Arnold Ringstad - Weird-But-True Facts about Inventions

Published by The Childs World
1980 Lookout Drive Mankato, MN 56003-1705
800-599-READ www.childsworld.com

Acknowledgments
The Childs World: Mary Berendes, Publishing Director
Red Line Editorial: Editorial direction
The Design Lab: Design
Amnet: Production

Copyright 2013 by The Childs World
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means
without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781614734154
LCCN 2012946522

Printed in the United States of America
Mankato, MN
November, 2012
PA02143

About the Author

Arnold Ringstad lives in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. He has a Nikola Tesla T-shirt.

About the Illustrator

Kathleen Petelinsek loves to draw and
paint. She lives next to a lake in southern
Minnesota with her husband, Dale; two
daughters, Leah and Anna; two dogs,
Gary and Rex; and her fluffy cat, Emma.

Transportation
Innovations... 18

More Weird Invention
Facts... 22

From ancient vending machines to cars
that drive themselves, people have always
been inventing the future. Inventions do
everything from fastening your clothes to
storing millions of megabytes of data.
They have been created after years of
hard work or stumbled upon simply by
accident. Get ready to learn some strange
facts about inventionsand remember,
they are all true!

A Byzantine
inventor
created the

flamethrower .

The weapon was known as
Greek fire. It was used in sea
battles. The process for making
Greek fire was kept secret, and
it eventually was lost. No one
today knows for sure how to
make it.

The first vending
machine was
invented in
approximately
100 AD.

The inventor, Heron, lived in
Alexandria, Egypt. People put a
coin into the machine and holy
water came out.

The first steam engine
was only used as a toy.

Heron of Alexandria invented it. The engine
used steam power to make a metal ball spin
around. Useful steam engines were not made
until approximately 1,600 years later.

The Ancient Egyptians
invented the first toothpaste,
breath mints, and eye makeup.

People living in
Finland invented ice
skates more than
5,000 years ago.

They used sharpened animal bones as
blades rather than metal blades.

Ancient Egyptians
used water clocks
to tell time.

These clocks dripped water at a
steady rate. They were used as early
as 1500 BC. They were the most
accurate clocks available for more
than 3,000 years.

The compass was
invented about
2,000 years ago
in China.

It was not used for navigation at
first. Instead, it was likely used
to help design cities, so buildings
would face certain directions.

The ancient Greek inventor
Archimedes invented a machine to
lift enemy boats out of the water and
drop them down again to smash them.

Archimedes lived between 287 and 212 BC.

Thomas Edison
(18471931)
received more
than 1,000
patents for his
inventions.

He also filed between 500 and
600 unsuccessful applications.
That is about one patent every
two weeks during his career.

Edison tried to
invent a machine
to talk to the dead.

Edison was responsible for the
electric chair.

Edison had a rivalry with inventor Nikola Tesla (18561943) over whose
type of electricity was best. Edison preferred direct current (DC), while Tesla
preferred alternating current (AC). Edison created the electric chair using
AC. He wanted to show that Teslas type of electricity was too dangerous to
use. AC was actually better, and it is still used in homes today.

Tesla claimed to invent an
electric death ray that could
be used by the military.

He claimed it could shoot down 10,000 airplanes
from 250 miles (400 km) away. However, he
could not find enough money to fund his
experiments so he never tried to build it.

Tesla invented
remote control
model boats and
demonstrated them in New York in 1898.

Edison invented
an electric vote
recorder to help
Congress work
faster, but they
didnt want to use it.

In 1890, Edison
invented the first
talking doll.

It had a tiny record player inside of
it. Approximately 500 were sold, but
customers returned most of them. The
dolls were fragile and broke easily.

Edison had plans to
make concrete houses
and concrete furniture.

People felt they were too ugly, and they
never caught on.

Tesla invented the
radio, but another
inventor named
Guglielmo Marconi
took credit for it.

When asked about it, Tesla said,
"Marconi is a good fellow. Let him
continue. He is using 17 of my
patents." Tesla didnt receive credit
for the invention until a few months
after his own death.

The first
TV remote
control, made
in 1950, was
connected to
the television
by a wire.

The first wireless model
came out five years later.