General Electric

How to fix General Electric Spacemaker microwave?

We have a GE Spacemaker microwave in our house. It is older than the hills and has been in this house for a long time. Well my roommate thought he was setting the time for 25 minutes but he actually started the microwave. It was on, heating nothing, for 25 minutes. Now the thing won't turn on or anything. It is completely powerless. Does anybody know if there is ANY possible way to fix this or if it is shot? We cannot afford another microwave.

It would cost more to fix than replace, if you could find someone to fix it. Its toast.

The role of electrical transformers is to switch voltage from one value to another; normally from higher to lower voltage or vice versa. They consist of two sets of coils or windings that are connected to a ferromagnetic core. There are two types of coils—the primary and secondary conductors.

A changing current in the primary conductor produces alternating magnetic fields in the core, which in turn multiples the fields and couples most of the flux with the secondary conductor. This incites the alternating voltage or EMF in each of the secondary conductor.

The cores can be customized as toroidal or laminated. The toroidal has several advantages such as producing low magnetic leakage, close flux path, low noise and smaller core size, lighter and more efficient. They have copper wires wrapped around a cylindrical core preventing leakage of magnetic flux. The magnetic flux is not very influential on other components.

On the other hand, the laminated core is composed of sheets of magnetic material that is insulated from one another with a non-conducting material such as varnish, producing a core that decreases electrical losses.

Electrical transformers can be configured in two ways. You can choose single-phase or three-phase. In switching the voltage level, the principle of magnetic induction between coils is to transfer voltage between coils from the electricity that flows through them. The transformers are passive devices that initiates the transformation of alternating current or AC electrical energy from one circuit into another through electromagnetic induction.

Many homes and businesses have transformers to transfer electricity from power plants. The voltage of the transformers at the power plants is normally high. As they reached the substation, the voltage is lowered. When they reached smaller transformer, the voltage is lowered again. The adjustment in voltage is a continuous process, which only stops when the power reaches the useable level.

The inward voltage of electrical transformers is very crucial. There are three general frequencies that are easy to obtain. These are the 50 Hertz, 60 hertz, and 400 hertz. If you are in Europe, the standard power is 50 hertz. In North America, the average power is 60 hertz. The 400 hertz is set aside for high-capacity purposes like aerospace technologies.

In estimating transformers, it is important to consider power specifications such as highest ratings of the next current, the secondary current ratings, highest power rating, the voltage rating, output type and output choices, such as AC or DC.

Transformers come in several types. There are power transformers, current transformers, step down transformers, low voltage transformers, distribution transformer, instrument transformers, general purpose transformers and automatic transformers.

The power transformers have several configurations based on segments and links. The distribution transformer decrease the primary voltage of the electric distribution system so that it can be used by customer. Auto electrical transformers are smaller in size, weigh less and have better voltage stability as well as overload tolerance.

The manner by which the electrical transformers function has changed. They made life easier for people as they transfer power efficient and more economical. The electricity that is available in your house passes through many different transformers before it is usable as a low voltage.

General Electric

General Electric Mini Fridge makes buzzing noise when trying to strarting up?

I have a General Electric TAW4SP8, mini fridge. Havn't used it in an while and when I plug it in, it starts to make a buzzing noise from the back as it is trying to start up. It makes a brief noise and then stops, and then moments later starts again. Sounds as if it is trying to start up. What is the problem?

I'm 80% sure you have a compressor problem. That noise you can hear is the compressor attempting to start, but tripping out on the overload. This is usually a sign that the compressor is seized. However, some refrigerators have start capacitors, which is a black cylinder object located next to the compressor. If it has then there is a slim chance that this is the problem.

I must be honest though, I have never seen a capacitor on a mini fridge, but if it has, & it is the problem, then it is far cheaper to replace than the compressor. If it's the compressor, then it may be too costly to replace in a mini fridge.

Either way I'm afraid it's time to call an engineer

Hope that helps

General Electric, Aig And The Cleansing Effects Of Crisis: Part I

Justice Litle, Editorial Director, Taipan Publishing Group

Could there be any possible upside to global recession and market declines to rival the Great Depression? Believe it or not, the answer is yes... General Electric gives answer as to why.

Though it seems hard to believe at times, there are positive aspects to a crisis. Just as nature renews itself through a cycle of death and rebirth, markets have to renew themselves too.

A classic example of renewal in nature is the routine forest fire. Over time, brush and debris build up on the forest floor. Meanwhile, old growth trees dominate the landscape. When fire comes, the brush and debris burn up like a fuel - as do the trees that have weakened or died over the years.

Then, after the fire burns itself out, the forest begins the cycle anew. The debris and dead wood of the past cycle have been naturally cleared, making room for new growth. The forest grows back in a healthier state than before.

Those of us in the western U.S. are painfully aware of how man has botched this natural cycle. Through a constant pattern of suppressing small fires, hapless forest managers created the conditions in which BIG fires occur.

When debris and dead wood are burned out every few years - as happens with nature's way - the fuel build-up never reaches catastrophic levels. But when a forest area is allowed to accumulate layer after layer of dry fuel, turned into a tinderbox through many years of overzealous fire suppression, a single spark can touch off an inferno.

At a cost of untold billions in rampant fire destruction, forest managers seem to have learned the hard lessons. But the movers and shakers of global monetary policy have not. Refusing to allow for a downturn - suppressing it at all costs with easy money - is the economic equivalent of overzealous fire suppression. Let the "debris" of bad behavior, bad ideas and bull market hubris build up for too long, and what you get is a tinderbox.

Through poor stewardship of resources, a constant feeding of dry tinder and an utter disregard for risk, we created the conditions that now feed this inferno. Not just one man did this, but many men... Alan Greenspan not least among them, plus a virtual conga line of successors and enablers that followed.

Fire Still Works

So the bad news is, we've got our inferno. The fires are raging now. What else can you call it when the S&P is down more than 60% (!) from inflation-adjusted highs and the World Bank  predicts a shrinking of the global economy this year for the first time since World War II.

The good news is that fire still works as a cleansing element.

A number of gross excesses, bad ideas and flat-out rotten Wall Street practices, born of a long and cushy bull market run, are turning to ash now, hopefully never to return. This is the good that comes of all this pain. So when you look around and wonder whether the incredible wealth destruction was worth it, for the most part the answer is "no" - no one really needed this. But in at least some respects the answer is yes.

That old market stalwart, General Electric  (GE:NYSE), is a clear example of the cleansing process at work.

In keeping with our fire analogy, GE has been burnt to a cinder. The mighty colossus that once went head to head with Exxon (XOM:NYSE) for the title of "world's largest company" now sports a market cap on par with Apple Computer ."

As a business, General Electric has a bit of a split personality. One side builds things, invents things and repairs things. The other side engages in mysterious acts of financial engineering. The troubles now are not to be found in the jet engine or light bulb side of the business. They are in GE Capital  , the mysterious financial entity with disclosures so complex that analysts never truly understood it from day one.

Much as a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat, for many years GE Capital was the black box from which the company pulled out perfectly managed earnings. Quarter after quarter, General Electric would beat estimates by a penny or two - just like clockwork.

Jack Welch, the current CEO's legendary predecessor, pulled off this smoothing trick by moving things around on the GE Capital side with an eye for gaming the quarter. Assets would be sold or shuffled around to get the numbers just right.

Now that the world has met Bernie Madoff we're all a little more distrustful of perfectly smooth trends. But back in the halcyon days of the late 20th century bull market, managed earnings were seen as a good thing, not a bad thing.

The Wall Street analysts covering GE may not have been geniuses, but they certainly weren't idiots. They knew there was a fair amount of hocus-pocus going on... and they knew GE Capital's disclosures were too complex to be reasonably understood. But Wall Street loved the reliability of that penny or two beat, quarter after quarter, which is why Jack Welch did it. And he was feted as a hero for it.

Some Habits Just Have to Die

Let's not put any gloss on it: The whole concept of "managed earnings" is dumb.

In the real world, things move around. Earnings go up and earnings go down. Apart from businesses that rely exclusively on locked-in contracts with minimal fluctuation in labor costs and material inputs, hardly any business makes the same amount of profit every single quarter. The idea that a company could hit its estimated target bang on the nose every single quarter, without fail, is silly too. The real world is unpredictable. The real world is lumpy.

But investors like preternatural stability - or at least they thought they did, pre-Madoff - and so they happily accepted the managed earnings process that Welch pioneered. They smiled and nodded and happily ignored the fact that fully half of General Electric's earnings came from a strangely high-handed entity (GE Capital) that no analyst understood.

These are the kind of bad habits and bull market indulgences we can say goodbye to as a result of the current crisis.

Old habits die hard - sometimes too hard - and it can often take a massive, wrenching dislocation to remove them. (Some refer to this as "the moment of forced awareness." One bumper sticker I like reads, "Avoid painful forced awareness: accept reality now.")

Now that General Electric has been laid low and forced to ponder the very real risk of its own demise, it is unlikely that the bad old ways of GE Capital will return. And now that investors have taken a collective frying pan to the face as payback for their artificial smoothness addiction, it is unlikely that black boxes will be playing a large role in the post-crisis markets to come.

Reason to Take Hope

All in all, the humbling of General Electric gives us reason to take hope. As mentioned, the jet engine and light bulb side of the business - the bringing good things to life side - will probably survive, and perhaps down the road even thrive once again.

And so when the question arises, "What good has come of this crisis," we can at least point out that the likes of managed earnings, black boxes, and off-balance-sheet shenanigans are set to go the way of the dodo. The absence of such things will make for a sounder economy and a better investing future.

And we can further point out that, as stubborn and foolish as investors can be on a collective basis, if you hit them hard enough over the head they can still learn something. In rooting out and burning up the entrenched bad habits of yesteryear, the odds are improved for a better tomorrow.

This represents the "silver lining" side of things. Next we'll take a closer look at the AIG mess and plunge into the dark cloud.

http://www.taipanpublishinggroup.com/taipan-daily-031009.html

About the Author

Justice Litle is editorial director for Taipan Publishing Group. He is also a regular contributor to Taipan Daily, a free investing and trading e-letter, and editor of Taipan's Safe Haven Investor. He is the founder and editor of Taipan’s newest research advisory service, Justice Litle’s Macro Trader.

General Electric Clock

My general electric washer doesn't want to complete its cycle!?

I put in my load of colored clothes at about close to one o clock (eastern time). Usually the colored cycle takes 59 minutes but after an hour, I went down there and it said it still had 30 minutes to go! 30 minutes later I came back and it said 28 minutes. It keeps stopping and pausing at 28 minutes. It's 3:40 right now and that single load still isn't done! I have this http://www.geappliances.com/products/introductions/frontload/ and we only had it for about a year or so. What should we do?

If the warranty is still good on it, call the place where you bought it at, and explain what your washer is doing. See if the warranty is still good, and see if you can get a different washer. Also, read the user's manual that came with the washer.

General Knowledge- Vii

• WHAT IS MOBILE ELBOW?

The mobile elbow results from using the mobile for long hours. Called the 'cubital tunnel syndrome', it is also called cell phone elbow'. The problem occurs when the ulnar nerve, which runs across the elbow, down to the ring and little fingers, gets over-stretched and blood supply is restricted, sparked by holding a phone to the ear for long periods.

• WHY DOES STEEL GLOW WHEN IT'S HOT?

Hot steel glows red when hot because its atoms vibrate with a lot of energy. The amount of energy varies in atoms re- sulting in a range of colours.

• WHAT DOES JANUARY MEAN?

The original Roman calendar had 10 named months from March to December and two unnamed months during winter. These two months were named January and February by Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome circa 700 BC. January is named after Janus, the Roman 'god of gates, doors and the beginnings'.

• WHAT'S THE AAFBAU PRINCIPLE?

The physical and chemical properties of elements are determined by the atomic structure. This, in turn, is determined by electrons and the shells, sub-shells and orbitals they reside in. The rules of placing electrons within shells is known as the Aafbau principle, which originally means 'building up'.

• WHAT IS CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCIES IN THE US?

A case filed under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is commonly referred to as a 'reorganization or restructuring bankruptcy'. Chapter 11 is a part of the US Bankruptcy Code under which an insolvent company is allowed to reorganize and is not liquidated. It is not shut down and sold off.

• WHY DOES THE JASMINE BLOOM ONLY AT NIGHT?

Like all other flowering plants, jasmine also produces a flower inducing hormone in its leaves when exposed to bright sunlight. This hormone is called florigen (flower-generating hormone) and it migrates from the leaves to flowering shoots during the day. It accumulates in the flowering shoots of the jasmine plant and induces flowering during the night.

• WHAT IS A ROMAN CIRCUS?

It was an open air stadium used for public events in the Roman empire, empire. The events usually held in such a circus were chariot and horse races and performances commemorating historical events. The performance space would be rectangular or oval surrounded by several tiers of seats for spectators. The circus would be decorated with ornate columns, obelisks and statues. The first circus built in Rome was the Circus Maximus which also happened to be its largest.

• WHAT DOES THE PHRASE 'CHICKEN OUT' MEAN?

To chicken out is to stop doing something because of fear or lose courage while doing something. Sometimes, it is also used to ask a person, "Are you chicken?" or even as "Jack chickened out..." The chicken is a timid bird, which also gave rise to 'chicken-hearted'.

• WHAT IS CONTACT SCRAPING?

Social networking has brought about a new trend called contact scraping, where an online company with access to a person's mail account goes through the contact list and sends out an invitation to all to join the site. Once a person enters his/her credentials, like user name or password, the company sweeps through the contact list. The company gets free publicity and widens its user base, but could put the person concerned in an embarrassing and annoying situation, especially when there are friendly mails from strangers in return.

• HOW ARE DEEMED UNIVERSITIES DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS?

Ordinary universities are officially approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India as per the latter's guidelines for the universities' overall supervision and administration. 'Deemed university' is a term indicative of status of autonomy granted to high performing institutes and departments of various universities. Such status enables deemed universities not only full autonomy in setting course work, syllabus and research centres, but also allows it to set it's own guidelines for admission, fee and instructions to students. Parent universities have no control over deemed universities in matters of overall administration.

• WHY IS SEA WATER VERY HIGH IN SALT CONTENT?

The average salinity of sea water is about 3.5%. One cubic mile of sea water contains 166 million tonne of salt. The salts of the sea come from the breaking up of rocks and gradual wearing away of mountains releasing salts that are washed down by rainwater. It is estimated that more than 400 million tonne of dissolved salts are brought to the sea every year by 27,000 cubic km of water. The second source of salt is rocks beneath the ocean bed. There has been a constant slow addition of sea salinity due to evaporation from the ocean surface, combined by discharge from land.

• WHAT IS A CHEMICAL BOND? HOW IS IT FORMED?

A chemical bond is one in which atoms of different or same elements combine to become stable. There are two types of chemical bonds —electro-valent bond and covalent bond. In an electrovalent bond, a metal donates an electron to a non-metal and forms the bond. Such bonds are very strong. A covalent bond is formed between non-metals only. These are easy to break.

• IS RAIN WATER COMPLETELY PURE?

Rain water is considered the purest form of water. Impurities and salts present in water on earth are left behind during vaporisation by the sun. However, the rain water we receive on earth is not necessarily pure, as it brings down impurities and particles present in the atmosphere along with it.

• WHAT IS 'THE MAGIC OF SCHEHERAZADE'?

The Magic of Scheherazade is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System released by Culture Brain in 1989. It is the translation of the 1987 Famicom game Arabian Dream Scheherazade. The game was innovative for its time, incorporating elements of adventure and RPG styles.

• WHAT IS FUNEMPLOYMENT?

'Funemployment' came into being with the recession, when people began losing jobs. It means unemployed individuals making use of the break to enjoy their free time — travel, take up physical activity and have a good time but at little cost. They may not have been able to do this earlier. The funemployed are young people who have few responsibilities and commitments and can afford a break. They also use the time to find another job, but don't spend time worrying about it.                

• WHAT IS MEDIAWIKI?

A wiki is a web application that allows users to create and edit web page content using a web browser. The term wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website. Mediawiki is a wiki software package licensed under the GNU General Public License, making it free and open source software. This Mediawiki software is used to run the popular web encyclopaedia Wikipedia, besides all projects of Wikimedia, wikis hosted by Wikia, and many other wikis.

• WHY DON'T THE TEETH OF ANIMALS DECAY THOUGH THEY NEVER BRUSH THEIR TEETH?

According to WHO, decaying of teeth is a localized, post-eruptive pathologic external process, involving hard tooth tissue and formation of cavities. There is demineralization of teeth by acids produced in the oral environment, due to action of oral acidogenic bacteria on carbohydrates found in cooked food and drinks. Animals are either herbivorous or carnivorous or both, and survive on uncooked, raw food, rich in fibre, which needs a lot of chewing to digest, thereby cleansing the teeth naturally It is like brushing teeth and massaging gums the natural way But tooth decay is common in pets like dogs, which eat cooked food and junk food like biscuits etc.

• WHICH IS THE BIGGEST STAR?

The biggest star found till date is Vy Canis Majoris, in the constellation of Canis Major. It is a red supergiant and one of the most luminous stars, 5,000 light years away from the earth with a radius of 1,800-2,100 times that of the sun. It is so large that its surface extends beyond the orbit of Saturn, were it placed in our solar system. Even light would take eight hours to complete its circumference. Though it is great, it is relatively cool, with a surface temperature of 3500 Kelvin.

• WHICH IS THE WORLD'S SLEEPIEST ANIMAL?

The sleepiest animal, considered by the average number of hours of sleep a day is the koala, an arboreal animal with the scientific name Phascclarctos Cinerus, found only in Australia. Though it resembles a teddy bear, scientifically it is close to kangaroos, because it carries its young in a pouch. It lives mostly on eucalyptus trees, sleeping in the fork for 19-22 hours a day

• WHAT IS THE GOLDEN ANGLE?

The golden angle separates the florets of a sunflower. Ills an approximation, since three golden arcs add up to slightly more than enough to make a circle. One of the old leaves overlaps and is pushed out in a radial line. This makes space in the inner system for a new leaf to form. New leaves move into the spaces opened as old leaves diverge.

• WHO IS CALLED A DIGITAL NOMAD?

A person who works on the move is called a digital nomad. Such a worker may or may not be on the rolls of a company, and could he a consultant/freelancer/a writer on the move. They are persons with a free spirit who like a remote lifestyle and earn as they move, and believe that with discipline and the correct technology, they can be as productive as a person sitting in office. This is new tribe of people and for them, the economic downturn has brought little distress as companies turn to part-timers to save on costs.

• WHAT IS A BLACK BLIZZARD?

During the drought of the 1930s in America, with no natural anchors in place, the soil dried, turned to dust and blew eastward and southward in large dark clouds. They blackened the sky and reached all the way to East Coast cities such as New York and Washington DC. Much of the soil ended up as deposits in the Atlantic Ocean, and were called 'Black Blizzards' and 'Black Rollers', and reduced visibility to a few feet. The Dust Bowl or Dirty Thirties —1930-36 and even up till 1940 — were caused by drought and decades of extensive farming without crop rotation.

• WHY DO NEWSPAPERS PRINT A COMBINATION OF FOUR DOTS —BLUE, PINK, YELLOW, BLACK— AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE

The four dots — blue (cyan), pink (magenta), yellow and black are registration marks used during printing to help ensure the print is aligned properly In offset printing technology which newspapers use, the inked image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. These primary colours go into printing a multi-coloured image and have separate plates. Each plate has its individual mark, like the colour dot.

• ON WHAT BASIS ARE PINCODES DISTRIBUTED?

A Postal Index Number or PIN or Pincode is the post office numbering or postal code system used by India Post. It's sixdigits long, and was introduced on August 15,1972. There are nine PIN zones in India. The first digit of the PIN code indicates the region in which a given post office falls, the second digit the sub-region, the third the sorting district. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices.

• WHO FOUNDED YOUTUBE?

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, all early employees of PayPal, founded YouTube. Hurley studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. It was founded on February 15,2005. In Sfovember 2006, YouTube, LLC, was bought by Google me. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google.

• WHAT IS DERVISH MUSIC?

Dervish word originates from the Turkish word 'darvis', meaning poor or mendicant. Dervish music began among Muslim religious groups, known for their practice of energetic dancing, whirling, chanting or singing.

• WHAT IS A BOOMBURB?

Aboomburb is a booming suburb or satellite townships dreamt up by developers. It gives an idea of wealth, a boom. Boomburg is a similar term. These suburbs are usually not complete towns — though they are self-sufficient.

• HOW ARE ELECTRIC PYLONS PLACED ACROSS MOUNTAINS TO TRANSMIT ELECTRICITY?

Electric pylons are tall supports— made of galvanized steel lattice, steel tube or wood — used for power line construction. In normal terrain, they are assembled on the site. In mountainous regions, helicopters are used for power line construction, which are efficient but expensive. In the aerial construction method, the entire structure is pre-assembled and shifted in helicopters.

• WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM 'CASH COW'?

Management guru Peter F Drucker coined the term in the mid-1960s to describe a business or product line with a large market share in a stagnant or declining market. It can yield profits reliably for some years without further investment and little maintenance. The term also has its origin in a matrix developed by Boston Consulting Group, in which enterprises have po sitions in either a growing or shrinking market, and either a growing or shrinking total market share.

• WHAT ARE PERSEIDES?

The word Perseides is found in Greek mythology and refers to the descendants of Perseus — the name of a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttie. They are so called because they appear to come from the constellation Perseus. This shower is visible from midJuly each year, with peak activity between August 9 and 14, and is sometimes referred to as the "tears of St Lawrence", as August 10 is the saint's martyrdom.

• WHAT ARE JACK-O-LANTERNS?

They are carved pumpkins with lights inside commonly seen on Halloween night. The top of the pumpkin is cut off, the inside flesh scooped out and a face carved on its surface. These are used partly for fun and partly believing that they represent the souls of departed elders who protect houses from evil spirits. Ac cording to an Irish folk tale, the soul of a dishonest farmer called Jack wanders the earth burning amber inside a vegetable. The Jack-o-lantern is supposed to have been named after him.

• WHAT IS QUASI-RESONANCE?

A 'quasi-resonant' DC to DC converter with zero-current and zero-voltage switching includes a transformer with primary and secondary windings, and periodic switching means connected in series with the primary winding. The topology of the converter is determined by selecting an input capacitor with a capacitance much lower than the output capacitor.

• WHO IS AN EXCEPTOR?

An exceptor is a person who chooses to eat meat on special occasions. A vegetarian by habit, the exceptor makes exceptions for days like weddings, festivals and celebrations. After the vegan,eggetarian and flexitarian, it is the exceptor who is basically vegetarian, but makes changes in diet to suit the occasion.

• WHAT IS THIGMOTROPISM?

Thigmotropism is the growth of a plant around a support. Tropism is a phenomena by which a plant, usually climber like money plant and ivy, responds to a stimulus. Stems of the pea plant, for instance, are weak and have coil-like structures called tendrils. When tendrils approach a support (stick), a phytohormone called auxin is released in the side of the tendril away from the support. Auxin, a growth hormone, elongates the cells of that portion and makes it strong. The other portion, devoid of auxin, becomes weak and coils around the support.

• WHY DO THE EYES OF SOME ANIMALS GLOW IN THE DARK?

Some animals have a special, reflective surface right behind their retinas, called the tapeturn lucidum, which helps animals see better in the dark. When light enters the eye, it hits a photoreceptor that transmits the information to the brain. But sometimes light doesn't hit the photoreceptor, so the tapetum lucidum acts as a mirror to bounce it back for a second chance.

• WHY DON'T WE FEEL THE TONES OF ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE? 

Atmospheric pressure, which is about 1 kg per'sqcm of area, presses down on our body from all sides, but we don't feel it as it is balanced by fluid pressure from inside our body We can feel the difference during rainy season or when we go. to places where atmospheric pressure is less, like hill stations, where due to higher fluid pressure, blood oozes out in blood vessels, making the skin over those pink. The reverse happens under water.

• WHY DO FOOD PACKAGES CARRY KCAL WHEN THEY ACTUALLY SPECIFY CALORIES AND NOT KILO-CALORIES?

Kilocalories are commonly known as calories and abbreviated as kcal. One calorie (Kcal) has the same energy value as 4.186 kilojpules-(kJ), while one kilojoule is equivalent to 0.24 calories. One calorie contains the amount of energy that raises the temperature of one litre of water by 1 degree Celsius.

• WHAT IS SPIDER SILK?

Spider silk, also known as gossamer, is a protein fibre spun by spiders. Spiders use their silk to make webs. They can also suspend themselves using it. Many small spiders use silk threads for ballooning, the scientific term for the dynamic kiting spiderlings (mostly) used for dispersal. They extrude several threads into the air and let themselves get carried away with upward winds.

• WHAT IS A SICK-OUT?

A sick-out is concerted action by a group of employees, who call in sick to protest against the company and its policies. It is meant to hold the company to ransom. In ordinary language, it is a strike to show the power they hold over the company's working. It is a slightly more devious method than taking to the streets openly and raising slogans. Employees hope to put pressure on the company and force it to meet their demands.

• WHAT IS UNBREAKABLE GLASS MADE OF, AND IS IT REALLY UNBREAKABLE?

The presence of micro cracks on the glass surface (called Griffith's micro cracks) makes glass breakable under tension or impact. Such micro cracks are unavoidable as the glass surface comes under tension while cooling from a high temperature into various shapes. However, one can increase its impact resistance by various methods, so it can withstand even the impact of a bullet. The idea is to remove the surface micro cracks by chemical etching, or putting the glass surface under compression by physical or chemical toughening. One can even laminate two such toughened glass plates with resin in-between. These glasses are unbreakable, but when the threshold value is very high, it eventually breaks or cracks.

• WHAT IS UNIVERSAL TIME COORDINATED?

Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) is a time standard based on International Atomic Time with leap seconds added at irregular intervals to compensate for the Earth's slowing rotation. A leap second is a positive or negative one-second adjustment to the UTC scale that keeps it close to Mean Solar Time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The difference between UTC and Mean Solar Time is not allowed to exceed 0.9 seconds, so if high precision is not required, the general term Universal Time may be used. Time zones are expressed as positive or negative offsets from UTC. While each day contains 24 hours and each hour 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute can be 60,61 or 59.

• HOW DO SENSOR DOORS WORK?

Sensor doors use motion sensors or presence sensors. The first are used to activate the door when it detects a moving object, such as a pedestrian or shopping cart. Motion sensors can distinguish between objects moving toward the door or away from it. They use microwave technology and utilize the Doppler Effect principle. The sensors emit a high frequency microwave signal — when the wave encounters a moving object, it bounces back and its frequency changes in proportion to the object's speed; Presence sensors detect both moving and non-moving objects in the path of the door. Presence sensors use infrared technology — they emit an invisible pulsed light signal. The receiver looks for the reflected signal and reacts.

• WHAT IS WEISURE?

Weisure time is when work is done during leisure time. With the line between work and leisure blurring thanks to online work and smartphones, a new work-life culture has been created. Sociologist Dalton Conley coined this word, having observed that 9-5 jobs are giving way to this new lifestyle.

• WHO DISCOVERED COMETS? HOW IS THE TAIL FORMED?

Comets have been known to mankind since eons, hence it cannot be said that comets were discovered by any single individual. A comet, like planets and asteroids, orbits around the sun — with fee orbital period varying from a few years to thousands of years. A comet is formed of rock, ice, dust and a few frozen gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. When a comet is close to the sun, the radiation from the sun causes the volatile matter in the comet to vaporize and spread out into space in the form of its tail, its dust particles and ions glowing due to sunlight falling on it.

• WHAT IS HAY FEVER AND WHY IS IT SO CALLED?

Hay fever is a form of allergy belonging to a group of maladies including hives, asthma and skin problems caused by protein sensitization.During certain seasons, many plants, grasses release their pollens into the air in large quantities. A person is said to have hay fever when he/she is sensitive to these pollens and other substances present in the air. It is called hay fever because the symptoms of the disease appear during spring and fall in England.

• HOW IS THE HEIGHT OF WATER TIDES PREDICTED?

As astronomical data is not sufficient to calculate tides, predictions are also based on actual tidal measurements in many areas, over ah extended period. A network of tide stations is equipped to take the following measurements every six minutes: tide levels, wind speed and direction, water current speeds, directions, air and water temperatures and barometric pressure. Stations that provide these daily predictions are called reference stations. Other stations are subordinate stations, which obtain predictions by applying a specific formula to this data. The formula is derived by observing how tides at the two stations related to one another in the past.

• HOW DO SOLAR CELLS CONVERT SUNLIGHT INTO ELECTRICITY?

Solar cells use photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight directly into electricity by converting photons (light particles) into electrons (negatively charged particles). Photovoltaic cells are made of semiconductors and silicon, mixed with other material.

• WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD COCKTAIL?

The word cocktail was used in 1806 and is of American origin. Bartenders would drain the dregs of all the barrels and mix them together, serving the resultant muddle at a reduced price. Cock was another name for spigot, and tailings is the last bit of alcohol, so this drink was called cock-tailings, quickly shortened to "cocktail".

• WHAT IS A CUSHION ACCOUNT?

It is an account a person sets aside which has no demands of monthly expenses on it, and is used as an emergency or luxury fund. A few business people set aside cushion funds to help their business grow, and for stability. The word 'cushion' is used as it gives a certain level of comfort to the person.

• WHAT IS MAGIC SAND?

Magic sand is water-repellent sand available in blue, green and red colours. When this sand in powder form is sprinkled on water, it sinks and forms a solid substance. This property is used to separate oil floating in the oceans — it can be sprayed on oil spills to enable it to mix with oil and take solid form. It is also used by utility companies in Arctic areas as it never freezes.

• IF LEAVES GET THEIR COLOUR FROM CHLOROPHYLL, WHAT GIVES FLOWERS THEIR COLOUR?

Plant cells have cell organelles known as plastids, which are colouring agents. There are three types of plastids — chloroplasts (contain green pigment chlorophyll), leucoplasts (white or colourless plastids) and chromoplasts (contain other pigments). All cells have varying proportions of these. Flowers have a majority of the third type and get their colours from these.

• HOW IS A MOCKTAIL DIFFERENT FROM A COCKTAIL?

Cocktail is a style of mixed drinks, and usually contains one or more types of liquor and mixers, such as bitters, fruit juice or herbs. Mocktail is a non-alcoholic cocktail. Mocktail is also know as 'virgin cocktail'.

• WHAT IS A MINSKIAN PONZI DEAL?

The Minskian Ponzi deal was a theory propounded by American economist Minsky, in 1986. Such deals are both unsustainable and hazardous. In Minsky's view, periods of economic and financial stability lead to a lowering of investors' risk aversion and a process of releveraging. Investors borrow excessively and push asset prices excessively high. In this process, there are three types of investors/borrowers. First, sound or hedge borrowers who can afford to pay on their own. Second, speculative borrowers who can only service interest payments out of their cash flows. Finally, there are Ponzi borrowers who can service neither interest nor principal payments, and need to keep on refinancing their debts.

• WHAT DOES THE MONTH OF RAMZAN SIGNIFY?

Ramzan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Muslims fast for the entire month. They are obliged to abstain from all food, drink, tobacco and conjugal relations from dawn till sunset. The spiritual aspects include refraining from gossiping, lying, slandering and all such traits of bad character. The month of Ramzan is a time for spiritual reflection, prayer, recitation of the Quran, doing 'Zikr', endurance and selfdiscipline, to train the soul and body to be able to exercise self-restraint.

• WHO IS A SEXER?

A sexer is a professional in a hatchery who can tell a male chick from a female. Also known as chick sexers, they are employed to separate the genders as hatcheries have different feeding programmes for them: females are reared to lay eggs and males are bred for their meat. Big hatcheries sex chickens as they have no use for male birds who are killed almost immediately. A sexer is trained to tell the chicks apart by their physical appearance and vents.

• WHAT IS A SINKING FUND?

It is a fund set aside as a means to repay funds borrowed through a bond issue. The issuer makes periodic payments to a trustee who retires part of the issue by purchasing the bonds in the open market. Rather than the issuer repaying the entire principal of a bond issue on the maturity date, another company buys back a portion of the issue annually, and usually at fixed par value or at the current market value of the bonds, whichever is less. From the investor's point of view, a sinking fund adds safety to a corporate bond issue: with it, the issuing company is less likely to default on repayment.

• WHY IS A SWINE FLU MASK CALLED N95?
• Respirators or N95 masks can block 95% small particles that contain the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu. These are expensive and can be used only for a single day. These masks are made of three layers of electrostaticallycharged microfibres, that block 95% particles, thus the name N95.
• WHAT IS CLAYTRONICS?

Claytronics is an emerging field of engineering, drawing on nano technology and computer engineering. Claytronics or programmable matter refers to an assemblage of tiny components called claytronic atoms or catoms, which could assume the form of any object, depending on the programmes controlling the claytronics. This term also refers to the art of making clay caricatures of public figures, begun in 1996 by an Indian, Charuvi Agrawal.

• WHAT DOES 'TROPICALIZED' ON A RADIO SET SIGNIFY?

Heat and humidity are the greatest enemies of any electrical equipment, so in tropical countries, such equipment is manufactured to withstand those climatic conditions. In a radio set, tropicalized means coating the electrical windings with resin, sealing the speaker hole with acoustically transparent cloth, installing" felt washers on the control knobs, and sealing openings for the antenna and earth connections.

• WHAT IS A GRASS SKIRT?

A grass skirt, also called a hula skirt, is a traditional part of the dress worn by hula dancers on tropical islands. It is made of long blades of grass, most popularly seen on  the island of Hawaii. Grass skirts are also worn in many cultures and tribes in Africa, like the Zulu tribals.

• WHAT IS WHITE NOISE?

Noise that is produced by combining sounds of different frequencies together is called white noise. Since it contains all frequencies, white noise is used to mask other sounds. When two or three people talk, our brain can distinguish the sound of a particular person. But if a crowd cheers in a stadium, no individual voice can be identified. That's white noise and is most effectively used in the emergency siren.

• WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL MELANISM?

It is caused when the natural environment of an organism is disturbed due to industrial pollution. As pollutants like soot and smoke darken the landscape, they disturb the environment of many organisms that rely on camouflage to avoid predation. This change makes them vulnerable to predators and creates a strong selective pressure due to which an organism with a darker colour is more likely to survive.

• WHAT ARE BATHOLITHS?

Batholiths are enormous masses of igneous rock made up of once-molten material solidified below the earth's surface. These are usually made of granite and extend over thousands of miles. A well known batholith is located in the Sierra Nevada range of California, across 40,000 sqkm.

• WHAT IS THE TATE?

The Tate is an art gallery originally titled the National Gallery of British Art. It is situated on Millbank in Pimlico, London. It was founded in 1897 by Henry Tafe with money earned from his sugar refineries. It was initially a collection of British art, concentrating on the works of Victorian painters. It later expanded to include foreign art and in the 20th century became principally a gallery devoted to Modernism. There are several other recently-opened Tate Galleries' in England, but the original gallery is now called Tate Britain.

• WHO ARE STAGS IN THE STOCK MARKET?

An investor or speculator who subscribes to a new issue, expecting the price of the stock to rise immediately. upon the start of trading is known as a stag. The sole aim of a stag is to sell the shares soon after allotment to realize a quick profit.

• WHAT IS A GREEN COLLAR JOB?

A green collar job involves working to better the environment, and is created by firms and organizations whose mission is to improve environmental quality. Work could include policies related to waste, energy and water conservation, solar energy, whole home performance and strengthening local food systems. These jobs are generated by sectors that produce goods which may need a green angle, like energy retrofits to improve conservation, constructing green buildings, composting, landscaping etc.

• WHAT IS RASTAFARIANISM?

The Rastafarian movement originated in Jamaica in 1930s, based on the philosophies of Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Today, it has branched out, including groups that still hold Garvey's beliefs and groups that have disavowed his more controversial stances. His organization's aim was to unite black people (Negroes) with their rightful homeland, Africa. He prophesied about his people being redeemed by a future Black African king. This  prediction was fulfilled in November 2, 1930, when Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned King of Ethiopia.

• WHAT ARE WIDGETS?

Widget, literally, is a blend of window and gadget, coined by George S Kaufman in his play 'Beggar on Horseback'. It is a hypothetical manufactured good or product. In computing, the term has become frequently used to refer to objects on a computer screen the user interacts with. A widget is anything that can be embedded within a HTML page. Widgets often take the form of on-screen tools like clocks, event countdowns etc.

• WHY DON'T TWO-WHEELERS HAVE A REVERSE GEAR?

A regular motorcycle has a 'sequential' manual transmission, meaning you can only shift up or down one gear at a time. It is also designed to spin one way only. Adding reverse would require the crankshaft to spin backwards, or a much larger, heavier, expensive transmission. So it is easiest to dismount and push the bike backwards.

• WHAT IS A DUM DUM BULLET?

It is an expanding bullet designed to grow on impact, increasing in diameter to limit penetration and/or produce a larger diameter wound. There are many expanding bullet designs though the most commonly encountered are hollow-point bullet and the soft-point bullet. Such bullets are Sometimes known as 'dum dum' bullets. After an early British example pro- duced in the Dum Dum arsenal, near Kolkata, India, there were several expanding bullets produced by this arsenal for the .303 British cartridge.

• WHO ARE STILT FISHERMEN?

Stilt fishing is an old tradition practised by around 500 fishing families in Galle, in southwestern-most Sri Lanka. These fishermen usually fish at sunset, noon and sunrise, with each one taking an elevated position and balancing about 2 metres above the wa- ter. The stilts are dug into the coral and bed of the sea. Stilt fishing started after the Second World War.

• WHAT ARE SIN STOCKS?

They are stocks of companies which manufacture or deal with cigarettes, alcohol, weapons and sex-related products. They could be directly involved in the business or associated with such activities. Such companies are also called sin businesses.

• WHY DOES SNOW LOOK WHITE BUT WATER IS COLOURLESS?

Snow is a block of individual ice crystals arranged together. When a light photon enters a layer of snow, it goes through an ice crystal on the top, which changes its direction slightly and sends it on to a new ice crystal, which does the same thing. Basically, all the crystals bounce the light all around, so that it comes right back out of the snow pile. It does the same thing to all the different light frequencies, so all colours of light are bounced back out. The 'colour' of all the frequencies in the visible spectrum combined in equal measure is white, so this is the colour we see in snow.

• WHAT IS THE FULL FORM OF AK-47 AND WHAT DOES 47 REFER TO?

AK-47 stands for Russian Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 (Automatic Kalashnikov 1947). Designed by Russian Mikhail Kalashnikov, it was the assault rifle used by most Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War. The rifle was adopted and standardized in 1947, thus the name.

• HOW IS THE TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TWO COUNTRIES CALCULATED?

The earth has 360 imaginary lines called longitudes or meridians running vertically between the poles. Each of these longitudes is called a degree. The 0 degree longitude passing through Greenwich, near London, is considered as standard and the time of all other time zones are calculated accordingly. The time difference between each longitude (each degree) is 4 minutes. So if it is 12 noon at Greenwich (0 degree), it would be 12:04 pm at 1 degree meridian and so on. In India, the standard meridian is 82-and-half degree. So the time difference between Greenwich and India is 82.5 x 4, which is 330 minutes (5 hours 30 minutes).

• WHAT IS LAISSEZ FAIRE?

Laissez faire is a French phrase and means to let things pass. The term is used to describe an economic system where the government intervenes as little as possible and leaves the private sector to organize most economic activity through markets. Classical economists were great advocates of a laissez faire system.

• WHAT IS THE FREIMARKT?

Freimarkt means free fair. It was first held on October 16, 1035, in Bremen, Germany. It is the biggest festival in Northern Germany, with more than four million visitors each year. It is celebrated for 17 days in the last two weeks of October. The area covers approximately 100,000 sqm on two areas: the 'Kleiner Freimarkt' (Small Free Fair) on the market square. It is famous for its beer tents and amusement rides. An annual highlight is the 'Freimarktsumzug' (Free Fair Procession).

• HOW ARE ULTRA-VIOLET RAYS BLOCKED BY THE OZONE LAYER?

The ozone layer contains ozone molecules — 03 molecules — which are formed by the action of ultra-violet rays on atmospheric oxygen. This oxygen, which is 02, converts into 03 when UV rays fall on it. When these rays fall on the surface of the atmosphere, they are absorbed in the conversion of oxygen into ozone. As a result, ultra-violet rays are blocked by this ozone layer.

• HOW IS THE TEMPERATURE OF A STAR MEASURED?

As stars are very far away, their temperatuce cannot be measured directly. Fortunately, the light coming from stars can be analyzed through several scientific instruments. Although all stars appear white, they have different colours when carefully viewed. The variations are a result of their temperature — cold stars appear red, and hot ones blue or white. The colour of a star is measured by an instrument called photoelectric photometer, which involves passing the light through different filters and finding the amount that passes through each filter. The measures from the photometer are converted to temperature, using standard scales.

• WHICH IS THE WORLD'S LONGEST STORYBOOK?

Marcel Proust's  A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu' (translated as In Search of Past) is the world's longest novel, according to the Guinness World Records. The influential 13-volume work contains 9,609,000 characters, with each letter and space counting as one character.

• WHY DOES A FALLING OBJECT HAVE NO WEIGHT?

Every body on this earth is attracted by the gravitational pull of the earth. A freely falling object has weight W=mg, where W-weight, m-mass of the object and g-acceleration produced due to the earth's gravity An object kept in a lift which falls freely, weighs zero on the weighing machine, but its actual weight is still mg. This happens because the normal reaction force exerted on the object in the lift is equal to zero, and normal force equals to mg, which in turn equals the weight of the object.

• WHAT IS THE REOG DANCE?

It is a spectacular dance with several dancers wearing bright, colourful costumes, accompanied by merry music. It is always held in open terrain, such as a square, street etc. This dance is a traditional art form combined with a magical show or trance dance. The Reog dates back to the Hindu period in East Java in Indonesia.

WHAT IS CROWD MINING?

Crowd mining is a new business concept where solutions can come from crowds, and marketers are turning to them as a database. The changing economy brought in this concept to tap expensive or even unavailable information and it goes beyond surveys and crowd sourcing.

• WHAT IS OCTOBER HEAT?

The weather in the month of October in the Indian sub-continent is called 'October heat'. By the beginning of October, the monsoon withdraws from the northern plains. October and November form the period of transition from the hot rainy season to dry winter conditions.

• WHAT IS AWACS?

AWACS stands for Airborne Warning And Control System that helps the Air Force detect incoming missiles and enemy aircraft from across the country's border. AWACS is described as an 'Eye in the Sky' as it can carry out surveillance at about 400-km range under all-weather situations, and to lock on to 60 targets at a time simultaneously.

• WHAT IS THE SCHWARZSCHILD RADIUS?

It is a characteristic radius associated with every quantity of mass. This term is used in physics and astronomy, especially in the theory of gravitation and general relativity. m 1916, Karl Schwarzschild obtained an exact solution to Einstein's field equations for gravitational field outside a nonrating, spherically symmetric body. The solution contained a formula, where one of the values came to be known as Schwarzschild Radius.

• WHO  WERE  THE  IRON CHANCELLORS?

A hundred years ago, Germany was divided into many small states. In one of these states, Prussia, the chancellor or chief minister to the king, was Otto Von Bismarck. A strong and ruthless man, Bismarck built Prussia into the strongest of all German states. He got his nickname of 'The Iron Chancellor' when he said Germany could become a great power "through blood and iron".

• HOW IS THE HEIGHT OF DIFFERENT PLACES ON EARTH MEASURED FROM THE SEA LEVEL?

The height of different places on earth is measured with the help of the 'altimeter'. It is basically a barometer without the mercury, and instead of instead of the pressure graduating in a barometer, the corresponding height graduates.

• WHAT IS CRAB FOOTBALL?

Crab soccer (American English) or crab football (British English) is an informal sport for two teams. Unlike soccer, players support themselves on their hands and feet and face up, in motions that make them look like crabs, a method known as crab walking. This sport involves kicking, so safety is at the root of many rules. Like soccer, players other than the goalkeeper must not touch the ball with their hands.

• HOW DOES A MOBILE VIBRATE?

There is a little motor fitted in a cell phone. This motor is unevenly weighted on its output shaft. When this motor rotates, the rotating uneven weight causes the mobile to vibrate.

• WHAT IS TELEPRESENCE?

Telepresence is the next-gen videoconferencing technology, which provides superior images. The demand for telepresence solutions has grown, with companies seeing it as an alternative to send executives for meetings. It also reduces a company's carbon footprint by cutting down frequent flying. Setting up a telepresence suite can be very expensive, though.

• HOW IS THE MASS OF HEAVENLY BODIES MEASURED?

The mass of a heavenly body can be measured by knowing the orbital period (time it takes to complete one orbit around the other body), the distance between two bodies and gravitational constant. The orbital time is inversely proportionate to the square root of the sum of the masses of two bodies and directly proportion distance raised to power three by two.

• WHAT IS AN ELECTRON GUN?

It is a device in the back of a "cathode ray tube" television or computer monitor (pre-plasma or LCD flat-panel). The electron gun fires a stream of electrons from the back of the TV onto the inside face of the screen, which is coated with a material that glows when hit by electrons. By using powerful magnets to direct the stream across the screen, a series of dots ('pixels') is built over the screen which appears as an image.

• WHO INVENTED THE SPEECH BUBBLE AND WHEN WAS IT FIRST USED?

One of the earliest antecedents to the modern speech bubble was the speech scroll — wispy lines that connected first person speech to the mouths of 'speakers in Meso-American art. In Western graphic art, labels that reveal what a figure is saying have appeared even in the 13th century Word balloons began appearing in 18th century printed broadsides and political cartoons from the American Revolution often used them.

• WHY   ARE   CELLPHONES SWITCHED OFF WHILE FLYING?

Mobile phones are radio transmitters and as such, were banned from use in civilian airplanes, for fear they could interfere with airplane avionics. There was also concern that a cellular phone would cause disruption to the cell systems' towers, and distract passengers during take-off and landing.

• WHAT IS A DIRTY BOMB?

A dirty bomb is a simple explosive device used not so much to produce extensive damage but to contaminate a designated spot with radioactive material. It's primary role is to spread fear.

• WHAT IS THE PEKING OPERA?

The Peking Opera, which originated in the late 18th century, is a synthesis of music, dance, art and acrobatics. It is the most influential of all operas in  China, and can be divided into 'civil' pieces characterized by singing, and 'martial' ones featuring acrobatics and stunts. Some operas are a combination of both. The operatic dialogues and monologues are recited in the Beijing dialect.

• WHAT IS A PINK ELEPHANT?

The term 'pink elephant' is used to describe something obvious and uncomfortable, but which obody wants to talk about. At the workplace or in business communications, it is something that is buried under the carpet when things go wrong. It refers especially to a situation of unhealthy relationships between women colleagues — one woman may try to bully the other women out of rivalry to stay in control. Broaching such a topic may be embarrassing to all, so it is called a "pink elephant in the room".

• WHY IS AN ATOM SPHERICAL IN SHAPE?

The shape of an atom refers to the shape of the imaginary volume in which its electrons orbit. Different electrons orbit at different levels. The shape of the atom depends on several factors, including the angular momentum of electrons. Only the simplest atoms have a spherical shape. Heavy atoms have a more complex shape.

• WHAT IS INCOGNITO BROWSING?

It is used for browsing in stealth mode, for a situation when we don't want our history to be tracked. Web pages that are opened and files downloaded while browsing incognito are not logged in the browser.

• WHAT IS MICRO-PROPAGATION?

Micro-propagation is the technique of multiple production of plants in-vitro. It is used for plants that do not produce seeds or respond to normal vegetable reproduction. Micro propagation's main advantage is to produce disease-free plants in multiple numbers and cloning of plants.

• WHAT IS THE ROLE OF H2O2 IN THE GREY-HAIR PUZZLE?

New research shows that hair turns grey as a result of a chemical reaction that causes it to bleach itself inside out. When there is a dip in levels of an enzyme called catalase, hydrogen peroxide (H202) that naturally occurs in hair can't be broken down. As H202 builds up, the hair becomes grey.

• WHO MADE THE FIRST ICE CREAM IN THE WORLD?

The origin of ice cream can be traced to the 4th century BC. Early references include Roman emperor Nero who ordered ice to be brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings, and King Tang (AD 618-97) of Shang, China, who had a method of creating ice and milk concoctions. Ice cream was brought from China back to Europe.

• WHAT IS 'SMART ANTENNA' TECHNOLOGY?

This is a new technology in the field of wireless and mobile communications in which capacity and performance are usually limited by two major impairments — multipath and co-channel interference. A smart antenna enables a higher capacity by reducing multipath and co-channel interference. This is achieved by focusing the radiation in the desired direction and adjusting to changing traffic conditions.

• WHAT IS THE GOLLIWOG ACT?

The golliwog act is a flexible contortion of the body in a dance form to create an impression that the contortionist is a doll. The name is taken from a literary character created by Florence Kate in her novel The Adventures of two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwog'.

• WHAT IS A 'CASH AND CARRY STORE' AND WHY IS IT SO CALLED?

A cash and carry store is different from regular retail chains which target professional customers rather than end-consumers. This concept is based around self-service and bulk buying arid serves registered customers only. The core customer groups are hotels, caterers, traders and other business professionals. Such stores aim to prevent any intervention by middlemen and requires buyers to make their own arrangements and assume all risk.

• HOW DOES HAIR GEL WORK?

The main ingredient in hair gels is a plastic called PVP, which is a polymer sealer. The polymers in PVP are dissolved in water or alcohol and form a clear film between each hair strand, attaching them to one another. Chemical experts call this "capillary power" because it's similar to how blood capillaries work. When gel is applied to wet hair, the PVP or similar ingredient absorbs water quickly. When the gel dries completely, it forms a fixed connection between hair strands.

• WHAT IS A WORMHOLE?

A wormhole is a theoretical entity allowed by Einstein's theory of general relativity in which spacetime curvature connects two distant locations (or times). The term 'wormhole' was coined by American theoretical physicist John A Wheeler in 1957, based on an analogy of how a worm could chew a hole from one end of an apple through the centre to the other, thus creating a shortcut through the intervening space.

• WHAT DOES MIRROR IMAGE MEAN IN BIOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY?

Mirror image is a concept from chemistry applied to organic materials. An example of this is glucose arid fructose. These molecules are mirror images of each other. Although it is possible to flip glucose and superimpose it over a fructose molecule, only in 2D (flat viewing) are they similar.

• WHAT IS A 3-D FILM?

A 3-D film is any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the illusion of depth as seen by the viewer. It involves filming two images simultaneously, with two cameras, filming at 90 degree angle via mirrors. When viewed in such a way that each eye sees its photographed counterpart, the viewer's visual cortex will interpret the pair of images as a single three-dimensional image. Modern computer technology also allows for the production of pseudo-SD films using CGI and without the need for dual cameras.

• WHAT IS SWEETHEARTING?

Sweet hearting is a method cashiers use to pass on goods to friends by failing to bill one. They do so by passing two items, and obscuring the barcode of one, so it goes unnoticed. Now, there are machines to pick out sweet hearting.

• WHAT ARE MANGO SHOWERS?

Mango showers are those experienced prior to the arrival of the monsoon. These showers arrive generally in late April and May and are said to aid in the ripening of mangoes and from dropping prematurely from trees.

• WHAT IS TERMINATOR GENE TECHNOLOGY?

The terminator gene is a specific genetic sequence inserted by scientists into a seed's DNA that renders the seed and the crop it produces sterile. Patented by the USDA and Delta and Pine Land Co., now owned by Monsanto, this terminator technology has no agricultural or economic benefits for farmers or consumers.

• WHY IS THE FLAME OF A CANDLE POINTED?

The flame of a candle is produced when the wax of the candle melts due to heat and the molten wax rises in the wick. As the heated gas rises above from the base of the flame, it moves faster as the pressure decreases from the base to the top. As the rate at which the gas is released from the base is more or less constant, the flame becomes thinner and thinner from its base to the end, assuming a pointed tip.

• HOW DID THE ABBREVIATION DR FOR DOCTORS ORIGINATE, AND WHY DO ENGINEERS NOT USE ER?
• The abbreviation originated to separate people qualified to practice medicine from those holding the highest academic degree i.e. doctorate in nonmedical subjects. In USA, only dentists and vets are called doctors. Physicians and surgeons do not put 'Dr' before their names. Engineers, at least in India, put 'Er'.
• WHAT IS A FLIPBOOK?

A flipbook is a small book with a series of printed images that create the illusion of motion when its pages are rapidly flipped. Typically, a flipbook is held in one hand while the thumb of the other flicks the pages and the user concentrates on the middle of each page. It relies on a basic optical principle known as persistence of vision. In India, flip books were popular in the seventies, when cola majors brought out flip books of cricketers in action.

• WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF FORMULA I?

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or Fl, and currently officially referred to as FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fidiration Internationale de 1'Automobile (FIA). The 'formula' in the name refers to a set of rules that all participants and cars must comply with.

• WHAT ARE GTOR-MA CAKES?

Gtor-ma cakes are sacrificial cakes used in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies as offerings to deities. The unbaked cakes are prepared by kneading parched barley flour and butter into cones. The cakes form part of the phyi-mchod, or eight offerings of external worship.

• WHAT IS DIGITAL CLEANSE?

Digital cleanse is a term mooted by John Mayor, musician and avid blogger and tweeter, as a resolution and challenge for the first week of 2010. It means keeping off all digital contraptions — a stop to emailing, texting, social networking, blogging and surfing sites. It is seen as a new health craze, considered good for the body and mind. The basic idea is to unplug and meet people.

• HOW DOES THE HYBRID ENGINE WORK?

Hybrid engines use two or more power sources. They consist of a usual fuel engine, complemented by a pollution-free engine, an electric engine for example. The fuel engine and brakes are used to recharge the batteries for the electric engine, eliminating the need to plug in while unused. When brakes are applied, some of the energy being used to stop the vehicle is collected by the regenerative brakes of the electrical engine. Hence, the electrical engine takes control when cruising, stopping or slowly acclerating, reducing the use of fuel.

• WHAT IS THE AURORA PHENOMENON?

Charged particles ejected at great speeds from the sun ionise the air molecules resulting in spectacular colour display. These are seen from polar regions and are called aurora or polar lights. It is the luminous phenomenon of earth's upper atmosphere that occurs primarily in high latitudes of both hemispheres; aurorae in the northern hemisphere are called aurora borealis, or northern lights; aurora australis, or southern lights in the southern hemisphere.

• WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM 'SLAP-STICK COMEDY'?

The term 'slapstick comedy' is given to comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations and vigorous chases, often violent in action. The phrase comes from the term battacchio called the 'slap stick' in English. It is a club-like object composed of two wooden slats, and produces a loud smacking noise when struck, though little force is transferred to the person being struck. Slapstick comedy became popular in 19th-century music halls and Vaudeville theatres.

• HOW AND WHEN DID THE TERM 'SIZE ZERO' COME INTO USE?

'Size zero' was first used in 1966 for British supermodel Twiggy, who had a fragile figure. Now, 'size zero' is a women's clothing size in the US system, equivalent to a UK size 4, with a waist measurement of 23 inches, the average girth of an 8-year-old girl. It is a petite size for women with a 32-inch bust, 23-inch waist and 32-inch hips, and is often linked to anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

• HOW DOES THE 'MADRAS EYE' SPREAD?

Madras eye is the inflammation of the outermost covering of the eyeball and inner layer of eyelid. Medically, it is known as 'conjunctivitis'. It can be caused by various agents like bacteria, virus, wind, smoke, pollen, radiation or chemical agents. If a person comes in close physical contact of the infected person or his infected belongings, the bacteria or virus gets transmitted and thus, causes infection from person to person.

• WHY DOES THE ORTHODOX CHURCH CELEBRATE CHRISTINAS ON JANUARY 7?

The Orthodox Church uses the old Julian calender which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calender. In the former Soviet Republic, the Bolsheviks adopted the Gregorian calender at the end of 1917, which put them in line with the rest of the Western world. However, the Orthodox Church, opposed to the Bolsheviks trying to suppress religion, kept the Julian calender.

• WHAT IS COSMOPHOBIA?

Cosmophobia is an irrational fear that the world is about to end, and is sparked off by a belief among people that a cosmic end is near. The fear is ancient, and people have been readying for doom on and off — expecting floods, earthquakes, epidemics, drought, or even a collision with another planet. The latest bout was set off by the movie 2012, where the Mayan calendar counts December 21, 2012 as the last day Earlier, the 2000 millennium frenzy had everyone believe that the end was near. For ages now, there have been apocalyptic predictions which have fuelled cosmophobia, but until now, they have all come to nought.

• WHAT IS AN ELEPHANT PEARL?

Elephant pearls are not really pearls, however, they are categorised as one of the nine pearls. These are produced in the heads and the sockets of the tusks of some elephants. It was believed that when worn by kings, they proved highly sanctifying and bestowed children, victory and sound health. Even now, they are considered to bring good luck.

• WHAT IS A 'BANANA KICK' IN FOOT-BALL?

Banana kick is a checkside punt — a kicking style used in Australian Rules and rugby league football. When kicked, the ball bends away from the body and is usually used when a set shot for goal is lined up on a narrow angle. The banana kick comes off more from the inside of the boot, with the ball spinning in the same direction as the leg swings naturally.

• WHAT IS THE ORACLE OF DELPHI?

The Oracle of Delphi was the most important oracle in the classical Greek World, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo. Built around a sacred spring, Delphi was considered to be the omphalos — the centre of the world. Scholars congregated at Delphi, and it became a focal point for intellectual enquiry Delphi lies on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Greece.

• HOW MANY FLOWERS MUST A BEE TAP TO MAKE A POUND OF HONEY?

A bee taps 2 million flowers and flies 50,000 miles (80,000 kms) to make one pound (454 gm) of honey — traveling more than twice around the world to gather it. The basis of calculation is done after taking many facts for granted and the proof is often lost in the mists of time. C R Ribbands (1949) determined that one bee can visit several hundred of flowers for a load of sweet clover, and up to 1,100-1,446 flowers for a load of limantnes nectar.

• WHAT IS THE SPHINX AWARD?

There are several types of Sphinx awards. The most popular one is given by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity forcontribution to social service. President Stephen C Ainlay of Union College recently received the Sphinx Award from the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity for his contributions to the Union community. Another Sphinx Award is given in Coventry for outstanding performance in the local soccer league.

• WHAT IS A GRAMMY SALUTE?

Grammy awards are presented annually for outstanding achievements in music. There is a week-long function called the Grammy Week, culminating in the Annual Grammy Awards. The rest of the week is marked by several connected events, of which the Salute To series is a part. Each of the Salute To events features a reception, presentation of a special merit certificate and guest performances.

• WHEN DID THE PRACTICE OF THE HANDSHAKE BEGIN?

The origin of the handshake goes back to primitive eras: the physical contact of the hand symbolized peace and friendship. Later symbolism of the gesture, apart from a greeting, was the ratification of a contract or pledge. Even today, we clinch a contract or business deal by 'shaking hands on it.' Archaeological ruins and texts show the handshake was in use as a means of greeting as far back as the 2nd century BC.

• WHAT IS THE BOXING DAY MATCH AND WHAT IS ITS ORIGIN?

The Boxing Day match is a cricket match hosted in Melbourne, Australia, and Victoria, involving the Australian cricket team and the opposition national team touring Australia at that time. It begins on Boxing Day (Dec 26) and is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Boxing Day is so called as traditionally, it was the day when people would give a present or Christmas 'box' to those who worked for them throughout the year. These days, the 'box' is usually given before Christmas.

• WHAT IS BAS-RELIEF?

Bas-relief is a French term meaning 'low-raised work.' A relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised. There are three types of reliefs — 'bas-relief or low relief, 'high relief and 'sunken relief.' Bas-relief is suitable for scenes with many figures and other elements such as a landscape    or    architectural background. Stone carving and metal casting is traditionally done in bas-relief.

• HOW DO ODI TEAMS CHOOSE THEIR COLOURS?

There is no hard and fast rule about choosing cricket colours. In most cases, the country adopts colours from their nationa

About the Author

please

General Electric Wall

I have a general electric refrig, double door with ice maker/ H2O. it stopped getting cold, Whats the problem?

The refrigerator is almost 4 years old. It was working fine up until very early today.Both the refrigerator portion & the freezer get cool only on the highest cycle, but the freezer will not freeze items. I took everything out, cleaned it from top to bottom, checked the main plug, water /icemaker line which is connected. The refrig. light is on as normal, the door closes when shut as before, there are no unusual sounds emanating from the device.The ice machine will not make ice, but it does dispense cold h20.A thin layer of soft snow like ice crystals have now formed on the back wall of the freezer. Presently it is cold enough to keep the contents fresh, but not cold as it should, or used to be. I have a repair person coming in 2 days, but would like any input any of you may have. I have tried to give all the pertinent data that I know to give in order to get a helpful answer.

You have a defrost problem. http://appliancequickfix.com/
will tell you step by step how to track down the defective part.

Electric toothbrush

I want to introduct something about PET Film (Granite) Aluminum Composite Panels. Materials: 1) Front side: PET laminated aluminum 2) Core: LDPE 3) Rear side: aluminum with primer/mill finishSpecifications: 1) Aluminum sheet thickness: 0.06-0.50mm 2) Panel thickness: 3mm, 4mm 3) PET film thickness: 0.07mm 4) Dimensions: a) Width: 1,220mm b) Length: 2,440mm, upon customers' requests 5) Standard size (width x length x thickness): a) 1,220 x 2,440 x 3mm b) 1,220 x 2,440 x 4mm 6) Colors: granite, marble stone, wood, metallic colors with mirroring effect, according to our color book 7) Non-standard sizes and special colors are available according to customers' requestsFeatures: 1) Easily processed and fabricated, quickly installed 2) Lightweight, high strength, extreme rigidity and flatness 3) Good acid-resistant, alkali-resistant 4) Good flexibility fits various designs 5) Easy maintenance, simple cleaning Primary competitive advantages: 1) Price 2) Experienced technical 

Electric toothbrush, made by Braun.
An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that uses electric power to move the brush head, normally in an oscillating pattern, though electric toothbrushes are sometimes called 'rotary' toothbrushes.

History
Dr. Scott's 'electric' toothbrush
In the late 1800s in the USA, a man named Dr. George A. Scott claimed to invent an "electric" toothbrush. However, unlike actual electronically-powered bristle brushes, Dr. Scott's brush did not move on its own, and was not actually electrical at all. Like Dr. Scott's other "electric brush" products, the device merely contained a magnet in the handle. The magnetic field was claimed to provide health benefits. 
Evolution of the modern toothbrush
The first successful electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was conceived in Switzerland in 1954 by Dr. Philippe-Guy Woog. Woog's electric toothbrushes were originally manufactured in Switzerland (later in France) for Broxo S.A. The first clinical study showing its superiority over manual brushing was published by Pr. Arthur Jean Held in Geneva in 1956. Electric toothbrushes were initially created for patients with limited motor skills, as well as orthodontic patients (such as those with braces). Claims have been made that these are more effective than manual toothbrushes, as it leaves less room for patients to brush incorrectly.
The Broxo Electric Toothbrush was introduced in the USA by E. R. Squibb and Sons Pharmaceuticals at the centennial of the American Dental Association in 1959. After introduction, it was marketed in the USA by Squibb under the names Broxo-Dent? or Broxodent?. In the 1980's, Squibb transferred distribution of the Broxodent line to the Somerset Labs division of Bristol Myers/Squibb.
While the Broxodent may have been the first electric toothbrush and a superior product, the electric toothbrush that caught the public's attention in USA was the General Electric Automatic Toothbrush introduced in the early 1960's. Similar to the Broxodent in function, it differed in one major aspect: the cordless hand piece relied on rechargeable NiCad batteries for power, while the Broxodent hand piece was designed to plug into a standard wall outlet and run on AC line voltage. Broxodent USA models were designed for 110v 60hz AC power; other models were available for European power standards.
This difference in power source was significant for several reasons. In the case of the GE unit, the hand piece was portable but it was also rather bulky - about the size of a two D-cell flashlight handle. NiCad batteries of this period left much to be desired: they suffered from memory and lazy battery effects. The GE Automatic Toothbrush came with a charging stand which held the hand piece upright - most units spent their life sitting in the charger which is not the best way to get maximum service life from a NiCad battery. Early NiCad batteries did not hold much power (not as much power as a comparable alkaline batteries, for example) and it was not uncommon for the GE Automatic toothbrush to run out of power before tooth brushing was complete - particularly if several members of the family used the same hand piece within a short time space. Finally, early NiCad batteries tended to have a short lifespan. The batteries were sealed inside the GE hand piece and the whole unit was frequently discarded when the batteries failed. The GE Automatic Toothbrush was less expensive than the Broxodent which may have contributed to its disposable characteristic. Despite the shortcomings of the GE Automatic Toothbrush, the public was hooked on electric toothbrushing.
In contrast, the Broxodent hand piece was slim and remarkably compact - even by today's standards. Since it was powered by AC line voltage, it never grew tired or slowed down, although it could grow warm after extended use. Early Broxodent models came with a straight power cord - later units with a coiled cord. All Broxodent cords had a small molded strain relief where the cord entered the hand piece, but this was still the likely place for a cord to fail. Since the Broxodent hand pieces were sealed, a cord failure was not repairable and the expensive hand piece had to be discarded. That said, it was not unusual for a Broxodent hand piece to last for 20 years or longer and failures were rare.
The use of an AC line voltage appliance in a bathroom environment was problematic. By the early 1990's, Underwriter Laboratories (UL) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) would no longer certify line-voltage appliances for bathroom use. Newer appliances had to use a...(and so on) To get More information , you can visit some products about , . The PET Film (Granite) Aluminum Composite Panels products should be show more here!

About the Author

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Vintage General Electric

vintage record player question ?

im new to record players and i was looking for a vintage one on ebay and there were somthings in the description that i didnt under stand such as it said the the record player plays 45s and 33 record albums i didnt understand if that meant records from that time period or what . thanks

here is the link of the recod player im looking at
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-General-Electric-portable-record-player-Turquoi_W0QQitemZ230155108112QQihZ013QQcategoryZ1442QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That's the size of the records that it plays. 33s are the longplay records which hold about 60 minutes of music - they are large in size. 45s were generally used when they just wanted to put a single or a few songs on the record - they are small in size.

The White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad

1. Origin and Construction

The clouds, draping the mountains like strands of silver steel wool, hung low over the Lynn Canal, gateway to the historic city of Skagway, Alaska, itself the origin of thousands of stampeders who had begun their 45-mile treks over the White Pass Summit toward the Klondike gold fields of the Yukon in Canada in 1897 and 1898.  The throngs continued to infiltrate the area today from vessels which also sailed from Seattle, but all disembarked from one of the many daily cruise ships which docked a short distance away.

                The passengers crowding the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad Depot spilled out to the concrete platform and into one of many departing trains, including those to Fraser, British Columbia.  I myself would trace the path of the gold seekers to the White Pass Summit, located 2,865 feet above sea level on the United States-Canada border, but would do so on the rail which had been built to replace the overland foot trail and capitalize on the demand for travel created by the historic event.

                The imminent journey had actually had its origin some 110 years ago.  Prospectors, searching for gold along the Yukon River, had not yielded their first crop until 1896 when George Carmack and two Indians, Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie, uncovered some gold flakes in Bonanza Creek in the Yukon, although it had been another year before the world had been alerted to the discovery when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its now-famous headline of “GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!” in its July 17, 1897 issue shortly after disembarkation of 68 prospectors from the Steamer Portland in Seattle, Washington.  The promise of seemingly instant, easy wealth, coupled with the deprivation of the Depression, sparked an historical event which involved 100,000 players and would ultimately shape parts of Alaska and the Yukon itself.

                With the exception of seasonal steamship service on the Yukon River, and road and railroad construction not permitted in Alaska until Congress had passed the Homestead Act of 1898, there had been no internal infrastructure to support the stampeders’ access to the klondike gold fields.

                The Yukon itself, the vast, thinly populated expanse of land located above the 60th parallel in northwestern Canada which shares its border with Alaska and accurately earns its self-proclaimed slogan of “larger than life,” is a topographically diverse, but ruggedly insurmountable territory of barren, treeless plains, boreal forests, rugged mountains, glaciers, and mirror-reflective lakes and rivers inhabited by Canada’s First Nations people and abundant wildlife.  Because of its high latitude, it experiences more than 20 hours of daylight in the summer, but fewer than five in the winter, replaced, instead, by the northern lights known as the “aurora borealis.”  Aside from the major “cities,” most communities are only accessible by floatplane or dogsled.

                The Yukon’s history is, in essence, that of the Gold Rush, and traces its path to five significant locations in both the United States and Canada.

                The first of these, Seattle, Washington, had served as the gateway to the Yukon.  Advertised as the “outfitter of the gold fields,” it sold supplies and gear stocked ten feet deep on storefront boardwalks, grossing $25 million in sales by early-1898, and was the launching point for the all-water route through the Gulf of Alaska to St. Michael, and then down the Yukon River to Dawson City.  Despite the high fares, which few could afford, all passages had been sold out.

                Dyea and its Chilkoot Trail, the second location, had provided a slower, more treacherous, alternate route, via the 33-mile Chilkoot trail which linked tidewater Alaska with the Canadian headwaters of the Yukon River.

                Skagway, Alaska, the third location, quickly replaced Dyea as the “Gateway to the Klondike” because of its more navigable White Pass route which, although ten miles longer than that of the Chilkoot Trail, had entailed a 600-foot-lower climb. Located at the northern tip of Alaska’s Inside Passage, Skagway, now a major port-of-call on Alaska cruise itineraries, became the first incorporated city in Alaska in 1900 with a 3,117-strong population, the first non-native of whom had been Captain William Moore, who discovered the White Pass route into interior Canada.  Metemorphosed from a cleared, tent-dotted field to a boardwalk-lined town sporting wooden stores, dance halls, gambling houses, and some 80 saloons in the four-month period between August and December 1897 as a result of stampeders piling off of steamships in its port, it quickly swelled to a city of 20,000, its temporary inhabitants destined for the overland White Pass Trail and the Klondike gold fields themselves.

                At Bennett Lake, the fourth location, 30,000 stampeders awaited the spring thaw, constructing 7,124 boats from whipsawn green lumber and launching their flotilla on May 29, 1898, fighting the Whitehorse rapids before following the Yukon River to Dawson City.

                Dawson City itself, the fifth location, had been the actual site of the first gold flake discovery and had begun as a small island between the Yukon and Klondike Rivers hitherto only occupied by the Han First Nations people, but exploded into Canada’s largest city west of Winnipeg and north of Vancouver with up to 40,000 gold seekers covering a ten-mile area along the river banks.  Thirty cords of firewood were used to burn shafts through the permafrost to the mines themselves.

                The White Pass trail in Skagway, quickly destroyed because of overuse, screamed of the need for a rail line replacement.  Seeking to capitalize on the demand for safe, fast, and reliable transportation from its port to the Yukon, Thomas Tancrede, a London investor representative, and Michael J. Henry, a railroad contractor, had both proposed such a line and, after a chance, overnight meeting, sketched initial plans for the route.

                The White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad Company, established in April of 1898, had been comprised of three enterprises: the Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company, responsible for the Skagway-White Pass rail section; the British Columbia Yukon Railway, whose division linked the US-Canada border at White Pass with the provincial border between British Columbia and the Yukon Territory; and the British Yukon Railway, whose track ran from the Yukon Territory border to Whitehorse.

                The railroad’s four principle directors included Samuel H. Graves, President; E. C. Hawkens, Chief Engineer; John Hislop, Assistant Engineer; and Michael J. Henry himself, Contractor.

                Construction of the $10 million, three-foot-wide, narrow gauge rail, which permitted sharper curves than the standard gauge would have and entailed engineering obstacles of hitherto unimaginable proportions, commenced on May 28, 1898, and involved a ten-foot-wide road bed, an almost 3,000-foot elevation gain over a 20-mile stretch, cliff-laid track, 16-degree turns, tunnels, bridges, bitter cold and snow, and 450 tons of explosives.

                Built in three sections, from Skagway to White Pass, White Pass to Carcross, and Carcross to Whitehorse, the first of these proved the most difficult, although its first seven miles of track had actually been completed in only two months.  On July 21, 1898, the day after the first locomtove had been delivered, an excursion train for invited dignitaries operated for the first time, pulling three flat-bed cars with wooden benches.  Two months later, in September, the prepared track grade stretched 17 miles from Skagway, but a gold discovery in Atlin enticed a majority of the laborers away, complete with the vitally-needed picks and shovels for the project.  At Mile 18.7, the deep, v-shaped, 215-foot-high canyon could only be connected with a 400-foot steel cantilever bridge built up of three-hinged arches.

                The first train to operate to White Pass did so nine months after construction had begun, on February 20, 1899.

                Another significant milestone took place still five months later, on June 6, when the tracks had reached Bennett at Mile 40.6, providing the first intermodal transportation connection with the smaller steamers which navigated the lakes and rivers through Miles Canyon and the Whitehorse Rapids.  Some 20 miles later, the track reached Lewis Lake.

                With the last spike driven at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, on June 8, 1900, the second of the three sections had been completed, permitting rail travel to Carcross, British Columbia, for the first time.  This became the only overland route between the two cities until the South Klondike Highway had been constructed 78 years later.

                With installation of the rails across the bridge in Carcross on July 29, 1900, and the driving of the last spike at 17:30 local time, the second of the three sections had been finished, thus completing the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, whose track extended 110 miles from the United States to Canada, of which 20.4 miles lay in Alaska, 32.3 miles ran through British Columbia, and 58.1 miles stretched through the Yukon Territory.

                Skagway quickly became the “Gateway to the Klondike” and White Pass became the “Gateway to the Yukon.”

2. In Service

                The White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad not only proved an engineering feat, but a sound commercial one with numerous, evolving purposes.  Initially transporting mining equipment, materials, supplies, and tools on northbound runs, it carried copper ore destined for Washington smelters on return journeys in 1908, the commodity later replaced by silver lead in 1923, which it continued to carry until 1970.  In fact, freight constituted an ever-increasing proportion of its revenue base until 1918, when the Depression had exerted its effects, and then re-increased, reaching 21,450 annual tons by 1940.

                Perhaps the greatest increase in demand occurred in August of 1942 when the US Army commenced construction of the Alcan Highway, taking the daily tonnage from 200 to 2,000, and on October 1 of that year, the railroad had been altogether leased to the US Army’s 770th Railway Operating Battalion, which re-equiped it with much-needed personnel, locomotives, and rolling stock.  Indeed, its all-time highest volume, as a result of the temporary transfer, totaled 34 daily train operations collectively carrying more than 2,000 tons of cargo per day—or 47,506 tons per month.

                Demand had also been created by the crude oil refinery in Whitehorse and the pipeline connecting it with Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories.

                Modernizing its increasingly outdated equipment after the war, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad acquired new locomotives and rolling stock, replacing its traditional steam engines with diesel-electric propulsion in 1954.  The very last steam operation occurred ten years later, in 1964.

                In 1955 it operated the world’s first integrated, intermodal container service from Vancouver to Whitehorse when the first purposefully-designed container ship, the Clifford J. Rogers, transferred cargo at the Port of Skagway to the railroad’s flatbed cars for ultimate transfer to semi-trucks using the Alaska Highway.

                In order to cater to the transportation demands of the lead-zinc open-pit mine operation in the Yukon’s Anvil Range, the railroad embarked on a significant modernization program in 1969, acquiring heavier, higher-capacity locomotives, 50-ton flatbed cars, and ore containers; rebuilding bridges and tunnels; constructing a warehouse in Skagway; and dredging a deep-sea fishing wharf.

                Passenger transport had equally factored into its revenue base, with 16,000 having been carried as far back as 1901.  During the 1970s, it carried passengers during the day and ore concentrates at night, accommodated in trains 80 to 100 cars long.

                The White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad had been the principle transportation means to and within northern British Columbia and the Yukon for 84 years, from its 1898 construction to 1982 when the Anvil Mine had closed and obviated its need.  Because the remaining demand had been insufficient to sustain profitable services, it ceased operations at that time, ending a long history whose match had been lit by the Gold Rush of 1898.

                But an invisible flame continued to flicker in the ensuing years of darkness.  Gradually increasing demand, spurred by cruise ship arrivals in Skagway, sparked the railroad’s 1988 seasonal, passenger-only service re-inauguration, its centennial year, resulting in an annual passenger count of 39,000.  Both the increasing number of ship operations, and their increasing size, took the annual passenger total to over 100,000 in 1991 and 290,000 in 1998, all within a short, five-month season.  By 2006, it carried more than 430,000 yearly passengers.

                As the self-proclaimed “Gateway to the Yukon” and “Railway built of gold,” the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad had been designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994, one of only 36 world designs, including the Panama Canal, to do so, because of the obstacles surmounted during its construction, and today it is the only international narrow-gauge railroad still operating in North America.

                Its current fleet consists of two steam engines, a restored 1947 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mokado designated Engine Number 73 and a 1907 Baldwin 2-8-0 originally built for the railroad and designated Engine Number 69; 20 diesel-electric locomotives, comprised of 1950 General Electric and 1960 ALCO types; and 80 restored and replica passenger coaches, the oldest of which dates back to 1883. 

3. To White Pass Summit

The original White Pass Depot, a wooden, dual-floor train station facing Broadway where the tracks had originally been located, had been constructed in 1899 and had been adjoined to the Railroad Administration Building the following year.  Upon its closure in 1969, at which time it had been taken over by the National Park Service, it erected a new, single-story structure on Second and Spring Streets and, with increasing passenger numbers, added a second floor in 1997.

Following the street-embedded, narrow-gauge tracks at 1245 past the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad Maintenance and Restoration Facility, my 12-car train, pulled by three diesel-electric locomotives, paralleled the shallow, rock-embedded Skagway River beneath the deep green, spruce-carpeted mountains of Tongass National Forest, commencing its slow ascent on the 3.9-percent grade of track.

The six-track coach yard just beyond the maintenance facility had been used for rolling stock overnight storage, servicing, and cleaning.

                Curving to the right at Mile 5.8, the train, moving through 402 feet, crossed the east fork of the Skagway River, near the Denver Glacier Trail, which had been marked by the red White Pass and Yukon Route railroad caboose available for nightly rental from the US Forest Service.

                Re-curving to the left at Mile 6.9, the train passed Rocky Point, affording dramatic views of Mt. Harding and its glacier-carved canyon.  Skagway and its now-tiny cruise ship armada had been reduced to miniature proportions, dwarfed by the treeless, snow-capped mountains towering above them.

                Clifton Station, at a 638-foot elevation with a 792-foot-long side track, had formerly served as a section house staffed by foremen, sectionmen, and cooks, but had been removed in the 1960s after track and roadbed improvements had eliminated its need.  Its name had emanated from the granite ledge hanging over it.

                Bridal Veil Falls, at Mile 11.5, descended 6,000 feet in a series of curved steps, a “human” of white, foamy water “skipping” down the dark green pine path from its Mt. Cleveland and Mt. Clifford glacier parents.  The cloud quilt tore open to reveal patches of blue sky.

                The thin, barely visible silhouette of the 1230 Fraser train, equally pulled by three yellow and green diesel-electric engines, could be seen hugging the mountain ahead and at a higher elevation.

                The tracks arced into a 90-degree right turn again.  At Henry Station, which had been named after a White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad contractor, cargo had been transported down a steep tramway to packhorses stationed at the mostly tent-comprised White Pass City in the valley below for final delivery to the summit.

                Shortly before reaching 1,871-foot Glacier Station at Mile 14.0, the tracks doubled, and then briefly tripled.  The station itself had served as home to railroad section crew who had maintained the rail bed and replenished steam engines with water during their uphill climbs.

                The wider roadbed of Box Canyon catered to the prevalent spring snow slides which carried streams of rock, gravel, and vegetation with them.

                Crossing over Glacier Station Bridge, the train, whose 12-unit, vintage-car chain now snaked behind it, surmounted the deep, dark green mountain, covered with western hemlock and shore pine, as evidenced through the left coach windows.  It yielded to the gray, lightly snow-covered Mine Mountain ahead, its jagged peaks partially obscured by the soft touch of marshmallow cloud puffs resting atop it.  A cable car had once spanned the canyon to the silver mine’s portal on the other side.

                The two parallel mountains, descending into the gulch 1,000 feet below, formed a velvet green “v” whose base had been cut by the now-minuscule “slice” of light blue river.

                Traversing the wooden trestle at Mile 16, the train plunged into the 250-foot-long Tunnel Mountain, the chasm of Glacier Gorge disappearing into it as the horizontal light beams cast on its granite walls flickered into progressive darkness at its center, leaving a dead, perceptionless, breath-inhibiting void.

                Inspiration Point, at Mile 17.0 and 2,400-foot elevation, once again afforded breathtaking views of Mt. Harding and the Chilkat Range, while the train passed the branch track leading to the no-longer used cantilever bridge, which had been constructed in 1901 and had constituted the world’s tallest such design at the time.

                Swallowed again by the unpenetrable, sense-defying blackness of the 675-foot tunnel at Mile 18.8, the three-locomotive, 12-coach chain bored through the mountain, a path obviated by the circumventing suspension bridge prior to 1969, at which time it had closed.

                The multiple-layer valley, draped in deep green, stretched out below on the left side.

                Reducing speed to a crawl and threading its way through craggy rock walls, which appeared to scrap against the outside coach windows, the train inched past the sub-arctic pine toward the 2,865-foot White Pass Summit, named after Canadian Minister of the Interior Thomas White in 1887 and located on the US-Canada border, the narrow-gauge tracks multiplying into three branches.  The locomotive gently griped its brakes and the 15-unit chain ceased motion in the cold, stark, thin air.

                The silence, a sharp contrast to the steady buzz at its Skagway origin, almost screamed of the closed history chapter which had sparked the railroad’s engineering feat, of the gold seekers who had once passed this way, but were no longer existent.  It had been at the White Pass Summit where mounted police had cleared the thousands of stampeders, overburdened with their year’s worth of supplies and gear needed for survival in the frigid north, to enter Canada and continue their expedition to the gold fields of the Klondike, in hopes of attaining wealth.  Of the some 40,000 who had made the journey, only ten percent had actually discovered gold and of that, only a few hundred had actually fulfilled their dreams of becoming “rich.”

                For the others, the journey itself, and not the destination, had proven the ultimate value of the adventure.  Like life, whose ultimate “purpose” remains elusive, it sometimes seems that the path followed to a destination offers a better reward than the destination itself.  Yet, without anticipation of destination or purpose, it is unlikely that the trip would be undertaken at all.  If anything, the gold rush had provided a life lesson.

                Disconnecting and following the 1,296-foot-long spur line, the three locomotives reattached themselves to the (now) front of the train, pulling it over the White Pass Summit and commencing its gradual, path-retracing descent down the mountain toward Skagway.  During the return journey, I would think about that lesson…

About the Author

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.