Mother of Invention

Necessity is the mother of invention… or is it? The real mother of invention is not necessity, but curiosity. From the discovery of electricity, the invention of the light bulb, car, airplane, and air conditioning to Global Positioning Satellite systems curiosity has been the reason behind the invention. One of the greatest discoveries ever was the discovery of electricity. Ben Franklin has been given the most credit for the discovery of electricity. Before the legendary kite experiment in 1752 electricity was a known force of nature, but it had not been thoroughly studied. Even after that Franklin did not know what potential his discovery of electricity had. It is said that he once tried to kill a Christmas turkey with electricity, but accidentally made contact with the current and received a nice shock. As time progressed Franklin created more and more electrical devices including the battery and the lightening rod (Thinkquest.org). These inventions were discovered through theories and hypothesis that Franklin thought might be true and he tried them and they worked. All of these things are nice, and today people probably would have difficulty living without them, but at the time in the mid-1700's people had no n

This was good for scientific experiments (MIT's Invention Demention website). The invention of the air conditioning unit is a very popular one here in Phoenix. But with the air conditioning not only could you control the air temperature, but you could also control the humidity. Even though the air conditioning was a great invention, it is not a necessity. This means that necessity is not the mother of invention, curiosity is the mother of invention. The Wright brothers invented the airplane in 1903. A more recent invention is the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. This was the socially accepted means of travel and people did not need anything more than a way to get from point a to point b. In 1902, after earning a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University Willis Carrier invented the first air conditioner. It is nice to know that a person can fly from Phoenix to Las Angeles in just a few hours where it would take 6 or 7 hours by car and days by hose-back or months on foot. He wanted to see if he could create a better way to light a home that with candles or lamps.