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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tekboy who wrote (30877)	9/1/2000 12:50:50 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 54805

RE: Tech History I am reading a new book by Stephen Ambrose, titled Nothing like it in the World, The Men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 Ambrose wrote a terrific book on Lewis and Clark, called Undaunted Courage. It is a very readable short, (382 page), history of this project. I have read several longer versions of this period in our history, but Ambrose has done a excellent job of distilling the essence of what happened and, and has written a very interesting book. The book will go from me to my 14 year old grandson as soon as I am finished. This book is a perfect gift for teenagers. The 11 page acknowledgment that starts the book is worth the price of the book by itself. Ambrose admits that his original view of the period had been formed by The Octopus, a book that defamed the builders of the Central Pacific. While researching the book, he was allowed to ride the cab of a Union Pacific Steam Locomotive from Omaha to Sacramento. With little publicity, practically every resident of every town on the route turned out to see the train go by. When it went along by a freeway, it caused a traffic jam as cars matched it 61mph speed. At rest stops, semi-truck drivers stood on the roofs of their cabs to take pictures of it passing. He gives you a good, short background on the four Sacramento merchants, Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins, and Stanford, who were the genesis of the Central Pacific. When you read accounts of the stock market speculation that went on in building the railroads, remember, you are seeing the exact same thing now with the building of the internet, for the same reasons. Nobody knew what was going to happen. His analysis of the railroad building in the US from 1830 on, and Lincoln's major role in it, is very well done. Those of you who are new to the thread may not be aware of my admiration for the railroad pioneers, and my view of the railroad's place in our history. The steam engine was the basic technological innovation of the industrial revolution, and the Railroad was the "Killer App" of the steam engine. Before the railroad, mankind moved at 5 miles an hour, afterward, at 60 miles per hour. Before the Union Pacific, if you wanted to be "bi-coastal", it took 6 months to a year. Afterwards, 3 days! I am taking my 13 year old grand daughter to New York next month in 5 and 1/2 hours on a Boeing 767, and we all think that is great, but it is nothing compared to the leap from one year to 3 days that took place in 1869. We all talk about the computer revolution we are going through as being much bigger than the start of the industrial revolution, but I like to use the light bulb analogy. If you are in a totally dark room, and you turn on a 50 watt light bulb, you really notice the difference! If you then turn on another 50 watt bulb, you notice the increase, but not as much. Same thing if you then increase it by another 500 watts. That is why the railroad was so important. It was the first 50 watt bulb!