Technological Inventions During Gilded Age

1865 Rotary printing press (web)
• In 1865, William Bullock invented a printing press that could feed paper on a continuous roll and print both sides of the paper at once. Used first by the Philadelphia Ledger, the machine would become an American standard.

1866 Urinal (restroom version)
• A urinal is a specialized toilet for urinating only, generally by men and boys. It has the form of being wall mounted, with drainage and automatic or manual flushing. The urinal was patented by Andrew Rankin on March 27, 1866.

1867 Refrigerator car
• A refrigerator car or “reefer” is a refrigerated boxcar, designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. They can be ice-cooled, or use one of a variety of mechanical refrigeration systems, or utilize carbon dioxide as a cooling agent. In the 1860s, slaughtered cattle from the Great Plains were preserved in barrels of salt. Regular box cars were loaded with ice in another effort to preserve fresh meat that had limited success. Generally, it was found more economical in the early days of refrigeration to cool the cars with ice or frozen brine which was periodically replenished at icing stations along rail routes. In 1857, the first shipment of refrigerated beef was made from the Chicago stockyards to the East Coast in an ordinary box car packed with ice. 1873 Silo

A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store grain, see grain elevators, or fermented feed known as silage. Silos are more commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, woodchips, food products and sawdust. The first modern silo, a wooden and upright one filled with grain, was invented and built in 1873 by Fred Hatch of McHenry County, Illinois, USA.

1879 Photographic plate
• Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. Photographic plates were invented by George Eastman who filed U.S. patent #226,503 on September 9, 1879 which was issued to him on April 13, 1880.

1879 Carton
• A carton is the name of certain types of containers typically made from paperboard or cardboard. Many types of cartons are used in food packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box. The history of the carton goes as far back as 1879 when it was invented in a Brooklyn, New York factory. The inventor of the folded carton was Robert Gair. He cast a die-ruled, cut, and scored paperboard into a single impression of a folded carton. By 1896, the National Biscuit Company was the first to use cartons to package crackers. 1884 Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall building that uses a steel-frame construction. After the Great Fire of 1871, Chicago had become a magnet for daring experiments in architecture as one of those was the birth of the skyscraper. The edifice known as the world’s first skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Company Building built in 1884. It was designed by the Massachusetts-born architect William Le Baron Jenney. 1885 Photographic film

• Photographic film is a sheet of material coated with a photosensitive emulsion. When the emulsion is sufficiently exposed to light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays and is developed it forms an image. George Eastman and his company, Eastman Kodak, invented the first flexible photographic film as well as the invention of roll film in 1885. The first transparent plastic film was produced in 1889.

1888 Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope was an early motion picture exhibition device. It was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components. The Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video, creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by Thomas Alva Edison in 1888, his invention was largely developed by one of his assistants, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, between 1889 and 1892.

1890 Smoke detector
• A smoke detector is a device that detects smoke and issues a signal. Smoke detectors are usually powered by battery while some are connected directly to power mains, often having a battery as a power supply backup in case the mains power fails. The first automatic electric fire alarm was co-invented in 1890 by Francis Robbins Upton and Fernando J. Dibble. Upton was an associate of Thomas Alva Edison, although there is no evidence that Edison contributed to this invention.[ 1897 Charcoal briquette

• A charcoal briquette, or briquet is a block of flammable charcoal matter which is used as fuel to start and maintain a fire, mainly used for food preparation over an open fire or a barbecue. Charcoal briquettes are made by using a process which consists of compressing charcoal, typically made from sawdust and other wood by-products, with a binder and other additives. The binder is usually starch. The design of the charcoal briquette was invented and patented by Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer in 1897. 1899 Flash-lamp

The electric flash-lamp is a device that uses an electrical circuit to trigger a fuse to ignite explosive powder such as magnesium, for a brief sudden burst of bright light “flash” from a chemical reaction of flash powder burning. It was principally used for flash photography in the early 20th century, but had other uses as well. The flash-lamp was invented and patented on November 7, 1899 by New York City resident Joshua Lionel Cowen 1900 Nickel-zinc battery

• A nickel-zinc battery is a type of rechargeable battery that may be used in cordless power tools, cordless telephone, digital cameras, battery operated lawn and garden tools, professional photography, flashlights, electric bike, and light electric vehicle sectors. In 1900, Thomas Alva
Edison filed U.S. Patent #684,204 for the nickel-zinc battery. It was issued on October 8, 1901 1902 Air conditioning

Air conditioning is the cooling and de-humidification of indoor air for thermal comfort. Using a system of coils as a solution to cool and remove moisture from muggy air in a printing plant that was wrinkling magazine pages, Willis Carrier invented and manufactured the world’s first mechanical air conditioning unit in 1902. Carrier’s invention – encompassing the first system to provide man-made control over temperature, humidity, ventilation and air quality, was first installed as a solution to the quality problems experienced at a Brooklyn printing plant. Air conditioning not only spawned a company and an industry, but also brought about profound economic, social and cultural changes.

1903 Airplane
The Wright Flyer II flying almost four circles over Huffman Prairie, about 2 and 3/4 miles in 5 minutes and 4 seconds on November 9, 1904. A fixed-wing aircraft, or airplane, is a heavier-than-air craft whose lift is generated by air pressure differential between the upper and lower wing surfaces. The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, made the first powered and sustained airplane flights under control of the pilot in the Wright Flyer I on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world’s first practical fixed-wing aircraft. The brothers’ fundamental breakthrough was their invention of “three-axis control”, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This required method has become standard on all fixed-wing aircraft. U.S. patent number #821393 for the airplane, was filed by Orville Wright on March 23, 1903 and was issued in May 1906.