EmailRay Tomlinson would likely have lived in anonymity but for Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who claimed to invent email as a 14-year-old child. Ayyadurai is certainly bright, a Fulbright scholar who holds four degrees from MIT. He ran against Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2018 Senate race, attracting 91,710 votes. Ayyadurai’s claim as the inventor … Continue reading "Email"
Antibiotics“I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.” Sir Dr. Alexander Fleming Few medical discoveries impacted life expectancy and quality of life more than antibiotics. Before their discovery, simple wounds were often fatal. For example, during the US Civil War, most soldiers eventually died from infection, not from their … Continue reading "Antibiotics"
Electric InstrumentsEarly History Claims about electric instruments date back to 1730 when texts describe a Czech musician who “generated sound by electromagnetic excitation of piano strings.” These claims are either false or the entire history of electricity of incorrect. Until Volta’s Voltaic Pile battery, in 1800, there was no method to produce an ongoing current. Electrical … Continue reading "Electric Instruments"
Spread Spectrum Frequency Hopping1941 Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (Hedy Lamarr)George Antheil Spread spectrum frequency hopping synchronizes devices to speak over changing frequencies. The technology jumps from one frequency to another in a predetermined but predictable manner so that the sender and recipient can change simultaneously. Lamarr and Antheil created the technology to contribute to the WWII effort, though … Continue reading "Spread Spectrum Frequency Hopping"
Blue Ocean Strategy Explained: What It Is & What It Isn’tBy the book, blue ocean strategy is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost? But what does that really mean? What Isn’t Blue Ocean Strategy First, let’s look at some conceptions of what blue ocean strategy is not. Redefine Market Boundaries Above all else, blue ocean strategy is not about accepting the status quo … Continue reading "Blue Ocean Strategy Explained: What It Is & What It Isn’t"
SCUBAEarly bell suits that contained air hoses allowed people to function underwater. These bell diving suits were heavy and dangerous. Later systems relied upon compressed air and regulators, yet these were still large and impractical. In 1942 Nazi-occupied France, Frenchmen Cousteau and Gagnan invented the first practical underwater breathing apparatus, Aqua-Lung. In their system, called … Continue reading "SCUBA"
PasteurizationFrench scientist Louis Pasteur disproved the theory of spontaneous generation, the idea that certain organisms are ever-present in nature. For example, early scientists believed fleas came from dust and maggots from dead meat absent anything else. Pasteur theorized and later proved that all organisms come from something else, that nothing exists in a vacuum. He … Continue reading "Pasteurization"
AirshipSporting both bodacious name, mustache, and title of nobility, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin forever changed air travel. Zeppelin wasn’t the first to try making hot air balloons more maneuverable. That honor belonged to Frenchman Henri Giffard. Basically, a big cigar-shaped balloon, Giffard’s airship was the first aircraft that enabled navigation. In 1882, with declining health, … Continue reading "Airship"
Cash RegisterCash registers help deter theft and led to modern bookkeeping. Ritty was a saloon owner who had problems with employee theft. He invented and patented the cash register, calling it the “Incorruptible Cashier” and created a company to sell it. There was little interest and he tired of simultaneously running two businesses, one manufacturing and … Continue reading "Cash Register"
AirlineCount von Zeppelin, inventor of the airship, partnered with a group of other German industrialists to create a Zeppelin manufacturing company and also an airline. Airships Their first airship, the enormous LZ1, launched July 2, 1900. It crashed and survived but the test was not successful for the German government to invest more funds in … Continue reading "Airline"
Machine TranslationBackground In 1933, Soviet scientist Peter Troyanskii presented “the machine for the selection and printing of words when translating from one language to another” to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Soviet aparchnicks during the Stalin era declared the invention “useless” but allowed Troyanskii to continue his work. He died of natural causes in … Continue reading "Machine Translation"
Electrical Transformer1831 Michael Faraday Faraday’s transformer acted as a knowledge bridge to future innovators that electricity could be transformed. It wasn’t especially useful on its own except to signal to future scientists what is possible. His transformer was vital to the creation of the modern electricity grid and electrical innovations. The device itself is hand-built by … Continue reading "Electrical Transformer"
Portable VentilatorVentilators breathe for people when they cannot breathe on their own. John Emerson was a physician focused on breathing devices who developed the first mass produced iron lung. Building on Emerson’s work, Bird developed the portable ventilator and, later, created a company, Bird Corp., to commercialize it. Bird Corp. created a home ventilator in 1965, … Continue reading "Portable Ventilator"
Fast FoodMcDonald’s primary innovation is that food should be ready instantly. No sooner does a customer order than food appears. Individual restaurant orders, individually prepared was the norm for non-buffet restaurants before McDonald’s. In 1937, the McDonald brothers created their iconic restaurant and built several stores. Eventually, Ray Kroc was a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman who … Continue reading "Fast Food"
Velox Photo PaperBaekeland, a chemistry student, worked on an improved photographic paper. Before his invention, photo papers required bright sunlight for exposure. This constraint limited photo developing to daylight hours on sunny days and made photo print results unpredictable. Baekeland created a high contrast reliable photo paper. His paper was sensitive enough to work with gas lighting, … Continue reading "Velox Photo Paper"
