Although canned food was first produced commercially in 1810, almost another half a century passed before hungry folks had an easy way to open those cans. Peter Durand, the British merchant who first patented the idea of preserving food in cans, showed surprisingly little interest in how consumers could extract […]
Georges Claude, a Frenchman who in 1910 exhibited the first neon sign at the Grand Palais in Paris, had a career of ups and downs. At one time, his Claude Neon company was so ubiquitous that many people thought “neon” was the inventor’s last name, rather than the gas used […]
Americans like to think of the dollar as king, but in the historical context of currency, that honor probably belongs to the humble cowry. A type of mollusk shell widely available in the shallow waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, the cowry was used as money as early as […]
Duct tape was originally Army green and commonly called “duck” tape because it repelled water. After World War II, the tape’s rubberized top coat was changed to gray to match the duct work in the postwar housing boom.
“Bringing home the bacon” originally referred not to money but marital harmony. In the 12th century, the church of Dunmow, England, offered a side of bacon to any husband who could swear before God and the congregation that he had not quarreled with his wife for a year and a […]
Car buffs might consider a pilgrimage to the corner of Baum Boulevard and St. Clair Street in Pittsburgh, where a historic marker commemorates the “First Drive-In Filling Station.” That breakthrough in automotive convenience made history a little over a century ago, in 1913. Baum Boulevard was then already known as […]
