On January 19, 1915, an American patent was issued to Parisian George Claude for a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes,” also known as neon lights.
1861
On January 14, 1861, the first patent for a safety elevator “called a ‘hoisting apparatus’ in the application) was granted to Elisha Otis from Yonkers.
1706
Oh, Benjamin Franklin, first great American paradigm-maker. He created the first insurance company. And the first fire station. And fiddled with keys in lightning storms (as our first grade teacher would have it). Could he be called the first great American hacker? He certainly did have a way of thinking differently. Many of his inventions were ignored or discarded for decades before their use was realized. He “discovered” the Gulf Stream, by researching maritime travel times, contributed to research of general effects of liquefaction on electrolytes. If only we could send him an Arduino…
1501
An illustration from Fuch’s text: De historia stirpium commentarii insignes
Leonhart Fuchs, the father of botany and origin of the name for fuchsia, was born on January 17, 1501. The world would be a little less purple-magenta without him…
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