Category Invensions & Discoveries

WHO INVENTED THE GRAMOPHONE?

In 1888, the German-American inventor Emile Berliner (1851-1929) invented a system of sound recording that could be mass produced. He devised a flat disc, called a gramophone record. On the disc, a groove ran in a spiral from the outer edge of the disc to the centre. Side-to-side, rather than up-and-down movements of the stylus recorded and played the sound vibrations. Once one disc had been made, it could be used as a mould to make a metal die, which could then stamp out exact copies of the disc in large numbers.

Early attempts to design a consumer sound or music playing gadget began in 1877. That year, Thomas Edison invented his tinfoil phonograph, which played recorded sounds from round cylinders. Unfortunately, the sound quality on the phonograph was bad and each recording only lasted for only one play.

Edison’s phonograph was followed by Alexander Graham Bell’s graphophone. The graphophone used wax cylinders, which could be played many times. However, each cylinder had to be recorded separately, making the mass reproduction of the same music or sounds impossible with the graphophone.

On November 8, 1887, Emile Berliner, a German immigrant working in Washington D.C., patented a successful system for sound recording. Berliner was the first inventor to stop recording on cylinders and start recording on flat disks or records.

The first records were made of glass. They were then made using zinc and eventually plastic. A spiral groove with sound information was etched into the flat record. To play sounds and music, the record was rotated on the gramophone. The “arm” of the gramophone held a needle that read the grooves in the record by vibration and transmitted the information to the gramophone speaker.

Berliner’s disks (records) were the first sound recordings that could be mass-produced by creating master recordings from which molds were made. From each mold, hundreds of disks were pressed.

Berliner founded “The Gramophone Company” to mass manufacture his sound disks (records) as well as the gramophone that played them. To help promote his gramophone system, Berliner did a couple of things. First, he persuaded popular artists to record their music using his system. Two famous artists who signed early on with Berliner’s company were Enrico Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba. The second smart marketing move Berliner made came in 1908 when he used Francis Barraud’s painting of “His Master’s Voice” as his company’s official trademark.

Berliner later sold the licensing rights to his patent for the gramophone and method of making records to the Victor Talking Machine Company (RCA), which later made the gramophone a successful product in the United States. Meanwhile, Berliner continued doing business in other countries. He founded the Berliner Gram-o-phone Company in Canada, the Deutsche Gramophone in Germany and the U.K based Gramophone Co., Ltd.

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WHAT WAS THE EARLIEST SOUND RECORDING?

In 1877, the American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) experimented with a machine called a “phonograph”, which converted sound vibrations into grooves on a cylinder covered with tinfoil. A sharp needle, called a stylus, was attached to a diaphragm at the narrow end of a large horn. When sound waves travelled into the horn, they made the diaphragm vibrate, causing the needle to move up and down, and cutting a groove of varying depth in the tinfoil. If this process was reversed, so that the needle was made to run over the grooves, it caused the diaphragm to vibrate. Vibrations passed through the horn, pushing air in front of them, to reach the listener’s ear as sound. Later, wax-coated cylinders were used instead of tinfoil, to give a better result.

The history of sound recording – which has progressed in waves, driven by the invention and commercial introduction of new technologies — can be roughly divided into four main periods:

  • the “Acoustic” era, 1877 to 1925
  • the “Electrical” era, 1925 to 1945
  • the “Magnetic” era, 1945 to 1975
  • The “Digital” era, 1975 to the present day.

Experiments of capturing sound on a recording medium for preservation and reproduction began in earnest during the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s. Many pioneering attempts to record and reproduce sound were made during the latter half of the 19th century – notably Scott’s Phonautograph of 1857 – and these efforts culminated in the invention of the phonograph by Thomos Edison in 1877. Digital recording emerged in the late 20th century and has since flourished with the popularity of digital music and online streaming services.

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WHO INVENTED THE LOCOMOTIVE?

A Locomotive is an engine that can travel under its own power, not pulled by horses, for example. But we usually think of it as running on tracks, or tramways, as they were first called. In 1804, Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), an English inventor, designed a train to pull coal wagons in a Welsh colliery. Trevithick was convinced that steam engines had a great future and later travelled to Peru and Costa Rica, where he introduced steam engines into the silver mines.

In 1802, Richard Trevithick patented a “high pressure engine” and created the first steam-powered locomotive engine on rails.  Trevithick wrote on February 21, 1804, after the trial of his High Pressure Tram-Engine, that he “carry’d ten tons of Iron, five wagons, and 70 Men…above 9 miles…in 4 hours and 5 Mints.”  Though a ponderous-sounding journey, it was the first step toward an invention that would utterly change man’s relationship to time and space. 

George Stephenson and his son, Robert, built the first practical steam locomotive.  Stephenson built his “travelling engine” in 1814, which was used to haul coal at the Killingworth mine.  In 1829, the Stephenson built the famous locomotive Rocket, which used a multi-tube boiler, a practice that continued in successive generations of steam engines.  The Rocket won the competition at the Rain-hill Trials held to settle the question of whether it was best to move wagons along rails by fixed steam engines using a pulley system or by using locomotive steam engines. The Rocket won the £500 prize with its average speed of 13 miles per hour (without pulling a load, the Rocket attained speeds up to 29 miles per hour), beating out Braithwaite and Erickson’s Novelty and Timothy Hackworth’s Sans Pareil.  The Stephenson incorporated elements into their engines that were used in succeeding generations of steam engines.

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WHAT DO THE NUMBERS BEFORE STEAM TRAIN NAMES MEAN?

Steam locomotives are described by the arrangement of their leading, driving and trailing wheels. In fact, only the driving wheels are connected to the cylinders that provide the engine’s power. So a 2-8-2 has two leading wheels, eight driving wheels and two trailing wheels.

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of Steam locomotives, 2-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheels on one axle, usually in a trailing truck. This configuration of steam locomotive is most often referred to as a Mikado, frequently shortened to Mike.

At times it was also referred to on some railroads in the United States of America as the McAdoo Mikado and, during the Second World War, the MacArthur.

The notation 2-8-2T indicates a tank locomotive of this wheel arrangement, the “T” suffix indicating a locomotive on which the water is carried in side-tanks mounted on the engine rather than in an attached tender.

The 2-8-2 wheel arrangement allowed the locomotive’s firebox to be placed behind instead of above the driving wheels, thereby allowing a larger firebox that could be both wide and deep. This supported a greater rate of combustion and thus a greater capacity for steam generation, allowing for more power at higher speeds. Allied with the larger driving wheel diameter which was possible when they did not impinge on the firebox, it meant that the 2-8-2 was capable of higher speeds than a 2-8-0 with a heavy train. These locomotives did not suffer from the imbalance of reciprocating parts as much as did the 2-6-2 or the 2-10-2, because the center of gravity was between the second and third drivers instead of above the centre driver.

The first 2-8-2 locomotive was built in 1884. It was originally named Calumet by Angus Sinclair, in reference to the 2-8-2 engines built for the Chicago & Calumet Terminal Railway (C&CT). However, this name did not take hold.

The wheel arrangement name “Mikado” originated from a group of Japanese type 9700 2-8-2 locomotives that were built by Baldwin Works for the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge Nippon Railway of Japan in 1897. In the 19th century, the Emperor of Japan was often referred to as “the Mikado” in English. Also, the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Mikado had premiered in 1885 and achieved great popularity in both Britain and America.

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WHICH WAS THE WORLD’S FIRST PUBLIC RAILWAY?

The first public railway in the world to run a regular service was opened on 27 September 1825. It ran between Stockton and Darlington in the north of England. A steam train called The Locomotion pulled 34 wagons, some of which carried coal, while others were adapted to carry passengers. Both the locomotive and its track were built to the design of George Stephenson (1781-1848). Stephenson’s background was in mining engineering. Coal mines had long used tracks to move wagons of coal, and it was with steam engines for these wagons that Stephenson first experimented.

“The world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Stockton and Darlington… The movement of coal to ships rapidly became a lucrative business, and the line was soon extended to a new port and town at Middlesbrough. While coal waggons were hauled by steam locomotives from the start, passengers were carried in coaches drawn by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives were introduced in 1833″. 

One of the significant results of the success of the Stockton and Darlington project was the extent to which it gave support to plans for building a railway between Liverpool and Manchester.

 

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HOW WILL MOTOR CARS CHANGE IN THE FUTURE?

Two areas of car design have been researched very thoroughly in the past few years. One of these concerns fuel consumption and exhaust gases, as the realization grows that the world’s fossil fuels are polluting the atmosphere. The other is safety. It is likely that future cars will be able to prevent some accidents by assessing – the distance to an obstacle and taking evasive action without prompting from the driver.

After decades of auto technology that had evolved only marginally since the mid-20th century, experts say we’re now seeing a super-fast shift that’s comparable to the industry’s early days. “In the last 30 to 40 years the way cars were manufactured didn’t change much,” says Ozgur Tohumcu, CEO of the car-tech company Tantalum. “But now things are fundamentally changing — and very quickly.”  Quickly, indeed. Here’s a look at some of the cool innovations we’re likely to see in the next generation of cars.

Voice commands for your car

High on the list of innovations is the introduction of Alexa-like personal assistants. “You’ll be able to interact with your car through voice command,” says Tohumcu. One scenario: You might be driving and looking for a parking space. All you’ll have to do is say “Find parking,” and your vehicle will navigate you to the closest, least expensive, safest garage, based on your programmed preferences, and then pay the fee with your credit card.

Mechanic on wheels

Cars will be able to diagnose their own mechanical problems. “If it’s a software fix that’s needed, you’ll get an upgrade,” Tohumcu says. If you need to take the car to a mechanic, the car will research the options and book itself an appointment. (It will be able to renew its own insurance and look for better deals, too.)

More map options

As navigational maps get overlaid with more data, you’ll be able to choose your route based on a broadening array of criteria, including “least polluted.” “People will be taken from point A to point B through better air-quality routes,” Tohumcu says. “If you’re an older person or you have chronic asthma, this becomes a real benefit.” Other possibilities: “safest route” and “most scenic.”

Custom-designed vehicles

Using 3D printing technology, Arizona-based Local Motors is 3D-printing cars. “They work with pre-determined engine types and 3D print cars on top of those engines,” Tohumcu says. “You can pick and choose features from different cars to create your own.” That means we may see all kinds of interesting-looking cars on the street, he says. “These cars won’t be cheap, but if you really want to stand out it’s one way to go.”

Shared autonomous vehicles

Self-driving cars are already here and doing well in safety tests, says Alan Brown, executive vice president at NuVinAir, an automotive-industry startup, who previously spent 27 years with Volkswagen. The twist he predicts: People will be able to share these cars. “Cars today sit unused 80 percent of the time,” he says. “If the car is self-driving, we have a wonderful opportunity for people to co-own it and pay only for the portion of the car they use.” He sees the potential, in particular, for younger people who may not be able to afford their own vehicle, people with disabilities who aren’t able to drive, and older people who may need to stop driving.

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