Everyday inventions you never knew were Spanish
Monday, November 1, 2021 @ 5:14 PM
WHAT has Spain ever done for us? Except for creating an addiction to sunlight, colour, dramatic countryside and the world's best coffee (according to seasoned inter-continental travellers, anyway), making us feel 'something is missing' if too many weeks go by without a fiesta parade, a craft market, a fête, a live outdoor music gig or a bank holiday in the middle of a week (remember tomorrow, Monday, November 1, is one of these, so check out your nearest supermarket opening times online just in case – many of them will be shut), and getting us so used to having at least three months of guaranteed summer weather that we cannot understand why our relatives in colder climates have to call off a barbecue at the last minute (it's too hot for barbecues in summer in Spain. Keep them for spring and autumn).
Spanish inventors who changed our lives. Juan de la Cierva (inset, top left, from Wikimedia Commons), Enric Bernat (inset, bottom left, from El Mundo), Manuel Jalón (main picture, left, by Rosane Marinho/Wikimedia Commons), and Leonardo Torres Quevedo (main picture, right, from Wikimedia Commons)
Spain has done a lot more for us – as in, the global population – than we ever realised. More than most Spaniards ever realised, in fact. As well as having invented Coca-Cola and the radio, plus the traditional Andalucía flamenco music and dance, it turns out that anyone who smokes and is trying to give up or cut down has Spain to 'thank' for the fact it's just too easy to light up. Legend has it that beggars in Sevilla in the 16th century used to roll up loose tobacco they gathered from the streets in scraps of rice paper, which became the origin of cigarettes in packets that started being sold as we know them today from 1825. Had it not been for Spain, smokers would probably still be using pipes, and chances are, would have found the transition to e-cigarettes much easier, or pipes themselves would simply have gone out of fashion and nobody would have bothered for centuries.
Oh, dear.
But it turns out lots of other, healthier items, also useful for non-smokers, were invented in Spain. You just didn't realise it.
Actually, neither did we, but we've found 10 of them which, we promise, are going to surprise you.
Read full article at thinkSPAIN.com