[HN Gopher] Beginnings: The Dempster Dumpster
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Beginnings: The Dempster Dumpster
        
       Author : pcaharrier
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2025-10-06 17:22 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.classicrefusetrucks.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.classicrefusetrucks.com)
        
       | pcaharrier wrote:
       | I'm also cringing a little bit to learn that the practice of
       | misspelling words with a "K" is as old as the "Dumpster Kolector"
       | from the 1940s.
        
         | cfmcdonald wrote:
         | It looks like the trend started circa the 1920s in the U.S.
         | Kotex (1920) [0], Kleenex (1924) [1], Kool-Aid (1927) [2], Kool
         | (1933) [3], Krispy Kreme (1934) [4].
         | 
         | Kraft might look like one, but isn't, it's named after James
         | Kraft [5], which presumably traces back to the german word
         | Kraft.
         | 
         | I'm curious if there are older examples.
         | 
         | [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotex [1]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleenex [2]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid [3]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool_(cigarette) [4]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krispy_Kreme [5]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Kraft
        
           | Rendello wrote:
           | Not a brand name, but "ok" is widely believed to be from a
           | meme from 1838 where abbreviations were comically misspelled.
           | "Ok" being "Oll Korrect":
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK
        
         | EvanAnderson wrote:
         | Isn't the deliberate misspelling of words in trade names used
         | to create names eligible for trademark protection?
         | 
         | I find them horrible cringeworthy, too. Names with letters
         | pronounced phonetically (e.g. "EZ"), sound-alike vowels (e.g.
         | "Lyft"), and substituted consonants (like the K for C) irritate
         | me a lot. (I'm an angry pedant and I know it...)
        
       | MisterTea wrote:
       | I figured it was Dempster though I did not know they were
       | originally loaded with arms like skips. Dempster also made the
       | unique "Dinosaur" hoist for roll off containers which used a yoke
       | slid by a hydraulic cylinder.
       | https://www.classicrefusetrucks.com/albums/DE/DE05.html
       | 
       | I'd like to know who came up with the roll-off idea as they can
       | also be used to create a modular truck system where you can swap
       | bodies. I always though the ultimate do-all truck is a roll off
       | hook-lift with a boom crane and trailer hook up.
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | Here's the whole story of the Dempster Dinosaur.[1] Detailed
         | explanation of how the clever, tough, and not too complex
         | mechanisms that load and unload debris boxes work. Discussion
         | of why the obvious approach with cables and winches was not
         | very good, although it did work.
         | 
         | It's an insight into good classical mechanical engineering.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xs-kqJq0
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Url changed from
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20110220041407/http://www.classi...,
       | which points to this.
       | 
       | (Submitters: if an article is still available on the open web,
       | please submit with that URL instead of an archive URL. It's fine
       | to include archive URLs in the comments of course.)
       | 
       | This is a great HN submission btw!
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-10-06 23:01 UTC)