When did the first whiteboard get made?
Whiteboard
Albert Stallion invented whiteboards while working at Alliance in the 1960s. Alliance (now known as PolyVision) produced enameled steel for architectural cladding, but Stallion noted it could also potentially be used as a writing surface. Stallion later left Alliance to form his own whiteboard production company, MagiBoards.
Plugboard
The earliest machines were hard wired for specific applications.
Control panels were introduced in 1906 for the Hollerith Type 1 Tabulator (photo of Type 3 with built-in control panel here). Removable control panels were introduced with the Hollerith (IBM) type 3-S tabulator in the 1920s. Applications then could be wired on separate control panels, and inserted into tabulators as needed. Removable control panels came to be used in all unit record machines where the machines use for different applications required rewiring.
Blackboard
The first classroom uses of large blackboards are difficult to date, but they were used for music education and composition in Europe as far back as the sixteenth century.
The term ‘blackboard’ is attested in English from the mid-eighteenth century; the "Oxford English Dictionary" provides a citation from 1739, to write “with Chalk on a black-Board”.
The first attested use of chalk on blackboard in the United States dates to September 21, 1801, in a lecture course in mathematics given by George Baron. James Pillans has been credited with the invention of coloured chalk (1814): he had a recipe with ground chalk, dyes and porridge.
WorldWideWhiteboard
The WorldWideWhiteboard is the first software product developed by Link-Systems International (LSI). LSI was launched in 1995 primarily as a company that converted text-based content like scholarly journals into an SGML format. Incorporated in the State of Florida on February 27, 1996, LSI expanded its mission to the Web-based implementation of a variety of traditionally face-to-face academic activities. The company developed what it called the "Net Tutor" product that included a whiteboard-like interface and, later, a tutoring service that used the whiteboard to conduct online tutoring. For about five years, the software side of this product leased as NetTutor to schools, individual educators, and programs, for example to conduct online tutoring using tutors provided by the institution, as well as for online instruction and office hours. Eventually, LSI re-christened the interface the WorldWideWhiteboard. The company still owns the NetTutor trademark, which refers to the online tutoring it supplies via the WorldWideWhiteboard and using professional tutors it employs.
Dashboard
Padded dashboards were advocated in the 1930s by car safety pioneer Claire L. Straith. In 1948, the Tucker became the first car with a padded dashboard.
Particle board
Although the use of two or three layers of wood veneer is ancient, modern 4' x 8' sheets of plywood with 5-11 core layers of veneer were invented in the early 20th century, and began to become common by the Second World War. During the war, phenolic resin was more readily accessible than top grade wood veneer in Germany, and Luftwaffe pilot and inventor Max Himmelheber played a role in making the first sheets of particleboard, which were little more than pourings of floor sweepings, wood chips, and ground up off-cuts and glue. The first commercial piece was produced during World War II at a factory in Bremen, Germany. For its production, waste material was used - such as planer shavings, offcuts or sawdust - hammer-milled into chips and bound together with a phenolic resin. Hammer-milling involves smashing material into smaller and smaller pieces until they can pass through a screen. Most other early particleboard manufacturers used similar processes, though often with slightly different resins.
Blackboard
Manufacturing of slate blackboards began by the 1840s. Green chalkboards, generally made of porcelain enamel on a steel base, first appeared in the 1960s.
WorldWideWhiteboard
The WorldWideWhiteboard product was apparently the first successful web collaboration tool in wide use in education. Online whiteboards generally can accommodate a theoretically unlimited number of participants and an instructor in a synchronous, i.e., live interactive session. The WorldWideWhiteboard allows for both audio and up to four video streams, as well as numerous asynchronous modes of interaction.Certain of these studies have been cited widely, mainly because of the seminal role of the WorldWideWhiteboard as an educational Web-conferencing tool. (See, for instance, Reushle and Loch in "Conducting a Trial Web Conferencing Software." and the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Quality Enhancement Plan for 2007)
Banjo
Although Robert McAlpin Williamson is the first documented white banjoist, in the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth string. This new banjo was at first tuned d'Gdf♯a, though by the 1890s, this had been transposed up to g'cgbd'. Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeney's group, the American Virginia Minstrels, in the 1840s, and became very popular in music halls.
Whiteboard animation
Whiteboard animation is the process of which an author physically draws and records an illustrated story using a whiteboard, or whiteboard-like surface, and marker pens. The animations frequently are aided with narration by script. The authors commonly use stop motion animation to liven hand drawn illustrations, with YouTube used as a common platform. It is also used in television and internet advertisements to communicate to consumer's in a personal way. The earliest videos made using Whiteboard Animation were published in 2009 on YouTube, used mostly for experimental purposes until developing into a story telling device, focusing majority on narratives, though it has many other uses in modern day.
Coin board
The coin collecting board was invented in 1934 by Joseph Kent Post, an engineer with Kimberly-Clark in Neenah, Wisconsin. His knowledge of paper products and their manufacture, combined with his interest in coin collecting, prompted him to devise this inexpensive means to collect coins. Debuting early in 1935, his first coin boards (one each for Indian Head and Lincoln Cents) were priced at 25 cents retail, and these quickly proved successful. Sold at newsstands, stationery stores, 5-and-10-cent stores and similar retail outlets, coin boards were the point of entry for thousands of new coin collectors between 1935 and 1942, when most publishers discontinued them in favor of the more convenient coin folders still used today. Post marketed his coin boards under the brand name Kent Co. Coin Card, but later in 1935 he sold his invention to Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, which was already a leading producer of puzzles, games and other paper novelties. Whitman became the most prolific of coin board producers and had the most extensive list of coin series titles.
Steve Ritchie
Ritchie moved to Chicago, Illinois, the home of Williams' headquarters. His first game for the company, "Flash" (released in 1979), was noted for its revolutionary figure-8 design and the first pinball game to feature bright Flash Lamps. It would go on to be his best-selling pinball game, having sold 19,505 units. 1980 would be the year for Ritchie, when he designed "Firepower" (the first electronic pinball to feature multi-ball, as well as Lane Change), and eight months later, he designed "Black Knight", which was noted for having the first two-level playfield and the patented "Magna-Save" feature (in which magnets help prevent outlane drains).
Pequonnock River
Reuben Fairchild and his brothers, Daniel and Eben built the Fairchild Paper Mill in 1826 at a place commonly called since 1674 as the "Falls" of the Pequonnock River. They were guided in their endeavors by Andrew Tait, who had learned the art of paper making in Scotland. Fairchild Paper Mill was the first mill to make white note paper. The company also ran a boarding house for its female employees. The mill stood to the west of White Plains Road near what is today the entrance to Fairchild Memorial Park.
Fingerboard (skateboard)
Fingerboards were first created as homemade toys in the late 1960s and later became a novelty attached to keychains in skate shops (but were also mentioned as a model for a skateboard). In the 1985 Powell-Peralta skateboarding video "Future Primitive," Lance Mountain rode a homemade fingerboard in a double-bin sink. It is widely accepted that this is where the idea for the Animal Chin ramp came from. Some consider this the earliest fingerboard footage available for public viewing. That homemade fingerboard was built from wood, tubes, and toy train axles.
Wobble board
Official Rolf Harris wobble boards were sold commercially for a time in the 1970s but most are made by the player. Almost any large, springy and flexible sheet of material can be used as an impromptu wobble board, although some materials are markedly better than others. Harris's instrument was originally made from a type of wood composite known as hardboard (Masonite in the United States and Australia). According to an interview he gave to Tony Barrell for "The Sunday Times Magazine" in 2001, Harris discovered the musical properties of hardboard by chance in 1959, when he was about to paint a portrait of the conjurer Robert Harbin. Before his subject arrived, Harris prepared the background, covering a large piece of hardboard with Prussian blue oil paint mixed with turpentine. But the surface refused to dry. "It was all sticky and nasty. He was due to arrive in about half an hour." In desperation, Harris propped the board over a paraffin heater. When he touched it later, it was so hot it burned his finger. "So I propped it between the palms of my hands and shook it to cool it down. And ... I thought, 'What a marvellous sound.'"
Surfboard shaper
The largest technological change to date came in 1926 when Tom Blake, one of the pioneers of surfboard innovation decided to drill hundreds of small holes in the board and sandwich it in between two very thin pieces of wood in the pursuit of weight savings. The first hollow board was 15 feet long, 19” wide, and 4” thick and weighed roughly 100 pounds. This was a huge step for surfboard innovation as it decreased the weight of most surfboards by 50 to 100 pounds. The boards design was originally ridiculed by surfers, but when they saw how much faster the board traveled through the water. In 1930, the hollow board became the first mass-produced surfboard the world had ever seen and were hugely successful. In 1936 the board saw the addition of the fixed fin. This gave surfers increased stability, speed, and maneuverability in the water and opened the doors to coming innovation.
Flip chart
The earliest known patent of a flipchart is from May 8, 1913. Flip charts have being in use from the 1900s, the earliest recorded use of a flip chart is a photo from 1912 of John Henry Patterson (1844-1922), NCR’s CEO while addressing the 100 Point Club standing next to a pair of flip charts on casters. The flipchart we know (on a small whiteboard) was invented by Peter Kent in the 1970s. Peter Kent was the founder and CEO of the visual communications group Nobo plc, and it is believed that they were the first company to put the large pieces of paper over whiteboards, rather than over other materials.
Sideboard
The earliest versions of the sideboard familiar today made their appearance in the 18th century, but they gained most of their popularity during the 19th century as households became prosperous enough to dedicate a room solely to dining. Sideboards were made in a range of decorative styles and were frequently ornamented with costly veneers and inlays. In later years, sideboards have been placed in living rooms or other areas where household items might be displayed.
White boar
The White Boar was the personal device or badge of the English King Richard III of England (1452—1485, reigned from 1483), and is an early instance of the use of boars in heraldry.
Storyboard
A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
Black Jack (stamp)
After the War was over, poverty inspired people to wash off the cancellation from the stamps and attempt to use them again. The Government then decided to put an antitheft device onto the stamps known as a grill. This grill, which consisted of various rows of tiny indentations into the stamps, was supposed to make it impossible to wash off the cancellations without being detected; but people usually got around this by bisecting the stamp, and then reusing that portion that didn't have a cancellation on it. The first grill applied to a Black Jack stamp is known as the "Z" grill, introduced in January 1868. Over the next few months, the Post Office successively employed three smaller grill patterns (D, E and F) in the production of this stamp.
Desk
Refinements to the first desk forms were considerable through the 19th century, as steam-driven machinery made cheap wood-pulp paper possible towards the end of the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. This allowed an increase in the number of the white-collar workers. As these office workers grew in number, desks were mass-produced for them in large quantities, using newer, steam-driven woodworking machinery. This was the first sharp division in desk manufacturing. From then on, limited quantities of finely crafted desks have been continued to be constructed by master cabinetmakers for the homes and offices of the rich, while the vast majority of desks were assembled rapidly by unskilled labor from components turned out in batches by machine tools. Thus, age alone does not guarantee that an antique desk is a masterpiece, since this split in quality took place more than a hundred years ago.
RAND Tablet
Development of the RAND Tablet began with research on the Sketchpad, a system where the user could write commands for a computer directly on the tablet, conducted by Ivan Sutherland. A multitude of different experimental systems were developed to recognize handwritten letters and gestures like Tom Ellis' flowchart based Graphic Input Language (GRAIL) method. Tom Ellis, an author of many RAND corporation reports, stated that this GRAIL system was what allowed the natural and real-time recognition of text and symbols written on the flowchart. The RAND Tablet was one of the first devices to recognize freehand drawing, using programs like Ellis'. The RAND Tablet was also called the "Grafacon" and is considered one of the first produced graphics tablets. The original RAND Tablet cost $18,000 and was available to research facilities in 1964 after years of development. However, the RAND Tablet did not catch on commercially, likely due to an inertia in user habits which made consumers more familiar with a keyboard device, and the lack of practical applications for a tablet device during this time period.
Fingerboard (skateboard)
Fingerboards have been a peripheral part of the skateboarding industry since the late 1980s and were originally marketed as keychains. Although barely "rideable," they were improved upon by the Tech Deck brand which mass-produced a "rideable" miniature skateboard. The first entertainment licensed fingerboards were introduced by Bratz Toys, released through a Hong Kong-based toy company named Prime Time Toys, and designed by Pangea, the company that helped develop the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line for Playmates Toys. The designs were harnessed from entertainment properties such as "Speed Racer," "Woody Woodpecker," "NASCAR," "Heavy Metal," and "Crash Bandicoot." The licensed boards drove the Tech Deck brand into licensing strong urban brands, rather than simply creating their own designs. In the late 1990s, as fingerboards became more prominent outside the skateboarding community, X-Concepts' Tech Decks licensed "actual pro graphics from major skateboard brands" riding "the 1999 fingerboard wave right into Wal-Mart and other major outlets." In 1999 there was a Tech Deck fashion of collecting one of each design similar to the Beanie Baby fad months prior. Thus, Tech Deck, and its distributors at Spin Master Toys, suddenly found themselves a large market to milk. Entertainment-based fingerboard brands couldn't compete against the urban juggernaut, and eventually disappeared. Other "major players in the skateboard industry" soon followed in hopes of reaping profits as young toy-playing children would choose to take up fingerboarding. More modern fingerboards feature "interchangeable wheels and trucks, a fairly accurate scale size, and pad-printed graphics reproduced from the most popular skateboard companies in the business." They thus developed the fingerboard into a collectible toy and the practice into a "form of mental skating".
Single-board computer
The first true single-board computer (see the May 1976 issue of "Radio-Electronics") called the "dyna-micro" was based on the Intel C8080A, and also used Intel's first EPROM, the C1702A. The dyna-micro was re-branded by E&L Instruments of Derby, Connecticut, in 1976 as the "MMD-1" (Mini-Micro Designer 1) and was made famous as the example microcomputer in the very popular 8080 "BugBook" series of the time. SBCs also figured heavily in the early history of home computers, for example in the Acorn Electron and the BBC Micro. Other typical early single board computers like the KIM-1 were often shipped without enclosure, which had to be added by the owner. Other examples are the Ferguson Big Board and the Nascom.
Educational technology
There are three types of whiteboards. The initial whiteboards, analogous to blackboards, date from the late 1950s. The term whiteboard is also used metaphorically to refer to virtual whiteboards in which computer software applications simulate whiteboards by allowing writing or drawing. This is a common feature of groupware for virtual meeting, collaboration, and instant messaging. Interactive whiteboards allow learners and instructors to write on the touch screen. The screen markup can be on either a blank whiteboard or any computer screen content. Depending on permission settings, this visual learning can be interactive and participatory, including writing and manipulating images on the interactive whiteboard.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
In 1984, Monterey Bay Aquarium's first attempt to display a great white shark lasted 11 days, ending when the shark died because it did not eat. Through a later program named Project White Shark, six white sharks were exhibited between 2004 and 2011 in the Open Sea community exhibit, which was constructed in the 1990s. Researchers at universities in California attributed the aquarium's success at exhibiting white sharks to the use of a net pen, which gave the sharks time to recover from capture prior to transport. A portable tank used to transport the fish to the exhibit allowed the sharks to swim continuously, which they must do in order to respire. These endeavors led to the first instance of a white shark eating in an aquarium.
Interactive whiteboard
An interactive projector IWB involves a CMOS camera built into the projector, so that the projector produces the IWB image, but also detects the position of an active IR light pen when it contacts the surface where the projected image. This solution, developed in 2007 and patented in 2010 by U.S. manufacturer Boxlight, like the other IR whiteboard systems, can suffer from potential problems caused by 'line of sight' between the pen and the projector/receiver and, like them also, does not provide mouse-over capability found in other solutions.
Multi-scale fingerboard
Possibly the first modern multiscale fretboard was used on an instrument called a StarrBoard, invented by John D. Starrett in 1977. Starrett developed a tapping instrument that employs a matrix of halftones, fretted horizontally with strings spaced vertically, to allow one fingering to cover all scales. Because of the large range of notes from low B below E on a bass, to high B four octaves above, however, he needed a way to have a long scale for the low B, but a shorter scale for the high B. He simply laid out the two scales he thought would work and connected the dots.
List of Oval Office desks
President William Howard Taft constructed the first permanent West Wing to the White House, intending it to be the hub of his administration. Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth and completed in 1909, this wing included the first official Oval Office. On December 24, 1929, during President Herbert Hoover's administration, a fire severely damaged the West Wing. He reconstructed the part of the White House affected, including the Oval Office, reopening them later in his presidency.
Crokinole
The earliest known crokinole board was made by craftsman Eckhardt Wettlaufer in 1876 in Perth County, Ontario, Canada. It is said Wettlaufer crafted the board as a fifth birthday present for his son Adam, which is now part of the collection at the Joseph Schneider Haus, a national historic site in Kitchener, Ontario, with a focus on Germanic folk art. Several other home-made boards dating from southwestern Ontario in the 1870s have been discovered since the 1990s. A board game similar to crokinole was patented on 20 April 1880 by Joshua K. Ingalls (US Patent No. 226,615)
History of tablet computers
In 1996, The Webbook Company announced the first Internet-based tablet, then referred to as a Web Surfboard, that would run Java and utilize a RISC processor. However, it never went into production.
Roller Derby Skateboard
The first mass-produced skateboard was Roller Derby Skate Company’s “Skate Board” (without the “#10”). Roller Derby made this skateboard in their La Mirada, CA factory, and it was available nationwide at Roller Derby arenas in 1959, and then in Thrifty Drugstores and Sears, Roebuck and Co. as the "Roller Derby Skate Board" in 1960. It was very similar to the first commercially available skateboard; the red, flat, straight-sided, steel-wheeled "Bun Board" which had been made and sold in Hermosa Beach by Alf Jensen since 1957. In 1964 Roller Derby added 3 surfboard-shaped rubber-wheeled models similar to Makaha skateboards produced in 1963. These 3 skateboards were produced in their Litchfield, Illinois plant. Only after 1963, when they were making other models, was it necessary to assign the “#10” model number to the little red skateboard. So collectors be twice warned. The Roller Derby Skateboard company was owned and operated by Barry Jacobs.
Sandpaper
The first recorded instance of sandpaper was in 1st-century China when crushed shells, seeds, and sand were bonded to parchment using natural gum. Shark skin (placoid scales) has also been used as an abrasive and the rough scales of the living fossil, Coelacanth are used for the same purpose by the natives of Comoros. Boiled and dried, the rough horsetail plant is used in Japan as a traditional polishing material, finer than sandpaper. Glass paper was manufactured in London in 1833 by John Oakey, whose company had developed new adhesive techniques and processes, enabling mass production. Glass frit has sharp-edged particles and cuts well whereas sand grains are smoothed down and do not work well as an abrasive. Cheap sandpaper was often passed off as glass paper; Stalker and Parker cautioned against it in "A Treatise of Japaning and Varnishing" published in 1688. In 1921, 3M invented a sandpaper with silicon carbide grit and a waterproof adhesive and backing, known as "Wet and dry". This allowed use with water, which would serve as a lubricant to carry away particles that would otherwise clog the grit. Its first application was in automotive paint refinishing.
Ginny Lloyd
As a visiting artist in 1981, Lloyd worked at the Image Resource Center in Cleveland to create the first color Xerox billboard art assisted by the Cleveland Institute of Art printmaking faculty, Alexander Aitken. This was her third copy art billboard exploring the use of Xerox copiers in large formats. She continued to produce billboards nationally participating in The Art Billboard Project documented in her book "Billboard Art". She currently advises artists on the art of making billboards.
Red box (government)
Perhaps the best known red box is the Budget Box, which is held up for a photoshoot outside 11 Downing Street, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announces the Cabinet's annual budget plans. The first budget box was made for William Ewart Gladstone around 1860 and is lined in black satin and covered with scarlet leather. This box has been used by every Chancellor until 2011, with the exceptions of James Callaghan (1964–1967) and Gordon Brown (1997–2007), who had new ones commissioned in 1965 and 1997 respectively. Gladstone's budget box was used by Alistair Darling (2007–2010) and by George Osborne in June 2010. It was subsequently retired due to its fragility, and will be displayed in the Cabinet War Rooms. Since March 2011, a new budget box commissioned by The National Archives has been used.
Chalkboard eraser
Chalkboard erasers were first invented around 1863 by John L. Hammett, who owned some stores that sold and created school products in Rhode Island and then later in Boston. Mostly slates were sold there as well as chalk and so on. At the time, rags or old cloths were used to erase and get rid of the chalk markings on slates in schools, offices, and for the most part, everywhere. Hammett created the chalkboard before the invention of the chalkboard eraser by creating "slating paint". Hammett then, during a presentation on his chalkboard "discovered" that wool felt strips wiped off the chalk writing better than rags. Following this discovery he gathered a team to create the custom eraser for sale. The erasers proved to be a success for Hammett and, later in the 19th century, he created a company that also sold inexpensive supplies for teachers and schools, such as paper, ink, etc. Hammett ultimately sold the company.
Bathtub hoax
On December 28, 1917, an article titled "A Neglected Anniversary" by H. L. Mencken was published in the "New York Evening Mail". It claimed that the bathtub had been introduced into the United States as recently as 1842, the first ones having been made of mahogany lined with lead. The article went on to describe how the introduction of the bathtub was initially greatly discussed and opposed until President Millard Fillmore had a bathtub installed in the White House in 1850, making the invention more broadly acceptable.
Poker table
The card table arose around 1700 AD as card games became wildly popular in Europe. The manufacture of card tables as fine home furniture lasted to the middle of the 1800s. Card tables made in this era often had a folding top, which enabled them to serve as pier tables, console tables, or end tables when not in use. Styles ranged from simple to elaborate, with higher-end card tables featuring inlaid wood or stone, extensive delicate carvings, and expensive veneers. Some even had indentations carved into the playing surface to hold playing tokens, and slots around the rim which served as candle-holders. Semicircular (or "D" or "half-round") tables in diameter (when opened) were the most popular card table in both North America and Europe.
Microsoft
On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced the release of their first Interactive whiteboard, Microsoft Surface Hub. On July 29, 2015, Windows 10 was released, with its server sibling, Windows Server 2016, released in September 2016.
Wooton desk
The Wooton desk was introduced at the end of the 19th century, at a time when office work was changing in a drastic fashion with an increase in paperwork that led to the introduction of filing cabinets, among other things. The white-collar worker invaded the office in huge numbers. The new reservoir based fountain pen and the typewriter were used to produce greater quantities of office documents than ever before. In this context desks which required users to fold and title each letter or document and place it in a pigeon hole, or small nook, were simply not efficient. It was faster to place an unfolded piece of paper in a folder and place the folder in a file cabinet or file drawer.
Wooton desks in good condition are sometimes sold in auctions for the same price as a top of the line luxury automobile.
The Mansion of Happiness
The distinction of "the first published American board game" however is awarded today to "The Travellers' Tour Through the United States" published by New York book sellers F. & R. Lockwood in 1822. Because printing of game boards was more difficult in 1822 than 1843, the term mass market is a gray area. In 1822 reversed etched copper plates were used to print game boards. After the first 2,000 impressions, breaks quickly appeared in lines. Games were so expensive, the people who could afford them did not want game boards they could not read. By 1843, lithography with water color painting was popular. Lithography could easily produce 40,000 perfect impressions.
Bookplate
However, in their modern form, they evolved from simple inscriptions in books which were common in Europe in the Middle Ages, when various other forms of "librarianship" became widespread (such as the use of class-marks, call-numbers, or shelfmarks). The earliest known examples of printed bookplates are German, and date from the 15th century. One of the best known is a small hand-coloured woodcut representing a shield of arms supported by an angel, which was pasted into books presented to the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim by Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach, about the year 1480—the date being fixed by that of the recorded gift. The woodcut, in imitation of similar devices in old manuscripts, is hand-painted. An example of this bookplate can be found in the Farber Archives of Brandeis University. In France the most ancient ex-libris as yet discovered is that of one Jean Bertaud de la Tour-Blanche, the date of which is 1529. Holland comes next with the plate of Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to the year 1622. The earliest known American example is the plain printed label of Stephen Daye, the Massachusetts printer of the Bay Psalm Book, 1642.
Technological and industrial history of 20th-century Canada
The introduction of the flush toilet in the US and Canada in the 1880s created a market that inspired the invention of rolled toilet paper. The product was first produced in the US by the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company in 1877. The US Scott Paper Company began manufacturing toilette paper in 1902 and by 1925 Scott Paper was the largest manufacturer of toilette paper in the world. As early as 1926 the Purex brand had been established in Canada and with the arrival of Scott Paper Canada in 1927 the White Swan brand was introduced.
RoughRider wheelchair
The earliest recorded history of a wheelchair was inscribed in stone on a Chinese Sarcophagus in the 6th century A.D. There have been many variations on the basic design since then but standard features always included rear wheels, front caster wheels, footrests, side frames and seating features. Until recently wheelchairs were designed for relatively smooth surfaces and paved streets and were not designed for rugged environments. Thirty years ago, Ralf Hotchkiss, an engineer with paraplegia and a frequent traveler to developing countries, saw the need for a high quality and rugged chair that could withstand conditions in rough terrain. He began a thirty year process of collaborative design using locally available parts with a cost low enough to be affordable to disabled persons in developing regions. For many years, Ralf and a team would travel to small machine shops in developing countries to teach the technical skills necessary for local production of the RoughRider model. Several of these shops are developing to scale in parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union.
Interactive whiteboard
A few interactive whiteboards can automatically detect projected images during a different type of calibration. The technology was developed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories Inc and is disclosed in patent 7,001,023. The computer projects a Gray Code sequence of white and black bars on the touch surface and light sensitive sensors behind the touch surface detect the light passing through the touch surface. This sequence allows the computer to align the touch surface with the display; however, it has the disadvantage of having tiny fiber-sized "dead spots" in the resistive touch surface where the light sensors are present. The "dead spots" are so small that touches in that area are still presented to the computer properly.
Whiteboard
A whiteboard (also known by the terms marker board, dry-erase board, wipe board, dry-wipe board, pen-board, and grease board) is any glossy, usually white surface for nonpermanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to blackboards, but with a smoother surface allowing rapid marking and erasing of markings on their surface. The popularity of whiteboards increased rapidly in the mid-1990s and they have become a fixture in many offices, meeting rooms, school classrooms, and other work environments.
White House china
The Wilsons entered the White House in 1913, and at the time, the most recently ordered china was from the Theodore Roosevelt presidency, over ten years before. By 1918, new china was needed. First Lady Edith Wilson preferred ordering American-made china, and chose Lenox after viewing a sample in a Washington, D.C., store. The Wilson pattern was designed by Lenox's chief designer, Frank Holmes, who chose a restrained theme. The china featured a deep ivory border surrounding a brighter ivory body and two bands of matte gold encrusted with stars, stripes, and other motifs. The dinner plates have deep blue borders. Each of the 1,700 pieces has the presidential seal in raised gold. It was the first presidential china to feature the arms of the presidential seal rather than the arms of the Great Seal of the United States. The first shipment of the china was delivered to the White House between August and November 1918. A New York newspaper wrote, "The proud day has arrived when the White House dining service [was] designed by an American artist, made at an American pottery ... and decorated by American workmen." The china remained in use for the Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover administrations.
Electronic paper
Electronic paper was first developed in the 1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. The first electronic paper, called Gyricon, consisted of polyethylene spheres between 75 and 106 micrometers across. Each sphere is a janus particle composed of negatively charged black plastic on one side and positively charged white plastic on the other (each bead is thus a dipole). The spheres are embedded in a transparent silicone sheet, with each sphere suspended in a bubble of oil so that they can rotate freely. The polarity of the voltage applied to each pair of electrodes then determines whether the white or black side is face-up, thus giving the pixel a white or black appearance.
At the FPD 2008 exhibition, Japanese company Soken demonstrated a wall with electronic wall-paper using this technology. In 2007, the Estonian company Visitret Displays was developing this kind of display using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as the material for the spheres, dramatically improving the video speed and decreasing the control voltage.
Billboard
The first "scented billboard", an outdoor sign emitting the odors of black pepper and charcoal to suggest a grilled steak, was erected on NC 150 near Mooresville, North Carolina by the Bloom grocery chain. The sign depicted a giant cube of beef being pierced by a large fork that extended to the ground. The scents were emitted between 7–10 am and 4–7 pm from 28 May 2010 through 18 June 2010.
Aiken tube
The Aiken tube was the first successful flat panel black and white television. Originally designed in the early 1950s, a small number of tubes were built in 1958 for military use in a collaboration with Kaiser Industries. An extended patent battle followed with a similar technology developed in the United Kingdom and planned commercial production for the home market never started. Further development was carried out by a number of companies, including Sinclair Electronics and RCA after the patents had expired.
NOMA (company)
When the NOMA Electric Company was located in New York City, it may have produced the first commercial printed circuit board in 1946 with its Party Quiz Game. It was an electrical board game with replaceable question cards and two electrodes which, when placed in the proper positions to answer a question correctly, cause a bulb to light. Initially hard-wired, the game was made thinner by hot pressing aluminum foil onto cardboard, with the electrical contacts made into the board.
History of Michigan Wolverines football in the Kipke years
In October 1930, Michigan Stadium became the first to use electronic scoreboards. The electronic scoreboards, installed at both ends, were controlled from a switchboard in the press box and displayed the score, downs, yards to go, and other information on a current basis.
White cane
In the United States, the introduction of the white cane is attributed to George A. Bonham of the Lions Clubs International. In 1930, a Lions Club member watched as a man who was blind attempted to cross the street with a black cane that was barely visible to motorists against the dark pavement. The Lions decided to paint the cane white to make it more visible. In 1931, Lions Clubs International began a program promoting the use of white canes for people who are blind.
White Watson
Possibly inspired by geologist John Whitehurst's 1782 diagrams of stratigraphic sections in the Matlock area of Derbyshire, in 1785 Watson presented Whitehurst with a diagrammatic 'Tablet', 'A Section of a Mountain in Derbyshire', made from samples of the rocks themselves. This innovative method of display not only showed an early understanding of the new science of geological strata but also formed the first attempt at documenting the stratigraphical structure of Derbyshire as a whole as opposed to the structure of specific localities as Whitehurst had. Over the course of his life, Watson would produce about 100 such tablets, accompanied with explanatory leaflets, and his papers contain sketches for considerably more. Unfortunately most of these tablets are now untraceable, although around fifteen are known to still survive.
Interactive whiteboard
The first interactive whiteboards were designed and manufactured for use in the office. They were developed by PARC around 1990. This board was used in small group meetings and round-tables.
Apple Keyboard
The release of the first iMac in October 1998 introduced a matching compact, translucent-plastic keyboard based on laptop technology and marked the transition from ADB to USB. In July 2000, it was replaced with the full-sized Pro Keyboard, having slightly translucent black keys and a clear case. The PowerBook and iBook integrated keyboards followed suit with translucent keys first in bronze (PowerBook), then in black (PowerBook) and white (iBook). Coinciding with the introduction of the iMac G4 in 2002, Apple started making its keyboards white. On the Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard, Apple removed the adjustable feet from the back of the keyboard, giving it a solid base. This design was later quietly introduced on the wired version. The Aluminum PowerBooks added another color, opaque aluminum with sometimes-backlit translucent legends, to the array of keyboard styles in use.
Paperboard
In 1817, the first paperboard carton was produced in England. Folding cartons first emerged around the 1860s and were shipped flat to save space, ready to be set up by customers when they were required. 1879 saw the development of mechanical die cutting and creasing of blanks. In 1911 the first kraft sulphate mill was built in Florida. In 1915 the gable top milk carton was patented and in 1935 the first dairy plant was observed using them. Ovenable paperboard was introduced in 1974.
Chicago Stadium
That clock eventually was replaced by a four-sided scoreboard with a digital clock, first used on September 21, 1975 in Blackhawks preseason play, crafted by the Day Sign Company of Toronto, much like the one used at the end of the 1960s (and constructed by Day Sign Company) to replace the nearly identical Bulova Sports Timer game-timekeeping device in the Boston Garden, and then in 1985 by another, this one with a color electronic message board. That latter scoreboard was built by White Way Sign, which would build scoreboards for the United Center.
Chessboard
Board games have been known since ancient history, with the oldest records being paintings in mastabas of the First and Third Dynasties of Egypt (3100-2700 BC). The first known version of chess appeared around the 6th century in India and was called Chaturanga, played on a board of the game Ashtapada. This board was monochromatic and divided into eight columns by eight rows, with special marks called "castles" in the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth squares of the "a", "d", "e", and "h" columns, which served a function in Ashtapada, but not in Chaturanga.
BPB plc
The development of plasterboard (a sandwich of gypsum plaster between two sheets of paper) dates back to the late nineteenth century in the USA. The first patent was granted in 1894 but it was not until an American, Frank Culver, persuaded his new employer, Thomas McGhie and Sons, to buy a plasterboard plant from the USA that this new product was introduced to Britain. A site was acquired at Wallasey Cheshire and building started in 1916. However, McGhie's shareholders could not supply sufficient funding and in 1917 the plasterboard assets were sold to a new company, British Plaster Board Limited [BPB].
Whiteboard
Whiteboards started becoming commonly used by businesses in the early 1990s. They became more common in classrooms during the 1990s due to concerns over health problems in children with dust allergies and the potential for chalkdust to damage computers. By the late 1990s, about 21% of American classrooms had converted from chalkboards to whiteboards.
Threshing board
The threshing boards must have been important in the protohistory of Mesopotamia, since they already appear in some of the oldest written documents discovered: specifically, several sandstone tablets from the early town of Kish (Iraq), engraved with cuneiform pictograms, which could be the world's oldest surviving written record, dating to the middle of the 4th millennium BC (Early Uruk period). One of these tablets, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University, appears to have pictures of threshing boards on both faces, next to some numeric symbols and other pictograms. These presumed threshing boards (which might instead be sledges) have a shape similar to threshing carts that were used until recently in parts of the Middle East where non-industrial agriculture survived. Descriptions also appear in numerous cuneiform clay tablets as early as the third millennium BC.
Cardboard
The term has been used since at least 1848. when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall". The Kellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed bag of wax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run by John W. Kieckhefer, was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fibre shipping containers, particularly the paper milk carton.
Skateboarding
The first skateboards started with wooden boxes, or boards, with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom. Crate scooters preceded skateboards, having a wooden crate attached to the nose (front of the board), which formed rudimentary handlebars. The boxes turned into planks, similar to the skateboard decks of today. 
Skateboarding, as we know it, was probably born sometime in the late 1940s, or early 1950s, when surfers in California wanted something to do when the waves were flat. This was called "sidewalk surfing" – a new wave of surfing on the sidewalk as the sport of surfing became highly popular. No one knows who made the first board; it seems that several people came up with similar ideas at around the same time. The first manufactured skateboards were ordered by a Los Angeles, California surf shop, meant to be used by surfers in their downtime. The shop owner, Bill Richard, made a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company to produce sets of skate wheels, which they attached to square wooden boards. Accordingly, skateboarding was originally denoted "sidewalk surfing" and early skaters emulated surfing style and maneuvers, and performed barefoot.
By the 1960s a small number of surfing manufacturers in Southern California such as Jack's, Kips', Hobie, Bing's and Makaha started building skateboards that resembled small surfboards, and assembled teams to promote their products. One of the earliest Skateboard exhibitions was sponsored by Makaha's founder, Larry Stevenson, in 1963 and held at the Pier Avenue Junior High School in Hermosa Beach, California. Some of these same teams of skateboarders were also featured on a television show called "Surf's Up" in 1964, hosted by Stan Richards, that helped promote skateboarding as something new and fun to do.
Hardboard
A product resembling hardboard was first made in England in 1898 by hot pressing waste paper. In the 1900s, fiber building board of relatively low density was manufactured in Canada. In the early 1920s, improved methods of compressing wet wood pulp at high temperatures resulted in a higher density product.
Board (bridge)
Colloquially, the term "board" may refer to one deal plus its bidding and play.
When bridge is played online, there are no physical boards, nor physical cards, but the software emulates all of the features of duplicate boards and the unit of the game is commonly called a board.
First used in duplicate whist in the 1890s, the devices were called "duplicate whist trays". Since the first in November 1891, numerous patents have been registered incorporating a variety of shapes, sizes and materials and having various means of inserting and retaining the cards in place in the trays or "apparatus", as they were often referred to in the patent description. Amongst the earliest versions were those manufactured by Ihling Brothers & Everard of Kalamazoo, Michigan and referred to as the "Kalamazoo Tray", a square tray, getting award-winning recognition at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. The company's interests in duplicate whist trays were purchased by The Duplicate Whist Co. in 1899, which introduced a tray known as the "Paine's Duplicate Whist Tray" after its President, Cassius M. Paine; Paine used the U.S. Playing Card Co. of Cincinnati as his sole manufacturing and sales agent.
Cardboard box
The Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard or paperboard box in 1890 – flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair's invention came about as a result of an accident: he was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut them. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing in one operation he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available around the turn of the twentieth century.
WorldWideWhiteboard
This history seems to justify the company's claim that it was the first to offer commercially a tool for Web access to a shared, real-time environment with such education-oriented features as subject-specific tool bars. The WorldWideWhiteboard was also adopted as an option available with certain text-books by publishers such as McGraw-Hill, John Wiley and Sons, Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Bedford, Freeman and Worth. The use of the WorldWideWhiteboard by campuses and educational programs to support online environments, give classes, hold faculty office hours and meetings expanded over the next decade.
Interactive whiteboard
Dixons City Academy in the North of England was the first non college or university learning environment to make use of interactive whiteboards after the school's then principal Sir John Lewis showed a keen interest in the developing technology. An interactive whiteboard can now be found in every classroom of the school.
Scratchboard
Modern scraperboard originated in the 19th century in Britain and France. As printing methods developed, scraperboard became a popular medium for reproduction because it replaced wood, metal and linoleum engraving. It allowed for a fine line appearance that could be photographically reduced for reproduction without losing quality. It was most effective and expeditious for use in single-color book and newspaper printing. From the 1930s to 1950s, it was one of the preferred techniques for medical, scientific and product illustration. During that time period, Virgil Finlay made very detailed illustrations, often combining scraperboard methods with traditional pen & ink techniques, and producing highly detailed artworks. In more recent years, it has made a comeback as an appealing medium for editorial illustrators of magazines, ads, graphic novels, and one of a kind pieces of fine art displayed in galleries and museums internationally.
Cardboard furniture
There are several different types of cardboard furniture.Although people have lived on and around cardboard for as long as it has existed, it was probably first introduced to the design world by Frank Gehry (b. 1929). The line, which is still made and sold by Vitra, consists of modern chairs and tables. Made with hidden screws and fiberboard edging, the tables are said to hold thousands of pounds. The "Wiggle Chair," which has won many design awards and has been included in museum shows at London's Design Museum and elsewhere, contains 60 layers of corrugated cardboard held together by hidden screws and fibreboard edging.
In the Beginning of the 1980s cardboard furniture becomes very popular in France by the technique of Eric Guiomar. It is totally different to the technique of Frank Gehry. 
The furniture in the technique of Guiomar is made with corrugated cardboard, simple, double and triple groove. First, a frame is created with intertwined cardboard plates which are cut out according to the original design. This is the support frame of the piece, just like it would be the case for a ship. Then, the frame is covered with cardboard that will be "rolled" on its forms to a perfect fit. This technique allows a great freedom in the choice of shapes and materials.
Snakeboard
A Snakeboard, also known as pivotboard or streetboard, is a board that was invented in South Africa in 1989 by James Fisher, Simon King and Oliver Macleod Smith. The concept was to fuse the original skateboard with elements of snowboarding and surfing to create a fun riding experience. The first prototype was constructed using two square wooden boards, an old roller skate chopped in half, and a piece of plumbing pipe to join them together. Many variants were tried before manufacturing began. The first boards to be mass-produced were made from a strong plastic nylon known as Zytel ST801.
Clapperboard
The clapper (two sticks hinged together) was invented by F. W. Thring (father of actor Frank Thring), who was head of Efftee Studios in Melbourne, Australia. Some mention that Efftee was not founded until 1931, not in the 1920s as sometimes stated. However, the date of Efftee's founding does not assume the start of F.W. Thring's involvement in the industry. Consider the start of the Australian film industry with 1906's The Story of the Kelly Gang, which was the first feature length narrative film in the world. The director of this film, Charles Tait, was associated with J. C. Williamson. The former's production company, J. & N. Tait, merged with the J. C. Williamson Film Company. F.W. Thring was managing director of J.C. Williamson Films in 1918. The clapboard with both the sticks and slate together was refined by Leon M. Leon (1903–1998) a pioneer sound engineer.
Bristol board
Bristol board (also referred to as Bristol paper or Super white paper) is an uncoated, machine-finished paperboard. It is named after the city of Bristol in the southwest of England as that is where it was first produced. Common sizes include and its bulk thickness is or higher and A4, A3, A2 and A1. Bristol board may be rated by the number of plies it contains or, in Europe, by its grammage of 220 to 250 g/m. It is normally white, but is also made in different colours.
Bowling
In 1948, bowling lanes were first built in the ground floor of the West Wing of the U.S. Presidential residence, the White House, as a birthday gift for then President Harry S. Truman, in the location of the 2010s White House Situation Room. The lanes were moved to the Old Executive Office Building in 1955 to make way for a mimeograph room.
Einstein's Blackboard
The blackboard was rescued with another by dons (including the chemist E. J. Bowen, zoologist Gavin de Beer, and historian of science Robert Gunther) and formally donated by the Warden of Rhodes House, Sir Francis James Wylie. The writing on the blackboard, although ephemeral in nature, is of historic interest because the equations displayed are taken from a model of the universe proposed by Einstein in May 1931 known as The Friedmann-Einstein universe. The last three lines on the blackboard are estimates of the density of matter in the universe "ρ", the radius of the universe "P" and the timespan "t" of the expansion of the universe respectively ("L.J." on the blackboard indicates "light years" in German). It has recently been shown that these estimates contain a systematic numerical error.
Record chart
According to Joel Whitburn, the American trade publication "Billboard" introduced the Hot 100 on August 4, 1958. This was the first chart in the US to "fully integrate the hottest-selling and most-played pop singles." From 1958 until 1991, "Billboard" compiled the chart from playlists reported by radio stations, and surveys of retail sales outlets. Before 1958, several charts were published, including "Best Sellers in Stores", "Most Played by Jockeys" (later revived under the name Hot 100 Airplay), and "Most Played in Juke Boxes", and, in later collations of chart hits, the record's highest placing in any of those charts was usually reported. On November 30, 1991, "Billboard" introduced a new method of determining the Hot 100, "by a combination of actual radio airplay monitored electronically by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), additional playlists from small-market stations, and actual point-of-sale information provided by Nielsen SoundScan." Until 1998, any songs placed on the chart had to be physically available as a single. The Hot 100 continues to be published.
Big Wednesday
Milius invented the Bear brand of surfboard as a fictional brand to be used in the movie, and even had surfboards made and arranged for a Californian designer to create a logo. The logo, a red diamond with a bear in it, features prominently throughout the movie, on shop windows, T-shirts, car windows and on surfboards. The first boards were shaped in 1977, by famous board shaper, Bill Hamilton. The international distribution of the movie promoted the Bear Label worldwide, with people wanting boards with the bear logo. The brand morphed into an actual successful company after the release of the movie, producing hundreds of boards, and is still active today, with various people producing bear branded boards in different countries.
Whiteboarding
Electronic whiteboarding was included at least as early as 1996 in the CoolTalk tool in Netscape Navigator 3.0.
Bulletin board
A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. Bulletin boards are often made of a material such as cork to facilitate addition and removal of messages, as well as a writing surface such as blackboard or whiteboard. A bulletin board which combines a pinboard (corkboard) and writing surface is known as a combination bulletin board. Bulletin boards can also be entirely in the digital domain and placed on computer networks so people can leave and erase messages for other people to read and see, as in a bulletin board system.
Fingerboard (skateboard)
A fingerboard is a working replica (about 1:8 scaled) of a skateboard that a person "rides" by replicating skateboarding maneuvers with their fingers, invented by Cameron Fox Bryant. The device itself is a scaled-down skateboard complete with graphics, trucks and moving wheels. A fingerboard is commonly about 100 millimeters long, and can have a variety of widths ranging from 26 to 34 mm. Skateboarding tricks may be performed using fingers instead of feet. Tricks done on a fingerboard are inspired by tricks done on real skateboards. Pofessional skateboarder Lance Mountain is widely credited as making the first fingerboard, and his skit in Powell-Peralta's "Future Primitive" video brought fingerboarding to the skateboarders of the world in the mid-1980s. Around the same time, he wrote an article on how to make fingerboards in TransWorld SKATEboarding magazine.
White Furniture Company
Working with only a plane and a boiler, the initial manufacturing was limited to only round oak dining tables and wagon wheels. While reaching an early success in 1886, a local businessman invested funds to expand White Furniture and purchase more advanced machinery. Within a brief time, the company employed 32 people and manufactured tables, chairs, and a bedroom set. The solid-oak bedroom set sold for nine dollars and included a bed, dresser, and washstand.
Whiteford Lighthouse
The first known cast-iron British lighthouse was at Swansea Harbour and was built in 1803. The architect was Jernegan, and the plates were cast at the Neath Abbey Ironworks.
White Ware
White Ware or "Vaisselle Blanche", effectively a form of limestone plaster used to make vessels, is the first precursor to clay pottery developed in the Levant that appeared in the 9th millennium BC, during the pre-pottery (aceramic) neolithic period. It is not to be confused with "whiteware", which is both a term in the modern ceramic industry for most finer types of pottery for tableware and similar uses, and a term for specific historical types of earthenware made with clays giving an off-white body when fired.
History of Go
In 1954 a complete Go board made out of stone was found in a tomb dating to the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) in Wangdu County, Hebei Province. This board has a 17 × 17 grid, which confirms the statement by the 3rd century author Handan Chun in the "Classic of Arts" that Go was at this time played on a 17 × 17 grid:
The go board has 17 lines along its length and breadth, making 289 points in all. The black and white stones each number 150.
The earliest board with a 19 × 19 grid to have been found is a ceramic board dating to the Sui dynasty (581-618) that was excavated from Anyang in Henan Province, so sometime between the 3rd and 6th centuries a change in grid size must have taken place. However, the 17 × 17 board has survived in the version of Go played in Tibet.
Whiteboard
Whiteboard material can be bought in rolls, sheets, and pre-formed boards. Adhesive whiteboards come in either a sheet or a roll and feature a stick back enabling the user to create a custom size board or project with the material. Although adhesive whiteboard material does not come in a thick, hard glass or painted steel plate, the melamine allows for a flexible material while preserving the high-quality whiteboard attributes of other surface materials. Adhesive whiteboards allow for custom projects such as dry erase wall calendars, whiteboard tables, cupboard grocery lists, indoor games for kids, and more.
Veroboard
The first single-size Veroboard product was the forerunner of the numerous types of prototype wiring board which, with worldwide use over five decades, have become known as stripboard.
Slate (writing)
The exact origins of the writing slate remain unclear. References to its use can be found in the fourteenth century and evidence suggests that it was used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The central time period for the writing slate, however, “appears to begin in the later eighteenth century, when developments in sea and land transport permitted the gradual expansion of slate quarrying in Wales and the growth of a substantial slate workshop industry.” By the nineteenth century, writing slates were used around the world in nearly every school and were a central part of the slate industry. At the dawn of the twentieth century, writing slates were the primary tool in the classroom for students. In the 1930s (or later) writing slates began to be replaced by more modern methods. However, writing slates did not become obsolete. They are still made in the twenty-first century, though in small quantities.
Sideboard (Edward William Godwin)
Godwin designed the first version of this sideboard in ebonised deal, a cheap wood, in 1867. He subsequently changed to ebonised mahogany, as he found deal to be unstable. At least ten versions of the original were made between 1867 and 1888, with differences in design, in decoration or in the number of legs. There are several surviving examples of this sideboard, made of ebonised deal, mahogany, or oak and pine. The original sideboard was designed by Godwin for the dining room of his London home in 1867.
Blackletter
The "Donatus-Kalender" (also known as Donatus-und-Kalender or D-K) is the name for the metal type design that Gutenberg used in his earliest surviving printed works, dating from the early 1450s. The name is taken from two works: the Ars grammatica of Aelius Donatus, a Latin grammar, and the Kalender (calendar). It is a form of textura.
Blackboard
A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone.
Spectrum (arena)
The Spectrum, along with the Met Center and The Forum, was one of the first sports arenas to have a scoreboard with a messageboard. Furthermore, the messageboards on the Spectrum scoreboard were the first dot matrix screens in pro hockey or basketball, capable of photos, animation, and replays as well as messages. This was replaced in 1986 with ArenaVision, which consisted of six 9-by-12-foot rear-projection videoscreens at the top and a four-sided American Sign and Indicator scoreboard at the bottom. Inside the videoscreens were General Electric projectors located 15 feet away from each screen.
White
Chalk is a kind of limestone, made of the mineral calcite, or calcium carbonate. It was originally deposited under the sea as the scales or plates of tiny micro-organisms called Coccolithophore. It was the first white pigment used by prehistoric artists in cave paintings. The chalk used on blackboards today is usually made of gypsum or calcium sulphate, a powder pressed into sticks.
Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century
"Swastika Boards" were built using laminated redwood and balsa wood by legendary surfer Lorrin "Whitey" Harrison in Los Angeles from 1931 until 1939 when they were renamed "Waikiki Surfboards" "Swastikas became the most widely used production solid board of the period leading into World War II."
White House
Construction of the White House began with the laying of the cornerstone on October 13, 1792, although there was no formal ceremony. The main residence, as well as foundations of the house, were built largely by enslaved and free African-American laborers, as well as employed Europeans. Much of the other work on the house was performed by immigrants, many not yet with citizenship. The sandstone walls were erected by Scottish immigrants, employed by Hoban, as were the high-relief rose and garland decorations above the north entrance and the "fish scale" pattern beneath the pediments of the window hoods. There are conflicting claims as to where the sandstone used in the construction of the White House originated. Some reports suggest sandstone from the Croatian island of Brač (specifically the Pučišća querry whose stone was used to build the ancient Roman palace of Emperor Diocletian) was used in the original construction of the building, contrarily researchers believe limestone from the island was used in the 1902 renovations and not the original construction. Others suggest the original sandstone simply came from Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, as importing the stone would be too costly. The initial construction took place over a period of eight years, at a reported cost of $232,371.83 (equal to $ today). Although not yet completed, the White House was ready for occupancy circa November 1, 1800.
Billboard (magazine)
The first issue of "Billboard" was published in Cincinnati, Ohio by William Donaldson and James Hennegan on November 1, 1894. Initially, it covered the advertising and bill posting industry, and was known as "Billboard Advertising". At the time, billboards, posters, and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the primary means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co., managed magazine production. The first issues were just eight pages long. The paper had columns like "The Bill Room Gossip" and "The Indefatigable and Tireless Industry of the Bill Poster". A department for agricultural fairs was established in 1896. The title was changed to "The Billboard" in 1897.
WhiteStar
The WhiteStar Board System was an arcade system board used for several pinball games designed by Sega Pinball and their successor, Stern Pinball, between 1995 and 2005. It is the successor to Data East Pinball / Sega Pinball's Version 3 system, derived from System 11 hardware, copied from Williams.
Storyboard
Many large budget silent films were storyboarded, but most of this material has been lost during the reduction of the studio archives during the 1970s and 1980s. Special effects pioneer Georges Méliès is known to have been among the first filmmakers to use storyboards and pre-production art to visualize planned effects. However, storyboarding in the form widely known today was developed at the Walt Disney studio during the early 1930s. In the biography of her father, "The Story of Walt Disney" (Henry Holt, 1956), Diane Disney Miller explains that the first complete storyboards were created for the 1933 Disney short "Three Little Pigs". According to John Canemaker, in "Paper Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disney Storyboards" (1999, Hyperion Press), the first storyboards at Disney evolved from comic-book like "story sketches" created in the 1920s to illustrate concepts for animated cartoon short subjects such as Plane Crazy and "Steamboat Willie", and within a few years the idea spread to other studios.
Einstein's Blackboard
Einstein's Blackboard is a blackboard which physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955) used on 16 May 1931 during his lectures while visiting the University of Oxford in England.
The blackboard is one of the most iconic objects in the collection of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.
Digital painting
The earliest graphical manipulation program was called Sketchpad. Created in 1963 by Ivan Sutherland, a grad student at MIT, Sketchpad allowed the user to manipulate objects on a CRT (cathode ray tube). Sketchpad eventually led to the creation of the Rand Tablet for work on the GRAIL project in 1968, and the very first tablet was created. Other early tablets, or digitizers, like the ID (intelligent digitizer) and the BitPad were commercially successful and used in CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs. Modern day tablets are the tools of choice by digital painters. WACOM is the industry leader in tablets which can range in size from 4” x 6” all the way to 12” x 19” and are less than an inch thick. Other brands of graphic tablets are Aiptek, Monoprice, Hanvon, Genius, Adesso, Trust, Manhattan, Vistablet, DigiPro, etc.
All these graphic tablets have the basic functions of a mouse, so they can be used as a mouse, not only in graphic editors but also as a replacement for a mouse, and they are compatible with practically all Windows and Macintosh software.