‘The camera was invented by Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1816. He named
the device heliograph and used a film made of pewter.’
THE topic of my column last week was about “Inventions,” which has made the whole world smaller, healthier, smarter, more comfortable, more productive, richer, and happier. Today, I am posting some more of those valuable inventions.
Soap
Soap originated back in ancient civilizations, including the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians as early as 5000 years ago. Before soap was invented, people used water and mud as exfoliants. Then, Egyptians used “natron,” a mixture of soda ash (sodium carbonate), a derivative of table salt and oils from vegetables and animals to make a soap-like substance.
Clock — Watch
Peter Henlein (1485-1542), a German locksmith and clockmaker from Nuremberg, invented the first clock in 1510, and is often credited with inventing the watch also around the same year, the first small ornamental clock that could be worn on the body, like pendant or attached to clothing. The automatic winding watch was invented by Abraham-Louis Perrelet. The Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a watch maker since 1946, introduced the first battery-powered electric wristwatch in 1957 (called Hamilton Electric 500), designed by Richard Arbib, an automotive designer.
Toilet
The modern flush toilet widely used today was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington, an English courtier and godson of Queen Elizabeth I. It had a 2-foot-deep oval bowl fed by water from an upstairs cistern and required 7.5 gallons of water to flush. The Queen refused to use it because it was too noisy when flushing.
Pencil
The modern pencil was invented by Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1795. The process used by Conte involved roasting a mixture of water, clay, and graphite in a kiln at 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit before encasing the resulting lead in a wooden surround.
Laundry machine
The first clothes washing machine was invented by a German scientist, Christian Schaffer, in 1767. Nathaniel Briggs received the first US patent for a washing machine (a wooden box with hand-cranked agitator) in 1797. In 1908, American engineer Alva J. Fisher invented the first electric washing machine he named “Thor” patented two years later, the “great grandparent” of our current-day laundry washer.
Camera
The camera was invented by Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1816. He named the device heliograph and used a film made of pewter. The oldest surviving picture, taken by him in 1826 in Le Gras, France, is a landscape. Others who contributed to the invention of the camera, even as early as 1717, were Carl Wilhelm Sche ele, a Swedish chemist; Johan Heinrich Schulze, George Eastman, Stephen Sasson, Louis Le Prince and Johan Zahn.
Computer
The first computer that resembled our modern PCs was invented between 1833 and 1871 by Charles Babbage. He devised the analytical engine and labored for nearly 40 years to improve it to be powerful enough to perform simple calculations. In Asia, a simpler calculating mechanical device was invented in 1100 BCE called the abacus.
Dishwasher
Josephine Garis Cochran is credited with inventing the first commercially successful modern dishwasher in 1886, but Joel Houghton patented the first hand-powered dishwasher in the United States in 1850.
Toilet paper
Joseph Gayetty is credited with being the inventor of modern commercially sold toilet paper in the United States, first introduced in 1857.
Ink pen
The first pen was invented by the Ancient Egyptians in 3200 BC out of bamboo or reed, dipped in ink to write. The original refillable ink fountain pen was introduced by Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson in 1849. An American lawyer, John J. Loud, invented the first ballpoint pen he patented in 1888.
Typewriter
The first practical typewriter was invented by Christopher Sholes around 1873 with US Patent No. 79,265. He was responsible for the order QWERTY, whose design still exists today. He helped found the Republican Party and was a two-term Wisconsin senator. President Lincoln appointed him a customs collector for the port in Milwaukee.
Vacuum cleaner
Hubert Cecil Booth invented the first successful vacuum cleaner in 1901. Six years later, James Murray Spangler, an asthmatic concerned about dust allergen, introduced the first domestic single-operator upright vacuum cleaner. In 1908, Willam Henry Hoover produced the first commercial-bag-on-a stick upright cleaners.
Joe Jones, of southwest Missouri, invented the first robotic vacuum cleaner he called Roomba in 1989 while working at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Microwave
American electrical engineer Percy Spencer developed and patented the first microwave oven in 1945, his first one was about 6 feet in height and weighed more than 750 pounds. The smaller version became popular in the 1970s. By 1986, about one in four households owned a microwave oven. In 1997, 90 percent of American homes had a microwave, becoming a $10.8 billion market industry in 2022, projected to rise to $16.47 billion by 2031.
GPS
The Global Positioning system was invented in 1973 by Bradford Parkinson, from Madison, Wisconsin, born on February 16, 1935, an American engineer, a graduate of MIT, a retired United States Air Force colonel, and an emeritus professor at Stanford University. The yearly benefit of GPS to the world is estimated by a recent US study “to be 37 to 74 billion dollars, excluding many of the applications, such as saving lives, that were difficult to quantify.” Enabling people around the world to navigate daily is empowerment by itself.
Luggage on wheels
The first commercial rolling suitcase was invented by Bernard D. Sadow, of Massachusetts, in 1972, after seeing a porter using a wheeled rack to move luggage while Sadow was traveling in Puerto Rico two years earlier.
Alexa
Jeff Bezos conceptualized Amazon’s Alexa in 2011 as a talking device that is voice-controlled. Actually, it is Willaim Tunstall-Pedoe who is considered the “Father of Alexa,” who built an anagram algorithm used by Dan Brown for the Da Vinci Code. Rohit Prasad, an Amazon AI scientist, introduced generalized intelligence and multimodal AI for Alexa.
Bluetooth
Jaap Haartsen of Hague, Netherlands, led the invention of Bluetooth wireless technology, which allows a seemingly endless array of devices to wirelessly connect and communicate over short distances. Amazingly, the beautiful and famous actress in the 1940s, Hedy Lamar, unknown to many, “was a gifted inventor. The technologies she co-invented laid the foundation for future communication systems like GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi.”
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a cardiac surgeon emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, health advocate, medical missionary, newspaper columnist, and chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He is a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, conferred by then Indiana governor, later Senator, and then presidential candidate Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Muhammad Ali, Astronaut Gus Grissom, renowned educators, scientists, and political and business leaders (Wikipedia). Websites: www.FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
