History of breakfast cereal in United States

The first manufactured breakfast cereal, it was developed in 1863 by a religious conservative vegetarian, a doctor and health reformer named James Caleb Jackson. He created a breakfast cereal, what he called “granula” from graham flour dough that was dried and broken into shapes so hard they needed to be soaked in milk overnight.

John Harvey Kellogg, another religious vegetarian (specifically, a Seventh Day Adventist) and sanitarium owner, similarly introduced his own version of “granula,” which he named “granola” when Jackson threatened to sue.

As the competition in the cereal industry was heating up, Pillsbury decided to enter the fray with their own cereal, Vitos. Vitos was created in 1897. Like the other early cereals of the time, Vitos were made from wheat.

In 1910s, The Quaker Oats Company, which had acquired a method of forcing rice grains to explode under pressure, began marketing Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat as a breakthrough in food science.

Ralston Purina launched Shredded Ralston in 1936, which is considered an early version of Wheat Chex (via Mr Breakfast). They began using the Chex name in 1950 for Rice Chex, and shortly afterward the company changed Shredded Ralston's name to Wheat Chex.

Starting with World War II, big breakfast cereal companies increasingly started to advertise their products to children. By this time, General Mills also entered the market with Wheaties in the mid-1920s and Kix in the ’30s.

After World War II, cereal consumption increased with the advent of the baby boom, and sugar became a selling point. Kellogg’s invented Frosted Flakes and its pitchman, Tony the Tiger, and a new era of television advertising began. Frosted Flakes was also one of the oldest cereals to be introduced with a cartoon character mascot. Tony the Tiger helped pave the way for the Trix Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun, and others.
History of breakfast cereal in United States

George Westinghouse and his invention

George Westinghouse was one of the most prolific inventors and businessmen of the Industrial Revolution. He was born in Central Bridge, New York, the son of a prosperous machine factory owner. With access to his father's machinery shop, Westinghouse developed a fascination with steam engines.

He served as a private in the cavalry for 2 years during the Civil War before being made Acting Third Assistant Engineer in the Navy in 1864.

Westinghouse received his first patent in late 1865 for a rotary steam engine, after serving in both the U.S. Army and the navy.

Perceiving that increased safety on this new system of transportation was necessary for further development, Westinghouse invented and patented a compressed-air brake system in 1869 to replace the standard manual braking system, which was often faulty. By the time he was 40 years old, he had formed the Westinghouse Air Brake Company.

After establishing the company, Westinghouse turned to improve rail signalling devices through the formation of the Union Switch and Signal Company. In 1883 he applied his knowledge of air brakes to the safe piping of natural gas, and within two years he obtained 38 patents for piping equipment.

Westinghouse became interested in transmitting electricity over long distances. He saw the potential benefits of providing electric power to individual homes and businesses, and in 1884 formed the Westinghouse Electric Company. Prior to the formation of the Electric Company in 1886, Westinghouse invented many devices associated with air brakes, railway switching, signal systems and natural gas, industrializing them for around 20 years.

In 1885, Westinghouse imported a set of Gaulard-Gibbs transformers and a Siemens AC generator and set up an electrical system in Pittsburgh. With the aid of three American electrical engineers, he altered and perfected the transformer and developed a constant voltage AC generator.

Initially, Westinghouse met with resistance from Thomas Edison and others who said that direct current was a safer alternative. Critics argued that alternating current electricity was dangerous and a hazard to health. This idea was emphasized in the public mind by New York state's adoption of alternating current electrocution for capital crimes.

But direct current could not be transmitted over distances longer than three miles. Westinghouse purchased Nikola Tesla's patents and hired him to improve his AC motor for use in Westinghouse's new power system. He formed Westinghouse Electric in 1886 to compete with Thomas Edison's direct current (DC) system.

The fierce competition between Edison and Westinghouse over electricity spilled into a legal battle called The Seven Years War. Still, Westinghouse had the upper hand and ultimately proved AC was the better technology.

Westinghouse demonstrated the potential of alternating current by lighting the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company got the order for the lighting equipment at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. Westinghouse’s system generated alternating current and used a ‘stopper lamp’, evading the famous Edison’s bright lamp patents.

In the same year, the Electric Company secured the rights to develop and install the alternating current generating equipment at the Niagara Falls power station. Afterward, alternating current became the standard means of transmitting electricity.

After the great success achieved in 1893, the Electric Company developed their electrical systems, particularly turbo-generators, by acquiring licenses for the US patents of Person’s turbine in 1895, and began the electric train business.

The first major application of alternating current to railway systems was in the Manhattan Elevated railways in New York, and later in the New York subway system.

Suffering from heart problems, Westinghouse died on March 12, 1914.
George Westinghouse and his invention

Brief history of 7Up

In the village of Price's Branch, Missouri, a Mr Charles Leiper Grigg invented a popular orange drink in 1920 called Howdy. He launched his company as The Howdy Corporation. In order to improve it he marketed another drink in 1929 under the name of “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda,” it was originally formulated with lithium citrate as one of its active ingredients.

The beverage was a caramel-colored, lithiated lemon-lime soda, which he placed as a drink with a "flavor wallop" to market alongside Howdy Orange drink. The sales were bad. At the same time, more than 600 lemon-lime soft drinks were already in the marketplace.

Grigg spent more than two years testing eleven different formulas of lemon-flavored drinks. He settled on one that fulfilled his criteria, being both refreshing and thirst quenching - the drink recognized today as 7UP.

Acknowledging the success of the 7UP trademark, in 1936, C. L. Grigg changed the Corporation’s name from The Howdy Corporation to The Seven-Up Company. By the late 1940s, 7UP had become the third best-selling soft drink in the world.

The company was took over by Westinghouse in 1969 and in June 1978, Philip Morris acquired The Seven Up Company. In early 1987, Cherry 7UP and Diet 7UP were introduced. The target market was young people and it was instant success across the country.

In 1986, investment firm Hicks and Hass bought The Seven Up Company before the latter merged with Dr Pepper in 1988. The Dr Pepper Snapple Group was spun off from Cadbury Schweppes in 2008; it merged with Keurig Green Mountain in 2018 to form Keurig Dr Pepper. Now the rights to the brand of 7UP are held by Keurig Dr Pepper.
Brief history of 7Up

Invention of tin can in United States

An English engraver, Thomas Kensett (1786-1829), who came to the U.S. in 1812, is responsible for the huge tin can industry.  He learned the art in England before his immigration to this country.

When Nicholas Appert invented a method of preserving sterilized food in air-tight bottles, Kensett visualized the possibilities of food in cans.

In 1815, Kensett and his father in-law Ezra Daggert were the first in record canning salmon, lobster and oyster on a site near what is now Battery Park in New York City.

In 1825 they applied for a tin canning patent, the first in United States, and set up a factory, sold canned food to masters of sailing ships. His cans really were of tin; but today, though the name has clung, they are 98 1/2% steel with a thin coating of tin.

Kensett was the first to break away from home kitchen methods and deserves credit for developing the first canned product oysters to receive wide distribution.

True commercial canning operation however was achieved in 1844 when Dragget and Kensett started caning oysters in big volume.

Owing to many adverse conditions the industry was of comparatively small importance until about 1850. During the next few years the development was very rapid and the variety of goods packed increased and included fruits, vegetables, oysters, fish, and meats.
Invention of tin can in United States