Variety Storethe culture of ordinary things: a magazine about the history and design of everyday objects

An independent magazine about the history and design of everyday things. It is not a shop or a product catalogue: we sell nothing, do not advertise brands and have no connection with the former website on this domain.

History

History

Many household objects have no single birthday: they took shape gradually, out of craft techniques and small improvements. But the history of ordinary things also has precise milestones: patents, scientific discoveries, recognised inventions. Here we have gathered five dates that changed how we light our homes, keep things warm, travel and lay the table.

A laboratory flask, a patent for a modest torch, an alloy from a Sheffield works: great changes in everyday life often start with very small events.

— Editor's note

Timeline

  1. 1892

    Scottish scientist James Dewar proposes a vessel with a vacuum layer between two walls. Vacuum flasks would later be built on this principle.

  2. 1899

    Inventor David Misell receives a US patent for a battery-powered hand-held electric torch.

  3. 1913

    In Sheffield, English metallurgist Harry Brearley produces stainless steel suitable for knives and cutlery.

  4. 1972

    A US patent is granted for a wheeled suitcase; the application had been filed in 1970.

  5. 2014

    The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded for efficient blue LEDs, which made bright and energy-saving sources of white light possible.

How a household object becomes history

An invention alone does not make an object part of everyday life. Dewar's vessel long remained a laboratory instrument, and only in the early twentieth century did vacuum flasks for ordinary people appear. Years almost always separate an idea from a habit: production has to become cheaper, durable materials have to be found, a convenient shape has to be worked out.

Then the object begins a life of its own. People take it on journeys, give it as a present, repair it and pass it on to their children. It appears in photographs and on screen and becomes a recognisable sign. In this way an object gradually becomes a witness to its time.

The history of a thing is best read in layers. The first is technology: how it works and what it is made of. The second is everyday life: who used it and how. The third is culture: what it meant to people and what meanings built up around it. A good story about an object touches on all three.

Some things disappear when a more convenient replacement comes along; others keep almost the same form for decades. Understanding why is one of the magazine's aims.

  • Torch history (in Russian)

    Archived address note: how candles and lamps gave way to pocket-sized electric light.

  • Vacuum flask (in Russian)

    Archived address note: how a laboratory vessel of 1892 became the household vacuum flask.

  • Wheeled suitcase (in Russian)

    Archived address note: from the travel trunk to the wheeled suitcase patented in 1972.

  • Measuring spoon (in Russian)

    Archived address note: kitchen measures, the measuring spoon and the steel that does not rust.

  • Articles

    Six magazine topics, from the history of household things to collecting, plus a catalogue of articles written for English-language readers.

Sources

  • Nobel Committee: press release on the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Patent offices: specifications of patents for the hand-held torch and the wheeled suitcase
  • Encyclopaedic sources on the history of technology and metallurgy

Dates of inventions and patents are taken from open historical and encyclopaedic sources. Exhibition, fair and museum lecture schedules change, so always check them with the organisers.