Inventions - Section 1 (10)

He was an undertaker, and legend has it, he developed the automatic switch in 1889, to stop competitors from getting his work!

The yo-yo was first used by hunters as weapons. They were wooden disks on strings. In the 1920s, a man from the U.S. named Donald Duncan made the yo-yo into a toy after he visited the Philippines.

In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrated a freight elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting cable should break. This increased public confidence in such devices. Otis established a company for manufacturing elevators and patented (1861) a steam elevator.

Many people think that he invented the elevator, but the truth is, he invented the elevator brake. He also invented the railway safety brake.

Invented in 1834.

Ben also holds a lot of firsts - first U.S. ambassador, first political cartoonist, first American philosopher, organized the first fire department, and on and on.

Zworykin invented both the tube (iconoscope) for transmission and the receiver (kinescope) in 1923 and 1924, respectively.

In 1849 Honest Abe invented a method to aid ships that got stuck on sandbars. He called it A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals. It was never used.

Invented in 1868.