U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for October 27: The Write Stuff
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
THE WRITE STUFF
Profile America — Tuesday, October 27th. The scene this week in 1945 at Gimbel's department store in New York City was shopping chaos. Big ads in the city papers had heralded the first sale in the U.S. of a new writing instrument. One that was guaranteed to write for two years without refilling — the ballpoint pen. By the end of the day, the store had sold its entire stock of 10,000 at $12.50 each. The idea of the ballpoint pen was first patented in 1888 by John Loud of Massachusetts. Mister Loud never made any pens, and so disappeared quietly into history. Now, ballpoints are the standard for pens. Vast selections are offered by the nation's nearly 7,000 stationary and office supply stores, which employ some 86,000 workers. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.
Sources:
Kane's Famous First Facts, 8154
Ballpoint pen story: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm
John Loud: http://americanprofile.com/articles/john-j-loud-patented-first-rolling-point-writing-pen/
Office supply and stationary stores/NAICS 45321: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=BP_2013_00A1&prodType=table
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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