the importance of inventions and patents like his to the country.
Patents, he said, "secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the
exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest
to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and
useful things." Page 8.
Decades later, as President during the Civil War, he would see the
military importance of the telegraph and railroads and many other "new
and useful things" long before his generals did. Lincoln became the
first U.S. President to step fully into the role of Commander in Chief
in wartime. Within six months of taking office, he took control of the
North's railroads and telegraph lines, introduced aerial surveillance
to the Union army, urged the production of advanced weaponry, ordered
the building of ironclad ships, and began a naval blockade that
strangled the South's economy. Page 8.
On June 18, 1861, a strange shape loomed in the Washington sky. It was
a giant lighter-than-air balloon named Enterprise. Aboard was the
balloon's 28-year-old maker, the grandly named Thaddeus Sobieski
Constantine Lowe. A telegraph cable ran from the balloon to the ground
and connected to the War Department. While aloft Lowe sent this
telegraph to the President:
SIR: THIS POINT OF OBSERVATION COMMANDS AN AREA NEARLY 50 MILES IN
DIAMETER. THE CITY, WITH ITS GIRDLE OF ENCAMPMENTS, PRESENTS A SUPERB
SCENE. I HAVE PLEASURE IN SENDING YOU THIS FIRST DISPATCH EVER
TELEGRAPHED FROM AN AERIAL STATION, AND IN ACKNOWLEDGING INDEBTEDNESS
FOR YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF DEMONSTRATING THE
AVAILABILITY OF THE SCIENCE OF AERONAUTICS IN THE MILITARY SERVICE OF
THE COUNTRY. Page 39.