Category: Open Lines

One of the nation’s most successful brand names went on sale for the first time this month in 1913–Camel cigarettes, the first pre-blended, packaged cigarettes. While machine-rolled cigarettes had been around since 1881, Camel was the first brand to become nationally popular. Coincidentally, Camels pioneered the now almost universal 20-cigarette pack. By 1919, with increasing advertising and product availability, cigarettes overtook pipe tobacco in the number of pounds consumed. Shortly after World War II, about 45 percent of Americans smoked. …

Everyone is a potential crime victim, and October is when government agencies, civic groups, schools, businesses, and youth organizations join in trying to reduce the threat. This is National Crime Prevention Month, with special awareness and education events planned across the country. During this time, we are all encouraged to help reduce violence, drugs and property crimes with efforts at three levels — family, neighborhood and community. Suggestions include setting up a neighborhood watch program, making sure streets and individual …

An invention was demonstrated on this date in 1879 that lit the way for a dramatic change in the rhythm of Americans’ daily lives. At his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory, Thomas Edison set up the first incandescent light bulb, which burned for almost 14 hours. Within a few years, some cities had installed electric streetlights. The number of homes across the U.S. with electricity grew steadily, but even in 1940, more than one-in-five houses was without power. Today, there …

Hotels and motels have long competed for customers on the comfort and amenities of their rooms. Long before cable, Wi-Fi, coffeemakers and hair dryers entered the picture, more basic things were offered as lures. This month in 1829, the 170-room Tremont hotel in Boston became the first in young America to be considered a modern, first-class lodging. It was distinguished by the availability of single rooms, with keys for the guests, and plumbing in the basement bathrooms. Uniquely, the Tremont …

One of the foundations of modern business and science– the accessibility of accurate calculations — was reinforced this month in 1887 when a patent was granted to Dorr Eugene Felt for the first adding machine known to be absolutely accurate at all times. Felt called his machine the “comptometer,” and some models were still in use a half-century later. The comptometer had the mechanical calculator market to itself until 1902. Adding machines — soon joined by punch cards — remained …

Today marks an anniversary that should please America’s power shoppers. On this date in 1868, the first full-line department store in the U.S. was organized in Salt Lake City. Called “Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution,” it opened the next year. The idea of the department store soon spread around the country, hailed for the convenience such retail powerhouses offered consumers and becoming points of civic pride. The era of the classic, high-rise downtown department store has been eclipsed, but modern equivalents …

October is National Seafood Month, celebrating a nutrient rich food that is a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Because it really does turn out to be brain food, government and health organizations recommend eating two seafood meals each week. Seafood used to be mostly confined to the coastal regions, but with advances in frozen food and the speed of distribution, just about every kind of fish and shellfish is available all through the country. Americans eat an average …

This is National School Lunch Week — a name that probably conjures up visions of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and other, more mysterious substances. But it’s time to note the wholesome lunches being served every day to schoolchildren across the nation and to thank the many patient people who prepare and serve them. There is a recognized link between having a good meal and the ability of a child to learn. This led to the National School Lunch Act …

With the national median age being 37 years, a bare majority of the country’s population can remember life in what might strike young people as a bleak, dark and difficult age. Practically unimaginable today, there was a time when the ubiquitous cell phone didn’t exist. Around 45 years ago, Amtrak offered a version of cellular technology, using payphones on its Metroliners. The first modern cell phone was introduced on this date in 1983 in Chicago. It was demonstrated in a …

Something that we all take for granted made its appearance on this date in 1933, when the first household detergent — named Dreft, and still in production — went on sale. The chemistry of making soap had changed little over hundreds of years, until shortages of fats for making soap during World War I sparked research. Detergents really took off following World War II, and by 1953, their sales had passed those of traditional soaps. Now, detergents have all but …

On this date in 1873, a sturdy and somber-looking building opened its doors to admit 17 long-term residents. Then it promptly closed and locked those doors. With the opening of the Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls in Indianapolis, the country had its first maximum-security penitentiary built for and managed by women. Formerly, female convicts were imprisoned in male facilities where they suffered abuse from male guards and inmates. The reformatory remains locked for business to this day, now …

Each morning, millions of Americans exhale the traditional weary sighs, as the alarm goes off and they have to face the ever-lengthening round-trip commute to work. However, a small but growing number of people are not in that situation–and that’s why this is National Work From Home Week. Available mostly to so-called white-collar occupations, employers all over the country have found that technology has enabled grateful and motivated employees to perform necessary work without their physical presence in an office …

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” This quote is widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, but whatever the source, many people agree with the sentiment. One advance in such moral progress occurred on this date in 1868, when the first collegiate veterinary department in the U.S. began its instruction at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The country’s first veterinary doctorate was awarded in 1876 to Daniel Salmon, …

October is a special month in the history of handling data. In a month that holds the anniversaries of the first adding machine and the tentative birth of the Internet, October is also when the first all-electronic calculations were performed on an experimental computer. John Vincent Atanasoff was an associate professor in mathematics and physics at Iowa State College. Beginning in September 1939 with a $650 grant from the school, and with the help of a top engineering student, he …

U.S. based manufacturers receive new orders every month worth close to a half-trillion dollars. To underscore the health and prospects of this economic sector, today is the third annual Manufacturing Day, with activities staged across the country by American companies. The focus is a series of open houses to show the breadth and vitality of American manufacturing innovation and quality, and illustrate the need for skilled employees. Currently, over 11 and quarter million Americans work in this sector. The 2012 …

The nature of American neighborhoods began to take on a new look this week in 1947. That’s when one of the first planned communities built by a real estate developer opened and began receiving its new residents–Levittown, in New York. Named for William and Alfred Levitt, the town ultimately contained more than 17,000 Cape Cod and ranch houses, snapped up by servicemen returning from World War Two and facing an acute housing shortage. The houses in Levittown had 800 square …

On this date in 1785, the first city directory in the United States was published. Fittingly, it was in the young country’s place of birth — Philadelphia. The directory’s title was the unwieldy “Macpherson’s Directory, for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia, extending to Prime-Street, southward; Maiden-Street, northward; and from the River Delaware to Tenth-Street, westward.” It contained 6,250 resident names. The 1790 Census found Philadelphia’s population to be just over 28,500, making it America’s second largest urban place, behind …

On this date in 1882, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operating on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. Inspired by Thomas Edison, a man named H.F. Rogers built the facility using a water wheel to power the lights in the Appleton Paper and Pulp Company, a nearby building, and his home. Soon, hydroelectric power plants were spurring industrial growth in many parts of the country. Today, water-generated electricity accounts for around 6.75 percent of power in the U.S., …

As September’s National Honey Month ends tomorrow, Wisconsin — the land of milk — hosts the opening of the World Dairy Expo, running through Saturday. Cattle call is by noon, Central Time today, as all of the show animals must be on the expo grounds in Madison. Farmers, producers and others attending will see some of the best dairy cattle, learn about genetics, profit margins, and even cow comfort, while mingling with some thousands of dairy men and women from …

National Rehabilitation Awareness Week ends tomorrow. One of goals of the annual event is to salute the determination of the nation’s 56.7 million residents who confront their disabilities as they go about their daily lives. Another is to say thanks to the thousands of rehabilitation professionals, such as the nation’s 204,000 physical therapists, who help those in need adapt to and overcome their disabilities. About 18 percent of the population is living with some form of disability; half of them …