Until the advent of the big top circuses had been held either in buildings or outdoors

Until the advent of the “big top”, circuses had been held either in buildings or outdoors.FIRST CUP OF TEAAccording to ancient myth, in 2737BC, a handful of dried leaves from a tea bush blew into a pot of boiling water, into which the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was staring. The story relates that the resulting brew was henceforth known as “tchai”, and became China’s national drink during the Tang dynasty (AD618-906).FIRST CUP OF COFFEEBefore AD1000, the Galla tribe of Ethiopia began to eat ground coffee beans mixed with animal fat for extra energy. There is no record to say why the water was being boiled, or why the Emperor was staring at it, nor why the leaves had been dried. The first circus tent was pioneered by J Purdy Brown in 1825, in the US. He set up a ring close to Westminster Bridge, where he operated a riding school in the mornings, and in the afternoons performed equine acrobatic displays to paying crowds He took his idea to Paris and formed Le Cirque.

There are five pips of a 10th of a second each, and a final pip of half-a-second long The hour changes at the start of the final pip. Every few years, there is a “leap second”, when a seventh pip is added to take account of the slowing down of the Earth’s rotation.FIRST CIRCUSThe modern circus was founded in 1768 by an English trick-rider Philip Astley (1742-1814), who found that centrifugal force made it easy to stand on a horse’s back while it galloped round in a circle. In 1926 the name was changed to the British Broadcasting Corporation.FIRST BBC ‘PIPS’More properly known as the Greenwich Time Signal, these were first broadcast in 1924, and have been ever since. By the end of 1922, there were four employees, including John Reith (later Lord Reith 1889-1971), the first managing director By the end of 1925, there were more than 600 staff. A form of Acta Diurna had appeared in 131BC as a record of the outcome of trials and legal proceedings.FIRST BBC TRANSMISSIONThe British Broadcasting Company Limited, which was set up as a commercial company, made its first broadcast on 14 November 1922 from Marconi House in London.

They were a record of the daily goings-on, such as births, marriages, divorces and deaths, engraved on metal or stone and displayed in public places They continued to be displayed for the next 300 years. Otis registered the word “escalator” as a trademark, but it quickly passed into common use, and the registration was dropped. The first escalator installed for public use was at the Paris Exposition of 1900.FIRST NEWSPAPERThe first official publication was the Acta Diurna (Daily Acts), instituted in 59BC by Julius Caesar in Rome. The first commercial passenger lift had a steam-driven lifting mechanism, and was installed in the E V Haughwout & Co department store in New York City in 1857.FIRST STAIRCASEThe origin of staircases is uncertain, but two Cretan palaces built around 1500BC have staircases, and on the Tai Shan road, in China, there are granite steps built 3,000 years ago.FIRST ESCALATORThe first escalator was produced and installed by the Otis Company at its factory in 1899. It was battery-driven and nicknamed the Hummingbird as a result of the sound it made. Paris followed Stuttgart with petrol-driven taxis in 1899, London in 1903 and New York in 1907.FIRST BRIDGEThe first bridge in the US was built in 1697 in Philadelphia, and still carries traffic on Route 13. The first iron bridge was built in 1779 by Abraham Darby (1750-91) over the Severn at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire.

The bridge was closed to vehicles in 1934.FIRST LIFTThe first lift was invented by Elisha Graves Otis (1811-61) and, in 1853, at P T Barnum’s Crystal Palace Exposition in New York, he demonstrated the mechanism that halted the elevator’s fall if the hoisting cable was severed. He developed a petrol-powered, horse-drawn cleaning device, Puffing Billy. The device was for commercial purposes, and would be parked outside offices and shops, with a long suction hose running inside It was not a commercial success. The domestic vacuum cleaner was invented in 1907 by James Spangler, a janitor in Ohio.FIRST FRIDGEIn ancient India, Egypt, Greece and Rome, wealthy citizens made use of snow cellars, pits dug into the ground and filled with straw and wood Ice from mountains could be stored for several months.

The first domestic refrigerator was developed in 1834 by the American inventor Jacob Perkins (1766-1849). The machine worked by manually activating a pump and converting the heat produced into a heat loss between two separate chambers. It wasn’t a success because of the long time it took to reduce temperature sufficiently to cool liquids and keep food fresh. The first commercially successful domestic refrigerator was produced in 1916 by the Kelvinator Company, now owned by Electrolux.FIRST TAXI Horse-drawn vehicles for hire, known as hackney carriages, have been on the streets of London and Paris since the early 17th century. The taxi is named after the taximeter, invented in Germany in 1891 by Wilhelm Bruhn to record distance and time so that arguments over fares would be avoided The first motorised London taxi was the Bersey of 1897. The machine was used in hotels and restaurants.FIRST VACUUM CLEANERA forerunner to the vacuum cleaner was invented in 1901 by the British engineer H Cecil Booth. It consisted of wire compartments, into which the dirty china was placed These were then put on to a wheel inside a copper boiler.