The Twentieth Century
1901–2000
This century began with some amazing achievements like the first flight by the Wright brothers and Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It also had hardships like the Boxer Rebellion in China and the San Francisco Earthquake. The 1900s also saw the introduction of the first silent movie and teddy bears! Thecrossword Puzzle 1913 Crosswords were created by Arthur Wynne, who was looking for something new to put into the “fun” section of the newspaper. It became an instant success.
Aeroplane 1903
Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with achieving the world’s first “heavier-than- air powered flight”. The record-setting Wright
Flyer was made with spruce, had a lightweight aluminium engine block, and weighed just 274kg.
Cartoons
1906
J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film, which he called
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. His method was to draw comical faces on a blackboard and film them. He would stop the film, erase one face to draw another, and then film the newly drawn face. This “stop-motion” provided a startling effect as the facial expressions changed before the viewer’s eyes.
Plastic
1909
The introduction of Bakelite – the world’s first synthetic plastic – marked the introduction of the Polymer Age.
Clothes Dryer 1908
To spare his mother having to hang wet laundry out in the brutal North Dakota winter, J. Ross Moore built an oil-heated drum in a shed next to his house, thereby creating the first clothes dryer. Moore’s first patented dryers ran on either gas or electricity, but he was forced to sell the design to the Hamilton Manufacturing Company the following year because of financial difficulties. Thelie Detector 1921 The machine recorded several different body responses simultaneously as the individual is questioned. It is still controversial today and not always accepted in court. Sliced Bread
1928 A man named Otto Frederick Rohwedder created pre-sliced bread when he invented a machine that sliced bread evenly. People used to buy or break their own loaves and had to slice their own bread, making irregular cuts. Rohwedder wrapped his bread in wax paper after slicing to keep it from going stale.
Bubble Gum
1928
Joining Amercian confectionery company Fleer as an accountant, Walter Diemer liked to experiment with gum recipes in his spare time. He eventually chanced upon a unique formula which produced gum that was less sticky and more stretchy. Bubble gum started out pink at first, because that was the only colour available at that time. Pink still remains the industry standard for bubble gum.
First Modern Credit Card 1950
Frank Mcnamara pooled some money with two friends and started a new company called the Diners Club. The first Diners Club credit cards were given out to 200 people (most were friends and acquaintances of Mcnamara) and accepted by 14 restaurants in New York.
Computer 1953
IBM shipped its first commercial scientific computer, the 701. Only 19 IBM 701 systems were installed, the first being at the company’s own headquarters in New York.
Velcro 1956
Swiss amateur-mountaineer and inventor George de Mestral and his faithful companion both returned from a hike covered with burrs. De Mestral used a microscope to inspect one of the burrs and saw all the small hooks that enabled the plant-seed sacs to cling so viciously to the tiny loops in the fabric of his trousers. He went on to design a unique, two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks and the other side with soft loops. He called his invention “Velcro”, a combination of the word velour and croché (hooked). De Mestral formed Velcro Industries to manufacture his invention. Today it is a multimillion-dollar industry.
Lasers 1960
Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Theodore Maiman invented the ruby laser, considered to be the first successful optical or light laser, although Gordon Gould was the first person to use the word. High-speed Rail 1964 Japan’s Tokaido Shinkansen was the first modern high-speed rail, with an operating speed of 285 kilometres per hour. It enabled day trips between Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest metropolises in Japan, changed the style of business and life of Japanese people significantly, and increased new traffic demand. The service was an immediate success, reaching the 100-millionth-passenger mark in less than three years, and one billion passengers by 1976.
Email 1971
The first ARPANET network email was sent, introducing the now-familiar address syntax with the “@” symbol designating the user’s system address.
Mobile Phone 1984
The first commercially- available cell phone, the DYNATAC 8000X, was created by Motorola.