how was liquid paper invented by mistake

Full Answer

When was the Liquid Paper invented and by who?

Product history In 1956, Bette Nesmith Graham (mother of future The Monkees guitarist Michael Nesmith) invented the first correction fluid in her kitchen. Working as a typist, she used to make many mistakes and always strove for a way to correct them.

Who started Liquid Paper?

Bette Nesmith GrahamLiquid Paper / InventorA struggling secretary created a concoction that relieved her and others around the world from the pressure of perfection. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month.

How was tippex invented?

Tipp-Ex correction paper was invented by Wolfgang Dabisch from Eltville, West Germany, who filed a patent in 1958 on Colored film for the correction of typing errors (German: Tippfehler). He subsequently founded a company of the same name.

Did Mike Nesmith mother invent Liquid Paper?

Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 – May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of the correction fluid Liquid Paper. She was the mother of musician and producer Michael Nesmith of The Monkees. Dallas, Texas, U.S. Richardson, Texas, U.S.

Is Liquid Paper still made?

Even paper is disappearing from the modern office, as more and more functions are digitized. But correction fluids are not only surviving—they appear to be thriving, with Wite-Out sales climbing nearly 10 percent in 2017, according to the most recent public numbers.

What is another name for Liquid Paper?

"Liquid paper" and "white-out" are used as general terms in the United States, Canada, Australia, and some countries in the former USSR. "Tipp-Ex" is used in most countries in Western Europe, Israel, and Indonesia. Blanco is used in France and Greece, bianchetto in Italy.

Why is Tipp-Ex not allowed in exams?

Your answer papers may be scanned to allow online marking by examiners and correction fluid or tape can cause issues when scanning. The use of erasable pen during writing examinations often leaves smudges, making papers harder to read.

Can you put Tipp-Ex on skin?

Causes skin irritation. Toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects. IF ON SKIN: Wash with plenty of soap and water. Avoid breathing vapours.

What is Tipp-Ex called in America?

Tippex is correction fluid, known in AmE by brand names Wite-Out and Liquid Paper.

What caused Mike Nesmith's death?

Health and death Nesmith died from heart failure at his home in Carmel Valley, California, on December 10, 2021, at the age of 78. Dolenz memorialized Nesmith as "a dear friend and partner."

Who made Whiteout?

Nesmith's mom invented whiteout. Nesmith was raised in Dallas by his mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, who invented the first correction fluid in 1956 while working as a typist. She turned her whiteout, Liquid Paper, into an office staple, selling the company to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million plus royalties.

When was whiteout invented?

Wite-Out dates to 1966, when Edwin Johan, an insurance-company clerk, sought to address a problem he observed in correction fluid available at the time: a tendency to smudge ink on photostatic copies when it was applied.

What did Bessie Nesmith invent?

Liquid PaperBette Nesmith Graham / Inventions

Who invented the Paper and ink?

Ink has its origins around 4500 years ago, and was invented by both the Egyptians and the Chinese around the same time. As far as components go, ink is made up of two key parts: the pigment and the carrier. The pigment is the dye itself, and is what is delivered by the vessel to the paper or printing medium.

Who invented glo Paper?

Becky applied for and received a patent on her invention. She was 12 when the patent was granted. Becky called her invention “Glo-Sheet” and started her own company. Doctors and even NASA came to her asking to use her invention!

What is liquid paper?

Liquid Paper is an American brand of the Newell Brands company marketed internationally that sells correction fluid, correction pens, and correction tape. Mainly used to correct typewriting in the past, correction products now mostly cover handwriting mistakes.

When did Gillette reformulated liquid paper?

There were a number of studies linking fatalities to the trichloroethane contained in correction fluids, including Liquid Paper. In 1989, Gillette reformulated Liquid Paper such that it did not use trichloroethane. This was done in response to a complaint under California Proposition 65.

Why is liquid paper toxic?

Liquid Paper came under scrutiny in the 1980s, due to concerns over recreational sniffing of the product. The organic solvent 1,1,1-trichloroethane was used as a thinner in the product. Liquid Paper containing this thinner was thought to be toxic and a carcinogen, but later studies have shown that although the thinner used was toxic there was no ...

Who did Graham sell her correction fluid to?

Graham offered her correction fluid to IBM, which declined the offer (the company announced its own Correcting Selectric with an integrated lift-off tape in 1973). By 1968, the product – now renamed Liquid Paper – was profitable, and in 1979 the company was sold to the Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million with royalties.

Who invented liquid paper?

Liquid Paper. In 1956, Bette Nesmith Graham invented the first correction fluid in her kitchen. Working as a typist, she used to make many mistakes and always strove for a way to correct them. Starting on a basis of tempera paint she mixed with a common kitchen blender, she called the fluid "Mistake Out" and started to provide her co-workers ...

Who started mistake out?

By 1958, Graham founded the Mistake Out Company and continued working from her kitchen (and eventually garage) nights and weekends to produce small batches of correction bottles. She was fired from her typist job as executive secretary at Texas Bank and Trust after she accidentally put her own company’s name on her employer’s letter. She subsequently decided to devote all her time to Mistake Out.

What did Bette Nesmith Graham do?

Her two foundations supported several ways to help women find new ways to earn a living, especially unwed mothers. That included giving shelter and counseling for battered women and college scholarships for mature women. Graham died on May 12, 1980, six months after selling her company.

Why was Bette Nesmith fired?

Although some stories say she was fired from the bank for signing her name with the "Mistake Out Company, " her own Gihon Foundation biography reports she simply started working part-time then left as the company succeeded. She became a full-time small business owner, applied for a patent, and changed the name to the Liquid Paper Company.

What paint did Bette Nesmith use?

Bette Nesmith put some tempera water-based paint, colored to match the stationery she used, into a bottle and took her watercolor brush to the office. She used this to surreptitiously correct her typing mistakes, which her boss never noticed.

What did Bette Graham do in 1951?

She found employment in 1951 as an executive secretary for the Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas. A technological advancement in typewriters from fabric to carbon ribbons and a more sensitive keypad made errors more common and more difficult to correct: erasers that had worked before now smeared the carbon across the paper. Graham sought a better way to correct typing errors, and she remembered that artists painted over their mistakes on canvas, so why couldn't typists simply paint over their mistakes?

What was Bette Clair McMurray's foundation?

She had the lion's share of a multi-million dollar industry and Bette, now a wealthy woman, established two charitable foundations, the Gihon Foundation in 1976, to collect paintings and other artworks by women, and the Bette Clair McMurray Foundation to support women in need, in 1978.

When did Bette Clair McMurray divorce Robert Graham?

In 1975, Liquid Paper moved into a 35,000-square-foot international headquarters building in Dallas. The plant had equipment that could produce 500 bottles a minute. That same year, she divorced Robert Graham. In 1976, the Liquid Paper Corporation turned out 25 million bottles, while the company spent $1 million a year on advertising alone. She had the lion's share of a multi-million dollar industry and Bette, now a wealthy woman, established two charitable foundations, the Gihon Foundation in 1976, to collect paintings and other artworks by women, and the Bette Clair McMurray Foundation to support women in need, in 1978.

Where did Bette Nesmith go to school?

Bette attended the Alamo Heights School in San Antonio, Texas until she was 17, at which point she left school to marry her childhood sweetheart and soldier Warren Nesmith. Nesmith went off to World War II and while he was away, she had their only son, Michael Nesmith (later of The Monkees fame). They divorced in 1946.

Why did Bette take dictation?

As secretary to the chairman of the board of a bank , Bette took a lot of dictation and typed up letters for her boss. She wanted to find a better way to fix errors made while typing. Re-typing the whole letter was just too inefficient for her. This is where her desire to become an artist paid off for Bette. To make extra money she used her artistic talent to paint holiday windows at the bank. It occurred to her that whenever she made a mistake on the windows, she just painted over it. She set out to apply that same principle to typing errors.

What happened to Bette from Mistake Out?

And then one day, Bette made a mistake at work that she couldn't fix with her magic correcting fluid. She was fired. A funny thing happened after that. Once Bette had the time to devote to Mistake Out (which she renamed Liquid Paper), business boomed.

How much did Bette sell in 1979?

In 1979 Bette sold Liquid Paper to for $47.5 million ($138.9 million today). At the time, Bette employed 200 people and made 25 million bottles of Liquid Paper per year.

How many employees did Bette have in 1968?

By 1967, Liquid Paper was a million dollar business ($7.2 million in 2016 dollars). The following year, Bette moved her operations into her own plant. She had 19 employees. In 1968, Bette sold one million bottles of Liquid Paper.

Who invented liquid paper?

But then one day, a frustrated secretary had had enough and invented Liquid Paper. That woman was Bette Nesmith Graham.

Who came up with the liquid paper idea?

Bette was a secretary in Dallas and a single mother raising her son. The day she came up with the idea for Liquid Paper, she used the blender in her kitchen to mix up the first batch. Little did she know then that it would make her a very wealthy woman.

Is there a time when it was hard to erase a mistake in a document?

It is hard to remember now, but there was a time, not all that long ago when erasing a mistake in a document wasn't as easy as simply backspacing on your keyboard and watching the letters and words disappear. For decades, people relied on typewriters, carbon paper, and handwritten documents to get their point across. It was the dark ages before technology and during this time Liquid Paper was a savior to many.

In A Nutshell

Bette Nesmith Graham, an executive secretary for a bank chairman, saw a need and filled it—she invented liquid paper, which would make the lives of office workers and students everywhere more manageable (and make her rich). Her background as an artist gave her inspiration to paint over mistakes.

The Whole Bushel

By the age of 27, Bette Nesmith Graham had achieved the position of executive secretary to the Chairman of the Board of the Texas Bank and Trust—no mean feat, considering it was 1951.

Overview

Product history

In 1956, Bette Nesmith Graham (mother of future The Monkees guitarist Michael Nesmith) invented the first correction fluid in her kitchen. Working as a typist, she used to make many mistakes and always strove for a way to correct them. Starting on a basis of tempera paint she mixed with a common kitchen blender, she called the fluid "Mistake Out" and started to provide her co-workers with small bottles on which the brand's name was displayed.

Acquisition

Ingredients

See also

External links