Masonic Freethinkers

1. Masonic Freethinkers Down through the ages, the Masonic Fraternity has always sought the light of truth and knowledge.

2. Masonic ContributionstoArt, Music, Medicine and Science • The contributions of Masons to society cannot be overstated. From music that has stirred men’s souls, to life saving medicines and space travel, Masons have had a hand in the shaping of the world.

3. Masons and the Media • Before the invention of the printing press, books and the information they contained were rare. Today, television, radio and printed material, are the sources of information responsible for how individuals view the world. Were it not for the efforts of Masons, much of what we take for granted in the way of media would not exist or would have came much later in history. The world we know today would be a much different place.

4. Richard M. Hoe 1812 - 1886 Inventor & Master Mason • Hoe was an American inventor who designed and improved the printing press. His father owned a company that manufactured printing presses and at the age of 15, Hoe joined the company and on his father's death, became head of Robert Hoe & Company. In 1843, Hoe invented the rotary printing press, a design that was much faster than the old flat-bed printing press, thereby revolutionizing the publishing industry.

5. David Sarnoff 1891 – 1971Media Legend & Master Mason • On April 14, 1912, Sarnoff was working at the Marconi station atop Wanamaker's department store when he picked up a message relayed from ships at sea: "S.S. Titanic ran into iceberg, sinking fast." For the next 72 hours, the story goes, he remained at his post, giving the world the first authentic news of the disaster. But it was his later vision and foresight of television that he is best known for. • It is nearly impossible to imagine that it was less than 60 years ago, in 1939, when Sarnoff told a crowd of curious viewers, "Now we add sight to sound." Sarnoff went on to say, "It is with a feeling of humbleness that I come to this moment of announcing the birth in this country of a new art so important in its implications that it is bound to affect all society. It is an art which shines like a torch of hope in the troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind. This miracle of engineering skill which one day will bring the world to the home also brings a new American industry to serve man's material welfare ... [Television] will become an important factor in American economic life." • Sarnoff retired as RCA chairman in 1970 and died a year later.

6. Steve WozniakInventor & Master Mason Born in 1950, Brother Wozniak is an engineer and inventor who helped make this presentation possible through his work on computers. Wozniak's Apple II personal computer - introduced in 1977 and featuring a central processing unit (CPU), keyboard, floppy disk drive and a $1,300 price tag - helped launch the PC industry. In 1980, just a little more than four years after being founded, Apple went public. The company, begun as a two-man operation in Jobs' garage, grew to a $500-million-a year company in six years. Wozniak left Apple in 1981, went back to Berkeley and finished his degree in electrical engineering/computer science. Since then, he has been involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools, including an initiative in 1990 to place computers in schools in the former Soviet Union.

7. Masons & Science • Life the world over would be very much different today without the advances in science made by Masons. • From the discovery of the speed of light to advanced aerodynamics, Masons have led the way in an ever changing world. • Pioneering advances in the field of medicine made by men of The Craft have saved countless lives.

8. Albert Abraham Michelson1852 – 1931Theoretical Physicist Master Mason • During his career, Michelson touched on many departments of physics but, perhaps due to a special instinct which he appeared to possess, he excelled in optics. He performed early measurements of the velocity of light with amazing delicacy and in 1881 he invented his interferometer for the purpose of discovering the effect of the Earth's motion on the observed velocity. In cooperation with Professor E.W. Morley, and using the interferometer, it was shown that light travels at a constant speed in all inertial systems of reference. The instrument also enabled distances to be measured with greater accuracy by means of the length of light-waves. Variations of Michelson’s invention, the interferometer, are carried aboard many scientific spacecraft and are responsible for numerous discoveries made regarding our solar system and the known universe.

9. Edward Jenner 1749-1823Physician & Master Mason • The year 1996 marked the two hundredth anniversary of Edward Jenner's first experimental vaccination--that is, inoculation with the related cow-pox virus to build immunity against the deadly scourge of smallpox. Jenner, after training in London and a period as an army surgeon, spent his whole career as a country doctor in his native county of Gloucestershire in the West of England. His research was based on careful case-studies and clinical observation more than a hundred years before scientists could explain the viruses themselves.

10. Sir Alexander Fleming1881 – 1955Bacteriologist, Master Mason • Early in his medical life, Fleming became interested in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. He was able to continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal tissues. • In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance penicillin.

11. Lawrence Bell 1894 – 1956Aircraft Designer, Master Mason In 1912 Bell entered the aviation business as a mechanic for his brother, Grover. When his brother was killed in an airplane accident in 1913, Bell decided to quit, but the attraction of flying proved too great. In 1947, Bell’s X -1 experimental rocket powered aircraft, carried aloft by a B-29 and piloted by Master Mason Chuck Yeager, was the first to break the sound barrier in level flight thereby paving the way for the further development of high speed aircraft.

12. Masons and The Arts • From classical music to sculpture, the work of members of The Craft are held in high esteme as masterpieces and have been revered down through the ages.

13. Gutzon & Lincoln BorglumFather & Son Master MasonsCreators of Mount Rushmore • Glutzon Borglum was the son of a Danish immigrant physician and rancher. He studied at the San Francisco Art Academy and in Paris at Julian's academy and the École des Beaux-Arts. His first commission after his return to New York in 1901 was the statue of Lincoln that stands in the rotunda of the Capitol, Washington, D.C. Lincoln Borglum finished the work of his father at Mount Rushmore when he died in 1941.

14. Born (baptized): December 17, 1770. Bonn, Germany. Died: March 26, 1827. Vienna, Austria Ludwig van Beethoven is often described by musicians as a "giant straddling two styles": the Classical and the Romantic. Indeed, it is a testimony to Beethoven's place in history that he is claimed for both periods. Whether Beethoven was a Classical or a Romantic composer, however, is beside the point. Instead, we might best view him as a new composer for a new age -- an age that is reflected in both musical as well as the nonmusical worlds. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

15. FRANZ JOSEPH LISZT "Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words. If music has one advantage over the other media through which a person can represent the impressions of the soul, it owes this to its supreme capacity to make each inner impulse audible without the assistance of reason... Music presents at once the intensity and the expression of feeling. It is the embodied and intelligible essence of feeling, capable of being apprehended by our senses. It permeates them like a dart, like a ray, like a mist, like a spirit, and fills our soul,“ Franz Liszt