Posts Tagged Inventions

Abraham Lincoln created the model with his own hands out of wood. It is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History.

President Abraham Lincoln was the only president to hold a patent.

Information & Photo via the National Museum of American History

The US Vessel Savannah was the first ship to cross the Atlantic using steam power (as well as sails). The Savannah was based out of Savannah, Georgia and cost around $50,000 to build. It’s transatlantic voyage started on May 22, 1819 and took over 29 days to reach Liverpool. On November 5, 1821, the Savannah was wreck after it ran aground by Long Island and was destroyed.

Smithsonian Institution, Timelines of History, New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2011, 275.
Photo

The Remington Model 1

Christopher Latham Sholes, a Milwaukee inventor, helped create the first practical typewriter. In early 1873, Sholes sold his portion of the typewriter for $12,000. E. Remington and Sons purchased the patent and produced the Remington Model 1, which went on sale in 1874.

Smithsonian Institution, Timelines of History, New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2011, 29.

A steam-powered threshing machine.

The invention of the threshing machine is credited to Andrew Meikle, a Scottish engineer. The threshing machine came about in the 1780s.

In the United States, Alexander Anderson created a model in 1782. Since Thomas Jefferson and George Washington owned farms, threshing machines were an interest to both of them. Together they went to see the new machine in action in August 1791. A year later, Jefferson ordered one of Meikle’s models from London, In a letter to James Madison, Jefferson shows his excitement over the new machine.

I expect every day to receive from Mr. Pinckney the model of the Scotch threshing machine…Mr. P. [Pinckney] writes me word that the machine from which my model is taken threshes 8. quarters (64. bushels) of oats an hour, with 4. horses and 4 men. I hope to get it in time to have one erected at Monticello to clean out the present crop.

At his Monticello estate, Jefferson ended up using three threshing machines. One was stationary and worked by water, while the other two could be moved and worked by horses. In a July 6, 1796 letter from Washington to Jefferson, the importance of a portable machine can be seen.

If you can bring a moveable threshing machine, constructed upon simple principles to perfection, it will be among the most valuable institutions in this Country; for nothing is more wanting, & to be wished for on our farms.

"Bundle Haulers" tossed grain stalks onto the belt to the threshing machine.

The threshing machine of the yesteryears is the combine of modern times. Both machines remove the grain from the stalks. The main difference is that the combine is self-propelled and eliminates both the man hours and the threshing crew that the old threshing machines used.

The combine allowed farmers to harvest their crops easier and quicker. While the number of acres has risen over the years, the number of farms has dropped. For example, in North Dakota alone, a 1998 study showed that the average farm increased over 1,000 acres but the number of farms have decreased close to 50,000 since 1920.

Information and photos found at the Library of Congress website.
Washington and Jefferson information found at the Monticello website.

Herbert Sellner of Faribault, Minnesota invented the Tilt-A-Whirl in 1926. He built the first fourteen rides in his basement and yard. A year later, in 1927, he opened Sellner Manufacturing and the Tilt-A-Whirl made its debut at the Minnesota State Fair. 

One Tilt-A-Whirl costs around $250,000.

Further Reading
Chuck Haga, “Aug. 31, 2001: It’s been a tilting, whirling ride for 75 years,” Star Tribune, March 29, 2007. Found online here.
Koutsky, Kathryn Strand and Linda Koutsky. Minnesota State Fair: An Illustrated History. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2007.
Photos found on Minnesota Public Radio website.

Before the 1700s, farmers did not paint their barns, they allowed the weather and nature to treat the buildings. This began to change by the late 1700s when farmers, especially in Virginia, painted their barns a colonial gray. Around a decade later, red became the go-to color for barns.

The main material derivative for red paint was rust, a compound that was easily obtained and cheap to produce. When you combine rust, milk, lime and linseed oil, the resulting paint had a red-ish hue. Thus traditional ”barn red” became a popular and cheap paint that is still widely used on farms today.

Bob Crittendon, Barn in the U.S.A., Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2006, 87.

Photos via Getty Images.

A patient inside an iron lung

Also known as a negative pressure ventilator, the iron lung was a medical breakthrough. If a patient lost the ability to breathe independently due to injury or illness, such as polio, they were placed in the iron lung. Their bodies are put inside a steel drum-like contraption with only their heads and necks out of the chamber. The air-tight container uses air pressure to manipulate the patent’s lungs to mimic the pattern of breathing.

Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw created the first iron lung in 1927. This early model consisted of one electric motor and two vacuum cleaners. It was successful in keeping the patient breathing until they could do it independently.   

The Bellevue hospital in New York was the first hospital to install the iron lung.

From 1939, iron lung machines were widely distributed to hospitals around the country. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a polio survivor himself, helped promote the iron lung and polio research through his National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes). Roosevelt’s foundation helped to fund the distribution of iron lungs.

Martha Mason inside her iron lung

The average cost of an iron lung in the 1930s was $1,500, the same amount as the average home.

Martha Mason spent over 60 years in an iron lung after contracting polio at 11 years old. In September 1939, after the death of her older brother to polio, she too was diagnosis with the disease. According to her obituary in the New York Times, “Ms. Mason was one of the last handful of Americans, perhaps 30 people, who live full time in iron lungs.” Her iron lung was 7 feet long and weighed over 800 pounds. Confined to the machine, Mason was not deterred in life and graduated top of her class in high school and college. In 2003, she wrote about her life inside an iron lung in her memoir, Breathe. She passed away in her sleep on May 4, 2009.

Further Reading

Fox, Margalit. “Martha Mason, Who Wrote Book About Her Decade in an Iron Lung, Dies at 71.” New York Times, May 9, 2009.

Craft, Dr. Naomi. The Little Book of Medical Breathroughs. New York: Metro Books, 2010. 110-111.

“The Iron Lung and Other Equipment,” Smithsonian Institute.

Photos – Getty Images and Martha Mason

Skateboarding (or “sidewalk surfing”) originated in the 1950s by Californian surfers who started putting wheels on their surfboards so they could still “surf” when the waves were flat.

[Lowe, Charlotte. History Fact-O-Pedia. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011, 241.]

[Photo via Getty Images]

Parking meter in Long Beach, CA, circa 1940

The first coin-operated parking meter was installed on July 16, 1935 in Oklahoma City.

• Carl Magee, a lawyer and publisher, invented it. He came up with the idea while working on a traffic study for the local chamber of commerce.
• It cost one nickel to park for an hour.
• A 1961 report found that parking meters brought in revenue of $130 million per year.

New York City first employed 100 “Meter Maids” on May 2, 1960. They enforced parking regulations and consisted entirely of women. “Meter Men” joined the ranks on October 2, 1967.

• Between 6,000 to 7,000 women applied for the original 100 job openings.
• The average yearly salary of a meter maid was $3,150.

Information:

New York Times, “Oklahoma City Autoists Plan to Fight Nickel-in-Slot Curbstone Parking Meters,” July 17, 1935.

New York Times, “6,000 Hopefuls Seek 100 Meter Maid Jobs,” October 8, 1959.

New York Times, “Wagner to Swear In Meter Maids Today,” May 2, 1960.

Stengren, Bernard, “Meters Bring In Millions,” New York Times, April 2, 1961.

New York Times, “Meter Men Joining Maids in Enforcing City Parking Rules,” October 2, 1967.

Photo – UCLA Library – Digital Collection

Kies' invention boosted the hat industry

• Mary Anderson (1866-1953) received a patent on November 10, 1903 for her development of an earlier device that would later turn into windshield wipers.
• Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919), was an African-American washer who up until the age of 37, worked for meager wages. She made her money through her discovery of a hair tonic that would help de-kink hair. Between her hair tonic and real estate ventures, Walker became a very wealthy woman.
• New York socialite, Mary Phelps (1891-1970) created the bra. It was patented in 1914 and the first version was made with two handkerchiefs.
• Gertrude B. Elion (1918-1999), was a biochemist who holds 45 patents in medicine that help fight illnesses such as leukemia and malaria. She also patented a medicine that suppresses the immune system for organ transplants. She was the first woman inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• Stephanie Louise Kwolek (b.1923), a chemist is attributed to the development of Kevlar, commonly used in body armor equipment.

[Information: United States Patent and Trademark Office,  Female Inventors, Walker’s New York Times obituary and post’s photo.

Drive-In Theater

Camden, New Jersey is home to the first drive-in movie theater. Richard Hollingshead opened it in Summer 1933.

[Photo via wired.com]

Serial #1 Bike

William Harley and Arthur Davidson, joined later by Arthur’s brothers Walter and William, formed Harley-Davidson Motor Company in 1903.

Elvis Presley on a Harley-Davidson

While Harley-Davidson motorcycles are far from being the first motorcycle produced, it has become the largest, continuously produced American motorcycle company. Howard Roper, in 1867, created a motorcycle powered by coal with a steam engine. Years later, in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler, assembled the first gas-powered motorcycle when he attached the engine to a wooden bike.

Harley-Davidson’s early competitors were other new companies. These include Pierce, Merkel, Excelsior, Thor, Schickel and its main competitor, Indian. Only Indian lasted through the Great Depression, but it declined after World War II and eventually went bankrupt and stopped production in 1953.

The “Bar & Shield” logo of Harley-Davidson was first used in 1910. Besides minor changes, the logo has stayed relatively the same.

"Bar & Shield" Logo

In 1914, Harley-Davidson produced the first sidecar for their motorcycles.

Nearly 20,000 motorcycles were manufactured for the United States government during World War I. Corporal Roy Holtz was the first American to enter Germany after the Armistice signing and he rode in on a Harley-Davidson.

During World War II, the majority of Harley-Davidson motorcycles went to help the war effort and many were shipped overseas to US allies in Britain and France.

In 2004, the William Harley, Arthur Davidson, Walter Davidson and William Davidson were inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame. The United States Department of Labor states the following about the men:

Through periods of both war and economic depression, Harley-Davidson has endured because its founders both used and believed in its products and relied on the dedication of its employees to produce quality motorcycles. Today, with over 9000 employees worldwide, Harley-Davidson builds well over 300,000 of the most well-known and popular motorcycles in the world.

Further Reading

Harley-Davidson Website (location of photos used)

Library of Congress

US Department of Labor