Safety Razor, Airplane, Vacuum Tube, The Model T

King Camp Gillette was born in Wisconson in 1855. He lived through the great Chicago fire. He worked as a cork salesman. He invented the Saftey Razor in 1901. Safetly razors cleanly and safely shave skin. It uses a protective guard to prevent skin injuries. It was successful because of low prices. Today it is really useful.

The Wright brothers were born by 1878. They opened a bicycle shop. The brothers were focused on the an aircraft control system. They took experience from making bikes. Balance was the key. so they studied birds. They started with gliders at Kill Devil Hills. A thousand gliders were made in 1902. They invented the airplane in 1903 at Kitty Hawk. Airplanes are powered crafts. They carry cargo and passengers far distances and changed warfare. 

John Fleming was born in England in 1849. He wanted to be an engineer at age 11. He studied under Maxwell and worked in Edison's company and then under Marconi. He invented the Vaccum tube in 1904 and published a paper in 1905. The vacuum tube was an important advancement, and it improved radios and computers and stuff and led to the personal computer. 

Henry Ford was born in Michigan in 1863. He got married in 1888 when he was 25. He built a quadricycle in 1896. Ford's race car in 1902 promoted his brand. Ford invented the Modle T in 1908. It gave families freedom. It succeded because of low prices. One new car was made about every three minutes. The car's price dropped from $825 to $260 in 16 years. It changed the world.

Diesel Engine, Mousetrap, Radio, Semi-Automatic Shotgun

 Rudolph Diesel was born in France in 1858. He went into engineering school when he was 14. He began experimenting with ammonia engines. He invented the Diesel engine based on the Carnot cycle in 1843. The diesel engine doesn't use a spark to ignite. It uses hot compressed air. He built a 23 horsepower engine in 1896. Germans built diesel powered U-bots in 1912. It is used for heavy construction machinery.

Mice and rodents infest our houses! they spread the bubonic plauge. they carry diseases everywhere. Several mousetraps were made in the 1800s. James Keep patented a mouse trap in 1879. "Little nipper" was patented in 1898 in Britian. William C. Hooker invented the mousetrap in 1894. The mousetrap kills mice. It breaks their neck.

Marconi was born in Italy in 1874. He built his own transmitter at home. He invented the radio in 1845. Radio waves are launched from attenas. It can send multiple signals all at once. Italy was not interested at first. It gained publicity from an accident. A lot changed in just 40 years. Radio broadcasting appeared in the 1930s.

John Browning was born in Utah in 1855. He built his first rifle in 1878. He developed lever-action rifles and pump action shotguns. He invented the semi-automatic auto-5 shotgun in 1898. It is a faster and easier way to fire shotgun rounds. It was manufactured for about 100 years until 1998. He also invented the M2 machinegun. 

Coca-Cola, Induction Motor, Ballpoint Pen, Zipper

 John Pemberton was born in Georgia in 1831. He fought in the Civil War. He was addicted to morphine after a saber slash. He experimented with coca wines. He invented Coca-Cola in 1886. Coca-Cola is a sweet carbonated drink. It has caffeine in it from cola nuts. Pemberton died in August of 1888. It is sold in many different places.

Nikola Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire in 1856. He wanted to become an engineer. He went to work with Edison's company. He invented the Induction motor in 1888. It turns fans and pumps and other stuff. He introduced it to engineers and businessmen. 

the Quill pen was mainly used until the 1500s. It was made from a bird feather. John J. Loud was born in Massachusetts in 1844. He was a trained lawyer but went into banking with his father. He became interested in genealogy and church activities. He invented the ballpoint pen in 1888. It uses a small metal ball as a tip. His design worked as intended. BIC created a new pen in 1949. It was reliable and didn't leak.

Tunics were ancient popular clothing. So were cloaks. Whitcomb Dudson was born in Chigago in 1843. He was tired of buttoning his shoes. He invented the zipper in 1890. Zippers fasten two strips of clothing. They were added to bluejeans in 1947 and lead to the invention of the backpack. Millions are sold every year.

Light Switch, Skyscraper, Dishwasher, Electromagnetic Wave

 John Henry Holmes was born in England in 1857. He invented the lightswitch in 1884. Light switches make it easier to turn lights on or off. They can immediately turn lights on or off. William J. Newton turned Holmes' invention into the toggle switch. The simple but important invention, there are many different types of switches.

William Jenny was born in Massachusetts in 1832. He learned how to be an engineer in France. He fought in the Civil War for the North. He got married in 1867. They had two children. He invented the skyscraper in 1884, after a discussion with his wife. Elevators were very important to skyscrapers. A strong foundation keeps it safe during earthquakes. More are built every year.

Washing dishes by hand is hard work. The scullery room was used for washing dishes. It was made to get wet. It was hard work for restaurants to clean all those dirty dishes. Josephine Cochrane was born in Ohio in 1839. She had a sister named Irene. She got married in 1850 to a business owner. She hosted large parties on china. She wanted an easier way to clean dishes. She invented the dishwasher in 1886. It cleans dirty dishes. She sold them to her friends first. It was shown off at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1843.

Henrich Hersch was born in Germany in 1857. He studied engineering with Helm Holtz in Berlin. He proved the existence of electromagnetic waves in 1887. They can carry information. They are useful in the medical field. He didn't think they would be useful. He died at 36 years old. Others picked up his work.

Light Bulb, Cash Register, Thermostat, Steam Turbine

 The Arc lamp needed too much power. We needed lights with higher light, not low. Edison tried 3,000 different versions of the light bulb. He invented the incandescent bulb in 1874. He invented the bulb to scatter light. It lights up dark places very cheaply. It replaced gas lamps at theaters and other places. They lit up the whole city of New York in 1878.

General stores were basic to rural economies. Store owners had employees stealing from them. James Ritty was born in Ohio in 1836. He opened a saloon in 1878. Ritty had employees stealing from him too, so he invented the Cash Register. It changed the American selling force.

Drebbel invented an early thermostat in the 1660s. Warren Johnson was born in Vermont in 1847. He became a science professor when he was 34. He invented the Thermostat in 1833. A multi-zone thermostat was developed in 1845. Used with air conditioning systems. Development of hot water heaters.

Charles Parsons was born in England in 1854. He assisted his father in astronomical work. Then he moved into electric machinery in 1884. He invented the Steam Turbine in 1884. The steam turbine converted heat into rotation. It makes bulk power production cheap. Westinghouse became very very interested and so did even companies in Britain. 

It was very interesting learning about these inventions. I liked why and how they were invented. I especially liked learning about the cash register.

Telephone, Carpet Sweeper, Phonograph, Motion Pictures

 Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland in 1847. His mother's deafness inspired him to study acoustics. Bell used a reed system to transmit sound through wires. He received confidence from Joseph Henry in 1815. He patented the telephone in 1876. The telephone lets people talk to each other from far away. Bell made the first phone call in 1876.

Belville Bissel was born in New York in 1843. He opened his own grocery store. He opened a crockery store with his wife in 1870. He invented the carpet sweeper in 1876. Bissel died in 1889, but his wife continued to sell them.

Inventors began experimenting with sound technology in the 1880s. One was the phonautograph and the other was the allophone. The phonautograph was invented in 1817 by a bookseller who lived in Paris. His name was Edwaleon Scott Demartonvil. The payphone was invented in 1877. Thomas Edison was born in Ohio in 1847. His mother trained him to be a self-learner. He invented the phonograph in 1877 (A.K.A. record player).

Edward Muggeridge (Muybridge) was born in England in 1830. He became a photographer in the 1860s. He invented the motion picture in 1874. It allowed us to make immersive entertainments. Thomas Edison got involved after meeting with Muybridge in 1888. The first Hollywood studio was built in 1911.

Riveted Blue Jeans, Fire Sprinkler, QWERTY Keyboard, Dental Drill

 Work clothes were important for factories. Cowboys needed tough clothes too. Expanded railroads attracted workers. Levis Strauss was born in Germany in 1879. He went to America with his mom and two of his sisters when he was 18. His brothers owned a shop. The family entered the dry good business. He moved to San Fransisco during the gold rush. He moved to making tents. One day, a wife asked him to make a strong pair of pants for her husband. He invented blue jeans in 1873. They were more durable than other kinds of work pants.

The fire extinguisher was invented in 1818. The soda extinguisher invented in 1866 was a better system needed for large machines. Congreve invented a manual sprinkler system in 1812. Maxin invented an automatic sprinkler system in England, but it did not catch on. Henry Parmalee was born in Ohio in 1846. He faced high insurance for his piano factory. He invented the automatic fire sprinkler in 1874. It detected heat using sensitive elements. Parmalee had good success in the US.

Christofer Latham Shules, editor in Wisconsin. The typewriter prints letters onto paper when keys are pressed. He invented the QWERt'y keyboard in 1878. It increases typing speed to 100 words per minute. Competitors created alternate layouts. Remington Rand invented the UNIVAC alternate layout in 1936.

Cavities were treated in the ancient world. They used slow hand drills that were very painful. A clockwork drill was invented in 1864. George Green invented the electric dental drill in 1874. Made it easier to fix teeth. Used in filling cavities. It causes less pain.

Clothes Hanger, Rotary Can Opener, Mail Order Catalog, Earmuffs

 In the Middle Ages, nobles and peasants lived together. Clothes were stored in chests. Closets were invented for privacy. Chests of drawers appeared in the 1800s. O. A. North invented Clothes Hanger in 1869 and patented it in January of 1869. Clothes hangers store our clothes. Their shape keeps the clothes from wrinkling. It became important in small New York apartments. Albert Parker invented the wire hanger in 1903. It became a cultural phenomenon because of the scene from "Mommy Dearest" in 1981. Joy Magano invented an improved hanger in 1999.

Tin cans were invented in 1810 in England. They were very hard to open. William Lyman was born in Connecticut in 1821. He was an apprentice to a pewter making company. He invented several products on the side. He invented the Rotary Can Opener in 1870. It allowed almost anyone to open a shut can. Improved versions appeared in 1925. It created the orange juice industry. They keep us safe in the kitchen.

Aaron Montgomery was born in New Jersy in 1844. His family moved to Michigan when he was 9. He became an apprentice of barrel making. He got 25 cents a day. Then he moved to stacking bricks for fireplaces. He became a shoe salesman (a good one). He moved to Chicago at age 21 and learned of rural complaints. He wanted to improve rural service. They wanted prices to be lovered. He invented the mail-order catalog in 1872. It allows people to shop from home. It featured over 20,000 items in just two years.

Ear muffs keep our ears warm in cold and windy weather. 

Combine Harvester, Solar Compass, Propeller, Mechanical Computer

 Hiram Moore, born in 1801 in New Hampshire. More developed the combine Harvester in 1834. Moore sent some to California to harvest over 100 acres of wheat in 1854. The first commercially successful model appeared around 1886.

William Austin Burt, born in 1792, invented the solar compass to solve problems of magnetic interference in 1835. Burt won an award form the Franklin Institute. It became the US Government's standard surveying tool after its patent expired. The solar compass was a complex device that did not suffer from magnetic field interference.

Francis Pettit Smith was born in England in 1808. Another inventor patented a propeller six weeks after smith did. Smith convinced Brunell to use the propeller instead of the paddlewheel. Francis Pettit Smith invented a successful screw propeller in 1835. The screw propeller had advantages over the paddlewheel. It was lighter, more efficient, and helped the ships not rock.

Charles Babbage was born in London in 1791. He became self-taught in math. Babbage envisioned a programmable, mechanical computer that could print tabular data accurately, without error. It even had data memory.

Rotary Printing Press, Kerosene, Antiseptics, Gas Mask

 Richard Hoe was born in New York in 1812. He invented the rotary-press in 1843, 10 years after his dad died. He became president of his father's press manufacturing company when he was 21. The Rotary Press uses rotating drums. It can print 7 million pages per hour. Magazines began growing in popularity during the 1820s.

Al-Razi was born in Iran in 865 A.D. Later on in his life, he discovered kerosene. Kerosene is used for heating and lighting. Knowledge was lost over time. Abraham Genser was born in Canada in 1897. When he was 27, he got married. He moved to England to become a doctor. After meeting Charles Lyell, he became interested in geology. He practiced geology and medicine back home in Canada. He invented Kerosene in 1846. Gesner formed a company in 1850 to sell lamps and oil. He became the richest man in America. He turned completely to giving away his money instead of keeping it. Kerosene put man on the moon.

Ignaz Semmelweis was born in Budapest in 1818. He worked for Vienna General Hospital. He invented a use for antiseptic in 1847. Semmelweis reduced mortality from 18% to 2% in one month. Repeated success in Budapest in 1857. Germ theory gained dominance in the 1880s.

People wear gas masks to filter polluted air. Ancient cultures used gas masks. Lewis P. Haslett invented the prototype of modern version in 1847. Gas masks protect lungs from polluted air. Germans launched chemical weapons in World War I. Modern gas masks were invented in 1844. The army uses gas masks on the battlefield.

Ether, Fax Machine, Steam Ships, Ice Cream

Crawford Long was born in Georgia in 1815. He spent 20 years trying to become a doctor. He used Ether as an anesthetic. An anesthetic is a drug that makes you lose consciousness. This means you fall asleep and you can't see, hear, or feel. In 1842, James Simpson was inspired by ether to invent chloroform for use during childbirth.

Copies of writings used to have to be made by hand. Alexander Bain was born in Scotland in 1811. Bain invented the Fax Machine. He moved to London and combined clockmaking and electricity to make the fax machine. Fax machines scan and reproduce documents and it can transmit a page every 5 seconds over the telephone lines. An Italian developed a machine that became commercially successful around 1861.

Sailing across the high seas was dangerous. Isambard Brunel was born in England in 1806. He was an apprentice to a clockmaker. Brunel built bridges and the Great Western Railroad. Large steamships transport people and cargo long distances across the ocean. The SS Great Eastern laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable. Now they could send telegraphs over the Atlantic Ocean.

Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked Ice Cream machine. The ingredients in ice-cream are whipped cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. Put the ingredients together in a stainless steel container. Put that container in a wooden container. Fill that container with ice. Turn a handle until you think it's done. Then take the container out of the wooden container. Then you're done. (we're very thankful for her).