There were 15,700,003 Model T Ford's manufactured, all in black. Thomas Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter. Unknown people made the first glassware about 3,500 years ago in Mesopotamia.   _______________________________________ Until the mid 1800s, paper was made from cotton rags.   ______________________________________ Alfred Nobel of Stockholm, Sweden, patented dynamite in 1867.   ___________________________________     Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was originally an instructor for deaf children and invented the telephone to help his deaf wife and mother to hear.   __________________________________________     When using the first pay telephone, a caller did not deposit coins in the machine. He or she gave them to an attendant who stood next to the telephone. Coin telephones did not appear until 1899.   __________________________________________     When airplanes were still a novel invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal – several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down. ___________________________________   Where did the idea for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly come from?  Robert Augustus Cheesebrough. In 1859 when oil was first found in Pennsylvania, Cheesebrough was a 22 year old chemist in Brooklyn who had become an expert at extracting kerosene from cannel oil. He realized that petroleum products would be the fuel source of the future so he headed to Pennsylvania to get his piece of the action. He noticed that a colorless film called "rod wax" collected around the pump rods on the oil wells, gumming up the works until it was removed. He also observed oil workers who would slap the stuff on a cut, instead of a bandage. Not only did it stay on the skin and stop the bleeding, but it seemed to help cure the wound. Cheesebrough returned to Brooklyn with some rod-wax and spent months creating a clean form of rod-wax which he called "petroleum jelly". He began making so much of this stuff that every beaker in his laboratory was full, so he threw out his wife's flowers and filled the vases with his creation. After awhile, he added the popular medical term "line" to the word "vase" and he called the product "Vaseline Petroleum Jelly." _________________________________   Barbie® and Ken® Dolls are named after Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler's son and daughter, Barbara and Ken. Barbie's® full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts, and she is from Willows, Wisconsin. First sold in 1959, Barbie® wasn't given bendable legs until 1965. ____________________________________   Boxing was the first sport to be filmed. Thomas A. Edison filmed a boxing match between Jack Cushing and Mike Leonard in 1894.   ________________________________________ Britain developed the first Tanks for use during World War I. The word "Tank" was used because it didn't mean anything, and didn't give the Germans a clue as to its possible use.   __________________________________________   Camel's-hair brushes are not made of camel's hair. They were invented by a man named Mr. Camel.   ________________________________________   Canned food was invented for the British Navy in 1813, but the first practical can opener wasn't invented until 1870.   ________________________________________   Carbonated beverages became popular in 1832 after John Mathews invented an apparatus for charging water with carbon dioxide gas. _____________________________________ Did Thomas Edison really invent the light bulb? The history of the light bulb reads like a story straight out of a tabloid magazine. Contrary to what schools have taught for years, the American icon, Thomas Edison, neither invented the light bulb, nor held the first patent to the modern design of the light bulb. Apparently, the we gave the esteemed Mr. Edison credit for the invention solely because he owned a power company, later known as General Electric, and a light bulb is just a bulb without a source of electricity to light it. In reality, light bulbs used as electric lights existed 50 years prior to Thomas Edison's 1879 patent date in the U.S. Additionally, Joseph Swan, a British inventor, obtained the first patent for the same light bulb in Britain one year prior to Edison's patent date. Swan even publicly unveiled his carbon filament light bulb in New Castle, England a minimum of 10 years before Edison shocked the world with the announcement that he invented the first light bulb. Edison's light bulb, in fact, was a carbon copy of Swan's light bulb. How do two inventors, from two different countries the invent exact same thing? Very easily, if one follows in the others footsteps. Swan's initial findings from tinkering with carbon filament electric lighting, and his preliminary designs, appeared in an article published by Scientific American.  Without a doubt, Edison had access to, and eagerly read this article. Giving Mr. Edison the benefit of the doubt, and stopping short of calling him a plagiarist, we can say that he invented the light bulb by making vast improvements to Swan's published, yet unperfected designs. Swan, however, felt quite differently, as he watched Edison line his pockets with money made from his invention, and took Edison to Court for patent infringement. The British Courts stood by their patent award for the light bulb to Swan, and Edison lost the suit. The British Courts forced Edison, as part of the settlement, to name Swan a partner in his British electric company. Eventually, Edison managed to acquire all of Swans' interest in the newly renamed Edison and Swan United Electric Company. Edison fared no better back home in the U.S., where the U.S. Patent Office already ruled, on October 8, 1883, that Edison's patents were invalid, because he based them upon the earlier art of a gentleman named William Sawyer. To make matters worse, Swan sold his U.S. patent rights, in June 1882, to Brush Electric Company. This chain of events stripped Edison of all patent rights to the light bulb, and left him with no hope of purchasing any. Edison dusted himself off, and went into business setting up a direct current (DC) system of power distribution in New York City, and selling the light bulbs that used this electricity. The light bulb business only flickered between 1879 and 1889, until word-of-mouth advertising of lower electricity costs fanned the flame, and business boomed. Edison's client base rapidly expanded to three million customers over the span of 10 years. Always at the center of controversy, Edison next found himself in competition with Westinghouse for the sale of the first electric chair to execute criminals to New York. Edison's chair used the DC system of electricity, while Westinghouse used the AC (alternating current) system, designed especially for it by Nickola Tesla. Both Edison and Westinghouse emphasized the humanity of electrocution and the safety of their electrical system as selling points when pitching their chairs to New York. Edison's bid for the sale of his chair was a mere formality and a ploy to have the Westinghouse system of electricity chosen by New York for the electric chair. He endorsed the Westinghouse AC system of electricity as the system of choice to be used for the electric chair, reasoning that the public would associate the Westinghouse AC system with the killing power of the electric chair, and would see the system as unsafe for household use. Edison made this strategic move in anticipation that the public and would flock to the safety of his DC system, as he needed increased sales of the system, because of the great monetary investment he had made in the system. Edison's plan succeeded, in part, as New York did select the Westinghouse electric chair over his model. What he could not take into account, was the fact that, unbelievably, Westinghouse never tested the chair, and the chair failed on its "Maiden Voyage." Though Edison's carefully laid plan went up in smoke, he did get the last laugh, as for years people referred to being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused," even though its chair was no longer in use. It only took a matter of years before the public realized that the benefits of the AC system far outweighed those of the DC system. Edison's DC system took back seat, and the AC system took center stage. People in the U.S. and worldwide chose the AC system over the DC system, because AC currents deliver electricity to power lines with greater efficiency. The DC system is no longer in use today. DID YOU KNOW? The first light bulbs lasted a mere 150 hours, and that ten years later, Edison introduced one that lasted 1,200 hours? The average light bulb today lasts approximately 1,500 hours. _________________________________________   Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for polio in 1952. _________________________________ Early hand-held lights used carbo-zinc batteries that did not last very long. To keep the light burning required that the user turn it on for a short time and then turn it off to allow the battery to recover. That's how they originally became known as a "flashlight." _____________________________________ Early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence the phrase, "sleep tight." _____________________________________ Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using electric Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional candles. _____________________________________ James J. Ritty, owner of a tavern in Dayton, Ohio, invented the cash register in 1879 to stop his patrons from pilfering house profits. ____________________________________   James Mason, no relation to the film actor, patented the coffee percolator in 1865. ________________________________________   Johann Behrent built the first piano in America at Philadelphia in 1775 under the name "Piano Forte." ___________________________________   John Greenwood invented the dental drill in 1790. ____________________________________   Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented toilet paper in 1857. _____________________________________ Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire on November 1, 1873. ___________________________________   Ferdinand Porsche, who later went on to build sports cars bearing his own name, designed the original 1936 Volkswagen. ___________________________________   The first ballpoint pens sold in 1945 were priced at $12.00 apiece. ___________________________________   Joseph Priestley, the English chemist, invented carbonated water. It was a by-product of his investigations into the chemistry of air. ____________________________________   Joshua Pusey of Pennsylvania received a patent for his book matches in 1892. ____________________________________   Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France. ____________________________________   The first envelopes with gummed flaps were produced in 1844. In Britain, they were not immediately popular because it was thought to be a serious insult to send a person's saliva to someone else. _______________________________________   Henri Nestlé was originally a baby food manufacturer. His work and research with condensed milk aided Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter in inventing a method to successfully combine chocolate and milk in a solid form — the first milk chocolate — in 1875. _______________________________   Henry Ford called his first car a quadricycle.