Word Finder - invention

definition

Something invented.

example

I'm afraid there was no burglar. It was all the housekeeper's invention.

definition

The act of inventing.

example

The invention of the printing press was probably the most significant innovation of the medieval ages.

definition

The capacity to invent.

example

It took quite a bit of invention to come up with a plan, but we did it.

definition

A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two- and Three-part Inventions.

example

I particularly like the inventions in C-minor.

definition

The act of discovering or finding; the act of finding out; discovery.

example

That judicial method which serveth best for the invention of truth.

The invention of the damper-pedal in the pianoforte epitomizes the difference between polyphony and symphonic art, for it is the earliest device by which sounds are produced and prolonged in a way contrary to the spirit of "real" part-writing.

The invention of the railroad was a milestone in the history of transportation.

Libra was not of Greek invention.

They are beyond the power of human invention.

Briggs was greatly excited by Napier's invention and visited him at Merchiston in 1615, staying with him a whole month; he repeated his visit in 1616 and, as he states, "would have been glad to make him a third visit if it had pleased God to spare him so long."

A patent thus allows its owner to stop others from exploiting the invention.

Before the invention of the mechanical reaper, harvesting required many hands.

The invention of the art of writing afforded the means of substituting precise and permanent records for vague and evanescent tradition; but in the infancy of the world, mankind had learned neither to estimate accurately the duration of time, nor to refer passing events to any fixed epoch.

Some assume it to be Erichthonius, son of Athena and Hephaestus, who was translated to the skies by Zeus on account of his invention of chariots or coaches.

It would appear that to Servington Savary is due the first invention of a micrometer for measurement by double image.

Written as this name is in pictures or rebus, it probably suggested the invention of the well-known legend of a prophecy that the war-god's temple should be built where a prickly pear was found growing on a rock, and perched on it an eagle holding a serpent; this legend is still commemorated on the coins of Mexico.

The didactic novel of Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, is a free invention adapted to the purposes of the author, based upon the account of Herodotus and occasionally influenced by Ctesias, without any independent traditional element.

Kenzan, adopted his style, and left a reputation as a decorator of pottery hardly less brilliant than Krins in that of lacquer; and a later follower, HOitsu (1762-1828), greatly excelled the master in delicacy and refinement, although inferior to him in vigour and invention.

The policy of opposing uncivilized tribes by the construction of the limes, a raised embankment of earth or other material, intersected here and there by fortifications, was not his invention, but it owed in great measure its development to him.

Attempts to trace the architecture of Central America directly from Old-Woad types have not been successful, while on the other hand its decoration shows proof of original invention, especially in the imitations of woodwork which passed into sculptured ornament when the material became stone instead of wood.

In 1847 Morse was compelled to defend his invention in the courts, and successfully vindicated his claim to be called the original inventor of the electromagnetic recording telegraph.

The idea of the pressure of the air and the invention of the instrument for measuring it were both new when he made his famous experiment, showing that the height of the mercury column in a barometer decreases when it is carried upwards through the atmosphere.

Linnaeus' invention of binomial nomenclature for designating species served systematic biology admirably, but at the same time, by attaching preponderating importance to a particular grade in classification, crystallized the doctrine of fixity.

The discovery of America, the invention of printing, the revival of learning and many other causes had contributed to effect a radical change in the point of view from which the world was regarded; and the strongest of all medieval relations, that of the nation to the Church, was about to pass through the fiery trial of the Reformation.

The monastic writers remain our chief authorities until the great change brought about by the invention.

In 1876 he exhibited an apparatus embodying the results of his studies in the transmission of sound by electricity, and this invention, with improvements and modifications, constitutes the modern commercial telephone.

The invention of vowel-signs of diacritic points to distinguish similarly formed consonants, and of other orthographic signs, soon put a stop to arbitrary conjectures on the part of the readers.

A papyrus of the Roman period in the British Museum attributes the invention of horoscopes to the Egyptians, but no early instance is known.

Barsbai appears to have excelled his predecessors in the invention of devices for exacting money from merchants and pilgrims, and in juggling with the exchange.

This discreetness contributed not a little to his election to the papacy on the 24th of April 1585; but the story of his having feigned decrepitude in the Conclave, in order to win votes, is a pure invention.

This was probably an invention of the Persians; Cyrus the younger employed these chariots in large numbers.

Of Christianity he always spoke in the mocking tone of the "enlightened" philosophers, regarding it as the invention of priests; but it is noteworthy that after the Seven Years' War, the trials of which steadied his character, he sought to strengthen the church for the sake of its elevating moral influence.

From Flanders to Rome his distinction was acknowledged, and artists of less invention, among them some of the foremost on both sides of the Alps, were not ashamed to borrow from his work this or that striking combination or expressive type.

Nothing can exceed the fulness and variety of invention, or the searching force and precision of detail in this picture; nor does it leave so much to desire as several of the master's other paintings in point of colour-harmony and pleasurable general effect.

In thus repeating over and over on wood and copper nearly the same incidents of the Passion, or again in rehandling them in yet another medium, as in the highly finished series of drawings known as the "Green Passion" in the Albertina at Vienna, Darer shows an inexhaustible variety of dramatic and graphic invention, and is never betrayed into repeating an identical action or motive.

This unequalled treasure of German art and invention has in later times been broken up, the part executed by Diirer being preserved at Munich, the later sheets, which were decorated by other hands, having been transported to Besancon.

Diirer's designs, drawn with the pen in pale lilac, pink and green, show an inexhaustible richness of invention and an airy freedom and playfulness of hand beyond what could be surmised from the sternness of those studies which he made direct from life and nature.

He published, both alone and jointly with others, a large number of papers on physical, and in particular electrical, subjects, and his name was especially associated, together with that of Professor John Perry, with the invention of a long series of electrical measuring instruments.

What they produce is not their invention, but the invention of the whole nation; or rather, what they find is that the whole nation has found its true nature.

Exquisite as he is in his special mode of execution, he undoubtedly falls far short, not only of his great naturalist contemporaries such as 1Vlasaccio and Lippo Lippi, but even of so distant a precursor as Giotto, in all that pertains to bold or life-like invention of a subject or the realization of ordinary appearances, expressions and actions - the facts of nature, as distinguished from the aspirations or contemplations of the spirit.

He flourished about 625 B.C. Several of the ancients ascribe to him the invention of the dithyramb and of dithyrambic poetry; it is probable, however, that his real service was confined to the organization of that verse, and the conversion of it from a mere drunken song, used in the Dionysiac revels, to a measured antistrophic hymn, sung by a trained body of performers.

For his demonstration in 1851 of the diurnal motion of the earth by the rotation of the plane of oscillation of a freely suspended, long and heavy pendulum exhibited by him at the Pantheon in Paris, and again in the following year by means of his invention the gyroscope, he received the Copley medal of the Royal Society in 1855, and in the same year he was made physical assistant in the imperial observatory at Paris.

The authenticity of the " holy places " was first attacked seriously in the 18th century by a bookseller of Altona named Korte; and since he led the way, a steady fire of criticism has been poured at this huge mass of invention.

Of the two chief methods of working bronze, gold and silver, it is probable that the hammer process was first practised, at least for statues, among the Greeks, who themselves attributed the invention of the art of hollow casting to Theodorus and Rhoecus, both Samian sculptors, about the middle of the 6th century B.C. Pausanias specially mentions that one of the oldest statues he had ever seen was a large figure of Zeus in Sparta, made of hammered bronze plates riveted together.

The introduction of gas as an illuminant, about 1816, at once induced a large demand and a novel description of metal fitting; and the craft fell under the control of a new commercial class, intent on breaking with past traditions, and utilizing steam power, electro-deposition, and every mechanical and scientific invention tending to economize metal or labour.

His invention was, however, at once utilized by others in France; and in Great Britain, after a few previous attempts on a small scale, it was definitely introduced by James Muspratt in 1823.

But the Deacon process, the invention of Henry Deacon (who was greatly aided by his chemist Dr Ferdinand Hurter), carried out since 1868, has attained to better, although nothing like complete, success in that direction.

Hence, although for many centuries (up to Leblanc's invention) hardly any soda was available except from this source, and although we now know that millions of tons of it exist, especially in the west of the United States, there is as yet very little of it practically employed, and that only locally.

It would not be the only William Hill invention to turn up elsewhere, in one case, in somebody else's patent specification.

The origin of the Deva-Nagari alphabet is lost in antiquity, though that is generally admitted not to be of indigenous invention.

The industry suffered depression owing to the indigo riots of 1860 and the emancipation of the peasantry by the Land Act of 1859; but in the closing decade of the century it received a much more disastrous blow from the invention of the German chemists.

The name of nawdb, corrupted by Europeans into " nabob," appears to be an invention of the Moguls to express delegated authority, and as such it is the highest title conferred upon Mahommedans at the present day, as maharaja is the highest title conferred upon Hindus.

Jansen and his father were the real inventors of the telescope in 1610, and that Lippershey only made a telescope after hints accidentally communicated to him of the details of Jansen's invention.

Further, on the 15th December of the same year they examined an instrument invented by Lippershey at their request to see with both eyes, and gave him orders to execute two similar instruments at goo florins each; but, as many other persons had knowledge of this new invention to see at a distance, they did not deem it expedient to grant him an exclusive privilege to sell such instruments.

The inverting telescope, composed of two, convex lenses, was a later invention; still it is not impossible that the original experiment was made with two convex lenses.