Inventions that continue to rock our world…
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922)
“Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!” A.G. Bell
Bell later said that if he had understood electricity at all, he would have been too discouraged to invent the telephone. Everyone else “knew” it was impossible to send voice signals over a wire.
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943)
“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” Nikola Tesla
The Tesla coil and an alternating-current system are chief among Nikola Tesla’s contributions to the fabric of modern science. The Tesla coil invented in 1891 is used in radios, television sets, and a wide range of other electronic equipment. Tesla’s alternating current system was used by Westinghouse in 1893 to light the World’s Exposition in Chicago.
Nikola Tesla was an under-rated genius. Known as the ‘wild man of electronics’ he died alone and destitute in a shabby hotel room, yet we remember him today in almost everything we do. We have him to thank for many of our most treasured creature comforts.
“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” Nikola Tesla
Henry Ford (1863–1947)
In 1911 Ford patented a transmission mechanism, but perhaps his greatest contribution to innovation is the modern day assembly line which heralded the dawn of the Motor Age and made car ownership a reality for the masses.
“I will build a car for the great multitude” Henry Ford
Thomas Edison (1847–1931)
The “Wizard of Menlo Park” and one of the most prolific inventors in history. He holds over 1000 U.S. patents in his name, but perhaps the most famous of his inventions was the incandescent light bulb.
“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles” Thomas Edison
The Wright Brothers, Wilbur Wright (1867–1912) and Orville Wright (1871–1948)
Working essentially alone and with little formal scientific training, these two brothers solved the problem of heavier-than-air flight, a puzzle that had confounded the whole of mankind for countless centuries.
When the Wright Brothers sent their patent application in for their flying machine, the patent office refused it. They declined the application saying, the plans were inadequate and the machine could never fly. To build a flying machine, declared one editorial, would require "the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians from one million to ten million years."
“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.” Orville Wright
"Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought."
-- Alexander Graham Bell
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