Today in Tech History with Tom Merritt

In 1896 – Hoping to test the sun’s ability to create X-rays. Henri Becquerel placed a wrapped photographic plate in a closed desk drawer, with phosphorescent uranium rocks laid on top. He left it in the drawer for several days…Read more →

In 1837 – The U.S. Patent Office approved Thomas Davenport’s application for a patent on an “Improvement in Propelling Machinery by Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism.” We’d call it an electric motor. In 1928 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. became…Read more →

In 1857 – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was born in Hamburg, Germany. Hertz made key discoveries in optics but also transmitted and received electromagnetic waves and gave his name to the common unit of frequency, Hz. In 1995 – Chicago stockbroker…Read more →

In 1937- Waldo Waterman flew the first test flight of the Arrowbile, and found the aircraft easy to fly and virtually spin and stall proof. It is considered the first successful flying car to actually fly. In 1947 – Edwin…Read more →

In 1900 – John F. Pickering of Haiti received a US patent for his design of an airship. In 1962 – Following the USSR, the United States put its first man into orbit. John Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship…Read more →

In 1856 – Professor Hamilton L. Smith of Gambier, Ohio received the first U.S. patent for the tintype photographic picture process. It described a method for “the obtaining of positive impressions upon a japanned surface previously prepared upon an iron…Read more →

In 1838 – In the small town of Chirlitz of the Austrian Empire Ernst Mach was born. His work in aerodynamics and supersonic speeds, led to the unit of measurement that bears his name. He would die one day after…Read more →

In 1965 – The Ranger 8 probe launched on its mission to photograph the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. The photos paved the way to select the area as the site of the first manned Moon landing. In 1996…Read more →

In 1880 – 30 engineers from eight states met in the New York editorial offices of the American Machinist to found the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1968 – The first-ever 911 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of…Read more →

In 1897 – Ferdinand Braun published a paper in the journal Annalen der Physik und Chemie describing his “Braun tube”, the first cathode-ray oscilloscope, which paved the way for the modern CRT. In 1946 – A few days after its…Read more →

In 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company merged with its subsidiary and took the subsidiary’s name, International Business Machines Corporation. Yes it was later shortened to IBM. In 1989 – The Department of Defense put the NAVSTAR II-1 into orbit, the…Read more →

In 1895 – French patent No. 245,032 was filed for appareil servant à l’obtention et à la vision des épreuves chrono-photographiques, AKA the Cinématographe, a combined motion-picture camera and projector. In 1946 – ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator)…Read more →

In 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for the first time in public at the Salem Lyceum Hall. The demonstration ended with the sending of the first telephone news dispatch which was received by the Boston Globe. In…Read more →

In 1847 – Proud parents Samuel and Nancy welcomed their seventh and last child into the world. Thomas Edison would grow up to embody the word inventor. In 1970 – With the launch of Osumi 5, Japan became the fourth…Read more →

In 1958 – Scientists at Lincoln Laboratory at MIT bounced radar signals off the planet Venus, calling it the first measurement of interplanetary distances. In 1996 – Chess’s international grandmaster Garry Kasparov began a six game match against IBM’s Deep…Read more →