Tag Archives: 1888

Cars

The Biggest Changes Made To Car Tires Over The Last 100 Years

Let’s begin round 1888. Back then, automotive tires had been product of stable rubber. These tires had been okay for outdated roads however not nice for the newer paved ones. Then John Boyd Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire, which is stuffed with air — these air-filled tires made rides a lot smoother and shortly grew to become in style.

During World War II, there was a scarcity of rubber. So, corporations used completely different supplies like plant fibers and artificial rubber. After the warfare, they went again to utilizing common rubber, however using artificial rubber began rising. In 1931, a turning level got here with DuPont’s profitable industrialization of artificial rubber. This made it simpler to supply extra and higher tires. Around the identical time, the balloon tire additionally got here out. It was a low-pressure tire with higher contact with the street, making it smoother.

In the Seventies, run-flat tires had been launched. These tires may nonetheless be pushed for a brief distance even after getting a puncture, they usually had been launched with a rising curiosity in supplies that might provide reliability in several circumstances. Today, you might have tire corporations making tires which might be higher for the planet as effectively. An excellent instance is corporations like Hankook creating airless tires, or NPTs (Non-Pneumatic Tires), utilizing uni-materials which might be extra energy-efficient in manufacturing and recyclable.

Cameras

Whatever Happened To Kodak?

In 1888, George Eastman invented the handheld roll-film-based camera known as Kodak. This camera was the first of its kind to achieve commercial success. The success of the camera was so profound that Eastman decided to change the name of his company from Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company to Eastman Kodak Company, as it became synonymous with the brand.

Within ten years, Kodak had sold over 1.5 million cameras, completely revolutionizing amateur photography. The company continued to innovate, releasing the Kodak Brownie, the first pocket camera, in 1900. This made personal photography even more convenient, as compared to the original Kodak camera, which required shipping with the film stock in order for the roll to be developed. Throughout the 1900s, Kodak introduced numerous advancements, such as the Kodachrome full-color film in 1935, the affordable cartridge-based Instamatic camera in 1963, and even the first digital camera in 1975. In subsequent decades, Kodak made further digital innovations, including the debut of the first DSLR camera in 1991.

However, the release of the first digital camera in 1975 foreshadowed a turning point for Kodak. The company decided to abandon the project due to concerns that digital advancements would jeopardize its primary revenue stream—film sales. Even when Kodak eventually embraced digital technology in the early 2000s, it adhered to the traditional business model of treating cameras as loss leaders. The company hoped to leverage digital cameras to promote web and printing services, but it ended up losing $60 on each camera sold.

Meanwhile, Fujifilm, a Japanese competitor, aggressively expanded into the U.S. market in the 1980s. This move had a direct impact on Kodak’s market share in film stock sales, prompting Kodak to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). Unfortunately for Kodak, its complaint was rejected in 1998.