More ingenuity. My rich retired neighbors, here in Virginia, decided that they did not like their power going out twice a year (for no more than one day at a time), so last month they paid $35,000 (I kid you not), for a huge whole-house generator. It was installed next to the house, on a cement slab, and runs on propane. They also paid to install a huge propane tank next to it, so that it can run for three weeks without running out.
They bragged to us that next time the power goes out in the neighborhood, my wife and I can come over and live in their basement.
Well, the power went out this week in the middle of the night, and that huge machine kicked on, just as planned. Only problem is, it is so loud, that it is impossible for them to sleep anywhere in the house! And, the foundation of the house rumbles like a freight train.
So now, they have this great source of electricity, that they have to turn off while they sleep. Boy, what a fiasco.
So, the North "won" the Civil War? Hmm. :-) Seems to me that by "winning" the War, it lost 500,000 men for the privilege of keeping swampy poverty-ridden areas like New Orleans in the "Union," so that now it can spend its federal tax dollars on FEMA and welfare to support them. And just think, if the North had let the South go its own way, the North would have become a free-standing worldwide industrial power, greater than Germany! Oh well, congrats on the "win!" :-)
Manny
(P.S.- You lost more men than we did!)
