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adults rather than babies. During that era, most three-dimensional dolls looked like newborns or small children. Handler pushed the Mattel directors in the direction of a three-dimensional adult-bodied doll after seeing the Lilli doll while on a trip to Germany. Handler named her doll Barbie after her daughter, Barbara. It sold for $3, and during the introductory year of 1959, 351,000 Barbie dolls sold.

Barometer
    The first barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure was invented around 1644 in Florence, Italy, by Evangelista Torricelli, Galileo’s secretary. Galileo had suggested that Torricelli use mercury in his vacuum experiments. Torricelli filled a 4-foot-long glass tube with mercury and turned it upside down into a bowl. The tube was sealed at one end and left open at the other. The mercury flowed partly into the bowl and left a vacuum at the sealed top of the glass tube. Some of the mercury did not escape the tube, and after daily observations, Torricelli realized that the mercury was rising and falling due to changes in the weather. Thus the first barometer, reacting to changes in atmospheric pressure, was born.

Baseball Card
    The first true baseball card sets were issued beginning in 1886 by Goodwin and Company of New York City. They numbered several hundred and featured sepia-toned photographs of baseball players. These cards were essentially photos glued to stiff cardboard backings and were popularly called the “Old Judge” cards because the photos were stationary, not action, shots. Some of the cards featured players posing in studio-created backgrounds with props. Action shots showing catches and batter swings were made using innovations such as a baseball suspended on a string, and in many instances, you could see the string in the photo. Other sets featured full-color lithographs of the game’s top stars. These first and foremost cards were quite popular with a public that was increasingly interested in America’s favorite pastime.

Baseball Glove
    In 1870, Doug Allison, a catcher for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, used the first baseball glove in a game because of an injured left hand. That first glove was an adapted leather work glove without full fingers—a far cry from today’s baseball gloves. It was flesh colored to be as inconspicuous as possible, and had a large, round opening in the back for ventilation. Small sheets or strips of leather were inserted into the glove for extra padding. It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact first player to wear a glove for fielding purposes, but it’s logical that the catcher would have been the first position player to wear one because he handled hundreds of pitches and dealt with foul tips. Although at first, wearing a glove labeled the player as a “sissy” by many, it slowly caught on to more and more players.

Baseball Stadium
    The first stadium, or enclosed baseball park, opened on May 15, 1862, after proprietor William Cammeyer put a fence around the Union Grounds in Brooklyn, New York. (With the fence came the over-the-fence homerun; before then, batted balls hit between outfielders could seemingly roll forever.) This crude stadium’s farthest outfield wall was 500 feet from home plate, and the right-field wall was 350 feet away. The stadium featured wooden bleachers (a fire hazard) behind home plate and partially up the foul lines for spectators. The stadium’s capacity was around 1,500, and on April 18, 1869, Union Grounds featured the first non-All-Star game that had a cover charge. Admission was 10¢, and the game featured local players. Onlookers and fans who didn’t get to sit lined the outfield fences four and five deep. In winter, this first baseball stadium was used as an ice-skating rink.

Baseball Uniform
    It was April 24, 1849, when the first professional team, the Knicker bocker Base Ball Club of New York City (New York Knickerbockers), officially adopted team uniforms. Owner Alexander Cartwright chose white flannel shirts with a