Made In Spain - Spanish Inventions

When people think of Spain, they normally associate the country with Mediterranean cuisine, bullfighting, sangria, flamenco or afternoon siestas. However, what most people do not know about, is that Spaniards have invented some of the products we use in our everyday lives.

The Mop

One of these products can most certainly be found in every household: The Mop. The Mop was invented by Manuel Jalon Corominas, a Spanish aeronautical engineer. In the 1950s he travelled to the US and saw, how people washed their floor with a cloth there, that they wrung-out through rollers in a bucket. He came up with the idea to produce something similar back home in Spain that would make cleaning much easier for people. There, his friend Emilio Bellvis, who was a mechanic, helped him with the development of the first mop and Corominas set up the mop-producing company Rodex. Today some people question if Bellvis was the “real” father of the mop, as he was the one who designed the mop and bucket as we know them today, and not Corominas. In any case, the mop is a real Spanish invention.

Further Spanish Inventions

Almost everybody knows that tobacco was first used by Native American tribes, long before the first Europeans arrived on the American continent. What most people don’t know is where the first cigarette was rolled. – Yes, in Spain! Beggars there used to collect any waste of tobacco they could find, to roll it up in thin sheets of paper to smoke. In the 1820s, the first cigarettes were being produced and in 1833 the first cigarette packs were sold.

Although the world-famous strategy board game chess has its routs in northwest India, the rules and the game as it is known today were developed in today’s Spain in the late 15^th century. In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, the game was played by the noble culture and the “King’s Game”, as chess was called, was used to teach strategy. Today chess is one of the world’s most popular games, played by millions of people all around the world.

Hardly anybody can imagine their childhood without the next Spanish invention: Chupa Chups lollipops. Enric Bernat came up with the idea of a bonbon on a stick, when he saw a mother scolding her child for its sticky hands it got from melting sweets. In only five years his product was sold in 300.000 outlets, and Chupa Chups would become one of the strongest candy brands in the world.

The origin of the next Spanish product is shrouded in dispute. However, the citizens of Ayelo de Malferit, a small town close to Valencia, claim that the world’s most famous drink, Coca-Cola, originates from their town. In 1880 three friends from the village created an innovative drink made out of Kola nut and coca leaves, which they called “Nuez de Kola Coca”. A few years later the recipe of the drink, that would become the foundation of the most popular soft drink of the world, was sold to a US company.

Spain is famous for its painters, poets, writers, explorers and conquerors, but most certainly not for its inventors. However, as listed above, the country has definitely provided the world with some very useful inventions it can be proud of!