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471 lines
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FILE CONTAINED: INVENT.TXT
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ACTUAL TOPIC: Inventions of the early nineteenth century.
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AUTHOR AND RESEARCHER: Big Brother @ The Works (617) 861-8976
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This file was originally researched and typed by Big Brother. All material
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used in the file is original and unplagerized, so these files are SAFE to
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use AS-IS with no modifications other than specifics to cover the actual
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required topic for school. Because school can be a BITCH, these files
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have been prepared to aide you in your research, and are not intended to be
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actually turned in AS-IS, but many of you will turn them in since they are
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worry free files... don't fuck up your life, study and get good grades, then
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get a good job, make some money, marry someone you love, and live happily
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ever after... ...because, after all - Big Brother is Watching You!
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Big Brother's Guide to School
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The Dreaded Reports
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actual examples...........
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START OF FILE
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INVENTIONS OF THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
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The art of inventing has been around since remedies have
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been needed and solutions have been required to make our
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lives easier and more enjoyable. From the time our
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forefathers colonized the shores of a new land, up till the
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time of the modern day super-conductor: people have created
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devices and made discoveries on our behalf to make life
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easier for everyone.
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Before the early nineteenth century communications
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were inadequate. The limitations of our hearing meant that
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distant events were known long after they had occurred.
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Systems of communication existed which were quicker then the
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speed of a messenger - smoke signals, fires lit on hills,
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signalling flags. But these methods could only be used for
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communicating in code with pre-established sayings rather
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than out-right communication. These methods also required
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certain meteorological or geographical conditions in order to
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function properly.
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In the nineteenth century conditions were present that
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made the need for new forms of communications indispensable.
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Industrial society needed a method of communicating
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information quickly, safely and accurately. Artist-inventor
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Samuel F.B. Morse holds credit for devising American's first
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commercially successful electromagnetic telegraph (patented
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in January 1836). The telegraph was a device used to
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electrically send signals over a wire for long distances
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allowing an established communication link to be made from
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one city to another. (And everything in-between.) The basic
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principle of the telegraph was the opening and closing of an
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electrical circuit supplied by a battery: the variations of
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the current in the electromagnet would attract or repel a
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small arm connected to a pencil which would trace zigzag
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signs onto a strip of paper running under the arm at a
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constant speed. This early plan didn't offer great practical
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possibilities, mainly because the batteries then available
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could not produce a current strong enough to push the signal
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great distances.
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As an artist and sculptor, Morse had the personal
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qualities to succeed as inventor of the telegraph:
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intelligence, persistence, and a willingness to learn. What
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he lacked was: knowledge of recent scientific developments,
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adequate funds, mechanical ability, and political influence.
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Like all successful inventors of the nineteenth century,
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Morse exploited his strengths and worked on his weaknesses.
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Morse used Professor Leonard D. Gale's suggestions of
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improving both his battery and electromagnet by following the
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suggestions of Joseph Henry. Together they incorporated
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Henry's suggestions and stepped up the distance they could
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send messages from fifty feet to ten miles. This invention,
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no less important than the telegraph itself, was the so-
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called relay system, widely used today for automatic controls
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and adjustments. Morse introduced a series of electromagnets
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along the line, each of which opened and shut the switch of a
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successive electric circuit, supplied by it's own battery.
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At the same time Morse improved the transmitting and
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receiving devices and perfected the well-know signalling
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system based on dots and dashes, which is still in use today.
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The first telegraph line, connecting Baltimore to New
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York, was inaugurated in 1844. Before this however, on May
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24th, 1843 wires were strung between Washington and Baltimore
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where Morse sent the first message from the Supreme Court
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room in Washington to Alfred Vail, Morse's assistant who was
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in Baltimore at a railroad depot (41 miles away): "What hath
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God wrought?"
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On May 29th, 1844 word flashed by wire from the
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democratic convention in Baltimore that James K. Polk had
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been nominated for the Presidency. People were fascinated by
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the "Magic key" and it was decided that the telegraph would
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be used for now to report congressional doings.
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By 1848 every state east of the Mississippi except
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Florida was served be the telegraph; by the end of the civil
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war more than 200,000 miles of line were used for business
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communications and personal messages as well as news of
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battles, politics, and sports results. The telegraph was a
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success. Samuel F. B. Morse died in 1872.
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While communications were important in the nineteenth
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century, there were some other inventions that made life a
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little easier. In April of 1849, Walter Hunt patented his
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invention which to this day we probably wouldn't get by
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without. Hunt invented the safety pin, patented it, and then
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without hesitation sold all rights to the pin for $400. In
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1846, Elias Howe invented the sewing machine which "was
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becoming a fixture in the homes of [all] American newlyweds."
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Soon to be followed by industry turning it's attention to the
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home by producing labor-saving appliances - novelties that
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soon became necessities.
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Charles Goodyear, one of the nineteenth century's
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greatest inventors and father of today's vast rubber industry
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discovered vulcanization, the process that toughens rubber
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and rids it of stickiness, in January of 1839.
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The riddle of rubber - how to prevent the stuff from
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becoming sticky in the summer, brittle in the winter and
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horrid-smelling in between. After years of anguish, Goodyear
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discovered quite by accident that by adding sulphur to raw
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rubber and heating the material from four to six hours at
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about 270 degrees F. the rubber would be cured by the sulphur
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resulting in increased strength and stiffness while
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preserving its flexibility.
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After spending many hundreds of hours, Goodyear, in his
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make-shift lab adding one substance after another to rid the
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rubber of it's natural stickiness using every ingredient he
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could get his hands on to put into the rubber mixture, (He
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used salt, paper, talcum powder, anything...) one afternoon
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when all else had failed, Goodyear dropped by accident a
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mixture of sulphur and rubber onto his hot stovetop. Goodyear
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looked at the blob in disbelief because it didn't melt as
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"gum elastic" always had in the past. Instead, it solidified
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and "[the rubber] charred like leather".
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Before Goodyear's discovery, rubber's bad qualities
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permitted few uses. French savants had studied the new
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substance for waterproof qualities; someone had found that
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the gray gum rubbed out pencil marks on paper, and thus the
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word "rubber" was born.
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By 1839 British manufacturers had learned a few other
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uses for uncured rubber. Charles Macintosh, a chemist,
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patented in 1823 a fabric that included a thin layer of
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rubber. From this he made raincoats that in England, the
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climate helped satisfy purchasers. In American winters they
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hardened like armor, in American summers it they softened
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like taffy.
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Eldest son of Amasa Goodyear, a New Haven merchant and
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sometimes inventor, Charles helped his father sell a
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"Patented Spring Steel Hay and Manure Fork" invented by his
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father. Amasa manufactured the first pearl buttons made in
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America and metal buttons that U.S. soldiers wore in the war
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of 1812.
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Goodyear foresaw many products - rubber gloves, toys,
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conveyor belts, watertight seals, water-filled rubber
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pillows, balloons, printing rollers, and rubber bands were
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among some of the brainstorms he would jot down, one after
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the other into his notebook.
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Also envisioned were rubber banknotes, musical
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instruments, flags, jewelry, "imitation buffalo-robes," vanes
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or "sails" for windmills, and ship's sails, even complete
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ships. While the automobile tire did escape his imagination,
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it was not without reason - the auto hadn't been invented
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yet!
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From barbed wire to keep our railways safe, to revolvers
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to keep our country safe, the nineteenth century marked a big
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boom in inventive history. Soon following all of these
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inventions, the civil war became a full blown testing field
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for all these inventions. Whether it was the coin operated
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hairbrush meant for public restrooms, or the automatic hat
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tipper (for when women are near and your hands are occupied,)
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the inventions of this time proved to be both interesting and
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useful. Well, most of them.
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Today, we still use a lot of the inventions of the early
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nineteenth century, but technology is passing us by at a pace
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we may not be ready for. Inventions are no longer just there
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to make life easier, safer, more enjoyable, and more
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entertaining, but they give us something to keep us occupied
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in this never-ending quest for - "perfectness?"
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Maybe in a hundred years someone will be looking back
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through their history books, searching though the libraries
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of the future and seeing our super-conductors, our computers,
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our High Definition t.v.s, our Super VHS video recorders, and
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our Digital Audio Tape players. Could they be saying "isn't
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that silly" just like the coin operated hairbrush, or the
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combination food masher/rat and mouse trap (?) Time will
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tell.
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__________________________________________________________
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Bibiliography:
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Men Of Science and Invention
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- Editors of American Heritage
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Published American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
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Harper & Row (c)1960
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Those Inventive Americans
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- Poduced by National Geographic Society Publications Div.
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Published N.G.S
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N.G.S. (c)1971
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Big Brother
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- The Works (617) 861-8976
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Largest Text File Base (FBBS) Spam! Spam! Spam!
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(c)1990 Homework Helper!
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The Picture History of Inventions
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- Umberto Eco & G.B. Zorzoli (Translated from italian by
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Anthony Lawrence)
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Malmillan Co., NY. (c)1963
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Various photocopied charts and pictures from other
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references were also used.
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Special thanks to Big Brother... since he did all of the actual work for you!
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END OF FILE
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