This Month in History: 1899 J S Thurman patents motor-driven vacuum cleaner 1855 Joshua Stoddard of Worcester, Massachusetts, patents first calliope (musical instrument) 1856 Cyrus Chambers Jr patents folding machine that folds book & newspapers 1888 Thomas Edison...

This Month in History: 1883 James Cutler patents postal mail chute 1841 Samuel Slocum patented the stapler 1753 1st steam engine arrives in north American colonies 1839 English scientist and astronomer John Herschel takes 1st glass plate photograph 1956 IBM introduces...

This Month in History: 1793 France becomes 1st country to use the metric system 1876 Thomas Edison is granted the patent for Autographic Printing (US Patent 180,857) 1877 Thomas Edison completes 1st model for the phonograph, a device that recorded sound onto tinfoil...

This Month in History: 1698 Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine 1850 Benjamin Lane patents gas mask with a breathing apparatus 1854 Walter Hunt is awarded the first U.S. patent for a paper shirt collar 1892 1st concrete-paved street built (Bellefountaine,...

This Month in History: 1856 Cullen Whipple patents a machine for making screws 1882 Electric iron patented by Henry W Seely, NYC 1867 1st barbed wire patented by Lucien B Smith of Ohio 1834 American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick patents the reaping machine...

This Month in History: 1847 Scot Robert Thompson patents rubber tire 1879 George Selden files for 1st patent for a gasoline-driven automobile 1908 “Take me out to the Ball Game” registered for copyright. 1887 Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film (used...

This Month in History: 1984 8 men record longest distance (13 miles) rowed in 24 hours 1868 A Hawaiian surfs on highest wave ever – a 50-foot tidal wave 1882 Wood block alarm invented, when alarm rang, it dropped 20 wood blocks 1827 English chemist John Walker invents...

  This Month in History: 1822 Charles Graham of NY granted first US patent for artificial teeth 1794 Josiah Pierson patents a “cold-header” (rivet) machine 1903 The Wright brothers 1st file a patent for a flying machine, which is granted 3 years later 1950...

  This Month in History: 1861 Kinematoscope patented by Coleman Sellers, Philadelphia 1578 Tycho Brahe first sketches "Tychonic system" of solar system 1901 H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner 1978 1st "micro on a chip" patented by Texas...

  This Month in History: 1884 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz 1816 Sophie Germain is the first woman to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her paper on elasticity 1907 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr Lee De...