Jesse Heitz, King's College, London, discusses how Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory chose to combat the Union navy’s superior number of ships by utilizing the new technology of cladding ships in iron. He describes the Confederacy’s construction of such ships, the first naval battle of the Civil War, and the fate of the Union and Confederate navies.
National Air and Space Museum curator Tom Crouch discusses the designs and prototypes for flying machines developed by Richard Oglesby Davidson, Col. Edward Welman Sorell, and Solomon Andrews, and reflects on their ability to convince others to back the construction of their machines to aid the war effort.
A production of the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center. Written, hosted, and audio production by Laurel Fritzsch, podcast program manager. Art Molella, executive producer. Joyce Bedi, webmaster. Jesse Heitz and Tom Crouch were originally recorded on 10 November 2012 during “Astride Two Ages: Technology and the Civil War,” the Smithsonian Institution Civil War Sesquicentennial Symposium. Introduction music is "Toby’s Theme," composed and performed by Brandon Belman; the closing music is “Home,” composed and performed by Brandon Belman, both used with permission. This podcast was released on 18 January 2013.
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