America 190215

       Sometimes I wonder where our country is going. This morning I thought about our history and what has made America what it is today.

       America has innovators that have changed the world. For instance, the internet was created right here. In October of 1969 a UCLA student, Charley Kline attempted to send a login message from UCLA to Stanford research center on what was called the APRANET the precursor to the internet. The message failed after the first two letters of login. Look at what we have in 2019. There have been many search engines since the nineties, but the best one, Google, was made right here. The first silicon wafers were made here in America. If you do not know the what or why of silicon wafers, you don't need to know about them. The importance of silicon wafers is in your hand every time you pick up your phone, every time you use a computer to look at Facebook, neither is possible without silicon wafer technology. Where were silicon wafers invented? You guessed it, in America. The modern grocery store, the department store, invented in America. Moving pictures, invented in America by Thomas Edison. The first electric lights, made in America. The first modern assembly lines, Henry Ford made them in America. The first electric washing machine, Alva Fisher made it in Chicago in 1909. I go into my refrigerator on a regular basis and I have to thank Fred Wolf who made the first viable electric refrigerator in America in 1913. I think things like this are a small piece of what makes America a great place to live. I am sure there are many more things I could add to the list if I thought more about it.
      We have the greatest entertainers in the world. They cover many different genres with enough to suit everyone in the country.
      I was watching TV this morning when a commercial came on with two jet-powered dragsters like the one in the picture below.

      These machines were made in America, the only place in the world where people take a jet engine and put it on a light-weight four-wheeled vehicle made only to race down a 1/4 mile track. That is its only purpose. This is only done in America.

Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.