Week 24 Summary Essay

            Week Twenty-four Summary Essay There were four more inventions and inventors I learned about this week, and they were the telephone, invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, the carpet sweeper, invented in 1876 by Melville Bissel, the phonograph in 1877 by Thomas Edison, and finally, motion pictures, which were invented in 1878 by Edward Muybridge. Here is a paragraph about each of them.

             The first invention I learned about this week was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, who was born in Scotland in 1847. He is most famous for inventing something we use every day; the telephone! As a young man, Bell was fascinated by sound, and believed that sounds waves could be changed to electrical waves and then back into sound. This is what a telephone does through phone lines. It is a way for people to speak clearly to each other from far away. Over the years, the telephone was improved, and it has now given way to companies like Verizon, T Mobile, and AT&T, and the current cell phones we use today.

              The next thing I learned about this week was the carpet sweeper. This was invented in 1876 by Melville Bissel, born in New York in 1843. He invented it, because his wife was complaining to him about not being able to get saw dust, dirt, food, and dust out of carpet. So, he invented a device that used a box with rollers and brushes to pick up dirt and dust off of the carpet by pushing it back and forth. He started a factory, and had a little trouble at first, but got better. His factory ended up making about 1,000 sweepers per day, and he began to make money from the sales. His wife took over and traveled overseas after he died and sold even more! This invention made it easier to get particles out of carpet and it led to the modern vacuum cleaner.

                In the next lesson, I learned about an invention by Thomas Edison, the phonograph. The phonograph is a device that allows someone to record sound and play it back. Other inventors at the time were able to record sound, but Edison’s phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the sound after it was recorded. He did this by transferring the sound onto a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder. Then a stylus is moved over the grooves made in the tinfoil to recreate the sound. This later led to vinyl records, and although they are not widely used today, they are making a comeback in younger generations.

              Finally, the last thing I learned about this week would be motion pictures, invented in 1878 by Edward Muybridge. He invented them, because Leland Stanford made a bet saying that when horses run, all their feet come off the ground at the same time. He partnered up with Muybridge, who then invented motion pictures, which was really an optical illusion using a series of still pictures shown in a rapid order. This makes it look like a picture is moving. Muybridge’s invention soon led to the television industry.

             I enjoyed this week, as well as all the other weeks, because I learned about so many amazing inventions! However, my favorite one was motion pictures. I like them, because motion pictures led to modern day film, and I enjoy watching movies. I wonder what industries came from simple inventions that I will learn about next week.