World's First Airplane

A brief history of flight:

• Around 400 B.C. the first kites were created.
• In the 1480's Leonardo da Vinci created many drawing illustrating various aircraft, some of which have been proven to work and his helicopters are based on his Ornithopter flying machine.
• In 1783 Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier make the first hot air ballon flight.
• In the early to mid 1800's George Cayley designed numerous glider, some of which were flown successfully.
• In 1891 Otto Lilienthal designed a glider capable of carrying humans and had over 2,500 successful flights before losing his life in a crash.

The above is a very brief history as a lead up to the world's first airplane flight with many significant events excluded.

On December 14 1903 the Wright brothers were ready to fly the world's first powered airplane, but who would fly it? They flipped a coin and Wilbur won.
Wilbur Wright launched the Wright flyer for its first flight but unfortunately the left wing caught the ground and crashed.
Three days later, on the December 17 1903, it was Orville's turn and 12 seconds and 120 feet later the world's first airplane flight had taken place.

They flew 3 more flights that day with Wilbur making the longest at 852 feet.

The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method became standard and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem". This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines. Using a small homebuilt wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than any before. Their first U.S. patent, 821,393, did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine's surfaces.

They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.[11] From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive glider tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, building their first aircraft engine in close collaboration with the brothers.

The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists over the many competing claims of early aviators.

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Posted in: Air,Airplane,Flight,Technology

World's First Cloned Mammal

Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh inScotland. She was born on 5 July 1996 and she lived until the age of six.] She has been called "the world's most famous sheep" by sources including BBC News and Scientific American. The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone therefore proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual. On Dolly's name, Wilmut stated "Dolly is 

derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's".

Birth:

Dolly was born 5 July 1996 to three mothers (one provided the egg, another the DNA and a third carried the cloned embryo to term). She was created using the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the cell nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into an unfertilised oocyte (developing egg cell) that has had its nucleus removed. The hybrid cell is then stimulated to divide by an electric shock, and when it develops into a blastocyst it is implanted in a surrogate mother. Dolly was the first clone produced from a cell taken from an adult mammal. The production of Dolly showed that genes in the nucleus of such a mature differentiated somatic cell are still capable of reverting back to an embryonic totipotent state, creating a cell that can then go on to develop into any part of an animal. Dolly's existence was announced to the public on 22 February 1997.

Life:

Dolly lived for her entire life at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. There she was bred with a Welsh Mountain ram and produced six lambs in total. Her first lamb, named Bonnie, was born in April 1998. The next year Dolly produced twin lambs Sally and Rosie, and she gave birth to triplets Lucy, Darcy and Cotton in the year after that. In the autumn of 2001, at the age of five, Dolly developed arthritis and began to walk stiffly, but this was successfully treated with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Death:

On 14 February 2003, Dolly was euthanised because she had a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis. A Finn Dorset such as Dolly has a life expectancy of around 11 to 12 years, but Dolly lived to be only six years of age. A post-mortem examination showed she had a form of lung cancer called Jaagsiekte, which is a fairly common disease of sheep and is caused by the retrovirus JSRV.] Roslin scientists stated that they did not think there was a connection with Dolly being a clone, and that other sheep in the same flock had died of the same disease.] Such lung diseases are a particular danger for sheep kept indoors, and Dolly had to sleep inside for security reasons.

Some have speculated that a contributing factor to Dolly's death was that she could have been born with a genetic age of six years, the same age as the sheep from which she was cloned. One basis for this idea was the finding that Dolly's telomeres were short, which typically is a result of the ageing process. The Roslin Institute have stated that intensive health screening did not reveal any abnormalities in Dolly that could have come from advanced ageing.

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Posted in: Clone,Medical,Science,Technology

World's First Printed Book

Diamond Sutra

Ever wondered when was the world's first book printed ?
There are a number of contenders for the honor of bearing the title of "first printed book in the world." The answer to this question is actually quite tricky, because it depends on what one means by "printing," and historical evidence strongly suggests that the identity of the first book in print will probably never be known, because it's unlikely that it survived to the present day. There is also a great deal of cultural bias in the answer to this question, as authorities commonly cite Western texts such as the Gutenberg Bible, when in fact the title most likely belongs to a book in Asia. The question of which book in Asia is still up for grabs.

When determining the identity of the first printed book, it's important to define "printing." The simple transfer of words or symbols to paper, clay, fabric, and other materials is thousands of years old, and could be termed a form of printing. Many people define printing, however, as a mass production process using plates, blocks, movable type, or other media, which can be used to transfer ink to a surface over and over again, mechanizing the process. It is also important to note that early printed books were not entirely printed, with most being illuminated and rubricated by hand after the printing process was finished.


If woodblock printing, which requires laboriously hand carving a wood block for every page of the book, is considered a contender, then the Diamond Sutra is the oldest surviving example of a printed book. A copy in the British Library dates to 868 CE. There's a catch, however: other block printed books are probably older, but are undated, making the Diamond Sutra the first printed book with a verifiable date, not the oldest printed book and most certainly not the first.

Some people prefer to use movable type as the distinction when dating the first printed book, arguing that the development of movable type was a huge leap forward in printing technology that revolutionized the ability to mass produce books. With movable type, each letter or character is separate, allowing the printer to set the type in lines or pages, print the material, and then break the type down and reuse it. With a set of movable type, the need to hand carve wooden blocks is eliminated, and it's possible to print much more quickly.

Evidence suggests that ceramic movable type was invented in China by Bi Sheng around 1050 CE. Unfortunately, no surviving printed books from this period have been found. It's fairly clear that if the Chinese invented movable type, however, they were probably using it to print. This means that the oldest printed book is likely a Buddhist religious text from the 11th century, even if researchers don't know which one. Sheng's type did not hold up well, according to contemporaries, and the concept was abandoned, with the Chinese returning to wood block printing.

In Korea, someone took note of the Chinese explorations into movable type, and developed metalloid type at around the same time. Researchers believe that the Koreans were printing books with movable type as early as the 1200s, with the first surviving printed book with metalloid type being the Jikji, which was printed in 1377. That's over 70 years before the Gutenberg Bible, which was printed in 1454.

While the true identity of the first printed book will probably never be known — unless researchers find a well-preserved copy of a text with a conveniently detailed discussion of the date and printing techniques attached — it is interesting to explore the history of printing and the impact which printing had on the world. It is also interesting to observe the history of crediting things invented in the East to developers in the West; in the case of printing, it is entirely possible that Gutenberg came up with the idea of movable type independently, which means that the Chinese and Gutenberg both deserve credit for inventing it. It is also possible that Gutenberg heard about Chinese and Korean experiments with movable type and decided to try it out for himself.

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Posted in: Book,Education

World's First Email

Email logo

World’s first email message was send during the summer and autumn of  1971 between two computers. Mr. Tomlinson was the person, who created a computer program named SNDMSG, which sent a simple email message to a nearby computer through ARPANET. He was also the first person to put “@” in the email. He did that because this sign wasn’t used that much anywhere else. The first email address was “tomlinson@bbn-tenexa.” BBN was the name of Mr. Tomlinson’s employer and “tenexa” was the name of the operating system that was used. What exactly was the first email message is lost.

The picture below actually shows how exactly the first computers used for email message purposes looked like...

For complete detail of when and how the World's First email was sent please click here where Ray Tomlinson explains it himself.

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Posted in: Email,Internet,Technology

World's First Bluetooth Device

Bluetooth logo

Many people think Sir Nicolas invented Bluetooth in the late 1990's.  (Well, this is what most of the people think, but I am not sure about it !!)

Bluetooth is a short distance data transfer protocol which utilises a short-range radio link to exchange information, enabling effortless wireless connectivity between mobile phones, mobile PCs, handheld computers and other peripherals. It aims to replace the IrDA spec of InfraRed in mobile and computing devices.

Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which has more than 14,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics

Bluetooth was developed by Ericsson, a large Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer. The specification was developed in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson, who were working for Ericsson at the time.

Formalization of Standard
The standard was formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group in May, 1998. The group was established by Ericsson, IBM, Toshiba, Nokia and Intel. There are more than 11,000 member companies of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Origin of Name
The word "Bluetooth" comes from the anglicized name of Harald I of Denmark and Norway. "Bluetooth" is derived from the Old Norse name "Blátönn" and the Danish name "Blåtand."

Origin of Logo
The logo is the combined German Runes of Harglass (which is the Latin equivalent of "H") and Berkanan (which is analogous to the Latin "B"). These letters represent the origin of the name Harald Bluetooth.

Version 1.X
Buletooth 1.0 was established in the early days of the product's standardization. As a result, many manufacturers' equipment did not work with other products. Bluetooth 1.1 and 1.2 fixed some of these interoperability problems.

Version 2.X
Bluetooth Version 2.0 was released in November 2004. Version 2.0 increased the speed of the Bluetooth protocol. It was backwards compatible with Bluetooth 1.1. In July 2007, Bluetooth 2.1 was released.

Version 3.0
Bluetooth Version 3.0 will increase data speed and reduce power consumption. As of April 2009, it has not yet been released.









Reference:   who-invented-bluetooth-technology | eHow

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Posted in: Bluetooth,Technology