Inventors
Early Inventors...
James Watto Born near Glasgow, in 1736.
o He began his career looking at simple designs and fixing or correcting steam engines. However, as he was studying the designs, he started to think about his own steam engine and how it could be better. He wanted to have the people marvel at much more faster and stronger he had made the steam engine compared to the ones that were more simpler and less complex(1). o He soon came up with his own invention and created the term horse power. He played around with the idea of a better, more efficient steam engine for many years and one day it just came to him (1). o All of "Watts major inventions involved motion and the desire to control it and create it with as little energy as possible." And with the help of a few other designers, he was able to accomplish this goal! (1) |
Robert Fultono (1765-1815)
o Fulton was artist and designer however he didn’t ever have much luck with designing and drawing the canals and machines through his artwork and therefore later on he decided to change his "career."(1) o He decided to turn to steamboats and not necessarily create a brand new steamboat but gather from many different sources to create a new one that would be much better. “In fact, Fulton tried as much as possible to use already available ideas and components. His goal was to design a successful steamboat, not to make a new one (1).” This was true for many inventors of the day to combine related work and make one accumulative invention. o He was finally able to create a new steamboat that was faster and then was able to create a patent for it! His patents would be riddled with formulas and specifics on how exactly to create his elite steamboat (1). |
Across the Continent
J. Edgar Thomson
o (1808-1874)
o Began as a civil engineer, surveying railroad lines and then was continuously bumped up based on his ability to configure and manipulate the railroad for the good of the company (1). o He created an empire with railroads stretching thousands of miles and was even considered a top businessman, running with some of the biggest business tycoons during the industrial Revolution (1) . o He then moved on to managing railroads and overseeing their construction and was able to “cut costs while maintaining high-quality, reliable service and, best of all, ‘No scandal touched this man.’” (1) |
Samuel Finley Breese Morseo (1791-1872)
o Originally he wanted to be a painter and actually became what is assumed to be one of the more prominent US artists of his day. This can also be compare to Robert Fulton because he wanted to be a designer and a painter but chose to go down a different path. (1) o Stemming from other inventors ideas and experiments, Morse was the first person to create the primary telegraph. It was a basic design that changed the face of American because it got the people of America to communicate with ease. (1) o From his success with creating the first telegraph , Western Union Telegraph Company was established and then he patented the telegraph. (1) o He is coined to have created the “First modern information system.” (1) |
Andrew Carnegie
o (1835-1919)
o “No one personified the transformation of the United States more completely than Andrew Carnegie.” Most people who aren't history buffs, may only know of the correlation between Carnegie and steel or Carnegie Hall; however, he established so much more than those two things (1). o Carnegie began work in small textile mills at an early age and then became involved with the new engineering marvel, the telegraph and then later the railroad. He dabbled in these two amazing inventions just for while to get an intellectual knowledge on their processes and then moved on to bigger and better things (1) . o He began to play the stock market where through the years he would learn to outsmart some the world’s largest tycoon leaders because of his background in the mechanics of machinery. When buying and choosing his stock, without that knowledge of how the machines worked, he would have never of been as successful (1). o Soon after he became incredibility successful with the railroad he gained a new interest in constructing bridges and steel manufacturing. It would be because of Henry Bessemer that Carnegie would help raise the status of steel to a monumental level and would revolutionize America in the terms of construction (1) . |
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Henry Bessemero (1813-1898)
o His father was a skilled machinist with metal and other inventions and with the help and knowledge of his father, Henry Bessemer started to play around with different metals to try and create a stronger mixed version of metals (1). o Bessemer was most famous for creating iron into steel aka the Bessemer Process (1). o Throughout his life he created and patented over 25 different items. But his most celebrated invention would always be because of his invention concerning steel (1) . |
Thomas Edisono Was born in Milan Ohio in 1847.
o Like Carnegie who grew up with nothing, Edison began work as a young child around mills and factories and later on he became interested in the telegraph (1) . o He started his career with telegraphs but would then move off into the laboratory creating multiple inventions on a smaller scale that would give him some success but nothing like his later inventions.(1) o He first envisioned a “distribution line and a central power plant. He even gave an interview with the New York Sun on October 20th, 1878, in which he described his system before he had even worked out its design. “ (1) o From all of his designs and ideas that he had invented over the years, he would go to eventually create the light bulb. Then he began to work on his lamp that he wanted to create a network of lamps with direct current involved. After this immense success Edison wanted to move onto something bigger and was wanting to create a power plant.(1) o "The world's first central electricity-generating power plant for incandescent lighting not only illustrates Edison's systematic approach and attention to details but also shows his attention to competitive economics and the need for Wall Street backing." (1) o There would also be some dispute on over which current was better; Alternating or direct and it would eventually lead to Edison practicing horrific tactics that eventually led to his discrediting.(1) |
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