Invention Surprises

 

#73 October 6:  Car radios were perfected during the Depression.  Others had attempted the idea but Paul and Joseph Gavin noticed a dip in sales of their radios during the Depression but noticed that car sales hadn’t dipped.  He worked on his design and decided to take it to the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association.  They didn’t get a booth, but just parked their car outside and cranked up the radio.  They called their radio the Motorola and later named their company the same name.  9/27

#73 October 7:  Scotch tape was also invented in 1930, at the start of the Depression.  Richard Drew had just recently perfected masking for auto-painting processes using crepe paper, glue, and glycerin.  He noticed that bakeries were using the newly invented cellophane for packing but needed an attractive way to seal it.  His masking tape glue was brown, so he worked on clear tape using oil resins and rubber.  “Scotch” was actually a pejorative term referring to thrifty Scotch immigrants.  During the Depression, folks adopted scotch tape using it to mend clothing, cap milk bottles, and even repair cracked eggs. 9/27

#74 October 8:  In an article about inventions, this is fascinating:  The can opener was invented 50 years AFTER the invention of preserving food in cans (1810).  Before the can opener, cans were opened with a hammer and chisel.  During the Civil War, an opener with a series of blades that sawed off the can with a ragged edge was invented (resulting in how many rusty cuts?).  The hand crank opener wasn’t invented until 1925. 9/29

#75 October 9:  Cotton Candy was invented in 1860 by … wait for it… A DENTIST!, William J. Morrison.  They first called it “fairy Floss” and it was a big hit at the St. Louis World Fair, netting Morrison and his partner $500,000.  I wonder how much money he made in extra cavities!  9/29

#76 October 10:  And while we’re discussing food inventions…What do Pop Rocks, Tang, and Cool Whip have in common?  The same person, William A. Mitchell invented Pop Rocks, Tang, and Cool Whip.  Pop Rocks were invented by accident in his quest to create a self-carbonating soda.  Tang, of course, became wildly popular when it went to space to combat metallic-tasting water.  He also combined a quick set gelatin and powdered egg whites to make a whipped cream alternative:  Cool Whip. 9/30

#77 October 11:  Similarly to the tin can, parachutes were invented  127 years BEFORE the airplane.  Similar ideas date back to the 3^rd century when a Chinese historian recorded a young man saving himself from a burning building using bamboo hats.  DaVinci famously sketched a design for a parachute.  Frenchman, Louis-Sebastien Lenormand coined the word parachute and tested gravity by leaping from a tree with 2 umbrellas and flinging himself from the Montpellier Observatory with a 14 ft. parachute in 1783.  The Wright brothers finally flew in 1903.  9/29

#78 October 12:  My mother-in-law was a test baker for Betty Crocker and I knew immediately as a young bride, my role was to learn, never compete!  I read today about Ruth Wakefield who is credited for inventing Toll House cookies (chocolate chip).  She and her husband, Kenneth owned the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts and she developed the cookie by chipping off semisweet chocolate into tiny pieces with an ice pick and adding them to her Butter Drop Do pecan cookies..  Later in 1930 when Nestle hired her and bought her recipe they scored the bars of chocolate into 160 segments and enclosed a cutting tool!  Her recipe still appears on the bag of morsels and for her contribution, Nestle gave her a lifetime supply of chocolate.   Just think how rich she could have become if she had bargained for a penny per morsel or even per recipe!  9/29

#79 October 13:  Velcro was inspired by a walk Swiss engineer,  George de Mestral took in the woods with his dog.  They came home covered in burrs.  When he looked at the burrs under a microscope he noticed that they were not straight, but had tiny hooks on the end which grabbed fabrics and dog fur.  It took him 156 years to recreate what he saw and develop a product that could both stick securely, but be easily pulled apart. He used a neologism (ha! I used my new vocabulary!) to create Velcro from velours  (velvet in French and crochet (hook in French).  9/29