A unique nuance of a large, robust household is the privilege to easily learn from another member's study through oral presentations, written reviews or conversations around the dinner table. Recently, my sister, Emily, took a break from more strenuous reading to enjoy an effortless, fascinating book on discovery.
A Book Review: Exploring Planet Earth
The Journey of Discovery from Early Civilization to Future Exploration
By Emily Jones
Have you ever wondered who invented the air pump? or what about hot air balloons, clocks and compasses? Who discovered the ‘river in the ocean’ or the ‘three spheres’ or the cause of the ocean tides? In Exploring Planet Earth, John Hudson Tiner, the author, explains in simple and easy-to-understand language the more complex discoveries and inventions associated with our planet.
One of the first successful clocks, for example, was invented by a common English man named John Harrison in 1759. Being a self-taught mechanic, it took Harrison 33 years to make a clock that kept the right time.
The three spheres of our planet are the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Lithosphere = solid, hydrosphere = liquid, and atmosphere = gas. Litho is the Greek word meaning stone; thus, it is all of the hard surfaces of the earth. Hydrosphere is the water that covers much of the Earth. Finally, the atmosphere is the gases that we breathe.
“What ever does ‘a river in the ocean’ mean?” one might wonder. The ‘river in the ocean’ was a discovery made by Benjamin Franklin. He studied currents for the purpose of making quicker trips to England from America. He called this the Gulf Stream. Though Franklin investigated the Gulf Stream, he never mapped it. The man who did this was Matthew Maury, an American naval officer. Maury described the Gulf Stream this way:
“There is a river in the sea. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or Amazon, and its volume more than a thousand times greater.”
I could go on about amazing discovery after amazing invention, but I will now end this writing and encourage you to read it for yourself.
