A Museum of Inventions and Inventors, National Inventors Hall of Fame, in Virginia, USA near Washington DC

 I discovered this wonderful museum in a roundabout way. I found a shoe website which mentioned Rip-tape, and looked up the story of the invention of Velcro. The Wikiedia references led me to the Museum in the USA.

Some time back, I had a book on inventions such as the zip and the toaster. I visited a school in Singapore and found that panels on the corridor walls featured the history of popular inventions.

At Toastmasters International clubs (I belong to five clubs now since Covid-19 meeting online) we often cite Edison, who invented the light bulb - after as many as a thousand attempts to create a momentary spark and make a permanent light bulb. He is widely quoted as saying variations on: I didn't make a thousand mistakes. I discovered a thousand ways not to do it.

I looked at the website of the museum in the USA. I read about the 2022 recipients of awards, the people who had found solutions to health problems affecting many. Cataract and Covid-19. Then I checked on the article on women. Finally, for black history month, the man who invented the breadcrumb making machine.

Useful Websites

USA

Washington DC/Virginia

https://www.invent.org/museum

UK

Science Museum, London

https://shop.sciencemuseum.org.uk/products/science-museum-brilliant-book-of-inventions

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)

Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021

JULY - JUBILANT JULY

Theme/WOD Jubilant

WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)

1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)

2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Wed July 7th 

Saturday 17th

July 4rh American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST

1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches

2 Evaluations

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER

Wed 1st

Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS

Humorous Speech Contest

Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER

Wed 3rd

Sat 20th Wed

Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.

Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.

Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER

Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)

Sat 18th

Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY

Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past

Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY

Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year

Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)

Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH

Theme

Wed 2nd

Sat 19

March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.

Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April

 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE

Wed 1st

Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

What's New To See In Greece? More on Archimedes' Museum and Semaphore

Greek flag from Wikipedia

Water, water, everywhere in Greece, also in the Archimedes Museum. What's new to see in Greece?  After the Acropolis and all that. Archimedes' Museum, in the centre of ancient Olympia, where you can see the spot where they light the flame which is carried to the modern Olympic games. That's the modern part and the link between old and new is fascinating. The modern museum is surrounded by broken bits of ancient Greece, walls and columns. There's a lot of that in Greece, every city has something, several. But most fascinating if you head south west of Athens, to the Kalamata airport and onwards, is the Archimedes Museum.

Archimedes you probably learned at school is credited with inventing the Archimedes screw which lifted water, a spiral rather like a corkscrew bottle opener but encased in a tube. Going upwards instead of down, to lift the water. However, Archimedes was a prolific inventor. A bit like Edison later in America, who was credited with inventing the light bulb but spent his life inventing things. Our Greek friends, Ancient world Archimedes uses water to do everything.

Semaphore
Most amusing to me is the semaphore. You probably know modern semaphore as signalling with flags using levers. Archimedes system was more primitive but quite amazingly simple and effective.

Archimedes realised that you only want to send twenty urgent messages. (Assuming you don't want to say, hello, I love you or come home darling, twenty miles up and downhill for dinner.)

You are sending simple messages, probably something urgent like: the city is in trouble, flee, dragons are killing everybody, the enemy is approaching, has reached us, is killing us, fire, we are flooded, send help immediately (as fast as you can within 3 days, 2 days if you can make it), storms over us will reach you soon, Gods are angry, I am dying, goodbye.

You (Archimedes) stood on one hilltop next to a large water container. Inside were the twenty vital messages written on something waterproof.

You signalled to the person on the next hilltop to start ladling out the water into a second container. When the message you wanted rose to the top and could be read, you signalled stop.

What about the removed water? You just tip the container of removed water so it fills up the bigger one again.

This relies on having somebody at the other hill to read. But that applies to all messaging and signalling.

If you are technically minded, you may be interested in pulleys and belts, perpetual screws and gears, bolts and nuts, sprockets and roller chains. If you are more interested in daily life and amusements, you might be amused by the 'cinema, the hydraulic clock, the catapult and the puppet-show (a bit like the clocks you see over town gates and on buildings in France and Germany and the UK in Cardiff, Wales, where the little figures move on the hour or every day at noon).

Three linked museums may interest you:

Archimedes' Museum

The Museum of Ancient Greek Technology

The museum of Ancient Greek Musical Instruments and Toys

www.kotsanas.com

Read my earlier and later posts on the Greek alphabet and Greek food and wine.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, speaker.

What's New To See In Greece? Archimedes' Museum, Ancient Olympia

What's new to see in Greece? Archimedes' Museum is in the centre of ancient Olympia. You can see the spot where they light the flame which is carried to the modern Olympic games. The museum is surrounded by broken bits of ancient Greece, walls, columns and so on. There's a lot of that in Greece. But most fascinating is the Archimedes museum.

Archimedes you probably learned at school is credited with inventing the Archimedes screw which lifted water, a viral rather like a corkscrew bottle opener but encased in a tube. Going upwards instead of down, to lift the water. However, Archimedes was aa prolific inventor. A bit like Edison later in America, who was credited with inventing the light bulb but spent his life inventing things.

The Names Olympia and Peloponnese
Where is Ancient Olympia? On the Peloponnese peninsular. (How do you remember the spelling? Which is the double letter? I think of Pelop on knees. Double N.)

In Greek the site is known as Olympia Archaia. (From the Greek word root we get our English word archaic meaning old).

I searched on the internet to see how many places are known as Olympia. The modern city of Olympia is the capital of Washington state on the west coast of the USA.

In London, Olympia is a large exhibition hall.  The railway station alongside is known as 'Kensington (Olympia)'.

Flights to Olympia from London
British Airways goes from Heathrow to Kalamata. The fare was under £100 one way. Strangely the return was not £200 but nearer £400. However, an internet search revealed a flight on Easy Jet back from Kalamata to Gatwick for about £100.

Now, British Airways sounds a bit grander than Easy Jet. But for convenience, why not book both ways on Easy Jet? Because the flight from Gatwick left too early in the morning - one would have had to leave London before the underground trains started running.

(If you were starting from the USA, or from London, not on a budget, you might fly to Heathrow or Gatwick and stay at a hotel overnight.)

However, our travellers were starting from London. The trains back to north London or the north of England from Gatwick went one of two routes involving a change in south or west London. (Two passengers who took the trip via London were carrying rucksacks - on a budget one week trip on a walking holiday around Greece.)

More details on the museums from:

www.kotsanas.com

visitgreece.gr

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, speaker.