There are a lot of bridges all over the world. Travel on land is easier, safer, and more direct with bridges. Footbridges allow people to cross roads, rivers, and railroads safely.
The first bridges were made by placing tree trunks across rivers. Later, people made rope bridges by weaving plants together and built stone bridges with strong arches. Today bridges are built with concrete and other strong, modern materials instead of natural materials.
The Akashi-kaikyo bridge in Japan, has the longest single span of any bridge. The central span is 1,991 m long.
There are various ways of building bridges. Most of them rest on solid supports. Pontoon bridges float on the surface of the water.
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Today the samovar is out of date. Earlier the families had a wonderful tradition of tea drinking, when the whole family gathered together at the samovar. This amazing household item was in almost every family.
The samovar became a symbol of Russia, but it was not a national invention. Peter I brought it from Holland along with other curious things. Because of the cold climate the samovar became very popular in Russia. To keep warm, people drank 15-20 cups of tea a day! In addition, the samovar heated the room.
The first manufacturers of samovars in Russia were the Ural craftsmen. Then there were workshops in Yaroslavl, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vologda, Kostroma. Tula, which received the status of the capital of the samovar, was the leader among them.
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Once, back in the Paleolithic era, a hunter unknown to us scratched the figures of people and animals with a sharp stone on the wall of the cave. The centuries passed … the writing appeared. Signs were carved on stones, painted on papyrus. In Assyria, the signs were written with a sharpened stick on the plates made of wet clay, which were then fired.
In the Middle Ages, people learned to write with pieces of lead with sharpened ends. Since the XIV century, artists in Europe used lead and tin, as well as silver pins for drawing. The great Botticelli made many of his drawings using such pins.
In the middle of the XVI century, English shepherds from Cumberland found a fairly soft and brittle mineral in the ground. The rocks were taken for the deposit of the lead because of the color.
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Fans were a sign of the wealth and authority of the owner.
The historians believe that the first fan appeared in China. Mentions of these things are found in the works of ancient Chinese poets, dating back to the second millennium BC. During the excavation of the grave of the principality of Chu fragments of fans made of feathers with a wooden handle were found. Similar findings refer to the Eastern Zhou Period (770-256 BC).
In the III century BC, Chinese fans had a semi-circular shape. They were made mainly of thin bamboo plates. Later, the masters began to make round paper fans on the handle. In the I century, the Chinese presented several such fans to the Japanese emperor.
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Before there was television and Internet, people got much of their news and entertainment from the radio. Radio is a way of sending sounds or other information through the air. The information is carried by invisible radio waves. Radar, cell phones, cordless telephones, wireless computer networks also use this waves.
Radio waves are sent out by a transmitter, which turns talking, music, pictures, or other information into electric signals. The receiver separates the electric signals from the radio waves.
In the nineteenth century James Clerk Maxwell described the theoretical basis for radio transmissions. Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the existence of radio waves by transmitting and receiving a microwave radio signal over a considerable distance.
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False hair has been a success in all ages. For a long time people used wigs to achieve different goals: to protect themselves from the sun, hide a bald patch or emphasize their status.
Because of the heat in Egypt, both men and women cut off their hair, but wore wigs, which appeared in the III millennium BC. Men wore short wigs. Women decorated their wigs with ribbons and multicolored threads. Pharaohs, their close associates, important officials and priests wore huge wigs made of natural hair. Landowners, warriors, merchants, peasants wore short wigs made of wool, feathers, palm or papyrus fibers, sea grass and linen threads. The wigs were fixed with beeswax. Black and dark brown wigs were common, although later orange, red, blue, green and yellow colors were used. Wigs were sprayed with aromatic oils and essences, sprinkled with flower petals and spices.
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Archery is the sport of shooting arrows with a bow at a target. For thousands of years people used the skills of archery mostly for war and for hunting.
A bow is a long, thin piece of wood with a string stretched tightly from one end to the other. An arrow is a long, thin piece of wood, which ends in a pointed tip. There is a tail of feathers or plastic fins on the other end of the arrow. It helps the arrow fly straight.
In the 1900s archery became an Olympic event. The Summer Olympic Games feature target archery events for men and women, individually and in teams.
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