May 22, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Wednesday, May 22.
On May 22, 1849, Abraham Lincoln did something that no president had done before him, and that no president has done since. He applied for a patent on his own invention. At that time Lincoln was a congressman, but in his youth he had worked on a riverboat. The Mississippi River was infamous for having hidden reefs and shoals that would wreck steamships. And so, Lincoln invented a system that would lift the boats above the obstructions. It was a complicated device using bellows and buoys and bladders. Unfortunately for the poor young politician, his invention was never produced, but a model of it can be seen today in the Smithsonian Museum. If the invention had been successful, perhaps it would have been known as "The Lincoln".
Here's a VERY easy quiz. Name the invention that goes with these names.
Samuel Colt
Louis Braille
Rudolph Diesel
George Ferris
Hans Geiger
Henry Heimlich
Candido Jacuzzi
Erno Rubik
Adolphe Sax
Earl Tupper
I'm sure you scored 100% on that test! Sometimes a name tells you everything you need to know.
In the first century there was a church in the Greek city of Antioch. And in Acts 11 we're told that this was the first place where believers were called "Christians". The name wasn't coined by the believers but was given to them as an insult by the pagan people of the city. In Greek, Christian literally means "little Christ". Before this, the early believers had had several different names - "Nazarenes", "The Brethren", "Followers of The Way". But this new name, given with evil intentions, was turned into good, and adopted by believers around the first century world. We are still known by this name today. Sometimes a name tells you everything you need to know.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
