He used the same concept of “induction balance” to develop a rudimentary metal detector, which he used to search for the bullet in Garfield’s abdomen. And then it gives us a glimpse of Alexander Graham Bell’s “first incentive to invention” that earned him a place in the history books for bringing about the telephone, due to his almost fully deaf mother. The book profiles Garfield’s extreme path from rural rags to “wunderkind scholar” to Civil War general to well-supported politician. Millard shows us Guiteau’s delusional thinking and what led him to take revenge on Garfield, who was waiting at D.C.’s Sixth Street Station with not only two of his sons, James and Harry, but ironically with Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, whose father was assassinated 16 years earlier.

Garfield, a man who “defied all odds” to become the 20th president. The anything-but-dry approach to this historical snapshot juxtaposes the “unremarkable figure” of murderer Charles Guiteau with James A. In Candice Millard’s book “Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President,” the author allows readers to delve into fascinating, investigative research that spotlights the seemingly providential coming together of great minds. Proving that necessity is the mother of invention, scientists and inventors worked round the clock for 80 days to provide both comfort and lifesaving measures for the suffering, newly elected president, shot by a political wannabe who was mentally unstable.

Yet the three were hardly dreamed of in the late 19th century.

In 21st-century modernity, air conditioning, antiseptics, and ultrasound are commonplace.

Garfield destiny of the republic