Category Science

HOW ARE GREAT INVENTIONS MADE?

An invention is a new method, material or machine that applies theoretical principles to a practical use. That does not mean that the inventor necessarily understands why his invention works! Inventions may be the result of hard work, or luck, or both. Very often, it is the name of the person who popularized the new idea that we remember, not the person who first thought of it.

An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough. Such works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field. An inventor may be taking a big step toward success or failure.

Some inventions can be patented. A patent legally protects the intellectual property rights of the inventor and legally recognizes that a claimed invention is actually an invention. The rules and requirements for patenting an invention vary by country and the process of obtaining a patent is often expensive.

Another meaning of invention is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviours adopted by people and passed on to others. The Institute for Social Inventions collected many such ideas in magazines and books. Invention is also an important component of artistic and design creativity. Inventions often extend the boundaries of human knowledge, experience or capability.

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WHAT DID BENJAMIN FRANKLIN RISK HIS LIFE TO DISCOVER?

In the eighteenth century, wealthy and influential men often interested themselves in more than one branch of learning. The American Benjamin Franklin was a statesman, printer, author and scientist. He left school at twelve, being the fifteenth child of seventeen, but soon made up for his lack of formal education. As well as his political work, he conducted many experiments concerning electricity. In 1752, he flew a kite in a thunder-storm, attaching a metal key to the damp string. An electrical charge ran down the string and Franklin was able to feel it jump to his finger when he approached the key. From this he concluded that lightning was an electrical spark and in 1753 launched his invention of the lightning conductor.

By 1750, in addition to wanting to prove that lightning was electricity, Franklin began to think about protecting people, buildings, and other structures from lightning. This grew into his idea for the lightning rod. Franklin described an iron rod about 8 or 10 feet long that was sharpened to a point at the end. He wrote, “The electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out of a cloud silently, before it could come near enough to strike…” Two years later, Franklin decided to try his own lightning experiment. Surprisingly, he never wrote letters about the legendary kite experiment; someone else wrote the only account 15 years after it took place.

In June of 1752, Franklin was in Philadelphia, waiting for the steeple on top of Christ Church to be completed for his experiment (the steeple would act as the “lightning rod”). He grew impatient, and decided that a kite would be able to get close to the storm clouds just as well. Ben needed to figure out what he would use to attract an electrical charge; he decided on a metal key, and attached it to the kite. Then he tied the kite string to an insulating silk ribbon for the knuckles of his hand. Even though this was a very dangerous experiment, some people believe that Ben wasn’t injured because he didn’t conduct his test during the worst part of the storm. At the first sign of the key receiving an electrical charge from the air, Franklin knew that lightning was a form of electricity. His 21-year-old son William was the only witness to the event.

Two years before the kite and key experiment, Ben had observed that a sharp iron needle would conduct electricity away from a charged metal sphere. He first theorized that lightning might be preventable by using an elevated iron rod connected to earth to empty static from a cloud. Franklin articulated these thoughts as he pondered the usefulness of a lightning rod.

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WHAT IS MADE FROM STEEL?

A huge range of items can be made from steel, from tiny paperclips to huge girders forming the frames for skyscrapers. One useful property of steel is that it can be recycled and used over and over again.

Steel has a long history. People in India and Sri Lanka were making small amounts of steel more than 2,500 years ago. It was very expensive and was often used to make swords and knives. In the middle Ages, steel could be made only in small amounts since the processes took a long time.

In the time since, there have been many changes to the way steel is made. In about the year 1610 steel started to be made in England, and the way it was made got better and cheaper over the next 100 years. Cheap steel helped start the Industrial Revolution in England and in Europe. The first industrial Converter (metallurgy) for making cheap steel was the Bessemer converter, followed by Siemens-Martin open-hearth process.

Today the most common way of making steel is the basic-oxygen process. The converter is a large turnip-shaped vessel. Liquid raw iron called “pig iron” is poured in and some scrap metal is added in to balance the heat. Oxygen is then blown into the iron. The oxygen burns off the extra carbon and other impurities. Then enough carbon is added to make the carbon contents as wanted. The liquid steel is then poured. It can be either cast into molds or rolled into sheets, slabs, beams and other so-called “long products”, such as railway tracks. Some special steels are made in electric arc furnaces.

Steel is most often made by machines in huge buildings called steel mills. It is a very cheap metal and is used to make many things. Steel is used in making buildings and bridges, and all kinds of machines. Almost all ships and cars are today made from steel. When a steel object is old, or it is broken beyond repair, it is called scrap. It can be melted down and re-shaped into a new object. Steel is recyclable material; that is, the same steel can be used and re-used.

Alloys of steel, in which steel is combined with other metals, can be very useful. Railway tracks are often made of an alloy of steel and manganese.

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WHAT IS STEEL?

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Iron extracted from iron ore contains about 4% carbon and some other impurities. The carbon makes it hard but weakens it. Removing some of the carbon and other impurities in an oxygen furnace produces steel.

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon containing less than 2% carbon and 1% manganese and small amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen. Steel is the world’s most important engineering and construction material. It is used in every aspect of our lives; in cars and construction products, refrigerators and washing machines, cargo ships and surgical scalpels.

Steels are a large family of metals. All of them are alloys in which iron is mixed with carbon and other elements. Steels are described as mild, medium- or high-carbon steels according to the percentage of carbon they contain, although this is never greater than about 1.5%.

The properties of steel are closely linked to its composition. For example, there is a big difference in hardness between the steel in a drinks can and the steel that is used to make a pair of scissors. The metal in the scissors contains nearly twenty times as much carbon and is many times harder. Notice how the percentage of carbon in the steel items in varies. Changing the carbon content changes the properties of the steel and the way that it is used.

The heat treatment given to steel can affect its properties too. Cooling a red-hot tool steel rapidly in cold water makes it harder and more brittle. We could have made the same piece of metal softer by keeping it at red heat for longer and then cooling it slowly. Heat treatment is another method that the steelmaker uses to make the properties of the steel match the job it has to do.

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WHERE IS THE BIGGEST IRON MOLECULE IN THE WORLD?

So important was the metal-working industry of Belgium that a building in Brussels called the Atomium was made in the shape of a molecule of iron — magnified 165 billion times!

Andre Waterkeyn was born 1917 in Wimbledon, London and died in Brussels in 2005 at the age of 88. In a moment of quite delightful synchronicity Double Stone Steel are building a new stainless steel colouring factory in Wimbledon.

In 1954 Waterkeyn whilst working for Fabrimetal a group of metal fabrication companies, was asked to design a building that would showcase Belgian engineering skills to the world. An iron crystal magnified 165 billion times was deemed the way to go.

Three industrial groups – the Federation of the metalworking, mechanical and electrotechnical engineering industries, the Belgian blast-furnace and steel working group and the Union on non-ferrous metals industries – joined together in a non-profit-making organisation and appointed André Waterkeyn as Managing Director.

The Atomium was a monumental image of the then new and exciting nuclear age. During the fair, the Atomium held an exhibition showing the benefits of nuclear science to mankind. This was the age where the boffins around the world were convinced that nuclear science would completely remove the need for anyone work or for any other type of power generation system. Electricity would be so cheap that it would be free to all. The world would find its Utopia at long last. The Nuclear age was going to be, safe, cheap and simple. Nuclear power would save the world. I am not sure the general public were convinced as the memory of the nuclear booming in Japan were very fresh.

The Atomium consists of nine spheres, each sphere having a diameter of 18m.The spheres are connected by twenty, 23m long metal tubes, the tubes have a diameter 3.3m. The tubes allow the visitor to move between the spheres using escalators or staircases. The structure stands on three pillars known as ‘bipods’. In 1958 the Atomium had the fastest lift in Europe, reaching speeds of 5 meters per second.

The original construction of the frame was in steel, with 10-12mm aluminium panels. The spheres’ aluminium is an alloy called ‘Peraluman 15’ which was then covered with a thin sheet of aluminium called ‘reflectal’, which was then highly polished. In 2004 the building was shut to the public to be refurbished. The original aluminium panels being replaced by polished stainless steel panels. Over 6000 honeycombed panels were fabricated in 1.2mm, grade 316L with a rock wool insulation core and a 1mm galvanised interior skin. The building looks wonderful and should stand for many many years.

“The story of the Atomium is, above all, one of love, the love that the Belgians have for an extraordinary structure symbolising a frame of mind that wittily combines aesthetic daring with technical mastery. The appearance of the Atomium is unusual and unforgettable. It has a rare quality of lifting everyone’s spirits and firing their imagination.”

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WHY IS IRON AN IMPORTANT METAL?

Iron is the most widely used of all metals. It is cheap and very strong, so it can be used to make the supports for huge buildings and bridges. The Industrial Revolution would not have been possible without iron to make the machinery used in new factories. Today most iron is made into steel, a metal that can be used for a wider variety of purposes than any other metal on Earth.

Iron is an incredibly useful substance. It’s less brittle than stone yet, compared to wood or copper, extremely strong. If properly heated, iron is also relatively easy to shape into various forms, as well as refine, using simple tools. And speaking of those tools, unlike wood, iron can handle high temperatures, allowing us to build everything from fire tongs to furnaces out of it. In contrast to most substances, you can also magnetize iron, making it useful in the creation of electric motors and generators. Finally, there certainly aren’t any iron shortages to worry about. The Earth’s crust is 5 percent iron, and in some areas, the element concentrates in ores that contain as much as 70 percent iron.

When you compare iron and steel with something like aluminum, you can see why it was so important historically. To refine aluminum, you need access to huge quantities of electricity. Furthermore, to shape aluminum, you have to either cast it or extrude it. Iron, however, is much easier to manipulate. The element has been useful to people for thousands of years, while aluminum really didn’t exist in any meaningful way until the 20th century.

­Fortunately, iron can be created relatively easily with tools that were available to primitive societies. There will likely come a day when humans become so technologically advanced that iron is completely replaced by aluminum, plastics and things like carbon and glass fibers. But right now, the economic equation gives inexpensive iron and steel a huge advantage over these much more expensive alternatives.

The only real problem with iron and steel is rust. Fortunately, you can control rust by painting, galvanizing, chrome plating or coating the iron with a sacrificial anode, which corrodes faster than the stronger metal. Think of this last option as hiring a bodyguard to take a bullet for the president. The more active metal has to almost completely corrode before the less active iron or steel begins the process.

­Humans have come up with countless uses for iron, from carpentry tools and culinary equipment to complicated machinery and instruments of torture. Before iron can be put to any of these uses, however, it has to be mined from the ground.

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