Current Affairs Science Projects And Inventions

"He [Paul de Vivie] was a man who devoted a lifetime to the perfection of the bicycle..." Clifford L. Graves, writer Paul de Vivie (1853-1930) did not buy his first bicycle until he was twenty-eight, but his passion for cycling would eventually take over his life, and led to the invention of a new system of variable speed cycles. De Vivie's first bike was an "ordinary" high-wheel, or penny-farthing as it's more commonly known. The pedals of this bike were attached directly to the wheels so that one turn of the pedals equaled one turn of the wheel. De Vivie sought a way to improve this ratio to make cycling more energy-efficient. In 1887, he set up a cycle shop in the mountainous region of Saint-Etienne, France, and launched a magazine, Le Cydiste, in which he wrote passionately about cycling, under the pen-name "Velocio." De Vivie's first attempt at creating gears for a bicycle involved two concentric chain wheels with a chain that had to be lifted manually from one to the other. In 1905, he tested a two-speed derailleur gear, but the cycling world was reluctant to buy into the idea, dismissing it as an easy way out. To win over the skeptics, de Vivie organized a mountain race between a male cyclist on a single-speed bike and a female cyclist on a three-speed derailleur bike. Much to his delight, the woman won. Today, modern bicycles frequently may have more than twenty different derailleur gears, making riding in even the most varied terrain a breeze. 

The rivet has existed for a very long time, in fact since the Bronze Age, and remains one of the best methods of permanently fastening two things (normally metal sheets) together. Rivets are commonly used when it is really rather important that whatever has been fastened stays that way, such as aircraft and ship hulls. The vibrations created by movement also have a habit of loosening nuts and bolts so the rivet is generally the preferred fastening. Back in 1931, Louis Huck was looking for a method to speed up aircraft production, and the blind rivet was his answer. Unlike normal rivets, the blind rivet requires only one-sided access to your desired material, which is particularly useful in airplane construction because of ergonomically shaped hulls that are tricky to access. Just as with normal rivets, a blind rivet is inserted into a predrilled hole, but the rivet has a mandrel—a cylindrical core made of tough material and with an engineered break notch. As the blind riveting tool draws the tough mandrel head back through the hole, it squashes the softer rivet head on the other side. Once enough force is applied, the mandrel head breaks, leaving it in the hole and a formed head on the blind side of the material. A blind rivet is easier and faster to use than a traditional "solid" rivet. Although blind rivets are not necessarily as strong as normal rivets, the use of normal rivets is sometimes not a viable option. The basic design of rivets has changed little over time, but improvement in materials and riveting tools means that they are easier to fit and more reliable than ever. They are commonly used in the construction of anything from prefabricated houses to train carriages, buses, cars, and even sea containers. 

"[C] otton-bud-related injuries are a common reason for attendances at... clinics" J. C. Hobson and J. A. Lavy Leo Gerstenzang began to design a cotton swab after he saw his wife gluing cotton onto the ends of toothpicks to clean their baby's ears. He used cardboard material for the stem of the swabs to avoid any splinters harming the baby, found a way to attach equal amounts of cotton to each end of the swab, and ensured that the swab stayed put during cleaning. He created the Leo Gerstenzang Infant Novelty Company to supply his swabs and, in 1923, launched his refined product under the name "Baby Gays." In 1926 Gerstenzang changed the name to Q-Tips Baby Gays, with the "Q" standing for quality, but eventually the product became known simply as the Q-Tips that we know today. As well as supplying the baby accessory market, Q-Tips expanded into the cosmetic market in the 1950s. Hollywood makeup artists began using them as tools of their trade and a booklet, Lessons in Loveliness with Q-Tips, was produced. In the early 1970s fears arose that damage could be caused to the ears by cleaning them with cotton buds, particularly perforation of the ear drum or impaction of the earwax. This led to manufacturers advising that cotton buds should no longer be used to clean ears. Q-Tips are still widely available and remain essentially unchanged from Leo's original design, although they are now very different in purpose. 

[I]njurious to health?... Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot!" President Theodore Roosevelt On February 27, 1879, Ira Remsen (1846-1927) and Constantin Fahlberg (1850-1910), two chemists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, were working on the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide, a coal tar derivative. Legend has it that both scientists went home for dinner and tasted a sweet residue on their foods, which originated from their unwashed hands. The next day they compared notes on this mysterious sweet chemical and checked their unwashed equipment. The result was a calorie-free, artificial sweetener that they later named saccharin. The scientists published their findings in 1880, though Fahlberg alone pursued a patent. Due to its lack of calories and glucose, saccharin proved very successful with consumers. However, its safety has always been controversial. In 1907, food safety officials tried to ban its use, only to be thwarted by President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a fan. Its use was limited in 1911, but the restriction was lifted during World Wars I and II due to sugar shortages. In the 1970s, rats fed large amounts of saccharin appeared to be at risk of developing bladder cancer. However, some scientists argued that this was due to the impurities in saccharin, not the saccharin itself. In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a bill to remove warning labels from saccharin products. Saccharin's safety, however, continues to be debated. 

"The Method of and Apparatus for Producing Animated Pictures of Natural Scenery and Life." Le Prince's 1888 patent French-born Louis Augustin Le Prince (1842-1890) is fittingly remembered as the star of a mystery akin to a tragic silent movie. A photographer trained by Daguerre himself, as well as a chemist and artist, he worked secretively on pioneering moving-image experiments before disappearing just before revealing his findings. Many feel that Edison and the Lumiere brothers wrongly displaced him as the inventors of motion pictures. Some even suggest that he was killed by rivals in this fiercely competitive race. In the 1880s, Le Prince was one of several people working on Kinematographs—early machines for capturing and showing moving images. In 1888, he patented a sixteen-lens Kinematograph that probably never worked properly. He also produced a single-lens device incorporating Eastman paper film and, in the fall of 1888, used it to film horses on Leeds Bridge, England. After probably improving his projection by replacing glass slides with the amazing new celluloid film, Le Prince felt ready to tell the world. His wife rented a mansion in New York for the debut. Her husband boarded a train at Dijon on September 16, 1890, bound for a French vacation before the unveiling, and no trace of him has been found since. Edison's early cameras and projectors were soon making a splash and the science of movie equipment gathered momentum. Le Prince's family became embroiled in a court case that finally ruled that Edison was not the single inventor of moving images. One leading scholar concludes that Le Prince is well placed to take such credit but wonders whether his fatal error was being too slow to reveal all. 

"Raise your glasses, please, to the Crapper who installed the royal flush!” Adam Hart-Davis, English scientist and broadcaster With his name as manufacturer proudly cast in the iron of countless toilet cisterns the world over, Thomas Crapper (1836-1910) is unlikely ever to be dissociated with visits to the lavatory. But one of the most disappointing of facts relating to inventions is that he did not himself invent the flush toilet. He did, however, popularize and endorse the flush toilet, and he was indeed a plumber. As a young child in the mid-nineteenth century he was apprenticed to a master plumber, gaining the same title himself at the age of twenty. His plumbing was exceptional and he even did work for members of the Royal Family. Crapper's invention of the ballcock was one of nine patents he received, and one of three that were related to improving toilet design. The ballcock was a simple, air-filled, and watertight float that was attached to a valve inside a toilet cistern by means of an armature. As the cistern gradually filled up with water from the mains, the float would be lifted by the rising water level; at a preset point it caused the valve to close and stop the cistern from overflowing. Crapper was a shrewd businessman and formed his own plumbing and bathroom fixtures company one of the first in the world to feature a public showroom. Thomas Crapper and Co. Ltd. continues to make high-quality bathroom fittings, including faithful replicas of the originals designed by the man himself. Today in Westminster Abbey, London, there are manhole covers bearing Crapper's company name. Fascinating to some, they have become a tourist attraction in their own right. 

"Man is a tool-using animal....Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all." Thomas Carlyle, historian Johann Fetter Johannson (1853-1943) was one of Sweden's most prolific inventors. He amassed an impressive 118 patents over his lifetime, including one for tongs to enable people to put sugar cleanly into their tea. However, undoubtedly Johannson's greatest contribution to manufacturing and engineering was his adjustable wrench. When Johannson opened his first workshop in Enkoping, Sweden, in 1886, there were no standard sizes or gauges for nuts, bolts, and screws, nor for the tools that manipulated them. Johannson became literally overloaded when he went about his business because his handcart had to accommodate ever- increasing numbers of wrenches to fit his various jobs. He practically had to make a new size of wrench for each task as machines and their components were built to their own bespoke specifications. Johannson decided to make a single tool that would have some of the dexterity of a human hand. "Iron Hand," his tool of 1888, became what is now known as the pipe wrench. While eventually becoming indispensable, the pipe wrench would often ruin rusty or stuck bolts, so in 1891 he refined the design to produce the adjustable wrench. Basically the same shape as a normal wrench, Johannson's device had an integral screw thread that, when turned, would adjust the distance between the opposing "jaws" of the wrench's working end. This meant that the tool could be offered up to the head of any nut and then adjusted to get a perfect fit—eliminating the inventor's need to carry a whole bunch of different wrenches around with him. 

"It may take years, but the battery-electric car will eventually be back_ stronger than ever..."         Chris Payne, dir. Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)'' Although the earliest efforts to develop electric vehicles were made in France and Britain, the honor of the first truly successful electric car goes to Scottish- born William Morrison in the United States. Morrison's passion was in fact for storage batteries—he only built the car, a surrey-type high wheel carriage, to show off his latest battery. The battery holds the key to the success of any electric car, determining the speed and range of the vehicle. Morrison's car battery comprised twenty-four cells and contributed more than half of the total weight of the vehicle. It was claimed that the battery was capable of powering the vehicle for thirteen hours at speeds of up to 14miles (22.5 km) per hour on just one overnight charge. Though far superior to the other car batteries available, these statistics are disputed. Morrison's car was first shown to the world in 1890 at the Seni Om Sed parade in Des Moines, Iowa, and in 1891 he received a patent for his battery. Morrison gave his designs to the American Battery Company, who used the car to bolster their battery sales, and showed the car at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. By the mid-1930s electric cars had practically disappeared, having been replaced by the gas-powered vehicles that still predominate today. However, the car battery is still required for starting the engine. 

A cardiac pacemaker is a surgically implanted electronic device that regulates a slow or erratic heartbeat. The first artificial pacemaker was invented by Dr. Mark Lidwell, an Australian anesthetist, who developed an external device running on an alternating current that required a needle to be inserted into the patient's upper heart chamber (ventricle). In 1928 Lidwell used the device to resuscitate a baby born in cardiac arrest at the Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney. Lidwell reported the case to the Third Congress of the Australian Medical Society in 1929, but kept a low profile due to controversy at the time surrounding research into artificially extending human life. In 1932 U.S. physiologist Albert Hyman (1893-1972) independently developed an electromechanical instrument, powered by a spring-wound, hand- cranked motor, that he referred to as an "artificial pacemaker."The first internal pacemaker was developed by Swede Rune Elmqvist and implanted into a patient in 1958 at the Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden, by surgeon Ake Senningn. These early models were powered by mercury-zinc batteries, lasting only two or three years. In 1973 a lithium-iodide fuel cell was developed that could last for around six years. Today more than 100,000 pacemakers are implanted each year in the United States. Modern pacemakers have sophisticated programming capabilities and are extremely compact. The device contains a pulse generator, circuitry programmed to monitor the heart rate and deliver stimulation, and a lithium iodide battery, with a life of seven to fifteen years. 

Biodiesel, technically described as mono-alkyi esters of vegetable oil or animal fat, is to many a new concept in man's quest to rely less on petroleum-based products in daily life. The first biodiesel, however, was produced in the lab decades ago and is still cited as an important technological advance in the area of alternative fuel sources. The name biodiesel originates from the word diesel, a type of engine invented by Rudolph Diesel in 1892. Diesel first displayed his invention in 1900, at the Paris World's Fair. Rather unexpectedly, his diesel engine actually ran on peanut oil. However, it was in 1937 that a Belgian scientist at the University of Brussels, G. Chavanne, was granted a patent entitled "Procedure for the transformation of vegetable oils for their uses as fuels." In the patent, Chavanne describes the use of palm oil as diesel fuel. The reaction was called alcoholysis (also known as transesterification), and involved mixing the vegetable oil with ethanol to produce glycerol and a vegetable oil ester, or biodiesel. Scientists still consider this to be the first account of the production of biodiesel. A related report in 1942 by Chavanne described the use of palm oil ethyl esters as a fuel source, specifically used as a test fuel for a bus that ran between Brussels and Louvain during the summer of 1938. The article focused on the chemical and physical properties of the fuel, and reported "satisfactory" results on this use of palm oil. This groundbreaking work, while at the time not focused on environmental or emissions implications, seems more important now than ever in the quest for renewable, clean and efficient fuel sources. Indeed, biodiesel is increasingly seen as a way to reduce dependence on traditional oil-based fuels.