history of the soap

Myth has it that in 1,000 B.C. soap was discovered on Sappo Hill in Rome by a group of women rinsing their clothes in the river at the base of a hill, below a higher elevation where animal sacrifice had taken place.  They noticed the clothes coming clean as they came in contact with the soapy clay oozing down the hill and into the water. They later discovered that this same cleansing substance was formed when animal fat was soaked down through the wood ashes and into the clay soil.
Factually, we know that soap has been around for about 2,800 years.  The earliest known evidence of soap use are Babylonian clay cylinders dating from 2800 BC containing a soap-like substance. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.
The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving.
According to Pliny the Elder, the Phoenicians prepared it from goat's tallow and wood ashes in 600 BC and sometimes used it as an article of barter with the Gauls.   The word "soap" appears first in a European language in Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes, but the only use he mentions for it is as a pomade for hair; he mentions rather disapprovingly that among the Gauls and Germans, men are likelier to use it than women
Soap was widely known in the Roman Empire; whether the Romans learned its use and manufacture from ancient Mediterranean peoples or from the Celts, inhabitants of Britannia, is not known.  Early Romans made soaps in the first century A.D. from urine to make a soaplike substance.  The urine contained ammonium carbonate which reacted with the oils and fat in wool for a partial saponification.  People called fullones walked the city streets collecting urine to sell to the soapmakers.
The Celts, who produced their soap from animal fats and plant ashes, named the product saipo, from which the word soap is derived. The importance of soap for washing and cleaning was apparently not recognized until the 2nd century A.D. ; the Greek physician Galen mentions it as a medicament and as a means of cleansing the body. Previously soap had been used as medicine.
The writings attributed to the 8th-century Arab savant Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) repeatedly mention soap as a cleansing agent. The Arabs made the soap from vegetable oil as olive oil or some aromatic oils such as thyme oil. Sodium Lye (Al-Soda Al-Kawia) NaOH was used for the first time and the formula hasn't changed from the current soap sold in the market. From the beginning of the 7th century soap was produced in Nablus (Palestine), Kufa (Iraq) and Basra (Iraq). Arabian Soap was perfumed and colored, some of the soaps were liquid and others were hard. They also had special soap for shaving. It was commercially sold for 3 Dirhams (0.3 Dinars) a piece in 981 AD.
Historically, soap was made by mixing animal fats with lye. Because of the caustic lye, this was a dangerous procedure (perhaps more dangerous than any present-day home activities) which could result in serious chemical burns or even blindness. Before commercially-produced lye was commonplace, it was produced at home for soap making from the ashes of a wood fire.
In Europe, soap production in the Middle Ages centered first at Marseilles, later at Genoa, then at Venice. Although some soap manufacture developed in Germany, the substance was so little used in central Europe that a box of soap presented to the Duchess of Juelich in 1549 caused a sensation. As late as 1672, when a German, A. Leo, sent Lady von Schleinitz a parcel containing soap from Italy, he accompanied it with a detailed description of how to use the mysterious product.
Castile soap, made entirely from olive oil, was produced in the Kingdom of Castile in Europe as early as the 16th century (about 1616).   Fine sifted alkaline ash of the Salsola species of thistle, called barilla, was boiled with locally available olive oil, instead of tallow. By adding salty brine to the boiled liquor, the soap was made to float to the surface, where it could be skimmed off by the soap-boiler, leaving the excess lye and impurities to settle out.  This produced what was probably the first white hard soap, which hardened further as it was aged, without losing its whiteness, forming jabon de Castila, which eventually became the generic name.
The first English soapmakers appeared at the end of the 12th century in Bristol. In the 13th and 14th centuries, a small community of them grew up in the neighborhood of Cheapside in London. In those days soapmakers had to pay a tax on all the soap they produced. After the Napoleonic Wars this tax rose as high as three pence per pound; soap-boiling pans were fitted with lids that could be locked every night by the tax collector in order to prevent production under cover of darkness. Not until 1853 was this high tax finally abolished, at a sacrifice to the state of over £1,000,000. Before this because of the high cost of soap, ordinary households made do without soap until about 1880, when cheap factory-made soap began to flood the market.  Soap came into such common use in the 19th century that Justus von Liebig, a German chemist, declared that the quantity of soap consumed by a nation was an accurate measure of its wealth and civilization.
Soap was certainly known in England in the sixteenth century but as it was made of fat, and fat was needed for making candles and rushlights, it was always a prerogative of the rich.  When soap was used it was primarily used for cleaning linens and clothes rather than the human body.  Since little emphasis was placed on using soap for bodily cleanliness, people (shall we say) had an "air" about them that they tried to overcome by wearing sachets of herbs around their necks or carrying these sachets in their pockets.  When baths were taken, whether soap was used or not, the bath water was traditionally shared among the family members with the small children being bathed last.  The end result was water so dirty and murky, that a small child could literally be lost in the water - hence the saying "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water".

     Early soapmakers probably used ashes and animal fats. Simple wood or plant ashes containing potassium carbonate were dispersed in water, and fat was added to the solution. This mixture was then boiled; ashes were added again and again as the water evaporated. During this process a slow chemical splitting of the neutral fat took place; the fatty acids could then react with the alkali carbonates of the plant ash to form soap (this reaction is called saponification).

Animal fats containing a percentage of free fatty acids were used by the Celts. The presence of free fatty acids certainly helped to get the process started. This method probably prevailed until the end of the Middle Ages, when slaked lime came to be used to causticize the alkali carbonate. Through this process, chemically neutral fats could be saponified easily with the caustic lye. The production of soap from a handicraft to an industry was helped by the introduction of the Leblanc process for the production of soda ash from brine (about 1790) and by the work of a French chemist, Michel Eugène Chevreul, who in 1823 showed that the process of saponification is the chemical process of splitting fat into the alkali salt of fatty acids (that is, soap) and glycerin.

     The method of producing soap by boiling with open steam, introduced at the end of the 19th century, was another step toward industrialization.   The industrialization of soap making though tended to use more chemically produced ingredients and less natural ingredients, and produced in essence a detergent rather than a soap such as our ancestors used.

     With World War I and the shortages of fats and oils that occurred, people felt compelled to look for a replacement for soap, leading to the invention of synthetic detergents.  These detergents, while being able to clean our clothes effectively, are comprised of harsh chemicals that clean, scent, and coat our clothes.  Unfortunately, many of these synthetic detergents have found their way into our skin care products.  This has caused in some people super sensitivity to these "soaps", rashes, skin irritations, and allergies plus a general drying out of the skin. Increasingly, we are required to use hand creams and lotions to prevent or reduce the dryness and roughness arising from exposure to household detergents, wind, sun, and dry atmospheres. Like facial creams, they act largely by replacing lost water and laying down an oil film to reduce subsequent moisture loss while the body's natural processes repair the damage.

     In modern times, the use of soap has become universal in industrialized nations due to a better understanding of the role of hygiene in reducing the population size of pathogenic microorganisms. Manufactured bar soaps first became available in the late nineteenth century, and advertising campaigns in Europe and the United States helped to increase popular awareness of the relationship between cleanliness and health. By the 1950s, soap had gained public acceptance as an instrument of personal hygiene.

     In recent years, there has been a grassroots return to making "natural" soap in the home.  These cottage industries make soap from ingredients found in nature for its skin care qualities rather than a synthetic soap which relies upon laboratory-made chemicals to make the soap look and feel and act in a certain way.  It is tempting for soap manufacturers to lean toward synthetics and away from natural materials. Synthetics are more stable in more situations and less expensive in the long run unlike the fats and oils which differ slightly from tree to tree and region to region.

     As Susan Miller Cavitch states in her book The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable Based Soaps,

"As we become more and more comfortable with synthetics in all areas of our lives, we run the risk of losing natural defenses and continually needed greater synthetic intervention.  Skin care is but one facet of this phenomenon.  Our skin is remarkably capable of functioning on its own to protect us, but, as we use more and more harsh, foreign substances, we alter the body's chemical makeup and leave our skin without its natural defenses.  We risk becoming dependent on stronger and stronger synthetics to take the place of the body's natural systems.  We must each, as individuals, decide which route to go - the way of nature or the way of the lab."

Some individuals have chosen not to use the commercial "soaps" and continue to make soap in the home. The traditional name "soaper", for a soapmaker, is still used by those who make soap as a hobby. Those who make their own soaps are also known as soapcrafters.  Many of these soapcrafters have expanded their soap making from a hobby basis to a business basis to make natural soap more available to the public at large.  Many come up with their own recipes using different butters and essential oils to help those with sensitive skin or who just want to pamper their skin so that it retains its elasticity, moisture, and smoothness.
The most popular soap making processes today is the cold process method, where fats such as olive oil react with lye. Soapmakers sometimes use the melt and pour process, where a premade soap base is melted and poured in individual molds. Some soapers also practice other processes, such as the historical hot process, and make special soaps such as clear soap (aka glycerin soap).
Handmade soap differs from industrial soap in that, usually, an excess of fat is used to consume the alkali (superfatting), and in that the glycerin is not removed. Superfatted soap, soap which contains excess fat, is more skin-friendly than industrial soap; though, if not properly formulated, it can leave users with a "greasy" feel to their skin. Often, emollients such as jojoba oil or shea butter are added 'at trace' (the point at which the saponification process is sufficiently advanced that the soap has begun to thicken), after most of the oils have saponified, so that they remain unreacted in the finished soap.

     Natural soapcrafters today have many different ingredients to select from to produce wonderful and varied soap bars.  These ingredients consist of:

• base oils available in today's market such as coconut oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, castor oil, cottonseed oil, olive oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, peanut oil and soybean oil
• various butters like shea butter, mango butter, and cocoa butter for extra moisturizing capabilities
• other nutrients such as sweet almond oil, avocado oil, aloe vera, calendula oil, carrot root oil, various clays, and seaweed
• essential oils including peppermint, eucalyptus, spearmint, chamomile, geranium, rosemary, lavender, etc for scenting and therapeutic effects
• and various herbs and spices for color

Soapmakers today can produce artistic therapeutic soap bars high in moisturizers for the discerning soap shopper.

history of duct tape

Duct tape was invented over sixty years ago and nowadays, has an almost cult like following of users from housewives to soldiers. There are thousands of things you can fix with duct tape. It is strong, sturdy and durable.
It was developed for the military during World War as a way to keep moisture out of ammunition boxes and, some say, was originally called “duck tape” because of its moisture resisting properties. Others claim its name relates to the cotton duck from which it was made. As were soldiers tarpaulins, tents, ponchos and other equipment at this time. Whatever the origin of its name, soldiers soon started using it for a variety of purposes other than on ammo boxes such as quickly repairing military equipment like guns, jeeps, and even aircraft.
The name duct tape came to be used after the war at which time its color was also changed from army green to silver and nowadays, you can buy it in a variety of colors. During the housing boom people started using duct tape for many purposes including using to seal heating and air conditioning ducts during construction. Hence the new name “duct tape”.
Duct tape consists of 3 layers. The top layer is a resilient plastic (Polyethylene). The middle layer is a fabric mesh, which facilitates tearing. And the bottom layer is a rubber-based adhesive. The 3 layers are pressed together during manufacture.
Duct tape is commonly used in situations where a strong, flexible adhesive is required, especially where exposure to the elements is a concern. But over the years it has been used for a multitude of more zany situations including:
- repairing flat tires- making women’s dresses, pants, shoes and hats- restraining unruly prisoners- making Christmas decorations- making tennis balls behave like cricket balls- as a temporary bandage- temporarily repairing spacecraft
The number of uses to which duct tape can be put is often a source of humor. Many are described by the Duct Tape Guys (Jim Berg and Tim Nyberg) who, as of 2005, have written 7 books about duct tape. Such is the cult following of duct tape fans that their books have sold over 1.5 million copies.
Interestingly, duct tape is not actually very good in the situation after which it has been named. In fact, its use in ducts has been prohibited by the state of California and by building codes in most other places in the U.S.
Duct tape’s widespread popularity and multitude of uses has earned it a strong place in popular culture and there are now festivals and contests dedicated to it.
Duck Products sponsors an annual competition that offers a college scholarship to the person who creates the most stylish prom formal wear made from duct tape. This has led to increasing interest in creating novelty and fashion pieces such as designer duct tape handbags, wallets, belts and related items. Various companies, like Duct Bills and Duct Tape Revolution now make wallets, bags and other accessories from the tape.
Its strength, low cost, and remarkable versatility make duck tape a household staple throughout the USA for temporary repairs and general-purpose use. That, alongside it’s rabid fan base means it’s set to be around for at least another 60 years.

history of scissors

Scissors are hand-operated cutting instruments. They consist of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting various thin materials, such as paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin plastic, cloth, rope and wire. Scissors can also be used to cut hair and food. Scissors and shears are functionally equivalent, but larger implements tend to be called shears.
There are many types of scissors and shears for different purposes. For example, children's scissors, used only on paper, have dull blades and rounded corners to ensure safety. Scissors used to cut hair or fabric must be much sharper. The largest shears used to cut metal or to trim shrubs must have very strong, sharp blades.
Specialized scissors include sewing scissors, which often have one sharp point and one blunt point for intricate cutting of fabric, and nail scissors, which sometimes have curved blades for cutting fingernails and toenails.
Special kinds of shears include pinking shears, which have notched blades that cut cloth to give it a wavy edge, and thinning shears, which have teeth that cut every second hair strand, rather than every strand giving the illusion of thinner hair.
The noun "scissors" is treated as a plural noun, and therefore takes a plural verb ("these scissors are"). Alternatively, this tool is also referred to as "a pair of scissors", in which case it (a pair) is singular and therefore takes a singular verb ("this pair of scissors is").
The word shears is used to describe similar instruments that are larger in size and for heavier cutting. Geographical opinions vary as to the size at which 'scissors' become 'shears', but this is often at between six to eight inches in length.
It is most likely that scissors were invented around 1500 BC in ancient Egypt.The earliest known scissors appeared in Mesopotamia 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. These were of the 'spring scissor' type comprising two bronze blades connected at the handles by a thin, flexible strip of curved bronze which served to hold the blades in alignment, to allow them to be squeezed together, and to pull them apart when released.
Spring scissors continued to be used in Europe until the sixteenth century. However, pivoted scissors of bronze or iron, in which the blades were pivoted at a point between the tips and the handles, the direct ancestor of modern scissors, were invented by the Romans around AD 100. They entered common use not only in ancient Rome, but also in China, Japan, and Korea, and the idea is still used in almost all modern scissors.
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, spring scissors were made by heating a bar of iron or steel, then flattening and shaping its ends into blades on an anvil. The center of the bar was heated, bent to form the spring, then cooled and reheated to make it flexible.
William Whiteley & Sons (Sheffield) Ltd. is officially recognized as first starting the manufacture of scissors in the year 1760, although it is believed the business began trading even earlier. The first trade-mark, 332, was granted in 1791.

Pivoted scissors were not manufactured in large numbers until 1761, when Robert Hinchliffe produced the first pair of modern-day scissors made of hardened and polished cast steel. He lived in Cheney Square, London and was reputed to be the first person who put out a signboard proclaiming himself "fine scissor manufacturer".
During the nineteenth century, scissors were hand-forged with elaborately decorated handles. They were made by hammering steel on indented surfaces known as bosses to form the blades. The rings in the handles, known as bows, were made by punching a hole in the steel and enlarging it with the pointed end of an anvil.
In 1649, in a part of Sweden that is now in Finland, an ironworks was founded in the "Fiskars" hamlet between Helsinki and Turku. In 1830, a new owner started the first cutlery works in Finland, making, among other items, scissors with the Fiskars trademark. In 1967, Fiskars Corporation introduced new methods to scissors manufacturing.
A pair of scissors consists of two pivoted blades. In lower quality scissors the cutting edges are not particularly sharp; it is primarily the shearing action between the two blades that cuts the material. In high quality scissors the blades can be both extremely sharp, and tension sprung - to increase the cutting and shearing tension only at the exact point where the blades meet. The hand movement (pushing with the thumb, pulling with the fingers in right handed use) can add to this tension. An ideal example is in high quality tailors scissors or shears, which need to be able perfectly cut (and not simply tear apart) delicate cloths such as chiffon and silk.
Children's scissors are usually not particularly sharp, and the tips of the blades are often blunted or 'rounded' for safety.
Mechanically, scissors are a first-class double-lever with the pivot acting as the fulcrum. For cutting thick or heavy material, the mechanical advantage of a lever can be exploited by placing the material to be cut as close to the fulcrum as possible. For example, if the applied force (i.e., the hand) is twice as far away from the fulcrum as the cutting location (e.g., piece of paper), the force at the cutting location is twice that of the applied force at the handles. Scissors cut material by applying a local shear stress at the cutting location which exceeds the material's shear strength.
Specialized scissors, such as bolt cutters, exploit leverage by having a long handle but placing the material to be cut close to the fulcrum.
For people who do not have the use of their hands, there are specially designed foot operated scissors. Some quadriplegics can use a motorized mouth-operated style of scissor.
Kitchen scissors, also known as kitchen shears, are traditionally used in the kitchen for food preparation, although due to their tough nature they can serve many other purposes. In modern times they are often made from stainless steel (for food hygiene and oxidization-resistance reasons). They often have kitchen functionality (other than cutting) incorporated, such as bottle-cap and bottle-openers built into the handles.
Most scissors are best-suited for use with the right hand, but left-handed scissors are designed for use with the left hand. Because scissors have overlapping blades, they are not symmetric. This asymmetry is true regardless of the orientation and shape of the handles: the blade that is on top always forms the same diagonal regardless of orientation. Human hands are also asymmetric, and when closing, the thumb and fingers do not close vertically, but have a lateral component to the motion. Specifically, the thumb pushes out and fingers pull inwards. For right-handed scissors held in the right hand, the thumb blade is further from the user's body, so that the natural tendency of the right hand is to force the cutting blades together. Conversely, if right-handed scissors are held in the left hand, the natural tendency of the left hand would be to force the cutting blades laterally apart. Furthermore, with right-handed scissors held by the right-hand, the shearing edge is visible, but when used with the left hand the cutting edge of the scissors is behind the top blade, and one cannot see what is being cut.
Some scissors are marketed as ambidextrous. These have symmetric handles so there is no distinction between the thumb and finger handles, and have very strong pivots so that the blades simply rotate and do not have any lateral give. However, most "ambidextrous" scissors are in fact still right-handed in that the upper blade is on the right, and hence is on the outside when held in the right hand. Even if they successfully cut, the blade orientation will block the view of the cutting line for a left-handed person. True ambidextrous scissors are possible if the blades are double-edged and one handle is swung all the way around (to almost 360 degrees) so that the back of the blades become the new cutting edges. Patents have been awarded for true ambidextrous scissors.

history of toothbrush

The Chinese were believed to create the first real toothbrush, or a device that was used to clean teeth, but it was much different than the ones that we are used to today. These first toothbrushes, crafted in the 1400s, did not use nylon for bristles, or plastic for the handles. They were crafted from bamboo, one of the most common plants from that area. The bamboo formed the handle for people to hold on to. Attached to this handle was a set of bristles, which were crafted from the tough hair of the Siberian wild boar. The hairs used came from the back of the neck of this animal. This is the toothbrush associated with having been the ancestor of the one that we use today.
However, there is evidence that there was another form of the toothbrush dating up to 3000 years before the birth of Christ. Due to this, the history of the toothbrush proves that this device is one of the oldest still used by man, only truly outdated by the wheel. This form of the toothbrush was found within pyramids of the Egyptians. These toothbrushes were crafted from a stick. Unlike the Chinese version of the toothbrush, the end of the stick was flayed so that the fibers of the wood were more soft. This stick was then rubbed against the teeth to serve as a form of oral hygiene. This form of the toothbrush did not become far spread as the Chinese version.
The Chinese version of the toothbrush spread to Europe, where the Siberian wild boar took the brunt of the growing popularity of the invention. The only downside to the hairs of the Siberian wild boar was the fact that it was very rough on the gums. On account of this, some people began to use the hairs found on the backs of horses to craft the bristles on their brushes, as this was much easier on their gums and teeth. Despite the added softness of the horse hair bristles, the boar hairs were more commonly used, as horses were too valuable to Europeans during this period of time.
The boar hair toothbrush continued to be used until the early 1900s. In 1937, nylon was created in the Du Pont laboratories by Wallace H. Carothers. This invention forever changed the history of the toothbrush, as well as every other device that required a fibrous material, including ropes. In 1938, Nylon became the sign of modernization, from the creation of nylon stockings to Dr. West's first nylon toothbrush. This brush was called Dr. West's Miracle Toothbrush. Even with this breakthrough in the toothbrush, it wasn't until World War II that Americans began to take oral hygiene more seriously. This was a direct result of the war. This influence spurred on the development of better toothbrushes.
Toothpaste & Whiteners
Another aspect of toothbrush history that should be taken into account is toothpaste and other whiteners. These are usually used with the toothbrush in order to make certain that the teeth and breath were acceptable. The concept of toothpaste and mouth washes is pretty old - almost as old as the Egyptians toothbrush. The earliest known toothpaste was created by the Egyptians. It was said to contain a drachma of rock salt, two drachmas of mint, one drachma of dried iris flowers and 20 grains of pepper. This was then crushed and mixed together to form a powder. When mixed with saliva and applied to the teeth, it would help whiten and clean your teeth. When experimented with by an Australian dentist, the mixture worked far better than anything else created until the twenty first century. The only downside was the fact that it caused his gums to bleed.
In the 18th Century, the next recorded version of toothpaste occurred. This mixture called for dragon's blood, cinnamon and burn alum. This mixture tends to be more of an amusement for many scientists, as there is no proof that 'dragon's' existed. What may have really been considered to be dragon's blood is unknown.
The 19th Century saw a lot of innovations to toothpaste, although many of them would be repulsive compared to what we are used to today. Charcoal, for example, was used to clean teeth. Most of the toothpastes of this time were powders that became a paste when introduced to saliva. A lot of these different toothpastes were designed to both clean teeth and give the user better breath. This is where the modern idea for toothpaste came of, and one of the turn points in the history of toothpaste. The combination of these pastes and the toothbrush worked to ensure that there was a higher chance of cleaner and healthier teeth and gums.
It wasn't until the 1900s that toothpastes evolved to be more modern. Colgate, and many other toothpaste companies, worked to design toothpastes that tasted good while providing the means to clean teeth while not causing gums to bleed. Many ingredients are now used in toothpastes, with Fluoride being one of the most common. There are a wide variety of 'herbal' toothpastes as well, which do not contain this component. Each of these types are designed to fit the needs and wants of every type of person out there. This high level of choice is the primary evolution of toothpastes. While only a few were available as early as the Egyptian days, now there is something for everyone.
The combination of the toothpaste and modern toothbrush gives everyone the oral hygiene and dental health that they need to be able to have the sparkling teeth that is desired by so many. This combination also helps prevent the loss of your teeth later in life, so that dentures are not required as early. The history of the toothbrush and toothpaste shouldn't be looked down upon, as the options used back then were no where near as pleasant as the types available today.

history of toothpick

Charles Forster was a marketing genius who might have sold a side of beef to a vegetarian. He was born in 1826 in Charlestown, Mass., into an old and aristocratic New England family. While working for his uncle's import/export business in Brazil, he noticed that the natives had beautiful teeth, which he attributed to their use of handcrafted toothpicks. At a time when virtually everything was becoming mass produced, Forster vowed to make a fortune producing wooden toothpicks so cheaply by machine that he could export them to South America.
Forster himself was not mechanically inclined, but he had the business savvy to acquire the rights to a patent that gave him a monopoly on a toothpick-making process. It was a byproduct of the work of Boston inventor Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant, whose own passion was making shoes by machine. At the time, most shoes were put together with wooden pegs, and the weak link in the operation was supplying pegs of uniform quality. This led Sturtevant to concentrate on producing long strips of knife-edged veneer from which pegs could be sliced off. Forster saw that toothpicks could be made in much the same way, and by 1870, his operation was capable of producing millions of toothpicks per day. But he could not find a market for them in Boston.
The Yankee tradition was to whittle a toothpick on demand. It did not make sense to spend money on something one could make for oneself, let alone for something that would be used once and then discarded. But Forster came up with ingenious marketing schemes.
He first targeted stationers, who dealt in small items. When he could not place his product in their stores, he hired personable young people to go to those same retailers and ask for wooden toothpicks. Naturally, the retailers had to turn away the potential customers. Shortly afterward, Forster would make return visits to the stores, where he easily sold his wares. To reinforce the wisdom of the shopkeeper's decision, Forster's shills soon came back to ask again for toothpicks, and this time the sales were made. The boxes of toothpicks were then returned to Forster, who could resell them to the retailer, who now was prepared to talk them up to real customers.
To get toothpicks into restaurants, Forster hired Harvard men. After they had finished dining on Forster's dime at a local establishment, such as the Union Oyster House, they demanded wooden toothpicks. When they were told none were available, the students raised a ruckus and vowed never to eat there again. Naturally, when Forster came around some days hence, the restaurant manager purchased boxes of toothpicks to distribute to his customers.
Once wooden toothpicks became readily available in restaurants, diners picked them up on their way out and used them for their intended purpose. After they were used to clean the teeth, the toothpicks had a further use. Chewing toothpicks in public soon became fashionable among well-to-do men, and after a while young women began taking up the practice. One Bostonian observed that at lunchtime "nearly every third woman met in the vicinity of Winter and West streets has a toothpick between her lips." This ostentatious primary and secondary toothpick usage in the 1870s served to further the general desire for toothpicks.
It was a common observation of the time that many of the young men standing in front of a good hotel chewing toothpicks were suggesting they had eaten in its fine dining room, when in fact they could not afford to do so. In time, chewing a toothpick anywhere became a sign of contentment and insouciance. In his Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain described feeling that he knew the river so well that he found himself cocking his cap and "wearing a toothpick" while at the wheel of his riverboat.
Thus, the toothpick took on a life of its own, serving not only as a utilitarian object but also as a status symbol and even as an accessory. While Charles Forster may never have dreamed that his toothpicks would have such unintended ancillary uses, he would no doubt have welcomed them as extensions of his initial marketing efforts.
The phenomenon known as "usage drift" actually began a long time before Forster was making toothpicks. In 16^th-century Portugal, there was an order of nuns that supported itself by making and selling confections that were sticky to the fingers and tacky to the teeth. Perhaps to maintain, and even increase, demand for their sweets, the nuns began to make wooden toothpicks, which served not only to clean the teeth after eating but also to pick up the morsels without touching them.

history of toilet

Unlike body functions as dance, drama and songs, defecation is considered very lowly. As a result very few scholars documented precisely the toilet habits of our predecessors. The Nobel Prize winner for Medicine (1913) Charles Richet attributes this silence to the disgust that arises from noxiousness and lack of usefulness of human waste. Others point out that as sex organs are the same or nearer to the organs of defecation, those who dared to write on toilet habits were dubbed either as erotic or as vulgar and, thus, despised in academic and social circles. It was true for example of Urdu poets in India, English poets in Britain and French poets in France. However, as the need to defecate is irrepressible, so were some writers who despite social as well as academic stigma wrote on the subject and gave us at least an idea in regard to toilet habits of human beings. Based on this rudimentary information, one can say that development in civilisation and sanitation have been co-terminus. The more developed was the society, the more sanitised it became and vice versa.
Toilet is part of history of human hygiene which is a critical chapter in the history of human civilisation and which cannot be isolated to be accorded unimportant position in history. Toilet is a critical link between order and disorder and between good and bad environment.
In my own country i.e. India, how can any one ignore the subject of toilet when the society is faced with human excretions of the order of 900 million litres of urine and 135 million kilogrammes of faecal matter per day with totally inadequate system of its collection and disposal. The society, thus, has a constant threat of health hazards and epidemics. As many as 600 out of 900 million people do open defecation. Sewerage facilities are available to no more than 30 per cent of population in urban areas and only 3 per cent of rural population has access to pour flush latrines.
Seeing this challenge, I think the subject of toilet is as important if not more than other social challenges like literacy, poverty, education and employment. Rather subject of toilet is more important because lack of excremental hygiene is a national health hazard while in other problems the implications are relatively closer to only those who suffer from unemployment, illiteracy and poverty. I thus view a study of the history of toilet an important subject matter.
As long as man did not have an established abode, he did not have a toilet. He excreted wherever he felt like doing so. When he learnt to have a fixed house, he moved toilet to courtyard and then within his home. Once this was done, it became a challenge to deal with smell and the need was felt to have a toilet which can intake human wastes and dispose these of out of the house instantly and, thus, help maintain cleanliness. Man tried various ways to do so i.e. chamber pots, which were cleaned manually by the servants or slaves, toilets protruding out of the top floor of the house or the castle and disposal of wastes in the river below, or common toilets with holes on the top and flowing river or stream underneath or just enter the river or stream and dispose of the waste of the human body. While the rich used luxurious toilet chairs or close stools the poor defecated on the roads, in the jungle or straight into the river.
It was only in the 16th century that a technological breakthrough came about and which helped the human beings to have clean toilets in houses. This breakthrough did not come about easily and human race had to live in insanitary conditions for thousands of years. For all to know the history of toilet we have established in New Delhi the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets with the help of curators like Dr. Frittz Lischka from Austria and 80 to 90 other professionals around the world. The museum traces history of toilet for the last 4500 years.
Historical Evolution
The perusal of literature brings home the fact that we have only fragmentary information on the subject of toilet as a private secluded place to help the body relieve its waste. Sitting type toilets in human history appeared quite early. In the remains of Harappa civilisation in India, at a place called Lothal (62 Kilometers from the city of Ahmedabad in Western India) and in the year 2500 BC, the people had water borne toilets in each house and which was linked with drains covered with burnt clay bricks. To facilitate operations and maintenance, it had man-hole covers, chambers etc. It was the finest form of sanitary engineering. But with the decline of Indus valley civilisation, the science of sanitary engineering disappeared from India. From then on, the toilets in India remained primitive and open defecation became rampant.
The archaeological excavations confirm existence of sitting type toilets in Egypt (2100 BC) also. Though we have been able to mechanise the working of these toilets, the form and basic format of the toilet system remains the same. In Rome, public bath-cum-toilets were also well developed. There were holes in the floor and beneath was a flowing water. When the Romans travelled they constructed the toilets for their use. The stools were key-hole type so that these could be used for defecation as well as urination. Excavations in Sri Lanka and Thailand too have brought out a contraption in which urine was separated and allowed to flow while the other portion was used at the same time for defecation.
Historical evidence exists that Greeks relieved themselves out of the houses. There was no shyness in use of toilet. It was frequent to see at dinner parties in Rome slaves bringing in urine pots made of silver; while members of the royalty used it but continued the play at the same time. Whatever little information is available about history of toilets in India, it was quite primitive. This practice of covering waste with earth continued till the Mughal era, where in the forts of Delhi and Agra one can see remnants of such methodologies to dispose of human waste.
It was also popular in those days to emphasise on the medicinal values of human waste. Urine was supposed to have many therapeutic values. Some quacks even claimed that by study of urine they could confidently say whether a young girl was virgin or not. Hiroshi Umino 1) reports that a Pharaoh got his eye cured by use of urine of a woman, whom he later married. It was also widely believed that the dung of a donkey mixed with nightsoil removes black pustules or urine of a eunuch can help make women fertile. For oral care it was advised to relieve oneself on one's feet 2) because the divine liquid gives the required cure. 3) In the Indian scriptures there are stories about the strength of wrestlers. If a wrestler defecates too much, he is relatively weak because he cannot digest all what he eats. Similarly, a perfect saint has no need to defecate, for he eats as much as he can digest or he is able to digest all that he eats. 4) So not to defecate was considered saintly while in other societies not to defecate was considered manly. Blown Bettelheim. 5) States that men of Chaga tribe blocked their anus during the ceremony of attaining of manhood and pretended as if they did not defecate at all. This was also one way of establishing superiority over women. The ancient Greeks it is reported had similar beliefs. Swallowing something and not taking them out was considered as source of power and authority.
Between the period 500 to 1500 AD was a dark age from the point of view of human hygiene. It was an era of cess pools and human excreta all around. Rich man's housing and forts in India had protrusions in which defecation was done and the excrements fell into the open ground or the river below. The forts of Jaiselmer in India and big houses on the banks of rivers bear testimony to this fact. In Europe it was an era of chamber pots, cess pools and close stools. So were the toilets protruding out of the castles and the excrements from which fell into the river.
It was also an era of "liberty to pee" French poet Claude le Petit described Paris as 'Ridiculous Paris' and in the following words :
"My shoes my stockings, my overcoat
My collar, my glove, my hat
Have all been soiled by the same substance
I would mistake myself rubbish"
There was lot of jest and humour relating to toilet habits and toilet appurtenances. Ballets were performed with basket of night soil in the form of hood, on the head or a tin plate commode moving around with toilet sounds. The clothes were spotted with accessories from the toilet. The actors were etronice (night soil) Sultan Prime of Foirince (i.e. diarrhoea) etc. There are stories given by Guerrand 6) which depict the mood of Europe at that time. A lady of noble birth requested a young man to hold his hand. The young man suddenly feels the urge to urinate. Forgetting that he is holding the hand of a lady of noble birth he relieves himself. At the end he says "excuse me Madam, there was lot of urine in my body and was causing great inconvenience", Similarly Maid of Honour Anne of Austria owing to excessive laughter, urinated in the bed of the queen. Joseph Pujol (hero extraordinary of French scatology) in his shows demonstrated many types of farts i.e. young girl, mother-in-law, bride. He could even extinguish a candle 30 centimeters away through his farting.
Poetry on Nightsoil:
Irrepressible poets in many countries despite social stigma attached to their professional work were writing poetry on defecation habits, farting and heavenly qualities of night soil. Chakrian in India, Euslrog de Beaulieo Gilles Corrozal and Piron in France, Swift in England were all enjoying themselves at the technological impasse which human beings were faced with in disposing of what they excreted.
Gilles Corrozel for example described the toilet in the following vein i.e.
"Recess of great comfort
Whether it is situated
in the fields or in the citys
Recess in which no one dare enter
Except for cleaning his stomach
Recess of great dignity" 7
Or take the erotic French Poet Eustrog de beaulieu and I dare to translate as follows :-
"When the cherries become ripe
Many black soils of strange shapes
Will breed for many days and urgents
Then will mature and become products of various colours and breaths" 8
French poet Piron called the faeces as 'Royal Nightsoil. Though ostracised by the academic community he wrote as follows:
"What am I seeing oh! God
It is night soil
What a wonderful substance it is It is excreted by
the greatest of all Kings
Its odour speaks of majesty" 9
English poet called night soil as object of contemplation for the sage. According to him, midwives predicted the future of the child from examining the first excrement. In the province of Punjab in India and before independence Grandmothers ate the first excrement of the male child if he was born after a long period of marriage or after number of female births in the family.
The Urdu poet Chirkin 10) in India was not well recognised by his poet fraternity. Out of vengeance and to create embarrassment he wrote on human waste and farting. I venture to share with you the following English version translated from Urdu-the language in which he wrote.
"The asset which I will earn
now will all be invested in Toilet.
This time when I visit your home,
I will never 'pee' there."
Public Habits and Attitude
In the absence of proper toilet facilities, people perforce had to defecate and urinate wherever they could. Defecating on the road, open spaces, or just easing themselves in the river was very common.
While the authorities were educating people to have private places for defecating, and getting it cleaned, in actual practice there was total disorder. Squalor and filth abounded in cities. The social reformers advised people where to defecate, how to defecate in privacy and the need to control themselves when in company. Children were taught not to touch human waste. At the same time, there was no hesitation in letting loose pigs to eat human excreta.
Number of enactments, however, could not prevent people to defecate in the open. A delegation led by master weaver protested in front of the French Municipal Building and said" our fathers have defecated at the place where you prevent us to do. We have defecated here and now our children will defecate there".
The rich used wool or hemp for ablution while the poor used grass, stone or sand or water depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. Use of newspaper was also common. In Russia to the utter dislike of all, the subordinates even stamped the toilet paper with imperial arms for use of the Czar. But in was termed as sacrilege. The final solution to the problem of ablution was found when in 1857, Joseph Cayetty invented the toilet paper in USA. This invention has enabled human beings to have a tissue paper, which is convenient to use, is absorbent, as well as compact and within reach while defecating.
In India it is very common to use water for ablution. However, the hand one uses varies in various parts of India. While in South India, people use the right hand for eating food, it is considered disgusting to use the same hand for ablution with water. So left hand is used for sanitary purposes. In most parts of the North India, however, no such sharp distinction exists.
Household hygiene habits of ordinary people left much to be desired. The dry latrines using bucket was cleaned by menials. These workers came to be known as Bucket Brigades'.
According to Hiroshi Umino, European culture blossomed forth after contact with Crusaders from the East. Washing hands for example before food also became popular. The social reformers admonished the people by saying "suck your fingers beast, do not wipe them on the wall". In colonial times in India, the British called big; cities as "vast mass privy" due to defecation by people at all times and at all places. There were also no separate toilets for men and women, till a restaurant in Paris put up 'Men Toilet' and 'Women Toilet' at a dance party in 1739 AD.
It is also around this time that the urinal pot was introduced to enable men to relieve themselves. The facilities for women were meagre and they were taught virtues of control. Despite technological breakthrough a lot needed to be accomplished to educate people to use the new technology appropriately, to ensure that the toilet drainage system is not misused by disposal of other household wastes. However, at city level the disposal of human waste still remained a problem.
Public Toilets and People
In each society from time to time the government felt the need to provide public toilet facilities to those who could not afford to have individual toilets. The public toilets have a long history in number of countries and most of which were constructed and managed by municipalities. But there was alround disgust with their poor maintenance, vandalism and lack of basic facilities. The Mughal King Jehangir built a public toilet at Alwar, 120 kms away from Delhi for use of 100 families at a time in 1556 AD. Not much documentary evidence exists on the quality of its maintenance but one can well visualise that with rudimentary technology and with government to manage the O&M functions, it like others must be in very unsatisfactory condition. As hygienic conditions in public toilets were bad, people preferred to do open defecation. This was true in most of the countries. It was in 1872 that the municipalities in France asked the private companies to manage public toilets for a lease period of 20 years. The private companies were also offering even amounts to government as they felt confident to recover the same through user charges. Ground floor owners were also being requested to construct latrines for use of the passersby. Previously known as Palais Royal Hotel in Paris, the owners started charging monthly fee from diners. Incidentally condoms were also sold as part of the facilities.
In India, when I founded Sulabh International in 1970 in a small village in Patna, people laughed at me when I proposed to introduce the pay-and-use toilets. But my approach has succeeded and today 10 million people use Sulabh facilities every day. Most of the public toilets are being given to us to construct and maintain on a 30 years base period at no charge to the State. At the beginning of the century most of the public toilets have gone underground in Europe, but in India these are still overground. Much more attention is being given to construct these toilets on pay and use basis in slum areas where men pay half a rupee per use, the females and children avail of these facilities free. The facilities available include toilet, bathing or washing of clothes and to change clothes. We are also setting up primary health care centre at these places. However, a lot of effort is required to get people's participation in efficient operation and maintenance of public toilets. This remains a big challenge to be met by NGOs. Based on my experience of the last 25 years, I am also convinced that only cooperation between Government and NGOs can make the sanitation programme a success. Neither the NGOs nor the government can create an impact if they work in isolation.
Law and Citizens
In order to improve sanitary conditions, Governments in various countries also resorted to legal measures. Dirt by definition was considered as disorder, because it disrupts order of maintaining the environment.
In 1519 the provincial government of Normandy in France made provision of toilets compulsory in each house. The French government also passed a parliamentary decree to make cesspools in each house compulsory. Again a similar attempt was made in 1539. In Bordeaux in France, the government made construction of cesspools compulsory. It was tried again in 1668 when the Lieutenant of Police made construction of toilets compulsory. In England the first sanitation law was passed in 1848. In India the first sanitation bill was introduced in 1878. It tried to make construction of toilets compulsory even in huts of Calcutta - the capital of India at that time. The Bill even proposed construction of public toilets at the cost of neighbouring houses. The government of India enacted another Sanitation Act in 1993. Under this Act construction of dry latrine and its manual cleaning was made an offence. But despite these enactments open defecation is rampant, proving that unless adequate social awareness is created in a developing country where instruments of state are weak and family income is low, it is a hard task to make significant progress in this area.
Toilet Technologies
Eighteenth century was a century of toilets. Despite invention of water closet by John Harrington in 1596 which was costing only 6 shillings and 8 pence this was not adopted on a large scale for almost 182 years. The delays in actual use of invention is common in human history which Toffler calls as "Cultural Gap". It was true for railway train, ball point pen and innumerable other inventions. During this period people used earth closet. In these toilets (11) instead of water earth was used. So the problem of cleaning remained. The world also saw development of Pan closets - which like cigarette ash tray threw the material at the bottom. This too required manual cleaning. At the same time chamber pots, close stools, open defecation remained. In comparison to this, Harrington's toilet under the name Angrez was being used in France, though not introduced on a large scale in England. In 1738 JF Brondel introduced the valve type flush toilet. Alexander Cummings further improved the technology and gave use a better device in 1775. In Cumming's design water was perennially there in the toilet so it suppressed odours. Still the working of the valve and fool-proof inlet of water needed further improvements. In 1777; Joseph Preiser provided the required improvement. Then Joseph Bramah in 1778, substituted the slide valve with crank valve, It seemed then that the technology of pour flush was now perfected. No the world was yet to witness further technological developments. In 1870, SS Helior invented the flush type toilet, called optims - an improvement over Blummer's design.
From 1880 onwards, however, the emphasis has been more on aesthetics to make cisterns and bowls decorative. The bowls were so colourful that some suggested to use these as soup bowls. It was in 1880 that the toilet curtains made their appearance. The trend was called the age of "Belleepoque" in France and Edwardian (opulence) in England. During 1890 we had the first cantilever type of toilet. Since then the world has not witnessed any significant technical change except some change in shape of toilets and reduction in quantity of water per use.
It was around 1900 that the institution of bathroom came in vogue in Europe. In India the institution of Gushalkhana (bathroom) was established by the Mughal Kings in 1556. Oppressed by the heat and dust the Kings constructed luxurious bathing and massage facilities. But this was only for the rich. The ordinary citizens however lived in insanitary conditions.
Unlike in the past when latrines were tucked away in attics to keep it away from nose and eye of the family and the society. In contrast the twentieth century has given a pride of place to toilet in the home-rather these are more opulent, more spacious than anytime in the past. While the provision of toilet in the house solved household problem of cleanliness but the challenge remained as to how to dispose of human waste at city level. This was also solved when the sewerage system was introduced. Haussmann in 1858, describes beautifully the sewerage system. He said that "the underground galleries which are the organs of the big city will work in the same way as organs of the body, without being revealed.
The pure and fresh water, the heat and light will circulate like the various fluids whose movement and maintenance are necessary to ensure life. The secretions will not mysteriously like place there and maintain public health without disturbing the order of the city and spoiling its outer beauty". 12) Around the same time the sewerage system was introduced at Calcutta - capital of colonial India. However its extension in the country was and remains slow as it is capital intensive and beyond the resource capacity of the economy even today.
In 1970, realising that sewerage facilities will remain out of the reach of the society at large, Sulabh International introduced a pioneer technology twin pourflush latrines and human excreta based Biogas plants. We have constructed in the last 25 years over 650, 000 toilet cum bath complexes and 62 human excreta based biogas plants and are maintaining them. I believe this gives an appropriate solution to dispose of and recycle human waste into fertiliser, electricity and working gas.
As sewerage based toilet remains and will remain out of the reach of the majority of population in India, the challenge is to propagate and ensure installation of toilets which are affordable, upgradable and easy to maintain. The Sulabh experiment is a success story and the technology is well established and has been successfully functioning for the last 25 years and is financially sustainable. At household level TPPF latrine based on Sulabh Model has also been a success and is in use in 650,000 households. It is however, now necessary in India to replicate it on a mass scale with public pay and use toilets with Biogas plants at neighbourhood level and Sulabh TPPF latrine at household level.
Though the challenge to provide toilet facilities have been totally overcome in rich countries, it has still to be met in developing countries like India. The journey of toilet has ended in Europe and North America but continues in the developing countries.

history of bluejeans

As American as we think denim is, the history of blue jeans goes back to XVI Century Europe. It’s amazing that a product developed 500 years ago fuels today’s multi-million dollar denim industry. Who would have thought back in Genoa in the 1500’s that the material worn by Genovese sailors in their everyday pants would evolve to become the textile and fashion industry phenomenon that denim is today.
The story goes that “jean” derives from the word Genoa. It refers to the material that sailors from Genoa used in their pants. This was a coarse cotton-wool and/or linen blend. It originally came from Italy, and is evidence of the custom of naming a material for its place of origin. By the late 16th century, jean was already being produced in Lancashire, England. The composition eventually evolved to 100% cotton by the 18th century.
The History of Denim
On the other hand, the origin of the term “denim” can be traced to late 16th century France where a fabric known as “serge de Nîmes” (Twill from Nîmes) was very popular. Some doubt remains as to whether the contraction “denim” actually came from this French fabric or another twill called “nim”, also used in France at the time. “Serge de Nîmes” was a blend of silk and wool, which leads some historians to doubt if this was truly the origin of modern day denim. Either way, the history of jeans goes this far back in history.
Both fabrics grew in popularity, denim being the stronger and more expensive of the two. The major difference between them was that denim was woven with one colored thread (the warp) and the other white (the weft), while jean was woven with two colored threads.
American Made Blue Jeans
By the late 19th century, weavers in America were making twills in the same fashion as the European denim, adapting to the more readily available and locally produced cotton fibers. The material had a reputation for being very strong and not wearing out quickly, in spite of many washes.
Jean and denim remained two very different fabrics, and were used for different types of clothing. Denim was used mainly for workers clothes and jean for lighter clothes that did not have such high durability requirements.
So, how did the modern term “jean” come to refer to pants made out of a fabric called denim? The answer lies in the story of Loeb (Levi) Strauss. This is where the modern history of blue jeans starts.
Just Another West Coast Innovation
Mr. Strauss came to America from Bavaria in 1847 with his mother and two sisters. They arrived in New York where his half brother ran a wholesale business selling, among other things, various types of fabrics and clothes. After working for his brother for a few years, Levi decided to travel West to San Francisco and partake of the benefits of the Gold Rush.
His original intent was to open a branch of his brother’s wholesale business. Levi did this diligently for the next 20 years, acquiring a reputation as a quality supplier to small stores throughout the West.
His fate and the history of clothing would change forever when in 1872 he received an offer from Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno Nevada. Mr. Davis, in order to improve the durability of the pants that he made for his clients, had been adding metal rivets to the highly stressed seams. The idea was successful and he wished to patent it. Lacking the money to do so, he turned to Levi for financial backing, and of course, a partnership. In 1873, the new partners received a patent for “an improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings”, and thus the history of blue jeans as we know them begins.
They started making “waist overalls” out of denim and cotton duck. They knew that the selling point of the new product was its durability, making it more appropriate for work clothes. Eventually, the cotton duck was dropped for the more comfortable denim.
The History of Blue Jeans and Denim
The company grew in size and fame. By the 1920’s “waist overalls” were the most widely used worker’s pants in America. The name “jeans”, however, was not officially adopted until the 1960’s. Levi Strauss and Co. recognized that it had no choice, as this was what the product was being called by the young, leisure loving teenage boys. The history of "waist overalls" continues as the history of blue jeans. "Jeans" is now generally understood to refer to pants made out of a specific type of fabric called "denim".
50s Fashions: By 1950, Levi’s began selling nationally. Everybody now had a chance to wear a pair of original Levi’s Jeans, as they were now called. Other brands emerged, such as Lee Coopers and Wranglers, each with its own particular fit.
The rise of the popularity of jeans after the WWII can greatly be attributed to the influence of the film and music industry. This effect is not hard to understand, as even today fashion trends are greatly influenced by what highly publicized celebrities choose to wear. The history of blue jeans in the second half of the century can be traced to the celebrities that used denim.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s they were embraced by the hippy movement, and the trend to personalize and embellish jeans began. The history of blue jeans gets linked to the downfall of communism! Behind the iron curtain, jeans became a symbol of “western decadence” and individuality and as such were highly sought. Hip-huggers, bell bottoms, baggies, and elephant ears were the craze. Pre-washed jeans were first marketed.
In the 1980’sthe history of blue jeans was transformed forever. Denim debuted as high fashion. The term “designer jeans” was coined. Sergio Valente, Jordache, Calvin Klein were amongst the first to create slimmer, tight, butt hugging jeans.
In the 1990’s, although denim was never completely out of style, it did fall “out of high fashion”. Denim was still hot, but the new generation turned to other fabrics as well as other styles (khakis, chinos, combat, carpenters and branded sportswear).
The new milenium: All borders are down. Denim is everywhere. Denim is back on designer’s catwalks, on accessories, home collections, designer jeans by the hundreds of labels. Price barriers have been broken. Washes and finishes, embellishments, destroyed and distressed jeans, ultra low rise jeans, … the palette available to designers offers limitless possibilities, and the market appears to never bottom out. The history of blue jeans goes on...

history of nailpolish

The idea of colouring your nails is an old one; the ancient Egyptians stained their nails with henna, and the ancient Japanese and Chinese also stained the nails with various herbal extracts.
Modern nail varnish was invented in the 1920's. Charles Revson formed the Charles Revson company with his brother Martin Revson and Charles Lachman, a chemist.
They employed a French make-up artist, Michelle Renard, who wondered if the new technology used for painting cars could be used to make an enamel for the nails. The revolution in thinking was to abandon staining the actual nail, but instead to paint a hard-wearing enamel on top of it. She managed to create a modern lacquer made of the same nitrocellulose disolved in solvent, that was used on cars (except not the same strength).
Charles Revson and his colleagues thought the idea had market potential and set up a factory to manufacture it. Because their nail varnish was created from hard-wearing chemicals rather than from herbs, it had the advantage that it was easy to store and keep - as long as the bottle was sealed and the solvent could not evaporate, the varnish was as good as the day it was created.
The Charles Revson company became Revlon (they added the L in the middle of the name for the other co-founder Lachman). The first Revlon nail polish went on sale in 1932. It initially sold in hair and beauty salons, and was then marketed in department stores and drug stores.
It was Hollywood that made the new nail polish big. Colour movies had just arrived, and audiences could see their favourite actresses wearing the exotic reds and mauves of the Revlon company, and they searched out the product in the shops. It helped that it was relatively cheap as far as make-up goes. Painting your nails and buying the matching lipstick gave you a bit of Hollywood glamour even if your clothes were cheap. Other cosmetic houses soon followed and added nail polish to their ranges too.
The formula for nail polish remains similar to the one invented by Michelle Menard some 80 years ago. It's been amended a bit to make it longer lasting and to make it dry quicker, but essentially it's the same nitro-cellulose suspended in solvent.
The innovations have been mainly in the field of colour. When nail polish first came out, the fashion was to match your nails and lipstick, and because lipstick tended to be red or pink, nails were red or pink too. In the 1960's clear nail polish came in, to give a natural look that complemented the nude lipsticks that were in fashion then. But it wasn't till the late 1990's that cosmetic companies abandoned the idea of matching lips and nails and started producing blue nail polish, green nail polish and a host of other exotic colours - gold, silver, black, neon and so on. Just like the car enamels that inspired nail polish, you can have any colour you want.

history of lavalamp

Lava lamps were all the rage in the psychedelic '60s and '70s. Many of today's motion lamps were inspired by the lava lamps of the past. Interesting tidbits such as who first thought of the idea and how the inventor created it bubble to the surface when looking into its history.
History
Edward Craven Walker invented the lava lamp in England in 1963. Initially named the Astro Lamp, the device combined a glass tube filled with "colored globs of oozing wax suspended in water" (as well as some other ingredients) and a heated base. His inspiration occurred in a pub in 1948, when he noticed a strange-looking item resting on the counter behind the bar. According to different sources, this item was either an egg timer of sorts or an early motion lamp, but in any case, it took Walker 15 years from the time he got his inspiration until the invention was perfected.
Significance
Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector, two Chicago entrepreneurs, discovered Walker's invention at a German trade show. They formed the U.S. company, Lava Manufacturing Corp., in 1965 and obtained the U.S. patent rights to the invention. Their product obtained huge success in the United States under the name Lava Lite, which resulted in greater sales for Walker's company in Europe as well.
Popularity
The motion light craze swept America through the 1970s but dropped off during the 1980s. The early 1990s brought renewed interest in the device as 1960s nostalgia became a trend, and popularity of the item has continued through the present day. The materials used in creating the lamps are still considered top secret, but those interested can find instructions for making a similar lamp on many Internet websites. Those interested in chemistry find the challenge of combining just the right ingredients in just the right way exciting.
Lava Lamps Today
Walker sold the Astro Light to Mathmos, a company that currently handles all sales outside of the United States. Lava Manufacturing Corp. changed its name to Lava World International, which suuplies most of the motion lights modeled after the lava lamp and offered in U.S. stores. Sales for both companies have continued to do well since public interest in lava lamp products resumed in the '90s.
Death of Inventor
Walker died in August 2000 of cancer. He was 82 years old, with almost 40 of years spent seeing his invention hold onto the public's attention.

history of plastic

Introduction
In today's world, life without plastics is incomprehensible.  Every day, plastics contribute to our health, safety and peace of mind. But what about plastics' history - how were plastic materials invented and discovered? Who were the key individuals in plastics' development and use?
Alexander Parkes Invents First Man-Made Plastic
The first man-made plastic was unveiled by Alexander Parkes at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. This material - which the public dubbed Parkesine - was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be molded but that retained its shape when cooled. Parkes claimed that this new material could do anything rubber was capable of, but at a lower price. He had discovered something that could be transparent as well as carved into thousands of different shapes. But Parkesine soon lost its luster, when investors pulled the plug on the product due to the high cost of the raw materials needed in its production.
Celluloid Makes Its Debut
During the latter part of the 19th century, a rush was on to find a replacement for ivory in billiards balls. Billiards became so popular that thousands of elephants were killed just so their valuable ivory could be obtained. John Wesley Hyatt, an American, finally came upon the solution in 1869 with celluloid. Hyatt, upon spilling a bottle of collodion in his workshop, discovered that the material congealed into a tough, flexible film. He then produced billiard balls using collodion as a substitute for ivory. But due to its highly brittle nature, the billiard balls would shatter once they hit each other. The solution to this challenge was the addition of camphor - a derivative of the laurel tree. This addition made celluloid the first thermoplastic: a substance molded under heat and pressure into a shape it retains even after the heat and pressure have been removed. Celluloid went on to be used in the first flexible photographic film for still and motion pictures.
The Story of Bakelite
The first completely synthetic man-made substance was discovered in 1907, when Leo Baekeland, a New York chemist, developed a liquid resin that he named Bakelite. Baekeland had developed an apparatus - which he called a Bakelizer - that enabled him to vary heat and pressure precisely so as to control the reaction of volatile chemicals. Using this pot-like apparatus, Baekeland developed a new liquid (bakelite resin) that rapidly hardened and took the shape of its container. Once hardened, the resin would form an exact replica of any vessel that contained it. This new material would not burn, boil, melt, or dissolve in any commonly available acid or solvent. This meant that once it was firmly set, it would never change. This one benefit made it stand out from previous "plastics." While celluloid-based substances could be melted down innumerable times and reformed, Bakelite was the first thermoset plastic which would retain its shape and form under any circumstances.
Bakelite could be added to almost any material - such as softwood - and instantly make it more durable and effective. Numerous products began to be manufactured based on this new material. One of the sectors of society most interested in its development was the military. The US Government saw Bakelite opening the door to production of new weaponry and lightweight war machinery that steel could not match. In fact, Bakelite was a key ingredient in most of the weapons used in the Second World War.
Bakelite was also used for domestic purposes such as electrical insulators. For this purpose it proved to be more effective than any other material available - so effective, in fact, that it is still used as such today. Bakelite is electrically resistant, chemically stable, heat-resistant, shatter-proof and neither cracks, fades, creases, nor discolors from exposure to sunlight, dampness or sea salt.
Rayon and Cellophane
Rayon - another modified cellulose - was first developed in 1891 in Paris by Louis Marie Hilaire Bernigaut, the Count of Chardonnet. He was searching for a way to produce man-made silk. After studying silkworms, Bernigaut noticed that the worm would secrete a liquid from a narrow orifice that would harden upon exposure to air and turn into silk. He deduced that if he could find a liquid that would have similar characteristics to silk before being secreted, he could then pass it through a man-made apparatus to form fibers that could be spun and feel like silk. The only problem with his new invention was that it was highly flammable. This problem was later solved by Charles Topham.
Cellophane was discovered by Dr. Jacques Edwin Brandenberger, a Swiss textile engineer, who came upon the idea for a clear, protective, packaging layer in 1900. Brandenberger was seated at a restaurant when he noticed a customer spill a bottle of wine onto the tablecloth. The waiter removed the cloth replacing it with another and disposed of the soiled one. Brandenberger swore that he would discover some way to apply a clear flexible film to cloth, which would keep it safe from such accidents and allow it to be easily cleaned with the swipe of a clean towel. He worked on resolving this problem by utilizing different materials until he hit paydirt in 1913 by adding Viscose (now known as Rayon).
Brandenberger added viscose to cloth but the end result was a brittle material that was too stiff to be of any use. Yet Brandenberger saw another potential for the viscose material. He developed a new machine that could produce viscose sheets, which he marketed as Cellophane. With a few more improvements, Cellophane allowed for a clear layer of packaging for any product - the first fully flexible, water-proof wrap.
The Discovery of Nylon
The 1920s witnessed a "plastics craze", as the use of cellophane spread throughout the world. DuPont, one of the industry leaders, became a hotbed for innovation concerning plastics. Wallace Hume Carothers, a young Harvard chemist, became the head of the DuPont lab. The company was responsible for the moisture-proofing of Cellophane and was well on its way to developing Nylon, which at the time they named Fiber 66. Carothers saw the possible value that a new tough plastic such as Fiber 66 could possess. The fiber replaced animal hair in toothbrushes and silk stockings. The stockings were unveiled in 1939, to great public acceptance. H. Staudinger in Germany was the first to recognize the structural nature of plastics, but Carothers built upon this theory. As demonstrated by Carothers, by substituting and inserting elements into the chemical chain, new materials and uses could be developed. During the 1940s, the world saw the use of such materials as nylon, acrylic, neoprene, SBR, polyethylene, and many more polymers take the place of natural material supplies that were becoming exhausted.
PVC, SaranTM, and Teflon®
Another important plastic innovation of the time was the development of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or vinyl. Waldo Semon, a B.F. Goodrich organic chemist, was attempting to bind rubber to metal when he stumbled across PVC. Semon later discovered that this material was inexpensive, durable, fire-resistant, and easily molded. Vinyl found a special place in the hearts of Americans as an upholstery material that would last for years in the average family's living room.
In 1933, Ralph Wiley, a Dow Chemical lab worker, accidentally discovered yet another plastic: polyvinylidene chloride (better known as SaranTM). SaranTM was first used to protect military equipment, but it was later discovered that it was great for food packaging. SaranTM would cling to almost any material - bowls, dishes, pots and even itself; thus, it became the perfect tool for maintaining the freshness of food at home.
A DuPont chemist named Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon®, in 1938. Teflon® today is widely used in kitchenware. Plunkett discovered the material accidentally by pumping freon gas into a cylinder left in cold storage overnight. The gas dissipated into a solid white powder. Teflon® is unique because it is impervious to acids in addition to both cold and heat. Teflon® is now best-known for its slipperiness - which makes it highly effective in pots and pans for easy cooking and cleaning.
Polyethylene
In 1933, two organic chemists working for the Imperial Chemical Industries Research Laboratory were testing various chemicals under highly pressurized conditions. In their wildest imaginations, the two researchers E.W. Fawcett and R.O. Gibson, had no idea that the revolutionary substance they would come across - polyethylene - would have an enormous impact on the world.
The researchers set off a reaction between ethylene and benzaldehyde, utilizing two thousand atmospheres of internal pressure. The experiment went askew when their testing container sprang a leak and all of the pressure escaped. Upon opening the tube they were surprised to find a white, waxy substance that greatly resembled plastic. When the experiment was carefully repeated and analyzed the scientists discovered that the loss of pressure was only partly due to a leak; the greater reason was the polymerization process that had occurred leaving behind polyethylene. In 1936, Imperial Chemical Industries developed a large-volume compressor that made the production of vast quantities of polyethylene possible. This high-volume production of polyethylene actually led to some history-making events.
For instance, polyethylene played a key supporting role during World War II - first as an underwater cable coating and then as a critical insulating material for such vital military applications as radar insulation. This is because it was so light and thin that it made placing radar onto airplanes possible; something that could not be done using traditional insulating materials because they weighed too much. In fact, the use of polyethylene as an insulating material reduced the weight of radars to 600 pounds in 1940 and even less as the war progressed. It was these lightweight radar systems, capable of being carried onboard planes, that allowed the out-numbered Allied aircraft to detect German bombers under such difficult conditions as nightfall and thunderstorms.
It was not until after the war, though, that the material became a tremendous hit with consumers and from that point on, its rise in popularity has been almost unprecedented. It became the first plastic in the United States to sell more than a billion pounds a year and it is currently the largest volume plastic in the world. Today, polyethylene is used to make such common items as soda bottles, milk jugs and grocery and dry-cleaning bags in addition to plastic food storage containers.
Velcro® and the Development of Silly Putty®
A plastic that has struck the fancy of many youngsters over the years is plastic putty -- better known as Silly Putty®. James Wright, a GE engineer, came upon the material by mixing silicone oil with boric acid. The compound possessed some rather unique qualities. It acted very much like rubber in its ability to rebound almost 25 percent higher than a normal rubber ball. This "Nutty Putty" was also impervious to rot and unable to maintain a shape for more than a short period of time. It could be stretched many times its length without tearing. This material also would copy the image of any printed material that it was pressed upon. In 1949, the material was sold under the name of Silly Putty®, selling faster -- at that time -- than any other toy in history with over $6 million in sales for the year.
The birth of Velcro®, yet another unique plastic product which has impacted nearly all of our lives, occurred in 1957. A Swiss engineer named George de Maestral was impressed with the way that cockleburs - a type of vegetation - would use thousands of tiny hooks to cling to anything with which they came into contact. He devised a product, using nylon, that replicated this natural phenomenon. The result, Velcro®, could be spun in any required thickness, would not rot, mold or naturally degrade, and was relatively inexpensive.
Plastics in Modern Life
Since the 1950s, plastics have grown into a major industry that affects all of our lives - from providing improved packaging to giving us new textiles, to permitting the production of wondrous new products and cutting edge technologies in such things as televisions, cars and computers.  In fact, since 1976, plastic has been the most used material in the world and was voted one of the top 100 news events of the century.
None of the applications and innovations we take for granted would have been possible if it weren't for the early scientists who developed and refined the material. Those pioneers made it possible for us to enjoy the quality of life we do today.

history of glass

The discovery of glass
Natural glass has existed since the beginnings of time, formed when certain types of rocks melt as a result of high-temperature phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes or the impact of meteorites, and then cool and solidify rapidly. Stone-age man is believed to have used cutting tools made of obsidian (a natural glass of volcanic origin also known as hyalopsite, Iceland agate, or mountain mahogany) and tektites (naturally-formed glasses of extraterrestrial or other origin, also referred to as obsidianites).
According to the ancient-Roman historian Pliny (AD 23-79), Phoenician merchants transporting stone actually discovered glass (or rather became aware of its existence accidentally) in the region of Syria around 5000 BC. Pliny tells how the merchants, after landing, rested cooking pots on blocks of nitrate placed by their fire. With the intense heat of the fire, the blocks eventually melted and mixed with the sand of the beach to form an opaque liquid.
This brief history looks, however, at the origins and evolution of man-made glass.
A craft is born
The earliest man-made glass objects, mainly non-transparent glass beads, are thought to date back to around 3500 BC, with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. In the third millennium, in central Mesopotamia, the basic raw materials of glass were being used principally to produce glazes on pots and vases. The discovery may have been coincidental, with calciferous sand finding its way into an overheated kiln and combining with soda to form a coloured glaze on the ceramics. It was then, above all, Phoenician merchants and sailors who spread this new art along the coasts of the Mediterranean.
The oldest fragments of glass vases (evidence of the origins of the hollow glass industry), however, date back to the 16th century BC and were found in Mesopotamia. Hollow glass production was also evolving around this time in Egypt, and there is evidence of other ancient glassmaking activities emerging independently in Mycenae (Greece), China and North Tyrol.
Early hollow glass production
After 1500 BC, Egyptian craftsmen are known to have begun developing a method for producing glass pots by dipping a core mould of compacted sand into molten glass and then turning the mould so that molten glass adhered to it. While still soft, the glass-covered mould could then be rolled on a slab of stone in order to smooth or decorate it. The earliest examples of Egyptian glassware are three vases bearing the name of the Pharaoh Thoutmosis III (1504-1450 BC), who brought glassmakers to Egypt as prisoners following a successful military campaign in Asia.
There is little evidence of further evolution until the 9th century BC, when glassmaking revived in Mesopotamia. Over the following 500 years, glass production centred on Alessandria, from where it is thought to have spread to Italy.
The first glassmaking "manual" dates back to around 650 BC. Instructions on how to make glass are contained in tablets from the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-626 BC).
Starting to blow
A major breakthrough in glassmaking was the discovery of glassblowing some time between 27 BC and AD 14, attributed to Syrian craftsmen from the Sidon-Babylon area. The long thin metal tube used in the blowing process has changed very little since then. In the last century BC, the ancient Romans then began blowing glass inside moulds, greatly increasing the variety of shapes possible for hollow glass items.
The Roman connection
The Romans also did much to spread glassmaking technology. With its conquests, trade relations, road building, and effective political and economical administration, the Roman Empire created the conditions for the flourishing of glassworks across western Europe and the Mediterranean. During the reign of the emperor Augustus, glass objects began to appear throughout Italy, in France, Germany and Switzerland. Roman glass has even been found as far afield as China, shipped there along the silk routes.
It was the Romans who began to use glass for architectural purposes, with the discovery of clear glass (through the introduction of manganese oxide) in Alexandria around AD 100. Cast glass windows, albeit with poor optical qualities, thus began to appear in the most important buildings in Rome and the most luxurious villas of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
With the geographical division of the empires, glass craftsmen began to migrate less, and eastern and western glassware gradually acquired more distinct characteristics. Alexandria remained the most important glassmaking area in the East, producing luxury glass items mainly for export. The world famous Portland Vase is perhaps the finest known example of Alexandrian skills. In Rome's Western empire, the city of Köln in the Rhineland developed as the hub of the glassmaking industry, adopting, however, mainly eastern techniques. Then, the decline of the Roman Empire and culture slowed progress in the field of glassmaking techniques, particularly through the 5th century. Germanic glassware became less ornate, with craftsmen abandoning or not developing the decorating skills they had acquired.
The early Middle Ages
Archaeological excavations on the island of Torcello near Venice, Italy, have unearthed objects from the late 7th and early 8th centuries which bear witness to the transition from ancient to early Middle Ages production of glass.
Towards the year 1000, a significant change in European glassmaking techniques took place. Given the difficulties in importing raw materials, soda glass was gradually replaced by glass made using the potash obtained from the burning of trees. At this point, glass made north of the Alps began to differ from glass made in the Mediterranean area, with Italy, for example, sticking to soda ash as its dominant raw material.
Sheet glass skills
The 11th century also saw the development by German glass craftsmen of a technique - then further developed by Venetian craftsmen in the 13th century - for the production of glass sheets. By blowing a hollow glass sphere and swinging it vertically, gravity would pull the glass into a cylindrical "pod" measuring as much as 3 metres long, with a width of up to 45 cm. While still hot, the ends of the pod were cut off and the resulting cylinder cut lengthways and laid flat. Other types of sheet glass included crown glass (also known as "bullions"), relatively common across western Europe. With this technique, a glass ball was blown and then opened outwards on the opposite side to the pipe. Spinning the semi-molten ball then caused it to flatten and increase in size, but only up to a limited diameter. The panes thus created would then be joined with lead strips and pieced together to create windows. Glazing remained, however, a great luxury up to the late Middle Ages, with royal palaces and churches the most likely buildings to have glass windows. Stained glass windows reached their peak as the Middle Ages drew to a close, with an increasing number of public buildings, inns and the homes of the wealthy fitted with clear or coloured glass decorated with historical scenes and coats of arms.
Venice
In the Middle Ages, the Italian city of Venice assumed its role as the glassmaking centre of the western world. The Venetian merchant fleet ruled the Mediterranean waves and helped supply Venice's glass craftsmen with the technical know-how of their counterparts in Syria, and with the artistic influence of Islam. The importance of the glass industry in Venice can be seen not only in the number of craftsmen at work there (more than 8,000 at one point). A 1271 ordinance, a type of glass sector statute, laid down certain protectionist measures such as a ban on imports of foreign glass and a ban on foreign glassmakers who wished to work in Venice: non-Venetian craftsmen were themselves clearly sufficiently skilled to pose a threat.
Until the end of the 13th century, most glassmaking in Venice took place in the city itself. However, the frequent fires caused by the furnaces led the city authorities, in 1291, to order the transfer of glassmaking to the island of Murano. The measure also made it easier for the city to keep an eye on what was one of its main assets, ensuring that no glassmaking skills or secrets were exported.
In the 14th century, another important Italian glassmaking industry developed at Altare, near Genoa. Its importance lies largely in the fact that it was not subject to the strict statutes of Venice as regards the exporting of glass working skills. Thus, during the 16th century, craftsmen from Altare helped extend the new styles and techniques of Italian glass to other parts of Europe, particularly France.
In the second half of the 15th century, the craftsmen of Murano started using quartz sand and potash made from sea plants to produce particularly pure crystal. By the end of the 16th century, 3,000 of the island's 7,000 inhabitants were involved in some way in the glassmaking industry.
Lead crystal
The development of lead crystal has been attributed to the English glassmaker George Ravenscroft (1618-1681), who patented his new glass in 1674. He had been commissioned to find a substitute for the Venetian crystal produced in Murano and based on pure quartz sand and potash. By using higher proportions of lead oxide instead of potash, he succeeded in producing a brilliant glass with a high refractive index which was very well suited for deep cutting and engraving.
Advances from France
In 1688, in France, a new process was developed for the production of plate glass, principally for use in mirrors, whose optical qualities had, until then, left much to be desired. The molten glass was poured onto a special table and rolled out flat. After cooling, the plate glass was ground on large round tables by means of rotating cast iron discs and increasingly fine abrasive sands, and then polished using felt disks. The result of this "plate pouring" process was flat glass with good optical transmission qualities. When coated on one side with a reflective, low melting metal, high-quality mirrors could be produced.
France also took steps to promote its own glass industry and attract glass experts from Venice; not an easy move for Venetians keen on exporting their abilities and know-how, given the history of discouragement of such behaviour (at one point, Venetian glass craftsmen faced death threats if they disclosed glassmaking secrets or took their skills abroad). The French court, for its part, placed heavy duties on glass imports and offered Venetian glassmakers a number of incentives: French nationality after eight years and total exemption from taxes, to name just two.
From craft to industry
It was not until the latter stages of the Industrial Revolution, however, that mechanical technology for mass production and in-depth scientific research into the relationship between the composition of glass and its physical qualities began to appear in the industry.
A key figure and one of the forefathers of modern glass research was the German scientist Otto Schott (1851-1935), who used scientific methods to study the effects of numerous chemical elements on the optical and thermal properties of glass. In the field of optical glass, Schott teamed up with Ernst Abbe (1840-1905), a professor at the University of Jena and joint owner of the Carl Zeiss firm, to make significant technological advances. Another major contributor in the evolution towards mass production was Friedrich Siemens, who invented the tank furnace. This rapidly replaced the old pot furnace and allowed the continuous production of far greater quantities of molten glass.
Increasing automation
Towards the end of the 19th century, the American engineer Michael Owens (1859-1923) invented an automatic bottle blowing machine which only arrived in Europe after the turn of the century. Owens was backed financially by E.D.L. Libbey, owner of the Libbey Glass Co. of Toledo, Ohio. By the year 1920, in the United States, there were around 200 automatic Owens Libbey Suction Blow machines operating. In Europe, smaller, more versatile machines from companies like O'Neill, Miller and Lynch were also popular.
Added impetus was given to automatic production processes in 1923 with the development of the gob feeder, which ensured the rapid supply of more consistently sized gobs in bottle production. Soon afterwards, in 1925, IS (individual section) machines were developed. Used in conjunction with the gob feeders, IS machines allowed the simultaneous production of a number of bottles from one piece of equipment. The gob feeder-IS machine combination remains the basis of most automatic glass container production today.
Modern flat glass technology
In the production of flat glass (where, as explained earlier, molten glass had previously been poured onto large tables then rolled flat into "plates", cooled, ground and polished before being turned over and given the same treatment on the other surface), the first real innovation came in 1905 when a Belgian named Fourcault managed to vertically draw a continuous sheet of glass of a consistent width from the tank. Commercial production of sheet glass using the Fourcault process eventually got under way in 1914.
Around the end of the First World War, another Belgian engineer Emil Bicheroux developed a process whereby the molten glass was poured from a pot directly through two rollers. Like the Fourcault method, this resulted in glass with a more even thickness, and made grinding and polishing easier and more economical.
An off-shoot of evolution in flat glass production was the strengthening of glass by means of lamination (inserting a celluloid material layer between two sheets of glass). The process was invented and developed by the French scientist Edouard Benedictus, who patented his new safety glass under the name "Triplex" in 1910.
In America, Colburn developed another method for drawing sheet glass. The process was further improved with the support of the US firm Libbey-Owens and was first used for commercial production in 1917.
The Pittsburgh process, developed by the American Pennvernon and the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG), combined and enhanced the main features of the Fourcault and Libbey-Owens processes, and has been in use since 1928.
The float process developed after the Second World War by Britain's Pilkington Brothers Ltd., and introduced in 1959, combined the brilliant finish of sheet glass with the optical qualities of plate glass. Molten glass, when poured across the surface of a bath of molten tin, spreads and flattens before being drawn horizontally in a continuous ribbon into the annealing lehr.
Conclusion
Although this brief history comes to a close nearly 40 years ago, technological evolution naturally continues. Not yet ready to be "relegated" to a history of glass are areas such as computerized control systems, coating techniques, solar control technology and "smart matter", the integration of micro-electronic and mechanical know-how to create glass which is able to "react" to external forces.