World's First discoveries

1. World’s First DigitalCamera (1975): Created by Kodak's engineer Steve Sasson

InDecember 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented something that would,decades later, revolutionize photography: the world’s first digitalcamera. It was the size of a toaster, and captured black and white imagesat a resolution of 100×100 - or 0.01 megapixels in today’s marketingterminology. The images were stored on cassette tape, taking 23 seconds towrite. The camera uses an ADC from Motorola, a bog-standard (for the1970s) lens from a Kodak movie camera, and a CCD chip from FairchildSemiconductor - the same technology that digital cameras still use today.To playback the images, a special computer and tape reader setup (picturedbelow) was built, outputting the grainy images on a standard TV. It took afurther 23 seconds to read each image from tape.


2. World's First Motel (1925):Motel Inn

Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, California, is theworld’s first motel. It was built in 1925 by LA architect ArthurHeineman, who coined the term motel meaning "motor hotel." Motel Inn wasoriginally called the Milestone Mo-Tel. Back then, one night stay was$1.25. Heineman couldn’t afford the trademark registration fee, so hiscompetitors were able to use the word "motel." The motel is still inoperation today.



3. World's First Album Cover(1938): Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart

Before AlexSteinweiss, then a 23-year-old designer, invented album covers in 1938 forColumbia Records, albums were sold in plain brown wrappers. The album"Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart" was the very first album cover inthe world.


4. World's First Novel (1007):Tale of Genji

More than a thousend years ago, on 1007, aJapanese court lady put the finishing touches on what is considered theworld's first novel. Spanning 75 years, more than 350 characters, andbrimming with romantic poems, the "Tale of Genji" tells the story of anemperor's son, his quest for love, and the many women he meets along theway. It is attributed to the Japanese noblewoman MurasakiShikibu.



5. World's First Web Server andWeb Site (1990): a NeXT computer at CERN

Info.cern.ch wasthe address of the world's first-ever web site and web server, running ona NeXT computer at CERN. The first web page address was http://info.cern.ch/hypertex t/WWW/TheProject .html, made by TimBerners-Lee.


6. World's First Motorcycle(1885): Daimler's "riding car"

The First Motorcycle wasdesigned and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and WilhelmMaybach in Bad Cannstatt (Stuttgart) in 1885. It was essentially amotorised bicycle, although the inventors called their invention theReitwagen ("riding car"). It was also the first petroleum-poweredvehicle.




7. World's First X-Ray (1895):Röntgen's wife hand

In 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen,professor of physics the University of Wurburg in Germany, was doingexperiments with electrical discharges in evacuated glass tubes. Late in1895 Wilhelm Röntgen was alone at night doing his experiments, this timein the dark and noticed a glow was produced on the wall, which he knew wasnot caused by fluorescence or visible light. He named these new,unidentified rays 'X' or if you prefer; X-rays. After several months ofplaying with his discovery he noticed that objects place in the path ofthe rays cast shadows and created images on the wall. Soon after he used aphotgraphic plate and had his wife, Frau Röntgen, place her hand in thepath of the X-rays, creating the world's first X-ray picture. In 1901Wilhelm Röntgen was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics forthis discovery.





8. World's First Computer Mouse(1964): by Douglas Engelbart

The world's first computermouse was made by Douglas Engelbart in 1964, it consisted of twogear-wheels positioned perpendicular to each other -- allowing movement onone axis. Ergonomic shape, great button placement -- and it's made ofwood.



9. World's First Skyscraper(1885): Home Insurance Building in Chicago

Considered to bethe first skyscraper in the world due to the building's uniquearchitecture and unique weight bearing frame, the Home Insurance Buildingwas built in 1885 in Chicago, Illinois and demolished in 1931 to make wayfor the Field Building (now the LaSalle National Bank Building). It wasthe first building to use structural steel in its frame, but the majorityof its structure was composed of cast and wrought iron. It was the firsttall building to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproofmetal frame. It had 10 stories and rose to a height of 138 feet (42 m)high.



10. World's First Concept Car(1938): Buick Y-Job

Designed in 1938 by the famous GeneralMotors designer Harley Earl, the Buick Y-Job is considered by most to bethe first concept car. The car had power-operated hidden headlamps,"gunsight" hood ornament, wraparound bumpers, flush door handles, andprefigured styling cues used by Buick until the 1950s.



11. World's First MP3 Player(1998): MPMan 32MB

Released in 1998, the Eiger Labs MPManwas the world's first MP3 player, boasting 32MB of internal memory --expandable to 64MB. Available in F10 or F20 models, the latter boastingSmartMedia compatibility, this player set you back a mere $69 + shipping.It measures a slim 91 x 70 x 16.5 mm.



12. World's First Crossword(1913): Arthur Wynne's Invention

In 1913, Arthur Wynne hadthe job of devising the weekly puzzle page for Fun, the eight-page comicsection of the New York World, a major newspaper of the time. When hedevised what he called a Word-cross for the Christmas edition, publishedon 21 December, he could have no idea that he would be starting aworldwide craze.



13. World's FirstMicroprocessor (1971): Intel 4004

In November, 1971, acompany called Intel publicly introduced the world's first single chipmicroprocessor, the Intel 4004 (U.S. Patent #3,821,715), invented by Intelengineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stan Mazor. After the inventionof integrated circuits revolutionized computer design, the only place togo was down -- in size that is. The Intel 4004 chip took the integratedcircuit down one step further by placing all the parts that made acomputer think (i.e. central processing unit, memory, input and outputcontrols) on one small chip. Programming intelligence into inanimateobjects had now become possible.



14. World's First Magazine(1731): The Gentleman's Magazine

The Gentleman's Magazine,first published in 1731, in London, is considered to have been the first magazine. Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban", was the first to use the term "magazine", on the analogy of a military storehouse of varied materiel, originally derivedfrom the Arabic makazin "storehouses" . It ceased publication in September, 1907.



15. World's First Photograph(1826): "View from the Window at Le Gras"

Centuries ofadvances in chemistry and optics, including the invention of the camera obscura, set the stage for the world’s first photograph. In 1826, Frenchscientist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, took that photograph, titled Viewfrom the Window at Le