Posts Tagged ‘History’
Facts and History of Electrical and Electronic
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS INDUSTRIES. The first significant application of controlled electricity in Cleveland was telegraphy, which made its appearance in the city in 1847 on the premises of the Lake Erie Telegraph Co. Fire-alarm boxes were the second useful manifestation of the “new” power in the city, and by 1865 there were 24 of them. The telephone came in 1877. Besides these communications uses, the other main areas of electric-industrial progress in the latter part of the 19th century were lighting, traction, and industrial motors, and in these areas as well, Cleveland’s technical-entrepreneurial talent was quick to perceive opportunities and act on them.
In the lighting field, CHARLES F. BRUSH was the most prominent innovator and entrepreneur of the period. His major contribution was the practical development and commercial exploitation of the arc light. Although the latter was invented in England in 1808, Brush devised its practical application by developing an improved dynamo to provide a steady current, and by making design changes in the arc fixture itself that improved the quality of the light and extended the working life of the carbon electrodes. He also redesigned the lamp’s circuit to make arc lighting possible from central stations. Brush began to sell small arc lighting systems in the late 1870s for use in stores, factories, and hotels. However, the potential of this equipment was first realized with Brush’s demonstration of its street-lighting possibilities on 29 Apr. 1879, in Cleveland’s PUBLIC SQUARE. The brilliance of the light produced by his 12 lamps caused a sensation and foretold the decline of the gas-lighting era. As a result, Brush sold central power stations to San Francisco, New York, Baltimore, Boston, and Philadelphia. In 1880 Brush bought the Cleveland Telegraph Supply Co., where he had done the developmental work, and renamed it the Brush Electric Co. The battle between electric and gas lighting lasted some 30 years, and although advances were made in gas-lighting technology, electricity won out. During that time, CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL, viewing comparative costs, voted to go back to gas light in 1883 but reversed itself 17 days later. About the time that Brush was developing his arc light, Thomas Edison designed a practical incandescent lamp which later had great significance for Cleveland, because the companies that formed the National Electric Lamp Assn. in 1906 centered much of their light-bulb production in this area. When NELA became the National Quality Lamp Division of GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., it established NELA PARK in the SUBURBS. The division took the leading role in GE’s incandescent lighting development program from 1915 until 1935, when fluorescent lighting research became prominent.
The equipment for the first electric streetcar line in the Cleveland area was developed and tested in the shops of the Brush Electric Co., and a Brush generator was used in the car barn that powered the line from its start-up, in 1884. The line, which operated as the EAST CLEVELAND RAILWAY CO., had technical problems with its underground power supply cable and closed down the following year. Work continued, however, and a successor line reached Public Square from its home station in East Cleveland in 1889. This event was followed by the electrification of other local car lines in the area.
The Cleveland-area electrical industry grew rapidly during the 1800s, led by the expansion of applications in communications, lighting, and traction. The Brush Electric Co. added the manufacture of arc light carbons to its activities and also began marketing an incandescent lighting system, the rights for which it had purchased from a British firm. As the use of electricity expanded, the need grew for added power-generation and -distribution facilities, and when the Brush Electric & Power Co. merged with the Cleveland Electric Light Co. in 1892, a large powerhouse was constructed on Canal St. These developments led to the formation of the CLEVELAND ELECTRIC ILLUMINATING CO. the same year. By 1900 Cleveland ranked first in the production of electric automobiles, and at the end of the century’s first decade it also claimed first place in the production of carbons, lamps, and electrical hoisting apparatus. Its status as the site of a major exposition of the electrical industry in 1914 further promoted Cleveland’s claim to primacy.
The 1895 discovery of “x-rays” by the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen touched off considerable activity in Cleveland. DAYTON C. MILLER , professor of physics at the Case School of Applied Science, improved the x-raying process for medical uses. Henry P. Engeln, in collaboration with Dr. George Iddings, was a pioneer in the x-ray industry, establishing the Engeln Electric Co. around the turn of the century. During its independent life, the Engeln Co. did highly innovative work in the development and marketing of x-ray equipment, and when it merged with Acme X-Ray Corp. of Chicago in 1929, it had 200 employees. The merged company was acquired by Westinghouse in 1930 who sold its plant at E. 30th St. and Superior to Picker X-Ray which became a leading firm in that field (see PICKER INTL., INC.).
Arc welding was an important industrial application of electrical technology in Cleveland, as was arc welding, largely due to John C. Lincoln, founder of the LINCOLN ELECTRIC CO., who had gained experience working in Charles F. Brush’s shops. Lincoln Electric, which began producing electric motors in 1896, pioneered in the development of arc-welding equipment, and by 1938 it claimed to be the largest manufacturer of that line in the world. Variable speed electric motors were designed by John Lincoln who incorporated the Lincoln Motor Works Co. in 1906 to produce them. In 1909 the firm changed its name to the Reliance Electric & Engineering Co. (see RELIANCE ELECTRIC CO.).
In addition to lighting, traction, and industrial applications, the electrical home-appliance field was richly represented in Cleveland by World War I. Heating-related appliances included coffee percolators, hotplates, frying pans, corn poppers, baby-bottle warmers, kitchen ranges, hair dryers, and radiant heaters. In addition, there was heavy production of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, fans, vibrators, and sewing machines. By 1919 Cleveland led the nation in the production of electric batteries and vacuum cleaners (7 different makes of vacuum cleaners were being produced in the city in 1931). In the mid-1920s, Cleveland ranked 3rd in the production of radios, after New York and Chicago. Theodore A. Willard, whose WILLARD STORAGE BATTERY CO. was Cleveland’s largest battery producer, founded the city’s first high-powered radio station, WTAM. By 1938, the Willard Co.’s 15-acre plant, built in 1914, was turning out 15,000 batteries per day.
In the 1920s, John A. Victoreen, an inventive Cleveland radio amateur, started a radio parts business. Soon, however, his attention turned to radiation measurement, and he developed the Condenser R-Meter, an instrument for measuring accurately the intensity and total dosage of x-ray delivery, which gained international fame. Radiation measurement remained a central concern of the Victoreen Instrument Co., founded in 1928 in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS The company provided 95% of the instrumentation for the atomic bomb tests after World War II, earning itself claim to the title of “first nuclear company.”
During World War II, Cleveland electrical firms reorganized their production around the needs of the military, which included the manufacture of miniature radio tubes at Nela Park for use in proximity fuses for antiaircraft artillery shells. Lighting and visibility research devoted to military problems also occupied the GE laboratories there. These wartime activities stimulated the formation of a new Electronics Department at GE in 1947. The postwar period was also one of rapid growth for the industry. In the Cleveland metropolitan area, electrical machinery manufacturing, for example, grew in value-added terms by 21% in the 1947-54 period. Fortune magazine’s list of the 500 largest industrial corporations for 1958 included 2 electrically related Cleveland area firms, Reliance Electric and the Addressograph-Multigraph Corp.
The demand for power was growing rapidly even before the onset of war pressed it more urgently. Between 1939-44, the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co.’s output increased by 30%. In 1944 76% of the power the company produced went to industry, with an estimated 90% of that being war industry. By 1946 CEI could count 370,000 customers, in contrast to the 1,400 it had had at the turn of the century. Its service covered 132 communities, with a total population of 1.5 million. Growth continued as relatively low power rates attracted new industries to the area, and in 1954 the company was serving 465,000 customers in 137 communities, from Avon Lake on the west to Conneaut in the east. CEI’s rates have on occasion become a political issue in Cleveland due to the presence of Cleveland’s municipally-owned light plant which caused disputes with CEI over comparative rates (see MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP).
Leading Cleveland companies active in the electronics field during the immediate postwar period were Victoreen Instrument Co., Hickok Electrical Instruments Co., and Brush Development Co. In 1946 Victoreen was the city’s major producer of electronic tubes, employed 75 people, and achieved a total output worth $4.5 million. The Hickok Co. manufactured precision radio and radar test equipment, and was active in exporting. Brush Development, founded in 1930 to market products developed by Brush Laboratories, began producing voice-recording equipment in 1938, and during the war was the main supplier of wire recording equipment to the armed forces. For industry, Brush made oscillographs and hypersonic analyzers, piezoelectric crystals, and other products. Cleveland Electronics, Inc., representative of other firms in the area engaged in the production of electronic goods, was turning out 50,000-60,000 radio loudspeakers per month and preparing to manufacture similar components for the new television industry by 1946. National Spectrographic Laboratories, Inc., another Cleveland firm, made electrical excitation units for spectrographic analysis. Phasing devices and tuning-fork frequency controls were produced by Acme Telectronix, while the Bird Electronic Corp. manufactured testing equipment, filters, and high-frequency antennas. The total value of the city’s electronic products for the year 1946 was more than $10 million.
Cleveland, while not industrially top-ranked among centers of the rapidly developing microelectronics field, had establishments that have made a considerable mark in it nonetheless. In research and development, the well-established solid-state microelectronics laboratory at CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY pursued studies in the area of integrated circuits, electronic materials, and new processing technologies as well as providing graduate engineers and computer specialists for the area’s electronic industry. The NASA LEWIS RESEARCH CENTER is heavily involved in applied microelectronics in connection with space communications. TRW is among larger Cleveland-area manufacturing firms having a considerable stake in the electronics field, playing an active part in the aerospace and defense industries by developing both spacecraft and the payloads for them, communications and guidance systems, and ground station equipment. BAILEY CONTROLS, with world headquarters in Wickliffe, utilizes electronic technology in its production of industrial-controls. The firm provides analog and digital circuit design, producing control systems of varying complexity. With a long history of supplying equipment for utilities, Bailey Controls has provided instrumentation for the nuclear power-generating industry since the latter’s inception.
Allen-Bradley, a Division of Rockwell Intl. in HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, is a long-established area firm producing programmable controllers and similar capital goods, incorporating electronics, for manufacturing industries. Keithley Instruments, Inc., based in SOLON, had its beginnings in a high-impedance amplifier, called the “Phantom Repeater,” invented by Joseph Keithley in 1946. This and other Keithley-developed instruments were manufactured for him by another firm for 5 years until 1951, when Keithley moved his operation to larger quarters and began manufacturing on his own. Sensitive measuring instruments remained the core of the company’s output, which came to include voltmeters, ammeters, digital multimeters, and complex testing systems incorporating both computer hardware and software. The company’s product-development path in itself traces some of the most important steps in the technological advance of electronics since the 1940s–vacuum tubes to discrete transistors to integrated circuits, and finally, to complex computer-linked systems that can handle the tasks of measurement and computation virtually simultaneously.
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Lamps: History of Lighting
Numerous references from olden ages have illuminated the fact that lamps have been used to spread light, even before electricity was invented, and lighting was given a new meaning. The use of lamps can be broadly classified into two eras: The pre-electrical era and the post electrical era.
The Pre-electrical Era
The invention and first usage of lamp can be dated back to 70,000 BC. At that time, there was no metal or bronze to make lamps instead the then civilization used hollow rocks and shells. These hollow rocks were filled with moss and other natural substances and then soaked in animal fat. Animal fat acted as oil and this is how the first lamps were ignited.
With the advent of pottery, and the bronze and copper age, humans started to make lamps that imitated other natural shapes. Wicks came into existence much later and were used for controlling the flame or the rate of burning. In the 7th century BC, Greeks started using terra cotta lamps, which replaced the handheld torches. The word “lamp” has been derived from the Greek word “lampas”, which means “torch”.
Design Change
There was a major change in the design of lamps in the 18th century, when the central burner was invented. With the invention of the burner, a separate fuel source was made from metal. Another small change made was the addition of a metal tube that could be adjusted to control the intensity of the flame or light.
This was an important discovery in terms of lighting because with adjustment, humans were able to diminish the lighting or make it bright as required. Another aspect was added to the new lamp, which was in the form of small glass chimneys. The role of the glass chimney was to protect the flame as well as control the air flow.
Swiss chemist Ami Argand used the hollow circular wick in an oil lamp for the very first time in 1783.
Fuels for Lighting
Different kinds of fuels have been used for lighting a lamp between 70,000 BC and now. Most of the early forms of fuel were beeswax, olive oil, animal fat, fish oil, sesame oil, whale oil, nut oil etc. These were also among the most commonly used forms of fuel for lighting a lamp till the late 18th century.
Around 1859, the first drilling process was initiated to find petroleum and with the advent of kerosene, which is a derivative of petroleum, lamp became more popular and usage increased. Kerosene enabled lighting was first introduced in Germany in 1853.
During the same time two other products were used for lamp lighting purposes and they were natural gas and coal. The first use of coal gas lamps was in 1784.
Electrical Lighting Lamps
Lamps have actually come a long way from usage of coal gas to electricity. In 1801, Sir Humphrey Davy of England invented the electric carbon arc lamp, which was the first of its kind. The working principle for this lamp was simple and included hooking of two carbon rods to an electrical source.
The carbon rods were kept at a distance from each other so that electrical current could flow through the arc and thus vaporize carbon to create white lighting. Around 1857, A.E. Becquerel of France came out with the theory of fluorescent lighting in lamps. In the 1870’s, the unthinkable happened with Thomas Edison inventing the first electric incandescent lamp. Since then incandescent lamps were used for lighting purposes in homes till about the early 20th century.
In 1901, Peter Cooper Hewitt patented his new invention, the mercury vapor lamp. This was another type of arc lamp that enhanced lighting using mercury vapors, which were enclosed in a glass bulb. The Mercury vapor lamps set the prototype for fluorescent lighting lamps.
The Neon lamp was invented by Georges Claude of France in 1911 followed by Irving Langmuir, an American who invented the electric gas-filled incandescent lamp in 1915. In 1927, Hans Spanner, Friedrich Meyer, and Edmund Germer patented the first fluorescent lamp. The fluorescent lamps provided better lighting as compared to the mercury vapor lamps because they were coated from inside with beryllium.
Since then we have been using different form of lighting in lamps, which includes Mercury vapors, incandescent lamps and even today, in some corners of the earth people still use the old wick and oil lamp for lighting their homes.
Jaipur Handicrafts: Glorious History of Jaipur Rugs & Carpet
Jaipur is well known for its blue pottery, brass articles, enamel work, cotton and woollen fabrics and rugs, exquisite carpets, leather goods and intricate jewellery pieces studded with precious and semi precious stones. Traditional jewellery – like minakari and kundan work – is available in fine designs of gold or silver. Minakari has enamel paintwork while kundan has embedded gems. Jaipur will also mesmerise you with its brilliant fabrics. Cotton material and Kota saris are available in different varieties with traditional Sanganeri prints and designs created using tie-dye methods.
Jaipur offers a wide range of souvenirs that you can gift to family and friends. You could shop at popular spots like M.I. Road, Johari Bazaar and Rajasthali, and a few other local markets. It’s good to go Shopping in Jaipur. Get the best deals, learn about the best places to shop in Jaipur, stop for some finger food, or relax in one of the Jaipur Restaurants along the city’s shopping streets.
A number of handicraft items and other artifacts make Jaipur a wonderful destination for shopping and its colorful bazaars offer tourists a great opportunity to shop and enjoy the vibrant culture of the region.
Jaipur CARPETS: Jaipur is considered as the best city to shop in Rajasthan, India. This majestic city offers you the best of traditional Rajasthan. Jaipur is famous for its bright colored fabric and textile. Handicrafts of Jaipur are well-known throughout the world for their distinctive quality and exclusive variety. Due to this fact, Jaipur is also recognized as crafts capital of India. The Royal Family of Jaipur patronized the craftsmen and artisans, which led to the flourishing of arts and crafts in Rajasthan. If you are an art lover, Markets of Jaipur offer rich and assorted handicrafts of interest.
Jaipur Rugs Company Pvt. Ltd. is a renowned manufacturer and wholesale exporter of Wool, Wool-Silk and Pure Silk Rugs/ Carpets, Hand Tufted Rugs/ Carpets. The company was established in 1999, and since then, it has been providing premium quality carpets to its customers worldwide. Many of its designs are registered in India and USA. Its quality, design & rich colors have been instrumental in bringing about a revolution in rugs and carpet business.
Social Initiatives:
The artisans that make our exceptional rugs are more than just workers: they are our family.
To that end, in 2004, we created the Jaipur Rugs Foundation with the goals of directing the flow of benefits toward the artisans who play a central role in our story, ensuring that our workers are fairly compensated, have prospects for advancement, and can become productive and contributing members of their communities.
Also, we’ve aimed at increasing the standard of living for our workers and their communities by creating a path to hope and prosperity. Carpet weaving also helps to support the many towns and villages where our artisans are located and opens doors to thousands of individuals.
Moreover, the Jaipur Rugs Foundation has worked to educate our workers to become better informed about economics and how they can gain further financial independence and security.
This ultimate aspiration for our employees allows them to reach out to new labor markets so that they too can enjoy the benefits of working with a financially stable and socially committed organization.
Orlando?s History and Real Estate Trends
Orlando as a modern city is a far cry from its humble, mysterious origins. Today it is known as a thriving metropolis, a large city with a volatile real estate market and a diverse economic base. Tourism, hospitality services, the entertainment industry, and national defense industrial plants drive its economy.
But the Orlando of old was a rural area, whose inhabitants operated sugar mills and citrus groves. It also played a major role in the Seminole Wars, which influenced its early culture and population.
Historians point to Orlando Reeves. Reeves died during the second Seminole War. He owned a sugar mill. When settlers discovered his name carved into a tree, they assumed it was his grave marking. Settlers took to calling the area Orlando, and the name stuck.
After the Civil War, Orlando experienced tremendous population growth. Citrus groves and sugar mills prospered, cattle ranching was a prominent occupation. The area settled as a registered town and became the county seat of Orange County in 1856. It was settled as a city in 1885.
As years passed the population steadily grew. Orlando’s identity and industrial strength took shape. In the 1920′s, during the Florida Land Boom, Orlando experienced a dramatic increase in housing development. The price for land and homes skyrocketed. The design and layout of modern Orlando and its surrounding areas is largely derived from this constructive period.
But when a series of devastating hurricanes and then the Great Depression hit, the Florida Land Boom ended.
Following the Second World War, though, as the nation’s wealth grew, Orlando reemerged as a popular, tropical destination. Many GI’s visited and eventually settled there. The bolstered economy allowed the city to invest in urban development and various public projects. Then, in 1965, the plans to build Walt Disney World were announced. Since Disney World’s completion, Orlando has been a major tourist destination, an important American city with exciting cultural offerings.
All of these factors contributed to Orlando’s current state. The city’s population continued to increase–driven by tourism and steady manufacturing resources. In turn, its real estate market flourished. The real estate market’s upturn lasted until the early 21st century. But in 2005, signs of trouble appeared on the horizon.
Fueled by the demand for more high-end real estate, Orlando’s landscape grew crowded with expensive properties. For a time, these homes sold, and many investors and realtors remained confident in the market’s stability. Soon, though, the national economy experienced a swift downturn; people living in expensive homes could no longer pay their mortgages, and many properties fell into foreclosure. As the national economy dimmed in 2008, Orlando, and Florida at large, endured a taxing real estate downturn.
Opportunity rises from adversity. Three years of economic hardship, emboldened by the real estate market’s pitfalls, now present investors and realtors with fresh opportunities.
Property prices continue to fall. But soon they will stabilize. Many experts suggest that now is the time for investment. This benefits the individual as well as the economy. The individual invests in property. The housing market notices. The property increases in value over time. The individual, who buys now, later sits on a valuable asset. Again, the market notices. This process, if repeated successfully, will bolster the market at large.
Of course all parties must be judicious. Realtors, investors, and banks must learn from their mistakes. If caution and judgment work together with honest capitalism, the Orlando real estate market will once again reemerge as a national powerhouse.
Lamps: History of Home Lighting
Lamps have been used to spread light since old ages, even before electricity was invented, and lighting was given a new meaning. The use of lamps can be broadly classified into two eras: The pre-electrical era and the post electrical era.
The Pre-electrical Era
The invention and first usage of lamp can be dated back to 70,000 BC. At that time, there was no metal or bronze to make lamps instead the then civilization used hollow rocks and shells. These hollow rocks were filled with moss and other natural substances and then soaked in animal fat. Animal fat acted as oil and this is how the first lamps were ignited.
With the advent of pottery, and the bronze and copper age, humans started to make lamps that imitated other natural shapes. Wicks came into existence much later and were used for controlling the flame or the rate of burning. In the 7th century BC, Greeks started using terra cotta lamps, which replaced the handheld torches. The word lamp has been derived from the Greek word lampas, which means torch.
Lamps and the Design Change:
There was a major change in the design of lamps in the 18th century, when the central burner was invented. With the invention of the burner, a separate fuel source was made from metal. Another small change made was the addition of a metal tube that could be adjusted to control the intensity of the flame or light.
This was an important discovery in terms of lighting because with adjustment, humans were able to diminish the lighting or make it bright as required. Another aspect was added to the new lamp, which was in the form of small glass chimneys. The role of the glass chimney was to protect the flame as well as control the air flow.
Swiss chemist Ami Argand used the hollow circular wick in an oil lamp for the very first time in 1783.
Fuels for Lighting
Different kinds of fuels have been used for lighting a lamp between 70,000 BC and now. Most of the early forms of fuel were beeswax, olive oil, animal fat, fish oil, sesame oil, whale oil, nut oil etc. These were also among the most commonly used forms of fuel for lighting a lamp till the late 18th century.
Around 1859, the first drilling process was initiated to find petroleum and with the advent of kerosene, which is a derivative of petroleum, lamp became more popular and usage increased. Kerosene enabled lighting was first introduced in Germany in 1853.
During the same time two other products were used for lamp lighting purposes and they were natural gas and coal. The first use of coal gas lamps was in 1784.
Electrical Lighting Lamps:
Lamps have actually come a long way from usage of coal gas to electricity. In 1801, Sir Humphrey Davy of England invented the electric carbon arc lamp, which was the first of its kind. The working principle for this lamp was simple and included hooking of two carbon rods to an electrical source.
The carbon rods were kept at a distance from each other so that electrical current could flow through the arc and thus vaporize carbon to create white lighting. Around 1857, A.E. Becquerel of France came out with the theory of fluorescent lighting in lamps. In the 1870s, the unthinkable happened with Thomas Edison inventing the first electric incandescent lamp. Since then incandescent lamps were used for lighting purposes in homes till about the early 20th century.
In 1901, Peter Cooper Hewitt patented his new invention, the mercury vapor lamp. This was another type of arc lamp that enhanced lighting using mercury vapors, which were enclosed in a glass bulb. The Mercury vapor lamps set the prototype for fluorescent lighting lamps.
The Neon lamp was invented by Georges Claude of France in 1911 followed by Irving Langmuir, an American who invented the electric gas-filled incandescent lamp in 1915. In 1927, Hans Spanner, Friedrich Meyer, and Edmund Germer patented the first fluorescent lamp. The fluorescent lamps provided better lighting as compared to the mercury vapor lamps because they were coated from inside with beryllium.
Since then we have been using different form of lighting in lamps, which includes Mercury vapors, incandescent lamps and even today, in some corners of the earth people still use the old wick and oil lamp for lighting their homes.