Wayback Wednesday: More Inventions from the Progressive Era

Wayback Wednesday: 

More Inventions from the Progressive Era

Last week I introduced several inventions that patented during the two decades that comprise the Progressive Era, a time period of great social activism, political reform, and technological advances. Here are a few more items that came to fruition between 1900 and 1929:

• Disposable Safety Razor: Most folks living in New England are quite familiar with King Camp Gillette, a traveling hardware salesman who invented the double-edged, disposable safety razor attached to a re-usable razor handle because of the multi-million-dollar company that bears his name and has sponsored the professional football team. Gillette applied for a patent in 1901, and it was granted in 1904.
• Air Conditioning: I had no idea A/C was invented this early in history. Willis Carrier (recognize the

  

  Pixabay/Lucio Alfonso

  name?) actually created his system in 1902 to address quality problems at a Brooklyn printing plant, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company. Humidity and heat were making papers stick together.
• As an HR professional, much of the paperwork that I dispose of gets shredded because of its confidential nature. This handy device is credited to inventor Abbot Augustus Law of Horseshoe, New York. His patent for a "waste paper receptacle" to offer an improved method of disposing of waste paper received a U.S. patent on August 31, 1909.

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  Pixabay/Dimitiry

  Binder Clip: Another office product many of you are familiar with was invented in 1911 by Washington, D.C., resident Louis E. Baltzley to help his father, Edwin, a prolific writer and inventor, keep manuscripts in order. The original design was modified five times, but the essential mechanism has never changed.
• Masking tape was invented in 1925, by Richard G. Drew, an employee of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M). He filed U.S. patent #1,760,820 on May 28, 1928, and was issued to him on May 27, 1930. You may remember another 3M invention: the post-it, that was the result of a mistake.
• Kool-Aid: Invented in 1927 by Edwin Perkins of Hastings, Nebraska who had come up with a a method of removing the liquid from a drink called "Fruit Smack." He re-packaged the powder in envelopes and called it "Kool-Ade."

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Love and Chocolate

She just needs a job. He wants a career. Is there room in their hearts for love?

Ilsa Krause and her siblings are stunned to discover their father left massive debt behind upon his death. To help pay off their creditors and save the farm, she takes a job at Beck’s Chocolates, the company her father despised and refused to supply with milk. Then she discovers her boss is Ernst Webber, her high school love who unceremoniously dumped her via letter from college. Could life get any more difficult?

A freshly-minted university diploma in his hand, Ernst Webber lands his dream job at Beck’s Chocolates. His plans to work his way up the ladder don’t include romantic entanglements, then Ilsa Krause walks back into his life resurrecting feelings he thought long dead. However, her animosity makes it clear she has no interest in giving him a second chance. Can he get her to change her mind? Does he want to?

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