My personal Nobel
In this season of distributing Nobel Prizes, I wish one could go to Bernard D. Sadow, truly one of humanity’s great benefactors. For years, as I quickly roll my suitcase the length of airport concourses, I have been quietly blessing the man who thought of equipping it with wheels.
Mr. Sadow, I just learned, is that man.
“Many thousands of years ago, there were two important inventions, the wheel and the sack,” Joe Sharkey wrote on Tuesday in the New York Times. “I can’t help wondering why it took so long to put rollers on that sack to create wheeled luggage.”
Sharkey’s travel column recounts the history of Mr. Sadow’s bright idea, its relationship to the switch from train stations with their porters to air terminals with their distant gates. More women traveling alone are part of the story; so is the resistance of macho male suitcase luggers.
Mr. Sadow’s innovative suitcases were large, had four wheels and a strap, and were towed flat. So he should probably share the Nobel for Preventing Suitcase Elbow with Robert Plath, the pilot who invented the two-wheeled Rollaboard, an upright model with a telescoping handle. “Let’s also give three cheers to the flight attendants,” Joe Sharkey adds, “the early adopters who showed the rest of us how to carry a suitcase sensibly.”
Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/business/05road.html?_r=1&ref=business-travel
Sorry. The Q-Tip invented by Leo Gerstenzang. You can’t scratch the inside of your ear with a suitcase wheel. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)
Scissors. Egyptians, 1500 B.C. Cutting edge technology.
Microwave Oven. This has done more to improve my quality of life than any innovation I can think of. Made by Percy Spencer, who never graduated high school, but held 150 patents at the time of his death. Runner up would be Chef Boiardi (Chef Boyardee) of Ohio for the joy he gives my children.
The paper clip, the stapler, the rubber band, the graphite pencil…simple, effective, elegant aids to record keeping and record management that decidely hi-tech aids (i.e., computers) have been unable to make obsolete.
For the animal lovers here, retractable dog leashes and doggie doors
As to real Nobels, all supporters of human rights and freedom should salute today’s announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee’s has selected imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo as this year’s recipient.
China’s petulant response, as reported by the AP, underscores the Chinese leaders’ fear of the truth that this one man represents:
“Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news and Chinese government censors blocked Nobel Prize reports from Internet websites. China declared the decision would harm its relations with Norway — and the Nordic country responded that was a petty thing for a world power to do.”
Amen, Bill C. !
I vote for Saran Wrap (Ralph Wiley) and stickie notes:
The Post-it® Note was invented as a solution without a problem: Dr. Spencer Silver developed a unique, repositionable adhesive, but the 3M scientist didn’t know what to do with his discovery. Then, six years later, a colleague of Dr. Silver, Art Fry, remembered the light adhesive when he was daydreaming about a bookmark that would stay put in his church hymnal. The rest is history. http://www.post-it.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Post_It/Global/Home/About/?WT.mc_id=www.3m.com/us/office/postit/pastpresent/