The “quartz crisis” began in Tokyo on Christmas Day in 1969 when Seiko unveiled the world’s first quartz watch, the Astron 35SQ. Designed by Kazunari Sasaki of Suwa Seiko-sha, the Astron achieved 100 times the accuracy of a regular mechanical watch by using a vibrating quartz crystal instead of a balance wheel for time keeping. […]
inventions
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Sound Guys: Edison and Berliner
Fifty years after the world’s first surviving photograph was taken by Nicéphore Niépce in 1827, Thomas Edison did for sound what the French experimenter had done for light: capture it. Edison made his first recording “Mary had a Little Lamb” in December of 1877 and — like Niépce’s original photo — it was crude, imperfect, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
James Dyson’s Electric Car
“Anyone who can convince people to part with $400 for a hair dryer knows a thing or two about marketing.” — Steve Hanley, CleanTechnica James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before releasing his innovative “say goodbye to the bag” cyclone vacuum cleaner onto the market in 1983. Since then, you’ve no doubt dried your hands on […]