Inventions Facts for Kids

Before electronic hearing aids, people used ear trumpets — large horn-shaped devices held up to the ear.

Scotch tape got its name from an insult — a frustrated painter called it 'Scotch' because the company used too little adhesive.

The Fisher Space Pen can write upside down, in zero gravity, underwater, and in extreme temperatures.

The first vaccine was created in 1796 when Edward Jenner discovered that cowpox could protect people from deadly smallpox.

The printing press, invented by Gutenberg around 1440, made books affordable for ordinary people for the first time.

The airplane 'black box' flight recorder is actually bright orange so it can be found easily after a crash.

The first escalator was installed at Coney Island in 1896 as an amusement ride, not a practical invention.

The idea for Post-it Notes clicked when a 3M scientist needed a bookmark that wouldn't fall out of his hymn book at church.

The first true battery was invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800, which is why we measure electricity in 'volts.'

Before refrigerators were common in the 1920s, people used iceboxes filled with large blocks of ice delivered by horse-drawn carts.