How Did The Stagecoach Get Its Name?

Stagecoach

Coaches that carried passengers became known as “stagecoaches” because they stopped to rest at stage stops along the way.

Until railroads appeared, early travelers in America made long-distance journeys either on horseback or in horse-drawn coaches, called “stagecoaches.”

Stops were made along the way at rest stations, or “stages,” for fresh horses and food for the passengers.  Thus the name of “stagecoach.”

Travel by stagecoach was often unsafe as well as uncomfortable.  The travelers faced the constant danger of robbery and Indian attack.  The stagecoaches bumped along the bumpy dirt roads day and night.

The passengers, grimy with dust in summer and shivering with cold in winter, tried to sleep on the hard seats.  A trip from Missouri to California took nearly three weeks.  Many of the finest stagecoaches were made at Concord, New Hampshire.  They were handmade and cost $1,500 each.

Concord coaches drawn by six horses bounced along at a brisk, 10 miles an hour. So well were the coaches built that many of the original coaches are still used in Western movies. – Dick Rogers

What is cement made of?

People often misuse the words cement and concrete.  For example a “cement sidewalk” is really made of concrete.

Cement is the fine, gray powder that is mixed with water, sand and crushed rock or gravel to make concrete.  The cement and water from a paste that hardens as it dries, and binds the sand and gravel together into the hard, rock-like mass we use in building tail skyscrapers, smooth sidewalks and large bridges and dams.

Cement

Cement is made from lime and other materials, such as silica, alumina, iron and gypsum.   The lime used to make cement comes mainly from a rock called limestone.

Cement is made by burning crushed limestone with the other materials.  The heat changes the mixture into a new material called “clinkers.”  The clinkers are then finely ground into the gray, powdery cement.  After this, it is ready for use in masking concrete.

Before the concrete is mixed, workmen must measure the proper amounts of sand, gravel and water with the cement to give it the proper strength.  When first mixed, the wet concrete, called a “batch,” can be poured into molds of almost any shape.  It quickly hardens into a solid mass as hard as natural stone. – Dick Rogers

Can dogs hear better than people?

Dogs can hear many sounds that our ears cannot hear.  If you have a pet dog, then you know what keen ears dogs have.  A dog will bark at approaching footsteps long before they are heard by his master.

It’s easy enough to hear noises.  You can hear with noises, loud noises, and in-between noises. All sounds are produced in the same way.  Every kind of sound begins with the vibration of something.

Tikoy

When a bell is rung, the bell shimmers and shakes.  We say, that it “vibrates.”  When a lion roars, the voice cords in the lion’s throat vibrate.

These vibrations disturb the air and cause sound waves that travel outward like ripples in a pond, and when they reach your ear they make part of your ear vibrate, too.  That’s when you hear the sound.

But we cannot hear all the sounds around us.  Our ears can only hear certain sound vibrations. Some animals, like the dog, can hear sound vibrations that humans cannot.  

The “silent” dog whistle makes a sound vibration so high and so shrill that you can’t hear it – dogs can!  A cat can hear even higher sounds.  And the bat can hear the highest sounds of all. – Dick Rogers

Where do cloves come from?

Cloves

Cloves are the dried, unopened flower buds of the tropical clove tree.

The  spicy cloves your mother uses when she bakes ham come from the dried flower buds of the clove tree, an evergreen tree which grows in the Spice Islands and some other tropical lands.

Cloves look much like little nails.  In fact, the word “clove” is from the French “clou,” or nail.

The flowers of the clove tree grow in bunches.  The buds of these flowers are picked before they open and are dried in the sun.  They dry to a dark brown.

The cloves are about half an inch long.  Each has a knob at one end which contains the unopened petals.

Like many of the spices, such as pepper and cinnamon, cloves owe their strong, spicy taste and odor to fragrant oils that the spice plants make.

Oil of cloves is used as a drug, especially as a toothache remedy, as well as in soaps and perfumes.  Cloves are also ground and used to flavor in such foods as puddings and cakes. – Dick Rogers

Where does ginger come from?

Ginger

Ginger spice comes from the rootstocks of the tropical ginger plants.  The spicy ginger your mother uses to make gingerbread men comes from the roots of the ginger plant.

The finest ginger comes from Puerto Rico and Jamaica, but Africa and India are also important sources of ginger.

The ginger plant is a reed-like plant that may grow three to four feet high.  Its leafy stems spring up from the knotty rootstock.

When the stems turn yellow and wither the ginger is ready for harvesting.

After the roots are dug up, they may simply be scalded with boiling water and then dried in the sun, or they may be scraped and washed before they are dried.  Dried ginger varies in color from light brown to brown.

Ginger is added, usually ground, to flavor such foods as gingersnaps, pickles and mincemeat, as well as many other foods.

And most people have tasted ginger ale, a carbonated, ginger flavored soft drink.  It is very popular. – Dick Rogers

How did the Indian make his flint arrowheads?

Flint Arrowhead

Holding the flint in his hand, the arrow-maker chipped off small flakes with a bone chipping tool until the flint took the shape that he wanted it to have.

The American Indian fashioned arrowheads of stone for use in hunting and warfare.

Flint was valued because it is no hard that it chips in smooth, curved flakes.  But other stones, such as quartz and obsidian, as well as bone were used to make arrowheads.

To make a flint arrowhead, the arrow-maker selected a piece of flint the size he needed.  With a piece of leather to protect his hand, he grasped the flint tightly between the palm and fingertips of one hand.

Using a chipping tool made from bone or antler, he pressed sharply against the edge of the flint.  This caused a small flake to chip off.  He continued to chip until the flint took the shapes that he wanted it to have.

He then bound the arrowhead to the wooden shaft with thongs or leather or sinew.  Feathers were then fixed to the other and of the shaft to make the arrow fly straight. – Dick Rogers

How is our voice recorded on a tape recorder?

Tapes are recorded by printing magnetic patterns of sound on a special plastic tape.

A tape recorder stores the sound of your voice on a thin, plastic tape that has been treated with a chemical so it can be magnetized.

Tape  Recorder

To make a tape recording of your voice, you speak into a microphone.

The microphone changes the sound waves into electrical signals that go into a part of the recorder called the recording head.

The ribbon-like tape moves through the recording head as it unwinds from one spool to another.

The electrical signals made by your voice turn the recording head into a magnetic which prints a kind of magnetic picture of the sounds on the tape.

When the tape is played, it is run past the recording heat again.  But this time, the magnetized tape magnetizes the recording head.

The recording hear changes the magnetism into  electricity, and a speaker turns the electricity  into sound waves just like those your voice made. – Dick Rogers