In 1939 (just in time for the WWII silk shortage), Dupont rolled out the world’s first nylon stockings, just a few months after they began selling the world’s first commercially viable synthetic textiles. Hydrophobic, strong, elastic and mothproof, they quickly replaced silk and rayon as the material of choice for stockings.
1797 – First Parachute Jump Results in First Case of Airsickness
Today marks the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump, made by Monsieur André-Jacques Garnerin in Parc Monceau, Paris. His parachute lacked a hole for air to escape from, resulting in a wildly spinning ride and a somewhat nauseous passenger. The image above shows him with his wife, Madame Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse, who controversially took a highly publicized ride with him as the first female parachutist in 1798.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
