06-12-2009, 09:56 AM
Well, you guys probably know where I'm going with this (along the lines of my survival stuff). If we needed to start from scratch, and build tools etc, I could easily visualize having the ability to make a brick furnace, get fuel (coal), heat iron and pound it into different tools. I've seen the guys doing this (at the settlement re-creation I was talking about), and it's not that complex. They have a big oven, a bellow to pump air in, a hammer, and an anvil. I'm sure it takes years to become proficient, but at least its do-able. The guy I was talking to was making nails at the time, but he said that from a few tools, he could make all his other tools. I thought that was pretty neat. The biggest question in my mind was, the jump from iron to steel. And it sounds like it's not that big of a jump.
"Hamilton is really a Colossus to the anti republican party. Without numbers he is an host within himself. They have got themselves into a defile where they might be finished but too much security on the republican part will give time to his talents and indefatigableness to extricate them. We have had only middling performances to oppose to him. In truth when he comes forward there is nobody but yourself who can meet him. His adversaries having begun the attack he has the advantage of answering them and remains unanswered himself. For God's sake take up your pen and give a fundamental reply to Curtius and Camillas" - Thomas Jefferson to James Madison