! Historical Topics:

Human Historical Timeline 1, BC; Timeline 2, AD; Transportation Timeline

Some, transportation, and local history.

Personal notes on pre history

Miscellaneous references on history and prehistory

Atlantic Provinces Historical Developments of Transportation

Atlantic Provinces Firsts

Early Canoe Routes in what is now New Brunswick and eastern Maine.

Steam boats on the Saint John River

Balloons and lighter than air flight

Voyager, Around the world by air nonstop, December 1986.

Babylonian Mathematics

WWW Links: [ Canadian Aviation Museum site Map ] * [ Links to Canadian Aviation Museums ]

A great deal of information on historical topics ia available in a variety of Sources. Many of these are available in machine readable media, and from the Internet. The following is partly based on Information extracted from Compton's Encyclopedia:

Notable Events in Transportation History:

  • By 7000 BC sledges were used for hauling. Round poles and logs were probably used as rollers.
  • By 3000 BC domesticated animals were used as beasts of burden, canoes, rafts, reed boats, and wheeled vehicles were developed. Charriots used for military purposes.
  • About 800 AD Modern Horse harness, traces, and nailed iron horshoes developed. Yokes and other animal harness such as saddles, sturrips were probably developed earlier.



Silver Dart ; De Haviland Comet ; Boeing 747 ; Concorde

Some of the events noted above are questionable. Many of the 'firsts' such as Columbus' voyage are known to be only one of the early accomplishments of mankind. Knowledge of the ability and accomplishments of early man keep being pushed back further in time as we progress beyond earlier European based scholarship. Some modern authors produce what others suggest is 'Science Fiction'. Much so called history turns out to be the author's account of what happened.

The European discoverers almost always found the lands that they discovered were occupied by peoples who had been there for generations. Thor Hyderdahl has done much to reawaken the interest in the capability of long distance sea travel using primitive water craft. He and others question the limitations imposed by authors who knew little of the capability of such craft. Better understanding of long distance sea transport modifies many traditional opinions on how humankind spread over the world. Hyderdal's book Early Man and the Ocean contains many thought provoking statements about many accepted notions of early mobility. One of his critics made the comment: "he proves that it can be done, not that it was done". This is true of many of our contemporary conclusions about early man's accomplishments. Improved knowledge of genetics, climate, geology and techniques for dating and systematic archeology reveal that our information about the past is far from being complete or accurate.

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End to date: 070420, ams