A city of broad shoulders and big ideas: Five creations that call Chicago their birthplace

With a history as sprawling and diverse as Chicago’s, it comes as no surprise that it has been the birthplace of many significant inventions and advancements over the years. While many are familiar with famous legacies like the Skyscraper and the Ferris Wheel, here are five things you may not have known were originally created in the Windy City.

The zipper

Versatile and timeless, the world has Chicago to thank for the invention of the zipper. The unsung hero of the clothing industry and so much more, the zipper was created by mechanical engineer and inventor Whitcomb L. Judson, who resided in Chicago, according to the Smithsonian. Initially viewed as an alternative to traditional men's boot laces, the zipper was debuted to the public at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and originally advertised under the name “Clasp Locker.” Judson patented the idea and started a business to market the product but ultimately failed to achieve commercial success at the time. It would take until the early 1900s for the invention to catch on and become a mainstream addition within the garment industry.

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The soap opera

The first program generally considered to be a "soap opera" or daytime episodic in nature was Painted Dreams, a radio show which premiered on WGN Chicago on October 20, 1930, per Encyclopedia Britannica. Written and starring famed producer Irna Phillips, it was regularly broadcast in a daytime slot, where most listeners would be housewives; thus, the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience. The name soap opera comes from the fact that the show was sponsored almost exclusively by soap companies, while the melodramatic elements of the narrative brought to mind those of a standard opera. Phillips would go on to pioneer a number of television soaps, including famed programs “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light,” two of the longest-running TV shows in history.

The vacuum cleaner

In 1868, Chicago inventor Ives W. McGaffey was approved a patent for an “improved sweeping machine” named “The Whirlwind.” Initially used in hotels and other communal spaces with lots of rugs, the product was seen as a significant upgrade from tedious broom-sweeping. However, the machine was bulky, expensive, and operators had to manually turn a crank while pushing the machine across the floor, ultimately leading the invention to have mixed success commercially. Despite these struggles, McGaffey and the Whirlwind are noted as the forebear of the modern vacuum cleaner, with a number of its engineering solutions still leveraged in contemporary models today. 

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Softball

A vivacious sports town, Chicago can even claim to be the inventor of one of the country's most beloved games, softball. According to the Academy of Sports Science, the first known softball game took place spontaneously on Thanksgiving Day 1887 when a fight broke out between alumni of Harvard and Yale at Chicago’s Fargout Boat Club. To settle the score, the two sides played an “indoor” game of baseball using a rolled-up glove for a ball and a broken broomstick as a bat. The participants enjoyed the game so much they established official rules around the sport and spread it to other social clubs in the area. Softball was initially exclusively played indoors and seen as a way for baseball players to keep their skills sharp during the wintertime.   

The cell phone

That's right, one of the most significant inventions of the modern era was created right here in Chicago. Though early prototypes and predecessors were developed throughout the early 20th century, the first true handheld cellular phone was created in 1973 by engineers Martin Cooper and John Mitchell at Chicago-based Motorola, Inc. The story goes that after completion, Cooper made the first cellular call ever to his rival and counterparts at AT&T, who were competing to create a similar product, to tell them that they had lost the race. The original phone weighed nearly two and a half pounds.