Invention+Convention

toc =Thomas Edison= 1) When was Edison born? Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio

2) Describe what Edison’s education was like. How does Edison’s education compare to your education? Edison's education was at home. His mother was the one that taught Edison how to read, write and arithmetics. His education is different then mine because I learn at school. Thomas' curiosity also helped on his education.

3) How did Edison spend his free time? Edison was really smart. At the age of 13 he started to work and most of his free time he would read scientific and technical books.

4) What opportunities did Edison have as a telegraph operator? Edison had quite a few opportunities when he was a telegraph operator. But his opportunity he wanted was to be an inventor.

5) What was Edison’s first successful invention? Edison had a lot of successful inventions throughout his life time. His first successful invention was an improved stock ticker called the "Universal Stock Printer"

6) Edison’s second major invention was the tin foil phonograph. What did it do? Edison's second major invention was the phonograph. The phonograph was the first machine that could record and reproduce sound.

7) What contributions did Edison make to the electric lighting industry? Thomas Edison contributions to the electric lighting industry was his inventions. It was the incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread burned for thirteen and a half hours. It changes lives of people.

8) What was Edison’s third invention? How can its impact be seen on the world today? Thomas' third invention was an incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread burned for thirteen and a half hours. It's impact on the world that can be seen on the world today is lamps, flashlights, night lights...

9) Describe one challenge that Edison had to face. One of the challenges I think Thomas had to face was the failure he did on the telegraph. I would be hard to face because he finally failed and the people may be very disappointed. Another thing that I think was hard is when he invented the light bulb. It took him more then 200 different ways to make the light bulb until it worked!! He didn't give up or mad and that's the hardest to be patient.

10) What do you think Edison will be remembered for the most? Why? I think he is to be remembered most about the invention on the light bulb. Now it is a every use. No matter where you go (almost) there is a light bulb. It is one of the most important thing in our life that we need.

1- How do you think Thomas Edison improved the quality of people’s lives in the 1900’s though technology. Thomas Edison improved the quality of people’s lives in the 1900’s though technology because he made life much easier. Like the light bulb. I don't know what they used for light that time but I think it was candles. It would be so annoying lighting on and off a candle. Now all we have to do is to click a button and the whole room is lit up thanks to him.

2- How have Thomas Edison’s inventions improved the quality of your life today? Thomas Edison's inventions improved the quality of my life so much! I we were still using candle or another thing, I would be soo annoyed!

Website about Thomas Edison Click[| HERE]

=Tokuji Hayakawa= On top I have been doing on some work of Thomas Edison, but that was just for example of what I am going to do know. The 5th grade is doing a project called invention convention. There are 2 phases for this project, one before Chinese New Year and one after. For phase one, we are going to choose an inventor and research them. Then we have to make a poster, speech...At phase 2, we are going to be an inventor ourselves and we have to invent something new that can work. Well lets not worry about phase 2 and lets get started on phase 1. This few days I am researching Tokuji Hayakawa, if you are wondering, he made the Mechanical Pencil. The following things down at the bottom will be information I have found about the invention/inventor. Hope you Enjoy!

The machanical pencil was invented in 1915. When it was first made, Hayakawa has named it the "Ever-Ready-Sharp-Pencil". Hayakawa had owned a metalworking shop in Tokyo, Japan at the time. Then in 1942 he expanded the company and renamed it to Hayakawa Electric Industry Co.,Ltd. Later in 1970 his company was named Sharp Corporation and Tokuji Hayakawa was appointed chairman.

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=Nicholas Jacques Conte= Sorry, there wasn't enough information on Tokuji Hayakawa so I am doing Nicholas J. Conte who invented the pencil.

Question #1: Who is the inventor and what about their life impacted their ability to create the invention?

My inventor is Nicholas Jacques Conte. He was born on August 4, 1755. He was born at Saint-Céneri-près-Sées now [|Aunou-sur-Orne] in [|Normandy]. Nicholas was a French painter, balloonist and a army officer. he invented the pencil in 1564. Napoleon called him “a universal man with taste, understanding and genius capable of creating the arts of France in the middle of the Arabian Desert.” The thing that happened in his life time that made him make the pencil was that they discovered the graphite in a mine and they used that to inscribe their folds. Then the people got their hands too dirty from the graphite so they wrapped the graphite in cloth and then they covered it with wood. Later, Nicholas opened his own factory called //Blanzy-Conte Gilbert// together with his brother Louise in 1793. Nicholas died in December 6, 1805.

Question #2: What is the invention and how did it come to be invented?

The invention that Nicholas made was the pencil. The pencil wood comes from the Cedar trees grown in North America. They cut the tree off and plant another tree for the future. The wood is taken by sea to a factory that makes pencils. Graphite is mined in Ceylon and Korea. The rock is crushed into a black power. White china is dug from the Cornwall. They mix the Graphite and black powder that makes it into a black paste. The people squeeze the black paste into a small hole, cut into the lead lengths and baked in an oven. The baked lead will then be placed between two Cedar wood and glued together. The wood with the lead is then cut into pencil shapes and painted with bright colors. Lastly they print the company and the degree softness of the lead. Finally you are done making a pencil! These are the same steps of how to make a pencil but some are made from different wood or clay. Nicholas' idea of kiln firing powdered graphite and clay let the pencils to be made to any hardness or softness. The hardness and softness is that you might notice on your pencil it says HB or something. That time in the old time, a huge graphite mine was discovered in Borrow dale, Cuncria, England. The graphite was sawn into sheets and then cut into square rods. The new discovered Graphite was then called black lead or plumbago form the Latin word for lead ore. They use to just use the graphite to write and draw until a German got an idea to put the graphite in wood because they got the black lead on their hands.

Question #3: How did the invention affect the society at the time?

The invention of the pencil didn't affect a lot. The majority of the people still used the feather and ink. It was not that popular because it was expensive to buy since it was new. But as time past more and more people bought the pencils and most of the people who bought it was artists. Then, by the time around the 1570s and 1580s. Now, the pencil is very important and affects a lot to the Earths society. Although the wood kills trees, it also helped us.

Question #4: Is the invention still used today? Why? How? Modifications?

Of course the invention of the pencil is still used today. I have to use a pencil EVERY SINGLE DAY! It is such a great invention! It is still here because it is simple, easy to use, and if you make a mistake, you can erase it. Some of the modifications are that now they have really large pencils and also really small ones. There are also ones that are in shapes. One of my favorites is the bendy pencil where you can tie it into a know and other forms. There are also special pencils for artists and kids like the color pencil, charcoal pencil, grease pencil...

Question #5: Could this invention have an impact on the future? Explain.

Yes I do think that the pencil will have an impact on the future. I think that because right now the two most used is the pen and pencil. Of course I will think that it will change and be much more easier to use or something. I think that people will make different kinds of pencils like the color pencil but changed into some kind of changing color pencil. I do not know what people in the future will improve on the pencil but I know that it will have an impact on the future.

Question #6: Why did Nicholas name his invention the pencil?

It was a long time ago when he invented the pencil. That time they used old English so thats why he named his invention the "Pencil". The word pencil came from old English meaning BRUSH. He named it pencil that meant brush because they used ink brush that time. Lead was first called graphite in 1779 by a Swedish chemist **K. W. Scheele** – according to the Greek expression for writing. Then it was called plumbago and now called lead.

from feather to write to pencil to write >

=Speech= Bonjour! I am Nicholas Jacques Conte. I was born on August 4, 1755 in [|Aunou-sur-Orne] in [|Normandy], France. My life was very interesting with many different jobs like a French painter, balloonist and an army officer. My good friend Napoleon would always call me” a universal man with taste, understanding and genius capable of creating the arts of France in the middle of the Arabian Desert .” One day a huge graphite mine was discovered in Borrow dale, Cuncria, England. We then used the graphite to write to people. Then, the more and more we used it, our hands got really dirty because of holding the graphite. I wanted to fix that problem. Some people first covered it with cloth and wrote but it harder to write with the cloth. Soon they cut the graphite into long squares and covered it with wood. That is what I did. It made communication so much easier. Later, I made more and more pencils. I even opened a factory with my brother called Louise in 1793 and named the factory // Blanzy-Conte Gilbert. //// I made the pencil then by //a mixture of clay and graphite that was fired before it was put in a wooden case. After it is fired in a kiln, I put the lead in a wooden case and cut the wooden case into part with the lead in. My way of firing the lead in the kiln allows the lead to be any hardness or softness. That was how I made the pencil. I named the pencil because it means “brush” in the old English. He chose to call it pencil that meant brush because that time, they used feather and ink. Lead was first called graphite in 1779 by a Swedish chemist ** K. W. Scheele. **Then it was called plumbago and now called lead. Now the pencil is used everyday by students for writing, artist for sketching… Also, the pencil has changed a lot. They now have color pencils, charcoal pencils, grease pencils, bendy pencils and lots more! Now they also have a mechanical pencil. In the future I think the pencil will still affect the life of people. I also think that there is also going to be a lot different variety’s of pencils. People will be happy that I invented the pencil. I hope that they will be proud of me. I died on December 6, 1805 when I was only 50. It was such a tragedy to die but I still hope that people will be happy that I invented the pencil.

toc =Facts= 1. Did you know that the erasers use to be bread crumbs? = = = = 2. Did you know that Edward Naime was getting a bread crumb to erase something but he got a small rubber instead and it erased better. That was how rubber erasers were discovered. 3. In the past the rubber would rot and you couldn't use it anymore. 4. The time they used rubber to erase they called the erase "peaux de negres" 5. In 1839 [|Charles Goodyear] found a way to make rubber reusable and not rot. That was when the rubber eraser became popular. 6. The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was on 1858 to a man from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. 7. Graphite means "to write" in Greek 8. Most of the pencils in the USA are painted yellow because before the most valuable pencil was painted yellow.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Annotated Bibliography=

"Mechanical Pencil." __Enchanted Learning__. 12 Jan. 2009. 12 Jan. 2009 . this site was really good. They showed you a picture of the invention or inventor if you could. They also told you a short summary of the inventors life when he invented the invention.

"Pencil History." __About__. 2009. 13 Jan. 2009 . This site is really good because it gives you a lot of information and it is all true.

"A Pencil." __A Pencil__. 15 Jan. 2009. 15 Jan. 2009 . I LOVE this site! It has everything about the pencil. Like the time line but detailed.

__Google__. 15 Jan. 2009. 15 Jan. 2009 . Google is very helpful because you can get a lot of different pictures from around the world.

"Nicholas Jaques Conte." __Wikipedia__. 15 Jan. 2009. 15 Jan. 2009 . Wikipedia is a good website because people from around the world can add more and more info about it.

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