The 'inventive' life of the Swiss

Speaking of Switzerland, many people immediately think of the world's leading safety banking system and high-end watch brands. But few people know that this country is also the birthplace of important inventions.

With a nature of practical focus, the inventions of the Swiss are all very practical things for human life. Let's take a look at some of their most remarkable inventions.

Velcro Velcro (1941)

Velcro velcro is now present in all areas of life, from shoe straps, backpacks, bags, laptop bags to blood pressure monitors, on-board appliances.

Since the 1960s, NASA astronauts have been using Velcro to hold the necessary equipment on astronauts and spacecraft. A Velcro velcro 5cm, 5cm size can withstand up to 80kg.

Before Velcro was born, people only used laces, straps, laces to fasten, tie things, manipulate very cleverly and time-consuming.

In 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral often went to the forest to hunt with his dog. After many hunting trips, he noticed a lot of burdock seeds clinging quite tightly to his clothes and on the dog's fur.

Burdock seeds are the origin of Velcro's velcro - (Image: UNREALSIDE.COM).

Mestral used a microscope to look at a tree seed and discovered that there were many small hooks on its surface. These hooks make the nut adhere to the fabric as well as the animal hair.

Mestral came up with the idea of ​​creating a handy 'lock' instead of existing straps and key chains. But it took eight years of research for Mestral to invent a velcro that he named Velcro. The word comes from the French words 'velvet' (velvet) and 'crochet' (hook).

Zipper (1923)

Zipper - (Photo: WIKIPEDIA)

In fact, Americans invented a "pre-zipper" model and registered the invention in 1851, but this model still has many defects, is not convenient and neat.

In 1923, an American businessman came to see Mr. Martin Winterhalter - a lawyer in St. Louis. Gallen (Switzerland) to sell this invention. Winterhalter is very sharp, realizing the potential of the new product's success and should spend 10,000 francs to own the patent.

He devised a way to make the zipper teeth lock together smoothly using only slight traction. And Winterhalter's finished product is the kind of handy zipper we use every day today.

Every year the world consumes up to 14 billion zipper types, half of which is manufactured in Japan by famous zipper company YKK.

Cellophane cellophane (1912)

Cellophane cellophane has become an indispensable thing in life today - (Image: UNREALSIDE.COM).

Today, every Christmas and New Year, transparent cellophane for gift wrapping is indispensable. This is also the main product used to preserve foods.

The origin of this invention came from an accident: Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger poured wine on the tablecloth when pouring wine. He came up with the idea of ​​making a material that could resist the penetration of solutions instead of absorbing it.

At first, Brandenberger fabricated a cellulose-based chemical on the fabric surface, but it failed because it separated and caused the fabric to harden. But he realized that there was a transparent film that peeled off the fabric surface, which had very good waterproofing properties and created an aesthetic when used to cover things.

From this discovery, Brandenberger successfully created a thin film for packaging goods named cellophane, combining two words cellulose and diaphane (transparent), it is a bioplastic product because it is made from cellulose of the wood.

Today, most cellophane films are made from petroleum with products like PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) and PP (polypropylene).

LCD monitor (1970)

Liquid crystal display is the invention of a Swiss pharmaceutical company - (Photo: HARDTOFIND).

People have the phrase 'exactly like Swiss watches' to praise the quality of Swiss-made watches. Not only mechanical watches, Switzerland also produces electronic circuits with LCD display (Liquid Crystal Display).

This was a 1970 invention by Hoffman-La Roche, after which they transferred technology to Brown, Boveri & Cie to manufacture screens for other watches and devices sold around the world.

Interestingly, Hoffman-La Roche has no relation to the watch industry, but their specialty is the manufacture of . pharmaceuticals and a famous name in the world medicine industry.

Gooseneck style of a bottle of toilet cleaning solution (1980)

Gooseneck style is very popular in toilet cleaning bottles - (Photo: NEWLYSWISSED).

Plastic bottles containing toilet cleaning solution always have the top of the gooseneck (the water in English called Toilet Duck), this funny design allows people to spray detergent into every corner of the house. Sanitary equipment.

This was the invention of businessman Walter Düring Orlob. His mother, Maria Düring-Keller, is also the inventor of Durgol - a solution of bleaching calcified calcium that is widely used in the world today.

Helvetica font (1957)

Helvetica font - (NEWLYSWISSED)

Currently, Helvetica fonts are used very popular in countries using Latin character systems, especially in newspapers, printed books, websites, as well as indispensable in computer fonts.

This was the invention of two Swiss art designers Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in 1957.

Instant coffee, instant (1936)

Before 1936, there was no instant coffee in the world today. The enjoyment of coffee at that time spent a lot of time with boiling water, adding powdered coffee to the filter, waiting for the coffee to drop down to fill up the cup, adding sugar .

In 1929, a huge amount of coffee beans harvested in Brazil - the largest coffee-growing country in the world at that time - could not be sold to the main consumer market of the United States because the country was in a crisis. economic crisis.

Because the beans could not be stored for long, the Brazilian Coffee Research Institute contacted Swiss food processor Nestlé to ask them to research how to produce a soluble and preserved coffee. in the long run to save the recessioning coffee industry.

Despite 5 years of research, Nestlé engineers failed because their water-soluble coffees did not retain the typical taste of traditional coffee. Nestlé had to give up but one of their chemists, Max Morgenthaler, was still quietly pursuing research with his own money.

In 1936, Morgenthaler succeeded and transferred its know-how to Nestlé and on April 1, 1938, the world's first instant coffee with the Nestlé brand was launched and achieved great success.