Inventions (1913 - 1994)


1921 - Charles Strite of Minnesota patented the pop-up toaster.

Charles received U.S. patent #1,394,450 on October 18, 1921 for the pop-up bread toaster.

He formed the Waters Genter company and started selling the "Toastmaster".

"... The first toaster came along around 1909, though there are conflicting claims as to who was... Read MORE...


1923 to 1927 - Television is invented (Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (Russia), Philo Taylor Farnsworth (United States))

...Zworykin had a patent, but Farnsworth had a picture

Zworykin and his television
Zworykin is usually credited as being the father of modern television. This was because the patent for the heart of the TV, the electron scanning tube, was first applied for by Zworykin... Read MORE...

www.physlink.com -

1927 - The aerosol can is invented (Erik Rotheim, Norway)

"On November 23, 1927, Norwegian engineer Erik Rotheim (also spelled Eric Rotheim) patented the first aerosol can and valve that could hold and dispense products and propellant systems. This was the forerunner of the modern aerosol can and valve..."... Read MORE...


1928 - Sliced bread (bread slicing machine) is invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder (United States)

"...The first automatically sliced commercial loaves were produced on July 6, 1928, in Chillicothe, Missouri, using a machine invented by Otto Rohwedder, an Iowa-born, Missouri-based jeweler. Rohwedder’s quest to make sliced bread a reality was not without its challenges. A ... Read MORE...

www,history.com -

1930 - Scotch tape is invented (Richard Drew (3M), United States)

"...Back in the ’20s, Scotch was a synonym for 'cheap.' Richard Drew, a 23-year-old research assistant at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, was trying to create a sticky-but-not-too-sticky adhesive tape for auto painters to use on two-tone paint jobs. When he erred on the ... Read MORE...

The New York Times - New York, New York - July 20, 2014

1931 - The paper towel is invented (Arthur Scott, United States)

"Arthur Scott, head of [Scott Paper Company], had big trouble. An entire railroad car full of paper, unloaded at his plant, wasn't good for anything because the paper had been rolled too thick for toilet tissue, its intended purpose. Was he going to send the whole load... Read MORE...

www.ideafinder.com -

1934 - The metal beverage can is invented (American Can Co., United States)

The American Can Company created a Coin Bank made from a metal beverage can and sold it at the 1934 Chicago Century of Progress Worlds Fair.

Canned beer made its debut January 24, 1935. Fairport’s (NY) former American Can Company is part of beer can history. American Can ... Read MORE...

collectors.com -

1935 - The snowmobile was invented by Joseph Bombardier (Quebec)

Joseph Bombardier, born in the province of Quebec, was the first to design a snowmobile as we know it today. Later, he released the model name Ski-doo with his company, which is nowadays the common name in Quebec to name a snowmobile. weleaf.nl


In 1935, Joseph-Armand... Read MORE...


1938-1944 - Sunscreen is invented (Franz Greiter, Switzerland and Benjamin Green, United States)

The earliest form of sunscreen was created by Franz Greiter in 1938 and then Benjamin Green in 1944 who used a mixture of cocoa butter and red veterinary petroleum to protect his skin from the sun. Shortly afterwards, Franz Greiter branded his formula Piz Buin while Mr... Read MORE...

weldricks.co.uk/ news/ the-history-of-sunscreen -

1938 - The ballpoint pen is invented (Lazlo Biro, Hungary)

A Hungarian journalist named Laszlo Biro invented the first ballpoint pen in 1938. Biro had noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper smudge-free, so he decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. But the thicker ink wouldn't... Read MORE...

thoughtco.com -

1938 - Du Pont announces a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon". (October 27)

The invention of nylon in 1938 ushered in a textile revolution for consumers and the military alike, ultimately helping the Allies win World War II...

Nylon’s characteristics made for an ideal material to suit any number of uses, but DuPont decided early on that it would ... Read MORE...

sciencehistory.org - October 27, 1938

1940 - April - 1st electron microscope demonstrated (RCA), Philadelphia, Pa

In 1940, RCA Laboratories (later merged into SRI) commercialized the first high-resolution transmission electron microscope in North America; this TEM became known as "Model B" and created a usable electron microscope for wider application.

Model B was a behemoth,... Read MORE...

medium.com -

1945 - The atomic bomb is invented (J. Robert Oppenheimer, et al., United States)

Washington Column by Peter Edson

WASHINGTON - (NEA) - When first publicity was given in the fall of 1945 to the men who had made the atomic bomb, interest centered on the then practically unknown young University of California physicist, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.

He... Read MORE...

The Victoria Advocate - Victoria, Texas - April 25, 1954

1948 - Velcro is invented (George de Mestral, Switzerland)

George de Mestral (June 19, 1907 – February 8, 1990) was a Swiss electrical engineer who invented the hook and loop fastener which he named Velcro...

De Mestral first conceptualised hook and loop after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps in 1941. After ... Read MORE...

wikipedia.org -

1968 - The ATM is invented (Don Wetzel, United States)

In 1968 the ATM was pioneered in the U.S. by Donald Wetzel, who was a department head at a company called Docutel. Docutel was a subsidiary of Recognition Equipment Inc of Dallas, Texas, which was producing optical scanning equipment and had instructed Docutel to explore... Read MORE...

wikipedia.org -

1982 - The camcorder is invented (Sony Corp., Japan)

"...In 1982, two events happened that eventually led to the home camcorder boom: JVC introduced the VHS-C format, and Sony released the first professional camcorder named Betacam. VHS-C was essentially VHS with a reduced-size cassette that had been designed for portable... Read MORE...

newworldencyclopedia.org -

1983 - The laptop computer is invented (Radio Shack Corp., United States)

The TRS-80 Model 100 is a portable computer introduced in 1983. It is one of the first notebook-style computers, featuring a keyboard and liquid crystal display, in a battery-powered package roughly the size and shape of a notepad or large book.

It was made by Kyocera,... Read MORE...

wikipedia.org -

1989 - The World Wide Web is invented at CERN (Tim Berners-Lee, UK)

Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989, while working at CERN. The web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the... Read MORE...

home.cern/ science/ computing/ birth-web -