Where Good Ideas Come From Part 5

A water flushing device was invented in the late sixteenth century by Sir John Harrington, who installed a functioning version for his G.o.dmother, Queen Elizabeth, at Richmond Palace. But the device didn't take off until the late 1700s, when a watchmaker named Alexander c.u.mings and a cabinet-maker named Joseph Bramah filed for two separate patents on an improved version of Harrington's design.

PLANETARY MAGNETISM (1600).

English scientist William Gilbert realized that the earth itself was a magnet, a discovery first published in his treatise "On the Magnet" in 1600. Gilbert concluded that it was the earth's magnetic nature that allowed the compa.s.s to aid navigators. The nature of magnets had been studied by Aristotle and the ancient Chinese among others throughout history.

TELESCOPE (1600--1610).

A cla.s.sic example of collective invention, the first telescopes and spygla.s.ses began to appear in Europe in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Two patent applications were filed on designs in the Netherlands in 1608, and by 1609 Galileo was using a device he built with 20x magnification to gaze at the stars, discovering Jupiter's moons in the process.

ELLIPTICAL ORBITS (1605--1609).

The German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler was the first to doc.u.ment the elliptical orbit that the planets took around the sun, though he built his equations by a.n.a.lyzing data collected by Tycho Brahe, his friend and occasional employer.

JUPITER'S MOONS (1610) With the aid of a telescope, Galileo Galilei first observed the orbiting moons of Jupiter, thus proving the fundamental principle of the Copernican system, that the universe did not revolve around earth. Another scientist, Simon Marius, claimed to have discovered the moons five weeks prior to Galileo, but he never published his observations.

FLINTLOCK (1610).

French courtier Marin le Bourgeoys introduced the first fully developed flintlock mechanism to King Louis XIII in 1610, a device that became standard in firearms until the early nineteenth century. But Marin le Bourgeoy's discovery integrated many early innovations in firing mechanisms, from the matchlock to the snaphance.

SUNSPOTS (1610).

Sunspots, darkened, magnetic spots on the surface of the sun, were first observed almost simultaneously by a number of astronomers with the use of telescopes. Credit is alternately attributed to Galileo Galilei, Thomas Harriot, and Johannes and David Fabricius.

LOGARITHMS (1614).

In an effort to simplify the process of multiplying large numbers, mathematician John Napier conceived of logarithms as a way to express a number as a base raised to a power, e.g., 100 as 102, or 10 10. Logarithms have gone on to play an essential role in science and engineering.

BLOOD CIRCULATION (1628).

English physician William Harvey correctly theorized the movement of blood through the human body as pumped by the heart and cycled perpetually, dispelling earlier arguments for the existence of two separate circulation systems.

VERNIER SCALE (1631).

The Vernier scale, invented by French mathematician Pierre Vernier, can be used in conjunction with a larger scale to precisely measure extremely small units of s.p.a.ce. It became widely employed in navigation systems.

OCEAN TIDES (1632).

Following in the steps of the ancients, Galileo Galilei ventured an explanation of ocean tides in relation to the sun. Johannes Kepler correctly theorized that it was the earth's relation to the moon that created the phenomenon, and Isaac Newton furnished the scientific community with a fully developed explanation in 1687.

SLIDE RULE (1632).

William Oughtred is commonly credited with inventing the earliest version of the slide rule, two parallel logarithmic scales that one could slide in relation to each other to conduct advanced calculations easily and quickly. Oughtred improved upon the design of a more basic model developed by Edmund Gunter as well as earliest conceptions by Galileo Galilei and John Napier.

LAW OF FALLING BODIES (1634).

For at least two thousand years, the Aristotelian consensus held that heavier bodies fall faster than lighter ones, until Galileo devised several ingenious experiments and formulated a mathematical equation to describe what we now call uniform acceleration. While several observational accounts predate Galileo's work, his account was the first definitive proof.

a.n.a.lYTIC GEOMETRY (1637).

French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes invented the system now known as a.n.a.lytic geometry as a way to express geometric shapes and properties with a coordinate system. By translating geometric structures, both two and three dimensional, into numerical representations, mathematicians could study and investigate them algebraically. a.n.a.lytic geometry would later form one of the foundations of Isaac Newton's development of calculus.

BAROMETER (1643).

The barometer, a device designed to measure air pressure, grew out of Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli's efforts to aid his mentor, Galileo, in an attempt to help miners pump water out of wells. While working with mercury, a heavier liquid than water, Torricelli discovered that variations in the height of mercury trapped in a tube from day to day were due to changes in the air's atmosphere. However, historians speculate that mathematician Gasparo Berti may have unwittingly invented a barometer a few years earlier.

MECHANICAL CALCULATOR (1645).

French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal invented what is now called Pascal's Calculator, one of the most important precursors to the modern calculator, a device that could add and subtract through the use of spinning metal wheels stamped with numbers 0 through 9. While Pascal was the first to present his fully functioning invention to the public, a similar device had been conceived and developed by German Wilhelm Schickard, based on work by John Napier.

VACUUM PUMP (1654).

Like the barometer, the vacuum pump grew out of scientists' efforts to improve upon the capabilities of a suction pump. Through a series of experiments, Otto von Guericke discovered that it was possible to extract air or water from a sealed container, creating a vacuum. He demonstrated this principle before Emperor Ferdinand III by showing that two horses could not pull apart two bowls between which a vacuum had been created. Von Guericke drew on the work of Evangelista Torricelli, and his own work was improved upon by Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke.

PENDULUM CLOCK (1656).

Once again building on the ideas of Galileo, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens invented the most accurate clock to date by utilizing the regular oscillations of a weighted pendulum, regulated slightly by a mechanical device.

BALANCE SPRING WATCHES (1660).

Vastly improving upon the accuracy of earlier timepieces, a balance spring mechanism controlled the speed of the separate pieces of a watch with the help of a regulator, which ensured that the whole mechanism remained as consistent as possible. Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens are both credited with the invention-Thomas Tompion engineered the most effective regulator of the time around 1680.

BOYLE'S LAW (1662) Boyle's law, developed by scientist Robert Boyle, states that given a fixed temperature and a closed system, the pressure and volume of gas will remain inversely proportionate; i.e., as one decreases, the other increases, in proportionate degrees. Boyle's a.s.sistant Robert Hooke a.s.sisted in the discovery of this law. French chemist Edme Mariotte discovered the same principle at roughly the same time, but Boyle published it first.

LIGHT SPECTRUM (1665).

Correcting earlier views that prisms colored light, Sir Isaac Newton demonstrated through a series of experiments that a ray of sunlight, shined through a prism, contained colors and was not colored by the prism, which only split the ray into its const.i.tuent parts. By isolating one color expressed by a prism, and shining it through yet another prism, Newton showed that the color remained consistent, and that the prism did not affect the shade.

MICROORGANISMS (1674--1680).

Thanks in part to his own improvements to the technology of the microscope, the Dutch scientist Antoni Philips van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to directly observe single-celled organisms, called "animalcules" at the time.

SPEED OF LIGHT (FIRST QUANt.i.tATIVE MEASURE) (1676).

While Galileo had been able to establish that light traveled faster than sound, Danish astronomer Olaus Roemer, trying to account for disparities in his observations of eclipses, realized that the culprit was the amount of time light took to travel through s.p.a.ce. By dint of advanced astronomical calculations, Roemer was able to approximate a speed of light not far off from modern estimates.

HOOKE'S LAW (1676) Otherwise known as the law of elasticity, English scientist Robert Hooke discovered that the displacement or deformation of an object was proportionate to the amount of force exerted upon it-in other words, a spring stretches in proportionate amount to the degree of stress placed on it, before resuming its original shape.

PRESSURE COOKER (1679).

French physicist Denis Papin invented what he termed a steam digester-a sealed device containing liquid, which, when heated, created pressure within the closed unit, therefore raising the boiling point of the liquid, allowing for faster cooking times.

CALCULUS (1684, 1693).

Though the principles of modern calculus had been noted through the centuries, most historians credit Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with systematizing the methods and principles on a larger scale than had ever before been accomplished. Broadly described as a branch of mathematics that explains the principles of physics, Newton and Leibniz both lay claim to its invention, though history has since shown that both mathematicians arrived at many of the same conclusions independently, though with different systems of notation.

LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION (1686).

While the story of Newton's apple may be the canonical example of private inspiration, the actual origins of the law are much murkier, including a famous battle between Robert Hooke and Newton over who first noted the inverse square relationship that governed the gravitational attraction between two objects.

THREE LAWS OF MOTION AND ORBITS OF COMETS (1687, 1705).

Newton's three laws of motion were first published in his groundbreaking Philosophioe Naturalis Principia Mathematica Philosophioe Naturalis Principia Mathematica in July 1687. Newton's friend and publisher, Edmund Halley, would then rely on those laws in producing the first accurate prediction of a comet's...o...b..t around the earth. in July 1687. Newton's friend and publisher, Edmund Halley, would then rely on those laws in producing the first accurate prediction of a comet's...o...b..t around the earth.

PIANO (1700S).

Employed by the Medici court, Bartolomeo Cristofori sought to improve upon the harpsichord and clavichord by creating a similar instrument that would allow the player both expressive control and a larger spectrum of volume. He called it a "pianoforte," which has since been shortened to "piano."

TUNING FORK (1711).

Designed by the British musician John Sh.o.r.e, the tuning fork, or "pitch-fork," produced a very pure tone by which instruments could be accurately tuned.

STEAM ENGINE (1712).

Expanding upon the earlier, more primitive inventions of Denis Papin and Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen, an English blacksmith, utilized atmospheric pressure to propel a piston upward and downward by condensing steam, allowing an engine to pump water out of wells. It was the first commercially successful device of its kind.

MERCURY THERMOMETER (1714).

While crude thermometers were conceived by both Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first fully functioning mercury thermometer: a gla.s.s tube containing mercury that registered temperature according to the degree of heat applied to it, demarcating both the boiling and freezing temperatures of water.

OCTANT (1730).

Invented at about the same time but independently by Thomas G.o.dfrey and John Hadley, the octant was a navigational device that spanned 45 degrees and, with the help of attached mirrors and a small telescope, could allow sailors to orient themselves at sea.

FLYING SHUTTLE (1733).

An invention that helped spur the Industrial Revolution, the flying shuttle was a device that sped up the process of weaving with a loom and required less manpower. The device did not become widely used until after inventor John Kay's death.

LINNEAN TAXONOMY (1735).

While the modern taxonomic scheme for organizing life still bears the name of the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus, his model built on cla.s.sificatory systems that had been evolving for hundreds of years. But Linnaeus did make several essential additions, most importantly the practice of naming each organism using a binomial structure, as in h.o.m.o sapiens. h.o.m.o sapiens.

CHRONOMETER (1735).

Though countless versions of a chronometer had been developed since the early sixteenth century, the most fully realized device was created by the carpenter Thomas Harrison. The chronometer allowed navigators at sea to determine longitude and lat.i.tude by providing an accurate representation of time at a particular location.

LIGHTNING ROD (1750).

Ben Franklin first proposed the idea of a lightning rod in a letter written in 1750, and his descriptions were ultimately translated into French. The first test of Franklin's theoretical design was actually implemented in France in 1752.

SPINNING JENNY (1764).

A longstanding debate questions whether James Hargreaves was the true inventor of the spinning jenny, a machine that greatly improved the efficiency of the cotton industry. Some evidence suggests that Hargreaves was merely improving the design of an artisan named Thomas Highs. What is clear is that the Hargreaves design was greatly improved upon in the years following the production of his first model by weavers throughout Northern England.

CARBONATED WATER (1767).

Clergyman Joseph Priestley discovered that by charging water artificially with carbon dioxide, he could create an effervescent beverage, known today as seltzer. Though Priestley never capitalized on the business opportunities, many inventors after him did.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS (1770--1800).

Most commonly a.s.sociated with the Austrian physician Jan Ingenhousz, the mechanism of photosynthesis was uncovered piece by piece over a thirty-year period, starting in 1770 with a series of experiments and essays written by Joseph Priestley. The cycle of carbon dioxide consumption and oxygen release, triggered by sunlight, wasn't fully formulated until the mid-1790s by the Swiss naturalist Jean Senebier.

PLANT RESPIRATION (1772-1773) While Joseph Priestley is conventionally a.s.sociated with the isolation of oxygen, he deserves more recognition for his discovery of plant respiration, circa 1773, which he collaborated on via post with his good friend Benjamin Franklin.

OXYGEN (1772--1776).

One of the great stories of scientific collaboration and rivalry, oxygen was isolated by three scientists in the mid-1770s: the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele; the British polymath Joseph Priestley, who named it "dephlogisticated air," after the reigning, and inaccurate, theory of phlogiston; and Antoine Lavoisier, who gave the element its name.

BIFOCALS (CIRCA 1780).

While the exact date of his invention in unclear, by the mid-1780s, Benjamin Franklin was writing to friends about how happy he was with his "invention of double spectacles, which serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as they ever were."

STEAMBOAT (1780--1810).

Robert Fulton is conventionally heralded as the inventor of the steamboat, but in fact Fulton was merely the first to turn the steamboat into a commercial success. A number of working steamboats had been built by engineers like John Fitch and James Rumsey over the preceding two decades.

MANNED HOT AIR BALLOON (1783).

While hot air balloons date back to first-century A.D. Chinese culture, the first manned flight was designed by the French entrepreneurs Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier.

MILKY WAY (1785).

Many astronomers and scientists, including Abu Rayhan al-Brun and Galileo, contributed to the notion of the Milky Way as a collection of stars, but the first attempt to map the shape of the Milky Way was executed by William Herschel and his sister Caroline in 1785.

POWER LOOM AND COTTON GIN (1785, 1793).

The English clergyman Edmund Cartwright patented a power loom design in 1785, but, like Eli Whitney's cotton gin, the device relied on many subsequent improvements by other engineers for it to revolutionize the textile industry.

SMALLPOX VACCINE (1796).

The process of inoculating humans with small doses of the smallpox virus, usually using scabs from the skin of a victim, was practiced widely through China, Persia, and Africa after 1500. But the British scientist Edward Jenner was the first to design a vaccine based on a related cowpox virus that produced immunity to smallpox with much lower mortality.

LITHOGRAPHY (1796).

A playwright, Alois Senefelder struggled to find a way to distribute his writings cheaply-he eventually discovered that he could etch on a copper plate with acid and a needle. He improved this method, using the same fundamental idea, and called it "stone printing," which soon spread throughout Europe and the United States.

ELECTRIC BATTERY (1800).

The Italian count Alessandro Volta created the first battery out of zinc and copper discs, inspired by an argument with his peer Luigi Galvani, who believed that electricity emerged out of animal tissue.

ATOMIC THEORY (1800--1810).

While it drew heavily from the revolution in chemistry spearheaded by Antoine Lavoisier, the first rigorous argument that elements were made up of unique atoms of a distinct character was put forth by the English chemist John Dalton the first decade of the nineteenth century.

MOLECULES (1800--1810).

The notion that atoms form larger compound units, the most elemental of which is a molecule, was first formulated in the decades around 1800, and drew upon the related theories of the French chemist Joseph Proust, John Dalton, and the Italian count Avogadro.

SUSPENSION BRIDGE (1800--1830).