The first chewing gum was the flavorless Adams New York Chewing Gum.
Snapping and Stretching was developed by New York inventor Thomas Adams and introduced in 1871.
Flavored gum followed in 1875, and bubble gum a decade after that.
Pockets did not come into fashion until the end of the sixteenth century. Before that time, men carried their keys and money in pieces of cloth attached to their clothing. The first pocket was an open-side seam in which men placed their pouch of personal items. Eventually the pocket became a permanent part of the…
The phrase belongs to President Theodore Roosevelt, who, while visiting Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee, drank a cup of Maxwell House coffee and was offered a refill. He is said to have replied, “Will I have another? Delighted! It’s good to the last drop!” By the way, there actually was a Maxwell…
LSMFT means Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco. It was the creation of George Washington Hill, son of Buck Duke, founder of the American Tobacco Company. The slogan, introduced in the early 1940s, became so popular that by 1944 its acronym, L.S.M.F.T., was printed on the bottom of every Lucky Strike package.
Called celluloid, it was invented in 1869 by American John Wesley Hyatt. This cellulose nitrate and camphor mixture, though flammable, was strong and pliable enough for use in a variety of common household items. Eventually it was replaced by less flammable synthetic polymers.
What we now know as the inch (from Latin uncia, or “12th part”) was defined as 112 foot by the Romans. It was roughly a thumb’s breadth, while a foot was roughly the length of a human foot. The Romans introduced the inch to Britain, where it was incorporated into the English system of weights…
The chair dates from the third and sixth dynasties of Egypt (c. 2686-2181 B.C.). These early chairs often had legs shaped like animal limbs.