Theme park rides like Thunder Mountain Railroad and others are a blast to ride and experience, but how do these rides come to be? Who designs them? Who builds them and creates all of the environments and machines that are required to make them work? Today we’re going to talk about none other than the world famous Disney Imagineers!

The magical world of Disney theme parks has captivated the hearts of millions around the globe for decades. Behind the scenes of this enchanting experience lies a rich history marked by creativity, ingenuity, and a team of visionary individuals known as Imagineers. The roots of Disney’s theme park legacy can be traced back to WED Enterprises and the birth of Imagineering. 

When Walt Disney first decided to build a theme park, after his wild success as an animation studio, Disney created a group called WED Enterprises. This was in 1952 and Disney formed the group because he knew he would need a crew of very talented people to help design and engineer his theme park, which was still just a thing of his dreams and imagination. 

WED Enterprises included artists, engineers, architects, and designers who would bring Walt Disney’s dreams to life. They were known for having more than just one skill, such as being an architect or an engineer. They had to have BIG imaginations and be ready to think outside the box. At heart, they were storytellers, responsible for creating immersive narratives that would become park rides and other experiences. Their mission was to blend creativity with cutting-edge technology to create an enchanting world for park visitors.

In 1986, WED Enterprises changed its name to Walt Disney Imagineering. Imagineer is the combination of the words engineer and imagine! Imagineers are expected to not only have the skills to do their job but to think creatively and come up with new, bold ideas as they tell their stories in the form of attractions. In fact, one of the Imagineers first principles is “It all begins with a story.” 

Next, let’s dive into the life of some of the most famous Imagineers! Marc Davis was born in Bakersfield, California and from a very young age loved drawing and art! He practiced during his free time and eventually went to college in Kansas, where he further developed his skills. In 1934, Marc joined Disney as an animator and helped illustrate for animated classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. He worked closely with Walt Disney to create these films and when it came time to start designing Disneyland, Walt Disney knew Marc would be the perfect fit to help bring his dreams to life. 

One of his first projects was designing characters for The Haunted Mansion. Marc had a great sense of humor and was able to bring it to life through art as he designed characters such as The Hitching Ghost and the ghostly bride Constance Hatchaway. He also worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and many of the humor pirates you can see and experience throughout the ride. Marc also helped design the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise, and EPCOT’s Journey into Imagination.

Another early imagineer was Harriet Burns. Harriet was born in San Antonio, Texas and early on had a passion for art and design. She started at Disney in 1955 as a set painter for many of the rides. She became one of the first female Imagineers and helped design and paint characters on the Disneyland Railroad, Its a Small World, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Harriet was also known for her strong will and personality. When she had a vision for how someone should be done, she worked hard at it and made her opinion known until she got results!

The history of Disneyland Imagineers wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Tony Baxter, whose first job at Disneyland was actually an ice cream scooper at age 17. He loved being at the park and was determined to help make it an even more fun and enchanting place. He went to school and studied landscape architecture and later theater design. At this time, he also started helping with construction projects at Disneyland.

In 1970, Tony officially became an Imagineer. His dream job! He helped redesign Fantasyland, then later came up with the idea that became Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain showcased Baxter’s ability to combine storytelling with groundbreaking ride technology. The attraction became an instant classic, enchanting generations with its whimsical charm.

Baxter’s gift for adventure and storytelling reached new heights with the creation of the Indiana Jones ride. Opened in 1995, this dark ride blended film and theme park elements, plunging riders into the heart of an ancient temple filled with scary sights! The attraction’s success showed Baxter’s ability to translate movie magic into an immersive and exhilarating theme park experience.

Other famous Imagineers worth mentioning are the artist Mary Blair, X Atencio, Wing T. Chao, Alice Estes Davis, Yale Gracey, Bob Gurr, Joe Rohde, and Marty Sklar. Because Disney parks are worldwide, Imagineers of many different nationalities, races, and backgrounds are now part of the Imagineering team!

Something else exciting about Imagineers is that as they are working on new rides, they often invent entirely new technologies that are used not only at Disney but in other theme parks and attractions around the world.

One of their most famous innovations are audio-animatronics. These are the life-like robots that become characters on the different Disney rides. They often look very realistic and move in real ways that make the parkgoers feel like they are experiencing the characters and the environments for real! The animatronics on some of the rides were ahead of their time. To date, one of the most advanced and realistic animatronics is the Shaman on the Na’vi River Journey at Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Animatronics like this require many designers and engineers to figure out how to make them move in life-like ways. You’ll have to check out a video for this one, because you won’t believe your eyes!

Many of the vehicles for Disney’s rides also feature very advanced designs in order to move guests around through the attraction. This includes trackless rides that use magnets to orient them along the path. Another example is the jeep in Indiana Jones that makes passengers feel like they are bumping up and down on a wild ride, which has the flexibility to move many different directions.

Using RFID wristbands, guests are able to open their hotel rooms, enter parks and even make purchases using radio frequencies. Many of these technologies feel like magic when they are being used, but under all of the electronics a smart engineer had to design every piece of the advanced equipment to make it work. 

Other technologies include projection mapping, augmented reality, and virtual reality simulators… all with the goal of making guests feel like they have been transported to a different place and time and are living the actual experience. Pretty amazing, right?

Does becoming an Imagineer sound interesting to you? If so, be sure to look up their principles of design and think of ways you can apply them to your own interests. Do you like to be creative? If so, think of the kind of ride you would create if you were a Disney Imagineer. Draw up a plan and maybe even make a miniature version of it using cardboard and other materials. You might even simulate how it works using a space in your backyard or living room. Be sure to run it by your parents first, of course, but remember that all of these Imagineers were once kids like you who were passionate about art and design and had BIG imaginations! 

The post History of Disney Imagineering for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Now, what do you think of when you hear the word “voyager”? A voyage is like a journey or long trip. When I think of “voyager,” I think of someone going into new and unknown places, exploring and learning. What “voyagers” do you know? The world is pretty big with lots of places to explore, but the biggest place to explore the unknown is Outer Space. It’s only been a little over 50 years since the first human, Neil Armstrong, walked on the Moon. There’s still so much we don’t know! In the late 1970s two space probes (kind of like a spaceship without people on it) were launched with the idea that they could explore more and go further than ever before. They are called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They have been on an incredible journey for decades and still have so much more to do!

As you may know, our solar system’s planets revolve around the sun. Every 175 years a very special event happens when the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune line up. The Voyager Program started in 1964 when a scientist named Gary Flandro discovered that this would be happening several years in the future and just one spacecraft would be able to fly by all of them! If they could send a spacecraft to see them all in one voyage this would save a lot of time and money. The project idea was called “The Grand Tour”. Sadly, it ended up being canceled in 1971 because it was going to cost $1 billion dollars.

Fortunately, the idea of a grand tour was reborn a few years later. The opportunity of the planets lining up for NASA was just too good to resist. The new project was estimated to cost $250 million dollars, much less than The Grand Tour project. This time, NASA was going to make two probes, and they were going to visit Jupiter, Saturn and one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. They made two probes so in case something happened to one, the other would be able to finish the mission and visit the two planets. But what everyone at NASA was really hoping for was that Voyager 1 would be successful and they would have Voyager 2 go and do the Grand Tour.

One of the most important parts of the Voyagers were their cameras. The purpose of the spacecraft would be to take pictures of the planets as they passed by. They also had to be able to send pictures back to earth using radio transmission. So the Voyagers were designed with very powerful cameras and radio devices for sending the images to Earth, so scientists could study the images and other data and learn more about the other planets in our solar system. 

Imagine you met someone who didn’t know anything about life on Earth.  What things would you want to teach them? What are the most important things about life on Earth that you’d want them to know? Scientists at NASA knew that the Voyagers had the potential to go very, very far. Even beyond our solar system. What if the Voyagers were discovered by alien life way out in the galaxy? They decided to put a message on each Voyager just in case it was ever discovered by intelligent life. They named the device the Golden Record. A record was a way to store information and listen to music back when your grandparents were younger. If you know what a CD or compact disc is, it’s like a very big CD. 

Scientist Carl Sagan was asked to decide what would be sent on the Voyagers. He and other scientists at NASA put 115 different pictures on the record, of what people look like at different ages, pictures of nature and animals. There were pictures of architecture from around the world and different people from around the world. The team put math equations, chemistry formulas, and pictures of the planets to show our understanding of science. Sagan also put a lot of different sounds on the record! Sounds like the ocean and birds, music from different cultures and time periods. They also included the spoken greetings of 55 languages. Finally instructions, and the equipment needed, were included to play the record and get all of the information off of it.

Here’s a question for you: what do the Voyagers and leftovers in your fridge have in common? They both use kitchen foil to protect them! A lot of design ideas for Voyager were taken from an earlier project named Pioneer 10. Space has very intense radiation and it is especially strong around Jupiter. Voyager had to be able to handle the intense radiation. Right before Voyager was launched, kitchen grade aluminum foil was wrapped around certain cables to give them even more protection! Another cool thing about Voyager is it weighs 1,704 pounds and 231 pounds of it are scientific instruments for gathering different types of data. There are cameras on board that took pictures when it was closer to earth and it has very special antennas that it still uses to communicate with NASA and tell us where it is.

After all of the preparations, Voyager 2 was finally launched in August 1977. Voyager 1 was launched the next month. Even though Voyager 1 was launched later, it was faster and got to Jupiter two years later! That gives you an idea of how big our solar system is. Voyager 2 got there 4 months later. Voyager 2 then reached Uranus at the beginning of 1986. The mission was a huge success! Both Voyagers were able to take pictures of the planets as they passed by and sent images back to Earth. Scientists were able to study these images and other data and learn more about these planets.

Finally, in 1990 when Voyager 1 was 6 billion miles from Earth, (that is very, very far) – it was turned around to take a picture of our solar system. That picture is now known as “Family Portrait”. In it you can see Jupiter, Earth, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the Sun. In the picture the Earth is a small blue dot. Scientist Carl Sagan later wrote a book about how seeing the Earth so small in the solar system made him see life in a whole new way. The book was called “Pale Blue Dot.” It’s kind of crazy to think that in the solar system we are so very small! This picture of our solar system is the last one that the Voyagers took. 

Remember the first question I asked? What is the furthest you have ever been from home? Can you imagine what the Voyagers answer would be!? As of now, they are very, very far from earth. So we have a sun, which is the center of our solar system, with planets orbiting around it. But what’s past that? While studying about the Voyagers I learned about the heliopause. The heliopause is the outer layer of the heliosphere, which is almost like a giant bubble that surrounds our sun and solar system and everything that orbits it. Once you pass through the heliosphere, you are in Deep Space! Outside of the solar system! Believe it or not, that is where both Voyagers are today! Deep space, out of the Solar System! It blows my mind to think about it. They’ve gone further than any man-made device before them. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in 2012 and Voyager 2 crossed in 2018. 

How far will the Voyagers continue to go? We aren’t completely sure. Being able to track them depends on how long their power is able to last. The electrical power of Voyager is from plutonium, the same material used to make nuclear weapons. Over time the plutonium decays and doesn’t put out as much energy. In October 2011, their power had dropped to almost half. As the power drops, Voyager won’t be able to take as many pictures or communicate back to earth. Scientists think that by 2032 there won’t be enough power for them to communicate. But for now, both are in contact with NASA through the Deep Space Network and we still get to enjoy seeing where they are! Voyager 1 is currently over 14 billion miles from Earth, and Voyager 2 isn’t far behind. Amazing, right?

As you think about how far Voyager has gone and all that it has done and seen, think about your own voyage (or journey) in life. What places do you want to see? Where do you want to go? It doesn’t have to be the solar system and deep space to be rewarding. But it’s great to make plans and work toward them just as the scientists at NASA did with the Voyagers.

The post History of the Voyager Program for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

What you don’t realize is AI is part of your life and you may not even realize it. Many of the decisions made by computers are handled by Artificial Intelligence. Your Alexia is an AI and much of the new art you see or text you read now may be generated by AI. Humans are still an important part of this work, though, since they are giving the AI instructions, guiding it where it needs to go, and using their creativity to send it along different paths. 

Imagine you have a magic wand that can tell you stories, build you a recipe, and answer any question you ask. That’s a bit like what people dreamed of when they first thought about AI. The idea of creating machines that could think and learn like humans has been around for a long time. It’s like trying to build a robot that can chat like your best friend, solve puzzles like a detective, and even learn new things all by itself.

But AI wasn’t born overnight. It’s been a bit like a recipe that needed time to cook. Scientists have been working on AI for many years. They wanted to create computers that could do more than just follow instructions. They wanted to build machines that could understand and talk with us in our own language. And they’ve made amazing progress!

In the history of AI, there were brave pioneers in the world of machines. They were like the first adventurers in a new, uncharted land. One of these pioneers was Alan Turing, a genius mathematician. He created a special code-breaking machine during World War II, which was a bit like the ancestor of AI, helping to decode secret messages. Turing’s ideas and inventions are still inspiring AI wizards today.

Another remarkable pioneer was John McCarthy, who invented the term “artificial intelligence” in 1956. McCarthy was one of the first to teach computers to use logic and solve problems, like teaching them to be detectives in a mystery story. His work set the stage for many AI discoveries to come.

Marvin Minsky co-founded the first AI laboratory at MIT. He believed that machines could learn and think just like humans. Minsky’s work was like teaching machines to be curious explorers, always eager to learn and solve new puzzles. These pioneers paved the way for the explosive world of AI we have today, where computers can chat, understand, and even create stories.

Now, let’s talk about a special part of AI called Natural Language Processing (NLP). Imagine your brain is like a super-secret code-breaking club. When you read a book or listen to your teacher, your brain is decoding all the words and sentences and turning them into ideas. Have you ever wondered why the word “book” means a thing you read and “tree” is a thing that grows and has green leaves. Why is “green” even called green? It’s just a label we put on these objects and have to agree on – and every language has a different label in their language. The Spanish word for green is “verde.” 

Natural Langauge Processing is like teaching computers to understand the way our brain decodes these symbols, and is different for each language. It helps them understand words, sentences, and even the feelings behind what people say. It’s like giving them a special dictionary to learn our language. NLP is like training your dog to understand commands, but instead of woofs and barks, it’s words and sentences. 

With NLP, computers can chat, translate languages, and help us find information on the internet. They can even write stories, just like the ones you love to read! It’s as if computers have become amazing storytellers and detectives all in one.

In the world of AI, there chunks of computer code called “Large Language Models.” They are like the mega-brains of the AI world. Imagine you have a library with millions of books, and these models have read them all! Over time they’ve learned from all the stories, information, and conversations in those books. They use maps to connect different symbols to different ideas. For example, the words “nature” and “tree” and “leaf” are all connected. It understands the meanings of these words and how they are related. 

One of the most popular Large Language Models is Chat GPT. GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” It’s like a robot who is always ready to chat with you. Chat GPT can talk like a real person because it’s learned so much from all those books in the library. It can even tell you jokes, stories, or help with homework!

But ChatGPT is only one of many AI chatbots. Other popular ones includes Bing, Google Bard, and Jasper AI. 

Chat GPT and the other chat bots weren’t always as amazing as they are now. It’s a bit like how a baby learns to walk and talk. They needed lots of practice and training. Scientists and engineers had to feed them tons of information, teach them how to understand language, and make them better over time. It’s estimated over 300 BILLION words from Wikipedia, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and books from all over the Internet were used to build ChatGPTs knowledge. Imagine if you knew a toddler who could read that much and that fast! 

Each new version of these models, like Chat GPT-3, is like a new and improved robot friend. It can chat, answer questions, and even create stories that sound just like they were written by humans. And they are always improving.

Beyond writing, AI is also being used to create artwork, videos, and voices. I spent a few months tinkering around with an AI art generator called Midjourney and used it to create a few album covers for my latest series that you can find on Apple Music and elsewhere. I’ve also shared some of my voice data with it to see how well it can mimic my voice. No, this isn’t an AI talking to you today, this is the actual Breck and for now I’m much happier with how my human-generated voice sounds!

These AI models have become helpful in many ways. They can assist doctors in diagnosing illnesses, help writers come up with new ideas, and even help you find the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They are like assistants that can make our lives easier and more fun.

The journey of AI is like a thrilling adventure where we keep discovering new lands. Scientists and engineers are always working to make AI even smarter and more helpful. They want to teach AI to have better conversations, understand emotions, and assist us in ways we can’t even imagine yet.

But remember, AI is like a tool, a bit like a magic wand. It can do incredible things, but it’s humans who guide it and use it for good. There is also a lot of talk in the news and by scientists and politicians about the importance of making AI safe. It’s a tool and can be used for good or ill, so how do we create fences for it to make sure its helpful not harmful. 

Some are also concerned that it takes away from human creativity. If AI is writing all of the new stories and creating all of the new artwork, does this lessen humans? I definitely see this as a concern and believe humans will always bring something unique to the world of art and creativity. For now, AI is like a useful assistant where artists and writers can ask it for help, but ultimately are there for creative inspiration and direction. 

So there you have it, the magical world of Artificial Intelligence! AI, NLP, and Large Language Models like ChatGPT are like friendly robots that can chat, help us learn, and even tell us amazing stories. They’ve been on an exciting journey from their creation to the incredible things they can do today.

Just like you, AI is learning and growing every day. It’s an adventure that’s still unfolding, and who knows what other incredible discoveries await us in this fast-paced land of technology! So keep your eyes open and your imagination running wild, because the world of AI is full of wonders waiting to be explored.

The post History of AI ChatBots for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Dressed in your suit, crisp white shirt, and neatly knotted tie, you look very important. And indeed, you are a significant player in the world of business. These men are no ordinary executives; they’re from IBM, which, during this time, is the largest computer maker in the world.

As you wait, a young fellow appears before you. He seems hardly older than a teenager, but there’s an air of confidence about him. You ask him for directions to Bill Gates’s office, and without hesitation, he leads you there. Much to your surprise, he takes a seat behind the desk. It’s then that you realize he is Bill Gates himself, the head of Microsoft!

Bill Gates is just twenty-four years old at this time, although he appears even younger with his tangled hair, much too-large glasses, a sprinkling of freckles, and his cozy pullover sweater. However, as soon as he begins to speak, it becomes evident that he possesses a deep knowledge of computers which would lead him to become the richest man in the world.

________________

William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Due to being the third Gates with the name William Henry, his family called him “Trey,” which is another way to say the word three. However, to everyone else, he was simply Bill.

As a child, Bill was very active, spending hours rocking back and forth on his rocking horse. This habit of rocking back and forth would become something you’d often see during his important business meetings. He found it to help him think better.

On school nights, there was a strict no-TV rule in the Gates household. Instead, the family would have conversations, play games, and immerse themselves in books. Young Bill loved to read, even deciding at age seven to read the entire encyclopedia and World Book! That is a full shelf of books! 

His intelligence was obvious to all who knew him. There’s a memorable incident where the whole family was ready for a short trip in the car and suddenly realized Bill was missing. His mother found him inside the house, deep in thought. When asked what he was doing, he replied, “I’m thinking, Mother!”

Challenges always intrigued him, and he was known for looking for ways to test his abilities. He was naturally left-handed but would switch to his right hand if he found himself bored in school.

At the age of eleven, he participated in a contest at his church. The challenge was to memorize the Sermon on the Mount, a long list of Bible scriptures. He not only memorized the whole thing but also did it without making a single mistake, impressing the minister. When asked about his accomplishments, he replied, “I can do anything I set my mind to.”

Winning was also extremely important to Bill Gates, and he didn’t like losing. During summers, his family spent two weeks at a cabin named Cheerio near Puget Sound. There, young Bill’s competitive spirit shone as he excelled in many different sports, such as water skiing, ice-skating, swimming, and downhill skiing.

However, in the sixth grade his interest in school seemed to drop. This caused his parents, Bill Sr. and Mary, to make an important decision. They enrolled him in the private school Lakeside at the start of seventh grade, setting the course for a new chapter in his life.

___________

Bill was the smallest kid in his seventh-grade class at Lakeside School, but the teachers at Lakeside helped kids find what they loved. Bill Gates was good at math and science, but he hadn’t found his special interest yet.

Then, one spring day in 1968, a teacher took Bill and some of his friends to a place called “the computer room.” But guess what? There wasn’t a computer in there! You see, at that time, there were no small personal computers like we have today. Computers were huge devices as big as rooms that cost millions of dollars and were only used by the government, military, and universities. Even Lakeside, a fancy private school, couldn’t afford one. So, they got the next best thing – a Teletype machine. It looked like a large electric typewriter, and there was a telephone that connected it to a computer in downtown Seattle.

The teacher showed the boys how to type a special command, which made the teletype start making a lot of noise and punching holes in a long roll of paper tape. 

Then, that message went through the phone lines to the computer miles away, and it sent back an answer.

Bill Gates was amazed by what the computer could do! After that, he spent all his free time in the computer room. He read every computer manual he could find and learned computer languages. 

Some other kids at Lakeside got just as excited about computers, and they all learned from each other. It was funny because the teachers had planned to teach the kids about computers, but it turned out that Bill and his friends became the experts. They even taught the teachers!

At Lakeside, he discovered his true passion – computers! His genius brain now had a focus, and it was all about computers! 

A group of kids got together and created a computer club called the Lakeside Programmers. They loved writing their own computer programs. A Computer program is a set of instructions for the computer to follow. Think of a computer program as a set of commands that you give to a computer to make it do certain things. Like typing out words, playing a game, or doing math. When Bill was just thirteen, he wrote his very first program, and it was for playing tic-tac-toe!

For someone like Bill who loved a challenge, the computer was the perfect playground. Every program was like a puzzle. If he made one tiny mistake in the instructions, the computer would get all confused and make mistakes too.

Now, Bill was younger than most of the other kids in the club, and they thought he was using up too much time on the computer. So, they actually kicked him out of the club for a little while. But the other kids soon realized that Bill was smart and knew things that they didn’t. So eventually they asked him to come back to the club. 

Using the computer wasn’t free; it cost a lot of money. His parents paid for his school, but they told him he had to pay for computer time himself. So, Bill did what any smart kid would do – he got a job! There was a company in Seattle called Computer Center Corporation, and they had a computer. The boys at Lakeside made a deal with them: they could use the computer for free if they found mistakes in its programs. It was a dream job for Bill and his friends because they had control over this massive, million-dollar computer.

They had to work at odd times, like at night and on weekends when the company’s staff didn’t need the computer. Sometimes he and his buddies stayed up until midnight. If he missed the bus home, he had to walk three miles!

When he was fifteen, he teamed up with another Lakeside Programmer named Paul Allen. They created a program called Traf-O-Data, which measured traffic flow in Seattle. And guess what? They made $20,000 from it!

He and Paul were pretty different. Paul was quiet and shy, while Bill was more outgoing and liked to argue to make a point. But they both loved computers and respected each other’s ideas.

They believed that computers had the power to change people’s lives, and they talked for hours about all the amazing things computers could do.

In his junior year, Lakeside School asked him to create a computer program for their schedules because they had just merged with an all-girls school, and it was too complicated to do by hand. Bill did it, and in return, he got about $5,000 worth of free computer time. 

Finally, in 1973, Bill graduated from Lakeside School, and he was all set to go to Harvard University. Lakeside had been an incredible journey for him. He discovered his love for computers, started his first business, met Paul Allen, and they were about to do something no one had ever done before.

College life at Harvard University was already keeping Bill Gates on his toes with classes and campus adventures. But little did he know he was about to change the world forever.

Fast forward to the middle of his sophomore year, a time when Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen stumbled upon a magazine called Popular Electronics with the headline: “WORLD’S FIRST MINICOMPUTER KIT.” 

This was the birth of the Altair 8800. The Altair was unique because it was a small computer able to perform tasks that previously required large expensive mainframe computers. Do you remember the huge computers we mentioned in a previous episode that required large rooms of equipment? With an Altair 8800 at an affordable price, someone could own a computer small enough to have in their own home.

The Altair 8800 didn’t look like today’s sleek computers. It looked more like a black microwave with switches and lights. It didn’t even have a keyboard or screens. 

Bill and Paul quickly realized that the Altair 8800 had the hardware but lacked something very important: software. It was like having a car with no fuel – a machine ready to go but unable to move! 

The physical part of the computer like the hard drive and the motherboard is called hardware – but everything you use the computer for, what you see on the screen like games and pictures is called software. Many people call these apps today. The Altair 8800 was a computer with nothing to do with it. This is where Bill Gates and Paul Allen saw an opportunity! 

Bill Gates was not your typical college student. He and Paul Allen were brilliant programmers bursting with energy and vision. They knew what they had to do – create the missing software that would bring the Altair 8800 minicomputer to life. 

Bill called the company that made the computer. The company was called MITS and was located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He told the head of MITS, Ed Roberts, that he and his partner were writing language software for the Altair 8800. He asked if MITS was interested in seeing it.

Roberts said SURE! He agreed to meet with the boys in a little over a month. They had boldly declared that their program was almost completed … yet they actually hadn’t even begun!

For the next eight weeks, they started on a whirlwind of late-night coding sessions and intense problem-solving. With time running out and their dreams on the line, Bill and Paul had to pull off something extraordinary. A friend from Harvard joined their mission, and just in the nick of time, their program was ready.

Paul Allen journeyed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to present their creation to Ed Roberts, the head of the company behind the minicomputer. Their software had never been tested on a real Altair 8800 before!

In a room filled with anticipation, Paul entered the command: “PRINT 2 + 2.” Then, the magic happened – the computer responded with a triumphant “4”! Success!

That moment changed everything. Ed Roberts, head of MITS decided to purchase their program, marking the birth of the very first programming language for a microcomputer. And Bill Gates was just a 19-year-old college student at the time!

After Bill and Paul made their deal with MITS, they needed an interesting name for their business. They picked “Micro-Soft” because they were making software for tiny computers (“micro” means tiny). In less than a year, they decided to drop the hyphen. Bill became the president of Microsoft, and Paul was the vice president.

They worked day and night and hired more people as Microsoft grew. As Bill Gates hired new people he expected everyone at Microsoft to work as hard as he did, even late at night and on weekends. Luckily most of the people there didn’t mind because they were young, smart, and excited about computers.

In 1980, Bill was about to sign a major deal with a giant company called IBM. IBM was the biggest computer maker in the world, known for those massive computers that took up entire rooms. But now, they wanted to make smaller computers, and they turned to Microsoft for help. It was a big deal!

At that time, Bill was just twenty-four years old, and Microsoft had about thirty-two employees. In contrast, IBM had well over three hundred thousand people working for them. At first, people at IBM might’ve thought Bill was too young, but they soon realized how much he knew about computers. So, they hired little Microsoft to create the software for their new small computers.

The software they needed was called an operating system, which is like the commander of the computer. It tells everything how to work – the keyboard, the screen, and all the other software. Without an operating system the computer wouldn’t be able to do much, especially not use software!

For nearly a year, Microsoft worked hard to create the software operating system, and in 1981, IBM released its first personal computer, called a PC for short and these PC’s used Microsoft’s operating system called MS-DOS. 

Soon, other companies started making copies of IBM’s small computers, called clones. Microsoft could sell versions of MS-DOS to these companies as well. MS-DOS quickly became the standard operating system for computers all around the world. 

With this success, Microsoft grew like crazy. By the end of 1981, they had 130 employees, and by 1983, nearly 500! Bill was no longer able to know everyone by name, but he was still very involved in everything.

At meetings, Bill expected everyone to work hard and he respected those who stood up for their ideas and defended them. What mattered most to him was finding the best solutions to problems.

Microsoft unveiled its latest software update in 1985 called Windows. What set it apart was a small, tool on the computer screen known as a “mouse.” This tiny device had been around for a while, but for most computer users, it was their first time seeing it. The mouse brought a big change in how people used their computers. 

Before Windows, PC users had to memorize complex commands and type them on a keyboard. But with Windows, things became much easier. They could simply point at pictures on the computer screen. By clicking the mouse on an icon, an entire program would pop up. 

The reason they named their software “Windows” was because it allowed you to have more than one “screen” open at the same time, just like having multiple windows in your room.

In 1986, Bill Gates made an important move by taking Microsoft public. Going public meant that anyone could buy small portions of the company, called “shares” of stock. These shares were bought and sold on what’s called the stock market.

Shares in Microsoft sold very quickly and suddenly overnight Bill Gates became a millionaire. By the following year, the value of Microsoft’s stock had skyrocketed so much that he became a billionaire! 

Eight years after becoming a billionaire, he earned the title of the world’s richest person! He held onto that title for many years, from 1995 to 2007, and once again in 2009. His fortune was worth well over $50 billion. 

When he was thirty-eight, he married Melinda French in Hawaii, and it became famous all around the world. In order to keep it private and avoid people coming to take pictures and watch, they rented out all the hotel rooms on the entire island and even hired all the helicopters so that photographers couldn’t fly over and take pictures.

Later on, they became parents to three kids: Jennifer Katharine, Rory John, and Phoebe Adele.

In 1997, he built a fifty-five thousand square foot home near Seattle Washington that sat on top of a hill with an amazing view of Lake Washington.

To be eco-friendly and save trees, they built the house mainly using old, reclaimed lumber. 

When guests entered the house they could wear a badge with a tiny microchip that contained information about their favorite things.” When a guest entered a room, their favorite music played. The lighting and room temperature are automatically adjusted to suit the person’s tastes. Even their favorite art was displayed on the walls! 

The house had everything you could ever dream of: a game room, a movie theater, and a fully equipped gym. The indoor pool, stretching sixty feet long, had music underwater, and you could dive beneath a glass wall to go outside. There was also a boathouse, a dock, and a guesthouse!

But his absolute favorite part of the house was the giant library. Inside that library, hidden behind a secret wall, was a notebook written by the genius Leonardo da Vinci over five hundred years ago. He paid $30 million to own it!

In the English language, there’s a special word for someone who donates a lot of money to help others: philanthropist. After making a ton of money for many years, Bill started giving away huge amounts of it.

He and his wife started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where they donated billions of dollars from their fortune. Their main question was, “How can we use our resources to help the most people in the best way?”

Back in the early days, every office desk had a typewriter on it. But now, thanks to the computer revolution that Bill Gates led, almost every office desk in the United States has a computer on it … and there’s a computer in almost every home. 

So what do you think about the story of Bill Gates? Pretty fascinating, right? Now when you see a computer and the software (or apps) that run on it you’ll remember one of the geniuses who helped bring it into the world. The world is waiting for new ideas to be born. What are some of your big ideas? Or even little ideas? Big ideas have to start somewhere!

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Love is one of the greatest emotions known to mankind. It propels people to accomplish great feats, fight valiant battles, or overcome insurmountable obstacles.  Love inspires people to write songs, present gifts, and erect monuments. And throughout the centuries, amazing architecture has been built in the name of love.  Some are world-famous, while others are known to a few.  These lovely structures might look like fairy tale castles, glorious mosques, coral caves, or even spectacular spaceships!  So, let’s take a look at some of these wonders of architecture built in the name of love.

First – and undoubtedly the most famous – is the Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh, India.  Many centuries ago, in the 1600s, there lived a mighty emperor named Shah Jahan.  He had a lovely wife, the Empress Consort Mumtaz Mahal, who he loved with all his heart. In 1631, at age 38, Mumtaz became pregnant with the Shah’s 14^th child.  The months passed and she joked with the Shah about the baby-to-be.  Would it be a rambunctious prince or a feisty princess?  They laughed over names and imagined their newest child joining 13 royal siblings.  The happy day arrived and the baby was born – a beautiful little princess.  But all was not well.  Mumtaz’s health quickly declined. Doctors tried everything to help the ailing Empress but were unable to save her.  She passed away the same day.  

The Shah was inconsolable.  He loved his wife beyond measure.  He didn’t know how he could go on; he didn’t want to lose her or the memory of their beautiful life together.  Out of his grief, an idea blossomed.  He would erect an awe-inspiring mausoleum and mosque to honor his young wife.  He hired architects, contractors, and over 20,000 workers.  Over the next 22 years, the amazing marble structure called the Taj Mahal or “Crown of the Palace” slowly rose from the dusty plain, reaching a height of 241 feet.  When finished, it was the most glorious building most had ever seen – an immense, white marble structure with a glistening, onion-shaped dome surrounded by four smaller domes and four tall minarets – or pillars.  These minarets were constructed in such a way that if there was an earthquake, they would fall away from the building.  Massive arches were adorned with marble calligraphy.  Inside, the walls and ceilings were decorated with colorful paintings of leaves and flowers, surrounded by semi-precious jewels and passages from the Qur’an.  Outside, glorious gardens and trees were planted.  Fountains and a reflecting pool were installed to create a place of beauty and serenity.  

After his death, the Shah and Empress Mumtaz were laid to rest in this amazing structure, which has been called “one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world.” More than 6 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year and in 2007 it was declared one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. 

Next, is the “Swallow’s Nest” or “The Castle of Love” in Crimea, Ukraine.  To get an idea of what it looks like, imagine taking the Disneyland Castle in California and plopping it on the edge of a tall, rocky cliff with one corner dangling 100 feet above the Black Sea!  Originally built in 1895 out of wood, it was called “The Castle of Love,” but no one knew who the castle was built to honor. The second owner was the doctor to the Russian czar and he gifted the castle to his wife.  In 1911, the castle was bought by a German baron, torn down, and rebuilt in white marble. Like any amazing castle, it sports turrets, towers, and fluttering flags.  It is surrounded by a white marble terrace with dizzying ocean views.  Due to its beauty and unique location, it has been featured in several Russian movies.  However, an earthquake struck in 1927 and cracked the massive cliff, breaking off a huge chunk.  But the castle survived intact, with only a few items tumbling into the sea.  Fears for the safety of the castle and its occupants caused it to close for the next 40 years.  But repairs were started in 1968 and the castle is now an Italian restaurant hosting romantic, ocean-front dining.  If you are afraid of heights, you might not want to dine at this clifftop castle!

And Europe is not the only continent with castles.  In Homestead, Florida, USA, there is a truly unique castle – not one of marble or limestone – but coral!  It is called the “Coral Castle” but looks more like an Aztec temple.  

The story starts in 1913 when there lived a 26-year-old man named Edward Leedskalnin in Riga, Latvia.  He fell madly in love with a 16-year-old girl named Agnes Scuffs and asked her to marry him.  She said yes and all seemed to go perfectly – until the big day.  On the day of their wedding, Agnes refused to marry Edward.  Edward was crushed.  His broken heart would not allow him to stay in Latvia, so he took off for distant shores, spending years traveling through Canada, Texas, and California before arriving in Florida in 1918.  He bought some land and started building stone sculptures to keep himself busy. But thoughts of Agnes crowded his mind.  He couldn’t forget her and the love they might have shared. In 1936 he bought 100 acres of land and spent the next four years building a small square castle out of massive blocks of carved coral, plus fountains, furniture, and sculptures. It is believed that Edward moved and carved over 1,100 tons of coral by himself using basic tools, levers, and pulleys.  Since he stood only 5 feet tall and weighed barely 100 pounds, this was quite an impressive feat – and one fueled by unrequited love. Agnes probably never learned of Edward’s adventures or the coral masterpiece he built in her honor.  But British rock singer Billy Idol heard and was so impressed that he wrote the song “Sweet Sixteen” about Edward, Agnes, and The Coral Castle.

The next castle is also in the United States, in Phoenix, Arizona, and it is called the “Mystery Castle.”  But this isn’t a fancy castle like the ones you find in Europe, with turrets, spires, moats, and drawbridges.  This is a cement castle, built square, short, and sturdy to withstand the desert heat.  

And how did this castle blossom out of the Arizona desert?  Well, the story starts in Seattle, Washington, in the 1930’s where a man named Boyce Luther Gully lived with his wife and their young daughter Mary Lou. Boyce adored his daughter and loved reading fanciful fairytales to her, stories brimming with castles, princesses, and dragons. But when Mary Lou was 5, Boyce contracted tuberculosis, a deadly and contagious disease.  He knew he needed to leave so he wouldn’t pass this disease on to his wife and child.  He left without telling them where he was going, perhaps so they wouldn’t follow him and risk catching the disease themselves.  

Boyce moved to Arizona and for the next decade built an 18-room castle by himself in honor of Mary Lou, complete with secret compartments filled with gold nuggets, jewelry, and coins – treasures worthy of a princess.  He also installed a trap door with a note stating it must not be opened until 1948.  By 1945, the disease was catching up with Boyce and he lay dying.  He wrote a letter to his daughter telling her he had built a castle for her.  Mary Lou and her mother raced to Arizona.  It is unknown if they made it to Boyce in time, but they were stunned by the castle he had built for Mary Lou.  They followed his wishes and did not open the trap door until 1948.  When it was opened, they found a treasure trove of sentimental items, including a picture of Boyce, a Valentine’s Day card Mary Lou gave him years earlier, $1,000 in cash, and a handwritten note.  Mary Lou and her mother lived in the castle Boyce built for the rest of their lives.  This castle still stands today and is now open to the public. 

And last on our list of amazing structures built in the name of love is the UFO House in Puerto Rico. But unlike the immense Taj Mahal or the clifftop castle, this is a science fiction house built in the shape of a UFO – or flying saucer!  

About 40 years ago, there was a young, creative man named Roberto Sanchez Ramirez.  He was madly in love with his teenage girlfriend and told her he would build her a house – one truly unique and innovative.  One that looked like a UFO!  His girlfriend did not believe him and eventually broke off the relationship.  Roberto was crushed.  He knew he had the skills and vision to create his masterpiece.  So, he went on to higher education and, to earn a living, became an industrial arts teacher.  Eventually, he purchased a piece of land in Puerto Rico and, upon retirement 40 years later, started building his long-awaited UFO masterpiece.  He built the flying saucer house with reflective panels, flashing lights, and a sound system featuring music from the movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”  He added colorful, abstract paintings of planets and floating furniture with mood lighting.  He hung trash cans from the wall and tables from the ceiling to give a feeling of items floating in space.   And when his former girlfriend saw his incredible creation atop a stunning hilltop, she tried to reconnect with Roberto.  But Roberto had matured and moved on with another lady who supported his creative visions and inspired endeavors.  If you’re ever in Puerto Rico, look to the hills for the UFO that love built!

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Big Ben, the tower, is one of the most iconic – or recognizable – landmarks in the world, just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Sphynx of Giza in Egypt, or the Statue of Liberty in New York.  It was completed in 1859 and stands 316 feet – or 96 meters – tall.  It has four sides measuring 40 feet each, and to get to the top of the tower you need to go inside and climb 393 steps.  

At the top of the tower are four clock faces measuring 22.5 feet in diameter.  How tall or wide is that?  Well, take four or five of your friends and have them stand on each other’s shoulders!  That’s a tall stack – and a tall clock!  The clocks are lit by electric lightbulbs but in the 1800’s they were lit by gas lamps.  It is said that Queen Victoria used to look out of Buckingham Palace at night and see the clocks lit up, meaning that her ministers were still working late into the night.  There was no sneaking out early when Queen Victoria was watching those clocks!  

So, we now know that the tower and the four clocks are big – and so are the clock hands!  The hour hands are almost 9 feet (or 2.7 meters) long and the minute hands are 14 feet (or 4.3 meters) long!  Can you imagine if you had to set those clocks by leaning out of a window 300 feet in the air?  Luckily, the clocks are run by mechanisms, like pendulums, wheels, gears, and rods.  They even use pennies as weights!  The clocks are wound inside the tower by hand every three days, taking 1.5 hours each time, kind of like winding large metal hamster wheels.

Inside the tower, there are four bells that chime every 15 minutes.  The fifth and largest bell, called Big Ben, weighs over 13 tons and bongs every hour.  When it was installed in the 1800’s, it took a cart and 16 horses to bring it to the site.  Then a team of workmen spent 18 hours pulling on ropes to raise the humongous bell 300 feet in the air and place it inside the tower.  The first bell made for the tower cracked before it was even installed, so a new one had to be made.  After that bell was installed, it cracked, too!  The engineers weren’t about to remove a 13-ton bell and lower it 300 feet to the ground for repairs, so they did something else.  They turned the cracked bell slightly to one side so the hammer would strike in a different place on the bell – and, thus, it was never repaired.  Big Ben continues to ring to this day, although with a slightly different sound since cracking.  Big Ben was the largest bell in England for over 20 years until “Great Paul,” an even more ginormous bell, was put into Saint Paul’s Cathedral in 1881.

And while the bell was never repaired after its big crack, the four clocks have been repaired, including at least 6 paint jobs over the last 160 years.  Originally, the clocks and their hands used to be blue, but they were painted black at one point to cover damage from air pollution.  Many years ago, London used to burn a lot of coal to heat houses and factories, and the smoke turned all the buildings black with soot.  In 2017, the clock faces and hands were cleaned and repainted.  They are now back to their original blue and look amazing.

All of these bell and clock facts then got me thinking:  Have they ever stopped?  And the answer is yes.  Both the clocks and the bell have stopped on occasion throughout the centuries.  Several times the clock hands have stopped due to the weight of so much snow sitting on them, stopping their movement.  Sometimes all the snow would cause the hands to hit each other and grind to a stop. During both World Wars, the clock lights were turned off so enemy planes could not bomb the tower or use its lights to find their way across London.  And the bell was silenced on January 30, 1965, during the funeral of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led England to victory during WWII.  There have also been repairs here and there through the years, causing them to be stopped for short periods of time.  

Also, in 2012, Big Ben’s regular chimes were reprogrammed to ring 30 times on the morning of July 17 to welcome the 30^th Olympic Games to London.   

By now you may be wondering how Big Ben actually got its name – both the tower and the bell.  Nobody knows for sure about the bell.  It might have been named after the man who supervised its installation, Sir Benjamin Hall, or after a British heavyweight boxer at that time named Benjamin Caunt, who was also nicknamed “Big Ben.”   But somewhere along the line, someone gave the bell the nickname “Big Ben” and it stuck.  It’s similar to when you get a nickname as a baby and it stays with you as you grow up.  As for the tower, it was originally called “The Clock Tower.” Then it was called “St. Stephen’s Tower” because the government used to meet in St. Stephen’s Hall below it.  Then people started calling the tower “Big Ben” like the bell inside it.  Finally, in 2012, the tower’s name was changed to “Elizabeth Tower” in honor of Queen Elizabeth II and her Diamond Jubilee.  

But there’s even more interesting history on the outside of the tower.  If you look at it from the street, you will see six shields above the clocks with a red cross on them.  This is St. George’s Cross.  During the Middle Ages, there was a crusading warrior who was killed for his Catholic faith and was later named Saint George.  His emblem was a red cross on a white background.  He was so respected and admired for his bravery and faith that his emblem was incorporated into the flag of England and you can still see this red cross on the British flag today. 

Also on the tower are 52 shields showing other emblems of the United Kingdom: a thistle for Scotland, a leek for Wales, a shamrock for Ireland, and a rose for the Tudor kings of England.  There are pomegranates, a symbol of King Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon; a metal gate symbolizing the Houses of Parliament; and the French fleurs-de-lis.  And why a French emblem on a British building?  Well, at one time the English kings claimed they also ruled France!  Under the clocks is an inscription in Latin that reads, “O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First.”  Truly amazing!  Everywhere you look in England, you will see hidden – and not-so-hidden – emblems, images, and insignias.  They are like a secret, long-forgotten code revealing bits of history in pictures and words.  You just have to know how to read the code!

Standing outside the Elizabeth Tower, you will see it is attached to a large rectangular building called the House of Parliament.  This is where government officials conduct business every day.  It is a very ornate, gothic building.  And you may wonder why a government building is so fancy.  Well, many centuries ago it used to be a royal palace called the Palace of Westminster!  It was built over a thousand years ago and was one of the first royal palaces in England.  Kings, queens, princes, and princesses lived there for over five hundred years, long before Big Ben and the Clock Tower were built.  Unfortunately, the palace was destroyed twice by fire, most recently in 1834.  When the palace was rebuilt after the second fire, the iconic Clock Tower and bell were added.

So, if this building used to be a royal palace, what else did it have besides towers, bells, and clocks?  Why, a prison, of course!  Yes, it’s true!  There is a prison at the bottom of the Elizabeth Tower! It was last used in 1880 when a government official was locked inside after he refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria!  

And if a tower prison isn’t sketchy enough, you should also know that the tower LEANS!  Yes, it’s leaning to one side!  Maybe not as much as the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, but it leans!  The tower was built on soft clay ground covered by gravel.  Over time, the tower shifted – or started to lean – by about 9 inches. Then, about 20 years ago, London started digging a new underground subway line nearby.  The engineers knew that this drilling might make Big Ben lean even further, so they poured thousands of tons of concrete under the tower to support it.  It now leans about 20 inches at the top but no one seems too worried about it.  They say it should stand for another 4,000 to 10,000 years.  Hmmm, I wonder who will be around at that time to check on it or fix any problems?  Martians maybe?

I think it is a marvel that this tower is still standing, especially after the repeated bombings during the blitz of WWII.  Two of the clocks, the tower roof, and part of the parliament building were damaged during those fiery raids, but the tower stood and Big Ben chimed through it all – and still does to this day, keeping its amazing history alive!  

I don’t know about you, but I find these bits of British history truly fascinating.  England is full of amazing stories, legends, and wonders.  And what about your town or city?  Are there buildings where you live that have hidden history or are decorated with murals, emblems, or inscriptions?  Maybe you can plan an outing with your parents or friends to look at these buildings and discover their stories.  Generations of people before us have left their marks on buildings to memorialize their times and beliefs.  I’d love to hear from you and learn more about the historic buildings in your area.  Click this link to leave your comments and you just might be mentioned in a future episode.

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Think of some of the objects you saw: family, friends, trees, maybe a pet, or the big blue sky and white moon in the dark of night. Maybe you saw a smile and objects moving, a car speeding by, or someone kicking a ball. Most of these objects are things you are used to. But when you were a baby they were very interesting! You were curious about everything because it was all new and fresh! As we get older many of these things to become familiar and perhaps not as interesting. Tonight we’re going to learn about Leonardo da Vinci, also known as one of the most curious and creative geniuses in recorded history. As we learn about him, think about how he saw the world differently and how you might see the world differently, too. 

When was Leonardo da Vinci born?

Leonardo was born on April 15th, 1452 in the country of Italy in a town called Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci means Leonardo of Vinci, the town where he was born.  He was born during a time that later became known as The Renaissance, which means “Rebirth” because the way people saw the world was changing dramatically during this time. The Medieval Times was over and people were beginning to see themselves as beings who had control over their life and the world and could think differently than those who came before them. 

Childhood & Early Education

Leonardo grew up with his father and spent much of his time exploring the land around their home. He loved to observe the birds and animals and get lost in the beautiful countryside. Around the age of 15, his father noticed he had an interest in and a gift for art. For this reason, his father had him become an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence, Italy. An apprentice is a student to a master artist. And at this time Florence was known for its gifted artists and sculptors. In Verrocchio’s workshop, Leonardo learned from his master how to paint and sculpt. Sculptors used materials like clay or marble to make grand sculptures.   

Leonardo studied and helped with paintings and sculptures in Verrochio’s workshop until he was 20 years old. The next step in an artist’s life was to join a guide and Leonard did just that when he was accepted into the painters’ guild in Florence. A guild was a group of skilled artists who worked and met together. At this time he created many pen and pencil drawings and technical drawings of weapons and other mechanical devices. He was very interested in how things worked and in creating new devices. He loved inventing things! 

Milan and Duke Sforza

In 1482, when he was about 30 years old Leonardo moved to the city of Milan where he worked for the city’s duke, Ludovico Sforza. There he created paintings and worked on inventions for the Duke. The ability to create and improve technical devices is called engineering — and Leonardo was a very gifted engineer. He worked for Duke Sforza for many years. There he painted two of his best-known works The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper depicting Jesus and his Twelve Apostles. He also helped design buildings and gave the Duke engineering advice for his army. 

One of Leonardo’s other biggest projects was a huge, 24-foot bronze horse for Duke Sforza. He spent 12 years designing it out of clay, which would be a mold to be turned into bronze. Unfortunately, before they could pour the metal into the mold to finish the horse sculpture, the project was stopped, because a war started and the metal had to be used for cannons instead of the horse! In our day, someone decided to get together the money to finally build the horse Leonardo always wanted. If you ever visit Milan, Italy you can see it today!

After the war Duke Sforza was no longer Duke, so Leonardo stopped working for him. Leonardo continued working in his workshop in Milan and soon had his own students and apprentices.

Florence

In the 1500s a French army invaded and took over Milan, so Leonardo left and went to Florence, where he had been an apprentice as a young man. In Florence, he painted his most famous painting, The Mona Lisa. Leonardo was a gifted artist, but he wasn’t afraid to learn new topics and never stopped learning. He was infinitely curious! Leonardo began to study math and science. He studied the human body, which is called anatomy. He also observed the flight of birds and studied the flow of air and water. He looked at everyday objects through different eyes. He wondered how bodies worked, how birds flew, and what gave living things their motion. He didn’t take anything for granted and saw the miracle in everyday life and studied deeply to try and understand it. 

Eventually, Leonardo moved back to Milan and continued his scientific studies, writing and creating many sketchbooks to help others understand the human body and how it worked. He came to believe that all bodies and living things worked according to certain laws of nature, which was very ahead of his time. 

Rome

In 1513, around the age of 60, Leonardo again moved to Rome where he lived in the Vatican and worked for Giuliano de Medici. At this time many of the popular Renaissance artists were living and creating amazing works of art in Rome. The famous St. Peter’s Cathedral was being built at the time and Raphael was painting walls in the Pope’s new apartments. One of the most famous artists of all time, Michaelangelo, was also in Rome working on the Pope’s tomb. 

By the age of 65, Leonardo was asked by the King of France to move there, where he became his main painter, architect, and engineer, which was a great honor. There he continued his sketches and consulted other artists in their works. He also helped plan a palace and garden for the king. He spent a lot of time arranging his writings and sketches about nature in his many notebooks, which fortunately we have today! Leonardo passed away at an old age while living in France.

Leonardo’s Influences

Today we’re lucky to have many of Leonardo’s paintings and notebooks. Many of the ideas he had were for machines that wouldn’t be invented for hundreds of years. For example, in his study of birds and flight, he had the idea for an airplane, a helicopter, and a parachute, which he sketched in his notebooks. He also had the idea for many military machines, such as an armored car, a giant crossbow, and a three-barreled cannon. When you get the chance you can find a book about Leonardo’s inventions at the library or look at them online. They are amazing!

What can you learn from Leonardo?

One of the most interesting things about Leonardo was his ability to take his artistic talents and engineering skills and combine them. He became known as a Renaissance Man because of his curiosity and ability to combine many different skills to invent amazing things. He believed artists were the best qualified to achieve true knowledge, because of the unique way they were able to view the world. Think about that as you observe the miraculous world around you. Never take for granted the little things. Even the smallest living things like a flower or a bee are extraordinary as you look at them closely and learn more about them. Think about what you might do to learn more about the world around you like Leonardo. You could take the time to study a rock or a leaf and sketch it into a notebook as Leonardo did. This is the way he came to better understand the world, one simple object at a time. 

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Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815, in London, England. Her father was Lord Byron, a world-famous poet — and her mother was Lady Anne Isabella Byron. Only a few weeks after Ada was born her parents separated and her father left England. When Ada was 8 he passed away, so Ada never met her famous father. 

Early Childhood

Many times during her childhood, Ada was sick. When she was eight she had lots of headaches, then when she was 14 she had measles and had to stay in bed for nearly a year! Eventually, she was able to walk with crutches, but during this time she continued to study and learn about her favorite subjects such as math.

Unlike most girls at her time, Ada was taught math and science by her tutors. A tutor is someone who teaches children individually, which means she didn’t go to a normal school like kids in our day. Ada’s mother insisted she learned math and science and made sure she worked very hard to be educated. Sometimes her mother made her lie still for long periods of time because she thought it would teach her to have self-control. Self-control is being able to control your emotions and behavior. But from a young age, Ada showed talent with numbers, meaning she was very good at math. 

When Ada was 12, she decided she wanted to figure out how to fly. Very carefully, she planned out how she would do this and first designed her own wings. She tried different materials of different sizes, she studied birds to figure out how they flew. She even wrote a book called Flyology with drawings and descriptions about how someone would fly. Her final idea was to use steam power to fly. She never attempted to fly herself, but her investigations were a good example of how curious she was and the passion she had for a single project.  

Famous Acquaintances

When Ada was young she met many different famous scientists, inventors, and authors due to her social position. She often went to court and became popular even at a young age due to her smarts. At parties, some of the famous people she met were Michael Faraday, Charles Dickens, and Charles Babbage, a well-known inventor. Charles Babbage became Ada’s mentor, which means someone who taught her personally. She began to learn advanced math at this time and was very interested in Babbage’s ideas. Babbage was one of the first people to have the idea for a computer. He imagined a machine that could do the math on its own and he eventually created this machine, which he called The Difference Engine (Learn more about the history of computer science). Ada was fascinated by this new machine — which became one of the earliest versions of a computer. Babbage went on to create another machine called The Analytical Engine.

Ada Publishes Her Ideas

Ada also knew many languages, so she was asked to translate an article about Babbage’s Analytical Engine. But while making the translation she added many of her own ideas. The notes and ideas she added ended up being three times longer than the article! Her article was later published in an English Science Journal. In the article, Ada shared her ideas about how codes could be used to handle letters and numbers. She also had the idea of how these codes could be used to loop computer programs. Because of all of her original ideas, many consider Ada to be the first computer programmer! 

William King

In 1835, Adam married a wealthy Baron named William King, who later became the Earl of Lovelace, so Ada became the Countess of Lovelace. They had three homes and lived in luxury, both sharing a love of horses. Together they also had three children. In 1837 Ada became very sick and due to some of the medications she was given suffered from other problems. At the age of 36, Ada passed away from cancer.

Ada’s Contributions

While she was alive not many people read Ada’s article about computer programming. It wasn’t until the 1950s that her article was found and people realized how brilliant her ideas about computer programming were. Her ideas were shared in new books about computer programming. In 1980 the United States military named their new programming language after her, calling it “Ada.” Also, the Association for Women in Computing has an Ada Lovelace Award each year and since 1988 the British Computer Society awards a Lovelace Medal, named after Ada.  

Like Ada, you can be curious about the world around you and take the time to study subjects such as math and science. Ada not only learned about these subjects, but she took what she learned and started her own projects, like investigating how to fly and writing her own book. Ada showed that it was important to meet lots of different people and learn from their ideas. This is another great way you can learn, too, by meeting new people and asking lots of questions! Have you ever wanted to create your own app or website? You can do this by learning computer programming. If you’re interested in learning more about coding check out code.org or Scratch, which is a website kids can use to learn how to code.

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Tesla Car Company

Have you ever heard of a Tesla car? Teslas are very fast cars, but unlike most sports cars, Teslas are electric-powered not gas-powered. Teslas are becoming very popular because they are one way to prevent carbon emissions and help the environment. Although you may be familiar with the name Tesla because of the famous car, you may not be aware of where the name came from. Tesla cars are named after an inventor named Nikola Tesla. Tonight we’re going to learn more about Telsa and why he became so well known.

Nikola Tesla’s Birth and Early Life

In 1865, Nikola Tesla was born to Serbian parents in what is now known as Croatia. His father was an Orthodox Priest and his mother never went to school but was a very intelligent woman. She was known for inventing her own electrical gadgets to be used around the house. Nikola later said his great intelligence came from his gifted mother.

Growing up Nikola went to school like most kids and studied German, math, and religion. They moved to a new town where his father was a priest and there he attended elementary and middle school. During high school, Nikola had a physics teacher who showed his class the power of electricity. When Nikola saw it he was amazed and wanted to learn more about this wonderful force. It was here that Nikola did so well in his math classes that the teachers thought he was cheating because he could do difficult math in his head, without using paper.

Nikola Tesla’s Education

Not long after graduating from high school, Nikola became very sick and spent nine months in bed, but finally, he got better. His father wanted him to become a priest like he was, but Nikola was more interested in engineering. Engineering is the science of designing and building things. 

Nikola went to the university in Graz, Austria for a time and did very well there. It was there that he first learned about a dynamo, which is used to generate electricity. He started to have ideas about how he could make it work better. Nikola worked very hard while in school. It was said he worked from 3 am to 11 pm and didn’t take breaks on the weekend. His friends and family worried if he didn’t slow down he would become sick from over-working himself.

After university Nikola moved to the country of Hungary and started working for a telegraph company. The telegraph was used to communicate by sending signals along a wire before the telephone was invented. While there, Nikola helped them improve the telegraph equipment! 

Thomas Edison

Nikola Tesla’s next job was in Paris working for one of Thomas Edison’s power companies. Thomas Edison was a famous American inventor known for designing the lightbulb among other inventions. From there Tesla moved first moved to America and got a job working directly with Thomas Edison. He was very poor at the time and arrived in America with only a few cents in his pockets and a few poems he had written. 

Alternating Current

Unfortunately, his work with Thomas Edison didn’t last long. Instead, Tesla took his ideas to Edison’s competitor, George Westinghouse, who bought his idea for the alternating current dynamo. Direct current is what Thomas Edison used and worked by sending an electrical current one way, but Tesla’s idea was to switch the directions in the current was sent. To this day Tesla’s alternating current is used more than direct current. 

Tesla’s Other Inventions

Next, Tesla started his own lab and experimented with ideas that helped pave the way for the x-ray. He also created the Tesla coil, which was later used for sending radio waves through the air or radios and televisions. It was around this time that the World’s Columbian Exposition was to be held in Chicago in 1893. This was an enormous world fair where people from all over the world would visit Chicago to see exciting new inventions and experience new things. This also started a competition between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla over whether AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current) would be used to power the huge world’s fair. In the end, Telsa’s alternating current won the match and it was used to power the World’s Columbian Exposition. 

Telsa went on to create the first hydroelectric power generator at Niagara Falls, New York. Hydroelectric means water power is used to create electricity. 

Telsa’s next big project was a huge electrical tower in Long Island, New York, which he planned to use to send radio waves all around the world. It was called the Wardenclyffe Tower. At this time a different tower was being built by Guglielmo Marconi to do a similar thing. Tesla got started on his tower, but Marconi beat him by sending a signal across the Atlantic Ocean first. This caused the people paying for Tesla’s tower to change their minds causing the project to fail.

Nikola continued to come up with new ideas, but most of his designs stayed in his notebooks and he didn’t get a chance to actually build them. 

For anyone who listened to the last Bedtime History episode about Mark Twain, you’ll be interested to know that Mark Twain and Tesla were friends. While growing up, Tesla read many of Mark Twain’s novels and so he was excited to finally meet him after moving to America. Twain was interested in Tesla’s inventions and often visited his lab and participated in experiments. He also gave him money to help with his new inventions.

Later in Nikola Tesla’s life, he won awards for his past inventions, and in 1937 when he passed away many around the world mourned his death. Someone was quoted as saying that he was “one of the outstanding intellects of the world who paved the way for many of the technological developments of modern times.”

Conclusion

Nikola faced many difficulties in his life, but he continued to learn and apply his mind to designing new things and improving the things around him. Like Tesla, you can be curious about the world around you. In school, he saw the power of electricity and wanted to learn how it worked. He found new ways to use it to improve the lives of people all over the world. Learning how to invent and improve things is a combination of learning how the forces in the world work, like physics, and what things are made up of, called chemistry — and then using creativity to apply that knowledge about the world. This is why it’s a good idea to pay attention in school and take the time outside of school to dig deeper and really understand how the world works.

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Imagine you are soaring above the earth in a giant airship…

This airship is filled with hydrogen gas that allows it to float in the sky. You’re inside the cabin of the airship with the other passengers who excitedly look at the surrounding clouds and land far below. You see mountains and villages and from above everything looks very small. Inside the airship, you have a bedroom, a dining room, and a common area where other passengers can gather, eat snacks and enjoy the voyage. Suddenly the airship starts to descend and everyone goes to the windows to watch as you move closer to the ground. Below is a crowd and news reporters waiting to interview you about the amazing flight in the airship. This airship came to be known as the Zeppelin after its creator Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin. 

Ferdinand von Zeppelin

Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born in Germany in 1838. His family was very wealthy, so Ferdinand was able to attend a good university and eventually joined the military, where he served for many years. While serving in the military, Ferdinand traveled to America and was part of the American Civil War. There he met a balloonist, someone who flew hot air balloons and took him on a balloon flight. Ferdinand was amazed that using a balloon someone could soar through the sky. This flight got him thinking about other ways he could use these technologies to fly. 

Zeppelin’s Design

In 1874 Ferdinand came up with the idea to build a large, rigid-body airship with gas bags inside to make it float in the air. His airship would be different than a balloon because it had a body made out of metal that would support the gas bags. This would allow it to be much larger than a hot air balloon. Ferdinand retired from the army and put all of his time and effort into building his airship. He hired an engineer to design it. They ran into many problems, but Ferdinand kept trying because he was determined to complete the airship he dreamed of. 

When they were finished designing it, the airship had a 420-foot metal body made of aluminum. The long tube-shaped body was covered with fabric, holding the bags of hydrogen gas inside. It was about the size of a football field and a half if you can imagine that. The airship had fins to stabilize and guide it and a propeller on the back to make it go. Underneath the ship were gondolas, the rooms where the captain and crew flew the ship. It also had cabins where the passengers could eat, sleep and hang out. The ship could carry up to 50 people. The airship was very expensive to build, but Ferdinand used most of his own money to pay for its construction.   

The airship came to be known as the “Zeppelin” which was Ferdinand’s last name. In 1900 the zeppelin took its first successful flight over Lake Constance, Germany. It flew at a speed of 30 miles per hour and was named LZ1. From 1900 to 1914 they built two more zeppelins, LZ2 and LZ3. Over those years they flew 37,000 people on 1,600 flights without any accidents. 

The Zeppelin and World War I

Sadly, amazing technology like the zeppelin, while useful and enjoyable at first, is often used for war. During World War I, the German army and navy used Ferdinand’s zeppelins to drop bombs on their enemies. But because zeppelins were so close to the ground they were easily damaged by shots from below. For this reason, the zeppelin was used in wars, but not very often. 

After World War I, Zeppelin and his company continued to build new airships. One of the biggest ships was named Graf Zeppelin and was famous around the world for its transatlantic flights — which means it flew all the way across the huge Atlantic Ocean. It was larger than two football fields (776 feet)!

Around the World

In 1929 they decided to fly the Graf Zeppelin around the world! Wealthy Americans such as newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst helped pay for the flight. It started in Lakehurst, New Jersey before setting off. One of the famous passengers on the voyage was named Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay. Quite the name, right!? Grace was born in England and loved writing. She ended up becoming a journalist, which is someone who writes for the newspaper. She wrote about her travels and was invited to fly on the Graf Zepplin and write about it. Grace became the first woman to travel around the world by air. Her articles about the voyage were read by people all over the world. People marveled at what it would be like to fly in a giant airship like Grace. Later Grace went on to become a war correspondent, which means someone who goes to places where wars are being fought and writes about them in the newspaper. She went to far-off places like Ethiopia and China. 

During the around-the-world flight, the airship Graf Zeppelin visited places like New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Germany and finally landed back in New Jersey. By 1937 Graf Zeppelin had made 590 flights, including 144 ocean crossings, and had flown more than 1 million miles!  

The Hindenburg

The other famous zeppelin was called The Hindenburg and finished construction in 1936. The Hindenburg was 804 feet, almost 3 football fields long! It was powered by four huge engines, giving it a maximum speed of 84 miles per hour. Most of its voyages were between Germany and the United States. 

In 1937 while the Hindenburg was landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey its gas bags caught fire and the zeppelin crashed to the ground. It was caught on film and shown on newsreels around the world. One reason the zeppelin caught on fire so easily was the gas used in it, hydrogen, is highly flammable. Sadly, the Hindenburg’s crash led to the end of an era of giant airships. 

Zeppelin’s in Popular Culture

For many years giant airships like the zeppelins were no longer made. They became a thing of fantasy and often you’ll see them in movies or read about them in books because they were such an amazing sight to behold. Many books imagine a world where people kept building zeppelins and they only became larger and more popular. If you’ve ever heard of steampunk, many steampunk books and movies include gigantic zeppelins as a common form of transportation.

Modern Zeppelins

More recently a new company called Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik built a modern version of the airship called NT airships or “New Technology” airships. These zeppelins are smaller, but built of safer materials and use an inert helium gas — so less likely to be damaged like the Hindenburg. The new zeppelins are used for things like tourism and for taking photos from the air. Often they have the brand name of a company on the side for advertising. 

Conclusion

Do you like to write like Grace Drummond-Hay? She toured all over the world writing about new places and events. Her interest started small then grew as she practiced and practiced. What is something you would like to write about?

If you could design your own airship what would it look like? Would it use gases to float in the air, would it have wings, would it fly fast like a jet or slow, and be used for tourism like the zeppelin? It’s fun to imagine, that’s how big projects begin — with an idea and then taking action to make that idea a reality just like Ferdinand Von Zeppelin did with his gigantic airships!

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