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#Post#: 91--------------------------------------------------
Key Historical Events ...THAT YOU MAY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: March 29, 2022, 3:05 pm
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HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-191017143841.jpegWelcome<br
/>to the Sober Thinking Forum.
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This is the continuation of the Renewable Revolution Forum
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/index.php,
with the
same categories and boards arrangement. In order to provide
topic thread continuity, this post will be duplicated in
frequently viewed topic threads along with selected posts from
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width=100]
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/>that topic
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/key-historical-events-that-you-may-have-never-heard-of/msg173/#msg173<br
/>at the Renewable Revolution Forum
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/index.php.
I will
gradually, as time permits, copy pertinent articles posted
there, update them, and post them here for your convenience.
I have no intention of closing the Renewable Revolution Forum
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/index.php,
so any
links you have to posts, articles and graphics there are valid
for the time being. Nevertheless, I advise you to 🦉 copy
and save any posts, articles and graphics that you wish to
preserve for posting somewhere else on the internet. I am 75
years old. As long as my spirit hasn't permanently left my body,
the Sober Thinking Forum will be kept open.
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/>
Although guests are encouraged to post and become members, this
forum is mostly a library reference of important historical
information and timeless articles that you are encouraged to
pass on, with or without attribution.
In addition, relevant recent news will be posted almost daily,
so be sure to 🧐 stop by often.
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/>
I have changed the title and the front page background graphic
for two reasons:
1. My purpose, nearly a decade ago, of convincing most reality
based people everywhere that human civilization, in order to
stop and reverse (i.e getting back to 350 PPM of atmospheric
Carbon Dioxide is sine qua non) the multiple extinctions causing
biosphere degradation (i.e. the Sixth Mass Extinction Event now
upon us), must VERY rapidly transition away from Hydrocarbon
Energy Sources to Renewable Energy Sources, has been largely
achieved. I have been one small voice among many that have made
it clear that clean energy must be made available to everyone,
not just the wealthy, if we are to survive Catastrophic Climate
Change.
2. Celebrated social theorist and geographer David Harvey asked,
"Is there a way to capture what (to the detriment of human
civilization) is going on now"?
My answer: YES.
It's the SOCIAL DARWINISM, stupid!
"In human society, the amount of inequity is directly
proportional to the amount of iniquity." -- A. G. Gelbert
No matter how much progress we make in cleaning up the
biosphere, as long as the egocentric, morally bankrupt, empathy
deficit disordered, Social Darwinist Ideology continues to be
embraced by TPTB, we do not have a snowball's chance in Hell of
surviving our Existential Crisis.
Social Darwinists believe that ethics based principles are
'limitations pretending to be virtues'. To them, ethics are
'feel good illusions' that humans invented to pretend our
species has empathy. To Social Darwinists, empathy is
irrefutable evidence of inexcusable weakness. To them, all who
are guided by ethics are deluded fools that should be eliminated
from the human 'apex predator' gene pool for the "good" of our
species.
The ideology of the Social Darwinist is indistinguishable from
the despicable ideology of NAZI Germany, clearly exemplified in
their brutally enforced morally bankrupt concentration camp law:
“Eat your own bread, and if you can, that of your neighbor.”
Social Darwinism is actually based, not on "survival of the
fittest", but on fear of tomorrow, a morally bankrupt excuse for
rejecting altruism and empathy and embracing a selfish greed
dominated hoarding modus vivendi.
[center]
--- Quote ---
> Every prudent man acts with knowledge, But a fool lays open
his folly. -- Proverbs 13:16
--- End Quote ---
[/center]
[center]
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--- Quote ---
> "One who fears tomorrow does not offer his bread to others.
But one who is willing to divide his food with a stranger has
already shown himself capable of fellowship and faith, the two
things from which hope is born." -- Primo Levi, author of
Survival in Auschwitz
--- End Quote ---
Social Darwinism is the world view that spawned the profit over
people and planet neoliberal ideology. Neoliberal intellectuals
like Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman
were all Social Darwinists long before they renamed
laissez-faire liberalism (that had been thoroughly discredited
by the Great Depression) with the catchy title of
"Neoliberalism".
The celebrated social theorist and geographer David Harvey
explains that neoliberal ideology serves the following
principle:
"There shall be no serious challenge to the absolute power of
money to rule absolutely. And that power is to be exercised with
one objective: Those possessed of money shall not only be
privileged to accumulate wealth endlessly at will, but they
shall have the right to inherit the earth, taking either direct
or indirect dominion, not only of the land and all the resources
and productive capacities that reside therein, but also assume
absolute command, directly or indirectly, over the labor and
creative capacities of all those others it needs. The rest of
humanity shall be deemed disposable."
"In human society, the amount of inequity is directly
proportional to the amount of iniquity." -- A. G. Gelbert
Sober Thinking requires that we all recognize the fact that a
society that is founded on altruism, not the "invisible hand" of
greed, is not optional if we wish to avoid exctinction.
Capitalism's "invisible hand" modus operandi is rooted in the
ideology of Social Darwinism.
--- Quote ---
> “Capitalism is the astounding belief, that the most wickedest
of men, will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest
good of everyone.” — John Maynard Keynes
--- End Quote ---
[center]
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The main purpose of the Sober Thinking Forum is to convince you,
regardless of your religious beliefs or lack of them, to soberly
think about these two quotes, embrace altruism, reject greed,
and convince as many people as you can that altruism is not
optional for human society:
--- Quote ---
> "Look at our world, our country, our interactions with each
other……… this is not the mark of a healthy society, and if these
are the self-appointed leaders of this flaming meteor…..it’s
time to move on to new ideas and new people. Let’s relegate
these fools to history. They perpetuate a narrative that it is
right to behave in a strictly selfish, exploitative manner
towards all. We simply can’t survive it any longer. Things will
change because they have to." -- Kathleen Wallace
--- End Quote ---
"Technical knowledge of Carrying Capacity will not save us; Only
a Massive Increase in Caring Capacity will." -- A. G. Gelbert
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#Post#: 92--------------------------------------------------
When Maritime Employers Hide Behind Archaic Laws
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: March 29, 2022, 5:49 pm
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March 28, 2022
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[move]“I am indeed lord of the world, but the Law is the lord of
the sea. This matter must be decided by the maritime law of the
Rhodians, provided that no law of ours is opposed to it.” Roman
Emperor Antoninus Pius (86-161 A.D.)[/move]
[center]A History of American Maritime Law[/center]
SNIPPETS:
Maritime law
HTML https://www.arnolditkin.com/common-questions/maritime-offshore-injury-faqs/what-is-general-maritime-law-/<br
/>has governed ships and shipping for the past 2,000 years.
While
it is assumed that the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians had
some form of basic maritime laws in place, there are no records
of these. The first written record of maritime law is attributed
to the Greek island of Rhodes and was made by Emperor Antoninus
Pius during his reign from 138 to 161 A.D. His words, which are
included above, can be found in the Digest
HTML https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pandects
(553 A.D.)
Today, maritime law is a combination of some of the oldest legal
standards and new regulations designed to address changes as the
industry has evolved. Individual nations have their own
iterations of maritime law, and 167 are members of the
Convention on the Law of the Sea, a United Nations agreement
that established international marine and maritime regulations.
As a younger nation, the United States adopted much of its
maritime law from England. The first maritime laws were brought
to the Americas in the 1600s with the establishment of
vice-admiralty courts at major seaports, but it wasn’t until the
Judiciary Act of 1789 – after the American Revolution – that
federal district courts were granted jurisdiction over maritime
law cases, with a “serving” clause that allows state courts to
hear certain cases. ... ...
When Maritime Employers Hide Behind Archaic Laws
As a seaman’s life is still dangerous, there is every reason for
some of the oldest maritime principles and customs to apply,
like maintenance and cure. Although we have seen many
advancements in vessels themselves and the tools and technology
we use to navigate them, weather storms, and accomplish some of
a seaman’s most hazardous tasks, maritime workers continue to
face numerous risks. Some are even heightened because of the
advancement of the maritime industry, like offshore drilling
operations, the transportation of immense quantities of natural
gas and oil, and increased production demand.
🤦‍♂️
[center]
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Unfortunately, some companies try to hide behind laws that
should no longer apply. Congress passed the Limitation of
Liability Act of 1851
HTML https://www.arnolditkin.com/maritime-lawyers/limitation-of-liability-act/<br
/>to protect maritime employers from acts that were out of their
control, like heavy storms and pirates.
[center]
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It limited their liability for damages from such events to the
value of the vessel. While the Limitation of Liability Act was
needed at that time, its use has been outlived.
Today’s vessel owners do not face the same threats of piracy as
they once did. Storms can be predicted with more accuracy than
ever before. Even so, some maritime 😈 employers try to
use this archaic law to try to limit their liability when seamen
are catastrophically injured or lose their lives. 😠 This
is a perfect example of when maritime laws are misused or no
longer applicable.
Read more:
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/>
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/>
HTML https://gcaptain.com/a-history-of-american-maritime-law/
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AGelbert NOTE: You can be sure that these greedy maritime
💰🎩😈 employers, true to there Social
Darwinist = Capitalist morally bankrupt ideology, will do all
they can to avoid any accountability for losses in crew and
ships that will grow as Catastrophic Climate Change makes the
oceans of the world more deadly to ships and their crews than
mankind has ever experienced.
Climate Change, Blue Water Cargo Shipping and Predicted Ocean
Wave Activity: PART TWO
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/climate-change/future-earth/msg7390/#msg7390
#Post#: 511--------------------------------------------------
1619 and the Slavery that Made America
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 15, 2022, 7:55 pm
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[center]1619 and the Making of America[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/xg6x4f5-yUs[/center]
Oct 15, 2018 326,118 views
Library of Congress 257K subscribers
The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress convened a
symposium that brought together respected scholars to explore
the intricate encounters of Africans, Europeans and native
people during this significant period in America's
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/>history. In 1619, a Dutch ship with about 20 Africans on board
entered a port at the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia.
This event is known as the arrival of the first recorded
Africans to English North America. Their historic arrival,
however, marked the beginning of a
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/> trend in colonial
🐀
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/>America, in which the people of Africa were taken from their
motherland and consigned to lifelong slavery.
From 1619 to 1650, during the life span of the first arriving
Africans, racial discrimination emerged and chattel slavery
would be 😈 codified into law. The symposium will ask
questions related to the historical importance of these events
in 1619. For example, who were the Africans who arrived in
Virginia in 1619, where did they come from, what world did they
bring with them? What emerged from Africans' engagement with
indigenous Native American populations and their spiritual and
cultural life ways, and what is the enduring legacy of this
encounter today?
The event also featured a display of treasures and historical
items from the Library of Congress' collections related to the
early Americas. The symposium was held in collaboration with the
Middle Passage Project of the College of William & Mary, the
Virginia Commonwealth's 2019 Commemoration and Norfolk State
University.
Speaker Biography: Joanne M. Braxton is 2015 David M. Larson
Fellow in spirituality and health at the John W. Kluge Center
and the director of the Middle Passage Project at the College of
William & Mary.
Speaker Biography: Robert Trent Vinson is Frances L. and Edwin
L. Cummings professor at the College of William & Mary.
Speaker Biography: Cassandra Newby-Alexander is dean of the
College of Liberal Arts and director of the Joseph Jenkins
Roberts Center for African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State
University and co-chair of Virginia's 2019 Commemoration's First
Africans to English North America committee.
Speaker Biography: Lynette Lewis Allston is chief and tribal
council chair of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, one of
11 officially recognized by the Commonwealth.
For transcript and more information, go here
HTML https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8449.
#Post#: 537--------------------------------------------------
“How to Hide an Empire”: Daniel Immerwahr on the History of the
Greater United States
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 26, 2022, 11:19 am
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[center]“How to 🗽😉 Hide an 🦍 Empire”:
Daniel Immerwahr on the History of the Greater United
States[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/RvlUGYvLg0s[/center]
Mar 5, 2019 899,331 views
Democracy Now! 1.15M subscribers
“How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.”
That’s the title of a new book examining a part of the U.S. that
is often overlooked: the nation’s overseas territories from
Puerto Rico to Guam, former territories like the Philippines,
and its hundreds of military bases scattered across the globe.
We speak with the book’s author, Daniel Immerwahr, who writes,
“At various times, the inhabitants of the U.S. Empire have been
shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured and
experimented on. What they haven’t been, by and large, is seen.”
Immerwahr is an associate professor of history at Northwestern
University.
#USterritories #UShistory #PuertoRico
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on
nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch
our livestream 8-9AM ET:
HTML https://democracynow.org
Please consider supporting independent media by making a
donation to Democracy Now! today:
HTML https://democracynow.org/donate
AGelbert NOTE: There are several important historical nuggets in
this category that you may peruse, copy and pass on under this
same Topic at my previous website. I'll be moving them over here
little by little, but since there are nearly 10 years of posts
there, it will take a while. In the meantime, feel free to check
them out:
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/>
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Key Historical Events ...THAT YOU MAY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF
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#Post#: 580--------------------------------------------------
Fame eluded Brandon, Vermont man who invented the ⚡
electric motor 🤷‍♂️
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: October 10, 2022, 12:21 pm
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[center]
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[center]Then Again: Fame eluded Brandon man who invented the
⚡ electric motor
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Jul 3 2022 By Mark Bushnell
[center]
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In 1837, Thomas Davenport of Brandon received the world’s first
patent for an ⚡ electric motor. It was, in fact, the first
patent for any sort of ⚡ electrical device. His wife,
Emily Goss Davenport, suggested the use of mercury as a
conductor, and tore up her wedding dress to use as insulation.
Wikimedia Commons
[move]Thomas Davenport helped create the modern world, but has
largely been forgotten by it. 😟[/move]
He invented a device that makes possible so many of the
trappings of life today: refrigerators and freezers, washing
machines and dryers, dishwashers and microwave ovens, air
conditioners, hair dryers, electric fans, electric clocks,
lathes, forklifts, elevators, garage door openers, subway cars,
satellites, electric vehicles — the list goes on. Even the
computer, tablet or phone you are reading this on.
But any dreams Davenport harbored of attaining wealth and renown
were thwarted by an absurd amount of poor timing, bad luck and
disastrous decisions.
His biggest misfortune was that his ⚡ invention was half a
century ahead of its time.
Davenport’s biography contains two seemingly incompatible facts:
He was a poorly educated blacksmith from the hinterlands of
Vermont, and he invented the first electric motor ever patented.
That he did so nearly 200 years ago shakes our image of what
life was like during the early decades of the 1800s.
“He had a vision of an ⚡ electrified future,” says Dave
Hammond, a scientific electronics technician in the University
of Vermont’s physics department. Hammond has been immersing
himself in the life and work of lately, even building models of
his motors.
[center]
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Dave Hammond, of the University of Vermont’s physics department,
reproduced three working models of Davenport’s electric motor.
Photo courtesy of Dave Hammond
[center]Thomas Davenport ⚡ motors (made by Dave Hammond)
in action:[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/fGeRLXoipWs[/center]
PhysicsatUVM 617 subscribers
Some of Davenport’s motors still exist — notably at the
Smithsonian Institution. Hammond constructed three copies of the
motor — one for UVM, one for the Brandon Museum (in the Vermont
town where Davenport invented his device), and one for Beta
Technologies of Burlington, an aerospace manufacturer developing
vertical takeoff and landing aircraft powered by cutting-edge
electric motors.
The working model will be on display in Brandon at the inaugural
Davenport Electric Fest from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, July
9, which is the 220th anniversary of the inventor’s birth. The
event will also feature hands-on exhibits of various electric
vehicles, including electric cards, e-bikes and snowmobiles.
Like Franklin and Fulton
Though he is little remembered today :(, Davenport drew high
praise during his lifetime. One newspaper claimed his name would
be remembered alongside such great inventors as Benjamin
Franklin and Robert Fulton.
High praise, and much more than his parents might have expected
for him when Thomas was born in 1802, the eighth of 12 children
in a poor farming family in Williamstown, Vermont. He was
apprenticed to a local blacksmith for seven years, starting at
age 14. In exchange for Thomas’ labor, the blacksmith would
teach him the trade and allow him to attend school for six weeks
each winter.
Despite his meager learning, Thomas was curious about the world,
even bookish. The boy was said to read sometimes while working
the forge’s bellows. After completing his apprenticeship, he was
able to establish a blacksmith shop in Brandon, which had an
active iron smelting industry.
For nearly a decade, Davenport focused on his trade, but in 1832
gave up his business. He was fascinated by electricity and
wanted to study it. He was hardly alone in this fixation; some
of the brightest minds in natural philosophy, what we would call
science, were trying to understand and harness electricity’s
power.
“Electricity was a really mysterious thing to people at these
times,” explains Hammond. “They called ⚡ electricity a
fluid, since that was what was familiar to them.”
People were, however, familiar with static electricity. To earn
money, Davenport visited local schools to teach about ⚡
electricity. Accompanying him was fellow Brandon resident Johnny
Johnson, who brought along a tame moose pulling a cage full of
animals. This was part science exhibit, part carnival show.
“Davenport would put a silver dollar in the bottom of a bucket
of water and tell the children they could have it if they could
grab it,” Hammond says. Davenport was in no danger of losing the
valuable coin, because the bucket was hooked to a static
electricity generator. Anyone trying to snag the dollar got a
⚡ shock instead.
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The following year, 1833, Davenport had an epiphany that changed
his life. He learned that an iron works in Crown Point, New
York, was using ⚡ electromagnets built by Joseph Henry of
Albany (future first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution)
to pull bits of iron from the rocks extracted there. The magnets
were supposedly so strong they could suspend an anvil.
Davenport traveled more than 25 miles by 🐎 horse to the
site to see the ⚡ magnets and perhaps purchase one, but
discovered that the owner was away. Undaunted, Davenport
eventually managed to purchase one of ⚡ Henry’s
electromagnets, though at great expense.
Back in Brandon, Davenport took apart the magnet while his wife,
Emily, took detailed notes on how it was constructed. Davenport
noticed that the magnet was insulated with silk, and assumed he
needed to use silk too, though other materials would also have
worked. Silk was hard to come by in rural Vermont, so Emily
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/>sacrificed her wedding dress, cutting it into strips that
furnished Thomas with all the insulation he needed for years. ;D
Davenport created a second ⚡ magnet and used it to test a
theory. He believed ⚡ electricity could cause a machine to
move.
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/>After attaching one magnet to a wheel and a second magnet to
the
stationary frame that held the wheel, he wired each magnet to a
battery. The wheel turned. Though it rotated only half a
revolution, the wheel’s movement was revolutionary.
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Of course, a half-turn doesn’t get you very far, but Davenport
knew he was on to something. He found that, if he reversed the
wires to the magnets, the wheel would complete the revolution.
His original motor revolved only about one to three times per
minute.
He continued to tinker, and with the assistance of his neighbor,
a skilled mechanic with the odd name of Orange Smalley,
Davenport added magnets to the system and developed a way to
reverse their polarity automatically. By the summer of 1834,
they had created a motor that could turn 30 times a minute.
Davenport understood the ⚡ power he was tapping into.
“Like a flash of ⚡ lightning,” he later wrote, “the
thought occurred to me that here was an available ⚡ power
within the reach of man.”
The early 1800s were the age of steam. People used the forces
unleashed by boiling water to power industry and transportation,
in the form of steamboats and trains. But Davenport saw a major
drawback with steam. Under too much pressure, steam would cause
boilers to explode, with dramatic and often fatal effect.
Davenport sought a safer source of power.
People derided Davenport for his claims. Some said he was
boasting of having invented a perpetual motion machine ::).
Others said his machines’ output should be measured not in
horsepower but in mosquito power ::). But Davenport confronted
more severe obstacles than mere mockery.
[move]“Everybody, regardless of when they made a motor and how
they made a motor, faced the same problem: Where do you get the
⚡ power for this thing?” Hammond explains. [/move]
The financing problem
Davenport’s electric motor relied on battery power, which was
expensive, though he was confident the price would drop over
time. However, Hammond says, “Until the dynamo was invented and
perfected in the 1860s, there was no way to generate electricity
reliably.”
Davenport needed allies to advance his cause. If his device was
going to change the world, he needed money. Elite scientists of
the day disdained conducting research for money. They believed
it should be done solely to advance knowledge. Davenport didn’t
have the luxury to share that opinion.
[center]
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A sketch accompanying Thomas Davenport’s 1837 patent for an
electric motor.
He found a strong advocate in the scientific community when he
demonstrated his device to Edward Turner, a Middlebury professor
of natural philosophy, in fact the only one teaching science at
the school at the time. Turner grasped the revolutionary nature
of Davenport’s motor and urged him to secure a U.S. patent, even
drafting wording for a patent application.
In 1835, Davenport made the arduous journey to Washington, D.C.,
to apply in person, stopping en route to visit eminent men of
science and demonstrate his motor. When he arrived, he
discovered that the cost of a patent application, which included
hiring a draftsman to sketch his machine as well as other
expenses, was more than he had left in his pocket. He didn’t
even have enough money to return home.
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He could, however, make it as far as Troy, New York. There he
called on Stephen van Rensselaer, founder of an esteemed
polytechnical school. And was immediately set upon by the man’s
dogs. 😨 While a kitchen maid mended his clothes,
Davenport showed Rensselaer his motor. Rensselaer bought the
device for his institute, so Davenport had enough money to get
home.
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He returned to Washington the next year to submit his patent
application, complete with a working model. That December, a
🔥 fire at the U.S. Patent Office destroyed both his
⚡ model and paperwork.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090822164302.gif<br
/>He returned in January 1837 to apply yet again.
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[center]
HTML https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Draft-patent-wording.jpg[/center]
Middlebury professor Edward Turner was enthusiastic about Thomas
Davenport’s electric motor and suggested he patent it. Turner
even drafted a description of the machine Davenport could use in
his patent application. The motor for which Davenport eventually
won a patent was a modified version of the one he showed Turner.
Above is a copy of Turner’s draft, which appeared in an 1891
edition of the journal The Electrical Engineer.
The third time did the trick. In February he received his
patent.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422133801.gif<br
/>“It was the first electrical patent ever granted,” Hammond
says,
“and probably the broadest patent ever issued.” He notes that
the patent granted Davenport the exclusive right to “the idea of
⚡electromagnetically moving anything.”
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The Patent Act of 1836 gave Davenport that sole right for 21
years. He had plenty of time to make a fortune. If things hadn’t
gone terribly wrong.
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Money would pour in
By this point, Davenport had another partner, Ransom Cook, who
ran a successful cabinetmaking business in Saratoga, New York,
and shared an interest in the new science of electricity. Cook’s
design expertise and skilled workmen helped improve the motor.
The two men met when Davenport was touring with his motor,
charging admission for the privilege of watching it spin. Many
audience members viewed the device as a novelty, but Cook saw
the practicality of it.
Now that Davenport held a patent, he could get strangers, not
just friends and neighbors, to invest in his⚡ motor. The
men set up a business in Manhattan to search for investors.
Edwin Williams, the head of an organization that promoted
invention, approached them about launching a joint-stock
company, the precursor of the modern corporation. Williams’
lawyer would draw up the papers.
The arrangement would let Davenport and Cook focus on improving
the motor, while money poured in to support the venture. The
prospectus for their stock offering quoted enthusiastic praise
from New York City newspapers. “(A)n ⚡ electromagnetic
engine, constructed on this principle, will cost only one-tenth
the expense of steam power, and only occupy one half of the
space,” the New York Herald declared. “There can be no doubt, in
our mind, but the days of steam power, and animal power, and
water power, are gone for ever.”
The New York Evening Post predicted that “The application of
this new principle of motion … is one of the most wonderful
inventions of the age
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090822141236.gif,<br
/>and will hand down the name of its discoverer to future times
along with those of Franklin and Fulton.”
The Baltimore Daily Gazette estimated that the patent rights in
America alone would be worth the astronomical sum of $600,000.
Davenport had also secured a patent in Britain, which was far
ahead of the United States in terms of industrialization.
The Daily Gazette’s estimate was wide of the mark. If there was
a time to start a new company, 1837 wasn’t it. A financial panic
gripped the country and few investors found an electric motor
company irresistible. Whatever money came in, little reached
Davenport and Cook. The men took Williams to court, but failed
to gain satisfaction.
If no one else believed in his invention, Davenport didn’t lose
faith. He demonstrated that it could be used to power a drill to
bore holes in iron and steel, and to power a printing press.
Fittingly, the press printed America’s first ⚡ electrical
journal, “The ⚡ Electro-Magnet and Mechanics’
Intelligencer.”
In early 1842, Davenport seemed to catch a break. An investor
gave him $3,000 in notes, drawn on an Ohio bank, to support his
work. Davenport cashed a $10 note, with plans to draw the rest
later, but typical of Davenport’s luck, the bank folded before
he could cash any more. 🤦‍♂️
By the fall of 1842, Davenport had had enough. He moved with his
family back to Brandon, where he died nine years later
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202720-1408267.gif,<br
/>never having realized his dream of seeing electric motors
supersede steam power.
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The electric motor was, of course, an invention whose time would
come. Davenport just had the great misfortunate of understanding
its potential long before its time.
HTML https://vtdigger.org/2022/07/03/then-again-fame-eluded-brandon-man-who-invented-the-electric-motor/
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080822134118-1710799.gif<br
/>AGelbert LAMENT: If only Davenport had realized in 1840 that
he
didn't have to rely on expensive battery power for his motor,
but could get all the juice he needed to market the profitable
use of his motor as a drill (which he had demonstrated) by using
mechanical means, like a water wheel, to turn his motor into a
dynamo to power many motors, history would be quite different.
#Post#: 700--------------------------------------------------
Re: Key Historical Events ...THAT YOU MAY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: December 7, 2022, 5:46 pm
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