Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid in the 1920s to help his accident-prone wife. He worked for Johnson & Johnson and used duct tape and antiseptic cotton gauze to create the first adhesive bandages. The invention became a staple in home medicine cabinets. Other inventions were also inspired by accidents or unexpected events.
Necessity is the mother of invention, especially when blood is involved. Case in point: Earle Dickson loved her accident-prone wife, so he hated seeing her repeatedly go into the kitchen to cook, only to come out with an injured hand. This was the 1920s, so the best remedy at the time was to tie some fabric around the wound and wear it.
Luckily for the New Jersey couple, Earle worked for Johnson & Johnson, so it was easy to come home with some duct tape, some antiseptic cotton gauze, and get to work on a cure. And voila, the patch was born. Dickson went to his boss with his invention, and in 1921, the first Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages became available. It took a few years for people to catch on to the novelty — and brilliance — of the product, but soon Dickson’s home remedy became a staple in home medicine cabinets around the world.
The inventive mind:
The man who invented the microwave did so after he passed a radar tube and found his candy bar melted.
The idea came to the Swiss inventor of Velcro after he found a bunch of burrs stuck to his clothes after walking his dog.
Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prize after reading the (obviously) fake news of his death in a newspaper.
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