History of inventions
5 questions tagged History of inventions — spanning every one of the seven Ws.
When was the toothbrush invented?
The first bristle toothbrush is recorded in China in 1498, made of coarse hog hairs set in bone or bamboo. William Addis began mass-producing toothbrushes in England after 1780, and nylon bristles arrived in 1938.
Where did bubble wrap come from?
Hawthorne, New Jersey, in 1957. Engineer Alfred Fielding and Swiss chemist Marc Chavannes sealed two plastic shower curtains together to make textured 3-D wallpaper, trapping air bubbles by accident. The wallpaper flopped, but the bubbles turned out to be perfect for packaging.
Whose idea was the paper clip?
Nobody knows for sure. The familiar double-loop 'Gem' clip was never patented and its designer is unknown. It is often credited to Norwegian Johan Vaaler, but his 1899 design was different and was never made.
Whose invention was the windshield wiper?
The windshield wiper was invented by Mary Anderson, an American woman who patented a hand-operated wiper in 1903 after watching a streetcar driver struggle to see through sleet.
What was Play-Doh originally invented for?
Play-Doh was first sold as a wallpaper cleaner. The soft, pliable putty was rolled over walls to lift off the soot left by coal and wood heating, and it only became a toy years later when that market collapsed.