100 Amazing Inventions
91. Which was the first camera to use a lens?
Vintage Camera:
In the 16th
century, Geronimo Cardano, the Italian physician, mathematician, and
astrologer, used a convex lens in a camera and, in a sense, started the
photographic industry.
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| Vintage Camera |
Photography, as we know it, actually began in 1816 when
Joseph Niepce, a French researcher, captured an image on paper that had
been sensitized with silver chloride.
Today, with the advent of digital cameras, photographic
film has lost its importance, but the art of photography has reached new
heights.
92. Did Thomas Edison really invent the light bulb?
Edison didn't
'invent' the light bulb, but rather, he improved upon a 50-year old
idea. Henry Woodward of Toronto, along with Mathew Evans, patented a
light bulb in 1975. Unfortunately, the two entrepreneurs could not
raise the finance to commercialize their invention.
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| Joseph Swan |
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| Thomas Edison |
The enterprising American, Thomas Edison, who had
been working on the same idea, bought the rights to their patent.
Edison had the backing of a syndicate of industrial interests with
$50,000 to invest.
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| Vacuum Bulb |
Using lower current, a small carbonized filament,
and an improved vacuum inside the globe, Edison successfully
demonstrated the light bulb in 1879, and made history.
Sir Humphrey Davy of England invented the first
electric carbon arc lamp in 1801. A.E. Becquerel of France
theorized about the fluorescent lamp in 1857.
Sir Joseph Swan of England, and Thomas Edison
both invented the first electric incandescent lamp around the
1870s.
93. Who invented the gramophone?
Gramophone:
Early
attempts to design a music playing gadget began in 1877,
when Thomas Edison invented his tin-foil phonograph.
The sound quality on the phonograph was bad, and each
recording lasted just for one only play.
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| Gramophone |
On November 8th 1887, Emile
Berliner patented a successful system of sound recording.
The first records were made of glass, later zinc, and
eventually, plastic. A spiral groove with sound information was etched into the flat record.
The record was rotated on the gramophone. The 'arm' of the
gramophone held a needle that read the grooves in the record
by vibration, and transmitted the information to the
gramophone speaker.
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| Plastic Gramophone |
Berliner's discs were the first recordings
that could be mass produced by creating master recordings
from which moulds were made. From each mould, hundreds of
discs were pressed.
Emile Berliner founded 'The Gramophone
Company' to mass manufacture his sound discs and the
gramophone that played them.
94. Who invented the bicycle?
Bicycle:
Some history
books will state that Pierre and Ernest Michaux, the
French father and son team of carriage makers,
invented the first bicycle during the 1860s.
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| Bicycle Without Pedals |
Historians now disagree with this,
and there is evidence that the bicycle is older than
that. However, historians do agree that Ernest
Michaux did invent the modern bicycle pedal and
cranks in 1861.
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| Electric Bicycle |
The German Baron Karl Drais von
Sauerbrun invented the 'Laufmaschine' - a bicycle
made of wood, with no pedals. Sauerbrun's bicycle
was first exhibited in Paris on April 6th, 1818.
Kirkpatrick Macmillan is generally credited with
inventing the rear wheel driven bicycle.
95. Who invented the first toothbrush?
Tooth Brush:
The
Ancient Chinese made toothbrushes with bristles
picked from the neck hair of Siberian wild
boars! Stick like toothbrushes have also been
found in the pyramids of ancient Egypt. French
dentists were the first Europeans to promote the
use of toothbrushes in 17th
century.
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| Tooth Brush |
William Addis of Clerkenwaald,
England, created the first mass produced
toothbrush. It's hard to believe, but most
Americans did not brush their teeth until army
soldiers brought their enforced habits of
tooth brushing back home after World War
II.
After the DuPont Company
invented nylon in 1935, toothbrushes
appeared with nylon bristles. The first real
electric toothbrush was produced in 1939,
and developed in Switzerland.