Archives October 2013

There was a long queue of passengers in front of second class booking window. They were waiting for their turns to get tickets, when the window opened, they pushed one another and there was chaos. Lo! The old man fell. At once a policeman ran for his help. He saved him from being crushed. He purchased a ticket for him. On platform also there was a great rush of passengers. They were waiting for the arrival of the train. Some were sitting on the benches. The villagers were sitting on the floor or on their boxes. Some gentlemen were walking up and down the platform. Every now and then they were looking in the direction from which the train was scheduled to come. There was a great rush of hawkers at the platform. They were crying at the top of their voice in order to sell their goods. When the more...

"[The committee] do not take upon themselves to decide upon the policy of introducing it." British Army's rejection of the shrapnel shell, 1801 In everyday language, the word shrapnel is normally used to describe fragments of metal from an explosion—often those lodged into human flesh. However, the word has a more specific meaning; it is the name of an important artillery weapon invented in 1784 by Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), then a lieutenant in the British Army. In its original design, the shrapnel shell was a hollow iron sphere filled with gunpowder and about 200 musket balls. Protruding into the shell was a timed explosive fuse. As the sphere flew through the air, the fuse exploded, causing the shell to blast open and release the musket balls. The balls continued to travel in the same direction, at the speed at which the shell had been traveling—fast enough to cause death and more...

In 1784 Scottish millwright and inventor Andrew Meikle invented the threshing machine, probably drawing inspiration from a design Michael Menzies had patented fifty years earlier. Once grain plants are harvested it is necessary to separate the grain from the plant. After a failed first attempt in 1778 Meikle built a machine that could complete this process in a fraction of the time that had previously been required. As the machines slowly spread across Britain, they were greeted with a wave of hostility from discontented villagers. Threshing had previously offered an opportunity for laborers to supplement their income during the winter period, and their livelihood was now under threat. Understandably, they revolted. Threshing machines are not particularly safe to operate; they beat and thrash at whatever is fed to them, be that sheaves of grain plants or arms and legs. Meikle's final design used a strong drum with fixed beaters. Thus, more...

The invention of the sandwich is popularly credited to John Montague, Fourth Earl of Sandwich. Its origins. Go much further back than this, however. Another common belief comes from the Jewish tradition— that the sandwich was invented by Hillel the Elder in the first century B.C.E. During Passover, Hillel the Elder's invention is commemorated in the text: "This is what Hillel did when the Temple existed: he used to enwrap the Paschal lamb, the matzo, and the bitter herbs and eat them as one." At this point of the remembrance service, the participants do likewise. Evidence suggests that the sandwich may go back even further than this, to the days of the Hittite Empire, hundreds of years before. There are records of soldiers of the empire being issued with meat between slices of bread as their rations.              Today's sandwich comes in a multitude of more...

"[I'm looking for] improvements in the taste and science of architecture." Ithiel Town A Clun Castle steam engine crossing the Royal Albert Bridge, built by 1. K. Brunei in the 1850s in England. The viaduct above the Upper Genesee Falls at Portageville, New York, exemplifies the truss bridge. The concept of a bridge built from trusses— frameworks of straight parts connected to form a pattern of triangles—was first described by the Italian father of Western architecture, Andrew Palladio, in 1570. However, trussed frames had already been in use by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and simple timber trusses are believed to have been used in bridge construction in Europe by the time Palladio was writing. However, the heyday of the truss bridge came in the early nineteenth century in the United States. The impetus came from the development of rail transport and the need to convey heavy rail vehicles safely more...

Games and sports are a very necessary part of education. As we know the aim of education is all round development physical mental and moral - of a student. Only a sound body can have a sound mind. Mind cannot be stronger if the body is weak. There is a very old saying that "Health is Wealth". One can build his body by playing games as it provides exercise in open and fresh air. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. India does not need book worms with ill health. A good student must take care of all the things. He must give time to his studies, but he should not neglect games. He should follow the maxim, "work, while you work, play, while you play, that is the way to be happy and gay." Games teach us discipline and sportsmanship. A sportsman treats victory and defeat more...

The year 1982 marked a huge step in diabetes care and ushered in a new era of drug production, thanks to the development of Humulin", the first fully human insulin product. Until then, diabetes patients were given insulin derived from animal sources, mostly cattle and pigs. At around the same time, advancements in gene technology finally allowed for the manufacturing of fully human insulin. The molecule insulin was discovered in the early 1920s, and the first injections of insulin from cattle into humans quickly followed. Although this early insulin was extremely impure and had numerous side effects, it certainly saved the lives of many diabetics.  In the following decades there were further advancements in the development of insulin, including improvements in purity and the chemical synthesis of human insulin. In 1978 researchers at Genentech, Inc., in San Francisco, California began working on producing fully human insulin from recombinant DNA in more...

'Mans does not live by bread alone' is an old saying which simply defines that man needs much more than bread itself. Here the word 'bread' stands for the primary or basic needs of life. In order to live man needs food, clothes and shelter. But these are not enough. Man's life is not for fulfilling only these three needs. He has more and more wants in life and for achieving them he does strenuous labour day and night. He makes impossible possible. It is here, that we find the difference between man and animal. Animals also have these needs, and they can live if these needs are fulfilled. But man cannot. He is different from the animals in having a mind and a soul as well. He has intellectual, emotional and spiritual needs which must be fulfilled instantly otherwise he will be half- dead. He- can live without bread more...

Synthetic blood is a product that acts as a substitute for red blood cells, designed with the purpose of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide around the body. The development of artificial blood is desirable because of the problems associated with blood transfusions, particularly the risk of transmitting viral diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. There are also difficulties with transporting and storing blood (synthetic blood is kept in powder form), as well as a perpetual shortage of blood donors. In 1956 Thomas Chan (b. 1933), working on an undergraduate research project at McGill University, Montreal, created the first artificial blood cells. Turning his dormitory room into a makeshift laboratory, Chan used improvised materials (including perfume atomizers) and cellulose nitrate solution (a material used to coat wounds) to create a permeable sack that could transport hemoglobin. Hemoglobin can be extracted from old donor blood, cow's blood, plants, and fungi. It is more...

In the middle of the second millennium C.E. the battlefield was dominated by armored cavalry and the romantic concept of the chivalrous knight in armor. However, a technological innovation was about to take place that would completely change warfare. The invention in question was called the "hackenbushce," or arquebus, probably a derivative of the Dutch word haakbus, meaning "hook-gun." The arquebus was one of the first effective examples of a handheld firearm. By this time, using gunpowder to fire projectiles was not a new idea. Cannons had existed since the early 1300s, and smaller "hand-cannons" had developed to complement these. These early firearms were basically small cannons mounted on poles or on crossbow stocks, and were fired by touching the vent- hole with a match, which would ignite the powder and fire the projectile. The particular innovation of the arquebus, which cannot be attributed to one person but is probably more...