Overall I thought the country projects was an interesting experience. I got the chance to research one of the countries I have always wanted to go to. I was able to obtain knowledge on the history of the country and what it would be like to live over there. The ability to research places that I would also want to go to was very interesting. One of the things I did not enjoy about the project was having to limit the amount of information I could have. I found it difficult to condense a countries history into a few slides. If I were to change the project I would have put stricter limits on what information you could have. The reason for this is because some people's power points contained unrelavent information and were clearly copy and pasted. Overall I believe my presentation went very well and I had no problem presenting to the class.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Edward Goodrich Acheson project
Script
Adam Audet
2-7-13
5th
hour
Most scientists and inventors are
known for their discoveries and inventions. We know of these people because we
use their creations and the results of their discoveries in our everyday lives.
However, there are thousands of people who have made discoveries and inventions
in our everyday lives. The things we do in our everyday lives could not be
possible without some of those people. The little known scientists are the ones
who make an impact on our lives the greatest yet we only know of their
contributions to society.
During the early 19th
century, the major countries of the world underwent a second industrial
revolution. This time the advancements in technology were through mass
production and assembly lines in factories. Scientists were routinely trying to
discover new ways to increase production rates. One of the scientists who made
a great impact on this era was Edward Goodrich Acheson. His inventions included
the second hardest substance to diamond- Carborundum. He also produced various
types of graphite based lubricants to aid in the production of metals and other
hard substances.
Edward Goodrich Acheson was born in
Washington, Pennsylvania on March 9, 1856. When he was only sixteen years old
his father passed away and he was forced to go to work to support his family. He
worked for his father’s railroad company and after hours he pursued his
interest in electricity and engineering by studying the fundamentals of
electricity and various inventions. Soon, he decided to apply for a job at
Edward Weston, a company that produced electroplating dynamos. Acheson was
turned down for the job and he continued searching for other jobs. At the age
of twenty-five he got a job working for Thomas Edison at his research lab in
Menlo Park, New Jersey. While working for Edison he helped with the development
and installation of electrical lighting, a new potential source of light for
everyday people at the time. Edison noticed Acheson’s potential as a natural
inventor and engineer and promoted him to assistant chief engineer. Eventually,
in 1884 Edward moved to New York to work as a superintendent of a plant that
produced lamps he helped Edison invent. While working at the plant Acheson
began conduction experiments with different substances. He first tried heating
super- heating carbon to the point where it would produce diamond in an attempt
to create a super hard abrasive. The experiment failed and he became mixing
carbon and clay, and electrically fusing it. The result product was a silicon
carbon mix strong enough to scratch glass. At first, Acheson mistook the
substance to be a compound of carbon and alumina. Once he realized his mistake
he called the substance Carborundum and obtained a patent for it in 1893. After
he perfected the process of producing the substance, Acheson realized the mass
production of hard substances such as building materials and metals would be
nearly impossible without it. To produce the substance he built a factory in
Monongahela, Pennsylvania. However, the demand for a cheap, easy to produce
abrasive became so high that he had to build a second factory in Niagara Falls
in 1895. Edward began conducting further experiments on the substance and
discovered that overheating the substance produced almost pure graphite. When
the compound reached 4, 150 degrees Celsius the silicon portion of the
substance vaporizes and leaves behind graphitic carbon. He began producing
lubricants using the graphite including oildag and aquadag, and created Acheson
Graphite Co. in 1899. To increase
production and the growth of his company Acheson merged his company with
National Carbon Co.
Over the course of his career
Acheson received seventy patents for his inventions and discoveries. In 1928 he
used his earnings over the course of his career to create the Edward Goodrich
Acheson award for people who have accomplished major discoveries in the advancements
of science and technology; he was the first to receive the award in 1929. He
also received the Count Rumford medal for his inventions, the John Scott medal
for his invention of Carborundum and artificial graphite and the Grand
Prize at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. Edward Goodrich Acheson
died on July 6, 1931. His discoveries and inventions helped form the foundation
of the mass production of strong building materials and metals for today.
Works Cited
Bellis,
Mary. "Edward Goodrich Acheson - Carborundum." About.com Inventors.
N.p.. Web. 13 Feb 2013.
<http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blacheson.htm>.
.
"Edward Goodrich Acheson." Cemmical Heritage Foundation. The Berndt
Group, n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2013.
<http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/electrochemistry/acheson.asp&xgt;.
.
"Inventor of the week Edward Acheson Carborandum." Lemelson-MIT.
N.p.. Web. 13 Feb 2013. <http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/acheson.html>.
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