What is the Bayeux Tapestry? The Bayeux Tapestry is a hand of 70 m 1,230 ft) long and 5o cm 20 in N.A. embroidered in wool of different it made up of some 70 scenes, accompanied Latin inscriptions. Along the top and hot tom are decorative borders, depicting strange birds and scenes from fables. No one is quite sure about the origins of the Tapestry, but the evidence suggests that it...

American and German literature  In the middle of the eighteenth century American literature had its beginning. One of the first American writers to be known out-side his own continent was Washington Irving, who lived from 1783-1859. His Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow showed Europe that America already had her own legends and way of life. Fenimore Cooper, at the same time in The Pathfinder and The Last...

William Shakespeare Plays Thirty-eight plays are believed to have been written by William Shakespeare. The range of these plays is enormous and express almost every emotion known to man. Not much is known about the early life of this great playwright except that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, Eng-land and that he wrote a sequence of beautiful sonnets before going to London to become an actor and writer with one...

Who was the first great English poet?   Geoffrey Chaucer is considered by many to be the first great English poet. He lived from about 1345 to 1400 and his writings were greatly influenced by the work of earlier French and Italian writers. He wrote a number of poems one of which is a romance about the Trojan war called Troilus and Cressida. He also wrote the famous Canterbury Tales. This...

How did literature begin? Literature was created for the amusement of the creator, or an audience, or to please man’s gods. Man has, from very early times, tried to satisfy his gods in order to obtain an abundance of things necessary for a good and happy life. So literature of prayer and praise is probably the oldest of all. Priests became responsible for remembering the proper literature to be used towards...

 Naval Signalling Codes  Systems of communication such as radio, semaphore and morse have, to a great extent, outdated naval signalling flags. However, this system of signalling, the same one Nelson used during the Battle of Trafalgar is still used today, especially when electronically-operated systems fail; and it is still very much a matter of course for all naval personnel to be familiar with the code. The International Code of Signals used...

Which famous people have written books in cipher? Many famous people have tried to keep their work secret by means of ciphers. One of them was Leonardo da Vinci, whose notebooks contained details in cipher of his revolutionary ideas. Writing and drawing about such advanced mechanics as flying machines and armoured fighting vehicles in the fifteenth century, Leonardo’s sanity could well have been questioned- he may even have been accused of...

Can cats really see in the dark? No animal can see in complete darkness, but cats are much better than most animals at seeing in very dim light. Many cats do their hunting on moonlit nights, and animals that come out at night — nocturnal animals — have a special layer in the back of their eyes called a tapetum which multiplies the amount of light entering the eyes. This makes...