Shows A - Z : How's That Work? : Clothes Dryer, Thermometer, Calculator : Home & Garden Television

Clothes Dryer, Thermometer, Calculator
The first clothes dryer invention in 1799 was a metal cylinder with holes that sat over a fire. The clothes were first hand-wrung, then placed in the cylinder and cranked by hand. Sure, the clothes dried, but they smelled of smoke and picked up dirty soot. Sometimes, if you didn't pay attention, they even caught on fire. Next, the first thermometer was created by Galileo around 1590. His elaborate measuring system floated several glass bulbs in water. Those bulbs were filled with alcohol and attached to calibrated counterweights, and as the air temperature changed, so did the buoyancy of the bulbs. Each bulb had a specific temperature assigned to it, so whichever bulb was still floating at the top indicated the temperature of the air. Then, electronic calculators started appearing in the mid-20th century. In the 1970s, calculators became a bit more portable. Using smaller and smaller computer chips to perform all of the mathematical functions, they became so small, they fit into your pocket.

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