Polish inventions

Maria Salomea Skłodowska and Mikołaj Kopernik, two big names in Poland's history. Across the globe they are known as Marie Curie (physicist/chemist) and Nicolaus Copernicus (mathematician/ astronomer). These extremely talented and intelligent persons did amazing discoveries and made revolutionary inventions.

However, less known to the general public, there are more inventions done by Poles. Inventions which were truly spectacular at that time.

Józef Stanisław Kosacki (born in Warsaw) invented the portable mine detector

Kazimierz Żegleń (born in Tarnopol) invented the bulletproof vest.

Henryk Magnuski (born in Warsaw)
invented the walkie-talkie.

Kazimierz Prószyński (born in Warsaw) invented the film projector. He also invented the first stabilization camera. By the way, the story goes that he tested his invention while riding a horse.

Warsaw
Nice to know that so many of these bright minds came from Warsaw. Another man from Warsaw, Leo Gerstenzang, invented "Baby Gays".

Say what?!

Baby gays, the original name of cotton swabs. Or Q-tips, how they are called in the US and Canada after Unilever trademarked it. Those things which clog up your ear canals when you are so tempted to use them after having a minor ear wax blockage.

Mr Gerstenzang watched his wife attach wads of cotton to toothpicks, which inspired him before we emigrated to the US. There the product became a massive success. Q-tips, which stands for "quality tips". 

The Q-tips brand of Unilever has over $200 million of sales in the US alone! Although doctors have said for years that it is not safe to use cotton swabs for ear cleaning, it remains the most common use.

You clearly do not need to be a mastermind to invent things like this, but surely it was a massive success on the market!

So if you end up with a nasty ear infection after using a cotton swab, blame the guy from Warsaw! Or yourself :-)