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The CCD (Charge-Coupled Device)
Willard Boyle and George Smith originated the basic design for the CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). The CCD is a light-sensitive integrated circuit used in a wide variety of applications, primarily imaging. In the space of an hour on 17th October 1969, Boyle and Smith sketched out the CCDs basic structure, defined its principles of operation, and outlined applications including imaging as well as memory. The device they invented stores information, represented by discrete packets of electric charge, in columns of closely spaced semiconductor capacitors. With multiple columns side by side, a CCD chip can record images. Reading out the information for processing, display, or more permanent storage, is accomplished by shifting stored charges down the columns, one position at a time. More ...
In 1970 Bell Labs researchers constructed the world's first solid-state video camera using a CCD as the imaging device. Fairchild Imaging successfully developed and produced the first commercial charge coupled device in 1973 with a size of 100 x 100 pixels. This rare photo of this first commercial CCD was kindly provided by Mr. Brad Ostman of Fairchild Imaging. In 1974, the Fairchild CCD and 8-inch telescope were used to produce the first astronomical CCD image. It was also used in the world's first known operational electronic CCD still image camera which was constructed by Steve Sasson of Kodak. In 1974, a Fairchild 100 x 100 pixel CCD and an 8-inch telescope produced the first astronomical CCD image. The first commercial CCD camera, the Fairchild MV-101 with 100 x 100 pixel resolution, was released in 1976. It was first used to perform Procter & Gamble product inspections. An RCA 320 x 512-pixel liquid nitrogen cooled CCD system began operation on a 1-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in 1979. Observations quickly demonstrated its superiority over photographic plates. CCDs are best for high-resolution imaging - this is where they really come into their own. Because of the dim light associated with large image scales, the relatively poor sensitivity of photographic emulsions just cannot compete. CCD cameras are excellent at imaging small planetary nebulae, and they can render thousands of obscure galaxies as spectacular, exotic objects. In 1980, Sony marketed a commercial color videocam using a CCD. The world's first commercial color video camera to utilize a completely solid state image sensor, a charge-coupled-device, or CCD. It was also the smallest camera on the market, weighing only 2.8 pounds.
The Laser
The first operable laser was constructed by Theodore Maiman (right). While employed at Hughes Research Laboratories as a section head in 1960, he developed, demonstrated, and patented the laser using a pink ruby medium. The laser is a device that produces monochromatic coherent light, or light in which the rays are all of the same wavelength and phase. The laser has found numerous practical uses, ranging from delicate surgery to measuring the distance between the Earth and the Moon. After receiving a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1955, Maiman accepted a position with the Hughes Research Laboratories (now HRL Laboratories, LLC), where he became interested in a device developed and built by Charles H. Townes and colleagues and known as a maser (acronym for “microwave [or molecular] amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”). Maiman made design innovations that greatly increased the practicability of the solid-state maser. He then set out to develop an optical maser, or laser, which is based on the maser principle but produces visible light rather than microwaves. He operated the first successful laser in 1960 and two years later established Korad Corporation for research, development, and manufacture of lasers. Maiman later sold Korad and worked as a consultant at TRW, a technology corporation.
Integrated Circuits
In 1959, Bob Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, printed an entire electronic circuit on a single crystal or microchip of silicon using a photographic process. This breakthrough enabled the computer revolution to begin. Noyce later co-founded Intel Corporation in 1968.
The Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
The first published suggestion for using liquid crystal materials for display came in 1963 from Richard Williams and George Heilmeier at the David Sarnoff Research Center, RCA's laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. Heilmeier (1936-) went on to head a group at the lab to investigate the use of liquid crystal displays for a "TV-on-a-wall" concept, a dream of David Sarnoff himself. The challenge was to find a liquid crystal that would provide a display at room temperature, and by 1968 the RCA group had a display based on the dynamic scattering mode (DSM) of liquid crystals. But at the same time it was clear that large-screen LCD TVs were many years off, and the group set its sights on displays that could be incorporated more immediately in commercial products. A number of the RCA pioneers left to form Optel Corporation, in Princeton, New Jersey, where they perfected techniques for the manufacture of LCD displays and digital watches. Beginning in 1970, Optel designed and produced LCD watches for several watch companies. Optel later marketed LCD watches under its own name.
In the dynamic scattering liquid crystal display, an electrical charge is applied which rearranges the molecules so that they scatter light. These early DSM displays proved unsatisfactory, suffering from relatively high power consumption, limited life, and poor contrast. An improved liquid crystal display was invented in 1969 by James Fergason at Kent State University based on the twisted nematic field effect. Fergason left the University but stayed in Kent, Ohio to found his own company, International Liquid Crystal Company (ILIXCO). Here Fergason invented an improved display, based on the twisted nematic field effect. Fergason's company began manufacturing and marketing the new displays in 1971. One of ILIXCO's first customers was the Gruen watch company. The displays that ILIXCO sold to Gruen were used in the first LCD watches that utilized the field effect display. The new display proved superior to the earlier dynamic scattering display, and the field effect LCD soon became the standard display for digital watches. Fergason did not make his patent application public at the time, and Wolfgang Helfrisch and Martin Schadt of F. Hoffmann La Roche of Basel, Switzerland, published a paper on the same effect in 1971. Hoffmann La Roche eventually purchased Fergason's patent rights. James Fergason received a B.S. in physics from the University of Missouri in 1956 and began his career at Westinghouse in 1957. He holds more than 50 U.S. patents and has won many awards for his work on liquid crystal technology.
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Bar code and pen reader |
Fibre optic cable |
Glass fibre Optics
In 1958, at the US Army Signal Corps Labs in Fort Monmouth New Jersey, the Manager of Copper Cable and Wire hated the signal transmission problems caused by lightening and water. He encouraged the Manager of Materials Research, Sam DiVita, to find a replacement for copper wire. Sam thought glass fibre and light signals might work, but the engineers who worked for Sam told him a glass fibre would break! In September 1959, Sam DiVita asked 2nd Lt. Richard Sturzebecher if he knew how to write the formula for a glass fibre capable of transmitting light signals. (Sam had learned that Richard, who was attending the Signal School, had melted 3 triaxial glass systems, using SiO2, for his 1958 senior thesis at Alfred University under Dr. Harold Simpson, Professor of Glass Technology)
Richard knew the answer. While using a microscope to measuring the index-of-refraction on SiO2 glasses, Richard developed a severe headache. The 60% and 70% SiO2 glass powders under the microscope allowed higher and higher amounts of brilliant, white light to pass through the microscope slide into his eyes. Remembering the headache and the brilliant white light from high SiO2 glass, Richard knew that the formula would be ultra pure SiO2. Richard also knew that Corning made high purity SiO2 powder, by oxidizing pure SiCl4 into SiO2. He suggested that Sam use his power to award a Federal Contract to Corning to develop the fibre.
Sam DiVita had already worked with Corning research people. But he had to make the idea public, because all research laboratories had a right to bid on a Federal contract. So, in 1961 and 1962, the idea of using high purity SiO2 for a glass fibre to transmit light was made public information in a bid solicitation to all research laboratories. As expected, Sam awarded the contract to the Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York in 1962. Federal funding for glass fibre optics at Corning was about $1,000,000 between 1963 and 1970. Signal Corps Federal funding of many research programs on fibre optics until 1985, thereby seeding this industry and making today's multibillion dollar industry that eliminates copper wire in communications a reality. By 1967, it had grown into a million dollar business.
• Pioneering work in the use of X-ray crystallography by William and Lawrence Bragg in examining crystal structures leading to their winning the Nobel Prize in 1916 for their discoveries.
• The Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer - this important scientific analytical instrument was invented by Sir Alan Walsh of the CSIRO in 1952.
• The Mills Cross - a radiotelescope design consisting of two long ground antennas either in the form of a cross or a T shape was adopted world wide. It was invented by B. Y. Mills at the CSIRO in 1953
• Synroc - a synthetic rock designed to 'safely' store high level nuclear waste was invented by Ted Ringwood in 1975. As this process is regarded as working best after the nuclear waste has had a 'cooling down' period of 25-30 years, this invention is likely to more highly recognised in coming decades.
• Gene Shears - this discovery, central to much biotechnology was made by Wayne Gerlach and Jim Haseloff at the CSIRO in 1986.
Medical
The Birth Control Pill
The birth control pill was introduced to the public in the early 1960s. Birth control pills are synthetic hormones that mimic the way real estrogen and progestin works in a women's body. The pill prevents ovulation - no new eggs are released by a women on the pill since her body is tricked into believing she is already pregnant. Margaret Sanger was a lifelong advocate of women's rights and the use of birth control. During the 1930s, it was discovered that hormones prevented ovulation in rabbits. In 1950, while in her 80s, Sanger underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. Sanger raised $150,000 for the project.
Test Tube Babies
In 1983, an Australian team led by Carl Wood invented a way to fertilize and grow human embryos in glass tubes and then freeze and store them (IVF). The embryos could then be thawed out and implanted into the womb up to ten years later. Many firsts associated with in vitro fertilisation, including the birth of the first frozen embryo baby at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre in Melbourne, 1984. More ...
Coronary Stents
The inventor of the coronary stent was Charles Dotter, who developed his first stent in 1969 that was implanted in a dog. Charles Dotter continued to refine and develop his design and in 1983, together with Andrew Craig, invented an expandable stent made out of nitinol, the material that is commonly used in stents today. The Wiktor Stent was invented by Dominik M. Wiktor, a Cranford, NJ, engineer, after he underwent open heart surgery in 1984. The stent was first tested in 1987. Wiktor received a patent for the "Wiktor Stent," an intravascular stent (U.S. patent No. 4,886,062) in 1989. Coronary stents are metal wires (stainless steel or metal alloy) that are used to remove blockage of heart arteries The stents are wrapped around a balloon in a deflated state and surgically advanced to the coronary artery blockage. Once placed near the clogged area, the balloon is inflated and the stent expands, pressing the blockage tissue against the wall of the artery, and restoring the blood supply to the heart muscle.
Heart Pacemaker
Canadian, John Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker (right). Hopps was trained as an electrical engineer at the University of Manitoba and joined the National Research Council in 1941, where he conducted research on hypothermia. While experimenting with radio frequency heating to restore body temperature, Hopps made an unexpected discovery: if a heart stopped beating due to cooling, it could be started again by artificial stimulation using mechanical or electric means. This lead to Hopps' invention of the world's first cardiac pacemaker in 1950. His device was far too large to be implanted inside of the human body. It was an external pacemaker.
Prozac
Prozac was first introduced to the US market in January 1988. It took two years for Prozac to gain its 'most prescribed' status. Prozac is the registered trademarked name for fluoxetine hydrochloride and the world's most widely prescribed antidepressant to-date, the first product in a major new class of drugs for depression called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. Prozac works by increasing brain levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that is thought to influence sleep, appetite, aggression and mood. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages between nerve cells. More ...
Laser Eye Surgery
Doctor Steven Trokel patented the Excimer laser for vision correction. The Excimer laser was originally used for etching silicone computer chips in the 1970s. Working in the IBM research laboratories in 1982, Rangaswamy Srinivasin, James Wynne, and Samuel Blum saw the potential of the Excimer laser in interacting with biological tissue. Srinivasin and the IBM team realized that you could remove tissue with a laser without causing any heat damage to the neighboring material. More ...
Genetic Engineering
In 1973, Stanely Cohen and Herbert Boyer, invented the technique of DNA cloning, which allowed genes to be transplanted between different biological species.Their discovery signaled the birth of genetic engineering. More ...
Nystatin
As researchers for the New York Department of Health, Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown combined their efforts to develop the anti-fungal antibiotic drug nystatin. The drug, patented in 1957 was used to cure many disfiguring, disabling fungal infections as well as to balance the effect of many antibacterial drugs. In addition to human ailments, the drug has been used to treat such problems as Dutch Elm’s disease and to restore water-damaged artwork from the effects of mold. The two scientists donated the royalties from their invention, over $13 million dollars, to the nonprofit Research Corporation for the advancement of academic scientific study. Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994.
Lyposuction
Dr. Giorgio Fischer, a gynecologist from Rome, Italy, invented the liposuction procedure in 1974. Dr. Illouz, a French plastic surgeon, made the first purely cosmetic use of the procedure four years later. Dermatologists, Dr. Jeffrey Klein and Dr. Patrick Lillis invented the tumescent technique of liposuction in 1985.
Artificial Heart
Artificial hearts date back to the mid-1950s when Dr. Paul Winchell first patented an artificial heart. In 1982, Seattle dentist Dr. Barney Clark was the first person implanted with the Jarvik-7, an artificial heart intended to last a lifetime. William DeVries an American surgeon performed the surgery. The Jarvik-7 artificial heart was designed by Robert Jarvik. The patient survived 112 days. "It has been hard, but the heart itself has pumped right along." - Barney Clark. More ...
Fetal Monitor
In the 1960’s Prof. K. Hammacher and Hewlett-Packard began development of what became the first commercially available non-invasive fetal monitor. The research took place in Boeblingen, Germany. In the spring of 1968, the first HP 8020-A fetal monitors (aptly named " The Babysitters") were supplied to customers. The monitors helped babies by detecting fetal distress during labor. More ...
The Bionic Ear
the cochlear implant was invented by a team led by Professor Graeme Clark at The University of Melbourne and in 1978 the first person received the implant at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. The Bionic Ear has brought hearing to more than 50,000 people in over 80 countries.
Begg Orthodontics
During the 1940s and 1950s Percy Begg of Adelaide developed a system of using relatively cheap and lightweight stainless steel braces on teeth to replace the expensive and painful systems which had been earlier used for 'training' and straightening teeth. Begg's technique soon spread throughout the world.
Misc.
Australian surgeon Professor Earl Owen not only designed (in association with optical company Zeiss) the initial suite of instruments used for microsurgery, he has also pioneered numbers of the microsurgical techniques. He is regarded as probably the most important pioneer of microsurgery.
Discovery of the Helicobacter pylori bacterium which causes stomach ulcers and gastritis leading to its successful treatment. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren made this discovery in 1982 and received the Nobel Prize in 2005 for their work.
In 1948 Dr John Cade, a Melbourne psychiatrist, discovered the use of lithium carbonate (usually just referred to as lithium) in the treatment of bipolar and similar disorders.