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As we approach the end of the Millennium, the Century, and the Decade, I am starting to realize what a turning point this is. I will especially miss this century, having lived in close to two thirds (actually 63 years) of it. I realize that when I leave my mortal coil, the 21st Century will be but a child. My soul is in the 20th Century and I think that I was very fortunate to have witnessed so much of its greatness.

The Twentieth Century will go down in the history of the world, as the century that re-defined life, through the invention and application of technology.

It all began with the preliminary years.

By the time the century started, Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) had invented the phonograph (1877), the incandescent light bulb (1879), and pioneered in the generation of power by installing the first electrical generating station in New York (1882). Edison would go on to invent the motion picture, the alkaline storage battery and many other items. At his death in 1931 he had 1,093 patents.

Although Edison pioneered in the generation of power, the power he generated was DC, (direct current) and Edison would not consider AC (alternating current). It took Nicola Tesla an ex-employee of Edison's, to develop the use of AC, which he demonstrated in 1888. Tesla sold his patent to George Westinghouse, who built the generating plants that fueled the growth of industry in the 20th Century. Tesla went on to becomes a prolific inventor in his own right, and his invention of the "Tesla Coil" was the prototype of the high voltage transformers used in today's TV sets.

George Eastman (Kodak) introduced the $25 box camera in 1885. This would permit the average American to document the forthcoming wonders of the Century to come.

1901: Sir Edward Elgar composes "Pomp and Circumstance" the send off for all future engineering graduates.

1902: Opera Singer Enrico Caruso makes his first phonograph recording

1903: The Wright Brothers fly for 12 seconds in Kitty Hawk, Ohio, ushering in manned flight for the first time. Marie and Pierre Curie win Nobel Prize for work on radioactivity. The Rolls Royce Company is formed and the first World Series of Baseball is played.

1904: The New York City subway opens.

1905: Ambrose Fleming invents the "Thermionic Valve" the first vacuum tube. Originally called the "Fleming Valve".

1909: Henry Ford starts building the first mass produced automobile.

1911: Hans Geiger invents a machine, which can count individual alpha particles.

1912: The Titanic sinks. Partly because the crew did not trust the wireless messages they were receiving.

1913: Bertrand Russell and A.E. Whithead publish Principia Mathematica and Danish Physicist, Neils Bohr, publishes his Atomic Theory.

1915: Albert Einstein formulates his General Theory of Relativity.

1917: Astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild develops the Black Hole Theory and the earliest Jazz recordings are made in New York City.

1918: Airmail Service begins between New York, Washington DC, and Philadelphia and the worlds largest telescope is installed at Mount Wilson Observatory.

1919: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is formed.

1926: "The Jazz Singer" the first "talking" motion picture is made.

1927: Charles Lindbergh flies non stop from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours.

1928: Amelia Earhart becomes the first women to fly across the Atlantic.

1930: British engineer, Frank Whittle, patents a gas turbine engine for jet aircraft.

1931: Organic Chemist, W.H. Carothers, invents nylon, the first successful synthetic fiber.

1931: Karl Jansky detects radio waves from space, beginning radio astronomy.

1933: Edwin Armstrong invents frequency modulation (FM) to reduce radio static.

1935: Scottish physicist, Robert Watson-Watt, patents first practical radar system and physicist, Hideki Yukawa, predicts the existence of the meson subatomic particle.

1937: The Hindenburg is destroyed by fire, Frank Greenhalgh is born, and the Golden Gate Bridge opens.

1938: German chemist, Otto Hahn, discovers the principals of nuclear fission, Benny Goodman gives his classic jazz concert in Carnegie Hall.

1939: Igor Sikorsky develops America's first successful helicopter. Frank Greenhalgh is hoisted on his father's shoulders to see man-made lightening at the New York World's Fair. The first memory of early youth.

1941: Joe Dimaggio hits in 56 consecutive games.

1945: It was August 5th, 1945 when an important event happened in my life. My mother had purchased a used Remmington typewriter from a neighbor. On this day we made a trip to Jamaica, NY from our home in Cambria Heights, NY. This was an all day trip involving over an hour on the bus and walking through all the various stores that Jamaica possessed. We found a typewriter department in Gertz department store, and my mother bought a ribbon for the typewriter, and a book for beginning typists, for me. When we returned home, and the ribbon was installed, I immediately took out the book and started to teach myself "Touch Typing". I taught myself at eight years old how to hold the position and I practiced typing by "Touch" and not looking at the keys. After a few weeks I got bored because I made too many mistakes, and quit typing.

In 1981, I bought a Kay Pro computer. When I approached the keyboard my hands found the "position"; I still remembered where the keys were. Of course I made a million mistakes (at first), but it was easy to backspace on the computer. I meet a lot of people who have been intimidated by the need to use a keyboard on a computer. I am thankful for that day in 1945 when my typing started. How do I know the exact date? When I was practicing and my mother was cooking dinner, the radio was on. The news broadcast announced that the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. I will never forget that day.

1946: ENIAC, the first digital electronic computer becomes operational.

1947: Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, and Edwin Land demonstrates the first camera to develop photos in one minute.

1948: The transistor is invented at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

1951: Television sets pass ten million sold.

1952: The first automatic pinsetter is installed in a Brooklyn bowling alley and I get my first Amateur Radio Novice License (Kn2DVX).

1953: Kn2DVX becomes K2dvx as I get my General license and build a transmitter for 144 megahertz (2 meters). I finally can go on phone and leave 80 meter CW.

1954: The first Nuclear Submarine, the Nautilus, is launched.

1955: Jonas Salk's vaccine is first used to combat polio.

1957: The USSR launches Sputnik1. The first artificial satellite ever.

1958: The United States launches the first ICBM, Explorer1 and Vanguard1 scientific satellites. This was also the International Geophysical Year. The sun spot cycle was very high. Six-meter and ten-meter amateur bands were delivering signals from all around the world.

1959: Hawaii becomes the 50th state and Boeing introduces the 707.

1962: Mariner II, space probe passes within 22,000 miles of Venus. U.S. launches Telstar, the first commercial communications satellite.

1965: Thirty Million People are without power in the North Eastern US. Caused by too low a setting on a relay in Niagara Falls. It disconnected a major transmission line and the entire North East was without power. I remember driving home from Trio Labs at 5:45 PM. The sun was just down and the Long Island Expressway had heavy traffic. All of a sudden the radio station I was listening to disappeared. I noticed that the expressway lighting had gone out. The only radio stations came from Pennsylvania. This is a big one I thought but we made it home without the aid of traffic lights and ate by candlelight. Power was out for about thirteen hours. It would have been longer except that the town of Rockville Center was not on the grid and had its own generating plant. When the power went down each generating plant on the grid went down and without power from the grid they could not re-start. Fortunately, the small town of Rockville Center, had power and was used as the candle to re-start the Con Edison's and LILCOs of the area

1966: Luna 9, the Soviet space probe makes first landing on the moon. The British Hawker Harrier is worlds first VTOL (vertical take off and landing) aircraft.

1968: Stanley Kubrick directs 2001:A Space Odyssey. We aren't as advanced as we thought we might be. Apollo 8 circles the moon.

1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren land on the Moon! New York Jets win first Super Bowl for AFC !

1970: Beatles break up, Boeing 747 is introduced.

1976: U.S. Viking spacecraft lands on Mars. In those days they were successful.

1977: Apple and Commodore are selling personal computers.

1979: Three Mile Island nuclear accident causes near disaster.

1980: Digital World starts and continues for twenty years.

In 1980, when I decided to "look into" the use of computers in engineering (I was VP of Engineering at CEAG), I decided to purchase a Kay-Pro. This portable (38lbs) with its 5"CRT, 64K of RAM and two 200K, 51/4" floppies fascinated me. It put a spell on me that has continued for these twenty years. The personal computer will go down as the invention of the century.

The use of digital representation of information has changed and is still changing the world.

The Cell phone, Internet, CD player, CD-ROM, DVD and DV (Digital Video) and Satellite Video, are all just coming to age. As we enter the 21st Century we can look forward to being the most connected humans in the world.

My wish to you, as we enter the next Millennium, is:

Higher Bandwidth to all - and to all a Happy New Year.

PS: I know the list is far from complete. If you wish to add any of your favorites please send in a comment.

Frank Greenhalgh
12/15/99

Comments Frank's column hit a nerve and the responses we are receiving are proof of that. Read the comments as well as Frank's response

About the Author

Frank Greenhalgh has been working in power supplies and systems for 38 years. He has many impressive accomplishments and patents. Over the years he has made significant contributions to Trio Laboratories where he held the position of Chief Design Engineer and was then promoted to Vice President.