Thomas Edison Biography

Thomas Edison (1847 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed
and made commercially available many key inventions of modern life. His Edison Electric
company was a pioneering company for delivering DC electricity directly into peoples
homes. He filed over 1,000 patents for a variety of different inventions. Crucially, he used
mass-produced techniques to make his inventions available at low cost to households across
America. His most important inventions include, the electric light bulb. the phonograph, the
motion picture camera, an electric car and electric power station.

Wright Brothers Biography

Orville Wright (1871 1948) Wilbur Wright (1867 1912)
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with building and flying the first
heavier than air aeroplane. They achieved the first recorded flight on 17 December 1903.
Over the next 10 years they continued to develop the aircraft making a significant
contribution to the development of the modern aeroplane.
Their particular contribution was in the effective control of an airplane, through their threeaxis control system. This basic principle is still used today. It was for this control mechanism
that they received their first US patent 821,393.

Benjamin Franklin Biography

Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, ambassador, philosopher, statesmen, writer, businessman
and celebrated free thinker and wit. He has often been referred to as Americas renaissance
man and was emblematic of the fledgling American nation.
Benjamin Franklin was born January 17, 1706 into a large and poor family. His father had 17
children by 2 different wives. Benjamin was brought up in the family business of candle
making and his brothers printing shop. Whenever he could Benjamin would take the
opportunity to read and learn about a wide range of subjects, from Sophocles to modern
science. Whilst co workers would take a leisurely lunch break, Benjamin Franklin would
pour over books from the bookshop munching on some raisins.
At an early age, he also started writing articles which were published in the New England
Coureant under a pseudonym; Franklin wrote under pseudonyms throughout his life. After
several were published, he admitted to his father that he had wrote them. Rather than being
pleased his father beat him for his impudence. Therefore, aged 17, the young Benjamin left
the family business and travelled to Philadelphia.

Nikola Tesla Biography

Nikola Tesla (1856 1943) was one of the greatest and most enigmatic scientists who played
a key role in the development of electro magnetism and other scientific discoveries of his
time. Despite his breathtaking number of patents and discoveries, his achievements were
often underplayed during his lifetime.

Charles Babbage Biography

Charles Babbage, (26 December 1791 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician,
philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who developed the concept of a
programmable computer.
The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism.
Charles Babage, (1864) Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, ch. 8 Of the Analytical
Engine
Babbage was born in London, England in 1791. As a child he had a variety of tutors and
schools, and developed a love of mathematics. In 1810, he was accepted to Trinity College,
Cambridge. He later transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge where he received an honorary
degree in mathematics.
At Cambridge, he was dissappointed by the quality of the maths teaching, but joined the
Analytical society a group of like minded students, interested in exploring issues of maths.
It was as a student, that he conceived of an idea to try and do calculations with a machine. It
was after looking at a table for logarithms, (many of which were wrong) that he thought it
would be better to try and work them out systematically.

James Watt Biography

James Watt (1736 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer and chemist. He is
famous for developing a separate condensing chamber for the steam engine. This invention
greatly improved the efficiency of the steam engine and played a considerable role in
advancing the role of steam engines in the Industrial revolution.
He was born in Greenock, Scotland on 18 January 1736. Initially Watt worked as a maker of
mathematical instruments, but later found himself working with steam engines.

Alexander Bell Biography

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish inventor, most notably credited with inventing
the modern telephone.
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with a man is what he makes
of himself.

 Alexander Bell
Alexander was brought up in Edinburgh Scotland. From an early age he had an inquisitive
mind and became fascinated with acoustics and voice patterns. This interest in acoustics and
communication was partly inspired by his mothers growing deafness. He devoted
considerable time to providing solutions for the blind and became well known in that field.
He helped American Helen Keller to find treatment for her deaf-blindess

Leonardo da Vinci Biography

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 1519) is one of the worlds greatest thinkers, artists and
philosophers. In several different fields, from science to astronomy, he proved to be both
innovative and several centuries ahead of his contemporaries. He is considered to be a key
person in the birth of the European Renaissance period, which saw a flowering of new ideas,
scientific discoveries and creation of beautiful art.

Galileo Galilei Biography

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Astronomer and Scientist. Galileo developed a superior
telescope and made many significant discoveries in astronomy. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment by the inquisition for his support for the Copernican theory that the sun was at
the centre of the solar system.

Tim Berners-Lee Biography

Tim Berners Lee is a British computer scientist who is credited with inventing the World
Wide Web (WWW). Berners-Lee enabled a system to be able to view web pages (hypertext
documents) through the internet. He also serves as a director fo the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) which overseas standards for the internet and world wide web. BernersLee has also been concerned about issues relating to freedom of information and censorship
on the internet.