History of Science 2

Final Exam Questions

2007-04-29T15:20:00.000-04:00

Here are the long awaited final exam questions. You must turn in a typed copy of your answers by 12 noon on Wednesday, May 2nd. Late exams will be docked one letter grade for every hour they are late; no exam will be accepted past 3 pm.

The length of your answers may vary, depending on how well you decided to answer the questions. Any quotations need to be properly cited. Do not copy the answer from the book(s). These questions are usually part think piece, part historical. If you any questions, please send me an email.

YOU MUST ANSWER ONE QUESTION FROM EACH SECTION!

1.) Medicine and Modernity

A. Discuss the rise of tropical medicine as a speciality in the 19th and 20th centuries. What were some of the problems these new specialists had to face? How did exploration and travel in various parts of the world create new challenges for western medicine, not only a 100 years ago, but today as well?

B. By the end of the 20th century, medicine had become a "proverbial Leviathan" according to Roy Porter, comparable in size to that of the military as far as government intervention was concerned, and in many cases no less business- and money oriented than today's large corporation. How and why did medicine transform itself into a proverbial "industrial-medical" complex? Is this a good thing for western society?

2) Scientific Questions Big and Small

C. John Gribbin calls the "last hurrah of classical science" the transformation of geology into geophysics. Discuss this transformation in the 19th century, not only briefly explaining the transformative process, but also what was being discussed by these new scientists. How do discussions by scientists seeking to explain the ice ages give us insight into the current debate about global warming?

D. Discuss briefly the developments in biology, from Mendel to the Human Genome Project. How do these discoveries shape how we see ourselves? How might current research into DNA, RNA and genetic material effect Darwin's ideas about natural selection?

3) Global Technology

E. How do the Internet, McDonald's and Hollywood lead to the creation of a "Global Culture" based in part on technology and the benefits of science? What is this supposed global culture argued about by pundits from all sides of the political spectrum? Is there really a global culture for the 21st century? Explain.

Ernst Ruska (1906-1988)

2007-04-26T15:35:00.000-04:00

Ernst Ruska was born in Heidelberg to Professor Julius Ruska, the fifth of seven children. He first went to the Technical College in Munich and within two years was studying electronics at the Technical College in Berlin. While in Berlin he worked under the Brown-Boveri & Co in Mannheim and Siemens & Halske Ltd where he received his practical training. He also worked with other doctoral students under Dr. Max Knoll for the development of a high performance cathode ray oscilloscope. Although he focused on building vacuum instruments from practical designs he was also interested theoretical and practical experiments of optical electron rays.

In between 1928 and 1929 Ruska worked on proving Busch's theory of the effect of the magnetic field of a coil of wire through which an electric current is passed and which is then used as an electron lens. This led to the development of the polschuh lens that has been used in all high-resolution electron microscopes ever since. Along with Dr. Knoll’s help Ruska built the very first electron microscope in 1931. With further work Ruska managed to build and improve the electron microscope and revealed it in 1933. His new electron microscope gave better definition than any light microscope to date.

Ruska continued to work with various companies and between 1933 and 1937 developed television transmitters and photoelectric cells with secondary amplifications for Fernesh Ltd of Berlin. However, he continued with research on practical applications for applied research using electron microscopes. In 1936-37 he worked with Siemens & Halske for development of electron microscopes. His brother Dr. Med. Helmut Ruska and his members worked on applications for the new “Siemens Super Microscope.” By 1945 35 institutions were equipped with electron microscopes. However, after the bombing of Germany disbanded the Institute of Electron Optics in Berlin-Siemensstadt it would be another four years (1949) until electron microscopes were again being built. In 1954 the 'Elmiskop 1' was unveiled. Since it’s introduction over 1200 institutions have been equipped with this electron microscope.

Info:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1986/ruska-autobio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Ruska

Picture:
http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/gif/phys/ruska.jpg
http://www.microscopy.ethz.ch/images/ruska.jpg

Ole Kirk Christiansen

2007-04-24T02:31:00.000-04:00

The invention of LEGO was a 1932 creation. It was a collaborate idea of two Danish men named Ole Kirk Christiansen and his father Godfred Kirk. Ole Kirk Christiansen was a master carpenter and joiner who founded his carpentry business in the village of Billund, Denmark. Here his main production consisted of stepladders, ironing boards, and wooden toys. While it was a successful business, his main source of revenue came from the wooden toys he produced. Christiansen and his father were inspired when they came across a product designed by British child psychologist Hilary (Harry) Fisher Page: small plastic blocks with interlocking studded tops and hollow bottoms. The key to Lego's success was the way the bricks fitted together. Early versions were either too hard to take apart or did not lock firmly enough. The word “LEGO” was conjured in 1934 and derives from the Danish words “LEg GOdt” with translates to “play well”, coincidently in Latin lego means “I put together”. In 1942 the LEGO company burnt down, however, due to its success, people donated money to have the factory rebuilt. By 1947 LEGO went from manufacturing its toys made of wood to making them from plastic with molding machines. The plastic bricks which he designed were an original structure and it was known as Christiansen’s Automatic Binding Bricks. By 1949, the company had produced 200 different plastic and wooden toys. At this time LEGOs were still developed in Denmark and had yet to make international news.

In 1958 the current LEGO stud-and-tube coupling system is invented and patented. The new coupling principle makes models much more stable. The possible combinations of bricks run into astronomical figures. While the initial product was invented in 1932, it took time before it gained popularity worldwide.

LEGO has been so successful because it is able to spark the imagination of children with providing them with simple shapes and giving them the freedom to create buildings and other architectural structures. One of its best contributions is the fact that it helps people at a young age develop spatial skills through play. Any architectures and engineers had their humble beginnings with LEGO where they got hands-on experience with blocks and shapes.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllego.htm
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901061113-1549797,00.html
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/lego.htm

Erik Rotheim

2007-04-21T14:53:00.000-04:00

Erik Rotheim was born on September 19, 1898. This Norwegian chemical engineer/inventor was not well known until he made a major breakthrough on an idea whose concepts went back to the late 1700's. On February 9th, 1926, Rotheim produced the first can to dispense liquids, with a valve and propellant systems. This later became the first aerosol can. He filed for a patent in 1926, and later modified his design patent to include a spray nozzle, and he used hydrocarbons as the propellant. He later sold this patent in the 1940's to a US based company. There, the can was modified, and different propellants, such as flourocarbons were used. As this was a very good invention that has affected many aspects of society, there is some bad associated with it. Until recently, the propellant used such as the hydrocarbons that Rotheim used and the flourocarbons used by americans was released into the atmosphere, damaging it. Recently, most of these bad Chloroflourocarbons have been replaced by propanes, butanes, methylethers, and even nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. After revising his patents and selling them to the US, Rotheim died on September 18, 1938.

Information:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1899181,00.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml

Pictures:
http://www.aerosol.com.au/resource/1stspraycan.jpg
No Portraits of Erik Rotheim could be found

John Edvard Lundström (1815-1888)

2007-04-19T19:32:00.000-04:00

John Edvard Lundström was a Swedish inventor. He was born in 1815 in Jönköping, Sweden. He attended university and worked with his brother at a local newspaper company. Gustaf Erik Pasch invented the first saftey match, by seperating the phosphorus from the other ingredients in the match tip and placing it on the box so the match would only light when struck on the box. John Lundström improved and patented the design and got an award for it at the World Exhibition in Paris. John and his brother started thair own match factory in Jönköping and at times Sweden was responsible for 75 percent of the world's match production.

Links
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-edvard-lundstr-m

http://www.sverigeturism.se/smorgasbord/smorgasbord/industry/inventions/

Sir Frank Whittle (1907 - 1996)

2007-04-19T11:14:00.000-04:00

Sir Frank Whittle was born June 1, 1097. He was the son of a mechanic. He joined the Royal Air Force as an intern, after being rejected for being too small in height but was allowed entry on his third try in 1923. In 1928 he joined the fighter squadron and became a test pilot in 1931. He was only 22 when he started thinking about using a gas turbine engine to power an airplane. As a cadet Whittle had written a thesis arguing that planes would need to fly at high altitudes, where air resistance is much lower, in order to achieve long ranges and high speeds. Pistons engines and propellers where not going to be able to acheive this and he concluded that the only things that could handle this was going to be rocket propulsion or gas driven turbine propellers. He came to the conclusions that jet propulsion was something he didnt understand happening, and a piston engine would use to much fuel, so he went with the gas turbine. After his idea was turned down by the Air Ministry he want on to patent his idea himself. With private financial backing he was able to construct the first engine in 1935. It was successuly test in April 1937, but was only a lab test rig. It was never intended for an actual airplane, but it did demonstrate the feasibility of the engine. The modern turbojet engine used in many British and American aircraft is based on the prototype that Frank Whittle invented. In 1941 the engine was ready for a test run and was placed into aircrafts later that year. Americans were particularely interested in the idea and were able to use the technology to create their own aircraft by 1942 and became full operational by 1944.

Links:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljetengine.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Whittle.1946.arp.600pix.jpg

http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/achievements/whittle/telgraph.htm

http://www.aoxj32.dsl.pipex.com/NewFiles/FrankWhittle.html

Ludwig Prandtl

2007-04-18T19:15:00.000-04:00

Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953)

Born in Freising, Germany, Ludwig Prandtl started his life with much engineering exposure since his mother died early in his life; as a result he was always with his father, who was an engineering professor. Encouraged by his father and his surroundings, he was very critical and curious about nature, striving hard to learn from his observations in the real world. He attended the University of Munich in 1894, graduating in 1900 with a Ph.D. From then on, his life was nothing short of great accomplishment.

At this time, fluid mechanics was understood only to the point of describing mathematical "potential flows" - inviscid models of flow fields that did little to describe the full reality of what was going on. Potential flow also "proved" D'Alembert's Paradox, which stated that an inviscid flowfield generated no net force on the object in the field, particularly drag. This is obviously incorrect, as everyone knew that fluids generated friction on a body that is immersed in said fluid, but only the Navier-Stokes equations could really solve this kind of problem. Unfortunately, there were very few closed-form solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations at this time, and those that were discovered were only for extreme special cases.

Prandtl's 1904 paper "Fluid Flow in Very Little Friction" described a very important theory that no one had thought of to that point - how to incorporate friction (viscous effects) into a fluid flow regime while still allowing potential flowfield solutions to work with aerodynamic theory. This theory, known as Boundary Layer Theory, says that only in a very thin region around the immersed object is there the presence of a boundary layer which possesses viscous effects - everywhere outside this field, the flowfield can be assumed inviscid with reasonable accuracy. Boundary Layer Theory opened the way to explaining many physical phenomena including surface drag, pressure drag, flow separation, and stall.

After this, most of Prandtl's work was done at the University of Gottingen. In 1908, he worked with his student Theodor Meyer to describe the concept of expansion waves, which are now named in their honor. This allowed for additional analytical work in the field of supersonic flowfields. In the 1910's, he worked to create mathematical models to describe airfoil (infinite wing) and finite wing theory that incorporated viscous effects (through means of the Kutta condition) to effectively provide analytical solutions. Known as Thin Airfoil Theory and Lifting Line Theory, these two powerful mathematical conclusions allowed for analytical solutions of lift, angles of attack, aerodynamic moments, induced drag, and other very important aerodynamic values that were necessary in the design of airfoils and wings. These theories were published in 1918-1919, and are still extremely useful to this day.

Prandtl's work in aerodynamics helped push Germany at the forefront of aerospace engineering, and his and his students contributions have been extremely important for the development of aerodynamics. For this reason, Prandtl has been deemed the father of modern aerodynamics. A nondimensional coefficient which describes the ratio of viscosity to thermal diffusivity has been named the Prandtl number in his honor.

Resources
http://www.fluidmech.net/msc/prandtl.htm
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Theories_of_Flight/Prandtl/TH10.htm
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/prandtl.htm
Modern Compressible Flow (book) by John D. Anderson
Fundamentals of Aerodynamics (book) by John D. Anderson

Pictures of Prandtl
http://rclsgi.eng.ohio-state.edu/courses/Korpela/images/htransfer/prandtl.gif
http://www.mlahanas.de/Physics/Bios/images/LudwigPrandtl40s.jpg

Pictures of Prandtl's Theories
Boundary Layer: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Theories_of_Flight/Prandtl/TH10G1.jpg

Thin-Airfoil Theory:
http://www.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/aero/liftline/llt1.gif

Prandtl-Meyer Expansion Waves:
http://www.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/aero/gasdyn/pm1.gif

Hubert Cecil Booth

2007-04-18T18:53:00.001-04:00

Hubert Cecil Booth was born in Gloucester, England in 1871. When he was 18 he moved to London to study engineering at the City and Guilds College. His first job was as a draftsman helping design engines for Royal Navy battleships.

In 1900 his life took on a new meaning. Booth witnessed a demonstration of a new cleaning machine for railway cars. This machine was like no other he had seen. It took the dust from one side of the car and sent it to a dustbox on the other side. He decided to take this idea into the home. He died in 1955)

The idea of a vacuum cleaner had been around for some time before. The first vacuum cleaner was a 2-man show. 1 person had to operate the bellows while the other moved the mouthpiece across the floor. However, this was not a vacuum cleaner as we know it today. This one actually just blew the dust into the air and scattered it about. An prayer came on Aug 30, 1901. British Engineer, Hubert Cecil Booth received a paten for a real vacuum cleaner. This vacuum was huge. It was horse-drawn, petrol-driven which sat outside. Long hoses were fed thru doors and windows and instead of blowing the dust, this one sucked it up. To add to his brilliant idea, Booth also added a filter. The filter kept the collected dust in the machine instead of releasing it. This idea is the basis of vacuum cleaners today.

Due to the high prices of electricity and this machine, in 1903 Booth opened his very own cleaning company. This publicized the machine and after a few years, a smaller more manageable version was developed.

Work Cited

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/B/Booth/1.html

http://www.teasmade.com/goblin.htm

Pictures

http://www.morclean.co.uk/content.php?categoryId=510

http://www.teasmade.com/goblin.htm

Willem de Sitter (1872-1934)

2007-04-18T17:40:00.000-04:00

Willem de Sitter was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. Willem was born in Sneek, Netherlands. De Sitter is best known for his studies of the structure of the universe. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Groningen in 1897. Later that year de Sitter went to the Royal Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, where he made astronomical observations to gather data for his doctoral thesis. He returned to the Netherlands in 1899 to finish writing his thesis and to become an assistant to Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn in Leiden. He was awarded his doctoral degree in 1901 and continued as Kapteyn’s assistant until 1908. In 1908 de Sitter became a professor of astronomy at the Leiden University. He became the director of the university’s observatory in 1919. He held both positions until his death.

In 1919 de Sitter presented an alternate solution to Einstein’s field theory equations. His solution took advantage of the very low density of matter in the universe by creating a model of a universe with no mass. The assumption of a massless universe yielded a model that did not exactly match the observable universe. In 1932 Einstein and de Sitter collaborated and refined both men’s earlier cosmological theories to create the Einstein-de Sitter model of the universe. This model was the first prediction that dark matter, or matter that does not emit electromagnetic radiation and so had not yet been detected, should exist in the universe.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_de_Sitter
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Sitter.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0845418.html

Photos:
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/PictDisplay/Sitter.html http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/cosmology/ideas/images-ideas/expanding-einstein-desitter-lg.jpg

Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)

2007-04-18T17:33:00.000-04:00

Konrad Zuse was born June 22nd, 1910 in Berlin Germany. In 1927 he attended Charlottenburg (the technical university in Berlin) and finished his civil engineering degree in 1935. His first work was as a design engineer in the aircraft engineer during the early part of his career but his focus later shifted to what we classify as computers today. He did his work on computers throughout World War II and remained in Berlin until the war was over. He moved on to become an entrepreneur and started his own company which was later sold to Siemens.

Zuse invented several inventions referred to as the Z-1, Z-3, and Z-4. The Z-1 was made in 1938 and was the first the mechanical calculator and was unfortunately destroyed during a bombing run. The Z-3 was later created in 1941 and it was the worlds first programmable, electronic calculator which was also unfortunately destroyed just before the war was over in 1944. Unable to gain support from the Nazi party for funding, Zuse continued his work and developed the Z-4 but had to keep it secret and made sure to protect it. He moved the machine from Berlin to Gottingen to be used in an aerospace factory and when it was in danger there he moved it to a mathmatics center in Zuric in 1950 where it was used until 1955. The Z-4 was advanced enough that he created an early programming language known as "Plankalkül" which was a chess playing program. Zuse clearly played a significant role in history by creating this digital, programmable computer and would be memorialized by having extensive museum displays in his name.

Sources:

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html

http://www.rtd-net.de/Zuse.html

Pictures
Konrad Zuse and the Z1
Z3
Z4

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt - Aircraft Radio Methods

2007-04-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

Sir Robert Watson-Watt was born in Brechin, Angus, Scotland. He was a decedent of the steam engine inventor. He was attended school in Damacre and Brechin School. He also attend the Dundee University College, which was apart of the University of St. Andrews in 1912. He got
his degree in engineering. After graduation he took job as an assistant for Professor William Peddie who was very interested radio waves.

In 1915, Watson-Watt worked for the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough
as a meteorologist. He wanted to apply his knowledge of radio waves to
locate thunderstorms to provide warning to airman. He saw the need for a
method for rapid recording and display radio signals. One year later, he
came up with the idea to use cathode ray oscilloscopes. Unfortunately, these
rays were not available until 1923.

In 1924, Watson-Watts moved to Slough, to the Radio Research Station, were
he became superintendent of the outstation. In 1933, he became
superintendent of the new radio department at the National Physics Lab in
Teddington.

In 1935, Watson-Watts with his assistant produced a report called, "The
Detection of Aircraft by Radio Methods." It was presented to the new
scientific survey of air defense on February 26. They ran a trial using
BBCs short-waves radio transmitter against a Heyford Bomber. It was a
success.

In 1936, he became superintendent of the new Air Ministry, Bawdsey
Research Station in Bawdsey Manor near Felixstowe. Sir Robert Watson-Watt died at Inverness on the 5th December 1973.

check out more at:
http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/watson-watt.html

http://www.radarpages.co.uk/people/watson-watt/watson-watt.htm

Team 3 Budget

2007-04-18T14:11:00.000-04:00

The following is materials needed for the model of our project.

Foam - $5
Model Plywood - $5
Wire - $2
Styrofoam - $5
Nuts and Blots - $5
Misc. (paint etc.) - $8

Total Budget = $30

Author Holmes (1890-1965)

2007-04-18T13:55:00.001-04:00

Author Holmes was a British Geologist, and was the first person to realize that the Earth was billions of years old; before this time people believed it was just millions of years old. As an undergraduate at the Imperial College of Science in London, he studied physics and before he even earned his doctorate he proposed the first geological time scale based uranium-lead radiometric dating, which was designed to measure the age of rock. As staff at the Imperial College he earned his doctorate and soon after took up a job with an oil company in Burma, soon after it went bankrupt he returned to England and was a professor at the University of Durham. He greatly furthered the newly created discipline of geochronology and in a book called The Age of the Earth he estimated the age to be 1600 millennia, the age was based on uranium isotopes. A crater on Mars was named in his honor.

Links

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/boholm.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml

http://gsahist.org/gsat/gt02mar17_16.pdf

Picture

http://www.dur.ac.uk/geochem.www/group/pictures/staff/holmes2.jpg

Stephen Poplawski - Blender 1922

2007-04-18T13:24:00.000-04:00

A polish inventor in 1922 worked on his design for the automatic blender. Hired by the Arnold Electric Company to develop his idea to produce an automated malt mixer for restaurants. This invention, though usefull, was rather difficult to implement. Intitially he utilized an agitator that had a mixing impliment mounted to it. To begin it was a simple spinning blade attached to a motor. Most of the patents that he filed were for commercial blenders as was his assigned task. Stephen Poplawski created several models of blenders to be used for different tasks. Most were hand opperated mixers that utilized the top mounted motor that was hand opperated. He did patent the first mounted mixer that once modifided became the most popular commercial blender. When he retired he created the Stephen Electric Co and attempted to create personal blenders to be used at home. Though it wasnt untill 1935 when a blender was produced by the Waring company that looked anything like what we have today.

Images: Inventor
Non Available

Images: Blender
http://www.angelfire.com/ns2/mixerhistory/
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/blender.htm

Timeline of Blender History
http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Engineering_Graphics/2003/Blender/history.html

Henrik Carl Peter Dam

2007-04-18T13:11:00.001-04:00

Henrik Carl Peter Dam, born in February 1895 in Denmark, discovered vitamin K. He won, but had to shared the Nobel Prize with American, Edward Adelbert Doisy, in 1943. Dam graduated from the chemistry department of the Polytechnic Institute, Copenhagen in 1920. After graduating he went on to teach chemistry at the School of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. Shortly after his teaching career began at the School of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, he progressed in to teaching biochemistry at the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Copenhagen, 1923. After teaching as an associate professor at the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Copenhagen, he became the head of the biochemistry department after earning his PhD in biochemistry.

Dam discovered vitamin K while studying the sterol metabolism of chicks in Copenhagen. After the initial discovery of vitamin K, he studied this vitamin further with respect to its occurrence and biological function in animals and plants, as well as its application in human medicine, its fundamental chemical and physical properties and its purification and isolation - the latter part of this research being carried out in collaboration with P. Karrer.

Dam later returned to Polytechnic Institute, Copenhagen to become the head professor of the biochemistry and nutrient department.

Dam was married with no children.

Picture of Dam:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1943/

Bio:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1943/dam-bio.html

Vitamin K:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9075561/vitamin-K

Guglielmo Marconi (April 1874- July 1937)

2007-04-18T12:38:00.000-04:00

Guglielmo Marconi was a Italian physicits born in Bologna Italy. Marconi was educated privately at Bologna, Florence and Leghorn. He always took interest in physics and electricity and studied the works of Maxwell, Hertz, Righi, and Lodge. In 1985, he began to do experiments where he was successful at sending wireless signals over a distance of one and a half miles.

In 1896 he took his work to Englnad where he met William Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the Post Office and was granted the world's first patent for his system of wireless telegraphy. He showed that his system work by establishing wireless communication in London, on the Salisbury Plain and across the Bristol Channel. In 1897, he formed the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company Limited. In 1899, Marconi made communication between France and England possible across the English Channel. In 1901, he used his system to transmit across the Atlantic betwen Poldhu, Cornwall and St. John's, Newfoundland a distance of 2100 miles.

Marconi was honored and awarded for his scientific success. Among the most prestigous of awards was the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics in 1909. He died in Rome on July 20, 1937.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1909/marconi-bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi

Laszlo Biro

2007-04-18T10:04:00.002-04:00

Laszlo Biro was born in 1899 in Budapest Hungary. Early in his career, he worked as journalist and noticed that the ink that was being pressed onto newspaper would not smudge and dried very quickly, unlike the fountain pen he had to use. He decided to see if he could use the ink from the paper press in his pen to write but found out quickly that this would not work. He enlisted the help of his brother who was a chemist and they invented a new pen tip that rolled the ink onto the paper. He patented this idea and this is now what’s known as the ball point pen. He moved to Argentina where he began to produce these pens out of the Biro Pens of Argentina Company. This patent was eventually bought out by Marcel Bich in 1950, but is not the basis of the BIC pen company.
A picture of him can be found at:
http://www.helens.ie/classes/invent/pages/images/laszlo.gif
A picture of the pen can be found at:
http://www.mszh.hu/kiadv/ipsz/199608/biro4.gif

Henri Coanda (1886-1972)

2007-04-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

Henri Coanda was a Romanian inventor, born in Bucharest on June 7, 1886. He attended the Military Lycee in Iasi, and also attended the School of Artillery, Military, and Naval Engineering in Bucharest. He eventually became an artillery officer in the military, but this was not his primary interest -- the technicalities of flight were. Coanda began conducting experiments to gain more knowledge about various aspects of aerodynamics.

In 1910 he built and flew the first thermojet aircraft, aptly named the Coanda-1910. He went on to build a number of other aircraft, including the Bristol-Coanda series of aircraft and the Coanda-1916. He was also a consultant on the project that developed the Caravelle transport aircraft.

Source: Henri Marie Coandă (Wikipedia)
Picture of invention: Coanda-1910 (Wikipedia)
Picture of Henri Marie Coandă

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)

2007-04-18T03:00:00.000-04:00

Alexander Fleming, born in 1881, was a Scottish biologist and pharmacist. He attended medical school at St. Mary's Hospital in London beginning in 1901 after inheriting money from an uncle. He began his career with the hopes of becoming a surgeon, however, the rifle club in which he was a member convinced him to enter the research department at St. Mary's. During this time he worked under bacteriologist Sir Almroth Wright. In 1908, he earned an MS and BS from St. Mary's and was given the option to teach lectures until 1914. He then worked as a captain in the Army Medical Corps during World War I. After the war, he returned to teach at St. Mary's and, in 1928, was elected Professor of Bacteriology.

During the years he was teaching after the war, Fleming worked to find anti-bacterial agents to successfully kill infections. During his time in the war, he realized that the antiseptics used to heal infectious wounds killed more soldiers than the infections did. In 1922, Fleming finally discovered a natural antibiotic created by the human body called lysozyme. In 1928, he discovered penicillin by accident. He noticed that some of his bacterial cultures had grown mold and fungus. He threw the contaminated dishes in a disinfectant thinking they were ruined. Not long after a visitor asked to see his work so he removed a couple of dishes that had not been submerged in the disinfectant. He noticed a small area around a fungus where bacteria would not grow. He isolated and extracted part of the agent from the mold Penicillium notatum, hence he termed the agent penicillin. Fleming tested Penicillin on many bacterial organisms such as those causing scarlet fever, pneumonia, and meningitis. His work was published in 1929 in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology.

After his discovery, Fleming did not believe that this new antibiotic would be effective for infections in the human body. He continued conducting experiments with the antibiotic until 1940 when he enlisted the help of a chemist. Ernest Chain, along with Florey and Heatley, from Oxford, began experiments to purify penicillin so that it might be effective enough to treat infections in humans. After successfully doing this, penicillin was mass produced and distributed beginning in 1945.

Fleming's accidental discovery in 1928 was the beginning of modern antibiotics. He discovered during his work that bacteria can develop a resistance to antibiotics when too little penicillin was used. In 1945, Fleming, Florey, and Chain received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work with Penicillin. In 1955, Fleming died of a heart attack in London. His wife, Amalia Koutsour-Voureka, presented his Nobel Prize to the Savage Club where it remains to this day.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming
http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm

Pictures:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/Alexander-fleming.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Lysozyme_crystal1.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Penicillin_3D_Model.png#file

Theodor Svedberg

2007-04-17T17:14:00.000-04:00

Theodor Svedberg is the inventor of the analytical ultracentrifuge, capable of achieving 6 orders of magnitude of Gravitational force. A centrifuge capable of high velocity centrifugation able of density gradient sedimentation of macromolecules. - i.e. able of spinning really fast and splitting a solution of macromolecules up by molecular weight and size. While this may not sound important or interesting, it is very useful in chemistry, and extremely important in Biology. This method is used to separate DNA molecules based on molecular size so defined that it can resolve something as small as a 10 basepair difference, (about 36 angstroms (10^(-12) meters) in size.

Svedberg was born in Flerang, Sweden on August 30, 1884. He began attending Uppsala University in Jan. 1904. Here he stayed through undergraduate to Doctorate, and also took up the post of assistant in the Chemistry department in 1905. In 1907 he was given lecture status at the school. In 1909 he was given the status as lecturer and demonstrator in Physical Chemistry. And in 1912 he was appointed Professor of physical chemistry at the university. He did work on collides and macromolecules in chemistry, and here came his requirement for the creation of his ultra centrifuge. He then used this to further his research, and received the Noble Prize in Chemistry in 1926 for this research.

He also has a Standard Unit named after him,The Svedberg Unit equal to 10^(-13) seconds.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Svedberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-centrifuge
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1926/svedberg-bio.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-575982/Theodor-H-E-Svedberg

Igor Sikorsky

2007-04-17T16:32:00.000-04:00

Igor Sikorsky was born on May 25, 1889 in Kiev. His father was a professor of psychology and his mother was a physician. He was home-schooled until nine years old, during which he had made a rubber-powered helicopter. From 1903-1906 and 1907-1909 Sikorsky studied at the Naval War College, in St. Petersburg. He studied engineering in Paris from 1906-1907. A turning point in his life came when he say the Wright plane in Germany he decided to study aviation.

Sikorsky returned to Paris where he studied at ESTACA, later that year he had returned to Kiev and started to experiment with aerodynamics. In 1914, Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute awarded Sikorsky an honorary degree in Engineering. He was also the chief engineer of the first four-engine plane, and his Russia ordered a small number of his S-6-B aircrafts. After WWI he became an engineer for the French in Russia. In 1919, He left Europe because of the wars and the Civil War occurring in Russia for the United States.

Not long after entering the United States he formed the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company. After he became a naturalized citizen his company was bought by United Aircraft. Some of the best work he did was in experimenting with helicopters. His work came to a height on May 13, 1940 when his first single blade, 75 horsepower, helicopter took flight. It was called the Sikorsky 300. It helped create a world standard of using a single rotor. He died on October 26, 1972 in Connecticut.

References:

http://www.sikorskyarchives.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky

VS300:

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Sikorsky-VS300/Igor-VS300.jpg

Picture of Sikorsky:

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Sikorsky-VS300/Igor-Sikorsky.jpg

Edmund Germer (1901-1987)

2007-04-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

Edmund Germer was a German scientist who basically made lighting more efficient by inventing the florescent lamp. He was born in Berlin 1901 and graduated from the University of Berlin in the 1920’s with a doctorate in lighting technology. What he tried to do was to create a lighting device which was more efficient in creating light and outputted less heat then the standard incandescent light. The incandescent lap converted 6% of the energy going through it into light and the other 94% was in the form of heat. In 1926 he patented, with Friedrich Meyer and Hans J. Spanner, the florescent lamp, US patent #2182732. What he did was he coated a tube of an arc lamp with UV absorbing powder that fluoresced in the visible region of the spectrum. This created a color that was comparable to an incandescent lamp, a white color. He also invented the high pressure vapor lamp and a high pressure Hg vapor lamp that emitted less heat.

General electric bought his patent for the florescent lamp for $180,000 and they also bought the rights to his pressure Hg vapor lamp. Over his life he had 22 sole US patents and 30 sole German patents and over 100 co-patents. He co-founded the Rectron Company, worked for Osram and Phillips in the 1930’s as a freelance inventor and he received the Frank P. Brown Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1954 his new lamp.

His Picture:

http://www.invent.org/images/images_hof/search/inventors/Germer_Edmund.gif

Picture of his invention:

http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/w/Q/germer_patent.jpg

Resources:

http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/65.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_fluorescent.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0767141.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Germer

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961)

2007-04-17T00:40:00.000-04:00

Erwin Schrodinger was born on August 12, 1887 in Erdberg, Vienna, Austria. His father was a botanist, and his grandfather had been a chemist. Schrodinger attended school at the Akademisches Gymnasium in 1898. Here, he not only studied science, but also the logic of ancient grammar and some German poetry. In 1906, after finishing at the Gymnasium, Schrodinger went to the University of Vienna where he studied under Franz Serafin Exner and Fritz Hasenöhrl. It was here that he gained his strong background and mastery of eigenvalue problems in quantum physics which he would later use and win a Nobel Prize. In 1910, he graduated from the University of Vienna and became Exner's assistant. In 1920 he took an academic position at the University of Zurich where he researched many subjects of theoretical modern physics such as problems with thermodynamics and atomic spectra.

In 1926, Schrodinger published a paper called "Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem" (Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem). It was in this paper that Schrodinger derived his famous Schrodinger's Equation, or the wave equation for time independent systems. He showed that this derivation gave the correct energy eigenvalues for a hydrogen atom. During this same year, he submitted papers, solving the eigenvalues for a harmonic oscillator, a rigid rotator, and a diatomic molecule. In 1927, Schrodinger left Vienna to join Max Planck in Germany, but left after several years and went to England, Princeton, and back to Austria. After the Nazi occupation of Austria during World War 2, Schrodinger was asked to help establish the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin, Ireland. He became the Director of the School for Theoretical Physics for 17 years, and even became a naturalized Irish citizen. Over these 17 years, he wrote 50 papers on numerous topics, including the unified field theory. In 1955 Schrodinger retired and moved back to Vienna. Six years later, on January 4, 1961 Erwin Schrodinger died of tuberculosis.

Schrodinger's largest contribution to the physics community is actually the central theory of quantum mechanics. It is Schrodinger's Equation which gives the correct eigenvalues for certain wavefunctions. Basically solving this equation gives the probabilities of possible measurements, or where the particle could be found within the system. The Schrodinger Equation is most commonly seen as HΨ = EΨ. Another famous problem is Schrodinger's cat in which he proposed a problem of a cat in a box isolated from external interference to explain that knowing the state of the cat (dead or alive) could only be done with the observer interfering with the experiment. He used this to explain the idea of particles existing in such isolated states that the observer could not possibly know the state unless they interfered with it, so the observer was entangled with the state of the particle.

References:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation

Photos:
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/pictures/portrait-schrodinger.jpg
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2000/plewis/schrodin.gif
http://www.nearingzero.net/screen_res/nz267.jpg

Percy Shaw (1890-1976)

2007-04-16T23:35:00.001-04:00

Percy Shaw was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England in 1890. He was the son of a dyer’s laborer, but always had the seed of invention in him. AT the age of 14, he worked as a road mender.

In the early part of the 20th century, he noticed the increasing problem of pollution (industrial pollution) caused a problem on the roads: the tramlines would disappear when the fog from pollution came. The fog would sometimes be so thick that the tramlines could not be seen within a few feet. Recognizing the problem, Shaw used his inventive mind to find a solution.

Shaw came up with the idea of marking the road ahead to make it visible for drivers. In 1935 he invented reflective road markers he called “Catseyes”. This simple device was essentially a flexible rubber dome (which could be deformed if run over by traffic) with a four glass beads placed in two pairs facing in opposite directions. All this was set in a cast iron base, which was almost indestructible. A convenient self cleaning device was even placed on the Catseyes. The cast iron base would collect water, and whenever the top of the dome was depressed, it would wash away the water. This works along the same methodology as the human eye, which washes away excess tear with eyelids.

His invention was such a success that he was able to open up his own shop selling his invention that he named Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd in Boothtown in 1936.

Information:

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/percy-shaw
http://www.design-technology.info/inventors/page14.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_eye_(road)

Pictures:

http://www.designmuseum.org/media/item/5245/-1/150_1Lg.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/8/y/_/catseye.jpg
http://www.41club.org/Pages/2005/PastPresidents/thumbnails/1949-50%20Percy%20A%20Shaw_jpg.jpg
http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/cat-s-eye/image_mini

Henri Fabre (1882-1984)

2007-04-16T22:39:00.000-04:00

Henri Fabre was a French aviator, born into a prominent family on November 29 in Marseilles, France. His interest in science led him to the Jesuit College in Marseilles, France where he studied sciences, namely airplanes and propeller designs.

He was interested in the problem of achieving powered flight from a water base, which had not been tackled yet. He began building a giant dragonfly shaped plane made of ash with cotton covering, with hollow wooden floats underneath that he started to test in La Mëde harbor, near Marseilles (France) around 1909, a convenient water source. The plane was powered by a 50-hp Gnome motor and also a Chauviere propeller at the rear.

After his testing, the plane, now known as a seaplane, made its first successful flight on March 28, 1910. It was nicknamed “Le Canard” which means bird in French, and went a total distance of 1650 feet while being 6 and a half feet above water. It was 27 feet 10 inches in length and 45 feet 11 inches in wingspan. The seaplane successfully was able to fly over the water for short distances, but unfortunately crashed in May 1910 in the Mediterranean. It was rebuilt and was soon used again in aquatic races in 1911.

Information:
http://www.earlyaviators.com/efabre.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fabre

Pictures:
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/AERO/history1c.htm
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/fabre.html
http://site.voila.fr/planetemassalia/images/henri_fabre.jpg

Henri Fabre (1882-1984)

2007-04-16T14:50:00.000-04:00

Henri Fabre is a famous French marine and aviation engineer. Fabre was born on November 29th, 1882 in the French city of Marseilles to a wealthy family of shipowners. Fabre attended the Jesuit College of Marseilles. While attending this school he studied advanced sciences, airplane design and propeller design.

He invented and patented a new type of flotation device, made up of hollow wooden floats. Fabre used these new flotation structures to invent the first seaplane, also called a Hydravion, which he named "La Canard" (meaning duck). The first ever water take-off happened from the Etang de Berre lake in Martinque, France on March 28th, 1910. Throughout March 28th, Fabre flew three more times. The power behind this Hydravion was a 50 horsepower Gnome rotary engine, which allowed Fabre to fly over 1650 feet. This plane resembled a giant dragonfly, which flew backwards.
Fabre continued on flights for the next two months, until mid-May of 1910, when this plane nose-crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. While the entire plane was wrecked, Fabre was unhurt.

Glenn Curtiss and Gabriel Voisin (famous American aviation pioneers) later incorporated Fabre's flotation designs into their sea planes.

Later in life, during WWI Fabre owned a company that specialized in the construction of seaplanes. This company employed over 200 people at its peak.

References:
http://www.earlyaviators.com/efabre.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fabre
http://inventors.about.com/od/weirdmuseums/ig/Photos-Famous-of-Airplanes/First-Seaplane-circa-1910-.htm

Pictures:
http://inventors.about.com/od/weirdmuseums/ig/Photos-Famous-of-Airplanes/First-Seaplane-circa-1910-.htm
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/AERO/history1c.htm
www.cyprien-fabre.com/HenriFabre.html

George Constantinesco (1881-1965)

2007-04-16T11:38:00.000-04:00

George Constantinesco was a Romanian scientist born in Craiova, Romania in1881. He would move to London in November of 1910, which is where he woulddo the majority of his work in science and engineering. During hislifetime Constantinesco would gain credit for 133 patents, the most wellknown being the torque converter and the Theory of Sonics. The Theory ofSonics is the science of dealing with power transmission by periodicforces through different types of matter. In his work with the Theory ofSonics, Constantinesco developed the sonic engine and the hydraulicmachine gun synchronizer, which allowed pilots in World War I to firetheir machine gun in the front of the plane without hitting the propeller.

After the war Constantinesco began working with torque mechanics andengine output. He made it a goal to design economically friendlyautomobiles that could be driven by the average person. In 1925 he woulddesign and present the Constantinesco, a car he would name after himself,which would initially be built in France and licensed by General Motors.His torque converter, though initially designed for automobiles, wouldbecome critical in the power behind railway locomotives. Constantinescocontinued his work even to his death. In 1962 at the age of 91,Constantinesco presented his paper on power transmission to theInstitutiom of Mechanical Engineering. Constantinesco would eventuallydie in 1965 at the age of 94.

Sources and Pictures:
http://fluid.power.net/fpn/const/
http://www.answers.com/topic/george-constantinescu

Jacques Cousteau

2007-04-15T23:23:00.000-04:00

Jacques Cousteau was a Frenchman who lived from 1910-1997. As a child he was very privileged because his family was wealthy and he was able to develop a passion for film making as well as for the sea. He gave his contribution to both the science and engineering world through oceanic research and development. He acted as an officer in the french navy during World War II and during this time he did a lot of underwater photography. He is the inventor of the first self contained underwater breathing apparatus which he called the aqualung in 1943. It was based on the idea of compressed air stored in a cylinder. Before this invention, divers were forced to use either a diving bell or a helmeted diving suit. Both were very expensive and very burdensome, allowed little movement, and prevented the diver from reaching the depths that Cousteau's invention did. Cousteau's invention allowed him to dive freely, filming ship wrecks and other areas of interest underwater.

Since he made so much profit and fame from his innovative invention, he was able to fund his own research vessel, known as the Calypso. He invited many famous and prominent scientists on research trips with him to places like to amazon and Antartica. Because of his love in filmaking he was always taking video and pictures on these trips. He published fifty books, a handful of films, and many documentaries that were aired on television throughout his life. He was known for always wearing a red cap.

Pictures of Cousteau
http://www.divessi.com/platinumpro/images/photos/Cousteau_Jacques.JPG
http://www.pollutionissues.com/images/paz_01_img0057.jpg
http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1960/1101600328_400.jpg

Pictures of the aqualung

then: http://www.diveshopcenter.cl/images/Mesc34.jpg
http://aquadeluna.tripod.com/image029.gif
http://www.patadacobra.com.br/godive_hp/artigos/historico/foto14.jpg

now: http://img.search.com/thumb/0/02/Aqualung_old_type.jpg/180px-Aqualung_old_type.jpg
http://www.thetravelconnection.net/MiscImages/Scuba-Tank.jpg
http://stevespak.com/spak/scuba6.jpg

Georges Claude (1870 - 1960)

2007-04-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

Georges Claude was born in Paris, France on September 4, 1870. He attended school at École de Physique et Chinie, where he graduated in 1886 with a degree in chemistry. Originally working to produce quantities of oxygen to be used in hospitals, Claude instead began working with inert gases and electricity. His initial intent was to find a use for the “waste” gases (such as neon, argon, krypton, and xenon) produced from German engineer Carl von Linde’s air separation process. Claude discovered that applying an electrical charge to a sealed tube of neon gas, the tube glowed bright red. Once he discovered this new method of producing light, he created special neon tubes that could be used like an ordinary light bulb. Claude first introduced his new invention on December 11, 1910 at the Paris Art Show. Continuing to work on his new creation, he came up with the idea of bending the tubes to make letters, thus inventing the neon sign. He patented his sign on January 19, 1915.

Claude soon started his own company, Claude Neon, and in 1923 he first introduced neon signs to the United States. A Los Angeles owner of a Packard car dealership was the first to purchase two of the signs for $1,250 each. The use of neon signs quickly caught on, with the first signs earning the nickname “liquid fire” for their bright red glow. The use of other gases, such as argon and mercury, would later produce additional colors to be used in the signs.

During World War II, Claude collaborated with the Nazi-run Vichy government in France, for which he was put in prison from 1945 to 1949.

Information was found at:
http://www.hiettweb.com/photo.html
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/324.html
http://www.signmuseum.com/exhibits/histories/neonbirthday.html
http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/elem/ne.html

A picture of Claude can be seen at:
http://www.espci.fr/presentation/claude.jpg
http://www.vitriol.com/images/neon/cloude.jpg

A picture of the first neon sign in the US can be seen at:
http://www.signmuseum.com/exhibits/histories/images/packards.jpg

Johannes Wilhem Geiger

2007-04-15T16:54:00.000-04:00

Johannes Wilhelm Geiger was born in Neustadt-an-der-Haardt, Germany in 1882. He was one of five children born to a family where the father was a philosophy professor. At the age of twenty he began to study physics and math at the University of Erlanger. In 1906, at the age of 24, he was awarded a doctorate degree. He began working for Ernest Rutherford, where they invented the Geiger counter. A Geiger counter is an instrument that counts particles and measures ionized radiation. It is best known for making a clicking noise when brought near a radioactive source. He also developed other theorems such as the Geiger-Nuttall law, which basically states that alpha particles (ionized Helium) are more abundantly emitted from short-lived isotopes than long-lived isotopes. His experiments helped develop the theory for Rutherford’s atomic model. He went on to be a professor in a few universities such as Kiel, Tubingen, and Berlin. Geiger died shortly after World War II ended in 1945.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Wilhelm_Geiger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger_counter

Photos of Geiger:
http://www.nndb.com/people/123/000099823/hans-geiger-2.jpg
http://www.origin-life.gr.jp/2904/2904174/42.jpg

Photos of Geiger counter:
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/news/Sci_teachers_workshop/teachers_workshop/geiger_counter.gif
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0126323/graphics/geiger_counter.jpg

group 5 budget and design

2007-04-15T15:42:00.000-04:00

The final budget can be found on the team blog page.

The final product is a mango based beer made with very bitter hops to make it taste bittersweet. Since there is no real "design" I don't have any sketches to post but the entire proccess of the beer brewing is also on the team blog.

John Logie Baird

2007-04-15T13:45:00.000-04:00

John Logie Baird was born on August 13, 1888 in Helensburgh, Dunbarton, Scotland. Bairds father was a clergyman and throughout most of his life, John suffered from ill health. He attended Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College where he was aiming for a Bachelor degree in electrical engineering. His studies happened to be interrupted due to the outbreak of World War I. After the War had ended, Baird moved to England where he started his creation of the television. John Logie Baird along with Clarence W. Hansell patented the idea of using transparent rods to transmit images for a television. On January 26, 1926 John Baird gave his first world demonstration of the television infront of fifty scientists in London. Baird created the first televised pictures of objects in motion, the first televised human face, and the first moving object image. The first sound and vision telecast was broadcast in 1930. After a while, electronic systems started to develop more and more and Baird's system seemed to fade away. On June 14, 1946 John Logie Baird passed away in Bexhill-on-Sea in Sussex.
Links:
http://www.mztv.com/newframe.asp?content=http://www.mztv.com/baird.html
http://www.thocp.net/biographies/baird_john.htm
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/bairdjohnl/bairdjohnl.htm
Images:
http://www.doramusic.com/John%20Logie%20Baird.jpg
http://images.scotsman.com/2005/01/21/logiebaird1.jpg
http://davehill.typepad.com/temperama/images/baird_tv_c28.jpg

Count Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich von Zeppelin (1838-1917)

2007-04-14T16:59:00.000-04:00

Count Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich von Zeppelin was born in Baden-Württemberg, Germany on July 8th, 1838. During his young life he was educated at the Ludwigsburg Military Academy and then at the University of Tübingen. After this he joined the Prussian army in 1858. He would stay in the Prussian army until 1863 when he would make his way to the United States. While in the USA, Ferdinand would work as an observer for the Union army. While doing this he would make his first balloon flight while staying in Minnesota. After this he would return to Germany and marry a women named Isaballa Freiin von Wolff in 1869. In 1879 Ferdinand would have a daughter named Hella. A few years later he would publish is first works on what he called “lighter than air ships.” Which would eventually be called Zeppelins. In 1891, he retired from the army and started his own airship company in Friedrichshafen. He would open this company with his own money. His first zeppelin was completed in 1900. This first zeppelin was made of a row of 17 gas cells that were all individually covered in rubberized cloth. It was about 420 ft long and 38 ft in diameter. The gas that was used in the zeppelin was hydrogen. At the time, Ferdinand was unaware of the danger of using hydrogen as the gas to float the zeppelins. Throughout the rest of his life he would make many improvements to the zeppelin and would eventually die on March 8, 1917.

Resources:
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/zeppelin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_von_Zeppelin

Pictures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ferdinand_Graf_von_Zeppelin_Profil.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:LTA8G10_by_centennialofflight-gov.jpg

Dennis Gabor (1900 - 1979)

2007-04-14T14:46:00.000-04:00

Dennis Gabor had a love of physics from a young age, he could not wait to attend a university and discover more. When he was deciding what he wanted to go to school for, he opted for engineering over physics as he claimed he felt it was not large enough at the time to be considered something he would want to get into. Later in his life Gabor realized that all the work he did in college as well as after was always applied physics. Gabor attended Technische Hochschule Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1927. Gabors love of optics lead him to look into inventions such as color photography and microscopy. This love of optics would be what would inspire him to come up with his theory holography. Before he could achieve this though, he would have to flee Britain in 1933 to escape the growing Nazi Germany. His theory was developed and published while he was in the UK. Holography is the idea that for perfect optical images all information has to be used not just the amplitude. Gabor also developed granular synthesis which has to do with how humans communicate and hear. Much of Gabor’s research could not be continues until the invention of lasers in 1962. Gabor continues research on optics and wave theory until his death in 1979. Gabor received high honors for his work including being a fellow of the royal society, as well as a Nobel Prize. Many awards are still given in his honor of his great advancements in the field.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/gabor-autobio.html

Pictures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gabor-magyarposta.jpg
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/gabor.gif

Group 1 Budget and Design

2007-04-13T22:05:00.000-04:00

The current budget for our project is as follows:

Timers: $6.03
Aluminum: $5.82
Hardware: $6.97
Glue: $3.12
Candle Dye:$10.89
Candle Wax:$15.66 + $10.18

Total Current Budget: $48.49

We will probably be spending a little bit more to make our final models of each design.

An image of Model A can be found on our blog. Model A consists of a candle with multiple layers of wax, each layer having its own wick. The wicks are small enough so that the candle will burn out on its own over the course of a few hours. Once the top wick burns out, a new wick is exposed for the next time the candle will be used.

Model B (as seen in the picture at the beginning of this post) will enable the user to burn any candle he or she wants, not a specially made one. A kitchen timer is placed inside a box with a glass candle holder placed on top. A long wire with a metal snuffing lid attached to one end is placed through holes made in the box and the timer. Once the timer gets down to zero, a hole is exposed in a metal disc below the wire, allowing it to fall through the hole, bringing the lid down on the glass container. The candle goes out within seconds due to the lack of oxygen.

Group 4 Budget

2007-04-13T21:03:00.000-04:00

Our Current Budget for our condiment dispenser is :

7$- caulking tubes
13$-JB Weld
$5- Metal

Total (as of now)= $25

László Bíró (1899-1985)

2007-04-13T19:40:00.000-04:00

László Bíró was born in Budapest, Hungary. He made a living dabbling in many different occupations, including hypnosis and car racing. It wasn't until he took a job as the editor of a Hungarian journal, named "Hongrie-Magyarország-Hungary," and later a newspaper, named "Elôtte," that he had the need or desire to design one of the most practical inventions of recent history, the ballpoint pen.

Although the concept for pens that could hold their own ink had been around since the early 1800s, it took until 1884 for the invention of the workable fountain pen. However, Bíró (inspired by the ink used for the newspaper and the irritability of the smudging fountain pen) felt that a more practical, everyday writing utensil could be devised. Others had tried this before. In fact, Bíró's idea came from an 1888 patent for a product to mark leather.

He first attempted to employ the ink that newspapers use in printing, but he found that it was too viscous to flow to the pen nib naturally. So, he used the model of the newspaper printer to devise a new method for applying the ink to the paper. He designed the pen so that a slender tube filled with ink would act as a supply to a small, rotating ball bearing that would roll along the paper at the tip of the pen, providing a continuous application. Not only was it more versatile than the fountain pen, the ink didn't smudge and the pen didn't leak. He received a patent in 1938 and another in 1943. Now, ballpoint pens are an everyday necessity.

Invention: http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org/newsletter/images/issue14/Dibujo4.gif
http://www.portalplanetasedna.com.ar/invento05.gif

László Bíró: http://www.sme.sk/vydania/20030612/photo/13-3.jpg

References:
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa101697.htm
http://www.budpocketguide.com/TouristInfo/famous/Famous_Hungarians17.asp

Group 2 Design and Budget

2007-04-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

The final design of the spreading toaster is a combination of paint rollers and a toaster. Rollers are attached with brackets to the top of the toaster so as the consumer pulls the toast from the device, the appropriate condiment is spread out onto the toast. The current budget is approximately 30-40 dollars but that is likely to increase when we add a spring/clamping mechanism that pushes the toast against the roller as the toast comes out. The final budget is likely going to be below 50 dollars.

George de Mestral

2007-04-13T00:16:00.000-04:00

George de Mestral (1907-1990) was an engineer and outdoorsman born in Switzerland who is known for the invention of Velcro. He attended the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and earned his degree in electrical engineering. In his free time, de Mestral enjoyed the outdoors and hiking, which eventually led him to the invention that made him famous.

While hiking one day with his dog, after walking through a patch of brush both his clothing and his dog’s fur were covered with burrs. When he returned home, he analyzed the burrs under a microscope and discovered several tiny hooks in each burr that would tightly fasten to the loops in his clothing and to the strands of his dog’s fur. The hooks found in the burrs were nature’s way of insuring that the seeds inside the burrs would be widely spread for a better chance of successful planting.

The simple design of the burr intrigued de Mestral and inspired the invention of a new fastener. He experimented with a fastener that had two sides: one side that consisted of several tiny hooks and the other side with several tiny loops. In his first attempt, he did not size the hooks and loops correctly and did not receive the strength of fastening he desired. He eventually found the perfect design for Velcro which involved tough hooks made of nylon and softer loops.

George de Mestral both perfected and patented his design in the early 1950s and named his invention Velcro. He established a business and sold an average of sixty million yards per year. His invention was extremely successful and has continued to be both practical and effective for several uses today.

Information Sources:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/demestral.html

Photo of George de Mestral:
http://www.engology.com/images/mestral.gif
Photo of Velcro under microscope:
http://www-engr.sjsu.edu/WofMatE/images/vel_mod.jpg

Laszlo Heller

2007-04-12T22:09:00.000-04:00

Laszlo Heller was a mechanical engineer from Hungary who is famous for designing the first high-pressure industrial power station. Heller lived from 1907-1980 and was born in Nagyvarad, Hungary. Not much is written about his personal life, but he studied in Germany at the Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule in Zurich and after he graduated, became a research engineer. In 1951, Heller became a professor at the Technical University of Budapest where he established their Department of Energetics. Heller was honored with a full membership to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Kossuth prize, a high honor bestowed by the Hungarian goverment.

Laszlo's work in energetics is best represented by his "world-famous" design of the world's first high-pressure industrial power station in the 1940s. Heller's system found a way to utilize cooling water efficiently and provide power. The system was a cycle of cooling and heating water. The Heller-Forgo system as the invention was called, was named after Heller and his collaborator, Laszlo Forgo. The principle was developed by Heller and built by Forgo, and it is still used worldwide.

Resources:
http://www.hpo.hu/English/feltalalok/heller.html
http://energyhistory.energosolar.com/en_power_station_history.htm
http://www.hungarian-history.hu/mszh/eheller.htm

Heller:
http://www.hpo.hu/English/feltalalok/pics/heller.gif
Cooling system:
http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/images/pubs/tech_papers/17th_congress/2_1_0102.gif

Jacques E. Brandenberger (Cellophane)

2007-04-12T20:20:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, there is no information on the Swiss chemist, Jacques E. Brandenberger, but his invention is still one that we use in our everyday lives. While dinning out one day Brendenberger came up with the idea for his invention, cellophane. When watching someone spill wine all over the table cloth and the waiter replace it with a clean one, he came up with the idea to invent a clear invisible film to apply over the cloth to make it waterproof. After doing research over different materials, he eventually tried to apply liquid viscose (rayon) to cloth but it caused the fabric to become to stiff and delicate. Even though his idea ended up failing, he did end up noticing that the unusual clear coating would peel away from the cloth and turned his focus on that. By 1908, Brandenberger was able to develop a machine that could make sheets of transparent viscose, and by 1912 he created a sealable flexible film that became used in gas masks. Brandenberger continued to patent his inventions and created his own company in1917 called La Cellophane. The actual word cellophane comes from the words cello (from cellulose) and phane (diaphane which means transparent in French). By 1919, cellophane became publicly available and with an exclusive license with the Du Pont Company in 1923, cellophane was patented and sold in North America.

Website Links:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcellophane.htm
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_second_industrial_revolution/05.ST.01/?scene=6&tv=true
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/cellophane.htm

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

2007-04-12T19:54:00.000-04:00

Enrico Fermi was one of the greatest minds ever and one of, if not the most, influential nuclear scientist’s ever. His work on the atomic bomb and nuclear transformations would earn him the Nobel Prize and a reputation for brilliance his whole life. Born in Rome, Italy in 1901 Fermi was a hard worker until he died in 1954. He first became interested in science after the death of his older brother Giulio. In 1933 Fermi developed the theory of Beta Decay a theory that resulted in the recognition of the weak interaction force. Fermi and his team came within the thickness of aluminum foil to discovering nuclear fission in 1934. While bombarding uranium the foil blocked the emissions that his elements would have normally picked up. It was not until later that they realized that what he had achieved was indeed nuclear fission. Instead though Fermi made the most important discovery of his career. He realized that slowing neutrons by passing them through a light-moderator would increase their effectiveness. This discovery would lead to the ability to use nuclear reactors. In 1938 Fermi received the Nobel Prize for his previously mentioned discovery of slow neutrons and his theory on Beta emissions. He received the Prize a day after Mussolini issued his anti-semantic laws.

In 1945 the scientists had created the first nuclear bomb and were ready to test it. Fermi was on hand for the test, which took place on U.S army property in Alamogordo, New Mexico, under the code name of Trinity. Fermi remarked prior to the test that the test was worthwhile even if it didn’t work because it would prove that nuclear explosion was impossible. Enrico Fermi’s discoveries and theories helped shape nuclear physics and had many lasting benefits on our world.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95sep/fermi.html

http://history.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/science-invention/what-was-enrico-fermis-contribution-understanding

http://photos.aip.org/images/catalog/fermi_enrico_c29.jsp

Wernher von Braun

2007-04-12T14:32:00.001-04:00

Werner von Braun was born on March 23, 1912 in Wirsitz in Prussia. He was the second born of three children. His father was a conservative politician. Werner’s mother could trace her family ancestry to medieval European royalty. When Werner had his Lutheran confirmation, his mother bought his a telescope. This telescope was the start of his interest with astronomy and outer space. Before he read the book The Rocket into Interplanetary Space, von Braun was horrible in physics and mathematics. After reading this book, he started to apply himself to understand physics and mathematics. In 1930 he went to the Technical University of Berlin. At this school, he joined the spaceflight society where he did work with liquid fueled rocket motor tests. Werner had always had a strong interest with space flight. Even as a child, he would attach miniature rockets to various objects just to test them.

By the end of 1934, von Braun had successfully launched two rockets that went to 2.2 kilometers and 3.5 kilometers with the help of his group. Werner von Braun used Goddard’s designs and plans to build the A-4 series of rockets. This series is better known as the V-2. Under the Nazi regime, there were no rocket societies and all civilian rocket tests were forbidden. This meant that the military could only develop rockets. The only way that von Braun could do work with rockets was to join the Nazi party. In November of 1937, Werner joined the Nazi regime. In 1944, Hitler approved the production of the A-4 rockets. The reason for these rockets was to aim rockets at London. Werner’s interests were mostly for the application of space flight so when he heard about the London incidents, he felt like it was the darkest day for him. In order to do work with his rockets, Werner had to use slaves from the Buchenwald concentration camp.

At the end of World War II, Werner entered into the United States through Operation Paperclip. When he came to the United States, Von Braun worked for the U.S. army. While in the army, von Braun and his scientists continued to work on rocketry experiments.

In 1957, the US realized that they were behind in the space race with Russia. For this reason, von Braun and his team were transferred to NASA to work on this problem. Werner and his team were transferred to Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama where they worked on Saturn rockets to carry heavy payloads from Earth to beyond Earth orbit. It was von Braun’s dream to go to the moon and it became a reality when he developed the Saturn V rocket.

Werner von Braun is considered the father of the space program for the United States. He died on June 16, 1977

Pictures
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Wernher_von_Braun.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Disneyandvonbraun.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Kennedy_vonbraun_19may63_02.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/S-IC_engines_and_Von_Braun.jpg

Inventions/Creations
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Fus%C3%A9e_V2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/V-2_rocket_diagram_%28with_English_labels%29.svg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Rocket_engine_A4_V2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/Peenemunde_August_1943.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Peenemunde_August_1943_2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/V2_us.jpg

Assignment 5

2007-04-12T14:13:00.000-04:00

This assignment is due by Wednesday, April 18th, by 8 pm. Late assignments will be docked 5 points per hour they are late. Please post early and on time. Also, where applicable, provide a link to any website or information you use--do not post images directly to the blog.

Assignment 5.

Briefly discuss an inventor/engineer (not discussed in class) who lived in Europe (NOTE: Do not use any non-European inventors) between 1900 and 1950. Give a brief synopsis of their life and the invention/design/creation they are famous for. Provide a link to any images of 1) the inventor/engineer and 2) what they invented.

Do not copy anyone from the first four assignments!

Do not simply copy and paste anything from another website. This is supposed to be in your own words and should be written as paragraphs, not just bullet points or a list. The average length should be a full paragraph or two.

Good luck!

Group 6 Budget

2007-04-11T21:03:00.000-04:00

After some searching online and in stores for prices for different items needed we have come up with our budget! WOW exciting!

$80 is what is stands at right now, it is actually an over estimate just in case. comes out to about $13.00 per member.

here is the design.

Percy Julian

2007-04-03T12:45:00.000-04:00

Percy Lavon Julian was a famous African-American chemist who lived from 1899-1979. Born the grandson of a slave, Julian was best known for his synthesis of cortisone from soy beans. Julian overcame significant adversity in his life due to the fact that he was born in Montgomery, Alabama, a notably prejudiced area in the 1900s. Even later in life, when he was settled in Chicago with a family, several hate-crimes were perpetrated against him and his family for being black including arson and dynamite attacks on his house. He attended DePauw University and graduated as a valedictorian. He received his masters from Harvard University and his PhD. from the University of Vienna for organic chemistry. It was during his time in Vienna that Julian noticed the soybean and took note of its properties. After teaching and researching in the academic world, Julian became the chief chemist at Glidden Corporation and was named the Director of the Soya Product Division. Later on, Julian founded Julian Laboratories, and eventually died in 1975 from liver cancer.

Julian's work with the soybean is what made him famous. He synthesized a drug called physostigmine from the versatile bean that can be used as a treatment for glaucoma. Julian developed many other soy-based products including a cold-water paint and an aero-foam used as a flame retardant which was employed significantly by the US Navy. Julian's most notable chemical contribution using soy-beans was his development of a synthetic cortisone used to treat rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. My roommate is currently reaping the benefits of synthetic cortisone and Julian's work. She has ruptured disks in her back, and part of her treatment includes the use of synthetic cortisone. Although Julian received several honors and awards throughout his life, he still struggled with acceptance because of his skin color.

Pictures:

http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/photo/pjulian.JPG
http://www.blackinventor.com/images/percyjulian2.jpg
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/julian/images/home.jpg
http://www.allaboutarthritis.com/image/stock_image/cortisone_elbow_dyn.jpg

Resources:

http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/percyjulian.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/julian/
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcortisone.htm

Chester F. Carlson

2007-04-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Chester F. Carlson was born in 1906 in Seattle, Washington. He invented Xerography in 1938. It is this technology that is still used today in copy machines. Carlson was a physicist and chemist who worked in electrical componenet office analyzing their patents and was required to make several copies of his paperwork. Since the copy machine was not yet in existence he was forced to type each copy by hand which was tedious and took hours. He decided to research solutions to this problem and investigated the use of photoconductivity. Photoconductivity deals with the principles that when light strikes a photoconductive material, the electrical conductivity of the material increases.

In 1948 he patented his first process using the new technology and called it electric photography. Later it was changed to Xerography. He tried to sell his idea to companies but was unable to do so until the 1960s when the company now known as Xerox invested in his process. He died in 1968 rich from the profits of his invention.

Pictures of Carlson:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/b/b8/Carlson-Chester-F.gif

http://www.startcopy.ru/likbez/images/carlson1.jpg

http://www.tbp.org/images/WhoWeAre/Stamps/StampCarlson.gif

His Invention:
http://www.scientificmethod.com/images/18a.gif

http://www.fujixerox.com.au/images/xerography_2.jpg

todays version: http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/i/z/rv/2005/03/xerox-wc-c2424-350x375.jpg

Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860 – 1930)

2007-04-02T21:30:00.000-04:00

This was late, but excused because I emailed you (before the deadline) stating that blogger wasn't working and with my post as an attachment, and I cleared it with you in class.

Sperry was an American inventor and electrical engineer, who is best known for his inventions based on the application of the gyroscope. Sperry was born in Cortland, New York, and educated at Cornell University. About 1880 he developed a particularly efficient electric-arc light, one of the first in the United States. He was also a pioneer in the manufacture of electric mining machinery, electric streetcars, and electric motors. In 1915 Sperry produced a high-intensity arc searchlight, which was widely used by armed forces during World War I (1914-1918).

Sperry's most important invention was the gyrocompass, which, unlike other compasses, was not affected by the magnetism of the earth and was very useful in sea navigation. From the gyrocompass, Sperry developed the gyropilot for steering ships, and the automatic gyropilot for stabilizing airplanes. Sperry also produced electrically sustained gyros that controlled submarine and aerial torpedoes used during World War I. He patented more than 400 inventions in his lifetime. Sperry died in Brooklyn on June 12, 1930.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Ambrose_Sperry

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blgyroscope.htm

Images:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/images/who_sperry_image.jpg

http://rbmn03.waika9.com/elmer4.gif

W.K. Kellogg (1860 – 1951)

2007-04-02T20:02:00.000-04:00

W.K. Kellogg was born Will Keith Kellogg on April 7, 1860. As a young man, he moved to Battle Creek, MI to help his brother, John Harvey Kellogg, run his company, the Battle Creek Sanitarium. There they produced the first flaked cereal. J.H. Kellogg invited everyone to come see the new invention and the process to make it. C.W. Post was among these visitors. Post decided to take this information and develop his own company, Post Cereals. Upset by Post's success, W.K. Kellogg left the Sanitarium and created his own company, Sanitas Food Company, in 1897. Along with his brother, he began advertising a healthy breakfast food known as cornflakes. The brothers later began to disagree over the addition of sugar to the cereal. W.K. Kellogg then founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906 which later became the Kellogg Company. This company was one of the first to include nutrition labels on its packages and offer prizes for children to send in for.

In 1930, Kellogg became involved in the community and vowed "I will invest my money in people." He set up the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and during the Depression, he added 3 6 hour shifts at his plant. He also founded Kellogg College, Oxford. In 1925, Kellogg purchased a 377 acre ranch in Pomona, CA which grew to 750 over the next 7 years. In 1932, he donated the ranch to the University of California system. During WWII, the US War Department took it over. In 1949, it was returned to the W.K.Kellogg Foundation by the Department of Agriculture. The ranch was then given to the State of California and became part of the California State Polytechnic College. In 1966, it became known as California Polytechnic College Pomona. Some of the property Kellogg owned near Battle Creek, MI was also donated to a university, Michigan State College.

Corn flakes are a toasted dough formed by cooked corn (maize), sugar, vitamins, and minerals. The Kellogg brothers came about this process by accident in April 1894. They left some cooked wheat sitting out for a while and the dough became stale. Because their budget was small they decided to continue using the dough. After rolling the dough all they got were flakes. They decided to toast these flakes and serve them to their patients at the sanitarium. A patent was filed in 1895 for "Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same" and was granted in 1896.

Ingredients for Kellogg's Corn Flakes:

Milled corn
Sugar
Malt flavoring
High fructose corn syrup
Salt
Iron
Niacinamide
Vitamin C
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B1
Vitamin A palmitate
Folic Acid
Vitamin B12
Vitamin D

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Keith_Kellogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_flakes
Pictures:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Cornflakes_in_bowl.jpg

Emery Leon Chaffee

2007-04-02T19:43:00.000-04:00

Emery Leon Chaffee was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1885. His developed a concept that would allow long distance transmission of telephone signals. The central idea behind this would later be known as the Chaffee gap.

http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9243442

Philo Farnsworth

2007-04-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

A man who in all our hearts is well endeared, a man responsible for the electric television, or television as we knew it when we were kids (HD has changed this). Philo Farnsworth (yes as is Professor Farnsworth from Futurama). He was born in a log cabin in Utah in 1906. His parents attempted to raise him as a concert violinist, but somewhere along the line at a young age he became distracted by electricity. At the age of 12 he built an electric motor and then produced from it the an electric washing machine for his family. He went to college at Brigham Young University in Utah, where he studied television and radio wave transmissions. In 1922 he sketched out a design for an image dissector vacuum tube for televisions, that would revolutionize this business.
A side note, televisions at the time simply mechanically scanned an image through a spinning disk with holes cut in it, it then projected a very tiny, and very bad reproduction of the scanned image on the screen.
Farnsworth image dissection tube allowed for the image to be sent in an electric stream, or through a current. In 1926 he and some friends funded the work on the first all electric TV, which had a successful test in 1927. He got this patented in 1930. However RCA had patents that preexisted his patent, but not his work, 1928 for the cathode tube ray. This then led to a patent battle between Farnsworth and RCA.

In the end Farnsworth had 300 international and US patents on TV and TV related parts, he is heavily responsible for the transition to more modern TV's and we all thank him for that.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarnsworth.htm
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/farnsworth.html

Leo Gerstenzang

2007-04-02T17:22:00.000-04:00

Leo Gerstenzang (1923), a polish American, invented the Q-tip. He invented it after watching his wife clean their baby’s ear with a cotton ball and a tooth pick. He sold his product as “Baby Gays” and was the most widely sold brand. The “Q” in Q-tip stands for quality.

His idea behind the q-tip was to make hard to clean places easier to clean but safer to clean than with toothpicks. He spent years perfecting his product. His biggest challenge was to get the equal amount of cotton on each side and to keep the cotton stuck on the q-tip so that it would not get stuck in baby’s ears.

His product:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:White_menbo.jpg

Resources:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/q-tips/
http://www.answers.com/topic/cotton-swab
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml

Edwin Herbert Land (1901-1991)

2007-04-02T14:11:00.000-04:00

Edwin Herbert Land was a physicist and an inventor who was born in Connecticut and went to Harvard where he majored in physics with a concentration in optics, he was looking for a cheaper and better way to polarize light, but he left the school after a year. He developed a new polarizator in 1929 which he called Polaroid J sheet which used Iodoquinie Sulfate crystals aligned on a plastic sheet. This sheet was cheap to make and could be made into any size.

He then founded a company, Land-Wheelwright Laboratories, in 1932, to make these polarizators which were used for cameras, sun glasses, reducer of headlight glare, and a way to view 3D movies. And in 1932 this company changed its name to the Polaroid Cooperation. Polaroid Co. make many advances in military applications like infrared polarizators, heat stable filters, target finders, night vision goggles, polarizating ring sights, and lenses for the U-2 spy plane. They also made a vectograph that made 3D images by superimposing tow views on a single sheet of film.

He also is the person who invented the Polaroid instant camera, or the Land Camera. This invention was inspired by his young daughter who wondered why she could not see the picture right after it was taken. It took him three years to prefect and was marketed towards the middle class as an easy way to take good quality pictures. His patent was for a photographic product comprising a rupturable container carrying a photographic processing liquid, number 2,543,181. The camera was first sold in stores in November 1948 and was very poppular. It worked by having a negative exposed and then sent out of the camera while being squeezed against photographic developer and a print material. Then, after allowing to dry for one minute, the layers could be taken apart and a black and white picture could be kept and the negative thrown out. In the late 1960’s and 1970’s he developed a color version of this process.

He holds 535 individual patents, only Thomas Edison has more, and founded the Rowland Institute of Science. He never got an actual degree but was awarded many honorary degrees from schools like Harvard and Yale along with many others. He also was awarded the Presidential medal of Freedom and is a part of the Inventors hall of Fame. In addition to photography and polarization he worked in eyesight and developed the Retinex theory which deals with human color perception and color consistency in the 1970’s.

His Picture:

http://microscopy.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/antiqueimages/land.jpg

The First Camera:

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/PopularScience/4-1947/xlg_polaroid.jpg

Resources:

http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/91.html

http://microscopy.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/land.html

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0828754.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Land

Frederick Otis Barton, Jr. (1899 - 1992)

2007-04-02T13:56:00.000-04:00

Frederick Otis Barton Jr., who went by his middle name, Otis, was born on June 5, 1899 in New York. His father made a small fortune as a textile mill salesman, so Otis was independently wealthy during his life, though his mother came from money as well. His father died suddenly in 1905 from a heart attack so Otis’s mother moved the family (Otis also had two younger sisters) first to Concord, Massachusetts, and then to Boston. He graduated in 1922 from Harvard with a degree in engineering. Right after graduation he took a trip around the world, where he eventually ended up in the Philippines. Otis spent hours in the waters of the tropical ocean, fueled by his childhood fascination with underwater exploration.

Otis attended graduate school at Columbia University, where he read about naturalist and undersea explorer William’s Beebe’s plan to develop a deep-sea exploration device. Otis had spent a lot of his younger years attempting to design such a device, so he contacted Beebe in the hopes that the two could work together. With Otis’s extensive engineering background, and his inherited small fortune, they had completed the first test model by 1928. The device had three-inch thick windows made of fused quartz with a 400-pound lid that was fitted over a hole that served as the entry. The entire system, including cables, weighed nearly 10,000 pounds when submerged. The exploration device was called a bathysphere. They set the first world record for deep see diving, with a depth of 600 feet. They later broke the record in 1934 with a depth of 3028 feet. Beebe and Otis later drifted apart, and in 1948 Otis broke the record on his own, reaching a depth of 4500 feet during a dive in the Pacific Ocean.

Otis was not only an inventor, he was also a published author and actor as well. He wrote the book "The World Beneath the Sea," published in 1953, and he acted in the Hollywood movie, Titans of the Deep.

His picture can be seen here:

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/images/bartonport.gif

The bathysphere can be seen here:

(Otis is the one standing on the left)
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/lanar501/Beebe%20'04_files/image003.jpg

http://www.bajoelagua.com/img/fotos/campanacerradadwilliambeebeybarton1930.jpg

Information was found at:

http://www.answers.com/topic/otis-barton

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400075010&view=excerpt

Lewis Howard Latimer (1848 – 1928)

2007-04-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

Lewis Howard Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1848 as the son
of a fugitive slave. Growing up poor and for the most part without his
father, Lewis was an exceptional student and was particularly fond of
reading and drawing. In 1864, he lied about his age in order to join the
U.S. Navy, where he served for 4 years before being honorably discharged
in 1868. Shortly after his return Lewis was given a job at a law firm that
specialized in helping inventors with patents. In this profession he was
exposed to inventors, technology, and science that would eventually become
his passion.
In 1880 Latimer began working as a draftsman for Hiram Maxim; the company
responsible for electric lighting of the city. Working at Hiram allowed
him to familiarize himself with various lighting mechanisms and their
manufacturing, and it was at Hiram where Lewis would develop an improved
carbon filament for the incandescent light. This improved carbon filament
would allow the light to last significantly longer than its predecessors,
and it would be Latimer’s claim for fame. After 4 years at Hiram, Lewis
was invited to work for Hiram’s rival, Thomas Edison. Lewis became the
only African-American member of the group known as “Edison’s Pioneers”.
His knowledge of the patent office and ability to draft would make him
crucial to the development of Edison’s ideas and his success. Aside from
the carbon filament Lewis would receive credit for other inventions
including the wooden light socket, toilets that could be used on trains,
and the precursor to the air conditioner.

Sources (including pictures of inventor and inventions):
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/page/l/latimer.shtml
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/ilives/latimer/latimer.html
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/scientists/latimer.html

Charles Franklin Kettering

2007-04-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

Charles Franklin Kettering was born in Loundonville, Ohio, on August 29, 1876. (This is actually my same first and middle name and same birthdate, but not the 1876 part of course) Always having aspirations of becoming someone, he bought a telephone as soon as he had enough money, just to take it apart to reverse engineer it. After graduating high school, he became a high school teacher. In 1896, he entered the College of Wooster in Ohio. Because of his eyesight, he left college two years later and enrolled in the engineering program at Ohio State, dropped out, enrolled again, and finally graduated with his EE degree in 1904.

Kettering's first post-college job was for National Cash Register in Dayton. There he invented many things such as an electric motor for a cash register. In 1909, Kettering and others left NCR to form Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, or Delco, with the intent on improving automobiles by incorporating electrical systems instead of the crank method. By 1912, Kettering had invented, built, and incorporated all-electrical lighting, starting, and ignition systems in automobiles. The first auto with this system installed was the 1912 Cadillac. Soon, General Motors bought Delco, which turned into the start of the GM research center. Kettering's speeches after these remarkable inventions helped to spark a slew of automotive schools around the country.

Not only was Charles Kettering a crucial part of automotive advancement, he has over 300 patents to his name; not only in the automotive industry, but the farming industry and the medical industry. He retired from the GM facility in 1947, but remained a consultant until his death from a stroke on November 24, 1958.

In 1998, General Motors Institute was renamed "Kettering University", to honor this great inventor.

Information:
http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/about/charles_kettering.jsp
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kettering.html

Pictures:
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/images/1028.jpg
http://www.electro.patent-invent.com/electricity/images/charleskettering1.jpg

Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901-1958)

2007-04-02T10:29:00.000-04:00

Ernest Lawrence was born on August 8, 1901 in Canton, South Dakota. He received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of South Dakota in 1922 and a M.A. from the University of Minnesota 1923. He was awarded a PhD in physics from Yale University in 1925. He worked on the photoelectric effect at Yale for a few years before he was appointed Associate Professor of Physics at the Uinversity of California, Berkley in 1928 (an subsequently Professor of Physics in 1930).

While at Berkley, he invented what became the road to particle physics and the US nuclear weapons program, the cyclotron. This fasicnating device had the capability to accelerate nuclear particles to very high velocities without the use of high voltages. With this invention, atoms could be bombarded by atomic particles to disintigrate elements and, in some cases, create new elements. It was studied by his brother for medical and biological applications and Ernest actually became a consultant for the Institute of Cancer Research at Columbia.

Lawrence also worked fastidiously on the Manhattan project and, interestingly, was the individual who introduced Robert Oppenheimer to the project. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1939 and was a member of the US delegation to the Geneva Conference in 1958. However, he fell ill while in Geneva and upon returning to Berkley died on August 27th. The element lawrencium (element 103) is named in his honor.

Relevant Pictures:
http://www.scienceclarified.com/images/uesc_08_img0437.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lbl.gov/images/PID/Magnet.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.lbl.gov/LBL-PID/LBL-founder.html&h=814&w=1024&sz=322&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=NbXCnpCXt-fTWM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dernest%2Blawrence%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lbl.gov/images/PID/Magnet.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.lbl.gov/LBL-PID/LBL-founder.html&h=814&w=1024&sz=322&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=NbXCnpCXt-fTWM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dernest%2Blawrence%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26sa%3DN

References:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1939/lawrence-bio.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllawrence.htm
http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Lawrence.shtml

Richard James (1914-1974)

2007-04-02T04:02:00.000-04:00

Richard James began his career has an engineer aboard a naval craft. One day when he was trying to creating a more efficient way to monitor horsepower, a tension coil he was working on fell to the ground. James amusingly thought that the spring would make a fun toy. In 1943 Richard James invented the Slinky TM

His wife, Betty James, actually came up with the infamous name after looking in a dictionary and finding that “slinky” is Swedish for traespiral, meaning sleek or sinuous.

In 1945 James debuted the Slinky at the Gimbel’s Department Store in Philadelphia. James convinced a friend to buy the first one to help attract interest, fortunately this was not necessary. In an hour and a half time span, 400 slinky’s where sold.

To this day, Slinky’s are still manufactured in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania as they originally were using the same equipment and design that was engineered by Richard James. Slinky’s take approximately 10 seconds to make with 80 feet of steel wire. The only alteration that has been made to the design of the Slinky since its production is the crimping of the ends for safety precautions. To date, over a quarter of a billion Slinky’s have been sold worldwide. Richard James died in 1974, but Mrs. James, 78, is still alive and the CEO of James Industries.

In space the Slinky behaves like neither a spring nor a toy but as continuously propagated wave. Its action also demonstrates a variety of physical forces and principles. The Slinky, like all objects, tends to resist change in its motion. The physical phenomenon of the Slinky is not a mystery, it has stored energy when it is at rest, but when a force acts upon it, the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy and its famous hypnotic motion is displayed.

Other uses for the Slinky have included: pecan picking machines, drapery holders, antennas, light fixtures, window decorations, gutter protectors, pigeon repellers, bird house protectors, therapeutic devices, wave motion coils, table decorations, mail holders, store displays and various other uses.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml
http://www.midlandparkschools.k12.nj.us/enrichment/inventions/rdindex.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/slinky.htm
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/slinky.htm

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 - 1967)

2007-04-01T21:12:00.000-04:00

J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904. His father was a wealthy textile importer who had immigrated from Germany in 1888, and his mother was a painter. Oppenheimer studied mainly math and science at the Ethical Cultural Society School. He entered college at Harvard University and majored in chemistry, and graduated in only three years. He began graduate school in physics. Oppenheimer received his Ph.D. at the young age of 22.For his postdoc, he was accepted at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and worked under J.J. Thomson, who is most famous for discovering the electron. In 1926, he left for the University of Gottingen, one of the top centers for theoretical physics, to study under Max Born. Here, he made many friends who would become famous in the world of theoretical physics, such as Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, and Werner Heisenberg. Robert's younger brother, Frank, also became a physicist. Oppenheimer was a founding father of the American School of Theoretical Physics, and held positions at numerous places such as Berkley and the University of California.

J. Robert Oppenheimer did much of his research in theoretical astrophysics, nuclear physics, and quantum field theory. As a graduate student, he made a large contribution in calculations of molecular wavefunctions using the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation. Much of his research predicts the findings of particles such as the neutron, meson, and the neutron star. Above all this, Oppenheimer is most famous for being the father of the atomic bomb. When World War II started, he became involved in an effort to develop the atomic bomb at Lawrence's Radiation Lab at UC Berkley. In 1942, the US Army took over the project and officially named it the Manhattan Engineering District, or better known as the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer was chosen to direct the team of scientists that would build the future atomic bomb. The project was carried out at Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico, where Oppenheimer hosted classes on bomb theory for the chosen physicists that would be on the project. His team of scientists consisted of names such as Enrico Fermi and Richard Feynman. On July 16, 1945, the scientists at Los Alamos recorded the first nuclear explosion. This bomb would later be used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshimaand Nagasaki, Japan. After the war, he was appointed the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission's general advisory committee and left Los Alamos Labs. Oppenheimer died of throat cancer in Princeton, New Jersey in 1967 after accomplishing many impressive feats during his lifespan.

References
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer
http://www.answers.com/topic/j-robert-oppenheimer
http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/baoppe.html

Photos:
http://people.cedarville.edu/employee/tuinstra/hall_of_fame/oppenheimer.jpg
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ug/eardley/atom_bomb_2.jpg
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/physics/images/bigscience06.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/1/1f/300px-Los_Alamos_colloquium.jpg

Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834 - 1906)

2007-04-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

Samuel Pierpont Langley was born on August 22 1834 in Roxbury Massachusetss and died February 27, 1906 in Aiken, South Carolina. He was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor and a man who aimed to make aviation a reality. He graduated from Bostin Latin School, later was an assitant in the Harvard Observatory, and became a chair of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy. He was given a positon as the director of the Allegheny Observatory and taught astronomy at Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh.

The achievements which Langley is know for was his contributions in aviation. In 1891, he constructed models of aircraft which he called "aerodromes". The problem with the aircrafts of the time was the power to weight ratio which Langley worked to solve. To solve this problem, he searched to find a way to make the steam engine better. In 1896, Langley produced a steam-driven model that flew for three quarters of a mile and came down due to fuel. Before he built his fuel scale version , he built a quarter size model that was successful and became the first time a gasoline engine driven an airplane. After the success of his models, he was confident that he believed that a man carrying heavier than air flight was soon to happen.

Langley attempts with the man flights of the full scale attempts was unsuccessful. Two attempts were made with the help of test pilot and engineer Charles M. Manly over the Potomac River ending in disaster. Langley died in 1906, hurt by the ridicule of the public about the unsuccessful attempts. In 1914, Glenn Curtiss modified Langley's Aerodrome and it flew it successfully.

Links:
http://www.aviation-history.com/early/langley.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pierpont_Langley

Katharine Blodgett

2007-04-01T17:52:00.000-04:00

Katharine Blodgett was born in 1898 at Schenectady, New York. Before she was born her father was killed during an attempted robbery of their home, so they moved to France, and then back to New York by 1912. She was enrolled in a private school, where she graduated high school at the age of 15, where her best subject was mathematics. She then went on to Bryn Mawr College and received her bachelor’s, and then went to the University of Chicago to obtain her master’s degree in chemistry. She went on to be the first woman ever to receive her PhD in physics at Cambridge University. From there she went on to work at General Electric for her entire life, where she held the position of research scientist and helped develop many important things, but her claim to fame is her patent for anti-reflective glass.
In 1938 she figured out how to spread monomolecular coatings on glass or metal. She used a barium stereate to cover glass, and invented the first “invisible” glass. This means that glass was now significantly less distorted and more than 99% non-reflective. She also invented a color-gauge to measure the thickness of molecular coatings on glass to about one-millionth of an inch.
She died in 1979 at the age of 81.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Blodgett
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200703/history.cfm?renderforprint=1

Photos of Katie:
http://www.engineergirl.org/savikhin/katharinelooks.jpg
http://photos.aip.org/history/Thumbnails/blodgett_katherine_a1.jpg

Inventions:
http://cag-www.lcs.mit.edu/~anne/inventors/KJB/KJB3-big.jpg
http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/blodgett2.jpg

Frank J. Zamboni (1901 - 1988)

2007-04-01T15:13:00.000-04:00

Frank Zamboni was born in Utah in 1901. A year after Frank was born the Zamboni family moved to a farm in Idaho where Frank developed his mechanical skills. In 1920 Frank, along with his brother Lawrence, moved to California to help their older brother George with his auto repair business. Soon Frank and Lawrence left the auto repair business to work with refrigeration units for dairy farms. As the refrigeration demands increased and new technology was developed the brothers looked for another way to capitalize upon their abilities with ice. In 1939 the brothers, along with a cousin, began building Iceland Skating Rink due to rising popularity of ice skating as a sport.

In 1940 the brothers opened one of the largest rinks in the country at 20,000 sq ft. The enormity of the rink meant resurfacing the ice was long and arduous process involving many people. Frank saw an opportunity to engineer a product that could perform all the tasks that his workers were doing in much less time. In 1942 he experimented with many different ideas and by 1949 the first Zamboni ice resurfacer, the first self propelled ice resurfacer, was completed. In 1950 Frank Zamboni opened the Frank J. Zamboni & Co. to manufacture the ice resurfacers and sold one to Sonja Henie. He received a patent on the Model A resurfacer in 1953 and the Zamboni ice resurfacer has been used by most ice skating rinks, indoor and outdoor, as well as at the Olympics.

Links:
http://www.zamboni.com/story/story.html
http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/zamboni.html

Picture:
http://www.zamboni.com/story/story_p2a.html
http://www.film.queensu.ca/CJ3B/Photos/Finds/Zamboni/ZamboniHoliday.jpg

Charles Drew (1904-1950)

2007-04-01T12:47:00.000-04:00

Charles Drew was born on June 3rd 1904 in Washington D.C. From his early childhood, he had an interest in both sport and education, and had an inclination to become a medical doctor.

He was educated at Dunbar (1922) and proceeded o Amherst College in Massachusetts. Here, he was a star athlete in both football and track, and also excelled in Biology. He graduated in 1926 from Amherst and took a biology teaching job at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. He eventually decided to pursue his passion in medicine by attending medical school in 1928 and attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His success as a medical student was rewarded by his membership in the Medical Honorary Society, and he eventually graduated with Master of Surgery and Doctor of Medicine degrees in 1933. He stayed and interned under Dr John Beattie, who was interested in blood transfusions and eve saved a man’s life by a blood transfusion.

Moving back to the US, Drew became active at Columbia University and continued his mentor’s passion in blood transfusions. Blood could never be saved up, or banked for more than two days as its quality would deteriorate. Drew discovered that blood could be stored for long periods of time if the blood plasma (the liquid part of the blood) and the rest of the blood were separated then combined before the blood transfusion. He therefore invented the idea of “blood banks” which was handy, especially since World War II was going on around this time. Drew had the first blood bank at Columbia University, and was asked to foresee the opening of another blood bank in England.

Drew unfortunately died in an automobile accident in April 1st, 1950. Even with the help of blood transfusions, his injuries were too serious for survive.

Information Links:
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/charlesdrew.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Drew

Pictures:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.journaltimes.com/bhm/assets/images/autogen/a_CHARLES-DREW.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.journaltimes.com/bhm/html/charles_drew.html&h=412&w=350&sz=55&hl=en&sig2=wqTty6OeMiV296TTKkyO8g&start=1&um=1&tbnid=yJ_Bz8BrAbfLjM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=106&ei=heEPRtH9M6GGhQTbw5S1CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharles%2Bdrew%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DHPIB,HPIB:2005-31,HPIB:en%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aaregistry.com/eimage/Dr.CharlesRDrew.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/918/Dr_Charles_Drew_was_a_medical_innovator&h=198&w=162&sz=25&hl=en&sig2=8jp5CEiH_CJigOfLnRM55Q&start=11&um=1&tbnid=0TIFisn4RoZYxM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=85&ei=heEPRtH9M6GGhQTbw5S1CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharles%2Bdrew%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DHPIB,HPIB:2005-31,HPIB:en%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sbas.net/images/cdrew05.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sbas.net/cdrew.htm&h=180&w=240&sz=22&hl=en&sig2=-Tb05EroMct-_kF-nFICmQ&start=59&um=1&tbnid=vfMKQTXvfwf-WM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=110&ei=BOIPRrGhIqHAhQTeo5C2CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharles%2Bdrew%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DHPIB,HPIB:2005-31,HPIB:en%26sa%3DN

Arnold O. Beckman

2007-04-01T00:39:00.000-04:00

Arnold Beckman was born on April 10, 1900 in the small farming town of Cullom, Illinois. His father was the local blacksmith in Cullom, and encouraged Beckman's interest in science throughout his early life. Beckman's interest in chemistry was sparked when he found an old book in his family's attic. The book that Beckman found was Steel's Fourteen Weeks of Science, which was published in 1861. After reading this book, Beckman decided that he wanted to perform chemistry experiments on his own. He converted one of his father's old sheds into a makeshift chemistry lab at the age of 10.

Beckman enlisted in the United States Marines when he turned 18, since WWI was still being fought at that time. After basic training, Beckman was sent to NY to await deployment to Europe. By the time his deployment date came, the war was ove. Instead of fighting in Europe, Beckman went back home to Illinois and attended the University of Illinois. He earned a undergraduate degree in chemical engineering in 1922 from this university as well as a masters degree in physical chemistry the next year. Beckman had many offers for a doctoral program, and ultimately chose to go to California Institute of Technology. He earned his PhD from this university in photochemisty in 1928. Beckman stayed at CalTech after earning his PhD and became a professor.

In 1935, Beckman invented acidimeter to solve a problem an old classmate had with determining the acidity of a citrus fruit. Up until this invention, scientists measured the acidicty of a substance using only litmus paper, which was unreliable. Beckman's acidimeter allowed scientists to accurately measure the acidity of lemon juice ( as well as all other solutions). This acidimeter became the precursor to the modern pH meter. pH meters were quickly embraced by analytical chemists. This invention eventually caused Beckman to be placed in the National Inventors Hall of Fame (but not until the 1980's). The incredible success of this invention caused Beckman to found Beckman Instruments, which became a very prominent company focusing on "the chemistry of life". Beckman, along with his company, invented many other things over the years (such as a new type of spectrometer, a rock smasher anda electronic shark gun) but the acidimeter was the first major invention they invented.

Since Beckman's company became forerunner in the production of scientific technologies and instruments, Beckman became an incredible donor to science. He set up multiple educational trusts and scholarships such as Arnold and Mabel Beckman foundation and the Beckman Auditorium.

Pictures:
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/beckman.html
www.beckmancoulter.com
www.ph-meter.info/pH-meter-history
www.chemheritage.org/explore/Beckman/Beckman.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbeckman.htm

Works Cited:
http://www.beckman-foundation.com/aoblongbi.html
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/beckman.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Orville_Beckman

Marion Donovan

2007-03-31T21:17:00.000-04:00

Marion O'Brien was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1917. She spent many of her childhood years in her father's automobile factory, thus learning much about the manufacturing and inventing processes. After graduating with a BA in English Literature, Marion soon married James Donovan and started a family in Westport, Connecticut. Through the struggles of motherhood, Marion was determined to find a solution to the problem of having to change your babies diaper numerous times due to the cloth makeup. After much experimentation, Marion came up with a waterproof diaper cover that could help prevent much of the leaks that before occured. Not only did these diapers prevent leaks, they also helped prevent diaper rash which was brought on by many of the rubber baby pants of that time. Marion named her new diaper invention the "Boater", this was because she believed it kept babies "afloat". Donovan was granted a patent in 1951 but previously in 1949 the diapers were debuted in Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
After all of the excitement Marion soon moved to a more improved disposable paper diaper. The diaper had to consist of sturdy paper that could absorb wetness and prevent it from staying near the baby because this would cause diaper rash. Surprisingly enough, Donovan's idea was shot down by numerous people due to the fact that they felt her idea was unneccesary. It took her almost ten years to get someone to take interest in her idea and to finally get the recognition she deserved. After accomplishing what she had set out to do, Marion finally passed in 1998 with the acknowledgement of revolutionizing the infant care industry.

Links:
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/donovan.htm
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8721.htm
Pictures:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/images/d8721-1.jpg
http://media.rozhlas.cz/_obrazek/00416563.jpeg

Willis Carrier (1876 - 1950 )

2007-03-30T20:07:00.000-04:00

Willis Carrier was responsible for possibly one of the coolest inventions of all time . . .air conditioning! Born with a love for tinkering Carrier would end up attending Cornell University for mechanical engineering. Carrier’s first job would actually end up being in the heating industry. This company would then drop its temperature control division only to force carrier some other engineers who he met there to branch off and make their own company. One of the earlier tasks this new company would tackle would have to with a printing company. This company’s issue was that different temperatures and humidity would cause their ink and colors to run and change color. This process of conditioning the air would make carrier enough money to start the Carrier Air Conditioning Company which would be responsible for providing air conditioning to places such as Madison Square garden, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Air conditioning revolutionized life, and allowed expansion to the Sunbelt, thus allowing man to gain another foothold over his environment.

References

http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/carrier2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Haviland_Carrier
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081797.htm

Pictures

http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/carrier.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081797.htm

John T Thompson and The Tommy Gun

2007-03-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

John T Thompson was born Dec. 31, 1860 in Newport, Kentucky. He was the son of an Army Liutenant colonel and Union veteran. By the age of 16 he had decided that he was going to be in the military for his career. He spent his first duty as 2nd Atrillery, second liutenant. After finishing engineering and artillery schools, he then spent the rest of his military career assigned to the Army's Ordnance Department in 1980. This is where he began his specialization in small arms. Thompson was part of WWI, and was in trench warfare where he eventually retired and took a job as Cheif Engineer of the Remington Arms Company.
The Thompson Submachine Gun was inspired by the trench warfare, he wanted to develop a "one-man, hand-held machine gun". In 1916 he was able to get financial backing from the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. The project was first named "Annihiliator I", before changing to the "Thompson Submachine Gun" in 1919. The gun entered the production line in 1921. The gun is mostly known for its extensive use during the gangsters era and in Hollywood films. In 1928 the submachine gun was used by the US-military during WWII and into the Korean War. The M1 and the M1A1 were the two initial models that Thompson created. The M1 had a 20 box magazine and long barrel, with a cocking mechanism on top of the gun. The M1A1 had a 30 bx magazine and shorter barrel, with a cocking mechanism on the side of the gun.

Picture Links:

http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/

http://www.auto-ordnance.com/pg_thompson.html

http://www.auto-ordnance.com/ao_ao.html

Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945)

2007-03-29T18:26:00.000-04:00

Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945)

Dr. Robert Goddard is considered to be the father of modern rocket propulsion. Born in Massachusetts as an only child to a decent family, he was a particularly curious child who tried to invent things at a young age or simply explore the world around him. While he often met with failure in his child to teenage years, he was extremely adept at documenting pretty well every little thing he did, which is undeniably one of the most useful techniques of any skilled practioner of engineering or science. He attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1904 and subsequently graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Physics in 1908, then immediately went to Clark University, achieving his Master's in 1910 and his Ph.D in 1911. His primary interest during his graduate studies involved using liquids to power rockets rather than the powdered fuels of the day to achieve a much greater efficiency, and this leads to his major work.

He published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" in 1919, which brought to summation all his thoughts on solid- and liquid-powered rockets. He ended up constructing and launching his first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926 in Auburn, Massachusetts. While it was an rather primitive design, it proved for the first time that rockets could be launched using more efficient liquid fuels rather than solid fuels as has been done in the past. After the publication of his successful launch attempt and his methods of achieving it, it was not particularly well-noticed by the government but the Germans toyed with the idea, culminating in the German V-2 missile. Some of Goddard's other successful works involved practical jet-assisted takeoff and variable thrust rockets (which could only be made possible by his liquid-fuel design; solid rockets were incapable of such a feat). He also proved (statically) that a rocket could function outside the Earth's atmosphere, mathematically showed how to reach the upper atmosphere or even the moon, and he possesses the patents to the liquid-fuel rocket design and the multi-stage rocket design ideas.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center was created on May 1, 1959, in his memory.

References
http://www.clarku.edu/research/archives/goddard/goddard1926rocket.cfm
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/dr_goddard.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Goddard

Pictures of Goddard
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/69318main_drgoddard3.gif
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/69317main_drgoddard.jpg

Pictures of His Work
http://www.clarku.edu/research/archives/images/goddard1926.gif
http://www.clarku.edu/research/archives/images/Goddard%201926%20frame.gif
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/69323main_rhgsmall.gif
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/69313main_rocket.gif

Otto Frederick Rohwedder (1880-1960) - The Bread Slicer

2007-03-28T23:58:00.000-04:00

Otto Frederick Rohwedder (1880-1960) - bread slicer

Otto Frederick Rohwedder was born in Davenport, Iowa. He was the youngest of four. He graduated in from Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Ontology with a degree in optics. He owned and operated three jewelry stores after school in St. Joseph, MO before deciding to design his concept of a bread slicer. In 1916, he moved back to Davenport to start developing his plans for his invention, a bread slicer.

He started off well with all of his designs but in November of 1917 a fire destroyed all of his blueprints and it took him several years to recreate because of financing problems.
In 1928, he finished the design and made the first machine. He tried marketing it to local bakers but they are refused to use it because they were afraid that the bread would dry out too quickly. He luckily had a friend baker in Chillicothe, MO who agreed to use the machine. On July 7, 1928 the first slices of bread were sold and consumers loved it.

Sadly, Rodwedder never became rich because of the crash of 1929 and then the Depression forced him to sell bread slicer to executive.
He lived out his last years in Albio, MI.

Check out a pic of this crazy looking bread slicer at:
http://desmoinesregister.com/extras/iowans/art/rohwedder-bread.jpg

Other references:
http://desmoinesregister.com/extras/iowans/rohwedder.html
http://www.albionmich.com/history/histor_notebook/040215.shtml

Roy J. Plunkett

2007-03-28T23:37:00.000-04:00

Roy J. Plunkett was born in New Carlisle, Ohio on June 26, 1910 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 1932 from Manchester College. He then received his Master’s degree in 1933 and his Ph.D. in 1936, from Ohio State University. Later in 1936, Plunkett was hired by the DuPont de Nemours & Company as a research chemist at the Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, New Jersey that. While working there, on April 6, 1938, he made an accidental discovery of Polytetrafuoroethylene (PTFE), what is known nowadays as Teflon. At the time, Plunkett was actually studying gases related to Freon in a frozen and compressed state. Only when observing a sample of tetrafluoroethlene did he find the unusual white, waxy solid. During another ten years of research, it was found to be one of the largest molecules known, with its molecular weight exceeding 30,000,000MW, as well as being extremely heat-tolerant and stick resistant. Teflon was finally put on the market in 1945 and its best known use is still in non-stick cook wear. Puckett continued his research for DuPont until he retired in 1975. He passed away on May 12, 1994.

Resources and Images
http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.invent.org/hall%5Fof%5Ffame/1%5F1%5F6%5Fdetail.asp%3FvInventorID=121

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blteflon.htm

Edwin Binney (1866 - 1934) - Crayons

2007-03-28T13:15:00.000-04:00

In 1903, Edwin Binney and his cousin Harold Smith, produced the first box of color wax crayons. In 1866 he took over his fathers chemical company and whent for to become a successful buisness man. His company produced many products, on of which was slate pencils for schools. It seemed to him that there was a market for a cheap and easy to use art supply. In 1903 Binney and Smith produced a set of wax crayons combining wax, chalk, and pigments. The name Crayola was produced by Binney's wife who combined the french words for chalk "craie" and oily "oleaginou".
The Binney family had several thousand acres of citrus groves in st. lucie county, fl for a time as well as owning a home in greenwich, ct. Binney invented several other devices, most of which were to suite his own needs at the time. An example was a refrigerated unit to store citrus.

Pics of Edwin Binney and Crayola Crayons
http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/EdwinBinney.htm
http://www.binney-smith.com/page.cfm?id=30

Ruth Wakefield

2007-03-28T10:43:00.000-04:00

Ruth Graves Wakefield (1905-1977) was responsible for inventing chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookies in 1930. Ruth and her husband Kenneth Wakefield owned a Cape-Cod style toll house in Whitman, Massachusetts which served as a haven for travelers along their journey. They later turned it into a lodge and called it the Toll House Inn. Ruth worked as a food lecturer and dietitian after graduating from Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts, and she baked and cooked home-made meals for their guests. She soon gained local fame for her desserts, one of her favorites leading into the creation of chocolate chips.

Story has it that one day when Ruth ran out of baking chocolate she substituted a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar to fill the void. She cut the chocolate into small pieces, expecting them to melt when they only softened. They instantly became popular with the guests and their popularity spread across the nation. The cookie became known as the Toll House cookie and Ruth made a deal with Nestle. They printed the recipe on Nestle bar wrappers and Ruth received a life-time supply of Nestle chocolate. Nestle began packaging their semi-sweet chocolate bar with a special chopper to easily cut the bar into small pieces, and they later began offering Nestle Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels in 1939. Ruth continued to bake away until her death in 1977.

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/wakefield.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1900a.shtml

Karl Jansky (1905-1950)

2007-03-28T01:17:00.000-04:00

Karl Guthe Jansky (October 22, 1905 – February 14, 1950), was an American physicist and radio engineer who in August 1931 first discovered radio waves emanating from the Milky Way. He is considered one of the founding figures of radio astronomy. Karl Guthe Jansky was born in Norman Oklahoma October 22, 1905 (d.Feb.14, 1950), graduated with a degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin, and joined the staff of the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ, in 1928. Bell Labs wanted to investigate using "short waves" (wavelengths of about 10-20 meters) for transatlantic radio telephone service. Jansky was assigned the job of investigating the sources of static that might interfere with radio voice transmissions. But after a few months of following the signal, the brightest point moved away from the position of the Sun. He eventually figured out that the radiation was coming from the Milky Way and was strongest in the direction of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, in the constellation of Sagittarius. The discovery was widely publicized, appearing in the New York Times of May 5, 1933. Many scientists were fascinated by Jansky's discovery, but no one followed up on it for several years. It was during the great depression, and observatories could not afford take on any new projects. Two men who learned of Jansky's discovery in 1933 were of great influence on the later development of the new study of radio astronomy: one was Grote Reber, who singlehandedly built a radio telescope in his back yard in 1937 and did the first systematic survey of radio waves from the sky. The second was John Kraus, who, after World War II, started a radio observatory at Ohio State University and wrote a textbook on radio astronomy, which is still the "bible" for radio astronomers.

Links:

http://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/hist_jansky.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jansky

www.astrocappella.com/.../crs_background.shtml

Edwin Perkins (1889 – 1961)

2007-03-27T23:00:00.000-04:00

Edwin Perkins was born in Lewis, Iowa. Perkins had always enjoyed studying chemistry and inventing things. As a child he experimented with home-made concoctions such as flavoring extracts and perfumes in his mother's kitchen. He worked as a Chemist in 1927 when he invented the powdered drink Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid was originally a liquid called "Fruit Smack," and was sold in a 4-ounce bottles. It was later renamed Kool-Ade, and soon Kool-Aid, and sold in powdered form in packets. The seven original Kool-Aid flavors were: Cherry, Lemon-Lime, Grape, Orange, Root Beer, Strawberry, and Raspberry. Soon Kool-Aid was the primary product of Perkins Product Company, before it made items ranging from spices to foot powder. Kool-Aid was 10 cents a packet and during the Great Depression the cost was cut in half, premiums made Kool-Aid especially appealing to kids.

Links:
http://www.adamshistory.org/perkinskoolaid.html

http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0800/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0800/stories/0801_0200.html

Garrett Morgan (1877-1963)

2007-03-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

Garrett Morgan was born in Kentucky on March 4, 1877. He was an inventor and a business man. He was the seventh out of eleven children. He spent his early life attending school and working on a farm with his family. When he was a teenager he moved to Cincinnati and worked as a handyman for a wealthy landowner. While in Cincinnati, he continued his education with a tutor. In 1895 Garrett moved to Cleveland and worked as a sewing machine repair man. Garrett married a woman named Madge Nelson in 1896, but got divorced in 1898. He then decided to open his own sewing machine repair shop. Word started to spread about his skill as a handy man and inventor. However, what he is most known for is his invention of the gas mask in 1914. When he first invented it, he named it “The Morgan Safety Hood.” It was first put to use on July 25, 1916. On this day, there was an underground explosion in Lake Eire and 32 men were trapped 250 feet underground. Garrett Morgan and some other men used the new “gas masks” to rescue the trapped men. After the rescue, news spread like wildfire and fire departments from all over the country were trying to purchase this new invention. Eventually the military would get there hands on them and would be put to use in World War 1. Garrett was given a patent for his invention and was also given a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety. Apart from inventing the gas mask, he also invented a type of traffic signal that was awarded patent on November 20, 1923.

Resources:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blgas_mask.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Morgan

Pictures:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blgas_mask2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Garrett_Morgan.gif

Earle Dickson and the Band-Aid

2007-03-27T17:55:00.000-04:00

Earle Dickson was born in 1892. His life leads him to be an employee (as a cotton buyer) at the Johnson & Johnson company in New Brunswick, NJ. While working there, his wife, Josephine, cut herself while in the kitchen. At first they attempted to just wrap it in gauze held on by tape but soon learned that did not help much and fell off within minutes.

In 1920, he took his idea to the next level. He folded the gauze into a narrow little pad, unrolled the surgical tape then laid the gauze over it. He then covered the whole thing with crinoline (which helped keep it sterile and safe and also not stick to itself). He then rolled the whole thing up so his wife could cut how much she needed when she needed it. This proved to work well on his wife’s hurt fingers. He took his idea to James Johnson, boss and owner of Johnson & Johnson. James liked the idea and in 1924 installed machines in his factory to mass produce these bandages. In the first few years, the idea did not sell very well. This could have been partially due to the fact that the original bandaids came in one small size, not very logical for much cuts and scrapes. To boost numbers, the company sent out numerous supplies of a improved band aid to boy scout troops. By 1924 many different sizes were being produced.

In return for his idea, Dickson was promoted to Vice President of the company. He stayed in that position until he retired in 1957. He also was named a member of the board of directors where he remained until his death in 1961.

http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/bandaid.htm

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/dickson.html (pictures!)

Wallace Carothers (1896 – 1937)

2007-03-27T17:19:00.000-04:00

Wallace Carothers was born in 1896 in Iowa. His father was an administrator at Capital City Community College. At Capital City Community College, Carothers had studied accounting then went to Tarkio College in Missouri to study science. After he graduated in 1920, he got his masters from University of Illinois. After teaching at University of South Dakota, he found he liked research better than teaching. He became an instructor at Harvard, after he got his PhD from University of Illinois, in 1924. He focused his research in chemical bonding and polymers. DuPont did something revolutionary for the 1920’s; they opened a research lab for making chemical compounds. Carothers was offered a job at the research lab and took it. Carothers could focus more time in the lab, because he did not have to teach anymore. By 1931, Carothers had over 20 patents resulting from his work at DuPont. The polymer he is most famous for is nylon. Because of the trade problems with Japan silk was in short supply. In 1934, Carothers created Nylon. Carothers started to suffer from depression. After his sister died in 1937, he committed suicide in April later that year. DuPont decided to rename the research lab after him.

Reference:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/btcaro.html

Picture:

http://www.bouncing-balls.com/serendipity/images/photo_gallery/carothers.JPG

Igor Sikorsky

2007-03-27T17:10:00.000-04:00

Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) was born in Kiev and was interested in flying machines from a young age. He joined the Russian Naval Academy in 1903 but decided to pursue Engineering in 1906 so he left the naval academy. He was very interested in his helicopter concept, however he could not get it to work so he started to focus on airplanes in Russia and eventually became the Chief Engineer for the aircraft factory of the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Factory in Petrograd. In 1918 the Bolshevik revolution made Igor Sikorsky come to America. In 1923 he made an all metal twin engine passenger plane in his Sikorsky Aero Engineering corporation near Roosevelt field, Long island. He eventually made Amphibian passenger planes and flew with Pan American Airways. He then purchased land in Stratford Connecticut where is now where Sikorsky helicopters are made. In 1931 Igor Sikorsky went away from planes and patented a helicopter design in 1931.This helicopter design had the advantage of being able to take off and land in a single space and hover in one place which made it very useful for deploying troops or rescue missions. Sikorsky currently makes helicopters for commercial and military uses such as the Black Hawk Helicopters. These helicopters are used for many purposes and used by many countries.

A Picture of Igor can be found at:
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Sikorsky-VS300/Igor-Sikorsky.jpg
A picture of his first helicopter can be found at:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Rotary/Sikorsky_VS300/HE8G2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Rotary/Sikorsky_VS300/HE8G2.htm&h=391&w=617&sz=42&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=PydnY4KLlC9N4M:&tbnh=86&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Digor%2Bsikorsky%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
A picture of a Black Hawk helicopter can be found at:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/ah-60_battlehawk.jpg
A picture of his amphibious plane can be found at:
http://imagesource.art.com/images/-/Margaret-Bourke-White/Study-for-Sikorsky-Airplane-Print-C10029322.jpeg

King C. Gillette (1855-1932)

2007-03-27T16:29:00.000-04:00

King was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He later moved to Chicago where his family's home would be destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. In order to support his family he became a traveling salesman selling disposable cork caps. It was then that he made his realization that all he needed to do was invent a product that people would need to continually purchase. He had gone through several ideas but in 1895 while shaving one morning, he decided he could make a safety razor with a disposable blade.
Despite people saying it could not be done and technical set backs, Gillette patented his safety razor in 1904. He opened a production facility in South Boston and began mass producing his razors. His sales increased as he made them but really took off when the U.S. Military ordered 3.5 million razors and 32 million blades to equip the soldiers with. He later died in Los Angeles in 1932 nearly bankrupt due to buying property and the Great Depression, but as we all know the company is doing fine.

Picture

Razor

Source 1

Source 2

Richard G. Drew (1886-1982)

2007-03-27T16:06:00.000-04:00

Originally a banjo player by trade, Richard G. Drew worked for 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota starting in 1923. At the time, 3M was known for producing sandpaper, and when Drew joined the company, they were developing sandpaper specifically for auto paint shops. Drew came up with the idea for masking tape upon observing professional auto painters having tremendous difficulty painting two-tone schemes on cars. It was incredibly tough to keep the two different colors separate.

After two years of working in 3M's labs, he was able to develop masking tape, but it was not an immediate hit with the painters due to the lack of adhesive running down the middle of the tape (there was only adhesive on the edges of the tape). One painter in particular demanded that Drew take the tape back to his "Scotch bosses" and add more adhesive (in this context, Scotch meaning 'stingy'). The tan-colored masking tape was developed by Drew in 1925, and five years later, he invented the transparent cellulose tape that is a staple of most every office in the world.

Picture: Richard G. Drew
Picture of invention: Scotch tape
Source #1: About.com: Scotch Tape and Richard Drew the inventor
Source #2: Wikipedia: Richard Drew (inventor)

Wright Brothers

2007-03-27T14:30:00.000-04:00

Orville Wright was born in 1871. Wilbur Wright was born in 1867. These brothers were only two of seven children. In 1878, their father brought home a toy helicopter. The two brothers played with this toy so much that they broke it. After breaking it, they then went on to build their own. This is what sparked their interest in aviation. Wilbur stayed home from college (he planned to go to Yale) to take care of his terminally ill mother. Had he gone to college, the Wright Brothers might not have had the first flight. The Wright brothers were so dedicated to their work that they never married. These two brothers are best known for the first controlled, powered, heavier than air flight.

In 1892, the two brothers opened a bicycle repair and sales shop and began making their own bikes in 1896. While they were doing this, Otto Lilienthal was flying his gliders in Germany. The brothers saw photographs in newspapers and magazines and were amazed with them. After 3 important aviation events took place, Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian in 1899 to request information about aeronautics. Later that year, the brothers began experimenting with mechanical aeronautics. The two brothers did all the theoretical work and construction themselves. Their employee of the bicycle shop, Charlie Taylor, built their first aircraft engine.

In 1899, the brothers tested out their ideas by build a kite. This kite was shaped like a biplane. Besides the kites, they built a couple gliders. The gliders were named based on the year; 1900 glider, 1901 glider, 1902 glider. The 1901 glider failed because it had a large wing span which they thought would produce more lift. Since it was too costly and time consuming to keep build full size wings and to test them, the Wright Brothers built a six foot wind tunnel in their bicycle shop to test different wings.

In 1903, Orville and Wilbur built the Wright Flyer and had a gasoline burning engine that was built by Charlie Taylor. On December 14, 1903, Wilbur made the first unsuccessful flight after winning a coin toss. The flight was unsuccessful due to stalling. Then on December 17, the first successful flight was made by Orville. The first flight only lasted about 12 seconds and covered about 120 feet. It traveled at a speed of about 7 mph. The next 2 flights traveled around 175 and 200 feet. Both brothers made flights on this day. They traveled about 10 feet above the ground for all the flights made on December 17.

After the Wright Flyer, they built other aircraft that traveled farther distances and to higher altitudes. The brothers only made one flight together after getting their fathers permission. He didn’t want both to die and have their research stop. Orville took his father on one flight that lasted seven minutes. This was their father’s only flight in his lifetime.

After the brother’s made the first flight of a powered aircraft, they ran into some controversy. Langley said that he was the first to fly a powered aircraft. The brothers had to make a public flight for the US Army and a French syndicate. This went off with success. Orville was demonstrating at Fort Myer, Virginia. A passenger, an army lieutenant was his passenger, was the first person to die in a powered airplane crash. The plane crashed because the propeller split. Orville was injured but survived.

On November 7, 1910, the Model B Wright Flyer was the first flight that carried commercial air cargo. It flew from Dayton to Columbus. This 62 mile flight took a little more than an hour to fly. The Wright brothers did not pilot it.

Orville died in 1948 of a heart attack and Wilbur died in 1912 from typhoid fever.

Pictures:
http://www.old-picture.com/wright-brothers/Wilbur-Wright-Picture.htm
http://www.old-picture.com/wright-brothers/Orville-Wright-Picture.htm

Inventions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WB_Wind_Tunnel.jpg
http://www.wright-brothers.org/History%20Images/1906-1909/1909%20Military%20Flyer.jpg
http://www.wright-brothers.org/History%20Images/1916%20Model%20L.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/1902WrightGliderTurns.jpg

Famous Photograph of First Flight:
http://www.wright-brothers.org/History%20Images/1903_First_Flight.JPG

Patent:
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT821393&id=h5NWAAAAEBAJ&dq=821,393|U.S.

Assignment #4

2007-03-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

This assignment is due by Monday, April 2nd, by 8 pm. Late assignments will be docked 5 points per hour they are late. Please post early and on time. Also, where applicable, provide a link to any website or information you use--do not post images directly to the blog.

Assignment 4.

Briefly discuss an inventor/engineer (not discussed in class) who lived in America (NOTE: Do not use any non-American inventors) between 1900 and 1950. Give a brief synopsis of their life and the invention/design/creation they are famous for. Provide a link to any images of 1) the inventor/engineer and 2) what they invented.

Do not copy anyone from the first three assignments!

Do not simply copy and paste anything from another website. This is supposed to be in your own words and should be written as paragraphs, not just bullet points or a list. The average length should be a full paragraph or two.

Good luck!

Meetings

2007-03-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

So are we planning on meeting this coming sunday March 25th? Im good most of the day up untill 5pm. After that im booked.

Group 3 Update

2007-03-20T16:10:00.000-04:00

After much discussion, another idea was brought to attention which was the idea of a portable atomic force microscope. As a group we agreed to the idea. A couple of members in the group are very knowledgeable on the subject and determined that there wouldn't be a patent of this particular type of device that we have in mind. For the next few weeks, we will be meeting to discuss how to build a model and start on a budget. A description of the atomic force microscope we have decided upon can be found on our blog at http://historyofscienceteam3.blogspot.com/

Group 4 Update

2007-03-20T15:49:00.000-04:00

After researching the US Patent website and utilizing other patent searches, we were unable to find a currently patented product that matched our own. Although there were some various ideas that were along the same lines as our dispensing apparatus idea, none had the same design.

Currently, we have a tentative design drawn in ProEngineer and have begun purchasing and experimenting with the necessary tools. It will be pertinent that within the upcoming weeks that we make a prototype to ensure that our design is within the limits of our abilities and budget and is acceptable. You may view or blog to see current discussions: http://group4-historyofscience.blogspot.com/.

Reality Check - Group 1

2007-03-20T12:52:00.000-04:00

Upon extensive research on the US Patent website, we have found that our idea for a beverage cooler is fairly close to a lot of patents already in existence. While ours would have been portable and covered the entire can - the cost of constructing it would have probably exceeded our budget. Upon researching the automatic candle extinguisher on the US Patent website, there is no such patent currently on the site. It should also be easy to construct it within our budget, and we believe that this idea is very feasible. The idea behind it is that the candle will have an automatic extinguisher so that people with Alzheimer’s or other conditions, as well as people who are just forgetful, won't have to worry about remembering to blow out candles, thus reducing the risk of a fire.

Group 6... Update

2007-03-20T09:54:00.000-04:00

We have found nothing that is like our idea through searching the internet and the patent office. We want to make a food dispenser that will allow a cyclist to eat while riding, the device will have a time interval to remind the cyclist to eat. There are some devices that dispense liquids from the handle bars but nothing really closer to our idea. Out idea is simple enough in design and is very feasible. We have the proper resources to help us make the device.

Group 2: Deadline 2- Reality Check

2007-03-19T23:49:00.000-04:00

After review and planning we have determined that the autonomous spreading toaster oven is possible. Though the exact design hasn't been configured, we have several ideas and options that we will be prototyping before finalizing the design plan. Most of these are briefly described in our blog and will be experimented on further in the next couple of weeks.
After an extensive review of the patent office, there doesn't appear to be any type of autonomous spreading toaster oven. The closest item noted was a type of sandwich maker that pumps out condiments before folding the bread. We will probably use a combination of parts of this device and several previously patented items, including conveyor belts, the standard toaster oven, and some type of roller or clamp system. Once again our exact design is under review until we get a chance to prototype and experiment with ideas.

Group 5-Reality Check

2007-03-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

The process of making beer is definitly feasible between now and the due date for the final project. The entire process should take no more than 10 days, leaving time for trial and error if necessary. A timeline of the process is as follows

Fruit Base: 2-2.5 hours
Addition of Hops: 1 hour
Fermentation: 4-5 days at least, no more than 9-10 days

A full explanation of the process can be found on our team blog page.

After searching the patent office online as well as doing a comprehensive online search we found that there are many beers that have been made using fruit bases but that few use a combination of fruits. We have tentatively decided on a guava mango combination and will stick to this as long as it fits within the budget for the project.

We plan to use a large water container similiar to the ones found in office building as the vessel for fermentation unless a better alternative presents itself.

Brewing will begin within the next two weeks

Rene Laennec (1781-1826)

2007-03-12T23:04:00.000-04:00

Rene Laennec was born 1781 in the town of Quimper, France. When Rene was 6 years old his mother died from tuberculosis and his father sent him and his brother to be taken care of by different family members. He finally arrived to be with his uncle who was a very highly respected doctor in France, and his uncle strongly encouraged medical studies to Rene while living with him. Growing up he had an incline to become an engineer from his fathers encouragement, but despite his admiration for his uncle and his vast interest in nature and the human life he headed towards medicine. It was his own personal sickness that made him a weak man and this was the main reason that drove him to help and cure other people. He has many contributions to the medical world, and he had a great commitment to his patients and used careful listening and observation to help cure and heal the sick. He was greatly know for his high level of attention to detail minor and major.
In 1816 after owning his own practise for 2 years he was able to create his greatess invention, the stethescope. Up untill this point the listening to a patiens heart was only done by the doctor placing their ear to the chest and feeling the beats and breathing rates. It came to him when he was taking care of a patient and realised that the heart beat sounds good be more easily heard through different solids. He proceeded to take 24 sheets of paper and roll them together into a tube and place one end on the woman's chest. He stated there was a much more clear sound produced then he had ever heard before. He named the new instrument "stethoscope," based on the Greek words stethos (meaning chest) and skopos (observer). In 1819 he later went on the publish all his findings from the stethescope in his writings calle, Treatise.

Links:

http://www.answers.com/topic/ren-la-nnec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_La%C3%ABnnec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stethoscope

http://www.scotlandandmedicine.com/RCSED/ScotMedVBControls/institutions/image.aspx?from=picdetail&id=48
http://individual.utoronto.ca/twix/anatomy/images/laennec1816.jpg

Elias Howe (1819 – 1867)

2007-03-12T21:58:00.000-04:00

Elias Howe did something for women that today many would say he was their ideal, my mom being one of them, he invented the Sew Machine. It wasn’t the first sewing machine invented but he was the first to receive an American patent for it. What made his sewing machine different though is that it used a lock stitch design and refined it. His sewing machine used two threads, and be powered by a hand crank. Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts on July 9, 1819, and in 1837 he moved to Boston and became a machinist and this is where he began tinkering with the idea of a sewing machine. His sewing machine could stitch 250 stitches a minute, and out stitched the out put of 5 hand sewers with a reputation for speed. Soon after his invention caught attention of other inventors they started making their own versions and Howe tried to start a legal battle, and had much success and his profits sky rocketed. The first sewing machines were used in the garment factory production lines, and in 1889 the first sewing machine made it into the household.

Images

Patent Image

http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/t/1/howe_patent.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/v/1/howe_patent2.jpg

Elias Howe

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/Elias_Howe_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_15161.jpg

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Howe

http://www.history.rochester.edu/scientific_American/mystery/howe.htm

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blEliasHowe.htm

Pellegrino Turri of Italy

2007-03-12T20:27:00.000-04:00

Pellegrino Turri of Italy invented carbon paper in 1806. Pellegrino Turri had invented a typewriting machine in Italy by at least 1808, and since "black paper" was essential for the operation of his machine. Interestingly, the invention of "carbon paper" was a means to an end; he was trying to help blind people write through the use of a machine, and the "black paper" was really just a substitute for ink.

The motive behind Turri's invention was his love, Countess Carolina Fantoni, who had become blind. Not much other than that is known about Turri. His family was famous in Italy but he laid low with the exception of his invention for his love.

Andrew Smith Hallidie

2007-03-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

Inventor of the cable car and its original patent goes to this fellow, Andrew Smith Hallidie. Technically and Englishman, but his work was done in the US and had a effect on the US, specifically San Fransisco. He Started off his mechanical work helping miners in the 1800's in the american west. There he worked with the basis for rail systems, in the mines. Also working with cable power to supply certain things within the mines. From here one thing lead to another and he eventually went to push for and form the first working cable line car system, the Clay Street Hill Railroad. The cable car system is a small, but important aspect of life to certain areas in the United States. For instance, before Katrina the street cars in new orleans were a cheap public transit system.

Along with his adept ability to work on cable cars, he was also a well known bridge builder. He developed and patented a rope bridge system for transporting mined materials over mountainous terrain. He also built bridges around the San Fransisco area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Hallidie

Also find pictures of his original and modern cars on the track:
http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/hallidie.html

http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccwho.html

Wilhelm Bauer

2007-03-12T20:08:00.000-04:00

Wilhelm Bauer was a German engineer born in 1822. Like his father, he joined the military. Prior to that, he was an apprentice to a wood turner. After witnessing a blockade of the northern coast of Germany, he began developing a ship that could defeat it.

He would build a submarine called the Brandtaucher. Although it sank on an early test, he improved the design and build the Seeteufel ("sea devil") which was a success. This new design was financed by the Russians. It made over 100 successful dives in 4 months.

Bauer's development of the submarine would realize an important milestone for shipbuilding. Future generations of submarines would prove to be invaluable to the German military. To commemorate his contributions, the German navy would name a submarine after him.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Bauer
(contains images of Bauer and his submarine)

http://www.die-marine.de/english/bauer.html

http://www.science2life.org/wertingen/motoren/wilhelmBauer/english/index.html

Alexander Bain

2007-03-12T19:57:00.000-04:00

Alexander Bain was a Scottish inventor who lived from 1811 to 1877. He invented the facsimile machine which is not known as the fax machine. He was also known for dealing with pendulums and thus his fax machine relied on the movement on a pendulum to operate. His first fax machine just simply sent an image over wire. It used a detector to scan and image and as it did so, it emitted an electrical signal which picked up the weather the surface was white or black. This signal of white and black patters was sent over he wire and sent to another machine that applied them to a chemically treated paper. This allowed for a faster transfer of data.

I could not find a picture of his fax machine, but
A picture of him can be found at: http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/tija/tija13/imagen/fax-bain.gif

Barthelemy Thimonnier

2007-03-12T19:28:00.001-04:00

Barthelemy was born Aug 19 1793 in France. He was born the oldest of 7. His first marriage ended when his wife died. However, his second marriage in 1822 was to an embroideress. This is when he starts to think hard.

Hand sewing with bones became a thing of the past in 1830 when Barthelemy Thimonnier was the first to invent a WORKING sewing machine. In 1755, a german started the mechanical sewing trend. He patented the idea for the first needle designed for a machine. The first patent for an actual machine was by Thomas Saint in 1790, however, it was far from working correctly. After a few other failed attempts, in 1818 the first American sewing machine also failed. This American version was done by John Doge and John Knowles. Thimonnier’s machine used only 1 threat. It had a hooked needle that made the same stitch over and over again.

Not long after his invention he was almost killed by a group of French tailors who thought they would all go out of business because of his invention. However, we now know that that never happened!

Work Cited and Pictures can be found at the link below.
http://perso.orange.fr/buisson/english/thimonnier.htm

Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913)

2007-03-12T19:24:00.000-04:00

Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913)

Rudolf Diesel was born in Paris from parents who were Bavarian immigrants. He was sent to live with a cousin in Germany at the age of 12, which moved him from his poor parents to his more well-off relatives who ended up giving him the opportunity to go to college. He was the youngest to graduate from Augsburg Technical College (at age 18) and then went to the Polytechnic High School in Munich. He was extremely inventive in an age where inventing was widespread, and this talent provided him alternative sources of income, some of which he sent home to his parents to help support them.

Diesel's interest in the concept of engines came during a lecture in 1878 from one of his professors, Carl von Linde, who mentioned that steam engines "utilized only 10% of the fuel to perform useful work." He published Theory and Design of a Rational Thermal Engine to Replace the Steam Engine and the Combustion Engines Known Today in 1893, which described his engine, known today as the Diesel Engine. This engine ended up having a much greater efficiency than the standard internal combustion engine designed by Nicolaus Otto in 1876. Rather than using a spark to ignite the fuel in the engine, it compressed the air at a much higher (20:1) compression ratio, then injected fuel which ignited due to the high temperature of the air from the compression.

In thermodynamics, the cycle used is known as the Diesel Cycle, and possesses the highest specific fuel consumption of any cycle to date, which leads to high efficiency and low maintenance. As a result, it is still widely used today, particularly in trucks and other long-range vehicles that utilize the internal combustion engine.

Diesel's invention (and other minor inventions) made him quite the millionaire for the latter half of his life until he wasted it on failed investments, causing him to go bankrupt just before his death.

References
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_tea.html?id=8f3c25fa320411d7f4a56ed9fe800100
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldiesel.htm
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/42.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_cycle

Pictures of Rudolf Diesel
http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/Z/Q/diesel.jpg
http://www.invent.org/images/images_hof/search/inventors/Diesel_Rudolf.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rudolf_Diesel.jpg

Pictures of the Diesel Engine, Diesel Cycle, and Diesel's Patent
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/resources?id=cce230d42fe811d7f1b46ed9fe800100
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Diesel_cycle_p%26v.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lumbar_patent_dieselengine.jpg

Donát Bánki (1859 - 1922)

2007-03-12T19:13:00.000-04:00

Donát Bánki was born June 6, 1859 in Bakonybank, Hungary. His father was a physician and had been head physician of the military during the 1848 revolution and War of Independence. Before Banki was ten years old, his family moved to Lovaszpatona when his father became a district medical officer. Banki got his degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University. When he was only 21 years old, he was already winning awards for his papers on gas engines. Once out of school, he worked as a designer at the Ganz and Company Iron Casting and Machine Works.

During this period of Donát Bánki's life, he began preparing significant inventions that paved the way for modern day engineers. During his first year of work at the Ganz and Company Iron Casting and Machine Works, he was allowed to develop the rotary plough which he then converted into a steam engine device. He also invented the dyanometer which measures the peripheral force of belt driven power transmissions and in 1893, Banki received an award for his theory on gas engines. Banki worked with Janos Csonka, the master mechanic at the Technical University, to make many innovations on gas engines. The outcome of this partnership was the Banki-Csonka motor. With this motor came the invention of the carburetor, which produces an explosive mixture of vaporized fuel and air in internal combustion engines. Another man, Maybach, invented a similar carburetor about six months later. This was a very significant invention since all types of engines use carburetors. Donát Bánki died on August 1, 1922.

References
http://www.scitech.mtesz.hu/51landmark/banki.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%C3%A1t_B%C3%A1nki
http://www.answers.com/topic/don-t-b-nki

Pictures
http://www.hpo.hu/feltalalok/pics/banki.gif
http://www.sasovits.hu/anyag/feltalal/banki_d_elemei/image003.gif
http://www.testforces.net/eng/medias/mod17/1464/1464.htm?PHPSESSID=cbab19e8b2d7b237dc58f1ca3f4ca42a

Henry Bell (1767 - 1830)

2007-03-12T18:22:00.000-04:00

Henry Bell was born at Torphichen in Linlithgowshire on April 7, 1767. After finishing school in 1780, he began to learn the craft of a stonemason. Three years after, he decided to follow the family tradition of mechanics. In 1787, he met up with with James Inglis, an engineer at Bell’s Hill, who helped him increase his knowledge of mechanics, in particular, ship mechanics. He later went to London to work for John Rennie, another Scotsman who also worked in this field.

In 1790, Bell returned to Scotland where he worked as a house-carpenter in Glasgow. He joined the Glasgow Corporation of Wrights on October 20, 1797. Bell began to work on the idea of a steam-powered ship. When he addresses his ideas with others, no one initially thought it would work. In fact, America was the first country to believe that Bell’s idea had some merit, once they had seen that steamboats worked. He began to work on building such a ship, and in 1812 produced The Comet with the help of Messrs John Wood and Co. The ship had a three horsepower engine, and took its first trail run from Glasgow to Greenock at a speed of five miles per hour.

On December 13, 1820 the Comet was shipwrecked. Bell built another vessel, Comet II, but on October 21 1825 it collided with another ship and sank, killing 62 of the 80 passengers on board. However, the work that he had accomplished helped further ocean navigation in Europe. Bell died at Helensburgh on March 14, 1830.

His image can be seen at:
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/74/200px-Henry_Bell,_portraitl.jpg

Although the Comet was shipwrecked, it's original engine can be seen at:
http://www.ingenious.org.uk/media/4.0_SAC/webimages/1042/2/10422118_2.jpg

An image of what the Comet looked like can be seen at:
http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/i/famous/bell_comet.gif

Information was found at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/bell_henry.htm http://www.answers.com/topic/henry-bell

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865)

2007-03-12T15:15:00.000-04:00

 Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician born in Taban, Buda in 1818 as
the fifth child to a German shopkeeper. He would first attend the
University of Pest where he graduated in 1837 before he moved to Vienna to
attend medical school. Semmelweis would spend a year there before
transferring back to Pest, but only to transfer back to Vienna to attend
another medical school. After graduating with his medical degree in 1944,
Semmelweis began working as an assistant professor in obstetrics. He
observed that women who had there babies delivered by physicians showed a
13-18% mortality rate while babies delivered by midwives only had 2%
mortality rate. He hypothesized that this high mortality rate was a result
of physicians performing dissections or dealing with disease infected
patients directly before delivering a baby. In order to test his
hypothesis Semmelweis conducted an experiment that would require medical
students and physicians to wash their hands before delivering babies. He
found that if physicians washed their hands the mortality rate of
physicians dropped to 2%, the same as the midwives, and if he washed the
medical instruments as well he could get the mortality rate as low as 1%.
He concluded that infections and diseases were caused through contact with
other infected individuals, which was the beginning of the development of
germ theory and the affects of microorganisms.
       Semmelweis’ theory and results were highly criticized by other physicians
who didn’t want to be held accountable high infant mortality rate. As a
result his contract wasn’t renewed and was forced to look for a new job.
It would take nearly two decades after his death that Semmelweis would
get credit for his work on infection control. Even though Semmelweis was
one of the first people to examine the affects of infection, it wasn’t
until after Koch, Lister, Pasteur, and the development of germ theory
that would allow Sememelweis to get the credit he deserved.

Sources and Pictures:
http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4701/4701ms1.pdf
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13712a.htm
http://qshc.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/13/3/233
http://qshc.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/13/3/233/F1