Millions in Gadgets (Feb, 1935)

From Modern Mechanix:

The American people spend more than $100,000,000 a year, in amounts from 5c up, on gadgets manufactured in this country—not counting the huge importations from abroad. Here is a field of invention, and unlimited new business possibilities, always open to the ingenious. YOU will not find the word "gadget" in many dictionaries; perhaps for the reason that most dictionary compilers consider the word to be slang. Yet, the word "gadget" is well known to everyone, and is used in everyday language in connection with some article that has a practical use and, usually, can be bought at a low price. Gadgets are, as a rule, of a mechanical nature, and supposed to do something for humanity that could not be done so well without. While not all gadgets are indispensable, many of them are definitely so. All of us can think of a number of gadgets that make our life and our work easier, gadgets that we would rather have than be without. Gadgets have been in use, probably, ever since man emerged from the cave; and, while the earliest no doubt were extremely simple and uncomplicated, they were, nevertheless, gadgets. For instance, when some cave man first thought of putting his arrows into a hide pouch, in order to reach them more easily, that pouch became a sort of gadget; because heretofore the arrows had been carried in the loincloth, or in the animal-skin covering that served the prehistoric man as a cloak. The arrows, before, had been simply shoved in between the man's skin and the animal's skin. The first flint stones used in making fire were also gadgets—highly useful ones at that; and indispensable at that time. As civilization developed, and the needs of mankind became more varied, and men started to build houses, they also became conscious of the fact that they needed many small appliances to make things easier for them. To be sure, even today, man can get along, if he must, without gadgets. But the point is, that most of us like and want the gadgets because they save us time, they save us labor, and they make our lives more pleasant.

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