Invention facts and trivia

» There were 15,700,003 Model T Ford's manufactured, all in black.

» The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

» Thomas Edison held more than 1,300 U.S. and foreign patents.

» The father of the pink flamingo (the plastic lawn ornament) was Don Featherstone of Massachusetts. Featherstone graduated from art school and went to work as a designer for Union Products, a Leominster, Massachusetts company that manufactured flat plastic lawn ornaments. He designed the pink flamingo in 1957 as a follow-up project to his plastic duck. Today, Featherstone is president and part owner of the company that sells an average of 250,000 to 500,000 plastic pink flamingos a year.

» Thomas Edison, "the Wizard of Menlo Park," established an "invention factory," the first industrial research laboratory, with the hope of producing a new invention every ten days. In one 4-year period, he obtained 300 patents, or one every five days.

» The film for the first Kodak camera was 2¾ inches wide, or 70 millimeters. Kodak has been manufacturing 70-millimeter film continuously since 1888.

» The first "braces" were constructed by Pierre Fauchard in 1728. Fauchard's "braces" consisted of a flat strip of metal, which was connected to teeth by pieces of thread.

» Thomas Edison’s first major invention was the quadruplex telegraph. Unlike other telegraphs at the time, it could send four messages at the same time over one wire.

» Though Frederick Banting and Charles Best were co-discovers of insulin, only Banting was officially recognized for the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1923. He shared his winnings with Best, though.

» Today, 40 percent of the world's newspapers are printed on paper made from Canada's forests.

» U.S. Patent #D219,584 was issued in 1970 to veteran movie actor Steve McQueen. He was famous not only for his movies but also for racing cars and working on engines off-camera as well. A byproduct of his racing hobby was the invention of a bucket seat.

» Unknown people made the first glassware about 3,500 years ago in Mesopotamia.

» Until recent years, people living in remote areas of Afghanistan and Ethiopia were immunized against smallpox by having dried powdered scabs from victims of the disease blown up their noses. This treatment was invented by a Chinese Buddhist nun in the eleventh century. It is the oldest known form of vaccination.

» Until the mid 1800s, paper was made from cotton rags.

» Vellum, a fine-quality writing parchment, is prepared from animal skin: lambs, kids, and very young calves. Coarser, tougher types are made from the skins of male goats, wolves, and older calves. Vellum replaced papyrus and was superseded by paper.

» After Marion Donovan was inundated by the wild success of her invention of waterproof diaper covers in 1946, she was surprised when her prototype for disposal paper diapers was met with disinterest and ridicule. She journeyed to all the major U.S. paper companies, and was laughed at for proposing such an "unnecessary and impractical" item to replace cotton diapers. After nearly ten years of pitching her revolutionary idea, Victor Mills had the foresight to capitalize on it, and he became the creator of Pampers.

» Albert T. Marshall patented a household refrigerator on August 8, 1899.

» Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an "Improvement in Telegraphy", on Valentine's Day, 1876.

» Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was originally an instructor for deaf children and invented the telephone to help his deaf wife and mother to hear.

» Alfred Nobel of Stockholm, Sweden, patented dynamite in 1867.

» Although it took less than a decade of space travel for man to get to the moon, 19th- and 20th-century engineers needed 22 years to design the zipper.

» American inventor Peter Carl Goldmark invented the long-playing (LP) record in 1948.

» An angstrom is a unit of length equal to one ten-millionth of a millimeter, primarily used to express electromagnetic wavelengths. It was named after Swedish astronomer and physicist Anders Jonas Ångström (1814-1874).

» An Englishman invented Scotland's national dress – the kilt. It was developed from the philamore, a massive piece of tartan worn with a belt and draped over the shoulder, by English industrialist Thomas Rawlinson. Rawlinson ran a foundry at Lochaber, Scotland in the early 1700s, and thought a detachable garment would make life more comfortable for his workers.

» Walter Hunt patented a bullet with its own explosive charge on August 10, 1848.

» When airplanes were still a novel invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal – several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down.

» When commercial telephone service was introduced between New York and London in 1927, the first three minutes of a call cost $75.00.

» When using the first pay telephone, a caller did not deposit coins in the machine. He or she gave them to an attendant who stood next to the telephone. Coin telephones did not appear until 1899.

» Artist Xavier Roberts first designed his soon-to-be-famous Cabbage Patch dolls in 1977 to help pay his way through school. They had soft faces and were made by hand, as opposed to the hard-faced mass-market dolls, and were originally called "Little People."

» As an advertising gimmick, Carl Mayer, nephew of lunchmeat mogul Oscar Mayer, invented the company's "Wienermobile." On July 18, 1936, the first Oscar Mayer® "Wienermobile" rolled out of General Body Company's factory in Chicago. Wienermobiles still tour the United States today.

» As World War I raged through Europe in 1917, Ed Cox of San Francisco invented a pre-soaped pad with which to clean pots. His wife named it S.O.S., which, as the story goes, stood for "Save Our Saucepans."

» At the outset of the Manhattan Project, Albert Einstein was one of the scientists who forecast that an A-bomb would have to be so large and heavy that it would require a ship to deliver it to its target.

» At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, Richard Blechyden, an Englishman, had a tea concession. On a very hot day, none of the fairgoers were interested in drinking hot tea. Blechyden served the tea cold – and invented iced tea.

» At the turn of the century, most lightbulbs were handblown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a day's pay for the average U.S. worker.

» BAND-AID Brand Adhesive Bandages first appeared on the market in 1921. However, the little red string that is used to open the package was not added until 1940.

» Barbie® and Ken® Dolls are named after Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler's son and daughter, Barbara and Ken. Barbie's® full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts, and she is from Willows, Wisconsin. First sold in 1959, Barbie® wasn't given bendable legs until 1965.

» Bavarian immigrant Charles August Fey invented the first three-reel automatic payout slot machine, the Liberty Bell, in San Francisco in 1899.

» Before the invention of mass-marketed hair care products, households were pretty much on their own concocting family shampoos and conditioners. This suggestion was published in The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book in 1847: "Perhaps the best of all shampoos is the yolk of an egg beaten up with a pint of soft warm water. Apply at once and rinse off with castille or other hard white soap."

» Belgian driver Jenatzy was the first to reach a speed of over 100 km/h in his electrically powered car La Jamais Contente in 1899.

» Boxing was the first sport to be filmed. Thomas A. Edison filmed a boxing match between Jack Cushing and Mike Leonard in 1894.

» Britain built a fleet of steam submarines in 1915, dubbed the K-Boat, it proved to be a disaster and never went into action. It took 5 minutes at best to perform a crash dive, and once underwater it was unstable resulting in a a number of accidents.

» Britain developed the first Tanks for use during World War I. The word "Tank" was used because it didn't mean anything, and didn't give the Germans a clue as to its possible use.

» Camel's-hair brushes are not made of camel's hair. They were invented by a man named Mr. Camel.

» Canned food was invented for the British Navy in 1813, but the first practical can opener wasn't invented until 1870.

» Charles Ginsberg is credited with inventing videotape in 1956.

» Chester Greenwood from the United States was 15 years old in 1873 when he invented earmuffs.

» Colgate was the first toothpaste sold in metal tubes rather than jars.

» Compact discs, or CDs, were co-founded by a Japanese and a Dutch company in 1979.

» Cornelius Swarthout patented the first waffle iron in Troy, New York, in 1869.

» Credit for the invention of the parachute goes to Sebastien Lenormand in 1783. In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped chute. J. P. Blanchard (1753-1809), a Frenchman, is said to have been the first to use a parachute. In 1785, he dropped a dog in a basket, to which a parachute was attached, from a balloon high in the air. Blanchard claimed to have descended from a balloon in a parachute in 1793.

» Denver, Colorado lays claim to the invention of the cheeseburger. The trademark for the name "cheeseburger" was awarded in 1935 to Louis Ballast of the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In. Ballast claimed to have come up with the idea while testing hamburger toppings.

» Did Thomas Edison really invent the light bulb? Did you ever wonder?

» Did you ever wonder what the "WD" in WD-40® stands for? Per the company, the product's full name is WD-40® Water Displacer, which was perfected on the fortieth attempt. (Some trivia sources erroneously state the WD is an abbreviation for Water Displacement).

» In the year 1886, Herman Hollerith had the idea of using punched cards to keep and transport information, a technology used up to the late 1970s. This device was originally constructed to allow the 1890 census to be tabulated. In 1896, the Tabulating Machine Company was founded by Hollerith. Twenty-eight years later in 1924, after several take-overs, the company became known as International Business Machines (IBM).

» Incan soldiers invented the process of freeze-drying food. The process was primitive but effective – potatoes would be left outside to freeze overnight, then thawed and stomped on to remove excess water.

» Invented in the 1940s, an atomic clock is constant to within a few seconds every 100,000 years.

» Inventor Gail Borden, Jr. invented condensed milk in the 1850s and later the popular Lazy Susan table aid, but he struck out with one other invention: the poorly-received "meat biscuit."

» Inventor Hugh Moore's paper cup factory was located next door to the Dixie Doll Company in the same downtown loft building. The word Dixie printed on the company's door reminded Moore of the story he had heard as a boy about "dixies," the ten-dollar bank notes printed with the French word dix in big letters across the face of the bill by a New Orleans bank renowned for its strong currency in the early 1800s. The "dixies," Moore decided, had the qualities he wanted people to associate with his paper cups, and with permission from his neighbor, he used the name for his cups: "Dixie Cups."

» It has been determined that less than one patented invention in a hundred makes any money for the inventor.

» It is recorded that the Babylonians were making soap around 2800 B.C., and that it was known to the Phoenicians around 600 B.C. These early references to soap and soap making were for the use of soap in the cleaning of textile fibers such as wool and cotton in preparation for weaving into cloth.

» It was Swiss chemist Jacques Edwin Brandenberger who invented cellophane, back in 1908.

» It was while he was examining urine, seeking the philosopher's stone (the magic elixir needed to change base metals into gold), that German chemist Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus.

» Donald F. Duncan, the man who made the yo-yo an American tradition, is also credited with popularizing the parking meter and introducing Good Humor "ice cream on a stick."

» Dr. John Gorrie of Appalachicola, Florida, invented mechanical refrigeration in 1851. He patented his device on May 6, 1851. There is a statue which honors this "Father of Modern Day Air Conditioning" in the Statuary Hall of the capitol building in Washington, D.C.

» Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for polio in 1952.

» Early hand-held lights used carbo-zinc batteries that did not last very long. To keep the light burning required that the user turn it on for a short time and then turn it off to allow the battery to recover. That's how they originally became known as a "flashlight."

» Early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence the phrase, "sleep tight."

» Eastman Kodak's Brownie camera cost $1.00 when it was introduced in 1900.

» Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using electric Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional candles.

» Electrical hearing aids were invented in 1901 by Miller R. Hutchinson.

» Eli Whitney made no money from the cotton gin because he did not have a valid patent on it.

» Ivory Soap was originally named P&G White Soap. In 1879, Harley Proctor found the new name during a reading in church of the 45th Psalm of the Bible: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

» James Mason, no relation to the film actor, patented the coffee percolator in 1865.

» James Ramsey invented a steam-driven motorboat in 1784. He ran it on the Potomac River, and the event was witnessed by George Washington.

» Johann Behrent built the first piano in America at Philadelphia in 1775 under the name "Piano Forte."

» Johann Gutenburg invented the printing press in the 1450s, and the first book to ever be printed was the Bible. It was, however, in Latin rather than English.

» John Greenwood invented the dental drill in 1790.

» John Rand patented a collapsible tube for oil paints on September 11, 1841.

» Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented toilet paper in 1857.

» Eli Whitney perfected the cotton gin in 1792. This simple device quickly removed the tiny seeds from cotton. Prior to the cotton gin, a slave produced one pound of lint in ten hours. The cotton gin increased the yield to nearly 1,000 pounds per day, which caused the cotton-producing U.S. states to increase their yield ten times over.

» English philosopher and scientist Roger Bacon introduced a gunpowder formula to Europe in 1242.

» European papermakers were the first to use watermarks. A watermark identified the manufacturer of the paper with the members of the trade organization. Just as trademarks were stamped into silver and fine firearms, a watermark quietly revealed that the paper was the creation of a skilled artisan.

» Ferdinand Porsche, who later went on to build sports cars bearing his own name, designed the original 1936 Volkswagen.

» Foam rubber is a flexible, porous substance made from a natural or synthetic latex, which is compounded with assorted ingredients and whipped into a froth. The finished product contains about 85 percent air and 15 percent rubber. It is also called sponge rubber or latex foam.

» For a short time in 1967, the American Typers Association invented a new punctuation mark that was a combination of the question mark and an exclamation point called an “interrobang.” It was intended to be used to express incredulity or disbelief. It never caught on with the general public, and it faded away.

» Four-wheel roller skates were invented by James L. Plimpton in 1863.

» Frustrated at the lack of interest in his new toy invention, Charles Pajeau hired several midgets, dressed them in elf costumes, and had them play with "Tinker Toys" in a display window at a Chicago department store during the Christmas season in 1914. This publicity stunt made the construction toy an instant hit. A year later, over a million sets of Tinker Toys had been sold.

» George Ellery Hale was the twentieth century's most important builder of telescopes. In 1897, Hale built a 40-inch-wide telescope, the largest ever built at that time. His second telescope, with a 60-inch lens, was set up in 1917 and took 14 years to build. During those 14 years, Hale became convinced that he suffered from "Americanitis," a disorder in which the ambitions of Americans drive them insane. During the building of his 100-inch lens, Hale spent time in a sanatorium, and would only discuss his plans for the telescope with a "sympathetic green elf."

» The first ballpoint pens sold in 1945 were priced at $12.00 apiece.

» The first Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandages were three inches wide and eighteen inches long. You made your own bandage by cutting off as much as you needed.

» Joseph Priestley, the English chemist, invented carbonated water. It was a by-product of his investigations into the chemistry of air.

» The first BB gun was invented in 1886. Made for children, it frightened many parents because it was an actual working gun that could cause serious injury. The BB gun was a descendant of the cap gun, which was invented soon after the U.S. Civil War. The BB gun uses compressed air produced by a spring-operated plunger.

» Joshua Pusey of Pennsylvania received a patent for his book matches in 1892.

» Just 50 years after Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press in the mid-15th century, more than 6 million books had been published on law, science, poetry, politics, and religion.

» The first bricks were made by the people of Jericho, in 8000 B.C. A town of 2,000 people, Jericho was one of the oldest known towns in existence.

» Karl Benz of Germany is credited with inventing the first automobile in 1885. The automobile had an internal combustion engine and three wheels. In 1926, Benz merged his company with that of fellow German auto creator, Gustave Daimler, to form the Mercedes-Benz.

» The first coin-operated machine ever designed was a holy-water dispenser that required a five-drachma piece to operate. It was the brainchild of the Greek scientist Hero in the first century A.D.

» Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France.

» The first commercial vacuum cleaner was so large it was mounted on a wagon. People threw parties in their homes so guests could watch the new device do its job.

» KLEENEX® Cleansing Tissues were invented in 1924 as a sanitary way to remove cold cream.

» Kleenex® tissues were marketed as a cold cream remover when they were first introduced in 1924.

» The first drive-in service station in the United States was opened by Gulf Oil Company – on December 1, 1913, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

» Launched by the Mattel company in 1988, Holiday Barbie was among America's best-selling dolls in 1995 and 1996.

» The first envelopes with gummed flaps were produced in 1844. In Britain, they were not immediately popular because it was thought to be a serious insult to send a person's saliva to someone else.

» Leonardo da Vinci invented the scissors.

» Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, invented the first alarm clock in 1787. It only rang at 4 a.m. because that's what time he got up.

» George Hale's 100-inch telescope lens, built in the early 1900s, was the largest solid piece of glass made until then. The lens was made by a French specialist who poured the equivalent of ten thousand melted champagne bottles into a mold packed with heat maintaining manure so that the glass would cool slowly and not crack.

» Glue dates back to prehistoric times. Artists once mixed colorings with raw eggs, dried blood, and plant juices to make sticky paints for cave murals. Later, ancient Egyptians and other peoples learned to make stronger glues by boiling animal bones and hides.

» Hair salons in Britain in the 1870s concocted their own shampoos from varying amounts of water, soda, and bar soap.

» Hans Berger created the electroencephalograph (EEG) in 1924. By attaching 2 pieces of silver to his son’s head and connecting wires between them and a galvanometer, he recorded electrical signals emanating from the brain.

» Heinrich W. Brandes made the first weather map in 1815, based on data gathered in 1783. Brandes waited so long because it was the only way he could be certain the information was correct.

» Henri Nestlé was originally a baby food manufacturer. His work and research with condensed milk aided Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter in inventing a method to successfully combine chocolate and milk in a solid form — the first milk chocolate — in 1875.

» Henry D. Perky and William Ford received a patent in August 1893 on a machine for making the shreds, or filaments, of wheat for shredded wheat biscuits. The duo later formed The Cereal Machine Company in Denver to manufacture them.

» Henry Ford called his first car a quadricycle.

» The first foghorn was used at a Boston lighthouse in 1719; it was a cannon. The lighthouse keeper had to fire the cannon every hour when there was fog to warn nearby ships. The hourly booming kept townspeople awake through the night, so other long-range s

» The first hot air balloon to carry passengers was invented by the Montgolfier brothers in France in 1783. It flew five miles. The air in a hot air balloon is about 212o F.

» Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), the mother of 12 children, had good reason to improve the efficiency and convenience of household items. A pioneer in ergonomics, Gilbreth patented many devices, including an electric food mixer, and the trash can with step-on lid-opener that can be found in most households today.

» The first jet passenger airliner was the de Havilland Comet, which serviced the British Overseas Airways starting in May of 1952.

» Linus Yale patented the pin lock, or Yale lock, on May 6, 1851. Yale drew his inspiration from the Egyptian pin-and-bolt locks which were made of wood.

» The first lightweight luggage designed for air travel was conceived by aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

» Lithiated Lemon was the creation of Charles Griggs from Missouri, who introduced the lemon-lime drink in 1929. Four years later, he renamed it 7-Up. Sales increased significantly.

» Louis Jaques Mandé Daguerre agreed with the French government to disclose his secret photographic process to the public in exchange for an annual pension of 6000 francs.

» The first patent issued for modern suspenders – those with the familiar metal clasp – was issued in October 1894.

» M. R. Bissell had a china shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was allergic to the dusty straw scattered on the floor after unpacking china from crates. So, he invented the first carpet sweeper in 1876 to clean up the mess and protect his sinuses.

» The first plastic ever invented was celluloid. It came about as an alternative for billiard balls made from ivory.

» Madame Alexander dolls were the creation of Beatrice Alexander Behrman, the daughter of Russian immigrants. Mrs. Behrman, whose father operated New York's first doll "hospital," started making dolls in 1923. Her creations soon became famous for their molded heads and limbs, lifelike eyes, rooted hair, and elaborate costumes. Mrs. Behrman sold the company to several New York investors in 1988, two years before she died at age 95. But America's first doll manufacturer has not compromised her high standard of quality and unique craftsmanship. Today, most of the company's manufacturing is still done in Harlem, New York, and more than 500,000 dolls a year are sold.

» The first portable calculator placed on sale by Texas Instruments weighed only 2.5 pounds and cost a mere $150 in 1972.

» Many hair sprays (which are really just adhesives for the hair) are made largely of cellulose, the major ingredient of the cell walls of plants. Ethyl cellulose adhesives dry quickly, do not remain tacky, and wash out with water.

» Marjorie Stewart Joyner became the first female African American patent holder when she patented her invention for setting hair in 1926. Distressed over how damaged the kinky hair of black women would often turn out after a visit to the hairdresser, and with a background in African American beauty culture, Joyner invented a permanent wave machine that allowed a hairdo to stay set for days.

» The first product to have a UPC bar code on its packaging was Wrigley's gum.

» Mark Twain once invented a trivia boardgame similar to Trivial Pursuit. He called it Mark Twain's Memory-Builder.

» Mark Twain secured a patent in 1873 for a self-pasting scrapbook. A series of blank pages – coated with gum.

» Henry Tibbs patented the corncob pipe in 1878.

» Henry Waterman invented the modern elevator in 1850. He intended it to transport barrels of flour.

» Houses were first numbered in Paris in 1463. In Britain, numbering did not appear until 1708, where the system was first used on a street in London's Whitechapel area.

» In 1832, the Scottish surgeon Neil Arnott devised water beds as a way of improving patients' comfort.

» In 1843, mathematician Ada Byron published the first computer programs. She based them on Jacquard's punch-card idea. Her programs were for the first general-purpose mechanical digital computer that had just been invented by Charles Babbage.

» In 1871, David O. Snyder patented cement.

» In 1875, the director of the United States Patent Office sent his resignation and advised that his department be closed. There was nothing left to invent, he claimed.

» Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream by cooking cocoa butter in a granite coffee pot on his wife's stove, and then testing the batch on his own head. His invention was introduced as Coppertone Suntan Cream in 1944.

» More than 100,000 family dogs are killed each year in car accidents. As a result, a manufacturer in the eastern United States has developed a car restraint designed specifically for dogs riding in the car.

» While Eleanor Abbott of San Diego, California was recuperating from polio in the 1940s, she occupied herself with devising games and activities for youngsters who had polio. One of her inventions was called "Candy Land." Her young friends liked the game so much, she submitted it to Milton Bradley Company where it was immediately accepted. Since then, Candy Land has been recognized internationally as a "child's first game."

» The first subway was built in London (1860-63) by the cut-and-cover method. Other notable subways: Paris (the Metro 1898) and New York (1900).

» More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered how to make silk from silkworm cocoons. For about 3,000 years, the Chinese kept this discovery a secret. Because poor people could not afford real silk, they tried to make other cloth look silky. Women would beat on cotton with sticks to soften the fibers. Then they rubbed it against a big stone to make it shiny. The shiny cotton was called "chintz." Because chintz was a cheaper copy of silk, calling something "chintzy" means it is cheap and not of good quality.

» While fighting with the French underground during World War II, Jacques Yves Cousteau invented the aqualung, the self-contained device that supplies air pressure for underwater divers.

» The first train was designed by Richard Trecithick and took its first run in England on February 21, 1804. It moved at a speed of 8 kilometers, or 5 miles per hour.

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