The Britannica Guide to Inventions That Changed the Modern World (Turning Points in History)

388 Pages·2009·14.175 MB·English

by  Robert Curley

Published in 2010 by Britannica Educational Publishing
(a trademark of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.)
in association with Rosen Educational Services, LLC
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First Edition
Britannica Educational Publishing
Michael I. Levy: Executive Editor
Marilyn L. Barton: Senior Coordinator, Production Control
Steven Bosco: Director, Editorial Technologies
Lisa S. Braucher: Senior Producer and Data Editor
Yvette Charboneau: Senior Copy Editor
Kathy Nakamura: Manager, Media Acquisition
Robert Curley: Manager, Science and Technology
Rosen Educational Services
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Nelson Sá: Art Director
Matthew Cauli: Designer
Introduction by Jeri Freedman
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Britannica guide to inventions that changed the modern world / edited by Robert
Curley.—1st ed.
p. cm.—Turning points in history)
“In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.”
ISBN 978-1-61530-064-8 (eBook)
1. Inventions—History. 2. Technology—History. I. Curley, Robert, 1955– II. Title: Guide
to inventions that changed the modern world.
T15.B6827 2010
609—dc22
2009037539
On the cover: Wind turbines, like these near Palm Springs, Calif., are just one of several
inventions that have changed energy generation and consumption around the world. David
McNew/Getty Images
CONTENTS
Introduction 12
Chapter 1: Communication 21
Cuneiform 21
Origins in Sumaria 21
Akkadian Cuneiform 23
The Papyrus Scroll 25
In Ancient Egypt 25
In Ancient Greece 27
The Papyrus Plant 28
The Greek and Latin Alphabets 29
The Greek Alphabet 29
The Latin Alphabet 32
Parchment and Vellum 34
The Codex 36
Paper 37 56
The Printing Press 40
Origins in China 40
Reinvention in Europe 42
The Gutenberg Bible 44
Photography 46
Antecedents 47
Heliography 48
Daguerreotype 49
George Eastman 50
The Telegraph 51
Preelectric Telegraph Systems 51
The Morse System 52
The Telephone 54
Early Sound Transmitters 55
Gray and Bell: The Transmission
of Speech 56
The AT&T Desk Phone 61
The Phonograph 62 60
Edison’s Phonograph 63
The Graphophone and
65
Gramophone 63
The Race to Market 64
Coin Slots and Home Phonographs 66
Motion Pictures 68
Sequential Photographs 68
Edison’s Kinetograph and
Kinetoscope 69
The Cinématographe 71
Radio 72
Hertz: Radio-Wave Experiments 72
Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph 73
The Fleming Diode and
De Forest Audion 74
Transmission of Speech 75
Television 76
Mechanical Systems 76
Electronic Systems 79
Philo Farnsworth 81
The Transistor 82
Motivation and Early
Radar Research 83
Innovation at Bell Labs 84
The Communications Satellite 87
The Personal Computer 90
The Apple II 94
The Internet 95
Virtual Communities 96
Chapter 2: Transportation 102
The Wheeled Chariot 102
Sailing Ships 104
From Rowed Vessels to Sails 104
Types of Sails 106
The Chinese Junk 108 111
The Compass 109
The Steamboat 113
136
Fulton’s Steamboat 114
The Railroad 116
The Plateway 117
The Stockton and Darlington
Railway 117
The Liverpool and Manchester
Railway 119
The Rocket 120
The Bicycle 121
From Velocipedes to Boneshakers 121
The Penny-Farthing 122
The Safety Bicycle 123
The Automobile 124
The Four-Stroke Gasoline Engine 125
Karl Benz 126
Gottlieb Daimler 127
The Airplane 128
Early Experiments 129
The Wright Brothers 130 156
The Wright Flyer of 1903 131
The Space Launcher 133
Tsiolkovsky, Goddard,
and Oberth 134
From the V-2 to the ICBM 135
The First “All-Civilian” System 137
The Jetliner 137
GPS 141
Chapter 3: Power and Energy 144
Controlled Fire 144
The Water Wheel 146
The Noria 148
The Windmill 149
The Steam Engine 153
Thomas Newcomen 156
The Electric Battery 158
Galvani and Volta 158
Applications in Chemistry
and Physics 160
The Electric Generator and Motor 161
The Incandescent Lightbulb 163
The Fluorescent Light 165
The Steam Turbine 167
Early Precursors 167
Modern Steam Turbines 168
The Gasoline Engine 170
The Jet Engine 173
Whittle, von Ohain, and the First
Jet Aircraft 175
The Nuclear Reactor 178
The Laser 180
165
The Wind Turbine 184
The Solar Cell 187
The Fuel Cell 190
205
Chapter 4: Building
Construction and
Civil Engineering 192
The Arch 192
Origins in the Post and Lintel 193
Development of the Arch 194
The Vault 195
Brick 196
Dams 198
The Romans 198
Early Dams of East Asia 199
The 15th to the 18th Century
in Europe 200
The Aqueduct 201
The Roman Dome 204
The Pantheon 205
Plumbing 207 215
The Paved Road 209
Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet 210
Thomas Telford 210
John Loudon McAdam 211
Reinforced Concrete 212
The Suspension Bridge 214
Dynamite 216
The Skyscraper 219
The Glass Curtain Wall 220
William Le Baron Jenney 224
The Elevator 225
Heating, Ventilation, and Air
Conditioning 227
Chapter 5: Medical Milestones 231
The Smallpox Vaccine 231
Edward Jenner and James Phipps 233
General Anesthesia 235
247
Pasteurization 237
X-ray Imaging 239
Ultrasound 240
Insulin 242
Antibiotics 244
Blood Transfusion 246
Charles Drew 248
Polio Vaccine 250
The Birth Control Pill 253
Heart Transplantation 256
The Artifical Heart 258
Genetic Engineering 262
Cloning 264
Early Cloning Experiments 265
Reproductive Cloning 266
A Sheep Named Dolly 268
Therapeutic Cloning 269
Chapter 6: Military Technology 272
The Spear 272
The Bow and Arrow 273
The Early Bow 274
The Crossbow 275
Arrows 277
Gunpowder 278
Rifled Muzzle-Loaders 280
Early Rifling 280
Minié Rifles 281
The Submarine 284
David Bushnell’s Turtle 285
The Machine Gun 288
Recoil 288
Gas Operation 290
Blowback 290
309
The Assault Rifle 291
The Tank 294
The Ballistic Missile 298
The V-2 298
The First ICBMs 300
The Titan 1 and Titan II 301
Nuclear Weapons 303
The First Atomic Bombs 303
The First Hydrogen Bombs 310
Chapter 7: Observation and
Measurement 314
The Gregorian Calendar 314
The Clock 317
The Watch 319
The Telescope 322
The Hale Telescope 323
The Microscope 325
Radar 328 318
The Atomic Clock 331