Short origin stories of some Great Inventions

1. The airbag

in 1952, John Hetrick, a retired industrial engineer, avoided an accident with his Chrysler in the last minute.The rest of his trip passed while wondering how can he soften the effects of a car accident. One year later he registered a patent for an array of pillows built in a way that they will inflate in case of a sudden stop\slowing down. But as he experience – it was easier to register the patent than really build it. Only years later it was built properly and on the right speed of inflation without hurting the passengers. The critical advancement happened when Alan Breed invented a cheap sensor – a magnet that holds a metal ball that gets released under specific forces – makes an electric circuit and make the pillows inflate.

2. ATM

The first money giving machine was installed in New York at 1939. It’s inventor, Luther George Simian, saw in his mind a machine out of a hole in the wall that will allow customers to withdraw money without the need to go inside a bank. at the beginning only prostitutes and gamblers used this service, so it disappeared completely after 6 months. The real breakthrough arrived at 1969 when Donald Wetzel developed an automatic money machine for a company called Docotel – the machine was installed in Chemical bank in New York. to make the thieves turn away the machine was covered with thick iron that his making took approximately 8 hours. 4 years later there were already 2,000 atms around the united states. The cost for building and installing one was $30,000. These days there are over 400,000 machines spread around the united states.

3. The Band-Aid

Josephine Dickinson, a housewife from New Jersey was the inspiration for her husband Earl, that was looking for an efficiunt way to protect her from house accidents. He took a piece of gauze put it on the sticky side of surgery plaster and on everything he put some crinoline so it could be rolled without sticking to itself. Afterwards – every time his wife cut herself, she would just take a piece of the readymade band aid instead of using a thread to tie the gauze to herself. at that time Dickinson worked for Johnson & Johnson that were already selling hygiene products – he showed his invention to the executives that almost instantly recognized the importance of the invention.

4. Mints

Ancient egyptians used to put boiled honey and cinnamon on their tongues, the romans chew dill and in the victorian era the men prefered to chew licorice that were marketed as “perfume for the breathe”. Mints were usually considered as a treatment and remedy than candy. The real mints were invented in 1912, when a candy maker from Ohio named Clarence Crane made a candy for the hot summer days. He made a hole in the center and called it a life saver – for it’s look. The success of these mints are thanks to Edward Noble, a wandering book seller that with his friend G. Roy allen purchased Crane’s business in 1913 and aggressively marketed the mint. During the prohibition in the united states – they managed to sell the mints to hide the alcohol smell out of people’s mouths.

5. Bullets

The first hot weapon was a little cannon: the gunpowder and the bullets were kept separately, and an outer source was needed to light it up like a flammable string of rope. Over the next 200 years new mechanisms were developed to make the spark needed and the modern cannon was created.