Scientific Iventions 2010

Fauji Foundation
Model School
Peshawar Road
Campus Rawalpindi
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 Scientific Iventions 2010

Fauji Foundation Model School Peshawar

Road Campus Rawalpindi

Assignment No 1

Project: “ Scientific Invention ”

Name : Mashood Ur Rehman

Class : 7th

Group no 4

Submitted To: “Miss Musarat Jabeen”

Date of Submission: 22-11-2010

Submitted By Mashood Ur Rehman

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 Scientific Iventions 2010

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………….04

2. What is Scientific Invention?…….……………………………………………………04

3. History…………………………………………………………………………………….…….05

4. Top 12 Greatest Scientific Discoveries and Inventions in the World…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14

5. 20 Greatest Inventions by Muslim Scientists…………………………………..17

6. Reference to The Context…………………………………………………………………22

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 Scientific Iventions 2010

Introduction
The Intangible in Human Progress
We have just been listening to some of the world's great music. The writing of this fine
music has many "intangibles." The notes and intervals and sequences are arranged so as to
produce a pleasing, a dramatic, or an inspiring impression. The timing and the arrangements
and all the other things that go into a composition determine how much you, the public, will
like it. These great musical masterpieces are the final result of inspiration, of cut and try -
rewrite and try again. The dramatic stories from the lives of great composers tell this process
much better than I can.
What is Scientific Invention?
1-Scientific
Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is an enterprise that builds and
organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the natural
world.An older meaning still in use today is that of Aristotle, for whom scientific knowledge was
a body of reliable knowledge that can be logically and convincingly explained
2-Invention
An invention is a new composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived
from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived in which case it may
be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of
useful social behaviors adopted by people and passed on to others

. Inventions often extend the boundaries of human knowledge or experience. An

invention that is novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field may be able to obtain
the legal protection of a patent.

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History
All About Inventions
From new modern-day conveniences like computers, cell phones and MP3 players, to
the little things that we take for granted every day like electricity, running water, automobiles,
telephones and airplanes, the world has evolved into what we know today thanks to the art of
invention.
Defined as the process of discovering or presenting an element of novelty that will be of
use to someone or something, inventing has been continuously occurring for centuries. An
invention may be based on an earlier idea or collaboration, or may be en entirely new
breakthrough all together.

Some of the greatest inventors of all time, including Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin,
Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Steve Jobs and the Wright brothers, all had one thing
in common: they wanted to make life a little easier and more convenient for the rest of us.
An invention is essentially just a good idea that serves a purpose. The only goal an
invention has to accomplish is solving some kind of problem. Whether it’s making it easier for
wheelchair-bound individuals to get around, or the scientific discovery of a new medical
vaccine, every invention fits into its own significant role in society.
ANEMOMETER
The anemometer is a device that measures the speed of the wind (or other airflow, like
in a wind tunnel). The first anemometer, a disc placed perpendicular to the wind, was invented
in 1450 by the Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti. Robert Hooke, an English physicist, later
reinvented the anemometer. In 1846, John Thomas Romney Robinson, an Irish physicist,
invented the spinning-cup anemometer. In this device, cups are attached to a vertical shaft;
when the cups spin in the wind, it causes a gear to turn.
ARCHIMEDES
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Archimedes (287-212 BC) was a prolific ancient Greek mathematician. Archimedes

invented the water screw, a device for raising water using an encased screw open at both ends.
The screw is set an an angle, and as the screw turns, water fills the air pockets and is
transported upwards. The Archimedes screw is still in use today. Among his many
accomplishments was the first description of the lever (around 260 BC). Levers are one of the
basic tools; they were probably used in prehistoric times. Many of our basic tools use levers,
including scissors (two class-1 levers), pliers (two class-1 levers), hammer claws (one class-1
lever), nutcrackers (two class-2 levers), and tongs (two class-3 levers).
ASSEMBLY LINE
Primitive assembly line production was first used in 1901 by Ransome Eli Olds (1864-
1950), an early car-maker (he manufactured the Oldsmobile, the first commercially successful
American car). Henry Ford (1863-1947) used the first conveyor belt-based assembly-line in his
car factory in 1913-14 in Ford's Highland Park, Michigan plant. This type of production greatly
reduced the amount of time taken to put each car together (93 minutes for a Model T) from its
parts, reducing production costs. Assembly lines are now used in most manufacturing
processes.
BAEKELAND, L.H.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944) was a Belgian-born
American chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an
inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and very popular plastic.
For more information on Baekeland, click here.
BAKELITE
Bakelite (also called catalin) is a plastic, a dense synthetic polymer (a phenolic resin) that
was used to make jewelry, game pieces, engine parts, radio boxes, switches, and many, many
other objects. Bakelite was the first industrial thermoset plastic (a material that does not
change its shape after being mixed and heated). Bakelite plastic is made from carbolic acid
(phenol) and formaldehyde, which are mixed, heated, and then either molded or extruded into
the desired shape.
Bakelite was patented in 1907 by the Belgian-born American chemist Leo Hendrik
Baekeland (November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944). The Nobel Prize winning German chemist
Adolf von Baeyer had experimented with this material in 1872, but did not complete its
development or see its potential.
Baekeland operated the General Bakelite Company from 1911 to 1939 (in Perth Amboy,
N.J., USA), and produced up to about 200,000 tons of Bakelite annually. Bakelite replaced the
very flammable celluloid plastic that had been so popular. The bracelet above is made of
"butterscotch" bakelite.
BAROMETER

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A barometer is a device that measures air (barometric) pressure. It measures the weight of the
column of air that extends from the instrument to the top of the atmosphere. There are two
types of barometers commonly used today, mercury and aneroid (meaning "fluidless"). Earlier
water barometers (also known as "storm glasses") date from the 17th century. The mercury
barometer was invented by the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli (1608 - 1647), a pupil of
Galileo, in 1643. Torricelli inverted a glass tube filled with mercury into another container of
mercury; the mercury in the tube "weighs" the air in the atmosphere above the tube. The
aneroid barometer (using a spring balance instead of a liquid) was invented by the French
scientist Lucien Vidie in 1843.
BATTERY
A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. Each battery
has two electrodes, an anode (the positive end) and a cathode (the negative end). An electrical
circuit runs between these two electrodes, going through a chemical called an electrolyte
(which can be either liquid or solid). This unit consisting of two electrodes is called a cell (often
called a voltaic cell or pile). Batteries are used to power many devices and make the spark that
starts a gasoline engine.
Alessandro Volta was an Italian physicist invented the first chemical battery in 1800.
Storage batteries are lead-based batteries that can be recharged. In 1859, the French
physicist Gaston Plante (1834-1889) invented a battery made from two lead plates joined by a
wire and immersed in a sulfuric acid electrolyte; this was the first storage battery.
The dry cell is a an improved voltaic cell with a cylindrical zinc shell (the zinc acts as both
the cathode and the container) that is lined with an ammonium chloride (the electrolyte)
saturated material (and not a liquid). The dry cell battery was developed in the 1870s-1870s by
Georges Leclanche of France, who used an electrolyte in the form of a paste.
Edison batteries (also called alkaline batteries) are an improved type of storage battery
developed by Thomas Edison. These batteries have an alkaline electrolyte, and not an acid.
BUNSEN BURNER
The laboratory Bunsen burner was invented by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen in 1855. Bunsen
(1811-1899) was a German chemist and teacher. He invented the Bunsen burner for his
research in isolating chemical substances - it has a high-intensity, non-luminous flame that does
not interfere with the colored flame emitted by chemicals being tested.
CASSEGRAIN TELESCOPE
A Cassegrain telescope is a wide-angle reflecting telescope with a concave mirror that
receives light and focuses an image. A second mirror reflects the light through a gap in the
primary mirror, allowing the eyepiece or camera to be mounted at the back end of the tube.
The Cassegrain reflecting telescope was developed in 1672 by the French sculptor Sieur
Guillaume Cassegrain. A correcting plate (a lens) was added in 1930 by the Estonian astronomer

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and lens-maker Bernard Schmidt (1879-1935), creating the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope which
minimized the spherical aberration of the Cassegrain telescope.
CELLOPHANE
Cellophane is a thin, transparent, waterproof, protective film that is used in many types
of packaging. It was invented in 1908 by Jacques Edwin Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist. He had
originally intended cellophane to be bonded onto fabric to make a waterproof textile, but the
new cloth was brittle and not useful. Cellophane proved very useful all alone as a packaging
material. Chemists at the Dupont company (who later bought the rights to cellophane) made
cellophane waterproof in 1927.
CELSIUS, ANDERS
Anders Celsius (1701-1744) was a Swedish professor of astronomy who devised the
Celsius thermometer. He also ventured to the far north of Sweden with an expedition in order
to measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to the pole, later comparing it with
similar measurements made in the Southern Hemisphere. This confirmed that that the shape of
the earth is an ellipsoid which is flattened at the poles. He also cataloged 300 stars. With his
assistant Olof Hiorter, Celsius discovered the magnetic basis for auroras.
COMPOUND MICROSCOPE
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound microscope
in 1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one lens). His microscope
consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had a lens at each end. The microscope
was focused by sliding the tubes. The lens in the eyepiece was bi-convex (bulging outwards on
both sides), and the lens of the far end (the objective lens) was plano-convex (flat on one side
and bulging outwards on the other side). This advanced microscope had a 3 to 9 times power of
magnification. Zacharias Janssen's father Hans may have helped him build the microscope.
DA VINCI, LEONARDO
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian inventor, artist, architect, and scientist. Da
Vinci had an interest in engineering and made detailed sketches of the airplane, the helicopter
(and other flying machines), the parachute, the submarine, the armored car, the ballista (a giant
crossbow), rapid-fire guns, the centrifugal pump (designed to drain wet areas, like marshes),
ball bearings, the worm gear (a set of gears in which many teeth make contact at once,
reducing the strain on the teeth, allowing more pressure to be put on the mechanism), and
many other incredible ideas that were centuries ahead of da Vinci's time.
For some da Vinci art coloring pages, click here
DAVY, HUMPHRY
Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was an English scientist who invented the first electric
light in 1800. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he
connected wires from his battery to two pieces of carbon, electricity arced between the carbon
pieces, producing an intense, hot, and short-lived light. This is called an electric arc. Davy also

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invented a miner's safety helmet and a process to desalinate sea water. Davy discovered the
elements boron, sodium, aluminum (whose name he later changed to aluminium), and
potassium.
EDISON, THOMAS ALVA
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor (also known as the Wizard
of Menlo Park) whose many inventions revolutionized the world. His work includes improving
the incandescent electric light bulb and inventing the phonograph, the phonograph record, the
carbon telephone transmitter, and the motion-picture projector.
Edison's first job was as a telegraph operator, and in the course of his duties, he
redesigned the stock-ticker machine. The Edison Universal Stock Printer gave him the capital
($40,000) to set up a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, to invent full-time (with many
employees).
Edison experimented with thousands of different light bulb filaments to find just the
right materials to glow well, be long-lasting, and be inexpensive. In 1879, Edison discovered
that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for quite a while. This
incandescent bulb revolutionized the world.
ELION, GERTRUDE
Gertrude Belle Elion (January 23, 1918 - February 21, 1999) was a Nobel Prize winning
biochemist who invented many life-saving drugs, including 6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol) and
6-thioguanine (which fight leukemia), Imuran, Zovirax, and many others. Elion worked at
Burroughs-Wellcome (now called Glaxo Wellcome) for decades (beginning in 1944) with George
Hitchings and Sir James Black, with whom she shared the Nobel Prize. She is named on 45
patents for drugs and her work has saved the lives of thousands of people.
ENIAC
ENIAC stands for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer." It was one of the first
all-purpose, all-electronic digital computers. This room-sized computer was built by the
physicist John William Mauchly (Aug. 30, 1907 - Jan. 8, 1980) and the electrical engineer John
Presper Eckert, Jr. (April 9, 1919 - June 3, 1995) at the University of Pennsylvania. They
completed the machine in November, 1945.
FARNSWORTH, PHILO T.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1906-1971) was an American inventor. Farnsworth invented
many major major components of the television, including power, focusing systems,
synchronizing the signal, contrast, controls, and scanning. He also invented the radar systems,
cold cathode ray tube, the first baby incubator and the first electronic microscope. Farnsworth
held over 300 patents.
FOUCAULT, JEAN
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868) was a French physicist who invented the
gyroscope (1852) and the Foucault pendulum (1851). A gyroscope is essentially a spinning

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wheel set in a movable frame. When the wheel spins, it retains its spatial orientation, and it
resists external forces applied to it. Gyroscopes are used in navigation instruments (for ships,
planes, and rockets). Foucault was the first person to demonstrate how a pendulum could track
the rotation of the Earth (the Foucault pendulum) in 1851. He also showed that light travels
more slowly in water than in air (1850) and improved the mirrors of reflecting telescopes
(1858).
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706-April 17, 1790) was an American statesman, writer,
printer, and inventor. Franklin experimented extensively with electricity. In 1752, his
experiments with a kite in a thunderstorm (never do this, many people have died trying it!) led
to the development of the lightning rod. Franklin started the first circulating library in the
colonies in 1731. He also invented bifocal glasses and the Franklin stove. The idea of daylight
savings time was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784.
GALILEI, GALILEO
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist.
Galileo found that the speed at which bodies fall does not depend on their weight and did
extensive experimentation with pendulums.
In 1593 Galileo invented the thermometer.
In 1609, Galileo was the first person to use a telescope to observe the skies (after hearing
about Hans Lippershey's newly-invented telescope). Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn
(1610), was the first person to see the four major moons of Jupiter (1610), observed the phases
of Venus, studied sunspots, and discovered many other important phenomena.
GEIGER COUNTER
The Geiger counter (sometimes called the Geiger-Muller counter) is a device that
detects ionizing radioactivity (including gamma rays and X-rays) - it counts the radioactive
particle that pass through the device. The German nuclear physicist Hans Wilhelm Geiger (Sept.
30, 1882- Sept. 24, 1945) developed the device from 1908-12. At that time, Geiger was an
assistant to the British physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). [Geiger's work helped
Rutherford discover that radioactive elements can transform into other elements and that
atoms have a nucleus]. In 1928, the Geiger counter was improved by the German physicist E.
Walther Muller.
GREGORY, JAMES
James Gregory (1638-1675), a Scottish mathematician, invented the first reflecting
telescope in 1663. He published a description of the reflecting telescope in "Optica Promota,"
which was published in 1663. He never actually made the telescope, which was to have used a
parabolic and an ellipsoidal mirror.
GODDARD, ROBERT

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Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882-August 10, 1945) was an American physicist
and inventor who is known as the father of modern rocketry. In 1907, Goddard proved that a
rocket's thrust can propel it in a vacuum. In 1914, Goddard received two U.S. patents: for liquid-
fueled rockets and for two- to three-stage rockets that use solid fuel. In 1919, Goddard wrote a
scientific article, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," describing a high-altitude rocket; it
was published in a Smithsonian report. Goddard's many inventions were the basis upon which
modern rocketry is based.
After many years of failed attempts and public ridicule, Goddard's first successful rocket
was launched on March 16, 1926 from a relative's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. It was a
liquid-fueled 10-ft. rocket that he called Nell. The flight lasted 2 1/2 seconds; the rocket flew a
distance of 184 feet and achieved an altitude of 41 feet.
Goddard soon moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he developed more sophisticated
multi-stage rockets, rockets with fins (vanes) to steer them (1932), a gyro control device to
control the rocket (1932), and supersonic rockets (1935). In 1937, Goddard launched the first
rocket with a pivotable motor on gimbals using his gyro control device. Altogether, Robert
Goddard had 214 patents.
GYROSCOPE
A gyroscope is essentially a spinning wheel set in a movable frame. When the wheel
spins, it retains its spatial orientation, and it resists external forces applied to it. Gyroscopes are
used in navigation instruments (for ships, planes, and rockets). Jean Bernard Léon Foucault
(1819-1868), a French physicist, invented the gyroscope in 1852.
HERON
The steam engine was invented by Heron, an ancient Greek geometer and engineer
from Alexandria. Heron lived during the first century AD and is sometimes called Hero. Heron
made the steam engine as a toy, and called his device "aeolipile," which means "wind ball" in
Greek. The steam was supplied by a sealed pot filled with water and placed over a fire. Two
tubes came up from the pot, letting the steam flow into a spherical ball of metal. The metallic
sphere had two curved outlet tubes, which vented steam. As the steam went through the series
of tubes, the metal sphere rotated. The aeolipile is the first known device to transform steam
power into rotary motion. The Greeks never used this remarkable device for anything but a
novelty. A steam engine designed for work wasn't built until 1698 (built by the British inventor,
Thomas Savery). Watt later improved the steam engine.
HUYGENS, CHRISTIAN
Christian Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch physicist and astronomer who developed
new methods for grinding and polishing glass telescope lenses (about 1654). With his new,
powerful telescopes, he identified Saturn's rings and discovered Titan, the largest moon of
Saturn in 1655. Huygens also invented the pendulum clock in 1656 (eliminating springs), wrote

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the first work on the calculus of probability (De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae, 1655), and proposed
the wave theory of light (Traité de la lumiere, 1678).
HYDE, IDA HENRIETTA
Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857-1945) was an American physiologist who invented the
microelectrode in the 1930's. The microelectrode is a small device that electrically (or
chemically) stimulates a living cell and records the electrical activity within that cell. Hyde was
the first woman to graduate from the University of Heidelberg, to do research at the Harvard
Medical School and to be elected to the American Physiological Society.
INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS
Clock makers used the idea of interchangeable parts since the early 1700's. In 1790, the
French gunsmith Honoré Blanc demonstrated his muskets entirely made from interchangeable
parts; the French government didn't like the process (since with this process, anyone could
manufacture items, and the government lost control), so it was stopped. The idea of
interchangeable parts was introduced to American gun manufacturing by Eli Whitney (1765-
1825) in 1798. The concept of interchangeable manufacturing parts helped modernize the
musket industry (and mass production in general). Whitney made templates for each separate
part of the musket (an early gun). The workers then used the template when chiseling the part.
Whitney was an American inventor and engineer who also invented the cotton gin.
JANSKY, KARL
Karl Gothe Jansky (1905-1949) was an American radio engineer who pioneered and
developed radio astronomy. In 1932, he detected the first radio waves from a cosmic source - in
the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy.
JANSSEN, ZACHARIAS
Zacharias Janssen was a Dutch lens-maker who invented the first compound microscope
in 1595 (a compound microscope is one which has more than one lens). His microscope
consisted of two tudes that slid within one another, and had a lens at each end. The microscope
was focused by sliding the tubes. The lens in the eyepiece was bi-convex (bulging outwards on
both sides), and the lens of the far end (the objective lens) was plano-convex (flat on one side
and bulging outwards on the other side). This advanced microscope had a 3 to 9 times power of
magnification. Zacharias Janssen's father Hans may have helped him build the microscope.
KARLE, ISABELLA L.
Isabella Helen Lugoski Karle (1921- ) is a American physical chemist who invented new
methods of X-ray Crystallography. She used electron diffraction and then x-ray diffraction to
study the structure of molecules. Karle developed a three-dimensional modeling process,
enabling her to identify and show the structures of hundreds of complex and important
molecules (including alkaloids, ionophores, steroids, toxins, and peptides [amino acid
compounds]). Because of Karle's process, the number of published molecular analyses has
jumped from about 150 to over 10,000 per year. Karle received the National Medal of Science

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in 1995. Karle is a senior scientist and head of the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) x-ray
diffraction section in the Laboratory for the Structure of Matter. Karle's husband, Jerome Karle,
is a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
KELVIN
Lord Kelvin (William Thompson, 1824 - 1907) designed the Kelvin scale, in which 0 K is
defined as absolute zero and the size of one degree is the same as the size of one degree
Celsius. Water freezes at 273.16 K; water boils at 373.16 K.
LATIMER, LEWIS H
Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was an African-American inventor who was a
member of Edison's research team, which was called "Edison's Pioneers." Latimer improved the
newly-invented incandescent light bulb by inventing a carbon filament (which he patented in
1881).
LEVERS
Levers are one of the basic tools; they were probably used in prehistoric times. Levers
were first described about 260 BC by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes (287-212
BC). Many of our basic tools use levers, including scissors (two class-1 levers), pliers (two class-1
levers), hammer claws (one class-1 lever), nutcrackers (two class-2 levers), and tongs (two class-
3 levers).
LIGHT BULB
The first incandescent electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English
scientist. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected
wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. This is called an
electric arc.
Much later, in 1860, the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) was
determined to devise a practical, long-lasting electric light. He found that a carbon paper
filament worked well, but burned up quickly. In 1878, he demonstrated his new electric lamps
in Newcastle, England.
The inventor Thomas Alva Edison (in the USA) experimented with thousands of different
filaments to find just the right materials to glow well and be long-lasting. In 1879, Edison
discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for 40
hours. Edison eventually produced a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours. The
incandescent bulb revolutionized the world.
LIPPERSHEY, HANS
Hans Lippershey (1570?-1619) was a German-born Dutch lens maker who demonstrated
the first refracting telescope in 1608, made from two lenses; he applied for a patent for this
optical refracting telescope (using 2 lenses) in 1608, intending it for use as a military device.
McCOY, ELIJAH

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Elijah McCoy (1843 or 1844-1929) was a mechanical engineer and inventor. McCoy's
high-quality industrial inventions (especially his steam engine lubricator) were the basis for the
expression "the real McCoy," meaning the real, authentic, or high-quality thing.
METER (and the METRIC SYSTEM)
The metric system was invented in France. In 1790, the French National Assembly
directed the Academy of Sciences of Paris to standardize the units of measurement. A
committeee from the Academy used a decimal system and defined the meter to be one 10-
millionths of the distance from the equator to the Earth's Pole (that is, the Earth's
circumference would be equal to 40 million meters). The committee consisted of the
mathematicians Jean Charles de Borda (1733-1799), Joseph-Louis Comte de Lagrange (1736-
1813), Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827), Gaspard Monge (1746 -1818), and Marie Jean
Antoine Nicholas Caritat, the Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794)
The word meter comes from the Greek word metron, which means measure. The centimeter
was defined as one-hundredth of a meter; the kilometer was defined as 1000 meters. The
metric system was passed by law in France on August 1, 1793. In 1960, the definition of the
meter changed to 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of of the orange-red radiation of krypton 86. In
1983, the meter was redefined as 1/299,792,458 of the distance that light travels in one second
in a vacuum.For the metric unit of mass, the gram was defined as the mass of one cubic
centimeter of pure water at a given temperature. In common usage and in commerce, grams
are used as a unit of weight.
MICROELECTRODE
Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857-1945) was an American physiologist who invented the
microelectrode in the 1930's. The microelectrode is a small device that electrically (or
chemically) stimulates a living cell and records the electrical activity within that cell. Hyde was
the first woman to graduate from the University of Heidelberg, to do research at the Harvard
Medical School and to be elected to the American Physiological Society.
Top 12 Greatest Scientific Discoveries and Inventions in the World
Here are some of the most spectacular inventions and discoveries that changed the way
people did things. Science has been of great help to the people. Below are some of the great
things that were discovered and invented by famous people around the world.

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Anaesthesia
With the discovery “anaesthesia”, people conquered pain. It made some of the most dangerous
medical operations to be possible without further hurting the patient. The term was coined by
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in the year 1846. The original definition of this term is “the blockage
of sensation” but could also be defined as, “reversible lack of awareness”. Actually, anaesthesia
was already used in the pre-historic times. Even in the year 4200 B.C., opium poppy was
collected to make it as a herbal anesthesia.
Carbon dating

This method is used to accurately identify the age of a certain object. This was developed by
Willard Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago in the year 1949. He received a
Nobel Price in Chemistry for his work and achievements. Although,a more accurate figure was
found out, most scientist prefer to use the Libby figure to avoid inconsistencies of the previous
informations published.
Blood Circulation System

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image source
It was in the year 1242 that an Arabian physician accurately described the human circulatory
system. Although some of the earliest people already had the thought of the system, it was in
the year 1628 that William Harvey announced that the discovery of the human circulatory
system was his. He performed several tests and wrote an influential book, and these convinced
the medical world to believe in the genuineness of the discovery. Harvey was not able to
identify the capillary system connecting arteries and veins; these were later described by
Marcello Malpighi.
Deoxyribonucleic acid

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Food Products and Agricultural Technology »

The discovery of the DNA was made by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher. It was
first called as a “nuclein” because it resides in the nuclei of a cell. The first correct image of the
DNA was made as a suggestion by James D. Watson and Francis Crick based on image
diffraction done by Rosalind Franklin. DNA is the blue print of a person because it holds the
instructions how to build up some of the components of the other cells.

20 Greatest Inventions by Muslim Scientists

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many
innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely
nominates 20 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them
1) Coffee
The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of
southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He
boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans
exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special
occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its
way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who
opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London.
The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee
2) Pin-Hole Camera
The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see.
The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century
Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole
camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the
hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab
word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift
physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.

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3) Chess
A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form
we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe – where it was introduced
by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century – and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes
from the Persian rukh, which means chariot.
4) Parachute
A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and
engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852
he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with
wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn’t. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating
what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged
70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles’ feathers he tried again, jumping from a
mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on
landing – concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would
stall on landing.
Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.
5) Shampoo
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they
perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind,
as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined
vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders’
most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was
introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed’s Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton
seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.
6) Refinement
Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points,
was invented around the year 800 by Islam’s foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who
transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still
in use today – liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and
filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving
the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them
is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was
the founder of modern chemistry
7) Shaft
The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to
much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of
the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an
ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of

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Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves
and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was
the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.
8) Metal Armor
Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating
material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it
was imported there from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders.
They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of
armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the
Crusaders’ metal armour and was an effective form of insulation – so much so that it became a
cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.
9) Pointed Arch
The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe’s Gothic cathedrals was an invention
borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the
Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander
buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and
dome-building techniques. Europe’s castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world’s –
with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to
more easily defended round ones. Henry V’s castle architect was a Muslim.
10) Surgery
Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in
the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine
scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a
modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away
naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also
used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis
described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims
doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles
to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.
11) Windmill
The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and
draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry,
the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills
had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill
was seen in Europe.

12) Vaccination

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The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in
the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to
Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox
at least 50 years before the West discovered it.
13) Fountain Pen
The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen
which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens,
fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.
14) Numerical Numbering
The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the
style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim
mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi’s
book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim
maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician
Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world.
And Al-Kindi’s discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world
soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.
15) Soup
Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in
the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal – soup, followed by
fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented
after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas – see No 4).
16) Carpets
Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their
advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed
sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam’s non-representational art. In
contrast, Europe’s floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian
carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were “covered in rushes,
occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes
for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings,
scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned”. Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught
on quickly.
17) Pay Cheques
The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when
they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the
9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in
Baghdad.
18) Earch is in sphere shape?

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By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a
sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, “is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular
spot on Earth”. It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of
Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth’s
circumference to be 40, 253.4km – less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe
depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.
19) Rocket and Torpedo
Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was
the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use.
Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both
a rocket, which they called a “self-moving and combusting egg”, and a torpedo – a self-
propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and
then blew up.
20) Gardens
Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the
idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in
Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim
gardens include the carnation and the tulip.

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Reference to the Context:

1-Read more: http://scienceray.com/technology/top-12-greatest-scientific-discoveries-and-

inventions-in-the-world/#ixzz15tNXvC4I

2-http://nikhasnan.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/20-greatest-inventions-by-muslim-scientists/

3-http://www.google.com.pk/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=677&q=muslim+scientist
+inventions&aq=0&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=10206e7aa71daaaa

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