Interesting 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. 

Antibiotic: 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.  

  

Historyof the 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. 

Watt is 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.   

Story of the 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.   

The Structure of Space According to the General Theory of Relativity.

According to the general theory of relativity, the geometrical properties of space are not independent;

 but they are determined by matter.  Thus we can draw conclusions about the geometrical structure of the universe only if we  base our considerations on the state of the matter as being something that is known. We know from experience that, for a suitably chosen co-ordinate system, the velocities of the stars small as compared with the velocity of transmission of light. We can thus as a rough approximation arrive at a conclusion as to the nature of the universe as a whole, if we treat the matter as being at rest.

The behaviour of measuring-rods and clocks is influenced by gravitational fields, i.e. by the distribution of matter. This in itself is sufficient to exclude the possibility of the exact validity of Euclidean geometry in our universe. But it is conceivable that our universe differs only slightly from a Euclidean one, and this notion seems all the more probable, since calculations shows that the metrics of surrounding space is influenced only to an exceedingly small extent by masses  even of the magnitude of our sun. 

Imagine that, as regards geometry, our universe  behaves analogously to a surface which is  irregularly curved in its individual parts, but which nowhere departs appreciably from a plane:  something like the rippled surface of a lake. Such a universe might fittingly be called a quasi- Euclidean universe. As regards its space it would be infinite. But calculation shows that in a quasi-Euclidean universe the average density of matter would necessarily be nil. Thus such a universe could not be inhabited by matter everywhere; it  would present to us that unsatisfactory picture.

If we are to have in the universe an average density of matter which differs from zero,  however small may be that difference, then the universe cannot be quasi-Euclidean. On the contrary, the results of calculation indicate that if  matter be distributed uniformly, the universe would necessarily be spherical ( or elliptical ).  Since in reality the detailed distribution of matter is not uniform, the real universe will deviate in  individual parts from the spherical, i.e. the  universe will be quasi-spherical. But it will be necessarily finite. In fact, the theory supplies us with a simple connection between the space-expanse of the universe and the average density of matter in it;

For the radius R of the universe, obtain the equation: 

                 R² = 2 / Kp

The use of the C.G.S. system in the equation  gives: 

                R² = 2 / K = 108.10³⁷   ;

“ p ” is the average density of the matter and “ k ”

 is a constant connected with the Newtonian constant of gravitation. 

 “ Time and space are not conditions of existence, time and space is a model of thinking. ”

                                   — Albert Einstein   

History of Germany: From West Germany to East Germany.

    The people who lived in what is now Germany and Eastern Europe were Indo-Europeans, originally from the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Sometime between 3000 BC and 2000 BC, they had migrated gradually out of that area and all across Europe. The region became associated with the name Germany in the 1st Century BC, when the Romans conquered Gaul.

             18th Century Germany Map 

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Franks moved into France, but soon conquered Germany as well, so that by 800 AD Charlemagne was able to establish a German Holy Roman Empire that extended over France, Germany and much of central Italy. At first, the Holy Roman Emperors were very powerful, but later they lost power to the smaller German and Italian lords in each region. In the Middle Ages, the dukes and princes  of the empire gained power. The northern states became Protestant in the early 16th Century, while the southern states remained Catholic.

          Clash between Protestants and Catholic 

Protestants and Catholic clashed in the Thirty Year's War (1618—1648). Finally, the war ended with the peace of Westphalia, which is considered  the beginning of the modern nation-state system. 

                         Otto Von Bismarck 

A German Empire was created in 1871 under the leadership of Prussian Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. Unification was followed by an industrial revolution. By 1900, Germany's economy was by far the largest in Europe, and second only to the US in the world. Germany was declared a republic on 9 November 1918. 

                     Nazis under Adolf Hitler

In 1933, the Nazis under Adolf Hitler gained power and imposed a totalitarian regime. They followed an expansionist foreign policy that led to World War II.

                            Berlín Wall

 After Nazi Germany's defeat, the country was divided into democratic West Germany and  Communist East Germany. It was reunified in 1990. Germany is a federal parliamentary republic of sixteen states. The capital and largest city is Berlin. In recent years, Germany has become increasingly integrated into the European Union. 

 

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

                                — Martin Luther King.