Transistor RadioDeveloped in 1947 but commercialized in 1954, transistor radios are small. Battery-operated portable radios that fit in a pocket. They rely on transistors rather than vacuum tubes. There were several attempts to build radios with transistors but none were optimal until 1954. Eventually, a Texas Instruments team invented the Regency TR-1, the first radio miniaturized … Continue reading "Transistor Radio"
Object-Oriented ProgrammingObject oriented programming is the first of countless Xerox PARC inventions. Vastly simplifying, there are two ways to program a computer. In procedural programming, each thing the computer does is listed. Conditional statements tell the computer which path to follow. Comparatively, in object-oriented programming, objects mimic real life. Programmers then act on these objects. For … Continue reading "Object-Oriented Programming"
Precision Guided Munitions“In the past, wars’ slaughter has been largely confined to armed combatants. Obviously the airman, riding so high above the earth that cities look like ant hills, cannot aim his deadly cargo at armed males. All below will be his impartial target.” Major Gen. James Fechet, US Army Air Corps, 1933 Precision Guided Munitions (PGM’s) … Continue reading "Precision Guided Munitions"
Protease InhibitorsHistory They first called it gay men’s cancer. Then announced it affected intravenous drug users. People became skeptical when they added Haitians as a risk factor. Being gay, a drug user, or black was a death sentence? My openly gay high school English teacher became sick and quickly died in the middle of a semester. … Continue reading "Protease Inhibitors"
Weather ForecastThe development of the telegraph in 1835 made weather forecasting possible. Before that time, people used various methods to guess changes in the weather. Some observations were accurate. For example, the correlation of barometric pressure to weather changes. However, there was not enough geographically widespread data to methodically forecast weather. The Britsh government charged Francis … Continue reading "Weather Forecast"
Adding MachineBlaise Pascal was a French mathematician who lived in the 1600s. He is most known for his work in geometry and statistics but is included here for building the first non-abacus adding machine. Going back briefly, the abacus dates back to at least 300BC. Our earliest cutoff date for innovations is the printing press or … Continue reading "Adding Machine"
- Bitcoin, Fruitcake, and Christmas Pudding
On the importance of being open to divergent ideas & non-experts. Cross-posted from the blue ocean thinking substack: https://blueoceanthinking.substack.com. About a decade ago I’d just moved with my new bride into a house we rehabbed. We owned our house mortgage-free and my work was routinely cited in leading newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, … Continue reading "Bitcoin, Fruitcake, and Christmas Pudding"
Plasma Panel1964 Donald BitzerGene SlottowRobert Wilson Plasma panels form fonts, images, and other patterns using plasma, rather than tubes. The panels are flat, cool, and use less power than CRT tubes. Bitzer developed the plasma panel as the monitor for his teaching computer, PLATO. PLATO is a lesser-known fountain of innovation. Along with Bell Labs, Xerox … Continue reading "Plasma Panel"
Facsimile (FAX) MachineAlexander Bain created a telegraph that transmitted light and dark dots that were reproduced on the other side, the fax machine, long before the telephone. Early faxes were popular with newspapers due to their ability to quickly transmit crude images. Countless modifications and improvements followed over the years. Despite the obvious differences in the innovation, … Continue reading "Facsimile (FAX) Machine"
Credit UnionLet it not be forgotten that a credit union is, above all else, an association of people, not dollars. Alphonse Desjardins Banks at the turn of the 20th century were for rich people. A.P. Giannini founded his Bank of Italy, later renamed Bank of America, in 1904 as a bank for everybody else. But it … Continue reading "Credit Union"
Movable Type Printing PressBackground Gutenberg’s father was a minor royal and his mother came from a merchant family; they lived in Mainz, Germany. His father was in charge of running an ecclesiastical mint; they created coins. Growing up, Guttenberg was essentially a jeweler. Gutenberg’s father died in 1419, leaving an inheritance but also a problem. Guttenberg’s father was … Continue reading "Movable Type Printing Press"
Cathode-ray Tube (CRT)Cathode ray tubes are a vacuum tube with an electron gun at the back. The gun shoots electrons through the vacuum onto a screen which creates images. Thick screens that predate flat-screen televisions and computer monitors are cathode ray technology. Background German scientists Julius Plücker and Johan Hittorf discovered cathode-ray tubes. Hittorf noticed a negative … Continue reading "Cathode-ray Tube (CRT)"
SteamboatThe steamboat opened trade routes within the US and Europe, but especially the early US. The cost of travel throughout the US dramatically decreased while safety and quality increased. The steamboat also allowed upstream river navigation, impossible without paddling, opening vast areas of land to development. Early Efforts De Jouffroy allegedly had a predecessor steamboat … Continue reading "Steamboat"
Steam Engine (Newcomen)The Newcomen steam engine removed water from mines. It worked but was extremely inefficient. Steam was not recycled (re-condensed) so the Newcomen engine required an enormous amount of coal to continually boil water. When used at a coal mine, where scrap coal was essentially free, this cost less than having workers remove water by the … Continue reading "Steam Engine (Newcomen)"
Videotape RecorderCharles Ginsberg invented the videotape recorder, that put images onto tape, in 1951. Ampex sold their first video recorder, the VRX-1000, in 1956 to CBS for $50,000 ($462,000 in 2018). Ampex recorders were sold exclusively to television studios. Before videotape recordings, television broadcasts either played a movie in front of a TV camera or broadcast … Continue reading "Videotape Recorder"