Baron George Wrangell, descendant of Russian and Italian royalty was the Man in the Hathaway Shirt.
He was working as an artist’s model before advertising executive David Ogilvy chose him for the Hathaway advertisements in the late 1940s.
The eye-patch (cost: 50 cents) was Ogilvy’s idea.
The Rubik’s Cube was designed by and named after Erno Rubik. It is made of 27 subcubes that rotate on horizontal and vertical axes. Rubik was a teacher of architecture and design at the School for Commercial Artists in Budapest.
There are nine nuts per ounce in each box of Cracker Jack, a smaller proportion than in the original 1893 box. But there is a prize, and that didn’t become part of the package until 1913.
According to George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, the name is his invention: “I knew a trade name must be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled . . . and in order to satisfy trademark laws, it must mean nothing. . . . The letter k had been a favorite with me, it seemed a…
Manholes are round so that their covers cannot be dropped through the manhole itself. Squares, rectangles, ovals, and other shapes could be so positioned that they would slip into the manhole. The circular manhole cover rests on a lip that is smaller than the cover. Thus, the size and shape keep the manhole cover from…
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.
BVD does not stand for, as once believed, “Baby’s Ventilated Diapers” or “Boys’ Ventilated Drawers”. Instead, it stands for the three founders of the company, Bradley, Voorhees, and Day.