Autopilot
by Lawrence Sperry
The son of a famous inventor was 20 when he made a plane able to hold its heading and altitude on its own. He showed it in Paris in 1914 at an aviation safety contest.
Photo: Kiko Alario Salom (CC BY 2.0)
Going farther and faster has driven the history of technology. The wheel, the sail and the horse ruled for millennia. Railways, cars and aircraft changed everything in less than two centuries. Distances shrank with every step and trips that took weeks now take hours.
A few cards of the album
The start of their anecdote. The album's other cards are for you to discover in the game.
Belpaire firebox
by Alfred Belpaire
Good coke and briquettes cost railways dearly. A Belgian engineer therefore imagined burning something else: small coal, mediocre but sold at a very low price.
Photo: Locomotive_boiler_sectioned.jpg: J.F. Gairns (1923) Railways for All, Ward Lock, pp. facing p.49 derivative work: Andy Dingley (talk) (Public domain)
Boat lift
by Johann Friedrich Mende
Four men were enough to work it: pulleys lifted small 3-tonne barges by 8 metres. The world's first boat lift was built in 1788 on the Mulde in Saxony.
Photo: Mhsheikholeslami (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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