It is common knowledge that inventions are designed to make a positive difference to our lives. Talking about differences, some famous inventions have been able to change the way we live and communicate forever.
Imagine the utility value and convenience of an answering machine. When there is nobody at home, this inanimate object called the telephone diligently takes all the messages and plays it back for you, so that you are always in touch, and never miss a call. Hasn’t this made our lives more comfortable? If you have an idea like this there are companies that will provide help for your invention and guide you in the process.
According to history, a Danish telephone engineer called Valdemar Poulsen(1869-1942), patented an apparatus, which he called a telegraphone in 1898. This wondrous gadget was the first magnetic sound recording and reproduction instrument. It not only recorded telephone conversations on a wire by the varying magnetic fields produced by sound, the wire could also play back the sound. This triggered Willy Muller, to invent the first automatic answering machine in 1935.
This was a machine which was three feet tall and used by Orthodox Jews, who were not allowed to answer the phone on the Sabbath. The first answering machine sold commercially in the US was the Ansafone, invented by Dr. Kazuo Hashimoto for Phonetel. This was early 1960. There have been numerous improvements and remodeling and today we have the most modern answering machines in our homes.
Another famous invention which has become part of our daily lives is the invention of the voice mail. Credit for this goes to Gordon Matthews, who patented it in 1979. Known as the ‘father of voice mail’, Gordon Matthews was the founder of the VMX Company in Dallas and sold the first voice mail system to 3M.
There are many famous inventions which are attributed to more than one inventor. This is the case with the invention of the Automatic Teller Machines (ATM). While Don Wetzel invented the first successful and modern ATM in the USA, he was not the first inventor of the ATM. In 1939, an inventor named Luther George Simjian, started patenting a rather unsuccessful version of the ATM
Any modern shopping mall or supermarket would be paralyzed without this next famous invention. Can you guess what it could be? It is the bar code. This is a method for automatic identification and subsequent data collection, used not only by malls and markets, but giant industries as well. The first patent for a bar code type product was issued in 1952, to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. The original Bernard and Silver bar code was like a ‘bull’s eye’ made up of a number of concentric circles. You can get help for your invention from patenging agencies like InventHelp as you can read from this InventHelp review.
First commercially used in 1966, the bar code lacked any industry standard. By 1970, a company called Logicon Inc., wrote the Grocery Products Identification Code or UGPIC, which later evolved into the U.P.C symbol set or the Universal Product Code, which is still used in the United States. The credit for the invention of the U.P.C. in 1973 goes to George J. Laurer.