In 1593, when Galileo Galilei invented a basic water thermometer the device was called a thermoscope. His thermoscope and the ones that followed were not standardized in the liquid or the scale for telling the temperature. These simple devices mainly indicated a temperature increase or decrease, but no one was sure by how much. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was a German physicist who changed the way the world viewed temperature.
In 1709, Fahrenheit invented an alcohol thermometer. Then in 1714, he improved on this invention with the introduction of the mercury thermometer. Fahrenheit decided to use mercury after a series of experiments. Mercury expanded uniformly at temperatures ranging from negative 40 to 626 degrees. Fahrenheit also changed the design of thermometers. Previously, thermometers were spherical. A tiny glass bulb held the mercury which rose through a long, cylindrical neck. Continue reading “Hot In Here – Invention of the Thermometer”
The benefits of sunscreen have been known for thousands of years. Even the Greeks used a mixture of sand and oil to attempt to protect themselves from the sun while training for the Olympics. Christopher Columbus was the first to write about the use of sunscreen. Columbus wrote in his journal while visiting an island in the Caribbean that the people of the island “all paint themselves, some black, some other colors, but mostly red. I have learned that they do this on account of the sun, which does not injure them as much if they are painted.”
People attempted for decades to design a properly functioning sewing machine. There were many machines designed and patented which simply did not work. Then in 1830, Barthelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, developed a successful model. This machine caused fear and outrage among tailors in France. Afraid that they would lose their livelihoods to this invention, a group of tailors destroyed the plant where Thimonnier was producing his sewing machine.
The first passenger elevator was designed for France’s King Louis XV for his personal chambers in Versailles in 1743. Called the “Flying Chair” the elevator only went one floor, connecting the king’s chambers to his mistresses’ on the second floor of the palace. The king entered his elevator through his balcony and a arrangement of weights and pulleys hanging inside a chimney were pulled to raise or lower the chair.
Genericized trademarks are words that used to be brand names but have become ingrained in common speech as a way to refer to all brands of a single product, not just the brand or service of the original trademark holder. A trademark often becomes genericized when one company dominates the market for a single product or is the original manufacturer of a new product. The use of a trademark as a verb will also led to the term becoming generic. 
Polio was once a disease feared each summer by parents and children living in cities throughout the world. Epidemics of the disease were reported during the summer season starting in 1910. The polio epidemic of the summer of 1952 was the worst in the history of the United States. About fifty-eight thousand cases were reported with 3,145 deaths and 21,269 children left with some level of paralysis. Luckily, research was being done to develop a vaccine for this children’s illness.
The first thermoplastic was exhibited in 1862 at the London International Exhibition. Parkesine was invented in 1855 in London by Alexander Parkes. Parkesine was an organic material made by dissolving cellulose nitrate in solvent. The material could supposedly do everything that rubber could do only it was cheaper. In 1866, Parkes formed the Parkesine Company to produce his plastic. It was not a commercial success though because it was expensive, easily cracked and highly flammable.