Famous German Inventions.
If there was a source for modern intriguing widgets and discoveries it surely stood in Germany. Many German inventors contributed to the nation’s fame as a cradle of inventions and technologies.
And not only classy cars, trendy kitchen appliances or rockets can be quoted here. The following list contains some every day articles like tea bags, toothpaste or coffee filter that were created and spread all over the world.
Bobby car - The most widely sold toy car ever, which was invented by Ernst Bettag in Fürth. He had the idea for this little red runabout in 1972. Since then it was sold 15 million times throughout the whole world. Some people believe the name Bobbycar meant a British police officer, but this is definitely not so.
Coffee filter - Coincidentally invented by Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Dresden, in 1908 when she used blotting paper from her children’s exercise books, because she was annoyed at cleaning cups full of coffee dregs. She put the blotting paper like an inlay into a perforated brass pot to stop the grounded coffee from dropping through. Melitta became an international company and filtered coffee highly popular.
Files - The idea goes back to an idea of Louis Leitz, who crafted his invention in 1896. The Leitz folder was the first ring binder and is still the most used document folder in the world. It is almost unchanged since its birth and even survived the electronics revolution of the 1990s. A real office classic.
MP3 Format - Developed by a group of people around Karlheinz Brandenburg at an Institute in Erlangen, part of the MPEG1 standards were codified in 1992 and in 1995. The data ending .mp3 was then determined in an internal survey at the Fraunhofer Institute. Core areas of the MP3 are protected by patents as are other coding methods. The small size of mp3 files helped make them the most popular format for music data.
Sneakers - were invented by Adolf Dassler, the son of a baker, who experimentally changed football boots into bootless shoes with cleats. During the final of the FIFA World Cup during heavy rain in 1954, the German team managed to run reasonably well over the pitch, while the Hungarians sank into the deep mud. The victory in the match created high demand for Adidas sneakers world wide.
Tea bags - Invented by Adolf Rambold who worked for a Dresden tea company and was the first man ever to make tee bags out of special tasteless parchment paper and launched them on the market in 1929. Twenty years later the company started to commercialize the patented bags with a double chamber function as we know them today. Teekanne is still the largest producer and distributor in Germany and now have their head offices in Dusseldorf.
The pill - This method of avoiding pregnancy was invented by the pharmaceutical company Schering in 1961. Just 50 milligrammes of estrogen produce a pretentious pregnancy in the female body. This was the hour of birth of the anti baby pill which remains the number one worldwide contraceptive.
Toothpaste - Already used by Egyptians, it was made of pumice and vinegar in those days. The toothpaste known to us today was invented by the Dresden pharmacist Ottmar Heinsius von Mayenburg in 1907. He had the idea to create a tooth caring lotion that would be pleasant to have in the mouth, so he added some peppermint flavours for taste. Main ingredients were pumice powder, calcium carbonate, soap, glycerin and potassium chlorate. It quickly gained fame around the world as Chlorodent.
