Now that it's gone, I figure it's a good time to write about it. This past year, to commemorate the beginning of the Civil War, 150 years ago, the Lake County Discovery Museum in Illinois had a special exhibit called "Civil War High Tech."
I was able to get out to it during its last week and wish I'd gone a couple times.
It concentrated on technological break throughs during the war, including: repeating firearms, ironclad ships, reconnaissance balloons, telegraph, submarines and railroads.
I wrote about the ironclads in my Running the Blockade blog. But, it did have a full-size mock-up of the Monitor's turret, right down to the bolts.
The whole thing was really interactive with plenty of things to do and hands-on-activities. A summer camp group came while I was there and those kids had a ball touching and doing. I would have thought they'd be bored in the gourd.
One of the first things I came across was the basket of an observation balloon, called a gondola. The bottom was on some sort of a fulcrum so when you stepped into it, it moved. Sure gave me a jump. Once I got back into it, I could peer over the side and see a battle going on under me.
More to Come. --Old Secesh
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