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Bertha (TV Series)
''Bertha'' (stylised as bertha, with a larger lower case "b") is a 13-episode British stop motion-animated children's television series about a factory machine of that name that aired from 1985 to 1986. All the characters were designed by Ivor Wood, and the series was produced by his company, Woodland Animations. It was broadcast on BBC Television, It was intended as a replacement for the ''Postman Pat'' series, until the second series aired in 1996. A series of five storybooks based on ''Bertha'' was published by André Deutsch at the same time as the series was broadcast. They were adapted by Eric Charles and illustrated by Steve Augarde, who was also responsible for the artwork and music in the children's series ''Bump''. The series was later repeated on GMTV2 in the early 2000s along with '' Penny Crayon''. The series is available to watch on BritBox and Prime Video. Plot The series is set in an industrial estate occupied by the Spottiswood & Company factory, a small m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gran (TV Series)
''Gran'' is a British short-lived stop motion animation television series narrated by Patricia Hayes and directed by Ivor Wood. The show features a grandmother, Gran, and her grandson, Jim, going on adventures together. Despite moderate popularity with young audiences in the mid-1980s, the series has not been seen on UK television since being repeated as part of the Tiny Living broadcasting block on Living TV in the late 1990s, and no further episodes were made. Universal Pictures released all 13 episodes on Region 2 DVD in the U.K. on 7 March 2005, but the release has since been discontinued. Synopsis At first glance you may think Gran is like any other grandmother, but she's not. Along with her grandson, Jim, she takes part in different crazy adventures. Each episode sees Gran performing weird and wacky tasks, such as growing her runner beans up a dinosaur skeleton, hang gliding, knitting a giant scarf to wrap around her house in the winter, and cross country motorbike ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring (device)
A spring is a device consisting of an Elasticity (physics), elastic but largely rigid material (typically metal) bent or molded into a form (especially a coil) that can return into shape after being compressed or extended. Springs can Energy storage, store energy when compressed. In everyday use, the term most often refers to coil springs, but there are many different spring designs. Modern springs are typically manufactured from spring steel. An example of a non-metallic spring is the Bow (weapon), bow, made traditionally of flexible Taxus baccata, yew wood, which when Bow draw, drawn stores energy to propel an arrow. When a conventional spring, without stiffness variability features, is compressed or stretched from its resting position, it exerts an opposing force approximately proportional to its change in length (this approximation breaks down for larger deflections). The ''rate'' or ''spring constant'' of a spring is the change in the force it exerts, divided by the cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bolt (fastener)
A bolt is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force ( torque) to a matching nut. The bolt has an external male thread requiring a matching nut with a pre-formed female thread. History Nuts and bolts were originally hand-crafted together, so that each nut matched its own bolt, but they were not interchangeable. This made it virtually impossible to replace lost or damaged fixers, as they were all different. Joseph Whitworth in 1841 proposed that a standard should be set, but it did not happen immediately. In 1851 the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was to be held in Hyde Park, London, England, and it was decided to build the Crystal Palace as part; this had to be done in 190 days, and at reasonable cost. Research into the remains of the destroyed building in 2024 revealed a major innovation that made this possible. The construction firm responsible, Fox Henderson, decided to use nuts and bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nut (hardware)
A nut is a type of fastener with a screw thread, threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used in conjunction with a mating bolt (fastener), bolt to fasten multiple parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction with slight deformation (engineering)#Elastic deformation, elastic deformation, a slight Tension (physics), stretching of the bolt, and compression (physics), compression of the parts to be held together. In applications where vibration or rotation may work a nut loose, various locking mechanisms may be employed: lock washers, jam nuts, eccentric double nuts, specialist adhesive thread-locking fluid such as Loctite, safety pins (split pins) or lockwire in conjunction with castellated nuts, nylon inserts (nyloc nut), or slightly oval-shaped threads. Square nuts, as well as bolt heads, were the first shape made and used to be the most common largely because they were much easier to manufacture, especially by hand. While rare toda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beach Ball
A beach ball is an inflatable ball for beach and water games. Their large size and light weight require little effort to propel them. Beach balls became popular in the beach-themed films of the 1960s starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. These movies include '' Beach Party'', '' Muscle Beach Party'', '' Beach Blanket Bingo'' and '' How to Stuff a Wild Bikini''. Design Beach balls range from hand-sized to over across or larger. They generally have a set of soft plastic panels, with two circular end panels, one with an oral inflation valve, intended to be inflated by lung power or pump. A common design is vertical solid-colored stripes alternating with white stripes. There are also other designs, including beach balls in a single solid colour, promotional beach balls with advertisements or company slogans, as globes or as Emojis. Some manufacturers specify the size of their beach balls (which is often confused with the diameter) as the tip-to-tip length of a deflated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garden Gnome
Garden gnomes () are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures based on the mythological creature and diminutive spirit which occur in Renaissance magic and alchemy, known as gnomes. They also draw on the German folklore of the Dwarf (folklore), dwarf. Traditionally, the garden figurines depict male dwarfs wearing red pointy hats. Typically, gnomes stand between . Originating as a decoration for the wealthy in Europe, garden gnomes are now prevalent in gardens and lawns throughout the Western world, among all social classes. They are regarded by some as kitsch. History Ancient predecessors In ancient Rome, small stone statues depicting the Greco-Roman fertility god Priapus, also a protector of beehives, flocks, and vineyards, were frequently placed in Roman gardens. Gnomes as magical creatures were first described during the Renaissance period by Swiss alchemist Paracelsus as "diminutive figures two spans in height who did not like to mix with humans". During this per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piggy Bank
A piggy bank (sometimes penny bank or money box) is a coin container normally used by children, featuring a slot at the top to insert coins or folded bank notes. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a "still bank" as opposed to the " mechanical banks" popular in the early 20th century. These items are also often used by companies for promotional purposes, and many financial service companies use piggy banks as logos for their savings products. Uses The general use of piggy banks is to store loose change in a quaint, decorative manner. They commonly serve as a pedagogical device to teach the rudiments of thrift and saving to children; money can be easily inserted, but is more difficult to remove. Because they can be fairly secure from casual theft, they are sometimes used by temples and churches to collect monetary donations, then remove the contents periodically. Design Modern piggy banks are usually made of painted ceramic or porcelain. They are popularly in the shape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windmill
A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern periods; the horizontal or panemone windmill first appeared in Persia during the 9th century, and the vertical windmill first appeared in northwestern Europe in the 12th century. Regarded as an icon of Dutch culture, there are approximately 1,000 windmills in the Netherlands today. Forerunners Wind-powered machines have been known earlier, the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi had used wind mill power for his irrigation project in Mesopotamia in the 17th century BC. Later, Hero of Alexandria (Heron) in first-century Roman Egypt described what appears to be a wind-driven wheel to power a machine.Dietrich Lohrmann, "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", ''Archiv für Kulturgeschichte'', Vol. 77, Issue 1 (1995), pp. 1–30 (10f.) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
R2-D2
R2-D2 () or Artoo-Detoo is a fictional robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical ''Star Wars'' films to date, including every film in the " Skywalker Saga", which includes the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. At various points throughout the course of the films, R2, an astromech droid, is a friend to C-3PO, Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. R2-D2 and his companion C-3PO are the only characters to appear in every theatrical ''Star Wars'' film, with the exception of '' Solo: A Star Wars Story'' (2018). English actor Kenny Baker played R2-D2 in all three original ''Star Wars'' films and received billing credit for the character in the prequel trilogy, where Baker's role was reduced as R2-D2 was portrayed mainly by radio controlled props and CGI models. In the sequel trilogy, Baker was credited as consultant for '' The F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robot
A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke Humanoid robot, human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics. Robots can be autonomous robot, autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda's ''Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility'' (ASIMO) and TOSY's ''TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot'' (TOPIO) to industrial robots, robot-assisted surgery, medical operating robots, patient assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed Swarm robotics, ''swarm'' robots, UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and even microscopic Nanorobotics, nanorobots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forklift Truck
A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various companies, including Clark, which made transmissions, and Yale & Towne Manufacturing, which made hoists. Since World War II, the development and use of the forklift truck has greatly expanded worldwide. Forklifts have become an indispensable piece of equipment in manufacturing and warehousing. In 2013, the top 20 manufacturers worldwide posted sales of $30.4 billion, with 944,405 machines sold. History Developments from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century led to today's modern forklifts. The forerunners of the modern forklift were manually powered hoists to lift loads. In 1906, the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced battery-powered platform trucks for moving luggage at their Altoona, Pennsylvan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
