In 1928, bubble gum was invented by American named Walter E. Diemer. Here’s what Walter Diemer, the inventor himself, said about it just a year or two before he died— “It was an accident. I was doing something else, and it ended up with something with bubbles.” And history took one giant step forward. What […]
In ancient Greece, boxer performed at Olympic Games and other public games. Some of their rules matched with our present rules, but they wore the ‘cestus’ instead of gloves. Cestus was a wrapping of leather studded with lead of bronze plates, and a blow from it could be quite damaging. After the fall of Roman
The first jeans came in two styles—indigo blue and brown cotton ‘duck’. Unlike denim, the duck material never became soft and comfortable so it was eventually dropped from the line. Although denim pants had been around as work wear for many years, historically dating back to England in the 1600s with a fabric there called
A car crash on April 1, 1950, brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of Dr. Charles Drew. Drew, an African- American physician and surgeon, gained notoriety for his techniques for processing and storing blood plasma for use in transfusions. Because of the existence of Blood Banks, accident victims are far less likely to
The game is so old that no one can say when it began. It was perhaps played in ancient Egypt. The Greeks know the game as long ago as 400 B.C. Catkire More, a king of Ireland, left behind him fifty-five billiard balls of brass, with the pools and cues of the same material in
Some history books will state that Pierre and Ernest Michaux, the French father and son team of carriage- makers, invented the first bicycle during the 1860s. Historians now disagree with this, and there is evidence that the bicycle is older than that. However, historians do agree that Ernest Michaux did invent the modern bicycle pedal
She’s a successful business woman, a member of a rock band and a Women’s World Cup Soccer player. Who is this superstar? It’s none other than Barbie Doll. A little hard to believe, but the Barbie Doll started out as a human being! She was Barbara Handler, the daughter of Ruth and Elliot Handler. In
During your visit to a shopping mall or a big Retail chain, you must have observed that the person at the counter uses a simple machine to recognize your purchases. When he runs the machine over the sticker on the product, the computer automatically recognizes the product, and bills you for it. If you have
You must have had cuts, scrapes, blisters and bruises numerous times. And you may have used Band aids as many times. Have you ever paused to think, who invented this tiny bandage, and why he ever thought of inventing something like a Band Aid? The story goes like this. The year was 1920. Josephine married
A Hungarian journalist named Laxzlo Biro invented the first ballpoint pen in 1938. Biro had noticed that the type of ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. The thicker ink would not flow from a regular pen
The first invention of an automobile was by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, a French military officer, who built a carriage that ran on a bulky steam engine. The next year, the US inventor Nathan Read, received a patent for his own steam carriage. During the 18th century, these were the few experiments with mechanizing the carriage.
The leaves and bark of some trees like the willow contain a substance called salicin. Salicin relieves pain to some extent. People in olden days used to chew the leaves or bark of such trees in order to get relief from pain. In 1853 a French chemist, Charles Frederick von Gerhardt trying to produce salicin
Artificial hearts date back to the mid 1950s when Dr. Paul Winchell first patented it. In 1982, a Seattle dentist, Dr. Barney Clark was the first person implanted with the Jarvik-7, an artificial heart intended to last a lifetime. William DeVries, an US surgeon performed the surgery. Robert Jarvik designed the Jarvik-7 artificial heart. The
In 1787, Levi Hutchins was a 26-year-old clock-maker in Concord, USA with a Yankee conscience. He believed in being at his job on time. It was his ‘firm rule’ to awaken at 4 a.m., whatever the season. But sometimes he slept past that hour, and was distraught the rest of the day. What he wished
Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) requested a patent application for a ‘flying machine’ nine months before their successful flight in December 1903, which Orville Wright recorded in his diary. As part of the Wright Brother’s systematic practice of photographing every prototype and test of their various flying machines, they had persuaded an attendant