What we now know as the inch (from Latin uncia, or “12th part”) was defined as 112 foot by the Romans.
It was roughly a thumb’s breadth, while a foot was roughly the length of a human foot.
The Romans introduced the inch to Britain, where it was incorporated into the English system of weights and measures.
The English made their own contribution to inch lore.
In 1305, King Edward I decreed that an inch should be the measure of three dried barleycorns.
Scottish engineer John Baird built a working color television in 1928. But it was Hungarian-American inventor Peter Carl Goldmark who, in 1940, developed the first color-television system to be used commercially. Goldmark is also remembered for inventing the 33 1/3 RPM long-playing record in 1948.
Aspirin got its name in parts. The a came from the first letter of the product’s scientific name, acetylsalicylic acid. The spir came from Spiraea ulmaria, the meadowsweet plant, which was the original source of the compound. The in was a common suffix for medications in the late nineteenth century, when aspirin was first marketed.
The now legendary and defunct Burma-Shave advertisements were developed in 1926 by Allan Odell, the son of the founder of the Burma-Vita Company. Burma-Shave was a new product, the first brushless shaving cream, and in the 1920s it was difficult to sell. But when Odell saw a series of roadside signs for a filling station,…
The rubber-like compound Silly Putty is composed, in part, of boric acid and silicone oil. Silly Putty was invented at the General Electric laboratories in the 1940s as an inexpensive synthetic rubber for use during World War II. It gained its greatest popularity when New Haven, Connecticut, store owner Paul Hodgson bought a large quantity…
M&M stands for Mars and Merrie. Victor Mars and his associate Mr. Merrie created the candy in 1941.
The practice of gyrating with hoops made of grapevines originated in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The name hula, however, was not used until the 1700s, when British and American missionaries returned home with tales of island hoop-dancers. The modern plastic Hula-Hoop was developed in the 1950s by Richard P. Knerr and Arthur K. (“Spud”)…