Thursday, January 26, 2012

2011-2012 Challenges. Number 17

Here you have some questions about the Second Industrial Revolution inventions:  

QUESTION 1
Who were the inventors of the following crucial inventions: first electric battery, first electric motor, telegraph, incandescent light bulb, four-stroke engine, radio?

QUESTION 2

What was the first electrical telegraph line? When did it start working?

QUESTION 3

What was Menlo Park? Who was the "Wizard of Menlo Park" and why was he called this way?


QUESTION 4
What was the so called "War of currents"? Who were its main protagonists? What lethal invention was related to this war?

QUESTION 5
There are thousands of women inventors, but their achievements remain mainly unknown. Here you have some important women inventors who contributed to make life easier: Margaret Knight, Mary Anderson, Josephine Cochran and Katherine Blodgett. What did they invent?


QUESTION 6
Some inventions soon became consumer goods and are present almost in every house in the developed countries. Who were the inventors of the sewing machine and the washing machine?

P.S: I´m not including the sources of the pictures until someone answers the questions. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello! These are my answers:

Question 1:
First electric battery: Alessandro Volta.
First electric motor: William Sturgeon.
Telegraph: Samuel Morse.
Incandescent light bulb: Thomas Edison.
Four-stroke engine: Nikolaus A. Otto.
Radio: Guillermo Marconi.

Question 2:
On the 6th May 1833 Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Eduard Weber installed the first telegraph line. It was between the Physics University and the observatory, in Göttingen, Germany.

Question 3:
Menlo Park was a small rural area in the USA, Thomas Edison went there to live and he developed some of his best inventions there, for that reason he was known as the Wizard of Menlo Park.

Question 4:
It was the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse for what type of electric distribution system had to be used. Thomas Edison promoted direct current (DC) and George Westinghouse promoted alternating current (AC).
Edison promoted the creation of the electric chair and he paid it secretly, to show how dangerous was the alternating current.

Question 5:
Margaret Knight: she invented a machine to make paper bags.
Mary Anderson: she invented the windshield wiper blade.
Josephine Cochran: she invented the dishwashed.
Katherine Blodgett: she invented the world’s first 100% transparent glass.

Question 6:
The sewing machine was invented by Thomas Saint. The washing machine was invented by Alva Fisher.


And Paqui, how are you?
Bye!

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello Javi,

This challenge is useful to learn that the persons who are officially recognized as inventors are the ones who had money enough to pay the patents and "buy" a name in history.

Here you have my comments to your answers:

QUESTION 1

Michael Faraday is considered to be the first to build an electric motor. He discovered electromagnetism and was the first to build a machine based on this property.

QUESTION 2

THe first electrical telegraph line was buikt by Samuel MOrse between Washing ton and Baltimore. It was finished in 1844 and the first news transmitted were about the nomination of the candidate of the Whig Party to the elections.

QUESTION 4

The War of currents was between
Edison (who defended direct current) and Nicola Tesla (who defended alternating current). George Westinghouse financed Tesla´s projects. Tesla was a great inventor. His inventions include the radio, but Marconi gained the prestige of this invention.

QUESTION 5

Margaret Knight also invented a stop motion device, which was very useful to stop machines in the factories, for example in case of accident.

And Katherine Blodgett´s glass was not only 100% transparent, but also nonreflective.

I hope you´ve enjoyed with the research.