Lincoln Developed Modern War Technology

[clarencebunsen]

How Abraham Lincoln Developed Modern War Technology

In between shots of soldiers meeting their brutal end and Sally Field being the most perfect Mary Todd Lincoln of all time (besides maybe MTL herself), the trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, a war drama in theaters everywhere November 16, presents Honest Abe as an honest badass. "I am the President of the United States of America...clothed in immense power," he declares, because if you're going to abolish slavery you have to be the toughest dude in the room. In our 1957 issue, PopSci celebrated Lincoln as the awesome war scientist he was. We wrote about how the great emancipator tested out and helped create at least a rudimentary form of most of the weapons we knew in the mid-20th century.

www.popsci.com/node/67191/?cmpid=enews111512&spPodID=020&spMailingID=4904226&spUserID=MTEzOTczNzkxMTES1&spJobID=295512132&spReportId=Mjk1NTEyMTMyS0

Here's a link to the 1957 article, I found it very interesting. (It took longer than normal to load on my computer.) Our Civil War and the Franco-Prussian Warserved as transitions from the Napoleonic art of war to what developed during WW I.

www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=XyEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=130

[dave]

I never knew that.

A central theme of Michael Lind's "What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President," was the public nature of the man. He was a lawyer and politican, so of course he had a significant public side. But his huge popularity following his death led to the publication of his opinions on just about anything. Since he evolved like any other man, a quote from Abe in his twenties might be far different than a quote on the same topic in his fifties. He grew as he learned and never seemed to stop. And then there was the spin employed by those who wished to use his name and popularity for their own purposes. Lincoln's words were used by Republicans, Democrats and everything in between. And they weren't always accurately quoted.

I'd like to see the movie. I'll keep my enthusiasm on low, basically distrustful of Hollywood ever since Sandra Dee wore falsies, watching for the author to re-incarnate himself as Oliver Stone. I hope he doesn't.

[dave]

Lincoln was a technology nut. He believed it drove business and he felt it was business that gave us all a better standard of living. He could never understand people who were satisfied with the status quo. Those stories of Lincoln studying by firelight in a cabin, scratching out his lessons on a slate, were more true than the story of Donald Trump being a self-made man (he inherited his father's real estate business.) Lincoln grew up hoping there was a better way of living life and to him "conveniences" were more than a convenience. They were necessary to the full enjoyment of life.

[dave]

In the Popsci Lincoln, got a kick from, "He killed a wild turkey with one shot." Hahahaha. Given the long rifle he was using, even the fastest re-loader would not get a second shot. And if he did, there wouldn't be much turkey left. Wild turkeys are not all that large under their feathers.

Elsewhere in this edition, the 57 Buick station wagon. Man, they were huge! Those were the days when you saw a lot of people putting additions on the back of their detached garages.

[Deleted]

Anyone see the movie yet. I am saving to go see. Did you know Lincoln was dismorphic. His bi lateral symetry was off. We have to women twins in Utica who I see on the bus now and then. There condition is very extreme. The right eye is at least three inches below the left same thing with each side of the nose.Must make blowing one nose difficult.