Inventions Facts for Kids
Genius facts about great inventions
Portland cement — the standard cement used in construction today — was patented by bricklayer Joseph Aspdin in 1824. He named it after Portland stone in Dorset because it looked similar to that popular building material.
The aqualung — the self-contained breathing apparatus used in scuba diving — was co-invented by French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and engineer Émile Gagnan in 1943. It transformed underwater exploration and marine biology.
The yo-yo is one of the oldest toys in the world, with examples found in ancient Greece dating back to 500 BC. Some historians believe it was used as a weapon in the Philippines before becoming a toy.
Kevlar is used in more than 200 different applications, from bicycle tyres and musical instrument strings to suspension bridge cables and even tennis rackets. Its inventor Stephanie Kwolek was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The world's first traffic light was installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London in 1868, using gas lanterns with red and green signals operated by a policeman. It exploded not long after, injuring the officer controlling it.
Isaac Newton is often credited with inventing the cat flap so his cats could come and go without disturbing his light experiments. Whether the story is true or not, small pet doors in walls and doors have been used for centuries.
The first practical dishwasher was invented in 1886 by Josephine Cochrane, a wealthy socialite who was tired of servants chipping her fine china when washing up. She founded a company that eventually became KitchenAid.
The windscreen wiper was invented by Mary Anderson in 1903 after she visited New York City in winter and noticed that the tram driver had to stop to wipe snow from the windscreen. She patented her swinging rubber blade design, but manufacturers initially refused to adopt it.
The concept of nanotechnology — building things at the scale of individual atoms — was first proposed by physicist Richard Feynman in a famous 1959 lecture titled 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom'. Today, nanotechnology is used in sunscreens, medicines, and computer chips.
3D printing was invented in 1983 by Chuck Hull, who used ultraviolet light to harden thin layers of plastic on top of each other to build three-dimensional objects. Today, 3D printers are used to make everything from prosthetic limbs to rocket engine parts.