Ancient Monoplane Found in a Pyramid in Egypt

Ancient Monoplane Found in a Pyramid in Egypt

It's 1898 and you're taking part in excavations in Sakara this place not far away from Cairo is full of ancient tombs and pyramids you're in your Indiana Jones mood and hope to find something really phenomenal to become famous gold manuscripts treasure maps mummies of famous pharaohs wait a wooden bird you're really disappointed as it looks like a regular toy an old one but still little do you know that years later someone would propose that your bird was actually an ancient monoplane so the artifact nicknamed the Sakara bird is made of a sycamore tree the birdie has a wingspan of just seven inches and weighs around 40 grams a perfect original souvenir from Egypt I would say it's over 2 000 years old and looks pretty plain without any carvings of feathers or other intricate ornaments it has a beak and eyes though which makes our fine look like a hawk the emblem of the deity Horus its tail is rather unusual as it's squared looks weirdly upright and it seems like the sunken part of it was the place where I now missing piece humans love solving a good mystery so there have been several attempts to explain the use of the birdie first quite simply is that it was a ceremonial object the second idea is that it was a toy fora child from some well-law family it could have been some sort of boomerang which was a popular Concept in ancient Egypt then there was a theory that the bird had been used as a Weathervane but this one has been debunked as the figure doesn't have any holes or markings except for the one made at the Museum in Cairo to fix the exhibit on a stick so there was no way to hang it in the past almost a century after the bird was found egyptologist Dr Khalil masiha proposed a new theory that it could have been a model of a monoplane he believed the bird was missing a horizontal tail plane otherwise it had its wings set at a right angle similar to that of modern planes it could have worked to generate the aerodynamic lift necessary for flights

Dr masiha also claimed that it was common at that time to place miniature models of technological inventions in tombs so did the ancient Egyptians really invent the plane in 200 BCE that would make their Wright brothers who are considered the inventors of Aviation really really upset they made one of their first flights only in 1903. There’s just one way to know for sure and that is to test the model but you know the ancient Museum in Cairo would unlikely let one of their cherished exhibits fly around like a toy that's why glider designer Martin

Gregory built a similar model this time of balsa wood and concluded that even with the missing tail plane the plane wasn't much of a flyer case solved not really this didn't sound convincing enough to the History Channel so they invited an aerodynamics expert to build another replica of the bird he tested it in weather conditions similar to those in Egypt and was impressed with the little plane's abilities so if they did invent the Prototype of a plane back in the times of pharaohs it would be a good example of an upart that's an out of place artifact an object that's way ahead of its time in terms of technology or history and the Sakara bird isn't the only example of such a revolutionary concept in 1901 a group of divers retrieved the anti-cathera mechanism from an

underwater shipwreck near the Greek island of antacira it's been dubbed the

world's first analog computer and it's currently dated around 100 BCE the bronze mechanism could tell the position of the sun moon planets and stars as well as the lunar phase the dates of upcoming solar eclipses and even the speed at which the moon moves through the skyno one's sure who used it and how or where it was made but it's obvious that it's extremely precise and way too advanced for its time the first flushing toilets in the world were invented in the middle of the 20th century just kidding the ancient Minoans on the Mediterranean island of Crete and the Indus Valley Civilization both came up with this Brilliant Invention at the same time around 4 000 years ago the plumbing and sanitation were so well done that no one managed to design anything better until 2 000 years later one ancient minoan lavatory was discovered at the palace of canosos it looks like it had a wooden seat set over a tunnel that directed water from a rooftop Reservoir to an underground sewer other varieties got water from jugs only the super rich people could afford all this Glory so if you wanted to shop for Real Estate back then the flushing toilet would be a Telltale sign you were in the rich neighborhood automated doors became a cool seemingly new invention back in 1931. but the technology behind them is actually much older think the first century CE old mathematician and engineer Heron of Alexandria came up with a hydraulic system to open and close Temple doors to bring it into action you need to light a fire to produce heat there was a brass pot under the fire half filled with water the inventor connected the brass pot to containers that acted as weight when the fire was burning the water moved into the containers they went down and pulled the ropes it was nothing like a supermarket door that opens in front of you before you even have time to think Heron's door took hours to open and there was no way to stop the process that's why they only opened the doors once a day before people entered the temple to add some mysticism at the temple during ceremonies spooky looks like the first ever battery was invented in Baghdad around 2000 years ago a German archaeologist found this oval-shaped clay jar in 1938 scientists are still not sure what purpose it served and who exactly invented it there is a theory that it was used for electroplating objects with precious metals when they filled it with a weak acid like vinegar the battery produced around one volt of electricity another theory says it was a vessel for sacred Scrolls would you like to buy contact lenses designed by Leonardo da Vinci himself in 1508 he invented a Glass Lens with a funnel on one side you were supposed to wear it with water inside to improve your vision sounds a bit uncomfortable doesn't it so around a century later French scientist Renee Descartes decided to improve the idea and make the cornea contact the future lenses contact because they contact your eyes get it the glass tube with liquid did help improve Vision but blinking was sadly impossible two and a half centuries later new technologies in the glass industry let scientists design contacts that would fit in the eye and even let the wearer blink thanks guys still those lenses were made of heavy blown glass and didn't let the eye breathe about 50 years later contacts became plastic lightweight unbreakable and scratch resistant but still covering the entire eye and then in 1948 an English Optical technician accidentally sanded down a plastic lens and figured out they'd still be in place even if they covered only the cornea imagine you're living in 19th century London and need to send a message to New York it would have taken about 10 days to get there by ship so when delivery time went from days to hours in 1858 it was a true sensation the first message was sent by Queen Victoria herself it was all made possible thanks to the transatlantic Telegraph cable running under the ocean sadly the new cool invention only lasted a few weeks it took years to bring it back to life that's it for today so hey if you pacified your curiosity share it with your friends and family.