Anton Van Leeuwenhoek


The father of microscopy, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek of Holland (1632-1723), started as an apprentice in a dry goods store where magnifying glasses were used to count the threads in cloth. Anton van Leeuwenhoek was inspired by the glasses used by drapers to inspect the quality of cloth. He taught himself new methods for grinding and polishing tiny lenses of great curvature which gave magnifications up to 270x diameters, the finest known at that time.
These lenses led to the building of Anton Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes considered the first practical microscopes, and the biological discoveries for which he is famous. Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to see and describe bacteria (1674), yeast plants, the teeming life in a drop of water, and the circulation of blood corpuscles in capillaries. During a long life he used his lenses to make pioneer studies on an extraordinary variety of things, both living and non-living, and reported his findings in over a hundred letters to the Royal Society of England and the French Academy.
"My work, which I've done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men. And therewithal, whenever I found out anything remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof." - Anton Van Leeuwenhoek Letter of June 12, 1716
None of Anton Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes exist today. His instruments were made of gold and silver and were sold by his family after he died, none have been recovered.

Zacharias Janssen


Zacharias Janssen was born in 1580 in the country Windmills, Holland, and died at the age of 58 years or more precisely in 1638. is a scientist from the Netherlands. The most famous discovery is the first microscope is used to view objects that are very small in size and difficult to reach when using the naked eye. Invention of the microscope is a major influence on the development of science and not a few great inventions that are beneficial to the world civilization were evaluated using a microscope.

He realized very well that in this world there are objects with a smaller size and difficult to reach with the naked eye. In 1590, along with his father, he succeeded in creating a microscope by using concave and convex lenses to magnify objects look very small in size. Adjustment mechanism to focus the microscope was first created and perfected by Campini, a scientist who comes from Italy, in 1668.

The findings of the microscope when it encourages other scientists, like Galileo Galilei (Italy), to make the same tool. Even Galileo dririnya claim as the creator of the first that has made this tool in 1610.

Galileo completed the manufacture of microscopes and microscope in 1609 he made the same named inventors, the Galileo microscope. This type of microscope use optical lenses, so-called optical microscopes. The microscope is assembled from the optical lens has a limited ability to increase the size of the object. This is caused by the diffraction limit of light is determined by the wavelength of light. Theoretically, the wavelength of light is only up to about 200 nanometers. To that end, the lens-based optical microscope can not observe the size below 200 nanometers.

After that a Dutch national named Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) continues to develop microscopic magnification. Antony Van Leeuwenhoek actually not a professional researcher or scientist. Profession is actually a 'wine terster' in the city Delft, The Netherlands. He used a magnifying glass to observe the fiber-seratpada fabric. But the great curiosity of the universe makes it one of the inventors of microbiology.

Leewenhoek using a very simple microscope to observe the river water, rain water, saliva, feces, and so forth. He is interested in the many small objects that can move are not visible with the naked eye. He called the move objects with 'animalcule' according to which the animals are very small. This discovery made him more enthusiastic in observing objects was to further improve the microscope. This is done by piling up more of the lens and put it on a silver plate. Finally Leewenhoek create a microscope that can magnify 250 200-300 times. Leewenhoek keep detailed results of these observations danmengirimkannya to the British Royal Society. One of the first on the letter dated 7 September 1674 he described the presence of very small animals which is now known as protozoa. Between 1963-1723 he wrote more than 300 letters reporting the results of his observations. One of them is the form of rods, cocci or spiral which is now known as bacteria. These findings make the world aware of the existence of a very small life forms that eventually gave birth to the science of microbiology.

When In Europe, the microscope has been known since the 17th century and used to see the animals kind of microbe. Interestingly, Japanese people love to use it for observing small insects, and the results of these books contain detailed descriptions of the on insects.

Galileo Galilei



After four years, Galileo had announced to his father that he wanted to be a monk. This was not exactly what father had in mind, so Galileo was hastily withdrawn from the monastery. In 1581, at the age of 17, he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine, as his father wished.
Galileo Galilei - Law of the Pendulum

At age twenty, Galileo noticed a lamp swinging overhead while he was in a cathedral. Curious to find out how long it took the lamp to swing back and forth, he used his pulse to time large and small swings. Galileo discovered something that no one else had ever realized: the period of each swing was exactly the same. The law of the pendulum, which would eventually be used to regulate clocks, made Galileo Galilei instantly famous.

Except for mathematics, Galileo Galilei was bored with university. Galileo's family was informed that their son was in danger of flunking out. A compromise was worked out, where Galileo would be tutored full-time in mathematics by the mathematician of the Tuscan court. Galileo's father was hardly overjoyed about this turn of events, since a mathematician's earning power was roughly around that of a musician, but it seemed that this might yet allow Galileo to successfully complete his college education. However, Galileo soon left the University of Pisa without a degree.

Galileo Galilei - Mathematics
To earn a living, Galileo Galilei started tutoring students in mathematics. He did some experimenting with floating objects, developing a balance that could tell him that a piece of, say, gold was 19.3 times heavier than the same volume of water. He also started campaigning for his life's ambition: a position on the mathematics faculty at a major university. Although Galileo was clearly brilliant, he had offended many people in the field, who would choose other candidates for vacancies.

Galileo Galilei - Dante's Inferno
Ironically, it was a lecture on literature that would turn Galileo's fortunes. The Academy of Florence had been arguing over a 100-year-old controversy: What were the location, shape, and dimensions of Dante's Inferno? Galileo Galilei wanted to seriously answer the question from the point of view of a scientist. Extrapolating from Dante's line that "[the giant Nimrod's] face was about as long/And just as wide as St. Peter's cone in Rome," Galileo deduced that Lucifer himself was 2,000 arm-length long. The audience was impressed, and within the year, Galileo had received a three-year appointment to the University of Pisa, the same university that never granted him a degree!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa
At the time that Galileo arrived at the University, some debate had started up on one of Aristotle's "laws" of nature, that heavier objects fell faster than lighter objects. Aristotle's word had been accepted as gospel truth, and there had been few attempts to actually test Aristotle's conclusions by actually conducting an experiment!

According to legend, Galileo decided to try. He needed to be able to drop the objects from a great height. The perfect building was right at hand--the Tower of Pisa, 54 meters tall. Galileo climbed up to the top of the building carrying a variety of balls of varying size and weight, and dumped them off of the top. They all landed at the base of the building at the same time (legend says that the demonstration was witnessed by a huge crowd of students and professors). Aristotle was wrong.

However, Galileo Galilei continued to behave rudely to his colleagues, not a good move for a junior member of the faculty. "Men are like wine flasks," he once said to a group of students. "...look at....bottles with the handsome labels. When you taste them, they are full of air or perfume or rouge. These are bottles fit only to pee into!"Not surprisingly, the University of Pisa chose not to renew Galileo's contract.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Galileo Galilei moved on to the University of Padua. By 1593, he was desperate in need of additional cash. His father had died, so Galileo was the head of his family, and personally responsible for his family. Debts were pressing down on him, most notably, the dowry for one of his sisters, which was paid in installments over decades (a dowry could be thousands of crowns, and Galileo's annual salary was 180 crowns). Debtor's prison was a real threat if Galileo returned to Florence.

What Galileo needed was to come up with some sort of device that could make him a tidy profit. A rudimentary thermometer (which, for the first time, allowed temperature variations to be measured) and an ingenious device to raise water from aquifers found no market. He found greater success in 1596 with a military compass that could be used to accurately aim cannonballs. A modified civilian version that could be used for land surveying came out in 1597, and ended up earning a fair amount of money for Galileo. It helped his profit margin that 1) the instruments were sold for three times the cost of manufacture, 2) he also offered classes on how to use the instrument, and 3) the actual toolmaker was paid dirt-poor wages.

A good thing. Galileo needed the money to support his siblings, his mistress (a 21 year old with a reputation as a woman of easy habits), and his three children (two daughters and a boy). By 1602, Galileo's name was famous enough to help bring in students to the University, where Galileo was busily experimenting with magnets.

Samuel F.B. Morse


Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on April 27, 1791. He was the first son of Jedidiah Morse, a clergyman, and Elizabeth Breese, of New Jersey. "Finley," as his parents called him, was the son quickest to change moods while his other two brothers, Sidney and Richard, were less temperamental. His brothers helped him out many times in his adult years. The Morses' commitment to education had Samuel in Phillips Academy by the age of seven. Though not a star student, his drawing skills were good. Both his teachers' and his parents' encouragement led to Samuel's success with miniature portraits on ivory. Samuel graduated from Yale College in 1810. He wished to pursue a career in art, but his father was opposed to this. Samuel took a job as a clerk in a Charlestown bookstore. During this time he continued to paint. His father reversed his decision and in 1811 allowed Morse to travel to England to pursue art. During this time, Morse worked at the Royal Academy with the respected American artist Benjamin West (1738–1820).
Artist at work
In 1815 Morse returned to America and set up a studio in Boston, Massachusetts. He soon discovered that his large canvases attracted attention but not sales. In those days Americans looked to painters primarily for portraits, and Morse found that even these sales were difficult to get. He traveled extensively in search of work, finally settling in New York City in 1823. Perhaps his two best-known canvases are his portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834; a French general who served with George Washington [1732–1799] during the American Revolution), which he painted in Washington, D.C., in 1825.
In 1826 Morse helped found, and became the first president of, the National Academy of Design, an organization that was intended to help secure sales for artists and to raise the taste of the public. The previous year Morse's wife had died; in 1826 his father died. The death of his mother in 1828 dealt another severe blow, and the following year Morse left for Europe to recover.
Electromagnetism
In October 1832 Morse returned to the United States. On the voyage he met Charles Thomas Jackson, an eccentric doctor and inventor, with whom he discussed electromagnetism. Jackson assured Morse that an electric impulse could be carried along even a very long wire. Morse later recalled that he reacted to this news with the thought that "if this be so, and the presence of electricity can be made visible in any desired part of the circuit,
I see no reason why intelligence might not be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance." He immediately made some sketches of a device to accomplish this purpose.
Even as an art professor at the University of the City of New York, the telegraph was never far from Morse's mind. He had long been interested in gadgetry and had even taken out a patent (document protecting the owner of an invention from having it stolen). He had also attended public lectures on electricity. His shipboard sketches of 1832 had clearly laid out the three major parts of the telegraph: a sender, which opened and closed an electric circuit; a receiver, which used an electromagnet to record the signal; and a code, which translated the signal into letters and numbers. By January 1836 he had a working model of the device that he showed to a friend, who advised him of recent developments in the field of electromagnetism—especially the work of the American physicist (scientist of matter and energy) Joseph Henry (1797–1878). As a result, Morse was able to greatly improve the efficiency of his device.
Invention trial
In September 1837 Morse formed a partnership with Alfred Vail, who contributed both money and mechanical skill. They applied for a patent. The American patent remained in doubt until 1843, when Congress approved thirty thousand dollars to finance the building of an experimental telegraph line between the national capital and Baltimore, Maryland. It was over this line, on May 24, 1844, that Morse tapped out his famous message, "What hath God wrought [made]!"
Morse was willing to sell all of his rights to the invention to the federal government for one hundred thousand dollars, but a combination of a lack of congressional interest and the presence of private greed frustrated the plan. Instead he turned his business affairs over to Amos Kendall. Morse then settled down to a life of wealth and fame. He was generous in his charitable gifts and was one of the founders of Vassar College in 1861. His last years were spoiled, however, by questions as to how much he had been helped by others, especially Joseph Henry.
Morse died in New York City on April 2, 1872.

Sir Isaac Newton


Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian who has been considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived. His monograph Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motion of objects on Earth and that of celestial bodies is governed by the same set of natural laws: by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation he removed the last doubts about heliocentrism and advanced the scientific revolution. The Principia is generally considered to be one of the most important scientific books ever written, both due to the specific physical laws the work successfully described, and for its style, which assisted in setting standards for scientific publication down to the present time.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of differential and integral calculus. He generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed Newton's method for approximating the roots of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.
Although an unorthodox Christian, Newton was deeply religious and his occult studies took up a substantial part of his life. He secretly rejected Trinitarianism and refused holy orders. As Master of the Mint he effectively placed Britain on its first Gold Standard.

Michael Faraday


Michael Faraday, the third of four children of James Faraday (1761–1810) and his wife, Margaret Hastwell Faraday (1764–1838), was born in Newington Butts on 22nd September 1791. James Faraday and all his children belonged to the small Christian sect called in Scotland the Glasites after their founder, John Glas, and in England the Sandemanians, after Robert Sandeman, who had brought these religious views to the country. Faraday worked as a blacksmith with James Boyd, a Sandemanian ironmonger of Welbeck Street, London.
Faraday later recalled: "my education was of the most ordinary description, consisting of little more than the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic at a common day-school. My hours out of school were passed at home and in the streets". In 1804 he became an errand boy, delivering among other things newspapers, for the bookseller George Riebau of 2 Blandford Street. In October 1805, at the age of fourteen, he was indentured for seven years to Riebau as an apprentice bookbinder. It was during this apprenticeship that he developed an interest in chemistry. Faraday wrote: "whilst an apprentice, I loved to read the scientific books which were under my hands." He later thanked Riebau for helping him in his education: "you kindly interested yourself in the progress I made in the knowledge of facts relating to the different theories in existence, readily permitting me to examine those books in your possession that were in any way related to the subjects occupying my attention." This included reading books by Jane Marcet (Conversations on Chemistry) and Isaac Watts (Improvement of the Mind).
In the spring of 1812, the year his apprenticeship ended, William Dance, a customer of Riebau's, gave Faraday tickets to attend four lectures to be delivered by the professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, Humphry Davy. He later recalled: "Sir H. Davy proceeded to make a few observations on the connections of science with other parts of polished and social life. Here it would be impossible for me to follow him. I should merely injure and destroy the beautiful and sublime observations that fell from his lips. He spoke in the most energetic and luminous manner of the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences. Of the connection that had always existed between them and other parts of a Nation's economy. During the whole of these observations his delivery was easy, his diction elegant, his tone good and his sentiments sublime." After becoming interested in science, Faraday applied to Davy for a job. In 1813 Faraday became his temporary assistant and spent the next 18 months touring Europe while during Davy's investigations into his theory of volcanic action.
His biographer, Frank James, wrote: "Davy had obtained a special passport from Napoleon stipulating that he could be accompanied only by his wife and two others. With Jane Davy requiring a maid, Davy (claiming that his valet had suddenly withdrawn) asked Faraday to undertake the tasks of a valet, making a promise, never fulfilled, to find a valet once they were on the continent. Faraday reluctantly agreed but this was the source of considerable friction between him and Jane Davy, who regarded him as a servant. For eighteen months they toured France, Switzerland, Italy, and southern Germany visiting many chemical laboratories. They met, among others, André-Marie Ampère in Paris, Charles-Gaspard and Arthur-Auguste De La Rive in Geneva, and the aged Alessandro Volta in Italy. Davy demonstrated the elemental nature of iodine to the French and in Florence showed that diamond was composed of carbon using the burning-glass of the duke of Tuscany. They witnessed the end of Napoleon's empire but following Napoleon's escape from Elba for the hundred days Davy decided to cut short the tour and returned to England in the middle of April 1815."
Faraday was also inspired by the work of Joseph Priestley: "Dr. Priestley had that freedom of mind, and that independence of dogma and of preconceived notions, by which men are so often bowed down and carried forward from fallacy to fallacy, their eyes not being opened to see what that fallacy is. I am very anxious at this time to exhort you all, - as I trust you all are pursuers of science, - to attend to these things; for Dr Priestley made his great discoveries mainly in consequence of his having a mind which could be easily moved from what it had held to the reception of new thoughts and notions; and I will venture to say that all his discoveries followed from the facility with which he could leave a preconceived idea."
On 21 May 1821 Faraday was appointed acting superintendent of the house of the Royal Institution. The following month he married Sarah Barnard (1800–1879), daughter of the Sandemanian silversmith Edward Barnard (1767–1855). From the evidence that has survived the Faradays's marriage appears to have been happy and she was very supportive of his work. Although they had no children, at least two nieces lived with them for extended periods, Margery Ann Reid (1815–1888) and Jane Barnard (1832–1911).
Humphry Davy gave Faraday a valuable scientific education and also introduced him to important scientists in Europe. One scientist, Henry Paul Harvey, commented: "Sir H. Davy's greatest discovery was Michael Faraday." After Davy retired in 1827, Faraday replaced him as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. Faraday began to publish details of his research including condensation of gases, optical deceptions and the isolation of benzene from gas oils.
Faraday's greatest contribution to science was in the field of electricity. In 1821 he began experimenting with electromagnetism and by demonstrating the conversion of electrical energy into motive force, invented the electric motor. In 1831 Faraday discovered the induction of electric currents and made the first dynamo. In 1837 he demonstrated that electrostatic force consists of a field of curved lines of force, and conceived a specific inductive capacity. This led to Faraday being able to develop his theories on light and gravitational systems.
Harper's Magazine published an article stating: "At no period of Michael Faraday's unmatched career was he interested in utility. He was absorbed in disentangling the riddles of the universe, at first chemical riddles, in later periods, physical riddles. As far as he cared, the question of utility was never raised. Any suspicion of utility would have restricted his restless curiosity. In the end, utility resulted, but it was never a criterion to which his ceaseless experimentation could be subjected." William Ewart Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, once asked Michael Faraday about the practical worth of electricity. He said he did not know but "there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it!"
Faraday told a friend: "I have never had any student or pupil under me to aid me with assistance; but have always prepared and made my experiments with my own hands, working and thinking at the same time. I do not think I could work in company, or think aloud, or explain my thoughts at the time. Sometimes I and my assistant have been in the Laboratory for hours & days together, he preparing some lecture apparatus or cleaning up, & scarcely a word has passed between us; - all this being a consequence of the solitary & isolated system of investigation; in contradistinction to that pursued by a Professor with his aids & pupils as in your Universities."
Faraday was very keen to educate the public on science. In one lecture he argued: "If the term education may be understood in so large a sense as to include all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, either by the acquisition of the knowledge of others or by increase of it through its own exertions, we learn by them what is the kind of education science offers to man. It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing - not to despise the small beginnings, for they precede of necessity all great things in the knowledge of science, either pure or applied."
Friedrich Von Raumer was one of those impressed by the lecturers of Faraday: "He (Michael Faraday) speaks with ease and freedom, but not with a gossipy, unequal tone, alternately inaudible and bawling, as some very learned professors do; he delivers himself with clearness, precision and ability. Moreover, he speaks his language in a manner which confirmed me in a secret suspicion that I had, that a number of Englishmen speak it very badly."
Jane Pollack wrote in the St. Paul's Magazine that Faraday was an outstanding speaker: "It was an irresistible eloquence which compelled attention and invited upon sympathy. There was a gleaming in his eyes which no painter could copy, and which no poet could describe. Their radiance seemed to send a strange light into the very heart of his congregation, and when he spoke, it was felt that the stir of his voice and the fervour of his words could belong only to the owner of those kindling eyes. His thought was rapid and made its way in new phrases. His enthusiasm seemed to carry him to the point of ecstasy when he expatiated on the beauties of Nature, and when he lifted the veil from her deep mysteries. His body then took motion from his mind; his hair streamed out from his head; his hands were full of nervous action; his light, lithe body seemed to quiver with its eager life. His audience took fire with him, and every face was flushed."
The physicist, John Tyndall, recalled: "Underneath his sweetness and gentleness was the heat of a volcano. He was a man of excitable and fiery nature; but through high self-discipline he had converted the fire into a central glow and motive power of life, instead of permitting it to waste itself in useless passion. Faraday was not slow to anger, but he completely ruled his own spirit, and thus, though he took no cities, he captivated all hearts."
Faraday became a close friend of Angela Burdett-Coutts. According to Edna Healey, the author of Lady Unknown: The Life of Angela Burdett-Coutts (1978): "In Michael Faraday she found a brilliant, searching mind combined with a simple child-like faith that matched her own. The greatest experimental genius of his time, the man who discovered the laws of electrolysis, of light and magnetism, he was at ease in her company. The blacksmith's son who hated the social scene, made exceptions for her... As their friendship grew, he would call on her after the Friday lectures at the Royal Institution, eventually persuading her to apply for membership of the Royal Society."
On 19th January, 1847, Faraday wrote to Miss Burdett-Coutts: "For twenty years I have devoted all my exertions and powers to the advancement of science in this Institution; and for the last ten years or more I have given up all professional business and a large income with it for the same purpose... Although I earnestly desire to see lady members received amongst us, as in former times, do not let anything I have said induce you to do what may be not quite agreeable to your own inclinations." In February 1847 she became a full member of the Royal Society.
Michael Faraday rejected the Presidency of the Royal Society. He told John Tyndall: "Tyndall... I must remain plain Michael Faraday to the last; and let me now tell you, that if accepted the honour which the Royal Society desires to confer upon me, I would not answer for the integrity of my intellect for a single year. On being offered the Presidency of the Royal Society."
The government recognized his contribution to science by granting him a pension and giving him a house in Hampton Court. However, Faraday was unwilling to use his scientific knowledge to help military action and in 1853 refused to help develop poison gases to be used in the Crimean War. Faraday was the author of several books including Experimental Researches in Electricity and Chemical History of the Candle.
In 1853 spiritualism and table-turning became fashionable. Faraday examined the phenomenon and came to the conclusion that table-turning was caused by a quasi-involuntary muscular action, and had nothing to do with supernatural agency. In a letter to The Times stating his results, Faraday concluded by saying that the educational system must be deficient since otherwise well-educated people would not believe in the phenomenon in the way they did.
His biographer, Frank James, has pointed out: "In 1856 Faraday started his last major research project. Following George Gabriel Stokes's work on fluorescence in the early 1850s, which showed that a ray of light could change its wavelength after passing through a solution of sulphate of quinine, Faraday tried to realize this change directly. To achieve this he passed light through beaten gold and later colloidal solutions of gold. The wavelength of light was larger than the size of the gold particles, and yet they still affected the light. He sought to explain this phenomenon but, as with his work on gravity, came to no firm conclusions. Faraday's last piece of experimental work in 1862 was to see if magnetism had any effect on line spectra."
Michael Faraday died at his home, The Green, Hampton Court, where he died on 25th August 1867. He was buried five days later in the Sandemanian plot in Highgate cemetery.

Christopher Latham Sholes


Christopher Latham Sholes was born on February 14, 1819, in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, but as a teenager he moved to Danville, Pennsylvania. It was here that Sholes learned the printer’s trade by working as an apprentice to a printer. At age 18, Sholes relocated to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to join his two brothers, Henry and Charles. Sholes was the editor of the Wisconsin Enquirer for a short while before he relocated to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1845. He became the editor and publisher of the Southport Telegraph, which he published for 17 years. He also dabbled in politics, serving in the Wisconsin Senate from 1848 to 1849 and 1856 to 1857 and in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1852 to 1853. Sholes served as postmaster in Milwaukee during the Civil War and later served as port collector and as commissioner of public works.
Sholes is known for being an active inventor and developed several devices during his newspaper career. His lesser known inventions include a paging/numbering device he created in 1864 and a newspaper addressing machine. These devices helped Sholes develop the first practical typewriter in 1867. Sholes worked closely with Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soules to create the typewriter. The three men were granted a patent for this device on June 23, 1868. Sholes is credited with inventing the typewriter keyboard layout, which is known as QWERTY because of the first six keys ordering in the third row. The ordering was created to separate the most common two letter combinations used in English so that typists encountered less typewriter jams. Since its invention, QWERTY has also become the most common modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computers.
By 1872, the model had been perfected. However, some letters needed to be capitalized, and there was no key for this. Shortly after this time, Sholes sold the copyright to the Remington Arms Company for $12,000, and the machine was first marketed as the “Sholes & Glidden Type Writer” in 1873. Less than 5,000 machines were sold, but Sholes continued to work on advancing the device. In 1878, Sholes created a shift key so that both lower and upper case letters could be used. The advanced machine, 
“Remington No. 2” became a huge success after another decade on the market.

Sholes spent his later years of retirement in Milwaukee and passed away on February 17, 1890. He is buried in the Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.

Rudolph Diesel


Rudolph Diesel was born to Theodor and Elise Diesel in their small Paris apartment at 38 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth. Theodore, in his late twenties, met Elise in Paris in 1855, they were married shortly after. Theodore was a leather worker, making small consumer goods, he had immigrated from Augsburg in Bavaria, in 1848. Elise was also from Augsburg, she was the daughter of a prosperous merchant.
Rudolph had an older sister, Louise, born in 1856, as well as a younger one. The younger sister, Emma, was born in 1859. At that time Theodore was having some business success, and moved the family into a new apartment on "rue de la Fontaine au Roi", where Theodore establish his small business downstairs. Theodore worked his shop from dawn to dusk, six days a week. He was a strong disciplinarian, but unfortunately, a poor manager of funds.
Rudolph was not allowed to bring friends over, and grew into a shy, but curious youngster. He spent most of time drawing and his curious nature almost got him killed when he tinkered with their apartment's gas distribution system. Small lies and screw ups were not tolerated by Rudolph's father, standard punishment was swift and hard.
Rudolph's artistic side was match with excellent academic performance, he spoke three languages. German was spoken at home, French at school, and English which was taught by his mom, a one time governess in London. Rudolph sought refuge and solace spending his free time at the 'Conservatoire des Art Metiers'. A repository for odd and ends of inventions. Rudolph finished elementary school, and was awarded a scholarship for excellence.
Meanwhile, France under the Emperor Napoleon III, was sliding into difficult times. A convenient target of this hardship was the growing confederation known as Germany, and it's dominant Prussian influence. The Diesel considered themselves Bavarian, with more of a French influence than Prussian, but unfortunately France declared war on Prussia on July 19, 1869. The French army was losing ground and displaced persons quickly engulfed Paris seeking refuge. Being of German descent, the Diesels were ordered out of the country. On September 6, the Diesels boarded a steamer from Rouen to New haven, England.
With little comforts, the Diesels manage to get by, Louise, the eldest daughter began to work in a private school. Rudolph was enrolled in a London school to continue his education. He was most impressed by the British Museum and the South Kensington Museum's exhibits of science and engineering. Theodore's cousin, Betty Barnickel, heard of their misfortune and offered to take in Rudolph into their home in Augsburg. So once again Rudolph boarded a steamer across the channel to Rotterdam.
Betty Barnickle was married to Cristoph Barnickel, he was a professor at the Augsburg's Royal District Trade School and they lived in a modest, warm home. They quickly fell in love with Rudolph, after all he was handsome, modest and intelligent. He was enrolled in a three year program at Koniglichen Kreis-Gewerbsschule, which offered outlets for all his deepest passion. Chemistry lab, art gallery, machine  shop and forge provided fertile ground for a young imaginative mind.
On his fourteen birthday, Rudolph announced he was to become an engineer. He wrote to his parents in July, 1871, to let them know his intentions to excel in his choice of career. With the war ending six month earlier, Rudolph's parents had moved back to Paris.
Theodore was anxious for his son to start earning some money, and soon after finishing industrial school, and placing first in his class, Rudolph returned to Paris. Then tragedy struck, Rudolph's sister, Louise, died of heart failure. With the Diesel Family grief-stricken, the Barnickel renewed their offer to have Rudolph come live with them back in Augsburg, Theodore accepted.
In 1883 Rudolph was enrolled in the mechanical engineering program, and as usual he excelled, graduating the youngest student with the highest marks ever. He was awarded a scholarship to Munchen Polytechnic. In Munchen, his interest broaden. He made several friendships during this time. Theodore and Elise then move to Munchen to find their towering son, 185 cm, now a German citizen and granted a scholarship and a deferment from the required three years of military service.
He found his parents a little strange, his father had turn to spirituality soon after his daughters death, he soon set himself up as a faith healer. In July 1879, Rudolph grew sicker as final examinations approached. He was soon diagnosed as having typhus, and spent a miserable, bedridden summer. He survived, but many Germans did not; Betty Barnickel did not.
In January 1880, Rudolph joined the Sulzer Engine Works in Winterthur Switzerland to begin his apprenticeship building refrigeration and steam engines. Although "just" an apprentice, a "bleu monteur" he grew more confident in his convictions and began his harden belief that there must be a better way. A better way to use the energy from the fuel that the most efficient steam plant used. At the time, 90% of the fuel was wasted, a blasphemy to Rudolph, who was raised to loathe waste from his strict father.
Then Rudolph read a book. A book by Sadi Carnot a gifted engineer with a specialization of thermodynamics. Reflexion sur la puissance motrisse de feu was published in 1824 and cut right to the heart of the heat engine, and gave us the "First Law of Thermodynamics"; which is "heat and mechanical energy are convertible to each other, but are never created or destroyed, only changed in form". Along with the other two "laws" Rudolph found the ideals he wanted to achieve.
As usual, Rudolph made quite an impression with his peers and supervisors, he was soon sent to Paris to oversee the building of a refrigeration plant. Although a jump in statute to white collar, he still earn blue collar wages; much too meagre of an existence, void of comforts.
But all that would change in the following year, 1881, Rudolph would finally see some payoff. He would see his salary double, his first patent (production of table ice in glass containers) and a love interest in the form of a mistress, Martha Flasche from the United States. She was the Governess of a well to do German family, the Brandes. The Brandes approved of Rudolph; his smarts, talents and growing salary were hard to ignore.
With the patent secured, Rudolph began to search for a manufacturer to build it. He then kindles a friendship with the Augsburg Machine Works in the town where he had studied. Carl Buz, and Carl Augustus Reichenbach, once managers, were now owners of the Machine Works. Soon they were making parts for Diesel's refrigeration machine. In late 1883, the ice machine worked and in November he and Martha were married. A whirlwind year ensued. Income was coming in from the refrigeration machine, good thing too, he and Martha give birth to their first child, Rudolph Jr.
In October 1885, Heddy, a baby girl is born, Martha and Rudolph second child, amidst economic troubles. France sentiment against the German and even Swiss made the ice machines a hard sell. As a result, Rudolph's income suffered. Violent headaches forgotten since his childhood, came back. On May 3, 1889, their third child is born, Eugen arrives into the world.
Amidst strong anti German sentiment in 1889, Rudolph is the only German engineer invited to give a his paper, "Revue Technique de l'Exposition Universelle" at the International Engineering Congress. Although he was warmly accepted as a Frenchman, he traded away his French refrigeration franchise, for the sales rights in Germany and some money. The new job was headquartered in Berlin, and Rudolph moved his family there in 1890. Martha loved it, but Rudolph had a hard time adjusting to the Prussian military social atmosphere.
But a chance encounter with an school mate rekindles his competitive spirit. He began to work his theories into an engine design, at first, it is declined a patent. On appeal, his "not original" idea is patented on February 28, 1892. He now had 15 years of protection and a need to find a builder for it. Remembering his friends at Augsburg, Rudolph approached Buz.
Buz, being the methodical, and accomplished engineer, turned him down. The design was based on "The theory and construction of a rational heat engine to replace steam engine and contemporary combustion engine" a title that didn't exactly warm Buz's heart, or make his factory's chief engineer - a staunch supporter of steam engines, enthusiastic about the new idea. He rewrote the manuscript, and Buz accepted to build a prototype. Patent were further sought in Germany, USA and England with a more confine description of the operation.
Rudolph's ideas result in a steady pay check for his work on the development of the new prime mover, and even better payoff if it becomes all that it is supposed to be. He goes on a frenzy of contract signing and names like Krupp and Sulzer lines up to sign deals to be part of the action. When the test began in July, and finally the first run, Rudolph realized it was not going to be easy, so much so, he moved the family into a more modest apartment. The engine showed promised, but it needed far reaching re-engineering.
Meanwhile, Cristoph Barnickel, in his fifties and widowed three years earlier, was dating Emma, Rudolph's youngest sister. They built a house after their marriage in September, and invite Rudolph to stay in Augsburg while he worked on the new engine. The new engine, redesigned ran for 88 revolutions - one minute, on February 17, 1894. Shortly after, Maschinefabrik Augsburg's stock rose by 30%. On January 17, 1895 Rudolph's patent was almost up, and they hurried to have a prototype running in order to maintain the patent. In between deal signing and brainstorming episodes they succeeded. The engine ran; all 16.93kW with an efficiency of 16.6%, and he was given the patent.
The first engine ready for testing was built on December 31, 1896; a much different engine than the one they had started with.
In 1897, Rudolph was busy; finally some financial success was coming to him. Companies were approaching him for the rights to build his new efficient engine. At home, Martha and the kids were moved into a new, luxurious apartment, complete with a staff. Rudolph also had a desire to build a mansion, and he bought a lot in Munchen for that purpose. He was gifted in many different fields, "including" personal finances, his gift was that no matter how much came in, more went out. All was not doom and gloom, as he took advantage of his windfall, taking up hobbies like photography, and enjoying the theatre and opera.
Making new friends was also in the cards. Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Aldolphus Busch, a German immigrant who made it big brewing beer in the United States. The Busch were very wealthy and had the means to build Diesel's engine in the US. Upon advise from his adviser, Busch himself went to Germany, he then proceeded to buy the rights by nonchalantly writing a check for 1,000,000 marks. It was only the beginning. Newly formed companies line up for the opportunity to build the new engine.
On his fortieth birthday, Rudolph was riding high. A millionaire, on paper, five times over, a wife traveling the elite social crowds, three beautiful, smart children; along with his personal health and demeanour being radiant. This was thanks to his idea of a better world, and his hard work to put it together. Indeed a wonderful time for him.
In order to manage the explosive growth of the Diesel engine. Rudolph establishes a company to manage the licensing. It buys all patent, and is tasked with the further developments and management of the new engine. It is called the General Diesel Corporation, and is founded on September 17, 1898. Rudolph is paid a sum of 3.5 million German marks. Shortly after, he is diagnosed with nervous exhaustion and enters a private sanatorium in Munchen.
After leaving the sanatorium, not feeling any better, he was further agonized by the fantastic fortune beginning to roll in and the problems associated with it. The violent headaches were becoming more prevalent. The doctors decide that a "rest castle" in the Alps might be better for him, then the sanatorium close to home in April of 1898. While there, Rudolph invested heavily into an oil development in the Balkans, it went sour. He had lost 300,000 marks, at a time when his "dream" mansion, Maria - Theresia _ Strasse 32, was taking shape.
The mansion was magnificent. It had all the "modern luxuries", as well as kids amenities. Plumbing and wired to the highest standards, marble fireplaces in every room. Even the windows were custom made. The decoration was luxurious. Painted, vaulted ceiling, French furniture, Italian wardrobes etc. All, for a staggering sum of money. The Diesel's financial situation was hinging precariously close to disaster.
But all was not doomed. Rudolph was invited witness the first flight of the 128 meter Luftshiftf Zeppelin 1 airship. In 1900, the grandest event ever. The Diesel engine takes the Grand Prix, the highest prize, at the 1900 Paris Exposition. The exposition was attended by 50 million people. In 1904 Rudolph attended a car race in Germany, he came back excited, with one of his own, a machine, which could go so fast, a gas powered Mercedes. But he overestimated his ability to drive it, mainly his vision and gouty right foot, so he hired a driver. 
Later in that year Rudolph decided to travel to the United States. After spending some time in New York City, he traveled to St Louis where he was a guest of Adolphus Busch who was having a tough time selling the engine in the United State. He traveled far and wide, and took all the sight in. Amazingly, the trip rejuvenated him, and as soon as he came back to Germany, he designed and built a four cylinder "petite" version of his engine. That engine later wins the Grand Prix in Paris in 1910, once again.
In 1907 his daughter Heddy marries Arnold von Schmidt, an engineer. It's the social event of the year in Munchen. Amidst the wedding joy, the headaches came back, with an astonishing loss of 3.5 millions marks, it was no wonder. Additionally the patent ran out on the Diesel engine; indeed a tumultuous year for the Diesels.
In 1911, Rudolph is invited to be co-guest of honor with Sir Charles Parsons at the World Congress of Mechanical Engineers in London. Sir Parsons was the inventor of the compound steam turbine. Continuing in his travels, he and Martha go to the US once again to help Mr. Busch sell the floundering diesel engine in America. But America the land of plenty, the country has too many resources to really care about an efficient engine.
They return to the Germany and a lawsuit from a real estate company, he is forced to pay 600,000 marks. The headaches grow in severity. The latest financial woes brings up the total losses of the Diesel's up to nearly ten million marks. In 1913, he published a book about the origins of the Diesel engine. It makes a small dent into the his debt.
Along with war brewing in the Balkans and being a pacifist, times are hard. He takes life a bit slower, taking time to enjoy simpler things, like hiking. He sold the car to help pay some of his debts, and his friends commented on a "less proud man" that Mr. Diesel had become. His son, Rudolph, left school to become a clerk, much to the disappointment of Rudolph the senior. He soon married and had a son. Eugen, the Diesel's youngest son, had an intense desire to follow in his dad's footstep. Like his father, he apprentices as a "bleu monteur" at Sulzer.
With a mortgage on the new mansion, and war breaking out in the Balkans, the future seem quite bleak for Rudolph. He had been invited to England to dine with Sir Parsons. Martha had left to visit her mother in Remscheid. Before meeting up with Martha, he summoned his eldest son for a short visit. Rudolph Jr. later states that their time together was "bizarre", his father had taken him around the house and showed him the keys for the rooms. Eugen had left for Sulzer in Switzerland.
Rudolph on his way to England spends two weeks in Frankfurt with Heddy, Martha, and his grandchildren. Before leaving, he leaves with Martha a leather case, with instruction that it be well looked after, and not opened. On September 26, 1913, he boarded a slow train to Belgium, first class. In Gent, he checked in to the Hotel de la Poste, where 31 years earlier he had met Martha. He wrote her a loving, but confused letter; he misaddressed it and the letter does not reach her until a lengthy detour. On the 28, he writes his son, mentioning his headaches and insomnia troubles.
The next afternoon he boarded the steamer Dresden at Antwerp, with the line's owner and it's chief engineer, George Carels and Alfred Laukman, they had a pleasant dinner and Rudolph, he was said to be in good spirits. When Rudolph did not meet Mr Carels and Mr Laukman for breakfast, the ship was searched. Mr Diesel's cabin was empty, the bed had not been slept in and the luggage had not been opened. His coat and hat was found neatly folded under the stern railing. Capt H Hubert ordered the ship to search but to no avail, he was reported missing. The inventor's notebook had a small cross under the 29 of September, nothing else.
On October 10, a Belgian steamer Coertsen spotted a body in the water, it was left at sea. The effects taken from the body were later identified by Eugen Diesel in the Dutch port of Vlissingen as his father's articles. When Martha opened the bag Rudolph had left for her, she found twenty thousand marks, and financial statements showing all bank accounts were empty. It was evident Rudolph had taken his life.

Nicolaus Otto



Nicolaus Otto was born on June 14, 1832 in Holzhausen, Germany. Otto's first occupation was as a traveling salesman selling tea, coffee, and sugar. He soon developed an interest in the new technologies of the day and began experimenting with building four-stroke engines (inspired by Lenoir's two-stroke gas-driven internal combustion engine). After meeting Eugen Langen, a technician and owner of a sugar factory, Otto quit his job, and in 1864, the duo started the world's first engine manufacturing company N.A. Otto & Cie (now DEUTZ AG, Köln). In 1867, the pair were awarded a Gold Medal at the Paris World Exhibition for their atmospheric gas engine built a year earlier.

In May 1876, Nicolaus Otto built the first practical four-stroke piston cycle internal combustion engine. He continued to develop his four-stroke engine after 1876 and he considered his work finished after his invention of the first magneto ignition system for low voltage ignition in 1884. Otto's patent (see drawing below) was overturned in 1886 in favor of the patent granted to Alphonse Beau de Roaches for his four-stroke engine. However, Otto built a working engine while Roaches' design stayed on paper. On October 23, 1877, another patent for a gas-motor engine was issued to Nicolaus Otto, and Francis and William Crossley.

Nicolaus Otto died at age 59, on January 26, 1891, in Cologne.