- Jackhammer
- Pin-Tumbler Lock
- Safety Pin
- Gyroscopes
Jackhammer
The jackhammer was originally steam powered, but this could not be used in mining, as the steam engine needed to power it could not operate under ground. So the inventor’s, Jonathan Couch’s, assistant, Joseph Fowle, invented a variation of the jackhammer that ran by compressed air. It works by moving a drill bit up and down over 20 times a second. The jackhammer allows mining to be quicker and cheaper, and it makes construction faster.
Pin-Tumbler Lock
With the Irish potato famine and the socialist revolutions, immigration to America was soaring. That led to more American commerce and trading. That led to more banks. That led to more money. That led to more vaults to store the money. That led to more bank robberies. That led to the need for better locks. Linus Yale Sr. was a locksmith who invented the first pin tumbler lock for the banks. Pin tumbler locks are hard to pick, and can be re-key in one day by a locksmith. They cannot be blown up with gunpowder as older locks could. Linus Yale Jr. was a great advertiser. He told investors that his locks did not have weaknesses that others did. Your house is probably protected by a pin tumbler lock now.
The first picture shows the lock open, and the second one closed. The blue line is the line where the two pins meet when the key is in. Where the pins meet when the key is not in, is below the meet line. I’m sorry, but the image I made shows the pins meeting above the meet line without the key.
Safety Pin
Walter Hunt had a $15 dollar debt to a friend that he couldn’t pay off. $15 dollars in 1849 was about $500 in 2020 money. He invented the safety pin and sold the patent for $400 1849 dollars, or about $13,500 2020 dollars. He ended up keeping $385 1849 dollars, or about $13,00 2020 dollars. The person who bought the patent sold the pin cheaply, and they were advertised for people in general. Their use has not changed much, from the original purposes, of holding cloth diapers together, sewing, holding clothes together in a pinch.
Gyroscope
French Leon Foucalt invented the gyroscope after having used a much larger one to demonstrate the earth’s rotation. This is a good video that demonstrate the gyroscope much easier than I can explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cquvA_IpEsA Gyroscopes are used in aircraft mostly, to stabilize them. Motors are used to keep the gyroscopes running. You can buy toy gyroscopes: https://tedcotoys.com/product/the-original-gyroscope/#reviews