See also: Electrical & Electronics | Household
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The Credit Card
The inventor of the first bank issued credit card was John Biggins of the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn in New York. In 1946, Biggins invented the "Charge-It" program between bank customers and local merchants. Merchants could deposit sales slips into the bank and the bank billed the customer who used the card. In 1950, the Diners Club issued their credit card in the United States. The Diners Club credit card was invented by Diners' Club founder Frank McNamara and it was intended to pay restaurant bills. A customer could eat without cash at any restaurant that would accept Diners' Club credit cards. Diners' Club would pay the restaurant and the credit card holder would repay Diners' Club. The Diners Club card was at first technically a charge card rather than a credit card since the customer had to repay the entire amount when billed by Diners Club.
American Express issued their first credit card in 1958. Bank of America issued the BankAmericard (now Visa) bank credit card later in 1958. Credit cards were first promoted to traveling salesmen (more common in that era) for use on the road. By the early 1960s, more companies offered credit cards, advertising them as a time-saving device rather than a form of credit. American Express and MasterCard became huge successes overnight.
ATM's (Automatic Teller Machines)
Before Automatic Teller Machines were everywhere you could only withdraw your cash from a bank building with human tellers and queues (OK, so we still have the queues but at least they're outside) that was only open during business hours. People went there on payday, waited in a queue and made a deposit (keeping some cash for the weekend). Sure, some people had cheques and credit cards, but you couldn't buy beer at the local pub with those! The world's first ATM cash dispenser was installed on June 27th 1967 at Barclay's Bank in Church Street, Enfield in England. It was opened by Reg Varney who was infinitely more famous as Stan Butler the bus driver in the British comedy "On The Buses". By the way - It's not an "ATM Machine", because ATM actually stands for Automatic Teller Machine . . . so that would make it an Automatic Teller Machine Machine!
Floppy Disks
The floppy disk drive (FDD) was invented at IBM by Alan Shugart in 1967. The first floppy drives used an 8-inch disk (later called a "diskette" as it became smaller), which evolved into the 5.25-inch disk that was used on the first IBM Personal Computer in August 1981. In 1970, IBM released its 3740 system which utilised a "floppy disk" - a thin, flexible plastic disc 20 cm across, covered with magnetic iron oxide. The "floppy" was designed to be inserted into a slot in the computer which could copy data on to it or read information from it. It was far faster than the reel to reel magnetic tapes used by older systems. It has now been replaced the the CD-Rom which can contain over 1000 times more data than the floppy disc.
Arcade Games
The era of the video arcade game was ushered in with Computer Space in 1971, but few really noticed. Pong was released the following year, and a phenomenon is born. Games like Tank, Gun Fight, Breakout and Sea Wolf proved that video games were no flash in the pan, but it took Space Invaders to take the craze to a galactic new level. The Space Invaders game was first imported from Japan in 1978 - the game quickly became the hottest arcade game in the country, and the world. Video Arcade revenues peaked in 1981.
Meanwhile, in the non-video world, a hockey fan turned his passion into a year-round sport with Air Hockey, and Whac-a-Mole lets players work out life's little frustrations with a padded mallet. The Who's "Pinball Wizard" musical and movie launched a new pinball craze, and celebrities from The Harlem Globetrotters to KISS began to grace the machines' back glass and playfields. But by the end of the 1970s, video was clearly the new king, and Asteroids wore the crown. Next, the entire world gets a major case of Pac-Man fever, and video games get their first true superstar. ... See also Computer Games and The Arcade Games
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The Long Play (LP) Record
Since the invention of sound-recording technology by Thomas Edison (1847–1931) in the 1800s, people have looked for new and better ways to bring recorded sound to mass audiences. Before cassettes, compact discs, and MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (MP3) files, the long-playing record (LP) was, for more than forty years, the main way people heard recorded music. The celluloid 78-rpm record spun on a turntable 78 times, or revolutions, per minute - and used a needle to play it. But the 78-rpm record had a number of drawbacks: It could only hold a few minutes worth of music on each side, it was heavy, and it broke easily. Peter Goldmark (1906–1977), working for Columbia Records, developed the long play (LP) record in 1948. He overcame the 78's limitations in two ways. First, he lowered the speed of the recording to 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. Second, he squeezed more and smaller grooves onto each side of the record so that more sound could fit on each side of the disc. Those grooves would reach more than a kilometre if stretched out in a straight line. Many of vinyl, the LP also required a diamond needle to play the records, which resulted in improved sound. The LP was immediately hailed by classical music lovers because the longer pieces of classical music could now be heard in a mostly uninterrupted format. More ...
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8 Track Cartridge Player |
Compact Cassette
Reel to Reel tape recorders came into domestic use in the 1950s. They were cumbersome creatures, and it was only time before they would be replaced by something not only a little more practical, but also more portable. That happened in 1962 when the Philips Company of the Netherlands invented and released the first compact audio-cassette. They used high-quality polyester 1/8-inch tape produced by BASF. Recording and playback was at a speed of 1.7/8 inches per second. A year later, sales began of the Norelco Carry-Corder dictation machine that used the new cassette tape. Consumer demand for blank tape used for personal music-recording was unanticipated by Philips an d in the early years, blank tapes were in short supply. The Compact Cassette became the universal standard format for portable high fidelity recorded sound until the 1990s when home burnt compact discs began replacing it. Radio/cassette players began to be installed in cars in the late 1960s. In the 1990s, they were gradually phased out, being replaced by radio/compact disc players.
8-Track tapes
"Bill" William Lear, who was the designer of the Lear Jet executive airplane, was also the inventor of the 8-track stereo cassette. Lear founded the Lear Electronics Corporation, merging with the Siegler corporation in 1960 to become Lear Siegler Inc. William Lear used the capital he acquired from the Lear Siegler merger to develop Learjet (a company he eventually sold to Gates Rubber Co.) where Lear dedicated his life to the development of an antipollution steam engine and new materials for airplanes. The car culture of the United States spawned the notion of tapes as an alternative to popular records, and the 8-track player was conceived as a means to give the American driver the option of listening to the music of his or her choice while in transit. The 8-track format was developed by a diverse consortium that included the Ampex Magnetic Tape Company, Lear Jet Company and Motorola and RCA-Victor records, and enjoyed the tremendous advantage of being championed at its inception by Ford Motors, which in 1965 first offered Motorola 8-track players as an option in their complete line of 1966 model Ford and Mercury cars. More ...
The Laserdisc
The earliest disc to contain recorded images had appeared in 1928 when the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird developed the Phonodisc. This was a 250 mm, 78 rpm record, similar to the discs being produced for sound recording at that time. On the Phonodisc a 30-line television signal was recorded. Despite its novelty, the Phonodisc was not a commercial success and was abandoned in 1936. David Paul Gregg first envisioned the optical disk (or Videodisk as he named it) in 1958 and patented the technology in 1961 and 1969. Gregg's company Gauss Electrophysics was acquired by MCA in the early 1960s. MCA also bought the patent rights for the optical disk which included a the process for making a video record disc and other optical disk technology. In 1978, MCA Discovision released the first consumer Optical disk player in Atlanta, Georgia. The laserdisc, the name by which the videodisk became known, is an optical disc with pictures and sounds recorded on it. It is played back by laser, similar to the DVD. The material recorded onto the video disc is stamped on to the disk in a similar same way that compact discs are produced. As with the early CDs the home user cannot record onto a Laserdisc. More ...
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Beta videocassette |
The Videocassette
The development of the videocassette followed the replacement of other open reel systems in consumer items by cassettes: the compact audio cassette and Instamatic film cartridge in 1963, and the Super 8 home movie cartridge in 1966. Sony demonstrated a videocassette prototype in October 1969, then set it aside to work out an industry standard by March 1970 with seven fellow manufacturers. The result, the Sony U-matic system, introduced in Tokyo in September 1971, was the world's first commercial videocassette format. Its cartridges, resembling larger versions of the later VHS cassettes, used 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) tape and had a maximum playing time of 90 minutes. In 1970 the Dutch electronics company Philips developed a home videocassette format. Confusingly, Philips named this format "VCR" (although it is also referred to as "N1500", after the first recorder's model number). The format was also supported by Grundig and LOEWE. It used square cassettes and half-inch (1.3 cm) tape, giving a recording time of one hour. The first model, released in 1972, was equipped with a crude timer that used rotary dials. The system was expensive and the format barely caught on for home use. However, a later (and incompatible) long-play version ("VCR-LP") or N1700, which could use the same tapes, sold quite well to schools and colleges. More ...
Compact Discs
Japanese and Dutch scientists invented the Compact Disc (CD) in 1981. It was able to record sound as microscopic changes in the surface of a plastic disc, with the changes "read" by a laser in a CD player and changed back into sound electronically. Launched in 1982 by Philips and Sony, the lightweight plastic discs were just 12cm in diameter, compared to 12 inches (30 cm) for LP records.
The shiny, un-scratchable (at least that is what we were told) pocket-sized digitally encoded discs appealed to the older, richer, more discerning record buyer disenchanted with breakable, scratchable, meltable 12 inch vinyl. CD customers were interested in purity of sounds, and more importantly, were reluctant to have to get up in the middle of a dinner party to turn an album over. By the late 1980s the digital sound of the CD had buried the LP, transforming the humble 12-inch into car boot-sale trash (and the occasional over-priced collector's item). On the downside, CDs had smaller, less attractive covers, suffered from a "sterile" sound and were initially more expensive. Still the public went wild for them, but for many, the love of vinyl is still a real part of their lives and will continue to be so for as long as needles and turntables are being manufactured. In 1985, the CD-ROM, which uses the same media, was developed by Philips/Hitachi and began to be used for storing data generated on a computer. It quickly became the default standard for computer storage media.
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The Instamatic Camera
In 1963 Kodak introduced a new range of inexpensive cameras which they named Instamatic. Unlike other cameras which had to have the film loaded manually in the dark, the film for Instamatic cameras was supplied in a sealed cartridge; to load the film, all that had to be done was open the back of the camera, pop in the cartridge, close the camera and start shooting. The film was a new size, 26 mm wide, instead of the regular 35 mm. It was designated 126. During its heyday, the range was so ubiquitous that the Instamatic name is still frequently used (erroneously) to refer to any inexpensive point and shoot camera. The Instamatic name was also used by Kodak on some Super 8-based home-cine cameras. The Instamatic was an instant success; more than 50 million Instamatic cameras were produced between 1963 and 1970. Many other manufacturers attempted to capitalize on the popularity of the Instamatic with their own 126 cameras, including Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Ricoh, and even Rollei. More ...
During the 1970s, the operational principles of the Instamatic camera were utilised by other manufacturers in a variety of novel applications, including the pocket-sized 110 camera. Because of its size, the 110 camera was particularly suitable to adaptation. In the mid 1970s, the major soft drink manufacturers released a new, narrow can for their drinks, and the cans were copied and used in a variety of novel applications, one of which was the can camera. Eiko's can camera was essentially a soft drink can with a 110 camera inside. These were often sold or given away as promotions by soft drink and beer manufacturers. Various models were made from 1977 to 1983, but they all included a 110 camera hidden inside a can with a variety of nameplates. Many came from countries other than the US, all were awkward to use and were always seen as a novelty item rather than a legitimate camera. The Mickey Mouse camera (photo below), was released in 1965. Containing the mechanicals of a 110 camera, the first version used the right ear as a shutter release. Later versions had the shutter release on the side of the head. The Kodak Partytime II Kodamatic Instant Camera - released in 1982 - was designed for 'instant' photography. It was produced to be given away free at Tupperware parties. Kodak began to manufacture instant cameras in 1977. Polaroid, who had pioneered instant photography in 1948, took legal action. In 1985, after prolonged litigation, judgment went against Kodak who had to discontinue the production of instant cameras and film.
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Kodak Carousel |
The Kodak Carousel
There have been many types of slide projectors produced over the years, but the space-efficient rotating design of the slide tray made the Kodak Carousel the most popular among consumers. For individual viewing of slides a small battery lit viewer such as the GAF Pana-Vue can be used. The Kodak Carousel first went on sale in 1967.
Poloroid portable Printed Copier
The Polaroid printer copiers (right) were designed for use with various Polaroid cameras. Released in 1958, the printer copiers were accessories for making copies of Polaroid prints. When unfolded, they somewhat resembled a slide projector. Prints were loaded into a holder in the back of the device. The camera was positioned on a rail at the front of the Copier - the lens of the camera mated with a close-up lens built into the Copier. Two small 120-volt bayonet-base light bulbs in the Copier served as a fixed source of illumination for the print to be copied. The camera's exposure was set for this constant exposure source (via a chart supplied with the copier), and the picture was taken and developed in the usual way. The Copier was supplied with a cable release (for the camera) and had a built-in electric exposure/development timer (which was powered whenever the light bulbs are switched on), and (starting in 1959) came with a set of neutral-density filters for the light bulbs for use when 3000-speed film was used in the camera.
Poloroid Instant Camera
The Polaroid SX-70 Land camera - the first fully automatic, motorized, folding, single lens reflex camera - was released in 1970. Many consider the SX-70, which ejected self-developing, self-timing instant color prints, to be Dr. Land's masterpiece. A very limited-edition gold-plated version of this camera was also produced. Some other limited-production color combinations may exist of the original SX-70, but beware that some may have been altered by the end-user, and were not produced that way at the factory.
In October 1985, after nine years of patent litigation with Polaroid, Kodak was banned from making and selling instant cameras and film. The ban took effect January 1986, at which time Kodak announced a trade-in programme. The owners of 16.5 million cameras were given the chance to trade in their cameras for a share of Kodak common stock, a new camera, or $50 worth of Kodak merchandise. By June of 1986, several class action lawsuits had been filed against Kodak by instant camera owners. The final settlement called for owners to return the camera's nameplate for a refund of cash and credits.
Disc Cameras
Kodak began marketing disc photography in 1982 with a line of compact cameras built around a rotating disc of film. A variety of disc-based cameras were produced between 1982 and 1990. The Disc 4000 (1982) and the Disc 4100 (1984) are shown above along with a disc cartridge and interior film disc. The disc camera remained in production until the introduction of the digital camera.
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Kodak Partyime Camera |
Digital Camera
Texas Instruments patented a film-less electronic camera in 1972. Its inventor was Willis A. Adcock, of Dallas, Texas. The abstract from the patent application read: "A completely electronic system for recording and subsequently displaying still life pictures includes an optical-electronic transducer for generating electronic signals responsive to an optical image. The signals are stored and subsequently applied to a visual display. Means are provided for applying the signals at a scan rate synchronized with the scan rate of the display to effect a stationary display of the optical image. Preferably, the display is a conventional television set. In 1975 Steven J. Sasson (b. 1950), an electrical engineer, was given a very broad assignment from his supervisor at Eastman Kodak Company, Gareth A. Lloyd: could a camera be built using solid state electronics, solid state imagers, an electronic sensor known as a charge coupled device (CCD) that gathers optical information? In other words, can you invent the digital camera. More ...
In 1981, the University of Calgary Canada ASI Science Team constructed the first operational digital camera. The All-Sky camera used the first commercially available CCD, the Fairchild 100 x 100 pixel CCD of 1973 (see 1970s page), thus the name, Fairchild All-Sky Camera. Unlike other early electronic cameras, the All-Sky Camera provided digital data rather than analog data, thus making it the first documented operational digital camera. It was used to photograph auroras. Shown above left to right: camera exterior, camera interior, camera on location. Shown below: Image of an aurora captured by the UC Fairchild All-Sky Camera.
The Hitachi VK-C1000, released in 1981, was the first consumer video camera with solid state (MOS - metal oxide semiconductor) image pickup device rather than an image pickup tube. The viewfinder was a small color CRT rather than an LCD. The recording device was basically a table-top VTR with a shoulder strap attached. The battery was very large and was usable for about 45 minutes of recording. A separate power supply was required to operate the VTR when not on battery power.
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Radial Ply Tyre |
Radial Ply Tyres
The radial ply tyre was originally developed by French vehicle manufacturer Michelin in 1946 but, because of its advantages, has now become the standard design for essentially all automotive tyres. In the past, the fabric was built up on a flat steel drum, with the cords at an angle of about +60 and -60 degrees from the direction of travel, so they criss-crossed over each other. They were called cross ply or bias ply tires. By comparison, radial ply tyres lay all of the cord plies at 90 degrees to the direction of travel (that is, across the tire from lip to lip). This design avoids having the plies rub against each other as the tire flexes, reducing the rolling friction of the tyre. This allows vehicles with radial tires to achieve better fuel economy than vehicles with bias-ply tires. It also accounts for the slightly "low on air" (bulging) look that radial tyre sidewalls have, especially when compared to bias-ply tyres.
Radial tyres have different characteristics of springiness from those of cross-ply tyres, and a different degree of slip while steering. They ride differently, hence there was both a reluctance by consumers to use them and a need for vehicle manufacturers to modify car suspensions to make the suspension and the tyre compatable. US Ford Motor Company engineer Jack Bajer experimented in the 1960s on a Ford Falcon, by giving it less tight steering, and adding both isolators to the drive shaft and bushings to the suspension, the latter being to absorb the thump of riding over asphalt expansion joints in a concrete roadway. Cars could now be made lighter because they would not have to make up for the deficiences of cross-ply tyres. The results of Bajer's work filtered through the automotive industry and in the 1970s, vehicles began to be manufactured with suspensions tuned to the radial ply tyre's handling characteristics. The first car available in Australia that was designed to use radial ply tyres exclusively was BMC's Austin 1800 (1964).
Permanent Crease Trousers
The salvation of travelling salesman everywhere, the ability to create trousers with a permanent crease in this was developed by Dr Arthur Farnworth of the CSIRO in Canberra in 1957. After much experimentation, Dr Farnsworth found that by adding a special resin to the wool fibres, the chemical structure of the wool changed, thereby allowing a permenant crease to be placed into the fibres during manufacture.
Liquid Paper
Dallas mother Bette Nesmith Graham never intended to be an inventor; she wanted to be an artist. However, shortly after World War II ended, she found herself divorced with a small child to support. She learned shorthand and typing and found employment as an executive secretary. An efficient employee who took pride in her work, Graham sought a better way to correct typing errors. She remembered that artists painted over their mistakes on canvas, so why couldn’t typists paint over their mistakes? Ms Graham put some tempera waterbased paint, coloured to match the stationery she used, in a bottle and took her watercolor brush to the office. Soon another secretary saw the new invention and asked for some of the correcting fluid. Ms Graham found a green bottle at home, wrote "Mistake Out" on a label, and gave it to her friend. Soon all the secretaries in the building were asking for some, too.
In 1956, Ms Graham started the Mistake Out Company (later renamed Liquid Paper) from her North Dallas home. She turned her kitchen into a laboratory, mixing up an improved product with her electric mixer. Graham’s son, Michael Nesmith (later of The Monkees fame), and his friends filled bottles for her customers. Nevertheless, she made little money despite working nights and weekends to fill orders. One day, opportunity came knocking in disguise when Ms Graham made a mistake at work that she couldn’t correct, and her boss fired her. She now had time to devote to selling Liquid Paper, and the business boomed. In 1968, she established her own plant and corporate headquarters, to house her automated operations and 19 employees. In that year they sold one million bottles. In 1976, the Liquid Paper Corporation turned out 25 million bottles.
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Permanent Crease Trousers |
The Crsh Test Dummy
On 31st August 1869, Mary Ward became what is believed to be the first recorded victim of an automobile accident when she was thrown out of a steam powered motor vehicle and killed in Parsonstown, Ireland. Since that time, in excess of 20 million people worldwide have lost their lives to motor vehicle accidents, and politicians, scientists, engineers and designers have been working on ways to reduce motor vehicle accidents and the personal injury caused by them. Detroit's Wayne State University was the first to begin serious work on collecting data on the effects of high-speed collisions on the human body. In the late 1930s, there were no reliable data on the response of the human body to extreme physical injury, and no effective tools existed to measure such responses. Biomechanics was a field barely in its infancy. It was therefore necessary to employ two types of test subjects in order to develop initial data sets.
The first test subjects were human cadavers. They were used to obtain fundamental information about the human body's ability to withstand the crushing and tearing forces typically experienced in a high-speed accident. To such an end, steel ball bearings were dropped on skulls, and bodies were dumped down unused elevator shafts onto steel plates. Cadavers fitted with crude accelerometers were strapped into automobiles and subjected to head-on collisions and vehicle rollovers. Human volunteers were first used in the late 1930s and in the 1950s, animals began to be used in tests.
The information gleaned from cadaver research and animal studies had already been put to some use in the construction of human simulacra as early as 1949, when "Sierra Sam" was created by Samuel W. Alderson at his Alderson Research Labs (ARL) and Sierra Engineering Co. to test aircraft ejection seats and pilot restraint harnesses. This testing involved the use of high acceleration to 1000 km/h (600 mph) rocket sleds, beyond the capability of human volunteers to tolerate. In the early 1950s, Alderson and Grumman produced a dummy which was used to conduct crash tests in both motor vehicles and aircraft. The mass production of dummies afforded their use in many more applications. Alderson went on to produce what it called the VIP-50 series, built specifically for General Motors and Ford, but which was also adopted by the US National Bureau of Standards.
Sierra followed up with a competitor dummy, a model it called "Sierra Stan," but GM, who had taken over the impetus in developing a reliable and durable dummy, found neither model satisfied its needs. GM engineers decided to combine the best features of the VIP series and Sierra Stan, and so in 1971 Hybrid I was born. Hybrid I was what is known as a "50th percentile male" dummy. That is to say, it modeled an average male in height, mass, and proportion. Since then, considerable work has gone into creating more and more sophisticated dummies. Hybrid II was introduced in 1972, with improved shoulder, spine, and knee responses, and more rigorous documentation. Hybrid II became the first dummy to comply with the American Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) for testing of automotive lap and shoulder belts.
Hybrid III, the 50th percentile male dummy which made its first appearance in 1976, and is the familiar crash test dummy of today. If he could stand upright, he would be 168 cm tall and would have a mass of 77 kg . He occupies the driver's seat in crash tests around the world. He is joined by a "big brother", a female dummy and three child dummies that represent a ten year old, a six year old, and a three year old. The child models are very recent additions to the crash test dummy family; because so little hard data are available on the effects of accidents on children, and such data are very difficult to obtain, these models are based in large part on estimates and approximations. More ...
Marker Pens
The first marker was probably the felt tip marker, created in the 1940s. It was mainly used for labeling and artistic applications. In 1952, Sidney Rosenthal began marketing his "Magic Marker" which consisted of a glass bottle that held ink and a wool felt wick. By 1958, marker use was becoming common, and people used them widely for lettering, labelling, marking packages, and creating posters.
According to the now defunct Magic Marker website: "In 1952, inventor Sidney Rosenthal developed and began marketing the first felt tip marking device. A chubby, squat glass bottle to hold ink with a wool felt wick and writing tip [this describes the unusual appearance of the first magic markers], Rosenthal named his new marking device Magic Marker because of its ability to mark on almost every surface... In 1989, Binney & Smith, best known for its Crayola products, and the leading children's marker manufacturer, enters into a licensing agreement for exclusive rights to the Magic Marker brand name... In 1991, after three years of product development, Binney & Smith introduces a revamped, redesigned and improved Magic Marker line that includes highlighters and permanent markers [magic markers become thinner]... !n 1996, fine point Magic Marker II DryErase markers are introduced for detailed writing and drawing on white boards, dry erase boards and glass surfaces."
Highlighters and fine-line markers were first seen in the 1970s. Permanent markers also became available around this time. Superfine-points and dry erase markers gained popularity in the 1990's. The modern fiber tip pen was invented by Yukio Horie of the Tokyo Stationery Company, Japan in 1962. The Avery Dennison Corporation trademarked Hi-Liter® and Marks-A-Lot® in the early '90s. The Hi-Liter® pen, commonly known as a highlighter, is a marking pen which overlays a printed word with a transparent color leaving it legible and emphasized.
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Marker Pens |
Post-It Notes
In the early 1970s, Arthur (Art) Fry was in search of a bookmark for his church hymnal that would neither fall out nor damage the book. Fry noticed that a colleague at 3M, Dr. Spencer Silver, had developed an adhesive that was strong enough to stick to surfaces, but left no residue after removal and could be repositioned. Fry took some of Dr. Silver’s adhesive and applied it along the edge of a piece of paper. His church hymnal problem was solved!
Fry soon realized that his "bookmark" had other potential functions when he used it to leave a note on a work file, and co-workers kept dropping by, seeking "bookmarks" for their offices. This "bookmark" became a new way to communicate and to organize. 3M Corporation crafted the name Post-it note for Fry’s bookmarks and began commercial production in the late 1970s. In 1977, test-markets failed to show consumer interest. However in 1979, 3M implemented a massive consumer sampling strategy, and the Post-it note took off. Today, we see Post-it notes peppered across files, computers, desks, and doors in offices and homes throughout the world.
The Shipping Container
On 26th April 1956, Malcolm McLean, a truck driver from rural North Carolina, hired a crane to hoist 58 trailer-sized steel cargo boxes onto a refitted oil tanker. From that modest experimental beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. But the container didn't just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. The bulk of the discussions occurred in the late 1960s and the first draft of the resulting ISO standards were prepared for publication in 1970. Ultimately, it took McLean's success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container's potential. The container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world's workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe. Information on containerisation