Science Projects And Inventions

During the early 1970s, sounds generated by the electronic synthesizer became increasingly popular in recordings and at rock concerts. Gradually, these once prohibitively expensive musical instruments became commonplace and affordable. In addition to a great variety of user-friendly electronic keyboards on offer, there were related devices, such as sequencers, that could "trigger" sounds from a connected keyboard, as well as drum machines with a variety of sounds. One problem that arose with this electronic proliferation was that devices produced by different manufacturers tended not to be compatible with each other. American audio engineer Dave Smith sought a way forward when, at a 1981 meeting of the Audio Engineering Society, he presented a paper that proposed the first universal communication standard for musical equipment. He called it MIDI—an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. In essence, MIDI is a digital "language" that enables synthesizers, MIDI recorders (whether hardware sequencers or computer-based more...

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization" Daniel Webster, American statesman, 1840 English farmer Jethro Tull (1674-1741) despaired at the waste of seeds that resulted from sowing them by scattering. Seeds would fall too close together, or onto stony ground, lie at differing depths, and plants would grow with no soil between them from which the crop could be weeded, tended, and harvested. Tull's horsedrawn wooden seed drill improved on this situation and resulted in crop yields of up to eight times those where the seeds had been scattered. A shaped wooden drill dug an even groove of the right depth into the soil and seeds from the hopper mounted above it trickled into the groove, evenly spaced by the forward movement of the horse. Tull mounted three drills alongside each other in the machine, and so could plant three rows of more...

As soon as hypertext was unveiled to the public in 1968 at the Convention Center of San Francisco in the United States, technology experts knew it was unique. The demonstration, now known as the "Mother of All Demos," showed how this tool for data organization enabled the user to read information, not just in the linear way we read regular text, but for the first time in a dynamic and interactive way. Hypertext later became the fundamental-language of the Internet in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), and has revolutionized the way information is accessed. Whereas standard text is read linearly (for instance, Western scripts are read left to right, top to bottom), hypertext allowed the user to retrieve information by “clicking" on link's that shifted the page, opened further texts, and activated video and audio. The forerunner of this breakthrough was called the Memex system (from MEMory Extender), imagined by more...

"Regenerative braking improves overall efficiency and prolongs brake component life." Industrial equipment advertisement Regenerative brakes were designed by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) in the 1960s as a way to increase the potential range of electric cars and match the performance of their fossil fuel-burning contemporaries. The resulting car, the Amitron, built in 1967, never made it into full production. A brake is a device that converts kinetic energy (movement) into another type of energy. Traditional braking systems use the friction of a brake pad to slow down the vehicle, turning its kinetic energy into heat. This system is effective but not energy-efficient—it would be much more resourceful to try to recover some of the kinetic energy back in the form of fuel. The problem with vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels is that it is impossible to turn inertia back into petroleum. In an electric more...

"The impact of Chinese firearms in terms of war fare and territorial expansion was profound." Sun Laichen, Asia Research Institute A musket is a smoothbore firearm loaded from the muzzle and fired from shoulder-level. It is larger than an arquebus and often fired from a rest on which it can be pivoted from side to side. It is difficult to pin down with certainty when the musket was invented, although according to ancient Chinese texts it was some time in the fourteenth century. Basic cannons had been fashioned by the Chinese, and Chinese weapons experts were the first to produce a device that was recognizable as a musket, but it was when this technology met the greater metallurgical prowess of the Ottoman Empire (and later that of the European powers) that a revolution in warfare took place. It took a long time for muskets to become established; early muskets in more...

When British electrical engineer John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945) invented the first thermionic diode, he had no idea of the impact it would have on the technology of the twentieth century. The diode is used in many electrical and electronic systems. In its early valve form, the diode used thermionic emission—the flow of electrons within a sealed vacuum—to create a one-way valve for electrical current. This is critical in regulating voltages, processing high-frequency signals, and in converting AC (alternating current) to DC (direct current). Predictably, Thomas Edison, was one of the first to discover the underlying principles. In 1883 he created a kind of diode by modifying an electric light bulb. He patented what he called his "Edison Effect," but ultimately saw little potential in its development. In 1904, having acquired a number of Edison Effect bulbs from the United States, Fleming developed an "oscillation valve," which he used to convert more...

Installing at least one smoke detector in your house Is estimated to halve the chances of a fatal fire, which means that thousands of lives have been saved worldwide since home devices were introduced in the late 1960s. The forerunner of the modern detector was invented by the British electrical engineer George Darby in 1902. His device, which detected heat rather than smoke, consisted of two electrical plates with a wedge of butter between them. As the room temperature rose, the butter melted, causing the two plates to fall onto each other triggering the alarm, and presumably dripping butter everywhere. The most common smoke detectors now use an ionization chamber, a device developed by the Swiss physicist Ernst Meili in 1939 to detect poisonous gases in mines, although not specifically smoke. In the ionization chamber, a radioactive material produces ions (electrically charged atoms). In the presence of smoke, the flow more...

A pyrometer is a device for measuring high temperatures, specifically those above 673°F (356°C), the boiling point of mercury. John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845), the first professor of chemistry at King's College, London, invented an instrument known as a register pyrometer in 1830. This used the expansion of platinum to indicate, for example, the temperature of liquid silver. The platinum bar was placed in a hollow cylinder of plumbago, and the expansion was registered using a lever system and scale. Daniell also went on to invent an electrical battery that became known as the Daniell cell, and a dew-point hygrometer. As the nineteenth century progressed, the accurate measurement of temperature became ever more Important in manufacturing processes involving such things as pottery kilns and steel furnaces. Devices were also required that would measure temperatures up to around 5,400°F (3,000°C). Since these devices had to be distant from the high-temperature object, the more...

"Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen? Chance favors only the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist At the beginning of the 1860s French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) observed that living cells, known commonly as yeast, were responsible for forming alcohol from sugar and, when contaminated, led to its souring. He was able to distinguish and separate these microorganisms, and, in 1862, he and French physiologist Claude Bernard (1813-1878) showed that most of the bacteria present in milk could be killed if the milk was heated to 145°F (63°C) for thirty minutes. The milk was then rapidly cooled to eliminate bacterial contamination. Pasteur applied the same principle to beer, the souring of which was a sore point in the French economy. This process of extended heating came to be known as "pasteurization." Pasteur's revolutionary understanding of germ theory finally brought to an end the centuries-old notion more...

"Ever since I've been an astronaut I knew I wanted  to do a spacewalk." John L. Phillips, astronaut The advent of the Space Shuttle and space stations made it obvious to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that some method of extravehicular space locomotion was needed. The space agency called on the Lockheed Corporation (now Lockheed Martin) to build a device that would allow astronauts to manipulate satellites, repair and build structures, and perhaps even rescue colleagues engaged in extravehicular activities (EVAs). In 1984 the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) became reality. The backpack-like unit was designed to work alongside the life-support systems already in place on a space suit. It was stowed in the payload bay of the Space Shuttle when not in use and simply attached to the standard Extravehicular Maneuvering Unit (EMU) spacesuit when astronauts needed to work on a part of the space station or ship more...