Who Knew? Human Tales Behind Useful Inventions BY ALANA
HOROWITZ FROM BUSINESS INSIDER Bendable Straw Sitting in his brother's soda
shop, Joseph Friedman observed his daughter as she struggled to drink a milk
shake through a straight paper straw. An inventor, he thought of a way to help
her out and fix this drinking conundrum for good. Friedman decided to insert a
screw into the straw and wrap it with floss to create a ribbed texture. When he
removed the screw, the straw bent over the rim of the glass, and his daughter
was able to drink her milk shake with ease. Friedman patented his idea in 1937
and founded the Flexible Straw Corporation (which was later renamed the
Flex-Straw Company) in 1939. He sold the patent rights to the Maryland Cup
Corporation, which now sells about 500 million of the straws every year.
Upright Paper Bag In the 1860s, Margaret Knight was working in a paper-bag
factory when she noticed how difficult it was to pack things into the flimsy,
shapeless sacks. So she decided to invent a handy machine that folded and glued
paper to make a flat-bottomed bag. Unfortunately, Knight couldn't obtain a
patent until she made her very own prototype of the device out of iron.
Meanwhile, Charles Annan-an employee who worked at the shop building Knight's
prototype-copied her idea and got a patent for it. Knight sued Annan for
copyright infringement. Annan had argued that because Knight was a woman, she
couldn't have been the true inventor. But Knight's sketches won her the case.
To protect her ideas, she made her own paper-bag company. Intermittent Wipers
On a rainy night in 1963, engineer Robert Kearns tried to squint through the
sporadic showers that blurred his windshield. In the 1960s, windshield wipers
typically had two settings, high and low. If rain wasn't steady, driving could
be extremely difficult. Kearns wondered why windshield wipers couldn't react
like blinking human eyes and respond to all kinds of precipitation. He built a
model of his idea, patented it in 1967, and sent it to the major American car
companies, but none bit. However, they suddenly started to use his wipers in
their cars without asking for his approval. After battling Ford, Chrysler, and
other manufacturers, Kearns won more than $30 million. Pop-Top Soda Can E rnie
Fraze, the owner of a machine tool company, was attending a picnic in 1959 when
he realized he didn't bring a can opener, a tool necessary to open the fully
sealed flat-top soft drinks that were popular in the 1950s. The result: He had
to pry them open using a car bumper. Later that year, he designed a pop-top can
that could be opened with a removable tab. Eventually, his company began
mass-producing these cans for soft drink and brewing companies. By 1980,
Fraze's company was making more than $500 million in annual revenue from his
invention. Shoe Scale The son of a shoemaker, Charlie Brannock wanted to figure
out the best way to measure feet and, in turn, help his father's business. The
only way to determine shoe sizes in the early 1900s was by using an inaccurate
wooden block. While attending Syracuse University, Brannock used a toy
construction set to build a prototype of a device that accurately measured foot
size. The Brannock device has since become a staple for shoe stores all over.
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