Technology of the Civil War

The new wave of technology brought forth during the American Civil War has driven historians to call it the First Modern War. The first Photo Cameras, Repeating Rifles, Telegraphs, Telephones, and Railroads were created during the war. Here is a brief description on each:

The Camera
The Civil War was the first war ever to be accurately recorded with images. Before the invention of cameras, battles were often depicted from an artist's insight, and civilians couldn't really know what a battlefield looked like. Images of bodies and blood shocked the friends and families of American soldiers.

Cameramen would need "portable darkrooms," a glass plate, and a camera in order to take pictures. They would first pour a mixture of nitrocellulose and ether  onto the glass plate. This would create a film on the glass. Then, they would put it in the a bath full of chemicals to make it light sensitive. Then it would go into the camera. After the picture is taken, the plate would be rushed to the darkroom before the film dried. It would be placed in a developer liquid, which would begin to reveal the picture. Then the plate would be washed in a "fixer" to sharpen the image. It would now be on the glass for hundreds of years.

The Henry and Spencer Rifles
The Henry and Spencer rifles were the most effective combat system since the creation of gunpowder. They were the first rifles ever to be able to fire several rounds without reloading. Earlier attempts at repeating rifles had failed miserably. One idea (the rifle at the top) was to incorporate Samuel Colt's revolver mechanism onto a rifle. But the rifle's flawed design resulted in all the rounds leaving the cylinder at once, and flying straight into the sharpshooter's supporting hand.

The Henry and Spencer were very similar in that both rifles had a firing chamber and a chamber below the barrel to hold the rounds, not unlike modern pump-action shotguns. To fire the Spencer, the firer would first half-cock the hammer. Then he would pull the lever to load the next round into the firing chamber. Then he would return the lever, and fully cock the hammer. He is now ready to fire.

To fire the Henry rifle, the firer could pull the lever and fully-cock the gun it one swift motion. In addition to that, the Henry could chamber fifteen rounds as opposed to the Spencer's seven. A perk for the Spencer, was the superior accuracy and muzzle velocity, meaning a better effective range.

The Telegraph and Telephone
The Telegraph one of the most effective battle implements of the war. It finally allowed generals to transfer orders to their troops across long distances in record time. Telegraphs used a series of tapping sounds transfer Morse Code across telegraph lines. This was the most effective form of long-range communication since the idea of sending messengers.

Alexander Graham Bell further extended the ability to communicate over long distances with his Telephone design. He discovered that electrical currents could duplicate sound waves exactly, and began working on a way to transmit a voice over telegraph lines. At first, nobody bought the Telephone. Bell had offered to sell his patent to the big Telegraph corporations, but they didn't think it would sell. Bell started his own Telephone company, and soon the profits made him rich. When the corporations offered to buy his patent, he respectfully declined the offers.

The Railroad
The Railroad was another excellent battle tool. Soldiers could move from place to place in half the time they could before. Supplies could travel faster, and get to their destinations in better condition. Munitions could be supplied during longer battles, and in large supplies. The Union states had roughly 22,000 miles of railroad tracks during the war, and the Confederates had only about 9,000 miles.

The Library of Congress

Here's a paper I wrote on the Library of Congress:

Justin Cruz

August 2010

The Library of Congress

     The Library of Congress was originally founded the year 1800, when president John Adams signed the Act of Congress, thus transfering the seat of government from Philidalphia to Washington. Part of the legislation spent $5,000 on 750 books and 30 maps from london for use of the Congress. The items were originaly stored in the Capitol Building. Most of the books were in legal nature, as the Congress beleived they would only need to refer to the library for books on law.

     In 1802, president Thomas Jefferson signed the first law establishing the structure of the library of congress. The law allowed the president and vice president to borrow books from the library, and it gave the presidentially elected Librarian of Congress the power to manage and oversee all items in the library. Jefferson's participation in the formation of the library didn't stop there. In the August of 1814, attacking British troops set fire to the library, burning a majority of the 3,000 items stored there. Withing the next month, former president Jefferson offered his personal collection of books up to the Congress. They accepted, paying him $23,950 for his collection of well over 6,000 books. He had speent over 50 years collecting books of philosophy, science, literature, foreign languages, cookbooks, and a vast selection of other topics. He said that "there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."

     Another fire occured on December 24th, 1851. This was the largest fire in the library's history. It destroyed 35,000 of the 55,000 books. That included a majority of Jefferson's original donation. Congress quickly spent $168,700 replacing lost items. That was money that could have been spent increasing the library's collection. The library wing in the Capitol building was restored by 1853, now completely fireproof, but by 1865, it became obvious the library's gigantic supply of books needed it's own building. The construction of the Jefferson building began, and the building was made public in 1897.

     Around the mid-1800s, the Smithsonian Institution's librarion Charles Jewett was attempting to make it the United States' national library. But the secratary of the institution preferred a focus on scientific study and publication rather than storing books. He saw the Library of Congress as an ideal national library. In 1854, Jewett was relieved of his position by Henry. Henry then transfered the Smithsonian's store of 40,000 volumes to the Library of Congress, almost doubling the library's supply.

     The latter half of the 19th century marked the beginning of the growth of the Library of congress from a simple reference area for the members of Congress into the symbol of strength and indipendance it is today. It began it's expansion under Ainsworth Spafford, the Librarian of Congress from 1865 to 1897. He was the man that came up with the idea of the library having it's own seperate building. He was the man that convinced Congress to put all copyright registration management in the hands of the library. By the time the library was moved to the Jefferson building, Spafford had accumulated a total of 840,000 items in the library, 40% of which came from copyroght deposit.

     After Spafford, the library only grew. Soon it had a library for the blind and physically disabled. It soon became the first library in the US to hold 1,000,000 volumes. Librarian of Congress Putnam convinced president Roosevelt to tranfer the papers of the Founding Fathers to the library from the State Department. He extended the selection of books in foreign languages. Soon the library became so filled, the Main Building wasn't big enough. An expansion was needed.

     From Putnam on, the Library of Congress grew and grew. It is now the world's largest library. It is seconded only by the British library, which holds 62 million items, near half the number of the Library of Congress' 115 million items. The library is now made up of three buildings, grows by 10,000 items a day, and holds a huge selection of paintings, papers, and books, including the original Spider-Man comic, Columbus' Book of Privilages, the Guttenburg bible, the Branch Rickey scouting report, and many other interesting items. The library started as a reading room in the Capitol building with a few hundred books, now it's a gigantic multi-million book legend.

Resources: http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/
                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress
                 http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc79.htm

How To: Make a Windmill

Resource from: The Colony

Watching The Colony the other day, I was really impressed with the Windmill design. The idea is that in an Apocalyptic setting a windmill would be the perfect solution to the problem of limited energy resources. A windmill attached to an alternator can provide an endless supply of renewable energy. The design in The Colony is used to power the bulbs throughout the house, and I'm guessing it can create enough electricity to power my bedroom.

Step 1: The Rotor
The Colonists built the rotor using a tire, boards from a fence, and copper pipes. They bent the two pipes into semi-circles and welded them together. Then, they attached that to the middle of the boards to hold them in place. The ends of the boards pointing inward were then attached to a tire. In the drawing above, you can see two circles attached to the boards. The outer circle is the pipes and the inner circle is the tire.

Step 2: The Alternator

The Colonists used a car alternator which was from the same car as the batteries they needed the windmill to charge. They got it spinning using two gears and two chains from a pair of bikes they found. In the above image, the big circle would be the gear attached to the tire. The green bike chain connects it to a smaller gear, and another green bike chain connects that gear to the red alternator. The windmill turns anywhere from tens to hundreds of times a minute, but a sufficient amount of energy will only be generated if the alternator is spinning at thousands of times a minute. So, the Colonists "geared up" the windmill by connecting the first gear to a smaller gear. That way, one turn of the larger gear turns the smaller gear several times. That allows one turn of the windmill to be enough to charge the alternator sufficiently.

Step 3: The Fin
In order for the windmill to work, it must be facing the wind at all times. If you look at the comic at the top of this article, you'll notice a little fin behind the rotor. When the wind blows, it moves that fin in the same direction. The fin moves the rotor so that it faces the wind. This ensures that the rotor is always spinning when the wind is blowing. The Colonists used a tail fin from a broken plane, but wood or sturdy cardboard cut into the form of a fin work just as good.

Step 4: Final Setup
Once the fin was done, the Colonist's cut a hole in the second floor of the building they were living in, then another one in the roof. They then put a flagpole through the holes up to the roof. They attached that to the rotor then the rotor to the alternator. Then everyone rejoiced, they had a 100% natural renewable energy source!