Chapter 5 Washington's inaugural uniform and Jefferson's laptop

one George Washington was the first president of the United States. On April 30, 1789, Washington was sworn in in New York and became the president of the world's first major republic.This is the most important moment of his life.When he was sworn in, he wore a brown wool jacket with silver buttons and white trousers.Washington is a person who pays great attention to details. On this day, he chose this uniform with some deep meaning: the materials of his uniform are all coarse cloth produced by the textile factory in Connecticut in the north of the United States. Two hundred years ago, not to mention that the United States could not weave fine fabrics, even the whole world, except the United Kingdom, could not weave.Although humans have been weaving for thousands of years, the weaving method has rarely changed, and they are all narrow hand looms with small shuttles. In 1733, John Kay of England invented the flying shuttle, first combined with water power, and later combined with the steam engine invented by Watt, a breakthrough in textile technology, and the British Industrial Revolution began.The textile industry was the leading industry at that time, which led to the rapid development of all walks of life. Britain's national strength increased greatly and it became the world's largest.And the strongest foundation is the textile industry, which was a high-tech industry at that time.

Of course, Britain wants to maintain its monopoly position in this high-tech industry, so the technology of the British textile industry has become the most precious secret of His Majesty the King, and he ordered strict protection.The technicians of all textile mills in the UK are registered by the customs and are strictly prohibited from going abroad.As for technical data, not a single piece of paper is allowed to be exported. Cloth produced in the UK is sold all over the world. North America is rich in cotton and wool. They cannot weave good cloth themselves, so they can only sell it to the UK.Washington knew that this situation had to change.He wore a coarse cloth uniform woven by the United States to attend the presidential inauguration, just to tell the people of the country: The United States must make its own!

However, catching up with high technology is not easy.Most Americans are farmers, many are illiterate, and machine weaving is beyond the imagination.The best way is to dig technical talents from the UK, so the Americans spread the news in the British textile mills a few years ago, saying that skilled people have great opportunities for development in the United States.However, the British Customs took it seriously, and it was impossible for the British technicians to have such a heart.Finally a young man named Slater (Samuel Slater) listened.He worked as an apprentice in a textile mill, taking all the technical details by heart, but quietly.At the end of the year when Washington became president, Slater's apprentices were full, and he quietly boarded the ship to the United States without even telling his mother.

When he registered at the customs, he said that he was a farm laborer. President Washington, of course, did not know of his arrival, but he, like all Americans, knew the meaning of Washington's swearing-in in a coarse uniform.The United States immediately provided him with an opportunity: a businessman named Brown in Rhode Island said to Slater, "I heard that you can build looms, then I will pay you to build them, and the profits will belong to you if you succeed." Relying on the information memorized in his mind, Slater built the first working loom in the United States in one year.Since then, the cotton and wool produced in the United States can be processed by itself, and the United States has mastered high technology.

Now Brown University in the United States is named after this visionary and courageous Mr. Brown. In 1833, Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, paid a special visit to Slater. The former military president respectfully called Slater "the father of American manufacturing."From Washington to Jackson, American presidents understand that when countries around the world are embarking on the road to the industrial revolution, the rules of competition are very simple: whoever makes it will be strong.Manufacturing is the measure of national strength. But that generation of Americans also knew that the rules of competition are not forever.

When one day the whole world will create, who will be the strongest and what will determine it? two Who owned the world's first laptop computer?If someone said that it was Thomas Jefferson, the drafter of the American Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago, people would definitely say that this is nonsense.More than 200 years ago, even the electric light had not been invented, so there was no such thing as a computer.Still, it makes sense to say so. Thomas Jefferson, famous for drafting the Declaration of Independence and later elected as the third president of the United States, went down in history for advocating equality and democracy.His home in Virginia is now a tourist hotspot.Anyone who has visited this place will be impressed by the gadgets of the great statesman.This person who has been in politics all his life is a person with a wide range of interests and loves to come up with some new things by himself.The double door in his living room, the two doors can be rotated and opened and closed synchronously. He himself installed a device under the floor to link the two door shafts.The meals prepared in the kitchen in the basement are delivered to the restaurant upstairs through the elevator. This device is common in restaurants, but Jefferson was the first to come up with it.He remodeled the clock on the wall of his house.Equipped with a vertically moving pointer to indicate the day of the week, it can be said to be the world's first calendar clock.He wrote a lot of letters and manuscripts all his life. At that time, carbon paper had not been invented. He used a special copying device, which could get two identical manuscripts at a time, so he had a copy of the letters he wrote.

He spent most of his life in politics, once went to France as an embassy, ​​and later served as president for eight years.Because he often has to go out, he invented a portable writing desk, which is a suitcase in his hand, and it is a writing desk when he puts it down. When he opens it, there are papers he likes. There is a knife for sharpening a quill.The side drawers contained his daily necessities, as well as the necessary wax and seals of a statesman.In short, although the box is small, it has everything that a gentleman needs in his study back then. No matter where he goes, he can have what he needs.The function of such a small box is equivalent to today's laptop two hundred years ago.

These small gadgets, now we seem to be very simple, not worth mentioning.Their significance is that they illustrate the importance of innovation that America's Founding Fathers recognized. Presidents Jefferson and Washington were the first generation of founders who attached great importance to innovation and invention.During the turbulent years of the American Revolution, neither of them forgot to take the time to order flower and rapeseed from Britain and the European continent, and to write to their families to remind them not to miss the season for planting new varieties.Both of them have an extraordinary enthusiasm for new varieties. After retirement, when they return home, they both plunge into the fields and grass to tend fresh flowers and plants.Jefferson also improved a kind of plowshare, which has been awarded by international organizations.

When Washington was the first president of the United States, he asked Jefferson to be Secretary of State.At that time, the most powerful country in the world was the United Kingdom, and the manufacturing centers were in the United Kingdom and the European continent. The United States was only a remote and backward exporter of agricultural and forestry products. It exported cotton, timber, tobacco, rice, and wool to Europe. Almost all industrial products were imported from China. Imported from Europe.The first generation of American leaders knew that while America had resources, if it didn't make them, it would never be a great power.Whoever makes it strong is the iron law of the industrial revolution era.For this reason, the United States must attract a wide range of technical talents, and only with talents can it have its own manufacturing industry.Since then, the tradition of special preferential treatment for technical talents in the United States has been created.So far, Americans have an unwritten consensus:

The United States must be the place in the world that provides the best conditions for talents.Wherever the conditions for talents are better than the United States, the United States will definitely offer better conditions than that place. In 1790, the second year of Washington's presidency, he ordered Jefferson to establish a patent protection system as soon as possible.During the tenure of President Washington, Jefferson single-handedly arranged the United States to pass the patent law for the protection of innovations and inventions. Since then, the United States has become the place with the strictest protection of innovations in the world.Quite simply, this is the best condition that the United States provides for talents.

Two hundred years later, starting from the end of the last century, we have seen economic globalization, and manufacturing has moved on a large scale around the world.But thirty years ago, we were still saying that the country with the highest steel output was the most powerful.Unknowingly, many steel plants in the United States have moved to the third world, while China has become the world's largest steel country and the world's leading manufacturing country.But at the same time, the manufacturing industry in the United States has shrunk greatly. This is because in the era of economic globalization, the law of competition among countries is no longer just whoever manufactures will be stronger, and more importantly, whoever innovates will be stronger; whoever has the latest and best Technology, whoever is the most powerful.We Chinese seem to learn some lessons from this experience.