Category Everyday Science

            Ice itself was something very difficult to make during the early days. So water ices and ice creams were luxurious dishes prepared for wealthy rulers. It was during the 1st millennium AD that the Chinese started to try out different fruit-flavoured cold drinks and desserts, using snow and ice. Later, the Persians and Arabs followed this method to make shaved snow and pour flavoured syrups on top of it. These were called sherbets.

            Water ices became popular in parts of Europe during the 1660s. It is said that the very first time when ice cream was served in England, at Windsor Castle in May 1671, Charles II was presented a plate of ice-cream with an equal portion of white strawberries. Kulfi is the most popular traditional frozen dairy dessert from the Indian subcontinent. Kulfis were first made for Mughal emperors during the 16th century.

            Though there have been many varieties of ice-cream cones initially, the most appealing version of ice-cream cones were made by a man named Ernest A. Hamwi, in 1904, in the US.

Picture credit: google

            It is thought that butter might have initially been made by ancient Asian nomads while travelling with containers of milk. The movement of the caravan might have churned the milk to produce butter.

            However, the name butter takes its origin from the Greek word bouturon, which means cow cheese. Even though the Greeks knew about butter, they never used it as food, but as medicine.

            It is said that the Celts might have introduced butter in Britain during the pre-Roman Iron Age. They even found a method to preserve butter by adding salt. Ancient records show that for preserving 4.5 kg of butter, almost 450 g of salt was added to it. But interestingly, before eating the butter some salt was washed off. The butter was then kneaded with water and the liquid pummeled out.

            Butter has been a part of Indian cooking since time immemorial. Butter was a very expensive commodity back then.

Picture credit: google

            A hairdryer is an electrical device for drying a person’s damp hair by a process of blowing warm air over it. The first model of a hairdryer was developed by Alexander Godefroy in 1890, for use in his salon in France.

           However, this model was not portable. Another drawback was that it couldn’t be used by holding in the hands; a person had to sit underneath it to get his hair dried.

            The first handheld hairdryer for daily use was developed in 1920. Even these ones had a major drawback- they were very heavy, weighing approximately 0.9 kg. Another major change was made in 1954 when GEC made the motor inside the casing adjustable. The bonnet dryer was introduced to consumers in 1951.

            During the 1950s, the rigid-hood hairdryer was introduced. It had a hard plastic helmet that wraps around the person’s head. Actually, the basic mechanism of a hairdryer has never been changed. The only change was made in the matter of convenience, like how plastic was used in order to make them lightweight.

Picture credit: google

               The very first formal calendar dates back to the Bronze Age. Since scribbling and documenting started during the ancient era, many forms of calendars were developed. The Sumerian calendar was the earliest, followed by the Egyptian, Assyrian and Elamite calendars.

               In the ancient Sumerian calendars a year was divided into 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days, where each month began with the sighting of a new moon.

               Another popular, historical calendar was the Julian calendar, which was reformed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.

               A major calendar reform was led by Khayyam in Persia during the 11th century when, measuring the length of the year was prudently fashioned to 365.24219858156 days. Later, the first calendars based on Zoroastrian cosmology appeared somewhere between 650 to 330 BC.

               The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used international calendar. It is a more clarified version of the Julian calendar.

Picture credit: google

            Glass was accidentally discovered around 3000 BC by Middle Eastern nomads while camping on a lake-side.

            They found chips of glass in the soil, which were actually created by the chemical reaction between silica content in the soil, and sodium carbonate deposits from the waters of the lake during higher temperatures.

            The oldest-known glass artefacts of consistently high quality date back to approximately 1500 BC when Egyptians made hollow glass by forming a core from a bag of sand or a lump of clay, attaching it to a metal rod and then covering it in molten glass. When the glass cooled, the clay was removed.

            However, glass vessels and utensils came into being nearly three centuries later. A glass maker in Syria discovered that a blob of glass at the end of a tube could be blown into a vessel of almost any shape.

Picture credit: google

            Different forms of adhesives were used by primitive men. Many excavations have revealed that early humans used bitumen, a natural glue, to attach stones and wooden blocks. Bitumen is used even now for surfacing roads and waterproofing roofs. Bitumen’s waterproofing qualities were utilized by shipwrights in Babylon and Mesopotamia as early as 2400 BC, in order to caulk their ships.

            The Egyptians produced a variety of glues by boiling animal skin, bone and sinew, which are used by traditional carpenters even now. Other natural adhesives used since earliest times include beeswax, egg white, gum, resin and starch pastes etc.

            Natural rubber-based sticky adhesives were first manufactured by Henry Day in 1845. Interestingly, Eastman Kodak’s researchers discovered Super-glue accidentally in the 1950s. They were first sold in Britain in the mid-1970s. Superglue is well known for its tighter grip.

            Varieties of synthetic adhesives are still being developed, with the ever evolving, new technologies.