10 facts for today
- Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a vinyl record works.
- ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
- From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.
- The first “modern” computer (i.e., general-purpose and program-controlled) was built in 1941 by Konrad Zuse. Since there was a war going on, he applied to the German government for funding to build his machines for military use, but was turned down because the Germans did not expect the war to last beyond Christmas. The computer was launched in 1943, more than 100 years after Charles Babbage designed the first programmable device. Babbage dropped his idea after he couldn’t raise capital for it. In 1998, the Science Museum in London, UK, built a working replica of the Babbage machine, using the materials and work methods available at Babbage’s time. It worked just as Babbage had intended.
- The electric chair was invented by a dentist, Alfred Southwick.
- The first e-mail was sent over the Internet in 1972.
- The Chinese invented eyeglasses. Marco Polo reported seeing many pairs worn by the Chinese as early as 1275, 500 years before lens grinding became an art in the West.
- If hot water is suddenly poured into a glass that glass is more apt to break if it is thick than if it is thin. This is why test tubes are made of thin glass.
- Construction worker’s hard hats were first invented and used in the building of the Hoover Dam in 1933.
- The Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not even be fully cured for another 500 years.
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