Overlooked History: Cotton buds

Cotton buds are simply rods with a small wad of cotton covering each side or one side of the rod. The most common usage of cotton buds are for cleaning the ear from ear wax but can also be used for make up and applying alcohol on them for cuts and bruises. They are quite useful objects actually, however we rarely do give much thought to it either.

http://www.poundland.co.uk/images/8147/original/04266-Johnson-Cotton-Buds-1.jpg

Cotton buds originally were invented by Polish-born American, Leo Gerstenzang, in 1923. In fact, he received the idea from his wife who placed wads of cotton on the ends of toothpicks in order to clean their baby's ears. However, worrying that the toothpicks might be dangerous for the baby, he decided to redesign his wife's improvisation. Leo Gerstenzang therefore created the first proper cotton bud by placing cotton swabs around both ends of a wooden stick. Thus, the birth of Baby Gays.

Yes, that was the first name that Gerstenzang gave to his invention. The name, Baby Gays, will mostly likely have different connotations today and therefore is no longer named that way. Gerstenzang, deciding that the first name was not the best choice, later changed the name to Q-Tips Baby Gays. The 'Q' stands for quality while the 'tips' refer to the ends of the cotton bud. Finally, the 'Baby Gays' part of the name was dropped and Q-tips would remain the name of this great invention to this day.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00797/cotton-bud_797609c.jpg

Leo Gerstenzang founded the Leo Gerstenzang Infant Novelty Company in order to make a business out of his Q-tips. Although he struggled initially, his business thrived later on and consumers bought the cotton buds to clean their babies' outer ears, their nostrils and other areas I would not like to know. In 1958, Gerstenzang's company bought Paper Sticks Ltd. of England and now the cotton buds could be made of both wood and paper. 

Q-Tips is now owned Chesebrough-Ponds after purchasing the company in 1962. The company produces nearly twenty-six billion cotton buds each year and they are all made of paper after the wooden sticks were no longer made in the 1980's. Despite their simple concept, cotton buds are used for all sorts of things other than for cleaning the baby because of their ability to reach hard-to-reach places.

Cotton buds are a fantastic uncomplicated invention which is very beneficial today. Yet, it's amazing how it all started from just a mother who wanted to keep her own baby hygienic.

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-history-q-tips-cotton-swabs-148102.html

http://inventors.about.com/od/qstartinventions/a/QTips.htm

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2896800044.html

Past and Present... and Future?: Japan withdraws from the League of Nations and North Korea ends non-aggression pacts

Another series of blog posts that I will be posting about is called "Past and Present... and Future?". In this series, I will be looking at current day events and comparing it with previous events in history. Some of the events I compare might seem completely irrelevant, however the saying, "History always repeats itself," is no fiction and we do not realise how different events in history are so similar and so connected. The purpose of this is not just to compare two events, but to also predict the future from this analysis. The future of a current day event might be predicted accurately by seeing how the comparable event in history turned out. Of course, most of these will not likely be completely accurate, but hopefully the blog post will give a better insight on what's happening in the world right now and will also interest you.

The first current day event I will be talking about is North Korea's decision to end armistice with South Korea.

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2013/0305-world-latestnews-northkorea/15183629-1-eng-US/0305-world-latestnews-northkorea_full_600.jpg

Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un

On 8 March 2013, North Korea announced that it will end all non-aggression pacts with their neighbouring country, South Korea. This comes after North Korea's nuclear tests and their threats that the United States is the target for their nuclear programmes. After worries of potential aggression from North Korea, the announcement of ending a 60 years-old armistice with South Korea has caused shock in the world. The announcement also included the decisions to close the joint border crossing and cutting hotlines with South Korea. Although there haven't been any violence thus far, there intentions and their preparation for aggression are some reasons for worry.

And now, what does this even remind me of? The historical event could actually be compared to all sorts of times where countries have decided against peaceful treaties and pacts. But, the one I picked was Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations.

http://www.globalautonomy.ca/global1/glofigures/GL_OR_LeagueOfNations_Fig1.jpg

A meeting of the League Assembly in 1920

O 19 September 1931, the Kwantung Army, part of the Japanese Imperialist Army, began invading Manchuria (without the Japanese government's consent). The motives for invading Manchuria was because it was a large area of land full of natural resources, which Japan needed after her economy was troubled due to the Great Depression and had a rapidly growing population. Plus, they already had an army stationed there. This act of aggression was a breach of several treaties and pacts that Japan signed such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a pact agreeing not to use war, and the League of Nations, an international organisation which aimed maintain world peace. After negative responses from Western powers demanding an end to the invasion, Japan decided to simply withdraw from the League of Nations on February 24, 1933. This left Japan isolated and she did not have any powers stopping them from their actions. She were able to completely capture Manchuria. Eventually, Japan expanded their invasion across China, down to South East Asia and even attacked the U.S.A at Pearl Harbour. 

The fact that both the Empire of Japan back in the 1930's and North Korea today ended some sort of non-aggression pacts and threatened other countries give thoughts to worry about. Although North Korea hasn't committed any invasions or acts of violence unlike Japan did with Manchuria, they potentially could follow the same path as Japan and attack South Korea or the United States in the near future. Although they might not have enough resources and modern technology to commit a war against foreign powers, they certainly do have intentions do so. And, if their claim that they posses nuclear weapons is to be true, the future is something to be concerned about because Kim Jong-Un does not seem afraid of utilising them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21709917

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/11/north-korea-declares-end-armistice

http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations6_news.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/WorldWar2/manchuria.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_nations

Gauci, Joe. IB History Route 2:Origins and Development of Authoritarian and Single-Party States. Oxford, UK: OSC IB Revision Guides, 2010. Print.

Overlooked History: The Pencil

This is my first entry of a series to come called Overlooked History. Basically, Overlooked History is the brief history of usually objects, but also possibly people, places, or events, which are never thought about in our daily life. These objects can include objects that we see everyday that we do not give second thoughts about or really abstract objects which most of us have never heard of. The aim of these entries is to not only inform you about the history of these objects but to also help you give more of a thought on the things that exist around us in the world and to interest you on typically boring objects. Plus, I am sure that you will always learn something new.

The first object I've decided to write about is the classic school equipment, the pencil.

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/rogerkay/files/2011/03/pencil1.jpg

Now we all know what the purpose of a pencil is. The inside of pencils are made of graphite which are used to mark a trace on a sheet of paper in order to write letters, make drawings, etc. As young children, this was one of our main tools of learning in helping us write. But, how did this such simple object come to exist. This is the time where we look into its history.

The first form of writing instrument dates back thousands of years ago when cavemen used sharp stones to make scratches on the walls of a cave.  However, we are the interested in the first pencil whose origin dates back to 1565. In Borrowdale, in the Cumberland hills of England, a large deposit of a grey-black glistening substance was discovered. This substance had the same colour as lead, it was greasy, soft and brittle and kept leaving stains. This substance was graphite, but it was first called black-lead (In fact, the substance was not called graphite until the 18th century when Swedish chemist, Karl Wilhelm Scheele, identified it to be like a crystallised form of carbon. He named the substance "graphite" after the Greek word for writing, "Graphein"), and it was seen as more convenient for writing and drawing instead of the previously used ink and pen. And, this was when graphite was proved to be a world-changing and extremely valuable material in the world.

Borrowdale, the birth place of the pencil

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Borrowdale_-_Rosthwaite.jpg

Despite the usefulness of graphite, it was too brittle to be carried. It therefore needed some holder, and after several attempts, the method of inserting the graphite into hollowed-out wooden sticks was seen to be the best way in holding the pencil. And this is how the wood-cased pencil, the form of pencil we use today, was created.

This is the oldest known wood cased pencil

http://www.faber-castell.ie/bausteine.net/img/showimg.aspx?biid=16561&domid=1010

Although the first mass-produced pencils took place in Nuremberg, Germany in 1761 by Kaspar Fabar, the most significant form of pencil mass production was in 1839 by Lothan Fabar, his grand-son. It was him who mechanised production and formed pencils in large amounts yet in good quality using water power, then later steam power. It was him who created the hexagonal shape for the pencil and gave different pencils different hardnesses. And it was also him, and his grand-father, who originated the company which operates today, Faber-Castell, one of the world's largest makers for pencils. 

Throughout 1565 until up to today, the pencil has been altered many times in order to become more comfortable in the user's hand and to become easier to use. However, the event that truly helped the world positively was the accidental finding of large amounts of graphite in Borrowdale. Graphite has been truly beneficial to human kind in not only teaching and expressing arts through pencils but also for many other uses such as batteries and steelmaking. But despite the importance of pencils today, I also think to myself, "Will pencils still be needed in the future?' as I type up the end of this entry. 

http://www.pencils.com/blog/pencil-history/

http://www.faber-castell.ie/34507/All-About-Pencils/Pencils-A-History/default_news.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil#cite_note-norgate-4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphite

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm