Browsing: Science & Technology

A Brief History On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code (well, duh!) and of the telegraph, famously sent the message “What Hath God Wrought?” to inaugurate his new telegraph. Certain messages in History have become so iconic that they are familiar to most people (though sometimes not remembered with perfect accuracy). Here we list 5 of these Momentous Messages.  Digging Deeper 1. “What Hath God Wrought?” – Samuel Morse to Alfred Vail. Morse used a quotation from the Bible (Numbers 23:23) to send his message from the old Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. to his assistant…

A Brief History On May 18, 1958, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter set the world speed record for an airplane by flying 1404.19 mph over a 15 mile course, at the same time becoming the first aircraft ever to hold both the world speed record and the world altitude record at the same time (91,243 feet on May 7, 1958). Digging Deeper An incredible plane in many ways, this little single jet engine powered interceptor went on to a production run of over 2500 planes and served with 15 different countries, until finally retired in 2004 (Italy). Designed as a Mach…

A Brief History On May 15, 1941, the Gloster E.28/39 jet powered fighter prototype made its first flight. This first of the Allied jet powered aircraft would be further developed into the first operational Allied jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. The test aircraft could only make 338 mph, much slower than piston engine propeller driven fighters, but the Meteor was superb for its day when it was introduced in July of 1944, later variants capable of 600 mph. Although with limited combat experience, including no air to air combat (except against V-1 cruise missiles) the Meteor joined the War too…

A Brief History On May 13, 1958, Australian adventurer and master of WTF, Frederick Benjamin “Ben” Carlin completed a most unlikely circumnavigation of the Earth, accomplished over a 10 year period and in an amphibious vehicle, a World War II amphibious version of the American Jeep! Digging Deeper Carlin first attempted a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in his Ford GPA he fittingly named Half-Safe in 1947 (Should he have named it “Less Than Half-Safe?”), but suffered a few failures over the next couple years.  The successful crossing began in 1950, incredibly beyond even the cheeky nature of the attempt…

A Brief History On May 10, 2013, almost 12 years after the tragic terrorist events of September 11, 2001, a new One World Trade Center skyscraper under construction on the site of the former twin towers became once again, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Digging Deeper When Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City, sending the formerly tallest buildings in the world crashing to the ground, it was resolved nearly immediately that New York and the United States would rebuild…