Have you ever wondered what the first versions of everyday appliances like refrigerators or dryers looked like when they were first invented?
1. Vacuum Cleaner
The first vacuum cleaner was launched in 1901.
The first vacuum cleaner was patented by inventor Hubert Cecil Booth in 1901 and it only served the purpose of blowing dust away. Later, a more compact vacuum cleaner with a dust bag was invented in 1907 by William Henry Hoover.
2. Washing Machine
This device was officially patented in 1910.
In 1908, Alva John Fisher invented the world’s first electric washing machine, introduced by the Hurley Machine Company in Chicago, Illinois. This device was officially patented in 1910 and was named “Thor,” featuring rollers to wring out wet clothes.
3. Light Bulb
Early light bulbs.
The light bulb originated in the 1800s, many decades before Thomas Edison patented this world-changing device in 1879. It is known that the origins of the light bulb trace back to the electrical innovations of Italian inventor Alessandro Volta, who invented the electric battery.
Inventors continued to experiment with products in the following decades, and by 1879, Thomas Edison was awarded the patent for the first commercially successful light bulb.
4. Landline Telephone
Graham Bell and his world-changing invention.
The first telephone was patented by inventor Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. According to records, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call from New York City to Chicago in 1892. His original telephone design included a transmitter to convert vibrations from his voice into electrical signals and a receiver to capture them.
5. Television
Early television had a very small screen.
The first generation television was invented in the 1920s. At that time, the screen size was less than half the size of a credit card.
After many research and improvements over the years, screens gradually became color and larger. Initially, viewers controlled the device with a manual knob and there was only one broadcast channel available.
6. Automobile
The wooden horse-drawn carriage with an engine is the precursor to modern cars.
The first electric car was designed by French engineer Gustave Trouvé in 1880 by attaching an electric motor to his tricycle. In 1881, two British engineers, William Ayrton and John Perry, created a similar electric three-wheeled vehicle. In the United States, it wasn’t until 1889-1891 that William Morrison invented the first automobile.
7. Microwave Oven
The microwave oven was accidentally invented during an experiment.
The microwave was accidentally invented when engineer Percy Lebaron Spencer was experimenting with a magnetron. After Spencer built a metal box around the device and found that it could heat food faster than an oven, he filed for a patent for this oven in 1945.
