1 / 31

American Science and Invention: A Pictorial History

American Science and Invention: A Pictorial History. Summary by David E. Goldberg Department of General Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL 61801. Text. Wilson, M. (195x). American science and invention. New York, NY: Bonanza Books.

lok
Download Presentation

American Science and Invention: A Pictorial History

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. American Science and Invention: A Pictorial History Summary by David E. Goldberg Department of General Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL 61801

  2. Text • Wilson, M. (195x). American science and invention. New York, NY: Bonanza Books. • Author novelist and assistant to Enrico Fermi.

  3. Organization • Giants in the wilderness: • The shock of freedom: • Bright dream—dark fulfillment • The tools of war • The new era • Last individualists • The new dimension

  4. Boundaries of America • Awareness of the wilderness. • Common thread throughout the colonies. • English laws against manufacture.

  5. Trades • American trades no where as skilled as European. • Jack of all trades because of extent of the market. • Yankee ingenuity unknown in colonies. • Fishing/Whaling • Ship and sailmaking: 2000 privateers/90,000men

  6. American Men of Science • Franklin: Electrical work known worldwide. • Ben Thompson: Lord Rumford, modern fireplace. • Joseph Priestley: Oxygen.

  7. Surveyors of Land and Sea • Lewis and Clark • 1803: Ratification of Louisiana Purchase. • Collected specimens but lost • Nathaniel Bowditch • New practical navigator (1802) • Lunar navigation

  8. Engineers & Inventors • Military meaning: men who erected engines of war, catapults, storming towers, fortifications. • Mechanical philosophy & mechanics • Craftsmen respected. • Inventors considered lunatics

  9. Fitch before Fulton • Oar driven steamboat in 1790s: John Fitch of CT • Tried sidewheels, screw. • Died in despair. • Fulton: Katherine of Clermont

  10. Oliver Evans • Developed reduced size steam engine in which steam pushed (rather than condensed as in Newcomen engine).

  11. Stevens Dynasty • John Stevens and Robert Livingston (brother-in-law) • Worked on railroad and improved steam engines. • Fulton’s folly: Clermont, 150ft long, 18 ft beam, 100 tons

  12. Erie Canal • Doomed by railroad. • Wealth of New York as harbor to inland. • First engineering school of US. • Profession of Civil Engineering born in states • Canvass White found hydraulic cement: concrete for use in canal.

  13. Eli Whitney • Cotton gin: spurred growth of cotton and reinvigorated slavery. • Slave price doubled after gin. • Whitney not compensated.

  14. Mass Production • Whitney • Rifle assembly from standardized parts. • First milling machine. • 8 years to fill order for 10,000 rifles. • Order for 15,000 more (1811) in two years • Samuel Slater • Imported English textile factory • Reproduced machinery from memory.

  15. Long & Morton: Anasthesia • Crawford Long discovered anasthetic use of ether in 1840s. • Did not publish • William Thomas Green Morton, 1846.

  16. Joseph Henry: • Induction of electricity in wire caused by moving magnetic field. • First electric motor, telegraph (ahead of Morse) 1831 • Understood electromagnetics as wave phenomenon. • Director of Smithsonian.

  17. Yankee Ingenuity • New heroes: men of inventiveness. • Patent law of 1838, notion of patent search. • Legend grew after 1830s or so.

  18. Telegraph Takes Off • Samuel Morse: Early demo 1837, 1700 feet of wire. • Backer Stephen Vail, $2000, if son Alfred could be assistant. • Vail worked out many of Morse’s details. • DC to Baltimore test case.

  19. Early 1800s Hall of Fame • Charles Goodyear: Vulcanization of rubber. • Walter Hunt sewing machine and safety pin. • Elias Howe’s & Isaac Singer reinvented the sewing machine.

  20. Agriculture Equipment • John Deere, 1833, first steel plow. • Robert & Cyrus McCormick: demo of reaper machine in 1831 • Sold first two machine 1841, 1000 in 1851. • Legal problems. Widespread copying.

  21. Transportation • The railroads. Stevens family. • Clipper ships: American ships held most speed records. John Griffiths. • Lightning record to Liverpool in 19.5 hours (18.5 knots) 1854.

  22. Forge, Pan, and Derrick • Iron: Henry Bessemer and William Kelly (Kentucky). Air bubbled through, results in high grade steel. • Kelly perfected process in 1851, 6 years before Bessemer. • Kelly assigned patent to father-in-law, wife withheld it for his own good.

  23. Gold • James Marshall building sawmill noticed yellow mineral in 1848. • Gold rush was on. • Clipper ships and wagon trains brought new people to west.

  24. Oil • Needed a substitute for expensive whale oil. • E. L. Drake partner of Bissell and Eveleth. • Invented modern method of drilling. • Struck oil in 1859.

  25. War Tools • Telegraph • Balloons • Gatling gun • Iron ships • Torpedoes • Submarines

  26. Big Business Cometh • George Pullman dining and sleeping cars 1858, after raising Chicago.. • Refrigerator Cars: George Henry Hammond had a car built in 1867. • Farm equipment revisited: • Machine tools.

  27. More, more, more • Typewriter, C. L. Sholes 1867, to Remington in 1873. • Air brakes: widespread collisions, George Westinghouse, at age 23. • Photography: George Eastman

  28. Invention of the R&D Lab • Thomas A. Edison, • Newark (1870) • Menlo Park 1876) • Phone improvements • Lightbulb • Phonograph

  29. Invention of the Assembly Line

  30. Triodes before Transistors • Lee De Forest 1873- • Triode or audion • Oscillators and amplifiers depended on it.

  31. Bell and the Telephone • 1875 accident on harmonic telegraph. • Bell lived 1847-1922

More Related