Archives
Electronic Highways
How things started
Idle curiosity is satisfied almost instantaneously on the Web. Want to know the origin of a cultural icon, a fad, an invention? You might start with NPR's Morning Edition's archival site for its series "Present at the Creation" (http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/archives.html). You'll find the history of games (Scrabble and Monopoly), food (grits and the hamburger), advertising symbols (the Marlboro Man and Buster Brown), songs ("Home on the Range" and "California Dreamin'") tourist attractions (the Hollywood sign and the Capitol dome), television shows ("Perry Mason" and "The Twilight Zone"), inventions (overalls and the recliner) and much more.
The City of Buffalo features prominently in Susan Stamberg's piece on the history of the coffee break. While people have been drinking coffee "recreationally" since before 1000 A.D., the first company to offer its employees the opportunity to take a break from work to enjoy this ubiquitous beverage may well have been either the Larkin Company in 1901 or the Barcolo Company in 1902, both headquartered in Buffalo at the turn of the century. (Though according to Stamberg, it may not have been called a coffee break until 1952 when the Pan American Coffee Bureau coined the jingle, "Give yourself a coffee-break and get what coffee gives to you.")
The Bad Fads Museum (http://www.badfads.com/home.html) traces the history of such fads as telephone-booth stuffing (students in South Africa started the phenomenon) and toga parties (Eleanor Roosevelt hosted one years before the screening of "National Lampoon's Animal House"). While About.com features Famous Inventions: A-Z (http://inventors.about.com/library/bl/bl12.htm) with descriptions of the origin of adhesives, aerosol spray cans, Aibo the robotic pet, air bags, air conditioning, alternating current, aluminum foil, answering machines, antiseptics, artificial hearts, asphalt, aspirin, Astroturf, automatic teller machines and audio tape recording—that is just a small sampling from the beginning of the alphabet.
Totally Absurd Inventions (http://www.totallyabsurd.com/) presents humorous inventions that have actually been patented. Its archives, which are updated weekly, include an anti-eating mouth cage, which allows you to breath and speak but not eat; a clear, shatterproof squabble shield to put between young siblings in the back seat of a car and a hospital gown rear modesty flap.
While these inventions probably will not be the beginning of anything memorable in our lifetime, this Web site also points to an Invention Showcase (http://inventionshowcase.com/inventions1.htm) of "great new inventions from independent inventors." The purpose of the site is to help inventors successfully bring their products to market.
So, see the next great thing first. How about automatic, self-cleaning, side-view mirrors or professional knee protectors on wheels, and last, but not least, a food embosser? Yes, pizzas of the future might routinely have "Happy Birthday," "Congratulations," etc. embossed on the crust.
Which will be fine, as long as you aren't wearing an anti-eating mouth cage!
—Gemma DeVinney, University Libraries