Notes

an invention is "any art or process (way of doing or making things), machine, manufacture, design, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." The Oxford English Dictionary defines invention as, among other things, "a method or means of doing something, an instrument, an art, etc. originated by the ingenuity of some person, and previously unknown; an original contrivance or device."
- a definition
Ex: The printing press, invented in the fifteenth century, helped to spread literacy and ideas throughout the general population.
Ex:There are inventions that save lives, such as drugs and medical devices. Some simply make life easier, like the dishwasher or escalator. Still others improve our ability to do things, such as travelling farther and faster using the automobile or airplane, or communicating in real time with a telephone or radio.
Ex: In the mid-1800s, for example, trains were getting longer and travelling over more mountainous terrain. Brakemen were required to apply mechanical brakes on each of the cars in order to stop the train—a hazardous and unreliable process that killed many brakemen and resulted in several train accidents each year. In 1872, George Westinghouse patented the air brake system, which could apply uniform braking power to each car simultaneously, from a single control mechanism operated by the train's engineer. The Westinghouse air brake design is still used today on trains, trucks, and buses.
Many inventions, by themselves, go unnoticed, until they are combined to form a new technology or process that is revolutionary.
Perhaps the most prolific inventor of the modern age was Thomas Alva Edison who, by the end of his career, held over one thousand patents for such innovations as the electric light, telephone and telegraph, phonograph, and power transmission, as well as the methods for testing and manufacturing these implements. This was no accident; it was Edison's intention to research and develop as many new designs as he could—up to five a week—at his research facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In so doing, Edison also created the first industrial research facility.
Freight trains were a crucial component in the economic development of the United States.
People with pictures: Thomas Edison holds the incandescent lightbulb he designed that was efficient and cheap enough for consumers to buy. Edison also created the Edison Electric Light Company, which was later the General Electric Company.
James Watt's steam engine was the primary power source of the Industrial Revolution.
The Wright brothers achieved the first manned flight of a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine.
Then reference to what it likes from today: iPads, ipods, and iphones and computers, etc.