makerbirthdays

Maker Birthdays: Stephanie Kwolek

Maker Birthdays: Stephanie Kwolek

Born on this date in 1923 in the Pittsburgh suburb of New Kensington, Stephanie Louise Kwolek (Wikipedia) graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1946. She would go on, starting in 1964, to discover the remarkable properties of paraphenylene terephtalamide polymers, research which would culminate in 1971 with the advent of Kevlar (Wikipedia), an entirely new field of polymer chemistry, and the countless remarkable applications thereof we now enjoy. Today Dr. Kwolek is 87. Happy Birthday!

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Maker Birthdays: Gary Gygax

Maker Birthdays: Gary Gygax

Today, in 1938, Ernest Gary Gygax was born in Chicago, IL. He would go on to create a gaming and publishing empire, built on math-driven storytelling and gem-like Platonic solids dice (co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons). Anybody who’s ever played Dungeons & Dragons will know why Gary Gygax is suited to be […]

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Maker Birthdays: Harry Partch

Born on this date in 1901, American composer Harry Partch (Wikipedia) made music he wrote himself, in a tonal system he designed himself, on instruments he designed, and built, himself. He is largely responsible for the build-your-own-instruments craze that began in the 70s and continues to influence modern performers like The Blue Man Group and, oh, what’s his name…that cigar-box guitar guy…Mark something? Partch died in 1974, aged 73. American Public Media has a great online gallery of Partch’s instruments, including “virtual” versions you can play yourself in a Flash application.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Maker Birthdays: Kevin Kelly

Maker Birthdays: Kevin Kelly

This year, we decided, besides covering the birthdays of icons of technology and science who are no longer with us, we’d celebrate some of the living icons who’ve directly influenced our lives as makers. When I started brainstorming my list, Kevin Kelly was one of the first people on it. Kevin was an editor of […]

Continue Reading Gareth Branwyn4
Maker Birthdays: Guglielmo Marconi

Maker Birthdays: Guglielmo Marconi

Born on this date in 1874, Guglielmo Marconi (Wikipedia) was a prominent early inventor in the development of the technology, then called “wireless telegraphy,” that today we know as radio. Even today, Marconi is commonly remembered as “the inventor of radio,” although the priority of other inventors–notably Nikola Tesla–is fairly well established. The debate over who is rightfully credited for the invention of radio has become known as “The Great Radio Controversy” (Wikipedia). Even so, there is no debate that Marconi’s achievements as an engineer, inventor, and businessman are of historic significance. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun, “in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.” Marconi died in 1937, aged 63.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan