Rolling suitcases are essential for everyone when traveling afar. Because they are equipped with four wheels, it’s so much easier to push them around. After all, pushing and pulling luggage is surely better than carrying it by hand, isn’t it?
Before the 19th century, people used wooden trunks to pack their luggage when they went out. From today’s perspective, those wooden trunks were bulky and impractical. In 1851, the Great Exhibition in London displayed an iron trunk invented by the British. It was equipped with a telescopic rod and handles, and seemed to be a bit more convenient than wooden trunks. At the beginning of the last century, Americans invented aluminum suitcases, which were wrapped in leather on the outside. They were both good-looking and lightweight as well as practical. In the 1950s, the emergence of plastics led to another change in the materials of suitcases. Plastic suitcases achieved a new level in terms of weight reduction.
When looking closely at the evolution history of suitcases, it’s not hard to find that people have been constantly making great efforts in the direction of reducing the weight of suitcases. It seems that suitcases are born to be carried around. As for the combination of wheels and suitcases, it happened in 1972. Bernard Sadow, who worked for a luggage company in the United States, once got inspiration from a supermarket shopping cart while shopping with his wife in a supermarket. He then came up with the idea of attaching wheels to suitcases, and thus the world’s first suitcase with wheels was born.
At that time, Bernard Sadow attached four wheels to the side of the traditional suitcase, that is, the narrow side, and then used a rope to tie it to the end of the suitcase and pulled it along. This image was exactly the same as walking a dog. Later, after improvements, the body of the suitcase was widened to prevent it from toppling over when turning corners. And the tow rope was made retractable. In this way, it was used for more than ten years. It was not until 1987 that an airline captain in the United States replaced the tow rope of the suitcase with a telescopic handle, which formed the rudimentary form of the modern rolling suitcase. In other words, the modern rolling suitcase has only been around for a little over thirty years. How incredible it is! Surprisingly, wheels were invented and applied by humans more than five thousand years ago, and suitcases have also existed for hundreds of years. However, it was only a little over fifty years ago that the two were combined together.
In 1971, humans sent their fellows to the moon, taking a small step for mankind. However, it’s really strange that something as trivial as attaching wheels to suitcases happened after the moon landing. Actually, in the 1940s of the last century, suitcases had a “close encounter” with wheels once. At that time, the British used a device that tied wheels to suitcases, but it had always been regarded as a niche item used by women. Moreover, in the past few hundred years, due to the differences in physical constitution and social status between men and women, it was usually men who carried luggage when traveling on business or for other trips. And back then, men precisely thought that carrying big and small bags as well as suitcases could reflect their masculinity. Perhaps it was precisely this kind of male chauvinism at work that made the wheeled suitcases unable to be sold at the beginning of their invention. The reason given by people was: Although this kind of suitcase is convenient and saves effort, it’s just not “manly” enough.
Just like many inventions that simplify labor in life, they were initially considered to be exclusively for women. This gender concept undoubtedly hindered innovation. Later, with technological innovation and the “Law of True Fragrance” (meaning people change their minds after actually experiencing the benefits), men gradually let go of their psychological burdens. This also indirectly confirms a fact: “Innovation is inherently a very slow process.” We often overlook the best solutions to a problem and thus become trapped in complicated and rigid ideas. For example, attaching wheels to suitcases, such an invention that doesn’t require much technical expertise but surprisingly no one thought of it for a long time.
Post time: Dec-09-2024