BRIEF NOTES ON IMPORTANT INVENTIONS

Aerial Navigation

First air balloon—Montgolfier Brothers, France, 1783.

First balloon ascension—Rozier, France, 1783.

First gas balloon—Charles, France, 1783.

First crossing of the English Channel in a balloon—Blanchard, 1785.

First successful dirigible balloon—La France, Renard and Krebs, France, 1884.

First successful motor-driven aeroplane—Wright Brothers, United States; date of patent, 1906.

First crossing of the English Channel by an aeroplane—BlÉriot, 1909.

First air-ship in regular passenger service—Count Zeppelin, Germany, 1910.

Agriculture

Plough with cast-iron mold-board and iron shares—James Small, Scotland, 1784.

Grain-threshing machine—Andrew Meikle, England, 1788.

McCormick reaper, first practical grain-harvesting machine—Cyrus H. McCormick, United States, 1831.

Self-raker for harvesters—McCormick, 1845.

Inclined platform and elevator in the reaper, to enable men binding the grain to ride with the machine—J. S. Marsh, United States, 1858.

Barbed-wire fence introduced—United States, 1861.

Self-binder, first automatic grain-binding device for the reaper—Jacob Behel, United States, 1864.

Sulky plough—B. Slusser, United States, 1868.

Twine-binder for harvesters—M. L. Gorham, United States, 1873.

Improved self-binding reaper—Lock and Wood, United States, 1873.

Barbed-wire machine—Glidden and Vaughn, United States, 1874.

Rotary disk cultivator—Mallon, United States, 1878.

Steam-plough—W. Foy, United States, 1879.

Combined harvester and thresher—Matteson, United States, 1886.

Automobile mower—Deering Harvestor Company, United States, 1901.

Automobile

First steam-automobile—Cugnot, France, 1769.

First chain transmission of power in an automobile—Gurney, England, 1829.

Application of gas-engine to road vehicles, beginning of the modern motor-car—Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz working independently, Germany, 1886. Daimler's invention consisted of a two-cylinder air-cooled motor. It was taken up in 1889, by Panhard and Levassor, of Paris, who began immediately the construction of the motor-car. This was the beginning of the motor-car industry.

Bicycle

First bicycle—Branchard and Magurier, France, 1779.

Rear-driven chain safety bicycle—George W. Marble, United States, 1884.

Bicycles first equipped with pneumatic tires—1890.

Electrical Inventions

William Gilbert, England, 1540-1603, called "the father of magnetic philosophy," first to use the terms "electric force," "electric attraction," "magnetic pole."

First electrical machine, a machine for producing electricity by friction—Otto von Guericke, Germany, about 1681.

Discovery of conductors and insulators—Stephen Gray, England, 1696-1736.

First to discover that electric charges are of two kinds—Cisternay du Fay, France, 1698-1739; Du Fay was also the first to attempt an explanation of electrical action. He supposed that electricity consists of two fluids which are separated by friction, and which neutralize each other when they combine. This theory was more fully set forth by Robert Symmer.

Leyden jar—Discovered first by Von Kleist in 1745. The same discovery was made and the Leyden jar brought to the attention of the public in 1746 by Pieter van Musschenbroek in Holland.

Lightning-rod—Benjamin Franklin, 1732.

Electroplating—Luigi Brugnatelli, Italy, 1805.

Voltaic arc, a powerful arc light produced with a battery current—Sir Humphry Davy, England, 1808.

Storage battery—Ritter, Germany, 1803. Platinum wires were dipped in water and a battery current passed through. Hydrogen collected on one wire and oxygen on the other. If the platinum wires were disconnected from the battery and connected with each other by a conductor, the two wires acted like the plates of a battery, and a current would flow for a short time in the new circuit.

Electromagnetism discovered—H. C. Oersted, Denmark, 1819.

Galvanometer, a coil of wire around a magnetic needle for measuring the strength of an electric current—Schweigger, Germany, 1820.

Motion of magnet produced by an electric current—M. Faraday, England, 1821.

Thermo-electricity, an electric current produced by heating the junction of two unlike metals—Discovered by Professor Seebeck England, 1821.

Principles of electrodynamics, motion produced by an electric current—AmpÈre, France. Announced in 1823.

Law of electric circuits, Ohm's law, current strength equals electromotive force divided by resistance of the circuit—George S. Ohm, Germany. Proven by experiment in 1826; mathematical proof published in 1827.

Magneto-electric induction, induction of electric currents by means of a magnetic field—M. Faraday, England, 1831.

Electric telegraph—Prof. S. F. B. Morse, United States, 1832.

First telegram sent in 1844—Morse.

Constant electric battery—J. P. Daniell, England, 1836.

First electric motor-boat—Jacobi, Russia, 1839.

Induction-coil—Rhumkorff, Germany, 1851.

Duplex telegraph, first practical system—Stearns, United States, about 1855-1860.

Storage battery, lead plates in sulphuric acid—Gaston PlantÉ, France, 1859.

Telephone, make-and-break system, first electrical transmission of speech—Philip Reiss, Germany, 1860.

Atlantic cable laid—Cyrus W. Field, 1866.

Dynamo, armature coil rotates in the field of an electromagnet, armature supplies current for the electromagnet as well as for the external circuit—William Siemens, Germany, 1866.

Gramme ring armature for dynamo—Gramme, France, 1868.

Theory that light consists of electromagnetic waves—Clerk-Maxwell, England, 1873.

Quadruplex telegraph, sending four messages over one wire at the same time—Edison, 1873.

Siphon recorder for submarine telegraph, sensitive to very feeble currents—Sir William Thomson, England, 1874.

Telephone, varying current, first practical working telephone—Alexander Graham Bell, United States, 1876.

Electric candle, beginning of present arc light—Paul Jablochkoff, Russia, 1876.

Telephone transmitter of variable resistance—Emil Berliner and Edison working independently, United States, 1877. Edison used carbon contacts, Berliner used metal contacts.

Brush system of arc lighting—1878.

Incandescent electric lamp with carbon filament—Edison, 1878.

First electric locomotive—Siemens, Germany, 1879.

Blake telephone transmitter—Blake, United States, 1880.

Storage battery, lead grids filled with active material—Faure, France, 1881.

Electric Welding—Elihu Thompson, United States, 1886.

Electric Waves discovered by experiment—Heinrich Hertz, Germany, 1888.

Coherer for receiving electric Waves—Edward Branly, France, 1890.

X-rays—Discovered by Prof. W. C. Roentgen, Germany; announced to the public in 1895.

Wireless telegraphy—G. Marconi, Italy, 1896.

Nernst electric light, a clay capable of conducting electricity when heated is used; it becomes incandescent without a vacuum—Walter Nernst, Germany, 1897.

Radium discovered by Madame Curie, France, 1898.

Explosives

Gunpowder—Inventor and date unknown.

Guncotton—SchÖnbein, Germany, 1845.

Nitroglycerine—Sobrero, 1847.

Explosive gelatine—A. Nobel, France, 1863.

Dynamite—A. Nobel, France, 1866.

Smokeless powder—Vielle, France, 1866.

Firearms and Ordnance

Spirally grooved rifle barrel—Koster, England, 1620.

Breech-loading shot-gun—Thornton and Hall, United States, 1811.

The revolver; a device "for combining a number of long barrels so as to rotate upon a spindle by the act of cocking the hammer"—Samuel Colt, United States, 1836.

Breech gun-lock, interrupted thread—Chambers, United States, 1849.

Magazine gun—Walter Hunt, United States, 1849.

Breech-loading rifle—Maynard, United States, 1851.

Iron-clad floating batteries first used in Crimean War—1855.

Breech-loading ordnance—Wright and Gould, United States, 1858.

Revolving turret for floating batteries—Theodore Timby, United States, 1862.

First iron-clad floating battery propelled by steam: the Monitor—John Ericsson, United States, 1862.

Gatling gun—Dr. R. J. Gatling, United States, 1862.

Automatic shell-ejector for revolver—W. C. Dodge, United States, 1865.

Torpedo—Whitehead, United States, 1866.

Disappearing gun-carriage—Moncrief, England, 1868.

Rebounding gun-lock—L. Hailer, United States, 1870.

Magazine rifle—Lee, United States, 1879.

Hammerless gun—Greener, United States, 1880.

Gun silencer, to be attached to barrel of gun; gun can be fired without noise—Maxim, 1909.

Gas Used for Light and Power

Gas first used for illuminating purposes—William Murdoch, England, 1792.

First street gas-lighting in England—F. A. Winsor, 1814.

Gas-meter—S. Clegg, England, 1815.

Water-gas, prepared by passing steam over white-hot anthracite coal—First produced in England in 1823.

Illuminating water-gas—Lowe, United States, 1875.

Gas-engine, 4-cycle, beginning of modern gas-engine—Otto and Langen, Germany, 1877.

Incandescent gas-mantle—Carl A. von Welsbach, Austria, 1887.

Iron and Steel

Blast-furnace, beginning of iron industry—Belgium, 1340.

Use of coke in blast-furnace—Abram Darby, England, about 1720.

Puddling iron—Henry Cort, England, 1783-84.

Process of making malleable-iron castings—Lucas, England, 1804.

Hot-air blast for iron furnaces—J. B. Neilson, Scotland, 1828.

The galvanizing of iron—Henry Craufurd, England, 1837.

Process of making steel, blowing air through molten pig-iron to burn out carbon, then adding spiegel iron; first production of cheap steel—Sir Henry Bessemer, England, 1855.

Regenerative furnace, a gas-furnace in which gas and air are heated before being introduced into the furnace, giving an extremely high temperature—William Siemens, England, 1856.

Open-hearth process of making steel—Siemens-Martin, England, 1856.

Nickel steel, much stronger than ordinary steel, used for armorplate—Schneider, United States, 1889.

Mining

Miners' safety-lamp—Sir Humphry Davy, England, 1815.

Compressed-air rock-drill—C. Burleigh, United States, 1866.

Diamond rock-drill, a tube of cast-steel with a number of black diamonds set at one end. The machine cuts a circular groove, leaving a core inside the tube. This core is brought to the surface with a rod, and the powdered rock is washed out by water forced down the tube and flowing up the sides of the hole. The drill does not have to stop for cleaning out—Herman, United States, 1854.

Photography

First photographic picture, not permanent—Thomas Wedgewood, England, 1791.

Daguerreotype, first developing process—Louis Daguerre, France, 1839.

First photographic portraits, daguerreotype process—Prof. J. W. Draper, United States, 1839.

Collodion process in photography—Scott Archer, England, 1849.

Photographic roll films—Melhuish, England, 1854.

Dry-plate photography—Dr. J. M. Taupenot, 1855.

Photographic emulsion, bromide of silver in gelatine, basis of present rapid photography—R. L. Maddox, England, 1871.

Hand photographic camera for plates—William Schmid, United States, 1881.

Printing

First printing with movable types in Europe and first printing-press—Guttenberg, Germany, about 1445.

Screw printing-press—Blaew, Germany, 1620.

First newspaper of importance—London Weekly Courant, 1625.

Stereotyping, making plates from casts of the type after it is set up—William Ged, Scotland, 1731.

First practical steam rotary printing-press, paper printed on both sides, 1800 impressions per hour—Frederick Koenig, Germany, 1814.

Printing from curved stereotype plates—H. Cowper, England, 1815.

Hoe's lightning press, 2000 impressions per hour—R. Hoe, United States, 1847.

Printing from a continuous web, paper wound in rolls, both sides printed at once—William Bullock, United States, 1865.

"Straightline newspaper perfecting" press, prints 100,000 eight-page papers per hour—Goss Company, United States.

Linotype machine. The operator uses a keyboard like that of a typewriter. The machine sets the matrices which correspond to the type, casts the type in lines from molten metal, delivers the lines of type on a galley, and returns the matrices to their appropriate tubes. It does the work of five men setting type in the ordinary way—Othmar Mergenthaler, United States, 1890.

Steam Navigation

First steamboat in the world—Papin, River Fulda, Germany, 1705.

First steamboat in America—John Fitch, Delaware River, 1783.

First passenger steamboat in the world, the Clermont—Robert Fulton, Hudson River, 1807.

First steamer to cross the Atlantic, the Savannah, built at New York—First voyage across the Atlantic, 1819.

The screw propeller first used on a steamboat—John Ericsson, United States, about 1836.

Compound engines adopted for steamers—1856.

First turbine-steamer, the Turbinia—Parsons, 1895.

First mercantile steam-turbine ship, the King Edward—Denny and Brothers, England, 1901.

Steam Used for Power and Land Transportation

First steam-engine with a piston—Denys Papin, France, 1690.

First practical application of the power of steam, pumping water—Thomas Savery, England, 1698.

Double-acting steam-engine and condenser—James Watt, Scotland, 1782.

Steam-locomotive first used to haul loads on a railroad—Richard Trevethick, England, 1804.

First passenger steam railway, the "Stockton & Darlington"—George Stephenson, England, 1825.

First steam-locomotive in the United States, the "Stourbridge Lion"—1829.

Link motion for locomotives—George Stephenson, England, 1833.

Steam-whistle, adopted for use on locomotives—George Stephenson, 1833.

Steam-hammer—James Nasmyth, Scotland, 1842.

Steam-pressure gauge—Bourdon, France, 1849.

Corliss engine—G. H. Corliss, United States, 1849.

First practical steam-turbine—C. A. Parsons, England, 1884.

Textile Industries

Flying shuttle, first important invention in weaving, leading to modern weaving machinery—John Kay, England, 1733.

Spinning-jenny—James Hargreaves, England, 1763.

Power loom—James Cartwright, England, 1785.

Cotton-gin, for separating the seeds from the fibre, gave a new impetus to the cotton industry. The production of cotton increased in five years from 35,000 to 155,000 bales—Eli Whitney, United States, 1792.

Pattern loom, for the weaving of patterns—M. J. Jacquard, France, 1801.

Application of steam to the loom—William Horrocks, England, 1803.

Knitting-machine—Brunel, England, 1816.

Sewing-machine—Elias Howe, United States, 1846.

Mercerized cotton—John Mercer, England, 1850.

Process of making artificial silk—H. de Chardonnet, France, 1888.

Wood-Working

Circular wood-saw—Miller, England, 1777.

Wood-planing machine—Samuel Benthem, England, 1791.

Wood-mortising machine—M. J. Brunel, England, 1801.

Band wood-saw—Newberry, England, 1808.

Lathe for turning irregular wood forms—Thomas Blanchard, United States, 1819.

Improved planing-machine—William Woodworth, United States, 1828.

Miscellaneous

First fireproof safe—Richard Scott, England, 1801.

Steel pen, quill pen used up to this time—Wise, England, 1803.

First life-preserver—John Edwards, England, 1805.

Calculating machine—Charles Babbage, England, 1822.

First friction matches—John Walker, United States, 1827. Flint and steel were used for starting fires before matches were invented.

First portable steam fire-engine—Brithwaite and Ericsson, England, 1830.

Vulcanizing of rubber—Charles Goodyear, United States, 1839.

Pneumatic tire—R. W. Thompson, England, 1845.

Time-lock for safes—Savage, United States, 1847.

Match-making machinery—A. L. Denison, United States, 1850.

American machine-made watches—United States, 1850.

Safety matches—Lundstrom, Sweden, 1855.

Sleeping-car—Woodruff, United States, 1856.

Printing-machine for the blind, origin of the typewriter—Alfred E. Beach, United States, 1856.

Cable-car—E. A. Gardner, United States, 1858.

Driven well, an iron tube with the end pointed and perforated driven into the ground—Col. N. W. Green, United States, 1861.

Passenger elevator—E. G. Otis, United States, 1861.

First practical typewriter—C. L. Sholes, United States, 1861.

Railway air-brake, use of air-pressure in applying brakes to the wheels of a car. A strong spring presses the brake against the wheels. Air acts against the spring and holds the brake away from the wheels. To apply the brake, air is allowed to escape, reducing the pressure and allowing the spring to act—George Westinghouse, United States, 1869.

Store-cash carrier—Dr. Brown, United States, 1875.

Roller flour-mills—F. Wegman, United States, 1875.

Kinetoscope, moving-picture machine—Edison, 1893.

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