When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity.
To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C.
The Russians used a pencil.
First suburban railwayIn 1836, the world's first suburban railway opened in England. The London & Greenwich Railway (LGR) ran with two tracks between Depford and London Bridge. The 878-arch viaduct remains in use today. The construction was supervised Colonel George Landman, a military engineer who was born in Woolwich. He had hundreds of navvies at work, and those building the arches could lay 100,000 bricks a day. Six years earlier, the world's first all-steam railway service was between the cities of Liverpool to Manchester Railway which was first offered on 15 Sep 1830.« |
