Discoveries and Inventions of the 1920s

Band-Aid1920

• The Band-Aid was invented by Earle Dickson in 1920. First pre-made bandages. Dickson placed small squares of cotton on an adhesive strip and covered the strip with crinoline, a coarse, stiff cloth used in the lining of clothes.

Radio / Television Transmission• Prior to 1904, radio was nothing but a series of dots and

dashes transmitted by inefficient machines• 1904 Ernest Alexanderson set out to build a high-

frequency machine that would operate at high speeds and produce a continuous wave.

• The installation of his high frequency alternator at a Mass. radio station broadcast, for the first time, voices and violin solos.

• 1920, an AM station in Pittsburg broadcast the first regular commercial.

• By 1922 563 radio stations were operating in the US• 1924, Alexanderson successfully transmitted the first

facsimile message across the Atlantic.• 1927, he staged the first reception of television as his

home in NY

Mechanical refrigerator1920

• Before 1920s, people used small ice boxes to keep food cold…small and inconvenient

• There was a 1922 model that consisted of a wooden cold box, water-cooled compressor, an ice cube tray and a 9 cubic foot compartment for $714. (A 1922 Model-T Ford cost about $450.)

• In 1923 Frigidaire introduced the first self-contained unit. About this same time porcelain covered metal cabinets began to appear. Ice cube trays were introduced more and more during the 1920s; up to this time freezing was not a function of the modern refrigerator.

• The first refrigerator to see widespread use was the General Electric “Monitor-Top" refrigerator introduced in 1927. The compressor assembly, which emitted substantial amount of heat, was placed above the cabinet, and surrounded with a decorative ring. Over 1,000,000 units were produced

Traffic Lights1923

• First traffic light, November 20, 1923• First patented by Garret A. Morgan• By the 1920s, everything from pedestrians to

cars to trains to horses and carriages were traveling on roads

• There were hundreds of accidents on streets without stop signs or lights

• First light had 3 parts: stop, go, and another that stopped all traffic in all directions

The Gas Chamber1924

• First used in Nevada as a response to demands for a more humane form of capital punishment (compared to hanging and electrocution)

• First person to be executed by the gas chamber was Gee Jon, a convicted murderer

• Took Jon six minutes to die

Motels1925

• First motel was located in San Luis Obispo, California

• Built by Los Angeles architect Arthur Heineman, he coined the term ‘motel’ meaning motor hotel.

• For $1.25 a night, guests were issued a two-room bungalow with a kitchen and a private garage. All units faced a central courtyard which housed the swimming pool and included picnic tables for gatherings

• Made possible by the affordability of automobiles and a growth in the popularity of vacations and leisure time

Bubble Gum1928

• First type of bubble gum was invented by Frank Fleer, 1906. However, his gum, called Blibber-Blubber, was too sticky, and he never put it on the market for sale.

• August 1928, an accountant for the Fleer Company named Walter Diemer tried another formula for gum. His gum was pink because it was the only color he had access to at the time. Also he wanted to make the gum appealing to the eye.

• Diemer’s gum, Dubble Bubble, was first sold in Dec of 1928 and was an instant success.

Sliced Bread1928

• Otto Frederick Rohwedder – father of sliced bread. Began working in 1912 to develop a bread slicer. His first efforts met with resistance from bakers, who worried that the sliced bread would quickly go stale.

• 1928 Rohwedder designed a slicer that would also wrap the bread.

• The Chillicothe, Missouri Constitution-Tribune of July 7, 1928 carried a story of new bread slicing machines at M.F. Bench’s Chillicothe Baking Company, and sliced bread was born.

Frozen Foods1924-29

• Invented by Clarence Birdseye, a naturalist employed by the federal government, working in the Arctic

• Birdseye observed the ways regional Indians used ice to preserve food, especially fish.

• Birdseye noted that fish frozen before ice crystals could form within the fish’s anatomy exhibited minimal difference in taste and texture after being cooked.

• He returned to NY and started his own packing company called Birdseye Seafods Inc in 1924.

• By 1929 he received a patent for the Birdseye system: a system which packed dressed fish, meat, or vegetables in waxed-cardboard cartons and froze them at extremely high pressures.

• Made possible with the popularity of the mechanical fridge

Aerosol Sprays ----- 1926 Norway by Erik Rotheim Antibiotics (Penicillin) ----- 1928 England by Alexander Fleming Color Television ----- 1927 Scotland by John Logie Baird Hair Dryer ----- 1920 Germany Hearing Aid ----- 1923 England Liquid Fuel Rocket ----- 1926 USA by Robert Goddard Talking Pictures ----- 1927 USA Television ----- 1923 Scotland by John Logie Baird

Other significant events…

• Opening of King Tut’s tomb – 1922

• First trans-Atlantic flight – 1927