Top 10 history of technics facts

De Havilland. English-made de Havilland DH 106 Comet was introduced in 1952 by British Airways. A year after, Comet airframes began suffering catastrophic metal fatigue, with three of them tearing apart during mid-flight.

Steam locomotives. Ventilation shafts at various points on the route allowed the engines to expel steam and bring fresh air into the tunnels. These shafts were sometimes hidden behind false facades, like the one in the photo (Leinster Gardens 23). The right-hand property is a fake.

Pipe organ. The classical organ is recognized as the most complex man-made device until the late 19th century, when it was displaced by the telephone exchange. Large pipe organs have seven keyboards, complex wind system and up to 20,000 pipes.

Predict positions of astronomical objects. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek analogue computer and orrery used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendar and astrological purposes decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games which was similar to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.

London. The Metropolitan Railway opened on 10 January 1863, and was carrying over 26,000 passengers a day within a few months of opening. The early lines were built by various private companies, and became integrated in 1933.

Christopher Latham Sholes. QWERTY - a symbolic Latin alphabetical name for typewriters and computers, taken from the first six letters in a row below the row of digits, viewed from the left. The first typewriters used an alphabetical key setting. However, with the fast typing of the neighborhood of frequently used keys caused mutual jamming of the arms with the fonts. In 1878, the first typewriter with a QWERTY keyboard was patented. The creator of the QWERTY layout was American journalist and inventor Christopher Latham Sholes.

People. Because of very long exposure times (up to several hours), first photographers pointed their cameras at static objects. The first photo of a person was made by accident by Louis Daguerre in 1838. He depicted a pedestrian who stopped for a shoe shine, taking a photo of Paris streets.

Sugar. Samsung started out as a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong.

China. Black gunpowder was invented in 9th-century China and spread throughout most parts of Eurasia by the end of the 13th century. Originally developed by alchemists for medicinal purposes, gunpowder was first used for warfare about 1000 CE.

Great Britain. The first regular high-definition (then defined as at least 200 lines) television service from the BBC started on November 2, 1936. Programs were broadcast daily, Monday to Saturday, at 15:00–16:00 and 21:00–22:00.