On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 7:27:16 PM UTC-5, Dean Hoffman wrote:
A show on the Science Channel called How We Invented the World
showed skyscrapers. The inspiration for the design was a woman
placing a heavy book on a bird cage. William LeBaron Jenny is credited
with designing the first one. Article he
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Le_Baron_Jenney
Otis, the elevator brake inventor, got his idea from
a buggy spring according to the show.
It's neat how unrelated things come together.
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Inventors get their ideas and are inspired by the darnedest things. I was watching a video about inventions from the turn of the 20th century when it described the idea behind the machinegun. Hiram Maxim got the idea for the machine gun because he got a sore shoulder from shooting his rifle. He figured he could harness the force of the recoil to operate an automatic loading and ejection mechanism for a gun. I love the history of technology. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Auto Monster