The Human Body

"Man is a tool-using animal....Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all." Thomas Carlyle, historian Johann Fetter Johannson (1853-1943) was one of Sweden's most prolific inventors. He amassed an impressive 118 patents over his lifetime, including one for tongs to enable people to put sugar cleanly into their tea. However, undoubtedly Johannson's greatest contribution to manufacturing and engineering was his adjustable wrench. When Johannson opened his first workshop in Enkoping, Sweden, in 1886, there were no standard sizes or gauges for nuts, bolts, and screws, nor for the tools that manipulated them. Johannson became literally overloaded when he went about his business because his handcart had to accommodate ever- increasing numbers of wrenches to fit his various jobs. He practically had to make a new size of wrench for each task as machines and their components were built to their own bespoke specifications. Johannson decided to make a more...

"It may take years, but the battery-electric car will eventually be back_ stronger than ever..."         Chris Payne, dir. Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)'' Although the earliest efforts to develop electric vehicles were made in France and Britain, the honor of the first truly successful electric car goes to Scottish- born William Morrison in the United States. Morrison's passion was in fact for storage batteries—he only built the car, a surrey-type high wheel carriage, to show off his latest battery. The battery holds the key to the success of any electric car, determining the speed and range of the vehicle. Morrison's car battery comprised twenty-four cells and contributed more than half of the total weight of the vehicle. It was claimed that the battery was capable of powering the vehicle for thirteen hours at speeds of up to 14miles (22.5 km) per hour on just one more...

A cardiac pacemaker is a surgically implanted electronic device that regulates a slow or erratic heartbeat. The first artificial pacemaker was invented by Dr. Mark Lidwell, an Australian anesthetist, who developed an external device running on an alternating current that required a needle to be inserted into the patient's upper heart chamber (ventricle). In 1928 Lidwell used the device to resuscitate a baby born in cardiac arrest at the Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney. Lidwell reported the case to the Third Congress of the Australian Medical Society in 1929, but kept a low profile due to controversy at the time surrounding research into artificially extending human life. In 1932 U.S. physiologist Albert Hyman (1893-1972) independently developed an electromechanical instrument, powered by a spring-wound, hand- cranked motor, that he referred to as an "artificial pacemaker."The first internal pacemaker was developed by Swede Rune Elmqvist and implanted into a patient in more...

Biodiesel, technically described as mono-alkyi esters of vegetable oil or animal fat, is to many a new concept in man's quest to rely less on petroleum-based products in daily life. The first biodiesel, however, was produced in the lab decades ago and is still cited as an important technological advance in the area of alternative fuel sources. The name biodiesel originates from the word diesel, a type of engine invented by Rudolph Diesel in 1892. Diesel first displayed his invention in 1900, at the Paris World's Fair. Rather unexpectedly, his diesel engine actually ran on peanut oil. However, it was in 1937 that a Belgian scientist at the University of Brussels, G. Chavanne, was granted a patent entitled "Procedure for the transformation of vegetable oils for their uses as fuels." In the patent, Chavanne describes the use of palm oil as diesel fuel. The reaction was called alcoholysis (also known more...

Conveyers of various kinds have been in use since 250 B.C.E., the earliest example being the Archimedes screw used to raise water. The bucket conveyor, a simple chain of buckets used to move bulk materials, became an important technological innovation in the burgeoning mining industry of the fifteenth century. Conveyor belts were a development of these simple machines. Early versions in the 1700s were nothing more than leather or canvas belts over flat wooden beds, used mostly for transporting sacks of grain and in the mining industry. But over the next couple of hundred years they developed, rubber replacing leather, canvas as the belt material and mechanization being introduced. In 1913 Henry Ford installed conveyor belts in his factory in Michigan to create a production line. Combined  with  other factory  manufacturing techniques and the principle of uniformity and interchangeability of parts, Ford revolutionized the motor industry and effectively created the more...

"If a man makes a better mousetrap.....the world will [beat a] path to his door." Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840-1916) was an eccentric inventor who produced numerous creations throughout his life. He filed 271 patents in total, and his work included such diverse objects as a gun, a flying machine, curling irons, and a coffee substitute. Arguably one of his most famous inventions was also one of the simplest—the spring-loaded mousetrap. Maxim is said to have built his automatic mousetrap at the tender age of fourteen, while he was working as an apprentice to a local carriage builder. His spring-loaded trap was tested at a local grist mill, which was subsequently rodent-free. He created a trap design that is still familiar today. It has a baited trip that releases a heavy spring-loaded bar trapping the mouse in its tracks. The device thus damages the mouse's spinal cord, more...

"This is the mystery of the modern disposable diaper: how does something so small do so much?" Malcolm Gladwell, journalist It took a Swedish paper mill, a Connecticut housewife, and a Proctor & Gamble engineer to free parents from the shackles of diaper duty. Paper mill Paulistrom Bruk put pads of treated paper into rubber pants and produced the first diaper product destined for the bin in 1936.These disposable paper pads failed to impress the baby supply industry. A more commercially successful product came along more than a decade later, thanks to an inventive housewife named Marion Donovan (1917-1998). Forgoing rubber pants for nylon and skipping paper entirely, Donovan created the "Boater" in 1946. Donovan's simple nylon diaper covers far surpassed rubber pants for one simple reasons—diaper rash. "We couldn't say it, but it did cure diaper rash, and many doctors recommended it," said Donovan of her Boater. When it more...

"Women who realize the importance of daintiness are grateful to Mum." Mum advertisement, 1926 Every civilization throughout history has searched for a remedy to the perennial problem of body odor. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks applied mixtures of carob, cinnamon, incense, and various citrus juices, though such attempts did little more than temporarily mask body odor. And the Roman historian Plinus wrote of a deodorizing salt made from a mix of potassium and aluminum. But, it was not until the nineteenth century that the eccrine gland was found to be responsible for the production of body odor. An unknown Philadelphia man created the world's first trademarked deodorant in 1888. Named "Mum," it was sold as a rather difficult-to-apply, waxlike cream in a glass jar, and had zinc chloride as its principal drying-agent. It worked to inhibit the growth of bacteria present in moist, warm areas of the body, such as more...

The human body is a very complex machine. It has plumbing, wiring, and motors, and, just like a car, needs fuel and produces waste. At the moment that is where the similarities end, but in the very near future machines may become a lot more similar to humans. Standard electric motors have their limitations. They are noisy, costly, difficult to miniaturize, heavy, and prone to breakage. Consider a muscle, however. It moves relatively silently, is efficient, reaches its limitation of miniaturization basically at the cellular level, and can operate millions of times without breakage (for example, in the human heart). Muscles are the ideal medium for any number of applications, or at least the U.S. government thought so. In the early 1990s, SRI International was approached and tasked with producing an artificial version of biological muscle. In 1992 they began work on electroactive polymers. Put simply, electroactive polymers are materials more...

"Arrest those drips with genuine Jubilee worm drive hose clips" Jubilee Clip advertising poster The Jubilee Clip was invented by Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Lumley Robinson (d. 1939) in 1921.This ingenious device consists of a stainless-steel band that is put around a hose or tube, then tightened and the fitting sealed by turning the screw on one end of the clip. The screw acts as a worm drive, and so these types of clips are sometimes called "worm-drive hose clips" or simply "hose clamps." The clips could be used for simple household uses, such as plumbing, or for larger applications—such as piping on ships. The Jubilee Clip was issued a patent and Robinson began marketing the clip commercially in 1923. Following his death, L. Robinson and Company Limited was established in 1948 by Robinson's son John in Gillingham, England. The company still manufactures the Jubilee Clip today and is considered more...