Aqualung Inability to breathe under water and increasing water pressure at greater depths were two major deterrents which prevented man from being able to explore the underwater world. In the earlier days cumbersome deep sea suits were used, these were connected to the ships overhead through hoses and air constantly had to be pumped in by seamen. It was only in the year 1943 that a Frenchman called Jacques Cousteau working...

X-Rays In 1895 a scientist called Wilhelm Roentgen was experimenting with cathode rays, electricity discharged under high voltage through a series of tubes, in partial vacuum. He noticed that some crystals lying nearby were glowing. Wilhelm knew that cathode rays could not penetrate glass, thus it was quite possible that some other type of rays also existed. Since these rays were invisible and unknown, he decided to call them `X-Rays’. These...

Sound Recording In the year 1877 Thomas Edison made the first sound recording with a machine comprising of a cylinder, a stylus and a funnel. Above this cylinder was a blunt stylus connected to a flexible membrane, this in turn was connected to a ‘V’ shaped funnel. When a person spoke into the funnel, the membrane underneath vibrated thus causing the stylus to move and leave an indentation on the tin...

Motion Pictures In the nineteenth century experiments were carried out to photograph a moving object with a series of separate cameras. In the late Nineteenth century the roll film was invented. This was followed by the development of cameras which were capable of photographing a series of images in action on a roll of film. When these were developed and rerun, they reproduced the same action. These pictures were first called...

Camera and Photographs The camera and photography were not invented by a single person, they developed in stages over a period of time. In the 12th century an image transferring device called the ‘camera obscura’ was used for the purpose of showing an image on plain paper so that it could be traced, this camera however did not take any pictures. In 1568 a lens was fitted to this camera, in...

Shorthand On various occasions there is a need to take notes at the same speed at which some one speaks them, this need is met by Shorthand. Shorthand is nothing but an art of writing quickly by making certain special signs which can later be re-read and re-written or typed. Shorthand began in the year 63 B.C. during the Roman Empire where a man called Tiro invented the   system for taking...

The Braille System For quite some time there was no system of teaching the blind how the read, it was only in the year 1517 that as system of engraving letters on blocks was started so that blind persons could understand them by touching them. Subsequent to this various other systems wore also developed but they were not effective because though a blind person could read them, he could not write...

Sign Language For thousands of years people who were partially or fully deaf were looked down upon and treated as outcasts. On occasions they were also considered insane and locked up in asylums. In the sixteenth century an Italian doctor took upon himself the task of developing a method to teach deaf mutes by using certain characters. Research carried out by him helped in developing the ‘finger alphabets’. These were successfully...