In 1915, a U.S. Patent No. 1,125,476 was issued to George Claude of Paris for a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes.” This patent was the basis for the neon sign. Claude, an engineer, chemist and inventor was the first person to create a lamp by applying an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon. By mixing other gases with the neon, Claude was able to produce the light in many different colors. He, also, discovered that the tubes holding the gas mixture could be bent and twisted. This allowed him to produce the letters and shapes that are the signature of a neon sign.
Claude first displayed this invention that revolutionized sign making at the1910 Paris Expo. In 1923, under the company Claude’s Neon, he introduced neon signs to the United States. Continue reading “The Invention of the Neon Sign: Changing the American Landscape”
On February 20, 1940, Eddie Bauer received Design Patent Number 119,122 for a jacket. Bauer caught hypothermia while fishing in the cold, rainy Washington winter in 1936. After his near death experience, he began attempting to develop alternative outdoor wear.
Teflon is yet another product invented entirely by mistake. Roy Plunkett, a research chemist at Dupont, was experimenting with synthesizing new types of refrigerant gas when he accidentally produced Teflon.
The first US patent for PEZ, #2,620,061, was issued December 2, 1952 for a Pocket Article Dispensing Container. This patent was for the original design of the PEZ dispenser which was meant to look like a cigarette lighter.
The idea for Velcro came to George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, after returning from a walk in the Alps with his dogs. He examined the burrs stuck to both his jacket and the dogs’ fur under a microscope. The principal, he discovered, was simple. The burr was made of hundreds of hooks that would catch on anything with a loop such as cloth, animal fur or hair. De Mestral saw that this design could be used as a new type of fastener if he could duplicate the hooks and loops. 
On October 7, 1952 Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland received US Patent 2,612,994 for “Classifying Apparatus and Method.”
According to traditional dating, on September 30, 1452, Johann Gutenberg’s began printing his Bible which became the first book to be published in volume. The Bible, known as the 42-line Bible because there were 42 lines on each page, was very large consisting of 1280 pages. The Latin words were printed in black ink and then an illustrator added colorful designs in the margin. Two hundred copies of the two-volume Gutenberg Bible were printed, a small number of which were printed on vellum. 48 copies of this bible are known to still exist today.