What is a heat lightning?

Heat lighting is the flashes of light produced by distant electrical storms.  The flashes of lightning occur too far away for thunder to be heard.

Sometimes, on warm summer evenings, we see so-called “heat lightning”—silent flashes of light in the distant sky.  Heat lightning is really light from a flash of chain lightning that takes place beyond the horizon.  Chain, or forked, lightning is the lightning you see zig-zagging across the sky in any thunderstorm.

We just don’t hear heat lightning’s thunder because we are too far away.  We don’t see the lightning either.  We see its light reflected from high clouds.  Lightning is a big electric spark that spears its way across the sky.  During a thunderstorm, electrical charges are built up in the clouds.  If the charges become great enough, a flash of lightning occurs.

As the lightning flashes across the sky, it quickly heats the air in its path.  The heated air expands (spreads out) rapidly and sets a great sound wave in motion which we hear a few moments later as thunder.

What are icebergs?

Icebergs are large, floating chunks of ice that have broken off from glaciers,  to drift about in the ocean.  Icebergs are the broken-off end of glaciers that tumble into the water and drift out into the sea.  The biggest are huge, floating blocks of ice that weigh several million tons.  Some are a mile or more across and tower hundreds of feet above the surface.

An iceberg floating in the sea does not look nearly as big as it really is.  About seven-eighths of it is below the water, out of sight.  Icebergs are made up of fresh water ice, since they are formed on land from snowfalls.  Their white color is caused by tiny bubbles of air trapped in the ice.

Ocean currents often carry icebergs hundreds of mile out to sea before they melt and finally disappear.

In 1912, a large ocean liner, the Titanic, struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sand, with a great loss of life.  Since that time, the United States Coast Guard has patrolled the North Atlantic shipping lanes, warning ships of the location of large icebergs.

What Are Windmills Used For?

Windmill

A windmill is a machine that uses the power of the wind for pumping water and generating electric power.  A windmill is a machine that uses the power of the wind to do work of some kind.  In the United States, windmills are generally to be found on farms where they serve as a cheap source or power for pumping water from wells and driving electric generators for electric power.

The kind of windmill commonly used to bump well water has a big wheel with several blades.  It is usually mounted on tail tower so that the blades will catch the full force of the win.  A tall vane acts as a rudder and keeps the wheel facing into the wind.

By the means of gears, the turning wheel provides the power to work a pump, a small electric generator, or to do some other useful job.  Of course, a windmill is not of any use unless there is enough wind to turn it.  Today, many farmers don’t use windmills to get water from their wells.  They use electric pumps to do the work because they are more dependable.-Dick Rogers

What is a shooting star?

Shooting stars are tiny meteors that glow white hot when they hurtle from out of space into the earth’s atmosphere. 

If you look up at the sky long enough on a dark, clear night, you may see the fiery streak of a “shooting star” flash across the sky. 

Shooting Star

While “shooting star” may be a pretty name, it is not accurate, for real stars are great glowing balls of gases far out in space.

The “shooting stars” that streaks across the sky are bits of rock and metal called meteors.  Many billions of meteors zip around through space.

Many of them come so close that they are captured by earth’s gravity, and are pulled toward earth.  As the speeding meteors hurtle into the earth’s atmosphere, friction with the air causes them to glow white hot.  Then we see them as blazing trails of lights.

Meteors rarely blaze for more than a few seconds.  Most of those we see were originally no bigger than a grain of rice.  They usually burn up before they reach the ground.

Meteors that survive their fall and land on earth are called meteorites.-Dick Rogers

What does the inside of the earth look like?

Beneath the earth’s rocky crust are the hard mantel, hot liquid outer core, and the solid metal inner core.

Have you ever tried to dig a deep hole—maybe all the way to the other side of the world?  Of course, you could dig only a few feet.  But suppose you could dig a hole straight to the center of the earth.  What would you find on the way?

Earth

First comes the crust, or rocky “skin,” that covers the earth.  This may be about 30 miles thick in some places.  As we go down into this crust, we find that it  begins to get hotter and hotter.  At two miles below the surface of the earth, the temperature is hot enough to boil water.   Next comes a layer of hard, black rock, about 1,800 miles thick.  Inside this layer is the earth’s core.  The core seems to be a kind of super-hot liquid metal.

Scientists think that in the center of this core there lies a ball-shaped inner core of solid metal, which forms the very center of the earth itself.  We have been able to find out about the inside of the earth by studying earthquakes.  Probably we will never get to look at the earth’s core, but someday we will know more about it.-Dick Rogers

What makes the ring around the moon?

The ring around the moon or sun is caused when the rays of light are bent and reflected by clouds of ice crystals high in the sky.  A big, shining ring of light sometimes appears around the moon.  The ring is not really around the moon—it only seems to be:

The “ring around the moon” is caused when the moon shines on clouds of tiny ice crystals high in the sky.  The ice crystals bend and reflect the moonlight to make a halo, or circle of light.  Sometimes two bright spots, that look like a little moons, can be seen in the halo.  They are called “moon dogs.”  We can sometimes see a halo around the sun, and we can also see “sun  dogs,” as the sun shines through clouds of ice crystals.

Haloes are often seen in Arctic regions.  These colored rings are generally red on the inside, then orange, yellow and white on the outside.  When you see a ring around the moon or sun, it usually means that a storm is coming.  Smaller haloes sometimes appear around the moon of sun when light rays are bent and reflected by clouds of droplets.-Dick Rogers

What Is A Minotaur?

Minotaur

The Minotaur of Greek legend was a man-eating monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.

The Minotaur (pronounced MIN O TAWR) was a mythical monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.

One of the myths of ancient Greece told that King Minos of Crete, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, kept the Minotaur imprisoned in a labyrinth—a winding maze of passageways from which no one could escape.

It happened that Androgeos, son of King Minos, was killed by the people in a town in Greece.  As a punishment King Minos sacrificed seven Greek youths and seven maidens each year to the Minotaur (who ate them).

The Greek hero Theseus, at last, killed the Minotaur and escaped from the labyrinth by following a thread.

Nowadays, we do not believe in myths.  But there probably was a King Minos.  And it so happens that the ruins of an ancient palace on the island of Crete has so many winding passageways that it resembles the legendary labyrinth!–Dick Rogers

Who Invented Roller Skates?

No one really knows who invented roller skates or even when they first used.  They were probably invented by ice skaters in Europe, some 200 years ago, who wanted to skate when there was no ice.

Roller skating is the popular sports of skating on wheeled skates.  People were roller skating on the roads of Holland and Belgium  about 200 years ago. 

Some early skates had several wheels in a line like the blade of an ice skate.  Others had only two wheels.

In 1862, a man named John L. Plympton of Boston invented the four-wheel skate, much like those we skate on today.  These skates made roller skating widely popular.

The first skates had wooden wheels which broke easily.  The next development was the introduction of all-metal skates with ball bearings in the wheels to make them turn faster.  This completed the skate as we know it today.

Skating to music at indoor rinks is a year-round sport followed by many thousands of skating enthusiasts.–Dick Rogers

What Is A Ballad?

Ballad

A ballad is a simple song or poem that tells a romantic or sentimental story.  When you sing a song such as “Casey Jones” or “John Henry,” you are signing a ballad.

A ballad is a simple song or poem that tells a story.  Ballads are often songs of romance and songs of praise about heroes and events.

No one knows when ballads were first made up, but they were sung by European poets hundreds of years ago.

These early ballads were known in many places simply as songs, tales, and duties.  The ballads were passed along from one generation to another, and finally no one remembered who first sang them.

Often the tune and the story told by the ballad stayed the same, but the words were changed.

Sang old British ballads as models, Americans, for example, created popular ballads about such Western outlaws as Jessie James and Billy the kid.

No one knows for certain, in many cases, if what the ballad tells is true or is just a fanciful tale made up by the singer.–Dick Rogers

How did February get its name?

February

February gets its name from the Latin word “februare,” which means “to purify” (in English, it became February).  The early Romans devoted this month to ceremonies of purification. February is the second month of the year—and the shortest.  February has 28 days, except in “leap years,” when it has 29 years.

In the early Roman calendar February was the last month of the year.  During this month, the Romans held religious rites to purify themselves for festivals held at the start of the new year.

Later, when Romans emperor Julius Caesar set up a new calendar, he moved the start of the year from March to January, February became the second month.

An old story tells (though there may be no truth in it), that when August Caesar’s month (July) longer than the one named after himself.  So he stole a day from February to make August 31 days, as long as Julys.–Dick Rogers

What Is A Fable?

A fable is a special kind of short story made up to teach a lesson.  Fables are often about animals who can talk and act like people.  The lesson to be learned is usually made clear in the end by what one of the animals wisely says.

Fable

Many fables are many hundreds of years old.  Among the best-known fables are those by Aesop.  Aesop is believed to have been a slave in ancient Greece and a skillful storyteller.  His stories are simple moral lessons.

Nearly everyone knows Aesop’s fable, “The Lion and the Mouse.”  A mouse persuades a lion not to kill him.  Later the lion is captured and tied up by hunters.  The mouse frees the lion by gnawing away the ropes.

The lesson to be learned in this fable is: “Little friends may prove to be valuable friends.”  Today some fables are written in the form of newspaper comic strips.–Dick Rogers

How Does A Skywriter Write In The Sky?

To skywrite, the pilot releases smoke-making chemicals into the airplane’s exhaust pipe.  The trail of smoke they produce traces the letters.

Skywriting is a method of writing in the sky with an airplane.  A trail of smoke traces the letters.  Most skywriting message are advertisements that promote products advertisers want to sell.

Skywriter

The smoke used for skywriting is made from special, smoke making chemicals carried in a tank.  When the pilot wants to write a smoke letter, he releases some of the liquid chemicals into the airplane’s exhaust pipe.

The heat from the hot gases of the engine changes the chemicals into a very thick smoke.  This smoke then comes out of the plane’s smoke tubes in long streams.

It takes many hours of practice for a pilot to become a good skywriter.  He has to learn not only how to write backward, but also to write quickly before the wind blows his message away.

Each letter may be about a mile long.  People can see the giant letters spread out across the sky for many miles.–Dick Rogers

How did coats of arm originate?

Coats of arms developed from the designs used on the coats and shields of knights for identification during battle.

Perhaps you know a family that has a coat of arms—a special emblem or design that distinguishes that particular family.

In the Middle Ages knights wore suits of armor that covered their bodies from head to toe.

The armor made it difficult to tell friend from foe in battle, so knights began wearing loose coats over their armor.

They decorated their coats and shields with designs so they could identify each other.  People began calling the coat a knight wore a ‘‘coat of arms.’

Eventually, the design on the coat or arm became the distinguishing sign of the knight and of his family.

When gunpowder and bullets appeared on the battlefield the knight and his armor became useless.  Coats of arms were no longer needed as a means of recognition.

But some people still like the distinction of having their own coat of arms to show which family they belong to.–Dick Rogers

Why Does The Panama Canal Have Lock?

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal locks are a series of water “steps” which lift ships 85 feet above sea level, and then lower them back down to the ocean at the other end of the canal.

The Panama Canal is a kind of water “stairway” that crosses the isthmus of Panama and connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

A series of locks, or water-filled chambers, raise and lower ship enters a lock from the Atlantic side, huge gates close behind it and water is let in.  The ship is raised till it floats at the same level as the next-higher lock.  Then the gates are opened and the ship is pulled to the next locks, and so on.

The licks raise the ship a 28-foot step at a time up to 85 feet above sea level.  When the ship reaches the upper lock, it sails across a large lake, which supplies water for the locks.  Locks on the Pacific side lower the ship to sea level. 

Before this shortcut was built, ships had to sail around the tip of South America, a journey of thousands of miles.  A ship can pass through the 50-mile canal in just hours, instead of taking many days for the longer route.–Dick Rogers

What Is A Puffball?

A puffball is a ball-shaped mushroom that gives off a puff of powdery spores when pinched.  It is a kind of mushroom growing in a field that looks very much like a round ball.

Anyone who has kicked a ripe puffball and watched the cloud of “smoke” puff out knows how the puffball gets its name.

Puffballs love sunlight and are often found in pastures on warm spring or summer days.  Most puffballs are only a few inches high.

The giant puffball, however, may grow to be 2 feet or more in diameter.  It is the largest of all mushrooms.

Puffball

The puffs or “smoke” that burst out when the ripe puffball is touched or squeezed is really a cloud of powdery spores being cast off.

Spores are tiny cells something like seeds.  They are so tiny that they look like dust.  A single puffball produces so many spores that it is not possible to count them.

Each spore may grow into a new puffballs plant if it lands on warm, damp ground ideal for its growth into another puffball.–Dick Rogers

What are the rings of Saturn?

Saturn’s rings probably consist of chunks of icy rocks, which hurtle around the planets equator in four plat rings.

Twirling with its gleaming rings’ like a top in space.  Saturn is one of the most beautiful planets in our sun’s family.  No other planet has such rings.

The rings are believed to consist of countless numbers of ice-coated rocks, from the size of peas to perhaps the size of pianos.

The chunks of rock travel around the planet at its equator like swarms of moons in four separate, flat rings.  It is the sunlight striking the rings that makes them shine.  Though the rings stretch outward some 50,000 miles, they have a thickness of at most of a few thousand feet.

In addition to its rings.  Saturn has 10 large moons.  You have probably often seen Saturn looking very much like a bright yellow star.  A telescope is needed to see the rings.

Saturn was the farthest planet from the earth that ancient astronomers knew about.  They named it for the Roman god of the harvest.–Dick Rogers

How Did The Sunflower Get Its Name?

Sunflower

The sunflower gets its name from its habit of facing the sun.  Sunflowers are tall plants.  They have yellow flowers with large brown centers which are full of seeds that are good to eat.

The sunflower gets its name from its habit of facing the sun as it moves from east to west during the day.  The golden-rayed flower also bears a resemblance to sun.

The sun loving sunflower can be found growing in many of the sunny parts of the world.  Its tall, hairy stalk may grow to be 6 to 10 feet high, while the golden sunbursts flowers can measure nearly a food across.

Farmers grow sunflowers for the seeds, which can be roasted and eaten like peanuts.  The seeds, as well as the large, drooping leaves, make good food for cattle and poultry.

In the United States, the common sunflower has become a symbol of the hot, sunny, summer days on the prairies.  It is the state flower of Kansas and gives the state its nickname, the “Sunflower State” –Dick Rogers

How does A Plant Make Its Food?

Plant

Green plants make food in their leaves in a special food-making process called “photosynthesis.”

Green plants make food in their leaves in a special food-making process called “photosynthesis” (pronounced foe toe SIN three siss), a word meaning “putting together with light.”

A leaf manufactures food by taking carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil and changing them into simple sugars.

To do this, it also needs sunlight and green plant material called “chlorophyll.”  This name means “leaf green,” and is the material that gives plants their green color.

The chlorophyll uses the energy of sunlight to change the carbon dioxide gas and water into sugar.

Once the sugar is made, the plant changes it into starch and other foods it needs to grow.  To make some foods it needs minerals from the soil.

Some plants, such as mushrooms and mistletoe, have no leaf green, and cannot make their own food.  They must live on food green plants have made.–Dick Rogers

What Is Hard Water?

Water that contains large amounts of dissolved minerals that make it difficult for soap to lather is called “hard water.”

We usually think of water as an odorless and tasteless liquid.  But drinking water for example often has a definite odor and taste.

Pure water is never found in nature because water picks up and dissolves tiny bits of mineral matter whenever it flows.

Hard Water

“Hard water” is water which has dissolved large amounts of certain minerals.  Extra soap is needed for washing with hard water because the soap doesn’t readily form soapsuds.  The minerals also stick to the sides of pipes and boilers and form a hard crust-like scale.

Water containing fewer minerals and in which soap will make good suds is called “soft water.”

Hard water is softened by filtering it through water-softening machines which treat it with chemicals to remove the hardening minerals.

Sea water with large quantities of dissolved minerals, is very hard.  Rain water is quite soft.–Dick Rogers

How does a spinning wheel work?

The spinning wheel spins thread by means of a spindle which twists the drawn fibers of cotton or wool together.

The old spinning wheel, so common to colonial houses, is a simple machine for spinning yarn or thread.  It has a large wheel that is turned by hand or by a fool pedal.

Spinning is the process of twisting fibers into yarn or thread.

To make thread on a spinning wheel, the spinner pulls some of the fibers from a roll of straightened wool or cotton and fastens them to the end of a pulley-driven spindle.

Spinning Wheel

While drawing out the fibers, the spinner turns the wheel, which spins the spindle.  The spindle, in turn, twists the drawn fibers into one continuous thread, which winds around a spool.

Only one thread can be made at a time on a spinning wheel.  After the thread is made, it can be woven into cloth on a machine called a loom.

Today, most spinning and weaving is done in factories.  Modern spinning machines can make hundreds of threads at a time.–Dick Rogers

How does a clock run?

Many clocks and watches today are run by electricity.  But the most common type of clock, the spring or wind-up clock, is powered by the gradual uncoiling of a steel spring, which moves a series of gears, or wheels. 

The movement turns the hands that point to the hours and minutes on the clock’s face.

When you wind a clock, you are coiling the mainspring.  The spring is mounted on a large gear wheel.

As soon as the spring is wound up tight, it begins to unwind.  As the spring unwinds it turns the gear wheel, which causes the other wheels and parts in the clock’s mechanism to move.

Two special wheels, called the escape wheel and the balance wheel, keep the spring from unwinding too fast and make the wheels turn at an even rate of speed.

As the wheels turn, the movement slowly turns the hands that point to the hours and minutes on the clock’s face.

Watches are really small clocks.  A watch may have as many as 160 different parts.–Dick Rogers

Where Camphor Come From?

Camphor

Natural camphor is a fragrant gum that comes from the camphor tree.

Camphor (pronounced KAM-fur) is a fragrant gum that comes from the camphor laurel tree.

Camphor is used in medicine, explosives, and plastics, as well as in many other useful products.  (Perhaps your mother uses balls of camphor in closers and drawers to keep moths away.)

Most camphor trees grow in Japan and on the island of Formosa.  The trees grow tall and have small white flowers and shiny, green, leathery leaves that smell like camphor when crushed.

The camphor is obtained by chopping the wood of the trees and steaming the chips.

The camphor comes off as a vapor that condenses into crystals, which are then purified into gum camphor.

The oil left after the camphor has been taken out is known as camphor oil, which is used in scenting soap.

Chemists have learned to make artificial camphor that is practically identical with camphor from the camphor trees.–Dick Rogers

What Are The Arabian Nights?

The Arabian Nights is a collection of about 200 stories, which includes such famous tales as Aladdin’s lamp and the magic carpet.

Arabian Night

Did you ever hear the stories about Aladdin’s Lamp, the Magic Carpet or Sinbad the Sailor?

These colorful tales are part of a collection of famous stories called the “Arabian Nights.”  Another name for it is ‘A Thousand and One Nights.’

According to legend, these stories were first told to a sultan of the East by his beautiful wife Scheherazade (she hair a zod).

The sultan hated women.  Each day he would marry a different queen.  The next day he would have her killed.

When he marries Scheherazade she saves her life by telling fascinating stories.  Day after day the sultan put off killing her because he wanted to hear the next story.

For a thousand and one nights she told one story each night.  The stories pleased the sultan so much that he made Scheherazade his queen forever.

Of course, the story of Scheherazade is not true.  No one person made up all the stories in the ‘Arabian Nights.’–Dick Rogers

Who were the Vikings?

Vikings

The Vikings were skillful and daring seamen that came to be the most-feared feared of their time.

They lived in the north of Europe a thousand years ago.  “Northmen” and “Norsemen” are other names for the Vikings.

Their homeland was a long the coastlines where the countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark are now.

For more than 250 years, the Vikings roamed the seas in their swift, high-powered ships, exploring and raiding along the coasts of other lands.

One of the bet-known Viking explorers was Leif Ericson.  He and his adventurous men reached North America long before Columbus made his famous voyage.

One of the reasons that the Vikings became raiders and explorers is that the poor land of their own country could not support all the people.

They had to find new places in which to live.

As the Vikings became more civilized, they gave up their warlike way of life and became peaceful fishermen and farmers.–Dick Rogers

When Were Cannons First Used In Warfare?

Cannon

The first guns were cannons.  They were first used in warfare some time in the first half of the 14^th century.

The big guns that are now known as artillery were once called cannons.  “Cannon” comes from an old Latin word meaning “tube” or “reed.”

The cannon first appeared in Europe during the 1300s, after the knowledge of gunpowder spread.

These early guns were very primitive.  They were simply big iron tubes closed at one end.

In the back end was a small hole called a touchhole.  To fire the cannon, gunpowder was stuffed down the barrel.   Then a rock of iron ball, called a cannonball, was put in front of the powder.

A lighted match or torch was stuck through the touchhole to make the powder explode.

The early cannon was too crude to have much value in the battlefield.  For one thing, it look a long time to load it.  Besides, it was too heavy to move easily and it was difficult to aim—but it could destroy gates and walls of fortresses if it scored a direct hit.–Dick Rogers

How Did The Pilgrims Get Their Name?

The term “pilgrim” was used by William Bradford to describe the first Plymouth settlers.

A long time ago, people we now call the Pilgrims came to America and settled the first permanent colony of people from the Old World.

Pilgrim

They named their little New England village Plymouth in honor of Plymouth, England—the harbor from which they had sailed on the Mayflower in 1620.

The term “Pilgrim” may come from Gov. William Bradford’s early accounts of the Philgrims’ life.

He wrote that “they knew they were pilgrims” when they left their old homes, seeking freedom to follow their own religious beliefs and way of life in the New World.

But it wasn’t until two centuries after their arrival that these first settlers popularly became known in American history as the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims knew themselves as the “Old Comers,” since they were the first to colonize the New World, while later generations referred to the Pilgrims as the “Forefathers.”–Dick Rogers

What Is The Meaning Of A 21-gun Salute?

Gun salutes are often used to mark special occasions.

Gun or cannon salutes sometimes honor distinguished persons or mark special occasions.  This custom began long ago, when guns and cannons were loaded by hand.

Upon the approach of a friendly ship, all the guns of the fort or ship were fired as a token of disarming them, for early guns could not be speedily reloaded.

Modern salutes are fired with blank charges.

21 Gun Salute

The number of shots is determined by the rank of the person being honored.  A 21-gun salute is fired for heads of governments, member of a royal family and others of similar rank.

19 guns are fired for officers above the rank of admiral or general, state governors and ambassadors.

Salutes of 17, 15, 13, 11, 7 and 5 guns are fired for lesser ranks.  Firing an odd number of shots is believed to come from an old naval superstition that an even number of shots is unlucky or causes misfortune.–Dick Rogers

What Is Patent?

Patent

A patent is a government grant which gives an inventor, and no one else, the right to make and sell his invention for a certain number of years.

Perhaps you have seen the words “Patent Pending,” “Patent Applied For,” or “Patent No. 123456,” for example, marked on many of the things you buy and use.

These are patent signs that tell us that the inventor of the product, and no one else, has the right to make and sell his invention without paying to do so.

Patents are granted and protected by the government for a certain number of years.

The inventor who wants to patent a new invention must submit a description of it to the Patent Office.

He must also claim that the invention is his own idea as well as pay an application fee.

If the idea is judged to be brand new and useful, the Patent Office issues a patent.

Just at patents protect inventors, copyright protect the literary, musical, and artistic works of authors, composers, and artists from those who would copy their work or claim to have created it.–Dick Rogers

Where does mercury come from?

Mercury

Mercury is usually found in rust-colored rocks called cinnabar.  The ore is crushed, then heated to release the mercury.

Mercury is perhaps the strangest of all metals.  It is the only metal that liquid at ordinary temperatures.

In nature, mercury is most often found in rust-colored rocks called cinnabar, although pure mercury can be mined.

To get the mercury from its ore, the cinnabar is crushed then heated to release and vaporize the mercury.  The mercury vapor then is caught and cooled.

Cooled, the vapors condense into a silvery liquid such as you see going up and down in a thermometer.

Because of its fluid quality and color, mercury is sometimes called “quicksilver.”  Anyone who has ever tried to pick up some spilled quicksilver will agree that the name is a good one.

When spilled, it  “breaks” into tiny balls that are hard to gather up.

Today, mercury’s unusual properties make it useful not only in thermometers, but in making thousands of products – from barometers and lights switches to pesticides. – Dick Rogers