American originals

The Hot Dog was called the frankfurter after Frankfurt, a German city. Frankfurters were first sold in the U.S. in the 1880s. Americans called them “dachshund sausages”. A dachshund is a dog with a very long body and short legs. “Dachshund sausages” became popular at baseball games. The men walked up and down rows and yelled, ‘Get your dachshund sausages!’ One day in 1906 a newspaper cartoonist Tad Dorgan got an idea of a cartoon. He drew a bun with a dachshund inside. Dorgan did not know how to spell dachshund, so he wrote, ‘Get your hot dog!’ The new name became a sensation.

Blue Jeans came to America with the Gold Rush. A young immigrant from Germany Levi Strauss arrived in San Francisco in 1850. Thousands of men were coming to dig for gold. Levi Strauss sold canvas to the gold miners for tents. The mines needed strong pants for the work. Strauss got an idea and got his canvas into pants. In one day he sold all the pants he had made. The fabric had no colour and the pants got dirty easily. Strauss dyed the fabric blue. Today the company he started is known around the world.

Chewing gum has a long tradition. In Mexico, Indians have long chewed chicle, the gum resin. In 1850 Mexico and the U.S. fought a war over Texas. General Lopez led Mexican soldiers. When Mexico lost the war General Lopez went to live in New York and took with him a lot of chicle. An American inventor, Thomas Adams, bought some chicle from Lopez. In 1871 he made gum balls. They were a great success. During the WWI and WWII American soldiers were given chewing gum to keep them from getting thirsty. So chewing gum became popular around the world.

Telephone was invented by Alexander Bell who immigrated to America in 1870. He taught in a school for the deaf. There he experimented with a machine to help the deaf hear. While the experimenting Bell got an idea of a telephone. For years Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, worked day and night. They tried to send speech through a wire. Finally, on March 9, 1876, Watson heard: ‘Mr. Watson, come here!’ He rushed upstairs into Bell’s room and shouted, ‘I hear you!’ nobody knew how telephone would change people’s lives.

Coca-Cola was invented by a druggist John Pemberton of Atlanta, Georgia in 1886. He made brown syrup mixing coca leaves with coca nuts. He called it “Coca-Cola” and sold the mixture as a medicine to all problems. Few people bought Coca-Cola and he sold it to another druggist, Asa Candler. Candler sold Coca-Cola as a soda fountain drink. Soon everyone was going to soda fountains to drink lionaires. Coca leaves were no longer used in Coca-Cola. The exact ingredients are not known-the Company keeps its secret. Coca-Cola became very popular with the soldiers and the company started 10 factories in Europe. Today, there are Coca-Cola factories around the world.

The Apple Computer was invented by Steve Wozniak (1950) and Steven Jobs. They dreamt of a personal computer that could do more than play games. From this dream, the Apple Computer Company started in a family garage. In 1977 Jobs and Wozniak sold their first Apple II, which launched the personal computer industry.

Barbie is not just a doll. It is a diminutive doppelganger of Barbara Handler Segal, a Los Angeles woman and the daughter of Ruth and Elliot Handler, creators of Barbie. Ruth watched her daughter play her paper dolls, which were more mature-looking than their plastic counterpart and came with extensive cutout wardrobes. Ruth decided that girls needed a doll that looked like a teenager and wore stylish clothes. Barbara’s brother Ken became a miniature counterpart of Barbie in 1961. Barbie made him a millionaire several times. About 700 million of the dolls have been sold.