WHO INVENTED WHAT ?

WHO INVENTED SEWING MACHINE ?


A German named Charles Wiesenthal who lived in England got patented the needle that he designed for sewing machine in 1755. It was in 1790 Thomas Saint, who was an English inventor and a maker of cabinets got a copyright for a sewing machine as a whole. This machine was designed to sew leather but it could not produce results and failed. Though Balthazar Krems invented an automated sewing machine to sew caps in 1810 but he did not get it patented. There were few unsuccessful tries too. In 1814 Josef Madersperger was able to get patent for his unsuccessful machine. Thomas Stone and James Henderson got French patent for their machine and Scott John Duncans for his embroidery machine in 1804 but both machines were a great failure.

The French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier invented the first sewing machine that could function in 1830. The machine used a single thread and a needle which was hooked. The other tailors burnt his shop and almost killed him as they thought the new invention might bring unemployment.

It was in 1834 that America’s first successful machine came up and the man behind this was Walter Hunt who took no interest in getting a patent for it due to the fear that it might cause unemployment. It was in 1846 that Elias Howe got the first American patent for a sewing machine that had one pointed eye and accepted thread from two sources.

The mass production of machines started in 1850 when Isaac Singer invented the machine that was commercially successful.



WHO INVENTED REFRIGERATOR ?


It was in 18th century that the process of invention of refrigerator started. In 1748 William Cullen of University of Glasgow developed a process for creating an artificial cooling medium. No one took interest in it for commercial or home consumption, it only attracted scientific attention. An American inventor Oliver Evans made the first design for the refrigerator in 1804 but until 1834 none was interested in the same. Jacob Perkins built the first refrigeration machine in 1834. In 1844, a physician John Gorrie built a working unit on the basis of Oliver’s designs. He constructed this unit to create cooling atmosphere for his patients who were suffering from yellow fever.

In 1876 Carl von Linden invented the improved method of liquefying gas and got it patented. This was a great help in the creation of practical refrigerator. Ammonia, sulphur dioxide and methyl chloride were utilized for the formation of this gas which led to many accidents. The need led to the development of Freon and was used in bulk till it was found that it was not environment friendly and affected the ozone layer.

The gas compounds have now changed to safer compounds which compress and heat up working to cool the inside air of the refrigerator. Without this adjustment the working of the refrigerator seems impossible. It has been a work of many great inventors that the present form of refrigerators has simplified the work.



WHO INVENTED WALKMAN ?


Walkman is actually a Sony trademark and was the name used for portable tape or cassette deck players. These were meant for the listening pleasure of a single person and the trademark was later expanded for other portable Sony devices for audio and video entertainment. The term Walkman is also given to a range of the Sony Erricson range of mobile phones which also became immensely popular. Walkman was a device that was designed and created by audio engineer Nobutoshi Kihara who worked for Sony.

The Sony co-chairman Akio Morita wanted a device where he could listen to his favorite operas during the Trans Atlantic flights. The concept was well liked and was originally marketed in Japan in 1979 and was sensational, since it gave freedom to young people to listen to their music with light weight headphones.

Even though Morita hated the name Walkman, the name stuck on and the promotional campaign using the name had already begun and to change the name midway would have been extremely expensive for the company. In 2007 March, the digital flash based video walkman was released and was named the A800 series.

The Walkman by Sony faced stiff competition from other companies such as Toshiba, Aiwa, Panasonic etc, but the personalization of the gadget worked in its favor for almost 20 years and the essential design remained unchanged.



WHO INVENTED TELEVISION ?


The names of many are associated with the invention of the television. The two people who worked on the same appliance at two totally different places were Vladimir Kosma Zworykin; a Russian who was born in America and worked for Westinghouse Corporation, the other was a farm boy from Utah, Philo Taylor Farnsworth. Zworykin was the one who got his electron scanning tube also known as iconoscope patented first, in the year 1923 and was thus thought of as the inventor of modern television. The quality of his work was very poor and not appreciated.

It was on September 7, 1927 that Fransworth gave a successful demonstration for the transmission of the television signals for which he used his self designed scanning tube and received the patent for the same in the year 1930.

The patent for a similar type of tube was also applied for by Zworykin in 1923 but he was refused the same as the tube was not in a functional state. He could make a functional tube in the year 1934 and got the patent for it in 1938.

Many people acclaim John Logie Baird to be the original inventor of television as he was the one to give the very first live demonstration of the working television which had images that moved and had tone graduation on 26 January in the year 1926.



WHO INVENTED TOILET ?


Toilets as we know today have existed for about a century only. Earlier homes didn’t have the flushing toilet and even taking a bath was considered quite a luxury. The flush toilet is the most popular toilet that is used the world over and were known as water closets in the 19th century. Though the concept has been in use for a long period. Around 4000 years ago, in the Indus valley Civilization, toilets and sewers were an integral part to the city planning. The water flushing toilets were usually used by the affluent and these were linked to the drains that were also covered.

Remnants of water flushing toilets were also found at Skara Brae in Oakney, Scotland around 3100 BC – 2500 BC. The Pharaohs and ancient Persia also had toilets around the 18th century BC. While toilets during the roman times were a part of the public bath houses.

In the US, it was estimated that 90 liters of water were used by individuals in the flushing toilets everyday. Now newer designs are being implemented and researched that will reduce the water consumption and wastage. In many homes and offices, dual flush toilets are in use that is meant for reducing the wastage of water. The dual system uses less water for flushing smaller loads of wastage.



WHO INVENTED VACUUM CLEANER ?

 
Vacuum cleaners are used for residential, commercial and industrial purposes. They are also known as hoovers or even sweepers are used for sucking up both dry and wet wastes from the surroundings. The dirt that is collected is collected in a bag for later disposal. The first documented Vacuum cleaners were invented by Daniel Hess in the United States in 1860 and were called a carpet sweeper. Just like the modem Vacuum cleaners, it also had a rotating brush and had a bellow mechanism that was quite complex for sucking out the dirt and the filth from the carpets. Hess received a patent for his vacuum cleaner on July 10, 1860.

The first few vacuum cleaners that were invented were operated manually. Till 1900’s most vacuum cleaners that were invented by Ives W McGraffy, Melville Bissell and others were manual ones. Soon after the motorized versions of the vacuum cleaners began to be produced. John H Thurman created a gasoline powered carper cleaner for the General Compressed Air Company. However this design wasn’t very successful, since the dust was blown into receptacle rather than the dust being sucked in as the cleaners do now.

The first vacuum cleaners were quite bulky, stand up and couldn’t be easily moved. After Electrolux launched its model V that lay on the floor with metal runners future machines would standardize this pattern. Now robotic vacuum cleaners can clean the place effortlessly.



Couretesy:  http://whoinvented.org/