Archives April 2013

Fiberglass consists of extremely fine glass fibers, made from molten glass extruded at a specified diameter. Glassmakers have experimented with glass fibers throughout history, but mass manufacturing had to wait for the refinement of machine tooling before a practical product could be made possible. The product commonly referred to as "fiberglass" was invented as a form of insulation by Russell Games Slayter (1896-1964)—he dropped the Russell early in life—and John Thomas of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company in-the 1930s. In 1938 Owens-Illinois and Corning Glass formed Owens-Corning to make fiberglass using Slayter and Thomas's method. Fiberglass was discovered—like many other scientific discoveries—by accident. While Thomas's assistant, Dale Kleist, was spraying molten glass for a project, tiny fibers formed. Thomas realized the process could be used to improve the production of fiberglass. Thomas and Slayter refined the process, leading to what is known as the steam-blowing method. As the molten glass is more...

"Count your blessings; in the old days, they had to send a sketch-artist up there." Two and a Half Men (2003) on colonoscopy The first eridoscope was the Lichtleiter (light-guiding instrument) developed by Philipp Bozzini (1773-1809) of Vienna, Austria, and demonstrated in 1805. Using the reflected light of a candle in a series of lenses, he was able to see inside the urinary tract, rectum, and throat. Suspicion within the medical community and his early death brought endoscopy to a halt. In 1853, Antoine Jean Desormeaux, a French surgeon, modified the Lichtleiter. He used a system of mirrors and lenses, a lamp flame for illumination that burned alcohol and turpentine, and the occasional patient. He was also the first to use the term endoscope. Dr. Adolph Kussmaul of Germany was the first to look inside the stomach of a living human with an endoscope in 1868. He did this with more...

"My whole body was shaken as though by a thunderbolt." Pieter Van Musschenbroek,physicist In 1745 the Dutch physicist Pietervan Musschenbroek (1692-1791) took a sealed glass vial partially filled with water, passed a conducting wire through a cork at one end and attached it to a nearby Wimshurst friction machine, which generated a static charge. The glass jar, called a Leyden Jar in honor of the inventor's home town  and  university,  absorbed  the  charge, demonstrating for the first time that electricity could be produced and stored successfully and then discharged through the exposed wire to any grounded object. Musschenbroek tested the device by holding the jar in one hand and touching the charged, exposed wire with the other. He received such a shock that he swore not even a promise of the entire French nation could persuade him to do so again. The Leyden jar created a sensation within the worldwide more...

Nature gives us many useful things. We cannot do without them. Salt is one of them. It is a necessary article in food. Salt is obtained from the sea. It is also obtained from mines. The latter is called rock-salt. There are famous salt mines in the salt ranges in Punjab and Rajasthan. The rock salt is dug out from mines. It has a reddish colour. To obtain salt from the sea water, we have to boil the water or let it evaporate in the sun. When the water evaporates, salt is left behind. This salt is not pure. It is purified afterwards. Pure salt is white in colour. In India, salt is prepared in a large quantity in coastal areas. Salt is also prepared at the Sambar Lake in Rajasthan. Salt is used by all men, rich or poor. Salt makes our food tasty. Food is also easily digested more...

“... when... Ptolemy suppressed the export of paper, parchment was invented at Pergamum…” Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 13 According to Pliny the Elder, parchment was developed in the city of Pergamum (now Bergama, Turkey) because a king of Egypt, fearing that Pergamum's great library might overshadow that of Alexandria, stopped exporting papyrus to the city. It seems more likely that parchment already existed and was refined at Pergamum. Also, this was not the first time animal skin had been written on. Leather had been used occasionally, possibly dating back to circa 2000 B.C.E. However, previous attempts involved tanning the leather and produced documents that were slightly hairy, stiff, and one-sided. Parchment, on the other hand, was made from the skins of sheep, calves, and goats that were cleaned and, crucially, scraped thoroughly. Both sides of the smooth, flexible surface were ideal for writing and ultimately allowed sheets to more...

Health is the greatest assets a person possesses It is an important gift by nature to us. Health is precious and every one must look after it carefully. Disease is the worst enemy of good health. There are various kinds of bacteria and viruses in the atmosphere which can attack man and make him ill. How could diseases be kept apart from affecting us. It is wise to prevent a disease rather than trying to cure it once it has already affected a person. Many medicines have been invented for the cure of almost every disease. Drugs like asprine, quinine, penicillin, etc. have been used by doctors all over the world to cure influenza, malaria, etc. Antibiotics are given by doctors to fight serious infections. However, these cures lead to various damages to the body as they have a weakening affect on the body. Hence it has often been advised more...

Although Raymond Vahan Damadian (b. 1936) is credited with the idea of turning to nuclear magnetic resonance to look inside the human body, it was Paul Lauterbur (1929-2007) and Peter Mansfield (b. 1933), who carried out the work most strongly linked to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology. The technique makes use of hydrogen atoms resonating when bombarded with' magnetic energy. MRI provides three-dimensional images without harmful radiation and offers more detail than older techniques. While training as a doctor in New York, Damadian started investigating living cells with a nuclear magnetic resonance machine. In 1971 he found that the signals carried on for longer with cells from tumors than from healthy ones. But the methods used at this time were neither effective nor practical, although Damadian received a patent for such a machine to be used by doctors to pick up cancer cells in 1974. The real shift came when more...

UNO stands for United Nations Organization. It is the world body which came into existence on October 24, 1945 at; the end of the Second World War. Obviously it was formed to save the world from the catastrophe of another World War. The UNO is successfully doing its work and is trying to maintain international peace and security by developing friendly relations; among nations. The UNO has six organs to carry out its business. However the Security Council is its most important organ. America, Russia, England, France and China are the five permanent I members of the Security Council. They enjoy the right of veto, which means that the Security Council cannot take any I decision without unanimous consent of these five members. If any of these members disagrees, the decision cannot be taken as valid. In this council, there are ten temporary members. Besides its six organs, of the more...

Public property is what people of a country own and use it jointly. For example, we walk on road, use electricity, public parks and grounds, hospital, libraries, government offices, etc. These are all built with public money, that is from the taxes. we pay. And the government is responsible for maintaining this property. But it does not mean that people have no role to play in this regard. If the government is responsible for building and maintaining public property, it is the duty of people to help the government in maintaining it. It costs a lot of money to build or buy these things and our country is not so rich. Hence our duty increases a little bit more. If we, the people of the country do not use these public amenities properly or if we destroy them, it will not be easy to replace them. It has been seen more...

The abuse of drug has become an international problem. Almost every country nowadays is facing the menace of drug abuse. Whether it is America, the most powerful country or it is India, one of the developing countries, the problem bothers both alike. The evil is increasing by leaps and bounds in the places like hostels and campuses of the universities and technical and professional institutions where a big number of students are freely using charas, ganja, heroin, smack or brown  sugar etc. No doubt drugs have been used by mankind from the very beginning but for medical purposes. Nowadays they are f being abused by our young generation. Sometimes our young boys and girls take drugs and narcotics to alleviate pain but most of the time to get a thrill at the persuation of their friends. By and by they become addicted to this bad habit. In  ndia their number more...