What can be done with a stick? Not much? Well, maybe you have to let your imagination run free. That’s what three Spaniards did some time ago. They came up with three useful inventions that have made our lives easier, funnier and sweeter.
Something as simple as cleaning the floor without kneeling was not possible until Manuel Jalón invented the mop. One day, this aeronautical engineer was walking around a hangar in the US and watched how the floor was cleaned. He thought there should be a better way to do it: putting a cloth at the end of a stick. This idea was so popular that he exported his invention to more than 30 countries.
It is well-known that football is one of the most popular sports in Spain. And Alejandro Campos loved it. During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, he was severely injured and he met many children in the same situation in the hospital. In order for them to have fun, he decided to organize a football match on a table inserting wooden figures on several sticks. That is how table football was invented.
Kids love sweets and sometimes they enjoy taking them out of their mouths. This can be a problem if after that they touch their clothes. Enric Bernat knew it and he thought about – guess what!? – placing sweets on sticks, so children could grab the sweet as many times as they wanted without getting dirty. And this is how the chupa-chups were created. This invention made moms even happier than children!
It seems that with a stick you can make big things, are you able to think about the next great invention on a stick?
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