Archives April 2013

We find both the old and modem way of life in Punjab village. We see farmers working with the plough and also with the tractor. Both the persian wheel and the tubewell can also be seen at work. In the same villages, we can see mud houses and pucca houses. A Punjab village has a primary or a middle school. In bigger village, we might see a high or higher schools or even colleges. Most village children study in the schools. Children of school-going age can also be seen wandering aimlessly in the village or grazing cattle. Though most of Punjab villages have been electrified, yet we can see some ' people making use of the earthen lamps or kerosene lamps.  But the old order is changing and giving place to the new. Most of the villages are connected with the towns by means of pucca roads. Buses and auto-rickshaws more...

The 14th April, 2005 was a lucky day for me. On that very day, a series of events occurred one after the other in quick succession. All the events proved to be in my favour and gave me immense joy. It was therefore I declared that day the happiest day of my life.  I had participated in the National Mathematical Olympiad ft few months ago. I had done good no doubt but I was not sure of my brilliant success. On 14th April I got a letter in which I had been acknowledged that I had achieved first rank In the competition for which nice reward was waiting for me.  The information brought great pleasure for me and my family. I had really achieved brilliant success. All praised me and gave me congratulations.  Just after a few hours, I got a courier. My joy knew no bounds when I opened more...

Baishakhi is a harvest festival, which is celebrated on the thirteenth day of April according to the solar calendar. It is celebrated in North India, particularly in Punjab and Haryana, when the Rabi Crop is ready for harvesting. On this day men have 'Bhangra dance and wrestling etc. Women, too, break into revelry of dances, particularly the Giddha dance, executed with favour and rhythmic exactitude. Both men and women adorn themselves with colourful dresses. Children are seen more enthusiastic on these occasions.  Baishakhi has special significance for two of India's major religious groups. Hindus take it as the start of the new year. Hence, they celebrate it religiously by taking holy dip in the sacred river Ganga, They pray for peace and prosperity in the new year. In Assam, this festival in known as Bohag Bihu, and the Assamese celebrate it with full gaity. In Kerala this festival is called more...

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar was one of the greatest leaders of India. He was jurist, social worker, writer and educationist. He fought against untouchability and became the emancipator of the untouchables and crusader for social justice. It was he who drafted the Indian Constitution. He was born in Mahu which is now in Madhya Pradesh on April, 14, 1891. He was born in a family of Mahars, the largest untouchable caste at that time. As a child he had bitter experience of untouchability. That was the time when backwards and untouchables were insulted and ill- treated. Dr. Amebedkar proved to be an angel for these poor and down trodden people.  Ambedkar was brilliant student. He passed his B.A. in 1912. He got scholarship from the benevolent Maharaja of Baroda State. He was under an agreement to serve the state for ten years. He went to America for higher studies. He more...

I shall ever remember my twelth birthday. It was celebrated in a grand style. My birthday falls on the 13th of April every year. Baisakhi is also celebrated the same day. My birthday falls in the spring season and days are very pleasant then. This year a cool and fragrant breeze was blowing. All my friends and near relatives were invited for the occasion. A special sky-blue shirt and a black trouser were prepared for me. It was a day full of excitement, joy and expectations. The drawing room was tastefully decorated with flowers, balloons and colourful paper buntings. In the evening, the celebrations began when all the guests arrived. Then I went into the hall dressed in my special clothes. They were all waiting for me. They welcomed me by clapping hands and handshakes. The birthday cake had been placed on a large table with ten candles fixed on more...

The saw evolved from Neolithic tools. Archeologists have found metal-toothed Egyptian saws dating back to 2000 B.C.E., but China claims that the saw was invented by Lu Ban in the fifth century B.C.E. Early blades were of copper; the Romans then used iron and reinforced the blade at the top, holding it in a wooden frame. In the nineteenth century in Europe a rigid blade of steel with a pistol-grip handle was introduced to produce a more accurate cut. The cutting edge of a saw blade may be either serrated or abrasive. A handsaw with a stiff serrated blade can cut on both the push and pull strokes, but flexible blades allow cutting on the pull stroke only. Each tooth is bent to a precise angle, called the "set," which is determined by the saw's intended use Some teeth are usually splayed to each side, s-6.' that the blade does more...

"Bankers were at first reluctant to adopt a lock that barred friend as well as foe."        John Erroll and David Erroll, writers It is thought that the first time-lock safe was patented by Scotsman Williams Rutherford in 1831. His work was part of a race between banks wanting to keep their vaults secure and robbers trying to break into them. The Romans were the first to invent locks made out of metal, and these had special notches and grooves that made them more difficult to pick. In 1784 Joseph Bramah invented the first "unpickable" lock, although one locksmith did succeed, albeit after more than fifty-one hours—more time than robbers normally have at their disposal. However, during the 1800s the incidence of bank robberies was fast increasing. The solution to the problem was the time-lock, a clockwork device that prevented the bolt of a lock from being opened more...

An ink consists of a liquid base and a pigment, or dye. The pigment provides a colored residue that sticks to a surface when the liquid dries. The first inks were invented by the Chinese some 4,500 years ago, made from a mixture of soot, lamp oil, gelatin (from animal skins), and musk (to counteract the smell of the oil). The ink was used to blacken the raised surfaces of stone carvings to emphasize shapes and letters. Later, in China and elsewhere, more reliable inks were developed using powdered minerals, plant extracts, and berry juices as pigments. With the advent of writing, and of papyrus and then paper, new types and colors of ink were required for use with writing implements designed for detailed and permanent texts. Some 2,500 years ago, the Chinese developed a solid ink to be stored as a stick; such inks are still in use today. more...

"When the tide of misfortune moves over you, even jelly will break your teeth." Persian proverb Gels arejellylike colloidal substances that have a liquid body containing a network of interconnecting 2-5 nanometer nanoparticles surrounding 100-nanometer pores. If the liquid is carefully removed and replaced by a gas, you have an aerogel. These are light, low-density solid foams, sometimes called "frozen smoke." Steven S. Kistler (1900-1975), a chemical engineer at the College of the Pacific in California, was investigating the gels produced by the acidic condensation of aqueous sodium silicate. He noticed that gels shrank and cracked as they dried, due to the high surface tension of the water they contained. Kistler managed to stop the volume reduction by replacing the water with low-surface-tension alcohol. The end-product, aerogel, was simply the unshrunk, microporous, solid component of the original gel. In the late 1970s French rocket engineers considered aerogels—whose 99 percent air more...

The history of dentures stretches back fat" before 1791, when a dentist, Nicholas Dubois de Chemant (1753- 1824), obtained the patent for them. There are records from around 700 B.C.E. of Etruscans using dentures made from human and animal teeth. By the fifteenth century, ivory or bone dentures were in use in Europe, attached in the mouth by wire to surviving teeth. All these early forms of dentures would have been highly uncomfortable to wear, deteriorated rapidly, and contributed to the malodor of the mouth, In 1774 Alexis Duchateau (1714-1792), a French chemist who was dissatisfied with his own set of dentures, produced a new design that used porcelain teeth. He was helped in this endeavor by de Chemant. However, Duchateau was unable to promote his new dentures properly and his idea stalled. De Chemant continued the experimentation and by 1787 had perfected new dentures. He applied for the patent more...