A big thank you goes to all those who are participating in our Cartoon character competition. We received so many drawings that next week we will start publishing some of your drawings as it will be impossible to bring them all in one issue. The winner will be announced in the issue of 23 August and will receive a fantastic prize sponsored by Agenda Bookshops.

Do you want to write a short article and have it included on a website? Now is your chance! Read the competition details in the article Sandy beaches, and yours could be the one chosen. However, all articles submitted will still be published in Crackers.

Do you like hot dogs, those famous sausages wrapped in a hot bread roll? Did you know that hot dogs were introduced way back in 1860 by German immigrants on the streets of New York? Read more about famous inventions and inventors in this week’s article, which I hope you will find both interesting and informative.

See you next Thursday

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Famous inventions and inventors

FIREWORKS

Gunpowder was invented in China, probably during the 1000s. Gunpowder is composed of about 75 per cent saltpeter (potassium nitrate), 15 per cent powdered charcoal, and 10 per cent sulphur. The Chinese used gunpowder to make fireworks and signals, and later to make weapons of war.

FOUNTAIN PEN

Lewis E. Waterman was an American inventor and insurance salesman who developed a relatively leak-proof fountain pen; he patented his new invention in 1884 and revolutionised writing. Before his fountain pen, pen tips had to be tipped into ink after every few words. Waterman put an ink reservoir in the pen above the pen’s metal nib (point). This reservoir would hold enough ink for a few pages of writing. There were many problems in developing the fountain pen, especially the difficulty of controlling the flow of the ink. Putting a sealed reservoir above the nib wouldn’t let the ink flow, but if it wasn’t sealed, all the ink would flow at once. Waterman used capillary action to replace the ink in the rubber sac with air so that the ink flowed smoothly but did not flow all at once. Also, the metals in the ink dissolved the steel pen nib, so Waterman used an iridium-plated gold nib. Waterman was also the first person to place a clip on the cap of the pen.

GALILEO GALILEI

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Galileo found that the speed at which bodies fall does not depend on their weight and did extensive experimentation with pendulums. In 1593 Galileo invented the thermometer.

In 1609, Galileo was the first person to use a telescope to observe the skies. Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn (1610), was the first person to see the four major moons of Jupiter (1610), observed the phases of Venus, studied sunspots, and discovered many other important phenomena.

HOT DOGS

Hot dogs began as sausages sold in buns. They were first sold from carts by German immigrants on the streets of New York City in the 1860s. The bun replaced a plate and made the hot dog easier to carry and eat.

KINDERGARTEN

Kindergarten (which means “garden of children”) was developed by Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (1782-1852). Froebel was a German educator and educational reformer who opened the first kindergarten in Bad Blankenburg (near Keilhau) in 1837. Froebel founded a kindergarten training school at Liebenstein, Germany, in 1849. After some conflicts and mistaken charges of treason, the German government banned the establishment of kindergartens in 1851. In 1860, the government repealed the ban, and kindergartens re-opened (unfortunately, this was after Froebel’s death). Froebel’s kindergartens included pleasant surroundings, self-motivated activity, play, music, and the physical training of the child.

KITE

The kite was invented roughly 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. It originated in China, Malaysia or Indonesia (there are many claims to having invented the kite). Some people say that the earliest kites consisted of a huge leaf attached to a long string (there is a type of Indonesian leaf that is wonderful as a kite).

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexb.shtml

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Sandy Beaches

The beach is the land at the edge of water which is usually covered by sand, pebbles, shingle or cobbles. The type of material present will depend on the energy of the waves that are affecting the coast. If there are strong waves, the particles on the beach will be large since the smaller ones will be washed away by the sea. If there are calmer waves, the smaller particles remain on the coast. Beach particles are always moving. Notice when you walk along the water’s edge and leave footprints in the sand, how these disappear with the next wave. The water shifts the sand away. Sand particles are also moved by wind, which easily lifts them up into the air.

But although waves and wind are shifting sand all the time, the beach does not disappear because it is being refilled all the time as well. Material is transported to the beach by water from valleys or by wind from inland. It is also carried by the sea and is deposited on the beach by waves.

If a lot of sand accumulates, you may find that mounds form behind the flat beach. These are called sand dunes. When the wind blows inwards towards the land, it transports beach sand to the back of the beach and deposits it there. The size of sand dunes depends on the amount of sand available and also on the presence of plants that grow on them. The plants hold the particles in place, which would otherwise be blown away by the wind.