The Story of Great Inventions Part 15

Automobile mower--Deering Harvestor Company, United States, 1901.

Automobile

First steam-automobile--Cugnot, France, 1769.

First chain transmission of power in an automobile--Gurney, England, 1829.

Application of gas-engine to road vehicles, beginning of the modern motor-car--Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz working independently, Germany, 1886. Daimler's invention consisted of a two-cylinder air-cooled motor. It was taken up in 1889, by Panhard and Leva.s.sor, of Paris, who began immediately the construction of the motor-car. This was the beginning of the motor-car industry.

Bicycle

First bicycle--Branchard and Magurier, France, 1779.

Rear-driven chain safety bicycle--George W. Marble, United States, 1884.

Bicycles first equipped with pneumatic tires--1890.

Electrical Inventions

William Gilbert, England, 1540-1603, called "the father of magnetic philosophy," first to use the terms "electric force,"

"electric attraction," "magnetic pole."

First electrical machine, a machine for producing electricity by friction--Otto von Guericke, Germany, about 1681.

Discovery of conductors and insulators--Stephen Gray, England, 1696-1736.

First to discover that electric charges are of two kinds--Cisternay du Fay, France, 1698-1739; Du Fay was also the first to attempt an explanation of electrical action. He supposed that electricity consists of two fluids which are separated by friction, and which neutralize each other when they combine. This theory was more fully set forth by Robert Symmer.

Leyden jar--Discovered first by Von Kleist in 1745. The same discovery was made and the Leyden jar brought to the attention of the public in 1746 by Pieter van Musschenbroek in Holland.

Lightning-rod--Benjamin Franklin, 1732.

Electroplating--Luigi Brugnatelli, Italy, 1805.

Voltaic arc, a powerful arc light produced with a battery current--Sir Humphry Davy, England, 1808.

Storage battery--Ritter, Germany, 1803. Platinum wires were dipped in water and a battery current pa.s.sed through. Hydrogen collected on one wire and oxygen on the other. If the platinum wires were disconnected from the battery and connected with each other by a conductor, the two wires acted like the plates of a battery, and a current would flow for a short time in the new circuit.

Electromagnetism discovered--H. C. Oersted, Denmark, 1819.

Galvanometer, a coil of wire around a magnetic needle for measuring the strength of an electric current--Schweigger, Germany, 1820.

Motion of magnet produced by an electric current--M. Faraday, England, 1821.

Thermo-electricity, an electric current produced by heating the junction of two unlike metals--Discovered by Professor Seebeck England, 1821.

Principles of electrodynamics, motion produced by an electric current--Ampere, France. Announced in 1823.

Law of electric circuits, Ohm's law, current strength equals electromotive force divided by resistance of the circuit--George S. Ohm, Germany. Proven by experiment in 1826; mathematical proof published in 1827.

Magneto-electric induction, induction of electric currents by means of a magnetic field--M. Faraday, England, 1831.

Electric telegraph--Prof. S. F. B. Morse, United States, 1832.

First telegram sent in 1844--Morse.

Constant electric battery--J. P. Daniell, England, 1836.

First electric motor-boat--Jacobi, Russia, 1839.

Induction-coil--Rhumkorff, Germany, 1851.

Duplex telegraph, first practical system--Stearns, United States, about 1855-1860.

Storage battery, lead plates in sulphuric acid--Gaston Plante, France, 1859.

Telephone, make-and-break system, first electrical transmission of speech--Philip Reiss, Germany, 1860.

Atlantic cable laid--Cyrus W. Field, 1866.

Dynamo, armature coil rotates in the field of an electromagnet, armature supplies current for the electromagnet as well as for the external circuit--William Siemens, Germany, 1866.

Gramme ring armature for dynamo--Gramme, France, 1868.

Theory that light consists of electromagnetic waves--Clerk-Maxwell, England, 1873.

Quadruplex telegraph, sending four messages over one wire at the same time--Edison, 1873.

Siphon recorder for submarine telegraph, sensitive to very feeble currents--Sir William Thomson, England, 1874.

Telephone, varying current, first practical working telephone--Alexander Graham Bell, United States, 1876.

Electric candle, beginning of present arc light--Paul Jablochkoff, Russia, 1876.

Telephone transmitter of variable resistance--Emil Berliner and Edison working independently, United States, 1877. Edison used carbon contacts, Berliner used metal contacts.

Brush system of arc lighting--1878.

Incandescent electric lamp with carbon filament--Edison, 1878.

First electric locomotive--Siemens, Germany, 1879.

Blake telephone transmitter--Blake, United States, 1880.

Storage battery, lead grids filled with active material--Faure, France, 1881.