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