2100 NEEDED INVENTIONS: Ideas for You
2100 NEEDED INVENTIONS
Ideas for You
This is a fun book that I recently purchased for $1.25 at an antique mall in Tacoma, Washington. Written by Raymond F. Yates in 1942 with a Fifth Printing in 1946 by Wilfred Funk, Inc (Publisher) of New York.
Dust jacket leaf reads:
“You don’t have to be a genius to be an
inventor. Look at the common paper clip,
the safety razor, the rubber pencil tip, and
the clamped fruit-jar top, each of which paid
a fortune to its inventor, and you will
immediately feel – quite correctly! – that you
could have invented them if you had had the
idea.
“Today the inventor has greater
opportunities than at any time in history. The
world is calling for new inventions and rapidly making many of our present methods of doing things obsolete. Literally thousands of machines and devices we have been using will have to be invented all over again.
“Many inventors need “a place to start.” They need practical suggestions on what to invent – things the public is eager to pay for – to keep them from wasting time on freakish or impractical inventions that nobody wants.”
Remember that these ideas are from 66 years ago but here are some of Raymond F. Yates’ kitchen and food suggestions:
1. Removing hot toast from a still hotter is a very awkward process the way toasters are constructed at the present time. If there was some little mechanical attachment that would release the toast with no danger of burning the fingers, it would be sure to attract housewives who have learned to handle this device gingerly at the breakfast table.
2. A waffle iron that will lift out waffles when they are done, delivering them, perhaps, like the “pop-up” bread toasters.
3. A waffle iron that would not overflow would find its way into several million American home.
4. A process for canning green vegetables whereby the natural green color of the food is retained through the canning process and subsequent storage by a method which prevents the destruction of the chlorophyll, upon which the natural green color is dependent.
5. A good liquid or powdered coffee extract which, upon dilution, would yield a beverage with taste and aroma fully equal to that of freshly and correctly brewed coffee. (Has Starbuck’s found the secret?)
6. In the field of flour milling, a perfection of processes and methods whereby certain vitamins may be added or retained in white flour, without decreasing its storage qualities.
7. A drying processing method to produce whole dry milk, including the butterfat, in such form that the butterfat will not become rancid during reasonable length of storage.
8. A means of raising the melting point of chocolate so as to lengthen the shelf life of chocolate-coated candies. The production of chocolate goods is almost completely halted by the hot, humid climatic conditions of the summer months.
(Yeah! for M&M’s)
9. Because most manufactured cookies are alkaline and are subjected to rapid baking at high temperatures, delicate flavors are not retained well in the finished goods. If a fixative, or process for retaining delicate flavors in manufactured cookies could be developed, it would be very valuable to the biscuit and cracker industry.
10. There are several hundred million bushels of soft winter wheat produced in this country each year, but with the advent of high-speed dough mixing machinery, this wheat is not adaptable to bread making. We need a process or material which could be added to soft wheat flour that would activate the protein so that soft wheat flour could be put through modern bakery equipment. With this, a large agricultural area, particularly that lying east of the Mississippi River, would be helped materially. Furthermore, it would improve the quality of the loaf of bread.
Hope you enjoyed these historic ideas. Watch for Part 2 where I’ll give another ten, 66-year old ideas that just might help make you a million.
Land O’ Lakes 1935 Old Coffee Postcard Buttericks Cook
Book 1924
That’s all for now folks! Be sure to leave me your name and email so I can keep you informed when I post a new blog.
Tim Mack
Tags: Add new tag, cook book, cooking, flour, Food History, inventions, recipes, vintage kitchen, waffle irons
