Mechanical History 101
\nby cricketjeff on April 25, 2009.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nI’ve got a little tale to tell, of how men came to dream,
\nOf massive engines, ships and cars, the best propelled by steam.
\nSo settle down and listen up, you may take notes my friend –
\nRemember all the foremost facts, I’ll test you at the end.<\/p>\n
The cannonballs on English ships were all the self same size,
\nWhich gave Armada galleons a rather harsh surprise.
\nThey’d learnt a way to mass produce a hoard of cast iron guns,
\nWhich meant they’d have the edge in wars ‘gainst Spanish, French, or Huns.<\/p>\n
The skills that let them cast this way was used by Newcomen,
\nSo when a tin mine flooded deep he’d pump it dry again.
\nHe built a massive engine that would pull down on a beam,
\nBy cooling down a cylinder that he’d first filled with steam.<\/p>\n
James Watt was next, improved the breed and patented the same;
\nIn ways that stopped all progress and was dreadful for the game.
\nTrevithick knew a better way and when the patents fell
\nHe drove an engine twenty miles, folks said it came from Hell.<\/p>\n
George Stephenson, a mining man. was mightily impressed
\nAnd built a load of railways that outperformed the rest.
\nRobert his son was smarter still, “The Rocket” lead the way –
\nTo making railways the force that we still use today.<\/p>\n
Dan Gooch and Stroudley followed on and engines grew and grew
\nThe railways employed all arts that anybody knew.
\nUntil some Germans came along and thought to build the car
\nThe locomotive engineer was like a movie star.<\/p>\n
Two brothers played at Kittyhawk and built a basic plane
\nWhich was the first thing made by man to overtake a train.
\nThen Two World Wars would force the pace of engineering change
\nProducing vehicles anyone would have to class\u00a0 as strange.<\/p>\n
The RAF had found a man, Frank Whittle was the bloke,
\nWho dreamed of planes without a prop, that seemed a dreadful joke.
\nBut pretty soon the skies would fill with jets that flew at speed
\nAnd let us travel round the world without the slightest need.<\/p>\n
Wernher von Braun, from Germany, would lead a Nazi race
\nTo send the weapons made for war across the edge of space.
\nThen he’d nip to the USA and keep up with his quest
\nThough early on the Russians were embarrassingly best.<\/p>\n
The Sputnik flashed around the World, Gagarin did so too
\nSo rocketry was all the rage and moonshots came on cue.
\nNow satellites bounce TV shows and phone calls all day long
\nWith Internet and home PCs technology is strong.<\/p>\n
This history is just old hat and no-one says they care
\nThat everything we thought we knew is just so much hot air.
\nThe bicycle was once the rage and few folk needed more
\nBut soon we’ll want a hover pack to nip of to the store.<\/p>\n
Now everyone who’s anyone must own a car or two
\nAnd change it for another one when it’s still almost new.
\nBut if the truth were being told, when grown up schoolboys dream
\nThey’re sitting high inside the cab in charge of lots of steam!<\/p>\n
Author notes
\nI got most of your 4 pointers in I think [Posts%20by%20cricketjeff%202_files\/
\ngrin.gif]<\/p>\n
Maritime\/Nautical
\nCity\/Metropolitan
\nMechanical\/Machines
\nAstronomy\/Space Exploration\/Aviation
\nTrains\/Rail Travel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mechanical History 101 by cricketjeff on April 25, 2009.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved I’ve got a little tale to tell, of how men came to dream, Of massive engines, ships and cars, the best propelled by steam. So settle down and listen up, you may take notes my friend – Remember all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9728,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3802","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7706,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3802\/revisions\/7706"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}