Archives September 2013

"Fair is foul and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air." William Shakespeare, Macbeth A hovercraft—also known as an Air Cushion Vehicle (ACV)—floats on a cushion of air, the air being pumped under it by a large dueled centrifugal fan. It is amphibious and can be driven across relatively flat land for loading purposes, and then across reasonably calm water. As the cushion of air greatly reduces drag, the craft can travel across water at high speed. Sir Christopher Cockerell (1910-1999) designed the first commercial hovercraft, the Saunders Roe Nautical One (SRN1). He conceived the idea in 1953, but it was not until June 1959 that his three-man craft—traveling at about 29 miles (46 km) per hour—was first tested. Cockerell decided to pump air into a narrow tunnel around the circumference of the craft. The air then escaped towards the center, where it built up a high- more...

The largest machine built by man, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator occupying an enormous circular tunnel some 17 miles (27 km) in circumference, ranging from 165 to 575 feet (50-175 m) below ground. Situated near Geneva, it is so large that over the course of its circumference it crosses the border between France and Switzerland four times. The tunnel itself was constructed between 1983 and 1988 to house another particle accelerator, the Large Electron-Positron Collider, which operated until 2000. Its replacement, the LHG.-was approved in 1995, and was finally switched on in September 2008. The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and has been designed to explore the limits of what physicists refer to as the Standard Model, which deals with fundamental sub-atomic particles. The machine uses magnets capable of accelerating protons to near the speed of light, so they can complete a more...

Technology is knowledge of the process and techniques that transforms the abstract ideas of scientists and mathematicians into a concrete reality. It is the knowhow that enables us to extract the raw materials and then convert them into fuel, steel, chemicals, plastics and food. Technology is also concerned with perfection of industrial processes, mass production and automation. The advancing technology implies pollution, the exhaustion of natural resources and the lack of  workers' satisfaction in automated factories. Hence, technology is a two-edged weapon. The chemical industry has grown a lot during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It turned natural rubber into a material that is to be used on an industrial scale. New discoveries like plastic, artificial fibers and synthetics were made. Dynamos and electric motors gave fillip to technological development. Henry Ford added a new dimension to industrial technology. These development in technology led to serious problems of unemployment, squandering more...

“I had no fixed ideas... and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right." Sir Henry Bessemer English engineer Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) was an inventor for all of his adult life. At seventeen he devised a counterfeit-proof embossed stamp for title deeds. He held more than 100 patents, including making lead for pencils, brass powder for use as "gold" paint, a hydraulic machine for extracting juice from sugar cane, and, most famously, the Bessemer process. The Bessemer process was basically a considerably cheaper, faster, and more efficient way of making steel than the method then in use. Before Bessemer devised his process, steel was made by adding carbon to wrought iron. This process could take up to a week of continuous heat to produce and reguired immense amounts of fuel. The cost of steel for structural use in bridges or buildings, or on any mass-production more...

One day in 1952, John W. Hetrick was driving, with his wife and daughter in the front seat, when he had to swerve and brake quickly to avoid an obstacle. Instinctively, he and his wife put their arms out to shield their daughter in case of a crash. This inspired him to provide automobiles with air bags to protect people during accidents. Hetrick had been an engineer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and he recalled a compressed-air torpedo accidentally turning itself on, causing its canvas cover to shoot "up into the air, quicker than you could blink an eye." In 1952 Hetrick proposed using compressed air to inflate air bags rapidly during car crashes. He received a patent for his invention in 1953, but car manufacturers in the 1950s were more concerned with style than safety. Air bag technology improved and consumers became more safety conscious—the first more...

"My mother would buy paIe white margarine in a soft plastic pouch, with an orange dot in the middle" Food Reference website               In 1867 the French President, Napoleon III, offered a prize to the inventor of a butter substitute that would keep well, for use by the army, and be a cheap alternative for the poor. French chemist, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries won the prize with a substance he called oleomargarine, which he had developed from margaric acid, a mixture of palmitic and stearic acids. He established the first margarine factory in France and later expanded the business to the United States. But the business foundered and he died in obscurity in 1880. Mege-Mouries had, however, sold his product to the Dutch businessman Anton Jurgens who built a margarine business that merged with the Lever Brothers' business to form Unilever in 1929. Demand for margarine more...

"There's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic." Lily Tomlin, comedian and actress Polypropylene is one of the modem world's most important plastics. It is used as an artificial fiber in carpets, upholstery, and industrial ropes, as well as in food and toiletry bottles, toys, furniture, and car components. Polymers are very common in nature because they are the major components of hair, bones, muscles, and plant fibers. In the 1920s, scientists were working on how to make polymer chains longer and heavier, and therefore more useful. One of the first breakthroughs came in England in 1931, when polyethylene—the first man-made polymer with a high molecular weight—was made. Polyethylene dominated the global plastics market, but scientists were disappointed by its material weakness. The race to develop a better plastic was on. Italian scientist Giulio Natta (1903-1979) had been working with the German more...

Ralph Teetor (1890-1982), a prolific—and blind- inventor, was inspired to invent cruise control one day while taking a ride in a car driven by his lawyer. The lawyer had the habit of slowing down while talking and speeding up while listening. The car's jerky, rocking motion so annoyed Teetor that he became determined to invent a speed-control device. Teetor received his first patent on a cruise-control device in 1945 after a decade of tinkering, and it was first offered commercially on Chrysler's Imperial, New Yorker, and Windsor models in 1958. Early names for his invention included Controlmatic, Touchomatic, Pressomatic, and Speedostat, before people settled on the familiar Cruise Control. With cruise control, the driver sets the speed and the system then takes over the vehicle's throttle to maintain that speed. The cruise control gets its speed signal from a rotating driveshaft, the speedometer cable, a speed sensor on the wheels, more...

Amongst all the engineering entrance exams that take place in India one of the second biggest engineering entrance exams is one of that of AIEEE. AIEEE is an annual engineering entrance examination that is conducted all over India. This exam tries to search out the best students for the national level institutes. There is a famous quote that “Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence”. The one who has got all these qualities is going to get himself/herself to the peak of success. StudyAdda has been creating ways in order to get the proper outcome for all the AIEEE aspirants. The AIEEE study materials have been compiled without any ambiguity and provide crystal clear information related to every topic in those subjects. The AIEEE study materials uploaded on the website of StudyAdda relates to all the well known books and texts that students more...

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all India examination that chiefly tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science. GATE is conducted in cooperation by the Indian Institute of Science and seven IIT’s on behalf of the National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), and Government of India. The GATE Score of a candidate reflects the relative performance level of a candidate. The score is used for admissions to various post-graduate programmes (e.g. M.E., M.Tech, and direct Ph.D.) in Indian higher education institutes with financial assistance provided by MHRD and other Government agencies. The score may also be used by Public sector units for employment selection purposes. However, candidates with a Master’s degree in Engineering/Technology/Architecture may seek admission to relevant Doctoral programmes with scholarship/assistantship without appearing in the GATE examination. StudyAdda is not only concerned with the students who want to accomplish more...