History
The garbage disposal was invented in 1927 by John W. Hammes, an architect working in Racine, Wisconsin. After eleven years of development, his InSinkErator company put his disposer on the market in 1940.
Hammes' claim is disputed, as General Electric introduced a garbage disposal unit in 1935.
In many cities in the United States in the 1930s and the 1940s the municipal sewage system had regulations prohibiting running food waste (garbage) into the system. InSinkErator spent considerable effort, and was highly successful in convincing many localities to rescind these prohibitions.
Many localities in North America mandated the use of disposers. For many years, garbage disposals were illegal in New York City because of a perceived threat of damage to the city's sewer system. After a 21-month study with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the ban was rescinded in 1997 by local law 1997/071 which amended section 24-518.1, NYC Administrative Code.
In 2008, the city of Raleigh, North Carolina attempted a ban on the replacement and installation of garbage disposals which also extended to outlying towns sharing the city's municipal sewage system, but rescinded the ban one month later.
Read more about this topic: Garbage Disposal Unit
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“History takes time.... History makes memory.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)