FTC Forum
ENGLISH => History => Topic started by: MysteRy on July 30, 2014, 05:54:22 PM
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Invention Story of Elevator
Ever wondered what gave way to soaring imagination of architects? Would the modern day city’s skyline be the same if we did not have skyscrapers and high rise buildings? One of the inventions that have played an important role in modern day architecture is elevators. Imagine yourself climbing stairs to your apartment on 19th floor each time you want to go out. Yes, sounds like a good workout routine. Think again…and you would have a new found respect for elevators and its inventors.
The need for elevators did not arise just yet to support modern architecture; it has been as old as our civilization. We have always looked for ways to lift things. Back in 3rd century, hoists operated by water wheels, humans and animals were used for the lifting purposes. This basic way of lifting continued till the dawn of the industrial revolution. Animal or man power was the main force behind hoisting until one day Archimedes endowed us with an improved lifting device. The device was operated with support of pulleys and ropes coiled around winding drum using levers. By AD 80, wild animals as well as gladiators could ride this primitive elevator.
Further ahead, the first ever elevator was designed to lift a passenger in 1743. This was made exclusively for King Louis in France. Though this looked nothing like elevators of today, it was called a flying chair. Carefully placed outside King’s balcony, the flying chair was used by the king to travel from one floor to another. It was operated manually on King’s command.
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Soon in 1850, much more a sophisticated elevator was introduced – hydraulic and steam elevator. And with this, a name that has been associated with quality elevators till date, Otis, came into being. In a span of two years, Elisha G Otis introduced first ever safety elevator. He solved the challenge of rope failure faced by earlier elevators and hence his elevator was known as safety elevator. Otis’s elevators had safety brake installed in each one of them. In case of a rope failure, spring pushed ratchet to bring forward sawtooth iron bar, securing the elevator. Otis demonstrated this himself in one of the presentations in New York by breaking free the rope and the safety brake that he had installed worked wonderfully.
Simultaneously, Frost and Stutt introduced a traction method, counterbalance kind elevator known as Teagle. Teagle and safety brakes by Otis became basic safety features of the elevators and made way for safety elevator devices.
This passenger elevator was first installed in New York City’s hotel Broadway in 1857. It was powered by steam, could carry around 450 Kgs. of weight and travelled at a speed of 12 meters/minute. Installation of this elevator gave boost to the hotel business because now rooms on the upper floors were no more undesirable. The hotel could now charge premium rates for the penthouses as they gave superior view and the customers were not required to climb so many stairs.
Four years later when Otis died in 1861, his sons took forward the legacy by forming Otis Brothers co. Since then there has been no stopping them – in 1873, around 2000 elevators were set up in hotels, offices and apartments. Five years later hydraulic elevators were introduced and just as era of skyscrapers arrived, Otis Brothers Co. introduced electric elevators.
Soon the company started growing by leaps and bounds, and the brothers decided to join hands with 14 other elevators companies to form a giant in elevators called Otis Company. With this merger, the company became even the more powerful and came up with a design that was considered to be the backbone of the industry. Gearless traction elevators has made Otis a part of world’s leading aerospace and building systems.
Hydraulic powered elevators started to be known as practical options when Edoux exhibited one of these at Paris. These elevators were used widely in United States and Europe by the year 1878. The top speed of these elevators was 150 meters/minute.
And in year 1880, when the world was adopting the electrical power, Siemens, a German company showcased an electric powered elevator. The rotation speed of this direct current motor was controlled using worm gears. The first ever DC motor was used in 1884 in USA. After some years, one of the Elisha’s sons - Norton Otis in year 1889 also developed an electric elevator. This was first elevator that was direct connected. This was installed in New York. This elevator could take load of around 675 Kgs with a speed of 30 meters/minute.
In 1889, the world of elevators also saw oil powered hydraulic elevator which was first installed in Paris Eiffel Tower. In 1890, alternating current motor was also introduced which further gave boost to use of electric motors. Three years later, the US market also witnessed traction current elevators. With this method, a car could be connected to counterweight using pulley and rope with support of the traction power. Since using this method, little electric power was required, lifting cars up to the high rise buildings became easy and feasible.
Soon thereafter, Ward-Leonard’s method added to evolution of elevator technology. Otis Company launched this technology to market as the multi-voltage systems and Westinghouse introduced it as variable voltage technology. Additionally, DC system that made use of car levelling tool lead to improved quality of landing as well ride on each of the floors.
In 1922, Westinghouse introduced gearless elevators in Chicago and in the same year launched fastest elevators that had automatic landing mechanism. This elevator boasted speed of 420 meters/minute.
In 1930s, elevator technology had been around for 75 years and architects could dream of skyscrapers as high as 100 stories and more. And this was the time when Mitsubishi also entered in the elevator business. The company built on the technology and gave the biggest breakthroughs in the elevator industry. From hoists to the elevators that are as fast as 1000 meters/minute and more, elevator industry has come a long way since its start.
Hopefully next time we climb an elevator, we would take a moment to thank the inventors of this flying machine.
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Invention Story of Camera
Are you one of those who are obsessed with getting clicked? Or one of those who like to capture every moment so that you can cherish it forever? No matter which clan you belong to – one thing that all of you would appreciate is the device that aids us to freeze time in pictures i.e. the camera. Camera is undoubtedly one of the most prized possessions for a lot of us and also one of the cherished creations. Our facebook and other social networking profiles would feel neglected without pictures of us, our families, friends, and all other things around us. Social networking feels lifeless and incomplete without pictures. Camera has endowed us with an ability to put a face to a name in the internet world.
Just as Rome was not built in a day – modern day cameras have long history that goes back far in time. Cameras have witnessed many phases of evolution – camera obscura, daguerreotypes, dry plates, calotypes, film to SLRs and DSLRs.
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It all started back in time of camera obscura - a device that used lens or pinhole to project images upside down on viewing surfaces by ancient Greeks and Chinese. In year 1544, this camera was used by Reiners Gemma Frisius, a mathematician for observing a solar eclipse followed by Giovanni Batista della Porta who recommended this as a drawing aid fourteen years later in 1558.
You will be amazed to know that there was a time where we did not have a method to preserve the images produced by the cameras. All one could do to preserve these picture s was tracing them with hand. The transition from room sized camera to a portable camera was envisaged in 1685 by Johann Zahn.
The first camera was invented by Alexander Wolcott. His camera design was patented on 8 may, 1840. With the invention of Alexander Wolcott it was possible to click candid pictures that did not fade away with time.
However, the earliest photographs were not taken with Alexander Wolcott's invention. It was Joseph Nicéphore Niépce who used a sliding wooden box to take photographs.
Nicéphore Niépce created a small camera using silver chloride coating on the paper that darkened on exposure to light and hence this was not permanent method of preserving photographs. To further improve the mechanism, he used wooden box camera created by Charles and Vincent Chevalier in 1826.
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And this did not end Nicéphore’s keenness to endow a better device to the world of photography. Ten years later in 1836 along with Louis Daguerre, he created practical photographic mechanism known as daguerreotype. Louis coated silver on a cooper plate which was further treated with iodine vapour so that it could be sensitive to the light. The image could now be developed using solution of salt used with mercury vapour. Henry Fox Talbot – another name in the history of camera made an attempt to improve the process called calotype in the year 1840.
In 1855, collodian dry plates were available courtesy Désiré van Monckhoven. Soon with introduction of gelatin dry plate, Richard Leach Maddox gave a tough competition to quality and speed of the wet plates. This healthy competition to create better device gave birth to cameras small enough to be accommodated in hands. Now there were designs to choose from. Also the lower exposure times made candid photography possible.
The transformational introduction of the photographic films made a remarkable improvement in photography. George Eastman introduced the paper film in the year 1885 and soon in 1889 switched to celluloid. Kodak as many of you would remember was a gift from this gentleman. The camera came into the market in 1888. This was not a flashy camera – fixed focus, same shutter speed but the low price went a long way in appealing to the average consumers. This model came with ability have 100 shots with preloaded film which could be reloaded.
In 1990, Eastman took photography a step further with introduction of an inexpensive and simple box camera known as Brownie. This was a popular camera that captured the market till 1960s. Even with low cost photography options by Eastman, plate camera could offer quality prints and hence was popular even in 20th century. Oskar Barnack experimented by using 35 mm cine film in order to offer a camera capable of quality enlargements in 1913. This design was marketed by Leitz calling it Leica and was produced in 1925.
Kodak once again launched into the market in 1934 with Retina I introducing 135 cartridge. Even while this was introduced comparatively inexpensive, roll film was still a popular choice of the masses. Surprisingly the choice of masses transitioned to Argus A then Argus C3 in 1936 and 1939 respectively. Also in 1936, Japanese too started to capture the market with introduction of Canon 35 m.
Franke & Heidecke Rolleiflex TLR is known to be one of the initial reflex cameras that came to the fore in 1928. The bulky reflex cameras were replaced by this decently compact camera. Such a revolution was also brought in the SLR designs during 1933 with birth of Ihagee Exakta followed by first ever western SLR that used 35mm film called Kine Exakta.
1952 saw first ever Japanese SLR with 35mm film – Asahiflex introduced by Asahi Optical Company. Soon the market was flooded with many other Japanese camera companies – Nikon, Yashica, Canon. With Nikon F line entry into the market, the company secured its position as professional-quality equipment company.
Among so much of improvement in the world of cameras, the masses witnessed a new type of camera entering the markets – polaroid model 95 in the year 1948. This was also known as the instant picture camera. This wonder camera was invented by Edwin Land who used chemical process for producing the prints from exposed negative within 60 seconds.
The world of cameras kept taking baby steps to enhance the photography experience. In 1960, German Mec 16 SB marked another technological advancement by placing light meter behind lens to better metering. Digital cameras were introduced too - these could save pictures on the memory cards than using films.
And by late 1980s, there was a need to introduce commercially successful digital cameras and we saw cameras like Fuji DS-1P, Fuji DS-X, Dycam, Kodak DCS-100. With passing years, various formats like JPEG, MPEG became popular. Video recording was also made a part of the cameras to match up with growing demand. And now one can find these cameras in phones with options of inbuilt GPS system and realtime geotagging options.
From pinhole cameras to DSLRs – we surely have come a long way in the world of photography.
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Invention Story of Electric Motor
Ever tried to count how many things around you have electric motor at its heart? The list is endless, starting from your clocks, cars, washing machines, DVD players, vacuum cleaners to hair dryers – most of the electric appliances around us have electric motor inside them. In case your heart is filled with gratitude for its inventor and you want to flip through the pages of the past to know how electric motor was invented, read on…
Like many other creations, this one was also a result of many brilliant and inquisitive minds. The foundation of electic motor invention was only laid after battery, magnetic fields from the electric currents and electromagnet made their way. Throughout the world, there were many inventors who passionately worked towards developing solutions in the electrical science field.
The first electrical motor is known to have been a simple electrostatic motor fathered by Andrew Gordon in 1740s. Later in 1820, Andre-Marie Ampere discovered the Ampere’s force law – the principle that explained mechanical force production by interactions of magnetic field and electric current. This idea was further shaped into a reality by British chemist and physic, Michael Faraday. The man has been known for his electromagnetic induction discoveries and this certainly was one of the major breakthroughs in the field of electrical science.
Born in a poor family, this genius was an inquisitive soul from his childhood. To make his living, he used to work in bookbinding store in London. His passion for reading made him go through each book he bound. He was so fascinated by all this that he wanted to have a book of his own one day. Who would have thought that his passion and enthusiasm for reading would help him get a greater grip on his interest in the concept of force? This habit helped him while he was inventing at the later stage in his life. Using electromagnetic means, Faraday demonstrated conversion of the electrical into mechanical energy. He did this by dipping a free hanging wire in the pool of mercury while placing a permanent magnet on it. On passing current through the wire, it rotated around magnet demonstrating that the passing current raised circular magnetic field around wire.
Though such a primitive motor was unfit for the practical use and could be merely used for demonstration in the physics classes by substituting mercury with brine, this laid foundation for this great invention. A curious mind and inspiration lead this man to build the basis of a great invention.
In 1827, Anyos Jedlik experimented with the electromagnetic coils and also solved many technical problems associated with the repeated rotation by introducing commutator. He called his device electromagnetic self rotator. A year after this, Anyos showcased his first machine that he claimed had three major components – rotar, commutator and a stator.
Some years later in 1832, William Sturgeon introduced first ever commutator DC electronic motor. Following the footsteps of Sturgeon, Thomas Davenport created a DC motor for commercial purpose. His machine could power the printing press as well as powered machines. But unfortunately because of high battery power cost involved Thomas became bankrupt. And due to these cost issues involved, the machine could not be used commercially.
1855 yet again Jedlik tried his hand at making the machine work and applied the same principles as his electromagnetic rotors. Finally the first commercially booming machine was introduced by Zenobe Gramme in the year 1871. He introduced an anchor ring dynamo that took care of the double-T armature pulsating DC issue. Further in 1886, Frank Julian Sprague first feasible DC motor, this machine could maintain constant speed even under different loads.
After Francois Arago’s effort to put together rotating magnetic fields also known as Arago’s rotations in 1824, many other inventors made an effort to develop working AC motors in 1880s - Nikola Tesla and Galileo Ferraris developed rotating AC motors. But Ferraris’s motor was declared to be weak to make a commercial motor.
In the year 1888, Tesla presented a paper on alternating current transformers and motors. George Westinghouse bought Tesla’s patent and also hired him for developing them while CF Scott assisted him. Like many other glitches that make creation a bumpy task, the consistent speed of the AC induction was not considered to be suitable for the street cars. Westinghouse’s smart hires - the engineers working on its development adjusted it for powering mining operation in Colorado in the year 1891.
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In the year 1886, an American industrialist named Sprague, introduced the first ever consistent speed DC motor. This allowed his company to issue world’s industrial electric motor catalogue. And soon in the year 1889-90, a Russian inventor and engineer Dolivo-Dobrovolsky introduced first ever cage-rotor versions of a three phased induction motor. Interestingly, these type of motors are used till date for the commercial purposed. Driven by his own invention, Dobrovolsky made a claim that motor by Tesla was unfit for practical use due to two phased pulsations.
Westinghouse was successful in achieving his first ever induction motor that could be used practically in the year 1892. He developed 60 hertz induction motor lien 1893 but all of these early motors were two phased motors. General Electric started producing three phased induction motors by the year 1891. In five years time, in 1896, Westinghouse and General Electric signed agreement for production of squirrel cage rotor.
In 1905, Alfred Zehden described linear induction motor that could be used in the lifts or trains in a patent form. And it took around thirty years from then for Kemper to build this linear induction motor for use 1935. This motor was further improvised by Laithwaite. He was the one to introduce first ever full sized working model of this induction motor.
It’s amazing to witness how conventional motors have progressed to be strong horse powered motors of today. Most of us would say we don’t see this wonder invention everyday just as we see other inventions around us. Think again! This underestimated invention is part of most of the electrical devices we use today.
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Invention Story of Slot Machines
Have you ever thought who could be the father of the glorious machines that make most of the casino revenues these days? A casino owner, a researcher, a young lad interested in gambling? None of these. It was a car mechanic who changed the face of gambling entertainment.Slot_Machine
Charles Fey from San Francisco came up with the first ever slot machine in the year 1887.
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Until 20th century term ‘slot machines’ was used not just to address gambling devices but also the automatic vending machines. These machines were called by unusual named like one armed bandit and fruit machine. Before your imagination starts running wild with the names, let me tell you that it is because prior to Fey’s invention, there were some poker machines that allowed the users to win free drinks or cigars on hitting the winning combination. These were also known as trade simulators because they paid winners in merchandise.
Fey’s machine was revolutionary because it was designed to pay out coins. His gambling revolution - Bell Machine consisted of three reels and each of them had around 10 symbols printed on it starting from diamonds, spades, hearts, bells, horseshoes etc. And with his Liberty Bell Machine, mania of slot machines was initiated in April 1887.
This was just the beginning; in a span of five years, Fey came up with the descendant of Liberty and called it "4-11-44" which allowed one to win 5 dollars as maximum winning combination. After this machine became a huge success, he upgraded from small trading to the factory production. He also introduced Card Bell in his successive years and further improved it in year 1899. He added a Star symbol and made the maximum wining prize 20 dimes with three bell combinations in this new avatar.
By 1910, slot machines had gained popularity at many places. Company named Mills Novelty made some alterations to the Liberty Bell’s design and renamed it as Operator Bell. This new avatar had tight neck for putting in the coins and also had fruit symbols which were missing in the earlier ones. Soon the company tasted success and started producing its variants and by the time World War 1 occurred, it had covered Europe with its factories producing upto 30,000 such machines.
Soon cast iron slot machines became outdated and Mills came up with slot machines with wooden cabinets in early 1930. With passing time, the company made many alterations to its machines and marked another revolution in the gambling industry. Latest wave was double jackpot machines that allowed the users to win twice in the quick succession became a fad. Because these machines were much quieter than the earlier generation, they came to be known as Silent Bell(s). Not only were these quieter but a lot jazzier. New themed cabinet designs – War Eagle, Roman Head, Lion Head, and Castle Front were introduced by 1933. Slot machine fever grew on people by 1960.
Bally, known manufacturer of pinball machines started producing slot machine(s) – Money Honey in 1964. Electricity backup, latest sound effects, multi coined, with hopper – the newbie was certainly a rage in the gambling industry. And as time went by, the innovations at Bally reached new heights. They added more gambling machines that had bigger hoppers, additional reels and eventually introduced a slot machine that had a hopper big enough to hold dollar coins. This gave users a chance to hit bigger jackpots.
By the time gambling became legalized in Atlantic City in 1978, Bally was dominating around 90% of the gambling machine market. And this was not it. Bally knew how to fetch money out of the booming gambling industry. The company kept adding reels which certainly decreased chances of winning but added to the jackpot amount. Increased number of symbols on the reel from 10 to 25 now raised the wagers and games could be played at $5, $25 and $100.
And soon the company hired the computer programmer who made sure that jackpot size increased without giving away the profits of the company. With use of a computer program, this engineer named Inge Telnaus gave a makeover to the slot machines. He made use of a random number’s generator that cycled on the imaginary reels. These reels had the capacity to radically change the winning amounts. Due to this generator, the slot machines got ushered into a new age and produced many opportunities for the casino owners as well as the gamers.
Since then there has been no turning back. Slot machines have become an indispensible part of the gambling industry. They have certainly come a long from when they were first introduced by Charles Fey. Now not only can one go and indulge in one of the favorite casino pastime but can also enjoy these games sitting at home with the option of online casinos. Years of research as well as development has given the gripping gambling experience.
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Invention Story of Telephone
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Like all other inventions, Telephone unfolds a fascinating story that lead to its birth. It all started when an inspired Scotsman named Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone in 1876. Thomas Watson had fashioned the device - a crude thing prepared out of a funnel, wooden stand, acid, and cooper wires. All these simple parts lead to the simple earliest call, belie the complicated past. Bell filed the application only few hours before his competitor Elisha Gray filed the notice to patent a telephone. By using the ideas outlined in the notice of invention by Gray, Bell created an operating telephone 3 weeks later to this.
Though Bell had developed novel and new ideas but these were on the basis of older developments and ideas. He succeeded in his approach because he understood the acoustics, electricity as well as study of sound. Other inventor had understood the electricity but could not understand much about acoustic just like Bell. So telephone is joint accomplishment of many pioneers.
Telephone history conceivably started with human history only. Man always wished to communicate far and wide. People used jungle drums, smoke signals, mirrors, semaphores and carrier pigeons for sending their message from one place to another. But telephone was certainly something new. Some people believed that Francis Bacon was one that predicted telephone in 1627; though, his book named New Utopia described long speaking tube only. Real telephone was not invented till the start of electric age. And even after it started, telephone did not seem desirable.
Electrical principles for building a telephone were recognized in 1831 and in 1854 Bourseul suggested speech transmission electrically. And after long 22 years, this idea turned into reality. While Jules Verne visualized the space travel and Da Vinci envisioned flight, people did not really lie awake with the thought of making a call through centuries. Who among all could have predicted pay phones on street corners or fax machines on their desks? Development of telephone did not gear up in an organized way like powered flight, with series of inventors working one after another to make a common goal a reality. It was rather string of disconnected events, some accidental, mostly electrical that made telephone a reality.
In the year 1729, English Chemist named Stephen Gray transmitted electricity through wire. He sent around 300 feet over the moistened thread and brass wire. Electrostatic generator powered his experiments, offering one charge at a time. In 1753, an unknown author suggested that the electricity might help in transmission of messages and he gave a scheme that used separate wires for representing each of the letters. He also posited that electrostatic generator could help in electrifying every line while attracting paper with the static charge on other end. By making a note of which all papers were attracted, one could spell the message out. Need of long wires confined the signals to few miles. Telegraphs were labored in the same fashion for many decades. Experiments in the field were on till 1800.
Alessandro Volta had produced earliest battery in 1800. Volta’s battery was considered as a major achievement. It offered low powered electricity current at a high cost. These chemically based batteries were improved within no time and became a source of further experimentation. And in 1820, Christian Oersted, a Danish physicist, demonstrated electromagnetism. It played as a vital idea for developing electrical power as well as to communicate. He pushed compass under the live electric wire at one of his well known experiments. Causing needle to turn northwards, compass acted as a bigger magnet. Oersted had then realized that electric current could create a magnetic field. But the question that loomed in his mind was that if it could create electricity. Electromagnetism principle, fully applied and understood, assured new age of communication.
In 1821, Michael Faraday reversed experiment by Oersted. He made weak current to flow in wire that revolved around permanent magnet. By doing this, he created world’s earliest electric generator. He kept working on various electrical problems for 10 years and then published results on the induction in year 1831. Though electrical dynamos were produced but understanding on how to use electromagnetism for communication was still missing.
American scientist named Joseph Henry transmitted practical electrical signals for the first time in 1830. In one of his classroom demonstrations, Henry presented forerunner of telegraph. He also helped Samuel Finley Breese Morse in further development. And then in 1837 Morse invented earliest workable telegraph, applied its patent in year 1838 which was granted in year 1848. Long distance operations were made possible with shared efforts of Henry and Morse’s invention of telegraph repeater. Morse was not really a professional inventor but he was encouraged by the electrical experiments. After hearing Faraday’s work on induction, he pondered over electromagnet. Eventually telegraphs became a big business and replaced the messengers, the slow paced channels of communication.
Johann Philip Reis completed his earliest non working telephone in year 1861. Enticingly close to speech reproduction, his instrument helped in conveying various sounds. The problem was that this device could not produce intelligent sounds. And even with dawn of 1870s, world did not have any working telephone.
But a major breakthrough in this field came when unique combination of voice and electricity led to actual invention of telephone by Graham Bell in 1876. He then got his patent issued for Improvements in Telegraph in the same year. Thomas Edison tried to take advantage of bell’s failure to take patent in Britain for Bell Receiver and got patent for new receiver called electro motograph.
In 1877 earliest permanent telephone wire covering distance of around 3 miles was strung. And commercial telephone services started in 1877 in U.S. Soon in 1879, subscribers of telephone were designated numbers instead of names. Dial phones came into being in 1880s. Eventually operators were replaced with Stronger Switch, which received dial pulses. And since then developments in the field of telephone has not come to a halt. From telegraphs to codeless phones, telephones have definitely come a long way.
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Invention Story of Barcode
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Though, one of the most useful, barcode is an underrated invention. Barcode comes from near past; they were implemented in the year 1970. Since then, they have made life of shoppers and stores fairly easy and hassle free.
It all started when a small food vendor realized how tedious it was to keep a track of his inventory and their prices. In 1948, he decided to find an effective solution. And he got in touch with The Drexel Institute of Technology to work out a feasible answer to the problem that loomed from his head. Bernard Silver from the institute accepted the challenge and started investigating the problem. He began working to find out an automatic solution to keep record of the items sold. Soon Bernard along with some of his students realized that the answer lied in ultraviolet rays, scanner and ink.
Norman Joseph Woodland, one of the Silver’s students, was the one to give the idea of using ultraviolet sensitive ink. And the team came up with working prototype only to realize that it was too expensive and unstable for printing patterns. But Woodland was convinced that it was a workable idea. So he gave up his job at the Institute, made use of his stock market profits to concentrate on the barcode solution. And in October, 1949, both Silver and Woodland filed the patent application.
Most of its histories state that barcode by Silver and Woodland was symbol of bull’s eye, with various centric circles. Both of them had described the same symbol but the basic symbol was described as straight line patterns similar to linear bar codes like Code 39 and UPC.
The symbology comprised dark background with 4 white lines on it. First of the lines was datum line with others fixed according to the first one. Information was coded, decoded as per absence and presence of lines. This permitted 7 different article classifications. However, it was noted by the inventors that if more lines were added, more classifications would be possible. With around 10 lines, 1023 classifications were possible.
Unfortunately Silver died in 1962, even before he could see the very first commercial of his invention- Barcode. Neither Woodland nor Silver could make money from the business which turned out to be a gold mine later on. This is because they sold their patent to RCA in year 1952 for a very small amount and this was long before the technology was commercialized. This patent expired in year 1969, around 5 years before barcodes were used in the grocery stores. This was truly an invention that was ahead of the time.
National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) called out for the equipment manufacturers who could help in speeding checkout process. And in year 1967, RCA came up with earliest scanning system for the Kroger Store situated in Cincinnati. The barcodes that appeared like bull’s eye were not pre- printed on the goods rather labeled by the store’s employees. The Kroger soon faced problems with the code. So a need of standardized coding was felt to maintain consistency throughout.
And by the year 1970, Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC) was introduced by Logicon Inc. Monarch Marking and Plessey Telecommunications were the earliest company to endow bardcode equipment for the retail use and industrial use respectively. Eventually UGPIC emerged as U.P.C symbol which is still used in the US. Invented in year 1973, Uniform Product Code is considered to be an invention of George Laurer.
One of the earliest UPC scanners manufactured by the NCR Corp. was installed in Marsh Supermarket, Ohio in June, 1974. And in the same month, first product with barcode was also scanned there. And this product was a pack of Wrigley chewing gum. It just happened to be the first product picked by the shopper for checkout and it is still preserved at the Smithsonian Nation Museum of the American History.
History of the Industrial Barcode Uses
The earliest attempt of barcode industrial application was made in late 1950s by American Railroad Association. And in year 1967, Association implemented optical barcode known as KarTrack from Sylvana. Scanner installation and car labeling started in October 1967. It took around 7 years for most of the fleet to be labeled. For various reasons, this system was unsuccessful and was eventually abandoned in the year 1975. Then in year 1988, Burington Northern started implementing RFID tags for keeping record of the rail cars. Originally this RFID was proposed in 1960 but was its use did not gear up because of the cost associated with it. By 1991, it became compulsory to tag the cars with RFID.
Conceivably early industrial barcode use was from system that was developed in the year 1969 by company called Computer Identics. This was done for the General Motors so that automobile axials could be recorded. One event that really led barcodes to enter industrial applications was in September, 1981 when US Defense Department used Code 39 for marketing goods old to military. The system known as LOGMARS is used by the military even today. Soon in 1982, Postal Service US also adopted Barcode POSTNET for automatically sorting out the mails based on the zip code.
An idea produced from mind of small food store owner has developed by leaps and bounds today. This invention has surely revolutionized the shopping experience by providing a system that effectively saves time and avoids botheration to the shoppers as well the stores.
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Invention Story of Microchip
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We all are a part of the tech savvy century where our lives are comforted by various machines. Whether it is cell phones, laptops, dedicated servers, motion detectors, digital watches, ATMs or videogames, technology is all around us. The diverse inventions have certainly made our lives simpler, easier and entertaining. But do you know what is common in all these machines? The common thing is the electronic heart of these machines- integrated circuit. As vital as a heart is to human body, the integrated circuit is a lifeline of these machines. Let’s have a rendezvous with people who offered this electronic heart to the world.
Jack Kilby is one of the heroes from the success story of microchip. Among very few who really thought of giving something to the society that could truly transform the way it works, Kilby was one of them. He had an important role in offering a breakthrough to the technological world. Like all other champions, Kilby was keen to explore the world. His world of exploration was the world of technology where he developed ceramic base circuits with silk screen to fit the electronic products. And soon his zeal to improvise led to earliest electronic circuit which almost half of paper clips’s size. While working at the Texas Instruments, he had designed thing platform made of crystal and this worked as sole processing system for connecting various components like capacitors, resistors and transistors. Earlier connected with wires, the chip helped in avoiding entangling, enhancing processing speed. He kept a foundation stone in the invention of microchip in 1958.
Jack Kilby initiated various commercial, industrial and military microchip applications. He lead the teams that were involved in earliest computer with integrated circuit and military systems. Not just this, Kilby has around 60 patents in his name. National Medal, hall of fame and so many patents, he had everything a person could ask for. But microchip’s success is not just his; there are others also who had the same curious mind and wisdom that made journey of the integrated circuit from a crude invention to a huge market.
Before big shots like Google, Apple, Microsoft or any other dotcom contributed to microchip, a group of young fellows sowed its seeds. Interestingly, it all started with their hatred; hatred towards their boss. Many of us dislike our bosses but what was different in these young fellows’ case was that the hatred worked as an inspiration for them to come up with something as great as an integrated chip. It was group of eight men, all with one thing in common- dislike against their boss, who decided to start a transistor company. And the leader of group was Robert Noyce. The young fellow was known as Rapid Robert due to his fast and witty mind which was proved right when came up company called Fairchild Semiconductor. By polishing his business skills, he along with his team had made huge profits and a company with around 11,000 employees in just a decade.
Then in 1959, this ordinary man with extraordinary passion gave earliest integrated circuit to the world. It was just one of the 17 patents that are awarded to him. The earliest integrated chip which was commercially available also came from his company. Individual transistors in computers were replaced by chips. And In 1968, this young man along with his co-founder friend Gordon Moore from the company started a small company known as Intel. It was his leadership skills and hardwork that helped Intel drive from a small company to one of largest companies of semiconductor chip today.
Noyce’s idea of success was different from general view. He thought small companies to better and fun than the big ones and he also thought the people in the small companies cooperated more and worked harder. So he quit Intel in year 1975 and diverted his attention to the upcoming companies. He kept changing companies after serving on their boards and offering the seed money. He believed by doing so he was refilling stream from where he had originally fished from. His idea of success was different and he stood by it till the end of his life.
Both Noyce and Kilby had compassion which was the driving force throughout their journey as inventors. After a long legal battle between Kilby and Noyce, a decision of cross licensing was taken by both. Together they created global market worth trillions. Undoubtedly microchips have come a long way, the advanced versions or the cores are being used to control mobile phones, ovens, computers and other electronic too. After witnessing improvements all these years, microchips have surely transformed the world.
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Invention Story of Vending Machine
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Vending machines which are nothing less than genies in today’s world, have added to our convenience. With a range of products offered by these tempting titans, one does not have to worry about time of the day for shopping. Starting from smoke, candies to drinks, vending machines have transformed the shopping experience of the people around the world. But do you know where do these marvel machines root from?
By visiting ancient Greece time, one can find the earliest vending machine that was set up in Egyptian temples for dispensing water in return of coins. This was a masterpiece by Hero of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician and engineer. Though the machine was born in 215 B.C, 1880s was the time when it made debut in the commercial world. Earliest of these machines were used for dispensing the post cards in London. And during the time, publisher as well bookshop owner named Richard Carlisle came up with a vending machine that could dispense the books.
Soon New York also became a part of revolution that was being brought around by the vending machines and became the first city in US to get vending machines for selling gums in the subways. And what fascinates most of us-slot machines and pin ball machines also became a part of bandwagon in 1897. Due to new zing to the machines with animated figures and advancements, it made way for the much loved gumball machines.
It would not be overstatement to say that vending machines have bestowed a novel way of selling. In the year 1902, there was major shift in the concept of vending machines and a coin operated restaurant was introduced. Known as Horn and Hardart, this restaurant in Philadelphia served people for about 60 years. Though the concept originally rooted from Germany, this restaurant made automat concept much accepted and usable for people throughout the world. In fact such restaurants are popular in Netherlands even today. The reach of vending machines was spreading like an epidemic during this period.
From gumball machines, vending machines had now evolved to drink vendors too. Beginning of 1900 witnessed vending machines that could offer soda in cups. Without any delays in 1930s, machines for offering chilled soft drinks were introduced. And then how the market rulers could be left behind? Coca Cola came up with vending machine by Vendolator in year 1937 and soon followed the much used vending machines, the coffee machines. Have you ever wondered what would be the world like without the coffee machines in offices, colleges, schools and cafeterias? Well I guess the answer is pretty straight as there are hardly any of us who can do without a cup of coffee. And the concept of coffee breaks started when in 1946 first ever coffee vending machine was set up. With advancements in the technology, bean grinders and flavored coffee machines came into being too.
Interestingly, vending machines started selling life insurance policies in 1950s. These useful vending machines were set up at the American Airports to offer life insurance policies that assured death cover if flight crashed. But unfortunately, the life of these machines was not more than two decades.
Eventually in 1961, canned soda vending machines entered the market too. Following the trail was soft drink vending machines that could also offer water which are even today used in a lot of fast food outlets.
And with a glimpse of an eye, there was no market that was untouched by the charm of vending machines. Polyvend came up with the first ever glass front vending machine for snacks in 1972. All thanks to the company for offering us an immediate solution to craving while walking down the road or hoping the train. And with 1987, came the earliest machine for vending frozen food.
The vending revolution has brought about great deal of convenience in our lives. Over the years, vending machines have evolved and are all over the place. Be it markets, airports, bus stations and even restrooms, vending machines have made life easy. Who among us would have thought that these machines would one day accept bill denominations, accept the credit cards and would make shopping tension free?
With passage of time, the machines have made their way into electronics too. The new machines are known as retail kiosks. The trend of specialization of the vending machines have seeped in completely in Japan and one can find machines for plethora of products- ranging from hot meals, porn to toilet papers.
Now the vending machines have become such an integral part of our lives and all thanks to the companies and people who had put in their hard work to offer something so unique and useful to the world. As they say sky is the limit, you never know we soon have some vending machine that we would have never thought of. There are many more ignited minds out there that are as passionate as the inventors of the vending machine and can come up with something that can do good to the humankind.
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Invention Story of Lie Detector
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We surely have come a long way in technological developments. Who among us would have envisioned a machine that could figure out whether a person was lying or not? There was time when finding this secret was just in hands of mystical beings or God. Isn’t it startling how a machine can read a person’s mind?
Inventor of Lie detector called it cardio-pneumo-psychograph. It was a magic box that had the power to peep in one’s mind and figure out who was pilfering jewelry and cash at college boardinghouse. But to future generations and newspaper reading people, this magic box was lie detector, a machine to help a way out of doubtful scientific credentials and dubious ethical aura.
In the era that led to birth of scientific industrial management, I.Q. test and time motion study, a group of American Inventors and the social reformers had dreamt of a device that could separate truth from the deception by measuring body responses like pulse rate, blood pressure.
One of the early proponents claimed that this ‘mechanical instrument of future’ would replace jury deliberations, conventional police interrogations. It would also lend a hand to government and private companies in weeding out spies, thieves. It would beam in deepest corners of human psyche and advancing works of psychiatrists. But the man behind the invention, John Larson despaired while taking his breaths and called it a Frankenstein’s monster that had sorryed 40 years of his life.
The persistent as well as unusual grip of the lie detector on American thoughts provided rich material for Lie Detector’s invention. Various cases including that of Torso Murderers, Cleveland, story of Dick Tracy or William James stirred with scientific visions led to invention of lie detector.
Earliest antecedents of modern lie detector come from device that used trial by torture or ordeal. During Middle Ages in the Europe, torture was the practice that rooted from theory that stated - an agonizing body could oblige a lying mind to croak the secret out. But in 1730, this method of torture for extracting the truth from a person made an exit and a new lie detection method took over. Daniel Defoe was the earliest of men to suggest such a method through evaluation of heart rate. In 18th century, the torturous methods declined completely due to continuous campaigns against the judicial torture in the Europe. This humane way of detecting lie through lie detector was accepted by majority during this time.
The evolution of lie detector was slow but was a pioneering invention for the entire mankind. The emergence started slowly with the initial tests for determining the physical responses during act of deception. Cesare Lombroso also known as Father of the Modern Criminology was the first one to try of application of science for detecting deception. He made use of device known as plethysmograph that monitored changes in blood flow of person at the time of interrogation.
Another breakthrough came in the year 1897 with development of method to measure galvanic responses by B. Sticker. This method used amount of sweat produced on skin with the help of electric conductibility during the test. And in 1914, breathing rate measurement using the pneumatic tubing was done by Vittorio Benussi. This device was draped around the person’s chest for measuring the rate and depth of breath. Benussi discovered ratio of expiration and inspiration was usually greater at the time of truth telling than lying. This method of truth discovery by Benussi gave an important revelation that it was not just pulse rate, sweat production and the blood pressure that helped in lie detection but the breathing rates too. All these findings amalgamated together formed the modern day lie detector known as polygraph.
Earliest machine that took name of polygraph was originally copy machine invented by John Hawkins in year 1804. Name of the machine simply meant ‘many writings’, originated from Greek, early polygraph allowed users to write with the two pens at the same time, creating duplicate copy. In year 1908, an English doctor named James MacKenzie publicized in ink polygraph invention for monitoring cardiovascular responses of the subject taking blood pressure and pulse.
After a few years, in year 1915, William Marston who was American psychologist, started demonstrated lie detection tests to determine whether subject was deceptive using blood pressure cuffs for taking measurements of the systolic BP at the time of interrogation. He was of the strong view that the interrogation techniques used at conjunction with technology than technology itself that led to detection of lies.
As lie detector captured imagination of public, imitators soon entered the field. A doctor from Chicago doctor, Orlando Scott, endorsed Thought Wave Detector, with claims that it had the capability of tapping electrical current of brain. While suspect squirmed and sweated, a big needle sung forth and backwards between true and false option on a big dial.
Despite of the charlatans like Dr. Scott, lie detector made the headway in search for its respect and acceptance. In year 1923, legal decision barred the tests by lie detectors being used as the evidence in courtroom but at places like factories, government department, banks this magic box carved a place for itself offering an efficient solution for detection.
Advertisers too flirted briefly in various tests for finding what consumers thought about their gasoline, cigarettes and razors. Keeping censors in mind, even film executives used the findings for editing of films like Frankenstein. During cold war too, lie detectors were used by State Department for weeding Communist sympathizers out. Lie detectors have proved to be an amazingly useful technology for the world.
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Invention Story of Computer
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Inventors have undoubtedly been heroes for all of us. By burning the midnight oil, they have gifted humankind with revolutionizing technology. Whether it is a mobile phone or a radio, they have never been miser in endowing the society with life transforming inventions. One such empowering invention has been of Computer. Not one but there are many geniuses behind the development and growth of this phenomenal technology.
Wooden abacus laid basis for the computers long time back. By walking through annals of computer history, one can have a peek into rich legacy of 21st century’s technology. Back from 3000 B.C. abacus, which was a simple calculating tool introduced in China, is known to be the foundation of today’s computers. But in essence this tool cannot be compared with the super computers of today. After abacus, came slide rule in year 1622 A.D introduced by William Oughtred. This was considered to be though provoking and conceptual element to the computer development.
Growth of computers had to go through various phases, starting with difference engine by Charles Babbage in year 1822. Difference and analytical engines were too mechanical and their weight was in tons. The first generation that lasted from 1940 to 1956 gave computers in the form of vacuum tubes. And second generation computers that survived from 1956 to 1963 were based on the transistors. Then came its third generation, 1964 to 1971, which witnessed integrated circuits. And the coming generations were the ones where artificial intelligence took the lead. The interesting part is who is known as father of computers- Charles Baggage did not know that he would make an important place in history with his invention.
In the 19th century, calculation of mathematical table was done by computers. It was not the technology that is used today but the people, who took computing task, were known as computers. But because it was done by human beings, there were many errors too. With a computer science and a mathematics background, Charles thought of building calculating machine. He began working on a machine that could analyze the input while giving appropriate outputs. Because it was designed for eliminating differential errors with mathematical table, it was known as difference engine. Charles Baggage could not complete the design due to complexity and size of its design. But his urge to find a solution to this problem led to introduction of difference engine 2 which was better version of the initial design.
Unfortunately he did not succeed again with its implementation and came to a conclusion that his designs needed development. He then worked on his designs and came up with engines which had improved analysis power. Continuous work on his designs gave complex and efficient engine known as analytical engine. This engine was introduced in 1989 and was much more accurate as compared to electronic calculator available today.
Another hero from the tale of computer invention is Alan Turing. Though, Turing did not design any computer but he was counted among influential personalities in computer science field. He gave the platform for formulation of basic algorithms and Turing machine with capability of measuring intelligence of a machine. His work has been ground-breaking in artificial intelligence. CAPTCHA code tests on computers have been possible due to Turing.
Another remarkable contributor in the field of computers is Konrad Zuse. This German Engineer introduced the earliest electrical binary computer in 1936. He is associated with the Z series of computers. He was the one to invent computer language, Plankalkul which could be employed for non numerical and numerical problems. In addition of all his technical work, Zuse formed computer startup company in year 1946. The company produced the successor of first three series by Zuse, Z4 which also became earliest commercial computer.
While flipping through the pages of history of computer invention, one would find names of John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. During the war time in year 1942, first electronic digital computer known as Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) was invented by the duo. This was another teacher pack that came up with this significant invention. ABC symbolized various innovations in the field of computing including parallel processing, arithmetic system, separation of computing functioning and memory and the regenerative memory.
Role of U.S. Army in the field of computer invention is also noteworthy. Ballistic Research Lab of U.S. Army came up ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer in year 1946. It soon was known to be earliest in general purpose electronic computers. It required rewiring that led to making the architecture inflexible. Soon ENIAC developers recognized its architectural flaws and improved it. The improved version was called stored program architecture or Von Neumann Architecture after John Von Neumann’s name, man to describe its architecture. The following projects used the same architecture.
National Bureau Standards, U.S. came up with the SEAC, Standards Electronic Automatic Computer in year 1950. And then 1953, IBM announced IBM 702, Data Processing Machine which was basically developed for the business use and addressing engineering and scientific applications. Until 1950, all the computers used were based on vacuum tubes. And in 1960s, computers based on transistors replaced the earlier ones. These cost effective and small computers were energy efficient too. But the heat emission from computer made them prone to early damaged. The third generation of computers saw integrated circuits. And since then there have been endless improvements in the field. Entry of legendary Bill Gates and Steve Jobs has changed Computer history completely.
Computer invention saga has been a magnificent example of inspiring developments through research, re-inventions and innovations.
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Invention Story of Answering Machine
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Have you ever wondered what went behind creating the thousands of little amenities which are so taken for granted in today’s time but evolved through many painstaking efforts to be able to see the light of day? Even the smallest and seemingly insignificant things around us have a great tale of achievement to tell; and just a close look at these will surely inundate you with numerous such inspiring invention stories.
So what is that thing which led the seeds of a small idea to be culminated into path-breaking inventions? The one thing common amongst the greatest inventors of all times was the conviction to put their ideas into action. They not only had the vision to dream of something inconceivable but also the will to translate their dreams into reality.
One such laudable example can be traced back in the history of answering machines. The luxury of receiving messages even without answering calls has been made possible only through the consistent efforts of many prominent scientists over the years.
The history of answering machines goes back a long way. The early version of what is today known as the answering machine was called the Telegraphone. It was invented by Danish engineer and inventor, Valdemar Poulsen in the year 1898. The telegraphone incorporated the technology which enabled magnetic sound recording and reproduction. The magnetic fields produced by sound were recorded on a wire which was then used to play back the sound. The American Telegraphone Company was one of the few enterprises which was transferred the rights to manufacture the Telegraphone. However the technology was unable to seep into the masses and remained somewhat obscure till the First World War. Although not very sophisticated, the telegraphone did lay the foundation for the modern answering machine and paved the way for many more improved versions.
Later in the year 1935, Willy Muller invented the first automatic answering machine. This invention became quite popular among the Orthodox Jews who were not allowed to take calls on the Sabbath. However, it was a three feet tall device and hence did not find much practical applicability.
In the meanwhile a Swiss company introduced an answering machine known as the Isophon. It was launched in the year 1936 and recorded sound on magnetic steel tapes. It was quite a bulky machine and was meant to be used only at big offices and organizations. Owing to its high price, the Isophon only managed to survive for a short while and subsequently gave way to more refined improvisations.
Back in the United States, the first commercial answering machine was launched in the year 1949 after a series of unsuccessful attempts. Known as the Tel-Magnet, it recorded the incoming message and played the outgoing message on a magnetic wire. The Tel-Magnet was priced at $200 and was unable to capture the market as a result of its high-price.
The year 1960 marked a significant turn of events with the launch of the first commercially successful answering machine known as the Ansafone. A compact and sophisticated device, the Ansafone was invented by Dr. Kazuo Hashimoto who worked for a company known as Phonetel. The distribution rights for this machine were later handed over to Dictaphone Corp.
Many such similar models were launched in the market following the success of the Ansafone. In the year 1962, a New York based company known as Robosonics Inc. introduced an inexpensive answering machine known as the Robosonic Secretary. Next to hit the market was a device called the Record-O-Phone which retrieved remote messages with the help of a whistle known as the Telekey.
Around the same time, the European market for call recording devices was picking up slowly. The use of central office call recorders was still prevalent and small automatic answering machines for individuals and homes were quite uncommon. The first of these portable machines was introduced in Europe by a company called Telefunken in the year 1966.The European market for answering machines lagged much behind that of America during the 1960’s due to a scarcity of quality products.
By the 1970’s answering machines became more convenient to use and less expensive owing to the advent of cheap microelectronics. A cheap and handy answering machine known as the PhoneMate was devised in the year 1971 specially to meet the needs of home consumers. It was a technically slick model for its times, weighing around ten pounds with a capacity to hold twenty messages on tape .It made message retrieval possible with the means of an earphone. The mid 1970’s witnessed a further drop in the prices of answering machines with the cheapest models being priced at as low as $125.With the prices hitting an all-time low, the market bloated with demand for answering machines and it became a common household commodity. The sales figures reached a whopping 400,000 units by the end of 1978.The popularity of answering machines continued to grow leaps and bounds and the sales had almost doubled within the next four years.
However, as is the case with almost all technological inventions, the answering machine too had to eventually make way for finer developments. With the emergence of cell phones and their in-built Voicemail feature, the use of answering machines started declining gradually. Also, many telephone service providers offered centralized and inexpensive voice-mail as a standard feature in home telephone lines, hence rendering the answering machine obsolete.
Voicemail revolutionized the face of digital sound recording, replacing the answering machine completely. Gordon Matthews also known as the ‘Father of Voice Mail’ made a vital contribution in the development of Voicemail. He founded the VMX Company of Dallas, Texas which was the first to produce commercial voice mail systems.
Stand-alone answering machines have almost disappeared and are a very rare sight today. However, they made communication easier for millions of people throughout many decades. Although the answering machine lived a fixed life span, it was a pioneering step in the telecom industry and the role it played in the history of recording technology cannot be disregarded. Neither can we ignore the endeavours of the inventors of the answering machine, who worked relentlessly to give the world this marvellous invention.
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Invention Story of ATM
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It is true that most inventions have happened due to sheer necessity and invention of ATM machine is one of them. Now the question that arises is what was the necessity, what called for the invention of a round the clock cash dispenser? Who invented it- a broke student or a shopaholic lady, a businessman or a banker, too tired of cashing the cheques? Also known as Cashpoint or Hole-in-the-Wall Machine (Britain), ABM or Automatic Banking Machine (USA), All-time Money (India), and Minibank (Norway) and so much more, the history of ATM is full of interesting facts, some we know, some we don’t.
Let’s tear through the pages of history to know more. An Armenian named Luther George Simjian was forced to move to USA in the year 1920, under the account of Armenian Genocide. He owned to his credit the invention of a portrait camera and then rolled out the formulated idea of ATM, the Automated Teller Machine.
Confident of his invention, he persuaded Citibank to run his product on a six month trial basis. Soon enough, he was disappointed with the performance and the lack of users and concluded that ATM was a wasteful addition to personal banking. And lack of demand for the ATM finally forced him to take a back seat. Clear enough; the time was not right for this concept to have been accepted generously. Simjian clearly lost out on the success and fame and the same was passed on to two other gentlemen, John Shepherd-Barron and Don Wetzel.
John Shepherd-Barron was a Scottish national born in India. Later he relocated to Britain and pursued his education from the University of Edinburgh, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After returning empty handed from the bank, Shepherd-Barron was disappointed to have no other solution to wait till the bank would open next. And thus in a similar fashion like Archimedes, Shepherd-Barron claims to have hit his Eureka moment while taking a bath. A self-sufficient cash dispensing machine was what he was thinking about. And soon the ATM was invented in the early 1960s. The invention of a self-sufficient cash dispensing machine was his second and successful attempt at inventions. Earlier he had invented an instrument to scare away seals at his Scottish Salmon farms. Unfortunately, this device instead of deterring the seals attracted them, and was a failure.
The ATM machine gained Shepherd-Barron an ever-lasting recognition in the banking world and paved the way for hi-tech banking techniques, online bank accounts and PIN and chip security technology. The four-digit internationally accepted standard PIN was also invented by him. Earlier, he had a six-digit Army serial number in his mind but later his wife suggested for a shorter PIN as it would be easy to remember. Finally in 1967 that the first ATM that dispensed paper currency round the clock, was unveiled. The ATM machine installed outside a Barclay’s bank in North London started dispensing cash on a 24 hour basis.
As the plastic cards were still to have come into existence, this machine accepted and generated money through cheques impregnated with certain chemicals. Majorly a mild radioactive substance, Carbon 14 was used for detection by the machine. Once the PIN was given, the machine gave out the cash. This radioactive substance had no ill effects on the health of users and Shepherd-Barron claimed that a user would have to eat about 136,000 cheques to suffer any kind of ill-effects. Reg Varney, a famous TV sitcom popular became the first person to use the ATM in the year 1967 and withdrew about 10 dollars. The amount seems too less for us, but this money was enough for a complete night out spent on the tiles in London, inclusive of dinner, drinks, a show and a taxi-ride back to home, in short enough cash for a “Wild Weekend”.
While this prototype device originated by Shepherd-Barron had started functioning, various parallel developments were happening in different parts of the world. An American Engineer Donald Wetzel of Docutel engineered the Docuteller ATM which was declared as the first modern magstripe machine. It recognized magnetically encoded plastic (credit cards) and not the usual paper cheques.
And there have been a lot of efforts gone into final development of the ATM, the ones we see today, the ones we use so frequently, and the ones which have made our lives revolve around plastic money. The development of ATM ever since its baby steps in the late 1930s and then gearing up for longer runs in the 1960s, and finally a matured and stable stage that we see the ATMs in today. Undoubtedly, most of the ideas and patents contributed for makeover of the ATM from time to time form the backbone of what was initiated as “holes in the wall”.
Today, ATMs hold a strong foothold in the world, offering everyone a better access to their money, be it in any corner of the world. Let’s put figures to assumptions, there are about 1.8 million ATMs in use around the world with ATMs on cruise and navy ships, airports, newsagents and petrol stations. ATMs too have been categorized as on and off premise ATMs. On Premise ATMs are capable to connect the users to the bank with multi-function capabilities. Off premise, ATM machines on the other hand are the "white label ATMs" and are limited to cash dispense, no balance enquiries, no statement print-out.
The developments have not stopped; the contactless technology is on its rise. Shepherd-Barron continued to take inimitable and lively interest in technology well even in his old age and had foreseen a future where plastic cards too would be numbered. For his excellent and unforgettable contributions to financial technologies, he was also offered the OBE in the year 2005. And in the year 2010, he took his last breath and left behind his legacy of technological advancements which would refuses to end. Many more inventions are in process and many will be successful too. The time is just right to bring in the glorious inventions rolling in.
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Invention Story of Air Conditioner
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Ever since the industrial age began, man has thought of hundreds of ways to outsmart nature. And out of those hundred times, man has succeeded in more than ninety nine times. Climate and weather too have been brought together as a symphony that man desires to hear. Air-conditioning is the name of the scientific method that defies unruly sun, freezing winters and humid airs. Once a sci-fi author Rober Heinklein had said “Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” Truly, with air-conditioner we get what we expect.
What we know as air conditioning is rather an innovative and as unique technology, but for ages, different techniques of dehumidifying and cooling air have always been around and practiced in different parts of the world. The seeds of this thoughtful invention called air-conditioner were sown ages back when handmade fans gave way to electric fans and coolers and finally the 21st century woke up to the AC that marked the onset of temperature ruled by man. The wealthiest of ancient Romans put to use aqua duct water and circulated it through the walls of their mansions. At the same time, the Chinese too used varied methods to keep the interiors of their buildings cool s by utilizing air and water in the hottest of time.
In the 1800’s, a man came as close to inventing an air-conditioner as one could. The British inventor Michael Faraday found out that Ammonia on being compressed and liquidized could help in cooling the air. Later on the same lines, John Gorrie, in the year 1841, discovered that the same compressing technology could be put to best use in his hospital in Florida. Utilizing this technology, he created ice to keep his patients’ rooms. Unlike Faraday, Gorrie didn’t stop at the mere discovery, and continued his experiments with the new found technology. He came very close to inventing the first air-conditioning unit, but unfortunately his first pro type leaked and resulted to be a failure. Instead of stepping back and disappearing in the darks of failure, Gorrie secured some funds and finally got his patent approved in the year 1851. For his hard luck, his funding partner died and left him with the shattered dream of indoor air-conditioning unrealized. Gorrie too succumbed to death in 1855 and with him, the air-conditioning science too died for the next 50 years.
Again, work started on the science of air-conditioning and the first air-conditioner was designed in 1902. It was initially designed for industrial purposes. The inventor or “Father of Cool” Willis Carrier used coils to control moisture in the air and at the same time maintain the cool to prevent wrinkling of paper in a printing plant. It was only one year after Carrier graduated with a Masters in Engineering from Cornell University that he saw the first air conditioning in operation. He figured out that he could make the Brooklyn printing plant owner happy through his air-conditioning coils. These coils created a stable environment with which aligned four-color printing could be possible.
Happy with the success of the first system, Carrier established the pioneer mass plant for air-conditioners. The term air-conditioning was coined by Stuart W. Cramer in the year 1906. He belonged to Charlotte, North Carolina and was finding out ways he could add moisture to the air in his textile plants. The first usage of this term happened in the papers he had filed to the patent offices for the water conditioning unit invented by him. These inventions happened parallel to each other, and fascinated by the name, Carrier took this term air-conditioning and added it to his companies’ name.
The first air-conditioner was bulky, reproduced huge noises and gave out toxic chemicals too. These toxins namely, ammonia, methyl chloride and propane, were inflammable and when leaked caused fatal effects in the atmosphere and even to the human lives. In 1928, an air-conditioner was built using Freon which was considered much safer for humans though it was hazardous for the environment. Thomas Midgley was the inventor of this Freon using air-conditioner. Even after the human friendly air-conditioner was launched, the general public except those who lived luxuriously enjoyed the air-conditioning in the movie theaters alone. In the 1930s most of the theaters were utilizing the cooling technology and even during the Great Depression, people could enjoy the artificial chilly air in the theaters, even the rich proprietors, who had to give away their luxurious ACs. The system that was used in the theaters was produced by Carrier and was sold at high rates ranging between $10,000 and $50,000.
Air-conditioners were a luxury limited to the rich sections of the society but that was only in the early 1930s and 1940s. Slowly with steady steps, Air-conditioning walked into the corporate world and demanded the bosses to provide their employees with the comfort of ACs. Followed by a bit of retaliation at first, the bosses finally gave in and the employees worked in the comforts of artificial cold air and gave better output. The wave of air-conditioning spread world-wide and by 1957, most of the offices had air-conditioners installed as 90% of the companies according to Gail Cooper's Air-Conditioning America saw air-conditioning as the most vital factor in the increased office efficiency.
America led when it came to Air-conditioner adoption and by 1980s it grew as the nation that was consuming most of the air-conditioning as compared to all the other countries combined. Soon criticism too boiled up and people started lamenting the invention that concentrated on devouring the electricity and then gave out mechanical cooling. But more than criticism, Air-conditioning has always been credited with survival and growth of various industries, the development of heat sensitive computers, and what not. If not for the Air-Conditioners, how would we have survived through the record-breaking temperatures? The bulky ACs have now shrunken and are no more noisy. The emission of chemicals too doesn’t happen and besides all these improvements efforts are continued to be made to improve air-conditioning and the emphasis is now on energy conservation and efficiency. In the nearing future we can hope to see the best of air-conditioners with distinguishing features and sophisticated technology.
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Invention Story of Cell Phones
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Mobile Phones have proved themselves to be one of the greatest gifts to the mankind. They have become an indispensible part of our lives. But going back in time, owning a mobile phone was confined to members of affluent class. All thanks to cost cutting techniques and innovations over a period of time; mobile phones are now affordable for everyone. With a plethora of mobile phones sets flooding the market, they are not just catering to the needs but are acting as status symbols for many.
Origin of this gadget is quite interesting. Starting from bulky mobiles phones which were as long and heavy as one’s forearms, to ultra thin and techno savvy handsets, mobiles phones have covered a long way so far. It all started with the basic telephony. Alexander Graham Bell was the first one to patent telephone in the year 1876. This technology was developed using the equipment designed for telegraph. Calls were connected with the help of operators. And a pillar of the mobile telephony came into existence when Charles Stevenson invented radio communication in early 1890s for keeping contacts with the offshore lighthouses. Marconi transmitted signals over the distance of 2 kms in year 1894. And Fessenden capably broadcasted music through radio by 1906.
And the following development was merger of radio telephone technology. In 1926, first class passenger trains, running from Berlin to Hamburg used the technology. These radio telephones were also used for air traffic safety as well as in the passenger airplanes. At the time of Second World War, German tanks made great use of these radio telephones too.
Two way radios was an ancestor of the mobiles phones. These radios also known as the mobile rigs, were fixed police cruisers, ambulances, taxicabs before advent of handheld mobile phones. Since the mobile radios were given connection to telephone network, one could not dial these from the home phones. And slowly this technology gained popularity among the mobile radio users.
Later versions of these radio phones incorporated cigarette lighter plugs and were called bag phones. Fixed in the vehicles, these gadgets were either used as portable two way radios or mobile phones. And then in 1940s, Motorola came with new developments in mobile phones. And this is how Walkie Talkie was born. Large, bulky and battery operated, this Handie Talkie soon found a way to US military.
Another turning point came in the history of mobile phones when the base station for mobile phones came into being. Engineers from Bell Labs developed the base stations in 1947. The same year, W. Rae Philip and Douglas H. Ring developed hexagonal cells for these mobile phones. But an engineer, Porter from Bell Labs, suggested positioning of the cell towers at corners of hexagons instead of center. He also argued for the directional antennas, for transmitting or receiving the signals in the three directions, into adjacent hexagon cells.
In 1956, Ericsson Company released the earliest full automatic cellular phone system called MTA in Sweden. Though this gadget was operated automatically but due to its bulkiness, could not really hold the users interest for long. It is surprising to hear that this mobile phone weighed around 40 kgs back then. And then improved and lighter version of the same phone was introduced in 1965. This was known as MTB and used the DTMF signaling.
Soon in 1957, Leonid Kupriyanovich developed experimental model of wearable mobile phones in Moscow, operating with the help of base station. This young engineer had earlier developed the radio phone known as LK-1. The battery life of the wearable mobile phone by the young inventor lasted for around 20-30 hours. Weighing 3 kg, it worked within the distance of 20 to 30 km from the station. Later he patented the mobile phones and also came up with a version of pocket mobile phone that was just of 0.5 Kgs in the same year.
Then again automatic pocket mobile phone was developed in 1966 at Bulgaria. Called RAT-0.5, phone coordinated with the base station known as RATZ-10. And further developments in the field of the cellular phones were witnessed in 1967. It was decided that every mobile phone would be catered to a base station throughout its life. Though this was not that novel concept, need of one base station at least broke continuity of the automatic services to the mobile phones. After three years, in 1970, another engineer Ames E. Joel invented automatically operated call handoff technology. This system allowed the mobile phones to pass through cell areas while making a phone call without any loss of conversation. This was the time when the mobile user could use the gadget without any disturbance.
Further in year 1971, AT&T Incorporation projected mobile phone service that was approved by FCC later. Another development in the history of mobile phones was registered with ARP network’s success launched in Finland. It was the earliest commercial cellular phones and was known as Zero Generation mobile network.
Invention of mobile phones that closely resembles today’s mobile phones is credited to Martin Cooper, employer and researcher of Motorola. He initially developed cellular phone named Motorola Dynatac in 1973. With 5 inches width and 9 inches length, this 2.5 pounds weighing phone carried around 30 circuit boards in it. With recharge time of around 10 hours, talk time of 35 minutes, this phone gave comfortable talking experience to the users. One could listen, dial and talk on this mobile phone but what was missing was display screen. With passing time, refinements were made and these mobile phones improved by leaps and bounds.
With introduction of Global System for the mobile communications, radio spectrum could be used effectively. The technology gave great voice quality, international roaming facilities along with compatibility with ISDN systems. And further for providing coverage to the remote areas that ISDN, GSM and cellular phones could not offer, satellite phones came into being. Base station for the satellite phones were built in the geostationary satellites. And now there is no place on the planet that is untouched by the mobile phones.
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Invention Story of Aeroplane
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Isn’t it fascinating that we can now fly to any part of earth without hassles? Few decades back, who would have thought that we could fly in the air even without a pair of wings? The idea of soaring high like birds and kites has been the inspiration of the inventors of Aeroplane. There was a time when travelling was not as easy as it is today. One had to spend days for travelling from one part to another. Needless to say, Invention of Aeroplane has revolutionized travelling experience for people across the world.
Man’s romance with skies started back in 18th century when Hot Air Balloon was launched in France. This amazing invention was done by Montgolfier Brothers in 1783. François Laurent d'Arlandes and Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier were passengers of the first flight. But there was one problem with these hot air balloons that they could not be directed to the location one wanted to visit. Rather wind was one that decided destination and direction of balloon.
With more research and time invested in the concept of flying in the air, gradually led to invention of gliders. This non motorized flying mechanism was better than the hot air balloon. Earliest glider that could really fly was developed by George Cayel. And in 1843, William Henson made the plans for model plane which unfortunately proved to be a disappointment for him. And soon after, his friend named John Stingfellow designed a plane with the same model and succeeded. This plane managed to fly but did not stay in the air for a long time.
Year 1880 witnessed earliest steam power airplanes. And during this time, Hiram Maxiam came up with steam powered flying machine too. As the machine was bulky, it could not ever become airborne. Samuel Langley also tried his hand on the steam powered planes and introduced one in 1894, the one that covered around 0.8 kms in around 1½ minutes. Then he designed another plane but its flights led to crashing in the lake. And finally in 19th century, the heroes- Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright, that are known to endow successful Aeroplane, became interested in the concept of flying.
The first step towards the successful invention of Aeroplane, was research through reading various books on it. The brothers built and tested the gliders. They chose Kitty Hawk in North Carolina as the test site due its sand, wind, hilly terrain, and the remote location. In year 1900, the Wright brothers tested the new biplane glider with 17 foot wing warping technique and wingspan, weighing 50 pound at the Kitty Hawk, in piloted as well unmanned flights. Based on the glider’s results, the brothers planned on refining landing gear and controls and designed a larger glider.
In the year 1901, at the Kill Devil Hill in North Corolina, the brothers flew largest glider ever. With 100 pound weight and 22 foot wingspan, the boys geared up for their glider’s flight. But as nothing comes easy, the glider faced problems too. The wings did not have enough power to lift, forward elevator was not that effective and its wing warping technology caused it to spin out of control occasionally.
In spite of all the problems being faced by them, Wrights refused to give up. They were fighters in true sense; they keep reviewing the test results till they found out that the calculations used for the mechanism were not up to the mark. Then they thought of building wind tunnel for testing the wing shapes and their effect on the lift. Based on the tests, the inventors tried to understand how airfoil wing worked and calculated how well a wing design could work. Their plan was to design the new glider with around 32 foot wingspan and tail for stabilization.
During 1902, the Wrights flew a number of test glides of the new glider. Their research showed that a movable tail would be of help in balancing craft so they connected one for coordinating turns. With the passing time, they invented various things like flaps on wings and rudder. These two brothers were the first ones to add the concept of navigation on the glider. So they gave a glider that allowed pilots to control the height and direction of glider in the air. And these improvements continued for a couple of years. With the success of their test flight with wind tunnels, they planned of building powered aircrafts.
And towards end of year 1903, the Wright Brothers effectively flew earliest plane with a man on it. The earliest of their flights covered around 120 feets in span of 12 seconds. And in the same day, the brothers had another 2 successful flights. Amongst all, longest was by Wilbur that covered around 892 feet and stayed in the air for 59 seconds.
Their first powered Aeroplane was named Flyer. It was plane with two wings and 12 horse powered engine. It also had wooden wings which were 40 feet wide, covered with the cotton cloth. This plane demanded pilot to be in lower wing on his stomach for the steering. And in year 1908, another plan was introduced by the brothers that stayed in the air for about 1½ hours. In year 1909, the brothers got a contract from US military for building first plane for them. In 1911, Calbriath Rodgers was the one that made first flight across U.S possible.
Since then, Airplane travel has improved a lot. Airplanes now cover thousands of miles at great altitudes of 7 miles and more, carrying around 300 passengers. These passengers comfortably travel across the world on these airplanes. Jet engines have now replaced the propellers and they travel with speed of more than 600 miles every hour. Not even Wright Brothers would have imagined the way air travel has turned today. Consistent efforts and hardwork of the Brothers and other inventors have offered the comfort of air travel today. The best part is that in innovations never stop, they are ongoing. So, one can look forward to advancements in the field.
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Invention Story of Walkman
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Walkman, the name itself arouses curiosity. And not only does it have an interesting name but is an interesting gadget too. Walkman got its name from brand Sony. It brought a revolution in the music listening habits by allowing people to carry their favorite music while they were on move. Launch of pre-recorded tapes towards the end of 1960s had unwrapped new market already. And Compact tape size worked for Walkman and made it fit for mobility and car stereos as compared to 8 –tracks or vinyl.
In July 1979, Sony Corporation launched Sony Walkman, silver and blue colored portable player with flashy buttons, leather case and headphones. It also offered an extra earphone jack to let two people listen music at the same time but was a little bulky. One day Sony’s co-founder, Masura Ibuka while travelling for business, asked his executive deputy president to design a model that could be used with headphones. And then high quality, compact music player was launched.
This device now needed a name. Originally Walkman was launched in US with the name of Sound- About and in UK with Stowaway. But the only problem was that coming up uncopyrighted , new names for each country proved expensive. However Sony chose ‘Walkman’ as the name. Released first in Japan, the production proved to be a big hit. While the company had predicted sale of only 5000 units in the month, Walkman was sold, more than 50,000 in first two months.
Sony was although not the first company to launch portable audio or the portable transistors. Regency TR 1 which was of size of index card made its debut in 1954. But unique combination of privacy and portability offered by Walkman made it ideal product for consumers looking for portable stereos. TPS L2 was launched later in June 1980.
1980’s can be very well known as the decade of Walkman. Apart from Sony, brands such as Toshiba, Panasonic and Aiwa helped tapes to outsell the vinyl records in year 1983 for the first time. And by year 1986, word ‘Walkman’ had made a place in Oxford Dictionary. Fortunately, its invention clashed with beginning of aerobics craze among people and millions of them used it for keeping themselves entertained while working out. Between years 1987-97, popularity of Walkman reached to its highest.
Sony did not stop rolling out variations of the product in the market. Innovations such as bass boost, FM/ AM receivers, auto reverse were a part of later models. The company even launched water resistant Walkman, device with two cassette players and one that worked with solar energy.
But capturing such a large part of the market was not a cakewalk for the company. Sony had to face many entry barriers. Just before Walkman was making an entry into market, its image was stained by press, which considered a cassette player without recorder worthless and letdown to the company. Sony without paying attention at negative comments, geared up for the product launch. Management of the company did not want to promote the product in traditional manner. So they organized a bus tour with journalists.
All journalists were handed over Walkman and were taken to a garden. These journalists were asked to put on their headphones and listen to product’s explanation. Meanwhile, staff members carried out product demonstrations. Use of Walkman while walking, skating, cycling and while indulging all other fitness activities was explained. This inventive promotion style allowed the journalists to enjoy great audio quality of the product personally. And they were impressed with innovative launch and ability of the product to keep people entertained with music anywhere, anytime.
Even after impressing journalists, Sony had to pump its promotions up to increase the sales. They got their staff to travel in the trains to promote Walkman. The company was targeting young crowd and hence hired young staff with Walkman to walk around Ginza, Tokyo. These young staff members were instructed to let passersby try the product for free and experience the great audio quality.
Management even got young stars to pose with their product and got the pictures printed in the magazines to add to their product’s popularity. They also resorted to demonstrations and word of mouth to advertise Walkman. The creative promotional style added to Walkman’s success and it became a big hit.
And it was not just the entry barriers but the Stereobelt conflict that made the company’s journey a little hard. Sony had to confront lawsuit by Andreas Pavel. Andreas claimed that he was the one who invented portable player known as Stereobelt in year 1972. He also claimed that he got in touch with Philips and Yamaha but his invention was rejected by manufacturers on the basis that it would not work. He even filed patent for Stereobelt in Italy and then in UK, US, Japan and Germany.
Legal issues between the Sony and Andreas started in year 1980 and after 6 long years Sony agreed to pay for royalties for Walkman sold in Germany. But it did not satisfy Andreas as the company was not acknowledging him as an inventor of product and he filed lawsuits again in 1989. In year 2003, he warned Sony to file the infringement lawsuits in countries where he had applied for patent and then Sony agreed for out of court settlement. Now a handsome sum was paid to Andreas and he was made to sign a contract that disabled him from filing lawsuits against the company.
And after Walkman had its share of fame, the time for bidding it goodbye came its way. 1986 marked decline of the product. Sony introduced upgraded model of the music player known as Discman. The new technology gained fans with better audio quality. Being market leader in portable players, the company decided to retain Walkman as name and scrapped name Discman. And this how early Walkman had paved way for the portable players. Developments in technology lead to outdating cassette players but some deluxe models are still sold in Japan and South Korea.
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Invention Story of MP3 Player
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Sometimes I wonder if all of it is real. The world is full of gadgets. You can find them anywhere and everywhere. There would not be any man on this planet whose life is untouched by gadgets in one way or the other. One of these gadgets that have added to the delight of music buffs is MP3 player. A lot of us would really love to thank the people behind this useful gadget. This invention has surely made most of our lives filled with music. Infact most of us feel incomplete without our MP3 players.
MP3 technology started in German in the year 1987. German Company named Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft started the research program for coding music with the high quality and low bit rate sampling at its institute. The project was controlled by an expert in mathematics and electronics, Harlheinz Bradenburg. Based on his 10 year long experience in music compression, Harlheinz Bradenburg invented MP3 players. He completed the project in less than 2 years and applied for German patent in 1989. Earliest record label that produced and released music in this format was SubPOP, Washington. And in 1996, US patent was also applied for MP3 compression.
Then in 1997, Tomislav Uzelac who was an employee of Advanced Multimedia Products Company, made the first successful MP3 player after Frauenhofer’s MP3 became a disaster. Seven years later, He managed to produce, prototype as well as release first MP3 in the US markets. This was the earliest Portable player and was known as AMP MP3 Playback Engine.
A Korean company by the name of Seoul created first solid state version of MP3 player. The memory storage was around 32 MB along with expandable option of 64 MB. Reception of this player was not that good in the world market initially but Rio PMP300 offered better reception capability. MP3 players like Rio PMP300 make use of hardware coding to decompress MP3 files and play music for the listener.
Another name that is mentioned with invention of MP3 is Kane Kramer. He is believed to have first conceived the idea of downloading music, video, and music through the telephone line in 1979. With James Campbell, he went on pioneer digital recording and also built world’s earliest digital player. Kane had the vision of revolutionizing the music industry with this equipment and he quite did too. 1981 patent along with IXI system report describes idea around which electronic music distribution revolved and traveled through the telephone lines. Interestingly this happened many years before the internet was launched.
Even though, history of these players goes a long way back, it was not really realized as it is today, until MPMAN commercialized MP3 players in the whole world. Ever since, it is known to have developed a plethora of MP3 and MP4 players throughout Europe and Asia. Headquartered in various parts of the world, the company offers a range of players with different memory and player sizes.
Software programs used for decompressing allow one to playback on the computer. These software programs have added to the popularity of the MP3 players. Two students named Dmitry Boldyrev and Justin Frankel developed famous software application known as WinAMP, used for the MP3 playback. WinAMP is widely used utility for listening to the MP3 encoded music. Windows Media Player and iTunes are also two popular programs used for MP3 playback and can used for downloading free music.
MP3 Players these days let the users’ playback their favorite music using portable speakers or headphones. Convenience of the instant audio playback and the library lets you carry music where ever you are going. Various MP3 choices are replacing CD players to much an extent. There are many possibilities that one can choose from as the technology has developed so much. Many manufacturers have also combined FM/AM and Stereo reception capabilities with MP3 players.
From the time when idea of playing music through a device like MP3 was first conceived till now, there have been many efforts put into this device. The technology has undoubtedly come a long way and continues to grow in use and popularity each day. And still developments on MP3 players have not come to end.
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Invention Story of Submarines
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History of inventions does not have a more interesting chapter than that of submarines. Sailing under ocean’s waves was an allure for all the heroes that led to making of this masterpiece.
In 1830s and 40s, various French inventors including Petit Villeroi, Payerne, DeMontgery hadprovided submersible concepts and some of them were actually built too. But only after French Navy became keen in the design offered by naval constructor Charles Brun and Captain Bourgeois, notable progress was made in these wonder machines.
In 1859, Brun and Bourgeois started putting in their efforts on Le Plongeur, which was earliest submarine, independent of human power for propulsion. Motorized by reciprocating engine, compelled by the stored compressed air, this 14 foot could manage standard 5 knots submerged. She was incredible sight with displacement of around 420 tons. This was largest submarine to make a debut before 20th century. The giant size of this submarine was due to storage space required for huge bottles with compressed air. She was also the first ever to utilize compressed air for empting the ballast tanks.
But soon after the launch in 1863, imperfections in Le Plongeur came to the surface. The machine suffered from insufficient stability because of her flatness and length. The system of pistons and pipes used from one end to another end for longitudinal equilibrium control worked slowly. The submarine would tumble downwards at the steep angles and correcting gears would come to action. It also took breaks for surface, where other correction processes would start all over again. After working on it for three years without any notable improvements, experiments on Le Plongeur were abandoned.
Then invention by Narcis Monturiol, a Spanish engineer, came to limelight. He first conceived building submarine to help the coral fishermen. By 1859, 7 m long Ictíneo was all set for first real life test. But its propeller was hand driven by four people. Monturiol began construction on a larger submarine, Ictineo II, in 1862. The length of submarine was 17 m and it displaced 65 tons. Launched in 1864, the bigger submarine’s propeller was operated with help of 16 men.
Ictineo II was equipped with single cannon that could be fired when completely submerged. Due to its bad performance, Monturiol decided to replace human power with steam engine of 6 Hp. And his creation was re-launched in 1867, propelled by one cylinder set in stern of the boat. The submarine did around 13 submersions to 30 m of depth. But the fate of this wonder piece was bad. It was seized by the creditors due to financial problems and was broken up to be sold for the metal as scrap.
Jules Verne acted as an inspiration for submarines pioneers of late 1900and early 2000 centuries. Better known as father of the science fiction, Jules authored Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in year 1870. Though he lacked formal training in engineering and science, Jules has been an immense source of motivation for submarine inventors. Futuristic submarine for his protagonist named Captain Nemo had inspired many and Simon Lake was one of them. Lake even credited his ever growing interest in Sea exploration to Jules’s Novel. He was pleasantly surprised when he got Congratulations telegram on his Argonaut’s ocean voyage completion from the inspiring author.
In 1872, James McClintock traveled to Nova Scotia to conduct a meeting with the Royal Navy. Reason behind the trip was significant, he wanted to talk about his work in the submarine warfare and also express the desire of building submersible torpedo vessel for the Navy. Though, he had proposed engine that could be driven with ammoniacal gas and all other elements that he considered best for his boat, he was aware of its shortcomings too. Basic problems that were faced by this piece were inexact compass readings, lack of self propelling power and inability to keep a track of horizontal movements. Resurgam, soon followed these submarines. Reverend George Garrett intended on demonstrating 12m vehicle to British Navy and it was not free of mechanical problems.
And Fish torpedo, earliest self propelled torpedo by Navy, was created in 1871 by Naval Torpedo station. Its design was based on physical attributes of Early Whitehead torpedo by Whitehead. Next entered John Phillip Holland, the submarine pioneer of the 20th century who is now called father of modern submarine. He had launched the first ever submersible design in 1875. He determined to separate ballast water and air internally with the help of oiled and flexible silk partitions. Called Holland Boat No. 1, John’s boat was laid in Albany Iron Works, New York. In 1878, this boat was shifted to another Iron Works in Peterson. Weighing 2-1/4 tons, 14 feet long Holland 1 propelled by four horsepower engine. Though he did not get any funding for his first proposal, improvised steam supply in this 14 foot long craft was enough to get funding from Fenian Brotherhood for following prototype.
Holland integrated key concepts that he had figured out about the submarine navigation and confirmed Holland 1 in Fenian Ram in New York. This 19 ton submersible was propelled by Brayton engine 17 horsepower and equipped with dynamite gun for tests at the New York harbor. Consistent progress of Holland came to a halt in 1883 because of internal disagreement among Fenian Brotherhood.
And later that year, Philip Holland met Edmund L. Zalinski who marketed the dynamite gun for Fenian Ram. He hoped to provide financing for building new submarine featuring his own pneumatic gun as chief armament. He also offered Philip Holland a position with his company ,which was quickly accepted by him. Both these men started a company named Nautilus Submarine Boat Company and in the mid 1884, Philip Holland started on with construction of Zalinski Boat.
Since then there has been many improvements in Submarines. Submarines of today are a resultant of combined effort of many brains. After gaining their inspiration from Verne’s Novel or any other source, these heroes have bestowed us with a machine to discover a world under the water. And who knows one of us takes this machinery to another level soon.
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Invention Story of Television
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One of the most popular inventions of 21st century has been surrounded by controversies. Television, which has become an indispensible part of our lives, is a result of several discoveries.
Early development stages of television witnessed various inventors employing combination of electronic, optical and mechanical technologies for capturing, transferring and broadcasting visual images. Towards the end of 1800s, images were transferred through fax machine for the first time. Soon after telephone came into being, electrically powered transmission of moving TV images, known as telephonoscope, was started. Science fiction writers were of the view that light would pass via wires like sound some day. And many people have worked hard to offer this exquisite instrument of entertainment.
Revolutionary works of Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry in 1831, launch of pantelegraph by Abbe Caselli and works by inventors and scientists Sheldon Bidwell, George Carey, Edison, Bell and Eugen Goldstein, all made way to Nipkow invention.
Paul Gottlieb Nipkow from Germany developed rotating disc technology known as Nipkow disc. In the year 1884, this young student patented electromagnetic TV system, employing scanning disk with various holes spiraling to center, for the purpose of rasterization. Holes on the disk were situated at equivalent angular intervals in way that the disc allowed light to pass through each hole in one rotation over light receptive selenium sensor that produced electrical pulses. But the design could only be used for transmission of halftone images.
Eventually, designs that used rotating mirror-drum scanner for capturing images and CRT as displaying device came into being. However, moving images were still not available due to bad sensitivity of selenium sensors. In year 1907, Boris, Russian scientist employed CRT in his experimental TV’s receiver. He made use of mirror drum scanner for transmitting geometric shapes to CRT.
After some decades, in 1920s, a Scots inventor named John Baird patented the technology that used various transparent rods for broadcasting images to be viewed and delivered on TV sets. The back lit figures were replaced by 30-line resolution. John clarified that his patented technology was based on Nipkow’s invention. He transmitted first ever televised images of moving objects, human faces and real time moving entities in the years 1924, 1925 and 1926 respectively. Baird was the first person to invent Phonovision, video recording mechanism. By using traditional audio recording mechanism, he modulated output signals of TV camera, down to audio range while capturing signals on wax audio discs. Some of his recordings stayed alive and were decoded to viewable pictures in 1990s with signal processing technologies.
In the year 1926, Hungarian engineer named Kalman Tihanyi also designed Television that showcased fully electronic display and scanning elements. This instrument used principle of the charge storage in scanning tube. And the invention was soon followed by mirror drum based TV by a Russian Inventor named Leon Theremin in 1927. Herbert Ives from the Bell Labs transferred moving images from 50 apeture disk.
Philo Farnsworth, the electronic inventor discovered earliest electronic television. He made a TV system that offered electronic scanning of display and pickup services. In year 1927, he achieved almost double resolution compared to Baird. Philo transmitted dollar sign image that comprised of around 60 horizontal lines. He displayed his invention in front of press in September 1928.
In 1938, Werner Flechsig, a German engineer disclosed his shadow mask color TV. He showcased ancestor of today’s analog signal television. And in year 1939, TV was first displayed at the World Fair at New York and International Exposition at San Francisco. David Sarnoff telecasted earliest Presidential speech at World Fair.
In year 1938, TV set manufacturing was initiated by DuMont Company and in no time these sets had become standard to which all other TVs were assessed. The DuMont labs started exploring and working cathode ray mechanism in year 1931. In year 1946, the company’s TV network became world’s first network. This network was basically established for selling television sets.
Under the guidance of Peter Goldmark, CBA scientists produced mechanical color TV based on Baird’s designs in 1940. Goldsmark showed his color TV system in 1946 to Federal Communications Commission. His set worked with the help of blue, green and red wheel spin in face of ray tube. In year 1948, around one million television sets were sold in United Stated.
Pennsylvanian mountains gave rise to cable TV that was known CATV in year 1940. Earliest color TV was commercially televised by FCC in 1953. First ever TV control known as Lazy Bones was introduced in 1950 by Zenith Corporation and it made entry in American homes in 1956.
Television has now become one of most important sources for entertainment for a lot of us. It works as a rejuvenator, companion and entertainer each day. Starting from black and whites, Television has transformed completely. 3D TV is latest edition to world of entertainment. It takes the viewer to a new world where landscapes seem realistic. This technology creates an illusion of viewing TV not just from a single angle but various angles. Equipped with infrared emitters, 3D technology TVs are offering exclusive experience to the users.
Not only in terms of viewing experience, TV has progressed in terms of looks and features too. A plethora of features are offered by latest LED TVs. Great audio and video clarity adds to the delight of viewers. The best part about these televisions is that they consume much less energy as compared to the conventional ones. Savings in electricity bills have persuaded people to invest in these televisions. Ultra thin and sleek look of this TV allows the users to adorn in any corner of the place.
Equipped with USB ports, one can easily watch movies or view other videos by connecting the device through TV. Whether it is LED or the 3D TV, TV viewing experience for the users have improved leaps and bounds. There has been remarkable improvement in the television since the time it was first launched. And the development has not stopped; there is a lot to come in near future too.
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Invention Story of Satellite
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It all started with basketball-sized pack of technology known as Sputnik 1. World’s first ever satellite was launched on October 4, 1957 by Soviet Union. Weighing 183 pounds, it took around 98 minutes to orbit Earth. While launch of the satellite was just a single event, it marked the beginning of space age and steered new military, political, scientific and technological developments.
The seed of its invention was sown back in year 1952, when International Council of Scientific Unions came to a decision of establishing July 1, 1957-December 31, 1958 as International Geophysical yr. It was decided so because scientists knew solar activity cycle would be at high points around this time. And eventually, council took up a resolution calling launch of the artificial satellites during International Geophysical yr. for mapping Earth’s surface.
White House declared plans of launching earth orbiting satellite and requested proposals from different governmental research agencies for undertaking development in July 1955. Vanguard proposal by Naval Research lab was picked for representing U.S during International Geophysical yr. And launch of Sputnik revolutionized everything. The technical achievement of Sputnik was that it did not just grab world’s attention but America’s public off-guard too. The size of this satellite was impressive as compared to Vangaurd and anticipated payload of 3.5 pounds. Additionally, public feared Soviet’s ability to commence satellites also translated to capability for launching ballistic missiles that could be used to transfer missiles from Europe to U.S. After that, Soviet’s had hit back with launch of Sputnik II on November 3, 1957.
Also, immediately after the launch of Sputnik 1, Defense department of U.S retorted to political disturbance with fund approval for Satellite project. Later as an alternative to the Vangaurd, work was initiated on Explorer project. Eventually, U.S launched Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958.
And the race into space did not end here; new way of viewing earth came into being. First ever aerial pictures were taken centuries ago by a hot air balloonist. Balloons were used for gathering military intelligence at the time of U.S civil war until their non immunity to gunfire was noticed. After that, many attempts were made to view ground from height including use of little cameras, kites or pigeons too. But effective aerial photography was not initiated until passenger on airplane snapped a scene of ground in year 1908.
Another revolutionizing element that the satellites brought was cellular telephones. These telephones have made communication not easy but handy too. Staying connected is easy as a pie with these phones. In the year, 1976 February, COMSAT launched MARISAT, a new type of satellite for offering mobile services to US Navy and all other marine clients. And in no later time, Europeans also commenced MARECS series for providing same services in 1980. Maritime organization UN international had funded INMARSAT in year 1979. And INMARSAT leased MARECS and MARISAT satellite transponders initially but soon in 1990 October started its own satellite named INMARSAT II F-1. Third generation of the satellite has been commenced too.
The contract of building an aeronautical satellite was given to General Motors in mid 1970s but was cancelled soon and IMARSAT provided the service. Perceived as means of offering traffic monitoring and telephone services on ships initially but it has offered a lot more than that. Gulf War brought the technology to public notice.
Many companies have worked hard to present version of Personal Communication System with the use of satellites in the Low Earth Orbits (LEO). As compared to initial LEO satellites, these systems orbited around 500 miles below belt. Among most ambitious LEO systems, Iridium by Motorola ruled the roost. At an altitude of 400 miles, it planned to start 66 satellites in the polar orbit. All the six orbits had 11 satellites each. And it started offering communication services of the cellular phones back in 1998. Apart from the large scaled LEO systems, there were many small ones too. But these companies planned to provide limited services, basically radio and data determination. Classic of these was known as ORBCOM which has now become a global leading provider of cellular data communications based asset management, tracking and remote controlling.
By 20th century’s end, around 2,200 satellites were orbiting the planet with many of them offering scientific data with shots of earth that were not even imagined before. Along with latest imaging techniques, satellites bestow ordinary human beings with super sight. Remote sensing uses aerial photography and lets humans’ view, which is otherwise not possible with an unaided eye. Different techniques allow identification of vegetation, soil, seasonal crops, mineral resources and changes brought around by floods and storms. These are also use for detecting surface temperatures, finding out groundwater movements. The key ability of remote sensing device is that it can see energies in the wavelength that is not visible to the human eye. Remote sensing, which is just a step child of space age, is prying many innermost secrets of Earth.
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Invention Story of Rocket
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Since the time human beings saw birds soaring through sky, they wished to fly. Ancient Romans and Greeks portrayed many mythological animals and gods with wings. In fact as per the legend of Daedalus and Icarus, both the father and his son broke away from prison by affixing wings made of feathers and wax to their respective bodies. Icarus flew too close to the sun and its heat melted his feathers and wax, leading him to the sea whereas Daedalus landed safe in Sicily.
Legendary characters were known to fly through heavens using mythological powers. Around 100 BC, Hero of Alexandria, a Greek Inventor, introduced a device known as aeolipile. The device used mechanical interaction of water and heat to work. Steam generated through the two elements was its driving force. By mounting sphere above the water kettle and firing it, he turned water into the steam so that gas travelled through pipes to sphere. He also placed two L shaped pipes on opposite ends of sphere to allow the gas to escape. All this gave thrust to sphere and helped it to rotate. The thrust sounded like fireworks than the rockets.
Initially, Chinese used rockets at the time of celebrations and warfares. According to a legend, Wan-Hoo, a Chinese official tried a trip to the moon with a huge wicker chair, fastened using 47 big rockets. His 47 assistants helped him to light fuses and in a blink of an eye, a roar escorted with smoke clouds, was witnessed by the onlookers. As the smoke cleared, Wan-Hoo and his chair, both were gone. Throughout the span of 13 to 15th century, many such rocket experiments took place.
One of other early devices that used principles of rocket flight was wooden bird. Aulus Gellius’s writings narrate story of Archytas from Taretum. Back in 400 B.C, he entertained and amused locals by flying his wooden pigeon suspended on the wires. This pigeon used principle of action and reaction, which was made a part of scientific law in 17th century. But for many centuries, these experimented rockets were small and use was restricted to weaponry, firework displays, signaling and sea rescues.
Towards the end of 17th century, scientific fundamentals were laid for the contemporary rocketry. Isaac Newton had worked on his perception of physical motion in 3 scientific laws. His laws give a peep into how the rockets functions and how are they able to work in vacuum of the outer space. His laws were soon seen to impact designing of the rockets. Dutch professor named Willem Gravesande had designed model cars that were driven by steam jets. And soon Russian and German experimenters worked with rockets with mass of around 45 Kgs. Out of these, some rockets were so powerful that they made deep holes in ground with their exhaust flames.
Towards end of 18th and beginning of 19th century, rockets witnessed revival as war weapon. Success of Indian rocket bombardments against British, led to their revival as a weapon. Congreve designed rockets that could be used by British military. Even with his work, accuracy of the rockets did not improve much. War rockets were known for their numbers than their power or accuracy. So rocket experimenters all over the globe worked on making the rockets accurate. And eventually, spin stabilization technique was established by William Hale. This mechanism allowed exhaust gases to struck vane at rocket’s bottom, causing it to spin like bullet in flights. In fact variations of this principle are used even today in rockets.
A clear understanding of rocket principles emerged in 20th century and eventually large rockets evolved too. Today’s remarkable collection of rockets have the roots from technology and scientific experimentation of past. Natural outgrowth of these pieces of human ingenuity, have taken many years of research and experimentation. Initially rockets used a single engine but soon fuel run-out became a big problem. And placing a small rocket on bigger rocket and firing it after first burned out, seemed good way to achieve speed. US army soon after, captured the V-2s for the experimental flights to high atmosphere and replaced payload with other rocket, “WAC Corporal”, launched from top of orbit. Weighing around 3 tons, burned out V2s were dropped using small rockets that reached a higher altitude. These days, every space rocket makes use of different stages, dropping every burned out stage while continuing with much lighter and smaller booster.
Rockets have made launch of machines and humans in space possible. Astronauts can orbit around the Earth and can land on the Moon. Hardly did anyone of us know that we can progress to this extent that we would have access to Moon. Space has been opened for commercial exploitation and exploration just because of rockets. Satellites have allowed scientist to examine our world, communicate instantly, forecast weather throughout the world with ease.
Rockets are everywhere today. Space shutters are using liquid propellant in the huge containers to relieve liftoff. Military has unmanned rockets like Minuteman. There are smarter missiles and rockets that make use of satellites for their guidance. Initial space launches by US placed astronaut on Titan Missiles.
The latest series of rockets has been named as Ares series. Ares I would be a smaller rocket planned to carry new manned capsule- Orion into space. Ares V would be much larger that would be carry heavier loads to orbit. This would have the capability to lift around 286,000 pounds. Cargo then can be transported to Mars or to Moon. Orion would be ready for launch in year 2014.
Future of this marvelous technology is in use of newer fuels. It certainly needs certain amount of effort to leave Earth’s gravity. Once spacecraft is in orbit, new kinds of propulsion would be needed. Scientists are working on development of fusion engines for the long term fuel requirements. New mission to the Jupiter may use fusion reactor to power spacecrafts for decades. Engineers are also putting in their efforts to develop spacecrafts with the huge sails to harness power of Sun and its lasers based on Earth.
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Invention Story of Radio
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Radio is indebted to two other discoveries for its birth- telephone and telegraph. These three technologies are very closely related. Radio started as wireless telegraphy. And it all began with invention of radio waves, which have capacity to send out speech, music, picture and all other data through air. A range of devices like radio, cordless phones, microwave TV broadcasts work with the help of electromagnetic waves.
During 1860s, James Maxwell, a Scottish physicist forecasted presence of radio waves. And in year 1886, Heinrich Hertz showcased projection of swift variation of the electric current into space in form of radio waves.
Twenty years after invention of telephone, music was set down on telephone line and Guglielmo Marconi was responsible for the radio signals. This Italian discoverer demonstrated radio communication’s feasibility. Fascinated by Hertz’s discovery of the radio waves, he realized that it could be used for receiving and sending the telegraph messages, referring to it as wireless telegraphs.
His earliest radio transmissions, the coded signals transmitted to only a mile far in 1896. Marconi then recognized its high potential and offered the discovery to Italian Government that had turned it down. He then realized a patent and experimented further after moving to England. In 1898, he flashed the results of Kingstown Regatta to Dublin Newspaper’s office, making first ever public broadcast of sports event. The following year, he opened his radio factory in Essex, thus establishing link between France and Britain. He then established link with USA in year 1901. And Marconi shared Nobel Prize in Physics for wireless telegraph in year 1909.
But his wireless telegraph only transmitted signals. Voice in radio came in the 1921. Soon after, in 1922, he introduced short wave transmissions. Marconi however was not the first one to invent radio. Nikola Tesla who moved to US in 1884, launched radio’s theoretical model prior to Marconi. In 1915, Tesla tried to acquire court’s injunction against Marconi. And in year 1943, Supreme Court US reviewed decision. And due to this Tesla was acknowledged as inventor of radio even when he did ever build working radio.
J.C. Bose was another claimant to throne of radio inventors. He showcased radio transmission to British Governor General in 1896 at Calcutta. The transmission was for a distance of around 3 miles. His instruments, Mercury Coherer attached to telephone detector, are still showcased Calcutta University’s Science College.
Bose had taken care of Hertz’s problem of not being able to penetrate through water, mountains or walls. Marconi’s Coherer is known to be exact copy of Bose’s Coherer. Initially, Bose was reluctant in applying for patent because he believed in free flow of inventions in the field of science. But eventually due to persuasion by his American friends he had applied for patent in 1901. US patent was awarded to him in year 1904.
There has been tremendous growth of the radio over the years. Transmitters earlier were known as spark gap machines. It was established for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication. The communication was just confined to two points then and was not public broadcasting as it is today. Wireless signals demonstrated effective communication for the purpose of rescue in case of sea disasters. Range of ocean liners installed the wireless equipments and in 1899, US Army established the wireless communication. Just after two years, Navy adopted wireless system and it was relief as Navy had been using homing pigeons and visual signaling for communication.
Radiotelegraph services were instituted in Hawaiian Islands in 1901. Marconi station situated in Massachusetts carried greetings between King Edward VII and Theodore Roosevelt. In year 1905, Port Arthur’s naval battle was also reported over wireless and US weather department tried radiotelegraphy for speeding notice weather condition.
Eventually radio transmitters were improved. Overseas radiotelegraph services were slowly developed, basically because early transmitter discharged the electricity between electrodes and within circuit causing high interference. DeForest and Alexanderson alternator took care of many such technical issues.
Lee Deforest was inventor of space telegraphy, Audion and triode amplifier. In early 1990s, delicate and effective detector of the electromagnetic radiation was needed for developing the radio further. And Lee Deforest discovered the detector. He was the first person to use term ‘radio’. His work resulted in discovery of AM radio that capably broadcasted various radio stations which early gap transmitters did not allow.
Since that time, there has been no looking back. Radio has now become a popular medium of portable entertainment. In 21stcentury, technological advancements have given birth to internet radio. Satellite radio is also recent development in the field. One can listen to various international radio stations without any hassles. Besides all these latest editions, Ham radio would be next big thing. This technology is gearing up to hit the market soon. Radio lovers have a reason to rejoice as there is a lot in store for them.
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Invention Story of Gun
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Weapons have been used from time immemorial. But they have been developed from time to time, catering to the needs of humans. Longbow ended hundred year war in Europe. People from history have prevailed battles due to some improvements in swords. Rat race of collecting arms for the national détente is not new. Whether for purpose of self defense or offence, guns have a fascinating history.
Though the firearms started as the primeval popguns in middle ages, they have reformed through centuries and have become intricate weaponry of the day. Starting with the gunpowder, bullet weapons were introduced for firing. What started off with a weak, small cannon, guns have undergone a complete transformation.
Conventionally, Chinese invented gunpowder in 19th century. But their use was confined to firecrackers only. Robert Bacon is also known to be the inventor of gunpowder according to a theory. He is supposedly said to have found its recipe among the chemical formulas. Regardless of who gunpowder’s inventor was, mythical monk from Germany is believed to have given idea of propelling projectile with the gunpowder in the 1300s. And Arabs are known to be inventors of earliest cannon named madfaa. This cannon was a wooden bowl with gunpowder in it and cannonball was made to stand on bowl’s rim. Metal cannon named pot de fer soon followed madfaa. Its name that meant pot of fire, described how the iron bottle gripped gunpowder. Modern cannons were developed from this model only.
The subsequent cannons looked nothing more than simple pipes that were closed from one end that fired lead balls or stones. Some cannons were made of wooden tubes fastened by iron. Due to lack of support, these cannons were laid on the ground and were supported with dirt mounds. Although roaring noises made by these cannons were frightening, their force was dubious. Even after hitting the knights in full armor, it would hardly create a dent.
Soon these cannons were enlarged to take care of the popgun qualities they had. Their large versions were known as bombards. These bombards made use of stone balls as there was dearth of cast iron ones. Slow match, which was rope boiled in gunpowder and lye, was attached to the cannon and was burned continuously. Slow matches lead huge cannons to establish as first handgun towards the end of 14th century. Little lead balls, earliest of bullets were fired by the hand gun.
Due to better accuracy and strength culverin replaced crossbow in the end of 16th century. Discovery of priming pan made firing even easier. Until 19th century, priming pan held gunpowder in small dish fastened to gun barrels.
Weighty and tiresome, the matchlock was introduced in 15th century. Also known musket, matchlock had better balance and was better stocked and used pioneering device for firing. Serpentine, the device was S-shaped and lowered slow match in priming pan whenever a gunman pressed the trigger. Introduction of this device had modernized gunnery while letting the aimers shoot and aim using both their hands. Musket was around 5-6 feet long with twenty pounds of weight. Supported by forked stick, musket users were known as musketeers.
Even though serpentine made firing much easier, slow match lighting was still a tedious job. To make it stay alight in damp weather particularly, posed a problem. Means of starting fire inside guns was discovered in year 1515. Monk’s gun had first ever wheel lock. This mechanism worked in a way that when spun by finger, it produced spark by rubbing against flint. Sparks then reached touch hole and ignited gunpowder.
This wheel lock led to introduction of pistols. Slightly curved and with length of two feet made their way as gun of cavalry. But wheel lock used in the pistols was costly and hence army prepared cheaper matchlocks as replacements. Only wealthy men or sportsmen could afford these little devils then. Due to its cost, wheel lock could not replace matchlock for common man.
In early 1600s, launch of flintlock offered reliable and inexpensive firearm to an average marksman. It was simple to operate as it used thumb cocking system. The gun had small flint fixed to hammer and little gun powder placed in flash pan. A small lock was used to protect the gun powder. On pulling the trigger, hammer was released and flint struck lock out of way of pan and created needed spark simultaneously. Gun makers then perfected the mass production and delivered quality guns during the time. Flintlock was a combination of best of matchlock and wheel lock’s features and gave a new way to ignite the powder. But this weapon was not accurate in the shooting and wars often misfired. This is reason why this period of fighting is known by its fire volume than accuracy.
In 1800s, breech loading rifle was introduced. Percussion caps brought the air of change. Reverend Forsyth launched percussion cap in 1805. This was a priming pan that looked like scent bottle. Screw fixe in center of cap doled out gunpowder in apt quantities. This bottle like pan could hold gunpowder for twenty shots.
Slowly, repeating weapons came around. Earliest machine gun known as Mitrailleuse was employed by French towards the end of 1800s. Though it was a secret till the time it was used correctly on battle ground. Earliest machines guns were used in large quantities during the World War 1. Machines gun was bent for shooting the aeroplanes and was soon known as anticraft gun. The improvements in the guns did not stop there. They were mounted on airplanes, submarines, ships, tanks, trains for various reasons.
These days, guns also use radar for locating targets along laser sights for assuring accuracy. Handguns are a common weapon for criminals and homeowners using them for security. Starting from bowls that held gunpowder, guns have become today’s sophisticated machinery. Gone are the days when marksmen had to handle accuracy issues. One can now shoot up to several miles accurately using the latest guns available in the market.
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Invention Story of Electric Bulb
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We all are a part of an electrified world. Light bulb, particularly, profoundly revolutionized human existence. It not just helped in illuminating nights but also made human existence hospitable for an array of human activities. History of electric light, which adds to our daily convenience, bears testimony of many scientists, physicist’s efforts. Some people who took a step forward in the field were James Lindsay, Frederick Moleyns, Heinrich Göbel, Humphrey Davy and Warren Rue and Thomas Edison.
Humphrey Davy offered a miner lamp by working out on formulation for electric arc. In year 1802, he demonstrated workings of electric arc with the help of 2 wires- one attached to battery and other to the thin charcoal piece. In 1820, Warner Rue produced light bulb by using platinum coil in empty tube and passing electric current through it. But this bulb was not really commercially feasible due to costly platinum used.
Hence various scientists started the search for finding suitable filament for bulb. Soon James Joule advocated that the electric current when passed via conductor with the high resistance produces thermal energy, generating light energy. But quest for finding right filament which was practical, inexpensive, commercially feasible was still on. In 1840, Joseph Swan established earliest functional light bulb with the help of carbonized, paper filament. He also patented the bulb in year 1860. But the bulb produced dim light and was not at all long lasting. It needed a power source nearby to function all the time.
With similar technology, Sir Thomas Eliot made the bulb commercially feasible in the year 1875. He had tirelessly worked towards making light bulb better. He also introduced a bamboo filament lamp soon after working on light bulb. By using Herman Spiegel’s vacuum pump, he successfully created vacuum inside his lamp’s chamber.
Another known name that contributed to development of electric, incandescent light is Thomas Edison. He did not really invented light bulb but had worked on it to offer an improved version. In 1879, with the help of low current electricity, improved vacuum, carbonized filament, he produced long lasting ad reliable source of light. He tried to offer practical lighting for homes. Eventually he not only gave us incandescent lighting but also gave electrical lighting mechanism containing necessary elements to make incandescent light safe, economical and practical. After working for around 18 months, Edison attained success in form of incandescent lamp that had filament of the carbonized thread that burned for around fourteen hours.
While using most of energies on what kind of filament would work for bulb; Edison was inventing seven systemic elements critical for practical use of electric lights. These lights were an alternative to gas lights that were used then. He publically demonstrated his incandescent lighting mechanism in December 1879 and then spent several following years in development of electric industry.
Electric light’s success brought name to Thomas Edison. He achieved great heights of wealth and fame as the electricity had spread throughout. His different companies continued to expand until 1889 and then Edison General Electric came into being. Even though company was in his name, he did not control it. Need for capital for developing lighting industry persuaded him to involve bankers like J.P Morgan. In year 1892, he merged the company with leading opponent Thompson-Houston and company’s name became General Electric.
Originally, shape of glass bulb was designed by Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward. During this period, scientists had been working on new figure of electric arc, discharge lamps, first with help of carbon dioxide within bulb and then by using noble gases krypton and argon. They did this to add to the bulb’s efficiency.
In 1901, Peter Hewitt introduced mercury vapor lamp that emitted bluish white lighting. Later on, brighter lamp using sodium vapor was invented. Willies Whitney came up with metal covering or carbon filament to prevent it from burning and charring, in turn making the bulb black. In 1906, General Electric launched tungsten filament that had higher melting point.
Though Thomas Eliot knew the use of the metal but he did have machinery for developing it during his time. In the year 1910, another engineer named William Coolidge invented tungsten filament that lasted longer. Beginning of 1920 witnessed discovery of frosted light bulb and its use in neon lights and cars. In the year 1930, photographic flash bulb was discovered. And with 1940s entered soft incandescent bulbs, with 1950s came quartz glass for halogen bulbs. 1960s and 70s made way for the ellipsoid reflector, metal halide lamp. And finally in year 1990, Philips launched 60,000-hour bulb using magnetic induction.
Now bulbs have come a long way and scientists are working 24x7 to offer power saving, efficient and environment savvy bulbs. CFLS and LED bulbs are replacing the incandescent bulbs. Though a little costlier, they are environment friendly and power saving. Incandescent bulbs can be reasonably characterized just as heater that produces lights. As the typical incandescent offers only 3-5% light of the total energy it takes up. Remaining energy is wasted as heat. CFLs on the other side employ 75% lesser energy in the comparison and lasts 10 times longer. Useful long life and efficiency adds to the popularity of CFLs.
LED is also used by a lot of people and is more energy efficient than CFLs too. Standard LED offers around 35 lumens of light per watt as compared to around 12 lumen offered by an incandescent bulb. LED bulbs are getting developed and soon they would offer 131 lumens every watt. LEDs are used at a lot of places. These are used in trail lights of trucks and cars, watch dials, digital clocks, traffic signals, Christmas lights. Long life and durability has made it popular these days. It has become an ideal lighting for homes. One can find a range of LED bulbs in the market.
From simple light bulbs to CFLs and LEDs, bulbs have covered a long way. Hardly did we know that small thing like bulb can literally illuminate our lives.
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Invention Story of Digicam
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Digital technology is the buzzword these days. Have you ever pictured life without digital technology? How would celebrations be without pictures? How would you preserve the special moments of life with your loved ones without pictures? Today each one of us is impacted by digital technology. And Digital cameras are an important invention in this field.
Earliest of ideas for creation of images on wall were established in Ancient Greece by passing the light though small hole. Actual word ‘photography’ comes from Latin word and means drawing with light. First ever picture was developed in year 1827. But a lot of patience was required for getting finished pictures as it took around 8 hours. French Inventor named Joseph Niepce has an important contribution to field of photography.
In October 1969, Willard Boyle and George Smith discovered Charged Coupled Device (CCD) which is known to be heart of every digital camera. Boyle and Smith were trying to make new type of semiconductor for the computers then. They also wanted to develop solid state cameras for their use in video phones at the same time. These geniuses just took one hour to draw basic structure of CCD, define its operations and outline its best suited applications.
By 1970, Boyle and Smith built CCD into earliest solid state video camera. And soon after, in year 1975, both of them showcased first CCD camera with sharp image quality for the broadcast TV. CCD technology has not just become imperative in broadcasting but in various video applications too. From desktop video-conferencing, security monitoring to endoscopy, it is used everywhere. Image scanners, copying machines, bar codes, facsimile machines also use CCDs for turning light patterns into valuable information.
Not until 1981, Sony Corporation launched prototype digicam, Mavica electronic still camera. This camera recorded pictures as the magnetic impulses on small 2 inch video floppy. Capturing of these images was done through 2 CCD chips. One of these chips was used for storing the luminance information while other recorded chrominance information. The camera produced 720,000-pixeled images. One could store these images either in field or frame mode in the floppy.
On selection of frame mode, sensors recorded two copies of the same picture. And Upto 25 images could be stored in each disk. While on selection of field mode, sensor recorded every picture on one track only, allowing upto 50 images. These images had fewer details as compared to the ones in frame mode.
MVC 5000 was known as leader in the image quality during that time. Early Mavica is not considered as true digicam even though it started revolution of digicams. It was video camera that could take video freeze frames. These attributes made Mavica bulky affair. It was perceived more as floppy box than a conventional camera.
In year 1986, world’s earliest megapixel sensor was launched by the Kodak scientists. This sensor was proficient enough to record 1.4 million pixels, producing 5x7 inches photo prints. Next year, the company introduced various products for manipulating, recording, storing, printing and transmitting video images. In 1990, Kodak released Photo CD system. The following year, the company launched professional digicam, Nikon F3 equipped by Kodak along with 1.3 megapixels. This range was targeted at photojournalists.
XapShot was another Hi-band video camera model during the time. This camera had built in self timer, flash along with rechargeable lead batteries. American version of the camera came with VCR/TV signaling capability for recording and playback of images. Basic software worked under the system 6/7 in combination with unique video capturing card attached to camera.
And soon after in 1990, world’s earliest digital consumer cam was introduced by Logitech. Dycam Model 1, black and white stored around 32 compressed pictures. It used one MB RAM on CCD of 376 x 240 pixels to store the images in around 256 gray shades, TIFF format. Going by today’s standards, Dycam had 8mm fixed lens, shutter speed of around 1 by 30 to 1 by 1000 second. This camera worked in a similar manner like XapShot but included digitalizing hardware. Users had to connect this camera to the PC for transferring images.
The earliest digital camera for consumer markets, working with home computer through serial cable was Apple QuickTake- 100. The camera made its debut in 1994. With built in flash, camera featured 640 x 480 pixels CCD producing 8 images recorded in the internal memory. The problem was posed by the small computer present inside the camera. Since onboard computer in the camera, CCD processor, took a lot of space, manufacturers such as Fuji designed square shaped digicams. These devices were not just difficult to use but also demanded the user to learn new way of handling them. Miniaturizing sensors helped companies such as Toshiba, Nikon, Olympus and Kodak to create smaller cameras.
NASA is still researching in the field of digital photography. They were the initiators of the research and are keeping pace with it. They have been working on replacement of CCDs now. Latest developments include Active Pixel Sensor which would soon replace CCD. It costs one third less than CCD and follows computer technology’s progression. Digicams using APS technology would be smaller and would also offer better quality images. These cameras come with range of accessories. New range of SLR cameras allows the users to change camera lens according to their needs. This opens doors to various digicam lenses. Even though history of digicams is just a few decades old, it is surely moving forward at great pace.
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Invention Story of Ball Point Pen
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Every invention has a story which sizzles right behind the scenes. Ball Pen is also one invention, which though is of huge importance, yet not many know where it originated from. The history of the pen can be traced back to 1880s, when the first patent on a ball pen was issued to John Loud. This leather tanner attempted to make a writing object with which he could write on the leather he tanned. The pen, he had invented, constituted of a rotating steel ball as the tip held in a socket. It could write on the leather as intended by Loud. However, the invention proved futile for others as it proved way too coarse and messy for letter writing; so was disapproved commercially. The original patent lapsed with the failure of this invention on the grounds of practicality and usability.
The second innings for the ball pen was in the making and it all began again with the first and very famous stylized fountain pen. Invented by Cross, the fountain pen is identified as daddy to the ball pens. This invention triggered more of brainstorming that lasted till ball pen was born. Laszlo Jozsef Biro, a native of Budapest owns the patent of the ball pen to his name. What he had invented was a ball pen that contained ink cartridge in the pressurized form. A journalist named Biro took no time in noticing the quick drying capability of the ink used in the newspapers, and thought that if the same ink was utilized in a pen that smudged letters problem could be resolved. Being a proof reader, Biro had to refill his fountain pen from an ink bottle incessantly and this drove him crazy at times.
In the beginning of 1930s, along with his brother Georg, a chemist, Biro began with the experiment of a pen that would not need to be refilled and at the same time would not smudge the pages too. The concept revolved around a ball which was used on the tip of the pen and as this pen was moved on the paper, the ball would rotate pulling the ink from the cartridge. This time, the design of the pen was acclimatized with practicality and hence, the two brothers used a sealed reservoir which would store the ink inside the pen. In terms of consistency too, the ink was changed to thicker and quick drying ink. As the designing flaws were bid goodbye, Laszlo Biro was issued a patent to the pen in the year 1938. It could well be summed up, that even though Laszlo was not the first inventor of a ball pen; he was however, the successful inventor of a working design of ball pen which is now universally acceptable.
The story doesn't end here; in the year 1943, the two brothers began their quest for getting their invention worldwide recognition as well as financial support. They moved to Argentina and discovered someone who willingly financed the Birome pen and in no time, a factory was started to manufacture more ball pens. The ball pen was initially advertised as the only pen which could write even under the water. There were demonstrations witnessed by huge audiences, plenty of those who longed to write with the ball pen under the water. The company led by Biro became the leading producers of ball pens. The British soon caught wind of it and fascinated by the qualities of the ball pen, they bought the patent. The company was thus, sold to BIC Corporation who started producing and supplying pens to the Royal Air Force. Biro pens were considered highly useful for the pilots as they could write even in the pressure of high altitudes. This was also a major breakthrough for the ball pen that faced huge rivalry from the fountain pen as initially it was marked as a useful and fashionable accessory, but then being used at high altitudes added to the technological specification of the pen.
At a much reduced price, the ball pen made a foray into the British market. Laszlo Biro, the inventor continued his display of entrepreneurial flair and managed to secure significant financial scores to his name, however, he soon lost the Biro Company to Henry Martin who took over the production of ball pen from Laszlo Biro. Martin made the ball pen an established name (Biro Swan) in the market, but the credentials to bring ball pen to the position that it enjoys today, go to Marcel Bich. He founded a company that manufactured his own patented ball pen designs. BIC Cristal, that directly succeeded Biro, enjoys the largest share in the market today. Pen had discovered a market for itself a lot earlier, but the quality practices which underwent in making the ball pen as perfect as it is today are owed to Bich who established the ball pen high on the international benchmarks. Ever since then, the ball pen has been evolving and a lot has been added to the history of pens.
Today, ball pens are manufactured in almost every country. What goes in their making is also a well defined geographical needs criterion to ensure that the ink viscosity and tip tolerances are as per the environment, where the pens are meant to be used. The present scenario is such that the market is flooded with pens in unlimited varieties, designs and colors. It is a “choose as you may” situation for the users. Ranging from handcrafted ball pens to simple and sober ones, you will find them all in a variety unimaginable. Ever wondered, such a small item has given the world so much. A small invention has now become an indispensable part of our lives. It might not be the most technologically high-end instrument, but probably one of the most essential ones, one we can’t do without. How many times have you complained your pen got stolen? That is just because a lot of us need them in our everyday lives. Whether to a student or a business man, pen is highly useful tool.