Really Useful* : *the origins of everyday things 9781552976227, 155297622X, 9781552976234, 1552976238

Table of contents :
Section I : Inside world --
Kitchen : the greatest thing since ...
Bathroom : keeping it clean
Bedroom : sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite
Study : innovations in the way we work
General household : everyday items explained --
Section II : Outside world --
Leisure : out and about and DIY
Public : innovations in the public realm.

Citation preview

History

—Inventions

S24.95

Almost every aspect of our improved over the

last

lives

has been

century by really useful

devices that have changed the

way we groom,

cook, move, and work. These items were revolutionary it

when created, yet we soon found

hard to imagine

Do

life

without them.

you know the fascinating story of the

great paperclip patent race?

Or how

the

lightbulb, the microwave, the aerosol can, or

the

Thermos

flask

imagine home

life

came

to be?

Can you

without a refrigerator?

how we managed

before

Or

White-Out was

invented? Really Useful takes you on an intriguing tour of the objects in your

life,

from the origins of Tupperware to the construction

behind the

and

engineering

principles

bra.

Gadgets,

tools,

and odds and ends

implements, appliances, are all investigated in an

and entertaining

style

that will excite your interest in even the

most

accessible, informative

ordinary

object.

Uncover the

secrets

of

everyday but indispensable items like razors, Bic

pens,

zippers,

toothbrushes,

and

umbrellas. Discover the origins of technical objects

from the personal stereo to the

personal computer. Really Useful explores centuries

of innovation

to

surprising history of everyday

you a fascinating look

uncover

the

stufif and offers

at the origins

and

workings of the useful things that are all

around

us.

ALLEN CpUNTf PUBLIC LlBRAF

ABT

%

I'l 833 03195 217 6

REALLY

Useful the origins of everyday things

ri

l^ C

for Sophie and Josh

REALLY

Useful the origins of everyday things

JOEL LEVY

Firefly

^

n

Books

A Firefly Book Published by Firefly Books Ltd. 2002

Copyright

© 2002

No

All rights reserved.

Quintet Publishing Limited

may

part of this publication

be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without the permission of the copyright owner. First printing

National Library of Canada Cataloguing

Publication Data

in

Levy, Joel

Really Useful: the origins of everyday things /Joel Levy.

ISBN 1-55297-623-8 (bound) 1.

Inventions

GN406.L48 2002 U.

S.

ISBN 1-55297-622-X

— History. 609

I.

(pbk.)

Title.

C2002-901653-3

'

Publisher Cataloging-in-Publication Data Levy, Joel.

Really Useful: the origms of everyday things /Joel Levy. [240| p.

:

col.

ill.

photos.

,

;

—

1st ed.

cm.

Includes bibliographic references and index.

Summary: The

stories

behind the invention and development

homes and offices. ISBN 1-55297-623-8 ISBN 1-55297-622-X (pbk.)

of everyday objects in

1.

Inventions. 2. Technological innovations.

Published

Canada Books

in

Firefly

3680

in the

Firefly

in

Buffalo,

2002 by

Avenue

\12H 3K1

United States

Books

RO. Box 1338,

New

Title.

Ltd.

Victoria Park

WiUovvdale, Ontario, Published

I.

T19.L48 2002

CIP

608 21

in

2002 by

(U.S.) Inc. '

Ellicott Station

York 14205

USE 1;

This book was designed and produced by

Quintet Publishing Limited

I

6 Blundell Street

I

London N7 9BH Project Editor: Corinne Masciocchi Editor:

Anna Bennett

Photographers: Juliet Piddington/Jeremy

Thomas

Art Director: Sharanjit Dhol Design: Sharanjit Dhol/D^' Design Creative Director: Richard Publisher: Oliver

Manufactured Printed

in

in

(

Dewing

Salzmann

Singapore by Universal Graphic Pte Ltd

Singapore by Star Standard Pte Ltd

Contents SECTION ONE: THE INSIDE

Kitchen: the greatest thing

11

53 Bathroom: 89 Bedroom: 123

WORLD

keeping

it

since...

clean

sleep tight, don't let the

Study: innovations in the

bedbugs bite

way we work

173 General Household: everyday items explained

SECTION TWO: THE OUTSIDE 197

223

WORLD

Leisure: out and about and

DIY

Public: innovations in the public realm

238 FURTHER READING 239 INDEX

introduction

Take

r

and

// )** Bfc^-

around your house

a look

you'll see that

it's

kind

a

book

one of social transition. Items that can

is

of museum. In every room, on

rare

every surface, are the exhibits:

powerfiil

ever\-day things that you take

but each of which

tor granted,

has

its

takes

own story. you on

now

be found in almost every household were once so

and expensive that only the

symbols

richest

could afford them, and ot

rank and privilege in feudal

Egypt,

ancient

example,

for

and most

they

became

societies. In

the

nobility

Really Usefi/l

demonstrated their wealth by having pleats ironed

a tour of this

into their clothes, while in ancient Assyria only the

museum, room by room, trom top

bottom,

to

king might

own

an umbrella. As the feudal society

exploring the histon,' and workings ot more than

gave way to the industrial

one hundred ever\'day objects.

became more affordable and widespread, and during

There's plenty

uncover along the way that the Frisbee

is

—

tidbits to

did you know, for instance,

named

maker, or that the ant surv'ive

and fascinating

of trivia

is

atter a

Connecticut pie-

the only animal that can

Some

being cooked in a microwave oven?

the 20th century mass-produced goods

histories,

and beyond, and pattern:

objects

have

dating back to the their

surprisingly

dawn

long

of civilization

development often follows a

invented by the ancient Egyptians or

Babylonians, perfected by the Greeks and Romans, lost

in

Dark Ages, and rediscovered

the

Middle Ages, mechanized and Victorians,

The not

and mass-produced

electrified

in the

The

tales

of

scientific

has

their place.

The

real

things.

Many

and ot

this

is

is

"ever)^day."

aspect of our lives today, and everyday objects have

both

reflected

transformation. In a

museum

that

it

and

been

some

respects then, your

them were not always

involved

in

this

home is

of social change, and the ever\^day things

contains are the markers of that change.

The

moment and

next time you pick one up stop for a

embodied by something

as ordinary' as

social

Joel Levy

and

everyday

familiar or

ubiquitous, and a second theme to emerge trom this

INTRODUCTION

an umbrella

or as simple as the crease in a pair of pants.

driving forces

for

the

a social transformation that affects every

breakthrough,

doubly true

now become

and what was once unattainable

consider the sheer wealth of histon.- that can be

20th century.

behind invention and innovation are cultural ones,

become

This

has

society

society,

in the

technical progress, and inventive genius, although

these have

industrial

consumer

by the

histories of everyday objects, however, are

simply

became

cheap enough to be available to almost everyone.

broad historical themes also emerge. For instance,

many everyday

such objects

society,

REALLY USEFUL

t-

*/

>A .-

^ -^ ^ the greatest thing since

1

DishxA^asher FOR HANDS THAT WON'T DO DISHES Dishwashing only became an

machine

garden woodshed. She twisted wire

in a

with rhe intrcxiuction

into racks to hold the crockery and arranged the

of porcelain tableware in the

dishes on a wheel that she placed into a large copper

18th centur\\ and remained

boiler.

issue

a

minor

element

the

ot

A

motor turned the wheel while hot soapy

water was squirted up through the bottom of the

f)

«(.

»mmt

housework

««/

most people.

tor

boiler to drizzle over the plates.

• »-»

particularly

rich

tor

problem

The

tirst

of

The "Cochrane Dishwasher" quickly caught on

cleaning,

amongst those who shared Mrs. Cochrane's concerns

used a lot of

over volume washing and breakages. She patented

than

who

people

dinnerware and relied on their

more

were

Breakages a

sen.-ants to clean

it.

patent tor a mechanical dishwashing

her device in 1886 and sold copies to her wealthy friends

and

and restaurants.

It

even

1893 Chicago World's

Fair.

to local hotels

device dates back to 1850, and was granted to Joel

won

Houghton

But although KitchenAid, the company that grew

w^ooden machine with a hand-

for a

turned wheel that splashed water on to dishes.

Frenchman

Daquin

Eugene

in\ented

version in 1885. Daquin's device

employed

another a set of

revolving "hands" that grabbed the dishes and

plunged them into soapy water.

It

evidently looked

an award

from

become

market resulted

Dishwasher

posed "no

combination

American, that

danger whatsoever to

Neither of these practical or effective,

Cochrane,

an

man

was especially

it

was

left to

Josephine

hostess

society

Illinois

inveterate giver ot dinner parties, to find her

and

own

attributed

historians

domestic

the

ot logistical

at a

time when

market research showed that dishwashing was

a trivial

loathed drudgery of laundry.

The

electrically

first

gentle touch. Her search w-as unsuccessful, and

era,

according to legend she was prompted to declare,

emancipation,

and

inaugurated

widespread

nobody

else

I'll

She was

as

do

is it

good

going to invent

a

dishwashing

as

her

word and

built her first

KITCHEN

1922. but

when

attitudes

myself."

took

it

newfound

a

the

among American

domestic dishwasher

most housewives

powered

widely

dishwasher

was not until the postwar

appeared

in

tor

in contrast to the

that could handle dishwashing in bulk but with a

"If

it still

chore that they didn't

Exasperated by the constant clumsiness of her

machine,

a

hours to heat a single bath-load. In addition,

mind doing by hand,

for a device

early to

models required huge

domestic

amounts of hot water

the

market

and cultural stumbling

solution to the vexing problem of breakages.

servants, Cochrane shopped around

initial

in disappointing sales.

ot

Early

blocks.

or dish."

machines

and

it

would

business,

household name, her

a

attempts to launch a dishwasher for the domestic

recalcitrance

Scientific

dishwasher

Cochrane's

eventually

ferocious enough to warrant the assertion, in a

review in

at the

finally

prosperity, cult

of

female

labor-saving

change

in

cultural

housewives, that the

caught on.

THE INSIDE WORLD

l«-/

Washing machine and clothes dryer A

IN

I

i

i

I

i

The

13^

iJ

sheer physical drudgery

involved

many

difticult

for

imagine.

Few

and disliked

laundr}',

and

of us to

chores were as

doing

as

which involved

wringing

—

Caroline

19th century- American pioneer of

women's education and writer on domestic economy, called laundry "the

problem."

By

American housekeeper's hardest

the

early

many

1800s

western

European households were already equipped with a rudimentar)-

clothes-tumbling

hand-operated,

wooden box

device. This consisted of a filled

powered crank. Doing laundry was and

50 gallons (190

still

hard work

rinse a single load required

liters)

transported by hand for

that could be

with water and soap and turned with a hand-

to wash, boil,

up

to

of water, which had to be

—and

there was obviously

room

effort to devising

mechanical solutions to the

problem, and by 1875 more than 2,000 patents

had been issued

for

in

clothes-washing devices. There

used

revolving

a

as far

machines

washing

Nineteenth-century

laundromat, opened in

first

California, had until

1851

in gold-rush

machines powered by a donkey. Not

the beginning of the 20th century were

electric

motors fixed to washing machines and even

then they often had to be

filled

and emptied by

hand. The motors themselves were not protected or properly sealed, and water would often splash on to

them causing Most

short-circuits, fires,

and electrocution

motors were introduced

electric

washing machines

in the 1930s).

still

attached wringer to help dry the clothes.

The modern machine finally took shape

when John W. Chamberlain

in the

Corporation invented a device that could wash,

and drain. This prodigy,

first

like

an

upturned

machines

with

stool

clothes

displayed

things to come, but at

first

car.

timers,

"

THE INSIDE WORLD

the

the expense of the

mid 1950s,

automatic washing machines cost

back and forth through soapy water with a sort of

and even one called "the Locomotive, which

rinse,

,at

Louisiana State Fair in 1937, was clearly the shape of

wringers attached, machines that dragged clothes

rake,

mid

of the Bendix

where an

clothes,

on an

relied

they reached Britain in the

instrument

were

pumps, although what may have been the worlds

automatic machines made them unpopular.

the

as

1851.

were washing machines with "stomping" devices,

pumped

cage,

back

mostly powered by hand using handles, wheels, or

1930s,

The inventive Victorians devoted much time

type

1782, or a drum, patented by an American, James

King,

(cases for the

improvement.

and

common

most

is

The

against the sides of the tub.

patented by H. Sidgier of Britain

scrubbing

the

slammed

clothes

modern labor-saving devices

the

Beecher,

mosr household

in

ran backward and forward on short rails so that the

chores before the invention of

tiring

exhausting

SPIN

Gradually costs

fell,

as

When

for instance,

much

as a

small

and the introduction of

by former jukebox manufacturers Seeburg,

boosted sales of the

KITCHEN

new

"autos."

CLOTHES DRYERS Drying clothes required

metal drum, pierced with holes, which was turned the incentive

less effort, so

As

to

mechanize the process was not so

as

1800. however, a Frenchman named Pochon had

great.

early

invented a "ventilator," consisting of a rotating

by hand over an open

fire.

Although

somewhat

this

self-defeating device did not catch on, the principle ot cumble-dn."ing

remained, and the

first electric

clothes dr\"er appeared in 1915.

Refrigerator THE BIG FREEZE Keeping food

for

to eat before

it

been

long

a

As

South,

is

for

way to

of

keep

it

—low temperatures slow

depriving

1889 and

1890

throughout

the

unprecedented

of micro-organisms that cause

refrigeration

1000

BC, if nor before, the

the

North and the warm

Southern

—

The main

severe

created

United

demand

winters in shortages

ice

to

an

methods

of

leading

States,

new

for

of their

states

warm

cooling capabilities. Successive

down or stop the development early as

was the interruption of

States, for instance,

problem

presen.ing tood

food to decay.

United

the ice trade between the cold

One

mankind.

cold

long enough

goes bad has

artificial ones.

principle of artiticial refrigeration had

back

500

when

ancient Chinese were cutting blocks of ice to use as

been exploited

cooling aids, and this remained the most important

Egyptians and Indians made

form of

setting water out in earthenware pots and keeping

refrigerator technology for the next

years. Ice

areas

was cut

at source in

and transported

wrapped

in cloth

cork,

—

sawdust,

compartment perishables.

warmer

and placed

insulated icehouses.

had an icebox

to

2,800

mountainous or snowyareas

where

it

was

in cellars or straw-

By Victorian times most homes

a metal-lined box insulated with

or

tor a

even

seaweed,

block of

The iceman was

most homes, and by the

late

1

ice

with

and one

one

tor the

a regular visitor to

800s the United States

was exporting 25 million tons of ice a

climes.

One consequence

who

lived in

warmer

of the Civil ^X'ar in the

KITCHEN

as

BC,

ancient

on cold nights by

ice

Romans made

(the

their slaves fan filled

Middle Ages

terracotta pots placed in water). In the

Chinese scholars obser\-ed that objects kept in brine

—

—were

water

salty

evaporated.

Both

these

cooled

as

methods

the

rely

liquid evaporates to form a gas

from

Its

surroundings

As

a

as the gas escapes so

down, through

refrigerators also

the

takes heat energy

The human body

does the heat.

Modern

—and

it

brine

on

principle that evaporation requires energy.

principle to cool

year.

This system was inefficient and inadequate, however, especially for chose

them wet

as far

uses the

same

perspiration.

work on

this principle,

using a coolant substance chat normally exists as a gas,

even

at

low

temperatures.

THE INSIDE WORLD

A

compressor

r

condenses the gas to liquid form, and the liquid

is

1911

then circulated around the area to be cooled. As

it

America

expands and reverts to gaseous form

Then

away from the

travels

it

recompressed, heat as

it

releasing

it

absorbs heat.

cool space and

is

models

the

home

first

— by

of

appeared in

1920 there were more than 200

available.

Most of these

early domestic units

used belt-driven compressors run by engines in

neighboring rooms.

its

The

condenses.

A number

refrigerators

ver\-

compartment

scientists

dual-

first

refrigerators,

demonstrated the principles

featuring

of refrigeration

34-35'^ F (1-2'^ C) as well

they

before

were used to create practical Probably

refrigerators.

do

scientist

William

Cullen,

who demonstrated

artificial

so

refrigeration

when

companies

demonstrations to

n48. He was

manufacturer instance,

the

ammonia

liquid

who

Faraday,

use

to

named

American Evans

invented

refrigeration

and

1805,

1844

to

cool

air

patients,

By

for

a former as

tour

either side of his mule.

the

machine

although

make for it

ice to

One

was not

the 1870s

a

in

practical of

domestic

use.

machines appeared.

Switzerland designed one first artificial ice

1877 Frenchman Ferdinand Carre

successfully designed a system for the world's first refrigerated ship, The Paraguay, carrying

Argentina to Europe.

These early refrigerators

refrigerators ever

depended on such

Ice factories

new technology sprang up

all

or

coolants.

meat from

employing the

over the world, and in

KITCHEN

uncommon. These

volatile gases,

ammonia,

as

dioxide,

poisonings

that was later used to create the

and

home

fever

really practical for

more

of the first

designed was made mainly of wood — a far cry from the modern appliances that adorn our kitchens today. Humidity temperature controlled drawers, interior lights, and automatic defrost are just some of the features that now come as standard.

in

provide

yellow

18^4 Raoul Pictet

rink,

Maytag,

employed

midwestern ranches with a

produce

physician used his design in

In

their

sell

demonstration unit slung on

An first

relied

ranch hand, known Cowboy Joe Long, to

of

cooling.

Oliver

time

The American

appliances.

by the great British scientist

demonstrated

appeared at a

heavily on both salesmen and

followed in the early 1800s

Michael

compartment

(-18" C),

F

box

cold

during the 1920s,

Glasgow

at

a freezing

-0.4"

was Scottish

earliest to

University in

as

the

a

sulfur

as

their

Explosions

and

ether,

were

not

gases were replaced by freon, a

chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), in the 1930s, but this

had

to be replaced

when

it

proved to be destroying

the ozone layer. Innovations like automatic defrost

and automatic

ice

makers

first

appeared in the

1950s and 1960s. Today the refrigerator

is

more

energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, and is

the most

common

domestic appliance, found in

99-5 percent of American homes.

THE INSIDE WORLD

Microwave oven THE APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE Microwaves are

a

form

of

energy

electromagnetic

similar to radio waves (they

have

wavelength

a

shorter

than radio waves but longer

than

infrared

which

light),

can be used for cooking and

During World War

for radar. II

Britain's radar defenses used a

machine

called a

accurate to say that a microwave oven cooks food

from the inside out

—

the heating starts just below

the surface and spreads both inward and outward.

Microwave energy it

does not

make

is

converted entirely into heat, so

food radioactive or contaminated.

Another property

microwaves

of

that they

is

reflect off metal surfaces, a property exploited by

Spencer in his design of the

first

microwave oven

By

the Radar Range, released in 194^.

firing the

magnetron, invented in 1940 by

Sir

John Randall

microwaves from a magnetron into a metal box he

and Dr. H.A. Boot,

microwaves that

could safely keep the cooking energy in one place

to generate

could be bounced off incoming In

1946

scientist

Percy Spencer ol the

Dr.

Raytheon Corporation was related

with

experiments

legend has

it,

while bouncing the microwaves around inside the

aircraft.

radar-

magnetron, when,

water-cooling system, and the Radar Range was the

out

he noticed that a bar of chocolate

in

his pocket

had completely melted, although he

himself had

felt

no

heat.

Spencer already knew that

microwaves could generate heat, and the ruined candy bar

set

him

thinking.

He

tried placing

some

uncooked corn kernels in front of the magnetron, and soon had popcorn. Next he tried an egg interior heated

up

so

much

that

it

exploded.

—

its

A new

cooking had been discovered, but what

means

ol

exactly

was going on? air

and materials

such as plastic, paper, and glass, and they can little

into foodstuffs, such as egg, before

water molecules absorb them.

When

this

happens

the water molecules start to vibrate rapidly typical

—

microwave oven makes them vibrate nearly

five billion

size

of a large refrigerator and cost about

Only the military and establishments

were

the

in

S5,()()().

catering

large

interested.

technology advanced, and

Company produced

few

a

Gradually

1952 the Tappan

domestic microwave

first

oven. For S 1 ,295 the cutting edge consumer got an

on-off switch, dual cooking speed, and a 2 timer.

By

196~ the

microwave oven was

first

1

minute

countertop domestic

released.

By

19*^5

microwave

ovens were outselling gas ranges in the United

Microwaves can pass through

penetrate a

to reach all parts of the food.

Unfortunately the magnetron required a bulky

carry-ing a

box

times a second. As they vibrate the water

States,

and today more than three-quarters

American households own one. They popular

in

industry,

with

myriad

are

uses

of

also

from

roasting coffee beans, to drying cork and helping

shuck oysters.

The modern microwave

uses

an

air-cooled

magnetron, and includes numerous safety

trips to

molecules rub up against neighboring molecules,

prevent microwaves from leaking out. Opening the

generating heat by friction. So

oven door breaks

it

is

not altogether

THE INSIDE WORLD

KITCHEN

a circuit

and instantly turns

off

the

KITCHEN ^«1 THE INSIDE WORLD

'k.

microwave energy,

like turning off a light, so

it is

few living creatures that can survive

turn in a microwave oven

is

the ant.

a

As microwaves

bounce around inside an oven they can overlap to give a standing wave effect, producing

is

some "hot"

fit

on one zone

to

volume

quickly

at a

ratio.

if

time and have

a

why you

need a

small enough

carousel to turn the food). Ants are

impossible to accidentally cook yourself.

One of the

zones and some "cold" zones (this

to

high surface area

This allows them to dissipate heat

they get temporarily caught in a "hot"

them time

zone, giving

move

to

into a "cold" zone.

Kitchen appliances MIXING The

UP

IT

kitchen

Victorian

included

a

hand-

of

host

operated devices for whisking,

and even

frothing,

beating,

company

executive's wife

the claim that

chop, and

known brand

Once

marketed

on

arrived

the scene inventors began to

could

it

strain,

chopping, slicing, and dicing. electricity

came up with

the

name

Kitchen-Aid, and the machine was advertised with

in

by

"stir,

beat, cut, cream, slice,

electricity!"

Another well-

of stand mixer, the Sunbeam,

first

1930, has achieved the distinction of

appearing on a postage stamp.

focus on producing electrified

labor-saving devices of every description, and

it

THE BLENDER

was

only a matter of time before they came up with

Not

far

powered versions of the staple kitchen tools.

first

patented in 1922 by Stephen Poplawski, an

behind the stand mixer was the blender,

inventor from Wisconsin. Poplawski was a fan of

THE STAND MIXER One

malts and milk shakes, and developed a machine

of the earliest such devices was the ancestor of

with

one of today's most famous stand mixer brands, the

down

Kitchen-Aid. Originally an 8()-quart industrial

at

dough-mixer Johnson

in

1

developed

9()y

^

some evidence

is

that disposable

pellets of

described

Greek

BC

fifth-century

around

gum arable,

shredded linen with

physician

while the

Hippocrates

how Greek women would use lint wrapped wood. Elsewhere, women

a small piece of

have used the most convenient in ancient

Rome, paper

local materials

—wool

in Japan, vegetable fibers in

Strasser,

became one of the

consumer

socierv'

we

are today.

selling points of disposable sanitar}- towels

"cleanliness call

and

and convenience"

—were

values.

At first Kimberley-Clark were the

the rallying

justification for a massive transformation in

consumer

tampons have been improvised throughout history. ancient Egyptians used softened papyrus or

Susan

ultimate symbols of the shift to the convenience-

-^^^1

obvious methods, but there

historian

disposable sanitar\' napkins

^^^^

rags were probably the

The

social

but

field

the only players in

changed when the market

that

research of pioneering

businesswoman and engineer

Lillian Gilbreth, inventor of the pedal trash can,

encouraged Johnson

& Johnson

An

unusually

with

Modess.

to enter the

frank

market

sur\'ey

by

Gilbreth found that Kotex were often considered

uncomfortable.

One

respondent said

that

the

"harsh" materials used in Kotex meant that "fat

Indonesia, and rolls of grass in equatorial Africa.

women

cannot wear them."

SANITARY NAPKINS

TAMPONS

In 1920 Kimberley-Clark, faced with mountains of surplus cellucotton for

—

a cotton substitute developed

bandages during World

War

Kotex brand, using cellucotton

I

—launched to

the

the brand, were bulky and inconvenient. In 1929

such complaints from female friends and patients

so fearful of negative public reaction to

unmentionable product that they started

such an

a separate

company, the Cellucotton Products Company,

founded,

sell

to

Kotex. Their fears proved to be well-

because

shops

refused

to

display

the

product and newspapers and magazines refused to carry

advertising

resistance

was

for

it.

overcome,

Eventually, sales

took

however, off,

and

Kimberley-Clark realized that they had tapped into a lucrative

market

in intimate

that sanitar\- napkins, whatever

manufacture

disposable sanitan,- napkins. Kimberley-Clark were

make and

Many women found

feminine hygiene.

BATHROOM

led Dr. Earle Haas,

who had

flexible ring for contraceptive

a

already invented a

diaphragms, to devise

new feminine-hygiene product.

Inspired by the

efficacy of surgical cotton to stanch bleeding, set to

work

in his

Haas

basement and came up with

pressed-cotton tampon, complete with

cord and double-tubed applicator.

a

a removal

The London

newspaper The Sunday Times later voted him one of the top 1,000 "makers of the 20th century." In 193 his

1

Haas

filed for a

patent for what he called

"catamenial device" (from a Greek word for

THE INSIDE WORLD

s?a^

THE INSIDE WORLD

BATHROOM

"monthly"), and sold the rights to a Denver-based

group that started the Tampax

Sales Corporation.

president, Gertrude Tenderich,

Its

Tampax tampons sanitary

home. Like the

at

napkins,

Tampax

from

shopkeepers

resistance

made

met and

the

first

Kotex

earlier

Tampax achieved World War

II,

when

was able

it

to convince the

United States government to license

as a priority

it

product on the basis that tampons used

with

strong

than sanitary towels. By the end of

the

media.

was

a

worldwide

brand

during

success

greatest

its

cotton

less

the war Tampax

name,

but

soon

it

competition

Drugstore owners refused to

encountered

stock the product until there

from other tampon makers.

was a demand, and magazines

Nonetheless,

refused

advertisements create the

would

salesman

healthy S

early

dunk

a its

then

From

grow

which he would

demonstrate

tampon

to

into

humble

despite

acceleration

the

sickness death.

advertising

exporting tampons

over

all

The

world.

the

soon

first

A colored scanning

used

euphemisms and coy

daintiness at

all

times"

The surface

sanitary napkin.

absorb

fluid into

—

attributes that have always

"women

of

refinement dislike to ask for so intimate an article its full

descriptive name," and boasted. "Kotex

advertising to

women

women's intuition

more

so restrained in tone that

them what Kotex

is!"

Much

recently Kimberley-Clark designed a range of

tampons carr\"

tells

is

to look like lipstick so that

are

issues. In the

women

could

them without embarrassment.

BATH ROOM

and Canada,

they

are

not

classed

condoms and even

lip

for tax

in

result

in

the in

occasionally,

Overpricing

tampons do not qualih'

rapid

fibers

and,

taxation

designed to

condition

a

to flow in the opposite direction.

— "permits phrasing

In 1921 Kotex warned shopkeepers that,

is

the napkin without allowing

been the hallmark of feminine-hygiene marketing.

by

electron micrograph of

the under-surface of the outer layer of a

it

advertisement, in July 1936,

a

of bacteria

artificial

mass-market

were

over

scares

tampon and can

and,

through the canny use of

campaigns,

continue to

by

caused

Tampax grew Tampax Incorporated Tambrands)

sales

syndrome (TSS),

beginnings

(now

billion per year in

dioxin levels and toxic shock

absorbency.

these

1

Tampon

pitch by asking for a glass ot water, into

50

the United States alone.

his

start

still

than

percent of a market worth a

would

that

demand. One

Tampax

more

maintains

the

carry

to

and also

unfair

major

United States for

instance,

exemptions, because

"necessities,"

unlike

balm. The average

woman

as

can expect to spend around S3, 000 on tampons in her menstruating lifetime.

Pricing gripes notwithstanding, the

tampon

to be a

many

believe

landmark invention. In a 1986

Consumer Reports survey of more than

100,000

revolutionary products and ideas, tampons were

ranked

as

one of the 50 most significant innovations

of the 20th centur\'.

THE INSIDE WORLD

BEDROOM

sleep tight, don't let the

bedbugs bite

I

THE STUFF OF DREAMS Piles of leaves, grass, ferns, or

originally developed in imitation of the ornate royal

animal skins probably formed

tents

the

beds, but sleeping on

first

the ground

left

and

drafts

structures

people prey to

Raised

creatures.

wood

of

or

earth

were an obvious solution, but for several

remained the preserve of the

bedrooms are from the

rich.

The earliest known

royal palaces of ancient

Sumer,

and contain only one bed, reserved

circa

3500

the

head of the household.

bc,

thousand years beds

ancient

In

for

Egypt,

pharaohs like Tutankhamen slept on beds of ebony

and gold, while the

palm

common people slept on

Egyptians of

fronds.

employed mosquito netting

all

classes,

pests.

from the Greek

konops, for

however,

to protect themselves

The word "canopy"

from nighttime

heaps of

is

derived

solid

bolsters as pillows, primarily designed

were among the their

first to

use mattresses and string

surface.

Romans

The

particular

in

developed sophisticated beds and bedding richest

Romans had

a simple pallet stuffed

Bed technology was not for

to

—

the

ornate metal bedframes and

mattresses stuffed with down.

was

to

The Greeks and Romans

bed frames with rope or leather to make a

sleeping

The norm, however,

with straw. to

improve

use

beds

as

status

renowned stately

for

beds.

symbols

XIV

—

in the

West

Elizabeth

of France

I

of

were both

holding court from their massive, Elaborate

canopies

Inevitably the bed

would become

rickety or saggy as

the rope stretched and loosened and

would have

to be

tightened, giving rise to the phrase "sleep tight." to

make do

with organic

material

Even the most affluent people had with

mattresses

stuffed

which would eventually become infested with

mold and vermin. Poorer people coped

they

as best

could by taking the stuffing out during the day to

dry and

air

evening

(this

it

before restuffing the bed in the

may

be where the phrase "making the

bed" originates). In 16th-century France a popular alternative

was an early

inflating a

waxed canvas bag.

air or

"wind" bed, made by

bedframes and

steel springs for mattresses

iron

came

into

Conical springs that would compress vertically

use.

without slipping sideways were used to make the first

mid 19th

viable "sprung mattresses" in the

century. Cotton, horsehair, feathers, or

down were

popular stuffing materials, and would be selected according to the individual's budget.

At

first,

however, springs were expensive and construction

by hand was

difficult. It

was not

until the early

20th

century that the complicated "innerspring" designs

another 1,500 years. The very wealthy continued

England and Louis

held together with rope strung as tightly as possible.

As metalworking technology advanced,

"mosquito."

Egyptian and Sumerian beds were hard, with

preserve elaborate hairdos.

used in war and sport crowded homes of

medieval Europe. Beds were made of wood and were

and

hangings

THE INSIDE WORLD

popular today caught on. After World the development of latex, foam

packing material. the

downy

No

feathers of the eider

BEDROOM

with

longer needed for mattresses,

stuff quilts, giving rise to the

the French term for

War II,

became the favored

down, the

duck were used

eiderdown diwet.

or, to

to

use

Futons and v\/aterbeds SLEEPING FUTONS

^^^^^ |^--\^

^^^^H

STYLE

IN

^^^

Japanese

WATERBEDS

word

futon

the ancient Persians used sun-warmed, water-filled

"bedroll,"

"bedding,"

or

goatskins as mattresses. Difficulties in

depending on

the source. In Japan

it

refers to

including the shikibuton, cotton-tilled

mattress,

or

and

the

mattresses

meant the

are essentially the same).

rolled

and

on the tatami,

a two-inch thick

insulated and heated, waterbeds can absorb

1853. Dr. William Hooper

In

woven

reed

pressure-reduced

bottle.

washed, and restuffed.

burn

North Americans abroad had admired the futon was not until the

States and Canada, as beatniks, bohemians,

and

their

own

or acquire

them through

North American adaptations such

friends.

as extra layers

of

simple water-filled mattress

a

He tound

like

that

in

use

in

and rheumatism and

London's

St.

Hospital by the end of the 19th century. In the 1960s

American Charles Hall made use of

the durable, insulating properties ot the

PVC

(poh"V'inyl chloride), or,

improve on the

earlier

more

new

material

plainly, vinyl, to

rubber models and give

waterbeds a new lease of life. Even today, proponents of waterbeds argue for their benefits to health

cannot absorb dust or

The invention of the

recommended

Boston craftsman William Brouwer, led to the

industry to a billion-dollar business.

Today,

there

are

even cat and

dog futons

available for household pets.

for

bacteria

Waterbeds enjoyed

a revival

—

they

and so can be

asthma and allergy

and although they

sufferers.

during the 1960s,

out of fashion by the

late

1970s, millions of devotees around the world

still

admire them for

BEDROOM

at least

Bartholomew's

foam center made the futon thicker and bulkier.

sudden explosion of futon-making from a cottage

made

also effective in treating

padding, zip-on upholstery covers, and use of a

convertible frame in 1978, by

the

an enormous hot water

was

it

injuries, arthritis

one was

United

people attracted by alternative cultures began to

in

notably pressure sores in bedridden patients. His

from rubber, much

make

Portsmouth.

treatment ot a number ot medical conditions, most

annual basis, so that the cotton can be taken out,

in the

ot

which helped

surface

Japanese futons are returned to the "futonier" on an

it

of a

established that waterbeds provided an excellent

waterbed was

1960s that they became popular

all

body heat with dangerous consequences.

matting that forms the floor of traditional homes.

since the late 19th century, but

heard of again until

to save

Japanese home. At night they are brought out

laid

much

England, patented a modern waterbed. Hooper had

space and preserve the uncluttered minimalist style ot the

that they were not

durable

easily

These can be

up and stowed away during the day

making the

waterproof and

sufficiently

mid- 19th century. In addition, unless properly

sleeper's

kakebuton, or cotton-stuffed duvet-like covering (the

two

waterbeds date back 3,600 years to when

as

the whole system of bedding,

flexible,

first

variously

"place to rest,"

thin,

The

translates

human

fell

tor their evenly-distributed

bodies.

THE INSIDE WORLD

support

Clocks and alarm clocks TIME MACHINES The

methods used

earliest

to

example was found

bodies,

The

sun.

stick

particularly

and

position

was probably the and

these,

Egyptians,

who

tribes.

early

is

first

These basic sundials were

civilizations

such

the

as

huge stone obelisks

used

know

gnomon moves

a sundial's

call a

clockwise

arc,

in

Amenhotep

as

what we

accounting for both the

the

The

sundial was perfected by the Chaldeans,

in

around 320

—

Greece the htnihpherium

made from depressions.

blocks

introduced to ancient

BC,

sophisticated

with

of stone

The Chaldeans were

the day into 24 hours.

the

sundials

semicircular first to

divide

At about the same time

in

ancient China the day was divided into 100 units,

who

may

running into or out of a

is

the water clock,

measured by water

vessel.

The

earliest

was probably the sinking bowl, where a hole in the is

filled

bottom

is

form

bowl with

placed in a larger vessel that

with water. As the bowl

and the time can be read the bowl.

a

The other type

off

fills it

slowly sinks,

marks on the side of

of water clock involves

THE INSIDE WORLD

parts of North

involving multiple vessels,

clock,

first

a

alarm clock

where regular marks on a candle count out the hours. pin stuck in at the desired level will a

fall

out and

sound when the candle burns down.

Water clocks and sundials were the standard means of measuring time

in

Europe until the

late

Middle Ages. Monks used water-powered alarm clocks to

them when

tell

to pray, while

most church

Many

towers were marked with simple sundials.

were inscribed with mottoes such

as carpe diem or

methods

had

drawbacks, however. Sundials told only the

local

tempns

fugit.

time, which

is

some

have been an adaptation of the candle clock,

(although

as old as the sundial

use in

270 BC Ctesibius of Alexandria made

birds. In

the 19th century.

Almost

still in

water-powered alarm clock, but the

and was measured differently from the West until

where the passage of time

dating back to 1500 BC. Similar

fashioned elaborate versions, including

town

first

make

who,

early

hands, bells, and even water-powered whistling

of the hands. At night the passage of time could be or the stars.

An

the pharaoh

Water clocks became very sophisticated under the Greeks,

A

moon

tomb of

in the

Africa in the 20th century.

design of clock faces and the direction of movement

measured by the progress of the

I,

water clocks were

of

used today

still

pointers, ov gnomons. In the northern hemisphere the

shadow of

the Greeks

called this a clepsydras, or "water thief"

length of a shadow cast by a

by

—

involved the motion of the

the

by some nomadic

filled vessel

measure the passage of time

celestial

developed

water running out of a

marked

These

traditional

would vary with longitude and season

some more

sophisticated

to take account of the season).

dials

were

Water clocks

told only relative, rather than absolute, time and

were

difficult to regulate because

faster

when

the vessel

methods were

at the

is

full

than

water runs out

when empty. Both

mercy of the weather, since

sundials needed sunlight and water clocks freeze in the winter

winter, as did sailors at sea).

BEDROOM

would

(monks used hourglasses

in

The Chinese were

the

first

to use mechanical

1090 BC the astronomer Su Sung

clocks. In

built an

to be reset

however,

by reference to sundials. In 1581,

Galileo

used

pulse

his

pendulum movement

of a

which featured revolving spheres,

ceiling of a church,

and noticed that

and

would

that

figures

little

rings,

hit

technology was in use in Europe by the century

—

Britain,

in

instance, one

mechanism but

13th

only

basis

first

thick and

where

This

that clocks needed to

within

moved around.

Most

fast, to

and years

came

the point

mechanical

clocks

could keep time accurate to

be hung on walls and could not be

Huygens, following

the

technological advances

hand and

then slowly dropped.

1657 the

by Dutch physicist

Christiaan in

In

the

accurate

such clock was built to

a design

used, in the form of weights

meant

a its

this

be

to

more

for

timekeeping.

a

of power

that were raised by

clock,

was

discovery

at

until springs

source

had

it

short the arc of

pendulum

were introduced gravity was the

how

swing. Although Galileo himself never built a

the

drive

to

late

lamp hanging from the

regular interval, no matter

1283-

Mechanical clocks require

power source

disks,

Similar

for

was installed

Dunstable Priory in

and

bells.

time the

to

enormous clock using water and mechanical power,

few hundredths of a

a

second per day.

mechanical

As clocks improved, the

clocks were used in church

shortcomings of the sundial

towers and at

became more apparent. But

hands

—

"clock"

early

only

Glocke,

One

they had no

bells.

derives

German "bell."

first

of the

The word from

the

meaning tower

first

clocks was installed in France in

Strasbourg

Cathedral

1352, while the

circa 1700. With a clock of this type

the day and night.

technology and mistrustfiil of those

who

memorial

advocated

in a village

it.

A

near

was

at

the satirical reaction to a clockmaker's claim that his

386. Later clocks were fitted

wares were more accurate than the traditional

—

minute hand was not

the

in the

made

first

used to

mid l400s and in

the

1504 by Peter

Henlein of Nuremberg.

mechanica

and not good

were slow to adopt the new

Chester, in England, records

British clock tower

portable clock was

first

would

in

power clock mechanisms

At

it

have been necessary to reset the weights twice a day, at dawn and dusk, to make sure the clock kept the correct time throughout

introduced until 1577. Springs were

first

a wall clock,

1

first

Salisbury Cathedral, in

with a single hand

people in rural communities

A Japanese woman winding up

method: "Here's the cottage of old fox.

Who

Peter, that

his clocks."

The accuracy of clockwork mechanisms was not surpassed (for public use) until 1967,

locks were very unreliable

at keepiiig

time accurately. They had

BEDROOM

cunning

kept the Sun right by the time of

when

the

Swiss Horological Electrical Center invented the quartz

watch.

To keep time

THE INSIDE WORLD

accurately,

quartz

watches operate on the principle that a quartz an

crystal subjected to

electrical current vibrates at

8,000 cycles per second. The

a rate of

community

more

uses an even

scientific

precise standard

the cesium atomic clock, where the vibration of an

atom of cesium

now

is

cesium atom

Cesium

to

A

used to keep time.

defined as the length of time

second

is

takes for a

it

9,192,631,770 times.

vibrate

clocks are accurate to within 1/1,000,000 of

a second per year.

Venetian blinds SLAT MACHINE Although curtains were culture in

1

first

509 they did not become common

the 18th century. Before this,

Other sources, however, claim the name derives

recorded in Western until

windows were shaded

from

Venetians

the

from whom,

with shutters or panels of oiled cloth in frames, as

fenestrals.

probably

Early

known from

William Bayley

fenestrals.

patented

cloth

a

blind

1692, and in 1750 the spring-loaded

known

also

curtain,"

learned

blinds

derived

roller

blind,

some

sources

IS

the

name

wooden

adjustable

frame

Angled wooden

who

slats in

an

in

1769-

slats

would

Church

commercial and

institutional settings

because

of their technical superiority over ordinary

curtains— they are generally considered to be more durable, easier to operate, and cheaper.

common features of church

are

is

the

in

when

at St.

1761

they

Peter's

They

contemporary

hanging

Independence

came

said to have

in Philadelphia.

shown

pictures

first

as early as

invented them),

in

Hall

the in

Philadelphia at the time of the signing of the Declaration

have been iamiliar from medieval times, when louvers were

America

were installed

Often used in the home to add a touch of class, Venetian blinds are also popular in

to

Venetian blinds

(before Beran

with Italianate windows, a

designer Edward Beran,

tor

on

borne

is

that

fact

Venetian blinds

is

practice pioneered by British

by the

craft

return

persienms.

to

derived from the connection

enclosed

new

eventual

French

to

The

introduced the

out

first

According

said, they

is

design.

subsequently

was invented. The

unclear.

it

the

Europe. This theory

in

origins of the Venetian blind are

particular

in

Venetians

their

"spring

a

as

themselves,

Venetian slaves captured by the medieval Persians,

bell towers.

THE INSIDE WORLD

of

Independence

Convention

in

1787.

BEDROOM

and

at

the

Constitutional

—

Radio and clockwork radios OUT OF THIN AIR Radio waves

are a

form of

radiation,

electromagnetic

which can

like visible light,

was picked up by

sailors

speed

the

at

The

but not demonstrated

of

existence of such

suggested by

first

in

1873,

1888 when the

until

German scientist Heinrich Hertz generated a burst of radio waves by passing a spark between

young

Guglielmo

Irish-Italian,

Company, which had

and

cr)'stal to

isolate the message-carr}'ing signals,

detect

made

amateur enthusiasts, but

available to

These

sets for its fleet.

simple devices, which used a quartz

radio

was the

it

development of the electronic valve by Lee de 1906, that eventually made simple,

in

Forest,

reliable radios available to the public.

De

Forest,

radio" after

balls.

North Atlantic

on board banana boats

developed crystal receiver

British physicist James Clerk-Maxwell

a

Christmas Eve 1906 he sent out

other information over long

waves was

1894

it

On

voice broadcast over the

first

be used to transmit sound or

light.

In

the

belonging to the United Fruit

distances

two metal

be broadcast.

who became known

winning

as the "father

of

a 15-year patent battle, the

longest in radio history, broadcast opera from

New

1910. Regular entertainment

Marconi, used a spark -generator similar to Hertz's to

York

send a radio signal across a room. The next year he

transmission did not begin until 1920, however,

was able to send signals over

several miles. In

1896

he packed up what he called his "Black Box" and set off for

England

to

make

his fortune.

Undaunted by

the attentions of suspicious customs officials,

promptly broke

his apparatus,

Marconi successfoUy

demonstrated his invention to

won

a

patent.

In

1897 he

Wireless Telegraph Company.

the authorities and

set

up the Marconi

By 1898

Navy were using Marconi technology and

in

in

1899 Marconi transmitted the

message across the English Channel. transatlantic radio

At

this

who

communication was

as

when Frank Conrad,

had been transmitting music from

KDKA,

started radio station

By

this

time radio

sets

based on valve technology

were available to the general public.

An

example, the 1922 Operadio, weighed in

at a hefty

As

grew

audience, and by the late 1920s the

radio

possible.

stage radio was used to send coded

1905 a Canadian inventor, Reginald Fessenden,

invented a device that allowed continuous speech to

BEDROOM

garage,

broadcasting for an

maneuvers,

By 1901

his

hour every evening.

22 pounds (10

first

who

a Pittsburgh enthusiast

the British

rnessages in a similar fashion to the telegraph, but in

early

as

Hour

—

kg).

sales

early

so did

Dodge

the

Victory

a coordinated nationwide broadcast by

NBC —was able

to

draw an audience of more than

35 million people. During the Depression, shows such as

"Amos and Andy"

regularly

drew audiences

of more than 40 million.

The invention of the

transistor in

194^

led to the

miniaturization of electronic components, and

THE INSIDE WORLD

it

v.?

became possible

to

produce tiny transistor radios

that could be taken anywhere. for radio availability

batteries ran

The limiting

factor

became the power source

down and were

spring

release

energy slowly enough

its

to

generate long-lasting electricity sufficient to power a radio

unavailable or too

to

—40

winding.

minutes of power from

just

20 seconds'

clockwork radio has been a

Bayliss'

South Africa, where, with the

expensive for people in poorer areas of the world. In

particular success in

1995 British inventor Trevor Bayliss successfully

help of former President Nelson Mandela, he set up

developed a gearing system that allowed a wind-up

a

company

to

manufacture the device.

Wristwatch TIME The

MOTION

IN

invention

the

ot

mainspring by Peter Heniein of

Nuremberg

the

in

early

Huygens

independently developed the balance or hairspring, a device that allowed accurate, reliable watches to be

made small enough

for the first portable clocks.

a chain or ribbon, these fob or pocket watches soon

housed

first

in

creations were

drum-shaped

cases

and were designed to be hung belt or girdle. Later

—

clocks

Christiaan

l6th century paved the way

Henlein's

from a

Hooke and

In 1675 Robert

he made "pomander"

with perfume that also told

^globes filled

to

fit

into a pocket. Attached to

caught on. The technology wristwatch but up.

It

now

existed for a viable

took a while for fashion to catch

it

was not until 1790 that the

record of a

first

wristwatch appeared, in the form of a "watch to be fixed to a bracelet,

"

made by Jacquet Droz and Paul

Among

the leading users of early portable

Leschot of Geneva. Switzerland by this time was the

clocks were the

town watchmen who patrolled

center of world watchmaking, exporting

the time.

l6th-centur\- European towns with clocks slung

about their necks, calling out the hours. As a

result,

portable clocks became associated with watchmen, a

word

that

was

for the luxury

market,

more than

year.

Wristwatches were considered effeminate and

Many

did not catch on for more than a century. the advances

later contracted to "watch."

Most watches were made

60,000 watches per

we now

of

associate with wristwatches,

such as self-winding mechanisms and stopwatches, watch. But

leading to the creation of ornate designs encrusted

were originally developed

with gems. The

the wristwatch offered practical advantages that

the

first

recorded watch to

arm was presented

1571.

It

be worn on

as a gift to Elizabeth

was "an armlet of gold,

all fairly

I

in

encrusted

were hard

for the military to ignore. In

German Navy

with rubies and diamonds and having the closing

officers,

thereof a small clock."

officers in the

THE INSIDE WORLD

for the fob

issued

and they were Boer

BEDROOM

wristwatches also widely used

War and

later

1880 the

to

all

its

by British

World War

I.

Rugged-looking design features such grids and

chunky

more appealing

as

metal

made wristwatches

leather straps

benefited

also

from

their

and pioneers. In 190~,

association with explorers

when wristwatches were

II

cemented the popularity of

until the introduction the Beta 21

men.

to

Wristwatches

World War

wristwatches, but the basic design changed

still

extremely

rare,

the

developed

timepiece,

—

the

first

quartz

in

1967.

Switzerland

in

little

Fearing that quartz watches would undermine their

clockwork product, however, the Swiss

traditional

famous jeweler Louis Carrier was commissioned to

were slow to capitalize on their invention. Japanese

make one by powered flight

companies quickly took the lead

Dumont.

Aviators

pioneer Alberto Santos-

Amelia Earhart and Charles

Lindbergh both sported wristwatches during their

famous

flights. In

1927, London typist Mercedes

Gleitz wore a Rolex Oyster, the

wristwatch,

first

waterproof

during a swim across the English

followed by the Americans, the Pulsar

LED

—

the

who

I9~

1

.

market,

developed

watch, which had an

first digital

display and no

in

in the

moving

parts. Liquid-crystal

displays were developed not long after, and

8^ percent

of

now

wristwatches are digital. Today more

Channel. This trend continues to this day, with

than 60 million wristwatches are sold each year

wristwatch manufacturers proudly advertising the

in the U.S.,

and the digital technology revolution

use of their watches for

redefining

their role as

occasions, ranging

ail

kinds of unlikely

from around-the-world yachting

integrate

is

becomes possible to

it

computing power, telecommunications,

photography, and entertainment into a single unit.

to outer-space excursions!

Bikini S

W

I

M

W E A R WITH IMPACT

Bikini-like outfits are

known

modern-looking

a

used in the West in the 18th

became

have existed in ancient times,

Victorian bathing suits for

skimpier than normal clothes, but

practical

garments

facilitated

free

movement

sports

activities.

that

mosaics of the fourth centur}- AD, for

show

first

when they were worn by

during

instance,

when

century

female athletes and dancers as

Sicilian

Swimwear was

from murals and mosaics to

woman

wearing a strikingly

strapless bikini while

"working

out" with what look like handheld weights.

BEDROOM

bathing

women

they got smaller and lighter. suit

fashionable.

were hardly any as

time went on

By 1870

the all-in-one

had appeared, and by the

1930s backless

versions with narrow shoulder straps gave

two-piece

The

way

to

suits.

bikini itself was created by a Paris couturier

in July 1946,

and was named

in the Pacific

—where

tested an atomic

bomb

after the Bikini Atoll

the United States had just

amidst

a flurn" of

THE INSIDE WORLD

worldwide

rt^^A

media attention

much

as

of a

—on

the basis that

The

stir.

would

it

of

details

create

creation,

its

however, are in dispute. According to some sources it

was the brainchild of designer Jacques Heim, but

One

according to others the designer Louis Reard. story

Heim

that

is

created

a

daringly skimpy

swimsuit and named

it

Atome, and

the

that Reard

created an even skimpier version and called Bikini. suit

When Micheline Bernard! modeled

on

days

a Paris catwalk

the

after

on July

atomic

5

it

the

the

new

1946, just four

duly

created

a

was considered immoral

to

test,

it

worldwide sensation.

Stockings THE NYLON REVOLUTION Stockings evolved partly from a

Roman garment

of the

first

century AD, called an udo (the plural of

which

type

sock

of

//dorm), a

is

designed

to

protect the teet inside rough boots.

Over

became

longer, extending

the leg to cover the knee, and

prescribed

dress

official

to

time

//dones

clergy

by the

Catholic Church. tribes of

northern Europe wore loose, trouserlike garments

//dones

leg

he//se,

which

became

later

hose.

Hose and

evolved into broadly similar figure-hugging

coverings,

became

which

known

netherstockings stockings.

An

in

as

ninth-century

—

eventually

alternative

11th century, was

Europe

and

cha//sses,

later

shortened

name, from

It

is little

was not until 1306 that

putting on stockings

first

stockings

colored

—

record of their use.

By

time

this

a fashion for brightly

Wife

his

woman

a picture of a

appeared.

Chaucer had already recorded

of

Bath

wears

stockings of "fine skarlet redde." In

1589 the Reverend William Lee invented

a

machine that could knit stockings and they started to

become more widely

"skin-tights,"

to

are believed

193()s chemists at

Hume

available.

For several

Wallace

new

as fine as a spider's

web." They dubbed the new

product nylon, and today

it is

the second most used

synthetic fiber in the developed world.

of "nylon

"

disputed;

is

some

The coinage

say the "ny" stands for

New

York but more credible

the

"nyl"

comes from vinyl and "on" comes from rayon.

reflecting

to have started

At

wearing

first

Fair.

not

visible

THE INSIDE WORLD

in

is

the opinion that

nylon was used for fishing lines and

toothbrush bristles (see page 70), but

DuPont

generally

in particular

synthetic fiber they claimed was "as strong as steel,

women's

were

DuPont,

Carothers and Julian Hill, created a

stockings in the sixth or seventh century, but as legs

it

as early as the

fashion for increasingly figure-hugging designs.

Women

and

centuries silk was the favored fabric, but during the

During the same period the Germanic

called

art

write about them, there

up

became part of the the

contemporary

in

1939

exhibited nylon stockings at the World's

Word

of

mouth about

BEDROOM

the virtues of nylon,

'

which was

said

to

be unbreakable, and nylon

which were

stockings,

said to be indestructible,

combined with heavy pubic relations from DuPont

The

to generate a state of nationwide hysteria.

chemical giant carefully coordinated the release of the

first

The

consumer

unprecedented.

that

led

nylon

to

The outbreak

sources.

rationing

and

was

it

and

tents,

near

greeted

riots

the

reintroduction of nylon stockings after the war.

Nylons were sold

as individual stockings that

was

followed

More than 4 million

pairs

of

when Glen Raven introduced

the

Mills

first

of

North

panty

nylon

"nylons'" were sold in just a few hours and a

innovation did not catch on until

depression hit the Japanese silk market. At least

fashion's

36 million pairs were sold

as

requisitioned for the manufacture of parachutes

had to be held up with a garter belt until 1959,

15, 1940.

frenzy

war

of

stockings so that none would go on sale

"Nylon Day," May

before

some

million, according to

in the first year,

64

statement,

boldest

the

Carolina

hose.

This

1965,

when

miniskirt,

was

launched and garter belts became impractical.

SUPPORTING ACT In Egypt and Crete most

and

women

^^f

,

Greek

bosom down with

later

early

bra-type

and

up and

clear of their

Roman

women

strips of cloth to give a flat-

more than

"

first

came

men and women).

into

vogue

bodice or corset.

Mounting Victorian concern over

the health risks

of tight corsets created a market for a

less restrictive

form of bosom enhancer. American Mary Phelps Jacob

(later

known

as Caresse

Crosby)

is

usually

credited with the invention of the brassiere in 1913,

and while

it is

true that hers was the

first

successful

version there were several earlier attempts. In 1875

by the flappers of the 1920s.

that had persisted since l6th-centur\- Europe,

"wasp waists

appeared in the

wax, which were inserted into the bust area of a

an

Flappers were breaking with a fashion tradition

both

first

show some women

chested appearance, a fashion revived

2,000 years

their

form of so-called bust improvers of wool, cotton, or

breasts.

sometimes favored the opposite esthetic and strapped their

emphasized

also

the late 18th centur\- "falsies"

the waist or just

device designed to emphasize

Ancient

but

Minoan

the

the bust by pushing their breasts clothes.

waists

hung from

wearing

^

"cinched"

narrowness by accentuating the hips and bosom. In

murals

.^

were scantily clad

drawstrings and whalebone or metal stays not only

in loin clothes or skirts that

below

^^R

men

when

(initially, for

Corsets or bodices with

BEDROOM

George Erost and George Phelps patented Union Under-Flannel

—

or drawstrings.

ladies'

In

underwear that had no stays

1889 corset-maker Herminie

Cadolle sold a bra-like garment called the Bien-Etre

U^ THE INSIDE WORLD

'um'

how

eponymous hero invents the bra

("Well-Being"), and in 1893 Marie Tucek patented

recounts

the "breast supporter." This had

with the help of his trusty sidekick, Hans Delving,

the features of

all

the brassiere, including separate pockets for each breast, over-the-shoulder straps, fastener,

and

but Tucek never marketed

and ceded her

place in underwear history to Jacob. In 191 3

Mary Phelps Jacob was a young debutante

gown

she had

purchased. Concerned that a traditional corset,

just

its

bulky

stays,

would ruin the

dress, she enlisted the help of her

The ladies'

line of the

new

French maid and

two handkerchiefs and some ribbon. The simple new

to patent her

prompting Jacob

"backless brassiere"

attempts to market the

friends,

it

failed

upon

notable popular

in

1914. Her

and she soon sold out to

myth

invention to the suspiciously say, this is a

its

named Otto Titzlinger.

complete fiction that has

entered the public imagination thanks to the writer

Wallace Reyburn, author oi Flushed With Pride

book partly responsible Crapper invented the

myth

for the

toilet.

that

— the

Thomas

In his subsequent book

Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto

rapidity,

World War

I,

It

when women were

buying corsets

to stop

was helped by the

make stays was needed

As women switched

the war effort.

called

as a patriotic gesture

to bras

for

more than

28,000 tons of metal were freed up. After the war advances in brassiere technology

made them even more popular despite flat

chests. Elastic fibers

the vogue for

were introduced

in the

1920s, followed by strapless bras and the adoption of the standardized cup-size

system in the 1930s.

During the 1930s and 1940s fashion favored an

gives an alternative

version of the birth of the brassiere, attributing

Needless to

world of

undergarments with remarkable

because the metal used to

Warner Brothers Corset Company.

A

brassiere gained ascendancy in the

onset of

devised a makeshift substitute by sewing together

garment was popular with

Lung.

quickly toppling the corset.

preparing to attend a party in a sheer

with

for the benefit of one Lois

a hook-and-eye

it

the

Titzlingen,

Reyburn

ever-increasing bust size, a trend that reached

its

peak in the 1950s with the invention by Howard

Hughes of a special well-endowed of the

Women's

and 1970s bra,

cantilevered contraption for the

starlet,

Jane Russell. The bra burning

Liberation

movement

in the

1960s

briefly threatened the popularity of the

but Ida Rosenthal was unfazed. Her response

was simple:

" .

figure to wear

.

.after

age 35 a

woman hasn't got

no support. Time's on

the

my side."

Velcro ® VELVET HOOKS Conceived

as a rival to the zipper, Velcro

was the

brainchild of Swiss mountaineer George de Mestral.

During an Alpine hike Mestral

in the

summer

was fascinated by the

produced by cocklebur bushes, which clung to

his

clothes and his dog, and were extremely difficult to

of 1948 de

remove. Studying them under a microscope, he

burrs

observed that the burrs were covered in thousands

irritating

BEDROOM

a-M

THE INSIDE WORLD

of tiny hooks that were caught on the tiny cotton

Duplicating the hand-woven original with machines

loops of his clothing.

proved

De

Mestral determined to create a synthetic

equivalent that would fastener.

Approaching

rebuffed by

who

make

all

a simple but effective

textile

experts

he

was

except a weaver from Lyon, France,

painstakingly produced two cotton strips

one with tiny hooks, the other with tiny loops or eyes.

De

Mestral called

it

locking

tape

was

not

patented

until

1955.

THE INSIDE WORLD

and the

eyes quickly broke closing.

Using

down

fragile cotton

after repeated

nylon

solved

hooks and

opening and

this

problem,

particularly after de Mestral discovered that infrared

treatment could nylon.

He

produce almost indestructible

christened

the

new

material

Velcro,

taking the "vel" from velvet and the "cro" from the

French

"locking tape."

Technical difficulties, however, meant that viable

difficult,

crochet

(little

hook).

By

the

late

1950s,

60 million yards (55 million m) of Velcro were being produced every

year.

BEDROOM

Safety pin PATENT CLASSIC

A In prehistoric times,

humans used simple

pins,

drawback

—

it

was hinged

made from

thorns, splinters of wood, or fish bones,

that the tension to hold

and

from metal,

clothes

fabric

Such pins had an obvious disadvantage,

fabric

later

together.

however,

fasten

could

they

that

in

to

their

easily

Improved, U-shaped versions appeared

Age

Europe

millennium century

BC

developed

By

the

fibula

shaped pin with a cradle

end of one arm,

The

solution to these problems was provided by

the

New

a prolific

whose previous

at the

repeating

point on the

a

patented

"dress-pin,"

in

1849 by Walter Hunt. Hunt was

U-

a

little

would bend out of shape.

sixth

—

come from

and the pin would come open, too much and

Romans had

the the

it

Bronze-

closed had to

bunched between the two arms. Too

second

the

in BC.

out.

fall

in

it

bend, which meant

at the

ice

other arm, and a coil at the bend,

York inventor included a

efforts

rifle, artificial

stone, an

plow, an early bicycle, and

the

sewing

practical

first

providing tension to press the

machine which he did not patent

point into the cradle and hold

for

the

pin

closed.

was

It

very

Somehow knowledge was

lost,

draftsman to

of the

and

replaced

the

Pins

pin.

had

Prior to Walter Hunt's 1849 version,

with

largely

still

its

integral springy coil, the

"dressing pin"

was

the bane of

dressmakers, diaper-changing mothers, and babies alike, coming open all too easily to stab fingers

once ubiquitous

were

used,

and

flesh with a loose point.

however, for items such as shawls

and diapers, and as falling

still

of

New

A

whom he owed $15 some of

many patents) proposed that Hunt should assign to him the

rights

whatever he could

to

invent using an old piece of wire. In

the debt

return

forgiven

would be

and Hunt would be

paid S400.

posed age-old problems such

out and stabbing the wearer. In 1842

Thomas Woodward

put

his

hook-and-eye

arrangements

would

(for the illustrations to

however, and by

Victorian times buttons, laces, snaps,

it

seamstresses out of business.

similar to today's safety pin.

fibula

that

fear

York was granted a

After three hours of twisting.

Hunt came up

with a self-sprung safety pin, where the wire

was coiled

at the

bend to make

a spring that

itself

would

patent for a "shielded shawl and diaper pin" that

provide tension to hold the point against a cradle or

was almost exactly

shield.

cup

at

like today's safety pin. It

one tip to hold the point and shield

will not

had a it:

"It

become loosened by the motion of the

wearer and... cannot be caused to puncture the person."

Unfortunately

it

had

one

crucial

BEDROOM

There was no hinge

wear out or work

loose. It

joint or pivot that

would

could be used, said

Hunt

in a patent considered a classic since,

by inventors ever

"without danger of bending.

the fingers."

THE INSIDE WORLD

.

.

or

wounding

Contact lenses UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL Leonardo

da

was

Vinci

the

by placing

a lens in direct contact

suggest

Kalt independently reported the use of a contact lens

5th century

to correct vision. Fick's lenses successfully corrected

Da

astigmatism but must have been an ordeal to wear.

to

first

correcting defective vision back in the

1

with the

eye.

with

Vinci's version involved a tube of glass filled

water and sealed at one end. The open end would be placed against the eye so that

which would as

was bathed

in water,

across,

large,

measuring more than

and were designed

inch

1929

In

Hungarian

named Josef

Rene

Descartes

physician

proposed a

slightly

modified

developed a technique

of da Vinci's

lens

molds from people's

in

lenses could be

1632, involving a water-filled glass tube

'/.

inch (5

mm)

long

with a lens from a microscope

exactly.

used

successfully

Da

however,

water-filled

because they

knew

and

blowing

lenses,

lens

Although no accurate conclusions have yet been drawn, studies are being performed worldwide to examine the effects of oxygen permeable lenses to slow the progression of myopia.

that the glass-

glass-grinding

smooth enough

failed because the lens

—

onto

underneath

Sir

a lens that

plastic

lenses,

contact

lenses

German

firm

lenses to

William

introduced

plastic

America. Proper corneal

were developed

lenses

New

same year

in

Development of the

for

was not produced

attributed

to

in

1948, and Otto

Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim in I960. Soft lenses finally

became commercially

States

in

available in the

United

1971. Since then advances in plastics

technology have made

lenses (introduced in 1980), lenses that can be

until

1

—but

888,

a

when

Swiss physician Adolph Fick and Parisian Edouard

THE INSIDE WORLD

still

soft contact lens is variously

Kevin Tuohy

John Herschel to

the

lenses.

was ground

conform exactly to the surface of the eye practical version

17th-

kept falling out.

1827 English astronomer

suggested a solution

A

a small glass lens

the eye with a layer of gelatin

In

more

fit

1940s but many people were

were hardly an advance on spectacles.

comfort

in the

put off by the discomfort of hard

designs had to be held in place, meaning that they

fit

to

optometrist

Feinbloom

to be

tolerated by the sensitive eyeball, but of course their

century French attempt to

taking

eyes, so that

made

that

and

York

tubes

techniques of the day could never

make a

Dallos

I.G. Farben introduced Plexiglass

vision.

Vinci and Descartes had

suggested

for

was not until the

caught on. In 1936

Descartes'

own

It

development of

at

one end. In 1801 Thomas Young

design to correct his

cm)

iris).

a

philosopher

version

(1

over the entire

fit

covers the pupil and

French

lens.

to

'/:

eyeball, rather than just the cornea (the layer that

refract light, acting

corrective

a

it

They were

for

it

possible to wear tinted

worn

extended periods (1981), bifocal lenses (1982),

disposable

lenses

(1987),

shielding lenses (1996).

BEDROOM

and even

ultraviolet

EYES CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW Eyeglasses are lenses of glass

convex corrective

or plastic held in a frame and

invention of eyeglasses.

placed in front of the eyes. As the

lens

light

refracts

rays

they compensate tor defects in the

own

eye's

lenses.

Eyeglasses were invented in

during the

Italy

either Florence or Pisa, probably

A

1280s,

in

by Salvino Armato.

and

Before

lenses, possibly before the Italian

time,

this

those

who

developed

sightedness in old age, or were born with

doomed

it,

far-

were

to cope as best they could. Convex-lens

eyeglasses had the potential to revolutionize the lives

of those involved in close work, such as tailors

or scribes, and

would become even more important

with the invention

and popularity of

of printing

skilled

books and newspapers. Lenses quickly caught on,

glassworker, he ground lenses into a convex shape to

and within 20 years the center of the new industry

help correct his long-sightedness.

of eyeglass manufacture had shifted to Venice. Here

Florentine

optical

When a person

is

weakens and light

long-sighted the lens of the eye

rays passing

being focused on the

retina,

through

it,

instead of

converge on a

pomt

A convex lens

helps to correct this

by doing some of the work

for the eye, focusing

behind the retma. defect

scientist

light rays before they reach the eye's

own

friar,

Father Giordano da Pisa, in a sermon he gave in

—although Armato

Florence in 1306

himself was

not mentioned by name: "It

is

well,

making

and which

spectacles is

which help you

see

one of the best and most

necessary in the world.

I

discovered and practiced

to the island of Murano

master glass craftsmen guarded

secrets jealously

— workers who

threatened with death

left

their

the island were

I

Drastic union rules notwithstanding, eyeglass

eyeglasses were

relatively expensive

still

and their

use was mainly restricted to the educated, noble,

and wealthier

At

this

classes.

time eyeglasses were uncomfortable to

wear, and almost exclusively took the form of pince-

not twenty years since there was discovered

the art of

the

technology soon spread across Europe, although

lens.

Armato's invention was well received, and was recorded in the words of an early l4th-centur\'

moved

the glassworks were

and

myself saw the

man who

nez

—where

frames

the

"pinching" the nose glass

and

tortoiseshell.

frames

Arms

stayed

—and were of

horn,

in

place

by

heavy, with thick

bone,

to loop over the ear

ivory,

or

and hold the

"

it

and

I

talked with him.

These early eyeglasses were the

result ot a long

eyeglasses in place were not invented until 1^27, so

people

used

leather

or

cord

straps,

fixed

the

them on the

tradition in Islamic countries ot experimentation

eyeglasses onto sticks, or simply wore

with lenses and their

bridge of the nose and avoided moving suddenly or

abilities to refract light.

knowledge was passed on

to

This

European scholars

during the Renaissance. Roger Bacon (1214—1292), for instance,

is

known

to have

experimented with

BEDROOM

breathing heavily.

As technology advanced became more widely

eyeglasses

available.

THE INSIDE WORLD

improved and

Concave

lenses to

r*.

correct

myopia (near-sightedness) were

first

made

in

the 15th century", and Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals in the 1760s.

As

became more

eyeglasses

public, a state of affairs that has persisted almost to the present day.

The introduction of plastic

up

lenses

and frames made eyeglasses lighter and more gave manufacturers and designers

popular, however, they lost their image as a status

durable and

symbol, and by Victorian times they had become

greater scope, but only in the last few years have

unfashionable. Ladies

would avoid wearing them

in

become

eyeglasses again

fashionable.

Sunglasses THROUGH ^Bfl^^^^B|^*

H^^^^^^^^^

j^^Mr

gPy ^^ -^^^

first

sunglasses were

by the Inuit

^^R^^^2W h^V^^^b/

The

Circle I

"

GLASS, DARKLY

A

tribes of the Arctic

18th

the

in

centun,-.

They used pieces of whalebone

wood

or

horizontal

with

slits

narrow

across the center

^^^ ^

to prevent snow-blindness

^^

protecting their eyes from the

by

glare of sunlight reflected off snow. Inuit sunglasses

date back thousands of years, and older,

given that humans

first

may even

be

adapted to

Smoked

made

much life

in

Arctic areas tens of thousands of years ago.

in

glass

was

also used to create

Europe until technology made

dark lenses

tinted or colored

lenses widely available in the 18th century. Eyeglass

designer James Ayscough used some of the tinted lenses in 1^52.

He recommended

green- or blue-tinted lenses because he

first

the use of felt

that

transparent glass caused a dangerous glare that

might damage the

eyesight.

Sunglasses only became popular after they were

adopted by the

militar\-, in particular

by the United

States Air Force, which commissioned the optical

Bausch

specialists

& Lomb

to

create

high-

During the Ming dynasty (1368—1644) the

performance sunglasses that could protect the eyes

Chinese employed colored or smoked rock crystal

of their fighter pilots from the glare of sunlight at

(quartz) as dark glasses

—

cha ching, "tea cry^stal," and

types of quartz included

mo

ching, "black cry'stal."

These devices were not primarily used

as sunglasses,

however, but as a means of hiding the eyes of judges they

as

sat

in

court

—according

tradition, the judge's expression as

to

Chinese

he evaluated

evidence was to remain inscrutable until the end of the in

trial.

When glass spectacles arrived from Europe

around 1430 these too were adapted

smoking the

glass to darken

for judges

it.

THE INSIDE WORLD

by

high altitudes. tint that

new

researchers developed a

and fashioned frames that extended

spectrum,

downward glanced

Company

would cut out the brightest part of the

protect

to

down

eyes

aviators'

at their instruments.

when

They

they

called the

glasses Ray-Bans.

American physicist and inventor Edwin Land contributed technology. plastic to

further

a

1929 he used

In

make

advance

a polarizing

BEDROOM

a

filter.

in

sunglass

cellophane-like

Normal sunlight

is

made up

of light waves oriented in several

different planes.

light

A

polarizing

waves oriented

in

filter

only transmits

one plane, absorbing and

World War

After

essential fashion accessor}' for

the international

Hollywood

With

jet set.

became an

sunglasses

II

stars

and

the help of heavy

cuttmg out the others and thus dramatically

advertising campaigns by the likes of Foster Grant,

reducing glare. In 193" Land founded the Polaroid

the association beru-een shades and chic became

among

Corporation to produce, first

other things, the

firmly cemented in the eyes of the public and sunglass manufacturing became big business.

Polaroid sunglasses.

Zipper THE FAST TRACK 1893

In

American

an

mechanical

engineer

Whitcomb Judson, device

he

called

"clasp-

locker," the foreainner ot the

modern

friend

zipper,

goes that Judson

ston,-

when

a

a

row

ot

hook-and-eye

were fastened or unfastened by a

much

the

same way

as a

slide.

modern

which uses the principle of the inclined

plane or wedge.

A

to

jam or come open

Undaunted, he

—

wedge

redirects a small force to

is

a simple tool that

produce a stronger one. In

the case of a zipper, wedges inside the slide redirect a small effort (pulling the slide

up or down) into

a

strong force that can push together or force apart a

row of interlocking teeth

in a

the United

—

it

tailed to

had

win many

fans.

up the Universal Fastener

set

in selling

20 clasp-lockers

Postal Ser\'ice

States

mailbags. They were soon discarded

tor

when

jamming. Despite Judson's continual improve

tendency

a

use on

the\'

which

his design. Universal Fasteners,

kept

efforts

to

later

became the Automatic Hook and Eye Company,

his boots.

clasp-locker had

operated in

appearance and poor reliability

to

to create a simpler alternative

Chicago

his invention at the

company and succeeded

or

shoelaces

complained of the sore back caused by

fasteners that It

the time,

slide).

World's Fair in 1893 but the device's complicated

button-hooked

bending over to do up

The

At

without using the

boots were done up with fiddly

long rows ot buttons, and the

was inspired

zipper.

sides of a zip

Judson exhibited

called

patented a a

two

way

impossible to reproduce manually

that

(tr}'

is

almost

closing the

BEDROOM

had

little success.

In

1917 an employee of Automatic Hook and

Swedish-American

Eye,

Sundbach, was granted

improved version fastener" (later

—

"bookless" or "separable

as the

Talon slide fastener).

Sundbach's advanced version

used

metal teeth instead of hooks and was practical

and

The new

when

it

Gideon

a patent for a significantly

the

known

engineer

interlocking

much more

reliable.

slide fastener

was given

a big boost

was adopted bv the United States

THE INSIDE WORLD

militar}'

/

i

li/i

4n

w-\ y

f

^j^/^r'^-

War

during World

money

belrs,

I,

and was

also used

and robacco pouches.

Ir

on boors,

was slower

ro

carch on tor clothing, however, as the metal teeth

would wet

—

rust

and cause discoloration when they got

had

fasteners

to be

unsewed from garments

before they could be laundered. People also found

the unfamiliar device difficult to operate, and a

book of instructions accompanied each

reliability

increased the appeal of the slide fastener, and in

Goodrich footwear company ordered

1921 the

B.F.

170,000

for its

new Mystik

galoshes. These were

One

zip and I'm

all

dressed!" was the tag line

one campaign). They replaced button fasteners

on men's trousers and were even used on In clothing for

women

spacesuits.

only side zippers were used,

front zippers being considered immoral.

Today the average American buys zippers every year, most of the

fastener!

Waterproofing and improvements in

look! for

YKK

12

new

them manufactured by

company, founded

in

Japan

in

1934

as

Kogyo Kabushililaisha. In 1914, Automatic Hook and Eye produced a few hundred Yoshida

each day. Today,

feet of zippers

factories in

YKK

have 206

52 countries, making everything from

Zippers, after the noise the fastener

the brass for the zippers to the dyed fabric that

made. In the following decades zippers were widely

surrounds them, and they produce 1,200 miles

soon renamed

incorporated

into clothing,

and promoted

simple solution for children's clothes

a

as

("Mommy,

(1,900

km)

of zipper every day in their Macon,

Georgia, factory alone.

Buttons KEEPING

TOGETHER

IT

Buttons were invented 3,500 years before buttonholes, having first

appeared

disks

fixed

as

to

but also fixed loops to the

through

them.

Such advanced technology was

beyond the inhabitants of Dark-Age Europe, who favored simple, loose-fitting robes and swathes of cloth.

Bc;,

shaped

when

into

seashells

circles

or

and sewn onto garments. Other cultures

made buttons out of bone,

horn, pottery, wood, or

they were often intricately cars'ed but were

not used as fasteners. Clothes were fastened by means of cloth ties, pins of

too,

fringes of garments so that buttons could be passed

Valley civilization of the third

millennium

—

for

oldest

ornamentation

as

examples date back to the Indus

were

metal

clothing

The

ornamentation.

triangles

decorative

The Greeks and Romans used buttons

bone, horn or metal, or cords.

THE INSIDE WORLD

Buckles,

brooches,

belts,

and pins were

sufficient for such fashions.

In the

Middle Ages, however, tighter clothes that

molded more

among

closely to the

body came into fashion

the rich and powerfiil. Achieving this look

required

many

pins,

which had

a

tendency to

or get misplaced, while repeated pinning the fine, delicate fabrics that had

BEDROOM

come

fall

out

damaged

into favor.

Buttonholes, cut into the fabric and then reinforced

with stitched edges,

just

in clothes in the 13th

hke

began to appear

today,

a

way of showing

Courtiers

off.

and the

left

and

who

people

Men of all classes did up

handed).

to display the

while at war or

most ostentatious buttons, made

of ivory, glass,

women

inlaid,

metals,

were designed with long rows of

scenes. Clothes

craftsmen In

and gems. They were carved,

who

on every

surface,

and there were

specialized exclusively in buttons.

1520 the French King Francis

I

met

his

English rival Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of

Gold near

Calais.

Each

man

strove to outdo the

when

garments

theory

that

is

Disapproving

their

own

clothes

traveling, while the only

who

of the period

would have had maids

stamped, and even painted with miniature

close-set buttons

One

did them up (who were mainly right-

noblemen and women competed

precious

side of men's

side of women's.

buttons were attached in this manner to suit the

and l4th centuries.

Buttons were an expensive luxury and therefore

became

sewn onto the right-hand

could afford buttons

to dress them.

of

ostentatious

17th-century

excessive

buttoning,

condemned

the button as

and

sinflil.

They

of

displays

Puritans

preferred the

showy hook-and-eye

simpler,

cheaper,

fastener.

During the 18th century, however, the

less

mass production of metal buttons, which were pressed from sheets in industrial fashion,

other with displays of wealth and sophistication.

them cheaper and more widely

King Henry's extravagant buttons were modeled

1840s vulcanized rubber was

on his rings, while Francis wore a black velvet

made

available. In the tried

as

an even

suit

cheaper alternative to metal, but did not catch on.

covered in 13,400 golden buttons. Later the 17th-

Eventually celluloid was developed as a cheap

century French monarch, Louis XIV, would outfit

synthetic substitute for ivory, and plastic buttons

entire regiments in uniforms

equipped with

silver-

is

the Velcro button, designed for elderly people

coated buttons.

Contemporary

became widespread. The most recent innovation

illustrations

and paintings show

that from around the 15 th century buttons were

whose

arthritis

makes awkward

traditional buttons

difficult to deal with.

Air conditioning BLOWING HOT AND COLD around 2000 BC, wealthy noblemen would

Several ancient civilizations tackled the perennial

in

problem of how to cool down

condition their

domestic

discomfort.

The

air in

order to ease

ancient

Egyptians

exploited the principle of evaporative cooling (see Refrigerator,

page 16) to produce

ice,

which could

then be used to cool dwellings. In ancient Babylon,

BEDROOM

to

homes

exposed surfaces

at

—

as

air-

night by spraying water on the water evaporated

absorbed heat from the house, cooling

it.

it

Ancient

Indians employed the same principles by hanging

wet grass mats on the windward

THE INSIDE WORLD

sides of their houses.

Roman emperors and Mahdi

Persian caliphs, such as Al-

of eighth-centur)' Baghdad, used imported ice

humidity and temperature. Heat and moisture caused paper to expand and contract

—

not much,

or snow, fanned by slaves, to cool their palaces.

but enough to throw carefully aligned colors and

Similar methods were

fonts out of register.

when

century, it

still

in use in the late

would

theaters

through pipes packed with

The main efficient

and

Carrier developed a flash of inspiration

ice.

more

drive for reliable

19th

cool air by passing

from

methods

between

the

needed to maintain

humidity

Other

House of Commons 1838,

in

1844, one of the

and,

first

it

to

cool

By

Air conditioning

"condition the air" in their mills, and

it

was

time

a

air

and

circulated the

air.

a

which controlled both

He came up

Brooklyn printing plant

in

and

filtered

and

with the system

for

1902. Like textiles,

printing was an industry' plagued by fluctuating air

THE INSIDE WORLD

in

and cinemas, such

as

Store in Detroit (1924)

Rivoli Theater (1925) proved to be

hugely popular in

its

own

that their air conditioning

humidity

success

conditioning

Hudson Department

first

invention

his

air

stores

New York's

coined the term "air

and

to

technology

The department

the

young Cornell graduate, Willis

conditioner,

temperature

installed in

order

in

his

applications.

and

Haviland Carrier, had already invented the

modern

Engineering

nonindustrial

to

conditioning" in 1906. this

has

basis of all air-

to gain

started

textile

manufacturers were using sprays and steam

By

further,

a

who

to the it

with

Today, the focus is on efficiency and low energy use, but air conditioners still operate on the principles devised by Carrier in 1901.

the late 19th century textile

engineer, Stuart Cramer,

summer palaces

ice.

who for

and

Carrier

develop

has come a long way since ancient times, when overheated potentates

in

uses of

air

and cool

same time

level,

Corporation

in

stuffed the walls of their

hospital in Florida.

to dry

1915 Carrier formed

In

the

mechanical refrigeration, by physician John Gorrie,

him

theory

conditioning systems since.

early air-conditioning

London

used

His

formed the

and ventilation.

systems included one fitted at the

Psychrometric

desired

England, installed a system for heating

formulated

he

Formulae."

air at the

Derwent,

silk mill in

and

his "Rational

enabled

to

condition the yarn. As early as

1719 a

temperature

humidity

levels of

mills

in

While

principles that he later called

which

industry,

textile

came

air

while waiting for a train on a

considering the relationship

particularly

industry,

receiving

after

cold, foggy platform.

of controlling the humidity

and temperature of

system

his

right.

Cinemas found

was often a bigger draw

than the movies themselves. In

1928 Carrier produced

conditioning unit

—

the

its first

domestic

air-

—and

air

Weathermaker

conditioning was soon installed in railroad carriages (1931), automobiles (1939), and

By 1995 the

buses (1940).

Carrier Corporation boasted healthy

annual sales of S5 billion.

BEDROOM

Condom DRESS FOR SAFE SEX animals, in this case sheep, were

Since ancient times birth control

been

has

considered

responsibihty of the female, a view still

held by

many men

today,

Ancient

and

women as a result. women were

name

his invention.

Despite

As

women

Roman men had

unsatisfied

discovered

1,700

were told to use spermicide made

condoms

from honey and crocodile dung.

inadequate

Condoms were developed

endorsement,

royal

condoms were widely unpopular.

given abortifacients of mercury

Egyptian

noble doctor's chagrin his

with

Chinese

while ancient

to the

was soon irreversibly associated

a variety of indignities and dangers

were visited on

Much

pressed into service.

the

were

years

earlier,

fundamentally

and

unsatisfactory.

solely to

Even the thinnest sheaths available

protect the wearer from sexually

deadened sensation while a poor

transmitted diseases.

understanding of the principles of

The the

first

hygiene

sheaths were used by

Romans and

possibly

ancient Egyptians, and were

condoms were

meant

often reused, and as a result failed

the

made

to

out of oiled animal intestines or

As

prevent disease.

century

Frenchman

16th-

a

remarked,

bladders.

They did not reappear

condoms were "armor against

until the

mid l6th century when

gossamer against infection."

the

Italian

Fallopius

anatomist

tuck

—

fit

over the

the head of the penis

under the foreskin.

Men

little better.

—and

to

were instructed

wash the thick rubber sheaths

after sexual relations

Full-

length sheaths for circumcised

condoms

rubber

first

appeared around 1870, but were

designed a sheath of

medicated linen to glans

The

Gabriel

love,

men

reuse

soon followed; they were secured at Just a few of the

the base with a pink ribbon.

condom palate.

The prophylactic sheath was

many

The

them

and simply

until they

fell

apart.

shortcomings

basic

of

flavors of

condom

available for the discerning

Less popular flavors include

tackled

design in

the

were

finally

1930s with the

curry and chile.

reinvented a century later

King Charles

II

when

introduction

of England, a noted philanderer,

commissioned the court doctor, Lord Condom,

come up with

member from

a

means of protecting

syphilis.

Once again

his

to

royal

the intestines of

BEDROOM

of

latex

rubber,

which could be made extremely thin without sacrificing

strength.

declared the thinnest,

first

and

"Prevents

nervous

strain,"

packets of Durex, "the strongest,

silkiest protectives in the

THE INSIDE WORLD

world."

T U

E)

Y

1

1

i

\^ 1

%

m W'-^ ^ j

mk

\

'"^'

\ \w^

1

'^^/:M

-

HH^^

U

K 1

innovations in the

J"

^^W /

way we work

Light bulb LET THERE BE LIGHT Thomas Edison

usually

is

credited with inventing the

hght bulb but he was actually nearly

60

known

the air had been

invention had

modern

incandescent light was

Warren De

La Rue. in 1820.

De La Rue

an electrical current tube trom which

coil inside a

pumped, and produced

His

light.

the essential elements ot the

all

light bulb. It

conducted

first

the invention of

passed

through a platinum

The

years late.

electricin,-,

forced to

make Swan a partner

his electric

was

It

place

this electric

in

in the British

arm of

company.

company

that secured Edison's

He may

the histon." books.

not have

invented the light bulb, but he did introduce the real world by supplying the energy that

them glow. In 1882.

New

Station in electric

lamps

businesses.

bulbs

initial

had

that

although

but with some resistance,

the 13.5-hour

this

electricity to

to

Power 3.144

203 Manhattan households and

in

These

had a metal filament that

Edison's Pearl Street

York supplied

it

made

a

was

of just

lifespan

ot Edison's

150 hours,

improvement on

a considerable

lite

By 1886

customers struggled with

original patented

causing electrical energy to be converted into heat.

bulb.

The platinum heated up

tllaments derived from bamboo, lasted for 1,200

until

it

glowed with an

intense light, but because of its high melting point it

remained

intact.

Air had been

pumped

out of the

hours (modern bulbs hours),

tube to create a vacuum so that the hot platinum

1889 he had oft.

burn through).

Unfortunately platinum was too expensive to be practical,

across

and over the next

the

world searched

decades inventors

five

for

a

cost-effective

last for

around 1,500—2,000

just

~10 customers)

By 1910 more than

United States had

By

this

it

carbon with tungsten, a tough metal with a high

tllament light bulbs are

a natural choice because

element with the highest melting point

—

(3,599° C). Unfortunately Edison wasn

man

to think of

it.

it is

6.5

t

the

the

KT

F

first

English inventor Joseph Swan

had been granted a similar patent in Britain the year before (furthermore, an

American court

later

eventually took

electric lighting.

In 1879 Edison was granted a patent tor a bulb

Carbon was

(by

time technological advances had replaced

melting point (6,1~'0° F/3,410°

fibers.

at first

3 million people in the

material that could survive at high temperatures.

with a filament of carbon, derived from cotton

using carbon

bulbs,

and although business was slow

would not oxidize

(i.e..

Edison's

still

the

Tungsten-

C).

norm

today, but

they are far from perfect. Tungsten filaments suffer

from sublimation, that the filament.

is.

metal atoms evaporate off

Eventuallv the inside ot the bulb

becomes coated with

a thin black tllm

tilament wears so thin that are

no more

efficient

it

breaks.

and the

Modern bulbs

than early models: in a

n,-pical

light bulb just 5 percent of the electrical energy

is

judged that Edison's "invention was based on the

converted into visible light; the

work of a man named William

Alternative technologies such as fluorescent bulbs

"

Saw^^er).

Swan sued

Edison and won. and eventuallv the American was

STUDY

and halogen

are

much more

rest

efficient.

THE INSIDE WORLD

is

lost as heat.

i^

k

—

^ J^y

\

1

ww»r»ii^*'

aV .

.•

•

^^g M^t»l F m!

1

, *":S?.

.

•

.

.

^

h .

r«

1

^^Hf^B^^^

^I"^ 3Si3i|

J r1^

^^C^™'

i

!

E

Vii^i3 ^ aLi^UH [isrsM

n

ILp

-.

-^

I^MaM

L^flHBSI^^PH ^ ,*?• w Iflt r^^i •

««;??

^^^B ^^^^^ J

3

^^^BF_f^E5E^r

It ll

•

M^

1'

.,

^^^

.saoB

__^

'

^#*f %At ft JP

V

^

•.*-•.

/^v .^K

f-i 5

•

mm^

-^M^^^rrr^

/%!OIPh'

i 1IH i„m& ininwii nimnniniianii

1'

ii>M^:.--

DS-1*

ooh^ M\ SI t *******

^

BMBBu w

;

4

II

[!i.ii).!i^^^r''^'t''

Neon and fluorescent lights GAS WORKS A

bulb works on the

light

of incandescence,

principle

using

electricity

filament

neon

until

glows.

produce light

to

atoms of

directly, energizing

light).

(known

was

The

as

a

and two years

later

first

neon tube

he created the

first

in

neon

advertising sign for Paris' Palace Hairdresser.

1923

In

company was commissioned by the

his

Packard auto dealership of Los Angeles to produce the

first

neon sign in North America,

sum

considerable

of S24,000.

for the

then

The neon tubes

gas or vapor so that they give

spelling out "Packard" had a great impact and were

an electric discharge or vapor

dubbed

"liquid fire" by an admiring public.

principle of the electric discharge light

FLL ORISCENT LIGHTING

observed in 16^5 by French astronomer

first

Jean Picard,

who

noticed that a mercury barometer

tube gave off a faint glow

if

What

shaken.

he did

not understand was that shaking the tube produced

which charged atoms of mercur)"

static electricity,

vapor in the tube so that they emitted light.

By

Paris,

A

light, in contrast, uses

electricity

off light

heat

to

it

George Claude exhibited the

A phenomenon

related to electric discharge light

is

where light emitted by one source

fluorescence,

energizes the atoms of another, so that they give off a different type of light.

When

an electric charge

applied to mercury vapor, for instance,

is

gives off

it

was better

invisible ultraviolet light in addition to visible light.

understood and experiments with different types of

This ultraviolet light can be used to energize another

were carried out. In 1855 German

light source in order to generate visible light. In

the

19th

electric lighting

centur)"

electricity

glassblower Heinrich Geissler produced the

example of what we now a glass tube with gas to

it.

call a

neon

fluorescent lighting ultraviolet light from mercur\'

filling

vapor

charge

on the inside of a

that they give off visible light of various

colors. Mercur}-

vapor gives off blue light, carbon

dioxide white, helium gold, and neon red.

Neon,

a

name

used to

first

such light was

made as

early as

known

as strip lighting) convert very little

their electrical

William Ramsay and Morris Travers, who

distilled

result they are also cheaper to operate,

glow

caught on

air.

It

gives off a faint red

room temperature and an even brighter one electric

current

is

applied.

In

if

at

an

1910 Frenchman

THE INSIDE WORLD

in

energy-efficient than light bulbs.

for

commercial and public

50

different colors.

STUDY

As

a

and soon

uses. Today,

neon and fluorescent lights are available 1

of

energy into heat, making them

much more

from liquid

1859 by

the United States until 1934. Fluorescent lights

"new," was discovered in 1898 by British chemists

it

coating

glass tube to give off visible light.

Antoine-Henri Becquerel, but was not developed

(also

derived from the Greek neos,

is

The

Subsequent experiments with different gases

showed

make a thin phosphorescent

by

electric

light,

and applying an

first

in over

Anglepoise® lamp DOUBLE-JOINTED The Anglepoise lamp was

1932 by

in

A

George Cawardine.

designer

British

engineer

created

who had worked

many

for

skilled

on

years

smaller version. This was the classic model 1227,

which remains

virtually

Widely recognized

as

unchanged

to this day.

an outstanding example of

suspension systems for cars (including a design that

great design through the application of rigorously

U.S. car manufacturer General Motors was alleged

functional principles, the Anglepoise was recently

was

voted the all-time favorite lamp by top European

to have pirated), Cawardine's original concept

an apparatus of springs and hinged arms that

for

could

move

and hold

its

position.

Cawardine had no particular application but

in

in

mind,

1931, possibly inspired by a 1927 lamp

Frenchman Edouard-Wilfred

by the

designed

Buquet, which used balanced masses to control

movement, he patented an he

named

initial

lamp design

its

that

the Equipoise.

The following England,

Cawardine

attempted

improved version

of

Lamp." The patent

office

word

was

a

be

trademarked,

his

Redd itch,

as

company

so

patent

to

"Elastic

an

Equipoising

argued that "equipoise"

in general usage

"Anglepoise"

with the

year, in collaboration

spring manufacturing firm Terry's of

A

At

was simply an abstract concept and

this

first

in three planes

design magazine, Design Week.

and could therefore not

Cawardine came up with

an alternative.

memo

"Anglepoising"

defined the properties of an

spring

like

this:

"Correct

by the

Anglepoising springs are characterised feature that the force exerted by

them

is

always

proportional to their length, and the length of an

Anglepoising spring

is

considered to be the distance

separating the centers of the pins by which they are

anchored to the machine."

At

first Terr}''s

industrial

produced Anglepoise lamps

applications

but

it

quickly

for

became

obvious that there was a domestic market for a

STU D Y

Cawardine's aim in creating the Anglepoise lamp was to design a mechanism with the flexibility, control, and precision of the human arm. The key elements of the lamp were the "Anglepoising" springs— they had to be very tightly wound and were extremely difficult to make.

THE INSIDE WORLD

Plugs and switches TURN

ON

S

When electricity was first introduced into homes in the 1880s

it

The wiring

was used only

to

installed in houses

power

light bulbs.

was minimal and

believed to have early

as

inventor,

made sockets with on-ofif switches as

1888, but

was a

it

prolific

generally featured only one outlet for electrical

devised two important inventions that

power, namely the wall- or ceiling-mounted socket

today. In

1896 he patented a

lights, in

which

into

which the

bulb was screwed. In the early

light

American

Harvey Hubbell of Connecticut, who

we

still

use

"pull socket" for electric

a chain or cord attached to the light

The first plug was a hand-built wood and metal prototype to be attached to a "boxing" machine in a penny arcade. Today's plugs retain essentially the same features, although in

many

countries, like Britain for instance, a third "earth" pin

days of electricity, the supply operated only for a few hours a day so electric lights were simply all

times.

Other devices that ran on

left

on

at

electricity either

had screw sockets that could be screwed into the light fitting,

which was inconvenient, or had

to be

is

fitting could

present as a safety feature.

be used to turn

switches operate in

much

it

on and

the same way. In 1904,

forerunner of today's two- and three-pin plugs.

Hubbell was inspired

to create the

saw

a janitor struggling to detach

became outmoded because

the

awkward

people wanted to turn their lights on and

few had the

oft,

skills or inclination to wrestle

and

with

complicated wiring every time they wanted to use an appliance.

An

machine

named David Salomons

THE INSIDE WORLD

is

plug when he

and then reattach

wires of an electrically powered arcade

in order to clean

with metal and wood

(as

behind

it.

Experimenting

an insulator), he created a

makeshift plug-and-socket arrangement for the janitor.

English inventor

Today's

Hubbell patented a "separable attachment plug," the

attached directly to the wiring of the house. This rather basic system soon

off.

This would only have to be wired up once,

and would be simple to operate

STU D Y

thereafter.

y^^

Pens and pencils THE WRITE STUFF The Egyptians were using reeds and the hollow joints

bamboo

oi

implements

4000

millennium

came

sixth century AD,

BC.

and were not surpassed

30 million

ot use

Europe from the

into use in

or convenience until the

peak

brushes in

rat hair

the

,

world's

1888

In

was granted

a patent

John Loud,

for

But the principle

packing

cases.

fired the

imagination of pen designers.

Other pens

of the

writing point, and although by the end of the 19th

were imported to

century pen design had reached a high level of

quills

swan

Metal pens were known

ancient times

in

bronze pen from the ruins of Pompeii

—but were

little

now

—

lies in

used until

the 1800s. In 1803 steel tube pens, with edges that

were sold

in

sides cut

London. As with a

in ink so that a

drawn up the

central

1828

Mitchell

John

machine-made

steel

small

slit

away

Pens wrote

in

one direction only and depended on

to

World War

Camden,

I,

bulky

quickly, so that the pen

The

ballpoint pen

providing and,

pens in Birmingham, which

the center of production shifted

New Jersey.

and

source,

problems,

manufacturing

to

ran out quickly,

small

particles

frequently blocked the nibs, which also dried out

disposable

by capillary action. In

The ink

necessitating constant dipping or filling from a

were

started

which were prone

inks,

amount would be

soon became the center of a thriving pen industry. After

water-based

separate,

like a quill,

quill, these

major limitations.

proficiency, there were several

leaking and smudging.

dipped

of the ballpoint

day delivered ink to a fixed

fluid,

and

—

ballpoint pen. Loud's invention was a crude device

that were ideal for fine drawing.

at a central slit

American

designed for scrawling marks on the sides of rough

and turkey, while crow feathers produced quill pens

met

to the

new writing implement

a

mid- 19th century. At the

birds were preferred, usually goose, but also

Museum

of

150

success story had inauspicious beginnings.

for quality

Great Britain annually. The wing feathers of large

the Naples

manufacturer

leading

countries around the globe. Yet this astonishing

Greek

and the Chinese used

BC,

first

as

known from 1296

camel and

Quill pens

early

Ancient

BC.

"styli" are

the

writing

as

as

Bic

ballpoints, sells over 14 million pens daily, in

implement. But

above it

would not write

would overcome millions all,

first

all

with

would take

a while,

cheap,

a

convenient

time.

of these

writing

and

it

was

not until 1938 that Laszlo Biro, a Hungarian living in

Argentina, perfected a successful design. Biro's

pen depended on two key elements: the ballpoint and a special

A

ink.

ballpoint has a precision-ground ball bearing

held in a housing that leaves an exposed writing

ROLL ON: THE BALLPOINT In just

60

years, the ballpoint

pen has become the

most popular writing implement

of all time.

THE INSIDE WORLD

face.

Ink

is

delivered from the reservoir to the sides

of the bearing via four to six

shallow grooves. These

distribute the ink evenly, allowing the pen to write

STUDY

equally well in

many ways

all

this ink

component.

is

easy-to-remember version of his

own name

the crucial

must

It

AU \\kH\i^ AGRlt

directions. In

liquid in the pen so that

an

remain writes

it

marketing

aggressive

By 1951 he was

campaign.

selling 21 million pens a year,

go, but not leak out of the

first

—Bic —along with

pen or smudge once on the

and double that

paper. Early ballpoint pens used

(mostly in France). In 1959 he

invaded the United States with

ink composed of dye in oleic acid,

mixed with

resins to

keep the mixture

But they did not dry

smudging between

and

improved on these and

his

far

from

.^f^'M^fi^i^Bia^i

Modern

was aimed at the luxury pen market. The case was permanent and only the inner unit was replaced. Orbic Eagle

components.

ten

Compared

to

expensive, but a

and a keen friend,

Edouard Buffard, he moved into an empty factory near Paris in 1945 and set himself up in

the pen

made during

the war

allowed ball bearings to be ground to extraordinary precision,

and opened up the new

field

of plastics.

Bich invested heavily in the new technologies, and in

1947 he received an order

early his

European ballpoints.

own

mess.

for plastic bodies for the

He

wasn't impressed. In

words, the early pens were

They

stain the clothes

knew he could do

better,

"... a terrible

and don't write." Bich

and

spotted a lucrative

goes a long

little

cheapest ballpoint ink the equivalent

earliest materials

2697

is

way

—

even the

20 times longer than in a fountain pen.

THE BLACK juices.

The

earliest reported

was

BC. This ancient ink

composed of carbon black oil,

extremely

is

used for making marks were

probably blood or plant date for ink

lasts

amount of ink

INK: IN The

in

as

who

with a

few

of as

consisting

water-based inks, ballpoint pen ink

determination to succeed. Together

vary

ballpoints

complexity and price, sometimes

Bich

started with little except foresight

has

,

bestselling pen of

(1914-1994), a high-school dropout from France

business. Technical advances

now

time.

all

Unlike the disposable BIC Classic®, the

messy

Marcel

cents.

as the Classic Stic

become the

Biro

perfect.

Baron

Enter

known

superior,

still

—29

Forty years later that pen,

early inks,

pen design was

but ballpoints were

and

affordable price tag

fading

light.

catchy slogan, "Writes First

Time, Every Time"-, and an

fluid.

properly,

and

the

in

a

transferring

pages,

quickly

and

special oils

year later

a

(essentially soot) in

lamp

mixed with gelatin from donkey bones,

probably to disguise the odor of the recipe of carbon black, water,

and

oil.

gum

used right up until the Middle Ages.

It

A

similar

or glue was

served well

market opening. Here was a product that everyone

enough, but users had to mix their own, which was

needed, could be cheaply mass produced, and had to

a

Around

be frequently replaced. After two years of design work, Bich launched his plastic-bodied ballpoint

messy business.

pen with

a shortened,

STUDY

11 00

AD

it

was discovered that iron

salts

dissolved in a tannin-rich substance derived from nutgalls (a form of plant

tumor

THE INSIDE WORLD

that

grows on the

1

trunks of oak trees) would form a precipitate that

but the most popular form today

made good

cartridge.

ink, although

did tend to aggregate

it

into small clumps, blocking the nibs of quills and

pens.

It

from black to brown

also faded

accounting

the

for

A

to the nib,

the

mix

end up overly

would

this

was

he

storage capacity to absorb excess flow and even out

exotic elements such

HoJidqys-

The

it

material

ballpoint

are

these.

A

The

sponge.

arranged

variety of additives are

channels.

also used, including

synthetic

reservoirs are either

cartridges or long, parallel fibers

opposed to based

of a porous

(usually

on

inks)

made

polymers) that holds ink like a

and modern (as

pen

Japan, in 1964. Felt-

in

tips use points

In the 1860s, synthetic dyes

water-based inks

successful felt-tip

first

was made

through

sheepskin he was writing on!

were developed,

AND

PENCILS

processed

of

as

ruthenium.

FELT-TIP PENS

quill

with, eat

like

of

platinum-

could

the

dissolve

parchment

the

it

group metals

Not only

acidic.

might eventually

made

the delivery of ink. Nibs are sometimes

the scribe got

writing

number of

washed out look of many

wrong

ot his ink

as the feed, leads

often preceded by a

vanes or ribs that provide an interim collecting and

Nutgall extract was basically if

is

in sunlight,

venerable documents.

tannic acid, and

known

tine channel,

which

the disposable

is

form

to

capillary

The Aztecs were using graphite

humectants

(substances that retain moisture)

to write

and draw before Cortes

to give instant starting, fongicides

landed

in

and

algicides

prevent

to

and

contamination,

A 1900s advertisement showing

commercial

fine silver filigree and black, chased hard rubber eye-dropper models with chased, gold-filled bands.

Waterman

corrosion

1519-

Europe,

In

early

on

a

graphite,

of

source

single

inhibitors to protect pens.

pencil

lead

depended

manufacture

discovered in England's Lake District in 1564. This

FOUNTAIN PENS Fountain pens were

known

17th century, but the

first

by L.E. Waterman of

Bich

in order to

was made

graphite was simply cut into blocks or sticks, and

practical one

York, in 1884. The

later

bought by Marcel

gain a foothold in the United States

ink from a reservoir to the nib.

The

reservoir can

consist of refillable capillary tubes (which require no parts), or lever,

later

plunge, or squeeze bladders.

STUDY

on these

eventually

America It

fountain pen uses a capillary channel to draw

moving

until 1833, contained the

purest deposit of graphite ever known. Initially the

for his ballpoints.

A

which was worked

in Paris as early as the

New

Waterman company was

lode,

is

sticks

wood

—

were wrapped in rope (and

from

cedar

means of diluting the

a

graphite was needed before

Conte

North

the favored source today) to form a pencil.

was apparent that

in

western

France

independently

and

invented

graphite dust to

make

it

ran out. In 1795

Hardmuth a

way

to

pencil leads.

THE INSIDE WORLD

in

Austria

use

diluted

The dust was

mixed with water and other substances paste,

make

to

which could be extruded and baked

a

to give

Other landmarks

1812

in

first

the

in

pencil

made

in the

then,

thev

had

(until

of pencils

histor\-

United

all

States,

come from

patent for an

first

—granted

eraser

York; and the

very thin rods.

include: the

Europe); the

1858

in

first

to

integral

Hyman Lipman of New

mechanical pencils

—

invented in

1822 by Mordan and Hawkins of the United and

first

some

pencil

States,

successfully manufactured by Alonzo Cross

4() years later in

1868.

paper

Liquid

THE GREAT COVER UP The

original liquid paper

was

supplied

small

a

in

it

bottle

simply white paint (tempera

marked "Mistake Out." Soon the

with a water base) dabbed on

other secretaries in

with a watercolor brush to cover

pool were clamoring for their own

typing

Mistake

mistakes.

inventor

Its

was a Dallas secretary named

was on to something.

1956 she

In

started the Mistake

found that the mistakes caused

Out Company,

by

name

her

occasionally

erratic

— using

later

changing

its

to Liquid Paper.

Working from home, mixing

typing were hard to correct in

way

Graham

and

Out,

realized she

Nesmith Graham, who

Bette

the t}'ping

an

and blending batches by hand,

made

and bottling with the help of her

with the carbon-film ribbons of

son Michael Nesmith (who later

any

other

ordinary eraser on errors

typewriters

caused

smudging and

made

keen

For the

artist,

Graham

method

on

hit

was

simply painting

over any mistakes. At

mixed up

repaid

ubiquitous land.

of

12 years Bette

home

when in

and a brush the next if

the product

1968 she was able

became

She had

intially

offered the

process,

product to IBM but was turned down.

Pajxrr

match the color

day.

A

neighboring

she could have some, and

Graham

THE INSIDE WORLD

to

move

year,

but

not

selling

S4~

25

company

million. She died the following

before

setting

foundations to help working

STUDY

to a

and by 1976 the Liquid

Company was

million bottles a year. In 19^9 she sold the to Gillette for

By

proper factory and automate the

she

a batch of white paint to

secretary asked

slowly built up the business.

offices throughout the

of the paper she used at work, and brought in a small bottle

Monkees rock

Graham

sold liquid paper from her

member of The group), Graham

as a

kitchen and garage. Her dedication

the idea that she could use an artist's

first

made and

matters worse.

A

found fame

simply

electric

up two charitable

women.

/

Paperclip FORM

As paper and the storing

FUNCTION

FITS

practice of

documents

became

matching


es dominance.

— rwo market—brought out

Philips and Sony

audio-visual

the

biggest players in the the LaserDisc, a

video equivalent of the comp^act disc format that

was promising to replace

as

John Logie Bairds

1928 wax Phonodisc." but used a needle to

read

tiny pits

The LaserDisc

vinyl.

worked on the same principle

broadcasting across time zones). alternative

all

Holh^x^'ood film studios put together.

the Telcan

which

they were

using up more film for kinescoping than

domestic use came on the market. In the early 1960s

sound, helping them to produce and edit radio

One

—by 1954

and was extremely expensive

quality,

he had

after

The Germans had used Magnetophones

live,

was technologically complex, gave poor

not long before more compact versions suitable for

up by the popular crooner

transmit shows

it

Crosby Enterprises, a

heard a demonstration.

rapidly,

option available to the coast-to-coast networks but

laser instead of a

on the

disc's

surface.

LaserDiscs were a commercial disaster and failed to catch on outside a hard core of enthusiasts.

THE INSIDE WORLD

THE INSIDE WORLD

UilA

GENERAL HOUSEHOLD

^VBB

GENERAL HOUSEHOLD

«-I=l

THE INSIDE WORLD

Personal stereo MUSIC TO YOUR EARS By

the

1970s,

lace

many

enabling the volume to be cut off while carrying on

the audio-equipment industry.

a conversation.

Companies such

ol

as

Sony had

a

and

products,

were celebrated

for their flair

Perhaps the greatest success that

Sony would enjoy was the invention of an entirely

known by

its

—

personal

the

stereo,

commonly

Sony trade name, the Walkman.

The Walkman was

the

listening

to

brainchild

who wanted

founder Masura Ibuka,

way of

to find

some

months

—could

they, in the space of just a

(to coincide

with the upcoming

few

summer

More

in,

and

a

button,

talk

revolutionary was the quality

enhanced power output that Sony had managed to

A

extract from ordinary batteries.

were given

journalists

Walkman cool,

preview

—

they

let

loose with a

initial response,

however, was

The

each.

group of music

special

a

were bussed to a city park and

and by the end of July

just

of the

1, ()()()

30,000 production run had been

word of mouth soon began

to spread,

sold.

But

and by the

end of another month the entire run was sold out.

music while traveling, but

presented his product-development team with a

listen

sound produced by the tiny headphones, and the

original

of Sony

without bothering other people. In early 1979 he

challenge

jack, so that a

themselves as a strong force in

performance

new product

headphone

companion could

reputation for low cost, high-

for miniaturization.

features such as a second

Japanese firms had established

It

was originally intended that the Walkman

should have different names

"Soundabout" the United

in the

United

Kingdom, and

but the Japanese

in overseas

States,

markets

"Stowaway"

"Freestyle" in

was quickly adopted

title

in

Sweden in

vacations), develop a portable stereo unit with a set

foreign markets thanks to tourists and travelers.

of lightweight but high-quality headphones?

The machine

In order to save time

would be

reliable

and ensure that the product

from the

Sony decided

start,

to

adapt an existing tape cassette player, the Pressman. It

was

also

warnings from many that no one would buy a playback-only

One

machine.

was finding

a

of

name.

the

greatest

Walkman was

itself was

United

price tag

slower to catch on abroad

States, for instance, a hefty

meant

that the

Walkman was

S200

considered

an expensive novelty item.

decided that the device should be

playback only, with no record function, despite

difficulties

in the

In

1981 the

Walkman

II

was introduced to

overseas markets, and proved to be a

With 50

percent fewer

percent smaller and a of

its

moving

lot cheaper.

huge

parts,

it

success.

was 25

Within ten

years

launch more than 50 million had been sold,

chosen for a number of reasons, including the

and by 1995 over 150 million. More than 300

product's roots in the Pressman and the popularity

different

of the comic-strip character Superman at the time.

according to some commentators, the

The

first

Walkman,

the model TPS-L2, was

ready for launch on July

1,

1979, and included

THE INSIDE WORLD

models have been produced to date, and,

was largely responsible

for

Walkman

cementing the place

the cassette tape as a serious audio format.

GENERAL HOUSEHOLD

of

Binoculars SEEING DOUBLE Binoculars are essentially two

mounted

telescopes

one

for each eye.

a

provide

stereoscopic

(three-dimensional)

views.

Telescopes were probably

made

l6th century but

in the

no concrete

their inventors left

first

records.

Not

until

I6O8 did Dutch spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey apply for the noticed that

first

through two of magnified.

He

patent for a telescope.

when he viewed

a distant

lenses

spectacle

his

By housing

the

two

it

appeared

lenses in a tube he

created a simple telescope, which he called a "looker."

When

the

Dutch

authorities tested Lippershey 's

invention they found that squinting through a single lens soon gave

them

eyestrain and headaches,

and requested that he build

a binocular version

using quartz crystal lenses (the glass available at the

Authorities

successfully

met

differ

on whether Lippershey

this request,

his patent application

but

it

is

known

that

was eventually refused on the

grounds that others had made telescopes

a

Newton

dramatically

new design based on

mirrors rather than lenses, which was not applicable to binoculars. After this binoculars interest to the scientific

first

were of

little

community, but continued

to be developed for leisure

and military

The

uses.

box-shaped binoculars were designed in 1671

by the Frenchman Cherubin d'Orleans, and binoculars were used at the opera for the

in

1823

first

time.

During the mid 19th century some instrument makers

began

experimenting

with

a

clever

technique to enhance the quality of binoculars while reducing their

size.

In a telescope the lens that

magnifies images also turns them upside down. In order to invert the image so that

up another

it is

way

the right

lens has to be added, increasing the

length necessary for the telescope.

The need

long

for

tubes led to the development of collapsible, or "telescoping" telescopes.

time was of poor quality) to give them a stereoscopic view.

helmet-mounted binocular.

a

improved telescopes with

had

church steeple

is,

Later in the 17th century

together,

By sending

different picture to each eye

they

telescopes, that

In 1854 Italian instrument

patented

a

maker Ignazio Porro

new system using prisms

—angled

mirrors that could both turn the image the right

round, and reflect

it

way

around corners. This meant that

earlier

not only could the tubes of the twin telescopes be

(although he was appointed telescope maker to the

shorter (or rather, provide greater magnification

State of Zeeland).

from the same length), but

Another early telescope pioneer was Galileo, who in 1609 trained a telescope on the heavens and

revolutionized

the

science

of astronomy

prevailing conceptions about the universe. Galileo's writings

on optics was

helmet-mounted telescope according

to

some

for use

sources,

and

Among

a design for a

by

sailors,

called

for

which,

twin

GENERAL HOUSEHOLD

also their lenses could be

spaced further apart than the eyepieces the user

looked viewing.

through,

giving

enhanced

stereoscopic

The prismatic system was adopted by

German master-craftsman Ernst Abbe, who combined and

his talents

the

1894

with glassmaker Otto Schott

instrument-maker Carl

binoculars of a quality that

££]

in

is

Zeiss

to

produce

rarely surpassed today.

THE INSIDE WORLD

Umbrella GIMME SHELTER Well-known ancient

sun

original

to provide shade

—

the

civilizations,

umbrella's

was

most of the

to

the

word

function

bird's silk.

derives

this later

gave way to oiled

were carried by

closed, umbrellas

a ring

on the top, with the handle hanging down.

As

Irom the

itself

plumage, though

When in

unmanly

ancient for

Rome,

gentlemen

was considered very

it

to use an umbrella in rain

trom the Latin umbra, "shade."

or

In ancient Persia umbrellas,

expert R.L. Chambers, "in

made

long side-pieces or curtains to provide complete

memory is preserved of the courageous [male] citizen who first carried an umbrella." In fact one of the first British men to use an umbrella was

shade and privacy. In other civilizations, including

a fictional character

t^L^^^^^B| HiHIii^^^l

of linen, were reserved

exclusively for the king, and often equipped with

ancient Egypt, Greece, and

Rome, they were

the

preserve of the rich and powerful. In Athens a

known

parasol

as the

Skiackvm sheltered an idol of

Bacchus, and there was an annual Feast of the

the

to

first

waterproof their umbrellas, originally by using

lacquer.

There

later is

by using oiled paper covered

in

Roman women who carried them

also evidence that

used oiled-cloth umbracidi (men

umbrella

19th-century

the large towns of the

all

—

in

Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel

makes one out of

Robinson Crusoe the titular hero

skins, having previously seen the Portuguese use

them

in Brazil.

traveler Jonas

man

in

many

For

heavy umbrella was

Umbrellas were

The Chinese may have been and

According to

empire, a

Parasols at the Acropolis.

oiled silk

shine.

Hanways,

in

to carry one.

health, but any other

with an umbrella was

after Persian

1750 became the

to suffer

man who

from poor

dared venture out

liable to be publicly derided as

were considered effeminate). Umbrellas of this type

"a

were

opposition were the hackney-coach drivers,

still

when

in use in Italy in the early

they were

English

traveler

Italian umbrellas

form

known

little

umbrella into

Umbrellas

umbrdlaces.

Thomas Coryat and hooped

wooden hoopes,

a large

were

In

recorded

were "made of leather

of a little canopy,

with divers

as

17th century,

popular

later

At

first

who

felt

that their vehicles offered the public full protection

that

against the elements, and feared that umbrellas

[in the]

would deprive them

of their income.

in the inside

In 1852 Englishman Samuel Fox invented the

that extend the

steel-ribbed umbrella, in order, he claimed, to help

Spain 1

up

stock of metal corset-stays.

Compact

and

umbrellas were not invented until the

late 2()th

6th

century, although as early

use in

Portugal, but were rare in England until the late century.

mincing Frenchman." The main sources of

1604

compasse." also

first

Allowances were made

him because he was known

for

Robinson.

as a

also called

Hanway, who

London

years a certain type of

known

they were used to provide shade bur

became rain-guards. They were often coated on

the outside with feathers, in imitation of a water

THE INSIDE WORLD

a

London's

Cheapside

iis

was

1

787

a manufacturer in

advertising

"pocket

umbrellas superior to any kind ever imported or

manufactured

in this

kingdom."

GENERAL HOUSEHOLD

the Outside World SECTION TWO

^tf.

"Imagination, not invention,

master of art, as of life JV.v^

is

the supreme

.

Joseph Conrad, 1857-1924

U R

*^; •ji*>'^'

.>-^-

'^: