EUROPEAN EDITORIAL BOARD

Ursula Pittl Giovanni Torrisi Krystyna Debska-Pacewicz

Editor in Chief
Glasfachschule Liceo Scientifico “Boggio Lera“ The Secondary School N° 13
KRAMSACH, Austria CATANIA, Italy SOSNOWIEC, Poland

SCIENTIFIC EDITORIAL BOARD

Martin Grindhammer Angelo Rapisarda Agata Mucha
Executive Coordinator
Glasfachschule Liceo Scientifico “Boggio Lera“ The Secondary School N° 13
KRAMSACH, Austria CATANIA, Italy SOSNOWIEC, Poland

WEB MASTER
Martin Grindhammer
Glasfachschule
KRAMSACH, Austria

PATRONAGE

NATIONAL BOARDS
Austrian Italian Polish
Ursula Pittl Giovanni Torrisi Krystyna Debska-Pacewicz
Stefanie Fischer Alessandro Napoli Lukasz Mucha
Julia Wesely Roberto Quartarone Leszek Dziubdziela
Florian Busslehner Carmelo Schillagi Dorota Lukojc
Michael Fellinger Gabriele Cannizzaro Joanna Mrozinska
Lukas Oberhollenzer Viviana Dalmas Anna Zimna
Manuel Sailer Antonino Porto Monika Szymczyk
Lucia Weissbacher Mario Stivala Alina Zaród
Maria Leonardi
Responsible Coordinator Responsible Coordinator Responsible Coordinator
Martin Grindhammer Angelo Rapisarda Agata Mucha
 CONTENTS

4. INTRODUCTORY NOTES
NOTE INTRODUTTIVE
WPROWADZENIE

Editorial
6. A Pupils’ Magazine for European Science and Technology
Why now?
Tanulók magazinja az európai természettudományok és
technológia érdekében. Miért most?

Year 1 General Section

1/2003 10. New projects, new educational ways
History of Science
and Technology Nuovi progetti, nuove strade per la didattica
European
Pupils 12. History of science and technology
Magazine How to write articles
is an Storia della scienza e della tecnologia
international Consigli per la stesura degli articoli
Scientific
Magazine made 15. The meta search engines
in the field of an An extraordinary resource
Educational Una risorsa straordinaria: i meta motori di ricerca
SOCRATES
COMENIUS 1
Project 13 to 15 years old Section
The Publisher is a 19. The history of penicillin
pool of European
Historia penicyliny
schools:
Liceo Scientifico
Statale “E.
Boggio Lera”, 24. A history of a balloon
Catania, Italy
Historia balonu
Glasfachschule
Kramsach,
Austria 27. Thomas Alva Edison, a tireless inventor

Secondary Thomas Alva Edison, niestrudzony wynalazca

School n° 13
Sosnowiec,
Poland
Guidelines to the contributors
Print design by
Tipografia Marino
Catania, Italy www.glasfachschule.ac.at\hst

EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE
INTRODUCTORY
NOTES
European Pupils Magazine, the
new scientific magazine about the
History of Science and Technology,
comes out after two years of work
done by the three founding teachers
from three different European
Countries, with the collaboration of
students, headmasters and other
European Colleagues who helped
this Project in many ways.
We founded the European Pupils
Magazine with the
aims to improve both
the study of the
History of Science
and Technology and
the international
European students’
relationships, and try
to break the
educational and
cultural barriers down.
We are sure we can
build a database
which can be enlarged
by useful papers
written by students in
their own language; we would like
to go on with the work, increasing
young people’s love for the study of
the Science and Technology.
Every article is written in two
languages: English as vehicular
language, and the Author’s own
tongue with the goal to focus the
Union of Europeans, but keeping
their own cultural purposes.
In this issue we are publishing a
few articles written by pupils only,
because we decided to grant a
privilege to headmasters and teachers
to introduce this new Magazine to
the students, and give suggestions
explaining them how to write a
HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NOTE
WPROWADZENIE
INTRODUTTIVE
Questa nuova rivista di Storia
della Scienza e della Tecnologia
European Pupils Magazine è nata
dall’impegno di tre professori,
provenienti da tre differenti Paesi,
in collaborazione con alunni, presidi
e colleghi europei, che hanno
sostenuto e partecipato in vari modi
all’iniziativa.
Per migliorare lo studio della
Storia della Scienza e della
Tecnologia,
aumentare i
rapporti interna-
zionali tra gli
studenti europei e
cercare di abbat-
tere barriere
geografiche,
culturali e sociali,
abbiamo fondato
l’European Pupils
Magazine.
Certi di formare
una banca dati che
aumenti la
disponibilità di
valido e utile materiale didattico
realizzato da studenti, col loro
linguaggio semplice e immediato,
essenziale ed efficace.
L’obiettivo è quello di continuare
ad allargare l’esperienza, in maniera
constante, incrementando la raccolta
di una quantità di materiale didattico
e la passione dei giovani per lo studio
della Scienza e della Tecnologia.
Ogni articolo sarà scritto sia in
inglese, come lingua veicolare, sia
nella lingua madre degli studenti
Autori, allo scopo di fare risaltare
l’unità dell’Unione Europea pur nel
mantenimento delle singole identità
storico-culturali e delle tradizioni
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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

scientific contribution and how to nazionali.

look for contributions in Internet in Questo primo numero della
order to find material to collect and Rivista contiene pochi articoli di
study in the field of History of studenti, per dare spazio ad alcuni
Science and Technology (HST). interventi autorevoli di Capi
We are grateful to Prof. Bert d’Istituto, di Docenti che hanno
Sorsby, in truth a European “engine” sentito la necessità di fornire
in the field of HST that helped us in indicazioni utili agli studenti per
strongly supporting our idea. acquisire una corretta forma stilistica
Following this first issue, the di scrittura scientifica, per una ricerca
European Pupils Magazine will see di base su Internet nel mondo della
the European students’ contribution Storia della Scienza e della
mostly. They will be the scientists, Tecnologia. Particolarmente
the researchers, the journalists, the prezioso, poi, l’apporto nell’editoriale
writers, the editors of their Magazine,del Prof. Bert Sorsby, infaticabile e
producing new and original, useful, prestigioso promotore della
interesting and curious contributions, diffusione e della raccolta di
written by them for other students materiale scientifico e didattico nel
like them. campo della Storia della Scienza e
della Tecnologia.
We kindly remind you that you Spetterà, da ora in poi, sia agli
can find any useful information on studenti che ai semplici lettori
the official web site managed by partecipare attivamente alla
Martin G r i n d h a m m e r : realizzazione dei prossimi numeri
www.glasfachschule.ac.at/hst della Rivista con la produzione di
Anyway, do not hesitate to kindly nuovi articoli, originali, utili ed
ask any question to the Scientific interessanti sulla Storia della
Editorial Board Co-ordinator: Angelo Scienza e della Tecnologia, in
Rapisarda gange@tin.it quanto lo spazio nel periodico sarà
On specific request, moreover, it tutto per loro.
could be possible to receive regular La Redazione comunica che utili
news about the Magazine publishing informazioni possono essere trovate
just addressing an e-mail to Angelo. nel sito ufficiale della rivista:
www.glasfachschule.ac.at/hst
oppure contattando il Coordinatore
Europeo del Comitato Editoriale
Scientifico, Angelo Rapisarda all’e-
mail gange@tin.it
È possibile, tra l’altro, richiedere
la ricezione di avvisi e novità
direttamente sulla propria casella di
posta elettronica inviando una
specifica richiesta.
Martin Grindhammer
Agata Mucha
Angelo Rapisarda
Scientific Editorial Board
Kramsach, Sosnowiec, Catania

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 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

EDITORIAL EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

A PUPILS' MAGAZINE TANULÓK MAGAZINJA AZ EURÓPAI

FOR EUROPEAN SCIENCE TERMÉSZETTUDOMÁNYOK
AND TECHNOLOGY - WHY NOW? ÉS TECHNOLÓGIA ÉRDEKÉBEN MIÉRT MOST?

Bert Sorsby
Director of the
European HST Project - University of Hull, UK
b.d.sorsby@hull.ac.uk
In this article I want to explore the pressures - both
evolutionary and revolutionary - which have led to the
production of this magazine and I shall consider the
following questions:
1. How did the magazine begin?
2. What have been the influences on it?
3. Is the time right for the publication of this magazine?

1. One step leads to another.

The immediate influence began
with a quotation from a
publication of the European
Commission.
"Any action taken by member
states to introduce history of
science and technology into
schools and to strengthen the links
between research and basic
education should be encouraged"

CEC (1995) Teaching and Learning - Towards the

Learning Society p.11
In May 2001 a group of science and technology
teachers and lecturers from ten European countries met
at the University of Hull, UK, for a five day residential
course in history of science and technology. The course
was produced by the History of Science and Technology
(HST) for European Teacher Education Project with
funding from the European Commission as a direct
result of this policy statement from CEC.
Three of the teachers who attended this course - Angelo
Rapisarda, Agata Mucha and Martin Grindhammer -
developed their own ideas during the course discussions
and they decided to apply for additional European
Commission funding so that they could produce a
magazine for pupils and students. This magazine would
be designed using latest educational developments in
information and communication technology and one

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

of its main purposes would be to allow students to

explore and celebrate the rich contributions which
European countries have made to world wide
developments in science and technology. A key feature
of the magazine would be that most of the articles in
it would be generated by the students themselves.
This first issue of the magazine is the result of the vision
and careful planning by these three teachers and their
pupils, students and colleagues in many European
countries.

2. It is a long road that has no turning

The production of the first issue of the magazine
has involved much hard work, and the various challenges
have led to lots of interesting developments. These
pressures on these developments go back many years,
have involved work in many countries throughout the
world and have not taken place in a linear fashion.
There have been many twists and turns along the way,
and these changes of direction have been necessary as
various obstacles have appeared in the path. This means
that the intellectual journey towards the present magazine
has not been boring.
For almost fifty years Western European countries,
North America and Australasia have been aware of a
swing against science subjects in schools and colleges.
Pupils saw science, technology and mathematics as 'too
hard'. The launch of the first Sputnik sent shock waves
through the whole of western science from the 1960s
onwards, and in particular there were many initiatives
in USA and England to encourage more students to
follow science courses during their high school years.
These initiatives had only limited success, even with
the most academically gifted students, and about twenty
years ago it became apparent that there was a growing

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

need to educate the whole population

in science and technology. The type
of education was a problem however,
and debate revolved around the
question, 'Should science education
be only about science concepts or
should it also include education about
the social, cultural and historical
aspects of science and technology
too?' Political pressure was brought
to bear on the national curricula for
science in a number of countries so
that science for all pupils - not just
those who were intending to become
professional scientists and
technologists - should become a
reality. In Britain the Royal Society

has supported many initiatives concerning the public

understanding of science and in the USA the American
Association for the Advancement of Science has been
active too with Project 2064 and Science for All
Americans.
The current view in most countries is that all students
need to have an understanding not only of science
concepts and procedures but also of the historical,
cultural and social effects of science and technology.
Without these broader insights into science and
technology the next generation of citizens will not be
sufficiently educated to exercise their democratic rights
to vote. Nor will they be sufficiently aware of the

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

historical developments of a significant part of their

own cultural identity. An important outcome of the
HST Project was a study of where history of science
and technology appears in the curriculum of schools
and colleges in England, Ireland, Wales, Romania,
Portugal and Norway. Other initiatives are present in
many more European countries including Germany,
Spain and Greece, which similarly aim to teach science
and technology to students to reveal the subject as
having a more human face.

3. Many hands make light work

What can the European Pupils' Magazine Project
learn from other projects? An important part of any
international project is to draw upon the expertise and
experience not only of all the project members but also
to consider what already exists as well as what has been
done in similar areas. There are at least two similar
initiatives which already exist but they are distinctively
different from the EPM Project . An England - based
project Sci-Journal is to be found at http://www.ScI-
Journal.org/index.php and this encourages pupils to
present details of scientific investigations which they
have carried out. While there are occasional
contributions from other European countries Sci-Journal
does not have the broad international dimensions of
the European Pupils' Magazine. Another initiative is
based in France and can be found at
http://www.eun.org/lmalp/en. This international project
seeks to compile an encyclopaedia of European
discoveries. It is largely the work of teachers who work
with children aged 8 to 14 years, and so does not cover
the same age range as the European Pupils' Magazine.
The existence of these and other similar project
demonstrates that the Pupil Magazine Project has
appeared at exactly the right time. There is a great need
for the project and I wish it every success.

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

NEW PROJECTS, NUOVI PROGETTI,

NEW EDUCATIONAL NUOVE STRADE
WAYS PER LA DIDATTICA
Giovanni Torrisi
Editor in Chief
EUROPEAN EDITORIAL BOARD
Liceo Scientifico “Enrico Boggio Lera” - www.boggiolera.it
Via Vittorio Emanuele 346 – Catania, Italy - boggiolera@interbusiness.it
giovanni.torrisi@boggiolera.it

Educating young people La formazione dei giovani

often presents some problems, comporta spesso notevoli
but it is always a challenging difficoltà, ma costituisce
experience which allows sempre un impegno che
teachers to employ new permette di dare spazio a
methodologies so that they can metodologie innovative miranti
reach their ultimate goal. a conseguire, con maggiore
When Prof. Rapisarda profitto, il risultato finale.
suggested the editing of a Questa rivista ideata dal
scientific magazine which professore Rapisarda, meditata
involved the participation of durante incontri con chi scrive
students and teachers, we were e ripensata col contributo degli
enthusiastic about it and alunni e di altri docenti, italiani,
believed it would be an
austriaci e polacchi, rappresenta
innovative way of teaching that
uno di quei modi innovativi del
would certainly bring positive
fare scuola che si è sicuri produrrà effetti positivi.
results.
Lo spirito dell’iniziativa è quello di proporre a
The Magazine aims to allow the pupils to be in
control of their learning, with the teacher taking tutte le scuole secondarie europee una forma di
the part of the facilitator. apprendimento, che vede l’alunno protagonista
Teachers often have to face the problem of their della conquista del sapere e il docente, assumendo
pupils' lack of motivation and difficulty in learning. funzione socratica, stimolatore maieutico.
Therefore, they must find new techniques to involve Troppo spesso, quando ci si trova di fronte a
them in the learning process. However, sometimes problemi di apprendimento degli alunni si pensa a
they do not pay enough attention to the importance cosa fare per indurre gli stessi ad impegnarsi di
of activities that promote effort and result in effective più, ma non si riflette abbastanza sulla necessità di
learning outcomes. proporre attività che producano impegno e risultati
The Magazine aims to be a learning tool which didatticamente efficaci, come naturale conseguenza
will enable the students to decide themselves what dell’esigenza dell’uomo di conoscenza, di capire
they want to study, to develop their own skills and se stesso e la realtà che lo circonda. La rivista si
abilities, to do research work and propose new propone come una modalità di acquisizione del

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 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE
experiments so that other pupils may benefit from
their knowledge.
The experience will also be just as interesting for
the teachers involved.
This magazine concerns science and the content
should reflect the scientific learning process. When
writing a scientific article the following points must
be remembered: logical argument; links with life at
large; the organic structure of the experiment or field
of research; and the need for careful constant learning.
Most of all the appropriate methodology is essential.
The above points are, of course, also valid for non-
scientific subjects and will be of benefit in the learning
process in general.
All that remains to be said is to wish our
contributors well - particularly to the pupils involved,
in the hope that they will be able to appreciate and
broaden their own learning.
It is also hoped that teachers will enjoy their work
on this project; I only wish I could participate myself!
11
sapere che permette agli stessi alunni di
individuare gli argomenti di studio, fare attività
di ricerca, elaborare proposte di conoscenza
scientifica e di riflessione; il tutto perché altri
alunni possano usufruire del loro lavoro ed
essere stimolati a vivere la stessa avventura,
in ogni caso per acquisire conoscenza e
capacità secondo modalità individuate da altri
giovani.
Più complesso e difficile, ma certamente
più gratificante, sarà il lavoro dei docenti che,
in questo caso, non trasmettono sapere ma,
attraverso gli opportuni accorgimenti,
agevolano la conquista del sapere secondo le
giuste modalità.
Considerato che la rivista riguarderà
espressamente il sapere scientifico non si
possono non considerare i risultati formativi
specifici. Non si può infatti, nell’elaborare un
articolo scientifico, non tenere conto del rigore
logico dell’argomentazione, della necessità di
rapportarsi con il mondo dell’esperienza
sensibile, dell’organicità della proposta, della
necessità di studio propedeutico attento e
consapevole, della necessità di una efficace
metodologia di lavoro.
Esigenze queste che non potranno non avere
ricadute positive anche nello studio delle altre
discipline e, risultato da non trascurare, benefici
effettivi nel processo di formazione generale.
Colui il quale sa agire secondo le modalità su
indicate non può che essere già sul cammino
che porta ad esprimere la fondamentale natura
etica della dignità umana.
Non resta che augurare buon lavoro a tutti
coloro che partecipano alla realizzazione
dell’iniziativa, agli alunni perché saranno
protagonisti di un’attività che, siamo sicuri,
permetterà loro di apprezzare con maggiore
intensità il piacere della conoscenza, ai docenti
che avranno modo di gustare il piacere del
loro mestiere. All’attività di questi ultimi
pensiamo con un “pizzico d’invidia” per non
essere nella condizione di partecipare in modo
più diretto.
 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

HISTORY OF SCIENCE STORIA DELLA SCIENZA

E DELLA TECNOLOGIA
AND TECHNOLOGY CONSIGLI PER LA
HOW TO WRITE ARTICLES STESURA DEGLI ARTICOLI
Antonino Porto
Liceo Scientifico “Enrico Boggio Lera” - www.boggiolera.it
Via Vittorio Emanuele 346 – Catania, Italia - boggiolera@interbusiness.it
antport@tin.it

INTRODUCTION
A good scientific culture is an important part of a
student’s education. Unfortunately, nowadays, scientific
and technological culture is very low, not because of
the school: the timetables in all school curricula do not
give much time to this
subject and there isn’t
a way to study the
History of Science and
Technology. Science is
only a theoretic subject,
and it can’t be studied
alongside with all the
cultural and historical
aspects A lot of teachers
asked to add it as a new
subject to study. The
history of Science and
Technology is a long
story of exchanges between theoretical discoveries and
practical applications. So, it’s necessary to learn the
scientific method in order to know the development of
the theories and their results on the real life.
Obviously, changing the curricula isn’t easy and it
needs too long a time. Our magazine was born to give
the opportunity to study this subject without curricula
problems and with the target to involve all the European
students. International co-operation, and especially
European co-operation, is the natural consequence of
the universal spirit of the scientifical and technological
development.
In fact, Europe is the place of birth of modern science
and, today, it is well spread thanks to EU institutions
and programs.
PREMESSA
Una adeguata cultura scientifica è una componente
fondamentale della formazione di tutti gli studenti.
Attualmente, però, la cultura scientifica e tecnologica
è piuttosto carente a tutti i livelli e la scuola ne è più
vittima che causa. Infatti, nei curricoli delle scuole
europee il numero delle ore riservate alle materie
scientifiche risulta insufficiente e non esiste una specifica
disciplina dedicata alla Storia della Scienza e Tecnologia.
Mentre alle lettere, alle arti e alle scienze umane
viene riconosciuto un ruolo culturale preponderante, la
conoscenza scientifica scolastica viene ad essere
confinata nel limbo delle sue mere componenti teoriche
e astratte o tecniche e pratiche, e risulta privata della
possibilità di qualsiasi approfondimento storico-
culturale.
La proposta di molti docenti, emersa in numerosi
convegni nazionali ed internazionali, è stata pertanto
quella di inserire nel curriculum scolastico, come si fa
per le lettere, le arti e la filosofia, la Storia della Scienza
e della Tecnologia, abbandonando la visione strumentale
delle conoscenze scientifiche e tecnologiche e
introducendo una visione critico-storica della loro
evoluzione.
In effetti, la Storia della Scienza e della Tecnologia,
è una storia di interazioni continue e scambi reciproci
tra scoperte scientifiche ed applicazioni pratiche. Risulta
perciò importante, nel processo di formazione culturale
dei giovani, sia l’acquisizione del metodo scientifico,
sia la conoscenza delle teorie e della loro evoluzione,
sia lo studio storico-critico dell’impatto che le scoperte
scientifiche e tecnologiche hanno avuto ed hanno tuttora
nel mondo.
Ovviamente, i problemi della modifica dei curricoli

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE
PRACTICAL GUIDE
What do we ask the students who want to be
involved in this project?
We ask articles about History of Science and
Technology. This subject is very large and we
don’t ask to write about specific things: every
student can choose any scientist’s biography or
the history of a discovery in any way he/she wants.
We give the future writers some guidelines
specified only by our experience.
First of all, we precise that scientifical culture
is the modern one, which started in the XVI
century. It groups a lot of other subject: astronomy,
maths, chemistry, biology, technology and so on.
But there are other scientifical cultures, built on
ideas, myths and wrong ways of thinking. About
them you can write an original article, with all the
wrong ideas which have changed in the last four
centuries.
After choosing what to write about, do as
follows:
- start looking for as much information as you
can, using books, internet, magazines and so on;
- select the most important events which
characterise the discoveries or the scientist;
- write an introduction for the article, telling
something very important about your subject;
- explain the events in a chronological order, using
13
possono essere risolti solamente a livello politico, con
l’elaborazione di nuovi piani di studio e riforme scolastiche,
che richiederanno tempi lunghissimi. Considerata la
situazione attuale, perciò, la nostra Rivista vuole offrire un
contributo attivo immediato proprio alla divulgazione
culturale della Storia della Scienza e della Tecnologia, ed
ha individuato negli studenti di tutta l’Europa i fruitori ed
i protagonisti di tale arricchimento formativo.
Riflettendoci bene: l’universalità è alla base del processo
scientifico e tecnologico e dunque la scienza appartiene a
tutte le culture. Da ciò nasce in modo naturale la
cooperazione internazionale, che assume un ruolo speciale
in Europa.
Non possiamo dimenticare, infatti, che la scienza
moderna è nata in Europa ed è stata per una lunga fase
iniziale europea. Inoltre, negli ultimi cinquant’anni si è
andata costruendo una crescente cooperazione, in particolare
all’interno dell’Unione Europea, attraverso istituzioni e
programmi comuni e la realizzazione di estese reti di
collegamento tra centri di ricerca, università, scuole, musei;
il nostro Progetto editoriale, nell’ambito delle programma
SOCRATES si inserisce a pieno titolo in questo ventaglio
di iniziative
GUIDA PRATICA
Che cosa domandiamo agli studenti che vogliono
collaborare con la nostra Rivista?
Richiediamo degli articoli che riguardano la Storia della
Scienza e della Tecnologia. Evidentemente, il campo di
ricerca è assai ampio e non vogliamo in alcun modo porre
dei limiti che soffochino la creatività e la spontaneità nella
scelta degli argomenti storici, siano essi biografie di
scienziati o analisi di scoperte grandi e piccole che hanno
avuto conseguenze nella vita dell’umanità. Ci permettiamo,
però, di stendere alcuni consigli dettati dalla nostra
esperienza didattica.
Anzitutto, vogliamo precisare che, quando si parla di
cultura scientifica, il riferimento più ovvio è quello alla
Scienza moderna, cioè, a quel tipo di conoscenze, che sono
nate tra la metà del XVI sec. e la metà del XVIII e si sono
diffuse nei vari paesi dell’Europa fino ai nostri giorni. Esse
abbracciano i vari campi del sapere scientifico: Astronomia,
Matematica, Chimica, Biologia, Tecnologia, Scienze della
Terra, ecc.
Ma dobbiamo sottolineare che, accanto a queste
conoscenze, sopravvive un corposo insieme di miti, di
superstizioni, di luoghi comuni e di credenze pseudo-
scientifiche, sulle quali sarebbe interessante indagare con
qualche ricerca storica originale, anche per delineare una
visione non astratta della Scienza e mettere in guardia dalle
 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE
many temporal connectors (ten years later, two months
before …);
- look for the most singular, unknown and interesting
event, to interest the reader;
- find some amusing information in books, magazines,
internet;
- the papers have to be clear, easy and short;
- think that what you write has to be read by other
people,so don’t be boring and don’t use long sentences;
- use an easy vocabulary;
- insert a bibliography, collecting all the document
you got the information from. This is a useful example:
Bibliography
1. Hammer M., The Technology Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow, Oxford Press, New York, 1999
2. Günter H., Tomorrow, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2001
3. Alberici O., white P., New Light Technologies, in
“Nature” 234, 12, 3123, Elsevier Press, London, 2002
4. Mugatho F. et Al., History of Light, in “European
Journal of Physics” 212, 7, 1113, Imperial College
Press, London, 1998
5. [name of Institution], www.college.com [name of
the responsible person], [year of the last update]
We have only to wish you good work!
14
tante teorie errate, che continuano a produrre pregiudizi
nella mentalità comune.
Scelto l’argomento, es. la biografia di uno scienziato:
- cominciate con la raccolta del maggior numero di
informazioni possibile, utilizzando repertori bibliografici
(libri specialistici) e motori di ricerca, per passare poi
alla consultazione e alla lettura di monografie, riviste
scientifiche, siti Internet, interviste (ove possibile) al
nostro personaggio o a chi lo ha conosciuto;
- selezionate i fatti e gli eventi che da un lato hanno
segnato svolte nella sua biografia, dall’altro ne mettono
in luce la personalità;
- iniziate l’articolo con un breve capoverso introduttivo,
che presenti sinteticamente il personaggio;
- esponete i fatti in ordine cronologico;
- fornite al lettore la dimensione temporale con alcune
date o espressioni come “dieci anni dopo” oppure:
“passarono solo due mesi”;
- soffermatevi su qualche episodio poco noto, singolare,
curioso, che desti l’interesse di chi legge;
- lo scritto deve essere originale, ma si possono inserire
brevi citazioni tratte da libri, articoli, interviste, ecc.;
- il linguaggio deve essere semplice e chiaro; curate in
maniera particolare la concisione.
Gli stessi suggerimenti sono validi anche nel caso in
cui si scelga di trattare la storia di una scoperta scientifica
e/o tecnologica.
In conclusione:
- tenete sempre presente davanti a voi il pubblico dei
lettori, cercate di intuire le loro aspettative, evitate di
annoiarli con periodi troppo lunghi o complessi;
- usate un lessico privo di eccessivi tecnicismi;
- seguite una struttura logica e utilizzate uno stile uniforme;
- inserite una corposa bibliografia: indicate tutti i testi
fondamentali utili per ulteriori ricerche e gli indirizzi
Internet trovati, seguendo le regole internazionali delle
citazioni bibliografiche. Ecco alcuni esempi di citazioni
bibliografiche:
Bibliografia
1. Hammer M., The Technology Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow, Oxford Press, New York, 1999
2. Günter H., Tomorrow, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2001
3. Alberici O., New Light Technologies, in “Nature” 234,
12, 3123, Elsevier Press, London, 2002
4. Mugatho F., History of Light, in “European Journal of
Physics” 212, 7, 1113, Imperial College Press, London,
1998
5. [nome dell’istituzione], www.college.com, [nome del
responsabile], anno di aggiornamento.
Non resta che augurarvi buon lavoro!
 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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THE META SEARCH UNA RISORSA

ENGINES STRAORDINARIA:
AN EXTRAORDINARY I META MOTORI
RESOURCE DI RICERCA

Antonino Porto
Liceo Scientifico “Enrico Boggio Lera” - www.boggiolera.it
Via Vittorio Emanuele 346 – Catania, Italia - boggiolera@interbusiness.it
antport@tin.it

As all navigators of Internet know, in the World Come tutti i navigatori di Internet sanno, nella rete
Wide Web news, documents, texts and articles of all delle reti si possono trovare notizie, documenti, saggi,
types can be found and on whatever argument, but to articoli di tutti i tipi e su qualsiasi argomento, ma
trace the exact resource that is looked up, owing to rintracciare la risorsa esatta che si sta cercando, a causa
masses of textual information, can often be equivalent dell’enorme massa di documenti, spesso può equivalere
to look for a needle in a a cercare un ago in un pagliaio.
haystack. The pages Le pagine pubblicate su Internet
published on Internet are ammontano a miliardi, e
billions, and to catch up raggiungere quelle che ci
those of interest to us in interessano in modo specifico
specific way would be sarebbe impossibile senza
impossible without the help l’ausilio di un motore di ricerca.
of a search engine. Questi strumenti sono
These instruments have cresciuti e si sono sempre più
grown and are themselves perfezionati di pari passo con
more and more perfect of lo sviluppo della Rete ed ogni
equal step with the navigatore è abituato a
development of the Net, consultare uno o più motori di
and every navigator is accustomed to consult one or ricerca, quelli che, per sua esperienza, gli sembrano
more search engines, those that, for his experience, he più affidabili.
thinks more reliable. Using key-words that delimit the Servendosi di parole-chiavi che delimitano il soggetto
subject of the search and Boolean operator*, the research della ricerca e degli operatori booleani*, si può raffinare
can be refined and we can obtain more and more l’indagine e si possono ottenere dei risultati sempre più
accurate results: precisi:

• AND: it combines two terms and restricts the search.
The phrase “coffee AND chocolate” indicates that the
pages must be tried all are those in which these words
appear both;
• OR: it separates two terms and enlarges the search.
The phrase “coffee OR chocolate” indicates that the
pages that contain one word, the other or both, must
be tried all;
• AND: congiunge due termini e restringe la ricerca.
L’espressione “caffè AND cioccolata” indica che devono
essere cercate tutte le pagine in cui compaiono entrambe
le parole;
• OR: disgiunge due termini e allarga la ricerca.
L’espressione “caffè OR cioccolata” indica che devono
essere cercate tutte le pagine che contengono una parola,
l’altra o entrambe;

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• AND NOT: it excludes the pages containing the
second word: “coffee AND NOT chocolate” excludes
from the search the word “chocolate”.
Obviously, these terms could be represented by
symbols that vary according to engines, also: we must
read their instructions: i.e. if a sentence is to be find
as it is written, we must use the quotations.
However, also using the same keywords, different
search engines show different results because of their
different technologies. Everyone, in fact, bases the
search on its own algorithms **, which calculates the
degree of authority and reliability of the sites, and then
a list of those addresses that obtain the higher percentage
is compiled; nearly always, therefore, we find it difficult
to understand, among ten, hundred or many more
addresses, which sites come up totally to our
expectations.
In order to solve this problem, therefore, we must
consult one powerful instrument - a meta search engine
- that is able to organize the outputs of many other
search engines at the same time and then it can offer
a greater number of highly authoritative web pages
relevant and useful to our search.
Among so many meta search engines available today
in the web, we want to draw attention on two of them
that are, in our opinion, truly useful and facilitating the
search, discarding those superfluous or little readable
documents in respect of the topics indicated by key-
words.
The next two instruments use new technologies and
different indices of search, but they are much more
effective and, somehow, complementary.
www.vivisimo.com
The meta-search engine www.vivisimo.com,
organises documents into groups or clusters that render
the consultation of links easier when they are several.
Vivisimo, in fact, just uses a heuristic algorithm **
in order to group textual documents. This algorithm is
based on an ingenious idea: grouping documents
showing a good, readable description in one well-
defined cartel. Therefore, rather than form clusters and
16
• AND NOT: esclude le pagine che contengono la
seconda parola: “caffè AND NOT cioccolata” esclude
dalla ricerca la parola “cioccolata”.
Ovviamente, questi operatori possono essere
rappresentati anche da simboli che variano a seconda
dei motori: bisogna leggerne le istruzioni. Se si vuole
trovare una frase intera esattamente come è scritta
bisogna usare le virgolette.
Comunque, anche usando le stesse parole-chiave,
con motori di ricerca diversi i risultati non sono mai
uguali a causa della diversa tecnologia di cui si servono.
Ciascuno, infatti, basa la ricerca su propri algoritmi**,
che calcolano il grado di autorevolezza e di attendibilità
dei siti, e viene stilato un elenco a partire da quelli che
ottengono la percentuale più alta; quasi sempre, perciò,
si fa fatica a comprendere, in mezzo alle decine o
centinaia di indirizzi trovati, quali siti e quali documenti
rispondono pienamente alle nostre aspettative.
Per risolvere questo problema bisogna consultare
uno strumento ancora più potente, un “meta
motore”,ovvero un motore di ricerca che è in grado di
interrogare contemporaneamente più motori e di offrirci
un numero maggiore di risultati attendibili e soprattutto
utili.
Tra i moltissimi meta-motori disponibili oggi in rete
vogliamo segnalarne due che, a nostro giudizio, risultano
veramente utili e facilitano la ricerca, scartando quei
documenti che risultano superflui o poco attendibili
rispetto al tema indicato dalle parole chiavi immesse.
Questi due strumenti utilizzano tecnologie e indici
di ricerca differenti, ma risultano assai efficaci e, in
qualche modo, complementari.
www.vivisimo.com
Il primo meta-motore di ricerca www.vivisimo.com,
organizza i suoi risultati in cartelle tematiche che
rendono più facile la consultazione dei link, soprattutto
quando sono molti.
Vivisimo, infatti, usa un proprio algoritmo** euristico
per raggruppare i documenti di testo. Questo algoritmo
è basato su un principio ingegnoso: un buon gruppo di
documenti è quello che possiede una descrizione chiara
e leggibile. Così, piuttosto che formare le cartelle e poi
 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE
then figure out how to describe them, Vivisimo forms
well-described clusters grouped in different associations.
No databases of web pages are stored in Vivisimo,
but it organizes the search by other engines. Fully
automated, it quickly finds meaningful groups that are
concisely described and the specially-developed
heuristic algorithm** achieves good results to find web
pages, patent abstracts, scholarly publications,
magazines, an so on.
The layout of the page showing the results of its
search is more or less this: on the left column you find
the names-indexes of the cartels with the number of
found sites; in the middle column you find the
description of every site opened by clicking on the
directory.
See and try yourself to believe your eyes.
www.teoma.com
The second meta-engine, www.teoma.com, uses
the same research style from many sites, but ordering
the results in a different way.
Teoma offers three kinds of grouping:
- Results: list the very useful pages through the key-
words only;
- Refine: suggestions to narrow the research for
particular topics;
- Resources: web pages created by experts or other
surfers, containing lists of links.
The layout of the results page is this: on the left you
find the most useful found sites; on the top right the
most useful addresses to refine the search, and below
you can find the most useful links for your purposes.
We can say that Internet is an instrument to research
useful documents using many ways: it offers a lot of
information always updated; it connects us to the world;
it gives you the possibility to work staying at home or
at school; it gives more recent news than the books or
the magazines.
Remember what it is necessary to know:
- To find the right results you have to learn the tricks
we wrote about before;
17
calcolare come descriverle, Vivisimo mette in ordine
al primo posto solo le cartelle ben definite. Non esiste
pertanto un database di pagine immagazzinate in
Vivisimo, ma viene organizzata la ricerca sugli altri
motori. In maniera pienamente automatizzata vengono
trovati rapidamente i gruppi significativi descritti
concisamente e l’innovativo algoritmo**, cui abbiamo
accennato, riesce a raggiungere degli ottimi risultati
nel raggruppamento di pagine web, riassunti,
pubblicazioni scolastiche, riviste, ecc.
La pagina dei risultati si presenta così:
la colonna sinistra contiene i nomi-indice delle cartelle
di raggruppamento con il numero di siti raccolti; quella
al centro riporta la descrizione sintetica e ordinata del
contenuto dei siti e dei documenti di ogni cartella man
mano che questa viene aperta.
www.teoma.com
Il secondo meta motore, www.teoma.com, si serve
anch’esso della consultazione in contemporanea di
diversi motori di ricerca, ma utilizza una diversa tecnica
di raggruppamento dei risultati.
Teoma, infatti, offre tre tipi di raggruppamenti di
risposte alle parole chiavi immesse:
− Results: elenco di pagine altamente autorevoli attinenti
alla ricerca;
− Refine: suggerimenti per circoscrivere la ricerca a
temi specifici;
− Resources: pagine web che contengono raccolte di
link sui soggetti generali attinenti alla ricerca. Queste
sono compilate da esperti o appassionati di tutto il
mondo.
La pagina dei risultati della ricerca è ordinata in
questo modo:
la colonna sinistra riporta gli indirizzi dei siti più
autorevoli trovati; la colonna destra in alto suggerisce
gli indirizzi più utili per il raffinamento della ricerca
e in basso riporta le collezioni di link sui vari generi di
soggetti generali scovati.
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- You have to know English well to use internet in

the best way;
- Everyone can publish a web site, then, be sure in
the evaluation when visiting each site;
- You can always find the best information in the
traditional documents, like books and magazines.

In conclusione, possiamo dire che Internet è uno

strumento di ricerca dalle molteplici risorse: offre una
vastissima gamma di informazioni ed è in continua
espansione; ci collega con tutto il mondo; permette di
lavorare senza muoversi da casa o da scuola; per la sua
natura dà accesso ad informazioni più aggiornate di
quelle fornite da riviste o libri.
Bisogna ricordare però che:
- per ottenere le informazioni che servono bisogna
imparare le tecniche di cui abbiamo parlato;
- per sfruttare pienamente le risorse di Internet è bene
conoscere le lingue straniere, soprattutto l’inglese;
- chiunque può aprire un sito, dunque la valutazione
della qualità e serietà dell’informazione è ancora più
importante che per le fonti tradizionali;
- non sempre la rete è lo strumento più adatto ad una
ricerca: non bisogna dimenticare le fonti tradizionali,
soprattutto libri e riviste specializzati.

* - it is a symbol of * Simboli della logica matematica.

mathematical logic.
** - Algorithm
comes from Arab al
- Khuwarizmi and is
a group of
commands useful
to one executor (a
human or a
machine) to operate
to solve a specific
kind of problem.
** Un Algoritmo (che prende nome dal
matematico arabo al - Khuwarizmi) si definisce
in modo intuitivo come un complesso di ordini
espressi con un numero finito di parole, tali che
rendano possibile ad un esecutore, uomo o
macchina, al quale vengano forniti i dati di
ingresso individuanti il problema in questione, di
operare per la risoluzione del problema stesso.

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THE HISTORY HISTORIA

OF PENICILLIN PENICYLINY
Lukasz Mucha
Gimnazjum Nr 13 w Sosnowcu, www.gimnazjum13sc.republiuka.pl
ul. Zamenhofa 15, 41 – 200 Sosnowiec, gimnazjum13sc@poczta.onet.pl
zahariash@o2.pl

Penicillin was the first antibiotic discovered by man.

Healing effects of penicillin became an impulse for
further research, which effected great progress in many
different fields like chemistry, bacteriology,
pharmacology and medicine. In this article I would like
to tell You about some properties, circumstances of
discovery of this uncommon substance and the history
of its discoverer.
Sir Alexander Fleming was born
06.08.1881 in Lochfield, Scotland. His
father was a pharmacist. He attended
schools in Louden Moor, Darvel and
Academy in Kilmarnock, before he moved
to London. There, in 1901, he started
medical studies at St. Mary’s Hospital
School. As a student he received a medal
for his dissertation about sharp bacterial
infections. After finishing his studies with
distinction in 1906 he started research work
there under the leadership of Sir Almroth
Wright – the outstanding expert on vaccines,
which lasted till 1914. During World War I Fleming
was enlisted in the Medical Corps, where he acquired
the captain rank. In the army he had many opportunities
to see infected wounds, which made him discover that
many drugs destroy the human organism more than
bacteria. After the war in 1918 Fleming returned to
Saint Mary’s, where he received the titles of Professor
of School and Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology,
University of London. Even in his youth, professor
Fleming was interested in the influence of bacteria on
human organism. Luckily he was able to continue
research due to his military career. After demobilization,
he started searching for an antibacterial substance that
would be non-toxic and could be injected to animals.
He was a member of most medical and scientifical
societies in the world, he was also awarded a honoris

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causa doctorate by more that 30 American and European

universities and titled as chief Doy-gei-tau of Kiowa
tribe (Northern American Indians). In 1943 He was
elected member of the Royal Society. Doctor Alexander
Fleming died of heart attack on 11 march 1955 in
London and was buried in St. Paul’s cathedral.
Alexander Fleming’s adventure with penicillin started
in 1928 from accidental contamination of a staphylococci
bacteria culture with mold. Dr. Fleming noticed that in
some distance from the mold microbes were dispersed.
That was so unusual, that it demanded thorough
expertise, the Scientist isolated the fungus and
domesticated it in different dish. Now he could learn
some of the mold’s properties. He found out that this
fungus was from Penicillium group. Then it was
identified as Penicillium notatum.
Fleming decided to grow the mold
in another dish and spread many
different bacteria radially from the
mold. Some of the microbes were
growing freely near the mold – but
other lived several centimeters away
from it. This experiment showed,
that the fungus produced a
substance, that injured some
bacteria, but did not hurt the others.
In the same way Dr. Fleming
checked many other mold species,
but none of them produced that
antibacterial substance. As he found
that substance only in penicillium notatum, he called
it penicillinum (penicillin). Penicillin wasn’t the first
antibiotic discovered by Dr. Fleming. In the same year
he found in human sp ittle, tears and in egg’s white
substance, that he called lysozyme. Lysozyme restrained
bacteria from growing, but unfortunately not of those
most dangerous to man. With penicillin it was quite
different. It destroyed microbes that caused syphilis,
gonorrhea, scarlet fever, diphtheria, arthritis, bronchitis,
blood, bones and lungs infections, tuberculosis and
many more sicknesses.

One of the most important properties of penicillin

is that it does not kill leukocytes - white blood corpuscles,
as pharmaceuticals used in those days did. Antibacterial
remedies used at that time (like phenol) were lethal for
leucocytes and microbes quickly gained resistance to
them. Penicillin is not toxic, so it cannot be overdosed

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or you can’t get

poisoned with it.
What penicillin
does, is
restraining the
cell wall
building process
in the new
bacteria. Peni-
cillin blocks an
enzyme –
transpeptidase,
which is
synthesizy the bacterial cell wall. This is a very important
element of a bacterium. The substances needed for cell
to grow are diffused through it and it makes all the
microbe’s organs “stay in their place”. In some infections
dose of 50000 units of penicillin is sufficient, but
without care a patient can receive 100 millions units.
There is danger however, of giving to a small dose!
With dose of penicillin insufficient to kill bacteria they
can become resistant very fast. This resistance is helped
by the possibility of bacteria to produce lactamases –
enzymes capable of decomposing penicillin. With some
people penicillin may cause anaphylactic shock, the
cause of which is allergy to this compound. It is true,
that penicillin is an amazing cure, but unfortunately till
1940 it could not been mass produced. Then two British
chemists: Sir Ernest Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter
Florey worked out a process of acquiring clean penicillin
from the mold. This discovery effected in mass scale
penicillin production. Great factories where built to
grow penicillium notatum. For their discoveries Sir
Alexander Fleming, Sir Ernest Boris Chain and Sir
Howard Walter Florey were in 1945 honored with the
Nobel Prize for “the discovery of penicillin and its
curative effect in various infectious diseases".
From the chemical side, penicillins are all group of che-
mical compounds, and this most useful is penicillin G:

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It differs because of the benzyl group. So the universal

formula for penicillins is:

Penicillin is a single-hydroxide carboxylic acid that

contains two heterocyclic rings in its molecule:
pentagonal (blue) and tetragonal- ß -lactam ring (red):

Green represents shared elements of both rings. Its

systematic name due to International Union of Pure
and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is:
3,3-dimethyl-7-oxo-6-[(phenylacetyl)amino]-4-thia-
1-azabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane-2-carboxylic acid
Some of penicillin’s G properties:
formula: C16H18N2O4S
Mass=334.391 u
Density=1.42g/cm3

Today penicillin is produced from penicillium

chryzogenum mold.
The advantage of penicillin G is created by adding
compounds containing benzyl group to the agar feed,
which the fungus will use for synthesis. Thanks to that

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method it is possible to produce penicillin that

contains 95% of penicillin G. Penicillin saved
millions of human beings and we may be sure that
it will save much more.

Molecule of penicillin G.
Legend:
white - hydrogen
yellow – sulfur
red – oxygen
blue – nitrogen
cyan - carbon

Bibliography
1. “S ownik Chemii”, Wyd. Prószy ski i S-ka
2. “Chemia Organiczna”, Witold Danikiewicz
3. “Encyklopedia”, Powszechne Wydawnictwo
Gutenberga
4. “Ma a Encyklopedia Zdrowia”, Pa stwowe
Wydawnictwo Naukowe
5. “Encyklopedia Nauki”, Pa stwowe wydawnictwo
Naukowe
6. “ wiat Wiedzy”, Wydawnictwo Marshal’a
Cavendish’a
7. “The 100. A Ranking of the Most Influential
Personns in History”, Michael Hart
8. http://www.encyklopedia.pwn.pl/
9. http://www.nobel.se/
10. http://www.wiem.onet.pl/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks are due to the teachers mgr Ewa Bramora
and mgr Barbara Kucharska for their support in
consultation.

KONSULTACJA

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A HISTORY HISTORIA
OF A BALLOON BALONU
Ewelina Ciesielska
Gimnazjum Nr 13 w Sosnowcu, www.gimnazjum13sc.republika.pl
ul. Zamenhofa 15, 41 – 200 Sosnowiec, gimnazjum13sc@poczta.onet.pl
agatamucha@wp.pl

The idea of using balloons for aviation dates back

to the XII century when Roger Bacon formulated a
thought of exploiting thin-sides copper balls full of fire
or air. However, that construction would never soar
upwards. In order to get the balloon flying it had to be
very light and had to be filled up with gas of density
lower than the density of surrounding air.
Hydrogen, discovered in 1766 by
Henry Cavendish, was a gas adequate
to deal with this problem. Soap
bubbles filled with hydrogen hovered
quickly into the air because hydrogen
is significantly lighter than air. In
order to build the balloon they had
to find a material for the cover, both
satisfactory and strong. But none of
the fabric known at that time was
tight enough to protect getting the
hydrogen out and there was no way
to supply the losses of it.
According to a legend the French
paper producers, the Montgolfier
brothers, hit upon the idea when
observing a shirt hanging above a
fireplace, which swelled up and was
carried off by warm air belched out from the hearth.
In September 1783, when they were burning charcoal
under the open balloon’s cover, they filled it up with
hot air. Then they put a sheep, a duck and a cock in a
basket attached to the balloon and released it.
The flight, observed by king Louis XVI himself,
lasted eight minutes. The animals tolerated it succesfully
so it was decided that a man would fly the next time.
The choice fell upon the king’s historian Jean Piltre de
Rozier. On 15 October 1783 he rose up into the air at
a height of 25 metres in a balloon with hot air, attached

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to the ground. The first free man’s

flight in a balloon took place on 21
November 1783. De Rozier and
marquis d’Arlandes flew over Paris
in the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon.
Within 25 minutes they crossed a
distance of eight kilometers and
reached a height of 91 metres.
While the Montgolfier brothers
were concentrating on improving
the balloon with hot air, others were
experimenting on hydrogen. When
the news about the new invention
reached the Academy of Sciences
in Paris, the teaching staff
commanded professor Charles, a
young outstanding physics teacher
to study the problem. Unfortunately
the scientist did not check the data
precisely and concluded from incomplete information,
that the Montgolfiers had filled their balloon with
hydrogen – the only known gas that was considered to
be much lighter than air. Being convinced of copying
the Montgolfiers’ work, he performed an experiment
with a hydrogen balloon. Within two hours J. Charles
and M. N. Robert crossed the distance of 43 kilometres
from Paris to the little town Neles nearby. The succes
of those first tests started a real balloon madness.
In this way Charles came up unconsciously with the
invention of a new type of a balloon. Both kinds of
balloons , called “Montgolfiers” and “Charliers” after
the names of their inventors, competed until the
beginning of the 19th century, when the Montgolfiers’
method was stopped. So contemporary balloons derive
from “Charliers” in which flammable hydrogen was
replaced with non-flammable helium.
Following France, people in other countries started
to use balloons, for instsance in Poland, where in 1784
many tests took place in Warsaw, Lvov, Cracow,
Kamieniec Podolski, Pu awy, Pi czów.
Although balloons were a failure as a mean of air
transport, because they were at the mercy of winds they
quickly found application in the military field. In 1794
the French army used observational balloons and during
both World Wars were used spread barrage balloons;
between them a metal net as a trap that made military
operations difficult for enemy aircrafts. For example
the English made over 200

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German V-1
rockets powerless
in this way. From
the beginning
balloons were used
for scientific
research, making
flights at a height
of many kilometres.
Since the end of
19th century
meteorological
balloons have been
sent up regularly –
with time automatic apparatus doing measurement and
recording data replaced a crew. In 1931 Auguste Piccard,
a Swiss scientist built the first balloon able to flight
into the stratosphere (the highest layer of the Earth’s
atmosphere) and it reached a height of almost 16
kilometres in it. Further flights to the stratosphere
resulted in the present record, numbering 34 668 metres.
It was set by M.D.Ross, American in 1961.

Ballooning became also a beautiful sport for brave

people. The Poles achieved many successes in it before
the last World War. In our times a balloon has wandered
even to the Earth’s orbit. “Echo” an American artificial
satellite, that was used in succesful experiments in
communication for large distance, was actually a balloon
whose folded cover together with a gas cylinder was
carried up by a rocket at 400 kilometres where it was
automatically filled up. It is worth to add that in the
orbit “Echo” did not act like a balloon but like an
artificial satellite – it rotated thanks to adequate initial
speed, given by the rocket.

Bibliography
1.“The great Book of Inventions”, published by “Nasza
Ksi garnia”
2. Great knowledge of my Grandfather.
3. Graphics from web resources.

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the teachers mgr Miros awa
Jaruszewska and mgr Piotr Kozak for their support in
consultation.

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

THOMAS ALVA EDISON, THOMAS ALVA EDISON,

A TIRELESS INVENTOR NIESTRUDZONY WYNALAZCA

Aleksandra Ostojska
Gimnazjum Nr 13 w Sosnowcu, www.gimnazjum13sc.republika.pl
ul. Zamenhofa 15, 41 – 200 Sosnowiec, gimnazjum13sc@poczta.onet.pl
agatamucha@wp.pl

Thomas Alva Edison

was born on 11 th
February 1847 in a
small town called Milan
in United Sates. The
Edisons had been
rebellious and had had
their own ways for
many generations.
Holland was their
homeland, but their
country’s borders were
too tight for them. They
emigrated to Canada and settled in a very small town
called Vienna. Al’s father Samuel Edison fell in love
with a local teacher and married her. Because of political
reasons Thomas’s parents had to emigrate to the United
States. Thomas took his first lessons from his mother,
a former teacher. He was learning willingly and quickly,
but he used to get much more information outside the
house. He was everywhere and he was interested in
everything. When he was seven his parents moved to
Port Huron. The boy started attending school there. He
wasn’t keen on books and he would persistently ask
questions. In the class, instead of listening to the teacher,
he preferred talking to his classmates or just dreaming
with his eyes open. The teacher didn’t notice his skills
and he told him he was crazy. At the same time, he
stated that his attending school was a waste of time.
That opinion made Mrs Edison very angry. She took
her son away from the school and started educating
him herself again. Thomas was grateful to her for
knowing how to satisfy his huge lust for knowledge.
Al was an enterprising boy. His first trade undertaking

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was based on a vegetable garden, which was at his

parents’ house. He grew vegetables and sold them to
the neighbours. Half of the earned money, he would
give to the mother, and with the rest he’d buy books
and chemicals for his experiments.
His first job was press distribution. While travelling
on trains not only he did sell newspapers with profits,
but also he traded vegetables which he transported.
Apart from that, he did chemical experiments in the
luggage carriage. At fifteen he started to print his own
newspaper „Weekly Herald”. Obviously, he did
everything by himself being a reporter, an editor, a
typesetter, a publisher distributor,
an adverting agent and a salesman
at the same time. It was a two-
page newspaper published in 400
copies. Certainly it was the first
and the only newspaper printed
on a train. London’s “The Times”
noticed that and on that occasion
Edison’s surname was found for
the first time in the press, not
counting obviously his own
newspaper.
Young Edison worked for a
couple years as a telegraphist in
some rail companies. He was so
good, that he became one of the fastest telegraphist in
the country, at the same time he carried on his chemical
experiments. In a small shop, with the help of a mechanic
man, Edison built his first working invention on which
he got a patent – the first patent out of 2500 American
and foreign patents, which were his life’s output. It was
a voice recording machine, which made and controlled
voting in parliament institutions easier.
At the age of 22 he became a technical manager at
Gold Indicator Company. Soon after that, he managed
to improve a telegraphic system of passing on gold
exchange rates to the subscribers, for which he obtained
forty thousand dollars. It was a huge amount of money
at that time. Following that invention there were a lot
of others and soon Edison became a famous and rich
man.
New inventive ideas and ways of rationalisation
were running through his head like a continuous stream.
Every idea was checked out and whenever it held some
promise he would carry it into effect.
At some point Edison was working on forty-five

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inventions at the same time.

When he was twenty-four, he married Mary Stillwell.
His proposal had been very original, he had done it
using Morse’s alphabet.
In Menlo Park, where Edison had moved with his
family from New York, a modern research laboratory
and a residential house next to it came into being.
One day Edison was working on a telegraphic signals
recording machine. While he was setting a needle to
groove lines and dots on a wax cylinder, he said
something to his assistants, suddenly the needle pricked
his finger. That event contributed to the invention of
phonograph. Due to this machine Edison’s surname
was famous all over
the word. The press
gave him a title “The
Wizard from Menlo
Park”.
The following
years in Edison’s life
were a long chain of
ideas, inventions,
successes and failures.
Working unceasingly
he was in his element.
In the last decade of
his life Edison was already a living legend – a wonder-
worker of the technology century. He had not less than
2500 patents. He worked almost until the last day of
his life, which ended on 18 October 1931, when he was
84. With Edison the age of inventions of a wide range
had finished and a specialist age had started.

HERE ARE SOME EDISON’S INVENTIONS DUE TO

WHICH HE HAS BEEN FAMOUS UNTIL TODAY
Edison’s picture tube (1889) projected a set of
photographs taken on a whole strap of film, on a screen
making an impression of moving pictures. The
photographs were watched from a viewfinder at the
top of the device, which
started working after
inserting a coin. The
projection lasted for only
fifteen seconds.
The telephone was
actually invented by
Antonio Meucci and
improved by Alexander

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EUROPEAN PUPILS MAGAZINE

Graham Bell, but Thomas

made a practical device
out of it. Thanks to
Edison the caller’s voice
was heard much further.
Edison constructed,
patented and improved
more than 1000
inventions. Among other
things: the radio, the Dictaphone, the duplicator,
accumulator; he improved the projection apparatus, the
camera, the telegraph and a lot of
others.
“A day will come when steam
energy will be converted into
electric energy…A few electric
factories spread in a large city will
give enough electricity to light up
every flat and every industrial plant.
It will be enough to turn a screw
to switch on and off lights in a
house. The electric light will be
whiter, more constant and safe than
the light given by all the so far known lamps. There
will be no unpleasant reeks and no smoke. Thereby we
will get the best lighting for health. It will not dirty our
celings nor furniture”. These words were said by Thomas
Alva Edison himself. As we know, he wasn’t wrong.

Bibliography
1. “Men who shaped the Future” and „Men who changed
the World”, Egon Larsen.
Schemat ulepszonej lampy elektrycznej opatentowany przez
2. Graphics from web resources.
3. http://www.about.com Thomasa Edisona w Biurze Patentowym Stanów
Acknowledgements Zjednoczonych pod nr:214.636 w dniu 22 kwietnia 1879.
Thanks are due to the teacher mgr Piotr So tys for their
support in consultation

A diagram of an
improved electric
lamp patented by
Thomas Edison in
The Patent Office of
the United States at
nr: 214 636 on 22nd
April 1879.

30
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