I've got a new invention. 

It's a revolving bowl for tired goldfish.

Lefty Gomez

Louis CK  does a funny bit about 
" Everything's amazing and nobody's happy" ...which became something of an internet sensation last year.  If you Google the quoted line above you can see/hear/read it.   

C.K. is mostly talking about the high tech world  and air travel etc...but while I'm out in the backyard wrestling with my wood projects I often think about the ingenuity that went into the creation of the simplest (yet no less ingenious)  tools and implements that make it possible (and easier)  for me to transform trees into bowls and tables and hiking sticks et.al.

The inventor of the Phillips screw (and driver) was Henry F. Phillips, a businessman from Portland, Oregon. Henry knew that power screwdrivers don't work well with ordinary slot screws because (1) you waste precious seconds trying to fit the screwdriver into the damn slot; (2) once you succeed, centrifugal force tends to make the bit slide off the screw and into the workbench; and even if you avoid this, (3) when the screw gets as far in as it's going to go, the power screwdriver either stalls, strips out the screw, or starts to spin around in your hand.

A Phillips screwdriver, however, has a pointed tip. Get it anywhere in the general vicinity of the screw and it engages as if by magic, and what's more, stays engaged. Furthermore, the cross-shaped indentation in the screw is so shallow that when you're done the screwdriver pops right out, before you get into trouble.

Sidebar:  ...why pound and ounce are abbreviated "lb." and "oz."?
 "Lb." stands for libra, the basic unit of Roman weight, from which our present-day pound derives. The libra weighed a little under 12 ounces avoirdupois."Oz." stands for the Italian onza, ounce. It came into use in the 15th century. Ounce comes from the Latin uncia, a 12th, which is also the source of the term "inch. 
At one time there were 12 ounces to the pound, a usage that still survives in the system of troy weight used by jewelers and goldsmiths. Sixteen oz. to the lb. didn't arrive on the scene until the 13th or 14th century.Pound derives from the Latin pondo, "by weight." You ask: why take pound from one Latin word but the abbreviation from a DIFFERENT Latin word? Answer:...I don't know. 

In the "What took so long?" category, prominent on most lists is the Wheels on Luggage entry...but there's also... 

... preservation of food using tin cans had been practiced since at least 1772 in the Netherlands, but  the first can openers were patented only in 1855 in England and in 1858 in the United States. Those openers were basically variations of a knife (pictured on right) and the 1855 design continues to be produced.  A design similar to the current standard with rotating wheel was developed but didn't function very well, the breakthrough came in 1925...

 William Lyman patented an easy to use opener in 1870, but it took another 55 years to get it to here (left) with the wheel that rolls and cuts around the rim. The Star Can Company of San Francisco improved Lyman's design by adding a serrated edge. An electric version was first devised in 1931.

Of course there's always the church key which is only practical if the contents is  liquid. Why it's called a Church Key?  go to: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-chu2.htm

The first real bicycles were only developed in the 19th century; but most of the required parts have been around for millennia (wheels, chains, etc). Considering how amazingly efficient and useful bikes are,  why didn't anyone think of them sooner?

Wheels are the archetype of a primitive technology. But they're so ingenious that it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them. By that time — it was the Bronze Age — humans were already casting metal alloys, constructing canals and sailboats, and even designing complex musical instruments such as harps. 


"The tricky thing about the wheel is not conceiving of a cylinder rolling on its edge. It's figuring out how to connect a stable, stationary platform to that cylinder..."  for more...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-it-took-so-long-to-inv
And...

Ball bearings didn't exist, at least not good enough ones.  Roller bearings are an old concept, but smooth, hard, uniform metal ball bearings didn't exist until the mid 1800's.  Bicycles were actually one of their first major applications.

-Chains weren't manufactured with high quality/precision/strength until ~1880's.  And every time I have a chain malfunction on my bike I'm reminded of the complexity of these seemingly simple interconnected links. 

-Tension-spoke wheels were not around for millenia.  They were originally invented in 1830's as airplane landing gear, for light weight.  Took a while for people to realize that bicycles would be a good application.  Compression spoke (wood) wheels don't transfer torque well.  They're also heavy and not very laterally strong.

-Bicycles without pneumatic rubber tires are not nearly as practical or easy to ride.  Latex didn't reach Europe until late 1700's, and then it took another 70 years to learn to turn it into tough, air-proof, cheap-enough rubber.  Rubber vulcanization wasn't invented until mid 1800's.

Also, there is anecdotal evidence that some non-european cultures had social taboos against wheeled vehicles...hmmm, gotta look into that.  


Not to be filed under "What took so Long." but great story with inspired genesis. 

From Wikipedia: The word Velcro is a portmanteau of the two French words velours ("velvet"), and crochet("hook")  The hook-and-loop fastener was invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer, Georges de Mestral who lived in Commugny, Switzerland. The idea came to him one day after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps. He took a close look at the burrs (--see above pic) of burdock that kept sticking to his clothes and his dog's fur. 

 The hooks on Velcro

And The Loops  

He examined them under a microscope, and noted their hundreds of "hooks" that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing, animal fur, or hair. He saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion if he could figure out how to duplicate the hooks and loops.  

George concluded that he could design a unique, two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like the burrs and the other side with soft loops like the fabric of wool pants. 

By trial and error, he realized that nylon when sewn under infrared light, formed tough hooks for the burr side of the fastener. This finished the design, patented in 1955.

And in the file I'm labeling "There's a sucker born..."

1.Rinse off excess food from dishes in sink
2.Place/arrange dishes in Dishwasher in appropriate space/level
3.Continue until there are no more appropriate spaces
4.Re-arrange dishes in order to create more spaces
5.Take detergent out of cabinet
6.Put detergent in dishwasher
7.Return detergent to cabinet
8.Run dishwasher
9.Wait an hour 
10 .Return and unload dishwasher...and hand dry items that accumulated water in their concave spaces.


Or.


1.Wash dish with soapy sponge/brush
2.Rinse
3.Dry (optional)