White noise began as a cure for noisy neighbors

You might use soothing static to drift off peacefully, but the original intent was purely born out of spite. In the 1960s, a traveling salesman grew incredibly tired of listening to the loud, obnoxious people in the adjoining motel rooms. He built the first electromechanical sound conditioner simply to drown out the nuisance, accidentally creating a cornerstone of modern sleep hygiene.