Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1750
1752 - Ben Franklin flew his kite in the storm.
1774 - John Walsh proved electricity
passes through humans.
1785 - Coulomb worked out the laws
of attraction and repulsion between
electrically charged bodies.
1791 - Galvani published his findings
on “animal electricity.”
1800
1800 - Volta built the first battery.
1820 - Oersted discovered electromagnetism.
Ampere measured the magnetic effect
of an electric current.
1826 - Ohm formulated law of
electrical resistance.
1831 - Faraday and Henry found
that a moving magnet would induce
an electric current in a coil of wire.
1850
1860 - Maxwell worked out the mathematical
equations for the laws of electricity and magnetism.
1886 - Hertz discovered the electromagnetic wave.
1897 - Thomson discovered electrons.
1903 - Einthoven discovered the galvanometer.
1909 - Millikan measured the charge of the
electron.
1920s - Television was invented.
1895 - Roentgen discovered x-rays.
1900
1904 - Fleming invented the vacuum tube.
1929 - Hans Berger recorded the first EEG.
1948 - The first large-scale
computer w
as built.
1935 - Amplifiers were used to record EEGs.
1948 - Transistors became readily available.
1950
1960 - Chardock and Greatbatch
created the first implantable pacemaker.
1959 - First transistor-based computer was made.
1972 - First CAT machine was made.
First microprocessor was used.
1981 - IBM introduced the
first personal computer.
2000
FIGURE 9.1
Timeline for major inventions and discoveries that led to modern medical instrumentation.
In 1929, Hans Berger created the first electroencephalogram (EEG), which is used to
measure and record electrical activity of the brain. In 1935, electrical amplifiers were used
to prove that the electrical activity of the cortex had a specific rhythm, and in 1960, electrical
amplifiers were used in devices such as the first implantable pacemaker that was created
by William Chardack and Wilson Greatbatch. These are just a small sample of the many
