Archives May 2014

Before the arrival of the electric iron, various methods were used to smooth out washed and wrinkled clothes. Charcoal-filled pans dating back to ancient China lasted through to the seventeenth century when they were replaced by cast iron flat irons, which were heated up in open fires. By the late nineteenth century, flat irons were being heated by a range of fuels including kerosene and animal oils. But ironing was a sweaty, tiring, and dirty task typically involving a hot coal stove and numerous flat irons, which required continuous heating. With the coming of electricity it was inevitable that someone would spot an opportunity. Henry W. Seely an American inventor based in New York, was the first to develop and patent an electric iron in 1882. The electric iron uses resistive heating—heat produced by resistance to an electric current. This is used to warm a metal hot plate, today made more...

The modern system of automobile brakes was patented in 1902 by British car manufacturer Frederick William Lanchester (1868-1946). He took the disk brakes then available and radically improved their design. But, competition with the new drum brakes meant that disk brakes took almost fifty years to become a reality on a mass-produced car, and another five years before the concept became widespread. Lanchester and his three brothers formed the Lanchester Engine Company in 1899. He had been designing cars and engines since 1889, and had built the United Kingdom's first four-wheel drive car in 1895. In 1902 their latest prototype, which contained a ten horse-powered, twin cylinder engine, was fitted with the new system of disk brakes. Disk brakes slow a car by removing energy from the rotating wheel; brake pads squeeze both sides of the rotor connected to the wheel. The friction of this generates heat, which escapes via more...