Shows A - Z : How's That Work? : Color Printer, Washing Machine, Flashlight : Home & Garden Television

Color Printer, Washing Machine, Flashlight
The first computer printer was invented in the early 1950s. It worked with only one type of computer and operated like a typewriter, with keys for each letter and number. It printed text only, not images. Some 20 years later, in the 1970s, an the invention of the inkjet printer revolutionized the personal computer-printing industry. Next, washing clothes used to be extremely hard work. In 1907, Fred Maytag, a farm-equipment manufacturer, decided to join the washer competition between harvests. Soon his machines were powered by electricity instead of by hand. Finally, around 1890, an inventor named Lionel Cowen came up with a way to add light to flowerpots using a tube, light bulb and dry cell battery. Unimpressed with his own invention, he gave it to a colleague, Conrad Hubert. While Lionel went on to invent toy trains, Hubert took that original device and created what he called the "electric hand torch."

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