Eugene Polley Let The World Change Channels Without Getting Up
Today in 1915, the birthday of an inventor who would change our viewing habits for the better: Eugene Polley, who created the first wireless remote control system for TVs.
High Tech Clothes Could Start Your Car Or Pay For Your Groceries
Our wireless, hands-free, automatic, smart device era may be about to get even smarter, thanks to high-tech smart fabric that can send out signals to devices or turn itself into a health monitor.
A Bar Owner Invented The Cash Register Because He Didn’t Trust His Bartenders
Today in 1879, a bar owner in Ohio received a patent for an invention that changed the way we buy and sell things: the cash register. He did it to thwart his bartenders, who he suspected of putting money meant for him in their own pockets.
The Undertaker Who Developed Automatic Phone Dialing
Today in 1892 a phone system that made automated calls - no switchboard operator - began operating in Laporte, Indiana. The first automatic dial network happened, as the story goes, because of a business dispute between two undertakers.
Mollusk Shells Inspire An “Unbreakable” Glass
Glass is versatile stuff, but fragile. A new project out of McGill University is modeled after the material in mollusk shells and could make glass a lot more durable.
Melitta Bentz Gave Coffee Lovers A Filter To Keep The Grounds Out Of Their Drinks
It's International Coffee Day, so here's the story of a woman in Dresden, Germany, who made it a lot easier to brew coffee: Melitta Bentz, the inventor of the coffee filter.
Trischa Zorn, The Swimming Great With 55 Paralympic Medals
The benchmark for Paralympic gold: 55 medals by a single athlete, swimmer Trischa Zorn.
Comic Sans, The Number One Typeface For Virtual Dogs That Help Kids Use Computers
On this anniversary of the release of Windows 95, we look at the origin story of the Comic Sans typeface, which has more haters than most fonts ever get (and a few lovers, too).
Robots Are Trying To Clean Up The Beaches
Summer is beach season, and for those times when people leave litter and other waste behind, there are two separate projects to develop robots to clean up after them.
Twitter’s “Fail Whale” Turned Out To Be A Big Success
Today in 2006, Twttr launched; and in its early days the social media platform gained vowels in its name and fame for a cute whale that would show up during its then-regular outages.