Music is an artistic form of sound communication via musical instruments that produce sounds and tones.The piano first known as the pianoforte developed from the harpsichord around 1720, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. Piano drawing: freephotos

Remember the aim of the advertising and promotional strategy is to create awareness of your product, to arouse customers' needs and expectations to the point of consumption and to create a loyal stream of satisfied customers who continue to patronize your business.

Did you know in 1895 waterbeds were sold via mail order by the British store, Harrod’s? They looked like, and probably were, very large hot water bottles. Due to lack of suitable materials, the waterbed did not gain widespread use until the 1960s, after the invention of vinyl.

• Suggested Reading
• History of Beds
• Innovations of the Home

Marcus Browne, writer for ZDNet.com.au reported that IP Australia has just launched a new open, online database featuring almost 20 years' worth of Australia's patent application records, in a bid to make it easier for Australian (and other) inventors to check if someone else has already had their light bulb moment. The AusPat database will allow researchers to crosscheck patent applications with records dating back as far as 1979.

• Read Marcus Browne's Complete Article
• How Do I Conduct a Patent Search?
• Directory: Patent Searches

A recent WIPO Magazine article reported that women inventors were prominent at the March Ibtikar Fair, the first Saudi Arabi Innovation Exhibition. The WIPO Award for the best invention by a woman was won by Reem Ibraheem Khojah who invented a fully automated process for microscope analysis of liquid samples. It took her just two months to build the prototype for her “automated cylindrical slide microscope,” which, she say, will save time, save resources and reduce health hazards for laboratory workers associated with the disposal of biological material.

Two-thirds of US patent appeal judges may be illegitimate? In a National Law Journal article, Marcia Coyle reports about the possibly unconstitutional appointment of nearly two-thirds of its patent appeals judges and about the petition that raised the issue being filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by a company whose patent was rejected by a three-judge Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences panel. More Patent News

Find out what famous May event occured in patent, trademark, or copyright history. Find out what famous inventor has the same May birthday as you or what invention was created on a May day in history.

A solar panel is a collection of solar cells. Although each solar cell provides a relatively small amount of power, many solar cells spread over a large area can provide enough power to be useful. Photo Credit: Rooftop PV modules/DOE

Seismic waves are the vibrations from earthquakes that travel through the Earth; they are recorded on instruments called seismographs. The first crude seismograph was the dragon jar. The dragon jar was a cylindrical jar with eight dragonheads arranged around its brim; each dragon had a ball in its mouth. Around the foot of the jar were eight frogs, each directly under a dragonhead. When an earthquake happened a ball dropped from a dragon's mouth and was caught by the frog's mouth. Photo credit: LOC

In 1797, Andrew Garnerin was the first person recorded in history to jump with a parachute without a rigid frame. Garnerin jumped from hot air balloons that went as high as 8,000 feet in the air. Garnerin also invented the first air vent in a parachute intended to reduce oscillations.

Parachute Records
Joseph Kittinger holds the world record for the highest-ever parachute jump (74,700 feet) and the longest free fall (4 minutes, 36 seconds).

• History of the Parachute
• Photo Credit: Getty Images/Photographer John Foxx

These are great events folks. Also if you have ever wondered about TV shows featuring inventors and inventions, do read Stephen Paul Gnass' article America's Funniest Inventors?

• May 6-8 - National Hardware Show, Inventor's Spotlight - Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
  For entrepeneurs who are inventing hardware/home improvement products. Your product must be patent pending or patent approved but has not yet gained distribution be to showcased in their newly expanded Inventor's Spotlight area or the show floor.
• May 17, 2008 - The Casting Calls for Season 3 of Everyday Edisons Providence, R.I.
  A TV show that will document the development process of 14 inventions and the parallel stories of the people who invented them. In order to be considered for the show, you must attend one of the five casting calls.
• May 31 1st Annual Ingenuity Expo @ MIT
  Handpicked exhibitors will have a unique opportunity to showcase their products and services to investors, product scouts, marketers, licensing firms, journalists, and the public at large.
• June 13-14 Minnesota Inventors Congress
  The world's oldest invention convention.

The first vision aid was invented (inventor unknown) called a reading stone. It was a glass sphere that magnified when laid on top of reading materials.

• Timeline of Microscopes
• History of the Microscope

What is a Electron Microscope?
In this kind of microscope, electrons are speeded up in a vacuum until their wavelength is extremely short, only one hundred-thousandth that of white light. Beams of these fast-moving electrons are focused on a cell sample and are absorbed or scattered by the cell's parts so as to form an image on an electron-sensitive photographic plate. If pushed to the limit, electron microscopes can make it possible to view objects as small as the diameter of an atom.
Illustration: LOC