| London`s Heathrow is one of greatest airports of the world. It tops the list of both international flights and international passengers. In 1989, it handled 355,000 flights and over 38 million passengers with 57 million items of luggage. It has grown into a city in its own right, employing 53,000 people full time.
Like all the great airports, it dates back only to the last days of the Second World War.
The first runway was built on the flat land near the village of Staines in 1944. It was a place of historic interest. One of the most important Anglo-Saxon temples is buried under Terminal Two, and the village of Heathrow is now under the main car park. The airport has ghosts. A Saxon prince has been seen near the ponds, where he drowned, and an outlaw rides through the cargo sheds, with a three-cornered hat and a black horse. Heathrow has been operating as an international airport since 1 January 1946, when a British South American Airways Lancastrian took off into the morning mists on a flight to Buenos Aires. In February 1952, the Queen arrived from Entebbe to set foot on British soil for the first time as monarch.
Since those early days, constant building has been necessary to deal with the growth of air traffic and the demands of air travellers. However, Heathrow shares the same problems as all big airports - too many planes, too many people, and too much crime. It is the centre-point of the great air routes between Europe and North America in one direction, and between Europe and the Gulf, Africa, and Asia in the other. It is alive with all the citizens of this strange world, rich and poor, honest and dishonest. It is the Airport International par excellence.
The Temperature Scales
The scientist finds two temperature scales the most convenient. They are the centigrade (or Celsius) scale and the absolute (or Kelvin) scale. Many engineers use the Fahrenheit scale (currently in the United States). The oldest thermometric scale was devised by Gabriel Fahrenheit, a German instrument-maker. In 1714 Fahrenheit invented the mercury-in-glass thermometer. Zero degree | |
