Facts: Waterwheels to Mega Jets
London, UK: Host Josh Klein sticks his head out of one of the small panes of glass in the clock face of Big Ben. (View larger version)
- The Boeing 777 contains 134 miles (216km) of cable and 3 million parts.
- Each job on the Boeing 777 moving assembly line is designed to take about two hours which helps maximise the efficiency of the process.
- By volume, the Boeing factory in Everett is the largest in the world, so large it has its own microclimate. It also has its own police service, fire service and hospital.
- Waterpower was so important to monasteries in Europe that they all adopted nearly identical systems. It was said that a blind monk moving around any monastery would instantly know where he was.
- Salisbury Cathedral was built in just 38 years making it one of the only cathedrals in Britain to be constructed in a single architectural style – gothic.
- 70,000 tons (UK tons) of stone went into the construction of Salisbury Cathedral.
- The pendulum of the clock in St Stephen’s Clock Tower is adjusted using pennies. Adding an English penny to the pendulum makes it gain two fifths of a second a day.
- The face of the clock on St Stephen’s Clock Tower is made from opal glass. This changes colour with exposure to the light so many of the newer segments (there are 312 in total) are a different shade to the older pieces.
- An experienced hand shearer is able to shear a sheep in less than five minutes.
- John Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse was built on a rock sloping at an angle of 30 degrees.
- During the building of the Erie Canal, holes were hand drilled into the rock which were packed with dynamite and used to blast away the stone – these original drill marks can still be seen on the sides of the canal today.
- When Henry Ford met with his hero Thomas Edison he sketched his idea for a petrol driven car, thinking Edison would reject it and suggest it should be powered by electricity. To his surprise Edison gave the idea his blessing.
- One of the reasons the motor industry grew up in Detroit was actually boats. Unlike ocean going vessels which were powered by steam, boats powered by internal combustion gasoline engines were developed for use on the rivers and lakes around the Michigan area – and gasoline, not steam or electricity turned out to be the best way to power a car.
- The Ford Model T is made from around five thousand parts.
