100 Amazing Inventions
6. Why are cellphones a unique invention?
CELLPHONES:
We all know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.
However, it was in 1900, that an inventor named Reginald Fessenden completed a amazing and interesting feat. He made the first wireless telephone call. This achievement laid the foundation for cellphones and cellular networks.
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| Cell Phone |
In 1947, William Rae Young proposed that radio towers arranged in a hexagonal pattern, called a cell, could support a telephone network.
By the 1960s, Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel developed the technology that could support Young's design. But it was Martin Cooper who led a team that designed the first practical cellphone. It was 25 centimeters long, and weighed 1.1 kilograms.
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| New Touch Screen Upgraded from Old Telephone |
7. Why is the pocket calculator a significant invention?
POCKET CALCULATOR:
The very first calculator was the abacus, a sort of hand operated mechanical calculator using beads on rods, first used by Sumerians and Egyptians around 2000 BC.
But, it was only in the beginning of the 17th century AD, that the first mechanical calculators began to appear in Europe.
Later, mechanical and electric calculating machines were invented, but they were large, and could not be carried around.
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| Pocket Calculator |
In 1970, the first battery-operated 'hand-held' calculators were sold. In 1971, Bowmar, USA, introduced their first 'cigarette pack' sized calculator. Thanks to a number of technical developments, these portable figuring out devices quickly got better and cheaper. Scores of companies rushed into the pocket calculator business as demand for this amazing new product flew.
Prices began to fall as competition grew, and the pocket calculator became the most popular instrument for quick and accurate calculations, not only in industry, but at home and at school as well.
8. Why is the invention of the laser printer a milestone?
LASER PRINTER:
In 1938, the American physicist Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process, called Xerography - the word comes from the Greek for dry writing - that laid the foundation technology for copiers and laser printers.
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| Laser Printer |
In the year 1969, Gary Stark - weather invented the laser printer at Xerox. In those days , lasers were rather expensive devices and Gary had been told by his bosses to stop working on the laser printer project. So, he ended up working on it secretly, convincing people to get different parts for him so he could build it.
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| Laser Printer |
Gary had the idea of using a laser beam to 'draw' an image of what was to be copied directly onto the copier drum. Finally, the Xerox 9700 was introduced in 1977. It was the industry's first commercial laser printer, and it became a great success, because of its speed, high quality, and economy.
9. What is a floppy disk
FLOPPY DISK:
The floppy disk is a magnetic storage medium for computer systems. The floppy disk is composed of a thin, flexible magnetic disk sealed in a square plastic carrier.
The floppy disk was invented by IBM engineers led by Alan Shugart, and in 1971, IBM introduced the first 'memory disk', as it was called then, or the 'floppy disk' as it is known today.
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| Floppy Disk |
The nickname 'floppy' came from the disk's flexibility. The first floppy disks that came available on the market were 200mm in diameter. A number of different types of floppy disks have been developed and the size of the floppy got smaller while the storage capacity increased.
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| Floppy Disks |
However, in the 1990s, other media, including hard disk drives, USB flash drives, started to replace floppy disks as storage devices.
10. What are genetically modified organisms?
GMO ( GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS ):
A genetically modified organism, or GMO, is a laboratory process of taking genes from one species and inserting them into another in an attempt to obtain a desired trait or characteristic or feature.
Strictly speaking, this is not a new process. For thousands of years, farmers have improved their crops by crossbreeding plants that have good qualities. They have pollen from one plant and add it to the flowers of another plant to produce a plant with the qualities they want. But cross-breeding is slow and unreliable. Now, there are amazing shortcuts.
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| Modifying DNA Structure |
Scientists can take a gene from one living thing, and put it directly into another plant or animal to create a GMO. An early pioneer in the field is Ananda Chakrabarty. He worked on bacteria, especially on bacterial plasmids which are the small rings of DNA.
Chakrabarty's experiment was to create bacteria that could degrade crude oil, and thus clean up oil spills. Agricultural plants are one of the most frequently cited examples of genetically modified organisms.
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| GMO |
Some benefits of genetic engineering in agriculture are increased crop yields, and reduced costs for production.