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	Browse Inventions: Safety Belt Safety Belt Safety pin Safety Razor Satellite Servicing Techniques Satellite Servicing Techniques When it comes to furthering innovation in space and technology, Cepoll . . . . Scanning Tunneling Microscope Scanning Tunneling Microscope Since the invention of the first microscope, scientists have searched . . . . Scanning Tunneling Microscope Scanning Tunneling Microscope Since the invention of the first microscope, scientists have searched for improved ways to explore the microscopic world. Optical systems were limited by the wavelength of light (roughly 2,000 times the diameter of an atom). Later, electron microscopes achieved much higher resolution by taking advantage of the much shorter wavelength of electrons in forming images. The most recent revolution came with Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Karl Binnig's scanning tunneling microscope (STM), invented in 1981, which provided the first images of individual atoms on the surfaces of materials. The STM can image atomic details as tiny as 1/25th the diameter of a typical atom, which corresponds to a resolution several orders of magnitude better than the best electron microscope. The STM's significance was quickly recognized throughout the world, and it has been used in fields as diverse as semiconductor science, metallurgy, electrochemistry, and molecular biology. Only five years after Binnig and Rohrer built the first STM, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Binnig and Rohrer began their STM work at the . . . . Scotchgard (TM) Textile Protector Block and Graft Copolymers Containing Water Solvatable Polar Groups and Fluoroaliphatic Groups Chemist Patsy Sherman and colleague Sam Smith were working at 3M Compa . . . . Scotchgard (TM) Textile Protector Block and Graft Copolymers Containing Water Solvatable Polar Groups and Fluoroaliphatic Groups Chemist Patsy Sherman and colleague Sam Smith were working at 3M Compa . . . . Screw Phillips Screw The significance of the crosshead or Phillips screw lies in its self-c . . . . Screw Propeller Propelling Steam Vessels John Ericsson invented the ship propeller and incorporated the landmark device into his design for the Civil War ironclad the Monitor. In 1826 he moved to London, where he showed the breadth of his engineering genius by developing or improving transmission of power by compressed air, new types of steam boilers, condensers for marine steam engines (so ships could travel farther), placing warship engines below the water line (for protection against shell fire), the steam fire-engine, the design and construction of a steam locomotive (which competed with the historic Rocket, the first steam powered locomotive), an apparatus that made salt from brine, superheated steam engines, the flame or 'caloric' engine. His most enduring invention was the screw propeller, which is still the main form of marine propulsion. Early methods of applying steam power at sea-steam-driven oars, paddle wheels-were inefficient and, for warships, vulnerable to enemy attack. In 1839 Ericsson introduced propellers to vessels on the canals and inland waterways and commenced building a 'big frigate' for the . . . . Semiconductor Devices Having Dielectric Coatings MOSFET John Atalla is one of the inventors of the metal-oxide-semiconductor f . . . . Sewing Machine Sewing Machine Elias Howe invented the first practical sewing machine. Born in Spence . . . . Shoe-lasting machine Signal flares used by ships Silicon Solar Cell Silicon Solar Cell Silicon Solar Cell Silicon Solar Cell Silicon Solar Cell Solar Energy Converting Apparatus Silicon Solar Cell Silicon Solar Cell Solar Energy Converting Apparatus Small Fan-Jet Engine Twin Spool Gas Turbine Engine With Axial and Centrifugal Compressors "It's interesting to look back and see what the pioneers did and see h . . . . Soft Contact Lens Solid Fuel Rockets Control Mechanism for Rocket Apparatus Robert Hutchings Goddard pioneered modern rocketry and space flight an . . . . Solid-Body Electric Guitar Solid-Body Electric Guitar His innovations led to his first solid-body electric guitar in 1941. C . . . . Sound recording instruments Space Capsule Design Space Shuttle Vehicle and System Beginning his career designing supersonic aircraft as a part of the Na . . . . Spatial Light Modulator and Method Spatial Light Modulator and Method Larry Hornbeck is the inventor of the Digital Micromirror Device, an a . . . . Spin Stabilized Synchronous Communications Satellite Apparatus Providing a Rotating Directive Antenna Field Pattern Associated With a Spinning Body In 1957, the United States was facing a problem. The Russians had succ . . . . Spinning Machine Stabilizing Gyroscpic Gyroscopic Apparatus Aeronautical engineer and university professor Charles Stark Draper de . . . . Steadicam Camera Stabilizer Steadicam Camera Stabilizer Steam Engine High Pressure Steam Engine Steam Generator Improvement in Steam Generators Stephen Wilcox worked with George Babcock to invent the water tube ste . . . . Steam Generator Improvement in Steam Generators Steam Generator; Controlled Differential Steam Generator; Controlled Differential Rollin H. White contributed to the development of steam generation in . . . . Steam Locomotive Steam Locomotive Matthias Baldwin built America's first great locomotive. The nation's . . . . Steam powered rock drill Steam powered transportation Steamboat Steamboat Steel making process in America Sterilizing Foodstuffs Food Preservatives Lloyd Hall was a pioneer in the field of food chemistry, creating many . . . . Stock ticker Streptomycin Streptomycin, a powerful antibiotic. Selman Waksman revolutionized medicine and saved the lives of countles . . . . Styrofoam Brand Foam Styrofoam Manufacture of Cellular Thermoplastic Products Submarine Supercomputer Computer Vector Register Processing Seymour Cray unveiled the CRAY-1 in 1976, considered the first superco . . . . Supercritical Wing Airfoil Shape for Flight at Subsonic Speeds In the years after World War II, military aviators found it so hard to . . . . Superglue Alcohol-Catalyzed Cyanoacrylate Adhesive Compositions Harry Coover's discovery of cyanoacrylates, a class of chemicals with . . . . Suspension Bridge Anchoring Suspension-Chains for Bridges In 1841, John Roebling invented a wire rope in order to improve upon t . . . . Synthetic Diamond Synthetic Diamond The GE Research Laboratories announced on February 15, 1955 that H. Tr . . . . Synthetic Diamond Synthetic Diamond Herbert Strong, along with Tracy Hall, Francis Bundy, and Robert Wento . . . . Synthetic Diamond Synthetic Diamond Robert Wentorf, along with Tracy Hall, Francis Bundy, and Herbert Stro . . . . Synthetic Rubber Diamine-Dicarboxylic Acid Salts and Process of Preparing Same; Synthetic Fiber Wallace Hume Carothers, who has been called one of the most brilliant organic chemists ever employed by . . . . Synthetic Rubber Vinyl Derivatives of Acetylene and Method of Preparing the Same Rev. Julius Nieuwland, C.S.C., was the inventor of the first synthetic . . . .