Quotes...Quotes
BY MAMA
Tech Trivia
8
Little known facts of the gadget world...what you should know about and how they shaped the world as it is today
Stephen Poplawski invented the blender in 1922.
The term "pager" was first used in 1959, referring to a Motorola radio communications product: a small receiver that delivered a radio message individually to those carrying the device.
In 1724, Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer, the modern thermometer.
The inventor popularly credited with the invention of the pneumatic tube subway is Alfred Beach. Beach received a 1865 patent for a pneumatic transit system (pneumatic tube) for mail and passengers. He also built America's first subway.
Since skiing is a sport that goes back to Stone Age times, nobody knows exactly who the inventor was, but fun and transportation must have been the reasons for the invention.
The word "perfume" comes from the Latin "per fume" or "through smoke," referring to the burning of incense and herbs as a religious offering.
In 1806, carbon paper was invented by Pellegrino Turri of Italy.
In 1884, James Ritty invented what was nicknamed the "Incorruptible Cashier" or the first working mechanical cash register.
Alexander Graham Bell invented the first crude metal detector, which he used unsuccessfully in an attempt to save U.S. President James Garfield's life. Garfield had been shot by an assassin and Bell used his metal detector to try and locate the bullet for the surgeons.
He detected a bed spring instead.
In 1927, Edwin Perkins invented Kool-Aid in Hastings, Nebraska, where it is the "Official State Soft Drink."
The first Touch Tone system, which used tones rather than pulses generated by rotary dials, was installed in Baltimore, MD, in 1941. Touch Tone telephones were invented by the research team at Bell Systems.
Dennis Gabor invented the theory of holography in 1947. Holography is best known for those fun-looking three-dimensional photographs.
In 1873, Sir James Paget of St. Bartholomew's Hospital presented the first modern waterbed, designed by Neil Arnott as a treatment and prevention of pressure ulcers (bed sores).
In 1954, inventors Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chapin created an array of several strips of silicon (each about the size of a razor blade), placed them in sunlight, captured the free electrons and turned them into electrical current. This was the first solar battery.
Beginner's All Purpose Instruction Code or BASIC was written in 1963 at Dartmouth College by mathematicians John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz.
The barometer was invented by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643.
The first patent for bar code was issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952.
Volvo had the first vehicle safety belts in 1849.
Louis Sebastien Lenormand of France is generally credited with being the first to demonstrate a parachute in 1783.
In 1943, film director and billionaire Howard Hughes designed a cantilevered steel-boned bra for Jane Russell's bosom.
On January the 3rd, 1888, the drinking straw was patented by Marvin Stone.
Ampex sold the first Video Tape Recorder (VTR) for $50,000 in 1956. The first Video Cassette Recorder VCR was sold by Sony in 1971.
It was in June of 1956 that the television remote control first entered the American home. It was attached by a wire to the TV.