Patented: History of Inventions
History Hit
160 episodes
This podcast investigates the curious history of invention and innovation. Did Thomas Edison take credit for things he didn’t actually invent? What everyday items have surprising origins? And would man have ever got to the moon without… the bra?
More about the show
Each episode host Dallas Campbell dives into stories of flukey discoveries, erased individuals and merky marketing ploys with the help of experts, scientists and historians.
Expect new episodes every Wednesday and Sunday.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes page 1 of 4
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Things vs. Humans: the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects
If you can never connect to a printer, if furniture jumps out to stub your toe, if when you do the dishes the water jumps out the sink to soak you - then you are victim of the inanimate malice of things. The belief…
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First Ever Submarine
400 years ago on the River Thames a mad genius showed off the world's first submarine. A crowd of thousands including King James watched as Cornelis Drebbel disappeared beneath the murky water, only reemerging after…
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Inventing Fire: the First Spark of Humanity
Fire is the unsung hero of human evolution. We could not have turned into the big-brained, deep-thinking animals we are on raw food alone. The moment two million years ago that our forebears first started using fire to…
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Rise and Fall of High Heels
For most of their history, High Heels were resolutely masculine. The most manly of manly footwear. How did they turn into burning icons of femininity? And now that the heyday of women's high heels is over, what lies…
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Sunglasses
What do all incredibly cool people have in common? They wear Sunglasses. Whether you're Miles Davis or Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Bob Dylan, your sunglasses are never far away. Who invented sunglasses and who made…
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Deep-Sea Submersibles & the Titan Disaster
The Titan submersible implosion was a tragic example of marine exploration going wrong. Today Dallas speaks to one of the world's leading marine archaeologists about Titan and the history of deep-sea submersibles…
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Patriarchy
Why are men in charge? Who invented Patriarchy? Was it chest-thumping primate ancestors? Was it spear-wielding hunter gatherers? Was it at dawn of agriculture and the creation of property? Or was it something more…
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Donald Hebb: Brainwashing in the Cold War
In 1950, a new word ‘brainwashing’ entered the English language. From the paranoia of the Cold War a new type of Evil Scientist had emerged — the Mind Controller. But was there any truth to the fear? In the 1950s the…
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Medieval Swords
No invention conjures up the 'Old World' as much as the Sword. It's an utterly iconic object that whisks us back to knights in shining armour. But what were Medieval swords really like? Who owned them? And what did…
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Marie Curie
In a leaky shed in Paris, Marie Curie turned two tons of pitchblende (aka special rocks) into a single test tube of radium chloride - its green glow lighting up the walls. It must have been a magic...if…
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Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology may seem like something from a sci-fi movie plot, but it’s a very real thing and has likely affected many areas of your life, whether you realise it, or not. Nanotechnology looks at dimension and…
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Wernher Von Braun: Nazi Father of Rocket Science
Wernher von Braun launched America's space programme, and took Apollo 11 to the moon. He was also a Nazi member who served in the SS, and developed the lethal V-2 rocket bomb. He helped America progress in the Cold…
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Digital Calculators
What did humans do before calculators? How big was the very first electronic calculator? And what do monkey bones have to do with the history? Dallas Campbell is joined by Keith Houston to talk about the rise and…
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Oppenheimer: Inventor of the Atomic Bomb
Robert Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb - a weapon of unprecedented power, which, when dropped on Japan, would end WWII and would change the course of history. While some perceived the bomb as inhumane…
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Coca Cola: A Backyard Invention
Was Coca Cola originally made with Cocaine? Did Coca Cola invent Santa? Who knows the Coca Cola recipe? Dallas is joined by Bart Elmore, an award-winning Professor and Writer who investigates the impact of big business…
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Fritz Haber: Inventor of Poisonous Gas
Fritz Haber is an undisputed genius and is considered one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th Century. He’s an incredibly complex person, who has given so much to the world, but whether his inventions and…
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Inventing Hello Kitty
She’s the most famous cat’s in the world. She’s definitely the most expensive. She’s worth a cool $84.5 Billion. She’s none other than Hello Kitty! In the final episode of our mini series on Japanese Inventions,…
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Thermos Flask: A Hot and Cold History
Isn’t it mind-blowing that a thermos flask can keep your drink hot or cold for 8 hours, despite what’s happening in the climate around you? A real sip of relief really/ But who invented this incredibly helpful concept…
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The Walkman: The First Intimate Technology
Think about how intimate our relationship with technology is. In today’s day and age, it’s almost impossible to function in the modern world without it. Believe or not, this intimate relationship with technology…
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Chewing Gum: From the Aztecs to Avocados
Spearmint, peppermint, double-bubble. You may think that chewing gum is a modern invention, when in fact we've been chewing the stuff since the year 200. Both the product and the flavour have improved immensely over…
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Karaoke: The History
When you think about it, the Karaoke machine is a simple invention. Basically two existing inventions, the tape deck and the microphone, were stuck together, add some lyrics on a screen and BOOM, you have Karaoke.…
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Ectoplasm: Seances & the Rise of Spiritualism
Communicating with the dead has a long and winding history. The rise of seances and the showmanship of paranormal activity rose to prominence in the late 19th century. Spiritualism was entering a new wave, and…
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Fish & Chips: The Unexpected Origins of Britain's Favourite Dish
Fish and Chips. About 382 million portions of the iconic national dish are consumed every year. That works out to around 6 servings per person, per year! But who invented it? Panikos Panayi, the Author of Fish and…
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Black Boxes: Recording Airplanes' Final Moments
They can survive in lava for half an hour and accelerations of 3,400 Gs. Their beacons can be detected 20,000 feet beneath the waves. Most shocking of all - they aren't actually black! (They're bright orange = the…
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Rise and Fall of Cinema
What was the first cinema? When were the heydays of cinema-going and where are we now? How has the experience of going to the cinema changed? Today’s show is about the rise and fall of cinema. Or should that be the…
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Dogs: Domesticating Wolves, Inventing Breeds (& Killer Beavers)
How do we go from wolves to modern dogs? And where do Killer Beavers fit into the story? Humans domesticated wolves long before any other animal (or even any plants). Yet what exactly happened is shrouded in mystery.…
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Ejector Seats: Death Defying Invention
"Eject! Eject!" Imagine hearing that and the next second flying out into the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, your life in the hands of a chair. Luckily it's a very special chair that has rockets, restraining…
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McDonald's: Roadside Stand to Worldwide Brand
Every second McDonald’s sells 75 hamburgers. It serves 70 million customers each day (more than the population of the UK). All this began at a roadside stand manned by two brothers: Dick and Mac McDonald (no joke).…
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Kitchens
Who invented the Kitchen? It might seem silly to ask that but there is in fact one kitchen that people point to as the mother-of-all-kitchens. It was built in 1926 in the middle of a German housing crisis, by an…
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Pride Flag: Birth of a Rainbow
The first ever Pride Flag was 30 ft high and 60 ft wide. A suitably epic beginning for a flag that has had a massive impact on the world. Who design that first flag? Why? And is Judy Garland involved in all this?…
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Pencils: A Surprising History
Is the pencil an example of perfect design? What is the greatest pencil of all time? What does a fallen down tree in the Lake District have to do with its invention? Dallas talks to Caroline Weaver, pencil expert and…
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Locks and the Great Lock Controversy
In Victorian England, a prisoner was promised their freedom if only they could pick a lock... This week on Patented it's the history of locks and the wild stories of the race for perfect security during the Industrial…
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Suffragette Scientists
Hold onto your lab coats, because the suffragette scientists are here to shake things up! Patricia Fara, author of A Lab of One's Own, joins Dallas to tell the stories of forgotten pioneers of invention during the…
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Hieroglyphs
Vulture. Snake. Baboon in a Basket. Get ready for hieroglyphs, history, and hilarity as Dallas talks to Egyptologist Chris Naunton. We discover the mysteries of the Narmer Palette and the birth of hieroglyphs, crack…
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Stone Tools: The First Ever Invention
Stone Tools are technology 1.0. They’re where it all begins. For millions of years, Stone Tools were our primary piece of technology. At some point we became dependent on them for survival. They became a defining part…
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Colours: from Cave Paint to Nanotube Black
There's a theory that the invention of paint had something to do with the dawn of humanity. We are on a never-ending quest to create brighter, better colours. From grinding rocks, to crushing bugs, concocting chemicals…
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Inventing Disneyland: The First Themepark
Giant mouse ears at the ready, we're off to Disneyland! Hop on board and travel with us inside Walt Disney's mind (for better or for worse). We discover how he came up with the idea, what it all means, and how his…
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Rise and Fall of Encyclopedias
The 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1974, cost $32 million to create. The largest investment in publishing history. And yet you can now buy the complete set for pennies. Who invented…
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Inventing Bond: Wiretapping
We live in a world where everything is bugged. We all know we are being monitored. The surprising thing is that this is nothing new. From tapped telegraph wires to bugged Martini olives, Dallas is finding out about…
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Chicken Nuggets: A Bitesized History
The most famous chicken nugget of them all, the McDonald’s McNugget, turns 40 this year. So we’re asking, who invented the Chicken Nugget? Enter food-scientist Robert Baker who came up with them twenty years before…
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Inventing Bond: Cocktails
It's Cocktail Hour! In honour of James Bond we ask who invented cocktails? Have they always been a cool thing to drink? And where do horses bottoms fit into things? Dallas' guest today is the pre-eminent historian…
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Horses
In this story, the cart really does come before the horse. Horse transport doesn't begin with people riding around on horses' backs. It starts with the invention of the Chariot. Dallas's guest to explain the origins…
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First King of England
Who was the first King of England? Who invented a place called 'England' anyway? And what on earth are the 'bracelets of sincerity'? With coronations in the air Dallas is going back in search of the origins of all…
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Electric Motors & Michael Faraday
How’s this for a CV? 1821 - invented the Electric Motor. 1831 - invented the Electric Generator. Oh, and I also created the first Electric Transformer, discovered Benzene and liquidised Chlorine. Michael Faraday is a…
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Inventing Bond: Cars
Fast and sleek with a satisfying rumble in the engine. What else could you want from a car? Well, for James Bond, the answer to this question is usually a couple of hidden weapons and some form of camouflage device.…
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Books
The Book. It’s the most powerful object in history (sorry Sword fans). But how did it come to be? And what was wrong with good old scrolls in the first place? Dallas is joined by Keith Houston, author of The Book: A…
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Inventing Bond: Gadgets
Dagger shoes, Lipstick gas grenade, Razor rimmed hat, Milk bottle Grenade…Prosthetic Nipple. We’re continuing our exploration of the inventions that have made Bond, James Bond. This time it’s gadgets, gadgets,…
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Telegraph
Get ready for the story of how the telegraph went from a long line of monks holding hands to a technology that straddled the earth. One which foreshadowed the internet in many strange ways, from online dating to fraud.…
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Inventing Bond: The Real Q
Well before Bond was lasering and limboing himself out of fictional situations, these were the questions faced by the British forces trying to repatriate prisoners of war during the Second World War. In this episode,…
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Vasectomies
Why did Sigmund Freud want a vasectomy at 67 years old? Why were goat gonads all the rage in the 1920s? Who was the first person to get the snip? Today we're handing over the mic to our sister podcast at History Hit -…
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