1878
IT HAPPENED IN…1878
Yellow fever swept thru the South and as far
north as Ohio, with an estimated 14,000 fatalities.
Cigars and whiskey were recommended by some as remedies.
The steamer
J. M.
White set a speed record traveling up the
Mississippi River from New Orleans to St. Louis in three days, 23
hours, 9 minutes.
Henry Putnam patented his external, swing-type
Lightning bottle stopper.
In
addition to the advertising copy used in 1877, a “Sample Package mailed
on receipt of 25 cents.” was added to this newspaper listing.
Offering samples via mail proved a highly successful way to
promote Hires’ Root Beer for home use and a major Hires marketing
initiative for decades.
(Figure
1878-01, The
Indiana Progress, Indiana, Pennsylvania, July 25,
1878)
A June 14, 1893
Public Ledger article provides details on the initial manufacturing
and packaging of Hires Root Beer Extract, and the changes generated by
increasing demand for the product:
A Modest Beginning.
The beginning of this great business was a very modest one.
Mr. Hires commenced making the extract by boiling the roots,
barks, etc., in a five gallon kettle.
One young lady was able to bottle all the product without
overworking herself. The
first year 1000 packing boxes were made, and just 864 bottles were sold.
In five years the five gallon kettle gave way to a 20 gallon
copper kettle and the extract was made in barrel lots.
Three years later, the increase in business had been so wonderful
that a 100 gallon kettle was necessary and a 75 gallon percolator.
A percolator is a funnel shaped arrangement from which the
extract drips into receptacles.
Now, a large steam boiler, of more than 300 gallons capacity is
necessary; there is a large press of 80 tons pressure to the square
inch, which will press the life-giving properties out of three barrels
of roots at a time, and there are four 100 gallon percolators running
night and day. The extract
is made up in tanks of a capacity of 300 gallons each, and four of these
are going constantly. More
than 100 girls are employed in bottling, packing and casing the extract.
And there are 75 men and girls in the office and shipping room,
this number including a corps of experienced salesmen, who are
travelling the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the sunny
slopes of the Gulf to the ice-bound lakes of the North.
And all this accomplished in fifteen years!
