Invention?

AIRPLANES

Who invented it?

Wright brothers

Page No.

ARCHIMEDES SCREW
ADHESIVE TAPE AQUALUNGS AIR CONDITIONER ASSEMBLY LINE AIR PUMP(VACUUM) AC MOTOR

Archimedes
Richard Drew Emile Gagnan Willis Haviland Carrier Ransom Eli Olds Otto von Guericke Nikola Tesla

Orville Wright Born : in 1871 Dayton, Ohio Died : in 1948 Dayton, Ohio Signature:

Wilbur Wright, Born : in 1867 Millville, Indiana Nationality: America Died :in 1912 Dayton, Ohio Signature : Parents : Bishop Milton Wright & wife Susan Catherine Wright Invention : Airplanes Occupation: printer/publisher, bicycle retailer/manufacturer, airplane inventor/manufacturer The Story: The Wright brothers were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on unlocking the secrets of control to conquer "the flying problem", rather than developing more powerful engines as some other experimenters did. Their careful wind tunnel tests produced better aeronautical data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers more effective than any before. They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice. From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive glider tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, building their first aircraft engine in close collaboration with the brothers.

Born : c. 287 BC Syracuse, Sicily Died : c. 212 BC (aged around 75) Syracuse Nationality: Greece Parents : Father Phidias Invention : Archimedes screw, a device used to raise the water level, explained the principle behind levers, Archimedes principle, accurate value of the 'pi' and many more. Year :3rd century B.C The Story: Archimedes father was the astronomer Phidias, and he was related to the tyrant Heron II. Archimedes went to Alexandria about 250 B.C. to study under Conon and other mathematicians who had studied under Euclid (ca. 300 B.C.). He later returned to Syracuse where he apparently stayed the rest of his life. Archimedes performed countless experiments on screws, levers, and pulleys. The Archimedean screw, also called a water snail, is still used in certain parts of the world to raise and move water. This screw enclosed in a cylinder created, in essence, the first water pump, and is perhaps his most remembered invention. He proved that an object plunged into liquid becomes lighter by an amount equal to the weight of liquid it displaces; popular tradition has it that Archimedes made the discovery when he stepped into the bathtub, then celebrated by running through the streets shouting "Eureka!" ("I have found it!"). He also worked out the principle of levers, developed a method for expressing large numbers, discovered ways to determine the areas and volumes of solids, calculated an approximation of pi and invented a machine for raising water (called Archimedes' screw). The Archimedean screw has been the basis for the creation of many other tools, such as the combine harvester and auger drills. His work with levers and pulleys led to the inventions of compound pulley systems and cranes. Other wartime inventions attributed to Archimedes include rock-throwing catapults, grappling hooks, and lenses or mirrors that could allegedly reflect the sun's rays and cause ships to catch on fire. He invented a self-moving celestial model representing the sun, moon, and constellations, so accurate that it even showed eclipses in a time-lapse manner. This invention utilized a system of screws and pulleys that moved the globes in their various courses and speeds.

Born : 1886 Died :1956 Nationality: America Invention :Adhesive Tape Year :1923

The Story: Drew is the father of "Scotch" brand pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes. Observing the problems of auto painters of the 1920s, and overcoming many problems and disappointments over several years of frustration, he developed a successful masking tape. Initially, to save on glue, 3M coated only the edges, prompting customers to joke that the company was being overly "Scotch," or parsimonious. One crusty auto painter got a defective roll of tape and told the salesman: "Take this tape back to your stingy Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it." Alert to the promotional possibilities, 3M (while adding more glue) decided to advertise its product as Scotch Brand tape. And a household name was born. The name was not widely known, however, until it was attached to Drews second invention. Faced with the problems of sealing cellophane bag, his persistence led to the introduction of pressure sensitive cellophane tapes. These two products found immediate commercial acceptance and marked the beginning of the diversification which transformed 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) from a company with a single product line (sandpaper) to a broadly diversified international corporation. The tape dispenser with a built-in cutting edge was invented in 1932 by John A. Borden, another 3M employee. Scotch tape has since become a permanent fixture of daily living. By 1957, 3Ms tape department had sold its 2 billionth roll of tape. Cellophane tape was replaced in 1972 with a stronger, more flexible polyester material that looks as clear and shiny, the old red-plaid packaging was retained and the public hardly noticed. By 1976 there were more than 600 varieties of "Scotch" brand tapes on the market - all direct descendants of masking tape and cellophane tape. Drew died in 1980 in Santa Barbara, California.

Nationality: France (Emile was a French Canadian) Invention: Aqualungs Year : 1943

The Story: Cousteau was born June 11, 1910, in Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac, France, near Bordeaux. He was well-traveled thanks to his lawyer-father, who moved often and took his family with him on frequent trips. Cousteau was a restless student but an avid swimmer with an interest in film and natural technical ability. In 1930, he was admitted to France's Naval Academy. He served in the navy and later entered naval aviation school, but after a car accident at age 26 he was transferred to sea duty and began a rigorous swimming program to regain strength in his arms. Emile Gagnan was born in Burgoyne, France, in 1900. He earned a technical degree and began working as an engineer for L'aire Liquide, with specialization in high-pressure pneumatic design. With Cousteau he began working to create a demand-valve for what was to become the Aqua-lung system. A similar type of valve had been used in gas-generator engines and Gagnan imagined it would also be useful in regulating air supply in a variable pressure environment. His theory was correct, and this valve would be a central component of the Aqua-lung's demand regulator, which adjusts air pressure automatically and supplies air as a diver needs it, so that air pressure inside a diver's lungs match the pressure of the water. This would prove a critical and groundbreaking safety feature. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Cousteau and Gagnan perfected a device that was incredibly safe, reliable and easy to use. This would change the diving scene forever. The Aqua-lung was first sold in France in 1946.

Born : November 26, 1876 Angola, New York, USA Died :October 7, 1950(aged 73) New York, USA Parents : Duane Williams Carrier & Elizabeth R. Haviland Nationality: America Invention :Air conditioner Year : 1914 The Story: Willis Haviland Carrier did pretty well for a boy who had to slice a peck of apples into halves, quarters and eighths to grasp the notion of fractions. Raised on a farm near the snowy eastern shore of Lake Erie in Angola, New York, the young Carrier grew up as an only child in an extended family of adults including his grandparents and great aunt. He started his own research program to determine how much heat air would hold as it was blown across steam-heated pipes. For the first time, the company's engineers could accurately estimate how much heater surface area was needed to heat a given space. In one heating system alone, the tables Carrier developed, saved the company $40,000 that had been spent previously in correcting poorly designed installations. Carrier, barely a year out of college, was made head of the company's department of experimental engineering. It was here that he solved his first problem in temperature and humidity control for the SackettWilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn. Even though he was still 13 years away from forming his own air conditioning company, Carrier exhibited the kind of focused reliance on hard data, that would power an industry. He was a dreamer, but he based his dreams on reality. "I fish only for edible fish, and hunt only for edible game - even in the laboratory.The Centennial of the day that a gifted young engineer named Willis H. Carrier invented modern air conditioning. His invention encompassing the first system to provide man-made control over temperature, humidity, ventilation and air quality was first installed as a solution to the quality problems experienced at a Brooklyn printing plant, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company. It not only spawned a company and an industry, but also brought about profound economic, social and cultural changes.

Born :June 3, 1864 in Geneva, Ohio Died :August 26, 1950 in Lansing, Michigan Parents :Pliny Fiske Olds and wife Sarah Whipple Olds Nationality: America Invention : Assembly line Year : 1901

The Story: Ransom Eli Olds was a pioneer of the American automotive industry, for whom both the Oldsmobile and Reo brands were named. He claimed to have built his first steam car as early as 1894, and his first gasoline powered car in 1896. He founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing, Michigan, on August 21, 1897. The company was bought by a copper and lumber magnate named Samuel L. Smith in 1899 and renamed Olds Motor Works. Olds was the first person to use the assembly line (An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcraftingtype methods)in the automotive industry, Henry Ford came after him. This new approach to putting together automobiles enabled him to more than quintuple his factorys output, from 425 cars in 1901 to 2,500 in 1902.]Olds was also famous for his auto racing on the beaches of Florida at Ormond and Daytona. He had the first timed run on the beach in a solo run some time between 1894 and 1897. In 1896 or 1897, rich automobile pioneers Olds and Alexander Winton (Winton Motor Carriage Company) staged an unofficial event; Winton beat Olds by only 0.20 seconds.

Born : November 20, 1602 Magdeburg, Germany Died : May 11, 1686 (aged 83) Hamburg, Germany Parents :Son of a patrician family Nationality: Germany Invention : Air pump or vacuum pump Year : 1650 The Story: Otto von Guericke, demonstrated experimentally the capacity of the atmosphere to do work and decisively refuted the long-held notion that it was impossible for a vacuum to exist. Using hollow copper spheres and an air pump of his own construction, Guericke demonstrated that a partial vacuum could be created by pumping the air out of the sphere. He also proved that the air remaining in the sphere (at a pressure below that of the atmosphere) was distributed evenly throughout the vessel. In 1663 Otto van Guericke invented the first electric generator, which produced static electricity by applying friction in the machine. The generator was made of a large sulfur ball cast inside a glass globe, mounted on a shaft. The ball was rotated by means of a crank and a static electric spark was produced when a pad was rubbed against the ball as it rotated. The globe could be removed and used as source for experiments with electricity. It is necessary here to note that von Guericke did not recognize the effect he generated as static electricity. Later editions increased the speed of the rotation with a belt and rotating wheel. Electrical demonstrations became a favorite parlor trick for guests, but the electric machine also allowed serious scientists to perform experiments that could not be performed earlier. It was Guericke who noted that like charges repelled each other. In 1657, Guericke carried out his famous demonstration that several teams of horses could not pull apart two joined hemispheres when the air within had been evacuated. Using a piston in a cylinder, he also showed that when a vacuum was created on one side of the piston, the atmosphere would move the piston and a considerable mass through a distance, thus performing work. This became the basic principle of the Newcomen steam engine (1712).

Born :10 July 1856 Smiljan, Austrian Empire Died : 7 January 1943(aged 86) New York City, New York, USA Parents : Milutin Tesla & Djuka Mandic Nationality: Austria/America Invention : AC motor & transformer, vacuum tube amplifier, Tesla coil, X-Ray technology Year :1880s Signature : The Story: He was the electrical engineer who invented the AC (alternating current) induction motor, which made the universal transmission and distribution of electricity possible. Tesla began his studies in physics and mathematics at Graz Polytechnic, and then took philosophy at the University of Prague. He worked as an electrical engineer in Budapest, Hungary, and subsequently in France and Germany. In 1888 his discovery that a magnetic field could be made to rotate if two coils at right angles are supplied with AC current 90 out of phase made possible the invention of the AC induction motor. The major advantage of this motor being its brush less operation, which many at the time believed impossible. Tesla moved to the United States in 1884, where he worked for Thomas Edison who quickly became a rival Edison being an advocate of the inferior DC power transmission system. During this time, Tesla was commissioned with the design of the AC generators installed at Niagara Falls. George Westinghouse purchased the patents to his induction motor, and made it the basis of the Westinghouse power system which still underlies the modern electrical power industry today. He also did notable research on highvoltage electricity and wireless communication; at one point creating an earthquake which shook the ground for several miles around his New York laboratory. He also devised a system which anticipated worldwide wireless communications, fax machines, radar, radio- guided missiles and aircraft. Nikola Tesla is the true unsung prophet of the electronic age; without whom our radio, auto ignition, telephone, alternating current power generation and transmission, radio and television would all have been impossible. Yet his life and times have vanished largely from public access. This autobiography is released to remedy this situation.

Invention?
BAND-AID BASKETBALL BLUE JEANS

Who invented it?

Earle Dickson James Naismith Levi Strauss

Page No.

BRAILLE
BLOOD BANK BUNSEN BURNER

Louis Braille
Dr. Charles Richard Drew Robert Wilhelm Bunsen

Born :10 October 1892 Grand View, Tennessee Died :21 September 1961 New Brunswick, New Jersey Nationality: America Invention : Band Aid Year : 1920

The Story Earle Dickson was a cotton buyer for the Johnson & Johnson Company when he invented the Band-aid in 1921. His wife was always cutting her fingers in the kitchen while preparing food. At that time, bandages were made by cutting a piece of gauze, placing it on the sore and then taping the gauze in place. Mr. Dickson noticed that the gauze and tape that his wife used would quickly fall off of her active fingers. He decided to invent something that would stay in place and protect small wounds better. Earle Dickson took a piece of gauze and attached it to the center of a piece of tape. Then he covered the gauze with a piece of cloth called crinoline to keep the tape from sticking to itself. Once you peeled the crinoline off, it would stick to protect the wound. His boss, James Johnson, saw the invention and decided to manufacture "Band-Aids" and sell them to the public. Earle Dickson was made a vice-president of the Johnson & Johnson Company. Sale of Band-Aids were slow until Johnson & Johnson decided to give Boy Scout Troops free Band-Aids as a publicity gimmick. By 1924, Band-Aids were machine made. In 1939, they were advertised as being sterile. In 1958, they were made with plastic adhesive (tape) strips. At the time of Mr. Dickson's death, Johnson & Johnson's was selling $30,000,000.00 worth of Band-aids each year.

Born : November 6, 1861 in Ramsay Township (now Almonte, Ontario) Died :November 28, 1939 at Lawrence, Kansas Parents : John Naismith and Margaret Young Nationality: Canada Invention : Basketball Year : 1891 The Story Naismith spent his days outside playing catch, hide-and-seek, or duck on a rock, a medieval game in which a person guards a large drake stone from opposing players, who try to knock it down by throwing smaller stones at it. To play duck on a rock most effectively, Naismith soon found out that a soft lobbing shot was far more effective than a straight hard throw, a thought which later proved essential for the invention of basketball. In his attempt to think up a new game, Naismith was guided by three main thoughts. Firstly, he analyzed the most popular games of those times (rugby,soccer, football, hockey and baseball); Naismith noticed the hazards of a small fast ball and concluded that the big soft soccer ball was safest. Secondly, he saw that most physical contact occurred while running with the ball, dribbling or hitting it, so he decided that passing was the only legal option. Finally, Naismith further reduced body contact by making the goal unguardable, namely placing it high above the player's heads. To score goals, he forced the players to throw a soft lobbing shot that had proven effective in his old favorite game duck on a rock. Naismith christened this new game "Basket Ball "and put his thoughts together in 13 basic rules. The first game of "Basket Ball" was played in December 1891. In a handwritten report, Naismith described the circumstances of the inaugural match; the players played nine versus nine, handled a soccer ball, not a basketball, and instead of shooting at two hoops, the goals were a pair of peach baskets: "When Mr. Stubbins brot [sic] up the peach baskets to the gym I secured them on the inside of the railing of the gallery. I then put the 13 rules on the bulletin board just behind the instructor's platform, secured a soccer ball and awaited the arrival of the class...Most of the fouls were called for running with the ball, though tackling the man with the ball was not uncommon."

Born : February 26, 1829 in Buttenheim, Bavaria, German Confederation Died : September 26,1902 at Colma, California Parents : Hirsch Strauss and wife Rebecca (Haass) Strauss Nationality: Germany/USA Invention : Blue jeans Year : 1873 The Story: At the age of 18, Strauss, his mother and two sisters sailed for the United States to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co. In late 1872 Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor, started making men's work pants with metal points of strain for greater strength. He wanted to patent the process but needed a business helper, so he turned to Levi Strauss, from whom he purchased some of his fabric. On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Davis received United States patent for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire. In the second half of the twentieth century, Levi's jeans became a symbol of youth culture, being worn by revolutionaries and rock stars. They were famously photographed being worn by many of the young people who helped to dismantle the first bricks when the Berlin Wall was brought down in 1989.

Born : January 4, 1809 Coupvray, France Died :January 6, 1852 Paris, France Nationality: France Invention : Braille for the blind Year :1829 Signature :

The Story: Louis was from a small town called Coupvray, near Paris. He became blind by accident, when he was 3 years old. Deep in his Dad's harness workshop, Louis tried to be like his Dad, but it went very wrong; he grabbed an awl, a sharp tool for making holes, and the tool slid and hurt his eye. The wound got infected, and the infection spread, and soon, Louis was blind in both eyes. All of a sudden, Louis needed a new way to learn. He stayed at his old school for two more years, but he couldn't learn everything just by listening. Things were looking up when Louis got a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris, when he was 10. The library had 14 huge books with raised letters that were very hard to read. Louis was impatient. Then in 1821, a former soldier named Charles Barbier visited the school. Barbier shared his invention called "night writing," a code of 12 raised dots that let soldiers share topsecret information on the battlefield without even having to speak. Unfortunately, the code was too hard for the soldiers, but not for 12-year-old Louis! Louis trimmed Barbier's 12 dots into 6, ironed out the system by the time he was 15, then published the first-ever Braille book in 1829. But did he stop there? No way! In 1837, he added symbols for math and music. But since the public was skeptical, blind students had to study Braille on their own. Braille began to spread worldwide in 1868, when a group of British men, now known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, took up the cause. Braille signs help blind people get around in public spaces. And, most important, blind people can communicate independently, without needing print. Louis proved that if you have the motivation, you can do incredible things.

Born : June 3, 1904 Washington, D.C., USA Died : April 1, 1950 (aged 45)Burlington, North Carolina, USA Parents : Richard Y. Drew and Nora Burrell Nationality: America Invention : Blood bank Year :

The Story: Dr. Charles Richard Drew was the first person to develop the blood bank. His introduction of a system for the storing of blood plasma revolutionized the medical profession. Drew first utilized his system on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific during World War II. He organized the world's first blood bank project in 1940 Blood for Britain. He also established the American Red Cross Blood Bank, of which he was the first director. In late 1940, during World War II before the US entered the war, and just after earning his doctorate, Drew was recruited by John Scudder to help set up and administer an early prototype program for blood storage and preservation. He was to collect, test, and transport large quantities of blood plasma for distribution in Great Britain. Drew went to New York to direct the United States' Blood for Britain project. The Blood for Britain project was a project to aid British soldiers and civilians by giving US blood to Great Britain. Drew created a central location for the blood collection process where donors could go to give blood. He made sure all blood plasma was tested before it was shipped out. He ensured that only skilled personnel handled blood plasma to avoid the possibility of contamination. The Blood for Britain program operated successfully for five months, with total collections of almost 15,000 people donating blood, and with over 5,500 vials of blood plasma. As a result, the Blood Transfusion Betterment Association applauded Drew for his work. Out of his work came the American Red Cross Blood Bank. Charles E. Wynes, a biographer of Drew, has disputed the credit he is sometimes given for technical development of blood storage techniques. "The fact is, Drew did not develop blood plasma in any of its forms, nor did he perfect blood transfusion with blood plasma, as is sometimes claimed in the greater media."

Born :March 1811 Gottingen, Germany Died :16 August 1899 in Heidelberg, Germany at age 88 Parents : Christian Bunsen Nationality: Germany Invention : Bunsen burner Year : 1855

The Story: Robert Wilhelm Bunsen did groundbreaking work in organic chemistry and spectrometry, but he's more famous for the laboratory gas burner that bears his name. Robert Bunsen was an extraordinary experimentalist and popular university teacher who made a name for himself in the 1830s with experiments using organic arsenic compounds. Those experiments nearly cost him his life -- an explosion caused the loss of sight in one eye and a bad case of arsenic poisoning, and he later forbade organic chemistry experiments in his lab. He taught for many years at the University of Marsburg (1838-51), but is most closely associated with the University of Heidelberg, where he worked from 1852 until his retirement in 1889. Robert Bunsen invented many lab tools, including a grease-spot photometer, a galvanic battery and an ice calorimeter, and, with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, a spectrometer (1859) that led to his discovery of the elements cesium and rubidium. Around 1855 he had university mechanic Peter Desaga build a gas burner that would produce a steady and near-colorless flame for lab experiments (Michael Faraday had used a similar burner). The result, known as a Bunsen burner, remains a common lab tool to this day. Extra credit: Robert Bunsen had a lifelong interest in geology, and in the 1840s he proved experimentally how geysers work... Robert Bunsen, like John Dalton, was a bachelor his entire life.

Invention?
COTTON GIN CELLOPHANE CHOCOLATE CHIPS

Who invented it?

Elias Whitney Jacques Brandenberger Ruth Wakefield

Page No.

CRESCOGRAPH
COCA COLA COMPOUND MICROSCOPE

J.C Bose
John Pemberton Zacharias Janssen

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Arthur Wynne

Birth : December 8, 1765 in Westborough, Massachusetts Death :January 8, 1825 in New Haven, Connecticut Nationality: American Parents : Eli Whitney Sr. & wife Elizabeth Fay Invention : Milling machine and Cotton Gin Year : 1793 Definition : The cotton gin is a mechanical device which removes the seeds, seed hulls, and other small objects from the fibers of cotton. Signature : The Story: At age 14 Eli operated a profitable nail manufacturing operation in his father's workshop during the Revolutionary War. Because his stepmother opposed his wish to attend college, Whitney worked as a farm laborer and schoolteacher to save money. The cotton gin is a mechanical device which removes the seeds from cotton, a process which previously had been extremely labor intensive. The word 'gin' is short for engine. The cotton gin was a wooden drum stuck with hooks which pulled the cotton fibers through a mesh. The cotton seeds would not fit through the mesh and fell outside. Whitney occasionally told a story where he was pondering an improved method of seeding the cotton and he was inspired by observing a cat attempting to pull a chicken through a fence, and could only pull through some of the feathers. Whitney received a patent (later numbered as X72) for his cotton gin on March 14, 1794. Machine tool historian Joseph W. Roe credited Whitney with inventing the first milling machine circa 1818. Subsequent work by other historians (Woodbury; Smith; Muir; Bateson [cited by Baida]) suggests that Whitney was among a group of contemporaries all developing milling machines at about the same time (1814 to 1818), and that the others were more important to the innovation than Whitney was. Therefore, no one person can properly be described as the inventor of the milling machine.

Born : 19-Oct-1872 Zurich, Switzerland Died : 13-Jul-1954 Zurich, Switzerland Parents : Nationality: Switzerland Invention : Cellophane Year : 1908

The Story: This outstanding inventor and businessman excelled through his sophistication of mind and kindness of heart. As a young man he already felt a courageous, bold and unrestrained zest for action. His untiring eagerness for work was coupled with a tremendous strength of will. Hardly of age, i.e. at the age of 22, he passed his doctorate's examination in chemistry at the faculty of arts of Bern University. The author, freshly graduated as machine technician, took up his 6 week probationary period prior to permanent employment at the "La Cellophane" plant in Bezons (Seine et Oise) in France in January and February 1921. The period was seen as a trial in patience and a test of skills. This particular trial involved a special and important problem: testing the economic viability of a new material (viscose film) for a special practical application. The fabrication of "Cellophane" bags, feasible only manually at that time, required a large workforce. But it had been known generally that paper bags in certain shapes and sizes could also be made entirely by machines. Dr. Brandenberger bought a second-hand paper bag machine to test whether it would also be suitable for making "Cellophane" bags. Although the material properties of paper and viscose film are totally different, he believed that a new machine design derived from the tests could eventually result in much more economical production of the "Cellophane" bags. NOTE: Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, and bacteria makes it useful for food packaging.

Born :June 17, 1903 East Walpole, MA Died :January 10, 1977(aged 73) Duxbury, MA Parents :-NANationality: America Invention : Chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookies Year : 1930

The Story: Chocolate chip cookies are a favorite treat for people of all ages, but without the famous woman inventor Ruth Wakefield, the world might never have tasted those sweet delights. Born in 1905, Wakefield grew up to be a dietician and food lecturer after graduating from the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts in 1924. Along with her husband Kenneth, she bought a tourist lodge named the Toll House Inn, where she prepared the recipes for meals that were served to guests. In 1930, Wakefield was mixing a batch of cookies for her roadside inn guests when she discovered that she was out of baker's chocolate. She substituted broken pieces of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate, expecting it to melt and absorb into the dough to create chocolate cookies. That didn't happen, but the surprising result helped to make Ruth Wakefield one of the 20th century's most famous women inventors. When she removed the pan from the oven, Wakefield realized that she had accidentally invented "chocolate chip cookies." At the time, she called her creations "Toll House Crunch Cookies." They became extremely popular locally, and the recipe was soon published in a Boston newspaper. As the popularity of the Toll House Crunch Cookie increased, the sales of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate bars also spiked. Andrew Nestle and Ruth Wakefield decided to come up with an agreement. Nestle would print the Toll House Cookie recipe on its package, and Wakefield would be given a lifetime supply of Nestle chocolate. Due to this unexpected discovery by a famous woman inventor, the chocolate chip cookie became the most popular variety of cookie in America, a distinction it still holds to this day.

Born : 30 November 1858 Munshiganj, Bengal Presidency, British India Died : 23 November 1937 (aged 78)Giridih, Bengal, British India Parents :Bhagawan Chandra Bose & Abala Bose Nationality: India Invention : Crescograph Year : 1920s

The Story: Bose, who was born in Mymensingh (which is now in Bangladesh), began his studies in London as a medical student. He then won a scholarship to Cambridge University, from where he graduated in natural sciences in 1884. He was appointed professor of physical science at Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1885 and retained this post until 1915. In 1917 he founded and became director of the Bose Research Institute, Calcutta. Bose, who contrived crescograph (device for measuring growth in plants), was knighted in 1917 and in 1920 became the first Indian to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Bose's early research was on the properties of very short radio waves work in which he showed their similarity to light. He also designed an improved version of Oliver Lodge's coherer, then used to detect radio waves, and as a result was able to put forward a general theory of the properties of contact-sensitive materials. His most famous work concerned his investigations into plant physiology and the similarities between the behavioral response of plant and animal tissue. By devising extremely sensitive instruments he was able to demonstrate the minute movements of plants to external stimuli and to measure their rate of growth. While his experimental skill was widely admired, this work did not at the time gain universal acceptance.

Born :July 8, 1831 Knoxville, Georgia Died :August 16, 1888(aged 57) Atlanta, Georgia Parents :James Clifford Pemberton and Martha L. Gant Nationality: America Invention : Coca Cola Year : 1886

The Story: The product that has given the world its best-known taste was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola, and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced "excellent" and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. Carbonated water was teamed with the new syrup to produce a drink that was at once "Delicious and Refreshing," a theme that continues to echo today wherever Coca-Cola is enjoyed. Thinking that "the two Cs would look well in advertising," Dr. Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name and penned the now famous trademark "Coca-Cola" in his unique script. The first newspaper ad for Coca-Cola soon appeared in The Atlanta Journal, inviting thirsty citizens to try "the new and popular soda fountain drink." Hand-painted oilcloth signs reading "Coca-Cola" appeared on store awnings, with the suggestion "Drink" added to inform passersby that the new beverage was for soda fountain refreshment. During the first year, sales averaged a modest nine drinks per day. Dr. Pemberton never realized the potential of the beverage he created. He gradually sold portions of his business to various partners and, just prior to his death in 1888, sold his remaining interest in Coca-Cola to Asa G. Candler. An Atlanta with great business acumen, Mr. Candler proceeded to buy additional rights and acquire complete control.

Born :1580 The Hague Died :1638 (aged 5758) Parents :Hans Martensand Maeyken Meertens Nationality: Holland Invention : Compound microscope Year : 1595

The Story: Zacharias Janssen (1580-1638) is generally credited with inventing the compound microscope in the late sixteenth century. Eyeglasses were becoming more popular, and so heavy attention was placed on optics. It is believed that his father, Hans, helped him build the microscope in 1595. The two were spectacle makers in Middleburg, Holland. While others credit Hans Lippershey with the invention of the microscope, historians generally agree on crediting Zacharias and his father with the invention of the compound microscope. Zacharias wrote to a Dutch diplomat, William Boreel, about the invention. When the physician of the French king inquired about the invention in the 1650s, Boreel recounted the design of the microscope. One design of the microscope included two draw tubes which could slide out of another outer casing tube. Lenses were in the ends of the draw tubes; the eyepiece lens was bi-convex and the objective lens was Plano-convex. The microscope was hand-held and could magnify 3-10 times. To focus the microscope, the draw tube was slid in or out. Another of his designs had a main tube which rose from a brass tripod and had a lens at each end. The tube was 1-2 inches in diameter, and objects could be magnified 3-9 times. Both designs were an advance on the previous use of 1 lens for magnification, and the invention was extremely important for future advancements.

Born :June 22, 1871 in Liverpool, England Died :January 14, 1945 Clearwater, Florida Parents : Nationality: England Invention : Crossword puzzle Year : 1913

The Story: The crossword puzzle, which has been called "the most popular and widespread word game in the world," was invented by Arthur Wynne in 1913. Wynne was an immigrant from England who worked for the New York World. One day, his editor asked him to invent a new game for the newspaper's Sunday "Fun" section. Wynne recalled a puzzle from his childhood called "Magic Squares," in which a given group of words had to be arranged so their letters would read the same way across and down. Wynne created a larger and more complex grid, and provided clues instead of giving the necessary words. Wynne's puzzle first appeared in the December 21, 1913 edition of the World, as one of the "Fun" section's "mental exercises." It was diamond-shaped, without blackened-out squares, and with easy clues. However simple, it was a huge success. Before long other newspapers had borrowed Wynne's puzzle; the first book of crossword puzzles was published in 1924. By then, the fad had travelled back to Wynne's homeland. In 1930, the London Times printed their first sample of what had only recently been dubbed "the crossword puzzle." After 1942, it was the New York Times that set the standards for professional crosswords: e.g., symmetrical grids, with answers at least three letters long. In time, the puzzles also became more subtle, including punbased clues, multiple-word answers, and overarching themes. Today, crossword puzzles can be found in every major alphabet-based language, all over the world--including the Internet. Some are even computer-generated. In the US, the annual American Crossword Tournament (founded 1978) draws experts from every walk of life.

Invention?
DYNAMITE DAVY LAMP DIESEL ENGINE

Who invented it?

Alfred Nobel Sir Humphry Davy Rudolf Diesel

Page No.

Birth Death Nationality Parents Invention Year Signature

:October 21, 1833, Stockholm, Sweden :December 10, 1896, Sanremo, Italy :Swedish :Immanuel Nobel and wife Andretti Ahlsell Nobel : Dynamite : 1867 :

The Story: When Alfred was 18, he went to the United States to study chemistry for four years and worked for a short period under John Ericsson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. Alfred, returning to Sweden with his father after the bankruptcy of their family business, devoted himself to the study of explosives, and especially to the safe manufacture and use of nitroglycerine (discovered in 1847 by Ascanio Sobrero). In 1866, Alfred Nobel discovered that mixing nitroglycerine with silica would turn the liquid into a paste which could be shaped into rods of a size and form suitable for insertion into drilling holes. In 1867 he patented this material under the name of dynamite. To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator (blasting cap) which could be ignited by lighting a fuse. Nobel later on combined nitroglycerin with various nitrocellulose compounds, similar to collodion, but settled on a more efficient recipe combining another nitrate explosive, and obtained a transparent, jelly-like substance, which was a more powerful explosive than dynamite. 'Gelignite', or blasting gelatin, as it was named, was patented in 1876; and was followed by a host of similar combinations, modified by the addition of potassium nitrate and various other substances. Gelignite was more stable, transportable and conveniently formed to fit into bored holes, like those used in drilling and mining, than the previously used compounds and was adopted as the standard technology for mining in the Age of Engineering bringing Nobel a great amount of financial success, though at a significant cost to his health. An off-shoot of this research resulted in Nobel's invention of ballistite, the precursor of many modern smokeless powder explosives and still used as a rocket propellant.

Born :17 December 1778 Penzance, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom Died :29 May 1829(aged 50) Geneva, Switzerland Parents : -NANationality: England Invention : Miner's safety lamp or the Davy lamp Year : 1815

The Story: After his return to England in 1815, Davy experimented with lamps for use in coal mines. There had been many mining explosions caused by firedamp or methane often ignited by open flames of the lamps then used by miners. In particular the Felling mine disaster in 1812 near Newcastle caused great loss of life, and action was needed to improve underground lighting and especially the lamps used by miners. Davy conceived of using an iron gauze to enclose a lamp's flame, and so prevent the methane burning inside the lamp from passing out to the general atmosphere. Although the idea of the safety lamp had already been demonstrated by William Reid Clanny and by the then unknown (but later very famous) engineer George Stephenson, Davy's use of wire gauze to prevent the spread of flame was used by many other inventors in their later designs. George Stephenson's lamp was very popular in the north-east coalfields, and used the same principle of preventing the flame reaching the general atmosphere, but by different means. Unfortunately, although the new design of gauze lamp initially did seem to offer protection, it gave much less light, and quickly deteriorated in the wet conditions of most pits. Rusting of the gauze quickly made the lamp unsafe, and the number of deaths from firedamp explosions rose yet further. There was some discussion as to whether Davy had discovered the principles behind his lamp without the help of the work of Smithson Tennant, but it was generally agreed that the work of both men had been independent. Davy refused to patent the lamp, and its invention led to him being awarded the Rumford medal in 1816.

Born : March 18, 1858 Paris, France Died : September 29, 1913 (aged 55) English Channel Parents : Theodor Diesel & Elise Diesel Nationality: Germany Invention :Diesel engine Year :1890s The Story: At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870,the family of Diesel was expelled from France and they moved to London. In 1880, he went to work for the firm of his refrigeration professor, Karl Paul Gottfried von Linde. While an employee of the Linde firm, Diesel became fascinated with the theoretical work of the French physicist Nicholas Carnot , which presented the principles of the modern internal combustion engine. Diesel was convinced that an engine four times as efficient as a steam engine could be built by injecting fuel into an engine in which the piston compresses air in a ratio as great as 25 to 1. Such high compression causes the air to reach temperatures of nearly 1000 F (537 C), a temperature that is high enough to ignite the fuel without the need for complex spark ignition systems. Rudolf Diesel worked on various designs for his engines for over a decade, and he was granted a patent in 1892 for an engine designed to burn the cheapest fuel then available-powdered coal. By 1897, Diesel abandoned powdered coal, substituting kerosene as the fuel. Diesel's engine proved to be very efficient but due to the restrictions he placed upon the manufacture of engines built under his patent, Diesel engines were very heavy and not suited to anything but stationary applications. Hence, early Diesel engines were not adapted to power the burgeoning automobile industry. Diesel engines did, however, find wide acceptance in the shipping and locomotive industries. The diesel engine's high efficiency and comparatively simple design made it commercially successful, and its manufacture made Rudolf Diesel a millionaire. However, while crossing the English Channel on the way to consult with the British Admiralty, Diesel disappeared at sea on September 30, 1913.

Invention?
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION ELECTROSCOPE ELECTRIC STREETCAR ESCALATOR

Who invented it?

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz Jean Antoine Nollet Thomas Davenport Jesse Wilford Reno

Page No.

Birth : February 22, 1857 in Hamburg, Germany Death : January 1, 1894 in Bonn, Germany Nationality: German Parents : Gustav Ferdinand Hertz & wife Anna Elisabeth Pfefferkorn Invention : Electromagnetic radiation & Photoelectric effect Year :1880 Signature : The Story: Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist, born in Hamburg, and educated at the University of Berlin. From 1885 to 1889 he was a professor of physics at the technical school in Karlsruhe and after 1889 a professor of physics at the University in Bonn. Hertz clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884. Hertz proved that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed of light and which possess many other properties of light. His experiments with these electromagnetic waves led to the development of the wireless telegraph and the radio. His name also became the term used for radio and electrical frequencies: hertz (Hz), as in kilohertz (kHz) or megahertz (MHz). The hertz designation has been an official part of the international metric system since 1933. Before Hertz gained professorships in Karlsruhe and Bonn, he had studied under the famous scientist Hermann von Helmholtz in Bonn, and it was Helmholtz who encouraged Hertz to attempt to win the science prize that led to some of Hertz's most important discoveries. From 1885 to 1889 Hertz became the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves, and to establish the fact that light was a form of electromagnetic radiation. The Italian Marconi didn't begin his own wireless experiments until 1894, based on the earlier work of Hertz, Maxwell, and others.) Hertz probably would have gone on to make many more scientific contributions, but he died quite young, less than a month before his 37th birthday.

Born :19 November 1700 Died :25 April1770 Nationality: France Invention :Electroscope Year :1748

The Story: Jean Antoine Nollet (17001770) was a clergyman and physicist. In 1748, Nollet invented one of the first electrometers, the electroscope, which detected the presence of electric charge by using electrostatic attraction and repulsion. Nollet later wrote a theory on electrical attraction and repulsion based on the existence of a continuous flow of electrical matter between charged bodies and became the first professor of experimental physics at the University of Paris. In 1746, the Abb Jean Antoine Nollet, a physicist who popularized science in France, discharged a Leyden jar in front of King Louis XV by sending current through a chain of 180 Royal Guards. In another demonstration, Nollet used wire made of iron to connect a row of Carthusian monks more than a kilometer long; when a Leyden jar was discharged, the white-robed monks reportedly leapt simultaneously into the air." "The simple electroscope consists of a metal case within which, and near its center, is supported in a vertical position a well-insulated metal strip to the top of which is attached a narrow strip of thin foil, preferably of gold leaf. This strip of foil is usually spoken of as the leaf. The strip of metal and the leaf constitute the insulated system of the electroscope. When the insulated system is electrically charged by a suitable switch passing through the wall of the case, the leaf is repelled by the strip, and is deflected from its normal, vertical position. In opposite sides of the case are windows through which the position of the leaf can be observed. Such observation is usually made by means of a microscope having in its eyepiece a ruled scale."

Born : July 9, 1802Williamstown, Vermont Died : July 6, 1851 (aged 48)Salisbury, Vermont Parents : Nationality: America Invention : Electric streetcar Year : 1834

The Story: A blacksmith by trade, he became interested in electricity and magnetism, and purchased an early electromagnet from mine operator Allen Penfield, who was using them to sort iron ores. Carefully disassembling it and recording the details of its construction, he fashioned two replicas -- his wife contributing a silk petticoat from which insulation was fashioned for the bare wire that was the only kind available in those days. He soon developed a true DC electric motor, inventing the idea of brushes and commutator along the way. The motor was used to power the first electric locomotive (1835) and sundry devices in his shop. Power to the locomotive was delivered by running the current through the rails. So far ahead of its time was this that Davenport's first patent application was rejected. It seems that patents must advance the state of the art, but not too far! The world was not yet ready for electric motors and he had no commercial success. His choice of business partners contributed to his failure; They ran off with the money! Had he realized that his motor could be used in reverse as an electric dynamo to generate electricity, the course of history would have been far, far different.

Born : 4-Aug-1861 Fort Leavenworth, KS Died : 2-Jun-1947 Pelham Manor, NY Parents : Jesse L. Reno & Mary Blanes Cross Reno Nationality: America Invention : Escalator Year : 1891 The Story: Jesse Wilford Reno, born 1861 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was an inventive young man who formulated his idea for an inclined moving stairway at age 16. After graduating from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, his engineering career took him to Colorado, then to Americus, Georgia where he is credited with building the first electric railway in the southern U.S. Reno submitted his first patent application for a "new and useful endless conveyor or elevator" in 1891. It became effective 15 months later. The machine was built and installed at Coney Island, Brooklyn, as an amusement ride in September 1895. Moving stairways were just one arrow in the quiver, for in 1896, Reno developed plans for the building of the New York City subway, a double-decker underground system that could be completed in three years. With the plan not accepted, the inventor married and moved to London where he opened his new company, The Reno Electric Stairways and Conveyors, Ltd. in 1902. His pallet-type moving stairways were being installed throughout the U.S., Great Britain and Europe, but Reno became fascinated with a new challenge -- building the first Spiral Moving Walkway. He joined with William Henry Aston, holder of a patent for the flexible pallet coupling and chain, to create the pioneering mechanism that was exhibited for four years and installed on the London railway at his own cost, but never used by the public. In 1903, the firm of Waygood and Otis Limited bought a third share in the Reno Company, but with the failure of the Spiral Walkway, Reno sold his patents to Otis and returned to the U.S.

Invention?
FOUNTAIN PEN

Who invented it?

Lewis Waterman

Page No.

Born : November 18, 1837 Decatur, New York Died : May 1, 1901 Parents : Nationality: America Invention : Fountain pen Year : 1884

The Story: Though necessity may be the mother of invention, perhaps it is frustration that fuels the fire; or so it seemed for Lewis Waterman. In 1883, Lewis Waterman was an insurance broker in New York City, getting ready to sign one of his hottest contracts. In honor of the occasion, Lewis Waterman bought a new fountain pen that he considered far more stylish than a cumbersome dip pen and ink well. With the contract on the table and the pen in the clients hand, the pen refused to write, and actually leaked onto the precious document. Horrified, Lewis Waterman raced back to his office for another contract, but a competing broker had closed the deal. Determined to never again suffer such humiliation, Waterman began to make fountain pens in his brothers workshop. Lewis Waterman used the capillarity principle which allowed air to induce a steady and even flow of ink. He christened his pen "the Regular," decorated it with wood accents, and obtained a patent for it in 1884. In his first year of operation, Waterman sold his hand-made pens out of the back of a cigar shop. He guaranteed the pens for five years and advertised in a trendy magazine, The Review of Review. The orders filtered in. By 1899, Lewis Waterman opened a factory in Montreal and was offering a variety of designs. In 1901, upon Watermans death, his nephew, Frank D. Waterman took the business overseas and increased sales to 350,000 pens per year. The Treaty of Versailles was signed using a solid gold Waterman pen, a far cry from the day Lewis Waterman lost his important contract due to a leaky fountain pen.

Invention?
GRAVITATION GEOMETRIC COMPASS GUILLOTINE

Who invented it?

Sir Isaac Newton Galileo Galilei Joseph Guillotine

Page No.

Birth :Jan.4, 1643 Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, England Death :March 31, 1727 in Kensington, London, England Parents :Isaac Newton and wife Hannah Ayscough Nationality: England Invention : Newtonian mechanics, Universal gravitation, Optics, Newton's method, Binomial series Year :1668 Signature :

The Story: Sir Isaac Newton is considered one of the most popular and influential scientist in the history of science and mathematics today. He was born prematurely in Woolsthrope-by-Colsterworth Lincolnshire, England the same year the famous astronomer Galileo died. Information about his early years in school does not mention anything about his propensity toward becoming a great scientist later. He did construct ingenious playthings such as miniature mills, clocks and sundials while he was in grammar school. While at Cambridge, Isaac Newton was influenced by the lectures held by Isaac Barrow, who had worked on methods of calculating areas and finding tangents to curves. By a stroke of luck Newton landed in the right place at the right time. Those two problems Barrow was working on lead Newton to pursue the development of the two fundamental principles of calculus, now called integral and differential calculus. Newton propounded several ideas and theories during his solitude. Although Newton was known as an open and generous person, at various times in his life he became involved in quarrels and controversies. The most well known controversy was his dispute with Leibniz over which of them had first invented calculus; today they are both honored for their work. These are the main ones: Calculus Universal law of gravitation Binomial Theorem Theory of Optics

Born :15 February 1564 Pisa, Duchy of Florence, Italy Died : 8 January 1642(aged 77)Arcetri,Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy Parents : Vincenzo Galilei & Giulia Ammannati Nationality: Italy Invention : Geometric compass, better 30X magnification telescope, 'invented' that the sun was the center of the solar system and not the earth Year : 1590s onwards Signature : The Story: Galileo pioneered "experimental scientific method" and was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries. In 1609 Galileo learned of the invention of the telescope in Holland. From the barest description he constructed a vastly superior model. Galileo made a series of profound discoveries using his new telescope, including the moons of the planet Jupiter and the phases of the planet Venus . As a professor of astronomy at University of Pisa, Galileo was required to teach the accepted theory of his time that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. Galileo's observations with his new telescope convinced him of the truth of Copernicus's sun-centered or heliocentric theory. Galileo's support for the heliocentric theory got him into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1633 the Inquisition convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant (publicly withdraw) his support of Copernicus. They sentenced him to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed him serve his term under house arrest at his villa . Galileo's originality as a scientist lay in his method of inquiry. First he reduced problems to a simple set of terms on the basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved them according to simple mathematical descriptions. The success with which he applied this technique to the analysis of motion opened the way for modern mathematical and experimental physics. Isaac Newton used one of Galileo's mathematical descriptions, "The Law of Inertia," as the foundation for his "First Law of Motion.Galileo became blind at the age of 72. His blindness has often been attributed to damage done to his eyes by telescopic observations he made of the Sun in 1613. The truth is he was blinded by a combination of cataracts and glaucoma.

Born : 28 May 1738 Saintes, France Died : 26 March 1814(aged 75)Paris, France Parents : Nationality: France Invention : Guillotine Year : 1790s The Story: As a member of the assembly Guillotine mainly directed his attention towards medical reform, and it was on 10 October 1789, during a debate on capital punishment, that he proposed that "the criminal shall be decapitated; this will be done solely by means of a simple mechanism." The "mechanism" was defined as "a machine that beheads painlessly". At that time, beheading in France was typically done by axe or sword, which did not always cause immediate death. Additionally, beheading was reserved for the nobility, while commoners were typically hanged. Dr. Guillotine assumed that if a fair system was established where the only method of capital punishment was death by mechanical decapitation, then the public would feel far more appreciative of their rights. Despite this proposal, Guillotine was opposed to the death penalty and hoped that a more humane and less painful method of execution would be the first step toward a total abolition of the death penalty. He also hoped that fewer families and children would witness executions, and vowed to make them more private and individualized. It was also his belief that a standard death penalty by decapitation would prevent the cruel and unjust system of the day. On 1 December 1789, Guillotine made an unfortunate remark during a follow-up speech to the Assembly about capital punishment. "Now, with my machine, I cut off your head in the twinkling of an eye, and you never feel it!" The statement quickly became a popular joke, and few days after the debate a comic song about Guillotine and "his" machine circulated, forever tying his name to it. NOTE: The guillotine is a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body.

Invention?
LOGARITHMS
LIGHT BULB(INCADECENT) LIGHT BULB(ELECTRIC)

Who invented it?

John Napier
Henry Goebel Thomas Alva Edison

Page No.

Born :1550Merchiston Tower, Edinburgh Died :4 April 1617 (aged 6667) Edinburgh Nationality: Scotland Parents :Sir Archibald Napier Janet Bothwell Invention :Logarithms, Napier's bones, Decimal notation Year :1590 The Story: John Napier was born was born in Merchiston Tower, Edinburgh, in 1550, the son of Archibald Napier, the Master of the Mint in Scotland. Young John Napier entered St-Salvadors College, University of St-Andrews, at the age of 13. It is rumored that during his youth, Napier also studied in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. He only returned to Scotland in 1571, to marry his first wife, Elizabeth, with who he had a son. Elizabeth died that same year, and in 1572, Napier married his second wife, Agnes, with whom he had five sons and five daughters. Napier spent much of his time tending to his estates, inventing new ways to fertilize the soil in order to grow more bountiful crops, and maintaining greener grass. Napier, also referred to as the "Marvelous Merchiston", may have come from a wealthy family, but he was a man of many talents, decent values and high intelligence who truly deserved all he was awarded. 18th century philosopher David Hume later wrote about Napier, saying he was a "person to whom the title of a great man is more justly due than to any other whom his country ever produced". Fortunately for us, Napier's "hobby", yielded much more accurate results. What little time was left to the Theologian was spent studying mathematics, and developing new tools and mnemonic formulas to make the process of calculation easier. Perhaps it was Napier's lack of free time which led to his invention of Napier's rods, but there is no doubt his greatest achievement was the publication of A Description of the Admirable Table of Logarithms in 1614 . While logarithms had already been invented by Swiss mathematician Jost Burgi, it was Napier's work which brought them into the public eye. Napier also claimed he had been contemplating logarithms as early as 1694, and many of the era's most important scientists, including astronomer Tyco Brahe were waiting in anticipation for his work to be published.

Born : April 20, 1818 Springe, Germany Died : December 4, 1893 Parents : Heinrich Christian GbelMarie Eleonore ne Hper Nationality: Germany/America Invention : Incandescent light bulb Year : 1890s

The Story: His father, Heinrich Christian Gbel, was a gardener and later a door-to-door salesman for chocolate. The name of his mother was Marie Eleonore ne Hper. At that time Springe was a small village in the Kingdom of Hanover with less than 2.000 inhabitants. Most of them worked in agriculture. 1832 Henry Goebel finished school with bad results. His teacher added this comment: "He seems to have an inventive mind. The reasons of the poor marks appear to be in his lengthy illness." In 1834 master locksmith Gerhard Linde of Springe admitted Henry Goebel as an apprentice for 3 years. It is not known whether Henry Goebel finished this training. 1837 he started to work as a repair mechanic on markets. Later in New York he gave 1837 as the foundation date of his business. In 1844 Henry Goebel married Sophie Lbke ne Rodewig. In the documents he gave watchmaker as his profession at that time. There are no sources to confirm a training as watchmaker. Probably Goebel learned by doing and did work comparable to a precision mechanic. He operated a one person business repairing clocks. His son Johann Carl was born 1846, and his daughter Marie Sophie in 1848. In 1848, at the age of 30, Henry Goebel and his family emigrated to New York City. They left Germany in 1848 on the sailing ship "J.W.Andrews" and arrived in New York in January 1849. According to the list of passengers of the ship, he gave "mechanic" as his profession. The reasons for emigration are not known.

Born : February 11, 1847 Milan, Ohio, United States Died :October 18, 1931(aged 84) West Orange, New Jersey, United States Parents : Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. & Nancy Matthews Elliott Nationality: America Invention : Phonograph and electric light bulb Year : 1877 and 1879 (respectively) Signature : The Story: Thomas Alva Edison, whose development of a practical electric light bulb, electric generating system, soundrecording device, and motion picture projector had profound effects on the shaping of modern society. His greatest invention may not have been his products but the funding and impotence he placed on his company's research and development efforts. He attended school for only three months in Michigan. When he was 12 years old he began selling newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railway, devoting his spare time mainly to experimentation with printing presses and with electrical and mechanical apparatus. While working as a telegraph operator, he made his first important invention, a telegraphic repeating instrument that enabled messages to be transmitted automatically over a second line without the presence of an operator. He invented a vote recorder & a stock-quotation printer . Afterward he devised an automatic telegraph system that made possible a greater speed and range of transmission. Important in the development of the telephone, which had recently been invented by the American physicist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell, was Edison's invention of the carbon telephone transmitter. In 1877 Edison announced his invention of a phonograph by which sound could be recorded mechanically on a tinfoil cylinder. Two years later he exhibited publicly his incandescent electric light bulb, his most important invention and the one requiring the most careful research and experimentation to perfect. This new light was a remarkable success; Edison promptly occupied himself with the improvement of the bulbs and of the dynamos for generating the necessary electric current. In 1882 he developed and installed the world's first large central electric-power station, located in New York City. His use of direct current, however, later lost out to the alternating-current system developed by the American inventors Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse.

Invention?
MILING MACHINE MICROELECTRODE

Who invented it?

Elias Whitney Ida Hyde

Page No.

Born :8 September 1857 Davenport, Iowa Died : 22 August 1945 Berkeley, California Parents :Meyer and Babette Heidenheimer Nationality: America Invention : Micro electrode Year :1930s The Story: Ida Hyde broke down the barriers in Germany to advanced education for women and was the first women to work in the medical school at the University of Heidelberg. She did research on a variety of physiological aspects of health and wrote two textbooks as well as numerous papers on physiology, all of which were well received. She continued her studies that year at Bryn Mawr College, but after a professor at the University of Strasburg heard about her research project on jellyfish, he invited her to Germany on a fellowship in 1893. At that time there were no German universities that allowed women students, but she was allowed use of the laboratory. When she could not gain entrance at Strasburg, she persisted with the University of Heidelberg, which accepted her as a Ph.D. candidate. She graduated with honors in 1896. Hyde worked at the Naples Zoological Station, doing research on octopus salivary glands, then came back to the United States to work at Harvard Medical School. She studied the hearts blood flow and also taught at some preparatory schools. In 1898 she moved to the University of Kansas, becoming professor of physiology in the medical school. Hyde was active in community health and lectured on numerous public health concerns while at Kansas. She also began a program to examine children with communicable diseases. Her research included many aspects of physiology. She studied the effects of the environment and nutrition on the nervous system, the reactions of various animals to drugs, alcohol, and stress, and the effects of caffeine on humans. She also developed a microelectrode that enabled her to stimulate and study a single cell (Shor 1999, 613).

Invention?
NECKTIE

Who invented it?

Jesse Langsdorf

Page No.

Born :-NADied : 1942 Parents : Jesse G. and Margaret Langsdorf Nationality: America Invention : Neck tie Year : 1920

The Story: Jesse Morrison Langsdorf established his reputation as a banker, but his descendants are known mostly for their legal endeavors. Langsdorf already had carved out a colorful career before arriving in Vancouver. He had been in the military in the Civil War, worked on construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, then entered the banking business in Utah in 1869. He was involved in banks in Corinne, Ogden and Salt Lake City. He married his wife, Catherine, at Corinne in 1872. For about a decade starting in 1899, Langsdorf was a banker at Salmon, Idaho. He came to Vancouver in 1910 and organized the United States National Bank. This firm outgrew its building, and shortly before World War I the bank moved into a new home in what then was Vancouver's tallest building. It now is known as the Heritage Building. Langsdorf's sons, Joseph S.G. Langsdorf and Jesse Langsdorf, assisted in the banking business.J. Guthrie Langsdorf, practiced law in Vancouver until World War II, in the firm Wilkinson and Langsdorf. In 1941 he joined the Army Air Corps, and he left the service in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel. Langsdorf was sworn in as Clark County Superior Court judge in 1955, replacing Charles W. Hall. He continued in the position for 22 years, the longest for any of the county's Superior Court judges. Langsdorf also at times sat on the state Supreme Court as a justice pro tem. Langsdorf's wife, Dorothy, former teacher and librarian, was leader in the efforts to build Discovery Trail in the Vancouver area. She also worked successfully to get dual listing of husbands' and wives names in the telephone book.

Invention?
PRINTING PRESS PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT POCKET WATCH PHONOGRAPH PARACHUTE PAPER

Who invented it?

Johannes Gutenberg Heinrich Rudolf Hertz Peter Heinlein Thomas Alva Edison Leonardo Da Vinci Cai Lun

Page No.

PRESSURE SUIT
PASTEURIZATION

Evgeniy Chertovsky
Louis Pasteur

Birth : c1400 in Mainz, Germany Death : February 3, 1468 in Mainz, Germany Nationality :German Parents : Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden & wife Else Wyrich Occupation: Engraver, Inventor, and Printer Invention : printing press Year :1440 Definition : A machine that transfers lettering or images by contact with various forms of inked surface onto paper or similar material fed into it in various ways. The Story: When Johannes Gutenberg, the father of modern printing by some scholars, began building his press in 1436, he was unlikely to have realized that he was giving birth to an art form which would take center stage in the social and industrial revolutions which followed. He was German, his press was wooden, and the most important aspect of his invention was that it was the first form of printing to use movable type. Before books could be mass produced, several developments were necessary. A ready supply of suitable material that could be printed on, introduction of the technique of making paper was required. Finally, a press was needed for transferring the image from type to paper. Johannes Gutenberg's innovations was to adapt presses used for making wine, cheese and paper for the printing process. An operator worked a lever to increase and decrease the pressure of the block against the paper. The invention of the printing press, in turn, set off a social revolution that is still in progress. Legal documents indicate that Gutenberg probably began printing the Bible around 1450.The oldest surviving Bible printed with movable type is often called the Gutenberg Bible (named after its printer Johannes Gutenberg), or the 42-line Bible (so called because with few exceptions, each page has 42 lines of print), or the Mazarin Bible (because the first copy to recapture attention in 1760 was found in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, in Paris). History records that Gutenbergs declining years were spent in the court of Archbishop Adolf of Nassau. In all likelihood he died at Mainz in 1468

Born : around 1480 / 1485 Died : 1542 Nationality: Germany Parents : Hans Heinlein & Barbara Invention : Pocket watch Year :1504-1508

The Story: Peter Heinlein (or Henle or Hele) (1479/1480 August 1542), a locksmith and watchmaker from Nuremberg, is often considered the inventor of the portable timekeeper, making him the inventor of the watch, but this claim is disputed. His small, drum-shaped Taschenuhr, a portable watch which he built and made during his asylum from 1504 to 1508, could run for forty hours before it needed rewinding. Although many sources erroneously credit Heinlein with the invention of the mainspring, descriptions and two surviving examples show that spring driven clocks existed by the early 1400s.

Born :April 15, 1452 Vinci, in the present day Province of Florence, Italy Died :May 2, 1519(aged 67)Amboise, (in present-day Indre-et-Loire, France) Parents :Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci & Caterina Nationality: Italy Invention : Lens grinding machine, parachute, Strut bridge, automatic bobbin winder, and also machine for testing tensile strength of wires Year :1500 The Story: A painter, a sculptor, an architect and an engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci's numerous skills have earned him the title of renaissance master. Da Vinci's fascination with science and his in-depth study of human anatomy aided him in mastering the realist art form. While Leonardo's counterparts were known to create static figures in their works, Leonardo always tried to incorporate movement and expression into his own paintings. His life experiences all influenced his works and often, his paintings never left the sketchpad, or were only partially completed, as Leonardo often abandoned his commissions in order to flee from social situations. Today, there are records of only few Da Vinci paintings, and 20 notebooks. Thankfully, these works have been preserved over the hundreds of years since Leonardo's time, and while his works are scattered in different areas of the globe, everyone can enjoy Da Vinci through the numerous books detailing his life, or through any of the many Da Vinci posters that have been printed. renown by people all over the map, and those of us who cannot travel to view the true works that the genius created can at least bring home a piece of him when we buy Da Vinci posters or prints. His most famous paintings, and the most popular Da Vinci posters around, are those of The Last Supper, The Mona Lisa and Vitruvian Man: The Proportions of the Human Figure. These works, displayed in Milan and Paris respectively, are among the most influential works ever created. For those who want a quick study, The Leonardo Timeline offers a glance through the artist's life, while the biography section of this site offers a more detailed view of Leonardo Da Vinci and what shaped the man and his many talents.

Born :ca. 50Guiyang (today Leiyang), China Died : 121 China Parents :-NANationality: China Invention : Paper and paper making process Year : 105 AD

The Story: Cai Lun was a Chinese eunuch, who is conventionally regarded as the inventor of paper and the papermaking process, in forms recognizable in modern times as paper . Although paper existed in China before Cai Lun, he was responsible for the first significant improvement and standardization of papermaking by adding essential new materials into its composition. After serving as a court eunuch since 75 AD, he was given several promotions under the rule of Emperor He. In 89 AD he was promoted with the title of Shang Fang Si (an office in charge of manufacturing instruments and weapons) and he also became a paperwork secretary. In 121, after Consort Song's grandson Emperor An assumed power after Empress Deng's death, Cai was ordered to report to prison. Before he was to report, he committed suicide by drinking poison after taking a bath and dressing in fine robes. In 105 AD, Cai Lun (along with help from an imperial consort Deng) invented the composition for real paper along with the papermaking process. Although tools and machinery of papermaking in modern times may be more complex, they still employ the ancient technique of felted sheets of fiber suspended in water, draining of the water, and then drying into a thin matted sheet. As listed above, the papermaking process included the mixture of materials like bark, hemp, silk, and even fishing net, but his exact formula has been lost to history. Emperor He of Han was pleased with the invention and granted Cai an aristocratic title and great wealth.

Born :February 15, 1902 Died : Parents : Nationality: Russia Invention : Pressure suit Year : 1931

The Story: Evgeniy Chertovsky was a Soviet Russian inventor who designed the first full pressure suit in Leningrad in 1931. Chertovsky, an engineer of Aviation Medicine Institute, was involved in early Soviet stratospheric balloon program, and co-designed the ill-fated Osoaviakhim-1. The first aircraft designed for crew wearing Chertovsky pressure suits could have been a gigantic (300,000 cubic meters) USSR-3 balloon that burnt down on launch pad in September 1935. The CH-1 was a simple pressure-tight suit with helmet which did not have joints, thus requiring substantial force to move the arms and legs when pressurized. This was remedied in CH-2 (19321935) and later suits, up to the 1940 CH-7.CH-3 was the first operational suit that allowed the pilot sufficient freedom of movement, first tested in flight in 1937 at 12 kilometer altitude. Chertovsky coined the term "skafander" for full pressure suits; from the Greek words skaf ("boat", "ship") and Andros ("man"); skafander has since become the term used by Russians to refer to standard diving dresses or space suits.

Born :December 27, 1822Dole, Jura, France Died : September 28, 1895(Age 72)Marnes-la-Coquette, France Parents : Nationality: France Invention : Pasteurization Year : Late 19th century The Story: Each time we go to the refrigerator and take out a bottle of milk, we should be reminded of the work of the outstanding French scientist, Louis Pasteur. Pasteur discovered that milks turns sour because of the action of tiny living organisms too small to see with the naked eye. He developed a process of gently heating foodstuffs like milks to kill these organisms without changing the flavour or nutritional value. This process, named pasteurization in honour of its developer, is just one of Pasteurs great contributions to mankind. Pasteur had a good theoretical understanding of microbes. He sought to apply his findings to the practical problem of stopping wine from spoiling. As many families depended on the wine industry for their livelihoods, and the French economy was heavily dependent on wine exports, this was a big problem. Pasteur achieved success by slightly modifying the process used with the broth. Boiling the wine would alter its flavour. Therefore, Pasteur heated the wine enough to kill most of the microbes present without altering the flavour. Chilling prevented any microbes left from multiplying. (As with the broth, it was necessary to prevent new microbes from entering from the air as well.) To his great delight, Pasteur found that this process could also prevent milks from turning sour and preserve many other foodstuffs as well. If Louis Pasteur had chosen to patent this process, he would have become a rich man. Instead, he chose to make his discovery freely available so that all could benefit from it. His only reward was fame and recognition, with the new process becoming known as pasteurization.

Invention?
RICHTER SCALE

Who invented it?

Charles F. Richter

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Born : April 26, 1900 Hamilton, Ohio Died : September 30, 1985 (aged 85) Pasadena, California Parents : Fred W. Kinsinger and Lillian Anna Richter Nationality: America Invention : Richter magnitude scale for measuring earthquake Year : 1935 The Story: Charles F. Richter is remembered every time an earthquake happens. With German-born seismologist Beno Gutenberg, Richter developed the scale that bears his name and measures the magnitude of earthquakes. Richter was a pioneer in seismological research at a time when data on the size and location of earthquakes were scarce. He authored two textbooks that are still used as references in the field and are regarded by many scientists as his greatest contribution, exceeding the more popular Richter scale. As a young research assistant, Richter made his name early when he began a decades-long collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, who was then the director of the laboratory. The seismological laboratory at Cal Tech was planning to issue regular reports on southern California earthquakes, so the Gutenberg-Richter study was especially important. At the time, the only way to rate shocks was a scale developed in 1902 by the Italian priest and geologist Giuseppe Mercalli. The Mercalli scale classified earthquakes from 1 to 12, depending on how buildings and people responded to the tremor. The obvious problem with the Mercalli scale was that it relied on subjective measures of how well a building had been constructed and how used to these sorts of crises the population was. The scale developed by Richter and Gutenberg, which became known by Richter's name only, was instead an absolute measure of an earthquake's intensity. Richter used a seismographan instrument generally consisting of a constantly unwinding roll of paper, anchored to a fixed place, and a pendulum or magnet suspended with a marking device above the rollto record actual earth motion during an earthquake. The scale takes into account the instrument's distance from the epicenter, or the point on the ground that is directly above the earthquake's origin. Richter chose to use the term "magnitude" to describe an earthquake's strength because of his early interest in astronomy; stargazers use the word to describe the brightness of stars.

Invention?
STEAM ENGINE(ATO.) SCRABBLE SWIN FINS

Who invented it?

Thomas Newcomen Alfred Butts Benjamin Franklin

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SEWING MACHINE

Elias Howe

Born :February 1663 in Dartmouth Died : August 5, 1729 in London, England Nationality: England Invention :Atmospheric steam engine Year :1710 The Story: An English blacksmith, iron merchant, engineer and inventor of the first economical steam enginethe atmospheric steam engine. He was born in 1663 in Dartmouth, Devonshire (England).Newcomen became aware of the high cost of using the power of horses to pump water out of tin mines. At the age of 35, Newcomen went into partnerships with Thomas Savery, an English inventor who had created a less efficient steam engine and obtained numerous patents. Under this association and patent, Newcomen manufactured engines of his own design. The most famous of the Newcomen-Savery engines was recognized near Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, in 1712.Newcomen continued to pursue his goal to build an efficient and reliable steam engine. In 1705, he associated with another English inventor, John Calley, and succeeded in the creation of an engine. He and his assistant experimented for about ten years with a steam pump. He devised a model of an atmospheric engine, which employed both low-pressure steam and atmospheric pressure. It contained a piston that was moved by an atmospheric pressure, in a cylinder in which a vacuum had been created. The vacuum originated from the usage of cooling water to condense steam. This device was highly utilized for water pumping in most of Europe and later improved by Newcomen in 1725.Newcomen's engine was used to drain mines and rise to power waterwheels for many years. One of the characteristics that distinguish later steam engines from Newcomen's engine is that they rely on steam pressure to move the piston. The pressure of the steam in Newcomen's engine did not limit the intensity of pressure. In 1755, his engine was exported to North America. It did not suffer any modifications until about 1769, when James Watt, a Scottish inventor and engineer, created a steam condenser that increased the efficiency of the engine. The Watt engine had almost entirely replaced the Newcomen engine by 1790.

Born : April 13, 1899 in Poughkeepsie, New York Died : April 4, 1993 Parents : Allison Butts and Arrie Elizabeth Mosher Nationality: America Invention : Scrabble Year : 1938

The Story: In the early 1930s after working as an architect but now unemployed, Butts set out to design a board game. He studied existing games and found that games fell into three categories: number games such as dice and bingo; move games such as chess and checkers; and word games such as anagrams. A resident of Jackson Heights, it was there that the game of Scrabble was invented. Butts decided to create a game that utilized both chance and skill by combining elements of anagrams and crossword puzzles, a popular pastime of the 1920s. Players would draw seven lettered tiles from a pool and then attempt to form words from their seven letters. A key to the game was Butts' analysis of the English language. Butts studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how frequently each letter of the alphabet was used. He then used each letter's frequency to determine how many of each letter he would include in the game. He included only four "S" tiles so that the ability to make words plural would not make the game too easy. Butts initially called the game "Lexiko", but later changed the name to "Criss Cross Words. He sold the rights to entrepreneur and game-lover James Brunot. Brunot made a few minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game "Scrabble", a word meaning "to grope frantically. In 1948, the game was trademarked and James Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgington, Connecticut, into a Scrabble factory. In 1949, the Brunots made 2,400 sets, but lost $450. The game, however, was steadily gaining popularity. By 1952, the Brunots could no longer keep up with demand and licensed game maker Selchow and Righter to market and distribute the game.

Born :January 17, 1706 Boston, Massachusetts Bay Died : April 17, 1790(aged 84) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Parents : Josiah Franklin & Abiah Folger Nationality: America Invention :Lighting rod, bifocals, Franklin stove, swim fins, urinary catheter and also the carriage odometer Year : 1950s Signature : The Story: A list of Benjamin Franklin's inventions reveals a man of many talents and interests. It was the scientist in Ben that brought out the inventor. His natural curiosity about things and the way they work made him try to find ways to make them work better. Ben had poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got tired of constantly taking them off and putting them back on, so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Today, we call them bifocals. Even though Ben is not famous for his study of bioscience, he was interested in how the human body works and looked for ways to help it work better. Ben developed a flexible urinary catheter for his older brother John who suffered from kidney stones. Although he made important discoveries and advancements, Ben did not "invent" electricity. He did, however, invent the lightning rod which protected buildings and ships from lightning damage. His invention of an iron furnace stove allowed people of colonial America to warm their homes less dangerously and with less wood. The furnace stove that he invented is called a Franklin stove. Interestingly enough, Ben also established the first fire company and the first fire insurance company in order to help people live more safely. As postmaster, Ben had to figure out routes for delivering the mail. He went out riding in his carriage to measure the routes and needed a way to keep track of the distance. He invented a simple odometer and attached it to his carriage. In his old age, Ben retired from business and public service and wanted to spend his time reading and studying. Even though he had many grandchildren to help him, he invented a tool called a long arm to reach the high books. The long arm was a long wooden pole with a grasping claw at the end.

Born :July 9, 1819 Spencer, Massachusetts Died :October 3, 1867 (aged 48)Brooklyn, New York Parents :Elias Howe and Polly (Bemis) Howe Nationality: America Invention : Sewing machine Year : 1846 The Story: Howe, Elias (1819-1867), the inventor of the American sewing machine. He was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, and died in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a farmer and a miller. Young Elias worked for his father on the farm and in the mill, and attended district school in the winter time. He learned the trade of a machinist. He patented his sewing machine in 1846. He visited England and took out a patent there. He was for a number of years poor, even destitute, and embarrassed by numerous lawsuits. About 1854 his rights under the patent were accepted by various manufacturers, who paid him a royalty, and he became a wealthy man. Nevertheless, he served as a private soldier during the Civil War, and, at a time when it was not known whether the general government was able to pay its debts, he invested his available money in United States bonds. By all accounts, he was a worthy, industrious, patriotic, inventive man. Howe was by no means the first to work at the general problem of a sewing machine, nor, indeed, was he the first to invent a possible contrivance. His inspiration came in the form of the thought to place the eye of the needle in the point, to thrust the thread through the fabric instead of drawing it after. With this idea in mind the rest was easy.

Invention?
TYPEWRITERS TELEPHONE TRAFFIC SIGNAL

Who invented it?

Karl Drais Alexander Graham Bell Garrett Morgan

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Born : April 29, 1785 Died : December 10, 1851 Parents : Karl Wilhelm Ludwig von DraisMargarete Ernestine von Kaltenthal Nationality: Germany Invention : Bicycle, typewriter with keyboard and wood saving cooker Year :1820 The Story: Born in 1785 in the southwestern German city of Karlsruhe, Baron Karl Drais was one of the most creative German inventors of the 19th century: an aristocrat who became a democrat and supported the failed revolution of 1848, a man simultaneously admired and mercilessly ridiculed by his contemporaries. Originally a civil servant working for the Grand Duke of Badenia's forestry service, he later became a professor of mechanics. Hated by his fellow aristocrats for his democratic leanings, he was ruined by various intrigues. Drais went to Brazil for a few years before returning to his native Germany. In 1838 he survived an assassination attempt. Because of his support for the revolution, the authorities that had crushed the revolt tried to declare him mentally incompetent. He died impoverished in 1851. While modern versions of Drais' meat grinder are still in use in countless butcher shops and households today, the invention that made him famous in 1817 is the Laufmaschine (running machine) - the ancestor of the bicycle. An instant - though short-lived - international success, the running machine became known under various names: Draisine in Germany, velocipede (fast feet) or Draisienne in France, hobby horse or dandy horse in England. Drais' big democratic idea behind the running machine was to find a musclepowered replacement for the horse that would allow large numbers of people faster movement than walking or riding in a coach. Horses were expensive, needed a groom and consumed lots of food even when not in use. Drais undertook his first documented ride on July 12, 1817, setting out from the city of Mannheim and covering a distance of about 13 kilometers in one hour.

Born : March 3, 1847 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Died : August 2, 1922(aged 75) Nova Scotia, Canada Parents :Alexander Melville Bell & Eliza Grace Symonds Bell Nationality: Scotland Invention : Telephone Year : 1875 Signature : The Story: Alexander Graham Bell Immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871. In the United States he began teaching deaf-mutes, publicizing the system called visible speech. The system, which was developed by his father, the Scottish educator Alexander Melville Bell, shows how the lips, tongue, and throat are used in the articulation of sound. Since the age of 18, Bell had been working on the idea of transmitting speech. In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, he developed the basic ideas for the telephone. His experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally proved successful on March 10, 1876, when the first complete sentence was transmitted: "Watson, come here; I want you." Subsequent demonstrations, particularly one at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, introduced the telephone to the world. He improved the results with a series of experiments over the next few months, including a critical test with this instrument on November 26. That day he transmitted sound clearly over a wire between Cambridge and Salem, Massachusetts. This design, used for both the transmitter and the receiver, became standard for the commercial instruments introduced in 1877.With the money bestowed by France in 1880, he founded the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where, in that same year, he invented the photophone, which transmits speech by light rays. After 1895 Bell's interest turned mostly to aeronautics. Many of his inventions in this area were first tested near his summer home at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. His study of flight began with the construction of large kites, and in 1907 he devised a kite capable of carrying a person. With a group of associates, Bell developed the aileron, a movable section of an airplane wing that controls roll. They also developed the tricycle landing gear, which first permitted takeoff and landing on a flying field.

Born :March 4, 1877 Paris, Kentucky Died :August 27, 1963(aged 86) Cleveland, Ohio Parents : Nationality: African-American Invention : Traffic signal, gas mask and several other things Year : The Story: At the age of fifteen, Morgan moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in search of employment. Most of his teenage years were spent working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati landowner. Like many African-Americans of his day, Morgan had to quit school at a young age in order to work. However, the teen-aged Morgan was able to hire his own tutor and continued his studies while living in Cincinnati. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer. He married Madge Nelson in 1896, but the marriage ended in divorce. Word of his skill at fixing things and experimenting spread quickly throughout Cleveland, opening up various opportunities for him. In 1907, Morgan opened his own sewing machine and shoe repair shop. It was the first of several businesses he would own. In 1909, he expanded his business to include a tailoring shop. The company made coats, suits, dresses, and other clothing. Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish and prevented the needle from scorching fabric as it sewed. Accidentally, Morgan discovered that this liquid not only straightened fabric but also hair. He made the liquid into a cream and began the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. Morgan also made a black hair oil dye and a curved-tooth iron comb in 1910, to straighten hair. Between 1913 and 1921, many different versions of electric traffic signals were invented and installed throughout the U.S.A. In 1923, Garrett Morgan halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely. It was never put into production. Its one advantage over other semaphore types was the ability to operate it from a distance using a mechanical linkage, though there were already dozens of automatic systems patented and in use by 1923.

Invention?
WINDSHIELD WIPERS WATERPROOF RAINCOAT

Who invented it?

Mary Anderson Charles Mackintosh

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Born :1866 Greene County, Alabama Died :1953 (aged 87) Montage, Tennessee Nationality : America Occupation: Inventor Invention : Windshield wipers Year : 1903

The Story: Anyone who's ever driven in a rain or snow storm can attest to the dire importance of windshield wipers. What a lot of people don't know is that windshield wipers were invented by a woman. Inventor Mary Anderson received a patent for her car-window cleaning device in 1903. Mary Anderson was born in Greene County, Alabama, at the start of Reconstruction in 1866. In 1889 she moved with her widowed mother and sister to the booming town of Birmingham, Alabama. She built the Fairmont Apartments on Highland Avenue soon after settling in. By 1893, Mary Anderson had moved west to Fresno, California where until 1898 she operated a cattle ranch and vineyard. Andersons invention came about during a trip to New York City when the Alabama-born inventor noticed that streetcar drivers had to open the windows of their cars when it rained in order to see. As a solution, Anderson invented a swinging arm device with a rubber blade that was operated by the driver from within the vehicle using a lever. Many people were initially leery of Anderson's windshield wiper invention, thinking it would distract drivers, but by 1916 windshield wipers were standard on most vehicles. It was also a woman inventor who first patented the automatic windshield wiper in 1917 (Charlotte Ridgewoods "Storm Windshield Cleaner").

Born :29 December 1766 Glasgow Died : 25 July 1843 Dunchattan Parents : Nationality: Scotland Invention : Waterproof raincoat and life vest Year : 1820s The Story: Charles Mackintosh is known for many having invented many chemical creations during his time. His most famous invention, Mackintosh Cloth, is used in piano covers and rain gear to this day. This article describes the background of the invention and the uses of it in modern times. His passion, and how he spent his spare time, was devoted to his love of science, particularly chemistry. At the young age of 19 Charles resigned his job as a clerk to begin to work with the manufacturing of chemicals, which allowed him to directly involve his love of science. He was instantly and highly successful, inventing many new processes. His experiments with one of the by-products of tar called naphtha led to his most famous invention of waterproof fabrics. This invention came about when he experimented with the cementing of two layers of India-rubber together. The India-rubber being made soluble by the chemical mixture of the naphtha. For his various chemical discoveries he was, in 1823, elected a fellow of the Royal Society The fabric he developed for use in clothing had the ability to keep the harsh weather of his area in Scotland outside and then to keep the inner layer next to the skin warm and dry. The fabric was much better than traditional rain gear and was instantly approved by the people living in his time. Clothing began to embrace the concept and within 10 years his name was attached to most products associated with rain gear. In the piano business we know Charles best as the inventor of the Mackintosh fabric used in many piano covers. The Mackintosh fabric comes in multiple colors and helps to make any piano cover bright and beautiful. I typically describe the fabric as being a lot like a blue jean material that is more tightly woven. The fabric is soft and warm on the outside and is lined with felt to protect the piano as the cover is removed and

Invention?
X-RAYS XEROGRAPHY

Who invented it?

Wilhelm Conrad Rntgen Chester Carlson

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Born : 27 March 1845 in Lennep, Germany Died : 10 February 1923 (aged 77) Munich, Germany Nationality: German Parents : Friedrich Conrad & wife Charlotte Constanze Frowein Invention : X-rays Year :1895 Awards : Nobel Prize in Physics (1901) The Story: Wilhelm Conrad Rntgen was the only child of a merchant in, and manufacturer of, cloth. He did not show any special aptitude, but showed a love of nature and was fond of roaming in the open country and forests. His research also included work on elasticity, capillary action of fluids, specific heats of gases, conduction of heat in crystals, absorption of heat by gases, and piezoelectricity. Rontgens first work was published in 1870, dealing with the specific heats of gases, followed a few years later by a paper on the thermal conductivity of crystals. Among other problems he studied were the electrical and other characteristics of quartz; the influence of pressure on the refractive indices of various fluids; the modification of the planes of polarized light by electromagnetic influences; the variations in the functions of the temperature and the compressibility of water and other fluids. On the evening of November 8, 1895, he found that, if the discharge tube is enclosed in a sealed, thick black carton to exclude all light, and if he worked in a dark room, a paper plate covered on one side with barium platinocyanide placed in the path of the rays became fluorescent even when it was as far as two meters from the discharge tube. When he immobilized for some moments the hand of his wife in the path of the rays over a photographic plate, he observed after development of the plate an image of his wife's hand which showed the shadows thrown by the bones of her hand and that of a ring she was wearing, surrounded by the penumbra of the flesh, which was more permeable to the rays and therefore threw a fainter shadow. This was the first "rntgenogram" ever taken.

Born : February 8, 1906 Seattle, Washington, United States Died : September 19, 1968(aged 62) New York City, New York, United States Parents : Olaf Adolph Carlson & Ellen Josephine Hawkins Carlson Nationality: America Invention : Xerography photocopying Year : 1937-38 The Story: The astounding success of xerography is all the more remarkable because it was given little hope of surviving its infancy. For xerography, and the man who invented it, were both the products of hardship and travail. Even as a boy, Carlson had the curious mind that always asked the how and why of things. He was fascinated with the graphic arts and with chemistry . As he worked at his job, Carlson noted that there never seemed to be enough carbon copies of patent specifications, and there seemed to be no quick or practical way of getting more. The choices were limited to sending for expensive photo copies, or having the documents retyped and then reread for errors. A thought occurred to him: Offices might benefit from a device that would accept a document and make copies of it in seconds. He decided immediately not to research in the area of conventional photography, where light is an agent for chemical change, because that phenomenon was already being exhaustively explored in research labs of large corporations. Carlson then turned to the little-known field of photoconductivity, specifically of Hungarian physicist Paul Selenyi, who was experimenting with electrostatic images. He learned that when light strikes a photoconductive material, the electrical conductivity of that material is increased. Soon, though, he began some rudimentary experiments, beginning first in the kitchen of his apartment in . It was here that Carlson unearthed the fundamental principles of what he called electro photography --later to be named xerography -- and defined them in a patent application filed in September, 1938. Suffering from painful attacks of arthritis, Carlson decided to dip into his meager resources to pursue his research. He set up a small lab in nearby Astoria & hired an young physicist, a German refugee named Otto Kornei, to help with the lab work. It was here, in a rented second-floor room above a bar, where xerography was invented. This is Carlson's account of that moment: "I went to the lab that day and Otto had a freshly-prepared sulfur coating on a zinc plate. We tried to see what we could do toward making a visible image.

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