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Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 19th century20th century21st century
Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s1900s1910s 1920s 1930s
Years: 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
Categories: BirthsDeathsInventions
foundingsDisestablishments

The decade from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1909 is sometimes referred to as the 1900s, "the nineteen hundreds", although this term can equally be used for the years 1900–1999. "The aughts" or "naughts" (aught-aught through aught-nine) was one of the more popular contemporary terms for this decade.

Technology[]

  • Widespread application of the internal combustion engine including mass production of the automobile. Rudolf Diesel demonstrated the diesel engine in the 1900 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) in Paris using peanut oil fuel (see biodiesel). The Diesel engine takes the Grand Prix. The exposition was attended by 50 million people.[1] The same year Wilhelm Maybach designed an engine built at Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft—following the specifications of Emil Jellinek—who required the engine to be named Daimler-Mercedes after his daughter, Mercédès Jellinek. In 1902, the Mercedes 35 hp automobiles with that engine were put into production by DMG.[2][3]
  • 1899–1900 - Thomas Alva Edison of Milan, Ohio invents the nickel-alkaline storage battery. On May 27, 1901, Edison establishes the Edison Storage Battery Company to develop and manufacture them.,[4] "It proved to be Edison's most difficult project, taking ten years to develop a practical alkaline battery. By the time Edison introduced his new alkaline battery, the gasoline powered car had so improved that electric vehicles were becoming increasingly less common, being used mainly as delivery vehicles in cities. However, the Edison alkaline battery proved useful for lighting railway cars and signals, maritime buoys, and miners lamps. Unlike iron ore mining with the Edison Ore-Milling Company, the heavy investment Edison made over ten years was repaid handsomely, and the storage battery eventually became Edison's most profitable product. Further, Edison's work paved the way for the modern alkaline battery." [5]
  • 1902 - Willis Carrier of Angola, New York invented the first indoor air conditioning. "He designed his spray driven air conditioning system which controlled both temperature and humidity using a nozzle originally designed to spray insecticide. He built his "Apparatus for Treating Air" (U.S. Pat. #808897) which was patented in 1906 and using chilled coils which not only controlled heat but could lower the humidity to as low as 55%. The device was even able to adjust the humidity level to a desired setting creating what would become the framework for the modern air conditioner. By adjusting the air movement and temperature level to the refrigeration coils he was able to determine the size and capacity of the unit to match the need of his customers. While Carrier was not the first to design a system like this his was much more stable, successful and safer that other versions and took air conditioning out of the Dark Ages and into the realm of science." [6]
  • 1903 - Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers. In November 1903 Anderson was granted her first patent[7] for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled inside the car, called the windshield wiper.[8] Her device consisted of a lever and a swinging arm with a rubber blade. The lever could be operated from inside a vehicle to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. Similar devices had been made earlier, but Anderson's was the first to be effective.[9]
  • 1904–1914 - The Panama Canal constructed by the United States in the territory of Panama, which had just gained independence from Colombia. The Canal is a 77 km (48 mi) ship canal that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific ocean and a key conduit for international maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the canal had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to San Francisco via the canal travels 9,500 km (5,900 mi), well under half the 22,500 km (14,000 mi) route around Cape Horn.[10] The project starts on May 4, 1904, known as Acquisition Day. The United States government purchased all Canal properties on the Isthmus of Panama from the New Panama Canal Company, except the Panama Railroad.[11] The project begun under the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, continued in that of William Howard Taft and completed in that of Woodrow Wilson.[12][13] The Chief engineers were John Frank Stevens and George Washington Goethals [14][15]
  • 1907 - Thomas Edison invented the "Universal Electric Motor" which made it possible to operate dictation machines, etc. on all lighting circuits.[17]
  • 1908 - Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company introduces the Ford Model T. The first production Model T was built on September 27, 1908, at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that "put America on wheels"; some of this was because of Ford's innovations, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting, as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.[18]

On this wiki[]

See also[]

Timeline[]

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1900190119021903190419051906190719081909

References[]

  1. Martin Leduc, "Biography of Rudolph Diesel"
  2. NNDB Mapper:"Wilhelm Maybach"
  3. The history behind the Mercedes-Benz brand and the three-pointed star. eMercedesBenz.com. April 17, 2008.
  4. The Thomas Edison Papers: "Company Records Series -- Edison Storage Battery Company
  5. Mary Bellis, "Biography of Thomas Edison"
  6. "Willis Carrier the "father" of the modern air conditioning"
  7. United States Patent 743,801, Issue Date: November 10, 1903
  8. Women Hold Patents on Important Inventions; USPTO recognizes inventive women during Women's History Month, United States Patent and Trademark Office press release #02–16, March 1, 2002, accessed March 3, 2009
  9. Many Anderson: Windshield Wipers, September 2001, Inventor of the Week Archive, Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering website, accessed March 3, 2009
  10. Scott, William R. (1913). The Americans in Panama. New York, NY: Statler Publishing Company. 
  11. Acquisition Day, May 4, 1904
  12. The Panama Canal.com: "End of the Construction"
  13. The American Presidency Project: "Woodrow Wilson - Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Panama Canal Tolls" (March 5, 1914)
  14. Gilles R. Maurice, "John F. "Big Smoke" Stevens"
  15. Panama Canal Authority: "George Washington Goethals"
  16. "Agricultural Machinery, Business History of Machinery Manufacturers"
  17. Gerald Beals, "Major Inventions And Events In The Life Of Thomas Alva Edison" (1996
  18. "Henry Ford Changes the World, 1908," EyeWitness to History www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005)

External links[]

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