 |
 Harry Ford
Sinclair was a failure as a
druggist, but was a huge success in the oil
business. He founded Sinclair Oil
and Refining Corporation on May 1, 1916, and it
was the largest independent oil company in the
country by World War I. |
 Mentholatum
was invented by former real estate mogul A.A.
Hyde in Wichita, Kansas, in 1894. An instant
success locally, , the medicinal ointment enjoyed
nationwide popularity by 1903, and had become a
worlwide product by 1913. |
 Arthur
Hoyt Valentine founded a chain of
diners housed in small, prefabricated buildings,
and then founded his own line of portable,
prefabricated buildings known as Valentine
Diners, which came with everything necessary to
start a restaurant -- the kitchen,
counter, stools, lighting and plumbing fixtures,
and even a bathroom. |
 William
Coffin Coleman was selling
typewriters when he came across a gasoline-fueled
lamp that gave off such a bright
glow he could actually read by it. He
subsequently bought the company that made the
lamp, and the Coleman Company is now a world
leader in portable camping and other recreational
equipment. |
 Henry Ford
introduced the Model T in 1908. Initially sold
for $850 each, he was able to reduce the price to
$290 by 1915. By the time the last Model T rolled
off the assembly line in 1927, some 15 million of
them had been sold. |
 The Industrial
Workers of the World was organized in Chicago on June 27,
1905, by opponents of the moderate policies in
the labor movement. It wanted to bring all
workers of each industry into one industrial
union, and sought to overturn the capitalist
system and set up a socialist government. |
 Gustavus
Franklin Swift began his meat
packing and shipping business by purchasing a
heifer for $19, butchering and selling it, and
then using his $10 profit to repeat the process. |
 Russell
Stover Candies began with an
investment interest in the Eskimo Pie which led
to the opening of the first Mrs. Stover's
Bungalow Candies store in 1923. By mid-1940s
Russell Stover Candies was a multi-million dollar
enterprise. Today it is the largest producer of
hand-dipped chocolates in the world. |
