12 Inventions That Shaped the World of DIY-ing Forever

Duct Tape

Who would have thought that the invention of duct tape would be patriotic? Vesta Stoudt, a mother of two sons in the Navy, thought that ammunition boxes could do with a waterproof tape. At the time, she worked in an ordnance factory- this was during World War II.

Though she brought her ideas to the management of the factory, they didn’t stick. It wasn’t until she sent letters and diagrams to President Roosevelt and the War Department that the idea finally took off.

HVAC installers also discovered that the tape worked wonders by sealing ductwork. We now use the invention pretty much everywhere around the house, and the name stuck even if better taped for ducts have since hit the market.

The Tape Measure

Could you imagine paying some $300 for a tape measure? The idea isn’t all that new. In fact, it goes back centuries. In the mid-1800, tape measures were both expensive and finicky, meaning that DIY-ers were forced to use the folding rule instead of dishing out hundreds of dollars.

In the 1950s, then manufacturing became cheaper and better, that’s when the switch to tapes began. That’s also when Family Handyman introduced the tapes to their thousands of readers, saving them from unreliable measurements once and for all.