Radio

The invention: The first radio transmissions of music and voice
laid the basis for the modern radio and television industries.
The people behind the invention:
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), an Italian physicist and
inventor
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932), an American radio
pioneer
True Radio
The first major experimenter in the United States to work with
wireless radio was Reginald Aubrey Fessenden. This transplanted
Canadian was a skilled, self-made scientist, but unlike American inventor
Thomas Alva Edison, he lacked the business skills to gain the
full credit and wealth that such pathbreaking work might have merited.
Guglielmo Marconi, in contrast, is most often remembered as
the person who invented wireless (as opposed to telegraphic) radio.
There was a great difference between the contributions of Marconi
and Fessenden. Marconi limited himself to experiments with
radio telegraphy; that is, he sought to send through the air messages
that were currently being sent by wire—signals consisting of dots
and dashes. Fessenden sought to perfect radio telephony, or voice
communication by wireless transmission. Fessenden thus pioneered
the essential precursor of modern radio broadcasting.

Radar

The invention: An electronic system for detecting objects at great
distances, radar was a major factor in the Allied victory ofWorld
War II and now pervades modern life, including scientific research.
The people behind the invention:
Sir Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973), the father of radar who
proposed the chain air-warning system
Arnold F. Wilkins, the person who first calculated the intensity
of a radio wave
William C. Curtis (1914-1976), an American engineer
Looking for Thunder
Sir RobertWatson-Watt, a scientist with twenty years of experience
in government, led the development of the first radar, an acronym
for radio detection and ranging. “Radar” refers to any instrument
that uses the reflection of radio waves to determine the
distance, direction, and speed of an object.
In 1915, during World War I (1914-1918), Watson-Watt joined
Great Britain’s Meteorological Office. He began work on the detection
and location of thunderstorms at the Royal Aircraft Establishment
in Farnborough and remained there throughout the
war. Thunderstorms were known to be a prolific source of “atmospherics”
(audible disturbances produced in radio receiving apparatus
by atmospheric electrical phenomena), andWatson-Watt
began the design of an elementary radio direction finder that
gave the general position of such storms.

Pyrex glass

The invention: Asuperhard and durable glass product with widespread
uses in industry and home products.
The people behind the invention:
Jesse T. Littleton (1888-1966), the chief physicist of Corning
Glass Works’ research department
Eugene G. Sullivan (1872-1962), the founder of Corning’s
research laboratories
William C. Taylor (1886-1958), an assistant to Sullivan
Cooperating with Science
By the twentieth century, Corning GlassWorks had a reputation
as a corporation that cooperated with the world of science to improve
existing products and develop new ones. In the 1870’s, the
company had hired university scientists to advise on improving the
optical quality of glasses, an early example of today’s common practice
of academics consulting for industry.
When Eugene G. Sullivan established Corning’s research laboratory
in 1908 (the first of its kind devoted to glass research), the task
that he undertook withWilliam C. Taylor was that of making a heatresistant
glass for railroad lantern lenses. The problem was that ordinary
flint glass (the kind in bottles and windows, made by melting
together silica sand, soda, and lime) has a fairly high thermal expansion,
but a poor heat conductivity. The glass thus expands
unevenly when exposed to heat. This condition can cause the glass
to break, sometimes violently. Colored lenses for oil or gas railroad
signal lanterns sometimes shattered if they were heated too much
by the flame that produced the light and were then sprayed by rain
or wet snow. This changed a red “stop” light to a clear “proceed”
signal and caused many accidents or near misses in railroading in
the late nineteenth century.

Propeller-coordinated machine gun

The invention: A mechanism that synchronized machine gun fire
with propeller movement to prevent World War I fighter plane
pilots from shooting off their own propellers during combat.
The people behind the invention:
Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker (1890-1939), a Dutch-born
American entrepreneur, pilot, aircraft designer, and
manufacturer
Roland Garros (1888-1918), a French aviator
Max Immelmann (1890-1916), a German aviator
Raymond Saulnier (1881-1964), a French aircraft designer and
manufacturer
French Innovation
The first true aerial combat ofWorldWar I took place in 1915. Before
then, weapons attached to airplanes were inadequate for any
real combat work. Hand-held weapons and clumsily mounted machine
guns were used by pilots and crew members in attempts to
convert their observation planes into fighters. On April 1, 1915, this
situation changed. From an airfield near Dunkerque, France, a
French airman, Lieutenant Roland Garros, took off in an airplane
equipped with a device that would make his plane the most feared
weapon in the air at that time.
During a visit to Paris, Garros met with Raymond Saulnier, a French
aircraft designer. In April of 1914, Saulnier had applied for a patent on
a device that mechanically linked the trigger of a machine

Polystyrene

The invention: A clear, moldable polymer with many industrial
uses whose overuse has also threatened the environment.
The people behind the invention:
Edward Simon, an American chemist
Charles Gerhardt (1816-1856), a French chemist
Marcellin Pierre Berthelot (1827-1907), a French chemist
Polystyrene Is Characterized
In the late eighteenth century, a scientist by the name of Casper
Neuman described the isolation of a chemical called “storax” from a
balsam tree that grew in Asia Minor.

Polyethylene

The invention: An artificial polymer with strong insulating properties
and many other applications.
The people behind the invention:
Karl Ziegler (1898-1973), a German chemist
Giulio Natta (1903-1979), an Italian chemist
August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818-1892), a German chemist
The Development of Synthetic Polymers
In 1841, August Hofmann completed his Ph.D. with Justus von
Liebig, a German chemist and founding father of organic chemistry.

Polyester

The invention: Asynthetic fibrous polymer used especially in fabrics.
The people behind the invention:
Wallace H. Carothers (1896-1937), an American polymer
chemist
Hilaire de Chardonnet (1839-1924), a French polymer chemist
John R. Whinfield (1901-1966), a British polymer chemist
A Story About Threads
Human beings have worn clothing since prehistoric times. At
first, clothing consisted of animal skins

Polio vaccine (Salk)

The invention: Jonas Salk’s vaccine was the first that prevented polio,resulting in the virtual eradication of crippling polio epidemics.The people behind the invention:
Jonas Edward Salk (1914-1995), an American physician,
immunologist, and virologist
Thomas Francis, Jr. (1900-1969), an

Polio vaccine (Sabin)

The invention: Albert Bruce Sabin’s vaccine was the first to stimulate
long-lasting immunity against polio without the risk of causing
paralytic disease.
The people behind the invention:
Albert Bruce Sabin (1906-1993), a Russian-born American
virologist
Jonas Edward Salk (1914-1995), an American physician,
immunologist, and virologist
Renato Dulbecco (1914- ), an Italian-born American
virologist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine
The Search for a Living Vaccine
Almost a century ago, the first major poliomyelitis (polio) epidemic
was recorded. Thereafter, epidemics of increasing

Pocket calculator

The invention: The first portable and reliable hand-held calculator
capable of performing a wide range of mathematical computations.
The people behind the invention:
Jack St. Clair Kilby (1923- ), the inventor of the
semiconductor microchip
Jerry D. Merryman (1932- ), the first project manager of the
team that invented the first portable calculator
James Van Tassel (1929- ), an inventor and expert on
semiconductor components
An Ancient Dream
In the earliest accounts of civilizations that developed number
systems to perform mathematical calculations,

Plastic

The invention: The first totally synthetic thermosetting plastic,
which paved the way for modern materials science.
The people behind the invention:
John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920), an American inventor
Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944), a Belgian-born chemist,
consultant, and inventor
Christian Friedrich Schönbein (1799-1868), a German chemist
who produced guncotton, the first artificial polymer
Adolf von Baeyer (1835-1917), a German chemist
Exploding Billiard Balls
In the 1860’s, the firm of Phelan and Collender offered a prize of
ten thousand dollars to anyone producing a substance that could
serve as an inexpensive substitute for

Photovoltaic cell

Photovoltaic cell
The invention: Drawing their energy directly from the Sun, the
first photovoltaic cells powered instruments on early space vehicles
and held out hope for future uses of solar energy.
The people behind the invention:
Daryl M. Chapin (1906-1995), an American physicist
Calvin S. Fuller (1902-1994), an American chemist
Gerald L. Pearson (1905- ), an American physicist
Unlimited Energy Source
All the energy that the world has at its disposal ultimately comes
from the Sun. Some of this solar energy was trapped millions of years
ago in the form of vegetable and animal matter

Photoelectric cell

The invention: The first devices to make practical use of the photoelectric
effect, photoelectric cells were of decisive importance in
the electron theory of metals.
The people behind the invention:
Julius Elster (1854-1920), a German experimental physicist
Hans Friedrich Geitel (1855-1923), a German physicist
Wilhelm Hallwachs (1859-1922), a German physicist
Early Photoelectric Cells
The photoelectric effect was known to science in the early
nineteenth century when the French physicist Alexandre-Edmond
Becquerel wrote of it in connection with

Personal computer

The invention: Originally a tradename of the IBM Corporation,
“personal computer” has become a generic term for increasingly
powerful desktop computing systems using microprocessors.
The people behind the invention:
Tom J. Watson, (1874-1956), the founder of IBM, who set
corporate philosophy and marketing principles
Frank Cary (1920- ), the chief

Penicillin

The invention: The first successful and widely used antibiotic
drug, penicillin has been called the twentieth century’s greatest
“wonder drug.”
The people behind the invention:
Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), a Scottish bacteriologist,
cowinner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Baron Florey (1898-1968), an Australian pathologist, cowinner
of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Ernst Boris Chain (1906-1979), an émigré German biochemist,
cowinner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Search for the Perfect Antibiotic
During the early twentieth century, scientists

Pap test

The invention: A cytologic technique the diagnosing uterine cancer,
the second most common fatal cancer in American women.
The people behind the invention:
George N. Papanicolaou (1883-1962), a Greek-born American
physician and anatomist
Charles Stockard (1879-1939), an American anatomist
Herbert Traut (1894-1972), an American gynecologist
Cancer in History
Cancer, first named by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates
of Cos, is one of the most painful and dreaded forms of human disease.
It occurs when body cells run wild and interfere with the normal
activities of the body. The early diagnosis of cancer is extremely
important because early detection often makes it possible to effect
successful cures. The modern detection of cancer is usually done by
the microscopic examination of the cancer cells, using the techniques
of the area of biology called “cytology, ” or cell biology.
Development of cancer cytology began in 1867, after L. S. Beale
reported tumor cells in the saliva from

Pacemaker

The invention: 

A small device using transistor circuitry that regulates
the heartbeat of the patient in whom it is surgically emplaced.

The people behind the invention:

Ake Senning (1915- ), a Swedish physician
Rune Elmquist, co-inventor of the first pacemaker
Paul Maurice Zoll (1911- ), an American cardiologist

Orlon

The invention: A synthetic fiber made from polyacrylonitrile that
has become widely used in textiles and in the preparation of
high-strength carbon fibers.
The people behind the invention:
Herbert Rein (1899-1955), a German chemist
Ray C. Houtz (1907- ), an American chemist
A Difficult Plastic
“Polymers” are large molecules that are made up of chains of
many smaller molecules, called “monomers.” Materials that are
made of polymers are also called polymers,

Optical disk

The invention:Anonmagnetic storage medium for computers that
can hold much greater quantities of data than similar size magnetic
media, such as hard and floppy disks.
The people behind the invention:
Klaas Compaan, a Dutch physicist
Piet Kramer, head of Philips’ optical research laboratory
Lou F. Ottens, director of product development for Philips’
musical equipment division
George T. de Kruiff, manager of Philips’ audio-product
development department
Joop Sinjou, a Philips project leader
Holograms Can Be Copied Inexpensively
Holography is a lensless photographic method that uses laser
light to produce three-dimensional images. This is done by splitting
a laser beam into two beams. One of the beams

Oil-well drill bit

The invention: Arotary cone drill bit that enabled oil-well drillers
to penetrate hard rock formations.
The people behind the invention:
Howard R. Hughes (1869-1924), an American lawyer, drilling
engineer, and inventor
Walter B. Sharp (1860-1912), an American drilling engineer,
inventor, and partner to Hughes
Digging for Oil
Arotary drill rig of the 1990’s is basically unchanged in its essential
components from its earlier versions of the 1900’s. A drill bit is
attached to a line of hollow drill pipe. The latter passes through a
hole on a rotary table, which acts essentially as a horizontal gear
wheel and is driven by an engine. As the rotary table turns, so do the
pipe and drill bit.
During drilling operations, mud-laden water is pumped under
high pressure down the sides of the drill pipe and jets out with great
force through the small holes

Nylon

The invention: A resilient, high-strength polymer with applications

ranging from women’s hose to safety nets used in space flights.

The people behind the invention:Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937),

an American organic chemist Charles M. A. Stine (1882-1954), an American chemist

and director of chemical research at Du Pont Elmer Keiser Bolton (1886-1968),

an American industrial chemist Pure Research In the twentieth century,

American corporations created industrial research laboratories.

Their directors became the organizers of inventions,

and their scientists served as the sources of creativity.

The research program of

Nuclear reactor

The invention: 

The first nuclear reactor to produce substantial
quantities of plutonium, making it practical to produce usable
amounts of energy from a chain reaction.

The people behind the invention:

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an American physicist
Martin D. Whitaker (1902-1960), the first director of Oak Ridge
National Laboratory
Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995), the director of research and
development at Oak Ridge

Nuclear power plant

The invention: 

The first full-scale commercial nuclear power plant, which gave birth to the nuclear power industry.  



The people behind the invention:

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an Italian American physicist who
won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics
Otto Hahn (1879-1968), a German physical chemist who won the
1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Lise Meitner (1878-1968), an Austrian Swedish physicist
Hyman G. Rickover (1898-1986), a Polish American naval officer

Nuclear magnetic resonance

The invention: 

Procedure that uses hydrogen atoms in the human
body, strong electromagnets, radio waves, and detection equipment
to produce images of sections of the brain.

The people behind the invention:

Raymond Damadian (1936- ), an American physicist and
inventor
Paul C. Lauterbur (1929- ), an American chemist
Peter Mansfield (1933- ), a scientist at the University of
Nottingham, England

Neutrino detector

The invention:Adevice that provided the first direct evidence that the Sun runs on thermonuclear power and challenged existing models of the Sun. The people behind the invention: Raymond Davis, Jr. (1914- ), an American chemist John Norris Bahcall (1934- ), an American astrophysicist Missing Energy In 1871, Hermann von Helmholtz, the German physicist, anatomist, and physiologist, suggested that no ordinary chemical reaction could be responsible for the enormous energy output of the Sun. By the 1920’s, astrophysicists had realized that the energy radiated by the Sun must come from nuclear fusion, in which protons or nuclei combine to form larger nuclei and release energy.

Neoprene

The invention: The first commercially practical synthetic rubber, Neoprene gave a boost to polymer chemistry and the search for new materials. The people behind the invention: Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937), an American chemist Arnold Miller Collins (1899- ), an American chemist Elmer Keiser Bolton (1886-1968), an American chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland (1879-1936), a Belgian American priest, botanist, and chemist Synthetic Rubber: A Mirage? The growing dependence of the industrialized nations upon elastomers (elastic substances) and the shortcomings of natural rubber motivated the twentieth century quest for rubber substitutes. By 1914

Microwave cooking

The invention: System of high-speed cooking that uses microwave radition to agitate liquid molecules to raise temperatures by friction. The people behind the invention: Percy L. Spencer (1894-1970), an American engineer Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), a German physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), a Scottish physicist The Nature of Microwaves Microwaves are electromagnetic waves, as are radio waves, X rays, and visible light. Water waves

Memory metal

Memory metal The invention: Known as nitinol, a metal alloy that returns to its original shape, after being deformed, when it is heated to the proper temperature. The person behind the invention: William Buehler (1923- ), an American metallurgist The Alloy with a Memory In 1960,William Buehler developed an alloy that consisted of 53 to 57 percent nickel (by weight) and the balance titanium. This alloy, which is called nitinol, turned out to have remarkable properties. Nitinol is a “memory metal,” which means that, given the proper conditions, objects made of nitinol can be restored to their original shapes even after they have been radically deformed. The return to the original shape

Mass spectrograph

The invention: The first device used to measure the mass of atoms, which was found to be the result of the combination of isotopes. The people behind the invention: Francis William Aston (1877-1945), an English physicist who was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940), an English physicist William Prout (1785-1850), an English biochemist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), an English physicist Same Element, Different Weights Isotopes are different forms of a chemical element that act similarly in chemical or physical reactions. Isotopes differ in two ways: They possess different atomic weights and different radioactive transformations. In 1803, John Dalton proposed a new atomic theory of chemistry that claimed that chemical elements in a compound combine by weight in whole number proportions to one another. By 1815, William Prout had taken Dalton’s hypothesis one step further and claimed that the atomic weights of elements were integral (the integers are the positive and negative whole numbers and zero) multiples

Mark I calculator

The invention: Early digital calculator designed to solve differential equations that was a forerunner of modern computers. The people behind the invention: Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973), Harvard University professor and architect of the Mark I Clair D. Lake (1888-1958), a senior engineer at IBM Francis E. Hamilton (1898-1972), an IBM engineer Benjamin M. Durfee (1897-1980), an IBM engineer The Human Computer The physical world can be described by means of mathematics. In principle, one can accurately describe nature down to the smallest detail.