While touring the Places of Invention, Innovating in America & Inventive Minds exhibit, we stopped and talked to a couple by the names of Ann and Will. They both held occupations within the medical field and were particularly interested in past inventions and innovations that had progressed their line of work, so they spent most of their time in the "Medical Alley" section of the exhibit. Will indicated that the story of how the external transistorized pacemaker came to be greatly amazed him due to how much creativity and dedication he can only imagine it required.
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1. Interchangeable Parts - Pioneered by Eli Whitney in 1798, interchangeable parts streamlined the assembly line process, allowing for companies to mass produce products at a much more efficient rate. It also greatly reduced the cost of producing a product due to reducing the skill level needed for production, as well as eliminating the need to replace the product in its entirety if something breaks down. Instead, the malfunctioning parts themselves could be simply traded out with a new replica. This became used in all products including bikes (pictured to the left).
2. Technicolor - Hollywood made this way of creating color movies famous in the 1930's, and its implementation has forever impacted the film industry as well as our collective society to a great extent. While technicolor was originally used through an extremely large camera, generational improvements have eventually led to HD color video being widely accessible in virtually all modern smartphones. 3. Personal Computer - Although the first official personal computer was released in the mid-1970's, Apple's Macintosh (1984) is widely seen as a huge innovative improvement to prior versions due to the graphical-based software it operated on, as well as the introduction of the mouse. Due to the insight that Moore's Law provided, it is now known that the operating power of computerized devices doubles approximately every two years. This in itself has played a huge role in sparking the revolution of the handheld personal computer device (a market widely dominated by Apple and Samsung) - the smartphone. 4. Clean Energy - The increasing social desire to protect Mother Nature has taken off, and it can be observed in recent architecture, automobiles, energy systems, and much more. For example, Tesla now offers a "solar roof" product where the actual tiling itself are miniature solar panels. Hybrid and all-electric automobiles are also becoming increasingly worth the investment as consumers value cutting down on gasoline usage and costs. 5. External Transistorized Pacemaker - The consistent iterations of this invention have been forging a path forward for lifesaving improvements in tools used by medical professionals. Beginning in the 1950's, the original battery-powered pacemaker not only decreased the risk of open-heart surgeries, but it also allowed for a patients heartbeat to be monitored post-operation. However, it has become apparent that no idea is ever quite complete - nowadays, a pacemaker takes the form of a tiny chip implanted into the chest of a receiving patient, greatly reducing the bulkiness and inconvenience of previous versions. |