In 1942, the theoretical physicist John V. Atanasoff and his assistant Clifford Berry built the first computer that successfully used vacuum tubes to do mathematical calculations.
The machine was called the Atanasoff Berry Computer, or ABC.
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…
Two self-service stores, precursors to supermarkets, opened in California in 1912. The Alpha Beta Food Market in Pomona and Ward’s Grocetaria in Ocean Park. The Piggly-Wiggly stores, which opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, had self-service and checkout counters but did not call themselves supermarkets. The word supermarket was not part of a store name…
The company that eventually bore the name Shell Oil Company was originally a novelty shop in London called The Shell Shop. In the mid-1800s, shop owner Marcus Samuel became successful selling boxes of pretty seashells. Imported shells also brought in money, and his international trade business really expanded when he found he could also export…
The lion, developed before the formation of MGM, was the original trademark for the newly formed (Samuel) Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. It was the creation of a young advertising man named Howard Dietz, who was inspired by his alma mater Columbia University’s football song, “Roar, Lion, Roar!” Later on, Dietz also came up with the motto…
Developed between 1908 and 1912 by Hugh Moore as the healthful “individual drinking cup” for public water sources, the Dixie Cup was originally called the Health Kup. It did not catch on until inventor Moore gave it a new name. The producer of the cups was the Dixie Doll Company, which reminded Moore of a…
The idea for Alka-Seltzer came from a newspaper editor in Elkhart, Indiana, in the 1920s. It was brought to the public by Hub Beardsley, president of the Dr. Miles Laboratories (now Miles Laboratories). Beardsley learned that an entire newspaper staff had remained free of influenza during an epidemic when they took the editor’s prescription of…