Video is defined as a system of recording, reproducing, or broadcasting moving visual images on or from videotape. No one inventor can be credited as being the originator of video or the video camera. However, most historians credit the Scottish engineer, John Baird as being one of the earliest pioneers of a video/television system. Baird was televising crude video images starting in 1924. The modern video camera, able to record both images and sound, was first demonstrated on 14 April 1956, invented by Charles Ginsberg, Ray Dolby, and Charles Anderson. The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge. So as you will see there is no better way to learn about famous inventors than to see what their lives and times were like with science videos.
1. Profile of Alexander Graham Bell(1847-1922)
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Alexander Graham Bell invented and the patented the first practical telephone in 1876. Bell also "fathered" the telecommunication industry by bringing home telephones and the availability of telephone service to the public.
2. Profile of Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
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Danish physicist, Niels Bohr aka Nicholas Baker was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of his work on the structure of atoms and quantum mechanics. He was the co-inventor of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project.
3. Profile of Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997)
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French oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau invented the aqualung, a diving suit which allowed divers to remain underwater longer. French engineer Emile Gagnan co-invented the aqualung with Cousteau and helped him complete the new diving suit in 1943. However, Cousteau is better known as an explorer and filmmaker who produced countless underwater documentaries about marine life.
4. Profile of Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Thomas Edison is probably the best known and most prolific of American inventors of the 19th century. Inventions credited to the "Wizard of Menlo Park" include: the tin foil phonograph and other sound recording equipment, the first practical incandescent electric light bulb and a system of generating and delivering electrical power to the consumer, and inventions for the fledgling motion picture industry including projectors and cameras.
5. Profile of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
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Scientist, publisher, and American statesman Benjamin Franklin was also an avid inventor. Franklin invented bifocal eyeglasses, musical instruments, a lightening rod, an odometer, and a stove.
7. Profile of Temple Grandin (1947-
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Inventor Temple Grandin was born with autism, however, that did not stop her from leading a life so amazing that an HBO film was made of her life and Time Magazine named Gher one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
8. Profile of James Naismith (1861-1939)
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Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith invented what was to become the tremendously popular sport of basketball. Naismith wanted to create a competitive team sport that could be played indoors, something we can blame the harsh Canadian winters on. Naismith invented both the rules of basketball and the equipment used in the game.
9. Profile of Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972)
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In 1940, aeronautical engineer Igor Sikorsky invented the first "successful" single rotary helicopter, and further helicopter designs were based upon the work of Sikorsky. Sikorsky, it should be noted, had been designing abd flying helicopters since 1910.
Three photographs, clockwise from top left: headshot of Russian-born American aeronautical engineer Igor I. Sikorsky, c. 1964; aerial view of a Sikorsky twin-turbine VH-3A of the Executive Flight Detachment flying over Jefferson Monument in Washington, D.C, 1960s; first flight of the VS-300 helicopter with Sikorsky at the controls, c. 1939.
10. Profile of George Westinghouse (1846-1914)
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American inventor and industrialist, George Westinghouse revolutionized both the railroad and the electrical technologies of his time. An interesting fact about George Westinghouse was that he was rivals with Thomas Edison in the early days of the electrical utility industry and that the electric chair played a strange role in this rivalry.
