Most of the electronic appliances and transport facilities that exist in the modern world originated from America. Although Britain colonized America, it remains the world superpower because of its ability to invent powerful war machineries such as rifles, bombs, war jets and other gadgets.
The US is the home of famous ancient scientists who carried out inventions and discoveries especially in the scientific field. Since 1800 up to today, there are a number of discoveries/inventions especially in the medical field. Historically, though colonized, America was a rich nation that had funds and facilities for research for its scientists.
Currently, all the modern appliances whether electronic or not are a modification of America’s inventions. In addition, most of music genres like jazz and pop first played in America. The paper therefore seeks to justify that since historical times America has invented various electronics, transport, medical and even entertainment facilities that have dramatically upgraded the lifestyle, health, and culture of all the people in the world.
The US ancient inventions are in four major categories, the first category occurred earlier than 1890. The inventions before1890 took place during the Britain’s colonialism. Swim fins were the first inventions by Benjamin Franklin in 1717.
Although made of wood, they assisted swimmers to attain speed during sporting or when diving in deep sea. Moreover, he invented the stove and cataloging in 1742 and 1744 respectively, to improve the lighting and mailing systems respectively. In 1731, Thomas Godfrey discovered the octant, which is an important tool in water navigation.
One of Franklin’s medical discoveries was the urethral catheter that assists patients especially those with kidney failures to drain fluids. In collaboration with Charles James, Franklin invented harmonica, a glass musical instrument. In 1776, a swivel chair came into existence courtesy of Thomas Jefferson while in 1782 Jacob Yoder built a boat to enable him navigate the rivers in America. Additionally, due to his deteriorating vision, Franklin invented bifocals, which could enable him read through magnification of words.
In the late 1700, there were more inventions, which included automatic flourmill (1787); Oliver Evans, Eli Whitney Thomas Jefferson respectively, invented cotton wheel (1793), and wheel cipher (1795). The cigarette invention also came up early (Kilborn 1983, 8). Due to existence of colonialists, some of the early inventors had to collaborate with their British counterparts and sometimes the accreditation could go to the Britons and not the Americans.
To curb fire breakouts, Frederick Graff senior invented a fire hydrant, which is an essential tool in firefighting. Through research and upgrading of the original fire hydrant, Birds Holly was able to come up with the current fire hydrant.
Oliver Evans did not only invent the first vehicle (amphibious vehicle in 1805) but also invented the refrigeration, therefore, through his ability to compress the air; a modern fridge came into existence. To improve the kitchenware, Robert Thomson Rumford invented the coffee percolate, which he used to prepare coffee.
On the other hand, Levi Spear Parmly, a dentist recommended the use of silk floss to clean teeth as away of keeping plague at bay. Through his invention, came the dental floss, which most dentists of the modern times recommend for their patients. To accelerate the number of his word works, Thomas Blanchard invented the profile lathe in 1816 while Simeon North invented a milling machine to assist him in shaping his metals in 1818.
There are many US inventions like the sewing machine, combine harvester, solar compass, graham cracker, detachable collars, threshing machine, the circuit breaker, and the ether for amnesia among others (Philbin 2003, 15). The list of inventions, which occurred before 1890, is endless. Nevertheless all the machinery and technology in the communication, media, music, transport, clothing and medical industries trace back in the first era of invention before 1890.
The second category is between 1890 and 1945, which led to improvement of lifestyle and transport facilities. The major inventions by different people in 1890 were the traffic signs to assist in flow of traffic, tabulating machine, which helped in accounting and mathematics, the Babcock test to measure the content of fat in milk, the smock detector and the jack home.
In 1891 the inventions included the Ferris wheel by Washington Gale, dow process by Herbert Henry, tesla coil by Nikola Tesla, pastry fork by Anna Mangin, zipper by whitcomb Judson, Schrader valve by August Schrader among others. The bottle cap, tractor and the dimmer were all invented in 1892 by William Painter, Granville woods and John Froelich respectively.
Silicon carbide, laxative and radio came into existence in 1893 while clip less pedal, volleyball and cyclocomputer inventions occurred in 1895. Therefore, as the years went by the US scientists invented more machineries, which were an improvement of the previous inventions. Airplane, air conditioners, cars, sporting activities, and other electronic devices were the major inventions in the second phase.
Consequently, the inventions progressively improved the lifestyle of the American people and other people in the world. Additionally, pop, rock and jazz music originated from the US. Fortunately, the inventions of recorders, compact disks, and radio led to the spread of the music in other parts of the world. Unfortunately, the emergence of World War II between 1939 and 1945 slowed down the rate of invention in the United States.
The third category is between 1946 and 1991, which saw to the advancement of technology not only in the US but also in the whole world. Planes flying at supersonic speed, diapers, computers, defibrillator, cancer chemotherapy, and video games were among the inventions during the third era.
Due to advanced technology, the communication, security, and survival rate especially in children improved. Scientists particularly in the medical field collaborated to cure or put under control diseases like cancer. The final category, which is between 1991 and 2009, has led to the invention of advanced medical tools and facilities in communication and medical industry. The vaccines of diseases like Hepatitis and measles among others came into existence.
Furthermore, inventions of laptops, flash disks, advanced medical surgery, or transplantations applied and internet services took place (Hafner 2005, 2). Additionally, the medical scientists established surgery machines and artificial transplant organs like the kidney and the heart. Therefore, the health of people in the current world relies on the American inventions since ancient times to date.
The impact of the US inventions is highly profound in the contemporary world. Most of the inventions in one way or another relied on each other, which accelerated more inventions. For instance, the discovery of electricity led to the discovery of electric bulbs, electric trains, cookers, kettles among others. Therefore, the US scientists relied on the intelligence of one another to come up with a new discovery.
The scientist involved in the inventions whether ancient or current not only became famous but also received honor from their leaders. For instance, Dr. Benjamin Franklin is one of the early scientists who modified the medical industry through his creative inventions. Franklin received a number of awards from the president for most of his inventions. Although he died long time ago, his name still exists in the world books as an important figure in the medical industry.
The major reason why US has the highest number of inventions is its ability to honor and fund scientists. Currently, the whole world largely depends on the US inventions. The medical, clothes, food, communication, and transport industries depend on the US inventions. Although most of the inventions have undergone modification by scientists from different parts of the world other than US, the idea or inventory traces its roots from the US.
In summary, nearly all inventions are from US while Benjamin Franklin is one of the major inventors in the world. All the industrial and technological machinery or ideas originated from the US. Though colonized by the Britain, America is the top world inventor because it posses nearly all the major inventors in the world. The world perceives all the inventors as celebrities and most of them have received honor and presidential awards.
The reason why America is successful in inventions is the ability of government to provide research funds to the scientists. All the machinery in the medical, transport and other industries primarily originated from the US. The only major challenge during the invention was the breakout of the Second World War that decelerated the rate of inventions. Nevertheless, after the war the US inventors did tremendously in their inventions.
Reference List
Hafner, Katie. 2005. Laurels for Giving the Internet Its Language. The New York Times (February): 2.
Kilborn, Peter. 1983. The Twilight of smokestack America. New York Times (May): 8.
Philbin, Tom. 2003. The 100 Greatest Inventions of All Time. New York: Kensington Publishing Corporation.