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I was reading a post by Toolmaker51, in which he mentioned: "Wiremold is not only a generic item name but an actual brand as well".
Toolmaker51 was defining a "generic trademark" - a brand name that becomes so popular that it is eventually synonymous with its general product. For example: Band-Aid, Kleenex, Thermos, and...
...Dumpster.
George Roby Dempster was an industrious homemade tool builder who invented the Dempster-Dumpster in 1935.
Dempster eventually held dozens of patents, but it looks like this was the big one:
Interestingly, the dumpster was not originally intended for refuse, but for general construction work. As a younger man, Dempster hoboed around the country before finding work on the Panama Canal as a steam shovel operator, where he saw the need for such a tool.
However, around the 1930s, large American cities were becoming plagued by the buildup of trash, and Dempster's invention found a perfect use in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee - one of America's first "Dumpster Cities".
Dempster's invention was so appreciated by city dwellers that he was elected mayor! History speaks kindly of him as both a professional civic leader, and a guy who knew how to git 'er done.
Dempster died in 1964, and his funeral is described as the largest one ever held in Knoxville.
More:
Orginal dumpster patent
Classic Refuse Trucks DEMPSTER
Fountain City History
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