The original concept of ipod was of an Englishman Kane Kramer. He, at the age of 23 drew a rough design of a machine that could load music in 1979. Kane worked on his design with his friend James Campbell, they made the device and got it patented in England under the name of “IXI”. Due to unavailability of money, the worldwide patent
could not be renewed and got expired in 1988.

The ipods used today have passed through many phases of design, style and technology. They have good sound quality and storage capacity. The market has a wide range of ipods. They are iPod mini, iPod photo, iPod video, iPod shuffle, iPod nano and iPod touch common as i-touch. All ipods have specific characteristics some even store files other than music.

The device he developed used an electric circuit, an overhead wire and Earth as another conductor to complete the circuit. A marker was moved to produce written code on a piece of paper using pulses of current to deflect electromagnet- this was Morse code. For one more year the machine was worked on to emboss the paper with dots and dashes and then the public demonstration was conducted in 1838. After five years telegraph lines were constructed. And the first telegraphic message was “What Hath God wrought?” A complete line was officially inaugurated on May 24, 1844. The first transcontinental
telegraph line was built by the Western Union along the railroads in 1851 and then theys began their profits.

For economic reasons, the Post and Telegraph department intervened in 1881 and it was in 1943 that the Post and Telegraph department and the Western Union joined hands. Originally the telegraphic message was printed on the tape but in the U. S. the trained operator transmitted message by sending it through keys and receiving by ears at the speed of 40 to 50 words a minute.

Percy Spencer added the microwave power to an aluminium box. The energy got trapped in the box and created electromagnetic field. When food was placed in the box, its temperature rose highly. Microwave oven cooking revolutionized cooking.

The first oven that was placed in Boston restaurant in 1946 was of 6 feet height, weighed 750 pounds and costed $5000. It had to be water cooled and required plumbing installation due to high heat generation. Though it was not easily accepted by people due to its huge size, heavy weight and high cost but soon the sales were higher than that of gas ranges. Now almost every kitchen has microwave for reheating and cooking food. It saves time as well as energy.

Dr. Percy Spencer continued his service with the same firm till his death, at the age of 76. He has 150 patents to his name. A self taught scientist’s name was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame on September 18, 1999.

The French tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier invented the first sewing machine that could function in 1830. The machine used a single thread and a needle which was hooked. The other tailors burnt his shop and almost killed him as they thought the new invention might bring unemployment.

It was in 1834 that America’s first successful machine came up and the man behind this was Walter Hunt who took no interest in getting a patent for it due to the fear that it might cause unemployment. It was in 1846 that Elias Howe got the first American patent for a sewing machine that had one pointed eye and accepted thread from two sources.

The mass production of machines started in 1850 when Isaac Singer invented the machine that was commercially successful.

In 1876 Carl von Linden invented the improved method of liquefying gas and got it patented. This was a great help in the creation of practical refrigerator. Ammonia, sulphur dioxide and methyl chloride were utilized for the formation of this gas which led to many accidents. The need led to the development of Freon and was used in bulk till it was found that it was not environment friendly and affected the ozone layer.

The gas compounds have now changed to safer compounds which compress and heat up working to cool the inside air of the refrigerator. Without this adjustment the working of the refrigerator seems impossible. It has been a work of many great inventors that the present form of refrigerators has simplified the work.

Historical records from Philippine dating back to the 16^th century shows that hunters would hide behind trees and would throw these at wild animals in order to capture them and the string would come back, ensuring that it doesn’t get lost. The word yo yo is actually derived from the Philippine language word yoyo’.

The birth of the modern yo yo was made in 1928  when a Filipino American Pedro Flores who started a manufacturing company in Santa Barbara, California that made the yo yo’ . Soon this company was making 300,000 units that was the output of 600 employees.

However it was Jagdish Chandra Bose, who developed the early wireless detection device and branded the spectrum for the knowledge of the wireless communication and the electromagnetic waves. Later on practical uses were found by inventors such as Nikola Tesla for making the wireless radio communication and radio remote control technology.

Wireless communication now encompasses a series of other technology apart from the wireless telegraphy. It now also means cellular phone networks and also wireless broadband telephony and internet. Other practical uses are in security systems, where the access can be controlled through wireless technologies. Even the simplest TV or music system remote control devices use the wireless technology.

When a person unknowingly sits on the cushion or the chair where it has been placed, the whoopie cushion will make a noise that is akin to human flatulence and will become the butt for the practical joke.

Historically it has been known that the Roman Emperor Elagabulus used such cushions at his dinner parties to have fun at the expense of the unsuspecting people.  In the 1930’s this practical joke cushion was reinvented by the JEM Rubber Co.  employees that was based in Toronto. The Whoopee cushion has been showcased in a number of on stage plays, TV and many publications and never fails to garner a joke when a person unknowingly sits on it.

The Sony co-chairman Akio Morita wanted a device where he could listen to his favorite operas during the Trans Atlantic flights. The concept was well liked and was originally marketed in Japan in 1979 and was sensational, since it gave freedom to young people to listen to their music with light weight headphones.

Even though Morita hated the name Walkman, the name stuck on and the promotional campaign using the name had already begun and to change the name midway would have been extremely expensive for the company. In 2007 March, the digital flash based video walkman was released and was named the A800 series.

The Walkman by Sony faced stiff competition from other companies such as Toshiba, Aiwa, Panasonic etc, but the personalization of the gadget worked in its favor for almost 20 years and the essential design remained unchanged.

The first few vacuum cleaners that were invented were operated manually. Till 1900’s most vacuum cleaners that were invented by Ives W McGraffy, Melville Bissell and others were manual ones. Soon after the motorized versions of the vacuum cleaners began to be produced. John H Thurman created a gasoline powered carper cleaner for the General Compressed Air Company. However this design wasn’t very successful, since the dust was blown into receptacle rather than the dust being sucked in as the cleaners do now.

The first vacuum cleaners were quite bulky, stand up and couldn’t be easily moved. After Electrolux launched its model V that lay on the floor with metal runners future machines would standardize this pattern. Now robotic vacuum cleaners can clean the place effortlessly.