Everyday Objects
Post-it notes, Velcro, Silly Putty — the strange backstories behind ordinary things.
22 stories
- The Tube of Paint That Got a Funeral in an English Garden
- The Wallpaper Cleaner Nobody Needed Anymore That Became Play-Doh
- The Wallpaper That Failed and Became Bubble Wrap
- The Weak Glue That Took Six Years to Find a Job — and Became the Post-it Note
- The Strange History of the Ballpoint Pen
- The Rolled-Up Paper That Became the Stethoscope
- The Secret Rubber Substitute That Became Silly Putty
- The Slice of Cork That Named the Cell
- The Slinky: The Walking Spring That Fell Off a Navy Workbench
- The Floor Cleaner That Taught America to Fear Its Own Breath
- The Frisbee Salesmen Who Charged a Dollar for an Invisible Wire
- The Grocer Who Hired Fake Shoppers to Push His Invention Around the Store
- The Kitchen Microwave That Impersonated a Signal From Deep Space
- The Dentist Who Invented Cotton Candy — and Sold 68,655 Boxes of It
- The Burrs Stuck to a Dog That Became Velcro
- The Canned Food That Arrived 48 Years Before the Can Opener
- The Chemist Who Forgot to Wash His Hands and Discovered Saccharin
- The Crash-Test Foam That Invented Your Mattress
- The Billiard Ball Prize That Invented Plastic
- The 22-Pound Lump of 2,000-Year-Old Butter Turf Cutters Dug Out of a Bog
- The 3,000-Year-Old Pants That Were Invented for Horseback Riding
- The 5,700-Year-Old Chewing Gum That Held an Entire Human Genome