Monday, June 30, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE TYPEWRITER?











No single person or nation can be credited with the invention of the typewriter. As with the light bulb, automobile, telephone, and telegraph, a number of people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in commercially successful instruments. In fact, historians have estimated that some form of typewriter was invented 52 times as tinkerers tried to come up with a workable design.
In 1714, Henry Mill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that, from the patent, appears to have been similar to a typewriter, but nothing further is known. Other early developers of typewriting machines include Pellegrino Turri, who also invented carbon paper. Many of these early machines, including Turri's, were developed to enable the blind to write.
In 1829, William Austin Burt patented a machine called the "Typographer." Like many other early machines, it is sometimes listed as the "first typewriter"; the Science Museum (London) describes it merely as "the first writing mechanism whose invention was documented," but even that claim may be excessive, since Turri's machine is well known. Even in the hands of its inventor, it was slower than handwriting. Burt and his promoter John D. Sheldon never found a buyer for the patent, and it was never commercially produced. Because it used a dial to select each character rather than keys, it was called an "index typewriter" rather than a "keyboard typewriter," if it is to be considered a typewriter at all.
By the mid-1800s, the increasing pace of business communication was creating a need for mechanization of the writing process. Stenographers and telegraphers could take down information at rates up to 130 words per minute, but a writer with a pen was limited to about 30 words per minute (the 1853 speed record). From 1829 to 1870, many printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and America, but none went into commercial production.
Charles Thurber developed multiple patents; his first, in 1843, was developed as an aid to the blind. See Charles Thurber's 1845 Chirographer, as an example. In 1855, the Italian Giuseppe Ravizza created a prototype typewriter called "Cembalo scrivano o macchina da scrivere a tasti." It was an advanced machine that let the user see the writing as it was typed. In 1861, Father Francisco João de Azevedo, a Brazilian priest, made his own typewriter with basic materials and tools, such as wood and knives. D. Pedro I, the Brazilian emperor, in that same year, presented a gold medal to Father Azevedo for this invention. Many Brazilian people as well as the Brazilian federal government recognize Fr. Azevedo as the real inventor of the typewriter, a claim that has been the subject of some controversy. Between 1864 and 1867 Peter Mitterhofer, a carpenter from South Tyrol (then Austria) developed several models of a typewriter and a fully functioning prototype in 1867.


In 1865, Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark invented the Hansen Writing Ball, which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first commercially sold typewriter. It was a success in Europe and was reported as being used in offices in London as late as 1909.In addition, Malling-Hansen used a solenoid escapement to return the carriage on some of his models and was a responsible candidate for the first "electric" typewriter. From the book Hvem er Skrivekuglens Opfinder?, written by Malling-Hansen's daughter, Johanne Agerskov, we know that, in 1865, Malling-Hansen made a porcelain model of the keyboard of his writing ball and experimented with different placements of the letters to achieve the fastest writing speed. Malling-Hansen placed the letters on short pistons that went directly through the ball and down to the paper. This, together with placement of the letters so that the fastest writing fingers struck the most frequently used letters, made the Hansen Writing Ball the first typewriter to produce text substantially faster than a person could write by hand.
Malling-Hansen developed his typewriter further through the 1870s and 1880s and made many improvements, but the writing head remained the same. On the first model of the writing ball from 1870, the paper was attached to a cylinder inside a wooden box. In 1874, the cylinder was replaced by a carriage, moving beneath the writing head. Then, in 1875, the well-known tall model was patented and it was the first of the writing balls that worked without electricity. Malling-Hansen attended the world exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and Paris in 1878. At both exhibitions, he received the first-prize medals for his invention.


The first typewriter to be commercially successful was invented in 1867 by Christopher Sholes,[1] Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sholes soon disowned the machine and refused to use or even to recommend it. The patent (US 79,265) was sold for $12,000 to Densmore and Yost, who made an agreement with E. Remington and Sons (then famous as a manufacturer of sewing machines) to commercialize what was known as the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer. Remington started production of its first typewriter on March 1, 1873, in Ilion, New York. Another early typewriter manufacturer was Underwood.


The ability to view what is typed, as it is typed, is taken for granted today. In most early keyboard typewriters, however, the typebars struck upward against the bottom of the platen. Thus, what was typed was not visible until the typing of subsequent lines caused it to scroll into view. The difficulty with any other arrangement was ensuring that the typebars fell back into place reliably when the key was released. This was eventually achieved with various ingenious mechanical designs and so-called "visible typewriters", such as the Oliver typewriter, were introduced in 1895. Surprisingly, the older style continued in production to as late as 1915.

Standardization
By about 1910, the "manual" or "mechanical" typewriter had reached a somewhat standardized design. There were minor variations from one manufacturer to another, but most typewriters followed the concept that each key was attached to a typebar that had the corresponding letter molded, in reverse, into its striking head. To have letters typed in exact location, the typebar was guided all its way till the ribbon by segment. When a key was struck briskly and firmly, the typebar hit a ribbon (usually made of inked fabric) stretched in front of a cylindrical platen that moved back and forth. The paper was rolled around by the typewriter's platen, which was then rotated by the "carriage return" lever (at the far left) into position for each new line of text.
A significant innovation was the Shift key. This key physically "shifted" the basket of typebars, so that a different portion of the bar would come in contact with the ribbon/platen. The result is that each typebar could type two different characters, cutting the number of keys and typebars in half (and simplifying the internal mechanisms considerably). The obvious use for this was to allow letter keys to type both upper and lower case, but normally the number keys were also duplexed, allowing access to special symbols such as percent (%) and ampersand (&). With the Shift key, manufacturing costs (and therefore purchase price) were greatly reduced, and typist operation was simplified; both factors contributed greatly to mass adoption of the technology.
Because the Shift key required more force to push (its mechanism was moving a much larger mass than other keys), and was operated by the "pinky" finger (normally the weakest finger on the hand), it was difficult to hold the Shift down for more than two or three consecutive strokes. The "Shift Lock" key (the precursor to the modern Caps Lock) allowed the shift operation to be maintained indefinitely. Unlike the today's Caps Lock, however, the Shift Lock was a two-key operation: Shift would be held down, and the Shift Lock (normally directly above) would be pressed simultaneously, triggering a simple lock mechanism. To unlock, Shift was tapped again, releasing both keys and unshifting the basket.
Some ribbons were inked in black and red stripes, each being half the width and the entire length of the ribbon. A lever on most machines allowed switching between colors, which was useful for bookkeeping entries where negative amounts had to be in red.
In the 1940s, a silent typewriter was marketed, but it failed, leading some observers to the conclusion that the clickety-clack of the typical typewriter was a consumer preference.

Electric Designs
Although electric typewriters would not achieve widespread popularity until nearly a century later, the basic groundwork for the electric typewriter was laid by the Universal Stock Ticker, invented by Thomas Edison in 1870. This device remotely printed letters and numbers on a stream of paper tape from input generated by a specially designed typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line.
The first electric typewriter was produced by the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company, of Stamford, Connecticut, in 1902. While never marketed commercially, this was the first known typewriter to use a typewheel rather than individual typebars, although the element was cylindrical rather than ball-shaped. The next step in the development of the electric typewriter came in 1909, when Charles and Howard Krum file a patent for the first practical teletype machine. The Krums' machine also used a typewheel rather than individual typebars. While innovative, neither of these machines reached the business or personal consumer.
Electrical typewriter designs removed the direct mechanical connection between the keys and the element that struck the paper. Not to be confused with later electronic typewriters, electric typewriters contained only a single electrical component: the motor. Where the keystroke had previously moved a typebar directly, now it engaged mechanical linkages that directed mechanical power from the motor into the typebar. This was also true of the forthcoming IBM Selectric.
IBM and Remington Rand electric typewriters were the leading models until IBM introduced the IBM Selectric typewriter, which replaced the typebars with a spherical element (or typeball) slightly larger than a golf ball, with the reverse-image letters molded around its surface. The Selectric used a system of latches, metal tapes, and pulleys driven by an electric motor to rotate the ball into the correct position and then strike it against the ribbon and platen. The typeball moved laterally in front of the paper instead of the former platen-carrying carriage moving the paper across a stationary print position.


The typeball design had many advantages, especially the elimination of "jams" (when more than one key was struck at once and the levers became entangled) and in the ability to change the typeball, allowing multiple fonts to be used in a single document. Selectric mechanisms were widely incorporated into computer terminals in the 1960s, because the typing mechanism (a) was reasonably fast and jam-free, (b) could produce high quality output compared to competitors such as Teletype machines, (c) could be initiated by a short, low-force mechanical action, (d) did not require the movement of a heavy "type basket" to shift between lower- and upper-case, and (e) did not require the platen roller assembly to move from side to side (a problem with continuous-feed paper). The IBM 2741 terminal was a popular example of a Selectric-based computer terminal, and similar mechanisms were employed as the console devices for many IBM System/360 computers. These mechanisms used "ruggedized" designs compared to those in standard commercial typewriters.
IBM also gained an advantage by marketing more heavily to schools than did Remington, with the idea that students who learned to type on an IBM Electric would later choose IBM typewriters over the competition in the workplace as businesses replaced their old manual models.
Later models of IBM Executives and Selectrics replaced inked fabric ribbons with "carbon film" ribbons that had a dry black or colored powder on a clear plastic tape. These could be used only once, but later models used a cartridge that was simple to replace. A side effect of this technology was that the text typed on the machine could be easily read from the used ribbon, raising issues where the machines were used for preparing classified documents (ribbons had to be accounted for to ensure that typists didn't carry them from the facility). In fact, a document reconstructed from a used carbon ribbon was the key to solving a crime in an episode of Columbo.

A variation known as "Correcting Selectrics" introduced a correction feature, where a sticky tape in front of the print ribbon could remove the black-powdered image of a typed character, eliminating the need for white dab-on paint or hard erasers that could tear the paper. These machines also introduced selectable "pitch" so that the typewriter could be switched between pica (10 characters per inch) and elite (12 per inch), even within one document. Even so, all Selectrics were monospaced—each character and letterspace was allotted the same width on the page, from a capital "W" to a period. Although IBM had produced a successful typebar-based machine with three levels of proportional spacing, called the IBM Executive, no proportionally spaced Selectric office typewriter was ever introduced. There were, however, two other machines with fully proportional spacing: the expensive Selectric Composer, which was capable of right-margin justification and was considered a typesetting machine rather than a typewriter; and the more reasonably priced IBM Electronic Typewriter 50, which was capable of proportional spacing but not right-justifying. By 1970, as offset printing began to replace letterpress printing, the Composer would be adapted as the output unit for a typesetting system. The system included a computer-driven input station to capture the key strokes on magnetic tape and insert the operator's format commands, and a Composer unit to read the tape and produce the formatted text for photo reproduction.
The final major development of the typewriter was the "electronic" typewriter. Most of these replaced the typeball with a daisy wheel mechanism (a disk with the letters molded on the outside edge of the "petals"). A plastic daisy-wheel was much simpler and cheaper than the typeball but also wore out more easily. Some electronic typewriters were in essence dedicated word processors with internal memory and cartridge or diskette external memory-storage devices. Unlike the Selectrics and earlier models, these really were "electronic" and relied on integrated circuits and multiple electromechanical components.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia






Sunday, June 29, 2008

WHO INVENTED ERASERS?



Graphite is a form of carbon, first discovered in the Seathwaite Valley on the side of the mountain Seathwaite Fell in Borrowdale, near Keswick, England, about 1564 by an unknown person. Shortly after this the first pencils were made in the same area.
The breakthrough in pencil technology came when French chemist Nicolas Conte developed and patented the process used to make pencils in 1795. He used a mixture of clay and graphite that was fired before it was put in a wooden case. The pencils he made were cylindrical with a slot. The square lead was glued into the slot and a thin strip of wood was used to fill the rest of the slot. Pencils got their name from the old English word meaning 'brush'. Conte's method of kiln firing powdered graphite and clay allowed pencils to be made to any hardness or softness - very important to artists and draftsmen.
Charles Marie de la Condamine, a French scientist and explorer, was the first European to bring back the natural substance called "India" rubber. He brought a sample to the Institute de France in Paris in 1736. South American Indian tribes used rubber to making bouncing playing balls and as an adhesive for attaching feathers and other objects to their bodies.
In 1770, the noted scientist Sir Joseph Priestley (discoverer of oxygen) recorded the following, "I have seen a substance excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the mark of black lead pencil." Europeans were rubbing out pencil marks with the small cubes of rubber, the substance that Condamine had brought to Europe from South America. They called their erasers "peaux de negres". However, rubber was not an easy substance to work with because it went bad very easily -- just like food, rubber would rot. English engineer, Edward Naime is also credited with the creation of the first eraser in 1770. Before rubber, breadcrumbs had been used to erase pencil marks. Naime claims he accidentally picked up a piece of rubber instead of his lump of bread and discovered the possibilities, he went on to sell the new rubbing out devices or rubbers.
In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered a way to cure rubber and make it a lasting and useable material. He called his process vulcanization, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. In 1844, Goodyear patented his process. With the better rubber available, erasers became quite common.
The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in 1858 to a man from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. This patent was later held to be invalid because it was merely the combination of two things, without a new use.
At first penknives were used to sharpen pencils. They got their name from the fact that they were first used to shape feather quills used as early pens. In 1828, Bernard Lassimone, a French mathematician applied for a patent (French patent #2444) on an invention to sharpen pencils. However, it was not until 1847 that Therry des Estwaux first invented the manual pencil sharpener, as we know it.
John Lee Love of Fall River, MA designed the "Love Sharpener." Love's invention was the very simple, portable pencil sharpener that many artists use. The pencil is put into the opening of the sharpener and rotated by hand, and the shavings stay inside the sharpener. Love's sharpener was patented on November 23, 1897 (U.S. Patent # 594,114). Four years earlier, Love created and patented his first invention, the "Plasterer's Hawk." This device, which is still used today, is a flat square piece of board made of wood or metal, upon which plaster or mortar was placed and then spread by plasterers or masons. This was patented on July 9, 1895.
One source claims that the Hammacher Schlemmer Company of New York offered the world's first electric pencil sharpener designed by Raymond Loewy, sometime in the early 1940s.
In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the first pencil factory in the United States in New York City.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

WHO INVENTED RUM?



The derivation of the word rum is obscure. One theory is that it came from the Latin word for sugar, saccharum, but it may just as well have resulted from someone attempting to pronounce his own name after imbibing too much of this deceptively powerful liquor. Barbados and Puerto Rico both claim to have invented rum in the seventeenth century. Within a century there were nearly 160 distilleries in New England alone. Rumbullion or Kill Divill, as rum was called in colonial times, is made from sugar cane that is crushed, boiled down into molasses, fermented, and then distilled. All rum is aged for at least two and up to ten years, longer for añejo, or “aged” rum. Light (or silver) rum is clear, while medium (or gold) rum is slightly darker due to aging or the addition of caramel. Dark rum is the result of longer aging and more caramel, creating a heavier, more aromatic liquor. Modern distilleries are experimenting with the addition of spices and other aromatics. Last, there is the prodigious 151-proof, which could immobilize a fully grown elephant.

Friday, June 27, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE UMBRELLA?



The basic umbrella was invented over four thousand years ago. We have seen evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China.
These ancient umbrellas or parasols, were first designed to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection. They waxed and lacquered their paper parasols in order to use them for rain.
The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin root word "umbra", meaning shade or shadow. Starting in the 16th century umbrella became popular to the western world, especially in the rainy weather of northern Europe. At first it was considered only an accessory suitable for women. Then the Persian traveler and writer, Jonas Hanway (1712-86), carried and used an umbrella publicly in England for thirty years, and he popularized umbrella use among men. English gentleman often referred to their umbrellas as a "Hanway."
The first all umbrella shop was called "James Smith and Sons". The shop opened in 1830, and is still located at 53 New Oxford St., in London, England.
The early European umbrellas were made of wood or whalebone and covered with alpaca or oiled canvas. The artisans made the curved handles for the umbrellas out of hard woods like ebony, and were well paid for their efforts.
In 1852, Samuel Fox invented the steel ribbed umbrella design. Fox also founded the "English Steels Company", and claimed to have invented the steel ribbed umbrella as a way of using up stocks of farthingale stays, steel stays used in women's corsets. African-American, inventor, William C. Carter patented an umbrella stand (U.S. patent#323,397 - see image left) on August the 8th, 1885.
After that, compact collapsible umbrellas were the next major technical innovation in umbrella manufacture, over a century later.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

WHO INVENTED CEREAL?



The first modern and commercial cereal foods were created by the American Seventh-day Adventists. The Adventists formed the Western Health Reform Institute in the 1860s. The Institute was later renamed the Battle Creek Sanitarium after its location in Battle Creek, Michigan. The Adventists manufactured, promoted, and sold wholesome cereals.
Cereal or grain is a member of the grass plant family, with starchy seeds used for food. Common cereals are: wheat, rice, rye, oats, barley, corn (maize), and sorghum.
Will Keith KelloggWill Keith Kellogg was the founder of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, founded in 1906. In 1894, Kellogg was trying to improve the diet of hospital patients. He was searching for a digestible bread substitute using the process of boiling wheat. Kellogg accidentally left a pot of boiled wheat to stand and the wheat became tempered (soften). When Kellogg rolled the tempered or softened wheat and let it dry, each grain of wheat emerged as a large thin flake. The flakes turned out to be a tasty cereal. Kellogg had invented corn flakes.
Kellogg received his M.D. from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, in 1875. He was a Seventh-day Adventist. (Kellogg's Company)
Will Keith KelloggWill Keith Kellogg, founder of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, may be best known as the cereal industry giant and inventor of corn flakes.
W. K. Kellogg / Kellogg CompanyWill Keith Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906.
Rice Krispies were introduced by Kellogg in 1929.
C(harles) W(illiam) PostAmerican manufacturer noted for his development of breakfast cereals.
Cherrios"The year was 1941 and America's first ready-to-eat oat cereal with crisp doughnut-like rings was arriving on store shelves. The introduction of the seven-ounce box of Cheerioats was a major event for General Mills."
Cereal Advertising Icon ToysSince the Quaker Oats man became the first registered breakfast cereal trademark in 1877, breakfast cereals have been synonymous with characters like Tony the Tiger of Kelloggs, the Trix Rabbit, and Post's Sugar Bear.
Victorian BreakfastsOne distinctly American component was corn, especially in the South where hominy, first eaten by Native Americans, was joined by corn meal mush, corn pone, grits, and so on.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE MICROSCOPE?



During the 1st century AD (year 100), glass had been invented and the Romans were looking through the glass and testing it. They experimented with different shapes of clear glass and one of their samples was thick in the middle and thin on the edges. They discovered that if you held one of these “lenses” over an object, the object would look larger.
Someone also discovered that you can focus the rays of the sun with one of these special “glasses” and start a fire. These early lenses were called magnifiers or burning glasses. The word lens by the way, is derived from the latin word lentil, as they were named because they resembled the shape of a lentil bean (look up lens in a dictionary).
These lenses were not used much until the end of the 13th century when spectacle makers were producing lenses to be worn as glasses.
The early simple “microscopes” which were really only magnifying glasses had one power, usually about 6X - 10X . One thing that was very common and interesting to look at was fleas and other tiny insects. These early magnifiers were hence called “flea glasses”.
Sometime about the year 1590, two Dutch spectacle makers, Zaccharias Janssen and his father Hans started experimenting with these lenses. They put several lenses in a tube and made a very important discovery. The object near the end of the tube appeared to be greatly enlarged, much larger than any simple magnifying glass could achieve by itself! They had just invented the compound microscope (which is a microscope that uses two or more lenses).
Galileo heard of their experiments and started experimenting on his own. He described the principles of lenses and light rays and improved both the microscope and telescope. He added a focusing device to his microscope and of course went on to explore the heavens with his telescopes.
Anthony Leeuwenhoek of Holland became very interested in lenses while working with magnifying glasses in a dry goods store. He used the magnifying glass to count threads in woven cloth. He became so interested that he learned how to make lenses. By grinding and polishing, he was able to make small lenses with great curvatures. These rounder lenses produced greater magnification, and his microscopes were able to magnify up to 270X!
Anthony Leeuwenhoek became more involved in science and with his new improved microscope was able to see things that no man had ever seen before. He saw bacteria, yeast, blood cells and many tiny animals swimming about in a drop of water. From his great contributions, many discoveries and research papers, Anthony Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) has since been called the "Father of Microscopy".
Robert Hooke, an Englishman (who is sometimes called the “English Father of Microscopy”), also spent much of his life working with microscopes and improved their design and capabilities.
Little was done to improve the microscope until the middle of the 19th century when great strides were made and quality instruments like today’s microscope emerged. Companies in Germany like Zeiss and an American company founded by Charles Spencer began producing fine optical instruments.
Today, there are no microscope manufacturers in the US and most of the microscopes come from Germany, Japan and China. Toy plastic microscopes should be avoided as they do not achieved the level of quality of the basic instruments with metal frames and glass lenses.
Because of foreign production, quality microscopes have become affordable for all. Zaccharias Janssen, the inventor of the microscope would marvel at the quality of even the most basic microscopes found in schools today.

Monday, June 23, 2008

WHO INVENTED DISPOSABLE SANITARY NAPKINS?



THIS IS MY HUNDREDTH POST FOR THIS BLOG!!! YIPPPPEEEEE! STILL GOING STRONG!


Kotex were first manufactured as bandages during World War I. Status: True. Origins: Though no soldiers were charging about the battlefield with sanitary napkins tied to their arms, a new type of material which had proved so effective as bandages in that conflict was years later revamped into Kotex. What was invented to meet a critical need in a war soon afterwards found a valuable peacetime use. Kotex is a product of the Kimberly-Clark company. In 1914 this (then) conservative supplier of paper developed an absorbent wadding from processed wood and dubbed it Cellucotton. Five times as absorbent as cotton and costing only half as much, Cellucotton was used to bandage wounds in World War I. (Kimberly-Clark agreed to provide it to the War Department at cost, refusing the chance to make a healthy profit.) After the war (1919), Kimberly-Clark faced the question of what to do with Cellucotton. The company hit upon the notion of marketing disposable sanitary napkins. Prior to this invention, women used and reused cloth rags -- this was indeed groundbreaking stuff. The resulting product was first marketed as Cellunap, a contraction of "Cellucotton napkins." Immediately upon hire, Kimberly-Clark's first marketing agency (Charles F.W. Nichols Company) suggested changing the name to Kotex, short for "cotton textile". Though there were still battles to be waged in getting magazines to accept ads for this product, stores to stock it, and women to buy it, by 1945 nearly all American women were using commercially-made pads and tampons. (Tampax came on the market in 1936.) The days of the cloth rags were over.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE DISPOSABLE DIAPERS?



The first Diaper was invented by many people there isn't just one inventor. But the first diaper that was water proof was invented by Marion Donovian , it was made with a plastic cover on the outside. But before that was invented, we used leaves attached by the stem, animal skin to help prevent leaks and it's softer on the babies bottom and other creative sources. In the olden days when cotton diapers were made babies would wear the same diapers for days. Diapers with safety pins were invented in the 1800's.


1940's

We know that the first official diapers were made with a piece of material "cotton". But the cotton diapers had to be changed and washed on a regular bases, and that was difficult for mothers during the 2 world war. That was when the first disposable diaper was invented. The men in the war delivered a pack of disposable diapers each week. After the war the mothers had to go to the doctor to get disposable diapers. Marion Dionovian was really interested by the invention of diapers so she tried to find other models but she didn't succeed.

1950's
Back then some people thought that dad's didn't know best, but Vic Mills thought that he knew even more. Vic Mills a grand father looked for an easier way to put diapers on his grandson the results: Pampers was born (a very successful disposable diaper company). 10 years later, packs of Pampers diapers were found in grocery stores the idea was to keep the babies bottom's dry. His product was so different that they had no idea where to put them so you could find them in the convenient section and the food section and the drug store.


1960's
Disposable diapers started to get quite popular in the 1960's for mothers and it was very easy because they didn't have to change the diaper as often because it has away of absorbing liquid. This year the Pampers diaper company came out with different sizes, large and medium. Some people didn't like them because they had attendancy to leak. A few years later they came out with a third size small so they had 3 sizes. There was an 8-10% chance the diapers would leak. And they had a machine that made 150 diaper per minute.

1970's

In this year a second very popular diaper company Huggies was invented so now there were two diaper companies Huggies (Kimberley Clark) and Pampers (Gamble). So there was a competition between the two Diaper company's. In this same the diaper machine was updated to 250 diapers per minute. They also started putting disposable diapers in less fortunate countries such as Mexico, Argentina and Chili. Some diapers are made in a bad way that causes babies to develop their bones badly. So doctors complained to the diapers companies were updated and they had to find a different model. Huggies had the first idea it was a rectangular/circle shaped diaper. In this year Pampers replaced pin diapers with sticky tabs to hold everything together. That invention occupied Pampers for a few years, and also Pampers came up with a disposable diaper that absorbed extra liquid during the day.



1980's

Pampers and Huggies put cotton material in there diapers. Now the diapers only had a 2% chance of leaks. The fist diaper in Japan was made in 1989. Also the diaper introduced the value pack and it had extra diapers because you can never have to many diapers they also had ideas like the fist skinny diaper that had absorbent gel material and an elastic leg, a sticky tab that you can reattach take it off then put it back on, with a soft layer. They figured out that there advanced program.


1990's
Diapers were made extra soft this year, and there were more sizes. And diapers that held more liquid before the leaks came. In the world the population of people that bought disposable diapers raised the percentage up to 95%. The diaper machine that made 250 in 1970 went up to 900 diapers per minute. The price of disposable raised because the advanced quality and they had packs that carried more diapers.


TODAY-2000'S
So many other diaper sizes came out and the companies Huggies an Pampers came out with preemies, newborn, ultra trim, over nights and supreme. They made a diaper that hade powder that turned into gel when water goes on it. in the United states they make over 18 Billion packs per year. what are they going to think of next? They already invented that breath, really they breath. And the diapers premium and baby dry have protecting cream that helps the babies bottom stay soft and smooth.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE LUNAR SURFACE ULTRAVIOLET CAMERAS AND SPECTROGRAPH?

George Carruthers 1940-
-A NASA scientist who invented the lunar surface ultraviolet cameras and spectrograph, which became the moon's first observatory. This device takes photographic images of the Earth's upper atmosphere.

George Carruthers has gained international recognition for his work which focuses on ultraviolet observations of the earth's upper atmosphere and of astronomical phenomena. Ultraviolet light is the electromagnetic radiation between visible light and x-rays. George Carruthers first major contribution to science was to lead the team that invented the far ultraviolet camera spectrograph. He developed the first moon-based space observatory, an ultraviolet camera that was carried to the moon by Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972. The camera was positioned on the moon's surface and allowed researchers to examine the Earth's atmosphere for concentrations of pollutants.
Dr. George Carruthers received a patent for his invention the "Image Converter for Detecting Electromagnetic Radiation specially in Short Wave Lengths" on November 11, 1969.
He has been the principal investigator for numerous NASA and DoD sponsored space instruments including a 1986 rocket instrument that obtained ultraviolet image of Comet Halley. His most recent on the Air Force ARGOS mission captured an image of a Leonid shower meteor entering the earth's atmosphere, the first time a meteor has been imaged in the far ultraviolet from a space-borne camera.
George Carruthers was born in Cincinnati Ohio on October 1, 1939 and grew up in South Side, Chicago. At the age of ten, he built a telescope, however, he did not do well in school studying math and physics but still went on to win three science fair awards. Dr. Carruthers graduated from Englewood High School in Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1961. Dr. Carruthers also obtained his graduate education at the University of Illinois, completing a master's degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and a doctorate in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1964.
In 1993, Dr. Carruthers was one of the first 100 recipients of the Black Engineer of the Year award honored by US Black Engineer He has also worked with NRL's Community Outreach Program and several outside education and community outreach organizations in support of educational activities in science at Ballou High School and other DC area schools.
George Carruthers Inventor of the far-ultraviolet camera and spectrograph - Invention Dimension.
George Carruthers Carruthers is best known for having found the proof of molecular hydrogen in interstellar space. Spectrographs are images which use a prism (or a diffraction grating) to show the spectrum of light produced by an element or elements.
George R. Carruthers : Astrophysicist An inventor as well as physicist, George Carruthers was instrumental in the design of lunar surface ultraviolet cameras.
Hyperspectral Imaging of the Global Ionosphere from the ARGOS Satellite Paper co-written by George Carruthers.
TDPNewsletter Profile on inventors' image converter for detecting eletromagnetic radiation especially in short wave length.
Related Information Black Inventors
©Mary Bellis


George R. Carruthers was born on October 1st, 1939. He is an African-American Astrophysicist. From Cincinnati, Ohio Carruthers received his B.S. Physics from University of Illinois in 1961, M.S. Physics in 1962, and his Ph.D. in aeronautical and astronomical engineering in 1964 with a dissertation entitled: Experimental Investigations of Atomic Nitrogen Recombination. He was a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, AIAA, AAAS, National Technical Association, and has been Chairman of the Editing and Review Committee and Editor, Journal of the National Technical Association, 1983 to present. Dr. Carruthers held the position of Rocket Astronomy Research Physicist from 1964 to 1982. He was Head of the Ultraviolet Measurements Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory. An inventor as well as physicist, George Carruthers was instrumental in the design of lunar surface ultraviolet cameras. Dr. Carruthers research focused on research in experimental investigations of atomic nitrogen recombination. He has received many awards including: Arthur S. Fleming Award (Washington Jaycees), 1971, Exceptional Achievement Scientific Award Medal NASA 1972, the Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the National Science Foundation Fellow, and the Honorary Doctor of Engineering, Michigan Technological University.



Friday, June 20, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE FIRST RADAR THAT COULD LOCATE DOWNED PLANES?



O.S. "Ozzie" Williams 1921-
-A NASA scientist who invented the first radar that could locate downed planes.
-He was the chief developer of the Apollo lunar lander engines.

Ozzie Williams*Ozzie Williams was born on this date in 1921. He is an African-American Engineer. From Washington, D. C., his father was Oswald S. Williams, a postal worker, and his mother was Marie (Madden) Williams, a housewife. He grew up in New York, graduating from Boys High School in Brooklyn in 1938. Williams became interested in engineering as a teenager. He loved to make model airplanes and decided to become an engineer after a family friend described an engineer as a person who designs things. Williams went to New York University where a dean discouraged him because he was black. Williams completed his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering at New York University in 1943; he received his master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the same institution in 1947. During World War II, Williams was a senior aerodynamicist with the Republic Aviation Corporation. He helped to design the P47 Thunderbolt, which was pivotal in the war effort. In 1947 Williams moved to the Babcock and Wilcox Company, where he was a design draftsman. He then spent two years as a technical writer with the United States Navy Material Catalog Office, leaving in 1950 to take an engineering position at Greer Hydraulics, Inc. At Greer, as a group project leader, he was responsible for the development of the first experimental airborne radio beacon, which was used to locate crashed airplanes. In 1956, Williams moved to the Reaction Motors Division of Thiokol Chemical Corporation, where he was responsible for pioneering work on small rocket engines. Grumman International hired Williams as a propulsion engineer in 1961 because of his expertise on liquid-fuel rockets. He had published several papers on the subject, one of which, "On the feasibility of liquid bipropellant rockets for spacecraft attitude control," was translated into Russian. At Grumman, Williams managed the development of the Apollo Lunar Module reaction control subsystem. Williams was fully responsible for the $42 million effort for eight years. He managed the three engineering groups that developed the small rocket motors--which used 100 pounds of thrust in comparison to the 10,500 pounds of thrust of the lunar module's main engine--that guided the lunar module, the part of the Apollo spacecraft that actually landed on the moon. Williams went on to become their company vice president in 1974. After leaving Grumman he became a marketing professor at St. John's University in Queens, New York, where he had completed an M.B.A. in 1981. Williams was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as an associate fellow and past chair of its Liquid Rockets Technical Committee. The second African-American to receive a degree in aeronautical engineering, in 1993, O. S. and Doris Reid Williams celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.veloper of the Apollo lunar lander engines.


Thursday, June 19, 2008

WHO PERFORMED THE WORLD'S FIRST HEART SURGERY?



Daniel Hale Williams (Also part Native-American) 1856-1931
-He performed the world's first heart surgery; the man lived 40 more years.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams was born on January 18, 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Daniel's father, a barber, died early. Daniel was sent to be apprentice to a shoemaker in Baltimore but ran away to join his mother. At one point, he even opened his own barber shop. He began working as an apprentice to Dr. Henry Palmer for two years and in 1880 entered what is now known as Northwestern University Medical School. After graduation from Northwestern in 1883, he opened his own medical office in Chicago, Illinois.
He was appointed as a surgeon on the staff of the South Side Dispensary and then a clinical instructor in anatomy at Northwestern. In 1889 he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health and one year later set for to create an interracial hospital. On January 23, 1891 Daniel Hale Williams established the Provident Hospital and Training School Association. The school also served to train Black nurses and utilized doctors of all races.
On July 9, 1893, a young Black stabbing victim was transported to Provident Hospital with a great deal of blood loss and having gone into shock.. Williams made the decision to operate and opened the man's chest. That was the first open heart surgery. Fifty one days later, the patient was completely recovered and went on to live for another fifty years. His procedures became standards for future internal surgeries.
In February 1894, Daniel Hale Williams was appointed as Chief Surgeon at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. and reorganized the hospital with an astounding increase in efficiency as well as a decrease in patient deaths. The couple soon moved to Chicago after Daniel resigned from the Freedmen's hospital. He resumed his position as Chief Surgeon at Provident Hospital as well as for nearby Mercy Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital, an exclusive hospital for wealthy White patients.
When the American Medical Association refused to accept Black members, Williams helped to set up and served as Vice-President of the National Medical Association. In 1912, Williams was appointed associate attending surgeon at St. Luke's and worked there until his retirement from the practice of medicine. He received numerous honors and awards. He received honorary degrees from Howard and Wilberforce Universities, was named a charter member of the American College of Surgeons and was a member of the Chicago Surgical Society.Williams died on August 4, 1931, having set standards and examples for surgeons, both Black and White, for years to come.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE WHALING HARPOON KNOWN AS TEMPLE'S TOGGLE?



Louis Temple 1800-1854
He Revolutionized the Whaling Industry
-He invented a harpoon that locked into a whale's skin.
-This invention more than doubled the yearly catch.


Lewis Temple was the inventor of a whaling harpoon, known as "Temple's Toggle" and "Temple's Iron" that became the standard harpoon of the whaling industry in the middle of the 19th century. Lewis Temple was a skilled blacksmith, not a whaler. He had never even been to sea. Temple was born a slave in Richmond, Virginia, in 1800, and arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1829. By 1836, Temple was one of the 315,000 free black people in the United States and a successful businessman who operated a whale craft shop on the New Bedford waterfront. Temple, a well-known citizen of New Bedford, was working as a blacksmith to support his wife, Mary Clark, whom he married in 1829, and their three children. In 1845, Temple was able to open a larger store.
The procuring of whale oil, whale meat and by-products was a leading industry in Massachusetts and New England. Whaling also provided thousands of jobs for seamen, many of whom were black. Based on conversations with the whalers who came to his shop to have their whaling tools made and to buy harpoons, Temple probably learned that many whales escaped, since the harpoons used at the time were not particularly effective in holding a struggling whale.
In 1848, Lewis Temple invented a new type of harpoon, with a moveable head that prevented the whale from slipping loose. The Temple Iron was more effective than any other harpoon that had ever been manufactured. The head on Temple's harpoon became locked in the whale's flesh, and the only way to free the harpoon was to cut it loose after the whale was killed.
Initially, whalers did not accept Temple's harpoon. However, after some trials, most whaling captains were convinced that Temple's "Toggle Iron" was far superior to the ordinary barbed head harpoon. Lewis Temple never patented his invention, but was able to make a fairly good living from his harpoon sales. This sum, of course, was nowhere near the fortune he could have made if he had patented his invention. Temple was able to buy the building next to his shop and, in 1854, arranged for construction of a blacksmith shop near Steamboat Wharf.
Temple accidentally fell one night while walking near his new shop construction site. He never fully recovered from his injuries. Temple was unable to return to work and money became scarce for his family. He died destitute in May 1854, at the age of 54. When his estate was settled, practically everything he owned was used to pay off his debts. Clifford Ashley said in his book, The Yankee Whaler, that Temple's harpoon was "the single most important invention in the whole history of whaling."

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL MOBILE REFRIGERATION SYSTEM?



Frederick Jones 1892-1961
He Revolutionized the Food Industry
-He improved the mobile refrigeration system used in trucks, ships, and railway cars.
-This reduced the problem of food spoilage during transportation.
-His invention also allowed blood and medicine to be transported, which is especially useful during wars.
-He was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Bureau of Standards.


Frederick McKinley Jones

Born May 17, 1893 – February 21, 1961

Air Conditioner for VehiclesPatent #: 2,303,857
Inducted 2007


Frederick Jones invented the first successful system for mobile refrigeration. His invention eliminated the far less effective use of ice and salt to preserve foods for transport and greatly extended the distance over which food could be successfully delivered. Invention ImpactIn the summer of 1938, local merchant Joseph Numero made an offhanded promise to a trucking company to build a refrigerated truck that would not fail when subjected to the normal bumps and vibrations that occur during shipping. Jones, working for Numero, designed a durable, small unit with a compressor mounted under the trailer that was powered by a four-cylinder engine. Used in trucks, railroad cars, ships, and planes, Jones’s technology revolutionized the distribution of food and other perishables, made fresh produce available anywhere in the country year-round, and changed Americans’ eating habits.Jones and Numero went on to found Thermo King Corporation to produce the mobile refrigeration device Jones had invented. Thermo King became an international corporation and had over $1 billion in annual sales when it was acquired by the Ingersoll-Rand Company in 1997.
Inventor Bio
Jones was born in Coventry, Kentucky. Despite having minimal formal schooling, he became the first African-American to be awarded the National Medal of Technology.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

WHO DISCOVERED THAT PURE PLASMA COULD BE USED IN BLOOD TRANSFUSION?



Charles Drew 1904-1950
He Has Saved Countless Lives


-He discovered that pure plasma could be used for blood transfusions; this meant that a patient did not have to have the same blood type as the donor.
-He discovered a way to separate plasma from red blood cells, which made plasma transfusions possible.
-He discovered a way to store blood for a week, whereas before it could only be stored for one or two days. His plasma discovery allowed blood to be stored for much longer, which made blood banks possible.
-He established and was director of the first Red Cross Blood Bank.
-He organized the world's first blood bank project, which was for British soldiers in WWII.
-Before Drew's discoveries there was a frantic search for a blood donor whenever anyone needed a blood transfusion for survival--survival was of course slim, especially in war. Following his discoveries doctors and medics merely had to tap into stored blood to save a patient's life.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE STOVE?



The first historical record of a stove being built, refers to a stove built in 1490, in Alsace, France. This stove was made entirely of brick and tile, including the flue.


Lots of good pictures accompanied by a small amount of text. Around 1728, cast iron stoves really began to be made in quantity. These first stoves of German design, are called Five-plate or Jamb stoves.


Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) invented the iron furnace stove or 'Franklin Stove'.
Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist designed the first sootless kerosene stove.
Jordan Mott invented the first practical coal stove in 1833. Mott's stove was called the baseburner. The stove had ventilation to burn the coal efficiently.
British inventor, James Sharp patented a gas stove in 1826, the first successful gas stove to appear on the market.
The Carpenter Electric Heating Manufacturing Co. invented an electric stove in 1891. On June 30, 1896, William Hadaway was issued the first patent for the electric stove. In 1910, William Hadaway went on to design the first toaster made by Westinghouse, a horizontal combination toaster-cooker.

Second Industrial Revolution Stoves The coal stove was cylindrical and made of heavy cast iron with a hole in the top, which was then enclosed by an iron ring. Gas stoves were found in most households by the 1920s with top burners and interior ovens. It was not until the late 1920s and early 1930s that electric stoves began to compete with gas stoves, however, electric stoves were available as early as the 1890s.

Microwave Ovens The microwave oven was a by-product of another technology. It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, an engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual.

Friday, June 13, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE FIRST AIRTIGHT, DUSTPROOF AND WATERPROOF WATCH?



Timeless timepiece? The Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch is exactly that. This masterpiece of horological engineering has become the world's most sought after wrist watch. Introduced in 1926, the Rolex Oyster was the first airtight, dustproof, and waterproof watch. The Perpetual Rotor, a self winding mechanism, followed soon after, in 1931. Since then the Oyster Perpetual has survived all conditions from 35,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean to a 500-degree oven to the summit of Mount Everest to outer space, without losing a single beat.
In truth, although a fine and handsome watch, this is not exactly the most beautiful or accurate, at least not in the 21st century when there are so many other makers with an equally obsessive zeal for quality and style. And yet the Oyster remains the watch most desired, most collected, and most replicated by fakers. The reason lies in its pedigree and the nature of its makers, Rolex SA in Switzerland.

The origins of the Rolex company
The company that was to become Rolex was in fact founded in London in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf, a 24-year-old German orphan from Kulmbach in Bavaria, with his English brother-in-law Alfred Davis. Wilsdorf was not a watchmaker by trade but had worked for a watch exporter in Chaux-de-Fonds, France. He moved to London in 1903 where he was employed by a watchmaker for a short time before founding the company. He married an Englishwoman and adopted British nationality.
At first, Wilsdorf & Davis was one of many importers of movements, cases, and faces for assembly into pocket watches distributed to jewellers who then put their own names on the face. At the time, the wrist watch (invented by Patek Philippe at the end of the 19th century) tended to be seen as a woman's version of the man's more reliable pocket watch, but in 1904 the Brazilian inventor and aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont had one made by Louis Cartier for ease of use while flying, and the idea of the universal wrist watch gained popularity.
Wilsdorf had foreseen an increasing demand for high quality wrist watches for men and began production with movements imported from the Swiss Aegler company fitted into high quality English cases. In 1908 the company registered Rolex as a brand name for its watches, and in 1912 it moved to Geneva in Switzerland to limit the taxes and export duties on the silver and gold used in the cases. Wilsdorf & Davis became the Rolex Watch Company in 1919.
Later, Wilsdorf would buy out his brother-in-law and enter into a joint shareholding of the company with the Aegler family, whose movements Rolex now used exclusively.

Rolex Oyster - The Pedigree
Hans Wilsdorf's preoccupation with excellence is marked by a number of 'firsts' which came to set the Oyster Perpetual apart from the rest, and define to the watch as a classic.
In 1910 Wilsdorf & Davis obtained from the School of Horology in Switzerland the first official chronometer certification awarded to the movement of a wrist watch, but whilst this was a measure of accurate timekeeping the question over reliability remained in Wilsdorf's mind. Dust and moisture could still find their way into the movement, with a consequent effect on performance. So he developed a case and special winder to produce the first-ever waterproof watch. Jewellers began to display Rolex watches submerged in fish tanks.
Shortly after, in 1914, a Class A precision certificate was awarded to a Rolex wrist watch by the renowned Kew Observatory in England, a standard previously achieved only by marine chronometers. By now the wrist watch - the Rolex in particular - was replacing the traditional pocket watch for men and with the arrival of the war was especially popular in the armed forces.
Rolex continued to develop the water resistance of their watch case but the winder remained a problem, until the company bought the rights to a patent for a screw-down winder originally proposed by another Swiss watchmaker, Perret & Perregaux. This led to the introduction of the new 'Oyster' in 1926, with a fully-waterproof case and a double-locking winder. The Rolex Oyster was endorsed very publicly the following year with a celebrated cross-channel swim by Mercedes Gleitze (inset) wearing one on her wrist. The launch of the watch in the UK was accompanied by a full-page advertisement in the Daily Mail, stating:
"Rolex introduces for the first time the greatest Triumph in Watch-making. ROLEX 'OYSTER' - the Wonder Watch that Defies the Elements. Being hermetically sealed, the Rolex 'Oyster' is proof against changes of climate, dust, water, damp, heat, moisture, cold, sand or grease; it can, in consequence, be worn in the sea or bath without injury, nor would arctic or tropical conditions affect the wonderful precision of its beautifully poised movement. The introduction of the Rolex 'Oyster' model marks an unique development in the forward stride of the chronometric science, and perfect timekeeping under all conditions is at last a possibility."

The Perpetual Self-winding Movement
One niggling imperfection of the Oyster was that the winder had to be unscrewed to wind the watch. If the owner forgot to screw it back in tightly, or as the threads or waterproof seals wore out over time, the watch was no longer fully waterproof. This was solved by Rolex in 1931, with the introduction of the Perpetual self-winding movement.
A self-winding watch contains an internal rotor - a semi-circular metal plate which rotates back and forth with any movement of the wrist, rewinding the mainspring that powers the watch. The concept had first been introduced in 1770 by the Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Perrelet. Emile Borer, head of research and development at Rolex, perfected the mechanism. Now, the external winding knob (the crown) was needed only for occasional time adjustments and the watch's waterproofing system became more reliable (and cheaper).
Thus, in the space of less than 30 years, the company founded by Wilsdorf (inset) had introduced the first certified chronometer wrist watch, the first waterproof watch case, and the first self-winding wrist watch. There was more to come. In 1945 Rolex invented a date-display mechanism and launched the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust.
This pedigree is what gave (and still gives) the brand its fundamental credibility as the world leader in its market. In the 1990s the Rolex Oyster was voted by the industry as "The Watch of the Century."

Rolex watches from the 1950s onwards
The Rolex philosophy is one of continuous but steady evolution. Oyster Perpetual-based sports watches and chronographs were introduced to the range from the 1950s as the company matched products with activity lifestyles. The world's first diving watch, the Rolex Submariner was introduced in 1953, followed by the Rolex Explorer (1954), Day Date (1956), Sea Dweller (1967), Cosmograph Daytona (1976), Yacht Master (1992), and others. The GMT Master (1955) was made for pilots at the request of Pan Am Airways, recording the time in two different time zones simultaneously.
With the 1970s came the quartz boom in watchmaking. Low-cost digital technology from Japan replaced labour-intensive craftsmanship of the Swiss variety. Many of Geneva's watch houses went digital, and many went under. Prestigious names like Omega, Longines, Blancpain, Tissot, Rado, and Hamilton, were consolidated into a publicly-owned consortium to avoid bankruptcy, but Rolex braved the storm and stayed with its mechanical heritage. The company did participate in the development of the original quartz watch movements but sales of its quartz models were never allowed to become a significant proportion of the company's total production.
Remaining privately owned, Rolex could take the long term view of the future without worrying about shareholders and the next quarter's profits. Interest in high-quality swiss-made movements duly returned in the 1990s, and fine watchmaking was reborn to a leaner industry. The Rolex company produces some 650,000 watches per year, keeping tight control over distribution, sales outlets, and price.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

WHO INVENTED NAIL POLISH?

Archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of cosmetics (makeup) being used in Egypt dating back to the fourth millennium BC. They found ancient artifacts of eye makeup and objects used for the application of scented unguents.
Nail polish can be traced back to at least 3000 BC when it originated in China. The Chinese found ways to use gum arabic, egg whites, gelatin, and bees wax to create varnishes and lacquers for the nails. The Egyptians would use henna to stain their fingernails. In China, as well as in Egypt, color represented social class. During the Chou Dynasty, circa 600 BC, gold and silver were the royal colors. Later, royalty starting wearing black or red nail color. Lower ranking women were only permitted to wear pale tones. Wearing royal colors without being royalty was punished by death. Modern nail polish is a actually a variation of car paint.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

WHO INVENTED GRADUATION HATS KNOWN OFFICIALLY AS MORTARBOARDS?



Ever wondered who invented graduation hats and why are they shaped so weird?

While the exact inventor of this hat is unknown, the hat, along with most of the traditional academic dress originates in the 12th and 13th centuries. Today's graduation cap and gown began as the everyday wear of medieval scholars. The hard, square graduation hat is commonly called a mortarboard, although the British prefer the term "trencher." This hat seems to be a descendant of the medieval biretta or pileus -- a soft, square cap with a tuft on top. Over the centuries, clergymen, doctors, and eventually candidates for bachelor's degrees wore a form of this hat. According to one humorous website, the FAQ regarding academic costume, the four points of the mortarboard might represent "the foundational subjects of the scholastic curriculum: Music, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Theology, which are collectively known as the Quadrivium." But no one knows for sure.

Monday, June 9, 2008

WHO COMPLETED THE FIRST SUCESSFUL SEPARATION OF VERTICALLY CONJOINED TWINS?


Ben Carson
Arguably the Best and Most Famous Brain Surgeon in the World

-He completed the first successful separation of vertically conjoined twins in 1997.
-He became world-renowned for separating West German conjoined twins in 1987.
-"He has refined the techniques for hemispherectomy, a radical brain surgery to stop intractable seizures."
-He developed a craniofacial program to help children who need combined neurosurgical and plastic surgical reconstruction.
-He is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institution.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

HOW DID ERNEST EVERETT JUST HELP TECHNOLOGY?



Ernest Everett Just 1883-1941
He Changed the Way We Thought About Cells
-Going against conventional wisdom he shattered long-held beliefs about the structure and functions of cells by proving that ectoplasm--which had been largely ignored--was vital to cell and egg development.
-His findings changed the way scientists thought about evolution, the difference between plants and animals, the difference between non-living and living things, ways to determine sex in advance, the functions of the liver, kidneys, pancreas, and other vital organs. His findings also affected cancer research.
-The importance he placed on ectoplasm was too extreme, just as the scientists of his day placed too much importance on the nucleus. Nevertheless his findings were groundbreaking and critical.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE MACHINE USED TO STITCH SOLES TO SHOES?




Jan Earnst Matzeliger 1852-1889
He Revolutionized the Shoe Industry
-He invented a machine that automatically stitched shoe leather to the sole of the shoe.52
-His machine could produce up to 700 shoes a day whereas an expert hand laser could only produce 50.53

Friday, June 6, 2008

WHO INVENTED THE VACUMM PAN USED TO PROCESS A FORM OF SUGAR



Nobert Rillieux 1806-1894
He Made America a Sugar Giant


-In 1843 he invented a vacuum pan that made evaporated sugar into crystallized granules.
-Prior to his invention sugar making was a slow, expensive, and painful process where people were regularly scalded by boiling pots of water.
-His invention made America a sugar giant, dominating a market that once belonged to Brazil and Haiti.
-Before Rillieux's invention sugar was a luxury that could be afforded only on very special occasions.
-His process is still used today to make soap, gelatin, glue, and condensed milk.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

WHO INVENTED A DEVICE THAT ALLOWED MACHINES TO BE LUBRICATED WHILE IN OPERATION?



"The Real McCoy" has Helped Save Industries Countless Dollars and Hours

-He improved a device that allowed machines to be lubricated while still in operation; before his invention lubricating machinery was a wasteful and time consuming process because production had to be completely stopped.
-He improved the automatic lubricating device for steam engines, automobiles, trains, and ships.
-He received a patent for the lawn sprinkler and ironing table.
-The American expression, "The Real McCoy," was used by customers and inspectors asking if machinery had McCoy's lubricating system. Today, "The Real McCoy," is an American idiom meaning perfection.

Monday, June 2, 2008

PERCY JULIAN - FAMOUS BLACK INVENTOR



Percy Julian 1899-1975
He has Ended the Suffering of Many and Saved the Lives of Thousands

-He discovered a way to create large amounts of synthetic cortisone, which is used to alleviate arthritis pain. Before his discovery only the very wealthy could afford cortisone for arthritis; now synthetic cortisone is so cheap and widespread almost anyone can afford it.
-He discovered how to make synthetic physostigmine, which is used to treat glaucoma sufferers.
-His discoveries of substitutes for male and female hormones are credited with saving the lives of thousands of unborn children and cancer victims.
-He invented aero-foam, which is used to put out gasoline and oil fires--it proved especially useful during WWII.

WHO IS BENJAMIN BANNEKER?



Benjamin Banneker 1731-1806
Perhaps Colonial America's Greatest and Most Famous Mathematician


-Appointed by President George Washington, he was one of three men who designed Washington D.C. and the White House.
-He has gained a somewhat legendary status for remembering the blueprints of Washington D.C. and the White House from memory after the team leader left in anger and took all the designs back with him to France; the distressed workers thought it would take two years to redo the designs, but it took Banneker only two days to recall the designs from memory.
-He gained world recognition among scientists and mathematicians when he correctly predicted the time of a solar eclipse, which contradicted two of the most prominent mathematicians of the time, Leadbetter and Ferguson.
-He wrote a famous almanac from 1792-1802 that became an important household staple in early America.
-His almanac included weather forecasts for the year, time of eclipses, hours of sunrise and sunset, phases of the moon, lists of medications and remedies to prevent and cure diseases, a tide table for Chesapeake Bay, holidays, an overview of the American government, and so on. His almanac was especially helpful for farmers.
-He gained some national fame when, as only a teenager, he built one of America's first wooden clocks. He built the clock, which kept perfect time for 40 years, after only being given a pocket watch and some remedial textbooks on science. Incredibly his clock consisted entirely of wood.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

THEY CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY



-He received a patent for a Gas Mask.
-He received a patent for a Traffic Signal.
-He became a national hero when he and his brother used their gas masks to save men who were trapped under a tunnel 250 ft below Lake Erie. Following their heroism business boomed for Morgan: police departments, fire departments, and mining companies all wanted his gas mask.
-Many historians believe his gas mask was the primary model for those used during WWI. The gas mask was particularly useful during WWI because troops often encountered poisoned gas.32