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I bet you didn't know that this thread would have a part 2
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Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,802 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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On May 25, 1910, Orville flew for six minutes with Wilbur as his passenger—marking the first and only flight the brothers would make together. That same day, Orville took his 82-year-old father out for the first and only flight of his life.
In 1912, Wilbur died of typhoid fever.
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The length of the Wright Brother's first flight was about the length of one of the Airbus A380's wings (36m to 36.3m).
Orville's last flight was in a Lockheed Constellation in 1944, whose wingspan exceeded that of the length of their first flight. He may have flown it for a short distance, but that isn't verified.
He died in January 1948, the sound barrier was broken by a plane for the first time 3 months before his death in October 1947. He was born in 1871, 15 years before the first motor car (as we know them today) was invented.
John T. Daniels, who took this famous picture of their first flight, coincidentally died the day after Orville.
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Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »It's amazing how fast things progressed in aviation. The first flight, just a few tentative meters, was in 1903; only 8 years later planes were used in war for the first time, by Italy against the Turks. At the start of WWI, only barely a decade after they were invented, they had changed how armies did reconnaissance, and were pretty soon central to everyone's war effort.
Like, people talk about how quickly smart phones changed our society, but to me that's much more crazy.
This was 1895, Otto Lilienthal, obviously still without an engine.
...because it's not only the the fast development of flying as such that's astounding, but also the fast development of ever lighter and stronger engines and ever better materials that made it all possible
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humberklog wrote: »and women in Switzerland only got the Fed vote in '71.
That's the federal vote.
On the regional level it took a bit longer. The last Swiss "canton" to allow women to vote was Appenzell Innerrhoden on 29th of April 1990.
And that was against the majority vote of the canton's men, they had to be overruled by the Swiss federal court.
This is where those guys live
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To all the young 'uns out there buying LP's for the first time. NEVER open it with a blade. This is a far easier method. Also protects the edge of the album and makes it keep it's value more in the future.
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Morocco was the first country to recognise the United States in 1777.
And the city of Fez in Morocco is home to the University of al-Qarawiyyin since the year 859, predating Oxfords 1096 by a comfortable margin and making it the oldest university in the world. It was founded by a woman called Fatima al-Fihri, a Tunisian immigrant who saw it as a thank you to the country for the opportunities it afforded her family.
The University is home to the oldest library in the world, recently restored and now open to the public.
Such a beautiful building, such intricate details. I'd love to visit.0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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Fantastic building with an incredible history but it's not the oldest library(still around) in the world. That would be the library in the monestary of Saint Catherine in Sinai, which is 300 years older. The library of Bobbio Abbey founded by Columbanus predates it too, though it's not exactly a living library today. Though the same Bobbio library was the inspiration for the labyrinthine library in Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose book(and film).The University is home to the oldest library in the world
Its status as a university is debatable. It was and remained for most of its existence a religious school, rather than a site of wider learning. The university concept where the religious was less in play compared to wider learning was more a European concept. If we take Al-Qarawiyyin to be a university then there would be many that would predate it. Even our own Clonmacnoise would. Though clearly that one is not going any more.
Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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I've been to al-Qarawiyyin a couple of times. The guide actually explained what Wibbs mentions, that it is nearer to what we would call a seminary today, rather than what we know as a university. It effectively taught islamic theology, and related religious and legal subjects, nothing more. There would have been other colleges in the Maghreb dealing with subjects like astronomy, maths, chemistry, cartography etc.
Incredible place all the same, really worth a visit as is all the area to the Med to the north of it. And to think they built that when we were living in straw roofed stone huts, with the odd round tower as the height of our building technology.
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Fantastic building with an incredible history but it's not the oldest library(still around) in the world. That would be the library in the monestary of Saint Catherine in Sinai, which is 300 years older. The library of Bobbio Abbey founded by Columbanus predates it too, though it's not exactly a living library today. Though the same Bobbio library was the inspiration for the labyrinthine library in Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose book(and film).
Its status as a university is debatable. It was and remained for most of its existence a religious school, rather than a site of wider learning. The university concept where the religious was less in play compared to wider learning was more a European concept. If we take Al-Qarawiyyin to be a university then there would be many that would predate it. Even our own Clonmacnoise would. Though clearly that one is not going any more.
Someone needs to tell the Moroccans this news.
I vote anyone but me.0 -
I've been to al-Qarawiyyin a couple of times. The guide actually explained what Wibbs mentions, that it is nearer to what we would call a seminary today, rather than what we know as a university. It effectively taught islamic theology, and related religious and legal subjects, nothing more. There would have been other colleges in the Maghreb dealing with subjects like astronomy, maths, chemistry, cartography etc.
Incredible place all the same, really worth a visit as is all the area to the Med to the north of it. And to think they built that when we were living in straw roofed stone huts, with the odd round tower as the height of our building technology.
There's a chance I could get there with work next year, but with the pandemic I'm not banking on anything. I just have to make sure I have an extra day or so if it happens.0 -
Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 76,443 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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Incredible place all the same, really worth a visit as is all the area to the Med to the north of it. And to think they built that when we were living in straw roofed stone huts, with the odd round tower as the height of our building technology.
Easy, they had a nice long stretch of good weather on their side. :pac:0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59018
That was an interesting thing about Irish architecture, that even though the culture in the early medieval was a repository for all sorts of Classical knowledege including architecture, they continued to build in an almost stone age way. About the only difference was the knowledge of mortar meant they could build bigger and higher. The conical roof of a round tower is the same corbel structure as Newgrange. The beehive huts of the Skelligs could be stone age too. They were absolute masters of the drywall building technique. They did build arches, but even here sometimes they would put in a lintel, old tech and carve the new tech arch into it.Incredible place all the same, really worth a visit as is all the area to the Med to the north of it. And to think they built that when we were living in straw roofed stone huts, with the odd round tower as the height of our building technology.
The last round tower built was at Ardmore. Constructed in the 12th century and unusual for the three decorative courses.
There is no mystery as to their purpose. They were bell towers and that's what they called them in the annals(though some translations may mean stone house). They were not defensive and would have been useless in that capacity anyway. Build a fire around their base and you could cook the monks inside to death(and likely bring it down). They had unbelieveably shallow foundations for their height. IIRC the deepest only goes down a couple of feet in old money and not much more than a foot in the shallowest example. They survived in large enough numbers because their shape was pretty wind resistant like a lighthouse(imagine the storms that Ardmore one lived through) and the base part below the raised door was filled with rubble which anchored them(though one exists with a door in the base and still stands). The annals do report they were often hit by lightning, which usually blew off the pointed roof. The only one left with its original roof cap is in Clondalkin, Dublin(I was actually inside that one many moons ago). All the rest were reconstructed, or some were repurposed as lookouts with flat crenellated tops.
Painting of Glendalough from the 18th century, minus the pointy top.
The last one at Ardmore does lean a bit, well so would you after eight centuries.. Meanwhile in Italy at the same time Ardmore tower was just finished and another bell tower that leans.../cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62409034/shutterstock_1241301673.0.jpg)
Yep that's what the Italians were at... Dead fanceh. OK it was started in the 12th century but took two centuries to build. Not because they were lazy, but wars and and recessions got in the way. As they will. It had started to lean quite early on. Actually the long time between construction phases may have saved it by allowing the ground to settle under the initial weight. It's not the only leaning building in that neck of the woods either. The church beside it is also sinking on one side. The same church was later the place where on Galileo was baptised. And the same church that as a young man he watched a chandelier swing back and forth and noticed that no matter the distance of the swing the time it took was always the same and one story goes he went up the leaning tower to drop two unequal weight cannonballs and noticed they always hit the ground at the same time. But I digress. He's another post entirely. And all this leaning and swinging? The name of the town Pisa may have been a reference to swampy land... As another interesting coincidence, the same crappy underpinnings likely saved the tower and all the older buildings from the earthquakes the area has suffered. The soft soil acts as a damper so the resonating frequencies aren't strong enough to bring the buildings down. Oh and after efforts to save the tower a few years back it actually leans half as much as it did a century ago.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59018
IIRC they were handbells rather than the big bells most associeated with later bells in churches and a couple of those do survive. The handbell of St Patrick the most well known.
With its reliquary/shrine.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtQ1MXMGTEs![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
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