Science Projects And Inventions

"It is the same to him who wears a shoe, as if the whole Earth were coverad with leather." Persian Prpverb From their earliest use, simply as a protective covering for the feet, to the vast fashion industry producing them today, shoes have been essential items for humans. As with any invention from antiquity, it is uncertain when shoes were first worn, and archeological evidence has continued to complicate the issue. The oldest shoes in existence are from around 7000 B.C.E. and were discovered in America. The earliest shoes appear to have been constructed variously from rope, leaves, and animal skins. As these are all highly perishable materials, archeological examples are rare, but some argue that there is other evidence pointing to shoe use from up to 40,000 years ago. Archeologists examining ancient bones have noticed a reduction in the size and strength of toe bones during this period, which more...

"There are nearly as many types of rope as there are fibrous materials on Earth." Brendan McGuigan, writer One of the oldest artifacts in the world, rope is still extensively used in many environments. It seems unlikely that it will be replaced for many years. Traditionally made from natural fibers such as hemp, jute, or coir, rope is now also made from synthetic materials such as nylon and even steel. Rope is braided fiber, twisted to form a supple, strong medium. Its strength is tensile, so its main use is to link objects, one of which acts as a stable anchor for the others to hang from or pull against. The oldest evidence of man-made rope was found in the caves of Lascaux, southwest France, and date from 17,000 B.C.E. Rope has always been used to tie and carry prey, making it an essential hunting tool. Before machinery made it more...

"Wood was credited with 'opening up two new worlds; the worlds at each end of the spectrum'..." Professor Robin Williams, RMIT University, Australia Traditional photography relies upon the interaction of visible light with film or plates to produce an image. As visible light makes up only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, it follows that images could also be produced by infrared (IR) or ultraviolet (UV) light, which flank the visible in the spectrum. The first intentionally produced infrared images were taken by Professor Robert W. Wood. (1868-1955) and displayed in 1910. Wood used a filter over the camera lens to remove all but the infrared light and a film that was sensitive to IR. The technique was used initially for landscapes, because of its long exposure times. Chlorophyll reflects large guantities of infrared light, making foliage appear bright white, while clear blue sky appears almost black. IR photography more...

"The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure." William Blake, poet Clocks usually have two jobs. One is to display the right time; the other is to give a measurement of a time interval. Digital clocks are numeric. Hours, minutes, and seconds are represented by numbers and the display can be made small and linear. Although German inventor Josef Pallweber patented a digital watch as early as 1883, the development of the digital clock proper is closely associated with the history of digital displays. The earliest examples of these were the glowing end of valve tubes that could indicate numbers. These were much loved by the nuclear physics instrumentation industry in the 1950s. The modern digital clock relied significantly on the development of the light emitting diode (LED) and liquid crystal display (LCD). The first commercially usable LEDs were developed in the more...

When John Deere (1804-1886) developed and manufactured the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837, he greatly enhanced agricultural methods in regions encumbered by heavy soils. Since the earliest recorded usage of an effective plow in 5500 B.C.E. by the Sumerians and Babylonians, the moldboard and cast-iron plow were the most notable innovations in design, but neither could effectively counteract the problems of sticky soil. It was the threat of bankruptcy in his native Vermont that persuaded Deere to seek his fortune out west, journeying to Grand Detour, Illinois, where he opened a blacksmith's shop. He soon learned through the frequent repairs he had to undertake that the cast- iron plow that performed so well in the light, sandy New England soil was not suited to the heavy, sticky soils of the Midwest. Farmers complained that the-soil had to be continually removed from the bottom of the plow by hand, more...

The buckle originated in circa 700 B.C.E. Many examples survive from ancient Greece and Rome, and indeed from all over Europe into the Middle Ages. The word buckle corner from the Latin word bucca meaning "cheek." Due to its ease of use and manufacture, the buckle continues as a solution to the many fastening problems posed by clothing and equipment. Early buckles were manufactured from bone, ivory, and metal and were used on military gear, harnesses, and armor, being favored mainly because of their durability. The use of the buckle was not restricted to these areas though; they were commonly used as fasteners on boots and shoes and, prior to the invention of the zip, on clothing. The addition of decorative ornamentation lifted the buckle out of its utilitarian realm. Buckles made of silver and bronze and inlaid with precious stones have been found in graves and tombs such as more...

"Carbon paper was initially manufactured entirely by hand and on a craft basis." Bruce Arnold, writer In 1806 the potter and inventor Ralph Wedgwood (1766-1837) was issued a patent for what he called his "stylographic manifold writer," a device that assisted the blind to write by employing a metal stylus rather than simply drawing by hand with the dominant writing implement of the day, a quill pen. His writing machine was a board crisscrossed with metal wires that helped guide the hand of the blind as they wrote. Wedgwood then took a sheet of paper, saturated it in printer's ink, dried it, and placed it between a sheet of tissue paper and a second sheet within the stylographic's writing frame. Its metal stylus was then used to transfer the ink from the carbonized paper to the sheet below, eliminating any concern about keeping quill pens filled with ink. Carbon paper, more...

The stent, a mesh tube device designed to hold open blood vessels, has revolutionized management of coronary artery disease. The first successful stent was invented by Argentinian doctor Julio Palmaz (b. 1945). Palmaz had heard that blood vessels had a tendency to close up after balloon angioplasty, in which narrowed heart vessels are opened with a catheter. Pafma'z had the idea of puttihg a "scaffold" inside the vessels to prevent them from closing over. Palmaz began working on creating prototypes of an implantable stent, using simple materials such as copper wire and a soldering iron. He modeled the mesh with a structure of staggered openings he just happened to find lying on his garage floor. The design proved perfect—the structure was collapsible but remained rigid when inserted into the blood vessel. After testing his device on pigs and rabbits, Palmaz secured funding from the unlikely partnership of Phil Romano, a more...

"The fuse starts from the bottom ... (black powder), is compressed into it to form an explosive mine." Jiao Yu and Liu Ji, Fire Dragon Manual (c. 1368-1398) Land mines—explosive weapons triggered by pressure or proximity—have been in use for many hundreds of years, and as such their exact history is somewhat clouded. There is evidence to suggest, however, that the first self-contained land mines for military purposes were used in China in 1277 against Mongol invaders. Today their use has prompted great controversy, due to the high civilian casualties that can be caused many years after conflict has ended. The name "mine" is derived from their original use in Europe in the Middle Ages as "tunnel mines." During the siege of a castle or fort, tunnels would be dug under the walls and explosives detonated just beneath them in a bid to cause them to collapse. True anti-personnel land more...

Hydraulic means moved or operated by water or liquid and refers to a method of engineering that has-been used since records began. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians used water as a method of transport and the Romans relied heavily on-it to move weighty objects. The arrival of the hydraulic jack in 1851, therefore, was not especially novel, but it was extremely useful. Essentially, a jack is a device that is capable of lifting heavy objects with relative ease. Hydraulic jacks make use of Pascal's Law that, in simple terms, says that if there is an increase in pressure at any point in a container of liquid, there is an equal increase in pressure at every other point within the. container. Richard Dudgeon, Inc., was founded as a machine shop in New. York in the mid-1800s, and its owner, founder, and namesake Richard Dudgeon was given a patent in 1851 for more...