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Organ Cave
Organ Cave is a large and historic cave in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA. The Organ Cave, West Virginia, surrounding community takes its name from the cave. In 1973, the Organ Cave System—also known as the Organ–Hedricks Cave System—was registered as a National Natural Landmark for being "the largest cave system in the State, containing many caves, one of which is Organ Cave. Noted also for its Potassium nitrate, saltpeter troughs and vats." (It is now the third-longest known cave in the state, after the Friars Hole Cave System in the same county and the Hellhole (cave), Hellhole System in Pendleton County, West Virginia, Pendleton County.) Organ Cave has also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005. History Significant fossil discoveries bear witness to the early natural history of Organ Cave: Megalonyx jeffersonii, giant ground sloth, grizzly bear, nine-banded armadillo, sabre-tooth cat, reindeer and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Stalacpipe Organ
The Great Stalacpipe Organ is an electrically actuated lithophone located in Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA. Covering 3.5 acres of the cavern, it is considered the world's largest instrument by Guinness World Records. It is operated by a custom organ console, console that produces the tapping of ancient stalactites of varying sizes with solenoid-actuated rubber mallets in order to produce tones. The instrument's name was derived from the resemblance of the selected thirty-seven naturally formed stalactites to the pipework of a traditional pipe organ along with its custom organ-style keyboard console. It was designed and implemented in 1956 over three years by Leland W. Sprinkle inside the Luray Caverns near Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, USA. History Two accounts of Sprinkle's conception of the instrument are known. From the discovery of Luray Caverns in 1878 onward, the favorable attributes of the formations for creating musical tones were well known. One of the earlies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Register Of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Historic districts in the United States, districts, and objects deemed worthy of Historic preservation, preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value". The enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing property, contributing resources within historic district (United States), historic districts. For the most of its history, the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service (NPS), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. Its goals are to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confederate States Of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States from 1861 to 1865. It comprised eleven U.S. states that declared Secession in the United States, secession: South Carolina in the American Civil War, South Carolina, Mississippi in the American Civil War, Mississippi, Florida in the American Civil War, Florida, Alabama in the American Civil War, Alabama, Georgia in the American Civil War, Georgia, Louisiana in the American Civil War, Louisiana, Texas in the American Civil War, Texas, Virginia in the American Civil War, Virginia, Arkansas in the American Civil War, Arkansas, Tennessee in the American Civil War, Tennessee, and North Carolina in the American Civil War, North Carolina. These states fought against the United States during the American Civil War. With Abraham Lincoln's 1860 Un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of America, Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by U.S. state, states that had Secession in the United States, seceded from the Union. The Origins of the American Civil War, central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether Slavery in the United States, slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War, Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building Pipeline transport, pipelines, tunnels, and road#Construction, roads. Gunpowder is classified as a Explosive#Low, low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate, low ignition temperature and consequently low brisance, brisance (breaking/shattering). Low explosives deflagration, deflagrate (i.e., burn at subsonic speeds), whereas high explosives detonation, detonate, producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nitre
Niter or nitre is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, KNO3. It is a soft, white, highly soluble mineral found primarily in arid climates or cave deposits. Potassium and other nitrates are of great importance for use in fertilizers and, historically, gunpowder. Much of the world's demand is now met by synthetically produced nitrates, though the natural mineral is still mined and is still of significant commercial value. Historically, the term ''niter'' was not well differentiated from natron, both of which have been very vaguely defined but generally refer to compounds of sodium or potassium joined with carbonate or nitrate ions. Characteristics Niter is a colorless to white mineral crystallizing in the orthorhombic crystal system. It is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, , and is soft ( Mohs hardness 2), highly soluble in water, and easily fusible. Its crystal structure resembles that of aragonite, with potassium replacing calcium and nitrate replacing ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Native Americans In The United States
Native Americans (also called American Indians, First Americans, or Indigenous Americans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the United States, particularly of the Contiguous United States, lower 48 states and Alaska. They may also include any Americans whose origins lie in any of the indigenous peoples of North or South America. The United States Census Bureau publishes data about "American Indians and Alaska Natives", whom it defines as anyone "having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America ... and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment". The census does not, however, enumerate "Native Americans" as such, noting that the latter term can encompass a broader set of groups, e.g. Native Hawaiians, which it tabulates separately. The European colonization of the Americas from 1492 resulted in a Population history of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, precipitous decline in the size of the Native American ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrowheads
An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, or sometimes for special purposes such as signaling. The earliest arrowheads were made of stone and of organic materials; as human civilizations progressed, other alloy materials were used. Arrowheads are important archaeological artifacts; they are a subclass of projectile points. Modern enthusiasts still "produce over one million brand-new spear and arrow points per year". A craftsman who manufactures arrowheads is called an arrowsmith. History In the Stone Age, people used sharpened bone, flintknapped stones, flakes, and chips and bits of rock as weapons and tools. Such items remained in use throughout human civilization, with new materials used as time passed. As archaeological artifacts such objects are classed as projectile points, without specifying whether they were pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start fires. Flint occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones.''The Flints from Portsdown Hill'' Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey or black, green, white, or brown in colour, and has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin, oxidised layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in colour, typically white and rough in texture. The nodules can often be found along s and [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porcupine
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of the family Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi within the profoundly diverse order (biology), order Rodentia and display superficially similar coats of rigid or semi-rigid quills, which are modified hairs composed of keratin. Despite this, the two groups are distinct from one another and are not closely related to each other within the Hystricognathi. The largest species of porcupine is the third-largest living rodent in the world, after the capybara and beaver. The Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) live in Italy, Asia (western and southern), and most of Africa. They are large, terrestrial, and strictly nocturnal. The New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) are indigenous to North Amer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only representative of the genus ''Rangifer''. More recent studies suggest the splitting of reindeer and caribou into six distinct species over their range. Reindeer occur in both Animal migration, migratory and wiktionary:sedentary#Adjective, sedentary populations, and their herd sizes vary greatly in different regions. The tundra subspecies are adapted for extreme cold, and some are adapted for long-distance migration. Reindeer vary greatly in size and color from the smallest, the Svalbard reindeer (''R.'' (''t.'') ''platyrhynchus''), to the largest, Osborn's caribou (''R. t. osborni''). Although reindeer are quite numerous, some species and subspecies are in decline and considered Vulnerable species, vulnerable. They are unique among deer (Ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabre-tooth Cat
Machairodontinae (from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα ''machaira,'' a type of Ancient Greek sword and ὀδόντος ''odontos'' meaning tooth) is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the cat family Felidae, representing the earliest diverging major branch of the family. Machairodonts varied in size from comparable to lynxes to exceeding that of lions. The Machairodontinae contain many of the extinct predators commonly known as "saber-toothed cats", including those with greatly elongated upper maxillary canines, such as the famed genus ''Smilodon'' and ''Megantereon,'' though the degree of elongation was variable, and in some machairodontines like '' Dinofelis'' the length of the upper canines was much more modest. Sometimes, other carnivorous mammals with elongated teeth are also called saber-toothed cats, although they do not belong to the felids. Besides the machairodonts, other saber-toothed predators also arose in the nimravids, barbourofelids, machaeroidines, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
