Zeppelin

A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship, which was named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (July 8, 1838 – March 8, 1917).

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On retiring from the army in 1891, von Zeppelin devoted himself to the study of aeronautics, and his first airship was built and tested in 1900.

Von Zeppelin’s first rigid airship, the LZ-1, made its maiden flight over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany on July 2, 1900. The Zeppelin airship had an engine and a propeller which meant the aircraft could be directed.

The first flight of LZ 1 over Lake Constance (the Bodensee) in 1900

Zeppelins were originally used for public transport. They were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG), the world's first airline in revenue service. By mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights.

During World War I, a number of Zeppelin airships were employed in bombing England. Great Yarmouth was the first British town to be bombed by a Zeppelin, on January 19, 1915. London suffered its first raid on May 31 of that year.

The most intense of all the Zeppelin attacks during World War I was on September 2, 1916, when fourteen Zeppelins dropped 35,000 lb. of bombs on London and elsewhere.

Cow intestines used for sausage skins were so vital in making gas bags for German Zeppelins that during World War 1 the Kaiser banned Germans from eating sausages.

A Zeppelin flying over SMS Seydlitz

The German LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin became the first commercial passenger transatlantic flight service in 1928. The hydrogen-filled airship was named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

The  Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin II airships were the largest aircraft (in terms of length and volume) to take to the skies. Built in Germany between 1932 and 1938, each was 245m (803ft) long.

The Hindenburg airship caught fire and was destroyed while trying to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing over 30 people on board.

The Hindenburg Zeppelin, named after the late German president Paul von Hindenburg, was almost named Hitler but was refused by Adolf due to his dislike of large aircrafts. He later said he was glad the aircraft didn't share his name after the famous Hindenburg Disaster of 1937.

The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along with political and economic issues, hastened the demise of Zeppelins. Sometimes, they are still used as tourist attractions, or for advertising.

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The rock band Led Zeppelin got their name from a fellow musician, who predicted the group would go down like a "lead balloon."

When Led Zeppelin played together for the first time in front of a live audience in Gladsaxe, Denmark, in 1968, they used the name 'The Nobs'. This was because Eva von Zeppelin, granddaughter of the inventor of Zeppelin airships, threatened to sue them for tarnishing the family name.

Source History

Wheel

A wheel is a circular frame turning on an axle. When the wheel spins, the object on the wheels moves more easily along the ground.

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Man's use of the wheel changed a whole way of life. Even though the wheel is often cited as man's original invention... it wasn't invented until after boats, baskets, flutes or woven cloth, It is thought likely that wheels for carts and chariots were derived about 6,000 years ago.

Several civilisations, including the Incas and the Aztecs did pretty well without wheels.

Freely-spinning potter's wheels with a wheel and axle mechanism, were developed in Mesopotamia (Iraq) by 4200–4000. The oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur, dates to approximately 3100 BC.

The earliest evidence of a wheeled vehicle is a pictograph of a cart from the Tigris-Euphrates valley (modern day Iraq). It dates from 3500 BC; the device rolled West soon after that.

The oldest discovered wheel was found in Slovenia's Ljubljana Marshes in 2002 and it's approximately 5,150 years old. The wooden wheel belonged to a prehistoric two-wheel cart – a pushcart.

Ljubljana Marshes Wheel By Daniel Thornton

It's not the idea of the wheel that was clever but the idea of an axle. Men had probably been moving heavy objects by rolling them on logs for generations before anyone thought of slicing the log and attaching it by a means that let it roll along with the object being moved.

The wheels of the first wagons were made either from a single piece of wood or from three carved planks clamped together by transverse struts; sometimes they turned on the axle, sometimes with it.

An early wooden wheel. By John O'Neill, 

During the third millennium BC wagons acquired a regal status in addition to their practical uses. Royal tombs reveal that both wagon and oxen were valued enough to be required in the next world.

Spoked wheels appeared in the third millennium BC, when they were in use on chariots in Asia Minor. On these early vehicles the wheels either turned on an axle, or were rigidly fastened to an axle that revolved in a housing on the vehicle body. By 2000 BC heavy wheeled transport was in use in a region stretching from northern Europe to western Persia and Mesopotamia.

A depiction of an onager-drawn cart on the Sumerian "battle standard of Ur" 

The Inca and Maya had wheels on children's toys around 1500 BC, but they did not use wheels for transport. It is the only known instance of the wheel having been invented independently of the Sumerian version.

The earliest tires were bands of leather. Later a tire in the form of an iron ring was introduced that was heated in a forge fire. The expanded tire was placed over the wheel. Then on cooling it shrank and drew the members tightly together. A skilled worker, known as a wheelwright, carried out this work.

The traditional construction of the wheel in medieval Europe was to make the hub or 'knave' of elm, to resist splitting, the spokes of oak, for strength, and the felloes (sections of the rim) of ash, for toughness. An iron tire was shrunk on to give strength and resistance to wear.

The word 'truck' comes from the Greek word for wheel: 'trochos.' It first appeared in English around 1611 meaning small wheel or roller, specifically the sort mounted under cannons aboard warships.

A few hundred years ago the generally preferred method for cooking a large piece of meat evenly was to put it on a spit and rotate it until it was fully cooked. The spit was powered by the turnspit, a dog that was bred just to run for hours on a tiny wheel that turned the spit for cooking the meat.

The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when wire-spoked wheels were invented. The wire spokes are under tension, not compression, making it possible for the wheel to be both stiff and light.

The first practical pneumatic tire was made in 1888 in Belfast by Scots-born John Boyd Dunlop. He fitted his son's tricycle wheels with inflated rubber hoses instead of solid rubber tires in order to make it more comfortable to ride on the city's bumpy roads. Dunlop's development of the pneumatic tire handily coincided with the late 19th century bicycle craze.

Dunlop's first pneumatic bicycle tyre National Museum of Scotland. By Geni 

Louis Perlman of New York was granted a patent in 1906 for "demountable tire-carrying" rims. Before Perlman's invention wheels and tires were a single unit and if the tire had a puncture, you had to replace both the tire and the wheel, even if the wheel was just fine. His demountable tires worked pretty much like the ones on your car right now. The inner rim of the tire held the tire against a groove machined into the wheel. The friction of shallow notches kept the tire from rotating on the wheel.

The Chrysler company was created by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925. Among the innovations in its early years was a wheel with a ridged rim, designed to keep a deflated tire from flying off the wheel. This wheel was eventually adopted by the auto industry worldwide.

A hamster will run as far as 5.6 miles in a night on wheel.

The phrase "touch and go", meaning a very narrow escape, is derived from driving where the wheel of one vehicle touches that of another passing without causing harm.

Sources Daily Express, The Independent, HistoryWorld, Wired

Walking

The term "walk" is from the Old English wealcan, or "to roll."

The difference between walking and running is that at least one foot is always on the ground when you walk.

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FAMOUS WALKERS

As a youngster, Johann Sebastian Bach would walk 50 kilometres (31 miles) from his Lüneburg school to Hamburg to see J A Reincken, the organist perform. On another occasion he walked a mere 40 kilometers (25 miles) to Halle in the hope of meeting George Frideric Handel but arrived just after the composer had left the town by coach.

Scottish soldier Captain Robert Barclay-Allardice, (1779-1854) once walked 1000 miles in 1000 consecutive hours.. His remarkable walking feat was performed at Newmarket between June 1 and July 12, 1809, during which he walked 1 mile (1.6 km) in each of 1000 successive hours, to win an initial wager of 1000 guineas.

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was very fond of hill walking. On one occasion he walked 263 miles (423 kms) through the Scottish highlands in 8 days.

During a walking tour of Scotland, John Keats managed 600 miles in a month, always rising before dawn in order to complete 26 miles before noon.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography includes five people in the 18th and 19th century whose professions are given as "pedestrian". These include Mary McMullen "called the Female Pedestrian" whose "most common event" is said to be 92 miles (148 kms)  in 24 hours.

On October 24, 1932 Plennie L. Wingo of Texas finished an 8,000 mile (13,000 km) backward walk from Santa Monica to Istanbul, Turkey.  He remains the Guinness record holder for "greatest extent of reverse pedestrianism".

Earl Schaffer became in 1948 the first person to walk the entire Appalachian Trail from end to end in one continuous hike. He avoided blisters by putting sand in his boots and wearing no socks until his feet toughened.

In 1987 Steven M Newman became the first man to walk solo around the world. The 15,000-mile trek took him four years and untold pairs of shoes to complete.

Steven Newman By Sherab - Own work, Wikipedia Commons

MJ Eberhart – AKA Nimblewill Nomad retired at 61 in 1993 and became a perpetual hiker. Over 15 years he walked over 34,000 miles (55,000 kilometres). He became the first known person to hike the entire Appalachian Range in North America, from Newfoundland to the Keys and more and more.

Canadian Jean Beliveau completed a 46,600-mile walk around the world in 2011 covering 47,000 miles and passing through 64 countries. It took the former neon-sign salesman 11 years and two months. Beliveau used up 54 pairs of shoes on the walk which was to promote peace and non-violence.

HEALTH

The general advice is to walk 6,000 steps a day to improve your health and 10,000 to lose weight.

A person would need to walk for seven hours to burn off a super-sized Coca Cola, chips, and a Big Mac.

ETYMOLOGY

The verb 'to walk' dates back to Old English and originally meant 'to roll' or 'go back and forth'. It could also mean 'to curl one's hair'. It came to be used mainly for moving around on foot from the 15th century onwards.

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The word 'perambulator' first meant a person who walks, then a device for measuring distances, finally a baby carrier pushed by someone walking.

The term "Jaywalking" was invented by car companies in the early 1900’s to shift blame for accidents from motorists to pedestrians.

A walkabout is Australian Aboriginal English for a nomadic ritual excursion into the bush. The term was adopted in 1970, during tours by Queen Elizabeth II of Australia and New Zealand for informal public-relations walks by politicians and royalty.

HUMAN WALKING

Human babies are helpless because we walk upright. Walking upright requires a narrow pelvis, in which our large head/brain would get stuck during birth, so babies are born with a smaller head/brain that develops more after birth, compared to other mammals.

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We swing our arms when we walk because it is the most efficient way to walk. By swinging our right arm with our left leg and our left arm with our right leg we conserve 26% more energy than by other methods such as hands at our side or left arm with left leg/right arm with right leg.

Men walk significantly slower when walking with a woman, but only when that woman is their romantic partner. If she's a friend or acquaintance they go at almost full speed.

On average we make 243 walking trips covering 198 miles in a year.

An average person takes 18,000 steps per day.

In an average lifetime, a person will walk a distance equal to three times round the equator.

The 10,000 steps a day rule, about five miles of walking, didn’t come from scientific research or cardiologists or a medical study of any kind, Rather it is marketing from a pedometer company in Japan - the Japanese character for 10,000 looks like a man walking and the number stuck.

The average human walking speed is about 3.1 miles per hour, or 5.0 kilometers per hour.

ANIMAL WALKING

Most animals are digitigrade, i.e., they walk on their digits or toes. Birds, cats, dogs, turtles etc are examples. Humans are plantigrades i.e., they walk on the flats of their feet. Bears and frogs are some of the other plantigrade animals that walk on the entire sole of their feet.

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All felines directly register- this means that when they walk, their back paw walks into the exact area where the front paw stepped, to minimize sound and to ensure stable footing.

Emus and kangaroos can't walk backwards.

FUN WALKING FACTS

The average housewife has been calculated to walk 594 miles (956 kilometers) a year in the course of her daily housewifely duties.

Research suggests that the average British child walks 12,000 to 16,000 steps a day. The average American adult walks 5,117.

Even though over 40% of the trips taken in the U.S. are less than one mile, less than 10% of all trips are made by walking or cycling.

At an average walking speed of 3.1mph, it would take just less than a year to walk around the world or just over nine years to walk to the Moon.

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People can recognise each other 90 percent of the time just from the way they walk.

It takes 200 muscles to take one step.

In 1996, the President of Colombia introduced a Bill to make drunken walking illegal.

Source Daily Express

Tunnel

A tunnel is an underground passage way. Tunneling is an increasingly important branch of civil engineering in mining and transport. 

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HISTORY

Between 2180 and 2160 BC a tunnel was built under the Euphrates River to connect the two halves of Babylon. It was the biggest underwater tunnel until one was built beneath the River Thames in 1824.

In 6BC the Ancient Greeks dug a tunnel over 1,000m (3281ft) long through a mountain by digging from both ends and meeting in the middle. Ingenious surveying and geometrical techniques were used to ensure the two tunnels didn't miss.

In the 19th century there were two major advances in tunnelling: the use of compressed air within the tunnel to balance the external pressure of water, and of the tunnel shield to support the face and assist excavation.

Between 1810 and 1840, wealthy English tobacco merchant Joseph Williamson had an extensive network of tunnels constructed under Liverpool. The purpose of the tunnels is completely unknown but may simply have been Williamson's philanthropic desire to provide working men with employment.

The Reigate Road Tunnel is the oldest road tunnel in England and it runs under the site of Reigate Castle. The castle was built in the 12th century and it was once an important stronghold for the English crown. The tunnel was built in 1823 to improve traffic flow between Reigate and London. It is 55 yards long and it is made of brick. The tunnel is now pedestrianized, but it is still a popular tourist destination.

The first purpose –built passenger rail tunnel was built in 1830. It was the 2,514 ft Tyler Hill Tunnel in South East England on the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. The height of the tunnel was only twelve feet (3.7 m) and when the South Eastern Railway's own network eventually reached Canterbury in 1846, the locomotives were modified with shorter chimneys and lowered boiler. 

The Severn Tunnel was opened by the Great Western Railway on January 8, 1886. Running for more than four miles under the Severn River, it remained the longest mainline rail tunnel in the UK for 121 years until the building of tunnels for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

The Severn Tunnel entrance on the English side

 "Burro" Schmidt a gold miner in the Mojave Desert started digging a tunnel through the mountains to safely transport his ore to the smelter in 1900. In 1920 a road was completed from Last Chance Canyon to Mojave, eliminating the need for the tunnel, but Schmidt claimed to be obsessed with completion and dug on. He completed the tunnel in 1938 years, having moved 5,800 tons of granite with a pick. 

The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco begun service on February 3, 1918. At 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long, it remains one of the world's longest streetcar or light-rail tunnels.

The Holland Tunnel opened to traffic on November 13, 1927 connecting Manhattan in New York City to the east and Jersey City to the west under the Hudson River. It was the first mechanically ventilated underwater vehicular tunnel.

The Lincoln Tunnel, an approximately 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey on the west bank with Midtown Manhattan on the east bank opened on December 22, 1937. It charged $0.50 per car.

Entrance to Lincoln Tunnel on New Jersey side by Dan Souza

In 1963, a Turkish man tore down a wall in his house and noticed an enormous and complex tunnel system behind it. He had rediscovered the ancient underground city, Derinkuyu. It was large enough to hold 20,000 people and contained chapels, storage rooms and stables.

William Lyttle (1931–2010) was a British civil engineer who gained fame by digging an extensive network of tunnels under his London home. Known as the "Mole Man of Hackney", Lyttle spent around 40 years digging a network of tunnels up to 59 feet (18 m) long beneath his house. When the authorities discovered the extent of his burrowing, he was rehoused on the top floor of a high-rise to prevent digging.

 
A group of college students used garden spades to tunnel under the Berlin Wall into East Berlin in 1964, allowing 57 people to escape to the West. The students moved enough dirt to fill four eighteen-wheeler big rigs; one of them went on to design tunnels professionally.

There were notable developments in tunnel linings in the second half of the 20th century, for example concrete segments in steel liner plates, and in the use of rotary diggers and cutters, and of explosives.

The St. Gotthard Tunnel opened in Switzerland in 1980. Stretching from Goschenen to Airolo it was the world's then longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.224 km).

The Channel Tunnel connects the UK and France underneath the English Channel. It was opened on May 6, 1994 in a ceremony held first in Calais, France and then in Folkestone, England.

RECORDS

The Seikan Tunnel connects the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō by rail. It is 53.9-kilometre (33.5 mi) long, of which 23.3 km (14.5 mi) are crossing the Tsugaru Strait undersea. It is the world's longest tunnel with an undersea segment (the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK to France, while shorter, has a longer undersea segment). The tunnel opened in 1988.

The Lærdal Tunnelis a 24.51-kilometre-long (15.23 mi) long road tunnel connecting Lærdal and Aurland in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway opened in 2000. It is the longest road tunnel in the world intended for cars and similar vehicles succeeding the Swiss Gotthard Road Tunnel.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland, where full service began on December 11, 2016. At 57.09 km (35.5 mi) in length, and a total of 151.84 km (94.3 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel and the first flat low-level route through the Alps. Requiring 17 years to build, it contains 84 times the concrete in the Empire State Building and is approx 4 miles longer than the Channel Tunnel. 

Overhead line installation car in the east tube of the Gotthard Base Tunnel . By Hannes Ortlieb (Diskussion)

FUN TUNNEL FACTS

Beneath the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio, is the largest abandoned subway tunnel system in the US. Construction began in the 1910s but was halted by World War I and then canceled indefinitely during the Great Depression.

There is a massive system of tunnels under the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World called "Utilidors."

There are mysterious tunnels in South America, some thousands of feet long, thought to have been dug by extinct, giant sloths.

Travel

Travel is the activity of going from one geographical location to a different one.

St Christopher (d c250) was a Syrian Christian of gigantic stature who was among those who refused to recant their faith and were thus martyred. His name in Greek (Christophoros) means 'Christ-bearing', which later gave rise to the legend that he had carried the Christ-child across a river. He subsequently became the patron saint of travelers.

From 1159 to 1173 Benjamin of Tudela (?-1173), a Rabbi born in Navarre, Spain. made a journey from Saragossa through Italy and Greece to Palestine, Persia, and the borders of China, returning by way of Egypt and Sicily. He was the first European traveler to describe the Far East.

Pilgrimages were common in both the European and Islamic world in the Middle Ages and involved streams of travelers both locally and internationally. 

Pilgrimage was important for Christians in medieval Europe – people traveled long distances to visit a saint’s shrine. Some wanted a miraculous cure for illness, others to feel close to the saint. 

Pilgrim badges were affordable so everyone could have a memento of their trip. 

David Teniers the Younger: Flemish Pilgrim

Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was one of the first books set during a journey. A collection of tales told by different pilgrims, they met at Tabard Inn, Southwark then told their stories on their way to Thomas Becket's tomb in Canterbury. However, Chaucer does not pay much attention to the progress of the trip or to specific locations along the way to Canterbury. His writing of the story seems focused primarily on the stories being told rather than the pilgrimage itself.

The Venetian traveler Marco Polo arrived back in Venice in 1295 after spending many years traveling in Eastern Asia. Captured by the Genoese and languishing in a jail, Marco Polo met a writer called Rusticiano to whom he dictated his tales. Thanks to Marco's book Il Milione his trip was the first to be widely known, and the best-documented until then.

A page from Il Milione, from a manuscript believed to date between 1298–1299.

During the Middle Ages in Britain, Watling Street, Ermine Street, the Fosse Way and Icknield Way were regarded as royal roads; travelers were reckoned to be under the King's protection and anyone attacking them there was liable to a fine of 100 shillings.

Ferdinand Magellan's Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano. We know the details of Magellan's voyage from the diaries of his upper class shipmate Antonio Pigafetta. A Venetian scholar and traveler, Pigafetta had asked to be on the voyage, accepting the title of "supernumerary".

Horseradish was grown at inns and coach stations in England during the 17th century to make a sweet and bitter drink that revived exhausted travelers.

From May to October 1608 Thomas Coryrat undertook a tour of Europe, somewhat less than half of which he walked. The Englishman's adventures during his continental trip were chronicled in a book published in 1611 entitled Coryat's Crudities hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c. Not only was it the world's first travelogue, it gave birth to the tradition of the "Grand Tour".

Title page of Coryat's Crudities, 1611.

In the late 16th century it became fashionable for young European aristocrats and wealthy upper class men to travel to significant European cities as part of their education in the arts and literature. This was known as the Grand Tour.

The men traditionally embarked on the Grand Tour in their early 20s and were typically accompanied by a chaperon, such as a family member. The trip usually included cities such as London, Paris, Geneva, Venice, Florence and Rome. The French Revolution temporarily brought the end of the Grand Tour but it was revived in the 19th century. 

English nobleman Francis Basset in 1778 on the Grand Tour in Rome

The first traveler's cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, went on sale in London in 1772.

Before Norfolk in Eastern England got a railway, it was quicker to travel from there to Amsterdam by sea than to London by road.

One of the earliest excursions organised on Britain's railways system was to see a public hanging at Bodmin jail.

The first ever travel accident policy was issued in July 1864. The Travellers Insurance Company issued the policy to James Batterson, who also received the first general insurance policy issued by the firm.

Someone traveling at the speed of light could travel forever because they wouldn't experience time at all.

Here's a list of songs about traveling. 

Tram

A Tramway is a transport system in which wheeled vehicles run along parallel rails, which originated in collieries in the 18th century.

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The word tram is used in most territories, while within North America these vehicles are called streetcars or trolleys as they run mainly on streets.

The first horse drawn passenger streetcar in America, was the New York and Harlem Railroad developed by the Irish coach builder John Stephenson, in New York City which began service in the year 1832.

African-American teacher Elizabeth Jennings Graham insisted in 1854, on her right to ride on an available New York City streetcar at a time when all such companies mostly operated segregated cars. Her main lawyer, future president Chester A Arthur, won the case and all streetcars in New York became desegregated.

Mule-drawn streetcar, Houston, USA, 1870s

The first permanent tram line in continental Europe was opened in Paris in 1855 by French inventor Alphonse Loubat. By the 1860s horse drawn trams plied in London and Liverpool in the UK.

The Toronto tramway system was opened in 1861 as a horse tramway. The system was bought by the Toronto Railway Company in 1891 and it was electrified in 1892. Today the city operates the largest streetcar system in North America.

Streetcars in Toronto. Wikipedia

The first mechanical trams were powered by steam. The first stream tramway in England started operating in Wantage, Oxfordshire in 1875. It was created to carry passengers and goods between the Wantage and Wantage Road Station on the Great Western Railway (nearby to The Volunteer).

Two years after Werner von Siemens first demonstrated electric traction, the world's first electric tramway went into service in 1881. The 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long Gross-Lichterfelde tramway ran in Lichterfelde a suburb of Berlin.

One of the first proper electric tramways of many around the world opened in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, on September 29, 1885. Unlike most of the others, it's still going.

Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered trams following the improvement of an overhead trolley system on trams for collecting electricity from overhead wires by Frank J. Sprague. Sprague's first electric street railway system – the Richmond Union Passenger Railway in Richmond, Virginia, began passenger operation on February 2, 1888. By 1889 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague's equipment had been begun or planned on several continents.

Postcard of electric trolley-powered streetcars of the Richmond Union Passenger Railway in 1923

The 73-year-old Catalan architect Gaudi was run over by a tram in 1926. He looked so bedraggled that bystanders took him for a tramp and were slow in getting him to hospital, where he died.

The trams in Hiroshima were back in service just three days after the atomic bomb dropped near the end of World War II.

Trams are now powered either by electric conductor rails below ground or conductor arms connected to overhead wires, but their use on public roads is very limited because of their lack of maneuverability. Greater flexibility is achieved with a trolleybus, similarly powered by conductor arms overhead, but without tracks. Both vehicles have the advantage of being non-polluting.

Melbourne, Australia has the largest tram network in the world. As of May 2017, the Melbourne tramway network consists of 250 kilometres (160 miles) of track, 493 trams, 24 routes, and 1,763 tram stops.

The world's longest single tram line is the 68 km (42 mi) one that runs almost the entire length of the Belgian coast.

Source Hutchinson Enyclopedia

Train

A train is set of connected vehicles on a railway. They contain the prime mover (either locomotive or motor unit) plus a number of coaches or carriages (for passengers) or cars or wagons (for freight). 

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The word "train" comes from the Old French trahiner, derived from the Latin trahere meaning "to pull" or "to draw".

The first train was designed by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick. It took its first run on the track at the Pen-y-darren ironworks in South Wales on February 21, 1804. The Penydarren locomotive managed to haul five wagons carrying 70 passengers and ten tons of iron for nine miles, reaching speeds of five miles (8 kms) per hour. On completion of the journey, Trevithick's iron mill-owning sponsor collected over £1,000 on a wager with a skeptical business rival. 

A replica of Trevithick's engine at Swansea's National Waterfront Museum Chris55

To popularize his ideas, Trevithick built a circular railway in Euston, London. Well-off spectators paid a shilling to speed past their astonished colleagues at an incredible 12 milers per hour. 

The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all the time, was built between Liverpool and Manchester in England in 1830.

Peter Cooper was an engineer and manufacturer who designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb. Although it lost a famous race with a horse-drawn train in 1830, Cooper helped advance the spread of railroads.

Wikipedia Commons

The first revenue trains in the United States begin service in 1830 on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, both in Maryland.

Britain's first express commuter train run between London and Brighton in 1841 taking 105 minutes to complete the 59-mile journey. 

Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to travel by train on June 13, 1842. The engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel accompanied her on the inaugural royal train journey, from Slough to Paddington.

The first passenger train in India ran between Bombay (now Mumbai) and Thane on April 16, 1853. The 14-carriage train was hauled by three steam locomotives and ran for about 34 kilometers (21 miles) between these two cities carrying 400 people.

The Battle of Vienna in Virginia was a minor engagement between Union and Confederate forces on June 17, 1861, during the early days of the American Civil War. It involved one of the earliest military movements of troops by train in the world.

British trains were first given toilets, but just in the sleeping cars in 1873. 

In the 1880s, American trains featured Ladies' Lavatories, Gentlemens' Lavatories, and Immigrants' Lavatories.

Railroad competition had become so great in America by the late 19th century that the best food possible was served on dining cars regardless of cost. The Baltimore & Ohio became famous for its terrapin stew and Chesapeake Bay seafood, while the Santa Fe railroad was noted for its broiled sage hen, Mexican quail, and prairie chicken. Meals usually could be purchased for one dollar.

Two years after Werner von Siemens presented the first electric passenger train at the Berlin industrial exhibition, the world's first electric tramway went into service on May 16, 1881. The 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long line started at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost station on the Anhalt Railway line. It ran on already existing tracks that had been used for building the Prussian military academy (Hauptkadettenanstalt) at Lichterfelde West.

Lichterfelde tram, 1882

Britain's first main line electric train, operated by Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, started running between Liverpool and Southport in 1904. 

The high-speed line between Japan's two biggest cities Tokyo and Osaka was inaugurated on October 1, 1964; the famous Shinkansen 'bullet train' (named for its shape) could reach a speed of 210 kmph (130 mph). 

The distinctive nose of the Shinkansen 500 bullet train prevents sonic booms whenever it exits a tunnel. It was discovered when scientists studied the shape of a kingfisher's beak to learn how it hit the water at high speed

Tōkaidō Shinkansen made its first service in 1964.By DRAGONBALLXYZ

A powerful new "bullet train" service was launched in Japan in 1997, achieving the world's fastest average speed on a commercial run of 151.4 miles an hour.

France’s TGV, which began running in 1981, debuted with a top speed of 270 km/h  (168 mph) that dwarfed the Shinkansen’s 210 km/h. The country's intercity rail service established France as the leader in high-speed train technology. 

In 2007 a French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line set an official new world speed record for a commercial train on steel wheels. It achieved a speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on April 3, 2007 at kilometer point 191 near the village of Le Chemin, between the Meuse and Champagne-Ardenne TGV stations. 

The world record for the maximum speed attained by a passenger train is held by Japan's experimental maglev train L0 Series, which achieved 603 km/h (375 mph) on a 42.8 km magnetic-levitation track on April 21, 2015. Picture below shows a JR Central L0 series 5-car maglev train undergoing test-running on the Yamanashi Test Track

By Saruno Hirobano - Own work, 

The Japanese Bullet Train is cleaned in just seven minutes and prepared for the next passengers so that including disembarking and boarding, the train stops for only 12 minutes. 

In over five decades and 10 billion passengers, the Japanese bullet train has never had a single passenger fatality caused by a derailment or collision.

Source Daily Telegraph Right Now June 12, 2004

Traffic light

Traffic lights (or traffic signals) are signalling devices used to control the movement of traffic. They are placed at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations and the different colors of lights tell drivers what to do.

Pixiebay

Traffic lights are called robots in South Africa and much of the rest of the African continent. 

HISTORY

The world's first traffic light system was invented by the British railroad signal engineer JP Knight. These first traffic lights consisted of revolving red and green lanterns, illuminated by gas. The system was installed on December 10, 1868 at the intersection of George and Bridge Streets in front of the House of Commons in London to control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians. 

This traffic light system was manually operated by a police officer. Semaphore arms were used by day, gas lights by night. 

After less than a month's use, the gas lantern that illuminated them exploded, seriously injuring the police officer who was operating them. Traffic lights did not return to the UK until the mid 1920s. 

In the first two decades of the 20th century, semaphore traffic were in use all over the United States with each state having its own design of the device. They were controlled by a traffic officer who would blow a whistle before changing the commands on this signal to help alert travelers of the change. 

The first electric traffic lights were officially unveiled in Cleveland, Ohio at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in 1914. There was no amber light, only red and green.

The first Electric Traffic Light in Bucharest c1924.

After witnessing a serious accident between a motor vehicle and a horse-drawn carriage at an intersection, African American inventor, Garrett Morgan set out to come up with a three-position traffic signal. What he came up with was a T-shaped pole unit that featured Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This "third position" halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. 

Patent drawing of Morgan's signal

Garrett Morgan's hand-cranked semaphore traffic management device was in use throughout North America until all manual traffic signals were replaced by the automatic red, yellow, and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world. 

Morgan sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000.

Morgan's system was not the first with a warning, a three light system having being invented in 1920 by a police officer William Potts, and previous systems having audible warnings.

The use of red for stop, green for go and amber for caution originated with railway signals.

The first three-color signals in Britain were installed at Threadneedle Street, London in 1925. They were operated by policemen and each change of aspect was marked by the ringing of an electric bell. Complaints from locals soon silenced that.

The first fully automatic set of traffic lights in Britain were installed at the junction of Lichfield Street and Princess Street in Wolverhampton in 1927. In reality they were a signal box, suspended from a cable. 

In 1928, American engineer Charles Adler Jr invented traffic lights that were activated by drivers sounding their car horns. They were quickly abandoned when residents complained about the excessive honking noise.

Six years after Garrett A. Morgan invented traffic lights, cars were flooding New York City's streets and numerous complaints were received from drivers concerning pedestrians straying into their paths. The city fathers decided it might be a good idea to install some of the newfangled contraptions. After studying traffic plans in other cities they rejected the wide use of yellow lights being used to slow motorists down before they came to a red light. According to The New York Times the yellow caution light was abandoned in the city because it was a "temptation to motorists to rush through intersections."

In 1929 the first red and green signal lights were placed at Manhattan street corners. These two-light traffic signal were topped by statues of Mercury and lasted until 1964. 

Hungarian-American physicist Leó Szilárd conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction in 1933 while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.

On May 17, 1996 New Hampshire became the first US state to install a green LED traffic light. New Hampshire was selected because it was the first state to install the red and yellow variety statewide.

LED traffic lights in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden Wikipedia

In 2013, Los Angeles became the first city to install traffic lights that make automatic adjustments based on car flow, reducing travel time. Nearly 4,400 lights across 469 miles receive real-time updates about traffic flow to make second-by-second adjustments. The system limits congestion by up to 16% while also dramatically reducing idling time.

FUN TRAFFIC LIGHT FACTS

In France the stop signs say "STOP" but the upstarts over in Quebec use "ARRET."

Japan has a very blue shade of green traffic lights in some areas because historically the Japanese used the same word for green and blue. They are green enough to satisfy international regulations. 

Japanese bus drivers turn their vehicle off at red lights to reduce pollution.

The average person will spend about two weeks of their lives sitting at traffic lights!

In 1995, drivers in the Albanian city of Shkodra refused to pay a new traffic-light tax on the grounds that their city had no traffic lights.

Colors of traffic lights are confusing to some color blind people, as there is insufficient apparent difference between the red/amber traffic lights. In the Eastern provinces of Canada horizontally mounted traffic lights are generally differentiated by shape to facilitate identification for those with color blindness.

Tipperary Hill, New York has a traffic light with the lights upside down - the historically Irish residents kept smashing the light that had "British" red above "Irish" green, so it was changed.

Sources Unbelievable Facts Geoff Tibballs, Daily Express.