Tag Archives: inventions

Dec28

the jetsons.

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while filling up my car with gas 

a man walked over to me saying

how it would have been great

if one of the inventions from ‘the jetsons’ show had come to be –

 a warm air pad that you walked on, so you were never cold

i reminded him of their version of the microwave

where you pushed a button and your food was cooked in seconds

from there it continued on, back and forth

with inventions remembered from the show

until we both of our cars were filled up

 going on our merry way

what an interesting conversation to have with a random stranger at the gas pump

perhaps he recognized a fellow jetsons fan

not your usual small talk, but rather refreshing

triggering memories of my favorite childhood cartoon.

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the jetsons premiered when i was 5 years old on abc tv (their first color show!) on sunday nights. i loved it instantly; the characters, the banter, the clothes, and all the cool space-age stuff. unfortunately it only ran for one season and then quickly disappeared from the airwaves, except in reruns and later movies.

here’s smithsonian’s take on the show:

It was 50 years ago that the Jetson family first jet-packed their way into American homes. The show lasted just one season (24 episodes) after its debut in 1962, offering television viewers a rather sunny and optimistic view of the future. Flying cars, moving sidewalks, and flat-screen TVs were the norm. Even the Jetson family’s sky home was considered envious. ABC set The Jetsons in 2062, exactly 100 years from the year that the show premiered. Based on the Jetson family’s phone number, one could argue that they didn’t live on Earth or just above it. The family’s phone number was VENUS-1234, meaning they were most likely residents on Venus. 

Regardless of its short-running timeframe, the show remains a point of pop culture reference all these years later. Some of the inventions that existed on The Jetsons are available today, and they did predict current technologies. Some examples include; interactive newspapers, robotic help, holograms, and drones. The most widespread Jetson-inspired invention  is the Apple Watch. It closely resembles the device George wore on his wrist to call work, make appointments, handle doctor visits, and much more.

Tesla is teasing us with self-autonomous vehicles, but people are still waiting for the highly-accessible flying cars used by the Jetsons. We may not have to wait another 50 years as a Slovakian company is currently working on a flying car prototype. Smithsonian Magazine said, “The Jetsons stands as the single most important piece of 20th-century futurism.” They claim the show “has had a profound impact on the way that Americans think and talk about the future.”

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image credit: hanna-barbera productions, abc tv, warner brothers archives,smithsonian magazine

Mar16

life is a mix tape.

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Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor of the cassette tape, has died at home in the Netherlands, at the age of 94, his family has confirmed to CNN.  An estimated 200 billion cassette tapes have been sold worldwide, according to Philips, the company he began working for in 1952. Ottens also supervised the team that developed the compact disc (CD). Ottens was described by Olga Coolen, director of the Philips Museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, as an “extraordinary man who loved technology.”

Ottens cut a block of wood that would fit into the side of his jacket pocket to find an ideal size for the new carrier. The block became the model after which the first portable cassette recorder was made, said Philips. Remarkably, his wooden prototype was later lost when used to prop up his jack while changing a flat tire.

In 1963, the development of the cassette and the playback device had done so well that they were presented at the Internationale Funkausstellung, a trade exhibition for audio products in Berlin. Guests from Japan were inspired by his invention and the cassette was quickly copied by Japanese manufacturers into a different format and sold onto the Japanese market. The cassette recorder was a huge hit around the world, but particularly with young people in the 1960s – 1980s.

The device helped capture iconic sounds, according to Philips, as recounted by Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, who wrote in his 2010 autobiography “Life”: “I wrote the song ‘Satisfaction’ in my sleep. I didn’t know at all that I had recorded it, the song only exists thank God to the little Philips cassette recorder. I looked at it in the morning — I knew I had put a new tape in the night before — but it was at the very end. Apparently, I had recorded something. I rewound and then ‘Satisfaction’ sounded … and then 40 minutes of snoring.”

In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the cassette tape, a special exhibition was created to honor Ottens’ work at the Philips Museum. The first-ever cassette recorder still lies on display as “a testimony to his foresight and innovation,” Coolen, in a statement to CNN, added that his extraordinary inventions had “humble beginnings.”

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“life is a mix tape.”

-author unknown

what songs would be on the mix tape of your life?”

 

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story credit: CNN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oct26

leaf chaps.

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with fall comes the ultimate scourge of lawn work: raking leaves. all of those gorgeous, oxygen-giving trees in your backyard become instruments of torture, littering their leafy bounty all over the lawn and sidewalk.

according to the inventor of the the leaf pants, the leaves aren’t the problem. it’s the rake – that pronged nightmare that strains backs, blisters hands, and poses a real threat if left lying in the grass. but a leaf-blower isn’t the answer either.  instead, the inventor insists, what humanity needs is a method that is “compatible with the natural body movement of a person.”

enter the ‘leaf chaps’, a pair of zip-on, flexible tubes that slip over pant legs with a net fastened between the two so you can gather leaves as you stroll. the net corrals the leaves and collects them in front of you, so with just a few extra steps, you’re forming piles that are easily picked up later. 

not merely convenient, the chaps also promise to make you more productive. rather than struggle with bulky tools, do something you’d be doing anyway (walking around your lawn), while getting work done! sure, that walk is more like a waddle, but that’s the price you pay for innovation. 

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“if you’re not prepared to be wrong,

you’ll never come up with anything original.”

– sir ken robinson

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credits: mental floss magazine