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| 1877 |
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| Elihu Thomson invented a resistance welder. N. V. Bernardos of Russia patented carbon-arc welding, although arc welding (most popularly employed process today) did not come into its own until invention of the coated electrode in the 1920s. Oxyacetylene torch (invented in 1900 by Edmund Fouche) and gas welding was the dominant process until recently. Development of inert-gas-shielded arc welding after 1942. | 1 |
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| 1882 Ff |
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| Invention and use of electric appliances for consumer market: electric fan (S. S. Wheeler); flatiron (H. W. Seely, 1882); stove (W. S. Hadaway, 1896); separate attachable plug (H. Hubbell, 1904); sewing machine (Singer Co., 1889); washing machine (Hurling Co., 1907). | 2 |
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| 1884 |
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| Dorr E. Felt (1862–1930) made first accurate comptometer. William S. Burroughs (1857–98) developed first successful recording adding machine (1888); Brunsviga calculating machine (1892). | 3 |
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| 1895 |
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| Carl Linde established liquid air plant. He had previously (1876) introduced the ammonia compressor machine (the first vapor compression machine invented by Jacob Perkins, 1834). Other refrigerating machines were: ammonia absorption machine (Carré, 1860), air refrigerator (Gorrie, 1845; improved by Kirk, 1862), open-cycle air machine (Giffard, 1873, and later by Bell and Coleman). | 4 |
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| 1895 |
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| King C. Gillette (1855–1932) invented safety razor with throwaway blades. J. Schick invented electric razor (1928). Stainless steel throwaway blades invented in Sweden (1962). | 5 |
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| 1898 |
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| M. J. Owens (1859–1923) invented automatic bottle-making machine. | 6 |
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| 1905–10 |
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| Electric precipitation equipment, for prevention of atmospheric pollution by industry, developed by Frederick G. Cottrell (1877–1948). | 7 |
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| 1913 |
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| G. Sundback invented a slide fastener (zipper); earlier version patented by W. L. Judson (1891). | 8 |
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| 1914 |
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| Conveyor-belt mass production employed in the United States most dramatically in Henry Ford's assembly line for Model T Ford automobile, which became the symbol for American industrial technique. | 9 |
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