Prepare for Utopian enthusiasm, global enlightenment and immersion as we get cracking again, gentle readers!
Rogue along with yet another sidelong glance, into the glamorous and attitude filled era of the 1930s and 1940s! Let's turn on the heat and fire up the range whilst you prepare to read and experience one of the most scintillating journeys you've ever taken! Shall we discover, together gentle readers... a few inventions of gadgets, gizmos, and history?!
Second off the top,...not necessarily fodder for the fainthearted, I simply hadn't known it before or perhaps had taken it for granted, but I can confidentially declare that..."History can never be pronounced dead and we shan't be surprised to find that it remains in most excellent of health and a guiding beacon to all in a plethora of ways!" .
We tend to remember the 1930s and 1940s in a plethora of ways, don't we? WWII images and reminders of the "Era of The Greatest Generation", the Dust Bowls' effect, Victory Gardens and Swinging to Big Bands, I'd suppose, are carved into and unto our remembrance of this generation. The impact of these once in a life time images and memories all too often means we fail to see so many of the amazing changes the era was experiencing in "making their world and the future more livable"! Many inventions derived of yesterday, we oft times assume always were and don't question their beginnings.
I do now know and also fully understand, after indoctrination and browsing through tons of old sepia photographs, color pictures, seeping and searching like a brew of warm liquid tea through varied portals of yesterday, all for the genuine pleasure and a wee bit of writing for this blog, that yet more surprising findings of this era often challenged of my own pre-conceived assumptions, as well! Nice run on sentence, non?
What of the "the Americans of the 30s and 40s"? I'd hazard a guess they greatly appreciated awakening from a society that once, in an earlier day, may have encouraged deep slumber in any number of ways. Awakening, pleasantly surprised, only to find themselves in a society that rained and purveyed upon them all the nuances and the multiplicity of ingenious inventions!
As we go Rogue, we'll begin to look at those beginnings,...let's start at an age when Television was in her infancy and radio still provided virtuosity, variety and giddiness when times would allow....
From FM radio, drive-in movies and the jet engine of the 1930s, we re-introduce:
Inventions of the 1930s
1930-The first quick-frozen vegetables, fruits, seafoods, and meat were sold to the public for the first time by Birds Eye Frosted Foods®.
1930-General Electric introduced the electric kettle with an automatic cut-out
1930- Sunbeam Mixmaster first mass marketed after patent in 1928
1930- Scotch tape
1930- First Shopping Cart which was improved for years as is any and all good in life
1930- First Television Commercial
1931- U.S. patent for World’s first electric dry shaver.
1932- First tape dispenser with a built-in cutter blade
1932- First parking meter (what were they thinking?!)
1933- The first flexible stainless steel, all-metal ice tray
1933- Polyvinylidene chloride or Saran (After World War II, met approval for food packaging)
1933- Synthetic surfactants. Each part of the "miracle molecules" executed a specific function--one pulled grease and dirt from the clothes, while the other suspended dirt until it could be rinsed away. This discovery was introduced in a detergent called "Dreft"
1933- First Drive In Theatre
1934- Monopoly claims
1934- Road Reflector or Cats Eyes
1935- First Canned Beer
1935- Automatic answering machine
1935- Scotch Brand Cellulose Tape
1935- Radar Patented
1935- In-Sink-Erator Garbage Disposal premiered after ten years in the making
1935- First automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks
1935- Prontosil, the first sulfa drug, by a German Scientist
1936- First Sun Screen
1936- Colt Revolver Patented
1937- The process called Xerography (Photocopier)
1937- CBS begins its TV development and The BBC begins high definition broadcasts in London
1938- Freeze-dried coffee was first produced in 1938 leading to the development of powdered food products
1938- LSD Synthesized
1938- Ballpoint Pen
1938- Teflon
1939- First Presidential Speech Showcased at Worlds' Fair
1939- First Successful Helicopter
1939- Electron Microscope
1939- View-Master
1939- Automated teller machine
1935/
1942- Found polyethlene, Acrylic or polymethyl, Nylon, Neoprene (silk and rubber synethics), Silicone and Polyester patents
And then along came the time of WWII when the freeze-dried process was developed commercially when it was used to preserve blood plasma and penicillin, and electric rice cookers...may we re-introduce:
Inventions of the 1940s
1940- JEEP !
1940- America’s most successful depilatory lotion, NAIR
1941- Aerosol Spray Can
1942- Bazooka Rocket Guns (I went Rogue)1943- Tide detergent and introduced years later as the first heavy duty detergent
1943- American microbiologist made the drug streptomycin
1943- Silly Putty properties found
1944- Kidney dialysis machines
1945- Slinky 1945-Microwave oven
1945-The Atomic Bomb which turned the world in veritable madness (Rogue again!)
1946- Mobile Telephone Service
1946- The modern day espresso machine was created
1946- Bikini-Gadget, Gizmo, Electrifying, What Have You (Rogue here!)
1946- Automation
1947-Pocket calculator (four-function, mechanical)
1947-Transistor
1947-Polaroid camera
1948- Patent for a method of the mass production of penicillin (An Ounce of Rogue here!)
1948-Long Playing Record
1948-Plastic version of FRISBEE!
1948-Holography
1948-The Dream of Velcro was born, yet not patented until the 1955s. Ahhhhmm...Just saying is all!
1949-Atomic clocks
1949- Cake Mix1949- 45 RPM Record
1949-Silly Putty ® Mass Produced, selling faster than any other toy in history with over $6 million in sales for the year. Ohhhhhh, darling...call me putty in your hands!
And here, some wicked bad prices, from across the country, both far and wide... that may look most excellent today, my gentle readers, but a fortune to the purveyors of connoisseur of yesterday...prohibitively expensive!
1930s and Prices...
Electric Toaster $9.95 1932
Electrolux gas Refrigerator $144.50 1939
(Note: With the advent of Freon, the refrigerator market enjoyed growth during the 1930s.) Separate freezers became common during the 1940s, the popular term at the time for the unit was a "deep freeze". But these devices or "appliances" did not go into mass production for use in the home until after World War II). Westinghouse Cleaner with attachment kit $39.95 1939
Westinghouse Wringer washing machine $59.95 1939
Tappan Gas Range $69.95 1939
Emmerson 5 tube bedroom radio $9.95 1938
Philco Auto Radio $24.95 1938
Electric Flat Iron $1.49 1935
Electric Movie Projector $3.95 1935
Fridge Six Cubic Feet all steel cabinet stainless steel super freezer
New GE Thrifty Six (I'll have Seven!)
Philco Radio "Complete with built in Ariel Tuning system, ultra high fidelity and able to pick up stations from countries around the world Air, and Police and shipping all in a single bound!"
1940's and Prices...
Electric heaters $8.50 1946
Record Player / Radio Combination $59.00 1946
Hearing Aid $59.95 1946
Portable Sun Lamp $32.59 1946
Tappan Gas Range $69.95 1939
Emmerson 5 tube bedroom radio $9.95 1938
Philco Auto Radio $24.95 1938
Electric Flat Iron $1.49 1935
Electric Movie Projector $3.95 1935
Kelvinator Washer Wringer
"With our Washer Wringer home laundry becomes an easy task"
$54.95
Tappan Gas Range
"With glass door which allows you to see your cooking , split oven and flexo speed baking"
$109.75
As I forayed many vast runs into history, expended much remarkable time and quality into the research which underpins this tome (wink)...I can say, the discovering of each detail has been enlightening and remarkable! And here too, I must add a caveat...this lovely article is not a substitute or supplement for a complete American History of Gadgets, Gizmos, Electric and Electronics or menue! But, rather a stimulus to history appreciation and a barring of impediments in our rich history.
Hope you've found this bit 'o the blog fanciful to scan about and through, comfortable to curl up with, enlightening to read, food for fodder, tickling to the funny bone and thoughtful of yesterday once more. If you like,...give me some Skin as from the singing diddy in this blog, by the remarkable Andrew Sisters! Feel free to download, access, grab your partner or Skip To The Lou as you may feel necessary.
Show me a good blog anytime, and I'll show you a thinker and a doer.
Hubba!
