Author: Pete

The Stanley Works was founded by Frederick Trent Stanley in 1843, originally a bolt and door hardware manufacturing company. The Stanley Rule and Level Company was founded in 1857 by Henry Stanley, Frederick Trent Stanley’s cousin. J. A. Chapman Limited was a Sheffield firm founded in the 1860s by Mr. James Arscott Chapman (1827-1891), producing high quality tools. The…

The very first tool to be powered by electricity was a drill created in Germany in 1895 by C and E Fein. It was difficult to use and very basic, but it started the ball rolling. In 1914 in America a much more user-friendly drill was designed by Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker based of…

Michael Faraday was born on 22 September 1791 to James Faraday and Margaret Hastwell in Newington Butts part of the London Borough of Southwark.  His father, James, moved his family to London during 1790 from Outhgill in Westmorland, where he had been an apprentice blacksmith.  Michael was raised a devout Christian and received a very basic education as a child.…

Georg Simon Ohm was born in 1789 in Erlangen, Brandenburg-Bayreuth to locksmith Johann Wolfgang Ohm, and Maria Elizabeth Beck. Ohm’s father having been determined to educate himself well was able to give his sons an excellent home education in mathematics, physics, chemistry and philosophy. Only Georg Simon, his younger brother Martin, who later became a well-known mathematician, and his sister Elizabeth Barbara survived to…

The answer is a French physicist and mathematician of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who was one of the pioneers in the study of electromagnetism. André-Marie Ampère was born on 20 January 1775 to Jean-Jacques Ampère, and Jeanne Antoinette Desutières-Sarcey Ampère at Poleymieux-au-Mont-d’Or near Lyon, Fance. As a wealthy businessman Andre-Marie’s father had an extensive library. He believed that his son should…

Have you ever wondered where we get the standard unit of electrical potential the volt from? The answer is an eighteenth century Italian chemist and physicist named Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta. Volta was born on 18 February 1745 to Filippo Volta, and Donna Maddalena in the Italian town of Como, which lies on the…

Over the last 30 years or so, payment terminals have become a more and more common part of everyday life. Particularly since the start of the Covid pandemic, payment with cash has become less common than payment by debit or credit card. A payment terminal, (AKA point of sale terminal, AKA credit card machine, AKA…

The Voltaic Pile The first true battery, capable of storing and releasing a charge through a chemical reaction instead of physically, was invented by Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta in 1800. This came to be known as the “voltaic pile” and consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other,…

Compared to FM radios, DAB radios offer several benefits. DAB digital radios were developed and launched in Europe in the late 1980s. They transmit radio signals digitally, resulting in better sound quality. In addition, DAB radios offer an increased choice, as more radio stations can be transmitted on a single frequency. DAB radios are less…

Tesla, Inc is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (cars and trucks), stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, and related products and services. Tesla was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc…