Ingenious Designs Hidden in Everyday Objects

we often take the shape and look of everyday products for granted in reality decades or even centuries of refinement have gone into making household items practical and efficient in this video I'll show you 10 everyday products with incredibly well thought-out and sophisticated designs number 10 lock and key there was once great prestige and power associated with keys as in ancient Rome the wealthy wore keys as rings on their fingers but the modern key was pioneered by an engineer named Linus Yale jr. in the 1860s the edges on modern keys are serrated to correspond to positions of pins placed inside the lock each individual key structure causes all of the pins to line up perfectly with a fault line inside the mechanism when they're all lined up and only when they're all lined up the lock opens digital lock and keys may soon replace most physical keys but pitfalls and flaws in locks opened by cellular devices ensure that the old-fashioned key will stick around at least for a while number 9 the spray bottle a bottle of insect poison or furniture polish may seem like the simplest contraption ever but the spray bottle is actually quite an amazing piece of one-way valve engineering the bottle draws its power not from the squeeze of your finger but from the release of the trigger which moves air into the bottle and pulls liquid from a straw that extends into the bottom of the bottle to a base referred to as the chamber when the trigger is pulled liquid is forced out of the chamber and propelled to the nozzle but routed through a different valve finally the nozzle will disperse the water in a mist urn a strong stream depending on whether you are shooting for a fast-moving fly or stationary target number eight oscillating fan due to their design and method of operation oscillating fans provide cooler air by distributing a breeze throughout the room but have you ever wondered why oscillating fans have a peg instead of an on and off switch the reason for this is quite simple really when the homeowner presses down on the peg it moves a gear into position to connect to a rod which is you to spin the fan blade and in the process turns the entire fan when you pull it up it simply disconnects also one must assume that there are quite a few fan fans out there as this 60-minute video of an oscillating fan has recently trended in the top 5 on Netflix number 7 t-bag you may not be aware that in 2014 a major debate involving millions of consumers was settled once and for all but you needn't be subject to a political briefing to pinpoint the matter at hand instead just look down at your cup of tea almost two years ago the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that pyramid-shaped teabags invented in 1997 by Brooke Bond the then parent company of PG tipps brews a quicker and more efficient cup of tea test results have shown that due to a greater surface area the infusion of tea at 40 seconds and again at two minutes into brewing is greater when using a pyramidal tea bag than when using a round teabag Tetley the makers of a world famous round tea bag demanded the study when a PG tipps advert ran demonstrating the virtues of the more dynamic and dispersal efficient pyramid bags versus the old-fashioned tea bag the tea bag itself is a wonderful miracle of home making design the mesh bag allows the consumer to brew tea without the messy chores involved with loose tea leaves and performs the same function as an infuser some tea bags even have a paper label attached by string and a small seemingly metal staple but what is interesting is that the staples are designed to reflect microwaves rather than absorb them allowing homemakers to Nuuk a stapled and labeled bag of tea number six the pencil despite the proliferation of laptops ink ends in mechanical writing utensils never fear riding with a good old number-two pencil is still cool but have you thought about why pencils are always shaped in a hexagon it's actually an ingenious design feature that protects the user in several different ways first carving a hexagon shape out of wood is the cheapest and most efficient way to craft the instrument keeping the price of your pencil ridiculously low second the ribbed outer surface of the pencil is useful for keeping a firm grip as you write also if you drop a pencil it will likely stop rolling quick thanks to the hexagonal rather than cylindrical design the design also allows more pencils to be packed closely together for shipping number five an automotive thermostat this video shows off an automotive thermostat which is used in an engine cooling system incredibly the thermostat responsible for keeping a car from dangerously overheating works by melting wax the thermostat includes a small chamber of wax which expands the chamber whenever it heats up and melts the chamber is connected to a rod which extends into the cooling system when the thermostat expands the rod opens a valve which then allows coolant into the system then as the system cools and the thermostat draws tight the rod pulls back in the valve closes so simple and effective number four the paper clip the modern paper clips design was an inspiration out of necessity economic necessity though we have always known that holding two or more pieces of paper work together can be a handy idea as late in the 19th century there were as many as a dozen differently shaped wire contraptions competing on the market all claiming to bind bills beautifully but the simple pliable paper clip unveiled by the gem manufacturing company of Britain in the 1870s blew its rivals away and became the Handy household item that we know and love today the gem consists of a single wire of Steel moulded around itself with four 180 degree turns each shaped with a curve its superiority to competing paperclip designs lay in its simple cheap construction and it's paper protecting qualities other early model paperclips such as the owl clip involved more complex knots of wire that could damage held together files over time or the Eureka cliff design which consisted of rounded heavier chunks of metal and left papers poked and documents dented the modern paper clip is also insanely easy to make just watch this slow down footage of its manufacturing process and you can see that a single revolving wheel with precisely position blocks can bend a clip in second number three mechanical keyboard key mechanical keyboard keys may seem simple enough pressed down in the computer senses the pressure on the knotch or something right it's actually a little more complicated and ingenious than that for instance check out these illustrations and videos of a type of mechanical key well-loved by gamers the Cherry MX the key cap that you strike is attached to a big red structure which moves when to press so that the metal can complete a circuit the computer is then told so to speak that a key is being held down via its sensitivity to the circuit though there are many varieties of keyboard keys Cherry MX red keys are popular among video gamers due to its reliability in sensing a keystroke only when genuinely pushed number 2 aluminum cans first appearing in Richmond Virginia in the United States in 1935 the aluminum beverage can has dominated the soft drink and beer market due to its almost surreal efficiency it keeps our drinks cold and helps to prevent spoilage but that is only the start firstly the cylindrical shape of a can is superbly engineered the tall design maximizes shipping space and consumer comfort while a handy base prevents the can from rolling off of tables when set upright in contrast a square or cube can would be harder to drink from and a spherical can would roll around like a bowling ball a cube can would also require heavy reinforcement on its edges or stress points whereas a sphere would prove extremely ineffective for packaging and shipping due to the gaps created when round shapes are placed together wasting precious space and manufacturer's expense but another clever often overlooked design virtue of the aluminum can is the double seam the tops and bottoms of early metal beverage cans were often welded or soldered onto the ends of the cylinder which sometimes caused its contents to become contaminated today's aluminum can manufacturers use a cleaner and more consumer-friendly process of machine seaming which forms an airtight seal which is then filled with a safety compound so that no gas molecules or carbonation can escape while completely protecting the liquid inside from contamination the seam is also essential for giving the can more durability the modern beverage can doesn't stop there and maximizing its efficiency and durability though an aluminum cans walls are very thin a sealed can is protected from being broken or damaged easily by utilizing internal pressure which extends equally in all directions to the surface of the aluminum after all the phrase throw me another one is not often used for glass models furthermore the dome shaped curvature at the bottom of a ready for sale aluminum can is perfect for stacking and shipping able to withstand 90 psi or about the weight of a normal-sized man or woman stepping down on to it finally the flip top lid is yet another inventive miracle very early steel cans were called flat tops as they had no convenient way to open customers had to puncture their own small hole to drink from plus an even smaller hole to allow venting in the 60s the first pull top levers were pioneered but their pull and tear out design caused consumers to be saddled with handling loose pool-table which often littered streets without a convenient transfer septic Oh nearby the modern flip tab to which we are accustomed today is designed to open a neat section of the top to drink from while staying attached to the empty can which can be disposed of in one piece today's soft drink tabs are also based on a wheelbarrow lever concept that allows the consumer to exert great force with little effort that's satisfying and fizzy crack you hear is the sound of pressure inside and outside the can quickly equalizing number one a jet airplane window while you may not realize it gazing sleepily outside at 15,000 feet there are many fascinating reasons why airplane windows are designed as you see them firstly you may notice that airplane windows are always rounded never cornered the reason jet airplane windows are round is because an oval is the most efficient window shape for protecting the structure against wear and tear due to the effects of stress on cornered window structures could build up over time has just expand and contrast as they fly from areas of low to high altitude a normal rectangular window could sustain long-term damage that would put travelers at risk but curved window panes have no focal point at which stress can accumulate so the round structures distributes stress evenly and greatly reduce the likelihood of cracking or breaking the high-tech plexiglass surface is another super stress resistant and low-maintenance component of an airplane window and allows engineers to create new improvements to your visual experience while flying for instance the new Boeing Dreamliner's windows come with adjustable brightness settings so that travelers can personalize their panoramic views finally if you're interested in hearing why there's that little hole near the bottom of airplane windows then click on this video and find out for yourself if you've enjoyed this video make sure to leave a like and subscribe to be notified of more in the future thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: BE AMAZED

Views: 1,104,259

Rating: 4.7105007 out of 5

Keywords: ingenious design, everyday, items, objects, Lock and Key, Spray Bottle, Fan, Tea Bag, Pencil, Paper Clip, Thermostat, Airplane Window, facts, amazing, hidden, everyday objects, things you didn't know, design, top 10, everyday things, things you won't believe, everyday items, be amazed, beamazed, products, things you didn't know about, more everyday things, purpose of things, design feature, aluminium, engineering (industry), beverage can (product category), manufacturing (industry)

Id: SqHL1puhq64

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2017