We all walk as a form of transport.
It is something easy to do, it doesn't fare any expenses, and anyone (given
that they are not disabled, of course) can do it.
But did we
walk our way up to this century? Surely we invented vessels to help us venture
farther and faster. One of the oldest ones up to date are ships. However,
ships are one of those things from history that aren't noticed, until they
finally are seen as a great purpose.
We don't
have any idea who first came up with the idea of ships. You can always google,
but the answers will all lead to: Ancient Egyptians.
Their ships were simple, with no sails. Archaeologists found
evidence that these ships were as old as 6300 BC. They then started making
sails made of cotton, as early as 3000 BC.
Then in 1200 BC the Phoenicians and
the Greeks used large ships for cargo to sail the Mediterranean. They made
large ships, and had two masts with sails and these ships were gigantic. They
were about 100 feet long and could carry 100-200 tons.
The Romans later beat this, with 180
feet long and 45 feet wide ships, holding up to 1000 people and 1000 tons.
Rafts were, obviously, the most
simple kind of ship invented perhaps far before the form of ships the ancient
Egyptians made, but there is no record so far.
Now, what about on ground?
We used horses.
People would ride on horses and the horses will take them far and wide.
How and when horses were
domesticated is still in dispute. Even so, the use of horses appeared in arts
in Paleolithic caves as early as 30,000 BCE.
After horses, carriages were
invented and later, they carried people and items.
These carriages were simple,
tray-like and had cloth laid over it to keep it from the sun. Later,
waterproof-kind of cloth was used to help defend from the rain as well.
Later, these carriages had better
designs and there were ones for people as well. The ones for people, of course,
had a much better design- some even elaborately decorated.
What came afterwards was the
invention of steam, and then came steam carriages. Some were still carried by
horses, but later, some could go on their own. These ones could also carry more
people and were somewhat faster.
Train-like carriages with the same
concept was invented to support more passengers and more items on board, and
trams also came along at the time.
From these two, steam trains then
came to creation and they could even be operated on their own. The concept of a
vehicle that did not need a horse also helped the idea of cars to come to.
These cars were later popular.
What about air travel? What about
planes?
Well, Planes came to creation
because of the Wright Brothers-Oliver and Wilbur Wright. They created the first
plane on December 17, 1903, that managed to carry a man. It rose by it's own
power, flew at even speed, and even descended without any damage.
Bicycles were also created, but much
farther behind than planes-They were founded in 1790, but it could have been
older than that. Many claims were made but they were unverified. The earliest
sketch of it belonged to Gian Giacomo Caprotti, Leonardo
da Vinci's pupil. Hans-Erhard Lessing,
a physicist and a technology historian (please note that the link leads to a
wikipedia page in German), described this as a fraud in 1998. However, the authenticity
is still being maintained by followers of Prof. Augusto Marinoni,
a lexicographer, philologist, and an Italian Historian (please note that the
link leads to a wikipedia page in Italian). He studied da Vinci.
More claims were made by Comte mede
de Sivrac, a Frenchman who developed the célérifère (say-lay-ri-fair). It had two
wheels on a rigid wooden frame, without steering. Directional control was only
by leaning.
The most verifiable claim for the
bicycle was made by a German, Baron Karl von Drais. He
invented a Laufmaschine (lit. Running machine), and he later patented the
design in 1818.
Well, then, any thoughts on transportation
then and now? It certainly has become more convenient nowadays, hasn't it? We
can only hope it'll become better as time goes. Perhaps we may be able to
travel like in science-fiction by teleportation soon?
Have a video to end it. This sums up
the history of transportation.
-by Nadya
