Inventions

Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark. Do you think that's why he was so interested in the light bulb? Actually, it was Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans who patented the first electric light bulb, after testing it successfully in Toronto. They later sold the patent to Edison.

Samuel Insull left Britain in 1881 for New York to become Edison’s assistant. He eventually worked his way up to become one of the founders of what we now know as General Electric, and in 1892 left New York to helm the financially struggling Chicago Edison Co. He believed in providing electricity to as many customers and at the lowest price possible. By the 1920s Insull owned shares in all the major Chicago area utilities as well as the region’s transit lines. He invested in programs to modernize, consolidate and publicize their existence and offerings. Insull traveled extensively to his U.K. homeland throughout his years in America, and while visiting Brighton, England, in 1894 he noticed that many of the shops that were closed for the evening were still brightly lighted – something unheard of in the “flat-rate billing” world of the United States. After tracking down the head of that township’s electric company, Insull was introduced to the use of a “Demand Metered” billing system. It applied different rates to different times of the day. Upon Insull’s return, Chicago soon saw a similar approach as well as an eventual 32 percent cut in rates for the consumer.

Edward Rogers invented the alternating current radio tube in 1925. He also launched the world's first all-electric radio station, CFRB, in Toronto.

Morse Code was invented by Samuel Finley Breese Morse, born in 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Morse attended Yale University, where he was interested in art, as well as electricity, still in its infancy at the time. After college, Morse became a painter. In 1832, while sailing home from Europe, he heard about the newly discovered electromagnet and came up with an idea for an electric telegraph. He had no idea that other inventors were already at work on the concept. In 1838, he demonstrated his telegraph system, which eventually revolutionized long-distance communication.

First developed in 1967 in Canada, the IMAX technology premiered with the first IMAX film, a short titled Tiger Child at the Fuji Pavilion at EXPO '70 in Osaka, Japan. Today the company has 371 IMAX theatres in 43 countries, although two-thirds of them are located in North America. The bulb used in an IMAX projector is bright enough to be seen by residents of the International Space Station if pointed in their direction.

Other Canadian inventions include the paint roller, the electric oven, the green garbage bag, the cordless mower, and plexiglas.

The first entire meal cooked by electricity took place in 1992 in Windsor, Ontario. The inventor, T. Ahearn, hailed from Ottawa, and was also responsible for putting the first electric car on the road in Canada.

The first pacemaker was invented by John Hopps at the National Research Centre in 1950.

Willie Haviland Carrier invented air conditioning to cool the paper at a NY City printing plant. because heat and humidity kept it from inking properly.

WD-40 was invented by chemist Norm larsen, tried 39 times before succeeding, in 1953, developing a liquid to protect the outer skin of the Atlas missile. As workers took it home to use privately, more than 2000 uses were discovered. The name stands for Water Displacement 40th Attempt.

The paper clip has an unusual beginning. Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian with degrees in electronics, science and math, received a patent for the paper clip in 1899, and obtained an American patent in 1901. During World War II, Norwegians were forbidden by the Nazis from wearing anything with an image of their king. Since many buttons bore that image, the people rebelled by using paperclips instead, in honor of their Norwegian inventor. Their original purpose, to "bind together," symbolized their resistance against Nazi occupation.

George Owen Squier invented "multiplexing," which allowed sending multiple signals over one line. The former Army Signal Officer went on to develop "wired radio," which he later named Muzak.

Alexander Graham Bell was only 29 when he received a patent for his revolutionary new invention–the telephone.

Monopoly was initially rejected by Parker Brothers, but after the creator met with success selling the game himself, the toy firm reconsidered and bought it in 1935.

Scrabble was invented in 1931 and was originally called Criss Cross. For 17 years toy makers snubbed this game, saying it was too intellectual, so the inventor Alfred Botts decided to manufacture and sell it himself. It is the world's second best selling game.

Jigsaw puzzles originated as educational devices to teach geography in 18th-century England. Dissected pictures followed, covering such subjects as history, alphabets, botany, and zoology. The use of popular pictures began in the 1860s and 1870s, in both Great Britain and the United States. The puzzles became extremely popular in the early 1900s and had a revival in the Great Depression of the 1930s as an inexpensive, reusable amusement. Another revival began after World War II, and jigsaw puzzles have remained popular since then.

The first permanent color photograph was taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.

Toilet paper was introduced in the United States in perforated form in 1884. Before then, a number of outhouses in America were stocked with dried leaves.

In 1913, Thomas L. Williams mixed Vaseline and coal dust for his sister, Mabel. It became the first cake mascara for his new company, Maybelline.

In the late 1890s, a chemist at a German pharmaceutical firm tried to synthesize morphine into codeine, a milder pain-killer, but the result was heroin. The company was Bayer, who had just developed aspirin.

It takes 3650 peanuts to fill a 5-pound container of peanut butter. Half of all edible peanuts consumed in the US are used to make peanut butter.

China invented ice cream, and Marco Polo is rumored to have taken the recipe (along with the recipe for noodles) back with him to Europe.

In 1873, James and Gilbert founded Ganong Bros. Limited in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. In 1884 the partnership was dissolved: James expanded into a successful soap production and Gilbert maintained the candy company known as Ganong Brothers. The fourth generation of Ganongs still runs the candy business, which was the first in North America to wrap a candy bar. They also created the first heart-shaped boxes for Valentine chocolates.

When a chocolate bar melted in Percy L. Spencer's pocket as he stood in front of a magnetron, this man who never finished elementary school invented the microwave oven.

In 1876, Milton Hershey started a candy company in Philadelphia, but it failed six years later. At the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition, he got hooked on chocolate and bought some German candy-making machinery and had it shipped back to Pennsylvania. After much experimentation, Hershey figured out the formula for making milk chocolate-a secret process known only to the Swiss at the time. He started the Hershey Chocolate Company and the rest is history.

That Exposition (the first "World's Fair"), was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Among the products first shown to the public there include the phosphorescent lamp (a precursor to fluorescent lamps), Cracker Jacks, the Ferris Wheel, Juicy Fruit gum, Quaker Oats, Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat, spray painting, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and the hamburger. The US Post Office produced it first picture postcards and Commemorative stamp set, the US Mint offered its first commemorative coins, and the "clasp locker," a clumsy slide fastener (forerunner to the zipper) was displayed, as was Aunt Jemina as a logo for pancake syrup.

On May 8, 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola. He was
a Confederate veteran turned pharmacist who wanted to replace morphine and alcohol dependency among war wounded. Cocaine was considered a kinder, gentler addiction. The popular beverage was originally green. For years, his recipe remained a secret. It was quietly published in 1979 in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal but went unnoticed. It has two parts. The first includes “fluid extract of coca,” citric acid, caffeine, sugar, water, lime juice, vanilla, and caramel. The second, called “7X,” includes alcohol, orange oil, lemon oil, nutmeg oil, coriander, neroli, and cinnamon. The company claims this recipe is not accurate, and maintains that the original formula is still locked in their vaults.

7-Up started as a hangover cure in the roaring twenties: SEVEN in the morning, time to get UP.

Jello was created by carpenter and cough syrup manufacturer, Pearle B. Wait. He and his wife May added strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon flavoring to the powder and gave the product its present name in 1897. Unable to successfully market their concoction, in 1899 the Waits sold the business to a neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, for $450. Even Woodward struggled to sell the powdered product. Beginning in 1902, to raise awareness, Woodward's Genesee Pure Food Company placed advertisements in the Ladies' Home Journal proclaiming Jell-O to be "America's Most Famous Dessert." Jell-O remained a minor success until 1904, when Genesee Pure Food Company sent enormous numbers of salesmen out into the field to distribute free Jell-O cookbooks, a pioneering marketing tactic at the time

It is believed that the original potato chip recipe was created by chef George Crum at a restaurant in Saratoga Springs, NY. Fed up with a customer who continued to send his fried potatoes back with the complaint that they were too thick and soggy, Crum decided to slice the potatoes so thinly that they could not be eaten with a fork. The customer was delighted, and the chips became a regular item on the lodge's menu.

IKEA's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, started by selling matches, pens, and flower seeds from his bicycle when he was five years old. IKEA is an acronym of his name plus Elmtaryd, the village where he grew up, and Agunnaryd, the name of the farm.

The IKEA catalogue turned 60 years old in 2010. It's now printed in 29 languages, and there are 316 stores in 38 countries worldwide. In August, 2011, the IKEA Foundation donated $62 million to the UN refugee agency to provide emergency relief to the world's largest refugee complex in Kenya. For every SUNNAN lamp sold in IKEA stores, the Foundation donates one lamp to UNICEF and Save the Children. By the end of 2015, it's estimated that IKEA's social projects will have helped 100 million children.

In 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis were given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.

Other Canadian inventions include the paint roller, the electric oven, the green garbage bag, the cordless mower, and plexiglas.

Toilet paper was introduced in the United States in perforated form in 1884. Before then, a number of outhouses in America were stocked with dried leaves.

The first shopping cart was created by a Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City in 1939. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted on wheels.

Scotch Tape was created in 1930 by 3M engineer Richard Drew, who had invented masking tape in 1925. At first, the clear cellulose tape was used by bakers and butchers to keep seal packages to resist moisture. But during the Depression, consumers found many other uses for the handy tape, repairing many things that might otherwise have had to discarded.

In 1913, Thomas L. Williams mixed Vaseline and coal dust for his sister, Mabel. It became the first cake mascara for his new company, Maybelline.

In 1951, Lillian Katz took $2,000 of wedding gift money and placed a small ad in Seventeen magazine for $495 offering a purse and belt with free monogramming. Her investment in ad space generated 6,450 orders and $32,000 in sales. The Lillian Vernon catalog was born.

In 1977, Richard Thalheimer, then a young office supplies salesman and occasional lawyer, used to jog in San Francisco and keep track of his progress on a wristwatch that had been specially designed for runners. All who jog should have this item, Thalheimer reasoned. So he cut a deal with the manufacturer and had designer Steve Sugar craft an ad offering the watch for $69 in Runner’s World under the corporate moniker The Sharper Image. The ad generated $300,000 the first year, and the rest is history.

Mel and Patricia Zeigler found a batch of surplus French Army shirts in 1978. Patricia designed a small space ad and Mel wrote the copy. They sold out and Banana Republic was born.

Tim Berners-Lee proposed an information management system at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) 20 years ago which led eventually to the World Wide Web.

James Spratt, an Ohio electrician, who had gone to England to sell lightning rods in 1860, saw British dogs being fed old ship biscuits, and thought he could make a better biscuit. His formulation, based on guesswork, not science, succeeded and he soon had a thriving business among English gentlemen who owned sporting dogs. In 1890 the company went public and came to the US. Thus, an American lightning rod salesman started the entire pet food business. (written by Barbara Moss, www.barbcat.myweb.com/myweb/)

1884, the first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. The new entertainment was an instant success and by the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country.

The Geek Squad was founded in 1994 by Robert Stephens, who began alone and with only a bicycle to get around. It now employs more than 20,000. To honor the state where it began, Minneapolis has enshrined the Geek Squad uniform in its museum.

Bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers were all invented by women.

In 1845, Stephen Perry, a British inventor and businessman, patented what is now a staple office supply—the rubber band. While their intended function is to hold items together, rubber bands have been used in a number of other capacities; they can be wrapped around one another to form a bouncy ball or used as "ammunition" in rubber band guns. Though many modern rubber products are commonly made with synthetic rubber, rubber bands are still primarily manufactured using natural rubber.

The hammock dates back to the Maya in Latin America. The word hamacas means fishing nets, and became popular because they were easily transportable and kept sleepers above the ground, dry and away from snakes and insects. They were quickly adopted on sailing ships because they took up much less space than beds and were easily stored.

The prototypes for universal symbols were developed in the 1930s at the Museum of Society and Economy in Vienna by Otto Neurath (1882-1945), a left-leaning Viennese social scientist who specialized in political economy. His system of sign symbols, which became known as the International System of Typographic Picture Education (Isotype), grew out of his calling to revolutionize understanding among peoples and institutions.

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