95: Paper

95: Paper

 

Egyptian Papyrus 

Egyptian Papyrus

You cannot have a list with the pencil on it if you are not going to place its counterpart on the same list. The invention of paper is yet one of those inventions that I believe is taken for granted. Paper is still being used today even in our digital world. (Please don’t start singing “Material Girl”, cause you know I just did.)

Daphne Tree

Writing a record of time has always been one cornerstone of human existence. We wrote on cave walls, drew in mud that hardened only to be found thousands of years later, and we even scribed in stone tablets. It really was the Egyptians that can take create in popularizing paper. The Egyptians used the bark and the pulp the papyrus tree to create a writable surface. This is how we get the noun paper (papyr-us). Papyrus is really in a list of other fibers that were used as paper. The mulberry, fig and daphne trees were also used to create a writable surface. Papyrus was used not only in the Mediterranean region such as in Rome and Greece, but the Chinese also used a form of paper.

Papyrus

The Chinese tradition creates Ts'ai Lun (150CE) as the developer of paper who was deified and is the god of papermakers.

Ts'ai Lun

In our modern world, paper is everywhere. Because of the industrialization of paper making, today we use paper in making cups and plates. We take paper and treat it with a chemical which response to low heat radiation giving use thermal paper. OCR, copier paper, and yes, loose-leaf notebook paper complete with three holes to go into a binder. Its amazing to imagine what the world of yesterday looked like without emptying pockets without little pieces of paper falling out. Think about this: what would gum be packaged in without paper?

How It’s Made: Paper 

96: The Pencil

Millions of school children, accountants, bankers, engineers, artists, and legal secretaries use pencils nearly everyday even in our digital world. The pencil is a simple and one of the most influential instruments that comes in different shapes and sizes, and densities. The pencil is usually the second writing utensil that most of us learn to write with and you can never find one when you need one.

Like most things, the pencil began in Rome. The scribes of the ancient world use a piece of metal inlaid in a wooden case called a stylus. Remarkably, the stylus used on papyrus made a mark, which was readable or on wax filled tablets. From this point, the Europeans began to experiment with lead as a substitute but it didn’t mark as clearly. It wasn’t until the discovery of graphite in England in 1564. Graphite was so brittle and broke constantly until it was then wrapped in string and then was then placed in hollow sticks to have better control of its physical properties. Graphite made darker marks. With this simple action the modern pencil is born. In the 1880’s pencil factories began to print the brand on their pencils.

It was the Germans who led the manufacturing of pencils in Nuremburg in 1662. It wasn’t until Faber-Castell (1762) began mass-producing pencils. Staedtler, who still produces pencils and writing implements joined the game. The wooden pencil did not come painted at this time, to show off the craftsmanship and wood working of the pencils. What about America?

Clark's Pencils

The colonist had to start producing their own pencils because England had cut them off. That’s okay though, we knew what to do. Mills began to pop up all over the place to make pencils. Most of these pencil factories were built in the north until the discovery of red cedar in Tennessee. Once this happened, factories began to be built closer to the source. Red Cedar is hard and it is a smooth wood, which doesn’t splinter easily. For you Georgia people, check out the Atlanta National Pencil Company.

 Where does the yellow pencil come from? It’s not just a clever color to identify it when you need to find it. In fact, pencil factories began to paint pencils yellow because of the Chinese. Yes, its Chinas

Clark's Pencils

fault that we have yellow pencils. When America began to import graphite from China in the 1890’s, the pencil factory owners thought it was fitting to paint the pencils that came from China yellow so that people would know that the graphite was from China. Why yellow? It’s the color of royalty of China. They also believed that this was fitting to show the building solidarity between America and China.

Now you can tell people how the yellow pencil came into being. You will be a hit at your next social gathering. 

To see how pencils are made click here!

97: The Singer Sewing Machine

97

The Singer Sewing Machine

In the corner of my grandmothers dinning room, sat her Singer Sewer. Her house was small, built right before World War II. She didn’t have room for a traditional sewing room like most southerners; so, the corner of the dinning room served the purpose well. I remember her using it nearly every day when she babysat me before I began school or when I stayed with her during the summer. She sowed for extra cash or sowed for her family. My mother wore a dress that my grandmother made on the first day of first grade. She and her friends would pass partners back and forth and create every thing from curtains, to clothes, and everything in between. I have a few table clothes she made. The Singer Sewer completed and made the chore of sewing quicker. But this domestic machine didn’t come with out controversy.

The two men that are credited to have completed the sewing machine are Elias Howe and Isaac Singer. (There is a third player in this drama that will be mentioned later in this article). In 1846, Elias Howe filed for a patent for his invention of the lockstitch, which he placed the eye of the needle at the point that when it pushed into the cloth, it left a loop which then a shuttle passed through the loop creating a stitch from two separate pieces of thread. Then the process is repeated rapidly and continuously.

Isaac Singer

Elias Howe

Isaac Singer, who began production in the early 1850’s of his machine, also used the lockstitch method. His needle moved up and down rather than the side-to-side movement that other machines had. Also another aspect of his invention that set the Singer apart form the rest is, the machine was powered by a foot treadle while, the other machines were powered by a hand crank.

Though Isaac Singer took all these mechanisms to make his machine, what he did not expect was to be sued in 1854 for patent infringement. Howe sued Singer for using his patented lockstitch method and won. But here is the kicker. A man by the name of Walter Hunt, built a machine in 1834 which he called the Lacing machine (it was really a sewing machine) but he had developed the use of using two spools of thread to create a locking stitch like that of Howe had made. If Hunt’s patent had not been misplaced, Hunt would have sued both Singer and Howe.

Howe Sewing Machine

Howe, after winning the patent on the Signer machine’s lockstitch he began to be paid by Singer. Howe who then began to share in the profits of Singer, his annual income went from two hundred dollars a year to nearly 200,000 dollars a year. The Singer is still one of the top selling sewing machines. The Singer Corporation also has produced home versions of embroidery machines and home machines that are automated by computer.

The Singer sewing machine is one of those inventions that that shaped the

1900's Singer 

way people produced stuffs in the home. Humans since the beginning of time has always tried to find a better way of manufacturing stuffs for the home. Cactus needles attached to fibers have been found to be the first needles and threads. Progressing beyond that is needles of metal and then the home machine that can do it almost automatically. The machination of sewing in the home helped make sewing a chore that didn’t take long to mend a hole in shirt, pants, or the most iconic the sock.

Threading a vintage Singer
Singer Sewer commercial (1954)
Singer Treadle in action (he talks to much for my taste but he does show how it works)

98: The Steam Engine

98: The Steam Engine

This whole list cannot be complete without this little gem! If you haven’t noticed thus far, the first three inventions are the reason for manufacturing and industrialization. The steam engine really moved things. I am a champion of the steam engine. I love the way they sound, the way they smell, and the awesome power that it can supply. If the zombie apocalypse happens, the steam engine will come back, I am sure of it.

Thomas Savery's
Steam Engine

The fundamental idea of the steam engine is just brilliance. Take a boiler, take its steam, push a piston, and there you have it, complete power to move many machines at once.

Thomas Newcomen's
Atmospheric Pressure engine

Invented by and improved by three different inventors, the steam engine was used to pump water out of English coal mines. In 1698, Thomas Savery, applied for the first patent on the first crude steam engine. It was built to pump water out of the mines. It worked well for a while to a guy come along made more adjustments to it. Thomas Newcomen developed an engine (1712) that used atmospheric pressure to move the piston. Unlike in the Savery engine, Newcomen’s engine cylinder was cooled by cold water, which allowed the temperature to drop and move the cylinder to create a vacuum, which could pump water out of a mine faster than the Savery engine. The third and final man to make even more improvements of the steam engine is our very own James Watt. In 1769, Watt moved the condenser from the cylinder, which was then cooled at the same time that the cylinder was hot. This simple addition to the steam engine made his design the most used to this date in history. By the way, when looking at the output power of Watts (W), think of this guy. He was so awesome and understood power so well; he has his own unit of measure named after him.

James Watt's Steam Engine

The improvements James Watt made was then harnessed, literally, to pullys and belts that ran the course of a mill that then moved many machines, preforming the different jobs at the same time, causing the mills of those days to move from water wheels to steam engines. The steam engine had a marvelous advantage to the water wheel. The steam engine did not have a dependence on a waterway, which then made it possible to build factories and mills anywhere. Once the steam engine was connected to a railway, the train was born.

Welcome, to number 98, James Watt, you made my list. 

Demo Model of Thomas Savery's Steam Engine
Demo of Full Scale Model of Thomas Newcomen Steam Engine
Demo of James Watt's Steam Engine