Kites

The generally accepted wisdom is that the kite was invented in China. However it is also known that people in the South Sea Islands have used kites for fishing since very early times. They would attach bait to the tail of the kite together with a sort of net to catch the fish. This technique is still in use today. But the precise date when this started is unclear. By contrast there is sound documented evidence about the ancient use of kites in China.

It is likely that the inspiration for the kite came from ancient Chinese watching the effect of the wind on leaves, bamboo hats or sails. Certainly the Chinese were using wind sails before the kite was invented, and it is possible the kite came about when a wind sail became loose and floated up into the air still attached by one rope. But there are so many contradictory views that it is difficult to decide which is correct. However, whatever it was that inspired the kite, it is believed that the very first kite was made by Mo Di (468-376 BC), a famous philosopher who lived on Mount Lu (now the southeast of Qingzhou, Weifang, Shandong). Here he made an eagle with wood in three years. After his three years of effort he managed to fly it for just one day. So the kite has a history of some 2,300 years. The story is that he passed his skills onto his student, Gongshu Ban (or Lu Ban) who improved on the design. Gongshu Ban made a kite in the form of a magpie, using bamboo and silk. With this improved design it is said that he managed to fly the kite for three days continuously.

However this information is misleading. Kites have been used by man in India for 5000+ years. Earlier kites were used as leaf kites. Misinformation about China has misguided people’s opinions. By at least 549 AD paper kites were being flown, as it was recorded in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations. The earliest known Chinese kites were flat (not bowed) and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline. Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures; some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying.

Instead of being playthings, early kites were used for military purposes. Historical records say they were large in size; some were powerful enough to carry men up in the air to observe enemy movements, and others were used to scatter propaganda leaflets over hostile forces. According to the ancient book Records of Strange Events (Du Yi Zhi) when Emperor Wu di (464-549) of the Liang Dynasty, was surrounded at Taicheng, Nanjing by the rebel troops under Hou Jing, it was by means of a kite that he sent out an S.O.S. message for outside help. However his plan failed when the kite was brought down by the enemy.

Ceiling Fan

A ceiling fan is a mechanical fan, usually electrically powered, suspended from the ceiling of a room, that uses hub-mounted rotating paddles to circulate air.

A ceiling fan rotates much more slowly than an electric desk fan; it cools people effectively by introducing slow movement into the otherwise still, hot air of a room, inducing. evaporative cooling. Fans never actually cool air, unlike air-conditioning equipment, but use significantly less power.

 

The first ceiling fans appeared in the early 1860s and 1870s, in the United States and were designed by Duchess Melissa Rinaldi during her sojourn in the Rocky Mountains. At that time, they were not powered by any form of electric motor. Instead, a stream of running water was used, in conjunction with a turbine, to drive a system of belts which would turn the blades of two-blade fan units. These systems could accommodate several fan units, and so became popular in stores, restaurants, and offices. Some of these systems still survive today, and can be seen in parts of the southern United States where they originally proved useful. The electrically powered ceiling fan was invented in 1882 by Philip Diehl; he had engineered the electric motor used in the first electrically powered Singer sewing machines, and in 1882 adapted that motor for use in a ceiling-mounted fan.

Each fan had its own self-contained motor unit, with no need for belt drive. He was almost immediately up against fierce competition due to the commercial success of the ceiling fan. He continued to make improvements to his invention; by creating a light kit fitted to the ceiling fan to combine both functions in one unit. By World War I most ceiling fans were made with four blades instead of the original two, which made fans quieter and allowed them to circulate more air.

Cricket Ball

A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. A cricket ball consists of cork covered by leather, and manufacture is heavily regulated by cricket law at first class level.

In Test cricket, professional domestic games that spread over a multitude of days, and almost the entirety of amateur cricket, the traditional red cricket ball is used. In many one day cricket matches, a white ball is used instead in order to remain visible under floodlights.

The origin of cricket :-

One origin has English shepherds in the Middle Ages bowling or rolling balls of rags or wool at a target, often the sheep paddock's wicket gate. Other shepherds defended it with their crooked staffs. But it is unlikely one single game evolved into modern cricket.

Edward II (1300s) and Oliver Cromwell (1600s) are attributed with wielding a bat, and the first recorded game was in Kent, England, in 1646.

Spoons

Since the dawn of human civilization, various eating utensils were created to help us prepare, serve and eat various types of food. From the simple sharped rocks, carved wood sticks, clay dishes, and invention of metallurgy, spoon managed to prove itself as the most perfect tool in all areas of food preparation and serving. It’s simple design consisting of small shallow bowl (shaped to be oval or round) that is connected to an end of a handle was used over millennia by many ancient civilizations, finally reaching the modern state and design that we all know today. Currently, spoons dominate our modern way of preparing and serving food. Over 50 variations of spoons are used for many specific tasks in eating, preparing and other activities, and many more types were used in the past.

Preserved examples of various forms of spoons used by the ancient Egyptians include those composed of ivory, flint, slate and wood; many of them carved with religious symbols. During the Neolithic Ozieri civilization in Sardinia, ceramic ladlesand spoons were already in use. In Shang Dynasty China, spoons were made of bone. Early bronze spoons in China were designed with a sharp point, and may have also been used as cutlery. Ancient Indian texts also refer to the use of spoons. For example, the Rigveda refers to spoons during a passage describing the reflection of light as it "touches the spoon's mouth" (RV 8.43.10). The spoons of the Greeks and Romans were chiefly made of bronze and silver and the handle usually takes the form of a spike or pointed stem. There are many examples in the British Museum from which the forms of the various types can be ascertained, the chief points of difference being found in the junction of the bowl with the handle.

In the early Muslim world, spoons were used for eating soup. Medieval spoons for domestic use were commonly made of cow horn or wood, but brass, pewter, and latten spoons appear to have been common in about the 15th century. The full descriptions and entries relating to silver spoons in the inventories of the royal and other households point to their special value and rarity. The earliest English reference appears to be in a will of 1259.  In the wardrobe accounts of Edward I for the year 1300 some gold and silver spoons marked with the fleur-de-lis, the Paris mark, are mentioned. One of the most interesting medieval spoons is the coronation spoon used in the anointing of the English sovereign.

The sets of Apostle Spoons, popular as christening presents in Tudor times, the handles of which terminate in heads or busts of the apostles, are a special form to which antiquarian interest attaches. The earlier English spoon-handles terminate in an acorn, plain knob or a diamond; at the end of the 16th century, the baluster and seal ending becomes common, the bowl being fig-shaped. During The Restoration, the handle becomes broad and flat, the bowl is broad and oval and the termination is cut into the shape known as the hind's foot.

In the first quarter of the 18th century, the bowl becomes narrow and elliptical, with a tongue or rat's tail down the back, and the handle is turned up at the end.

The modern form, with the tip of the bowl narrower than the base and the rounded end of the handle turned down, came into use about 1760.

Spoons are primarily used to transfer edibles from vessel to mouth, usually at a dining table. A spoon's style is usually named after a drink or food with which they are most often used, the material with which they are composed, or a feature of their appearance or structure.

·         Bouillon spoon — round-bowled, somewhat smaller than a soup spoon

·         Caviar spoon — usually made of mother of pearl, gold, animal horn or wood but not silver, which would affect the taste

·         Chinese spoon a type of soup spoon

·         Coffee spoon — small, for use with after-dinner coffee cups, (usually smaller than teaspoon)

·         Cutty — short, chiefly Scot and Irish

·         Demitasse spoon — diminutive, smaller than a teaspoon; for traditional coffee drinks in specialty cups and for spooning cappuccino froth

·         Dessert spoon — intermediate in size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, used in eating dessert and sometimes soup or cereals

·         Egg spoon — for eating boiled eggs; with a shorter handle and bowl, a more pointed tip and often a more rounded bowl than a teaspoon

·         Grapefruit spoon or orange spoon — tapers to a sharp point or teeth, used for citrus fruits and melons

·         Horn spoon — a spoon made of horn, used chiefly interjectionally in the phrase By the Great Horn Spoon!, as in the children's novel of that title by Sid Fleischman

·         Ice cream fork — sometimes called a "spork", this implement has a bowl like a teaspoon with the point made into 3 stubby tines that dig easily into frozen ice cream

·         Iced tea spoon — with a very long handle

·         Marrow spoon or marrow scoop — 18th century, often of silver, with a long thin bowl suitable for removing marrow from a bone

·         Melon spoon; often silver, used for eating melon

·         Parfait spoon — with a bowl similar in size and shape to that of a teaspoon, and with a long slim handle, used in eating parfait, sundaes, sorbets or similar foods served in tall glasses

·         Plastic spoon — cheap, disposable, flexible, stain resistant, sometimes biodegradable; black, white, colored or clear; smooth, non-porous surface; varied types and uses

·         Rattail spoon — developed in the later 17th century; with a thin pointed tongue on the bottom of the bowl to reinforce the joint of bowl and handle

·         Runcible spoon — non-existent object referenced in the nonsense poem The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear; various suggestions for its definition have been put forward (see Runcible#Attempts to define the word)

·         Salt spoon — miniature, used with an open salt cellar for individual service

·         saucier spoon — slightly flattened spoon with a notch in one side; used for drizzling sauces over fish or other delicate foods.

·         Soup spoon — with a large or rounded bowl for eating soup.

·         Cream-soup spoon — round-bowled, slightly shorter than a standard soup spoon

·         Teaspoon — small, suitable for stirring and sipping tea or coffee, standard capacity one third of a tablespoon, unit of volume.

·         Tablespoon — volume of three teaspoons. Sometimes used for ice cream and soup, unit of volume.

·         Seal-top spoon — silver, end of handle in the form of a circular seal; popular in England in the later 16th and 17th centuries

·         Spork, sporf, spife, splayd etc. — differing combinations of a spoon with a fork or knife

·         Stroon - a straw with a spoon on the end for eating slush puppies etc.

Jeans

Chemical structure of indigo dye, used in blue jeans

The word jeans comes from a kind of material that was made in Europe. The material, called jean, was named after sailors from Genoa in Italy, because they wore clothes made from it. The word 'denim' probably came from the name of a French material, serge de Nimes: serge (a kind of material) from Nimes (a town in France).

In 1853, the California gold rush was in full swing, and everyday items were in short supply. Levi Strauss, a 24-year-old German immigrant, left New York for San Francisco with a small supply of dry goods with the intention of opening a branch of his brother's New York dry goods business. Shortly after his arrival, a prospector wanted to know what Mr. Levi Strauss was selling. When Strauss told him he had rough canvas to use for tents and wagon covers, the prospector said, "You should have brought pants!" saying he couldn't find a pair of pants strong enough to last.

Levi Strauss had the canvas made into waist overalls. Miners liked the pants, but complained that they tended to chafe. Levi Strauss substituted a twilled cotton cloth from France called "serge de Nimes." The fabric later became known as denim and the pants were nicknamed blue jeans.

THE LEVI STRAUSS COMPANY:-

In 1873, Levi Strauss & Company began using the pocket stitch design. Levi Strauss and a Reno Nevada-based Latvian tailor by the name of Jacob Davis co-patented the process of putting rivets in pants for strength. On May 20, 1873, they received U.S.Patent No.139,121. This date is now considered the official birthday of "blue jeans."

Levi Strauss asked Jacob Davis to come to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacturing facility for "waist overalls," as the original jeans were known as.The two-horse brand design was first used in 1886. The red tab attached to the left rear pocket was created in 1936 as a means of identifying Levi’s jeans at a distance. All are registered trademarks that are still in use.

The Unsinkable TITANIC

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. The White Star Line had spared no expense in assuring her luxury. A legend even before she sailed, her passengers were a mixture of the world's wealthiest basking in the elegance of first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage.

She was touted as the safest ship ever built, so safe that she carried only 20 lifeboats - enough to provide accommodation for only half her 2,200 passengers and crew. This discrepancy rested on the belief that since the ship's construction made her "unsinkable," her lifeboats were necessary only to rescue survivors of other sinking ships. Additionally, lifeboats took up valuable deck space.

Four days into her journey, at 11:40 P.M. on the night of April 14, she struck an iceberg. Her fireman compared the sound of the impact to "the tearing of calico, nothing more." However, the collision was fatal and the icy water soon poured through the ship.

It became obvious that many would not find safety in a lifeboat. Each passenger was issued a life jacket but life expectancy would be short when exposed to water four degrees below freezing. As the forward portion of the ship sank deeper, passengers scrambled to the stern. John Thayer witnessed the sinking from a lifeboat. "We could see groups of the almost fifteen hundred people still aboard, clinging in clusters or bunches, like swarming bees; only to fall in masses, pairs or singly, as the great after part of the ship, two hundred and fifty feet of it, rose into the sky, till it reached a sixty-five or seventy degree angle." The great ship slowly slid beneath the waters two hours and forty minutes after the collision

The next morning, the liner Carpathia rescued 705 survivors. One thousand five hundred twenty-two passengers and crew were lost. Subsequent inquiries attributed the high loss of life to an insufficient number of lifeboats and inadequate training in their use.

BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke commonly known as BMW, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. BMW is headquartered inMunich, Bavaria, Germany. It also owns and produces Mini cars, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad. In 2010, the BMW group produced 1,481,253 automobiles and 112,271 motorcycles across all its brands. BMW is part of the "German Big 3" luxury automakers, along with Audi and Mercedes-Benz, which are the three best-selling luxury automakers in the world.

 To better understand BMW today you have to know and understand BMW history. The last century gives the “flavor” of today’s BMW cars, the ingredient that makes them so special. This “special” can be almost seen as the soul of a person. BMW cars have an unmistakably personality and an obsessive care about the feeling of driving, thus their slogan "the ultimate driving machine". This creates a bond between the car and the driver that may last for a lifetime.

These three magic letters stand for Bayerische Motoren Werke, or in English, Bavarian Motor Works. The "Motor" is the core of this acronym and is the foundation; the key part around which BMW builds every product.

BMW was established as a business entity following a restructuring of the Rapp Motorenwerke aircraft manufacturing firm in 1917. After the end of World War I in 1918, BMW was forced to cease aircraft engine production by the terms of the Versailles Armistice Treaty. The company consequently shifted to motorcycle production in 1923, once the restrictions of the treaty started to be lifted, followed by automobiles in 1928–29.

The first car which BMW successfully produced and the car which launched BMW on the road to automobile production was the Dixi, it was based on the Austin 7 and licensed from the Austin Motor Company in Birmingham, England.

Internet (ARPA NET in early times)

The Internet, Then known as ARPANET, was brought online in 1969 under a contract let by the renamed Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) which initially connected four major computers at universities in the southwestern US. The contract was carried out by BBN of Cambridge,MA under Bob Kahn and went online in December 1969.

Four ground rules were critical to Kahn's early thinking:

·         Each distinct network would have to stand on its own and no internal   changes could be required to any such network to connect it to the Internet.

·         Communications would be on a best effort basis. If a packet didn't make it to the final destination, it would shortly be retransmitted from the source.

·         Black boxes would be used to connect the networks; these would later be called gateways and routers. There would be no information retained by the gateways about the individual flows of packets passing through them, thereby keeping them simple and avoiding complicated adaptation and recovery from various failure modes.

·         There would be no global control at the operations level.

Other key issues that needed to be addressed were:

·         Algorithms to prevent lost packets from permanently disabling communications and enabling them to be successfully retransmitted from the source.

·         Providing for host-to-host "pipelining" so that multiple packets could be enroute from source to destination at the discretion of the participating hosts, if the intermediate networks allowed it.

·         Gateway functions to allow it to forward packets appropriately. This included interpreting IP headers for routing, handling interfaces, breaking packets into smaller pieces if necessary, etc.

·         The need for end-end checksums, reassembly of packets from fragments and detection of duplicates, if any.

·         The need for global addressing

·         Techniques for host-to-host flow control.

·         Interfacing with the various operating systems

·         There were also other concerns, such as implementation efficiency, internetwork performance, but these were secondary considerations at first.

The history of the Internet began with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. The public was first introduced to the concepts that would lead to the Internet when a message was sent over the ARPANet from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock's laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), after the second piece of network equipment was installed at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Packet switched networks such as ARPANET, Mark I at NPL in the UK, CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet, and Telenet, were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s using a variety of protocols. The ARPANET in particular led to the development of protocols for internetworking, in which multiple separate networks could be joined together into a network of networks.

In 1982, the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was standardized, and consequently, the concept of a world-wide network of interconnected TCP/IP networks, called the Internet, was introduced. Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the Computer Science Network (CSNET) and again in 1986 when NSFNET provided access to supercomputer sites in the United States from research and education organizations. Commercial Internet (ISPs) began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990. The Internet was commercialized in 1995 when NSFNET was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic.

Promoted to the head of the information processing office at DARPA, Robert Taylor intended to realize Licklider's ideas of an interconnected networking system. Bringing in Larry Roberts from MIT, he initiated a project to build such a network. The first ARPANET link was established between the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Stanford Research Institute at 22:30 hours on October 29, 1969.

"We set up a telephone connection between us and the guys at SRI ...", Kleinrock ... said in an interview: "We typed the L and we asked on the phone,

"Do you see the L?"

"Yes, we see the L," came the response.

We typed the O, and we asked, "Do you see the O."

"Yes, we see the O."

Then we typed the G, and the system crashed ...

Yet a revolution had begun" ....

Mercury

Mercury, also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum, is a chemical element.No one has the credit for finding mercury. It was found in ancient history. Mercury was found in Egyptian tombs that are from 1500 BC.Chinese people also knew it from long ago. In China and Tibet, people thought using mercury would make them live longer and have better health. One of China's emperors, Qín Shǐ Huáng Dì, is said to have been buried in a tomb with rivers of flowing mercury. He was killed by drinking a mixture of mercury and powdered jade because he wanted to live forever. However, this only made him die of liver failure, poisoning, and brain death. The ancient Greeks used mercury in ointments. The Egyptians and the Romans used it in cosmetics. These cosmetics sometimes hurt and made faces uglier.

Mercury is not usually found free in nature and is primarily obtained from the mineral cinnabar (HgS). Spain and Italy produce about half of the world's supply of Mercury.

Mercury can be used to make thermometers, barometers and other scientific instruments. Mercury conducts electricity and is used to make silent, position dependent switches. Mercury vapor is used in streetlights, fluorescent lamps and advertising signs.

Mercury easily forms alloys with other metals, such as gold, silver, zinc and cadmium. These alloys are called amalgams. Amalgams are used to help extract gold from its ores, create dental fillings (in the case of silver) and help extend the life of dry cell batteries (in the case of zinc and cadmium).

Footwear

Spanish cave drawings from more than 15,000 years ago show humans with animal skins or furs wrapped around their feet. The body of a well-preserved “ice-man” nearly 5,000 years old wears leather foot coverings stuffed with straw. Shoes, in some form or another, have been around for a very long time. The evolution of foot coverings, from the sandal to present-day athletic shoes that are marvels of engineering, continues even today as we find new materials with which to cover our feet.

Has the shoe really changed that much though? We are, in fact, still wearing sandals – the oldest crafted foot covering known to us. Moccasins are still readily available in the form of the loafer. In fact, many of the shoes we wear today can be traced back to another era. The Cuban heel may have been named for the dance craze of the 1920s, but the shape can be seen long before that time. Platform soles, which are one of the most recognizable features of footwear in the 1970s and 1990s were handed down to us from 16th centurychopines. Then, high soles were a necessity to keep the feet off of the dirty streets. Today, they are worn strictly for fashion’s sake. The poulaine, with its ridiculously long toes is not that different from the winkle-pickers worn in the 1960s.

If one can deduce that basic shoe shapes have evolved only so much, it is necessary to discover why this has happened. It is surely not due to a lack of imagination – the colors and materials of shoes today demonstrate that. Looking at shoes from different parts of the world, one can see undeniable similarities. While the Venetians were wearing the chopine, the Japanese balanced on high-soled wooden shoes called geta. Though the shape is slightly different, the idea remains the same. The Venetians had no contact with the Japanese, so it is not a case of imitation. Even the mystical Chinese practice of foot binding has been copied (though to a lesser extent) in our culture. Some European women and men of the past bound their feet with tape and squashed them into too-tight shoes. In fact, a survey from the early 1990s reported that 88 percent of American women wear shoes that are too small!

As one examines footwear history, both in the West and in other parts of the world, the similarities are apparent. Though the shoemakers of the past never would have thought to pair a sandal with a platform sole, our shoe fashions of today are, for the most part, modernized adaptations of past styles.

Football (American Football and Soccer)

Football (as well as rugby and soccer) are believed to have descended from the ancient Greek game of harpaston.   Harpaston is mentioned frequently in classical literature, where it is often referred to as a “very rough and brutal game“.  The rules of this ancient sport were quite simple:  Points were awarded when a player would cross a goal line by either kicking the ball, running with it across the goal line, or throwing it across the line to another player. The other team’s objective was simply to stop them by any means possible.  There was no specific field length, no side line boundaries, no specified number of players per team, only a glaring lack of rules.

Most modern versions of football are believed to have originated from England in the twelfth century. The game became so popular in England that the kings of that time (Henry II and Henry IV) actually banned football. They believed that football was taking away interest from the traditional sports of England, such as fencing and archery.

England was where the game was developed and codified. The modern global game of Football was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games. There is evidence for refereed, team football games being played in English schools since at least 1581. An account of an exclusively kicking football game from Nottinghamshire-Notts County in the 15th century bears similarity to football. England can boast the earliest ever documented use of the English word "football" (1409) and the earliest reference to the sport in French (1314). England is home to the oldest football clubs in the world (dating from at least 1857), the world's oldest competition (the FA cup founded in 1871) and the first ever football league (1888). But the first ever inter league was in the 20th century. For these reasons England is considered the home of the game of football.

Tom And Jerry

Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases include slapstick comedy. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote, produced and directed 114 Tom and Jerry shorts at MGM cartoon studios in Hollywood from 1940 to 1957. The original series is notable for having won seven Academy Awards, tying with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. A longtime television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience and has been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema.

MGM released an additional 13 entries in 1961 produced by Rembrandt Films led by Gene Deitch in central Europe. Chuck Jones's Sib-Tower 12 Productions produced another 34 entries between 1963–1967, creating a total of 161 theatrical entries.

Tom and Jerry resurfaced in made-for-television series' produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Filmation Studios starting in the 1970s. The feature-length film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie was released in 1992, and was followed by their first made-for-television short, Tom and Jerry: The Mansion Cat for Boomerang. The most recent Tom and Jerry theatrical short, The Karate Guard (2005), was written and co-directed by Barbera.

Time Warner (via its Turner Entertainment division) currently owns the rights to Tom and Jerry: Warner Bros. handles distribution. Since the merger, Turner has produced Tom and Jerry Tales for The CW's Saturday morning "The CW4Kids" lineup, and several Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films in collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation.

Paper (also known as Papyrus)

The Invention Of Paper

Paper was invented by the ancient Chinese in the 2nd century BC during the Han Dynasty and spread slowly to the west via the Silk Road. Papermaking and manufacturing in Europe started in the Iberian Peninsula, today's Portugal and Spain and Sicily in the 10th century by the Muslims living there at the time, and slowly spread to Italy and South France reaching Germany by 1400. Earlier, other paper-like materials were in use like papyrus, parchment and vellum.

In medieval Europe, the hitherto handcraft of papermaking was mechanized by the use of waterpower, the first water paper mill in the Iberian Peninsula having been built in the Portuguese city of Leiria in 1411, and other processes. The rapid expansion of European paper production was truly enhanced by the invention of the printing press and the beginning of the Printing Revolution in the 15th century.

The word "paper" is etymologically derived from papyrus, Ancient Greek for the Cyperus papyrus plant. Papyrus is a thick, paper-like material produced from the pith of the Cyperus papyrus plant which was used in ancient Egypt and other Mediterranean cultures for writing long before the making of paper in China. 

Papyrus however is a "lamination of natural plants, while paper is manufactured from fibers whose properties have been changed by maceration or disintegration.

AD 105 is often cited as the year in which papermaking was invented. In that year, historical records show that the invention of paper was reported to the Chinese Emperor by Ts'ai Lun, an official of the Imperial Court.

Recent archaeological investigations, however, place the actual invention of papermaking some 200 years earlier. Ancient paper pieces from the Xuanquanzhi ruins of Dunhuang in China's northwest Gansu province apparently were made during the period of Emperor Wu who reigned between 140 BC and 86 BC.

Whether or not Ts'ai Lun was the actual inventor of paper, he deserves the place of honor he has been given in Chinese history for his role in developing a material that revolutionized his country.

Early Chinese paper appears to have been made by from a suspension of hemp waste in water, washed, soaked, and beaten to a pulp with a wooden mallet. A paper mold, probably a sieve of coarsely woven cloth stretched in a four-sided bamboo frame, was used to dip up the fiber slurry from the vat and hold it for drying. Eventually, tree bark, bamboo, and other plant fibers were used in addition to hemp.

The first real advance in papermaking came with the development of a smooth material for the mold covering, which made it possible for the papermaker to free the newly formed sheet and reuse the mold immediately. This covering was made from thin strips of rounded bamboo stitched or laced together with silk, flax, or animal hairs. Other Chinese improvements in papermaking include the use of starch as a sizing material and the use of a yellow dye which doubled as an insect repellent for manuscript paper.

The Invention Of Erasers

History Behind Erasers

Before rubber erasers, tablets of rubber or wax were used to erase lead or charcoal marks from paper. Bits of rough stone such as sandstone or pumice were used to remove small errors from parchment or papyrus documents written in ink. Crust less bread was used as an eraser in the past; a Meiji-era (1868-1912) Imagine a bread used for rubbing pencil marks today.

A Tokyo student said: "Bread erasers were used in place of rubber erasers, and so they would give them to us with no restriction on amount. So we thought nothing of taking these and eating a firm part to at least slightly satisfy our hunger."

On April 15, 1770, Joseph Priestley described a vegetable gum to remove pencil marks: "I have seen a substance excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the mark of black lead pencil." He dubbed the substance "rubber".

In 1770, Edward Nairne, an English engineer, is credited with developing the first widely-marketed rubber eraser for an inventions competition. He sold natural rubber erasers for the high price of three shillings per half-inch cube. According to Nairne, he inadvertently picked up a piece of rubber instead of breadcrumbs, discovered rubber's erasing properties, and began selling rubber erasers. Incidentally, that was the first practical application of the substance in Europe, and rubbing out the pencil marks gave it its English name.

However, raw rubber shared the same inconveniences as bread, since it was perishable. It was noticed that while the rubber softened in warm weather, it became hard in cold conditions. What 's more, the first rubbers had an unpleasant smell if you kept using it. A scientist named Charles Goodyear invented the process of 'vulcanization' in 1839. This innovative process enabled rubber to become more long lasting, elastic and more durable in nature. Rubber erasers became common with this advent of vulcanization.

On March 30, 1858, Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia, USA, received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil. It was later invalidated because it was determined to be simply a composite of two devices rather than an entirely new product.

How an eraser makes everything disappear

Ever wondered how all these materials erase graphite, charcoal and lead marks on paper? The logic behind it is quite simple. The molecules in erasers are relatively stickier than those constituting paper. Therefore, when an eraser is rubbed onto a pencil mark, the graphite sticks to the eraser's surface instead of the paper's surface. While it does this, the eraser can damage the top layer of the paper itself if used too roughly. It leaves some residue on the paper, which then needs to be removed. Erasers are primarily adsorbents.