Robert Cocking
Robert Cocking (1776 – 24 July 1837) was a British Watercolor painting, watercolour artist who died in the first known fatal parachute accident. Parachute design Robert Cocking was a professional watercolour artist with a keen amateur interest in science. He had seen André-Jacques Garnerin make the first parachute jump in England in 1802 (the first modern parachute jump had been carried out in 1785 by Jean-Pierre Blanchard) and been inspired to develop an improved design after reading Sir George Cayley's paper ''On Aerial Navigation''. Cayley's paper, published in 1809–1810, discussed Garnerin's jump at some length. Garnerin had used an umbrella-shaped parachute which had swayed excessively from side-to-side during the descent; Cayley theorised that a cone-shaped parachute would be more stable. Cocking spent many years developing his improved parachute, based on Cayley's design, which consisted of an inverted cone 107 feet (32.61 m) in circumference connected b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lee, London
Lee, also known as Lee Green, is an area of South East London, England, straddling the border of the London Borough of Lewisham and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is located northwest of Eltham and southeast of Lewisham. It was in Kent before becoming part of the County of London in 1889, and then Greater London in 1965. The churchyard of St Margaret's, Lee, St Margaret's Church (current church rebuilt 1839–41, architect: John Brown (architect), John Brown) is the burial place of three Astronomer Royal, Astronomers Royal: Edmond Halley, Nathaniel Bliss and John Pond. History Early history The Manor of Lee was a historic parish of the Blackheath, Kent (hundred), Blackheath hundred and existed up to 1900 when it was merged with the parish of Lewisham to create the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham. While modern Lee is centred on Lee railway station and the road of Burnt Ash Hill, the parish was based around Lee High Road which today stretches into the town centre of Lewish ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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19th-century British Inventors
The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanded beyond its British homeland for the first time during the 19th century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, France, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Catholic Church, in response to the growing influence and power of modernism, secularism and materialism, formed the First Vatican Council in the late 19th century to deal with such problems and confirm ce ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Inventors Killed By Their Own Invention
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an idea is unique enough either as a stand-alone invention or as a significant improvement over the work of others, it can be patented. A patent, if granted, gives the inventor a proprietary interest in the patent over a specific period of time, which can be licensed for financial gain. An inventor creates or discovers an invention. The word ''inventor'' comes from the Latin verb ''invenire'', ''invent-'', to find. Although inventing is closely associated with science and engineering, inventors are not necessarily engineers or scientists. The ideation process may be augmented by the applications of algorithms and methods from the domain collectively known as artificial intelligence . Some inventions can be patented. The system of patents was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Accidental Deaths In England
Accidental may refer to: * Accidental (music), a symbol which changes the pitch of a note * ''Accidental'' (album), by Fred Frith * Accidental (biology), a biological phenomenon more commonly known as vagrancy * '' The Accidental'', a 2005 novel by Ali Smith * The Accidental (band), a UK folk band * Accidental property, a philosophical term See also * Accidence (or inflection), a modification of a word to express different grammatical categories * Accident (other) * Adventitious, which is closely related to "accidental" as used in philosophy and in biology * Random, which often is used incorrectly where ''accidental'' or ''adventitious'' would be appropriate {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1837 Deaths
Events January–March * January 1 – The destructive Galilee earthquake of 1837, Galilee earthquake causes thousands of deaths in Ottoman Syria. * January 26 – Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the United States. * February 4 – Seminoles attack Fort Foster in Florida. * February 25 – In Philadelphia, the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) is founded, as the first institution for the higher education of black people in the United States. * February – Charles Dickens's ''Oliver Twist'' begins publication in serial form in London. * March 1 – The Congregation of Holy Cross is formed in Le Mans, France, by the signing of the Fundamental Act of Union, which legally joins the Auxiliary Priests of Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC, and the Brothers of St. Joseph (founded by Jacques-François Dujarié) into one religious association. April–June * April 12 – The conglomerate of Procter & Gamble has its origins, when British-born businessmen William Procter and J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1776 Births
Events January–February * January 1 – American Revolutionary War – Burning of Norfolk: The town of Norfolk, Virginia is destroyed, by the combined actions of the Kingdom of Great Britain, British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot forces. * January 10 – American Revolution – Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet ''Common Sense (pamphlet), Common Sense'', arguing for independence from British rule in the Thirteen Colonies. * January 20 – American Revolution – South Carolina Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalists led by Robert Cunningham sign a petition from prison, agreeing to all demands for peace by the formed state government of South Carolina. * January 24 – American Revolution – Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the Noble train of artillery, artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga. * February 17 – Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of ''The Hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time. This edition of the encyclopaedia, containing 40,000 entries, has entered the public domain and is readily available on the Internet. Its use in modern scholarship and as a reliable source has been deemed problematic due to the outdated nature of some of its content. Nevertheless, the 11th edition has retained considerable value as a time capsule of scientific and historical information, as well as scholarly attitudes of the era immediately preceding World War I. Background The 1911 eleventh edition was assembled with the management of American publisher Horace Everett Hooper. Hugh Chisholm, who had edited the previous edition, was appointed editor-in-chief, with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of Government of the United Kingdom, the national government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. London grew rapidly 19th-century London, in the 19th century, becoming the world's List of largest cities throughout history, largest city at the time. Since the 19th cen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessment to form Cambridge University Press and Assessment under Queen Elizabeth II's approval in August 2021. With a global sales presence, publishing hubs, and offices in more than 40 countries, it published over 50,000 titles by authors from over 100 countries. Its publications include more than 420 academic journals, monographs, reference works, school and university textbooks, and English language teaching and learning publications. It also published Bibles, runs a bookshop in Cambridge, sells through Amazon, and has a conference venues business in Cambridge at the Pitt Building and the Sir Geoffrey Cass Sports and Social Centre. It also served as the King's Printer. Cambridge University Press, as part of the University of Cambridge, was a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopedia, online encyclopaedia. Printed for 244 years, the ''Britannica'' was the longest-running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland, in three volumes. The encyclopaedia grew in size; the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810), it had expanded to 20 volumes. Its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, and the 9th (1875–1889) and Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, 11th editions (1911) are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Wise (balloonist)
John Wise (February 24, 1808September 28, 1879) was a pioneer in the field of ballooning. He made over 400 flights during his lifetime and was responsible for several innovations in balloon design. His balloon, ''The Jupiter'', carried 123 letters to make the first official airmail delivery run for the US Post Office in 1859. Early career John Wise was born on February 24, 1808, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, to William and Mary Trey Weiss who anglicized his surname to Wise. He was the fourth of eight children. He worked as an apprentice cabinetmaker from the time he was 16; after the age of 21 he briefly became a piano maker. A short column and plaque were erected near the corner of East Marion Street and North Lime Street in Lancaster (), by the Lancaster County Historical Society in 1955 stating that Wise "lived most of his life near this spot." He had been interested in ballooning since reading an article in the newspaper when he was 14, and in 1835, at the age ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |