...Great inventions 01 Coffee: The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee. 02 Pin-Hole Camera: The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one. 03 Chess: A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form...
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...Negotiable Instruments | | | | | Definition | | | | A negotiable instrument is a document guaranteeing the payment of a specific amount of money, either on demand, or at a set time. Under section 13 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, “a negotiable instrument” means a promissory note, bills of exchange or chequ payable either to order or to bearer”. According to Judge Willis: “A negotiable instrument is one the property in which is acquired by every person who takes it bonafide and for value, not withstanding any defect of title in the person from whom he took it.” It is a document contemplated by a contract, which (1) warrants the payment of money, the promise of or order for conveyance of which is unconditional; (2) specifies or describes the payee, who is designated on and memorialized by the instrument; and (3) is capable of change through transfer by valid negotiation of the instrument. As payment of money is promised subsequently, the instrument itself can be used by the holder in due course as a store of value; although, instruments can be transferred for amounts in contractual exchange that are less than the instrument’s face value (known as “discounting”). Types of Negotiable instruments a) Promissory note: A written, dated and signed two-party instrument containing an unconditional promise by the maker to pay a definite sum of money to a payee on demand or at specified future date. b) Bill of exchange: Bills of exchange are financial...
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