History of Science 2009

Team Project Results

2009-04-30T20:19:00.003-04:00

Okay, after some long deliberation, review and going back over reports sent in, as well a team progress reports from throughout the semester, I have the results below. As you can tell from the grades for the team below, the projects were all uniformly good, though some were better than others. The grading was based on more than just the final reports and team designs, but on all of the reports submitted throughout the semester.

A reminder, the grades listed are team grades, and individual grades may vary depending on contributions and reports (or lack thereof), and reports from the team captains about how team members performed. Everyone should be proud of the jobs they did and how the projects came out. Many were truly creative ideas and discussions about how their new technology would change the world if implemented.

I do admit there is a tie for first place, with two teams receiving A grades. Those teams captains are both exempt from taking the final exam. I also decided that no team captain will be punished with a lower grade than their overall team grade. *If you are unclear on whether you should take the final or not, please email me at my Florida Tech address.*

If you want to discuss your team's grade, I will be in my office on Monday from 2-3:15, and Thursday morning from 10:30 to noonish.

Again, great jobs everyone!

-----------------
Team 1 (Johnson, Wrolson, Stafford) A-/92
Team 1A (Kennedy, Jones, Aia, Bates) B/85
Team 2 (Beckwith, Harrigan, O'Donnell) A/95
Team 2A (Duro, Naranjo, Williams, Morozko) A/95
Team 3 (Roach, Merkatoris, Soto) A-/92
Team 3A (Gobish, Preston, Majoris, Lachhman) B/85
Team 4 (Ebberts, Blanchard) B /85
Team 4A (Tan, Sosa-Goth, Cyr, Wachtler) B+/88
Team X (McFadden, Turner, Burdette) B+/88

If your name is not on the list above, please contact me below. I will have blog grades done by the beginning of the week and you will receive an individual email with that grade.

Final Exam Questions

2009-04-29T13:48:00.001-04:00

Here are the long awaited final exam questions. You must turn in a typed copy of your answers by 12 pm (noon) on Thursday, May 7th. Late exams will be docked one letter grade for every hour they are late; no exam will be accepted past 5 pm. Please bring the exams to me personally (Crawford 625) or place in my mailbox opposite the elevators on the 6th floor of Crawford. Do not submit online!

The length of your answers may vary, depending on how well you decided to answer the questions. Any quotations need to be properly cited. Do not copy the answer from the book(s). These questions are usually part think piece, part historical. If you any questions, please send me an email.

YOU MUST ANSWER ONE QUESTION FROM EACH SECTION!

1.) Medicine and Modernity

A. Discuss the rise of tropical medicine as a speciality in the 19th and 20th centuries. What were some of the problems these new specialists had to face? How did exploration and travel in various parts of the world create new challenges for western medicine, not only a 100 years ago, but today as well?

B. By the end of the 20th century, medicine had become a "proverbial Leviathan" according to Roy Porter, comparable in size to that of the military as far as government intervention was concerned, and in many cases no less business- and money oriented than today's large corporation. How and why did medicine transform itself into a proverbial "industrial-medical" complex during the 20th century? Is this a good thing for western society?

2) Scientific Questions Big and Small

C. John Gribbin calls the "last hurrah of classical science" the transformation of geology into geophysics. Discuss this transformation in the 19th century and 20th centuries, not only briefly explaining the transformative process, but also what was being discussed by these new scientists. How do discussions by scientists seeking to explain the ice ages give us insight into the current debate about global warming?

D. Discuss briefly the developments in biology, from Mendel to the Human Genome Project. How do these discoveries shape how we see ourselves? How might current research into DNA, RNA and genetic material effect Darwin's ideas about natural selection?

3) Global Technology

E. How do the Internet, McDonald's and Hollywood lead to the creation of a "Global Culture" based in part on technology and the benefits of science? What is this supposed global culture argued about by pundits from all sides of the political spectrum? Is there really a global technology and culture for the 21st century? Explain.

Paul Tutmarc

2009-04-29T00:41:00.002-04:00

Paul Tutmarc was an American inventor who lived from 1896 to 1972. He is credited for inventing the modern day Bass Guitar. He also created many electrically amplified lap string guitars and double-basses. As opposed to the double-bass which is played vertically, the bass guitar is played horizontally and is in the shape of a 6 string guitar. Tutmarc was born in Minnesota and began playing multiple instruments at an early age. In his 20's he became known for his tenor voice and began working in radio and theater. In his 30's he began experimenting with amplification and "pick-ups". He invented the "Electric Bass Fiddle", a horizontal bass instrument with frets and electric pickups. It predated the Fender "Precision" Bass by a decade and a half.

Paul Tutmarc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_tutmarc.jpg

The Electric Bass Fiddle
http://www.bassic.ch/i_his_av.asp

Modern Day Bass Guitar
http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=78

Louis Goldenberg -- The Washing Mashine

2009-04-29T00:31:00.002-04:00

as early as 1904, electric washing machines were being discussed in magazines and newspapers. The first person to invent. since Goldenberg was working under Ford, the Ford motor company had rights to the patent. Goldenberg was from New Brunswick, NJ.

in 1937, a company called Bendix introduced the first washing machine like those of today. it featured a front loader and permanent connections to water supply, the drum lacked a suspension, so during certain cycles, the machine would "walk" much like older machines today do.

Unfortunately, it is not well known that Goldenberg is the true inventor of the washing machine, as this invention is commonly credited to Alva J Fisher because he was the first to create a washing machine with a round drum, but not the first electric washing machine.

Useful Information
http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/History-of-the-Washing-Machine-031-01.html

Luther George Simjian

2009-04-28T21:24:00.002-04:00

Luther George Simjian (January 28, 1905-October 23, 1997) grew up in Turkey, but moved to the US at the age of 15. He studied medicine in school, but always had a passion for photography. In 1939, he filed for 20 patents on his new invention, the Bankmatic Automated Teller Machine. A lot of the principles used in today's ATM's are based on the original machines that Simjian issued to City Bank of New York (today Citibank) for field tests. The machines didn't succeed in the beginning due to very little use by customers and thus it wasn't worth it for the banks to use. It wasn't until the later half of the 20th century before the ATM was widely used, but Simjian is rarely given credit for it since his wasn't electronic. Simjian went on to own over 200 patents in his life. He was still inventing until right before his death in 1997.

References:
Wikipedia
About.com

Virgina Apgar

2009-04-28T18:07:00.002-04:00

Dr. Virginia Apgar was born in June 1909. In 1949, she became the first female to become a full professor at New York Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. She latered developed the Apgar Scale in 1953, which is still used today. The Apgar scale is used on newborns to measure their health immediately after birth. The Apgar scale is administered to a newborn at one minute after birth and five minutes after birth. It scores the baby's heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color. This test quickly alerts medical personnel that the newborn baby needs assistance. She died in August 1974.

Link to picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Virginia_Apgar.jpg

Alfred Mosher Butts

2009-04-28T13:36:00.001-04:00

Alfred Mosher Butts was born on April 13th 1899 in Poughkeepsie. He went to school for architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. As an architect he worked on the Charles W. Berry housing project and the Stanford free Library in his home town of Stanfordville. Besides being the architect he was also the co-founder of the public library. He became unemployed during the depression and began to work on board games. He invented the game scrabble in 1920 although at first it was not called scrabble. It was first called Lexico and then changed to Criss Cross Words but when he found a buyer for the game the name was changed to Scrabble. He sold the game to James Brunot who himself made a few changes to the game before putting it into production. Alfred Mosher Butts died on April 4th 1993.

James Naismith

2009-04-28T12:30:00.002-04:00

Born in 1861 in Ontario, Canada, James Naismith is the inventor of basketball. From a young age it was clear that Naismith was better with his hands than at schoolwork. He became an orphan early on in life and spent most of his life living with his aunt and uncle. He graduated from Almonte High School on 1883 and then went on to enter McGill University located in Montreal, Canada. There, he excelled in sports and earned a BA in physical education (1888). He also graduated from the Presbyterian College in Montreal two years later. In 1891 he became the physical education teacher at McGill, eventually becoming the university's first director of athletics. He later left McGill for Springfield, Massachusetts to become a gym teacher at the YMCA International Training School there.

At the YMCA Naismith was faced by restless kids who were restricted to indoor activities through the extended northern winter. Dr. Luther Gulick, the director of Naismith's YMCA ordered Naismith to create a new indoor sport in two weeks. The sport was to be fair, athletically challenging, but not too rough. Naismith considered three guidelines. He examined popular games like rugby, soccer, lacrosse, football, and hockey. He considered the safest of the games and the most injury causing games and came up with the idea to have a game that let players guard each other but allowed physical contact with the other players.

In December of 1891 the first game was played at the YMCA with Naismith watching on. There were thirteen rules. It was nine on nine. The basketball was a soccer ball and the ball went between two peach baskets, not into one of them. The baskets were approximately ten feet off the ground and though the class wasn't exactly enthusiastic, it quickly became one of the center's most popular games. On March 11, 1892 the first public game of basketball was played in Springfield. Basketball was first played at the Olympics in Berlin, Germany in 1936.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexn.shtml#Naismith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Naismith

Final Exam Questions

2009-04-28T12:11:00.001-04:00

Willis Haviland Carrier - Air Conditioning (1902

2009-04-28T11:46:00.002-04:00

Willis Haviland Carrier was the inventor of the concept and design of the air conditioner. Shortly after he graduated from Cornell University the first temperature and humidity controller was in operation. In modern day it is something we take for granted. This concept also stabilized the environment and allowed for 4-color printing.

Willis' formula for designing air conditioners still stand as the fundamental set of equations in the industry. Willis' design allowed for better storage of other temperature controlled substances that could not normally be stored in hot, humid conditions. Willis did not invent the first structure to have this system but he was the first successful one.

Click here to view a picture of Willis

References:
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081797.htm

Woodland/ Silver

2009-04-28T11:38:00.002-04:00

The first way to identify products was through punch cards. These were first introduced during the great depression, but failed soon after due to the high cost and extra manual labor. This was the case until Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver first introduced the UPC Coding. The first UPC Bar Code was first introduced as a “bulls eye code”. It was a series of rings of different thicknesses that were printed with infrared ink. On October 20, 1949 they patented the bulls eye code, but this time it could be scanned with regular light and from multiple directions.
The UPC Bar Codes were a value to the sales, transportation, airlines, trade, and everywhere in-between. The bar codes were first invented in 1949, but were not in full use until the 1960’s. Silver was a graduate of Drexel Institute of Technology and Woodland who was working for Drexel, who decided to move into his parents place in Florida to further work on the UPC Bar Coding.

Bar Code
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UPC-A-036000291452.png

Silver
Not Found

Woodland
http://www.moah.org/exhibits/archives/brains/images/woodland.jpg

Edwin Perkins

2009-04-28T08:22:00.002-04:00

Edwin Perkins was born in 1889, in Lewis, Idaho. While living in Hastings, Nebraska, Perkins worked in his father's general store and sold Jell-O. In 1927, Perkins developed a powdered soft drink mix and named in Kool-Ade. His new drink was marketed in grocery stores and through mail order catalogs. Within a few years, the name was changed to Kool-Aid and sold world wide. Kool-Aid has now evolved into a household name. There were originally six flavors, but now there are more than 30 flavors.

Kool-Aid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kool-Aid.svg

Lewis Nixon (1861-1940)

2009-04-27T21:12:00.001-04:00

Lewis Nixon was born in Leesburg, Virginia in 1961. He died at the age of 79 in 1940. He was a shipbuilding executive, naval architect, and political activist.
Nixon graduated first in his class from the US Naval Academy in 1882 and was sent to study naval architecture at the Royal Naval College. He was appointed an assistant naval constructor with the rank of lieutenant. Later, he was assigned to the John Roach & Sons shipyard in Pennsylvania, allowing him to participate in the design and construction of three protected cruisers of the new steel navy: USS Atlanta, USS Boston, and USS Chicago. He also helped in designing the Indiana-class battleships.
Later, Lewis resigned and started working as Superintendent of Construction in William Cramp and Sons Shipbuilding Company. He started his own business in 1895 by leasing the Crescent Shipyard. Nixon started this new shipyard with Arthur Leopold Busch, the naval architect responsible for the development of the United States Navy's first submarines. The yard built many vessels, including USS Florida (BM-9) and USS Annapolis (PG-10). The famous USS Holland (SS-1) was one of the creations of that shipyard and is a very significant achievement in naval technology. The submarines success led to the order for more submarines of the "Holland Type" by the United States Government. These submarines became America's first fleet of underwater fighting vessels operated by the United States Navy on both coasts.

References
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/sonar_history.htm
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Lewis_Nixon_%28naval_architect%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Nixon_(naval_architect)

Lewis Nixon (1861-1940)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lewis_Nixon.jpg

Indiana-class battleships.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Indiana_BB-1.jpg

Katherine J. Blodgett (1898-1979)

2009-04-27T09:45:00.003-04:00

Katharine Blogett was born on January 10, 1898 in Schenectady, NY. She was an accomplished young woman, receiving a bachelors degree from Bryn Mawr in 1917 and received her Master's degree at age 19 from the University of Chicago. Blogett was the first woman to earn a P. H. D. in physics from Cambridge University in 1926. As the daughter of a well known attorney for General Electric, George Blogett, she had been given the opportunity to work with the research chemist Irving Langmuir at age 18. Shortly after receiving her Masters degree, she became the first female hired to work as a scientist for General Electric laboratory in Schenectady.

In the late 1930s, Katharine developed a way to use Langmuir’s monomolecular coating as a glare reduction for glass. She developed a way to add molecule-thick layers of the coating to glass and discovered a thickness of barium stearate film which would cancel out the reflection of clear glass. The result of her discovery was the first 100% transparent, invisible glass. She received a patent for her discovery in 1938 and her glass was applied to eyeglasses, telescopes, microscopes, and camera projector lenses throughout the world.

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/images/KJB1.gif
http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/blodgett1.jpg

Robert Goddard

2009-04-26T17:09:00.001-04:00

Robert Goddard - Rocket Propulsion

Dr. Robert Goddard was a physicist who taught at both Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University, and is considered to be the “father of modern rocket propulsion.” His research at those universities, as well as for various private and government organizations, was focused on the development of rocket technology. He gained early, widespread notoriety on the subject based on an article that he prepared for publication in a Smithsonian journal at the beginning of 1920. In it, Goddard described the grand potential that rockets possessed and even went so far as to claim their ability to carry a payload to the moon. This claim was seen as an absolutely foolish statement at the time and was publicly ridiculed by the New York Times.

Despite the public criticism of his work, Goddard continued to develop his designs and theories on rocket propulsion. On March 16, 1926 Robert launched his first liquid rocket from small farm in Massachusetts. Though it only flew 41 ft into the air, it proved that his concepts had merit, which helped him to continue to secure funding for his research. Interesting, though Goddard contacted the US Army concerning the military applications of his rockets and even presented several Army officials with videos of his launches, he was essentially ignored. Ironically, the German government was very aware of the military applications of his rocket technology so they enlisted their engineers to attempt to gain technical information from him. Robert closely guarded his technical data and never discussed sensitive rockets details with any of the German’s, but by gathering Goddard’s published information the German military was able to learn enough to build the infamous V2 rockets with many of his design components.

References:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/dr_goddard.html

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/goddard.html

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Goddard.html

Eduard Binney

2009-04-26T10:34:00.003-04:00

Every body's got them. or at least had them at one point in their life. box of 16, box of 24, 48, 64, 96, and if you are really lucky (like me) you had a box of 120. Im talking about crayons. and not those cheap imitation bastards, I'm talking the good stuff. Crayola.

Now, i've been lucky enough to visit the Crayola crayon factory in Pennsylvania. That place is baddass, and of course its located at the birthplace of Crayola.

Well, Crayola was born in Pa. but it really all started in NY where Joseph Binney owned a company that was responsible to adding black and red coloring to things like rubber car tires, and red paint. his son (Edward) and his nephew decided to expand the business to include other products such as shoe polish as well. The cousins bought a mill in Pa, and started producing pencils for school children, including award winning dustless chalk. the company that Edward's father ran used carbon to color the car tires and paint black, and carbon was far to toxic for school children. With motivation to produce safe art supplies in a variety of colors, the cousins worked with wax development and color mixing to produce (drumroll please) Crayola Crayons.

The cousins went on to broaden thair art supply empire by adding paints, chalk, glue, markers, and other art supplies. crayons remain the corner stone of their work, as new colors are still added every year.

http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/crayons.html

http://www.crayola.com/corporate/timeline.cfm?n_id=77

Clifford Berry

2009-04-24T15:16:00.002-04:00

Clifford Berry was born on April 19, 1918 in Gladbrook, Iowa. He was born 1st of four children, to a father who owned an electrical appliance repair store. His father, Fred Gordon Berry, had the first radio in Gladbrook. Clifford took an interest in the radio, and soon his father started teaching him about electrical appliances. Upon his graduation from high school, Clifford Berry went to Iowa State College to study Electrical engineering. Once in graduate school, together with his professor John Vincent Atanasoff, he created the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. This would be the world's first electronic digital computer, that could not be programmed. The computer was created to solve systems of linear equations. The computer was tested in 1942, with success. Despite this, when World War 2 came, Atanasoff was called off to other assignments, and Clifford Berry had to stop work on the Computer. He died suddenly in October 1963, at the age of 45.

Atanasoff-Berry Computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atanasoff-Berry_Computer_at_Durhum_Center.jpg

Clifford Berry
http://www.kerryr.net/images/pioneers/gallery/berry_lg.jpg

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_Computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Berry

Leighton Wilkie

2009-04-23T21:47:00.002-04:00

Leighton Wilkie was born in Minnesota in 1900. After college Wilkie devoted his life to manufactoring. He wanted to develope a better process for stamping metal parts. Wilkie successful found a way to improve the process and founded Continental Machines Inc. With his newly created company Wilkie was able to invent a new way of cutting metal called a band saw. This saw soon became a standard tool in industries of all kinds. Wilkie had a giant heart one of which had a passion for helping people and the industry that he fell in love with at a young age. Wilkie sponsored and raised many for many different museums and educational foundations. With his huge reach and genorous hand Wilkie gained fame in many circles. He continued on to become the founder of the international DoALL group of companies. Wilkie died in 1993 due to an illness but his companies and invention still live on and play a huge part in lives around the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/16/obituaries/leighton-a-wilkie-tool-manufacturer-and-an-inventor-93.html

http://www.americanprecision.org/option,com_easygallery/act,photos/cid,88/Itemid,78/

http://www.stoneageinstitute.org/Images/Wilkie%20portrait%20164%20cropped%20and%20contrast.jpg

http://www.old-woodworking-tools.net/images/delta-14-band-saw-1947-before-8258.jpg

Alfred Carlton Gilbert

2009-04-23T20:00:00.002-04:00

Alfred Carlton Gilbert was born in Salem, Oregon on Feb 13 or 14, 1884. He began his college education at Pacific University, and transferred to Yale in 1902. He graduated with a degree in sports medicine. During his time in school he worked as a magician. He was very athletic, setting records in chin-ups and running long dive. He helped develop pole vaulting, and tied for gold in the 1908 Olympics.

In 1913, he invented the erector set. The idea came from seeing steel girders along the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railway. He also developed chemistry sets, microscope sets, and model train sets. In 1918, he fought to keep manufacturing toys during WWI. Gilbert also co founded the Toy Manufacturers of America organization. He died in Boston, Massachusetts on Jan 24, 1961.

Photo of Gilbert: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/AlfredCarltonGilbert_c1915.jpg
Photo of Erector Set: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Erector_Set_Ad_1922.JPG

Sources:
http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/erector_set.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Carlton_Gilbert

Otto Frederick Rohwedder- Sliced Bread

2009-04-23T15:14:00.002-04:00

Otto was born July 7, 1880 in Des Moines, Iowa. He grew up leading a fairly dull life in the small town of Davenport, Iowa. He attended the Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Otology in Chicago and received a degree in optics in 1900. Otto first passion was working as a jeweler. He owned and operated three jewelry stores in Missouri, which he sold when he came up with a brilliant idea- sliced bread.

He started working on his bread-slicing machine in the 1910s. His first machines sliced the bread and held the slices together with metal pins. This prototype was not widely appreciated. He had the concept almost perfected when his factory and blueprints were lost in a fire in 1917. By 1927 he had recreated the invention with improvements and began manufacturing and advertising for his new product. The new bread-slicer also packaged the loafs in plastic to keep them from going stale. It was used commercially for the first time in 1928 by the Chillicothe Baking Company on its Kleen Maid Sliced Bread. Once people became more aware of his invention, it became in high demand and Otto sold his bread-slicing machine to Micro-Westco Company. Some of the products success can be attributed to the introduction of the pop-up toaster. These two inventions spurred each other’s popularity. Gustav Papendick improved on Otto’s design by inventing mechanized wrapping machines. “Now that’s the best thing since sliced bread!”

Otto lived most of his life in Michigan with his wife, Carrie, and his daughter, Margaret. Otto died November 8, 1960 in Concord, Michigan. An original model of Otto’s bread-slicing machine can still be seen at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

Earle Dickson

2009-04-22T11:07:00.002-04:00

Earle Dickson invented BAND-AID brand adhesive bandages. Back in the 1920s, his wife, Josephine, would always seem to burn and cut her fingers while working at home. Earle, a Johnson & Johnson employee would have to cut pieces of adhesive tape and use cotton to fix her wounds. After many accidents, Earle sat down and begin making bandages with cotton centers and adhesive strips. He covered the bandages with crinoline. When Josephine got a cut or a burn, she would now just have to cut off a length of strip and wrap it around her cut.

Earle brought his new invention to the attention of his boss and soon, new BAND-AID bandages were being produced and sold. He was rewarded by being promoted as Vice President of the Company where he stayed until his retirement.

Story of Earle Dickson with Pictures

Timeline of BAND-AID

Garrett A. Morgan

2009-04-22T10:34:00.003-04:00

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877 the son of two former slaves. He attended school as a child but once a teenager moved to Cincinnati in search of a job. While there he worked as a handyman for a rich landowner. While working for him he had the opportunity to continue his education through the use of a tutor. He later moved to Ohio and began working for a sewing machine company. He would often fiddle with the equipment in attempts to make it work better. News of his talent for fixing things traveled fast and he was presented with several job opportunities.

However, it was his time spent driving through Cleveland that caused him to invent the three position traffic signal. Accidents were common between vehicles and other means of transportation since they all shared the same road. After seeing a automobile and horse-drawn carriage collide Morgan decided to do something to improve traffic safety.

His three position traffic signal was the first of its kind to receive a patent which was granted on November 20, 1923. The traffic signal was such a success that its technology was used through out the U.S. until with was replaced by present day traffic signals. It was also later patented in Canada and Great Britain.

The signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three hand-cranked positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This third position halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely.

Morgan later sold the invention for $40,000 to the General Electric Company.

Shortly before his death, in 1963, Morgan was awarded a citation for his traffic signal by the United States Government. Morgan died on August 27, 1963, at the age of 86.

Picture of Morgan

Three Postion Traffic Signal

The Wright Brothers

2009-04-22T09:59:00.003-04:00

Wilbur and Orville were raised in Dayton, Ohio. They never went to college, but engineering had always sparked an interest in them. They worked at a bicycle repair shop to make $ and soon began constructing their own. It was from this money that they were able to fund their airplane. The first glider was tested in 1900 and failed miserably. A second trial in 1901 went much smoother, but they needed to improve the design. Throughout the next year, the Wright brothers designed over 200 different wing and airframe designs and tested them in a wind tunnel. Finally they had created a successful glider, although it didn't have power. It wasn't until 1903 when the Wright brothers designed a 12- horsepower internal combustion engine that flight was sustained. During the first test the engine stalled while Orville was flying. Three days of repairs and they were ready to try again. The plane accelerated off a monarail track into the air, remaining there for 12 seconds, reaching 120 feet. The longest flight that day was 852 feet in 59 seconds. Over the years the brothers developed more sophisticated planes, later forming the Wright Company. Wilbur died from typhoid fever in 1912 and Orville died in 1948.

Wright Brothers

Wright 1903 Flyer

Mary Anderson (1866-1953)

2009-04-21T22:41:00.003-04:00

Mary Anderson was a real estate developer who invented the windshield wiper blade. While visiting New York City one winter in 1902, she observed that the motorman drove with the front window open because of difficulty keeping the windshield clear of falling sleet. As soon as she returned to Birmingham, she sketched a design for a hand-operated device that could possibly help keep a windshield clear. She then generated a working model through the help of a local company. In 1903, she applied for, and was granted, a 17-year patent for a windshield wiper. Her invention consisted of a lever and a swinging arm with a rubber blade. The lever could be operated from inside a vehicle to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. Although similar devices had been made earlier, Mary Anderson's was the first that proved to be truly effective. After the patent she was granted expired in 1920 windshield wipers using Anderson's basic design became standard equipment due to the immense growth in the automobile industry. She resided in Birmingham, AL where she continued to manage her real estate property until her death at the age of 87.

Reference:
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210181/images/anderson.htm

Image of Mary Anderson:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/2438914838_7d6d7db016.jpg

Image of initial sketch for windshield wiper:
http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/6/D/anderson.jpg

Richard James & the SLINKY

2009-04-21T14:14:00.003-04:00

In 1943, Richard James discovered the idea of the slinky while he was working as a naval engineer. He was trying to develop a meter designed to monitor horsepower on naval battleships. While working with tension springs, he dropped one and saw that the spring continues to move. This is when he came up with the idea for the famous toy.
James's wife, Betty came up with the name for Slinky. She discovered that slinky is a Swedish word meaning sleek or sinuous.
The couple developed a coil winding device and started the James Spring & Wire Company to mass produce the new toy. In 1946, Richard and Betty sold over 400 Slinkies by the time their 90 minute presentation was complete at the American Toy Fair.
Despite his great success, Richard suffered from a mid-life crisis in 1960 and left his family and the Slinky business to join a religious cult in Bolivia. Betty took over as the CEO of the company and continued to have a thriving business until 1998 when the company was sold to Poof Toys. She was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2001 and passed away on November 20, 2008.

Sources:
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/slinky.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_T._James

Richard James:
http://www.district279.org/sec/nvjh/mewebs/23/inventor/index.htm

Slinky:
http://uw.physics.wisc.edu/%7Ewonders/DemoUV.html
http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/fromdawntillrusk/slinky.jpg

Peter Andreas Grünberg (Born May 18, 1939)

2009-04-20T22:23:00.001-04:00

Peter Andreas Grünberg (Born May 18, 1939) ASSIGNMENT #5

Peter Andreas Grünberg is a native of Nazi, Germany born into a portion of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which is now the Czech Republic. Father of Andreas Grünberg, Sylvia Grünberg, and Katharina Grünberg and husband to Helma Prausa Grünberg, Peter Grünberg received ½ the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007. He split the prize, and stipend, with Albert Fert. Simultaneously and independently they both discovered giant magnetoresistance, GMR, in 1988 which has had major implications in computer sciences including but not limited to allowing the invention of the gigabyte hard disk. During his lifetime he has also been honored with the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2006 with Fert. Also in his lifetime he received a slew of awards including the APS International Prize for New Materials, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Magnetism Award, the Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize, and the 2007 Japan Prize. On top of all of that he has been named the European Inventor of 2006 in the category of Univeristies and research institutions.
His education was relatively standard receiving his undergraduate degree in physics in 1962 at Joyhann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. For his graduate work, both master’s and doctoral, he attended Darmstadt University of Technology graduating in 1966 and 1969 respectively. Starting in 1972 and through his entire career up to his retirement in 2004 he was a research scientist at the Institute of Solid State Research at the Helmholtz Research Centre in Jülich, Germany. Today he lives with his wife in Germany enjoying a cushioned retirement.
http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument;jsessionid=40A7CDFA11EDB6A84F5103E8319BA2A5.espacenet_levelx_prod_2?CC=EP&NR=0346817A2&KC=A2&FT=D&date=19891220&DB=&locale=
. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_magnetoresistive_effect
http://www.fz-juelich.de/portal/gruenberg_e
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2007/
http://www.nndb.com/people/968/000163479/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1351350/Peter-Grunberg

Julian, Percy Lavon (1899-1975)

2009-04-20T16:54:00.002-04:00

Lavon was an african american research chemist. He was born in Montgomery Alabama. He created many of the synthetic products such as testosterone, hormones progesterone, testosterone, cortisone and drugs to treat glaucoma. He owned more than 100 pattents, most of them derived from soybeans. In 1931 he obtained his PhD at the university of vienna, Austria. Before and after he graduated from Vienna, Julian taught at Howard University. His early research consisted in creating a synthetic version of physostigmine, a drug used to treat glaucoma. He achieved this work in 1935.

After his discoveries he was searched by the world of industries to sell his work and create new ideas for the development of new drugs. He then started working with the extraction of proteins from soybeans to then isolate the hormones and creating steroids. He also created a fire extinguisher that isolated oil and fire; this discovery saved many lives in WWII.

He kept working with synthetic drugs and in 1964 he sold his company to become director of the Julian Research Institute.

Julian Percy Lavon

Julian Percy Lavon's Lab

Mary Phelps Jacob

2009-04-20T15:04:00.002-04:00

Mary Phelps Jacob was born on January 30, 1891 in New Rochelle, New York. She was a poet, activist and a New York socialite. She came from a wealthy family who spent their time at several different estates that they owned.

In 1910 she invented the brassiere because she was unhappy with her only option of wearing a corset underneath her sheer debut gown. Her first brassiere was made out of two silk handkerchiefs, pink ribbon, and cord. It was patented in 1914, but she eventually sold the patent to a corset making company. This bra was actually not flattering at all, nor did it offer any real support, but it was flatter and offered women more options for undergarments.

Picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JacobPatent1914pg2.jpg

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caresse_Crosby
http://www.krysstal.com/display_inventions.php?years=1900+to+1950

Kary Mullis- Polymerase Chain Reaction

2009-04-19T22:08:00.002-04:00

Kary Mullis was born in Lenoir, NC in 1944. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1966, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Berkeley in 1972. After his Ph.D. he completed a post doc in pharmaceutical chemistry at UC San Francisco. Mullis briefly moved away from science after receiving his Ph.D., spending time as a fiction writer and bakery manager; however, he returned to biochemistry and began working for a biotechnology company (Cetus Corp.). While working as a DNA chemist at Cetus, Mullis discovered the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Many of the necessary pieces for PCR had been discovered at the time; however, Mullis and his research group connected the dots to discover a process which revolutionized molecular biology. PCR is a technique which utilizes a pair of DNA primers, Mullis’ main contribution to the existing knowledge of DNA replication, to isolate a specific DNA sequence and allow a DNA polymerase enzyme to make nearly infinite copies of the targeted strand. This discovery allowed molecular science to move forward at a near exponential rate. Later discovery of a highly heat resistant DNA polymerase enzyme streamlined the process and made development of automated PCR machines possible. The technique provides a means to amplify minute samples of DNA to quantities which can be analyzed. This process has lead to tests for genetic disorders, analysis of criminal evidence, and many more processes beneficial to society. Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993 for this discovery.

Kary Mullis

Polymerase Chain Reaction

PCR machine

Edward Samuel "Ted" Rogers Sr.

2009-04-19T12:03:00.002-04:00

Edward Samuel Rogers Sr. was born in Toronto, Canada in 1900. At age 13, he had already shown a great interest in radios, as well as already operated a radio station. For employment as a young adult, he operated the radios on passenger ships in the Great Lakes. In 1924, he visited the United States and spent some time in the Westinghouse labs in Pittsburgh. Rogers was especially interested in creating a radio that could run off of household electricity supplies (AC at the time).

In 1925, Rogers had perfected his design. He had created the first radio that could be run off of household current using A/C tubes he had also invented. Rogers was responsible for the first ever all electric radio. His radio, known as the "Rogers Batteryless Radio," sold in 1925 for the high price of $370.

Rogers had a son, Edward Samuel Rogers Jr., who went on to make a largely successful corporation out of the family's name. Edward Samuel Rogers Sr., however, died at age 39 and did not get to see the vast success of his inventions.

Edward Samuel Rogers Sr:
www.magazine.utoronto.ca/.../ed_rogers.jpg

Willis Carrier

2009-04-19T10:58:00.003-04:00

Willis Carrier was born in Angola NY in 1875. As a child Willis enjoyed math and playing with mechanical devices. In 1901 He graduated from Cornell Univiersity with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. His first company job after graduating was at Buffalo Forge Company where he would work in the heating engineering department there. His job was to design systems to dry lumber and coffee using heat. Later Carrier then became intersted in cooling systems and invented the "modern" air conditioner in 1902. He patented his idea and has become known as the "father of air conditioning. From there Carrier started his own company, The Carrier Corporation, which to this day leads the world in refrigeration. Carrier also went on to design more devices for cooling.

Willis Carrier was married 3 times and had 1 son named James. Willis died in 1950. His company is still being run by the Carrier family to this day.

Willis Carrier with his first "chiller" http://www.corp.carrier.com/Common/Images/Corporate/History/Willis_Carrier_with_1st_Chiller.jpg

younger Willis Carrier http://www.comfortwizards.com/heatingandair/Portals/0/Willis_Carrier_1915.jpg

Richard Drew

2009-04-19T10:09:00.001-04:00

Richard Drew was born in 1886. He invented masking tape, clear tape (aka cellophane tape), and duct tape. He died in 1980. His inventions were created while working for 3M in St.Paul, Minnesota. Tape became very popular during the Great Depression, after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, as people started to use it to repair items instead of replace them.

When Drew first started working, 3M was a company that mainly invented sandpaper. In 1925, while trying to find a way to paint perfect line in two-tone auto jobs, he created the first masking tape. It was a two-inch-wide paper strip that had a pressure sensitive adhesive on one side. The adhesive was located on the sides of the tape, but not the middle. The name “scotch” came from auto painters who got mad at Drew when his first models of tape fell off the car while they were painting.

Picture of Richard Drew:
http://www.minnesotainventors.org/inductees/images/richard-drew.jpg

Picture of his tape:
http://www.chinatraderonline.com/Files/Household/Stationery-Sets/Tape-Dispenser/Adhesive-Tape-Dispenser-22322158046.jpg

References:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/Scotch_Tape.htm
http://www.minnesotainventors.org/inductees/richard-g-drew.html

John Larson

2009-04-17T16:55:00.002-04:00

In 1921 John Larson invented the modern lie detector test. A previous model was created in 1902 by Scotsman James Mackenzie. Larson's machine provided continuous respiratory, cardiac, and skin temperature readings. Larson was a Canadian psychiatrist and was working at the University of California when he created his polygraph device. It was first used in law enforcement at the Berkley Police Department and was later revised by Leonarde Keeler.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,834456,00.html
http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/forensic_2.htm
http://www.lie2me.net/thepolygraphmuseum/id16.html

Assignment 6

2009-04-17T14:18:00.001-04:00

This assignment is due by Tuesday, April 28th, by noon. Late assignments will be docked 5 points per hour they are late. Please post early and on time. Also, where applicable, provide a link to any website or information you use--do not post images directly to the blog.

Assignment 6.

Briefly discuss a scientist/inventor/engineer (not discussed in class) who lived in North America (NOTE: Do not use any European scientists/inventors/engineers) between 1900 and 1950. Give a brief synopsis of their life and the invention/design/creation they are famous for. Provide a link to any images of 1) the scientist/inventor/engineer and 2) what they invented/discovered.

Do not copy anyone from the previous five assignments!

Do not simply copy and paste anything from another website. This is supposed to be in your own words and should be written as paragraphs, not just bullet points or a list. The average length should be a full paragraph or two.

Becquerel Antoine Henri

2009-04-13T17:11:00.002-04:00

He was a french Physicist and a nobel laureate. he discovered radioactivity in uranium. He was the son of alexander Becquerel, who studied light and phosphorescence. he was the grandson of one of the founders of electrochemistry.
He was born in Paris. He became a professor of Physics at the museum of Natural History. He discovered radioactivity accidentally while researching on fluorescence. He proved that uranium must give off its own energy which became know as radioactivity.

He also conducted important research on phosphorescence, spectroscopy, and absorption of light. His work include Recherches sur la phosphorescence and Decouverte des radiations invisibles emises par l'uranium.

http://www.webbewerb2007.de/ush/info10/henribequerel.jpg

http://www.chemistryexplained.com/images/chfa_01_img0115.jpg

Norbert Enning and the Audi A8

2009-04-11T14:25:00.003-04:00

In 1993, the aluminum car frame system (and methods of mass production) was patented by Audi. The Audi A8 would one year later become the world's first car to have an all-aluminum body. Going by the name of the "Audi Space Frame", it is now being improved and implemented on Audi's high end sports cars, particularly the Audi R8 (I'm sure most of you have seen iron man...).

The chief scientist/engineer behind this advancement was Norbert Enning, who was the 2008 "Industry" category winner of the European Inventor of the Year award. Driven by hopes to improve fuel efficiency, Enning and a team of engineers set out to completely re-think the design of a car's frame, since simply replacing steel with aluminum would lighter, but much too weak. After tedious testing and brainstorming, the 2004 A8 was released with an all aluminum frame.

one might think that this new breed of cars must not be nearly as strong as former steel frame cars. Please excuse me while I debunk that theory. According to news streight out of the European Patent Office, the very high rigidity of the frame actually offers better crash protection than steel frames (proven in crash tests). Further, Aluminum (unlike steel) is immune to corrosion, and because of it's high degree of pliability, designers have more freedom to creating newer more efficient parts. All of these improvements of course are on top of the obvious benefits of having an aluminum frame: better road handling/cornering characteristic, easier repair, and oh yea... better gas millage :)

So the next time you have around 115 thousand spare dollars and want a buzz, go pick up the new Audi R8 and experience some modern engineering.

http://www.epo.org/topics/innovation-and-economy/european-inventor/nominees/2008/enning.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_R8

and of course, if you haven't seen this car, please have a look
http://www.swotti.com/tmp/swotti/cacheYXVKASBYOA==QXV0B21VDGLVBI1DYXJZ/imgAudi%20R81.jpg

Eduard Haas III

2009-04-10T18:17:00.002-04:00

Somewhere in my apartment I have a PEZ dispenser with the head of a fighter jet pilot on it. Admittedly it is quite a creepy concept, however, I've seen PEZ dispensers with spiderman, power rangers, the Beatles, and the president on them. Those flimsy plastic candy dispensers with the chalk tasting candy bricks they dispense actually have a history.

Eduard Haas was born in Vienna where his father owned a grocery store. Eduard took part in his fathers store, and took an interest in creating confections, or candy. It could be said that his goal was invent the first altoids, since he sought out pepermint oil to create strong compressed mints. However, what he ended up with were the first PEZ candy. he named his candy after the german word for peppermint, and marketed them as an anti smoking aid.

Being born into an a family of entrepreneurs Eduard started coloring his mints, then adding different flavors to the mix. He created light sized dispensers with popular people on top of them, however, originally they were "adult themed" toppers aimed at n older crowed. No Sonic the hedgehog or Micky Mouse just yet..

When Eduard started exporting his trinkets to The U.S. however, he decided to start marketing to children to boost his sales, and thus the start of the cartoon image PEZ dispensers, and the fruit flavors we love so much.

There was no stopping the birth of one of the most annoying kinds of candy ever. Seriously, i could eat a pack of PEz in 5 seconds...

sources: http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/haas.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Haas

Erik Andreas Rotheim

2009-04-10T11:39:00.001-04:00

Erik Andreas Rotheim was a Norwegian chemical engineer and inventor that was born September 19, 1925 in Kristiania. He is best known for is invention of the aerosol spry can. He first invented the aerosol spray can in the early 1920’s and applied for the Norwegian patent in 1926. The patent was finally issued in June of 1929 when the Norwegian’s finally recognized how useful aerosol spray cans were. Rotheim was also awarded a United States patent for his concept on September 30, 1927. After the discovery, Rotheim was negotiated with a paint factory to use his idea in paint application. Rotheim had trouble getting people to use his idea and the initial success was limited. Rotheim sold his patent to a U.S. company for NOK 100,000. The use of the aerosol spray can was never really put to use until the 1940’s in the U.S. It was used in various products that required a spray, ie: hair spray, insect control, paint, etc. Rotheim died before his 40th birthday on September 18, 1938.

http://images.ga-bonn.de/ticker/show_bild.php?id=58598&f=thumb

http://www.dw-world.de/image/0,,434882_1,00.jpg

Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)

2009-04-10T08:42:00.001-04:00

Konrad Zuse was a construction engineer who worked for the Henschel Aircragt company in Berlin, Germany during WWII. Zuse was born in Berlin and attended the Polytechnical Institute of Berlin-Charlottenburg where he received a degree in Civil Engineering. While working at the aircraft company, Zuse learned that one of the most difficult aspects of doing a large calculation with either a slide rule or a mechanical adding machine is keeping track of all intermediate results and using them in their proper place in later steps of the calculation. He then decided he would begin work on a “mechanical brain” to decrease the tedious practice of mathematic calculations. Zuse is acknowledged for inventing the world’s first program-controlled computer, the Z1, in 1935-38. Zuse’s first inventing laboratory was in the living room of his parent’s house in Berlin. The Z1 had all the basic technology used in modern machines: the binary system and today's standard separation of storage and control. Next, in 1940, he completed the Z2, the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer of the world. In 1941, using scrap waste from his inventions, Zuse created the first programmable calculator, the Z3.

www.epemag.com/zuse/Images/fig1b.jpg
www.kerryr.net/images/pioneers/gallery/z1_lg.jpg

Leo Baekeland

2009-04-10T00:34:00.002-04:00

Leo Baekeland was an inventor from Belgium who lived between 1863 and 1944. He is most famous for inventing Bakelite, a plastic. Bakelite is often cited as the first synthetic plastic. Baekeland was born in Belgium and went to school for chemistry at the University of Ghent. He invented Bakelite by controlling the temperature and pressure when working with Phenol and formaldehyde. What came out of this process was a hard, yet bendable plastic he titled Bakelite. It was recognized by the American Chemical Society as a major accomplishment. It was created in 1907 starting the Age of Plastics, and taking the market by storm. Soon it was being used in almost all manufacturing and is still used today in some areas. Leo Baekeland became combative with his son over salary and payments, and became a recluse. He died in a New York sanitarium at the age of 80. Many Bakelite products are stored in the Bakelite Mueseum in England.

Picture of Leo Baekeland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Hendrik_Baekeland,_1916.jpg
Picture of Bakelite:
http://www.guyantique.com/Bakelite%20Radio1.JPG

Tim Berners-Lee (1955- )

2009-04-10T00:17:00.003-04:00

Tim Berners-Lee was a computer scientist born in London England in 1955. He attended Emanuel School in London from 1969 to 1973 and then studied at Oxford from 1973 to 1976 earning a degree in Physics. Tim worked for CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland, as a independent contrator, while working on him he proposed a program based on the concept of hypertext. He created a prototype program called Enquire. Is idea was to create a way to up load and share and update information amoung researchers.

While trying to bring his concept to life Tim wrote the language HTML, which would be the basic language for his project. He also came up with URL's so that each individual website would have a desginated location. He then proceeded to create HTTP as a set of rules for linking pages together. In 1990 he wrote the first browser, the World Wide Web was officialy born. Berners-Lee could have never fathomed how much his idea would change the world and grow in the way that it has. This one man with a computer and physics degree revolutionized the world with his invention of the world wide web.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900b.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg

Kees Schouhamer Immink - Netherlands

2009-04-09T14:51:00.002-04:00

Kees Schouhamer Immink - (1946 - )

was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands where he became a co-creator of a visionary product called the Compact Disc (CD). The CD revolutionized the way digital media, documents and software was distributed to the world. It allowed massive amounts of data to be transported on a single peice of hardware. Kees was also part of the team that recreated the compact disc and created its offspring products namely the DVD and blu-ray disc. These products increased the amount of data from 10x(DVD) the amount of data to 100x(blu-ray) the amount of data. Kees recieved his B.S. at the Rottendam Academy of Arts and Engineering Sciences where he graduated Cum Laude.

Kees was part of the task force the completely changed the way digital media and computer related programs were distributed to the public.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kees_A._Schouhamer_Immink

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869 - 1959)

2009-04-08T22:42:00.002-04:00

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson was born near Edinburgh, on February 14, 1869. At the age of 19, Wilson went to Cambridge to study physics.

It was because of two experiments that Wilson decided to pursue his interests in physics. The first was his few weeks' stay in 1894 at the observatory on the top of Ben Navis, the highest Scottish mountain. He was mystified by the interplay of sunshine, mist, and the clouds. He wished to be able to imitate the phenomena in a laboratory. The second experience involved him being exposed to an electric storm on the summit of Carn Mor Bearg in 1895. All of this inspired him to invent the first cloud chamber.

Wilson began experiments to duplicate cloud formation in the laboratory by letting saturated air expand, thus cooling it. He found that dust particles are necessary in clouds to start the formation of water droplets. He also discovered that x-rays charge the dust and speed up the process. He was able to show that charged particles traveling through supersaturated air also formed water droplets.

In 1911, Wilson perfected the cloud chamber, which he won the Nobel Prize for physics for in 1927. The cloud chamber became an aid to research in subatomic particles and, with an addition of a magnetic field, made different particles distinguishable by the curvature of their tracks

Wilson eventually died in the village of Carlops, near Edinburgh, on November 15, 1959.

http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-thomson-rees-wilson

CHARLES THOMSON REES WILSON:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1927/wilson.jpg

CLOUD CHAMBER:
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/_/viewer.aspx?path=hut&name=c05351.gif

Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838 - 1917)

2009-04-08T22:20:00.002-04:00

Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born in Germany on July 8, 1838. He was born to Württemberg Minister and Hofmarschall Friedrich Jerôme Wilhelm Karl Graf von Zeppelin and Amélie Françoise Pauline. He spent his childghood with his sister in Girsberg where he was educated by private teachers. He was also a Generalleutnant in the German army. Sadly, his role was criticized and he was forced to retire. After this, he went to study ballooning, where he would make his great invention.
He is mostly famous for making the airship that bears his name, the Zeppelin. He created after many visits overseas to America and studying under Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe. In 1880 and on he was fascinated by the idea of guidable balloons. His idea came to fruition in 1900, when the Zeppelin LZ1 made its first flight.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_von_Zeppelin

Zeppelin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1972-099-15,_Ferdinand_Graf_Zeppelin_am_Schreibtisch.jpg

The Flying Zeppelin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:First_Zeppelin_ascent.jpg

Igor Sikorsky

2009-04-08T21:57:00.000-04:00

Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) was a Russian pioneer of aviation who designed and flew the world's first multi-engine aircraft and modern helicopter, and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-conquering flying boats in the 1930s. Sikorsky became interested in aviation after reading about the Wright brothers and studied engineering in Paris. He soon began making his own designs for helicopters and airplanes. His early work included the construction, as chief engineer, of the first four-motor aircraft. He was also the test pilot for its first flight in 1913. He designed the world's first long-range strategic bomber and reconnaissance squadron, which became a stronghold of the Russian air force.
Sikorsky emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1918 due to the Civil War. In 1923 he founded Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation; his major success was an amphibious plane used for commercial transport. In the 1930s he designed the first practical single-rotor helicopter, which was used widely for rescue and supply missions by the U.S. Army. In 1942, the Sikorsky R-4, the United States Air Force's first service helicopter became the world's first production helicopter, pioneering a rotor layout used by most helicopters today.

References:
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/igor-sikorsky/biography.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/igor-sikorsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_I._Sikorsky

Igor Sikorsky
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/81/9381-004-9207AE9E.jpg

The Sikorsky R-4
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/R-4_AC_HNS1_3_300.jpg

Arthur Holmes

2009-04-08T21:18:00.002-04:00

Arthur Holmes was born in 1890. He grew up in Gateshead. He was a British geologist that started off college as a physics major at the Imperial College of Science. He then switched to geology. He graduated in 1910. He also became a professor before dying in 1965.

In 1913 he proposed the first geological time scale. It was based on radioactivity. Using this time scale he projected the age of the Earth to be about 4 billion years old, which was far older than the original thought that the Earth was only hundreds of years old.

He also studied about continental drift, but was years ahead of having enough data to back up his theory.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Holmes
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/boholm.html

Jacques-Yves Cousteau- Aqualung (Open Circuit Demand Regulator)

2009-04-08T01:29:00.003-04:00

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997) was born in Saint-Andre-de-Cuzac, France and was well known as a skilled French naval officer, explorer, documentarian, researcher, and photographer. He was fascinated with the water and machinery. In his early teens he built a model crane and a battery powered car. In high school he was a troublesome student forcing his parents to enroll him in a strict boarding school. Under new guidance, he excelled and later entered the Ecole Navale (Naval Academy). In 1933, he became a gunnery officer in the French Navy. During this time he began working on a breathing machine for longer dives during underwater exploration. Cousteau was forced to postpone these efforts during WWII and served as a spy for the French resistance.

In 1943, Cousteau and Emile Gagnan developed the aqualung, a open circuit regulator which allowed divers to breathe compressed air from a cylinder at ambient pressure via a demand valve. The demand valve solved the problem of equalizing air pressure in the diver’s lungs with increased water pressure at varying depths. This invention greatly extended dive time and opened up a new underwater world. It also provided a reliable alternative to clumsy and expensive helmet and dive bell systems.

The rest of his life was dedicated to studying the world’s oceans. With the aid of friends he purchased a retired minesweeper, the Calypso, and converted the ship into a research vessel. Cousteau also created the first underwater laboratory which researchers lived in for up to a month. He supported his research by producing underwater documentaries, the first of their kind, on marine ecosystems. He started several environmental organizations to support conservation of marine environments, and was an advocate for environmental education. Cousteau died of a heart attack at age 87; however, his environmental organizations and legacy live on.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The Famous Red Hat

The R/V Calypso

Aqualung Pic 1

Aqualung Pic 2

John Baird

2009-04-07T14:30:00.001-04:00

John Baird was born in Scotland on August 13th, 1888. He went to school at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College where he took up electrical engineering. Before he could finish up his degree WWI broke out and he was not able to finish. He is most famous for his invention of the television. In 1925 he projected his first live picture in grayscale. The picture was made up of 30 vertical lines and shown at 5 frames per second. In his first public demonstration a few months later he repeated the same pictures for the Royal Institution and reporters. By this time he also had the frame rate up to 12.5 frames per second. In 1927 he was able to send a television transmission from London to Glasgow which was a distance of 438 miles. He founded the Baird Television Development Company in 1928 which he used to send the first transatlantic television transmission. In the same year Baird also produced the first color television system. John Baird died on June 14th 1946.

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen

2009-04-07T13:47:00.001-04:00

Born in Helsinki, Finland, Artturi Ilmari Virtanen went to school at the Classical Lyceum studying chemistry and began working in the labs of Valio, a dairy producer, in 1919. A year later he became director of the laboratory. He felt that he was unqualified for the job so he left and went to study at the University of Munster and the University of Stockholm. He studied botany, zoology, physical chemistry, soil chemistry, and microbiology. By 1923 he was in Sweden working with Hans von EulerChelpin who would eventually be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929. Moving back to Finland, Virtanen took up a position as a lecturer in 1924 at the Univeristy of Helsinki. He simultaneously worked in the labs of the Butter Export Association which was later incorporated with the university. In 1930 when the Institute for Biochemistry was founded Virtanen joined and remained a member there until his death in 1973 from complications stemming from a hip fracture two weeks prior. While at the Institute Virtanen became a professor of biochemistry at the Helsinki University of Technology and also at the University of Helsinki.

Virtanen is famous for his improved methods of butter preservation (added disodium phosphate to prevent acidic hydrolysis), his work with phosphorylation which led to the foundation of the Embden-Meyerhof pathway, and for his invention of a preservation method that improved the storage of green fodder through the winter. The preservation method adds either diluted hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid to the stored grain. This increased acidity prevents harmful fermentation from occurring without affecting its nutritional value. In 1945 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his improvement in agricultural and nutritional chemistry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artturi_Ilmari_Virtanen
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1945/virtanen-bio.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630159/Artturi-Ilmari-Virtanen
http://almaz.com/nobel/chemistry/1945a.html

Willis Carrier: The Father of Cool

2009-04-07T11:56:00.002-04:00

Willis Carrier (Nov 26, 1875-Oct 9, 1950)

Assignment #6
Born to modest roots in Angola, New York Carrier was the son of a farmer. His mother spent her days finding and fixing whatever machinery needed attention, and teaching Carrier to think through problems as she did, always striving towards not only fixing but improving. Even though she died young, Mrs Carrier left an impression on her son Willis that would carry him through all his future success.

A dedicated hard studier he went to Cornell University on a scholarship, graduating in 1901 with his Masters in Mechanical Engineering. From here he began working for the Buffalo Forge Company starting at $10/wk in the new “experimental science division.” His first task was to address the problem at the Buffalo printing plant. The printing plant was having issues with the temperature fluctuation's throwing off the precision of their work to a more than noticeable degree. In 1902 while waiting for a train on a foggy night Carrier solved the problem and developed his ideas for the first “Apparatus for treating air” which became the 1906 US patent #808897. His first device used an insecticide spray nozzle and chiller coils and was capable of not only lowering the temperature but also dropping humidity down to 55%, or anywhere in between! This unit was big, loud, and used toxic chemicals, but it worked well.

1911 Carrier presented his “Rational pychometric formula” to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which is still used today. In 1915 with $32000 and 6 other engineers he started the Carrier Engineering Corporation, which is still thriving today with 1995 sales topping $5billion.

For the rest of his life he would continue to improve upon his air treatment bringing the units all the way from the massive original design to the small, efficient, and safe home AC “Weather maker” in 1928. Being a patriot he also made significant contributions to the war effort for WWII, most notably so developing a device to simulate freezing high altitude conditions for testing airplanes. He received the Army + Navy “E” 6 times.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/carrier.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioning

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081797.htm

http://www.air-conditioners-and-heaters.com/willis_carrier.htm

John Moses Browning

2009-04-07T09:00:00.002-04:00

John Browning was born in Ogden, Utah in 1855 and lived until 1926. Growing up, he worked with his father in the family gunsmith shop. After doing a mission in Georgia with the Church of the Latter Day Saints he designed his first rifle in his father's shop, a single shot design. He later lived as one of the most successful and influential firearms designers in the United States. His design for the Remington Model 8 was one of the more successful early repeating rifle designs. His model 1910 handgun was used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. He received greater acclaim for his Model 1911 pisol, his model 1917 machine gun, Browning Automatic Rifle, and the M2 machine gun. All of those weapons were used to great effect in WWII and the m1911 and M2 are still in use today with the U.S. military. He died of heart failure while working in Liege on a new self-loading handgun.

http://www.madehow.com/inventorbios/59/John-Browning.html

Wernher Von Braun

2009-04-06T10:25:00.002-04:00

Wernher Von Braun was born in Wirsitz, Germany on March 23, 1912. Von Braun he graduated from the University of Berlin when he was 20 years old. He continued his education there until 1934 where he received his doctorate in physics. Between 1932 and 1937, Von Braun was employed by the German Ordnance Department. Upon his leave, Von Braun became technical director of the Peenemuende Rocket Center in 1937, where he helped develop the V2 Rocket.
At the end of WWII, Von Braun came to the United States to work for the US Army Ordance Corps, where he became project director of the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office at Fort Bliss, Texas. In April 1950, Von Braun was appointed Director of Development Operation at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. While at the ABMA, Von Braun directed several notable projects including the Redstone rocket, the Jupiter Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), and the Pershing missile. While there, Von Braun and his team of German scientists and engineers developed the Jupiter C Reentry Test Missile and launching the Explorer I, the first satellite.
In the 1960s, Von Braun and his team were relocated to NASA, where he served as Deputy Associate Administer, where he remained until 1972. A year later he was inducted in the Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame. In 1977 he died due to poor health.

Link to Wernher Von Braun:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wernher_von_Braun.jpg
Link to V2 Rocket:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fus%C3%A9e_V2.jpg
Link to Redstone Rocket:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Redstone_09.jpg
Link to Explorer I:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Explorer1_sketch.jpg

2009-04-05T19:57:00.004-04:00

William Mills

William Mills was an ocean engineer by training, spending years at sea during the beginning of his career. During this time he made his first inventions, which pertained to improving safety onboard ships. By 1885 he transferred his wit and training to be a general engineer and opened the first aluminum foundry in Britain. At his factory, Mills developed the first aluminum golf clubs.

William’s most famous invention came after the turn of the century. His invention of the modern hand grenade is what gained Mills notoriety and the award of British knighthood in 1922. Mills was not the first to develop a hand-held bomb, but he was the first to make one that was safe for soldiers throwing the device and effective on the enemy it was employed against. The “Mills Bomb” was used by the tens of millions during World War I by the British and its allies. It was produced in several variations, most prominent of them being the rifle projected grenade (No. 23) and a hand tossed grenade (No. 5, later the No.36). The weapon was updated over the years to improve certain mechanisms within it, securing a place within the British army through World War II.

References:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/mills.htm

http://www.google.com/patents?id=IP9gAAAAEBAJ&dq=mills+grenade

http://www.millsmarine.com/history.html

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bin/res.pl?keyword=Mills+bomb&offset=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Bomb

Ladislo Biro

2009-04-03T09:46:00.003-04:00

Ladislo Biro was born in Budapest Hungary in 1899. Little is known about his life before his invention of the ball point pen. Biro invented the ball point pen in 1931. He was a journalist and one day noticed how printing ink dried on paper and wished to use it in a pen. Fountain pens were still being used during this time period and the printer ink was too thick, and would not work for a fountain pen. Biro decided to add a ball to the point that could move and once rolled it would put ink on paper. With this method the ink dried much faster than that of writing with a fountain pen. His design was patented in 1938 in Paris, France. Later Ladislo and his brother moved to Argentina, and patented Biro Pens of Argentina. In 1950 Marcel Bich bought Biro's patented pen and began the company currently known as Bic where ball point pens were the main product. Ladislo Biro died in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1985.

Ladislo Biro : http://www.omikk.bme.hu/archivum/angol/kepek/biro_laszlo.jpg

ball point: http://www.design-technology.info/inventors/_wp_generated/pp906bf053.png

Sir Alexander Fleming 1881-1955

2009-04-01T13:34:00.004-04:00

Alexander Fleming was born in Scotland but moved to London to study at the Polytechnic Institute. In 1906 he began his research on medical work. Blood and the use of antiseptics had always interested him, and so he focused on this. During his military career he was able to continue his studies and once he was demobilized, he settled down to work on antibacterial substances not harmful to animals. In 1921 he discovered Lysozymes, which are enzymes that can degrade bacterial cell walls. Fleming however, is most famous for the creation of penicillin, which was caused by an accident. Fleming was working on the influenza virus when he observed that mold had grown in a ring around a culture sample that proved to be bacteria free. He experimented with this and found that the mold would leave an area bacteria free even if the concentration was diluted up to 800 times. Fleming gained numerous awards including the Nobel prize in Medicine (1945) and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1943. He was knighted in 1944. He died on March 11, 1955 and is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Links:

Picture

Penicillin

Albert Hofmann

2009-03-31T22:53:00.002-04:00

Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland on January 11, 1906. A Swiss scientist best known for having been the first to produce, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, Hofmann was the first of four children born to factory toolmaker Adolf Hofmann and his wife Elisabeth. Due to his father's low income, Albert's godfather paid for his education. When his father suddenly fell ill, Hofmann took up a position as a commercial apprentice in concurrence with his studies. At the age of twenty, Hofmann began his chemistry degree at the University of Zürich and finished three years later. Because his main interest was the chemistry of plants and animals, he conducted important research regarding the chemical structure of the common animal substance chitin and later received his doctorate, with distinction, in 1930 due to his achievements. Hofmann joined the pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories. It was here that he began studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals. His main contribution was to elucidate the chemical structure of the common nucleus of Scilla glycosides. However, it was during his research of lysergic acid derivatives that Hofmann first synthesized LSD-25. The primary intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant. Not considered vital at that time, Hofmann’s research was set aside for five years. It was not until April 16, 1943 that Hofmann finally decided to take another look at it. During his process to re-synthesize LSD, he accidentally absorbed a small quantity through his fingertips and serendipitously discovered its powerful effects before his bicycle ride home. Three days later, Hofmann deliberately consumed 250 micrograms of LSD. This was then followed by a series of self-experiments conducted by Hofmann and his colleagues at the time. He first wrote about these experiments and his findings while being the “subject” himself. Because of these studies, Hofmann became director of the natural products department at Sandoz and went on studying hallucinogenic substances found in Mexican mushrooms as well as many other plants used by the aboriginal people. Hofmann called LSD "medicine for the soul" and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. He believed it led to successful psychoanalysis during his time, but agreed it had lost his value at the hands of the generation around him. He ultimately conceded that LSD can be dangerous if present in the wrong hands. Albert Hofmann died of natural causes on April 29, 2008 in the village of Burg in Leimental, near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102 years old

** Image of Albert Hofmann **

http://www.hallucinogens.com/lsd/albert-hofmann.jpg

References:
http://www.hallucinogens.com/lsd/albert-hofmann.html

Jacques Heim and Louis Reard

2009-03-31T22:01:00.004-04:00

Jacques Heim and Louis Reard invented the modern bikini in 1946. Though it was not a cooperative effort, their simultaneous designs yielded the most common suit on the beach today. Heim's version was a two piece in which the bottom still covered the wearer's belly button. Reard's version was a string bikini in which the bottom was a 30 square inch g-string (women of the 50's were'nt ready for this yet-the only women he could find to wear it was a nude dancer). The bathing suit was named after an atomic bomb testing site in the Marshall Islands-Bikini Atoll. Heim originally wanted to name it "atome" for it's "scandalously" small size (after the atom). Reard was a French mechanical engineer and Heim was a French designer. They advertised "the world's smallest bathing suit" using competitve skywriting. Ultimately, Heim's design won out, but under Reard's name.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=6949
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/Bikini.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini#History

Reard's bikini: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MichelineBernardini.jpg

Jacques E. Brandenberger

2009-03-31T21:19:00.000-04:00

Jacques was born in 1872 in Zurich, Switzerland. He was a chemist/ textile engineer. In 1908, he invented cellophane. His idea for cellophane started from sitting in a restaurant watching a waiter cleaning a wine spill from a tablecloth. His original idea of covering fabric with a stain resistant coating was changed to cellophane after his original experiments didn’t work well. He experimented with different products to create a coating for the fabric, but they made the fabric too stiff. When he peeled off the coating, it was a thin transparent film. He then changed his view to creating cellophane.

Cellophane is made from wood cellulose. In 1920, he improved his original ideas to make cellophane as we know it today. Cellophane was used to prevent stains and also for parts of eye shields and gas masks. Cellophane is created by extruding an alkaline solution of cellulose fibers of wood or cotton (viscos) through a narrow slit into an acid bath. The acid bath makes a film from the cellulose. The end product, cellophane, is created after more treatment of the film that includes washing and bleaching.

The rights to cellophane were sold to DuPont, a chemical company, in 1923. By 1927, DuPont labs made cellophane moisture-proof. This was important as it allowed cellophane to be used in food packaging. Jacques died in 1954.

Picture of Jacques E. Brandenberger:
http://www.stiftungbrandenberger.ch/images/drbrand.JPG

Picture of Cellophane:
http://www.eco-packaging.it/images/rotolo_13.jpg

References:
http://www.nndb.com/people/927/000166429/
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcellophane.htm

Hans Geiger

2009-03-31T17:09:00.002-04:00

Hans Geiger was born in Germany on Sept 30, 1882. He studied physics and mathematics beginning in 1902 at the University of Erlangen. He graduated from the school with a PhD. He worked with Ernest Rutherford and Ernest Marsden. It was with Marsden, that he invented the first Geiger counter. This was found after he and Marsden conducted the gold foil experiment, which is also called the Geiger-Marsden experiment. This experiment also helped in the discovery of the atomic nucleus. With another man, John Nuttall, he discovered the Geiger-Nuttall law, which helped lead him to creating an atomic model with Rutherford. Later, in 1928, he invented an improved Geiger counter, with his student, Walther Müller. This Geiger counter is called the Geiger-Müller counter. Geiger died on Sept 24, 1945 in Potsdam.

Picture of Hans Geiger
http://www.origin-life.gr.jp/2904/2904174/42.jpg

Picture of Geiger counter
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0126323/graphics/geiger_counter.jpg

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Geiger
http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/p/Hans_Geiger.htm

George de Mestral (1907-1990)- Velcro

2009-03-31T15:50:00.002-04:00

George de Mestral was born on Switzerland on June 19, 1907. His father was an agricultural engineer who encouraged young George to use his mind. Mestral invented an patented a toy plane at the age of 12. He attended college in Switzerland and soon after graduation was married to Jeannne Schnyder. He would be married twice again during his lifetime to Monique Panchaud de Bottens and then Helen Mary Dale.

It is said that Mestral came up with the idea for Velcro after a leisurely walk with his dog in 1948. They got back to the house covered in burrs. Mestral noticed that the burrs stuck to the dog’s fur and his clothing. He examined them under a microscope and noted the hook-like configurations. He realized the potential of this natural phenomenon of hooks and loops. He tried making the first Velcro prototype out of cotton, but had to turn to synthetic nylon because the cotton hooks/loops wore out so quickly. The manufacturing process took a few years to perfect and many were skeptical about his new invention. Once all of the intricacies were worked out, he received a patent in 1955 and began mass production. Mestral named his invention Velcro from the French words for velvet (velours) and hook (crochet). Velcro was first used by astronauts, skiers and divers- people who needed to be able to get in/out of their suits quickly. Eventually the product became more refined and spread to many clothing products.

Mestral is noted for being one of the first to promote the field of biomimicry- where inventions are inspired by biological models/concepts. Mestral died February 8, 1990. The town in which he died named an avenue after him. In 1999 he was posthumously recognized for his accomplishments by being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Assignment #5

2009-03-31T14:07:00.002-04:00

This assignment is due by Friday, April 10th, by 5 pm. Late assignments will be docked 5 points per hour they are late. Please post early and on time. Also, where applicable, provide a link to any website or information you use--do not post images directly to the blog.

Assignment 5.

Briefly discuss an scientist/inventor/engineer (not discussed in class) who lived in Europe (NOTE: Do not use any non-European inventors) between 1900 and the present. Give a brief synopsis of their life and the invention/design/creation they are famous for. Provide a link to any images of 1) the inventor/engineer and 2) what they invented.

Do not copy anyone from the first four assignments!

Do not simply copy and paste anything from another website. This is supposed to be in your own words and should be written as paragraphs, not just bullet points or a list. The average length should be a full paragraph or two.

Samuel Morey - Compressionless Gas or Vapor Engine

2009-03-22T15:14:00.002-04:00

Samuel Morey (October 23, 1762 - April 17, 1843) was in the steamship business, and accumulated more than 20 patents, one of which being for a version of the internal combustion engine. Morey was very fascinated with vapors, as an excerpt from a letter in which he wrote to Benjamin Silliman in 1834 reads: “It is now more than twenty years since I have been in the constant, I may say daily practice of making experiments on the decomposition of water, by mixing with its vapor that of spirits of turpentine, and a great portion of atmospheric air.” An important discovery he made was that turpentine vapor in air was highly explosive. This led to the development of his internal combustion engine. His engine, although containing many components of modern-day combustion engines like cylinders, valves, cams, and a carburetor, was a bit "backwards" in that, the explosion of gas and air did not drive the pistons, but rather the cooling after the explosion, which created a vacuum in the cylinder, allowed atmospheric pressure to push the piston into the cylinder... or, you could ignore that run-on sentence and think of it as the piston was sucked into the cylinder rather than blown out. Water was also used to aid in the post-explosion cooling. Morey demonstrated his engine on a boat and wagon, and you could almost say a car... except he fell off the car and it took off without him and eventually wound up in a ditch, which is pretty good for the 2nd car ride in the world, and the first in America. Some people still haven't proved much better at driving vehicles. Sadly, no one really wanted to buy Morey's engine, and he became frustrated. As a closing note, I have decided to include another excerpt from Morey's notes, regarding his hopes of using his engine to change the world: "Is there not some reason to expect that the discovery will greatly change the commercial and personal intercourse of the country. There is good reason I trust to conclude that transportation on good roads or railroad may be done much cheaper as well as quicker than by locks and canals, besides having the great advantage of being done, much of it, in the winter a time much the most convenient of the farmer. In their personal intercourse, if it should be generally thought most prudent to continue their intercourse on the earth’s surface, yet I think there will be little use of horses for that purpose." - Samuel Morey

Samuel Morey -- Useful Information
http://kinnexions.com/smlsource/samuel.htm

Jay Leno <3's Samuel Morey!
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/sub_coll_leno/1302921.html

he got a bridge named after him.. that's pretty good
http://www.orfordnh.us/history/current/rededication.html

One of Morey's Engines:
http://www.vernmaine.com/images/new/morey_large.jpg

Daniel Chapman Stillson

2009-03-20T19:33:00.002-04:00

Daniel Chapman Stillson was an American inventor who lived from 1826 to 1899. He is responsible for inventing the modern day adjustable pipe wrench. He was from New Hampshire and during the American Civil War worked as a machinist. He also served under Vice-Admiral David Farragut's first voyage and witnessed the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack. After the war, Stillson returned to Massachusetts and began to work as a machinist for the J.J. Walworth company, where he developed his wrench. He received a patent for the wrench, and collected 80,000 dollars in royalties before his death.

Sources and Pictures:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stilsongeneology/stilsonbk27.htm#dan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_C._Stillson
Picture of Stillson and Wrench:
http://www.bochynski.com/stillson/

George Washington Carver

2009-03-20T16:43:00.003-04:00

George Washington Carver was a scientist, inventor, and educator. He created over 300 peanut products including; peanut butter and soap, as well as, sweet potato products including; dyes and candies. He never wanted to profit for his inventions nor did he receive a patent for his inventions. He also never wrote his inventions down--it was all kept in his brain. He helped change the South and its crop industry by making farms multi-crop instead of one-crop. Carver was a giving man. In 1940, Carver donated his life savings to the establishment of the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee University, for continuing research in agriculture.

Pictures and Info:

Wikipedia

Legacy

Amanda Jones

2009-03-20T16:14:00.001-04:00

Amanda Jones was born in 1835 on October 19 in East Bloomfield, New York. She was very into spiritiualism and claimed spirits guided her through all her decisions in life and led her to discover the Jones Process. The Jones Process is process through which a vacuum method is used to can goods. She claimed that spirits told her to contact George Cooley and to work with him to create a method in which a vacuum could be used in canning. The new process removed the air and replaced it with a jelly or juice and made the canned good more flavorful with out decreasing its nutritional content. It also killed the bacteria because the oxygen would be removed. She received a patent for her work and eventually opened the Women’s Canning and Preserving Company. The company originally only hired women but eventually Jones discovered that no one would buy or stock their product so she hired a group of men. The group of men eventually took over the business.
Aside from inventing the Jones Process, Amanda Jones was a published author and poet. She also created the first automatic safety burner. She died in 1914.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljones.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Jones_(inventor)

Charles Moncky - "Monkey" Wrench

2009-03-20T15:40:00.004-04:00

Charles Moncky lived in Baltimore and worked as a mechanic. He acquired a patent for his invention of the "monkey" wrench in 1858. According to multiple sources, the tool is not named because it's easy to toy with (like a monkey), but instead it was originally named after the inventor Moncky. Due to other evidence some historians say it was named monkey wrench because other screw-adjustable wrenches and the term monkey wrench were used as far back as the 1840's. Regardless of what happened, Moncky's invention is still used to this day because of its ease of use and versatility. There have been very few adjustments to his original invention, but other wrenches can be derived from this including the pipe wrench. Moncky's life story is little known outside of the work on his invention. Later in his life he ended up selling the patent for $2,000 in order to invest in a house in New York state where he lived later in his life.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_wrench#cite_note-0
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwrench.htm

Isaac Merritt Singer

2009-03-20T15:34:00.001-04:00

Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875) was an inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
Singer was born in Pittstown, New York, to German-Jewish immigrants; he was the last born child of Adam Singer and his first wife, Ruth Benson. He left home when he was twelve and travelled the Northeast for many years, working in carnivals, as an actor, and a mechanic. He married his first wife Catharine Maria Haley in 1830; together they lived New York City, where Singer had a job in a press shop. A few years later he left the city as an agent for a company of players, where he met Mary Ann Sponsler, his second wife. Catherine gave him two children: William and Lillian, and Mary Ann gave him a son.
Singer later went back to work in the machine shop and in 1850, he was asked to analyze a Blodgett & Lerow sewing machine that had been brought in for repair. Singer developed a new design based on that machine and marketed it. His model improved the methods of feeding the cloth, regulating the tension on the needle thread, and lubricating the needle thread so that leather could be sewn. Soon after, he had enough money to start his own company, the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
Singer developed the first practical home sewing machine and brought it into general use; this advance contributed to the growth of the ready-made clothing industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

References:
http://www.answers.com/topic/isaac-singer
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrensse/bio206.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Singer

Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875)
http://www.northstar.k12.ak.us/schools/ryn/projects/inventors/singer/singer-Image.GIF

Singer sewing machine
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/object_images/535x535/10223971.jpg

Luther Burbank

2009-03-20T12:43:00.001-04:00

American Botanist Luther Burbank was born March 7, 1849. He was 13 of 15 children and grew up on a farm in Lancaster, Mass. He only had an elementary education, but liked working in the garden with his mother. His father died when he was 21 and with his inheritance money bought 17acres. On this land he developed the Burbank Potato from 1872-1874. This potato was shortly developed into the Russet Burbank Potato, more commonly know as the Idaho Potato. This is your common potato, brown skin, white flesh, and everywhere. If you have ever eaten a McDonald’s french-fry, you’ve eaten one of his potatoes. The Russet Burbank Potato was easily grown and actually is accredited for helping Ireland recover from its potato famine in the 1840-1860’s. Burbank sold the rights to this new, easily grown potato for $150. It was through techniques such as grafting, hybridization and cross breeding that allowed Burbank to develop more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career as a Botanist. His development of potato’s led him to do extensive work with fruits, vegetables, flowers, grains and other plants. Burbank died April 11, 1926.

Luther Burbank:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burbank_Shaw_c1902.jpg

Russet Burbank Potato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Potatoes.jpg

James Naismith

2009-03-20T11:41:00.002-04:00

Basketball has swept the world and becme a major sport in almost all countries but do people really know where it came from. James Naismith lived from 1861 to 1939 in North America, canada to be more precise. Naismith was a physical education instructor who wanted to find a way for his students to participate in sports during the winter months. In 1891 he created the game of basketball just for that reason. He came up with the idea for his game while visiting the YMCA in Springfield Massachuttes. He designed the game using a soccer ball and peach baskets, the baskets still had there bottoms intack and the soccer ball was thrown into them for points.

The first public basketball game was in Springfield, MA, USA, on March 11, 1892. Basketball was first played at the Olympics in Berlin Germany in 1936 (America won the gold medal, and Naismith was there).

First BBall court at Springfeild college:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Firstbasketball.jpg

James Naismith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naismith.jpg

Miriam Benjamin

2009-03-20T11:27:00.002-04:00

Miriam Benjamin, an African-American school teacher, was the second black woman to receive a patent. Her design is the concept of a assistance-call button, like those in modern commercial airplanes. In 1888, she received a patent for her "Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels," which reduced expenses for hotels by instead of having multiple waiters to attending guest to just a few waiters. A button on the back of the chair, when pressed, would relay a signal to the attendants letting them know someone required assistance. A light would then appear near the chair letting the attendants know which one pressed the button.

Click here to view a photo of the patent.

Resources:

http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/miriambenjamin.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbenjamin.htm

Elisha Otis

2009-03-20T11:11:00.002-04:00

Two and a half years ago i was riding the Crawford elevator down from the sixth floor. at least ten of us piled into the elevator and I made the intelligent remark of "on the count of three, everyone jump!" thinking that no one would take me seriously. However, seeing as this is college, several people took me up on the offer, and as we made it to the first floor, a wonderful screeching filled the elevator shaft and we proceeded to drop another foot. I then spent the next twenty minutes in the elevator partying to cell phone ring tones.

After researching for this blog I realised that I have Elisha Otis to thank for the fact that i didnt drop further than a foot. Otis invented the safety device used to stop elevators if the cable breaks. This made high-rise buildings such as Crawford (not *really* a high-rise) possible.

Otis was born in vermont to a family that already had five kids. in order to escape financial issues he moved to New York to work as a master mechanic developing railroad brakes. from there he moved to a company that needing him to develop a hoisting mechanism for heavy lifting. Otis decided to address the safety issue regarding hoisting mechanisms that already existed and he developed a braking system that consisted of spring and ratchet in order to catch a dropping hoist if the rope breaks. this invention took off as the start of elevator safety systems, and ensured that i made it to my next class that day, granted, I was 20 minutes late.

http://www.theelevatormuseum.org/e/E-5.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Otis

Sarah Goode

2009-03-20T10:59:00.003-04:00

Sarah Goode was born in 1850, but not as a free women. She was born into slavery and was one of many African American women who served as a slave during this time. After the Civil War however she was able to gain her freedom and moved up north to Chicago in hopes of becoming a business women. While in Chicago she took notice that many apartments were so small that there was hardly any room for a bed.

Owning a furniture store at the time she came up with the idea of a bed that folded up into a usable piece of furniture such as a desk. She drew out the idea and built it and the "hide-away" bed was born. The design was also referred to as a folding bed because of its hinged design that was easy to raise or lower.

Her idea of the folding or hide-away bed was so popular that Goode decided to apply for a patent. On July 14, 1885 she was the first African American women to be awarded a patent.

Today we know her invention as the Murphy bed and is widely used in the U.S.

Sarah Goode's death is estimated to be between 1900 and 1905. This discrepancy is due to unclear material in the census of that time.

Sarah Goode's "hide-away" bed

John Pemberton

2009-03-19T21:03:00.002-04:00

John Pemberton was born in Georgia in 1831. He graduated from the Southern Botanico Medical College of Georgia at the age of 19. He then received a graduate degree in pharmacy. Pemberton fought for the Confederacy as a lieutenant colonel. After the Civil War he worked as a druggist and moved to Atlanta. There he served on the first pharmacuetical board in Georgia.

Pemberton was the guy who invented Coca-Cola. He originally was trying to make a coca wine, which is supposed to ease nervousness and stop headaches. Then he had to make the beverage non-alcoholic, this is how Coca-Cola came about. It was first sold in bottles in 1894.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pemberton

Jacob Perkins

2009-03-19T11:44:00.003-04:00

Jacob Perkins was born in Newburyport Massachusetts in 1766. Perkins started off as an apprentice to a goldsmith. He later became the goldsmith in his town where he invented a new way of plating shoe buckles. Perkins was contracted by the state of Massachusetts to produce dies to make copper coins. He also changed bank note dies from steel to copper plates. This led him to trips overseas where he received a contract to produce copper plates for the Bank of Ireland. Perkins also made two contributions to the maritime industry. He invented a bathometer which was used to measure the depth of a body of water and he invented a pleometer which was used to determine a vessels speed in water. Perkins was also interested in steam power which led to him the production of a gun that used steam power to propel a projectile instead of gunpowder. The gun was able to pierce ¼ inch steel plating. In 1834 he built the first practical refrigerator which used ether to keep it cool. Jacob Perkins died in 1849 in London where he was buried.

Norbert Rillieux

2009-03-19T08:46:00.002-04:00

Norbert Rillieux was born on March 17th, 1806 in New Orleans, LA. He was brought up on his father’s cotton plantation. His father was a wealthy White engineer. Rillieux went to school in New Orleans until he was old enough to be sent to Paris, France for higher education. He studied at L’Ecole Centrale where he later became a professor at age 24. During his time at school, his father’s plantation had become a place for processing and refining sugar. The sugar refining process used at that time was extremely dangerous and inefficient. The process called for sugarcane to be boiled in open kettles and strained to allow juice to be separated from the cane. Then the juice was evaporated by boiling at extreme temperatures until granules of sugar were left over. It was dangerous that the employees were forced to transport the boiling juice from one kettle to another, often resulting in severe burns.

When the model for the steam-operated single pan vacuum had become popular, Rillieux developed a three pan system for evaporating the liquid off of the raw sugar. His triple pan evaporation system was patented in 1843. It was in high demand in the industry and a huge success in improving efficiency, quality and safety.

http://www.150.si.edu/150trav/remember/r820.htm
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/norbertrillieux.html
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/exhibits/sugar/sug4a.jpg
http://www.ourrootsrundeep.com/Black_history/Norbert%20Rillieux_files/Norbert_Rillieux_S.jpg

Mary Walton

2009-03-18T21:17:00.002-04:00

Mary Walton was an independent American inventor. She is most famous for her activism in controlling pollution. In 1879 she invented a way for smokestacks to not pollute the air. She did this by having the emissions go to a water tank rather than in the sky. These water tanks could then be emptied into the sewage system.
Later in life, around 1890, she invented a way for elevated railroads to emit less noise. This was achieved by Walton making a model railway in her basement. She found storing the trains in a box-like frame of wood, painted with tar, lined with cotton and filled with sand would dampen the sound. She had both her ideas patented by the U.S. Government and sold them.
Sadly, I could find little about her personal life.

Pictures:
Portrait drawing and picture of train frame and smoke stacks:
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00160/a_marywalton.html

Sources:
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00160/a_marywalton.html
http://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/37/Mary-Walton.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Walton_(inventor)
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/walton.html

George Pullman- The Pullman Sleeper Car

2009-03-17T11:46:00.003-04:00

George Pullman was born on March 3rd, 1831 in Brocton, New York and Died on October 19th, 1897. Pullmans education ended at age 14, after his fathers death. He then went to work in a general store to help support the family. In 1848 he went to work as a cabinetmaker. In 1853 he became a general contractor and helped to clear the way for the construction of the Erie Canal. He moved to Chicago shortly after and worked raising the foundations of buildings to resist flooding.

Pullman is most famous for his popularization of the railroad sleeper car which had beds suspended from the ceiling by hinged arms. This idea had been tried before; however, pullmans innovations and business sense made them commonplace. He formed a partnership with Benjamin Fields who had rights to operate sleeper cars on several railways. His business grew slowly until the Civil War when he was forced to postpone his efforts and operate a trading store in Colorado. After returning to Chicago, Pullman and Fields constructed the Pioneer sleeping car. Its first trip carried Abraham Lincoln's widow from Washington to Springfield,IL after his death. The cars were becoming very popular. To this point Pullman subcontracted other companies to manufacture the sleeper cars. In 1880, he constructed a factory and company town. In 1894, the workers went on strike and began the separation of town from factory. Pullman died in Chicago in 1897.

George Pullman

Pullman Sleeper Car

Henry Blair

2009-03-16T15:18:00.002-04:00

Born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1807, Henry Blair was the second African American inventor to ever receive a patent. Because it was not common for slaves to receive patents, it is believed Blair spent his life as a farmer and was a free man. For a long time he was thought to be the first African American to receive a patent, and is still confused today as being the first. In all actuality, Thomas Jennings received a patent for his invention of the dry cleaning process in 1821 and is truly the first black man to have received a patent. On October 14, 1834, Blair received his first patent for his invention of the corn seed planter. His invention allowed the farmers to plant their corn much faster, and with much less labor. It also helped control the growth of weeds. Blair later received another patent in 1836 for the invention of the cotton planter which was very similar to the seed planter in the way that it was designed. Unable to read or write, Blair was not considered an educated man. At the time that he filed his patent applications he had to sign them with an “x” because he was unable to write or sign his own name. One interesting note about Blair is that he is the only person in the United States Patent Office records that has been identified as a “colored man”. This is so interesting because no other inventor has ever been identified by their race. Henry Blair died in 1860.

Image of inventions:

Corn Seed Planter
http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/M/Z/blair1.jpg

Cotton Planter
http://www.todayinsci.com/Events/Patent/SeedPlanter-BlairX8447Thm.jpg

** References:

http://library.thinkquest.org/3337/blair.html

Thomas Jennings

2009-03-15T19:34:00.002-04:00

Thomas Jenning was an African American born in 1791. Although he was African American during the times of slavery in the United States, Jennings was a free man.

Jenning worked at many jobs before he settled down in a career of being a tailor. He was so skilled and successful at this profession that he was able to open his own store on Church street in New York. While working as a tailor, he heard a great deal of complaints from his customers about soiled clothing. People were upset when clothes became soiled and were not able to washed in the conventional manner.

Jennings is famous for his patented process of 'dry scouring', or dry cleaning. This invention made him a very wealthy man. Instead of spending his money on lavish things, Jennings contributed a great deal to abolitionist activity throughout the Northeast. He was even the assistant secretary for the First Annual Convention for the People of Color in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

RESOURCE:
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/thomasjennings.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljennings.htm

This is a modern dry cleaning model:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/dry-cleaning4.jpg

Dr. Richard Gatling

2009-03-14T11:27:00.003-04:00

Dr. Richard Gatling

Richard Gatling was a medical doctor by training, but was thoroughly dedicated to inventing. He developed his first invention, a screw propeller, at age 21 and received his first patent in 1844 for a seed planter (US Patent 3,581). He continued to create new farming machines, receiving his final approved patent in 1902 for a motor plow (US Patent 696,808), until his death in 1903 at the age of eighty-five.

Dr. Gatling holds forty-eight patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, ranging from farming equipment to war machines. It is the invention of an apparatus of war that he is best known for, the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun uses multiple hand cranks barrels to achieve a high rate of continuous fire. Unlike the mitrailleuse that was invented in Europe, the Gatling gun was belt fed and so did not have to be reloaded for fire like its predecessor. The design of multiple barrels cycling through the fire, reload, cool process is so effective for rapid fire that the basic concept is still employed today in several high rate of fire aircraft and ship weapons.

References:

http://patft.uspto.gov/

Julia Keller. 2008. Mr Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It. Viking. ISBN-13: 978-0670018949

Thomas Davenport

2009-03-11T21:11:00.002-04:00

Was born in Williamstown, Vermont 9 July 1802. He received only three years of education and when turned fourteen he became the apprentice of a blacksmith because of lack of resources to continue his education. In 1833 he started the study of electro-magnetism by getting his own magnets and trying to enhace them. In 1834 he created a rotary engine driven by electricity: he attached two electromagnets to a pivot, mounting that between other two magnets which were fixed in place as poles. When he passed a current through the wires the pivot rotated and he had just invented the electric motor. He displayed this new invention at the Rensselaer institute in Troy. At the end of this year he built a circular railway driven by electromagnetic engine.

On July 6, 1851, he died in Salisbury, Vermont.

Thomas Davenport

Electric car

http://www.aussiecynic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/thomas_edison_electric_car.jpg

James Ritty

2009-03-11T07:58:00.001-04:00

James Ritty was born on October 29, 1836 in Dayton, Ohio. He went to medical college and became a physician by 1860. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Fourth Ohio Calvary for 3 years. In 1879 he opened his first saloon. He noticed that some of his employees would steal the customers’ money rather than deposit it. In 1878, while on a steamboat trip to Europe, he noticed that there was a mechanism that counted how many times the ship’s propeller rotated. He discovered that a mechanism like this might also work for recording cash transactions. When he returned home, with the help of his brother, he created a design for a machine that could record the amount of money coming in, but had no cash drawer. In 1879, he patented the design as “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier.”
He created a small factory to build these designs, but soon became too overwhelmed with both businesses. He sold the factory to a group of investors that included Jacob H. Eckert and John and Frank Patterson. In 1884, John H. Patterson became the majority owner and the company was renamed The National Cash Register Company. The cash registers created at this time had a few improvements to Ritty’s original design. A bell would ring on the cash register once a transaction was complete and the amount would be noted on a large dial on the front. To record each sale, a paper tape was punched with holes that could be counted at the end of the day. Ritty was not bitter about the little he benefited from his patent and he stayed friends with James Patterson till his death on March 29, 1918.

Picture of James Ritty:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2001/222/rittyjamesbio.jpg

Picture of 1st cash register:
http://www.retailsystems.com/assets/rittys-retail-pos-system.jpg

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ritty
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1800b.shtml

Cyrus McCormick

2009-03-10T11:19:00.004-04:00

Cyrus McCormick was born in 1809 on a farm in Virginia. All through out his growing up years he had been inventing little gadgets to help with the farm work. In 1831 he invented a machine called the reaper. His invention was then patented in 1834. The reaper was a machine that would cut standing grain and then move it onto a platform where the farmer would then sweep it off. Later the grain would have to be bundled. With this invention grain harvesters could not harvest up to five times faster than before. McCormick then moved to Chicago to build his own factory to manufacture his product. He then started improving the reaper until there were self-raking reapers, and also a self-bundleing reaper. McCormick started the use of mechanical machines for farming equipment which is so heavily used today. His inventions greatly helped the world of agriculture until the invention of the combine.

Picture of Cyrus McCormick http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/mccormick01b.jpg

Picture of Reaper
http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/nation/images/gal_technology_reaperlg.jpg

Walter Hunt

2009-03-10T10:34:00.003-04:00

Walter Hunt (1796-1859) was a NY farmer. He used his degree in masonry to improve upon the machines available to his local mills. Of his many inventions was the safety pin. He created the safety pin while contemplating how he would repay a $15 debt. In his absent-minded contemplation he was twisting a wire that would prove to be a very useful, everyday device. The pin was later patented in 1849 and Hunt ironically sold the patent to the man he was indebted to for $400. Hunt's safety pin was the first of its kind. Before Hunt, no other pin had such a clasp that would prevent finger pricks and other such injuries.

http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventors/a/safety_pin.htm
http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2008/04/safety_pin_300px.jpg

Whitcomb L. Judson- Zipper

2009-03-09T17:31:00.002-04:00

Whitcomb L. Judson (c. 1844-1909) was born in Chicago, IL. He attended Knox College and worked as a traveling salesman. His first recognized invention (1889) was a street railway which ran using pistons. The idea was impractical and was not widely implemented. He continued to invent even though his first ideas were not highly successful.

In 1890, he invented the chain-lock fastener or the "clasp-locker," the precursor to the modern zipper. In an effort to make sure this invention became popular, he also invented a clasp-locker machine to inexpensively produce his newest gadget. The clasp-lockers consisted of adjacent rows of eyes and hooks brought together by a guide. Judson exhibited his new invention at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The clasp-lockers were first used on shoes. Judson established the Universal Fastener Company to mass produce clasp-lockers. Judson continued to make improvements to his design, but the clasp-locker did not see wide success during his lifetime.

In 1913, Gideon Sundbach, Judson's employee, improved on Judson's design and created a product very similar to the modern zipper which he called the "hook-less fastener." This improved design eventually became widespread and was used in various clothing pieces. The clasp-locker became known as the zipper in 1923 when the Goodrich company used the new design on new rubber boots called "zippers."

Though Judson did not see the success of his improved invention, he is credited with being the inventor of the zipper. A high school in Converse, TX is named in his honor.

Judson

Clasp-Locker Design

Clasp-Locker Design 2

Modern Zipper

Christopher Latham Sholes

2009-03-09T17:13:00.002-04:00

Christopher Latham Sholes was born in 1819 in Mooresburg Pennsylvania. He invented the first practical typewriter, and the keyboard setup that we use today. In 1837 he moved to Wisconsin, where he was a newspaper publisher and a politician, serving as a senator and in the State Assembly. Although Sholes was not the first to invent a typewriter, he was the first to market one successfully. The machine was not his original goal. He was trying to create a machine that would number pages, and he completed this project in 1866. He then happened to read an article about a typewriter prototype created by an Englishman, John Pratt. He thought that this prototype was too complicated, so he decided to simplify the design, calling it a typewriter. Sholes worked with two other men, Samuel W. Soule, who had helped with the numbering machine, and Carlos Glidden, a lawyer. The original design, completed in 1868, had two rows of keys, and was modeled after the piano. It was this version that they interested James Densmore in. When Densmore looked at the machine, he suggested that it needed improvements, which discouraged Soule and Glidden. These two left the project, leaving Densmore and Sholes to fix the design. They had the machine extensively tested, finding and fixing anything that was weak in the design. In 1873 they sold the patent to the Remington Arms Company. Sholes continued to work on improvements, inventing the QWERTY keyboard layout that we use today in 1873. Sholes died in 1890 from tuberculosis.

Picture of Christopher Sholes: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Sholes.jpg
Picture of Pratt's Typewriter: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Pterotype.jpg
Picture of Sholes' Typewriter: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Sholes_typewriter.jpg

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Sholes
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltypewriter.htm

Samuel Morse 1791-1872

2009-03-09T16:36:00.003-04:00

Samuel Morse was born in Charlestown, Mass. on April 15, 1791. He entered Yale at the age of 14, wanting to become a painter. While attending Yale, he would often overhear lectures on electricity and it sparked an intrest in him. Although he was interested in electricity, he continues with art. It's not until 1827 when Morse helps launch the NY Journal of Commerce and publishes the Academics of Art that he meets James Freeman Dana, who guides his study of electricity further. Morse however, believes art is his passion and decides to travel to Europe to paint. It is not until Morse is on his way back from Europe when he comes up with the thought of a mass communication system. He speaks with another passanger about electromagnetism and other European experiements. Morse then begins to write ideas for a dot- dash system with an electromagnetic telegraph.
In 1835 Morse develops a recording telegraph with a moving paper ribbon and by 1837, he has develped a way to use an electric circuit to open and close a switch nearby, to one farther away. This is sent through 10 miles of wire arranged on reels. Eventually the length of wire, and transmission of messages would grow from inside a small city to across the ocean.

Links:
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/images3/1844morse.jpg
http://www.wrvmuseum.org/morsecode/images/samuel_morse_telegraph.jpg

Josephine Garis Cochrane

2009-03-09T14:29:00.002-04:00

Josephine Cochrane was a very well-off American woman who lived from 1839 until 1913. She was a native of Illinois, living a high end life with various help around the house and little work left to be done herself. Cochrane is known today for her invention of the first effective, automatic dishwasher however. When her survants took too long and chipped plates and cups while washing dished, she decided that an automated dishwasher was needed. When no one else invented one, she did so herself.

The device was first seen in 1886. A wire basket was made with measurements for places for cups, saucers, and plates. When the dishes were placed in the basket, rollers moved the dishes around while hot water and soap were sprayed onto the dishes to clean them. The wire basket and soapy water was all contained in a giant wooden tub. Her diswasher was displayed at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.

Josephine Cochrane:
http://www.ideaconnection.com/right-brain-workouts/images/Cochrane-Josephine.jpg

Cochrane Dishwasher:
http://www.partselect.com/JustForFun/Images/ps_jff_original_dishwasher.jpg

Assignment #4

2009-03-09T13:25:00.001-04:00

This assignment is due by Friday, March 20th by 5 pm. Late assignments will be docked 5 points per hour they are late. Please post early and on time. Also, where applicable, provide a link to any website or information you use--do not post images directly to the blog.

Assignment 4.

Briefly discuss a scientist/inventor/engineer (not discussed in class) who lived in America (NOTE: Do not use any non-American inventors) between 1800 and 1900. Give a brief synopsis of their life and the discovery/invention/design/creation they are famous for. Provide a link to any images of 1) the individual and 2) what they discovered/invented.

Do not copy anyone from the first three assignments!

Do not simply copy and paste anything from another website. This is supposed to be in your own words and should be written as paragraphs, not just bullet points or a list. The average length should be a full paragraph or two.

Good luck!

Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann

2009-02-27T22:50:00.002-05:00

Son of Johann Buschmann, a builder of Pipe Organs (who actually invented a pretty neat instrument called the terpodion, which is unique enough that 1. Microsoft word does not have it in its word bank, and 2. Wikipedia does not have an article or even an article stub on it), Christian Fredich Ludwig Buschmann (17 June 1805 –1 October 1864), was the inventor of the harmonica, and (disputably) the inventor of the accordion. Born in Friedrichroda, Thuringia, Buschman, he traveled to Germany on contract to perform maintenance on his father’s terpodins, because they weren’t all that reliable. It seems as if Buschmann’s greatest need was a pocket-sized tuning device, and since other reed-like instruments had already been invented, his innovative mind decided to make a mini-version. This first “harmonica” was nothing more than a simple tuning device, and devices like this are still used today. I have one. It’s in my dorm. I’m not lying. I will bring it into class if you happen to be reading this and want to see it. Just tell me. Later, he decided to incorporate this harmonica into a larger device with a bellows, and later, piano-like keys. This became known as the Aeoline or “Accordion”. In 1833, he re-positioned to Hamburg, where he opened up his own music shop, constructing mostly musical instruments known as Physharmonicas, which were basically accordions that were constructed like upright pianos, and the bellows were operated with the feet (they had piano keys). Although there is no good documentation that Buschmann actually invented any of these instruments, there is documentation that he claimed to have invented “new instruments”, and these instruments were not yet invented the time he was using them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Friedrich_Ludwig_Buschmann

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Christian-Buschmann

(this one has a photo!)
http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q1.html

Chardonnet-Artificial Silk

2009-02-27T15:28:00.003-05:00

Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet (1839-1924) is the Frenchman credited with inventing the first artificial silk. Chardonnet was born in Besancon, France in 1839. He worked as a civil engineer during his early career. Chardonnet worked with Louis Pasteur in the 1860s as an engineer. The artificial silk was developed during his time with Pasteur. He died in Paris, France in 1924.

The silk industry was failing because of an epidemic among silk worms. Chardonnet was working in Pasteur's lab trying to find a solution. He started his research on artificial silk after accidentally spilling nitrocellulose in the lab and noticing its silk-like qualities. The artificial silk was derived from mulberry leaves which had been turned into pulp and treated with acids. The resultant product was very flammable. It was said that some early artificial silk garments would burst into flames when too close to lit cigarettes or other sources of flame. Chardonnet decided to denitrate the artificial silk to reduce its flammability. Chardonnet patented article silk in 1884 and began manufacturing it in 1891. The fabric was refined and commonly referred to as rayon by 1924. Rayon is still used in the textiles industry today.

Chardonnet Picture 1

Chardonnet Picture 2

Rayon Synthesis Picture

Rayon Picture

Ottmar Mergenthaler

2009-02-27T14:51:00.001-05:00

Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899) was a German inventor. Like Gutenberg, Mergenthaler revolutionized the art of printing; he invented a machine that could easily and quickly set movable type. Prior to Mergenthaler's invention of the linotype in 1884, no newspaper in the world had more than eight pages.
Mergenthaler was born in Hachtel, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He was the third son of a poor school teacher, Johann George Mergenthaler. Mergenthaler's ambition at that time was to become a watchmaker. Although his father was initially opposed to the idea, after some hesitation he apprenticed him to a relative named August Hahl in Bietigheim, where he soon earned a journeyman's wage. At first, Mergenthaler worked on knives and tools in Hahl's shop, and obtained his first patent at the age of 20. As business was rather poor, Mergenthale and Hahl moved to Baltimore. He became a member of the Liederkranz Society and of the German Turnverein. In 1878, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He invented the linotype machine in 1886, a machine that allowed lines of metal type to be set by an operator from a keyboard similar to a typewriter instead of each piece of type being set by hand, which revolutionized the printing industry.

References
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Mergenth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottmar_Mergenthaler
http://www.zionbaltimore.org/history_people_mergenthaler.htm

Ottmar Mergenthaler
http://germanoriginality.com/admin/img/ul/76.jpg

Linotype machine
http://www.metaltype.co.uk/photos/images/63.jpeg

Léon Guillaume Bouly (1872-1932)

2009-02-26T22:50:00.000-05:00

Léon Guillaume Bouly (1872-1932)

Bouly was an inventor from France most noted for his work in cinematography. After inventing several chronograph machines and improving filmmaking efficiency with film perforations, holes that helped measure and move film in a chronograph, Bouly coined the term ‘cinématographe’. This is the same term that would later be shortened to ‘cinema.” Among the chronograph machines Bouly is credited for inventing is the cinematograph in 1892.
The cinematograph is a reversible film making devise capable of both recording film as well as projecting it. Unfortunately Bouly lost the patent on this device before he was able to make the device well known under his name and the Lumières brothers scooped the patent up. They were the first to make true use of the machine making their first film of people leaving their film factory and would later make a cinematography career.
http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LIGHT_SMOKE_L.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/l-on-bouly
http://www.speedylook.com/Leon_Bouly.html
http://www.freebase.com/view/en/leon_bouly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Bouly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9matographe

class project assignment question

2009-02-26T20:09:00.003-05:00

We had a question regarding portion 1 of the team assignment. part 2 has a detailed description of what is expected of the team, but what are we doing for part 1? is it an essay, presentation, poster? who has to do what? when are things due?

Samuel Colt

2009-02-26T19:29:00.002-05:00

Samuel Colt was an American inventor and businessman who invented the first practical revolving handgun. Born in 1814 in Hartford, Connecticut and studied a scientific encyclopedia instead of the Bible verses he was supposed to be studying. In 1832, his father sent him to sea to learn how to be a sailor and it was there Colt claimed he got the inspiration for his invention from the revolution of the ship's wheel. Colt initially built two pistols but he lacked the capital to hire good smiths and so the guns were failures. In 1832, at age 18, Colt applied for the patent of the six-shot pistol and claimed he would soon have a working model. He later used money he earned from doing a traveling laughing gas demonstration tour to refine his invention and promote it in Britain and France before coming back to America. He finally got a patent for his invention in 1836 and set up a factory in Peterson, New Jersey. From these humble beginnings, his company eventually blossomed into one of Americas largest firearms manufacturers and currently produces one of the most poorly designed assault rifles in history for the U.S. Army.

Clement Ader

2009-02-25T17:06:00.002-05:00

Clement Ader was a French inventor best know for creating the first self powered aircraft. Ader was born in 1841 in Muret, and began studying in the field of electrical engineering. His first significant work was in 1878 when he improved Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. He refined Bell's phone and created France's first telephone network. He was also a mechanical engineer and built a V-8 engine for racecars. His most important work was the construction of the Ader Eole, a batlike steampowered aircraft which successfully flew 50 meters and became the first self powered flight, 13 years before the Wright Brothers. Ader also built the Avion III, which either flew 300 meters or crashed during takeoff. Ader wrote the book L'Aviation Militaire, which accurately predicted what an aircraft carrier would look like. He died in 1925 and was honored by France with a postage stamp in 1938.

Sources and Pictures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9ment_Ader

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/AderAvion3%281897%29.jpg

Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850-1918)

2009-02-25T13:21:00.001-05:00

Karl Ferdinand Braun was born on June 6, 1850 in the German city of Fulda. Although his initial interest was to be a gymnasium science teacher, Braun began a general science and mathematics curriculum at the University of Marburg. He soon transferred to the University of Berlin where he focused his studies on physics and ultimately received his doctorate. Braun's interest in the electrical conductivity of metal salts in solution led to his study of metal sulfide crystals and other crystalline solids which seemed to conduct even when not fully dissolved. After much experimentation, Braun reported in 1874 that for many metal sulfides, the electrical resistance varies with the magnitude and polarity of the applied voltage. He then found this phenomenon to be especially true if at least one of the electrodes was a pointed wire. With these discoveries, Karl Ferdinand Braun spent the next twenty-odd years his life being occupied with university teaching and physics research, most of which involved some aspect of electricity. During this period, he developed several electrical measurement instruments of importance to the physicists of that day. His greatest contribution came in 1897.Two years earlier, x-rays had been discovered and in 1897 the existence of electrons had been established. Since both were of great interest to Braun, he took it upon himself to further research in hopes of a new discovery. It was known that if high voltage was applied between two electrodes in an evacuated glass tube, electrons were emitted from the cathode and traveled to the anode. It was also known that certain materials would become luminescent when struck by the electrons In other words, Ferdinand Braun had discovered the point-contact rectifier effect. This effect had no practical application at that particular time but would be rediscovered over thirty years later in the form of the "cat's whisker" crystal radio detector and would later be instrumental in the point-contact transistor first produced in 1948. Though Karl Ferdinand Braun shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi for achievements in wireless telegraphy, he is rarely remembered for that sole honor. He is known better for building the first cathode ray tube in 1897. Braun introduced a CRT with a fluorescent screen, known as the cathode ray oscilloscope. The screen would emit a visible light when struck by a beam of electrons. Thus began the era of television. Shortly after World War I began in Europe, Braun migrated to the United States to testify in a patent dispute. The subsequent involvement of the United States in that war, together with an incurable illness, made it impossible for Braun to return to Germany. He lived at his son's home in Brooklyn, NY until his death in 1918.

** Link to Image:

http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/gif/phys/braun.jpg

** Reference:

Karl Ferdinand Braun

Britannica, Encyclopedia. Compton's Encyclopedia, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007.

Rudolf Diesel

2009-02-25T12:47:00.004-05:00

Rudolf Diesel was born in Paris in 1858 and was an inventor as well as an engineer. He attended school at Munich Polythenic and after graduation went to work as a refrigeration engineer. Although refrigeration became his career, he was extremely interested in the design of engines. With this interest he wrote and published a paper in 1893 about a an engine that would combust inside a cylinder, the internal combustion engine. He dubbed his new invention after himself; the diesel engine and in 1894 filed a patent for it.

While testing his engine one day Diesel was nearly killed when it exploded. He spend several months in the hospital recovering from the accident. However in 1897 he was able to operate the first successful diesel engine.

Besides the invention of the diesel engine Diesel was known for being a well-respected thermal engineer and social theorist. Being a social theorist one of his reasons for inventing the diesel engine was to help independent workers and craftsmen compete against the larger industries around them.

Diesel made improvements on his engine for two years when its effciency reached 75%. By 1898 Diesel was a millionaire. He died in 1913

Picture of Rudolf Diesel

Picture of the Rudolf diesel engine

Seth Boyden - nail-making machine (1788-1870)

2009-02-24T21:35:00.003-05:00

Seth Boyden, born in Foxboro, Massachusetts, invented the nail-making machine. Boyden first started in 1820 perfecting a method of heat treating iron. For this work, in 1826, he was acknowledged by the Franklin Institute in 1828. Because Boyden never patented his work, he took to creating private contracts and selling off his work, but because of his research costs, he lived a very poor life. Boyden also created the hybrid strawberry which is also known as the Hilton Strawberry.

Click here for a picture of Seth Boyden

References:

Find a Grave

Wikipedia

Nicolaus Otto

2009-02-24T01:12:00.002-05:00

Otto was born on June 14, 1832 in Holzhausen, Germany. Otto's life began rather ordinary, his first job was as a traveling salesman. i is during his work has a salesman that he finds an interest that would help him change the world. Otto uses the two stroke gas engine for inspriation in his work. Otto begins experienting with building four stroke- engines. in 1864 Otto quits his job and starts the first engine manufacturing company with Eugen Langen.

In three short years Otto succeeded in his quest of completing the four stroke combustion engine. Otto's invention was truely a landmark in the feild of engine design. Otto named his engine the "Otto Cycle Engine" which he was able to build into a motorcycle. Otto's worked gave way for a lot offuture work to be done and greatly advanced the feild of transportation.

This is a picture of Nicolaus Otto.
http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/E/M/otto2.gif

This is a link to a sketch of Otto's design.
http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/u/6/otto.gif

This is a link to an old automobile that is using Otto's four stroke engine.
http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/images/capture1072005101637_pm.jpg