Flying Shuttle

John Kay invented the flying shuttle, but he patented it, and he had trouble with the patent, and so was nearly bankrupt for it. The flying shuttle helped a lot in advancing fabric production, and it created a thread shortage. It helped lead to big fabric factories, and to overcome the thread shortage that it created, other inventions came up to increase fabric production.

Chronometer

How to find longitude? That was the problem for the English, and motivation for the inventor of the chronometer. He had an interest in clocks since a young age. The chronometer was made to resist the harsh conditions of sea. The inventor of the chronometer was motivated by the Longitude act, a reward of £2,000 (£271,010 or $360,024.47 in 2020 money).

Anders Celsius

Celsius’ family was a scientific one, his father and grandfather both being scientists, and he chose the same career. He had many accomplishments, the one he is most known for being the Celsius thermometer scale.

Leyden Jar

Two scientists created the Leyden Jar. It was the first battery, and stored electricity. Like most inventions, it spread through the rich. It helped invent the later batteries, and it helped Benjamin Franklin do his kite experiment. The battery is used in a lot of technology in modern days, like the car, phone, and flashlight.

111. Mercury Barometer
112. Vacuum Pump
113. Pendulum Clock
114. Robert Boyle

Mercury Barometer

The Mercury Barometer was my favorite invention this week because it has a pretty interesting story about the spread of the idea and and it’s invention. Here is the story:

In the mines, the mine shafts would fill with water. The miners tried to pump the water out, but ran into a problem. The water could only be pumped about 32ft. Someone asked Galileo about the problem, but he didn’t do much about it. However, his assistant, Torricelli, decided to figure out this problem. He built a mini mine system with mercury, which ended up as the barometer. The space, or the 32-foot point, started a vacuum (an empty area with no matter) the model (or the mines). The vacuum started where the fluid pressure is the same as the air pressure around it. Torricelli sent a letter, and the idea eventually got to Pascal. He did a few experiments, and sent a letter to his brother-in law and he did some experiments. All these public displays spread word to lots of other people. So that is how it spread, and was invented.

The barometer helps detect hi and low pressure systems, which can help show what weather is coming. This started interest in meteorology. Latter, someone rubbed the barometer and it glowed, due to static electricity. This made people like Newton have interest in electricity, and go on to be great inventors.

Vacuum Pump

Otto Von Guericke also got word of the Mercury Barometer, and the idea of the vacuum with it. He invented the vacuum pump. The vacuum pump was built to suck air out of an area, such as a dome. You could put stuff in the globe, and remove the air pressure from around it.

Pendulum Clock

Galileo first had the idea about a Pendulum Clock, but he just never got to it. He gave it to his son, but he didn’t do much with it. Christiaan Huygens took Galileo’s idea. He made a design, and had a clock maker build it. It became one of the most popular clocks, and is still used today. It was only off by 15 seconds each day, making it possible to do scientific work.

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle is remembered for being one of the founding fathers of chemistry. He became a member of the invisible collage, an organization that was trying to figure out nature. He was a “natural philosopher” or chemist before the word was around.

• Lesson 106: Mersenne’s Laws
• Lesson 107: Cartesian Coordinates
• Lesson 108: The Mechanical Calculator
• Lesson 109: Blaise Pascal

Mersenne’s Laws

in the following table are Mersenne’s laws (one row per law) :

You can make higher notes on a guitar (or any other string instrument) by pressing down on a long string to make the functional part shorter.

Cartesian Coordinates

Cartesian Coordinates are X, Y, Z. They are used to pinpoint a coordinate in an area. If you drop the point to the X row, that is the X position. If you pull the object up from X to the Y, you get the Y position. When you pull the point to the Z, you get the Z position.

Please Note that I am not very smart when it comes to Cartesian Coordinates, so the information above might be slightly wrong.

The Mechanical Calculator / Blaise Pascal

Pascal was my favorite inventor this week. His family moved to Paris where his father bought bonds (he gave money to the government, and would get it back over time, with a little bit of interest (use second definition here).) and used income from that to make a living. Then the French government decided not to pay back the bonds, due to the thirty years war, leaving Pascal’s father almost without money. His father left Paris, leaving Blaise behind, but later returned, and the government gave him a job collecting taxes. This is where Pascal got his idea for the calculator. His father had to do lots of addition, and avoid mistakes. The punishment for a miscalculation is severe, and if it were to take place, the people might pay the wrong amount, and the government would get the wrong amount of money.

• Lesson 101: Johannes Kepler
• Lesson 102: Galileo Galilei
• Lesson 103: The Slide Rule
• Lesson 104: John Napier

Johannes Kepler

Kepler is best known for his three planetary laws of motion. His first two laws are below:

• The planets moved in elliptical orbits, as opposed to circular orbits.
• The closer to the sun the planet is, the faster the speed.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo’s father wanted him to be a doctor. Galileo had accidentally gone into a lecture on geometry, and convinced his father to let him study math and philosophy. He observed a comet and a lunar eclipse, and that inspired him to do astronomy. He made his own version of the telescope once it came out.

The Slide Rule: invented by John Napier

John Napier saw a problem with the ability to do multiplication and division, so invented logs. Logs could be worked with by using the slide rule. John Napier would think about a problem and an invention that could help solve it. Unlike some people, he would make the invention, not just think about it.