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The Microphone was Invented
The first ever microphone was an accidental discovery from a poor German immigrant named Emile Berliner. He first created a diaphragm transmitter using tin-cans and a soapbox, which later had a toy drum attached to a steel button linked to a metal wire. When contact was made between the diaphragm and the button, sound was transmitted and amplified. This invention's patent landed him a job as chief engineer at the Bell Telephone company. -
The Invention of Moving Pictures
English photographer, Eadweard Muybridge (originally Edward James Muggeridge), experimented with photographing motion in 1872. Railroad magnate, Leland Stanford, had hired Eadweard to prove that all four legs of a horse are off the ground simultaneously when trotting. Muybridge did this by using a battery from 12-24 cameras and a special shutter he invented that gave an exposure of 2/1000 of a second. The first motion picture ever recorded was dubbed "The Horse in Motion". -
The Phonograph was Invented
Famous 19th century inventor, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph while working on improvements to the telegraph and telephone. It used a tinfoil cylinder, 2 stylus' (one for recording and one for playback), and a mouthpiece. when talking into the mouthpiece, the sound vibration of Edison's voice was indented onto the cylinder. The first ever song recorded was "Mary had a little lamb". -
The 'Shift' Key Made its Debut
The first keyboard to have 'Shift' key was found on the Remington No. 2 typewriter on the left side of the keyboard. The name 'shift' originated from the action one had to take - in order to change from lower to uppercase on a typewriter, one had to press and hold the "switch" key down in order to shift up the case stamp to change to capital letters. -
The First Commercially Viable Light Bulb was Invented
Thomas Edison had built is first high resistance, incandescent electric light bulb in January 1879. It worked by passing electricity through a thin platinum filament in a glass vacuum bulb, preventing the filament from burning.