Muggle Inventions: Inventions C-D

Muggle Inventions: Inventions C-D

The next in the ‘Inventions’ line!

Pick two muggle inventions from the list below or one of your own, and write a detailed history of how the invention came about and what uses it has in the muggle world. Also state what magical items could make these inventions easier!

*Cabbage Patch Kids
*Card Games
*Chewing Gum
*Chocolate
*Coca-Cola
*Cookies (the yummy edible kind, yes)
*Corn Flakes
*Crayons
*Crossword Puzzles
*Cruise Control

*Deodorants
*Detergents
*Dialysis Machine
*Dishwasher
*Disposable Mobile/Cell Phone
*Donuts/Doughnuts
*Drinking Straws
*Dr Pepper
*Dry Ice
*DVD

There is no word count, though the more detailed the more possibility of higher housepoints!

Possible housepoints: 100

Remember to cite all your sources and no copying/pasting!

Muggle Inventions: Inventions C-D

The next in the ‘Inventions’ line!

Pick two muggle inventions from the list below or one of your own, and write a detailed history of how the invention came about and what uses it has in the muggle world. Also state what magical items could make these inventions easier!

*Cabbage Patch Kids
*Card Games
*Chewing Gum
*Chocolate
*Coca-Cola
*Cookies (the yummy edible kind, yes)
*Corn Flakes
*Crayons
*Crossword Puzzles
*Cruise Control

*Deodorants
*Detergents
*Dialysis Machine
*Dishwasher
*Disposable Mobile/Cell Phone
*Donuts/Doughnuts
*Drinking Straws
*Dr Pepper
*Dry Ice
*DVD


My two items: Coca-Cola and Corn Flakes


1. Coca-Cola

The early version of the Coca-Cola was actually intended to be a headache medicine, called Pemberton's French Wine Coca or cocawine, which was inspired the Vin Mariani, which was another version of the cocawine made by a French named Angelo Mariani. The Pemberton's French Wine Coca was first invented by a druggist named John Stith Pemberton (Colombus, Georgia) in 1884.

During the following years (marked by Atlanta and Fulton County's passed Prohibition legislation), Pemberton decided to modify his product and made a non-alcoholic version, which he named Coca-Cola, mostly because it still included the coca leaves stimulant from South America, and also because it was flavoured with kola nuts.

At this time, Pemberton resumed the selling of the Coca-Cola as a patent medecine, which he said could cure things like morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence.

Then, in 1887, Pemberton sold a stake in his company to a man named Asa Griggs Candler. He soon incorporated it, in 1888, as Coca Cola Corporation. During the same year, Pembleton sold some of the rights again to 3 other business men, J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey, and E.H. Bloodworth, and at the same time, Pembelton's own son began selling his version of the product.

Candler's company was still the most effective one, and he incorporated a second company in 1892 (the Coca-Cola Company). It was his company who sold the first bottled version of the Coca-Cola product, in 1894, and the hobble-skirt design, which is associated which this drink, was first seen in 1915.

Apart from Candler, an executive named Robert Woodruff was one of those who had the more impact on Coke's future. He was known as a workaholic and he even influenced the market of the Coca-Cola for a long time after his retirement, until his death day.

During the Great Depression, in 1929, there were fears among the company that the sales might decrease, but in the contrary, the Coca-Cola became even more popular.

During the World War II, Coca-Cola sponsored, in a way, the US army, as the company sent free bottles to the front line, and when the war ended, the soldier brought back home their new favorite drink.

Still today, Coca-Cola is one of the most popular drinks, though it still have to fight against it's biggest ennemi and the only one of that kind that survived, Pepsi.




2. Corn Flakes

There is no precise date of when the Corn Flakes were invented, but its history goes back to the late 19th Century. It was first made by a group of Seventh-day Adventist, who developped this new food because they wanted to find something to fit with their very stict vegetarian diet. They experimented several grains, like wheat, rice, oats and obviously, corn.

The first time these products were given to people was in 1894. The Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who was an Adventist and who had also been the surintendant of The Battle Creek Sanitarium (in Battle Creek, Michigan), used this recipe and gave it to his patient as a stict vegetarian regiment (in which he would also include products as tobacco, alcohol and caffeine). He strongly believed in following the precepts of Sylvester Graham (the inventor of the Graham crackers and bread) and in sexual abstinence, and the diet he imposed was entirely made of bland food as he believed that sweet and spicy food had an effect that would increase passion, while cornflakes would give an antiaphrodisiac sensation.

The idea of the Corn Flakes, actually, began as an accident. The Dr. Kellogg and his brother were making the recipe and had left some cooked wheat to sit while they had to attend to some very important business. When they came back, they were surprised to see that the wheat had gone stale. However, as they were not exactly rich, they decided to resume on the processing, forcing it through rollers. But instead of the long sheet of dough they were hoping to get, the wheat came out in flakes, which they toasted before giving them to their patients on the 14th of April, in 1894.

The flakes immediately became a very popular food, especially when served with milk, leading the two brothers to experiment this recipe with other kind of grains. Will Keith Kellogg (Dr. Kellogg's brother), who was the business manager of the sanitarium in which they both worked, decided to try selling the product by setting up his own company - Kellogg's - in 1906. With his brother, they added sugar to the recipe so that it would taste a bit better and be more popular among a bigger audience. The Corn Flakes were the first marketed product of the Kellogg's company, before the Kellogg brothers expanded their product line to other kind of cereals like Rice Krispies.




Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Flakes

Chocolate

Chocolate’s origin came from Mesoamerica when plant pods named cocoa were discovered by tribes and used in healing potions. Later on the Spanish explorers visited these tribes and tried cocoa and took it back to Spain.
In Spain they turned it into a drink called ‘hot chocolate’ a bitter beverage which not like nowadays was not sweetened.
Cocoa was also apart of their religious lives, because it was a symbolic food/drink to them. Used in ancient traditional ceremonies for the gods, using it as sacrifices because it was a delicacy at the time.
Cocoa spread from Spain to other European countries, where in further years it was churned with milk and made solid, to become a chocolate bar!

NO MAGICAL INVENTION CAN BE BETTER THEN CHOCOLATE! OR MAKE IT EASIER (to eat that is) IN ANY WAY!

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/Chocolate/history_european.html

Doughnuts
(Im in the mood for food!)

Doughnuts are circular dough battered or deepfried with a hole in the centre, for easy eating I guess. They can be cinnamon or sugar coated, as well as icing.
The origins on the doughnut are (no not from the simpsons!) said to come from Dutch settlers who had an art of making desserts suchs as doughnuts. Another theory is the Danish, the origin is uncertain because many countries claimed credit for the creation of this yummy food!

Same about this one, maybe a spell that makes multiple chocolate bars and doughnuts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut


Yun

Doughnuts

Firstly can I say mmm doughnuts!...then I’ll get on with my essay lol

In every country that makes bread, there arises the question of what to do with the leftover scraps of dough. In England, they dropped the bits into soup or water, and made dumplings. But in Holland and in Germany, cooks dropped the extra into boiling oil, and made fry-cakes, or olie-koecken. The Dutch fancied up their leftovers a bit more by shaping them into decorative knots (dough knots), and rolling in sugar afterwards.
Doughnuts have long been associated with holiday festivities. The Dutch and German made them as a Christmas specialty. Later, Europeans would make them an important part of the pre-Lent festivities. Mardi Gras wouldn't be the same without beignets (the French version of the doughnut) or the fastnachtkuches (literally, fasting night cakes-the same dish under a different name) of the Germanic peoples.

John Blondell was awarded the patent for the first doughnut cutter in 1872. Blondell's version was made of wood, but an 'improved' tin version with a fluted edge was patented in 1889.

In any doughnut case there are yeast style and cake style. The yeast type is closer to its origins as leftover bread. This version is deceptively light, with a good deal of air between the layers. The cake style on the other hand, with a heavy, dense body, was a later development-essentially fried cake dough.

Cookies
The earliest cookie-style cakes are thought to date back to 7th century Persia A.D. (now Iran), one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. By the end of the 14th century, one could buy little filled wafers on the streets of Paris. Renaissance cookbooks were rich in cookie recipes.
During the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, baking was a carefully controlled profession, managed through a series of Guilds or professional associations. To become a baker, people had to complete years of an apprenticeship - working through the ranks of apprentice, journeyman, and finally master baker.
The English, Scotch, and Dutch immigrants originally brought the first cookies to the United States.
The first chocolate chip cookies was invented in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield


http://itotd.com/articles/314/the-story-of-doughnuts/
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CookieHistory.htm

My two Inventions- Cabbage Patch Kids and Dr Pepper

Cabbage Patch Kids

As a teen, Xavier Roberts started the "Babyland General Hospital" in Cleveland, Georgia. There, you could "adopt" a "baby", which was actually a hand-sewn doll. In 1976, Roberts invented the "Little People dolls". Roberts started a company with his friends to manufacture and produce the dolls on a larger scale. However, Coleco Toy Company liked his idea, bought it from the company, and started mass-producing the dolls, renaming them to the "Cabbage Patch Kids", in 1983. Coleco continued marketing them for six years. Later, the company added several variations to the original doll, but not all were successes, such as the "food-eating" doll (several children got their fingers or hair stuck in the doll's mouth) and the "talking" doll (people thought they were too expensive, and several found them creepy). Although the craze for these dolls passed in the '80s, there are still several collectors of them, as no two dolls are the same.

I'm not sure how magic could make these dolls better. Perhaps a spell could make them more human-like, maybe make them walk around and such. That would make them more valuable to collectors, and maybe there might be another Cabbage Patch Kids craze.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcabbagepatchkids.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_Patch_Kids

Dr Pepper


Charles Alderton worked at Morrison's Old Drug Store in Waco, Texas. There, he sold drinks whose recipies he had invented. There was one drink in paticular that a lot of people ordered, called the "Waco". Later, Morrison, the owner of the drug store, was credited as the one who changed the name to "Dr. Pepper". As the popularity of the drink grew, it became harder and harder for Alderton and Morrison to manufacture it. Luckily, Robert Lazenby, owner of the "Circle 'A' Ginger-Ale COmpany" in Waco, was interested in this popular new drink. Alderton, who had no interest in the soda manufacturing business, let Morrison and Lazenby take over. They became business partners, and in 1891, started the Artesian Mfg. and Bottling Company, which later became the Dr Pepper company. In 1904, the company introduced the drink to 20 million people at the World's Fair Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri- the same fair that introduced ice cream to the public. In the 1950's, the name was changed from "Dr. Pepper" to "Dr Pepper", dropping the period. This was because it was hard to read on the bottle, and the font of writing made it look like "Di:". Today, Dr Pepper is the oldest mass-marketed soda in the US.

I'm not sure what magic could do for this drink... I like the way it is :D

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldrpepper.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Pepper

My two inventions:

Corn Flakes

Will Keith Kellogg was the founder of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, founded in 1906. In 1894, Kellogg was trying to improve the diet of hospital patients. He was searching for a digestible bread substitute using the process of boiling wheat. Kellogg accidentally left a pot of boiled wheat to stand and the wheat became soft. When Kellogg rolled the tempered or softened wheat and let it dry, each grain of wheat emerged as a large thin flake. The flakes turned out to be a tasty cereal. Kellogg had invented corn flakes.

Dishwasher

The first known dishwasher was reported in 1850 by Joel Houghton, though this wasnt as they are today. Modern dishwashers are descended from the 1886 invention of Josephine Cochrane Cochrane was quite wealthy and was the granddaughter of John Fitch, the inventor of the steamboat. She never washed dishes herself and only invented the dishwasher as her servants were chipping her fine china. Models installed with permanent plumbing arrived in 1920s, and electric drying elements were added in 1940. It wasnt until the 1970's that dishwashers were normal in every day life





sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornflakes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher

I decided to do an invention not on the list.

First invention: MP3 Players

The first mp3 player was created in 1997. But in 1998, the recording industry attempted to sue the makers of these mp3 plays because it was supposedly illegal copying of music. But the mp3 player’s companies won and they continued to manufacture them, legally.
Eventually, mp3 players were being made smaller and lighter, much like the ones today. But they could hold very few songs. And the main problem with mp3 players was the transfer from the computer and the player. In 2000, USB ports became more common and mp3 player manufacturers could use these for transfer.
The flash memory left little space for songs on the player. So in 1999, they started using laptop hard drives, which could hold up to 1200 songs.
In 2000, iRiver developed the first digital mp3 player. In turn, Apple Computer developed the iPod, which has grown to become the most abundantly used mp3 player. But in 2006, MSI developed the first solar powered mp3 player.

Overtime, mp3 players have developed more uses. Originally, they were made only for playing music. But since their creation, games have been added to their systems. In iPods, for example, there is room for calendars, games, videos, images, etc. Podcasts have even been developed. Podcasts are files you can download online and transfer to an iPod, and it plays like a radio.


Second invention: Drinking straws

Straws were originally made to drink beer with by the Sumerians. The Argentineans created a similar device to both drink and sieve tea. But the modern straw wasn’t officially patented until 1888.
Before the patent, people were drinking from grass straws. But the patent only created a paper straw. Marvin Stone, the one who had the idea, made the straws by wrapped them around a pencil and gluing them together. But he noticed that the paper got soggy so he experimented with Manila paper.
Since then, people have experimented with different types of straws, using different types of materials.

Drinking straws are mainly used for drinking beverages. Originally, they were used to keep solid object from being ingested.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_straw

Muggle Inventions: Inventions C-D

Chewing gum

People have enjoyed chewing gum-like substances in many lands and from very early times. Some of these materials were thickened resin and latex from certain kinds of trees. Others were various sweet grasses, leaves, grains and waxes

For centuries the ancient Greeks chewed mastic gum (or mastiche pronounced "mas-tee-ka"). This is the resin obtained from the bark of the mastic tree, a shrub-like tree found on the island of Chios, Greece. Grecian women especially favored chewing mastic gum to clean their teeth and sweeten their breath. From the Indians of New England, the American colonists learned to chew the gum-like resin that formed on spruce trees when the bark was cut. Lumps of spruce gum were sold in the eastern United States during the early 1800s, making it the first commercial chewing gum in this country. In about 1850, sweetened paraffin wax became popular and eventually exceeded spruce gum in popularity. In 1845, after he was defeated by the Americans in Texas, Mexican General Santa Anna was exiled to New York. Like many of his countrymen, Santa Anna chewed chicle. One day he introduced it to inventor Thomas Adams, who began experimenting with it as a substitute for rubber. Adams tried to make toys, masks, and rain boots out of chicle, but every experiment failed. Sitting in his workshop one day,tired and discouraged, he popped a piece of surplus stock into his mouth. Chewing away, the idea suddenly hit him to add flavoring to the chicle. Shortly, he opened the world’s first chewing gum factory. Gum made with chicle and similar latexes soon won favor over spruce gum and paraffin gum. It made possible a smooth, springy, satisfying chew that the others lacked, and it held flavors longer and better. By the early 1900s, with improved methods of manufacturing, packaging and marketing, modern chewing gum was well on its way to its current popularity.

The chewing gum is made of a "gum base" with added flavoring and sometimes food coloring . The exact composition of gum bases is usually a trade secret, but common ingredients can be latexes, paraffin wax or beeswax, polyethylene, polyvinyl acetate, stearic acid, and various natural gums.

Chewing gum is a type of confectionery which is designed to be chewed instead of swallowed. Traditionally, it was made of chicle, a natural latex product, although for reasons of economy and quality many modern chewing gums use petroleum-based polymers instead of chicle. Chicle is nonetheless still the base of choice for some regional markets, such as in Japan. Glee Gum is the last United States gum manufacturer to still use chicle.

The standard type of gum is a small stick or wad of gum. Gum comes in a variety of flavors, depending on location, and is most often chewed for the flavor. Nicotine gum is designed especially for people who are trying to quit smoking. Several types of gum are designed specifically for dental hygiene, which demands sugar-free ingredients. There are also gums that claim to whiten teeth, clean teeth, and freshen breath. Gum assists oral irrigation between and around the teeth, helping to clean and remove particles of food. However, for teeth in poor condition it may damage or remove loose fillings. It will also not replace regular brushing and flossing.There also exist chewing gum brands that contain vitamins, designed for use primarily by children.

Chewing gum has some health benefits; sugar-free chewing gum stimulates saliva production, and helps to neutralize the effect of acids that follow meals. Sugared gum has been shown to increase tooth decay when used regularly. Chewing gum has also been identified with improving memory according to various studies. Despite this, chewing gum is banned in many schools. The chewing process expends 12 calories per hour (14 milliwatts) and chewing gum when travelling on an aircraft can counteract the irritation caused by changes in air pressure. Gum containing the sugar alcohol xylitol can help counteract tooth decay. Minty chewing gum can help clear nasal passages. Some oral surgens and orthodontists believe chewing gum can lead to TMJ (muscular jaw problems), and reccommend people not chew gum if they experience headaches, muscle fatigue, or pain in their jaw after doing so.

I think a Levitation spell would work just fine in chewing-gum! Can you imagine you’re quietly chewing your and also levitating, that’d be very relaxing.


DVD
DVD (also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc" or "Det Vet Du", officially called DVD-ROM) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. DVDs resemble compact discs as their physical dimensions are the same (120 mm (4.72 inches) or occasionally 80 mm (3.15 inches) in diameter) but they are encoded in a different format and at a much higher density.

"DVD" was originally an initialism for "Digital Video Disc." Some members of the DVD Forum believe that it should stand for "Digital Versatile Disc" to reflect its widespread use for non-video applications. Toshiba, which maintains the official DVD Forum site [1], adheres to the latter interpretation, and indeed this appeared within the copyright warnings on some of the earliest examples. However, the DVD Forum never reached a consensus on the matter, and so today the official name of the format is simply "DVD"; the letters do not officially stand for anything.

The first DVD players and discs were available in November 1996 in Japan, March 1997 in the United States, 1998 in Europe and in 1999 in Australia. The first pressed DVD release was the film Twister in 1996. The film had the first test for 2.1 surround sound.
The first film to sell more than one million DVD units was The Matrix, released on September 21, 1999. The first film that had a major theatrical release, but which took in more from DVD sales than from gross box-office receipts, was Seabiscuit, released on December 16, 2003; it grossed $120 million at the U.S. box-office and $140 million in U.S. DVD sales.

The Dvd’s would be a lot better with a transfiguration spell that would animate the movies and so we could see it live like we were living it! It’d be so exciting!!!!

------------
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum
http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventions/a/gum.htm
http://www.fordgum.com/story.html

Muggle Inventions: Inventions C-D

The next in the ‘Inventions’ line!

Pick two muggle inventions from the list below or one of your own, and write a detailed history of how the invention came about and what uses it has in the muggle world. Also state what magical items could make these inventions easier!

*Cabbage Patch Kids
*Card Games
*Chewing Gum
*Chocolate
*Coca-Cola
*Cookies (the yummy edible kind, yes)
*Corn Flakes
*Crayons
*Crossword Puzzles
*Cruise Control

*Deodorants
*Detergents
*Dialysis Machine
*Dishwasher
*Disposable Mobile/Cell Phone
*Donuts/Doughnuts
*Drinking Straws
*Dr Pepper
*Dry Ice
*DVD

There is no word count, though the more detailed the more possibility of higher housepoints!

Possible housepoints: 50

Remember to cite all your sources and no copying/pasting!


I picked Crayons and Dr Pepper as my two.

Crayons~

The first crayons were made by Crayola; invented by Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. The first box of eight Crayola crayons was made in 1903.
There were 8 crayons to a box and the only colors were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green.
The cost for them at the time was a nickel per box. Crayola's name came from two french worlds of ''chalk'' and ''oily'' and combined and mixed together giving it the famous name that it is today. The first place that the crayons came from was Europe. It was the beginning of the “modern” crayon.
A man-made cylinder that resembled sticks were the first 'crayons' and were said to have been made from a mixture of oil and charcoal. However later on they decided it was a sturdier structure by making it with oil and wax, instead of charcoal.
Crayola was founded, and became very productive.
During the Great Depression, Binney & Smith hired local farm families to hand-label the crayons. Each farm became associated with a different color name.
Binney & Smith made their inventions throughout the world and employed more than 2,600 people to help.
Crayola is sold all over the world and is written in several languages. Back in 1996, ninety-three years after the company made its first crayon, the 100 billionth Crayola crayon was made in Easton, Pennsylvania where the whole crayon company began.
Also in 1996, Crayola crayons also got their own 32 cents stamp.
The original 1903 eight color box is part of the United States Postal Service’s "Celebrate the Century" program.
Back in 1998, Crayola crayons entered the Smithsonian Museum. Many of the Crayola items like the 64 count box, are now on display and added to the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection.
Even today, kids use up around 730 crayons by age 10 because most of them still enjoy coloring.
Red and blue are kids' two favorite Crayola crayons and over the years, Crayons have been expanded into more colors, smelly ones, glow in the dark ones, flourescent and keep coming up with more new designs.


http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story060.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcrayon.htm

Dr Pepper~

In Waco, Texas a young pharmicist created this drink in 1885 He made his own recipes and plans for soft drinks of him own and soon people started liking one of them very much. "Dr Pepper" was named after the store owner's friend of the drug store that Charles Alderton worked at. The demand for the drink became great and the two had a hard time keeping up with consumer demands.Alderton didn't want to be in the "Dr pepper'' business so he had Morrison takeover who partnered up with Robert Lazenby.
So then in 1891, these two created a bottling company and started producing a lot of the soft drink. In 1904 at the World's Fair Exposition in St. Louis, twenty billion people got to try Dr Pepper. In 1923 Morrison and Lazenby moved the Dr Pepper company to Dallas,Texas and continued there. In 1946 the company got listed into the New York Stock Exchange because it was such a bit hit. And by 1950, the company dropped the period in the name, and it was just "Dr Pepper". The drink became famous and grew with every generation. It's still around today as many people's favorite soft drink.





http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldrpepper.htm
http://mtmt.essortment.com/historyofdr_reig.htm

Cabbage Patch Kids

Created by a man named Xavier Roberts, "little people" as to what they were used to be refferes to as became a world hit in 1983. The gimmicks of these dolls were that they were unique and adoptable. Not two dolls were exactley the same. These dolls were a must have toy for X-mas. Fights/arguements occasionally erupted between parents on these hard to find dolls. The Cabbage Patch Kids popularity has largely passed, they can still be seen on shelves.

Maybe a spell that could make them more life-like. Have them be able to cry..laugh..move arms and legs..fed real food.




Dishwasher

The Modern Dishawasher desended from the 1886 invention by Josephine Cochrane. Models with permanent plumbing arrived in the 1920's and electric drying models in the 1940's. Byt he 1970's Dishwashers had become common.

Hmm...I'm not sure what magical item could help make this invention easier. Maybe a spell to make the washing go faster and more efficent.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_Patch_Kids