themselves by offering services or making products that others will buy These people entrepreneurs tend to be passionate about their new products or services and their efforts form the backbone of new startup businesses Entrepreneurs may in turn employ staff to help run their businesses Inventors create new methods machines and gadgets to solve old problems Innovators take these new creations and turn them into something that has economic value A single person can be an entrepreneur inventor and innovator innovator but oftentimes different people fill these roles and work together to bring a new product or service to the market Working people are important to the economy whether they work for others or as entrepreneurs entrepreneurs in their own startups Small businesses like this coffee shop depend on workers 88 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Innovation or Invention PROGRESS THROUGH INVENTION The world’s progress is largely the result of inventions inventions When the Industrial Revolution came along it was a time of great inven tion and innovation Starting Starting in England it gradually spread to other countries in Europe and eventually to the United States The creative creative process flourished as new machines new meth ods and new products blossomed Each new creation creation jump-started several more James Watt devised and developed the rotative steam engine with sun-and-planet sun-and-planet gear It is shown here in an original drawing from 1788 Inventions in the textile industry the development of the steam engine and the construction of railroads and canals for steamboats pushed society ahead to bigger and better creations Electric lights the telephone and cars were invented and they changed the way people lived This significant significant and rapid progress also changed the US economy 9
Discovery by Scientist Sparks Soft Drink Industry The soft drink industry would be flat without a discovery made by English chemist Joseph Priestley For centuries air was believed to be one of four basic elements alongside alongside earth fire and water Through experimentation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries scientists proved that air was not a simple element Instead air contained many different gases Chemists discovered many gases by studying the processes of respiration combustion combustion and fermentation Priestley identified ten new gases most notably Joseph Priestley was born in England trained as a minister and became interested in science He experimented with chemistry and he eventually eventually moved to the United States 10 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Innovation or Invention notably oxygen which was also discovered independently by another chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele Other chemists identified fixed air known today as carbon dioxide We all know what flat soda tastes like Without the bubbles created by carbon dioxide soda and other soft drinks wouldn’t have any fizz Joseph Priestley was an educated man and a minister minister He wasn’t always a scientist By luck on one of his trips to London he became acquainted with American inventor Benjamin Franklin and other science enthusiasts enthusiasts Franklin encouraged Priestley to become involved in scientific exploration and he did Not long after Priestley Priestley dove into his own first experiments By 1767 Priestley was serving as a minister to a congregation located near a brewery and he became intrigued by the fixed air above the fermenting vats of grain Priestley borrowed ideas and techniques from other chemists and experimented experimented with this gas He discovered how to combine carbon dioxide and water to make artificially carbonated water and like natural mineral water it tasted pleasant This discovery helped earn Priestley a prestigious science award and introduced the idea of carbonation to the soft drink industry 11
