I spy with my occhiolino*

 I. Am. So. Excited.

I found out last week the pastor of my church makes beautiful working telescopes and microscopes out of spare parts. When he saw my excitement he offered me my very own microscope!

It is amazing!

It's made of a Canadian drill press, parts from a brass bed, a ladies mirror, and miscellaneous other things. (He showed me a telescope he made using a roll bar, soup can, and a drive shaft!)

Examining the yellow fever virus.

Inspired by ma chère amie Cécile, I immediately set out to find a cure for yellow fever.

(As you might recall, the New Orleans epidemic of 1853, featured in the Cécile Rey American Girl book series, killed 9,000 people.)

Carlos Finlay, a Cuban doctor and scientist, first proposed in 1881 that yellow fever might be transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct human contact.

U.S. Army physician Major Walter Reed, M.D., led the team that proved Finlay's hypothesis in 1900.

I thought I might try to nudge both men along with their discoveries.

Or maybe I'll do it myself.

Can't you just see me winning the Nobel Prize?

I can't believe it! My very own steampunk microscope!

Now if I can just get a giant telescope....

*Galileo called his compound microscope the "occhiolino" or "little eye."

Never forget

I don't think I could express myself today any better than Abraham Lincoln did in a letter dated Nov. 21, 1864:

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

This Week in The Civil War: Sunday, Sept. 11

Lincoln blocks a general, Battle of Lexington

President Abraham Lincoln reins in Union Major Gen. John Fremont, who recently declared martial law in Missouri and also ordered the state's slaves to be emancipated. Lincoln disregards aides who urged that Fremont be sacked. Instead he appoints another general to work alongside Fremont and orders Fremont on Sept. 11 to rescind the order involving the slaves of Missouri secessionists. Lincoln's letter, distributed by The Associated Press, notes Fremont insisted the president issue "an open order" modifying his martial law plan, to which Lincoln responds: "I very cheerfully do." The president adds his signature: "Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln." Outside Washington, the northern Virginia countryside is largely quiet despite jitters over Confederate pickets causing some trouble. "The rebels who moved in force from Fairfax Court-house fell back again, after burning a few houses," an AP dispatch noted. Other dispatches report Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan has barred his own pickets from firing on the enemy unless the Confederates fire first or attack. Lincoln's week includes a Washington VIP review of a sharpshooter regiment also witnesses by McCellan, other officers, government officials and a "large number of ladies and gentlemen." AP reports: "Something like four hundred shots were fired at a distance of 630 yards" from heavy rifles. But it adds, "The firing was nothing extraordinary, only one-fourth of the shots hitting the target." More fighting erupts in Missouri. On Sept 15, 1861, some 20,000 secessionist troops move against a badly outnumbered Union garrison of about 3,000 troops on bluffs commanding the Missouri River at Lexington. The Battle of Lexington, Missouri, one of the two largest in the West, is just opening and will rage well into the coming week.