1892 - Everyday Life

Everyday Life

Luggage maker Louis Vuitton dies at Paris February 17 at age 70; his son Georges takes over the firm the Vuitton began in 1854 (see 1898).

Chicago salesman William Wrigley, Jr., 30, starts selling chewing gum, now being made by at least 12 companies (see Adams, 1872). Wrigley started as a soap salesman, offered baking powder as a premium to his wholesale soap customers, switched to selling baking powder, has offered two packages of chewing gum with each can of powder, and has been so encouraged by the response that he turns all his efforts to selling gum (see 1893).

The $1 Ingersoll pocket watch is introduced by Michigan-born New York novelty promoter Robert Hawley Ingersoll, 33, who has built up a business selling by mail order and to chain stores. He has bought 1,000 "clock-watches" from the Connecticut-based Waterbury Clock Company, devises a selling plan based on common terms, common prices, a guarantee, and the Ingersoll name (to combat unscrupulous competitors). "The watch that made the dollar famous" is a huge success, more than 70 million will be sold by 1919, but Ingersoll's company will be insolvent by 1921 and he will sell its assets to Waterbury in 1922 (see Timex, 1946).

Hamilton Watch Company is founded at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by entrepreneur James Hamilton and 17 subscribers who take over the 18-year-old Adams and Perry watch factory that has been forced to suspend operations. Hamilton adds a new wing to the plant and introduces a "turnip" pocket watch designed by Harry J. Cain: it is the first Hamilton watch to meet the Time Inspection Rules established by U.S. railroads last year after a bad accident. The "watch of railroad accuracy" will remain in production for 33 years.

Cold cream is introduced by New York apothecaries V. Chapin Daggett and Clifford Ramsdell, who substitute white mineral oil for the perishable vegetable oils that have been used until now and create a product that does not turn rancid.

New York's first Columbus Day parade steps off October 12; Il Progresso Italo-Americano publisher Carlo Barsotti started his paper 11 years ago and has run editorials urging that the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America be celebrated, although not all historians agree that Christopher Columbus was Genoese.

Book matches are patented by Philadelphia lawyer Joshua Pusey, who licenses the Diamond Match Company of Barberton, Ohio, to produce them (see Lundstrom, 1853). Diamond Match will sell advertising on its matchbook covers beginning in 1898 (the Mendelson Opera Co. will be the first to use matchbook ads), but the matches contain poisonous white phosphorus (it will be replaced by safer chemicals in 1911).