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Radio Broadcast
Under the call sign KDKA, Pittsburgh's Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company transmitted the first scheduled broadcast on Nov. 2, 1920. KDKA's Leo Rosenberg announced live returns of the Presidential election. -
Automatic Traffic Light
Garret Morgan is credited with inventing the first electric automatic traffic signal in 1923. Although other types of traffic signals were in use since 1868, Morgan’s design used a T-shaped pole and had three positions. The patented design was sold to General Electric for $40,000. -
Vacuum Cleaner
In 1926, the popular vacuum company Hoover developed a positive agitation system that greatly increased dirt removal efficiency. Cleaning household carpets became a lot easier and much faster. -
Garbage Disposal
The garbage disposal, food waste disposal, or “garburator”, was invented in 1927 by a Wisconsin architect who created InSinkErator. -
Television
Before electronic television, there was mechanical television. The world’s first electronic television is credited to Philo Taylor Farnsworth in 1927. Though other mechanical television inventors such as John Logie Baird and Charles Francis Jenkins had successes in television technology, Farnsworth’s invention is considered the direct ancestor of our modern electronic television. Early ad of a vacuum cleaner