Items you use almost daily, but might not think about how we got them

 Every single day, we use things to make our lives easier  But these things have not always been around  We have learned about many inventions that have helped change the course of history, but what about the inventions that we use in our everyday lives

 Some of the items we take for granted are the same ones that you looked at on the table.  Before these items, our lives were a lot more complicated

 Lets look at how some of these inventions came to be during the 20 th century, and how some of them changed the way we do things in our daily lives.

 The paper clips was invented in the year 1900 by a man from Norway named Johann Vaaler.  The paper clip helped to solve the age old problem: how do I keep papers together without ruining them or poking holes in them.

 Before Vaaler ’ s invention, papers had to be held together with pins, or spring operated devices.  During WWI, Norwegians wore paper clips as a sign of patriotism against the Nazi ’ s.  They believed it was a sign that they were “ binding together ” against the Nazis.

 The next taken for granted invention is one that almost all of use have on right now, the zipper.

 Invented in 1913 by Gideon Sundback, the zipper soon became a very successful product for many clothing companies.  It took the place of buttons, snaps, and buckles in all sorts of fashion items.

 Every time you rip a paper or need to fasten a picture to your locker or wall, what do you go and grab?  That ’ s right, tape. And most of the time the clear kind.

 Scotch tape was invented in 1925 by a company in Minnesota. (later known as 3M)  Originally, tape was used to separate the different colors on cars as they were painted, but soon it was refined to have sticky glue all over the back and was used by painters, carpenters, and eventually almost everyone.

 Do you remember having to dip your pen into ink every time you wanted to write something?  Oh that ’ s right, we never had to do that, because of the invention of the ballpoint pen.

 The ballpoint pen replaced dipping pens into ink in  The Biro Brothers came up with the idea to put the ink inside of the pen and in 1944 were used by British Air Force pilots because they would work at high altitudes, unlike regular ink pens.

Choose and Invention and Inventor. Start to research both the invention and inventor What information do you think you need?