My Science School

In the early 1800s, American businessmen caught the 'rubber fever. They imported tonnes of rubber from Brazil, hoping to reap riches by turning it into baggage and life preservers. What they didn't realise was that rubber turned into a sticky mess in summer and became hard and brittle in winter.

Charles Goodyear, whose hardware store went bankrupt in 1830, became interested in turning rubber into a usable material. He experimented by mixing it with various chemicals like nitric acid and sulphur, but with limited success. Once while trying to sell his sulphur-improved rubber at a hardware store, Goodyear became agitated when the owner mocked his product. He gesticulated wildly and the piece of rubber flew from his hand onto a hot, open stove top. While scraping it off, he found that it had become hard yet flexible!

After more experiments, Goodyear finally perfected the process. Called 'vulcanised' rubber (from the Roman god of fire, Vulcan), it created untold wealth for the many entrepreneurs who used Goodyear's idea without his consent, even though he had a patent. Goodyear himself died in 1860 heavily in debt because of fighting and losing many court battles. Much later, his family benefited from the royalties earned from his patent.

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The aqualung invented in 1943 is the best and safest of all diving devices. Read on to know about the people behind the invention

About 200 years ago, divers used a device called a diving bell, which was lowered from a ship into the water. It was open at the bottom and received air from the surface through a hose. The air pressure kept the water out of the device. The diving bell gave way to the snorkel and diving suit.

However, the best and safest of all diving devices is the aqualung invented in 1943 by a French naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and an engineer named Emile Gagnan. The aqualung is a portable diving apparatus, which consists of cylinders (tanks) of compressed air with a valve and mouthpiece. The valve adjusts air pressure automatically and supplies air as a diver needs it, so that air pressure inside the divers lungs matches the pressure of the water. Unlike previous devices, the aqualung was light and convenient and Lalung now part SCUBA millions Id every allowed the diver to move about freely.

The first aqualung was sold in 1946. The system is now part of modern SCUBA gear, with millions of units sold every year. Recreational scuba diving has become an international phenomenon.

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Amar G. Bose, founder of the Bose Corporation. Founder Amar Bose didn't set out to sell speaker systems and headphones. He began his career as an academic engineer at MIT in the late 1950s, licensing power conversion and amplification technology to the U.S. military and government agencies such as NASA

His company's products can be found in Olympic stadiums, Broadway theatres, the Sistine Chapel and in the space shuttle where they protect astronauts hearing. Amar Bose, the founder of Bose Corporation, was renowned for his invention of high-end stereo speakers.

Bose was brought up in Philadelphia, USA, the son of an immigrant from Kolkata. He became interested in technology when he began repairing model trains and transistors to supplement his family's income at the age of 13. Bose joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in the early 1950s. His interest in acoustics was sparked off when some expensive speakers he bought failed to deliver its advertised sound quality.

Bose's idea was to utilize the space around the loudspeakers to directly reflect the sound to the listeners' ears rather than letting it bounce indiscriminately off the walls and ceiling. His Direct/Reflecting speaker system patented in 1968 remained the industry standard for 25 years. Bose speakers proved that rich sound need not come from bulky speakers- elegance and simplicity in design could do the job just as well.

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