I know there are many products on the market that carry the name of the first one of its kind...Kleenex, Ketchup etc. thanks Bill, I edited my typo
I'm interested in products that have the name of their inventor...eg. it is thought by some that the sandwich got its name from the Earl of Sandwich. This now seems to have been discounted but you get the jist.
Caesarian section seems to be one. Legend has it that Caesar was the first to be born by this method, et voila it now carries his name.
I don't know what the Poloroid company made, before it made instant photo cameras, but they were alway Poloriod Land Cameras after Land (first name?) the man who invented the process.
Teddy bears; Baby Ruth candy bars; Franklin stove; stetson hat; Listerine Condom (inventor: the earl of condom, the knighted personal physician of the pleasure-loving King Charles II of England)
Cracker Jack ("Jack" being a slangy equivalent of "John Doe")
BTW: Kleenex was not named for a person. During WWII, cotton being in short supply, the Kimberly Clark company developed a synthetic absorbant material (called Cellucotton; used in surgical dressings and gas masks). When the war ended they cast about for commercial applications to which their stockpiled material and productive plant could be turned. The first successful application was Kleenex (promoted as a disposable towel for cleaning off make-up; it was the customers who discovered the current usage); a later one was Kotex.
Dear belMarduk: I wonder if "Ketchum" is a typo for "Ketchup". The history of ketchup is interesting enough that below there is a URL about it. The first Kleenex appeared over seventy years ago, and I still remember what a blessing it was not to have to use sandpaper muslin on my abraded proboscis any more. There is a URL to history of Cesarean Section, which says Julius was not born this way, but passed a law about it. You have to scroll down a ways.
Bill, kecap in Indonesian or Malay doesn't mean the red stuff you might dunk your french fries into, that's saus tomat. Kecap is what we could call soy sauce, and comes in two flavours asam (sour or savoury) and manis (sweet).
Dear Bingley: people just can't resist changing things. The people in Rhode Island even put tomatoes into chowder. There ought to be a law......Incidentally, as recently as the;youth of one of my grandfathers, tomatoes were thought unsafe to eat.
I was told that "Manhattan" clam chowder made with tomato instead of cream - as is New England clam chowder - is because some religions' dietary laws forbid mixing fish and milk. I am open to correction. Anyone? *Not a food thread, rather an effort to learn.
Ketchup isn't always the ubiquitous tomato type. I have seen several recipes for walnut ketchup, which seems to be something like chutney, which would make it like what Bingley alluded to.
What immediately came to my mind is graham flour, which is used to make graham crackers. This is a type of whole-meal flour, supposedly more healthy, invented in the late 19th century by a physician named Graham.
Then there are automobiles: Ford, Chevrolet, Studebaker, Dodge, Kaiser, Henry J (this and the preceding being named for the same person), Frazier, Oldsmobile and Reo (for Ransom E. Olds), Benz, Duesenberg, Citroen, Panhard, Morris, Rolls-Royce, etc. etc., as well as Harley-Davidson.
Barbie doll; peach melba; melba toast; frisbee; bloomers; derby; bakelite. Bunsen burner? hooker (if same can be considered a product rather than a service) leotard ("19th century French trapeze artist Jules Leotard. In the clinging costume that became his trademark, Leotard enjoyed a large female following. And he advised men [to] 'put on a more natural garb, which does not hide your best features.'"
Dr. Bill, as you requested: my source for most of this is Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. You may well enjoy the and other similar Panati works. (As to the particular item you questioned, Panati say his explanation is "according to legend".)
I don't know about Barbie, Ken. And according to the terms set out by BelM in her original post, melba toast and peach melba don't qualify -- neither were invented by Nellie Melba, they were named for her, as was the case with Chicken Tetrazzini, Spaghetti Caruso, Tournedos Rossini et al. However, Sauce Béchamel would qualify.
See your point, byb. Was unsure if the first post required the "person" to be the "inventor" (contrast post's text with its header), but decided (see my prior header) we'd come up with more if we allowed the broader view.
My info is that the Barbie doll was named after Barbie Handler, whose parents (Elliot and Ruth) had founded Mattel toy. It was Ruth who designed that doll (the first "full figure" doll, in 1958, after noting that her daughter noting that her daughter ignored the typical cherub-type doll and preferred more shapely teenage paper dolls.
[sigh] This is what happens when food gets mentioned.
Bob, what exactly do you mean by chutney? What I know as chutney (which I've never seen here by the way except in Indian restaurants, and there's only about half a dozen of those in Jakarta) is completely different from kecap .
If you go to the town of Ashcutney, It is no use to ask them for chutney. You may beg, plead and wheeze And get down on your knees; It will do you no good -- they ain't gutney.
But in the spirit of never posing a problem without offering a solution: reply: In the village emporium of Woodstock, Of chutney they keep quite a good stock. They're more given to gluttony Than the folk of Ashcutney, Who neither of liquors nor foods talk.
Bob will have to pull out his book of regualions, and definations, but most cookbooks define chutney as a condiment, made of fruits, vinegar, spice and sugar. I have made pear ginger chutney, with more spice and sugar, and other chutneys with more vinegar and spice. they are usually lumpy, with solid pieces of fruit. american ketchup started as a chutney, that became sweeter and milder, and creamer with time. it, like many a word, has strayed far from its roots, so that it is almost unrecognizable. but it is fruit (tomato) with vinegar (not too much,) spice (even less) and sugar (way to much!)
car frames are still called a chaise. Chaise has been a word in english since 1701 or so.. do you think some one from the 1700's would recognize the object as being the same? i am sure there are better examples, too. -- it not so much a food thread, as a measurement of the way a word can be different things to different people.
Of course, she confused matters by mentioning Cćserian section as an example. Even if Julie *was the first, he could hardly be considered the inventor.
of troy, that's more or less what I would recognise as chutney as well. Mango chutney is particularly popular in Britain. Kecap is more like maple syrup in appearance and is added to sauces, soups, and so on.
Not certain if this qualifies, bel, but in woodworking one is constantly hazarded by pieces of wood that can get out of control in a powered saw environment. Many of us use a heavy mesh between us and the saw to cut down on injury. Due to the eight lines above and the six lines below the waist they are referred to as Shakespearian saw-nets. I buy mine in Lisbon.
yes-- of course you are right Max-- that word (chassis) disappeared from the dictionary this morning.. and now that you have posted, it has reluctantly reappeared -- to chastise me.. mea culpa..
my head, never quite screwed on straight, has been left behind several times in the past week or two.. i must get back in the habit of keeping it with me.. the thing i ever mind losing is my mind.. fortunately i never misplaced it for long..
This thread started out about products bearing names of persons creating them. So far nobody has alluded to the dozens and dozens of automobiles named after founders of the company. Or even models named after some famous person in the industry, such as Chevrolet, a French racing driver, who incidentally invented the rear vision mirror.
P.S. To my chagrin, URL about auto racing history says George Chevrolet was an American!
So far nobody has alluded to the dozens and dozens of automobiles named after founders of the company
But of course, BYB did.
Was there a Mr. Rolls and a Mr. Royce then BYB?
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Yup, Caesar could hardly have been the inventor of the 'section' since he was allegedly the outcome of one. (Bill, I haven't checked out your post yet so if I'm off on this mea culpa)
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See now, when you are unclear about what you want, the conversation inevitably turns to food again. Take careful note for future reference ladies. That little bit of wisdom should come in handy one of these days. Be precise! Cause the next time you suggest a little snack off he'll go to the kitchen.
Yup, Caesar could hardly have been the inventor of the 'section' since he was allegedly the outcome of one.
Well, whaddabout the salad, then?
By the way, I'm not altogether pleased with the Caesar dressing recipe I normally use; if any of you culinary masters have a fantabulous one and would like to send it by private, I'd be much obliged
The Thomas Crapper reference can be found in published sources, but they cite no sources. It appears to be a myth perpetrated by Flushed with Pride: The Short of Thomas Crapper, (1969) by Wallace Reyburn. Panati (who I cited above) writes: The book reads for long stretches as serious biography, but the accumulation of toilet humor puns, double entendres, and astonishing coincidences eventually reveals Wallace Reyburn's hoax." [examples omitted]
Again according to Panati, the Titzling account is another Reyburn creation. In Bust Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling" (1971) Reyburn informs us that Otto Titzling, assisted by a Dane named Hans Delving, created a bra for Sweden's greatest female athlete, Lois Lung. Titzling later brought suit for patent infringement against a Frenchman, Philippe de Brassiere.
Reyburn's account has been accepted and cited in later references!
Can anyone find out if Reyburn is still alive? If so, we've got to get him on this board!
My apologies to BYB. I have been driven nuts by agonizingly slow changes from window to window, and missed his. Back in the twenties there were so many odd-ball car companies, that we had a game of sitting on the curb, watching the cars, and seeing who could be first to identify each car as it came into view. "My Moon!" "My Essex!" "My Peerless!" "My Pierce Arrow!" "My Franklin!" There were so many different ones each kid's score was fairly large.
Well, since Ted hasn't said anything to keep us in stitches, I guess I'll have to mention that it was Elias Howe who invented the first modern sewing machine. Howe he did it makes for a howeling good story. It's said he dreamed of needles with the holes in the wrong end. I guess he got it awl wrong.
>Incidentally, as recently as the;youth of one of my grandfathers, tomatoes were thought unsafe to eat.
Talking to friends with elderly relatives here in Scotland that seemed to apply to almost all non root vegetables until fairly recently! .... OK I've made it white, it's a foodie thingy, .... back to the land of the deep fried Mars Bar ... oh, maybe that is relevant, I can post that ...
Mars bars (they are different in the UK to the ones in the USA but that is another story) were named after Forrest Mars.
M&Ms too (we used to call them "Treats", unless they were a different company, possibly because we didn't have Hershey's chocolate here) The first M was Mars, the second M stands for Bruce Murrie, who was the son of the president of Hershey, Mars’ biggest competitor. Mars put up 80% of the capital, Bruce Murrie 20%. The explanation for this unusual joint venture was that chocolate was rationed during WWII, but not for Hershey’s, which produced chocolate for the troops. By setting up in business in this way, M&Ms had a guaranteed source of chocolate. (Mars soon bought the younger Murrie out, but M&Ms continued to be made with Hershey’s chocolate through the 60s.)
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