What our ancestors didn’t think of to make their life more convenient and comfortable! Do you know how a spoon and a fork, a needle, a condom or toilet paper were invented, and how the ancient people replaced things that were so necessary for us?
Candy wrapper
When they talk about the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison, they recall at least five of his most famous creations: the phonograph, the typewriter, the stock telegraph, the alternator and, of course, the light bulb. The latter was actually patented by the Russian scientist Alexander Lodygin, and Edison has already begun to improve it.
The world's first direct current power plant was built in New York by Edison's design in 1882. He created a device that was the prototype of a dictaphone, an apparatus for recording telephone conversations, designed an iron-nickel battery, and much more (about 1000 patents in total). And among all this splendor, few people remember that in 1872, Uncle Edison also invented waxed paper, which served as the first wrapper for sweets. Eh, if not for him, how would we store sweets now?..
Toilet paper
How our ancestors had to dodge in order to perform an elementary hygienic procedure after coping with natural needs!
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François Rabelais believed that the most pleasant thing to do this with the help of a live duckling. In ancient Rome, a sponge was adapted for these needs: it was attached to a stick and, after use, was placed in a bowl of salt water.
Vikings wiped themselves with hairballs, Native Americans with all kinds of leaves and ears of corn.
French kings approached this issue in a very sophisticated way and did it with lace and linen rags.
The Chinese were the first to use paper in this matter, but not mere mortals, but exclusively emperors. Much later, all the others around the world turned to paper: old newspapers, catalogs, almanacs were used.
It wasn't until 1857 that New Yorker Joseph Gaietti had the idea to cut the paper into neat squares and pack it into bundles. He was so proud of his invention that he printed his name on every piece of paper. It is not possible to establish the name of the person who invented to roll toilet paper into rolls: for the first time such rolls began to be produced by the American paper mill 'Scott Paper' in 1890.
Wheel
Who, when and why first invented the wheel remains one of the greatest mysteries of history. The oldest wheel was found in Mesopotamia, and it was made about 55 centuries ago. Previously, various cargoes were transported using what is now known as a sled.
On a Sumerian pictogram from the 35th century BC. for the first time a semblance of a cart was depicted: a sled on wheels. Wheels at the time were solid discs carved from wood.
The first spoked wheels were invented in the peninsula of Asia Minor (the westernmost peninsula of Asia, now belongs to Turkey) in the 20th century BC. and in the same century they reached Europe and China and India. Such wheels were used only in chariots for transporting people, but in Egypt they began to be used for cargo as well.
Wheels and all kinds of carts were most widespread in Ancient Greece, and then in Rome. Wheels and carts appeared in America only with the arrival of Europeans there.
Condom
About three thousand years BC, the ruler of Crete, King Minos, used a fish bubble to protect himself from sexually transmitted diseases during lovemaking. Some believe that in ancient Rome, condoms were made from the muscle tissue of dead soldiers.
In ancient Egypt, a thousand years BC, a linen bag served as a prototype of a condom, and to keep it from falling off, ribbons-ties were sewn to it. Such a bag was used for another two and a half millennia.
It was in the 15th century that condoms became very popular, as the syphilis epidemic raged in Europe. Then no one knew that the 'bags' help to avoid not only illness, but also unwanted pregnancy. However, by the end of the 15th century, the linen tip was dipped into a special chemical solution before use and, when it dried out, was put into action. These were the first spermicides, which are still on all condoms.
Condoms got their name 'condom' only in the 17th century. According to one version, thanks to the doctor of the English king Charles II Kondom, who figured out how the king to avoid illegitimate children and illnesses from prostitutes.
He made a condom from sheep intestines. According to the other, the word comes from the Latin 'condon', which means 'storehouse'. Animal gut condoms were very expensive and were therefore used multiple times by many.
With the discovery in 1839 of vulcanization (a process that turns rubber into a durable elastic material - rubber), condoms were reborn in 1844. The first latex condom was invented in 1919, it was thinner and did not smell like rubber. And the first lubricated condom was released only in 1957.
Laces
Strangely enough, for some reason history did not retain the name of the genius who invented the laces, but somehow it retained the date when this event happened - March 27, 1790. It was on this day in England that the first shoe lace in the form of a rope with metal tips at the ends appeared in England, which did not allow it to fray and helped to thread the lace through the holes on the shoe. But before the advent of this invention, all shoes were fastened with buckles.
Coat hanger
It's hard to believe, but a patent for the invention of a coat hook was obtained by a certain O. A. North only in 1869. What people used to hang their things on before is not clear. It was only in 1903 that Albert Parkhouse, who worked at a wire factory, in response to constant complaints from workers that they did not have enough hooks for their coats, invented a coat hanger.
He made two ovals from wire, located opposite each other at a certain distance, and connected their ends into a hook. In 1932, these ovals were connected with cardboard so that wet clothes would not sag or wrinkle.
And three years later, a hanger with a bottom bar was invented, which became the prototype for all modern hangers.
A spoon and a fork
The ancient Romans and Greeks, while talking about beauty, ate with their hands. The Roman poet Ovid taught them to eat with their fingertips and wipe them on bread after eating. Later in Greece, special gloves with rigid tips were worn on the hands. In general, the very first prototypes of spoons were made as far back as 3000 years BC.
They were molded from clay or sawed out from the bones or horns of animals, sea shells, fish bones and heads and wood were also used. The very first silver spoons were made in Russia in 998 by order of Prince Vladimir the Red Sun for his squad. The spoons were then short-handled and held in a fist.
Something similar to a modern fork, with only five, and sometimes more, teeth appeared in Asia in the tenth century. A hundred years later, this invention reached Europe, but the fork became widespread only by the 16th century: the sharp awl, with which food and ate was pricked, was replaced by a fork with two teeth.
By the end of the 18th century, in almost all European countries, a table knife with a sharp end gave way to a knife with a rounded blade. There was no longer the need to prick pieces of food on the knife, since this function was performed by a fork.
Button
Ancient people, instead of buttons, connected pieces of their clothing with plant thorns, animal bones and sticks. In ancient Egypt, buckles were already used, or one piece of clothing was threaded through a hole made in another, or the ends were simply tied.
Who exactly invented the button is unknown: some scientists are inclined to believe that it was the Greeks or the Romans, others that the button came from Asia. They were made mainly of ivory.
Buttons became widespread only in the XIII century. And almost until the 18th century they were a sign of wealth and noble birth: kings and aristocracy could afford to order buttons made of gold and silver. At the beginning of the 18th century, buttons began to be made of metal and copper, but until almost the end of the 19th century, buttons were so expensive that they were changed from one garment to another.
Clip
Joining together sheets of paper began in the 13th century: cuts were made in the upper left corner of each page, through which a ribbon was passed. Later, they began to rub the tape with wax, so that, firstly, the tape became more durable, and secondly, it was easier to remove or insert the necessary sheets.
In 1835, New York physician John Ireland Howie invented a pin-making machine. Pins were naturally invented for tailors to make it easier for them to join pieces of fabric while sewing, but they also began to be used to fasten paper.
The Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler first came up with the idea of joining paper with a twisted piece of wire in 1899, but it didn't look like the current paper clip. And the paper clip in the form in which it now exists was invented by the English company 'Gem Manufacturing Ltd', but for some reason no one has ever patented this invention.
Comb
The oldest combs used by the inhabitants of the Earth can be considered fish skeletons. It is not known where and when the first comb was made, but one of the oldest ridges was found during excavations in the territory of Ancient Rome.
It was made from a broad animal bone with a handle and eight hand-carved teeth, spaced 0.2 cm apart. Subsequently, combs were also made from wood, coral, ivory, turtle shell and the horns of various animals. This material was used for the ridges until the middle of the 19th century.
In 1869, two brothers - Isaiah and John Hiatt - invented celluloid, which completely changed the combs industry. Elephants and turtles were saved from total annihilation, and people received cheaper combs from a material that looks very similar to corals and ivory and to the shell of a turtle.
Matches
In all kinds of ways, people made fire before the appearance of matches. They rubbed wooden surfaces against each other, beat out a spark with silicon, tried to catch a sunbeam through a piece of glass. And when it was possible to do this, they carefully supported the burning coals in clay pots.
And it was only at the end of the 18th century that life became easier - the French chemist Claude Berthollet experimentally obtained a substance later called berthollet's salt. So in Europe, in 1805, 'makanka' matches appeared - thin splinters with heads smeared with berthollet's salt, which ignited after dipping them in a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid.
The world owes the invention of the first 'dry' matches to the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker. In 1827, he discovered that if a mixture of antimony sulfide, berthollet's salt and gum arabic (this is such a viscous liquid secreted by acacia) is applied to the tip of a wooden stick, and then the whole thing is dried in air, then when such a match is rubbed against sandpaper the head ignites quite easily.
Consequently, there is no need to carry a bottle of sulfuric acid with you. Walker started a small production of his matches, which were packed in tin cases of 100 pieces, but he did not earn much money from his invention. Plus, these matches had a terrible smell.
In 1830, 19-year-old French chemist Charles Soria invented phosphorus matches, which consisted of a mixture of berthollet's salt, phosphorus and glue.
These generally ignite easily when rubbed against any hard surface, such as the sole of a boot. Soria matches were odorless, however, they were harmful to health, since white phosphorus is poisonous.
In 1855, chemist Johan Lundstrom realized that red is sometimes better than white. The Swede applied red phosphorus to the surface of the sandpaper outside a small box and added the same phosphorus to the head of the match. Thus, they were no longer harmful to health and easily ignited on a pre-prepared surface.
Finally, in 1889, Joshua Pucy invented a matchbox, but the patent for this invention was given to the American company Diamond Match Company, which invented exactly the same, but with an 'incendiary' surface on the outside (in Pucy it was located inside the box).
For general development. Phosphorus matches were brought to Russia from Europe in 1836 and were sold for a ruble in silver for a hundred. And the first domestic factory for the production of matches was built in St. Petersburg in 1837.
Gasket
From the cavemen to the civilized inhabitants of the early twentieth century, the female half of the population had to be extremely inventive on critical days. In prehistoric times, ladies used everything from grass and mosses to sea sponges and algae. Ancient Egyptians used tampons made of softened papyrus leaves, Greek women adapted sticks with wound rags under tampons. In Rome, wool was used, in Japan - paper, in Africa - bundles of grass.
By the beginning of the 19th century, women began to sew pads themselves from old rags and cotton. They were reusable: after use, they were washed and dried. By the end of the century, someone smart came up with the idea of putting the production of rag pads, more like adult diapers, on stream, but due to the lack of advertising, these products did not reach potential consumers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, women thought of using gauze and cotton wool as hygiene items. In the 1920s, pads were sold in stores and advertised in women's magazines. Ladies at that time had to fasten them to their underwear with safety pins or tie them with strings at the waist.
The very first tampon was invented and put into mass production in 1936, but tampons gained wide popularity only in the late 60s. A decade later, adhesive tape was invented, with which to this day the gasket is attached to linen. Absorbent gel, which forms the basis of modern sanitary napkins, was invented only in the 90s.
Needle
The history of sewing goes back over 20 thousand years. Primitive people pierced the skins with a prehistoric semblance of an awl made of thorns or hewn stones, through the holes they passed the tendons of animals and thus built a 'suit' for themselves.
The very first needles with an eye made from stones, bones or animal horns were found in the territories of modern Western Europe and Central Asia about 17 thousand years ago. In Africa, thick veins of palm leaves served as needles, to which threads, also made from plants, were tied.
It is believed that the first steel needle was made in China. In the same place, in the 3rd century BC, they invented a thimble. The tribes that inhabited Mauritania (in ancient times an area in northwest Africa, the western part of the territory of modern Algeria and the eastern part of the territory of modern Morocco) brought these inventions to the West.
Mass production of needles began only in the 14th century in Nuremberg, and then in England. The very first needle was made using mechanized production in 1785.
The first great-grandfather of modern scissors was found in the ruins of Ancient Egypt. Made from a single piece of metal rather than two crossed blades, these scissors date from the 16th century BC. And the scissors in the form in which they are now known were invented by Leonardo da Vinci.
Heel
The first heels appeared among oriental horsemen in the 12th century, but it was difficult to call them heels in general. These were some kind of blotches that served for very practical purposes: men nailed them to shoes so that their feet would hold tightly in the stirrup when jumping. But who and when invented the real heel is not known exactly, but it is generally believed that this happened in the 17th century in Spain with the light hand of the masters from the city of Cordoba.
They developed the structure and construction of the heel, the main shapes of which were beveled inward and 'French' - with a 'waist' in the middle. In the Rococo era, the heel moved closer to the center of the shoe, thereby, as it were, reducing the leg. Over time, the shape of the heel underwent various changes: from high heels-glasses to wide square ones, which were invented especially for girls who danced a twist.
And finally, in 1950, the Italian fashion designer Salvatore Ferragamo invented the famous stiletto heel: he proposed a long steel stiletto rod as a support for the heel.
Toothbrush
The ancient Egyptians took care of oral hygiene as early as three thousand years before the birth of Christ: in their sarcophagi were found prototypes of toothbrushes made from tree branches with fluffy ends. But the Chinese emperor is considered the inventor of modern brushes, who built the first brush in 1498.
The bristles of Chinese toothbrushes were made from hair from the back of a Siberian wild boar, and the handles were either wood or animal bone. When this invention reached Europe in the 17th century, where brushing was not accepted at the time, the harsh boar hair was replaced by a softer horse mane. Before that, clean Europeans used toothpicks made from goose feathers, while those who were richer used copper or silver, or simply rubbed their teeth with a rag.
Wool and bristles of animals, in particular the same wild boar, were used in the manufacture of toothbrushes until the twentieth century. In 1937, nylon was invented, and since 1938, brush fibers have been made from it.
However, 'animal' brushes continued to be more popular because they were softer and did not scratch the gums, unlike artificial ones. The nylon bristles of toothbrushes only became as soft as they are now in 1950.