Professional Documents
Culture Documents
com/be/moving/society-
history/belgian-inventions-681232/
https://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~bdmdotbe/bdm2013/
documents/belgian%20scientistspdf(1).pdf
1. Contraceptive pill
The first birth control pill produced in the United States in 1957 was riddled with side
effects and it wasn’t until 1961, when Flemish obstetrician and gynecologist Ferdinand
Peeters developed an improved version, that the pill could be widely used by women.
The Belgian doctor’s pill was the first combined oral contraception introduced outside
the US that had ‘acceptable’ side effects and used on a global scale.
Belgium was strictly Catholic at the time of the pill’s creation, forcing Peeters, who was
a conservative Catholic himself, to keep quiet about his experiment to avoid falling foul
of Belgian law and religious prohibition on hormonal contraception. Peeters never
patented his pill, which would likely have earned him a fortune, and instead it was sold
to a German pharmaceutical company and marketed as Anovlar.
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3. Plastic
The revolutionary ‘age of plastic’ can be credited to the invention by Belgian plastics
pioneer Leo Henricus Baekeland, who created the first commercial version of plastic
called Bakelite, inspired by his own name. Bakelite garnered immediate public interest
when it was first introduced to the public in 1909 due to its strength, malleability, heat-
resistance and low production cost. The product’s versatility inspired the company’s
tagline ‘the material of thousand uses’ — and rightfully so as we see today – although
this version of synthetic material fell out of favour as it failed to hold colour as well as
newer plastics.
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4. Cricket
Cricket has long been assumed to be an English invention with references dating to the
1600s but newer academic research suggests that immigrants from northern Belgium
imported the game. The discovery is based on a poem thought to have been written in
1533 by John Skelton, which refers to Flemish weavers as ‘king of crekettes’ and
‘wickettes’ are also mentioned. The weavers were thought to have played the game
near the sheep they herded after settling in England, using shepherds’ crooks as bats.
Perhaps this explains the Flemish saying ‘met de krik ketsen‘ meaning to ‘chase a ball
with a curved stick’.
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5. Inline skates
Today’s roller skates have come a long way from the first creation introduced by Belgian
horologist John Joseph Merlin in 1760. His invention was essentially a pair of ice skates
with wheels instead of blades, similar to today’s inline skates. But steering was difficult
and the roller skates lacked brakes, and Merlin’s design did not become widely popular.
It certainly did not help when a skating performance resulted in him crashing into a
mirror and causing severe injuries. His design, however, led to redesigns that have
morphed roller skates into the popular forms we know today.
6. Mercator projection
When you check an online map for directions or browse the location of a new
restaurant, you’re likely using one of the most-famous Belgian innovations ever created:
the Mercator projection. Created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator,
the Mercator projection is arguably the most popular version of the world map after it
became the first map to factor in the earth’s spherical shape. It has been adapted for
nautical purposes for its ability to preserve constant true directional bearing through its
rhumb lines — straight segments that cut all meridians at the same angle — and allow
navigators to plot a straight-line course.
The Mercator projection, however, is not without faults. Increasing latitudes from the
equator to the poles (where they become infinite) distort the size of objects, making
landmasses like Greenland appear much larger than those near the equator such as
central America when, in reality, Greenland is smaller than the Arabian Peninsula. This
Belgian invention is nonetheless used by Google Maps and many more online services.
7. Saxophone
When Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax strived to fill the gaping musical hole
between woodwind and brass instruments, the saxophone family was born in 1846.
Armed with the vocal force of a brass instrument but with the finesse of a woodwind,
Adolphe Sax created the saxophone with a single-reed mouthpiece and patented two
groups of seven instruments. Saxophones are an adaptive woodwind instrument used
in classical music, jazz and military and marching bands. Without Sax’s tinkering, we
wouldn’t have the famous saxophone riffs in Phil Collins’ One More Night, George
Michael’s Careless Whisper or one of the most recognisable saxophone solos by
renown US saxophonist Clarence Clemens in Bruce Springsteen’s Jungleland.
8. Imodium
If you’ve ever experienced an upset stomach, you may be familiar with the drug
Imodium. Thanks to Belgian doctor Paul Janssen, Imodium – or loperamide as it’s
scientifically known – was first synthesised in his Belgian-based company Jannsen
Pharmaceutica in 1969. The fast-acting medicine is used to decrease the frequency of
symptoms for patients suffering gastroenteritis and bowel issues, and has been listed
on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of essential medicines.
Breziers stumbled across a way to grow blanched endives by enclosing them in dark,
hot and humid areas. Hidden from daylight, the endive was stripped of the green
pigment associated with common chicory. This new white-leafed version exploded onto
Europe’s culinary scene. Belgian endives can be eaten baked, steamed, boiled, grilled
or raw, and feature heavily in Belgian dishes.
12. Asphalt
Belgian chemist Edward de Smedt paved the way for the creation of modern roads with
his invention of asphalt concrete. De Smedt patented his ‘sheet asphalt pavement’ in
1870 while he was working on coal dust problems at Columbia University in New York.
The first applications of his invention were in 1872 at Battery Park and Fifth Avenue in
New York City. De Smedt continued to improve his asphalt mix with bitumen from
different countries until he found a formula that carpeted roads with a smooth, clean
finish.