Posts Tagged: "inventors hall of fame"

Content Delivery Networks: Dan Lewin and Tom Leighton solve the “World Wide Wait”

Content delivery networks (CDNs), distributed networks involving proxy servers and data centers to provide high availability of content, are becoming increasingly valuable as Internet users continue to demand instant access to files or streaming media… Currently, the world’s largest CDN is Akamai, a CDN and cloud services provider based in Cambridge, MA, which operates 216,000 servers across 120 countries and within more than 1,500 networks to deliver up to 30 percent of Internet traffic worldwide. The success of Akamai’s business is largely based on the foundation of an innovative leap in Internet architecture developed by a professor and a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Both Tom Leighton and Daniel Lewin are members of the 2017 class inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Today, August 22nd, marks the 17th anniversary of the issue of the patent for which Leighton and Lewin have been recognized as major pioneers in the field of CDNs. The work of both of these innovators continues to serve as a basis for perhaps the most successful firm in the CDN space currently.

Evolution of Gas Sensors: Beatrice Hicks creates device to measure gas in critical industrial applications

Inventor, Beatrice Hicks, is both a 2017 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame as well as one of America’s truly trailblazing women engineers, one of the first to enter the field of technological development in the mid-20th century. Hicks would go on to become instrumental in the founding of the Society of Women Engineers and her story is a wonderful reminder of the power of both a good education and the ability to believe in one’s self… Hicks’ major innovation in gas sensor tech is outlined by U.S. Patent No. 3046369, titled Device for Sensing Gas Density and issued July 24th, 1962. It claimed, in a density system, a chamber containing gas, a hollow case with an interior cavity in communication with the chamber, a sealed expansible and contractible bellows mounted within the hollow case and in communication with gas contained in the chamber, and an actuating portion to actuate an output means when the bellows moves to a critical position in response to the pressure-versus-temperature function of the gas.

Evolution of Industrial Lasers: Persistence of Marshall Jones leads to revolutionary changes in additive manufacturing

The innovative work of Jones that led to his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame is on display in U.S. Patent No. 4676586, titled Apparatus and Method for Performing Laser Material Processing Through a Fiber Optic. Issued on June 30th, 1987, the patent protected an improved method of delivering laser energy to perform metal processing by generating a near infrared or visible wavelength pulsed laser beam, providing a single fiber optic with a quartz core having a diameter of less than 1,000 micrometers as well as cladding and protective shielding for the core end, focusing the laser beam onto the end of the core on a small spot with a diameter less than the core diameter at an including angle of less than 24°, coupling the beam into the fiber optic through air-core and core-cladding zones to transmit energy with a peak power in the kilowatt range, and then focusing the laser beam emerging from the fiber optic onto a workpiece at a power density sufficient for metal processing. The invention resulted in a laser beam delivery system with minimal optical losses and improved freedom of laser beam manipulation capable of being robotically controlled.

Evolution of Tech: Iver Anderson gets the lead out of electronics solder

Soldering, the process by which two items are joined together by melting a filler metal with a low melting point and pouring liquid metal onto the joint, is a process which is used in many important metalworking processes today, from manufacturing electronics to installing plumbing pipes. Evidence of primitive soldering techniques, however, extend back thousands of years to sites from ancient Mesopotamia.

Evolution of Drywall: Augustine Sackett’s gypsum board now used in 97% of new home construction

May 22nd, marked the 123rd anniversary of the issue of an early and important patent covering a drywall product for building construction. Its inventor, American-born Augustine Sackett, was a 2017 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. With the anniversary of the issue of this seminal patent in the field of building construction upon us, we’ll take a look back today at the history of gypsum use across the world and how Sackett’s innovation completely changed the American home building industry.