Thursday, July 5, 2012

SummerQuest 13

As you journey through the quest of life, imagine all the amazing things that make your day "that much easier."  Toasters. Curling irons. E-mail. Calculators. Your challenge is to pick one object that you can't imagine living without, put on your detective cap, and do a little research. Who invented it? When did they unveil it to the world? Once you have done this, post a comment to the blog thanking the person/group who created your treasured object, along with any facts you discovered.

8 comments:

  1. Crayola!

    My thanks go out to Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith of New York City for founding their company in 1885, the company then was called Binney & Smith. They made barn paint and coloring to make tires black. But in 1902 they developed and introduced the Staonal marking crayon. Edwin Binney, working with his wife, Alice Stead Binney, developed his own product of wax crayons, June 10, 1903. They sold under the brand name "Crayola". French for "chalk," and "ola" for "oleaginous", or "oily." By 1905 you could get 18 different-sized crayon boxes with five different-sized crayons.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayola#History

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    1. How cool, Shell! I never thought about Crayola's history, but lives of parents everywhere would be so much harder without them. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. My thanks goes to Bill Bowerman.When Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman made this observation many years ago, he was defining how he viewed the endless possibilities for human potential in sports. He set the tone and direction for a young company created in 1972, called Nike, and today those same words inspire a new generation of Nike employees.

    Our goal is to carry on his legacy of innovative thinking, whether to develop products that help athletes of every level of ability reach their potential, or to create business opportunities that set Nike apart from the competition and provide value for our shareholders.

    It started with a handshake between two visionary Oregonians - Bowerman and his University of Oregon runner Phil Knight. They and the people they hired evolved and grew the company that became Nike from a U.S.-based footwear distributor to a global marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment that is unrivaled in the world.

    Along the way, Nike has established a strong Brand Portfolio with several wholly-owned subsidiaries including Cole Haan, Converse Inc., Hurley International LLC, NIKE Golf, and Umbro Ltd.

    Our world headquarters is located near Beaverton, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. So while the Pacific Northwest is the birthplace to Nike, today we operate in more than 160 countries around the globe. Through our suppliers, shippers, retailers and other service providers, we directly or indirectly employ nearly one million people.

    That includes more than 35,000 Nike employees across six continents, each of whom make their own contribution to fulfill our mission statement: to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.

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    1. Thanks for sharing that info! You and R3jects helped unlock another piece of the puzzle!

      -Jenny

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  3. My thanks goes to the many inventors of the bicycle.The Tour-de-France is the best known bicycle race. The innovations made to bicycles go as far back as 1818. If you want to know who invented the bicycle, read on.

    Before there were bicycles

    Other precursors to the modern bicycle were known as push bikes, draisines or hobby horses. The draisine was first introduced to the public in Paris in 1818 by the German Baron Karl von Drais. The rider sat astride a wooden frame supported by two in-line wheels and pushed the draisine along with his/her feet while steering the front wheel. The draisine had two wheels but no pedals.

    Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick MacMillan refined this in 1839 by adding a mechanical crank drive to the rear wheel, creating the first bicycle in the modern sense.

    In 1870, Englishman James Starley created the ordinary bicycle. These bicycles were not for the weak due to the high seat and poor balance. It was easy to fall and take a header.

    And then there were bicycles

    The dwarf ordinary bicycle addressed some of these problems, first by reducing the front wheel diameter and then by setting the seat farther back. But having to both pedal and steer through the front wheel remained a problem. Starley's nephew J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson, and Shergold solved this problem by introducing the chain drive - connecting the pedals held with the frame to the back wheel.

    These models were known as dwarf safeties, or safety bicycles. They had lower seat height and better weight distribution. Starley's 1885 Rover is usually considered the first recognizably modern bicycle. Soon thereafter, the seat tube was added, creating the double-triangle diamond frame of the modern bike.

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    1. Fascinating story, thanks for sharing! I wonder what people in the 1800s would think of our BookBike... :)

      -Jenny

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  4. My thanks goes to David Dunbar Buick, who invented the enamel for those amazing cast iron bathtubs in the 19th century. He may also be credited with cars, but I'd take a bath over a vehicle any day.

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    1. I had no idea! Thanks for sharing, Anon.
      -Jenny

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