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Inventors

Inventions by King David Kalakaua

Patent Invention by King David Kalakaua in 1875. Drawing of new fish ram and torpedo-proof vessel.

Scientist and Inventor

Hawai'i's King David Kalakaua was a scientist, inventor and Renaissance man. The King invented an improved double screw and improved bottle stopper in 1872. He invented a new fish ram and a torpedo-proof vessel in 1875.  Both inventions by the King received U.S. Patents. 

Early Technology Adopters

Hawaii Got Electricity Before Most of the Rest of the World.

In 1881, Thomas Edison convinced King Kalakaua that electric street lamps were superior to gas. 


King Kalakaua demonstrated electric lights at a tea party at Iolani Palace in 1886. By 1887 the entire Iolani Palace was illuminated with electric lights as well as some nearby streets downtown. This was around the same time as electricity was installed in Buckingham Palace in London and the Meiji Emperors Palace in Tokyo. America's White House did not install this new technology until four years later in 1891. 


After Iolani Palace was lit, Gas street lamps downtown were quickly replaced and by 1888 Honolulu was a city lit by electricity. 


Hawaii has always been the place for groundbreaking technology. It welcomes innovation and it is a society of early technology adopters. 


Treatment for Leprosy

Chemist Alice Augusta Ball

Alice Ball was a black woman who grew up in Seattle and Hawaii. She attended the University of Hawaii and was the first woman to earn a master's degree in chemistry. She stayed on the UH chemistry faculty to teach and research. In 1915, at the age of 23, she invented a treatment for leprosy using oil extracted from the chaulmoogra tree. The following year, after a laboratory accident, Alice Ball died at 24. 

1915, invented a method for treating Leprosy

Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, was a disfiguring disease that slowly damages the skin and nervous system. It is an ancient disease mentioned in the Bible.  Alice Ball, a young chemistry instructor at the University of Hawaii, was the first to reconfigure an oil extract from the chaulmoogra tree for the treatment of leprosy. The treatment she developed was effective enough that 78 patients recovered and were sent home from the leper colony at Kalaupapa on Moloka‘i.


The Ball Method was used to medically treat leprosy cases around the world. It remained the most effective treatment until the 1940s. 

Pioneer Behind Wireless networks

ALOHA NETWORK

"Every modern form of wireless data networking, from WiFi to your cellphone, goes back to the ALOHAnet," Marc Weber, historian at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

COMPUTER SCIENCE PROFESSOR NORMAN ABRAMSON, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII.

In 1971, Professor Abramson led a group of scientists and engineers in developing communication networks for radios, satellites and computers. They put their scientific work out in the public domain.

invented in hawaii

Electric Guitar

UH Cancer Center

Electric Guitar

Invented at Kamehameha School for Boys, built 1934

Verifone

UH Cancer Center

Electric Guitar

Credit card swipe machines invented in Honolulu 1981

KinetiCor

UH Cancer Center

UH Cancer Center

MRI technology for patient motion control, invented at UH Medical School 2013.

UH Cancer Center

UH Cancer Center

UH Cancer Center

UH Cancer Center

invented a diagnostic test for predisposition to cancer  in 2012.

INVENTORS from Hawaii - U.S. PATENTS

John Ogawa Borland

John Ogawa Borland

John Ogawa Borland

6 Patents 


First Patent: Dec. 4, 1990.

136 Published papers.

Invented process for manufacturing wafers. Semiconductors 


Third Patent: June 1996. 

Press release of patent resulted in stock price one-day jump of 25%.  


Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

Materials Science and Engineering, MS 1981, BS 1980


Radford 1976

Olin Kealoha Lagon

John Ogawa Borland

John Ogawa Borland

8 Patents


First Patent: Oct. 23, 2007.

Invented code for crowdfunding.

Computer Method and System.

Internet commerce.



Social Entrepreneur



University of Hawaii, 1995

East- West Center, 1995


Native Hawaiian Olin Lagon grew up in Kalihi.



Coming Soon

John Ogawa Borland

Coming Soon

US Patents 

Inventor

John Ogawa Borland

Coming Soon

US Patents

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P.O. Box 2693

Honolulu, Hawaii 96803

  

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