clothing zippers were also a very big deal. vast improvement over buttons.
I was thinking zippers too…until I read that the Dutch brought us gin in the 17th century. Better than zippers, I say. Or perhaps associated with them in some way…:)
My mom’s side of the family had roots in Northwest PA and western NY State. My grandfather told a story of his grandfather who was an accountant living near Meadville, PA in the late 19th. century. He was offered a chance to get in on the ground floor and invest in a new invention that he was told would “revolutionize the world”. The whole thing sounded crazy to him so he turned it down.
That invention turned out to be the zipper.