10 items known by their brand names

Here are 10 companies that have reached this summit:

Dumpster. The actual name is front loader waste container or mobile garbage bin. The name dumpster was first used in 1936, by the Dempster Brothers, who patented this style of trash container one year later.

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ChapStick. It’s called lip balm. You probably knew that, but did you know it was invented in the 1880s by a doctor and pharmacologist in Virginia? Dr. Charles Browne Fleet sold the rights to the lip balm for $5. Today, Pfizer owns the brand.

Hula Hoop. Humans have probably been using some form of the toy hoop—as it’s known generically—for centuries, maybe millennia. But the Hula Hoop came about in the 1950s, when Wham-O toy company introduced the plastic hoop we know today and trademarked the term Hula Hoop. You know, for kids.

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