Synthetic DyeAs the Industrial Revolution gained steam (OK – bad pun), England’s population became denser. Eventually, the resulting pools of water bred mosquitos that eventually became a malaria epidemic. Perkin, a 15-year-old student, ran crude experiments to create lower-cost quinine, a malaria medicine. One of his processes accidentally produced a strong purple liquid. Useless as a … Continue reading "Synthetic Dye"
Stock IndexStock indexes set objective benchmarks for how a stock should perform against peers. Reduces the risk of stock investing. Farmer turned reporter turned media mogul Charles Dow, with reporter Edward Jones, launched a stock newsletter in 1883. Titled the Customers’ Afternoon Letter, they tracked issues affecting the stock market. Dow’s letter gained a reputation for … Continue reading "Stock Index"
High Fidelity Sound Recording & PlaybackBackground German engineer Eduard Schüller created and patented the Magnetophon, a high-fidelity audio recording and playback machine. Working for German company AEG, he patented the invention in December 1933. AEG was a leading electrical company that had evolved from the Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft, the German Edison Company. Schüller perfected an earlier tape-recording device invented by … Continue reading "High Fidelity Sound Recording & Playback"
Blue Ocean Strategy & Finance: Margin LendingMargin lending refers to the process of using borrowed money for investing. For example, a traditional investor may purchase 100 shares of a business for $10, spending $1,000. However, using margin, that same person may purchase 150 shares, spending the same $1,000 and borrowing another $500. If the stock price goes up, they pay the … Continue reading "Blue Ocean Strategy & Finance: Margin Lending"
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers. They were supposed to be more convenient and simpler than carrying paper. Most significantly, and the reason they are a major invention, is their influence as a bridge to the smartphone. David Potter created the Psion Organizer in 1984 featuring 2K or RAM in a handheld (sort of … Continue reading "Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)"
TelegraphBackground Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. He learned that his wife was sick while working in a different city. By the time he arrived home, she had died. Morse determined to invent a faster message delivery system. Like Fulton, Morse was an artist before going into business. He had no background in science or engineering. … Continue reading "Telegraph"
Circular Saw1813 Tabitha Babbit In 1777, Samuel Miller patented the first circular saw. However, the wind-powered saw did not have enough power to be of practical use. In 1813, Tabitha Babbit, a Shaker, invented the circular. Her insight was that sawing back and forth wasted half the motion of a saw. In response, she created a … Continue reading "Circular Saw"
Wind-Driven SawmillCornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest invented a sawmill driven by a windmill. It cut wood about 30 times faster than sawing by hand. Corneliszoon received a patent for his wind-driven sawmill. Workers found the mill during a 2004 excavation. The windmill used a crankshaft to convert the steady wind into the up-and-down motion necessary to saw … Continue reading "Wind-Driven Sawmill"
Mobile PhoneMobile phones allow calls from anywhere that’s within range of a tower. They vastly increase productivity, convenience, lower the risk of a missed call, and they’re fun. Mobile phones work by beaming voice (and, later, data) to a tower, seamlessly switching from tower-to-tower as the person moves. Cooper Creates the Mobile Phone Battery-operated gadget maker … Continue reading "Mobile Phone"
BraCommunist spitfire Ida Rosenthal came from a line of Jewish intellectuals in what was then Russia and is now Belarus. She returned from college an outspoken communist revolutionary and with a boyfriend, William. Threatened with jail, the army, or both they fled to the US in 1905 and married in 1906. Ida, who was 4′ … Continue reading "Bra"
Interpress & PostScriptInterpress and PostScript enabled display technology, initially printers and eventually screens, to display output exactly as it would look between media. Printouts and screens, no matter the size, would look exactly the same. The technology is another from Xerox PARC. Background Warnock left Evans & Sutherland, a computer graphics company founded by Ivan Sutherland, to … Continue reading "Interpress & PostScript"
Steel ShipsWooden ships were limited in size and their hulls could be more easily penetrated than metal ships during war. Ironclad ships reduced the cost and risk of shipping by enabling larger ships that were more difficult to sink. The first known ironclad warship was The Nemesis, built for the East India Company, in 1839. Soon, … Continue reading "Steel Ships"
Aspirin1899 Arthur EichengrünFelix Hoffman Aspirin is often referred to as a miracle drug. The inexpensive medicine relieves pain without addiction, reduces fever, and even helps prevent heart attack. There is some evidence Aspirin even prevents cancer. Aspirin is the distilled and purified version of medicine known since ancient times. Hippocrates, he of the Hippocratic Oath, … Continue reading "Aspirin"
Oil DrillDrake’s oil drill is one of the stranger stories, in a collection of innovation origin stories where strange is common. The oil drill vastly lowered the cost and increased the efficiency of collecting oil. Before the drill, oil was usually collected in naturally formed pools at the ground surface. Most early oil was distilled into … Continue reading "Oil Drill"
Contact LensesLeonardo DaVinci proposed the first contact lens idea in his Codex of the Eye, published in 1508. His invention involved putting a fishbowl over one’s head filled with water to refract light. This is arguably not his finest work though, in hindsight, he was onto something. René Descartes picked up DaVinci’s work in 1636, proposing … Continue reading "Contact Lenses"
