Greatest American Invention?

They still knew what Babes were best to sing about!

wsuffa said:
I hate to have to point this out, but "American Woman" was not American Music. :( It was recorded by Guess Who, which is a Canadian band....
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Ah yes... of course you're right Richard -the vise grips.

Richard said:
Actually, the greatest American invention has been a method by which to carry out an age old idea. The idea is that all men are created equal and the method is our democracy. This is no less tangible than any of the material items so far mentioned. In fact, I would say that all we have has been the result of this mechanism. I don't know why none of you metioned it.
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Zippo lighters.

I always stashed one away in my emergency kit when driving across KS/CO in the winter.

Maybe not the 'greatest', but it's another one of those things that 'just works'.
 
wsuffa said:
I hate to have to point this out, but "American Woman" was not American Music. :( It was recorded by Guess Who, which is a Canadian band....
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..and it's Canadian put down of the U.S.

(Stay away from me. Don't want your war machine...)
 
bbchien said:
Aw c'mon Lance, you coulda done all that with some 3CX Triodes (about 35,000 of them). But thank heaven for Bardeen and Brattain!
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Believe it or not (I not sure I do) but some of my first electrionic designs and kit projects were tube based. For a 10th grade science fair project I built an vacuum tube based oscilliscope from scratch. It won 1st prize at my high school, but at the big science fair in Detroit it didn't fare well. Turned out the judges thought I bought a commercial scope and just made up a report. Kinda soured me on science fairs.
 
lancefisher said:
For a 10th grade science fair project I built an vacuum tube based oscilliscope from scratch. It won 1st prize at my high school, but at the big science fair in Detroit it didn't fare well. Turned out the judges thought I bought a commercial scope and just made up a report. Kinda soured me on science fairs.
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Holy cow! :hairraise: When you walked into college, did they just hand you a degree? Designing and building a scope is no small task! You must have been into electronics hard-core from a very young age.

Scopes must have cost a lot less back then if the judges thought you could actually afford one. They start at several thousand dollars these days...
 
Kent, have you ever talked to Lance about electronics? I think hes been into electronics hard-core since BIRTH
 
kevin47881 said:
Baling wire, JB weld and duct tape...what else does a guy need?:D
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WD40.

If it moves and it ain't supposed to - use the duct tape.

If it should move and it doesn't - use the WD 40.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Holy cow! :hairraise: When you walked into college, did they just hand you a degree? Designing and building a scope is no small task! You must have been into electronics hard-core from a very young age.

Scopes must have cost a lot less back then if the judges thought you could actually afford one. They start at several thousand dollars these days...
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Nah. You can get a new CRT scope starting at $250-$600.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?h...mode=online&scoring=p&sa=N&lnk=next&start=230


I bought one for like $60 at a ham fest in my electrogeek days.

Still, I wouldn't have wanted to try to build one from scratch in high school. That is quite an accomplishment, Lance.

I built Heathkits in the day, but nothing more complicated than a VTVM (Lance will know what that is), a portable radio and a FM stero receiver.
 
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mikea said:
..and it's Canadian put down of the U.S.

(Stay away from me. Don't want your war machine...)
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Yeah, they just want it when laying in it's (our) shadow of protection suits their needs at no cost to them.
 
Ghery said:
It was. And the model number was 4004. Made by a small Silicon Valley startup by the name of Intel. They've made a few enhancements to the design since then. :D
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And Intel was co-founded by Robert Noyce(who had a similar familiarity with the integrated chip), and whose divorced wife moved to Maine(to what had been their summer place), she an occasional camera store customer of mine who gave away over $50,000,000.00 in the state of Maine. When Elizabeth (Betty) died, her Will and Testament was the largest ever probated in Maine, and the foundation she started continues to give ten$ of million$ away every year.
One super lady(who gained much from the California divorce laws).

HR
 
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Two things are tied: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

All the other items mentioned are just second place...;)

Jim
 
smigaldi said:
Actually there were integrated circuits long before the transistor. The first solid state integrated circuit showed up in 1961. But in the 1920's at the peak of vacuum tube design there were several radio stages included into a single vacuum tube. So technically the first integrated circuits were from the 1920's.
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OK, I should have said "solid state integrated circuit".:rolleyes:
 
Ghery said:
It was. And the model number was 4004. Made by a small Silicon Valley startup by the name of Intel. They've made a few enhancements to the design since then. :D
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Texas Instruments used that uC to make one of their first succesful calculators.

I worked on a "data concentrator" project that was based on Intel's first 8 bit uC called the 8008. Is that what you mean by enhancements:P?
 
mikea said:
Nah. You can get a new CRT scope starting at $250-$600.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&resnum=0&q=oscilloscope&oe=UTF-8&lmode=online&scoring=p&sa=N&lnk=next&start=230


I bought one for like $60 at a ham fest in my electrogeek days.

Still, I wouldn't have wanted to try to build one from scratch in high school. That is quite an accomplishment, Lance.

I built Heathkits in the day, but nothing more complicated than a VTVM (Lance will know what that is), a portable radio and a FM stero receiver.
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Until I gave or threw it away about 20 years ago I had a Heath VTVM.

The scope was a pretty simple, but typical of low end scopes in that era. One channel, non-triggered sweep, but it worked. The case (which I found in a surplus store) was about 18"high, 12"wide, and 24" deep. I had to make a small extension for the CRT neck out of a coffee can on the back.
 
wsuffa said:
So, what's your vote for the greatest American invention? And why?

I think my vote goes to duct tape (aka duck tape, speed tape).

Why? Because America could not run without it. It keeps our homes together, our cars running, and our planes flying. Our boys in uniform use it. And some clothing makers have even made clothes out of it. Need a temporary repair that can be permanent? It's there to help you.

So, what would you think is the greatest?
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That's easy. It's a tie. Either the flux capacitor or the beer bottle opener.:)
:blueplane:
ApacheBob
 
lancefisher said:
I think my vote goes to the transistor, which begat the integrated circuit, and that's the basis for 99.9% of every electronic gadget in the world. Some might say we'd be better off without all the gismos, but not me. Few aspects of our daily lives would be the same without the transistor and most of the changes are for our benefit.
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A few years ago, one of the guys who invented the transisitor died, and in his OBIT, it said that one of his regrets of inventing the transisitor was the proliferation of rock and roll.
 
lancefisher said:
I think my vote goes to the transistor, which begat the integrated circuit, and that's the basis for 99.9% of every electronic gadget in the world. Some might say we'd be better off without all the gismos, but not me. Few aspects of our daily lives would be the same without the transistor and most of the changes are for our benefit.
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Want to see the benefit of the transistor/IC? Go to a hospital.
 
deafsound said:
A few years ago, one of the guys who invented the transisitor died, and in his OBIT, it said that one of his regrets of inventing the transisitor was the proliferation of rock and roll.
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Interestingly, at least when I played rock, 70's and 80's, we wouldn't be caught dead with an amplifier with transistors. It didn't give the same sound as tube amps. All the bands used tube amps. I see the same names on the amps now, Fender, Marshall, etc., but wonder if they've all gone slid state using new technology to get that warm tube sound? Anybody know? I've been out of the music thing for 20 years.
 
Audiophiles still pay a premium for tubes aka valves.

Tube amps are available, especially in higher-power ratings, but much of the amplification that bands use is solid-state. After all, distortion is distortion, regardless of the source.. :D
 
Anthony said:
Interestingly, at least when I played rock, 70's and 80's, we wouldn't be caught dead with an amplifier with transistors. It didn't give the same sound as tube amps. All the bands used tube amps. I see the same names on the amps now, Fender, Marshall, etc., but wonder if they've all gone slid state using new technology to get that warm tube sound? Anybody know? I've been out of the music thing for 20 years.
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Guitar amps and bass amps (to a lessor extent) are still quite often full of tubes, but the transistor made it easier to make inexpensive recording equipment. That's why the guy was bummed out.
 
wsuffa said:
So, what's your vote for the greatest American invention? And why?

I think my vote goes to duct tape (aka duck tape, speed tape).

Why? Because America could not run without it. It keeps our homes together, our cars running, and our planes flying. Our boys in uniform use it. And some clothing makers have even made clothes out of it. Need a temporary repair that can be permanent? It's there to help you.

So, what would you think is the greatest?
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The helicopter. Thank you, Igor!

Everything else is nonsense!
 
oh ok, i guess if the wright brothers can be nominated for inventing the towplane then igor can get the helicopter
 
bbchien said:
But thank heaven for Bardeen and Brattain!
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And don't forget William Shockley!

bbchien said:
Aw c'mon Lance, you coulda done all that with some 3CX Triodes (about 35,000 of them).
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You could, but that's the beauty of these inventions -- each successive build-up lets you do more and do it cheaper, better, and faster. The solid state transistor, without a doubt, is huge. Putting enough of them together to make a microprocessor was even bigger. Add to that my nomination: Claude Shannon's Bell Labs "Information Theory" paper and you've got the basis of every communication and broadcast device that exists.

There's a neat book called Fortune's Formula that details the fascinating intersection of Shannon's paper, Ed Thorp's "Beat the Dealer" blackjack system (card counting is totally about information), Jim Kelley's optimum betting strategy, Las Vegas, and the mafia.

Then there are Lockheed's stealth aircraft -- originally made possible by having enough computational horsepower to implement some obscure 70's Russian mathematics paper that described how to calculate radar cross-section. Microprocessors rule again!


-Rich

P.S. Oooh -- one more: the Thermos. It keeps hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold. How do it know? :rofl:
 
There is one more inventor we should give some credit to...that would be Hedy Lamarr.

yeah the actress

In WW2 Hedy Lamarr had an idea on how to prevent jamming of signal used by torpedos. Her idea is what is now the basis of the current digital cellualr systems of CDMA. When coupled with the transistor and other solid state advances affects us each and every day. This is the system used by Sprint and Verizon in the US. It is also the basis of the third generation cellular systems about to be deployed around the world and called WCDMA.
 
smigaldi said:
There is one more inventor we should give some credit to...that would be Hedy Lamarr.
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Ah yes, frequency hopping!

If we're going that far back, I'm surprised no one's mentioned Edison, the light bulb, the electrification of America (AC vs. DC and all that jazz).


-Rich
 
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