You learn something new every day, don’t you?
Today, we learned that August is ‘Inventors Month’!
So today on the Afternoon Drive, we celebrated Inventors Month!
Here’s some history on how it came about…
National Inventors Month was started in 1998 by the United Inventors Association of the USA (UIA-USA), the Academy of Applied Science, and Inventors’ Digest magazine. As Joanne Hayes-Rines, editor of Inventors’ Digest and a sponsor of National Inventors Month, put it: “We want to recognize those talented, brave individuals who dare to be blatantly creative, and therefore different, and whose accomplishments affect every facet of our lives.”
When we think of inventors, we usually think of people like Alexander Graham Bell or Henry Ford, and there’s nothing wrong with that—those people had an enormous impact on what life looks like today, having invented the telephone and the automobile, respectively. However, in an age of gadgets, gizmos and electronics, it’s easy to forget that there is still incredible progress being made in technological innovation. Mark Zuckerberg, who created the most effective way to share pictures our cats ever. Stephen Hawking, whose insightful theories in cosmology have shaped the way humanity sees the universe.
Inventor’s Month is dedicated to recognizing the creativity of inventors everywhere, dead and alive, and of course encouraging everybody to get inventive.
Let’s take a look at some of the inventors that have shaped today’s world as we know it…
1. Thomas Edison
You can’t think of inventions and not have Edison’s name come to mind.
He was born in Ohio, and grew up in Michigan.
Edison had 6 children. Marion Estelle, Thomas Alva Jr, William Leslie, Madeline, Charles, and Theodore Miller.
That, consequently, was our Mystery Question today for Mysterty Monday!
We asked you to name 2 of the 6 Edison children.
Congratulations to Bonnie of Mt. Vernon for answering correctly!
Which Edison child’s name was your favorite?
I’m partial to the name William Leslie m’self!
Thomas Edison was an inventor who accumulated 2,332 patents worldwide for his inventions. 1,093 of Edison’s patents were in the United States, but other patents were approved in countries around the globe.
Telegraphs, telephones, phonographs, the electric lamp, the electric vote recorder, the electric generator, and the kinetgraphic camera, just to name a few. .
2. Henry Ford
Ford was an American Captain of Industry.
There is a common misconception that Henry Ford invented the automobile, which is untrue. Though Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he did develop and manufacture the first automobile that many middle-class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the 20th century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry.
As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with “Fordism”: mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents.
Thanks for listening!
– Lilly and Todd
Driving Notes 