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The first functional sewing machine was invented by the French tailor, Barthelemy Thimonnier, in 1830. Thimonnier's machine used only one thread and a hooked needle that made the same chain stitch used with embroidery. The inventor was almost killed by an enraged group of French tailors who burnt down his garment factory because they feared unemployment as a result of his sewing machine invention.
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In the fall of 1835, Morse built a recording telegraph with a moving paper ribbon. He took on several partners who helped with the science and financing, but his work also began to attract competitors. On September 28, 1837, Morse began the patent process for the telegraph. By November he could send a message through 10 miles of wire. By 1849, an estimated 12,000 miles of telegraph lines were being run by 20 American companies in the United States.
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Two Americans, James King in 1851 and Hamilton Smith in 1858, filed and received patents for similar devices that historians sometimes cite as the first true "modern" washers. Expanding on ideas begun in the 1850s, the Shakers built and marketed large wooden washing machines designed to work on a small commercial scale. One of their most popular models was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
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Near 1857, Antonio Menucci created a telephone to connect his office with his bedroom, which was in the second floor. However, he didn't have enough money to patent his invention, so he presented it to the Western Union company. It didn't pay much attention to it, but they didn't return the materials to Menucci. Although it isn't very sure, it is supposed that these materials were given to Alexander Graham, who invented his own telephone and patented it in 1876.
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The phonograph uses a mechanical analogue recording system in which sound waves are transformed into mechanical vibrations by means of an acoustic-mechanical transducer. These vibrations move a stylet making a helical groove on a phonograph cylinder. To play the sound, the process is reversed.
It was invented by Thomas Alva Edison, and the first interpreted song ever was "Mary had a little lamb" on November 21th, 1877. The phonograph was first shown on November 29th, 1877. -
On October 21st, 1879, in one of the most famous scientific tests in history, Thomas Edison debuted his signature invention: a safe, affordable, and easily-reproducible incandescent lightbulb that burned for thirteen and a half hours. Bulbs tested following that lasted for 40 hours. Although Edison cannot fairly be credited as the sole inventor of the lightbulb, his final product revolutionized the modern industrial economy.
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John Milne invented the first modern seismograph and promoted the building of seismological stations. In 1880, Sir James Alfred Ewing, Thomas Gray, and John Milne began to study earthquakes. They founded the Seismological Society of Japan, which funded the invention of seismographs. After World War II, the horizontal pendulum seismograph was improved with the Press-Ewing seismograph, developed in the United States for recording long-period waves.
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The first patent related to an escalator-like machine was granted in 1859 to a Massachusetts man for a steam-driven unit. On March 15, 1892, Jesse Reno patented his moving stairs, or inclined elevator, as he called it. In 1895, Reno created a novelty ride at Coney Island in New York, New York, from his patented design: a moving stairway that elevated passengers on a conveyor belt at a 25-degree angle.
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The cinematograph was invented by the Lumière brothers in the last decade of the 19th century.
The term "cinematograph" was already patented by Léon Bouly in 1892 to name a machine able to capture moving images. However, due to a lack of payments, in 1894 the name was free and was taken by the Lumière brothers.
On December 28th, 1895, the first public exhibition took place in the Grand Café Indian Room. The program consisted of ten films with a duration of 20 minutes. -
John Thurman invented a gasoline-powered vacuum cleaner in 1899 and some historians consider it the first motorized vacuum cleaner. Thurman's machine was patented on October 3, 1899. Soon after, he started a horse-drawn vacuum system with door to door service in St Louis. His vacuuming services were priced at $4 per visit in 1903.
