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Piping diagram from 1909 of a Westinghouse 6-ET Air Brake system on a locomotive.
Prior to the advent of trucking in the early 1900s, rail was the only efficient way to transport goods over land. However, before the 1870s, there was no easy way to quickly stop the extremely heavy freight trains. Brakemen scrambled over the tops of moving cars to activate hand brakes on each one. The system was unreliable, resulting in frequent derailments, and many brakemen were killed or maimed after falling from trains. The air brake solved all of those problems. How did it work? More...
1981 - The home computer ZX81 is launched
The British ZX81 was one of the world's first home computer and was sold over 1.5 million times.
1970 - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty enters into force
Nuclear powers China, Russia, U.S., U.K., and France initiated the treaty in 1968. It has since been ratified by 190 nations around the world.
1960 - Alberto Korda takes his famous picture of revolutionary Che Guevara
The iconic photograph, called Guerrillero Heroico, was taken at a memorial service for the victims of the La Coubre explosion.
1616 - Nicolaus Copernicus' revolutionary book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is banned by the Catholic Church
In the book, Copernicus claimed that the Earth revolves around the sun. The Church maintained Ptolemy's geocentric system. The book is considered a milestone in the history of astronomy.
Historic Trivia pick
On July 22, 1962, the Mariner I space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, en route to Venus. Four minutes after lift-off, it began veering seriously off-course and was destroyed to prevent it from crashing into populated areas, resulting in an $18.5 million loss for the U.S. space program. An investigation found the cause of the crash to be the omission of a single hyphen from the instructions entered into the rocket's computer.
George Westinghouse Patents the Automatic Air Brake
Piping diagram from 1909 of a Westinghouse 6-ET Air Brake system on a locomotive.
Prior to the advent of trucking in the early 1900s, rail was the only efficient way to transport goods over land. However, before the 1870s, there was no easy way to quickly stop the extremely heavy freight trains. Brakemen scrambled over the tops of moving cars to activate hand brakes on each one. The system was unreliable, resulting in frequent derailments, and many brakemen were killed or maimed after falling from trains. The air brake solved all of those problems. How did it work? More...
1981 - The home computer ZX81 is launched
The British ZX81 was one of the world's first home computer and was sold over 1.5 million times.
1970 - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty enters into force
Nuclear powers China, Russia, U.S., U.K., and France initiated the treaty in 1968. It has since been ratified by 190 nations around the world.
1960 - Alberto Korda takes his famous picture of revolutionary Che Guevara
The iconic photograph, called Guerrillero Heroico, was taken at a memorial service for the victims of the La Coubre explosion.
1616 - Nicolaus Copernicus' revolutionary book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is banned by the Catholic Church
In the book, Copernicus claimed that the Earth revolves around the sun. The Church maintained Ptolemy's geocentric system. The book is considered a milestone in the history of astronomy.
Historic Trivia pickOn July 22, 1962, the Mariner I space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, en route to Venus. Four minutes after lift-off, it began veering seriously off-course and was destroyed to prevent it from crashing into populated areas, resulting in an $18.5 million loss for the U.S. space program. An investigation found the cause of the crash to be the omission of a single hyphen from the instructions entered into the rocket's computer.
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61-BLUES
