Search Results ... (127)
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The First Successful Submarine
The First Successful Submarine
John Philip Holland (1841-1914, pictured above), was born in Liscannor, Co Clare, and died in the USA at the outbreak of World War I. A few weeks later, a small German submarine sank three British cruisers in under an hour, killing 1,400 men - Holland's invention had changed naval warfare forever.
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Mitchell's Screw-Pile Lighthouse
Mitchell's Screw-Pile Lighthouse
<P> Alexander Mitchell invented the screw-pile, a major improvement over the standard straight pile. With his son, he patented his cast iron screwpile design in the 1830s. By 1840 Mitchell combined his cast iron screwpile moorings with another pile construction technique and built the first screwpile lighthouse type at the mouth of the Wyre, an important harbor in Lancashire, England. Mitchell used 36-inch-diameter wooden timbers on whose bottoms were attached his cast iron screwpile devise. Completed in 1841, his structure was the first lighthouse to be built upon a screwpile foundation made entirely of iron. </P> <P> A protected, screw-pile lighthouse was typically a light-weight, wooden tower on iron stilts, the legs of which are tipped with cork-screw like flanges. These legs are turned into the soft ground of protected waters, such as bays and sounds. This new type of lighthouse was dependent upon the development of wrought-iron columns for the legs and cast-iron for the screw-like flanges. This technology permitted the construction of lighthouses on sites too soft to support the weight of a heavy tower. </P> <P> <EM> Text & Right Image: Courtesy of <A HREF="http://www.uscg.mil">USCG</A>. Left Image: 'Screw-Pile Lighthouse' from ''Sea Stories'', publ. 1910 by Century Co. N.Y. </EM> </P>
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The First Practical Endoscope
The First Practical Endoscope
A primitive endoscope had been invented in the USA in 1827, to look inside the bladder, but its poor light source made it ineffective. Francis Cruise (1834-1912) built an improved endoscope with a powerful paraffin lamp and mirrors to reflect the light into the patient's bladder. It was successfully demonstrated in 1865, received considerable international attention, and later commercial versions came with various attachments for peering into nearly every orifice. Image: The box holds a paraffin lamp; the attachment is a cystoscope to view inside a patient's bladder.
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The First Hypodermic Injection
The First Hypodermic Injection
The patient had an agonising pain in her face that had kept her awake. The conventional painkiller then was to drink a solution of morphine, but powerful though it was, it provided no relief. Francis Rynd realised that morphine would be more effective if you could deliver it direct to the site of the pain. He used a surgical instrument called a trocar to puncture a small hole in the woman's face, and allowed some morphine solution to flow in through a tube. The operation was relatively painless, and the woman later slept well for the first time in months. It was effectively the first local anaesthetic, and the technique was soon widely used to treat pain. Image: A commercial version of Francis Rynd's syringe. There is no plunger (the lever is to facilitate the injection), and the solution simply flowed in under gravity.
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Milk Chocolate
Milk Chocolate
Sir Hans Sloane was introduced to chocolate while working in the Caribbean as surgeon to the West Indies fleet in the 1680s. He added milk to make it a more palatable drink, and his tasty concoction was sold by London apothecaries as a remedy and popularised by Cadbury's in the 1800s.
Image: Sir Hans Sloane and a drinking-chocolate wrapper.
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George Gabriel Stokes FRS (1819-1903)
George Gabriel Stokes FRS (1819-1903)
George Gabriel Stokes was a physicist, born in Skreen, County Sligo, in 1819.
Wiki Commons
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Stent Technology
Stent Technology
<P> Stents are tiny synthetic tubes that can be used to prop-open arteries or veins blocked due to surgery or disease, thus allowing for regular blood-flow. </P> <P> Boston Scientific's invention involved coating stents with drug-infused layers of polymer in order to deliver controlled amounts of the substance over time. While there have been a number of legal battles over the true owner of this technology, Boston Scientific continue to produce and sell their product the world-over. </P>
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Female Aedus aegypti mosquito
Female Aedus aegypti mosquito
<P> Adrian Stokes proved that mosquitoes such as this female Aedus aegypti were spreading Yellow Fever in affected areas of Africa. While there is still no true cure for the virus, this discovery led to the development of a vaccine that effectively saved tens of thousands of lives the world over. </P> <P> Image: <EM>Courtesy of <A HREF="http://www.cdc.gov">CDC</A> <P>
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George Boole
George Boole
George Boole is best known as the inventor of boolean algebra, a logic based true/false theorem which, to this day, is a fundamental component in the world of both electronics and software programming. Originally from England, Boole moved to Ireland in 1944 to become professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork (now University College Cork) where he lived until his death in 1864.
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The Birr Leviathon
The Birr Leviathon
<P> The great telescope had the biggest metal mirror ever cast: it measured 1.8 metres across and sat at the bottom of a wooden telescope tube that was over 16 metres long. The combined weight was 12 tonnes, and needed a complex system of counterweight, pulleys and chains to move it. </P> <P> Substantial walls were built to support and shelter the telescope and to hold the observing platforms and lifting mechanisms. Most of the work was done by local tradesmen, and the project probably cost several million euro in today's money. </P> <P> It remained the world's largest telescope until 1917, but its bulk made it hard to control and it was too clumsy to use with new instruments such as cameras, plus its location in Ireland's boggy midlands meant skies were seldom clear and the metal mirrors quickly tarnished. </P> <P> Birr telescope has been restored to working order, and the castle is open to the public. </P> <P> Pictured above is a sketch of the Birr Leviathon alongside that of the whirlpool nebula (as seen through it). </P>
Image: Courtesy of Offaly County Library