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Period: to
advances and discoveries from 1851 to 1900
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Typewriter
The first typewriter was invented in 1867 by the American printer and editor Christopher Latham Sholes (Feb. 14, 1819 - Feb. 17, 1890). Sholes' prototype had the user hit a key (for each letter and number), which struck upward onto a flat plate, producing a carbon impression of the letter or number on the paper. -
Celluloid
Celluloid is a plastic made from cellulose (it is derived from plants). This very flammable material was invented in 1869 by the American inventor John Wesley Hyatt (it was invented to be a substitute for the elephant ivory used for billiard balls). Celluloid was one the first plastics invented; it can be damaged by moisture. -
telephone
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing, March 7, 1876. The first successful bi-directional transmission of clear speech by Bell and Watson was made on March 10, 1876 when Bell spoke into the device, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." and Watson answered. -
Record
Records, used to record sound, were invented in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison, who invented the first machine to record and play back sounds (the phonograph or record player). Early records were cylindrical, but flat disks soon replaced them. -
Motorcycle
A gas-powered motorcycle was invented by the German inventor Gottlieb Daimler in 1885. His mostly wooden motorcycle had iron-banded wheels with wooden spokes. This bone-crunching vehicle was powered by a single-cylinder engine. -
Dishwasher
The first reports of a mechanical dishwashing device are of an 1850 patent in the United States by Joel Houghton for a hand-powered device. This device was made of wood and was cranked by hand while water sprayed onto the dishes. This device was both slow and unreliable. The first reliable (hand-powered) dishwasher was invented in 1887 by Josephine Cochrane. Cochrane was quite wealthy and never washed dishes herself; she invented the dishwasher because her servants were chipping her fine china. -
Escalator
An escalator is a moving stairway that helps people move easily from floor to floor in building. The escalator was invented by the American inventor Jesse W. Reno in 1891. On his "inclined elevator," passengers rode on an wedge-shaped supports attached to a conveyor belt at an incline of about 25 degrees. -
Basketball
The game Basketball was created in the late winter of 1891-1892 at Springfield College (then known as the International YMCA Training School), The colledge students had mandatory gym class and during the winter when the popular sports could not be played there was little to do. So one professer named James Naismith decided that he would find something to entertain the students. -
Tractor
The tractor is a high power but low-speed vehicle that is used in farming, construction, road building, and other work projects. Some tractors move on wheels, others move on a continuous track. The first gasoline-powered tractor was made in 1892 by John Froehlich -
X-Ray
X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen (1845-1923). Roentgen was a German physicist who described this new form of radiation that allowed him to photograph objects that were hidden behind opaque shields.
