The Industrial Times KATIE FOX March 2011
Contents 5 Guglielmo Marconi
6 Louis Pasteur
10 Nikola Tesla
14 Richard Trevithick
18 Sigmund Freud
22 Editorial
26 Timeline
Industrial Times
Guglielmo Marconi The Radio Industrial Times
Guglielmo Marconi The Radio
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Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy on April 25, 1874. He attended Livorno Technical institute, where he first started working in electromagnetics. He first became truly interested in the idea of radio and radio technology at the age of 20, when he became fascinated with the idea of invisible waves.
“Every day sees humanity more victorious in the struggle with space and time.” At 21, he managed to set up a small range radio station that allowed Queen Victoria to talk to Prince Edward while he was on his yacht. He founded his own telegraph company in 1899, and where he continued work with invisible waves. He successfully sent out the first radio waves across the Atlantic ocean, which disproved the common theory that Earth’s curvature would affect the way radio waves were transmitted. His defining work in radio was recognised in 1909, when he was granted the Nobel Prize in physics alongside Karl Braun. By 1912, Marconi had invented a new type of radar, that was used by the Titanic to call for assistance when it sank. Two years later, he was serving in the Italian army in WWI, as a lieutenant and diplomate to America and France. He was an avid supporter of Mussolini, and a nationalist. In 1922, he founded the British Broadcasting Company, aka the BBC. His new form of radio communication, which was referred to as a ‘beam system’, was adopted by the British Government for its efficiency in communication. Marconi died of heart failure on July 10th, 1937, at the age of 63. Marconi is still remembered as the father of the radio, although his patent was declared invalid by the Supreme Court in 1943, because his work and inventions used the work of many other scientists. Marconi was a father of four, one of which he named after his prized yacht, Elettra. All in all, Marconi’s interest in invisible waves was a great asset to humanity, as we would not be where we are now, technologically speaking, without his inventions.
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Louis Pasteur Pasteurization Industrial Times
Louis Pasteur Pasteurization
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rench scientist Louis Pasteur was born on December 20th, 1822. He was very patriotic almost from birth, as his father served in the Legion of Honor and instilled a love of his country in him. Despite being known for his sciences, Pasteur was also an avid artist.
He earned a bachelor’s in art 1840, and a bachelor’s in science in 1842. After earning his bachelor’s in science, he He attended lectures by Jean-BaptisteAndre Dumas at the École Normale Supérieure, and became Dumas’ teaching assistant. He earned his doctorate in science in 1847, and went on to be appointed as both a chemistry and physics professor the next year. In 1894, Louis married Marie Laurent. They had five children, but only two of them survived to adulthood. He had become interested in molecular asymmetry after graduating the École Normale Supérieure, and ten years later proved that molecular asymmetry was a characteristic of all life. He was appointed as Dean of Science and a chemistry professor at the University of Lille in 1854, where he helped distillers with alcohol fermentation, and figured out that there were living things in the fermentation, leading to the germ theory of fermentation. He learned that passing oxygen over fermenting things paused the process, and this was named the ‘Pasteur effect’. He used his knowledge of fermentation and living things to discover that microbes lived in all liquids and could make one sick, and that heating these liquids killed the microbes. This was dubbed ‘Pasteurization’, and is now applied to most foods and liquids. He also managed to debunk the theory of spontaneous generation, which stated that diseases and germs just popped into existence. This had been considered a longstanding truth, until Pasteur disproved it. In addition to his work with Pasteurization, he created the first ever vaccines. He created a vaccine to kill microbes that had been attacking silkworms in 1865, essentially saving the silk industry. He also made a vaccine for Chicken Cholera in 1879, and one for Rabies in 1885. Louis Pasteur died of long-term paralysis on September 28, 1895. Without his work in the medical field, humanity would still have a much higher mortality rate, and a lesser lifespan. Pasteur was an astoundingly talented scientist, whose findings benefited all. Industrial Times
Nikola Tesla Alternating Current Technology Industrial Times
Nikola Tesla Alternating Current Technology
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Nikola Tesla was born on July 10 of 1856 in modern-day croatia, reportedly during a lightning storm. His mother, Djuka Mandi, inspired his interest in electricity, as she used to invent small household appliances when she was bored.
“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.� His father was a priest who wanted Nikola to follow in his footsteps, but Nikola was against the idea. He left home to go study science at the Realschule, Karlstadt, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, and University of Prague during the 1870s. Afterwards, he moved to Budapest, and worked for the Central Telephone Exchange. While in Budapest, he came up with the idea for an induction motor, but no one was willing to sponsor him. He decided to leave for America when he turned 28. He arrived in America with little more than a letter of apprenticeship with Thomas Edison. He worked with Tesla as his assistant until the two began argue about alternated current versus direct current. Tesla believed that AC was a better system, but Edison supported DC. The pair separated, and became rivals. However, Tesla was at a disadvantage, as Edison was a better salesman than him, and had more sponsors. Tesla did manage to get funded, and started the Tesla Electric Light Company in 1885. His sponsors asked him to make a better system of arc lighting. Tesla did, but was then promptly forced out of the company and into manual labor. In 1887, he got refunded and had gotten patents on several AC based inventions. George Westinghouse took Tesla up and sponsored him, and the two began to sell the idea of alternated current, going against Edison. In 1893, Tesla and Westinghouse showed off their inventions that used AC at the Worlds Columbian Exchange in Chicago, building their support. Tesla developed hydroelectric power plants in 1895, making AC the dominate power source, which it still is today. Indurstial Times
Tesla had plans for global communication in 1900 and even began to work on it, but competition from Edison and Marconi forced him to stop in 1906, and the area where the project was was foreclosed in 1915, and later demolished and scrapped to pay for debts. In 1912, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize alongside Edison, but neither of them ended up accepting it. Afterwards, Tesla had a nervous breakdown, and went into consulting. He kept inventing, but his ideas began to grow outlandish and impractical. Tesla died January 7th, 1943, as a recluse living off crackers in the Hotel New Yorker. He was 86 years old.
Ironically, he was awarded the Edison Award after his death, something Tesla would probably not appreciated. Nikola Tesla was an inventor before his time, and many of his ideas and inventions were miscredited. His contributions in AC technology are still in use today, leaving a solid legacy, even if it is not known to be as grand as it should be.
Industrial Times
Richard Trevithick The Steam Engine Lorem Ipsum
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In 1922, he founded the British Broadcasting Company, aka the BBC. His new form of radio communication, which was referred to as a ‘beam system’, was adopted by the British Government for its efficiency in communication. Marconi died of heart failure on July 10th, 1937, at the age of 63. Marconi is still remembered as the father of the radio, although his patent was declared invalid by the Supreme Court in 1943, because his work and inventions used the work of many other scientists. Marconi was a father of four, one of which he named after his prized yacht, Elettra. All in all, Marconi’s interest in invisible waves was a great asset to humanity, as we would not be where we are now, technologically speaking, without his inventions.