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Inventors & Inventions for K-12 Education

Welcome to the Internet School Library Media Center (ISLMC) inventors and inventions page. You can search this site which is designed for teachers, parents and students, use an index or sitemap. 3/7/00

[General Sites] [Richard Arkwright] [Charles Babbage] [Alexander Graham Bell] [Henry Bessemer] [Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace] [George Washington Carver] [Samuel Colt] [Wilhelm Gottlieb Daimler] [Leonardo da Vinci] [Earle Dickson] [Charles Drew] [George Eastman] [Thomas Alva Edison] [Philo T. Farnsworth] [Enrico Fermi] [John Fitch] [Ben Franklin] [Henry Ford] [Robert Fulton] [Galileo Galilei] [John Gorrie] [Johannes Gutenberg] [James Hargreaves] [Grace Hopper] [Elias Howe] [Guglielmo Marconi] [Cyrus Hall McCormick] [Elijah McCoy] [Samuel Morse] [Wilhelm Rontgen] Sequoyah] [Alan Turing] [James Watt] [Eli Whitney] [Granville T. Woods] [Wright Brothers] [Lesson Plans]

General Sites

Biography.com
The Collegiate Inventors Competition
Recognizes college students for their original ideas and inventions
Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Inventors and Innovations
Biographies; bibliographies; African Americans; women;
Thomas Alva Edison; Latin America
Academy of Applied Science. New Hampshire Young Inventors' Program
"Everyone is an inventor"; teacher's guide
Forgotten Inventors
From the American Experience, PBS
Fossweb.com. Modules
Explore concepts, as electricity & magnetism, solar energy,
models & designs, colors & patterns
InventorEd Presents: Kid's Inventor Resources
Many topics as Girls Invention Page, About Inventing, Bullies,
Gifted Children, History of Invention, How Ronald J. Riley became an
Inventor, Bibliography, Where to Start to Be an Inventor;
Page from Ronald J. Riley, MIT
How Stuff Works
Illustrated guide to how things work from automotive technology
to home repair to cooking
The Lemelson-MIT Prize Program
This site is indexed at Name Index. Gives Inventor of the Week Award; Extensive
Awards Archives, with biography, from Benjamin Banneker to Eli Whitney
National Inventors Hall of Fame
Visit the site; see name index
Black Inventors and Inventions
The Black Collegian Online
Major Technological Inventions, 1752 -
A Deeper Shade of History
Black inventors. Use the search function on the database
and search for the word, inventor. *Note: don't use the plural form.
Partial List of Black Inventors
Inventor, invention, patent dates.
Computers : History and Development
Includes biographies of Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniz,
Charles Babbage, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, Herman
Hollerith, Vannevar Bush, John V. Atanasoff, George Boole, Konrad Zuse,
John Presper Eckert, John von Neumann
Inventor Resource Internet Pages
Spotlight Biography : Inventors
From Smithsonian. Includes Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,
Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Elias Howe, Isaac
Merritt Singer, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Wilbur Wright.
Site includes additional links
Women Inventors-Net Links From the miningco.com
Inventors-Net Links From miningco.com U. S. Patent and Trademark Office Home Page
Inventor Resources; American Inventors Protection Act; Newsroom;
databases; other resources
U.S. Patent and Trademark Kids Pages
Games, events, links
PATENT CAFE
Where Inventors, attorneys, kids find help on Patents, Intellectual
Property, Law
Major Inventions & New Technologies of the Late 1800s
List of inventions and inventors from middle school curriculum
from Crossroads, A K-16 American History Curriculum

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Richard Arkwright (1732-1792)
Spinning-Machine

Richard Arkwright
Biography from SchoolNet
First cotton-spinning mill by Arkwright
Description of Arkwright's mill
Richard Arkwright
Biography from Science and Technology

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Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
Father of Computing

Charles Babbage
From Biography.com. Use search function.
Charles Babbage
From History of Mathematics, Biographies of Mathematicians
Charles Babbage
Who Was Charles Babbage?
From Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Computing
Charles Babbage
Higher reading levels

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Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
The Telephone, Microphone

Brain Spin - Alexander Graham Bell
Site for students; biography; interactive game
Alexander Graham Bell
Biography, links from National Inventors Hall of Fame
Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone
By Michael Gorman, UVA
Bell's Telephone
Biography of Alexander Graham Bell; his inventions.
InventorLabs: Bell
From Houghton Mifflin InventorLabs CDROM. Bio, inventions, links.
Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers
Searchable; from Library of Congress American Memory
Alexander Graham Bell
Biography from third graders at Mountain Brook School
Alexander Graham Bell Kid's Page
Games & some of Bell's experiments

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Henry Bessemer (1813-1898)
Bessemer Steel Process

Henry Bessemer
From SchoolNet
Sir Henry Bessemer - English Inventor & Engineer
From the Lucidcafe
Henry Bessemer
From third graders at Mountain Brook School
Sir Henry Bessemer, F. R. S. : An Autobiography
From University of Rochester

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Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace (1815-1852)
First Computer Program

Ada: The Enchantress of Numbers
Biography and timeline; By Dr. Betty Toole
Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace
Ada Byron Lovelace
From AIMS Education Foundation
Augusta Ada Lovelace Award
Includes links to Internet sites; award recipients

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George Washington Carver (ca 1860-1943)

George Washington Caver
From World Book Encyclopedia
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
Internet resources, lesson plans, large database of links
Geoge Washington Carver
Facts about Carver from Scholastic

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Samuel Colt (1814-1862)
Colt .45; Submarine Telegraph Cable

Samuel Colt
From Information Please
Sam and Elizabeth Colt
Details of the Wadsworth Atheneum exhibit; includes biographical
information on Samuel
Wadsworth Atheneum Collection : Colt Pistols
Picture plus information on Samuel and Elizabeth Colt
Samuel Colt
From third graders at Mountain Brook School

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Wilhelm Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900)
High-Speed Automobile Internal Combustion Engine

Wilhelm Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler
Brief biography from Mechanical Engineering Biographies
History of Transportation
From Encyclopedia Britannica. Includes Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm
Maybach, Charles & Frank Duryea

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Leonardo da Vinci

A&E's 100 Most Influential People of the Millenium
Leonardo is #11
Exploring Leonardo
Great page for students and teachers from Boston Museum of Science.
His inventions, his art, interactive games, Italy, glossary, bibliography
Leonardo Learning Links
Selected sites from ThinkQuest
Leonardo da Vinci's Mechanical Calculator
Information; picture; includes links to other sites related to calculators
as abacus, slide rule, John Napier, Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal,
Gottfried von Libniz

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Earle Dickson
Band-Aid

Earle Dickson
From MIT's Invention Dimension Home
Useless Information. History of the Band-Aid
The Band-Aid Brand Story
From Johnson & Johnson

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Charles Drew

Dr. Charles Drew
From Charles R. Drew Science Magnet School
Charles Richard Drew : Physician, Surgeon
Biography, bibliography, links. From The Faces of Science: African
Americans in the Sciences
Charles R. Drew
From Urban Legends com. Dispels the oft repeated story that Dr. Drew was denied medical care which contributed to his death.

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George Eastman (1854-1932)
Kodak Camera

About George Eastman
From Kodak's History of Kodak
About George Eastman
Photographs; from Eastman House
George Eastman
From National Inventors Hall of Fame
George Eastman
From third graders at Mountain Brook School

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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Franklin Stove, Bifocals

Benjamin Franklin and His Inventions
From The Franklin Institute
Benjamin Franklin<
Ben and Me
Thematic unit with lesson plans based upon Robert Lawson's book,
Ben and Me

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Henry Ford (1863=1947)

A&E's 100 Most Influential People of the Millenium
Henry Ford is #29
Henry Ford
People and Discoveries from PBS
Henry Ford
Automotive pioneer; his life, the company

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Thomas Alva Edison

Wizard of Menlo Park: Thomas Alva Edison
Bio and his inventions.
InventorLabs: Thomas Alva Edison
From Houghton Mifflin InventorLabs CDROM. Bio and links

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Philo T. Farnsworth
Electronic Television

Philo T. Farnsworth

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Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)
Neutronic Reactor

A&E's 100 Most Influential People of the Millenium
Enrico Fermi is #74
Enrico Fermi
From Inventor's Hall of Fame

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John Fitch
Steamboat

John Fitch; Inventor of the Steamboat
Fitch's autobiography. Advanced reading

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Robert Fulton (1765-1815)
Steamboat Industry

Robert Fulton, Engineer and Artist
Extensive biography of Fulton and his work.
History of Shipbuilding
See the steamship "Klermon" (Clermont) for a picture of Fulton's steam boat.

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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Telescope, Microscope

A&E 100 Most Influential People of the Millenium
Galileo is # 19
Galileo Galilei
Biography from The Institute and Museum of the History of Science of
Florence, Italy. See also Multimedia Catalogue which features pictures of artifacts

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John Gorrie
Refrigerator

John Gorrie : Inventor of the Refrigerator
Gorrie's Fridge
Pictures of his ice-making machine

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Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1395-1468)
Movable Type Printer

A&E's Top 100 Most Influential People of the Millennium
Gutenberg is #1
Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468)
From Graphion's Online Type Museum.
Johannes Gutenberg
From Encyclopedia Britannica. See also Printing

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James Hargreaves
The Spinning Jenny

James Hargreaves
Hargreaves' Invention of the Spinning Jenny, ca. 1764
Inventors: James Hargreaves and the spinning jenny
Biography from Cotton Times

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Grace Hopper
Computer Compiler

Grace Murray Hopper : Inventor of the First Computer Compiler

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Elias Howe (1819-1867)
Sewing Machine

Elias Howe
From Compton's Encyclopedia Online
Elias Howe
From 19th Century Scientific American Online

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Guglielmo Marconi, "Father of Radio"

Guglielmo Marconi

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Cyrus Hall McCormick

Cyrus Hall McCormick
Biography; picture

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Elijah McCoy

Black History. Elijah McCoy
Biography of McCoy, inventor of an oil-dripping cup for trains;
from Scholastic

Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872)

Locust Grove - The Samuel F.B. Morse Historic Site
Includes biography of Samuel F.B. Morse
Samuel Morse
Biography from Lemelson Inventor of the Week Archive
Who was Samuel F.B. Morse?
From The Early Transatlantic Cable History
Samuel F.B. Morse Page
Online version of the Samuel F.B. Morse Papers;
from American Memory
History of Morse Code
Morse code history from White River Valley Museum
Morse Code Alphabet

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Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen
Discoverer of X-Rays

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen

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Sequoyah
Cherokee Alphabet

Sequoyah

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Alan Turing
Computer Science

Alan Turing
Timeline, Biography; advanced level. By Andrew Hodges

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James Watt (1736-1819)
Condenser for the Steam Engine

A&E's 100 Most Influential People of the Millenium
James Watts is #25
James Watt
Article from Encarta Encyclopedia
InventorLabs: James Watt From Houghton Mifflin InventorLabs CDROM. Biography and links. Quicktime movies.
James Watt

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Eli Whitney
Cotton Gin


Eli Whitney

Bio of Whitney and his cotton gin.

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Granville T. Woods

Over 35 electrical inventions

Granville T. Woods, Inventor

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Orville Wright (1871-1948) & Wilbur Wright (1867-1912)
Airplane

A&E's 100 Most Infuential People of the Millenium
The Wrights are #40
Wilbur and Orville Wright
People & Discoveries from PBS
Orville and Wilbur Wright

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Lesson Plans

Inventions of the Millenium. Student Projects
Mrs. Ricapito's 5th graders; Coleytown Middle School
Let's Go Surfin' : Inventions
unit and lesson plans
The Headbone Derby Teacher's Guide. "Iz and Auggie and the Invention Snatchers Lesson plans for Grades 4-8
The Industrial Revolution
Unit, including lesson plan on inventions; 5th grade
Education World. Internet Scavenger Hunt: Inventors and Inventions
Inventors and Inventions Theme Page Lesson Plans
Inventions Lesson Plan. Grades 7-12. By Mary Pendleton. Students create their own inventions and learn to describe them.
Inventions, Puppets, and Commercials
Grade 4; AskEric lesson plan
Artificial Environments in the Community: Man's Focus on Manipulating the Lifespace
Grades 9-12; an AskEric lesson plan
Assorted Creative Thinking Activities
Grades 4-12; an AskEric Lesson Plan

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Site Administrator: Inez Ramsey, James Madison University.
Mailto: ramseyil@jmu.edu