Vinyl: Old Format, New Spin
Reel-to-reel evolved from magnetic recording, developed by U.S. engineer Oberlin Smith in the late 1870s and demonstrated some 20 years later by Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen.
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Author: Reid Creager
The Impact of Microchip Technology? Let Us Count the Ways
Microchip technology changed the world, spawned the electronic handheld calculator. The team of Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel applied for a patent for the electronic handheld calculator in September 1967, revising it in 1971 and 1972 before the patent was granted in June 1974.
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‘TV Miracles’: Eugene Polley’s Wireless Remote
Eugene Polley’s wireless remote control is a modern-era institution. The Zenith Flash-Matic “makes me think maybe my life wasn’t wasted. Maybe I did something for humanity—like the guy who invented the flush toilet.” —Eugene Polley
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Lloyd Copeman: Different Drum
“He used to demonstrate one of his inventions, a 1918 version of the microwave oven that he called ‘cold heat,’ by frying an egg through a newspaper. Thinking that the oven was too expensive to manufacture, he never patented it.
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Lloyd Copeman: Forgotten Genius
Lloyd Copeman had a slew of impactful innovations among his 650-plus patents but is not in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Copeman profited handsomely from sales of his invention rights but went through money quickly, usually in search of other discoveries.
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