Guide To Geocaching Niagara Falls
Posted by admin in History Niagara, History World on May 26, 2011
Today, the entire Niagara Region is absolutely filled with outdoor adventure – all you need is a consumer brand GPS device, keen eyesight, and a decent pair of hiking boots.
What is Geocaching?
Geocaching is a fun 21st century treasure hunt where Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates are targeted to find buried caches of collectible goodies. The caches are hidden in Tupperware containers, empty peanut butter jars, or steel ammunition boxes.
Each geocache is an accumulation of rare and valuable geocoins, local pins, buttons and other traceable artifacts. It’s thrilling, especially if you set up an ‘amazing race’ with friends and family members to see who can find the booty first.
One international geocaching website binds the entire community together with remarkable unity. On this one site, ALL geocaches in ALL countries are listed, along with their coordinates and any hints you may need to find the booty. Best of all, membership is free. Register to follow the links below.
The Niagara Falls Urban Oasis geocache was created to accommodate the newbie to the sport; it requires an easy walk through a woodland park within a residential subdivision. The trail is well maintained, although the park itself is relatively small. This cache is easy find, hidden in a very traditional geocaching spot.
The Fort George Cache is more interesting, and it’s also easy to find. If you visit the website and read about this adventure you’ll find a strange history lesson. This cache’s progenitor, a user named Lakeport, has penned an entire history of Fort George, right off the top of his head. Such is the passion of geocachers for geocaching in this culturally rich region. Read the rest of this entry »
Niagara Falls and the History of Electricity
Posted by admin in History Niagara, History World on May 26, 2011
To see the role of Niagara Falls in electricity, we have to go back to electricity’s humble beginnings.
Most of us know that Thomas Edison was credited with the invention of the incandescent light bulb. It was a technological achievement that ultimately changed the way we lived as our activities started to encroach well beyond sunset.
However, did you know that Edison almost undermined the electricity revolution by championing the DC electric current for electricity networks?
DC current (or “direct current” as opposed to AC current or “alternating current”) pertains to the flow of electrons directly from the source (like a battery) to the load (like a light bulb). You can kind of think of it like water flowing from a reservoir high up on a hill and streaming downhill in a channel or creek towards a waterwheel, where the force of the moving water turns the wheel and does work for you. If you were to look at a DC current on an oscilloscope (which displays voltage as a function of time), it would be more or less a straight line.
Ever the entrepreneur and inventor, Edison sought to leverage his patents and control the electricity delivery (transmission) to customers needing to light up the night without noxious and staining fumes from gas lamps or candles (see how the power grid for transmission and distribution of electricity works).
However, DC has its drawbacks as it tended to be limited in range as it was susceptible to energy loss (as heat) as it moved across the wires carrying the electricity (wires could be modeled as resistors, which generate what’s called Joule heating when current passes through it). Many of the clients who employed DC had to be located within one mile of the DC generators as a result. The voltage was also low voltage since Edison positioned it as “safe” and worry-free from electrocution. Read the rest of this entry »