Asked to select 10 consumer items, inventions, or commercial developments which most typified the 20th century what would you choose.? The computer, mobile phone, jet aircraft? The publishing arm of Guinness has come up with these and other more prosaic items in its Guinness Book of the 20th Century, which, with an eye on volume sales over the Christmas period, has been published this week. The list includes the washing machine, the bra, television, the jumbo jet, Walkman, the Rubik's cube and, of course, the accursed mobile phone. Guinness also believes that the humble shopping trolley, the credit card and even Tupperware will be held up by future generations as consumer "icons of the 20th century ".
Other notable products and services which made a fortune for their inventors and influenced consumer spending patterns were the introduction of the first disposable razor (1901), the arrival of the package holiday (1950) and that icon of youth culture, the Dr Martens boot (1960). A worthy stocking-filler for anyone appreciating the offbeat.
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