Thomas Edison Biography

Thomas Edison (1847 1931) was an American inventor and

businessman who developed and made commercially available many
key inventions of modern life. His Edison Electric company was a
pioneering company for delivering DC electricity directly into peoples
homes. He filed over 1,000 patents for a variety of different inventions.
Crucially, he used mass-produced techniques to make his inventions
available at low cost to households across America. His most important
inventions include, the electric light bulb. the phonograph, the motion
picture camera, an electric car and electric power station.
None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to
be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is
one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on Feb 11, 1847, the youngest
of seven siblings. His parents were middle class, though they were not
wealthy, especially when the railroad bypassed Milan, forcing the family to move to Port Huron,
Michigan. He attended only three months of formal schooling, he irritated his teacher with his repeated
questioning and inability to just follow instructions. He was largely disinterested at school, and was
mainly self-educated through reading. He took upon it himself to read every book on the library shelf. By
the age of 12, he was reading Sir Isaac Newtons famous work Principa Mathematica. However, Edison
was not impressed by the complex maths of Newton, and resolved to try and make science more
understandable. As a youngster he tried various odd jobs to earn a living. This including selling candy,
vegetables and newspapers. He had a talent for business, and he successfully printed the Grand Trunk
Herald along with his other newspapers. This included selling photos of his hero, Abraham Lincoln. He
was able to spend his extra income on a growing chemistry set. Unfortunately, from an early age, Edison
developed a severe deafness, which ultimately left him almost 90% deaf. He would later refuse any
medical treatment, saying it would be too difficult to retrain his thinking process. He seemed to take his
deafness in his stride, and never saw it as a disability. Edison had a big break when he saved a young boy
on the railway track from being struck by a runaway train. His grateful father, J.U. Mckenzie, had Edison
trained as a telegraph operator, and aged 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky to work as a telegraph
operator for Western Union. From childhood, Edison loved to experiment, especially with chemicals.
however, these experiments often got Edison into difficulties. A chemistry experiment once exploded on a
train, and when working on a night shift at Western Union, his lead acid battery leaked sulphuric acid
through the floor onto his boss desk. Edison was fired the next day. However, Edison was undimmed and
despite scrapping by in impoverished conditions for the next few years, he was able to spend most of his
time working on inventions. He received his first patent in June 1, 1869 for the stock ticker. This would
later earn him a considerable sum. In the 1870s, he sold the rights to the quadruplex telegraph to Western
Union for $10,000. This gave him the financial backing to establish a proper research laboratory and
extend his experiments and innovations. Edison once described his invention methods as involving a lot
of hard work, and repeated trial and error until a method was successful.
During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was
deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory
and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. I speak without exaggeration when I say that I
have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them
reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of
my theory. Talks with Edison by G.P Lathrop in Harpers magazine, Vol. 80 (Feb. 1890), p. 425
By 1877, he had developed the phonograph (an early form of the gramophone player) This received
widespread interest, and people were astonished at one of the first audio recording devices. This unique
invention, earned Edison the nickname The Wizard of Menlo Park Edisons device would later be
improved upon by others, but he made a big step in creating the first recording device.
With William Joseph Hammer, Edison started producing the electric light bulb, and it was a great
commercial success. Edisons great advance was to use a carbonised bamboo filament that could last over
1,000 hours. In 1878, he formed the Edison Electric light Company to profit from this invention. Edison

successfully predicted that he could make electric light so cheap, it would soon come universal. To
capitalise on the success of the electric light bulb, he also work on electricity distribution. His first power
station was able to distribute DC current to 59 customers in lower Manhattan. Edisons studios now took
up two blocks, and it was able to stock a huge range of natural resources, meaning that almost anything
and everything could be used in trying to improve designs. This was a big factor in enabling Edison to be
so successful in this era of innovation. During the fledgling years of electricity generation, Edison became
involved in a battle between his DC current system and the AC (alternative current) system favoured by
George Westinghouse (and developed by Nikola Tesla, who worked for Edison for two years before
leaving in a pay dispute.) This became known as the current war and both sides were desperate to show
the superiority of their system. The Edison company even, on occasion, electrocuted animals to show how
dangerous the rival AC current was. During World War One, Edison was asked to serve as a naval
consultant, but Edison only wanted to work on defensive weapons. He was proud that he made no
invention that could be used to kill. He maintained a strong belief in non-violence.
Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all
other living beings, we are still savages. Edison was also a great admirer of the enlightenment
thinker Thomas Paine. He wrote a book praising Paine in 1925, he also shared similar religious beliefs to
Thomas Paine no particular religion, but belief in a Supreme Being. Edison made many important
inventions and development in media. These included the Kinetoscope (or peep hole view), the first
motion pictures and improved photographic paper. After the death of his first wife, Mary Stilwell in 1884,
Edison left Menlo Park and moved to West Orange, New Jersey. In 1886, he remarried Mina Miller. In
West Orange, he became friends with industrial magnate, Henry Ford and was an active participant in the
Civitan club which involved doing things for the local community. His pace of invention slowed down
in these final years, but he still kept busy, such as trying to find a domestic source of natural rubber. He
was also involved in the first electric train to depart from Hoboken in 1930. Throughout his life, he took
an active interest in correct diet, and believed a good diet could play a large role in improving health. In
1903, he was quoted as saying: The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his
patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
He had six children, three from each marriage. Edison died of diabetes in October 18, 1931.

Wright Brothers Biography

Orville Wright (1871 1948) Wilbur Wright (1867 1912)
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited
with building and flying the first heavier than air aeroplane.
They achieved the first recorded flight on 17 December 1903.
Over the next 10 years they continued to develop the aircraft
making a significant contribution to the development of the
modern aeroplane. Their particular contribution was in the
effective control of an airplane, through their three-axis control
system. This basic principle is still used today. It was for this control mechanism that they received their
first US patent 821,393. Early Life of Wright Brothers
Orville and Wilbur had two elder brothers Reuchlin (1861-1920) and Lorin (1862-1939), and a younger
sister Katharine (1874-1929). Their parents were Bishop Milton Wright (1828-1917) and Susan Catherine
(Koerner) Wright (1831-1889). Their father worked as a minister in various churches, and as a
consequence the family frequently moved around. Their father encouraged his children to read widely
and discuss issues. This climate of intellectual creativity and stimulus encouraged the Wright brothers to
pursue a range of interests and studies. When they were young, their father bought them a small

helicopter built in France. They later commented that this helicopter sparked an interest in flight and
they sought to build similar models themselves.
Around 1885, Wilbur became withdrawn after sustaining a facial injury during a game of ice-hockey.
This injury and the resulting depression caused Wilbur to give up his dreams of studying at Yale. Instead
he remained close to home, helping his father with ministerial tasks and looking after his ill mother.
However, Orville was determined to try new things, and his enthusiasm helped draw his brother Wilbur
into new projects. In 1889, they designed and built a printing press which, for a short time, published a
daily newspaper. In 1892, the capitalised on the safety bicycle boom and opened a bicycle shop. This
was commercially successful, but also enabled them to develop their skills as designers and engineers.
Around the turn of the century, there was great interest in the possibility of flight. Most of this centred on
gliders. But, the Wright brothers began to explore the possibility of mechanised flight with heavier than
air aircraft. They concentrated on a building a more powerful, but light engine and worked on an
innovative design for controlling the plane once airborne. They used funds from the bicycle shop to start
testing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina a rural place where it was more windy which helped give planes lift
off. They made extensive tests and also recorded a range of data about possible flights. On December 17,
1903, the Wright Brothers made the first historic airplane flight, where Orville piloted the plane (called
the Flyer) with Wilbur running at the wing tip. The first flight, by Orville, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12
seconds, at a speed of only 6.8 miles per hour (10.9 km/h) over the ground, was recorded in a famous
photograph. The next two flights covered approximately 175 feet (53 m) and 200 feet (61 m), by Wilbur
and Orville respectively. Their altitude was about 10 feet (3.0 m) above the ground. The following is
Orville Wrights account of the final flight of the day:

Benjamin Franklin Biography

Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, ambassador, philosopher,
statesmen, writer, businessman and celebrated free thinker and wit.
He has often been referred to as Americas renaissance man and
was emblematic of the fledgling American nation. Benjamin
Franklin was born January 17, 1706 into a large and poor family. His
father had 17 children by 2 different wives. Benjamin was brought
up in the family business of candle making and his brothers printing
shop. Whenever he could Benjamin would take the opportunity to
read and learn about a wide range of subjects, from Sophocles to
modern science. Whilst co workers would take a leisurely lunch
break, Benjamin Franklin would pour over books from the bookshop
munching on some raisins.
At an early age, he also started writing articles which were published in the New England Coureant under
a pseudonym; Franklin wrote under pseudonyms throughout his life. After several were published, he
admitted to his father that he had wrote them. Rather than being pleased his father beat him for his
impudence. Therefore, aged 17, the young Benjamin left the family business and travelled to
Philadelphia. The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You
have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin In Philadelphia, Benjamins reputation as an acerbic man
of letters grew. His writings were both humorous and satirical, but they also raised the fears of the

Pennsylvania governor, William Keith. William Keith was fearful of Benjamins talents so offered him a
job in England with all expenses paid. Benjamin took the offer, but once in England the governor deserted
Franklin, leaving him with no funds. Benjamin Franklin frequently found himself in awkward situations,
but his natural resourcefulness and determination always overcame difficult odds. Benjamin found a job
at a printers in London. Here he was known as the Water American as he preferred to drink water
rather than the usual 6 pints of beer daily. Franklin remarked there was more nourishment in a
pennyworth of bread than in a quart of beer. In 1726, a Quaker Merchant, Mr. Denham offered him a
position in Philadelphia. Franklin accepted and sailed back to the US. On his journey home, Benjamin
wrote a list of 13 virtues he thought important for his future life. Amongst these were temperance,
frugality, sincerity, justice and tranquillity. He originally had 12, but, since a friend remarked he had great
pride, he added a 13th humility (Imitate Jesus and Socrates)

Charles Babbage Biography

Charles Babbage, (26 December 1791 18 October 1871) was an
English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical
engineer who developed the concept of a programmable computer.
The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of
mechanism. Charles Babage, (1864) Passages from the Life of a
Philosopher, ch. 8 Of the Analytical Engine Babbage was born in
London, England in 1791. As a child he had a variety of tutors and
schools, and developed a love of mathematics. In 1810, he was
accepted to Trinity College, Cambridge. He later transferred to
Peterhouse, Cambridge where he received an honorary degree in
mathematics. At Cambridge, he was dissappointed by the quality of
the maths teaching, but joined the Analytical society a group of
like minded students, interested in exploring issues of maths. It was as a student, that he conceived of an
idea to try and do calculations with a machine. It was after looking at a table for logarithms, (many of
which were wrong) that he thought it would be better to try and work them out systematically. Mr.
Herschel brought with him the calculations of the computers, and we commenced the tedious process
of verification. After a time many discrepancies occurred, and at one point these discordances were so
numerous that I exclaimed, I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam, to which
Herschel replied, It is quite possible.
Charles Babage (1821) on seeing errors in maths tables. (computers here means people who do
computations) Quoted in Harry Wilmot Buxton and Anthony Hyman (1988), Memoir of the Life and
Labours of the Late Charles Babbage. In 1822, he began working on his difference engine that sought
to mechanically compute calculations. Like many of Babbages machines, they were never brought to
completion. This was partly because of his personality, and also because his funding often dried up. He
wasnt always the best communicator of his ideas, and he could be dismissive of the very people who
were funding him. There was often a frosty relationship between Babbage and those he was trying to
impress. On two occasions I have been asked,Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong
figures, will the right answers come out? In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member
of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas

that could provoke such a question. Babbage (1864), Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, ch. 5
Difference Engine No. 1 Nevertheless, a difference engine was later built in 1991 to Babbages
specifications and it proved to work. A printer designed by Babbage was later built too. Although
Babbages machines were mechanical, they had some similarities to modern day computers. It has
separated memory, I/O units, and the control unit could make progressive jumps. In 1824, Babbage won
the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his invention of an engine for calculating
mathematical and astronomical tables. However, he generally disliked honours and refused a knighthood
and baronetcy. After graduation, he worked as a maths lecturer at Cambridge. He was also employed by
the government to build a programmable computer. He received substantial funding, but eventually the
government despaired of seeing a finished product and withdrew funding. Many of his nearly finished
models were melted down for scrap, but he is seen as a very important inventor, for showing the
possibilities available to mechanical computing. He is now considered to to be the Father of
Computers. Babbage definitely had some foresight that computers could radically change the way
calculations were done. An optimism not always shared by other people of his generation.
As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of the science.
Whenever any result is sought by its aid, the question will then arise by what course of calculation can
these results be arrived at by the machine in the shortest time? Babbage (1864) Passages from the Life of
a Philosopher, ch. 8 Of the Analytical Engine Apart from computers, he contributed other inventions
such as a pilot or cow catcher to be put on the front of engines to catch obstacles on railways. At various
times, he worked for Brunels Great Western Railways. He married Georgiana Whitmore in 1814. The
couple had eight children, of which only four survived childhood. Babbage died in 1871 at the age of 79.

James Watt Biography

James Watt (1736 1819) was a Scottish inventor,
mechanical engineer and chemist. He is famous for
developing a separate condensing chamber for the steam
engine. This invention greatly improved the efficiency of the
steam engine and played a considerable role in advancing
the role of steam engines in the Industrial revolution.
He was born in Greenock, Scotland on 18 January 1736.
Initially Watt worked as a maker of mathematical
instruments, but later found himself working with steam
engines. Around 1764, Watt was repairing a Newcomen
steam engine to repair. He realised it was very inefficient
because energy was repeatedly being used to heat the
cylinder. He caused the steam to condense in a separate
chamber apart from the piston. He soon had a working
model and by 1775 had a patent. Though Watt was not adept
at business, he was able to form a successful partnership with Matthew Boulton. Boulton & Watt became
a successful company leasing the design and later producing these new steam engines for a variety of
purposes from mines to cloth and wool manufacturer. Over the next six years, he made a number of other
improvements to the steam engine and the business thrived as orders flooded in. Watt also made other
important discoveries and inventions. These included a copying machine and an improved production
method for chlorine a bleaching agent. After his fortune enabled him to retire, he pursued a wide variety

of interests from improving oil lamps to measuring distances by telescopes. He died in 25 August 18191,
aged 83.
The development of an efficient steam engine transformed industry and society. It helped Great Britain
become the worlds first industrialised society leading to an unprecedented pace of economic growth.

Alexander Bell Biography

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish inventor, most
notably credited with inventing the modern telephone.
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born
with a man is what he makes of himself. Alexander
Bell Alexander was brought up in Edinburgh Scotland. From
an early age he had an inquisitive mind and became
fascinated with acoustics and voice patterns. This interest in
acoustics and communication was partly inspired by his
mothers growing deafness. He devoted considerable time to
providing solutions for the blind and became well known in
that field. He helped American Helen Keller to find treatment for her deaf-blindess In 1870 he went to
live in Canada where he developed a method of teaching speech to the deaf and in 1873 he became a
professor of vocal physiology at Boston University. In 1876 he developed a patent for the telephone,
something he had developed during long evening sessions with the mechanic Thomas Watson. The first
telephone call was made on August 3rd 1876, where he successfully placed a call to another house 6km
away on an improvised piece of telephone wire. The first spoken words were: Mr. Watson Come here
I want to see you. This proved it was possible to communicate over long distances for the first time.
in 1879, the Bell Telephone company bought Edisons patent for carbon microphone and this enabled a
big improvement to Bells initial telephone design. The Bell telecommunications company proved very
successful. By 1886, over 150,000 people in the US, owned a telephone. It went on to become one of the
most successful modern inventions. Ironically, Bell wasnt over-keen on his invention. He later felt it
detracted from his other scientific works, and he himself wouldnt have a telephone in his office.
Later inventions of Bell included, the photophone, a device that transmitted sound on a beam of light and
the gramophone, which recorded sound on a wax disc. He made many important discoveries and
inventions throughout his life. He wrote of his passion for inventing: The inventorlooks upon the world
and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit
the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.
Towards the end of his life, he carried out research in the field of aerodynamics, looking at giant kites and
hydrofoils. Bell died of anaemia on 2nd August 1922, in his Scottish estate of Beinn Bhreagh, Nova
Scotia.

Leonardo da Vinci Biography

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 1519) is one of the worlds greatest thinkers,

artists and philosophers. In several different fields, from science to
astronomy, he proved to be both innovative and several centuries ahead of
his contemporaries. He is considered to be a key person in the birth of the
European Renaissance period, which saw a flowering of new ideas,
scientific discoveries and creation of beautiful art. Short Biography of
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo was born an illegitimate son of a Florentine
noble and peasant woman and grew up in Vinci, Italy. In his formative
years he developed a love of nature and from an early age displayed his
remarkable academic and artistic talents and capacities. In 1466 he moved
to Florence where he entered the workshop of Verrocchio. His early style
reflected his teacher, but he soon developed an artistic sense which went
far beyond his teachers rigid style. His first work of great significance was the Adoration of the Magi
commissioned by monks of San Donato a Scopeto. Although unfinished, the work was a masterpiece and
introduced several new ideas. In particular he introduced the themes of movement and drama. He also
pioneered the use of Chiaroscuro. This is the technique of defining forms through the contrast of light and
shadow. This would be later used to great effect in the Mona Lisa. In 1482 Leonardo went to the court of
Ludovico Sforza for 16 years in Milan. Here he continued painting and also branched out into other
interest such as engineering and anatomy. During this period he painted the famous Madonna on the
Rocks and also the Last Supper This has been described as one of the greatest spiritual paintings. With
Christ at the centre of the picture it embodies great feeling and action as Christ is about to announce his
imminent betrayal. Unfortunately over the time the quality of the original painting has deteriorated
despite frequent restoration attempts. In 1499 his patron L. Sfoza was defeated by the French invasion,
thus Leonardo returned to Florence. During this period he painted the fresco of the battle of Anghiari.
This artwork was to exert tremendous influence over future artists. However it was unfortunately never
completed and was later destroyed. It was also in this period that Leonardo completed The Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa is one of the worlds most famous and intriguing pictures. The Mona Lisa is a portrait of a
wife of a Florentine noble. For several days she came to Leonardo and sat for her portrait to be painted.
However she refused to smile, Leonardo even tried hiring musicians but to no avail. One day just for a
fleeting second she gave a faint smile and Leonardo was able to capture it. Her smile encapsulates a
tremendous mysteriousness which is both fascinating and intriguing. Sri Chinmoy said of the Mona Lisa.
That smile has immortalized her, immortalized the artist and immortalized the art. Artist and art have
been immortalized by just a faint smile, a smile that has an enigmatic touch. Even now a soul-touch is
there, and that soul-touch has conquered the heart of the world. (1)
In this picture Leonardo masters the techniques of sfumato and chiaroscuro. Sfumato involves the most
gradual switch from colour to the other giving a very delicate and expressive images. Chiaroscuro as
mentioned before highlights the contrasts light and shadow. In the Mona Lisa this is most evident in the
contrast between face and dark background. In this period Leonardo extended his studies into
engineering, science and other subjects. There seemed to be no end to his interest. He made copious notes
in his complex mirror handwriting. A lot of which wasnt deciphered in his lifetime. He also drew
complex models of machines, in particular he was fascinated by flight. He used to buy birds just so that
he could release them so he could enjoy watching them fly away. He also attempted to build a flying
object himself. Machines that he drew on paper, such as helicopters, would become a reality many
centuries later. If his medicinal studies had been published, it would have revolutionised the science, as he
was one of the first to understand the circulation of blood within the body. There seemed to be no limit in

the scope of his interest and work. Between 1506-1510 Leonardo spent time in Milan working on behalf
of the very generous French King Lois XII. In 1513 he travelled to Rome where he enjoyed the patronage
of the new Medici pope, Leo X. Here he worked with contemporaries such as the great Masters
Michelangelo and Raphael. In 1515 he left to settle at the castle of Cloux, near Amboise by the kind
invitation of Francis I of France. Here he spent his last years free to pursue his own studies. He died in
1519 leaving behind one of the greatest body of artistic and scientific works.

Galileo Galilei Biography

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Astronomer and Scientist. Galileo
developed a superior telescope and made many significant discoveries
in astronomy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the inquisition
for his support for the Copernican theory that the sun was at the centre
of the solar system. Galileo was born in Florence, Italy in 1564 to a
poor but noble family. His parents recognised their childs innate
intelligence and talents and so made sacrifices to have him educated.
At his fathers insistence, Galileo studied the profitable career of
medicine. But, at the University of Pisa, Galileo became fascinated in a
wide range of subjects. He was also critical of many of Aristotles
teaching which had dominated education for the past 2,000 years.
Galileo was appointed to be a mathematics professor at the University of Pisa, but his strident criticisms
of Aristotle left him isolated amongst his contemporaries. After three years of persecution, he resigned
and went to the Yniversity of Padua, where he taught maths. His entertaining lectures attracted a large
following and he was able to spend the next 18 years pursuing his interests in astronomy and mechanics.
During this time, Galileo made important discoveries about gravity, inertia and also developed the
forerunner of the thermometer. Galileo also worked tirelessly on the science of gnomonics (telling time
by shadows) and the laws of motion. It was in astronomy that Galileo became most famous. In particular
his support for heliocentrism, he garnered the opposition of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
Galileo came to the same conclusions of Copernicus that the sun was the centre of the universe and not
the earth. Galileo was also a great admirer of Johannes Kepler for his work on planetary motions; Galileo
often wrote to Kepler. I esteem myself happy to have as great an ally as you in my search for truth. I
will read your work all the more willingly because I have for many years been a partisan of the
Copernican view because it reveals to me the causes of many natural phenomena that are entirely
incomprehensible in the light of the generally accepted hypothesis. Letter to Johannes Kepler (1596)
By inventing the worlds first telescope, Galileo was able to make many ground-breaking explorations of
the universe. He found that:

Saturn had a beautiful ring of clouds.

The moon was not flat but had mountains and craters.
Jupiter had many moons which revolved around Jupiter rather than directly the
sun.

Thus, Galileo not only had the mathematical proofs of Copernicus, but, also new proof from the science
of astronomy. However, Galileo knew that publishing these studies would bring the disapproval of the
church authorities. Yet, he also felt a willingness to risk the churchs displeasure.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect
has intended us to forgo their use. Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
The Church had already started to forbid Galileos teachings, especially anything that supported
Copernicus. However, in 1623, a new pope, Pope Urban VIII seemed to be more liberally minded and he
allowed Galileo to publish his great works on astronomy supporting the ideas of Copernicus.
However, after publication, conservative elements within the Church sought to attack Galileos beliefs
and writings. As a consequence, Galileo was arrested and imprisoned for several months. He was
convicted of heresy and was forced to recant his beliefs. He spent the remaining years of his life under
house arrest at Arceti. Galileo had three children. He was especially close to one of his daughters,
Polissena; she took the name of Sister Maria Celeste and entered a convent near Arceti.
Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes I mean the universe
but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is
written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other
geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which
one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth. Galileo Galilei Despite being censured by the
church, Galileo continued to make discoveries until death overtook him in 1642. Under house arrest, he
was able to write Two New Sciences, this summarised his earlier work on the new sciences now called
kinematics and strength of materials He was blind by the time he passed away.

Tim Berners-Lee Biography

Tim Berners Lee is a British computer scientist who is
credited with inventing the World Wide Web (WWW).
Berners-Lee enabled a system to be able to view web pages
(hypertext documents) through the internet. He also serves as
a director fo the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which
overseas standards for the internet and world wide web.
Berners-Lee has also been concerned about issues relating to
freedom of information and censorship on the internet.
Tim Berners Lee was born on 8th June 1955 in London,
England. After doing his A Levels at Emanuel School, he
went to Queens College, Oxford University, where he
received a first class degree in physics. After graduation, he
gained employment for a printing firm in Plessey Poole.
From 1980, he was employed as an independent contractor at CERN in Switzerland. A key part of his job
involved sharing information with researchers in different geographical locations. To help this process, he
suggested a project based on the use of hypertext. (a language for sharing text electronically) The first
prototype was a system known as ENQUIRE. The internet had been developed since the 1960s as a way
to transfer information between different computers. However, Tim Berners Lee sought to make use of

internet nodes and combine it with hypertext and the idea of domains. Tim Berners Lee later said that all
the technology involved in the web had already been developed hypertext, internet; his contribution
was to put them all together in one comprehensive package. In 1990, with the help of Robert Cailliau he
produced the first version of the World Wide web, the first web browser and the the first web server. It
was put online in 1991. Info.cern.ch was the address of the worlds first-ever web site and web server,
running on a NeXT computer at CERN. The first web page address was
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.
Essentially the contribution of the world wide web, was to make it easy for people to view hypertext web
pages anywhere on the internet. The basic elements of this new development was:

A universal system for recognising the location of web pages (Uniform

Resource Locator, URL)

HTML Hypertext markup Language how webpages are published.

Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) servers up webpages on request.

Or as Tim Berners-Lee said:
I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and ta-da! the World
Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee Answers for Young People In 1994, Berners-Lee founded W3C (World Wide
Web consortium) at the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Boston. This is an organisation to try to improve the quality and standard of the world
wide web. He could have tried to monetise his creation, but decided to offer the world wide web with no
patent and no royalties due. Berners-Lee said if he hadnt someone else would have come up with a free
idea later. As a founder of the world wide web, Tim Berners Lee has a relatively high profile and he has
often spoken up for the freedom of information and net neutrality arguing that governments should not
be involved in censorship of the internet. He has expressed concerns the US may move to a two tier
internet system When I invented the web, I didnt have to ask anyones permission. Now, hundreds of
millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.
In 2009, he worked in a project set up by Gordon Brown to help make UK data more publically available.
Data.gov.uk He has received many orders including an OBE, knighthood and Order of Merit becoming
one of only 24 living members entitled to the honour. He was knighted in 2004 for services to the global
development of the Internet Tim Berners Lee was recognised for his invention of the world wide web in
the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. He tweeted this is for everyone at the 2012 London
Olympics. On 30 March 2011, he was one of the first three recipients of the Mikhail Gorbachev award for
The Man Who Changed the World, at the inaugural awards ceremony held in London. The other
recipients were Evans Wadongo for solar power development and anti-poverty work in Africa, and media
mogul Ted Turner. He has married twice First to Jane Northcote. He remarried Nancy in 1990. They have
three children.