5th grade History

3/4/2019

The first thing I learned about last week was the light bulb. Even though Thomas Edison is credited for inventing the first light bulb, he wasn’t the only one who had a turn in the development in this life changing technology. Like for example, in 1802 ( before Thomas invented the light bulb ), a man named Humphry Davy ( 1778- 1829 ) invented the first electric light. His invention is known as “The Electric Arc lamp.” Over the next 8 decades many very smart scientists begin to invent life changing devices. In 1850 a man named Joseph W. Swan ( 1828-1914 ) created a “light bulb” by closing carbonized paper bits in an empty glass bulb. In 1860 he had it working. Then finally in 1878 Thomas Edison filed his first patent for his invention of the light bulb. In 1879 he filed another patent for an improved version of his light bulb, witch he called the “Electric lamp.” By 1880 “Edison Electric Light Company” began marketing their new product. Without any of these brilliant scientists inventions, we would never have lights in darkness of night, LED light disco party’s, or headlamps and flashlights ( other than candles ). What these people did was amazing! Life changing! What will we invent next?

The second thing I learned about was the cash register. The cash register is an electric or mechanical device for registering or calculating transactions at a point of sale. It also help’s so that the store owner’s employees don’t steal from them. It is usually attached to a drawer for storing cash or other valuable items. It was invented in 1879 by a man named James Ritty. James owned a Saloon in Ohio, now, his saloon became so busy he had to get employs, now this is were the trouble started, James began to notice that cash was always missing from the cash drawer, and that meant only one thing, James employees  were stealing from him. Now it wasn’t only James who had this problem, it happened with other store owners to. James decided he had to do something about this. He got the inspiration after seeing a tool on a boat that counted the revolutions of the propeller on the steam ship, so he invented “The Ritty Model 1” and then patented it in 1883. Later, James opened a company to manufacture his cash registers, and then easily became overwhelmed with running the company and his saloon, so he decided to sell his cash register company and continued to work in the saloon. James invention stopped more than 85% of the robbery’s, and it made history in the business economy.

The third thing I learned about last week was the thermostat. A thermostat is a device that automatically regulates temperature. So you set it to a certain temperature and then the room will either heat up or cool down ( with the heater or A-C ) to the temperature you set it to. The first thermostat was invented in 1883 by a man named Warren S. Johnson ( 1847-1911 ), it was called the “Bi-metal room thermostat,” and two years later he filed a patent for the first multi-zone thermostatic control system. 3 years later, in 1886,  an electric thermostat was invented by a man named Albert Butz ( 1849-1905 ).

The last thing I learned about last week was the steam turbine. A steam turbine is a device that extracts energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. The more modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by a engineer named Charles A. Parsons ( 1854-1931 ). This is how a steam turbine makes electricity: The water is heated, and turned into steam, and then spins a steam turbine witch then drives an electrical generator. The steam turbine is a piece of equipment that is needed for the generation of electricity in thermal electric power plants.

~Lillyana