• Large-scale production of aluminum foil began in 1910.aluminum foil image by Andrey Zyk from Fotolia.com
  
  The decade starting in 1910 was marked with inventions in entertainment, fashion, science and technology. While new gadgets and machines were invented, older ones were improved, and a number of technologies were patented. Along with man's drive to create new things, World War I provided the impetus for the inventions and changes that took place during the decade.
  
  

Neon Lights

• French chemist Georges Claude invented the neon light when, in 1910, he first observed that glass tubes filled with neon glow when heated with electricity. His lights soon became popular as neon tubes in the shape of letters largely used for advertising. When electricity passes through the electrodes inside the glass tubes, it excites the electrons in neon gas atoms. As a result, the electrons move to orbitals of higher energy levels. As the electrons try to return to their original orbital to assume their regular state, they emit the extra amount of energy in the form of photons or packets of lights.
  
  

Aluminum Foil

• Aluminum was discovered as early as 1825 by Danish chemist Hans Christian Oersted. However, it was only when Robert Victor Neher and Erwin Lauber set up their rolling plant in Kreuzlingenit, Switzerland in 1910 that aluminum foil was produced at an economic scale that could meet the demand as a packaging material.
  
  

Headset

• Nathaniel Baldwin, a native of Utah, invented the headset in 1910. Baldwin received his early education in Provo, Utah, and he studied physics and electrical engineering at Stanford University. It was here that he invented the headset. Initially, Baldwin could not get a private company to produce his headset in large numbers. However, when the United States Navy ordered 100 headsets on the eve of World War I, Baldwin set up a plant to manufacture them and never looked back again.
  
  

Thermojet

• Henri Coanda, a Romanian inventor, built an aircraft in 1910 that was called "Coanda 1910." The aircraft had a new feature--the thermojet engine, which was a hybrid of the technologies used in both piston and jet engines. It was exhibited for the first time at the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition in Paris in October, 1910. While carrying out a ground test in 1916, Coanda crashed his aircraft after fire broke out in it. Research into the accident led Coanda and other scientists to discover the reason for the fire, which is known as the "Coanda Effect." Although the pioneer, Coanda did not pursue his interest in the jet engine. Research was carried further by Italian and Japanese engineers, separately.