Inventions Facts for Kids
Genius facts about great inventions
The combine harvester, which cuts, threshes, and separates grain in one continuous operation, was first developed in the United States in the 1830s. Modern combines can harvest more grain in a single day than a 19th-century farm family could harvest in an entire season. This mechanization of agriculture freed billions of people from farm labor and enabled modern urbanization.
Early matches used white phosphorus, which was extremely toxic and caused a horrible occupational disease called 'phossy jaw' among match factory workers, slowly destroying their jawbones. The safety match, invented in Sweden in 1844, moved the reactive phosphorus to the striking surface on the box instead of the match head, making them far safer. Laws banning white phosphorus matches were eventually passed worldwide.
The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, patented their Cinématographe motion picture camera and projector in 1895 and held the first public film screening for a paying audience in Paris on December 28, 1895. The films showed everyday scenes like workers leaving a factory and a train arriving at a station. When the train film played, some audience members reportedly leapt from their seats in fright, believing the train was real.
The inflatable blood pressure cuff — the sphygmomanometer — was invented by Austrian physician Samuel von Basch in 1881. Its name, from Greek words meaning pulse and measure, is considered one of the hardest medical terms to pronounce. The device revolutionized medicine by providing a simple, non-invasive way to detect hypertension, one of the leading risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
The word 'escalator' was actually a registered trademark of the Otis Elevator Company, which debuted the invention at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. The name combined the Latin word 'scala' (stairs) with the word 'elevator.' Like aspirin and escalator, many product brand names have become so widely used that they've passed into the general vocabulary, a process called genericization.
Canned food was invented in response to a prize offered by Napoleon Bonaparte, who needed ways to feed his armies on long campaigns. In 1810, Nicolas Appert won the prize by demonstrating that food sealed in bottles and heated killed the microorganisms that caused spoilage. He did not understand why the method worked — the germ theory of disease wasn't proven for another 50 years.
Blue jeans were invented in 1873 by Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis specifically for California gold miners, who needed extremely durable work pants. The metal rivets at the corners of pockets — still seen on jeans today — were added to reinforce the seams and prevent them from tearing under the strain of heavy tools. Blue jeans have since become the most popular garment in human history.
Galileo Galilei invented one of the earliest thermometers around 1592 — a glass tube containing water that rose and fell with temperature changes. However, it was not sealed and was affected by changes in air pressure as well as temperature, making it inaccurate. Daniel Fahrenheit invented the first reliable mercury thermometer with a standardized scale in 1714, and Anders Celsius introduced his temperature scale in 1742.
Synthetic rubber was developed urgently by the United States during World War Two after Japan captured the rubber plantations of Southeast Asia, cutting off 97% of the US natural rubber supply. A crash government research program involving over 50 companies created workable synthetic rubber within two years. Today, about 70% of all rubber used worldwide is synthetic.
The world's first commercial escalator was installed at the Harrods department store in London in 1898. Store attendants stood at the top offering brandy or smelling salts to shoppers who felt faint after their first ride on the strange moving staircase. Today, the world's longest escalator system is in Hong Kong's Central-Mid-Levels area, with a total length of 800 meters.