Firsts (26 page)

The Assyrians were the first to use aqueducts, but the ancient Romans were the first to consider the sanitation of their water supply as early as 100 C.E. The notable water commissioner of the era was Sextus Julius Frontinus, who left a detailed account of the water system of Rome. His
De aquae ductu Urbis Romae
(
The Aqueducts of Rome
) talks about the aqueducts bringing in the clean waters of the Apennine Mountains. Settling basins and filters along the main routes helped ensure the clarity of the water.

The world’s first wax museum, Madame Tussauds, was founded in 1835 at the Baker Street Bazaar in London, England, by French-born Marie Grosholtz and her sons. For the preceding 33 years, Grosholtz had been taking her wax exhibitions on tour in the British Isles. She created her first wax figure of Voltaire in 1777, and in 1795, she married Francois Tussaud, which lent a new name to the traveling show. Madame Tussauds, which is still in existence and now boasts numerous other locations, has grown to be the world’s largest wax museum, with nearly 400 figures on display at the London museum.

On November 21, 1783, the first observation or weather balloon was launched, immediately before the first manned balloon flight, by Frenchmen Jean-François de Rozier and the Marquis d’Aalandes. Measuring about 6 to 8 feet across and filled with hot air, this first weather balloon was used to gauge wind gusts and directions before the manned balloon took flight a little later. More than 100 years later, in 1896, French meteorologist Leon Teisserenc de Bort conducted experiments with high-flying instrumented hydrogen-filled balloons. In 1902, after making 236 flights, most at night, he announced that the atmosphere comprises two layers—the troposphere and stratosphere.

Around 650 B.C.E., the Babylonians attempted to predict the weather using both cloud patterns and astrology. The ancients usually relied on observing reoccurring events such as lunar eclipses to make their forecasts. Or if the sunset was particularly red, they observed, the next day often brought fair weather. They also thought that if it were unseasonably warm and sunny in times of winter, snowfall would soon follow in the days ahead. These first weather forecasts were not extremely accurate.

The first known weather vane dates to the first century B.C.E. Bronze and in the shape of the Greek sea god Triton, complete with the tail of a fish and the upper body of a man, the vane was affixed to the top of the Tower of the Winds, a marble octagon 42 feet high located in Athens, Greece. Astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus had built the tower, also called the Horologium, and equipped it with the rotating vane on top to show the direction of the wind. The Horologium was also used to keep time using a sundial on the exterior and a water clock within.

On August 6, 1991, the first website,
nxoc01.cern.ch
, was launched. It was built at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), initiated by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, developers of the World Wide Web. This first website provided an explanation of what exactly the World Wide Web was and provided instructions on how you could own a browser and set up a web server. This first website also became the world’s first web directory, where Berners-Lee maintained a list of other websites in addition to his own.

The wheelbarrow was invented around 400 B.C.E., probably in ancient Greece. Although not called a wheelbarrow, it was described as such an implement among the building material inventories for the temple of Eleusis. The inventories showed “1 body for a one-wheeler (hyperteria monokyklou).” Historians assume it was a singular wooden-wheeled device with a makeshift platform and handles, developed as an innovative technological device by the ancient Greeks. The Romans and the Chinese adopted the wheelbarrow later, making improvements for use in farming, in mining, and as a construction-carrying helper for light loads.

In July 1877, the first Wimbledon tennis championship was held at the All England Club outside London. The only event was the Gentleman’s Singles, which was won by Britain’s Spencer Gore. He won the title from a field of 22 contestants by defeating William Marshal 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in the finals. The gentlemen played on the main grass or Centre Court that was situated in the middle of the grounds. They wore all white and long pants. About 200 spectators paid 1 shilling each to watch. The Wimbledon Championships have been an ongoing annual event ever since.

In January 1811, the first women’s golf tournament was held at the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club in Musselburgh, Scotland. It was played on the club’s putting course and was among the town’s fishwives, who because they did the work of men were allowed to play golf. The club arranged to present a special honor award of a new Creel and Skull (fishing basket) to the best female golfer. Other prizes included two of the best Barcelona silk handkerchiefs. The first winner is not known nor is the number of participants. Although the club’s intention was to conduct it as an annual event, the tournament did not ultimately catch on.

In 1867, the Dolly Vardens from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became the first women’s professional sports team. (A dolly varden was a fancy dress named for a character in Charles Dickens’s historical novel
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of ’Eighty.
) The Dolly Vardens, an all-African American professional baseball team, were the first paid baseball team on any level, men or women. They played 2 years before the first men’s professional club, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The Dolly Vardens folded after a short time due to lack of support, only to be revived in the late 1880s wearing red calico attire.

Word processing, as it’s known today, was first brought about in 1964 with IBM’s MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter). With this typewriter, IBM’s strategy was first to market the phrase
word processing machine.
The MT/ST used magnetic tape, the first reusable storage medium for typed information. Thanks to the tape, typed data could be edited without having to retype the whole text. Info could be stored on the tape, corrected as needed, and reprinted as many times as desired. The tape could also be erased and reused for other word processing. Although the first word processor was mainly a business application, average consumers could get one, too.

Around 540 B.C.E., Anaximander, a philosopher from Miletus, now in Turkey, created the first map of the known world. His innovation represented the entire inhabited land known to the ancient Greeks. The map was circular and showed three continents—Europe, Asia, and Libya (the part of the then-known African continent)—with oceans surrounding the circular map’s boundary. Three spokes of water—the Nile River, the Phasis River (now called the Rioni), and the Mediterranean Sea—all emptied into the oceans surrounding the map’s perimeter. This first world map was probably engraved on a clay tablet.

The first time the world’s population exceeded 1 billion was in 1804, according to reports later compiled using fertility and mortality rates. By 1927, it exceeded 2 billion. The 3 billion milestone was reached in 1960. In 1974, it hit 4 billion. By 1987, the earth held 5 billion people. Twelve years later, in 1999, the population topped 6 billion. It’s expected to surpass the 7 billion mark in 2013 and 8 billion in 2028.

In 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations was housed in the Crystal Palace and other facilities in Hyde Park, London, England. Called the World’s Fair by English poet and novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, the event, which ran from May 1 to October 15, attracted more than 6 million visitors and featured 14,000 exhibitors. The culture and industry gala had the backing of Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. This first World’s Fair made a surplus of money that was used to found three museums plus future educational trusts to provide grants and scholarships for research.

Over the weekend of November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen of Wurzburg, Germany, made the first refined discovery of x-radiation. During an experiment, Roentgen, the first to systematically study and achieve results from the works of others in the field, covered an electrified cathode ray tube with a lightproof cardboard black jacket. Meanwhile, a screen of fluorescent material lay on a table a few feet away. While passing an electrical discharge through the tube, Roentgen suddenly noticed a shimmering light on the tabletop. He correctly deducted that the glow was caused by an unknown high-energy radiation emitted from the tube.

On December 28, 1895, he published his report, “On a New Kind of Rays,” in the Proceedings of the Physical Medical Society of Wurzburg. That announcement was illustrated with the first x-ray photograph, which was of his wife’s left hand. The bones could be identified within, as could the two rings on one of her fingers.

The first xylophone-like percussion instrument existed in the Hindu regions of southeast Asia around 2000 B.C.E. It originated from
grap,
wooden keys or slats used to keep rhythm. These keys, made in different sizes of hardwood or bamboo, were laid on two tracks with a support holding them in such a way to allow tones to flow freely. A heavy string was threaded through holes in the ends of the keys, and the entire keyboard was hung on a stand. A mixture of lead shavings and beeswax in varying thicknesses on the bottom of the keys yielded different tones as the keys were struck. Long, slender beaters with knobs on each end, one for each hand of which melodies could be created, were used to strike the keys and produce the sound.

The first yachts are credited to the ancient Egyptians as early as 3000 B.C.E. Those early vessels were made of wood and constructed for the pharaohs to use to sail the Nile River in the afterlife. The yachts, which measured from as short as 8 feet to as long as elegant slender-oared barges 130 feet long, were specially built in the same regal style as the vessels a pharaoh used to cruise the Nile while he was alive. They were carefully fitted together without the use of nails, and because wood was scarce, such vessels were most certainly a royal prerogative. The stocked luxury yachts were buried alongside their pharaohs to provide passage throughout the heavens.

Around 500 B.C.E. in ancient Greece, the first yo-yo was made of wood, metal, and terra cotta (clay). The Greeks decorated the two halves, especially the terra cotta ones, with picture-paintings of their gods. The Greeks called them play discs, and they operated pretty much the same as the yo-yos of today, complete with twine. It was customary that when a child turned a certain age, the toys of their youth were offered to certain gods. That meant as a right of passage into adulthood, the Greek children placed their yo-yos on the family altar to pay homage.