Who can really say how names are formed? Well, some linguists may know the answer to
that question, but not even they know the origins for each and every name in existence
today. Nevertheless, we can (to a certain extent)
know the origins for some things out there in the world. And the best examples of this are things that
are named after people – either those things’ inventors, or named in their honor for one
reason or another. Now, with that being said, let’s take a
look at 10 of our favorites. 10. The Nobel Prize The Nobel Prize is an annual event that takes
place in both Sweden and Norway, and where the most prestigious academics, scholars,
scientists, political and public figures are awarded for their achievements in the fields
of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economic sciences, and peace. With the exception of the Peace Prize, which
is held in Oslo, Norway, all the others are awarded in Sweden. The recipients are given a gold medal, a diploma,
and a sum of money that is decided by the Nobel Foundation. As of 2017, the prize is set at $920,000. The man after which this prize is named is
Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a 19th century Swedish engineer, chemist, inventor, businessman,
and philanthropist. Throughout his life, Nobel amassed a total
of 355 patents for his inventions, the most notorious of which was dynamite. As a pacifist, he believed that his invention
would bring about the end of war. In one of his writings he said that “When
two armies of equal strength can annihilate each other in an instant, then all civilized
nations will retreat and disband their troops.” Unfortunately, however, this was not the case
– not when it comes to dynamite, at least. After his death, and unbeknownst to his friends
and family (he never had a wife and children), he left most of his wealth of roughly $225
million in today’s money in a trust to fund for the annual awards that he created in his
will. Meant to honor “the greatest benefit on
mankind,” the Nobel Prize awards aren’t without their fair share of controversy. Writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre refused
to take his prize, but his family tried to claim the money after his death. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wanted a Nobel Prize
so badly that he oftentimes entertained Swedish academics and other potential committee members
at his seaside villa, and he eventually got one in 1971. Other Nobel Prizes have gone to inventions
it turned out later didn’t work correctly. Not even Alfred Nobel himself escaped controversy
and criticism regarding these awards. During his life, Nobel was also involved in
the manufacturing and selling of weapons, and these prizes are said by some to be a
means for him to improve his reputation after his death. 9. The Bowler Hat There are several things that scream ‘English’
and the Bowler Hat is definitely one of them. Its history goes back to the mid-19th century,
in 1849, when the first one was designed by London hat makers Thomas and William Bowler
and created by Lock & Co. of St James’s. Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd
Earl of Leicester, wanted a hat that could be worn by game keepers when they were out
riding and could protect their heads from low-hanging branches. These keepers usually wore top hats which
were easily knocked off their heads and damaged. The Bowler Hat, or bob hat, as it is sometimes
known, is a hardened felt hat with a rounded crown, and it is said that before accepting
it, Edward Coke stomped on it several times to check its resilience. It is also reported that he paid 12 shillings
for it. The Bowler Hat was popular with the working
class in the British Isles and in the United States, where it was known as the Derby. With the start of the 20th century and afterwards,
its popularity caught on with the middle and upper classes as well; a popularity that ended
sometime during the 1980s. In the American West, it was the so-called
derby, and not the cowboy hat or the sombrero that was the preferred choice of headwear. American author and journalist Lucius Beebe
called it “the hat that won the West.” Cowboys, railroad workers, lawmen and outlaws
alike all preferred it for its sturdiness and because it wouldn’t blow off into the
wind so easily. Bat Masterson, Butch Cassidy, Black Bart,
and Billy the Kid all wore Bowler Hats. Marion Columbus Hedgepeth, another notorious
outlaw of the Wild West, was also known as the Handsome Bandit or the Derby Kid. In South America, the Bowler became part of
the traditional women’s wear among the Quechua and Aymara peoples. Lock & Co. is still selling around 4,000 to
5,000 Bowler Hats every year. 8. Tarmac Tarmac is a type of material used in building
roads, runways, and other similar surfaces. The material was discovered and then patented
by English inventor Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1902. But this man’s name doesn’t sound remotely
similar to tarmac, does it? Well, that’s because it isn’t named after
him. To understand what’s going on with the word
‘tarmac’ we must first break it down. Tarmac is the short form for tarmacadam. Tar, as we all know, is a viscous liquid that
can be obtained from a wide variety of organic materials such as coal, wood, peat, or petroleum,
among other things, and it’s what gives our roads its black color, or non-color, if
you really want to be technical about it. Tar is used to hold the rest of the materials
that make up a road together. Macadam, on the other hand, is made up of
same-sized crushed stone layers that usually make up our country roads today. Macadam roads came into being around 1820,
and were a far better alternative to the previous dirt roads, filled with potholes and prone
to mudding. The inventor of macadam roads was the Scottish
engineer John Loudon McAdam. Macadam, McAdam – you see the connection
here. But while macadam roads were good enough during
the days of the horse-drawn carts and carriages, by the time cars became common place, the
macadam road was inadequate. Not only were the jagged stones the main cause
for many flat tires, but the road also generated a lot of dust because of the increased speeds
cars were now traveling. And because the stones weren’t fixed into
place, the roads were still prone to forming ruts. By combining tar with macadam, these problems
would disappear, and our modern roads came into being. But surprisingly enough, this discovery came
about by accident. In 1901, Edgar Hooley was working as a surveyor
in Nottinghamshire County. Here he came across a smooth patch on the
road. He noticed that the patch had solidified,
keeping the entire surface into place. When he asked the locals what had happened,
they told him that a barrel of tar had fallen from a cart and busted open in the road. The locals then added some slag from a nearby
ironworks to cover up the mess, and the end result was that smooth patch. One year later, Hooley patented the discovery
and the nearby Radcliffe Road in Nottingham became the first tarmac road in the world. 7. The Saxophone Nothing is more representative of jazz music
than the saxophone. The instrument is among the newest in the
musical spectrum, being invented in the 1840s by the Belgian musician and inventor Antoine-Joseph
“Adolphe” Sax. He was the son of Belgium’s own appointed
chief instrument maker, and from a very young age, Sax learned his father’s craft, quickly
surpassing him in both reputation and skill. When he was just 15 years old, Adolphe created
two flutes out of ivory and a clarinet, something that was believed to be impossible at his
age. In his twenties, he reinvented the original
clarinet, making it into the instrument we know today. He is also credited for transforming the trumpet
by successfully incorporating piston valves into it. And besides his engineering skills, he was
also a masterful instrumentalist, trained at the most prestigious and finest conservatories
in Europe. Sax was, nevertheless, keen on coming up with
a musical instrument that would combine the power of a brass instrument, the subtleness
and elegance of a woodwind one, as well the versatility of a stringed instrument. By 1841, and after a long period of experimentation,
he came up with the bass horn. After several more improvements and the instrument’s
review in a debate journal in France, the instrument was renamed the ‘saxophone’
after its inventor. Sax also designed several variations, ranging
in size from the small sopranino saxophone to the huge subcontrabass version. Now, even though the instrument was designed
to work as part of an orchestra, and some composers did write some works to include
it, the saxophone never really became a mainstream instrument here. Some say that it was because of Sax’s own
proud nature and his desire to constantly improve on instruments that made a lot of
his fellow musicians angry with him, which led to the saxophone never being successfully
included. Nevertheless, instead of fading into obscurity,
this new instrument was picked up and even became a staple instrument in another unexpected
field – the military. French Army bands began using the saxophone
and it was such a tremendous success that other military bands began adopting it as
well. This way, the sax started being heard all
around the world, and this is also how it eventually made its way to New Orleans. 6. Braille Even though today war is no longer the main
driving force behind innovation, in the 19th century it still was. Back in the early 1800s, a man by the name
of Charles Barbier, who served in Napoleon’s army, realized that many of his fellow soldiers
were being killed during the night while trying to read combat messages. Having to use lamps, these men oftentimes
gave away their positions, leaving themselves exposed to enemy attacks. Seeing this, Barbier came up with a unique
system known as ‘night writing’. The system was based on raised 12-dot cells
arranged in two columns of six dots each, which formed a letter of the alphabet or a
phonetic sound. Soldiers would run their fingers along the
lines and read a text in complete darkness. Though a literal life-saver, night writing’s
biggest problem was the fact that the cells were bigger than the average fingertip and
soldiers could not effectively read the letter with just one touch. Then came Louis Braille, born on January 4,
1809 in a small French village. At the age of three, he accidentally blinded
himself while playing in his father’s leather workshop. He began attending school by listening to
the lectures and later he was enrolled in Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. Here, he was introduced to several books that
had raised letters. Not only were these books incredibly large
and bulky, letters as we know them are suited for sight, not touch. After a while Braille heard about Barbier’s
night writing and began studying and improving it. Braille adapted the system and shortened the
cells from 12 to just 6 dots. This way, the reader could read each letter
or phonetic sound with just one touch. In 1829, he published his first book in this
new style of writing and by 1837 he had also created symbols for math and music. Braille passed away in 1853, at the age of
43, and one year prior to his system becoming the official French writing form for the blind. Only a few revisions have been brought to
braille since then, mainly in developing some symbols for some contractions and the most
common words. This way, books written in braille can be
less cumbersome. 5. The Zamboni For those who don’t know, a Zamboni is an
ice resurfacer machine that we usually see on the ice rink in between periods of play
during hockey games. The Zamboni came into being in 1949 with the
Model A. Over the following years, several other improvements have been brought to it. By 2010 we had the Model 560AC, and the 552AC
came along in 2017. Both have several improvements over the previous
models, among which is that they are completely emissions-free, running entirely on electricity. With most ice rinks being indoors these days,
there was an increased threat of carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide poisoning, so these ice
resurfacers have been made to stop posing health-risks for the spectators and players. Now, as its name suggests, the inventor of
the ice resurfacer is engineer Frank J. Zamboni. Back in 1927, he and his younger brother began
producing and selling blocks of ice in the LA suburb of Hynes, now part of Paramount. These blocks of ice were used by dairy businesses
in the transportation of their products. But by 1939, with the advent of electrically
operated refrigeration technology, their business was no longer financially viable and the Zamboni
brothers decided to use their own refrigeration equipment to build an ice rink. The Iceland Skating Rink, as it was called,
had an area of 20,000 square feet, could accommodate over 800 skaters at once, and was the largest
ice skating rink in the world at the time. Business was going well, but when it came
to smoothing the ice, it took 4 or 5 workers and a tractor over an hour to scrape the ice,
remove the shavings and then spray another coat of water – which took another hour
to freeze. This is when Frank Zamboni decided to come
up with a machine that would do all of that, but in a fraction of the time. He modified a tractor by adding a blade in
front that would scrape the ice, a device that collected the shavings in a tank, and
another mechanism that would spray a thin layer of water that would freeze in less than
a minute. When practicing for an upcoming event at the
Iceland Skating Rink, former Olympic ice-skating champion Sonja Henie saw the first-ever Zamboni
in action and decided to take one wherever she went on tour in both the US and abroad. From that moment on, the ice resurfacer’s
popularity began to soar, with more and more NHL teams buying one for themselves as well. 4. Boycott According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary,
the definition for the word boycott is “to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings
with (a person, a store, an organization, etc.) usually to express disapproval or to
force acceptance of certain conditions.” The origin of the word goes back to 1880 during
the Irish Land War, to a man by the name of Charles Cunningham Boycott, a retired British
army captain who was now an estate manager in northwestern Ireland. Though not technically a war, this was a period
of civil unrest where the Irish tenant farmers wanted a redistribution of land from the British
landlords, especially those who were always absent… which were most of them, actually. During that time, only 0.2 percent of the
population, mostly British, held the nation’s land and were renting it out to the Irish. Those who wouldn’t pay their rents were
evicted immediately. The Irish National Land League was formed
in order to combat this poor state of affairs. One way to fight this situation was for the
Irish to stop bidding on an evicted neighbor’s land. But instead of killing the farmer who would
do that (as was suggested), Charles Stewart Parnell, the League’s leader, suggested
that they should shun him in every way possible – basically to boycott him – even though
they didn’t have the word at the time. But only two weeks later, after it was evident
that the crops that year weren’t good enough, the Irish tenants demanded that Charles Boycott
lower their rents. After he refused their demands and began evicting
some tenants who didn’t pay, the Irish decided against any violence towards Boycott. Instead they… well, boycotted him. In other words, nobody was willing to work
with Boycott whatsoever. By the end of 1880 many newspapers in both
England and the United States began using the term in reference to this form of protest. Eight years later, boycott even made it to
the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles – which later became known as the Oxford
English Dictionary. 3. The Jacuzzi In the early 1900s, seven Italian brothers
immigrated to the United States and ended up in southern California, picking fruit at
an orchard. Later, these brothers moved north to the Bay
Area, in Berkeley, to be more exact. Here, they established a machine shop and
began manufacturing various things including airplane propellers. Among several other inventions, including
the design for the first enclosed cabin plane, these seven brothers also created a pump that
was able to lift large amounts of water. They then decided to open a business to mass
manufacture the pump and sell it. This company became known as Jacuzzi and Brothers
– Jacuzzi being their surname. One of the brothers then had a son who developed
rheumatoid arthritis when he was only two years old. The only way he could get any pain relief
was to go to the hospital and use a large hydrotherapy tank. One day, the dad had an idea of creating a
hydrotherapy pump, small enough to be used by people in their own bathtubs. This portable pump, though it only had a niche
clientele, was sold in hospitals and schools as well. Roy Jacuzzi, a third generation family member
who began working for the family business in his teens, sensed the American growing
interest in health, fitness, and all sorts of leisure activities. In 1968, he had created the first fully integrated
and self-contained whirlpool bath. By incorporating the pumps in the sides of
the tub, Roy Jacuzzi made sure that his family’s name would live on. 2. Pilates “I invented all these machines… it resists
your movements in just the right way so those inner muscles really have to work against
it. That way you can concentrate on movement. You must always do it slowly and smoothly. Then your whole body is in it.” – Joseph Pilates Born near Düsseldorf, Germany in 1883, Joseph
Pilates was a sickly infant, suffering from asthma, rheumatic fever, and rickets. But through his sheer force of will, he overcame
these ailments and went on to become a competent diver, skier, and gymnast. In his late 20s, he lived in England where
he worked as a circus performer, boxer, and self-defense instructor. During WWI, he was detained alongside other
German nationals in Britain, where he began developing his physical fitness techniques. During the second part of the war, he worked
as an orderly in a hospital, helping those who were no longer able to walk. Here he developed a device that consisted
of springs attached to the beds in order to support the patients’ limbs. This device, with some further modifications,
later became known as the ‘Cadillac’ – which is still in use today. Two years after the war ended, he and his
wife Clara immigrated to the United States where they further developed the technique
and then opened a ‘body-conditioning gym’ in New York in 1926. Many of the devices in his gym were enhanced
versions of his rehabilitation apparatus used before. His studio became increasingly popular – especially
with the dancing community, since his technique improved their own technique and helped recover
from injury. Word quickly got around and many celebrities
of the time were frequent visitors. Before his death in 1967 at the age of 83,
his exercise method was known as Contrology, but after ’67 it became known as the Pilates
method. Now, even though he was the creator of the
many devices and techniques, his wife Clara became the real teacher at the gym, ensuring
that Pilates got a lot of apprentices and followers. She was the one who established the tradition
of evolving and adapting the Pilates method to work with each individual’s needs. Mary Bowen, a trainee directly under Clara
and Joseph, talks about how there wasn’t a lot of talking going on during their sessions. Since English wasn’t their first language,
the two masters would mostly rely on hands-on corrections to teach their method. “They wouldn’t talk, they would sculpt
you,” recalls Bowen. Today, the Pilates method has seen some improvements,
but the core is still based on the techniques created by Joseph Pilates himself nearly a
century ago. Due to its effectiveness, Pilates today has
more than 12 million practitioners worldwide. 1. The AK-47 As arguably the most iconic rifle in the world,
it’s an almost impossibility for someone not to have seen an AK either in real life,
in a movie, or at least in a photo somewhere on the internet (look, there’s one above
this sentence!). The AK-47 is the shortened form of Avtomat
Kalashnikova, or ‘Kalashnikov’s Automatic Rifle’, or simply ‘Automatic Kalashnikov’. The number stands for the year manufacturing
began in 1947. Now, even though we will never know the exact
number of AKs manufactured over the seven-plus decades it and its other variants have been
in production, estimates point to somewhere over 100 million. That’s out of a total of roughly 500 million
rifles worldwide, making it the most produced and widespread such weapon in the world. The designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov, was a man
born to a peasant family in a small village in the Altai region of Russia, somewhat close
to the border with present-day Kazakhstan. Born in 1919, Kalashnikov wanted to become
a poet, but fate made him famous for something else entirely. He and his family were uprooted from their
home under Joseph Stalin and in 1938 he joined the military, serving in a tank division during
WWII. In 1941, he was wounded during a battle, and
while in recovery, he began working on the creation of the AK. But do not let yourself be fooled into thinking
that he designed it out of thin air, sitting in his hospital bed and imagining the whole
weapon before his eyes. No, he had the full backing of the Soviet
Union, giving him access to previous arms designs from all over the world, as well as
all the resources he would need. The end result was a brilliant weapon of,
dare we say, mass destruction. Though not perfect, it was never intended
to be. In customary Soviet style, the AK, like the
T-34 tank of WWII, was designed to be, first and foremost, cheap to fabricate and easy
to use. It was a ‘commodity’ meant to spread communism
during the Cold War. The AK is a revolutionary’s weapon, requiring
little maintenance and very little training. It can be assembled from parts, even by a
child in an alleyway somewhere in a warzone. It works equally well in jungles as it does
in deserts, and it fires even if it’s bent, full of sand, or submerged underwater. And because of these factors it spread like
wildfire all across the globe. In a later interview, Kalashnikov expressed
his regret when he saw the success his weapon had on the world stage, saying, “It is painful
for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon.”
