Fact-based How It Started
The Frisbee Took Its Name From a Bakery's Pie Tins
Long before plastic flying discs, people in Connecticut were said to be sailing empty pie tins from a Bridgeport bakery across the grass, and the bakery's name stuck.
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Fiction Useless Inventions
The Tape Measure That Rounds Up Out of Kindness
A pocket tape measure that adds a little to everything it measures, so your sunflower, your child and your snowman always come out slightly taller than you hoped.
Fact-based How It Started
The Post-it Note Began as a Glue That Would Not Stick Properly
A chemist trying to make a super-strong glue made a very weak one instead, and it took a choir singer with runaway bookmarks to work out what it was for.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Photo Frame That Refuses to Pick a Favourite
A beautiful walnut frame that will not choose between the sixty-three nearly identical sunsets on your phone, so it shows you every single one of them, for ever.
Fact-based How It Started
The Shopping Trolley Began as Two Folding Chairs
The first one was a pair of wooden folding chairs on wheels with a basket on top, and shoppers refused to push it so firmly that the shop had to hire people to demonstrate.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Remote Control That Hides Itself
A television remote with rubber tracks and a clock inside, which drives itself into the gap between the sofa cushions every night at eleven, because that is where it feels safest.
Fact-based How It Started
Play-Doh Began Life as a Wallpaper Cleaner
Before it was squashed into dinosaurs and pretend pizzas, the world's favourite modelling dough was sold for rubbing soot off wallpaper.
Fact-based How It Started
The Tiny Pocket on Your Jeans Was Made for a Watch
That little pocket tucked inside the front pocket of your jeans is older than phones, earbuds and even wristwatches: it was made to carry a pocket watch.
Fact-based Nature Did It First
Velcro Began With a Burr Stuck to a Dog
A walk in the woods in 1941 ended with burrs clinging to a dog's fur, and one close look under a microscope gave the world the hook-and-loop fastener.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Stapler That Asks If You Are Sure
A handsome desk stapler that will not fire a single staple until you have confirmed, twice, that you really do want these pages joined forever.