Originally titled “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, it first appeared in Italy in 1636 by Giambattista Basile in his collection Pentamerone. In this Neapolitan “Sleeping Beauty,” a great king is forewarned by wise men that his newborn daughter, Talia, is in peril from a poison splinter in flax. Although …
St. Pantaleone was a fourth-century Christian physician and martyr known as the “all-merciful.” Beheaded under orders of Roman emperor Diocletian, he became the patron saint of Venice, and a reliquary containing his blood (allegedly still liquid) is housed in the Italian town of Ravello. Pantaleone is probably the only saint …
Before there were guns there had to be something to make them fire. That explosive was black powder—a mixture of saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur—which was probably used for fireworks by the Chinese as early as the tenth century. Black powder made its way to Arabia and then Europe in the …
Devices for amplifying sounds in a listener’s ear date back to the ear trumpets of antiquity. Hollowed animal horns were used first, most likely, the small end placed in the ear and the other end directed toward the speaker so that it could collect and funnel sound, acting like a …
The first roller skates appeared in Holland in the early 1700`s but were not manufactured until after 1760. The year before, an inventive Belgian instrument maker named Joseph Merlin designed a pair of skates, each with two in-line wheels that he hoped would function like ice skates. Trying to make a …
The first bicycle-like vehicle was the creation of German engineer Baron Karl von Drais. His 1817 draisienne looked much like a modern bicycle, except it had no pedals. The wooden machine was propelled by the rider’s feet. Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan put pedals to the draisienne in 1839. Driving cranks …
Wireless portable telephones that can be used nearly anywhere are still referred to as “cell phones,” although “mobile phone” is a more accurate term; cellular phones were the early form of networking for communications providers that consisted of multiple base stations that divided up a region into “cells.” Wireless technology …
Devilishly hard to master but unrivalled for learning the elements of music, the piano has now become a standard piece of furniture. The instrument dates from the early 1700s, but there were several forerunners. The dulcimer, a stringed instrument played with hammers, was probably of ancient Middle Eastern origin. By …
With its bright-red frame, grey screen, and white plastic knobs, the Etch-a-Sketch toy is a 20th-century toy icon. Millions of kids around the world have manipulated those knobs to draw everything from a single line to complicated portraits. For a plaything so closely identified with American childhood, the Etch-a-Sketch has …
Cuddly stuffed bears have been a standard child’s toy for more than 100 years. The teddy bear story began on a hunting trip taken by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902. The President having failed to bag a trophy, his gracious Mississippi hosts caught and tied up a bear for him to …
