For all you history geeks out there...

[RabidAlien]

Pretty nifty site! It has a ton of scanned historical documents, such as the Louisiana Purchase, Emancipation Proclamation, Bill of Rights, Treaty of Ghent, and I moused-over at least one of Edison's patents (I'm not gonna start an Edison v. Tesla war here...we are all intelligent, educated individuals and know that Tesla would win hands down) for the incandescent light bulb. Get yer geek on!

Our Documents - Home

 

[meatloaf109]

Neat!
For a mercury and lead poisoned (not to mention the V.D.) guy, Andrew Jackson sure had some great handwriting.
BTW, totally agree on the Tesla thing.

 

[RabidAlien]

My guess is that the tremors from the mercury poisoning were in directly opposite harmonics to the tremors from the lead poisoning, thus canceling each other out and giving him angelic penmanship. Until the VD killed the angel. Then he just had great handwriting.

 

[evangilder]

Great stuff, RA. I was exploring the Jefferson information on the Monticello site Thomas Jefferson

 

[Wayne Little]

Interesting stuff...

 

[vikingBerserker]

Great find!

 

[mikewint]

When Tesla (Westinghouse) won the bid to light-up the 1893 Columbian Exposition using AC current he had to "re-invent" the light bulb since Edison held the patents on his version

 

[Gnomey]

Cool site! Thanks for sharing.

 

[RabidAlien]

When Tesla (Westinghouse) won the bid to light-up the 1893 Columbian Exposition using AC current he had to "re-invent" the light bulb since Edison held the patents on his version

And Edison, being Edison, wouldn't let him use the bulbs. So Tesla made his own, which Edison scoffed at and said would explode or burn and kill everyone, if Tesla could even get electricity to the Fair from a hydroelectric dam 200 miles away. He shut up REAL quick when the lights not only came on, but burned brighter and steadier than his own, and for mere pennies versus the dollars that his own DC plants would have cost.

Sad thing is, I remember going through elementary and middle school being taught that Edison was a genius and we should all be just like him. Sad.

 

[Lucky13]

Cool stuff!

 

[mikewint]

RA, fact of life, the victors write the history books

 

[Ferdinand Foch]

Thanks, RA! I'll remember this when I get the chance to teach full-time.