What is a Stirling engine? A Stirling engine is an engine that uses the expansion and contraction of a gas when heated and cooled to carry out mechanical work. A Stirling engine works on the principle that gases expand when heated and contract when cooled. When thermal energy is applied to a gas, the molecules […]
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What were penny auctions? Penny auctions were a way for communities to stop farms and properties being sold by the banks that foreclosed on them during the Great Depression. The 1920s and the 1930s were a hard time for a lot of Americans. The Great Depression began in 1929, which destroyed the life savings of
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How did Bubble Wrap start? Bubble Wrap began as a type of wallpaper. We see Bubble Wrap fairly often, probably more so since Amazon has taken over our shopping. Bubble Wrap is actually a trademarked brand, and it is owned by Sealed Air Corporation, although it has become somewhat like Kleenex, Aspirin, and Kerosene, in
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Why did the Titanic sink? The Titanic sank because of poor quality materials, problems with the design, the temperature of the water, and a lack of equipment for the crew. I’m sure you are all familiar with what happened to the Titanic. The Titanic was built in Britain, and she was an ocean liner owned
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When did a week get 7 days? People first used a 7-day week over 4,000 years ago in the Akkadian Empire. When we think about it, there is no logical reason why a week should have seven days. You cannot divide the year up into 7s. For a while, the French tried a ten day
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Why did the Industrial Revolution start in Britain? Nobody can say for sure why the Industrial Revolution started in Britain rather than somewhere else, but there are several likely theories. Britain had easily accessible resources, a large empire to provide resources and a market, a stable political system, an efficient agricultural industry, a respect for
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What is Greek fire? It was a burning material that was invented as a weapon by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century. We call it Greek fire, in English, but it was not really Greek. The Byzantine Empire was created when the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern halves. The eastern half became
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When did people start sending postcards? The first postcard that we would recognize today as a postcard was sent in 1861, and by the end of the 1860s, they were being commercially made and posted. We have probably all sent and received a postcard in our lifetime. You go to a nice destination, you buy
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What is the Antikythera mechanism? It is a machine that was found in an ancient shipwreck near the island of Antikythera, a Greek island on the edge of the Aegean Sea. It is thought to be a machine to predict eclipses, model the lunar phases, and track astronomical cycles. It is also said to be
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How did a Roman aqueduct work? An aqueduct works by moving water from an area of higher elevation to an area of lower elevation using the force of gravity. The word aqueduct comes from Latin, and we still use several Roman aqueducts, but the Romans didn’t invent the aqueduct. The word is made from “aqua”,
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