The Story of Rabies Vaccine

Rabies Vaccine, as the name suggests, is a vaccination used to prevent and control rabies disease in humans and animals. Rabies occurs everywhere and kills at least 55,000 people per year. The Rabies Virus was not seen through a microscope until 1950s.

                        Rabies Vaccine.

🌕 Rabies-The Disease:

                                        ⚽ Rabies is an infectious disease caused by rabies virus. The rabies virus is a RNA virus which affects the brain and spinal cord, in short the central nervous system, of humans as well as of animals. The virus travels from nerve cells to the  brain, it multiplies in number and causes destruction of brain cells which causes death. The infection might become deadly if not treated well before the symptoms appear.

🌕 Structure of the Rabies Virus:

                                       ⚽ The Rabies Virus generally attack animals like: dogs, bats, skunks, foxes, monkey, raccoons, etc. It is through these animals that the diseases gets spread in human beings. 

               Rabies Virus in Human Cells.

           Structure of Rabies Virus.

                                       ⚽ As it is a communicable disease, the rabies virus spread through animal's saliva or brain tissues. Mostly, it gets transmitted to human beings through dog bite. Rabies virus attacks the nervous system and the person starts having: fever and fatigue hallucinations, agitation, seizures, then finally coma and death. In animals, the symptoms usually are irritation, agitation and aggressive behaviour.

 Symptoms of Rabies Virus affection in human beings.

🌕 Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux:

                                       ⚽ Prior to the discovery of the rabies vaccine, every rabid-case would result in death. In 1888, two French Scientists, Louis Pasteur  and Emile Roux  developed the first rabies vaccine. 

Right side - Louis Pasteur ; Left side - Émile Roux.

                                       ⚽ Pasteur, unlike his many colleagues, did not follow the theory that  “ disease come from nowhere ”. His main focus of work was to determine the causes behind various diseases. 

🌕 The Cure of Rabies:

                                        ⚽ The rabies vaccine was made up of a sample of virus cultivated from infected and death rabbit. The sample was weakened by allowing it to dry for a few days.

          Pasteur did the experiment in dogs.

                                       ⚽ Pasteur observed that while transmitting rabies virus from one rabbit to another, the healthy rabbit did not become as sick as the first one. This meant that the rabies virus was weakening and injecting the healthy rabbit with the weak virus which which gave immunity to the healthy rabbit. 

       Louis Pasteur used two rabbits for his Rabies vaccine Reasearch.

                   

                                      ⚽ The rabies vaccine was first used on a  nine-year-old Joseph Meister on July 6, 1885, who had been bitten by a rabid dog. He was the first human being to be vaccinated by rabies vaccine...  

                        Joseph Meister.   

" I Only Wish I'd Invented The Rabies Vaccine Before My Dog, Old Yeller, Got Sick."

                                       — Louis Pasteur.  

Intersting Story of Airplane

An Airplane is the fastest means of transportation commercially today.

Prior to airplanes, air travel was limited to gliders, hot air balloons, etc. But these were not successful commercially.

Since the advent of the air travel, many attempts have been made for manufacturing an effecient and affordable means of air transportation. With the invention of a power propelled aircraft, the commercial scope of air travel has been met efficiently.

✈️ The Wright Brothers:

                                           💡 In the year, 1903, Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur demonstrated the first ever airplane with a propeller. It was the first aircraft carrying a man, Propelled by a machine which flew by its own power at an even speed and descended down without any damage. In the commercial sense, it was the basic design of an aircraft which would change the course of high speed transportation in the modern world.

             Wright Brothers ( Orville And Wilbur ).

                                           💡 The Wright Brothers started with building and testing gliders. In the year 1900, they tested their new biplane glider weighing 50 pounds. Next year, they flew the largest glider ever but this one also faced problems.

    Patent awarded to Wright Brothers's Airplane. 

                                           💡  They conducted some tests and based on them, Wright Brothers thought of building powered aircraft.

                                           💡 Their first airplane was named “ Flyer ” which had a 12 horsepower engine.

               Wright Brothers's Airplane.( Orville piloted the first airplane ).

                                            💡 After this airplane invention of Wright Brothers, inventors started improving on these models.

✈️ Working of an Airplane:

                                               💡 An Airplane flies on the basis of four things - thrust, drag, weight and lift. A propeller helps the plane to move forward with a high speed. This is called thrust. But the air in the atmosphere opposes the speed of the plane. This is called drag. Thus in order to move forward, thrust must be greater than drag. 

   

          Simple Mechanism of an Airplane.

                                               💡 Now, to move upwards in the sky, the plane needs to have a lift which can overcome the barrier of the plane's  weight. For this purpose, wings are used.

          Way of an Airplane Flying with Wings. 

                                               💡 Airplane wings are curved from top and linear from below. Thus, air moves faster on top of wing and slower below. This lifts the plane up in the air. The wings help in changing the direction of the plane by rolling on either side.  By lifting up the nose, the pitch of the plane can be raised. The pitch of the plane means to climb up or descend down.

          Lifting Mechanism Of an Airplane.

     

                                               💡 An Airplane's “ blackbox ” is a device which records Conditions and events on an air vessels. A “ blackbox ” is actually orange in color to make it more visible in the wreckage. The term black box might come from its charred appearance after an airplane crash.

            Mechanism of Blackbox in an Aircraft.

                                           

                                               💡 The outer skin of an airplane is only 5 mm thick. During takeoff, when full of high pressure air, the take-off weight is increased by about a ton...  

“ When Everything Seems To Be Going Against You, Remember That The Airplane Takes Off Against The Wind, Not With It. ”

                                        — Henry Ford.   

        

Story of Fountain Pen

The first practical fountain pen was patented by Lewis E. Waterman in year, 1884.

                    Lewis E. Waterman 

The first American patent for a pen was received by a shoemaker Peregrin Williamson in 1809. Following this, in 1819, John Scheffer received a British patent for his pen which was half quill and half metal pen.

                               A Quill Pen.

However, the first self - filling fountain pen was patented by John Jacob Parker in the year, 1831. But all these fountain pens had a huge drawback — that of ink spills. This made the mass sale of these fountain pens very low.

             Parts in Fountain Pen Nib.

♦ Fountain Pen:

                              ♣ The Fountain Pen made by a Frenchman, M.Bion in the year, 1702 is the oldest pen to survive.

            

                               ♣ The early attempts at making a pen were inspired by the working of a feather quill.

      Caplliary action in Fountain Pen.

                                ♣ The first quills were made up of bird's feathers. A feather has a hollow channel through which the ink gets sucked up and get stored in it. But it is a natural object and a man-made pen on similar lines was incapable of holding the ink for long . A long, thin rubber reservoir attached to a metal nib and filled with ink was not a good option.

                   M.Bion Pen's Nib.

                                 ♣ Also, Lewis Waterman , who was an insurance salesman, had to cancel an important sales contact with leaky pens to start work on improving his fountain pen 🖋️

      Patent awarded to Waterman (1884).

♦ Mechanism of a Fountain Pen:

                                 ♣ A fountain pen has three parts: a nib, a feed ( black part under the nib ) and a barrel. The nib comes in contact with paper. The feed regulates the ink flow from the reservoir to the nib. The round barrel, holding the nib and feed on the writing end encases the ink reservoir. Lewis Waterman thought of adding an air hole in the nib and three grooves inside the feed.

                    Parts Of Fountain Pen.

                                  ♣ Fountain pens have an internal reservoir of ink. Different pens had different concepts of filling the reservoirs. Earlier pens used droppers to fill ink. By 1915, most pens were equipped by self-filling ink reservoir made of rubber. The reservoir were squeezed flat and then the nib was inserted in the ink bottle. The pressure on the reservoir was released and the nib would then suck up the ink to fill the empty reservoir.

       Nib and Feed of the Fountain Pen.

♦ The Coin Filler:

                                 Developed by Lewis Waterman in an attempt to complete with the winning lever filler patent belonging to Sheaffer, it is a slot in the barrel of the pen enabled a coin to deflate the internal pressure plate, a similar idea to the matchstick filler...

   The Coin Filler by Waterman's Fountain                    Pen.

“ There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write 🖋️ ” 

             — William Makepeace Thackeray. 

Penicillin

Penicillin is the world's one of the first antibiotic to be discovered. It is derived from a mold called penicillium. Discovery of penicillin pioneered a historic start in the field of antibiotics.

                               Penicillin

Before the discovery of penicillin, there were no cures for diseases like pneumonia, gonorrhea, rheumatic fever, etc. Antibiotics are compounds produced by bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic species to counterattack other species.

                               Bacteria 

♦ Alexander Fleming: ( 1881 - 1955 )

                                        ♥ Alexander Fleming was a Professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary's Hospital in London. He discovered Penicillin in 1928. As a professor of bacteriology, Fleming studied different types of bacteria. 

                       Alexander Fleming 

                                        ♥ Once, he was studying some bacteria which cause sore throats, boils, etc. He found that in one dish there is a blob of mold. Studying it futher, he found out that mold secreted some kind of substance which killed the bacteria surrounding it. Thus, he observed that mold had some kind of substance which reduces the growth of infection causing bacteria.

              Penicillin Blob of Mold in Dish 

                                         ♥  Later, penicillium research shifted to Oxford University. In 1940, Howard Florey, a scientist at Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, observed that Penicillin can protect mice from death - causing bacteria infection.

                              Howard Florey 

♦ Production Of Penicillin:

                                                 💡 A process of producing large quantity of penicillium mold was found out. Air was pumped into deep vats of corn steep liquor ( a byproduct of milling process ). To this , other key ingredients were mixed which resulted in faster growth of penicillin in large amount.

                                                💡 However, it was a small amount of penicillin found in a moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria market which was used for mass production of the antibiotic.

               Penicillin Chemical Structure 

♦ Side effects of penicillin:

                                                  ♠ Diarrhoea that is watery or bloody.

                                                  ♠ Fever, chills, body aches, flu symptoms.

                                                  ♠ Easy bruising or bleeding, unusual weakness.

                                                  ♠ Urinating less than usual or not at all.

                                                  ♠ Severe skin rashes, itching, or peeling.

                                                  ♠ Agitation, confusion, unusual thoughts or behaviour.

                                                   ♠ Seizure ( black-outs or convulsions ).      

♦ Do You Known:

                                 The development of Penicillin has been regarded as an International Historical Chemical Landmark by The American Chemical Society and The Royal Society Of Chemistry, on November 19, 1999...  

   

“  I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident. ”

                                           —Alexander Fleming.  

  

Electric Bulb

Thomas Alva Edison is known as the inventor of the electric bulb. But prior to him, many other scientists had been working on manufacturing a reliable source of electric lighting.

                      Edison's Electric Bulb 

♥ In 1800, Humphry Davy, an English scientist, made the first electric light. He made an electric battery and to that battery, he attached a piece of carbon with a wire.

            Davy's Glass bulb with carbon filament 

 When the connection was made, the piece of carbon glowed and produced light. It was called an “ Electric Arc ”.

                                Electric Arc 

♥ In 1860, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, an English physicist, made an electric lamp with a carbon paper filament. It was demonstrated in Newcastle, England. It was not a practical lamp as the filament burnt out very quickly. 

                        Swan's Electric Bulb 

♦ Thomas Alva Edison:

                                          Edison, an American inventor, experimented with hundreds of filaments before turning back to the carbon filament . In 1879, 

He discovered that a carbon filament burns for a long time vacuum. But it did not last longer than 40 hours. Eventually, he made a carbon filament bulb that could light for over 1500 hours.

♦ Working of a Bulb:

                                      ♠ A bulb is a glass sphere with a coiled filament attached to the base with connecting wires. This filament has a high resistance to electric current. When the current reaches the filament, due to resistance, heat is produced. This heat becomes so much that the filament starts to glow because of it, thus, giving off light.

                 Working Of Electric Glass Bulb 💡

                                       ♠ The most difficult task before Edison was to find a filament which would:

Have resistance and glow brightly; Be cheap so that bulbs could be mass produced; Last for a long period of time.

                                       ♠ The shape of a glass bulb was designed by Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward...  

     Right side - Matthew Evans ; Left side - Henry                             Woodward.  

 “ I Have Not Failed.I've Just Found 10,000 Ways That Won't Work. ”  

                               — Thomas Alva Edison. 

Steam Engine

A steam engine is an engine which performs mechanical work using steam as its driving force. Though very scarcely put to use today, steam engines were a revolutionary invention and it is considered as one of the greatest achievements of the modern world. 

♦ James Watt:

                           ♠ James Watt is credited as the inventor of Steam Engine, Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen were two inventors who designed the crude and very basic steam engine.

                           ♠ Thomas Savery, an English military engineer, was the first to patent the basic crude steam engine in 1698, based on the designs of Denis Papin's pressure cooker. 

           Thomas Newcomen's Steam Engine 

Thomas Newcomen later improved upon Savery's design. But it was Scotsman James Watt's improved design which helped in ushering a new era of Industrial Revolution.

Right side - Thomas Newcomen ; Left side -  Thomas Savery 

• James Watt coined the term, “ horsepower ” as a way to help explain how much work his steam engines could do for a potential buyer. One horsepower is equal to 746 Watts. 

• In 1765, James Watt, a professor in the University of Glasgow, was asked to work on improving the workability of Newcomen's designed steam engine. He attached a separate condenser connected to a cylinder by a value. This design became very popular as it was workable and thus, James Watt is regarded as the inventor of a commercially useful steam engine.

           Scotsman James Watt ( 1736 - 1819 )

♦ Working of a Steam Engine:

                                                    • A steam engine is equipped with a heating furnace and a water boiler. Coal is used to burn the furnace and give huge amount of heat. This heat turns the water in the boiler into steam. This steam after reaching high pressure is passed through pistons and turbines. When these pistons and turbines expand, they move, and along with it moves the shaft, which at one end is attached to the wheels. This way, the heat energy is converted into mechanical energy.

                                                   • Basically, a steam engine is able to harness the energy of steam to move machinery. It is a fairly clean source of energy. Steam engines were used to a great effect to run locomotives and steamships...

 “ Science Owes More To The Steam Engine Than The Steam Engine Owes To Science. ” 

                                      — Lawrence Henderson.   

Electric Motor

An Electric Motor is a device which turns or coverts electrical energy into mechanical energy.  

• Electric motors are found in many appliances,  ranging from small devices like electric wrist watch, pump, geyser, blower, mixer-juicer, to bigger appliances like fans, air conditioners,  coolers, industrial mills, etc.

• Electric motors of high efficiency were started being made from 1821. however, the first commercially successful motor are made in 1873. The working of an electric motor is based  on Faraday's law of induction.

♦ AC Motor By Nikola Tesla:

                                            ♠ Nikola Tesla made the first Alternating Current or AC Motor in the year, 1888. AC or Alternate Current Motor was an admirable step towards highly efficient and less heat generating motor advancement. Prior to that, in the year 1886, Frank Julián Sprague had made a DC or Direct Current Motor. The AC motors had an advantage over DC motors as the former provided high efficiency and could run most of the appliances without conversion.

                                            ♠ Today, only Alternating Current or AC motors are mostly used  because AC is the general form in which  electricity  is carried to homes, offices, businesses, industries, etc.

♦ Working of an Electric Motor:

                                                       ♣ A simple motor consists of six parts — Rotor, Commutator,  Brushes, Axle, Field Magnet and Power Supply.

                                                       ♣ The field  magnet is a permanent magnet. The wire coil is wrapped  around an armature. The wire coil attached to a source of current. When the electric current flows through the wire coil, a magnetic field develops  around the armature. Thus, the armature behaves  like an electromagnet. Now the field magnet  attracts and repels the magnetised armature. This  makes the armature move a full rotation. This  armature is attached with a shaft at one end with  the help of an axle. When the axle moves because  of repeated rotation of the armature, mechanical  energy is produced. Thus, the electrical energy is  converted into mechanical energy...  

   

      “  Everybody Recognizes That If You Can Make Very Efficient Electric Motors, You Can Make A Quantum Leap Forward. ”

                                         — James Dyson.