Chapter 206: Chapter 182: The Advanced Research Projects Agency

https://imgur.com/a/nVUjfmp

(Map of the North American front during the war)

+++++

"ARPA and Technological Innovation in the United States"

You are reading story The Rebellion Burns Bright at novel35.com

The Industrial Revolution and Inventions, By Maxwell Kent, Published in Boston, Massachusetts

"...One of the oldest and most prestigious agencies in the United States, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (also commonly known as "ARPA") has been at the forefront of the improvement and development of various technologies throughout America's history. From the telegraph to computers to the World Wide Web, ARPA has proven to be a reliable and critical group that has been credited with thousands of inventions. With hundreds of research centers in the United States alone (along with dozens of others in the member states of the League of American Nations) and numerous branches under its name (including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Defensive Development Initiative, and the Energy Development Agency), ARPA has expanded from a small, single-group agency into one of the biggest agencies in the American government. Indeed, it is critical to see the role of ARPA throughout the history of the United States in order to recognize the reasons for the agency's rapid growth, especially during the Anglo-American War...

In 1832, shortly after the declaration of war from Britain was delivered to the White House, President Eliyah Peters (the Seventh President of the United States) worked with his Congressional allies in order to pass a bill that provided additional funding and personnel for ARPA (titled the "Research and Development Act of 1832"). Prior to the passage of the R&D Act of 1832, ARPA was already considered a prestigious agency under the federal government. The agency managed to create various inventions that were critical to the industrial development of the United States, chiefly the telegraph and the steam locomotive. Even before the R&D Act was approved by Congress, the agency was self-sufficient in funding and provided additional revenue for the federal budget due to the rapid construction of railroads and telegraph lines across the United States. This was due to the fact that the federal government sold patents of ARPA's inventions for a 4% profit margin (a slight rise from the original 1% profit margin set in the beginning), with 60% going to the researchers involved in the inventions and the remaining 40% being split between the government and the agency itself (30% to the federal government, 10% to the agency). In fact, the agency was able to build the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or M.I.T.) with the funds it procured from its patents in 1799. By 1832, the agency employed over 20,000 personnel and was continuously growing due to the creation of more and more labs across the United States (mostly in and around universities, both private and public). Therefore, some could argue that the R&D Act was redundant, as the agency was not lacking in funding.

However, the Act did provide crucial support for ARPA's involvement in the Anglo-American War. After the passage of the Act, ARPA was conjoined with the military (for the duration of the war) in order to provide improvements to the equipment of the three major military branches (Army, Navy, and the Marines). The military provided valuable insight into the practicality and actual performance of some of ARPA's inventions in combat, with adjustments made accordingly to prevent unnecessary deaths and improve the firepower of the average soldier. The military also provided the recommended priority for certain projects, influencing ARPA's heavy focus on the development of the Gatling guns, the Springfield guns, and the Monitor-class ironclads during the first three years of the war. ARPA had numerous projects in the works before and during the war, but with the military's input, the agency focused on the development of "war-winning" weapons that would make the most difference on the battlefield. After Project Monitor was finished in July of 1834 (three months ahead of schedule), ARPA was lauded by many as the most important group, other than the military and the government itself, in the war effort...

In addition to being conjoined with the military, ARPA was also given additional funding to expand its department, provide continuous funding for its wartime projects, and designate specialized labs across the nation. The agency grew from having 20,000 personnel to over 50,000 by the end of the war. A few of the new-hires were engineers and designers without any college degrees, such as William A. Clarke (the designer of the famed Clarke Rifle, which was the primary weapon for American sharpshooters during the war). However, the vast majority were college graduates that were integrated into the agency in order to keep up with the heightened demands made by the government and the military. The increase in manpower allowed ARPA to maintain the expanded scope of the agency during the Anglo-American War and prevent any delays in its projects. Additionally, with increased funding from the federal government, the agency never suffered any financial problems and added improvements to some of the projects in development (for example, rotating turrets and black powder shells were added to the Bunker Hill armored frigates after additional breakthroughs were made due to ARPA's increased funding).

The biggest change brought from the Act was the designation of specialized labs in certain areas of the country. By 1832, federal universities already developed reputations for certain areas depending on the location of the university. For example, New York University placed a special emphasis on finance and business while the University of Quebec was geared towards industry and engineering. However, this bias did not reach the ARPA labs that were featured in these universities, with many of them pursuing different projects and research even if its host university was focused on other interests. Thus, research was spread out evenly across the United States and the ARPA research centers and labs were fairly decentralized. The eruption of the Anglo-American War changed this significantly, as the Act called for more centralization and efficiency. Thus, the labs were transformed into ones that matched their host universities' preferences, along with additional labs being built for weapons development and engineering. Additionally, several sub-branches were organized into the agency in order to improve productivity and output. The sub-branches organized during the war were as followed:

• Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • General Science
    • Chemistry
    • Biology and Biochemistry
    • Botany and Earth Science
    • Sociology
  • Mathematics
  • Defensive Development Initiative
    • Army Branch
    • Marines Branch
    • Navy Branch
  • Engineering
    • Industrial Engineering
    • Agricultural Engineering
    • Chemical Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering

Researchers and engineers focused on the Navy Branch of the Defensive Development Initiative were moved to the University of Quebec, while weapons designers of the Army Branch were moved to Cleveland (after a new lab was opened in the growing industrial city, following the partial destruction of M.I.T. during the British coastal raid). New York University became the new home of the Chemical Engineering division (with most of the actual labs in Xin, as the Asian-majority city avoided major raids throughout the war), while Philadelphia headquartered the Mechanical Engineering branch of ARPA. The Agricultural Engineering division moved into Lafayette in Kentucky, while Botany and Earth Sciences went to Onondaga in Iroquois (which signaled the beginning of America's intellectual expansion westward). After the war, new universities were built around the new labs, creating more accessible higher education more evenly across the United States...

Finally, one of the most significant changes made from the Act was the addition of researchers and students from the member states of the League of Nations. A major lab was built in Wichita, Kiowa (the most western lab in the nation at the time) and various scholars from Mexico, Central America, Yucatan, and Venezuela studied under American researchers. The Wichita Lab (which would later become the Federal University of Wichita) would become the center of LAN cooperation in the fields of technology and research, and even contributed to the development of the first "airships" fielded by the United States...

You can find story with these keywords: The Rebellion Burns Bright, Read The Rebellion Burns Bright, The Rebellion Burns Bright novel, The Rebellion Burns Bright book, The Rebellion Burns Bright story, The Rebellion Burns Bright full, The Rebellion Burns Bright Latest Chapter