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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Who invented the jet aircraft?


Who invented the jet aircraft?

Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. Each worked separately, and knew nothing of the other’s work. Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain’s jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle’s jet first flew in 1941.

Sir Frank Whittle became a testpilot in 1931. The young RAF officer was only 22 when he first thought to use a gas turbine engine to power an airplane. He is regarded as the father of modern jet propulsion systems. He received his first patent on turbojet propulsion in January 1930.

The modern turbojet engine is based on Frank Whittle’s invention

Who invented rockets and satellites?


Who invented rockets and satellites?

Many men contributed to the development of this fastest of all vehicles. The Russian, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the German, Wernher von Braun and the American Robert Goddard, were all basic researchers in this exciting field.

Who invented submarines?


Who invented submarines?

Designs for underwater boats date back to the 1500s. In the 19th century, the first useful submarines began to appear. However, John Philip Holland is acknowledged to be the inventor of the modern submarine. Holland’s vessel was the first to have all the requirements of a modern submarine.

Who invented and designed the first helicopter?


Who invented and designed the first helicopter?

Russian born Igor Sikorsky built the first helicopter VS-300 in 1940. It had become the model for all modern single-rotor helicopters. He also designed and built the first military helicopter, XR-4.

Who were the first people to fly?


Who were the first people to fly?

Orville Wright, of the Wright brothers, made the first successful powered flight in history on December 17, 903. At the time, very few realized its importance. The New York Times apologized 100 years later, for ignoring this historic event and not publishing it as a news item!

Who invented the aeroplane?


Who invented the aeroplane?

Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867 – 1912) requested a patent application for a ‘flying machine’ nine months before their successful flight in December 1903, which Orville Wright recorded in his diary. As part of the Wright Brothers’ systematic practice of photographing every prototype and test of their various flying machines, they had persuaded an attendant from a nearby lifesaving station to snap Orville Wright in full flight. The craft soared to an altitude of 10 feet, traveled 120 feet, and landed 12 seconds after takeoff. After making two longer flights that day, Orville and Wilbur Wright sent this telegram to their father instructing him to “inform press”. But, as mentioned earlier, the first engine-powered airplane to fly was the Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903.

Who first thought of building macadamized roads?


Who first thought of building macadamized roads?

Modern tarred roads were the result of the work of tow Scottish engineers, Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam. Telford designed the system of raising the foundation of the road in the centre to act as a drain for water. Thomas Telford improved the method of building roads with broken stones by analyzing stone thickness, road traffic, road alignment and gradient slopes. Eventually, his design became the norm for all roads everywhere. John Loudon McAdam designed roads using broken stones laid in symmetrical, tight patterns and covered with small stones to create a hard surface. McAdam’s original design, called ‘macadam roads’ provided the greatest advancement in road construction.

Who invented the automobile?


Who invented the automobile?

In 1769, the very first self propelled road vehicle was a military tractor invented by French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804).

Cugnot used a steam engine to power his vehicle, built under his instructions at the Paris Arsenal by mechanic Brezin. It was used by the French Army to haul artillery at a whopping speed of 21/2 mph on only three wheels.

Who invented the diesel engine?


Who invented the diesel engine?

Rudolf Diesel was the inventor of the diesel fuelled internal combustion engine. Rudolf Diesel was born in Paris. In 1893, he published a paper describing an engine with combustion within a cylinder, the internal combustion engine. At Augsburg, on August 10, 1893, Rudolf Diesel’s prime model, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time. In 1894, he filed for a patent for his new invention, and dubbed it the ‘diesel engine’. Rudolf Diesel spent two more years making improvements and in 1896 demonstrated another model with the theoretical efficiency of 75%, in contrast to the ten percent efficiency of the steam engine. Rudolf Diesel was almost killed by his engine when it exploded. However, his engine was the first that proved that fuel could be ignited without a spark. He operated his first successful engine in 1897.

In 1898, Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for “internal combustion engine”. The diesel engines of today are refined and improved versions of Rudolf Diesel’s original concept.

By 1898, Rudolf Diesel was a millionaire. His engines were used to power pipelines, electric and water plants, automobiles and trucks and marine, and soon after were used in mines, oil fields, factories and transoceanic shipping.

What is an internal combustion engine?


What is an internal combustion engine?

In 1885, two Germans, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz designed an engine that burned a petroleum fuel and used toe resulting power to generate motion. This was the internal-combustion engine, a power source that eventually replaced the steam engine as a method for running vehicles.

The internal-combustion engine is used for many other devices too. This engine flies aero planes, run boats, and many other devices too.

Who made the steam engine?


Who made the steam engine?

James Watt, the Scottish mathematical instrument maker, designed the first workable steam engine in 1765. In the following century, it was developed as a stationary power source to operate machinery, and as a mobile power source to run boats, cars and trains.

The steam engine brought about a great industrial revolution in the Western world and changed the world radically.

Who invented the bicycle?


Who invented the bicycle?

Some history books will state that Pierre and Ernest Michaux, the French father and son team of carriage-makers, invented the first bicycle during the 1860s. Historians now disagree with this, and there is evidence that the bicycle is older than that. However, historians do agree that Ernest Michaux did invent the modern bicycle pedal and cranks in 1861.

The German Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn invented the ‘Laufmaschine’- a bicycle made of wood, with no pedals. A rider would push his / her feet against the ground to make the machine go forward. Sauerbronn’s bicycle was first exhibited in Paris on April 6, 1818.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Who discovered rubber, and the ways it could be used?


Who discovered rubber, and the ways it could be used?

Rubber is a natural substance that had been used or centuries before being rediscovered by Columbus, and introduce to Western culture. Caoutchouc or natural rubber came from the Indian word ‘cahuchu’ which meant ‘weeping wood’. Natural rubber was harvested from the sap that oozed from the bark of the rubber tree. The name ‘rubber’ comes from the use of the natural substance as a pencil eraser that could ‘rub out’ pencil marks.

In 1837, Charles Goodyear received his fires patent for a process that made rubber an easier product to work with. However, this was not the patent Goodyear is best known for. In 1843, Goodyear discovered that if you removed the sulphur from rubber then heated it; it would retain its elasticity. This process called vulcanization made rubber waterproof and winter proof and opened the door for an enormous market for rubber goods. On June 24, 1844, Goodyear was granted patent for vulcanised rubber.


Who invented the tyre?


Who invented the tyre?

Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1844 that was later used for tyres. In 1888, John Dunlop invented the air filled or pneumatic tyres, for bicycles. In 1895, Andre Michelin was the fires person to use pneumatic tyres on an automobile, however not successfully. In 1911, Philip Strauss invented the first successful tyre, which was a combination of tyre and air filled inner tube.

In 1903, P.W Litchfield of the Goodyear Tire Company patented the first tubeless tyre. In 1908, Frank Seiberling invented grooved tyres with improved road traction. In 1910 B. F Goodrich Company invented longer life tyres by adding carbon to the rubber. Radial tyres are now used extensively because of their excellent road grip, though they are more costly than ordinary tyres.


Pneumatic Tyre:

John Boyd Dunlop (1840-1921) was a Scottish veterinarian, and the recognized inventor of the first practical pneumatic or inflatable tyre. His patent was for a bicycle tyre, granted in 1888. However, Robert William Thomson (1822-1873) invented the first vulcanised rubber pneumatic tyre. Thomson patented his pneumatic tyre in 1845. His invention worked well, but was too costly to succeed. Dunlop’s tyre patented in 1888 did, and so he received the most recognition.

Why is the wheel the most important mechanical invention?


Why is the wheel the most important mechanical invention?

It is safe to say that all of man’s technology has either developed from the wheel; or depends on its use in some form. Just think of the many pieced of machinery that use wheels, or were made with other machines that use wheels! The printing press that stamped the words on this page has many wheels within it, and the tiny gears in a wristwatch are a kind of wheel. Pulleys are wheels that can transfer power to other pulleys by means of belts.

The armature in a generator is a wheel which gives us electricity and our vehicles roll comfortably on our broad highways on smoothly running, wheels lined with rubber, which re powered by engines that have many wheels inside. Even motorboat engines have internal wheels, just like the automobile engine

How did the wheel come to exist?


How did the wheel come to exist?

A wheel spinning on an axle seems a simple device, yet it is probably one of the most sophisticated inventions ever wrought. It was a brilliant and completely revolutionary idea. Almost every invention duplicates some function of process that happens in nature. Our eyes contain lenses and movable irises, and are in effect a sort of camera. Levers and pivots exist in our bodies. The intricate plumbing system through which our blood flows is controlled by valves and powered by a strong pump, the heart. But nowhere in the universe, as far as we know, is there a wheel that spins freely on an axle. This is a device that man invented. It is his mechanical contribution to the universe, a concept that did not exist until he made his appearance. It may well be that the wheel will remain man’s only original invention, the one device that does not duplicate some thing in nature.


When Columbus visited America, wheels were not invented there!


The people of the Indus Valley Civilization that existed 5000 years ago in ancient India, were familiar with the wheel and had bullock carts with wooden wheels!


What were the first steps in the development of the wheel?


What were the first steps in the development of the wheel?

Scientists who have made a study of the origins of man’s technology believe that the wheel was first thought of as a result of the observation of partial rotary motion in the human and animal bodies. Our arms, legs, hips, shoulders, wrists, ankles and even heads rotate to some extent but, of course, cannot turn all the way around. Early man, possibly noticing this semi rotation applied the principle to his fire making.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Who invented the wheel and when?


Who invented the wheel and when?

No one knows who invented the wheel. It is an invention that arrived gradually, step by step, over a long period of time, the result of the work of many men, many cultures and many experiments. It was, therefore not a spark of genius in the mind of a single inventor but the result of centuries of work by a number of inventors that led to the greater mobility of man.

It is fascinating to study the development of man’s technological progress in terms of the wheel. It is believed that man became a tool user some 1, 000,000 years ago and that thousands of thousands of years went by until be made a wheel. But consider the progress that has been made in the relatively short space of time, 6000 years. Since the wheel was invented. It is a phenomenal rate of speed – 6000 years against almost 1, 000,000 and shows how truly important the wheel was and still is, to the growth of man’s technology.

The first primitive wheels were found in the remains of Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian cultures and were possibly invented simultaneously in those areas. However, we do no that it was never invented in the New World. The invading Spanish in the 16th century, bent on colonizing the continents of the Western Hemisphere, found the early American cultures quite advanced, but not one had a true wheel.

What is genetic engineering? How it is useful in agriculture?


What is genetic engineering? How it is useful in agriculture?

In 1972, US biochemist Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer began work on altering organisms by cutting up the DNA, the genetic material, of one, of one organism and inserting genes form another. This is called genetic engineering. It has produced useful new plants.

Who made the genetically modified food, for the first time?


Who made the genetically modified food, for the first time?

Farmers and growers have been changing the genetic make up of our food for centuries. The first genetically modified food produced by genetic engineering and approved for sale was the Flavr Savr tomato, produced by Calgene, a US company. A modified firmer allowing it to be picked later without its being too soft to transport. This meant it had more flavour.

Which invention revolutionized plant breeding?


Which invention revolutionized plant breeding?

The basic genetic facts of plant breeding go back to the work of an Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel. By crossing different strains of peas, he discovered that organisms inherit their characteristic in a way governed by mathematical laws. He published his results in 1866. But it was only 1900; a Dutch botanist Hugo De Vries realized their importance to modern biology.

Who discovered Pine apple?


Who discovered Pine apple?

The pine apple, a native of South America, was unknown to Europeans before Columbus’ discovery of America. European began to transport the fruit and grow the plants else where. By 1502m Portuguese explorers had found pine apples in West Indies.

Who invented the milking machine?


Who invented the milking machine?

The first successful milking machine was the one made by L O Colvin, a US engineer in 1890. It was 1889 before Scottish engineer Alexander Shields introduced the modern type of machine which sucks intermittently like a calf.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

What were the first foods grown by man?


What were the first foods grown by man?

Green vegetables were undoubtedly the first foods to be cultivated by the early farmers. They were the easiest to grow. Lettuce, spinach and cabbage led the way, to be followed by the cereal plants. Two types of early wheat, einkorn and emmer wheat, appeared very early in history, but barley, rye, oats and millet were also cultivated. Taken as a whole, the controlled cultivation of plants initiated a completely new era for man.

What were the changes wrought by the agricultural revolution?


What were the changes wrought by the agricultural revolution?

The agricultural revolution brought many, basic changes. Man no longer lived as a wanderer, following the migratory habits of the animals, risking his life in the chase. He now remained in the same place, perhaps for many generations built a permanent home, and became a neighbour to his fellows instead of a tribal competitor. Once settled, he creates communal meeting places, villages and cities, where he could bring the produce of the land to trade for the work of artisans who made implements and farming tools. It was a new type of culture for the former wanderers, a life that kept him in closer contact with his fellows. There was another change in the basic life of man with his development of agriculture. As the cities increased in size and became filled with people who were not food-producers, the need for a larger food supply arose. Farms had to be extended and new lands prepared for the plough. Inevitably, this expansion led to conflict with neighbouring cities that were expanding their own.

Where did formal agriculture first takes place?


Where did formal agriculture first takes place?

Scientists now definitely believe that the first farming of land began in the Middle East, on the slopes of the Zagros Mountains I Kurdistan. Modern dating methods prove that the Middle Eastern site is the oldest. There is evidence, too, of permanent settlements in this part of Kurdistan. At this particular site, there were found remains of the first formal farms in the entire history of man.

When did the cultivation of plants begin?


When did the cultivation of plants begin?

It is now believed to have all begun some ten or twelve thousand years ago, during a period known as the Neolithic Revolution, or the New Stone Age. The discovery of controlled agriculture was the second great change in the relation of man to environment (the first came with fire), and it ushered in what is now called the Modern period.

However the enterprising and inventive people of the Neolithic Age did teach themselves the skills necessary for the cultivation of plants, for they changed their lifestyle from one of wandering hunters and herders, to become the world’s first farmers.

How was agriculture evolved?


How was agriculture evolved?

Every living organism needs a continuous supply of food. It is one of the basic requirements of life. When man made his appearance on earth, he faced the same problem the need for a continuous supply of food. A human being is omnivorous, meaning that he can digest many different kinds of food-vegetables as well as meat. In primitive times, man hunted almost exclusively, chasing and trapping animals and then cooking the meat. But at some time in his early history, he discovered that he could also eat certain plants and fruits. This must have been a momentous discovery, because hunting was a dangerous occupation, and the gathering of edible plants was a much more peaceful and sager way to fill the larder.

But there never were enough plants to last a season and none, on course, in the winter; the tribes had to move in chasing game, finding untouched areas of vegetation. Life must have been a game of steady movement, a constant search for food, a competition with all the other forms of life. Then came a great discovery, a method by which a supply of food could be grown in the same place year after year. Like other basic inventions and discoveries this made a pro-found change in the life and development of man.

Who made robots first?


Who made robots first?

A robot can be defined as a programmable, self-controlled device consisting of electronic, electrical or mechanical units. In fact, it is a machine that functions in place of a living agent. Robots are especially desirable for certain work functions because, unlike humans, they never get tired. They can endure physical conditions that are uncomfortable or even dangerous and can operate in airless conditions. Repetition does not bore them, and they cannot be distracted from the task at hand.

The concept of robots is a very old one, yet the actual word robot was invented in the 20th century from the Czechoslovakian word ‘robota’ or ‘robotnik’ meaning slave, servant or forced labor. Robots don’t have to look or act like humans but they do need to be flexible so they can perform different tasks.

Early industrial robots handled radioactive material in atomic labs and they were called master/slave manipulators. They were connected together with mechanical linkages and steel cables. Push buttons, switches or joysticks can now move remote arm manipulators.

Current robots have advanced sensory systems that process information and appear to function as if they have brains. Their ‘brain’ is actually a form of computerized artificial intelligence.

Who invented the floppy disc?


Who invented the floppy disc?

In 1971, the IBM Company of USA introduced the first ‘memory disc’, as it was called then, or the ‘floppy disc’ as it is known today. IBM engineers, led by Alan Shugart invented the ‘floppy’. The first floppy was an 8” plastic disc coated with magnetic iron oxide. Data was written to, and read from the disk’s surface. The nickname ‘floppy’ came from its flexibility. The floppy disk was considered a revolutionary device at the time for it’s portability, which provided a new, and easy physical means of transporting data from computer to computer.

How were computer printers created?


How were computer printers created?

In 1953, Remington-Rand developed the first high-speed printer for use on the Univac computer. In 1938, Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process called a Xerox, the foundation technology for laser printers to come.


The original laser printer called EARS was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California, USA, and completed by November 1971. Xerox Engineer, Gary Starkweather adapted Xerox copier technology, adding a laser beam to it to come up with the laser printer. In 1992, Hewlett-Packard released the popular Laser Jet4, the first 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution laser printer.

Who invented the digital compact disc?


Who invented the digital compact disc?

An American, James T. Russell, invented the digital compact disc, now commonplace in stereos and computers. When Russell worked at the General Electric Company in 1965, he envisioned a system that would record and replay sounds without physical contact between its parts. He saw that the best way to achieve such a system was to use light. Russell believed that if he could represent the binary 0 and 1 with dark and light, he could create a device that could read sounds or indeed any information at all without ever wearing out. If he could make the binary code compact enough, Russell realized that could store not only symphonies, but also entire encyclopedias on a small piece of film.

After years of work, Russell succeeded in inventing the first digital to-optical recording and playback system (patented in 1970). He had found a way to record onto a photosensitive platter in tiny ‘bits’ of light and dark, each one micron in diameter; a laser read the binary patterns, and a computer converted the data into an electronic signal which it was then comparatively simple to convert into an audible or visible transmission.

This was the first compact disc. Eventually, Sony and other audio companies realized the implications of this invention, and purchased licenses for it.

Who invented the computer mouse?


Who invented the computer mouse?

Douglas Engelbart changed the way computers worked, from specialized machinery that only a trained scientist could use, to a user-friendly tool that almost anyone can use. He invented and contributed to several interactive, user-friendly devices including the computer ‘mouse’ which revolutionized the way we use computers.

This first computer mouse was invented in 1963-64 as part of an experiment to find better ways to “point and click” on a computer display screen. Due to space restrictions, the first mouse had only one button and was carved out of wood.

Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels in 1970, describing it in the patent application as an “X-Y position indicator for a display system”

The device was nicknamed the mouse because the end tail came out at the end.

Who invented the modern Computer?


Who invented the modern Computer?

Most histories of the modern compute begin with the ‘Analytical Engine’ envisioned by approximately 90% of the client operating system market.

Charles Babbage following the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today’s digital computer. Babbage’s assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduce the ideas of program loops and subroutines and is sometimes considered the first programmer. Apart form mechanical calculators, the first really useable computers began with the vacuum tube, accelerated with the invention of the transistor, which then became embedded in large numbers in integrated circuits, ultimately making possible the relatively low-cost personal computer.

Modern computers inherently follow the ideas of the stored program laid out by John Von Neumann in 1945. Essentially, the program is read by the computer one instruction at a time, an operation is performed, and the computer then reads in the next instruction, and so on. Recently computers and programs have been devised that allow multiple programs (and computers) to work on the same problem at the same time in parallel. With the advent of the Internet, and higher bandwidth data transmission, programs and data that are part of the same overall project can be distributed over a network.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Who invented television?


Who invented television?

So many inventors participated in the development of TV that it is impossible to give one individual credit for its invention. A few people, however, can be recognized as pioneers in this field.

Paul Nipkow proposed the first practical mechanical scanner in Germany in 1884. The scanner was a rotating disk with holes arranged in a spiral around its edge. Light passing through the holes, as the disk rotated, produced a rectangular scanning pattern or raster which could be used to either generate an electrical signal from the scene for transmitting or to produce an image from the signal at the receiver.

John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer-inventor, successfully promoted a television system based on the Nipkrow principle. He then sold transmitters and receivers.

In 1927, an American, Philo Farnsworth, widely recognized as the inventor of electronic television, was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines. The image transmitted was a dollar sign. Farnsworth developed the dissector tube, the basis of all current electronic televisions. He filed for his first television patent in 1927.

Vladimir Kosmas Zworykin, a Russian-born American inventor working for Westinghouse, is also credited as being the father of modern television. This was because the patent for the heart of the TV, the electron scanning tube was first applied for by Zworykin in 1923, under the name of an iconoscope. The iconoscope was an electronic image scanner-essentially a primitive television camera. However, while Zworykin applied for the patent for his iconoscope in 1923, the invention was not functional until some years later and all earlier efforts were of such poor quality that Westinghouse officials ordered him to work on something more useful! In Britain, the Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd. provided a system along with Baird’s and, these were experimentally used to broadcast television programs by BBC in November 1936.

Who invented radar?


Who invented radar?

Heinrich Hertz in Germany calculated that an electric current swinging very rapidly back and forth in a conducting wire would radiate electromagnetic waves into the surrounding space. Today we would call such a wire an ‘antenna’. He created such a wire in 1886, and detected such oscillations in his lab, using an electric spark, in which the current oscillates rapidly (that is how lightning creates its characteristic crackling noise on the radio!). Today we call such waves ‘radio waves’. At first however they were ‘Hertzian waves’, and even today we honor the memory of their discoverer by measuring frequencies in Hertz (Hz), oscillations per second- and at radio frequencies, in megahertz (MHz). Heinrich Hertz was the first to demonstrate experimentally the production and detection of Maxwell’s waves. This discovery led directly to the invention of the radio.

Sir Robert Alexander Watson Watt (1892-1973) was the Scottish physicist who developed the radar locating of aircraft in England. He was appointed as the director of radio research at the British National Physical Laboratory in 1935, where he completed his research into aircraft locating devices. Radar was patented in Britain in April 1935.

What is a cell phone? Who invented it?


What is a cell phone? Who invented it?

Cellular telephone is a type of short-wave analog or digital telecommunication in which a subscriber has a wireless connection from a mobile telephone to a relatively nearby transmitter. The transmitter’s span of coverage is called a cell. As the cellular telephone user moves from one cell or area of coverage to another, the telephone is effectively passed on to the local cell transmitter. Cell phones can bow be used to transmit SMS messages, emails and hear enchanting music.

Dr. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, is considered the inventor of the first modern portable handset. Cooper made the first call on a portable cell phone in April 1973. He made the call to his rival, Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of research. Bell Laboratories introduced the idea of cellular communications in 1947 with the police car technology. However, Motorola was the first to incorporate the technology into a portable device that was designed for use outside an automobile. By 1977, AT&T and Bell Labs had constructed a prototype cellular system. A year later, public trials of the new system were started in Chicago, with over 2000 trial customers.

Who invented the telephone?


Who invented the telephone?

In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other. Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell’s success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph. When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell’s extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Bell’s ‘harmonic telegraph’ was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.

By October 1874, Bell informed Boston attorney Gardiner Green Hubbard, about the possibility of a multiple telegraph. Hubbard, who resented the absolute control then exerted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, instantly saw the potential for breaking such a monopoly and gave Bell the financial backing he needed. Bell proceeded with his work on the multiple telegraphs, but he did not tell Hubbard that he and Thomas Watson, a young electrician whose servicees he had enlisted were also exploring an idea that had occurred to him that summer-that of developing a device that would transit speech electrically.

Who invented the barometer?


Who invented the barometer?

The barometer is an instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer, also known as the ‘Torricelli Tube’.

Evangelista Torricelli was born October 15, 1608, in Faenza, Italy and died October 22, 1647 in Florence, Italy. He was a physicist and mathematician. In 1641, Evangelista Torricelli moved to Florence to assist the astronomer Galileo. It was Galileo who suggested to Evangelista Torricelli that to use mercury in his vacuum experiments. Torricelli filled a four-foot long glass tube with mercury ad inverted the tube into a dish.

Some of the mercury did not escape from the tube, and Torricelli observed the vacuum and to discover the principle of a barometer. Torricelli realized that the variation of the height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in the atmospheric pressure. Torricelli built the first mercury barometer around 1644.

Who designed the first modern seismograph?


Who designed the first modern seismograph?

A seismograph is a sensitive instrument that records the seismic waves or vibrations, caused by earthquake. John Milne was the English seismologist and geologist who invented the first modern seismograph, and promoted the building of seismological stations. In 1880, three British scientists working in Japan, Sir James Ewing, Thomas Gray, and John Milne began to study earthquakes. They founded the Seismological Society of Japan. The society funded the invention of seismographs. Milne invented the horizontal pendulum seismograph in 1880. Around 132 AD, a Chinese scientist Chang Heng, invented the first seismoscope an instrument that could register the occurrence of an earthquake. Heng’s invention, ‘the dragon jar’ was a cylindrical jar with eight dragon heads arranged around its brim. Each dragonhead had a ball in its mouth. Around the foot of the jar were eight frogs, each directly beneath a dragonhead. During an earthquake, a ball dropped from a dragon’s mouth, and was caught by the frog.

Who invented the transistor?


Who invented the transistor?

The transistor is an influential invention that changed the course of history for computers. The first generation of computers used transistors; the third generation of computers used integrated circuits and the fourth generation of computers used microprocessors. John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain, scientists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, were researching the behavior of crystals (Germanium) as semi-conductors in an attempt to replace vacuum tubes as mechanical relays in telecommunications. The vacuum tube, used to amplify music and voice, made long-distance calling practical, but the tubes consumed power, created heat and burned out rapidly, requiring high maintenance.

The team’s research was about to come to a fruitless end when last attempts to try a purer substance as a contact point lead to the invention of the ‘point-contact transistor amplifier. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain took out a patent for their transistor. In 1956, the team received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention for the transistor.