1937: Guy Hart, general manager of the Gibson guitar company, is awarded the first patent for an electric guitar pickup. The instrument that defines popular music in the second half of the 20th century is born.
Gibson’s electric guitar wasn’t the first to market, but its pickup design was superior to competing models — especially after [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Inventions’
July 13, 1937: Gibson Plugs In the Electric Guitar
July 13th, 2009 |
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July 10, 1999: Reddi-wip Inventor Sputters Out
July 10th, 2009 |
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1999: Aaron S. “Bunny” Lapin, the inventor of pressure-can whipped cream, dies at age 85. His invention lives on.
Lapin started out as a clothing salesman, but saw some opportunity during World War II food rationing, when heavy cream for whipping was hard to get. He mixed light cream and vegetable oil to concoct Sta-Whip as [...]
July 6, 1947: The AK-47, an All-Purpose Killer
July 6th, 2009 |
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1947: The AK-47, one of the world’s first operational assault rifles and probably the most durable and enduring small-arms weapons ever made, goes into production in the Soviet Union. More than 60 years later, it remains the standard infantry weapon in numerous armies, and a mainstay in the arsenals of rebels, drug traffickers and terrorists [...]
July 4, 1776: Preserving the Declaration
July 2nd, 2009 |
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1776: The Declaration of Independence is signed. It will take 127 years before someone gets around to saying, “Hey, maybe we should preserve this thing.”
The Declaration of Independence can be fairly said to stand alongside the Magna Carta and Bill of Rights as the most important documents in the history of democracy. Its significance was [...]
June 26, 1498: A Brush With History
June 26th, 2009 |
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1498: The emperor of China patents the toothbrush: hogback bristles set into a piece of bone or bamboo. Dental hygiene takes a step up.
How — or if — you cleaned your teeth before this time depended on culture and class. The chew stick, or chewing stick or toothstick, was a piece of twig. One could [...]
June 23, 1868: Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap … Ding!
June 23rd, 2009 |
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1868: U.S. Patent No. 79,265 is issued for a type-writing machine. Surely, we have now reached the pinnacle of human communication.
Christopher Latham Sholes’ machine was not the first typewriter. It wasn’t even the first typewriter to receive a patent. But it was the first typewriter to have actual practical value for the individual, so it [...]
June 22, 1675: Greenwich Becomes Royal Pane on the Stars
June 22nd, 2009 |
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1675: Britain’s King Charles II issues a royal warrant establishing an observatory at Greenwich. The Royal Observatory, then on the eastern outskirts of London, will enjoy a long and storied history and become a Prime piece of real estate.
Charles had a navy and a large merchant fleet. They needed better ways of navigating. Latitude [...]
June 15, 1878: Muybridge Horses Around With Motion Pictures
June 15th, 2009 |
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1878: Photographer Eadweard Muybridge uses high-speed stop-motion photography to capture a horse’s motion. The photos prove that the horse has all four feet in the air during some parts of its stride. The shots settle an old argument … and start a new medium and industry.
Former California Governor Leland Stanford financed Muybridge’s photo experiments. They [...]