Who was George Stephenson?

Who was George Stephenson?

There is something very exciting about watching a train thundering past, isn’t there? Today, trains run mostly on electricity or diesel, but did you know that the very first trains ran on steam? The steam engine was invented by an engineer called George Stephenson. His life is an excellent example of how a poor boy can ultimately win eminence and fame by industry and perseverance.

Stephenson started his career as an engine-man at a coal mine. For the next ten years, his knowledge of steam engines increased, until in 1812 he stopped operating them for a living, and started building them. Stephenson designed his first locomotive in 1814. It was a traveling engine designed for hauling coal on a coal site. In 1825, he built a steam locomotive for the first passenger railway.

Stephenson gained fame as the designer of the historically important steam locomotive named Rocket. He is known as the ‘Father of Railways”. His invention really changed the way people traveled in the nineteenth century.

Who was the father of the computer?

Who was the father of the computer?

Charles Babbage is called the ‘father of the computer’. He was a professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. In 1823, he began work on calculating machine, but it was not completed. The second machine, which he called an ‘analytical engine’, too did not reach completion. Nonetheless, the analytical engine as Babbage conceived it is regarded as the predecessor of the modern digital computer.

When did Beethoven write the Ninth Symphony?

When did Beethoven write the Ninth Symphony?

Ludwig van Beethoven is one the greatest composers of all times. He wrote his ninth and last symphony in 1823, when he had turned almost completely deaf. Although he was depressed, it is not reflected in this symphony which is indeed glorious. It was planned as early as 1816 and written for the London Philharmonic Society.

Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. He went to Vienna in 1792, to study music, and soon became well-known as a pianist. His fame increased rapidly, while simultaneously, he was growing deaf. This made him dejected, but he refused to give up. ‘I will seize fate by the throat’ he vowed. He went on to produce a profusion of wonderful music that was innovative too. Beethoven’s influence is such, that he is so to music, what Shakespeare to literature.

Who invented the stethoscope?

Who invented the stethoscope?

A French doctor, Rene Laennec, is credited with the invention of the stethoscope, in 1816. It was a landmark in the area of medical treatment. The stethoscope, as we know it now, is an instrument used by doctors to listen to the sounds made by the heart, lungs and other organs in the patient’s body. But the one designed by Laennec was first made as a paper tube, and later as a wooden pipe, the modern stethoscope which can be plugged into the ears was developed later

Why was Sir Humphrey Davy so famous?

Why was Sir Humphrey Davy so famous?

Sir Humphrey Davy was the person who invented the Miner’s Safety Lamp in 1815. He was a British chemist who had a very brilliant and inventive brain that was also bubbling with new ideas. One of Sir Davy’s ideas was the use of laughing gas as an anaesthetic. However, this came to be used only after his death.

Why is the year 1804, so important in history of transportation?

Why is the year 1804, so important in history of transportation?

A revolution in the field of transportation took place in 1804, when steam railways were introduced for first time. Earlier, horses were used to pull carriages along iron railways that were laid out. Richard Trevithick, a Cornish mining engineer was the first to use a steam engine to haul the trucks.

On February 11, 1804, the engine pulled a 20 ton truck from Merthyr Tydfil to Abercyon in Wales, covering a distance of 15 kilometres. Some people expressed the fear that the wheels would slip on the iron rails, but the trial run turned out to be a success. Trevithick was convinced the railway could be used for passenger travel also. He set up a small railway in London in 1808. He used to give joy rides to people in an engine named Catch-me-who-can.

Shakespeare’s Mistake!

In Shakespeare’s time in England, no one bothered much about spelling. That’s because the idea of always spelling words in the same way was still very new. As a matter of fact even Shakespeare wasn’t consistent in using spelling. He signed his name in several different ways at different times. Shagspeare, Shakespeare and Shaxpere are just a few of the spellings he used!

Who wrote the ‘Essay on the principles of population’?

Who wrote the ‘Essay on the principles of population’?

Thomas Malthus was an English demographer and political economist. He is best known for his highly influential views on population. In ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’, first published in 1798, Malthus made the famous prediction that population would outrun food supply.

Malthus’s observation was that in nature, plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive. He argued that Man too is capable of overproducing it left unchecked. Malthus concluded that unless family size was regulated, there would be global famine and mankind would die away.

His theory was widely misunderstood, and raised a lot of controversy. Yet, it transformed him into an international celebrity, and his essay was eventually recognized as what it truly was… the first serious economic study of the welfare of the lower classes.


Believe it or not

Born to Rule

An ancient civilization that flourished in Mesopotamia, which lies in modern day Iraq, practiced a strange ritual to please their gods. During the New Year or during troubled times, the people of Mesopotamia sacrificed the life of their king to satisfy their deities. In real fact, the actual king was given the day off, and helpless commoner was sworn king for the day, jus t so he could be sacrificed! In 1861 B.C. Enlil-Bani was the king’s substitute. But incredibly, just as he was about to be hung, a breathless messenger arrived with the news that the real king had died! Enlil-Bani was saved, and subsequently, ruled Mesopotamia for 24 years!

Birds to the battlefront!

The cavalrymen of Media in the fifth century won many wars against the Greeks riding very unusual mounts into battle. They rode ostriches, not horses!

Saved by April fool’s Day!

In 1634, Nicolas Francois and his wife, Claude, the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine in France, were sentenced to death. They were imprisoned in their palace at Nancy. On April 1, they escaped from to freedom by climbing out of a palace window. Then they swam across the river Meurthe to safety. Witnesses who saw them shouted, to alert the guards, but the guards did nothing! They thought it was just an elaborate April fool’s joke!

Why is Edward Jenner so well known in the field of medicine?

Why is Edward Jenner so well known in the field of medicine?

Edward Jenner was the person who introduced the practice of vaccination which proved to be a boon in the field of medicine. Jenner was a doctor who lived in Berkeley, England. In those days deaths due to small pox were very common.

However, country people noticed that persons who worked with cattle and had contracted with cowpox, never seemed to catch small pox. Dr. Edward Jenner decided to find out if there was any truth in the belief. As the first stage in his experiment he injected liquid from cowpox sores into a young boy called James Phipps. This was in the 1796. The boy caught the disease, but was soon healed.

As the second stage, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox. But it had no effect on the boy’s health. The cowpox had made him immune.

Although, initially there was opposition to the practice of vaccination, it gained rapid popularity all over the world. Because of Jenner’s efforts, small pox has been eradicated from the world, today.

Why was Olympe de Gouges earned a name for her work in winning women’s rights?

Why was Olympe de Gouges earned a name for her work in winning women’s rights?

The desire to fight in equalities against women began by the end of the eighteenth century. Bold, pioneering woman like Olympe de Gouges played a vital part in this, by publishing “Declaration of the Rights of Woman”. It was published in 1789. She wrote this as a protest against the omission from the French Revolutionists’ Declaration of the Rights of Man. Around the same time, an English governess, Mary Wollstonecraft published “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”. These works have remained a milestone in the women’s rights movement.

In 19th century, American civil right leader Susan B. Anthony (1820 – 1906) played a crucial role in the women’s rights movement to secure women’s suffrage in the United States. She traveled through the length and breadth of the United States and Europe and gave 75 to 100 speeches per year on women’s rights for nearly 45 years.

In the course of Susan’s campaign for securing voting rights for women, she was arrested for casting a vote in the presidential election held on November 5, 1872. She pleaded not guilty, arguing that the Constitution entitled her to vote.

Susan Anthony recited a now famous speech before the court, in defense of women’s suffrage. The following is an excerpt from her court speech:
“Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: “We, the people of the united States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people women as well as men”.

Star Fact

Babur, the Mughal emperor is said to have been extremely strong and physically fit. Legend holds that Babur swam across every major river he encountered, including twice across the Ganges.

Why is the French Revolution so unique?

Why is the French Revolution so unique?

The late eighteenth century saw a new phenomenon of common people rising in opposition to the monarch and kings who ruled them. These important revolutions occurred in countries like England and France.

First, England’s main colonial possession in North America declared itself independent and emerged as a new nation. Next, the French people, weary of the absolute despotism, rebelled against Louis XVI, who had been in power since 1774. Both the middle class and the poor had long been unhappy with the privileges and power of the nobility. Their anger ignited the revolution when Louis declared the nobility exempt from taxes.

On July 14, 1789, an enormous throng of people stormed and captured the Bastille, the Royal Fortress in Paris. The people declared themselves to be citizens of France, and no longer subjects of the King of France. As the momentum of revolution grew, anarchy reigned in France especially in Paris. The King, the Queen and their family were imprisoned; and in 1793, they were beheaded one by one on the guillotine.