"A spectre is hunting Europe: the spectre of communism."
The names of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have begun to become popular in the philosophical world because of the controversial of their ideas, such as their satire to German ideology or to the status of work in England, but it is their most recent work that is causing them the most problems, like Marx being expelled by Belgian police.
The Communist Manifesto emerged as an idea of the League of the Just to write a catechism that taught their communist principles and Engels wrote it, although he ended up modifying it because of how unconventional he was. Marx then reviewed the draft and published the 23-page pamphlet at the end of February in Britain, although the text was in German.
Karl Marx (Left) and Friedrich Engels (Right)
But, at the end of February, France was busy with other issues: the revolution. The government of Guizot, elected in 1846, banned all meetings of those who disagreed with them, although it found a way to pass up these talks for normal dinners. On 22 February the situation became unsustainable. Students and workers went out in masse on the streets, calling for universal suffrage and a change of government. Thousands of soldiers took to the streets the next day, but that did not stop the people, the king dismissed Guizot from his post and, although it seemed positive, the day ended in the death of 65 people by the soldiers. The next morning and with lots of new people, like some small business' owners, the demonstrations passed to liners, robberies and fires, causing the king to abdicate and the republic to return. The low bourgeoisie had joined the proletarians to fight for better conditions and prosperity, having success and overthrowing an entire government. Marx and Engels' definition of conservative socialism.
The burn of last king's throne
It's been less than two days since the copies of the manifesto have arrived to the city, and they haven't had much relevance either, and they may never have it. But the ideas they keep were already important before their existence. There are many thoughts that do not please the people and that sound unnatural, but, although some don’t want or can’t see it, some bases of those thoughts may already be with us, with the whole continent, invisible, unmissable, but they are still there, like a spectre that is just watching.
One year after the revolutionary invention of the Ford T
Stop doing whatever you are doing right now and think for a moment how many times have you used your car this year. Five times per week? Maybe almost every day? Well, one of the people who have made this possible is Henry Ford, owner of the Ford Motor Company and the person who in the last year has sparked sales with his newest model, the Ford T, brought to sale just a year ago (on the 1st October of 1908).
Today, at the Explorer New's office, we are lucky enough to interview him so he can tell us more about his new success:
Henry Ford
How did everything started?
I was born in a farm in Detroit but being a Farmer was never my dream and I remember when on summer of 1873 I saw a self-propelled machine for the first time. It turned out to be nothing but a vapor machine placed on top of wheels and connected to a chain, but I was fascinated and that experience made me realized that I was going to be an engineer in the future.
What drove you to make this car?
In Ford, we have always focused on producing vehicles that were efficient and reliable, but we also wanted to create a new product which were affordable for all families; the result was our new Ford T.
Could you tell us a little bit about the new Ford T?
The new Ford T has a four-cylinder engine and it achieves a top speed of 71 km/h. Weighing 540 kg, it consumes just one litre of fuel every 5km. This is undoubtedly a major breakthrough for our company.
Perfect, and please, can you talk us a little bit about how it has been going during this year, following the release of this new model?
Well, our vehicle went on sale in October 1908, with a price of only $260 without extras. Although almost everyone prefers it with extras, and that costs about $140 more. People seem to have liked our new product and we have sold over 10,660 units in just one year. We are really proud because we have managed to break all industry records.
But, what records are you talking about?
Good question. As you know, my main goal was to be able to produce a product of low-cost manufacturing but that could be mass produced, and that´s why it´s so cheap. Related to that, the car was commercialized in October last year and, as every other product, it has a period of about 2 months of making itself known among the people, so just when it was starting to be popular, it was the time of Christmas, that added to its vey cheap prices, it started to be sold much more and it became an absolute success, making us the number 1 company in the US since then.
We´ve also known that you are the pathfinder of the chain production, could you explain it to us?
Before designing the car, I had been thinking about the factories around the world and I reached the conclusion that there are very good products but none of the can satisfy the demand that they have, so I looked for a way in which products could be made without time limits to please all of my clients. And, obviously, I think this is the best way to do it and I hope it gets established in society during a long period of time.
Are you planning to sell it internationally?
This is a thing we´ve been working on a lot. We are trying to make it happen but it is very difficult to distribute such a big product, so at the moment, unless foreign people come here to buy it, we won´t be able to sell it to them, but we hope that in a 2-3 years period it will become possible.
And finally, could you explain to us some important features of the car in case someone doesn´t know it (they probably live in a cave) and is interested in buying it?
Of course. At first, I obviously recommend it to everyone as I think it is probably the best option out there and I think that they´ll be satisfied with it. And in a more technical way, these some of the most important and interesting features: at first, it is a 2-door car at the moment, but we are working to be able to make a 3 and, eventually, a 4-door car, it is also a roadster automobile, which means that there is no upper part on it. The engine also has a removable cylinder head and a connecting rod made of vanadium steel, that makes it more resistant. Finally, the lighting works with a magnetic wheel and the transmission is on the left, as well as the steering wheel, that makes it much easier to drive, a thing that other companies are implementing at the moment, but remember that we were the pioneers.
And that´s all, thank you so much. I hope you´ve liked the things I have said about the Ford T and I encourage you to buy it.
From our offices we want to thank honestly Henry Ford for his kindness and we corroborate that his product has been a massive breakthrough in our society as you know, and we hope that this will be part of the history.
Physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the Thermometer
A week ago the Polish engineer Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit of German origin living in Amsterdam where he works as a glass blower. There he began to develop precision instruments such as water thermometers (1709) and where he currently created the Fahrenheit scale and with it the Mercury Thermometer. This is used to measure the temperatures of the selected material but it has mainly been invented to measure the ambient temperature and for medical uses. On his scale, he used as a reference a mixture of water and ammonium chloride salt in equal parts in which the freezing and boiling temperature was lower than that of water. The freezing value of that mixture was called 0F, his body temperature was 96F, and the freezing temperature of the water without salts was called 32F.
In the medicinal field it is used to measure body temperature, the thermometer must be grasped by the upper end and shaken with a quick movement of the wrist until reaching 95F and once reached it must be placed under the armpit and left to act for 3 minutes and then You could already check the body temperature you have.
And to measure the temperature of a place, all we have to do is place the thermometer in a safe place and leave it there and we would mark the temperature.
In turn, it is a dangerous invention because it is composed of mercury, which is toxic and can cause major health problems, even death.
The steam locomotive follows a complex system , but in few words: heated water turns into a invisible vapor known as steam . The volume of water increases as it turns into steam inside the boiler and it creates high pressure. The expansion of steam pushes the pistons that connect to the driving wheels that operate the locomotive.
The Rocket
"The Rocket"
The railway engine that head this railway line is ''The Rocket'' an invention of the engineer Robert Stephenson designed and made by his company Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1829. It was one of the first steam locomotives with 0-2-2 wheel arrangement. It was ellected in the Rainheill Trials held by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in October 1829.
You might be thinking , What does it mean ?
The railway is a great advance in technology which will allow us traveling to several destinations way faster than ever before and this will be a very important tool for commerce all over the world. It will also create many jobs which will favor the economy in general and global unemployment will decrease radically thanks to it.
Yesterday afternoon, May 13, in the race of San Jerónimo, at the gates of the Congress of Deputies of Madrid, a group of women staged the first major suffragette petition of importance and relevance so far in order to present the President of the Council of Ministers of Alfonso XIII, the conservative Manuel Allendesalazar a list of requests the included the right to vote on equal terms to men in Spain. From the newspaper looking for information we have realized that the disput os Spanish women for the right to political and civil equality goes back a long way, and the sunk their roots in the early XX century. In orther countries such as the United States between 1917 and 1918 the right to vote of women was recognized and in several countries in Europe, little it has become a subject of public debate also among Spanish women.
Currently, Victoria Kent, María de Maeztu and Clara Campoamor stand out as promoters of this movement. All of them members of the Spanish Association of Spanish Women founded by María espinosa 3 years ago. Since then, more associations have been created such as The International League of Iberian and Ibero-American Women by Elena Arizmendi, The Women's Socialist Group of Madrid (1906), The Republican Feminist Association of Red Ladies (1909), The National Association of Spanish Women (just three years ago). Since yesterday, the press has not stopped disseminating photographs of women with the manifesto in hand at the doors of the congress and the Herald has come to describe the act as "the dawn of a serius feminist movement" that undoubtedly surprised all the deputies since, despite the existence of numerous associations, they had never bequeathed to claim this right so openly since we remember that many people do not like this idea. We will see if this act is the first of many others and if it will really be as important to be public as it is believed.
