Heavy-Duty DC Motor / Trolley / SubwayFaraday proved an electric motor was possible but, like his many inventions, neither scaled the idea up nor commercialized it. Voltaic piles at that time were the sole source of electricity. Because they produced little electricity high-power motors seemed pointless. Background The new field of electricity interested Sprague, a Navy officer. While serving in the … Continue reading "Heavy-Duty DC Motor / Trolley / Subway"
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers. They were supposed to be more convenient and simpler than carrying paper. Most significantly, and the reason they are a major invention, is their influence as a bridge to the smartphone. David Potter created the Psion Organizer in 1984 featuring 2K or RAM in a handheld (sort of … Continue reading "Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)"
Wind-Driven SawmillCornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest invented a sawmill driven by a windmill. It cut wood about 30 times faster than sawing by hand. Corneliszoon received a patent for his wind-driven sawmill. Workers found the mill during a 2004 excavation. The windmill used a crankshaft to convert the steady wind into the up-and-down motion necessary to saw … Continue reading "Wind-Driven Sawmill"
Digital Video Recorder (DVR)Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s) record digitally, to disk or flash memory, rather than analog recording to tape. This allows end-users to quickly fast-forward, rewind, and jump to a section of a recording rather than slowly searching. Tivo and ReplayTV both launched DVR’s at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show. As they did with videotapes, broadcasters and … Continue reading "Digital Video Recorder (DVR)"
Computer Numerical Control (CNC) MachineComputer Numerical Control (CNC) machines create identical interchangeable parts. They simplify manufacturing and reduce the risk of human error producing parts. Starting in 1949, John Parsons worked with Frank Stulen at Gordon S. Brown’s Servomechanisms Laboratory at MIT to develop a system where punch cards controlled a machining tool, called Numerical Control (NC). This evolved … Continue reading "Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machine"
Protease InhibitorsHistory They first called it gay men’s cancer. Then announced it affected intravenous drug users. People became skeptical when they added Haitians as a risk factor. Being gay, a drug user, or black was a death sentence? My openly gay high school English teacher became sick and quickly died in the middle of a semester. … Continue reading "Protease Inhibitors"
C Programming LanguageDennis Ritchie went on to create multiple aspects of modern computing culture. Indeed, odd hours, obsessed screen time, sloppy dress, funky naming conventions, and – most importantly – those attributed tied to brilliant and useful code all belong to Ritchie. Sometime between Ritchie, the software engineer straight enough to gain employment at Bell Labs, and … Continue reading "C Programming Language"
Superstore, v2 (Walmart)In 1962, the median lifespan of a US man was 67 years old. Arkansas, with 1.79 million residents, had the 33rd lowest GDP in the United States, $3.8 billion. That year, Sam Walton, at age 44, opened a new type of store in his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, naming it Walmart. Walton’s strategy was to … Continue reading "Superstore, v2 (Walmart)"
ChemotherapyChemotherapy refers to a group of drugs that fight cancer. Surgery and radiation were the two common anti-cancer therapies before the discovery of effective chemotherapy. Immunotherapy was also studied but showed little promise. Background In the 1800s, scientists thought drugs might be able to fight cancer. However, none of them worked well. In the 1910s, … Continue reading "Chemotherapy"
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)MRI allows physicians to see and diagnose soft tissue without surgery. Background MRI is one of these cases where everybody argues somebody else invented it for patent priority. However, courts and historians find that physician Raymond Damadian was first to make an MRI that scans people (prior MRI’s would scan small pieces of organic material). … Continue reading "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)"
Broadcast NewsThe Scripps newspaper family-owned, among other newspapers, The Detroit News. They noticed when the Titanic sunk, in 1912, that radio sent the news far faster than telegraphs or telephones. An Experiment In 1920 radio was for what today we’d call early adopters. There were few broadcasts and most of those were sporadic broadcasting of recorded … Continue reading "Broadcast News"
Diesel EnginesUses engines use compression to increase engine power. That increases engine power and reduces fuel costs. Diesel is French though studied engineering in Germany. After graduating he returned to Paris and opened an early modern refrigeration factory, patenting several innovations. He eventually left and, barred from the industry, turned his attention to engines. In 1893, … Continue reading "Diesel Engines"
Cable TelevisionCable television brings television channels to customers without antennas. Later versions bring more channels than analog antennas provided. Walson owned a small company, Service Electric, located in a mountainous region in Pennsylvania. Frustrated that buyers of his televisions could not receive a signal he climbed a mountain and installed an antenna at the top. Eventually, … Continue reading "Cable Television"
Safety ElevatorBefore Otis’ elevator buildings were effectively limited in height. Builders could build higher, but nobody was willing to climb too many stairs. Otis’ safety elevator reduced the cost of living and working at high levels in buildings. Background While working to clean an old factory, Otis created a safety catch for hoist, a platform to … Continue reading "Safety Elevator"
Nuclear WeaponsCaltech professor Robert Oppenheimer lead a team of researchers at Los Alamos to invent the atomic bomb. Along with some of the most noteworthy physicists in the world, he oversaw the development of the nuclear bomb. The Manhattan Project, like the code-breaking at Bletchley Park, was intensely secretive. Los Alamos, in New Mexico, was built … Continue reading "Nuclear Weapons"
