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Two Notable Events Today (7/19)

Douglas Pratt
@DouglasPratt
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According to a news aggregator I read in the morning, a couple of important events happened today.

The first is the transmission of the first GPS signal. A subject well-addressed in our friend @Richard Easton's book.

The second is a bit of a two-fer. Col. Samuel Colt's birthday is today. Inventor and entrepreneur, he created and modernized the revolver and made it readily accessible, although it took him a couple of companies to do it.

Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, NY.

Giving a little more bounce to the old saying, "God made Man and Woman, but Col. Colt made 'em equal."

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Discussion (3)

  • Richard Easton@RichardEaston
    Thanks - and NTS-2 put the first cesium atomic clocks into orbit. Lee Hammarstrom reminded me yesterday that 80% of the clocks used when the AF declared GPS to be fully operational in 1995 were cesiums.
  • Chowderhead@Podunk

    I finished Richard’s book the other day. You both did an excellent job. I especially liked the rapid-fire uses for GPS that I simply have taken for granted.

    I didn’t realize Desert Storm was the first prolific use of GPS in battle. It just feels like it’s always been there.

  • Douglas Pratt@DouglasPratt
    ReplyingtoChowderhead

    Chowderhead (View Comment):

    I finished Richard’s book the other day. You both did an excellent job. I especially liked the rapid-fire uses for GPS that I simply have taken for granted.

    I didn’t realize Desert Storm was the first prolific use of GPS in battle. It just feels like it’s always been there.

    Thank you very much. I'm glad to have been able to narrate a book this interesting (and well written. Some that I get from university presses are...challenging.)

    I love re-reading several series books. Right now I'm in the mood for the Nero Wolfe Mysteries. The problems that they have finding a phone booth in a Manhattan drugstore seem like strange foreign things. We have become accustomed to our little glowing rectangles so quickly, it's easy to forget the days of steam-powered radios.