Category Science

The Model-T Ford was nicknamed ‘Tin Lizzie’. It was small and reliable, and cheap enough for millions of people to buy.

Who got dressed up to go motoring?

Drivers and passengers of early cars had to dress up in protective clothes before driving into the countryside. Most cars had no windscreen, doors or bodywork to keep out wind and rain, or dust and mud from the dirt roads. So people wore thick fur coats or rubber capes, peaked hats and enormous goggles over their eyes.

Amazing! In the early 1900s, there were no petrol stations. Village blacksmiths often kept a supply of petrol to sell to car drivers whose tanks had run dry. There were no garages or mechanics either, so drivers had to carry a tool kit and spare parts in their cars, in case of a breakdown.

Is it true? Henry Ford invented the production line.

No. Production lines existed before Henry Ford started making cars. But he did invent the moving line, where the cars moved along as parts were added.

Who spoke to the driver through a tube?

In some early cars, the passengers sat in the back behind a glass screen. The driver sat in the front. The passengers spoke to the driver through a metal tube to give him directions.

The Silver Ghost was one of the first cars built by the Rolls Royce Company. Only rich people could afford to buy one, and they normally employed a chauffeur to drive it! Like all Rolls Royce cars, the Silver Ghost was famous for being very quiet and extremely well made.

Which car was very cheap to run?

The Austin Seven was so economical that it used half a penny’s worth of petrol to travel a kilometre. The Seven was so tiny that it was often called a ‘toy’ car, but it was very cheap to buy.

Is it true? Taxis have always had meters.

Yes. The word taxi is short for taximeter cab. A taximeter was a meter designed in 1891 that recorded the distance that a horse-drawn cab had travelled. When engine-powered taxis were introduced in 1907, they also had to have a meter.

Who went on trips in a charabanc?

Factory workers and their families used to go on days out to the seaside or to the city in a vehicle called a charabanc. A charabanc was like a wagon with benches in the back for passengers to sit on. The first charabancs were pulled by teams of horses.

Amazing! The Bugatti Type 41 Royale was designed by Ettore Bugatti to be the most luxurious car ever. His idea was that every royal family in Europe would buy one. The car was 6.7 metres long and had a twelve litre engine. But only six Royales were ever built, and only three were ever sold. Today, if a Bugatti Royale ever appears at auction, it fetches millions of pounds.

A horseless carriage was a horse-drawn carriage with an engine in place of the horse. The first horseless carriages were powered by steam. In England by the 1830s some passenger services were operated with steam coaches. But the coaches were slow, noisy and dirty, and wrecked the cart tracks!

Who invented the first car?

Two German engineers, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, both built working cars in 1885. Each car had a small petrol engine to drive it.

Amazing! When mechanical vehicles first appeared in Britain, a man had to walk in front of them carrying a red warning flag (or a red light at night). The Red Flag Law was introduced because other road users, such as horse riders, complained about the danger.

Is it true? The first cars didn’t have steering wheels.

Yes. The steering wheel did not appear on cars until the late 1890s. Before that, drivers steered with a lever, like the tiller on a boat, or by spinning handles on a small upright wheel on the end of a vertical pole.

Which was the first car to be sold?

The first car to be sold was a three-wheel model built by Karl Benz. The first owner was a French engineer called Emile Roger, who bought his car in 1887. Soon Benz had a factory building cars for sale, but only a few of the three-wheelers were sold.

An aircraft carrier has a huge, empty flat deck where aircraft take off and land. The aircraft take off from the bow using a catapult. They land again from the stern. Hooks on the planes catch a wire on deck, and stop the planes with a jolt. Underneath the deck are hangars where the aircraft are stored and serviced.

Amazing! The first gun battle between two ironclads (warships with iron armour) took place in 1862 during the American Civil War. The Monitor and the Merrimack fired at each other but no great damage was done.

What was a pocket battleship?

Pocket battleships were small, fast, German ships in the 1930s. Only three of them were built. Each had six huge guns, armour more than 60 millimetres thick and powerful diesel engines.

Is it true? Some ships are nuclear-powered.

Yes. Some large submarines, some aircraft carriers and some ice breakers have nuclear-powered engines. They can travel for several months without having to re-fuel.

Which ship is invisible?

The United States Navy ‘stealth’ warship doesn’t show up clearly on enemy radar. Like the stealth aircraft, its special shape and paint scatter enemy radar signals making it very difficult to detect.

Picture Credit : Google

The biggest submarines are nuclear-powered naval submarines. The biggest of all are Russian Typhoon Submarines. They’re 171metres long (as long as two football pitches) and weigh 26,500 tonnes. They can stay under water for months on end and sail around the world without refueling.

What was a U-boat?

U-boats were German submarines used in World War One and World War two. U-boat is short for underwater boat. U-boats sank thousands of ships. They crept up silently, hidden under the water, and fired missiles called torpedoes. The torpedoes zoomed through the water and exploded when they hit the ships.

Amazing! The first working submarine looked like a wooden barrel. It was built in 1776 and was called Turtle. The operator sat inside and pedalled to make its propellers turn. Turtle was designed to attack ships by diving under them and fixing a bomb to their hulls. But it was never successful.

Is it true? Submarines use sound to see.

Yes. A submarine’s sonar machine makes beeps of sound that spread out through the water. If the sound hits an object in the water, it bounces back to the submarine and is picked up by the sonar machine. The machine works out how big the object is and how far away it is.

What is a periscope?

Submarine crews use their periscopes to see ships on the surface above them when submarines are submerged. The top of the periscope sticks just above the surface. It works using several lenses and prisms (triangular pieces of glass).

Picture Credit : Google

A micro-sub (also called a submersible) is a small submarine, often used for exploring under the sea. One of the latest micro-sub is Deep Flight1, Which can dive to a depth of 1,000 metres.

Is it true? Submarines can dive to the bottom of the ocean.

No. The deepest a normal submarine can dive is about 700 metres. If a submarine went any deeper the huge water pressure would crush its hull and water would flood in.

Amazing! Divers who repair undersea pipelines and oil rigs wear strong diving suits, like mini submersibles. They can dive to about 300 metres. The divers have to breathe oxygen mixed with helium, which gives them very squeaky voices!

What are Alvin and Jason Junior?

Alvin is a submersible that carries a crew of three. Jason Junior is a robot submersible that can be operated from Alvin or from a ship on the surface. In 1985, Jason Junior discovered the wreck of the ocean liner Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

How deep can submersibles go?

Special, extra-strong-hulled submersibles called bathyscaphes can dive many kilometres under the sea. In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste made the deepest dive ever — an incredible 10,911 metres into the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

Picture Credit : Google