I was completely amazed concerning today’s feature.  It was on this date in 1797, that Andrew Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump without a rigid frame.  He jumped from a hot air balloon as high as 8000 feet in the air.  He was the only also the inventor of the air vent in a parachute which helped to reduce […]

I am so happy that I  can verify today’s fact so easily!  On this date in 1824, Joseph Aspdin first patented his Portland cement.  This is still an important  patent today.   His cement mixture replaced the heavier and weaker cement mixes of the past.  He actually performed his experiment in the kitchen–amazing!  He was from England, and this cement was […]

Although helium is the second most abundant gas in the universe, it is not a gas that overly prevalent on this earth.  On this date in 1868, French astronomer Pierre Jules Janssen discovered helium during a solar eclipse in India.  Interestingly enough, another astronomer 5000 miles away was discovering the same thing–Joseph Norman Lockyer.  Both reports arrived at the French […]