Inventors and Inventions that Made our Modern World
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” –Thomas Alva Edison
“Mater artium necessitas.” (The mother of invention is necessity) — William Horman
The First Industrial Revolution
The first Industrial Revolution occurred from about 1760 to 1820-1840. It began in England and was characterized by the transition from making things by hand to producing them with machines. Chemical manufacturing and iron production occurred. Water and steam power were harnessed. The factory system began. There was a concomitant rise in population (Wikipedia, “Industrial Revolution”). It marked the beginning of things to come.
Thomas Newcomen was born on February 28, 1664, with his Sun in Pisces. He invented the steam engine around 1712. Like many inventors, he built on the ideas of others.
James Watt, an Aquarian with a birthday on January 30, 1763, improved the Newcomen engine with the Watt engine and developed the concept of horsepower.
Scorpio Robert Fulton’s date of birth was November 14, 1765. He developed the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton also designed and built a submarine and torpedo.
Aries Richard Trevithick (April 13, 1771), invented the steam locomotive. The first journey by rail took place in 1804.
Eli Whitney was a Sagittarius, and his birthday was December 8, 1765. His invention turned cotton into a profitable crop. This strengthened the foundation of slavery in the South and prolonged it.
Cyrus McCormick, born on February 15, 1809, had his Sun in Aquarius. McCormick is given credit for inventing the mechanical reaper, but his patent was based on two decades of his father’s work and that of a slave who worked with him. The patent was granted in 1831. It was particularly useful on large farms.
The Second Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution lasted from about 1870 to 1914. It was characterized by the large-scale manufacture of iron and steel, extensive use of the telegraph, widespread use of machinery, petroleum use, the expansion of railroads, and electrification (Wikipedia, “Second Industrial Revolution”). It painted today’s world in broad strokes.
James Beaumont Neilson was a Cancer (June 22, 1792). He invented the hot blast technique. Air was preheated before being thrown into a blast furnace. This reduced the amount of fuel consumed and permitted higher furnace temperatures, thus increasing capacity.
The Bessemer Process, invented by Sir Henry Bessemer, a Capricorn (DOB: January 19, 1813), allowed the mass production of steel. It removed excess carbon and other impurities from pig iron with air blown through the molten iron.
Sir Charles William Siemens developed a furnace in the 1850s that he claimed could recover enough heat to save 70-80% of the fuel. It preheated air and fuel for combustion and was hot enough to melt steel. Siemens was an Aries whose birthday was April 4, 1823.
Michael Faraday’s inventions of electric motors (rotary devices) made it practical to use electricity in technology. Faraday was a Virgo (September 22, 1791)
Capricorn Warren de la Rue (January 18, 1815) may have invented the first light bulb in 1840. He put a platinum coil in a vacuum tube. It worked and was efficient, but it cost too much.
James Swan began working on the light bulb in 1850. He made his device work in 1860, but it had a short life. Swan’s lamp and Thomas Edison’s were both patented in 1880. Their companies merged. Swan was a Scorpio born on October 31, 1828, while Edison was an Aquarius whose natal day was February 11, 1847. Edison developed a long-lasting bulb when he found a carbon filament.
A Virgo with a birthdate of August 22, 1791, Henry Maudsley is considered one of the founders of machine tool technology. He invented a lathe to cut metal which enabled the manufacture of standard screw sizes. “Standard screw thread sizes allowed interchangeable parts and the development of mass production.”
The petroleum industry consists of production and refining. The chemist James Young invented both processes in Scotland. He began refining crude oil in 1848. His refinery manufactured naphtha, lubricating oils, and paraffin. Young was a Cancer born on July 13, 1811.
Edwin Drake’s oil well in Titusville, PA, was constructed in 1859. It is considered the first modern one. Drake was an Aries (March 29, 1819).
Charles Goodyear, a Capricorn born on December 29, 1800, and Thomas Hancock, a Taurus (May 8, 1786), hardened rubber (vulcanized it) with sulfur for the first time, allowing rubber tires to be built.
Harry John Lawson, an English engineer, designed the first modern bicycle in 1876. He was a Pisces. His date of birth was February 23, 1852.
Karl Benz, a Sagittarius, invented the automobile in 1886 (DOB: November 25, 1849). His wife Bertha took the first long-distance trip of 65 miles. Bertha also invented brake linings—she ordered a shoemaker to nail brake blocks after going down some long downhill slopes.
A Piscean (March 17, 1765), Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first permanent photograph of a camera image in 1826.
Alexander Graham Bell, another Pisces, had a birthday on March 3, 1847. He is credited with patenting the first useful telephone. The first message was sent in 1876.
Thomas Alva Edison, an Aquarian (February 11, 1847), invented the phonograph in 1877 and designed and produced the first commercial fluoroscope, which used X-rays to take radiographs. Edison nearly lost his eyesight, and his assistant later died of exposure to X-rays. Edison improved on the work of Wilhelm Rontgen, an Aries whose birthdate was March 27, 1845.
Much credit for the invention of the motion picture camera goes to Edison’s employee William Kennedy Dickson, a Leo. (DOB: August 3, 1860). Dickson was a photographer who worked on photographic and optical development, while Edison did the electromechanical design.
Author’s Note: There have been times in history where inventions waned. The Dark Ages in Europe, which occurred after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasted at least from the 5th through the 10th centuries, were called such because of the lack of scientific, technological, and cultural advancement.
Wikipedia articles about the individual inventors were the sources of information.