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French Electricity and The Electric Generator

admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There have been many scientists of French origin that have contributed to discoveries in electricity and electrical generators. France has shown its respect for these scientists by listing many of their names on the Eiffel Tower. There is one contributor, whose name is not listed on the Eiffel Tower. Hippolyte Pixii’s name is not on the Eiffel Tower, but he contributed to the discovery and modification for an early form of the electric generator or dynamo. Hippolyte Pixii constructed the hand cranking generator in 1832 based on magnetic induction, the principles founded by British scientist Mike Faraday. Generators produce electricity from mechanical energy sources, such as the hand crank, compressed air, waterwheel, and other sources that produce mechanical energy. Pixii was a Frenchman that made instruments and found that spinning a magnet with a hand crank over coils that contained a core of iron delivers not only alternate current, but also direct current that could be utilized when a device was added for converting alternate current into direct current . The commutator was added to the dynamo to convert the alternate current into direct current, because Andre-Marie Ampere the Frenchman that helped to discover electromagnetism made this suggestion to Pixii.

The French Free-fall – The Invention of The Parachute

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The parachute was invented by Francois Blanchard, a French aeronaut. The word “parachute” is actually French and means to prepare for a fall. The main purpose of the parachute is to slow the motion of a person through the atmosphere by creating drag. Original parachutes were made of silk but now they are composed of nylon. In order to be called a parachute the material must slow the vertical speed of an object or person by 75 percent or more.Is this new to you? Catch up here

The parachute had previously been invented by Louis Sebastian Lenormand in France but it was Blanchard that used the parachute as a safety device. Since this time new designs made the parachute much more compact and light. Successful tests using parachutes were conducted off the Eiffel tower before World War One. These parachutes did not have any frames and were eventually vented which increased stability during the fall.

Parachutes proved to be very important to the war as they allowed soldiers to quickly escape from observation balloons. These balloons were used for to detect artillery. These French chutes were the first type of parachute that are considered modern. Anything prior to this was not overly successful and more theoretical than functional.

French Ingenuity and The First Adding Machine

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Many people want to credit Blaise Pascal with the creation of the adding machine. That is only partially correct.
The first adding machine was created in 1623 by Wilhelm Schickard. Unfortunately, the machine was destroyed by a fire. Knowledge of the machine comes from letters that Wilhelm Schickard wrote to Johannes Kepler, credited with the creation of eponymous laws of planetary motion. The letters were only found years after the death of Kepler and some university students have tried to recreate the machine. The machine was known as a speeding clock or a calculating clock and could add numbers up to six digits. The speeding clock was used to make complex calculation in the creation of astronomical tables. The machine was never completed.
Twenty years after the creation of this first adding machine Blaise Pascal created the first finished adding machine. Blaise created the machine to help his Dad collect taxes for the French government. He knew how hard his Dad worked and as an eighteen year old wanted to help his Dad. The machine was known as a numerical wheel calculator or pascaline and could only be used to add and subtract. It used a train of eight moveable dials. This machine was never widely sold. Blaise Pascal went on to create many other inventions, which proved more successful.

The Internal Combustion Engine – A French Invention

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

For over a century, automobiles powered by internal combustion engines have been the standard mode of transportation for those who can afford them. For many decades, internal combustion engines have been used to power various types of machinery for both industrial and personal use. While alternatives to internal combustion are constantly being discussed, they are at least decades away from being realized. Thus, while there have been many attempts to declare this French technology obsolete, rumors of its demise are premature.

The first internal combustion engine was invented by Frenchmen Nicephore and Claude Niepce and was patented in 1807. The Pyreolophore, as it was called, originally ran on moss. To save costs, this was later changed to coal dust. In 1817, the Niepce brothers were the first to use fuel injection.

Since the invention of the Pyreolophore, many Frenchmen have contributed to improving the internal combustion engine. In 1908, a century after the Niepce brothers drove their motorboat up the Saone river, Rene Lorin invented the ramjet.

Just as the first internal combustion engine was ahead of its time, the first ramjet had to wait decades before it could be used in an airplane. Once again, French technology was first.Related Article : Laser sparks revolution in internal combustion engines