Tag Archives: Invention

Webcam

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Webcam

Webcams are a marvel of the technological world.

  • Webcams are inventions that capture video or still images, that can then be stored or delivered through computer systems.
  • Images and videos captured by webcams can typically be saved onto a computer hard drive or streamed live, generally over networks such as the internet.
  • Common uses for the typical webcam include monitoring for security, traffic and other purposes; communication with the aim of socialising, having meetings, and so on; and they are also used to capture photographs, as well as being used in the health care industry among others.
  • Webcams are popular as they are easily transportable, practical, and can be of an inexpensive, affordable nature, and people like to use them to make video calls to friends, families and colleagues.
  • The quality of webcams has a broad range despite its relatively low cost, from around 320 x 240 pixels to a high definition resolution of 1080 p (progressive scanning), although costs are usually relative to quality.

Webcam, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Invention, Camera, Unplugged, Technology

  • The webcam was invented in 1993, although it was being used at a basic stage from 1991, and it was created by researchers in the Cambridge University for the purpose of monitoring levels in a coffee pot from a remote distance.
  • Webcams are now generally integrated into computer hardware systems and are typically located at the top of the screen, however, when they first entered the market they were connected to a computer externally via a cable.
  • Webcams feature a sensor that detects images, a lens, and a way of transmitting the information, and they may also a feature an in-built microphone.
  • Webcams can be hacked through accidentally installed malware, which allows the hacker to watch the video feed and infiltrate privacy.
  • Commercialisation of webcams only began in 1994, and they were originally produced by the Connectix Corporation in the United States, although the invention lacked popularity until the beginning of the 21st century when sales escalated as a result of people wanting to make video calls.
Bibliography:
Devaney E, The History of the Webcam, 2015, http://www.ehow.com/info_8626014_history-webcam.html
Knoder J, 1080p, 2.0 Mega Pixels? Understanding Webcam Technical Terms, 2013,  Top 10 Reviews, http://webcam-review.toptenreviews.com/1080p-2.0-mega-pixels-understanding-webcam-technical-terms.html
Webcam, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcam
http://webcam-review.toptenreviews.com/1080p-2.0-mega-pixels-understanding-webcam-technical-terms.html

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Mastermind

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Mastermind

Mastermind is the greatest tool to master the mind.

  • Mastermind is a game that involves guessing a code, and the game is also known as ‘Master Mind’, while another name for a different brand of the game is ‘Secret Code’.
  • Mastermind is often considered a commercialisation of a similar game named Cows and Bulls, which is playable using paper and pens, and is known to have been played in the 1960s, but possibly as early as the late 1800s.
  • Two players are typically required to play a game of Mastermind – one devises the code, and the other cracks it over a number of steps, through the skill of deduction.
  • Mastermind was invented by an expert in the telecommunications field in Israel, Mordechai Meirovitz, in 1970.
  • Mastermind is played by making a code using supplied coloured pegs, and the opponent must correctly determine the correct position and colour of the pegs.

Mastermind, Game, Board, Five, Four, Colour, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Invention

  • Smaller black and white pegs are typically used to convey the accuracy of each guess – white to signify if a correct colour was used but incorrectly positioned; black if a correct colour was used and is in the correct position; or left blank if none of the code colours were used in the guess.
  • There is a 1 in 1296 chance of correctly guessing the code in Mastermind on the first attempt, with a four peg code and six available colours.
  • The average amount of turns taken to break a Mastermind code is four to five, while algorithms have been designed to crack a code in the most efficient process possible.
  • The original Mastermind featured six colours and a four slot code, while these numbers vary across versions today, and variations have included letter or number pegs, rather than colours.
  • It is not uncommon for a Mastermind variant to be programmed as a computer program, particularly due to its successful one person participation against a computer.
Bibliography:
Mastermind, 2015, Delphi For Fun, http://www.delphiforfun.org/Programs/Mastermind.htm
Mastermind, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)

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Nail (Invention)

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Nail (Invention)

Will you nail these facts into your head?

  • A nail is an invention used to secure multiple objects together; or used for ornamental purposes; or to hang items, especially on a wall.
  • Typically, nails are a thin cylindrical shape with a point at one end and a flat head at the other, although some versions are without a head.
  • Hammers are most often used to drive nails into objects, although specially engineered air guns are also used.
  • Nails are secured in objects by the laws of friction, and they can bear a secured object’s force due to their sturdiness.
  • The Ancient Egyptians crafted nails of bronze around 3400 BC, while copper ones were also used in ancient history, and at a later stage they were created from iron.
Nails (Invention), Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Metal, Construction, Assorted, Many, Metal,
  • Originally, nails where individually handmade, generally built from a rectangular iron piece, made by families primarily for themselves and also by blacksmiths for commercial purposes.
  • Attempts to mass produce nails via the use of machines took place from the 1790s, although they only became an efficient, commercially viable option in the late 1800s with the introduction of ones made from wire, rather than ‘cut’ ones made from iron rectangular shaped rods.
  • Various metals can be used to make nails, from bronze, brass, aluminium, iron, and copper, and the steel ‘wire’ method of making them is now the most frequently used material and process.
  • The most commonly available nails range from 1 to 7 millimetres in diameter (0.04 to 0.28 inches) and 2 to 21 centimetres (0.8 to 8.3 inches) in length, and there are a wide variety of different types which are used for various and specific purposes.
  • Nails are extremely popular in the construction of many objects, including wooden houses and frames, which use 20,000 to 30,000 per house.
Bibliography:
Fourshee P, A Two-Bit History of Nails, 1992, Fourshee, http://www.fourshee.com/history_of_nails.htm
Nail, 2015, How Products Are Made, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Nail.html
Nail (Fastener), 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(fastener)

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Pay Day (Board Game)

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Pay Day (Board Game)

Where does all the money go?” – Pay Day

  • Pay Day is a two to six player board game, depending on the version, that involves earning (or losing) money by moving across a board mimicking a monthly calendar.
  • The typical aim of Pay Day is to have the most money and savings in possession by the end of the game, by earning interest and receiving monthly pay, and avoiding mailed bills.
  • Although luck-based in movement, Pay Day requires particular strategic use of money and other finances to be successful.
  • ‘Pay Day’ is also known as ‘PAY DAY’ and ‘Payday’; and has been produced in a number of different languages including Italian, French and Dutch.
  • Pay Day was designed by the American game designer Paul Gruen, and released in 1975, and it was the designer’s biggest hit.

Pay Day, Board Game, Old, Version, Original, Cards, Money, Parker Brothers

  • Pay Day was first produced by Parker Brothers, which later became Hasbro’s property, and is now produced by Winning Moves.
  • There are  number of editions of Pay Day which include the original 1970s one; the 1990s edition; the 2000s ‘Big’ version, which has a customisable game board with interchangeable day tiles; and a 2011 modernised version of the original known as the ‘Classic Edition’.
  • Each edition of Pay Day has had various changes, including board design and layout, different mail and deal card options, and a change of activities on the calendar.
  • The original version of Pay Day featured a savings account, however this feature was removed in the 1990s game.
  • Pay Day was very favoured when it was first released; competing against the sales of Monopoly, although it has not remained as popular.
Bibliography:
Pay Day (Board Game), 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_Day_(board_game)
Review of the Pay Day Board Game, 2014, HubPages, http://hubpages.com/hub/Review-of-Payday-Board-Game#

Slinky

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Slinky

Generation upon generation can relate to the Slinky.

  • Slinkies are famous toys that are primarily a coil spring with multiple entertaining properties.
  • A Slinky has the ability of stepping down stairs automatically, with moments of apparent defiance of gravity, and its properties are mostly governed by the physics of waves, gravity and momentum.
  • In 1943, Richard James, an engineer for the American navy, designed the Slinky after attempting to create a spring for use in sensitive watercraft equipment, when he accidentally discovered the spring’s ‘walking’ properties.
  • The Slinky became available commercially in 1945, after some alterations to the spring, although it was relatively unsuccessful until a public demonstration in Philadelphia’s Gimbels department store, in the United States, where the toy became an instant hit and sold out within an hour or two.
  • The name ‘Slinky’, meaning ‘sleek and graceful’, was given by the inventor’s wife, Betty, who found the word, which she thought represented the invention, after paging through the dictionary.
Slinky, Toy, Invention, Metal, Steel, Original, Trivia, Ten Random Facts
Slinky
Image courtesy of Marcin Whichary/Flickr
  • Slinkies are traditionally made of flat steel wire, with a high carbon count and a diameter of 1.5 millimetres (0.0575 inches).
  • Plastic versions of the Slinky, that eliminate the safety hazard of electrocution, have been released, however cheap plastic imitations are also available, but they do not have the same abilities.
  • The colour of a Slinky is generally a silver metal colour, although plastic ones are commonly available in various colours including multicoloured, as in a rainbow.
  • Slinkies entered the Toy Hall of Fame in the year 2000, and a year prior to this they where depicted on a postage stamp.
  • Slinkies are not only a toy, but a tool used by physics teachers, as well as scientists in specific experiments, including multiple zero-gravity tests performed by NASA.
Bibliography:
The Invention of the Slinky, n.d, Priceonomics, http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-slinky/
Slinky, 2015, The Strong, http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/slinky
Slinky, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slinky

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Fairy Bread

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Fairy Bread

No Aussie party is complete without a bit of fairy bread.

  • Fairy bread is a food, generally considered a sweet snack, that is typically bread decorated with a sprinkled topping.
  • Fairy bread is usually made of white buttered bread, topped with hundreds and thousands or other types of sprinkles that stick to the butter or margarine.
  • Most commonly, fairy bread is triangular in shape, and is generally a full bread slice chopped in halves or quarters, however other shapes can be made using a knife or cookie cutters.
  • Parties for children in Australia and New Zealand often have fairy bread as a type of party food, as it is usually popular with children and quick easy to make; while one of the only cafes known to serve fairy bread in 2015, was in Sydney, Australia, and its name was the Parliament on King.
  • Fairy bread is relatively unknown outside of Australia (and New Zealand), where it was invented, and one of the first mentions of sprinkling buttered bread with 100’s and 1000’s was in 1921, as part of an advertisement for Perth’s Plaistowe and Co’s nonpareils, and by the late 1920s and early 1930s the snack was used as a party food.
Fairy Bread, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Sprinkles, Dessert.Party, Australia
  • A poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1885, referred to ‘fairy bread’ as a term, and it is believed to be the food’s inspiration, however at least one other author of that era also used the term in their works.
  • In the 1920’s in Australia, ‘fairy bread’ was the name of plain wafer-thin bread that had been dried in an oven; and it was not until the early to mid 1930s that this term was used in reference to the now common buttered bread version.
  • It is thought by some that fairy bread is a variant of the Dutch hagelslag, which is simply a slice of buttered bread with chocolate sprinkles (various flavours now exist) on the top, however, chocolate hagelslag was not invented until 1936.
  • Unlike many bread spreads, stacking pieces of fairy bread on top of each other without pieces sticking together is possible, due to the sprinkles themselves.
  • Fairy bread comes in a variety of colours, stereotypically rainbow, although the bread can be decorated in bright blues, greens, pinks and other colours.
Bibliography:
Fairy Bread, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_bread
Hurst P, Australia, We Need To Talk About Fairy Bread, 2015, Munchies, http://munchies.vice.com/articles/australia-we-need-to-talk-about-fairy-bread
What is Fairy Bread?, 2015, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fairy-bread.htm

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