Stop, proceed with caution, Go!

Imagine our fast paced streets without traffic lights. What a mess it would create. Well even back in the 1800's it was still a problem with pedestrians getting run over by hoarse and buggies.

In 1868, across the seas, the city of London found a way to deal with this problem. They created a gas powered lantern with red and green signals. This lantern was placed at a busy corner and was rotated by hand. This version proved to be a bit unsafe when the lantern exploded and killed the police officer controlling it. Fast forward to the early 1920's in America where two people had invented a more modern version. Detroit police officer William Potts created a traffic light by adapting a railroad signal and African American inventor Garrett A. Morgan came up with an electric rotating version. Although Garrett was the first to receive a patent for his light, Potts' light was already being used on the streets. Some still dispute over who was the first to actually invent the traffic light. Either way it has become one of the most important traffic controlling devices still used today.

Work cited:

Candice Solomon. "Traffic light, 1923." 24 June 2009. http://www.isrl.illinois.edu/~chip/projects/timeline/1923solomon.htm

John Crandall. "Who invented the traffic light? William Potts of Detroit." 5 April 2007. Suite 101.com 24 June 2009. http://transportationhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/who_invented_the_traffic_light

Scan this pack of Wrigley's Gum Please

When you go to the store everything is rung up with the use of an electronic scanner, but what is it that is being scanned? Well it is the UPC Code of course. This imprint of bars and numbers can tell a lot of information about a product and helps to make shopping quick.

The use of the bar code as it is known by came about in the 1950's.The first bar code was circular in shape. Over time it moved to a linear shape that we recognize today.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbar_code.htm

~Angela

The adding machine was invented by a nineteen-year-old French boy named Blaise Pascal way back in the year 1642. Blaise made it to help his father in his work. The man was a clerk, and all day long he had to do a tremendous number of mathematical calculations. The boy’s invention consisted of a wooden box with sixteen dials on it. By turning the dials, one could do simple addition and subtraction very quickly.
There were two prior attempts to create such a machine which were discovered only recently. One is of Wilhelm Schickard who invented a mechanical calculator in 1623. Apparently only two prototypes were built and their location is unknown (if they survived at all). Only in the 1950's when letters of Schickard were discovered was this information revealed. From diagrams in these letters it was possible to reconstruct his machine.

An even earlier attempt was made by none other than Leonardo da Vinci. In 1967 some of his notes were found in the National Museum of Spain, which included a description of a machine bearing a certain resemblance to Pascal's machine. A model of da Vinci's machine was made with the help of these notes.


Works Cited: The Adding Machine. 1997-2007. Ideafinder.com. 24 June 2009.
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/addmachine.htm

~Angela

Technology = Failures???

You can't possibly get a good technology going without an enormous number of failures. It's a universal rule. If you look at bicycles, there were thousands of weird models built and tried before they found the one that really worked. You could never design a bicycle theoretically. Even now, after we've been building them for 100 years, it's very difficult to understand just why a bicycle works - it's even difficult to formulate it as a mathematical problem. But just by trial and error, we found out how to do it, and the error was essential.

~Freeman Dyson

Do you think most technological advances were brought on by trial and error or through a well though out plan?

~Angela

Radar Love

You've all seen the troopers on the side of the road. Arm hanging out the window holding that dreaded radar gun. Where did it come from? Who created this device which has helped police pull over those not abiding by the speed limit?

The radar gun was invented by Bryce K. Brown in March of 1954 and first used by Illinois patrolman Leonard Baldy. A radar gun is basically a mini Doppler radar unit which calculates the speed of an object in its path. The original gun had to be held in a stationary position for it to work. Unfortunately for the speeders today there are now two types of guns: the hand held one which needs to be stationary and the newer version mounted to cars which are able to work while the vehicle is in motion.

Work cited:

"Radar Gun." Wikipedia. Wiki posting modified. 1 June 2009. Wkimedia Foundation. 24 June 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_gun

"Are you lying to me?"

I once spoke with a police officer many years ago about lie detectors. He told me when he joined the force back in the late 70's, the "seasoned" officers would sit a suspect down in a chair and hook wires to them. They would ask the suspect questions and then push a button. Amazingly a piece of paper would come out with an "X" on it telling the cops he was lying. In reality the officers had them hooked up to a photo copier and when they would push the button all it really did was send out a photo copy of the "X" they placed in it earlier. Not very legal.

Of course that's not what really happens. In the earlier societies they used many bizarre ways to prove someone was lying. The first instrument to measure the physical change in a person came from Cesare Lombroso who was an Italian criminologist. His device had the individual place their hand in a special sealed tank of water and this would measure physical changes to the pulse and blood pressure. Through the years improvements were made and the water was dropped and replaced by a blood pressure cuff and a galvanometer.

Although the lie detector (also known as a polygraph) is widely and frequently used it is still to this day a very controversial method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-TZ8Z5S9rI

Work cited:

BOOKRAGS STAFF. "Lie Detector". 2005. June 24 2009. .

First Vaccinattion

The first vaccination was by Edward Jenner. The for first time he used it was on a boy and once he injected the vaccine he found out that they boy was immune to small pox. He then published the small pox vaccine by the 1798. After he did that within three years 1000,000 people in Britain was vaccinated. In the 1954 the disposable syrings, and needles were made. This is how Dr. Jonas Salks was able to vaccinate millions of American childern with the Salk polio vaccine. By Jen

Bells, Mart. "History of the Vaccination Needle ." 2007. About. 23 Jun 2009 .

Two Videos on the Dialysis machine

On this link the first one it show what happens. How it gets taken from your body.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1961227/348886
On the second one is a about a girl name Angie thats on a Dialysis machine. This a machine that is going on now a days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqLBDiofafo

The Artifical Kidney

In May of 1940 a man name Willem J Kolff invented the first artifical kidney. The first way he made it was that he used 50 yards of sausage cassing wrapped, around a wooden drum set into a salt solution. Then from the patient blood is drawn from the wrist and is feed into the casting. Which from there is goes to the drum that rotates it and removes the waste . The for the blood to go back to the patient Dr. Kolff the copyed Fords water pump coupling. But that didn't work so later on he used orange juice cans and washing machine to build his machine. The first fifthteen people that used this machine died. So he had to re work everything so that it would work right. Finally he made it and this time he use blood thinners to thin out the blood and it work on a 67 year old women. This happen in 1945 and she lived 7 more years of her life. In the 1947 he sent a artifical kidney to Mount Sinai Hostipal in Manhattan. Here the physicans started being interest in artifical organs. After they improve the machines they started using them and over ten thouand people are using them today. Some of them even three times a week. By Jen




Roating Artifical
Kidney (1943)


Alwall Kidney
early (1960)

Life Magizine
April 28 1947





Work Cited
1. "Willem J. Kolff at 97." Boston. 2009. Boston. 23 Jun 2009 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2009/02/16/willem_j_kolff_at_97_dutch_inventor_of_artificial_heart_and_organs/?page=2.

2.Goro, Fritz . "This image from the archives of LIFE magazine, which first appeared on April 28, 1947,." 2009. 23 Jun 2009 http://www.squidoo.com/groups/kidneydialysis.

3."Haemodialyser." 2007. Historical Aspects. 23 Jun 2009 http://www.historyofdialysis.com/HaemodialyserDetails.html.

4."Hall of fame Inventors profile." 2002. National Inventors Hall of Fame. 23 Jun 2009 http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.invent.org/hall%5Fof%5Ffame/1%5F1%5F6%5Fdetail.asp%3FvInventorID=88.

The Frst Stethoscope

The first stethscope was invented in 1816 by a French physician whos names was Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Lanennec. He invented this because when he had a female patient he was embrassed to put his head on her chest to listen to it. This was at the time the auscultation that was used by physicians at the time. So instead of Lanennec doing this is remember that when he was a kid that sounds travel through solids. So he used 24 pieces of rolled up paper to listen to the patient. He put one end on her chest, and he listen on the other end with his ear. The sounds of her chest were load and clear even through a paper cone.


The word stethoscope came from Greek words meaning "I see and the other one is "the chest. This stethoscope was made from wood that was turned on a turn table at Laennec house. It had a hollow bore in the center of it . It was two pieces one end was for ear and the cone funnel looking piece was to be placed on the chest. The picture above is Laennec first stethoscope that he made. Pictures below are one is the old way people would listen to the chest and the other way is the first stethoscope being used.





By Jen Hight

Worked Cited
Medical Antiques Online, "The Monaural Stethscope." 1998-2006. Web.23 Jun 2009. http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.antiquemed.com/tableofcon.htm.

Copy right for the paintings was by Robert A.Thom,copyrighted in 1960.

The Way Doctors started to Listen To Peoples Hearts and Lungs.

The history on stethoscopes before they were around. The Hippocrate who is also known as the father of medicine In the 350 B.C he wanted to improve instruments and medicine. First thing they would shake the patients shoulders, so that they could hear the sounds that would come from the chest.But then Hippocrate then started to use the method, that if you put your ear directly to the chest that you be able to hear the fluids that was in the the chest. In the picture of above is where doctors were using the method of listen to peoples chest by putting their ear on their chet. By Jen

Worked Cited

Medical Antiques Online, "The Monaural Stethscope." 1998-2006. Web.23 Jun 2009.

http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.antiquemed.com/tableofcon.htm

Scuba

Breathing underwater has been an interest of humans for centuries. Ancient drawings depicting underwater divers and thousand year old undersea artifacts such as pearls, hint to an almost instinctive interest in underwater exploration. In the 16th century people began to use diving bells supplied with air from the surface to sustain themselves underwater for prolonged periods of time. The bell was open to the water on the bottom with the top portion containing air compressed by the water pressure below. This allowed divers to swim away, grab something and swim back for some air without returning all the way to the surface. Later in the 16th century, full diving suits, made of leather, were used to a depth of 60 ft with air pumped down from the surface. Eventually in the 19th century Paul Bert and John Scott made two advancements that changed diving forever. Their studies helped to explain the effects of water pressure on the body and also contributed to improvements of compressed air pumps, carbon dioxide scrubbers and regulators, making it possible to remain underwater for long periods of time.

Work Cited
http://www.iit.edu/~elkimar/design/history/index.html

Television

Philo Taylor Farnsworth, established his first corporation, Farnsworth Television Incorporated, in 1929 where he transmitted the worlds first television image of a young woman in a laboratory on Spetember 7th 1927. Farnsworth had designed the image dissector, an early electronic television camera tube, when he was only 15 years old!! "Farnsworth's other patented inventions include the first "cold" cathode ray tube, an air traffic control system, a baby incubator, the gastroscope, and the first (albeit primitive) electronic microscope."(2)





Work Cited
1)http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/farnsworthp/farnsworthp.htm
2)http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/farnsworth.html

Wonderful Plastic

A British chemist and inventor Alexander Parkes is credited with the creation of the first man made plastic which he termed "Parkensine". In Alexanders youth he was apprenticed to a brass founders and eventually joined Elkingotn, Mason & Co. as a manager in the casting department. His interest in the rubber industry led him to the invention of the cellulose nitrate polymer generally accepted as the first ever synthetically produced plastic. Parkensine, however, was not economically successful due to its high flammability. Since then the plastic industry has evolved to produce materials responsible for the advancement of countless technologies while maintaining a low cost of production.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050298.htm

First Computer

The Z1 was the first mechanical computer created by a construction engineer named Konrad Zuse who worked for the Henschel Aircraft Company in Berlin, Germany at the start of WWII. The Z1 made historical developments in floating-point arithmetic and high capacity memory and modules. It was the first of a series of computers including the Z2 and Z3. The Z3 was the world first electronic and fully programmable digital computer, completed in 1941 and made entirely of recycled materials donated by university staff and students. Konrad Zuse also wrote the first algorithmic programming language called "Plankalkul" in 1946. Unfortunately, Zuse could not convince the Nazi government to support his work and his research was discontinued. The Z1 through Z3 models were destroyed during the war including Zuse Apparatebau, the first ever computer company.

Work Cited
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050298.htm

The Wonderful Fax Machine!

Check out this video from the late 80's. It is a news report on how the Fax Machine was becoming the new technological craze in the late 1980's for businesses. It helped them communicate quickly and reach their customers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3nXd2G1JdA

After watching it compare it to the video that we watched the first week of class on the Internet. How are the fax machine and the Internet the same? What affects did they each have on society? Will one ever replace the other?

~Angela

Metal Money?

Would you even imagine walking into a store and pulling out your "Metal Money" to pay for purchases? In the 1920's and 1930's this was the case for many prestigious customers of the railroads, hotel chains, airlines, oil companies and department stores. Consumers were able to purchase items on credit from the stores that they frequented. In the 1950's a card that could be used at a variety of stores were introduced to the public. This now plastic card was known as the Diner's Club Card. The introduction of the Diner's Club card lead to the introduction of several credit cards over the next 20 years. Visa and Mastercard quickly became household names.

In 1979, electronic improvements gave more retailers the ability to accept credit cards for payment. Electronic processing, electronic dial-up terminals and magnetic stripes on the back of credit cards allowed retailers to swipe the customer’s credit card through the dial-up terminal and increased the speed of credit card purchases.


Works cited:
Rhode, Steve. The History of Credit and Debt. 2000-2007. The Myvesta Foundation. 22 June 2009. http://myvesta.org/history/

~Angela

The Philadelphia Phillies a part of advertising technology???

The world's first television advertisement was broadcast July 1, 1941. The watchmaker Bulova paid for an advertisement on the New York station WNBT before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displayed a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time." The Bulova commercial was the world's first legal television commercial and cost the Bulova Watch Company a whopping $9.00 USD.

This break-threw in advertising has now become the most widely used form of mass media advertising. According to gaebler.com, the standard half-hour of television contains 22 minutes of program and 8 minutes of commercials - 6 minutes for national advertisements and 2 minutes for local advertisements. Over the course of 10 hours, a television viewer may see upward of 3 hours of advertisements. Although the number of advertisements has increased, the amount of time for an advertisement has decreased. In the 1960’s television advertisements ran approximately 60 seconds in length, today they run about 30 seconds.

For more information check out http://www.bulova.com/about/history.aspx.

~Angela

Invention of the "Breathalyzer"

Did you have too much to drink? Are you coming home from a party which maybe you should have stayed over? In the rear view mirror you see the flashing red and blue lights. "Oh man" you mumble to yourself as the officer slowly approaches your window. After explaining to you how you have a strong odor of alcohol he asks you to step out and breathe into a small meter. After blowing a 0.9 you find yourself cuffed and sitting in the cramped back seat of his patrol car. Who do you have to thank for this crafty little meter which has just sealed your fate?

In 1938 professor Rolla Harger, with the help of Robert Borkenstein, created the very first "breathalyzer." This device was known as the Drunk-o-meter. In 1953 Robert Borkenstein went on his own and created a smaller, more portable and easier to use version. This new version allowed police officers to use the device with very little training. The original device work by blowing into a balloon, the air from the balloon was released into a chemical solution, the solution would change color. The darker the color the more alcohol in a persons breathe. A modern breathalyzer works by measuring the amount of alcohol vapors in your lungs, brought there after being filtered through your liver and entering your blood stream.

Work cited:

Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer Legal Dictionary page, Breathalyzer. 16 JUne 2009. http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/B/Breathalyzer.aspx

Martin, Douglas. "Robert F. Berkenstein, 89, Inventor of the breathalyzer" New York Times 17 August 2002. 16 June 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/us/robert-f-borkenstein-89-inventor-of-the-breathalyzer.html

Innovations page, Indianna University, Perdue University. 16 June 2009 http://www.iupui.edu/spirit/innovation

The start of the police one-way radio.

In 1928 one of the most important tools in Law Enforcement was created. Imagine patrolling the 1920's gangland streets of Detroit and not knowing a bank robbery is going on right around the corner. By the time you are aware of what is going on, the bad guys already have a large head start. Through the years of 1921 - 1927 three Detroit police officers experimented with regular radio sets they had placed in the back of a model T patrol car. These three officers had come upon the most important life line in Law Enforcement, of any government level, now used today. At first these radios had to share the same stations with the regular radio program broadcasts. This obviously caused quite a few problems. A patrol officer had to listen to a standard radio broadcast which then would be interrupted by a dispatcher or you as a citizen would be listening to a big band tune when all of a sudden a police dispatcher starts rambling off information. Some of these interruptions would lose the signal, become full of static or pick back up the regular radio programs. In 1927, to improve the reception problem, officer Kenneth Cox and an engineering student, Robert Batts, improved the receiver. In 1928 W8FS radio station had been created and began regular police broadcasts. Shortly after most police stations across the nation jumped aboard and created their own systems.

For more information: http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/one_way.html

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