Week 29 Summary Essay

            Here are paragraphs about each of the inventions I learned about this week, which were the safety razor, the airplane, the vacuum tube, and the Model T. The inventors were King Camp Gillette, Orville Wright and Wilber Wright (the Wright Brothers), John Ambrose Fleming, and Henry Ford.

            The first lesson this week was about the safety razor. It was invented in 1901 by a man named King Camp Gillette, who was born in Wisconsin in 1855, but his family moved to Chicago and lived through the Great Chicago Fire! Going back to the invention, the safety razor is designed to cleanly and safely shave skin. It uses protective guards to prevent injury and the blades are disposable. This invention led to men not having beards be fashionable for the first time in about 6,000 years.

             The next lesson was about the airplane, invented by Orville and Wilber Wright, also known as the Wright Brothers. The airplane is a big machine with wings that uses a jet engine or propeller to fly. Before the invention of the airplane, the only transportation was trains, bicycles, horses, carriages or buggies, etc. (Cars were not invented yet.) These vehicles were limited and slow, so there needed to be a solution. The Wright Brothers were the ones who came up with this solution. On the ground, the plane moves like a car. When driving down the runway, because the wings on a plane are shaped the way they are, air molecules hit the bottom of the wing harder and more violently than they do on the top. This forces the plane off the ground. The Wright Brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903 in North Carolina. We still use this invention every minute of every day in every industry to transport people, goods, etc.

             The next invention was the vacuum tube, which was a way to run electronic machines. Thomas Edison, because of his experiments and invention of the light bulb, understood the flow between positive and negative electrons. John Ambrose Fleming, who was an engineer for Edison’s companies, invented the oscillation valve in 1904, which passed the electrical current in only one direction. This tube changes alternating current to direct current using a hot filament and a cold anode. Negative electrons flow from the hot filament to the positively charged cold anode. The “Fleming Tube” is also known as a diode, which improved radio transmission and later led to personal computers, which are all very widely used every day.

            The last lesson was about the Model T, invented in 1908 by Henry Ford. The Model T is a vehicle that has four wheels, is self-propelled, has a steering wheel on the left side, and the entire engine and transmission are enclosed. This was one of the first automobiles. Henry Ford and this invention allowed people to get jobs, and the Model T led to many other automobiles that we still use all the time today.

            This week made it hard to choose which invention was my favorite, but I finally chose the airplane. I like this invention because of how big of an impact it has on history. The airplane made people to be able to travel ANYWHERE in less than 24 hours (at the most)! Of course, trains are fast too, and they had a big impact on history, but planes are faster. You do not have to spend days in a small space to get to where you need to go anymore, instead, it just takes a couple hours! I cannot wait to see what inventions that have big impacts on history I will learn about next week!

Bonus Question Think of how the Wright Brothers were doubted, in part because they were “just” bicycle makers, in part because they were slow at providing proof of their success. Think of another invention or inventor that experienced similar circumstances. Explain who they were, what their invention or innovation was, why people were skeptical, and how the skepticism was ultimately overcome. The inventor or invention can be from the 4th grade history course, this year’s course, or from outside both courses.

             Nicola Tesla was another inventor that was doubted. Actually, he was doubted quite often because he was way ahead of his time. One situation in particular was when he invented alternating current (AC) and he had to go up against Thomas Edison, who had invented direct current (DC). Edison was constantly trying to discourage people from investing in AC, because he didn’t want to lose his own funding. Even though Tesla was going up against a giant in the world of inventors, he never gave up. Today, Nikola Tesla is known as one of the most brilliant inventors in history.