Every day we use so many inventions that each has interesting stories attached to them. As it is World Creativity and Innovation Day today, 106.3 FM Radio Olive brings you the intriguing story behind your everyday things. Hope you get inspired too and get on to work with your own inventions :
Microwave
An engineer, Percy Spencer was working for a reputed company. While everything else was fine with him, his only bone of contention was a mystery, his constantly melting chocolates. Percy would come to work with solid chocolates and be left with a mess. He started noticing the pattern of his everyday movement and the culprit revealed itself, a machine called Megnetron installed in the premises. This got him thinking and a few years of hard work later we got the first Microwave.
Velcro
Nature is the best stress reliever as well as the best inspiration. Once during one of his usual nature trails Georges de Mestral saw a unique phenomenon. He noticed that burrs would stick to everything and anything that had loop shape. Being an engineer he decided to put this knowledge to good use and created the Velcro. Parents of children all over the world could have a few more years of relief and not teach them to tie laces.
Potato Chips
Rude customers can most of the times be a pain, and at other times end up inspiring the chefs at restaurants, like in this case. Chef George Crum was done with his preparations and was leaving for the day when one of those pesky regulars came in. He had the same complaint each time, fries are too soggy. Chef decided to remedy it once and for all. He sliced the potatoes to a thin consistency and fried them to a crispy goodness. The customer fell in love and it became a new business venture for Chef George.
Post It Notes
Bookmarks had been in trend but then there was no creative use to them. Until Arthur Fry decided to give them some useful twist. He wanted to hold the bookmarks in front of him while he sang in the church choir and to do that, he used a sticky substance to hold them. That was the humble beginnings of Post-its which made it to every office stationary section ever.
Slinky
Having fun at work can make you a millionaire, at least it is true for engineer Richard James. Richard wanted to develop a sensitive spring which would support some fragile equipment on ships. As he was working on his table, a specially created spring fell off the shelf and it kept “slinking” further on and was fun to watch too. This gave Richard the idea to market the classic toy slinky.
