This is my summary of the inventions I learned about in lessons fifty-one through fifty-four. In lesson fifty one, I learned about the invention of ether. Crawford Long invented ether, which was the first general anesthetic, in 1824. Long noted how people could inhale raw ether and injure themselves, then have no memory of the injury when the ether wore off. At one point, Long had a patient who needed the tumors in his neck to be removed. He didn’t want to experience the pain, so Long gave him ether. When the man woke up, he had no recollection of the surgery. Ether is similar to opium and morphine, and is a chemical that can put patients to sleep and help them forget the memory of the procedure.

In lesson fifty-two, I studied the fax machine. Up until the nineteenth century, the only way to copy documents was by hand. Alexander Bain invented the fax machine. While blueprinting is a chemical way to copy things, faxing is an electrical way to copy things. Modern fax machines make it possible to transmit digital copies of documents over telephone lines in seconds.

Lesson fifty-three was about the invention of iron passenger steamships. Isambard Brunel invented a cheap way to travel between Europe and America in the form of the iron passenger steamship. Instead of taking forty days, the journey between continents took only fifteen days.

Last of all, I learned about the invention of the ice cream maker in lesson fifty-four. In the ancient world, ice cream was a luxury only the wealthiest people could afford. In 1843, Nancy Johnson changed this by inventing and patenting the hand-cranked ice cream maker. It solved the tedious need to pause the ice cream making process to scrape the frozen ice cream off the sides of the container.