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Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Sunday, November 4, 2018

The History Of No Shave November

The History Of No Shave November



As November quickly approaches, a lazy darkness settles over College Park and another kind of darkness is creeping onto the faces of men across campus: facial hair.

Nov. 1 marks the start of Movember (a word blend of “mustache” and “November”) or No Shave November, an annual month-long event in which men refrain from shaving and allow their beards and 'staches to grow wild and free.

University students are just some among millions of men in the nation partaking in Movember.

“I’m not sure exactly why No Shave November exists,” said Franco Frega, a freshman enrolled in Letters and Sciences. “I’m participating to celebrate my new college freedom. My mom isn’t here to tell me to shave anymore.”

“[Movember] gives me a reason to be lazy,” remarked freshman history major Alexander Selengut, another student participating in the 30-day event.

While Movember provides students with the perfect opportunity to embrace their newfound college freedom or excuse to be lazy, the event’s actual history and purpose prove much more poignant. In 2003, in Melbourne, Australia, Movember began as an official global charity that aspired to “have an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health.”

In an effort to garner public awareness regarding prostate cancer in men, the charity kick-started a fundraiser in which men would donate $10 to grow a mustache for 30 days. Movember has since found its way to a myriad of other countries. By 2012, 21 nations, including the United States, were engaging in the “no shave” event.

The Movember Foundation has raised $174 million worldwide as of 2012. By registering on Movember.com, participants, called “Mo Bros,” agree to join the movement by growing a mustache for the month of November. Mo Bros raise money by asking friends and family to donate to their efforts. 83.1% of the funds raised in the United States go toward programs and initiatives aimed at fighting prostate and testicular cancers. The remaining funds finance the Movember team’s fundraising and administrative tasks.

According to the American Cancer Society, about 238,590 new cases of prostate cancer have been recorded in the United States in 2013. Prostate cancer remains the most common type of cancer in American men and the second-leading cause of cancer death in men.

“No Shave November is a powerful event because a bunch of men growing facial hair at the same time really draws attention to the fight against prostate cancer,” said sophomore finance and accounting major Tyler Boyles.

“[The event] serves as a mass statement. Yet, as students’ faces sprout various forms of facial hair, they remain largely unaware of the true significance their 'staches carry.

“[Movember] is a fun event, but it’s not pointless,” said freshman math major Stephen Lyons. “It’s important for those who are growing out their facial hair to understand and know that by not shaving, they are supporting men who suffer from prostate cancer.”

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tick Tock: A Brief History of Clocks



Throughout the millenniums various groups of people have developed ways in which to record time. The Sumerians and Egyptians used Sundials, although telling time during the night was somewhat difficult. In order to keep track of time when no sunlight was available, waterclocks were developed in Greece. The clock as we visualize it today evolved in the Far East and Europe from approximately 100 - 1600 AD.

Early inventors struggled with the dilemma of finding a reliable power source as sun, water, and sand can be somewhat undependable. The power source “turns a wheel and a system of gears that move the hands of the clock and are controlled by an arresting mechanism called an escapement, which allows the teeth of one of the gears to ‘escape’ one by one.” (trollvalley.com) A major breakthrough came in 1500/1510 when Peter Henlein developed “spring power.” This was followed by Christian Huygens’ pendulum clock in 1656, although Galileo is credited with the original design. Huygens again advanced the clock’s evolution by inventing a balance wheel and spring assembly, similar to what we use in wrist watches today.

The size of timepieces has changed radically over the years. Many early clocks were large due to the need to encase large group(s) of mechanisms. Finally Peter Henlein’s development of a ‘spring powered’ clock allowed for a reduction in the size of the clock. ‘Spring powered’ clocks could be made mantle or table size. In fact, Henlein went so far as to develop the first portable watch; it was six inches high. The development of the long pendulum ushered in a new era, not only in timepieces but in furniture. To house and protect this long pendulum and its mechanism required a tall case. Why shouldn’t that case be reflective of current furniture styles?

Time Line of Clocks

c. 3500 BC
“Shadow” clocks or Sundials first appear.
c.325 BC
Waterclocks are invented.
100 - 1300
Clocks evolve in Far East & Europe
1088 Complex mechanism using water driven power source first used.
1500 - 1510Spring powered mechanism designed
1505
Peter Henlein designs first portable timepiece.
1577
Minute hand mechanism designed.
1582
Design for long pendulum invented.
1656
Development of long pendulum clock .
1657
Christian Huygens invents balance wheel & spring assembly (as used in wristwatches today).
1660
Longcase or tallcase clocks become popular.
1660 - 1730
“Golden age” of clock making.
1671
Anchor or “recoil” escapement invented.
c. 1685
Tall case clocks imported to American Colonies.
c. 1695
First tall case clocks constructed in American Colonies.
1721
New design to improve accuracy developed.
1880
Term “grandfather’s clock” becomes popular based on a song Grandfather’s Clock that was popular in England and America.
The “golden age of development” (Edwin) of English tall case clocks was from 1660 to 1730. The first of the tall case clocks was made for kings, queens, and nobles. Early clocks were constructed using the popular classical proportions of the day. These clocks were characterized by a narrow pendulum cabinet and a portico type bonnet. Eventually cabinet and clock makers developed ways to bring down the cost of these tall case clocks making them more widely affordable and thereby developing a greater demand for tall case clocks.

Early American tall case clock construction was based on the English tradition. Having no trained clockmakers in the colonies, the first tall case clocks were imported from England. Eventually only the mechanisms of the clocks were imported for ease in shipment, requiring a craftsman for assembly. The first clocks made in the American colonies were copies of those being made for the English market in the “then popular Baroque style.” New York, New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia were colonial clockmaking centers. Benjamin Chandlee from Philadelphia developed a case under seven feet in height for colonial homes which often had lower ceilings. (Johnson)

Each early American-made clock was constructed using hand tools and took months of work. Machinery that might have aided colonial production was “prohibited by law from being exported to the colonies” (Johnson). Therefore, tall case clocks were found in the most well to do homes in the colonies and would have been a symbol of one’s socio-economic status within the community.

John and Elizabeth Chads were well-to-do Chester Countians. John oversaw several businesses and owned a quantity of land. Elizabeth came from a family equally well established. The architecture of their house and, I’m sure, its furnishings were symbols of their success and position within early Chadds Ford society. While we are far from determining if our “new” clock was, in fact, John and Elizabeth’s, those who have seen it can attest that it looks right at home in its surroundings.

By Elizabeth Rump

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Never give up



Optimism, Hope and Motivation


1. When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000
experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process."


2. Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. She was born prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4 years old, she contracted double pneumonia and scarlet fever, which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began to walk without it. By 13 she had developed a rhythmic walk, which doctors said was a miracle. That same year she decided to become a runner. She entered a race and came in last. For the next few years every race she entered, she came in last. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running. One day she actua! lly won race. And then another. From then on she won every race she entered. Eventually this little girl, who was told she would never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.

3. In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca recording Company. The executives were not impressed. While turning down this group of musicians, one executive said, "We don't like their round. Groups of guitars are on the way out." The group was called The Beatles.


 4. In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, "You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married." She went on and became Marilyn Monroe.

5. In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired a singer after one performance. He told him, "You ain't goin' nowhere....son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." He went on to become the most popular singer in
America named Elvis Presley.


6. When Alexander Graham
Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. After making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said, "That's an amazing Invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"


7. In the 1940s, another young inventor named Chester Carlson took his idea to 20 corporations, including some of the biggest in the country. They all turned him down. In 1947 - after seven long years of rejections! He finally got a tiny company in
Rochester, New York, the Haloid Company, to purchase the rights to his invention an electrostatic paper-copying process. Haloid became Xerox Corporation we know today.

 The Moral of the above Stories: Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved. You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing you cannot do. And remember, the finest steel gets sent through the hottest furnace.

 And even the GOLD is tested against fire.


A winner is not one who never fails, but one who NEVER QUITS!

We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way.

Life's Good! Live it!


Monday, January 3, 2011

The History of Coffee


In the Beginning:

Legend has it, coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. One day, he noticed his goats frolicking around in an unusually spirited manner. He observed that they were also eating the berries of a nearby shrub.
Not being one to be left out of all the fun, he decided to try the berries himself. He was energized and pleased with the effects the cherries had on him. He told his friends and soon word spread throughout the region. The rest is history.

Coffee Timeline:

Here is an interesting timeline of the history of coffee from the UTNE READER, Nov/Dec 94, by Mark Schapiro, "Muddy Waters"
Prior to 1000 A.D.: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal fat.

1000 A.D.: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the beans, creating a drink they call "qahwa" (literally, that which prevents sleep).

1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee for feat that its influence might foster opposition to his rule. The sultan sends word that coffee is sacred and has the governor executed.

1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention in high places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his advisers to consider that favorite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. However, he decides to "baptize" it instead, making it an acceptable Christian beverage.

1607: Captain John Smith helps to found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. It's believed that he introduced coffee to North America.

1645: First coffeehouse opens in Italy.

1652: First coffeehouse opens in England. Coffee houses multiply and become such popular forums for learned and not so learned - discussion that they are dubbed "penny universities" (a penny being the price of a cup of coffee).

1668: Coffee replaces beer as New York's City's favorite breakfast drink.

1668: Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse opens in England and is frequented by merchants and maritime insurance agents. Eventually it becomes Lloyd's of London, the best-known insurance company in the world.
1672: First coffeehouse opens in Paris.
1675: The Turkish Army surrounds Vienna. Franz Georg Kolschitzky, a Viennese who had lived in Turkey, slips through the enemy lines to lead relief forces to the city. The fleeing Turks leave behind sacks of "dry black fodder" that Kolschitzky recognizes as coffee. He claims it as his reward and opens central Europe's first coffee house. He also establishes the habit of refining the brew by filtering out the grounds, sweetening it, and adding a dash of milk.

1690: With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, the Dutch become the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially, in Ceylon and in their East Indian colony - Java, source of the brew's nickname.
1713: The Dutch unwittingly provide Louis XIV of France with a coffee bush whose descendants will produce entire Western coffee industry when in 1723 French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu do Clieu steals a seedling and transports it to Martinique. Within 50 years and official survey records 19 million coffee trees on Martinique. Eventually, 90 percent of the world's coffee spreads from this plant.
1721: First coffee house opens in Berlin.
1727: The Brazilian coffee industry gets its start when Lieutenant colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta is sent by government to arbitrate a border dispute between the French and the Dutch colonies in Guiana. Not only does he settle the dispute, but also strikes up a secret liaison with the wife of French Guiana's governor. Although France guarded its New World coffee plantations to prevent cultivation from spreading, the lady said good-bye to Palheta with a bouquet in which she hid cuttings and fertile seeds of coffee.
1732: Johann Sevastian Bach composes his Kaffee-Kantate. Partly an ode to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women from drinking coffee (it was thought to make them sterile), the cantata includes the aria, "Ah! How sweet coffee taste! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee."
1773: The Boston Tea Party makes drinking coffee a patriotic duty in America.
1775: Prussia's Frederick the Great tries to block inports of green coffee, as Prussia's wealth is drained. Public outcry changes his mind.
1886: Former wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names his popular coffee blend "Maxwell House," after the hotel in Nashville, TN where it's served.




Early 1900's: In Germany, afternoon coffee becomes a standard occasion. The derogatory term "KaffeeKlatsch" is coined to describe women's gossip at these affairs. Since broadened to mean relaxed conversation in general.
1900: Hills Bros. begins packing roast coffee in vacuum tins, spelling the end of the ubiquitous local roasting shops and coffee mills.
1901: The first soluble "instant" coffee is invented by Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago.

1903: German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turn a batch of ruined coffee beans over to researchers, who perfect the process of removing caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavor. He markets it under the brand name "Sanka." Sanka is introduced to the United States in 1923.
1906: George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in Guatemala, notices a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee carafe. After experimentation, he creates the firstmass-produced instant coffee (his brand is called Red E Coffee).
1920: Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales boom.
1938: Having been asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses, Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle develops Nescafe and introduces it in Switzerland.
1940: The US imports 70 percent of the world coffee crop.
1942: During W.W.II, American soldiers are issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits. Back home, widespread hoarding leads to coffee rationing.
1946: In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine. Cappuccino is named for the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin order.
1969: One week before Woodstock the Manson Family murders coffee heiress Abigail Folger as she visits with friend Sharon Tate in the home of filmmaker Roman Polanski.
1971: Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle's Pike Place public market, creating a frenzy over fresh-roasted whole bean coffee.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

A History of Tea Timeline


The Tea Story:





2737 B.C.
• The second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea when tea leaves blow into his cup of hot water or so the story goes.

350 A.D.
• A Chinese dictionary cites tea for the first time as Erh Ya.

400-600
• Demand for tea as a medicinal beverage rises in China and cultivation processes are developed. Many tea drinkers add onion, ginger, spices, or orange to their teas.

400
• Now called Kuang Ya in the Chinese dictionary, tea and its detailed infusion and preparation steps are defined.

479
• Turkish traders bargain for tea on the border of Mongolia.

593
• Buddhism and tea journey from China to Japan. Japanese priests studying in China carried tea seeds and leaves back.

618-907 T'ang Dynasty
• Tea becomes a popular drink in China for both its flavor and medicinalqualities.

648-749 
• Japanese monk Gyoki plants the first tea bushes in 49 Buddhist temple gardens.
• Tea in Japan is rare and expensive, enjoyed mostly by high priests and the aristocracy.

725
• The Chinese give tea give its own character ch’a.

729
• The Japanese emperor serves powdered tea (named hiki-cha from the Chinese character) to Buddhist priests.

780
• First tea tax imposed in China.
• Chinese poet-scholar Lu Yu writes the first book of tea titled Ch’a Ching (The Classic of Tea) in timely alignment with the Taoist beliefs. The book covers detailed ancient Chinese tea cultivation and preparation techniques.

805
• Buddhism and tea devotion spreads further.
• The Japanese Buddhist saint and priest Saicho and monk Kobo Daishi bring tea seeds and cultivation and manufacturing tips back from Chinaand plant gardens in the Japanese temples.

960-1280 Sung Dynasty
• Chinese tea drinking is on the rise, as are elegant teahouses and teacups carefully crafted from porcelain and pottery.
• Drinking powdered and frothed tea or tea scented with flowers is widespread in China while earlier flavorings fall by the wayside.
• Zen Buddhism catches on in Japan via China and along come tea-drinking temple rituals.

1101-1125
• Chinese Emperor Hui Tsung becomes tea obsessed and writes about the best tea-whisking methods and holds tea-tasting tournaments in the court. While “tea minded,” so the story goes, he doesn’t notice the Mongol take over of his empire.
• Teahouses in garden settings pop up around China.

1191
• Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai, who introduced Zen Buddhism to Japan, brings tea seeds from China and plants them around his Kyoto temple.

1206-1368 Yuan Dynasty
• During the Mongol take over of China, tea becomes a commonplace beverage buy never regains its high social status.

1211
• Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai writes the first Japanese tea book Kitcha-Yojoki (Book of Tea Sanitation).

1280
• Mongolia takes over of China and since the Emperor of Mongol isn’t a “tea guy,” tea drinking dies down in the courts and among the aristocracy. The masses continue to indulge.

1368-1644 Ming Dynasty
• At the fall of the Mongol take over, all teas — green, black, and oolong — is easily found in China.
• The process of steeping whole tea leaves in cups or teapots becomes popular.

1422-1502
• The Japanese tea ceremony emerges onto the scene. First created by a Zen priest named Murata Shuko, the ceremony is called Cha-no-yu, literally meaning "hot water tea" and celebrates the mundane aspects of everyday life.
• Tea’s status elevates to an art form and almost a religion.

1484
• Japan's shogun Yoshimasa encourages tea ceremonies, painting, and drama.




1589
• Europeans learn about tea when a Venetian author credits the lengthy lives of Asians to their tea drinking.

1597
• Tea is mentioned for the first time in an English translation of Dutch navigator Jan Hugo van Linschooten's travels, in which he refers to tea as chaa.

End of 1500s 
• Japanese tea master Sen-no Rikyu opens the first independent teahouse and evolves the tea ceremony into its current simple and aesthetic ritual. During this ceremony, one takes a garden path into a portico, enters upon hearing the host’s gong, washes in a special room, and then enters a small tearoom that holds a painting or flower arrangement to gaze upon. The tea master uses special utensils to whisk the intense powdered tea. Tea drinkers enjoy the art or flowers and then smell and slurp from a shared teabowl.
• Europeans hear about tea again when Portuguese priests spreading Roman Catholicism through China taste tea and write about itsmedicinal and taste benefits.

1610
• The Dutch bring back green tea from Japan (although some argue it was from China).
• Dutch East India Company market tea as an exotic medicinal drink, but it’s so expensive only the aristocracy can afford the tea and its serving pieces.

1618
• Chinese ambassadors present the Russian Czar Alexis with many chests of tea, which are refused as useless.

1635
• Tea catches on in the Dutch court.
• A German physician touts a warning about the dangers of tea drinking.

1637
• Wealthy Dutch merchants’ wives serve tea at parties.

1650-1700
• Tea parties become quite trendy among women across the social classes. Husbands cry family ruin, and religious reformers call for a ban.

1650
• The Dutch introduce several teas and tea traditions to New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York.

1657
• The first tea is sold as a health beverage in London, England at Garway's Coffee House.

1661
• The debate over tea’s health benefits versus detriments heightens when a Dutch doctor praises its curative side while French and German doctors call out its harmful side.

1662
• When Charles II takes a tea-drinking bride (Catherine Braganza of Portugal), tea becomes so chic that alcohol consumption declines.

1664
• English East India Company brings the gift of tea to the British king and queen.
• The British take over New Amsterdam, name it New York, and a British tea tradition ensues.

1666
• Holland tea prices drop to $80-$100 per pound.

1669
• English East India Company monopolizes British tea imports after convincing British government to ban Dutch imports of tea.

1670
• The Massachusetts colony is known to drink black tea.

1680s
• Tea with milk is mentioned in Madam de Sévigné’s letters.
• The Duchess of York introduces tea to Scotland.

1690
• The first tea is sold publicly in Massachusetts.

1697
• The first known Taiwanese cultivation and export of domestic tea takes place.

Late 1600s 
• Russia and China sign a treaty that brings the tea trade across Mongolia and Siberia.



18th Century
• The controversy over tea continues in England and Scotland where opponents claim it’s overpriced, harmful to one’s health, and may even lead to moral decay.

1702-14 
• During Queen Anne’s reign, tea drinking thrives in British coffeehouses.

1705
• Annual tea importation to England tops 800,000 pounds.

1706 
• Thomas Twining serves up tea at Tom’s Coffee House in London.

1717
• Tom’s Coffee House evolves into the first teashop called the Golden Lyon. Both men and women patronize the shop.

1723
• British Prime Minister Robert Walpole reduces British import taxes on tea.

1735
• The Russian Empress extends tea as a regulated trade.
• In order to fill Russia’s tea demand, traders and three hundred camels travel 11,000 miles to and from China, which takes sixteen months.
• Russian tea-drinking customs emerge, which entail using tea concentrate, adding hot water, topping it with a lemon, and drinking it through a lump of sugar held between the teeth.

1765
• Tea easily ranks as the most popular beverage in the Americancolonies.

1767
• The Townshend Revenue Act passes British Parliament, imposing duty on tea and other goods imported into the British American colonies.
• A town meeting is held in Boston to protest the Townshend Revenue Act, which leads to an American boycott of British imports and a smuggling in of Dutch teas.

1770
• Parliament rescinds the Townshend Revenue Act, eliminating all import taxes except those on teas.

1773
• In protest of British tea taxes and in what becomes known as the Boston Tea Party, colonists disguised as Native Americans board East India Company ships and unload hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor.
• Such “tea parties” are repeated in Philadelphia, New York, Maine, North Carolina, and Maryland through 1774.

1774
• A furious British Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in response to the American “tea party” rebellions.
• King George III agrees to the Boston Port Bill, which closes the Boston Harbor until the East India Company is reimbursed for its tea.

1775
• After several British attempts to end the taxation protests, the American Revolution begins.

1778
• Before the indigenous Assam tea plants is identified, British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, hired by the East India Company, suggests that India grow plant and cultivate imported Chinese tea. For 50 years, India is unsuccessful.

1784
• Parliament further reduces the British import taxes on tea in an effort to end the smuggling that accounts for the majority of the nation's tea imports.

1785
• 11 million pounds of tea are brought into England.

1797
• English tea drinking hits a rate of 2 pounds per capita annually, a rate that increases by five times over the next 10 years.

1815-1831
• Samples of indigenous Indian tea plants are sent to an East India Company botanist who is slowly convinced that they are bona fide tea plants.

1826
• English Quaker John Horniman introduces the first retail tea in sealed, lead-lined packages.

1830
• Congress reduces U.S. duties on coffee and tea and other imports.

1833
• By an act of the British Prime Minister Charles Grey (the second Earl Grey and the namesake of the famous tea), the East India Company loses its monopoly in the trade with China, mostly in tea.

1835
• The East India Company starts the first tea plantations in Assam, India.

1837
• The first American consul at Canton, Major Samuel Shaw, trades cargo for tea and silk, earning investors a great return on their capital and encouraging more Americans to trade with China.

1838
• The first tea from Indian soil and imported Chinese tea plants is sold. A small amount is sent to England and quickly purchased due to its uniqueness.

1840s
• American clipper ships speed up tea transports to America and Europe.





1840s and 50s
• The first tea plants, imports from China and India, are cultivated on a trial basis in Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

1840
• Anna the Duchess of Bedford introduces afternoon tea, which becomes a lasting English ritual.

1849
• Parliament ends the Britain's Navigation Acts, and U.S. clipper ships are allowed to transport China tea to British ports.
• Tea wholesaler Henry Charles Harrod takes over a London grocery store and grows it into one of the world's largest department stores.

1850
• Londoners get their first peak at a U.S. clipper ship when one arrives from Hong Kong full of China tea.
• U.S. clipper ships soon desert China trade for the more profitable work of taking gold seekers to California.

1856
• Tea is planted in and about Darjeeling, India.

1859
• Local New York merchant George Huntington Hartford and his employer George P. Gilman give the A&P retail chain its start as the Great American Tea Company store. Hartford and Gilman buy whole clipper shipments from the New York harbor and sell the tea 1/3 cheaper than other merchants.

1866
• Over 90 percent of Britain's tea is still imported from China.

1869
• The Suez Canal opens, shortening the trip to China and making steamships more economical.
• In a marketing effort to capitalize on the transcontinental rail link fervor, the Great American Tea Company is renamed the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.
• A plant fungus ruins the coffee crop in Ceylon and spreads throughout the Orient and Pacific, giving a hefty boost to tea drinking.

1870
• Twinings of England begins to blend tea for uniformity.

1872
• The Adulteration of Food, Drink, and Drugs Act deems the sale of adulterated drugs or other unlabeled mixtures with foreign additives that increase weight as punishable offenses.

1875
• A new British Sale of Food and Drugs Law calls adulteration hazardous to personal health and increases its legal consequences to a heavy fine or imprisonment.

1876
• Thomas Johnstone Lipton opens his first shop in Glasgow, using American merchandising methods he learned working in the grocery section of a New York department store.

1890
• Thomas Lipton buys tea estates in Ceylon, in order to sell tea at a reasonable price at his growing chain of 300 grocery stores.

Late 1800s 
• Assam tea plants take over imported Chinese plants in India and its tea market booms.
• Ceylon’s successful coffee market turns into a successful tea market.

1904
• Englishman Richard Blechynden creates iced tea during a heat wave at the St Louis World Fair.

1904
• Green tea and Formosan (Taiwanese) tea outsells black tea by five times in the U.S.

1908
• New York tea importer Thomas Sullivan inadvertently invents tea bags when he sends tea to clients in small silk bags, and they mistakenly steep the bags whole.

1909
• Thomas Lipton begins blending and packaging his tea in New York.

1910
• Sumatra, Indonesia becomes a cultivator and exporter of tea followed by Kenya and parts of Africa.


Sources:
www.inpursuitoftea.com
www.246.dk/teachronology.html (web link no longer valid)

McCoy, Elin and John Frederick Walker, Coffee and Tea, G.S. Haley Company, Inc., 1998.

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