Great Inventions and Discoveries

Raymond V. Damadian, inventor of the Magnetic Resonance (MR) scanning machine, was born in New York in 1936. His research into sodium and potassium in living cells led him to his first experiments with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which caused him to first propose the MR body scanner in 1969. Damadian invented an apparatus and […]

The motorcycle, built in 1884 by an Englishman named Edward Butler, looked pretty silly. It had three wheels, not two, and was really just a tricycle with a motor. Nevertheless, people were so afraid of Butler’s motorcycle that they asked the government to pass laws against the new machine. One law said that there must

The truth is, in the beginning, there was no monopoly on the game because there were so many versions of it. They were created on a ‘local’ basis, using the streets and features of individual cities, and in all likelihood, very few of the inventors aware that anyone else had the same idea. One of

Most histories of the modern computer begin with the ‘Analytical Engine’ envisioned by approximately 90% of the client operating system market. Charles Babbage following the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today’s digital computer. Babbage’s assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduced

Paper containers for milk are now so commonplace that it is hard to imagine that it took over twenty patient years of persistence to get the public to accept them. But it did, and the man who is responsible is named John Van Wormer. Van Wormer owned a toy factory in Toledo, Ohio. He got

The microwave oven did not come about as a result of someone trying to find a better, faster way to cook. During World War II, two scientists invented the magnetron, a tube that produces microwaves. Installing magnetrons in Britain’s radar system, the microwaves were able to spot Nazi warplanes on their way to bomb the

A match consists of three basic parts—a head, which initiates combustion via various materials like phosphorous, a tinder substance to pick up and burn the flame, usually a piece of wood or cardboard, and a handle, often the same as the tinder.In 1669, after phosphorous was discovered, it was soon used in match heads.In 1680,

In year 1869, butter was expensive and in short supply, Emperor Napoleon III, of France, sought a cheap, tasty substitute for it. Also, on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, he needed a butter substitute that would store well on ships. The Emperor sponsored a contest, and offered a prize for the best butter substitute

An LCD or liquid crystal display is a type of flat panel display commonly used in digital devices, for example: digital clocks, TV displays, and computers.Liquid crystals are liquid chemicals whose molecules can be aligned precisely when subjected to electrical fields, much in the way metal shavings line up in the field of a magnet.

Joshua Lionel Cowen of United States was an inventive guy and had always been very interested in trains. When he was seven, he whittled a miniature locomotive from wood. It exploded, however, when he tried to fit it with a tiny steam engine. Joshua had never forgotten his childhood experiment. In 1901, he fitted a

Lightning Rod Benjamin Franklin was fascinated by storms; he loved to study them. If he were alive today, we could probably add ‘storm-chaser’ to his long list of titles.It was in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1746 that Franklin first stumbled upon other scientists’ electrical experiments. He quickly turned his home into a little laboratory, using machines

In 1912, when American candy maker Clarence Crane first marketed ‘Crane’s Peppermint Life Savers/ life preservers were just beginning to be used on ships—the round kind with a hole in the centre for tossing to a passenger fallen overboard. But that is not the whole story.Crane had been basically a chocolate maker. Chocolates were hard

In 1894 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was superintendent of a famous hospital and health spa in Battle Creek, Michigan, America. His younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg, was the business manager. The hospital stressed healthful living and kept its patients on a diet that eliminated caffeine, meat, alcohol, and tobacco. The brothers invented many foods that

Jigsaw Puzzle In 1880, Milton Bradley made the first jigsaw puzzle for children The Smashed Up Locomotive.’ By printing a lithograph of a steam engine locomotive and cutting it into pieces, the ‘smashed up’ effect was achieved when a child opened the box and saw the locomotive all in pieces. Because of his Puritan upbringing,

It seems that the integrated circuit was destined to be invented. Two separate inventors, unaware of each other’s activities, invented almost identical integrated circuits or ICs at nearly the same time. Jack Kilby, an engineer with a background in ceramic-based silk screen circuit boards and transistor-based hearing aids, started working for Texas Instruments in 1958.