Saturday, April 4, 2009

Dayton History Lesson

Today Craig decided that I was going to get a history lesson on Dayton. I say he decided because he really didn't tell me what was going on but all of a sudden we were in this little park where they have a path you walk on with all of these old buildings and replicas (though some where the original and we couldn't figure out how they got them there). So, for those of you that doubt that Ohio exists, here are a couple of history facts about good ol Dayton!

--The Dayton Peace Accord was signed here at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. This was the accord that ended the war in Bosnia.

--The cash register, atm, and the self checkout stations at grocery stores were all invented by NCR located here in Dayton..you should see the early ads..they are so funny with these HUGE automatic machines..it looks like the first personal computer that would take up a whole room...not quite that big though.

--The Wright Brothers of the Kitty Hawk fame were actually from here. The developed all their stuff here but just happened to actually take flight in NC. The two states fight over who gets the credit. NC was the "first in flight" but OH is the "birth of aviation". We saw one of their first planes today. There is also a sculpture in downton Dayton that is the first flight path (very short flight :-)) There childhood home was bought by Rockefeller or someone similar and moved from Dayton but the HUGE mansion that they had after they could fly is still here. Apparently people used to just pick up houses and move them...random.

--The little pop top on soda cans was invented here...weird huh, you don't think about who invents that stuf, but I saw the physics drawing today.

--The Fridgedaire self cooling fridge was invented here. It was funny looking. The ice cube part just had these little metal trays that the ice cubes would form in....who knew that was here? Also, the ice cube tray was here, I guess that went with the fridge.


Here is a list of some more inventions..some of them are funny...the yo-yo, "tiny time pill", no idea what that even is but it sounds sketchy to me. Read the list though because there are a lot of other things on there that are cool.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the guy who founded the company I work for....we saw his grave today. I know you guys can't wait!!

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