It is not uncommon to hear about the history of the invention that laziness helped a person overcome himself and come up with something that no one even suspected. So the first webcam in history was created in 1991 in the computer laboratory of the University of Cambridge with the sole purpose of seeing if there was coffee left in the coffee maker located at the other end of the building, so that it was not in vain to go to it. But no less stimulant is the overcoming of restrictions. Here are some examples based on the materials of the site .
The automatic telephone exchange (PBX) was invented by Kansas City funeral director Almon Strowger. According to the inventor himself, one day he noticed that the number of phone calls to his company had dropped dramatically. It turned out that a local telephone operator was transferring calls to her husband’s company, Strowger’s competitor. This prompted him to think that telephone operators should be replaced by automation. At the end of the 19th century, Strowger managed to patent and establish mass production of automatic telephone exchanges.
It is known that if a pig has a lot of piglets, one or two will certainly die. Not enough food or attention for everyone. To save the loser piglets, the Canadian company Pharmatic has created a special robot. He not only warms and waters the piglets by the hour with milk, but also … grunts. Moreover, it is different when he calls his pets for feeding and when he feeds them. Production trials of these sow robots have been very successful. The robot saves tens of thousands of dollars by saving weak piglets.
Another case when laziness helped a person to do a seemingly small thing, but without which it is hard to do these days.
Sticky yellow papers appeared as a result of the fact that the bookmarks in the book of psalms fell out all the time. The story began with an unsuccessful experiment to increase the durability of the adhesive. In 1968, a research lab employee at 3M was trying to improve the quality of duct tape. He received a dense glue that was not absorbed into the glued surfaces and was completely useless for the production of adhesive tape. The researcher didn’t know how to use the new kind of glue. Four years later, a colleague who sang in the church choir in his spare time was annoyed that the bookmarks in the Psalm book kept falling out. Then he remembered about the glue, which could fix paper bookmarks without damaging the pages of the book. In 1980, Post-it Notes were first released for sale.
The French physician René Laennecombe (1781–1826) invented the stethoscope when he felt it was inconvenient to press the ear against the chest of patients with oversized busts.
And now a little about the engineering approach. Did you know?
LEGO plastics contain barium sulfate.
This salt does not dissolve in water, which makes it non-toxic to the body, and is clearly visible on x-rays. This way, if a child swallows a part, it will be easy to find it from these pictures.
Telephony as the principle of transmitting information by voice over long distances was known even before the new era. The Persian king Cyrus (VI century BC) had 30,000 people in the service for this purpose, called “royal ears”. Settled on the tops of hills and watchtowers within earshot of each other, they transmitted messages intended for the king and his orders. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) testifies that in a day news was transmitted by such a telephone over a distance of a thirty-day transition.
Clocks run clockwise—left to right—because that’s the direction the sundial’s shadow moves.
One day, Swiss engineer Georges de Mistral had an epiphany during a routine operation – when he took out a burdock from his dog’s fur. After that, he worked on the idea of Velcro for 13 years.
The metronome, which sets the rhythm by swinging, was invented specifically for the deaf Beethoven.
Provide examples to inspire students here .