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A self-taught lawyer, legislator, and a strong opponent of slavery, Abraham Lincoln is considered to be one of the greatest presidents of the U.S. Let's relive the moment this American hero gave his monumental speech, popularly known as the "Gettysburg Address."

On November 19, 1863, before an estimated 15,000 spectators President Abraham Lincoln dedicated a new soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. Here he delivered a 272-word speech famously known as the Gettysburg Address, with the hope that it would guide the Nation through the war and towards healing.

Civil War & the Republicans

The Republican Party came into existence in 1854, seven years before the Civil War. Initially there were only two political parties in the U.S. namely the Whigs and the Democrats.

America was quickly expanding westward and the debate as to whether or not the new states should permit slavery was intensifying.

In the Northern states, manufacturing and industries formed the economic base, unlike the South where people depended on plantation farming of crops like cotton and tobacco for their livelihood. Agriculture heavily depended on black slave labour, and the Democratic Party, with its strong support in the South, was growing increasingly pro-slavery. But the Whigs were divided on the issue.

In 1854, unable to come to a solid resolution on the topic. the party collapsed. The former Whigs in the North came together to form a new party called the Republican Party. with abolition of slavery as their mission statement.

By 1860. this party established a strong foothold in the North. enough so that its member Abraham Lincoln. won the 1861 presidential elections.

This led to 11 Southern states breaking away from the union to form the confederate states of America. The Northern states decided to fight to keep the union together and the Civil War began. The result was, victory for the North and abolition of slavery nation-wide.

The Battle of Gettysburg

 One of the bloodiest battles fought during the American Civil War took place in Gettysburg from 1st to 3rd July 1863. It claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers from both sides. The union's victory here marked a turning point of the war, which officially ended in 1865.

The Address & The Greek Influence

According to literary research done on this piece, Lincoln's elegiac speech at Gettysburg was modelled on the ancient Greek politician and general Pericles' epitaphios logos (Athenian funeral speech). Even though his address was brief (in comparison to the Greek format), he still successfully managed to encapsulate the essential reference to the circle of life (as birth, death, and rebirth).

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." (excerpt from Gettysburg Address)

The Gettysburg Address begins with a recollection of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the birth of America. It alludes to the struggles of the founding fathers who built this nation on the principles of universal equality and freedom.

Paying his homage to the deceased, he then proceeds to declare that the thousands lost to death on this battlefield have replenished the American soil with their selfless sacrifice. This sacrifice has not only prolonged the nation's life, but also presented it with a fair chance of renewal.

Lincoln further reinforces the idea of rebirth when he says that this second chance must not be taken for granted, but incentivise us to work together "that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." (excerpt from the Gettysburg Address)

Beacon of hope

With the struggle of war at its climax Lincoln's speech was a beacon of hope for the thousands who were gripped by the feeling of impending doom. It revived the national ideals of freedom, and justice amid circumstances that had torn the country into pieces.

Since delivered this speech in particular has gone on to become one of the most powerful statements in the English language. Its brevity and intelligent word play has enabled it to cement its place as one of the most important expressions of liberty and equality.

DID YOU KNOW?

1. While giving this iconic speech the President was interrupted five times with the audiences' applause.

2. Edward Everett (the featured speaker for the event) immediately afterward wrote to Lincoln: "I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."

Picture Credit : Google 

On May 9, 1893 the first public demonstration of the kinetoscope was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Featuring three workers pretending to be blacksmiths, the film was among the first glimpses into motion pictures.

With the vacation upon us already and the pandemic scene relenting a bit, one of the activities that most families tend to do over the weekend is visiting a theatre to watch a new movie. Even though motion pictures are a multi-billion-dollar industry in the world today, they have been around only since late in the 19th Century. By the end of that century. the concept of moving images as entertainment was picking up. Magic lanterns had been around for generations and these devices employed glass slides with images that were then projected. We had looked at how pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope in this column about two months back. Muybridge's zoopraxiscope projected a series of images, which were printed on a rotating glass disc, in successive phases of movement.

Muybridge meets Edison

It isn't clear as to when American inventor and businessman Thomas Alva Edison's interest in motion pictures began. Even though some argue that he was already interested for years, it is obvious that Muybridge's visit to Edison's laboratory in West Orange in February 1888 convinced the latter to invent a motion picture camera.

Muybridge suggested that they collaborate and work together to combine the zoopraxiscope with Edison's  phonograph - a device for the recording and reproduction of sound. While Edison was clearly intrigued by the idea, he decided against the partnership, maybe because he could see that the zoopraxiscope wasn't the best way of recording motion.

Calls it kinetoscope

Always an entrepreneur, Edison decided to protect his future inventions by filing a caveat with the Patents Office in October 1888. He described his ideas for a machine that would record and reproduce objects in motion, calling it a device that would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear". He named this yet to be invented device as a kinetoscope, by combining the Greek words for "movement" and "to watch"  kineto and scopos.

Much of the credit for the design of the kinetoscope actually goes to Edison's assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, an accomplished photographer. Tasked with inventing Edison's kinetoscope in June 1889, Dickson, assisted by Charles A. Brown, carried out a lot of experimentation to turn the concept into reality.

Celluloid film to the rescue

After the initial attempts proved futile, Edison's team changed direction to that of others in the field. Edison had encountered French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey, who had produced a sequence of images by utilising a continuous roll of film in his chronophotographie, in Europe and this put them onto their new track

By now, the inventive process was being delayed by the lack of film rolls of requisite length and durability. Edison's experiments started using emulsion-coated celluloid film sheets that were developed by photographic pioneer John Carbutt. When the Eastman. Company started producing its own celluloid film, Dickson and his new assistant William Heise got it in large quantities and set about working on their machine.

Means of seeing motion pictures

Dickson had the prototype ready by 1891 and the device doubled up both as a camera and a peep-hole viewer. On August 24, 1891 they applied for a patent for the kinetograph (the camera) and the kinetoscope (the viewer) and the device was completed by 1892.

Consisting of an upright wooden cabinet that was four feet high, the viewer had to look into a peep-hole at the top of the cabinet to see the motion picture. The first public demonstration of Edison's films featured three of his workers pretending to be blacksmiths and was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on May 9, 1893. By 1894. hundreds of people often lined up in parlours housing these devices to pay 25 cents (over $7 in today's money) and watch five reels.

In the years that followed, Dickson left Edison to be a part of the group that formed the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company: Edison sued that company in 1898 for infringing on his patent for the kinetograph; and the two companies started working together from 1909 until Edison's company left the film industry in 1918. By then, Dickson, Edison, and the kinetoscope had more than just provided a glimpse of a new form of media - the motion pictures.

Picture Credit : Google