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each. Not much now but in the sixties it enabled us to buy lots of sweets and goodies. Anyway, I digress. This story is
few hours before I had been at Vale Park watching my beloved team play. The game was great as we 4.
about my best ever birthday, which has to be my eighteenth. People always say that you never forget your first love and at the time, mine was a girl called Sue. She had previously dated a mate, when they finished we had two splendid years together. We had been a couple for around a year when we both decided that it would be a good idea to organise a party as I would soon be eighteen. We knew of a pub in Hanley called The Woodman. They had a room upstairs that could be hired out. On the day we did our own catering and I remember a trip to the local supermarket to buy a large chicken costing £1.00 that we used to make sandwiches. We had a good turnout and thankfully no one sang Happy Birthday or gave me the bumps! The date was 14th December 1974. It was a Saturday and a
won 4:0, the biggest win of that season, moving us up to third in the table. Maybe I'm easily pleased but I said on the day, having a great party with Sue and my many friends and also the bonus of a great Vale win could be the best birthday ever. Looking back now, I was right.
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Ten Facts Great British Inventions 1. Isaac Newton invented the reflecting telescope in 1669. His telescope allowed detailed observation of the solar system in ways literally never before seen. 2. The toothbrush as we know it was created by Willian Addis circa 1770. Addis was an English entrepreneur who came up with the idea of a mass produced toothbrush. 3. Richard Trevithick built the first road going
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locomotive, The Puffing Devil. After this, the railway steam locomotive was developed and it was full steam ahead on the permanent way. The seed drill was developed by Jethro Tull (He was Living in the Past) in around 1701. The seed drill was a critical advancement for agriculture, sowing the seeds at the right depth and equal distance, the seeds were then covered with soil, safe from the birds. Most people like to nom on a chocolate bar. So we should all be grateful to J. S. Fry for inventing our favourite snack in 1847. Most of us now enjoy the guilty pleasure of a block of chocolate Alexander Bell stumbled upon the idea for the telephone whilst experimenting with electro-magnets. He was the first to receive a patent for the telephone as we know it. The hovercraft or, more correctly, air-cushioned vehicle (ACV) was devised by Christopher Cockerell in 1953. Cockerell and his team were the first to develop the use of an annular ring to maintain the air cushion. They were also the first to devise the successful skirt and demonstrate a practical example of this technology.
