Archive for the ‘History’ Category

On this day in 1835, Henry Burden patented the horseshoe manufacturing machine. I could spend all day looking up patents and other invention information. Using free web directories makes it easy to find some of the more detailed information on these discoveries.

The capacity of these works in the line of horseshoes alone is 60 shoes a minute, or 51,000,000 annually. In boiler bolts, 80 per minute are the work of the twelve rivet machines. In the spacious rolling mill (421 by 96 feet), devoted to merchant iron manufacture, is a splendid Corliss engine. 1400 workmen are employed, to whom $500,000 are annually paid in wages. The fruits of their labor are 600,000 kegs of horseshoes and 42,000 tons of iron, exclusive of pig, annually. Their yearly sales of horseshoes average about $2,000,000. Fifty horses are used, and 90,000 tons of coal expended annually by this establishment

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We should be thankful that Pierre Lallement was an inventor and not some couch potato who played on the xbox 360 all day long.

He filed the earliest and only patent for the pedal-bicycle in April 1866, the patent being awarded on November 20, 1866. His patent drawing shows a machine bearing a great resemblance to the style of dandy-horse built by Denis Johnson of London, with its serpentine frame, the only differences being the addition of the pedals and cranks, and a thin strip of iron above the frame acting as a spring upon which he mounted the saddle, to provide a more comfortable ride.

One thing I find interesting in the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, is the lack of all of the “normal” stuff they usually find in tombs. No, I am not talking weight loss pills or magnetic bracelets.

The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun’s intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun’s burial mask remains the popular face.

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Some of the treasures in Tutankhamun’s tomb are noted for their apparent departure from traditional depictions of the boy king. Certain cartouches where a king’s name should appear have been altered, as if to reuse the property of a previous pharaoh—as often occurred. However, this instance may simply be the product of “updating” the artifacts to reflect the shift from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun. Other differences are less easy to explain, such as the older, more angular facial features of the middle coffin and canopic coffinettes. The most widely accepted theory for these latter variations is that the items were originally intended for Smenkhkare, who may or may not be the mysterious KV55 mummy. Said mummy, according to craniological examinations, bears a striking first-order (father-to-son, brother-to-brother) relationship to Tutankhamun.

On this day in 1881 there was a gunfight. A gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Doc Holliday joined the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan, in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ. They went up against members of the Clanton gang of suspected cattle rustlers. Wyatt Earp and Billy Clanton opened the battle — the most famous gunfight of the Old West — with Doc shooting Billy in the chest. Less than thirty seconds later, three men lay dead and three were wounded. Doc had shot each of the dead cowboys at least once. Virgil had been shot in the leg and Morgan through both shoulders. Holliday was wounded in the hip. Only Wyatt Earp survived the fight untouched.

There is a lot of debate about what really happened that day. Can you imagine if people had a camcorder back then? The movies are good, but it would be awesome to have seen the real thing.

On this day in 1978, Pope John Paul I died after 33 days as Pope. If he had known, do you think he would have taken out some term life insurance?

Pope John Paul I (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. I, Italian: Giovanni Paolo I), born Albino Luciani, (17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes. John Paul I was the first Pope born in the 20th century.

In Italy he is remembered with the affectionate appellatives of “Il Papa del sorriso” (“The smiling Pope”) and “Il sorriso di Dio” (“God’s smile”).

You can find out more about this day in history at Those Were The Days, and InfoPlease.

On this day in 1987, the famous letter from Virginia O’Hanlon appeared in the New York Sun. I used to have this on a usb backup drive, which has since been lost. It’s just one of the many things I will keep on my new Logo usb drive when it arrives.

In 1897, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia (1889-1971), whether Santa Claus really existed. Virginia O’Hanlon had begun to doubt there was a Santa Claus, because her friends had told her that he did not exist.

Dr. O’Hanlon suggested she write to the New York Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper at the time, assuring her that “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” While he may have been passing the buck, he unwittingly gave one of the paper’s editors, Francis Pharcellus Church, an opportunity to rise above the simple question, and address the philosophical issues behind it.

Church was a war correspondent during the American Civil War, a time which saw great suffering and a corresponding lack of hope and faith in much of society. Although the paper ran the editorial in the seventh place on the editorial page, below even an editorial on the newly invented “chainless bicycle,” its message was very moving to many people who read it. More than a century later it remains the most reprinted editorial ever to run in any newspaper in the English language.

On this day in 1876, Melville R. Bissell patented the carpet sweeper. You remember those don’t you?

A carpet sweeper or Ewbank[1], as it is colloquially known to some in the UK, is a mechanical device for the cleaning of carpets in situ. These were popular before the introduction of the vacuum cleaner and have been largely superseded by them.

The carpet sweeper made life easier for everyone, in fact it was also the best fat burner around until we all started hiring people to clean our houses, sitting in front of the television and forgetting we needed to keep fit.

On this day in 1881 , President James Garfield died from the gunshot wound he suffered months before. There wasn’t much medical travel back then, but he was moved to make him more comfortable before he died.

The President had been walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (a predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad) Washington, D.C., on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech, accompanied by Secretary of State James G. Blaine, Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln (son of Abraham Lincoln) and two of his sons, James and Harry. The station was located on the southwest corner of present day Sixth Street Northwest and Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., a site that is now occupied by the National Gallery of Art. As he was being arrested after the shooting, Guiteau repeatedly said, “I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is President now!” which briefly led to unfounded suspicions that Arthur or his supporters had put Guiteau up to the crime. (The Stalwarts strongly opposed Garfield’s Half-Breeds; like many vice presidents, Arthur was chosen for political advantage, to placate his faction, rather than for skills or loyalty to his running-mate.) Guiteau was upset because of the rejection of his repeated attempts to be appointed as the United States consul in Paris—a position for which he had absolutely no qualifications.

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Garfield died of a massive heart attack or a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, following blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia, at 10:35 p.m. on Monday, September 19, 1881, in the Elberon section of Long Branch, New Jersey. The wounded President died exactly two months before his 50th birthday. During the eighty days between his shooting and death, his only official act was to sign an extradition paper.

On this day in 1787, the founding fathers signed the U.S Constitution.

On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was completed in Philadelphia at the Federal Convention, followed by a speech given by Benjamin Franklin who urged unanimity, although they decided only nine states were needed to ratify the constitution for it to go into effect. The Convention submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation, where it received approval according to Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation.

And as they say, the rest is history. Our constitution is the shortest and oldest written constitution in the history of the world. Back in a time when our leaders were more concerned with the fate of our nation and the kids were working the fields regardless of any acne treatment, there’s no doubt they worked hard to build the foundation of our great nation.

On this day in 1974 the largest fountain in America was dedicated. Although my fountain never reached this magnatude, I did have a nice fountain shooting all over the second bathroom while I was attempting to install a Grohe faucet.

Yes, I do know I am supposed to turn off the water supply first. Yes, I thought I had. No, I hadn’t. It took longer to clean up the mess than it did to install the faucet. Just my luck.

The largest fountain in America, the visual symbol of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was dedicated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania this day. The fountain takes up one-fifth of 36-acre Point State Park at the convergence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. 90 percent of the fountain is unseen. That’s the part that pumps water from an underground river (a fourth, unnamed river that runs under the city and flows south, unlike the other three rivers), stores it and feeds it into the fountain. Designed by Charles Stotz and Louis Fosner and built by Robert R. Busse, the fountain is controlled by computers and operates automatically. Wind velocity specifies the height of the water column (2 feet in diameter by up to 200 ft. high. 24 white and gold quartz-iodine lights present a dramatic display of shifting colors by night. That’s how you can see the fountain in all its glory whenever the Pittsburgh Steelers play on Monday Night Football. The most interesting structural fact and a very complicated procedure — this fountain was built to withstand water pressure from beneath, so the pressure would not push it up and cause it to float.