TELESCOPE

             
    In 1608 the Dutch spectacle maker Hans Lippershey discovered that two lenses, one in front of the other, could produce a magnifying effect. One year later, Galileo Galilei heard of the discovery and made what is believed to be the world's first telescope, going on to discover the moons of jupiter, craters on the moon and observe for the first time separate stars in the Milky Way.

TELEPHONE

               One of the Scottish American physicist and inventor was Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922). In 1876 he exhibited an apparatus embodying the results of his studies in the transmission of sound by electricity - the basis of a modern telephone. The first telephone massage transmitted was from Bell to his assistant: "Mr.Watson, please come here; I want you".

Talking Doll

             A little known invention by Thomas A. Edison is a doll that talked, the first ever to do so. Built in 1888, the doll had a small phonograph in its body that enabled it to recite a dozen nursery rhymes. After making several hundred of these dolls, Edison was informed that his company had previously sold the right to manufacture phonograph toys to another firm. Although that firm had never exercised its right, Edison stopped production and had the dolls destroyed. Of the few he saved and presented to friends, only two are believed to be in existence today.

Synthetic Plastic

               In the early 1860s, a New York firm offered a prize of $10,000 for a satisfactory subtitute for ivory it the manufacture of billiard balls. The prize was won by an American inventor, Jhone Wesley Hyatt who devised for the purpose what came to be known as celluloid. It was the first synthetic plastic.

TEA BAG

                            A small wholesale tea business in New York city was run by Thomas Sullivan at the turn of the century. He had one major problem preventing him from expanding his trade. There was no convenient way for him to send samples of his many varieties of tea to prospective customers.

                          In those days, people made tea by brewing loose tea leaves in pots, then staining the tea into cups, if someone wanted just one cup of tea and did not want to brew a whole pot, there were a number of devices he could use. One was called a "tea bell". Shaped some what like a bell, it held a small amount of tea and could be submerged in a single cup.

                           Sullivan decided to adapt the tea bell idea for sending out his samples. He made little bags og gauze, put different teas inside, then attached half a dozen of his "tea bags" to a piece of cardboard. This became his sample package, which he sent out to retail merchants.

                           To Sullivan's surprise, he began to get requests for shipments of the tea bags in quantity. The customers had seen the samples and wanted tea bags for themselves, it seemed. He complied, and tea bags were soon available for household use.