Answer: Ski Wax

Aerosol cans are an ubiquitous object in the modern world: we use them when styling hair, touching up paint, coating our pans with non-stick spray, and dozens of other applications where a fine and even application of everything from paint to sun screen is desired.

Prior to the 1920s, however, aerosol anything had only existed in a handful of small scientific experiments. That changed in 1926 when Norwegian inventor Erik Rotheim filed a patent in Oslo for the first aerosol can, an invention he’d created in order to make the application of ski wax faster and more efficient.

Photo by Skistar Trysil.