Bill Kirby: We have invented the future one small step at a time
"Simplify, then add lightness."
– Colin Chapman
We have it pretty easy these days – computers, smart phones, air-conditioning.
They have changed our lives, and I, for one, am grateful.
But I'm grateful for other things, too. The simple inventions and remarkable discoveries that don't get Nobel prizes, but each day, demonstrate their usefulness.
It reminds me of the old observation about traveling: Why did we figure out how to fly to the moon, before someone figured out they could put little wheels on heavy suitcases?
I do not know.
However, I have been keeping a list of the things that I find useful and simple, that we did not have only a few years ago.
For example:
Post-It notes – I go through them like Kleenex. In office work, I can stick them on phones, computer screens and desktops. Forty years ago we handled such messages by typing them out on official memorandum stationery – formally dating it, signing it, then sealing it in an inter- or intra- or inner-office envelope, which was then placed in a staff mailbox.
In today's school work or class work, Post-It notes are good because you can move them around to different pages.
At home, Post-It notes are everywhere, particularly the kitchen, where they detail recipes, record lunch opportunities and offer refrigerator warnings ("Leftover meat loaf tastes funny").
The 'Half' Paper Towel – Speaking of kitchens, I like these guys a lot better than their wider predecessors. It also makes me think I'm conserving, and not wasting.
Re-sealable 'Baggies' – Not only do they help with mini-carrots, but also chips, cookies … and sandwiches, which we used to wrap in waxed paper (Kids, ask your great-grandparents.)
Fitted Sheet Labels – There are few household duties more difficult than wrestling with fitted sheets to get them onto a mattress. And then you find out you're trying to put the short side on the long side. Not if you have little labels to let you know in advance. (Why was this so hard?)
'Forever' Stamps – Next time you grumble (as I am often guilty) about the U.S. Postal Service, consider all the time saved by not having to: A) Notice the current cost of a basic stamp, which none of us know, and B) Purchase a bunch of 1-cent stamps to make up the difference after a rate change.
Refrigerator ice makers – Remember the little plastic "ice trays"? Yeah, the things someone would skip filling, just leaving you with one cube? No more.
Plastic dispensers – Plastic use might raise environmental concern, but anyone who once had to clean up a shattered glass jar of mustard on a kitchen floor or the shards of a soft-drink bottle dropped by a child on a pool-side patio appreciates plastic's durability.
Vehicles – Car, truck or SUV, they are the emerging pinnacle of convenience, and I don't just mean automatic transmissions or power steering. Remember having to roll down the windows? Today, we push buttons. Someone calls your cell phone and your dashboard answers it, while you just talk … or ignore.
Wipers come on when it rains. Headlights come on when it's dark. And my vehicle has more sensors than a moon-launch rocket. (See above.)
What could be better? Well, "Right-turn on red," after coming to a complete stop. Think of all the time (and gas) you'd waste sitting there waiting for the light to change, which … used to be the law.
What about you? If you would like to nominate a recent innovation, send me an e-mail at bkirby@augustachronicle.com. Perhaps we fret so much these days because we have so much extra time to think about our worries.
Bill Kirby has reported, photographed and commented on life in Augusta and Georgia for 45 years.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Inventions make day-to-day tasks easier than ever before: Bill Kirby
