12 Everyday Things and the Inventors Behind Them

Before inexpensive ballpoint pens became common, everyday writing often depended on fountain pens. These pens could leak, clog or leave wet ink that smeared across the page.

Hungarian journalist László Bíró noticed that the ink used to print newspapers dried much faster than traditional fountain-pen ink. He began developing a writing instrument that could use thicker, quicker-drying ink without becoming blocked.

His design placed a tiny rotating ball in the pen’s tip. As the ball moved across paper, it collected ink from a cartridge and transferred a controlled layer onto the writing surface. Earlier ball-based writing devices had been patented, but Bíró’s work helped produce the reliable modern version.

His influence remains visible in language. In several countries, particularly the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, a ballpoint pen may still be informally called a “biro.”

Imagine driving through heavy rain or snow without windshield wipers. Early motorists sometimes had to stop, open a window or reach outside to clear the glass manually.

During a winter visit to New York City in the early 1900s, Mary Anderson reportedly observed a streetcar driver struggling to see through snow and sleet. The driver repeatedly opened the vehicle’s window to clear the windshield, exposing everyone inside to cold air.

Anderson devised a window-cleaning apparatus with a rubber blade that could be operated from inside the vehicle. In 1903, she received a United States patent for the invention.

Automobile manufacturers did not immediately embrace her design. As enclosed cars became more common, however, windshield-clearing systems became essential rather than optional.

Dishwashing machines had been attempted before Josephine Cochrane began working on her design, but many early models were inefficient or impractical. Some merely splashed water onto dishes, while others had no dependable way to secure delicate cups and plates.

Cochrane was motivated partly by frustration. She wanted a machine that could wash her valuable china without the chipping that sometimes occurred during handwashing.

Her design placed dishes securely in wire compartments and used pressurized water jets to clean them. This basic combination of racks and directed water remains central to modern dishwashers.

Early machines were large and expensive, making them more attractive to hotels and restaurants than to ordinary households. Over time, improvements in indoor plumbing, water heating and manufacturing made domestic dishwashers more practical.

The microwave oven did not begin as an attempt to design a faster kitchen appliance. Its development grew out of research involving radar technology.

Engineer Percy Spencer was working near magnetrons, devices that generate microwave energy, when he reportedly noticed that a candy bar in his pocket had melted. Curious about the cause, he experimented with other foods, including popcorn.

Spencer and a team at Raytheon then developed equipment that used microwave energy to heat food deliberately. The company filed a patent application in 1945.

The earliest commercial microwave ovens were nothing like today’s compact countertop models. The first Radarange units were extremely large, heavy and expensive. They were used mainly in restaurants, ships and institutional kitchens before smaller domestic models became available.

One of the world’s most recognizable fastening systems was inspired by an irritating feature of nature: burrs that cling stubbornly to clothing and animal fur.

Swiss engineer George de Mestral became curious after burrs attached themselves to his trousers and his dog’s coat during a walk. Instead of simply brushing them away, he examined them under a microscope.

He discovered that the burrs contained tiny hooks capable of catching onto loops in fabric and hair. De Mestral recreated the principle with two strips of material: one covered with small hooks and another containing soft loops.

He patented the fastening system and introduced it commercially under the VELCRO® name, formed from French words associated with velvet and hook.

Post-it Notes emerged from a scientific discovery that initially appeared to have no obvious purpose.

While researching adhesives at 3M, scientist Spencer Silver developed a low-tack adhesive that could stick lightly to a surface and be removed without forming a permanent bond. The chemistry was interesting, but the company did not immediately know what kind of product should use it.

Another 3M employee, Art Fry, regularly used scraps of paper to mark pages in his church hymnal. The bookmarks kept falling out. Fry realized that Silver’s reusable adhesive could hold a paper marker in place without damaging the page.

The idea developed into the removable notes now used for reminders, brainstorming sessions, bookmarks, project planning and quick messages. Post-it Notes reached the wider United States market in 1980.

More information about the product and its continuing development is available through the official Post-it website.

Paper bags existed before Margaret Knight’s invention, but many early bags were shaped more like envelopes. They could not stand upright easily and were inconvenient to fill.

Knight developed a machine that automatically cut, folded and glued paper into bags with flat bottoms. This made it possible to manufacture practical paper bags in large quantities rather than assembling them slowly by hand.

Her machine performed a sequence of complicated movements that previously required several workers. The result was a stronger, more useful bag that could stand open while groceries, lunches or merchandise were placed inside.

Knight became known for numerous mechanical inventions, challenging the widespread nineteenth-century belief that industrial machinery was primarily a field for men.

Seat belts existed before the modern three-point system, but many early vehicles used simple lap belts. These restrained the lower body while leaving the chest and upper torso less protected.

Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin had previously worked with safety systems for aircraft. While employed by Volvo, he designed a belt anchored at three points that crossed both the chest and the lap.

The system was introduced in Volvo vehicles in 1959. It could be fastened with one hand and helped distribute crash forces across stronger areas of the body rather than concentrating pressure around the abdomen.

The design became the standard arrangement used in passenger vehicles worldwide. Modern research and safety guidance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration continue to emphasize that seat belts remain one of the most effective forms of crash protection.

Garrett Morgan did not invent the first traffic light. His contribution was an important improvement to the way traffic was controlled at increasingly busy intersections.

Many early signals changed directly between “stop” and “go.” A sudden change could create confusion because vehicles already inside an intersection had little time to clear the crossing before traffic moved from another direction.

Morgan patented a three-position traffic signal in 1923. His system included an interval during which traffic in all directions stopped before another stream of vehicles received permission to move.

The mechanism was not identical to every modern traffic-light system, but its transitional phase reflected the same safety principle later represented by warning intervals and all-red clearance periods.

The safety pin is so simple and familiar that it feels as though it must have existed forever. Its recognizable modern design, however, is associated with American inventor Walter Hunt.

Hunt twisted a single piece of wire into a pin containing a circular coil. The coil acted as a spring, while a clasp covered the sharp point and helped prevent the pin from opening unexpectedly.

He received a patent for the design in 1849. According to a frequently repeated story, Hunt developed the pin while trying to repay a relatively small debt and then sold his patent rights instead of retaining a share of the invention’s future value.

Before individually packaged adhesive bandages became common, treating a small cut could require separate pieces of gauze and surgical tape. Applying them to your own hand or finger was awkward.

Earle Dickson, an employee of Johnson & Johnson, wanted to help his wife manage the small cuts and burns she frequently experienced while doing household work.

He placed small sections of gauze along a strip of adhesive material so that a suitable piece could be cut off and applied whenever needed. Johnson & Johnson refined the concept and began marketing it as BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages in the early 1920s.

The invention later evolved into individually wrapped bandages in numerous shapes and sizes. The company’s broader history can be explored through the Johnson & Johnson heritage archive.

The barcode grew from a challenge facing grocery retailers: stores needed a faster and more reliable way to identify products, record prices and track inventory.

Graduate students Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver began developing a system that could encode product information and be read electronically. Woodland reportedly drew inspiration from Morse code, experimenting with the idea of extending dots and dashes into lines.

The pair filed a patent application in 1949. Their early design included a circular “bull’s-eye” pattern rather than the rectangular arrangement familiar today, but it established important principles behind optical product identification.

A standardized rectangular Universal Product Code was selected for retail use in 1973, with Woodland contributing to its development. The first UPC transaction at a supermarket checkout occurred in 1974.

Today, barcode standards maintained by GS1 support retail sales, inventory control, logistics, healthcare identification and global supply chains.