Who Invented the Air Conditioner?

Who Invented the Air Conditioner?

ByFabien

I took some time away from the computer during the summer, being slowly crushed by the heatwave. Not living in the US, I don’t have an air conditioning apparatus to keep me fresh.

It’s just not a thing in Europe and I read articles about US citizens being shocked by that revelation. It’s a strange reaction, but where I live, there are usually two weeks a year of high temperatures. Nothing to justify investing in more than a fan.

Anyway, this topic picked my interest in the invention of the Air Conditioner. As usual, let’s answer a question:

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Who Invented the Word Meme?

Who Invented the Word Meme?

ByFabien

Even if they are ubiquitous now, memes still need to be explained. I mean, some people still don’t know what a meme is—mostly people of a certain age. We may think—by that I mean that I thought—memes are still a recent concept, but it turns out it’s not the case at all.

Where did the word meme come from?

Being a word, we mostly use in connection with Internet content, it’s almost surprising that it found its origin in science—and not in some obscure pop culture of the ’80s.

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Who Built the Orient Express?

Who Built the Orient Express?

ByFabien

I was reading about the comeback of the Orient-Express for the 2024 Olympic Games. That’s when I realized that what I knew about the train is mostly limited to the famous “Murder on the Orient Express,” Agatha Christie’s novel—and the multiple adaptations I watched.

The History of the Orient Express

First, for those who are not familiar with the gruesome murder of Samuel Ratchett on board the Orient Express during the 1930s, as told by the queen of the murder mystery, you may not know about this famous train—to be honest, if we are still talking about it, it’s because of Christie’s books.

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Who Created Mickey Mouse?

Who Created Mickey Mouse?

ByFabien

Like with the Bechdel Test, it would be so easy to simply say “Disney created Mickey Mouse,” but it’s not totally true. There’s a bit more to it than that. It’s what I discovered while I was reading about some cartooning history that led me to Mickey.

Who is the real creator of Mickey Mouse?

Everybody knows who Mickey Mouse is. After all, as the longtime corporate mascot of the mascot of the Walt Disney Company, even if you never saw any animated (short or long) movie featuring the anthropomorphic mouse, or saw him on a TV Show, you know him.

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Who Invented Algorithm?

Who Invented Algorithm?

ByFabien

Nowadays, everybody seems to know what an algorithm is. I personally got a diploma in computer science, so I learned some things about algorithms, how to write them, to use them… But nothing about the history of the concept.

Who First Invented Algorithm?

Before answering, let’s make something clear: what is an algorithm? The Cambridge Dictionary defined the word as such:

A set of mathematical instructions or rules that, especially if given to a computer, will help to calculate an answer to a problem.

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Who Invented Sunscreen?

Who Invented Sunscreen?

ByFabien

Summer is officially here. Unofficially, it’s clearly here for two good weeks now. The sun is high, the temperature is higher. You know the drill, you need to protect yourself from the Sun! Like Baz Lurhman would say: “Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.”

Who Created Sunscreen?

If you’re looking at the definition of the word sunscreen, here is what you could find:

  1. A screen to protect against the sun.
  2. A preparation (such as a lotion) applied to the skin to prevent sunburn (as by chemically absorbing ultraviolet radiation).
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Who was the First Vampire?

Who was the First Vampire?

ByFabien

Apparently, there’s a new Vampire show on Netflix and I saw people discussing the history of vampires online. This led me to search for the origin of the myth, to discover:

Who is the Original Vampire?

First of all, I’d like to specify that vampires are creatures from folklore. This is what we are talking about here. I know some people think they are vampires themselves, but I’m gonna stick with the world of fiction today.

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Who Invented WiFi? (not Hedy Lamarr!)

Who Invented WiFi? (not Hedy Lamarr!)

ByFabien

A few years back, someone found out that actress Hedy Lamarr was also an inventor, and one of the projects she worked on later led to the creation of Wi-Fi. It’s a good headline “Hollywood Actress Invented Wi-Fi.” I saw a documentary about her life, and the story is not that simple. She didn’t really invent Wi-Fi per se. So…

Who Created Wi-Fi?

First, what is Wi-Fi? Here is the definition I found on the Verizon website:

Wi-Fi is the radio signal sent from a wireless router to a nearby device, which translates the signal into data you can see and use. The device transmits a radio signal back to the router, which connects to the internet by wire or cable.

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What Was the First 3D Movie?

What Was the First 3D Movie?

ByFabien

I was watching that horrendous Jaws 3 movie and I asked myself why I put myself through this. At one point, the direction was really bad and I realized it was because the movie was supposed to be in 3D. That led me to think about the old 3D movies I already watched. The oldest is probably Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder from 1954. That’s a great movie. But…

When Did the First 3D Movie Was Produced?

We will never have the chance to see the first 3D movie ever made again. It was lost, like so many movies from that period. I’m talking about the silent era, a time of experimentation in the field of visual art that was not treated with a lot of reverence. It was the wild west. Anyway, we already talked about the invention of cinema in another article.

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Who Invented the Credit Card?

Who Invented the Credit Card?

ByFabien

I was listening to some Trevor Moore songs (RIP) and the one about his rage against the guy who invented the credit card reader chip led me to realize that I don’t even know where the credit card comes from. So, it’s time to dig into some consumerism history.

Who Created the Credit Card?

Where I come from, what we call a credit card is basically a payment card. You open a bank account, there’s a card that comes with it to pay and get money from the ATM, it’s mostly debit. If you want a credit, you need to talk to your bank counselor. If I understand well, it’s not the same in the U.S.—but it’s not the subject of this article. Indeed, were are here to explore the origin of those plastic cards.

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What Was The First Marvel Comic?

What Was The First Marvel Comic?

ByFabien

I already wrote about what could be considered the first comics in my article Who Invented Comic Books? The history of comics is something that interests me grandly. That’s why I would like to continue to write about it, because there are some subjects to explore, like this one:

What’s the first-ever Marvel comic?

It’s not really necessary to introduce Marvel Comics to anyone nowadays, everybody has at least heard about the superhero movies that make big at the box office multiple times a year. But the story didn’t start with that.

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Who Invented the Newspaper?

Who Invented the Newspaper?

ByFabien

You would assume that some things were always here, like aspirin, only because they were always there during your lifetime. But when people talk about their extinctions, you can ask yourself, where do they come from? Today, I asked myself this question:

Who Created the Newspaper?

The idea of reporting the news is certainly not a recent one. In fact, during the period of ancient Rome, there was the “Acta Diurna,” daily news carved in stone or metal before being presented in public places. The idea apparently came from Julius Caesar, but we will not credit him for the invention of the newspaper, because it was not the same thing.

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