Today in History – May 13, 1958 – Velcro® trademark is registered for a fabric hook and loop fastener.

The way George de Mestral, a Swiss mountaineer, tells the story, he was hiking with his dog in 1948 and was frustrated to see all of these burrs covering them both when he returned home. He says he was fascinated by how tough they were to take off and looked at them in a microscope. He saw that they had small hooks that enabled the seed-bearing burr to cling effectively to the small fabric loops on his pants. This was an “aha” moment and he was inspired to design a fastener using the same concept. He called  his invention ‘velcro’, combining the French words velour (velvet) and crochet (hook). He predicted: “It will rival the zipper in its ability to fasten.”

The idea was not an immediate success and met with derision by some. He persevered and worked with a  weaver from a textile plant in France to develop a nylon type fabric that had the hook and loop fastener concept, patented it in 1955 and trademarked it in 1958. A U.S. patent was filed on May 9, 1958 and awarded on Nov. 21, 1961. The original Velcro® company was formed in 1952 to manufacture this invention and now Velcro® is a multi-million dollar industry.

One interesting note on trademarks: if it becomes a commonly used generic word, then the trademark can be invalidated. Thus Velcro International emphasizes: “Velcro is the name of our companies and is a registered trademark for our products,” the highly protective company says. “It is not the generic name of the product that… is generically known as ‘hook-and-loop fastener’ or ‘touch fasteners’.”

Velcro® is a wonderful example of biologically-inspired design, or biomimicry.

Also on this day, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (to later merge with another society to become the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE) is founded.

For more information see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on biomimetic design and trademarks and patents. For related curricular resources, visit the Materials Engineering Education, Materials Engineering Education and the Chemical Engineering Education community sites.

Today in History – April 22, 1970 – First Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, says that the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. He wanted President Kennedy to give visibility to pollution and the environmental degradation that was appearing throughout the country, but was going unnoticed by the political establishment. The anti-Vietnam War demonstrations called “teach-ins” were popular on college campuses and he decided to organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment, tapping into both the energy of the student anti-war movement and the environmental cause. A Sunday, November 30, 1969, New York Times article by Gladwin Hill forecast that this was going to be a massive event:

“Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam…a national day of observance of environmental problems…is being planned for next spring…when a nationwide environmental ‘teach-in’ …

Senator Gaylord Nelson explains that Earth Day worked “because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated.”

Today with global warming and another energy crises, sustainability is a top international concern and an estimated 1 billion people will do something to observe the anniversary of the first Earth Day. People will participate in marches and protests, family and community activities, clean-up days, tree-planting events, saving water, saving energy, nature walks, and sustainability events.  A coalition of U.S. government agencies provides more on the history of Earth Day, environmental progress and Earth Day activities.

I am pleased to see a dramatic change in government action to aggressively workon climate and environmental issues. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson challenges all Americans to “begin building the green economy“, Department of Energy’s Steven Chu tackling global warming, and .

Expressions like “Green is the new black”, “Green is the new red, white and blue” and “green commerce”, such as that highlighted in ABC’s “Green Gadgets for Earth Day” news, demonstrate that green design is big business today. Alas some of these efforts are really “green washing” and are more effective at ringing up sales than in helping the environment. We should encourage life cycle analysis thinking with our students to seriously look at the long term environmental impact of new products, energy options and strategies.

The Engineering Pathway has a number of resources on green design, manufacturing and sustainability as well as on environmental ethics. For more educational resources, see our agricultural engineering education, environmental engineering education and chemical engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines, including interdisciplinary communities such as the Green Design and Sustainable Engineering education community.

Today in History – February 18, 1901 – First vacuum cleaner patented by Hubert Cecil Booth, an English structural engineer. This design had the disadvantage that it had no way to collect the dust and never became a commercial success. In 1907, James Spangler, a janitor working in Canton, Ohio, was not aware of this Booth’s design, but was motivate to clean floors and carpets more effectively as he suffered from asthma. He built the first motorized vacuum cleaner using an old motor fan attached to a soap box and broom handle, using a pillowcase as a dust collector. Spangler is credited with building the first commercially successful vacuum cleaner and obtained his patent in 1908. One of his first customers was his cousin and her husband William H. Hoover, who eventually formed the Hoover Company in 1922. For the next one hundred years the basic operation of a vacuum cleaner remained the same – dirt was collected in a dust bag that required replacing and cleaning out a filter.

Then a British industrial designer and engineer, James Dyson, made it his mission to build a better vacuum cleaner. He used a high speed motor to produce a constant suction through centrifugal force and used the volume of the cleaner to replace the bag. Hoover and Electrolux did not take his invention seriously and refused to consider the idea when Dyson first discussed it with them. Instead Dyson formed his own company. His ‘vacuum cleaner that doesn’t lose suction’ is a market leader, one that excels in quality products, as well as cutting edge industrial design. I am always struck by James Dyson’s claim that he built 5,127 prototypes before he got it right. This reminds me of IDEO‘s philosophy of “fail early and often to succeed at the end”. Dyson argues that there is more we can learn from failures than from successes.

Another recent vacuum cleaner innovation is the iRobots series called “Roomba” that uses artificial intelligence and robotics to “automatically” vacuum, even when no humans are in the room. The co-inventors were Rodney Brooks, Helen Greiner, and Colin Angle.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on the James Dyson, vacuum cleaner design, and industrial design. For related educational resources, visit the Mechanical Engineering Education and the Engineering Management community sites. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Also on this date in 1930, Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto.
For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on the Pluto and space exploration. For related educational resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education Community site.

Today in History – February 13, 1959 – the first Barbie doll goes on sale. Barbie’s inventor, Ruth Handler, was inspired by seeing that her daughter, Barbie, and her girl friends enjoyed playing with adult female dolls, but most dolls at the time were baby dolls. Handler created 3D models of dolls that she thought would  inspire her daughter’s dreams and took them to the ad executives at Mattel, Inc. Although Mattel was founded by Ruth Handler and her husband, Elliot, some years earlier in their garage, the “all male” committee  rejected the idea as too expensive and without enough appeal in the market.  Determined not to give up on the idea, Ruth Handler continued to further develop her product and went to Europe to gain fashion ideas and market her concept. Mattel soon appreciated the potential impact of this concept and changed their mind, debuting Barbie at the American Toy Fair in New York City in 1959. This new doll concept immediately set new sales records for Mattel (351,000 dolls is reported for the first year; sold at $3 each).

Feminist critics of Barbie were concerned about the anatomically distorted figure, pointing out that the doll reinforced sexist stereotypes of women. There even was a “Barbie Liberation Organization” (BLO).  In 1992 Mattel actually included the line “Math is Hard” to one of their first talking Barbies. Some clever BLO hackers set up a website telling members how to hack into the Barbie and GI Joe voice boxes in a project called “Operation NewSpeak”.  Some of the more adventurous returned hundreds of the hacked dolls to geographically diverse national  toy stores in their original packaging. These ‘stereotype-changed” Barbies would scream “vengeance is mine” and “dead men tell no lies”. The GI Joes mused “let’s plan our dream wedding” or “want to go shopping?”.  As a response to criticism Mattel introduced changes:  The “Ken” doll was introduced, named after the Handler’s son.   Barbie’s breasts were reduced to better represent the shape of actual young women.  Different multicultural Barbie’s were also been introduced, along with career-oriented Barbies in the “I can be . . . ” series.

I must admit that I very much enjoyed my Barbies as a young girl. I think she inspired me to think about fashion and design. I designed my own clothes as a teenager and I used a sewing machine to make them. I do think the sewing machines and design patterns (perhaps in CAD today) are important tools in a design engineer’s tool box.

Recently, I actually bought a Barbie knock-off at the airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, called the Fulla doll, named after a flower in the Levant.  The New York Times called it a “Bestseller in Mideast: Barbie With a Prayer Mat”. The article says that Fulla has become widely popular because the toymaker, NewBoy Design in Syria, seriously considered culturally values in Fulla’s design. Only the one with the black abaya (below left) was sold in Saudi Arabia though, possibly because other colors are not worn for outdoor wear.

See the Engineering Pathway’s related resources on Ruth Handler, toy design and women inventors.

In spite of the criticism, the Barbie doll became an American icon and Mattel has tried to provide versions that reflect America’s changing society.  Barbie’s clothes, professions and  charitable endeavors have evolved over time. Yet, until yesterday, February 12, 2010, there were no engineering Barbies. But that has now changed!

A few weeks ago Mattel launched a competition for Barbie’s next career.  The choices were: computer engineer, architect, environmentalist, news anchor and surgeon. I was part of a group that launched a viral campaign for the computer engineer and we won the popular vote. The kids vote was the Newscaster. Mattel decided to launch both concepts on a tight time schedule so that they could announce them at the 2010 New York Toy Fair. I was part of the consultation team at the National Academy of Engineering that gave advice on clothes and accessories. I recommended a look that was “cool geek” or “sci fi”, dynamic with portable rather than desktop computers, and accessories that emphasized talking, communication and music. I said “can the coffee mug” envisioned in one of the early prototypes. I also recommended that the doll have an online game associated with it, possibly one that could be played or accessed through a mobile device. Mattel’s announcement said there would a special code [binary?] “to unlock exclusive game content on Barbie”. I’d love to help design those games.

Mattel’s Barbie site explains their approach and motivation for the project: “All the girls who imagine their futures through Barbie will learn that engineers — like girls — are free to explore infinite possibilities, limited only by their imagination,” says Nora Lin, President, Society of Women Engineers. “As a computer engineer, Barbie will show girls that women can turn their ideas into realities that have a direct and positive impact on people’s everyday lives in this exciting and rewarding career.” To create an authentic look, Barbie® designers worked closely with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to develop the wardrobe and accessories for Computer Engineer Barbie®. Wearing a binary code patterned tee and equipped with all the latest gadgets including a smart phone, Bluetooth headset, and laptop travel bag, Computer Engineer Barbie® is geek chic”. More can be found on Mattel’s fact sheet.

I’m glad that a major toy company is waking up to the fact that girls and women love computing. In fact, the history of computing actually owes much to contributions of talented women. Ada Byron Lovelace is credited as the first person to envision programming with her statement about a mechanical calculator: “The analytical engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves”. The Ada programing language was named after her. Six of the ENIAC programmers were women at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II who had been calculating ballistics trajectories by hand. Admiral Grace Hopper, inventor of the first computer compiler, coined the term “computer bug” and is the namesake for the Grace Hopper Conference – Celebration of Women in Computing.

Readers interested women in computing should check out Lucinda Sanders’ blog on the founding of the National Center for Women in Information Technology on May 18, 2004. Or visit the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on the ENIAC, history of computing, Ada Lovelace and women in information technology. For curricular resources, visit the Computer Science Education, Information Science Education, Information Technology Education,  Computer Engineering Education of Software Engineering Education community sites. Or check out our new Broadening Participation in Computing community.

Also on this date the Unix time clock hits 1234567890 in 2009.

Today in History – January 24, 1984 – Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh personal computer. Apple introduced “the Mac” through its famous “1984″ television commercial that was played at the 1984 Super Bowl. The imagery pitted Apple’s new generation of the people’s personal computer against the Orwellian IBM. The Mac was an innovation breakthrough in computer design with the introduction of the mouse and a graphical user interface at a relatively low price.  It was first sold with only a 400kb floppy drive to load the operating system and files, with no hard drive. Less than 50,000 units were sold after its introduction because of the limited memory and radical features. Sales got a big boost when the LaserWriter printer was introduced along with third party publishing software. The early Mac users provided an enthusiastic customer base of early adopters who formed community groups, participated in early testing and developed third part software using Apple’s user-friendly developer’s kit. My husband and I each bought one of the first offerings and have upgraded to new Apple models ever since. The summer of 1984 I accepted a faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley and my husband became an Apple developer and created software for astronomy enthusiasts.

A decade earlier on April 1, 1976, the Apple Computer Company was formed and released the Apple I computer, the first computer with a single circuit board. There was no assembly line as each Apple I was hand-built by Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs’ parents’ home and required further assembly by the purchaser, including providing AC input voltages, wiring an ASCII keyboard to a DIP connector and wiring the video output pins to a monitor or to an RF modulator if a TV was used. Steve Wozniak showed the first one to the Homebrew Computer Club to get sales going. He had to sell his Volkswagen bus to help keep the company afloat.

Steve Wozniak designed the Apple II personal computer that was released on April 16, 1977, featuring a central processing unit (CPU), keyboard, floppy disk drive, and a $1,300 price tag. The Apple II launched the personal computer revolution. He left Apple in 1981 and went back to the University of California at Berkeley and finished his degree in electrical engineering and computer science there. Since then, he has been involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, including improving computer capabilities in schools.

So how do you build the first personal computer? Wozniak says when he teaches Personal Computer 101 he asks students to go to the Apple I Owners Club, founded in 1977 by Joe Torzewski. The site contains over 120 pages detailing the Apple I computer. It shows you what it was like to actually buy and assemble one. If you’ve never seen an Apple I, check this site out and see how the personal computer revolution began. Want to know more, read Wozniak’s book: iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on Apple computers and history of computing. For more educational resources, see our electrical engineering education, computer science education and computer engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Today in History – January 3, 1957 – The world’s first electric wristwatch is released. The Hamilton watch company began research on an electric watch in 1946. Ten years later they released their watch with great success. Prior to this watch most watches kept time using a balance wheel that was kept in motion using a spring. This spring had to be wound by the wearer everyday. The Hamilton watch, while using the same balance wheel, used electromagnets to keep it in motion. One of the biggest challenges was finding a battery that was powerful enough to power the watch for a year, but also be small enough to fit inside the watch case. The Hamilton watch case styles were also an important ingredient in the watches success. People loved the their asymmetric design. However, this type of watch never gained mass popularity as they were only marginally better than their mechanical brethren. And by 1969 production stopped when quartz technology was used in favor of its accuracy.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on watch technology and time measurement. For related educational resources, visit the Computer Engineering Education, or the Electrical Engineering Education disciplinary communities.

Today in History – December 28, 1886 – Josephine Cochrane is issued patent for a commercially successful dishwasher. Josephine Cochrane received the patent for the first commercially successful dishwasher. A mechanical device, turning a crank would provide a continuous flow of either soap suds or hot water to a rack of dishes. She founded a company to manufacture these dish washers, which eventually became KitchenAid. Josephine Cochran unveiled her initial prototype at the 1893, World’s Fair. For many years, only hotels and large restaurants could afford dishwashers. In the 1950s, dishwashers began to make their way to the general public.

Also on this date in history in 1895, world’s first movie theater opens in Paris. Auguste and Louis Lumire held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in March of 1895 and their first public screening of movies on this date in 1895, at Paris’s Salon Indien du Grand Cafe. It all began when a handful of passersby were lured inside the Grand Cafe at 14 Boulevard des Capucines by a poster enigmatically advertising “Cinematographe Lumire.” This history-making presentation featured ten short films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines Lumire  Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumire Factory). After paying a franc, descending into the grandly named “Salon Indien” in the basement, and sinking into armchairs before an empty screen, some of them wondered if they’d been tricked into seeing yet another cheesy magic lantern show. Then, as the audience stared in disbelief, the two-dimensional screen turned into a panorama of movement, a convincing, Frankensteinian display of artificial human life that would forever change the way we spend our Saturday nights.”

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on women inventors and digital movies and sound. For curricular resources, visit the Mechanical Engineering Education and Computer Science Education community site.

Today in History – December 13, 1928 – Today is Clip-on Tie Day. That’s right, on this day, 79 years ago, someone (and I couldn’t find out who) invented the clip-on tie. This fine fashion accessory often gets a bad wrap. People belittle it as the tie for people that don’t know how to tie a tie themselves.

If you are somehow unfamiliar with what a clip-on tie is, it is essentially a bow tie or four in hand tie which is permanently tied into its knot with a dimple just below the knot. Instead of looping around the neck, this tie is simply fixed to the front of the shirt collar with a metal clip. Though it doesn’t look as much like a real tie to fool everyone, and may accidentally come off with a too-hard tug, many people use clip-on ties every day.

The fact that a clip-on tie is likely to come off should it be tugged is actually a wonderful safety feature, especially for people such as police, paramedics, and engineers. Many of these occupations require personnel to use clip-on rather than full ties. Others might be mocked for wearing clip-ons because they don’t know how to tie a tie, or because they feel it is less restrictive, but the good old clip-on redeems itself by helping many wearers stay out of harms way. So here’s to that mysterious inventor of the clip-on tie. Harrah!

Meanwhile, to help make sure you’re never caught out not knowing what knot to tie, check out the Engineering Pathway’s resources on knot design and mathematics.

Today in History – December 8, 1968 – Doug Engelbart’s “Mother of all Demos” introduces the computer mouse, hyperlinks and window at a demonstration in San Francisco. The demonstration offered a peek at the future of computing. “No one has ever before or since seen such a collection of great ideas in one demonstration,” said SRI President and CEO Curt Carlson. Engelbart is “the Moses of computers,” writes Steven Levy in his history of the Macintosh.

In 1970, a U.S. patent was issued for the computer mouse – an “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System” (No. 3541541). Doug Engelbart’s invention changed the way humans were to work with computers. The invention transformed computers from specialized tools for technologists to user-friendly computational systems that anyone can use. Engelbart and his colleagues called this invention the “mouse,” after its long tail-like cable. The first mouse was a simple hollowed-out wooden block, with a single push button on top, designed to select and manipulate text. The “mouse” was part of a larger project called the NLS (oN Line System) based on work at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), which allowed two or more users to work on the same document from different workstations. This work built on Engelbart’s overarching visions for augmenting human intellect, improvement infrastructure, co-evolution of artifacts with social-cultural language-practices, and bootstrapping. Christina Engelbart, Doug Engelbart’s daughter and co-founder of the Bootstrap Institute, maintains an in-depth biography of Engelbart and his inventions. I was struck by the vision, passion and humbleness inherent in this quote from the site: “He remains bewildered as to why it has taken so long for society to catch up to him. “The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate. I have tolerated a lot,” says Engelbart of his life. Reader’s Digest paid Engelbart $35 to publish that quote, more than he was paid for many of his revolutionary inventions.” Doug Englebart was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2000.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Doug Engelbart and the computer mouse. For related educational resources, visit the Computer Engineering Education, the Electrical Engineering Education or the Computer Science Education disciplinary communities.

Today in History – “ November 18, 1963 – “Bell Telephone introduces push button telephone, eventually to replace the rotary dial telephone that had dominated the market since its invention in 1891 when Almon Strowger patented the twin inventions of the automatic telephone exchange and the pulse-driven telephone in the home. Although early prototypes had been built earlier by Bell Labs in 1941 in a 302-style case with F1 handset with two rows of five keys on the front that plucked reeds to produce two tones for each digit. The design was shelved during World War II and forgotten until many years later after the transistor was developed and tones could be produced with electronic oscillators.

Henry Dryfus, an industrial designer working for Bell Telephone, is credited with inventing the interface notion of the pushbutton, working as a consultant to Bell Telephone. One of the first prototypes of the design was made of wood (second photo above) showing how early prototypes can be quite effective in communicating new concepts and getting customer feedback. The version that Bell Systems / Western Electric introduced in 1962 at a World’s Fair in Seattle and as a commercial product on November 18, 1963 was based on this wooden model (third photograph above). They replaced the basic design language from a circle to square to visibly highlight the change from dial to pushbutton design.

The pushbutton concept was considered as the seed for revolutionary telecommunications concepts, such as the one pictured in the right-most image above for the videophone concept published as an advertisement in 1963. The “button” continues to be a winning design concept for telecommunication devices and is used in the recent introduction of a new generation of phones and advanced button designs inspired by Apple Computers’ iPhone.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on push buttons and telephone design or our resources on industrial design. For related educational resources, visit the Computer Engineering Education, the Electrical Engineering Education, the Computer Science Education disciplinary communities or the Design Education and the Industrial Design Education interdisciplinary communities.