History of Fireworks
The birthplace of fireworks is generally recognized as China, with the first explosive mixture found being black powder, during the Sung dynasty ( 960-1279 ). It is said that a cook in ancient china found that a mixture of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal was very flammable and would explode if enclosed in a small space. The first application of this technology was for entertainment. The Chinese are still the leader in the production of fireworks. Once the recipe for black powder was perfected, they found that it was easily used as rocket fuel, and they made hand carved wooden rockets in the shape of a dragon, in the sixth century. These rockets shot rocket powered arrows from their mouth, and were used against the Mongol invaders of 1279. The principle behind these rockets is still used in rocket powered fireworks today.
Through adventurous explorers, the knowledge of making fireworks spread west, through Arabia in the seventh century. The Arabs called the rockets Chinese arrows. The Mongols are credited with taking Chinese rockets and gunpowder to Europe around 1241. The first record of their use in Europe are around 1258. Until the 19th century, fireworks lacked a major aesthetically essential characteristic: color. Pyrotechnicians began to use a combination of potassium chlorate and various metallic salts to make brilliant colors. The salts of these metals produce the different colors: strontium burns red; copper makes blue; barium glows green; and sodium, yellow. Magnesium, aluminum, and titanium were found to give off white sparkles or a flash.
Even though China invented the fireworks, Europe surpassed them in pyrotechnic development in the 14th century, which coincides with the time the gun was invented. Shot and gunpowder for military use was made by skilled tradesmen, later called firemakers, who also made fireworks for peace or victory celebrations. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged: one in Italy and the other at Nuremberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens. In the mid-19th century fireworks became popular in the United States. Injuries associated with fireworks, particularly to children, eventually discouraged their unrestricted use. As a result, in many states of the U.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
Looking back at how the chemical weaponry expanded starting in the beginning of World War 1, it all began with Tear gas which was used by the French in August of 1914. Those techniques have been used in ancient times. Moving forward eight months in to the war the Germans have been giving great study in to the development of chemical weapons due to the first usage from the French and witnessed its great effectiveness and were the first to use it in a large scale.
Glow sticks were first made in the 1960s when a scientist, Edwin Chandross tried to copy fireflies. He thought it was fascinating how they gave off a natural light. He made the first glow stick from oxalyl chloride and hydrogen peroxide. Since Edwin’s invention many scientist after made improvements to the invention. The United States Navy worked on creating glow sticks independently and received a patent in 1973. Glow sticks started to become popular in the 1980s and since then are still very popular today. The largest glow stick was made in 2009 and was 8ft 4 inches tall. Glow sticks can be used for entertainment when dancing they are very popular for raves, parties, night clubbing, special events etc. glow sticks are the safest light sources in emergencies, They are used because they are very efficient and do not require any batteries or electricity. Glow sticks are portable and waterproof can bear high pressure situations and that is why military forces and campers use them and have them on hand.
The Mongols used many inventions that they discovered on their conquests and spread them throughout the known world. In China they discovered Gunpowder and Paper. They took the gunpowder to the western parts of the world and used it when conquering other cities and nations.
The formation of the United Nations in 1945 marked a monumental success in the international political realm. It was founded to foster relations with its member and non-member states, encourage the respect of human rights, and fight to solve social, economic, and humanitarian issues. However, of all of these motives, its foundation was based primarily on creating peace and preventing conflict between members. The idea of collective security in the UN has become the heart of peace keeping within the union and all members vow to preserve peace and eliminate identified aggressors. Chapter VII of the UN charter is the impetus behind collective security and provides the legal foundation for the UN to eradicate all threats to the peace.
With school budget cuts, and no music instruments, more and more people are beginning to realize the benefits of having music in education. Providing music as part of education helps develop intelligence that leads to greater success in school and in life. Everyone from VH1 Save The Music to The National Association For Music Education agree that, “Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.” These two companies are doing everything they can to get out the information about music, and the importance of resorting music education as part of the core curriculum.
The Encarta Encyclopedia defines a landmine as "an encased explosive device that is concealed below the surface of the ground." It can be made of "metal, plastic, glass, or wood" (n. p.). Probably the concept of landmines is almost as old as the existence of organized armies. Philip C. Winslow, in his book Sowing the Dragon's Teeth, describes how Roman soldiers, before the beginning of the first millennium, used a plant with spikes as a landmine in order "to delay pursuers" (126). The Chinese, according to Delbruck, used "ground mines" made out of explosives in the year 1232 (qtd. in Winslow 126). Six hundred years later, in 1840, the use of landmines was introduced in the United States; they were used "in large quantities" during the Civil War (Winslow 126, 127).
In most recent years, schools have been fighting to keep music programs alive in school systems across the nation. Some schools believe that due to budget factors, music should be cut out of the academic program, to save some money. But what is widely unknown is that schools that have good music programs do better in areas of math and sometimes reading. A high tech music program called Kodaly, was instituted into the schools of Hungary. If a person were to look at the school today, there are “…no third graders who cannot sing on pitch and sing beautifully” (Dickinson, 1993, p.1). Also, the students of the Hungarian schools academic achievement in math and science “ continues to be outstanding” (Dickinson, 1993, p.1). Another report shows that schools that spend 20% to 30% of their day on music (or the arts), have the highest academic achievement (Dickinson, 1993). One study was conducted involving first and second graders at two Rhode Island public elementary schools to show the effects of musical training on academic achievement. In this study, 96 children were used between the ages of 5-7 in eight first grade classrooms. Four of the classrooms were used as control classrooms, which received the standard amount of musical training; forty-five minutes of music that alternates weeks. The other four classrooms were called “test arts“ classrooms. These classrooms received an hour of music per week. After seven months of this training, the students were all given a standardized test. It was then concluded from the tests, that 77% of the “test arts” classes “…were now at grade level or above in mathematics, as compared to 55% of those in the control groups” (MENC, #1). This clearly shows that if ...
The creation of oxy fuel welding and development of the first torch where two French engineers Edmond Fouche and Charles Picard became the first engineers to create the first stages of
The United Nations was born out of the turmoil of two devastating world wars. It was established in the hopes that a strong international organization could foster enough cooperation between nations in order to prevent future conflicts. In 1945, representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco to draw up the United Nations Charter. Those delegates deliberated on the proposals worked out by the representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States at Dumbarton Oaks, United States in August and October of 1944. The Charter was signed on June, 26 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries. Poland, which was not represented at the Conference, signed it later and became one of the original 51 Member States. Since then the United Nations has grown significantly. The United Nations General Assembly now consists of 191 Member States.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, commonly known as HIV/AIDS is a disease, with which the human immune system, unlike in other disease, cannot cope. AIDS, which is caused by the HIV virus, causes severe disorder of the immune system and slowly progresses through stages which disable the body’s capability to protect and instead makes it vulnerable for other infections. The first blood sample to contain HIV was drawn in 1959 in Zaire, Africa while molecular genetics have suggested that the epidemic first began in the 1930s (Smallman & Brown, 2011). Currently, according to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, 35.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV. In 2012, an estimated 2.3 million people became newly infected with the virus and 1.6 million people lost their lives to AIDS (Fact Sheet, UNAIDS). It is due to the globalized international society that a disease which existed in one part of the world has managed to infect so many around the world. Globalization is narrowly defined by Joseph Stiglitz as "the removal of barriers to free trade and the closer integration of national economies" (Stiglitz, 2003). Globalization has its effects in different aspects such as economy, politics, culture, across different parts of the world. Like other aspects, globalization affects the health sector as well. In a society, one finds different things that connect us globally. As Barnett and Whiteside point out (2000), “health and wellbeing are international concerns and global goods, and inherent in the epidemic are lessons to be learned regarding collective responsibility for universal human health” (Barnett & Whiteside, 2000). Therefore, through all these global connections in the international society, t...
The position that is being argued is that music should stay in schools. This author is making the claim that music makes children excel in their education. This author uses many different sources. The author relies mainly on studies to back up his argument. The article is recent.
During the middle ages welding was very common. Early Egyptians learned the art of welding. Several of their tools were made by welding. A set of specialized workmen called blacksmiths created tools by melting the metal, then hammering them together. This method did not change much until the dawn of the 19th century which held major breakthroughs in welding. An open flame (acetylene) was very important to the history of welding. It allowed manufactures to make metal tools and equipment. In 1836 a man named Edmund Davy discovered acetylene which was soon utilized in the welding industries. Coated metal electrodes were first introduced in the 1900s. A coating of lime covered the electrode and made the weld much more stable. A number of other welding processes were also invented, such as seam welding, spot welding, flash butt welding, and projection welding. Stick welding also became popular around this time too. In the 1920s automatic welding was first introduced by P.O. Nobel. Automatic welding integrated the use of arc voltage and bare wire. It was mainly used for fixing old, molding metals. Several types of electrodes were also developed during this decade. A new type of welding was developed in the 1940s by Meredith. This became known as Heliarc Welding. Gas shielded arc welding or GTAW was another significant milestone in the welding history. Several advancements in the welding field were made in the 1960s. Dual shield, inner shield, and electro slag were some of the more important kinds developed. Plasma arc was also invented and was mainly used for metal spraying. Even now more techniques are being made. For example, laser welding was developed by the Russians and is being used more and more every day (“Welcome to
Candles have been used all the way back to 3000 B.C., when Egyptians used torches to see in the dark. The Romans would cover papyrus in beeswax or tallow to see in the church, when traveling and at their residence. In the Colonial times, women found out that they could make candles from bayberry bushes that produced wax. “In 1834, inventor Joseph Morgan helped further the modern day candle industry by developing a machine that allowed for continuous production of molded candles by using a cylinder with a movable piston to eject candles as they solidified” (National Candle Association). In the mid 1850’s, Paraffin wax, which is the main ingredient in most candles today, was invented. It was made with petroleum or oil. It was popular because
When music education comes to one’s mind, one may think that it only applies when it comes to listening to diverse songs and beating two drum sticks together to the beat of songs. However, there is much more of a deeper meaning to it than that. According to the acclaimed author, J. Yudkin, “Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain (the development of skills), the cognitive domain (the acquisition of knowledge), and, in particular and significant ways, the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity. The incorporation of music training from preschool to postsecondary education is common in most nations because involvement in music is considered a fundamental component of human culture and behavior. Music, like language, is an accomplishment that distinguishes us as humans” (Yudkin 4). The subject of expurgating music education has been discussed for numerous decades. However, those discussing this fail to realize that music education not only has an imperative part in the students’ grades improving but also betters their behavior. Music education should remain in the curriculums of today’s students because it has a positive effect on their upbringing, in turn leading them to better, more fruitfulfutures.