Inventions Changed - The World

Touchpad Image Replacement For Mouse The introduction of the laptop computer presented a problem namely, how to operate a computers cursor without a mouse. The solution most widely adopted was creator by American inventor Dr. George Gerpheide in 1952. His captive touchpad invented in 1988, could detect a users finger movement and transfer it to the on screen cursor interestingly. Gerpheide developed this technology before points and click was the standard method of operating computer interfaces. This may explain why it was not until 1994 that apple computers bought the first licence to use his technology ( which first appeared on the Apple Powerbook 520. His touchpad works by employing several layers of material. At the top is protective layer, about 3 inches square, that the user touches. Underneath are successive layers of electrode arranged in horizontal and vertical rows, each separated by a thin layer of insulation. The electrodes are all connected to a circuit boa

Podcast Image The first decade of the twenty first century has seen a proliferation in new communication technology it is now possible to watch a favorite television show on a laptop, read a newspaper on a cell phone or listen to a radio broadcast on an mp3 player. The evolution of the podcast is one more important development. Podcasting Image A podcast is a digital audio or video file, distributed automatically to a subscribed user. That user can then listen to or view the file on a mobile device such as a personal computer, mp3 player or cell phone. The podcast first creates a "show" - usually a video or mp3 audio file and then RSS (really simple syndication) feed file that points to where the podcast can be found. The receiver uses "aggregator" software to subscribe the periodically check the RSS feed to see if content exists or new content has been added and then downloads that content automatically. The term itself was coined by Bri

Insulated wires When American Joseph Henry first became intended in science at the age of sixteen, he found electricity fascinating and began experimenting with electromagnets. Wire carrying electricity produce weak magnetic fields around them, if however the wire is coiled many times around a metal such as iron, the effect is magnified and the resulting magnetic field is much stronger. The first electromagnets were coiled very loosely to prevent the current carrying wires touching and causing an electric short circuit. Henry was the first to use an insulting cover for to use an insulting cover for the wires, so that they could be wrapped more tightly and in many layers multiplying the effect. Henry's first insulation for wires was tediously made from strips of his wife's petticoats. The material of the insulator has to resist the flow of electricity. This is done by ensuring the constituent atoms have tightly bound elections. The using gutta-percha a latex s

Coaxial Cable In the early 1920s it was clear to communications that high frequency transmission lines were Paramount to the success of any further developments in communications, since ordinary wires and cables simply could not cope. Two engineers at Bell Laboratories Loyed Espenschied and Herman Affel came to the rescue. Together they created the Coaxial Cable, which is capable of carrying high frequency (or broadband) signals successfully. Instead of having just single stands of copper covered by a jacket of flexible plastic, they widened their working diameter to include an insulting space and a conducting sheild, which gives the cable a very distinctive cross section. Running through the very center of the cable is the conductor, which carries the signals. Wrapped around this is the inner dielectric insulator and wrapped around that is a conducting shield that reduces electromagnetic interference from any external sources, meaning that the signal stay clear. The shield

Hypertext Image As soon as hypertext was unveiled to the public in 1968 at the Convention Center of San Francisco in the United States, technology experts knew it was unique.  The demonstration now known as the "Mother Of All Demos" showed how this tool for data organization enabled the user to read information, not just in the linear way we read regular text, but for the first time in a dynamic and interactive way. Hypertext later became the fundamental language of the internet in Hyper Text Markup Languages (HTML) and has revolutionized the way information is accessed. Whereas standard text is read linearly for instance. Western scripts are read left to right, top to bottom, hypertext allowed to user to retrieve information by "clicking" on link that shifted the page, opened further texts, and activated video and audio. The forerunner of this breakthrough was called the Memex System (from MEM ory Ex tended) imagined by US engineer Vannevar Bu

Inventions Changed Optical Fiber Image Optical fiber made from glass or plastic, is used to guide light from a source to another location. First used in the medicine to examine internal organs, the technology has since been developed for many applications, including telecommunications. Indian born Narinder Singh Kapany who born in 1927 is the father of fiber optics. While understanding research at imperial college in London in 1952, Kapany drew out fine filaments of optical quality glass and found that when he shone a light in one end, it emerged unchanged from the other, even if the fiber was first shown by Irish inventor John Tyndall, who used the principle to illuminate water foundation in the 1850s. "A teacher told Kapany that light could travel only in the straight line but Kapany set out to prove him wrong." Optical fiber illumination can be used for decorative applications like signs and artificial Christmas tree. Kapany discovered that light was guided