Inventors Who Left Their Brands On America

Author: Frank H. Olsen.

Pages: 196.

Price: $3.50.

Publisher: Bantam.

Inventors Who Left Their Brands on America is interesting and full of uncommon information that is fun to read and neat to know.

Frank H. Olsen tells the stories of famous "household-name" inventors and entrepreneurs, such as Levi Strauss, Charles Goodyear, Walt Disney, Will Keith Kellogg, and Milton S. Hershey. These are the real stories of these inventors and their inventions that changed America.

Inventors Who Left Their Brands on America is set up in a way that keeps your attention. The book is descriptively informative, excellently researched and well-written. Here is evidence of this excellent research:

Milton Hershey's story

"Like father, like son. That's what they all said about young Milton Hershey, who was born in 1857. But it was not meant to be a compliment.

"Milton's father, Henry, was very different from the other Mennonite farmers who lived in the region known as Pennsylvania Dutch country. They believed in hard work, religious devotion, and a simple life style. Henry, however, dabbled in candy making and dreamed of being an artist.

"His ever-changing interest kept his wife and son in poverty and ended Milton's formal education at the fourth grade. Milton was well into his thirties before he experienced anything resembling success. Following his father's footsteps, he learned the art of candy making."

The most interesting thing about this book, I thought, is the way some of the inventions came to be. For example, in 1930 the McDonald brothers, Maurice and Richard, left home for a new start and in search of jobs. They tried to open up a movie theater. But in four years of business, they never made enough to pay rent for the building.

But that didn't stop them. They opened up a drive-in restaurant, and began to make a lot of money. Then, surprisingly, they changed the drive-in into a hamburger stand that sold only precooked food. This was the beginning of fast food.

They opened new stores and were making so much money that they couldn't spend it all. So they decided to sell the fast-food chain to someone more ambitious. Ray Kroc bought the chain in 1961 for $2.7 million. Had the brothers hung on, they would now be making $55 million a year in royalties.

This is a book for all age groups. I especially recommend it to those who are curious about how everyday items came about. So if you wonder how Henry Ford got started, or why Levi Strauss changed the styles of his jeans, then this book is for you.