Toothpicks, Worldwide Items

Before the toothbrush was invented, people used to clean his teeth with a wooden tooth cleaners are hard or soft. Toothpicks made ​​of bronze have been found among the items buried in the tombs of pre-history in northern Italy and in the Eastern Alps.

In the 17th century, toothpick considered the equivalent of a luxury jewelery, because it is made of precious metals adorned with precious stones. Until now no one has claimed to be the inventor of a toothpick. So, who owns a smart idea to mass-produce a toothpick?

Charles Forster, a man born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1826. In his teens, he worked with his uncle who runs a business of export / import in Brazil.

At that time he saw most of the teeth look neat native Brazil. He found a reason that makes teeth Brazil neat people, namely the use of wooden toothpicks are made manually. From there, came the idea of ​​making wooden toothpick making machine. Forster then embrace Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant,whose own passion was making shoes by machine. At the time, most shoes were put together with wooden pegs, and the weak link in the operation was supplying pegs of uniform quality. This led Sturtevant to concentrate on producing long strips of knife-edged veneer from which pegs could be sliced off. Forster saw that toothpicks could be made in much the same way.

And by 1870, his operation was capable of producing millions of toothpicks per day. But he could not find a market for them in Boston. Forster offers homemade toothpick to restaurant owners and to ensure that a toothpick could be part of a service that can attract consumers. At the same time, he hired some people to eat at the restaurant.

After eating, the person who hired it shall ask the owner of the restaurant toothpicks. In this way, the restaurant owner into believing that a toothpick is a service that should be given to consumers. From this and the restaurant owners to buy Forster toothpick.

From then on the toothpick to be part of the consumer lifestyle restaurants. Toothpicks also extends to many countries in the world and has become popular to this day. *** [SEPTI | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 21062012]

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