Wander Lord

Interesting on art, nature, people, history

Category Archive: Inventions

Vacuum cleaner

Vacuum cleaner

Vacuum cleaner

The idea of vacuum cleaner originates from the 19th century.
The first vacuum cleaners had to be operated manually. Two persons were needed for this: one to operate the bellows and the other to move the mouthpiece over the floor. The dust was blown into the air. Only in 1901 Hubert Booth changed the idea into something more useful. Until then the vacuum cleaners blew the dust away, but Booth came up with the idea of sucking away dust, instead of blowing. Furthermore, Booth equipped his cleaner with a filter, which kept the dust in the machine. All modem vacuum cleaners are based on Booth’s principle. In spite of the improvements made by Booth, the older vacuum cleaners were not very practical: they were hand-operated and very big and heavy. Some cleaners were left outside the house, and only the hose was led into the rooms through a window or door. Best known for the vacuum cleaner that bears his name, Jim Kirby’s life goal was to reduce or eliminate drudgery wherever it existed. After watching his mother’s cleaning effort result in the dust settling back onto everything in the house, he developed his concept of a vacuum cleaner.
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Television is developed

Television is developed

Television is developed

John Logie Baird (1888-1946) applied for a patent for a mechanical television in 1923.
He ran successful experiments in transmitting images in 1926, and in 1930 he worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to begin mechanical television broadcasting. He also tried, rather unsuccessfully, to mass-market his television transmitter.
In 1923 Vladimir Zworykin (1889-1982) also applied for a patent. His was for a television camera that converted optical images into electrical pulses. On November 18, 1929, at a convention of radio engineers, Zworykin demonstrated a television receiver containing his ‘kinescope,’ a cathoderay tube. That same year Zworykin joined the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Camden, New Jersey. As the director of their Electronic Research Laboratory, he was able to critical improvements to his system. Zworykin’s ‘storage principle’ is the basis of modem TV.
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Wright brothers fly first motorized plane

Wright brothers fly first motorized plane

Wright brothers fly first motorized plane


Orville and Wilbur Wright were inspired by Otto Lilienthal, a German glider pioneer. Though he crashed to his death in 1896, the Wrights were obsessed by the technical problems involved in flight. They approached the issue methodically, working out ways to control a glider’s tendency to pitch up and down, roll side to side, or yaw left and right. By the third glider they built, they had solved most of these problems of steering and stability.
To make a self-powered airplane, they needed to develop a very light gasoline engine and an appropriate propeller. By December 1903, their first airplane (Flyer /, later renamed Kitty Hawk) was ready to test. It had a 12.3 meter wingspan, was 6.4 meters long, and weighed about 274 kilos without the pilot. It was powered by the Wrights’ home-made 12 horsepower gasoline engine. The Wrights returned to the site at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where they had tested their gliders. Their selection of this spot was based on national weather records which showed it to have consistently favorable conditions.
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History of hula hoop

History of hula hoop

History of hula hoop


Children around the world have always played with hoops, by rolling and throwing them or twirling them around the waist and limbs. For adults, hoop twirling has at times been recommended as a weight-loss measure (ancient Greece) and, ironically, denounced as a source of sprains, pains and even heart attacks (14th-century England). These hoops were once made of vines or other plants, wood, or metal.
The conversion of the toy hoop into 20th-century Americana came thanks to Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin, founders of the Wham-O Company. In 1957, an Australian visiting California told them offhand that in his home country, children twirled bamboo hoops around their waists in gym class. Knerr and Melin saw how popular such a toy would be; and soon they were winning rave reviews from schoolkids for the hollow plastic prototype they had created.
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Mirror, mirror on the wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall

A mirror is a smooth surface that shows images of the objects near it. Most mirrors are a sheet of glass with a shiny metallic coating on the back.
The appearance of an image in a mirror is called a reflection. Reflection happens when light hits a surface. If the light cannot pass through the surface, it bounces off, or reflects. Most surfaces absorb some light and reflect some light, Mirrors, however, reflect almost all the light that hits them. The metallic coating on the back causes the reflection.
Most mirrors are flat. They are called plane mirrors. Images in a plane mirror are reversed. People use plane mirrors to check their appearance.
Mirrors are made in factories with special machinery. First, a sheet of glass is polished smooth and cleaned. Next, the back of the glass is covered with a thin layer of silver, aluminum, or another metal. Then the metal is covered with copper, varnish, or paint to protect it from scratches.
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History of chewing gum

History of chewing gum

History of chewing gum

As historians and archaeologists say the Greeks chewed the prototype of modern chewing gum, derived from the bark of the mastic tree.
In 1870, Thomas Adams, creator of the popular in those days chewing gum Black Jack, was the first to use a variety of flavors.
In 1871, he had patented a machine for the manufacture of chewing gum.
In 1880, William White offered minty taste in his trademark product Yucatan Gum. Since then peppermint had become one of the most common fillers in the “bubble” industry.
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History of money

History of money

History of money


The word money comes from the name of the Roman goddess Moneta in whose temple silver coins were made.
One of the earliest forms of money was metal, such as gold or silver. In North America, Native Americans used beads made of shell, called wampum, as a form of money.
People invented money to avoid barter. The value of paper money and coins comes from an agreement between all people.
People have used money for more than 4,000 years. In the 600s BC the kingdom of Lydia in what is now Turkey began to make coins.
The first types of paper money were used in China more than 1,000 years ago.
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