Aug. 31, 1955: As part of a huge exhibition in Chicago called "Powerama," General Motors unveils the first solar-powered car. Unfortunately. it's only 15 inches long, but its 12 photoelectric cells power a tiny electric motor that turns the driveshaft. A drivable solar car doesn't appear for another 25 years.
Aug. 30, 1901: The War on Dust heats up when British engineer H. Cecil Booth patents a machine known as the “Puffing Billy.” Powered by gas, drawn by horses and fitted with long hoses, it's designed to clean restaurants. But it's the first device that actually sucks up dirt instead of just blowing it away.
Aug. 29, 1831: Self-taught British scientist Michael Faraday gives the world a jolt when a simple device of a magnet and wires proves his theory that electricity can be created by changing an electromagnetic field. His discovery of electromagnetic induction becomes the basis for electric motors, generators and transformers.
Aug. 28, 1884: The weather outside is frightful, but that doesn't stop F. N. Robinson from taking a picture of three separate funnel clouds starting to swirl above the small town of Howard City in what was then known as Dakota Territory. That afternoon he apparently becomes the first person to photograph a tornado.
Aug. 27, 1939: Air travel kicks into overdrive when a jet plane, a Heinkel He 178 makes its first successful flight in Germany. It's powered by a gas turbine propulsion system designed a few years earlier by Hans von Ohain. Five years later that first jet is destroyed during an air raid on Berlin.
Aug. 26, 1498: Though only in his early 20s, Michelangelo Buonarroti is commissioned to create a life-size sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding her son's body. He handpicks the marble from a quarry and, over the next two years, carves from a single slab the masterpiece known as the Pieta.
Aug. 25, 1609: Galileo Galilei takes a handful of Venice's leaders to the top of one of the city's bell towers and shows off his first telescope. A version of the device had already been invented in The Netherlands, but Galileo's is far more powerful. The men are so impressed they double his salary and give him tenure.
Aug. 24, 1853: George Crum, a chef at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs, NY, makes a great contribution to the junk food canon when a diner sends back potatoes he says aren't sliced thin enough. Enraged, Crum cuts them paper thin, fries them to a crisp and salts them heavily. Alas, his potato chips are a big hit.
Aug. 23, 1966 : NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 gives us a fresh look at the home planet when it takes the first images of Earth from near the moon. It takes a lot of other pictures, too, mainly of the lunar surface with the goal of helping NASA pick a landing spot for the Apollo flights. Mission accomplished, it crashed.
Aug. 22, 1902Trendsetter Teddy Roosevelt becomes the first president to ride in a car in a parade through Hartford, CT. It's an electric car, too, a purple-lined Columbia Electric Victoria. Liked it so much he later became the first president to own a car, He also was the first one to ride in a plane and submerge in a sub.
Recent Comments