1. The Stoplight
In the century since stoplights were invented they have remained using the same fundamentals ours today do; red light means stop, yellow means prepare to stop, and green means go. While they seem like an everyday commonality to us today, back in the 1900's when people began driving that was not the case. As one could guess, many accidents occurred and that is why the idea of the stoplight was sold for $40,000 to General Electric.
2. The Bulldozer
The bulldozer was invented in 1923 and changed the game when it came to civil engineering. As one could imagine, tearing something down brick by brick would be a quite tedious task. With the bulldozer this could be done more efficiently and it allowed fo much more efficient construction.
3. Penicillin
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin and its medical uses. Penicillin was not used actively on patients however until 1942. This was a crucial discovery because even today we use penicillin as a common antibiotic to kill and stop bacteria from spreading.
4. The Instant Camera
The instant camera was created in 1923 but were not available to be bought in stores until 1948. The mastermind behind this invention was Samuel Shlafrock, his cameras made over five million dollars in sales in the first year. The selling price for these cameras was $89.75 for the camera and $1.75 for the film; that equates to about $886 for the camera and $17 for the film today.
5. The Cheeseburger
The cheeseburger today is seen as a staple of the American culture, and can be found in every state across the USA. There is dispute about whether the cheeseburger was officially introduced in 1924 or 1926. Regardless, Lionel Sternberger paced the way for the millions of fast food restaurants that carry variations of the original cheeseburger.
6. The Liquid Fueled Rocket
The liquid fueled rocket was invented and launched in 1926 by Robert Hutchings Goddard. The same basic design that Goddard used back in the 1920’s is still used today. The first liquid powered rocket’s flight lasted less than three seconds but over the next few years he made mortifications and improvements to his original design.
7. The Audiometer
An audiometer is a machine that is used to evaluate how well ones hearing is. This was an important invention because it paved the way for more advanced medical equipment that could assess patients physical abilities. It was invented by an American physicist by the name of Dr. Harvey Fletcher.
8. Radio Altimeter
Similar to the audiometer, the radio meter was a revolutionary machine. It measures the distance from an aircraft of some sort to the ground beneath, not just sea level, so the operator doesn’t have to guess about how far from the ground they are. The radio altimeter was invented in 1924 by Lloyd Espenschied.
9. The Headrest
Today we see headrests in cars as the norm and don’t think anything of it, we take for grated the softer and comfort it brings to a car ride. After cars were introduced the headrest was designed for not only comfort fir the neck and head of passengers, but for their safety if anything were to go wrong. After being introduced in 1921 by Benjamin Katz, the headrest grew exponentially in popularity.
10. Water Skiing
With the rise in technology people were beginning to look for new means of entertainment. Where as some went to ball games others began to take to the water after Ralph Samuelson introduced the new sport in 1922. Water skiing could be done as a leisure activity but also as an actual competitive sport.
Works Sited
Alexander, Donovan. “11 Influential Inventions from the 1920s That You Should Definitely Know About.” Interesting Engineering, Interesting Engineering, 20 Sept. 2019, interestingengineering.com/11-influential-inventions-from-the-1920s-that-you-should-definitely-know-about.
Mpeletzikas, Paige. “The Invention and Success of the First Instant Camera: The Polaroid Land.” Medium, Medium, 2 Dec. 2016, medium.com/@_interoperable/the-invention-and-success-of-the-first-instant-camera-the-polaroid-land-8ea2c5ea07c1.
“Penicillin.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin.