Richard Overton has the incredible distinction of being the oldest war veteran still alive. Currently 107 years of age, he lives in East Austin, Texas, and in 2013 visited the capital of the United States, Washington, D. C., for the very first time. As homage to the extraordinary life of Overton, here are four of the most influential inventions during his mammoth lifetime.
The diet of the average North american has undertaken a huge adjustment during Overton’s lifespan. The increased interest in the TV set meant that meals for the normal American household needed to take account of this. Dinners would have to be handy and simple to create. Due to this, the TV dinner was invented, and became a hugely well-liked creation.
They were inspired by the meals on airplanes, meals that could be stored in the freezer over a long period of time and taken out at the user’s convenience. They were processed in factories, hit the market in the 1940s and were largely available at the local grocery store. Yet although they made viewing the television convenient, they were not greatly popular until the 1950s, when sales rocketed. Though some argue they made the focus of mealtimes more about watching TV than about socializing, recent estimates have their sales each year at around $4billion-$5billion.
The mobile phone, commonly called the cell phone in the United States, is one of the most important inventions. In the 1980s came the world’s first hand-held phone for commercial purposes, meaning it was aimed at customers. It was the DynaTAC manufactured by Motorola and it weighed in at 28 ounces, had a battery life of about 30 to 60 minutes, would take approximately 10 hours to charge and was largely stored in the briefcases of businessmen.
These days a mobile is much lighter, usually weighing around 5 ounces and can fit in the anyone’s pocket. And these days they are cheaper too, as in 1983 one of these would have set someone back around $4,000. As the devices are ever-changing, it seems the only certainty is that in 30 years time they will not be the same as they are now.
The storing and preserving of food has to be one of the most vital changes to the society has evolved through the decades Overton has been alive. The concept behind home refrigeration has been known for around 200 years, and though it is hard to give any individual credit for inventing it, throughout the years people such as Albert Einstein, have helped refine and improve it over the years. However, it was not until around the 1920s that home refrigeration became something used on a widespread basis and it altered the eating habits of a the whole world.
The Internet could be one of the most influential and powerful things to be invented over the course of the last 100 or so years. It has shrunk the world in much the same way as the telephone and allows anyone with access to a computer to communicate all around the world in real-time. It’s great power is as a source of information and it has certainly changed the way people work, communicate, play, and do business.
It seems that Richard Overton has been alive for some of the most important and powerful changes in our society’s history. Life is arguably much faster than at any time in history, and yet Overton credits his long life to remaining free from stress and trying to be as active as possible.
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