Dr. Adreas Gruentizig, a young German physician working at University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland toyed with the idea of adding a balloon to the Dotter catheter (a transluminal angioplasty technique). In 1975, Gruentzig developed a double-lumen catheter fitted with a polyvinylchloride balloon that set in motion a revolution in medicine by offering a new way to address blockages in the heart. The doctor performed the first coronary angioplasty on a human in 1977 and altered the field of interventional cardiology and treatment of coronary artery disease forever.

A dog breeds the need for Velcro®
After taking his dog for a walk, George de Mestral, a Swiss amateur-mountaineer and inventor found that he and his dog were covered with burrs. Curious, de Mestral decided to place the burr plant seed sacs under a microscope to see why they stuck so tightly to animal fur and clothing. He quickly discovered that small hook-like projections enabled the burrs to cling. From that discovery, de Mestral designed a unique, two-sided fastener - one side with soft loops like fabric - the other with stiff hooks. He called his invention Velcro - a combination of the word velour and crochet. Soon, a weaver in France picked up on the idea and working with de Mestral, the multi-million dollar Velcro Industry was formed.




Perhaps the most notable use of Velcro in the healthcare environment came when it was used to hold together a human heart during the first artificial heart surgery. It is still used to attach chambers in artificial hearts. Among hundreds of healthcare applications, Velcro is used to cinch blood pressure cuffs, belt patients in wheelchairs, attach disposable covers on examination tables and close patient gowns.

Typewriter makes communicating a bit easier
The first typewriter went to market in 1874 and it was thanks to printer and inventor Christopher Latham Sholes. Sholes had initially created a numbering machine but on suggestion of a friend took his invention a step further and created a letter writing machine - a typewriter. In 1868 he had applied for the patent, but with funding problems, he sold the rights to James Densmore, who began marketing the machine. Densmore handed the device over to Remington & Sons for production. The first typewriter had a habit of keys sticking, so Sholes rearranged the keyboard to put distance between the most used letters. That same keyboard configuration is still used today.

More Industry Headlines