INVENTIONS.............

• It was Swiss chemist Jacques Edwin Brandenberger who invented cellophane, back in 1908
  
• James Ramsey invented a steam-driven motorboat in 1784. He ran it on the Potomac River, and the event was witnessed by George Washington.
  
• The paper clip was patented by Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler in 1899. Because Norway had no patent law at the time, he had to travel to Germany where he received his patent in 1900. His U.S. Patent was granted in 1901.
  
• The pop top can was invented in Kettering, Ohio by Ermal Fraze.
  Phone service was established at the White House one year after its invention. President Rutherford B. Hayes was the first to have phone service (1877-81).
  
• The Chinese invented eyeglasses. Marco Polo reported seeing many pairs worn by the Chinese as early as 1275, 500 years before lens grinding became an art in the West.
  
• The hypodermic needle was invented in 1853. It was initially used for giving injections of morphine as a painkiller. Physicians mistakenly believed that morphine would not be addictive if it by-passed the digestive tract.
  
• Thomas Edison’s first major invention was the quadruplex telegraph. Unlike other telegraphs at the time, it could send four messages at the same time over one wire.