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The HISTORY of REDDITCH New Town



       Inventions That Have Changed Redditch



       The  last  50  years  have  seen  a  technological  revolution  equivalent  to  the  Industrial
       Revolution of the 18th century.  Whilst we are not claiming Redditch credit for these,
       they have undoubtedly changed Redditch.




       1965        Soft contact lenses invented.
                   The compact disk invented by James Russell.
       1966        Electronic fuel injection for cars invented.

       1968        Robert Dennard invented RAM (random access memory).
                   The computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart.
       1969        Gary Starkweather of Xerox invents the laser printer.
                   The ATM invented.

                   The bar-code scanner is invented.
       1970        The daisy-wheel printer invented.
                   The floppy disk invented by Alan Shugart.
       1971        The dot-matrix printer invented.

                   The food processor invented.
                   The liquid-crystal display (LCD) invented by James Fergason.
                   The microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor.

                   VCR or videocassette invented.
       1972        Nolan  Bushnell  invents  the  first  videogame,  "Pong",  an  evolution  of
                   Magnavox's Odyssey, and founds Atari.
                   Ray  Tomlinson  invents  e-mail  for  sending  messages  between  computer
                   users, and invents a system to identify the user name and the computer
                   name separated by a "@".
                   The Global Positioning System (GPS) is invented by the USA military, using
                   a constellation of 24 satellites for navigation and positioning purposes).
                   The word processor invented.

       1973        Bic invents the disposable lighter.
                   Gary  Kindall  in  Monterey  invents  the  first  operating  system  for  a
                   microprocessor, the CP/M.
                   Gene splicing invented.

                   Martin Cooper at Motorola invents the first portable, wireless or "cellular"
                   telephone.
                   The  ethernet  (local  computer  network)  invented  by  Robert  Metcalfe  and
                   Xerox.
       1974        Ed Roberts invents the first personal computer, the Altair 8800.

                   Giorgio Fischer, a gynaecologist from Rome, Italy, invents liposuction.

                   The post-it notes invented by Arthur Fry.





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