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Jules Verne's Rocket To The Moon
''Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon'' is a 1967 Eastman color British science fiction comedy film directed by Don Sharp and starring Burl Ives, Troy Donahue, Gert Fröbe and Terry-Thomas. It was released in the US as ''Those Fantastic Flying Fools'', in order to capitalise on the success of ''Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines'' two years earlier. Director Don Sharp shot second unit on ''Magnificent Men''. Plot summary In Victorian England, everyone is trying to make new scientific discoveries, including such failures as the Duke of Barset's attempt to create the first house in England illuminated by electricity (leading to its going up in flames), Sir Charles Dillworthy's suspension bridge (which falls apart directly Queen Victoria cuts its inaugural ribbon) and, in Germany, Siegfried von Bulow's powerful new explosive (which is intended to require only a minute quantity)'s disastrous recoil. In the US, meanwhile, when Phineas T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth" bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Sharp
Donald Herman Sharp (19 April 192114 December 2011) was an Australian film director. His best known films were made for Hammer Film Productions, Hammer in the 1960s, and included ''The Kiss of the Vampire'' (1963) and ''Rasputin, the Mad Monk'' (1966). In 1965 he directed ''The Face of Fu Manchu'', based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, and starring Christopher Lee. Sharp also directed the sequel ''The Brides of Fu Manchu'' (1966). In the 1980s he was also responsible for several hugely popular miniseries adapted from the novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford. Early career Early life Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own claims, even though reference sources cite 1922 as his year of birth. He was the second of four children. He attended St Virgil's College and began appearing regularly in theatre productions at the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart, where he trained under a young Stanley Burbury. He later said this was pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Song Of The Volga Boatmen
The "Song of the Volga Boatmen" (known in Russian as Эй, ухнем! y, ukhnem!, "Yo, heave-ho!" after the refrain) is a well-known traditional Russian song collected by Mily Balakirev and published in his book of folk songs in 1866. It was sung by burlaks, or barge-haulers, on the Volga River. Balakirev published it with only one verse (the first). The other two verses were added at a later date. Ilya Repin's famous painting ''Barge Haulers on the Volga'' depicts such burlaks in Tsarist Russia toiling along the Volga. The song was popularized by Feodor Chaliapin, and has been a favorite concert piece of bass singers ever since. Bill Finegan's jazz arrangement for the Glenn Miller band took the song to #1 in the US charts in 1941. Russian composer Alexander Glazunov based one of the themes of his symphonic poem "Stenka Razin" on the song. Spanish composer Manuel De Falla wrote an arrangement of the song, which was published under the name ''Canto de los remeros del Volga (del ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knout
A knout is a heavy scourge-like multiple whip, usually made of a series of rawhide thongs attached to a long handle, sometimes with metal wire or hooks incorporated. The English word stems from a spelling-pronunciation of a French transliteration of the Russian word кнут (''knut''), which simply means "whip". The original Some claim it was a Tatar invention and was introduced into Russia in the 15th century, perhaps by Grand Duke Ivan III the Great (1462–1505). Others trace the word to Varangians and derive it from the Swedish ''knutpiska'', a kind of whip with ''knots''. Still others maintain it is of generic Germanic origin, not necessarily Scandinavian, comparing it with the German ''Knute'', Dutch ''knoet'' (both meaning knout) and with Old Norse ''knutr'', Anglo-Saxon ''cnotta'' and English ''knot''. The Russian knout had different forms. One was a lash of rawhide, long, attached to a wooden handle, long. The lash ended in a metal ring, to which was attached a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burlak
A burlak ( rus, бурла́к, p=bʊrˈlak) was a towpath puller in Russian Empire. Overview The exact origin of the word is unknown. Different versions include old middle-German ''bûrlach'' (working team with fixed rules, artel), or Tatar ''bujdak'', 'homeless'. Burlaks appeared in Russia at the end of 16th century and beginning of the 17th century. With the expansion of freight-hauling, the number of burlaks increased. The chief of a burlak gang was called ''Vodoliv'' (russian: Водолив), the next in line was the ''Dyadya'' (russian: Дядя, captain), followed by the ''Shishka'' (russian: Шишка, first in the line of haulers), while the last in line was called ''Kosny'' (russian: Косный, last in the line of haulers). There were ''seasonal'' burlaks, who worked from spring to autumn, and ''temporary'' burlaks, who worked occasionally. Burlaks did not work in winter, when most Russian rivers were frozen over. The main areas of the burlaks' trade in the Rus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aeronaut
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies the aspects of "aeronautical Art, Science and Engineering" and "The profession of Aeronautics (which expression includes Astronautics)." While the term originally referred solely to ''operating'' the aircraft, it has since been expanded to include technology, business, and other aspects related to aircraft. The term "aviation" is sometimes used interchangeably with aeronautics, although "aeronautics" includes lighter-than-air craft such as airships, and includes ballistic vehicles while "aviation" technically does not. A significant part of aeronautical science is a branch of dynamics called aerodynamics, which deals with the motion of air and the way that it interacts with objects in motion, such as an aircraft. History Early ideas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Tom Thumb
Charles Sherwood Stratton (January 4, 1838 – July 15, 1883), better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American dwarf who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnum. Childhood and early life Born January 4, 1838, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Stratton was the son of a carpenter named Sherwood Edward Stratton, who in turn was the son of Seth Sherwood Stratton and Amy Sharpe. Sherwood married his first cousin Cynthia Thompson, daughter of Joseph Thompson and Mary Ann Sharpe. Charles Stratton's maternal and paternal grandmothers, Amy and Mary Ann Sharpe, were stated to be small twin girls born on July 11, 1781 (or 1783) in Oxford, New Haven, Connecticut. Born in Bridgeport to parents who were of medium height, Charles was a relatively large baby, weighing at birth. He developed and grew normally for the first six months of his life, at which point he was tall and weighed . Then he suddenly stopped growing. His parents became conc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phineas T
Phineas () is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Phineas, an Anglicized name for the priest Phinehas in the Hebrew Bible * King Phineas, the first king of the Beta Israel in Ethiopia * Phineas Banning (1830–1885), American businessman and entrepreneur * P. T. Barnum (1810–1891), American showman and businessman * Phineas Bowles (died 1722), British Army major-general * Phineas Bowles (1690–1749), British Army lieutenant-general and Member of Parliament; son of the above * Phineas F. Bresee (1838–1915), American founder of the Church of the Nazarene * Phineas Bruce (1762–1809), American politician * Phineas Clanton (1843–1906), American Old West cattle rustler and brother of outlaws Billy and Ike Clanton * Phineas Davis (1792–1835), American clockmaker and inventor who designed and built the first practical American coal-burning locomotive * Phineas Fisher, an unidentified hacktivist * Phineas Fletcher (1582–1650), Scottish-English poet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary empire led by an emperor, although has been used in German to denote the Roman Empire because it had a weak hereditary tradition. In the case of the German Empire, the official name was , which is properly translated as "German Empire" because the official position of head of state in the constitution of the German Empire was officially a "presidency" of a confederation of German states led by the King of Prussia who would assume "the title of German Emperor" as referring to the German people, but was not emperor of Germany as in an emperor of a state. –The German Empire" ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine''. vol. 63, issue 376, pp. 591–603; here p. 593. also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich, as well as simply Germany, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign, any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was Kensington System, raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suspension Bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world. Besides the bridge type most commonly called suspension bridges, covered in this article, there are other types of suspension bridges. The type covered here has cables suspended between towers, with vertical ''suspender cables'' that transfer the Structural load#Live load, imposed loads, transient load, live and Structural load#Dead load, dead loads of the deck below, upon which traffic crosses. This arrangement allows the deck to be level or to arc upward for additional clearance. Like other suspension bridge types, this type often is constructed without the use of falsework. The suspension cables must be anchored at each end of the bridge, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barsetshire
Barsetshire is a fictional English county created by Anthony Trollope in the series of novels known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. The county town and cathedral city is Barchester. Other towns in the novels include Silverbridge, Hogglestock and Greshamsbury. Origins According to E. A. Freeman, Trollope conceded to him that Barset was in origin Somerset, although Barchester itself was primarily Winchester. Other West Country counties like Dorset also contributed, and Gatherum Castle for example was imported from elsewhere, but such important elements as Plumstead Episcopi were drawn directly from Somerset life, in this case Huish Episcopi. In sum, Barset was (in Trollope's own words) "a little bit of England which I have myself created". Political structure In ''Doctor Thorne'' Trollope describes how the county, formerly represented by a single parliamentary constituency, was split into two constituencies, the more rural East Barsetshire, which includes Barchester, and the mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
