6 The backstory behind fire brigades lies in the massacre like the Great Fire of London. Before that, the buildings with fire marks were only eligible to be saved from a fatal fire outbreak.

In the year of 1666, England witnessed the Great Fire of London. Starting from a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane, the fire consumed two square miles of the city only because of the absence of an organized fire protection system.

Thousands were homeless, and to avoid such massacres in the future, the insurance companies set up private firefighters to protect the properties insured by them from fire. They calculated that preventing a house from catching fire will actually cost much less than rebuilding it.

The first firehouse was established by Nicolas Barbon who was an economist. The insured houses were marked by the insurance agencies, and in case there was a fire, the firefighters would extinguish the fire on the insured property only. If the property on fire didn’t have a mark, they would just let it burn.

It was in 1833 when ten individual fire insurance companies collaborated to form the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE). In 1862, the insurance companies wrote an application to the Home Secretary requesting the fire protection department to be included within the public authority. They also stated that they have often put out fires without charges.

However, they were too small to protect the growing city of London. In 1865, the Metropolitan Fire Act was passed. And from 1 January 1866, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade started its journey in public service. (1, 2, 3)

7The first dialyzer was made using laundry tubs, sausage casings, electric motors, and a wooden drum. Willem Johan Kolff, the father of artificial organs, had to make the prototype dialyzer with whatever available to him due to a shortage of funds during World War 2.

After studying medicine from Leiden University in the Netherlands, the first patient that Dr, Willem Johan Kolff treated was a 22-year-old man who was suffering from chronic kidney failure. At that point in time, there was no proper method to treat organ failures. This prompted Kolff to make a prototype dialyzer that he came up with within 1943.

By this time, World War 2 has already started, and Nazis had already taken over the Netherlands. Kolff, working in a remote Dutch hospital with a minimum amount of materials, came up with his dialyzer made of orange juice cans, sausage casings, and auto parts.

He tried to treat his patients with it, but none survived. It was in 1945 that a 67-year-old woman first survived renal failure after being treated for 11 hours with the prototype dialyzer.

Once the world war ended, Kolff went to the USA to seek further opportunities and help more people. By this time, he had already shared his dialyzer and its function with the other hospitals and doctors. Patients were getting cured using the drum dialyzer.

Later, with funding from the real estate developer David Rose, he improved his dialysis machine. Also, he invented the first artificial kidney. (1, 2, 3)

8The quick release ratchet was invented by 18-year-old Peter M Roberts in 1964. His patent was bought by Sears, Roebuck, and Co. for $10,000 only. They said the invention is not that promising, while they made a hefty $44 million profit in its first 10 years. Peter filed a lawsuit against Sears and was eventually awarded $10 million as his share after 25 years.

Peter M. Robert was an 18-year-old boy. He loved cycling and found it pretty tough to change the sockets with greasy and oily hands. While working as a clerk for Sears, he invented the quick-release ratchet to help with the sockets.

The wrench contained a push button by which the socket could be released with one hand easily. In 1965, he obtained a patent for his invention, and Sears paid him $10,000 for his rights to the invention.

After this Pete,r joined the US Air Force, and while posted in England, he came across the catalog of Sears. Peter understood pretty quickly that he was cheated, and that his invention had huge usage in the industry. He filed a lawsuit against Sears claiming more payment for his share in 1969.

As per the information, from 1965 to 1975, around 10 million wrenches were sold. Sears made a net profit of $44 million by selling them. Meanwhile, Peter was not given the share that he deserved.

In 1978, a federal jury awarded him $1 million after finding out Sears had cheated Peter. In April 1988, another set of federal judges awarded Peter $5 million for his invention and found that Sears unlawfully violated the patent. Later, the award amount rose to $8.2 million dollars. (1, 2, 3)

9 If you go for a backstory, you will know earlier headphones were parts of earpieces to talk over the telephone. The first 100 pairs were ordered by the military only, as private investors found it useless. It was John Koss, a jazz lover, that modified the headphone with sofa foam and cardboard in 1958 purely for the music. And that’s how it all began.

In 1910, Nathaniel Baldwin invented the first of what we call “headphones” today. But it looked a hell of a lot different than what we know as headphones. Baldwin assembled a few modern-day parts to create the headphone on his kitchen table.

He then approached private investors and tried to manufacture his products, but none was interested at that point to invest in something that was made at home. However, Baldwin refused to give up and approached the US Navy.

The Navy ordered 100 pieces to be delivered without even knowing that he was making them by hand. Despite his success, Baldwin never cared to patent his invention. Slowly, companies emerged and started to manufacture headphones with their own modifications.

It was in 1958 that people could think of some other uses of headphones, such as John. C. Koss. He made it so headphones would someday be standard household equipment. Any house you go to, you will definitely find a pair of headphones or earphones hanging somewhere.

But days back then were different.  In 1958, jazz lover Koss made the first stereo headphones (Koss SP-3) that made some real impact on the public. That was the first time people thought of using headphones to listen to music. Just imagine, if Koss would not have thought of this, maybe headphones would today still be military equipment only. (1, 2, 3)

10In 1903, two prisoners with similar names, Will West and William West, who also shared almost identical facial features, confused the Leavenworth prison staff into thinking that they are the same person. This incident led the authorities to reconsider the Bertillon system of measurements, which was a standard system of record at the time. It was also one of the factors that led to the use of fingerprints for identification.

The backstory of this lies back in the Leavenworth Penitentiary where a prisoner named Will West arrived in 1903.  M.W. McClaughry, who was the records-clerk in the prison at that time, confused him with another William West, who was processed two years before by him.

Mr. McClaughry at first asked West about it, and when West denied being there two years before, McClaughry used his Bertillon Measurements and found a match. McClaughry, to confirm his claims, also dug up the old file of William West whom he processed two years earlier and found the pictures to be identical.

Upon confronting all the evidence, Will West still denied it to be him, though he confirms that the person in the picture looks like him.

This incident led the authorities to reconsider the Bertillon system of measurements, which was a standard system of record at the time. It was also one of the factors that led to the use of fingerprints for identification.

When McClaughry came to know about the usage of fingerprints in Scotland Yard to identify criminals from Sgt. John. K Ferrier, while on duty to guard the Crown Jewels. McClaughry introduced the identification-by-fingerprint method in the prison of Leavenworth after finding its success.

America’s First Fingerprint Repository was established a few years later in 1924.

(1, 2, 3)