Treasures with a history

Did Romans invent army knives? These things are way older than you think

Jell-O, Swiss Army Knives, roller skates, lighters… It’s hard to picture these items existing hundreds of years ago, isn’t it? And yet, some of the treasures that make modern life easier have indeed been around, in some cases, for millennia. Read on to learn when these 11 items were actually first invented!

Gelatin desserts existed centuries before Jell-O! Medieval cooks used boiled animal collagen to make shimmering molds for banquets. The brand Jell-O came in 1897, when Pearl B. Wait in New York flavored powdered gelatin with fruit syrups.

It’s hard to imagine the video game giant existing before electricity. But Nintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyoto as a playing card company. For decades, it produced hanafuda cards, then toys, and only entered electronics in the 1970s.

Long before disco rinks or inline blades, a Belgian inventor named John Joseph Merlin assembled the first roller skates in 1760, skating into a London ballroom (and famously crashing). Early versions had fixed metal wheels and very poor steerability.

Famously, lighters predate matches. But do you know exactly how long lighters have existed? The first usable one appeared in 1823, invented by a German chemist. The first friction match only appeared 3 years later.

That’s what we call the famous red multi-tool standardized by Victorinox in 1891. But archaeologists discovered a Roman folding tool from around 200 AD made of silver and iron, with knife, spoon, fork, spike, and spatula. It might not have been mass-produced or standardized, but it certainly was there first.

We may associate dishwashers with mid-20th-century suburban kitchens, but the first one dates to 1886, when Josephine Cochrane built a hand-cranked model to save her fine china from clumsy servants.

The 20th century was still far away when the first working escalator was patented. The year was 1859, yet it was introduced at Coney Island only 30 years later—as an amusement ride!

It’s not a thing of the 90s! Its roots go back to 1969, when ARPANET connected four U.S. universities for military-funded research. The web’s 1991 debut by Tim Berners-Lee made it public and visual, hence the illusion that the "Internet" appeared overnight.

Do you associate concrete blocks with modernity in your mind? Think again! The Romans used advanced volcanic-ash mixes to build huge, durable structures (like the Pantheon dome or aqueducts). The Ancient Roman techniques even give clues on how to make longer-lasting concrete today.

We are not talking about electronic printers. Think about the movable type technology: It goes back in history way, way farther than Gutenberg’s system.

Printing with woodblocks and even early movable type existed in China long before the 15th-century European printing that Gutenberg perfected and popularized.

The great ancestor of GPS was probably the magnetic compass used for navigation. The discovery that magnetic force could be used to calculate the position of the poles occurred over 2000 years ago during the Han dynasty, in China.

PACK YOUR SUITCASE!

Let’s Hit The Road & Discover Ten Iconic American Roadside Attractions!

Image: Dino Reichmuth

Are you planning on taking a road trip soon? Hitting the road with no fixed destination, just you and the wind blowing on your hair? That might be a tad too romantic, but it can’t be denied that America is truly a wonderful place to travel through. As the third-largest country in the world, there is plenty to see and enjoy on every road you come across.

Now, you might be expecting the usual sightseeing recommendations, like Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon, to be featured in this article. However, we have decided to take a slightly different approach and pick our ten favorite roadside attractions from all across America. Enjoy this selection of memorable, iconic, and downright weird destinations!

Image: Jan Hazevoet

We’ll start this list with a New Jersey icon. Located in Margate City, five miles away from Atlantic City, this six-story-tall elephant has been a sightseeing treasure of this community since 1882. As you might expect, Lucy is the oldest roadside attraction in the country.

Originally built to promote tourism and real estate sales in the area, Lucy soon became the beloved mascot of this city. She was built out of wood and clad in tin, and was modeled after Jumbo, the world-famous elephant featured in the "Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth" circus.

Image: Steve Wrzeszczynski

The Cadillac is truly an American icon: Few cars are as easily recognizable and beloved as this luxurious and spacious car. However, if your road trip happens to take you to Amarillo, Texas, you might come across a curious sight: a row of ten Cadillacs, painted in bright colors and buried nose-first in the ground. This is "Cadillac Ranch", an art installation created in 1974.

Artists Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez, and Doug Michels came across this idea while looking at a children’s book about cars. "Cadillac Ranch" was first installed in a wheat field, but it was relocated in 1997 to a cow pasture along Interstate 40.

Image: Susi Kleiman

Few images are as ingrained in pop culture as Marilyn Monroe’s iconic subway vent shot, featured in the 1955 comedy "The Seven-Year Itch". You can probably picture it clearly as you read this: Marilyn's unforgettable smile, coyly trying to catch her iconic white dress from fluttering. But, in case you are having trouble remembering this picture, we got you covered: You just need to take a trip to Palm Springs, California, and visit the 26-foot-tall statue "Forever Marilyn".

This statue was first located in Chicago, displayed on the famous "Magnificent Mile" avenue. However, it has relocated through America several times, and it even visited "The Land Down Under": In 2016, "Forever Marilyn" was displayed in Bendigo, Australia, as part of Bendigo Art Gallery's Marilyn Monroe exhibition.

Image: Paxson Woelber

This entry is a little bit misleading since you can’t actually visit this roadside attraction by car: it is located on Adak Island in Alaska, so getting there on a single trip might be a tad difficult (although not impossible). However, we thought the history of the Adak National Forest was too good to pass.

The Adak Island is part of the Aleutian Islands, an arc of islands known for their low temperatures, heavy precipitations, and extremely high winds. The resulting barren landscape is not suitable for a forest, yet residents of Adak Island claim to have a National Forest in their home. And they do, since a forest of pine trees was planted on the island during World War 2 as a way to boost morale. However, most trees didn’t survive the unsuitable environment: In fact, for a while the Adak National Forest was composed of a single surviving tree. Although it eventually grew into a small forest of 33 trees, the forest is not known for its size, and a small sign states "You are now entering and leaving Adak National Forest".

Image: Adam Nir

If you are a Batman fan, you might be familiar with the humongous coin the Caped Crusader has in his Batcave. Should you want to visit a similar piece of change, you could take a trip to Woodruff, Wisconsin, and learn the wholesome story of the sell-claimed world’s largest penny.

The penny is 15 feet tall and weighs nearly nine tons. It was built to honor the memory of Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb, a Woodruff resident who raised over a million pennies to build a new hospital for the community. Newcomb’s campaign was a huge success and raised enough funds to open the Lakeland Memorial Hospital in 1954, a few blocks away from where the Giant Penny was built.

Image: Elle Hughes

Spicy food can be extremely divisive, but whether you love it or hate it, it can’t be denied that New Mexico peppers are world-famous. If your road trip takes you to "the Land of Enchantment", you’ll definitively come across this curious question at, at least, one stop: "Red or green"? This is New Mexico’s official state question, and it asks whether you prefer red or green peppers with your food.

If you love spicy food and would like to pay your respects to this wonderful ingredient while you are in New Mexico, you might want to take a quick trip to the city of Las Cruces and visit the world’s largest chile pepper sculpture. Standing at 47 feet, this massive chile is a must-visit stop for everyone who loves that extra spicy kick in his food.

Image: JosephHershMedia

If you, for whatever reason, hear the uncommon phrase "Giant cowboy", you might immediately think about "Big Tex", the 55-foot-tall cowboy that promotes the State Fair of Texas. And while he is definitively iconic, we want to bring the spotlight on two less-known humongous cowboys that adorn New Mexico’s Highway 285. Two cowboys about to start a fight stuck in an eternal standoff since 2016.

The art installation "Cowboy Ruckus" is made up of two 18-feet-high cowboys, each standing at each side of the highway, who seem to be engaged in some sort of disagreement: one of them is pointing accusatorily at the other, who is caught in mid-shrug. The sculptures resemble the respective owners of both fields, two brothers and ranchers who agreed to model for artist John Cerney.

Image: Hoyoun Lee

We’ll continue with what’s probably the cutest entry to this list. The town of Fergus Falls, Minnesota is home to both an adorable and huge mascot, proudly displayed at the shore of Grotto Lake. Otto the Otter is a 40-feet-long statue, promoted by the town as the world’s largest otter.

Otto started as a high-school project, designed as a gift to celebrate the town’s centennial in 1972. The statue was placed in Adams Park, overlooking both the town and the lake.

Image: Joey Kyber

America’s favorite pastime deserves a larger-than-life statue commemorating it, and the self-proclaimed world’s largest baseball located in Muscotah, Kansas would be a fitting tribute to this beloved sport. However, this unfinished roadside attraction was built not to celebrate baseball, but rather to honor the life and career of a player born and raised in this Kansas city.

Joe Tinker was born in Muscotah in 1880, he grew up to play for the Chicago Cubs and be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The city of Muscotah built this baseball from the bubble of an unused water tower, hoping it would attract tourism and encourage the creation of a Joe Tinker Museum. While that idea never came to fruition, the baseball still stands to this day as a popular roadside attraction.

Image: Mike Norton

We’ll end this article with an entry located not just in one state. To call the Four Corners Monument a roadside attraction might be a bit of a disservice: It is a major geographic point, a unique intersection on which the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. However, thousands of American families visit the Four Corners Monument, and take a quick break in their road trip to stand in four different states at once.

While simple, the monument is a rather inspiring tribute to America: Circling a granite disk marking the intersection, the monument features smaller state seals and flags placed on each corresponding state. In the center of the granite component, there is a smaller bronze disk that reads the inspiring phrase "Here meet in freedom under God four states"