Google
 

Friday, September 19, 2008

Who invented the first motor car?


Who invented the first motor car?

The history of the automobile is very rich. It dates back to the 15th century when Leonardo da Vinci was creating designs and models for transport vehicles.

There are many different types of automobiles – steam, electric and gasoline – as well as countless styles. It is a matter of opinion as to exactly who invented the automobile.

If we had to give credit to one inventor, it would probably be Karl Benz from Germany. The automobile he invented was the forerunner of the ones of today.

By 1860, the gasoline engine had been invented in Europe. In 1885, Karl Benz had introduced the first gasoline powered automobile. His car ran on 3 wheels and looked like a big tricycle with no pedals. It could carry two people. It had a single cylinder engine, and could run at 6.5 km per hour!

Benz built his first four-wheeled car in 1891. Benz & Company, the company started by the inventor, became the world’s largest manufacturers of automobiles by 1900. In 1903, Karl Benz retired from Benz & Company. His designs were already outdated by another inventor, Gottlieb Daimler. He served as a member of the supervisory board of Daimler-Benz AG from 1926, when the company was formed, until his death.

When was the Panama Canal Company founded?


When was the Panama Canal Company founded?

The Panama Canal is a major shipping canal that cuts across the Isthmus of Panama in Central America. It connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Although the concept of a canal near Panama dates back to the early 16th century, the first attempt to construct a canal began in 1880 under French leadership. The Panama Canal Company was founded in 1879, but this attempt failed.

Later, in 1914, the Panama Canal became a reality. Construction of the canal was one of the largest and most difficult Engineering projects ever undertaken. The building of the 77 km canal was plagued by problems, including diseases like malaria and yellow fever as well as land slides. As many 27, 500 workers are estimated to have died during the construction of the canal.

Since its opening, the canal has been enormously successful, and continues to be vital for international shipping. Each year, more than 14,000 ships pass through the canal.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

When did Edison invent the phonograph?



When did Edison invent the phonograph?

Don’t you love to listen to your favorite songs on a CD? But if you ask your grandmother she will tell you that when she was a little girl, there were no CDs or audio cassettes. When she wanted to enjoy some music, she would listen to a record on their gramophone. In fact, the phonograph or gramophone was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the 1870s and 1980s.

Thomas Alva Edison, a well known inventor announced the invention of the first phonograph, a device for recording and replaying sound, on November 21, 1878. The phonograph was developed as a result of Thomas Edison’s work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. Edison’s early phonographs used a revolving cylinder wrapped in tinfoil sheet, which had to be turned by hand.

Sound waves recorded as grooves in the cylinder using an up-and-down motion of the stylus, a type of needle. Mechanical vibrations were created when the operator spoke into a recording tube. These vibrations were transferred as impressions on the tinfoil. When another needle moved along the impressions or grooves, the vibrations that were caused reproduced the voice in the hearing tube.

What was the Battle of Bighorn?



What was the Battle of Bighorn?

You must have studied that when Christopher Columbus discovered America, the land was the home of the Native American Indians, also known as Red Indians. After the Europeans and the British settled in America, the Indians were forced to leave their traditional hunting grounds. They wee confined to reservations.

With the discovery of gold in the West, thousands of new settlers moved in, and they encroached the lands sacred to the Red Indians. The Indians, in turn left their reservations and warfare erupted between the settlers and Indians.

The Indians under the leadership of Chief Sitting Bull, gathered on the banks of the Bighorn River in 1876, determined to fight for the return of the lands. To force the Indians back to the reservations, the American Army dispatched three columns to attack in coordinated fashion, one of which was led by Lt. Colonel George Custer. Custer attacked in haste, but he and his Army were wiped out in 45 minutes! This Battle of Bighorn, fought on June 25 represented the biggest Indian victory. However, the government troops attacked in large numbers, forcing the Indians to surrender.

What was the first telephone message?



What was the first telephone message?

Can you imagine what life would be like without a telephone? Well, till the middle of the nineteenth century, there were no telephones at all! The telephone was invented only in 1876. Although two men, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Grey both worked independently on this invention, it is Graham Bell who considered to be the inventor of the telephone.

Alexander graham Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He moved to Ontario, and then to the United States. He settled in Boston, and began his career as an inventor.

The first telephone call was made on March 6th 1876. Bell phoned his assistant who was in another room and said, ‘come here Watson. I want you’. Watson heard the request through a receiver connected to the transmitter designed by Bell, and the beginning of a new era in communication was ushered in. the first telephone system was installed in 1877, in Hartford, Connecticut. Graham Bell later founded the Bell Telephone Company, which grew to be the largest in the world.

Since his death in 1922, the telecommunication industry has undergone an amazing revolution. Today, non-hearing people are able to use a special display telephone to communicate. Fiber optics are improving the quality and speed of data transmission, and Bell’s telephone paved the way for the Information Superhighway.

Monday, September 15, 2008

What was the role of Otto Bismarck in the unification of Germany?



What was the role of Otto Bismarck in the unification of Germany?

During the time of the Roman Empire, Germany consisted of many different tribes that formed almost 300 states. These states later formed a part of Napoleon’s empire too. By the time Napoleon was defeated, there were 39 states. The most powerful of these were Austria and Prussia.

There were many efforts to unify Germany after Napoleon, and the man who was finally responsible for doing so was Otto Bismarck. After serving as Prussia’s Ambassador to Russia and France, he became ‘Prime Minister of Prussia’ in 1862. From 1867 on, he was Chancellor of the North German Confederation. When the Franco Prussian was broke out in 1870, Bismarck’s shrewd planning resulted in a decisive victory for Prussia, His efforts to unify Germany became a reality on January 18, 1871. The German Empire was proclaimed on that day with Bismarck as its Chancellor.

Bismarck was undoubtedly one of the significant political figures of modern Germany. Such was his reputation for determination and toughness that he was called the ‘Iron Chancellor’. His legacy to the next generation was 20 years of peace in Europe, and a united Germany.

What was the reason for the building of the Transcontinental Rail Road?



What was the reason for the building of the Transcontinental Rail Road?

A transcontinental railroad, linking America from coast to coast had been dreamt of as early as 1836. But it was the American Civil was that underlined the need for such a transcontinental rail road. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act that would turn this dream into reality.

The building of the railway required enormous feats of labour in the crossing of plains and high mountains. The Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad, the two privately chartered federally backed enterprises, built the line westward and eastward respectively.

The greatest historical event in transportation on the continent occurred at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, as the Union Pacific tracks joined those of the Central Pacific Railroad. A golden spike was driven to mark the joining of the tracks.

The Transcontinental Rail Road created a nation-wide mechanized transportation. It played an important role in the development of the American West, and ushered in an age of modern transportation. America was now joined from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean with bands of steel!