Muggle Inventions: Inventions G-H

Muggle Inventions G-H

Time for another Inventions lesson, class!

To those who haven’t yet done one of these: pick two muggle inventions from the list below, or, if you want, think of your own (that obviously begin with the letters G or H), and give me a detailed paragraph (or two… maybe even three!) on each of them, researching their history, stating what you could do magically to enhance the use of the items in question, and/or make them easier to use.

Gas Masks
Genetic Engineering
Ghost Detectors
Glass
Glue (just don’t go sniffing any of it, okay?)
GPS (Global Positioning System)
Gramophone
Guitar
Guillotine
Gum

Hair Brush/Spray/Dye/ other hair tools/accessories
Hallmark (yep, the card company)
Harpsichord
Hats
Helicopter
Hockey
Hole punches
Holography
Hot Dogs
Hovercrafts

Have fun, remember to cite your sources, no copying/pasting, and… yep, off you go!

By the way, the class is worth 100 points, so the more detailed your answers are, the more points you get!

Guitarra, or guitar as we know it better, is a musical instrument with roots way back in time. The word 'guitarra' is from Spanish, which was derived from early Greek word kithara. Later, it was adopted to English, guitar. The name says to become from the Indo-European meaning to guit-, similar to Sanskrit sangeet meaning "music", and -tar, a widely attested root meaning "chord" or "string". No need to say that it's a string instrument.

Many of us sees the guitar as a rock-ish instrument. Of course, it is rock-ish, but it's also a classical instrument. It's mostly recognized in blues, country, flamenco, rock music and pop. Normally, there's six strings, but even four-, seven-, eight-, ten- and Twelve string guitars can be found.

There's different kind of guitars, and different ways to play them. With or without electric, it's still a beautiful sound. The electric guitar came more popular in the 20th century, when it was introduced, and had a strong influence on the music we like to listen at today.

There's been instrument similar to guitar for atleast 5, 000 years. The first guitar-like instrument appears to come from ancient central Asia, Sitara. There's also been found ancient statues and carvings of something very much alike the guitar from the old Iranian capitol of Susa.

Picture of an acoustic guitar (to the left) and an electric guitar (to the right)

https://2img.net/h/oi11.tinypic.com/4gorjb5.gif




There's several types of hockey, but I'm going to tell about two of them; field- and ice hockey!

Field hockey

...is played on gravel or natural grass with a ball, and on sand- or water based artificial turfs with a small hard ball. There's no rule saying "This is only for men", hockey is popular among both sexes in many countries. Particularly in Europe, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South Asia it's very popular, but in the States and Canada, it's mostly played by women.

It's so popular, actually, that it's been a sport in the Olympic Games every summer ever since 1908, except in 1924.

The field hockey sticks are J-shaped, and they're constructed of a composite wood, glass- or carbon fibre, or even both. The playing end has a curved hook, while the playing side has a flat surface and curved surface on the rear side.

Eventhough modern field hockey didn't appear before mid-18th century in England, there's 4000-year-old drawings of something that reminds of field hockey being played in Egypt. Not until the first half of 19th century was it established, though.

Field hockey being played: https://2img.net/h/oi17.tinypic.com/4gqndxk.jpg

Ice hockey

...is played on ice, using three inch diameter rubber disc. It's called a puck, and the idea of the game is to get the puck into the opponents goal. There's one goaltender - the one who guards the goal - two defence players, and three forwards. According to the NHL (National Hockey League) rules, one period is 20 minutes long, and all in all, there are three periods during one game. Ice hockey is played all over North America, Europe and in many other countries.

Ice hockey has been a sport in Winter Olympics since 1924, and in 1920, in the Summer Olympics. In Winter Olympics 2006 (held in Turin, Italy), Sweden took gold in ice hockey. They had aggainst them Finland, who gave them a tough opponent - even if I say so myself lol. Finland took home silver, and the Czech Republic bronze after beating Russia down. Ahem! xD

Ice hockey was the last sport before the closing ceremony. Yippee!

As we all know - or don't know, then I just rub this in your faces lmao - USA didn't success very well in ice hockey :D Sorry, but they just suck... ^^ FIN - USA ended 7-3, and of course the better team/country won - FINLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!
(sowwyyyyy...)

It's the most popular sport in Finland.

A picture of the game getting started: https://2img.net/h/oi11.tinypic.com/2ziygx3.jpg

This is how they celebrate after a game they've won... CRUSH THE GOALIIIIIIE!!!! :D https://2img.net/h/oi11.tinypic.com/3z66u52.jpg

(and yes, it's Finland's ice hockey team from Turin '06, mwahah!)

Other forms of hockey:
- Road hockey
- Roller hockey (inline)
- Roller hockey (quad)

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey

Guillotine
The Guillotine was the conception of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. He suggested a more humane, as he saw it, way to execute people. It would replace the practice of beheading nobility with axes and swords, which often required more than one blow, and the hanging and various other humane methods of executing peasants. His idea was brought to live by Antione Louis, who designed the first guillotine used.
The guillotine officially became the standard in French execution on March 20, 1792 and continued to be the only approved method of execution until the death sentence was abolished in France in 1981. The most common form of a guillotine is that of a tall upright frame, from which a heavy blade is hung by use of a rope, which can be raised and then dropped. The frame holds the blade in place, allowing for a clean cut the first time. The last public execution occurred in 1939, that of Eugene Weidmann, due to the behavior of the crowd and the fact that it was caught on tape by an onlooker. From then on executions were carried out in private, the last one taking place in 1977.
The guillotine, and guillotine like inventions, were used in many other countries in Europe. Nazi Germany used to the guillotine quite extensively, killing some 40,000 people in Germany in Austria. It was never used as legal form of execution in the United States, although the idea is brought up now and then as a replacement for the electric chair. Not all people see the guillotine as a humane form of execution, since some people claim that cut of the blade is so fast and precise that the brain does not immediately die and that the victim can be seen to have expression after the beheading, although there is insufficient data to back this up.
If the magical community were to execute its prisoners rather than condemning them to Azkaban, the only practical enhancement would be that of guilt or innocence detection, so that no one would be wrongly executed. The guillotine itself is an effective tool of capital punishment all on its own. However, I can see of no practical use of the guillotine in the magical community of today, as the death penalty is not practiced among us and is considered by most of Europe as a barbaric and out-dated form of punishment.


Gum
The first available commercial chewing gum was The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum, which was made and sold by John B. Curtis. Chewing gum itself dates back to at least as far as Ancient Greece where it was made from the resin of the mastic tree. Many early cultures had forms of gum derived from plants, grasses and other resins.
Chewing gum as we know it today is made of petroleum based polymers mixed with sugar, artificial flavor, and food dye. The original ingredient is the latex based chicle, which is still used to make gum in some countries like Japan. There are many forms of chewing gum being produced in the world today, such as the traditional stick gum, bubble gum (ideal for blowing large bubbles), gumballs, and tube gum, which is soft and packaged like toothpaste.
With magical enhancement there is no end to the things that could be done with ordinary chewing gum. Muggles already have made gum with liquid centers, and lollipops with gum centers. Magically enhanced gum would never lose its flavor, or get too hard to chew. Bubbles could be large, and lift the gum chewer into the air. Gum could taste like entire meals, as suggested in the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

Sources: Wikipedia

muggle inventions g-h

Ghost Detectors-These started getting popular in the 1980s where everyone was having a ghost frenzy and hauntings were being reported all over the place. These devices were used to sense hot and cold areas, change of temperatures, energy pockets, and many other things. Before the 1980s though, there were some interests in ghost huntings and even a few little minor devices thought of though no one really knew what they were doing.

EMF readers were one type of device used to pick up on spirit waves and or electromagnetic areas that were believed to be of paranormal entities or residue. It caused quite an uproar among the people and crowds of avid ghost hunters started making themselves known. In some of the more popular areas where sightings were often reported, people started to make their ghost hunting equipment and venturing out to the haunted areas using their devices to detect and record them. People started out with simply two of the first inventions. A simple, standard camera and a tape recorder used to pick up audio and the camera was to take pictures.Ghostly phenomenom actually started to show up in both visual and audible ways and this prompted people to start making devices that were more able to pick up on waves and energy. Temperature devices soon came into play as they were used to measure the drop or increase in temperature and since supernatural entities were said to create a cold, eerie presence, this was one of the simpler ways that people started to detect them. Some people created devices that could do almost everything in one but that posed a problem since sometimes things didn't add up on the EMF devices they were inventing. Finally the first accurate EMF device was created by W.O. Schumann. This device mimicked the Earth's Magnetic field and picked up on temperature changes as well.


http://www.lessemf.com/schumann.html
www.shadowlandsghosts.com


Gum- A man named Thomas Adams is the one credited with creating the first type of chewing gum, though there were gum-like substances long before that. Back in ancient times the Greeks, Mayans, and even indians used different gooey substances as their types of 'gum' that they chewed. Thomas adams in 1869 put a piece of his surplus stock ingredient in his mouth, chewed it and enjoyed the taste of it. It was called chicle and later on he got the idea of giving it flavor. Soon afterwards he opened up his own gum factory and in 1871 he started selling Adams New York Gum to the public.It only costed a penny per piece.

http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventions/a/gum.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bladams.htm
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Bubblegum

Well done to the three of you! The points are awarded as follows:

Gryffindor
Caroru 45

Ravenclaw
Rigby Dumbledore 50

Slytherin
Fated4HP 40