Long Road to Emancipation” talk at the Rock Creek Civil War Roundtable in the District. Some have suggested that Lincoln’s views on emancipation “evolved” throughout his life, but I show that he was remarkably consistent about his belief that the Constitution prohibited the federal government from banning slavery in the states wherein it already existed. But he also argued adamantly that the federal government did have the authority to remove slavery from the federal territories, including the District of Columbia.

Rock Creek CWRT

Abraham Lincoln has been claimed by both political parties, and yet is often attacked by the current entity carrying the name of his party [it should be noted that the two are very different]. Lincoln was a man of his times, and yet a man ahead of his time. We are lucky to have had him when we did, and many, including myself, long for his leadership during our current fiery trial.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!