February 2020

xinventor-howe.jpg.pagespeed.ic.lJ7EoiVMEr

(Photo Credit: National Museum of American History)

Elias Howe Jr. or inventor Howe as he is also known was the pioneer of the sewing machine. Although there had been several inventions at around the same time as that of Howe yet it was his design and patented sewing machine that made its way to become the first most successfully developed and sold sewing machine in the world.

Elias Howe Jr. was the son of Elias Howe Sr. and Polly Howe. Descendants of Edmund Rice and John Howe, Elias Howe Jr. was raised in Spencer, Massachusetts and later moved to Cambridge pretty early in his career in search of work.

Howe started off working for a mill, a textile factory, as early as 1835 when he was only 16. He was born on 9th of July, 1819. The panic of 1837 lead to the shutting down of mills in Spencer and that compelled Howe to move to Cambridge where he worked as a mechanic until 1838 along with his cousin, Nathaniel P Banks. Howe would do quite a few jobs in the following years, get married to Elizabeth Jennings Ames in 1941 and have three children named Jane, Simon and Julia.

Inventor Howe had been contemplating on developing a sewing machine for quite a few years and he finally succeeded in acquiring the first US Patent on 10th September, 1846.

For almost a hundred years preceding Howe’s invention, there have been numerous models of sewing machines but what Howe did differently was that he used the needle with an eye at the point which eventually made its way to every sewing machine model and variant including the electric ones in years and centuries to come.

Despite Howe’s significant achievement, times were tough for him when he struggled to sell his design and find investors to get the ball rolling. He, along with his elder brother tried to make it big in the UK where initially they had found an investor, client and friend in William Thomas but soon the association broke down and Howe was back to the US in 1948 when he almost had no money on him.

Another pioneer of the sewing machine, Isaac Singer who had by then started to manufacture and sell sewing machines on a large scale, had been gaining a lot of recognition. Shortly after the death of Howe’s wife, he filed a lawsuit against Singer and his associates for using his design without the consent. Howe won the lawsuit and his association thereafter with Singer and others brought in a revolution of sorts in the world of sewing.

Inventor Howe later served during the Civil War, made handsome contributions to the Union Army, made contributions to the invention of zipper but did not pursue to see it take shape. Elias Howe Jr. died on 3rd October 1867 as a multimillionaire.

There is thought to be no one single inventor of hockey in fact the creation of hockey is somewhat of a mystery. There are many claims to its invention, but no consensus.

Ice hockey is a sport that is played throughout the world in professional leagues such as the NHL and in cul-de-sacs across North America and it is also the national pastime in Canada. Known as the “coolest game on Earth and also one of the fastest because of the ice too!

When considering its invention no one can pin point the exact origins of hockey, there are several ancient sports that resemble hockey however all of these sports differ in specific areas.

One of these sports was Ijscolf a game where a wooden curved bat was used to hit a wooden or leather ball between 2 poles at an object with the least amount of shots.

Another game that resembled ice hockey is a game called Knattleikr which was played by the Vikings many years ago.

The most popular theory on the invention of hockey is that it evolved in Canada sometime around when the country was being settled by Europeans.

The winters brought snow and cold weather but this didn’t deter Canadians from continuing with sporty pastimes – new sports were created using the ice as their new playing fields.

The European settlers played a primitive form of hockey that was influenced by the game of Knattleikr – a game played by various Aboriginal groups and Icelandic immigrants in which the players would hit a ball with sticks.

Not long after the arrival of the modern ice skate in the nineteenth century people started making there skating experiences more interesting by shooting a ball or a puck across the ice with a stick.

Many generations of improvements have led to what today is now known to be the world’s most popular winter team sport.

What is clear is that hockey as we know it today evolved from Canada and Canada is the country that provides the main supply of NHL talent.

The people of Quebec believe that modern day hockey was first played at McGill University in Montreal, whereas the people of Ontario believe it was first played in Kingston. Then there is also the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia who also makes claims to the invention of hockey.

Hockey the name actually derives from the French word hoquet which means “shepherd’s crook”.

Hockey as an organized team sport began in Canada in the mid-1850’s with the first league forming in Kingston and consisting of four clubs.

Everyone has their own take on who created hockey but one thing we know for sure is that there is no one inventor of hockey as hockey developed over centuries with the game still being changed today.

Photo Credit: Airselfie

This new invention called Airselfie is a great replacement for the traditional selfie stick!

Even with a selfie stick, it can often be very difficult to get a big group of people into a photo. This problem is resolved by this new drone that flies in the air and takes that perfect selfie for you.

The device has been invented by a US Company called Airselfie.

“People are taking 100 million selfies a day,” says general manager Greg Appelhof. “Our market is Gen Z and millennials, who want to get that perfect shot.”

The selfie drone is expected to retail for $99.95 (£76.40) and it has special technology built into it that can help it focus on the people in the picture it is about to take.

Photo Credit: Nexmind

This clever device invented by French technology company Nexmind aims to do away with such things as a television remote control.

Using sensors it scans for electrical brain activity. The user can focus on a particular thing on the screen in front of them and the device can then work out what you are focussing on.

As well as remote controls it could also be useful in certain video games.

Photo Credit: Orcam

If you wear a hearing aid yourself or you’ve ever discussed them with someone who does yo may well be aware that hearing aids pick up sounds from all over the place. Often sounds that the wearer is not particularly interested in hearing, such as distracting background noises.

In an attempt to resolve this problem an Israeli company called Orcam has developed The Hear, which is basically a wearable camera. The camera identifies who is speaking and then uses lip-reading technology to enable the hearing aid to focus-in just on the conversation coming from that individual.

The invention of the Frisbee came in the 1950s when its inventor Walter Frederick Morrison conceived the idea for an aerodynamic plastic disc while throwing a metal cake pan on the beach in California to his wife, Lu.

Since that date then there have been hundreds of millions of Frisbees sold across the world.

The Pluto Platter

Originally the Frisbee was named the “Pluto Platter” and was sold directly by Morrison at local fairs. The novel aerodynamic shape enables Frisbee’s to travel long distances and to hover in the air.

The invention of the frisbee has led to it being one of the most popular pieces of sporting equipment sold. In the patent document that details the design of the “Pluto Platter” it is called a flying saucer.

How The Name Frisbee Originated

A Californian firm Wham-O bought the rights to the Pluto Platter in 1957 at the same time the company realized that many of the kids who were using the toy were nicknaming them the “Frisbie” after the name of a popular pie. In order to avoid copyright infringement, the company decided to change the spelling and re-brand the Pluto Platter or “Frisbie” to Frisbee.

Similarities To A Clay Pigeon

Interestingly the Frisbee has many similarities (at least in terms of its aerodynamics) to a much older invention, that of the Clay pigeon which was invented by George Ligowsky back in 1885.

Frisbee Inventor

Frisbee inventor Morrison who was known to his friends as Fred died at his home in California on February 9th, 2010. In memory of Morrison the Wham-O company paid tribute to him with a quote on their web site:

”As Frisbee discs keep flying through the air, bringing smiles to faces, Fred’s spirit lives on. Smooth flights, Fred.”

Redesigns

In 1975 Alan Adler a sailboat designer and lecturer of engineering at Stanford University challenged himself to redesign a Frisbee.

Adler had much knowledge of aerodynamics and noticed that the thick edge of the Frisbee created a lot of drag (which means friction with the air). He also noted that a Frisbee acts as an airfoil (American) or Aerofoil (English) which basically means that when it flows through something such as air it creates an aerodynamic force or lift.

frisbee being thrown

Adler experimented with slimmer, lighter Frisbee’s. His goal was to try and get a Frisbee to fly even greater distances than before. His first experiments were thin, plastic disks with a slight curve. Unfortunately, even though Adler managed to reduce the drag from this design the modified Frisbee wouldn’t fly straight.

His next experiments included plastic discs with a hollow middle, i.e. a ring-type shape. Having no middle made the Frisbee lighter still but also introduced a new problem as a ring flying through the air is actually 2 airfoils. The front half meets the air first followed by the back half.

To overcome this new problem Adler shaped the two separate airfoils one for the outside edge of the ring and one for the inside edge. With the aid of computer design and after ten years of experiments Adler finally perfected an improved Frisbee which he named the Aerobie.

The world record for flying an Aerobie a distance is 1,200 feet or 369 meters.

Definition Of A Frisbee

In Chambers 21 Century dictionary a Frisbee is defined as:

”A light, concave, plastic, saucer-shaped object that spins when thrown, used for recreation, usually in a park, on the beach, etc., and also for competitive sport. 1950s based on the name of the Frisbie bakery in Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose pie tins presumably inspired its invention.”