Category: Open Lines

The first patent in the young United States was issued on this date in 1790 to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making potash — useful in producing soap, fertilizer and glass. The Constitution recognized, for the first time in history, the intrinsic right of an inventor to profit from his invention. Hopkins’ application was initially reviewed by Thomas Jefferson and approved by President Washington. By 1802, the U.S. Patent Office was established to process applications. Annually, …

The national government’s broad involvement in individual health insurance goes back to this date in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments, which established Medicare and Medicaid. The legislation was introduced in Congress in March 1965 and went through more than 500 amendments before being passed by large majorities in both the House and Senate. In 1966, President Johnson handed the first Medicare cards to former President Harry Truman, who had advocated such a program, and his …

Long before there were automobiles in the U.S., good roads were badly needed to get farm produce to market and to allow people to go visiting and shopping without battling mud. An American professor who had emigrated from Belgium — Edward de Smedt — invented an asphalt mix, which could be applied in sheets to make a smooth surface. His first trial occurred on this date in 1870 on William Street in Newark, New Jersey. Even though de Smedt’s technique …

The nation’s love affair with automobiles is generations old, and our devotion can be traced down through the decades by looking at advertising, as cars progressed from romantic if noisy new playthings to a daily necessity. The first known national ad about a car appeared at the end of July 1898 in the Scientific American magazine for the Winton Motor Carriage with the headline “dispense with a horse.” Americans did just that, and competing car companies increased spending on advertising. …

The past few decades have seen a mounting number and frequency of public opinion polls, whether from the traditional Gallup and Harris firms to those commissioned by newspapers or political campaigns. The first such poll in U.S. history appeared this month in 1824 in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian, finding that Andrew Jackson was favored over John Quincy Adams in the four-man presidential race. Ironically, that contest drew the lowest recorded participation in our history — less than 27 percent of voters …

This is National Drive-Thru Day — noting the popularity of restaurants that take orders by intercom and then pass the food out a window to the customers wanting to keep on the move. The first such service was the idea of Robert Peterson at a Jack in the Box restaurant in San Diego in 1951, serving hamburgers for just 18 cents. At the time, drive-in restaurants were very popular. The serving staff — some even on roller skates — brought …

The home front during World War II had to cope with some irritating limitations and scarcities, notably gas rationing and a lack of new cars and tires. But what for many was a real wartime crisis was coffee rationing. Imposed in 1942 because of hoarding and supply concerns, it proved very unpopular. Late this month in 1943, President Roosevelt ended the program because imports had rebounded. Coffee is believed to have been introduced into America by Captain John Smith of …

On these scorching hot summer days, with the nation’s average warmest day of the year coming up shortly, most of us welcome ducking in from the heat into a cool office, business, or home. For this relief, we can thank Willis Carrier, who in the depths of winter in 1906 received a patent for what he called an “apparatus for treating air.” His idea has fundamentally changed the way most Americans live, and the Carrier name is still prominent among …

A substantial and recurring feature of national media reporting — on TV, in newspapers and on the Web — is devoted to nutrition and health. There, doctors and public health officials express concerns about obesity, diabetes, and the quality of the diet of many Americans. However, junk food shows no sign of waning in popularity. And every devil has its advocate, as today is National Junk Food Day, celebrating the naughty temptations on offer, including at the more than 216,000 …

On this date in 1955 in West Milton, New York, a species of turning swords into plowshares was realized. That was when the Atomic Energy Commission sold electric power from a General Electric nuclear reactor to the Niagara-Mohawk Power Corporation for civilian distribution. Some 10,000 kilowatts were supplied from the reactor, which was a prototype for the one used in the submarine USS Seawolf. Last year, 789 billion kilowatt hours were generated at nuclear plants — about 19.5 percent of …

Harvard University, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Thus, it was already a bit long in the tooth when on this date in 1867 when it opened the first dental school associated with a medical school. It was also the first to be permanently established by a university, making the full scholarly and scientific resources of a university available to dental education. The first class commenced on November 4 …

On this date in 1935, drivers in Oklahoma City were confronted with America’s first parking meter, collecting rent for a space on the corner of First Street and Robinson Avenue. While local drivers could avoid that single space, they couldn’t escape for long. That meter was just the first of many to sprout up in Oklahoma City and across the nation, as millions of ticketed motorists will attest, and as municipalities sought to raise revenues while rotating street parking spots …

Major league baseball pauses today to play its 85th All-Star Game. Today’s event is being held at Target Field in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Twins. The first All-Star Game was played on July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. A homer by Babe Ruth helped the American League defeat the National League 4-2. In 1933, all 16 teams in the major leagues were clustered in the northeast of the country, with St. Louis being the southernmost and farthest …

Almost every home has at least one. They can be made out of cloth, plastic, or metal. Seamstresses and tailors use them, as do professional craftsmen and weekend do-it-yourselfers. It’s the tape measure, patented on this date in 1868 by Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Connecticut. His version had a feature still used today — a spring click lock to hold the tape at any desired point. One notable tape measure was 600 feet long and gold plated. It …

The distant reaches of planet Earth came into focus for the average American on this date in 1962 with the successful relay of a trans-Atlantic signal by Telstar, the first privately owned satellite launched the day before. While a major communications advance and a sensation of the day, Telstar did not last long. It failed in December, was restored briefly, and then went dead in February 1963. Today, dozens of communications satellites allow television signals, telephone calls and computer hookups …

On this date in 1890, more than 30 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, women in one of these United States enjoyed the right to vote, as Wyoming became the 44th state to join the union. Carved out of the Dakota, Idaho, and Utah territories, the Wyoming Territory was an important route for settlers and gold miners moving west for the Pony Express and the overland stage. Wyoming is known as the “Equality State” because of the rights women …

One of the most important inventions of our times was announced in early July 1948 in a press release by Bell Laboratories in New Jersey — the transfer resistance device — far better known as the transistor. The small, simple, and tough transistor replaced fragile and heat-generating vacuum tubes, which had been the heart of electronics for decades. The discovery led to the development of the integrated circuit and the microprocessor that are the basis of modern electronics. Today, transistor …

On this date in 1831, a baby was born in Knoxville, Georgia who would grow up, after serving as a Confederate officer, to invent a product that rather symbolizes America all around the world. John Stith Pemberton was a pharmacist himself addicted to morphine after its use in treating his war wound. His search for a cure for the addiction, which he never found, led him to create a beverage with a powerful, global attraction. Containing coca leaf extract and …

On this date 116 years ago, the U.S. began absorbing an island paradise en route to making it a treasured part of the nation, as President William McKinley signed a resolution annexing Hawaii. A short time later, Congress made Hawaii an incorporated territory of the U.S., which it remained until achieving statehood in 1959. For most Americans on the mainland, Hawaii is the ultimate vacation, with its lovely scenery and average annual temperature of around 72 degrees. Tourism, defense, and …

Today is that most American of holidays — Independence Day, celebrating the day in 1776 when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Ours was the first successful colonial independence movement against a European power. Recognition of our nationhood came with the Peace Treaty of 1783. From sea to shining sea, there will be parades, concerts, barbecues, and, of course, fireworks. Among the famous celebrations is the Boston Pops fireworks spectacular, featuring Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” now in its …