Author Topic: what I have learned today.  (Read 847274 times)

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #400 on: 08 December, 2014, 12:00:09 am »
Supposed to have been a bloke in west Wales (Saundersfoot) who flew years before anyone else.

A bloke in Chard, Somerset.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #401 on: 08 December, 2014, 12:20:47 am »
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #402 on: 08 December, 2014, 11:50:05 am »
Or a monk in Malmesbury.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #403 on: 08 December, 2014, 11:52:08 am »
Or a monk in Malmesbury.

Or a greek bloke by the name of Icarus.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #404 on: 08 December, 2014, 12:50:21 pm »
Or a bloke from Brazil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
I disagree on this one.  Even in the article you link to, it says he didn't start on heavier than air flight until 1905.  LTA flight goes back to Montgolfier, though dirigibles were refined by S-D.
Getting there...

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #405 on: 08 December, 2014, 01:08:25 pm »
Not today, but recently: The prototype Bristol Type 142 airliner, which was subsequently adapted to become the Blenheim bomber, was called 'Britain First'. :o
Getting there...

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #406 on: 08 December, 2014, 01:16:43 pm »
Or a greek bloke by the name of Icarus.

That one was a myth, warning of the dangers of relying on adhesives.  Or perhaps that lusers don't follow instructions, depending on how much sympathy you feel for Daedalus...

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #407 on: 08 December, 2014, 01:24:24 pm »
I thought it was suggesting a way to get rid of your pesky teenage offspring.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #408 on: 08 December, 2014, 01:46:23 pm »
Or a bloke from Brazil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
His integrity as a pioneer flyer is somewhat questionable.
There were two instances of his dirigible being found to be irrepairably damaged moments before he was due to give a demonstration flight in the States.
Sabotage was suspected, but not proven.
A similar incident occurred when he was was about to give a demonstration flight in the grounds of The Crystal Palace, Sydenham.
On being accused of causing the damage himself, he took himself off, back to France, in a huff - an early type of aircraft propelled by fuel made of horse manure and discarded tram tickets.

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #409 on: 08 December, 2014, 02:35:59 pm »
apparently the Smithsonian agreed to never recognise any other potential first flight pioneer in exchange for the Wright's plane. Dundee claims an early flying pioneer, possibly the first in UK, maybe the world.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/history-2.1462/is-history-right-or-was-dundee-s-preston-watson-the-first-to-make-a-powered-flight-1.718839
Loadsa people flew before the Wrights 'first' flight, including both of the Wrights (gliding). Some of 'em even did so (briefly) in powered craft. The Wrights' claim depends on a few qualification to 'first flight', e.g. powered, controlled, took off under own power. It seems pretty certain that their 'first' flight was closer to achieving all of those at once than any previous flight, but it was just one step among many.

To me, their achievements were significant, but I'm not sure that they made any net contribution to aviation. Their insane patent war* held back the progress of aviation in the USA**, & the world was filled with experimenters & theoreticians at the time. It was going to happen, & soon, whether the Wrights existed or not.


*They claimed that any kind of control mechanism which changed the shape of a wing, whether by warping, ailerons, or any other means, was covered by their patent. Patently ridiculous, since wing-warping & ailerons had been in the literature for decades, had been used on experimental gliders, & there was even a prior patent (British, expired) for ailerons.

In one of my varied ‘book jacket’* of careers I used to work at the Science Museum in London and part of my job was to do guided tours of some of the galleries, including the flight gallery, in which there is a replica of the Wright Flyer – but the Science Museum actually used to have the original aircraft on display.

At first the Smithsonian did not recognise the Wright brothers as having made the first powered flight.  So much so that the Wrights donated the Wright Flyer to the Science Museum in the UK instead, where it remained until 1945.  The agreement the Smithsonian made referenced in the article occured in 1939 if I remember right, after the Smithsonian contracted to agree the Wright Brother’s claim in order to receive the Flyer.

The outbreak of war prevented the safe transport of the Flyer back to the US and the Science Museum made a full scale replica before giving it to the Smithsonian in 1945 after the end of WWII.


*Two more jobs and I’ll have that long list of varied jobs that lots of authors seem to have.  I’ve driven a train, worked in a chocolate factory and been Maureen Lipmann’s paperboy amongst other things.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #410 on: 08 December, 2014, 03:03:19 pm »
...chicken-shed cleaner, bodyguard, Dr Who scriptwriter...
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #411 on: 08 December, 2014, 03:56:51 pm »
Or a bloke from Brazil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
His integrity as a pioneer flyer is somewhat questionable.
There were two instances of his dirigible being found to be irrepairably damaged moments before he was due to give a demonstration flight in the States.
Sabotage was suspected, but not proven.
A similar incident occurred when he was was about to give a demonstration flight in the grounds of The Crystal Palace, Sydenham.
On being accused of causing the damage himself, he took himself off, back to France, in a huff - an early type of aircraft propelled by fuel made of horse manure and discarded tram tickets.


If he'd waited for sixty seconds, but failed to cheer up, he'd have left in a minute and huff. 



Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #412 on: 08 December, 2014, 04:33:57 pm »
...chicken-shed cleaner, bodyguard, Dr Who scriptwriter...

Is that you or Douglas Adams?

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #413 on: 08 December, 2014, 08:22:21 pm »
Packet Rice and Rice in a packet aren't the same thing.

Local Sainsburys has reshuffled so when I walked up to where the kilo bags of basmati used to be they were gone. The sign over the next aisle promised Packet Rice but only had Noodles and boil in the bag rice.

I found the Basmati under the sign for speciality sauces?

The signs have been shuffled along with the shelves so it must be deliberate
“There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”
― Douglas Adams

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #414 on: 08 December, 2014, 11:24:14 pm »
apparently the Smithsonian agreed to never recognise any other potential first flight pioneer in exchange for the Wright's plane. Dundee claims an early flying pioneer, possibly the first in UK, maybe the world.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/history-2.1462/is-history-right-or-was-dundee-s-preston-watson-the-first-to-make-a-powered-flight-1.718839
Loadsa people flew before the Wrights 'first' flight, including both of the Wrights (gliding). Some of 'em even did so (briefly) in powered craft. The Wrights' claim depends on a few qualification to 'first flight', e.g. powered, controlled, took off under own power. It seems pretty certain that their 'first' flight was closer to achieving all of those at once than any previous flight, but it was just one step among many.

The 1903 flights had catapult-assisted launches, so the under own power qualification is contestable. The qualifications I'd use are that they had the first powered, controlled, sustained heavier-than-air flight. Under those conditions, I don't think the Wrights' primacy will ever be revised - all of the other claims that pop up are based on dubious evidence, usually hearsay from years after the fact.

I'm more sympathetic wrt their long-term influence, even if it was in many ways indirect; after their European tour in 1908, where they literally flew rings around the local competition, it was clear that controllability was more important than most of the Europeans had realised (this is the Gibbs-Smith 'chauffeurs' vs 'airmen' distinction). Their demonstrations also spurred the Europeans to develop their own designs, having seen how much further advanced the Wrights were.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #415 on: 08 December, 2014, 11:36:07 pm »
Not today, but recently: The prototype Bristol Type 142 airliner, which was subsequently adapted to become the Blenheim bomber, was called 'Britain First'. :o

And was given that name by the owner of the Daily Mail; just one of the many right-wing (if not crypto-fascist) enthusiasts for aviation in the 1930s*

*eg Lady Houston, who famously (for certain spoddy values of famous) funded the British 1931 Schneider Trophy team of Supermarine and Rolls-Royce that won it outright, mainly because she wanted to embarrass Ramsey MacDonald's national government.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #416 on: 09 December, 2014, 08:13:36 pm »
*Two more jobs and I’ll have that long list of varied jobs that lots of authors seem to have.  I’ve driven a train, worked in a chocolate factory and been Maureen Lipmann’s paperboy amongst other things.
For some reason, that gives me a vision of a Wascally Weasel leaping from the cab of a moving tube train, climbing up a ventilation shaft and delivering a box of Milk Tray to Maureen Lipmann.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #417 on: 10 December, 2014, 04:53:12 pm »
The bass drone on A Silver Mt. Zion's "Broken Chords Can Sing A Little" sounds exactly like the builders' genny/compressor/Diesel Annoyance.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #418 on: 11 December, 2014, 04:46:21 pm »
That a haversack differs from a knapsack in having only one shoulder strap.

More entertainingly, that if you spill a metric sploshful of water on your gas hob, so that if fills up the well over the gas spout thing under the burner, then when you turn the gas on, it makes a rather nice gurgling sound.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

a lower gear

  • Carmarthenshire - "Not ALWAYS raining!"
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #419 on: 11 December, 2014, 10:02:47 pm »
That dutifully reading the entirety of the Lift the Lid thread "BHIT are back" was possibly not the most enriching hour and a half of my day.... but I'm up to date, so my OCD demon is satiated.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #420 on: 14 December, 2014, 09:29:30 am »

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #421 on: 17 December, 2014, 10:58:17 am »
That Michelle Obama volunteers to staff phones for the Norad santa tracking event, and has done since 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD_Tracks_Santa
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #422 on: 18 December, 2014, 04:55:56 pm »
That icing sugar on the trackpad of your laptop makes navigation almost impossible until it's gone damp and very sticky - which then necessitates cleaning said trackpad so fuck knows what I've clicked on in the last 15 minutes . . .
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

fuzzy

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #423 on: 19 December, 2014, 02:13:29 pm »
That generally intelligent folk (teachers and the like so degreed up) can be as thick as two short planks.

A notice board, 10mm thick was on the corridor wall. A couple of classes had done a display about Mt Vesuvius. This display included 4 papier mache and plaster of paris volcanoes which were constructed on a square cardboard base, complete with crepe paper eruptions. The volcanoes were too heavy to be mounted on the board with staples, pins or tape. Some bright spark fixed each volcano to the board with a 2" nail in each corner of the base.......

Nails discovered when trying to take the board down to move it.

 ::-)   

a lower gear

  • Carmarthenshire - "Not ALWAYS raining!"
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #424 on: 19 December, 2014, 05:57:41 pm »
Which reminds me of the old Chinese* proverb "To man with hammer, everything look like nail".

[Point to ponder: why are old proverbs always said to be Chinese?]