Top 1 : Incubator (1880)
Tarniner and Martin help save premature Babies
Inspired by chicken incubators, which had been based on those depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs, A French obstetrician by the name of `Etienne St`ephane Tarnier enlisted the help of a poultry raiser, Odile Martin, to construct incubators suitable for human infants. This 1880 adaptation of an ancient design has gone on to save millions of lives.
The design was very simple:two chambers, one on top of the other with space for a baby in the upper chamber, and water heated by an oil lamp in the lower chamber. The lower chamber gently warmed the upper chamber whereas an opening in the uppermost compartment ensured that the infant could breathe. Since 1880 incubators have changed hugely with the
"The person who has health has hope; and the person who has hope has everything".
Arabic proverb
Modern version housing some of the most sophisticated equipment humans have devised.
With around fourteen million babies born prematurely worldwide each year the need for a means to support fragile infants is clear. The exact number of lives this invention has saved is harder to determine. It hard to imagine that just over a century ago premature babies were being placed in jars filled with feathers to help them through their perilous inaugurations into this world. CB
Top 2 : Electric Drill (1889)
Arnot Kickstarts the home improvements craze
The electric drill embodies do-it-yourself (DIY). Factor in its significance in the construction and manufacturing industries, and the inventions of the electric drill is highly important. For This we can thank electric engineer Arthur Arnot (1865-1946), who built the first electric drill for use in the mining industry.
The concept of the drill is thousands of years old- bow the drills were used by the Egyptians to make fire through friction as well as boring holes in wood. The action of a rotating head, moved by a "bow" wrapped around the shaft of the drill, was sufficient to make a hole into the surface. In essence, modern electric drills operate on a similar principle, except the power is supplied by electricity rather than by hand.
Arnot was born in Scotland and studied as an electrical engineer before going to work at the Grosvenor Gallery power station in 1885. Four years later, Arnot traveled to Malborne, Australia to build an electricity plant for the union electric company. While completing this contract and also providing Malborne with electric street lights, Arnot conceived his electric drill, which he patented in August 1889. His intention was for the drill to be used in the mining industry, where it would allow for more ambitions drilling projects. However, his invention was soon followed by the creation of the first portable electric drill by German Wilhelm Fein in 1895.
By 1917, in the united states, the newly formed company Black & Decker patented and sold the first electric hand drill, along with the pistol and the trigger arrangement, now common place in homes and the toolboxes everywhere.
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