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Inflatable Boat
An inflatable boat is a lightweight boat constructed with its sides and bow made of flexible tubes containing pressurised gas. For smaller boats, the floor and hull is often flexible, while for boats longer than , the floor typically consists of three to five rigid plywood or aluminium sheets fixed between the tubes, but not joined rigidly together. Often the transom is rigid, providing a location and structure for mounting an outboard motor. Some inflatable boats can be disassembled and packed into a small volume, so that they can be easily stored and transported. The boat, when inflated, is kept rigid cross-ways by a foldable removable thwart. This feature makes these boats suitable for liferafts for larger boats or aircraft, and for travel or recreational purposes. History Early attempts There are ancient carved images of animal skins filled with air being used as one-man floats to cross rivers. These floats were inflated by mouth. The discovery of the process to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zodiac On The Beach
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets are within the belt of the zodiac. In Western astrology, and formerly astronomy, the zodiac is divided into twelve signs, each occupying 30° of celestial longitude and roughly corresponding to the following star constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. These astrological signs form a celestial coordinate system, or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system, which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude and the Sun's position at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude. Name The English word ' derives from , the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek ( ), meaning "cycle or circle of little animals". () is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Hancock (inventor)
Thomas Hancock (8 May 1786 – 26 March 1865), elder brother of inventor Walter Hancock, was an English self-taught manufacturing engineer who founded the British rubber industry. He invented the masticator, a machine that shredded rubber scraps and which allowed rubber to be recycled after being formed into blocks or sheets. A blue plaque commemoration is placed on No. 4 High Street in Marlborough, Wiltshire in his honour (also one for his brother). Early life Hancock was born in 1786 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, and little is known about his early life. His father was a cabinet maker and it is possible that Thomas Hancock was trained in the same trade: in 1815 he is recorded as being in partnership with his brother, Walter, in London, as a coach builder. Career Hancock's interest in rubber seems to have sprung from a desire to make waterproof fabrics to protect the passengers on his coaches. By 1819 he had begun to experiment with making rubber solutions. In 1820 he patented ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franklin's Lost Expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and to record magnetic data to help determine whether a better understanding could aid navigation. The expedition met with disaster after both ships and their crews, a total of 129 officers and men, became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in what is today the Canadian territory of Nunavut. After being icebound for more than a year ''Erebus'' and ''Terror'' were abandoned in April 1848, by which point Franklin and nearly two dozen others had died. The survivors, now led by Franklin's second-in-command, Francis Crozier, and ''Erebus''s captain, James Fitzjames, set out for the Canadian mainland and disappeared, presumably having perished. Pressed by Franklin's wife, Jan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Franklin
Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic France and War of 1812, the United States, he led two expeditions into the Northern Canada, Canadian Arctic and through the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, in Coppermine expedition, 1819 and Mackenzie River expedition, 1825, and served as Governor of Tasmania, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1839 to 1843. During Franklin's lost expedition, his third and final expedition, an attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1845, Franklin's ships became icebound off King William Island in what is now Nunavut, where he died in June 1847. The icebound ships were abandoned ten months later and the entire crew died, from causes such as starvation, hypothermia, and scurvy. Biography Early life Franklin was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, on , the ninth of twelve children born to Hannah Weekes and Willi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Secretary To The Admiralty
The Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty also known as the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Board of Admiralty was a position on the Board of Admiralty and a civil officer of the British Royal Navy. It was usually filled by a Member of Parliament. Although he attended Board of Admiralty meetings informally he was not made a full member of that Board until 1929. He served as the deputy to the First Lord of the Admiralty in Parliament and was mainly responsible for all naval finance and spending proposals from 1625 until 1959. History The office was originally created in 1625 with the post holders holding titles under various names such as Secretaries to the Lords Admiral, Admiralty, Committees and Commissions. In July 1660 the post of Secretary to the Admiralty was formally created which lasted until 18 June 1763 when the office was then restyled First Secretary to the Admiralty this remained in place until 1870 when the First Secretary was renamed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert Of Lea
Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea, PC (16 September 1810 – 2 August 1861) was a British statesman and a close ally and confidant of Florence Nightingale. Early life He was the younger son of George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke, his mother being the Russian noblewoman Countess Catherine Woronzow (or Vorontsov), daughter of the Russian ambassador to St James's, Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov.Woronzow HumphrysFamilyTree, accessed 4 April 2012 Woronzow Road in , London, is named after the family. Educated at and |
British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command). Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and the absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reed Business Information
RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British Multinational corporation, multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; decision-making tools; and organise exhibitions. It operates in 40 countries and serves customers in over 180 nations. It was previously known as Reed Elsevier, and came into being in 1993 as a result of the merger of Reed International, a British trade book and magazine publisher, and Elsevier, a Netherlands-based scientific publisher. The company is publicly listed, with shares traded on the London Stock Exchange, Amsterdam Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbols: London: REL, Amsterdam: REN, New York: RELX). The company is one of the constituents of the FTSE 100 Index, Financial Times Global 500 and Euronext 100 Index. History The company, which was previously known as Reed Elsevier, came in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bellows
A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtight cavity which can be expanded and contracted by operating the handles, and fitted with a valve allowing air to fill the cavity when expanded, and with a tube through which the air is forced out in a stream when the cavity is compressed. xford English Dictionary, 2nd ed: bellows/ref> It has many applications, in particular blowing on a fire to supply it with air. The term "bellows" is used by extension for a flexible bag whose volume can be changed by compression or expansion, but not used to deliver air. For example, the light-tight (but not airtight) bag allowing the distance between the lens and film of a folding photographic camera to be varied is called a bellows. Etymology "Bellows" is only used in plural. The Old English n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halkett Boat
Halket is a Scottish surname of English (Anglo-Norman) origin. The Halket surname originated in Renfrewshire Scotland and the family seat was at Pitfirrane Castle near Dunfermline. Variants of Halket included : Halkett, Halkette, Halkhead, Halkhede, Hackett, Hacket, Haket amongst others. Notable people with the surname include: * Alex Halkett (1881–1917), Scottish footballer *Anne Halkett (1623–1699), English religious writer and autobiographer *Colin Halkett (1774–1856), British army officer *Harry Halket (1889-1935) Progenitor of the Potteries market trading dynasty *Hugh Halkett (1783–1863), British soldier * John Halkett (other) *Sir Peter Halkett, 6th Baronet (1765–1839), senior Royal Navy officer *Peter Halkett, designer of the Halkett boat See also *Halkett baronets *Hackett (surname) Hackett is an English surname found throughout the British Isles and the English diaspora. In the early seventeenth century, members of the Hacketts migrated to the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mackintosh
The Mackintosh or raincoat (abbreviated as mac) is a form of waterproof raincoat, first sold in 1824, made of rubberised fabric. The Mackintosh is named after its Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh, although many writers added a letter ''k''. The variant spelling of "Mackintosh" is now standard. Although the Mackintosh coat style has become generic, a genuine Mackintosh coat is made from rubberised or rubber laminated material. History It has been claimed that the material was invented by the surgeon James Syme, but then copied and patented by Charles Macintosh; Syme's method of creating the solvent from coal tar was published in Thomson's ''Annals of Philosophy'' in 1818; this paper also describes the dissolution of natural rubber in naphtha. However, a detailed history of the invention of the Mackintosh was published by Schurer. The essence of Macintosh's process was the sandwiching of an impermeable layer of a solution of rubber in naphtha between two layers of f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Halkett
Admiral Sir Peter Halkett, 6th Baronet (''c.'' 1765 – 7 October 1839) was a senior Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century who is best known for his service in the French Revolutionary Wars. The younger son a Scottish baronet, Halkett joined the Navy and by 1793 was a lieutenant, becoming a post captain after service at the Siege of Williamstadt in the Netherlands. He later commanded the frigate HMS ''Circe'' during the Battle of Camperdown in 1797 and later achieved success in the Caribbean in command of HMS ''Apollo''. He was made a rear-admiral in 1812, but his first major command was in the West Indies in 1836, lasting two years. Shortly before his death he inherited the Halkett Baronetcy from his brother Charles, later passing it to his son John. Life Peter Halkett was born in 1765, the second son of Sir John Halkett, the 4th Halkett Baronet of Pitfirrane in Fife. At a young age, Halkett entered the Royal Navy and as a lieutenant achieved his first comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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