# What individual designed the most ubiquitous object **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418 "2020-05-08T16:54:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/61 "2020-05-13T16:52:29Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > You see a lot of movable type these days? > Or even books printed with movable type? Absolutely. We live in a 325 sq. ft. apartment and there are no less than 200 bound books in our home. I would wager that less than 1% were printed on a photocopier. So yes. I see a lot of books printed with real type. Wooden movable type? Doubtful. Metal? Yep. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/62 "2020-05-13T17:23:32Z")
In the 1920s, [French manicurist Michelle Monard modified the formula for automotive paint to create opaque colored nail polish](https://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/nail-care/tips/colorful-history-nail-polish.htm) (or “nail lacquer”). Her employer took that idea and ran with it to create modern cosmetics giant Revlon. AFAICT the global nail lacquer industry has annual revenues on the order of US$10 billion. As far as ubiquity goes, the product is probably well up there with aluminum drinks cans and Phillips-head screws. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/63 "2020-05-13T17:33:31Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Absolutely. We live in a 325 sq. ft. apartment and there are no less than 200 bound books in our home. I would wager that less than 1% were printed on a photocopier. > > So yes. I see a lot of books printed with real type. Wooden movable type? Doubtful. Metal? Yep. Modern printing transfers an entire page to a cylinder. They haven’t used movable type since the seventies. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/64 "2020-05-13T17:58:39Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Froog the Caveman and the wheel. Actually, it was the knife invented by Ginsuk the caveman. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/65 "2020-05-13T18:21:44Z")
> [@saucywench](#): > > Actually, it was the knife invented by Ginsuk the caveman. Actually, Ginsuk called it an “oog”. But then Froog stabbed him with his oog and said to everyone he invented it, and it was called a “knife”. Apparently everyone else took his word for it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/66 "2020-05-17T03:56:35Z")
Does Internet porn qualify as a ubiquitous object? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/67 "2020-05-17T04:31:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Modern printing transfers an entire page to a cylinder. They haven’t used movable type since the seventies. Which seventies? My understanding is that movable type was mostly replaced by Linotype and other hot metal processes by the early 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/68 "2020-05-17T05:22:33Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Does Internet porn qualify as a ubiquitous object? Are you going to tell us which individual “invented” it? In any case, it may be ubiquitous to you, but it wouldn’t have been to my mother. (Even if she had been interested, she never could learn how to use a computer.) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/69 "2020-05-17T05:39:56Z")
I’ll take that as a no. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/70 "2020-05-17T08:15:21Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Taxonomy of [bread clips](http://www.horg.com/horg/?page_id=5). Interesting, but who the hell came up with the idea of studying bread clips? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/71 "2020-05-17T11:17:58Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Which seventies? My understanding is that movable type was mostly replaced by Linotype and other hot metal processes by the early 20th century. I am holding proof in my hand that this is untrue. In 1974 my father retired from his career as a newspaperman. He was the Science Editor for a large metropolitan newspaper in the United States. Every page was set with metal type. From the initial set pages, a thick plastic positive was molded for EVERY page for proofreading and checking of photographs- which appeared in the plastic as half-tone images. A barrel sheet was then prepared and used to print the newspaper. I have his byline in my hands. Because he was staff, they had cast his byline as a single piece of lead, but every letter piece was identifiable along the edges and underside. They had zero interest in faking his byline for a gift or gag. This is how at least some newspapers prepared their pages in the early 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/72 "2020-05-17T11:19:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Modern printing transfers an entire page to a cylinder. They haven’t used movable type since the seventies. See post #71 for disproof. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/73 "2020-05-17T11:44:05Z")
The three-point seatbelt was designed by Nils Bohlin at Volvo, and is currently used in an estimated 7 billion cars around the world. Since the majority of cars have more than one seatbelt, that should put the total number of seatbelts around 15-20 billion or so. ---
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/74 "2020-05-18T21:40:07Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > The three-point seatbelt was designed by Nils Bohlin at Volvo, and is currently used in an estimated 7 billion cars around the world. Since the majority of cars have more than one seatbelt, that should put the total number of seatbelts around 15-20 billion or so. There are more canned fruit and drinks cans in each supermarket than all the cars in that city. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/75 "2020-05-18T23:18:10Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Absolutely. We live in a 325 sq. ft. apartment and there are no less than 200 bound books in our home. I would wager that less than 1% were printed on a photocopier. > > So yes. I see a lot of books printed with real type. Wooden movable type? Doubtful. Metal? Yep. Gutenberg didn’t invent the book, though. He invented movable type. You don’t have any of that in your apartment, unless you have a very odd collecting hobby. Books are ubiquitous, but movable type is an object most people have never laid eyes on. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/76 "2020-05-19T09:50:00Z")
> [@Nansbread1](#): > > There are more canned fruit and drinks cans in each supermarket than all the cars in that city. How many cans is that? First Google result for “how many cars in Chicago” says 3,456,125. ---
**Author:** ![Kiber](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiber/32/317_2.png) [@Kiber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiber)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/77 "2020-05-19T16:36:24Z")
I’ll toss out another idea: [The Monobloc Chair.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monobloc_(chair)) Roughly 1 billion sold in Europe alone, and described as having achieved “cultural global ubiquity”. Apparently based on an original design by D.C. Simpson. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/78 "2020-05-19T17:07:32Z")
> [@Kiber](#): > > I’ll toss out another idea: [The Monobloc Chair.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monobloc_(chair)) Roughly 1 billion sold in Europe alone, and described as having achieved “cultural global ubiquity”. > > Apparently based on an original design by D.C. Simpson. First thing I thought of, those plastic chairs can be found everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/79 "2020-05-19T17:51:17Z")
Pringles? Or at least the Pringles can. I once spoke with an international photojournalist who told me, “I’ve been to deepest, darkest Africa, and they’ve got Pringles.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418/80 "2020-05-19T19:39:12Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Froog the Caveman and the wheel. His _name_ was [Ooga Magoog](https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&rlz=1C1ZCEB_enUS820US821&ei=VTHEXo3sLNWz0PEP1ueWiAc&q=GOOD+ADVICE+lyrics+allan+sherman&oq=GOOD+ADVICE+lyrics+allan+sherman&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzICCAA6BAgAEA1QnNgPWJzYD2CT6g9oAHAAeACAAXiIAbACkgEDMi4xmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpeg&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjN6qnO0sDpAhXVGTQIHdazBXEQ4dUDCAw&uact=58), of Natchez, MS.\* Allan Sherman graciously provided consultant services.\*\* \*(some scholars place his residence in Louisiana, but his family ties in Mobile, AL suggest otherwise) \*\* conveniently provided for your . . . convenience: > [@relevant stanza](#): > > Ooga Magoog was a Neanderthal man, > A very poorly educated soul > He had a great big square thing made of solid stone, > And in the middle of it was a hole > One day he had to go from his cave in Natchez > To his uncle’s cave in Mobile > I said, “Round off those corners > And buy a set of tires, > And Ooky baby, that’s a wheel” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-individual-designed-the-most-ubiquitous-object/853418.md?page=5)