Research Rack: Did You Know?

• In 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright broke the powered flight barrier with their gasoline-powered Flyer I.

• Orville and Wilbur Wright submitted an application for their "Flying Machine" on March 23, 1903 and it was patented on May 22, 1906 (No. 821,393).

• The Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci sketched a simple helicopter in the 1400s, but it was never built.

• French inventor Paul Cornu built the first helicopter in 1907. It rose one foot off the ground and hovered for 20 seconds.

• Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell improved the Wright Brothers' aircraft design by inventing flaps called ailerons on the end of the wings.

• In Asia, kites were used as "fighting kites," with the winner being the driver of the kite that cut through the line of the loser.

• The Japanese once used kites to send bricks to workmen at the top of high buildings.

• Dr. Donald Stookey discovered Corning Glassware by accident when he overheated special glass by 600 degrees. The glass became a ceramic like material that didn't break when he accidentally dropped it!

• The zipper was first patented by Whitcomb Judson in 1893, but it was not accepted by many. In 1923, B.F. Goodrich ordered 150,000 of Gideon Sundacks newer model of the fastener (zipper) for his rubber galoshes. He liked the z-z-zip sound so much that he coined the word "zipper."

• Thomas Edison invented over 1,000 devices, tried 1,600 times before perfecting the modern light bulb, and made the telephone practical by improving the telephone transmitter, enabling our voices to travel great distances.

• More than 300 years after eyeglasses were in common use, Hans Uppershey, in 1608, observed the joint magnifying action of two lenses, built a simple telescope, and published his findings!