Archives November 2013

"And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail." Samuel 17:5, on Goliath In English, "helmet" is the generic term given to any device that protects the head, usually from impact- related damage. Today helmets can be found in a wide array of activities from sports to space exploration and are made from advanced composite materials, including plastics and Kevlar, combining maximum protection with minimum weight. Archeological evidence suggests that helmets have been around since the third millennium B.C.E., being used by the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. At this time, and for many centuries afterward, the helmet was used exclusively for the purposes of war. The ancient Egyptians were also making helmets at around the same time, taking advantage of the toughness of crocodile skin as their material. Early arms and warfare reached a peak around the fifth century B.C.E. with more...

"Television will be of no importance in your lifetime or mine." Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, 1948 Though seen as a thoroughly American invention, television's roots are Russian. Vladimir Zworykin (1889- 1982) studied electrical engineering at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology in St. Petersburg. Boris Rosing, a professor in charge of laboratory projects, tutored Zworykin and introduced his student to his experiments of transmitting pictures by wire. Zworykin and Rosing went on to develop a very rudimentary television system in the early 1900s. Russia's revolution split up the duo and halted their research. Rosing died in exile, but his student, Zworykin, settled in the United States and continued their research as an employee of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. By 1923 Zworykin had developed the first all-electric camera tube, which he called an "iconoscope" meaning "viewer of icons." The iconoscope was a modified cathode ray tube, a device developed by more...

“Every time you jump, there is two seconds of freedom…” George Nissen, gymnastics coach George Nissen (b. 1914) was a gymnastics coach and Larry Griswold (1905-1996) a gymnastic tumbler and acrobat. In the summer of 1935, they became acquainted with the great trapeze family, known as the Flying Wards, and often helped the Wards mend their nets at the local YMCA. Nissen thought a small rebound net may assist aerialists with tumbling practice and, with Griswold, set up a workshop in his parents' garage to develop a bouncing frame. They gathered a section of canvas, had it sewn up, and attached to it a series of springs along its outer edge. This was then joined to an angled iron frame scavenged from a nearby demolition yard. The pair took their new bouncing frame to a University of Iowa summer camp, where it garnered much interest. After graduation, Nissen and two more...

"Heavy pottery bread molds were set in rows on a bed of embers to bake the dough... within them"  Jane Howard, Bread in Ancient Egypt Just as the Egyptians brought the prehistoric era to an end in about 3000 B.C.E., they appear to have produced the first closed oven. It was invented as a way to satisfy the demand for better bread. Flatbread had been around for approximately 5,000 years, but Egyptian ovens enabled the bakers to produce bread with yeast; bread was no longer flat, it was rising. A traditional oven is one of the simplest inventions; it traps heat within its walls in order to cook the food placed within. However, when considering the timing of the invention of the oven it is necessary to consider the agricultural advances that resulted in the need for it. After the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago, the land began more...

"Cooking is one of the oldest arts and which has rendered us the most important sevice in civic life." Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, gastronome Humankind has been preparing food in countless ways for many thousands of years, but perhaps the most important innovation was deciding to cook food in the first place. Open flames worked for a time, but as humans became civilized, so did their cooking. The Chinese and Japanese had closed stoves from the second and third centuries B.C.E. respectively—long before the rest of the world. By the fifteenth century, Europe had moved toward a modern stove, hut the whole world relied on wood, charcoal, coal, or oil to fuel their cooking until the ninteenth century. Gas cooking was introduced by Zachaus Winzler (1750-c. 1830) in 1802. Winzler, a Moravian chemical manufacturer living in Austria, began hosting dinner parties where the food was cooked using a small gas cooker complete more...

“A newspaper consists of just the same number of word, whether there be any news in it or not.” Henry Fielding, Novelist In 1605 Johann Carolus (1575-1634) published the first printed issue of Relation alter Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien in Strasbourg, France, thereby giving the world its first newspaper. Similar concepts had been around for more than 1,500 years. Julius Caesar established the Acta Diurna—a newsletter carved on stone or metal—for the citizens of Rome, and, almost 800 years later in 713, the Chinese Tang Dynasty published the Kaiyuan Za Bao, a news-bulletin handwritten on silk. Initially Carolus copied his newsletters by hand and sold them to rich subscribers. But in order to make his publication affordable to more people, and thus increase his revenue, he bought a printing shop in 1604. Despite his modern approach, Relation did not survive, so today the Dutch daily Haarlems Dagblad (after merging with more...

Functions are the necessary part of our social life. More over they gives colour in our life. Prize distribution function is held in every school and every college. Prize distribution function is a pride day for the students. It gives them chance to show their worth. Some achieve it in games and others win prizes for getting distinction in academic field. The prize distribution function of our school took place on February 20, 1999. it was held in the open area of the school. A beautiful sitting arrangement was made. The Inspector of schools presided over it. The chief guest arrived in time. He was received at the school gate by the Principal and other members of the staff. The function started with a welcome song. The N.C.C. and Red Cross boys gave a show of drill which every body liked. The fancy dress made people laugh again and again. more...

Harnessing the power of the atom has been a major goal of both science and science fiction, capturing the public imagination with the promise of cheap, clean energy. The initial idea was developed until December 20, 1951, when a switch was flicked and the Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR1) was switched on, becoming the first nuclear reactor to generate electrical energy, and therefore become the first nuclear power plant. The heat generated from the reaction was used to turn water into steam, turning turbines to generate electricity. On its first successful run the reactor produced enough power to run just four lightbulbs. The next day it produced enough to power the entire research facility, and today nuclear power stations, many of them based on this original design, provide some 16 percent of the world's electricity. Walter Zinn (1906-2000), the chief scientist behind the work, started his career in nuclear engineering more...

The idea of curing rubber goes back to prehistoric times. The Aztecs, for example, processed rubber by mixing latex with vine juice. However, vulcanization, as we now think of it, was invented by Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) in 1839 (according to his own account). Although Goodyear patented his invention in 1844, he died with huge debts in 1860. Named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, vulcanization is a process of curing rubber using high temperatures and the addition of sulfur. In its natural state, rubber is sticky, deforms when warm, and is brittle when cold. But by linking together the polymer molecules in rubber with bridges of sulfur atoms, it becomes much harder, less sticky, more resistant, and much more durable. As a result, vulcanized rubber has a whole range of useful applications, not least in sealing gaps between moving parts, thereby playing a crucial part in the development of more...

"Every occasion will catch the senses of the vain man and with that... saddle you may ride him." Sir Philip Sidney, politician It is unclear when humans first began to domesticate and ride horses—evidence from cave paintings in France suggests that horses might have been bridled as long ago as 15,000 B.C.E. But while early riders had the use of bits, bridles, and harnesses to control their mounts, they sat uncomfortably on little more than folded blankets or cloth, or rode bareback. Asian horsemen created a felt and wood saddle around 300 B.C.E., but it was not until around 100 C.E. that riders gained a saddle that offered genuine comfort. The first padded, framed saddles were-developed in Han Chin sometime between 25 and 220 C.E. They consisted of a wooden frame covered in a stiff material such as leather, padded with cloth and shaped for comfort. To ensure a good more...