Electric Fan

              The electric fan was developed by Schuyler S. Wheeler, a scientist who is know for over one thousand inventions. Many of his Inventions consisted of ways to use electricity for the service of man The fan is a good example.

                 Before Wheeler's time, people used hand-held fans to keep cool during hot summer months. Wheeler got the idea for a motor driven fan while waiting for the Staten Island ferry in New York city in 1882. He noticed the water and ferry's propeller made expanding waves in the water and thought he could use the same principle to create expanding waves of cool air. Wheeler perfected What he called the 'buzz fan' in 1886, but it was not until electric motors were mass produced some years later, that electric fans started to be widely used. Now Wheeler's invention has become an old-fashioned way of staying cool because most people use air-conditioning.