Cool+Inventions

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 * W e live in a world full of wonder and often take things for granted.
 * Where would we be if someone had not stopped to take the time to invent the wheel?
 * Read on to find out how things were invented and next time you turn on the tap or ride your bike, stop and think about how it all works...


 * Fire has been around forever! It was easy enough to keep a fire going once it started naturally, but it was a while before people realised they could make fire themselves by rubbing two sticks together.


 * Early houses were made from rock, bones and mud!


 * Candles were first used around 5000, (five thousand), years ago and they haven't changed much since. Around the same time the first calendar was invented by the Babylonians who based it on the movement of the sun and the moon. The Egyptians followed with their own calendar soon after but relied only on the sun. It was Julius Caesar who created the calendar based on a 365-day year like the one we use today.


 * Also 5000 years ago the first chair was invented. It must have been a busy time around the world 5000 years ago!

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 * =See if you can find out about any other inventions that we use today. =
 * =Can you think up any new inventions that we need? =

= **Making a Connection!**   =

The inventor of the telephone was a man named Alexander Graham Bell. His interest in communication started at home. His father and grandfather were speech teachers, and Alexander himself was a teacher of the deaf. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he was actually working on a different machine to improve the telegraph (the machine that the telephone replaced).


 * Do you know how people communicated over long distances before the invention of the telephone?
 * What ways do we communicate over long distances today when we are not using the telephone?

The invention of the telephone made very important links among people and communities.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27px;">Imagine for a moment a world without telephones.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27px;">Think of the ways that a telephone makes your life easier.

A telephone is a machine that uses a microphone to change the sound waves of a person’s voice into electrical signals. These signals are sent by cable to a receiving telephone and changed back into sound. Alexander Graham Bell wanted to invent machines that would help people communicate, but he did not know much about electricity. Then he met Thomas Watson, a mechanic. Bell told Watson what he needed, and Watson made it. Together they developed the telephone.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27px;">What do you think a person needs to succeed as an inventor?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27px;">Do you think either Bell or Watson could have invented the telephone by himself?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27px;">Why do you think it is important for people to work together?



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