December 1963…
Tiny hydrofoil wings attached to these skis enable the skier to bank, dip, climb, and glide at speeds up to 35 miles per hour. The foils start lifting at eight miles per hour, ride two feet above the water.
CosmoDynamics Inc., Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, developed Dynaflite hydrofoils. Under the skis are a stabilizer and two “flying” wings, one of them removable for extra speed. A skier, it’s claimed, can learn to use the foils in a half-hour.
December 2019
A great game for 2 year olds is to finish the nursery rhyme. Sing part of the song to your child and then leave the last word or two out for them to sing back to you.
I sing “Three blind ….” and then my son loves shouting back to me “Mice”. Although at the moment mice sounds more like ice. But we can work on that later!
He’s also pretty good at finishing the Yankee Doodle Dandee song with the word “Macaroni”… “He stuck a feather in his cap and called it ……..”.
The inventor of the first television is widely thought to be Philo T. Farnsworth born in Beaver, Utah on August 19th, 1906. However, there is an argument that one sole individual cannot be attributed to the invention of the electronic-television.
Some credit the beginnings of electronic-television to Vladimir Zworykin and his invention of the Iconoscope for RCA in 1923, a date four years prior to Farnsworth’s 1927 patent filing.
Others credit Farnsworth and Zworykin as “co-inventors” of the electronic-television stating that it is a far too complex piece of equipment to have been invented by one individual.
That said, the conclusion of the patent office in their 1935 decision in interference #64,207 states “priority of invention awarded to Farnsworth”. Also, witnesses heard Zworykin say on visiting Farnsworth’s laboratory in 1930… “I wish that I might have invented it.”
So electronic-television was started in the mind of Philo T Farnsworth when he was fourteen years old and was first successfully demonstrated in his San Francisco based laboratory on September 7th, 1927. On that day Farnsworth transmitted an “electrical image” without the use of any mechanical devices (previous attempts at transmitting moving images often involved spinning disks and mirrors).
Just for you to note… Mechanical television began in 1883 with a patent for a mechanical “electric telescope” by a German named Paul Nipkow. However, it is thought that Nipkow didn’t build a working system. His ideas were developed into a working mechanical system in the 1920s by the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (1888 – 1946). Baird used a camera with an opaque scanning disk with punched holes in it that were rotated by an electric motor. The movement of the holes in the disk, combined with light-sensitive photo-diodes and projected light coming through the holes in the disk created a projected image.
Instead of mirrors and spinning disks, Farnsworth was able to manipulate an electron beam which he deflected back and forth in a vacuum tube tens of thousands of times a second.
Since that date in 1927 Farnsworth spent a further ten years perfecting television for which he received over one hundred patents.
There were also many more engineers, particularly from RCA who contributed with incremental improvements to the electronic video technology prior to general public broadcasting in the 1950s and since that date there have been thousands more incremental improvements to television to bring it forward to what we have today.
We can thank Jewish inventors for such inventions as the Barbie doll, the bendy or flexi-straw, the corvette, blue jeans, and even the remote control.
Life Saving Drugs
Gertrude Belle Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist who used innovative research methods to develop a multitude of live-saving/life-improving drugs. In 1988 she was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Barbie Doll
The Barbie doll was invented by Ruth Handler and was first presented to the public in 1959. It was one of the first dolls to have breasts – the idea being was that it would help young girls better imagine their future as adult women. Get your own Barbie Careers Baby Doctor Playset on Amazon (affiliate link).
Levi Strauss
I would guess most people have heard of Levi Strauss – Levi began manufacturing his famous brand of jeans in 1873. He used copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of his denim work pants. Levi’s most popular jeans at present are Levi 505 jeans that you can purchase on Amazon (affiliate link).
Corvette
Zora Arkus-Duntov was an American engineer, born in Belgium who’s work on the Chevrolet Corvette led to him being nicknamed the “Father of the Corvette.”
Flexi-Straw
Joseph Friedman invented the Flexi-straw after seeing his daughter struggle to drink using a straight straw. He created the original corrugations by inserting a screw into a straight straw and then wrapping dental floss around the screw. His patent for the new Flexi-straw was issued on September 18, 1937. In modern times to help reduce plastic waste in the environment, I would recommend reusable flexi-straws such as these on Amazon (affiliate link).
Gramophone
Emile Berliner was issued a patent for the “gramophone” in 1887.
Laser
Theodore Maiman created a laser from a synthetically grown ruby crystal, it was first operated on May 16, 1960.
Samuel E. Blom was awarded a patent for an ultraviolet excimer laser in December 1982. This laser was used in surgical and dental procedures and ultimately contributed to the development of LASIK eye surgery.
Contraceptive
Carl Djerassi participated in the invention of the oral contraceptive in 1961
Polaroid Camera
Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera which enabled a picture to be taken and developed in sixty seconds or less. The first Polaroid instant cameras went on sale in 1948. You can purchase a working copy of one of the original versions of the Polaroid camera on Amazon (affiliate link).
Remote Control
Out of all the Jewish inventors my favorite is the following… How would we cope without the invention of the television remote control! Robert Adler didn’t actually invent the first remote control he did, however, implement the underlying technology that enabled TV remotes to be effective and therefore become commonplace in the household.
Shopping Cart
Sylvan Goldman invented the shopping cart back in 1937. The original carts were large wire baskets that were connected by metal arms. They had four wheels so that they could be pushed around the shop. Goldman’s shopping cart was awarded a patent on April 9, 1940.
Vinyl Long Playing Record
Peter Carl Goldmark was instrumental in developing the LP which was first introduced in 1948.
Table Listing Important Jewish Inventors
Inventor | Invention |
Gertrude Elion | Anti-leukemia, gout, malaria, meningitis and herpes drugs |
Ruth Handler | Barbie Dolls |
Levi Strauss | Blue Jeans |
Zora Arkus-Duntov | Corvette (codesigner) |
Joseph Friedman | Flexi-straw |
Emile Berliner | Gramophone |
Theodore Maiman | Laser (co-inventor) |
Samuel E. Blum | LASIK eye surgery (co-inventor) |
Carl Djerassi | Oral Contraceptive (co-inventor), Antihistamines |
Edwin Land | Polaroid Camera |
Robert Adler | Remote Control |
Sylvan Goldman | Shopping Cart |
Peter Carl Goldmark | Vinyl Long Playing Record |
A warm welcome to the famous women inventors section of the site.
Even in the modern times that we live in female inventors can only be attributed to less than 10% of submitted patents. However, this figure is said to be increasing.
Nowadays there are many business startups formed by women and this is resulting in more and more innovations and inventions from women.
(Photo Credit: Search Engine People Blog)
I have listed below some of the most famous women inventors that I was able to find during my research on the topic…
Sybilla Masters
Sybilla Masters invented a machine to process (clean and cure) Indian corn. The invention was patented in England in 1714. At the time only males could submit patents and therefore the patent was listed under her husband’s name however in the documentation for the product he attributed the invention to his wife.
Hannah Slater
Hannah Slater was the first woman to receive an American patent. She was married to Samuel Slater a colonial American textile manufacturer and in 1793 she invented a sewing thread made of cotton.
Ruth Handler
The famous Barbie and Ken dolls were invented by Ruth Handler who named the dolls after her children.
Marion Donovan
The prototype for the first-ever disposable diaper was invented by Marion Donovan in the 1950s although her idea was actually marketed and patented by others.
Kate Gleason
Pre-fabricated, easily affordable, mass-produced houses were invented by Kate Gleason in the early 1920s, the first housing development to use these homes was in Rochester, New York where her houses were sold for approximately $4,000.
(Photo Credit: Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales)
Mary Phelps Jacob
The first modern bra was invented by Caresse Crosby a publisher whose real name was Mary Phelps Jacob. She patented the modern bra, in 1914.
Corine Dufour / Anna Bissell
Corine Dufour invented an electric sweeper and dust gatherer at around 1900 and some years earlier in 1876 Anna Bissell invented the first carpet sweeper which resulted in the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company.
(Photo Credit: Felix O)
Bette Nesmith Graham
“Liquid Paper” used to correct typewriting or handwriting errors was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham in 1956. Her invention was turned down by IBM.
(Photo Credit: Wayan Vota)
Josephine Garis Cochrane
The first working mechanical dishwasher was invented in 1886 by Josephine Garis Cochrane which she presented at the 1893 World’s Fair.
We can attribute Kevlar bulletproof vests to the invention of liquid crystalline polymers that were invented in 1965 by Stephanie L. Kwolek.
A number of women inventions can be attributed to the progress of coffee brewing… Madame Vassieux, who patented the first glass coffeemaker in 1842, Elizabeth Dakin who along with her husband patented a combination coffee roaster brewer in 1847 and Melitta Benz who invented the Melitta coffee maker in 1908.
An anti-jamming device used in radio-controlled torpedoes was invented and patented in 1942 by Hedy Lamarr
The modern maternity dress was invented by Elsie Frankfurt Pollock.
There are several speculations as to the inventor of the hearing aid. Hearing aids have been around since time immemorial and perhaps it is easier to find out who the inventor of the modern hearing aid is.
Hearing aids have a long history, ever since the prehistoric times. It is believed and rightly so that the first hearing aids were the trumpets, funnel-shaped structures made of wool, metal or sometimes trunks of animals which used to amplify the incoming sound and redirecting all of the sound energy to one’s ears. These types of hearing aids have been in use for a long time until the recorded history of mankind.
The inventor of the hearing aid which comes closest to the likes we get to see today was Harvey Fletcher. An American physicist, born on 11th July in the year 1884, who is also the inventor of the audiometer, Fletcher patented the first electrical hearing aid while working for Bell Laboratories.
The documented history of the modern era gives several names who have had invented various types of hearing aids across the world through the nineteenth and twentieth century. Alphonsus William Webster was the first patent holder of a hearing aid in the year 1836 in Great Britain.
Later, in the year 1880, another type of hearing aid was invented using cardboard and rubber by R. G. Rhodes.
1898 witnessed Alfonso Miltmore come up with an electric hearing aid that used a headphone (or earphone), carbon dust microphone and a pack of battery. He would have been credited as the inventor of the modern hearing aid but his design was unreliable hence it never made it to the public at large.
In 1898, two major developments happened. The Dictagraph Company developed the first hearing aid that was commercially available, it worked on batteries. Around the same time, Miller Reese Hutchinson came with a hearing aid, named the Acousticon. The Acousticon was available in the markets from 1901. Miller Reese Hutchinson is also at times considered as the inventor of the hearing aid.
Later in the twentieth century, Maynard Engebretson, Robert E Morley, Jr. and Gerald R Popelka designed and came up with the first fully digital hearing aid. As per the US patent records, this hearing aid was officially patented in 1984. Ever since there have been several developments and transformations to the designs and functions of contemporary hearing aids.
Not many people understand much about the invention of video games or the history of video games even though many people across the globe love playing them on a regular basis.
Those who grew up in the late 1970s and 1980s will have had the opportunity to play many, varied video games and also will have experienced the tremendous improvements in graphics and speed as the gaming technology has improved.
According to history, the first video game was designed back in 1952 by A.S Douglas, a Ph.D. student at Cambridge University in the UK. His thesis was on Human-Computer interactions.
In fact, Douglas created the first computer game back then. His game was programmed on an EDSAC computer which was a vacuum computer with a CRT display.
Pong
However, the first real computer game was created in 1958 by William Higinbotham. This game was known as Tennis For Two and was designed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Oscilloscope.
Later in the 1970s, the arcade type of video game was designed. These video games were on coin-operated consoles, enabling entrepreneurs to provide gaming opportunities to players.
The entrepreneurs were able to make an income from these video game consoles and one of the biggest successes was PONG back in 1972. Pong was designed by a company known as Atari which was a force to reckon with back in that period of time.
Prior to that, back in 1966, Ralph Baer had designed a video game that was fun, enjoyable and could be played from a regular TV set.
Space Invaders
However, the golden age of arcade games came in 1978 with the release of a game known as Space Invaders. The success of Space Invaders was really huge and many manufacturers started to produce arcade games.
Tetris
It was in this era that manufacturers and programmers started to seriously produce video games and consoles. However, an economic slowdown halted this advancement for a while until the early 1980s when Nintendo made its appearance.
Nintendo came up with handheld consoles that could be played from anywhere. The first portable console was designed and released in 1989. One of the more popular games was Tetris which was a popular puzzle game.
Games continued to develop and in the 1990s 3D games were beginning to appear. More games and more games seemed closer to reality than ever before. However, social factors such as concerns regarding links to violence especially among kids have had an effect on the industry.
Video games continue to thrive, with the gaming industry generating sales in excess of US$11.2 billion in 2003.
Now For Some Fun
On a lighter note, to end with a bit of fun. Check out this funny short film about the invention of video games…
The invention of coca-cola can be attributed to a struggling pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia named John S. Pemberton; he concocted the first batch coca-cola syrup back in May 1886 in a three-legged iron pot in his back yard.
Two of the ingredients for coca-cola at the time were dried coca leaves of a South American shrub, and cola, an extract of the kola nut.
Pemberton’s friend a bookkeeper named Frank M. Robinson named the drink by using a combination of these two ingredients, i.e. coca-cola. He also created the flowing design that is still in use today.
Coke is simply a nickname for coca-cola and this nickname was created by the beverages customers who insisted on using this shortened version. The coca-cola company created advertisements to try and get people to use the full name for coca-cola as the nickname coke was encouraging substitute products.
Eventually via a Supreme Court decision in 1920 the coca-cola company were able to get the nickname ‘coke’ also registered as a trademark.
The curved, fluted bottle originated around the 1920s and is almost as famous as the trademarked names.
Coca-cola was first sold to the public from a soda fountain in Jacon’s Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8th, 1886. The syrup that Pemberton created was mixed with carbonated water and sold for five cents a glass.
In 1888 Asa Candler acquired the formula and patents from Pemberton and his partners in order to gain full control of the beverage.
The Spencerian coca-cola script wasn’t registered with the U.S. patent office until 1893.
Back in 1886, approximately 9 drinks a day were being sold in more recent time the coca-cola company sells close to 2 billion drinks across two hundred countries around the world.
The invention of cable television in the late 1940s has radically changed the way that the world communicated. Not only did it provide a source for entertainment and news, it disseminated an ideal of a middle-class world that to many people, was just a dream; a depiction of normal life portrayed on the screen.
Being pioneers in scientific discovery is something that Americans have had down since the formation of the country, but nothing like the invention of cable television had made such an impact on the world since the development of the telephone.
Getting television into the homes of everyday people was another feat that had to be accomplished through careful business maneuvering. An electronics salesman by the name of John Walson was the first to connect a cable television network to televisions in mid-1948, due to a few of his customers complaining of bad antenna reception, and afterward, it spread like wildfire.
John Walson has been credited with being the founder of the cable television industry, simply by trying to get better reception for his customers. This laid the foundation for cable television as we know it today.
Early cable television was usually reserved for people with enough money to enjoy it, as a television set was considered very expensive then and there were also fees and monthly charges incurred also. This is what made cable television, in its early days, a product that usually only middle to upper-class Americans had access to.
During its developing years, cable television was heavily regulated by the US Government. Important messages only were usually relayed through the cable television system, and it wasn’t until between 1959 and 1961 when Congress determined the role of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), 10 years after its formation that television really started coming into the forefront of the American imagination.
Programming including original programs and different television networks started popping up, mostly for a cost. The first basic cable network showed up in 1976, WTCG, the Turner Communications Group.
Cable television has been an integral part of life for almost everyone today. From grandparents to parents, to even a more recent childhood of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows, life without cable television is very hard to imagine these days.
The culture was changed and then defined by what our television sets brought us. There are countless contributions that the invention of cable television has brought us over the last 60 years, and there are undoubtedly more to come.
The steam engine inventor was James Watt who issued a patent for his invention in 1769.
James Watt was born in Scotland in the little town of Greenock on the banks of the Clyde in 1736. At the age of sixteen, he had a short 2-year apprenticeship working for a mechanic/mathematical instrument specialist.
After his short apprenticeship, Watt moved to London where he gained employment as a mathematical instrument maker. However, after a severe cold, he returned home after an absence of little more than a year.
At this point, Watt was appointed to the college of Glasgow as a mathematical instrument maker to the university. It was here at the university that Watt began to experiment with how steam might escape when contained within a tight syringe. This action led to a basic piston that was able to raise quite a considerable weight of 15lbs.
Overtime further experiments were made to improve on this discovery. For example, the steam was cooling too quickly so materials were used that would conduct heat more slowly.
Ultimately Watts experiments led to an idea that struck him, that if a communication was opened between a cylinder containing steam, and another vessel which has been exhausted of air and other fluids, then the steam as an expandable fluid, would immediately rush into the empty vessel, and continue to do so until it had established an equilibrium; and if that vessel was to be kept very cool by an injection or otherwise then more steam would continue to enter until the whole was condensed.
Watt further perfected this idea by adding a pump that extracted any water, air and uncondensed steam. Next Watt surrounded the cylinder by a casing to assist the retention of the heat. A piston rod worked through an aperture used the elasticity of the steam from the boiler to impel the piston down the cylinder and all this ultimately led to Watts steam engine.