10 Serependitous Inventions

 

Louis Pasteur once said, "chance favors the prepared mind." 

That's the genius behind all these accidental inventions - the scientists were prepared.

 They did their science on the brink and were able to see the magic in a mistake, 

set-back, or coincidence.

No. 10 - Saccharin

Saccharin, the sweetener in the pink packet, was discovered because chemist Constantin Fahlberg 

didn't wash his hands after a day at the office. Prepare to get icked. The year was 1879 and Fahlberg was 

trying to come up with new and interesting uses for coal tar. After a productive day at the office, he went home 

and something strange happened. He noticed the rolls he was eating tasted particularly sweet. 

He asked his wife if she had done anything interesting to the rolls, but she hadn't. They tasted normal to her. 

Fahlberg realized the taste must have been coming from his hands -- which he hadn't washed. 

The next day he went back to the lab and started tasting his work until he found the sweet spot.

No. 9 - Smart Dust 

Most people would be pretty upset if their homework blew up in their faces and crumbled into a bunch of tiny pieces. 

Not so student Jamie Link. When Link was doing her doctoral work in chemistry at the University of California, 

San Diego, one of the silicon chips she was working on burst. She discovered afterward, however, that the tiny pieces 

still functioned as sensors. The resulting "smart dust" won her the top prize at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in 2003. 

These teensy sensors can also be used to monitor the purity of drinking or seawater, to detect hazardous chemical 

or biological agents in the air, or even to locate and destroy tumor cells in the body.
No. 8 - Coke

There are many stories of accidentally invented food: the potato chip was born when cook George Crum 

(yes, really his name!) tried to silence a persnickety customer who kept sending french fries back to the kitchen 

for being soggy; Popsicles were invented when Frank Epperson left a drink outside in the cold overnight; and ice cream 

cones were invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. But no food-vention has had as much success as Coke. 

Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton was trying to make a cure for headaches. He mixed together a bunch of ingredients -

and don't ask, because we don't know; The recipe is still a closely guarded secret. It only took eight years of being sold

 in a drug store  before the drink was popular enough to be sold in bottles. 

No. 7- Teflon

After all the damage they've done to the ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are persona non grata. 

Back in the 1930s, however, they were (pardon the pun) the hot new thing in the science of refrigeration. 

Young DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was working to make a new a new kind of CFC. 

He had a theory that if he could get a compound called TFE to react with hydrochloric acid, 

he could produce the refrigerant he wanted. So, to start his experiment Plunkett got a whole bunch of TFE gas,

 cooled it and pressured it in canisters so it could be stored until he was ready to use it. 

When the time came to open the container and put the TFE and hydrochloric acid together so they could react,

 nothing came out of the canister. The gas had disappeared. Only it hadn't. Frustrated and angry, 

Plunkett took off the top of the canister and shook it. Out came some fine white flakes. 

Luckily for everyone who's ever made an omelet, he was intrigued by the flakes 

and handed them off to other scientists at DuPont.
No. 6 - Vulcanized Rubber

Charles Goodyear had been waiting years for a happy accident when it finally occurred. 

Goodyear spent a decade finding ways to make rubber easier to work with while being resistant to heat and cold. 

Nothing was having the effect he wanted. One day he spilled a mixture of rubber, sulfur and lead onto a hot stove. 

The heat charred the mixture, but didn't ruin it. When Goodyear picked up the accident, 

he noticed that the mixture had hardened but was still quite usable. At last! 

The breakthrough he had been waiting for! His vulcanized rubber is used in everything from tires, 

to shoes, to hockey pucks. 

No. 5 - Plastic

In 1907 shellac was used as insulation in electronics. It was costing the industry a pretty penny to import shellac,

 which was made from Southeast Asian beetles, and at home chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might turn a profit 

if he could produce a shellac alternative. Instead his experiments yielded a moldable material that could take high temperatures 

without distorting. Baekeland thought his "Bakelite" might be used for phonograph records, but it was soon clear that 

the product had thousands of uses. Today plastic, which was derived from Bakelite, is used for everything from telephones

 to iconic movie punch lines. 
No. 4 - Radioactivity

Two words that you don't ever want to hear said in the same sentence are "Whoops!" and "radioactive." 

But in the case of physicist Henri Becquerel's surprise discovery, it was an accident that brought radioactivity to light. 

Back in 1896 Becquerel was fascinated by two things: natural fluorescence and the newfangled X-ray. 

He ran a series of experiments to see if naturally fluorescent minerals produced X-rays 

after they had been left out in the sun. 

One problem - he was doing these experiments in the winter, and there was one week with a long stretch of overcast skies. 

He left his equipment wrapped up together in a drawer and waited for a sunny day. 

When he got back to work, Becquerel realized that the uranium rock he had left in the drawer had imprinted itself 

on a photographic plate without being exposed to sunlight first. 

There was something very special about that rock. Working with Marie and Pierre Curie, 

he discovered that that something was radioactivity. 

No. 3 - Mauve

Talk about strange connections - 18-year-old chemist William Perkin wanted to cure malaria;

 instead his scientific endeavors changed the face of fashion forever and, oh yeah, helped fight cancer. 

Confused? Don't be. 

Here's how it happened. In 1856 Perkin was trying to come up with an artificial quinine. 

Instead of a malaria treatment, his experiments produced a thick murky mess. 

But the more he looked at it, the more Perkin saw a beautiful color in his mess. 

Turns out he had made the first-ever synthetic dye. 

His dye was far better than any dyes that came from nature; the color was brighter,

 more vibrant, and didn't fade or wash out. 

His discovery also turned chemistry into a money-generating science - making it attractive

 for a whole generation of curious-minded people. But the story is not over yet. 

One of the people inspired by Perkin's work was German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, 

who used Perkin's dyes to pioneer immunology and chemotherapy. 

No. 2 - Pacemaker

 

This list wouldn't be complete without at least one absent-minded professor. 

But it's not flubber clocking in at No. 2, it's a life saving medical device. 

That pacemaker sewn into a loved one's chest actually came about because American engineer 

Wilson Greatbatch reached into a box and pulled out the wrong thing.  It's true. 

Greatbatch was working on making a circuit to help record fast heart sounds. 

He reached into a box for a resistor in order to finish the circuit and pulled out a 1-megaohm resistor 

instead of a 10,000-ohm one. The circuit pulsed for 1.8 milliseconds and then stopped for one second. 

Then it repeated. The sound was as old as man: a perfect heartbeat. 

No. 1 - Penicillin

You read this far into the list looking for penicillin, didn't you? 

That's OK. As one of the most famous and fortunate accidents of the 20th century, penicillin belongs at No. 

1 on this list. If you've been living under a rock for the past 80 years or so, here's how the popular story goes:

 Alexander Fleming didn't clean up his workstation before going on vacation one day in 1928. 

When he came back, Fleming noticed that there was a strange fungus on some of his cultures. 

Even stranger was that bacteria didn't seem to thrive near those cultures. 

Penicillin became the first and is still one of the most widely used antibiotics. 

Nikola Tesla .the forgotten genius.

The 10 Inventions of Nikola Tesla That Changed The World

'Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. Throughout space there is energy.  -- Nikola Tesla, 1892 

Source

Nicholas West
Activist Post

Nikola Tesla is finally beginning to attract real attention and encourage serious debate nearly 70 years after his death.  Was he for real? A crackpot? Part of an early experiment in corporate-government control? 

We know that he was undoubtedly persecuted by the energy power brokers of his day -- namely Thomas Edison, whom we are taught in school to revere as a genius.  He was also attacked by J.P. Morgan and other "captains of industry." Upon Tesla's death on January 7th, 1943, the U.S. government moved into his lab and apartment confiscating all of his scientific research, and to this day none of this research has been made public.

Besides his persecution by corporate-government interests (which is practically a certification of authenticity), there is at least one solid indication of Nikola Tesla's integrity -- he tore up a contract with Westinghouse that was worth billions in order to save the company from paying him his huge royalty payments.

But, let's take a look at what Nikola Tesla -- a man who died broke and alone -- has actually given to the world.  For better or worse, with credit or without, he changed the face of the planet in ways that perhaps no man ever has.

1. Alternating Current -- This is where it all began, and what ultimately caused such a stir at the 1893 World's Expo in Chicago.  A war was leveled ever-after between the vision of Edison and the vision of Tesla for how electricity would be produced and distributed.  The division can be summarized as one of cost and safety: The DC current that Edison (backed by General Electric) had been working on was costly over long distances, and produced dangerous sparking from the required converter (called a commutator).  Regardless, Edison and his backers utilized the general "dangers" of electric current to instill fear in Tesla's alternative: Alternating Current.  As proof, Edison sometimes electrocuted animals at demonstrations.  Consequently, Edison gave the world the electric chair, while simultaneously maligning Tesla's attempt to offer safety at a lower cost.  Tesla responded by demonstrating that AC was perfectly safe by famously shooting current through his own body to produce light.  This Edison-Tesla (GE-Westinghouse) feud in 1893 was the culmination of over a decade of shady business deals, stolen ideas, and patent suppression that Edison and his moneyed interests wielded over Tesla's inventions. Yet, despite it all, it is Tesla's system that provides power generation and distribution to North America in our modern era.




AC  producing coils

The nameplate on one of the Westinghouse alternating current generators installed at the Edward Dean Adams Station, Niagara Falls.

2. Light -- Of course he didn't invent light itself, but he did invent how light can be harnessed and distributed.  Tesla developed and used florescent bulbs in his lab some 40 years before industry "invented" them. At the World's Fair, Tesla took glass tubes and bent them into famous scientists' names, in effect creating the first neon signs.  However, it is his Tesla Coil that might be the most impressive, and controversial.  The Tesla Coil is certainly something that big industry would have liked to suppress: the concept that the Earth itself is a magnet that can generate electricity (electromagnetism) utilizing frequencies as a transmitter.  All that is needed on the other end is the receiver -- much like a radio.  

3. X-rays -- Electromagnetic and ionizing radiation was heavily researched in the late 1800s, but Tesla researched the entire gamut. Everything from a precursor to Kirlian photography, which has the ability to document life force, to what we now use in medical diagnostics, this was a transformative invention of which Tesla played a central role.  X-rays, like so many of Tesla's contributions, stemmed from his belief that everything we need to understand the universe is virtually around us at all times, but we need to use our minds to develop real-world devices to augment our innate perception of existence.

4. Radio -- Guglielmo Marconi was initially credited, and most believe him to be the inventor of radio to this day.  However, the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943, when it was proven that Tesla invented the radio years previous to Marconi.  Radio signals are just another frequency that needs a transmitter and receiver, which Tesla also demonstrated in 1893 during a presentation before The National Electric Light Association.  In 1897 Tesla applied for two patents  US 645576, and US 649621. In 1904, however, The U.S. Patent Office reversed its decision, awarding Marconi a patent for the invention of radio, possibly influenced by Marconi's financial backers in the States, who included Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie. This also allowed the U.S. government (among others) to avoid having to pay the royalties that were being claimed by Tesla. 

Tesla's behemoth tower, to be used for trans-Atlantic wireless communications and the demonstration of wireless power transmission, was erected in 1901 at Wardenclyffe (now Shoreham) on Long Island.  Built almost entirely of wood, with a 55-ton skeleton spheroid of steel at the top, it was designed so that every spar could be taken out at any time and replaced if necessary.  Photo by Lillian McChesney, circa 1916.

5. Remote Control -- This invention was a natural outcropping of radio. Patent No. 613809 was the first remote controlled model boat, demonstrated in 1898.  Utilizing several large batteries; radio signals controlled switches, which then energized the boat's propeller, rudder, and scaled-down running lights. While this exact technology was not widely used for some time, we now can see the power that was appropriated by the military in its pursuit of remote controlled war. Radio controlled tanks were introduced by the Germans in WWII, and developments in this realm have since slid quickly away from the direction of human freedom.

6. Electric Motor -- Tesla's invention of the electric motor has finally been popularized by a car brandishing his name.  While the technical specifications are beyond the scope of this summary, suffice to say that Tesla's invention of a motor with rotating magnetic fields could have freed mankind much sooner from the stranglehold of Big Oil.  However, his invention in 1930 succumbed to the economic crisis and the world war that followed. Nevertheless, this invention has fundamentally changed the landscape of what we now take for granted: industrial fans, household applicances, water pumps, machine tools, power tools, disk drives, electric wristwatches and compressors.

7. Robotics -- Tesla's overly enhanced scientific mind led him to the idea that all living beings are merely driven by external impulses.  He stated: "I have by every thought and act of mine, demonstrated, and does so daily, to my absolute satisfaction that I am an automaton endowed with power of movement, which merely responds to external stimuli."  Thus, the concept of the robot was born.  However, an element of the human remained present, as Tesla asserted that these human replicas should have limitations -- namely growth and propagation. Nevertheless, Tesla unabashedly embraced all of what intelligence could produce.  His visions for a future filled with intelligent cars, robotic human companions, and the use of sensors, and autonomous systems are detailed in a must-read entry in the Serbian Journal of Electrical Engineering, 2006 (PDF). 

8. Laser -- Tesla's invention of the laser may be one of the best examples of the good and evil bound up together within the mind of man.  Lasers have transformed surgical applications in an undeniably beneficial way, and they have given rise to much of our current digital media. However, with this leap in innovation we have also crossed into the land of science fiction.  From Reagan's "Star Wars" laser defense system to today's Orwellian "non-lethal" weapons' arsenal, which includes laser rifles and directed energy "death rays," there is great potential for development in both directions.

9 and 10. Wireless Communications and Limitless Free Energy -- These two are inextricably linked, as they were the last straw for the power elite -- what good is energy if it can't be metered and controlled?  Free?  Never.  J.P. Morgan backed Tesla with $150,000 to build a tower that would use the natural frequencies of our universe to transmit data, including a wide range of information communicated through images, voice messages, and text.  This represented the world's first wireless communications, but it also meant that aside from the cost of the tower itself, the universe was filled with free energy that could be utilized to form a world wide web connecting all people in all places, as well as allow people to harness the free energy around them.  Essentially, the 0's and 1's of the universe are embedded in the fabric of existence for each of us to access as needed.  Nikola Tesla was dedicated to empowering the individual to receive and transmit this data virtually free of charge.

Science made easy.STATIC ELECTRICITY

I CAN READ

What is Static Electricity?

Everything we see is made up of tiny little parts called atoms. The atoms are made of even smaller parts. These are called protons, electrons and neutrons. They are very different from each other in many ways. One way they are different is their "charge." Protons have a positive (+) charge. Electrons have a negative (-) charge. Neutrons have no charge.Usually, atoms have the same number of electrons and protons. Then the atom has no charge, it is "neutral." But if you rub things together, electrons can move from one atom to another. Some atoms get extra electrons. They have a negative charge. Other atoms lose electrons. They have a positive charge. When charges are separated like this, it is called static electricity.
If two things have different charges, they attract, or pull towards each other. If two things have the same charge, they repel, or push away from each other.


So, why does your hair stand up after you take your hat off? When you pull your hat off, it rubs against your hair. Electrons move from your hair to the hat. Now each of the hairs has the same positive charge. Things with the same charge repel each other. So the hairs try to move away from each other. The farthest they can get is to stand up and away from all the other hairs.

If you walk across a carpet, electrons move from the rug to you. Now you have extra electrons. Touch a door knob and ZAP! The electrons move from you to the knob. You get a shock.

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WHY IS THE SKY BLUE? by SCIENCE MADE SIMPLE

Introduction

What makes the sky have color? During the day, why is the color blue? What makes the colors of the sunset and sunrise? Why are they red and orange instead of blue? Why are the sunset and sunrise different? Does the amount of polution in the sky really make the colors of the sunset more vivid and varied? As children we all thought about many of these questions. The problem is that we settled for the answer of "That is just how it is." Instead there is a scientific answer behind the colors of the sky and what allows us to see all the variety of colors that we do in a day.

Background

The colors of the sky are created because the atmosphere between the sun and the earth consists of many different particles and chemicals. The sky directly surrounding the earth though, mainly consists of nitrogen and oxygen molecules as well as the dust and dubree kicked up by humans and animals on the earth's surface. So, when the light hits these particles it is broken up and the different wavelengths are scattered in different directions. This process is called scattering. So with our atmosphere the sky surrounding the earth would be black and only lit up by the white light of the sun. But instead we have an atmosphere that provides us with the colors we can enjoy.
During the day the sky is seen as blue unless clouds are in the way or the weather is not nice. But why is it that the sky is blue instead of purple or orange? The answer to this question is that the wavelength of blue light is very small and can be broken up about ten times more than red light because red light has almost double the wavelength of blue light. So, blue light is scattered in more directions than the shorter wavelengths when it comes in contact with the nitrogen and oxygen molecules. Therefore, blue is the light that enters our eye. But, using this same scientific reasoning, it would seem logical that we would see a violet sky instead since it has the longest wavelength of all. But, human eyes are more sensitive to blue than violet so therefore we see a blue sky.
At dusk and dawn the colors of the sky change and the first portion of the visible spectrum is what appears to the viewer. During these times of the day the sun is positioned at a different angle to the earth than during the normal daytime. Because of this angle, the longer wavelengths are the ones that reach the eye. The blue and other shorter wavelengths are scattered millions of times and do not reach the viewer. When the sun does not shine directly on a certain portion of the earth there are more gas molecules between the viewer and the sun. Therefore, the normal blue color of he sky is no longer visible because the short wavelengths of blue and green are scattered millions of times and do not reach the viewer. Therefore the longer wavelengths that couldn't be scattered as many times are able to now hit the viewer in a more direct way.
But the question that now arises is that the sunrise and sunset should appear to be the same. In reality, they are actually quite different. The sunset tends to be brighter and contain more vibrant colors than the sunrise. This is due to the fact that during the day animals and humans are usually awake and kicking up dust and dubree that will reflect the light. This refection will make the colors in the sunset appear to be brighter than those in the sunrise.
Lastly, if the sunset or sunrise of a big city is observed, it will be evident that the colors are more varied and tend to appear prettier than a sunset or sunrise that one would see in the country. This fact is because the sky surrounding the cities is more polluted than that around a rural setting. The pollution in the air has many chemicals in it that will break the light up in different ways and scatter it differently than the normal atmosphere would do. Though it is unfortunate that some of the prettiest sunsets can be seen due to pollution, it is a fact.

Observations

These photos are a few examples of the sky through out the day. Pay attention to the different colors of the sky and how vivid each one is. Please take into account that these are only photographs and in many cases cannot capture the true colors.

	This is an example of a fairly typical sky. It is easy to see that the sky is definantly blue. There are clouds scattered across the sky that appear to be very white.
		This photo was taken of a sunrise. As you can tell the colors are not very vivid. In fact, i the colors seem to have almost faded out and close to white.
	This photo is also taken of the sunrise. The colors appear to be brighter since the photo was taken by a profesional. But, the basic facts about a sunrise are still evident. The sky is still dull and lacking the vivid, exciting colors of the sunset.
		Unlike the photos above, this sunset has bright, vivid colors. Also the sky above the sun has a purple tint to it due to the fact that the sky is fading from blue to red.

Conclusions

Most people go through their days without noticing what is happening in the sky above them. Even if they do wonder why our sky is the way it is the answer is not important enough to them to find. Most people just settle for the fact that this is how the world works, we have a pretty sky that changes colors due to the time of day and the weather. So, take a look at the sky and notice what is going on. Notice the difference between the sunrise and the sunset, a sunset in a city and a rural area.

WHY DO LEAVES CHANGE COLOUR DURING FALL.

Leaves are nature's food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose. Oxygen is a gas in the air that we need to breathe. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar is called photosynthesis. That means "putting together with light." A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color.

As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter.

During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.

The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.

It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful fall foliage colors we enjoy each year.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches on Fire.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches on Fire (1911): On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Triangle Waist Company's factory in New York City. The fire spread quickly. Of the approximately 500 workers, 146 died. This was the worst Industrial accident in the USA at that time.

Overview of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire:

The Triangle Waist Company was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. Both men had emigrated from Russia as young men, met in the United States, and by 1900 had a little shop together on Woodster Street they named the Triangle Waist Company. Growing quickly, they moved their business into the ninth floor of the new, ten-story Asch Building, on the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street in New York City. They later expanded into the eighth floor and then the tenth floor.

By 1911, the Triangle Waist Company was one of the largest blouse makers in New York City. They specialized in making shirtwaists, the very popular women's blouse that had a tight waist and puffy sleeves. The Triangle Waist Company had made Blanck and Harris rich, but it was through the exploitation of their workers.

Approximately 500 people, mostly immigrant women, worked at the Triangle Waist Company's factory in the Asch Building. They worked long hours, six days a week, in cramped quarters and were paid low wages. Many of the workers were young, some only age 13 or 14.

In 1909, shirtwaist factory workers from around the city went on strike for an increase in pay, shorter work week, and the recognition of a union. Though many of the other shirtwaist companies eventually agreed to the strikers' demands, the Triangle Waist Company owners never did. Conditions at the Triangle Waist Company factory remained poor.

On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire started on the eighth floor. Work had ended at 4:30 that day and most of the workers were gathering their belongings and their paychecks when a cutter noticed a small fire had started in his scrap bin. No one is sure what exactly started the fire, but a fire marshal thought a cigarette butt had possibly gotten tossed into the bin. Nearly everything in the room was flammable: hundreds of pounds of cotton scraps, tissue paper patterns, and wooden tables.

Several workers threw pails of water on the fire, but it quickly grew out of control. Workers then tried to use the fire hoses that were available on each floor, for one last attempt to put out the fire; however, when they turned the water valve on, no water came out.

A woman on the eighth floor tried to call the ninth and tenth floors to warn them. Only the tenth floor received the message; those on the ninth floor didn't know about the fire until it was upon them.

Everyone rushed to escape the fire. Some ran to the four elevators. Built to carry a maximum of 15 people each, they quickly filled with 30. There wasn't time for many trips to the bottom and back up before the fire reached the elevator shafts as well. Others ran to the fire escape. Though about 20 reached the bottom successfully, about 25 others died when the fire escape buckled and collapsed.

Many on the tenth floor, including Blanck and Harris, made it safely to the roof and then were helped to nearby buildings. Many on the eighth and ninth floors were stuck. The elevators were no longer available, the fire escape had collapsed, and the doors to the hallways were locked (company policy). Many workers headed to the windows.

At 4:45 p.m., the fire department was alerted to the fire. They rushed to the scene, raised their ladder, but it only reached to the sixth floor. Those on the window ledges started jumping.

The fire was put out in half an hour, but it was not soon enough. Of the 500 employees, 146 were dead. The bodies were taken to a covered pier on Twenty-Sixth Street, near the East River. Thousands of people lined up to identify the bodies of loved ones. After a week, all but seven were identified.

Many people searched for someone to blame. The Triangle Waist Company owners, Blanck and Harris, were tried for manslaughter, but were found not guilty.

The fire and the large number of deaths exposed the hazardous conditions and fire danger that was ubiquitous in these high-rise factories. Shortly after the Triangle fire, New York City passed a large number of fire, safety, and building codes and created stiff penalties for non-compliance. Other cities followed New York's example.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

Date	March 25, 1911
Time	4:40 PM (local time)
Location	Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Casualties
146 dead
71 injured

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. It was also the second deadliest disaster in New York City – after the burning of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904 – until the destruction of the World Trade Center 90 years later. 

A horse-drawn fire engine en route to the burning factory

The building's south side, with windows marked X from which fifty women jumped

The building's east side, with 40 bodies on the sidewalk. Two of the victims were found alive an hour after the photo was taken.

The building's south side, with windows marked X from which fifty women jumped

The building's east side, with 40 bodies on the sidewalk. Two of the victims were found alive an hour after the photo was taken.

The building's south side, with windows marked X from which fifty women jumped