Technology & innovation | Peter Schulte

Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman run first human trial of cancer chemotherapy

Peter Schulte / August 27, 1942

In collaboration with thoracic surgeon Gustaf Lindskog, the two doctors from Yale School of Medicine injected the chemical mustine into a patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In a monumental moment for the field of medicine, the patient, a Polish immigrant to Connecticut known in literature only as JD, experienced a dramatic reduction in his tumor masses, paving the way for millions of future patients who would benefit from the therapy in the years and decades to come.

DuPont invents nylon, the world’s first commercially viable synthetic textile

Peter Schulte / January 24, 1935

Nylon was first used commercially in a nylon-bristled toothbrush in 1938, followed more famously in women’s stockings or “nylons” which were shown at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and first sold commercially in 1940.

Canadian scientists Frederick Banting (right) and Charles Best circa 1924

Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolate insulin for the first time

Peter Schulte / July 28, 1921

Within a year, people suffering from diabetes were being treated with insulin for a disease that had been considered fatal.

The Panama Canal officially opens

Peter Schulte / August 15, 1914

France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914.

Ford Motor Company institutes world’s first moving assembly line for the Model T

Peter Schulte / December 2, 1913

The assembly line, driven by conveyor belts, reduced production time for a Model T to just 93 minutes by dividing the process into 45 steps.

Frank Shuman thermal solar plant concept drawing

Frank Shuman builds the world’s first solar thermal power plant in Egypt

Peter Schulte / March 23, 1913

Frank Shuman was an American inventor, engineer, and solar energy pioneer known for his work on solar engines. Shuman built the world’s first solar thermal power station in Maadi, Egypt in 1913, using used semi circle shaped troughs to power a 60-70 horsepower engine that pumped 6,000 gallons of water per minute from the Nile River to adjacent cotton fields.

First ammonia reactor from BASF during assembly at the factory Oppau

Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch invent the Haber-Bosch Process allowing for mass-scale production of ammonia-based fertilizer

Peter Schulte / September 15, 1909

The Haber-Bosch process, is an artificial nitrogen fixation process and is the main industrial procedure for the production of ammonia today.

The 12-minute-long silent film, The Great Train Robbery becomes the first narrative movie ever

Peter Schulte / June 13, 1903

The Great Train Robbery’s popularity led directly to the opening up of permanent movie theaters and the possibility of a future film industry.

James Blyth's windmill at his cottage in Marykirk in 1891

James Blyth of Scotland builds world’s first ever wind turbine used for electricity generation

Peter Schulte / July 10, 1887

Blyth’s 10 m high, cloth-sailed wind turbine was installed in the garden of his holiday cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire and was used to charge accumulators developed by the Frenchman Camille Alphonse Faure, to power the lighting in the cottage, thus making it the first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power. Blyth offered the surplus electricity to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however, they turned down the offer as they thought electricity was “the work of the devil.”

American inventor Charles Fritts created the first commercial solar panel

Peter Schulte / September 16, 1881

Though his solar panels were very inefficient and thus not economically-viable for most uses, they were a critical early step in the development of renewable energy technology.