Ice pops were invented by an 11-year-old by accident. In 1905, an 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson left soda powder and water outside overnight with its wooden stirrer still in the cup. The mixture had frozen in the chilly nighttime weather, and so the Epsicle was born. He sold the treat around his neighbourhood and a nearby amusement park and even patented the recipe. Years later, he changed the name to Popsicle because that’s what his kids called their pop’s concoction.
100 Mind-Blowing Patented Facts
The foil seals on medicine bottles were placed due to poisoning incidents. The Tylenol poisonings of 1982 were a widespread crisis that involved U.S. consumers dying or falling ill from Tylenol. It was later found that the bottles had been laced with potassium cyanide. To restore the faith of the public in the product and the company, Johnson & Johnson patented the seal to prevent further tampering incidents. This is also the thought behind the “Do not accept if seal is broken.” warnings that we see with other products.
The fire hydrant patent was lost in a fire. Oh, the irony. Frederick Graff Sr. patented the fire hydrant in the early 1800s. However, the patent was destroyed when the Washington, D.C. patent office burned down in 1836.
Moustache shields were a thing in the Victorian Era. You’ve heard of post-mortem photo ops and cocaine toothache drops, but another peculiar Victorian-Era thing is the moustache shield. Patented in 1876 by Virgil A Gates, the moustache shield was designed to keep facial hair out of the way when eating and drinking.
The Play-Doh scent is patented. In 2017, Hasbro filed a trademark for Play-Doh’s distinct smell of “sweet, slightly Musky vanilla fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, mixed with the smell of salted, wheat-based dough.” Soon after, the trademark was approved.
In 1966, the bank patented the first ATM. Scottish engineer James Goodfellow invented the PIN code to identify customers. It is not known for certain, but initially, the PIN code was six digits. However, the inventor’s wife could only remember 4 digits, so Goodfellow shortened the code.