10 Modern-Day Inventions That Were Made By Men Out Of Love For Their Wives

If you’ve got a good man in your life, you’ve probably noticed that he’s always thinking about the people he loves. He thinks about their happiness, their safety, and what he can do to make their lives better. If you bring a problem to his attention, he automatically looks for solutions. While this can be frustrating if all you were hoping to do was vent to a sympathetic ear, sometimes that kind of action-oriented thinking will take you by surprise in the form of a revolutionary, world-changing invention, dreamt up just for you.

Read on to hear the stories of 10 men who made history with the love, care, and attention they showed their wives.

1. Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo as we know it was first dreamt up by Italian chef Alfredo Di Lelio in 1914. His wife had recently given birth to their son, Armando, and when he realized the delivery had left her with no appetite, just when she needed nourishment the most, he went to work finding something that would appeal to her. His simple combination of fettuccine pasta, Parmigiano cheese, and butter turned out to be just the ticket, and the impression this rich and delicious pasta left on customers of his Roman restaurant made it an international hit.

2. Sugar Cubes

Sugar cubes were invented by Jakub Krystof Rad, the head of a sugar refinery in Moravia, in the 1840s. Previously, sugar came in brown loaves that Europeans then cut or hacked into pieces to use for cooking or put in their tea. When Rad’s wife, Juliana, cut her finger while chopping her sugar down to size, he had the idea to press sugar into cubes perfectly sized for teatime. He gave the first sugar cubes to his wife as a gift, and then had his cubes patented in 1843. 

3. Wordle

The popular online word game Wordle was invented by Josh Wardle for his partner, Palak Shah, in 2020. He knew that she loved word games, so he crafted a unique game for the two of them to pass the time during the pandemic. Encouraged by her enjoyment of it, he shared it with family and friends, and then with the rest of the world. Because it was born from his love for Shah, the game is no-frills, with no ads, and limited play (there is just one puzzle released each day), so the focus is on fun rather than profit. Wardle also had Shah help him pick the words for the first few years’ worth of puzzles.

4. Custard Powder & Baking Powder

Alfred Bird, an English food manufacturer and chemist, first invented an egg-free custard in 1837 using cornstarch in place of eggs for his wife, Elizabeth, who was allergic to both eggs and yeast. Then, in 1843, he invented baking powder to be able to make yeast-free bread for Elizabeth. Our baking powder that we use today is essentially still his original formula!

5. Surgical Rubber Gloves

In 1889, when Dr. William Halsted learned that one of his best scrub nurses, Caroline Hampton, was developing dermatitis on her hands and arms from the chemicals in the operating room, he asked the Goodyear Rubber Company to make thin rubber gloves for her to protect her sensitive skin. Not only would rubber surgical gloves become the norm in the operating room, but Caroline became Mrs. Halstead in 1890.

6. Goldfish Crackers

The Goldfish crackers that we know and love today were first dreamt up when Pepperidge Farm founder, Margaret Rudkin, visited a Swiss cookie manufacturer while on vacation in Switzerland. It was there that she first tried the fish-shaped crackers that Oscar J. Kambly had created for his wife, whose astrological sign Pisces is traditionally depicted as a fish. Rudkin and Kambly made an agreement that brought the cute little crackers that were made with love to the United States in 1962.

7. Band-Aids 

In 1920, when Josephine Knight Dickinson told her husband, Earle, about how she was struggling to keep strips of fabric tied onto her small kitchen nicks and burns while she was washing her hands and cooking, he thought of the perfect solution for her. As a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson, he used their sterile surgical products – antiseptic cotton gauze and surgical adhesive tape – to make her a roll of tape with gauze running down the center. Whenever she had a small injury, she could cut off the appropriate amount of the tape and cover her wound. Johnson & Johnson first sold his invention as a similar roll of tape, but eventually manufactured individually packaged Band-Aids the way we know them today. 

8. Foldable Ironing Board

Inventor Elijah J. McCoy, in whose honor we use the phrase “The Real McCoy” for his improvements in lubricators for steam-engines, came up with a new movable ironing table in 1874. His wife had complained to him about her ironing board, including how its uneven surface disrupted her work. His new board, which he went on to patent, was both easy to unfold and set up and easy to fold and put away and provided her with the even surface that she needed. 

9. Garbage Disposal 

When architect John W. Hammes was watching his wife clean up the kitchen after dinner one night in 1927, he noticed the effort she had to make to clean all of the food scraps out of the sink. He had the idea to create something that would grind all of the food into pieces small enough to go down the kitchen sink pipes. He spent several years perfecting his design before patenting it and starting his own business, the InSinkErator Manufacturing Company, to sell his design.

10. The Telephone

Antonio Meucci, an Italian engineer and inventor who emigrated to the United States, came up with the first electromagnetic telephone in 1856. He wanted to have a way to talk to his wife, Ester, who had rheumatoid arthritis and was largely confined to her room, while he was working in his laboratory on another floor of the house. Due to language and financial barriers, his achievement wasn’t recognized until 2002, more than a hundred years after his death, but his wife greatly appreciated his thoughtful invention.

Closing Thoughts

When a man is in love, there’s no stopping him from trying to provide for his wife and improve her life in any way he can. While some of us get flowers and chocolate, others get garbage disposals and surgical gloves, and who’s to say that the latter aren’t the more romantic? I know I, for one, will never look at Band-Aids the same way again. 

Support our cause and help women reclaim their femininity by subscribing today.