Technology

The inventions of the 18th and 19th century

During the 18th and 19th century, several important inventors created new technological and scientifical objects such as the electromagnet, the battery, the tin can, the raincoat, the thermometer and so on that had a great effect in society and also most of them in economy. In this project I have decided to describe five of the inventions of the 18th century and another five of them of the 19th century. In the 19th century I have decided to choose William Sturgeon, Alessandro Volta, Humphry Davy, Peter Durand and Charles Macintosh. In the 18th century I decided to choose Gabriel Fahrenheit, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek, Benjamin Franklin and finally John Kay. I will start explaining the inventions of the 19th century and later I will finish explaining the ones of the 18th century.

In the 19th century, William Sturgeon, a british electrical engineer and physicist that developed the first electromagnet which was a magnet created when electricity flows through a conductor. The magnectic fields goes around the conductor. The typical way electromagnets are built is to wrap many coils of wire around a ferromagnetic core which is usually made of iron. He invented the electromagnet in 1825, In the same year he also invented the first practical English electric motor.

In the same century, Alessandro Volta, an italian physic, chemist and Pioneer of electricity and power invented the batteryin the 1800. He also developed the Voltaire pile and discovered the first method that generated the electricity. The Voltaire pile was the first electrical battery that could continuously provide an electrical current to a circuit. It basically was a bettery cell that consisted in several metal disks, each one made of one of two dissimiliar metals arranged in alternating series and separated by pads with an electrolyte.

Additionally, Sir Humphry Davy was an english chemist that was very famous because he invented the first electricity light in 1809. Soon after the italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the electric pile, an early type of battery in 1800, Davy rushed into this new field and he realized that the production of electricity depended on a chemical reaction taking place. Humphry Davy became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1803 and served as its president from 1820 to 1827, seven years. He also created the baronet in 1818, among many, that he much enjoyed.

In 1810, Peter Durand, a British merchant made an impact on food preservation with his 1810 patenting of the tin can. In 1813, John Hall and Bryan Dorkin opened the first comercial canning Factory in England. Due to this great invention, it had a great effect in the economy. Later in 1846, Henry Evans invented a machine that could manufacture tin cans at a rate of sixty per hour. It was a significant increase over the previous rate of only six per hour. The first tin cans were so thick they had to be hammered open. As cans became thinner, it became posible to invent dedicated can openers. In 1858, Ezra Warner of Waterbury patented the first can opener. It was very useful for the military of the U.S that they used it during the Civil War.

Finally, the last inventor of the 19th century is Charles Macintosh, who was a Scottish chemist and was the inventor of the waterproof fabrics in 1823. He patented a method for making waterproof garments by using rubber disolved in coal-tar naphtha for cementing two pieces of cloth together. The now famous raincoat was named after it´s own inventor, Charles Macintosh. Macintosh raincoats were first made using the methods developed by Charles Macintosh.

We have already finish with the inventions and inventors of the 19th century. Now we will see the other inventions of the 18th century such as Gabriel Fahrenheit, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek, Benjamin Franklin and John Kay.

They were also very important because they made a great impact and effect in society and in the economy´s country.

In the 18th century, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was a German phisicist, engineer and glass blower that invented in 1709 the first alcohol thermometer and later in 1724 he invented the mercury thermometer. He is basically best known for inventing the mercury-in-glass thermometer and also for developing a temperatura scale now named after him. Gabriel Fahrenheit was also best known for inventing the Fahrenheit hydromometer.

In the same century, Bartolomeo Cristofori who was an italian maker of musical instruments that is regarded as the inventor of the piano in 1709. He was credited with the invention of the piano called in his time gravicembalo piano e forte or even harpsichord that plays soft and loud. The name refers to the piano´s ability to change loudness according to the amount of preassure, a quality foreign to the harpsichord.

The third inventor of these century was Anton Van Leeuwenhoek who was a Dutch microscopist who was the first to observe bacteria and protozoa in a microscopic. This observation helped lay the foundations for the sciences of bacteriology and protozoology. He invented the first practical microscope because he wanted to see and describe how the bacteria look like.

Benjamin Franklin developed the lightning rods in 1750. A lightning rod  is very simple, it is a pointed metal rod attached to the roof of a building normally or even of your house. It connects a huge place of copper or aluminum wire that is also an inch or so in diameter. The wire is connected to a conductive grid burried in the ground nearby. The system has the ability to handle the enormous electrical current related with the strike. If the strike contracts a material that isn´t a good conductor the material will suffer a big damage. The lightning rod system that invented years ago Benjamin Franklin is an excellent conductor that allows the current to flow to the gorund without causing any damage in the surface area.

Finally we are going to finish with John Kay in 1733 who invented the flying shuttle, an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster tan they did. The original shutter contained bobin on to which the weft yarn was wound. It was normally pushed from one side of the warp to the other side of the hand. Large looms were needed also two weavers to throw the shuttle. The flying shuttle was thrown by a leaver that could be operated by one weaver.