Page 24 - 201212 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2012

Setting History Straight Setting History Straight - Setting History Straight - Setting History Straight - Abraham Lincoln The Pony Express Alexander Graham Bell Continued from Page 21 THE MYTH THE MYTH STRANGE BUT TRUE The Pony Express was one of the most Alexander Graham Bell invented the Lincoln took his dreams seriously, and important links connecting the gold rush towns telephone. believed that strange events foretold the future. of the West and large cities in the East. For years BACKGROUND According to some accounts, he may even have it was the fastest way to send a letter to About 15 years before Bell uttered the “predicted” his own assassination. California; without it the western states might 1,79>< @9;/< G ; (,=<98 .970 30;0 D D@,8= - On one occasion, he looked into an old never have developed. you,” German scientist Phillip Reis had mirror and saw two reflections of himself. His THE TRUTH developed a crude working telephone. And interpretation: eh would serve a second term as In its short lifetime (18 months - 1860- about five years before Bell’s historic race to the President - but would die in office. 1861), the Pony Express was the fastest way to patent office, and Italian scientist named - About one week before his send a letter to California. Riders could deliver Antonio Meucci offered the patent office a assassination, Lincoln had a dream in which he a letter in 10 days - half the time to send it by rough description of a telephone’s structure and “awoke” to the sound of sobbing and went to sea. But it had its problems: principles. But nothing ever came of it. the East Room of the White House - which had - Hardly anyone could afford to use it. A THE TRUTH been prepared for a funeral. When he asked the single letter initially cost $5.00 to mail, and Alexander Graham Bell wasn’t the first 2>,;/ @39 3,/ /40/ 30 ;0:640/ DH%30 never dropped below a dollar. The largest to develop the device - but he was the first to President.” customers were newspapers that depended on patent it...barely. Many scientists were working - The morning of the assassination, late-breaking news to leep readers up to date. on a telephone at the same time; one of them - Lincoln told his aides that he had had another - The shipping firm of Russell, Majors & Elisha Gray - arrived at the U.S. Patent Office dream, one in which he was sailing “in an Waddell - founders of the Pony Express - knew with a model telephone just two hours after indescribable vessel and moving rapidly toward their enterprise could never make money with Bell. In fact, some say Gray’s telephone was an indistinct shore.” normal business; they counted on winning a better than Bell’s and more like the one we use contract with the federal government to help today. By the time Bell received his patent, so WEIRD cover its enormous costs ($70,000 up front and many people claimed the telephone as their own $4,000 per month). They never got one. The invention that Bell had to defend the patent in COINCIDENCES government was more interested in Samuel court. In fact, the case went all the way to the LINCOLN / KENNEDY Morse’s telegraph. the nation’s first Supreme Court. The verdict: the high court was - divided in his favor, allowing him the rights to By 1861 transcontinental telegraph line was completed - the phone. - Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, and making the Pony Express obsolete overnight. It John Kennedy in 1960, 100 years later. folded less than two years after its introduction, Setting History Straight - - Both Lincoln and Kennedy mentioned having over $500,000 in debt. premonitions of death before their EXPRESS FACTS Henry Ford assassinations. - There wasn’t a single pony in the Pony - Lincoln’s secretary, named Kennedy, warned Express. Ponies didn’t have the stamina to carry THE MYTH him not to go to the theatre that fatal night. large loads of mail over long distances. Henry Ford invented the first Kennedy’s secretary, named Lincoln, tried to - Few of the riders were adults. Most automobile. talk him out of going to Dallas. were teenagers, hired through newspaper THE TRUTH - Both men died of bullet wounds to the head. ,/?0;=4<0708=< =3,= ;0,/ HD(,8=0/ D*9>82 Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, two - Both were killed as they sat beside their wives. skinny wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be German engineers who went on to form - Both were ardent proponents of civil rights. expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans Mercedes-Benz, each developed working - John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, was preferred.” gasoline engine automobiles in 1885. The first born in 1839, and Lee Harvey Oswald, American car was built by Charles and J. Frank Kennedy’s assassin, was born in 1939, exactly Setting History Straight - Duryea in 1893. By then, Benz already had a 100 years later. model, the Velo, ready for sale to the general - The names John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey The Boston Tea Party public. Oswald each contain 15 letters, - Booth shot Lincoln is a theatre and fled to a THE MYTH THE MYTH warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a The Boston Tea Party was held because O.K., if Ford didn’t invent the car, at warehouse and fled to a theatre. the British imposed a tax on tea. least he invented the auto assembly line. - Both Presidents were succeeded by vice- THE TRUTH THE TRUTH presidents named Johnson. Andrew Johnson The exact opposite is actually true. The No, chalk this one up to Ransom E. followed Lincoln, and Lyndon B. Johnson British did impose the Townsend Act, which Olds, creator of the Oldsmobile. Olds followed Kennedy. taxed a number of goods - including tea - quite introduced the moving assembly lien in the Both were killed on a Friday. heavily. However, the tax on tea didn’t really early 1900s and boosted car production by - Both Johnsons were Democrats, southern, and affect the colonists - they drank a smuggled, less 500%. The previous year. the Olds Motor former senators. expensive Dutch tea (John Hancock was a big Vehicle Company had turned out 425 cars. The - The names Kennedy and Lincoln each contain Dutch tea smuggler). year after they made over 2,500 of them. Ford seven letters, To undercut the American tea- improved Olds’s system by introducing the - The names Andrew Johnson and Lyndon smuggling operation, the British rounded up conveyor belt, which moved both the cars and Johnson each contain 13 letters. between 15 and 20 million pounds of surplus needed parts along the production line. The belt - Both Booth and Oswald were killed before tea, passed the Tea Act which eliminated taxes cut Ford’s production time from a day to about reaching trial. on Brtish tea, and priced their huge supply two hours. A significant contribution, but not CHECK OUT THE ALL NEW below the price of the smuggled Dutch tea. the original. [] Colonists responded to this British ‘X’ ZONE STORE interference by dumping the British tea before it The ‘X’ Zone New Year’s Eve Special FOR ALL YOUR ‘X’ ZONE was unloaded. That was th eevent called the with Rob McConnell WEARS! Boston Tea Party. 9 pm Dec 31 2012 to 1 am Jan 1 2013 www.xzonestore.com www.xzoneradiotv.com