Mercator Projection by Daniel Lizars (1831). Photo: Wikipedia
Nine Benelux inventions that changed the world forever TEXT: ARNE ADRIAENSSENS
The North Sea breeze has always created the perfect biotope for innovation. In all corners of the Low Countries, brainiacs come up with convenient solutions for infuriating problems. If it wasn’t for them, listening to jazz, travelling the globe or de-stressing in front of the TV would be a whole different experience today.
1/ Bluetooth Jaap Haartsen, 1994, the Netherlands Initially, nobody really knew what to do with it; today, you can hardly activate a speaker without it. When Ericsson, the Swedish mobile phone mogul, was on the lookout for a way to make cables which connect different devices obsolete, Jaap Haartsen, an electro technologist in the company’s branch in Emmen, was the one who closed the deal. They baptised it Bluetooth, after the Danish Viking leader Harald I, nicknamed Harald Bluetooth, who was the first to forge connections between Scandinavia and the European mainland. Initially, the service was used to share content from one phone to the next. Today, however, Bluetooth is mainly used for connecting headsets, activating printers and even to track traffic jams. 12 | Issue 67 | July 2019
Photo: Pexels