Great Innovations

WhO i t
What I�S his

he dOin
g
,
•
MANORAMA
From the house of MAGIC POT, THE WEEK,
TELLMEWHY
January 2013 • Volume: 7 • No: 1
MANORAMA YEAR BOOK, VANITHA
& THE MAlAYAlA MANORAMA DAilY
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T H E BIG BANG OF I DEAS

Some child in ancient times must have said, as he watched a bird
soar u p i n the sky, "If only I cou l d fly like that!" Obviously his elders
would have laughed, hearing this. But it was the birth of an idea
that inspired generations to come, through countless centuries, to
be realized in modern times through the efforts of the Wright
brothers.
An idea is i nvisible and weightless, having no material substance.
And yet it has the power to change you r life or even the course of
history. Any invention, discovery or historical event had its origin
i n a spark ofthought that developed i nto an idea.
I n this issue ofTell Me Why, we are making an attempt to present
some path-breaking ideas that changed the way we l ive.
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changed by the invention of
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Phone:033-24198233, 24198048 Most of the first i nventions
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because of a need, or by accident. Our earliest ancestors
were h unters, and the first tools that were made were used
for cutting, throwing, or hammering. These early tools were
mostly made of stone and sticks. Pieces of stone were
chipped to make a sharp edge for cutting, and the tips of
sticks were sharpened to make spears for th rowing. Handles
made of sticks were fixed to stones to form hammers, and
g rasses were woven i nto nets. These tools acted as a n
extension o f Man's hands, a n d helped him t o h u nt animals
more efficiently. Though these devices were very basic, they
were i mportant in that they led to further i nventions as Man
tried to improve them ...and these inventions led to changes
in the way Early Man lived.
Hands up!
This is my brand
new ' stone gun'! "
Why was the d iscovery of fire a n
i m portant m ilestone?
Fire occurs naturally in nature
q u ite often- when volcanoes erupt,
or lightning strikes or the sun's rays
make d ry g rasses burst i nto flame.
Man probably discovered by
accident that fire could actually be
made. Perhaps he took a burning
stick from a forest fire and kept the
flames going by adding more sticks
or maybe, those early tool-makers
noticed that the rocks they chipped
sent out sparks that could start fires.
In any case, Man discovered that fire
could completely change his way of
life. Early Man made fire either by
striking stones, or by rubbing pieces
of wood together.
The discoverY of fire had many far
reaching consequences. So, it is
considered as the single most
i mportant discovery that made Man
superior to animals.
He invented
not only fire, but
also the rocket!
6 Tel l Me Why
Who can
help me to move
this cart?
Why is the wheel considered o n e of Man's

greatest inventions?
The wheel was not i nvented by one man,
or i n one country. It was the result of the
ideas of many men and many cultures
over a long period of time. The first
primitive wheels were fou nd in the
remains of Assyrian, Babylonian, and
Egyptian cultures.
The wheel is probably the most
important mechaniCal i nvention of all
,time. The key aspect of a wheel is that it
made the i nvention of many other
objects easy- and it also made it very easy
to move larger objects. Nearly every machine
built since the beginning of the Industrial
Revol ution involves the use of the wheel, fr.om
tiny watch gears to computer discs.
(
/ -'1'
y 'E-.,
� Habeas Corpu s
�
F �" .
Habeas Corpus is a fundamental element of all
�Il legal systems that have sources in Enalish
common law. It states that anyone bei �gffi!td i n.�us�odymust
be brought before the court, and the ..c!Ourt mustbe convinced
that there is sufficient reason to ke �him in custody.
Ideas that changed the world 7

MINING :
The Quest for Rocks a n d M inera ls
Early Man used rocks for tools and

. weapons, and also to extract minerals.
When the rocks on the surface were used
up, he dug shallow pits to get the rocks he wanted. These were
the very first mines. Underground mines came later.
How did
agriculture change
Man's way of life?
Early Man needed
food to survive, as all
living things do. At
first, he h unted
animals by chasing
and trapping them,
and ate their meat.
He also d iscovered
that certai n wild
plants, fruits, and Threshing of Grain in Ancient Egypt
berries could be
eaten. Later, he of life. It meant that instead of wandering
started cooking food from place to place, he could now stay in
too. However, he had one place, and grow what he needed to
to keep moving in eat.
search of fresh Farming of land began first in the Middle
sources of food. East. H unter-gatherers, who had travelled
When he d iscovered to the a rea i n search of food, began to
that he cou Id actually gather the wild grains they found g rowing
g row certai n plants there for food. They then scattered spare
for food, it made a grains on the g round to g row more food.
t r e m e n d o u s As a result, people began to l ive in settled
d ifference to his way com m unities.
8 Tel l Me Why
Stop
Brother! I just
want to test this
weapon.
Why were weapons invented?

Man's first tools were stones which he
had picked up. He chose stones that had
been worn and sharpened by the weather
i nto shapes that could be u sed as clubs for
cutting and scraping. The right shaped
stones were not a lways easy to find, so in
time Man learned to fashion primitive
tools to suit his purposes. These tools were
first used just for h unting, and g radually,
they developed into weapons that were
deadly to people too.
Prehistoric Man's tools could be made
of bone, tooth, or more frequently stone,
and in particular, fli nt. At first, these
prim itive weapons would be held directly
in the hand. Eventually, however, Man
learned how to attach these axe-heads to
a wooden shaft, and the power of the
weapon was increased. As Man became
more experienced in making stone tools,
the tools became more and more
advanced in their design.
Arrowheads were a g reat advance,
because they meant that for the first time,
Man could kill his prey or an enemy from a Bronze Age Weapons
d istance, without putting h imself at risk.
When was time first recorded?
The a ncient Sumerians and Egyptians
were the first to divide the day into
different parts. Around 3500 BC, slender
tapering monuments were built to record
time. Their moving shadows made it
possible to divide a day i nto two parts by
marking the time when the shadow is at
its shortest, as midday or noon. These
monuments were called obelisks, and
they also showed the longest and shortest
days, when the shadow at noon was the
shortest, or longest i n the year.
The passageofhours wasfi rst measured
around 1 500 BC when the first sundials
were built. The sundial d ivided a sunlit
day i nto ten parts, plus two parts for the
twilight hours in the morning and
evening.
Over the centuries, clock making
became more developed and time
keeping more refined, till today, there are
devices that record time accurately to An Hour Glass
one h u nd redth of a second.
One ofthe weapons developed

by Early Man was the
boomerang. It is a curved
flat weapon that is thrown.
There are two types of boomerangs, and
one type can return to the same place
from which it is thrown, when i n the
hands of an expert.
10 Tel l Me Why
POTTERY:
Transforming Clay
Once Man discovered how to make fire,

he started making pots by heating soft
clay in fire. Because an ordinary fire did
not heat the clay evenly, the first pots
were fragile, and not very waterproof.
When were herbal medicines first d iscovered?

Medicinal herbs were Early Man's first line of defence against the
many ills and accidents that plagued him. Ancient humans learned
from the observation of animals, including birds, howto use leaves,
earth, mud, and water to make soothing applications. Although
the methods were crude, several of today's medicines are based
upon sources as simple as those of Ancient Man.
Ayurveda, perhaps the most ancient of all healing systems, uses
herbs and the g ifts of nature to treat diseases. References to
d ifferent drugs and
thera pies can be found
i n the Rigveda and
Atharvaveda, dating
back to 2000 BC The
a ncient Chinese system
of medicine, believed to
be more than SOOOyears
old, is based on two
separate theories a bout
the natura l laws that
govern good health and
longevity, namely 'Yin
and Yang', which a re i n
opposition t o each
other, and the five
elements. Although
I d e a s that changed t h e world 11
After finishing that
med icine, you can take
this too.
Egyptian medicine dates from at least

3000 BC, the last known and most
im portant pharmaceutical record is Copper Utensils
the Papyrus Ebers. The u ses of certain
herbs used in Ancient Egypt were later
documented by the Greek physician
Dioscorides in 1 00 AD. The works of
the Greeks, such as Hippocrates Galen
also used in parts of the Papyrus Ebers.
Therefore Greek, and ultimately
modern medicine, has its origi n in COPPER:
Ancient Egyptian medicine. The Popular Metal
The first metal to be

Papyrus Ebers widely used was
copper. Copper was
used to make small
objects as early as
6500 BC in Turkey.
By 3000 Be copper
was popular
throughout the
Middle East and the
Mediterranean.
Tel l Me W hy
Why is the Phoenician alphabet
'f:=' ®T / p
called the ancestor of a l l modern
<jB �y � S
Western alphabets?
The advent of a writing system started
�G �K <p Q
when Early Man started farming and .dD G L 4R
settled in one place.Arou n d 41 00-3800 �H 1M ,\#S
BC, symbols impressed on clay began to yw '1N X T
be used to keep records. The symbols
Iz t-s
were in the form of pictures, and
eventually, certain pictures began to
8I:I 0'
represent first ideas, and then sounds. Phoenician Alphabets

The Sumerians and Egyptians were the
first a ncient civilizations to develop this
form of written communication.
The developers of the first true
alphabet were the Phoenicians. They
developed a crude script in which each
letter stood for a sound, and had a
symbol of its own. This alphabet, dating
from 1 600 Be, was further developed by
the Ancient Greeks. It was changed and
i mproved, and had 24 characters. The
Romans later adopted this a l phabet, and
adapted it to their own needs. This Latin
alphabet is the forerun ne r ofthe modern The Oldest Known
English alphabet- so, we can say that the Alphabet Tablet,
Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of Excavated From Ugarit
all modern Western alphabets. (Modern Syria)
I deas that changed the world 13

Sealsfrom Mohenjo Daro
Why i s the history of writing a fascinating one?

The very first writing was i n the form of painting of animals and
birds on the walls of caves. Between 3300 and 2000 BC, seals were
used in the ancient civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro.
They were made of clay or ceramic, but no one knows how to read
them yet.
The Sumerians used tablets How's
with i mpressions made on them my brand new
i n wet clay. The first form of tablet?
writing is known as cuneiform
writing. It was based on picto
g rams or d rawings of actual
things, and developed by the
Sumerians over 5000 years ago.
From pictograms, cuneiform
writing developed into signs
that looked like small wedges.
The Ancient Egyptians also
had their own form of writing.
They wrote on papyrus, a type
of paper made from reeds, and
their writing is known as hiero
glyphics.
14 Tel l Me Why
Why was languag e an
i mportant step in man's
development?
Before the development
of a spoken language,
Early Man communicated
with members of his group
by g ru nting, or through
simple noises and hand
gestures.
Lang uage first appeared
among h u mans
somewhere between The chronicle of World
30,000 and 1 00,000 years History- One of the most
ago The first languages curious books ever made.
developed either as a n
imitation of animal sounds, like grunts and barks, or as a way to
accompany the body's gestures and movements. Most probably, a
series of calls or gestures evolved over time into combinations,
giving us complex com m u nication, or language.
As things became more complicated around them, humans
needed a more complex system to convey i nformation to one
another. The development of spoken language allowed g roup
members to exchange thoughts and ideas, and pass on their
culture from one generation to the next.
TRA D I N G:
A Step towards Prosperity
Trading was an important step forward

for civilization. It allowed people to
exchange what they had too much of,
for what they needed. Trading became
popular when the first cities were
established. When trading flourished,
the cities prospered.
Fragments
of Euclid's
Elements
Why is it said that geometry calculate the correct amount

fired Man's i magination? of tax, the pharaoh's agents
The word geometry means to had to be able to measure
'measure the earth,' and geometry the amount of land being
is the science of shape and size of cultivated.
things. Geometry bega n with a Around 2900 BC, the first
practical need to measure shapes. It Egyptian pyramid was
is believed that geometry first constructed. Knowledge of
became important when an Egyptian geometry was essential for
pharaoh wanted to tax farmers who building pyramids.
raised crops along the Nile River. To Geometry was thoroughly
organized in a bout 300 BC,
when the Greek mathema
I got tician Euclid gathered what
this magic was known at the time,
scale.
added original work of his
own, and arranged 465
propositions into 1 3 books,
called 'Elements'.
Geometry dealt with
forms so m i nd boggling
that they fired Man's imagi
nation to new heights of
creativity and logic.
16 Tel l Me Why
Why is King Hammurabi is called 'the king of law'?
Hammurabi was an ancient Babylonian king. He
created the first written set of laws, using the cuneiform
script developed by the Sumerians. These laws were
known as Hammurabi's Code. They consisted of a
collection of 282 laws inscribed on a n u pright stone
pillar.
Although Hammurabi was concerned with keeping
order in his kingdom, this was not his only reason for
compiling the list of laws. When he began ruling the
city-state of Babylon, he had control of only 50 square
miles of territory. As he conquered other city-states and
his empire g rew, he saw the need to u n ify the various
g roups he controlled. Hammurabi keenly understood
that to achieve this goal, he needed one u niversal set of
laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered.
Therefore, he sent legal
experts throughout his
kingdom to gather existing
laws. These laws were
reviewed, and some were
changed oreliminated before
compiling his final list.
In Hammurabi's court, it did
not matter if you were rich or
poor. If you broke the law,
and were found g u ilty, yO'll
would be punished. Since the
laws were clearly written
down, everyone was
expected to obey them. The .
code was found by French
a rchaeologists in 1 901 .
Fif(ures on Hammurabi Stele

17
E n g l ish-la n g uag e N ames
The English-language names for each

day are derived from a combination
of Roman and Norse gods. Sunday
and Monday, of course, are for the
sun and the moon. Tuesday is derived
from Tyr, the Norse God of War and Wednesday from
Woden, the Chief God of the Norse. Thursday comes from
Thor, the God ofThunder, Friday from Freya, Woden's wife,
and Saturday is named after Saturn, the Roman God of
agriculture and harvest.
How did the week get seven days?

The seven-day week started with the first civilizations of the
Middle East. Mesopotamian astrologers designated one day for
each of the seven most prominent objects in the sky-the Sun, the
Moon, and the five major planets visible to the naked eye.
The Jews also adopted a
Cut seven-day cycle, based on the
one day from time it took the Lord to create
the week. the u niverse. The Romans
thought of a week as the 8 days
between market days. But
after the Romans adopted the
Julian calendar in the first
century AD, the seven-day
week g radually came i nto use,
until it was officially adopted
by the Emperor (onstantine i n
321 AD. The British Empire
used the seven-day week, and
spread it worldwide. Today,
the seven-day week is
accepted globally.
18 Tel l Me W hy
•••
... ..
..... • •
./
_"/
..•
., :��..
�'
.. " · 1'....
,
/
/6" -
Aztec
Calendar
Why did the development of the calendar help

the development of civilization ?
Ancient civilizations depended on t h e movement of
the sun, moon, planets and stars to measure the
passage oftime, and to determine the seasons, months,
and years. In colder countries, the concept of the year
was determi ned by the seasons. H owever, in warmer
countries, where the seasons are less pronounced, the
Moon became the basic u n it for counting time.
Most of the oldest calendars were l unar calendars,
based on the time interval from one new moon to the
next. I ce-age h unters in Europe over 20,000 years ago
scratched lines and gouged holes in sticks and bones,
possibly counting the days between phases of the
moon.
The earliest Egyptian calendar was based on "the
moon's cycles, but later, the Egyptians devised a 365-
day calendar.
On the other hand, the Mayans of Central America
relied on not onlythe sun and moon, but also the planet
Venus, to establish 260-day and 365-day calendars.
Their calendars later became portions of the great
Aztec calendar stones. Other civilizations, including
the modern West, have adopted a 365-day solar
ca lenda r with a leap yea r occu rri ng every fourth year.
Where was democracy
born?
In a ncient times, people
were ruled by kings,
pharaohs and emperors. The
idea that people could rule
themselves was first born i n
Athens, a city state in Ancient
G reece. The concept was
i ntroduced by a statesman
named Cleistheses i n 509
BC He divided the Athenian
citizens i nto small commu
n ities called demes. Demes
were g rouped together i nto
ten tribes. Each tribe had an
equal number of citizens.
Between 508 - 338 BC,
Athens formed a
government called
demokratia which was
basically a government by This machine
is of the democracy,
the people. Every ten days,
for the democracy and
the male citizens met in an by the democracy.
assembly, and any man who
wished to could speak or
propose laws. The men
voted to determine the final
laws. Women and slaves
could not take part in the
proceedings because they
were not considered
citizens. The Ancient
Romans later adapted the
G reek form of government
to create a republic.
20 --------"- TeU'Me Why
IRRIGATION:
Year Roun d Water for Plants
Irrigation helps plants to grow even when

there is no rain, and the soil is dry. The
Ancient Egyptians used to trap the waters
of the Nile River when it flooded every
year. They stored the water in ponds, and
sent it to their fields through channels.
Why is Confucius considered a guide of the ancient world?

Confucius was one of the g reatest philosophers of Ancient
China. He lived i n China d u ring 500 BC, and was a teacher, magis
trate, and chief minister of his city. Later, he q uit a l l official posts,
and spent the rest of his life
travelling from town to town Confucius
a round China with his students,
g iving advice to different rulers
wherever he went. Due to the
turmoil and i njustices he saw, he
set himself to develop a new moral
code based on honesty, education,
and strong family bonds.
Confucius believed that a good
government was the basis for a
peaceful and happy society. He
taught that the basis for a good
government was good officials.
His teachings form a complex
system of social, moral, political,
and religious ideas that served as a
guide for the individual and
society, not only i n Ancient China
but throughout the a ncient
world.
H ow did ancient philoso
p hers develop. the theory of
atoms?
From the ]l h centuryonwards,
a ncient Greek philosophers
bega n to wonder about the BRI C KS :
fundamental substance on Bu ild in g B locks
which all creation is based.
Some believed it was water, The first bricks were
others thought it was air, while made from mud. Mud
still others said that it was fire. was mixed with straw,
In the 5th century BC, shaped in wooden
Leucippus and his follower moulds and then dried i n
Democritus, believed that the sun. Around 3500 BC
everything was made of better bricks were made
something they called 'atoms' in the Middle East by
heating clay in a kiln. This
from the Greek word meaning
made them hard and
'can not be divided'. Democ
waterproof too.
ritus believed that all matter
was composed of atoms, and
that each atom was separated
I think
by a distinctive amount of this is an atom,
space. can't break it.
U nfortunately, the dominant
Greek philosopher of the era,
Aristotle, vehemently opposed
all ideas concerning atomic
theory, and refused to believe
that anything such as an atom
could even exist. So, the atomic
theory gradually faded i nto
oblivion, u ntil it was revived
centuries later, proving that
Democritus was right when he
said that the U niverse is
u p of infinitely tiny particles.
22 Tel l M e W hy
Who were the t hree great philoso
phers who shaped the ancient
world?
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were
three great Greek philosophers whose
ideas shaped the ancient world.
Socrates taught Plato, and Plato taught
Aristotle.
Socrates was the first to make a clear
distinction between the body and soul.
He said that the sou l was actually more Socrates
i mportant than the body. He had an
enquiring mind, and taught by asking
q uestions about life. Some people did
not like his teachings, and this noble
man was finally put to death. His
teachings were written down by Plato, Plato and Aristotle
his student. - A Painting
Plato fou nded a school of philosophy
called the Academy, which
is believed to be the first
u niversity in the western
world. Plato's most
i mportant work was 'The
Republic,' i n which he
explains his philosophy.
Aristotle was a student of
Plato, and studied at the
Academy. He later fou n ded
his own school of philosophy
cal led The Lyceum. His most
i mportant contrib ution may
have been his i nvention of
logic, and his theories have
i nfluenced the western world
for centuries.
What were the early t heories
about the planetary system 1
Our ancestors believed that the
Earth was the centre of the
U niverse, and the sun, moon,
planets and stars moved around
it. According to the G reek philos
ROADS: opher Pythagoras, the Earth was
The Way Forward surrounded by larger and Iilrger
spheres, each containing their
Great roads were built
own sun, moon, planets and stars.
in the ancient civiliza
As these spheres moved around
tions. Theywere not
tarred it is true, but
the Earth, they each produced a
they were nevertheless musical note, and together this
i mpressive. The was called the m usic of the
Persian Royal Road spheres. Centuries later, Coper
built in 3500 Be was nicus declared that the Earth was
2857 kms long. The Silk not the centre of the u niverse.
Road remained the Instead, it circled a round the sun.
world's longest road for This theory was very i mportant
2000 years. The Incas because it was the stepping stone
and the Egyptians also to the theory that space went on
built great roads. forever and was infinite.
24 Tell Me Why
Why was the
d iscovery of zero India's
great contribution to civilization?
The word 'zero' comes from the Sanskrit
word mean i ng 'nothi ng'. The biggest
invention of Ancient India's mathematicians was
the use of zero. Zero was used as a placeholder. It
also made it easier to add and multiply numbers. I n
458 AD, Indian mathematicians wrote a book, the
'Lokavibhaaga/ that uses zero in this way. In 628 AD, the
mathematician Brahmagupta also wrote a book
explaining how zero worked, with rules like 'the sum of
zero and zero is zero'.
The use of zero spread quickly from India to West
Asia, and then to Europe. The Chinese were astute
mathematicians and astronomers, m uch l i ke
the Indians and Mayans and other a ncient
peoples. But they too owe their
knowledge of zero to India.
Th is is the
zero, which makes
me a hero. ;-,."......,
SAILS:
Har,n
The first sails were pieces of matting

or anima l skin stretched between
poles. Cloth sails appeared much
later. However, the early sails
worked only when the wind was
blowing from behind the direction
in which a boat was going.

Roman Why were Roman methods of building
Colosseum in novative?
Architects in Ancient Rome adopted certai n
aspects o f Ancient Greek architecture, a n d by
doing so, they created a new architectu ral style.
They also brought in several i nnovations like the
arch, which was a curving span made from wedge
shaped stones. The Romans did not invent the
arch-this was done earlier by the Greeks. However,
the Romans found a way to make the arch bear
much heavier loads. I nnovation started in the first
century BC, with the invention of concrete, a
strong and readily available substitute for stone.
This concrete was a mixture of rock, lime and
sandy volcanic ash, which made it possible to
build a rches capable of wide spans.
The Pantheon is still considered to be the world's
largest unreinforced solid -concrete dome. The
aqued ucts and baths of Ancient Rome were also
renowned for their excellence i n construction.
Another impressive achievement was the multi
story apartment blocks called i nsu lae.
26 Tel l Me Why
Why was the i nvention of glass i m portant?
Glass is an i norganic solid material that is usually
clear or translucent with different colours. Before
people learned to make glass, they had fou nd two
forms of natural glass. When lightning strikes
sand, the heat sometimes fuses the sand into
long, slender g lass tubes called fulgurites. The
terrific heat of a volcanic eruption also sometimes
fuses rocks and sand into a glass called obsidian.
In early times, people shaped obsidian i nto knives,
arrowheads, jewellery, and money. Glass was
probably i nvented around 3000 BC . It is generally
believed that the first manufactured
glass was in the form of a glaze on
ceramic vessels .
Modern glass originated in
Alexandria when a rtisans
created 'mosaic glass' in which
slices of coloured g lass were
used to create decorative
patterns.
Early g lassmaking was
slow and costly, and it
required hard work. Glass
blowing was i nvented about
30 BC by the glassmakers of
Syria. This i nvention made
glass production easier, faster,
and cheaper. As a result, glass
became available to the
common people for the first
time.
Today, glass is u sed for various
kinds' of bottles and utensils,
m irrors, windows and many other
things.
Ideas that changed the world �7
Why did the invention of paper
change the world?
Since the invention of writing,
people had been trying to come up
with something to write on that was
easy and cheap to make. Paper seems
to have been i nvented a round 1 00 BC
in China.
A government official in China
named Ts'ai Lun was the first to start a
paper-making industry. Ts'ai Lun
seems to have made his paper by
mixing finely chopped m u lberry bark
and hemp rags with water, mashing it
flat, and then pressing out the water,
and letting it dry in the sun.
Even after people i n China began to
use paper, it took another thousand
yea rs before people were using paper
a l l over Eurasia. By the 400's AD,
people in I ndia were also making
paper. Paper gets its name from the
Bill of Sale for a Donkey,
Egyptian papyrus plant that was used Written on Papyrus
to make paper-like sheets as early as
2300 BC
COTTO N :
Fabrics fro m Plants
Cotton was discovered about 5000

years ago, by people in the Indus
Valley Civilization. They found that
the silky fibres attached to the seeds
of a plant could be woven into a fine
fabric. The use of cotton spread to
Mesopotamia and then to China.
28 Tell Me Why
Why did the d iscovery of g u npowder change
warfare?
The Chinese first discovered g u n powder in their
search for a magic mixture that would g rant a person
eternal life. They stumbled u pon its explosive qualities
quite accidentally while experimenting with saltpeter,
a waste product of bacteria that feeds on decaying
organic matter.
Saltpeter appeared in many parts of China as a white
crust in the topsoil. Gunpowder was first used mainly
for fireworks and for show, but pretty soon, the Chinese
learned that it could be used to make deadly weapons
too. These weapons incl uded 'flying fire', an arrow with
a burning tube of g u n powder attached to the shaft.
By the 1 2th century, the Chinese were packing
gunpowder i nto hardened containers to produce
bombs. Later, they mastered the a rt of packing
gunpowder in a metal tube with an open end to launch
bits of metal and crockery at high speed. These were
the first g u n s. Gradually, the guns became heavier, and
they were mounted on wheels to make the very first
canons.
Why i s the Mag na Carta
i m portant?
King John was an English king
who was not a good ruler at all. In
fact, he ruled so badly that the
nobles of the land rose against
him, and forced him to sign a
document known as the Magna
Carta. The Magna Carta was signed
on June 1 9th, 1 2 1 5. It was the first
formal document stating that a
king had to follow the laws of the
land. It guara nteed the rights of
individuals against the wishes of
the king. This meant people
couldn't be arrested, i mprisoned,
or have their possessions taken
King John signing away, except by the law of the
Magna Carta land. This laid the way for trial by
jury which means people a re tried
LAMPS:
Light for the Night
For almost 30,000 years, Man

burnt wicks made of plant
fibres dipped in oil for light.
Later, proper oil lamps that had reservoirs of
oil and a controlled flame came into use.
Ancient China and Egypt had simple lamps
with a channel or spike to hold the wick. It
was the Ancient Greeks who developed
proper lamps with handles. These lamps
used olive or nut oil.
30 Tel l Me Why
by their peers, and Why did the Renaissance change
g ua ra nteed the civil people's attitude towards life?
rights of the During the Middle Ages, life was thought
individual. to be just a preparation for death and after
One of the most life. But by the middle of the 1 4 th century, a
i mportant rules new way of thinking started to spread
established by the throughout Europe. It began with
Magna Carta is d iscovery, by the leading thinkers of the
habeas corpus, day, of the ancient classics- especially Latin
which means 'Do works like Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid'
you have the body?' and the writing and speeches ofthe Roman
in Latin. This rule statesman Cicero. This was the period of
means that the the Renaissance or 'rebirth'. It was a rebirth
govern ment can't of education, science, a rt, literature, music,
keep people in jail and a better life for people i n general.
secretly. The A big partofthe Renais
government has to sance was a cultural
tell the public if movement called
someone is being h u ma n ism. It empha
held i n jail for any sized the dignity of the
reason. Habeas h u ma n race. The
corpus protects followers of humanism
people from being were called the
arrested by the h umanists.
government for no "
reason, or for the

wrong reasons. The
rig hts guaranteed
by the Magna Carta
became a part of
English law, and
remain so, to this
day.
Florence - The Centre

ofRenaissance
Ideas that changed the
The Creation ofAdam - A Painting by Michelangelo
Why was Renaissance art d ifferent from that of earlier

times?
The Renaissance is one of the most fascinating periods of
European history. It started i n Italy i n around 1 350, and in the rest
of Europe in 1 450. The Renaissance lasted u ntil roughly 1 620. Art is
one of the best known features of the Renaissance. Great artists
such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rafael flourished
d u ring this period. The Renaissance artists
It's time branched out to subjects including Greek
for a master and Roman mythology, and portraits of
piece. individuals. Of cou rse they continued to
paint religious subjects too!
32
A NATOMY:
Knowing our Bodies
The study of the structure of our body is

called anatomy. The ancient Greek
doctor Herophilus was one of the first
to describe the brain, nerves and
different parts ofthe body. His descrip
tions were based on real observation and not guesswork.
Why was the invention of the printing

press a revol utionary one?
Around six hundred years ago, books were
handwritten. Johannes Gutenberg was
the man who saved people the trouble of
writing books by hand, by i nventing the
printing press.Johann started h i s inverttion
by making metal letters. He a rranged them
i nto a sentence, and pressed pieces
of paper against the letters that
had i n k on them, with his hands.
However, the i n k did not come
out evenly on to the paper, so
he decided to make a press.
Gutenberg took some·
existing technologies and
some of his own i nventions to
come up with the printing press
in the year 1 450. One key idea
he came up with was moveable
type. Rather than use wooden
blocks to press i n k onto paper,
G utenberg u sed moveable
Printing Press from 1811 metal pieces to q uickly create
pages. He made innovations all
Why was Sir Thomas Moore famous?
Si r Thomas More, an Eng I ishma n, beca me
famous in the 1 500's for his concept of
Utopia. The word first appeared in a book
. written by him, and referred to an ideal or
perfect place. In the book, Utopia is a
republic where the people a re free from all
m isery, anxiety and care.
Thomas More Even before More, other writers and
philosophers had attempted to describe a
East or
perfect world. The earliest of them was
West, Utopia is
the best. proposed by Plato in 'The Republic'. The
ideal community in More's Utopia is
somewhat similar. Men and women l ive as
equals, and no one owns any private
property. Of course, though this sounds
fine i n a book, there a re many people who
feel that in real life Utopia would be quite a
d u l l and boring place. Perhaps it is j ust as
well that the word 'Utopia' itself means 'no
place'-for such a place is u n l i kely to succeed
on Earth.
the way through the printing process

enabling pages to be printed much more
rapid ly.
The invention of the printing press
spread quickly throughout Europe, and
soon thousands of books were being
printed on printing presses. The printing
press made books cheaper and more
plentiful. It made it possible for even
middle class people to buy books, and
Johannes Gutenberg spread knowledge and ed ucation like
never before.
34 Tel l Me Why
Health for the Public
The first public hospital opened in

Rome in around AD 397. It was founded
by Fabiola, a highly educated Roman
aristocrat, who became a Christian. She
also helped the monks, who in turn,
started more hospitals. Fabiola was
later declared a saint.
Why is Copernicus considered a

great scientist?
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer
•
who l ived and worked d uring the late
1 400's and early 1 500's. He is best known
for his theory that the Sun, and not the
Earth, is at the centre of the u niverse. His
theory was that the Earth rotatQS daily
&), on its axis, and revolves yearly around
"'� .,.
.
the Sun. He also argued that the planets
�. ,�-k' �i .{; ��."
-
circled the Sun.
Copernicus Copernicus is often considered the
founder of modern astronomy. Before
he shared his view of the solar system,
the general belief was that all the
heavenly bodies revolved around the
Earth. Nicolaus Copernicus created the
modern concept of the solar system, and
changed cosmology forever. He was a
g reat scientist i n that he transformed the
study of astronomy when he proposed
that our solar system is heliocentric
which means centred around the Sun
and not geocentric, or centred around
the Earth.
Why were Galileo and the
telescope, tools for scientific
change?
Galileo was a brilliant
astronomer, physicist, mathe
matician, philosopher, and
inventor. He built on the work
of others to create improved
versions of telescopes.
During the 1 600's Galiled was
the first to use the telescope
systematically to observe
celestial objects, and record his
discoveries. With these
telescopes, Galileo was able to
observe the skies in ways previ Calileo
ously not achieved.
In 1 61 0, he made observa Wow!
tions about four objects There's a spot
surrounding Jupiter that on the moon.
behaved differently from stars.
These turned out to be Jupiter's
fou r largest satellite moons- 10,
Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.
They were later renamed the
Galilean satellites in honour of
Galileo himself.
Galileo's view of the u niverse
differed strongly with the
o
beliefs of the Church at the
time. He even spent the final
years of his life under house
arrest. Galileo helped open the o
eyes of the world to a new way
of thinking about the solar
system and astronomy.
36 Tel l M e Why
Why was the microscope a path
breaking invention ?
Magnifying glasses a re mentioned in
the writings of Roman philosophers
Seneca and Pliny the Elder, Roman
philosophers d u ring the first century
AD. The earliest simple microscope
was merely a tube with a plate for the
object at one end, and, at the other, a
lens that magnified a n object u p to ten
times its actual size. The development
of the conventional microscope at the
end of the 1 6th century would lead to a
g reat step forward for science, particu
larly in biology and medicine.
The first scientific results based on
microscopy dealt with the circulating
blood system, and changed our view of
the human body. By using microscopes,
scientists were able to discover the
existence of microorganisms, study the
structure of cells, and see the smallest
parts of plants, animals, and fungi.
Today, the microscope is still a
commonly used tool to diagnosis illness
in hospitals and clinics. A Modern Microscope
.
Newspapers
Newspapers in Ancient Rome were

carved in metal or stone. In the past, in
China, they were handwritten on silk. In
"'- Europe, merchants would distribute
C' =
� news letters written by hand . The first
�A
q"IOU$ \ true newspaper in English was the
'London Gazette,' published in 1 666.
Why is Francis Bacon credited with
bringing a new approach to science
and philosophy?
Francis Bacon was an English mathe
matician and theoretical physicist who
lived between 1 56 1 and 1 626. He
sought to bring a whole new approach
to philosophy and science. And so, he
did. While many others built on his
ideas, Bacon accomplished something
truly revolutionary, called inductive
reasoning. Inductive reasoning is a
process that begins with specific details
and observations - of natural occur
rences or behaviour, say -and uses them
to arrive at a principle to explain them.
Bacon believed that philosophy must be entirely divorced from
religion, and ba ed only u pon reason. He was also, perhaps the
first thinker to predict an improved future that wou l d be the result
of the steady advance of scientific knowledge. He truly believed in
the saying 'knowledge is power'.
The World of Algebra
Algebra is a form of mathematics used to

solve problems .It uses constants and
variables. Variables are symbols that
represent different values when used in
different equations. Constants are
n umbers that always have the same value. Algebra wasn't
invented overnight by one person. The Babylonians, the
Greeks, the Arabs, the Indians, the Chinese, and the
Europeans all contributed to Algebra as we know it today.
In Ancient Greece, Diophantus wrote a series of books
called Arithmetica. He solved equations, and even used
symbols, but he didn't solve general equations.
38 Tel l Me Why
How did electricity change the
world?
Electricity was never d iscovered- rather,
it emerged through a series of discoveries.
The Ancient Greeks knew that electricity
could be produced by rubbing a piece of
amber. However, it was only in 1 660 that
the German physicist Otto von Guericke
developed a device that produced static
electricity. Even in the mid 1 8th century,
people did not realize the potential of
electricity.
Benjamin Franklin In 1 752, Benjamin Fra n klin,an American,
presented the idea that electricity ha6
positive and negative elements, and that
it flowed from positive to negative.
I n 1 83 1 , Michael Faraday developed the
generator. In 1 879, ltJOmas Edison
i nvented the electric light bulb that-could
emit continuous light - and this i nvention
changed the world.
Why is Isaac Newton considered o n e of
the most influential scientists of all time?
Born in England in the 1 7th century, Isaac Newton was
a highly influential physicist, astronomer, mathematician,
philosopher, and theo logian. He made some very
important discoveries in his lifetime. In fact, within a period
of a year and half, he made three great discoveries. His first
discovery was the three basic laws of motion.
Newton's second discovery was about light, and the
properties of light. Newton's third great discovery was
in the field of maths, when he developed a kind of
maths we call calcu lus. Sir Isaac Newton was, without
doubt, one of the most influential scientists of all
time. He came u p with numerous theories,
and contributed ideas to many different
fields including physics, mathe
matics, and philosophy.
This apple
i nfluenced me
very much!
40 Tel l Me Why
Rockets
The first rockets originated in China around

1 330. An ancient rocket consisted of four
parts- an arrowhead, arrow barrel, arrow
feather, and gunpowder tube. The
gunpowder tubes, which were mostly made
from bamboo tubes or paperboard, were filled with gunpowder,
with one end closed, and the other end open. A small hole was
left for the blasting fuse.
Why is John H arrison a sailor's hero 7

John Harrison was an 1 8th century
English inventor who worked on devices
for improving clocks and watches. He is
most famous for having solved 'the
longitude problem,' that sai lors faced at
sea. The problem of how a ship could know
how far west or east it had sailed from its
home port, was perhaps the most vexing
one of the 1 8th century. In 1 7 1 4, the British
John Harrison
government offered 20,000 pounds, to
anyone who cou ld fig u re out what to do.
The answer came from John Harrison.
H i s solution involved a shi pboard clock set
to the hour at zero degrees longitude in
Greenwich, England. Once at sea, a ship's
captain could compare the time on this
clock, to a second clock set to tell the time
at whatever position the ship occupied at
that moment. Using this method, the
captain would know that his ship had
moved 1 5 degrees of longitude from zero.
This invention was of immense benefit to
Harrison 's
all men at sea, so, it is no wonder that John Chronometer
Harrison became a hero to sai lors.
Why a re Rousseau, Voltaire, and
Montesquieu associated with the Age of
E nlightenment?
The Age of Enlightenment was a period of
i ntense questioning of the dominant ideas
in the fields of philosophy, politics, and
economics. The basic ideas of the Enlight
enment may be found i n the works of its
most prominent representatives, Rousseau,
Rousseau Voltaire,and Montesquieu. Voltaire attacked
the social institutions of his time in a sharp
and satirical prose, and poetry. He was
vehemently opposed to religious fanaticism
of any kind. However, he distrusted mass
politics and democracy as such.
Montesquieu is best remembered for his
theory of separation of powers, which
basically became the founding principle of
the majority of modern nation-states.
Montesquieu became a supporter of the
notion of sharing of governmental power
between a parliamentary body, an executive
Montesquieu power, and an independent judiciary.
Rousseau had political views which were
radically different from those of Voltaire and
Montesquieu. He thought that modern
society exerted a corrupting influence u pon
naturally equal and good human beings.
Rousseau believed that virtue should
become the basis of a new socio-political
system that was to replace the corrupt
European monarchies of his time. The
writings of these authors had an effect on
the changing ideas of liberty and forms of
Voltaire government, which contributed to the start
ofthe French Revolution.
42 Tel l Me Why
Stop! No
revo lution! It is
the Industrial
Revo lution.
How did The rndustrial Revolution change the world?

The Industrial Revolution started i n England a round 1 733
with the first cotton mill. As new inventions were being
created, factories followed soon thereafter. Before long,
the Industrial Revolution had spread to the USA and other
countries too.
The Industrial Revol ution changed society both signifi
cantly and rapidly. Economic changes caused far-reaching
social changes, including the movement of people to cities,
the availability of a g reater variety of material goods, and
new ways of doing business. The i ntrodu ction of factories,
the development of electricity, and the railroads all
contributed to faster, more efficient production of goods
and materials.
An Old Steel
Manufacturing
Company in USA
Why is Adam Smith cal led 'the father of modern
economics'?
Adam Smith is widely regarded as the father of
economics, and is perhaps best known for
his work 'The Wealth of Nations'. The Wealth
of Nations is a massive work
consisti ng oftwo vol u mes divided
into five books. The ideas
it promoted attracted
international
attention, and
Trip to Space
The space
shuttle was
made to take
astronauts and cargo to and from
Earth's orbit. The space shuttle is
a cross between an aero plane,
and a rocket, because while a
rocket can zoom into space, the
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
space shuttle can also come back
to Earth like a plane. The US space What has been the
shuttle Columbia completed its ' impact of Wilhelm
first mission in April 1 98 1 . Friedrich Hegel on
Through the work done by astro modern thought?
nauts during these shuttle Wilhelm Friedrich
missions scientists learn many Hegel was a German
things, and they set the stage for philosopher who lived
future exploration. between 1 770 and
44 Tel l Me Why
helped to d rive the move from land-based
wealth to wealth created by assembly-line
production methods, and the division of
labour. Adam Smith believed that society
is not at its most productive when
governed by rules and limitations with
regards to trade. He also felt that in order
for markets to prosper, a free trade
environment is needed.
The work of Adam Smith heavi ly influ
enced economic thought throughout the
Victorian Era. Though he d ied more than
two h u nd red years ago, his presence and
Adam Smith the impact of his work are still felt in many
areas of present- day economics.
1 83 1 . According to conflicting ideas a re reconciled in what he

him, the ultimate calls the 'synthesis'. The synthesis becomes
truth u nfolds over a the basis for the next thesis, and the whole
period of time process is repeated again and again, until
through the history the u ltimate truth is a rrived at. Hegel used
of philosophy and his system of dialectics to explain the
evolution of ideas. wholeofthe history of philosophy, science,
Hecal ledthis process art, politics and religion.
'dialectic'.
It begins with an Birth Place of Hegel
idea he called a
'thesis', and the ideas
in the thesis gives
rise to, a contra
dictory idea that has
an equal claim to
validity. This he calls
the 'antithesis'.
Final ly, the
Why is E d m u nd
Burke considered the
founder of modern
conservatism 1
In the late eighteenth
century, an Irishman
named Edmund Burke
cha m pioned the sea rch
for truth. Today, he is
considered the father
of modern conserv
atism. He i s often
q uoted as saying, 'The
o n ly thing necessary
for the tri u m p h of evi l
i s for good m e n t o do
noth i ng '. Bu rke
bel ieved in h u man
equality i n the eyes of Edmund Burke
God, but not here on
Earth. Respect for a
higher power was essential to his phi losophy, no matter
what the reli g i o n . He also said that the C h u rch and State
were inseparable.
The outbreak of t h e French Revo l ut i o n in 1 78 9 gave
B u rke h i s g reatest target. H e expressed h i s m i strust of
the revo l ut i o n i n a book. Bu r ke e m p h a s i sed the
da n g e rs of m o b ru l e, fea r i n g that t h e Revol ut i o n 's
fervou r wa s d estroy i n g French society. H e a p pe a l ed
to the British v i rt u e s of conti n u ity, tra d i t i o n, ra n k, a n d
p roperty a n d o p posed t h e Revo l ut i o n t o t h e e n d o f h i s
l ife. H i s a rg u ments fo r l o n g - l ived constituti o n a l
conventions, p o l i t i c a l p a rties, a n d t h e i nd ep e n d e nce
of a n M P o n c e e l ected, sti l l ca rry weig ht. H e i s j u stly
rega rded a s o n e o f t h e fou n de rs of t h e British C o n s e rv
ative tra d i t i o n .
46 Tel l Me Why
Why is M a ry Wollstonecraft fam ou s?
Mary Wolistonecraftwas an English writer who fought
for women's equality. She is most famous for her work,
'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,' that she wrote
in 1 792. I n the work, she attacks prevailing notions that
women a re helpless adornments of a household.
Instead, she states that society breeds 'gentle domestic
brutes'. She believed that confining a woman to the
home frustrated them, and transforms them i nto tyrants
over their children and
servants.
The key, she said, is
educational reform,
giving women the same
educational opportu
n ities as men. She also
demanded that women
be given the right to vote.
The ideas in her book
were truly revolutionary
at the time, and caused
tremendous controversy.
Mary Wollstonecrajt
� The Scientific Study of Anatomy
_ The first scientific study of the

human body was made by a Flemish
physician, Andreas Vesalius. He d issected
human bodies and discovered that early
descriptions made by the Greek physician Galen
were based on dissections of animals, not
humans. Vesalius published a book describing
the human anatomy in detail in 1 543.
How did rubber affect human devel Rubber Trees in
opment? Kerala
Rubber is one of the most important
products to come out of the rainforest. The
people of South America's rainforest have
been using rubber for generations, and
explorers and colonists brought samples of
these trees when they headed back to
Europe. On April 1 5th, 1 770, Joseph Priestley
recorded his discovery of rubber's ability to
rub out, or erase lead pencil marks, and that
was how rubber got its name.
In 1 839, Charles Goodyear accidentally
d ropped ru bber and sulfur on a hot
stovetop, causing it to char like leather, yet
remain plastic and elastic. This led to Charles Goodyear
vu lcanization, which was a refined version
48 Tel l Me Why
of this process. Oh! God!
V u l c a n ization A rubber is
transformed the approach ing
white sap from the me!
bark of the Hevea
tree into an
essential prod uct
for the industrial
age. With the
invention of the
automobile in the
late 1 9th century, balls and pil lows, electrical insulation, and
the rubber boom erasers. Rubber is also used in toys, balls,
began. South rafts, elastic bandages, adhesives, paints,
America remained hoses, and a mu ltitude of other products.
the main source of
thelimitedamounts Moving Shade
of latex rubber that
were used d u ring In 1 637, Louis
much of the 1 9th XIII of France is
century. It was Sir said to have
Henry Wickham made umbrellas
of oiled cloth,
who transported
for protection
70,000 seeds from
from the sun
Brazil to Kew
and rain.
Gardens, England
Sunshades and
in 1 876. Also, at
parasols were in
a bout that time, use in China and
Henry Ridley Japan even
developed tapping earlier. Our
techniques. modern
Rubber is made umbrel la with
i nto articles as its steel ribs was
diverse as tyres, invented in
raincoats and 1 874 by Samuel
sponges, bowling Samuel Fox Fox.
Factory
A water powered mill was opened in

Derbyshire, England, in 1 770. This was
probably the first factory, and its
purpose was to manufacture stockings.
The location was determined by the fact
that the spinners would have to gather where there was a
water wheel to run the machines. This factory marked the
beginning of the Industrial Age in Britain.
Why is Thomas
Jefferson historical ly
important? The US
Thomas Jefferson is an needs a coinage
incredible figure in system.
history. He was the third
president of the USA, and
a fou nder of one of the
original political parties,
Thomas Jefferson the Democratic-Repu b-
lican Party. One of the
leading architects of his time, he designed the
Virginia Capitol, and the U niversity ofVirginia.
Thomas Jefferson was also an inventor and
scientist. He invented the lap desk, a decoding
device, and developed the decimal system of
coinage that is the basis of American money
dollars and cents. As President, ' one of his
g reatest accomplishments was doubling the
size of the United States with the Louisiana
Purchase from France. Most important of all, he
will always be remembered in history, because
he wrote the American Declaration of
Independence.
50 Tell Me Why
A May Day Rally
How did the Labour Movement start?

During the I n dustrial Revolution, people worked for
long hours, for lowwages. Women and children especially
were exploited by the mill owners. If anyone dared to
protest, they were fired, because with an abunda nce of
labour, employers could easily replace workers.
The labour movement began as people started to work
together to improve their work conditions. In the 1 930's,
this movement gained momentum. Labour unions were
formed to help workers get organized and bargain for
their rights. Workers created unions because g roups have
more bargaining power than individuals. When large
groups make joint decisions, employers are forced to listen
to their concerns.
In England, the first u nions were q u ickly declared
i l legal. They were legalized at last in 1 824. Early u nions in
North America also faced a difficult battle. Employers
refused to accept the u nions, and the cou rts often
declared the u nions illegal.
Political parties and other g roups become i nvolved
with the concerns of the working classes, and today, the
Labour Movement is a powerful force in most countries
of the world. May 1 5t is celebrated as I nternational
Worker's Day.
My . .
steam engme I S
How did the stea m engine change a success!
the world?
The steam engine is an example of a
heat engine. Heat engines are those
that convert heat energy into
mechanical work. The steam engine
was perfected by James Watt.
The steam engine was a total ly
portable source of power, which could
operate heavy machinery. As a result,
there was a boom in factories and
industries flou rished.
The steam engine made train travel
much quicker, and made the transport
of raw materials easier as well.
George Stephenson played a key role
in producing the first commercially
used steam trains. The steam engine is
considered to be the engine that drove
the Industrial Revolution.
The first steam locomotive was built by

Richard Trevithick. lt was a locomotive
that ran on the road. He added wheels to a
high pressure engine, and it ran at a speed
of 8 km/hr. However, he was forced to abandon it when the
heavy wheels of the locomotive destroyed the tracks it ran on.
52 Tell Me Why
Why did the g rowth of the
automobile industry herald
a new era i n history?
The word automobile can be
defined simply as a vehicle
that is self-powered, and
automobiles, or motor
vehicles, owe their existence
to many people from d ifferent
countries. Henry Fard
The first successfu l self
powered vehicle was desig ned
and built by Cugnot and Brezin
in France in 1 769. This was a
heavy, steam powered
monster that weighed four
tonnes and had a top speed of
only 3.2 kilometres per hour.
The Duryea brothers
developed the first gasoline
powered American car in 1 893,
and the 'horseless carriages'
became more freq uent d u ring
the next few years.
Henry Ford was not the first
to build or sell motorized
vehicles, but it is sti ll his name
that remains most closely
associated with the auto
industry. Ford did build cars,
but he also was the first to use Engine afthe Cugnat Machine
conveyor belts, and establish
an assembly line method for
building automobiles.
The automobile made it
possible for people to go
Ford Modei T How has photography changed our
view of the world ?
anywhere they Photography is a method of recording
wanted. Networks of images by the action of light, or related
national highways radiation, on a sensitive material. The first
were built, and photograph was taken in 1 827 by a man
people could live named Joseph Niepce. A few years later,
further away from Louis Daguerre would come up with the
their workplace. first real practical camera.
Automobiles have Throughoutthe remainderofthe 1 800's,
also polluted the scientists would make g radual improve
environment, and ments on the camera, and different
have caused methods of exposures. In the late 1 800's,
shortages in natural George Eastman i nvented camera film. He
resources. In short, also invented the small box camera called
the automobile the Kodak. This was the first time that
completely changed cameras became relatively easy to carry
not only the way around and take photos. It was still
people lived, but also nothing like the cameras today, but
industry, and society. photography as a hobby had been born.
54 Tel l Me Why
Gradually, newfeatures were added tocameras
and the q uality of photog raphs improved too.
Photography now began to be recognized as
an art form, and later, as a profession.
Photography has changed the world more
than any other thing in the media. Our world no
longer has its focus on words and paintings, but
on the photograph. Photo journalism also
George Eastman
became an important part of news. Photog
raphy has completely changed how we
perceive ourselves and the world. It is used to
record our history and lives. A good photograph
can tell a story, convey emotion, and inspire us.
We are
best
friends.
E lectromag n et i s m
Electricity and magnetism were thought of as

two separate subjects until 1 820, when a
Danish physicist Hans Christian Orsted
proved otherwise. Orsted put a compass
needle near a wire, and then connected the
wire to the terminals of a battery. The needle
set itself at right angle to the wire, showing
that electricity could create magnetism.
How did the works
of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels affect
the world's thinking?
Karl Marx was a
German philosopher,
economist,sociologist,
historian, journa list,
and revol utionary
socialist. He published
various books during
Friedrich Engels Karl Marx his lifetime, with the
------- most notable being
'The Com munist Manifesto', i n 1 848, and
'Das Capital' later on. Some of his works
Workers were co-written with his friend and fellow
of the wo rld German revolutiona ry socialist, Friedrich
unite .... Engels. Marx is popularly regarded as the
father of modern socialism, which has
also been cal led Marxism. Marx's theories
about society, economics and politics
collectively known as Marxism-hold that
all societies progress through a conflict
between an ownership class which
controls prod uction, and a lower class
which provides the labou r for producing
goods.
Friedrich Engels was German socialist
philosopher, the closest collaborator of
Karl Marx in the fou ndation of modern
communism.
I n fact, the ideas of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels have influenced
Communist movements all over the
world. These ideas continue to stimulate
and engage thinkers in a variety offields.
56 Tel l Me Why
How did the concept of
Nationalism start?
In early times, people
identified with the tribes
they belonged to. The idea
of several tribes joining
together to form a nation
came much later.
The first roots of nation
alism are probably to be
found a mongst the ancient
Hebrews, who thought of
Herder themselves as a chosen
people. In other parts ofthe
world, nationalism grew as
strong centralized
kingdoms were built from
r;.... Go and get small feudal states, £IS
a national flag to regional languages and art
tie on thisf forms evolved, and as local
economies widened.
It was in the 1 9th century,
that nationalism became a
widespread and powerfu l
force. The spirit of nation
alism took an especially "
strong hold in Germany,
under thinkers like the poet
Johann Gottfried Herder.
In the latter halfofthe 1 9th
century there were strong
nationalist movements
among the people in the
countries ru led by
European and the British
empires.
Idea s that changed the world 57
Fuel from a Well
Edwin Drake struck

the world's first oil
well in 1 859 at
Titusville, Pennsyl
vania, in the USA.
In the beginning,
petroleum was just
used for I�hting
and medicinal
purposes. Its
myriads uses were
discovered only
later.
Why w a s t h e removal o f slavery a
g ia n t step forward for mankind?
A slave is someone who is the property
of somebody else, according to the laws
of the place that they live in.
All ancient and medieval cultures had
slaves, though some had more slaves
than others.
Slaves were treated very harshly by
most owners, and sometimes, they
l ived in conditions that were truly
Edwin Drake pitiful. Moreover, a slave's child also
was born a slave, which was real ly cruel.
58 Tel l Me Why
It was only later i n the Middle Ages How did the devel
that slavery at last began to disappear opment of genetics
in Europe. cha nge the scientific
In Japan, slavery ended in the 1 6th world?
century. I n England, where slavery Genetics is the branch
began to be outlawed as early as the of science that studies
1 2th century, there arose a movement how traits a re passed
in the late 1 8th century to end it. down from one gener
In 1 861 , Czar Alexander II abolished ation to another.
serfdom in his nation. Serfs were As early as 5000 BC,
peasant farm workers bound to their civilizations around the
master and to his land, and their world were practicing
conditions were similar to those of the principles of genetics
slaves. when they crossbred
In the USA, in January 1 836, the crops l i ke wheat, corn,
Emancipation Proclamation made by and rice to get new and
President Abraham Lincoln, freed 3 . 1 superior varieties.
million of the nation's 4 million slaves. However, genetics as �
Slavery is now officially banned all science began i n the
over the world, restoring the right to 1 860's, when an Austrian
freedom to everyone. monk by the name of
Electromagnetic I nd uctio n
I t was a British scientist Michael

Faraday who proved that magnetism
could produce electricity, just as
electricity could create magnetism.
He showed that plunging a magnet
i nto a coil of wire produced a surge of
current. He also showed that if two
coils were wound around an iron ring,
.
connecting one coil to a battery
would produce current in the other
Michael Faraday coil too.

Gregor Mendel began experimenting with peas.
He wanted to find out how physical character
istics, also known as traits, are passed from one
generation to the next. What he discovered is
that most such traits a re carried by what we now
• call genes. His discoveries opened the way for

a century of work in genetics.
We have to
c l imb these stairs
to meet the gentic
scientist.
Gregor Mendel
/ / , /
Public Electricity S u pply
The first public electricity supply system

was built by Thomas Edison in 1 882. It
was a big step forward, because it
provided brighter, safer lighting than gas. New York was
the first city to benefit from the idea of a public electric
supply system. It was a DC system ( direct current) and was
soon replaced by Westinghouse's and Tesla's AC current
system, which is now common everywhere.
60 Tel l Me Why
Why is it said that Charles
Darwin changed our under
standing of hum a n existence?
Charles Darwin was a brilliant
naturalist who l ived in the 1 9th
century. He changed the way
people think about life on Earth.
According to this theory, all
species of life have evolved over
Charles Darwin time from common ancestors.
Darwin presented compelling
evidence from his detailed
research which included a five
year voyage on the ship, HMS
Beagle. On this voyage, Darwin
visited ecologically diverse "
regions l i ke Galapagos Islands.
His 1 859 book 'On the Origin of
Species,' became a land mark
work in the field of evolutionary
biology.
Darwin is acknowledged as the
person who changed our u nder
\ Ir ! (
standing of human existence by
) giving us a good bl ueprint ofhow
"
l ife came to be as it is.
61
Bicycle
A British
Nikola Tesla Marconi
engineer,
Why is the discovery of the radio a
John Starley,
historical land mark?
did not invent
the bicycle, The roots of the radio started with the
but he gave it discovery of 'radio waves' - electromagnetic
its modern waves that have the capacity to transmit
look. In 1 885, m usic, speech, pictures, and other data
he made both i nvisibly through the air. It was Marconi, an
wheels of the Italian inventor, who actually proved the
same size, and feasibility of radio communication. In addition
put them in a to Marconi, two of his contemporaries Nikola
diamond Tesla and Nathan Stufflefield took out patents
shaped frame. for wireless radio transmitters.
The concept of the radio first came about in
1 879, but it was not really perfected until
1 922. The first radiobroadcast occurred in
1 922 in Pittsburgh. Listening to the radio
instantly became popular.
Radio became the 'lifeline' for many
because it was a cheap way to stay
i nvolved and aware of what was
going on a round them. It was
informative and entertaining with
both music and news programmes.
Truly, radio has proved to be a
historical and social landmark!
62 Tel l Me Why
Edison 's
Phonograph
Why was the invention of the g ra m o

phone i mportant?
There were many attempts to i nvent a m usic playing
gadget, but the real breakthrough was made by in 1 887,
by Emile Berliner, a German immig rant working in
Washington. He patented a system of sound recording
on flat discs, or records. The first records were made of
glass, later zinc, and eventually plastic. A spiral groove
with sound information was etched i nto the flat record.
The record was rotated on the gramophone. The 'arm' of
the gramophone held a need le that read the grooves in
the record byvibration, and transmitting the information
to the gramophone speaker. Emile Berlinerfounded 'The
Gra mophone Company,' to mass manufactu re his sound
disks or records, and the gramophone that played them.
Berliner's i nvention also paved the way for what is now
a m u ltimil lion dollar industry- the recording i n dustry.
de a s that changed the world 63
Why did the 'germ theory' mark the begin ning of modern
medicine?
The discovery that microorganisms cause most illnesses has
been a path breaking one for med icine. I n the 1 670's, a Dutchman
Anton van Leeuwenhoek became the first person ever to observe
microorganisms by using a simple m icroscope.
Giant strides in the study of microorganisms were made by the
1 9th century by the French chemist and microbiologist Lou is
Pasteur, and the British surgeon Joseph Lister. Louis Pasteur was
able to demonstrate that organisms such as bacteria were respon
sible for souring wine and milk . Pasteur's various investigations
convinced him of the rightness of the
germ theory of d isease, which holds that
germs attack the body from outside.
Joseph Lister ( 1 827- 1 81 2) was a
surgeon. He was concerned about this
problem. He realized that germs must
be the cause of the i nfections and
devised a way to disinfect surgical
i ncisions using carbolic acid.
Oh god!
Leeuwenhoek a demon in a
single drop.
Louis Pasteur
64 Tel l Me W hy
Why did the
invention of the electric
bulb light up the world?
The first electric light was made in 1 800 by
Hum phry Davy, a n English scientist. When he
connected wires to a battery and a piece of ca rbon,
the carbon glowed, prod ucing light.
Many other scientists experimented with electric light. In
1 860, the English scientist Sir Joseph Swan, devised an
electric bulb. In 1 878, he demonstrated a more long-lasting
one in Newcastle, England . ln 1 879,Thomas Edison discovered
that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed for up
t0 40 hours.
Prior to the invention of the light bulb, the light of
daytime was only extended through the use of fires,
candles, and gas lights. None of these provided the
intensity of light that an electric bulb does, and
were therefore, poor substitutes for daylight.
Electric bulbs provide illumination that is as
bright, as or brighter than daylight. The
light bulb made it possible to extend
working hours and improve
productivity. It also made it
possible to enjoy leisure activ
ities late into the night. In fact,
the light bulb had one of the
greatest impacts of any
invention ever created.
This is because light
bulbs not only lit up
the world, but they
also were a leading
factor in the study of
electricity.
65
Radio Communication
-,
��
� Though many inventers experimented
,..,
�'#'0 � with radio waves, it was Marconi who was
, \.. granted the first radio patent in 1 896. He
U sent and received his first radio signal in
Italy in 1 895. By 1 899, he flashed the first wireless signal
across the English Channel, and two years later, received
the letter 'S', telegraphed from England to Newfoundland.
Why is Sigmund Freud one of

the g reatest names in psychiatry?
Sig mund Freud was a Viennese
doctor who lived between 1 856 and
1 939. He was one of the first to
suggest workable cures for mental
disorders. His work became the
foundation for treating psychiatric
disorders by psychoanalysis.
Sigmund Freud In 1 886, he opened a private
practice that catered to treating
He's patients who suffered from nervous
smil ing? He's and bra i n d isorders. He fou n d he
having a funny _ could get patients to tal k just bYi
dream. putting them i n a relaxi ng position
on a couch, and encouraging them
� � to say whatever came i nto thei�
- heads. By doing this, he was able to
., - g ive an analysis of past events, and
what was currently botheri ng
them. This was the beginning 0
F reud as the psychologist. Freud's
work was g roundbreaki ng for its
ti me, and it sti ll plays a valid role in
psychology.
Tel l Me Why
The First successful
Airplane
How did Man's d ream of flight come

This ti me, true?
I' l l surely reach
Man has always d reamt of being able to
heaven!
fly l i ke a bird, and many attempts were
made to fly using artificial wings- but all of
t m failed. Hot air bal loons, i nvented in
t e1 entury, did make it possible for
o soar up into the clouds, but left
them totally at the mercy of winds. Gliders
came next, but it was the invention of the
four stroke engine that made it possible
for an aircraft to fly on its own power, .and
not just in the direction of the wind. It was
the Wright brothers who finally made
Man's d ream of flight come true. The
Wright brothers were the first to make a
successful human flight with a craft that
was powered by an engine, and was
heavier than air, on December 1 7th , 1 903. "
Orville Wright Wilbur Wright
changed the world 67

How did the diesel engine
change the world?
In 1 878, Rudolf Diesel was
attending the Polytechnic
High School of Germany
when he learned about the
low efficiency of gasoli ne and
stea m eng i nes that were then
being used. This disturbing,
but enlig hten i ng i nformation
inspired him to create a n
engine with a higher
efficiency- the diesel engine.
He operated his first
successful engine in 1 897. His
engine was the first to prove
that fuel could be ignited
without a spark.
The diesel engines of today
are refined and improved Diesel Engine
versions of Rudolf Diesel's (1 906)
original concept. His engines
are used to power pipelines,
electric and water plants,
automobiles and trucks, and
marine craft, as well as in
mines, oil fields, factories, and
shipping. Rudolf Diesel
Pu blic Broadcastin g Service
Public broadcasting began in

earnest only in the 1 920's. By this
time, electronics had developed
greatly, a l lowing big transmitters to be built. Regular
broadcasts were started in Britain in February 1 920.
68 Tel l Me Why
Why is Wilhelm
Roentgen honoured to
this day?
Wilhelm Roentgen was
a German physicist, and
the discoverer of X-rays.
Roentgen's discovery of
X-rays was a momentous
advance for physics and
medicine, and earned
him the 1 90 1 Nobel Prize
in Physics.
Roentgen discovered
X-rays by accident
on November 8th, 1 895,
while investigating
emissions from a Crookes
tube, which is a glass Rontgen 's First Medical X-ray, of
vacuum tube with his Wife 's hand, taken on 22nd
electrodes at either end. December 1895
He was already working
on the effects of cathode
rays, before he actually
discovered X-rays. To
highlight the u n known
nature of his discovery,
he called them X-rays,
though they a re still
known as Roentgen-rays
as well.
In his discovery,
Roentgen found that
an X-ray would pass
through the tissue of
humans leaving the
bones and metals visible.
Becquerel . . Rutherford Marie Curie
How has the discovery of radioactivity affected

our lives?
Radioactivity is the emission of radiation from an
unstable atomic nucleus. This emission of energy is
called radioactive decay. The radiation can be emitted
in the form of a positively charged alpha particle, a
negatively charged beta particle, or gamma rays.
Natural radioactivity was first observed in 1 896 by A.
H. Becquerel. These rays werefound to be very different
from X-rays that had been discovered earlier.
I n 1 899, E. Rutherford discovered and named alpha
and beta radiation, and in 1 900, P. Vil lard identified
gamma radiation. Marie and Pierre Curie extended the
work on radioactivity, discovering the highly radio
active element radium in 1 898. Frederic and I rene
Joliot-Curie discovered the first example of artificial
rad ioactivity in 1 934.
Why is atomic energy both destructive a n d

constructive?
Atoms a re tiny particles that make up every object i n
t h e U niverse. There is enormous energy in the bonds
that hold atoms together. The energy contained in the
nucleus, or core of the atom is cal led n uclear energy.
70 Tel l Me Why
Only in the early 1 930's did scientists d iscover that the atom is
made up of proton and neutron particles. Years later, i n 1 938, two
German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman and physicist
Lise Meitnerof Austria, discovered thatthey could splitthe nucleus
of a uranium atom by bombarding it with neutrons. This is called
fission. As the u ranium n ucleus split, some of its mass was -
converted to heat energy.
I n 1 942, Enrico Fermi of I want an
Italy, and a group of other atom bomb to k i l l
physicists noticed the off some dangerous
germs.
fission of one u ranium
atom gave off more
neutrons, which cou l d i n
turn, split other u rani u m
atoms, starting a chain
reaction. They soon
realized that enormous
amounts of energy could
be produced by this
process of n uclear fission.
I n the 1 940's, nuclear
fission wasfirst used d urin
World War .
Why has refrigeration changed our food
habits?
Refrigeration is process of removing heat
from an enclosed space, or from a substance, to
lower its temperature. In the past, people used
ice or snow to keep their food cold.
The first known a rtificial refrigeration was
demonstrated by William Cullen at the
U niversity of Glasgow. I n
1 805, an American
i nventor, Oliver Evans,
designed the first refriger
ation machine, and the first
practical refrigerating
machine was built by Jacob
Perkins in 1 834. In 1 876, a
German engineer Carl von
Linden, patented the
process of liquefying gas i n
1 876, that is part of basic
refrigeration technology.
Refrigeration has d rasti
cally changed the food
production industry, and
the eating habits of people
around the world.
Qua ntum Theory
The Quantum Theory, describes the particles

that make up matter, and how they interact
with each other, and with energy. The name
'quantum theory' comes from the fact that the
theory describes the matter and energy in the
universe in terms of single indivisible units called quanta, which
is the plural for quantum.
72 Tel l Me Why
VVhat has been the
impact of Einstein's
theory of relativity?
In 1 905, one of the
g reatest geniuses of all
time, Albert Einstein
published his special
theory of relativity. I n
1 9 1 5, his general theory
of relativity was made
public. His theories
regarding relativity
chal lenged much of the
way traditional science
had viewed certain
physical aspects of the
U niverse. It proposed
that there's no such
Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein thing as 'absolute' time
or space. They are part of
a single fabric, space
Th is is
the device that
time, a n d they lengthen
explains or contract depending
relativity. on the motion of the
person measuring them.
Ei nstei n is most famous
for his eq uation E=mc2, '
which says that energy
equals mass times the
speed of light squared.
It was this discovery of
Einstein's that paved
the way for the
prod uction of atomic
energy, and the atomic
bomb.
Why are plastics a n a mazing phenomenon?
Alexander Parkes created the first 'man-made'
plastic i n 1 860. Its name was 'Parkesine/ and would
change form when heated, but when it cooled, it
would harden. It was a made from cel l ulose, was
clear, and could be moulded. But it was expensive
to make, and so it was not practical to produce it.
Formaldehyde was the next product to advance
the technology of plastic.
In 1 899, Arthur Smith received a British patent
for processing a formaldehyde resin. However, it
was only in 1 907 that Leo Hendrik Baekeland
i nvented the first fully synthetic resin, to become
a com mercially successful product named
Bakelite.
In the 1 930's, a Dupont chemist named
Wallace Carothers invented a form of plastic
called nylon. Today, there are hard plastics and
soft plastics, clear ones and colourfu l ones, and
plastics that look like leather, wood, or metal.
Developed d u ring the twentieth century,
plastics have truly·changed the world.
74 Tel l Me Why
Sou n d from a Box
Even after Marconi got the first

radio patent, radio waves
could be sent out from stations
in only i n short waves.
Continuous waves are needed
Fessenden to actually transmit sound. In
1 906, Canadian-US engineer
Reginald Fessenden invented an electric generator that
transmitted continuous radio waves. His first broadcast
was on Christmas Eve, and radio finally got a voice!
What is Modernism?
In the late 1 9th century, the arts i n Europe and the Americas
embarked u pon a new phase that was a d istinct break from the
past. This was Modernism.
I n prose, this movement was led by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf,
and Marcel Proust. I n poetry, the trend was set by Ezra Pound and
T.5. Eliot. The art of Pablo Picasso , Henri Matisse, Egon Schiele and
Oskar Kokoschka
was unlike
He is creating
anything theworld
modern art.
had seen before.
To put it simply,
Modernism was
not simply a style,
but more of an
attitude, a deter
mination to brea �!I!"<ii��
with the past,
free the artist fro
the stifling rules
convention
etiquette.
Why is it said that vaccines have saved
the world?
Vaccines are a single, or multiple dose
treatment designed to provide a person
with immunity from a particular disease.
Vaccination is a miracle of modern
medicine. The Chinese were the first to
discover and use a primitive form of vacci
nation cal led variolation. lt was carried out
as early as the 1 Qth century, and its aim was
to prevent smallpox by exposing healthy
Edward Jenner
people to tissue from the scabs caused by
the disease. Variolation eventually spread
to Turkey, and arrived in England in the
early 1 8th century.
The British physician, Dr Edward Jenner
discovered vaccination i n its modern form,
and proved to the scientific community
that it worked. Louis Pasteur improved
vaccination even more, and developed a
vaccine against rabies.
As the science of immunology
developed, other vaccines were created.
Vaccines have saved the world by eradi
cating many deadly diseases from most
parts of the world.
76 Tel l Me Why
Why did the discovery of
penicillin change the course
of medicine?
Penicillin was d iscovered i n
1 928 by the g reat scientist
Alexander Fleming, purely by
accident. Alexander Fleming
was looking for ways to destroy
bacteria. In 1 928, he was
g rowing lots of bacteria known
as staphylococci on agar plates.
He was a rather messy worker, Alexander Fleming
and didn't clean up his
workstation before going on
vacation one day. When he
came back, Fleming noticed
that there was a strange mould Wow!
on some of his cultures. Just The bacteria
before he put all the plates i n has vanished!
the basin t o get them clean,
Fleming noticed something.
Although lots of bacteria were
g rowing on his plates, there was
a clear ring in the jelly around
some of the spots of mould - no
bacteria were g rowing there l
Something i n the mould had
killed the bacteria that were
covering the jelly. That
'something' was penicillin!
The discovery of penicillin
changed the course of medicine,
and has enabled physicians to
treat formerly severe, and life
threatening illnesses .

Freud with lung
Who is responsible for the theory of

collective unconscious?
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and
fou nder of analytical psychology. Jung
was a disciple of Freud, and along with
Freud, he pioneered modern theories of
the relationships between the conscious
and unconscious aspects of mind.
However, he had different ideas from
his teacher on some things. Jung intro
lung d uced the idea of the Collective Uncon
scious. This is the part of the u nconscious
mind that is shared by a society, a people,
or all humankind. It is the product of
a ncestral experience, and contains such
concepts as science, religion, and
morality.
Jung's theories have influellced the a rts
greatly. His theory of personality types
also led to the development of personality
profiles, widely used by employers.
78 Tel l Me Why
SMS What is the importance of �
the Big Bang Theory?

'SMS'(Short Message Most astronomers believe
Service) has just turned the U niverse began i n a Big
twenty. On December 3, Bang a bout 1 4 billion years
1 992, the British software ago. At that time, the entire
engineer Neil Papworth
U niverse was inside a bubble
sent a message from his
that was thousands of times
handset to a director at
smaller than a pinhead. It was
British telecommun ica
hotter and denser than
tions giant Vodafone. At
anything we can imagine
that time, mobile phones
did not have keyboards so and then, it exploded, and the
he typed out the message
U niverse that we know was
using a computer keybord. born. In a fraction of a second
The text read 'Merry the U niverse grew fro �
Christmas'. This was the smaller than a single atom to
beginning of Short bigger than a galaxy. It is �till
Message Service. expanding today.
,
I
The Big Bang theory first began to take shape in calculations
published i n 1 927 by Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest and
physics professor. Around this time, the American astronomer
Edwin H ubble d iscovered that every galaxy is moving away from
our own, a sign that the Universe is i ndeed expanding. Also,
telescopes with the ability to
measure radiation in space
I've come to
demonstrate the detected residual radiation
'Big Bang' theory. throughout space, which
indicated that something
massive occurred.
The Big Bang theory is
i mportant for it explains
where the galaxies, stars,
and planets come from.
Before the Big Bang, nothing
existed, not even space.
Space and time, according
to scientists like Steven
Hawking, George Ellis and
Roger Penrose, were created
after the Big Bang. The three
scientists performed mathe
matical calculations to help
prove their ideas i n the
1 960's and 1 970's.
I
Magnifyi ng Magic
I
In 1 933, a German engineer named Ernst
Ruska invented a m icroscope that
worked with electrons. Electron micro
scopes made it possible to see objects as
small as molecules that could not be seen
with an ordinary light microscope.
80 Tel l Me Why
Energy Wonder
German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz

Strassmann discovered in 1 938, that
when uranium is bombarded with
neutrons, the nuclei of its atoms can split,
forming lighter elements. This
phenomenon was later called 'nuclear
fission', that made possible the creation of
the atom bomb.
How did the telephone m a ke the world

seem smaller?
Alexander Graham Bell i nvented the
telephone, and got the patent for it i n 1 876.
A patent is given to someone who invents
something new so that other people do not
copy it without permission. However, we

Com m u nication Satellite
In 1 960, a US engineer, John Pierce

showed that a giant aluminum
coated balloon made a good radio reflector, and that signals
could be bounced off it over long distances. His work led to
the launch of Telstar, the first satellite to relay television, in
1 962. Today, communication satellites relay signals from
space to almost anywhere on Earth.
must remember that many

other people helped in the
i nvention of the telephone too,
sharing their knowledge and
ideas and helping with the
designs that allowed Bell to
create his own working
version.
Bell first became interested in
the science of sound, because
both his mother and wife were
deaf. His experiments in sound
eventually led him to want to Alexander
send voice signals down a Graham Bell
telegraph wire. He was able to
get some fu nding, and hired his famous assistant Thomas
Watson, and together, they were able to come up with the
telephone. The first words spoken over the telephone
were by Bell on March 1 Qth, 1 876. :rhey were, "Mr. Watson,
come here! I want to see you". The telephone may just be
one of the most important inventions of all time. It is still
widely used today, is vital to how modern business
functions, and allows for an incredible speed of communi
cation. The telephone has, in short, made distances seem
less, and the world seem smaller!
82 Tel l Me Why
Why is radar technology of immense
benefit to m a n kind?
Radar is a system or technique for
detecting the position, movement, and
nature of a remote object by means of radio
waves reflected from its surface. In fact, the
word radar stands for 'radio detection and
ranging.'
Radar was developed i ndependently in
several countries as a military instrument for
Robert Watson Watt detecting aircraft and ships.
One of the earliest practical radar systems
was devised by Sir Robert Watson-Watt, a
Scots physicist. Although the technology
evolved rapidly d u ring World War II, radar
improved immensely following the war. The'
i nformation secured by radar incl udes the
position and speed of the object with
respect to the radar u n it.
In some advanced systems, the shape of
the object may also be determined.
Commercial airliners are equipped with
radar devices that warn of obstacles in or
approaching their path, and give accurate
altitude readings.
Ideas that cha nged the world 83
An Early
Television
Set
Why is television considered a m ixed

blessing?
Television is a way of sending and receiving
moving images and sounds over wires or through
the air, by electrical impulses.
Television's development depended u pon
previous i nventions, and more than one person
contributed to the development of television, as
we know it today.
In England, in the 1 920's, John Baird, a Scottish
amateur scientist, successfully transmitted the first
TV picture, after years of work. Ferdinand Bra u n
invented t h e cathode ray tube, t h e basis of a l l
modern television cameras and receivers.
Television has been praised for its ability to
transmit visual images with accompanying sound
to entertain, educate, and to provide a sense of
truth.
On the other hand, because oftelevision, children
'
have witnessed war, m urder, hate, prejudice and
violence first hand, so television can actually be
considered a mixed blessing.
In any case, television has sparked revolutions in
entertai nment, politics, journalism, and social
behaviour that a re still ongoing.
84 Tel l Me Why
Who developed the idea of computin g ?
The history of computers began with simple
adding devices. The a bacus, an ancient Chinese
adding machine, is one ofthe original computing
machines, used as early as 400 BC
Famous mathematicians such as Leonardo da
Vinci and Blaise Pascal invented more sophisti
cated calculators, using gears and punch cards.
Charles Babbage was a British mathematician,
who is often called 'The Father of Computing'. He
designed the first automatic computing engines.
He designed the first computer, a machine he
called 'the difference engine', in 1 822. It was the
size of a house, could store a programme, and
was powered by steam. Babbage invented
computers, but failed to build them.
EN IAC, the first electronic general purpose
computer capable of solving a ful l range of
computing problems, was designed for the US
Army at the beginning of this age. EN IAC was
conceived and designed by John Mauchly and J.
Presper Eckert in 1 946.
ENIAC

What i s Existentialism?
Existentialism is way of thinking that is
very different from other philosophical
ideas. Its underlying idea is that we exist
without purpose, and only through
experience can we find meaning to l ife.
Therefore, it's u p to each of us to define for
ourselves the meaning of our lives. Martin
Heidegger was the first of such thinkers. The
philosophy's most compelling, intel lectually
Martin Heidegger
glamorous, and public fig ures were French.
They were Jean Paul Sartre and his
companion Simone de Beauvoir.
Albert Camus was also another famous
name associated with th is school ofthought.
Existentia l ists believe in l iving - and i n
fig hting for l ife. Following t h e Second
World War, existentialism became a well
known and sig nificant phi losophica l and
cu ltural movement. By end of 1 945,
ALbert Camus existentialism became 'the first media craze
of the postwa r era'.
DNA F i nge rprintin g
Our bodies are made of cells. Each

person has a particular DNA in the
nucleus of their cells. If you can get a
sample of a person's cells, like a hair or a
drop of blood, you can see what their
DNA looks like in a lab. It was invented
in 1 984 by Alec Jeffreys. Since only
identical twins have identical DNAs,
DNA fingerprinting is an almost
Alec Jeffreys foolproof way of identifying a person.
86 Tel l Me Why
Why do robots make l ife easier for us?
In 1 956, George Devil and Joseph Engel
bergerformed the world's first robot compa ny.
However, the idea of mechanical beings is
much older. From at least the 3,d century BC,
craftsmen in Greece and China constructed
lifelike mechanical objects, such as birds and
puppets. Mechanical controllers were
developed in the 1 9th century, but the a rrival
of the modern concept of the robot, as well as
the coining of the word 'robot', was only i n the
20th century.
A robot can be defined as a programmable,
self-controlled device consisting of electronic,
electrical, or mechanical u n its.
With the i nvention of robots, difficult tasks
can be programmed to be done by them.
Robots are very precise in their actions, so any
task that has to be done repetitively can be
performed more efficiently by them. They can
be used for dangerous jobs like defusing or
disposing bombs, so that human lives are not
put at risk.
A Robot
Help! I've lost
his remote -,
contro l .
Ideas that changed t h e world 87

G M Plum
Why should Genetic Engineering be

used with care?
Scientists have learned to spot which
gene does what i n making a new
organism. They've found out that simple
organisms l i ke bacteria often have genes
which a re useful because they can be
snipped, or cut out and put i nto plant
genes. By snipping a gene which does
something useful from one organism, G l oba l
and splicing it i nto another, say a crop Positio n i ng
plant, scientists can get the plant to grow System
bigger or faster or make more for people
to eat. The Global
It was 1 973 that Stanley Cohen and Positioning
Herbert Boyer, i nvented the technique of System or GPS is a
DNA cloning, which allowed genes to be system of 24
transpla nted between different biolog ical satellites that a l l
species. Their discovery signaled the birth work together to
of genetic engineering. Genetic create an exact
engineering has given us the power to view of Earth.
alter the very basis of life on Earth but it e Sneha Rao
must be used with care.
88 Tel l Me Why
Why is non violence an inspiring
philosophy?
When you think of revolutions or wars, you
think of violence. But revolutions have been
successfu l and wars have won using the principle
of non violence.
The idea of non
violence actually took
root in modern times
with Gandhiji, who led
India's freedom struggle.
He first applied the
principle of non violence
in the Non-Cooperation
Movement, a campaign
from 1 920 to 1 922 that
rested on tactics l i ke a
Mahatma Martin Luther King lr . consumer boycott af
Gandhi British-made goods, and
a call for Indians to
withdraw from British
Dad , institutions in India. His
progress non violent campaigns
report. But finally won I ndia
remember, independence from
non vio lence is British rule in 1 947.
the best
Dr. Martin Luther King
pol icy.
Jr. also applied Gandhi's
non violent philosophy
to the struggle to win
civil rig hts for African
Americans. His
campaigns bore fruit i n
t h e Civil Rig hts Act of
1 964 and the Voting
Rights Act of 1 965.
Why is the Chaos Theory one of
the m ilestones of the 20th
Century?
The Chaos theory is the study of
how even simple systems can
d isplay complex behaviour. These
systems can seem straightforward -
butare very sensitiveto their starting
conditions, and this can cause
seemingly 'random' effects.
A professor at M IT, Edward Lorenz
was the first to recognize what is
now called chaotic behavior i n the
mathematical modeling of weather
systems. In the early 1 960's, Lorenz
realized that small differences in a
system such as atmosphere could
trigger vast and often unsuspected
results.
These observations u ltimately led
him to formulate what became
known as the butterfly effect- a term
that g rew out of an academic paper
he presented i n 1 972 entitled:
'Predictability: Does the Flap of a
Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a
Tornado in Texas?' Weather systems,
traffic patterns, population growth
can all be affected by small changes
with i n a system atanygiven moment
of observation. Lorenz's early
insights marked the beginning of a
new field of study that made an
impact not just i n the field of mathe
matics, but virtually every branch of
science .
Tel l Me Why
Why is the search extrater
restrial l ife an ongoing one?
Although Greek philosophers
such as Democritus believed
that there must be an infinite
number of worlds, all with
inhabitants like us, the general
belief in ancient times was that
the Earth is special, and the only
abode of life. However, i n the
1 600's, it came to be widely
thought, that other planets - as
well as the Moon - must have
inhabitants l i ke us. There was
great i nterest in life on Mars from
the 1 870's. In the 1 920's, there
were occasional claims of extra
terrestrial radio signals, and i n
the late 1 940's, many sighting�
were reported of U FOs, believed
to be a lien spacecraft. By the
1 960's, however, these were
increasingly discredited.
"
A Spa ce in Space
A space station is a huge space

laboratory where astronauts and scien
tists can learn more about living in
space, and the effects of zero-gravity.
They stay there to perform experi
ments. The first successful space station was the Skylab,
launched by NASA in May 1 973.
• Dev Nath
How does the World Wide Web
affect our lives?
Although the World Wide Web is
often referred to as the I nternet, the
two are not the same thing. The
I nternet is a huge network of networks
that links computers together all over
the world, using a range of wires and
wireless technologies.
The World Wide Web is the col lection
of linked pages that are accessed, using
the I nternet and a web browser. The
World Wide Web was officially intro
duced to the world on August 6th, 1 991
bySirTim Berner- Lee. Before the World
Wide Web, the I nternet really only
provided screens full of text. The World
Wide Web contributes greatly to the
creation of a n ever-increasing global
information database. Mobile P ho n es
The concept of
Th is www
makes the mobile phones or
Internet nice! cellular phones, as
they are also called
was born in the late
1 940's. In 1 97 1 ATT
a nd Bell Labs
proposed the first
commercial cellular,
mobile phone
network consisting
of many small
broadcast towers,
covering a small
area termed a 'cell'.
e Rodho Noi,
92 Tel l Me Why
Why i s there controversy a bout
genetically modified foods?
Breeding plants and animals for
more desirable traits is nothing
new. People have been doing it for
centuries.
Genetic engineering techniques
now allow scientists to i nsert
specific genes i nto a plant or animal
without having to go through the
trial-and-error process of selective
breeding. Tin kering with genes
allows breeders to select only the
Golden Rice (right) characteristics they want, and get
Compared to White quick resu lts in the bargain. Using
Rice (left) sophisticated techniques, scien-
tists are able to insert gene
fragments from bacteria or viruses
into plants to make them resista,!1t
to disease.
Scientists can also design plants
that are resistant to pests and
diseases, reducing the need for
pesticides. They can increase crop
production by developing hardier
plants, and produce plants that
yield healthier foods, such as
N"'�
cooking oil with less fat.
On the other hand, people who
oppose genetica l ly modified foods
are worried about the long term
health effects, about which no one
is really sure. They also say changes
in food composition could have a
dire effect on the environment and
biodiversity.
93
Why is the field of artificial i ntell ig ence a n exciting one?
The process of lea rning, comparing a previous experience,
making a decision and acting upon it is the key to human intelli
gence. We can make more and more complicated decisions by
learning from our past experiences.
Artificial i ntelligence is a branch of science which is into making
machines think l i ke humans. Scientists are creating new software
programmes which try to recreate the process of human learning
i n a computer, in a n attempt to make them 'thi n k'. These
programmes try to copy the functioning of the brain. They woul d
have a memory or a space where experiences or information can
be stored, a method of applying these experiences to new ones,
and comparing experiences to come to logica l conclusions.
In 1 950, Alan Turing proposes a test to determine if a machine
truly has the power to think for itself. To pass the test, a machine
must be indistinguishable from a human d u ring conversation. It
has become known as the 'Turing Test'. With over 50 years of
research into AI
p r o g r a m m i n g
techniques, the d ream
of smart machines is
becoming a reality.
Researchers are
creating systems which
can mimIC human
thought, understand
speech, beat the best
human chess player,
and countless other
feats never before
possible. But the search
for a machine that can
pass the Turing Test sti l l
continues.
Why i s cloning considered a
. l a n d ma rk i n the history of
science?
Cloning is the process of
creating an identical copy of an
original. A clone is therefore, a
m u lti-cellular organism that is
genetically identical to another
living organism.
Animal cloning has been the
Dolly subject of scientific experiments for years. The birth
of the first cloned mammal was in 1 996. It was a
sheep named Dol ly, and her birth was a landmark i n
t h e history of science.
Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, who were scien
tists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, took an egg
from a sheep and sucked out its genetic material
with a tiny tube. Then they inserted a specially
treated cel l from 't he
udder of a different
These
eggs look similar. sheep. A tiny electric
Are they clones? shock started the egg
dividing to produce a n
embryo. They
implanted this in the
womb of yet another
sheep. They had to do
this 277 times till they
succeeded with Dolly.
All the others died at
some stage or the
other. Since Dol ly,
several scientists have
cloned other animals,
including cows and
mice.
95
Why is the Human Genome Project an awesom e
endeavou r?
The H u ma n Genome project was a n i nternational effort to
discover the exact makeup of the genetic material that
controls the way human beings develop and g row. The
project began in 1 990, was com pleted in 2003, and i nvolved
scientists from many d ifferent cou ntries. This i nternational,
col laborative research progra mme was formed to com plete
Clarifications & Corrections
It is our Mirza Lara i b , a student of D.A.v School, New
policy to correct Delhi points out a correction to the Tell Me Why
errors, and issue on Information Technology ( November).
present differing Accord ing to h i m, the defen ition of hacker, as
views and given on Page 52 i s not q u ite correct. In factthe
clarifications given defi n ition i s of a cracker, a n d not a hacker.
about the The fo l l owing i s the difference betwen them:
contents in A hacker is a person who is p roficient with
previous issues. computers or prog ra m m i n g to an el ite level
Please send in where he knows a l l of the i n 's and out's of a
yourfeedback, system. There is no i l legality i nvolved in being a
mentioning the hacker. A cracker is a hacker who uses his profi
title and page ciency for person a l g a i n s outside of the law. Eg:
number. stea ling data, changing bank accounts, distrib
uting viruses etc.
What the hacker does with their knowledge of
systems with i n the defi n ition of the law is what -
defines them as a hacker or a cracker.
It's then safe to say that a l l crackers are
hackers, but not a l l hackers are crackers.
Thankyou Mirza foryour valuable feedback.
- Editor
the mapping and u nderstanding of a l l the genes of human

beings. All o u r genes together a re known as our 'genome'.
The project revealed that there a re probably 25,000 human
genes. The completed h u man seq uence can now identify
their locations.
The H uman Genome Project has given the world a resource
of detailed i nformation about the structure, organization,
and function of the complete set of h u man genes.
Question of the Month
Send us your questions
E mail: childrensdivision@mmp.in
Why is sound produced when a bullet is fired

from a pistol?
The sound produced from a pistol is similar to
the sound of the u ncorking of a soda bottle. The
first step of the firing is the ignition of the
gunpowder behind the bullet. The hammer of the
g u n hits the end of the cartridge and it ignites the
g u npowder. The ignition produces a high pressure
pulse of hot gas there. The pressure of the gas
forces the bullet down the barrel of the pistol at
high velocity. When the bullet exits the end ofthe
barrel, it is similarto the uncorking of a soda bottle.
The pressure behind the bullet is immense, and
when it is released, a loud sound is produced. This
is how firing a bullet causes sound .
• Alwin George

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Why is the wheel considered o n e of Man's

Ideas that changed the world 7

Early Man used rocks for tools and

Why were weapons invented?

One ofthe weapons developed

Once Man discovered how to make fire,

When were herbal medicines first d iscovered?

Egyptian medicine dates from at least

The first metal to be

represent first ideas, and then sounds. Phoenician Alphabets

I deas that changed the world 13

Why i s the history of writing a fascinating one?

Trading was an important step forward

Why is it said that geometry calculate the correct amount

Fif(ures on Hammurabi Stele

The English-language names for each

How did the week get seven days?

Why did the development of the calendar help

Irrigation helps plants to grow even when

Why is Confucius considered a guide of the ancient world?

The first sails were pieces of matting

Ideas that changed the world 25

Cotton was discovered about 5000

For almost 30,000 years, Man

reason, or for the

Florence - The Centre

Why was Renaissance art d ifferent from that of earlier

The study of the structure of our body is

Why was the invention of the printing

the way through the printing process

The first public hospital opened in

Why is Copernicus considered a

Newspapers in Ancient Rome were

The World of Algebra

Algebra is a form of mathematics used to

The first rockets originated in China around

Why is John H arrison a sailor's hero 7

How did The rndustrial Revolution change the world?

1 83 1 . According to conflicting ideas a re reconciled in what he

� The Scientific Study of Anatomy

_ The first scientific study of the

A water powered mill was opened in

How did the Labour Movement start?

The first steam locomotive was built by

Electricity and magnetism were thought of as

Edwin Drake struck

I t was a British scientist Michael

Ideas that changed the world 59

• call genes. His discoveries opened the way for

Public Electricity S u pply

Why was the invention of the g ra m o