Rotobeam Flashlight
Richard Gammache invented the design of the flashlight where you turn the head and the light turns on. This design is seen on most flashlights today. Gammache died on March 24, 2017 at age 92....
View ArticleInvention of Shoes
Northampton, UK is known for cobblers (shoe makers). There's a shoe museum that explains the story. [Editor's note: Northamptonshire’s shoemakers have almost 900 years experience in making boots and...
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Innovation and Employment
blog-daemmrich-arthur-2017-07-20-wealth-of-nations-frontispiece-1789-450-inline-edit.jpg An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations tracks with early American history: first...
View ArticleInvention of the Horseshoe Machine
The horseshoe machine was invented by Henry Burden in 1835. [Editor's note: According to the Albany Institute of History and Art, "The Burden Iron Works of Troy manufactured nearly all of the...
View ArticleInvention of the Car Smasher
My grandfather, Charles Gates, invented the machine that smashed cars flat to make them easier to transport to be stored at a dump or recycled. [Editor's note: C. (Charles) T. Gates of Wendell, Idaho...
View ArticleKnitting Stockings by Machine
John McMullen (1791-1870) and Joseph Hollen, Jr. (1798-1874), both of central Pennsylvania, patented a machine for knitting stockings in 1831. This was not the first machine of the sort, but it did...
View ArticleInflammable Textile for Airplane Seats
The inflamable textile is a niche product invented by engineers of AaBe, once a key producer of wool blankets. once quilts became more populair and Asian production took over they focussed on a...
View ArticleBiot Bubble Glass
Biot has a volcanic hill and its stone has been used to make ovens that an be hot enough to melt glass. [Editor's note: According to The Independent, "The French hill-top village of Biot— just inland...
View ArticleProcessors
Some of the most used pocessors in mobile phones used by billions of people have been designed in Sophia Antipolis, the Siicon Valley of France. Most Americans have used one of those! [Editor's note:...
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Looking Beyond Steam Pumps
I stared at the search results, unable to make heads or tails of the metal contraptions on my screen. I wanted to be an archivist, not an engineer. I had no idea what I was looking at!...
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Licensing the First US Patent
On July 31, 1790, the inventor Samuel Hopkins was awarded the first US patent for a new method of making potash and pearl ash. Potash, later termed potassium carbonate, was used as a fertilizer, as a...
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Egg-citing Inventions
Eggs come in six sizes—jumbo, extra-large, large, medium, small, and peewee—and in three grades—AA, A, and B (grades are United States classifications that rate the egg’s exterior and interior quality...
View ArticleSohmer & Co. Records, 1872-1989
Inventor NameSohmer & CompanyRepositoryNational Museum of American HistorySmithsonian InstitutionArchives CenterP.O. Box 37012MRC 601/Room 1100Washington, DC...
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Immigrant Lili Réthi Revealed the Drama of Construction
“Technology knows no international boundaries . . . great engineers create for the progress of all mankind.” (Lili Réthi, Radio Salzburg Broadcast, 1955, Lili Réthi Papers)Lilly (Lili) Maria Réthi...
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