Typing Correction Fluid
A white fluid used to correct typing mistakes was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham who herself was a rather poor typist.
Born Bette Claire McMurray in 1924 in Dallas, Texas, Graham graduated from high school when the firm where she was a secretary sent her to night school. By 1951 she was working as an executive secretary at Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas. Since her typing skills had not significantly improved, her new typewriter with its carbon film ribbon presented a problem. When she tried to use her eraser to correct errors, a smudged black splotch was left on the paper.
Graham reasoned that she should be able to cover her mistakes with white, tempera waterbase paint and began bringing a small bottle and brush to work with her. Her co-workers began to request bottles of their own, and by 1956 she had a thriving business going. In 1957 Graham and her son Michael filled more than 100 bottles per month of " Mistake Out" in their garage, and Graham decided it was time to patent her product and trademark the name. She also changed the product's name to Liquid Paper. An article about her invention appeared in a national magazine and orders increased.
It took more than 10 years, but by 1968 Liquid Paper produced more than 10,000 bottles a day and sales totaled $1 million. By the middle of the next decade, the company was producing 25 million bottles a year, and in 1979 the Gillette Corporation bought Liquid Paper for more than $47 million and agreed to pay royalties on every bottle sold until the end of this century. In addition to liquid paper, correction tapes are used to correct errors. These tapes are available in rolls, or as an integral part of ribbons on electric typewriters.
Graham died in 1980 leaving half of her $50 million estate to her favorite charities and the other half to her son, Michael Nesmith, who gained fame as a member of the musical group, The Monkees.
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