You can blow noses with it, too!
I was looking through a book to find a humorous story since I'm the humorist and general evaluator for Friday's Toastmasters meeting. I ended up having an idea for my next speech: The origins of various products and toys. I wrote a first draft of the speech last night without an ending; a quick reading timed out at about 4.5 minutes, and the speech needs to be 5-7 minutes. I'll add a couple more paragraphs and work on the ending over the next week or so.
Among the items I studied:
--Kleenex was originally called Cellu-Cotton and was invented during World War I as a cotton substitute for dressing wounds. It was also used as a filter for gas masks. A surplus of Cellu-Cotton after the war led the product to be renamed Kleenex Kerchiefs, and marketed to women for use in removing makeup and cold cream. Women later complained to the company that men were using their Kleenex to blow their noses. A survey in the 1920s found 60% of Kleenex buyers used it for nose-blowing, so the marketing was changed to focus on that.
--Scientists intending to create synthetic rubber inadvertently invented materials which would eventually be used to make Silly Putty and Superballs.
--An inventor whose lamp for flowerpots was a failure started a new toy craze by placing a small electric motor inside a model train. Joshua Lionel Cohen used his middle name for the new Lionel train sets. As for his flowerpot lamp idea, Cohen sold the design to a business partner, who eliminated the flowerpots and sold the lamp as the new Eveready Flashlight.
Among the items I studied:
--Kleenex was originally called Cellu-Cotton and was invented during World War I as a cotton substitute for dressing wounds. It was also used as a filter for gas masks. A surplus of Cellu-Cotton after the war led the product to be renamed Kleenex Kerchiefs, and marketed to women for use in removing makeup and cold cream. Women later complained to the company that men were using their Kleenex to blow their noses. A survey in the 1920s found 60% of Kleenex buyers used it for nose-blowing, so the marketing was changed to focus on that.
--Scientists intending to create synthetic rubber inadvertently invented materials which would eventually be used to make Silly Putty and Superballs.
--An inventor whose lamp for flowerpots was a failure started a new toy craze by placing a small electric motor inside a model train. Joshua Lionel Cohen used his middle name for the new Lionel train sets. As for his flowerpot lamp idea, Cohen sold the design to a business partner, who eliminated the flowerpots and sold the lamp as the new Eveready Flashlight.