We are certainly living in modern times, with our smartphones, laptops, and internet. It may surprise you to know that some of the items we use every day that may look modern on the surface are actually inventions that date back a century or so.
Colorized photo of a woman using a modern toaster in 1910. (Photo by Schenectady Museum; Hall of Electrical History Foundation/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Here are just a few of these common items as they looked when they first came out, albeit colorized from the original black and white, alongside their modern-day equivalent.
Vacuum Cleaner
Vacuuming, then and now (sutori.com, nymag.com)
As far back as 1860, inventors were toying with ways to efficiently clean carpets and rugs. These early devices, however, were bulky and expensive. Czar Nicholas of Russia and Queen Victoria had them in their palaces, but us common folk could never afford them. In the early 1900s, an American inventor named James Spangler, who suffered from asthma, created an electric vacuum cleaner with a broom-like cleaning head and a bag for collecting the dirt and dust. It even had a cloth filter so that the air circulating back into the room would be dust free … an important quality for an asthma sufferer. In 1908, Spangler sold his invention to William Hoover who reduced the size of the device and further improved its efficiency. Electric vacuum became a mainstay of households across the country. Today, we don’t have to lift a finger to get our carpets vacuumed, thanks to robotic vacuums.
Radio
Radios, then and now (khanacademy.com, cnet.com)
Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi’s experiments with electromagnetic waves led to the invention of the radio. Marconi discovered that sound could be sent over great distances via radio waves. With the invention of the radio, people could have access to news reports, music, comic skits, and more. By the 1920s and 1930s, the radio was one of the American public’s most favorite forms of entertainment. Families gathered around the radio in the evenings to listen to popular radio programs. Today, the radio is not the modern marvel it was a hundred years ago, yet we still listen to it, especially in our cars.
Band Aids
Band aids, then and now (pinterest.com)
Back in 1920, Josephine Dickson was a clumsy young housewife. She always seemed to nick herself when peeling potatoes or burning her arms taking food out of the oven. Her husband, Earle Dickson worked at Johnson and Johnson. He developed a small bandage with a self-adhesive that Josephine could use to patch up her small wounds. Earle’s bosses caught wind of his invention and loved the idea. Within a few years, Johnson and Johnson was mass-producing their Band-Aids in a variety of sizes. Unfortunately, they were not made in a variety of skin colors. That is a new twist on the old invention.
Football Helmets
Football helmets, then and now. (me.me)
James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, is credited with developing an early form of protective headgear that eventually morphed into the football helmet. Naismith didn’t just play basketball. He also played football for the YMCA International Training College in 1891. While playing, he was hit several times in the ear, giving him a ‘cauliflower ear.’ His early helmet was more about protecting his ears than protecting his head. In 1896, George Oliver Barclay, a played for Lafayette College, hired a saddle maker to stitch him a leather cap that would offer some degree of protection for his head. Still, the thin leather did little to prevent concussions and head injuries. Hard-shelled football helmets didn’t become standard until the late 1940s and 1950s. Today’s modern football helmet has been scientifically designed to absorb blows to concussions.
Corn Flakes
Corn flakes, then and now (dspace.willardlibrary.org, bakingbusiness.com)
The corn flakes you pour into your cereal bowl today look identical to the ones people ate a century ago. That’s because the recipe for the first breakfast cereal hasn’t changed much since it was patented by William Kellogg in 1894. Corn flakes started a revolution. Before this, folks ate heavier, more time-consuming food for their morning meal – eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, pancakes, and so on. Breakfast cereal offered a quick and nutritious alternative. Today, the breakfast cereal aisle at the grocery store is packed with shelves and shelves of different breakfast cereals, but you can still find the familiar Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box among them.
Toasters
Toasters, then and now (gettyimages, homegets.com)
Speaking of breakfast, the electric toaster is a kitchen essential that has been around since 1893 when a Scottish inventor named Alan MacMasters, built a device that heated bread to a crispy golden brown. There were issues with this first toaster, though. For starters, it only toasted one side of the bread at a time. You had to wait for one side to be done, then flip the bread around to toast the other side. Additionally, the first toaster didn’t have a timer. You had to watch the appliance and take the bread out before it burned. By 1913, toasters were made with a device that turned the bread halfway through the toasting process. Charles Strife, a Minnesota mechanic, patented a better toaster in 1921. It toasted both sides of the bread at the same time and had a system in which the toast automatically popped up when the designated toasting time was over. Today’s toasters operate much the same way, but we can toast bagels in our wide-slot toasters.
