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Inventions

A lightning rod (US, AUS) or lightning conductor (UK) is a metal rod or metallic object mounted on top of an elevated structure, such as a building, a ship, or even a tree, electrically bonded using a wire or electrical conductor to interface with ground or ""earth"" through an electrode, engineered to protect the structure in the event of lightning strike. If lightni.. Read More..

A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also uses a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. Circular saw may also loosely used for the blade itself. Circular saws were invented in the late 18th century and were in common use i.. Read More..

The pin tumbler lock (or Yale lock, after lock manufacturers Yale) is a lock mechanism that uses pins of varying lengths to prevent the lock from opening without the correct key. Pin tumblers are most commonly employed in cylinder locks, but may also be found in tubular pin tumbler locks (also known as radial locks).The first tumbler lock was found in the ruins of the.. Read More..

The oldest known lock was found by archeologists in the Khorsabad palace ruins near Nineveh. The lock was estimated to be 4,000 years old. It was a forerunner to a pin tumbler type of lock, and a common Egyptian lock for the time. This lock worked using a large wooden bolt to secure a door, which had a slot with several holes in its upper surface. The holes were fille.. Read More..

A power loom is a mechanised loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough made the operation completely automatic.By 1850 there were 260,000 in operation in England. Fifty years later came the Northrop Loom that would .. Read More..

The First Automated Flour Mill (Circa 1785) about 1785 American inventor Oliver Evans Offsite Link built the first automated flour mill on Red-Clay CreekOffsite Link near Newport, Delaware. Driven by water power, the mill operated continuously through the use of five bulk material handlingOffsite Link devices including a hopper-boyOffsite Link, bucket elevatorsOffsite.. Read More..

The history of the nail is divided roughly into three distinct periods:the period of the hand-wrought (forged) nail (pre-history until 19th century)the period of the cut nail (roughly 1800 to 1914)the period of the wire nail (roughly 1860 to the present)To make a wrought-iron nail, iron ore was heated with carbon (to create wrought iron) and shaped into square rods. T.. Read More..

Possibly by 1500 BC people in Mesopotamia used rope pulleys for hoisting water. Archimedes of Syracuse invented the first compound pulleys 287 BC - 212 BC. Plutarch reported that Archimedes moved an entire warship, laden with men, using compound pulleys and his own strength.There are different types of pulley systems:Fixed or class 1 pulley has a fixed axle. That is, .. Read More..

Chinese government officialSu Song (1020-1101) was also a naturalist ,cartographer,astronomer,horologist, and engineer.His greatest legacy was the clock tower he built in Kaifeng.In 1086 the emperor had ordered the construction of an ""armillary clock"" to keep time and track celestial bodies.A finished structure was completed in 1094,and consisted of three levels.The.. Read More..

Islamic scholar Al-Jazari(1150-1220) lived in what was northern Mesopotamia _today's northeastern Syria and Iraq.A brilliant inventor,he made one of the most significant contributions to human engineering in 1206 by divising the world's first crankshaft.This conceptually simple device converts rotary into reciprocating motion,and vice versa,but it is now used .. Read More..

Islamic scholar Al-Jazari(1150-1220) lived in what was northern Mesopotamia _today's northeastern Syria and Iraq.The cam and camshaft were invented by Al-Jazari in 1206 and were part of his 'castle clock' - a complex water-powered astronomical clock.The castle clock invented by al-Jazari (1136 – 1206) is one of his many inventions mentioned in his book &.. Read More..

Al-Jazari described complex programmable humanoid automata amongst other machines he designed and constructed in the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206.His automaton was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bu.. Read More..

A hydraulic press is a device using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England.He invented and was issued a patent on this press in 1795. As Bramah (who is also known for his development of the flush toilet) installed to.. Read More..

A screw-cutting lathe is a machine capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotating motion of the workpiece. This is accomplished by gearing the leadscrew (which drives the tool bit's movement) to the spindle with a certain gea.. Read More..

Yale - the world's favourite lockYale is one of the oldest international brands in the world and probably the best-known name in the locking industry. The Yale history captures major innovations that have marked the evolution not just of Yale, but of the entire locking industry.BeginningsYale has its roots in colonial America. The Yale family decided to emigrate t.. Read More..

A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid (such as air or water) is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modelled by both Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third law. A marine .. Read More..

A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as a male thread (external thread) or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as a female thread (internal thread), often in the form of a nut or an object that has the internal thread formed into it. Other screw th.. Read More..

A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as a male thread (external thread) or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as a female thread (internal thread), often in the form of a nut or an object that has the internal thread formed into it. Other screw th.. Read More..

In 1908, square-drive screws were invented by Canadian P. L. Robertson. Twenty-eight years before Henry Phillips patented his Phillips head screws, which are also square-drive screws.The Robertson screw is considered the "first recess-drive type fastener practical for production usage." The design became a North American standard, as published in the sixth edition of .. Read More..

A blowtorch (USA usage), or blowlamp (rare or archaic), is a fuel-burning tool used for applying flame and heat to various applications, usually metalworking.A blowtorch produces an exceptionally hot flame and harnesses that heat to mold and cut metal. It does this by using highly combustible gases in the right proportions, which means that it is also a dangerous tool.. Read More..

A magnetic particle clutch is a special type of electromagnetic clutch which does not use friction plates,patented by Jacob Rainbow. Instead, it uses a fine powder of magnetically susceptible material (typically stainless steel) to mechanically link an otherwise free wheeling disc attached to one shaft, to a rotor attached to the other shaft.PrincipleThis clutch is a .. Read More..

A snap fastener is a pair of interlocking discs, made out of a metal or plastic, commonly used in place of buttons to fasten clothing and for similar purposes. A circular lip under one disc fits into a groove on the top of the other, holding them fast until a certain amount of force is applied. Different types of snaps can be attached to fabric or leather by riveting .. Read More..

A crash test dummy is a full-scale anthropomorphic test device (ATD) that simulates the dimensions, weight proportions and articulation of the human body, and is usually instrumented to record data about the dynamic behavior of the ATD in simulated vehicle impacts.This data can include variables such as velocity of impact, crushing force, bending, folding, or torque o.. Read More..

Quick release skewers are rods which are threaded at one end, with a cam assembly on the other. This combines to make a lever operated cam system. The quick release mechanism was invented in 1927 by Tullio Campagnolo, who was an Italian bicycle racer. He was frustrated when he needed to repair a apartment tire during a race, the weather had turned cold, and his hands .. Read More..

Variomatic is the stepless, fully automatic transmission of the Dutch car manufacturer DAF, originally developed[citation needed] by Hub van Doorne: this consists of a "V" shaped drive belt and two pulleys, each of two cones, whose effective diameter can be changed so that the "V" belt runs nearer the spindle or nearer the rim, depending on the separation of the cones.. Read More..

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such models in the 19th century. Research in the area continues today.Procedure of ContinuumMateria.. Read More..

Drill bits are cutting tools used to create cylindrical holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and have many uses. Bits are usually connected to a mechanism, often simply referred to as a drill, which rotates them and provides torque and axial force to create the hole.Twist Drill BitThe twist drill bit is the type produced in lar.. Read More..