Tag: history

• Dual head-mounted listening devices

  

  This dual-mounted listening device served as an aircraft detection device before the invention of radar in 1935.

  The Dutch military used the elephant-looking ears to detect approaching enemy aircraft by listening afar for engine sounds.

  

  There were various iterations of the acoustic locators.

  The Germans created a dual sight and sound system in 1917 that combined sound-ranging capabilities with binoculars to scope out aircraft.

  

  The Imperial Japanese army used massive war tubas (resembling the musical tuba instrument) in World War I to detect the sound of incoming aircraft.

  

  The Dutch also created acoustic horns in 1935 that were double the size of the personal sound locator. They offered passive detection of enemy aircraft by listening for incoming engine noise.

  

  England built concrete acoustic mirrors around its coasts up until 1935.

  

  Learn more about pre-radar objects here.

  Wells Baum

  November 10, 2021

  Architecture & Design, Technology

  history, radar, sound, Tech, world war

• Diver finds 900-year-old crusader sword off Israel’s Carmel coast

  

  A scuba diver discovered an ancient sword off Israel’s Carmel coast near the port city of Haifa. The iron sword is thought to have belonged to a crusader knight 900 years ago when the Crusaders were fighting Muslim forces for control over the Holy Land.

  Eagle-eyed diver Shlomi Katzin stumbled upon the three-foot blade on October 18. Kobi Sharvit, the director of the Marine Archaeology unit at Israel’s Antiques Authority, believes that the shallow waters off Haifa once served as a shelter for seafarers.

  Sharp-eyed diver recovers crusader sword from Mediterranean seabed https://t.co/hfzj9LJyJp 📷 @ZvulunRonen pic.twitter.com/BZZNg5K7r4

  — Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) October 18, 2021

  “The archaeological finds at the site show that it served as a small, temporary natural anchorage for ships seeking shelter,” said Katzin in a statement.

  “Identification of the various finds shows that the anchorage was used as early as the Late Bronze Age, 4,000 years ago,” he added. “The recent discovery of the sword suggests that the natural cove was also used in the Crusader period, some 900 years ago.”

  A lucky 900-year-old find!

  The rare sword remains in pristine condition despite being “encrusted with marine organisms,” announced the Authority’s chief inspector Nir Distelfeld.

  The iron sword resurfaced from the Mediterranean seabed as a result of shifting sands and undercurrents. But Sharvit’s find came down to sheer luck and timing.

  “Because of the dynamics of shallow water, the sand keeps moving,” Sharvit revealed. “Each time, a new area is exposed.”

  The government experts will clean and restore the archaeological treasure before putting it on public display. Meanwhile, the diver received a “certificate of appreciation for good citizenship.”

  Wells Baum

  October 20, 2021

  Culture & Society, Science

  history, Israel, Mediterranean Sea, sword

• Two ash-covered bodies from Vesuvius eruption uncovered at Pompeii

  

  Archaeologists uncovered the body of a wealthy 40-year old man and his young slave in Pompeii, 2,000 years after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 

  Excavations at the suburban villa Civita Giuliana, a suburb outside Pompeii, discovered the bodies covered in a bed of 6.5-foot ash.  

  Researchers believe that the two men survived the initial eruption from Mount Vesuvius, only to succumb to a massive and more destructive cloud of scorching ash while seeking shelter in a cryptoporticus. 

  The skeletal remains follow last year’s discovery of another Ancient Roman man crushed by a flying rock during Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 A.D. 

  

  

  

  Wells Baum

  November 21, 2020

  Culture & Society, Science, Travel

  history, Italy, Mount Vesuvius, science, volcano

• Rejected designs for the Eiffel Tower

  

  In the 1880s, French designers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier mocked up what would become the Eiffel Tower. You can even see the size comparison to other landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty.

  Thankfully, someone held on to the 14 other rejected designs. Number 3 seems to come closest to the final design, with embellished trusses added to the lower tier.

  It’s hard to imagine Paris without the iconic Eiffel Tower today. However, engineer Gustave Eiffel never built the structure with the intention of keeping it up.

  The city wanted to tear it down after the Exposition Universelle of 1889. But the same community of artists who criticized the Eiffel Tower’s initial design ended up mobilizing to save it.

  

  

  

  Wells Baum

  May 5, 2020

  Architecture & Design

  Architecture, design, Eiffel Tower, Featured, history, Paris

• Time travel back to New York City, 1911

  

  In 1911, Swedish film company Svenska Biografteatern recorded its trip to New York.

  Fortunately, the footage survived and most recently was speed-corrected (slowed down) and reproduced with the ambient audio of street sounds of car horns, horses, and police whistles to give us a sense of the environment back then.

  There’s also a color version of the 8-minute long video restored via neural networks, featuring 60 frames per second and 4k image resolution.

  Some observations:

  • Notice all the people wearing hats
  • The streets look a bit empty compared to today’s zoo
  • Cable powered trolleys
  • The kids go nuts when the camera is on them. Nothing’s changed!

  This might be the closest we get to time travel.

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  Wells Baum

  April 22, 2020

  Architecture & Design, Culture & Society

  culture, film, history, NYC

• Why pirates actually wore an eye patch

  

  Eye patch, parrot, and wooden leg, and a limp. Those are the essential ingredients to becoming a pirate.

  But did you know that pirates wore an eye patch, not because of a missing eye, but because the patch increased their sight instantly inside low lit areas?

  Early technology to avoid temporary blindness

  During raids, pirates needed the ability to flip up the eye patch so they could quickly snag a cannonball faster below the deck of the ship.

  So one eye was trained to see in daylight, the other in dark. The pirate patch was an early technology to solve the issue of temporary blindness caused by going to a dark room from a brightly lit space.

  

  Wells Baum

  March 9, 2020

  Architecture & Design, Culture & Society, Health, Technology

  design, history, pirates, Tech

• The evolution of the price tag

  The history of the price tag goes back to the founding of brick and mortar stores.

  Can you imagine having to haggle over everything you bought in a store?

  But as businesses got bigger in the 1870s, shopkeepers needed a way to streamline pricing for both sales clerks and customers alike. Two department stores helped pioneer the price tag: Macy’s in New York and Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia.

  They adopted the Quaker’s concept of one price on all items, no questions asked. Price tags thus removed the hassle for both stores and the customers.

  The price is right, usually

  Dynamic pricing still exists though. Whether it’s an Uber surge or last-minute airline tickets to Tahiti, we churn across the internet looking for the best price.

  Wells Baum

  October 11, 2019

  Culture & Society

  commerce, history, macys, video

• The spherical nature of the Earth

  

  The world is round, and it has been for some time despite the rise of the flat earth movement.

  Take a look at some of the armillary spheres below, starting with the Chinese diagram from 1092. Even back then, they had could rationalize that the Earth adopted a round shape.

  The curvy nature of the Earth is manifest.

  Chinese Diagram, 1092

  

  Damascus, 1526

  

  Germany, 1585

  

  Wells Baum

  August 31, 2019

  Science

  Earth, history, planet, science

• Ancient Roman fleeing Mount Vesuvius crushed by flying rock

  

  Imagine fleeing the ash that swept Pompeii during the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., only to crushed by a flying stone.

  According to the Telegram, the archeologists also found that the 30-year old merchant was carrying 22 silver and bronze coins in a leather pouch. They also found a house key buried underneath the skeleton.

  Naturally, the extraordinary discovery has become a target for jokes, including one individual setting up a GoFundMe account.

  He doesn't know what happened, he been living under a rock for 2000 years! Bahhhaaaa

  — Buckshot (@Buckbuck62) May 29, 2018

  Wells Baum

  June 1, 2019

  Culture & Society, Nature

  history, Mount Vesuvius, Nature, Rome