Christopher Latham Sholes (1819-1890), a U.S. mechanical engineer, invented the first practical modern typewriter with his partners S.W. Sholes and G.Glidden in 1866. The invention was patented in 1868, and was manufactured (by Remington Arms Company) in 1873. Before the computer, the typewriter may have been the most significant everyday business tool. After dozens of […]
James C. Fargo, president of the American Express Company, was well off and well known. It’s not surprising that he felt insulted when he couldn’t get cheques cashed during a trip to Europe in 1890. But the European bankers were steadfast. Fargo was not known to them. So they would not cash his cheques. Was
The transistor is an influential invention that changed the course of history for computers. The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes; the second generation of computers used transistors; the third generation of computers used integrated circuits and the fourth generation of computers used microprocessors.John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain, scientists at the Bell
Even during the horse and buggy days, traffic in big cities was often heavy. Police officers had to be stationed full time directing traffic at busy intersections.The world’s first traffic light came into being before the automobile was in use, and traffic consisted only of pedestrians, buggies, and wagons. Installed at an intersection in London
Toothpaste was used as long ago as 500 B.C. in both China and India. However, modern toothpastes were only developed in the 1800s. In 1896, Colgate Dental Cream was packaged in collapsible tubes. Advancements in synthetic detergents made after World War II, allowed for the replacement of the soap used in toothpaste with emulsifying agents
The ancient Chinese made toothbrushes with bristles picked from the neck hair of Siberian wild boars! Stick-like toothbrushes have also been found in the pyramids of ancient Egypt. French dentists were the first Europeans to promote the use of toothbrushes in 17th and early 18th centuries. William Addis of Clerkenwald, England, created the first mass-produced
The Chinese were attributed with the first man-made paper circa 50 B.C. (as opposed to your basic parchment and papyrus.) In the beginning it was formed from bamboo products. Then someone decided to soak linen rags, beat them to a pulp, and turn the results into more sheets of paper. From that stellar start, would
Preserving food for any length of time in the late 1700s, was something of a problem. Especially when it came to wars and long marches for thousands of soldiers. So it came about that in 1795, a body known as the French Directory offered a prize of 12,000 pounds to anyone who could invent a
So many inventors participated in the development of television that it is impossible to give one individual credit for its invention. A few people, however, can be recognized as pioneers in this field.Paul Nipkrow proposed the first practical mechanical scanner in Germany in 1884. The scanner was a rotating disk with holes arranged in a
In the 1870’s two inventors Elisha Gray, and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other. Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over
In November of 1902, American President Theodore Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi while trying to settle a boundary dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. Being an accomplished outdoorsman, he liked to bag big game. However, his hunt was going poorly that day, and he couldn’t seem to find anything worthy of discharging his
Without a doubt, Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventive minds of modern times. But occasionally his inventions were accidental, resulting from totally unrelated observations of other things he was working on.For example, he first came up with a printing telegraph machine, which consisted of a pen punching symbols into paper, marking it with
Early sunglasses served a special purpose and it wasn’t to block the rays of the sun. Smoke tinting was the first means of darkening eyeglasses, and the technology was developed in China prior to 1430. These darkened lenses were not vision-corrected, nor were they initially intended to reduce solar glare. For centuries, Chinese judges had
French doctor Rene Laennec wanted to listen to his patients’ lungs and heart, but was perhaps shy of putting his ears to their chests. Instead, he listened through a wooden tube and found that this could transmit various body sounds. After he published his findings, in 1819, other doctors improved on this instrument, eventually creating
In 1943. During World War II, an engineer in the United States Navy was on a new ship’s run. As he worked, a torsion spring suddenly fell to the floor. The spring flip-flopped as the ingenious man watched. The naval engineer’s name was Richard James, and when he returned home, he remembered the spring and