Everyday Objects

Post-it notes, Velcro, Silly Putty — the strange backstories behind ordinary things.

39 stories

• The 'Astronaut Drink' NASA Never Invented — and the Moonwalker Who Said It Sucks
• The Baby Swab Once Sold as 'Baby Gays' — Whose Box Now Begs You to Keep It Out of Your Ear
• The Ball-Game Chant That Named the Fly Swatter
• The Bread Preacher Behind the Graham Cracker — and the Bakers Who Came to Mob Him
• The Kaleidoscope Craze That Sold 200,000 in Three Months — and Barely Paid Its Inventor
• The Jar of Peanuts NASA Won't Launch Without — Thanks to Six Moon Probes That Failed in a Row
• The Minister Who Lived Next to a Brewery and Invented Soda Water to Cure Scurvy
• The Pub Egg Timer That Became the Lava Lamp — and the Inventor Who Said You Wouldn't Need Drugs
• The Roman Pocket Sundial Shaped Like a Ham
• The Sea-Monkeys That Hatched a Day Before You 'Brought Them to Life'
• The Astronaut Ice Cream That Astronauts (Probably) Never Ate
• The First Roman Letter Found Near Hadrian's Wall Was About Socks and Underpants
• The Pudding Recipe That Gave Microbiology Its Favorite Jelly
• The Rust Spray Named After the 39 Times It Didn't Work
• The Chemist Who Asked to Be Buried in the Pringles Can He Invented
• The Germ-Fighting Paper Cup Named After the Doll Company Next Door
• The Spaghetti That Stumped Richard Feynman by Refusing to Break in Two
• The 22-Pound Lump of 2,000-Year-Old Butter Turf Cutters Dug Out of a Bog
• The Dentist Who Invented Cotton Candy — and Sold 68,655 Boxes of It
• The Floor Cleaner That Taught America to Fear Its Own Breath
• The Grocer Who Hired Fake Shoppers to Push His Invention Around the Store
• The Tube of Paint That Got a Funeral in an English Garden
• The Frisbee Salesmen Who Charged a Dollar for an Invisible Wire
• The Canned Food That Arrived 48 Years Before the Can Opener
• The Kitchen Microwave That Impersonated a Signal From Deep Space
• The Wallpaper Cleaner Nobody Needed Anymore That Became Play-Doh
• The 5,700-Year-Old Chewing Gum That Held an Entire Human Genome
• The 3,000-Year-Old Pants That Were Invented for Horseback Riding
• The Billiard Ball Prize That Invented Plastic
• The Burrs Stuck to a Dog That Became Velcro
• The Chemist Who Forgot to Wash His Hands and Discovered Saccharin
• The Crash-Test Foam That Invented Your Mattress
• 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 Strange History of the Ballpoint Pen
• 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

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