Time travel Tuesday #timetravel a look back at the Adafruit, maker, science, technology and engineering world
Road? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. – Dr. Emmett Brown.
Here’s a look back at the maker world and beyond!
1956 – The Birth of the First Female Spaceship Pilot
Eileen Collins, the first American woman to command a spaceship, turned 57 today. Happy birthday!
1872 – The First Patented + and – Machine that Printed Totals
In 1872, the first U.S. patent (#133,188) for an adding machine capable of printing totals and subtotals, called a “calculating machine,” was issued to E.D. Barbour of Boston, Mass. However, it was not practical to produce. As Mr. Barbour declared on his patent filing, though:
Be it known that I, EDMUND D. BARBOUB, of the city of Boston, county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Calculating-Machines; and I do declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a plan of case A and of device for moving the registering-slide; Fig. 2 is a section of device for moving the registeringslide; Fig. 3 is a section of case A on line a a of Fig. 1, and of the registering-slide on line Z) Z) of Fig. 4:; Fig. 4 is a plan of the registering-slide, Fig. 5 is an elevation of case A and front plate of the registering-slide on line 0 c of Figs. 3 and l; and Fig. (3 is an elevation of lever for carrying from one denomination to another.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.