Many useful things that we use on a daily basis have appeared due to the tragedies of individuals, wars and torture. Introducing you top 7 inventions that have emerged from terrible things.
7. Power chord
All rock and roll melodies are built around power chords. They can be heard on songs by AC / DC, Nirvana, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, etc. Power chords are so important that young guitarists are among the first to learn them. And Link Ray invented this kind of chords and used it in his song Rumble in 1958. Today Rumble is considered one of the greatest compositions of all time.
Before embarking on a career in show business, Link had to go to the Korean War. The jungle of Korea was a breeding ground for disease. Like many of his colleagues, Ray suffered from terrible bouts of tuberculosis. Due to illness, the soldier had to remove one of his lungs. Unable to sing anymore, he was forced to act as an instrumentalist. His hopes for a singing career may have been dashed, but Link has inspired generations of musicians, making a huge contribution to the development of the rock guitar sound.
6. Lamps for tanning
After the crisis of the German economy as a result of the First World War, the people of Germany faced hunger. Children suffered most from him. An unprecedented number of little Germans suffered from rickets due to lack of vitamin D and calcium. At that time, no one knew what caused the rickets. However, Dr. Kurt Haldszinski noticed that all patients were literally pale, so he created an ultraviolet lamp to give children a substitute for sunlight. It worked. Ultraviolet light cured the disease, and Haldshinski started a marketing campaign to sell his invention. It served as the prototype for lamps used in tanning salons.
5. The first bicycles
In 1815, the Tambora stratovolcano erupted in Indonesia. As a result of this disaster, including from hunger and disease, 71,000 people died (there is another figure - 92,000 people). For Indonesians, this was a terrifying event. This was an unprecedented disaster for horses. Ash soaring into the sky blocked sunlight for several months. And climatic anomalies caused by the eruption led to very low temperatures in Europe and North America in 1816. Because of the crop failure and the resulting lack of food, horses began to die in thousands. And since these animals were the main mode of transport, people had to look for a replacement for them that did not need food. One such inventor, Baron Karl Dreis von Sauerbronn, created the bicycle.
4. Treadmill
After the devastating Napoleonic wars, England was in dire need of labor. And plenty of free labor was supplied by prisons. In 1817, Sir William Cabitt created the first treadmill that wasn't meant to support a healthy lifestyle. The prisoners walked along the path, thereby forcing a giant wheel or pump to rotate. The wheel, in turn, crushed the grain, and the pump pumped water. People had to walk for six hours straight and climb a total of 4,300 meters. And so for 5 days in a row.Many fell off the track and were injured. These treadmills were banned in 1898 as a cruel and unusual punishment.
3. Tank trap
Nowadays, the dunk tank or trap tank is fun entertainment. Its essence is as follows: one of the players sits on a seat located above the water tank. And the second participant of the game throws balls into the center of the target located on a special stand. In case of a successful hit, a spring mechanism acts to lower the seat into the water. Since the players change places, revenge does not take long, but someone manages to get out of the water, literally.
However, the trap tank was not always a harmless game. In the 1800s, this game was called The African Rogue. The player tried to hit the target with the ball, which was the head of a black man. If the thrower hit the target, he received a prize. After a while, the human heads were mercifully replaced by wooden understudies, which were called "Negro heads." And then both games were merged into one, and the "African trap" was created. If the thrower hit the target, then the second player - a negro - fell into the water. Only the players did not change places.
2. Banjo
In the 1600s, the captains of slave ships faced a problem. Living goods were sick and dying. Because of this, the slave owners were deprived of profits. To keep their slaves healthy, the carriers made them move and dance. It is only logical that the slaves were not in the mood for dancing. And in order to "sweeten the pill with them" it was decided to use traditional African instruments. So, along with the slaves, the banjo came to the United States. And this kind of guitar would have remained a little-known instrument if it weren't for the minstrel show, a form of 19th century American folk theater. When a minstrel show participant made fun of slaves, he portrayed a lazy slave playing the banjo.
1. Retin-A for acne and wrinkles
In the first place in the ranking of innovations that appeared due to human suffering is a popular cosmetic product. After World War II, human experimentation was banned. But this prohibition was not implemented everywhere. From 1951 to 1974, dermatologist Albert Kligman experimented on inmates at the Holmesburg prison in Philadelphia. He said that he saw in prisoners not people, but "acres of skin." Kligman, funded by the CIA, Dow Chemical Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson, used humans as biological guinea pigs. He tore off prisoners' skin with duct tape, injected with a chemical called Agent Orange, forced patients to take LSD, and put them in a room with radioactive isotopes. Kligman also gave prisoners experimental versions of drugs and monitored their effects. One of the many drugs developed in this way was the first version of Retin-A. The number of people who died from these savage experiments is unknown.