America's First Secret Weapon

The fate of you who are listening of nations of the world is often hung upon accident, or upon decisions that made another way would have substantially altered the course of human events. Suppose by a stroke of fate, Charles Martell had failed to defeat the Moors at the Battle of Tour in 732 AD.

Would Europe today be more hammed in? Suppose fate had decreed that there should be no atomic bound today. Yes, much depends upon a stroke of fate. And tonight we rewrite history as we present a dramatic conception of what might have happened.

If, by a stroke of fate, America's first secret weapon had succeeded in its intended purpose during the Revolutionary War. In the year 1775, Great Britain held a large portion of the Civilise and Bavarian world in dominion by virtue of sea power.

Her world supremacy was maintained by thousands of ships. But Britain's sea power was actually threatened with a complete and utter disaster at the beginning of the revolution. And by an incredibly modern weapon. Our story of that weapon is historically true up to our stroke of fate.

And from then on we speculate. Our narrator is Benjamin Franklin, printer, late of Philadelphia. During the late summer of the year 1775, at Sebrooke in Connecticut, An old man and a much younger one, Dr. Benjamin Gail and David Bushnell, Yale College Class of 1775, were discussing a matter of grave import.

Dr. Gail, don't you see? Yes, Stevie, I see. I see all too well. It could end the war quickly. It could save thousands of lives. I believe it could. Have you brought the new drawings?

Yes, I finished the new design this afternoon. Here it is. Why have you added a new churning affair at the top? To speed up the rising action, Doctor. To give more safety for the man inside.