July 7th, a day greater than,. Today’s Spark is all about great inventions and inventors and a road called “The Way of American Genius”. Primarily the focus is the greatest invention of all time that was unleased on the world today. Yes that fantastic invention that accompanied me to school most days, a breakfast delight, smothered in peanut butter (smooth please) and grape jelly. Yes, sliced bread counts as human kind’s greatest invention, On this day, Otto Frederick Rohwedder’s invention made it possible for the Chillicothe Baking Company of Missouri to sell sliced and wrapped bread for the first time. At the time, touted as the greatest step forward in the baking industry since wrapped bread. Otto would eventually hold 7 patents for bread slicing technologies. He orignally had a brief career as a jeweller and owned three stores. He sold those to fund his research and development. 1917 would see his factory burn down, destroying his blueprints and prototype in the process. A few years would pass as he attempted to fund raise to bankroll his development. He was awarded a patent in 1927 and he sold the first machine to his friend and baker Frank Bench. The results and spin-offs of sliced bread included an instant boost in sales of pop up toasters as standardized bread slices made the toaster much more user friendly. And 1930 would see the Continental Baking Company release “Wonder Bread”. That same year Otto would sell his patents to Micro-Westco Co. and go to work for them. He retired in 1951 at the age of 71. Otto Frederick Rohwedder - Wikipedia

As for the “Way of American Genius”, this was U.S. Route 36 which stretches for 200 miles across the flat farmland of northern Missouri and connects to Kansas and Illinois. Named for fact that some of the nation’s best-known innovators, creative minds and a millitary hero all spent parts of their childhood near towns along the route including Samuel Clemens, a.k.a Mark Twain (Hannibal), Walt Disney (Marceline), Gen. John J. Pershing (Laclede) and James Cash “J. C.” Penney (Hamilton). https://www.americangeniushighway.com/
Gifts the world received today:

1656 - Guru Har Krishan, 8th Guru of Sikhism

1860 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer.

1861 - Nettie Stevens, American geneticist (discovered sex chromosomes), born in Cavendish, Vermont

1880 - Otto Frederrick Rohweeder, instead of cake, he received sliced bread on his birthday
On the Menu:

Well, it is all about bread, so might as well break out a receipe to help you use up that stale sliced bread you have sitting around. I can say that Nora always hits a solid home run and this french toast is good for those avoiding dairy and eggs.

Quote of the Day:

“Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.”
James Cash Penney

Song of the Day:

This is sure to get stuck in someone’s ear today:

Cartoon of the Day:

Inspirobot:

Miss Spark yesterday, it was really hot and @jimender2 ​ suggest you spice it up. Have a look here Spark! Pro series - 6th July 2023

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No replies yet? How is that even possible?

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Wow! This Spark! is early! Didn’t really expect to find it this early … but it’s been out for hours already! :exploding_head:

Are you feeling OK, @repairatrooper ​? :fearful:

A question for the bot - Why? :crazy_face:

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Inventors? Pah! Scotland leads the World!

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The television, telephone, steam engine, penicillin, macadamisation, the two-stroke engine, and tones more I’m probably missing out, all invented by Scots. So, you’re absolutely right. Let’s also not forget about games such as the GTA series, Lemmings, Body Harvest, Space Station Silicon Valley, Manhunt, The Ship, all born and developed in Scotland.

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Yeah there are loads but I think the Telephone is disputed.

Here’s a fun article:

Scottish inventions and discoveries include adhesive stamps, the Australian national anthem, the Bank of England, bicycle pedals, the breach-loading rifle, Bovril, the cell nucleus, chloroform, the cloud chamber, cornflour, a cure for malaria, the decimal point, the Encyclopædia Britannica, fountain pens, genetic fingerprinting, hypnosis, Hypodermic syringes, insulin, the kaleidoscope, the lawnmower, lime cordial, logarithms, lorries, marmalade, matches, motor insurance, paraffin, piano pedals, radar, the reflecting telescope, savings banks, the screw propeller, the speedometer, the steam hammer, raincoats, tarmac, teleprinters, tubular steel, typhoid vaccines, ultrasound scanners, the United States Navy, Universal Standard Time, vacuum flasks, wave powered electricity generation and wire rope. The panel also mentions rubber tyres. Alexander Graham Bell (who did not invent the telephone, see Series A) helped invent a hydrofoil that travelled at 70mph in 1919 and a metal detector. It was used to try and find the bullet that hit President Garfield, but it was confused by the bed springs and thus he died. (Forfeit: Television; Haggis) Correction: Matches were not invented in Scotland. They were invented in China. The first European country to make matches was France. The first friction match was invented in Stockton-on-Tees, England. Also, Scotland did not invent the US Navy, but a Scot, one of the important early figures, John Paul Jones, was Scottish.

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Unfortunately, Inspirobot, I do believe the mass hysteria has already started.

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Orders received Inspirobot, we shall destroy all news media at once!!!

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Great Spark!!!

My contributions today:

Happy Friday all!

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What if I want to cause mass hysteria, Inspirobot? With all the powers of IT at my command, it’s so easy to do, like setting everyone’s lock screen timeout to ten seconds.

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@test4echo ​’s got it right on the money. I, for one, want to watch the world burn.

We do have a running joke at Finance that they can phone in one “go home for the day because all the systems are down”.

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QotD: Unfortunately true
CotD: Not sure I understand the Einstein fish or the Bergman fish as a Bishop

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I think you and they missed golf.

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Can’t help you with Eisenstein, but the Bergman fish refers to his film The Seventh Seal featuring a chess match with Death.

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If I wanted to be evil, I would do worse, like requiring all users to change their passwords.

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I don’t know… changing a password once vs the lock screen coming up every time I am thinking and not typing… I think Test4Echo might win on the “evil plan” side.

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Nice, Inspirobot, nice.

I do loves me some sliced bread. VERY informative today. Facts for the weekend! :slight_smile:

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And what about Transparent Aluminum?

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Thanks for some Dance Monkey

@panda-marie

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Great Spark once again. Very early indeed.

@repairatrooper

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