There were near riots today in 1939 when a new item of ladies' doo-dahs went on sale for the first time in the USof A. They were stockings, which had been around for centuries, but they were made of a new synthetic stuff called nylon. Stronger and sheerer than silk (and you don't need worms to make it) it's cheap and cheerful and much easier to wash and dry. it was patented two years earlier by the Du Pont Company and invented by W H Carothers who died soon afterwards. i don't mean any disrespect to Mr Carothers when I say that this was probably just as well or we'd have dodgy men sneaking into ladies' lingerie departments of big stores and asking for 'a pair of Carothers, please.' Doesn't sound quite right, does it?
In other news ...
The first cheque was signed 353 years ago in England when Nicholas Vanacker wrote one to a creditor. The idea was to dispense with coinage as a letters of credit and to try and compete with the sophisticated Lombard banking system. Messrs Barclays announced just yesterday that Mr Vanacker's cheque should clear within the next five working days.
