1. Toothbrush
William Addis (1734–1808) was an English entrepreneur believed to have produced the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780. Addis was born in 1734 in England, probably in Clerkenwell, London. In 1770, Addis had been jailed for causing a riot in Spitalfields. While in prison, and observing the use of a broom to sweep the floor, he decided that the prevalent method used to clean teeth at the time – crushed shell or soot – with a cloth was ineffective and could be improved. To that end, he saved a small animal bone left over from the meal he had eaten the previous night, into which he drilled small holes. He then obtained some bristles from one of his guards, which he tied in tufts that he then passed through the holes in the bone, and which he finally sealed with glue. After his release, he started a business that would manufacture the toothbrushes he had built, and he soon became very rich. He died in 1808, and left the business to his eldest son, also called William, and it stayed in family ownership until 1996. Under the name Wisdom Toothbrushes, the company now manufactures 70 million toothbrushes per year in the UK. By 1840 toothbrushes were being mass-produced in England, France, Germany, and Japan http://bit.ly/2FeSxdE
2. Zipper
Judson’s metal zipper fastener device was called a "clasp-locker" in his day, not a zipper — which name came into existence many years after his death. The "clasp locker" was a complicated hook-and-eye fastener with an arrangement of hooks a nd eyes run by a "guide" for closing and opening a clothing item. The first application was as a shoe fastener and there is mention in the patents for possible applications for corsets, gloves, mail bags, and "generally wherever it is desired to detachably connect a pair adjacent flexible parts." It is also said one of the reasons he invented this device was to relieve the tedium of fastening high button boots that were fashionable in those days.
3. Air Conditioner
Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950) was an American engineer, best known for being the Inventor of Air Conditioner.
Carrier, the inventor of air conditioner, invented the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. In 1915, he founded Carrier Corporation, a company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
4. Traffic Signal
The first American-made automobiles were introduced to consumers just before the turn of the twentieth century, and pedestrians, bicycles, animal-drawn wagons and motor vehicles all had to share the same roads. To deal with the growing problem of traffic accidents, a number of versions of traffic signaling devices began to be developed, starting around 1913.
Morgan had witnessed a serious accident at an intersection, and he filed a patent for traffic control device having a third "warning" position in 1922. The patent was granted in 1923,though this was not the first system with a warning, a three light system being invented in 1920 by William Potts, and previous systems having audible warnings.
Morgan sold the rights to General Electric for $40,000
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 [sometimes given as 1879] – July 27, 1963) was an important inventor, businessmen of both African American and Native American heritages, as well as an influential political leader. Morgan's most notable invention was the gas mask originally named "smoke hood". Morgan also discovered and developed a chemical hair-processing and straightening solution. He created a successful company based on the discovery along with a complete line of hair-care products.
5. Ballpoint Pen
László József Bíró (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈlaːsloː ˈjoːʒɛf ˈbiːroː]) or Ladislao José Biro (born as László József Schweiger, 29 September 1899 – 24 October 1985) was a Hungarian-Argentine inventor, who patented the first commercially successful modern ballpoint pen. The first ball point pen was invented roughly fifty years earlier by John J. Loud but it did not attain commercial success.
While working as a journalist Biró noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He tried using the same ink in a fountain pen but found that it would not flow into the tip, as it was too viscous.
Birome presented the first production of the ballpoint pen at the Budapest International Fair in 1931. Working with his brother György, a chemist, he developed a new tip consisting of a ball that was free to turn in a socket, and as it turned it would pick up ink from a cartridge and then roll to deposit it on the paper. Bíró patented the invention in Paris in 1938.
During World War II, Bíró fled the Nazis with his brother, moving to Argentina in 1943. On 10 June, they filed another patent, issued in the US as 2,390,636 Writing Instrument,and formed Biro Pens of Argentina (in Argentina the ballpoint pen is known as birome). This new design was supposedly licensed for production in the United Kingdom for supply to Royal Air Force aircrew.
In 1945, Marcel Bich bought the patent from Bíró for the pen, which soon became the main product of his BIC company, which has sold more than 100 billion ballpoint pens worldwide. In November of that same year, promoter Milton Reynolds introduced a gravity-fed pen to the U.S. market, to try and get around Biro's patent, which was based on capillary action, where fresh ink is drawn out of the reservoir of the pen as ink is deposited on the paper. Because the Reynolds workaround depended on a gravity feed, it did not infringe, but required thinner ink and a larger barrel. The Reynolds Pen was a sensation for a few years, until its reputation for leaking and competition from established pen manufacturers overtook it.
6. Velcro
The fastener consisted of two components: a lineal fabric strip with tiny hooks that could "mate" with another fabric strip with smaller loops, attaching temporarily, until pulled apart. Initially made of cotton, which proved impractical, the fastener was eventually constructed with nylon and polyester.
De Mestral gave the name Velcro, a portmanteau of the French words velour ("velvet") and crochet ("hook"), to his invention as well as his company, which continues to manufacture and market the fastening system.
7. Effervescent Pills
William Erastus Upjohn (June 15, 1853 – October 18, 1932) was an American medical doctor, founder and president of The Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. He was named Person of the Century by the Kalamazoo, Michigan, newspaper.
Before this invention, people used to take medications in the form of powders or drops. In 1880, Upjohn invented a pill that dissolves easily in the stomach. Four years later, he created a machine to produce the pills in large quantities, and in 1886 founded the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company. The company existed for more than a century, and in 1995 it merged with the Swiss Pharmacia. Subsequently, this company was bought by Pfizer.
