BAEKELAND, L.H.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944) was a Belgian-born
American chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an
inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and very popular plastic.
For more information on Baekeland, click here.

BAKELITE
Bakelite (also called catalin) is a plastic, a dense synthetic polymer (a phenolic resin) that
was used to make jewelry, game pieces, engine parts, radio boxes, switches, and many,
many other objects. Bakelite was the first industrial thermoset plastic (a material that does
not change its shape after being mixed and heated). Bakelite plastic is made from carbolic
acid (phenol) and formaldehyde, which are mixed, heated, and then either molded or
extruded into the desired shape.
Bakelite was patented in 1907 by the Belgian-born American chemist Leo
Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944). The Nobel Prize winning
German chemist Adolf von Baeyer had experimented with this material in 1872, but did not
complete its development or see its potential.
Baekeland operated the General Bakelite Company from 1911 to 1939 (in Perth Amboy,
N.J., USA), and produced up to about 200,000 tons of Bakelite annually. Bakelite replaced
the very flammable celluloid plastic that had been so popular. The bracelet above is made of
"butterscotch" bakelite.

BAROMETER
A barometer is a device that measures air (barometric) pressure. It measures the weight of
the column of air that extends from the instrument to the top of the atmosphere. There are
two types of barometers commonly used today, mercury and aneroid (meaning "fluidless").
Earlier water barometers (also known as "storm glasses") date from the 17th century. The
mercury barometer was invented by the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli (1608 1647), a pupil of Galileo, in 1643. Torricelli inverted a glass tube filled with mercury into
another container of mercury; the mercury in the tube "weighs" the air in the atmosphere
above the tube. The aneroid barometer (using a spring balance instead of a liquid) was
invented by the French scientist Lucien Vidie in 1843.

BATTERY
A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. Each battery has
two electrodes, an anode (the positive end) and a cathode (the negative end). An electrical
circuit runs between these two electrodes, going through a chemical called an electrolyte
(which can be either liquid or solid). This unit consisting of two electrodes is called a cell
(often called a voltaic cell or pile). Batteries are used to power many devices and make the
spark that starts a gasoline engine.

Alessandro Volta was an Italian physicist invented the first chemical battery in 1800.
Storage batteries are lead-based batteries that can be recharged. In 1859, the French
physicist Gaston Plante (1834-1889) invented a battery made from two lead plates joined by
a wire and immersed in a sulfuric acid electrolyte; this was the first storage battery.
The dry cell is a an improved voltaic cell with a cylindrical zinc shell (the zinc acts as both
the cathode and the container) that is lined with an ammonium chloride (the electrolyte)
saturated material (and not a liquid). The dry cell battery was developed in the 1870s-1870s
by Georges Leclanche of France, who used an electrolyte in the form of a paste.
Edison batteries (also called alkaline batteries) are an improved type of storage battery
developed by Thomas Edison. These batteries have an alkaline electrolyte, and not an acid.
For more information on the battery, click here.

BUNSEN BURNER
The laboratory Bunsen burner was invented by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen in 1855. Bunsen
(1811-1899) was a German chemist and teacher. He invented the Bunsen burner for his
research in isolating chemical substances - it has a highintensity, non-luminous flame that does not interfere with
the colored flame emitted by chemicals being tested.
For more information on Bunsen, click here.

CASSEGRAIN TELESCOPE
A Cassegrain telescope is a wide-angle reflecting telescope with a concave mirror that
receives light and focuses an image. A second mirror reflects the light through a gap in the
primary mirror, allowing the eyepiece or camera to be mounted at the back end of the tube.
The Cassegrain reflecting telescope was developed in 1672 by the French sculptor Sieur
Guillaume Cassegrain. A correcting plate (a lens) was added in 1930 by the Estonian
astronomer and lens-maker Bernard Schmidt (1879-1935), creating the Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope which minimized the
spherical aberration of the Cassegrain
telescope.

CELLOPHANE
Cellophane is a thin, transparent, waterproof, protective film that is used in many types of
packaging. It was invented in 1908 by Jacques Edwin Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist. He
had originally intended cellophane to be bonded onto fabric to make a waterproof textile, but
the new cloth was brittle and not useful. Cellophane proved very useful all alone as a

packaging material. Chemists at the Dupont company (who later bought the rights to
cellophane) made cellophane waterproof in 1927.

CELSIUS, ANDERS
Anders Celsius (1701-1744) was a Swedish professor of astronomy who devised the Celsius
thermometer. He also ventured to the far north of Sweden with an expedition in order to
measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to the pole, later comparing it with
similar measurements made in the Southern Hemisphere. This confirmed that that the shape
of the earth is an ellipsoid which is flattened at the poles. He also cataloged 300
stars. With his assistant Olof Hiorter, Celsius discovered the magnetic basis for
auroras.

COMPOUND MICROSCOPE
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound microscope in
1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one lens). His microscope
consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had a lens at each end. The
microscope was focused by sliding the tubes. The lens in the eyepiece was bi-convex
(bulging outwards on both sides), and the lens of the far end (the objective lens) was planoconvex (flat on one side and bulging outwards on the other side). This advanced microscope
had a 3 to 9 times power of magnification. Zacharias Janssen's father Hans may have helped
him build the microscope.

DA VINCI, LEONARDO
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian inventor, artist, architect, and scientist. Da
Vinci had an interest in engineering and made detailed sketches of the airplane, the
helicopter (and other flying machines), the parachute, the submarine, the armored car, the
ballista (a giant crossbow), rapid-fire guns, the centrifugal pump (designed to drain wet
areas, like marshes), ball bearings, the worm gear (a set of gears in which many teeth make
contact at once, reducing the strain on the teeth, allowing more pressure to be put on the
mechanism), and many other incredible ideas that were centuries ahead
of da Vinci's time.
For some da Vinci art coloring pages, click here
For more information on da Vinci, click here.

DAVY, HUMPHRY
Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was an English scientist who invented the first electric
light in 1800. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he
connected wires from his battery to two pieces of carbon, electricity arced between the
carbon pieces, producing an intense, hot, and short-lived light. This is called an electric arc.
Davy also invented a miner's safety helmet and a process to desalinate sea water. Davy
discovered the elements boron, sodium, aluminum (whose name he later changed to

aluminium), and potassium.

EDISON, THOMAS ALVA

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor (also known as the Wizard of
Menlo Park) whose many inventions revolutionized the world. His work includes improving
the incandescent electric light bulb and inventing the phonograph,
the phonograph record, the carbon telephone transmitter, and the
motion-picture projector.
Edison's first job was as a telegraph operator, and in the course of his
duties, he redesigned the stock-ticker machine. The Edison Universal
Stock Printer gave him the capital ($40,000) to set up a laboratory in
Menlo Park, New Jersey, to invent full-time (with many employees).
Edison experimented with thousands of different light bulb filaments to find just the right
materials to glow well, be long-lasting, and be inexpensive. In 1879, Edison discovered that
a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for quite a while. This
incandescent bulb revolutionized the world.
For more information on Edison, click here.

ELION, GERTRUDE
Gertrude Belle Elion (January 23, 1918 - February 21, 1999) was a Nobel Prize winning
biochemist who invented many life-saving drugs, including 6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol)
and 6-thioguanine (which fight leukemia), Imuran, Zovirax, and many others. Elion worked
at Burroughs-Wellcome (now called Glaxo Wellcome) for decades (beginning in 1944) with
George Hitchings and Sir James Black, with whom she shared the Nobel Prize. She is named
on 45 patents for drugs and her work has saved the lives of thousands of people.

ENIAC
ENIAC stands for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer." It was one of the first
all-purpose, all-electronic digital computers. This room-sized computer was built by the
physicist John William Mauchly (Aug. 30, 1907 - Jan. 8, 1980) and the electrical engineer
John Presper Eckert, Jr. (April 9, 1919 - June 3, 1995) at the University of Pennsylvania.
They completed the machine in November, 1945.
For more information on ENIAC, click here.

FARNSWORTH, PHILO T.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1906-1971) was an American inventor. Farnsworth invented many
major major components of the television, including power, focusing systems,
synchronizing the signal, contrast, controls, and scanning. He also invented the radar
systems, cold cathode ray tube, the first baby incubator and the first
electronic microscope. Farnsworth held over 300 patents.

FOUCAULT, JEAN
Jean Bernard Lon Foucault (1819-1868) was a French physicist who invented the
gyroscope (1852) and the Foucault pendulum (1851). A gyroscope is essentially a spinning
wheel set in a movable frame. When the wheel spins, it retains its spatial orientation, and it
resists external forces applied to it. Gyroscopes are used in navigation instruments (for
ships, planes, and rockets). Foucault was the first person to demonstrate how a pendulum
could track the rotation of the Earth (the Foucault pendulum) in 1851. He also showed that
light travels more slowly in water than in air (1850) and improved the mirrors of
reflecting telescopes (1858).

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706-April 17, 1790) was an American statesman, writer,
printer, and inventor. Franklin experimented extensively with electricity. In 1752, his
experiments with a kite in a thunderstorm (never do this, many people have died trying it!)
led to the development of the lightning rod. Franklin started the first circulating library in
the colonies in 1731. He also invented bifocal glasses and the Franklin stove.
The idea of daylight savings time was first proposed by Benjamin
Franklin in 1784.
For more information on Franklin, click here.

GALILEI, GALILEO
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist.
Galileo found that the speed at which bodies fall does not depend on their weight and did
extensive experimentation with pendulums.
In 1593 Galileo invented the thermometer.
In 1609, Galileo was the first person to use a telescope
to
observe the skies (after hearing about Hans Lippershey's newly-invented telescope). Galileo
discovered the rings of Saturn (1610), was the first person to see the four major moons of
Jupiter (1610), observed the phases of Venus, studied sunspots, and discovered many other
important phenomena.
For more information on Galileo, click here.

GEIGER COUNTER
The Geiger counter (sometimes called the Geiger-Muller counter) is a device that detects
ionizing radioactivity (including gamma rays and X-rays) - it counts the radioactive particle
that pass through the device. The German nuclear physicist Hans Wilhelm Geiger (Sept. 30,
1882- Sept. 24, 1945) developed the device from 1908-12. At that time, Geiger was an
assistant to the British physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). [Geiger's work helped
Rutherford discover that radioactive elements can transform into other elements and that
atoms have a nucleus]. In 1928, the Geiger counter was improved by the German physicist
E. Walther Muller.

GREGORY, JAMES
James Gregory (1638-1675), a Scottish mathematician, invented the first reflecting
telescope in 1663. He published a description of the reflecting telescope in "Optica
Promota," which was published in
1663. He never actually made the
telescope, which was to have used
a parabolic and an ellipsoidal
mirror.

GODDARD, ROBERT
Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882-August 10, 1945) was an American physicist
and inventor who is known as the father of modern rocketry. In 1907, Goddard proved that a
rocket's thrust can propel it in a vacuum. In 1914, Goddard received two U.S. patents: for
liquid-fueled rockets and for two- to three-stage rockets that use solid fuel. In 1919,
Goddard wrote a scientific article, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," describing a
high-altitude rocket; it was published in a Smithsonian report. Goddard's many inventions
were the basis upon which modern rocketry is based.
After many years of failed attempts and public ridicule, Goddard's first successful rocket
was launched on March 16, 1926 from a relative's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. It was a
liquid-fueled 10-ft. rocket that he called Nell. The flight lasted 2 1/2 seconds; the rocket
flew a distance of 184 feet and achieved an altitude of 41 feet.
Goddard soon moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he developed more sophisticated
multi-stage rockets, rockets with fins (vanes) to steer them (1932), a gyro control device to
control the rocket (1932), and supersonic rockets (1935). In 1937, Goddard launched the
first rocket with a pivotable motor on gimbals using his gyro control device. Altogether,
Robert Goddard had 214 patents.
For more information on Goddard, click here.

GYROSCOPE
A gyroscope is essentially a spinning wheel set in a movable frame. When the wheel spins,

it retains its spatial orientation, and it resists external forces applied to it. Gyroscopes are
used in navigation instruments (for ships, planes, and rockets). Jean Bernard Lon
Foucault (1819-1868), a French physicist, invented the gyroscope in 1852.

HERON
The steam engine was invented by Heron, an ancient Greek geometer and engineer from
Alexandria. Heron lived during the first century AD and is sometimes called Hero. Heron
made the steam engine as a toy, and called his device "aeolipile," which means "wind ball"
in Greek. The steam was supplied by a sealed pot filled with water and placed over a fire.
Two tubes came up from the pot, letting the steam flow into a spherical ball of metal. The
metallic sphere had two curved outlet tubes, which vented steam. As the steam went
through the series of tubes, the metal sphere rotated. The aeolipile is the first known device
to transform steam power into rotary motion. The Greeks never used this remarkable device
for anything but a novelty. A steam engine designed for work wasn't built until 1698 (built
by the British inventor, Thomas Savery). Watt later improved the steam
engine.

HUYGENS, CHRISTIAN
Christian Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch physicist and astronomer who developed new
methods for grinding and polishing glass telescope lenses (about 1654). With his new,
powerful telescopes, he identified Saturn's rings and discovered Titan, the largest moon of
Saturn in 1655. Huygens also invented the pendulum clock in 1656 (eliminating springs),
wrote the first work on the calculus of probability (De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae, 1655), and
proposed the wave theory of light (Trait de la lumiere, 1678).

HYDE, IDA HENRIETTA

Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857-1945) was an American physiologist who invented the
microelectrode in the 1930's. The microelectrode is a small device that electrically (or
chemically) stimulates a living cell and records the electrical activity within that cell. Hyde
was the first woman to graduate from the University of Heidelberg, to do research at the
Harvard Medical School and to be elected to the American
Physiological Society.

INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS
Clock makers used the idea of interchangeable parts since the early 1700's. In 1790, the
French gunsmith Honor Blanc demonstrated his muskets entirely made from
interchangeable parts; the French government didn't like the process (since with this
process, anyone could manufacture items, and the government lost control), so it was
stopped. The idea of interchangeable parts was introduced to American gun manufacturing
by Eli Whitney (1765-1825) in 1798. The concept of interchangeable manufacturing parts
helped modernize the musket industry (and mass production in general). Whitney made
templates for each separate part of the musket (an early gun). The workers then used the
template when chiseling the part. Whitney was an American inventor and engineer who also
invented the cotton gin.

JANSKY, KARL
Karl Gothe Jansky (1905-1949) was an American radio engineer who pioneered and
developed radio astronomy. In 1932, he detected the first radio waves from a cosmic source
- in the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy.

JANSSEN, ZACHARIAS
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound microscope in
1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one lens). His microscope
consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had a lens at each end. The
microscope was focused by sliding the tubes. The lens in the eyepiece was bi-convex
(bulging outwards on both sides), and the lens of the far end (the objective lens) was planoconvex (flat on one side and bulging outwards on the other side). This advanced microscope
had a 3 to 9 times power of magnification. Zacharias Janssen's father Hans may have helped
him build the microscope.

KARLE, ISABELLA L.
Isabella Helen Lugoski Karle (1921- ) is a American physical chemist who invented new
methods of X-ray Crystallography. She used electron diffraction and then x-ray diffraction
to study the structure of molecules. Karle developed a three-dimensional modeling process,

enabling her to identify and show the structures of hundreds of complex and important
molecules (including alkaloids, ionophores, steroids, toxins, and peptides [amino acid
compounds]). Because of Karle's process, the number of published molecular analyses has
jumped from about 150 to over 10,000 per year. Karle received the National Medal of
Science in 1995. Karle is a senior scientist and head of the Naval Research Laboratory's
(NRL) x-ray diffraction section in the Laboratory for the Structure of Matter. Karle's
husband, Jerome Karle, is a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.

KELVIN
Lord Kelvin (William Thomson, 1824 - 1907) designed the Kelvin scale, in which 0 K is
defined as absolute zero and the size of one degree is the same as the size of one degree
Celsius. Water freezes at 273.16 K; water boils at 373.16 K.
For more information on Kelvin, click here.

LATIMER, LEWIS H.
Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was an African-American inventor who was a member
of Edison's research team, which was called "Edison's Pioneers." Latimer improved the
newly-invented incandescent light bulb by inventing a carbon filament (which he patented
in 1881).
For more information on Lewis Howard Latimer, click here.

LEVERS
Levers are one of the basic tools; they were probably used in prehistoric times. Levers were
first described about 260 BC by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes (287-212
BC). Many of our basic tools use levers, including scissors (two class-1 levers), pliers (two
class-1 levers), hammer claws (one class-1 lever), nutcrackers (two class-2 levers), and
tongs (two class-3 levers).

A Class 1 Lever.
.

LIGHT BULB

A Class 2 Lever.

A Class 3 Lever.

The first incandescent electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English
scientist. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he
connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing
light. This is called an electric arc.
Much later, in 1860, the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) was
determined to devise a practical, long-lasting electric light. He found that a carbon paper
filament worked well, but burned up quickly. In 1878, he demonstrated his new electric
lamps in Newcastle, England.
The inventor Thomas Alva Edison (in the USA) experimented with thousands of different
filaments to find just the right materials to glow well and be long-lasting. In 1879, Edison
discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for 40
hours. Edison eventually produced a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours. The
incandescent bulb revolutionized the world.
For more information, click here.

LIPPERSHEY, HANS
Hans Lippershey (1570?-1619) was a German-born Dutch lens maker who demonstrated
the first refracting telescope in 1608, made from two lenses; he applied for a patent for this
optical refracting telescope (using 2 lenses) in 1608,
intending it for use as a military device.

McCOY, ELIJAH
Elijah McCoy (1843 or 1844-1929) was a mechanical engineer and inventor. McCoy's highquality industrial inventions (especially his steam engine lubricator) were the basis for the
expression "the real McCoy," meaning the real, authentic, or high-quality
thing.
For more information on Elijah McCoy, click here. For a cloze activity on
McCoy, click here.

METER (and the METRIC SYSTEM)

The metric system was invented in France. In 1790, the French National Assembly directed
the Academy of Sciences of Paris to standardize the units of measurement. A committeee
from the Academy used a decimal system and defined the meter to be one 10-millionths of
the distance from the equator to the Earth's Pole (that is, the Earth's circumference would be
equal to 40 million meters). The committee consisted of the mathematicians Jean Charles de
Borda (1733-1799), Joseph-Louis Comte de Lagrange (1736-1813), Pierre-Simon Laplace
(1749-1827), Gaspard Monge (1746 -1818), and Marie Jean Antoine Nicholas Caritat, the

Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)

The word meter comes from the Greek word metron, which means measure. The centimeter
was defined as one-hundredth of a meter; the kilometer was defined as 1000 meters. The
metric system was passed by law in France on August 1, 1793. In 1960, the definition of the
meter changed to 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of of the orange-red radiation of krypton 86. In
1983, the meter was redefined as 1/299,792,458 of the distance that light travels in one
second in a vacuum.
For the metric unit of mass, the gram was defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of
pure water at a given temperature. In common usage and in commerce, grams are used as a
unit of weight.

MICROELECTRODE
Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857-1945) was an American physiologist who invented the
microelectrode in the 1930's. The microelectrode is a small device that electrically (or
chemically) stimulates a living cell and records the electrical activity within that cell. Hyde
was the first woman to graduate from the University of
Heidelberg, to do research