This is my summary of the inventions I learned about in lessons ninety-six through ninety-nine. In lesson ninety-six, I studied the invention of dynamite. Gunpowder was the strongest form of explosives up until nitroglycerin was invented. However, this new-found explosive was unstable and too dangerous to use. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, worked with the man who discovered nitroglycerin. Nobel had an interest in explosives, since his father worked to make explosive weapons for the army. Nobel and his French chemist friend built a factory to produce nitroglycerin explosives, but Nobel’s brother was killed when the entire facility exploded.

After that, Nobel sought to invent a much more stable form of nitroglycerin, the end result being dynamite. Nobel got the from the Greek word “dyna”, which means “power”. Dynamite is indeed a very powerful and stable explosive!

In lesson ninety-seven, I learned about the invention of the chuckwagon. Charles Goodnight was the inventor of the chuckwagon, and grew up in Texas as first a cowboy, then a ranger. He eventually settled down to ranching, though, and went into the cattle driving business with a friend. It was then that Goodnight invented the chuckwagon.

The chuckwagon is pretty much a portable kitchen. It was very important, since the cook would go ahead of the cowboys and set up the chuckwagon so they could cook the meals. The word “chuck” is a slang term for “food”, so that’s where the chuckwagon got its name.

In lesson ninety-eight, I studied the invention of the typewriter (again). William Austin Burt invented the first typewriter, but it was Christopher Latham Sholes who invented the modern typewriter we as we know it today. You can write much faster and neater with a typewriter than you can with a pen and pencil: with a pencil, your writing speed is thirty to forty words per minute, but you can write at least twice that with a typewriter.

Last of all, lesson ninety-nine was about the invention of the ticker tape. Edward Calahan worked for Western Union – a telegraph company – and used his knowledge of the telegraph to invent the ticker tape in 1867. The ticker tape was used to print real time stock information on a long strip of tape, and got its name from the mechanical ticking sound it makes as it prints.