Everyday things

Everyday things were, of course, also invented or designed at some point. A recently released stamp block from Switzerland featuring the invention of the WC-Eend gave me the idea to look for more everyday inventions on stamps. And there certainly are. Around the turn of the century, Norway issued three stamps featuring everyday Norwegian inventions. It is a pity that the series was not continued. We see a cheese slicer, a paperclip, and a spray can. You might think that the cheese slicer is a Dutch invention, but no; the carpenter Thor Bjørklund conceived the idea that cheese, just like wood, should be sliced ​​to get nice slices. He had his design ready in 1925, and production started in 1927. Johan Vaaler is considered the inventor of the paperclip and obtained his patent in 1899. The spray can was invented by Erik Rotheim in 1927. Although the light bulb is gradually ceasing to be a household item, it was for a very long time. Various inventors were working on the development of light bulbs in the 19th century, but Thomas Edison is generally regarded as the inventor of the first usable light bulbs. The USA issued a stamp for them as early as 1929. The adjustable wrench, as depicted here on a Swedish seal, is an invention of the Swedish company Bahco. One of the cases where a brand name has become a generic term. Another invention you might think must have been conceived in the Netherlands. But no, the sugar cube was invented and produced in Czechoslovakia in 1840 by Jakub Kryštof Rad. Perhaps the most widely used everyday item currently is the smartphone. You can also make calls with it, meaning the smartphone can be traced back to the invention of the telephone by Graham Bell. There are many stamps commemorating this, as well as the invention of photography and radio. Steve Jobs is generally regarded as the visionary who introduced the modern smartphone. Here he is on a block from Tuvalu with a tablet, also used daily by many. In this article, I show only a small selection of inventions that we use more or less every day, but I do want to draw attention to the series of inventions from Switzerland that prompted this article. I already mentioned, of course, the recently published block featuring WC-Eend. But Velcro (George de Mestral) and the garlic press (Kart Zysset) are also Swiss inventions. The small block over the Velcro also contains a piece of Velcro, so be careful with your wool sweater when you put this block in your album. If you want to view more inventions on stamps, click here.