Famous Inventors and Inventions in the 20th Century

 

   Have you ever wondered who invented antennas for radio navigation systems?  Have you ever wondered who made the first carbon -filament bulb or wonder who discovered a cure for smallpox?  Well, you're in luck because this page has miscellaneous information about inventors in store for you.  Find out who made the first flying-machine, find out about famous African-American inventors who paved the way for other African-American inventors, and find out other facts about other famous inventors in the 20th Century!

   

Famous Women Inventors

     Madame Walker

     Born in 1867 and died in 1919

  She was  a St. Louis washerwoman and became the first African-American millionaire.  In 1905, Madame Walker invented a method that helped smooth and soften black women's hair.  She used curlers, pomades, hot combs, and brushes for this method.  A system called the "Walker Way" helped market the system by making house calls and by selling Walker's products from door to door.  The "Walker Way" spread all over the United States.  Madame Walker's greatest accomplishment was when she went to Paris and met Josephine Baker, a famous singer in the 1920's.  She adopted Walker's method and made her products an international fad.  Her work still lives on.

    Elizabeth Lee Hazen  

Born on August 24, 1885 and Died on June 24, 1975

Rachel Fuller Brown

Born on November 23, 1898 and Died on January 14, 1980                                                            

Founders of Nystatin

     Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown were the founders of Nystatin, an antibiotic that is derived from soil bacteria(actinomycte).

    Elizabeth Lee Hazen was born on August 24, 1885 in rural Mississippi .  She received a B.S. at the Mississippi State College for Women.  Later on, she served as an Army diagnostic laboratory technician during World War I.  After that, she won an advanced degree from Columbia University in bacteriology.  She became one of the first woman doctoral candidates.

    Rachel Fuller Brown was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on November 23, 1898.  She also had some success.   Brown received her undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College.  Later on,she urged other women to study science.

    They worked together as researchers for the New York State Department or Health.  The two of them shared tests and samples through U.S. mail.  Brown had the skill needed to characterize, identify, and purify bacteria, while Hazen had the determination to discover an antifungal antibiotic.

    The antibiotic that they had developed was named nystatin and was first introduced in particular form in 1954 following an approval from the Food and Drug Administration.  Nystatin was able to cure disabling and disfiguring infections of the mouth, throat, skin and intestinal organs.  It could also be combined with antibacterial drugs.

     Nystatin was the first antibiotic cream to be effective in treating fungal infections. They discovered the drug after six years of research. They were looking for a naturally occurring antifungal antibiotic. Nystatin was named after the New York State Department of Health. The drug was first sold in 1954 and called Mycostatin. The drug works in humans, poultry, elm trees and other plant products. Hazen was also the first researcher in North America to find the botulism toxin in canned seafood which had been the cause of deaths.

   Nystatin was a great success. Its uses were numerous.

African-American Inventor

Lewis Howard Latimer

1848-1928

    Lewis Howard Latimer was born in 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  He was one of the major African-American inventors.  Latimer improved Edison's light bulb and was thought to be the inventor of the telephone.  He was also known for his other inventions, like the first water closet, a forerunner of the air conditioner, and a toilet for railroad cars.

    Edison's light bulb was lit by an electrified filament made of paper.  Unfortunately,  the filament burnt out fast.  Latimer invented a new light bulb with a carbon filament and sold his patent for the "Incandescent ElectricLight Bulb with Carbon Filament" to the U.S. Electric Company in 1881.  He patented a method of producing the carbon filament in 1882.  Latimer also developed the new familiar threaded socket for his new light bulb. 

    In 1890, Lewis Latimer wrote the first book on electric lighting, the book was titled Incandescent Electric Lighting, and helped the installation of public electric lights throughout New York, Montreal, London, and Philadelphia.

    Latimer made several contributions to the technology of electric lighting. In 1881 he co-patented a method for connecting the metal wires in the bottom of an incandescent bulb to the carbon filament which is what glows when it is heated. He also invented a way of making long-lasting carbon filaments. Before his invention, filaments were made of paper. Latimer also co-invented a globe supporter for electric light bulbs. Latimer supervised the installation of lighting systems in New York City, Philadelphia, Montreal and London. He also set up a factory in London for the production of light bulbs. He had to teach the workers everything about making the light bulbs, including glassblowing. Lewis Howard Latimer was the only African-American member of the Edison Pioneers. The Edison Pioneers were a group of electrical engineers and inventors who worked with Thomas Alva Edison.

    Latimer died in 1928.   He made possible the wide spread use of electric light.   

 

 

Other Inventors

Wright Brothers

Orville Wright

Born August 19, 1871 - Died on January 30, 1948

Wilbur Wright

Born on April 16, 1867 - Died on May 30, 1912

    Orville and Wilbur Wright were aviation pioneers and the inventors of the first flying machine.

    Wilbur was born in Millville, Indiana and Orville was born in Dayton, Ohio.  They were both the sons of a bishop of the Evangelical United Brethren Church.  Wilbur and Orville took and completed high school courses, but neither of them graduated formally.

    The Wright brothers opened a shop for the sale, repair, and manufacture of bicycles in 1893.

    Wilbur first became interested in the idea of flight after reading the successful experiments of Otto Lilienthal in Germany. The Wrights built their first machine in 1899 from these studies.   The machine was a biplane kite which they had fitted with wings that was able to mechanically twist.  They flew three biplane gliders at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. They decided to master gliding before trying a powered flight.

    On December 7, 1903, the Wright brothers finished their first powered machine at Kitty Hawk and made history's first powered, sustained and controlled airplane flights. It was history in the making.

    In 1908,  the Wright brothers were able to make an agreement for manufacture of the airplane for the U.S. Army.  The first public flight was made by Wilbur in France on August 8, 1908 and continued his flight exhibitions there to the end of the year.The Wright brothers' passion for aviation still lives on.

    Their first aircraft that they invented was named the Flyer. The airplane was known as heavier-than-air flying machine. It had a lightweight (337 kg, or 750 lb), powerful engine, efficient propellers, an effective steering system and a strong and lightweight wing and body structure. The first flight went a distance of 120 feet. Their fourth flight covered 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds. In 1905 the Wrights made a plane that could bank, turn, circle and make figure eights. It could stay in the air for as long as the fuel lasted, sometimes up to a half an hour.

 

   

 

Andrew Alford

 

 

Andrew Alford was the inventor and developer of antennas for radio navigation systems, VOR, and the inventor of instrument landing systems that featured the ‘Alford Loop’.

Andrew Alford was born in Samara, Russia on August 5, 1904. Alford graduated from the University of California with an A.B. in 1924 and received the honorary title of D.S. in 1975 from Ohio University.

In 1927-1928, Alford worked on the sound lab staff at California Institute of Technology. From 1929 to 1931, he did engineering work for Fox Film Corporation. Alford was the head of the Air Navigation Lab and the head of International Telegraph Development Corporation from 1938 to 1941. In 1943 to 1945, he was employed by the Harvard University Radio Research Lab. He later founded the Alford Manufacturing Company.

 

 

Charles Martin Hall

 

Manufacturer of Aluminum

 

    Charles Martin Hall was the discoverer of the electrolytic method of manufacturing aluminum.

    Charles Martin Hall was born on December 6, 1863, in Thompson, Ohio. He was a student at Oberlin Ohio College when he became interested in making aluminum inexpensively, and graduated in 1885. Hall continued to use the college laboratory after his graduation and discovered his method of producing aluminum eight months later. The support of Alford E. Hunt and a few of his friends helped him obtain the interest of his financial backers. Together, they formed the Pittsburgh Reduction Company and was later called the Aluminum Company of America. In 1890, Hall became the vice-president of the company.

    Charles Hall invented a method for extracting pure aluminum from its ore. Hall founded an industry that contributed to many other aluminum industries, mostly the manufacture of automobiles and aircraft.

    In 1914, the cost of aluminum was 18 cents per pound because of Hall’s process. Aluminum is now inexpensive enough for everyday packaging. If it wasn’t for Hall, aluminum wouldn’t have been so useful.

     Aluminum is a strong, lightweight, non-tarnishing metal. Aluminum doesn’t exist as a pure metal. Before Hall, it was created from other compounds by a lot of chemical processes. It was difficult and expensive to make so there wasn’t very much of it. Aluminum is still made with the method developed by Hall.

 

 

Henry Ford

Builder of Cars

 

    Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, near Dearborn, Michigan. Ford built his first car in a little shed behind his home. The vehicle had a two-cylinder engine over the rear axle that developed four horsepower, a single seat fitted in a box-like body, an electric bell for a horn, and a steering level instead of a wheel. Ford helped organize the Detroit Automobile Company that built cars to order in 1899.

    In 1903, Ford coordinated the Ford Motor Company with only $28,000 raised in cash. The money came from 11 other stockholders. Early automobile manufacturers merely bought automobile parts and assembled the cars. Ford was trying to make every part that went into his cars. He acquired forests, mills, iron and coal mines, and factories to produce and shape his steel and alloys. He built railroad and steamship lines and an airplane freight service in order to transport his products.

    Ford’s main idea was mass production, he replaced men with machines wherever possible. Conveyers brought the job to the man instead of having the man waste time going to the job. Parts were shipped from the main plants in the Detroit area and assembled into cars at branch plants to cut shipping costs.

    Ford won fame as a philanthropist and a pacifist. He instituted an eight–hour day, a minimum wage of $5 daily , and a five-day week. He built a hospital in Detroit with fixed rates for service and put physicians and nurses on salary. He made the Edison Institute, which includes Greenfield Village and the Edison Institute Museum and trade schools. During World War I, Ford headed a party of pacifists to Norway in a failed attempt to end the war, but during both World War I and World War II his company was a major producer of war materials.

    In 1945, Ford yielded the presidency of the company to his 28-year-old grandson, Henry Ford II. Ford died on April 7, 1947, at the age of 83. Most of his personal estate, valued at about $205,000,000, was left to the Ford Foundation, one of the world’s largest public trusts.

    Henry Ford was best known for pioneering achievements in the automobile industry. He used standardized interchangeable parts and assembly-lines in his car factory. He didn’t invent these techniques, but used them more than others.

 

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