Familiar things

When we read about the greatest inventions of the world, we find that they are cither very simple, like a wheel, or very complex, like a computer. There are lots of such inventions on the Globe. And we are grateful to their creators because their inventions made our life easier, safer and more comfortable.

However, not many of the inventors can boast of their creations, named after them, that are well-known to all. Here are some of them:

1. Louis Braille, who was born in France, became blind as a child. In 1824 he developed his own alphabet (known as Braille) — a coded system of raised dots that are used by the blind people to read.

2. Dmitri Mendeleyev, a prominent Russian chemist and scientist, worked out (1871) a new classification of chemical elements on the basis of their atomic weights known as the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements by Mendeleyev.

3. Ladislas Biro, a Hungarian chemist, who together with his brother George invented in 1935 the ball-point pen known as Biro.

4. Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, a German Physicist, invented in the XIX century the temperature scale, named after him.

5. Samuel Finley Breeze Morse, an American portrait painter, invented in 1837 the telegraphic dot-dash alphabet known as the Morse Code.

6. Louis Paster, a French chemist and biologist, developed in the XIX century a new method of sterilizing milk by heating it, known as pasteurization.

7. Charles Mackintosh, a Manchester textile chemist, in 1823 developed a waterproof raincoat or mackintosh.

8. Mikhail Kalashnikov, a Russian engineer, in 1943—1947 designed the world known automatic gun "Kalashnikov", registered in the Guinness Book of Records and considered to be "the invention of the XX century".

9. Rudolf Diesel, a German engineer, invented the dicsel engine in 1897 and so began the transport revolution.

10. Samuel Colt, an American gansmith, designed a 6-shooter pistol, patented in 1836.

11. Hans Wilhelm Geiger, a German nuclear physicist, from l')()0-1909 designed a counter for detecting radioactivity, that was the beginning of modern geiger counters.

12. Erno Rubik, a Hungarian, designed in 1974 a Rubik's Cube — one of the most puzzling toys.

13. Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen — a German physicist, who discovered in 1895 X-rays (a new form of radiation) that are used as;ni important diagnostic tool in medicine.

14. John Montagu, the 4-th Earl of Sandwich from England invented the sandwich in 1762.

15. Alessandro Volta, an outstanding. Italian physicist, invented in the XVIII century the chemical battery that provided the 1-st generator of continuous electrical current. The unit of electrical potential (Volt) was named after A.Volta in 1881.

16. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin — a German designer, who invented in 1900 the zeppelin.

2. Who invented the Radio?

Who really discovered the electromagnetic waves that could be sent through the air? The answer is not easy.

Many people had their hand in the development of electricity. Among them there were many talented and prominent people: William Gilbert (England), Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Alva Edison (USA), Alessandro Volta (Italy), Georg Ohm (Germany)

and many others.

The real interest began with Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph in 1837. Then followed the electromagnetic theory of light by a Scottish mathematician James Maxwell. Of course, there were also many others.

The first experiments leading to radio discovery started with Heinrich Hertz in 1887. Some people call him "the Father of Radio" as his experiments created interest by Marconi.

Alexander Popov, a Russian inventor, came up in 1893— 1895 with the idea of using a vibrator and the hammer of an electric bell to strike the tube and cause the filings to separate. He carried out the first radio communication on the 7 of May 1895.

In 1893, a Serbian Nikola Tesla suggested a conduction means, using the earth. He invented the Tesla Coil which created high frequency oscillations. In 1895 Tesla, after a number of experiments, was able to send and receive messages over a mile and a quarter.

In December 1901 Marconi sent the first transatlantic signal. He used 17 of Tesla's patents.

N. Tesla went on building the Tesla Coil, an air-core transformer with primary and secondary coils tuned to resonate a set-up transformer that converted low voltage high current to high voltage low current at high frequences. It is used today in all radios and TV sets.

The broadcasting potential was realized after the World War I. In 1913 Edwin Armstrong (USA) invented FM radio. First radio stations appeared in the USA in 1916.

There was much doubt that Marconi might be "the Father of the Radio" because everybody knew that it was Nikola Tesla who in 1893 disclosed wireless and the technology at one of his lectures.

An American Supreme Court case in 1942 ruled that Tesla was "the Father of the Radio" because his first patent was issued in 1898 and that of Marconi was issued in 1900.

Alexander Popov invented his radio in 1895 but he had not patented it. Neverthereless he is considered to be "the Radio Pioneer" and also deserves the title of the radio inventor.

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