By Patrick Cooke The Wall Street Journal Copper-riveted jeans, the first oil rig, running shoes, dry cleaning and the 23-story-high clipper ship—as American as apple pie. Among the many rewards of America the Ingenious, Kevin Baker ’s survey of Yankee know-how, is stumbling on its buried nuggets. Here is a handful. The computer onboard Apollo 11’s lunar landing craft, Eagle, possessed less memory than today’s average cellphone. The letters in the Morse code message S.O.S. don’t mean anything; they’re just easy to send and hear. In the 1920s people spent five to six hours on weekend days at fabulously Read More
The Character of Our Country
By Patrick Cooke The Wall Street Journal Copper-riveted jeans, the first oil rig, running shoes, dry cleaning and the 23-story-high clipper ship—as American as apple pie. Among the many rewards of America the Ingenious, Kevin Baker’s survey of Yankee know-how, is stumbling on its buried nuggets. Here is a handful. The computer onboard Apollo 11’s lunar landing craft, Eagle, possessed less memory than today’s average cellphone. The letters in the Morse code message S.O.S. don’t mean anything; they’re just easy to send and hear. In the 1920s people spent five to six hours on weekend days at fabulously baroque movie Read More