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. […]

In 1920, Canadian surgeon Frederick Banting visited the University of Toronto to speak to John J.R. Macleod, the newly appointed head of the department of physiology.Banting had a new idea on how to find not only the cause but also treat the so-called ‘sugar disease’ or diabetes.In diabetes, the blood of patients contains more sugar

Charles E. Menches was an ice cream salesman at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, the great fair in St. Louis, United States. Whenever Menches visited a certain lady friend, he brought a bouquet of flowers. On one occasion, for a super date, he brought flowers and an ice cream sandwich. Because his lady friend

In 1782 in France, Joseph Michel Montgolfier filled a silk bag with hot air which, being less dense than the air around it, lifted the bag to the high ceiling of his house. On April 25, 1783, Joseph and his brother Jacques Etienne built a larger, spherical bag, filled it with hot air from a

Hand-held Calculator In 1886, Burroughs and several St. Louis businessmen formed the Arithmometer Co. of America to market the machine. The first machine, however, required a special knack in pulling the handle to execute the calculation correctly. More often than not, novice users would get wildly differing sums depending on the vigour with which they

Early attempts to design a music-playing gadget began in 1877 when Thomas Edison invented his tin-foil phonograph. The word ‘phonograph’ was Edison’s trade name for his device, which played recorded sounds from round cylinders. The sound quality on the phonograph was bad, and each recording lasted just for one only play. On November 8, 1887,

Buckminster Fuller is best known for the invention of the geodesic dome, the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure ever devised. The geodesic dome is able to cover more space without internal supports than any other enclosure. It becomes proportionally lighter and stronger the larger it is. The geodesic dome is a breakthrough in shelter,

On July 25, 1916, an explosion occurred in Tunnel No. 5 of the Cleveland Waterworks. Some 250 feet beneath Lake Erie, more than 30 workmen were trapped. As smoke and dust threatened to consume the men, a call was put out to find Garrett A. Morgan. Someone had remembered that Morgan, a Cleveland inventor and

Frozen Food The first patent for freezing food was granted in 1852 in England. This involved immersion of the food in an ice-and-salt brine. All other patents granted at that time used ice-and-salt mixtures for freezing food. But frozen foodscould not be used widely until the invention of mechanical refrigeration. This made the freezing and

Combine a pie maker from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and an UFO aficionado from Southern California and you come with the Frisbie. William Frisbie’s pies, nestled in circular tin pans bearing the family name, were all the rage in 1870’s Bridgeport, Connecticut. As years went by, students at nearby Yale University came to consider them a two-fer:

The fountain pen’s design came after a thousand years of using quill-pens. Early inventors observed the apparent natural ink reserve found in the hollow channel of a bird’s feather, and tried to produce a similar effect, with a man-made pen that would hold more ink and not require constant dipping into the ink well. However,

In 1971, the IBM Company of USA introduced the first ‘memory disk’, as it was called then, or the ‘floppy disk’ as it is known today. IBM engineers, led by Alan Shugart invented the ‘floppy’. The first floppy was an 8” plastic disk coated with magnetic iron oxide. Data was written to, and read from

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

We know that ridges of our fingertips from certain patterns. In fact, the Chinese have used finger prints for hundreds of years in various forms and for various purposes.But the use of fingerprints in detecting criminals is a recent development. Dr. Henry Faulds of England was the first man to suggest that finger prints be

The Ferris Wheel is a large amusement-park ride that is made of a giant, vertical, metal wheel that slowly turns around. The wheel is equipped with hanging compartments for people, who ride around in a circle, going far above the ground. The Ferris Wheel was invented by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania bridge-builder George Washington Gale Ferris