The 20th century featured a number of inventions and innovations designed to make modern life simpler. Some inventions were improvements upon already established designs while others were created completely from scratch. Inventions of the 20th century functioned as practical items to improve daily life. Other inventions turned out to save millions of lives.
Zipper
Zippers originally closed shoes.
Prior to the invention of the zipper, buttons, laces and safety pins were commonplace devices for fastening clothing. American inventor Whitcomb Judson created an all-new fastening device. Originally designed to close boots as opposed to long shoelaces, Judson designed what he referred to as a clasp-locker in 1893. The Lemelson-MIT Program Inventor of the Week Archive states that Judson's original prototype was displayed at the Chicago World's Fair that year, but was ignored. Then, in 1909, Judson passed away. In 1913, his business partner Lewis Walker met with Gideon Sundbach, a Swedish-American engineer. With the engineer's help, Judson's clasp-locker became a solidly-functioning fastener. The fasteners were features on army gear during World War I, and In the 1920s became known as zippers thanks to B.F. Goodrich.
Penicillin
Hailed by many as a miracle drug, penicillin was first discovered in 1929 by an English doctor named Alexander Fleming. According to Utah State University's Herbarium Department, Fleming wrote a paper on the chemical, calling it penicillin and describing how he had isolated it from the mold Penicillium notatum and detailing its germ growth-inhibition factors. In 1938, Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley of Oxford University expanded upon Fleming's discovery by developing growth, extraction and purification methods for penicillin. Because England was in the midst of World War II, the research for the drug shifted to the United States in 1941. A lab worker named Mary Hunt pushed penicillin development and production up another notch. She brought in a cantaloupe covered with Penicillium chrysogenum, a strain of Penicillium that grew incredibly well when placed in the growth tank. This doubled the amount of penicillin scientists were able to make, and penicillin began to be used commercially to treat infections.
Traffic Light
Modern traffic lights are based on Morgan's original design.
Garrett A. Morgan contributed several inventions to the world, one of which is the three-signal traffic light. Morgan was the son of former slaves and spent much of his adult life as a businessman and an inventor, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. Traffic accidents became a major problem in cities with the invention of the automobile in 1903. There were no real rules in place governing traffic safety at the time, and cars would often collide with pedestrians, bicyclers, carriages and other cars. Morgan came up with the idea of the three-position traffic light to promote traffic safety. The positions featured on the T-shaped pole were stop, go and an all-directional stop. Nighttime or light traffic times meant the pole signal would operate in a half-mast position, similar to the modern flashing yellow or red signal. In 1923, Morgan was granted a patent for his design. He then patented his traffic light in Great Britain and Canada.
