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15 Everyday Things With Weird Origins

By:: Andrea Meno

February 15, 2021

15 Everyday Things With Weird Origins

In the early days of ATMs, banks thought the best way to get customers would use them was … advertising them with creepy anthropomorphized characters. Check out the details on that, plus another 14 stories, here:

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The magnetic stripe on your credit card got its start thanks to ironing. 329 PETER 3. SOUTHWOOD A37308 8-85 8009 MasterCard In the '60s, the IBM engineer working on putting magnetic stripes on cards couldn't figure out how to do it, and when he told his wife about it (while — Source: IBM

14

Lane markings were inspired by spilled milk. In 1911, Michigan's Wayne County Road Commission member Edward Hines watched milk leaking from a horse-drawn milk wagon, and got the idea for separating traffic with a line in the middle of the road. CRACKED.COM — Source: 99.1 WFMK

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The snow globe was invented by a guy trying to create a better light. In 1900, Erwin Perzy, a guy in Vienna who made and repaired medical tools, got the job of making a brighter light for operating rooms Clightbulbs back then were really dim). He put water and tiny — Source: GoWorld Travel Magazine

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Source: Irish Times

11

The first name for the Frisbee was Pluto Platter. ('o \UTO P R Why? It was the late '50s, and everybody was totally into UFOs. — Source: TIME, History.com

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Banks tried creepy and weird schemes to get people to use early ATMs. Meet NDO. FLA. Park) -644-1753 ALL'S tore >at SVS Yo moa P & SAVE R BOYS 47 One Florida bank created the Sleepless Teller Miss X, who wore creepy clown makeup, First National created an anthropomorphized ATM — Source: Smithsonian Magazine

9

Eric S. Yuan created Zoom because it'd take him too long to visit his girlfriend. She was a 10-hour train ride away from where he went to college, and he was so tired on the ride, he'd fall asleep standing up and other passengers' bodies were all that would keep — Source: Business News Daily

8

The Diesel engine is based on an ancient Malaysian tool. In the late 19th century, mechanical engineering student Rudolf Diesel watched one of his professors light a cigarette using a Gobek Api a wooden device from Penang island in Malaysia. That got Diesel thinking about using the same thermodynamic principle — Source: New Straits Times

7

Intermittent windshield wipers exist thanks to a dumb champagne accident. Inventor Robert Kearns got hit in his left eye by a champagne cork on his wedding night in 1953, which left him blind in that eye. When he drove home that night, the blinking of his good eye made him — Source: Washington Post

6

We only have 30-second TV ads because Nixon banned cigarette ads. When TV cigarette ads were banned in 1970, TV execs needed to figure out a way to make up for the massive revenue loss - so they created 30-second ads, which were much less expensive than 60-second ones (which were — Source: CBC

5

silly String was supposed to be a healing aid. Leonard A. Fish and Robert P. Cox wanted to make a spray-on cast for broken bones. They got the spray right, but one of the nozzles they tested made a long blast, so they made the spray less sticky and branded — Source: Gizmodo

4

Roller coasters were inspired by an actual train ride. The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway in Pennsylvania was built in the early 19th century to transport coal down a hill. It got so popular with tourists, the track started taking coal in in the mornings and passengers in the afternoon. — Source: PennLive

3

Modern scrapers are inspired by bamboo rods. Fazlur Rahman Khan, who designed Chicago's Willis Tower, based it on a bamboo tube: a tough outer shell with a hollow inside. That way, the structure is strong enough to sway with the wind without collapsing. Tall skyscrapers built since then have used — Source: Mental Floss

2

Source: Google Books

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Source: the Atlantic

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