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Inventions of the 1920's
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The Gramophone
In 1920, the gramophone became very popular, found in many homes in the United States. Originally invented in the year 1877, the gramophone played music from discs. In the 1920's, the manufacturers started to produce the gramophone with a different material for the horn, so it was much less expensive to make. This made them affordable for more people to purchase. -
Shipping in the US
In 1920, the U.S. shipping board sent out an order for 1,500 ships to be built. Altogether, the cost of creating all these ships totaled up to about $3 billion. Factory ships were introduced, and greatly helped the fishing industry. These ships allowed the fishermen to bring more fish back to sell. -
The Creation of the Band-Aid.
In 1920, Earl Dickson got the bright idea that we still use today, known as the band-aid. Dickson came upon the band-aid while trying to get more adhesive bandages for his wife, who would frequently have cuts on her hands. He realized that this would be very helpful to society, so he spoke to his boss at Johnson and Johnson about selling them as a product. After they started selling them, Earl Dickson became vice-president at the company, due to the product being a huge success. -
The Polygraph
The polygraph, also known as a lie detector, was created by a Californian medical student named John Larson. The device had three pens that moved across a slow moving piece of paper. The person running the test would ask the test subject a series of questions, while another person would monitor the paper. The machine would note physical changes in the subject when they answered the questions. -
Suburban Shopping Malls
One of the first suburban shopping malls was introduced to the public in Kansas City, Missouri in the year 1922. After that, shopping malls contained drug stores, supermarkets and convenience stores. By 1928, they also created parking lots that had room for 400 cars, and by the time that happened they had about 30 different stores in the area. This made life easier for people because they could get what they wanted when they needed it, and it also gave them more choices of stores to choose from. -
Frozen Food
In 1923, Clarence Birdseye discovered an effective way to preserve food. Birdeyes obtained buckets of brine, ice, and an electric fan. With these objects, he created an effiecient way of preserving food, and by 1930, started selling frozen food with the name Birds Eye. This greatly helped the way we store food. -
The 15 millionth Model T
The 15 millionth Ford Model T rolls off of the assembly line at a factory in Highland Park, Michigan. Mass production made the automobile affordable to many people. This shows how popular the automobile was becoming. By 1920, there were about 9,250,000 automobiles. At the end of the 1920's there were about 26,500,000 cars/trucks in total. -
Aviation of the 1920s
Airliners transported less than 10,000 passengers per year during the '20s. By 1930, over 150,000 were transported by these planes. One of the first airports in the U.S. was made in Dearborn, Michigan, at Fort Airport. This airport had a terminal, which contained a waiting room for the passengers to wait in. It also had a ticket-office, for potentional customers to purchase tickets to take a trip in a plane. -
Dubble Bubble Gum
The creation of bubble gum was an accident. The creator, Walter Diemer who worked for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company, came upon this new type of gum while testing different types of recipes. The gum was such a success that it started selling over a million dollars worth the first year it was sold. The pink color of the gum was due to pink food coloring being the only color in the factory at the time of its creation. -
Electric Shaver
Colonel Jacob Schick created the first electric shaver. Of two of the models he created, his first was rejected by a manufacturing company. His first was a two-handed device. His second model was one-handed, and a success. By 1930, many of them had been sold, and Shick Dry Shaver, Inc. was formed. This invention made it easier to shave.
