1. 1.Read the following text , highlight main ideas and details to answer
the questions.
Inventions from the 1400's - the Fifteenth Century
ANEMOMETER
The anemometer is a device that measures the speed of the wind (or
other airflow, like in a wind tunnel). The first anemometer, a disc
placed perpendicular to the wind, was invented in 1450 by the
Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti. Robert Hooke, an English
physicist, later reinvented the anemometer. In 1846, John
Thomas Romney Robinson, an Irish physicist, invented the spinning-
cup anemometer. In this device, cups are attached to a vertical
shaft; when the cups spin in the wind, it causes a gear to turn.
BEHAIM, MARTINGLOBE
Martin Behaim (1459-1537) was a German mapmaker, navigator, and merchant.
Behaim made the earliest globe, called the "Nürnberg Terrestrial Globe". It was
made during the years 1490-1492; the painter Georg Glockendon helped in the
project. Behaim had previously sailed to Portugal as a merchant (in 1480). He had
advised King John II on matters concerning navigation. He accompanied the
Portuguese explorer Diogo Cam (Cão) on a 1485-1486 voyage to the coast of
West Africa; during this trip, the mouth of the Congo River was discovered. After
returning to Nürnberg in 1490, Behaim began construction of his globe (which was
very inaccurate as compared to other maps from that time, even in the areas in
which Behaim had sailed). It was once thought that Behaim's maps might have
influenced Columbus and Magellan; this is now discounted. Behaim may have
also developed an astrolabe. Behaim's globe is now in the German National
Museum in Nürnberg.
CARAVEL
The caravel (also spelled carvel) is a light sailing ship that that
was developed by the Portuguese in the late 1400's, and was
used for the next 300 years. The Portuguese developed this ship
to help them explore the African coast.
SCREWDRIVER
The earliest known screwdriver dates from the 15th-century. Slotted screws (which
were inserted with screwdrivers) were then used in knight's armor. One is on display
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York.

2. COMPOUND MICROSCOPE
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound
microscope in 1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one
lens). His microscope consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had
a lens at each end. The microscope was focused by sliding the tubes. The lens in
the eyepiece was bi-convex (bulging outwards on both sides), and the lens of the
far end (the objective lens) was plano-convex (flat on one side and bulging
outwards on the other side). This advanced microscope had a 3 to 9 times power
of magnification. Zacharias Janssen's father Hans may have helped him build the
microscope.
PENCIL
The "lead" pencil (which contains no lead) was invented in 1564 when a huge
graphite (black carbon) mine was discovered in England. The pure graphite was
sawn into sheets and then cut into square rods. The graphite rods were inserted
into hand-carved wooden holders, forming pencils. They were called lead pencils
by mistake - at the time, graphite was called black lead or "plumbago," from the
Greek word for lead (it looked and acted like lead, and it was not known at the
time that graphite consisted of carbon and not lead).
In 1795, the Nicholas Jacques Conte (a French officer in Napoleon's army)
patented the modern method of kiln-firing powdered graphite with clay to make
pencils of any desired hardness.
THERMOMETER
The Thermometer was invented by Galileo Galilei in 1593. His thermometer
consisted of water in a glass bulb; the water moved up and down the bulb as as
the temperature changed.
CAXTON, WILLIAM
William Caxton (1422?-1491) was an English businessman, royal advisor, translator,
editor, and printer who set up England's first printing press in 1476. Caxton had
learned about printing in Cologne , Germany. In Brussels, he printed "The Recuyell,"
the first book printed in the English language, around 1474. His second publication
was "The Game and Play of Chess Moralised" (printed in 1476); this was the first
printed book on chess and the first printed book to use woodcut illustrations.
Caxton then returned to England and set up England's first printing press (in 1476),
where he printed " Troilus and Creseide," " Morted'Arthur," " The History of Reynart
the Foxe," Chaucer's " The Canterbury Tales," and many other books. Since Caxton
refused to print regional variations in English, he began the standardization of the
English language and its spelling.
DA VINCI, LEONARDO
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian inventor, artist, and scientist. Da Vinci
had an interest in engineering and made detailed sketches of the airplane, the
helicopter (and other flying machines), the parachute, the submarine, the
armored car, the ballista (a giant crossbow), rapid-fire guns, the centrifugal pump
(designed to drain wet areas, like marshes), ball bearings, the worm gear (a set of
gears in which many teeth make contact at once, reducing the strain on the
teeth, allowing more pressure to be put on the mechanism).

3. GUTENBERG, JOHANNES - PRINTING PRESS WITH MOVABLE TYPE
Johannes Gutenberg (the late 1300's-1468) was a German craftsman, inventor,
and printer who invented the first printing press with movable type in 1450. This
invention revolutionized printing, making it simpler and more affordable.
Gutenberg produced dies (molds) for easily producing individual pieces of metal
type that could be made, assembled, and later reused. Gutenberg's new press
could print a page every three minutes. This made printed material available to
the masses for the first time in history. Religious materials were the majority of the
early printed materials. The use of printing presses began the standardization of
spelling.
DA VINCI, LEONARDO
Da VinciLeonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian inventor, artist, architect,
and scientist. Da Vinci had an interest in engineering and made detailed sketches
of the airplane, the helicopter (and other flying machines), the parachute, the
submarine, the armored car, the ballista (a giant crossbow), rapid-fire guns, the
centrifugal pump (designed to drain wet areas, like marshes), ball bearings, the
worm gear (a set of gears in which many teeth make contact at once, reducing
the strain on the teeth, allowing more pressure to be put on the mechanism), and
many other incredible ideas that were centuries ahead of da Vinci's time.
GALILEI, GALILEO
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and
physicist. Galileo found that the speed at which bodies fall does not depend on
their weight. Galileo did extensive experimentation with pendulums, finding that
they nearly return to the height at which they were released, that different
pendulums have different periods (independent of bob weight and amplitude),
and that the square of the period varies directly with the pendulum's length.
Galileo was the first person to use a telescope to observe the skies (in 1609), after
hearing about Hans Lippershey's newly-invented telescope. Galileo discovered the
rings of Saturn (1610), was the first to see the four moons of Jupiter (1610), observed
the phases of Venus, studied sunspots, and discovered many other important
phenomena. In 1593 Galileo invented the thermometer. After publishing the many
discoveries he made using his telescope, including the motion of the Earth around
the Sun (the Copernican system), Galileo was accused of heresy by the Inquisition
(in 1633).
JANSSEN, ZACHARIAS
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound
microscope in 1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one
lens). His microscope consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had
a lens at each end. The microscope was focused by sliding the tubes. The lens in
the eyepiece was bi-convex (bulging outwards on both sides), and the lens of the
far end (the objective lens) was plano-convex (flat on one side and bulging
outwards on the other side). This advanced microscope had a 3 to 9 times power
of magnification. Zacharias Janssen's father Hans may have helped him build the
microscope.
MICROSCOPE
The microscope may have been invented by eyeglass makers in Middelburg, The
Netherlands, invented sometime between 1590 and 1610. Hans and his son

4. Zacharias Janssen are mentioned in the letters of William Boreel( the Dutch envoy
to the Court of France) as having invented a 20X magnification microscope.
Robert Hooke used an early microscope to observe slices of cork (bark from the
oak tree) using a 30X power compound microscope. He published his observations
in "Microgphia" in 1665. In 1673, Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria,
free-living and parasitic microscopic protists, sperm cells, blood cells, etc., using a
300X power single lens microscope.
PENCIL
The "lead" pencil (which contains no lead) was invented in 1564 when a huge
graphite (black carbon) mine was discovered in England. The pure graphite was
sawn into sheets and then cut into square rods. The graphite rods were inserted
into hand-carved wooden holders, forming pencils. They were called lead pencils
by mistake - at the time, graphite was called black lead or "plumbago," from the
Greek word for lead (it looked and acted like lead, and it was not known at the
time that graphite consisted of carbon and not lead).
In 1795, the Nicholas Jacques Conte (a French officer in Napoleon's army)
patented the modern method of kiln-firing powdered graphite with clay to make
pencils of any desired hardness.
THERMOMETER
The Thermometer was invented by Galileo Galilei in 1593. His thermometer
consisted of water in a glass bulb; the water moved up and down the bulb asas
the temperature changed.