When & Who invented the Toothbrush?!
Question:
When & Who invented the Toothbrush?
Answers:
William Addis, England, is credited with creating the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780. In 1770 he had been placed in jail for causing a riot. While in prison, he decided that the method for teeth brushing of the time - rubbing a rag on one's teeth with soot and salt- could be improved. So he took a small animal bone, drilled small holes in it, obtained some bristles from a guard, tied them in tufts, then passed the bristles through the holes on the bone and glued them. Oral hygiene has drastically improved in the last several decades.
A child being shown how to use a toothbrush.The first patent for a toothbrush was by H. N. Wadsworth in 1850 in the United States, but mass production of the product in America only started in 1885. The rather advanced design had a bone handle with holes bored into it for the Siberian Boar hair bristles. (Boar wasn't an ideal material; it retained bacteria, it didn't dry well, and the bristles would often fall out of the brush).
It wasn't until World War II that the concept of brushing teeth really caught on in the U.S., in part due to the fact that it was part of American soldiers' regular daily duty to clean their teeth. It was a practice that they brought back to their home life after the conclusion of the war.
Natural bristles (from animal hair) were replaced by synthetic materials, usually nylon, by DuPont in 1938. The first nylon bristle toothbrush, made with nylon yarn, went on sale on February 24, 1938.
The first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was introduced by Squibb Pharmaceutical at the centennial of the American Dental Association in 1959.
In January 2003, the toothbrush was selected as the number one invention Americans could not live without, beating out the automobile, computer, cell phone, and microwave, according to the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index.