A Roman judge in Alexandria, Vitruvius, tried and found multiple poets guilty of stealing poems. The theft was revealed during a literary contest. Similar cases in first century Rome include literacy piracy. Despite the importance of these events, there is no known law from ancient Rome regarding intellectual property theft.

Earliest Patent Systems

The first real patent system wouldn’t be enacted until centuries later. The Venetian Act of 1474 streamlined the patenting process and made them easier to apply for. Until then, Europe had the concept of patents, but there were no set standards. They were issued on an individual basis upon request. The Act meant the patent had to be for something one-of-a-kind and useful. This remains the standard for patent applications around the world to this day, including in the United States.

That’s not to say that there weren’t any forms of intellectual property protection throughout Medieval times, but they were less structured than formal patents. In larger cities, guilds would be formed to protect the knowledge of certain crafts. As only guild members could learn the craft, such as glassmaking, this raised the commercial value of the products in the region. Venetian glassmakers were highly regulated, with everything from working days to ingredients monitored closely. It nearly created a monopoly in the glass industry. While featuring the same protective features of patents, these were all self-contained and had no influence from the government.

Queen Elizabeth I and Patents

Queen Elizabeth made many changes to how patents worked in England during her reign. Early on, she sent letters encouraging other countries to bring their manufacturing technology and new products to England. At first, it worked, bringing in foreigners and helping her country grow in multiple industries. As years passed, however, she used her same policies to issue patents on everything, including long-established trade and techniques. This resulted in Parliament attempting to legislate against monopolies- something Elizabeth was able to pacify them from doing.

King James Changes the Rules

With a change in ruler came a change in the power of patents. In 1624, King James I made a royal proclamation that abolished the Brehon Laws and introduced English common law instead. Once incorporated into the Statute of Monopolies 1623, it limited the power a monarch would have regarding patents. Under the new law, patents could only be given to inventors of an original creation during a certain window of time. While it caused some upset and didn’t fully end patent abuse, it is still notable for creating a fairer system.

US Patents

The history of the United States and patent law is as equally turbulen as Europe’s. The first US Patent Act only lasted three years, from 1790 to 1793. It was then quickly replaced with a new Patent Act which functioned on an examination system. This further prevented abuse by having the product examined before the patent was issued. While the modern American patent system doesn’t quite resemble that from 1790, the standard for applying for a patent is more or less the same.

A third Patent Act was passed in 1836, to combat problems created by the previous two. It marked the creation of the Patent Office. The Secretary of State was no longer responsible for issuing patents, although the task still fell within the jurisdiction of the Department of the State. The new act also required that patent information be accessible in public libraries, thus preventing repeat patents. The addition of a seven-year extension to the existing fourteen-year patent was introduced as well. Additionally, immigrants could now apply for patents in the United States. It also raised the standards for American patents.

Patent Law Criticism

Every change has its critics- especially in England, where free trade economics reigned supreme. Patent law began to be criticized in the 1850s, believing it hindered research and served little good to the general public. Adrian Johns, a modern patent historian, summarizes the main complaints from the public in his book Piracy:

“[Patents] projected an artificial idol of the single inventor, radically denigrated the role of the intellectual commons, and blocked a path to this commons for other citizens — citizens who were all, on this account, potential inventors too. […] Patentees were the equivalent of squatters on public land — or better, of uncouth market traders who planted their barrows in the middle of the highway and barred the way of the people.”

The Depression of 1890 did not help matters in America. In an already strained economy, patents seemed to be promoting monopolies. Courts attempted to invalidate patents and the government had to intervene. President Benjamin Harrison introduced the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited agreements and conduct that would attempt to monopolize a market. It should be noted, however, that this was to combat artificial monopoly through restricting trade and inflating prices. “Innocent monopoly,” or a monopoly achieved on pure merit, remained legal under the new system.

Patents in the 20th Century

Before we return to worldwide patent law, a quick recap of the last century or so of American laws will bring us up to date. In 1952, a new Patent Act was issued. The amendment required the inventor to not only describe their creation but also how it could be infringed upon. It also dictated all patents should be for “non-obvious” inventions- i.e., not for the steering wheel of a car or a spring in a Slinky. As the atmosphere grew more pro-patent, Congress created the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to hear all appeals regarding patents beginning in 1982. 2011 saw the switch from “first to invent” to “first inventor to file” after the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.

1980 saw the change to patents on a global scale, all thanks to one case. A microbiologist for General Electric, Anand Chakrabarty, filed an application to patent a bacterium he genetically engineered to break down crude oil. At the time, no one had attempted to patent a living organism. The patent was rejected, but the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals overturned the USPTS decision and held that the patent should be issued. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote the majority opinion that the bacteria could be patented. Craig Nard, director of the Intellectual Property Center at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, cites this as jumpstarting the biotech industry.

Backtracking a bit, many countries, particularly those in the British Empire like India and New Zealand, followed British patent laws until the 1850s. TUnder British rule, citizens from these nations were at a disadvantage when it came to patents. Once the countries gained their freedom, however, they swiftly abolished the old English laws and established their own systems. Many of them still closely resemble European systems and have their own share of reforms and addendums. Still, it gave them a chance to share their inventions globally without fear of theft. New Zealand was actually among the top 5 patent offices in 2006.

Present Day Patent Laws

Finally, we reach the present day. While America is still among the world’s largest patent offices, it was rapidly outpaced by China. Of the approximate 1.98 million patent applications filed in 2012, 526,412 were filed in China. The United States was in a close second with 503,582 patents filed. Thomson Reuters researchers predicted China would outpace the USA in 2005, and the prediction was brought to life. (For the record, the other three offices belong in Europe as a whole, Japan, and South Korea.)

Patents play a large part in encouraging creativity and innovation in the world. Because each patent must be unique and “non-obvious,” it encourages inventors to think outside usual limits and create something truly original. But constant change through new laws and amendments impact both inventors and consumers and require adjustment in the approach to patenting.  Patents remain a complicated piece of the already massive jigsaw puzzle that is the world of inventing and innovation.

(SIDEBAR ON CAVEATS: Patent caveats were briefly available in the United States. Like traditional patents, it described an illustration or invention but did not have the full examination into the patentable subject manner and patent claims. It was merely a notice on the intention of filing for a proper patent, expiring after one year. Provisional applications today are somewhat similar but have significant differences. Caveats could be issued between 1836 and 1909, before being abolished by the US government.)

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Click on the image to enlarge or visit HISTORY to see the original post. Have a safe and happy 4th!

Copyright Davison 2013

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The origins of golf are unclear and hotly debated. Many golf historians say that golf began in Scotland.  Others say that the Dutch started golf as a game played with a stick and ball on frozen canals in the wintertime. Still others say that golf has been played in China since the Southern Tang Dynasty, 500 years before the Scots ever picked up a club. But, while ‘stick and ball’ games have been around for many centuries, the game as we know it, played over 18 holes is generally considered to be a Scottish invention. The first documented mention of golf in Scotland appears in a 1457 Act of the Scottish Parliament, an edict issued by King James II of Scotland prohibiting the playing of “gouf” as it distracted soldiers from their archery practice. The word golf—or as they say in Scotland: “gouf”—derives from the Dutch word “kolf”, which means, quite simply, club.

But modern golf really began in 1744, when the oldest surviving rules of golf were written for The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and formed the basis for all subsequent codes. But it took another one hundred years before the game spread outside of Scotland. In the 1850s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert built Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands. Their frequent visits and royal enthusiasm for Scotland and golf caused a boom in tourism, and a wider interest in Scottish culture and golf. By the late 1800s, golf had spread throughout Britain and Europe;,and then landed firmly in America. In 1894, several American golf clubs met in New York City to form what was to become the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Since then, the biggest evolution in the game has been in equipment. Some of the biggest advancements have been in the development of the golf ball. Wooden balls, hand-carved from hardwood, were the first golf balls, and were used between the 14th and 17th centuries. These balls were replaced by the feathery ball, a hand-sewn round leather pouch stuffed with chicken or goose feathers and coated with paint. Despite these leather pouches’ obvious drawbacks, the feathery was still a dramatic improvement over the wooden ball, and remained the standard golf ball well into the 19th century.

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Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in late December 1800. He was the oldest of six children; and in his teens, he went to Philadelphia to learn the hardware trade. By the age of 26, Goodyear had opened his own hardware store, specializing in agricultural implements. While business was good for a while, by the early 1830s his store was failing and he was looking for another business. Around 1832, Goodyear began to hear about ‘gum elastic’ and found that factories in New England had been manufacturing goods, such as aprons, hats, carriage tops, and waterproof shoes. This gum elastic, or natural rubber, was harvested from the sap that oozed from the bark of trees native to Central and South America.

In 1834, Goodyear visited a rubber company’s retail store and was struck by a new product on display. It was a rubber life preserver, and he could see that the tube used for inflation wasn’t very effective or well-made. So he decided he could do better, so he went home to make better tubes. But when he returned to the store with his invention a few days later, the manager told him that the company was on the brink of bankruptcy because his customers were demanding refunds for all of the shoes, boots, raincoats, and other items made of rubberized cloth. The customers returned these products because the rubber they were made with would melt into a gooey, foul-smelling mess in the heat of summer and froze stiff in the winter.

As rubber’s fatal flaw became apparent, the ‘Great India Rubber Panic’ of the 1830s caused most of New England’s rubber factories to close. While the rubber industry in America seemed destined for failure, Goodyear didn’t give up. Despite having no formal scientific training, he decided he would figure out a way to make rubber easier to handle. After years of experimentation and little money to support his large family, Goodyear had a breakthrough when, in 1839, he accidentally spilled some India rubber, sulfur and lead onto a hot stove. What resulted was a substance that was hard but pliable. In fact, the new material had ‘memory’—it returned to its original shape after being twisted. This process (later called vulcanization) made rubber heat-proof, waterproof and winter-proof; and it opened the door for an enormous market for rubber goods.

Even though he solved the huge rubber problem, the public’s view of rubber was still tainted from the previous episodes of gooey rubber; so his efforts to secure capital landed on deaf ears. At last, in 1842, he managed to secure some backing and started a small factory in Springfield, Massachusetts. The factory was run largely by Charles’ two brothers and his brother-in-law; and in that factory, the team worked out the kinks of making the invention practical. By 1844, the process was sufficiently perfected and Goodyear felt it safe to take out a patent.

Although he was hailed as a great inventor at expositions all over the world, Goodyear was barely solvent when he died in 1860. Luckily, royalties from his invention gave his surviving children enough money to enjoy the comfortable life that had largely eluded their father. And his legacy was so great, that in 1898, almost forty years after his death, Frank Seiberling started The “Goodyear” Tire & Rubber Company in recognition of Charles Goodyear’s contribution to the products they made; rubber tires for bicycles and carriages. When the automobile age started, “Goodyear” became a household name and today has sales of more than $20 billion. So the next time you’re out for a ride in your car, remember Charles Goodyear made that smooth ride possible.

Copyright Davison 2013

Images:

http://www.ushistory.org/us/images/00000048.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/rbc/rbpe/rbpe06/rbpe068/06802500/001dr.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-60guH-2XPDs/TYAewk1RoUI/AAAAAAAABdo/PAzjXDAtzEY/s1600/goodyear+tires.jpg

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Goodyear

http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history_story.html

http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/CharlesGoodyear.htm

http://massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=175

http://www.ushistory.org/us/25c.asp

http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history_overview.html

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Swimming as an activity goes back as far as 3500 B.C. in ancient Egypt and later in ancient Greece, Rome, and Assyria.  The first swimming pool is credited by historians as the ‘Great Bath’ at the site of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan. Created during the 3rd millennium BC, it was a pool that measured 12 by 7 meters and was lined with bricks and covered with a tar-based sealant. There is also evidence that the first heated swimming pool was built by Gaius Maecenas of Rome in the first century BC. It turns out that Gaius was a close friend to the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, so we can imagine that Rome may have been the birth place of the wild ‘pool party’ as well.

But it’s really in the last couple of hundred years that swimming pools began to evolve. Swimming clubs started to become popular in Britain in the early 1800s. The oldest surviving Swimming Club in Britain, the Maidstone Swimming Club, was said to have built its first swimming pool in response to club member drowning in the River Medway. By 1837, six indoor pools with diving boards could be found in London.

In the US, municipal pools really took hold around 1862 as part of an effort to combat disease. Cholera was thought to be associated with poor human hygiene, so cities opened ‘river baths’ in hopes of preventing cholera outbreaks. The baths were enclosed structures housing large wooden tank-like pools that were submerged into the local river. The pool design allowed river water to be circulated naturally between the wooden boards. Soon in-ground concrete or tile swimming pools were being built all over the country.

After the modern Olympic Games which began in 1896, with swimming races, among the original events, the popularity of swimming pools began to spread as newspapers wrote stories and showed photographs of the events. This led to acceleration of municipal pool construction and the introduction of swimming pool chlorination as public officials aggressively publicized pool sanitation measures to alleviate long-standing fears of waterborne illnesses. Hollywood helped the swimming pool boom by glamorizing swimming with movie stars like Esther Williams and Olympic swimming star Johnny Weissmuller (a.k.a. Tarzan).

After World War II, when returning GIs got their GI loans and moved to the suburbs, a backyard swimming pool became a status symbol for all to see.  But since a traditional in-ground pool was very expensive, cheaper above-ground pools became an attractive option. They didn’t require the expensive earthworks required for an in-ground pool, they were much easier to maintain and could be taken apart in the winter.

Today we have many options for pools and their dramatic price reduction has enabled many more families to own their own pool. Today, many in-ground pools are constructed of fiberglass pre-formed shells that are a lot less expensive than the traditional poured concrete in-ground pool.  Above-ground pools are cheaper and stronger than ever before.

Many pools are switching from chlorine to common table salt to sanitize the water. Chlorine generators produce natural chlorine from salt by separating salt molecules into their component parts: chloride and sodium. These salt pools account for nearly 75% of new pool installations.  And state-of-the-art water purification technology is eliminating the need for chlorinated pool water altogether because it is able to filter the water so perfectly that it’s actually drinkable.

Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy: Stay cool and “stay classy.”

So there you have it, a brief history of the swimming pool. With an estimated 10,000,000 swimming pools in the US alone, they have clearly become a part of our communities and our own homes; and for many of us, a dip in a cool pool on a hot day is what summer is all about.

Images:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2wFXD5YOElA/TJ1ZhHa9ydI/AAAAAAAAelE/4bmxbjx-kgs/s1600/caveman3.jpg

http://www.ci.arcadia.ca.us/images/swimming_pool-county_park.jpg

http://dlt.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Spanish_Fly_Cannonball.jpg

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_pool

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blswimmingpools.htm

http://visual.ly/history-swimming-pools

http://lissie.hubpages.com/hub/Swimming-Pools

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John Stith Pemberton was born in Knoxville, Georgia on July 8, 1831.  Though not much is known about his early life, we do know that he studied chemistry and became a pharmacist in the Knoxville area.  When the civil war broke out, Pemberton enlisted and became a Colonel of the Confederate Army and was badly wounded in 1865 when he was slashed across his chest by an enemy sword. During his recovery he, like many wounded veterans of the war, became addicted to the morphine he used to ease the pain.

Being a pharmacist, he sought a cure to counteract this addiction and began experimenting with a drink called coca wine—wine mixed with cocaine extract—that was popular in France at the time.  He eventually created his own version of coca wine, but one that contained kola nuts and damiana, a chamomile-like shrub which was used by South America Indians for its relaxing effects. He called his concoction Pemberton’s French Wine Coca and advertised it as being:

“Particularly beneficial for ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration, irregularities of the stomach, bowels and kidneys, who require a nerve tonic and a pure, delightful diffusible stimulant”

It was a very successful potion and sold very well, but in 1886, the state of Georgia enacted temperance legislation which forced Pemberton to produce a non-alcoholic alternative to his French Wine Coca. He teamed up with an Atlanta druggist named Willis Venable to help him perfect the recipe for a new non-alcoholic beverage. They experimented with scores of formulas by trial and error to create the base syrup that they mixed in water, but the story goes that they created Coke by ‘accidentally’ mixing the base syrup with carbonated water. The fizzy drink tasted remarkably delicious and Pemberton decided then to sell it as a fountain drink rather than a medicine.

Though they sold it as a fountain drink, Pemberton still made many health claims for his product, touting it as a ‘valuable brain tonic’ that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion and calm nerves, and marketed it as ‘delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating,’ and ‘invigorating.’ But he knew he wasn’t an advertiser so he hired advertising man Frank Robinson for help in this area. Robison created the name ‘Coca-Cola,’ which quite clearly incorporates the two main ingredients – coca and kola nut extract. Robison also registered Coca-Cola’s formula with the patent office, designed and trademarked the logo and distinct script.

In 1887, with his health failing, Pemberton sold portions of his business to various parties, with the majority of the interest sold to businessman Asa Candler, who owned a chain of drug stores in Atlanta. Unfortunately, John Pemberton died less than a year later, in 1888, and never got to see the global megabrand that Coke became over the next century. But on those hot summer days, when we grab for an ice cold Coke to quench our thirst, we’ll know who to thank for that refreshing drink: John Pemberton.

Images:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/John_Pemberton.jpg/150px-John_Pemberton.jpg

http://static.businessinsider.com/image/5136508869bedd445900000c/image.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_99U_pO3l2-Y/Sumzy67g1-I/AAAAAAAACZ4/1dTiyGzI3hM/s400/1940-Coca-Cola-siwmsuitad.jpg

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pemberton#cite_note-4

http://markpendergrast.com/coca-cola

http://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/coca-colahistory.htm

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Critical precursors to the plane were kites and hot air balloons.  Kites, invented by the Chinese around 400 BC, enabled inventors to study aerodynamics and gave them a sense of how wind flowed over and under a fixed wing for lift. But of course kites were too flimsy to carry a man, so everything learned was theoretical.  Balloons, on the other hand, allowed people to leave the ground and float in the air, like a bird, giving the traveler the exhilarated feeling of flight. The first passenger balloon is credited to another pair of brothers, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier who— in 1783—used smoke from a fire to blow hot air into a silk bag, which allowed the balloon to be lighter-than-air.  The silk bag was attached to a basket, and the first passengers in this balloon were a sheep, a duck and a rooster.

In 1799, a man named George Cayley built the world’s first glider. Many consider him to be the first true scientific aerial investigator and the first person to understand the underlying principles and physics of flight.  Over the next 50 years, he made many improvements to the gliders; including changing the shape of the wings so that the air would flow over the wings correctly, and designing a tail for the gliders to help with stability. He also tried a biplane design to add strength to the glider. In 1849, Cayley built a large gliding machine and tested the device with a 10-year old boy aboard. According to Cayley, the glider “flew” with the boy on-board for a short flight.

By 1891, a German engineer named Otto Lilienthal became the first person to create a real glider that would fly a person long distances.  He was fascinated by the idea of flight, and wrote a book on aerodynamics based on his studies of the flight of birds which was published in 1889.  After more than 2,500 flights, Lilienthal was killed when he lost control of his glider during a sudden strong gust of wind that caused him to crash to the ground. The story of his death and the gliders he flew later inspired Wilbur Wright to begin his studies of aerodynamics, and Lilienthal’s text was used by the Wright Brothers as the basis for their designs.

Of course, in 1903, the Wright Brothers had their momentous event, and humans were now able to fly.  Many improvements followed this event and things began to happen quickly.  In 1905, Wilbur piloted a new plane design in a flight that lasted 39 minutes and covered about 24 miles. By 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont made his first successful powered flight in Europe; and in 1909, a French aviator named Louis Bleriot made the first airplane crossing of English Channel. Then, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop, trans-Atlantic flight, and international air travel quickly followed.  A few years later, in 1930, a British inventor named Frank Whittle invented the jet engine that allowed people to go faster and farther than ever before, but that’s a story for another time.

Photos:

http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/14/1459/T5DQ000Z/posters/leonardo-da-vinci-flying-machine.jpg
http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/27/114727-004-424C89B4.jpg
http://www.madscientistblog.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/lilienthal-biplane.jpg

Sources:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/historyofflight.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers
http://www.flyingmachines.org/cayl.html
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/wb-timeline.html

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Orville and Wilbur Wright were born right after the Civil War: Wilbur in 1867 and Orville in 1871. As youngsters, the boys were encouraged by their parents to be mechanical and to think outside the box.  Their father Milton was a Church bishop who often traveled between parishes and would bring the boys various souvenirs and trinkets he found during his travels. As the story goes, one day he brought home a toy ‘helicopter.’ The device was made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor. The boys were so excited they played with it until it broke, so they built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark, that ignited their interest in flying.

In 1889, Orville got the idea to start a printing business and, with Wilbur’s help, he designed and built a printing press out of spare parts they acquired. They printed odd jobs as well as their own newspaper.  By 1892, the brothers began repairing bicycles for friends and started their own repair business. They opened a bicycle shop in 1893, and three years later, began making their own bicycles.

Around 1899, Wilbur read about a famous German glider pilot, Otto Lilienthal, who died while flying one of his own gliders, and this rekindled his early thoughts of flying. He requested information about flight experiments from the Smithsonian Institution and within a few months, had read all he could about flying. Wilbur also spent a lot of time observing birds in flight and noticed that they changed the shape of their wings to turn and maneuver. He thought that he could mimic this technique to obtain roll control by warping, or changing the shape, of a portion of the wing.

Based on these observations and studies, the Wrights determined that three things were needed to create a flying machine: wings to provide lift, a power source for propulsion, and a system of control, which they defined in three axes of motion: pitch, roll, and yaw. They brain-stormed how to achieve the same effect that birds used with man-made wings and eventually invented a way to arch the wingtips slightly to control the aircraft’s rolling motion and balance. As they later recounted, Wilbur came up with an ingenious system of slightly warping the surface of each wing to change its position in relation to oncoming wind by twisting an empty bicycle inner-tube box. The brothers tested their theory using a small kite and it worked.

Over the next three years, they designed a series of gliders which would be flown in both unmanned and piloted flights. In 1900, they moved to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina because of its wind, sand, hilly terrain and remote location.  After a major failure, they built a wind tunnel to test a variety of wing shapes and their effect on lift. Based upon these tests, they had a greater understanding of how a wing works and could calculate with greater accuracy how well a particular wing design would fly.

During 1902, the brothers designed and flew a glider with a 32-foot wingspan and a tail for stabilization.  With successful glides to validate their wind tunnel tests, the Wright Brothers designed a motor and a new aircraft sturdy enough to accommodate the motor’s weight and vibrations. The craft weighed 700 pounds and came to be known as the Flyer.  After two attempts to fly this machine, Orville Wright took the Flyer for a 12-second, sustained flight on December 17, 1903 and history was made.

Photos:
http://www.myhero.com/images/guest/g242901/hero75123/g242901_u88055_The-Wright-Brothers_pic_2.jpg
http://aarongraham.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/wright_flyer.jpg

Sources:
http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventors/a/TheWrightBrother.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
http://wrightbrothers.info/

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You can celebrate one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in beautiful North Carolina. According to the park’s website, visitors are treated to a full-scale reproduction of the 1902 glider, a full-scale reproduction of the 1903 flying machine, an engine block from the original 1903 Flyer, and a reproduction of the Wright’s first wind tunnel. Additional exhibits, movies and educational programs are available in the Centennial Pavilion.Visitors can also climb Big Kill Devil Hill for a breathtaking view of the area from sound to sea. Atop the Hill, stands the 60 ft. Pylon — the site where Wilbur and Orville conducted their glider experiments. A large granite boulder marks the spot where the first plane left the ground.

Much like the current state of American flight, you probably left the memorial hungry and unfed. Lucky for you, Wilbur and Orville picked not only a scenic location for their first flight but a region teaming with delicious seafood options. Nestled in the Outer Banks, I Got Your Crabs Seafood Market & Steam Bar offers a full eat-in menu packed with appetizers, sides and beverages, along with crabs to go from one peck to an entire bushel.

After seriously contemplating the skill and craft that it took to build the first working aircraft, you’re going to need some levity. Check out The Comedy Club — the longest running seasonal comedy club in the nation. “Our history includes having hosted such internationally renowned artist as Ray Romano, Drew Carey, and Sinbad when they were simply plying their trade on the comedy circuit. Make some vacation memories with us. This is your chance to see nationally touring comedians who have appeared on shows such as Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, and HBO. Many of our comedians are headliners in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and on the cruise lines! Shows are approximately ninety minutes long and include an emcee, a feature comedian, and a headline comedian.”

Before you retire for the night, you’re going to need dessert. Check out The Belgian Chocolate Company, which specializes in handmade bon-bons and truffles that are visual and mouth-watering delights. Truffles are generously filled with an assortment of flavored chocolate ganache ranging from Latte Macchiato to Viennese Amaretto to Grand Marnier.

The beauty of the North Carolina coast is enough to keep you entranced with Kitty Hawk, and by adding any of the surrounding area’s sun-soaked entertainment spots like those mentioned above, your trip is sure to take flight.

Sources:
http://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm
http://igotyourcrabs.com/
http://comedyclubobx.com/
http://thebelgianchocolateco.com/

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Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706.  As a teenager, Ben worked in his brother’s print shop, composing pamphlets and setting type. Though too young to get himself published in the local newspaper, Ben began writing letters to the editor and signing them with the name of a fictional widow, ‘Silence Dogood.’ These letters were not only published, but became very popular to the Boston citizenry, as they were filled with advice and were usually very critical of the Boston power structure. But once his ruse was found out, Ben and his brother found themselves at odds with Boston’s powerful Puritan preachers, and Ben left for Philadelphia, seeking a new start in a new city.

During his early days in Philadelphia, fires were a very dangerous threat to towns and cities. Many buildings were being struck by lightning and burned down because they were mainly built of wood. Franklin thought this was a preventable tragedy, and he set about trying to fix the situation. His first step was to organize Philadelphia’s first fire company to fight fires.

But, as we all know, Franklin believed that: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Therefore, he began to become interested in understanding the cause of these fires, and this lead him to take a closer look at lightning and the effects of electricity. Although not the first to suggest a correlation between electricity and lightning, Franklin was the first to propose a workable system for testing his hypothesis. While most scientists of his time were trying to fix the lightning problem by avoiding lightning, Franklin took the ‘thinking outside the box’ approach of attracting lightning.

Franklin had developed the theory behind his lightning rods invention several years before his reported kite experiment. He postulated that an iron rod—about 8 or 10 feet long with a sharp point at the end—placed on top of a building would safely redirect a lightning bolt:

“The electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out of a cloud silently, before it could come near enough to strike….”

Franklin spent the summer of 1747 conducting a series of groundbreaking experiments to prove that lightning was electricity, and in true altruistic fashion, also wanted to protect people, buildings, and other structures from lightning. In mid-1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous kite flying experiments and proved that lightning is electricity. The lightning rod became a staple tool for preventing fires all over the world.

So on top of all of the wonderful things Ben Franklin did, his invention of the lightning rod probably saved tens of thousands of lives and prevented millions of dollars of property damage due to fires. And to top it off, Franklin also helped found the Philadelphia Contribution for Insurance against Loss by Fire so those who did have a fire were not wiped out financially. Ben Franklin was one of those rare people who could focus on the fine details of a subject while at the same time, understand how his finding fit into the big picture and the real world; and that ability alone, made him quite a remarkable man.  Not only did Ben Franklin prove that lightning was electricity, in true altruistic fashion, he also was able to protect people, buildings, and other structures from its devastation.

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