Just the Facts: Inventors that Changed America: On the Go & Medical
On the Go: British train engineer Richard
Trevithick gave the world its first steam railway locomotive in 1804. By
1930, railroad was the most popular form of transportation for both people and
goods. Henry Ford was a brilliant mechanic with a vision: He wanted to
make cars affordable to all classes of society, not just the wealthy. In 1907,
he installed a moving assembly line, which not only made autos affordable for
almost everyone, but also reinvented industry.
Wilbur and Orville
Wright, who owned a bicycle shop, made history on December 17, 1903, with their
first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and changed history because they
preferred wings to wheels. The flight revolution continued when Igor Sikorsky
left the ground for the first time in the first working helicopter in 1939.
Robert Goddard expanded our knowledge of the universe with his invention of the
modern rocket.
Medical Milestones: Herbert Boyer and
Stanley Cohen unlocked the hidden secrets of DNA with genetic engineering,
opening the way for the development of new drugs and increased food production,
as well as cloning. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin,
revolutionized medical treatment, and won the Nobel Prize in 1945. Charles Drew
pioneered blood banks by developing a new way to house plasma. He was also the
first African-American surgeon appointed to the American Board of
Surgery. Finally, Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine, which was
pronounced effective in 1955. He became known as the man who saved the children
by ridding the world of polio.
Just the Facts: Inventors that Changed America: Strong Connection
Science marches forward, led by great
inventors who changed America and the world. This program focuses on inventors
who revolutionized communications and those whose brilliance gave us lasers,
plastic, computers, and transistors.
Strong Connections:
Thomas Edison still holds the record for patents – he held 1,093 patents and
claimed countless inventions, including many that changed our lives: the
incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the first movie camera. Alexander
Graham Bell developed the first version of the telephone in 1876, and his
invention still has people all over the world talking more than a century
later. Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio, which entered America’s living
rooms as the primary source of entertainment early in the 20th century. His invention
also saved lives on the Titanic. Software engineer Tim Berners-Lee invented
software that became the World Wide Web, which debuted in 1991 and allowed for
the universal exchange of information from any digital port.
Brave
New World:
Physicist Gordon Gould discovered lasers, which are used for such diverse
purposes as buying groceries, correcting vision, and sending packages. Chemist
Leo Baekeland discovered one of the most important products of the 20th century
– plastic. Alan Turing invented computers, originally to crack German code
during World War II. Now we use computers in nearly every facet of our lives.
Leo Szilard developed the theory of chain reaction and worked with the
Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. When the United States dropped
the bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, the event helped shape the modern world. In
1947, William Shockley contributed one of the greatest inventions of the modern
world – the transistor, which revolutionized electronics, from cell phones to
computers and radios to rockets. |
