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typewriter
The idea behind the typewriter was to apply the concept of movable type developed by Johann Gutenberg in the invention of the printing press century to a machine for individual use. Descriptions of such mechanical writing machines date to the early eighteenth century. In 1714, a patent something like a typewriter was granted to a man named Henry Mill in England, but no example of Mills’ invention survives. -
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energy use in the U.S
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Ben Franklin dicovers electricity
In 1752, during a dangerous electrical storm, Franklin flew a kite that had a metal key at the bottom of the string. When a bolt of lightning hit the kite, a spark of electricity flew from the key! From this experiment, Franklin invented the lightning rod, which attracts lightning and draws it into the ground. -
First car
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804) Built the first self propelled road vehicle (military tractor) for the French army: three wheeled, 2.5 mph. -
The 1st battery
Alessandro Volta invented the first source of continuous electric current in his experiments with non-static electricity. He created a battery out of stacks of zinc and copper, with weak acids in between each layer. -
Telegraph
Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph, a machine that could send messages long distances across wires. -
Lightbulb
The 1st light bulb was built by Humphry Davy (an Englishman) in 1809. Thomas Alva Edison improved the invention and based his improvements on a patent he purchased from inventors Henry Woodward & Matthew Evans who patented their bulb in 1875. -
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish-born inventor, scientist, philanthropist and teacher of the deaf is the person most widely credited as the inventor of the electric telephone. On March 7th 1876 he became the first to receive a patent for this device, and at that time resided in Salem, Massachusetts. -
Airplane
In 1899, after Wilbur Wright had written a letter of request to the Smithsonian Institution for information about flight experiments, the Wright Brothers designed their first aircraft: a small, biplane glider flown as a kite to test their solution for controlling the craft by wing warping. -
TV
Philo Farnsworth invented the television tube when he was only 14. RCA and David Sarnoff sued him for the patent, lost, then won it back taking the credit. -
Internet
In 1962 J.C.R. Licklider becomes the first Director of IPTO and gave his vision of a galactic network. In addition to the ideas from Licklider and Kleinrock, Robert Taylor helped create the idea of the network, which later became ARPANET.
