GT5 CLIL Un 5 Booklet B Ss

Student booklet - B

B

HISTORY OF INVENTION

1. SUMMARY In this task, you will have an overview of innovative inventions that improved/changed people’s lives. At the end, you will give a presentation about the history of an invention.

2. KEY CONTENTS Important inventions and their inventors.

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When you think of inventions, what comes to your mind? Airplanes?

Trains? Cell phones?

Do you ever think of small, everyday inventions such as the zipper, pen, paper clips, can openers?

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GT5 | Unit 5 | Student booklet - B

1.

Think of small things or objects we use and that make our lives easier.

2.

Do you know when they were invented and who invented them?

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JIGSAW READING

INVENTIONS AND THEIR INVENTORS TEXT 1 – BAND AID What are they?

Bandages for wounds and bruises.

History Bandages for wounds had been around since ancient times, but an easy-to-use dressing with an adhesive was invented by Earle Dickson (a cotton buyer at the Johnson & Johnson company). Dickson perfected the BAND-AID® in 1920, making a small, sterile adhesive bandage for home use. Dickson invented the BAND-AID® for his wife, who had many kitchen accidents and needed an easy-to-use wound dressing. Dickson was rewarded by the Johnson & Johnson company by being made a vice-president of the company.

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TEXT 2 – CAN AND CAN OPENER What are they?

- Metal can: metal container in which food or drink is preserved without air - Can opener: a tool for opening a can of food

History A metal can for preserving food was invented in 1810 by a Peter Durand, of London, England. To open a can, a person had to use a hammer and chisel.

The can opener was invented in 1858 by Ezra Warner of Waterbury, Connecticut, USA, almost 50 years after the metal can was invented. Warner’s device used a lever and chisel.

The can opener was improved in 1870

by William Lyman of West Meridian, Connecticut, USA. Lyman’s device used a rotating wheel and a sharp edge.

His can opener only fit one size of can, and first had to pierce the center of the can.

The modern-day type of can opener (using a serrated wheel) was invented in 1925.

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TEXT 3 - CAT’S EYE ROAD REFLECTOR What are they?

The cat’s eye road reflector is a simple device that has saved countless lives. These inexpensive glass and rubber reflectors are set on the roadway at regular intervals, and help motorists see where the road is at night. Each of the cat’s eyes reflects oncoming light, acting like lights set into the road.

History The cat’s eye road reflector was invented in 1933 by Percy Shaw, from Yorkshire, England. He invented it after he had been driving on a dark, winding road on a foggy night; he was saved from going off the side of the hill by a cat, whose eyes reflected his car’s lights. Shaw’s invention mimicked the reflectivity of a cat’s eyes. Because of his invention, Shaw was awarded the Order of the British Empire (“OBE”) by Queen Elizabeth of England in 1965.

TEXT 4 – CONTACT LENSES What are they?

Contact lenses are tiny removable lenses that are worn in contact with the eye (they rest directly on the cornea of the eye). Like glasses, they improve the wearer’s vision.

History This type of lens was envisioned (but not actually made) by Leonardo da Vinci (around 1508) and later by René Descartes (around 1636-1637).

Contact lenses were invented and made in 1887 by the German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick (1829-1901). He first fitted animals with the lenses, and later made them for people. These lenses were made from heavy brown glass and were 18-21mm in diameter. The lenses were improved by August Muller in 1889; he made lenses that corrected myopia (nearsightedness).

Plastic contact lenses were first made by the California optician Kevin Tuohy in 1948.

Soft contact lenses (hydrophilic lenses) and gas-permeable lenses (which let oxygen pass through the lens and to the cornea) were invented in the 1970s.

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TEXT 5 – FOUNTAIN PEN CAP

What is it?

It’s a pen that you fill with ink.

History

Lewis E. Waterman was an American inventor and NIB insurance salesman who developed a relatively leak-proof fountain pen; he patented his new invention in 1884 and revolutionized writing. Before his fountain pen, pen tips had to be tipped into ink after every few words. Waterman put an ink reservoir in the pen above the pen’s metal nib (point). This reservoir would hold enough ink for a few pages of writing. There were many problems in developing the fountain pen, especially the difficulty of controlling the flow of the ink. Putting a sealed reservoir above the nib wouldn’t let the ink flow, but if it wasn’t sealed, all the ink would flow at once. Waterman used capillary action to replace the ink in the rubber sac with air so that the ink flowed smoothly but did not flow all at once.

TEXT 6 – HOT-AIR BALLOON What is it?

A hot-air balloon is a balloon that is filled with hot air; it rises because hot air is less dense (lighter) than the rest of the air.

History Joseph and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier were two French bothers who made the first successful hot-air balloon. Their first balloon was launched in December, 1782, and ascended to an altitude of 985 ft (300 m). This type of hotair balloon was called the Montgolfiére; it was made of paper and used air heated by burning wool and moist straw. The first passengers in a hot-air balloon were a rooster, a sheep, and a duck, whom the Montgolfier brothers sent up to an altitude of 1,640 ft (500 m) on September 19, 1783 (the trip lasted for 8 minutes); the animals survived the landing. This event was observed by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

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TEXT 7 - LIGHT BULB What is it?

FILAMENT

An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxidation. Current is supplied to the filament by terminals or wires embedded in the glass.

THREAD

History

The first incandescent electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English scientist. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. This is called an electric arc.

Much later, in 1860, the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) was determined to devise a practical, long-lasting electric light. He found that a carbon paper filament worked well, but burned up quickly. In 1878, he demonstrated his new electric lamps in Newcastle, England.

The inventor Thomas Alva Edison (in the USA) experimented with thousands of different filaments to find just the right materials to glow well and be long-lasting. In 1879, Edison discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for 40 hours. Edison eventually produced a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours.

The incandescent bulb revolutionized the world.

TEXT 8 – MICROWAVE OVEN What is it?

A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range.

History The microwave oven was invented as an accidental by-product of war-time (World War 2) radar research using magnetrons (vacuum tubes that produce microwave radiation).

In 1946, the engineer Dr. Percy LeBaron Spencer, who worked for the Raytheon Corporation, was working on magnetrons. One day at work, he had a candy bar in his pocket, and found that it had melted. He realized that the microwaves he was working with had caused it to melt. After experimenting, he realized that microwaves would cook foods quickly - even faster than conventional ovens that cook with heat. The Raytheon Corporation produced the first commercial microwave oven in 1954; it was called the 1161 Radarange.

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TEXT 9 – PAPER What is it?

Paper is writing material made from wood pulp or other fibrous material. It is made by grinding plant material into a pulp, forming it into thin sheets, and drying it in a form.

History Almost 5,000 years ago, in ancient Egypt, the papyrus plant was processed and used as paper. Papyrus paper was made from thin sheets of papyrus pith that were soaked in water, pressed together with the grains at right angles, and then dried - the sticky sap of the plant made the thin sheets stick together, forming a sturdy writing surface. Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus is its genus and species) is a grass-like aquatic plant native to the Nile valley of Egypt. Our word paper comes from “papyrus.”

Paper is made by grinding plant material into a pulp, forming it into thin sheets, and drying it in a form. This process was invented in AD 105 by Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese official and member of the Chinese Imperial Court, about 2000 years ago; he originally used the waste from silk production. Early Chinese paper was made from the bark of the mulberry tree and other plant fibers.

TEXT 10 – BICYCLE What is it?

It’s a vehicle with two wheels that you ride by pushing its pedals with your feet.

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History The earliest bicycle was a wooden scooter-like contraption called a celerifere; it was invented about 1790 by Comte Mede de Sivrac of France. In 1816, Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun, of Germany, invented a model with a steering bar attached to the front wheel, which he called a Draisienne. It has two wheels (of the same size), and the rider sat between the two wheels, but there were no pedals; to move, you had to propel the bicycle forward using your feet (a bit like a scooter). He exhibited his bicycle in Paris on April 6, 1818.

Celerifere, 1790

Draisienne, 1818

Kirkpatrick MacMillan (1812-1878), a blacksmith from Dumfriesshire, Scotland, invented the first bicycle with foot pedals in the 1830 to 1840’s, but he never patented it and his idea did not catch on locally.

A French father-and-son team of carriage-makers, Pierre and Ernest Michaux, invented an improved bicycle in the 1860’s. Many early bicycles (called velocipedes, meaning “fast foot,” or, more descriptively, “bone shakers”) had huge front wheels - it was thought that the bigger the wheel, the faster you could go. Early tires were wooden - metal tires were an improvement, and solid rubber tires were added later. A chain with sprockets was added to the bicycle in the 1880’s; this was called the “safety bicycle.” Air-filled tires were also added in the 1880’s.

The derailleur gear system was added in the 1970’s.

High-wheel bicycle, 1870

Bicycle Evolution timeline

Source: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexa.shtml [adapted]

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3 QUESTIONS

TEXT 1 – BAND AID 1.

Since when have band-aids been around?

2.

What is the difference between ancient band-aids and the modern ones?

3.

Who invented the kind of band-aid we use nowadays? When?

4.

What improvements did Dickson make in the band-aid in 1920?

5.

What motivated Dickson to invent the band-aid?

TEXT 2 - CAN AND CAN OPENER 1.

What is a metal can used for?

2.

When was the metal can invented? Who invented it?

3.

How did people open a metal can at that time (before 1858)?

4.

When was the can opener invented? Who invented it

5.

Who improved the can opener? When? What was the improvement?

6.

When was the modern-day can opener invented? How is it?

TEXT 3 - CAT’S EYE ROAD REFLECTOR

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1.

What are the cat’s eye road reflector? Why are they important?

2.

When was it invented? Who invented it?

3.

What situation motivated Percy to come up with the idea of the cat’s eye road reflector?

4.

In fact, what does the cat’s eye road reflector do?

5.

Was Percy given any recognition for his invention?

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TEXT 4 – CONTACT LENSES 1.

Where are contact lenses worn? What do they do?

2.

Who first had the idea of contact lenses? When?

3.

When were contact lenses invented and make? By whom?

4.

What were the first lenses made of? How big were they?

5.

What were the further developments in contact lenses?

TEXT 5 – FOUNTAIN PEN 1.

What is a fountain pen?

2.

Who invented it? When was it patented?

3.

Why did he revolutionized writing?

4.

How did he make it?

5.

What were the problems in the fountain pen development?

6.

How did he solve these problems?

TEXT 6 – HOT-AIR BALLOON 1.

What is a hot-air balloon? Why does it rise?

2.

Who made the first successful hot-air balloon?

3.

When was their first balloon launched? What was it altitude?

4.

Who were the first passengers in a hot-air balloon?

5.

When did this event happen? Who observed it?

TEXT 7 – LIGHT BULB 1.

How does a light bulb produce light?

2.

When was the first incandescent electric light made? Who made it?

3.

How did it produce light?

4.

How did Joseph Wilson Swan in 1860 improve Humphry’s invention?

5.

Finally, Thomas Edison made further improvements. What were they?

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TEXT 8 – MICROWAVE OVEN 1.

How does the microwave heat and cook food?

2.

The microwave oven was invented by accident? How?

3.

In 1946, the engineer Dr. Percy LeBaron Spencer was working on magnetrons (a vacuum tube in which the flow of electrons is controlled by an applied magnetic field to generate power at microwave frequencies). What happened?

4.

What did he realize and he saw the melted candy bar?

5.

When was the first commercial microwave oven produced? Who did it?

TEXT 9 – PAPER 1.

What is paper made from?

2.

How is it made?

3.

What was the first plant used as paper? When was it used? Where?

4.

How was the papyrus paper made?

5.

The paper similar to the ones we know nowadays was invented in 105 AD

by Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese official and member of the Chinese Imperial Court, about 2000 years ago. What did he use to make it?

TEXT 10 – BICYCLE

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1.

How was the first bicycle called? When was it invented?

2.

How was the 1816 model?

3.

Who invented the first bicycle with foot pedals? When was it?

4.

How did the bike tires evolve over time?

5.

What was added into bikes in the 1880’s?

GT5 | Unit 5 | Student booklet - B Photocopiable

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Watch the video “Timeline of Major Scientific Inventions & Discoveries - Part 1: Ancient Period to 19th Century”.

Link: http://bitly.ws/hj3m

Choose one invention you saw in the video and do some research about it. You should try to find out: 

When it was invented

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Who invented it

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Why it was invented. What problems it meant to solve.

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The improvements of this invention over time

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Other important information about it

Prepare a PowerPoint presentation with this information and lots of pictures to illustrate it.

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