Tag: inventions

September 10th Swap Ideas Day

September Holidays

While some ideas are obviously better than others, one never knows what may inspire another to create the next advancement for mankind. Ya, well… that’s probably not going to happen but still, yo;u never know. The idea of sharing your original thoughts is a lit scary, someone may find them humorous or maybe even foolish but ideas are meant to be shared because at worst, they let people know you are capable of thinking. Today was created by Robert L. Birch of the Pun Group back in 2015. Good for sharing your ideas Robert!

How to celebrate – Write down your ideas so you don’t forget them. Form a idea sharing meeting over lunch. Brain storm.

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September 10th Swap Ideas Day

September Holidays

We all have good ideas, sometimes we know how to drive them ahead and sometimes we don’t, sometimes they can be made even better by sharing them with someone else to make them even better. By sharing ideas and getting someone’s input, we can create something even better than what we started with. Of course, it suffers your ego a bit but the idea is getting the best results. The other benefit is that they may see uses for our ideas we never thought of! We all have different perspectives and see things slightly different than each other. In film and television they have writing teams because they know they will get a better script if they get the input of several people. So swap your ideas with someone else, you will probably improve both thoughts by coming up with a third version neither of you would have ever thought of alone.

How to celebrate – Join a think tank. Share your thoughts with friends. Help someone make their dream come true.

February 11th National Inventors Day

February holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

Ronald Reagan made February 11th the National Inventors Day in honor of Thomas Alva Edison whose birthday just happened to be February 11th, 1847. That was back in 1983, long after Edison had registered over 1,000 patents for his inventions.

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You could say it was like a light bulb went off in his head. But that’s the life of an inventor. Some inventors regret things they have made, like Pulitzer and even Einstein. It seems, for better or for worse, that most inventions come either during war or right before it. Sometimes because of dreams thought up during war. That’s normally because people are often busy enjoying life when they can.

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And oddly, most inventions are fought against until people realize that they can make life better. Change never comes easy to man and inventions are all about change. Some inventions are life changing, others… not so much so. After all, even the Pet Rock was an invention.

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You might be surprised at who inventors are. Yes, most of them are very bright and they are highly educated. Some are our neighbors who just happened to have the right idea at the right time.

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How to celebrate – Invent something! Read about the famous inventors who have made the quality of life better for us all. Study some of the odder inventions you may never have known existed.

April 29th Zipper Day

April Holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

Where would we be without the zipper today.  We take it for granted, as though it has always been available to us but honestly, it’s a relatively new invention.

The first prototype zipper was made by Elias Howe in 1851. It didn’t work.  Next came Whitcomb Judson in 1893 who was already a successful inventor having created the Pneumatic Street Railway.  He went into business with Colonel Lewis Walker and formed the Universal Fastner Company, developing his “Clasp Locker” which debut came at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.  The only real problem was, it still didn’t work.

In 1901, the company was reorganized in New Jersey where it continued to try and make a workable product.  They hired a Swedish-American electrical engineer, Gideon Sundback who, after a marriage into the family, became the head designer.  He eventually moved the company to Pennsylvania and renamed it “Talon Inc.”.  It took until 1913 for Sundback to actually perfect the modern-day zipper.  Complicating it, he began to fight with Talon Inc. and moved the project to Canada to avoid legal complications in the US.  Over the years, this has made many believe that the zipper was a Canadian invention… it was not.  The Canadian company, “Lightning Fastner Company”, began to produce and distribute the “Zipper” Sundback had invented.

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While the new “zipper” caught on with companies requiring a fast closing device it did not break into the everyday market until B.F. Goodrich included the zipper on a pair of rubber boots for the consumer in 1923.  This was followed by Schott NYC who began using the zipper on leather jackets in 1925.  Since then, the zipper has become a part of everyday life.  Who knew such a simple product could have such a complicated beginning!

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How to celebrate:  Learn to appreciate your zipper, numerous men spent the vast majority of their lives trying to make it work!  Buy a pair of button fly pants so you can learn just how valuable the zipper actually is.  Find an interesting place to put a zipper, be different, use your imagination!