The Impact of Science and Technology on Society

  • Hot Air Balloon

    Hot Air Balloon
    The first hot air balloon was presented in-front of a large crowds on the 19th of September. The two brothers, Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michael Montgolfier were paper manufactures. They began their experiments when they observed that heated air directed into a paper or fabric bag made the bag rise. The Balloon was made of silk and paper lining 10 meters wide the balloon stayed in the air for 10 minutes and traveled over a mile. A second balloon was made to showcase in front of the king.
  • Steam Powered Boats

    Steam Powered Boats
    John Fitch was the first inventor to create a steam powered boat but not the engine. Scotsman James Watt invented the engine 1769. Although Fitch was the first to invent the boat, most to all credit is given to Robert Fulton because his boat was cheaper to build and operate. Fitch first operated this new boat in the Delaware River while the Constitutional Convention watched.
  • Braille

    Braille
    Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France. When Louis was three he accidentally blinded one of his eyes, his other eye became blind because of sympathetic ophthlamia. Before he turned 15 he invented a code that fit 6 dots in a specific order to represent the alphabet perfectly over the span of a fingertip, which was named after him during his lifetime. Although it was met with resistance by non-blind people, who didn't support braille because they couldn't read it easily.
  • Stethascope

    Stethascope
    Made in Paris by René Laennec at the Necker Enfant Malades Hospital. The man was embarrassed putting his ear to a young female patient. He remembered as a child that sound could travel through solids so he rolled up 24 pieces of paper and it worked. That was the first time the stethoscope was made -sort of- but the first recorded document using the stethoscope was on March 8th, 1817. The step up from the makeshift stethoscope was a simple wooden tube that you could only put to one ear.
  • Bikes

    Bikes
    In 1817 Charles Baron von Drais, of Sauerbrun had invented a bike with a front wheel capable of being steered, a seat, and an arm rest at the front. He patented the draisienne in 1818, and patented it again in Paris now named velocipede. It wan't until 1869 that people started calling it a bicycle.
  • Maxim Gun

    Maxim Gun
    The Maxim gun was invented by Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim from the USA, although it wasn’t the first fast-firing gun it was the first recoil-operated machine gun which is most associated with British Imperial conquest.
  • Telegraph

    Telegraph
    Samuel Morse invented this revolutionary machine that made it much more simpler to communicate over long distances. You use a telegraph by transmitting electrical signals over a wire put in between stations. Unlike other discoverers, engineers, scientist Samuel Morse did not name his invention after himself, until the following decade.
  • Morse code

    Morse code
    Morse code was invented by Samuel Morse(suprise suprise). Nonetheless the invention of the morse code was critical during the world wars, and was very useful method to send messages just like the telegraph. The code was made up of dots and dashes that were put into different groups in different order to represent letters. In 1844 Morse sent his first message from Washington D.C. to Baltimore Maryland.
  • Anesthesia 1846

    Anesthesia 1846
    First use was in October 16, 1846 used by Dr. John Collins Warren but the inventor was William Morton. Before the invention there was a limited amount of surgeries performed, they were not given any type of medication. Although there were some attempts to dull the sensations like opium, alcohol, hypnosis, rubbing stinging nettles on them, awareness-dulling and sleep-inducing narcotics.
  • TNT

    TNT
    May 7, 1863 German scientist Joseph Wilbrand who was trying to make a dye at the time - tnt is a yellow powder- created trinitrotoluene or it's much easier name TNT. It was nearly 20 years before it was discovered as an excellent high explosive. TNT was used heavily in the early years it was made, it’s hardly made or in use now.
  • Torpedo

    Torpedo
    Giovanni Luppis and Robert Whitehead were the creators of the self propelled torpedo. Torpedo’s are normally used and carried on boats and submarines, they can be launched in or out of water, it carries explosives that are designed to detonate on impact or when it’s close to its target.
  • Telephone

    Telephone
    Alexander Graham Bell was working at a school for the deaf when he started working on a machine that would transmit sound into electricity. Since he was the first to invent and patent the idea he is the inventor of the machine, he unsurprisingly had to battle for the patent on his invention and is the longest battle for a patent rights ever.
  • X-Ray

    X-Ray
    On the 8th of November Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, German physicist, is first to observe x-rays making him the discoverer of X-rays. He named them x rays because of their unknown nature. X-Rays are normally used to see broken bones but they are also used to spot pneumonia, tuberculosis, breast cancer and more.