SPECIAL DECENNIAL EDITION
DECEMBER 1, 1910 | ISSUE NO. 78
The Inventor's Times A recap of inventions, inventors, and American genius in the last century Written by Eric Ho, Gabriel Marks, Jia Hua Ye, Vahn Williams and Jacky Peng
War of Currents: AC v. DC By Eric Ho
You Won't Believe What These Two Brothers Have Done! By Gabriel Marks
The Maxim Gun is Here To Save You More Time and Fire More Bullets By Jia Hua Ye The Great Cyrus McCormick By Jacky Peng
Cigarette Rollers Hate This Man By Vahn Williams
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
You Won't Believe What These Two Brothers Have Done! The Wright Brothers work on creating and improving flying contraptions called planes. BY GABRIEL MARKS
HOW IT WORKS The machine works by way of a motor that the brothers custom made to fit their plane, as well as a custom built transmission. It also includes a complex control system that allows the plane to turn in any direction. To actually launch the plane, the brothers created a 60-foot long rail for the plane to start moving on before it took off. The majority of the plane is two layers of fabric over a frame of ash wood. This machine, while as heavy as 750 pounds, uses the power of wind with its motor to keep aloft.
Orville in the machine and Wilbur on the beach HISTORY
APPLICATIONS
In December 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright of the Wright Cycle Company tested a flying machine. These boys have been trying for four years to make a working powered plane, and they've finally done it! Using the "Wright Flyer," Wilbur stayed in the air for a whole minute. This notion of flying machines opens up a whole new world for us in the air.
If we can get flying machines to be more stable, we can travel across land and sea faster than ever before. A few years ago, any man would've thought the notion of a flying human was ridiculous. That's the birds' jobs. And in fact, some skeptics are questioning that the flights occurred, although we do have a picture to prove that, indeed, the flight did happen.
DID YOU KNOW? The Wright Brothers
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INVENTIONS FROM THE PREVIOUS CENTURY
The Maxim Gun is Here To Save You More Time and Fire More Bullets
The Maxim Gun drastically improves the basic rifle, increasing fire rates and effectiveness. BY JIA HUA YE
HOW IT WORKS Instead of using man power to reinsert the next bullet, this Maxim gun utilizes energy from recoil to shoot out each cartridge and insert the next one, where no external power was needed. It allows for more efficient ejection of bullets, unlike the previous guns such as the Nordenfelt and Gatling weapons. Trials had shown that the Maxim gun can fire up to 600 bullets per minute, which is equivalent to the firepower of about 100 rifles. RESULTS IN BATTLE During the Battle of the Shangani in 1893, British forces used FOUR Maxim guns and defeated 5,000 soldiers with only 700 of their men. After hearing about the success rate of Maxim guns, many inventors started to create more machine guns based on the same concept. One of the most popular guns used by the British army during World War One was the Vikers machine guns, which were also developed based on the powerful Maxim guns.
A loaded Maxim Gun being operated by Maxim himself HISTORY In 1884, Britain inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim created the first self-powered machine gun. Maxim was born in February 1840 in America, but later moved to the United Kingdom at when he was 41. Maxim mentioned that he met a man who told him, “If you wanted to make a lot of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each other's throats with greater facility.” It is said that Maxim was inspired after a rifle’s recoil
knocked him over, and decided to develop a machine gun that’s operated by recoil. APPLICATIONS Obviously, the Maxim gun will help improve weapons used for warfare. It can be used as an offensive tool or can be used to defend an area. The reduced recoil and rapid fire works to bring even the most daunting armies to the ground.
Maxim Gun
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Cigarette Rollers Hate This Man! The Cigarette roller is mechanized and can produce cigarettes at a fraction of the time that a person takes. BY VAHN WILLIAMS
Joseph Rosenblum looks on with dismay as the Bonsack machine does his job with fifty times the efficiency HISTORY
IMPACT ON LABOR
Big shot businessman James Duke, one of the nation’s leading tobacco industrialists, just made the business investment of a lifetime. Duke joined forces with inventor James Bonsack, who has created a marvelous invention—a true game-changer for the tobacco industry. Introducing the automatic cigarette roller.
Mr. Duke’s hardworking employees (mostly Jews) can each roll on the order of four cigarettes per minute. Bonsack’s machine can do the work of 50 human cigarette rollers. Do the math! “Bonsack’s contraption will forever alter the face of the U.S. tobacco industry,” says Duke. “More importantly, it’ll make me filthy rich. Like, even filthier than before. Seriously, the thing’s awesome.”
Professional cigarette rollers feel otherwise. “Oy vey!” says Shmuel Cantor, 43, of W. Duke Sons and Co. “Don’t get me started about the machine. The machine ruins everything! It ruins my life!” Joseph Rosenblum explains: “Our wages were already low to begin with. And since I started at Mr. Duke’s company, feh, about six years ago, my salary has risen as high as matzah! Now this schmuck Bonsack schleps his machine all the way to Durham, and expects us to grin as he replaces us with cold, hard metal? The man’s got chutzpah! Well, I tell you, I’ve had it. I’m about to plotz. This schlub is mashugana, and I don’t want him futzing around with my life. Someone’s gotta bring home the gelt, I don’t see the machine struggling to support a wife and kids on a cigarette roller’s wage! Feh!” There you go, the height of innovation, bringing you higherquality cigarettes at lower prices! The Bonsack machine is simply faster, sleeker, and less likely to go on strike due to insufficient pay than any human cigarette roller. It’s truly amazing what state-of-the-art technology modern insight has brought us. It’s times like these that really make you appreciate American ingenuity and the beauty of the modern era! Welcome to the Golden Age of Industry!
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THE WORK OF AN INVENTOR AND ITS EFFECTS
The Great Cyrus McCormick THE REAPER: REAPING THE WEALTH FOR AMERICA BY JACKY PENG
A diagram of a reaper used to revolutionize farming LIFE OF MCCORMICK
APPLICATIONS
Cyrus McCormick was an innovator, entrepreneur, and passionate worker. In 1831, McCormick took over his father’s project of designing a mechanical reaper, while working on their Virginia farm. It’s early design involved today’s modern reaper of a divider, a reel, a reciprocating knife, a finger, a platform for stalks, a main wheel and gearing, and a draft traction in the front. In 1834, McCormick patent his finished design, and he was ready for the outside competition.
With the invention of the reaper, farmers were allowed to farm without limits. The amount of grain that was able to be cut by hand during harvest season was incomparable to the amount that the reaper was able to cut. One reaper could harvest as much wheat as half a dozen farmhands. As a result, the reaper had completely revolutionized the industry.
EFFECTS The increase in harvesting allowed the American economy to flourish. More food was in circulation, which dropped the prices of food, so that the average American could afford it. The presence of the reaper also allowed farmers to work in factories during the Industrial Revolution, instead of handpicking grains. With the addition of farmers in the industrial workforce, America’s growth rate indefinitely. The reaper also aided struggling farmers, as McCormick allowed his consumers to buy the reaper off of credit. Struggling farmers were able to have a chance to dig themselves up from the depths of debt. The reaper allowed McCormick to implement a system of credit and money-back guarantee. With the invention and constant improvements of the reaper, other inventions like mowers and harvesters were created, which are still used today. The reaper not impacted the economy and farmers workforce in a positive, but it allowed them to “Work, work, work.” - Cyrus McCormick.
Cyrus McCormick
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COMPETITION BETWEEN INVENTORS
The War of Currents: AC/DC The competition between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla to prove that their electrical transmission system was superior led to rapid development. BY ERIC HO
Thomas Alva Edison
LIFE AND SUCCESS Thomas Edison, also known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, was raised with little formal education, but is one of the most successful inventors of our time. As a pioneer in electricity and its applications, he has built a lucrative business by himself by pushing to expand the availability of electricity to wealthy consumers. His invention plant, set up in 1876 in Menlo Park, New Jersey, is where Edison spent long hours creating machines that could be profitable. Shortly after setting up in Menlo Park in 1877, Edison unveiled his phonograph, a crude record player. His success as a inventor continued as he continued to create new machines and a reputation for himself. Edison's work is not restricted to the sole experimentation and research of an inexpensive electric light bulb; his success has compelled him to develop ways to generate and supply power to New York City. By the end of the century, Edison has had an extraordinary amount of success in his endeavors and manage to build many electric generators all of which used direct current (DC) transmission.
Nikola Tesla
BEGINNINGS AND ARRIVING IN THE U.S. Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia and as a child, he quickly gained an interest in mathematics and science. He attended a polytechnic college in Graz, Austria where a professor demonstrated how a dynamo, a DC generator, worked. When Tesla suggested ways to improve the dynamo, he was met with doubt and laughter. In 1881 after dropping out of college, Tesla discovered the principle of a rotating magnetic field during a walk in the park. In 1882, he worked in Paris for the Continental Edison Company and built a prototype alternating current (AC) motor. He decided to come to New York in 1884 to further improve his prototype and get more publicity. When he arrived, he worked for the Edison company solely on DC electricity but left a year later when Edison refused to pay for an invention.
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FIGHT FOR DC SUPPORT Thomas Edison supported direct current electrical transmission although there were limitations to the effective distance of a generator. He built all his generators running on DC at 110 volts because he believed that AC was too dangerous to effectively control and use. Edison also tried to protect his business since he had already built many DC generators, the first of which was established on Pearl Street in New York City. COMPETITION AND DOWNFALL Edison soon realized that AC power was becoming a real competitor. Nikola Tesla had sold his patents to George Westinghouse, an American Inventor with patents relating to railroads. Tesla's system was more efficient, so Edison banked on declaring AC as being extremely unsafe and even planned the first electric chair executions using Westinghouse's AC system. His methods of proving the danger of AC extended to killing stray animals using AC. Unfortunately for Edison, Westinghouse outbid his General Electric Company to the lighting of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. DC soon fell out of favor as AC became the cheaper and better choice.
George Westinghouse
FIGHT FOR AC SUPPORT Nikola Tesla supported alternating current electrical transmission because he believed that the full power of electricity was not being harnessed by DC transmission. In theory, AC generators would be much stronger and would produce power traveled much farther distances than DC generators. The large amount of voltage however, meant that AC power was not suitable for most everyday use.
WESTINGHOUSE AND VICTORY Nikola Tesla sold his patents to George Westinghouse, who in turn made the AC system more popular. Despite Edison's efforts to show the dangers of AC, the effectiveness of AC generators were unbeatable. Westinghouse seized opportunities to power the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and Niagara Falls in 1895. Tesla also developed a transformer which allowed for consumers to lower the voltage of electricity supplied. AC was now cheaper to produce and traveled farther distances. As a result, Tesla and AC had won the War of Currents.
Tesla's patent for a dynamo
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References "Maxim Gun." Spartacus Educational. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://spartacuseducational.com/FWWmaximgun.htm. "Maxim Machine Gun." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.britannica.com/technology/Maxim-machine-gun. "Nikola Tesla." American History. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://americanhistory.abcclio.com/Search/Display/248006. "People & Events: Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884)." PBS. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/p_mccormick.html. "The Bonsack Machine and Labor Unrest." Learn NC. 2008. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newsouth/4705 "The Wright Brothers." Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Accessed January 12, 2016. https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1903/index.cfm. Hamilton, Neil. "George Westinghouse." American History. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/248141 Kremer, William. "The Man Whose Creation Killed Millions." BBC News. November 13, 2012. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20042217 McGuire, William, and Leslie Wheeler. "Thomas Edison." American History. Accessed January 12, 2016. http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/246742.