Archives June 2013

The history of India is full of the stories of countless heroes and gallants. Their deeds of bravery, gallantry, chivalry and heroism have left indelible marks. Shivaji is one of those Indian heroes who have been acknowleged as the most worthy and remarkable personalities. He was born in 1627. His father was a small Jagirdar. His mother Jija Bai was a very pious and intelligent women. She moulded the early life of Shivaji. She infused in him the burning love for his motherland. Right from  the beginning Shivaji had been a fearless, brave and kind soldier.  That is why he is called the "Defender of the Hindu religion." His boyhood proved the saying of Wordsworth, "Child is the father of man". He was very promising, shrewd,  intelligent and patriotic right from his childhood. As a matter of fact, his mother was his first teacher who carved him as a fearless more...

We all earn our bread by doing some work. That work is our profession. We like to do that work which gives us money and requires us to do little. But this is not possible and we have to choose a work which we can do and for which we have an interest. Unfortunately there are many people in this world who are doing a work for which they are not fit. Therefore.We should consider well before taking up any work. The first point to be considered is our natural taste and liking for a work. The second point is the physical fitness. The third point is the means by which we may prosper in that work. Generally people are interested in their ancestral profession because it is very easy for them. Moreover they are skilled in it. The son of a carpenter finds it easy to take up his more...

It is our natural instinct to know what is happening around us. Nobody wants to live in ignorance. Hence newspapers have become part and parcel of our life. We cannot live without them. The morning newspaper is as indispensable for a good start to our day as the morning cup of tea. It is our mental breakfast and unless we go through the 'headlines' we feel uneasy. What to talk of the city-dwellers, even the people living in the villages are seen eager to go through the newspaper to know what is going on in the world. Therefore, a newspaper is the basic need of the common people. A newspaper in the modern society has great social and educative value. Jt is a common media of giving news along with views. Its principal aim is to supply news, information with different views through comments, articles and editorials. It is therefore, more...

"Technology has taken us from the rock, used to pound the clothes, to the modem rectangular washer." Lee Maxwell, Washing Machine Museum owner Washing clothes used to be work of drudgery, dubbed "the American housekeeper's hardest problem," but this problem has been largely solved by modern technology—in the shape of the washing machine. Throughout history, various devices—from the washboard to the mangle—have been invented to wash clothes more effectively and with less effort, but these still required manual labor by the user. In 1858, Hamilton Smith patented a rotary washing machine. Cylindrical, with "agitated water" and revolving paddles, it was a first step toward modern machines. Others followed from other manufacturers, some combining the machine with the mangle. These early machines were still hand-cranked, but it wa3 not long before motorized versions became available, either with fuel-burning or electric motors. It was not until the early 1900s, however, that the more...

When the great Islamic scholar AI-Jazari (1150-1220), published in 1206 his Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al- handasiyya (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices], it included a description of a device that could change rotational motion into reciprocating motion: the camshaft. This invention consists of a shaft that has oval-shaped lobes attached to it, which turn with the shaft itself. Because of their noncircular shape, these "cams" appear to oscillate when the shaft spins on its axis. If a cam is positioned next to a valve, as it is in the example of the internal-combustion engine, then, as the camshaft turns, the longest end of the cam will depress, and hence open, the valve each time the shaft makes a turn. Before that, the camshaft played an important role in many medieval technologies. In windmills and waterwheels, for example, camshafts transformed rotational power into the energy and modes of action more...

"Nobody outside of a baby carriage... believes in an unprejudiced point of view." Lillian Hellman, playwright The first known design for a baby carriage was produced in 1733 by William Kent (c. 1685-1748), the renowned English landscape-garden designer. Today the baby carriage is an essential tool for any family with children, but it was originally intended as an entertainment. Kent, who as a designer could turn his hand from furniture to ladies clothes as well as gardens, was commissioned by the third Duke of Devonshire to design something to amuse his children. He produced a shell-shaped vehicle in which a baby could sit, with an attached harness designed to fit a small pony, a dog, or a goat. Baby carriages quickly became popular among the wealthy as fashionable toys. Gradually changes were made to their design, with one of the most significant being the addition of handles, which allowed a more...

Archeologists have found a model of a loom in an Egyptian tomb from 4,000 years ago. Yet the development of loom technology was slow until 1733, when John Kay (1704-1780) invented the flying shuttle. Looms interlace two sets of yarn or threads together to form cloth. The first set of threads is placed lengthwise along the loom and is called the warp. The second set of threads is called the weft. The weft is carried between the warp threads by a shuttle. In traditional looms, weavers passed the shuttle through the warp by hand, and it was a slow process. Kay's flying shuttle moved on wheels in a track through the warp when the weaver pulled a cord. This was much faster than hand weaving, and could also be used to create much wider fabrics than previously possible. Kay did not receive much benefit from his invention because weavers saw more...

“…and [Adam] slept: and [God] took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.” Genesis 2:21 Many breakthroughs made in modern medicine, such as open heart surgery or joint replacements, would never have been possible in a world without pain control. But how did anesthesia develop? As it turns out, early physicians never, to the best of our knowledge, resorted to knocking people out prior to performing surgery. Ancient Egyptian and Assyrian physicians compressed both carotid arteries at the same time, limiting blood flow to the brain and so inducing loss of consciousness in patients for the purpose of conducting a procedure. In addition, the Egyptians discovered that opium could help to ease pain, and the Assyrians used their own painkilling mixtures of belladonna, cannabis, and mandrake root. The Greeks and Romans copied and developed these techniques, and medieval Arabs even developed a form of inhalational anesthesia. more...

"If you cannot saw with a file or file with a saw, then you will be no good as an experimentalist." Augustin-Jean Fresnel French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1827) was extremely interested in the properties of light. He published a number of papers on optical phenomena such as aberration and diffraction, but he is best remembered today for an invention that turned his love of physics into a practical and revolutionary device: the Fresnel lens. Essentially he created a new type of lens that performed in the same way as a traditional one. Fresnel's design, however, was much lighter, which made it a practical option for making the large lenses needed for lighthouses. Some of the lighthouse lenses were more than 12 feet (3.6 m) tall and looked like giant beehives. The greatly improved efficiency with which these lenses could capture light meant that up to 83 percent of the light more...

The invention of the tin can in 1810 was something of a revolution in the food industry, particularly for the armed forces and explorers. The only problem was how to open them. They were so thick and heavy that opening them was difficult, and was usually done with a hammer and a sharp instrument. In the 1850s cans were produced using thinner steel, and in 1858 the first can-opener patent was issued to Ezra Warner of Connecticut who devised an opener with a pointed blade and a guard to keep the blade from penetrating too far into the can. In 1868 J. Osterhoudt patented the keyed type of can opener used for sardine cans. It was not until 1870, however, and the efforts of William Lyman—also from Connecticut—that the "modern" version of the can opener came along. Perhaps driven by an insatiable desire to taste the contents of a can more...