Tag Archives: Invention

Gas Cylinder

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Gas Cylinder

No balloon helium without gas cylinders.

  • ‘Gas cylinders’ are also known as ‘gas tanks’ and ‘gas bottles’.
  • Gas cylinders are hollow storage that is made to withstand highly pressurised gas.
  • Gas cylinders are typically made of non-welded and non-corrosive steel or carbon fibre, and often contain composite materials.
  • Depending on the country, gas cylinders must be tested and checked often to ensure the cylinder has not become weak or corroded, as this can be very dangerous.
  • Gas cylinders that contain helium gas have to withhold the highest interior pressure.

Gas cylinder, helium, compressed, balloon, nozzle, brown, Ten Random Facts

  • When storing, gas cylinders should be stored upright and chained down to prevent the cylinder from falling over.
  • Gas cylinders are sometimes colour coded in some countries to indicate the type of gas it may contain, although one should not rely on the colour coding as it is best to always check the label.
  • Animal bladders were used as types of early gas cylinders in the 1700s.
  • Seamless steel pipes were invented in the late 1800s in Germany by two Mannesmann brothers, Max and Reinhard, which were quickly used as gas cylinders, and are similar to today’s versions.
  • The gas contained in a gas cylinder usually exits via a valve at the top of the container.
Bibliography:
An Industry under Pressure, 2005, GAWDA, http://www.weldingandgasestoday.org/index.php/2005/06/an-industry-under-pressure/
Gas cylinder, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_cylinder

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Acrylic Paint

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Acrylic Paint

Express art beautifully using acrylic paint.

  • Acrylic paint is a paint that is made from the combination of pigment and acrylic polymer emulsion, which contains acrylic resin and water.
  • The resin used in acrylic paints was first patented in 1915 by a chemist and inventor Otto Röhm from Germany.
  • Acrylic paints began to be developed in the 1920s to the 1940s and were able to be bought commercially in the 1950s.
  • Acrylic paints is a practical paint when cleaning, as it is water soluble, making it generally easily removed with water, but once it is dried on canvas, it can prove difficult to remove.
  • Acrylic paints have characteristics that can be easily modified with mediums or water, which can affect the way it looks when dried, as well as its texture, and hardness.

Acrylic Paint, Dry, Liquid, Yellow, Blue, Green, Red, White, Tray, Tube, Easy art. Ten Random Facts

  • There are two main grades of acrylic paint, and they generally reflect the quality and how much pigment exists in the paint, with ‘artist’ or ‘professional’ grade paint being the best quality and including more pigment, with a ‘student’ or ‘studio’ grade being a cheaper paint with less pigment.
  • Acrylic paints can often resemble oil paints or water paints, or have the unique texture of acrylics.
  • Acrylic paints are often used in schools as they can be produced with non-toxic ingredients, and they are also used professionally by artists, as well as being the base or the main ingredient of water-based house paints.
  • Acrylic paints were popular during the pop art, abstract art and photorealism periods in the 1900s, and have remained very popular due to their flexible nature, providing less cracking; versatility; and their quick drying characteristics.
  • Acrylic paint is often used in techniques such as repetitive paint coats and is often glossed with a gloss medium for finishing and sealing the work.
Bibliography:
Acrylic Paint, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylic_paint
History of Acrylic Painting, 2014, ARTmine, http://www.art-mine.com/for-sale/paintings-submedium-acrylic/history-of-acrylic-painting

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Nikola Tesla

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Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an inventor of many ideas and less inventions.

  • Nikola Tesla was a Serbian American who was a renowned inventor for his AC (alternating current) electrical system, and he was also an engineer, physicist, futurist and author.
  • Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July, 1856 in Smiljan in the Austrian Empire, now Croatia, in Europe, and died quietly on 7 January 1943 in America’s New York, but was not discovered dead until the next day, by a maid.
  • Nikola Tesla was to be a priest, like his father, but when Tesla caught life-threatening cholera; his father promised he could go to an engineering university.
  • Nikola Tesla spent much of his life in the United States, and became a citizen of the country in 1891 at age 35, originally working for future rival Thomas Edison in the 1880s, but later working for himself.
  • Nikola Tesla had at least 278 official patents for some of his inventions, with many being improvements to technology, in areas of radio, magnetism and, particularly electricity, and he also experimented significantly with x-rays.

Nikola Tesla, Greyscale, Painting, Ten Random Facts, Inventor, Flickr

Tesla
Image courtesy of Theirry Ehrmann/Flickr

  • The SI unit (System of Units) of measurement for the strength of a magnetic field was named after Nikola Tesla, and is known as a ‘tesla’.
  • Although Nikola Tesla earned much money from his patents, Tesla experienced bankruptcy and died in debt, since much of his money was spent on new experiments.
  • Nikola Tesla was primarily 1.88 metres (6 feet 2 inch) in height, 64 kilograms (142 pounds) in weight, had a liking for pigeons, did not generally sleep longer than two hours a night, is believed to have had obsessive-compulsive disorder and a photographic memory, and died unmarried.
  • Nikola Tesla has a planet, ‘2244 Tesla’, and a crater named after him, and he also a number of other honours and memorials, including a monument that was unveiled in September 2013 in New York.
  • Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre opened in 2006, in his hometown in Croatia, featuring Tesla’s inventions, innovations, statues and even his ashes.
Bibliography:Nikola Tesla, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
Vujovic L, Tesla’s Biography, 1998, Tesla Memorial Society of New York, http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

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Speedometer

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Speedometer

Do not drive over the speed limit while reading these speedometer facts.

  • ‘Speedometers’ are also known as ‘speed meters’ and historically, ‘velocimeters’, that were typically made from metal alloy materials, but are now partly or mostly made from plastics.
  • Speedometers are devices which measure the speed of a vehicle that travels on land, and most automobiles have been equipped with one since 1910.
  • In 1888, Josip Belušić, an inventor from Europe’s Croatia, invented the first electric speedometer.
  • On 7 October, 1902, eddy current speedometers were first patented by Otto Schulze, a German inventor, and these magnetically driven instruments have been the most popular speed measuring instruments in the last hundred years.
  • The ‘visible’ part of the speedometer has a moving needle surrounded by spokes and numbers, and the location of the needle on the device indicates the speed.

Speedometer, White, km/h, electric, 20 to 220, Ten Random Facts, Car

  • Eddy current speedometers have a cable that is connected to gears, usually in the transmission, that connects to a magnet which affects the needle on the instrument, that indicates the vehicle’s speed.
  • The type of speedometers in new use today are commonly electronic, invented in the 1980s and 1990s, involving sensors and electromagnetic pulses that are read by a computer.
  • Inaccuracy of speedometers most commonly occur due to faults, and differences in tyre diameters, with very minor errors occurring for reasons such as temperature.
  • Some speedometers use the Global Positioning System, or GPS, to calculate speeds, with accuracy depending on the accuracy of the GPS.
  • Leonardo da Vinci designed concepts of a speedometer type of instrument, and ancient civilisations had crude ways of measuring speed and distance.
Bibliography:
Kretschmann, Speedometer, 2014, How Products are Made, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Speedometer.html
Speedometer, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedometer
Vintage Speedometers, 2013, Rare Car Relics, http://www.rarecarrelics.com/vintage_speedometers.php

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Vegemite

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Vegemite

“Happy little vegemites.” – Slogan.

  • Vegemite is a healthy black-brown food spread made primarily from yeast extract, as well as malt and vegetable extracts, with the addition of salt and flavours.
  • Vegemite was invented by the Australian chemist, Cyril P Callister, in 1922 in Melbourne, for the Fred Walker Company, later owned by Kraft, and is now the property of Mondelēz International.
  • Vegemite qualifies as a savoury foodstuff, and is popularly used as spread on products such as bread or toast, biscuits and crumpets, often with cheese, lettuce, tomato, butter or avocado, and as a flavouring in dishes like soup, stew and casseroles.
  • Consumers buy approximately 22 million jars of Vegemite each year, and the spread is one of a number of similar products, including Marmite of New Zealand, Britain and South Africa, Promite of Australia, Cenovis of Switzerland and Hefeextrakt of Germany.
  • Vegemite is very high in a range of B vitamins, although it is best spread thinly, as the taste is quite salty, and it can taste a bit like malt, as well as being a little bitter.

Vegemite, Yeast Extract Spread, Food, Black, Dark, Container, Ten Random Facts

  • The name ‘Vegemite’ came from a chance competition in 1923, with prize money of 50 pounds, that was equivalent to $3,527 in 2010, and was named by Hilda and Laurel Armstrong.
  • The spread was renamed ‘Parwill’ for a time, a name from its new slogan ‘If Marmite… then Parwill’, due to lack of sales, but it was changed back to ‘Vegemite’ for the same reason.
  • Vegemite lacked popularity until 1937, when a limerick competition with substantial prizes caused the product to become more well known, and it was later used to supplement the Australian army’s nutrient intake in World War II, and within a decade of the competition, the product was used in 9 out of 10 homes.
  • Vegemite was, in 1984, Australia’s first product to be commercially and electronically scanned using a barcode at a checkout.
  • Vegemite has been sold in various sized glass jars, porcelain jars, tins, tubes, pots, plastic cups, portion control packaging, and a number of reusable containers, and the product has been combined with cream cheese to produce a product called ‘Vegemite Cheesybite’.
Bibliography:
Vegemite, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite
The Vegemite Story, n.d, Vegemite, http://www.vegemite.com.au/pages/the-vegemite-story.aspx

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Saxophone

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Saxophone

“The potential for the saxophone is unlimited.” Steve Lacey

  • Saxophones are usually a curved, hollow, metal cylinder, with a bell, keys and a mouthpiece with a reed, and different variations and alterations can make different sounds.
  • A ‘Saxophone’ is also known as a ‘sax’, while those who play the instrument are known as ‘saxophonists’.
  • Saxophones are musical instruments of woodwind class, although though are generally made of brass.
  • In 1840, Adolphe Sax, an instrument maker from Belgium, invented the saxophone to bring balance to the combination of woodwinds, brass, and strings, and in the few years following, they were marketed in Paris.
  • Saxophones were first patented in 1846, with a range of 14 instruments that included an E flat and F sopranino, and an E flat and F contrabass, and also other instruments pitched in C and F, as well as the B flat and E flat saxophones that are commonly used today.

Saxophone, King 660, Gold, Silver, Alto, Ten Random Facts, Instrument, Woodwind, copper

  • Saxophones became the subject of modification from 1866, due to Sax’s expired patent; with multiple changes to the keys and a major addition of the F# key.
  • Saxophones are most commonly used in jazz and classical music genres, and are very commonly used in military bands and jazz bands.
  • There are nine instruments in the family of saxophones, all typically pitched in E or B flat, and the most common are, from smallest to largest, soprano, alto, tenor and baritone.
  • Saxophones are generally coated with an acrylic lacquer or often plated with silver to stop the brass from discolouring, but nickel and gold are also used to coat the instrument.
  • Soprano saxophones are usually straight, rather than the typical curved shape, and other straight sax instruments are also available, including the saxello, which has a curved top and a tilted bell.
Bibliography:
The History of the Saxophone, 2014, The Saxophone.com, http://www.the-saxophone.com/history-of-the-saxophone.html
Saxophone, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone

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