-Summarize each of the inventions you studied this week and how they impacted history. Also, explain the most interesting thing you learned this week, and why.
Lesson 31: The Combine Harvester
Hiram Moore was born in 1801 in New Hampshire. After he grew up he moved to Michigan and there he met a man by the name of John Hascall. Hascall had moved to Michigan to escape the conflict that was going on with the Freemasons. Hascall had a problem. He had a wheat crop and no men to help him harvest the wheat. Hascall’s wife had a dream. She saw, in her dream a machine that was pulled by two horses while it cut and harvested the wheat. John Hascall told Hiram Moore about his wife’s dream and in 1834 when he was 33, Hiram Moore invented the Combine Harvester.
The Harvester was pulled by 18 horses not 2 and it was a mini portable mill. It helped reduce farm work and it changed the world.
This invention was the most interesting thing I learned this week because I think it is interesting that a woman’s dream practically invented the Combine Harvester. In America we have a huge crop industry and a lot of it would not be possible without the Harvester.
Lesson 32: The Solar Compass
Rome had professional Surveyors. New surveying instruments appeared around the 1500s and a public surveying department was set up in 1785.
William Austin Burt was born in Massachusetts in 1792. He was the 5th of 7 children and he developed an interest in navigation. He believed that his call in life was to help people. He invented lots of things like the typographer (typewriter) and a instrument for sailors to use but I am going to review something else. Burt became a surveyor for the U.S. government and taught his 5 sons all about surveying so they became surveyors as well. To solve the problem of magnetic interference he invented the Solar Compass in 1835.
One of the benefits of the Solar Compass was that it had no reliance on the Earth’s magnetic field. It also had movable parts to determine the position of true north and an hour circle. The earliest shooting time was 8:30 in the morning. One rotated the revolving limb to the local hour time then rotated the whole compass until the sun filled the tic tac toe plate and you were now facing true north.
Burt won an award from the Franklin institute, and also demonstrated the compass at the World’s Fair in 1852. But, the patent on it expired. The U.S. government, rather dishonestly, then made the compass the standard surveying tool so they did not have to pay a royalty to Burt. And they would not renew his patent.
The benefits of the Solar Compass were that property lines were drawn straight, and accidentally iron was discovered in Michigan. That iron led to the growth of the steel industry.
Lesson 33: The Propeller
The basic forms of boat propulsion is rowing. Archimedes invented the Versatile Screw around 250 BC and people began experimenting with the idea of using it on boats.
Francis Pettit Smith was born in 1808 in England. He had a good education and his father worked for the post office. As a child he was fascinated by boats and as he grew older he was interested in boat propulsion. He invented the Screw Propeller in 1835.
It was better than the paddle wheel because it was lighter and had more efficient fuel costs. It did not rock ships as much on stormy seas and was easier to navigate. It was cheaper to install and turned rotation into linear motion.
Another inventor named John Erickson invented one as well 6 weeks later and he tried to get the navy’s support by building a 45 foot long boat and sailed it along a river, but the navy was not impressed. Smith took his propeller out to sea and while we was on the ocean there was a storm. Smith’s propeller handled the storm fine and won the navy’s support.
Lesson 34: The Mechanical Computer
The Egyptians and Greeks used a device called the abacus to do math and Rome had an even more complicated abacus. Blase Pascal invented the mechanical calculator in 1642 and the Leibniz wheel was invented in 1673.
Charles Babbage was born in London in 1791. He grew up wealthy and had a good education. He self taught himself math and loved Mathematics. He depended on his father for money but after his father died he inherited all his father’s wealth. He noticed the books of data tables had errors. He wanted to fix that so Babbage Designed his “Analytical Engine in 1835.
It used punch cards and did most things like modern computers. It had a data memory and printed tables automatically and accurately.
He never built the machine but he also designed a Difference Engine. Adda Lovelace was fascinated by the concept. She became the world’s first computer programmer.
His machines never had much impact on history but his Difference Engine was built in 2002. It took 17 years to build. The Harvard Mark 1 was built by IBM in 1939 and Babbage’s work helped build it. IBM developed the PC market in 1981 and through the 1980s.
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