Week 7 Summary Essay
In week seven, I learned about four more inventions. The inventions were combine harvester, the solar compass, the propeller, and the mechanical calculator. Their inventor’s names were Hiram Moore, William Austin Burt, Francis Pettit Smith, and Charles Babbage. I am going to tell you a little bit about these inventions, their inventors, and how they work.
The first invention I learned about this week was the combine harvester. The combine harvester is a machine that harvests and cleans wheat instead of doing it by hand. It was invented by Hiram Moore, but his neighbor, John Hascall, came up with the idea. The combine harvester revolutionized the farming industry, because it could help farmers harvest at least 30 acres in one day. It also was more efficient than humans harvesting the wheat, because the combine could harvest all the wheat, so none of it was lost. Moore’s combine harvester did not make him commercially successful, but others were able to upgrade his machine and become successful.
The solar compass was the next invention I learned about this week. William Austin Burt was its inventor. He also invented the typewriter, which I found very interesting earlier in this course. When surveying land in Michigan, the surveyors did not know there was iron ore in the land, and that it would affect the traditional magnetic compasses used in surveying up until that time. Because Burt studied astronomy, he used what he knew about the earth’s magnetic field, and the effect of metals and minerals in the ground, to develop a compass that used the energy from the sun, or solar energy. It was not affected by the earth’s magnetic field or the metals/minerals in the earth. Because of his invention, the iron ore was found, and Michigan became its leading producer. After the patent on the solar compass expired, it became the standard surveying tool of the U.S. government.
The next lesson this week was about the propeller. Francis Pettit Smith invented it in 1835. He ended up advertising the propeller to the British Navy. This invention was lighter in weight, cheaper to install, made the boat it was on easier to steer, and much more. With the propeller, steamboat technology and propeller design improved, tickets decreased in price, and immigration increased. Christopher Columbus sailed to America before the propeller was made and it took him about two months. With his invention, however, it took Smith about two weeks to get to America. The propeller even lasted through storms! This invention has shaped history by making travel across water quicker and easier.
The next lesson was about the mechanical calculator, or the Analytical Engine. Charles Babbage invented it, but it was not actually built until over a century later. Babbage first invented the Difference Engine, which was basically the first mechanical calculator. In 1837, Babbage made the Difference Engine even better with his invention of the Analytical Engine, which was a programmable, automatic, mechanical, digital calculator. This machine had the same basic four parts as a modern calculator: the mill, the store, the reader, and the printer. It would use punched cards that were programmed by the person using the Analytical Engine, and could print out the results in graph or table form. Its design was used for the modern calculator by IBM, and is one of the most significant inventions of our time.
Almost all inventions are amazing! I love learning about history in every way, especially the history of inventions and inventors. All things had to be invented by somebody, and I think it is so interesting to learn who invented your favorite thing. Don’t you think so too?