Greatest Inventions of the last 100 yearsColor Television
1940Color television is a television transmission technology that
includes information onthe color of the picture, so the
videoimagecanbedisplayedincoloronthetelevision screen. It is an
improvement onthe earliest television technology,monochrome or
black and whitetelevision, in which the image isdisplayedin
shadesofgrey (greyscale).Television broadcasting stations
andnetworks in most parts of the
worldupgradedfromblackandwhitetocolortransmissioninthe1!"sand1#"s,
andtodayvirtuallyall televisionbesidessome ine$pensive
closed%circuit surveillance video systems is color television,
sothetermisbecomingredundant andisnot usedmuch. Theinventionof
colortelevisionstandardsispart of thehistoryof television,
andisdescribedinthetechnology of television.The basic idea of using
three monochrome images to produce a color image hadbeen
e$perimented with almost as soon as black%and%white televisions had
first been built.&mong the earliest published proposals
fortelevisionwasoneby'aurice(e)lancin1**"for a color system,
including the first mentions intelevisionliteratureof
lineandframescanning,although he gave no practical details.
+olishinventor ,an -.c.epanik patented a colortelevision system in
1*#, using a seleniumphotoelectric cell at the transmitter and
anelectromagnet controlling an oscillating mirror andamovingprismat
thereceiver. )ut hissystemcontained no means of analy.ing the
spectrum of colors at the transmitting end,and could not have
worked as he described it. &n &rmenian inventor,
/ovannes&damian, also e$perimented with color television as
early as 1"#. The first colortelevision pro0ect is claimed by him,
and was patented in 1ermany on 'arch 21,1"*, patent 3 1#1*2, then
in )ritain, on &pril 1, 1"*, patent 3 #41, in 5rance(patent 3
2"24!) and in 6ussia in 11" (patent 3 1#14).-cottish inventor ,ohn
(ogie )aird demonstrated theworld7s first color transmission on
,uly 2, 14*, usingscanning discs at the transmitting and receiving
endswith three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filtersof a
different primary color8 and three light sources atthereceivingend,
withacommutator toalternatetheir illumination.)aird also made the
world7s firstcolor broadcast on 5ebruary 9, 12*, sending
amechanicallyscanned14"%lineimagefrom)aird7sCrystal +alace studios
to a pro0ection screen at(ondon7s :ominion Theatre.'echanically
scanned color television was alsodemonstrated by )ell (aboratories
in ,une 14 using three complete systems ofphoto electric cells,
amplifiers, glow%tubes, and color filters, with a series of
mirrorsto superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full
color image.Artificial Heart -1941&n artificial heart is a
device that replaces the heart. &rtificial hearts are
typicallyused to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to
permanently replace the heartin case heart transplantation is
impossible. <hough other similarinventions preceded it going
back to the late 19"s, the firstartificial heart to be successfully
implanted in a human wasthe ,arvik%# in 1*4, designed by a team
including ;illem,ohan 2 during a successful open heartsurgery. ,ohn
/eysham 1ibbon, theinventor of the machine, performed theoperation
and developed the heart%lungsubstitute himself.<hough ,arvik
created the idea andrough draft for the artificial heart, hismodels
were not created of a material thatthe human bodywould accept.
:ayton,?hio7sIval ?. -alyer,alongwithvariouscolleagues, developed a
polymer materialthat the human body would notnecessarily
re0ect.?n,uly2, 1>4, 91%year%old /enry?pitek,
sufferingfromshortnessof breath,mademedical historyat /arper
@niversity/ospital at ;ayne-tate@niversity in'ichigan.
The:odrill%1'6 heart machine, consideredtobethefirst
operationalmechanical heart, was successfully used while performing
heart surgery. 5orest :ewey :odrill, working closelywith 'atthew
:udley, used the machine in 1>4to bypass /enry ?pitek7s left
ventricle for >"minutes while he opened the patient7s left
atriumand worked to repair the mitral valve. In
:odrill7spost%operative report, he notes, ATo ourknowledge, this is
the first instance of survival of apatient when a mechanical heart
mechanism wasused to take over the complete body function
ofmaintaining the blood supply of the body while theheart was open
and operated on.A Jet Engine 1930& 0et engine is a reaction
engine discharging a fast moving 0et thatgenerates thrust by 0et
propulsion in accordance with Bewton7s laws of motion. Thisbroad
definition of 0et engines includes turbo0ets, turbofans, rockets,
ram0ets,and pulse 0ets. In general, 0et engines are combustion
engines but non%combustingforms also e$ist)ythe1>"sthe0et
enginewasalmost universal incombat aircraft, withthee$ception of
cargo, liaison and other specialty types. )y this point some of
the)ritish designs were alreadycleared for civilian use, andhad
appeared on earlymodels like the de /avillandComet and &vro
Canada,etliner. )y the 1!"s alllarge civilian aircraft werealso 0et
powered, leavingthe piston engine in low%cost niche roles suchas
cargo flights.The efficiency of turbo0et engines was still rather
worse than piston engines, but bythe 1#"s, with the advent of
high%bypass turbofan 0et engines (an innovation notforeseen by the
early commentators such as Cdgar )uckingham, at high speedsand high
altitudes that seemed absurd to them), fuel efficiency was about
the sameas the best piston and propeller engines.a!ar -193"6adar is
an ob0ect%detection system that uses radio waves to determine the
range,altitude, direction, orspeedof ob0ects. It canbeusedtodetect
aircraft, ships,spacecraft, guidedmissiles, motorvehicles,
weatherformations, andterrain. The radar dish (or antenna)
transmits pulses of radio waves ormicrowaves that bounce off any
ob0ectin their path. Theob0ect returnsatinypart of the wave7s
energy to a dish orantenna that is usually located at thesame site
as the transmitter.6adar was secretly developed byseveralnations
before and during ;orld ;ar II. The term6&:&6 was coined in
19" by the @nited -tatesBavy as an acronym for 6&dio :etection
&nd6anging. Thetermradar hassinceenteredCnglishandother
languagesasacommonnoun, losing all capitali.ation.& helicopter
is a type of rotorcraft inwhich lift and thrust aresuppliedby
rotors. Thisallowsthehelicopter totakeoffandlandvertically,
tohover, andtoflyforward, backward, andlaterally. Theseattributes
allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas
wherefi$ed%wing aircraft and many forms of =T?( (vertical takeoff
and landing) aircraft cannotperform.Theword helicopter isadapted
fromthe5renchlanguage hDlicoptEre,coined by1ustave +onton
d7&mDcourt in 1*!1, which originates from the 1reek heli$ ( FGH
)Aheli$, spiral, whirl, convolutionA and pteron (IJKLMN) AwingA.
Cnglish%languagenicknames for helicopter include AchopperA,
AcopterA, AheloA, AheliA, and
AwhirlybirdA./elicoptersweredevelopedandbuilt duringthefirst
half%centuryof flight, withthe 5ocke%;ulf 5w !1 being the first
operational helicopter in 12!.
-omehelicoptersreachedlimitedproduction,but it was not until 194
that ahelicopter designed by Igor -ikorsky reachedfull%scale
production, with 121 aircraftbuilt. Though most earlier designs
usedmore than one main rotor, it is thesingle main rotor with
anti%torOue tailrotor configuration that has become themost common
helicopterconfiguration. Tandemrotor helicoptersare also in
widespread use due to their greater payloadcapacity. Coa$ial
helicopters, tiltrotor aircraft, and compound helicopters are
allflyingtoday. Puadcopter helicopters pioneeredasearlyas 1"#
in5rance, andother types of multicopter have been developed for
speciali.ed applications suchas unmanned drones.Themodernusesof
radararehighlydiverse, includingairandterrestrial trafficcontrol,
radar astronomy, air%defense systems, antimissile systems8 marine
radarsto locate landmarks and other ships8 aircraft anticollision
systems8 oceansurveillance systems, outer space surveillance and
rende.vous systems8meteorological precipitation monitoring8
altimetry and flight control systems8 guidedmissile target locating
systems8 and ground%penetrating radar for geologicalobservations.
/igh tech radar systems are associated with digital signal
processingand are capable of e$tracting useful information from
very high noise levels.#reathaly$er 19""& breathaly.er or
breathalyser (a portmanteau of breath and analy.erQanalyser) isa
device for estimating blood alcohol content()&C) from a
breathsample. )reathaly.er is the brand name for the instrument
developed byinventor 6obert 5rank )orkenstein. It was registered as
a trademark on 'ay 12,1>*, and is active as of 4"1> but the
word has become a generic trademark. In1!#in)ritain, Tom+arry,ones
developedandmarketedthefirst electronicbreathalyser. /e established
(ion (aboratories in Cardiff with hiscolleague, electrical engineer
)ill :ulcie. The 6oad-afety &ct 1!# introduced the first
legallyenforceable ma$imum blood alcohol level fordrivers in the @1
Chrysler Imperial under the name A/ydraguideA. TheChrysler system
was based on some of :avis7s e$pired patents. 1eneral'otors
introduced the 1>4 Cadillac with a power steering system using
the work:avis had done for the company almost twenty years earlier.
Charles 5. /ammond,an&merican, bornin:etroit, filedseveral
patentsfor improvementsof powersteering with the Canadian
Intellectual +roperty ?ffice in 1>*. (light ecor!er-19"3&
flightrecorder, colloOuially stillcalled black bo$,although it is
noworange%coloured, isan electronic recording deviceplaced in
anaircraft for the purpose of facilitating theinvestigation of
aviation accidents and incidents.&ny type of aircraft in any
condition of flight can be viewed in terms ofits input parameters
(e.g. control instructions) and output parameters (e.g.flight
sensors), without any knowledge of its internalworkings, as a black
bo$model. The flight data recorder (5:6) is an independent device
that preserves therecent history of the flight through the
recording of do.ens of parameterscollectedseveral timespersecond.
The cockpit voicerecorder (C=6)preservesthe recent history of
thesoundsin thecockpit including the conversation of thepilots. The
two recorders give a testimony, narrating the flight history with
accuracyand impartiality, to assist in an investigation.The first
modern flight recorder,called A'ata /ariA, was created in194 by
5innish aviation engineer=ei0o /ietala. This black
high%techmechanical bo$ was able to record allimportant
aviationdetailsduringtestflights of ;orld ;ar II fighteraircraft
that the 5innish army repairedor built intheir
mainaviationfactoryin Tampere, 5inland. The A'ata /ariAblack bo$ is
displayed in the =apriikki'useum in Tampere, 5inland.%ace)a*er
-19"+& pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, soasnotto be
confused with the heart7snatural pacemaker) is a medical device
that useselectrical impulses, deliveredby electrodes
contractingtheheart muscles, toregulate the beating of the
heart.The primary purpose of a pacemaker is tomaintain an adeOuate
heart rate, either becausethe heart7s natural pacemaker is not fast
enough,or there is a block in the heart7s
electricalconductionsystem. 'odernpacemakers
aree$ternallyprogrammable andallowthe cardiologist to select the
optimum pacing modes for individual patients. -omecombine a
pacemaker and defibrillator in a single implantable device. ?thers
havemultiple electrodes stimulating differing positions within the
heart toimprove synchroni.ation of the lower chambers (ventricles)
of the heart.In 124, &merican physiologist &lbert /yman,
working independently, described anelectro%mechanical instrument of
his own, powered by a spring%wound hand%cranked motor. /yman
himself referred to his invention as an AartificialpacemakerA, the
term continuing in use to this day. &n apparent hiatus in
publication of research conductedbetween the early 12"s and ;orld
;ar II maybeattributedtothepublicperceptionof interfering with
nature by Areviving the deadA.5or e$ample, A/yman did not publish
data onthe use of his pacemaker in humansbecause of adverse
publicity, both among his fellowphysicians, and due to
newspaperreporting at the time. (idwell may havebeen aware of this
and did notproceed with his e$periments inhumansThe
Internet-19,9The Internet is a global system ofinterconnected
computer networks thatuse the standard Internet protocolsuite
(TC+QI+) to link several billiondevices worldwide. It is a network
ofnetworks that consists of millions ofprivate, public, academic,
business, andgovernment networks of localto globalscope, linked by
a broad array ofelectronic, wireless, and opticalnetworking
technologies. The Internetcarriesane$tensiverangeof
informationresourcesandservices, suchastheinter%linked hyperte$t
documents and applications of the ;orld ;ide ;eb (;;;),the
infrastructure tosupport email, and peer%to%peer networksfor
filesharing andtelephony.6esearchinto packet switching
startedintheearly1!"sandpacket switchednetworks such as 'ark I at
B+( in the @"92*9