Week 12 Summary Essay
This week, I learned about four more amazing inventions. These inventions are the rotary printing press, kerosene, antiseptics, and the gas mask. The inventors are Richard Hoe, Abraham Gesner, Ignaz Semmelweis, and Lewis P. Haslett. Here is a little bit about each of these inventions.
The first thing I learned about in week twelve was the rotary printing press. It was invented by Richard Hoe. Hoe’s father and uncles started a business that makes printing presses. As a young teenager, he went to work in his father’s and uncle’s factory. He was interested in printing presses and started making one of his own. When he was finished, he improved his version. He kept improving it until he invented the modern rotary printing press. The rotary printing press was extremely efficient, even before it was powered by steam. It could print at least 3,000 pages per hour! Greetings cards were able to be invented because of this specific press. The rotary printing press has shaped history to what it is today.
The next thing I learned about this week was something that I wouldn’t normally think of as an invention: kerosene. A man named Abraham Gesner, born in Canada in 1797, invented kerosene after becoming interested in geology while studying in England. He started his own business selling kerosene, but he wasn’t getting very many buyers, so he started using kerosene in streetlamps. This grabbed people’s attention and he managed to sell his kerosene to so many people. In fact, so many people that he could not get enough of the oil to sell. One of the most important consequences of the invention of kerosene was the rise of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company. This company led to Rockefeller becoming one of the richest people in history. Without kerosene we would not have some of the most helpful things we have today.
The next lesson was about antiseptics, and how it was invented. Before its invention, there was a hospital in Austria, Germany, and a few hospitals throughout the rest of the world. There were two clinics in the hospital. One of the clinics was a good and healthy clinic, with experienced and smart doctors. The other clinic was also a school for people who wanted to become doctors, so they were still learning how to do surgery and other experiments with patients who had already died. In one of the clinics, 1 out of every 5 women there for childbirth died. That’s not even including professors, doctors, students, children, babies, family, and other patients. That’s when the inventor of antiseptics comes in. Ignaz Semmelweis, born in 1818 in what we know today as Budapest, invented antiseptics in 1847, after studying both clinics very carefully. He discovered that the doctors in the training clinic worked on dead bodies, and then would go to the other clinic to help with childbirth. He found that these doctors did not wash their hands between dealing with death and diseases and childbirth. He tried to show them how to stay clean and to use antiseptics, but they did not listen. They took it as saying that they, doctors, weren’t clean. That was before people knew that germs, viruses, and bacteria existed. When they were discovered, people started using antiseptics. Some examples of antiseptics are hand sanitizers and soap. Today, from hospitals and emergency rooms to grocery stores and houses almost every person on the planet washes their hands and keeps themselves clean. Antiseptics are some simple little inventions that save people’s lives every single day.
The last thing I learned about this week was the gas mask. It was invented by Lewis P. Haslett. People don’t really know much about him, but we do know that he invented and patented it in Kentucky, in 1847. When his patent expired, his gas mask was improved, to have what we have today. The gas mask has been extremely useful in many communities and war, especially World Wars 1 and 2. The gas mask has also been useful in our own houses during emergencies, such as fires. This invention has saved thousands of people’s lives, and I am very grateful for it.
As you can see, some of these inventions are extreme lifesavers and they have helped millions of people. I am truly thankful and grateful for these inventions and their inventors. I cannot wait to learn about more information about inventions next week.