When Lou and Emory Upton started building electric motor-driven wringer washing machines 100 years ago, the world was a different place. Electrical appliances were considered to be luxury items. Most people hung their wet laundry outdoors to air dry and refrigerators were called “ice chests.” Automatic dishwashers were unheard of.

Here’s a brief look at some events that were occurring elsewhere in the world in 1911:

  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory fire killed 146 people in New York City. The disaster brought the issue of workplace safety to national attention and resulted in the revision of fire codes throughout the United States.
  • Ragtime music was popular, thanks to composers such as Scott Joplin.
  • Popular songs included “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Goodnight Ladies” and “I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad).”
  • The Chevrolet Motor Car Co. was formed in Detroit by Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss immigrant who was a popular race car driver, and entrepreneur Billy Durant (he believed that Chevrolet’s reputation as a racer would help sell cars, so the company was named after him).
  • George V was crowned King of England after the death of Edward VII.
  • The neon lamp was invented in France.
  • Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole.
  • The inaugural Indianapolis 500 motor race was won by Ray Harroun. His Marmon Wasp averaged 75 mph and featured an innovation called a rearview mirror.
  • A 10-day aviation meet in Chicago’s Grant Park attracted competitors from around the world. New records were set for speed (50 mph) and altitude (4,980 feet).
  • At the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, thousands of workers were finishing construction of the largest ship in the world. Engineers boasted that the 882-foot-long Titanic was “unsinkable.”
  • Popular car brands included Studebaker/EMF, Willys-Overland and Maxwell. Luxury automakers included Lozier and Pierce-Arrow.
  • Henry Ginaca invented an automated pineapple processing machine. The machine increased average production from 15 to 50 pineapples per minute and helped transform the Hawaiian economy.
  • General Motors became the first automaker listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
  • Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize for chemistry in recognition of her work on radioactivity.
  • Henry Ford won a landmark patent case. An appellate court ruled that Ford’s engine did not fall within the scope of a controversial patent held by George Selden.
  • Government regulators began paying attention to big business. Two weeks after issuing a landmark antitrust ruling against Standard Oil Co., the U.S Supreme Court issued a similar decision that broke up the American Tobacco Co.
  • The world’s first electric starter was introduced on a Cadillac. It eliminated the need for hand cranking.
  • Popular magazines like Colliers, Country Gentleman and Harper’s Weekly advertised products such as Edison phonographs , Mallory hats and Underwood typewriters.
  • Painted center lines first appeared on highways near Detroit.
  • The 792-foot Woolworth Building in New York City became the tallest structure in the world.
  • The first Monte Carlo Rally was staged along twisty roads in the Swiss Alps.
  • The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. was formed in Endicott, NY. Today, the company is called IBM.
  • New inventions included air conditioning, cellophane and vitamins.
  • A Benz set the world land speed record at Daytona Beach, FL, with a top speed of 142 mph.
  • Calbraith Perry Rodgers became the first person to fly coast to coast in the United States. His Wright EX biplane (dubbed the Vin Fiz after a popular grape-flavored soft drink) took 82 hours (spread over 84 days) to fly from Long Island, NY, to Long Beach, CA.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the following words debuted in 1911:

  • Airspace.
  • Allergy.
  • Gene.
  • Neon
  • Outcry.
  • Pinball
  • Psychoanalyst.
  • Scenario
  • Sex symbol
  • Speedboat.
  • Studio.
  • Undercarriage.
  • Visual aid.
  • Wind tunnel.