about german inventors
DESCRIPTION
This presentation was given at seminare with the Group for Technology Studies at VTT, Espoo, Finland.TRANSCRIPT
About The Rich, The Famous and The Beautiful:
German Inventors
by Bernd Ebersberger
Dec. 2002
VTT TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUS
What does an invention mean to a German inventor?
• The invention turns into an innovation.
• The inventor is credited for the invention.
• Eventually the invention, a street, a university or a whole industrial trust is named after the inventor.
Money, a lot of money.
Fame, quite a lot of fame.
• Let’s have a look at German inventors...
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1440
Movable type printing
J. Gutenberg
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1709
Alcohol thermometer
D. G. Fahrenheit
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1850
Geissler flourescent tube
Heinrich Geissler
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1867
Dynamo generator
Werner von Siemens
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1876
Ammonia refrigerator
Karl von Linde
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1877
4-stroke internal combustion engine
Nikolaus August Otto
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1884
Nipkow scanning disk
Paul Nipkow
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1885
Automobile
Karl Benz / Gottlieb Daimler
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1885
Diesel engine
Rudolf Diesel
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1888
Electro magnetic waves
Heinrich R. Hertz
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1895
X-ray
Willhelm C. Röntgen
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1896
Glider
Otto Lilienthal
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1897
Cathode-ray tube
Karl Ferdinand Braun
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1899
Aspirin
Felix Hoffmann
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1900
Rigid airship
Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin
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1920
Athletic shoe
Adi Dassler
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1945
Z1 - Z4 computers
Konrad Zuse
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1954
Rotary cylinder engine
Felix Wankel
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Gutenberg, Fahrenheit, Daimler, Benz, Diesel, Hertz, Wankel, Zuse, Dassler ...
The German inventions are a success story.
Money and fame everywhere.
NO...
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What also can happen is:
• The inventor becomes famous
but not for the invention.
• The inventor is ahead of anybody else
but not credited for his / her invention.
• The invention is technically a success
but it is not economically successful.
NO MONEY
NO FAME
but stories that are fun to tell...
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Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)
• In 1942 together with the composer George Antheil she patented a technology to encode the remote control signals for torpedoes the frequency hopping technology
• The patent expired 1956. • The U.S. military never used this patent before it
expired.• First used in experiments in the 1960s.
no money
• Today the spread spectrum technology used for cellular phones is similar to the frequency hopping technology.
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Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)
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Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)
• What is she known for?
• Hedy Lamarr was an actress.
• She had 6 husbands.
• Movies together with Clarke Gable, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland
• Delilah in “Samson and Delilah” (1949)
• First nude scene in a cinema movie “Ecstasy” (1933)
at least some fame
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Anton Flettner (1885 - 1960)
• Developed the Flettner-Rotor (approx. 1924)
• The idea is an application of the Magnusen-effect:
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Anton Flettner (1885 - 1960)
• Used to propel a ship in 1924
• one prototype vessel and one commercial vessel
• victims of the great depression and of cheap fuel
no money
no fame
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Johann Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874)
• Telephone invented by four different people:
• Alexander G. Bell
• Elisha Gray
• Antonio Meucci
• Johann Philipp Reis
• First experiments for the artificial ear in 1852.
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Johann Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874)
• Prototype of the first telephone in 1861
• Lecture ‘Telephony Using Galvanic Current’
• Sold 50 telephones in Germany and more than 50 in Great Britain.
no money
no fame
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Johann Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874)
• For his experiments for the artificial ear in 1852, Reis used
• a violin
• a knitting needle
• a large cork
• a coil of wire
and
• a sausage