The Wheel

Fri, 16 Jan 1998 12:12:14 +0000

The wheel is perhaps man’s greatest invention. Simple as it seems, it is the very basis of movement. The cart, the cycle, the motor-car and the railway train move on wheels. Even aircraft which fly thousands of kilometres through the air need wheels for taking-off and landing. It is not only for transport that the wheel is vital. Machines that produce various goods for us, watches that tell us the time, generators that produce electricity, and many gadgets which have become essential in our day-to-day life cannot work without a wheel.

The Telegraph

Sun, 18 Jan 1998 03:06:34 +0000

In 1833 John Herschel, a British astronomer, went to South Africa to study the southern skies. He took with him a powerful telescope and many other instruments. He wanted to make charts and maps of the sky which people in the northern half of the world never saw. John Herschel planned to stay at the Cape of Good Hope for three or four years to complete his work.

Then Richard Locke, a reporter on the staff of the New York Sun, had a bright idea. Whatever he wrote about John Herschel’s discoveries would be believed as there was no means of verifying it. No one would find out the truth unless he sent a man or message by ship to South Africa, and even then it would take months to receive a reply from the astronomer. In the meanwhile, Locke decided to have all the fun he could.

Mir Najabat Ali on Pitara Kids Network

The Wheel

The Telegraph