INNOVATION IMPERATIVE BY PETER MERRILL

10 for the Ages

A brief history of innovators who made their marks under 40
BECAUSE THIS MONTH’S QP cover his invention, Arkwright mechanized all 40 piston strokes per minute with an
article is focused on new voices of quality, the preparatory and spinning processes unprecedented boiler pressure of 145 psi.
I was inspired to do some research and for making cotton fabric and began set- This was the start of what became known
create a top 10 list of innovators who ting up water-powered cotton mills. With as the Industrial Revolution.3
made their marks under the age of 40. I help from others, he built the world’s first
found it remarkable how many significant water-powered mill, which employed The electric motor
breakthroughs were achieved by young about 200 people in 1771. In 1821, when he was 30, Michael Faraday
minds. The problem in weaving cloth was that invented the electric motor. Faraday,
It also is impressive when you con- the “weft” yarn, which crossed back and while considered a leading chemist, was
sider that many innovators succeeded forth over the “warp” yarn, was subject to best known for his work related to elec-
while others were working on the same far more stress and was always breaking. tricity and magnetism. His initial discov-
problems. Consider the story of Alexan- Arkwright perfected his spinning frame, ery led to the discovery of electromagne-
der Graham Bell in 1876 arriving at the which led to a much stronger weft yarn. tism. Faraday’s breakthrough came when
Boston patent office just hours ahead of His success encouraged others to copy he wrapped two insulated coils of wire
a competing inventor, Elisha Gray, to file him, so he had great difficulty in enforcing around an iron ring and found that pass-
his patent for the telephone—which was the patent he eventually was granted in ing a current through one coil induced a
followed by litigation.1 Most of the people 1775. His spinning frame was a significant momentary current in the other coil.
included in this list were involved in some technical advance because little training This is now known as mutual induc-
kind of argument about whether they was required of operators.2 tion. He found that if he moved a magnet
were first. through a loop of wire, an electric current
The innovators are listed by date, and The steam road locomotive flowed in the wire and that a changing
this means the first innovations may seem In 1801, at age 30, Richard Trevithick in- magnetic field produces an electric field.
unremarkable in the context of today’s vented a full-size steam road locomotive. This relationship was named Faraday’s
knowledge. But at the time, these were Trevithick named his carriage “Puffing Law. Faraday would later use the prin-
significant breakthroughs. Devil.” That year on Christmas Eve, he ciples he discovered to construct the
demonstrated it by carrying six pas- electric dynamo—an ancestor of modern
The spinning frame sengers through Camborne in Cornwall, power generators and electric motors.4
In 1768, when Richard Arkwright was 36, United Kingdom, to the nearby village of
he invented the spinning frame. Following Beacon. The telephone
This was the In 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell
first demonstration was 28 years old, he invented the tele-
of steam-powered phone. In 1874, Western Union con-
transportation. In tracted with Thomas Edison and Elisha
1802, Trevithick Gray to find out how to send multiple
filed a patent for his telegraph messages on a telegraph line
high-pressure steam and avoid the cost of new lines. Bell
engine. To prove told Gardiner Hubbard, a lawyer and
his ideas, he built philanthropist, and Thomas Sanders, a
a stationary engine businessman, that he was working on a
at Coalbrookdale method of sending multiple tones on a
Co. in Shropshire. telegraph wire, and they began to finan-
The engine ran at cially support Bell’s experiments.

44 QP • www.qualityprogress.com
 Although credit is often given to
In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic
telegraph and drew up a patent applica-

one person, breakthroughs

tion for it. Gray filed a caveat with the
U.S. Patent Office for a telephone design
that used a water transmitter. That same
morning, Bell’s lawyer filed Bell’s applica- usually result from a team effort
and typically occur over an
tion with the patent office. There is much
debate about who arrived first, and Gray

extended period of time.

later challenged Bell’s patent.5

The phonograph
In 1877, when he was 30, Thomas Edison
invented the phonograph. Edison began and high maintenance costs associated images by television at Selfridges depart-
his career as an inventor who improved with mechanical brushes. Westinghouse ment store in March 1925.
telegraph devices, but the phonograph first Electric Co. considered getting a patent Earlier that year in his lab, Baird trans-
gained him recognition. Edison later became on a similar induction motor that was de- mitted the first television picture with
known as “The Wizard of Menlo Park.” veloped in 1885, but it decided Tesla’s pat- a grayscale image: the head of a ven-
His first phonograph recorded on ent would probably control the market. 7
triloquist’s dummy in a 30-line vertically
tinfoil around a cylinder. The sound was scanned image, at five pictures per second.
poor and recordings could only be played The airplane Baird brought in a person from his office—
a few times, but it made him famous. In In 1903, at the ages of 39 and 35, Orville 20-year-old William Taynton—to see what
April 1878, Edison traveled to Washing- Wright and Wilbur Wright flew the first a human face would look like. This made
ton, D.C., to demonstrate the phonograph airplane. The Wrights based their aircraft Taynton the first person to be televised in a
before the National Academy of Sciences, design on work done in the 1890s by other full tonal range.9
congressmen, senators and President aeronauts. They designed the wings with
Rutherford B. Hayes. a curvature on the top surface for better The turbojet engine
The Washington Post described Edison lift. At first, Wilbur Wright incorrectly In 1937, at age 30, Frank Whittle single-
as a genius, and although Edison obtained believed a tail was not necessary. handedly invented the turbojet engine.
a patent for the phonograph in 1878, he Their shop mechanic built an engine in From an early age, Whittle demonstrated
did not develop it until the 1880s. He is just six weeks, keeping the weight low by an aptitude for engineering and an
better known for working on many other using an engine block cast from alumi- interest in flying. At Cranwell Aircraft
electrical inventions.6 num. The engine had a primitive carbure- Apprentices School, he learned the theory
tor and no fuel pump. Fuel was gravity- of aircraft engines, excelled in his studies
The induction motor fed from the fuel tank, and the fuel-air and became an accomplished pilot.
In 1887, when he was 31, Nikola Tesla mixture was vaporized by heat from the While writing his thesis, he formulated
developed the induction motor. It ran on crankcase. The Wrights finally took to the the fundamental concepts that led to the
an alternating current—a power system air on Dec. 17, 1903, making two flights creation of the turbojet engine, and he
format that was starting to be built in Eu- each from level ground into a freezing filed a patent for his design in 1930. He
rope and the United States because of its headwind. Their altitude was about 10 and two retired Royal Air Force service-
advantages in long-distance, high-voltage feet above the ground.8 men formed Power Jets Ltd. to build his
transmission. engine with assistance from the British
The motor used a polyphase current, The television Thomson-Houston firm. Despite limited
which generated a rotating magnetic field In 1925, when he was 37, John Logie Baird funding, a prototype was created and first
to turn the motor (a principle that Tesla invented the television. In February 1924, ran in 1937.10
claimed to have conceived five years Baird demonstrated that a semi-mechani-
earlier). Patented in 1888, this motor was cal analog television system was possible The Apple I
a simple, self-starting design that did not by transmitting moving images. He gave In 1976, at age 26, Steve Wozniak devel-
need a commutator, and avoided sparking the first public demonstration of moving oped the Apple Computer 1, also known

November 2016 • QP 45
 INNOVATION IMPERATIVE

as Apple I. He alone designed the hard- team effort and typically occur over an 5. “Alexander Graham Bell,” Biography.com, http://tinyurl.
com/graham-bell-qp.
ware, circuit board designs and operating extended period of time. Some innovators 6. “Thomas Edison,” Biography.com, http://tinyurl.com/
system for the Apple I. Steve Jobs had the did not make the list because they were edison-qp.
7. Wikipedia, “Nikola Tesla,” Wikipedia.org, http://tinyurl.
idea to sell it as a fully assembled printed more than 40 years old, such as John Har- com/tesla-qp.
8. “Wright Brothers,” History.com, http://tinyurl.com/wright-
circuit board. rison, who at age 68 created the marine brothers-qp.
Skeptical at first, Wozniak was later chronometer—a timepiece that’s accurate 9. “John Logie Baird (1888-1946),” BBC.co.uk, http://tinyurl.
com/wright-brothers-qp.
convinced by Jobs that, even if they were enough to be a portable time standard— 10. Robert Hardman, “The Genius Who Shrank the Globe,”
Daily Mail, April 22, 2011, http://tinyurl.com/hardman-qp.
not successful, they could at least say to and George Stephenson, who built and 11. Wikipedia, “Steve Wozniak,” Wikipedia.org, http://tinyurl.
their grandkids they once had their own ran the first passenger railway at age 44. com/wozniak-qp.

company. But don’t let age deter you. Remember

They sold some of their possessions, what James Bond said to Q in the movie
raised $1,300 and assembled the first “Skyfall,” “… youth is no guarantee of
boards in Jobs’ bedroom. The Apple I innovation.” QP
sold for $666.66, and the first 50 system PETER MERRILL is president of Quest
REFERENCES Management Inc., an innovation
boards were sold to a new computer 1. “This Day in History: Alexander Graham Bell Patents the consultancy based in Burlington,
Telephone,” History.com, http://tinyurl.com/alexander- Ontario. Merrill is the author of
store called the Byte Shop.11 several ASQ Quality Press books,
graham-qp.
2. “Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-1792),” BBC.co.uk, http:// including Innovation Never Stops
tinyurl.com/arkwright-qp. (2015), Do It Right the Second Time,
Age is just a number 3. L.T.C. Rolt, “Richard Trevithick,” Britannica.com, http:// second edition (2009) and Innovation
Although credit is often given to one per- tinyurl.com/trevithick-qp. Generation (2008). He is a member of ASQ, previous chair
4. “Michael Faraday (1791-1867),” BBC.co.uk, http://tinyurl. of the ASQ Innovation Division and current chair of the ASQ
son, breakthroughs usually result from a com/faraday-qp. Innovation Think Tank.

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