Fact

Aircraft Carrier
An aircraft carrier gets about 6 inches per gallon of fuel.
Airplanes
• The first United States coast to coast airplane flight occurred in 1911 and took 49 days.
• A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight (120ft).
Aluminum
The Chinese were using aluminum to make things as early as 300 AD Western civilization didn't rediscover
aluminum until 1827.
Automobile
George Seldon received a patent in 1895 - for the automobile. Four years later, George sold the rights for
$200,000.
Coin Operated Machine
The first coin operated machine ever designed was a holy-water dispenser that required a five-drachma piece
to operate. It was the brainchild of the Greek scientist Hero in the first century AD.
Compact Discs
Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
Computers
• ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet
long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million
times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
• From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over
264 computers per day.
• The first "modern" computer (i.e., general-purpose and program-controlled) was built in 1941 by Konrad
Zuse. Since there was a war going on, he applied to the German government for funding to build his
machines for military use, but was turned down because the Germans did not expect the war to last
beyond Christmas.
• The computer was launched in 1943, more than 100 years after Charles Babbage designed the first
programmable device. Babbage dropped his idea after he couldn't raise capital for it. In 1998, the
Science Museum in London, UK, built a working replica of the Babbage machine, using the materials
and work methods available at Babbage's time. It worked just as Babbage had intended.