Betsy Ross Flag - Network Design



 Protocols of Liberty: Communication, Innovation, and teh American Revolution [Book Banner from Title Page Image] Betsy Ross Flag - Network Design
William Warner [Author Name]
The University of Chicago Press [Publisher Name]
Overview [Link]
Introduction [Link]
Chapter 1 [Link]
Chapter 2 [Link]
Chapter 3 [Link]
Chapter 4 [Link]
Chapter 5 [Link]
Chapter 6 [Link]
Conclusion [Link]

Betsy Ross Flag and Mesh Network Topology

LINKS: Mesh Topology -- Network Topology -- Betsy Ross Flag


Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
--On June 14, 1777, Congress adopted this resolution.

This simple resolution prescribed the basic design elements for representing the "United States." The separate identity of the new republics will be expressed by 13 distinct red and white stripes. At the same time, the union of the states will be expressed by the flag's canton of 13 white stars upon a blue field. Thus the whole flag is meant to express through its design the tricky policial problem that faced the newly independent colonies: how can one reconcile the liberty of 13 independent states with the power that results from union? By arranging 13 stars so they represent "a new constellation," that union is wishfully given the necessity, fixity, and permanence associated with stars.

Betsy Ross Flag
There is a good deal of mystery around one key feature of the final design of the flag commissioned by Congress: the circular arrangement of the five-pointed stars. It may be that someone on the informal flag committee of Congress, or Betsy Ross, the Philadelphia woman who by legend sewed the first flag with this design, chose to use stars of equal size and to form them into a circle. It is noteworthy that this design incorporates features of the network out of which the new system of government emerged: by both position and scale, each star, like each state, is given equal weight. Of course Congress knew nothing about modern network topology. However, when they sought to visualize the new union of 13 states, and describe the egalitarian ethos of that union, they anticipated two shapes that modern technologists would use to describe egalitarian communication networks: the ring and the mesh. cantonNetwork topology
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