Australia’s Firsts
Australia is indeed the clever country if you have found out that this nation is the first in many areas including home-use, agricultural transportation, and medicine. It is also the first to contribute to some famous inventions that eventually came out from other developed countries.
INVENTIONS BY THE FIRST AUSTRALIANS
The Boomerang
The Boomerang is a unique invention by the Aborigines. It is a multipurpose tool that can return automatically to a skillful thrower. Boomerangs were originally used for hunting, starting fire, music, and for fun. Today, boomerangs are used mainly for sports recreation and are also purchased as souvenirs by tourists.
THE FIRST FOR AGRICULTURAL
The stump-jump Plough
The stump-jump plough was invented by Richard and Clarence Smith in 1876. The invention helps prevent the ploughshare from being damaged by allowing it to jump over stumps and other things that are in its way.
Dynamic Lifter fertiliser
The Dynamic Lifter fertiliser is developed by Norm Jennings from 1969 to the mid 1970s. Jennings developed a method of converting chicken droppings into pallets to be used as fertilizer. Today, his invention is used in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
The Sunshine Harvester
Also known as the sunshine harvester, the machine stripped and collected grain. It was invented by Hugh Victor McKay in 1882.
THE FIRSTS FOR TRANSPORTATION
The UTE
The UTE, a utility vehicle with the front of a sedan car and a back of a small truck was invented in 1934 by Lewis Brandt an employee of Ford Motor Company’s factory in Geelong, Victoria.
The Black Box Flight Recorder
This famous important device that provides crucial information to air crash investigators was invented by Dr David Warren at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne in 1958. Dr. Warren’s father died in Australia’s first airline crash in 1926. Originally, the Dr. Warren’s invention was housed in a black box hence the name of its invention. Today, the box is bright orange so that it is easier to look for it after a crash.
The Box Kite
The flying machine was invented by James Hargrave in 1894. He combined four box kites together and fitted and engine to it. The thing actually flew. Hargrave shared his ideas with other aviaton pioneers including the Wright brothers and did not patent it. If he had protected his ideas and got more local support, he would have become the first to manned a powered flight instead.
THE FIRSTS FOR MEDICINE
The Bionic Ear
You may have watched the TV series “Bionic Woman” where a girl known as Jamie Sommers, a parachute accident victim was installed with a bionic ear that allowed her to listen to sounds that are miles away. Today, search invention is a reality but of course it is not as powerful as the one depicted by Hollywood. Nevertheless, it helps people with hearing imparity to listen again. The person who made it a reality is Professor Graeme Clark.
More about Australian inventions may be found on whitehat.com.au’s page on whitehat.com.au’s convictcreations.com’s, and about.com’s pages on Australian inventions. If you know of any Australia’s firsts or famous inventions, please share them in your comments.
How to save on travel
Taking a holiday trip can be a wonderful experience and does not have to be expensive. The internet has number of good websites that shows you how to save money while travelling. Informations like cheap and discount airfares, special packages or deals, budget travel, and budget accomodation can be found in some of those websites. Here are some of such websites:
1. budgettravel.com
2. budgettravel.about.com (Article on Budget Travel from About.com)
3. http://www.frommers.com/
4. Tips for Finding Cheap Flights from Helium.com
5. travel.com.au
Addition websites can be found by using “Budget travel” and “Cheap travel” as your search string on www.google.com.
If you have found any additional good travel websites, please include them in your comments for the readers to see.
In addition, here are some of my free tips:
1. Always read the travel advisory website of your country’s government if there is one before your plan your travel.
2. Make sure you have travel insurance for any eventualities that may arise. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
3. Some websites may also have route suggestions for you that may help you to reduce the cost of flying. Make sure that the airlines they recommend are of good reputation. You can get a list of blacklisted airlines here. Do not be afraid to insist a safer airline from your travel agent and do not risk your life just for the sake of saving some money.
4. When flying choose a budget airline with good reputations in terms of service and safety if one is available instead of using an expensive one.
5. When browsing the above websites, look for the best bargains by comparing the total cost of travel which include flight and hotels offered by each website. Some websites have a calculator for you to compute the cost of each option available so that you may decide on which travel package to take.
6. Read the reviews to get some insight on the services offered by the airlines, hotels, restaurants. Read also reviews on car rental companies if you plan to drive.
If you have any additional tips on how to save on travel, please include them in your comments.
Happy travelling.
Making your own Christmas Cards.
Christmas is around the corner. Every year people all ove the world send Christmas cards to wish one another a Merry Christmas either online or by post commonly now known as snail mail to Internet users. If you plan to post a Christmas card, you can either buy one from the store or make one yourself.
Making your own Christmas cards some advantages. Here are some I could think of:
1. It allows you to express yourself more than what you can with a pre-printed card.
2. It allows you to use and express your creativity.
3. You may save money on Christmas cards.
4. You may contribute something positive to the environment by using recycled or old materials to make your card.
5. You may save time of looking for a Christmas card.
However, making your own Christmas cards may also have some disadvantages. How are some I could think of:
1. You may need more time to make one and the time taken depends on how you want your card to look like.
2. The process of making Christmas cards can also be very time consuming if you are thinking of making more than one for your friends.
3. You will still need to get an envelope for the card or make one yourself.
Please click here for some interesting articles on making your own Christmas cards.
Have fun making your own Christmas cards.
