Famous Scholars Who Changed the Course of History

It is obvious to people of our time that science and technology play a very important, decisive role in modern society. However, it was not always so. The ancient Greeks, for example, viewed the craft of a mechanic as an occupation of commoners, unworthy of a true scientist. The world religions that appeared later initially rejected science altogether.
One of the fathers of the Christian church, Tertullian, claimed that after the Gospel, there was no need for any other knowledge. Muslims reasoned in a similar way. When the Arabs captured Alexandria, they burned the famous Library of Alexandria – Caliph Omar declared that since there was the Koran, there was no need for other books. Moreover, many medieval scholars were persecuted by the Inquisition, threatening to be burned at the stake.
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George Stephenson

George Stephenson is undoubtedly one of the greatest minds in history. A worker by birth, without receiving any school education, even being illiterate until adulthood, Stephenson not only managed to overcome all the unfavorable conditions of his life, acquire significant and varied knowledge, and achieve a high social position but also became one of the outstanding geniuses of mankind.
The inventor and mechanical engineer gained worldwide fame thanks to the locomotive he designed. Stephenson is also considered one of the "fathers" of railways. The track gauge he chose was called the Stephenson gauge and is still the standard in many countries around the world.

Robert Fulton

Robert Fulton is one of the scientists who changed the world. Robert was born in Pennsylvania, USA. From an early age, Robert showed an inclination for two activities: painting and mechanics. Studying mathematics and theoretical mechanics, Robert Fulton became fascinated with the idea of ​​using steam in shipping. He constantly had to find funds for his inventions and periodically suffered failures.
He began experimenting with torpedoes and even presented Napoleon with a practical model of the Nautilus submarine. Fulton presented plans for the construction of a steamship to the governments of the United States and Great Britain, but despite all his efforts, he was unable to find the funds to carry them out. At that time, he was already 31 years old.
At the request of US Ambassador Robert Livingston, Fulton began experiments with steam engines. In 1803, a steamboat was tested on the Seine River. He patented his steamboat and built several more steamships in the following years. In 1814, construction began on the 44-gun military steamship Demologos for the US Navy, but this project was completed after his death.

Pierre-Simon Laplace

A French mathematician and astronomer known for his work in the field of differential equations and one of the creators of probability theory, Laplace was the chairman of the Bureau of Weights and Measures and headed the Bureau des Longitudes. The Paris Academy published his treatises on probability theory in 13 volumes. However, the greatest number of Pierre Laplace's studies relate to celestial mechanics, which he studied all his life.
Laplace worked on the five-volume work A Treatise of Celestial Mechanics for 26 years. He compiled more accurate tables of the Moon, which was important in determining longitudes at sea and, therefore, played a major role in navigation. The phenomenon of the ebb and flow of the tide was despondently called by the ancients the grave of human curiosity. Laplace was the first to confidently recognize the connection between these phenomena and the attractive force of the Moon and the Sun.
Pierre Laplace was undoubtedly a great scientist and a widely educated man: he knew languages, history, chemistry, and biology and loved poetry, music, and painting. He had an excellent memory and recited whole pages from the French poet and playwright Jean Racine until his old age. There were many talented young scientists around him whom he patronized.

Leonhard Euler

Leonhard Euler was an outstanding Swiss scientist who made a significant contribution to the development of mechanics, physics, astronomy, and a number of applied sciences. Euler is recognized as the most productive mathematician in history.
He published two volumes of his analytical mechanics, then two parts of an introduction to arithmetic in German and a new theory of music. For his essay on the ebb and flow of the seas, Leonhard Euler received the prize of the French Academy. During his life, Leonhard Euler wrote about 900 scientific papers.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison registered his first patent at the age of 22. Later, he worked so productively that he created an average of one small invention every 10 days and one large one every six months. Edison invented an electric vote recorder, but there were no buyers for this patent. Then Thomas decided for himself that he would only work on inventions with guaranteed demand.
Later, he expanded the capabilities of the telegraph device: now it could transmit not only SOS signals but also information about stock exchange rates. Edison earned 40 thousand dollars on this invention and soon organized a workshop where he made automatic telegraph devices and other electrical equipment.
In 1877, Edison invented the phonograph, which he would consider his favorite creation for the rest of his life. The press called the phonograph "the greatest discovery of the century," and Edison himself suggested many ways to use it: dictating letters and documents without a stenographer, playing music, and recording conversations. Edison's new invention, which shook the world, was a device for demonstrating sequential photographs – a kinescope. In April 1896, Edison held the first public showing of a film in New York, and in 1913, he demonstrated a film with synchronous sound.

Samuel Morse

Samuel Finley Morse is known throughout the world as the inventor of the electromagnetic recording telegraph – the "Morse apparatus" and the transmission code – the "Morse code."
In 1837, he developed a system of transmitting letters using dots and dashes, which became known throughout the world as Morse code. However, he found no support in implementing the idea either at home, in England, or France, meeting with refusal everywhere. From his trip to Europe, Samuel returned home with dashed hopes.
In another attempt to interest the US Congress in the creation of telegraph lines, he attracted a congressman as a partner, and in 1843 Morse received a subsidy of $30,000 to build the first telegraph line. Having received the necessary funds, Morse immediately began to build a trial telegraph line, which was completed a little over a year later, although the public was outraged for a long time that Congress was wasting public money on such a crazy undertaking. A few years later, the telegraph spread to America and Europe, and it was recognized as one of the most remarkable discoveries of our century.
 

 

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