1884
IT HAPPENED IN…1884
Montgomery Ward’s 240 page mail-order catalog
offered 10,000 items with a guarantee that unsatisfactory
merchandise could be returned at the company’s expense.
The newly patented linotype mechanical
typesetting machine created metal slugs containing text the width of
a newspaper column, ending the slow setting of type letter by letter
and advancing the use of color in printing.
Louis Waterman invented a practical fountain pen.
Filling required use of an eyedropper.
Hand-cranked, tabletop reed organs were popular
for home use.
The cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty pedestal
was laid.
Mark Twain published
The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn.
Grover Cleveland was elected U.S. President.
The Washington Monument was completed in
December, 36 years after work began.
Satisfied with the results of his advertisement
placed in an 1883 Harper’s
Magazine Advertiser, Hires repeated the listing with only slight
modifications to the text in 1884:
(Figure 1884-01,
Harper’s Magazine
Advertiser)
Charles E. Hires Company sales for 1884 were listed
as 45,216 bottles.