Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20Th Century
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A Century of Innovation, by George Constable and Bob Somerville http://www.greatachievements.org/ Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century Timeline 1900 Telephone transmission extends across and between major cities As telephone transmission extends across and between major cities, “loading coils” or inductors are placed along the lines to reduce distortion and attenuation or the loss of a signal’s power. Independently invented by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company’s (AT&T) George Campbell and Michael Pupin of Columbia University, the loading coils are first used commercially in New York and Boston, nearly doubling the transmission distance of open lines. Pupin is awarded the patent for the device in 1904, and AT&T pays him for its use. 1900 Kodak Brownie camera Eastman introduces the Kodak Brownie camera. Named after popular children’s book characters, it sells for $1 and uses film that sells for 15¢ a roll. For the first time, photography is inexpensive and accessible to anyone who wants to take “snapshots.” In the first year 150,000 cameras are sold, and many of the first owners are children. In the course of its long production life, the Brownie has more than 175 models; the last one is marketed as late as 1980 in England. 1900 Sanitary and Ship Canal opens in Chicago In Chicago the Main Channel of the Sanitary and Ship Canal opens, reversing the flow of the Chicago River. The 28-mile, 24-foot-deep, 160-foot-wide drainage canal, built between Chicago and the town of Lockport, Illinois, is designed to bring in water from Lake Michigan to dilute sewage dumped into the river from houses, farms, stockyards, and other industries. Directed by Rudolph Hering, chief engineer of the Commission on Drainage and Water Supply, the project is the largest municipal earth-moving project of the time. 1900 Tesla granted a U.S. patent Nikola Tesla is granted a U.S. patent for a “system of transmitting electrical energy” and another patent for “an electrical transmitter”—both the products of his years of development in transmitting and receiving radio signals. These patents would be challenged and upheld (1903), reversed (1904), and finally restored (1943). 1901 The telescope shock absorber developed C. L. Horock designs the “telescope” shock absorber, using a piston and cylinder fitted inside a metal sleeve, with a one-way valve built into the piston. As air or oil moves through the valve into the cylinder, the piston moves freely in one direction but is resisted in the other direction by the air or oil. The result is a smoother ride and less lingering bounce. The telescope shock absorber is still used today. 1901 North America’s first oil gusher North America’s first oil gusher blows at the Spindletop field near Beaumont in southeastern Texas, spraying more than 800,000 barrels of crude into the air before it can be brought under control. The strike boosts the yearly oil output in the United States from 2,000 barrels in 1859 to more than 65 million barrels by 1901. 1901 First successful flying model propelled by an internal combustion engine Samuel Pierpont Langley builds a gasoline-powered version of his tandem-winged “Aerodromes.” the first successful flying model to be propelled by an internal combustion engine. As early as 1896 he launches steam-propelled models with wingspans of up to 15 feet on flights of more than half a mile. 1901 Olds automobile factory starts production The Olds automobile factory starts production in Detroit. Ransom E. Olds contracts with outside companies for parts, thus helping to originate mass production techniques. Olds produces 425 cars in its first year of operation, introducing the three-horsepower “curved-dash” Oldsmobile at $650. The car is a success; Olds is selling 5,000 units a year by 1905. 1901 Marconi picks up the first transatlantic radio signal Guglielmo Marconi, waiting at a wireless receiver in St. John’s, Newfoundland, picks up the first transatlantic radio signal, transmitted some 2,000 miles from a Marconi station in Cornwall, England. To send the signal—the three dots of the Morse letter “s”—Marconi’s engineers send a copper wire aerial skyward by hoisting it with a kite. Marconi builds a booming business using radio as a new way to send Morse code. 1901 Engine-powered vacuum cleaner British civil engineer H. Cecil Booth patents a vacuum cleaner powered by an engine and mounted on a horse-drawn cart. Teams of operators would reel the hoses into buildings to be cleaned. 1902 First office building with an air-conditioning system installed The Armour Building in Kansas City, Missouri, becomes the first office building to install an air-conditioning system. Each room is individually controlled with a thermostat that operates dampers in the ductwork, making it also the first office building to incorporate individual “zone” control of separate rooms. 1902 First U.S. factory for tractors driven by an internal combustion engine Charles Hart and Charles Parr establish the first U.S. factory devoted to manufacturing a traction engine powered by an internal combustion engine. Smaller and lighter than its steam-driven predecessors, it runs all day on one tank of fuel. Hart and Parr are credited with coining the term “tractor” for the traction engine. 1902 Standard drum brakes are invented Standard drum brakes are invented by Louis Renault. His brakes work by using a cam to force apart two hinged shoes. Drum brakes are improved in many ways over the years, but the basic principle remains in cars for the entire 20th century; even with the advent of disk brakes in the 1970s, drum brakes remain the standard for rear wheels. 1902 Comfort cooling system installed at the New York Stock Exchange A 300-ton comfort cooling system designed by Alfred Wolff is installed at the New York Stock Exchange. Using free cooling provided by waste-steam-operated refrigeration systems, Wolff’s system functions successfully for 20 years. 1903 First electrocardiograph machine Dutch physician and physiologist Willem Einthoven develops the first electrocardiograph machine, a simple, thin, lightweight quartz “string” galvanometer, suspended in a magnetic field and capable of measuring small changes in electrical potential as the heart contracts and relaxes. After attaching electrodes to both arms and the left leg of his patient, Einthoven is able to record the heart’s wave patterns as the string deflects, obstructing a beam of light whose shadow is then recorded on a photographic plate or paper. In 1924 Einthoven is awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery. 1903 Lightweight electric iron introduced Earl Richardson of Ontario, California, introduces the lightweight electric iron. After complaints from customers that it overheated in the center, Richardson makes an iron with more heat in the point, useful for pressing around buttonholes and ruffles. Soon his customers are clamoring for the “iron with the hot point”—and in 1905 Richardson’s trademark iron is born. 1903 First sustained flight with a powered, controlled airplane Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, complete the first four sustained flights with a powered, controlled airplane at Kill Devil Hills, 4 miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On their best flight of the day, Wilbur covers 852 feet over the ground in 59 seconds. In 1905 they introduce the Flyer, the world’s first practical airplane. 1903 Paper mathematically demonstrates liftoff with liquid fuels Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishes a paper in Russia that mathematically demonstrates how to achieve liftoff with liquid fuels. He also proposes using multistage rockets, which would be jettisoned as they spent their fuel, and guidance systems using gyroscopes and movable vanes positioned in the exhaust stream. His formulas for adjusting a spacecraft’s direction and speed to place it in any given orbit are still in use today. 1903 Steam Turbine Generator The steam turbine generator invented by Charles G. Curtis and developed into a practical steam turbine by William Le Roy Emmet is a significant advance in the capacity of steam turbines. Requiring one-tenth the space and weighing one-eighth as much as reciprocating engines of comparable output, it generates 5,000 kilowatts and is the most powerful plant in the world. 1904 Fleming invents the two-electrode radio rectifier, or vacuum diode British engineer Sir John Ambrose Fleming invents the two-electrode radio rectifier, or vacuum diode, which he calls an oscillation valve. Based on Edison’s lightbulbs, the valve reliably detects radio waves. Transcontinental telephone service becomes possible with Lee De Forest’s 1907 patent of the triode, or three-element vacuum tube, which electronically amplifies signals. 1904 First crawler tractor with tracks rather than wheels Benjamin Holt, a California manufacturer of agricultural equipment, develops the first successful crawler tractor, equipped with a pair of tracks rather than wheels. Dubbed the “caterpillar” tread, the tracks help keep heavy tractors from sinking in soft soil and are the inspiration for the first military tanks. The 1904 version is powered by steam; a gasoline engine is incorporated in 1906. The Caterpillar Tractor Company is formed in 1925, in a merger of the Holt Manufacturing Company and its rival, the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company. 1904 A self-contained mechanical refrigerator is displayed at the St. Louis World’s Fair A self-contained mechanical refrigerator is displayed at the St. Louis World’s Fair by Brunswick Refrigerating Co., which specializes in designing small refrigerators for residences and butcher shops. The ammonia refrigerating system is mounted on the side of a wooden icebox-type refrigerator. Thousands of attendees at the World’s Fair also experience the public debut of air conditioning in the Missouri State Building.