Genius Transportation Inventions: From the Wheel to Spacecraft
In 2015 a Japanese maglev magnetic levitation train reached a record 375 mph 605 km h in a test
CONTENTS Off We Go On the Road The IC Engine On Two Wheels The First Boats Water Wonders Rail Trail First Flight Air Power Space Travel Navigation This Baby Won’t Fly Wanna Fly Index 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32
OFF WE GO Spoked wheel 2000 BCE We humans are natural wanderers but for tens of thousands of years our ancestors moved on foot They had no other means of transport not at least until they had tamed wild animals Early humans domesticated the horse for example about 6,000 years ago Many years later they invented the wheel which led to carts and chariots They also harnessed the wind to power sailing vessels so they could cross oceans The most dramatic revolutions in transport have come in the last two centuries with the development of the steam engine and internal-combustion engine They powered boats trains cars and aircraft These inventions brought benefi ts speed comfort but also problems such as pollution Did you know by the way that cars were fi rst seen as a clean alternative to horse-drawn transport That’s because the tons of horse droppings in city streets attracted fl ies which spread disease Now of course we’re choking on exhaust fumes and looking for alternative powers such as electricity Even the Bate car invented by British chicken farmer Harold Bate in 1971 looks like a healthier idea it ran on animal droppings Internal-combustion engine 1850s 6
The fi rst aviation pioneers took inspiration from birds but their fl apping fl ying machines were a disaster It took the Wright brothers historic fl ights of 1903 to unlock the mysteries of manned aviation Later still the devastating use of rockets in wartime has led to the peaceful exploration of our fi nal frontier outer space Dugout canoe 6000 BCE or earlier Model T Ford 1908 Sputnik 2 satellite 1957 So join us on a journey by almost every craft you can think of from dugout canoe to spacecraft And meet the inventors who often risked their reputations or even their lives to test new hot air balloons gliders parachutes motorbikes bicycles seaplanes hovercraft and even jetpacks and submarine-planes 7
