The Dream Begins

The idea of machines that can think like humans goes back a long, long time. The Greeks had a word for such machines: "automaton," which means "acting of one's own will." Homer, the ancient poet, described automatic doors that could open by themselves in his epic poems. People have always been fascinated by the idea of creating machines that can act and think independently.

The 20th Century: Laying the Groundwork

Fast forward to the 20th century, and the dream of intelligent machines started to become more realistic. Mathematicians and scientists began to ask if it was possible to formalize all of mathematical reasoning. This idea was a big deal for AI because it suggested that human thought could be reduced to a set of rules that a machine could follow.

The Turing Machine

In 1936, Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician, introduced the concept of the Turing machine. Imagine an imaginary computer with an infinite strip of tape (like super-long RAM) and a set of rules (a program) about what to do with the information on the tape.

This machine could compute anything that was theoretically computable, laying the foundation for modern computers and AI.

The First Artificial Neurons

In 1943, Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts made a groundbreaking contribution by proposing a model of artificial neurons. To describe how neurons in the brain might work, they modeled a simple neural network using electrical circuits.

These artificial neurons were like tiny units that could take inputs, apply weights to them, and produce outputs. This idea was crucial because it became the basis for artificial neural networks, which are essential for modern AI.

The Birth of AI: The Dartmouth Workshop

The Dartmouth Summer Research Project, a 2 month-workshop, is widely considered to be the founding event of artificial intelligence as a field.

The real kickoff for AI as a field happened in 1956 at the Dartmouth Workshop. This workshop was organized by big names like Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Claude Shannon, and Nathan Rochester from IBM. They gathered to explore the possibility of creating machines that could simulate human intelligence. This event marked the formal beginning of AI as an academic discipline.

At this workshop, John McCarthy introduced the term "Artificial Intelligence" to avoid associations with cybernetics and other fields. It was here that researchers like Ray Solomonoff, Oliver Selfridge, Arthur Samuel, Allen Newell, and Herbert A. Simon presented their early AI programs. This workshop gave AI its name, mission, and key players.

Early Successes (1956-1974)

After the Dartmouth Workshop, the field of AI saw some impressive achievements. Computers were solving algebra problems, proving theorems in geometry, and even learning to speak English. The researchers were incredibly optimistic, predicting that fully intelligent machines would be built within a couple of decades. The government, especially DARPA, poured money into AI research, and major AI labs were established at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford, and Edinburgh University.

Predictions and Optimism

In the late 1950s and 1960s, AI researchers made bold predictions:

- In 1958, H. A. Simon and Allen Newell claimed that a computer would become the world chess champion within ten years and discover important new mathematical theorems.

- In 1965, H. A. Simon predicted that machines would be capable of doing any work that humans could do within twenty years.

- In 1967, Marvin Minsky said that the problem of creating AI would be solved within a generation.

- In 1970, Minsky predicted in Life Magazine that in three to eight years, there would be a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.

One of the first big AI successes came in 1959 when Arthur Samuel coined the term "machine learning" while working on a program that could play checkers better than the humans who programmed it.

The Samuel Checkers-playing Program was among the world's first successful self-learning programs, and as such a very early demonstration of the fundamental concept of artificial intelligence (AI).

The First AI Winter (1974-1980)

However, the 1970s brought a harsh reality check. AI researchers had underestimated the complexity of the problems they were trying to solve. Their optimism had raised public expectations too high, and when those expectations weren't met, funding dried up. This period, known as the first AI winter, was marked by limited computer power and the realization that AI needed vast amounts of information to function, which was not feasible at the time.

Government agencies and funding bodies became frustrated with the lack of progress. The British government's Lighthill report criticized AI research for failing to achieve its ambitious goals, leading to a significant reduction in AI funding.

The AI Boom (1980-1987)

Despite the setbacks, the 1980s saw a resurgence of interest in AI. This period is often referred to as the AI boom. New breakthroughs in research and increased government funding led to significant advancements.

Key Achievements in the 1980s

1980: The first conference of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) was held at Stanford.

1980: XCON, the first expert system, was launched commercially to help configure computer systems based on customer needs.

1981: The Japanese government invested heavily in the Fifth Generation Computer project, aiming to create computers that could understand and reason like humans.

1984: The AAAI warned of an impending AI winter due to possible funding cuts.

1985: AARON, an autonomous drawing program, was demonstrated at the AAAI conference.

1986: Ernst Dickmann and his team demonstrated the first driverless car at Bundeswehr University of Munich.

1987: Alacrity, the first strategy managerial advisory system, was launched commercially by Alactrious Inc.

The Second AI Winter (1987-1993)

As predicted, another AI winter arrived in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The market for specialized AI hardware collapsed as general-purpose desktop computers became more powerful. Many AI companies went bankrupt, and both private investors and government agencies lost interest in funding AI research.

Renewed Progress (1993-2011)

The AI field, now over fifty years old, began to achieve some of its long-standing goals. Increased computer power and a focus on specific problems led to successful applications of AI in various industries, albeit behind the scenes.

Notable Achievements

1997: IBM's Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov.

1997: Dragon Systems developed speech recognition software for Windows.

2000: Cynthia Breazeal created Kismet, the first robot capable of simulating human emotions.

2002: The first Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner was released.

2003: NASA's rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed on Mars and navigated the planet without human intervention.

2006: Companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix started using AI for advertising and user experience algorithms.

2010: Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 Kinect, which used AI to track body movements for gaming.

2011: IBM's Watson won Jeopardy against two former champions.

2011: Apple released Siri, the first popular virtual assistant.

Artificial General Intelligence: 2012-Present

In recent years, AI has become a common part of our daily lives. Virtual assistants, search engines, and other AI tools have become more advanced and widespread. Deep Learning and Big Data have played significant roles in these advancements.

Recent Milestones

2012: Google researchers Jeff Dean and Andrew Ng trained a neural network to recognize cats using unlabeled images.

2016: Hanson Robotics created Sophia, a humanoid robot that can see, replicate emotions, and communicate.

2017: Facebook's AI chatbots developed their own language while negotiating.

2018: Alibaba's language-processing AI outperformed humans on a Stanford reading comprehension test.

2019: Google's AlphaStar achieved Grandmaster status in StarCraft 2, outperforming nearly all human players.

2020: OpenAI started beta testing GPT-3, a language model capable of creating human-like text.

2021: OpenAI developed DALL-E, an AI that can generate images from textual descriptions.

The journey of artificial intelligence has been filled with ups and downs, from early dreams and breakthroughs to periods of skepticism and renewed hope. Today, AI is an integral part of our lives, continuously evolving and pushing the boundaries of what machines can do. The future of AI promises even more exciting developments as we move closer to achieving true artificial general intelligence.

But…

We have witnessed two cycles of AI winters and booms. Is the current period another boom with an impending winter? Only time will tell.

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Two more quick HWH bites:

Understanding the history of cars means first deciding what counts as a "car." Are we talking about any wheeled vehicle, or does it need an engine? If so, what kind of engine?

The word "car" comes from the Latin word "carrus," which means a wheeled vehicle. With this in mind, let's explore the history of self-propelled vehicles.

Hans Hautsch's Self-Propelled Car (1649)

One of the earliest self-propelled vehicles was created by Hans Hautsch, a German inventor, in 1649. Hautsch's car worked with a system of springs wound by a key, similar to modern wind-up toys. It could move about 2,000 paces (around 1.6 kilometers) in an hour.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's Steam-Powered Tricycle (1769)

In 1769, French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first full-scale, self-propelled mechanical vehicle. His steam-powered tricycle was designed for military use and could travel at about 4 kilometers per hour. This invention was a significant step forward in automotive technology.

Steam-Powered Vehicles and the Locomotives Act (1865)

In the 19th century, inventors experimented with steam-powered vehicles. Innovations like hand brakes, multispeed transmissions, and better steering were developed. Some steam vehicles were used for public transportation, but there was resistance to these large machines.

The UK passed the Locomotives Act of 1865, which required self-propelled vehicles on public roads to be preceded by a person waving a red flag and blowing a horn. This law effectively halted the development of road automobiles in the UK for most of the 19th century. Inventors then focused on improving railway locomotives. The law was not repealed until 1896, though the red flag requirement ended in 1878.

Early Steam Cars

In 1816, Josef Bozek, a professor at Prague Polytechnic, built an oil-fired steam car. Walter Hancock, a London steam bus operator, built a two-seated steam car phaeton in 1838. These vehicles showed the potential of steam power for transportation.

The Great Race of 1878

To encourage innovation, the state of Wisconsin offered a $10,000 prize in 1875 (equivalent to about $277,455 today) for a vehicle that could maintain an average speed of more than 8 kilometers per hour over a 320-kilometer course.

This led to the first city-to-city automobile race in the U.S. on July 16, 1878, from Green Bay to Madison, Wisconsin. Only two of the seven registered vehicles competed. The Green Bay vehicle was faster but broke down, while the Oshkosh vehicle completed the race in 33 hours and 27 minutes, with an average speed of 9.7 kilometers per hour. The legislature awarded half the prize in 1879.

The Rise of Internal Combustion Engines

By the 1930s, the development of internal combustion engines had peaked, making steam engines for cars uneconomical. Diesel engines further accelerated this trend.

Siegfried Marcus and the First Gasoline Car

Around 1870, Siegfried Marcus from Vienna, Austria-Hungary, put a liquid-fueled internal combustion engine on a handcart, making him the first to propel a vehicle using gasoline. His second car, built in 1875, was the first gasoline-driven car and is housed at the Vienna Technical Museum.

Carl Benz's Gasoline-Powered Automobile (1886)

Carl Benz developed the first modern car designed for everyday use in 1886. His gasoline-powered automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, was the first produced in series. Benz is often called the "father of the car" and the "father of the automobile industry" for his pioneering work. His wife, Bertha Benz, demonstrated the car's feasibility with a trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim in 1888.

Andreas Flocken's Electric Car (1888)

In 1888, German inventor Andreas Flocken developed the Flocken Elektrowagen, considered the first true electric car. It had a simple design with a battery-powered motor, showcasing the early potential of electric propulsion.

Stories of Some Automobile Companies

The Selden Patent and Ford's Challenge

American George B. Selden filed for a patent on May 8, 1879, for an engine used in a four-wheeled car. Selden licensed his patent to most major American automakers, collecting fees from each car produced and creating the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM).

The Ford Motor Company fought this patent in court and eventually won on appeal. Henry Ford testified that the patent hindered rather than encouraged the development of automobiles in the U.S.

Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot

The first company formed exclusively to build automobiles was Panhard et Levassor in France, which also introduced the first four-cylinder engine in 1889. Peugeot followed two years later. By the early 20th century, the automobile industry was booming in Western Europe, especially in France, which produced nearly half of the world's automobiles in 1903.

The Duryea Brothers

In 1893, Charles and Frank Duryea founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, becoming the first American automobile manufacturing company. Their first ten production vehicles were the first automobiles sold in the United States. They took part in Britain's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (a motoring event) and their car defeated the nearest competition by a whooping 75 minutes.

The Studebaker Brothers

The Studebaker brothers from South Bend, Indiana, transitioned from building horse-drawn vehicles to electric automobiles in 1902 and gasoline engines in 1904. They continued to build horse-drawn vehicles until 1919.

The Ford Model T

Introduced by Henry Ford in 1908, the Ford Model T was the first mass-affordable automobile. Using assembly line techniques, production costs were significantly reduced, making car ownership accessible to the general public. The Model T revolutionized the automotive industry and set the standard for future mass production.

It should be remembered, that a LOT of people have contributed to the evolution of the car. From the invention of tires to modern IC engines to sensors to safety systems like seat belts. So, while singling out one inventor for such a huge industry would be unfair, at the same time remembering these pioneers is always worth the time.

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Let me take you on a journey through the different methods scientists use to measure time and find out how old things are. This field of science is called "dating," and there are many cool ways to do it!

Carbon Dating

Carbon dating is one of the most famous methods. It's like the superstar of dating methods! It's used to date things that were once alive (these have organic materials) like plants, animals, and even ancient human artifacts.

How It Works

It relies on a special kind of carbon called carbon-14. This is the radioactive isotope of carbon, having two extra neutrons than the regular carbon, the carbon-12. Being radioactive carbon-14 decays over time.

This carbon-14 is made when cosmic rays from space hit nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere. The carbon-14 combines with oxygen to make radioactive carbon dioxide, which plants absorb during photosynthesis. Animals then get carbon-14 by eating these plants. When a plant or animal dies, it stops taking in carbon-14, and the carbon-14 it already has starts to break down.

By measuring how much carbon-14 is left in a sample, scientists can tell how long it's been since the plant or animal died.

Since carbon-14 has a half-life of about 5,730 years, carbon dating is useful for dating things up to about 50,000 years old, as by this time about 99.8% of the
carbon-14 will have decayed.

Inventor

Willard Libby, an American chemist, invented carbon dating in the late 1940s. He even won a Nobel Prize for his work!

Tree Ring Dating (Dendrochronology)

This method is super cool because it uses trees to tell time! Trees grow rings each year, and by counting these rings, scientists can determine the age of the tree.

How It Works

New growth in trees happens in a layer of cells just under the bark. Trees grow in a predictable pattern throughout the year, responding to seasonal changes in climate. This growth results in visible rings, with each ring marking one complete year in the tree's life. By counting these rings, scientists can figure out how old the tree is.

But that's not all! Scientists can also compare the pattern of rings in different trees to learn about climate changes over time. This helps them date wooden objects and understand historical weather patterns. As of 2020, securely dated tree-ring data for some regions in the Northern Hemisphere go back an amazing 13,910 years.

Inventor

A.E. Douglass, an American astronomer, developed dendrochronology in the early 1900s.

Potassium-Argon Dating

This is a type of radiometric dating used especially for volcanic rocks. It's handy for dating really old things, like early human fossils.

How It Works

• The main concept is similar to carbon dating. Just the radioactive element is different.

• Volcanic rocks contain potassium-40, a radioactive element.

• Potassium-40 decays into argon-40 over time.

• By measuring the ratio of the amount of argon-40 to potassium-40, scientists can determine the age of the rock.

In 2013, the K–Ar method was used by the Mars Curiosity rover to date a rock on the Martian surface, the first time a rock has been dated from its mineral ingredients while situated on another planet. Estimate age: 3.86 billion to 4.56 billion years old.

Due to the long half-life of potassium-40, the technique is most applicable for dating minerals and rocks more than 100,000 years old.

Uranium-Lead Dating

This is another radiometric method, but it's super precise. It's often used to date the oldest rocks on Earth. It can be used to date rocks that formed and crystallized from about 1 million years to over 4.5 billion years ago with high precision.

How It Works

• Uranium in rocks decays into lead over time.

• By measuring the ratio of uranium to lead, scientists can determine the age of the rock.

The method relies on two separate decay chains, the uranium series from 238-U to 206-Pb, with a half-life of 4.47 billion years, and the actinium series from 235-U to 207-Pb, with a half-life of 710 million years.

Inventor

This method was developed by an American geochemist, Claire Patterson in the 1950s.

He used the method to calculate the age of the Earth as 4.55 billion years old. This figure was far more accurate than those that existed at the time, and one that has remained largely unchallenged since 1956.

Note: All the forms of dating involving radioactive materials like carbon-14, Potassium-40 and Uranium-238 or 235, are together called radiometric dating.

Thermoluminescence

This method is used to date materials containing crystalline minerals that were either heated (lava, ceramics) or exposed to sunlight (sediments). It's all about heat and light!

How It Works

• When certain materials are heated, they release stored energy in the form of light.

• The amount of light released tells scientists how long it's been since the material was last heated.

At US$300–700 per object it is one of the cheapest dating methods available.

Ice Core Dating

This method is used to study ancient climates. An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years. Scientists drill into ice sheets to collect cores that are like frozen time capsules.

How It Works

• Each year, snowfall creates a new layer of ice.

• By counting these layers, scientists can determine the age of the ice.

• They can also study trapped air bubbles to learn about past climates.

Inventor

This method has been developed by many scientists over the years, with significant contributions from people like Willi Dansgaard in the mid-20th century.

Stratigraphy

This is one of the oldest methods. It's like reading the pages of a book made of rocks and soil.

How It Works

• Layers of rock and soil build up over time, with the oldest layers at the bottom.

• By studying the sequence of layers, scientists can determine the relative age of fossils and artifacts.

Inventor

This method dates back to early geologists like Nicolas Steno in the 17th century.

So, there you have it! Scientists have many clever ways to figure out how old things are. Each method has its own special tricks and tools, but they all help us uncover the secrets of the past. It's like solving a giant, ancient puzzle, piece by piece. And who knows, maybe one day you'll become a scientist and help solve the mysteries of our world too!

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Lawyers, those masters of the courtroom and champions of justice have played a vital role in shaping societies throughout history. However, the journey and evolution of lawyers as a profession is not a straight line, but a fascinating tapestry woven across continents and cultures. Let's embark on a global exploration of this esteemed profession, tracing its roots, transformations, and enduring impact on the world.

Athens

The journey of evolution of legal representation started in ancient Athens. Initially, individuals were expected to argue their own cases in court. However, over time, it became common for people to seek help from a "friend" who was likely more skilled in oration and argumentation. And so, most of the lawyers of that era were simply great orators.

Yet, around the middle of the fourth century BC, the Athenians changed this practice and eliminated the allowance for individuals to seek assistance from a friend. This move likely aimed to ensure fairness in legal proceedings and prevent potential inequalities that could arise from varying levels of advocacy skills among litigants and their chosen representatives. Although the rule was there, it was often flouted.

Despite the widespread acceptance of receiving payment for pleading someone else's case, there was a formal rule prohibiting the taking of fees for legal representation. This rule remained intact, creating a significant barrier for orators to establish themselves as legal professionals or experts.

As a result, even though informal payment for legal services was a common practice, orators couldn't openly present themselves as professional advocates. They were compelled to maintain the facade that they were simply citizens offering free assistance to friends in need. This restriction prevented them from organizing into a formalized profession akin to what we understand as lawyers today.

Rome gives us the first lawyers

The Roman emperor Claudius Augustus, abolished the earlier existing law that prohibited advocates from taking fees. This propelled the development of advocacy as a profession, enabling Roman advocates to practice their profession openly and become the first true lawyers. However, there was a cap on how much a lawyer could charge — capped at 10,000 sesterces. (a sesterce was a small silver coin weighing 4.5g).

The early Roman advocates were trained more in the form of persuasion than in the actual law. This led to the rise of another group of specialists who actually studied the law. They were called jurisconsults. They actively studied a variety of legal problems and hypothetical cases, thereby immensely contributing to the systematic development of law in Rome.

By the late 4th century, fewer people sought jurisconsults as lawyers began studying both law and persuasion. In the 5th century, a recommendation letter became necessary to become a lawyer, and by the 6th century, a formal four-year education was required. Emperor Claudius's fee limit remained, albeit at a higher rate.

In the late Roman Empire, there was also the rise of notaries. They were responsible for drafting wills, conveyances, and contracts. Despite being popular in most villages they were considered inferior to lawyers and jurisconsults. They developed a bad reputation for making simple deals sound complicated and writing lines of text filled with jargon because they got paid based on how much they wrote.

But…

The fall of the Western Roman Empire led to the disappearance of the legal profession in Western Europe. By 1140, there were no professional lawyers.

In the late 12th century, some men started practicing canon law — the legal system established by the Catholic Church. Regulation efforts began in 1231, with French councils and later, Emperor Frederick II, requiring lawyers to swear oaths before practicing. By the end of the 13th century, the practice of taking oaths had become common along with laws in place to punish deceitful lawyers.

India and USA

In India, during this period, the legal profession was also taking shape. Ancient Indian texts such as the Manusmriti provided guidelines for legal practice and the administration of justice. Brahmin scholars known as dharmashastra experts served as legal advisors and interpreters of Hindu law, offering counsel to rulers and litigants alike.

The evolution of the legal profession took a different path in the United States. During the early years of European colonization in the 17th century, legal practice in the American colonies was heavily influenced by English common law. Lawyers, often referred to as attorneys, emerged as essential figures in colonial society, representing clients in courts and providing legal guidance on matters ranging from land disputes to criminal defense.

By the 18th century, the legal profession in the United States had become more organized, with the establishment of formal bar associations and the adoption of professional standards and ethics. The American legal system continued to evolve, influenced by constitutional principles and landmark legal decisions, such as the establishment of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison (1803). This landmark case affirmed the Constitution as the supreme law of the United States. Chief Justice John Marshall's decision established the principle of judicial review, empowering the Supreme Court to invalidate laws inconsistent with the Constitution.

Lawyers vs society

Public criticism of lawyers has a long history, with famous figures like Shakespeare expressing distrust. In the 1780s and 1789, Prussia and France even abolished their legal professions, later realizing they were necessary. Complaints about lawyers were common in England, the United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Scotland in different periods.

The Watergate scandal in the US heightened distrust of lawyers (they were blamed for covering the wrongdoings), leading to a rise in legal self-help books and lawyer jokes. Persistent grievances include abuse of litigation, deceit, procrastination, and high fees. Studies suggest lawyers face high rates of depression and addiction due to public opinion and unmet ideals of justice.

For the more curious ones…

A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, solicitor, or legal executive — with each role having different functions and privileges.

Advocate: Represents clients in court, arguing their cases and presenting evidence. Think courtroom champion!

Attorney: A general term for a lawyer, often used in the US. Think "legal professional."

Barrister: In some countries like the UK, specializes in court appearances and advocacy. Think courtroom specialist.

Canon lawyer: Deals with legal matters within the Catholic Church, interpreting canon law. Think Church legal expert.

Civil law notary: Authenticates documents and performs legal formalities in certain civil law countries. Think official document handler.

Counsel: Provides legal advice and representation to a client, often behind the scenes. Think of a trusted legal advisor.

Solicitor: In some countries like the UK, handles legal matters outside of court, like drafting documents and offering guidance. Think legal paperwork guru.

Legal executive: Assists lawyers with research, document preparation, and other legal tasks. Think of a lawyer's right-hand person.

Remember, these are just simplified explanations. Each role has its own specific nuances and variations depending on the legal system and jurisdiction.

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Picture this: ages ago, in the cradle of civilization, someone discovered that by mixing flour with water and letting it sit, something extraordinary happened. The concoction bubbled and transformed, thanks to an unseen force – a tiny, living thing called yeast.

Back then, they probably didn't grasp the scientific intricacies behind it all. Instead, they marveled at the mystery and pure magic of the process. Fast forward through centuries of innovation, cultural exchange, and experimentation, and we've arrived at the bread we know today.

Let’s together take a journey through the surprising and extraordinary history of bread, where the simplest ingredients and a touch of patience weave a tale that spans civilizations and continents.

First thing firsts. Let’s quickly cover some basics.

Bread Types 101

Leavened bread uses rising agents like yeast, while unleavened bread does not employ such agents. A flatbread is a bread where the dough is rolled into a thin flat disc shape and then baked in an oven, fried in hot oil, grilled over hot coals etc. Most of the flatbreads are unleavened breads. Examples: Roti, Tortilla, Naan, Kulcha, Frybread. Some leavened flatbreads are Pita bread and Lavash.

Method of preparation in modern times

Unleavened Bread:

• Mix: Combine flour, water, and salt. Knead into dough.

• Flatten: Roll or press the dough into a thin, flat shape.

• Cook: Heat on a surface until cooked, without relying on rising agents.

  

Leavened Bread:

• Mix: Combine flour, water, yeast, and salt. Knead into dough.

• Rise: Let the dough rise due to yeast fermentation.

• Shape: Form the risen dough into desired shapes.

• Proof: Allow shaped dough to rise again.

• Bake: Place in the oven to cook, allowing yeast to expand the dough.

Both processes vary in rising and cooking techniques, resulting in distinct textures and flavors.

History

If you see the above the steps for making both types of bread, it is apparent that one important element of bread-making was the discovery of fire and the skill of controlling it. Archaeological evidence suggests that around 10,000 BCE, during the Neolithic era, humans began experimenting with grinding grains and mixing the resulting flour with water. The resulting paste was likely cooked on hot stones, creating a rudimentary form of flatbread.

Archaeologists have uncovered remnants of charred grains and grinding stones in various Neolithic sites, suggesting that our ancestors were experimenting with different grain-based foods.

As agricultural practices advanced, so did the methods of bread production. In ancient Egypt around 3000 BCE, evidence of leavened bread emerges. The Egyptians discovered the fermentation process, allowing dough to rise naturally. Yeast, a key ingredient in leavening, was likely present in the environment or introduced unintentionally, kickstarting a crucial development in breadmaking.

The most common source of leavening in antiquity was to retain a piece of dough (with sugar and water in) from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter. This is similar to how curd is made in many homes today. Some historians suggest the usage of foam from the top of beer, wine and other fermented drinks to produce a lighter bread might have led to the accidental discovery of leavening process.

The Greeks and Romans further refined bread production techniques. The Roman Empire, in particular, had public bakeries, and various types of bread became a dietary staple for both the wealthy and the common people.

The Spread of Breadmaking: A Culinary Renaissance

From Egypt, the art of breadmaking spread throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, adapting to local ingredients and culinary traditions. The Romans, renowned for their engineering prowess, developed water-powered mills and ovens, further refining the breadmaking process.

In Europe, different bread varieties emerged, each reflecting the region's unique grains and cultural influences. In the Middle Ages, sourdough bread became popular in Northern Europe, while sourdough and flatbreads coexisted in the Mediterranean.

In medieval times, a trencher was a bread "plate" used to hold food. It was typically stale bread or a flat loaf that served as both a dish and an edible base for meals, absorbing juices and sauces. After use, these bread trenchers were often given to the poor or animals to minimize food waste.

As it is often seen, especially with food items, with rise in popularity bad elements start coming in play. From the late 18th century to the end of the 19th century, bread sold in England and the United States was often adulterated with hazardous materials, including chalk, sawdust, alum, plaster, clay and ammonium carbonate. This prompted a series of food adulteration acts across Britain and other parts of the world.

Industrialization

Slicing it

Otto Frederick Rohwedder, hailing from Iowa in the United States, created the initial machine for slicing single loaves of bread. Interestingly, Rohwedder didn't come from the bread-making industry; he was a jeweler who owned three jewelry stores.

Despite his unconventional background, Rohwedder believed in inventing a bread slicing machine and sold his jewelry stores to finance its development and production.

Unfortunately, a fire in 1917 destroyed both his prototype and blueprints, causing a setback that delayed bringing the bread slicer to the market. However, in 1927, Rohwedder succeeded in designing a machine capable of not just slicing bread but also wrapping it.

As commercially sliced bread resulted in uniform and somewhat thinner slices, people ate more slices of bread at a time. They also ate bread more frequently, because of the ease of getting and eating another piece of bread. This increased consumption of bread and, in turn, increased consumption of spreads, such as jam, to put on the bread.

Within 6 years, by 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the US was pre-sliced, leading to the popular idiom "greatest thing since sliced bread" — a common phrase used to praise an invention or development.

Chorleywood bread process

The Chorleywood bread process (CBP) is a technique that streamlines dough production for fast yeasted bread, resulting in a softer, fluffier loaf. Unlike traditional methods, CBP involves increased yeast, added fats, chemicals, and high-speed mixing, allowing the use of lower-protein wheat and shorter bread-making times. The system being able to produce a loaf of bread from flour to sliced and packaged form in about three and a half hours.

Created by Bill Collins, George Elton, and Norman Chamberlain at the British Baking Industries Research Association in Chorleywood in 1961, this process dominated bread production in the United Kingdom. As of 2009, 80% of bread made in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and India, used the process. accounting for 80% of bread by 2009.

I hope just like the previous article on history of coffee, this article also took you on an interesting journey through time. This humble loaf, born from the humblest of beginnings, has transcended time and borders. It's not just a mere staple. It's a symbol of sustenance, community, and the incredible ingenuity of humankind.

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Now, I agree, that not all of you are coffee aficionados or coffee experts. So, throughout the article, I will keep dropping various Coffee 101s wherever necessary. So just take a cup of your favorite coffee and let’s begin the journey!

Legends and stories

The origin and spread of Coffee across different regions involve many stories and events — many of which are hard to verify if it really happened. In history, a term used for them is apocryphal which goes by the meaning “of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true”.

With that said, we can always understand that while the stories may get exaggerated, and modified over hundreds of years, the core of the story has a much higher chance of being true. Let’s consider 5 famous stories related to origin and growth of coffee.

Kaldi and the Dancing Goats (Ethiopia)

Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder from the Kingdom of Kaffa, stumbled upon coffee when he saw his goats get lively from eating red berries. Intrigued, he tried them himself and felt the same effect. He brought the berries to a monk who, fearing the "Devil's work," tossed them into a fire. As they burned, an enticing aroma filled the room.

The head monk, curious, had the embers removed and hot water poured over them. When they drank the brew, they found it peaceful and invigorating, enhancing their alertness for important discussions. The monk shared this revelation with others, and word of the energizing berries spread.

Many etymologists believe the word “Coffee” came from the Kingdom “Kaffa” from which the goat herder Kaldi was from. In current times, there are many coffee chains using the name “Kaldi” and the image of a goat in their logos.

Sheikh Omar and the Brewed Coffee (Yemen)

In the ancient tale from the Abd-Al-Kadir manuscript, a man named Omar, known for his healing prayers, was banished from Mecca to a desert cave near Ousab City. Hungry, he ate bitter berries but found them unpleasant.

He tried roasting the berries to make them better but they became too hard. Then, he boiled them, and a fragrant brown liquid resulted. After drinking it, Omar felt better and survived for days. When Mecca heard about this "miracle drink," they asked him to come back, and he later became a saint.

Viennese Coffee Beans Saved from the Siege (Austria)

According to the tale, in 1683, the Polish-Habsburg army, which defeated the Ottoman army and ended the second Turkish siege of Vienna, found some sacks of dry, dark brown beans left by the retreating enemy. The Polish king, Jan III Sobieski, didn't know their value and gave these seemingly useless beans to an officer named Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki.

Kulczycki, who had learned about coffee during his time in Turkish captivity, recognized their worth and used these beans to start the first coffee house in Vienna — The Blue Bottle Coffee House. Not only this, Kulczycki is often credited with adapting coffee to European tastes by adding milk and sugar to the otherwise strong, bitter Turkish drink.

Baba Budan smuggles coffee beans (India)

In the 17th century, Baba Budan, a revered Sufi saint in Karnataka, India, introduced coffee to the region. While on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he discovered the wonders of coffee and decided to grow it back home. In those days coffee was exported to other parts of the world in roasted or baked form so that no one could grow their own and were forced to buy from the Yemenis.

So, Budan secretly carried seven coffee beans from the Yemeni port of Mocha hidden in his beard. Upon returning to India, he planted these beans on the Chandradrona hills in the Chikkamagaluru district, which was later named after him as Baba Budangiri. His tomb can be visited there today.

Coffee reaches America

In 1723, naval officer Gabriel de Clieu obtained a seedling from this plant. Despite a challenging journey with bad weather, a saboteur, and a pirate attack, he safely transported it to Martinique (a Caribbean island). The seedling not only survived but also led to the growth of over 18 million coffee trees on Martinique in the next 50 years. Remarkably, this seedling became the parent of all coffee trees in the Caribbean, South, and Central America.

On the other hand, the famous Brazilian coffee owes its origins to Francisco de Mello Palheta. Sent by the emperor to French Guiana for coffee seedlings, the French were initially reluctant to share. However, the French Governor's wife, enchanted by his charm and good looks, gave him a bouquet of flowers with hidden coffee seeds, kickstarting a billion-dollar industry.

So where does coffee come from?

With so many stories around the origin of coffee, it is very hard to pinpoint one location or one person for this. But overall it is safe to say that origins happened around the Red Sea. Ethiopia and Yemen would be safe bets to give the “origins of coffee” tag with the Arabs spreading it (unwillingly sometimes) all around the world.

Coffee Beans

Arabica and Robusta coffee species are the two most popular coffee varieties in the world, with Arabica being the dominant cultivar, representing about 60% of global production, and Robusta taking the remaining 40% share.

Arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to have been cultivated with origins in Southern Ethiopia and Yemen. It was the Arabica coffee beans, that was brought to India by Baba Budan which we discussed above. Robusta coffee is native to West and Central Africa but in recent years, Vietnam, where it was introduced by the French, has become its world's largest exporter accounting for over 40% of the total production.

Arabica beans are believed to have a smoother taste with more acidity and a richer flavor, they are often considered superior. Robusta beans, on the other hand, have low acidity and high bitterness, often with a distinct woody and nutty taste. The high bitterness comes from the fact that Robusta beans have almost twice the caffeine amount as Arabica and are often used in espresso blends and instant coffee, where a more robust and caffeine-rich flavor is desired.

Instant Coffee

How Instant Coffee is produced from Coffee?

Roast the green coffee beans » Ground them finely » Make a concentrate solution using pressurized hot water » dry the water to get Instant coffee powder.

Instant coffee has a history with various inventors and developments. In 1890, David Strang of New Zealand patented "Dry Hot-Air" instant coffee as Strang's Coffee. Satori Kato introduced powdered coffee in 1901, and George Constant Louis Washington commercialized his process in 1910.

In 1938, Nescafé launched an advanced coffee refining process and introduced Nescafé, pioneering the soluble coffee industry. During World War II, Instant coffee gained popularity among troops for its convenience.

The development of new technologies and methods for vacuum freezing of coffee concentrate fuelled its spread, with close to 50% of the world's green coffee being used to produce instant coffee in current times

Different types of coffee

Espresso

Espresso, a concentrated coffee beverage, originated in Italy in the late 19th century. The first espresso machine was patented in 1884. Espresso is made by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee beans, producing a strong and rich coffee with a layer of crema on top.

Cappuccino

Cappuccino also traces its roots to Italy. It was named after the Capuchin friars (a type of Christian monks) due to the color resemblance of their distinctive brown hooded robes. Cappuccino is made by combining equal parts of espresso, steamed milk, and milk froth, creating a balanced and creamy coffee drink.

Americano

Caffè Americano specifically is Italian for 'American coffee'. The Americano has a simple history—during World War II, American soldiers stationed in Italy diluted espresso with hot water to mimic their milder filter coffee. This gave rise to the Americano, a diluted coffee with a taste closer to traditional American drip coffee.

Frappe

In 1957, in Thessaloniki (a city in Greece), Dimitris Vakondios, a Nescafe representative, invented the frappé through experimentation by making a blend of instant coffee, sugar, water, and ice, which was shaken to create a frothy and refreshing coffee drink. The name frappé comes from French, where it describes drinks chilled with ice. In the 1950s, a Greek coffee brand marketed a

Mocha

The name "mocha" comes from the Yemeni port of Mokha. When coffee arrived in Europe, they called coffee from Arabia "Mocha," although it often included beans from different places. The mocha drink, a mix of coffee and chocolate, began in Italy in the 17th century. It started being called "mocha" in the 20th century, and recipes combining coffee and chocolate became popular.

Dalgona

Dalgona coffee gained popularity in South Korea and worldwide in 2020. It's made by whipping instant coffee, sugar, and hot water into a frothy topping that's spooned over milk. This viral coffee trend was named after a Korean sponge toffee candy.

Coffee bans

Throughout history, coffee faced some curious bans:

Mecca (1511): Coffee was banned as it was thought to encourage radical thinking and hanging out, which the governor believed might unite his opposition. Some Sufi sects used it at funerals to stay awake during prayers.

Italy (16th century): Initially labeled Satanic by clergymen in Europe, coffee's fate changed when Pope Clement VIII tasted it, found it delicious, and even joked that it should be baptized. This papal blessing led to the rapid spread of coffeehouses.

Constantinople (1623): After Murad IV's rise to the Ottoman throne, he banned coffee and introduced penalties. First-time offenders received a beating, while those caught with coffee a second time were sewn into leather bags and thrown into the Bosporus (a water strait in Istanbul).

Sweden (1746): Sweden banned coffee, along with "coffee paraphernalia." King Gustav III even had convicted murderers drink coffee while doctors monitored how long it took to kill them, an unusual experiment (and funny!).

Prussia (1777): Frederick the Great of Prussia declared beer's superiority over coffee, claiming that coffee interfered with beer consumption. He believed that promoting breakfast beer drinking was a good idea because "His Majesty was brought up on beer."

Coffee chains and their origins

Starbucks

Starbucks originated in Seattle, Washington, in 1971. It was founded by three partners Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker who first met as students at the University of San Francisco and were inspired by Italian coffee traditions. Originally, it began as a single store selling coffee beans and equipment. The brand expanded significantly in the 1980s under Howard Schultz's leadership, transitioning from a coffee retailer to a global coffeehouse chain.

Dunkin' (formerly Dunkin' Donuts)

Dunkin' Donuts, now Dunkin', began in 1950 as a donut and coffee shop in Quincy, Massachusetts. Known for its fast and affordable coffee and donuts, it became popular across the United States. The brand expanded internationally, offering a variety of coffee drinks and snacks.

Tim Hortons

Founded in 1964 by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton and Ron Joyce in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Tim Hortons started as a small coffee and donut shop. It quickly became a Canadian favorite and a national institution. Tim Hortons offers coffee, sandwiches, and baked goods, with a strong presence across Canada and international locations.

Costa Coffee

Costa Coffee, a British chain, was established in London in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa. Initially a wholesale operation, it opened its first store and expanded rapidly. Costa Coffee became a leading coffee brand in the UK and internationally, known for its diverse coffee offerings.

Café Coffee Day

Café Coffee Day (CCD) was founded in 1996 in Bangalore, India, by V.G. Siddhartha. As a pioneer in India's coffee cafe culture, it provided a space for coffee enthusiasts. CCD grew to become one of the largest coffee chains in India, with numerous outlets across the country.

The Three Waves of Coffee

The three waves of coffee represent distinct periods in the development and appreciation of coffee culture:

First Wave (1800s-1960s)

This wave focused on introducing coffee as a convenient, low-priced, mass-produced product for daily consumption. It saw the rise of canned coffee, instant coffee, and coffee brands like Folgers.

The emphasis was on making coffee accessible and easy to prepare at home. In the first wave of coffee, coffee consumers generally did not differentiate by origin or beverage type.

Second Wave (1960s-2000s)

The second wave of coffee introduced the concept of different origin countries to coffee consumption, beyond a generic cup of coffee. It introduced the idea of "gourmet" coffee and popularized espresso-based beverages like cappuccinos and lattes. Brands like Starbucks emerged during this period, emphasizing the coffee experience and quality.

Third Wave (2000s-Present)

The third wave represents a movement that goes beyond just coffee as a beverage and brings the concept of specialty coffee. Roasters and baristas treat coffee as an artisanal product, akin to wine, and aim to highlight the intrinsic qualities of the beans. Direct trade, sustainability, and a focus on small-batch, specialty coffee are key elements of this wave.

World’s most expensive coffee

Black Ivory Coffee

Black Ivory Coffee is a rare and unique coffee made from Thai Arabica beans that have been eaten and naturally processed by elephants. The elephants consume the coffee cherries, and enzymes in their digestive system break down the cherries' proteins. The beans are then collected from the elephant's dung, cleaned, roasted, and brewed.

Kopi Luwak Coffee

Kopi Luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a coffee made from beans that have been eaten and then excreted by civet cats. The cats eat ripe coffee cherries, and the beans pass through their digestive systems. Enzymes in the cat's stomach alter the beans' composition. After being collected from the cat's feces, the beans are cleaned, roasted, and brewed.

Both of these coffees are some of the most expensive coffee products in the world with prices ranging from $1000-$2000 per kilogram of coffee beans.

Latte Art

Latte art, the practice of creating decorative patterns on coffee, developed independently in different countries after espresso and microfoam were introduced. In the United States, it gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, thanks to coffee experts like David Schomer.

He established the heart pattern by 1989 and the rosette pattern in 1992 after seeing it in an Italian café. Simultaneously, in Italy, Luigi Lupi of Caffe Musetti played a role in popularizing latte art through instructional videos. Lupi and Schomer later collaborated to improve their techniques.

So, the history of coffee is a captivating journey filled with legendary tales, a diverse array of beans, and a profound impact on global culture. From its origins in Ethiopia to its modern-day evolution, coffee remains a beloved and cherished beverage, connecting people from all walks of life through the shared love for this aromatic drink.

I hope at least some snippets of this article come to your mind when you have your next coffee drink!

Why move beyond Airships?

Airships were indeed a decent means of transportation. Although nowadays it is used only for recreational purposes, the airships were used in both WWI and WWII. These steerable balloons posed a few limitations like having limited payload capacity and accommodating only a few dozen passengers at most.

Their endurance typically ranged from a few hours to a day. This coupled with their slow speeds, vulnerability, and extended start-up times, generated the necessity for the invention of something better.

Now, remember that both of these aviation wonders — balloons, and airships used the principle of buoyancy to fly. The term "lighter-than-air" refers to these aircraft because their ability to float and stay aloft is made possible by using gases that are less dense than the air they displace, resulting in an upward buoyant force. They didn’t “generate” lift, unlike kites.

Heavier-than-air Aircraft

While the format of the article might suggest that the development of heavier-than-air aircraft came after the lighter-than-air aircraft, that’s not the case. A lot of work for these heavier machines was going on in parallel. In fact, the first man-made aircraft — kite, was indeed a heavier-than-air aircraft that flew by generating lift.

The problem with Kites was that it needed high wind speed to work and the only way to make it powerful enough to carry a man was to use a lot of them together (or use very large ones).

The fundamental need to have sufficient relative wind velocity (and keeping overall weight low) was the hindrance that had to be solved. Kites used high wind speed to solve this. And to overcome its limitations humans started working on increasing the speed of the craft (or rotor or wings) relative to still air.

Sir George Cayley helps us in Gliding!

In 1799, Sir George Cayley introduced the idea of a modern airplane. He envisioned it as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate parts for lift, propulsion, and control. Cayley began creating and testing models of fixed-wing aircraft in 1803.

Cayley laid out the principles of heavier-than-air flight, was one of the first to scientifically understand the principles of bird flight and also gave the important principles of power-to-weight ratio in sustaining flight. He was the first to present and explain the need for balancing four vector forces that influence an aircraft: thrust, lift, drag and weight.

He defined the modern aeroplane configuration comprising a fixed-wing, fuselage (airplane’s main body section that holds crew, passengers, or cargo) and tail assembly. If this was not enough, he also demonstrated manned, gliding flight.

The model glider successfully flown by Cayley in 1804 had the layout of a modern aircraft, with a kite-shaped wing towards the front and an adjustable tailplane at the back consisting of horizontal stabilisers and a vertical fin. A movable weight allowed adjustment of the model's centre of gravity.

In 1848, Cayley constructed a glider in the form of a triplane large and safe enough to carry a child. A local boy was chosen but his name is not known. (Unlucky boy… could’ve been part of history books!)

He went on to publish in 1852 the design for a full-size manned glider or "governable parachute" to be launched from a balloon and then to construct a version capable of launching from the top of a hill, which carried the first adult human in 1853.

For all his important contributions, Sir George Cayley is often referred to as the father of airplane.

In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first flight higher than his point of departure, by having his glider "L'Albatros artificiel" pulled by a horse on a beach. He reportedly achieved a height of 100 meters, over a distance of 200 meters.

First controlled flights by John J. Montgomery

In 1884, an American named John J. Montgomery conducted controlled flights in a glider as part of a series of gliders he built between 1883 and 1886. Montgomery devised different control methods for his gliders, including weight shifting for roll and an elevator for pitch. Subsequent designs used hinged, pilot-operated trailing edge flaps on the wings (1885–1886) for roll control, and later, full wing warping systems for roll (1903–1905) and for both pitch and roll (1911).

Unfortunately, in 1911, while attempting a low-speed landing of the "Evergreen" glider, Montgomery encountered turbulence, resulting in a stall (an aerodynamic condition that leads to sudden reduction in lift force), that led to a fatal crash and his subsequent death from injuries at the scene.

Otto Lilienthal: The Glider King

Otto Lilienthal, known as the "Glider King," made significant contributions to aviation history. In 1884, he expanded on earlier research and published the influential work "Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation."

He also produced a series of hang gliders, including bat-wing, monoplane and biplane forms, making his firm the Maschinenfabrik Otto Lilienthal the first air plane production company in the world.

Starting in 1891, he became the first to routinely make controlled untethered glides and the first to be photographed in flight, marking the beginning of human flight. His meticulous documentation of his work and over 2,000 glides earned him the titles "father of aviation" and "father of flight."

Tragically, similar to John Montgomery, he passed away in 1896 due to injuries from a glider crash.

Race to first powered-controlled-manned flight.

From flying kites to carrying oneself on slow drifting balloons to controlled airships to faster-and-controlled gliders humanity had made a great progress already.

Just one last piece of the puzzle had to be solved.

Most of the gliders were carried forward either on some fast-moving animal like horse or the pilot rode down the hill gaining velocity and then becoming airborne. This wasn’t just the practical way going forward.

We needed a machine that could power itself, generate lift sufficient enough to carry a man. Just one man was enough for now! And yes, the flight should be controllable.

While many people have contributed and made serious efforts in solving this problem, we will discuss the efforts of two great pioneers of airplane.

Samuel Pierpont Langley

Samuel Pierpont Langley was an American aviation pioneer. His experiments in aerodynamics were documented in "Experiments in Aerodynamics” published in 1891.

On 6 May, 1896, Langley's Aerodrome No. 5 achieved the first sustained flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven heavier-than-air craft of significant size, launching from a houseboat on the Potomac River. Two flights were made that afternoon, one of 1,005 metres and a second of 700 metres, at a speed of approximately 40 km/h.

On both occasions, the aircraft landed in the water as planned, because, in order to save weight, it was not equipped with landing gear. Subsequent successful flights, including one witnessed by Alexander Graham Bell, followed.

Langley sought funding for a full-scale, human-carrying version of his designs, and received $50,000 from the U.S. government and another $20,000 from the Smithsonian Institution. He designed a full-size man carrying airplane and named it as Aerodrome A. For testing he manufactured a one-fourth scaled down version of Aerodrome and flew it twice in 1901 and 1903. Despite initial successes, challenges emerged.

While the tests with the scaled down version went great, the problem came in scaling up. The full-scale version when coupled with a powerful engine ended up being very fragile structurally and both of its two launches in late 1903 ended with the Aerodrome immediately crashing into the water and the pilot being rescued each time.

Important to consider the dates of the two launches: October 7 and December 8, 1903. We will come back to this in a moment.

Langley's attempts to gain further funding failed, and his efforts ended.

Wright Brothers: Showing how it is done!

Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, famously referred as the Wright Brothers were American aviation pioneers differentiated their work from contemporaries by being more methodical and experimental in their approach. While others focused on making new iterations of airplanes as soon as possible, the Wright brothers made dedicated efforts in obtaining empirical data, doing experiments, finding root causes of failures and then doing modifications in their flight attempts.

This is apparent when you consider the fact that the Wrights constructed their own wind tunnel and created a number of sophisticated devices to measure lift and drag on the 200 wing designs they tested. This was done after realising that the gliders built by them were not generating enough lift (as per their calculations). Their first full-size glider, launched in 1900, had only about half the lift they anticipated. Their second glider, built the following year, performed even more poorly.

They invented wing-warping for roll control, wooden propellers, low-powered internal combustion engine, and laid a great emphasis on not leading safety to chance. Combing all of these they invented and built the Wright Flyer and made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft—an airplane—on December 17, 1903. This was just 9 days after Langleys second and last attempted flight.

• First Flight (Wilbur Wright): Wilbur won the coin toss and piloted the first attempt on 14th December, 1903. The aircraft left the rail but stalled after covering 32 meters in 3.5 seconds, sustaining minor damage.

• First Successful Flight (Orville Wright): After three days of repairs, Orville took the controls on December 17. Facing wind speeds exceeding 20 mph, the aircraft was positioned into the wind. Orville's flight lasted 12 seconds, covering 37 meters.

  

• Series of Flights: The Wrights took turns flying, completing four low-altitude flights that day. The flights were essentially straight with no attempts at turning. The last flight, piloted by Wilbur, covered 260 meters in 59 seconds, surpassing the previous shorter flights.

This initial flight would set in motion an era of rapid advancements, driven in part by the crucible of two world wars, ultimately transforming airplanes into the incredibly safe and efficient mode of travel that we experience today. As we have seen in the article, many brave souls dedicated their lives and, in some cases, paid the ultimate price in pursuit of this lofty vision, helping make airplanes one of the safest modes of travel.

So, I hope when you travel next time by flight, may you carry with you a piece of this captivating tale of aviation's evolution.

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⌛🪶 Quick History Bites ⌛🪶

The world's first photograph, taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, required an exposure time of 8 hours.

Who invented the airplane? For many people, the only name that comes to mind when asked this question is of the Wright Brothers. Their work is truly legendary but what if I told you that thousands of bones have been broken, and hundreds of people have laid down their lives, just to enable humanity — you and me, to fly.

In this article, we will go through the complete evolution of airplanes and learn how we humans satisfied our deep desire to fly.

Early Times

Kites — the first man-made aircraft!

The kite, believed to have been invented by Chinese philosophers Mozi and Lu Ban in the 5th century BCE, used readily available materials like silk fabric, high-tensile-strength silk lines, and resilient bamboo frames. Paper kites emerged around 549 CE and were used for various purposes, including measuring distances, wind testing, signaling, and military communication. These early Chinese kites were often rectangular, flat, and decorated with mythological motifs, while some were equipped with strings and whistles for musical sounds during flight.

In ancient China, man-carrying kites — a kite designed to lift a person from the ground, served dual roles in civil and military contexts and were even used as a form of punishment. For instance, the Book of Sui, dating back to 636 CE, mentions that Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi enforced executions by compelling prisoners to 'fly' using bamboo mats.

In one incident many prisoners were forced by the emperor to launch themselves from the 33-meter-tall Phoenix Tower using kites. Yuan Huangtou was the sole person to make it to the Purple Way, a 2.5 km distance from the tower — making him the first person to take off from a tower using a man-carrying kite and land alive.

He was later starved to death in prison. (oops!)

Copter and Lantern

Bamboo-copter is a toy helicopter rotor that flies up when its shaft is rapidly spun. This helicopter-like top originated in Jin Dynasty China around 320 CE. Although there are few accounts stating its existence from 400 BCE.

Hot-air Balloons: The Chinese have long known that hot air ascends and used this concept in creating sky lanterns, and small paper balloons with lamps inside. These lanterns are launched for joy and during festivals, with records of their use dating back to the 3rd century BC in China. General Zhuge Liang is credited with their military use, employing them to intimidate and scare enemy forces.

It is called as Kongming lantern even today, for the honorific title Kongming given to General Zhuge Liang.

Trying to be a bird

Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887 CE), from Spain, made a jump covering his body with vulture feathers and attaching two wings to his arms. Firnas flew some distance before landing with some injuries to his back.

Although not a very successful flight, his bold attempt got a crater on the moon, one of the bridges in Spain, and the British one-plane airline, Firnas Airways, all named after him.

In the 11th century CE, a man named Jauhari tried to fly using a contraption from the roof of a mosque in Nishapur, Iran but tragically fell to his death. A few years later, Eilmer of Malmesbury built a wooden glider and, from a bell tower, glided a distance of 200 meters.

In the late 12th century CE, at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, attempted to fly by jumping off one of the central pillars with a winged device but met a similar tragic fate, falling to their death.

Modern Times

Understanding the theory first!

Soon humans realized that “trying to be a bird” was not a great idea. Spending a good number of hours learning the science and reason behind why and how things fly would be a better way to go forward, instead.

In 1485, Leonardo da Vinci started studying how birds fly. He realized that people are too heavy and not strong enough to fly with wings attached to their arms. He wrote about and sketched many designs for flying machines and mechanisms, fixed-wing gliders, parachutes, and man-powered rotorcraft and ornithopters.

(Ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings.)

In 1488, Leonardo sketched a hang glider design where the inner parts of the wings are fixed, and there are control surfaces towards the tips, mimicking the gliding flight of birds. This design, unlike most of his other designs, was deemed flight-worthy in principle, but he himself never flew in such a craft.

Leonardo's work remained unknown until 1797, and so had no influence on developments over the next three hundred years.

In 1643, Torricelli's invention of the barometer, which measures atmospheric pressure, led to advancements in meteorology and the understanding of air pressure. This, in turn, indirectly contributed to the scientific knowledge that would later play a role in the development of aviation, particularly in understanding the properties of air and its effects on flight.

In 1670, Francesco Lana de Terzi, an Italian Jesuit priest and scientist wrote a treatise titled "Prodromo," in which he described a design for an airship. In his design, there was a main mast with a sail, along with four additional masts that had lightweight copper foil spheres affixed to them. By removing the air from these spheres, creating a vacuum inside, they would become lighter than the air around them, generating lift. While his idea was visionary, it was never built or realized in practice.

Isaac Newton arrives!

In 1687, Isaac Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, often referred to as simply the Principia, the basis of classical physics. In Book 2, he presented the theoretical derivation of the essence of the drag equation. The different sections of Book 2 largely dealt with motion through resisting mediums.

Here, Newton compared the resistance offered by a medium against the motions of globes with different properties (material, weight, size). He also derived rules to determine the speed of waves in fluids and related them to density and condensation.

Let’s go Ballooning!

In 1709, Portuguese Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão showed King John V of Portugal a working model of a hot-air balloon made from paper with a fire hanging underneath it. The people in the room got concerned that it might burn the curtains, so they quickly brought it down. It is the first known demonstration of a practical lighter-than-air craft.

Montgolfier Brothers

The French brothers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier developed a hot-air balloon in France, and demonstrated it publicly on June 4, 1783, making an unmanned flight lasting 10 minutes.

Encouraged by the success of the first flight, on 19 September 1783, the Montgolfier brothers flew the Aérostat Réveillon with the first living beings in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. The sheep was believed to approximate human physiology(!) and the rooster was included as a control bird that didn’t fly at high altitudes.

Moving step by step, the next event was a tethered balloon flight. Étienne Montgolfier was the first human to lift off the Earth in a balloon, making a tethered test flight on 19 October 1783.

Just a few days later, on 21 November 1783, the first free flight by humans was made by Pilâtre de Rozier, together with an army officer, the Marquis d'Arlandes. They flew approximately 910 meters over Paris, covering a distance of nine kilometers. Even after landing enough fuel remained on board at the end of the flight to have allowed the balloon to fly four to five times as far.

Hydrogen Balloon

Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers flew the world's first hydrogen balloon on 27 August 1783, in Paris. The balloon was a 35-cubic-meter sphere of rubberized silk and was only capable of lifting about 9 kg. The balloon flew for 45 minutes and landed 21 kilometers away in the village of Gonesse, it was destroyed by terrified local peasants with forks and knives.

Just a few days later, on December 1, 1783, Charles and the Robert brothers conducted the launch of a new, manned hydrogen balloon in Paris. Jacques Charles served as the pilot alongside Nicolas-Louis Robert as the co-pilot of the 380-cubic-meter hydrogen-filled balloon.

The balloon's envelope had a hydrogen release valve and was draped with a net that held the basket beneath it. (Check the image below). They rose to an altitude of approximately 550 meters and, after a 125-minute journey, touched down in Nesles-la-Vallée at sunset, having covered a distance of 36 kilometers.

All these developments led to an increase in the popularity of balloon flights. It became a popular sport in the 19th century and also increased the man’s understanding of flight.

Airships — control and power

Airships are balloons that are capable of being steered, guided, or directed. These were the first powered and controlled aircraft. The first powered, controlled, sustained lighter-than-air flight is believed to have taken place in 1852 when Henri Giffard flew 24 km in France, with a steam engine-driven craft.

The Giffard airship had a stretched-out envelope filled with hydrogen, narrowing to a point at both ends. Hanging from this was a lengthy structure with a triangular rudder resembling a sail at the rear, and beneath it, there was a platform for the pilot and a steam engine. The engine, however, was not sufficiently powerful to allow Giffard to fly against the wind to make a return journey. Because of this, the pilot was not able to reach back to the starting point.

The limitation of the above was solved by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs, with their La France (airship) in 1884. It marked the first instance of a fully controllable free flight and accomplished the inaugural round trip with a landing at the departure location. During its seven journeys in 1884 and 1885, the La France airship successfully returned to its initial point of departure on five occasions.

The period from the 1880s to 1910s saw tremendous improvements in the capabilities of airships. From the ability to carry cargo to the increase in the number of passengers and faster starting procedures, all got dramatic improvements. The simultaneous development of powerful internal combustion engines also acted as a great catalyst to the development of the Airships.

Although, the airships played their roles in both the world wars, their popularity (and development) got reduced after airplanes — the heavier-than-air machines, came into the picture, about which, we will discuss in our next article.

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Unless you have been living inside a cave, I am pretty sure you have come across the word Cryptocurrency. Either in the news, on social media, or with your enthusiastic crypto trader friend. Many people find it hard to understand how this currency works or what gives it legitimacy. I will cover all these in today’s article.

Today’s article is divided into two parts:

1. A layman's explanation of what cryptocurrency is?

2. How did this new currency originate?

Let’s begin!

Understanding Cryptocurrency

Game Time

Consider yourself sitting in a classroom with 30 other students. I, get the role of the teacher and ask all of you a question.

Find a unique prime number that ends in “99”.

Anyone who finds a number will be given a “Superman” card.

You start checking primes on paper. 17, 19, 23…71, 73, 79….173, 179, 181

Suddenly your friend Alex shouts.

199!!

I check the solution. Yes, it is a prime number ending in 99. Alex gets the Superman card as the reward.

I write the name Alex and the number 199 on the blackboard.

Alex: 99

The game continues.

Finding the next number becomes tougher as more number has to be checked.

Soon two more solutions are discovered.

499, 599!

Two more names and numbers go on the board.

Alex: 99
Mohan: 499
Jenny: 599

3 cards have been distributed in 30 minutes of time. The fourth solution is taking incredibly long! Finally, after 1 hour, you find out 1499.

You win the card and your name goes on the board.

Alex: 99 
Mohan: 499 
Jenny: 599
You: 1499

Now I add in another rule.

The number has to be less than 10 million.

This rule limits the number of solutions. Now everyone knows that there are only a limited number of solutions that exist. Hence, a limited number of rewards will be given.

The number of solutions is still high, but with the discovery of one solution, finding the next one becomes difficult.

After 3 hours of working, we decide to continue the game for the next day.

While going to your home, you hear a conversation going on between Alex and another friend of yours Rohan.

Rohan: Hey, Alex! Congrats on getting the Superman card! Would you be willing to give me that card if I offered you a box of chocolates?

Alex: Umm… yeah I am not a big fan of Superman, plus I got that number very easily. So yeah deal!

Now, you are thinking. Wow! Just for one Superman card, he got a box of chocolates! I must work hard to win more cards tomorrow.

The next day the game continues and after 3 hours, 15 more people have won the cards. Among the winners (and non-winners), some are like Alex — not a big fan of Superman, and some are like Rohan.

The news of the Superman card being exchanged for a chocolate box spreads.

One of the winners is willing to exchange his card. But not for the chocolate box. For doing his geography homework!

Another winner decides he will exchange his card if someone pays him $20.

And the trades start happening.

Two important things have happened here—

1. A box of chocolate = Geography homework = $20 = A superman card.

2. There exist only two ways to get a Superman card:

   1. Find a winning number to the problem

   2. Use money/service/product to exchange with someone else.

Next, consider what will happen when a person outside your classroom comes to know about all of this and how important this Superman card is for you people.

She may plan to purchase a card from one of you in order to either sell the same card in the future at a higher price to another friend of yours (when finding a new number becomes super tough) OR exchange the card for doing some of her house errands.

Suddenly the “Superman card” becomes a legitimate and valuable tool of use.

The above may seem similar to the “Tulip Mania” where Tulip buds were being exchanged for money. But, there are four important conceptual differences that make cryptocurrency different and much better than Tulips.

Blockchain

Let’s consider the same classroom. Seeing the number of transactions of Superman cards going on among all the students I have decided to note down all the transactions on the blackboard. So, that no student can make an allegation of false transaction.

Let’s consider 3 transactions.

Transaction 1: Alex gave 5 cards to Jenny on 25th August 2023

I use TR for “transaction” and record this as—

TR0_ALEX_5_JENNY_25082023_TR1

Transaction 2: Mohan gives 3 cards to Daniel on 27th August 2023

TR1_MOHAN_3_DANIEL_27082023_TR2

Transaction 3: You give 1 card to Sam on 29th August 2023

TR2_YOU_1_SAM_29082023_TR3

Can you observe one interesting pattern in each of the recordings?

In each of the recordings, a snippet of the previous transaction has been added in the beginning. Each transaction is linked to the previous transaction. A series of such transactions (called blocks) makes a connected chain. And this is the fundamental concept of Blockchain.

Once a block is added to the blockchain, it is extremely difficult to alter any information within it without changing all subsequent blocks. This is because altering the information would change the block's data, which would require changing the data of all following blocks as well. This makes the blockchain resistant to tampering and ensures the integrity of the recorded data.

While in the above examples, you can easily figure out the names of the people who did the transaction and other details, in real blockchain this information is hashed — a term used in the crypto field that simply means taking a piece of information as an input and giving a string of numbers and alphabets as an output which follows specific properties.

Check the image below which shows how simple texts (left) as input will generate a completely different output (right), also called as a digest.

The hashing and linking bring security to the entire chain. It makes it extremely difficult for anyone to tamper with. Further, as more and more blocks are added, the chain only becomes stronger.

Counterfeiting and Scarcity

In the classroom game, one of the students John decides to print exact-looking Superman cards for himself.

He comes to the class the next day with 100s of Superman cards in his bag. Everyone gets skeptical and asks me — the teacher, the central authority, how did John get so many cards in one day.

I tell everyone to calm down. Just check the blackboard!

There are only two ways to get the Superman cards. Find a number solving the problem or exchange. Both of them are being recorded. And to no surprise, there is not a single transaction or record of John on the blackboard.

John is busted!

The system is intrinsically resistant to counterfeiting.

For any monetary system to work in place, or in fact, for anything to hold value, it should be extremely resistant to counterfeiting. Why?

Consider a recent example. A handwritten advertisement written by Apple Founder Steve Jobs for the Apple-1 Computer was recently sold at an auction for $175,759.

What if there existed 10,000 “exact” replicas of this handwritten note? Not photostat copies but exact counterfeit. Indistinguishable from the original. Will each of the 10,000 copies sell for that high price? Of course not. Further, what if it became very easy and publicly known how to make exact replicas of this note? It will lead to further commoditization of the handwritten note and it will be no different than purchasing a mass-produced printed photograph.

The same applies to the currency system. The scarcity and inability (or rather difficulty) to counterfeit are some of the strong contributors to what gives value to the currency. (We will talk about a third important contributor in a moment.)

Not a joke!

You can gauge the importance of this by noting that throughout history, strict laws have been created to prevent counterfeiting of the currency. Death penalty or exile has been very common across empires, as common punishment for counterfeiting.

In the 13th century, Mastro Adamo a counterfeiter of the Florentine fiorino, was punished with death by hanging. The English couple Thomas and Anne Rogers were convicted on 15 October 1690 for "Clipping 40 pieces of Silver". Thomas Rogers was hanged, drawn, and quartered while Anne Rogers was burnt alive. Evidence supplied by an informant led to the arrest of the last of the English Coiners "King" David Hartley, who was executed by hanging in 1770.

21 Million Bitcoins

In our classroom example, the number of solutions is limited by design. By design, we mean that the rule of the 10 million upper limit makes the total number of solutions possible “limited”. There cannot be infinite solutions. In the same fashion, the total number of bitcoins is limited to 21,000,000 in number by design. As of 2023, 19 million bitcoins have been mined.

This limit creates scarcity and when you add the feature of counterfeit-resistant, the entire system becomes valuable making both the Superman card as well as the cryptocurrency valuable.

Note: Bitcoin is one of the many different types of cryptocurrency. The most popular one.

Decentralization (I am fired!)

In the classroom game, I was the one who recorded all the transactions and rewarded the cards. But think of it. Do I really need to be there in the classroom?

Thinking along the same lines, all the students decide together to fire me. BUT they decide mutually that the same rules will be followed by everyone. The big blackboard, the recording system and the reward system will be maintained.

But I had all the Superman Cards, right?

The students decide that once anyone finds out the solution they will add a card number to that person's name. We don’t need physical cards anymore!

(This is exactly what the bank does when you get your salary. They “add numbers” to your account name (and remove from somewhere else)).

But I was the one who was recording on the blackboard!

Again the students together decide they ALL will maintain a copy of the blackboard with themselves. Plus, all the blackboard copies must look the same all the time. So, everyone will note the transactions and rewards at the same time. If someone tampers with her copy of the blackboard, it will be quickly cross-checked with the copies of others.

With all this system in place… BOOM! I have been fired! Now there is no central authority to control the game. The power rests on each and every one. The network.

Again when more people join the network the network becomes stronger and stronger.

Digitization: Let’s remove the physical blackboard

Unfortunately for me, the system designed by all my students is working smoothly after I have been fired. Now the students think of removing the physical blackboard and maintaining all the data of transactions on their personal iPads.

This speeds up the system, removes the inefficiencies, and makes it easy to search past transactions.

If you find the concept of digitization a bit difficult to grasp, consider the fact that in current times, coins and banknotes are much rarer than you think. More than 90% of all the money (~60 trillion) exists only on computer servers. When you do a bank transfer to your friend, the banking system (central authority) simply subtracts that amount from your account and adds the same to your friend’s account. There is no movement of physical notes or coins.

With cryptocurrency, the entire concept of physical notes and coins is removed. Everything is digitized.

But still, what exactly gives Bitcoins the “value”?

This is the final piece of the puzzle.

To understand what gives bitcoins or any cryptocurrency “value”, you need to understand what gives “any” currency its value.

The single-word answer is: Trust.

While the above classroom example and Superman cards may appear as a trivial thing, you may find it surprising to know that almost exact same thing was used by prisoners in the concentration camps. Instead of Superman cards, the item of exchange was a “Cigarette”.

A loaf of bread was 12 Cigarettes

A 300-gram package of margarine: 30 cigarettes

A watch: 80-200 cigarettes

A litre of alcohol: 400 cigarettes.

Even non-smoking prisoners for whom the intrinsic value of a cigarette was null, were willing to accept cigarettes in payment for goods/services.

Why? Why does someone value a cigarette, a gold coin, or a dollar bill?

Because my friends trust in its value. Because the shopkeeper from whom I buy rice and milk trusts in its value. Because my neighbors trust in its value. And my neighbors trust them because I trust them. We all trust in them because our government trusts in them and collects taxes in the form of them.

The Bitcoin or cryptocurrency gets its value from the trust of the people in the system. The features of decentralized, digitized, counterfeit-resistant, and limited by design are “trusted” to be “good” features. And this trust is what gives the cryptocurrency its value.

The Origin of Bitcoins

Early Times

In 1983, David Lee Chaum, came up with the idea of eCash — an anonymous cryptographic electronic money. In this system, the money was cryptographically signed by the bank and stored in a digital form.

However, similar to what happens to most radical ideas, the acceptance (trust?) in the initial days was low. Only one US bank the Mark Twain bank in Saint Louis, Missouri — implemented ecash, testing it as a micropayment system. After a three-year trial that signed up merely 5,000 customers, the system was dissolved in 1998 and DigiCash, the company Chaum started went bankrupt in the same year.

Bitcoin

The origins of Bitcoin can be traced back to a mysterious individual or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2008, Nakamoto released a whitepaper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," outlining the principles and mechanics of a novel digital currency. The whitepaper proposed a decentralized network powered by blockchain technology, aiming to eliminate the need for intermediaries like banks in financial transactions. This concept laid the foundation for the revolutionary cryptocurrency we know as Bitcoin.

On January 3, 2009, Nakamoto mined the first-ever block of the Bitcoin blockchain, known as the "genesis block." This block had a reward of 50 bitcoins.Embedded in the genesis block was the text:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

The text refers to a headline in The Times published on 3 January 2009. It is said that Nakamoto used this headline to provide a date stamp to the genesis block as well as make fun on the banking system.

The First Retail Transaction

Remember how in our classroom example one Superman card was exchanged for a box of chocolates? A similar thing happened in the history of Bitcoins.

On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to pay 10,000 Bitcoins for two delivered Papa John's pizzas. Organized on bitcointalk forum (similar to our classroom), Laszlo reached out for help saying "I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some leftover for the next day."

A British man took up Hanyecz's offer and bought the two pizzas for him in exchange for the 10,000 Bitcoins.

As of today, the value of those 10,000 Bitcoins (or of those 2 yummy pizza) is $260 Million! Remembering this event, May 22, is now celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Many organizations and clients slowly and steadily started accepting bitcoins. In October 2012, BitPay (a bitcoin payment service provider) reported having over 1,000 merchants accepting bitcoin under its payment processing service.

In November 2012, WordPress started accepting bitcoins.

In December 2014, Microsoft began to accept bitcoin to buy Xbox games and Windows software.

Altcoins

The success of Bitcoin spurred the creation of alternative cryptocurrencies, known as altcoins. These digital currencies sought to address the perceived limitations of Bitcoin and introduced various technical innovations.

Legality

With the increase in transactions and growth of the network, the number of countries recognizing Bitcoins or cryptocurrencies as a legitimate instrument of trade has increased over time.

Note: The above article is in no way an endorsement of bitcoins or any cryptocurrency. Do your own qualitative and quantitative research before you start your investment journey in Cryptocurrencies.

I hope this article gave you a good understanding of Bitcoins and cryptocurrency in general. Feel free to ask any questions related to this topic.

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Hello friends, many times when discussing the history of human works, I came across using terms like pre-history, ancient history, modern history, etc. To an unaware person, these terms might appear as generic terms in history. But as a member of Human Work History, I believe you are entitled to know these basics (and as a writer of HWH, it is my responsibility to share!)

So, in today’s short article, I am covering the broad division of history across time periods.

This might appear "boring” but consider it as learning the alphabet and grammar of a language. It appears boring but it skills you enough to enjoy the language later on.

BCE, BC, CE, or AD?

We will use the term BCE (Before common era) instead of BC (Before Christ) and CE (common era) instead of AD (anno domini).

anno domini is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord"

The two notation systems are numerically equivalent: "1850 CE" and "AD 1850" each describe the current year; "400 BCE" and "400 BC" are the same year.

Let’s begin!

Pre-history (Before 3000 BCE)

This refers to the period before writing was invented.

Divided into 3 broad eras —

Old stone age (Paleolithic)

• Period: 2.5 Million years ago to 200,000 years ago

• Highlight: Discovery of how to control fire.

Middle stone age (Mesolithic)

• Period: 200,000 years ago to 10,000 BCE

• Highlight: First biologically modern humans (Homo sapiens). Humans spread all over the globe.

New stone age (Neolithic)

• Period: 10,000 BCE to 3,000 BCE

• Highlight: Invention of the wheel and agriculture

Ancient History (3000 BCE to 700 CE)

This refers to the period after the invention of writing till the 5th century CE.

Bronze Age

• Period: 3,000 BCE to 1,300 BCE

• Highlight:

  • Usage of Bronze

  • Invention of Tea

  • Great Pyramids

  • Indus civilizations

  • Vedic period in India

Iron Age

• Period: 1,300 BCE to 500 BCE

• Highlight:

  • Homer writes Illiad and Odyssey

  • Founding of Rome

  • Birth of The Buddha

Classical Antiquity

• Period: 500 BCE to 300 CE

• Highlight:

  • Plato and Aristotle

  • Alexander and Ashoka the Greats

  • Birth of the Jesus

Late Antiquity

• Period: 300 CE to 700 CE

• Highlight:

  • Rise of Christianity

  • Beginning of Islam

  • Byzantine Empire

Medieval History (700 CE to 1500 CE)

Early Medieval

• Period: 700 CE to 1000 CE

• Highlight:

  • Spread of Islam

  • Illuminated Manuscripts

High Medieval

• Period: 1000 CE to 1300 CE

• Highlight:

  • First mechanical clocks

  • Spread of Windmills

  • Spectacles

  • Gun powder

  • Gothic Architecture

Late Medieval

• Period: 1300 CE to 1500 CE

• Highlight:

  • Gutenberg invents the printing press

  • Leonardo da Vinci

  • Columbus travels to America

  • Vasco da Gama travels to India

Modern History (1500 CE to Current)

Early Modern Period

• Period: 1500 CE to 1800 CE

• Highlight:

  • Martin Luther

  • Copernicus, Galileo, Shakespeare

  • Taj Mahal

  • Isaac Newton

  • American, French and Industrial Revolution

Late Modern Period

• Period: 1800 CE to 1945 CE

• Highlight:

  • Invention of the Steam Engine

  • Invention of the Light Bulb, Airplane, Cars, and Telephone

  • Napolean, Karl Marx, Queen Victoria

  • Charles Darwin

  • American Civil War

  • Great Depression

  • World War I and II

  • Albert Einstein

  • Mahatma Gandhi

Contemporary Period

• Period: 1945 CE to current

• Highlight:

  • Indian Independence

  • Landing on Moon

  • Cold War, Vietnam War

  • United Nations

  • Internet

  • 9/11, Asian Tsunami

Important

The above timelines and periods have been created by historians to make the study of history easy and organized. The start and end of each period are not to be considered as “precise” events. There are considerable years of overlap between consecutive periods. Also, the periods differ from one place to another as well. In some regions, the bronze age started earlier than others while some had modernity arrive later.

Request for sharing your preference on what type of articles you would like to read on Human Work History.

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In this comprehensive article, we embark on a chronological exploration, delving into the origins and milestones of medicine from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge advancements of today.

Do not worry, I have made conscious efforts to keep the article free from jargon and medicine lingo (there are too many!).

Medicine in Caves

In prehistory — the period before the writing systems were developed, a very primitive form of medicine existed. The common practices and methods used in brief were:

Herbal treatments: Living close to nature, through trial-and-error (and by accidents), different plants and their parts were identified for treating simple wounds and for getting relief from constipation.

Use of earth and clays: Eating and applying mud, chalk, and various other soils for potentially providing nutrition, and healing wounds was common in those times. This could be said as the first form of medicine.

Trepanation: The oldest surgical procedure known. The process involved drilling a hole into the skull (ouch!) to treat epilepsy, head wound, mental disorders, headache, or releasing pressure from the blood buildup after a head injury.

Dentistry: Archaeologists have found drilled and filled tooth dating back to 13000 years ago where the tooth was filled with a mix of bitumen, hair, and plant fiber. Evidence of drilled-and-filled teeth has been found in several places in the world.

You can see from the above that the willingness to solve illness through a variety of means was there in humans right from the start. No matter, surgeries, like Trepanation had a survival rate of less than 40% but gradual incremental improvements and learning, are what humans are known for.

Medicine in the Bronze & Iron Ages

Moving from the previous stone age, we see a lot of fresh developments in the field of medicine during the Bronze and Iron Ages.

The Oldest Books & The First Doctors

The oldest books in medical science history provide a diverse and valuable glimpse into the development of medicine.

Egypt

The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus treats women's complaints, including problems with conception. Dating to 1800 BC, it is the oldest surviving medical text of any kind while Edwin Smith Papyrus from 1600 BCE offers rational surgical approaches for treating 48 different types of injuries. It is the oldest written text mentioning enemas.

Another Egyptian text Ebers Papyrus from 1550 BCE, blends magical formulas with scientific knowledge, covering various medical topics. It recognized the heart as the center of blood supply, provided treatment for asthma, tumors, and abscesses, and also had chapters on contraception, diagnosis of pregnancy, dentistry, and bone-setting.

The world’s earliest known physician Hesy-Ra, also called as the Chief of Dentists and Physicians comes from Egypt. Not only this, the world’s earliest known women physician also Peseshet, also practiced in Ancient Egypt with the title of Lady Overseer of the Lady Physicians.

Babylon

The Diagnostic Handbook Sakikkū, from 1050 BCE, presents 300 case studies in a scientific symptoms-diagnosis-prognosis format with around 3000 symptoms logically arranged. The book was written by Esagil-kin-apli, the Chief scholar of the Babylonian king of his time.

India

The Sushruta Samhita composed by Sushruta in 600 BCE, details surgical procedures like cataract surgery and rhinoplasty — a form of plastic surgery on the nose. Sushruta is often considered one of the founders of surgery. It was one of the first texts to describe the use of anesthesia and antiseptics, kidney stone extractions, sutures, and the extraction of foreign objects.

The Charak Samhita composed by Charaka in 100 BCE was a compilation of Ayurvedic treatments and provided the foundation of Ayurvedic medicine. These two texts along with Bhela-samhita served as the foundation of Indian Ayurveda.

China

The Huangdi Neijing, an ancient Chinese medical text from around 200 BCE, is a foundational source for ancient Chinese medicine. It introduced acupuncture techniques and influenced medical practices for over two thousand years.

Together, these ancient texts showcase the evolution of medical knowledge, from Babylon to Egypt, India, and China, leaving a lasting impact on the field of medicine.

Humorism and Greek Medicine

The theory of humors dominated Western medicine till the 19th century. The theory proposed that the human body was governed by four bodily fluids or humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These humors were believed to determine a person's physical and mental health.

According to the humoral theory, good health was achieved when the four humors were in balance, whereas an imbalance or excess of any humor led to illness.

Treating an imbalance of the humors was approached through various methods, namely:

Bloodletting — intentionally removing an amount of blood from the body, Expectorating — removing mucus from lungs/throat and purging — emptying the stomach through induced vomiting.

For obvious reasons, all of these methods have become obsolete and fallen out in favor of modern science.

Hippocrates

Hippocrates, known as the "Father of Modern Medicine", established a medical school at Cos (a Greek Island) and is the most important figure in ancient Greek medicine. He led to the formulation of the humoral theory and is also credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians to be followed under various circumstances.

Miasma Theory

Another theory advocated by Hippocrates was that diseases were caused by noxious and foul-smelling vapors, or miasmas, that originated from decaying organic matter, sewage, or other environmental sources. These miasmas were believed to contaminate the air and, when inhaled, would result in illness and epidemics. Miasma theory attributed the spread of diseases like cholera, malaria, and the bubonic plague to the presence of these harmful vapors.

The Hippocratic Oath

A seminal document on the ethics of medical practice is attributed to Hippocrates. It is the earliest expression of medical ethics establishing several principles of medical ethics which remain of paramount significance today. These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence. While the Oath is rarely used in its original form today, it serves as a foundation for other, similar oaths and laws that define good medical practice and morals.

Galen

Galen was a renowned Greek physician who made significant contributions to the fields of anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology in 200 CE. Galen's work focused on reconciling the teachings of Hippocrates with his own observations and experiments. He also emphasized the importance of humoral theory and was one of the first physicians to give importance to direct observation, dissection, and vivisection.

He performed many audacious operations—including brain and eye surgeries—that were not tried again for almost two thousand years. His theories dominated all medical studies for nearly 1500 years and had a profound impact on the development of medicine.

Medical Schools and Hospitals

From 400 CE onwards, the Eastern Roman Empire (aka Byzantine Empire) played the important role of preserving the previous works of Greeks and others. Paulus Aegineta, a Greek Physician published the Medical Compendium in Seven Books, in the 7th century which remained in use as a standard textbook for the following 800 years. For his works, he is often considered the “Father of Early Medical Writing”.

In the 10th century CE, the first known attempt to separate conjoined twins was performed. When one of the twins died skilled doctors separated them cleverly at the line of connection with the hope of saving the surviving one but after living three days he died also.

The fact that the second person survived for even a few days showed that it was at least partly successful. There would not be another case of conjoined twins being separated until the year 1689 (by Johannes Fatio).

Islamic Golden Age & The First Hospitals

During the early medieval period, around the 8th to 9th centuries, Islamic civilization played a crucial role in the development of hospitals as we know them today. A big contributor to this was the transmission of Greek knowledge in the Arabic language. Many Islamic physicians were heavily influenced by the works of Greek scholars of Alexandria and Egypt and were able to further expand on those texts to produce new medical pieces of knowledge.

Persian physician al-Rāzi was one of the first to question the Greek theory of humorism. He has been often regarded as the doctor’s doctor, the father of pediatrics, and a pioneer of ophthalmology. Some volumes of his works Al-Mansuri, namely "On Surgery" and "A General Book on Therapy", became part of the medical curriculum in European universities.

The Islamic hospitals in those times were called “Bimaristan”. Al-Wahid Bimarstan, the first Islamic hospital, was built in the 8th century in Damascus.

Many of the features that are still used in hospitals, such as an emphasis on hygiene, a staff fully dedicated to the care of patients and separation of individual patients from each other, specialized wards for different medical conditions, systematic record-keeping, and educational programs for medical students were developed in Islamicate hospitals long before they came into practice in Europe (where hospitals were still the places of religion rather than institutions of science.)

Moving Forward with Engineers & Scientists

During the early modern period (15th to 18th centuries), several key inventions and discoveries significantly shaped the development of medicine and healthcare. Let’s discuss the important ones.

Printing Press — invented in 1450, this is often considered one of the most significant inventions of mankind, and its inventor Johannes Gutenberg is described as the "man of the millennium". His design directly impacted the mass spread of books across Europe, causing an information revolution. For the field of medicine, this meant more translations and prints of medical texts and treatises allowing for wider sharing of medical information and fostering the spread of new ideas.

Microscope — Antonie van Leeuwenhoek designs a single-lens microscope in 1676 and achieves up to 300 times magnification. In 1677 he identifies "animalcules", which we now know as microorganisms. He becomes the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, and red blood cells, and among the first to see blood flow in capillaries. Being the first person to directly observe microorganisms, he is often referred as the father of microbiology.

Blood Circulation — William Harvey, an English physician, makes a groundbreaking discovery in 1628 demonstrating the circulation of blood in the human body in his publication "De Motu Cordis". This discovery lays the foundation for modern physiology and understanding of the cardiovascular system.

Thermometer — Galileo Galilei invents the first thermoscope, a device without scales to detect changes in temperature without providing a numerical reading.

In 1612, Santorio Santorio (yes twice) improves upon Galileo’s work by adding a graduated scale, allowing for more precise and quantitative measurements of temperature. Santorio invents several medical devices and goes on to be regarded as the father of modern quantitative experimentation in medicine.

Study of Metabolism — Over the course of thirty years, Santorio (yes, again!), meticulously uses a chair device to weigh not only himself but also everything he eats and drinks, along with his urine and feces. Comparing the weight of his intake to that of his waste products, he finds that the latter is significantly smaller, as he has excreted only 3 pounds of waste for every eight pounds of food consumed.

His experiments and study lead to the origin of weight measurement in medicine and also earns him the tag of the father of experimental physiology.

Vaccination — In 1796, an English doctor named Edward Jenner decides to investigate a widespread belief that if someone had caught cowpox, they would be protected from the more dangerous smallpox disease.

To test this idea, he takes some cowpox vesicles from a milkmaid named Sarah Nelmes and uses them to infect an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. Two months later, Jenner exposes the boy to smallpox, but surprisingly, the boy does not develop the illness.

Jenner is often called "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have saved "more lives than any other man".

Homeopathy

In the late 18th century, Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician while translating a medical treatise into German came across a theory that the bark of cinchona tree cured malaria because it was bitter. Hahnemann ingested some bark specifically to investigate what would happen. He experienced fever, shivering, and joint pain: symptoms similar to those of malaria itself.

From this, Hahnemann came to believe that all effective drugs produce symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the diseases that they treat. This “like cures like” was the founding principle of this branch of alternative medicine — homeopathy.

Hahnemann developed the process of "potentization," involving dilution and succussion, to enhance a substance's healing properties while minimizing toxicity. In 1810, he published his influential work "Organon of Medicine," outlining the fundamental principles of homeopathy. The practice gained popularity in Europe during the 19th century and spread to various parts of the world.

Despite its widespread use and dedicated followers, homeopathy faces criticism from conventional medicine due to its departure from scientific understanding and lack of proven efficacy.

Later works by other scientists showed that that the bark of cinchona tree cures malaria because it contains quinine, which kills the parasite that causes the disease.

Modern Times: Evidence-based medicine (1800s to now)

Germ Theory

Till the 19th century, the humor theory from the times of Hippocrates and Galen was in prominence. The invention of the microscope, and subsequent observations of microorganisms lead to the start of a new era.

Many people contributed directly or indirectly. In 1847 in Vienna, Ignaz Semmelweis dramatically reduced the death rate of new mothers (due to childbed fever) by requiring physicians to clean their hands before attending childbirth. Then Louis Pasteur’s experiments around the same time established the link between microorganisms and fermentation, while Robert Koch's work in the late 19th century identified specific germs causing diseases.

Koch's postulates solidified the germ theory, demonstrating the direct connection between germs (microorganisms) and illnesses. Acceptance of the germ theory brought significant advancements, such as pasteurization, improved hygiene, and the development of antibiotics and vaccines.

Anesthesia

Throughout recorded history, humans have tried several things for the purpose of general anesthesia (a method of medically inducing loss of consciousness that renders a patient unarousable even with painful stimuli). Alcohol and herbs were common in the past, although partially effective.

Local anesthetics were used in Inca civilization where shamans (religious practitioners) chewed coca leaves and performed operations on the skull while spitting into the wounds they had inflicted to anesthetize.

In the late 18th century, the discovery of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) by Sir Humphry Davy laid the groundwork for modern anesthesia. On 14 November 1804, Hanaoka Seishū, a Japanese doctor, became the first person to successfully perform surgery using general anesthesia which was based on a herbal formula that he named tsūsensan.

The next breakthrough came in the mid-19th century when William T.G. Morton demonstrated successful ether anesthesia, followed by James Young Simpson's introduction of chloroform.

You can appreciate the importance of these developments by understanding that in past many patients chose “certain death” rather than undergo surgery, largely because of the associated pain.

X-ray

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German physicist, accidentally discovered X-rays in 1895 while experimenting with cathode ray tubes. He observed that these mysterious rays could penetrate materials and create shadow images on photographic plates, leading to the birth of X-ray technology.

He named them "X-rays" with “X” signifying the unknown nature of the radiation. Very soon X-rays found medical applications for non-invasive imaging of internal structures in the human body.

Stethoscope

This common and easily recognizable instrument was invented in France in 1816 by René Laennec. The invention story is a good example of how a simple necessity led to an important invention.

Laennec, while examining a young female patient with symptoms of heart disease, felt comfortable and awkward placing his ear directly onto a woman's chest in order to listen to her heart. To overcome this challenge, he rolled up a piece of paper and placed one end on the patient's chest and the other end near his ear.

This improvised device allowed him to hear the sounds more clearly, as the paper acted as an amplifier. Amazed by the sound clarity, he refined the design by using a wooden cylinder, creating the first version of the stethoscope in 1819.

The word "stethoscope" originates from two Greek words, "stethos" (chest) and "skopein" (to look into or examine).

ECG (Electrocardiogram)

In 1872, British physiologist Augustus Waller was among the first to demonstrate that the electrical activity of the heart could be measured by attaching electrodes to the skin. He created the first ECG machine with surface electrodes. (The electrical activity is basically due to the flow of charged ions across cell membranes).

In 1887, the Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven developed the first practical ECG machine. This instrument allowed for a more precise recording of the electrical signals produced by the heart, providing detailed graphical representations of the heart's electrical activity. Einthoven’s work laid the foundation for modern ECG and earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1924.

Initially, Waller did not think electrocardiograms would be useful in hospitals. Many other physiologists convinced him otherwise and Waller went on to publish a study of over 2000 traces of heart conditions.

Blood groups and transfusion

In 1901, Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian immunologist, made the groundbreaking discovery that some people's blood clumped together with other blood, whilst some did not. He identified three blood groups ABC, which would later be renamed ABO. The less common AB group was discovered a year later by Alfred Von Decastello and Adriano Sturli.

Later, Landsteiner and his colleagues also discovered the Rh factor (Rhesus factor) in 1940, further categorizing blood into Rh-positive or Rh-negative. The term Rh factor comes from Rhesus monkeys from which this particular protein was identified.

Till the late 19th century, blood transfusions were risky and many resulted in the death of the patient due to incompatibility and coagulation of the blood. Due to the high risk, it was often considered the last resort even by trained doctors. Only after the discovery of blood groups and understanding of blood compatibility, the field saw a great improvement and success in the blood transfusion process.

First Antibiotics

An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria.

In 1928, Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin. While studying bacteria, he noticed that a mold called Penicillium notatum had contaminated one of his Petri dishes, and the bacteria around the mold seemed to be killed. He identified this mold as a potent antibacterial agent and named it penicillin.

However, the extraction of penicillin from the mold and using it as a medicine took another 10 years. Australian pharmacologist Howard Florey and his team are credited for developing penicillin into a usable form. They successfully treated the first human patient with penicillin in 1941.

Medicines

While many medicines have interesting origin stories, it won’t be possible to discuss all of them. It is worthwhile to consider the three popular ones.

Aspirin — Aspirin's history dates back to ancient times when willow bark was used to relieve pain and inflammation. However, the active ingredient, salicylic acid, was not isolated until the late 19th century. In the 1890s, chemists Felix Hoffmann and Arthur Eichengrün at the German company Bayer successfully synthesized a stable and purified form of acetylsalicylic acid, creating the modern aspirin we know today.

You can appreciate the work done in ancient times, by realising that many of the current allopathic medicines have origin in plants and herbs. Quinine (cinchona tree), Lovastatin (red yeast rice), Morphine (opium poppy), Taxol (Pacific yew tree) are some examples.

Paracetamol — This common medicine was synthesized in 1877, but it took more than 70 years for the usefulness of this medicine to be correctly realized. First, it was tested on humans 10 years after its synthesis in 1887 by Joseph von Mering. Surprisingly von Mering wrote a paper reporting on the clinical results of paracetamol with phenacetin and claimed that paracetamol produced a slightly harmful condition in the blood.

Paracetamol was then quickly discarded in favor of phenacetin. Von Mering's claims remained essentially unchallenged for half a century until 1949 when another paper was published highlighting that phenacetin also produced the same condition in the blood which altogether was happening for completely different reasons!

This led to the re-birth of the medicine and it was remarketed in the United States in 1950 under the name Triagesic, a combination of paracetamol, aspirin, and caffeine.

Insulin — The discovery of insulin is attributed to Frederick Banting, a Canadian medical scientist, who was investigating the role of the pancreas in diabetes. In 1921, Banting and his colleague Charles Best successfully isolated insulin from the pancreas of dogs and used it to treat diabetic dogs, demonstrating its ability to reduce high blood sugar levels.

In 1922, the first human clinical trial was conducted on a 14-year-old boy with severe diabetes, and the results were remarkable, leading to the widespread use of insulin to manage diabetes effectively.

Before insulin was made available for medical use, being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. Death happened quite quickly, usually within months, and sometimes within weeks or days.

Exploring Medical Controversies

Dr. William Beaumont and his patient, Alexis St. Martin

In 1822, Alexis St. Martin, a young French-Canadian, suffered a severe gunshot wound to his stomach, leaving him with a fistula, an abnormal connection between the outside skin and the inner stomach lining.

Dr. William Beaumont, an American army surgeon attended to Martin's injury. To everyone's surprise, the wound did not heal completely, creating an open hole in his stomach that allowed direct observation and access to the digestive processes within.

Intrigued by this rare opportunity, Dr. Beaumont saw an opportunity for groundbreaking medical research. Over several years, he meticulously conducted a series of experiments and observations on St. Martin's stomach, introducing various foods and liquids through the fistula and analyzing their effects on digestion. These studies provided significant insights into the human digestive system, including the stomach's acid secretion and its role in breaking down food.

The knowledge gained from the experiments with Alexis St. Martin contributed to advancements in medical understanding and laid the foundation for modern gastroenterology. Dr. Beaumont published his findings in 1833 in a book titled "Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion."

Sulfanilamide Elixir Incident

In 1937, a pharmaceutical company named S.E. Massengill Company produced a new medication called Sulfanilamide elixir, intended to treat bacterial infections. However, instead of using a safe solvent to dissolve the drug, the company used diethylene glycol, a poisonous substance commonly used in antifreeze. This decision was made without any prior safety testing or consideration of the potential risks.

As a result, when patients took the Sulfanilamide elixir, the diethylene glycol caused severe poisoning and led to a significant number of deaths. The victims suffered agonizing symptoms, including kidney failure, severe vomiting, and convulsions.

The incident quickly caught public attention, leading to widespread outrage and demands for better regulation and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry. In response to this, the U.S. Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1938. This landmark legislation mandated that drug companies must conduct proper safety testing before releasing medications to the market, ensuring the safety of patients and preventing similar tragedies in the future.

War crimes and research

War crimes and medical research have been intertwined in some dark chapters of history, where unethical and inhumane experiments were conducted on prisoners and vulnerable populations during times of conflict.

One of the most notorious examples occurred during World War II when the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler conducted horrific medical experiments on prisoners in concentration camps. These experiments were conducted without the subjects' consent and often involved inflicting severe pain and suffering.

One infamous figure associated with these war crimes was Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death." He conducted cruel and deadly experiments on inmates, including twins and children, in an attempt to further the Nazi ideology of racial superiority. These experiments involved gruesome surgeries, infections, and other torturous procedures.

The Imperial Japanese Army was also responsible for heinous medical experiments during World War II, particularly during the Japanese occupation of China. Unit 731, a secretive military unit, conducted inhumane experiments on prisoners, such as vivisection, infecting individuals with diseases, and testing chemical and biological weapons.

These atrocities were exposed after the war, leading to the Nuremberg Trials and the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which laid the foundation for modern medical ethics. The Nuremberg Code emphasizes the importance of informed consent and protecting human subjects from harm during medical research.

Thalidomide Tragedy

The Thalidomide tragedy was the "biggest man-made medical disaster ever," that occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thalidomide, a drug developed by a German pharmaceutical company, was introduced as a sedative and anti-nausea medication for pregnant women. It was also prescribed to alleviate symptoms of morning sickness in expectant mothers.

However, unknown to medical professionals at the time, Thalidomide had severe teratogenic effects, meaning it could cause severe birth defects when taken during pregnancy. Many pregnant women who took the drug gave birth to children with limb deformities, particularly shortened or missing limbs.

The tragedy unfolded as more than 10,000 babies were born with these birth defects, leaving families and communities devastated. The extent of the damage was heartbreaking, and many of the affected children faced lifelong challenges due to their physical disabilities.

The Thalidomide disaster prompted a significant overhaul in drug regulation and testing practices worldwide. Governments and health authorities strengthened drug approval processes, implementing rigorous testing protocols to ensure the safety of medications, especially for pregnant women.

A Bright Future Lies Ahead

Medicine has achieved remarkable feats that once seemed beyond imagination.

Organ transplantation stands as a shining beacon of hope. Since the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, the field has expanded to include heart, liver, lung, and other organ transplants.

Plastic surgery has empowered patients by restoring physical appearance and boosting self-confidence. The Lindbergh operation that was carried out by a team of French surgeons located in New York on a patient in Strasbourg, France, in 2001 has shown the potential of remote surgery in bridging the geographical gaps.

Prosthetics have become sophisticated devices, offering amputees newfound mobility and independence. Medicine's progress extends to animals as well. Veterinary medicine has made incredible strides, ensuring our furry friends lead healthier, happier lives.

The future of medicine holds exciting possibilities. Hibernation and anti-aging, once confined to science fiction, could revolutionize critical care. We still have an ongoing fight against cancer and AIDS, which when solved will save millions of people worldwide.

Reflecting on the past, we are reminded of human resilience. From ancient remedies to cutting-edge technologies, medicine has evolved, guided by the noble pursuit of healing. How the work from different fields intersects and crosses each other paths baffles me all the time. (Just imagine medicine without the invention of a “lens” that led to the microscope).

I hope you enjoyed this article on the history of medicine. When I had finalized this topic, I had no idea this would become the longest article of Human Work History, to date. And still, there were so many sub-topics that I had to skip.

Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts on this article or any feedback you have. This publication is made for you!

Previous Articles

Economic Bubbles: Money, Madness, and Meltdown

Animation: The Magic of moving pictures

Modern Animation: From Little Nemo to Star Wars

Tulip Mania is referred to the economic phenomenon that happened in the Netherlands, in the 1630s. It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history.

Unlike the current times, this particular crash didn’t involve real-estate, shares, gold or banks. But a flower. Let’s understand how this bubble formed in layman’s terms.

I am a gardener who grows flowers and one fine day I notice some beautiful exotic-looking Tulip flowers have blossomed. I pluck them and bring 20 of them to market for sale. Within one hour I am able to sell each of them to 20 customers at $10, whereas the usual flowers are being sold at $1 or $2.

The next day, due to the 20 customers, word has spread, and I see 100 customers standing in a queue waiting for me and my exotic Tulips. Seeing the high demand, I double the price to $20. My entire stock gets sold faster than the previous day.

Now the problem arises that I don’t have any more flowers left. The flowers in the entire region are available only with those 120 customers. And they now start trading and selling to new customers!

New customer 1: I need the tulips. I am ready to pay $40 for one.

Old customer 1: Fine, I bought this at $20. So, $40 seems fine to me.

This pattern repeats and a chain of new customer-old customer-new customer forms and the price of the Tulip in the market reaches $500!

Realize that the early customers have purchased the flowers for their intrinsic value (beauty, smell, uniqueness, etc.) but the new customers are purchasing the flowers in the hope of selling it at higher prices — on the hope that there will be another person who will be willing to purchase at a higher price.

This hope is the killer of all.

What happens next is, people realize that it is easy to make money using Tulips. Just get one and sell it at a higher price. So, they start selling their “assets” to purchase Tulips.

Check the below list of items that were clubbed together and exchanged for a single bulb of Viceroy — a name given to the particular Tulip flower’s bud. Check how many animals are being exchanged… for one bulb!

Many people have become rich overnight, and this has prompted others to jump into the mania too. Houses and shops are being sold and then search for “another fool” is being started.

Starting the Time Bomb!

If you notice, up till now there is no need to hurry for any owner of the Tulip bulb. If he resists the “desire” to become rich quickly, he can sell it any time in the future. At his or her ease.

But the problem begins when people start taking loans to purchase the damn flower!! And the loan has got a time ticker on it. It has to be repaid. On time.

Now the “desire” to sell becomes converted into the “need” to sell. And when no buyers are found at that time, the bubble bursts.

This is what happened in February 1637. Tulip traders could no longer find new buyers willing to pay increasingly inflated prices for their bulbs. As this realization set in, the demand for tulips collapsed, and prices plummeted—the speculative bubble burst.

Now that you know at the basic level how a bubble forms and bursts, let’s go through some of the most important and/or unique bubbles that the last 3 centuries have shown us.

South Sea Bubble (1720): Bubbling with the government

Let’s now cross a few kilometers across the sea and enter England.

In 1711, South Sea Company, a joint-stock company was formed in a public-private partnership with the government. The primary goal of the South Sea Company was to engage in lucrative trade with the Spanish colonies and generate substantial profits for its shareholders. The company's operations involved trading African slaves, importing goods from the colonies, such as silver, gold, and valuable commodities, and exporting British manufactured goods in return.

Two important events led to the rise in demand for the company’s shares—

1. The company was granted a monopoly to do trade with the Spanish colonies, in South America.

2. The government agreed to convert its own debt into the company’s shares (!)

(The second point is very similar to the case of the government borrowing money from you to purchase shares of the company).

Now, you can well imagine that if a government is believing in the positive future of a company, other small investors will also fall into it. Hence, this attracted significant attention and led to a massive surge in the company's share price.

As the share prices skyrocketed, investors began to speculate on the rising value, creating a speculative bubble. People from all walks of life, including wealthy merchants, politicians, and even the general public, eagerly invested their money in the South Sea Company, believing that the prices would continue to rise indefinitely.

However, the bubble eventually burst. In August 1720, the company's directors realized that the share prices were unsustainable and started selling their own shares, secretly cashing in on the inflated prices. This action caused panic among other investors, triggering a rapid decline in the share prices. As the share prices plummeted, many people lost their fortunes, and numerous businesses went bankrupt. The crisis had severe social and economic consequences, leading to public outrage and a loss of confidence in financial markets.

The Panic of 1873: The long depression

The panic of 1873 was unique in two aspects — first, it had its impact across borders from Europe to North America to Asia and second, the depression lasted for several years. In fact, it was termed as the great depression before the depression of the 1930s happened.

While the previous two bubbles discussed can be attributed to a singular aspect like one flower or one company, this depression was caused by several events concurring together. The main factors behind this (not in the order of importance), were —

Speculative Investments: In the United States, 53,000 km of new railroad tracks were laid across the country between 1868 and 1873, with much of the craze in railroad investment being driven by government land grants and subsidies to the railroads. Most of the capital was involved in projects offering no immediate or early returns.

Jay Cooke & Company goes down: Jay Cooke's firm was a major financial institution heavily involved in railroad financing. Its bankruptcy on 18th September 1873 triggered a wave of railroad failures and bankruptcies of several banks. The impact was so huge that the New York Stock Exchange had to be closed for 10 days starting from 20th September, just 2 days after Cooke and Co had fallen. The event triggered a crisis in the railroad industry with massive strikes, riots, and layoffs in several cities across the country.

Coinage Act of 1873: Also known as the "Crime of '73," this was a U.S. federal law that revised the nation's coinage system. It discontinued the minting of silver dollars and placed the country on the gold standard, effectively demonetizing silver as a legal tender. It led to discontent among silver miners, farmers, and others who relied on the silver-backed currency.

Major Fires: Two massive fires broke out in Chicago (1871) and Boston (1872). The fire in Chicago lasted for 3 days and killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly 9 square kilometers of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire in Boston on the other hand, caused $73.5 million in damage (equivalent to $1.513 billion in 2021) and loss of 30 people.

The depression came to an end by 1879, lasting for around 6 years.

The Great Depression of 1929

This is the most infamous historic bubble and highly likely that you have heard or read about it. We will discuss this in short.

The Great Crash is mostly associated with October 24, 1929, called Black Thursday, the day of the largest sell-off of shares in U.S. history, and October 29, 1929, called Black Tuesday, when investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchange's crash of September, signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. The United States was the epicenter of the crisis, but other major economies such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and France were also significantly affected.

To date, economists and historians have not reached a consensus on the causal relationships between various events and government economic policies in causing the Depression. After World War I, the period saw an increased and speculative economic activity. With several folds increase in manufacturing and purchase activity. Many people started taking home loans and hoarding shares of the company speculating to rise in the future. (Finding some similarity with the Tulip Mania?)

Many economists also attribute to the weak banking system and the international economic imbalances created due to World War I, for accelerating and deepening the depression. This was coupled with some flawed monetary policies that added fuel to the fire.

The impact: The impact of the depression was felt worldwide, with the most significant being in the United States. In 1930, 1,352 banks held more than $853 million in deposits; in 1931, one year later, 2,294 banks failed with nearly $1.7 billion in deposits. More than 28,285 businesses failed in just one year. By 1932, unemployment had reached 23.6%, peaking in early 1933 at 25%.

Beanie Babies

Let’s talk about a bubble that draws parallels with the Tulip Mania, in the modern digital times.

The Beanie Babies bubble refers to the period in the late 1990s when Beanie Babies, a line of stuffed animal toys produced by Ty Inc in 1993, became a highly sought-after collectible item. The craze was fueled by limited supply, exclusivity, and speculative buying, with prices skyrocketing for rare or retired designs. Media coverage and hype further drove demand. They have been cited as being the world's first Internet sensation in 1995.

Initially, Beanie Babies faced slow sales, resulting in many retailers refusing to purchase the bundled toys, and some retailers refusing to carry Beanie Babies altogether. At the same time, Ty Inc. made a strategic decision to limit the production and distribution of the toys. They imposed restrictions on the quantity of Beanie Babies each store could purchase per month, capping it at 36 of each character.

Additionally, Ty Warner, the founder of Ty Inc., introduced the concept of retiring characters, meaning that certain Beanie Baby designs would eventually stop being produced. These measures created a sense of scarcity, which led to a significant surge in sales and sparked the phenomenon of collecting and reselling Beanie Babies. As a result, the popularity of Beanie Babies rapidly escalated, eventually turning into a nationwide craze in the United States.

While the United States was the primary market for Beanie Babies, the craze had a significant impact in other countries as well, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The $5 toy mass-produced in China became such a big craze that people, mostly adults, paid thousands of dollars to collect them as an investment.

However, the bubble burst as the market experienced a significant crash, leading to a decline in demand, plummeting prices, and financial losses for many investors. Just a few years after Beanie Babies made their creator a billionaire, the stuffed animals became virtually worthless. The market eventually stabilized, with collectors adjusting their expectations and the focus shifting to the enjoyment of collecting rather than financial gains.

The above were some of the 5 unique economic bubbles that I believe gives you a broad overview of the working of bubbles, their impact and how they rise (and crush) the hopes of so many people in one blow. Please don’t think that these 5 were the only bubbles that happened and burst. History is littered with economic bubbles every now and then. The Dot-com bubble, the great recession of 2008, and several cryptocurrency bubbles have been some of the bubbles and recessions in the last 25 years.

While economic bubbles can lead to severe financial crises and significant losses, they also serve as powerful reminders of the importance of prudent investing, risk management, and a thorough understanding of market dynamics.

Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts on this article or any feedback you have. This publication is for made for you!

Previous Articles

History of Animation: Part 1 and Part 2

In our previous article we went on a beautiful journey and saw how humans were able to bring images to life through animation. We took a break on that journey after watching Pauvre Pierrot —the very first animated cartoon, which was created in 1892.

Let’s continue on the journey and see what the next 130 years of animation has been like. I bet you will learn more about at least one of your favorite cartoons by the end of this journey.

Celluloid Films

To make longer movies, humanity needed a “flexible” material for printing a continuous strip of images, which could be rapidly passed through a camera and projector. The glass-plate-based photography — where each image had to be captured individually and then transferred onto another medium, such as paper, to create a series of images, was not suitable for this requirement.

The first celluloid as a bulk material for forming objects was made in 1855 in Birmingham, England, by Alexander Parkes. In the 1860s, an American, John Wesley Hyatt, acquired Parkes's patent and began experimenting to manufacture billiard balls, which until that time were made from ivory.

Later, in 1889, Hannibal Goodwin discovered that celluloid could be coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, to a breakthrough in the animation industry. It led to the significant advancement of the “Traditional Animation” process by bringing the “Cel animation” method. Let’s see how.

Traditional Animation

Traditional Animation was the dominant form of animation till the advent of computer animation. We are talking about a technique that dominated throughout the 20th century. In simplest terms, the following steps constitute the essence of traditional animation.

1. Hand-drawing of each individual frame*

2. Taking a photograph of each of the frames

3. Projecting them

*A frame is one complete image. Play any YouTube video. Hit pause (spacebar or K). Then press “.” or “,” to move one frame forward/backward.

The human eye (and brain) requires around 12 frames per second (fps) or higher in order to be tricked into thinking they are seeing a smoothly moving object. The traditional animation used 15 fps for the cartoons. And each frame was drawn manually by hand.

So, this 3-minute Tom and Jerry cartoon was likely made at 15 fps requiring 15 x 60 = 900 drawings! Each of them was hand drawn.

The first animated film made using the hand-drawn traditional animation method is considered to be "Fantasmagorie" by French animator Emile Cohl.

The film was released in 1908 and consists of a series of sketches drawn by hand on white paper, which were then photographed on a black paper to create a dark background.

New Techniques with Dinosaur!

Winsor McCay, often called the father of American Animation gave the famous animated character Little Nemo in 1911. Next, he produced Gertie the dinosaur in 1914. Gertie was the first film to use animation techniques such as keyframes, registration marks, tracing paper, the Mutoscope action viewer, and animation loops.

Gertie and many other works of McCay influenced the next generation of animators such as the Fleischer brothers, Otto Messmer, Paul Terry, Walter Lantz, and Walt Disney.

You can watch the full cartoon here. (Do come back after watching it!)

Rotoscoping

The process of rotoscoping involves animators tracing over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to create animation with realistic movement. In the early days of rotoscoping, animators would project live-action movie footage onto a glass panel and draw over the image. The device used to project the footage was called a rotoscope and was invented by Max Fleischer, a Polish-American animator. The final product of this process is known as a rotograph.

Out of the Inkwell, a series of animated shorts created by Max Fleischer and released in 1918, is considered to be one of the earliest and most significant examples of rotoscope animation. In the series, Fleischer used live-action footage of his brother as a reference to create the movement of the cartoon character, Koko the Clown. The footage was traced and animated frame by frame, creating a more realistic and nuanced animation style than was previously possible.

Cel Animation

Cel stands for celluloid. The cel animation process was invented by Earl Hurd and John Bray in 1915. This process involves using multiple transparent celluloid films for different parts of a single frame. And the films can be reused again and again for different frames, saving time and labor.

Example: Consider a scene where 3 people are sitting at a table. One of them is talking and pouring a drink and the other two are just listening. So, in this scene, the background, table, chairs and the two people all can be put on the single cel as the base layer. And then it can be repeated throughout the scene with only the speaking and drink-pouring person needed to be drawn.

The first full-length animated film to be made using celluloid film was Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937. The film was a groundbreaking achievement in animation, as it was the first animated feature film produced in the United States and the first to use cel animation extensively.

Stop-Motion Animation

In this animation technique objects are physically manipulated in small increments and then each instance is individually photographed to form the individual frames. They exhibit independent motion when the series of frames is played back.

There are several forms of stop-motion animation depending on what type of objects are being used for the small increments like —

• Puppet animation (Puppets with movable joints)

• Clay animation (deformable clay objects/figures)

• Cut-out animation (2D cutouts of paper/fabrics)

• Pixilation (Live actors)

In the below video, Julienne Mathieu's hair appears to brush itself, one of the first uses of stop-motion animation in film.

You can watch this modern day stop-motion animation film, to understand how it is produced.

First Animated Film

The first known animated feature film (a film longer than 60 minutes) was El Apóstol by Quirino Cristiani, produced in 1917 in Argentina. It was a 70-minute satire created using the cutout animation technique, with 58,000 frames at 14 frames per second. This film is now considered lost, as no copies remain.

Synchronized sound

The complete story of how we humans learned to capture, record, store and reproduce “sound” will deserve a completely new article — just like how we discussed “capturing light” in a separate article of Human Work History. So, here we will move a few steps forward and discuss the problem of producing a sound that was in sync with the animated film.

Many of the earlier films had artists playing sound instruments live and sometimes even live dialog or narration was added. Sound-on-disc system was developed where the sounds were pre-recorded on a disc which was then attempted to be played in sync with the animated film. However, it posed a few problems.

• Synchronization: unreliable interlock system resulting in sound out of sync

• Editing: discs couldn't be directly edited, limiting the ability to make changes

• Distribution: added expense and complication to film distribution

• Wear and tear: discs degraded after about 20 screenings, requiring replacement

A much-improved sound-on-film technology was developed. In this, the sound was passed through a transducer to produce a varying electrical signal, which was used to produce a varying light signal, which was then recorded on the edges of the light-sensitive film and finally, it was then passed through a light source whose varying signal caused a varying electrical signal that finally reproduced the sound.

Sounds confusing?

Simple words: Sound > Varying Electric signal >Varying Light Signal > Record on a film > Pass constant light > Varying light signal > Varying electric signal > Sound

Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, a series of 47 short films of 3 minutes each, was produced by the Fleischer brothers in the 1930s. 16 of these short films used the sound-on-film technique to produce the synchronized sound. My Old Kentucky Home from 1926, also produced by the Fleischer brothers, was probably the first film to feature a bit of synchronized animated dialogue.

Walt Disney

A journey on history of animation can’t be complete without the discussion of Walt Disney!

Walt Disney, a pioneer of the American animation industry, didn’t have a glorious start in the animation industry. His first company Laugh-O-Gram Films produced Newman Laugh-O-gram in 1921 — a series of seven-minute modernized fairy tale cartoons inspired by Terry's Aesop's Fables. He had also completed designing a 12-minute film Alice's Wonderland…

But his company went bankrupt in 1923.

After a bit of struggle, Disney signed a contract with a New York film distributor Margaret J. Winkler for producing the Alice Comedy series. The series was successful enough to last 57 episodes. Next, he created another hit Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927 but lost the rights to the Oswald character to the production house.

Mickey Mouse

Disney soon developed Mickey Mouse in 1928 to replace Oswald and launched the character with the animated film Steamboat Willie. It was a black-and-white film but what distinguished this was the brilliant usage of synchronized sound with all the sounds being provided by Disney himself. He strongly believed that cartoons with synchronized sound were the future. Steamboat Willie was one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, as well as one of the first cartoons to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack.

Colors

After making a dent in the animation industry with synchronized sound, Disney partnered with Technicolor company to produce the first full-color animation Flowers and Trees, debuting the three-color technique which soon became a standard in the industry. It went on to win the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Good to note that, the Flowers and Trees was part of the Silly Symphony series, which also gave another famous character — the Donald Duck.

Walt Disney ruled the American animation industry for over 3 decades with the creation of several popular characters. His last animated feature film was The Jungle Book (1967) which was also a huge commercial success. Unfortunately, Disney died during the production in 1966.

Japanese Anime

While a great part of this journey had been centered toward the West, the animators in Japan were creating a revolution on their own!

Japanese Animation or anime employs a limited-animation technique that prioritizes aesthetics over motion, unlike American animation. Additionally, it employs a "cinematic" style that includes zooming, panning, intricate dynamic shots, and places a lot of emphasis on background details that contribute to establishing a specific atmosphere. Japanese anime also differentiated itself from its American counterparts, with large-eyed, big-mouthed, and large-headed characters.

Momotaro: Sacred Sailors was the first Japanese feature-length animated film. It was directed by Mitsuyo Seo, who was ordered by the Japanese Naval Ministry to make a propaganda film for World War II.

Toei Animation and Mushi Production were founded and produced the first color anime feature film in 1958, Hakujaden (The Tale of the White Serpent, 1958). Toei animation pioneered the money-shot technique of animation that focuses on cost-cutting. Here significant shots were to be highlighted by adding more intricate details to their animation, while the rest of the work could be with limited animation.

In addition to Western influence, one of the significant influences on Japanese Anime is manga, or Japanese comics. Manga has been a popular medium in Japan for decades, and many anime series are adaptations of popular manga series. The close relationship between manga and anime has allowed for the translation of many popular manga series into anime, providing a wider audience for the stories.

Toonami

Toonami was a programming block that aired on Cartoon Network in the United States, which primarily featured anime series. Toonami played a significant role in popularizing anime in the Western world during the late 1990s and early 2000s. It aired many popular anime series, including Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, Doraemon, Bakugan, Beyblade, Sonic X, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Cardcaptor Sakura and One Piece, which helped to introduce these series to a wider audience popularizing Anime worldwide.

Computer Animation

Computers had entered the world of animation right in the 1940s but it was not until the 1970s that they got popular. It was the rise of the video games that popularized computer-based animation.

One of the first significant milestones in computer animation was the release of Star Wars in 1977. The film featured groundbreaking computer-generated special effects that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in the film industry. Then the release of "Tron" in 1982 was another major milestone, as it was the first feature-length film to use extensive computer-generated effects.

The 1990s saw an explosion of computer animation in film and television, with many studios developing their own in-house animation departments. The success of films like "Toy Story" in 1995 by Pixar-Disney, the first feature-length film entirely animated with computer-generated imagery (CGI), paved the way for a new era of computer animation in the film industry. What Disney did to the traditional animation, Pixar seems to be doing to the computer-generated animation in current times.

Computers have made it possible to bring 3D animation, providing valuable “time” to animators to think more creatively about the depth and complexity of animated films instead of spending time in drawing every frame (although frames are still drawn today, just digitally).

New technologies like cloud rendering, AI-assisted animation, Real-time animation are ensuring that the field of animation is going to evolve and keep entertaining us in new and exciting ways.

A bit on some famous cartoons

Tom and Jerry: When creating Tom and Jerry, the animators (William Hanna and Joseph Barbera) originally planned to use a fox and a dog instead of a cat and a mouse. However, they found it difficult to make the characters look sympathetic, and eventually decided to switch to a cat and a mouse instead.

Popeye: Designed by Elzie Crisler Segar, the character of Popeye was based on a real person named Frank "Rocky" Fiegel, who was known for his tough-guy personality and his love of spinach.

The Road Runner: The Road Runner character was created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese as a response to the popularity of the Wile E. Coyote character, who had been introduced in an earlier cartoon. The animators wanted to create a character that would be faster and more agile than the coyote, and thus the Road Runner was born.

The Pink Panther: The Pink Panther character was originally created for the opening credits of the 1963 film of the same name, but became so popular that he was given his own series of cartoons.

The Powerpuff Girls: The idea for The Powerpuff Girls came to creator Craig McCracken while he was attending the California Institute of the Arts. He was inspired by a drawing he had done of three girls with big eyes, and decided to create a series around them.

Cinderella: Walt Disney had been trying to adapt the story of Cinderella into a film for over a decade, but had been unable to find the right approach. It wasn't until after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that he decided to take another crack at it.

Ed, Edd and Eddy: The characters of Ed, Edd and Eddy were based on real people that creator Danny Antonucci knew from his childhood. He even used their real names for the characters.

Dragon Ball Z: Creator Akira Toriyama originally planned to end the Dragon Ball series after the conclusion of the first storyline, but the series' popularity convinced him to continue it with the introduction of new characters and storylines.

Naruto: The character of Naruto was inspired by a real-life class clown that creator Masashi Kishimoto knew in school. He also drew inspiration from other manga and anime series that he enjoyed, such as Dragon Ball and Akira.

Cardcaptor Sakura: The original manga series for Cardcaptor Sakura was serialized in a monthly magazine for girls, but the anime adaptation was broadcast in a prime-time slot on Japanese television, attracting a wider audience of both children and adults.

Although I have tried to include cartoons from multiple genres, I would be lying if I said there were no personal biases in the selection of the cartoons above :-p

Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts on this article or any feedback you have. This publication is for made for you!

I believe it is very likely that you have watched or heard at least one of the above —beautiful works of animation, to date. Many of you would have spent hours watching them with your friends and family. Today, I will take you on a journey that will cover this beautiful story of the origin and development of animation, right from the beginning.

Along the way, we will learn some of the principles of animation, a bit of science, and illusion.

Let’s start!

Basics, first!

Origin of the term

The word "animation" stems from the Latin "animātiōn", stem of "animātiō", meaning "a bestowing of life". The term was first used in the 16th century to refer to the concept of giving life or spirit to something.

What do we humans need, to do animation?

At a very basic level, any animation requires fast movement of images that are only slightly different from the previous one, to create the illusion of motion.

There are certain nuances, like just moving a series of images quickly will make the images appear blurred and this has to be countered by something — let’s call it, for now, an anti-blur device, which we will discuss later in the article.

From the above, we can figure out a step-by-step process that would require the development of an animated movie.

1. Draw a set of images

2. Move them fast in a sequence

3. Add an Anti-blur device

4. Do all the above at a scale

A good part of the time, till the early 20th century humans took in getting the first three steps right. Then it took just ~50 years to get the fourth step right. And afterward, the development involved “improvements” in each of the steps.

Let’s start the journey now!

Animation in mind, storytelling at hand

The above is an example of humans achieving step 1 of the process — drawing a set of images. While many people who come from film-making backgrounds consider this 5200-year-old work as the most primitive form of animation, there are others who disagree completely saying this has nothing to do with animation particularly.

Whatever the case, the person who drew these 5 images had the motion of the goat in mind. Breaking the motion into 5 intermediate “frames”, the pictures were most likely drawn.

Ancient cave paintings

Many paleolithic cave paintings show attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion to a still drawing. Here animals are sometimes depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions just like how we draw shaded or dashed lines to depict the motion happening in the next frame or future.

We even have examples of the classic animation effect of “dissolve” or “fade” being thought during paintings. In another series of cave paintings shown below, you can see the attempt being made of showing a disappearing animal.

A 4000-year-old mural work was found in Egypt, that features a very long series of images apparently depicting the sequence of events in a wrestling match.

Attempts of adding motion

Thaumatrope

A thaumatrope is an optical toy with a disk featuring pictures on each side, attached to two strings. Twirling the strings quickly between the fingers causes the pictures to blend into one due to the persistence of vision.

A sandstone plaque discovered in the paleolithic Isturitz Cave shows a reindeer on one side standing upright but probably wounded (with an arrow sign on its flank). Its rear members, stiffened, are sliding forwards. On the other side a reindeer, seemingly the same individual, is found lying down, its four legs folded under the body slipping away from the ground.

Persistence of Vision

Persistence of vision refers to the optical phenomena where even after an image has disappeared from our visual field, the brain retains an afterimage of the image for a brief moment. This afterimage blends with the next image we see, creating the illusion of motion. This phenomenon is considered one of the reasons that make animation possible.

A quick example of this phenomenon would be — a fast-rotating disc with a colored dot on it, will appear making a full circle of the same color.

Revolving lantern

In ancient China before 1000 CE, people used lanterns that could rotate and create moving images. These lanterns were called "trotting horse lamps." They were made of hexagonal, cubical, or round shapes, with paper cut-outs of horses and riders attached to a shaft. The lantern would be heated by a lamp, causing the air inside to rise and rotate the shaft.

The moving silhouettes were projected onto the thin paper sides of the lantern, creating the illusion of chasing each other. Some versions of the lamp even had extra movement in the figures' heads, feet, and hands by using fine iron wires. These lanterns were mostly used to show images of horses and horse riders.

Magic lantern

Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens is considered one of the possible inventors of the magic lantern. It is an early type of image projector consisting of a box with a light source, typically a candle or an oil lamp, and a lens at the front. A glass slide or a hand-painted image is placed in the middle of the box, in front of the light source. When the light is turned on, it passes through the image and is projected onto a flat surface, such as a wall or a screen.

The image on the slide is magnified and projected onto the surface, making it much larger and brighter than the original image. The lens in the magic lantern can be adjusted to focus the image, and the box can be moved closer or farther away from the surface to adjust the size of the image.

So how does this do animation?

Many techniques were developed to add motion to the projected images. These usually involved moving parts like limbs by hand or small mechanisms across a stationary slide which showed the rest of the picture. Popular subjects for mechanical slides included the sails of a windmill turning, a procession of figures, a drinking man lowering and raising his glass to his mouth, a head with moving eyes, a nose growing very long, rats jumping in the mouth of a sleeping man.

Phenakistiscope: The First Widespread Animation Device

Before we jump into understanding this beautiful device, we need to understand one important effect — the Stroboscopic Effect.

The stroboscopic effect is a phenomenon that occurs when a series of still images, or flashes of light, are presented in rapid succession, creating the illusion of motion.

To understand consider the wheel shown below. It is rotating in a clockwise direction. Consider the wheel rotating in a dark room and your friend flashing a torch light at a frequency such that at every flash, the wheel has rotated by 340 degrees. Now if you will look at the “yellow” marked spoke, the wheel will appear to rotate anti-clockwise.

If instead, your friend flashed the light such that the wheel rotated by 360 degrees at every flash, then the wheel would appear completely stationary!

Another example is shown below. The clock hand is rotating at the exact same speed. But due to different frequencies of light, the hand either appears to be moving fast, stationary or opposite.

So how is this all related to “animation”?

Animation works by creating the illusion of motion through a series of still images, just like the stroboscopic effect. In animation, individual drawings or frames are created, each slightly different from the previous one, and when they are shown in quick succession, they create the illusion of motion.

In today’s digital era, we have “FPS” (Frames per second), where multiple frames “flicker” in a second. In the early 19th century, to create this flicker and the stroboscopic effect, the light was blocked physically using slits or channels.

Phenakisticope was the first widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion using this stroboscopic effect. The phenakisticope was invented almost simultaneously around December 1832 by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and the Austrian professor of practical geometry Simon Stampfer.

It consists of a spinning disk with a series of still images arranged around the perimeter. When viewed through slots in the disk over a mirror while it's spinning, the images appear to be moving smoothly.

Problems—

1. Most forms of phenakisticope required a mirror to view the animation.

2. Only one person could view the animation at a time.

Zoetrope

Zoetrope is basically a cylindrical variation of the phenakisticope.

It is made up of a cylinder with vertical cuts on its sides. The cylinder has a strip of pictures on the inside that are in a sequence. When the cylinder spins, you look through the cuts, and the pictures appear to move smoothly. The slits provide the stroboscopic effect and prevent the pictures from blurring together, and your brain perceives them as a series of moving images.

This solved the requirement for a mirror as now the animation can be viewed on the opposite wall of the cylinder from the slits. Also, more than one person could view the animation through the different slits. Zoetrope was invented by William Ensign Lincoln in 1865, almost 3 decades after phenakisticope had been invented.

Problems—

1. Only very basic animation with a limited number of images could be made. Animation lasting just 2-3 seconds, with 8-16 images. We needed more.

2. Although the animation “worked”, it still had those intermittent black bars appearing for a fraction of a second.

Flip book

A flipbook uses the principle of persistence of vision instead of the stroboscopic effect to create the illusion of animation. Instead of relying on slits or slots, a flipbook is a series of still images printed on the pages of a book. When you flip through the pages quickly, your brain combines the individual images into a smooth, continuous motion.

The different images don’t get blurred because here each image is getting replaced completely in one attempt and not getting slid over by the other. The flipbook was the closest thing to the current digital FPS system where each frame was just a different image on individual papers.

The first flipbook was patented by John Barnes Linnett in 1868.

Problems—

1. Although flipbook increased the number of images that could be used for animation by several times, we still needed more.

2. It was tedious and after several repeated uses of the flipbook, the animation quality suffered due to the wear and tear of the book and the reduction in the springiness of the papers.

More improvements

Praxinoscope

This was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. It was an improvement over Zoetrope. Instead of slits, it had an inner circle of mirrors that rotated and reflected the images placed on the outer rim. As the mirrors rotated, they created the illusion of motion by rapidly displaying the images in succession.

Projecting Praxinoscope (We are developing fast!!)

Reynaud improved his Praxinoscope by adding a lens and projecting the reflection of the mirror.

Théâtre Optique (longer films!)

In 1888 Reynaud developed the Théâtre Optique, an improved version capable of projecting images on a screen from a long roll of pictures.

Using this device, Reynaud created 5 short-animated films.

• Pauvre Pierrot (created in 1892),

• Un bon bock (created in 1892, now lost),

• Le Clown et ses chiens (created in 1892, now lost).

• Autour d'une cabine (created in 1894)

• A rêve au coin du feu (created in 1894)

This collection was named Pantomimes Lumineuses. Each of the short films lasted 10 to 15 minutes per film and contained 300 to 700 frames manipulated to create the animation. The series became very popular and between 1892 and 1900, Reynaud gave over 12,800 shows to more than 500,000 visitors at the Musée Grévin in Paris. He added live piano music, songs, and some dialogue accompanying the films, while some sound effects were synchronized with an electromagnet.

Let’s watch Pauvre Pierrot —the very first animated cartoon!

Sadly, Reynaud was not only a pioneer in the world of cinema but also an early casualty of the exploitation that rapidly spread throughout the industry. He was employed by the Musée Grévin under an incredibly unfair agreement. Despite the enormous success of Pantomimes Lumineuses, he received only a small share of the profits and eventually went bankrupt.

Frustrated and hopeless, he destroyed the Théâtre Optique and threw most of his films into the Seine river. Today, only fragments of "Pauvre Pierrot" and the 1894 film "Autour d'une Cabine" remain as evidence of his brilliance.

Zoopraxiscope

This animation device was invented by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879. It was capable of displaying more detailed and realistic images as it was based on actual photographs rather than hand-drawn illustrations (of Praxinoscope).

If you remember from our discussion on the Evolution of camera, George Eastman pioneered the use of photographic film and came up with a revolutionary Box Camera, called “The Kodak Camera”, in 1888.

Human Work History

⌛🪶 The Evolution of Camera 📸

We will be going on a journey that involves hard work, sheer patience, fun, struggle and moments of awe, just to collect, record, and store “light”. Yes! Photography, at a very basic level, is just that. Collecting, recording, and storing the light that comes from a specific point and at a specific time…

Read more

4 years ago · 2 likes · Arjit Raj

So, you can now see two completely different and seemingly unrelated fields — animation and photography crossing each the paths of each other.

As we will see in our next article, the second part of this story, how both fields contributed to each other and led the development of extremely popular and engaging cartoons and animated films of the modern times.

Sound, 3D, special effects, lighting, multiple layers, mass production and much more!

Stay tuned for the second part of the story!

Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts on this article or any feedback you have. This publication is for made for you!

The stock market has been responsible for making countless individuals millionaires and billionaires throughout history. Arguably, it is one of the greatest inventions of mankind.

While the stock market has certainly had its share of ups and downs over the years, it has also been a force for good in the world. From funding life-saving medical research to supporting innovative new technologies, the history of the stock market is a story of hope and progress.

To the inexperienced, the “stock market” may give an image of a fierce field cluttered with jargons, numbers, charts and graphs. Don’t worry! I will take you on this journey while explaining everything in layman's terms.

Let’s begin!

Debt: Farmers needed money!

In the 11th century France, banks hired men to manage and regulate debts given to farmers. These men called courtiers de change also took part in the “trading” of debts and can be said to be the first brokers.

Trading of debts: Exchanging a high-risk, high-interest loan contract with a different loan contract of another person.

In 1409, in the city of Burges (Belgium), commodity traders gave a name to their informal meeting place as “Burgse Beurse” which was a place at a market square containing an inn owned by a family called Van der Beurze. This is often considered the early form of a “stock market exchange”. (Although it will take around two centuries for a “stock” to enter the picture).

The idea of a common place for trading spread all across Europe and many countries started to define the place for stock market exchange: first the Italians (Borsa), but soon also the French (Bourse), the Germans (börse), Russians (birža), Czechs (burza), Swedes (börs), Danes and Norwegians (børs).

In most languages, the word coincides with that for money bag, dating back to the Latin bursa. The word budget evolved from the french word "bougette" meaning a bag or wallet.

Government needed money

In the mid-13th century the government of Venice started raising money from moneylenders through government debts (often called using fancy term Government security) for various projects. Down the line, the moneylenders started trading these government securities with individual traders.

In simplest terms — government security is a type of loan made by an investor to a government, in exchange for a promise to receive the principal amount plus interest at a future maturity date. Investors can sell these securities in the open market, before the maturity date. Similarly, another buyer can purchase such securities from another investor instead of buying from the government. Basic rules of supply and demand, determine the price of such securities.

The idea of trading in government securities soon spread to other cities of Europe and in 1531, Belgium got the first formal stock exchange setup in Antwerp. “Stocks” were still not in the picture.

First Joint Company

In the 1600s, sea voyages from Europe to East Indies (countries in South East Asia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand etc.) were common. Every successful round trip brought lots of wealth to the ship owners.

But, the sea voyages were very risky affairs.

Attacks by pirates, bad weather, poor navigation, and outbreak of a disease were some of the common risks associated with the ship’s journey. Ship owners used to seek investors who would finance their voyages in exchange for a share of the profits if the journey was successful, in order to reduce the risk of losing a ship and their fortunes.

This practice, which involved outfitting the ship and crew, created early forms of limited liability companies that typically lasted for one voyage only. After each trip, the company would be dissolved, and a new one would be established for the next voyage.

The formation of East India Companies (EICs) changed this one-ship-investment method forever. These companies issued stock — a certificate of proof for a small a fraction of ownership, that would pay dividends — fraction of profits on all the proceeds from all the voyages the companies undertook, rather than going voyage by voyage. These were the first modern joint-stock companies.

First Public Company & First Stock Exchange

The British East India Company was formed in 1600 and the Dutch East India Company was formed two years later, in 1602. Not only this, in the same year the Dutch EIC also got its stock publicly traded with the formation of the first stock exchange — the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The Dutch EIC dominated the industry and quickly became a monopoly in the spice trade.

Elsewhere in the Europe many smaller EICs were coming up, all with their own issue of shares. In London, it was common for traders and investors to meet at coffee shops for buying/selling of shares. Very soon the demand for a common place for such activity led to the formation of stock exchanges in different places. Paris Bourse came up in 1724, London Stock Exchange in 1773.

The word and idea spread to different continents and the first stock exchange in the United States, Philadelphia Stock Exchange was founded in 1790 followed by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1817 which soon became the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization.

Futures & Options

Any discussion on the history of the stock market would be incomplete without touching Futures and Options. Let’s first quickly understand what these are and then we will dive into the history. (You can skip directly to the history part, if you are well versed with these).

Simple Explanation of Futures

A farmer grows cotton and sells it to a garment manufacturer. The time between the start of farming and selling to the manufacturer takes 6 months. In a regular scheme of things, the farmer has to do an initial investment in a hope that after 6 months he will be able to sell the product at a profitable price. The manufacturer on the other hand, also “expects” to be able to purchase the raw material cotton at a price just enough to make a profit on his final product — garments.

But in a 6-month period, anything can happen. The market price of cotton can fall (leading to a loss for the farmer) or it can increase (leading to loss for the manufacturer). To mitigate this “risk”, both farmer and manufacturer enter into a contract before the start of the farming. They decide on a price that will be good for both and sign the contract — before the farming begins. So, irrespective of what happens in the market in the future, the farmer will sell (and the manufacturer will buy) the cotton at the decided price in the future. This is called a “Forward contract”.

“Futures” are just formalized “Forward contracts” which can be traded by one farmer or manufacturer to another.

History of Futures

The first recorded instance of forward contracts can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in the 3rd millennium BCE. Merchants used contracts to secure the delivery of goods at a future date and price, providing a way to manage the risk of price fluctuations.

Trading was conducted on the roads around Dojima Rice Exchange. Water was scattered to drive off people who stayed after official trading had ended for the day.

The first futures market in the modern sense was established in Osaka, Japan at the Dōjima Rice Exchange, in 1697. It was created to allow farmers to hedge against the risk of crop failures and price fluctuations by selling contracts for future delivery of rice. The first futures market in the United States was established in the 19th century in Chicago, which became a center for agricultural futures trading.

Simple Explanation of Options

Example 1: Let’s say you are looking to purchase a flat. You ask a flat owner to reserve the flat for you for $100,000 to be paid after 6 months. And for this reservation, you give a token amount of $1000 to the flat owner.

So, if after 6 months the market price of the flat rises to $120,000, you will be able to purchase it at $100,000. But if the market price falls to $90,000 you can choose not to buy it (as you can buy it from the market at a lower price). In this case you will have to bear the loss of the token amount.

This is an example of a call option. It gives you, the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase an asset at a predetermined price within a certain time frame expiration date. This helps you decrease the risk of a “price increase” of an asset.

Example 2: Now let’s say you are a happy owner of the flat. You now decide to pay a premium amount of $1000 to an insurance company who will pay you $80,000 in case something bad happens to your flat in the next 6 months period.

This is a rough example of a put option. It gives you the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specific underlying asset at a predetermined price within a certain time frame. This helps you decrease the risk of a “price decrease” of an asset.

History of Options

Options have a long history that can be traced back to ancient Greece, where philosopher Thales of Miletus is said to have made a fortune by using options to predict the harvest of olives. Thales reportedly paid a premium to farmers for the right to use their olive presses during the harvest season and then rented out the presses at a higher price to others once the harvest proved to be successful.

In the 17th century, options began to take a more modern form with the development of the tulip trade in the Netherlands. Tulip growers would sell options on the right to buy their bulbs at a future date, allowing buyers to speculate on the price of tulips without having to take physical possession of them.

In the 19th century, options trading became more formalized with the establishment of organized exchanges in the United States. The first organized options market was the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), which was founded in 1973 and initially traded call options on a limited number of stocks.

Open Outcry

Open outcry is a traditional method of conducting financial markets, which involves traders shouting and using hand gestures to communicate buy and sell orders on a trading floor. It is also known as "pit trading" because traders typically stand in a circular or rectangular pit, surrounded by a larger group of spectators who watch the activity.

This is what you would have seen in movies like Wall Street (1987) or TV series like Scam 1992.

Traders use hand signals to quickly communicate whether they wish to sell or buy. While different exchanges have different hand signals, the basics are quite similar.

To sell, traders show signals with palms facing out and hands away from the body, while to buy, they face their palms in and hold their hands up. One to five is gestured using one hand, and six to ten are gestured in the same way but held sideways at a 90-degree angle.

For instance, the index finger out sideways indicates six, two fingers indicate seven, and so on. Gesturing numbers from the forehead represent blocks of ten, and blocks of hundreds and thousands can also be displayed. Besides numbers, traders use hand signals to indicate months, specific trade or option combinations, or other market information.

It was also common for the broker to wear a “Trading Jacket” — a blazer brightly colored and distinctive so individual traders and the financial firm they work for can be easily identified.

As of 2023, very few stock exchanges carry out this method of trading. Most of them have switched to electronic forms.

There are many sub-topics related to Stock markets that have an interesting history behind them. Bubbles and market crashes, short-selling, mutual funds, stock market indices, and stock regulations.

Let me know in the below poll if you would be interested in an article covering these.

Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts on this article or any feedback you have. This publication is for made for you!

Need for sports: Now and Then

If you ask this question to a sports person today, most likely the answer will be some version of self-interest. Fun, fitness, making my nation proud, fulfilling dreams of my parents etc.

But…

In old days, it was quite opposite. People rarely practiced sports for their own sake. Warfare preparations, religious rituals, or providing entertainment to the kings, were the top reasons and need for sports.

The Oldest Sport

The oldest sport in the world is believed to be wrestling.

It is easy to understand the reason why this sport grew in popularity ahead of others. Wrestling doesn’t require any equipment or playing field, making it accessible and easy to practice in ancient times. Plus, the need for sports as in military and warfare, made wrestling a simpler method to find stronger person and train them with other combat skills.

Evidence of wrestling as a sport date back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Sumer and India, where images and descriptions of wrestling matches have been found in tombs and on ancient pottery. The sport has also been depicted in ancient Babylonian, Chinese, and Japanese art.

Wrestling as a sport also has seen a dark phase. In ancient Rome, some slaves were forced to fight each other to the death, also known as "gladiatorial combat”. This was done for many reasons — a method of providing justice or just for entertainment!

Sports in Ancient Times

Evidence has been found for many other sports being played in ancient times. Swimming, archery, throwing stones, weightlifting, long jump, sprinting, kabaddi, kho-kho and many others originated several thousands of years ago.

In the Middle Ages, sports evolved into more organized and regulated events, with the development of various codes of conduct and rules. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many modern sports as we know them today were formalized and standardized.

Every sport we know today has its own history. While it will not be possible to cover all of them, let us see the history of the most popular sports of current times. It will give you a fair idea of history of overall sports as well.

Marathon

Marathon has its history from the famous Battle of Marathon.

In 490 BCE, the Greek army, led by Pheidippides, defeated the invading Persian army in the Battle of Marathon. Although the Greeks had been victorious, an attempt of showing a false victory was made by the Persians. Pheidippides saw a Persian vessel changing its direction and moving towards Athens (Greece).

According to legend, sensing the danger, Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of the victory and collapsed from exhaustion after delivering the message, uttering the famous words, "Nenikékamen" (We have won).

It is said that he ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, discarding his weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible.

The distance from Marathon to Athens is ~40 km and so is the length of an actual Marathon race (42.195 km). (Check the image from Google maps, above)

Olympic Games

Ancient Olympic Games

Greece was the first place to formally conduct a sporting event, with the first Ancient Olympic Games being conducted in 776 BCE. These games were always held in Olympia, Greece, every four years to honor Zeus, the king of the gods in Greek mythology. (In Greek, Olympiad refers to the period of 4 years).

The games became an important political tool used by different cities to assert their dominance over their rivals. An Olympic Truce was announced before and during the Olympic Games to ensure the host city state Elis, of which Olympia was one of the towns, was not attacked and athletes and spectators could travel safely to the Games and peacefully return to their respective countries.

Prizes: A branch of the Olive tree intertwined to form a circle and called Olive wreath was given to the winners of the game as prize.

Games: For the first 13 events, from 776 BCE to 728 BCE, Stadion was the only game played. Stadion was a straight-line sprint race of just over 192 metres. Gradually, different forms of races of varying lengths, horse race, cart race, wrestling, boxing, discus and long jump games were introduced.

The last Ancient Olympic Game was played in 393 AD. Historians cite the reason for the end was a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus.

Modern Olympic Games

Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. 14 nations and 241 athletes participated in the games. Unlike the ancient games where all the events were held in Athens, the IOC decided to rotate the games to different cities and the second Olympics was held in Paris.

Prizes: Initially, Silver and Copper medals were awarded to the winners and runners-up. This was later changed to gold, silver and bronze medals for the first three place winners.

Games: 9 sports — athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling were part of the first modern Olympics.

Football (or Soccer)

The earliest known game of football is Cuju — a Chinese game played in 3rd–2nd century BC. The gameplay involved two teams with 12–16 players on each side and kicking a ball through an opening into a net without the use of hands. Cuju flourished for several centuries with improvement in both competitiveness and gameplay. But by the 17th century the game had started to decline primarily due to neglect.

Ancient Romans and Greeks also had many versions of ball games. One of them was Episkyros — a game played by the Greeks which was comparable to rugby and football. All over the world different forms of foot & ball games were being played.

In medieval ages, a form of football played in England, called "mob football", would be played in towns or between neighbouring villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams who would clash with objective to move an item, such as inflated animal's bladder to particular pre-decided point.

Football was also banned several times due to various reasons. Political unrest, wars, recession and hooliganism were the top reasons for the bans. Despite this, the popularity of the sport kept growing all over the world, especially in Europe.

The modern version of soccer as we know it today, originated in England in the 19th century. The first official soccer match was played in 1863, and the first international match was played between Scotland and England in 1872.

The FIFA World Cup, the most prestigious international soccer tournament, was first held in 1930.

Basketball

The game of basketball has very interesting and different history.

Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith was tasked to create an indoor sports game to help athletes keep in shape in cold weather. We are talking of the time December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

At first, he kept two big baskets on floor, at opposite sides of an indoor court. Playing with a soccer ball, he divided his class of 18 students into two teams of 9 each. The objective of the game was to put the ball in the basket.

Soon, a problem was found. As the baskets were on floor, multiple players would completely surround the basket preventing any successful attempt of throwing the ball in basket. Naismith then came up with the idea of hanging at a height so that no one could cover it. Every time a point was scored, the game was halted so the janitor could bring out a ladder and retrieve the ball. After a while, the bottoms of the fruit baskets were removed.

The first public basketball game was played in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1892.

Bat-Ball Games: Baseball & Cricket

The origins of bat and ball games are often debated, and the precise origin or evolution of different games is difficult to determine.

One of the earliest stick-ball game called la soule was played in France, in 14th century. The play involved getting a ball to the opponents’ goal, using hands, feet or sticks. Another game called Rounders was popular in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 1700s. Many historians believe Baseball evolved from this game, in North America.

The first recorded game of baseball played in the United States was on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey, between the New York Nine and the Knickerbockers.

A sport called “Stoolball” is also considered as a common ancestor of both Cricket, Rounders and Baseball. Stoolball had the concepts of fielding, throwing a ball underarm, an over of 8 balls, a vertical wicket, pitch of 16 yards and two teams of 11 players each.

There is evidence of the game Cricket being played as early as the 16th century in England. The first recorded international cricket match was played between the USA and Canada in 1844, and the first official test match was played between England and Australia in 1877.

Tennis

The earliest version of Tennis was played in France, where it was known as jeu de paume (game of the palm) and was played with bare hands. The game involved hitting a ball back and forth over a net using the palm of the hand. (Although racquets were soon introduced).

In the 16th century, the game evolved to include the use of rackets, and the modern version of tennis began to take shape. The first tennis racket was made of wood and had a handle similar to that of a modern racket. The game was played primarily by the aristocracy and was seen as a leisure activity for the wealthy.

The first tennis club was established in Leamington Spa, England in 1872, and the first tennis tournament was held at the All-England Club in Wimbledon, England in 1877. The sport quickly gained popularity and was one of the sports in the 1896 Olympic event (the first modern Olympic game).

So, that was the brief history of some of the major sports. To make this discussion more thorough, let’s discuss two important topics.

Women in Sports

Women have often faced significant barriers and discrimination in sports based on their gender, but their perseverance have kept them involved in sports in various capacities throughout history.

Heraean Games

Heraean Games, was a women’s athletic event that was dedicated to the Goddess Hera. It was held before each of the ancient Olympic games as a separate event at the stadium in Olympia. The games, which consisted of 500-ft races, allowed only unmarried women both as competitor and spectators.

Spartan Women

There was a belief (fortunately) in Sparta, a state in ancient Greece, that a physically fit woman would produce strong children. This belief helped Spartan women enjoy active participation in sports. They began to practice the same athletic exercises that men did, exhibiting the qualities of Spartan soldiers.

Modern Era

Till 19th century, most of the sports involving women were more informal and of a recreational nature. Competitive and organized sports for women started to evolve during this period.

One of the earliest organized sports for women was croquet, which became popular in the mid-19th century. Women's tennis tournaments were also organized around this time, and women's golf became popular in the early 20th century.

However, it wasn't until the 1920s that women's sports began to gain significant recognition and support. In 1922, the Women's World Games were held in Paris, and in 1928, women's track and field events were added to the Olympic Games for the first time.

Slavery and sports

Slavery and sports have a complex history, with instances of the exploitation and surprisingly, even empowerment of enslaved individuals through physical activity and competition.

As discussed earlier, in ancient Roman civilizations, slaves were often forced to participate in physical labor and brutal sporting events, such as gladiatorial contests. In America, slavery had a lasting impact on the development of many sports, particularly those played by African Americans. For example, some historians believe that the game of basketball was influenced by the Harlem Renaissance (an intellectual and cultural revival of African American art forms) and the cultural expression of black people in the early 20th century.

It is also believed that many of the “current” racial discrimination has its roots going back to the slave-owner dynamics practiced 400 years ago.

However, sports were also used as a means of resistance and empowerment for enslaved individuals and later, African Americans. During slavery, physical activity was often one of the few outlets for enslaved people to express their humanity and physical abilities.

Sports also served as a way for African Americans to resist and challenge the racial barriers imposed upon them, as well as to assert their dignity and worth. This can be seen in the formation of early black baseball leagues and the integration of professional sports in the mid-20th century.

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Things to ponder

So, that was the brief history of sports.

Sports is not only limited to just humans. Many animals have been found to take part in leisure activities often. But competitive sports? Well… that’s a different game and we have evolved to keep evolving new games every year!

Questions:

• Why are the years 1800, 1900, and 2100 not leap years, despite being divisible by 4?

• Furthermore, why do we even have to take a leap every few years?

• Why is September not the seventh month, October not the 8th, November not the 9th and December not the 10th month?

• When does the calendar “starts”? Which year is the zero year?

We will get the answer to all these questions and more, in today’s article.

Let’s start the journey of the evolution of the calendar. A journey that will involve astronomy, astrology, religion, politics, science, economics and a lot of common sense.

Need of having a calendar

In current times it is hard to imagine life without a calendar. We anxiously wait for Mondays to go and Fridays to come. Holidays, birthdays, festivals and important events of the past and future — all these are possible because of the calendar.

Several thousands of years ago, the need for a calendar was primarily limited to three things. Maintaining cycles of agricultural activities, handling livestock and offering prayers to deities.

For example, the month of November was earlier referred to as “Blod-monath” in the Anglo-Saxon culture. It was the month of immolation, the month of sacrifice. It was in this month that the cattle were slaughtered and dedicated to the gods.

Some basic stuff

Before we jump into the details, it is important to get some important concepts clear. It will help you in understanding and enjoy this journey of the calendar’s evolution.

What is a day?

Many of us believe that “day” refers to the time taken for the earth to complete one rotation about its axis. Well, that time is referred to as what is called “Sidereal day”.

The day that we use in our daily lives is technically called “Solar day”. Let’s understand the difference in simple words.

Put a stick on the ground. On a sunny day, when the sun is exactly overhead, at the highest point in the sky, the stick will form the shortest shadow or no shadow at all. This is what we call “noon”. The time between two consecutive noon is what is referred to as “solar day”, or simply a “day” in general.

The mean of all such solar days throughout the year is called “Mean solar day” and is equal to 24 hours or 86400 seconds, exact.

So how is this different from the time taken to complete one rotation (the sidereal day)?

The difference occurs because when the earth rotates around its axis, it also revolves around the sun. Refer to the figure above. After exactly one rotation, the stick (the red arrow), is still not perfectly below the sun. The earth has to rotate a bit more. For about 4 minutes extra and reach position 3.

From position 1 to position 2, is the sidereal day. And from position 1 to position 3 is the solar day.

Solar Year (or Tropical Year)

Solar Year is equal to 365.24217 mean solar days. This is our Target! This is what humanity has been trying to track and keep our lives in sync with.

Lunar month (or Synodic month)

The synodic month refers to the average period required by the moon to orbit the earth, with respect to the line joining the earth and the sun. This is slightly longer than the lunar month, which refers to the time required by the moon to orbit the earth with respect to the faraway fixed stars. This difference occurs because while the moon is revolving around the earth, the earth also moves ahead revolving around the sun.

The Moon completes one orbit around Earth every 27.3 days — a sidereal month. Due to Earth's orbital motion around the Sun, the Moon takes ~29.5 days — a synodic month, also called Lunar month in general.

Intercalation

This refers to the insertion of “leap” days, weeks, or months to a calendar year, in order to match the calendar year with the “target”— usually the Solar year.

Equinox

The moment when the Sun appears directly above the equator.

This results in the day and night being approximately equal all over the planet. This occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September.

Solstice

The moment when the Sun appears at the extreme far away — either north or south of the equator.

This results in the longest (or shortest) day and shortest (or longest) night in either the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere. This also occurs twice each year, around 21 June and 21 December.

Equinoxes and Solstices were often used as reference points to compare the accuracy of the calendar with the solar cycle.

Let’s start tracking the time

Now that we have covered the basics, let’s see how humanity developed means and systems to track time and its repetitive nature.

Prehistoric Era

So far, historians have identified the presence of megalith structures that are believed to be developed for the purpose of timekeeping. (Megalith refers to a large stone or group of stones cut or placed for some purpose, in prehistoric times). Some examples:

Wurdi Youang

This is the name given to a stone arrangement of around 100 basalt stones, found in Australia. It is estimated to be 11,000 years old and considered by some historians the oldest astronomical observatory in the world.

As shown in the figure above, the alignment of stones marks the positions of the setting sun at the equinoxes and solstices. The alignment is accurate to within a few degrees.

Warren Field

Another structure built around 8000 BC was discovered in Scotland. It contains 12 pits that are believed to correlate with the 12 phases of the moon. It is considered to be the oldest Lunar calendar yet found.

Ancient Calendars

Sumerian

The Sumerian calendar was an ancient lunar calendar based on the lunar cycles and used in Sumer, the first civilization in the world. Believed to have been created around 2100 BC, the calendar divided the year into 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days. This made the Sumerian year to be of 354 days (=12 x 29.5).

This also created a difference of 11 days from the solar year of 365 days.

To account for this difference intercalation of a leap month was added irregularly every 2-3 years. Every new month began with the sighting of the new moon. There was no concept of weeks in this calendar.

Babylonian

However, by the 5th century BC, it was realized by Sumerians and Babylonians that the lunar cycles and solar cycles can be combined as a lunisolar cycle of 19 solar years being almost equivalent to 235 lunar months.

For math lovers: 19 x 365 = 6935 and 29 x 29.5 = 6932.5

This cycle of 235 lunar months or 19 solar years was called as Metonic Cycle, named after Meton of Athens, a Greek astronomer and mathematician. This cycle formed the basis of the Greek and Hebrew calendars.

This led to the usage of 12 short years of 12 months and 7 long years of 13 months, making total of 12 x 12 + 13 x 7 = 235 months. 

The years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 were taken as long years of 13 months, with rest years being of 12 months The complete period of 19 solar year being referred as “The Great Year”. 

Roman

The Romans in the first century BC used a 10-month calendar in which a month was 30 or 31 days, making a total of 304 days. In this, about 50 days of unorganized winter were added every year.

This calendar is attributed to Romulus, the legendary founder and first king of Rome.

The word "calendar" is derived from the word “calends” which is the first day of every month in the Roman calendar.

Naming of Months: Here comes the interesting part and the answer to one of the questions asked at the beginning of the article —

In the calendar of Romulus, the numbering of months was as follows:

March (1), April (2), May (3), June (4), July (5), August (6), September (7), October (8), November (9), and December (10).

March was named after Mars, the God of war; April after Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love; May after Maia, the mother of the Greek God Hermes; June after Juno, another Roman Goddess; July, after Roman General Julius Caesar; and August (after Roman emperor Caesar Augustus)

The last 4 months from September to December were indeed named after the Latin names of seven (septem), eight (octo), nine (novem), and ten (decem).

Later, January (after Janus, the God of beginnings) and February (after februum, Latin for purification) were added above March, taking the year to 354 days.

Julian Calendar: The big leap!

The Roman Calendar soon evolved into a very complex 24-year calendar. This had a year of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, which itself alternated between 377 and 378 days long. Added to this complexity, the system had an 8-year period, which had only 3 intercalary years of 377 days each.

Thus, 13 normal years of 355 days, 7 intercalary years of 377 days, and 4 intercalary ears of 378 days.

While the system was complex, it gave a very accurate average of 365.25 days over the period of 24 years.

So, what was the problem?

Politics!

The task (and authority) of adding the intercalary years was of the highest priests and politicians, who often (similar to current times), abused their power. They would often lengthen or shorten the year in order to increase their time in office (or reduce the same of their opponents!)

Julius Caesar intended to solve this problem permanently, by creating a calendar that remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention. The new calendar, by the name Julian calendar, came into being on 1 January 45 BC.

The Julian calendar added 10 days to the previous 355-day calendar. Making it a total of 365 days. These 10 days were distributed across the 12 months, with some months getting 2 extra days and some getting one extra day. Every 3 years, 1 day was added to the month of February, giving a leap year of 366 days.

This resulted in the Julian calendar being 365.25 days on average. But remember the solar year is of 365.24217 days. So, although very accurate and simple, the Julian calendar drifted by 3 days over every 400 years, compared to the observed equinox times.

Math lovers: 365.25 days minus 365.2417 days = +0.00783 days/year drift 
0.00783 days/year x 400 years = ~3 days drift.

This was ignored in those times, as 400 years was a big period but will have to be eventually taken into account soon. Before we get into that, we have to jump into AD.

From BC to AD (year zero?)

An important question to think about while making a calendar, is where to fix the starting point. What should be considered as the “Year zero”?

And since it is practically impossible to reach the beginning of time and place all the events scientifically on a timeline, we found a simpler route. Take a particular event and use it as a reference point for all forward and backward dates.

Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman monk, was the person credited for inventing the AD-BC system. The conception or birth of Jesus was chosen to be the landmark event and the AD counting years starting from this event and BC for the years before this. He invented this system in AD 525.

AD stands for “anno Domini” (and not After Death, which some people incorrectly assume). Anno Domini is Latin for "in the year of the Lord".

BC stands for “Before Christ”. There is no concept of zero. AD 1 is immediately preceded by 1 BC, with nothing in between them.

Further, to make the system more neutral and inclusive of non-Christian people, the terminology CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era) are also used. Both systems are numerically equivalent, that is AD 2000 = 2000 CE.

Gregorian

The Julian calendar was immensely successful and lasted for more than 1600 years until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new Gregorian calendar. The new calendar had a minor modification in order to reduce the average length of the year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days. This made it closer to the actual 365.2417 days.

As discussed previously, Julian calendar drifted ahead by 3 days, every 4 centuries. By 1600, the accumulated error had resulted in a drift of about 10 days.

Aloysius Lilius, an Italian doctor, astronomer, philosopher and chronologist, came up with the ingenious proposal of reducing the number of leap years in four centuries from 100 to 97 by making three out of four centurial years common instead of leap years.

Aloysius’s proposal was accepted, and the new Gregorian calendar was prepared by first deleting 10 extra days from the calendar of 1582. The Julian calendar day Thursday, 4 October 1582 was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582.

Final rules of Leap year

1. Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except century years.

2. The centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400.

Hence, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years.

Proposal for increasing accuracy

The difference between the average Gregorian year and the Solar year is 0.00033 days which will result in a drift of ~1 day over a period of 4000 years.

365.2425 — 365.24217 = 0.00033 days/year
0.00033 x 4000 = 1.32 day over a period of 4000 years

To account for this small error, in the 19th century, Sir John Herschel proposed a modification to the Gregorian calendar. The proposal is to make the year 4000, and multiples thereof, a common year instead of a leap year. This would reduce the average year to 365.24225 days, reduce the error to 0.00008 days and make it accurate for ~12,500 years.

Probably because the first usage of this will occur in the far future, in the year 4000, this proposal has not been officially accepted.

Concept of Week and different weekdays

The concept of the week can be traced back to the Sumerians and Babylonians. Babylonians celebrated the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th as "holy days", also called "evil days" (meaning inauspicious for certain activities). On these days, officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest day".

The names of different days of weeks and their origin are as follows: Sunday, day of the Sun; Monday, day of the Moon; Tuesday, day of Tiw (a Proto-Germanic God); Wednesday, day of Woden (a German God); Thursday, God Thor; Friday, German Goddess Frigg; Saturday, Roman God Saturn.

Things to ponder

So, that was the brief history of Calendar.

The development of the calendar brought in the usage of many inventions from other fields. Lenses, telescopes, writing instruments, mathematics, trigonometry, geometry, geology and knowledge of many other subjects were needed along with a lot of patience and perseverance, for tracking the Solar year accurately!

Please vote for below question—

So let’s dive deep into understanding the Barcode!

We will be covering the following two sub-topics.

• Need and the origin of barcodes

• How does barcode work?

Need and the origin of barcodes

The problem: You would have often seen this happen — you go to a small grocery shop, pick an item and tell the shopkeeper the price. If the product is not very common, he will often check multiple sides or a database for the price of that item.

This method is not very scalable and suitable in stores.

During the early 20th century, the number of products in stores all over the world was increasing rapidly. Not just products, but entire new shelves were being added. What was not increasing at the same rate was — the checkout system.

Food Fair, a large supermarket food chain in the United States was one of the first to realize the severity of the problem! The president of the food chain discussed the problem with one of the deans of Philadelphia's Drexel Institute of Technology. The president attempted to persuade the dean to initiate some research into the problem of capturing product information automatically at checkout. Unfortunately, the dean declined.

But…

Bernard Silver, a 24-year-old graduate student, overheard that conversation.

He explained the problem statement to his friend Norman Joseph Woodland, a twenty-seven-year-old graduate student and teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated and intrigued Woodland.

First Attempt

They both made their first working system which used patterns of ink that would glow under ultraviolet light. The system worked, but the ink faded too easily and was expensive.

Note: The overall solution for this problem at a basic level, was to have “something” put on the product, that can be read by “some machine (1)”, quickly and accurately. After the machine reads it, another machine (2) maps that reading to pre-stored data (like price, product name, inventory count, etc) and displayed it to the user.

Great, so back to the topic.

Faith, sacrifice and inspiration

Although the ultraviolet ink-based patterns didn’t work out, the problem motivated Woodland enough to seriously pursue finding the solution. He took his stock market savings, quit the institute and moved to his grandfather’s apartment to spend quality time solving the problem.

Once lying on a beach, Woodland drew Morse code on the sand. Then he extended the dots and dashes of the code downwards making it a pattern of parallel lines — the dashes becoming thick lines, and dots becoming thin lines. The resulting pattern left Woodland pondering. After giving a lot of thought, he was sure that this pattern can work in storing information and can be inexpensively made on paper or plastic.

Reading the code

Another insight from a completely different field came that helped in solving the other part of the puzzle, which was reading the code.

Le de Forest had co-invented Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. The lines varied in their transparency levels. When the film was played, bright light from a 500-watt incandescent light bulb was shone on these parallel lines. The difference in transparency levels of the lines resulted in lights of varying brightness coming on the other side of the film. These were detected by a photo-multiplier tube and converted into electrical waveforms which were then converted to sound by loudspeakers.

Bull’s-eye code

Woodland combined both these ideas — Morse-code-based pattern and Phonofilm-based reading system. He did a modification to the pattern by making them into concentric circles of varying thickness, so that the code can be scanned in any direction. This became known as the bull's-eye code.

Both Woodland and Bernard together filed for the patent for "Classifying Apparatus and Method", in 1949.

Code reader

Remember from our earlier discussion, three things were needed. A code, a machine to read the code, and a machine to process the reading.

Now, the code was ready. The mechanism on how it can be used was ready but on paper. in 1952, Woodland and Silver decided to make their own bull’s eye code reader in the former’s house. The device they came up with was a big desk-size apparatus that had to be wrapped in black oilcloth to keep out the ambient light. Similar to the phonofilm, it also had a 500-watt incandescent light bulb and a photo-multiplier tube, connected to an oscilloscope (an instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages).

When Woodland moved the paper with his bar code, the signal on the oscilloscope jumped. He and Silver had created a device that could electronically read printed material.

The machine to read the code, the code-reader was ready!

Now what?

Despite all the success, it was still difficult to convince the world to accept this. And for fair reasons.

First, to process the information coming out from the code-reader, computers would be needed. In those days, computers were big, cumbersome, expensive and could only perform simple calculations. Retail stores are always on the lookout to maximize space utilization. Convincing them to give up some space for a big refrigerator-sized computer, was not going to happen easily.

Second, the large light source was another expensive thing to deal with. Additionally it created lots of waste heat and could cause eye damage. The worst thing was that only a very small fraction of the emitted light was to be used. A system to focus a large amounts of light into a small space was needed. Lasers were not there!

In retrospect, bar codes were clearly a technology ahead of its time.

In 1952, the patent was granted. Woodland was working at IBM at this time. As a result of Woodland’s persuasion, IBM hired a consultant to evaluate the potential of his invention. The consultant praised but reached the same conclusion that the technology was at least 5 years ahead.

IBM offered to buy the patent, which Woodland declined due to the low price offer. In 1962, Philco (an electronics manufacturer) bought the patent for $15,000 and then later sold it on to RCA, another electronics company.

Not only a “checkout” problem

The need for fast and accurate identification was not limited to only supermarkets and grocery stores. Another industry was facing this problem all over the country — Freight cars. The railroad industry wanted to have a system to track freight cars all over the country. Track a large vehicle moving at high speed, across the country. This was the problem that attracted the attention of David J. Collins who got his master's degree from MIT in 1959.

Collins was working at Sylvania Electric Products, who had build its own computer. What this meant was, that Collins need one machine less! He only now needed the right form of code and a method to scan it.

Collins came up with labels that used groups of orange and blue stripes made of reflective material. Each strip represented a number from 0 to 9. A four-digit number identified the railroad that owned the freight car, and a 6 digit number identified the car itself. It was read using a flash of beam and interpreting the reflection. The system was called “KarTrak ACI (Automatic Car Identification) system.”

The Boston & Maine conducted the first test of this system in 1961, and by 1967 a nationwide code had been adopted. By 1975, a full 90% of US rail cars carried KarTrak labels.

But… it was short-lived.

In just 3 years, KarTrak was abandoned. Lack of consistency, high maintenance requirements, the need for expensive computers and multiple bankruptcies in the industry were the top reasons. Up to 20% of the cars were not read correctly. It was replaced by Automatic equipment identification (AEI) which used Radio Frequency based tags.

New Developments

Collins tried to convince senior management at Sylvania to take the KarTrak system to other fields. Realizing they won’t budge, Collins quit his job at Sylvania and started his own firm Computer Identics Corporation. Within a few years, new technologies started coming into place. Lasers became affordable. Now instead of 500-watt bulbs, a milliwatt helium-neon laser beam could do the job.

Computer Identics installed the first barcode systems at two places. One was at the General Motors plant in Pontiac, Michigan. Here it was used to track the production and distribution of car axles. The second system was installed at General Trading Company in Carlsbad, New Jersey where it was used for directing the shipments to the right channels. Both systems used extremely simple barcodes that required just 2 digits.

The utility of barcodes in industrial settings was proved!

Back to Grocery Industry

Remember from our earlier discussion that the patent for Bull’s eye code of Woodland was ultimately purchased by RCA. In 1966, the National Association of Food Chains, held a meeting on the idea of automated checkout systems, after which RCA started developing a robust system based on Woodland’s code. Kroger grocery chain came forward and volunteered to test it.

Within a few years, a committee was established to set guidelines and also select the optimum code type. Some of the guidelines were —

• Bar codes have to be readable from almost any angle and a good range of distance.

• The code labels should be cheap and easy to print.

• The checkout systems would have to pay for themselves in two and a half years.

The last point was based on a 1970 study by McKinsey & Co, which predicted that the industry would save $150 million a year by adopting the systems. Further, a standardized 11-digit code was developed for identifying products.

The request to design the optimum code was sent to many firms, of which prominent ones were RCA and IBM.

RCA vs IBM: Circle vs Bar

In 1972, RCA did an 18-month test with Krogers in Cincinnati, with their bull’s eye code. Very soon a problem was observed. Printing presses often smeared the ink in the direction of the movement of paper. When this happened to the bull’s eye code, the different concentric circles would get merged, making the code unreadable in multiple directions or sometimes in all directions.

In 1973, IBM with the help of Woodland (the original inventor of the bull’s eye code) developed the UPC (Universal Product Code) which had a rectangular bar code. These codes were printed in the direction of paper movement, so the extra ink would simply make the bars taller, without affecting readability. Murray Eden, another consultant at IBM, added the numbers to the bottom, making it a fail-safe system, to help in case the barcode reader failed to read correctly.

After lots of design discussions and testing, on 3 April 1973, the IBM UPC bar code designed by George Laurer, was selected as the NAFC standard.

The First Scan

National Cash Register (NCR) installed the UPC bar code scanning system at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. At 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974, a single pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first retail product sold with the help of a scanner. The NCR cash register rang up 67 cents.

In 1978 less than one percent of grocery stores nationwide had scanners. By mid-1981, the figure was 10 percent and 8,000 stores per year were converting. Three years later it was 33 percent. And, today more than 60 percent are equipped.

Impact

It was found that the return on investment for a barcode scanner was 41.5%. Within 5 weeks after installing barcode scanners, sales in grocery stores increased by 10–12%. This was happening because the barcode system provided stores with lots of sales data that enabled them to have greater responsiveness to customer habits, needs and preferences. There was also a 1–2% decrease in operating costs for those stores, and this enabled them to lower prices and thereby to increase market share.

The popularity of barcodes took them outside US and Sims Supermarkets was the first location in Australia to use barcodes, starting in 1979.

Now we have many types and variants of barcodes adopted across industries globally. Two-dimensional QR codes which can store much more data have also become common. They have enhanced properties like, readability even if a good portion of the code is damaged.

How barcodes work?

Time to decode the Barcode!

Let's start with something which you would already be knowing. All Barcodes look similar - at least when viewed from distance. They have the same alternating black and white lines (always). Plus there is one more similarity - there are exactly 95 lines of those.

So let's build on from here. There are 95 columns evenly spaced. Some columns appear thicker when a group of columns is of the same color, both black and white. See the top of the barcode below.

Next, when the laser light falls on this set of parallel lines the white lines reflect most of the light while the black lines don't. Now a computer can understand only two numbers - either 0 or 1. So it treats dark lines as 1s and white lines as os - ya it is not so intuitive, but it is so.

Time to go into more detail now.

The first line reflects none of the light (or very less light) - Hence assigned the digit 1. The next line reflects almost all light - hence assigned 0. In the same manner, all columns are assigned the numbers. Total assignations - 95. Note that these numbers are different from the one actually put below. After this, these 95 numbers are grouped into 15 different sections. 12 of these sections are used for the actual visible numbers and the remaining 3 act as guards - Left Guard, Center Guard and Right Guard. You can see that in each bar code the left, the right and the center sections are similar.

The patterns for the left side code are shown below -

The pattern for the right side is similar except that it has an even number of 1s. This helps the computer to figure out which side is left/right, in case the product has been turned upside down! There is one more check for this. All the codes for the left side begin with a 0 while those for the right side begin with a 1, leaving the guards.

Okay now we have got the numbers, what do they actually mean?

1. The very first number decides the type of product - Standard, weighted items, pharmacy, coupons etc.

2. The next 5 sets of numbers tell who the manufacturer of the product is.

3. The next 5 sets of numbers tell the product code.

4. Finally the final digit is called Modulo check character. It is used for error checking. It is an important number, and its functioning is explained below.

To get the Modulo check character:

Add all the digits at odd places. There are 11 digits (leaving the Modulo number)

So for the above figure it is—

0+6+0+2+1+5 = 14 : Multiply it by 3 to get 42

Now add the even digits: 3 +0+0+9+4 = 16

Add both: 42 + 16 = 58.

Now the modulo check number is obtained by subtracting this from the next higher multiple of 10. Here 60 - 58 = 2 --> The Modulo number.

This is how the scanner verifies that the code is correct or not.

Now do barcodes have information on price?

Yes, but not directly. After scanning the barcodes, the scanner sends the code to a central computer and from there it fetches the price. By this the price of the product can be changed accordingly at the central Point of Sale computer.

So, that was the journey taken by multiple industries to make the life of the cashier easy. To create a simple looking black and white stripes of code. The Barcode.

Next time you see a barcode try remembering this story, try decoding it and try sharing it with your friends.

Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts on this article or any feedback you have. This publication is for made for you!

The discovery of fire and the ability to control it was a critical event in the evolution of humans. It enabled humans to eat cooked food, reduce diseases by killing organisms in food, keep predators away, make advanced hunting weapons as well as provide warmth and lighting.

Early methods

Fire occurs naturally due to lightning, forest fires, volcanic activity, and meteorites. The early ways to make a fire would have been to use the hot ashes or burning wood from a forest or grass fire, and then to keep the fire going for as long as possible by adding more combustible material.

Gradually new methods of creating fire were developed that included the use of friction (rubbing two materials against each other), the use of percussion (striking one material with another), or the use solar (focusing sun energy on a small surface).

The modern chemical method led to the development of match sticks, which enabled ‘making’ fire cheap, easy, and safe. And that’s the topic of this article!

The word match comes from the French mèche, a wick, as in a lamp. Both words
probably are derived from the Greek μυξαor the Latin myxa, mixa, or myxus, the wick of a lamp.

Answer will be shared in next newsletter.

Light-bringing Slave

The first primitive version of the “idea” of a matchstick was developed in the 6th century AD by women living in Northern Qi (China). These women were unable to leave the confines of their city to search for tinder, because the city was under siege.

So they dipped small pieces of pine into sulfur. Once the sulfur dried up, the stick would burst into flame with just a small spark (which was created by the friction method of rubbing sticks). These sulfur-dipped sticks were called "light-bringing slaves", and their later commercial name was changed to 'fire inch stick'.

One question: From where did the sulfur come?

Sulfur was often found in elemental form and also as sulfide and sulfate minerals. A natural form of sulfur known as shiliuhuang was known in China since the 6th century BC. In ancient times, sulfur was also called “Brimstone”, which means burning stone. The importance of sulfur discovery and usage will be found again during the discovery of gunpowder, which also happened in China.

Spills and Spill Vase

Around the 10th century AD, humanity was facing 2 problems in this field.

1. How to create fire quickly in a safe and inexpensive way.

2. How to transfer fire from one place to another in a safe and inexpensive way.

While the same old methods were being used as solutions to problem 1, new ways were being used for the second problem.

In the 15th century AD, the usage of the Spill Vase was common. A spill vase, in its simple form, was a cylindrical vase containing splints, spills, and tapers for transferring fire, from an already-lit fireplace to the required area. Spills were thin objects made of tightly rolled paper tapers or very thin wood sticks (splints). They could burn for a considerable time and allowed the transfer of fire to happen safely.

First self-igniting match

Many chemicals and chemical combinations were discovered that could result in fire. The flammable nature of Phosphorus was discovered by Hennig Brand in 1669, for example. But none of the methods could produce fire in a simple and inexpensive way.

In 1805, Jean Chancel invented the first modern self-igniting match, in Paris. Chancel’s match had a head that consisted of a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulfur, gum arabic, and sugar. It was ignited by dipping the head in sulfuric acid stored in a small asbestos bottle. Although a breakthrough event in this journey, Chancel’s match was dangerous and expensive. This prevented it from becoming a commonplace tool.

Prometheans and Vesuvians

Samuel Jones of London in 1828, patented another self-igniting match which was named “The Promethean match”. This had a small glass capsule containing sulfuric acid and coated on the exterior with potassium chlorate. This entire thing was wrapped up in rolls of paper.

How to achieve fire? Simple. Just take a pair of pliers, crush the capsule and mix all the ingredients. Easy peasy(?!)

In 1849, Heurtner of London invented Vesuvians, sometimes called flamers or wind matches. They were provided with a large pear-shaped head consisting generally of potassium nitrate, powdered charcoal, and wood dust all held together by glue. The head was tipped with regular phosphorus compositions and the stems were made of many materials, including wood, glass, and porcelain.

Both Vesuvians and Prometheans required a bulb of sulfuric acid at the tip which had to be broken to start the reaction. Due to their inherent danger, not-so-easy use, and high cost, such matches failed to get into mass production.

Friction Matches

John Walker, a chemist from England was working on finding the right chemical combination that would easily self-ignite. One day, in 1826, a match that was dipped in a chemical solution fell on the floor of his workplace and caught fire by accidental friction. This was a key moment of discovery and the birth of friction matches.

Walker’s match consisted of wooden splints coated with sulfur and tipped with a mixture of sulfide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum. Camphor was added to improve the odor. It was packed in a box of 50 matches and a piece of sandpaper, (double-folded) was provided with each box.

How to achieve fire? Draw the match through the folded sandpaper to ignite it.

What a progress!!

Between 1827 and 1829, Walker sold 168 boxes of his friction match. The price of a box of 50 matches was one shilling. (around $4.2 in 2022)

While the problem of ease of ignition was almost solved, the problem of safety was still there. Walker’s matches were dangerous and flaming balls sometimes fell to the floor burning carpets and dresses, leading to their ban in France and Germany.

Lucifer’s Matches

In 1829, Sir Isaac Holden improved upon Walker’s match and Samuel Jones patented a modified version of Holden’s match. It was then sold under the name of “Lucifer match”. The lucifer match heads were composed of equal quantities of potash of chlorate, sulfide of antimony and glue.

Despite all improvements (in the speed of ignition, handling safety, etc.), the matches were still dangerous overall. Lucifer matches would often scatter burning fragments and the ignited match head would not always ignite the entire matchstick.

The Phosphorus Saga

The entire history of matches took a significant turn when Charles Sauria, a French chemist substituted the sulfide of antimony in Lucifer matches, with White phosphorus in 1830.

Phosphorus is itself not the fuel but acts as the initiator for the flame. It readily oxidizes in air, but the glue in the lucifer match-head proved to be sufficient protection against premature oxidation. The new match was comprised of white phosphorus (20%), sulfur (15%), potash of chlorate (30%), alum (10%), and glue (25%).

Initially, phosphorus was considered as a fuel element for the match, but when its role as the initiator was realized the phosphorus content of the match was reduced, and only one milligram of phosphorus per match is necessary.

Phosphorus matches were sold under the name of loco foco in United States.

For the next 60 years, the chemical composition of the matches remained nearly the same. Some small improvements were made for different purposes like —

In 1836, János Irinyi a Hungarian Chemist invented a noiseless match, by replacing the chlorate of potash with lead dioxide.

In 1843 William Ashgard replaced the sulfur with beeswax, making the fumes less pungent. It was further replaced by paraffin in 1862 by Charles W. Smith and was sold as “Parlor Matches”.

In 1870 the end of the splint was fireproofed by impregnation with fire-retardant chemicals to prevent the accidental burning of the user's fingers. These were sold as “Drunkard’s matches”.

And then there was… Darkness!

All the goodness of white phosphorus soon came to a big halt when it was discovered as the main cause of a very painful and horrific disease: Phossy Jaw. It was caused by white phosphorus vapor, which destroyed the bones of the jaw and caused serious complications.

The initial symptoms of Phossy Jaw included toothaches and swelling of gums. Within a few weeks it deteriorated to pus formation, recurrent abscesses, formation of sequestrum (a dead bone that has separated from living bone), and disfigurement of the lower part of the face. The disease was extremely painful and depressing to the patient which was made worse by the social stigma and loss of employment. Suicides, depression, and deaths from this disease happened in many places.

The first case of the phossy jaw was diagnosed by physician Lorinser of Vienna in 1839. The patient was a female Viennese matchstick maker who had been exposed to phosphorus vapors over a five-year period.

Matchgirls' strike

Bryant & May, a prominent British match-making company was aware of the phossy jaw. If a worker complained of having a toothache, they were told to have the teeth removed immediately or get fired.

Social activist Annie Besant published an article in her halfpenny weekly paper The Link on 23 June 1888, highlighting the plight of the women workers.

Bryant & May management tried to get their workforce to sign a paper contradicting the article, but the workers refused. A worker got dismissed and this triggered the strike with approximately 1,400 women and girls refusing to work and by the 6th of July the whole factory had stopped working. The strike and negative publicity led to changes being made to limit the health effects of the inhalation of white phosphorus.

It is banned!

White phosphorus continued to be used, and its serious effects led many countries to ban its use. Finland was the first to ban its use in 1872, followed by Denmark in 1874, France in 1897, Switzerland in 1898, and the Netherlands in 1901.

An agreement, the Berne Convention, was reached in Bern, Switzerland, in 1906, which banned the use of white phosphorus in matches. The United Kingdom banned it in 1910, Canada in 1914, India and Japan in 1919, and China in 1925.

The United States did not pass a law, but instead placed a very high "punitive tax" in 1913 on white phosphorus–based matches.

Going from White to Red

Anton Schrötter von Kristelli discovered the red allotropic form of phosphorus in 1850. (Allotropy is the property of a chemical element to exist in two or more different forms, in the same physical state).

This allotropic form did not produce fumes in contact with air and was made by heating white phosphorus at 250 °C in an inert atmosphere.

While it could be used as a good substitute in matches, the overall manufacturing was expensive. To compete with the price of white phosphorus matches, many companies including Bryant and May, started using cheap child labor extensively.

Then in 1898 two French chemists, Henri Savene and Emile David Cahen, discovered phosphorus sesquisulfide which was much less toxic and less explosive in nature. British company Albright and Wilson was the first company to produce phosphorus sesquisulfide matches commercially.

In the United States, the Diamond Match Company got a patent for a non-poisonous match that used sesquisulfide of phosphorus. U.S. President William Howard Taft requested that Diamond Match give up its patent which the company agreed.

Safety Matches

The safety of true "safety matches" is derived from two aspects.

1. The separation of the reactive ingredients between a match head and a special striking surface. (Remember the previously discussed matches were strike-anywhere friction matches).

2. Replacing white phosphorus with red phosphorus.

After Schrötter had discovered the red allotrope, Arthur Albright developed the industrial process for manufacturing it at a large-scale in the 1850s. Gustaf Erik Pasch, a Swedish professor of chemistry, developed the idea of a separate striking surface and patented the use of red phosphorus in it.

Johan Edvard Lundström and his younger brother Carl Frans Lundström started large-scale manufacturing of safety matches with red phosphorus-based striking surfaces. By 1858, their company produced around 12 million matchboxes.

These types of matches were large and had to be carried in a wooden box. There was a person who didn’t like this thing. He was Joshua Pusey, an American inventor and an attorney. He invented paper matches that would be lighter and smaller. His final patented design had matches secured to a thin paper wrapping with an attached striking surface.

Pusey later sold the patent for the matchbook (which he called flexibles) to the Diamond Match Company for $4000 in 1896. (~$140,000 in 2022).

Pusey had positioned the striking surface on the inside of the paper fold which allowed all 50 matches to be lit at once. The design for a modern matchbook with the striking surface on the outside of the box was patented by Charles M. Bowman. He also sold his patent to the Diamond Match Company in 1902.