GWR 2024 Look Inside - Flipbook - Page 15
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The Ljubljana Marshes
Wheel has been dated to
around 3150 bce . It was discovered
by archaeologists in Slovenia on 29 Mar
2002 within a Chalcolithic (or late Neolithic)
settlement known as Stare Gmajne. The body of the
wheel is formed from two thick planks of ash, jointed with
a tongue and groove and cut into a circle. Its axle is fashioned
from oak and fits into a square hole in the wheel’s centre. This
combination of strong, hard-wearing ash and oak would remain a standard
for wheelwrights across much of Europe until the early 20th century.
Oldest wheel
Joseph Niépce (FRA) took the oldest known
photograph (above) in 1827 with a camera
obscura. It shows the view from his window.
The first photograph of a human (left) was
by France’s Louis Daguerre, c. 1838. The long
exposure needed for early photos meant
that moving objects didn’t register in his
eerily empty Parisian street scene. But a
static shoe-shiner and his customer did.
Powered flight
At 10:35 a.m. on 17 Dec 1903,
Orville Wright flew the wood‑
and-canvas Flyer I for 120 ft
(36.5 m) near Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina, USA. As he was flying
into a strong headwind, it had
a ground speed of just 6.8 mph
(10.9 km/h) and an altitude of
8–12 ft (2.4–3.6 m). Orville and
his brother Wilbur (both USA)
designed and built the Flyer I at
their bicycle workshop in Dayton,
Ohio, having used a home‑made
wind tunnel to test their theories.
Electric Christmas tree lights
In 1882, Edison Electric Light
Company investor Edward H
Johnson (USA) hung the earliest‑
known incarnation of these festive
favourites at his home in New
York City, USA. They presented
“a most picturesque
and uncanny aspect”,
according to the
Detroit Post & Tribune of
22 Dec that year.
Steam locomotive on rails
On 21 Feb 1804, a locomotive
built by English engineer Richard
Trevithick hauled a train along a
tramway at Penydarren Ironworks
in Merthyr Tydfil, UK.
Built by the Edison Electric
Light Company, the earliest
power station built for public
applications opened in Jan 1882.
It stood at 57 Holborn Viaduct
in London, UK. A Babcock &
Wilcox boiler provided steam to
power a 125-hp (93-kW) engine
that drove a 27-ton (24.5-tonne)
110-V DC generator, known as
“Jumbo”. This supplied power
to light the viaduct and local
businesses, along with London’s
City Temple, the Old Bailey and
General Post Office. It served as
a template for Thomas Edison’s
later projects in New York.
OLDEST SURVIVING PHOTOGRAPH First public electricity power station
149
Benz’s breakthrough
car was steered using
a tiller, like a boat.
Did you
know?
In late 1885, the Motorwagen
– the earliest successful petroldriven car – was put through its
paces at Mannheim, Germany.
Built by Karl Friedrich Benz
(DEU) and patented on 29 Jan
1886, the three-wheeler weighed
254 kg (560 lb) and could reach
13–16 km/h (8–10 mph). The
significance of Benz’s invention
was somewhat overlooked at
the time: its first 1-km (0.6-mi)
road test was reported in the
local newspaper, the Neue
Badische Landeszeitung, on
4 Jun 1886, under the heading
“Miscellaneous”.
FIRST
INTERNAL
COMBUSTION
CAR