jarhedch wrote:
Oh, and by the way berserk, since you hate america so much, why don't you count all the things that america has done that has had influence in your life, be it good or bad, and get rid of it. Ie: your phone, electricity, computer, internet, freedom of speech, cheap fuel, pro-Israeli stance, etc. then, you can truly say you aren't a waste of space that tries to have his cake and it it too.
This is one reason people in the rest of the world don't like America, you(particular person, not all americans) think you invented Everything.
Electricity - Wasn't invented but discovered - Making it was invented - Many Nationalities were involved to create what we know today.
GreeksAround 600 BC
Greeks found that by rubbing an 'electron' (a hard Fossilised resin that today is known as Amber) against a fur cloth, it would attract particles of straw. This strange effect remained a mystery for over 2000 years, until, around
AD 1600, Dr William Gilbert (English)investigated the reactions of amber and magnets and first recorded the word 'Electric' in a report on the theory of magnetismBenjamin Franklin(in his own words)Franklin was an
American writer, publisher, scientist and diplomat, who helped to draw up the famous Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
In 1752 Franklin proved that lightning and the spark from amber were one and the same thing. The story of this famous milestone is a familiar one, in which Franklin fastened an iron spike to a silken kite, which he flew during a thunderstorm, while holding the end of the kite string by an iron key. When lightening flashed, a tiny spark jumped from the key to his wrist. The experiment proved Franklin's theory, but was extremely dangerous - He could easily have been killed.
Galvani and Volta In 1786, Luigi Galvani, an Italian professor of medicine, found that when the leg of a dead frog was touched by a metal knife, the leg twitched violently. Galvani thought that the muscles of the frog must contain electricity. By 1792 another
Italian scientist, Alessandro Volta, disagreed: he realised that the main factors in Galvani's discovery were the two different metals - the steel knife and the tin plate - apon which the frog was lying. Volta showed that when moisture comes between two different metals, electricity is created.
This led him to invent the first electric battery, the voltaic pile, which he made from thin sheets of copper and zinc separated by moist pasteboard. In this way, a new kind of electricity was discovered, electricity that flowed steadily like a current of water instead of discharging itself in a single spark or shock. Volta showed that electricity could be made to travel from one place to another by wire, thereby making an important contribution to the science of electricity. The unit of electrical potential, the Volt, is named after Volta.
Michael FaradayThe credit for generating electric current on a practical scale goes to the famous English scientist, Michael Faraday. Faraday was greatly interested in the invention of the electromagnet, but his brilliant mind took earlier experiments still further. If electricity could produce magnetism, why couldn't magnetism produce electricity. In 1831, Faraday found the solution. Electricity could be produced through magnetism by motion. He discovered that when a magnet was moved inside a coil of copper wire, a tiny electric current flows through the wire. Of course, by today's standards, Faraday's electric dynamo or electric generator was crude, and provided only a small electric current be he discovered the first method of generating electricity by means of motion in a magnetic field.
Thomas Edison and Joseph SwanNearly 40 years went by before a really practical DC (Direct Current) generator was built by Thomas Edison in
America. Edison's many inventions included the phonograph and an improved printing telegraph. In 1878 Joseph Swan, a
British scientist, invented the incandescent filament lamp and within twelve months Edison made a similar discovery in
America. Swan
and Edison later set up a joint company to produce the first practical filament lamp. Prior to this, electric lighting had been mere crude arc lamps. Edison used his DC generator to provide electricity to light his laboratory and later to illuminate the first New York street to be lit by electric lamps, in September 1882. Edison's successes were not without controversy, however - although he was convinced of the merits of DC for generating electricity, other scientists in Europe and America recognised that DC brought major disadvantages.
George Westinghouse and Nikola TeslaWestinghouse was a famous
American inventor and industrialist who purchased and developed Nikola Tesla's
(Crotian)patented motor for generating alternating current. The work of Westinghouse, Tesla and others gradually persuaded American society that the future lay with AC rather than DC (Adoption of AC generation enabled the transmission of large blocks of electrical, power using higher voltages via transformers, which would have been impossible otherwise). Today the unit of measurement for magnetic fields commemorates Tesla's name.
James WattWhen Edison's generator was coupled with Watt's steam engine, large scale electricity generation became a practical proposition. James Watt, the
Scottish inventor of the steam condensing engine, was born in 1736. His improvements to steam engines were patented over a period of 15 years, starting in 1769 and his name was given to the electric unit of power, the Watt. Watt's engines used the reciprocating piston, however, today's thermal power stations use steam turbines, following the Rankine cycle, worked out by another famous Scottish engineer, William J.M Rankine, in 1859.
Andre Ampere and George OhmAndre Marie Ampere, a
French mathematician who devoted himself to the study of electricity and magnetism, was the first to explain the electro-dynamic theory. A permanent memorial to Ampere is the use of his name for the unit of electric current. George Simon Ohm, a
German mathematician and physicist, was a college teacher in Cologne when in 1827 he published, "The galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically". His theories were coldly received by German scientists but his research was recognised in Britain and he was awarded the Copley Medal in 1841. His name has been given to the unit of electrical resistance.
And I know for certain that none of the components in my PC are "Made in America"
Telephone - again - Many Nations
Early development
The following is a brief summary of the history of the invention of the telephone:
1849: Antonio Meucci, an Italian living in Havana, demonstrates a device later called a telephone. (The demonstration involves direct electrical connections to people.)
1854 Charles Bourseul publishes a description of a make-break telephone transmitter and receiver but does not construct a working instrument.
1854 Meucci demonstrates an electric telephone in New York. [1]
1860 Johann Philipp Reis demonstrates a make-break transmitter after the design of Bourseul.
1860 Meucci supposedly demonstrates his telephone on Staten Island.
1861 Reis manages to transfer voice electrically over a distance of 340 feet, see Reis' telephone.
1871 Meucci files a patent caveat (a statement of intention to patent).
1872 Elisha Gray founds Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
July 1873 Thomas Alva Edison notes variable resistance in carbon grains due to pressure, but shelves the discovery.
1874 Gray demonstrates his liquid transmitter telephone at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
2 June 1875 Alexander Graham Bell first transmits voice.
1 July 1875 Bell first uses a bi-directional capable telephone (Both the transmitter and the receiver were identical membrane instruments.)
14 February 1876 Bell files his first patent on the telephone.
Two hours later Gray files his patent caveat.
30 January 1877 Alexndra Graham Bell (Scottish)patents the electro-dynamic transmitter, receiver telephone. ComputerThe abacus, a simple counting aid, may have been invented in
Babylonia (now Iraq) in the fourth century B.C
1936 Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer First freely programmable computer. German1942 John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry - ABC Computer Who was first in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC.
1944 Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper - Harvard Mark I Computer The Harvard Mark 1 computer.
1946 John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly - ENIAC 1 Computer 20,000 vacuum tubes later...
1948 Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn - Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories.
1947/48 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley - The Transistor No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers.
1951 John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly - UNIVAC Computer First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners.
1953 International Business Machines - IBM 701 EDPM Computer IBM enters into 'The History of Computers'.
1954 John Backus & IBM - FORTRAN Computer Programming Language The first successful high level programming language.
1955 (In Use 1959) - Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric
ERMA and MICR The first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks.
1958 Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce - The Integrated Circuit Otherwise known as 'The Chip'
1962 Steve Russell & MIT - Spacewar Computer Game The first computer game invented.
1964 Douglas Engelbart - Computer Mouse & Windows Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end.
1969 ARPAnet The original Internet. - 1970 Intel 1103 Computer Memory The world's first available dynamic RAM chip.
1971 Faggin, Hoff & Mazor - Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor The first microprocessor.
1971 Alan Shugart &IBM - The "Floppy" Disk Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.
1973 Robert Metcalfe & Xerox - The Ethernet Computer Networking Networking.
1974/75 Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers The first consumer computers.
1976/77 Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers More first consumer computers.
1978 Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston
VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner.
1979 Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby
WordStar Software Word Processors.
1981 IBM - The IBM PC - Home Computer From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution
1981 Microsoft - MS-DOS Computer Operating System From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century.
1983 Apple Lisa Computer The first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface.
1984 Apple Macintosh Computer The more affordable home computer with a GUI.
1985 Microsoft Windows Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple.
The World Wide Web (not to be confused with the internet)
Tim Berners-LeeThe British scientist, who lives in the US, , Dubbed the "Father of the Web", he came up with a system over 10 years ago to organise, link and browse internet pages.Not trying to Flame you, just look into who actually invented something before you claim it's American
Last edited by JonskyGBR (2006-02-06 20:12:03)