How television was invented
Television owes its origin to many inventors. But it was the single-minded
Determination of an amateur inventor John Logies Baird that led to the first live
television broadcast
Bom in Scotland in 1888 and educated in Glasgow, Baird earned his living
as a razor-blade salesman. In the 1890s, Marconi showed that sound could be
sent by radio waves. Baird became convinced that a similar system could transmit a
picture. He spent most of his spare time working on his ideas in his tiny
workshop without any commercial support. He had to use his earnings to continue his
research.
In 1924, Baird successfully transmitted the general outline of a figure for
more than 3 meters. He continued to experiment, and on October 25, 1925 he
transmitted a recognizable image of a doll. He ran downstairs and persuaded one of
the office boys to come upstairs. The picture of this boy became the first living
image transmitted by television. Baird became famous overnight and the money that
he needed to continue his research was at last made available. In 1927,he made a
transmission from London to Glasgow and in 1928 he made it from London to
New York. He continued experimenting and spent his last years exploring the
possibility of color television.
Gilletee, men’s best friend
Cave drawings show that the earliest razors were shark’s teeth and clam shells. Sharpened flint was used where it could be found. The Egyptians 6000 years ago made razors of solid gold. By the 18th century razors had developed into elaborat devices. Nevertheless one painful problem remained: men continued to cut themselves.
In 1762, a Frenchman named Jean-Jacques Perret found a way of protecting the shaver’s skin by attaching a safety guard to the steel blade. Perret even wrote a book about shaving called The Art of Learning to Shave. However, his invention remained relatively unknown. As a result, millions of male chins still suffered the consequence daily. One such chin belonged to King Capt Gillette, a traveling salesman from Wisconsin, the U.S. One of Gillette’s bosses was William Painter, the inventor of the disposable bottle-cap. Painter told Gillette that he would become rich if only he invented “something which will be used and thrown away”. Customers would have to come back and buy it again. The answer came to Gillette in front of his shaving mirror in 1895. He realized that only the straight edge of his old-fashioned razor was doing any work. Why not substitute a thin steel blade that could be held in a clamp and thrown away?
Finally things began to improve when he met William Nickerson. Together they formed the American Safety Razor Company. They took out a patent in Boston in 1901. In 1903 they sold just 51 razors and 168 blades. They persevered and by the end of 1904 they succeeded in selling 90,000 razors and 124,000,000 blades.
The can opener
It is difficult to imagine what life would be like today had the can opener not been invented. Without this simple little tool that we take for granted, how would we open cans? It is essential in providing us
access to infinite advantages of canned goods including their variety and convenience of usage.
Interestingly, metal cans to preserve food had been existence for full fifty years before a device similar to the can opener we are familiar with was invented. Developed in England in 1810, the first “tin canisters” were sometimes heavier than the food they contained. British soldiers in the War of 1812 opened canned rations with bayonets, knives, or even rifles. On an Arctic expedition in 1824, British explorer Sir William Parry took along a can of veal, the instruction to which read: “Cut round on the top with a chisel and hammer”.
Around the 1850s, Ezra J. Warner from Connecticut, devised a “can opener”. This opener was a combination of a bayonet and a sickle; if not used correctly, it could be lethal. Had the U.S. military not adopted this primitive can opener in the Civil War, the invention would soon have become extinct.
But, as the saying has it, necessity is the mother of invention. In 1870, William J. Lyman applied for a patent for a device that was revolutionary in its concept and design. In 1931, the electric can opener was introduced.
Now, that we are enjoying lightweight cans and easy-to-use can openers we should appreciate the efforts involved in the evolution of this important invention, which did not occur overnight.
NYLON
It was only in the middle of the 20е1 century that sufficient advances in chemistry became appreciate (1) to general public with the emerge (2) of synthetic materials on the market Nylon was the first synthetic fiber to be commerce (3).
Nylon was invented by an American chemistry (4), Julian Hill in the early 1930s. Other scientists prove (5) his invention and finally on 27 October 1938, it was introduced to the world. Nylon is cheap and duration (6) and immediately became a successful, special (7) in making ladies’ stockings, and later tights.
During the Second World War, and in many not so prosperity (8) countries a long time after it, a pair of nylon stockings looked like an attract (9) and welcome gift to women. But what is more importance (10), nylon is used to make parachutes and tyres and many other practice (11) things. Today, nylon is found in many things: fabrics, clothing, carpets, seat belts, computers, and even art (12) parts for the human body. It has been playing an important role in our
INVENTIONS IN SPORT
I. FRISBEE
Frisbee was created/invented (1) by students at the Yale University in the United States inl947. The first games were played with disks made from metal/metallic (2) tins used to bake cakes. They were provided/malntalned (3) by a local baker named Joseph Frisbie, who had a draft/contract (4) to provide carlng/catering (5) service to the university camp/campus (6).
In 1948, a company called/named (7) Wham-o was achleved/approached
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by a young American officer with a proposal to produce a same/similar (9) disc, but this time made of light plastic/plaster (10). Finally, after hearing about the origins/originality (11) of the game, the manufacturers decided/intended (12) to call their product Frisbee.
П. BASKETBALL
The origins of this sport lies in the American student's dislike/unlike (1) of rugby. The name of this peculiar/pardcular (2) student was James A. Naismith. After graduating/fmishing (3) from college he went on to become a physical education instructor/tutor (4) at a YMCA training school. He wanted to able to offer his class consisting/lncluding (5) eighteen male students some kind of physical acthity/action (6) which was not as violent as rugby.
In 1891 he asked the janitor to fix a couple/pair (7) of boxes to the balcony in the gym. The janitor happened to have no own/proper (8) boxes so he brought some fruit baskets/buckets (9) instead. The game, thus originating, quickly took off and spread to France, Canada and Australia. In 1904, it was induced/introduced (10) in the Olympics.