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Abraham Lincoln the Early Adopter

Posted by kdawson on from the techno-bunny dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "On the 200th anniversary of his birth, President Abraham Lincoln's popular image as a log-splitting bumpkin is being re-assessed as historians have discovered that Lincoln had an avid interest in cutting-edge technology and its applications. During the war, Lincoln haunted the telegraph office (which provided the instant-messaging of its day) for the latest news from the front; he encouraged weapons development and even tested some new rifles himself on the White House lawn; and he is the only US president to hold a patent (No. 6469, granted May 22, 1849). It was for a device to lift riverboats over shoals. 'He not only created his own invention but had ideas for other inventions, such as an agricultural steam plow and a naval steam ram, [and] was fascinated by patent cases as an attorney and also by new innovations during the Civil War,' says Jason Emerson, author of Lincoln the Inventor. But Lincoln's greatest contribution to the war effort was his use of the telegraph. When Lincoln took office the White House had no telegraph connection. Lincoln 'developed the modern electronic leadership model, says Tom Wheeler, author of Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph To Win the Civil War. At a time when electricity was a vague scientific concept and sending signals through wires was 'mind boggling,' Lincoln was fascinated by the telegraph and developed it into a political and military tool that allowed him to project himself to the front to monitor and track what was going on. 'If he were alive today, we'd call him an early adopter,' says Wheeler."

11 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. No... by zackhugh · · Score: 5, Funny

    If he was alive today, we'd call him a zombie...

    1. Re:No... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      if he was alive, i don't see how he could be undead as well.

  2. sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the telegraph office (which provided the instant-messaging of its day)

    Why always the painfully stupid condescension?

    Communicating science (or history) well to a general audience doesn't require this. See Carl Sagan. If anything, such unnecessary analogies make things *less* clear.

  3. Don't forget Tom by Renegade+Iconoclast · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljefferson.htm

    Jefferson was a tinkerer who realized that every design could be improved. The same mind he dedicated to helping to create our novel system of government, he applied to physical science.

  4. Though the names change... by DerekLyons · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When Lincoln took office the White House had no telegraph connection. Lincoln 'developed the modern electronic leadership model'
     
    Is that what kids are calling it nowadays? I must be out of date - I was raised to call it micromanagement.

    1. Re:Though the names change... by GaryOlson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Technology allows an even greater ability to micromanage; but does not necessarily imply micromanagement. Faster communications technology can make it possible for the logistics elements to shift behind the scene to better support the front line. Equally well, better technology can give the front line information to modify their plans/actions to prepare for the consequences of out-of-theater actions which will have a definitive impact.

      Micromanagement is a meme attached to people -- not technology.

      --
      Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
    2. Re:Though the names change... by Ihmhi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Micromanagement is a meme attached to StarCraft.

      Fixed.

      --
      Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
  5. Attention! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lincoln held opinions not very different from those of the majority of his racist countrymen. Even if slavery was wrong, "there is a physical difference between the white and black races that will for ever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality." His solution was a form of ethnic cleansing: shipping blacks off to Liberia, or Haiti, or Central America â" anywhere as long as it wasnâ(TM)t the United States.

    Lincoln's views may have started to change once he saw how bravely black troops fought for the Union cause, but even at the time of his death, he was willing to leave the fate of emancipated slaves in the hands of bigoted state legislators. "Whether Lincoln ever went beyond being an anti-slavery white supremacist," George Fredrickson writes, "is a question that is difficult to resolve."

    So should we tear down his memorial on the National Mall? The answer to this question may surprise you.

    1. Re:Attention! by phosphorylate+this · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You see no social equality because people of eropean-decendent have done a mediocre job of trying to bring it about. While on the other side of the equation people of African decent are trying to jump up 1000-years of technological development with all the historical power-imbalences that entails.

      Think about how HUGE social differences were - 200 years ago every black man in America was a slave, think on the sheer brutality that implies. In the 1960's (within living memory) seggregation was an established part of much of American society. When slavery was abolished it's not like education or skilled-jobs suddenly jumped into black communities, these things take generations to nuture from parent to child.

      Any "physical differences" between races are at most 3rd or 4th order effects. My guess is it wil take a 100 years or more before social equality has advanced to the point where being black and in power in AMERICA is not noteworthy let alone the rest of the world. You've just elected your first black president - celebrate man this is how progress is made, and how we make up for the misdeeds and ill-gotten gains of pyshcopathic forefathers (on every side).
       

  6. The only president with a patent? Not true, unless by LittleBigScript · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...unless you read the wikipedia on Thomas Jefferson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
    There are none of Thomas Jefferson's patents on the page. In fact it doesn't even mention his involvement in the patent act of 1790, http://etext.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH40/walter40.html

    He invented a Moldboard Plow Of Least Resistance, Wheel Cipher, Portable Copying Press, and an improved polygraph for copying handwritten text.
    http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~meg3c/classes/tcc313/200Rprojs/jefferson_invent/invent.html

  7. If he was alive today he'd be busted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He even wrote a letter to the Hohner Harmonica company stating how he loved to sit on his porch, smoking "sweet hemp" from a corncob pipe and playing his harmonica. He very likely smoked it even while in the Whitehouse, or on or about the Whitehouse grounds, since hemp smoking was rather commonplace in the mid-1800's.