THOMAS EDISON  

In 1868 Thomas Edison worked as a telegrapher in Boston.  There he made the first invention that he tried to sell.  It was an electric vote-recording machine.  The invention recorded the votes of legislators on a big board. Young Thomas Edison invented a lot of other inventions that a lot of people liked. The light bulb was one of his greatest inventions.  Thomas Edison was famous for all the inventions he created. Thomas Edison died at the age of 84 (1847-1931)    

by David Guiney 

The food processor

Pierre Verdon invented the food processor. The food processor was first exhibited in Paris in the year 1971. Carl Sontheimer, an American engineer and an inventor, used Verdons machines to create Cuisinart. The success of Cuisinart, after its exhibition in Chicago in 1973, made a number of other manufacturers design competing models.  By the end of the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of food processors were sold. The food processor is made in two basic types: most of the work is done in a bowl, by a flat blade and some are fitted with many attachments. Normal accessories include a work bowl, a lid, chopping blade and dishes for cutting and shredding.

by Nicky Flanagan

History of Writing

Writing was invented by the Sumerians of South Mesopotamia.  It is thought that they invented the first system of writing around 3500 B.C.  What writings invention meant is that people no longer had to remember everything they saw, heard, tasted, smelled or felt as they could write it down and use it at a later date.  Also, people could communicate in different ways such as writing things down and having them carried long distances, like the post and letters are today.  Another benefit of writing is that it can preserve thoughts, memories, decisions, news, stories and ideas, such as inventions.

by Bart Daly

Alfred Nobel and Dynamite

A Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who was born in 21 October, 1883  in Stockholm, was the son of an inventor.  He was educated in St Petersburg Russia and later studied engineering in the United States. Alfred Nobel experimented with nitroglycerin in his father’s factory.  He hoped to make this dangerous substance into a safe and useful explosive.  He prepared a nitroglycerin explosive. However, so many accidents occurred when it was put on the market that for a number of years people considered Nobel as a public enemy. Finally, in 1867, Alfred Nobel combined nitroglycerin with an absorbent substance. This explosive could be handled and shipped safely. Nobel named the explosive dynamite. Within a few years, Nobel became one of the richest men in the world. Alfred Nobel was never in good health after that. Nobel suffered from a feeling of guilt at having created a substance that caused so much death and injury. Dynamite is used to blast out dam sites, canal beds and the foundations for large buildings, mines, quarries and construction projects. The United States use about 2 and a half million pounds of dynamite every day. Nitroglycerin is the main explosive used in dynamite. It is mixed with other relatively inert materials, some are explosive and some are non-explosive to make an explosive charge. This charge is safe to handle until a detonating cap sets it off. Dynamite blows a column of smoke and dirt skyward.  It is set of from a safe distance. You have to press a handle to turn a generator that sends a detonating electric current through a wire to the charge. 

By John Scanlon

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was one of the greatest inventors who ever lived. As a boy, Edison displayed great curiosity. He did not like school and was educated at home by his mother. He went to work when he was 12 and soon began to dream of being an inventor. He got his first patent in 1868. He opened a library in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he was able to develop and test his new ideas. Perhaps Edison's greatest inventions were the electric light bulb and the motion picture camera. All of these led to the founding of huge industries.

by Jerry McCarthy

Pedal Bikes

The first modern bicycle dates from 1818 and was little more than a wooden frame on which the rider sat and then pushed himself with his legs.  Things began to improve between 1839 and 1842 when a Scottish man called Kirkpatrick Macmillan invented a bike that you could steer.  By 1842 Macmillan's bike could out-perform postal carriages in speed trails.  It took the Frenchman Pierre Michaux in 1861 to invent his velocipede, in which foot pedals operated the front wheels.  A further improvement on the velocipede came in 1870 when the English engineer Jamel Starlay invented a bike with a large wheel and a small rear wheel.  This was called the Penny farthing, which is one of the most famous bikes ever.  The first bike with a chain was invented in the 1870s and had an advantage of being lower and more comfortable than the penny farthing.  The pneumatic tyre, which is a  rubber tyre, was invented by an Ulster man John Boyd Dunlop.  Gears were invented in 1910.

by Daniel O'Keeffe