Art, culture & history images

Corn Flakes

In 1894 Dr. John Kellogg and his brother Will Kellogg ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. The brothers were searching for wholesome foods to feed patients as well as fit in with their strict Adventist’s diet. One day they left some boiled wheat out by accident and when they returned they found it had become stale. Deciding not to waste the wheat, they sent it through the rollers hoping to create dough but ended up with flakes. After toasting the flakes, they served the concoction to the patients, who liked it so much that the brothers experimented with other types of grain, including corn. In 1906 Will added sugar to the flakes, causing a rift between him and his health-conscious brother, and created the Kellogg’s company in order to sell his new product and its frosted cousin.

Ice Cream Cone

During the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, Syrian pastry maker Ernest Hamwi ran a stand selling zalabia, a crisp pastry cooked in a hot waffle-patterned press. When a neighboring ice cream vendor, Arnold Fomachou, ran out of dishes for his ice cream Hamwi helped him out by giving him his zalabia to roll into a cornucopia in order to hold the treat. Thus the ice cream cone was born. After the fair Hamwi partnered with J. P. Heckle and created the Cornucopia Waffle Company and in 1910 created his own company, the Missouri Cone Company.

LSD’s Psychological Affects

In 1929, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann was trying to map the compounds derived of the ergot fungi in order to assess any potential medical uses. Having produced the compound LSD-25, he found no potential medical uses and put it aside. Five years later he decided to revisit the compound. While studying LSD-25 he accidentally ingested some of it and started to feel sensations. He left work and went home where he had strange hallucinations, likening images he experienced to a kaleidoscope. Thus in 1934 Hofmann had the first acid trip. Sandoz Laboratories introduced LSD as a psychiatric drug in 1947. Despite the fact that possession of LSD was made illegal in the United States in 1968,  the last FDA approved study of LSD in patients was not until 1980.

Microwave Oven

In 1945, American engineer Percy Spencer was building magnetrons for radar sets for the Raytheon company when he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket was melting. He then experimented with popcorn, which began to pop when exposed to the electromagnetic waves. On October 8th, 1945 Spencer filed for a US patent for microwave cooking system and in 1947 the Radarange, the first commercial microwave oven, was built. However, it was not widely used until the 1970s when it was redesigned with a new magnetron feed and reshaped into the short and wide box shape it still has today.

Viagra

In 1991 Ian Osterloh was conducting a clinical trial for the drug Sildenafil, a drug designed by a group of scientists at Pfizer's Sandwich research facility in Kent, England. Sildenafil was thought to cure high blood pressure and ischaemic heart disease. While he found that the drug did nothing for high blood pressure he did notice that it caused penile erections, leading him to market the drug for erectile dysfunction. Obtaining a patent in 1996 and approved by the FDA in 1988, Viagra became the first oral treatment in the US market to treat erectile dysfunction.

Implantable Pacemaker

In the late 1950s Wilson Greatbach, an electrical engineer, was working on a machine that could help record fast heart beats when he accidently grabbed the wrong resistor from a box. When he ran the electrical circuit it produced a pulsing pattern that mimicked the human heartbeat. Recognizing the implications, Greatbach with the help of surgeon Dr. William Chardack, went on to create the first fully implantable cardiac pacemaker. In April 1960 the first of Greatbach’s pacemakers was available for humans after extensive animal testing. Greatbach would go on to also create the corrosion-free lithium battery that would power the new pacemaker.

Penicillin

In 1928, Alexander Fleming was a biologist working in a basement laboratory in St. Mary’s Hospital in London. On the morning of September 28th he walked into his lab to discover that he had accidentally left a petri dish containing the Staphylococcus culture open. Growing in the petri dish was a blue-green mold but it had a halo of inhibited bacterial growth around it. From this Fleming concluded that the mold was stopping the growth of the bacteria. Thus he discovered Penicillium fungi, and after some experimentation published his findings in 1929. In the years following Fleming's discovery, Penicillin would be researched by many scientists. The first life was saved by Penicillin in 1941 and by the end of that year (after the bombing of Pearl Harbor) the drug was being mass produced.

Popsicle

In 1905, 11 year old Frank Epperson was on his porch in San Francisco mixing powder and water together to create a soda drink. After stirring the mixture he left the drink on his porch and forgot about it. Record temperatures settled in that night and the next morning Epperson found his drink frozen to the stick. After tasting his frozen drink on a stick he showed it to a few friends, but didn't formally do anything with his creation until 18 years later when he filed for a patent. Originally named the “Eppsicle” he marketed it as “a frozen drink on a stick.”

Saccharine

In 1879, researcher Constantine Fahlberg was working in the laboratory of Professor Ira Remsen, the founder of the American Chemical Journal. One day he forgot to wash his hands before he ate his meal and discovered that his food tasted unusually sweet. Realizing that he had spilled a chemical on his hands, Fahlberg and Remsen began researching what the chemical could be. In 1880 they published their discovery and in 1884 Fahlberg obtained a patent for saccharine, creating the world’s first artificial sweetener. However, it did not become popular until sugar was rationed during World War I, causing people to look for substitutes. Today it is used in everything from zero calorie soft drinks, to medicines and even toothpaste.

Cellophane

In 1900, Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger was trying to create a cloth that could repel liquids by spraying a waterproof coating of viscose onto fabric. In his experiment, the fabric became very stiff and developed a clear film that separated easily from the cloth. Abandoning his original idea, he decided to pursue the clear film and by 1912 he had created cellophane. Cellophane was used for French gas masks in WWI and first used in the United States as a candy wrapper for Whitman’s candy company. In 1924 DuPont created an American factory for cellophane and developed a moisture proof version, creating the cellophane that we use to package food and many other products today.