Ministerul Educaiei Naionale i Cercetrii

tiinifice

Colegiul Naional Mihail Koglniceanu Galai

LUCRARE DE ATESTAT LA LIMBA

ENGLEZ

Innovations in the Victorian Era

Profesor coordonator, Candidat,

Radef Ana Mihaela Neagu Adelina

 2017

Plagiarism is a serious offence and severe penalties will be imposed.

I confirm that this work is my own and that I have properly
acknowledged all work referenced.

Adelina Neagu
 Table of contents

Argument ........................................................................................................................................ 1

CHAPTER 1 : Queen Victorias reign............................................................................................ 3

1.1. Who was Queen Victoria?............................................................................................................. 3

1.2. What happened in Britain during her reign .................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2 : Technological and industrial innovations ............................................................... 5

2.1. The Industrial Revolution ................................................................................................................... 5

2.2. The first advanced form of photography ........................................................................................... 6
2.3. The first pedal bycicle ........................................................................................................................ 8
2.4. An easier way of sending letters ........................................................................................................ 9
2.5. A new way of saying Merry Christmas ......................................................................................... 10
2.6. What hath God wrought" ............................................................................................................... 11
2.7. Clothing industry .............................................................................................................................. 12
2.8. The development of petrol .............................................................................................................. 13
2.9. Ways of obtaining cheaper steel...................................................................................................... 14
2.10. The Tube ........................................................................................................................................ 16
2.11. Improving communications ........................................................................................................... 18
2.12. The phonograph ............................................................................................................................. 20
2.13. Replacing lamps ............................................................................................................................. 22
Chapter 3: Great names in science and medicine ......................................................................... 25

3.1. John Snow ........................................................................................................................................ 25

3.2. Ronald Ross ...................................................................................................................................... 26
3.3. James Young Simpson ...................................................................................................................... 27
3.4. Joseph Lister..................................................................................................................................... 28
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 29

Bibliography and sitography ......................................................................................................... 30

 ARGUMENT

I have chosen to write about how the Victorian age improved the society in Britain because I
think that the innovations made during the period between 1838-1901 had an important role in the
improvement of the society. The discoveries made then were used later to perform modern
technologies we use today. The industry, the science or the medicine were totally changed, by the
transition from lamps to light bulbs, by building railways and discovering cures for so many
dangerous diseases that caused lots of deaths in those years and so on. As a result, people could travel
easier and could live better.

Queen Victoria, the woman who gave the name to this period, was not directly involved in those
inovations. But the fact that the British Empire occupied a quarter of the Earths surface, the fact that
it had colonies in each continent is important from this point of view. Also, having colonies in
America was really important, as long as this continent was rich in resources. The Queen had also the
role of supporting evolution, as long as she was the one who said that it is important to discover an
anesthetic for gaving birth and she was the one to use an earlier form of this agent.

The Victotrian Age was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every sphere
from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to changes in population growth
and location, but I am going to resume only a few on every domain. Each of them is important as
long as even a failure is a lesson for the next attempt. Inventions at the time also helped make life
easier. The Victorians were greatly impressed by the developing science and technology found in
such discoveries like the steam-powered engine and telephone. They decide to make the best use of
them, allowing an industry to be born for mass production of these technologies. As a result, railways
helped made travel easier, telephones made long-distance communication better, improved sanitation
techniques turned filthy streets into clean roads, and incandescent glass mantles brightened
everyones lives. Indeed, the Victorian Era would became one of the most iconic eras in history.

During her reign, Queen Victoria helped changed Britain for the better, faving the way for
modern Britain.

1
 All things considered, I think that this era had an important role in Britains evolution and the
scientists who made it possible, the victorians, must have the appreciation of each generation that will
follow as a tribute.

2
 CHAPTER 1 : QUEEN VICTORIAS REIGN
1.1. WHO WAS QUEEN VICTORIA?

Alexandrina Victoria or better known as Queen Victoria was a monarch who ruled the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she
adopted the additional title of Empress of India. Her reign was marked by a great expansion of the
British Empire, which became the foremost global power.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of
King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised
under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She
inherited the throne aged 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving
legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in
which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to
influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who
was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine
children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning
her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into
deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism
temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign her popularity recovered. Her Golden
and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of
industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was
marked by a great expansion of the British Empire and a long period of peace, known as Pax
Britannica. During this time Europe was enjoying relative peace with fewer wars and political feuds.
She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII,
belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father.

3
 1.2. WHAT HAPPENED IN BRITAIN DURING HER REIGN

Under Queen Victoria's reign, Great Britain experienced unprecedented expansion in industry,
building railways, bridges, underground sewers and power distribution networks throughout much of
the empire. There were advances in science (Charles Darwin's theory of evolution) and technology
(the telegraph and popular press), vast numbers of inventions, tremendous wealth and poverty; growth
of great cities like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham; increased literacy; and great civic works,
often funded by industrial philanthropists. During her reign, Britain expanded its imperial reach,
doubling in size and encompassing Canada, Australia, India and various possessions in Africa and
the South Pacific. The Queen was emblematic of the time: an enthusiastic supporter of the British
Empire, which stretched across the globe and earned the adage: The sun never sets on the British
Empire.

At various points in her reign, Queen Victoria exercised some influence over foreign affairs,
expressing her preference, but not pressing beyond the bounds of constitutional propriety. During this
time, the British Empire experienced only a few small wars, exerting its authority over foreign
possessions. One of the major factors that helped Britain avoid European entanglements was the
marriage of Victoria's children: either directly or by marriage, she was related to the royal houses of
nearly every major European power, with the exceptions of France and Spain. Though the English
constitutional arrangement denied her powers in foreign affairs, she ruled her family with an iron
hand that helped keep Great Britain away from the intrigues of European politics.

During Queen Victorias reign, British Parliamentary politics went through a major transition.
The Tory Party split, forming the Liberal and Conservative parties, and started a succession of
opposing administrations. Victoria played a crucial role as mediator between arriving and departing
prime ministers. Though she detested Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone, she found ways to
work with him, even during her mourning period. She was particularly fond of Conservative Prime
Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who linked the Monarchy to the expansion of the empire, which helped
restore public opinion following Queen Victorias long seclusion after the death of her husband,
Albert.

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 CHAPTER 2 : TECHNOLOGICAL AND INDUSTRIAL
INNOVATIONS
2.1. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Victoria came to the throne during the early, frenetic phase of the world's first industrial
revolution. Industrialisation brought with it new markets, a consumer boom and greater prosperity
for most of the propertied classes.

It also brought rapid, and sometimes chaotic change as towns and cities expanded at a pace
which precluded orderly growth.

In 1837, Britain was still a rural nation with 80% of the population living in the countryside.
Most people were farmers or spun wool and cotton to weave into cloth. Soon new machines were
invented that could do these jobs in a fraction of the time. This left many people out of work, so they
flocked to the towns in search of jobs in new industries. By the middle of the nineteenth century over
50% of the population lived in towns and cities.

The Industrial Revolution rapidly gained pace during Victoria's reign because of the power of
steam. Victorian engineers developed bigger, faster and more powerful machines that could run
whole factories. This led to a massive increase in the number of factories (particularly in textile
factories or mills).

By 1870, over 100,000 steam engines were at work throughout Britain.

The industry depended on steam and steam depended on coal. The number of coalfields doubled
between 1851 and 1881.

5
 2.2. THE FIRST ADVANCED FORM OF PHOTOGRAPHY

In 1839, William H. Fox-Talbot invented light sensitive photographic paper to produce

photographs. He was a British scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted
paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th
centuries. He went on to develop the three primary elements of photoraphy: developing, fixing, and
printing. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the
photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial
patent which affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a
noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He
published The Pencil of Nature (184446), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints
from his calotype negatives, and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading,
and York.

Talbot invented the first process for creating reasonably light-fast and permanent photographs
that was made available to the public, although his was neither the first such process invented nor the
first one publicly announced.

Shortly after Louis Daguerre's invention of the daguerreotype was announced in early January
1839, without details, Talbot asserted priority of invention based on experiments he had begun in
early 1834. At a meeting of the Royal Institution on 25 January 1839, Talbot exhibited several paper
photographs he had made in 1835. Within a fortnight, he communicated the general nature of his
process to the Royal Society, followed by more complete details a few weeks later. Daguerre did not
publicly reveal any useful details until mid-August, although by the spring it had become clear that
his process and Talbot's were very different.

Talbot's later photographic work was concentrated on photomechanical reproduction methods.

In addition to making the mass reproduction of photographic images more practical and much less
expensive, rendering a photograph into ink on paper, known to be permanent on a scale of hundreds
if not thousands of years, was clearly one sure way to avoid the problems with fading that had soon
become apparent in early types of silver image paper prints. Talbot created the photoglyphic (or

6
"photoglyptic") engraving process, later perfected by others as the photogravure process. He
succeeded, by the summer of 1840, in producing a significant number of beautiful photographies.

Fox Talbot was also an eminent mathematician, an astronomer and archaeologist, who
translated the cuneiform inscriptions.

7
 2.3. THE FIRST PEDAL BYCICLE

A Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan invented the first pedal bicycle in 1839. His
machine was propelled by pedals, cranks and drive rods.

According to the research of his relative James Johnston in the 1890s, Macmillan was the first
to invent the pedal-driven bicycle. Johnston, a corn trader and tricyclist, had the firm aim, in his own
words "to prove that to my native country of Dumfries belongs the honour of being the birthplace of
the invention of the bicycle".

Macmillan allegedly completed construction of a pedal driven bicycle of wood in 1839 that
included iron-rimmed wooden wheels, a steerable wheel in the front and a larger wheel in the rear
which was connected to pedals via connecting rods.

A Glasgow newspaper reported in 1842 an accident in which an anonymous "gentleman from

Dumfries-shire... bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" knocked over a pedestrian in the
Gorbals and was fined five British shillings. Johnston identified Macmillan as that gentleman.

A 1939 plaque on the family smithy in Courthill reads "He builded better than he knew." Yet
MacMillan lived in Glasgow and worked at the Vulcan Foundry during the relevant period around
1840, not in Courthill.

He never thought of patenting his invention or trying to make any money out of it, but others
who saw it were not slow to realize its potential and soon copies began to appear for sale. Gavin
Dalzell copied his machine in 1946 and passed on the details to so many people that for more than
50 years he was generally regarded as the inventor of the bycicle. However, Macmillan was quite
unconcerned with the fuss his invention had prompted, preferring to enjoy the quiet country life to
which he was accustomed.

8
 2.4. AN EASIER WAY OF SENDING LETTERS

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system.
It first was issued in Great Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year. It features
a profile of Queen Victoria.

In 1837, British postal rates were high, complex and anomalous. To simplify matters, Sir
Rowland Hill proposed an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage. At the time it was
normal for the recipient to pay postage on delivery, charged by the sheet and on distance travelled.
By contrast, the Penny Black allowed letters of up to 12 ounce (14 grams) to be delivered at a flat
rate of one penny, regardless of distance. Before the postal reforms of 1840 sending a letter was
expensive. The charge was for each sheet of paper that a letter comprised, and for the distance
covered. The receiver had to pay and not the sender. The penny postage system was widely copied
and spread to more than 150 countries by 1880.

Postal delivery systems using what may have been adhesive stamps existed before the Penny
Black. The idea had at least been suggested earlier in the Austrian Empire, Sweden, and possibly
Greece.

Photo source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black_VR_official

9
 2.5. A NEW WAY OF SAYING MERRY CHRISTMAS

The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the United Kingdom in 1843 by Sir Henry
Cole. He was a civil servant who had helped set-up the new 'Public Record Office' ,now called the
Post Office, where he was an Assistant Keeper, and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary
people.

Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas Cards with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist. They
designed the first card and sold them for 1 shilling each. The card had three panels. The outer two
panels showed people caring for the poor and in the center panel was a family having a large
Christmas dinner. About 1000 pieces were printed and sold.

As printing methods improved, Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced
in large numbers from about 1860. In 1870 the cost of sending a post card, and also Christmas cards,
dropped to half a penny. This meant even more people were able to send cards.

Photo source :
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Firstchristmascard.jpg#/media/File:Firstchristmascard.jpg

10
 2.6. WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT"

The idea behind the telegraph sending electric signals across wires originated in the early
1700s, and by 1798 a rough system was used in France. New York University professor Samuel
Morse began working on his version of the telegraph in 1832; he developed Morse Code (a set of
sounds that corresponded to particular letters of the alphabet), in 1835; and by 1838 he had presented
his concept to the U.S. Congress.

He was not the first to think of the idea 62 people had claimed to invent the first electrical
telegraph by 1838 but Morse beat everyone else to by being the first to get political backing for his
telegraph and a business model for making it work.

On May 24, 1844 after receiving $30,000 in appropriations from Congress, inventor Samuel
Morse sent the first official telegraph message from Washington, DC to Baltimore, Maryland. In a
series of dots and dashes, later known as Morse code, Morse transmitted the message What Hath
God Wrought from the Supreme Court Chamber, then located inside the Capitol.

The telegraph system progressed slowly, and many attempts failed to make the system work for
the entire country. Morse slowly continued to spread his invention and he extended the telegraph line
to New York. At the same time, other companies began taking notice of the impact of the telegraph
and they opened their own systems in other parts of the country. Western Union built its first
transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.

Before the telegraph, information transmission was limited to the speed of horse travel, but
could now be transmitted wide distances almost instantly. The telegraph office existed inside the
Capitol until 2007.

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 2.7. CLOTHING INDUSTRY

In 1846, sewing sachine was invented by Elias Howe

Contrary to popular belief, Howe was not the first to conceive of the idea of a sewing machine.
Many other people had formulated the idea of such a machine before him, one as early as 1790, and
some had even patented their designs and produced working machines, in one case at least 80 of
them. However, Howe originated significant refinements to the design concepts of his predecessors,
and on September 10, 1846, he was awarded the first United States patent for a sewing machine using
a lockstitch design. His machine contained the three essential features common to most modern
machines: a needle with the eye at the point, a shuttle operating beneath the cloth to form the lock
stitch, and an automatic feed.

Despite securing his patent, Howe had considerable difficulty finding investors in the United
States to finance production of his invention, so his elder brother Amasa Bemis Howe traveled to
England in October 1846 to seek financing. Amasa was able to sell his first machine for 250 to
William Thomas of Cheapside, London, who owned a factory for the manufacture of corsets,
umbrellas and valises. Elias and his family joined Amasa in London in 1848, but after business
disputes with Thomas and failing health of his wife, Howe returned nearly penniless to the United
States. His wife Elizabeth, who preceded Elias back to the United States, died in Cambridge,
Massachusetts shortly after his return in 1849.

Despite his efforts to sell his machine, other entrepreneurs began manufacturing sewing
machines. Howe was forced to defend his patent in a court case that lasted from 1849 to 1854 because
he found that Isaac Singer with cooperation from Walter Hunt had perfected a facsimile of his
machine and was selling it with the same lockstitch that Howe had invented and patented. He won
the dispute and earned considerable royalties from Singer and others for sales of his invention.

Howe contributed much of the money he earned to providing equipment for the 17th
Connecticut Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army during the Civil War, in which Howe served as a
Private in Company D.

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 2.8. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PETROL

The modern history of petroleum began in the 19th century with the refining of paraffin from
crude oil. The Scottish chemist James Young in 1847 noticed a natural petroleum seepage in the
Riddings colliery at Alfreton, Derbyshire from which he distilled a light thin oil suitable for use as
lamp oil, at the same time obtaining a thicker oil suitable for lubricating machinery. In 1846, Baku
(settlement Bibi-Heybat) the first ever well drilled with percussion tools to a depth of 21 meters for
oil exploration. In 1848, Young set up a small business refining the crude oil. The new oils were
successful, but the supply of oil from the coal mine soon began to fail (eventually being exhausted in
1851). Young, noticing that the oil was dripping from the sandstone roof of the coal mine, theorized
that it somehow originated from the action of heat on the coal seam and from this thought that it
might be produced artificially.

Following up this idea, he tried many experiments and eventually succeeded, by distilling
cannel coal at a low heat, a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the
seep oil gave similar products. Young found that by slow distillation he could obtain a number of
useful liquids from it, one of which he named "paraffine oil" because at low temperatures it congealed
into a substance resembling paraffin wax.

Young has undoubtedly gone down in history and remains an inspiration to everyone involved
in the petroleum industry.

13
 2.9. WAYS OF OBTAINING CHEAPER STEEL

In 1854, Henry Bessemer found a way to convert iron into steel, which was both stronger and
lighter than iron. This made it possible to build huge structures such as bridges and ships.

Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose
steelmaking process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth
century. He also played a significant role in establishing the town of Sheffield as a major industrial
centre.

Bessemer had been trying to reduce the cost of steelmaking for military ordnance, and
developed his system for blowing air through molten pig iron to remove the impurities. This made
steel easier, quicker and cheaper to manufacture, and revolutionised structural engineering. Bessemer
also made over 100 other inventions in the fields of iron, steel and glass. Unlike most inventors, he
managed to bring his own projects to fruition and profited financially from their success.

Henry Bessemer worked on the problem of manufacturing cheap steel for ordnance production
from 1850 to 1855 when he patented his method. On 24 August 1856 Bessemer first described the
process to a meeting of the British Association in Cheltenham which he titled "The Manufacture of
Iron Without Fuel." It was published in full in The Times. The Bessemer process involved using
oxygen in air blown through molten pig iron to burn off the impurities and thus create steel. James
Nasmyth had been working on a similar idea for some time prior to this. A reluctant patentor, and in
this instance still working through some problems in his method, Nasmyth abandoned the project
after hearing Bessemer at the meeting. Bessemer acknowledged the efforts of Nasmyth by offering
him a one-third share of the value of his patent. Nasmyth turned it down as he was about to retire.

Many industries were constrained by the lack of steel, being reliant on cast iron and wrought
iron alone. Examples include railway structures such as bridges and tracks, where the treacherous
nature of cast iron was keenly felt by many engineers and designers. There had been many accidents
when cast iron beams collapsed suddenly, such as the Dee bridge disaster of May 1847, the Wooton
bridge collapse and the Bull bridge accident of 1860. The problem recurred at the Tay Bridge disaster
of 1879, and failures continued until all cast iron under-bridges were replaced by steel structures.
Wrought iron structures were much more reliable with very few failures.

14
 Though this process is no longer commercially used, at the time of its invention it was of
enormous industrial importance because it lowered the cost of production steel, leading to steel being
widely substituted for cast iron.

Bessemer's attention was drawn to the problem of steel manufacture in the course of an attempt
to improve the construction of guns.

15
 2.10. THE TUBE

In 1863, the world's first underground railway is opened in London. It is powered by steam.

The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving Greater London and some
parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

The world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863, is now
part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; the first line to operate underground
electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, is now part of the Northern line.
The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 201516 carried 1.34 billion passengers, making it the
world's 11th busiest metro system. The 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million
passengers a day.

The system's first tunnels were built just below the surface, using the cut-and-cover method;
later, smaller, roughly circular tunnels which gave rise to its nickname, the Tube were dug through
at a deeper level. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track. Despite its name, only 45% of
the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of
London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of
Greater London, with less than 10% of the stations located south of the River Thames.

The early tube lines, originally owned by several private companies, were brought together
under the "UndergrounD" brand in the early 20th century and eventually merged along with the sub-
surface lines and bus services in 1933 to form London Transport under the control of the London
Passenger Transport Board (LPTB). The current operator, London Underground Limited (LUL), is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL), the statutory corporation responsible for the
transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by
passenger fares. The Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing
system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014.

The LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station
buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. The schematic Tube map, designed by
Harry Beck in 1931, was voted a national design icon in 2006 and now includes other TfL transport
systems such as the Docklands Light Railway, London Overground and TfL Rail. Other famous

16
London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, created by Edward
Johnston in 1916.

Photo source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-

kingdom/england/london/galleries/The-history-of-the-Tube-in-pictures-150-years-of-London-
Underground/

17
 2.11. IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS

Alexander Bell, a Scotsman living in America, invented the telephone on 7 March 1876.

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is
credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech
and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on
hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated
in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his most famous
invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.

Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical
telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of
the National Geographic Society, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as the
second president from January 7, 1898, until 1903.

By 1874, Bell's initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage, with
progress made both at his new Boston laboratory and at his family home in Canada a big success.
While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a "phonautograph", a pen-like
machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Bell
thought it might be possible to generate undulating electrical currents that corresponded to sound
waves. Bell also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be
able to convert the undulating currents back into sound. But he had no working model to demonstrate
the feasibility of these ideas.

In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and in the words of Western Union
President William Orton, had become "the nervous system of commerce". Orton had contracted with
inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to find a way to send multiple telegraph messages on each
telegraph line to avoid the great cost of constructing new lines. When Bell mentioned to Gardiner
Hubbard and Thomas Sanders that he was working on a method of sending multiple tones on a
telegraph wire using a multi-reed device, the two wealthy patrons began to financially support Bell's
experiments. Patent matters would be handled by Hubbard's patent attorney, Anthony Pollok.

18
 In March 1875, Bell and Pollok visited the famous scientist Joseph Henry, who was then
director of the Smithsonian Institution, and asked Henry's advice on the electrical multi-reed
apparatus that Bell hoped would transmit the human voice by telegraph. Henry replied that Bell had
"the germ of a great invention". When Bell said that he did not have the necessary knowledge, Henry
replied, "Get it!" That declaration greatly encouraged Bell to keep trying, even though he did not have
the equipment needed to continue his experiments, nor the ability to create a working model of his
ideas. However, a chance meeting in 1874 between Bell and Thomas A. Watson, an experienced
electrical designer and mechanic at the electrical machine shop of Charles Williams, changed all that.

With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Thomas Watson as his assistant,
and the two of them experimented with acoustic telegraphy. On June 2, 1875, Watson accidentally
plucked one of the reeds and Bell, at the receiving end of the wire, heard the overtones of the reed;
overtones that would be necessary for transmitting speech. That demonstrated to Bell that only one
reed or armature was necessary, not multiple reeds. This led to the "gallows" sound-powered
telephone, which could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech.

At Grahams death in 1922, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute
to his life.

19
 2.12. THE PHONOGRAPH

In 1877, the world's first recording of the human voice is heard when the inventor of the
phonograph, Thomas Edison, recited 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' and played it back.

The phonograph is a device invented in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of
sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral
groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called
a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the
groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic
phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to
the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type
earphones. In later electric phonographs, the motions of the stylus are converted into an analogous
electrical signal by a transducer, then converted back into sound by a loudspeaker.

The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. While other inventors had produced
devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the
recorded sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a
rotating cylinder. A stylus responding to sound vibrations produced an up and down or hill-and-dale
groove in the foil. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory made several improvements in the
1880s, including the use of wax-coated cardboard cylinders, and a cutting stylus that moved from
side to side in a "zig zag" groove around the record.

In the 1890s, Emile Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to flat discs with
a spiral groove running from the periphery to near the center. Later improvements through the years
included modifications to the turntable and its drive system, the stylus or needle, and the sound and
equalization systems.

The disc phonograph record was the dominant audio recording format throughout most of the
20th century. From the mid-1980s on, phonograph use on a standard record player declined sharply
because of the rise of the cassette tape, compact disc and other digital recording formats. Records are
still a favorite format for some audiophiles and DJs. Vinyl records are still used by some DJs and

20
musicians in their concert performances. Musicians continue to release their recordings on vinyl
records. The original recordings of musicians are sometimes re-issued on vinyl.

Thomas Alva Edison conceived the principle of recording and reproducing sound between May
and July 1877 as a byproduct of his efforts to "play back" recorded telegraph messages and to
automate speech sounds for transmission by telephone. He announced his invention of the first
phonograph, a device for recording and replaying sound, on November 21, 1877, and he demonstrated
the device for the first time on November 29.

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 2.13. REPLACING LAMPS

In 1879, the electric light bulb invented by Swan and Edison for home use.

In 1878, Edison began working on a system of electrical illumination, something he hoped could
compete with gas and oil based lighting. He began by tackling the problem of creating a long-lasting
incandescent lamp, something that would be needed for indoor use. Many earlier inventors had
previously devised incandescent lamps, including Alessandro Volta's demonstration of a glowing
wire in 1800 and inventions by Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early
and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy, James Bowman
Lindsay, Moses G. Farmer, William E. Sawyer, Joseph Swan, and Heinrich Gbel. Some of these
early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and high electric
current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially. Edison realized that in
order to keep the thickness of the copper wire needed to connect a series of electric lights to an
economically manageable size he would have to come up with a lamp that would draw a low amount
of current. This meant the lamp would have to have a high resistance and run at a relatively low
voltage.

After many experiments, first with carbon filaments and then with platinum and other metals,
in the end, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879 it
lasted 13.5 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and by November 4, 1879, filed for U.S.
patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact
wires". This was the first commercially practical incandescent light.

Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including "cotton
and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways", it was not until several months after
the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament that could
last over 1,200 hours. The idea of using this particular raw material originated from Edison's recalling
his examination of a few threads from a bamboo fishing pole while relaxing on the shore of Battle
Lake in the present-day state of Wyoming, where he and other members of a scientific team had
traveled so that they could clearly observe a total eclipse of the sun on July 29, 1878, from the
Continental Divide.

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 In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several
financiers, including J. P. Morgan, Spencer Trask, and the members of the Vanderbilt family. Edison
made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo
Park. It was during this time that he said: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will
burn candles."

The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company's new steamship, the Columbia, was the first
commercial application for Edison's incandescent light bulb in 1880.

Henry Villard, president of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, had attended
Edison's 1879 demonstration. Villard quickly became impressed and requested Edison install his
electric lighting system aboard his company's new steamer, the Columbia. Although hesitant at first,
Edison relented and agreed to Villard's request. Following most of its completion in May 1880, the
Columbia was sent to New York City, where Edison and his personnel installed Columbia's new
lighting system. Due to this, the Columbia became Edison's first commercial application for his
incandescent light bulb. The Edison equipment was eventually removed from Columbia in 1895.

Lewis Latimer joined the Edison Electric Light Company in 1884. Latimer had received a patent
in January 1881 for the "Process of Manufacturing Carbons", an improved method for the production
of carbon filaments for light bulbs. Latimer worked as an engineer, a draftsman and an expert witness
in patent litigation on electric lights.

George Westinghouse's company bought Philip Diehl's competing induction lamp patent rights
(1882) for $25,000, forcing the holders of the Edison patent to charge a more reasonable rate for the
use of the Edison patent rights and lowering the price of the electric lamp.

On October 8, 1883, the US patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of
William E. Sawyer and was, therefore, invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October
6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon
of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent
had been awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to
manufacture and market the invention in Britain.

Mahen Theatre in Brno, what is now the Czech Republic, which opened in 1882, was the first
public building in the world to use Edison's electric lamps, with the installation supervised by Edison's

23
assistant in the invention of the lamp, Francis Jehl. In September 2010, a sculpture of three giant light
bulbs was erected in Brno, in front of the theatre.

Photo source:

http://www.edisonmuckers.org/thomas-edison-lightbulb/

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 CHAPTER 3: GREAT NAMES IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE
3.1. JOHN SNOW

John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anesthesia and medical
hygiene. He is considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in
tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London, in 1854. His findings inspired fundamental
changes in the water and waste systems of London, which led to similar changes in other cities, and a
significant improvement in general public health around the world.

John Snow was one of the first physicians to study and calculate dosages for the use of ether and
chloroform as surgical anaesthetics, allowing patients to undergo surgical and obstetric procedures
without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience. He designed the apparatus to safely
administer ether to the patients and also designed a mask to administer chloroform. He personally
administered chloroform to Queen Victoria when she gave birth to the last two of her nine children,
Leopold in 1853 and Beatrice in 1857, leading to wider public acceptance of obstetric anaesthesia.
Snow published an article on ether in 1847 entitled On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether.

About cholera, John Snow was the one to discover that it is not spread through air, but it is taken
from water. Firstly, the other doctors didnt believe him, but his theory have proven to be true.

Photo source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow#/media/File:John_Snow.jpg

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 3.2. RONALD ROSS

Ross made his first important step in May 1895 when he observed the early stages of malarial
parasite inside a mosquito stomach. However, his enthusiasm was interrupted as he was deployed to
Bangalore to investigate an outbreak of cholera. Bangalore had no regular cases of malaria. In April
he had a chance to visit Sigur Ghat near the hill station of Ooty, where he noticed a mosquito on the
wall in a peculiar posture, and for this he called it "dappled-winged" mosquito, not knowing the
species. In May 1896, he was given a short leave that enabled him to visit a malaria-endemic region
around Ooty. In spite of his daily quinine prophylaxis, he was down with severe malaria three days
after his arrival. In June he was transferred to Secunderabad. After two years of research failure, in
July 1897, he managed to culture 20 adult brown mosquitoes from collected larvae. He successfully
infected the mosquitoes from a patient named Husein. After blood-feeding, he dissected the mosquito
and found an "almost perfectly circular" cell from the gut, which was certainly not of the mosquito.
On 20 August he confirmed the presence of the malarial parasite inside the gut of mosquito, which he
originally identified as "dappled-wings" (which turned out to be species of the genus Anopheles). The
next day, on 21 August, he confirmed the growth of the parasite in the mosquito.

Photo source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Ross#/media/File:Ronald_Ross.jpg

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 3.3. JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON

J. Y. Simpson was a Scottish obstetrician and a significant figure in the history of medicine. He
was the first to demonstrate the anaesthetic properties of chloroform on humans and helped to
popularise the drum for use in medicine.

Simpson completed his final examination at the age of 18 but, as he was so young, had to wait
two years before he got his licence to practise medicine. He graduated from the University of
Edinburgh Medical School in 1832 and as a student became a member and then Senior President of
the Royal Medical Society, initiating a lifelong interest in the Society's advancement. In 1838 he
designed the Air Tractor, the earliest known vacuum extractor to assist childbirth but the method did
not become popular until the invention of the ventouse over a century later.

At the age of 28 he succeeded Prof James Hamilton as Professor of Medicine and Midwifery at
the University of Edinburgh. He improved the design of obstetric forceps that to this day are known
in obstetric circles as "Simpson's Forceps". His most noted contribution was the introduction of
anaesthesia to childbirth.

In 1847, Simpson first demonstrated the properties of chloroform upon humans, during an
experiment with friends in which he learnt that it could be used to put one to sleep. Dr Simpson and
two of his assistants used to sit every evening in Dr Simpson's dining room to try new chemicals to
see if they had any anaesthetic effect. On 4 November 1847 they decided to try a ponderous material
named chloroform that they had previously ignored. On inhaling the chemical they found that a
general mood of cheer and humour had set in. But suddenly all of them collapsed only to regain
consciousness the next morning. Simpson knew, as soon as he woke up, that he had found something
that could be used as an anaesthetic.

It was very much by chance that Simpson survived the chloroform dosage he administered to
himself. If he had inhaled too much and died, chloroform would have been seen as a dangerous
substance, which in fact it is. Conversely, if Simpson had inhaled slightly less it would not have put
him to sleep. It was his willingness to explore the possibilities of the substance that set him on the
road to a career as a pioneer in the field of medicine.

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 3.4. JOSEPH LISTER

Joseph Listerwas a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery. He promoted the idea of
sterile portable ports while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister successfully introduced
carbolic acid, now known as phenol to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds.

Applying Louis Pasteur's advances in microbiology, Lister championed the use of carbolic acid
as an antiseptic, such that it became the first widely used antiseptic in surgery. He first suspected it
would prove an adequate disinfectant because it was used to ease the stench from fields irrigated
with sewage waste. He presumed it was safe because fields treated with carbolic acid produced no
apparent ill-effects on the livestock that later grazed upon them.

Lister's work led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients,
distinguishing himself as the "father of modern surgery".

Lister was president of the Royal Society between 1895 and 1900. Following his death, a
memorial fund led to the founding of the Lister Medal, seen as the most prestigious prize that could
be awarded to a surgeon.

His discoveries were greatly praised and in 1883 Queen Victoria created him a Baronet.
Among foreign honours, he received the Pour le Mrite, one of Prussia's highest orders of merit. In
1889 he was elected as Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Two postage
stamps were issued in September 1965 to honour Lister for his pioneering work in antiseptic surgery.

Lister is one of the two surgeons in the United Kingdom who have the honour of having a
public monument in London. Lister's stands in Portland Place; the other surgeon is John Hunter.

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 CONCLUSION

These innovations are only a few from the ones from the Victorian Era. Each one has its own
role in the history and although some of them may be replaced by some new products and ideas, they
still are a base, a fundament for everything discovered nowadays. England was one of the first
countries in the world that faced such a strong change in the ninteenth century and it proves what a
great impact those years had for the british society.

The Victorian Age, an age full of stark contradictions was indeed a period of monumental
changes and prosperity of the British Empire. The stunning achievements brought fame and wealth,
but also caused suffer and struggles of hundreds of people. It was a truly remarkable age.

Such quick changes, within just a century, were not seen in any other European country and I
personally think that this age represents the most colorful period in British history.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SITOGRAPHY

Bibliography:

Baldwin, Neil (2001). Edison: Inventing the Century. University of Chicago Press.
Bynum, William F.; Overy, Caroline (1998). The Beast in the Mosquito: the
Correspondence of Ronald Ross and Patrick Manson. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Sitography:

http://www.biography.com/people/queen-victoria
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/victorians
https://www.whychristmas.com
www.wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black_VR_official
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Firstchristmascard.jpg#/media/File:Firstchristmas
card.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-
kingdom/england/london/galleries/The-history-of-the-Tube-in-pictures-150-years-of-
London-Underground/
http://www.edisonmuckers.org/thomas-edison-lightbulb/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow#/media/File:John_Snow.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Ross#/media/File:Ronald_Ross.jpg

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