Josephine Cochran was issued Patent No. 355,139 on December 28,1886 for a dish washing machine. Cochran was a wealthy woman in Illinois who frequently hosted dinner parties. She became frustrated when her servants would chip or break her heirloom china so she began washing her own dishes. She was upset with the indignity of having to wash her own dishes and decided that there must be a better way. Since no one else had invented something, she was going to do it herself.

Cochran set to work on her design, staying home from a vacation with her ailing husband. She began by measuring the dishes. She then built wire compartments to fit either cups, plates or saucers. The compartments were placed on a wheel which was turned by a motor inside a watertight metal box. Hot soapy water squirted up in and rained down on the dishes cleaning them. Continue reading…

Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary, to a Jewish family. Houdini began his career as a trapeze artist and was later renowned as a magician and an escape artist. He astonished audiences by escaping from handcuffs, straitjackets, and prison cells.

Houdini also held a patent for a style of diving suit. The innovation was granted U.S. Patent Number 1,370,316 on March 1, 1921. The object of Houdini’s diving suit was to allow a diver to get out of the suit while submerged. This helped the diver swiftly and safely escape and reach the surface of the water. It also allowed a diver to don his suit without assistance. This was accomplished by being formed in two halves, with a locking joint in the middle. The diver could reach this joint and release it, and then escape from the suit. Continue reading…

Liquid Paper was invented by a bank secretary form Texas in 1951. Bette Nesmith Graham, mother of of Monkees member Michael Nesmith, concocted the first correction fluid in her kitchen with tempera paint and a blender. Her second job as painter of holiday windows at the bank was the inspiration behind her invention. Graham noticed “with lettering, an artist never corrects by erasing, but always paints over the error. So I decided to use what artists use. I put some tempera water-based paint in a bottle and took my watercolor brush to the office. I used that to correct my mistakes.” Continue reading…

The Flexible Flyer was invented over 100 years ago by a farm equipment manufacturer. Looking to provide year round employment for his workers, Samuel Leeds Allen began trying to invent a sled in the 1880’s. Coasting, as sledding was then known, was very popular and Allen was hoping to capitalize on this.

Allen’s first attempts at developing a sled were tested by the children at Westtown School in Pennsylvania. The predecessor of the Flexible Flyer was the Fairy Coaster which was a double-runner or bobsled which held three or four adults. Runners were made of steel and seats of a plush fabric. This entire sled could be folded into a small package for easy transportation on a streetcar or train. The problem with this first sled was a retail price of $50.00. This expensive price tag made it impossible to sell in quantity. A smaller cheaper version of this sled was designed but testing proved it to be too small and not have enough runner for proper steering. Eventually the entire production line for the Fairy Coaster was sold at auction. Continue reading…

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Would you believe the world’s best known brand got its name from a bookkeeper?

Frank M. Robinson, an accountant and partner in what would come to be an iconic soft drink, not only suggested the name Coca Cola; he designed the logo, too. The name was derived from the two main ingredients in the product: cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine came from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola. The K in kola was turned to a C for marketing purposes. Continue reading…

Chocolate chip cookies seem like a classic part of American baking like the apple pie, but actually these delicious cookies were not invented until 1933. Ruth Graves Wakefield was the woman who brought us these delectable treats. Built on the outskirts of Whitman, MA in 1709 as a collection booth for the toll road, Mr. & Mrs. Wakefield acquired the building in 1930 and transformed it into a restaurant and inn.  The newly renamed Toll House Inn was a charming respite for weary travelers, boasting comfortable lodgings along with homemade meals and fresh baked goods.

Ruth Wakefield’s favorite cookie recipe was the Butter Drop cookies. One day as she was making the batter for these cookies, she discovered she was out of powdered baker’s chocolate. She decided to substitute broken pieces of a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar. She expected the chocolate to melt and absorb into the batter therefore creating chocolate cookies. The chocolate did not melt, but instead held its shape and became soft and creamy. These new cookies called Toll House Crunch Cookies by Wakefield became an instant hit with guests of the inn. Continue reading…

On January 28, 1958 at 1:58 pm Godtfred Kirk Christiansen submitted the patent application for the improved Lego brick and building system in Copenhagen, Denmark. Today, the thousands of different shapes, sizes and colors of Legos are all designed to connect with the original brick from the Danish patent. All 2×4 Legos made since 1958 have been manufactured to the exact same measurements as the version outlined in the original patent.

Legos began in the workshop of a carpenter from Billund, Denmark. Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter who made his living building houses and furniture for farmers. A fire in his workshop and the Great Depression ultimately led Christiansen to begin producing wooden toys including piggy banks, cars and trucks in 1932. The name Lego was given to the business in 1934. The word is a self-made contraction of the Danish words leg and godt which mean play well. Det beste er ikke for godt which roughly translates to mean “Not even the best is good enough” was the Lego motto. Continue reading…

In 1915, a U.S. Patent No. 1,125,476 was issued to George Claude of Paris for a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes.” This patent was the basis for the neon sign. Claude, an engineer, chemist and inventor was the first person to create a lamp by applying an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon. By mixing other gases with the neon, Claude was able to produce the light in many different colors. He, also, discovered that the tubes holding the gas mixture could be bent and twisted. This allowed him to produce the letters and shapes that are the signature of a neon sign.

Claude first displayed this invention that revolutionized sign making at the1910 Paris Expo. In 1923, under the company Claude’s Neon, he introduced neon signs to the United States. Continue reading…

On February 20, 1940, Eddie Bauer received Design Patent Number 119,122 for a jacket. Bauer caught hypothermia while fishing in the cold, rainy Washington winter in 1936. After his near death experience, he began attempting to develop alternative outdoor wear.

The wool garments worn by him and other outdoorsmen at the time were very heavy and did little to protect against the rain. Bauer remembered the jacket his uncle, a Russian soldier, had worn. A light but warm goose down filled jacket had help to keep him warm in the below zero temperatures of the Russian winters. Eddie Bauer designed and sewed a quilted goose down jacket for himself. Bauer wore this jacket out into the elements and discovered that it was indeed very warm. His friends began asking him to sew jackets for them too. Continue reading…