Author: John

I’m going to talk about a very important thing, that is permission slips. We live in what I call a permission slip society and that can be a good thing but most of the time it is stupid and crazy. It is so crazy that you need a permit to sell lemonade. There is a book called “Lessons From a Lemonade Stand” and a podcast “The Way the World Works” that talk about why this law is stupid. It is so stupid that you need the government to tell you if you can or can’t do a simple task. People get fined or put in jail for not having a permit to run a tiny lemonade stand. Now go out there and spread the word, tell it to your friends, tell it to your boss, tell it to your coworkers, and if you are a kid like me tell it to your parents.

The feeding the five thousand is one of Jesus’ most famous miracles, and I’m going to tell you about it as if I was there. I was with a huge crowd on the shore waiting for Jesus to come. Finally Jesus came to shore and started preaching. I was amazed watching Jesus preach and heal people. He preached for hours until nightfall. Then the Apostles said “Send the people away to get themselves food for we can’t feed them”. Then instead of sending the people away he took his bread said a prayer, then took it to the Apostles and said give this to the people. Everybody ate until they were satisfied and there were still twelve baskets of bread left! This was an amazing miracle that had happened right before my eyes. The miracle was the most important thing because I could feel the presence of something holy.

Lesson 46 Electric Clock. With the discovery of electromagnetism Alexander Bain Invented the electric clock. Electric clocks will generally keep perfect time and be small. The rivalry between Bain and Wheatstone raised awareness of the electric clock and people started making their own versions. Today digital clocks are used to power GPS and keep time perfectly.

Lesson 47 Blueprints. John Herchel invented the blueprinting process in 1842. Blueprinting made it easy to reproduce drawings and were hard to make changes to. They quickly spread to the architectural industry and were used among scientists. Blueprints made it easier to construct large facilities but have been replaced by computers today.

Lesson 48 Stapler. Samuel Slocum invented the stapler in 1841 while trying to figure out how to ship his pins. Staplers are tools that make it quick and easy to bind sheets of paper together. Numerous inventors invented different models of the stapler in the 1900s. The Swingline stapler became the standard stapler thanks to its top-loading design.

Lesson 49 Grain Elevator. Joseph Dart was an entrepreneur who spotted the opportunity to invent the grain elevator in 1842. Grain elevators quickly remove grain from ships to store it. dart’s engineer, Dunbar, built many grain elevators all over the US. Their invention enabled the US to become the leading grain producer in the world.

Lesson 41 Steel Plow. John Deere invented the steel plow in 1837 to help farmers plow the sticky soil. He used steel for his plow because soil wouldn’t stick when polished. People loved the plow because it worked as advertised and they could try it before buying it. It was a major factor for western expansion because it made it easier to plow fields, led to modern crop production, but was wrongly blamed for the dust bowl.

Lesson 42 Steam Shovel. William Smith invented the steam shovel in 1835. It increased the speed and efficiency of digging holes. Railroads drove demand for the steam shovel and increased the speed of building roads and skyscrapers. Construction projects like the Panama canal were possible because of the steam shovel.

Lesson 43 Postage Stamp. Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp in 1838 to reform the postal system. The postage stamp certifies that the sender has paid the postage. His efforts were pushed through to parliament with the help of merchants. Stamps made their way to America which helped westward expansion.

Lesson 44 Vulcanized Rubber. Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber by accident. Vulcanizing rubber prevents it from melting or shattering. Goodyear died bankrupt but a company was named after him and became popular. Goodyear is one of the top ten rubber companies today and relies on rubber seals.

My favorite lesson is vulcanized rubber. I like it because it showed that amazing things can be created by accident. The Goodyear rubber company was popular and sold tires, wheels, and poker chips. Rubber can be made in different ways to receive different properties.

Lesson 6- Vapor Compression Theory. Oliver Evans developed a vapor compression refrigeration theory. The theory explains how circulating refrigerant cools down an environment by removing heat. Many other people later invented the refridgerator.

Lesson 7- Oliver Evans. Oliver Evans was a creative inventor who started out by solving the flour milling problems. He developed process automation and pioneered high pressure steam engines. He was a creative marketer and secured important clients.

Lesson 8- Percussion ignition. John Forsyth invented the percussion cap system. It fired faster, produced less smoke, and worked in rain. He didn’t succeed in business but other people did.

Lesson 9- Canning process. Nicolas Appert invented the canning process for a prize of money. It cheaply preserves food taste and nutrition. Glass jars were quickly replaced by tin cans.