Life and Tech Tips – August 2015

Some would argue that August is the best month of the year for its warm weather and sunny skies. Spain, France, and Italy also mark August 1st as the start of their unofficial vacation season.  Others might view the celebrity birthdays in this month (Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lawrence, Mila Kunis, Madonna, this author) as a reason to celebrate.

Whatever your reasons for heralding August as the month-of-months, we’d like to add to your fervor by marking some of the great inventions and technological happenings of history that occurred in August:

(1) Clarence Birdseye patented a method for packaging frozen foods on August 12, 1930.  Thank Mr. Birdseye for the Hungry Man dinners you enjoy today.

(2) William B. Ward registered the Hostess trademark on August 19, 1919. Twinkies and fruit pies were this man’s brainchild for better or worse.

(3) The Cinicinnati Bengals name was trademarked on August 23, 1977.  We had to include one factoid no one cares about, so there it is.

(4) Whitcomb Judson received a patent for the zipper on August 29, 1893.

(5) Liquid soap was available to the public for the first time on August 22, 1865.

(6) The waffle iron was patented on August 24, 1869.  That is almost 150 years of deep-pocketed, maple-flavored goodness, assuming you put maple syrup on your waffles.

(7) The self-contained washing machine was patented on August 9, 1910, allowing millions of housewives to say goodbye to the washing board and well worn river rocks.

(8) The pay telephone was patented on August 13, 1889. Though it has mostly disappeared today, it allowed phone service where none might have otherwise been available for many years.  It also allowed villains to call unsuspecting heroes with demands for large sums of money or other ridiculous requests in movies like Die Hard With A Vengeance.

Many other great things have happened in August, and with a few keystrokes, you can discover these events yourself.  Rather than discuss some dry technological topic during these warm summer months when everyone is outdoors, we thought we’d give you a few more reasons to celebrate August.